Rambling Recollections MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO . si ('II 111 / / /' ?y'iii a /liriiiuiH, 1/ C (( elff (j 4>y ^si.^Jj.^Ziealer fet 132 Rambling Recollections BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR HENRY DRUMMOND WOLFF G.C.B., G.C.M.G. LATE BRITISH AMBASSADOR IN SPAIN Ut, quocunque loco fueris, vixisse libenter Te dicas. Hor. Epis. I. xi. IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. I MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON i 908 First Edition January 1908 Reprinted February 1908 LIBRARY UNIVERSI1 CALIFORNIA SANTA BARBARA TO MY WIFE LADY WOLFF FOR SO MANY YEARS MY CONSTANT COMRADE PREFACE The title of this book conveys my meaning clearly. It is not an autobiography, nor even a continuous narrative. It is founded on no diary or record. Whatever the contents of the book — whether narrative or anecdotic — they are given just as they come unbidden into my memory, which is not a bad one, though possibly not so exact as I could wish. I have not attempted to be strictly accurate as to chronological order, though the events described harmonise with the period in connection with which they appear. By anticipa- tion, therefore, I fully recognise the defects arising from want of premeditation. Any apologies that may be required of me, I make at once. I am prepared to accept criticism without remonstrance. There are many points omitted. I have not even alluded to the great change in English society caused by the influx of American notables. I believe that this peculiar feature of recent years is likely to bring great improvement and advantage Vll viii RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS to both countries. Unfortunately, what are called my declining years have not been overcrowded with enjoyment ; but among my pleasanter recol- lections are those of Americans like Consuelo, Duchess of Manchester ; her sister, Lady Lister- Kaye ; Mrs. Adair, and Lady Randolph Churchill. These friends being still alive — let us hope for many years to come — I venture neither to eulogise nor to criticise. I have also much to say of gratitude to the family of the late Duke and Duchess of Marl- borough, to Lord and Lady Londonderry, to Lady Chesterfield, and to Mr. and Mrs. George Bankes and their family, from all of whom I have received many acts of kindness. I may say the same of the late Duke of Wellington — a man of extraordinary common sense and irresistible humour. If it were my misfortune to write any sequel to this book, I should have much to say that space has now forced me to omit. I feel under great obligations to Sir Edward Grey and to other members of the Foreign Office for the facilities they have given me in connection with this work. My warm thanks are also due to the Russian Ambassador and to the Persian charge d'affaires. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE Malta — Mr. Hookham Frere — Naval friends — Sir Frederick Ponsonby — His family — Other acquaintances — Arrival of Turkish ladies — Giraffes — Malta transferred to Europe by Act of Parliament — Government — Summers in Malta . . 1-10 CHAPTER II Naples — Leghorn — Geneva — Acquaintances in Switzerland — Dr. Malan — Mr. Henry Drummond — Schools at Richmond and Henley — Gas-lighting and lucifer matches — Postage — Sir Francis Doyle — Rugby — Masters — Schoolfellows — Mr. Matthew Arnold— Mr. Lowe . . . . .1 1-26 CHAPTER III Bruges — Fellow -students — Holiday in the Ardennes — Friends in Bruges — Amusements — Mr. Henry Drummond — Return to England — Coaching for the Foreign Office — Musical studies — Stage acquaintances — Recollections of theatres and plays — Early Victorian young ladies and literature — Friends of my youth — Society — How debtors evaded arrest . . . 27-45 CHAPTER IV Lord Palmerston— Handwriting — Appointed to the Foreign Office —Comparison between Foreign Office of 184fi and present day —Clerks in Foreign Office— Mr. Mellish— Mr. Hammond- - Other colleagues ....... 46-60 ix RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS CHAPTER V PAGE Colleagues in the Foreign Office— Under-Secretaries of State — Life at the Foreign Office — Hours of work — Private theatricals — Holiday at Spa— Marriage of Lady Dorothy Nevill . . (il-70 CHAPTER VI London friends — Sir John Burgoyne — Mr. Disraeli — Other acquaint- ances — Mr. Hayward's anecdotes — Waterloo banquet — Foreign Office stories — Places of amusement .... 71-8.5 CHAPTER VII Alfred Club— Members of the Club— Tichborne Case— Ruin of the Alfred — Anecdotes of Archbishop M'Gee — Mr. Brookfield — London friends — Laurence Oliphant and Spiritualism — Other acquaintances — Sheridan anecdotes .... 86-99 CHAPTER VIII Winter society in London — Early acquaintances — Sir Charles Wyke — The late Duke of Rutland— Mr. Thackeray — Mr. Kinglake — Debates in the House of Commons — Members of Parliament ...... 100-119 CHAPTER IX Prince Louis Napoleon — The Spanish Marriages — Disturbances in England — Dismissal of Sir Henry Bulwer by the Spanish Government — Visit to Paris — La ProprUU c'est le Vol — Society in Paris — Proclamation of Prince-President — Meetings with Napoleon III. ..... 120-128 CHAPTER X Holiday in Spain — Journey to Madrid — Bull-fight — Queen Isabella — Spanish acquaintances — English friends in Spain — Spanish titles — Funeral of the Prince of Asturias — Connection of Spain with the East— Journey to England . . . 129-139 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER XI PAGE Exhibition of 1851 — Visit to Baden — Lord Palmerston's fall — Acquaintances in London — Change of Government — Appointed attache at Florence — Mather Case . . . 140-148 CHAPTER XII Florence— Colleagues — English residents — Russian acquaintances — Italian society — English friends — Florentine families 149-157 CHAPTER XIII Corps diplomatique at Florence — Acquaintances — English visitors — Italian society — Effects of Austrian occupation — Sir Henry Bulwer 's Mission to Rome — Diplomatic relations with the Papal See — " Eglinton Clause" — Letter from Mr. Lytton— Murray Case — Visit of British artists — Duty on English beer . 158-168 CHAPTER XIV Madiai Case — Captain Walker — Sentence on the Madiai — Deputa- tion — Protests against their sentence — Lord John Russell's despatch— Release of the Madiai— Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Phipps — Sir James Hudson — Lord Norman by Minister at Florence— Mr. Scarlett ..... 169-177 CHAPTER XV Sir Henry Bulwer — Commission to investigate Danubian Princi- palities — Visit to Sir Henry Bulwer at Constantinople — His maxims — Mr. Robert Lytton — Lord Lytton in India — Marriage — Visits to Carrara and Florence . . 178-189 CHAPTER XVI British Legation at Naples — Neapolitan society — English visitors — Lord and Lady Holland — Letters — Anecdotes of Popes 190-199 CHAPTER XVII Return to Florence — Journey to England — Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte — Chemical and philological studies — Family — Mutual friends — Meetings with Prince Louis Lucien J00-205 xii RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS CHAPTER XVIII PAGK Return to Foreign Office — Changes — Foreign Office and House of Commons — Hard work in connection with the Crimean War- Entertainments — Friends in the diplomatic corps — Holland House — Friends in London — Letter from Lord Lytton on writing novels— Mr. Kinglake on Fiction . . 206-216 CHAPTER XIX Holiday in Elba — Napoleon's exile — Maubreuil's design — Napoleon's journey to Elba — Museum — Claude Holard — M. Larabit— Souvenirs of the Emperor — His library — Expedition to Mar- ciana — Visit of lady and child to Napoleon — Speculations as to their identity .... . . 217-226 CHAPTER XX Work at Foreign Office — Amateur pantomime — Treaty of Paris — Visit to France — Parisian society — Terms of Treaty — Diplo- matic acquaintances — Competitive examinations — Anecdotes — Friends in London — The Times and Repeal of Corn Laws — Other acquaintances ..... 227-238 CHAPTER XXI Special Mission to Brussels — Reception of Lord Westmorland — Preparations for the fetes — Audience of the King — Society in Brussels — Royal visitors — Ceremony of congratulation — Enter- tainments — Orderliness of the Belgians — Banquet and opera — Illuminations — Cavalcade representing the towns of Belgium — Visit to Bruges — King Leopold and Lord Westmorland — Belgian Ministers — Interviews with King Leopold II. and the Comte de Flandre — Despatch to Lord Clarendon . 239-251 CHAPTER XXII Popular sympathy of House of Lords — Indian Mutiny — Fall of Lord Palmerston's Government — Lord Derby's Administration — Private Secretary to Lord Malmesbury — Sir Edward Lytton — The new Government — Letter from Lamartine . 252-260 CONTENTS xiii CHAPTER XXIII PAGE Fuad Pasha — Private Secretary to Sir Edward Lytton — Work at Colonial Office — Heads of Departments — Sir Arthur Birch — Tour in the Lake Country — Distinguished Colonists — Visitors at Knebworth — Marriage of the Princess Royal — Peace with Persia — Causes of the War — Three Canadian statesmen — Marshal Pelissier — Foundation of British Columbia — Sir Edward Lytton 's speech ..... 261-272 CHAPTER XXIV Ionian Islands — Tenure of Islands — Sir Thomas Maitland's Consti- tution — Ionian titles — The Three Constitutions — Desire for union with Greece — Constant friction — Legislative anomalies — Con- sular jurisdiction — Mr. Gladstone's Mission . . 273-281 CHAPTER XXV Mr. Gladstone's qualifications — His departure for Ionian Islands — Sir Henry Storks — Publication of secret despatches — Mr. Wellington Guernsey — Letters from Mr. Gladstone — Mr. Gladstone's proposed reforms — Refusal by Ionians — Mr. Gladstone's return to England — Appointment of Sir Henry Storks as Lord High Commissioner — Defeat of the Govern- ment — Sir Edward Lytton's prophecy — Appointed Secretary to Lord High Commissioner — Officials in Corfu 282-292 CHAPTER XXVI Duties as Secretary — Financial Commission — Fiscal system in Corfu — Visit to England — Marriage Act for Ionian Islands — International Statistical Congress— Sir Edward Lytton's visit to Corfu— His interest in the Occult— Geomancy— Method of divination ....... 293-302 CHAPTER XXVII Lord Lytton's Memorandum ..... 303-320 xiv RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS CHAPTER XXVIII PAGE Wheel of Pythagoras — Improved method of divination — Occult in Egypt — Incident at Madrid — Mr. Sturges Bourne's experience 321-32!) CHAPTER XXIX Ionian Education Commission — University — Exhibition at Corfu — Florence — London Exhibition of 1862 — Hughenden — Mr. Babbage — Visit to a medium .... 330-337 CHAPTER XXX Letter from General Garibaldi — His sufferings in 1862 — "A Suppressed Despatch " . . . . 338-346 CHAPTER XXXI Duties on tobacco — Letter from M. Michel Chevalier — Increase of imports and receipts — Ionian Institute — Greek music . 347-355 CHAPTER XXXII Visitors to the Ionian Islands — Princess Darinka of Montenegro- Friends at Corfu ...... 356-367 CHAPTER XXXIII Political agitation — Letters from the Lord High Commissioner — Greek Revolution— Ionian Islands to be ceded to Greece 368-379 CHAPTER XXXIV Sir George Dasent — Alleged plot in Corfu — Election of King of Greece — Mr. Baillie Cochrane — Vote for union with Greece — Relinquishment of Protectorate .... 380-391 CHAPTER XXXV Visit to England — Duke of Newcastle — Sir Edward Lytton — Lord Carlingford — Islands transferred to Greece . . 392-398 ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Henry Drummond Wolff, jet. 13-L From a Drawing by H. B. Ziegler .... 2. Henry Drummond Wolff, ^et. 4^ . 3. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte . 4. Florence. By Edward Lear . 5. The Sweet Waters of Asia. By Preziosi 6". Lady Wolff ...... 7. Louis Lucien Bonaparte 8. Palaiokastritza, Corfu .... Frontispiece To face jxtge 8 126 150 181 188 203 290 xv CHAPTER I Malta — Mr. Hookham Frere — Naval friends — Sir Frederick Ponsonby — His family — Other acquaintances — Arrival of Turkish ladies — Giraffes — Malta transferred to Europe by Act of Parliament — Government — Summers in Malta. My first recollections began at Malta, in a large garden at the Pieta. Here I used to play of a morning, when a door would open in the wall from another garden, admitting a gentleman in a skull- cap, who said, " Good-morning, little boy." It was Mr. Hookham Frere, the uncle of the first Sir Bartle. He had retired to Malta after leaving the Embassy in Spain, where he had some misunder- standing with the Government of the day in connection with the battle of Corunna and the retreat of Sir John Moore. After leaving Spain I do not think he was ever employed again. In earlier life he had been the great friend and associate of George Canning, and many anecdotes are told of their powers of repartee. There is one, I believe, well known, and which many years ago I read in a book — I think Mr. Samuel Rogers' Table-talk. Amongst other friends of Mr. Canning and Mr. Frere was Dr. Legge, who was appointed vol.. i i b 2 A REPARTEE ch. Bishop of Oxford. He invited his two friends to attend his first sermon, which they did accordingly. Afterwards they went to have luncheon with him, and he, full of his newly acquired dignity, asked them what they thought of his sermon. Mr. Canning replied, "You were short." The Bishop rejoined, " I am glad you found me short, for I was afraid of being tedious " ; whereupon Mr. Frere remarked, "You were tedious." Mr. Frere had a brother whom I knew after- wards in London — Mr. Hatley Frere, who lived in Poets' Corner. His daughter, I think, had married Bishop Spencer. He wished to be very kind, and asked me to dine at his house when I chose. Unfortunately, he dined at four o'clock, in those days not an unusual hour, but one during which I was detained at the Foreign Office, and I fear he was hurt at my constantly refusing his invitations. Mr. Hookham Frere was the author of a poem called Whistlecraft — still almost a classic. In Parliament he had been associated with Mr. Canning and with Mr. Ellis, who was the first among them to be put into office. This was at the India Board, where he was made to suffer many jokes on the part of his two friends. They were in the habit of writing to him under assumed names on subjects supposed to be con- nected with his office. One joke, still remembered, is a letter, purporting to have been written from India by a lady who was born a French Canadian i MR. FRERES HOUSEHOLD 3 and who claimed the intervention of the Home Government. It was dated from a place, totally invented by the writers, called the Negudda Pelangs, where, the lady wrote, she had come with her husband, " et oil il sest fait negre." Against this grievance the lady appealed as a British subject. Mr. Frere had been married to the Dowager Lady Erroll, and in his house there still lived a niece of that lady, known as Miss Blake, after- wards Lady Hamilton Chichester. I knew later in London an aunt of hers, an old lady and a great whist-player, who was irreverently known by the name of Peggy Blake. On the death of Lady Erroll, Mr. Frere's sister, Miss Susan Frere, whom I recollect as a charming elderly lady, took the head of his household. There was also a young Greek lady whom Mr. Frere, when yachting in Greek waters, had rescued as a baby from an island during some massacre. She was known as Miss Statyra Livedostro, and married Captain Hope, a son of the Lord President of the Court of Session, and grandson of the first Earl of Hopetoun. I still have in my possession a little New Testament which she gave me with her autograph. Captain Hope, whom I also recollect as having been kind to me in my infancy, was later appointed to some important post at the Cape of Good Hope, and there, I believe, he died. Malta was then, as it is now, a great resort for the Navy, and I recollect vaguely the great kind- 4 FRIENDS IN THE NAVY oh. ness of the different naval officers 1 met. One whom I knew to the end of his life was Sir Rodney Mnndy. I met him subsequently at Corfu and then in England, and always felt for him a sincere regard. Amongst others was Captain Halstead, afterwards Admiral Halstead, Secretary at Lloyd's. Two cousins of mine — Sir William Hoste and his brother, Theodore Hoste — were constantly backwards and forwards as mid- shipmen in the Navy. They were the sons of the celebrated Sir William Hoste, well known as the conqueror at the battle of Lissa and the capture of Cattaro. Theodore Hoste died at Malta. Many of the anecdotes current in Maltese society referred to the Navy. There was one concerning an Admiral, a man of gruff disposition, who had come to Malta with his wife, a lady of great sentimentality. It was related that she always addressed him as " My Heart," upon which the Admiral used to rejoin, " Your what . ? " One must have lived in foreign seaports to realise the cause of the popularity of the British Fleet. All ranks are so invariably sociable and obliging. Many years later at Corfu, when British ships were in the harbour, I used to see men of the Fleet helping the inhabitants to dig their gardens and playing with the children. During the last scenes, when the Assembly had been dissolved on the question of annexation to Greece, I found a lot of sailors shouting and gesticulating in the i SIR FREDERICK PONSONBY 5 town. When I asked the cause of this apparent enthusiasm, the reply was, "We were told an election was going on, and we thought we'd take part in the fun." The Governor of Malta was Sir Frederick Ponsonby. His wife, Lady Emily Ponsonby, was a daughter of Lord Bathurst. Colonel Seymour Bathurst, grandfather of the present Lord, was Military Secretary. His wife, later, as a widow, had a house in Grosvenor Square, where she enter- tained a great deal : it was the one now occupied by Lord Haversham. I knew the Ponsonby family well, and look upon it as one of the most personally popular in the kingdom. Through life I have met with much kindness from them. Sir Frederick had lost an arm at Waterloo, and I recollect my astonishment at seeing his left sleeve empty, sewn up to his coat. His sons were very distinguished. One was General Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria ; and the other, Colonel Arthur Ponsonby, who, having been aide-de-camp to Sir George Brown, and afterwards holding a similar appointment with Sir George Buller at Corfu, commanded a regiment, and died when in that capacity. Both brothers had, to a great degree, the family predilection for. private theatricals and cricket. They had an uncle, Lord de Mauley, who was fond of telling the story of King William IV. going to dissolve the Parliament which refused 6 LORD DE MAULEY ch. to ratify the Reform Bill. He told me that William IV. had found himself opposed by being told that there was no time to prepare the royal carriages, to which he replied, " Then I will go down in a hackney coach." I find in a letter of Lady Emily Ponsonby's to my mother the following passage relative to Lord de Mauley, who had even more than the usual kindly nature of his family : — I am very grateful to you for your sympathy. Poor dear Lord M. — he is indeed a very great loss to me. I miss him in all my thoughts. No incident ever occurred to me and mine that I did not find him liking me to communicate with him. Losing such a brother-in-law is a most sorrowful event to me, and I am now the last as belonging to them. His dear boy Ashley had only left him forty- eight hours before for the Crimea. Lord M. had been ill for three weeks, but was supposed to be getting much better, and there were no apprehensions at all about him, when in twenty minutes all was over. Most fortu- nately his daughter and Lord Kinnaird were in the room when his fainting came on, which ended in death. The doctor considers it was suppressed feeling. Lord de Mauley had been the owner of Canford, now the property of Lord Wimborne. When he sold it to Sir John Guest for £200,000, it is said that the latter sent an ordinary cheque for that amount to him by post. Lady Emily Ponsonby, on returning to England, was granted apartments in Hampton Court Palace, and there for many years I was constantly invited. I often met her sister there — Lady Georgiana Bathurst — and one of her brothers, Mr. William i 'KING TOM' 7 Bathurst, Clerk of the Council, who afterwards became Lord Bathurst. I have just seen a letter, written lately to a friend by Lady Emily Ponsonby, which says that Malta was associated in her memory with some of her happiest days. I can recollect the arrival in Malta of Dr. Davy, brother of Sir Humphry Davy, and being very much struck by the medal he wore, which was, in fact, the Waterloo medal. Amongst other people living at that time at Malta was Mr. Locker, who had been, I think, secretary to Lord Nelson. Mr. C. H. Smith was his deputy in the Victualling Department. I also remember a clergyman, named Le Mesurier, who was afterwards appointed Archdeacon when the Bishopric of Gibraltar and Malta was established. The Chaplain was the Rev. Mr. Cleugh. I met him and his daughter many years afterwards on my way to Corfu, when I was appointed Secretary. There had always been considerable connection between Malta and Corfu. Sir Thomas Maitland was Governor of Malta and Lord High Commis- sioner of the Ionian Islands at the same time, as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean. I believe that he really started the policy, which I see is now about to be adopted, of having the Mediterranean as a basis. He is known in Mediterranean history as " King Tom." Among other residents was Miss Hamilton, a 8 GIRAFFES CH. truly charming old lady, whose sister was, I think, the wife of Lord George Seymour, and who was either aunt or great-aunt to Sir Hamilton Seymour. General and Mrs. Wood, who afterwards inhabited Bath, and General and Miss Forbes all lived at Malta. Miss Forbes married a French gentleman, and died at Mont-de-Marsan. I have a vivid recollection, too, of Prince Puckler- Muskau, who very properly snubbed me as a forward child, and of Mr. Schlienz, a kind-hearted German clergyman, the head of a missionary establishment, which, I believe, printed books for circulation in the East. The only lessons I learnt were from a Sergeant Kerby, who instructed me, as far as possible, in the three R's. He had a son, named Jimmy, who used to accompany me in my lessons. Two incidents made a great impression on me. One was the arrival at Malta of some Turkish ladies, who had, for some reason, sought refuge there. I was taken to see them, and, having heard that Turkish ladies could only see persons of their own sex, was much astonished at their receiving me. They were, I recollect, very kind and generous with sugar-plums. The other incident was the arrival at Malta of four giraffes, the first that had ever been seen in the West. They were taken to England, and were for some years at the Zoological Gardens. One, however, died shortly afterwards, and the Gardens possessed only the three survivors. In connection with the recent announcement of ra ^w -:^- : L II. D. W. jct. 4*. i A GEOGRAPHICAL CHANGE 9 the birth of a giraffe at the Zoological Gardens, it was stated that " most of the zoological gardens in Europe have been supplied with giraffes in the descendants of an original four which reached the London Zoological Gardens from Kordofan in 1835." Malta was at that time much less known to the English than at present. Strange to say, it had been transformed geographically through its acquisi- tion by England. Previously it had been assigned to Africa, to which it seems naturally to belong, both from its topography and its language, really a dialect of Arabic. Shortly after its annexation by Great Britain, however, it appeared that troops employed out of Europe were entitled to higher pay than for European service. An Act of Parliament was therefore passed declaring that, for this purpose, Malta was to be considered in Europe ; otherwise the garrison, in regard of pay, would have been more privileged than the soldiers in the Ionian Islands, who belonged to the same command. It used to be said in joke that Malta had become part of Europe by Act of Parliament — a joke now admitted to be a reality. The Governor of Malta in those days had only the rank of Lieutenant-Governor, being, I suppose, subordinate to the Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian Islands. Of this, however, I am not quite sure. In those days, and for many years after- wards, the island was governed as a Crown Colony. As will be seen, Sir Thomas Maitland had been 10 SUMMER IN MALTA ch. i instructed to assimilate the Constitution of the Ionian Islands, supposed to be quite free, to the administration of a Crown Colony. We used to spend the summer occasionally at Gozo, and often went to Sant' Antonio, the summer residence of the Governor, which was memorable for its rich crop of Japan medlars. At Gozo we were once or twice accompanied by Miss Frere and Miss Statyra. The Deputy Governor or Principal Administrator at Gozo was Major Bayley. We lived near or at his house, and I well remember the good-nature of the soldiers of the small garrison in making rough toys for me, and teaching me games. CHAPTER II Naples — Leghorn — Geneva — Acquaintances in Switzerland — Dr. Malan — Mr. Henry Drummond — Schools at Richmond and Henley — Gas-lighting and lucifer matches — Postage — Sir Francis Doyle — Rugby — Masters — Schoolfellows — Mr. Matthew Arnold — Mr. Lowe. When I was between six and seven years old we left Malta. I recollect the rather dirty Neapolitan steamer on which we travelled. There was no stewardess, but two good-natured Neapolitan stewards, who made up for the want. They had free access to the ladies' cabins, and used to assist them in their toilet, even lacing their stays. The first place we stopped at was Naples, which made more impression on my mind than any other town I have ever visited, owing doubtless to its being the first place I had seen out of Malta. I saw Herculaneum and Pompeii, and also Caserta, where the King of Naples had his collection of wild animals, and I remember being very much pleased at chasing some kangaroos which jumped about the garden. From Naples we proceeded to Leghorn, where Lady Harriet Hoste and her daughters were then residing. We made several excursions, amongst 11 12 SCHOOL ch. others to Pisa, and I had until lately an alabaster presse-papier, given me at that time, on which was engraved a picture of the Leaning Tower. Amongst other things which I recollect very vividly was the appearance of an elderly gentleman sitting on a balcony near the Arno. He was pointed out as being the brother of Napoleon. It was Louis, ex-King of Holland, and the father of Emperor Napoleon HI. I also made the acquaintance of some relatives of mine, Mr. and Mrs. Craufurd. They were the parents of Mr. Craufurd, for some time Member for the Ayr Burghs. There were four sons and two daughters, the whole family being then, and later, active sympathisers with the Liberal move- ment in Italy. All spoke Italian in preference to English. I recollect seeing at their house in London many years afterwards, at different periods, Mazzini, Orsini, and once a Garibaldian soldier in a red shirt. From Leghorn we had an uneventful journey to Marseilles, and thence to Geneva, where we lived for about a year, and where I began my first experience of school. Geneva I always look back upon as one of the pleasantest towns I have seen, and on the Swiss as a kindly and hospitable people. We used occasion- ally to visit M. and Mme. Saladin de Cran, who had a beautiful place some miles from Geneva, and in whose town-house we had what is now called a flat. ii SWITZERLAND 13 At that time there was a great Evangelical revival in Switzerland. I still recollect several of the heads of that movement, amongst others M. Merle d'Aubigne, the author of The History of the Reformation, who lived at Lausanne, and at Geneva itself, Mr. Gaussen, who had relations, I believe, in England, and who had married a very amiable English lady whose name was Milne. Their son was my schoolfellow. Amongst my other schoolfellows were two boys named Floyd, who were nephews by marriage of Sir Robert Peel, and I believe, though I am not certain, that the celebrated French writer, Monsieur Cherbuliez, went to this same school with us. Switzerland has great attractions for children. In the winter there was tobogganing, and, in the summer, excursions on the lake and tours through- out the country. At Berne, we saw Mr. David Morier, the British Minister, father of Sir Robert Morier, our late Ambassador at St. Petersburg. Sir Robert was then a boy a few years older than myself. At Geneva there resided a Swiss clergyman of very great celebrity — Dr. Malan — a gentleman of some age, whose son subsequently entered the Church of England, and had for many years a living in Dorsetshire. Dr. Malan was a great friend of Mr. Henry Drummond, my godfather, whose acquaintance I made at Geneva when he came on a visit to his friend. I recollect going to two large meetings, one at Geneva and the other 14 RICHMOND ch. at Lausanne, held for some religious purpose in connection with the Evangelical movement. I Avas much impressed also with the appearance of the Swiss army when it came out once a year for exercise. I then found peaceable tradesmen dressed in uniform and with all the appearance of warriors. We left Geneva somewhere about 1838, and I made my first acquaintance with England. We settled for some time at Richmond, where I had an aunt living — a lady who was born blind. I recollect being very much struck by the gas-lighting in the streets and shops, then recently introduced and still a matter of interest. The master of a lodging- house taught me how gas was made by means of a tobacco-pipe, the bowl of which he filled with coal-dust, covering it over with putty and placing it on the fire. In a short time, gas enough was generated to be lit at the mouthpiece. Lucifer matches at that time were quite a novelty. All lighting had previously been done by flint and steel. At first there was a complicated arrangement by which the lucifer had to be held in a bottle of some preparation, which lighted it. Rubbing lucifers were of later date. Whilst at Richmond, I attended two schools successively. I have found through life that my frequent change of schools has had a great influence over me, and while I have collected a good deal of information, yet, in consequence of these frequent changes, none of my knowledge is in a systematic shape. One of my schools at Richmond was kept II LADY SHAFTESBURY 15 by Mr. Delafosse, a clergyman of considerable reputation, who had a large house on Richmond Green. He was in some way or other favoured by the father of the late Duke of Cambridge, who used occasionally to dine with him ; but he left Richmond for a diving at Shere in Surrey, near Albury, which was the country residence of Mr. Henry Drummond. There I met him frequently. At Richmond, I constantly visited Lady Shaftes- bury, the mother of the well-known philanthropist, Lord Ashley. She was most kind and genial. Macaws and parrots of every kind lived in her conservatory, and she was also the owner of many Persian cats. Through life I had constant proofs of the kindly nature of Lord Ashley, later Lord Shaftesbury, and the communication I frequently enjoyed with his son, Mr. Evelyn Ashley, was one of my chief pleasures in life. While writing I have heard with deep sorrow of the death of my old and much beloved friend. I then left home for the first time and went to a school at Henley-on-Thames, picturesquely situated on the Fair Mile. It was kept by Mr. and Mrs. Lamb. He, I believe, had been steward to Mr. Childers in the north, and his wife a governess in that family. It was a pleasant school, and as Mr. Lamb, in addition to his scholastic labours, was a farmer, we had twelve acres of fields as playground, and were initiated into agriculture to a certain extent. "Treading the mow" was one of our occupations in summer. Amongst my school- 16 AN OLD STORY ch. fellows there was Mr. Spencer Childers, who was killed in the Crimean War, having entered the Artillery. He was very amiable, and, though it is so long ago, I recollect the sorrow with which all his friends heard the news of his death. We generally used to attend the fine old parish church at Henley, but occasionally in the summer we were taken to country churches in the neighbour- hood. One of them was at Remenham, which now belongs to Lady Hambleden. I remember very well a gentleman preaching at Henley Church who had been with Bishop Heber in India ; but naturally our daily life exhibited no great features, though I occasionally visited Oxford to see one or two friends of mine there. I consider nothing in my recollection irrelevant, and I may therefore here quote an anecdote heard many years ago. A gentleman having a fine place on the Thames, near Henley, had arranged to hold the funeral of an old servant at his house. As the procession was about to leave, another servant came to him and said, " If you please, sir, the corpse's brother would like to say a word to you." During the period of my early school-life, I made the acquaintance of the late Mr. Milnes Gaskell, who gave me his last frank the day before the privilege was abolished. Postage up to then was a matter of great con- sideration. Envelopes were not known, and letters were folded up on the paper on which they were ii LETTER-WRITING 17 written and directed on the outside. The cost of postage was very heavy, amounting, if I recollect rightly, sometimes to a shilling for inland letters. It was considered discourteous to prepay your letters. In consequence the recipients of letters having a heavy postage sometimes declined to take them in, and they were returned to the writers. This was one of the reasons why, in the new Act, letters, when not prepaid, were charged double to the receiver. At first, instead of stamps, which were a later invention, envelopes were sold with a complicated allegorical design, which was much laughed at. Cheap postage began, I think, at fourpence a letter, but it was reduced after a certain date to a penny. For a long time, however, economy was observed, and I find from old corre- spondence of fifty years ago, and later, that envelopes were remarkably small — many of them not more than four inches long by two wide. In those days I made the acquaintance of Sir Francis and Lady Doyle. Lady Doyle was a sister of Mrs. Gaskell and a cousin of Sir Watkin Wynn. I often met them in later life. Sir Francis Doyle was a man of considerable mark as Receiver-General of Customs, and a poet of great merit. Talking of a lady who was in the habit of abusing people with whom she quarrelled, he told me that one of her methods of annoying him was to send him letters to the Custom House with offensive words on the cover. These were naturally delivered to him by the office messengers. vol. i c 18 RUGBY oh. On one occasion she addressed him as " Receiver- General of Customs, however infamous " ; but he took all this very kindly, and afterwards the lady was decided to be out of her senses. He was a relation of Mr. Percy Doyle, a gentleman well known in the Diplomatic Service, of Colonel North, and of General Doyle, at one time Governor of Portsmouth — three brothers. It is needless to recall all the schools I attended. After a move to the Grammar School at Wake- field, I went to Rugby, under Dr. Tait, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. I feel it a great honour to have received condign punishment at his hands. Dr. Tait had only been nominated Head Master about six months before, having then succeeded the celebrated Dr. Arnold. My name had been put down in Dr. Arnold's time, and I was sent to a house, near the Schoolhouse, under the tuition of the Rev. Henry Highton, a special favourite of Dr. Arnold. I see by the papers that Mrs. Highton has only recently died at an advanced age. Mr. Highton w r as better fitted to be a tutor a few years later than at that period. He was very much what is now called " up-to-date," and paid considerable attention to the scientific acquirements of his pupils. Unfortu- nately, science in those days obtained no marks, and the time consumed in this study told very little on the examinations. The principal text-book was Joyce's Dialogues. Mr. Highton was a great electrician. A brother ii SCHOOL FRIENDS 19 of his became one of the first electrical engineers, and Mr. Highton himself was, I believe, the author of some improvements in the electric telegraph, in those days still undeveloped. I recollect seeing one of the first models of the invention at work at the Polytechnic Institute in London. Everything in modern progress attracted Mr. Highton's sympathy, and I remember when Mr. — later Sir Isaac — Pitman, the author of a system of stenography, was on a tour through England to advocate his invention, that he gave a lecture to Mr. Highton's pupils at which our tutor himself was present. A well-known master at Rugby was a gentleman named Anstey, commonly known as " Donnegan Anstey," as the only punishment he ever gave was to order a boy to write out so many pages of Donnegan's Lexicon. On the whole holiday which was given on what was called Lawrence Sheriff's Day — Lawrence Sheriff being the founder of the school — the boys were allowed to be absent if any one invited them. I used generally to go to Leamington by stage- coach, passing Kenilworth and Warwick. I was invited by Mrs. Hook, the mother of Dr. Hook, afterwards Dean of Chichester, and a relative of Theodore Hook. One of my greatest friends at Rugby was the late Sir Henry Wilmot, who obtained the Victoria Cross in the Crimea, and who was subsequently in the House of Commons at the same time as myself: the other Avas Mr. Chaffey, who died young. He 20 LORD SALISBURY ch. came from Martock, in Somersetshire, and certainly was one of the most kind-hearted and good-natured beings I ever came across. I cannot pass over his name. I also made the acquaintance of Lord Bangor and his brothers, whom since then I have had the good fortune to meet frequently. There were some notable pupils at that time at Rugby. I am not certain whether Lord Goschen was there at the same time as myself, but I fancy he came shortly after me. Lord Cross had been there before me. M. Waddington, afterwards Prime Minister in France, was there, and I re- member that, before French lessons, he used to be surrounded by a crowd of boys to whom he gave a translation of the portion set out for the day. French lessons were of a rather summary descrip- tion, and very Anglican ; in fact, French was even less cultivated in those days at public schools than it is now. It may not be out of place here to quote some words of Lord Salisbury's, written on May 23, 1883, in reply to some remarks I made on the necessity of foreign languages being more carefully taught in our public schools. I have been long of the opinion expressed in your letter. The extreme uselessness of the education of the upper classes is deplorable, and in this day of keen competition handicaps them heavily. It is always humiliating to find how well Germans of the upper class can talk both English and French. But the difficulties in the way of a change are very formidable. The men who manage our public school* have won their distinction in classics and seldom know any- II 'SHIRKING' 21 thing else ; and it is of little use to give a high position there to masters of French or German extraction, for the boys will not obey them. At Wellington College, which ought to have been superior to mere traditions, the difficulty of having foreign masters was found to be so great that they gave the French mastership to the English mathematical master — with what results you may imagine. At Rugby, French was put on the same footing as writing and arithmetic, which were supposed to be acquired before boys joined the school. Arith- metic was taught by an unhappy layman, who was made rather a butt by his pupils. It was said of him that he had asked leave of Dr. Arnold to wear a cap and gown like the other masters, to which Dr. Arnold replied, " That's as you like, Mr. Sale." He then asked whether the boys ought not to touch their hats to him and " shirk " him. To this Dr. Arnold replied, "That's as they like, Mr. Sale." It must here be said that "shirking" was an almost classical term adopted in the school. Not only the masters, but members of the Sixth Form, called " praepostors," had the right of being shirked — that is to say, lower boys, when walking out of bounds, on seeing the approach of a praepostor made a feint of running away. Thereupon the Sixth Form man cried " On " ; but if the shirk- ing were not properly executed he would cry " Back." These Sixth Form boys, who were approaching manhood, had very peculiar privileges, amongst others that of thrashing lower boys with a cane which they always carried. The four praepostors 22 SIXTH-FORM DISCIPLINE oh. of the week kept order whenever the school was being called over. They had their own regular forms of discipline, and on one occasion, when one of their body dissented from an order they had made affecting the lower boys, the Sixth Form held a meeting and censured his conduct as " courting popularity among the rabble fags." I do not know whether these rules still exist, as, strange to say, I have never been at Rugby since I left the school. When there, I was most lamentably undistinguished. Being very short- sighted, I was unable to take part in any of the games, and that was enough to ensure unpopularity. I have met many Rugby boys since I left, amongst others Sir Richard Temple, Mr. Lawley, and the late Mr. St. Leger Glyn. The two latter were really the show men of the school, and were generally admired, Avhen walking together, for the brilliant way in which they were dressed. There were three boys at Rugby who were all interesting — Mr. Caillard, Mr. Tycho Wynn, and Mr. Basevi. All three were related to Lord Beaconsfield. Mr. Caillard I met later in life, but I have not heard of the others again. Owing to my having been at Rugby, though younger than himself, I knew Mr. Matthew Arnold very well in later life, and had the greatest possible regard and admiration for him. In 1869 a question arose which to me was very interesting, and which I do not think I shall be indiscreet in mentioning. A proposal had been made that the ii MR. MATTHEW ARNOLD 23 Duke of Genoa should reside with Mr. Arnold, while going through the school course at Harrow. His parents did not wish him to go to an ordinary boarding-house, and Mr. Matthew Arnold was at that time residing at Harrow for the education of his own sons. He did not himself like the task of settling the terms on which the young Prince was to live with him. Count Maffei, the Italian charge d'affaires, wished to refer the question to Lord Clarendon, or to Lord de Grey, then the head of the Education Department. Neither, for one reason or another, would interfere, but as both Count Maffei and Mr. Arnold were friends of mine, they left the decision to me. This I undertook — I hope conscientiously— collecting such evidence as I could of similar instances. I was told that there was a case admirably in point. The Prince de Conde, son of the Due d'Aumale, was put to live in the house of one of the professors at Edinburgh, while attending the academical classes. My recommendation was based on this precedent, and I am happy to say it succeeded admirably. Mr. Arnold and his family were much pleased with their inmate, and the royal family of Italy showed great kindness to Mr. Arnold when he went to that country, giving him a high decoration. About that time I received the following letter from him, written in Edinburgh : — ... I suggested that he ] should speak to you as I knew he was acquainted with you, having seen him talking to you 1 Count .Maffei. 24 SARDONIC WIT ch. at the Athenaeum. I have heard nothing from him, but see him if you can. . . . I tried much to see you last week, but you were away on some of your sinister errands somewhere, and the Athenaeum porter said your whereabouts were involved in utter mystery. I hope you are now come back. I am here to be made a doctor. In another hour the fatal step will have been taken, and I shall be LL.D. Tremble and adore ! The objection alleged against referring the point to Lord de Grey was the circumstance of his being Head of the Education Department, of which Mr. Arnold was an Inspector. When Mr. Lowe was Minister of Education, he introduced what was known as the Revised Code. This elicited vehement opposition in which Mr. Arnold joined with a pamphlet or letter which was conclusive. On some one asking Mr. Lowe what he thought of Mr. Arnold's pamphlet, he replied, " Had Zimri peace who slew his master ? " Mr. Lowe had a very sardonic wit, and, though rather out of place, I must here instance some of his observations. We were once speaking together of a friend of ours, Mr. Bailey, who, like Mr. Lowe, had once been a writer in the Times, with respect to an appointment he had just re- ceived as Governor of the Bahamas. Mr. Lowe observed, " That is the place where pineapples flourish in such quantities." I asked, " Is it not a good appointment ? ' Mr. Lowe replied, " Man cannot live on pineapples alone." His jokes were almost always of the same kind. ii INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION 25 The night before the defeat of the Government of which he was a member, Mr. Lowe gave a dinner to some friends, reciting, as a grace, the words, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." He was very fond of riding a bicycle, and in the neighbourhood of his country-house at Caterham lie unfortunately once ran over a man. It was agreed that he was to give a certain sum of money as compensation, which he did. Shortly afterwards, the man found that the sum was not sufficient for the expenses incurred, and committed suicide. He left a paper whereon was written, " This is all along o' Boblo." Mr. Lowe, though a Minister of State, at one time had some difficulty in obtaining a seat. Lord Lansdowne therefore recommended him to the electors of Calne, a borough practically under the domination of Lord Lansdowne, and where, for a long time past, there had never been anything like a contest. One day, Mr. Lowe's Committee drove from Calne to Bowood, and said to Lord Lansdowne that Mr. Lowe had told them they were a pack of fools. Lord Lansdowne, when repeating the story, said, " I am convinced that Lowe never made use of any such term, but I am equally convinced that he said something which made them think he had done so." The story is told of Mr. Lowe attending a Royal wedding at Windsor. I rather think it was that of Prince Leopold. On his return to London, 26 A GREAT LINGUIST ch. n he travelled with his wife and several members of the party in a saloon carriage. He inveighed against the ceremonial and said that some parts of it were absurd. When he married, he had to say, " With all my worldly goods I thee endow," and, he added, " I had not a brass farthing to give my wife." Mrs. Lowe said, " Oh, but, my dear, you forget there is your genius." He replied, " Well, you cannot say that I endowed you with that." Mr. Lowe was celebrated for his familiarity with various languages. I do not know whether he actually spoke them all, but he undoubtedly had a profound knowledge of many. His friend Mr. — afterwards Sir George — Dasent had penetrated him with the beauty of Scandinavian poems, and Mr. Lowe had studied Icelandic with a view to read- ing some of them. 1 recollect being present at a small dinner of Sir George Dasent's to meet Lord Dufferin, after his return from Iceland. The talk turned on Scandinavian literature, and Mr. Lowe discussed some Icelandic poems, evidently knowing them thoroughly and quoting them in the ver- nacular. Of course I cannot answer for his pro- nunciation. I have recently been told that, with the object of reading some Jewish newspapers, he set to work and studied Hebrew late in life, and mastered that language, at all events sufficiently for his purpose. CHAPTER III Bruges — Fellow-students — Holiday in the Ardennes — Friends in Bruges — Amusements — Mr. Henry Drummond — Return to England — Coaching for the Foreign Office — Musical studies — Stage acquaintances — Recollections of theatres and plays — Early Victorian young ladies and literature — Friends of my youth — ■ Society — How debtors evaded arrest. Being intended for the Foreign Office, which I was likely to enter early, I was taken away from Rugby and placed with a tutor in Belgium. The tutor was the Chaplain at Bruges — a very pleasant man who had begun life at Worcester, where his father had been, I think, a canon. His son was also a canon of Manchester. My tutor had a very strange reminiscence of his boyhood. On one occasion, being very small, he had climbed to the top of the Cathedral tower in company with some officers in the Army. One of them took him by the leg and held him suspended outside from the top of the tower, a tremendous height. This terrible experience had never left his mind, and it imbued him through life with a dread of going to a great height. Another recollection of his was the opening of the coffin of King John, when the whole of his body, on being exposed to the air, 27 28 A QUARRELSOME COUPLE ch. though perfect for a few minutes, crumbled into dust. Some one, he said, had taken the big toe of the sovereign, and converted it into a tobacco-stopper. In those days, the steamers from Ostend to Dover took from eight to ten hours, and those from Ostend to London, up the Thames, con- siderably longer. In order to catch the latter, I used to have to go to Ostend by a late train, as the steamers generally left at about one in the morning. I passed the intervening hours with a gentleman who was in the employment of one of the Steam Companies. I dined with him and his wife, and they were most amiable to me ; but, if my host happened to do anything which offended the lady, she would pour out a volume of abuse at him in the strongest language, whereupon he used to address her as follows : " I wonder how you can use such language to me. You know I am a most desirable husband. I am young, good- looking, agreeable, with splendid manners, accom- plished, and highly educated ! You ought to be on your knees all day thanking Heaven for giving you such a husband. Instead of that, you make use of this language before strangers ! " After I had been at their house a few times I became accustomed to this, and it no longer astonished me, but it has always remained impressed on my memory. On one occasion, when going from Dover to Ostend, I was informed that the Comte de Chambord was on board. I think he was then generally known as the Due de Bordeaux. in A CHEAP TOUR 29 The other pupils at this tutor's I have since known very well. There were Mr. Trevanion, who subsequently married Lady Frances Lyon, and Mr. Thellusson, as well as the late Sir Hedworth Williamson and his brother William, whose parents took a house for a short time in Bruges, so as to be near their sons. It is impossible to forget the attractive and kindly presence of Lady Williamson. In summer, we used to take walking tours. 1 recollect one which lasted three weeks, and cost a most extraordinarily small sum. We went to the Ardennes, where the hotel prices seem scarcely credible now. They took us in, gave us comfortable rooms and very good food, consisting of the Ardennes mutton, very like Welsh mutton, bilberry tart and cream, and the trout which we ourselves caught in the river, together with a light French vin ordinaire. For this they charged us at Dinant two and a half francs each per day. At Neupont the charge was only two francs ; while at St. Hubert, which had greater pretensions to being a town, we were charged three francs. This included a pony for me as the youngest of the party. We also went to Luxembourg, to Arlon, and then arrived at the Moselle, where we took boat, first to Coblentz, and then on the Rhine to Cologne. We after- wards joined some friends at Aix-la-Chapelle, and thence home, the whole cost of the journey being 150 francs each. The winter at Bruges for a youth of my age 30 MR. CHARLES LEVER ch. was uncommonly pleasant. There were several English families, established there either for economical or educational purposes, who gave frequent dances. One rich English gentleman, Mr. Barron, had a large house, where he and his wife were most hospitable. Mrs. Barron was a sister of Sir Roger Palmer, and Mr. Barron came of a commercial family domiciled in Mexico. There also lived at Bruges, with his family, a very remarkable man of great wit and versatile disposition, whose name was Addison. He was the author of several plays, and would have written well had he taken a little more pains. Many of the playwriters of the day were his friends ; so also was Mr. Charles Lever, who, with his wife, once came to stay with him at Bruges. Later, I saw a great deal of Lever when in Florence, and while he was Consul at Spezzia. He had begun life as a medical man, and was for some time Physician to the Legation at Brussels. Like Colonel Addison, he was an Irishman, and gifted with great intellectual powers. Charles Lever and, in a lesser degree, Colonel Addison would have been greater writers had they been less inclined to amusement. Colonel Addison was always turning up somewhere. At one time he was a banker at Bruges ; at another he organised in Ireland a political expedition to the Equator. I believe that he really was the founder of a very considerable bank in London, and he wrote one or two books which were undoubtedly able, but spoilt in PUNNING NAMES 31 by haste and carelessness. Colonel Addison was very good company. His conversation was one continuous flow of jokes — some good and some bad — but all making an impression by the rapidity of their conception. I heard some one telling him that within a few days two foremost English brewers had visited Bruges. One, I believe, was Mr. Whitbread, and the other Mr. Barclay. With an exaggerated English accent, Colonel Addison replied, " Taut mieux" He was a most amiable man, and was always treated in a friendly way by Mr. Thackeray and the principal writers of the day. As I am writing, I learn that his son, a King's Counsel and County Court Judge, who was for some time in Parliament, has just died. At Bruges I made the acquaintance of Dr. Forster, a very remarkable man and a naturalist, but somewhat peculiar. He was a great lover of animals, and was convinced that there was a future state for dogs. His wife was very much liked. She was Miss Angerstein by birth. On one occasion, at dinner, the guests were discussing the origin of names. Dr. Forster, who was rather fond of hearing himself speak, declared that his name was derived from the French. Colonel Addison, who was present, broke in, saying, " Oh, certainly it is : faut se taire." Our principal amusement was boating. Bruges. which is now being made a seaport, was surrounded by canals. We used to go by water to a town in Holland called Sluys, where they gave us a 32 A HEALTHY APPETITE ch. luncheon consisting principally of brown bread and butter, Dutch beer, and hard-boiled eggs. One of our party had an enormous appetite. I recollect on one occasion he ate fourteen eggs, but I cannot remember how many glasses of beer he drank. An unique experience of my lifetime occurred while at Bruges. There had been great floods, and all the canals overflowed. Afterwards a hard frost set in, and all the country for miles around was one mass of ice. We used to drive some distance out of the town ; then, putting on our skates, we spread our greatcoats, which served as sails, and the wind would blow us rapidly along the ice, sometimes for several miles, until we reached the town. All we had to do was to stand still on our skates, keeping our feet together. While at Bruges, I was taken by a connection of mine, General Craufurd, uncle of the late Member for the Ayr Burghs, on a journey to Aix-la- Chapelle, where we associated principally with the family of Mrs. Beaumont, the mother of Mr. Henry Beaumont who was not long ago Member for one of the divisions of Yorkshire. With them we took a short trip as far as Frankfort. At Aix-la-Chapelle, I received the following letter from Mr. Henry Drummond, whose real kindness has never been sufficiently appreciated. To me it was particularly striking. October 12, 1844. My dear Henry — This is your birthday, and I write you a few lines to prove to you that you are not forgotten by your godfather, and to inquire after your welfare. I do not in MR. HENRY DRUMMOND 33 know whether your mother is at Rugby or not. Pray do not forget, when you write, to remember me most kindly to her. Write to me a few lines, and believe me always, with fervent wishes for many returns of this anniversary to you, yours very affectionately, Henry Drummond. I once stayed with him for a long time at Albury, and well recollect the kindness with which he treated me, teaching me to fish, and advising me as to my studies. His daughters were also kind friends. The only son, Arthur, was ill of consumption, and died young. It is said of the member of the Drummond family who bought the place, built the house, and began the various improvements that had been carried out in the village, that on one occasion he showed the place to the king — which king I do not recollect. His Majesty asked him what the estate produced. Mr. Drummond replied, " Cheques on Charing Cross, sir." In Bruges, I passed two very happy years, until the time approached for me to enter the Foreign Office. In those days there were no examina- tions, and I went to the house of the Rev. Dr. Worthington, rector of a church in Gray's Inn Lane, where I remained six months to study history and matters of that kind, so as not to be quite ignorant of them. While I was there, I developed a desire to learn music, which has not been successful. In fact, my acquirements only consist in being able to play the National Anthem with the forefinger of my right hand. I have VOL. I 1) 34 VAUXHALL CH. found even this useful, however, as a means of giving tedious guests a delicate hint that they had better go. For lessons, I had been introduced by- Colonel Addison to Mr. Alexander Lee, a well- known composer, who had written two songs very much sung at that time : Come where the Aspens quiver, and Td be a Butterfly. He was leader of the orchestra at the Lyceum under the Keeleys' management, and also leader of the orchestra at Vauxhall. To the latter place I often accompanied him, but at the end of the season of 1846 an explosion took place, and the company exhibited many grievances against the management. A banquet was given to Mr. Lee by the orchestra and the other persons engaged at the Gardens, in order to present him with a watch, and this banquet I attended. All classes of employes had a grievance — even the low comedian related his sufferings, by which, however, he moved us rather to laughter than to tears. Mr. Alexander Lee was married to a lady who had been an actress, and had retired. Her name was Mrs. Waylett. She had very interesting reminiscences of the stage for many years. They had a cottage in the middle of a nursery-garden at Kennington, and there they were frequently visited by actors of different kinds. In the absence of many of my friends from London, I often visited them and dined, taking with me a portion of the dinner, such as game, or anything beyond their usual fare. in NURSERY LYRIC 35 Mrs. Waylett used to sing her husband's com- positions, particularly the two I have mentioned, and often gave us songs out of what would now be called " comic operas." I recollect one stanza taken from Theodore Hook's opera, called, I believe, Teleki. It ran as follows : — Adieu, my Floreski, for ever ! And welcome the sorrows I prove ! O Fate ! why delight' st thou to sever Two bosoms united by love ? A lady who often came to the Lees' house, but whose name I forget, used to sing in what was then called an " arch " manner. This did not go well with her appearance, which was decidedly middle-aged. There was also a very melancholy- looking man who sang comic songs. The contrast between these and the solemn appearance of the singer was most ludicrous. On one occasion, after a sentimental ballad from one of the ladies, he was asked to favour us. Strangers anticipated a most gloomy representation of some painful sentiment, instead of which, with the gravest face, he gave us a song beginning as follows : — A little cock-sparrow he sat on a tree, He chirped, and he chattered, so merry was he, He chirped, and he chattered, so merry was he, This little cock-sparrow that sat on a tree ! There came a little boy, with a bow and an arrow, Determined to shoot this little cock-sparrow. Determined to shoot this little cock-sparrow Was this little boy, with his bow and his arrow. I forget the rest of this lyric, but it was infinitely 36 THE STAGE SIXTY YEARS AGO ch. ludicrous, sung by a man with so lugubrious a physiognomy. If the song still exists in the repertoire of children, it may be a satisfaction to know that it dates from, at any rate, the beginning of last century, for it was sung to me in my childhood. I have, unfortunately, lost the words and music, which were given me a great many years ago by a lady, who, had she now been alive, would be about 112 years old. She told me that she could remember it being sung when she was a child, and always in the same gloomy manner. In my youth there were a number of actors who struck me as remarkably good, and of whom I entertain a vivid recollection. First, Madame Vestris, celebrated for her singing of a very foolish song called Cherry Ripe. Then there was a pretty actress, who was very popular, called Miss Julia Bennett. She played at the Haymarket with Miss Priscilla Horton, who subsequently married Mr. German Reed. At the Adelphi was a mixture of farce and melodrama, and there was then a really remarkable company, the theatre being owned, I believe, by Mr. Webster. Madame Celeste acted the most heartrending parts with a strong French accent, and there was a celebrated man called Mr. Paul Bedford who had made one phrase his own, and it was repeated all over London. This was, " I believe you, my boy," and he was the singer of a song very celebrated in my youth, called Nix, my in MR. AND MRS. KEELEY 37 dolly, pals, fake away. He was supported by one of the most humorous comedians I think I ever saw — Mr. Wright — and also by the most gloomy melodramatic actor, who represented with gusto and humour the part of an evil spirit, and who was known as Mr. O. Smith. Mr. Wright, together with Mr. Paul Bedford and Madame Celeste, made the reputation of a piece which for a long time was running on the stage, called Green Bushes. At the Lyceum, Mr. and Mrs. Keeley used to draw crowds by their wonderfully comic powers, and I recollect a piece called To Parents and Guardians, written by Mr. Tom Taylor, which had a most extraordinary run. It represented a boys' school in which Mrs. Keeley was practically the dictator and Mr. Keeley the fag. Mr. Tom Taylor was a most remarkable man and very popular in every class of society. He had great humour, and was a good official, being Secretary to some Board. At the Lyceum was also Mr. Emery, a versatile actor, whose descendants, I believe, are still on the stage. At that time the plays that were acted were formed very much on the Georgian model, and in the play-bills one used often to see " Mr. So-and- So, with a song." The song was intruded in the most irrelevant manner and had nothing to do with the piece, but was a great attraction. The walking gentlemen also were instructed to use language very much like that of the fops in the old plays. I recollect, when I had emerged from the 38 MRS. WAYLETTS GUESTS ch. pupil-stage which had made me seek this society, going one night to the theatre with some ladies whose good opinion I was anxious to secure. One of the walking gentlemen — a former acquaintance — meeting me going away from the box of a theatre with a lady on my arm, approached me with the fashionable manners of the stage, and, flipping me with his handkerchief, said, " Introduce me, introduce me." I do not know what answer I gave him. At any rate he rejoined, in the same fashion as before, " 'Sdeath ! you kill me, or may I be freckled I" At Mrs. Waylett's cottage, one frequently met not only theatrical celebrities, but also writers, and occasionally — though very seldom — Mr. Planche, the founder of a new school of burlesque. I often met him subsequently at Sir John Burgoyne's, and I recollect two of his remarkably graceful and striking compositions. One was The Invisible Prince, in which the chief character was repre- sented by Miss Priscilla Horton, and another was called The Fair One with the Golden Locks. In this Mr. Planche introduced a charming parody of the Italian serenade Com e gentil. It began " Comb it genteelly." Another of Mrs. Waylett's guests was Mr. Charles Dance, a rival of Planche. I recollect many lines from his productions also : they were excessively good, and at that time in quite a new style. In one of Mr. Dance's burlesques, a father, represented by Mr. Keeley, expatiated on the virtues of his son, and ended thus : — in PUNNING BURLESQUES 39 This hopeful offspring of a doting sire Once chanced to thrust his finger in the fire, And, finding that by far too hot to hold him, He took it out again, though no one told him. Mr. Talfourd, the son of Justice Talfourd, also wrote some brilliant burlesques, and one pun of his I always remember. Describing the life of a man, he ended by saying : — And like a detonator down he goes, To pay the debt o' natur that he owes. Amongst other writers was Mr. Albert Smith, who, I think, afterwards married a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Keeley. He, with a gentleman called Angus Reach, started a little periodical somewhat on the model of Punch. It was called The Man in the Moon. In it, on one occasion, they had a forecast of a burlesque likely to be given in the winter. It was the story of King Alfred baking the cakes. He was supposed to have been left in the house of a Mr. and Mrs. Smith to take charge of the baking, which he neglected, and he said : — There'll be a row when Mrs. Smith returns To this, which seems the land of cakes and Burns. Mr. Reach used to pronounce his name Re-ach, so Mr. Thackeray, meeting him one day at dinner, said, " Mr. Re-ach, would you give me a pe-ach ?" I recollect at this time how very different were the movements of young ladies from what they are at the present day. None of a certain standing 40 YOUNG LADIES OF THE PERIOD ch. were ever allowed to go out alone. If walking, they were accompanied by a footman or their own maid. They never went in cabs, or, indeed, in any public conveyance. When travelling, they accompanied their parents, either in their own carriage, or in a post-chaise ; but they were cut off from all general society by these exclusive habits. I recollect very well when omnibuses were intro- duced to go to Richmond and Hampton Court, there were great debates among the inhabitants of Hampton Court Palace whether or not they should be made use of by persons of what is called Society. The freedom which now exists, dates, I think, from the development of railways, where it is impossible to be exclusive, and where young ladies sit near any one whom fortune may bring. I also remember the High Church movement, and then young ladies in Belgravia were allowed to go to church in the morning and to walk about alone. At the same time, the young gentlemen had also taken very much to frequenting the churches at the early services. A lady well known for her wit was told that in that district young ladies walked without a chaperon, and young gentlemen attended the eight o'clock service. She replied, "Yes, Belgravia is a country where all the women are bold, and all the men are virtuous." About this time, Gretna Green marriages were still possible. A young couple, wishing to elope, took a post-chaise to Gretna Green, the first town accessible within Scotch territory. Here a marriage Ill GRETNA GREEN 41 could be performed — under the old Scotch law — merely by a recognition before witnesses, on the part of the two persons interested, that they con- sidered each other as lawful husband and wife. One young gentleman ran away with a lady of some position, and, on his way back from Scotland, met a relative of the bride, who had started to look for him. The bridegroom said to this gentleman, " I am afraid you look upon me as a sad villain." The other replied, " Oh no ! Only a d — d fool ! " There was one celebrated elopement affecting some of the greatest families in England. On another occasion, a gentleman very prominent in politics went off with a lady ; but it was rumoured that in this case even a Gretna Green wedding had been dispensed with, notwithstanding which a slight in- crease occurred in the population. These marriages were celebrated by a blacksmith who knew all the formalities of the law, and many jokes were made about forging the chains. In the last instance to which I have alluded there were no chains at all, and great was the scandal that consequently ensued in what the papers call "the upper circles." It ruined the politician's career, and, in spite of the condonation of old age, the collaboratrice never regained a firm footing in the cream of the cream. In those days the reaction was nearly complete from fiction of what was called the Rosa-Matilda school, and Mrs. Radcliffe's novels. I well remember the stories of that class then bought by school- boys — wonderful mysteries, the adventures of forlorn 42 MR. BORTHWICK ch. and sentimental young ladies travelling with their harps, and turning out to be the heiresses to earldoms. One was called Fatherless Fanny, who became Marchioness of Leamington ; another, The Romance of the Forest. Soon after Sir Walter Scott had made his appearance, a half-burlesque novel was published, meant to ridicule the school in question. It was entitled Hie Heroine. She was the daughter of a farmer whom she repudiated as a father, and whom she addressed as " Wilkinson " till the Earl was to appear. I remember some lines recited to her : — Sweet sensibility ! Oh, la ! I heard a little lamb cry, Baa ! Says I, " So you have lost Mamma ! " Ah! The little lamb, as I said so, Frisking about the field did go, And, frisking, trod upon my toe. Oh! The Heroine was delighted. At this time I made the acquaintance casually of a gentleman to whom, throughout the rest of his life, I was indebted for much kindness — the late Mr. Peter Borthwick. He was then Member for Evesham, and a Protectionist. At the election of 1845-46 he lost his seat, and Protection being then, to all appearance, finally disposed of, he devoted himself to the advocacy in the press of Lord Palmerston's foreign policy. His son, Mr. Algernon Borthwick, now Lord Glenesk, with whom I have been since that date intimately acquainted, was at in CHANGES IN SOCIETY 43 Paris, where in 1847-48 he enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Louis Napoleon. I also saw a good deal of Sir John and Lady Michel, from whom and from whose family I have always received the greatest cordiality. Sir John Michel was afterwards Field-Marshal. His wife, who was a Miss Churchill by birth, was my some- what near cousin. His daughter is Viscountess Frankfort. The world at that time was very different from what it is now. There were some large fortunes, but nothing equal to those recently accumulated in America and South Africa. Society was on a much smaller scale, bounded, as I believe Svdnev Smith said, by Oxford Street on the north and Pall Mall on the south. Kensington and South Kensington were entirely out of the metropolitan limits, and at Brompton, which was considered " off the stones," the post was delivered on Sunday. Society was very difficult of access to the nouveaux riches. One gentleman, Mr. Hudson, known as the Railway King, certainly achieved for himself a considerable position during the railway mania. He had a house in Albert Gate, now in the occupation of the French Embassy ; but the position he attained in Society was due more to his activity in politics as a protectionist than to his large fortune. I recollect his talking of The Huguenots, which came out about that time, as The Hook Nose. During the season young men boasted as to how 44 IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT ch. many balls they had been invited to in one night. They would go on from one to another. At that period debtors were liable to imprison- ment, and many interesting stories were told of the manner in which certain well-known debtors evaded arrest. On one occasion, the sheriff's officers waited the whole night in pursuit of a certain gentleman of good family in London who was constantly in debt. They had seen him enter Vauxhall Gardens. Not wishing for a public exposure, they placed members of their body at each door so as to arrest him when leaving. But they stayed all night. The Gardens were shut, and he had never appeared. It turned out that his powers of persuasion were so great that he had induced the aeronaut to take him up in the balloon — which was one of the attractions of Vauxhall — to drop him some miles from London on the way to Dover, and to lend him sufficient money to go to the Continent. Another time this same gentleman, who was the son of a well-known Member of Parliament, cele- brated for his collection of antiquities and old furniture, was traced by the sheriff's officers into his father's house. They knocked at the door, and found the father just going out. They told him their errand. He said that his son was not in the house, but that they were quite at liberty to search it. This they did, but in vain. Some days afterwards they found their prey, with whom they were always on good terms, and asked him how he had escaped from his father's house, as they had Ill A COOL HAND 45 traced him in at the door, and waited, and had also searched the house. To this he replied, " Well, I saw you," and he then explained that, in order to escape them, he had dressed himself in an old suit of knight's armour that stood in the hall, and while they were searching the house he had glared at them, holding the sword in his hand. CHAPTER IV Lord Palmerston — Handwriting — Appointed to the Foreign Office — Comparison between Foreign Office of 1846 and present day — Clerks in Foreign Office — Mr. Mellish — Mr. Hammond — Other colleagues. One day I received a letter desiring me to call upon Lord Palmerston, which I naturally did in great awe. He was at that time living at the house of Lady de Clifford in Carlton House Terrace. I well remember a picture in the dining-room, where I was shown, representing St. Cecilia playing a violoncello. My reception by Lord Palmerston was kindly in the extreme. He asked me several questions about my education, and, on hearing the number of different places to which I had been, he made a remark which was perfectly true — that I had picked up what I could where I could, instead of going through a settled course of education. He desired me, however, to write him a letter giving him my history, and to allow him to see my hand- writing. About handwriting he was very particular, and there are many stories told by Sir Edward Hertslet and others of the severe comments he used to make on agents of the Foreign Office 46 ch. iv CHARACTER IN HANDWRITING 47 who wrote indistinctly or in a small hand. At that time a good handwriting was somewhat uncommon, but at the Foreign j Office it was con- sidered especially good. That of Mr. Spring-Rice was held up as a model. Since then, handwriting has made great strides, and the system of telling character from it has been much developed. In France, where it is called gi^aphiologie, it is supposed to have led to remarkable incidents. A French gentleman, whose veracity I have no reason to doubt, told me the following story. A new prefet had come to a town where the uncle of my informant was bishop. The bishop requested the prefet to employ some one in whom he felt an interest. The young man in question went to the prefecture and told his story, but was asked to make his application in writing. Some days afterwards the bishop enquired if anything had been done for his protege. The prefet replied, " It is impossible : he is an assassin." This he said he had discovered from the young man's handwriting, and added that the assassina- tion was not of long date. It turned out to be the case. Of course I cannot vouch for the truth of this story, but I may say that more than one French gentleman to whom I spoke of it cast no doubt on its correctness. To return to Lord Palmerston. No one, young or old, could resist his charm of manner, which 48 AN AGREEABLE DECEPTION ch. really betokened a very kind heart. When appointed to the Foreign Office in 1845, on the fall of Sir Robert Peel's Government, some of the old employes had intended to resign, as during his last tenure of office he had been somewhat harsh and inconsiderate. On one occasion, he had kept the Office at work for almost the whole night while he was at the Opera, and while they were prepar- ing for a special messenger whose despatches had to be signed by the Secretary of State. On his return to office in 1848 they were most agreeably dis- appointed. A hint was given them that, having in the interval married Lady Palmerston, his manner had undergone a complete change. Ever after- wards, under the influence of Lady Palmerston, perhaps the most amiable grande dame who ever existed, every one dependent upon him was most devoted to his person and his interests. On October 22, 1846, ten days after completing my sixteenth year, I was informed by Mr. Addington of my appointment as Additional Clerk at the Foreign Office, and on the 26th of the same month I entered upon my duties. The Foreign Office in those days was peculiarly constituted, and had for many years undergone no alteration. On the ordinary staff there was one permanent Under - Secretary of State, and one political. Now, in addition to these two officials, there are three assistant Under-Secretaries. Two Legal Advisers are now appointed to the Foreign Office : in my time there were none. There were iv THE FOREIGN OFFICE 49 twenty -eight clerks on the diplomatic establish- ment, of whom seven were Heads of Departments : at present there are forty-four clerks, of whom eight are Heads of Departments. The Financial Depart- ment, which in 1847 had only one clerk, has now five. There are five also in the Librarian's Depart- ment, which formerly had only two clerks. In those days there was a Slave Trade Department, appointed to carry out the provisions of the various Slave Trade Treaties : that has now dis- appeared. A registry has been established, which did not exist then. In addition to all this extra assistance, there are thirty-seven Second Division clerks, as well as nine lady typists. The staff of Foreign Service messengers has been diminished, but that of the Home Service messengers increased. Altogether, the force of the Foreign Office has been augmented to an enormous extent, compared with former times. A considerable increase took place immediately after the Crimean War, when the staff was very much overworked. I recollect on one occasion during that period that, having worked nearly all Sunday, I went to the Office on Monday morning at ten, and remained till ten at night. The next day I went at ten, and remained till four o'clock the following morning. On the Wednes- day I went at ten, and remained till one the next morning. In addition to all this, I had cyphers at my own house for use when necessary at night, the number of resident clerks being limited to two. They are now four. vol. i e 50 LONG SERVICE ch. Previously, at the beginning of the century, the numbers were still smaller, and the clerks in the Office worked personally with the Secretary of State. Some of those I knew had worked with Lord Dudley. They said that at a crisis he would walk about their room as though in a fit of absent- mindedness. He would then suddenly pick up some scrap of paper off the floor and write out a despatch. Everything now goes along an official groove, and orders are conveyed through the Un der- Secretaries. The names of those who were in the Office at the time of my joining recall almost the whole history of the French Revolution and the Napo- leonic Wars. Mr. John Bidwell, senior, had been appointed in 1798. Mr. Thomas Bidwell resigned in 1841 after fifty years' service. He had been the clerk who opened nearly all the despatches relative to the French Revolution, I believe includ- ing the report of the royal executions. Mr. John Bidwell accompanied Sir Robert Adair on his Special Mission to Constantinople in July 1808, and remained in the East till 1811. He was also attached to Sir Charles Stewart on his Mission to the King of Prussia in 1813, and on his visit to the headquarters of the Allied Armies at various places on the Continent. There had been a clerk in the Office, Mr. Byng, appointed in 1801. I recollect him well. He was known in society for many years, and died only in 1871. He was commonly called " Poodle Byng," IV -POODLE BYNG" 51 but I never knew the origin of the appellation. Lord Torrington was a nephew of his. In 1824, Mr. Byng had been appointed to attend the King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands on their visit to England, where they both died. Mr. William Bathurst told me that, at the time of their death, a speech supposed to have been made by the king to Mr. Byng was published by Theodore Hook in John Bull. It began, "Oh, Poodly Woodly ! Me eatee, me drinkee, me die." The Head of the Department in which I was at first placed was Mr. Lenox-Conyngham. In his youth some accident had deprived him of his leg, and at times he underwent intense pain. This made him a little captious ; but he was a man of the kindest instincts. He had married the daughter of Mr. Holmes, an Irish Q.C., who was very much mixed up with what is now called the Nationalist cause. By her he had two children, a son in the Diplomatic Service, and a daughter who married Lord Doneraile and died only recently. Her husband was killed by the bite of a fox. Mr. Conyngham's son was very ill out in Brazil, and his father, wishing to go and see him, under- went an operation from the effects of which he died on November 2G, I860, less than a fortnight after the death of his son. I fear that, with Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane and Mr. Wylde, 1 am now the only survivor of the Foreign Office as it was in 1846-47. Amongst others who were there at the time of my joining 52 A PUN ch„ was Mr. Oom, a man of great humour, who be- longed to the Canterbury Theatrical Company, which I will allude to hereafter : he was designated the " Apologist." He was known in the Canter- bury Bills as Adolphus K. On the occasion of an election at Canterbury, during the Cricket Week, the town was placarded thus : " Oom shall we elect ? Adolphus K." There were also Mr. Staveley, who had been employed at Paris in 1814, and was secretary to a Commission appointed under the Articles of the Treaty of Peace with France ; and Mr. Thomas Lawrence AVard, a cousin of Lord Bangor, and whose brother was a Secretary of Legation. He had joined the Foreign Office in 1817, and had accompanied Lord Castlereagh to the Conference at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. He also was with Sir Robert Adair's Special Mission to Brussels in 1831. Mr. Louis Hertslet, the librarian, so well known for his works on Treaties, had been appointed to the Foreign Office in 1801. I very well recollect meeting Sir Robert Adair at Holland House, where, when I first married, I often spent some days. He came in leaning on the arm of Lord Granville. It was to Lord Holland that Prince Talleyrand addressed one of his best -known mots. Lord Holland, then Mr. Fox, had just been attached to Sir Robert Adair's Mission to Brussels. At a dinner at Holland House, on the eve of their departure, Prince Talleyrand made an address to Sir iv PRINCE TALLEYRAND S MAXIM 53 Robert Adair, and a separate one to Lord Holland, treating the latter as if he were the Minister and Sir Robert, the attache. In laying down several maxims of diplomacy for Lord Holland, he ended by saying, " Et surtout, point de zele" a maxim which has been recognised as a fundamental rule of diplomatic action. One very marked member of the Foreign Office was Mr. Mellish, who had been attached to the Embassy at Constantinople in 1828 and 1830. Formerly a Gentleman Usher to Queen Adelaide, he had been sent by King William IV. to accom- pany his sons, the FitzClarences, to the different Courts of Germany. His father was one of the old charges d'affaires at the Hanse towns, and his mother was German, so that he really was more of a German than an Englishman. He was a great admirer of Mr. Canning, who had done much for him, and of whom he had a store of anecdotes. Mr. Mellish kept the correspondence relative to the quaint and well-known cypher instructions sent by Mr. Canning to Sir Charles Bagot, Ambassador at the Hague. They ran as follows : — In matters of commerce, the fault of the Dutch Is giving too little, and asking too much. The French are with equal advantage content, So we'll clap on Dutch bottoms just twenty per cent. Twenty per cent, twenty per cent, ( horus of French douaniers: Vous frapperez Falcke just twenty per cent ! This was put into cypher by Mr. Mellish and sent to the Hague. Some days afterwards a reply came 54 MR. CANNINGS GOOD-NATURE ch. from Sir Charles Bagot, saying that his Embassy did not possess the cypher in which this despatch had been forwarded. The cypher was therefore sent by the next messenger, together with a despatch from Mr. Canning saying that the former one had only contained remarks on the recent commercial negotiations. There was a very amus- ing answer from Sir Charles Bagot, to the effect that the Secretary of Embassy, Mr. Snape Douglas — who, by the way, was very much in the world during my recollection — when reading the despatch, had observed that he was almost certain the cypher alluded to the commercial negotiations. The lines in question are pretty well known, and I only men- tion these circumstances as coming from what may be considered the fountain-head. Mr. Mellish was constantly repeating acts of great good -nature on the part of Mr. Canning. On one occasion a special messenger was sent to the Continent, and, after he had gone, Mr. Mellish found that he had omitted to put in the bag the principal despatch. He at once went in to Mr. Canning to tell him of the mishap, in fear and trembling. Mr. Canning, without saying a word of reproach, replied, " Ring for another messenger." His kindness ensured the devotion of Mr. Mellish, who was a most warm-hearted man. At one time Mr. Mellish had applied to Lord Aberdeen for an appointment in South America as charge d'affaires. This had been refused him. Shortly afterwards Mr. Mellish met the lady he iv AMPLE COMPENSATION 55 subsequently married. No sooner had she accepted him than he asked for an interview of Lord Aber- deen, and thanked him for not having given him the appointment for which he had applied, as he had been so amply compensated. Mr. Mellish was deeply versed in German politics. Some one once asked Lord Palmerston to explain to him the question of the Danish Duchies. Lord Palmerston replied, " There are only two people who understand the question — myself and Mellish of the Foreign Office." The other said that he thought Mr. Mellish was dead. Lord Palmerston rejoined, " In that case, I am the only person who understands the question." After Mr. Mellish, who at that time was the only decorated member of the Office, having received the Order of the Guelph, came Mr. Hammond, who played a considerable part in the history of the Department. He was the son of a gentleman who had also been Under-Secretarv of State for Foreign Affairs. When I was first in the Foreign Office, he was almost the junior of the senior clerks. He had been attached to Sir Stratford Cannings Special Mission to Turkey in 1831, and to Spain in 1832, and was the Head of the Turkish Department, which dealt with matters concerning Russia, Turkey, Persia, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, and Siam. Mr. Hammond was a man of great perseverance, and had made himself completely master of affairs dealing with those countries, and, indirectly, with the world in general. At that time. 56 MR. HAMMOND ch. despatches of importance were circulated to the Ambassadors in all important places. Consequently, all Heads of Departments knew not only what belonged to their particular branch, but indirectly all that was going on elsewhere. When the Crimean War broke out, Mr. Addington, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State, resigned his place after a most distinguished career. It was felt that no one could succeed him except Mr. Hammond. He, therefore, was practi- cally charged with the continuity of the business of the whole Office. In those days that business was divided into two principal departments — one under the Permanent, the other under the Parliamentary Under-Secretary ; but all information of importance was equally open to both those functionaries. It would, therefore, scarcely have been possible to overlook Mr. Hammond's claims to the succession of Mr. Addington. Mr. Hammond was a very curious mixture. He might be designated, in the present day, as bureaucratic, and certainly the interests of his office were his first care ; but this did not prevent great enlightenment, and his advice was constantly followed by the Ministers of the day. While a great stickler for discipline, and resenting errors on the part of his subordinates, he was excessively kind-hearted and just. No doubt, he had his likes and dislikes, but these were never unnecessarily or offensively put forward. He had great eccen- tricities. When going with Lord John Russell iv BRIDGES TAYLOR 57 on his Special Mission to Vienna in 185.5, the other members were much amused at Mr. Ham- mond's peculiarities. He insisted on passing the whole night in his tall hat, and only assumed his travelling-cap when he got out of the train for refreshments. He retired in 1873, and was made a peer some months later, this being the first occasion, I believe, on which a Permanent Under- Secretary had been raised to that dignity. My closest friend was Mr. Bridges Taylor, a universal favourite and the confidant of many juniors. He was the nephew of two men who had been very well known in their time — one, Sir Herbert Taylor, Private Secretary to King William IV., and the other, Sir Brook Taylor, formerly of the Diplomatic Service. I believe he had been appointed Minister at a small Court in Germany when he was only twenty-three or twenty- four years old. Mr. Bridges Taylor, besides being in the Foreign Office, had been allowed to hold the post — almost a sinecure — of Deputy Clerk to the Signet for his uncle, Sir Brook Taylor, who was Clerk to the Signet, an office now abolished. Mr. Bridges Taylor was at one time attached to the Legation at Hanover, where he married the daughter of Sir Hugh Halkett, the generalissimo of the Hanoverian army. He had thus come into con- tact with the Royal Family, by whom Mrs. Taylor was affectionately treated, and he was also much favoured by all of them. Owing to an impediment 58 FOREIGN OFFICE CLERKS ch. in his handwriting from scrivener's palsy, he was unable to work very hard, and he ended his days — or, at all events, his official career — as Consul at Elsinore, where he and Mrs. Bridges Taylor were much beloved. Mr. Huskisson was also a distinguished member of the Office. He was the nephew of Mr. Huskis- son, the President of the Board of Trade, and Colonial Secretary, whose sad end is well known, having been killed at the opening of the Manchester Railway. Later on the list followed Mr. George Canning Backhouse, son of the Mr. Backhouse who had been Under-Secretary of State. Then we come to Mr. Wylde, son of the general so well known in connection with Spanish politics, who had been sent to Spain on missions connected, I think, with the Carlist war. Mr. Richard Wellesley was one of the most amiable and popular members of the Office. He was the grandson of Marquis Wellesley, and he had an uncle who was the Principal of New Inn Hall, Oxford. Mr. Charles Spring- Rice was a son of the celebrated Lord Monteagle, Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the course of a speech in which Lord Brougham was denouncing the Whig Govern- ment, he asked whether the country was to be governed entirely by Lord John This or Mr. Spring That. Mr. Charles Spring-Rice, who was among my great friends, was one of the most iv USE OF A DINNER-BELL 59 useful members of the Foreign Office. Before the end of his service he was made an Assistant Under- Secretary of State. He certainly was one of the ablest men I ever came across, and I have always been astonished that he did not make a more brilliant career. He was gifted with great humour, and the story was told of him that, when at the University, some one with rooms above him insisted on practising the piano nearly all day. Mr. Spring- Rice was musical, and this was enough to drive him wild. After remonstrating several times uselessly with his neighbour, he proceeded to purchase a \'ery loud dinner-bell, and whenever the gentleman upstairs began his scales, he used to go to the bottom of the staircase and ring the bell as loudly as he could. This brought his adversary to reason. Mr. Alston — subsequently Sir Francis Alston — was an exemplary public servant. He was the son of Mr. Rowland Alston, a long time M.P. for Hertfordshire. Before he left the Foreign Office he became Chief Clerk and Head of the Financial Department. He was a man of extraordinary official ability, and many small reforms are due to his orders and sagacity. He was also high up in Freemasonry, in which he was an expert. Then followed Mr. Spencer Ponsonby — now Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane — who certainly deserved better of his colleagues than any one else. Always sympathetic and encouraging in his office of private secretary, first to Lord Palmerston and then to Lord Clarendon, he was ever ready to do what he 60 SIR SPENCER PONSONBY-FANE ch. iv properly could for the sake of a colleague. Every one had confidence in him and liked him. He accompanied Lord Clarendon to the Congress of Paris, and subsequently accepted the office of Comptroller of the Lord Chamberlain's House- hold, a place which suited him, 1 suppose, but which, to my mind, was far below his claims. His wife, whom he married early in life, showed kindness to all, and enjoyed the same popularity as her husband. CHAPTER V Colleagues in the Foreign Office — Under-Secretaries of State— Life at the P'oreign Office — Hours of work — Private theatricals — Holiday at Spa — Marriage of Lady Dorothy Nevill. Mr. John Bidwell, junior, was the son of the Head of the Consular Department. He was a man of great wit, dramatic power, and physical agility, and at an amateur pantomime given during the Crimean War for the Patriotic Fund, at which the Queen and the Prince Consort were present, he acted the part of Harlequin in the most perfect manner. Shortly after the performance he asked Lady Waldegrave, who was a friend of his, to obtain an invitation for him to a party at Lansdowne House. Lord Lansdowne replied that he must necessarily invite Mr. Bidwell, for, if he did not come in at the door, he would probably come through the window, or down the chimney. He wrote light poetry, full of fun and brilliancy. I recollect some lines that occurred in one of his poems : — With equal ale and equal stout Fill high the pewter amphora ! If fickle Fortune frown or flout, We will not care a d — for her ! 61 62 GOOD-TEMPERED COLLEAGUES ch. On one occasion Mr. Bidwell was having a discussion with a colleague, whom he accused of putting too much work upon his — Mr. Bid well's — shoulders, and thus escaping the proper share. He ended by saying, " I'll tell you what it is. You're what the Latin grammar calls an injusta novercal After him came Mr. Greville Morier, the son of Mr. Henry Morier, who had for a long time been Minister in Persia, but whose reputation principally depends on the book that he wrote, called Hqjji Baba. Mr. Morier had much of his father's wit. His mother, nee Greville, was still alive, and most hospitable at her house in Charles Street to her son's colleagues. Mr. Croker Pennell was a nephew of the celebrated John Wilson Croker, Theodore Hook's friend, and he certainly was the best- tempered man I ever came across. Mr. Wood- ford, the son of Sir Alexander Woodford, was the valseur of the Office, and no ball in London was complete without his presence. Lord Gifford's son, Mr. Scott Gifford, was very popular for his great good-temper, which almost equalled that of Mr. Wellesley. Mr. Vivian, afterwards Lord Vivian, was well known, having ended his days as Ambassador at Rome. Mr. Forster was one of the resident clerks, and used to give dinners in his rooms. He was a man very much respected and liked, having been many years in the Office, and an old member of the Travellers'. He was the brother of General Forster, v OTHERS IN FOREIGN OFFICE 63 who for some time had held a permanent military post in Dublin, but who more lately became Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief. Mr. Forster was very fond of fishing, and constantly used to take a fishing at Christchurch, near Lord Malmes- bury's house, Heron Court. I recollect a letter to Lord Malmesbury, in which he signed himself k ' Your humble Clerk/' Mr. Blackburn was also a very well-known member of the Office, rather celebrated for his wit and repartees. I did not know him very well, as for a great portion of the time I was in the Office he was absent from ill-health. On one occasion we were talking of a foreign statesman who had married an Englishwoman named Miss Birch. Mr. Blackburn said that he understood she was the daughter of Birch, the City pastry-cook of turtle fame. I replied that such was not the case ; that she was of consider- able birth, rather highly connected, and no relation whatever to the pastry-cook. Thereupon Mr. Black- burn said, " I had a soup^on that she was." Working in the Foreign Office as an attache was Mr. Ralph Anstruther Earle. He had distinguished himself at Harrow, especially in English compo- sition, and Lord Clarendon had in consequence offered him an appointment in the Diplomatic Service. Foreign affairs and Parliamentary life formed his great preoccupation. I saw a great deal of him and liked him very much, though he was not generally popular on account of a reserved 64 A DETERMINED SECRETARY ch. manner. Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli made his acquaint- ance in Paris, and were much struck by him, and when the Conservative party came into power in 1858 Mr. Earle was appointed Mr. Disraelis private secretary. In this capacity he lived very much at his chief's house, and made himself useful in Parliamentary matters, which he thoroughly understood. In 1866 Mr. Earle became a Member of Parliament, and Mr. Disraeli, on acceding to office, gave him the Secretaryship to the Poor Law Board, a post no longer existing. Thinking that this appointment, which entailed no great labour, was given him so that he might combine his Secretarial with his Parliamentary work, Mr. Earle used to go daily to see his chief. Mr. Disraeli, however, having appointed another private secretary — Lord Rowton — wished to dispense with Mr. Earle' s services, and did not welcome these continual visits. The result was that Mr. Earle resigned his post, and in Parlia- ment showed his resentment by voting and some- times speaking against Mr. Disraeli. At length he made an especially violent attack on the Prime Minister, and this put an end to his career. Mr. James Murray was also in the Foreign Office, at the head of the Consular Department for some time, and then Head of the German Depart- ment. He subsequently became Assistant Under- Secretary of State. Though born abroad, he was of Scotch origin, and this he was fond of proclaim- ing on every possible occasion. It was currently v UNDER-SECRETARIES 65 reported in the Office that at a country place he possessed somewhere near Uxbridge, he was to be seen in the very early morning digging in his garden, and dressed in a kilt. During the time I was in the Foreign Office, I naturally served under several Political Under- Secretaries of State, all of them men of great eminence. The first was Lord Stanley of Alderley, at that time Mr. Stanley, and generally known in the world — for what reason I do not know — as Ben Stanley. Lord Kimberley I knew privately, and he certainly, during the tenure of his office as Under-Secretary, was most popular and made for himself a great name. On this account he was chosen by the Government to occupy the post of Minister at St. Petersburg at the time of the reconciliation after the Russian War. He was followed, I think, by Lord Shelburne, who had never taken a very active part in politics, for which, however, he was highly qualified. Mr. Layard was a man whose reputation is too well known to need any tribute or discussion. Mr. Seymour FitzGerald, who had for a long time been a Member of Parliament, was the Conservative Under-Secretary under Lord Malmesbury. He was a man of great Parliamentary tact and know- ledge. Later on he was made Governor of Bombay, and on his return to England again entered Parlia- ment, which he finally quitted on being appointed a principal Charity Commissioner. At that time the Foreign Office was more like vol. r P 66 CONFIDENTIAL WORK ch. a convent of Benedictines — men of intelligence, but separated from the world by the nature of their employment. The work they had to do was essentially confidential, and therefore did not bring them much into contact with other offices. In fact, the humblest clerk in the Office was necessarily entrusted with information to which scarcely any- one could have access except a Cabinet Minister. On one occasion the original of a Treaty had been published in a morning paper, together with the English translation. This produced great agita- tion, for it seemed as though blame would be laid on the Foreign Office. Lord Palmerston, however, discovered the secret of its publication. When a treaty is drawn up between several nations, each is mentioned first in its own copy, and the others are placed alphabetically. When Lord Palmer- ston saw the published copy, he at once detected the quarter whence it came by the name that came first, the others being, as usual, in alphabetical order. I believe that Lord Palmerston mentioned this circumstance in the House of Commons, in proof of the rigid secrecy kept by the Foreign Office. The hours of the Office were different from ordinary official attendance. As the clerks had to remain very late, in order to catch the last mail which left about eight o'clock, they went late in the morning, not much before one o'clock, and this dis- organisation of the ordinary times of employment threw them very much into each other's society. v AN AWKWARD MISTAKE 67 They all lived together, especially in the old office in Downing Street, which consisted of two houses, 15 and 16, the latter having been the Foreign Office, and 15 the residence of the Foreign Secretary. Mr. Canning had lived there, and one room at the top of the house — used as a smoking-room — was called "the nursery," having belonged to Mr. Canning's children. It possessed a piano, Mr. Wellesley, Mr. Woodford, and others being good musicians. When I was first at the Foreign Office, smoking was tabooed, as it was distasteful to Lord Palmerston. Subsequently, however, on the accession to office of Lord Clarendon, who was himself a great smoker, the prohibition of tobacco was relaxed, and smoking became universal. It is said that one day, by mis- take, a despatch-box, addressed to very high quarters, was found to contain some of Lord Clarendon's cigarettes. Many of the members of the Office belonged to the Travellers' Club, where they used to dine together, members of other clubs doing the same ; but during the dead season, when most clubs were under repair, they used to dine in small parties, often at the " Blue Posts " in Cork Street, well known for its beef-steaks and port-wine, and in later years at the " Wellington" in St. James's Street. In those days there were few restaurants, and none, except Yerrey's in Regent Street, where a lady could dine. The St. James's Club, of which I am an original member, was only founded, I think, in 68 PRIVATE THEATRICALS ch. 1859, and this provided a resort for all members of the Foreign Office and the Diplomatic Service. The work at the Foreign Office, as already mentioned, was really hard ; but since the numbers have been increased, and typists have been employed, I scarcely think that such great pressure can still exist. Shortly before 1 joined the Office, it had been the habit of some of the clerks, during the dead season, to hire a cottage in the country, where they lived, coming up for their work and going down in the evening. But this I do not recollect. At one time Mr. Spencer Ponsonby undertook the manage- ment of the cottage. He showed me a bill addressed to " Sponsonberry, Esq." The principal amusement of the members of the Foreign Office was private theatricals. A society had been got up called the Canterbury Old Stagers. An interesting history of this society is to be found in a book called Amateur Clubs and Actors, edited by W. G. Elliot. It was founded in 1841, I believe, by Mr. Frederick Ponsonby, and Mr. Spencer Ponsonby was always a foremost member. The book to which I allude contains an illustration representing Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane, Sir Henry de Bathe, and Mr. Quintin Twiss as they acted in Cox and Box. Among the gentlemen who rather frequented Foreign Office society was a young Guardsman, whose principal quality was that of greediness. One day at the Tower he was president of the mess, v HOLIDAY AT SPA 69 and ordered some small cutlets of which he was particularly fond. They were handed first to the gentleman on his left. There were only three cutlets left in the dish by the time it came round to the president's right-hand neighbour, and that gentleman took all three. Two large tears were seen rolling down the Guardsman's cheeks. I generally used to spend my two months' holi- day on a trip abroad. My first was taken in 1847, when I accompanied Lord and Lady Pollington. We had intended to go farther, but we found Spa so pleasant that we remained there four or five weeks. Our great amusement was riding out in the day on little Spa ponies, while at night there was a theatre, a dance, or the roulette. There I made the acquaintance of Sir Henry and Lady Bedingfeld, and of the Marquis and Marquise de Belmont, who afterwards were attached to the Emperor Napoleon's household, besides various persons whose names I do not remember. There were two or three English gentlemen : one of them, who was very popular, underwent the somewhat painful experience of being arrested for debt. He was taken to the prison at Verviers, and for the rest of our stay at Spa we used generally to breakfast at the hotel at Verviers, and pay a visit to our friend. In 184-7, Lady Dorothy Walpole was married at Wolterton to Mr. Reginald Nevill, who was already a distant cousin. There was a great gather- ing, and the wedding-feast included, as is usual in 70 A FAT LIVING ch. v Norfolk, a pea-hen and a gosling. The ceremony was performed by the Reverend Thomas Walpole, Rector of Alverstoke, the head of the family next in succession after the present line. He was assisted by the Reverend Algernon Peyton, who had married a cousin of the family and who held the living of Doddington, then the richest in England, being worth about £7000 a year. As the Crown has the right of nomination to any living vacated by the incumbent being made a bishop, the Rector of Doddington, on accepting the living, was bound to sign an undertaking that he would never accept a bishopric. The living has since been divided. CHAPTER VI London friends — Sir John Burgoyne — Mr. Disraeli — Other acquaint- ances — Mr. Hayward's anecdotes — Waterloo banquet — Foreign Office stories — Places of amusement. Amongst other persons with whom I was acquainted, and who was very much in the world, was Mr. Jesse, the author of the History of England under the House of Hanover. He was high up in the Admiralty, and was the son of the author of a natural history book called Jesse's Gleanings. A great friend of his was Mr. John Wilson Croker, the well-known Conservative statesman, about this time engaged in an animated controversy with Lord John Russell concerning the poet Moore. Mr. Jesse had been well acquainted with Theodore Hook, who Avas an habitual frequenter of Mr. Croker's house, where, on one occasion, having in- dulged a little freely at dinner, Mrs. Croker said to him, while playing at whist, "We have known each other so long that I am sure you will forgive me for asking you to read this little pamphlet." It was a tract. Theodore Hook, stopping in his deal, took the 71 72 LINK WITH THE PAST ch. pamphlet, and answered, " Oh yes ! I know this. I've read it. I've reviewed it. ' Three words to one who drinks.' It's ' Pass the bottle ' ! " This anecdote was related to me by Mr. Jesse, who had actually heard it. The story may be well known, but I should never hesitate to relate anec- dotes if told me by those who had learned them first-hand. I was very dull during my first winter in London until my friends came up for the following season ; but I constantly went to the house of the Chevalier de Bunsen, in Carlton Terrace, not far from the Foreign Office. He and his wife were always very hospitable and good to me. She was the aunt of M. Waddington, with whom I had been at Rugby, and at her house I met other members of the family — Lady Llanover, and many whose names I forget. There I used very often to meet the family of Baron Alderson, especially the eldest of his daughters, after- wards Lady Salisbury. One of her sisters married a friend of mine, Mr. Walter Cocks. Another house that I constantly visited was that of Lady Tankerville, with whose relative, Mr. George Wrottesley — now General Wrottesley — I was intimate. He was an officer in the Engineers, and, as we lived very much together, he introduced me to the house of Sir John Burgoyne, then In- spector-General of Fortifications, son of General Burgoyne of Saratoga. This brings us back to October 1777, the date of the surrender of General Burgoyne and his army. Wrottesley subsequently vi TRUE HOSPITALITY 73 went as A.D.C. to Sir John in the Crimea, and married his eldest daughter. Mrs. Wrottesley had most remarkable gifts as an actress, and, at her father's house in Fulham, theatri- cals were frequently performed. She also used to act sometimes at the house of Mr. Wolley, at Camp- den Hill, where a regular theatre had been built. It was a charming old house, which I recollected as a young ladies' school where some cousins of mine were educated. It was ultimately burnt down, and the fire formed the subject of an action at law with the insurance companies. Sir John and Lady Burgoyne kept the most hospitable house I recollect. Every one who was a friend of the family had a general invitation to dinner, and the society was most agreeable. I met there Mr. Ashe, certainly one of the wittiest men and cleverest actors I ever came across. He had been employed in some civil capacity under Sir John in Ireland, and was brought by him to London. He had wonderful powers of comic improvisation. Sir John Burgoyne, as Inspector-General of Fortifications, was Chief of the Royal Engineers. In this capacity, he encouraged all the young men of the corps to frequent his house. On one occa- sion, the study of foreign languages was being dis- cussed, and the conversation fell into French. A lady present made some very acute remark on the value of the language, so a young man, bursting with ambition, replied, " Vou.s tics unc sagefemme /" 74 'YOURS VERY TRULY' ch. The difficulty for those not familiar with French to avoid literal translation is often ludicrous. I knew an official of considerable rank who, when writing to a foreigner, always subscribed himself " Votre tr*es vraimcnt." Unfortunately, a coolness had sprung up between Sir John Burgoyne and the Duke of Wellington. The latter had written to Sir John commenting on the want of preparation for war. This letter, through some unfortunate circumstance, had fallen into the hands of a lady who lived near Sir John Burgoyne at Fulham, and it came into the possession of the press. The letter made a great sensation at the time, and was the basis of a long discussion. Notwithstanding Sir John's explana- tions, the breach between the Duke and himself was never repaired. One of the daughters of the house married a gentleman named Gretton, who received a consular appointment in Hayti. On their arrival, they both died of yellow fever, leaving one little baby quite unprotected. Sir John Burgoyne had seven daughters, I think, and one son, a promising naval officer, who went down when the Captain foundered. At that time I also made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli, who were great friends of my uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Orford, and of their daughters, Lady Pollington and Lady Dorothy Walpole — now Lady Dorothy Nevill. Lord Pollington, who had been returned to vi MR. DISRAELI 15 Parliament before he was of age, was a very strong Conservative. Mr. Disraeli used generally to walk home from the House of Commons, usually in the society of Lord Henry Lennox. One night, rather late, I was in the neighbourhood of Whitehall, as the House was breaking up, and I met Mr. Disraeli alone. He asked me to accompany him, and we canvassed the prospects of the Government. I said to him, as there was some talk of the Govern- ment resigning, " I suppose that some day, in the ordinary course of things, you will be Prime Minister." He answered, " In the extraordinary course of things." Between 1847 and 1852 I generally used to call upon Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli every Sunday, and sometimes had luncheon with them. On one occasion I met M. and Mme. Adolphe Barrot. He was a brother of M. Odillon Barrot, and at that time, I think, French Agent in Egypt. I met him frequently afterwards, first at Naples where he was Minister, and then at Brussels. Madame Barrot was English by birth. At Mr. Disraeli's house, 1 also made the acquaint- ance of Mr. James Disraeli and Mr. Ralph Disraeli. Mr. James Disraeli was not married, though the elder of the two ; but Mr. Ralph Disraeli had a son by his marriage with Miss Trevor— Mr. Coningsby Disraeli, who was until lately in Parliament. About that time I became acquainted with the celebrated Mr. Alfred Montgomery, remarkable 76 TAKING A LIBERTY ch. for his popularity in all good society, and for his wit. I used to dine with him and his sister at their house in Chesterfield Street. His conversation was most amusing, as he always gave some quaint turn to everything he said. Once we were dis- cussing a murder which had attracted a great deal of attention, the murderer having assassinated his victim when dining with him at his house. Mr. Montgomery said to me, with the little stutter which gave point to his observations, " I wonder how you would begin murdering a man at his own table. I should not know how to do so. It would appear to me to be taking such a liberty." I also knew very well Mr. Baillie Cochrane. He had been one of the prominent members of what was called the Young England Party, in which he was associated with Lord John Manners, Mr. George Smythe, Mr. Hope, and others. M em- bers of this party were distinguished by wearing white neckcloths at a time when they were not in fashion. I saw a great deal later on of Mr. Baillie Cochrane. He was raised to the peerage as Lord Lamington, and was the father of the present peer, a distinguished Colonial Governor. Another acquaintance of mine was Mr. Stirling of Keir, afterwards Sir John Stirling-Maxwell of Keir, principally known for his books on Spanish history. Many years later, when I was Ambassador in Spain, his son came to present copies of his works to the Historical Society at Madrid, of which his father had been a member. He was received with vi MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER 77 great cordiality by Senor Canovas del Castillo, the President of the Society, who was assassinated not long afterwards. Among my particular friends was Mr. Hayward, a man who just missed greatness. He was trusted by many statesmen, and, in the palmy days of the Morning Chronicle, had been made editor by the Peelites who purchased it, among whom were Mr. Sydney Herbert, Mr. Hope, and, I believe, Mr. Gladstone. I may be excused for mentioning Mr. Hayward more than once, and perhaps some- what irrelevantly, as his conversation is constantly recurring to my memory. It was always ex- cessively entertaining, being full of anecdote. He used to tell very characteristic stories of Martin Farquhar Tupper, the author of Proverbial Philosophy. Once, in America, he went to call at a house where the servant made some mistake about his name. Thereupon he said, "Announce the author of Proverbial Philosophy ! " On another occasion he was staying with the owner of a Scotch island. In order to catch his boat one morning, he had to walk for some miles, and the young lady of the house offered to act as his guide. He was carrying a small bag with him, and asked the young lady if she would like to carry it. She mildly replied that he had better do so himself. He rejoined, " I thought you would like to be able to say that you had carried Martin Farquhar Tupper's bag for him ! " Mr. Hayward and I had many friends in 78 A LITTLE WEAKNESS ch. common, and after his death Mr. Kinglake and I wrote a joint article about him in the Fortnightly Review. His one weakness was his love of alluding to persons of great rank. To anticipate a little. At a time when I was fre- quenting the Athenaeum a good deal, a Cingalese gentleman, who had come to England to read for the Bar, was recommended by Sir Roderick Murchison to all his acquaintances. One day, find- ing him dining alone, Mr. Hay ward and I invited him to our table. Mr. Hayward wished to instruct him as to the constitution of English society, and said, " You will find in England that men of dis- tinction, who belong neither to the aristocracy nor to the richer classes, but have made a mark, either in literature or by their conversational powers, are always received in great houses on a footing of per- fect equality. You never go to a great house but you will see some distinguished literary man received as one of the most highly honoured guests." The Cingalese said, very naively, " But are these not called sycophants ? " There was complete silence. Amongst Mr. Hayward's anecdotes was one concerning the Queen of Holland, who had come to England with the view of making the acquaintance of the most distinguished persons in the country. She had therefore sent for Sir Henry Rawlinson, the well-known Eastern archaeological discoverer. She asked him to assist her in solving a question which had always been to her a great stumbling- vi DRAMATIC PREACHING 79 block. Did he believe, or not, in the Tower of Babel ? She had never been able to bring herself to believe in it. A foreign lady, who had married an Englishman of great distinction, on hearing this, thought to improve the occasion, and said, with that absence of the aspirate which often distinguishes foreigners in their pronunciation of English, " 'E ought to 'ave told 'er that it is for our comfort and 'appiness to believe it." Mr. Hay ward was also very fond of telling the following anecdote of Mr. Montgomery, a popular preacher, familiarly known as " Satan Mont- gomery " from a poem he had written on that subject. When in Edinburgh, he had been invited to dinner by Bishop Terrot, who introduced him to his friends. One lady, after the introduction, asked the Bishop, " Is it Mr. Montgomery, the poet?'' to which the Bishop replied, "No; Mr. Montgomery, a poet." Mr. Montgomery, both as poet and preacher, was rather dramatic in his methods. It was said that, in the manuscript of his sermons, he used to introduce what in a play would be called "stage directions." In one sermon of pathetic character was inserted, every now and then, as a direction, [tears]. One of the interesting anniversaries celebrated every year was the day of the Battle of Waterloo, when the Duke of Wellington gave a banquet. There was a very quaint old gentleman, whom I knew well — Mr. Bramley Moore — who made a bet 80 DEAFNESS AND DIPLOMACY ch. that he would attend one of these dinners. He did so, for he was acquainted with the confectioner who contracted for the Waterloo banquet, and obtained permission to personate one of the head- waiters. An anecdote connected with the Foreign Office occurs to me, which I give as amusing, though not perhaps relevant. A Secretary of the Austrian Legation, Count Potocki, was on very intimate terms with the Duke of Devonshire of the day, who, by the way, was rather deaf. The hospitalities at Devonshire House formed what is now called a record. On one occasion Count Potocki asked the Duke rather earnestly to invite some lady of doubtful ante- cedents to one of his parties. The Duke made no reply. Count Potocki therefore renewed his request, whereupon the Duke of Devonshire answered, " My dear Potocki, it's a pity that I am not a diplomatist and that you are not deaf." In those days I heard many diplomatic stories. There was one of an Ambassador and his wife who were known to be constantly quarrelling. One day the Ambassador had to take his wife away from some racecourse before she wished to go, as they were engaged to dine with the Queen. During the homeward drive the Ambassador sat on the box of the barouche, turning round from time to time in the endeavour to conjure away his wife's ill-temper by pointing out objects of interest along the road. vi LATE FOR DINNER 81 He said to her, "T r ois-tu, ma chere, ces jolies vaches 1 " " Non" she replied, "je ne vols rien que ton vilain dos." On arriving at home, the Ambassador at once went to Buckingham Palace, and explained to the Queen the reason for his wife's delay. Her Majesty was much amused, and gave orders for dinner to be postponed so as to give time for the Ambassadress to appear. On another occasion a lady was late for dinner at the Palace, but hoped to escape observation, as she was placed behind an epergne which she thought would conceal her from the view of the Queen. Her Majesty perceived her, however, and said, " I suppose some accident occurred on the road ? ' The lady replied, " Yes, madam. The carriage." Thereupon the Duke of Cambridge — father of the late Duke — not letting the question drop, asked what the accident had been. The guest floundered, and said, " One of the horses fell." This did not satisfy the Duke, who said, " Where was that ? " The lady replied, " In Holies Street." The Duke said, " And what did you do ? ' The lady said, " I went into a shop." " What shop ? " he asked. " A chemist's shop," said the guest. " But there is no chemist's shop in Holies Street," replied the Duke. VOL. I G 82 LIARS ch. At this point, the Queen, who was much enter- tained, took pity on the lady and said to her uncle, " You should not ask ladies questions. It confuses them." An anecdote used to be told of Lord Stratford and the diplomatist whom he succeeded in the United States. Every effort was made to prevent their meeting, as both were known to possess very violent tempers. It was, however, impossible to avoid their being together for one evening, and Lord Stratford dined with his predecessor. After dinner, the host offered Lord Stratford a cup of tea. Lord Stratford, beaming with conciliation, said, " This tea is very good." Thereupon his host rose up in fury and said, " I understand the taunt, sir ! My father was a tea-merchant ! " There used to be a diplomatist who had the reputation of never speaking the truth. It was said of him, " X est si menteur quon ne pent pas meme croire le contraire de ce quil dit." That reminds me of the story of a gentleman in the Mediterranean, who was also known to romance. On one occasion, he invited an American naval officer to dine with him, and indulged in one or two rather extraordinary flights. After dinner they went into the next room to smoke, and the host began a new story. The American captain fixed his eye upon him steadily, so much that the host rather boggled in his narrative. Hereon the naval officer said, " Go on, sir, go on. I've been a liar myself all my life ! " vi NIGHT RESORTS 83 The person who told me this also related another anecdote of a gentleman describing his journey to England from America. He declared that when they were nearing the English coast they saw a small row-boat, with only one man, some hundred miles from the shore. They offered to take him in tow, but he replied that he had come alone in the row-boat all the way from America, and that he wished to complete the journey in the same manner. An American present said to him, " Give me your hand, my friend. You're my witness. I was the man in the row-boat." Amongst other reminiscences are those of places of amusement frequented at that time by young men. One was called the " Cider Cellars," in Maiden Lane. Here men used to go in to supper, and songs were sung, not always of the choicest character, till a late hour at night. A similar place was the " Coal Hole," where the same amuse- ments were offered ; but there was another night resort, which was certainly most clever, even if not improving — namely, what was called the " Judge and Jury," where every night a comic trial was given. It took place at an inn called the " Garrick's Head," in Bow Street, and the trials were conducted under the presidency of a man who, I fancy, was the proprietor of the inn. He represented the Lord Chief Baron, and was generally known as Lord Chief Baron Nicholson. He took his seat with great pom]), dressed in appropriate costume, and a table in front of him was surrounded by 84 BURLESQUE TRIALS ch. young men dressed as barristers, most of them being, I believe, attorneys' clerks. A great laugh was always raised, when the Lord Chief Baron took his seat, by his calling out " Waiter ! A cigar and some brandy and water ! ' But this was the only occasion when he derogated from his great dignity. The trials were, of course, of a farcical description, and were conducted by the barristers on either side in the usual manner, but with great wit. Occasionally the Lord Chief Baron interfered with some pointed remark ; but the most amusing feature of the representation was that of the witnesses, who were dressed according to the parts they represented. I never could find out whether the wit we heard was spontaneous or not, but certainly the questions of the counsel and the answers of the witnesses were very humorous. Five members of the audience were selected as the jury, to return a verdict according to the evidence. Another place to which I only went once or twice at most was called "Bob Croft's." It was in the Haymarket, and very rough. It was not licensed, and refreshments had to be ordered under assumed appellations. For instance, brandy and water was called "pale white." There were some very uncouth customers who frequented this place, and I am told that occasionally great violence was shown. It did not require a license, I fancy, as it did not sell liquors, which were bought from neighbouring public-houses. At that time a vi THIEVES' DINNER 85 public-house could be open from twelve o'clock on Sunday night till twelve o'clock the next Saturday night, there being some special regulations about Sunday itself ; but a new Licensing Act regulating public-houses brought to an end these subsidiary establishments. One amusement of which I never partook was that of obtaining an escort from the police to visit the haunts of criminals. I knew several people who did this, and were much struck by the nature of the scenes they visited. One clergyman, who had a City living, used annually to give a dinner to thieves, collected for him by some members of the police force. He said they behaved very well, and he was especially cautioned by the police that all his guests expected to be treated as gentlemen. CHAPTER VII Alfred Club — Members of the Club — Tichborne Case — Ruin of the Alfred — Anecdotes of Archbishop M'Gee — Mr. Brookfield — London friends — Laurence Oliphant and Spiritualism — Other acquaintances — Sheridan anecdotes. I was elected a member of the Alfred Club. It was excessively comfortable, with beautiful plate and an excellent library ; but it had been neglected for many years because of a curious story. Some endeavours were made to revive it by allowing people to come in with a diminished entrance-fee, and at the time of my election most young men coming to London were made members of the Alfred, so that they might have a club to frequent until they were elected to one of the superior ones. There were the two Seymours, Henry and Alfred ; Mr. Chichester Fortescue — afterwards Lord Carlingford ; Charles and Henry Grenfell ; Mr. Baring, who became Lord North- brook ; Mr. George Glyn — afterwards Lord Wolverton ; Mr. Melville Portal, Mr. Henry Erskine, Mr. Jacob, and Mr. Delaval Astley, to- gether with many others, elected on that account. The revival, however, did not last very long, and 86 chvii TICHBORNE CASE 87 at last the Alfred was amalgamated with the Oriental Club in Hanover Square. Amongst other people I met at the Alfred was Mr. Tichborne, the original from whom the " Claimant " was copied. He was a nephew of my friends, Mr. Henry and Mr. Alfred Seymour, and, having been abroad a good deal, was some- what foreign in his ways. These two gentlemen introduced him to their friends, and I must have seen him frequently, the more so as I was asked to support his election to the Club. I had no minute recollection of him, however, and I was therefore unable to give evidence at the trial, though asked to do so. The Claimant had a peculiar way in Court of raising; first one evebrow and then another. Allusion was often made to this trick. Some said that it was a characteristic of his family, and Sir Hamilton Seymour declared that their name originally was " Twitchborne," and taken on this account. Mr. Alfred Seymour had the same habit. This, somewhat irrelevantly, reminds me of an incident in the life of Sir Hamilton Seymour. When Lord Hertford had left to Sir Richard Wallace the bulk of his property, Sir Hamilton Seymour contested the will, although Sir Richard offered what were considered very handsome terms of compromise. After passing through the inferior courts, the action finally was brought before the House of Lords. About this time, Sir Hamilton Seymour, going to a Queen's ball, met Lord 88 THE UNKNOWN GUEST en. Chelmsford, a member of the supreme tribunal. Some allusion was made to the action then proceed- ing, and Lord Chelmsford remarked, " I am always thinking of the text, ' Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.' This struck Sir Hamilton Seymour so forcibly that the next day he instructed his legal representatives to accept the terms offered by Sir Richard Wallace. The story to which I alluded above, as having ruined the Alfred, was as follows : — At one time, what are called coffee-room dinners at clubs did not exist ; but there was a house dinner at a certain hour every day, to which a limited number of members were admitted, on writing down their names beforehand. I believe at some clubs the dinners were given gratuitously, but on the understanding that a good deal of wine was drunk. At the Alfred there was a house dinner for twelve. On one occasion, as the company were sitting down to dinner, a member came to the Club and sent in a waiter, with the request to be allowed to join the party though he was not in evening dress, as he was going immediately into the country. His request was admitted. During the dinner he proved to be more agreeable to all the members than any one they recollected meeting before. On his leaving; for the countrv, thev inquired of each other who he was, and none of them knew. They then sent for the steward, and he informed them that it was Mr. Canning. Nearly all the members of the Alfred were so vii AUTHENTIC ANECDOTES 89 much afraid of being taken for one of a party of twelve or fourteen who did not know the Prime Minister by sight, that they took their names off the Club. I was told by the late Sir Fleetwood Pellew, who had been a member for many years, that at one time the Club was so much sought after that persons used to leave cards on their friends, marking them " Candidate for the Alfred," in the hopes of getting support. But the incident I have related practically proved its ruin. As I do not aspire to accuracy in dates, I may as well here mention one or two anecdotes of Archbishop M'Gee, whom I recollect very well. Though they have perhaps been told before, yet I know them to be authentic, and on this account I repeat them. The Archbishop used to relate a story that once, finding many society people travelling first and second class, and wishing to avoid them, he entered a third-class carriage. There was no one in it except a farmer, who said to the Bishop, " I suppose you'd be something in the clergy line ?" to which he assented. The farmer then said, "Is your curacy in this neighbourhood ?" The Bishop replied, " No, no. I am sorry to say I have no curacy. I was a curate once, but am one no longer.' 1 To which the fanner rejoined, " I suppose it was the drink ?" 90 ARCHBISHOP M'GEE ch. On another occasion, he was staving with a gentleman in his diocese, and was invited by his host and hostess to go to a picnic. The luncheon- basket had been badly packed, and everything w r as mixed. The gentleman of the house made use of some very strong phrases, and his w r ife was anxious as to the effect this would produce on the Bishop. The latter said, " It was fortunate that we had a layman here to make use of the appropriate language." Bishop M'Gee w r as once asked to marry a gentleman who was a great whisky-manufacturer in Dublin. The Bishop felt disinclined to do this, being very much opposed to the trade ; but, as the gentleman in question had a great reputation, and was known to be very charitable, the Bishop did not like to refuse. After the ceremony, the bridegroom said, " I do not know how to thank your Lordship. I wish I could do something that might be pleasing to you. All I can say is, ' The Lord be with you ! ' The Bishop replied, " And with thy spirit ! " A Bishop who was about to celebrate his golden wedding once discoursed on the subject at a dinner- party to a French lady next to him. She said, " I do not understand all this about your golden wedding." The Bishop replied, " You see, we have lived together for fifty years." The French lady interrupted, " Oh, I see. You have lived together fifty years, and now you are going to be married ! " I have always found that bishops, like other vii LIMERICKS 91 men of distinction, have a great sense of humour. I knew one who composed what is now called a Limerick. It ran as follows : — There was a young lady of Cheadle, Who one day sat down on a needle ; But as from its head There depended a thread, It was promptly pulled out by the beadle. The following seems also to have an ecclesiastical touch : — A learned young innocent curate Vainly courted a damsel obdurate ; Till he said with a sigh, " Perhaps by and by Your response will be more commensurate." A gentleman who used to be quoted as a great wit was Mr. Brookfield, who had the chapel of John Street, Berkeley Square. He was said to be the original of one of Thackeray's characters. It was related that, in Mr. Brookfield's time at Oxford, there was a very unpopular don whose name was Thorpe, and some of the young men were stimulated to write epitaphs on him. One had been composed that consisted of twenty lines. "No, 1 ' said Mr. Brookfield, "that's too long." Somebody else wrote one of twelve lines, to which Mr. Brookfield made the same objection. At last a two-line epitaph was composed, but Mr. Brook- field said, " That is still too long. Two words are enough for him — ' Thorpe's corpse.' In early life, I made the acquaintance of Sir 92 FRIENDS OF MY YOUTH ch. John McNeil], who had been Minister in Persia for many years. He had begun life in the Indian Medical Service, and was appointed Physician to the Legation at Tehran. Owing to his great ability, he was named Minister in 1836. Subse- quently, he acted as Commissioner in the enquiry concerning military deficiencies in the Crimea during the war, and his report, I believe, entailed a great deal of unpopularity for him. Amongst others of whom I saw a great deal at the time were Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Stanhope ; she was the daughter of the well-known Coke of Holkham, for so many years the popular Member for Norfolk, who was afterwards created Lord Leicester. I also frequented the house of Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Walpole. Another friend was Captain Waldegrave, an old naval officer, whom I had known for many years, and who afterwards became Lord Waldegrave. I knew Laurence Oliphant well, too, in those days. He was charmingly accomplished and bright. Whatever he undertook was well done. He had many friends, and achieved great success as a writer. Subsequently he took to spiritualism, and ended his days as a devout professor of that cult. I recollect his telling me, half in joke, what had first attracted his attention to spiritualism. When crossing to America, one night there arose a very serious storm at which every one was much alarmed, except one American gentleman who remained perfectly calm. The next day, Mr. VII SPIRITUALISM 93 Oliphant said to him, " You appeared not to be at all alarmed by the storm last night." The American replied, "No, I guess I shall have a good time of it t'other side Jordan. 1 ' This somewhat frivolous observation remained in Mr. Oliphant's brain, and ended by bringing him over to that peculiar profession of faith. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Ford were very kind to me in those days. Mr. Ford contributed con- stantly to the Quarterly Reviezc, and had written the Spanish Handbook, being a celebrated writer on Spain, and the great authority on that country. His method of bringing his mind to bear on what he intended writing was a curious one. He kept a squirrel in his room, and making the animal turn round in its cage had the effect of bringing his mind into focus for writing. Their son, whom I also knew very well, was afterwards Sir Clare Ford. He had been in the army for a short time, but left it for diplomacy. He was a man of remarkable geniality and intelligence. I met him some years later at Naples, where he was attached to Sir William Temple's Legation, and where he married a very beautiful Neapolitan lady, Miss Garofalo, who died comparatively young. I suc- ceeded him as Ambassador at Madrid. Mr. Ford's daughter married Mr. Oswald Craw- furd, the novelist, whose father was the great authority at the Geographical Society, and once Governor of Singapore. His mother was the daughter of the well-known proprietor of the 94 SUSANNA AND THE ELDERS ch. Morning Chronicle, and sister to Sir Erskine Perry. Another acquaintance of mine was Mr. Monck- ton Milnes, afterwards raised to the peerage as Lord Houghton. He was a man of great literary power and ready wit, but, though a strong personal friend and zealous supporter of Lord Palmerston, he did not succeed in active politics. On one occasion, at dinner, a young lady was seated between two elderly gentlemen. Mr. Monckton Milnes' neighbour said to him, "Do you know the name of that young lady opposite ?" He replied, " Yes, her name is Susanna." Sir Charles Trevelyan, whom 1 also knew, though not well, was at that time Secretary of the Treasury, where, with the best and most conscientious intentions, he made himself rather unpopular by the rigour of his decisions. His first wife had been the sister of Macaulay, the historian, and his son is Sir George Trevelyan. Early in my life in London, Lady Palmerston was good enough to take notice of me, and from then till the end of her active career, whenever I was in London, she never missed asking me to whatever parties she gave. She had great charm of manner, and, as I have mentioned before, she exercised a very useful influence over Lord Palmerston. In those days there lived near me, in Mayfair, Miss Mary and Miss Agnes Berry. They were constantly inviting me to their house, and I now vii THE MISSES BERRY 95 regret bitterly not having availed myself more often of their kindness. In summer, Lord Lansdowne often lent them his villa at Richmond. Miss Mary Berry was supposed to have been engaged to marry Horace Walpole. He died in 1797, being the son of Sir Robert Walpole by Miss Shorter, the daughter of the Lord Mayor. This Lord Mayor had not been elected in the usual manner, but was appointed by order of James II. Between myself, therefore, and the age of James II. there are only two links, namely, Miss Berry and Horace Walpole. A lady who used to give a good many dinners was also very kind to me — Lady Robert Seymour. I think she was by birth Miss Chetwynd, and a near relative of Miss Chetwynd-Stapleton, who formed part of a wonderful group of unmarried ladies with whom I was somewhat intimate. The others were the Misses Lemon, who lived in a small house in Upper Brook Street ; they were sisters of Sir Charles Lemon, Member, I think, for Cornwall, and also of an old lady — Lady de Dunstanville. One peculiarity in this family was that they never addressed each other by their Christian names, but always spoke to each other as " Brother " or " Sister." The two Miss Sothebys — daughters of the cele- brated poet — were friends of mine, as were also the Misses Finch, whom I knew very well, and who lived in Charles Street and gave dinners. There I met Mr. Godley, so distinguished in Colonial 96 MR. SAMUEL ROGERS oh. matters ; and at the bouse of Mrs. Butt — a lady who lived very much in literary circles — I made the acquaintance of Mrs. Marsh, author of Amelia Wyndham, and of Miss Agnes Strickland, the historian. At Mrs. Butt's I also saw more than once Mr. Samuel Rogers, the poet. I never, however, had the opportunity of speaking to him. He had a reputation for making caustic and unpleasant remarks, which were commonly quoted. Those which I heard, however, were not, as I thought, marked with any particular wit or humour. The person, I am told, who, more than any other, could excite him to wrath was the late Mr. Henry Grenfell. I knew well a lady called Miss Smyth, who was a relative of the Duchess of Grafton, and sister of a well-known man named Smyth of Heath Hall, Wakefield, near which town lived another friend of mine, Mrs. Gaskell — the mother of Mr. Milnes- Gaskell — and Mrs. Daniel Gaskell, his aunt. I also knew Dr. and Lady Louisa Marsh — no rela- tion to the lady lately mentioned. His son, by a former marriage, was a clergyman of considerable celebrity. He also had a daughter who wrote with great success on religious matters, and was the authoress of the Life of Hedley Vicars. 1 believe she is still living. Two other friends of mine were the Misses Walpole, daughters of Colonel Lambert Walpole, who was killed at the time of the Union of Ireland. vii A BEAUTIFUL SPINSTER 97 Their mother had been the daughter of Lord Clive. I also saw much of an aunt of theirs, Miss Elizabeth Walpole, who had a house at Twickenham, and was known by her relatives as "Cousin Betsy." She retained all her faculties to an advanced age, and her letters are full of interest. At the houses of some of these ladies, I frequently met Miss Caldwell. She had been a great beauty during the Regency, so much so that, when she was going away from the Opera, crowds used to draw up on either side of her path to admire her. Notwithstanding her beauty, she remained Miss Caldwell. Above all was a dear and kind friend named Miss Leigh, whose father had been well known during the Regency as a writer of plays, and a friend of the wits of the day. I had known her since my early childhood, and looked upon her in the light of a relative. Amongst her other acquaintances in early life had been Professor Smyth, who accompanied Mr. Tom Sheridan as tutor to the University. He had given Miss Leigh a very small book, privately printed, describing his experiences with the Sheridans in general. I recollect one or two of these anecdotes which amused me a good deal. As is generally known, Mr. Sheridan was verv unpunctual in his payments. It so happened that he had not, for some time, made any remittances to Mr. Smyth for his expenses as tutor. After VOL. i n 98 MR. SHERIDAN'S APOLOGY ch. writing more than once to Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Smyth addressed him a letter written in very strong language. Almost immediately afterwards, Mr. Smyth received an invitation to come with Mr. Tom Sheridan and pay the father a visit. Mr. Smyth, by this time, was rather ashamed of the force of his language, and, after being very courteously received by Mr. Sheridan, he said to his host, " I am very sorry I wrote you that letter the other day. I hope you will forgive me if it was too strong." Mr. Sheridan replied, "Don't say a word more about it." The next morning Mr. Smyth had occasion to go into Mr. Sheridan's library. On the table were lying many unopened letters, and he saw that none of his own had ever had their seals broken. This anecdote, which I found in Miss Leigh's book, was also repeated to me by the late Lord Holland. About that time Mr. Tom Sheridan had been reading the works of some German philosopher, which impressed him a good deal. The philo- sopher's theory was that nothing, however insigni- ficant, could be done with indifference ; for instance, a man touching a table, or his head, though apparently involuntarily, did not really do it with indifference. This theory Mr. Tom Sheridan developed to his father, who, however, did not seem to agree. The son then asked, " Is there anything you vii FATHER AND SON 99 can do with absolute, complete, and entire in- difference ? " Mr. Sheridan replied, " Yes, certainly." His son rejoined, " What is it, then, that you can do with utter, complete, absolute indifference?" " Listen to you, Tom," was the reply. CHAPTER VIII Winter society in London — Early acquaintances — Sir Charles Wyke The late Duke of Rutland — Mr. Thackeray — Mr. Kinglake— Debates in the House of Commons — Members of Parliament. There was a very agreeable little winter society in London at that time. Small whist-parties were constantly given, amongst others by Lady Tanker- ville and Mr. and Mrs. Prideaux Brune. My cousin, Sir William Hoste, with whom I lived habitually when he was in London, subsequently married one of the daughters of that house. There were a good many others who were generally in London in winter and joined this little coterie — Lord John Fitzroy ; also Lady Isabella Blachford, his sister, whose husband had been the owner of Osborne, which was sold to Queen Victoria ; Captain Gallwey, Sir Arthur Otway, Sir Richard King, Lady Champagne, Colonel Ferguson of Pitfour, Lady Poulett, and Mr. Munro of Novar, the brother-in-law of Mr. Butler Johnstone, senior, to whom the bulk of his pro- perty went, while Novar passed to Mr. Munro- Ferguson, who is known by the same territorial appellation. There were also Mr. Williamson 100 chviii FRIENDS IN TOWN 101 Ramsay, Mr. Belward Ray, who had a very pretty place at Edmonton, where lie occasionally gave great morning parties, and Mr. Hook, a brother, I think, of the Dean of Chichester. He was married to Lady Cooke, the widow of Sir Edward Cooke, who, early in the century, had been Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and was generally known by the nickname of " Kangaroo Cooke/' One lady, who was almost certain to be found in town, was Mrs. Lane-Fox, a very remarkable character, and the sister of General Buckley, a much-trusted servant of the Court. Society was constantly assembled at her house, either to call on her in the morning, or to dine with her later. One of her great friends was Mr. Charles Villiers, a brother of Lord Clarendon, who had more than once been in the Government, and who was singu- larly gifted with a ready and joyous wit. One instance of it I recollect. A foreign lady came to London, and went very much into society. She was of enormous size, though quite young. Talking of her one day, some one said, "Do you know Madame is only eight-and-twenty ? " Mr. Charles Villiers replied, " I suppose you mean eight-and-twenty stone ! " I saw a great deal of Lady Dormer and Miss Dormer. Lady Dormer was by birth Miss Tich- borne, nearly connected with the family affected by the well-known Claimant. Miss Dormer was 102 THE SEYMOURS ch. afterwards known as the Countess Dormer, having been made a chanoinesse. Both were intimate friends of Lady Pouletts, and very popular in society. I also knew Mr. and Mrs. Seymour. He was the father of Lady Tichborne, whose son, Roger, was impersonated by the Claimant in the great trial. He had been a detenu at Verdun. Among my intimate friends, whom I have also mentioned elsewhere, were Mr. Henry and Mr. Alfred Seymour, both of them half-brothers of Lady Tichborne. Mr. Henry Seymour had been Under-Secretary of State for India, and both he and his brother were in Parliament. They were grandsons of the Mr. Seymour who was in his youth, I believe, heir-presumptive to the Duke of Somerset, and for many years lived almost habitu- ally in France. Hence their French connections. I travelled with them more than once on the Con- tinent, and I recollect staying with Mr. Alfred Seymour at Knoyle in Wiltshire, a comfortable and quaint old house, built, I believe, by Sir Christopher Wren, who was born in the village. A portion of Mr. Seymour's property has been sold to Mr. Percy Wyndham, who was also in Parliament for a long time, and who erected on a well -chosen site a house called Clouds, which I have never seen. I was acquainted, too, with Sir James and Lady Hogg, who lived next door to the Seymours in Upper Grosvenor Street. Their eldest son was Colonel Hogg of the Life Guards, who was in viii HOGG, GOG, AND MAGOG 103 Parliament, and for some time Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works. On one occasion, when the Board had to undertake some joint opera- tion with the London municipality, it was said in Punch that the three deities of the City were Hogg, Gog, and Magog. Colonel Hogg was afterwards Lord Magheramorne. Another acquaintance of mine was Mr. Fleming, so well known in society. He had been a great ally of Mr. Charles Buller, and ended his davs as Secretary of the Poor Law Board. His brother, Sir Valentine Fleming, was a Judge in Australia. Mrs. Gore, the well-known authoress, and her daughter — afterwards Lady Edward Thynne — were notabilities of society in those days. Miss Gore had a most beautiful figure, while her mothers was rather inclined to be over -opulent. They were consequently known in the world as " Plenty and No Waste." Amongst my early habitual associates were General Wrottesley, as already mentioned, Sir Arthur Otway, and Mr. — later Sir Charles — Wyke. His mother had been a lady in attendance on the Duchess of Cumberland, and he himself had been chosen by the King of Hanover, at the instance of Dr. Jelf, to be the companion of Prince George in his studies. He had originally been an officer in the Royal Fusiliers. On the accession of the Duke of Cumberland to the throne of Hanover, Mr. Wyke had been appointed A.D.C. to the King, and accompanied him to Hanover. Here 104 SIR CHARLES WYKE oh. he did not find his position comfortable, as there seemed to be a kind of jealousy of Englishmen. He therefore begged the King to obtain for him a post in the English Consular Service. This was given to him by Lord Aberdeen, who wrote to the King of Hanover to say that, as he was about to leave office, this was the last post in his gift. The appointment was that of Vice -Consul at Hayti. Shortly after Mr. Wyke's arrival at his post, the Consul-General went away, leaving Mr. Wyke to act for him. At that time the revolution broke out, which ended in the proclamation of Faustin Soulouque as Emperor of Hayti. The new sovereign desired to arrange his household on the model of old European courts. Hearing that Mr. Wyke had been in the household of the King of Hanover, he applied to him for advice and assist- ance in details, which Mr. Wyke was able to give him, thereby acquiring a great influence with the Emperor. This he used to a good purpose, prin- cipally for obtaining the pardon of some opponents of the Emperor, whom the latter wished to execute, as was the habit in that country. Among other rewards that he received was the Order of St. Faustin, which the Emperor had founded. Mr. Wyke's accounts of the rise of the Empire of Hayti were most interesting, as the Haytians did everything in their power to form themselves on European models. They had been well educated. Their language is French, and the principal youths of the country are often sent to VIII THE HAYTIANS 105 study in Paris. The result is that they have acquired great ease in French conversation, and, except for their colour, would be taken for Europeans. I have known several in different parts of the world. When at Madrid, Made- moiselle Judic came to act, and one night at the theatre the French Ambassador invited me to go with him behind the scenes and make her acquaintance. To our great disappointment, we were entirely eclipsed by a junior member of the Haytian Embassy, perfectly black, but paying com- pliments in the most choice French phraseology. It is narrated of an American missionar}^ that he visited Hayti, and was taken in some town to be introduced to the Mayor. This functionary, who was deep black, was dressed like a Parisian, and spoke English as well as French. He asked his visitor what he thought of the country. The missionary replied : " It is a most beautiful country. The vegetation is magnificent, the scenery attractive, and the climate good. It is a pity that you should all be so much set one against the other, and con- stantly fighting instead of working for the good of your nation." The Mayor replied : " It is all very well for you to speak in this way, as a cold-blooded Anglo- Saxon ; but it is very different with us of the Latin race." The American gentleman, from whom I heard this story, had many others about negroes. He was a great writer and historian. He told me that, 106 THE FATTED CALF ch. after the Civil War, Congress endeavoured to reconcile the Southerners to their fate by giving them more privileges than their numerical pro- portion in the States really entitled them to enjoy. This created some anger among the Northerners, especially the negroes. One black clergyman preached a sermon on the subject. He said it was painful to see how Congress encouraged men who had imbrued their hands in the blood of their brethren. He recalled the story of the Prodigal Son ; how, first, he lived with the swine, and ate the husks ; but in the end, at any rate, he was contrite, repented, went home and apologised to his father. The father accepted the apology, and killed the fatted calf in honour of the prodigal's return. These Southerners, however, showed no contrition, no repentance ; they made no apology. They went to their father's house, knocked loudly, and said, when the servant came to the door, " Bring out that veal ! " Mr. Wyke brought himself so favourably before the notice of the Foreign Office that he was shortly afterwards appointed Consul-General to the Central States of America. Here again he acted with great tact and discretion. He was made Minister in Mexico at the time of the unfortunate expedition of the Emperor Maximilian, and very cleverly prevented England from being involved in the hostilities undertaken by the French against the Mexicans. Afterwards he was appointed Minister at Hanover with his old schoolmate, the blind vin LORD JOHN MANNERS 107 King. Here he remained till Hanover had dis- appeared from the list of States, and then he was appointed, first to Copenhagen, and afterwards to Lisbon, at which place he retired from the service. . Amongst other persons whose acquaintance I made when I was very young was Lord John Manners, later Duke of Rutland, father to the present Duke. From him, through life, I received undeviating kindness. I do not think that I ever met with so noble and high-minded a character. He displayed it in the smallest matters. One night there was a very urgent division, and, though Lord John had been in bed for some days, and his temperature was 104°, he came down to the House, and was drawn through the division -lobby in a bath -chair. At one time a movement was set on foot to publish, for some charity, a volume by distinguished writers, to which Lord John Manners was asked to make a literary contribution. As the book was never published, I think I shall not be in- discreet in reproducing this composition, of which I have the manuscript. WORDS WRITTEN FOR "REMEMBER ME" When 'mid the gay and thoughtless throng That fills your Castle-hall, You search for one to whom belong Thoughts you would fain recall ; When your bright eye has glanced all round, And failed that one to see, When all by thee are worthless found, Then you'll remember me. 108 SKILFUL WHIPPING ch. When sympathy in vain you strive In worldly hearts to find, And vainly bid pure Honor live In pleasure's sordid mind ; When 'mid those vanities you sigh For Love unbought and free, And Glory's guerdon, bright and high, Oh, then remember me ! Wealth, and the power that wealth bestows, Its luxuries and state, I cannot give ; its pomps and shows On others' brides may wait. But should you scorn such low desires, And loyal-hearted be, Return these too long slighted fires, And, love, remember me ! He enclosed it in a letter to the editor : — Dear Sir — The above twaddle is all I have to offer you ; if you think it worth printing, pray do so ; but I own it seems to me on a par with the original — -Yours truly, John Manners. Belvoir Castle, January 12, 1850. Lord John Manners' great devotion in coming to the House, under such untoward circumstances, reminds me of an anecdote of skilful whipping, told me by General Forester, one of the oldest Members of the House — if not the oldest — who was generally liked and esteemed. At the time of an important division, a Member happened to be confined in a lunatic asylum. Every vote was necessary. Arrangements were therefore made to deliver him at the House at the moment required, and he was received by the Whip of his party, who induced him to walk viii A BOND OF UNION 109 through the lobby by preceding him with a stick of barley-sugar in his hand. This I believe to be a perfectly true story. About this time — though I cannot bind myself to minute chronological accuracy — I made the acquaintance of Mr. Thackeray. I used to dine with him at his house in Young Street, Kensington, his two daughters being then quite children. I first met him at the house of Mr. Kinglake, the author of Eothen, who asked me to stay with him at his house in Taunton. Mr. Thackeray was a great friend of Mr. Charles Buller's. Both had had the bridge of their nose broken. Mr. Thackeray wished to introduce a gentleman to Mr. Buller, and, after expatiating on his virtues, said, touching his nose, " He is one of us." I recollect a very interesting conversation that Mr. Thackeray and I had with a farmer, who was a follower of what is now called the Agapemone. In those days, individuals of that creed were called Princeites, after Mr. Prince who had founded them. They did not seem to have any fixed tenets, except belief in Mr. Prince, and their chief form of worship consisted in perpetual games of hockey. I believe they still exist, their residence being somewhere near Bridgewater, where I think Mr. Kinglake had some property. Mr. Kinglake I had known in the country. He was a great friend of Lord Polling- ton, later Lord Mexborough, with whom he had travelled, and who was the " Methley " frequently mentioned in Kothen as Mr. Kinglake's travelling 110 MR KINGLAKE ch. companion. Methley is the name of the Yorkshire residence of Lord Mexborough. Mr. Kinglake was a man of great humour, with which he was very ready. This may be seen from Eotlien, one of the most charming books of travels ever written. On one occasion, a young man, who was a friend of both of us, came to the Athenaeum, in a very perturbed state, asking us to get him out of a scrape. He told us that he had been sitting with a good-looking widow, of about middle age, whom we both knew, and that some genius had tempted him to kiss her. She, he told us, had worked herself up into a great rage, said she had never been so much insulted in her life, and desired him to leave the house. He said to us, " What do you think she will do ? " Kinglake replied, " Beware ! she will pursue you through life with her unrelenting gratitude ! " Mr. Kinglake and I had a friend, an old lady of considerable rank, who, however, was constantly deserted by her husband. She consulted Mr. Kinglake on the subject. Her principal grievance was that, when absent, her husband, who used to travel with another lady to whom he gave her name, would direct his letters to herself, " The Dowager Marchioness of " All Mr. Kinglake's relatives were persons of great intellect and charming manner. He had one brother, a banker at Taunton, and another, Dr. Hamilton Kinglake, a celebrated physician in Somersetshire. I knew both of them in my youth. viii DEBATES 111 About this time, I also formed an acquaintance with another Eastern traveller, a great friend of Mr. Kinglake's, but rather a contrast to him. This was Mr. Eliot Warburton, the author of a book of Eastern travels, called The Crescent and the Cross. Poor man, he was lost afterwards in the destruction of the steamer Amazon, in which he was going to Panama on some expedition. He was very agreeable, and somewhat sentimental; while Mr. Kinglake was also agreeable, but a little bit cynical. Together with these two travellers, I was also well acquainted with Mr. Layard. In later life, I had occasion to see a great deal of him, and to do business with him on Oriental politics. The occupation I liked best in those days was attending debates in the House of Commons, and this, owing to the good-nature of some Members of Parliament who also belonged to the Alfred Club, I was enabled to do very frequently, and thus witnessed some interesting episodes. On one occasion, I recollect Lord Dudley Stuart, the great advocate of the Poles, made a complaint against Lord Palmerston. He said : During the last session, I asked the noble Lord to give me some papers relative to Hungary, and he agreed to my un- opposed motion. Later in the session, I asked him why the papers had not been delivered, and he explained that he had been too busy to go through them. Again I called on him at the Foreign Office, and he expressed his great regret at the delay, and pointed out two or three large boxes which he said contained the papers, adding that, as soon as he 112 A USEFUL GUEST ch. possibly could, he would go through them and have them circulated. Now nearly a year has passed. I called upon him again the other day, and he said to me, " I quite sym- pathise with you, and if I were in your case I should be very angry." I now ask the noble Lord if he intends shortly to give me the papers. Every one thought Lord Palmerston was placed in a dilemma by this address from one of his supporters, and he rose to answer. He said : My noble friend is perfectly right in his narrative of what has passed. I did promise him the papers, but I was unfortunately unable to go through them. I did tell him I thought he was very badly treated, and that, if I had been treated in the same manner, I should feel very much aggrieved. I did show him the boxes which contain the papers. All I can do now is to repeat what I said before — that I think he has been very badly treated ; that I should be very much aggrieved if I were treated in such a manner myself ; that, unfortunately, the papers are still in those boxes, but I really will go through them as soon as I can. The House laughed, and the matter ended, poor Lord Dudley Stuart having gained very little by his motion. One of Lord Palmerstons colleagues in the Cabinet — well known for his love of dining out — asked him why a certain Ambassador was con- stantly asking him to dinner. Lord Palmerston replied, " Don't you know ? His Government always pays for the dinner if a Cabinet Minister is present. The Ambassador knows that in you there is a sure find. In fact, you pay for nearly half his dinners. The rest are distributed amongst our other colleagues." viii MR. DAVID URQUHART 113 There is an old saying that men reach distinction as much by the heart as by the head, and this was certainly the case with Lord Palmerston. It was pleasant to see the geniality with which he elbowed his way through the crowd of Members who were going into the House of Lords at the opening or closing of Parliament. About this time, the beginning of my career, a set attack was made upon him by Mr. David Urquhart, who had been in the Diplomatic Service, and had left it on account of a quarrel, I believe with Lord Palmerston, whom he accused of receiv- ing money from the Russian Government. It was declared that £20,000 had been lent to him by a lady known to be a great friend of his, the Princess Lieven, wife of the Russian Minister, and that, in consideration of this, Lord Palmerston had yielded unnecessarily to some demand of the Russian Government. Mr. Urquhart was supported in his attack by Mr. Chisholm Anstey, a barrister of enormous learning and research, though sometimes rather prolix in his speeches. Of course, Lord Palmerston easily disposed of these charges, and made a long speech, going into all the circum- stances. Subsequently Mr. Chisholm Anstey be- came reconciled with Lord Palmerston, and was invited to one of Lady Palmerston's parties. Mr. Urquhart, complaining of his conduct, said, " He sold me for a lemon ice ! " Mr. Urquhart had many peculiarities. He con- sidered that a Turkish bath was a panacea for all vol. i I 114 THE TIMES AS A COSTUME ch. ills. Once, I believe, he prescribed one for a child, which made him very unpopular in his neighbour- hood. He also had a mania that children should be brought up without clothing of any kind. A close disciple of his is said to have taken one of his sons — no longer very young — entirely destitute of clothing, into a train. The other passengers objected to this absence of costume, whereupon the father, declaring that it was only an absurd prejudice, bought an uncut Times, and folded it round the boy. One day I happened to be dining in the coffee- room of the House of Commons, which was then only a temporary building, with very rough accom- modation, and Mr. Chisholm Anstey was there. At other tables were sitting Lord Palmerston and Sir James Graham. Mr. Anstey went in a shy way to Sir James Graham, who was reading a newspaper, and said, " How do you do, Sir James Graham ? " The latter looked up at him, and saying, " How do you do, Mr. Anstey ? " resumed his reading. Mr. Anstey then went to Lord Palmerston, and said, " How do you do, Lord Palmerston ? " Lord Palmerston looked at him and said, " Oh, Anstey, how d'ye do ? Now sit down. You have heard what this man has been saying in the House. You know something about it. Just sit down and let me know what you think of his argument." Mr. Anstey was delighted with his reception, and the contrast of the two manners easily showed why Lord Palmerston was so popular, vni MR. BERNAL OSBORNE 115 and Sir James Graham so much the reverse. As Lord Carlingford used to say, the secret of Lord Palmerston's popularity lay in the fact that he was " understanded of the people." I am not attempting to relate any of these circumstances in chronological order, but merely to group them together as well as I can, before dismissing them. Amongst other Members of Parliament who had a great reputation for wit was Mr. Bernal Osborne. He never rose in the House but to create a laugh. I was told that at one time he was A.D.C. to Lord Normanby, then Viceroy of Ireland, and among others of the Viceregal staff was Mr. Frank Sheridan, a brother of Lady Dufferin, the Duchess of Somerset, and Mrs. Norton. Mr. Sheridan was asked to stand for some constituency, but, though a great wit, he was a poor speaker, and he did not know how to address a meeting. The following arrangement was therefore made between him and Mr. Osborne. They went together to the town where the meeting was to be held, Mr. Sheridan going on the platform, while Mr. Osborne, dressed in a smock-frock, stood in the crowd as one of the electors. Mr. Sheridan then made a very short speech, ending it by saying that he thought the arrangement most satisfactory to the electors would be that they should ask any questions they liked. Thereupon Mr. Bernal Osborne, in his smock-frock, asked him a pre-arranged series of questions, and, having received answers, declared himself perfectly 116 AN APT QUOTATION ch. satisfied, and moved a vote of confidence in the candidate. On another occasion, an elector in the hall contradicted Mr. Osborne, in a manner rather convincing to the audience. Mr. Osborne said : " If the gentleman will only come on to the plat- form, I can give him a satisfactory explanation." Room being made, the interrupter moved with difficulty to the platform, where Mr. Osborne was seen speaking earnestly to him for a few minutes. Then he came forward, saying, " The gentleman has apologised." Tremendous cheering followed, notwithstanding violent gesticulations of denial by the elector, and the resolution — the last one — was carried in Mr. Osborne's favour. Once, when the Burials Bill was being discussed, Mr. Lowe rather shocked public taste by saying that he could not make out why so much fuss was made about a lot of musty old bones. This was taken up by Members who were offended at the expression ; but Mr. Bernal Osborne, rising to defend his friend, said that the House must recollect the old adage, "De mortuis nil nisi bonum" Mr. Bernal Osborne was very quick of repartee. Once, at a party, a young lady whom he knew well was passing near him, and he called her to come to sit by him. She remonstrated, saying, " You call me as you would a cab." He replied, "At any rate, a Hansom cab." There used to be more than one notable wit in the Viceregal Court at Dublin. A gentleman viii IRRELEVANT ANECDOTES 117 named Corry Connellan was renowned for his brilliant sayings. He was a very bad sailor. On one occasion, when crossing the Channel, he made use of a hatbox he found near him on deck, in connection with his illness. The owner of the hat- box came up roughly, and said, " 1 say, sir, that's not your hatbox." Mr. Connellan faintly replied, " Obviously not." The following anecdote, though irrelevant to the general course of this book, is brought to my mind by the story 1 have just told. A French gentleman once said to my colleague, Mr. Thomas Bruce, in allusion to sea-sickness : " Quant a moi, quandje me sens sur le point de succomber, je pense a une jolie femme — a Marie Stuart /" Another amusing little passage that I remember took place in the House of Commons. Mr. Wyld, the map-maker, when attacking the Government, made use of the expression, "During the recent debate, some party observed . . ." Mr. Disraeli, in his reply, said : " The honourable Member for Bodmin has stated that during the recent debate some ' party ' made certain observations. Sir, / am the party." Another original in the House of Commons in those days was Mr. Grantley Berkeley. He was a very powerful man in appearance, a great sportsman, with much humour, and a strong Gloucestershire accent. In Parliament at the same time were Mr. Spooner, who represented tlie Protestant party, and Mr. Hume, the economist. 118 APPEAL TO THE SPEAKER ch. Mr. Hume had said something outside the House which Mr. Spooner disliked. He consequently invited Mr. Hume to come to the House at a certain time for an explanation. 1 forget what the subject was ; but both gentlemen, being very elderly and evidently physically frail, seemed much moved by the incident. After a mutual explana- tion, Mr. Grantley Berkeley rose, and, appealing to the Speaker, asked him to exact from these two gentlemen an assurance that thev would not commit a breach of the peace. On another occasion, Mr. Grantley Berkeley, who was never on good terms with Mr. Bright, had some difference with him. Mr. Bright quoted some friend of his as observing that if Mr. Berkeley had not been born a gentleman, he would have been a gamekeeper. To this Mr. Berkeley replied that if Mr. Bright had not been born a Quaker, he would have been a prize-fighter. I recollect a debate in the House of Commons in 18.50, when Mr. lloebuck brought in a motion on the foreign policy of the Government concern- ing Greece. Lord Palmerston made a long and successful speech in reply. I am much pleased still to possess a copy. He gave one to every clerk in the Foreign Office, and in it were many points that helped to render me familiar with the various subjects that I came across when, years afterwards, I was stationed in the Ionian Islands myself, and took some part in the administration. Amongst others connected with the House of viii MEMBER FOR 'HARROGATE' 119 Commons was an eminent barrister, who, unfor- tunately, was not very particular about the letter H. In one speech he more than once repeated his astonishment that the gentleman to whom he was replying " should harrogate to himself" certain qualities. The Member, in his answer, described the distinguished lawyer as "the honourable Member for Harrogate." CHAPTER IX Prince Louis Napoleon — The Spanish Marriages — Disturbances in England — Dismissal of Sir Henry Bulwer by the Spanish Govern- ment — Visit to Paris — La Propriete c'est le Vol — Society in Paris — Proclamation of Prince-President — Meetings with Napoleon III. On the 10th of April, 1848, I remember seeing a detachment of special constables, among whom, I was told, was Prince Louis Napoleon. Towards the close of the same year, I was present at a party given, I think, by Mrs. Mountjoy Martin, where he was also a guest. Shortly afterwards he left England for France. In 1846-47 the incident known as the Spanish Marriages had produced the greatest excitement in France. M. Guizot acceded to office on the resignation of Marechal Soult. The French people fancied that they saw a determination on the part of Louis Philippe to cultivate the goodwill of Austria and other despotic powers, so as to aggrandise his own family, with the prospect of securing the Spanish Crown for one of his grand- children. The unpopularity of Louis Philippe became more marked in 1848, and the anger of the people culminated at the prohibition of a 120 ch.ix TENTH OF APRIL RIOTS 121 Reform banquet by the Ministers. When M. Odillon Barrot, on the 22nd of February, laid on the table of the House of Deputies an Act of Impeachment, great excitement was aroused, which ended in the Revolution. The feeling extended to other countries, even to England. The Chartists made great demonstrations. I recollect on one occasion, when driving down to the Foreign Office in a cab, I was stopped by crowds in Charing Cross, shouting seditious cries. They had got hold of a phrase, much used in Paris at the time, A has Guizot ! thinking it applicable to English politics. I give extracts from a few letters I wrote at the time, and which I only recently found among the correspondence of a relative. Foreign Office, February 26, 1848. I suppose you have heai'd of the deposition of Louis Philippe, the sack of the Tuileries and the Palais Royal, and the proclamation of the Provisional Government, all of whom, except Odillon Barrot, insist on having a Republic. There was a report last night that Louis Philippe was at Mix-art's and was coming. I, however, with a friend, waited till half-past one this morning in the hopes of seeing him ; but he has not yet arrived. He was obliged to escape in a brougham. April 5. I have just been sworn in as special constable, and have been given my badge, staff, and warrant, and am conse- quently empowered to do anything I like to anybody. Admiral Bowles is my captain. April 10. Tremendous consternation is now prevailing. Every office in London is armed except ours, and I believe that is to be. Somerset House has a chevaux-de-frise, arms, hand-grenades, 122 SPECIAL CONSTABLES or. a commissariat, and a hospital. All we have is our staves as constables. We were ordered to be here at ten o'clock this morning, and here we came. No work is done. A dinner is laid out for us, and the windows are being barri- caded. I am in charge of my room. There is a tremendous row expected. The Post Office clerks are armed, provisioned, and organised in bodies of ten. Colonel Maberley drills them all. Every one in London is, I believe, a " special." Really it is shocking the state London is in. in a tremendous temper, swearing at evervbody and everything, and everybody and everything swearing at him. The row will not begin, I fancy, till the afternoon, when it will be tremendous. April 11. I continue this to-day. We had muskets sent here, but Feargus O'Connor having dispersed the crowd, we had our dinner at four o'clock, at which everybody attended. After- wards about thirty of us went into the nursery and smoked, singing " God save the Queen." With trumpets also and shawms we celebrated our victory. Some slept here. At seven I went away and joined my own division at Half Moon Street. Had command of two men. Patrolled till ten. Took up a drunken man. As he would not walk, I com- manded all Her Majesty's lieges, constables or not, to assist me. We carried him up Bolton and Curzon Streets among the hoots of the assembled crowd to our rendezvous in Shepherd's Market, where we left him to sleep off his drunkenness. So we had very good fun on the whole. A circumstance which about this time occupied the Foreign Office very much was the dismissal of Sir Henry Bulwer by the Spanish Government. Lord Palmerston on March 16, 1848, had written a despatch to Sir Henry Bulwer, criticising the state of politics in Spain. In this despatch he counselled the Queen of Spain to strengthen her executive government — having regard to the recent downfall of the King of the French — and to call ix STRONG LANGUAGE 123 to her counsels some of the men in whom the Liberal party placed its confidence. This was communicated by Sir Henry Bulwer to the Duke of Sotomayor, and an answer was sent protesting against Lord Palmerston's despatch. One or two passages in the reply were singularly strong for a diplomatic document. One was : Your conduct in the execution of your important mission has been reprobated by public opinion in England, censured in the British press, and condemned in the British Parliament. Her Catholic Majesty's Government cannot defend it, and that of Her Britannic Majesty has not done so. The conduct of the Spanish Government was attributed to an allegation that Sir Henry Bulwer, at the instigation of Lord Palmerston, had been engaged in plots against the Govern- ment. This, though never proved, obtained unsubstantiated confirmation from the fact that in some military disturbances at different points in Spain, personal friends of Sir Henry Bulwer's were said to have taken part. On the 19th of March, 1848, therefore, Sir Henry Bulwer received his passports, accompanied by a peremp- tory notice to quit the kingdom within forty- eight hours. He left Madrid, as was necessary in those days, in a postchaise, having with him one of his attaches, Mr. FitzPatrick Vernon, son of the gentleman who was subsequently named Lord Lyveden. Mr. Vernon declared that Sir Henry Bulwer was writing incessantly during the whole of the journey, giving him — Mr. Vernon — 124 A SHOCK TO VANITY ch. his inkstand to hold. At last fatigue overtook him, and he dropped the inkstand over Sir Henry Bulwer, who, being very particular about his dress, was excessively annoyed. Towards the end of that December, accom- panied by Mr. — now Sir Arthur — Otway, I paid a visit to Paris, then abandoned by nearly all visitors on account of the disordered state of politics. The journey to Paris was not so easy then as it is now. I recollect at a much later period than this when it was a novelty for the journey to take only twelve hours. On this occasion we found it necessary to take our places on a steamer at Dover, which enabled us to reach Amiens the same night. There we slept, and the next day we arrived in Paris. On my journey I received a blow. An English lady and gentleman were travelling in the same carriage. I happened to fall asleep, and, when half awake, I heard the lady say to her husband, pointing at me, " Isn't he like Mr. Toots ?" Paris, which, as already stated, was very little frequented that winter, was exceptionally cheap. Carriages could be hired for very little. Theatres were only half full. There was a celebrated play, or revue, called La Propriete cest le Vol, in which the authors had sarcastically reviewed the events of the year. The representation was sup- posed to begin with the Creation, and the first scene represented Adam and Eve. The serpent then appeared, with the face and spectacles of ix FRIENDS IN PARIS 125 Proudhon, the celebrated Socialist writer who had been a leader in the Revolution, and had published in 1840 a famous work entitled What is Property ? He re-appeared through every section of the play, always with the same face, until the time arrived when Socialist principles entirely triumphed. Money was abolished, and bargains could only be established by barter. One great joke in the play was a market to which a man came with a stuffed crocodile on his shoulders, asking who would give change for a stuffed crocodile. The change was a small piece of furniture. Among the few people who remained in Paris was Lady Elgin, who had a house, I think, in the Faubourg St. Honore, and who gave a party for charity, at which were present the Duke and Duchess of Calabritto, Mr. and Mrs. Butler (he was a brother of Lord Dunboyne), Mr. and Mrs. Montmorency, Sir William Massey Stanley, and many others. I was very hospitably entertained by Mr. Lyon, to whom I had letters, and who lived in the Place Vendome. He was a relative of Lord Kilmaine's, and well known in Paris for his dinners. By him I was introduced to another gentleman, also well known in Paris — Mr. Wallace Greaves. Lord Normanby was the Ambassador. The "paid attaches," as they were then called, were Mr. Edwardes — later Minister in Frankfort ; Sir Augustus Paget, afterwards Ambassador at Rome and Vienna, and Mr. — later Sir William — Stuart, 126 MADAME BLAZE DE BURY ch. a brother of Lord Blantyre, who, after a very successful diplomatic career, died comparatively young. Mr. Windsor Heneage was private secretary to the Ambassador. He was very agreeable and popular in society, to which he was much devoted. It is alleged that on one occasion, late in the morning, the Ambassador wished for the services of his private secretary, and that the servant found Mr. Heneage, on the staircase, returning from a fancy bail in the costume of a devil. Shortly before that time a lady created a great sensation as an authoress. Her name was Madame Blaze de Bury. Her husband was a well-known writer in the Revue des Deux Mondes — if not the editor. Before the rising against Louis Philippe, Madame Blaze de Bury had written a novel called Mildred Vernon, in which she was supposed to have been assisted by Lord Brougham. It described the excesses of Parisian society, particularly at a ball given at the Opera, where a well-known lady appeared masked, and attracted universal attention by the skill with which she performed a popular dance of a very free description. At length came the day when Louis Napoleon was proclaimed President. Sir Arthur Otway, Colonel Gordon-Cumming and I went to the review, piloted by an old soldier, then a cele- brated bootmaker, who was a sergeant-major of the National Guard, named Mausse or Mause, who obtained places for us in the ranks of his hmm mAimmm mmipamis ne a Paris. lc 20 Avnl 1808 Elu le 20 X w i848 Oi^ ^^wC/^ ix THE PRINCE-PRESIDENT 127 corps. We were provided with muskets, and there was nothing extraordinary in our plain clothes, as many of the National Guard themselves were without uniform. It was a bright frosty morning, and all Paris seemed in high spirits. Bands were playing gay tunes, and, while waiting for the march past, many of the National Guard danced fantastic quadrilles, all evidently exhilarated by the termination of the struggle. At length the signal was given, and the Prince-President approached with his staff. My friends and I, who were in the front rank, pre- sented arms when he passed. Thus I witnessed his official entry into France. A foreign gentleman, who was in some busi- ness and knew Sir Arthur Otway, afterwards described the difficulty he had when meeting the excited crowds that moved about the streets. He said they were divided into two factions, one the Tricolor and the other the Red. He had there- fore a double-breasted coat, on one side of which was the red cockade, on the other the tricolor, and when he had ascertained to which party any crowd that approached him belonged, he buttoned his coat so as to show the proper cockade. Thus he used to be cheered by the crowds on both sides. An odd thing occurred at that time which I remember being related to me. A French gentle- man, married to a very good-looking Englishwoman — he himself not being a man of very strong 128 NAPOLEON III chix intellect — was met by a friend walking a long- distance outside one of the gates of Paris. This friend asked him what he was doing in so out-of- the-way a place. He replied that he had come to buy some stamps at a little post-office there. His friend said, " Postage-stamps are the same all over the place. Why don't you buy them at an office near your own house ?" The gentleman replied, " My wife says there are no stamps like these, and she will not use any others." Later on I was presented to Napoleon III., when Emperor, at a ball at the Tuileries, and years later again I had an audience of him concerning a proposal for improving the communication between Dover and Calais. The audience was given me at the request of his early friend, Lord Malmesbury, to whom I had been private secretary when at the Foreign Office, and of Mr. Algernon Borthwick, both of whom supported the project. The Emperor was much interested, and invited me to return later to discuss the plan ; but meanwhile other circumstances intervened. It was not long before the final catastrophe, and I never saw him again until 1 870, immediately after Sedan. It was there- fore my lot to see Napoleon III. first in exile ; then on his official entry into France as President ; next, in the height of his fortunes as Emperor ; and last, at his final departure from France and his return as a prisoner into exile. Scarcely any one else, except those attached to him personally, can have witnessed all these events in his life. CHAPTER X Holiday in Spain — Journey to Madrid — Bull-fight— Queen Isabella- Spanish acquaintances — English friends in Spain— Spanish titles — Funeral of the Prince of Asturias — Connection of Spain with the East — Journey to England. In 1850 I took my holiday by a journey to Spain. I had' heard so much of the charms of that country from my friend Captain Wrottesley, and from the family of Sir John Burgoyne, that I longed to go and see it. Certainly, it then possessed much of the romance of the Spain of Gil Bias. My holiday was taken during the month of May, and I travelled in com- pany with a gentleman of both French and English origin. Though the weather was occasionally hot, it gave us the best part of Southern life. We travelled on the banquette of a diligence, there being no railway farther than Tours. The diligence, which we mounted at the Rue Notre Dame des Victoires, was driven to the railway station. There the whole body in its three compartments, and with all its passengers and luggage, was swung by a crane from its wheels and placed on a truck. On arriving at Tours, it was VOL. I 129 K 130 BORDEAUX oh. again swung off and placed on wheels, on which it remained as far as San Sebastian. We stopped at about ten o'clock in the morning at Chatelherault, celebrated for its cutlery, and an hour later the long line of poplars began that led into Poitiers. It is an avenue of a mile in length, along a road cut out of the solid rock, which, rugged and quarried, is seen overhanging it. Below the beautiful river Ain completes the picture. 1 long possessed a hat I bought there, called in the slang of the day democ-soc, as being the favourite headwear of the Democratic and Socialist party. This was white, and later on I found in Italy a hat of the same kind, but brown in colour. This also had a revolutionary name. Brown, being the colour of the dress of the religious orders, was called color pazienza. It was affected by the revolutionaries, as meaning that they waited their time. Bordeaux surprised me very much. For some reason I had always expected it to be a some- what dirty seaside town. I found it, though not so large, superior to Paris, with wide streets, splendid buildings, and lofty apartments. The friend who was travelling with me — he was a con- nection of Admiral Sir Harry Neill — here found a friend or relative with whom we explored the tower of St. Michel. Under it is a vault, having, as Theophile Gautier expresses it, " the property of mummifying the corpses placed there." My friend was rather fond of good living, and had x OLD SPAIN 131 spoken of the wonderful Bordeaux cookery, which lie had not exaggerated. At Bordeaux, Spain begins to make its appearance. The signs of the shops are both Spanish and French, while the Basque costume and the dark brunettes seem more of the former than the latter nation. Cer- tainly the old diligence-travelling made you better acquainted with the countries you visited than do the present railways. Having crossed the frontier, we passed the Bay of Pasages, near San Sebastian, a beautiful piece of scenery, no longer to be seen from the train. At San Sebastian we made acquaintance with the Royal Alameda and public walk, and got down at the Parador Real, having seen — for we counted them — thirteen ladies in mantillas. Passing the fonda, through a stable, we ascended a fine though somewhat dirty staircase to the first floor of the house, where we found dark lofty rooms and long narrow passages. Though since then I have often been at San Sebastian, 1 never found this hotel again. It was very interesting — servants, gentle- men, priests and heretics sat at the same board, chaffing the pretty girl who waited. Dolores, the maid of the inn, was very brilliant in this respect : she laughed at my Spanish, boxed the young priest's ears, and gave several proofs of a lively disposition. Alas ! these days are gone. Everything was thoroughly Spanish, and now that seems to have nearly passed away. The road from San Sebastian to Tolosa was very 132 BULL-FIGHTING ch. beautiful. It is a pity that modern travel is so little picturesque. At Medina del Ebro our luggage was again examined, for, while free trade reigned in the Basque Provinces, strict protective duties were prevalent in Castile. Even at the present day there is a different system in the frontier provinces. The inn at Madrid, to which we drove, has fallen from its position as the best hotel, though giving up some of its old peculiarities. It was called the Fonda Peninsulares, and still exists in the Calle de Alcala, near the Puerta del Sol. There we had our first view of the Calle de Alcala and an experience of a Madrid cafe. The Fonda Peninsulares was so built that the diligences drove under a high arch into an enclosed yard. A large staircase led up to the first floor, where the bedroom doors opened on a square gallery running round an open yard. The perfume of stables was redolent throughout the building. One of our first visits was to a bull -fight, but, except on this holiday, when I saw several, I have never attended one. It was very gay and amusing, but has been so often described that little need be said about it. We saw two of the most famous bull -fighters of Spain. One was the celebrated Montes ; the other, his nephew, Jose Redondo — known as the chiclanero, being a native of the city of Chiclana. Queen Isabella was rather fond of bull-fights, and this, no doubt, contributed to her great personal popularity. Some time before x QUEEN ISABELLA 133 our arrival, Montes had performed a feat unparalleled even in his palmiest days, and Queen Isabella was so delighted that she offered him whatever he might require. Kneeling before the Royal canopy, he begged Her Majesty to pardon one, more sinned against than sinning, who was condemned to execution. The prayer was granted, and the rumour spread like wildfire among the spectators. As in former years, they showered gold on the generous bull-fighter. His cap was heavy with these gifts, and, giving the whole amount to a friend of the criminal, he said, " Give this to . Tell him he will no longer want, and let him sin no more/' On returning home, we saw in a large open barouche, drawn by eight cream-coloured Andalusian horses, Queen Isabella herself, accom- panied by her camarera mayor. Behind them, in another carriage, were the King Consort and his father. Queen Isabella was always popular. She had great charm of manner — geniality blended with dignity. She was thoroughly adapted to the tastes of the Spanish people, being generous and fond of amusement, and many of the churches throughout Spain still possess the diamond necklaces which she bestowed on the pictures of the Virgin in the Cathedral. I made the acquaintance of Don Pascual de (xjiyangos, one of the most celebrated literary men of Spain. He was a great Arabic scholar, and, I think. Professor of the University of Alcala. He 134 PICNICS IN SPAIN ch. invited me to stay with him at his country-house, at a village called Pozuelo. Though the place was only six miles from Madrid, in those days the post only came to it twice a week. Here I enjoyed real Spanish life. Don Pascual had married an Englishwoman, and had one son and a daughter. The latter married Serior Riano, a well-known writer and Director-General of Public Instruction. I met them later when in Spain ; but Madame Riano, I regret to say, died recently. Not far from Pozuelo was the chateau of Boadilla, which then belonged to the Countess of Chinchon, the daughter of Godoy. It was beautifully situated and well wooded. Later, at Florence, I made the acquaintance of the Marquis of Boadilla, Duke of Sueca, who married Miss Martellini, daughter of the lady who had long been confidential Lady of Honour to the Grand Duchess. We used to make picnics to various places in the neighbourhood. The equivalent of " picnic " in Spanish seems to be borricada, which means to donkeys what a cavalcade means to horses. At this time there was no British Legation at Madrid, no Minister having been sent after the expulsion of Sir Henry Bulwer. The Consulate was occupied by Mr. Brackenbury, of the well- known consular family, who was excessively amiable and serviceable. I also happened to know M. de Montherot, the first French Secretary, a nephew of M. de Lamartine, who had given me a letter for him. At his house I met the Baron de x MADRID 135 Bourgoing, the French Ambassador. I was kept at Madrid, as I had undertaken to make some inquiries for Lord Howden, who had just been appointed Minister, and these took rather more time than I had anticipated. As I was going back to Paris, his carriage passed the malle-poste in which I was travelling. I had time, however, to see Aranjuez and the Escorial. There I made the acquaintance of one of the most celebrated writers and politicians of the day — Serior Alcala de Galiano. He had been Minister abroad as well as in Spain itself, and was a relative of that distinguished diplomatist, not long ago Ambassador in London, Count Casa Valencia. He showed us all that was worth seeing in the place, and gave us historical descriptions which were most interesting and full of infor- mation. At Madrid, I met Mrs. Stopford, whose husband, Colonel Stopford, had held some office in Spain, and who kept an open and hospitable house. She was the mother of Lady Charles Beauclerk. There were also a few English gentlemen who had fought in the Carlist wars and selected their domicile in Spain. I made the acquaintance of Mr. O'Shea the banker, who had become almost a Spaniard. One of his daughters married the late Colonel Fane, and the other the late Mr. George Vaughan, who was so well known in London. His nephew, Mr. Robert Owen, commonly known as " Don Roberto," was exceedingly kind to us during our stay. Mr. Q'Shea's son had married a lady possessing the 136 SPANISH TITLES ch. title of Duchess of San Lucar, and he became, in consequence, the Duke of San Lucar. In Spain, husbands and wives confer on each other their titles, that is to say, the Duchess of A. marries Count B., and on her cards she inscribes " Duchess of A., Countess B." The husband does the converse. Spanish titles go in direct descent, whether to sons or daughters, and many of the great names of Spain have descended through females, among others those of Alba and Medina Sidonia. Most Spanish grandees have several titles, and these they can confer on their sons and daughters, with the exception of the principal title. The result is that new great families are constantly created, as the wives confer their titles on their husbands, whether or not born noble. If the wife dies, the title goes to her son, and her husband is called the Duque Biudo, or the widowed Duke. Thus titles exist in great numbers in Spain. There are more than one hundred dukes, twelve hundred marquises, and twelve hundred counts. The titles which are less numerous are those of viscount and baron. Some of the grandees have great plurality of titles and several grandeeships. The Duke of Albas principal title is Duke of Berwick. The names of the late Duke combined, in an interesting manner, his two nationalities. His Christian names were Carlos Maria Stuart FitzJames Portocarrero Palafox Vintimiglia. To these he added, as titles inherited through women, the duchies of Alba di Tonnes, of Liria, of Conde-Duque Olivarez and x GRANDEESHIPS 137 of Periaranda. He had eleven marquisates, one of them with a grandeeship ; fifteen countships, to three of which a grandeeship was annexed, one being the title of Count de Montijo, which he inherited from his mother, sister of the Empress of the French. His residence in Madrid is the Palacio Liria. The late Duchess made an interest- ing collection of archives and autograph MSS. of distinguished people. She was remarkably intelli- gent, and daughter of the Duke of Fernan-Nunez. The Dukes of Medina Coeli, who were Counts up to 1368, and have been Dukes since 1479, enjoy eight dukedoms, sixteen marquisates, two of them with grandeeships ; twelve countships, to one of which a grandeeship is annexed ; and three viscountcies. The grandeeship has very peculiar qualities. An ordinary gentleman or a person with any minor title having a grandeeship takes precedence of dukes whose grandeeship is junior. The only exception is in the case of Court functionaries. One event occurred during my stay at Madrid which was excessively interesting, namely, the funeral of the Prince of Asturias. Although he had been born dead, there he lay in the palace, on a four-post bed, embalmed and enclosed in a glass coffin. The guards of the palace lined the apartment, and priests in magnificent costumes stood near the body of the Royal infant. The child was a remarkably fine one and resembled his Royal mother. 138 SHERRY ch. It was with great regret that I left Madrid. which to me had been quite a new world, full of Oriental notions, where Arabic and Persian art seems to have been the foundation of decoration. In Persia, where I went subsequently, no wine is manufactured for sale except at Shiraz. When Persia was invaded by the Arabs, they took back with them to Morocco the grapes of that district. In Spain they wished to naturalise the new fruit, and this they did at a place they called Xeres, intended for Shiraz, there being no sound equivalent to "sh" in Spanish. There they cultivated the grape and made wine, which now returns to Europe as " sherry," that word being a paraphrase of Shiraz. Shiraz wine is very similar in taste to sherry. I took leave of my friends one afternoon at the Cafe Suizo. Amongst others was a young Spanish gentleman who had been excessively amiable, and who spoke English with a certain fluency, having, however, only studied it from books. He said he would come to England. I asked him whether he intended to live at a hotel or to take lodgings. He replied, " It is my intention to take apartments in the most fashionable quarter of London — in Holl-born." I am sorry to say I have never seen him since. At Bayonne I met Mr. William Eliot, an old friend of mine. He had been appointed attache to the Legation, and was about to proceed to Madrid. I knew him very well in different parts of the world. The last time I saw him he came x EMPRESS EUGENIE 139 to stay with me at Corfu. In 1877, by the death of his father and brother, he became Lord St. Germans. I have always regretted not going to see Biarritz. In those days it contained only one or two small houses in a wild fishing village, and was much frequented by the Countess Eugenie de Montijo — subsequently Empress of the French — and her mother. Before I left Madrid, she was expected from Andalusia, and among her party was Major Andrew Cathcart, who, besides his other good qualities, was much admired in Spain for his riding. From Madrid they rode on to Biarritz. I met Major Cathcart at Bayonne, and subsequently in Paris. CHAPTER XI Exhibition of 1851 — Visit to Baden — Lord Palmerston's fall — Ac- quaintances in London — Change of Government — Appointed attache' at Florence — Mather Case. I very well recollect the Exhibition of 1851. It was the most beautiful thing I ever saw, both from its delicacy and vastness. A large piece of Hyde Park had been put under glass, including some of the trees ; and the glass and galleries were beautifully coloured by Mr. Owen Jones, whose acquaintance I made subsequently. There were naturally great crowds at the Exhibition, and foreigners came in large numbers, who gave their representatives a good deal of trouble. Questions used to arise as to the costume which should be worn on different occasions. One lady, not quite knowing how to dress for a Court function, wrote to her Ambassador, " Comment doit-on shabiUer ce soir ? Petite exposition, ou grande exposition ? " That year I paid another visit to Lord and Lady Pollington, who were at Baden. There I renewed my acquaintance with Lord Augustus Loftus, who was Secretary to the Legation at Stuttgart, but was then detached to Baden, where he resided as charge d'affaires. I also met Mr. 140 oh. xi LORD PALMERSTONS FALL 141 Douglas Irvine, who was in the Diplomatic Service, from which he retired in 1862. He died a few years afterwards. At the end of 1851, Napoleon III. made his coup d'etat, and the discussion between Lord Palmerston and Lord Normanby is well described in Mr. Evelyn Ashley's attractive Life of Lord Palmerston. The removal of the latter from office by Lord John Russell, his old friend, created great excitement throughout the country, and much sympathy was felt for him by all classes of society. This was manifested in a remarkable way socially. On February 9, 1852, a party was given by Lady Palmerston at her house in Carlton Gardens (now Mr. Balfour's). It was crowded. The Times headed the account with the words, "The Expelled Minister." The Duke of Wellington arrived early and stayed upwards of an hour. The Liberals naturally attended, and the Duchess of Bedford represented the Russell faction ; but there was also a strong contingent of Conservatives, among others Lord Salisbury, the father of the late Prime Minister, Lord Douro, Lord Malmesbury, Lord and Lady Mahon, Lady Lyndhurst, and Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli. Mr. Glad- stone and Mr. Sidney Herbert were also present. During this period 1 used to see a great deal of Mrs. Gurwood and her daughters. She was the widow of Colonel Gurwood, the friend and confidant of the Duke of Wellington, whose despatches he had edited. Mrs. Gurwood was 142 LOLA MONTES ch. French by birth, and had a daughter by a former husband, Miss Eugenie Meyer, who afterwards married Lord Esher. My most remarkable acquaintance was Lola Montes, whose adventures were then universally discussed. She had had a liaison with the old King of Bavaria, and had been created a Bavarian Countess by the title of Countess de Lansfeldt. The King's infatuation for this lady was the cause of a revolution, and actually of his abdication. He ordered her to leave the capital ; but she only went a few miles out of Munich, and returned dressed as a man. She was arrested, placed in a postchaise, and sent to Switzerland. Thence she came to England. The Countess was a very handsome woman, and being, I believe, English by birth, spoke the language perfectly. At all events, her mother was English, and she herself had married an English officer, from whom she was divorced. She took a house not far from my lodging in Half Moon Street, where she used to receive of an evening. The society was very mixed. There were several old friends of hers — prominent men of the world — and also some queer foreigners, evidently of a very Bohemian order. She professed ultra- republican opinions, and was always quoting the language of a Mr. Hobbes, whom I never saw, but whose name was well known in all revolutionary circles, and who, I fancy, had been her adviser when in Munich. The Countess's own opinions were those xi TAGLIONI 143 of Mr. Hobbes, but she had little power of express- ing them, and did so in a very superficial manner. She had with her a very pretty little girl, whom everybody believed to be her daughter, from the great likeness between them. A short time ago I saw in the papers the case of a clairvoyante, who was brought before the police-courts, and said to be the daughter of Lola Montes ; but I never had an opportunity of ascertaining whether or not it was the same person. If it is the little girl I used to know, she must now be about sixty-five. The cause of Lola Montes' leaving London was also singular. She was very fond of dogs, and had been struck by the beauty of one she had seen in the Park, driving in the phaeton of Mr. Heald, an officer of the Life Guards. She sent to the owner a message by another officer, Captain Edwin Burnaby, asking him to bring the dog to see her. This he did, and within a week she was married to him. His family then routed up some story of her divorce not having been legal, and she was therefore accused of bigamy. I do not recollect the issue of the case, but not long- afterwards she left England, and I fancy she never returned. Indeed, I have heard that she died in America. Many years later, I made the acquaintance of another celebrated dancer, who was best known as Mademoiselle Taglioni. I recollect seeing her in my youth in the celebrated pas de quatre, which 144 APPOINTED ATTACHE ch. consisted, I think, of herself, Cerito, Carlotta Grisi, and Fanny Elssler. This latter lady was well known at the time for her relations with the Due de Reichstadt, the son and heir of Napoleon I., who had begun life with the title of King of Rome. Madame Taglioni, as she was called late in life, had married Comte Gilbert des Voisins ; but afterwards she fell into poorer circumstances, and gave dancing - lessons to young ladies in London. In 1852, Lord John Russell's Government was defeated on a motion of Lord Palmerston's, and Lord Derby succeeded him, making Lord Malmes- bury Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. In that year, while I was sitting at my desk in the Foreign Office, a message came to me to go upstairs and see Lord Malmesbury. He informed me that I had been appointed attache to Sir Henry Bulwer, recently named Minister at Florence. At that time the English Government was very unpopular on the Continent. Rightly or wrongly, Lord Palmerston had been accused of undue inter- ference in the affairs of other countries, and of stimulating revolutionary movements against con- stituted Governments, and these were especially annoyed at his having circulated, to the different British Missions abroad, Mr. Gladstone's pamphlet on the state of things in Naples. For these reasons, all despotic Governments seemed to have leagued against him. Tuscany was in the occupa- xi THE MATHER CASE 145 tion of Austrian troops, under the command of Prince Friedrich Liechtenstein, a general officer of great distinction. The Tuscan Government in one case sheltered itself under Austrian protection, but Lord Palmerston refused to admit the inter- ference of Austria in Tuscan affairs, and therefore on both sides there was a great deal of irritation. Mr. Erskine Mather, an English gentleman, nineteen years of age — while listening to a regi- mental band, with a brother about three years younger — was struck by an Austrian officer with the flat side of his sword. On turning round to see who had thus assaulted him, he was cut down. Such was the substance of a communi- cation made by Mr. Wawn, Member for South Shields, to Lord Granville. Complaint was made to Mr. Scarlett, charge d'affaires. Mr. Charles Lever, who at that time lived at Florence, called on Mr. Mather in hospital and acted towards him in a very friendly manner. Lord Granville, then Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, wrote urgently to Mr. Scarlett, and in one of his despatches the following passage occurs : — I have to instruct you to state to the Tuscan Minister that Her Majesty's Government deeply regret the necessity of making repeated remonstrances to the Tuscan Govern- ment on the subject of the outrages and vexations to which British subjects in Tuscany are now exposed ; and you will point out to his Excellency that more complaints reach Her Majesty's Government of the misconduct of persons in authority towards British subjects from Tuscany than from all the other States in Europe. vol.. i L 146 AUSTRIAN INTERVENTION oh. It appears that Prince Liechtenstein received Mr. Scarlett's remonstrances in a most conciliatory spirit, yet he justified the act of his officer. Lord Granville authorised the employment of a well-known advocate, Sign or Salvagnoli, on behalf of Mr. Mather, as the Tuscan Government agreed to institute an enquiry. Lord Granville also wrote on the subject to Lord Westmorland, then Minister at Vienna. A long time elapsed, however, without any reparation being made to Mr. Mather. Mean- while Marshal Radetsky, who commanded in Lom- bardy, approved the institution of an official enquiry, and this perpetual reference to Austrian authority aggravated the irritation in England. In fact, Prince Schwarzenberg, while expressing his regret, gener- ally declined to enter into details such as com- pensation. The matter attracted the attention of Parliament, and meanwhile the British Government changed. Sir Henry Bulwer, who had been in America, was appointed Minister at Florence. In his instructions to Sir Henry Bulwer, Lord Malmesbury desired him to make use of "firm but temperate language, carefully avoiding an irritating tone, but still not disguising that there is a limit beyond which forbearance on the part of Her Majesty's Government cannot be pushed ; and least of all admitting in the case of Tuscany that the presence of an Austrian military force can justify or excuse the commission in Tuscany of wrong towards a British subject, or can exempt the Tuscan Government from the obligation to make redress. xi BRITISH DEMANDS 147 For all acts done in Tuscany to the prejudice of British subjects the British Government must hold the Tuscan Government to be solely responsible." Pending Sir Henry Bulwer's arrival, Mr. Barron, a Secretary of the Legation, became charge d'affaires owing to the serious illness of Mr. Scarlett. Mr. Barron accepted the offer of the Tuscan Foreign Office to give compensation — not of £5000, as had been asked, but of 1000 francesconi (about £222) — and allowed the case to be mixed up with another which had nothing to do with the question. It appears from Mr. Scarlett's despatches that this sum was given as an act of generosity, and not as admitting the responsibility of the Tuscan Govern- ment. The Tuscan Foreign Office had, in fact, said that it was necessary " to repeat in the name of the Grand Ducal Government that the latter can in no case admit its responsibility for the acts of individuals who are not subject to its jurisdiction." Sir Henry Bulwer was instructed on the 29th of May to insist on the principle of Tuscan responsi- bility being admitted, and he was told that, in case the Tuscan Government refused to accede to his demands, nothing would remain but for him to make arrangements for quitting the Grand Ducal Court. Mr. Mather refused to receive any money com- pensation, and the Tuscan Government finally re- cognised its obligations to protect British subjects " in all those cases mjwhich the ordinary tribunals cannot be applied|to, including such as may arise 148 SUCCESSFUL NEGOTIATIONS chxi during the present arrangement with Austria respecting the auxiliary troops of that Government stationed in the Tuscan territory." Sir Henry Bulwer thus brought to a satisfactory conclusion his first negotiations with the Tuscan Government. There were others of a much more delicate character which he conducted to a suc- cessful close, as will be related hereafter, the settlement of which was due to the quality men- tioned in a letter to him from the Duke of Casigliano : — Votre lettre est empreinte de ce tact exquis des conve- nances qui vous caracterise. CHAPTER XII Fl orence — Colleagues — English residents — Russian acquaintances — Italian society — English friends — Florentine families At Florence I found Sir Henry Bulwer residing at the Villa Salviati, out of the Porta San Gallo, after- wards the residence of Mario and Grisi, and I stayed at a hotel. I left this for a lodging in the Borgo SS. Apostoli, a house with enormous rooms, but very gloomy, where I established the Chancery. One day I heard, at a great distance in the building, cries in a man's voice, "Sautez, mademoiselle, sautez! " Asking the people of the house what this meant, I was told that a French professor of gymnastics resided there, and that he undertook to turn young ladies into young gentlemen. This was all I ever heard of the matter. While at this lodging, I was afterwards told that I had vised a passport which appeared in order, but which belonged to Mazzini under an assumed name. On the arrival in Florence of Mr. Robert Lytton, later Earl of Lytton, I left these rooms, and together we took a small house in the Via Larga, now, I believe, called the Via Cavour. 149 150 SOCIETY IN FLORENCE ch. My other colleague was Mr. Fenton, who had been both in Spain and America with Sir Henry Bulwer. He was a man of great but unostentatious merit, who refused considerable promotion, and continued to reside privately at the Hague, which had been his last post as Secretary of Legation. He has died quite recently. There were many English and Russian ladies in Florence, who formed the principal part of society. Amongst the former were Lady Walpole and Lady Catherine Fleming. Lady Walpole was possessed of much humour as well as great learning. She was very fond of animals, and maintained a kind of hospital for invalid dogs. She herself possessed two Mexican greyhounds which appeared to have no hair. Her two daughters inherited her attractive qualities. One married the Duca del Balzo, of Naples, and the other Prince Palagonia, a Sicilian who lived at Naples also, having a considerable property there. She died young. Both Lady Walpole and Lady Catherine Fleming lived habitu- ally in Florence, and one, if not both, died there. Among the principal Russians was the Countess Bobrinska, a lady of great family, one of whose daughters married the Marchese Pucci. She used frequently to hold receptions. I also made the acquaintance of two very interesting sisters — Russian ladies from Odessa, named Kolontaiev. The elder was a Maid of Honour to one of the Grand Duchesses, and the other had great gifts as an artist in pastels. They had been sent to Italy at cs 4> . J o T 3 V. 3 J2 * ; -3 w xii SCOTCH IN RUSSIAN ARMY 151 the expense of the Imperial family, to enable this lady to pursue her studies. She afterwards married Admiral Makouhine. Years later I met her with her husband at Sevastopol, where I stayed for a few hours on my way from Batoum to Odessa. The other married Count de Balmain, whose uncle had been Russian Commissioner at St. Helena to watch over Napoleon in his exile. Strange to say, this family is of Scotch origin, and their name is Ramsay of Balmain. I met this lady and her husband again at Florence some years afterwards. Later she devoted herself to religious and charit- able pilgrimages to Jerusalem. There are many Scotch names in the Russian service. I recollect meeting, at Philippopolis, officers named Hamilton and Leslie. The Italian lady at Florence who held the largest receptions was the Countess Nencini. She had been a great friend of Napoleon I. Her palace, the Casa Nencini, had been designed by Raphael him- self, and was beautifully proportioned. Amongst other ladies of very prominent position was the Marchesa Ricci. She was born Poniatowski, sister to Prince Charles and Prince Joseph Poniatowski, botli very popular members of Florentine society. They were great musicians. Prince Charles sang, and his brother had composed some operas. Prince Joseph Poniatowski was Minister for Tuscany in Paris ; but during the Empire he was naturalised a Frenchman, and became a member of the Senate. Madame Ricci was twice married. 152 FLORENTINE BEAUTIES oh. Her first husband was Count Bentivoglio ; they had one daughter, who married Count Walewski, and a son who was in French diplomacy, and much assisted in his career by his relationship to his sister. By Madame Ricci's second marriage she only had one daughter, who married the Marchese Tolomei, a member of the family of Pia de' Tolomei, men- tioned by Dante. The Marchesa Oldoini was a lady very much beloved. She had been, and still was, strikingly handsome. The most salient feature of her house- hold was a beautiful daughter, then quite young, afterwards the celebrated Countess Castiglione, one of the great ladies of the Court of Napoleon III. I think she was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. A lady rather older, but who really rivalled the Countess Castiglione, was Countess Ferrari. Hers was not, however, a specimen of Italian beauty, for she was the daughter of Count Moltke, who had been Danish Minister at Florence. Her loveliness was entirely of the northern cast, and at entertain- ments and assemblies she used to look like a Scandinavian dream. There were also Count and Countess Orsini, who occupied a very high place in Florentine society. She was nee OrlofF. The Due de Talleyrand kept a very hospitable house. He was the nephew of Prince Talleyrand, and, I believe, the head of the family. He had been known in early life as the Due de Dino. One of his great friends, who was also very hospitable, was Count Melianewsky. xii A SISTER OF MERCY 153 As a proof of the sympathetic intimacy that existed in Florentine society, I will extract a short passage from a letter written to me by Mr. Lytton on the 18th of February, 1853, when I was away : — - Poor Melianewsky is dead. Died yesterday. He had been for some time, I believe, suffering great pain, the bone of the leg splintering in various places. Mortification en- sued, and he died, I hear, quite quietly, leaving a large sum of money for the repose of his soul. Lady Cath [Lady Catherine Fleming] sat up with him all night, which, as his room, they say, was sickening from the smell of putrefaction, was really the part of a swur de charite. Among distinguished professional Italians, I knew very well Salvagnoli, an advocate and lawyer of extra- ordinary power. His career, though a great one, was checked by his strong Liberal views. The same may be said of Professor Zanetti, a remark- able surgeon and physician. Though taking no a,ctive part in politics, he had been identified with the Liberal cause, which impeded his professional advancement, owing to the prejudice of the retro- grade party. He was afterwards sent for to attend Garibaldi. Two of the most engaging persons in Florence were Gordigiani and his daughter. He was a celebrated composer of songs called stornelE, and was also of a peculiarly ready wit. His daughter, who afterwards married Count Fantoni, the head of an illustrious family, partook of many of her father's joyous characteristics. A gentleman whom I knew well was the Marquis Gualterio. He was an author of great 154 THE GLOOMY CHEVALIER ch. merit, a moderate and constitutional Liberal, who had recently written a book on the later political movements in Italy, entitled Gli Ultimi Rivolgimenti. His wife was a member of an old Piedmontese family, and his house was frequented by persons of all political colours, while he was looked upon as the representative of the moderate Liberals in Italy. In October 1853, after I had left Florence, INI. Gualterio sent me a most interest- ing memorandum, which I still possess. In this he sketched out what he thought should be the ultimate organisation of Italy. The document was submitted to Lord Palmerston, who, I believe, paid a great deal of attention to it, though he merely acknow- ledged the receipt of the paper. There were two or three especially interesting figures in Florentine society at that time. One was a gentleman commonly known as Piero Dini, then in an advanced stage of life, but universally popular. He was one of the most obliging men I ever came across, and had no enemies. The next was a very singular man called the Chevalier d'Arlens, by birth a Swiss of some property, who had been, I think, in the French army, and, after having lost his fortune, lived at Florence. He was a man of a most gloomy, mournful appearance, which I am told he had worn even at the height of his wealth and worldliness. The Due de Talleyrand was a great friend of his ; they pretty nearly lived together. It was very much the fashion to invite the Chevalier, though xii A CONVINCING WIG 155 the world laughed at his enormous appetite. One of his accomplishments was a little singing, and he occasionally composed a piece of music of mournful character. Once I had not seen him for a long time, and asked him what he had been doing. He re- plied that he had composed a song which had obtained some circulation. The name, he told me with a strangely cavernous intonation, was " La Tombe." This was most characteristic. There was an Italian gentleman — whose name I will not mention, as it would be ill-natured to do so — who was of advanced age, and whose one desire was always to appear young. For this purpose he had many wigs. He would tell his friends one day that he intended to have his hair cut, and then put on a short wig which lengthened every day until the end of the month, when he again would say that he must have his hair cut. Another trick of his was to ask his friends to an early breakfast, and receive them in his bedroom, saying that he had overslept himself. This was to give authenticity to the wig. A remarkable type found in those days at Florence was Mr. Kirk up. He was much sought after, especially by English travellers, on account of his thorough knowledge of Italian art, being himself an artist. He was very shrewd, and some- times cutting in his observations. Among other studies lie had endeavoured to master the secret of the philosopher's stone. He declared that one gentleman, who had been very poor and to whom he 156 FLORENTINE NOBLES ch. explained the process, had died rich, and he was convinced that this wealth had come from his knowledge of the secret. I recollect an English gentleman who was very intimate with Mr. Kirkup, and who had separated from his wife, writing to ask him, half in earnest and half in joke, to make a wax figure of the lady into which he might stick pins. Mrs. Macdonnell lived in a beautiful house called the Casa Annalena. She had a large family, most of whom became very distinguished. One of her sons was the late Sir Hugh Macdonnell, Minister at different places. Late in life she married the Due de Talleyrand. One of her daughters became Madame de las Marismas, a great lady of the Empress Eugenie's Court. I believe another married General Sir George Brown. All the noble Florentine names still figured in society — the Strozzi, Frescobaldi, Antinori, Torri- giani, and Palagi. Amongst others who occasionally visited Florence were the Marquis and Marquise de Boissy. She had been a famous beauty when Countess Guiccioli, Lord Byron's great love. Mrs. Somerville — so well known as a mathe- matician and astronomer — and her daughters lived in Florence, and were much in request. There was also Mr. T. Adolphus Trollope, whose daughter, though very young, was a universal favourite from her manners and intelligence. A very remarkable Englishman, who lived in a villa in the neighbour- hood, but whom I did not know, was Walter Savage Landor. xii A BON MOT 157 Mr. and Mrs. Browning were also living at Florence, and there, I believe, their son was born. To Lady Normanby was attributed the saying, " Now there are not two incomprehensibles, but three incomprehensibles." CHAPTER XIII Corps diplomatique at Florence — Acquaintances — English visitors^ Italian society — Effects of Austrian occupation — Sir Henry Bulwer's Mission to Rome — Diplomatic relations with the Papal See — " Eglinton Clause " — Letter from Mr. Lytton — Murray Case — Visit of British artists — Duty on English beer. On my journey to Florence I had fallen in with the Vicomte de Gabriac, who was going there as charge d'affaires of France, in the absence of the Minister. The Minister came shortly afterwards ; 1 and my family were long intimate with him and his wife — the Comte and Comtesse de Mont- tessuy. She was a daughter of Prince Paul of Wi'irtemberg. The German charge d'affaires was Monsieur de Reumont, a well-known historian. The Minister, who lived at Rome, was Baron Usedom ; his wife was an English lady by birth. Miss Malcolm. Count Villa Marina was Sardinian Minister ; he afterwards attended the Congress of Paris as Plenipotentiary. The Spanish Minister, who only came rarely to Florence, was Monsieur Curtois, one of whose secretaries, Monsieur Conti, married a daughter of Mrs. Macdonnell. Count Riario-Sforza was the 158 ch.xiii OFFICIAL FLORENCE 159 Neapolitan Minister ; during his absence the Duke of Santo Paolo was in charge. One of the most prominent diplomatists at Florence was Baron Hiigel, the Austrian repre- sentative. His wife was a beautiful English lady, whose maiden name had been Farquharson. The Baron's position was very powerful, owing to the connection of the Grand Duke with the Austrian Imperial family, and still more so on account of the Austrian occupation. He had been, I believe, Secretary to Prince Metternich, and had travelled extensively in the East. Near Florence, at the Villa San Donato, lived Prince Demidoff, a well-known Russian magnate, the husband of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte, daughter of King Jerome, and sister of Prince Napoleon, known otherwise as Plon-Plon. His house was filled with every kind of object of art, especially furniture ; he had tables, chimney-pieces, and even steps made of slabs of malachite. The principal Florentine officially was Signor Baldasseroni, the Prime Minister. He went but little into society. Next to him came the Duke of Casigliano, Minister for Foreign Affairs. He was the elder son of Prince Corsini, to whose title he ultimately succeeded, and a man of peculiar appearance, as he dressed oddly. In the evening he wore a light blue coat, called a Chamberlain's coat, covered with gilt buttons and with Grand Crosses so numerous that the ribbons had to be crossed on his breast. His brother, the Marchese de Lajaticho, 160 A LUCKY INVESTMENT oil also occupied a leading place in society, and they had a younger brother. The Great Chamberlain was, if I recollect aright, the Marchese Ginori, who was also pro- fusely decorated. I do not know whether or not he was actually the owner of the celebrated Ginori porcelain works ; but his family, which was a very great one, had by some circumstances, of which I am ignorant, become the proprietors of that factory,, which restored to them a portion of the fortune they had lost. Amongst other Italians whom I knew were Prince and Princess Pio di Savoia, and their daughter, Marchesa Fransoni. Madame Fransoni was a most remarkable pianist, and people came from all quarters to hear her. Her husband was a nephew of Cardinal Fransoni. He was a man of much literary taste, and had written a very re- markable essay, comparing what he called the alphabets of music and of words. Like his father-in- law, he kept a most hospitable house in Florence. Another daughter of Prince and Princess Pio married Marchese Pitti, whose ancestor, the great architect, built the Palazzo Pitti. I was also acquainted with Mr. and Mrs. Sloane,. who had been formerly employed, one as tutor and the other as governess, by the family of Monsieur and Madame Boutourline, Russians of great mark. Having saved a little money, they married and bought some copper mines in a place called La Cava, which brought them enormous wealth. xiii CHARLES LEVER 161 They purchased Careggi, the well-known villa, where Lorenzo de' Medici was exhorted on his deathbed by Savonarola. The house contained a fine picture of the incident, painted by Watts. Mr. and Mrs. Sloane were fervent Roman Catholics. Both, I believe, were naturalised Tuscans, and there was some talk, at one time, of appointing him Tuscan Minister. Out of gratitude for the past, they left all their property to the family of Boutourline. Mr. Charles Lever and his family lived at Florence at that time. He was a man of great wit, but was, at the same time, endowed with much deeper knowledge and feeling than would be gathered from his works. An English lady, well known in Florentine society, astounded her friends by marrying the doctor of the police. On this subject, I recollect Lever saying, " Mrs. has made a most illus- trious match. She has married the last of the Medici." Amongst other residents at Florence — though I did not know him well personally — was Mr. Leader. He had been a foremost member of what were called the Philosophical Radicals, of which Sir William Molesworth was a leader, and Member, if I am not wrong, for Westminster. I have since then seen some letters of his relating stories of mistakes made in a foreign language. He told one of Sismondi, when travelling in England. It is here perhaps better to say that trunks VOL. I M 162 BRITISH TRAVELLERS ch. in Italian are called bauli, pronounced in three syllables. Sismondi, staying with friends in Devon- shire, was heard to call out, " Will you bring up my luggage and my small bowels ? " Mr. Leader was the author of a very interesting account of the old Venetian nobility. Of course a great number of British travellers passed through Florence, amongst them Sir Henry Ponsonby, Private Secretary to Queen Victoria, whom I had known from the time we were children. A good many young Englishmen were travelling with their tutors. One was Sir Courtenay Honywood ; then came Lord Andover, and Mr. Amyas Poulett, whose mother and brother I had known for a long time. Lord Ebury, then Mr. Grosvenor, also arrived with his tutor ; he is the only survivor of these, all of whom I met subse- quently at Naples. Florence was very full, not only of strangers, but of Italians who came from other parts of Italy, and who contributed to the gaiety of the place. It was cheaper than other Italian capitals, and the society was most amusing on account of the large number of foreigners who lived there. About that time, however, its pleasures had been much diminished by the presence of the Austrian troops. All the Italian society was divided into two sections — one, the smallest, which approved of the appeal to Austria and represented the party known as the Codini (pig- tails) or retrogrades ; and the other, exactly the reverse. Some of the xiii FRICTION WITH AUSTRIA 163 latter were very strong Liberals, but all of them had Liberal tendencies and resented the occupa- tion. The result was constant friction. Italian ladies would not dance with Austrian officers, and quarrels were frequent. Before this time society at Florence had been as one large family. On fine nights in summer, every one used to turn out on the Lung' Arno, young men taking with them their guitars. Small aances were suddenly organised, and the Grand Duke and Duchess walked calmly up and down, receiving the salutations of their subjects. All this, however, had changed before my time, and it was difficult to have a predilection for one person more than another, for fear of being compromised politically. Anything like a political discussion was unknown. As has been said before, the Commander-in- Chief of the Austrian army of occupation was Prince Friedrich Liechtenstein, a member of the royal family of that principality, and a very high- minded man, who endeavoured, as far as possible, to diminish the friction between his army and the Tuscan people. At that time Guerrazzi was in prison, and his trial went on during my stay, which was somewhat broken by occasional absences. For two months, however, I was left in sole charge of the Legation, as Sir Henry Bulwer had been sent to Rome on two very delicate questions. The principal one was that of the resumption of diplomatic relations 164 THE EGLINTON CLAUSE ch. with the Papal See. This had been previously discussed between Lord Minto and the Papal authorities, and some hopes were entertained of making it feasible to maintain regular diplomatic relations with Rome. This was especially desired at that moment, as a complete change was looked for in the whole aspect of Italy, owing to the supposed Liberal tendencies of Pius IX., who had just succeeded to the Papacy. A Bill had been introduced into Parliament to legitimise these relations, and it was passed ; but a strong feeling existed against the presence of a Roman ecclesiastic as Papal Nuncio in England, and Lord Eglinton had introduced into the Bill a clause prohibiting any such appointment. On this account, the Pope refused to send any Minister, and also declined to receive an envoy from England on a unilateral footing. This may be gathered from Mr. Evelyn Ashley's Life of Lord Palmer ston, in which the following passage occurs : — The truth was that representations made to the Pope from Ireland induced him to imagine that we were in such a state in Ireland that we should be compelled to yield. When Lord Minto asked whether he would on his part receive as an English Minister one of our Archbishops, or the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, in full canonicals, he frankly owned that he would not. Lord Palmerston was in favour of the Eglinton clause, thinking that great embarrassments and inconveniences would arise from a Roman priest, invested with diplomatic privileges, holding his xni NEGOTIATIONS WITH ROME 165 court in London, surrounded by English and Irish Catholics ; but this clause proved fatal to the success of the measure. Up to that time, our business with the Papal Government had been carried on in an informal manner, a member of the Florence Legation, re- siding at Rome, having been received unofficially by the statesmen of the Pope. This was Mr. Petre, a Roman Catholic. In October 1852 I received a letter from Mr. Lytton, who was then at Rome with his uncle, in which he said : — I hear Florence is filling. Rome still very dull. Nobody here, and the ruins quite a take-in. I spend the greater part of my time in the studios, and am making a head of Antinous which is to adorn our Florentine mansion. I think it still very uncertain how much longer we may remain here, but I hope to get away by the end of the month. They are difficult people to deal with, and the Government here is just like the household of the Great Lama. One never sets to the Great Lama himself— such an atmosphere of mystification — the difficulty of all negotia- tion being further increased by the fact that both Petre and O , T the only ostensible mediums of communication with the Pontifical Government, are both Roman Catholics, if not, as I suspect, Jesuits. Petre is an extraordinarily well-read fellow, with a scholar-like and cultivated mind, stored with a good deal of solid learning, and improves on acquaintance. He is more than middle-aged and greyish. O is a younger man, good-looking and clever ; as full of intrigue as an egg is of meat, and well versed in the smaller arts of antechamber diplomacy. He has been in Greece and the East, and it was he who got up the Greek 1 A gentleman privately employed by Sir Henry Bulwer. 166 MURRAY CASE ch. Question against Palmerston, having been very much lie with the Greek king, whom he calls " Otho." He is bold, ambitious, and active, full of plans and schemes — many of them wild, all of them clever. If you have ever read Devereiioc, and remember the Jesuit in that novel, you will be able to picture him when I say he is the type of that cleric. He professes a great fancy for me, and has told the Pope that I am on the eve of conversion ! Two other questions also occupied Sir Henry Buhver's time — one was that of the Madiai, with which I shall deal later on, and the other the case of Mr. Murray, of which the following account was transcribed in the Times from the Roman Journal : — "Edward Murray, born at Cephalonia, was brought by his father to Italy, and, after being engaged for some time in banking operations at Rome, he removed to Ancona where he resided ten years, and married Ursula Gabrieli, a native of Loretto. "During the catastrophes of 1848 and 1849, he was appointed Inspector of Police at Ancona. The state of the population at that period is well known. According to the correspondence of Mr. Moore, the English Consul, with Sir George Hamilton (our Minister at Florence) — "The greatest disorder prevails in the town, where an infuriated rabble publicly stab, killing right and left all those who chance to read the newspapers. These murders were perpetrated at the rate of three per day. Many of the assassins were well known ; but nobody dared to arrest them, the police and national guards refusing to act. xiii SETTLEMENT 167 " In a letter to Lord Palmerston, dated April 22, 1849, Sir George Hamilton calculated at from six to eight the daily number of victims, which on the previous Sunday amounted to ten. " A few days afterwards, an English ship of war having arrived to protect the English Consul, who appeared to be menaced, the Governor caused several of the murderers to be arrested on the night of the 27th of April. Amongst them was Murray. " To-day these facts are overlooked. Pity is expressed, not for the victims of terror, but for Murray who abetted it. His case has been brought before one of the Parliaments of Europe, and, accepting as true the assertion of a public news- paper, it was alleged that pontifical tribunals were slow and accessible to corruption." This case was subsequently satisfactorily settled. I recollect meeting some of Murray's relatives later in the Ionian Islands, but I forget the nature of their business with me. About this time, Sir Digby Wyatt and Mr. Owen Jones arrived at Florence on some artistic mission connected with the Exhibition of 1851. They were well received by the Tuscan authorities. Meanwhile my own labours were very limited. I had a little discussion with the Tuscan Govern- ment concerning the duty on English beer, on which I received a note from Sir Henry Bulwer at Rome : — 168 BRITISH BEER ch.xiii I have looked into the great Beer case, and enclose you a note which you can address to the Duke of Casigliano in my name. The note will be, in the first instance, semi- official. Sir Henry Bulwer was, as ever, very busy, not only about the points he had to treat, but in obtaining valuable information from various sources. CHAPTER XIV Madiai Case— Captain Walker— Sentence on the Madiai— Deputation- Protests against their sentence — Lord John Russell's despatch — Release of the Madiai — Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Phipps — Sir James Hudson — Lord Normanhy Minister at Florence — Mr. Scarlett. The third case with which Sir Henrv Bulwer had to deal was that of the Madiai. On the 17th of August 1851, an English gentle- man named Walker was arrested. I knew him well. He had retired from the Army. His family had lived a great deal in Italy, two of his sisters having married Italians, Count Baldelli and Mar- quis Incontri. Another sister married Captain Fleetwood Wilson, and was the mother of Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson, now Under-Secretary at the War Office. I still recollect so well seeing Mrs. Fleetwood Wilson, a lady of great attractions, walking down the hill out of Florence, with her two children in baskets on a pony. She has only quite recently died in London. Captain Walker was a man of strongly pro- nounced religious tendencies, who occupied himself a great deal with the Protestant movement. He was arrested while visiting the Madiai, a man and 169 170 THE MADIAI ch. his wife who had been courier and maid in English families. An Italian Bible and other books were afterwards removed by the police from the table where the party had been sitting, and a small Bible, which Captain Walker always carried with him, was taken from his pocket. The Madiai were also arrested. The police accused Captain Walker of reading and expounding the Protestant version of the Bible to Tuscan Roman Catholics, and of attempting to proselytise. In spite of his assertion that he was an Englishman, and innocent, he was hurried off to prison. Captain Fleetwood Wilson addressed him- self at once to the police authorities, who, however, refused at first to allow him to see Captain Walker ; but through the intervention of Mr. Bligh, the attach^, who had been instructed to intervene in the matter by Mr. Scarlett — then at Pisa— Captain Walker was liberated, though not till he had been kept for twenty-one hours in the cell of a common prison. The two Madiai were convicted under a law of 1786 on the grounds of proselytism. The husband was condemned to fifty-six months' reclusion in the House of Forced Labour at Volterra, and the wife to forty-six months' imprisonment in the Ergastolo. An appeal was, however, made to the Courts of Tuscany. This case excited a great deal of interest. During the period when I was alone in Florence, a deputation arrived, consisting of Lord Roden, xiv FOREIGN PROTESTS 171 Lord Cavan and Captain Trotter, accompanied by some leading Swiss Protestants and delegates from France, Holland, Wurtemberg and Prussia. On the 27th of October, Lord Malmesbury instructed Sir Henry Bulwer to repair to Florence — all fear of capital punishment being executed on Murray having been removed — in order to give this deputa- tion, unofficially, every assistance, and to use all the means in his power to procure for them an audience of the Grand Duke. This was, however, refused. At the time of Sir Henry Bulwers arrival, the Prussian Minister at Rome, Baron Usedom, also accredited to Florence, came there, not avowedly but in reality, to do what could be done in the case of the Madiai. The Baron did not, how- ever, mention the subject in his interview with the Grand Duke, but wrote a letter to the Duke of Casigliano stating the great interest his Sovereign and nation took in the affair. Count Arnim, Grand Seneschal at the Court of Prussia, brought an auto- graph communication from his Sovereign to the Grand Duke, pleading in favour of the unfortunate persons in confinement ; but both the answer of the Duke of Casigliano to Baron Usedom, and that of the Grand Duke to Count Arnim, expressed the same sentiment — namely, that the Tuscan Sovereign requested to be left at liberty to act in a case relative to his own subjects, under the laws of his own nation, according to his own free will and conscience. 172 GRAND DUKES SAYING ch. On the 12th of November 1851, a letter on the subject had been addressed to Lord Palmerston by General Sir Henry dimming, the two Madiai having been in the service of his family for a long time. Rosa Madiai had been with them for seventeen years, and had been very attentive to his son - in - law, who was attache at Florence, during his last illness ; she had also been in the service of Lady Caroline Townley, and many others. Lord Palmerston took up the case very warmly, and addressed a despatch on the subject to Mr. Scarlett on the 17th of November 1851, only a few days before his leaving office. Several English Corporations addressed petitions to the Grand Duke ; but these the Duke of Casigliano refused to receive, and both he and M. Baldas- seroni informed Sir Henry Bulwer that further demonstrations in favour of the Madiai would only frustrate their own endeavours. About that time the Grand Duchess had a child, and many prisoners received the royal clemency, but this was not extended to the Madiai. In the midst of all these disputes, the following story was told of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. When he was driving through the streets of Lucca, a tradesman threw something out of the window into the Grand Duke's carriage. In a great fright, he ran down to implore for pardon. His Highness replied : " Never mind. It is lucky that it was not an Englishman ; otherwise, by this time, I should have had all the British Legation on my back." xiv AN EMPHATIC DESPATCH 173 In January 1853, Lord John Russell acceded to power. A report was circulated that Francesco Madiai had died, in consequence of the hardships he had undergone, and the Times published two indignant leading articles on the subject. The statement proved to be incorrect, though it was true that the unfortunate man had suffered severely both in mind and body. On the 18th of the same month, Lord John Russell sent Sir Henry Bulwer an emphatic despatch on the subject, a part of which I quote : — According to the last accounts received from you, the Grand Duke of Tuscany still hesitates on the subject of the Madiai. But this is a matter on which hesitation implies capital punishment. It is the same thing, in effect, to con- demn a man to trial by fire, like Savonarola, or to put him to death by the slow torture of an unhealthy prison. It seems to be imagined, indeed, by some Governments on the Continent, that, if they avoid the spectacle of an execution on the scaffold, they will escape the odium to themselves, and the sympathy for their victims, which attends upon the punishment of death for offences of a political or religious character. But this is an error. It is now well understood that the wasting of the body, the sinking of the spirits, the weakening of the mind, are but additions to the capital punishment which long and close confinement too often involves. If therefore, as has been lately reported, one of the Madiai were to die in prison, the Grand Duke must expect that throughout Europe he will be considered as having put a human being to death for being a Protestant. It will be said, no doubt, that the offence of Francesco .Madiai was not that of being a Protestant, but that of endeavouring to seduce others from the Roman Catholic faith ; that the Tuscan Government had the most merciful intentions . . . that such offences cannot be permitted to 174 MADIAI CASE CONCLUDED ch. pass unpunished. But this . . . will avail very little. Throughout the civilised world, the example of religious persecution will excite abhorrence. . . . You are therefore instructed to speak in the most serious tone to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and to lay before him all the considerations stated in this despatch. You will do it in the most friendly tone, and take care to assure the Government to which you are accredited, that none are more sincere in their wishes for the independence and happiness of Tuscany than the Queen of Great Britain. . . . Sir Henry Bulwer, therefore, once more pressed the question, and in so skilful a manner that M. Baldasseroni thought it advisable to submit the matter again to the Grand Duke. At the moment, however, Sir Henry Bulwer was forced to leave Florence on account of his health, and Mr. Erskine, Secretary of Legation at Turin, was named charge' d'affaires. On the 16th of March the Madiai were hurried, with the greatest secrecy, on board a vessel at Leghorn, and at Marseilles they were set free, on condition of their never returning to Tuscany. During the rather hard work entailed by the Madiai case, Charles Lever frequently called. On one occasion he was left in the waiting- room for some time, and occupied himself in writing a parody on Hood's " Song of the Shirt." It ran like this : — Scratch, scratch, scratch, Scratch for ever and aye, I shall never be done with this d — d despatch In the case of the Madiai. xiv CAVOUR AND HUDSON 175 To think that bread should be so dear And flesh and blood so cheap, was altered by Lever as follows : — To think that pen and ink 's so cheap And brandy and water so dear ! Among the many people who took a great interest in the Madiai case were Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Phipps. He was the brother of Lord Normanby, and a man of very devout views. He came with his wife to spend some little time in Florence, bringing their son, Constantine, who since then has occupied several important posts in the Diplomatic Service, and has now retired. At Florence I also made the acquaintance of Sir James Hudson, our very distinguished Minister at Turin — a man lovable in every way, of great charm of manner and good -nature. He was a strong Liberal, and to him Italy was largely in- debted for her ultimate liberation. I was told by the late Sir James Lacaita that Sir James Hudson lived on the most intimate terms with Count Cavour, and, in the Italian manner, called him by his Christian name. On one occasion, though unfortunately I cannot remember which, Cavour was hesitating as to the course he should pursue, and Sir James Hudson said to him, " Dunque hai paura, Camillo 1 " This decided the forward course adopted by Cavour, which ended in remarkable success. After leaving Florence officially, I frequently 17f> LORD NORMANBY ch. went to Italy to visit some relatives, and therefore felt familiar with the whole country. When passing Turin, I constantly saw Sir James Hudson, with whom later on I had considerable corre- spondence while I resided at Corfu. In fact, the annexation of the Ionian Islands to Greece was closely connected with the liberation of Italy. My constant private visits to Florence have very much mixed up my personal chronology as to that country. Subsequent to the time when Mr. Erskine was temporarily in charge, Mr. Scarlett returned ; but after some time Lord Normanby, who had been Ambassador at Paris, was appointed Minister. Lord Normanby had resided a great deal at Florence during his youth. A villa which he had formerly occupied was known as the Villa Normanby, or, as it was sometimes called by the peasants, " Lorbambi," and he looked forward with great pleasure to revisiting the favourite resort of his younger days. He and Lady Normanby were much liked in Florentine society ; but, after his differences with Lord Palmerston, he seemed rather to veer from his early Liberalism, and gave strong support to the Grand Ducal policy. A Club had been formed at Florence, of which I was an original member, and Lord Normanby, on his arrival, was made President. A young gentleman of a family with whom Lord Normanby was friendly came to Florence, and passed a great deal of time at the Club, xiv 'ROBBED AT THE CLUB' 177 where he lost money at cards. Lord Normanby, out of good -nature towards him, and out of friendliness to his family, wrote a letter to the relatives advising them to induce the young man to leave the place, " as he was always being robbed at the Club." This letter was forwarded to the young gentleman, and was fastened by him to the fireplace for every one to read. The incident, to a certain extent, detracted from Lord Nor- manby's popularity. He remained at Florence from December 1854 until March 1858, when he was recalled, on the accession of Lord Derby to power. I believe it was considered impossible, considering the active part he had taken in English Liberal politics, for him to remain in an inferior capacity under a party to which he had long been hostile. Mr. Scarlett, who for a long time had been in Tuscany as Secretary of Legation, frequently act- ing as charge d'affaires, was appointed Minister to Brazil, and later came back to Florence in that capacity. VOL. I n CHAPTER XV Sir Henry Bulwer — Commission to investigate Danubian Principalities —Visit to Sir Henry Bulwer at Constantinople — His maxims — Mr. Kobert Lytton — Lord Lytton in India — Marriage — Visits to Carrara and Florence. It may be as well for me to say a few words concerning Sir Henry Bulwer. He was a very kind man, full of douceur — an expression of which he was fond. He had a curious mania for having more than one place of residence in the same town, and also for appointing private secretaries. These gentlemen he frequently employed instead of his regular official subordinates, which often gave rise to annoyance. He told me that he really did so from good-nature, not liking to trouble his official secretaries with work, which with him was con- stant. One reason for this was his untidiness about papers, which were always being lost, and his con- stant corrections and re-corrections of his manu- script despatches. Odd stories were told of him. It was said that once, when he had engaged a new secretary, he introduced him privately to some friends, saying to them that he was a most accom- plished man and very able, but adding confidentially that it was desirable, when he came to the house, 178 chxv SIR HENRY BULWER 179 not to leave any small change lying about. I do not believe in the truth of this story, but it used to be cited as an instance of Sir Henry Bulwers eccentricity. There is no doubt that he was a most remarkable man, very popular with his friends, and unpopular only with people who made no allowance for eccentricity. There was a party for and a party against him everywhere. He passed a most brilliant career, and was much in the confidence of Lord Palmerston, by whom he had been sent to his first important post — that of Minister to the Queen of Spain. Before that he had been to Berlin, Vienna, the Hague, Paris and Brussels, and he was Secretary of Embassy at one time at the Porte. While there, owing to some difference of opinion with the Ambassador, it was said that he refused to reside at the Embassy, and lived in a tent which he pitched in the neighbourhood. In America he was most successful, and concluded the well-known Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. It was currently reported that he signed that Treaty with the American plenipotentiary, smoking a cigar and over a glass of punch. Florence was too small a place for his active abilities. Consequently in 1855 he was pensioned. He did not long remain unemployed, but in 1856 was appointed Commissioner under the 23rd Article of the Treaty of Paris to investi- gate the state of the Principalities, and to propose a basis for their organisation. When Sir Henry Bulwer was at Bucarest, an extraordinary political event occurred with regard 180 EUROPE CHECKMATED oh. to Moldavia and Wallachia. The object of the Commission was to create two separate States, for each of which a constitution was laid down. Although the people of the two Principalities wished very much to be united, the tendency of the Congress of Paris had been to keep them apart. It had also been decided that the people were to elect their own Prince. In doing so, they frustrated the views of all Europe, as by some private and secret understanding both principalities elected the same candidate, Colonel Couza, henceforward called Prince Couza. The two Principalities together now take the name of the kingdom of Roumania. The instructions given to Sir Henry Bulwer as Commissioner by Lord Clarendon are interesting, showing, as they do, the divergences existing between the different Powers that signed the Treaty of Paris. Austria and the Porte were vehemently opposed to the union of the Provinces, which France, on the other hand, as strongly supported ; while Russia was known to be favour- able, and expressed a desire to defer to the wishes of the inhabitants. It had been a matter of discussion whether Prussia and Sardinia should be represented on this Commission. The interests of those Powers in the questions to be discussed were remote, and Lord Palmerston's Cabinet considered that advantage would have resulted from their not taking part, as the chances of a divergence of opinion would have proportionately diminished ; but the Prussian O '5 02 xv AN EASY BERTH 181 Government expressed an earnest desire to be represented, and the Sardinian Government did the same. In 1858, Sir Henry Bulwer was appointed Ambassador at Constantinople. There I paid him a visit in 1864, when 1 was introduced to Prince Couza, who had come to pay his respects to the Sultan, and was then living in a palace lent to him at the Sweet Waters of Asia. This is rather anticipating matters, but I claim the right of anachronism. Most of the stories about Sir Henry Bulwer were, no doubt, invented, but I myself, when at Constantinople, was witness to one remarkable choice of a secretary. I found with the Ambassa- dor an old Irishman, considerably over seventy, whom he had known in Paris in opulent circum- stances. When this poor man was ruined, Sir Henry Bulwer, as a last resort, offered to make him his secretary, and he came to Constantinople, where he was very much out of water. He con- sulted me what should be done. " You know," he said, " that Sir Henry Bulwer is kind enough to make me his secretary. I have been here for some time, but I do not recollect that he has ever employed me. Oh yes," he added, " he did once. He asked me to direct some anvelqpes." Another incident illustrative of Sir Henry Bulwer's peculiarities was his purchase of an island called Plati, in the Sea of Marmora. He thought it might be developed into an enormous market- 182 ECCENTRICITIES ch. garden, and here he also intended to breed those large white donkeys, which are especially used, I think, by Armenians. Some are of great height, standing as high as ponies, and costing often two hundred pounds. This part of his project did not succeed, as one day a special boat was sent to tell him that the donkeys had created the most terrible ravages, pulling down the fences and destroying the shrubs. I believe that he subsequently sold the island to the Khedive. I merely mention these peculiarities to prove the utter hollowness of the bitter opposition shown to him by some inferior minds. Sir Henry Bulwer, in addition to his great abilities, was a man of the most obliging nature and affectionate disposition, and wished to do well for every one. I have found as regards other distinguished diplomatists that there has always been a clique to run them down. Such was the case with Lord Stratford and Sir James Hudson, as well as Sir Henry Bulwer. I do not believe anything more serious than such eccentricities as I have mentioned could be alleged against him, but I well recollect the bitterness with which he was assailed. When Sir Henry Bulwer was first appointed Ambassador at Constantinople, it was decided that Lord Stratford, who had so long been Ambassador there, should return on a special mission to deliver his letters of recall. Though outwardly on good terms, it was generally known that great irritation existed between them. xv A DIPLOMATIC SERMON 183 One Sunday the two Ambassadors went to church, and sat in the same pew. The chaplain — not a man of remarkable tact — thought he would reconcile them from the pulpit, and took for his text 2 Cor. v. 10, " We are ambassadors . . ." and proceeded as follows : — There are heavenly ambassadors and earthly ambassa- dors, and the earthly ambassadors are divided into classes. There are ambassadors ordinary and ambassadors extra- ordinary. There are ministers and there are charges d'affaires. If any of you who are now listening to me belong to those categories, let me recommend you earnestly, as a heavenly ambassador, to live at peace one with the other. No doubt the clergyman's recommendations were fully appreciated by the two earthly Ambassadors. This reminds me of a story of a former Am- bassador at Constantinople, Lord Ponsonby. He was once sent to some distant post on board a ship commanded by a naval officer called Phillimore. On one occasion they entered on some discussion, in which Lord Ponsonby obtained rather the best of the argument. Captain Phillimore thereupon put the Ambassador under arrest. This Captain Phillimore was well known for the extraordinary nature of his correspondence. In his time it was the custom for Lords of the Admiralty, when writing despatches to commanders of ships at vast distances, to sign themselves " Your affectionate friends." It was considered a kindness to show friendliness towards them, and to show they were not forgotten. When 184 ' YOUR AFFECTIONATE FRIEND' ch. Captain Phillimore obtained command of a ship, lie answered a despatch from the Lords of the Admiralty, signing himself "Your affectionate friend." The Admiralty did not quite appreciate this, and sent a despatch saying that, though the Lords of the Admiralty wrote in this manner to a captain at a distance from home, it was not con- sidered necessary for the captain to answer with the same formula. To this Captain Phillimore replied : I have received your Lordships 1 despatch, and can assure you that I will never again sign myself — Your affectionate friend, Phillimore. Sir Henry Bulwer's conversation was not only agreeable but very instructive. He was continually quoting aphorisms, and once gave me a collection of maxims, written by himself, which I published some years ago as an article in the Nineteenth Century. Lamenting his age, he used to say it reminded him of the Due de Richelieu, who, on being told by a lady that he was not really old, replied, " I know that I am old, for there is one certain sign of it. When I was young, if I paid a compliment to a lady, she took it for a declaration. Now, if I make a declaration, she takes it for a compliment." In 1870, when travelling abroad, I received at Vienna a message from Sir Henry Bulwer that he was at Trieste, staying with Charles Lever, whom we had both known so well at Florence. I went to see him. He was on his way to Egypt for xv ROBERT LYTTON 185 his health, and died on his journey home, I think at Naples. Mr. Robert Lytton, who afterwards obtained such distinction as poet under the name of " Owen Meredith," as Ambassador, and as Viceroy of India, was the nephew of Sir Henry Bulwer, and son of Sir Edward Lytton, the well-known novelist, orator and statesman, whose friendship I also enjoyed, thanks to my acquaintance with his brother and son. By the way, I recollect hearing Sir Robert Peel, in the House of Commons, characterise Sir Edward Lytton and Mr. Disraeli as " two fashion- able novelists." Through life, Robert Lytton and I were very intimate. He was best man at my wedding, and I was trustee to his marriage settlement, and had a considerable amount of business in connection with the details of his marriage. Mr. Lytton proved by his subsequent life that eminent merit and ability which were universally recognised. He had the same affectionate dis- position as the rest of his family, and, in addition, an extraordinary plasticity of accomplishment. I have seen him at work on philosophical instruments and on toys. He was equally capable of modelling a piece of sculpture and of constructing a fire- balloon. He was a great favourite with Lord Beacons- field, and also with Lord Salisbury. As I shall not return to his Indian career, it will perhaps not be out of place here to introduce an interesting 186 BEACONSFIELDS SUPPORT ch. letter he wrote to me in October 1879, relative to the Afghan War : — I am extremely grateful for your verv kind and considerate letter written after your visit to Hughenden. It is, of course, an immense comfort and support to me to feel that I have the continued confidence of the Chief in this new and very trying phase of our Afghan difficulties. I feel most keenly the cruel position in which the Ministry is placed by so wholly unexpected and unmerited a blow. And you may be sure that my utmost, endeavours will be directed, as they have hitherto been, to strengthen the hands of the Prime Minister, and enable him to meet Parliament in the strongest position on this question that is compatible with due regard to those paramount national interests which are systematic- ally ignored by a thoroughly unscrupulous Opposition. I am persuaded that a sacrifice of those interests would not really strengthen the present position or future reputation of the Government, and the task now before us is full of difficulties. I am not yet in a position to indicate any definite course of action. Such a course, to be safe and sound, must be guided by a much fuller knowledge than we yet possess of the circumstances of the massacres, and the present condition of the Afghan Provinces ; but, what- ever it may ultimately be, I feel confident that the final result of it will be an accession of strength to the Empire and of credit to Her Majesty's Government. "Thy servant slew the lion and the bear, and who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should fear him ? 11 As soon as I am able to see my way more clearly to a practical solution of the problem, I will gratefully avail myself of your friendly offer, and furnish you with a full and early explanation of all my plans and proposals, and all the facts in reference to which they are formed. Nothing that has occurred shakes my faith in the sound- ness of the policy which resulted in the Gundamak Treaty. In my mind the aims and principles of that policy remain not only unchanged but confirmed by all that has happened ; though I recognise the necessity of a considerable change in xv AFGHANISTAN 187 some of its methods. It is no longer possible to leave independent of our supervision and control the internal administration of any Afghan Government whose existence is dependent on our support, and, in the present condition of the country, no stable Afghan Government could exist without our support. Abuses must be reformed and griev- ances redressed with a strong hand. The people will welcome any authority that does this for them. I mean the real people — not the scoundrelism just now collected at Kabul. And to any future arrangement, of a formal or permanent character, the Sirdars must certainly be interested and recognised parties, in accordance with the policy which has answered so well in Beluchistan. Afghanistan has at all times been a thoroughly artificial political unit. The natural tendency to disintegration is now so strong that I think it cannot be wisely disregarded or opposed ; but the control of it is in our hands. I was always persuaded — and this I told the Ameer — that the Treaty of Gundamak was the last chance left for the integrity of the Afghan Kingdom. Meanwhile the value of the new frontier secured by that Treaty has been con- spicuously proved by the rapidity with which, I trust, we shall have occupied Kabul before this letter reaches you, notwithstanding the desperate defence of the city which is going on while I write, and also by the ease with which we have already reoccupied Kandahar, where our return is welcomed, as that of a deliverer, by the whole population of Western Afghanistan. The Ameer, his Sirdars and Ministers, the Herati Colonels and the Kabul people, were all convinced that it would be impossible for us to move forward in any force before the spring of next year ; and they have been quite bewildered by the failure of this calculation, on which they had made all their plans. But had the crisis found us confined to our old frontier, the calculation would have been perfectly correct. I will take the earliest practical opportunity of writing to you fully on the whole situation ; and meanwhile believe me, my dear Wolff, with renewed thanks for your kind and encouraging letter — Yours very sincerely, Lytton. 188 MARRIAGE oh. P.S. — I trust you left Lord Beaconsfield in good health. Were he only twenty years younger I should feel much greater confidence than I do now in the destinies not only of the Government but of the country. A Bengalee paper said of Sir George Campbell, M.P., " He thought himself the Cactus Grandiflora of Bengal, and flouted the native gentlemen with contumelious lip ; but the House of Commons soon stripped him to rags and tatters, and exposed his cui bono in all its naked hideousness. r> Pray remember me to Lady Wolff. L. In 1891, when on my way to Bucarest where I was Minister for a short time, I stayed in Paris in order to see Lord Lytton. I had been ill for many months, and had been obliged to leave Persia. From a hotel in the Faubourg St. Honore, where I was staying, I sent to ask when I could see the Ambassador. I was told that he was not well, and I was obliged to go on my journey. The next day I heard that he had died suddenly while writing. When living in Florence I became engaged, and we were married very quietly at the Consulate at Leghorn. My best man, as I said before, was Mr. Lytton. Sir Henry Bulwer gave away the bride, and her bridesmaids were the two daughters of Lady Walpole, Miss Du Boulay, and an Italian lady. From Leghorn we went to Lucca for a few days, and thence to Carrara. Nothing can be more beautiful than its marble quarries : they are at the top of a mountain. The road leading there is on the border of a clear, rapid stream, and strewn with fragments of white marble dropped xv CARRARA 189 from the carts that carry it down to the sea. We ascended this road on donkeys. There was little to see at Carrara, except an opera-house made of marble, where there was a company of great merit. We stayed there with the British Consul, Mr. Walton, a kind and hospitable gentleman, full of good feeling and in- telligence. His one peculiarity was that, though between sixty and seventy, he was always dwelling on the sad fact that he was an orphan. Whenever we said anything in admiration of his attachment to some relatives in England, he used to answer, " We are all orphans." On returning from Carrara, we stayed for a few days at the villa of Mr. Spence, one of the " lions " of Florence. He was a painter, an excellent com- panion, and a man of great humour. He had been married to an Italian lady, who had died, and his house and children were governed by his sister- in-law. After this visit we took boat at Leghorn, and proceeded to Naples, where we remained for some time. CHAPTER XVI British Legation at Naples — Neapolitan society — English visitors — Lord and Lady Holland — Letters — Anecdotes of Popes At Naples we found a most agreeable and in- teresting society. Sir William Temple, brother of Lord Palmerston — to whom the latter was much attached — was Minister, and maintained the credit of his country with great dignity. His position was a very difficult one in consequence of the differences between Lord Palmerston and the various absolute Governments, and on account of the opposition of England to the oppressive policy of the King of Naples, known as Bomba. Sir William Temple was very different from his brother. With all his bonhomie, he had a manner quite the contrary of Lord Palmerston's. He was very quiet — almost shy — and from a- long diplomatic career had learnt to moderate the expression of his political feeling. He was, however, much liked at Naples by the great mass of the people, though some were afraid to consort with him, knowing that he was looked upon with disfavour by the Neapolitan Court. Besides the Minister, the British Legation 190 ch. xvi LEGATION AT NAPLES 191 consisted of Mr. William Lowther as Secretary, the father of the present Speaker ; Mr. Clare Ford, whom I had known in London, and who was subsequently Ambassador at Madrid, Constan- tinople, and Rome ; and Mr. Fagan, who had long lived in Italy, and whose mother was an Italian. In consequence of this, and the fact that he spoke the language like a native, he was mis- trusted by the authorities, and the following curious incident occurred. I quote from a newspaper of the day : — A few evenings since Mr. Fagan, First Attache to the British Legation at Naples, was charged by his Minister with a commission to Prince Satriano, the Superintendent of Theatres. To execute it he was obliged to go to the Teatro del Fondo, the commission being simply to request a benefit for Signora Paressa, an English lady now singing in Naples. On his entering the Prince's box, the Director (Minister) of Police, who was opposite, began to make signs of the greatest anger and the most menacing gesticulations in that direction, to the great astonishment of Prince Satriano, who was unable to divine the reason of it. On the following day the Director sent for Signor Attanasio, one of the employes of the Superintendenza, and, heaping the lowest insults on Prince Satriano for having received such a man as Signor Fagan, who was stigmatised as a birbante assassmo, and an enemy of the King, ordered him to inform the Prince that he prohibited him from ever again receiving Mr. Fagan in his box. Another attache to the Legation was Mr. Fletcher Norton, son of Mrs. Norton, the authoress, poetess, and beauty, who was a sister of the Duchess of Somerset and Lady Dufferin. Mrs. Norton herself was in Naples, during the 192 THE EVIL EYE oh. greater part of our stay, with her son Brinsley. M. Barrot, whom I have mentioned already, was the French Minister. There also resided at Naples Mr. Augustus Craven, who had been in diplomacy. He had a very pleasant and hospitable house, where he gave not only dinners, but private theatricals. His wife was by birth Mademoiselle de la Ferronaye : she was much liked in all European society. The Russian Minister was a man well known in the world — Count Chreptovitch. He had married a daughter of Count Nesselrode, a very acute and clever woman. Later on he was accredited to London, but before long gave way to Baron Briinnow, who had been Minister before the war. A curious incident occurred while I was at a ball at their house. The Russians have a sweetmeat made of sugar, manipulated in a certain fashion until it assumes the form of a reed- plant. Guests break pieces off from the points of the leaves to eat. On this particular occasion, there was present a Neapolitan who had the character of possessing la jettatura, or the evil eye, so that anything he looked upon underwent some mis- fortune. As I was standing near the imitation reed, which formed the principal ornament of the table, he came and, like every one else, broke off the end of a leaf. As he touched it, the whole thing came down with a crash. I had met this gentleman at Florence, and knew of his reputation. When this occurred I saw him turn perfectly xvi ENGLISH IN NAPLES 193 white : he made some exclamation of annoyance, and left the house. We also made the acquaintance at Naples of Count and Countess Bernstorff, whom we sub- sequently knew very well in London, where he succeeded Baron Bunsen. He was here for a long- time, and was much liked. I still possess the card inviting us to the great ball given by them at Prussia House, at which the Queen and Prince Albert were present, at the time of the Crimean War. Amongst the Italians of whom we saw a good deal were the Marchese Caracciolo and his younger brother, the Duke of St. Arpino. Both were sons of the Duke of San Teodoro. Marchese Carac- ciolo married the widow of Lord Burghersh. He succeeded first to the title of his younger brother, who died, and later on to that of his father. Other Italians who lived very much with the English and spoke our language were the Duke of Forli and Prince Dentice. The young men of Naples who had sympathy with England all bought English bulldogs, whom they used to address in such terms as, " G — d— you, come here, bulldog ! " The Court lived in great seclusion and gave no entertainments. The only hospitality shown by royalty was the reception of morning visits by the Count and Countess de Trapani. She was a Tuscan princess. There were also some very interesting French plays given from time to time by the vol. i o 194 LORD AND LADY HOLLAND ch. Count of Syracuse, in which members of Nea- politan society took part. I recollect that on one occasion the celebrated French song "La corde sensible" was excellently sung by Count Marcello Gallo, said to be a descendant of Marcellus Gallus. This brought the old world and the new somewhat close together. There were a great many travellers, some of whom I have already mentioned, having known them in Florence, amongst others Colonel West, a son of Lord De La Warr. In Naples we met Mr. and Lady Hermione Graham, who were only just married. She was a niece of Mrs. Norton, and we saw them constantly, as Sir William Temples friends all lived in a little clique, dining together almost every day. But the great feature of society was the house of Lord and Lady Holland, the Palazzo Rocella. In their home was one continual round of enter- tainment. Though Lord Holland was a strong Liberal, and came of a staunch Liberal family, he was acceptable to the whole of Neapolitan society. Lord Holland was a relative of Lady Walpole, and her trustee — Mr. Spencer Walpole also being a member of the trust. Lady Holland was through life a great friend of my wife's, and we still possess many letters of hers giving the most interesting social and political news. I have many reasons for gratitude to Lord Holland up to the time when I left England in 1859, the year he died. He had three houses xvi LORD PALMERSTONS DEATH 195 besides the one already mentioned : Holland House in London, St. Anne's Hill, Chertsey, and a house in Paris, which they visited occasionally. All four were made pleasant to the guests admitted to them, and, wherever Lord and Lady Holland lived, there was always to be found the cream of social success. One of their great friends was a gentleman named Ridgway, an old man with curly hair, who was related, I believe, to the publishing firm. He was very rich, giving constant dinners, and was always making little presents to ladies. Two of Lord Holland's special intimates were M. Masson and the Comte de Pontois, who had been French Ambassador at Constantinople. Like many of their friends, M. Pontois was an Orleanist, while M. Masson was also a politician of great modera- tion. In a letter written to my wife by Lady Holland, she says : — I will transgress your orders and answer your kind line, for this reason, that as you happen to mention M. Masson and Count Pontois, I feel an itching to tell you that the former has just been named Prefet du Dipartement du Nord, and the other has been made happy by the restitution of that part of his pension of retired Ambassador of which he had been most iniquitously deprived. Shortly after Lord Palmerston's death Lady Holland wrote as follows : — I am very unhappy about poor Palmerston. He is the last of the set I remember at Holland House when I entered it, and she has ever been a kind and true friend to me. I have had a long letter from Fanny Jocelyn. She says her mother is weak, but bears up and is calm and resigned — 196 THE COMMUNE oh. happy that he went first, as she feels she was essential to him, which is perfectly true. Another time she writes : — Poor Lord Dalling ! It has been a grief — a great grief — to all of us. He had token a fancy to Mary, 1 and their correspondence was regular and charming. It is a heavy penalty for life, that of losing dear friends. The following was written when Paris was destroyed, during the Commune : — You come to me for consolation ! Alas ! I am in the depths of despondency. I regret to have lived to see such horrors. Vandalism in the nineteenth century ! Oh, what a people ! Voltaire says — where ? I forget — " singes et tigres." I cannot forgive the sinners the faults they have committed. J. Favre and Thiers are cause of all — not to disarm, then going to Versailles, and taking two months to collect an army which now will be one of the great difficulties, leaving time for the perpetration of horrors. A male population of upwards of a million supine while their capital was being prepared for utter destruction ! You ask me if any of my political habitues know where the country is drifting. My habitues are few just now. Poor old Pontois has received the last Sacrament at Boulogne-sur-Mer, but has rallied since. Broglie is gone to look after his wounded son. I have a letter from a friend just fresh from Versailles. He says he can't find a solution for the present difficulties, and adds: "Monsieur Thiers joue les monarchistes blancs et tricolores. Les republicains jouent M. Thiers. Les