LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM j^UUuncthcLsn & er killi-il in action, Sept. Utk, J91U LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM > ^ 1877-1913 COMPILED BY GUY WYNDHAM VOL. II EDINBURGH: PRIVATELY PRINTED T. AND A. CONSTABLE PRINTERS TO HIS MAJESTY 1915 CONTENTS CHAPTER IX NOVEMBER 1900 TO FEBRUARY 1905 PACK Chief Secretary of State for Ireland The South African War- The Land Bill' The Development of the State ' .1 CHAPTER X MARCH 1905 TO JANUARY 1906 Illness and journey abroad Lecture on Ronsard Election Campaign ....... 121 CHAPTER XI JANUARY 1906 TO APRIL 7ra 1908 In Opposition The Education Bill Death of W. E. Henley- Address on Walter Scott The Fiscal Question The Army The Licensing Bill . . . . . .177 CHAPTER XII APRIL 1908 TO JANUARY 1910 The Asquith Ministry Dover Pageant Dover Harbour Cavalry Manoauvres Francis Thompson's ' Shelley ' Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh The Education Bill France General Election Campaign ..... 299 vi LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM CHAPTER XIII FEBRUARY 1910 TO MAY 1911 PAGE In Opposition Army Debate France His Parents' Golden Wedding His Rectorial Address ' The Springs of Romance' The General Election His Father's Death . . 384 CHAPTER XIV JUNE 1911 TO JUNE 1913 Wookey Hole The 'Die Hard' Movement His Silver Wedding The Chapel at Clouds His Library His Son's Engage- ment and Marriage Rural England .... 447 INDEX TO THE LETTERS 557 CORRIGENDA VOL. II. P. 23, 1. 25, read ' promontory ' for ' promenade. P. 31, 1. 9, read ' man or a mouse.' P. 257, 1. 2, read 'Letters' for 'letter.' P. 365, 1. 2, read ' Hewins' for 'Henins.' P. 435, 1. 3, read 'goal' for 'gold.' P. 482, 1. 12, read 'Calveley' for 'Calverley.' P. 486, 1. 14, read 'measure' for 'mitre.' P. 555, 1. 20, read 'my' for 'any.' LETTERS CHAPTER IX NOVEMBER 1900 TO FEBRUARY 1905 Chief Secretary of State for Ireland The South African War The Land Bill 'The Development of the State.' 417 To his Father CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE, DUBLIN CASTLE November VJth, 1900. MY DEAREST PAPA, Old Briggs has written to me also. It is a ' distinction ' to be out of the Cabinet anyway. I have been here a week and find plenty to do and many interests and memories. I ride in the Phoenix 8.30 to 9.30, breakfast at 10, read papers, to Castle at 11.30 and leave at 6 o'clock. Everyone is very kind but I see rocks ahead. I return to London December 7th ; if you could start not before 10th or 12th I should see you and Mamma and Perf . We shall be at ' 35 ' from 7th to end of session about 17th Dec. then back here for Christmas and until the House meets in February. We have handed Saighton over to Bendor pro tern, so as to confirm our resolution not to be absentees. Best love to Mamma and Ditchmouse. Your loving son, GEORGE. 418 To Charles T. Gatty CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE, DUBLIN CASTLE, 1? 'th November 1900. MY DEAR OLD CHARLES, I find that the Government of this country is carried on by continuous conversation. VOL. II. A 2 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I have now been talking and listening for a week. That is why I am so late in thanking you for your congratulations. I am already intensely interested hi my work here. You simply must come and stay with us hi January. Nice house, Phoenix Park, divine view of Wicklow Hills, golden and green glamour over everything, Celtic twi- light always on tap Religion, Comparative Mythology, Ethnology, round the corner. Come, my dear, and do Celtic Crosses, the Book of Kells, or what you will, provided you come. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 419 To his Sister, Madeline CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHgue, sending a communique to the Press, all as if there was any amount of time and no difficulties and the kindness beaming every moment more benignant and all-embracing. Off I went in a steam pinnace, landed under an awning of white and old gold in stripes eighteen inches wide. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 71 On the wide red carpet were Duchess of Connaught, two little princesses and Lady Dudley in chairs ; Dudley and Vice-Regal Court, the Deputation, and beyond State carriages, escort, soldiers, crowds, grand-stands packed, and, to the booming of salutes from all the grey monsters, the King's barge of deep navy blue with a huge Royal ensign, was pulled up by 12 blue-jackets. It was the first of many moments that thrilled. We drove, mostly at a walk, through 11 miles of bunting and cheering crowds ; growing denser and more vociferous. It culminated in the triangular space bounded by Trinity College and the old Parliament House. My companions of the English Court began to admit that the people were really there and really jubilant. Every window and housetop was packed. The Bands took up ' God save the King ' for mile after mile ; the colours fell flat in the mud as the Sovereign passed. They cheered me a good deal, and the Land Bill and Wolseley and Bobs. As we reached the Vice-Regal the sun went in and the rain, poured down. The King and Queen shook hands with us all, seeming as ever to be in no hurry and only engaged in making every one happy. This and the prolonged roar, blare, glare, glitter and glamour of two variegated, agitated, sonorous hours, telescoped the long, grey expectation of the morning, so that Kingstown and the Fleet became old memories, and the moon over Holyhead Harbour an experience in another life. (Aside to Pamela) ' I doubt whether a letter on this scale can be finished However. . . .' At my Lodge I found Sibell, Ormonde, Constance Butler, Dunraven and Lady vague as usual ; and Col. Brock, the Queen's Equerry, and many more, then or later, for I have no recollection of the people who have slept and fed here. Tuesday evening we dined at Vice-Regal Lodge with the King and Queen. I sat next to Princess Victoria. She is good, gentle and sensible and absolutely unselfish. We had great fun ; Lady Gosford on my right ; the Queen giving us little nods and smiles, pretending to be shocked 72 and being amused at our laughing and chatter. Lady Gosford, wife of an ultra landlord, has made friends with me, and frankly acknowledges that the people do cheer the King more than in Scotland or London. The Queen talked to me after dinner and is delicious. Wednesday 22nd. Started at 10 a.m., with Ormonde in full fig, sociable and pair, etc. Was cheered on the way. Chaffed Ormonde for being in infantry uniform. He explained that he was Colonel of the Kilkenny Militia, ' a fine lot of rebels, but they fought wonderfully well in South Africa.' In St. Patrick's Hall, Arthur Ellis and others coached us. I knew my part pretty well, but it is a strain to cling to the King's reply and learn up all the deputations in their order. There were 82 of them. The roar of cheers r ' God save the King,' clatter of the escort, and we process and group ourselves about the Throne. I stood on the steps and presented each of the 82 deputations. They were to present the addresses. But they did anything but that ; shook the King's hand and marched off with address under arm ; were retrieved and address extracted. The last touch came, when the spokesman of the Land Surveyors touched the tip of the King's fingers, shot the address into the waste-paper basket (into which I threw the cards after calling the names) and bolted at five miles an hour. The Queen was very naughty and did her best to make me laugh, so that my next was delivered in quavering tones. Yet the Queen did this in such a way as to make everyone, including the culprit, feel comfortable and witty. I cannot adequately express the kindness and coolness of the King. He coached them in a fat, cosy whisper ' Hand me the address,' and then accepted it with an air and gracious bow, as if gratified at finding such adepts in Court ceremonial. The only people who approached him in simplicity and charm, were the two carmen who presented an address signed by 1200 jarveys. Only the Irish can do these things. They had not put on Sunday best, but their best ordinary clothes, scrupulously brushed. They never TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 73 faltered and invented something between a bow and a curtsey that seemed exactly appropriate. After that a levee of 1500. We all got tired ; for the sun beat in on our eyes. It did, however, come to an end. There was just time to get back, lunch and change into frock coat, then off to Vice -Regal to see the King at 3.30. He, in no hurry and, if possible, with greater kind- ness, discussed many points which had arisen, suggested emendations in replies, all of them happy and dead on the Bull's eye. At 4 p.m. I started with King, Queen and Princess Victoria. He has always made me drive in their carriage. The enthusiasm of the crowd was even greater than on Tuesday. For 3 miles to Trinity one roar of cheers and frenzy of handkerchiefs. Every woman with a baby in Dublin was there to jump him up and down at the King ; every ragged urchin, every sleek shopkeeper every rough, every battered old Irish- woman with jewel eyes in wrinkled Russian leather face. They do not say ' God save the King ' as we do, anyhow. They lift their hands to Heaven to imprecate ' God BLESS the King,' as if adjuring the Deity to fulfil their most ardent desire and His most obvious duty. You may have read of Trinity. The papers did not repeat the drive back. We returned by Sackville Street the finest in Dublin and here the people became merely delirious. They worked themselves into an ecstasy and all sang ' God save the King.' The Queen kept pointing to this or that tatterdemalion saying ' The poorer they are, Mr. Wyndham, the louder they cheer.' We went on through the poorest parts by North Circular road, and ever and always, there was the same intense emotion. It brought tears to the Queen's eyes, and a lump in my throat. No one who did not drive in their carriage will ever know how mesmeric it was. It made me understand the Mussulman conquests and the Crusades. For here was a whole population in hysteria. Polo was still going on as we neared the Vice- Regal Gates and at the end of such a day nothing would serve but that we should drive on to the grass. The Queen asked them to play an extra ten minutes, for the 74 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM game was over. And they did play to the tune of ' If doughty deeds my lady please.' Nobody, how- ever, was killed. Though in one charge they drove a pony on to the rail, and turned him and rider head over heels into the spectators. We had a dinner party that night. Thursday 23rd. Presented colours to the Hibernian School of little soldier boys. And then to the Review. This was the culmination. We rode in a cavalcade from the Vice-Regal, grooms, escort, etc., then the King and Duke of Connaught. He asked me to ride just behind him with Duke of Portland. I wore my Yeomanry uniform and rode a little thoroughbred mare I had commandeered from the 21st Lancers. As we started the royal salute opened. At the Gate a scene, which I shall never forget, began. The Phoenix monument was a pyramid of mad humanity, screaming, blessing, waving hats and hand- kerchiefs, and so on down an interminable lane of frenzied enthusiasm. I love riding and a row ; but never before, or again, shall I witness such a sight. Some people thought it dangerous. But our blood was up and the King paced on perfectly calm among dancing dervishes and horses mad with fear and excitement. Even the horses of the Blues got quite out of control, rearing and pirouetting. It looked as if they must knock the King over. But as they plunged towards him, the Duke of Connaught or Roberts moved between and Portland or self backed up. You must imagine 100 acres of green sward, framed by trees, with the mountains beyond changing under shafts of light between storms that never burst. There were thunderstorms all round ; but a sheet of burning sunshine on the review. The horses, maddened by the cheers from a Nation, did knock down the whole of the Admirals and Captains specially invited from the Fleet. We rode away and down the line, my mare just behaved with enough spirit. And now, as I tell you everything, I will tell you two things that pleased me. Yesterday, a carman said to me ' We knew you in your uniform and watched you all the time with glasses TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 75 from the wall.' And that afternoon the Queen said to me ' How beautifully you ride.' She knows how to say what will please. Overnight Osbert Lumley told me that the great point, the 4 clou ' as they say in France, was to be that the cavalry would line the whole route back to the Vice- Regal gates. This nearly settled the business. The stupendous cheering and surging of the crowds drove the horses out of their senses. Groups screamed at us out of the trees overhead, women and children wriggled through the horses' legs to get nearer. They knocked over Arthur Ellis, who is laid up with gout in consequence. A Lancer's chestnut horse put his fore-feet almost on to my shoulders. The King paced on and lit a cigarette, bowing and smiling and waving his hand to the ragamuffins in the branches. That finished me and now I love him. When we dis- mounted he laughed, thanked us all, and beamed enough to melt an iceberg. Sir William Ewart said to me that he had never seen such enthusiasm even for the late Queen. It is of no use to try and describe it ; but a great possession to have been there. In the afternoon we went to races, in the evening to dine with the Connaughts. It was memorable. The avenue to the Royal Hospital was festooned with Chinese lanterns. We banquetted in the great Hall of old oak, hung with armour. We sat down at two gigantic round tables, 32 at each, laden with roses. But I begin to tire and so do you. After that we had a court at the Castle. My solace and keen pleasure was to stand near the Queen. Her Garter ribband brought out the blue of her eyes. Her cramoisie train was hung to her shoulders by great jewels of dropping pearls. She had a high open- work lace collar, a breastplate and gorget you may say of diamonds and ropes of round pearls falling to her lap. And she is an Angel. We got to bed about 3 a.m. Friday 24th. This is described in the papers. We slummed together in the most squalid streets. The bare- legged children and tattered members of the submerged, hurra-ed themselves hoarse and, incidentally, smashed 76 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Portland's hat, with a hard, heavy bunch of cottage flowers, dog-daisies and sweet peas tied up to the con- sistency of a cabbage. But this is enough. We went to Maynooth in the afternoon by train see papers and on the way back, with their supernatural kindness the King and Queen came here and loitered and talked and thanked and overpraised and made me love them just as if they had done nothing and had nothing to do except to please Sibell and myself. ' Kindness like this is genius ' and the line as Bossuet wrote it may stand for Her ; only it is sweetness as much as beauty. In the evening we went to a Party. The King kept me after all were gone, showed the most eager desire to under- stand every twist in the Labyrinth of Irish life and was so kind to me that I cannot speak of it. Yesterday, we saw them off, and I agreed in sentiment with an old Irishwoman on the platform, who just sobbed, saying, ' Come back, Ah ! ye will come back ! ' That was the cry that pierced through the blaring of the bands, and the Blessings and the cheers. ' Come back ' they kept calling in every street. And these are the people whom some call disloyal. Your most loving brother, GEORGE. 484 To his Mother CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, August 23rd, 1903. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your letter and am truly thankful to think of you safe and sound at Clouds. We are here, very happy together : Sibell, Perf, Minnie and old Guy alone till to-morrow when our Horse Show guests arrive. I made a brilliant recovery from my chill and think that it economises time to be definitely ill for two days after a long session. It rests me and starts me on another scale of easier life. Darling Minnie and all of us had great disappointment TO HIS MOTHER 77 this morning. Guy has not got his extension of leave. It is purely damnable. On the other hand, Ned Talbot says 16th will be next for home. Our party has expanded in the most extraordinary way owing to nice people inviting themselves. We shall be Sibell, Perf, self ; Guy, Minnie, Madge, Geoffrey ; Lord and Lady Rossmore ; two Secretaries, ' Mr. Ho. and Mr. Ha.' l The above are party as contemplated. To which add Leinster, and Mr. Victor Corkran asked at odd moments and, Shelagh, Molly Crighton, Lady Mab Crighton who invited themselves by telegram. So we rely once more on the elasticity of an Irish house. Guy and I come to you on the 1st. We cannot get to you on the 31st without travelling on Sunday night. We could shoot Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Just off to Church at Hibernian school. I am very happy here and have quite broken the ' wheel of thought ' in my old noddle. I hope to cheer Minnie up with horse-show and polo and races, and a fiddler, one evening, for Madge. The Irish climate is most soothing. Thank Papa for his letter. The writer in the * Times ' is my friend Street, who knows Pamela. Papa would delight in him. He was one of dear Henley's young men, clean shaved, chubby, rosy-gilled, sedate, literary, humourous, old Tory of 1745 ; portentously wise in all but making money, a ripe, mellow, preternaturally old young-man of letters who might, for anything you can observe to the contrary, have been staying last week at Crotchet Castle. Have you ever read Peacock's ' Crotchet Castle ' and 4 Maid Marian ? ' Peacock was Shelley's and Byron's 4 Creeky-Peeky.' ' Crotchet Castle ' shows that we are no more modern and no less convinced of the folly of modernity than were sensible people one hundred years ago. Using electric lights instead of wax-candles makes no difference to good books, good company, good sense and good fellowship, and these, after all, as Arthur 1 Mr. Hornibrook and Mr. Hanson. 78 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM says (very often) in his speeches are most of life that is worth enjoying. The fourteen professors ought to have stayed at Crotchet Castle with Street. Love to all. Your devoted son, GEORGE. P.S. I mention * Maid Marian ' because you can get it in one volume with 'Crotchett Castle' and because it was written at the same time as ' Ivanhoe ' which I re- read in bed after seeing Coningsburgh a wonderful Donjon. 485 To Monsieur Auguste Rodin 35 PARK LANE, W., \st September '03. MON CHER AMI, Puis-je vraiment conter sur une visite de votre part pendant cet Automne ? Je serai chez moi en Irlande du 10 Septembre jusqu'a la fin d'Octobre : trop heureux de vous recevoir et tout dispose^ a poser pour mon buste. Mon adresse sera Right Hon ble George Wyndham, M.P., Chief Secretary's Lodge, Phoenix Park, Dublin. Je ne puis me consoler de la mort si triste de notre ami, Henley. C'etait un grand Artiste et un brave coeur mais pour moi surtout un ami sans pareil. Je suis toujours a vous, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 486 To Charles Boyd Private BBLLINGHAM CASTLE, CASTLEBELLINGHAM, IRELAND, Qth October '03. MY DEAR CHARLES, ' In spite of all temptations To belong to other nations, " I remain " as you see an I-i-i-i-rishman ! ' TO MRS. DREW 79 It is a curious development that, with Exchequer, Colonies and W.O. vacant, I should feel it an absolute duty to stay here. You will none of you excepting yourself and dear Henley when still with us quite under- stand how imperative is my duty here. If I had deserted them all, the work since A. J. B. in '87-91 would have been imperilled and the tender plant of belief in our sincerity rooted up, not even to be sown again until after another weary round of 15 or 20 years. Now it thrives and is beginning to shoot out the frailest tendril of further belief in the Empire. Will it some day receive and shelter the birds of the air ? I do not know. But just now, and without prejudice, and until cause is otherwise shown, and with all the qualifications, reserva- tions, trepidations you can suggest, they do still in fact believe in me and tremble toward a belief in the Empire because of their belief in me. By ' they ' I mean the whole lot Unionist, Nationalist, Celt, Norman, Elizabethan, Cromwellian, Williamite ; Agriculturist and Industrialist ; Educationist and Folk- lorist. What more do you want ? Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 487 To Mrs. Drew CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, October llth, 1903. ... I re-visited Mallaranny and recalled my ' plunge * into the sea. I looked back upon the vicissitudes greater than you know of the Land Act with gratitude for your sympathy of a year ago. The Cabinet crisis convinced me of the stress your Father had in his time to face. The undoubted and growing desire of many interests in Ireland to draw together and treat each other in a more kindly and reasonable spirit, and though I can scarcely breathe it to you the resurrection, in all but absolute identity, of the Irish position on Catholic University Education which your Father was prevented 80 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM from turning to account all these things bring from day to day a memory of you to my mind and an increasing wish that you would make some sign of friendship. Even if you are angry with us all politically, that would not make a difference would it ? Anyhow your Father's Life is the last touch and I must write. I wish I could see you. I stayed here to work on at the Land Question and to hope for another miracle over the University Question. That seemed a plain duty. With new English universities in Liverpool, Leeds, Man- chester (the old Victoria), Birmingham and now Sheffield, it is madness to leave Ireland once more behind. It is odious to do so out of spite or cowardice. But perhaps one cannot have two miracles in two years. I find from the note on p. 223, Vol. i., that you are my cousin, my fourth cousin, but still of my kin. For Sir W. Wyndham was my great-great-great, and apparently yours also. (He was Grandfather to Lady Glynne) That is a pleasant thought. Be very dear and write to say that, Fiscals or no Fiscals, you hope that I may do something for University Educa- tion here. But do not, as yet, say to others that I am off again after dreams. If I fail I shall help the other side when they come in to right this ancient wrong. 488 To his Father CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, October I5th, 1903. MY DEAREST PAPA, I have been commiserating with you very much. But, as you say, the big political wigs are providing a good entertainment. If anything were needed to expose the folly of those who cried ' efficiency,' and cried for ' business methods ' it is that they no longer cry for these things, but sit down in the stalls to enjoy a down-right rhetorical hammer-and-tongs set-to between the big wigs. That is what Englishmen enjoy without TO HIS FATHER 81 your excuse of convalescence. The huge blue-book of statistics ; the speeches by manufacturers, all that is expert or informed, the rival theories of economic schools, are bundled aside to a general ' Ah ' of relief and satisfac- tion, punctuated by ' go it, Joey,' ' bravo ! here 's Rose- bery in the ring ! ' Even the War Commission report is used only as a missile. South Africa, the Far East, Morocco, Ireland, the Navy may ' go hang.' Education was all very well ; but, with Nonconformists who can't fight well, or won't fight fair, it pales before a classic cam- paign of renowned gladiators. ' Heavy pounding, gentle- men, and who can pound longest ' is the one consideration. This instinct of Englishmen is probably sound. You must drop building when the battle begins. I prefer building to fighting. But, once fighting has begun, I believe in fighting hard in order to get it over and get on to building again. Arthur's ' little ministry ' is not a bad ' fighting unit.' Arnold Forster and Graham Murray are good men on the platform. Austen Chamberlain carries weight, Selborne is pretty useful. Stanley can rally Lancashire. I mean to ' lift ' the Irish division and Kent brigade. I have written to all my new colleagues welcoming them to the fray and suggesting that, for the present, they should not busy themselves in their offices but stick to hitting the other side. We must out -gun the enemy in the ' Artillery Preparation ' during the Autumn ; fire two shots to their one, and be careful not to mask each other's fire by speaking on the same day. If the press backs us the ' little Ministry ' will win as, to compare small things with great, Pitt and his young friends won after the collapse of the Rockingham Whigs. My Edinburgh meeting stands. It is on November 27th. But I feel I ought to give my own constituents the first turn. So Sibell and I come to England on Wednesday next, 21st, and on Friday, 23rd I speak at a Dover Public Meeting. On 28th I take Primrose League Banquet there. I mean also to speak at Cockermouth, or Workington, on my way from Edinburgh. VOL. II. F 82 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I shall be careful, of course, but not timid. I have ' cleared the deck,' by hard work of Land Act administra- tion, etc., and am free to collect ammunition for the campaign. My Dover friends are nervous and would like me to postpone the public meeting until after the municipal election. I do not agree. I am all for slow strategy but do not believe in dilatory tactics. Once within striking distance, hit hard and hit often, and the more so if you have been led within that distance sooner than your own judgment thought it wise We shall look you up on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning. Your loving son, GEORGE. 489 Private. To Moreton Frewen CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, DUBLIN, November 14A, 1903. MY DEAR MORETON, I am sorry to have missed you. I am disappointed and chagrined by recent events. Nor can I take the sanguine view that the Land Act will fulfil the objects of the Land Conference if it is to be assailed daily by the ' Freeman,' Davitt and Dillon. My power of usefulness to Ireland is already diminished and may be destroyed. I had convinced my colleagues, a majority of our supporters in the House, and a still larger majority in the large towns of England, that it was right in itself to foster Union among Irishmen, and to obliterate the vestiges of ancient feuds without troubling ourselves about the ultimate effect of social reconciliation on Ireland's attitude towards the ' Home Rule ' VCTSUS ' Union ' controversy. And this is set back, you cannot deal with the ' University Question ' or the ' Labourers ' question if so large and beneficent a measure of the Land Act is to be used only to divide classes more sharply. TO MORETON FREWEN 83 Take the labourer's question. All things, in the end, turn on Finance, the resources for the labourers' Acts turn ultimately on local loan stock. That stock is interwoven with all the loans of municipal corporations, etc., etc. Our credit is low. How can I negotiate for better terms, extension of period of repayment not to mention the allocation of any savings that can be effected in the cost of Irish Government if the only result of authorising a loan of 100,000,000 at 2f with a 68 years' period of redemption, is to produce a pandemonium in Ireland ? The English are very jealous of the Land Act. They want credit on easy terms for many purposes for their own labourers, for artisan dwellings, for equalizing ratec, for municipal schemes. Unless those who care for Ireland can show that the Conference and Land Act have produced social recon- ciliation, I cannot get a hearing for using Imperial credit and Irish savings in accordance with the views of a United Ireland. That is my policy. It is not heroic. But it would directly be of great benefit ; and indirectly of far greater results. There is no scope for heroic Finance just now. If, however, I had a united Irish Party, with leaders not subject to repudiation, prepared to co-operate, to a certain extent, with Irish landlords, scholars and business men, I could get Irish savings for Irish purposes and equivalent grants whenever England helps herself too freely out of the common Exchequer. My point is that I get beaten in detail if I am rebuffed by jeering allusions to Irish reconciliation. I am nearly tired out. I have been slaving away with the Treasury ; with Trinity and the Presbyterians ; with the Chairmen of Irish railways ; and had hoped to be in a position to approach Redmond preferably to approach not only the leader of the Irish Party, but something like a larger conference and to secure the united action of Ireland on Education, allotments, housing. 84 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Now I suppose it would only embarrass Redmond to meet me, or correspond on these matters. And, in any case, my position is much weaker than it was three weeks ago, because Ireland's position is weaker. So long as Dillon and the ' Freeman ' show that their object is to cut down the incomes of the landlords, it is impossible to deal with ' Evicted Tenants ' and ' Con- gestion/ and still more impossible to take on new subjects. It is very hard on Redmond that anyone should have made capital out of the sale of his estate. O'Brien ought not to have left him without warning. But I will not lose heart. There is a bad set back. I cannot be as confident as I was of having much to offer, If Dillon persists in ' wrecking,' the credit for this Land Act will not expand beyond 5,000,000 a year to the Orangemen, and their allies will criticise my reductions in the police. To put it shortly : I cannot (1) get Imperial credit ; (2) make and keep savings for Ireland if every action taken by the Government on the advice, and with the assent, of Irishmen, is used only to attack the fortunes and insult the feelings of those classes in Ireland whom the great majority of people in England feel bound to protect. On the other hand, if the English were once assured of their safety, Parliament would I believe be very ready to sanction the development of Ireland on Irish lines. This might take us very far indeed in what I believe to be the right direction. The two countries are utterly dissimilar, both in their needs and their resources, and above all, in the genius and temperament of their inhabitants. If the Irish could so far agree as to demonstrate the safety of threatened classes, and to allow them some place in local government, the English would welcome that fact as the discharge of an onerous obligation, and as time went on admit any reasonable consequences. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. TO HIS FATHER 85 490 To his Father 35 PARK LANE W., November 21st, 1903. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am not surprised at your inability to follow the ' exits and entrances ' of Irish Leaders. I understand, but it is not easy to explain. Briefly, there are two fundamental groups in Irish Nationalism: (1) The political descendants of the 'Young Irelander.' They, as a rule, wish to improve the economic and constitutional position of Ireland in order some day, to make what they hold to be better economic and constitutional terms with England. They hate the Union and hate ' British ' ideas, but, as a rule, would like to gather up all the personal resources of Ireland, Moderate landlords, the Bar, the Towns, Commerce, etc. into a more harmonious and therefore stronger Ireland hoping, immediately, to get more generous financial treatment and acquiescence to Irish modes of thought e.g. Protection, State-aid to Industry etc., and ultimately, to get Home Rule, or a large measure of Local Self Government. (2) The second group are, primarily, Agrarian Socialists and, secondarily, professional agitators who attack pro- perty and sow dissension in order to postpone any solution. Historically ; Parnell belonged to group (1) but, for a time, fused with it group (2) in his * No Rent ' agitation, in order to * kick up a dust * and collect money in America. Per contra, O'Brien belonged to group (2) but, seeing the misery and futility of Agrarian Agitation, joined Redmond in signing the Land Conference Peace. They meant to go for Class Reconciliation. But Dillon, who is a pure Agrarian sore-head, Davitt, who is a pure Revolutionary Socialist ; Sexton, Editor of the ' Freeman,' who has been left out of Parliamentary life ; joined together to ' spike ' conciliation. The high water-mark of Class Conciliation is represented by the * Irish People ' O'Brien's paper of November 7th. 86 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Immediately after publishing that, with an article in it by Dunraven praise of myself the substitution of ' shamrocks ' for crossed ' pikes and muskets ' between the paragraphs, he ' threw up the sponge,' resigned and stopped the paper. This, on the face of it, is bad. But it has frightened the moderates ; and I am re- weaving my web. The Roman Catholic Church wobbles from one side to the other. Meanwhile the dynamic finance of the Land Act con- tinues to operate and good sense will win, though not quite so soon as I might have hoped. Redmond went to Limerick a city and was well supported. His fear, and the fear also of the landlords is that I may resign in disgust. It is all to the good that they should be frightened. But I have not the slightest intention of taking their antics to heart and hope that, in some ways, all the pother will do good. Just for the moment the Irish Government is the only popular and powerful force in Irish life. This shows how right I was to stick to Ireland. If I had gone elsewhere O'Brien would have resigned and saddled me with the blame for leaving him and Redmond alone exposed to the ' Freeman,' and Davitt Dillon & Co. I have left all that in train and am concentrating on speeches at Edinburgh, November 27th : Workington, Cockermouth, a luncheon, and Liverpool. All love to all at Clouds. Your loving son, GEORGE. 491 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W. f November 22nd, 1903. MY DEAREST PAPA, Are you reading Morley's ' Glad- stone ' ? Vol. i. chapter 8, and especially pp. 254 onwards will interest you in connexion with ' Fiscals.' TO HIS MOTHER 87 It seems to me that we have paid the penalty of a historical muddle. Peel did do a great thing. Finding (i.) a deficit for three cumulative years, (ii.) indirect taxation on 1200 articles, (iii.) a corn tax pro- hibitive at 70/- a quarter, (iv.) stupid aggravations from the wooden operation of the sliding scale, (v.) the operatives in the towns at the mercy in the age of sailing ships and undeveloped continents of our own harvest ; he : (a) imposed an income tax. (b) worked towards a fixed duty on corn at 8/- (or 10/- no matter). (c) revised the taxes intelligently on 750 out of 1200 articles. That is great, intelligent work. We want to get back to a like intelligent and compre- hensive handling of these questions in the light of new conditions developed continents ; steam instead of sails ; reaping machines ; national competition ; bounties ; trusts ; dumping. We in a sense are Peelites. See specially Gladstone on p. 262. Your loving son, GEORGE. 492 To his Mother ROSSHORE, MONAGHAN, IRELAND, December 23rd, 1903. MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you a most happy Christmas. I loved your letter about Bassen- thwaite, and Withup Hill. I felt it intensely too and was in mind a boy of seven to fourteen. I think, now, that I should like to go there with you some August or September. I do not believe that either you or I have changed much inside, if at all, in the last thirty years. Anyway ghosts ought not to be unhappy. The fact that there are only a few ghosts at all, apparently, discontented about trifles seems to show that the great majority of ghosts are very happy and too absorbed in iridescent 88 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM recollections when they revisit immemorial scenes to trouble about manifesting themselves to the living. I enjoyed being a ghost all the way from Penrith to Workington with a kind of inverted home-sickness. And, in the evening, I went to a political meeting instead of a play with Mr. Holland. Otherwise it might have been the last day of the holidays in -73, -4, -5, or -6. All love to you, most Darling. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE. 493 To his Father CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, Christmas Eve, 1903. MY DEAREST PAPA, I wish you a happy Christmas and all good luck in the New Year. Perf and I had a good hunt last Saturday with the Kildares from Enfield. He went very well. In the hunting field several landlords and tenants thanked me for the Land Act. It is winning its way slowly but steadily. The English Press seems more ignorant than ever of all that happens in this country. I should have made a disastrous mistake if I had left in September. We shot Perf and I two days with Lord Rossmore. Perf shot well. I saw him kill five rabbits running rapidly among rocks and bracken and he shot two woodcock. We got twenty-three altogether yesterday and a bag of nearly 300 head, mostly pheasants and rabbits. The Cabinets have been very interesting lately ; but entail much heavy work, at them and between them. Your loving son, GEORGE. 494 To Lt.-Col. Stephen Frewen CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, DUBLIN, December 28th, 1903. MY DEAR STE, Many thanks for your letter, good wishes and ' cuttings.' My enthusiasm is not damped TO PHILIP HANSON 89 by the * Freeman.' The Land Act is winning steadily against that organ. All the ' able editors ' and ' village Solomons ' in Ireland can only delay it a little, and, with Consols at 88, that is not an unmixed evil. All the same, they were great fools to give the English an excuse for going slowly. All good luck to you in the New Year. Yours ever, GEORGE W. 495 To Philip Hanson Private and Confidential. IRISH OFFICE, OLD QUEEN STREET, S.W., 29.1.04. MY DEAR P. H., You will see by enclosed that Co. Mayo has responded. Now, can the B. of W. go ' full steam ahead ' ? Redmond has sent me a courteous notice of his intention to raise the whole question of Irish Government and inefficiency in all departments. So tremble ! I have asked U. S. to get from each Department a brief and I mean by that a brief, very brief statement of noble benefits conferred, and lavish Financial assistance. Lansdowne suggests that I should defend our old W. O. in 1899 against Robson, K.C., and the War Commission. We are ' whizzing ' over the Army and Foreign affairs. Altogether a merry tune, and I miss you. Yours ever, GEORGE W. 496 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 12.40 a.m., 24th February '04. MY DEAR P. H., I am minded to write to you, not to convey or seek information but, (observe Henley comma) merely for companionship. Your photograph hangs on my wall, bearing the significant legend 1898-1904. I 90 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM wish we could have had the last three weeks together. They have projected a reflex pale but insistent of February 1900. The Irish have, seemingly, reverted to 1 Constitutional methods ' a la Butt, which is as much as to say, polite, but insatiable, demands for information and pronouncements of policy from the Chief Secretary coupled with veiled obstruction and unabashed interrup- tion of everybody else; the whole framed in a bold declaration that they vote on all questions irrespective of their merits for the sole purpose of baiting the Govern- ment and Opposition Caesar and Pompey, very much alike, specially Pompey. I gather from A. P. MacDonnelPs postal and telegraphic and reiterated communications ' qua ' Irish University that, in Ireland, you have no conception of the Devil's own rumpus which is exploding furibondically on this side the water. I am in my element : Consols at 85 ; European complications ; unimaginable Estimates for Navy and Army ; Roberts sacked ; Protestant campaign ; no substantive legislation for any, bar Brewers ; huge deficit ; panic on Continental Bourses ; insults to Wanklyn from * my Secretary ' Moore ' Junior ' ; pistols and coffee for two, or more. Such time as I can spare from eating, sleeping and talking is spent in walking the corridors of the House, arm-in-arm with desperately earnest men. Such is life in 1904. Give me, say I, space of 4 dimensions, or the Absolute ; or the ' Plastic stress.' I ask for no more after making a speech of one hour, equally acceptable to Willie Redmond and Banbury, and equally intelligible to both. Yours ever, G. W. 497 To his Father BELVOIR CASTLE, GRANTHAM, February 2&th, 1904. MY DEAREST PAPA, We came here Saturday to Monday on a family visit of ceremony to the Duke ; TO CHARLES BO YD 91 ' uncle John ' as Sibell calls him. It is rather hard to follow the relationships owing to the length of some of the generations. The Duke's sister was SibelFs grandmother. It is curious to stay with anybody whose mother was married in the XVIIIth Century. Yet so it is. His father and mother married in 1799. My host is the great-grandson of the Marquess of Granby, Commander- in-Chief and the great -grand-uncle of Mister Percy ! I have been by way of coming here ever since I married seventeen years ago. Your loving son, GEORGE. 498 To Mrs. Drew HOUSK OF COMMONS, St. Patrick's Day, 1904. I * am little better than one of the wicked ' not to have answered before. I always love the sight of your hand- writing and I long for a talk I will not grumble hi a letter. But I am rather tired and wholly overworked. It is dear of you to tell me of books to read. But I want to see you. Could you, miraculously, come to London to go with me and Pamela to see the Irish National Theatre play at the Royalty on Saturday 26th March ? They are new and true : all light and delight. The man and woman who act have genius. Barrie tried to get her at 50 a week to act in ' Little Mary.' But they are wrapped up in their revival, and properly contemptuous. Do come. I am sure we can put you up at 35 Park Lane. I am starved of friendship. 499 To Charles Boyd HOUSE OF COMMONS, St. Patrick's Day, 1904. MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter gave me great joy in the ' companionship of your letter.' I have been 92 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM starved of friendship latterly ; overworked, and put on as a 4 smoother ' where smoothing could scarcely be. That makes for Fatigue. But, anon, we will have better times. Now as to your question : not a bracelet, or ornament. She has too many and cares not for them. If you desire to please as you do seek some old and beautiful book of Devotion ; the Life of a Saint ; a Vulgate ; an Italian crucifix ; an ivory Virgin. Or else, just a beautiful object ; a box, or enamel, etc. That is the line. Yet flowers would be as welcome. I will choose a day for dinner soon. Just now I am hypothecated body and soul, up to the armpit. Yours ever in the brotherly bond, GEORGE W. 500 To his Sister, Pamela IRISH OFFICE, Ou> QUEEN STREET, S.W., 1st May 1904. MOST DARLING PAMELA, I am glad that you spread yourself over quarto on St. George's Day. I have since then been contracted by the Royal Visit to Ireland, but, arrived this morning, I now in turn bulge out. It was a blow to miss you and the Bims at Easter. I am undergoing a phase always a welcome sign of life. It took the form of nausea at Politics, nostalgia for poetry, and a lurch in that direction ; a pious, ghostly and regretful return to * fallen places of my dead delight.' For the moment it seemed less empty than asking of the Irish * Why does one Punch-and-Judy beat the other Punch- and-Judy ? ' It feels like falling in love again with the same person. I say to poetry, as Catullus to Lesbia : ' Ut liceat nobis tota producere vita Aeternum hoc sanctae foedus amicitiae.' ' O that it may be vouchsafed to us to draw out and on through the whole of life this eternal compact of holy affection.' Instead of which . . but avaunt ! I must TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 93 get the life of Hayden ; must see you ; and meet Margaret ; l and soon. Now, my dear, the only day I can propose in any near future is Saturday the 14th May. Next Saturday, the 7th, is also possible, but probably too near. I should like to meet Margaret very much. For Whitsuntide I go to Paris to be ' busted ' by Rodin in ten days. I desire to keep touch with letters and sculpture during these divine days of spring leaves and sunshine and so keep an escape way open from the dusti- ness and fustiness of politics. I did not see your Legend of the N. W., but I heard of him and nothing that was not to his credit. The Queen was as beautiful as ever in Ireland, and the King as kind as ever. I love being with them. You would have appreciated the ' Command ' night at the theatre. The audience, 4000 in uniform and tiaras, with a gallery packed from the streets, stood up in one wave towards the Royal Box. And then the Gallery sang ' God save the King ' for two minutes, without a note from the band ; hi the same key. But I wish it meant more for Ireland ; that they were not such Punches and such Judys ; that the English were not so fulfilled with the rubbish of the moment ; in short, that people would think and feel and dream more, and fuss and scold less. Let me obey my own precept and refrain from scolding anybody. I hunger for someone to arise and write a very beautiful book, at once restrained and lyrical. 'How all impoverished and fallen from renown ' are these days ! whilst April laughs above us through her tears. Will no one shine again above the little arts and devices of a day ? ' Urit enim fulgore suo qui praegravat artes Infra se impositas; extinctus amabitur idem.' 4 For he burns with his own splendour who presses down the arts beneath his excellence ; when his light has gone out he is still loved the same.' 1 Mrs. Mackail. 94 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Well, well, I shall go out and see the green leaves and come to you by glassy waters. And the Past shall sing to us of the Future. Your most loving brother, GEORGE. 501 To his Sister, Pamela PA VILLON DE BELLEVUE. 24 Mai, 1904. DARLING PAMELO, I came to these parts as you know to be ' busted ' by Rodin, and, at last, have struck a perfect 4 pitch,' here at Belle vue. We went first to the H6tel d'lena and I hated it : darkness filled with other people's conversation through their partitions and mainly in the American voice. I pined for three days apart from Rodin, who was perfect, and two dinners at Paillard, at one of which I saw a really beautiful French woman, and learned from the waiter that she was Madame Leterrier, wife of the Editor of ' Le Journal.' We dined also with Alphonse Rothschild ; saw a beautiful Raphael, which I remembered in Rome, anno 1887, and there, too, I had a capital talk with a Marquis de Dulau ; the witty, well-bred Frenchman of the past, who make the best companions for most evenings. In politics he is a dis- enchanted Orleanist. We dejeune-ed to-day with Duchesse de Luynes, our Legitimist friend. They are children, arrested in intelligence and so narrow that you couldn't put a knife into them even if you wanted to. They hate us (as a nation ; love us as friends), hate Jews, Americans, the present and last two centuries, the Government, Rodin, the future, the Fine Arts. Apart from an arsenal of dislikes, they are unconscious of the Universe. You may imagine how I delighted in Rodin for four or five solid hours a day. I stand for hour and then talk for ten minutes. We have run over the whole Universe lightly, but deeply. His conversation is something like this : TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 95 La beaute est partout ; dans le corps humain, dans les arbres, les animaux, les collines, dans chaque partie du corps, aussi bien dans la vieillesse que dans la jeunesse. Tout est beau. Le modele n'est qu'un. Dieu 1'a fait pour re'fle'ter la lumiere et retenir 1'ombre. Si nous parlons images, c'est ainsi qu'il s'est exprime en faisant la terre. Je ne lis pas le Grec ; les Grecs me parlent par leurs ceuvres. . . . Eh bien, oui, voyez . . . (prenons un moment de repos) . . . (Showing one of his groups) . . . C'est la main de Dieu. Elle sort du rocher, du chaos, des nuages. Elle a bien la pouce d'un sculpteur. Elle tient le limon et la-dessus se creent Adam et Eve. La femme c'est la couronne de Phomme. La vie, Penergie c'est tout . . . Ces portes ? Oui, elles seront bientot finies. J'y ai travaille pendant vingt ans. Mais j'ai beaucoup appris pendant ce temps-la. D'abord, je cherchais le mouvement. Apres, j'ai su que les Grecs ont trouve la vie dans le repos. C'est tout ce qu'il faut. Ou la vie circule, la sculpture plait ! All this is Greek to Madame de Luynes ; so * nous de"testons Rodin.' Meanwhile he is there all the time, and perhaps, for all time. In any case a very great man and the greatest Dear. So here we are near his house at Meudon. This, Belle vue, is a French Richmond. We came to it, 20 minutes in a boat, and up 100 yards in a funicular. We are on a height, amid tree-tops, in silence, with the forest of Meudon behind us. We drove in it before dinner, heard the cuckoo ; smelt the damp woods, saw the sun set and dined on a terrace as the stars came out. It is an ideal spot, 20 minutes from picture galleries, and any friend you want to see such a difference and two minutes walk from a forest. Our rooms are large, light and clean and look out over the void into the stars. It is just like Cliveden. The site was chosen by Madame de Pompadour, and the ruins of her ' Brimborion ' are next the terrace, overgrown with ivy. That is all there is to tell you. I met Ian Malcolm and his wife. They reminded me 96 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM that I had promised an inscription for the cup I gave them as a wedding present, so I wrote this : ' I gave this cup, Love filled it, drink and prove How everlasting is the fount of love.' excellent advice, given in the manner of the Greek Anthology. The bust is going to be very good ; not in the least catastrophic or Demiurgic, but just simply Your devoted brother, GEORGE. P.S. Not ' in his habit as he lived,' for there are no clothes. 502 To his Sister, Pamela PAVJLLON DE BELLEVUE. 26 Mai, 1904. DARLING PAMELO, I must just add to my letter that nightingales sing here all night. I listened to them at midnight and again at 2 a.m. this morning. It is much to be on a height amid tree tops, with nightingales, six or seven, singing between you and the river below, and beyond the river, a deep violet gloom, picked out by the tearful lights of Paris. The nightingales are singing now 10.45 terrifically. I wonder what they thought of the Band which played Faust and Tristram among their trees till an hour ago ? There are soft scarfs of cloud against the stars, and sapphire darkness overhead. The acacias are Japanese in blossom. The roses ramp up old stocks. The band thank God has gone to bed, a dog is barking in Auteuil, over the river I hear the whistle and pantings of trains. And these nightingales go it jug-jug-tu-whee-whee-reu- reu-reu-whee-tu-tu-tereu, jug-jug-whee-whee, pissle-pissle- rew-too and so forth. As Rodin says it is curious that with all our Art, our sculpture, our painting, our theatres, we have done nothing so good as Nature. What an irony it is of the TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT 97 Aristophanes of Heaven that we labour, with our Imperial- isms and our Nationalisms, our gold-mines and transits, our Education (may God forgive us !) to make more people who shall see, and be able to see, the beauty of the World. And yet all the time we destroy it. Here, for how long ? for a year or two more, the old road reaches in zig-zag up a forbidding ascent of cobble- stones to forests as they were in the 13th century. The river flows 100 yards below. And beyond the dog barks, as when he guarded savages in their wattled forts. But further the trains pant and rumble and whistle and ' tout Paris ' asserts itself in points of electric light. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 503 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt 35 PARK LANE, W., 11 August '04. MY DEAR WILFRID, I think I saw the draft, but am not quite sure. I hope to leave London almost imme- diately. Perhaps it would be well to send it registered to me next week at Madresfield Court, Malvern Link. I shall try to meet you at Clouds September 1st. I should enjoy immensely some riding with you and a Squire's Partridge shoot, with tune-honoured keepers, untrained dogs, cider for lunch and recitations from the 4 Idler's Calendar.' Am very much overworked and disposed to hum ' In Summer when the shaws be sheen And leves both brode and longe, Full merye Hyt is in faire Forest To hear the foulys songe.' Yours affectionately, GEORGE W. VOL. II. G 98 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 504 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt CLOUDS, .SALISBURY,, 1 September 1904. MY DEAR WILFRID, I return, in another large envelope, the draft of the settlement which I have read and approve. I am very glad to find that we shall meet here if you hold by your plan of coming on Monday. Sibell and Percy will also be here, so do not fail. If you will send me a line indicating your route from Stonehenge, I will ride out early on Monday to meet you with Dorothy, if I can get her to accompany me. I imagine that you will come by Wylie and will reconnoitre for you beyond. If you make an early start you would be at Wylie between 8 and 9. Percy has been touring through Connemara in buggies with a party of friends. He has written me capital letters which I will show you. I rode here from Cranborne Manor yesterday, over 5 miles of down, then 3 of Cran- borne Chace to the high ridge of down and on by Fern, Wardour, Pyt House, Summerleas to E. Knoyle. Sibell and Percy are expected to-night. I hope you will not change your plans, as I want to see you, shoot, ride and talk ; and I want Percy to know you well. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 505 To Wilfrid Ward CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, DUBLIN, October 9th, 1904. MY DEAR WILFRID, I have awaited Sunday to thank you for the ' Aubrey de Vere ' and once more to express gratitude for the ' Dedication.' I have not had leisure to read the book yet, but I have followed the Reviews. Evidently you have scored a marked success. You hold a strong and established position from which you can TO CHARLES BOYD 99 exert much influence on the views of your contemporaries. That is power. And you use your power to the best ends. I am wrestling with my Rectorial Address. The pen, for a longish effort, has become rather unfamiliar to me. My inclination is to speak and my tendency to be too rhetorical for a Rector. So soon as I have read the book I will write again. With my kindest regards to your wife. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 506 To Charles Boyd CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHGE, PEKENIX PARK, DUBLIN, IQth October '04. BELOVED CHANG, Excellent. I will come on Saturday afternoon and take a real holiday on Sunday with you, dear Evelyn 1 and darling Mamma. Give my love to Cyncie and let us all have a ride in the Phcenix on Monday afternoon. You can go on by the evening boat and sleep the better for the exercise. I thought Arthur's Edinburgh speech perfect. It has rallied all ' bien pensants ' Free Fooders and yet enabled Imperialists like your little brother, to pursue their mission which has nothing in common with Protection, and very little with Retaliation. I am working in the Castle to-day for a change. I finished the M.S. of my Address yesterday : after two * smashing ' days. So am tired and happier. Of course that is only the first stage ; there follow, (1) typed copy, (2) proof in ' galleys,' (3) proof in pages. And these are the critical stages. 1 Lady de Vesci. 102 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I do more work in them than when writing, but they do not tire me. It is the mental strain of composing, of avoiding committal to blind alleys and excursions over 4 illimitable veldts ' of interesting, but irrelevant, matter, accompanied by the to me physical weariness and ' nausea ' of driving a pen for 9 or 10 hours that sickens and kills. I retch from nervous abhorrence of the task. But as Dr. Johnson justly observed, ' any man can write if he will set himself doggedly to do it.' I ' dogged ' it for 48 hours and feel to-day serene and buoyant. I should like to give the address the day before Arthur's Glasgow speech and stay for that. He speaks I think on November 23rd. Nobody ' stage-manages ' for Arthur. I used to when I was his P. S. And it is important. It does not do as the proverb goes ' to let the Devil have all the good tunes.' A. J. ought to have Cabinet Ministers and fair ladies, and many M.P.'s, on his platform when he makes a big speech as P. M. and leader of our Party. 508 To Mrs. Drew MADRESFIELD, October 30th, 1904. I have waited until the North Sea crisis is over as I trust and believe it to be. So I too am here with the Saints, Sibell and Lettie, between Friday's Cabinet and another at 12.30 to-morrow. I feel as if balm had been poured all over me. Lettie's attitude towards imminent maternity is a pure joy. One almost expects to find haloes hung up on the hat-pegs. It makes me feel that the family, and above all the Mother and Child, constitute the central fact and final end of human life and politics, as they were the origin. Are you, by chance, following Oliver Lodge's pronounce- ments ? They interest me deeply. He is a sage in the front of modern science. A year and a half ago, he was at the point of saying to me that Christianity and the TO MRS. DREW 103 Church had made Faith unnecessarily hard to thinkers. But at Babraham the other day, after Arthur's Address to the British Association, he said suddenly, ' I begin to see that the Church was right about the Incarnation.' I am not, therefore, surprised to find Ray Lankester and other Weissmann-ites pommelling him in the Press for, I imagine, subconscious betrayal of this change in his lectures and addresses. I shall try and interpolate a bit of Lord Acton in my Address. The Address is, I hope, suggestive, but I know congested. I ought to blow it to bits and build something more modest out of the debris. I do not quite agree with his (Lord Acton's) views on Nationality. But the diffi- culty of agreeing, or even of dissenting, in these matters, is partly due to the fact that we all mean different things when we speak of Nationality ; and that the word once meant, and still suggests, a number of other things all differing from any one thing which any one of us may mean now. And this is the tangled skein which I am proposing to unwind ! If Switzerland as he declares is a Nationality although its inhabitants speak French, German and Italian, are undoubtedly descended from all three, and most probably also from a non-Aryan, round-headed Race which took refuge in the Alps, where I ask myself are we ? Why is Nationality to stop at Switzerland, or at France, hammered together out of Bretons, Gauls, Franks, Burgundians, Basques, etc. ? My inclination is to say that the process which produced these complex politics will continue to act, and that you cannot say ' halt ! ' at the stage of development contained in your own epoch. Things are going to proceed as they have proceeded. But and here I agree with Lord Acton if that be so, there must be reverence for the liberty of Individuals, and also for the local and traditional * patriotism ' of various races. And so on. . . . I do not think that Devolution is practicable or wise, until we have had the pluck, or the luck, or both, necessary to settle the last stage in Catholic Emancipation. After 104 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM that, in conditions which we do not know, something may present itself which we cannot now foresee. At present there is a darkness that can be felt in front of us all a general tendency in Home politics and World politics to mistake fishing craft for torpedo boats. ' Shoot first,' is the Bismarckian message to mankind. To me it seems hysterical and carries the incidental disadvantage of reconstructing Christendom on the model of a mining- camp bar-saloon. I rejoice at Hawarden's propinquity to Saighton, and insist on seeing a great deal of you next Autumn. 509 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., November 23rd, 1904. MY DEAREST PAPA, I have written Mamma a long letter on the Address and the students. The leader in, the ' Glasgow Herald ' the Liberal paper is the most interesting and fair, to the point of generosity. For all that, I could begin arguing it all over again. For example the ' Westminster ' cites America as a State which exhibits a complete solution of the ' race ' difficulty. Of course, I had America in my mind through every denunciation of * cosmopolitanism.' The ' polyglot restaurants and international sleeping cars ' and ' shoddy ' Universities, and Carnegie bribes give the classical example of all I detest. But, then, I could not attack America. Glasgow University has existed for 453 years. Among my predecessors who have delivered Rectorial Addresses are Burke, Adam Smith, Brougham, Sir Robert Peel, Lord John Russell, Macaulay, Bulwer Lytton, Palmerston, Derby, Disraeli, Gladstone, Bright, Balfour, Chamberlain and Rosebery. Their ' shades ' were close and menacing when I faced the audience. Your loving son, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. Burke ' broke down ' for the first and only time in his life during his Address. TO HIS MOTHER 105 510 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., November 23rd, 1904. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your letter yesterday morning before ' going into action.' I acknow- ledge that I was nervous. And nobody said anything to make me less nervous. They harped on the rowdyism of Finlay's function last year ; advised me to be popular and humourous ; talked of Disraeli's marvellous exhibition of memory in 1871 when he declaimed his Address on 4 The Spirit of the Age ' without a glance at the paper before him ; and so on. I had gone through a hard week State Banquet at Windsor, Wednesday ; speech of hour and five minutes Dover, Thursday ; Cabinet in London and speech at Dover, Friday ; three speeches Saturday and kick-off at a Football Match ; desperate journey through blizzard on Monday. But I trusted the students, absolutely, because, like you, I belong all the time to the secret society of youth and they guess it. Well, nothing could have been more delightful than the students. They were all things by turn ; noisy and solemn, warm-hearted and respectful ; showing the fantastic high-spirits and preternatural seriousness of extreme youth. They looked on me as their own property ; treated me with the mingled awe and familiarity with which a boy treats his first gun or hunter a thing that is his own property with two aspects ; partly the last and best toy of his boyhood, partly the first talisman of his manhood, instinct with mysterious pro- phecies of unknown possibilities. But you can't analyse youth and I must just write down a few facts for, unless I do so now, I never shall. The old bothers begin again to-morrow. The blizzard had cleared and there was a full moon shining on the frost when we arrived. Sibell went off with my ' Assessor.' I was taken for an hour's torchlight procession by the students. They were many of them, 106 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM say two hundred in fancy dress, Zulus, policemen, clowns, etc. They leapt with excitement, cheered, sang songs and dragged me up a steep hill to the Principal's House. There I had to make them a short speech. I had only twenty minutes to dress for a big dinner of dons, M.P.'s, bishops and so forth, all very gracious. And Mrs. Storey, my hostess was a mother to me. After that a party with introductions to many and a smoke with two professors. The next morning I felt like Mar- lowe's Faustus waiting for the Devil to take him at 12. But on these occasions one becomes an automaton. I put on my Rectorial Robes, signed a Latin Declaration in a hall of the University and drove off with the Principal and my Assessor, preceded in another carriage by the Bedellus (Beadle in fact) with 15th century mace, and followed by a procession of open flys filled with dons in robes. So we reached Hengler's Circus. It was bitterly cold. The auditorium held between two and three thousand, and all the students were there raising Cain ! We marched in, preceded by the Bedellus. They gave me a great reception. The Lord Provost and Corporation were there in robes and ermine. I found myself on the stage. Saw Sibell in a box. Heard the students inter- rupting a long Latin prayer with nasal Amens, penny whistles and trumpets and, introduced only by the words * The Lord Rector ' plunged into my Address. It was a strain. I had put up a great deal of weight. It seemed interminable. I had one or two panics that it would last two hours ; that they were only suffering me, not gladly ; that they would lose patience and break out. This was borne in twice by organized shuffling of feet. Afterwards I heard this was a protest against two people who left the hall. At the words ' entrenched in a medley of there was a wild outburst afterwards explained by the fact that the name of one lecturer is Medley. But I did not betray any qualms and declaimed away, to a death-still attention, broken rather often by loud and prolonged applause. At the end they cheered again and again. By a miracle the trick had been done. They TO HIS MOTHER 107 nearly pulled my arms out of my body clutching my hands in powerful and frenzied grips of enthusiasm. They took the horses out and dragged me the whole way through the town. They made me speak again out of the landau. Then we had lunch. After lunch I made almost, if not quite, the best ' after dinner ' speech I have ever made, just to show that I could be playful and speak without preparation. A brief interim of tea-drinking at the Principal's house and, lo, there were the students outside to take me to the ' Union ' ; evidently there, to judge by wild echoes of ' For he 's a jolly good fellow.' I went out and was at once picked up and carried shoulder high to the ' Union.' There I made the Liberal leader speak, by replying to the now familiar cry of ' Speech ' with a retort ' Debate.' We resolved ourselves into an informal smoking-concert, at the end of which I had to stand on the table and make another speech in which I pleased them a great deal. So they carried me all the way back, shoulder-high, singing 'And will ye no come back again.' Some of the nicest professors, specially Ramsay ' of Humanity ' which means ' Latin ' up there, called and were very kind. I then slept like a stone for an hour, dressed and dined with my Assessor, Baird, to meet students and dons. One don, Jones, a Welshman and lecturer on philosophy came in and we had a splendid discussion on the themes of the Address which they had all got hold of. The University Magazine, ' G. U. M.,' had a verbatim report on sale in the streets the moment I left Hengler's Circus. (I had given the Editor a copy and they had printed it in the night.) So they had read it after hearing it. I slept well and the students saw me off at the station with the old songs, etc. etc. Altogether a memorable experience. It proves once more that ' grand jeu ' is the best game. They took the ' steepness ' of the Address as a compliment. It confirms my conviction that you should never play down to an audience. Still I will own that when I got up to deliver the Address, and once or twice during its delivery, I felt like poor old ' Manifesto ' the steeple-chase horse with fourteen stone on his back. 108 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM And now I must go to bed ; for to-morrow I have to prepare against the United Club Dinner on Friday after a Cabinet. I am sending to Clouds a packet of the newspapers. The ' Scotsman ' and ' Glasgow Herald * report verbatim and the ' Herald,' considering it is liberal, is very fair, indeed more than fair. Best love to Papa and Ditch. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE. 511 To Charles Boyd IRISH OFFICE, OLD QUEEN STREET, S.W., 24.xi.04. MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter of 20th has only now reached me 4 p.m. but it has reached to touch. I give three cheers for the Bond. Last night I thought you might, perhaps, have been back, and sent you a note stating I was lonely ' after the Fair.' I realised as deeply as you can have done the immense interest of Glasgow and of your presence for ' fraternity/ I had my eye on you at the little speech I made after luncheon on the 22nd. Indeed I made that speech to you. For me, alas, there is no rest. I am grappling with a speech for to-morrow night, and am be-devilled by other public bothers. So I swear by the Bond ; and have, also, become a Scot & Breadalbane Campbell x in the future, if you please ; with proclivities tor the Stone Age. A 1000 thanks for the letter and for Constable. Ever your affectionately GEORGE W. 512 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., November 2,6th, 1904. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am waiting to send a respectable copy of my Address to Clouds : bound in vellum and 1 His mother's family. TO THE LORD BISHOP OF OSSORY 109 printed on paper instead of the wood-fibre and porcelain cement of a * shilling shocker.' But the publishers are * slow dogs.' Meanwhile I send you, as an advance copy, a specimen of the shilling edition. The three Latin quotations on the fly-leaf state the 4 themes ' of the symphony. The first from Ennius says, * The Roman state stands on ancient customs and on men.'' That is Tradition. The second from Claudian ' floruit ' 430 says, ' This is she who alone (among nations) accepted into her embrace those whom she had conquered . . . after the manner, not of an Empress, but of a Mother, and called those to be her citizens whom she had overthrown, and bound to herself by a chain of love the uttermost parts of the world. All of us owe to her peaceful practice that each guest enjoys her hospitality as if he were at home ; that it is easy to change your residence.' That is Transit. The third from Virgil, says, ' A greater configuration of the State is borne in upon me ; I am suggesting a " bigger business." That is : I am asking you to consider an ideal of the State, which embraces both Conservative tradition and modern intercommunication with its consequences : but is newer and larger than either taken alone. The address has been well received ; but it has puzzled everybody. That is just what I aimed at. I wanted to make them think : an unusual enterprise in our day. Your loving son, GEORGE. 513 To the Lord Bishop of Ossory CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, DUBLIN, November 28, 1904. MY DEAR DEAN, I must thank you for the great kindness of your letter. I acknowledge the complexity of the issues I raised and plead guilty to a 4 congestion ' in my exposition which, if not inevitable, was at any rate not avoided. 110 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM But your letter shows that my address was intelligible ; for you seize my points as clearly as they present them- selves to my own mind up to one point which cannot, I believe, be made. I mean a complete answer to the question ' What is a Nation ? ' Your citation of the Jews is very just. Their attitude towards the Gentiles, or nations, offers a close parallel to the attitude of the Romans towards the ' nations.* The Jews and, I might add, the Arabs have remained a race, though each, for a comparatively brief period, played a part in State-building. I asked the question ' What do we now call a Nation ? * and gave instances to prove that no answer, ready and com- plete, can be found. I said that the use of the word was a matter of feeling rather than of thought. It is almost a question of taste. But, accepting both your tests together, i.e. racial affinity and political union, I feel that a people which has enjoyed both together for a considerable period, does not cease to be a nation because other powers tear it to pieces. Now, in respect of the Poles, they had a kingdom for many centuries. The ' political ' predecessor of the Tsar, i.e. the Grand Duke of Muscovy, paid homage to the King of Poland in the days of our Queen Elizabeth, when Scotland was a separate kingdom. Dryden satirises Shaftesbury in the ' Medal ' for his supposed ambition to be elected ' King of Poland.' Poland was for long and until recently a kingdom. It is, as I say, a question of feeling. The Armenians offer a nicer and a harder occasion for definition. In many respects they are like the Jews ; but, I suppose they might urge their king Tigranes. My desire was to show that the word is ' equivocal ' and that the thing wasj never ' the State ' except from the 16th century on to our time when it has ceased or is ceasing to be * the State ' because of Imperial expansion. Those who agree with Lord Acton would stereotype the state at the stage of fc Nation-States,' actually constructed in the 15th and 16th centuries and of others which might TO MONSIEUR AUGUSTS RODIN 111 have been constructed then e.g. Italy, though they were not till later ; or others, e.g. Poland, existing then and demolished since. I say that ' Empire-States ' now being perfected are not more artificial than ' Nation-States.' But to save an Empire-State from ' cosmopolitanism * I would cherish pride hi Race, to give feature and colour. So that I gladly accept your conclusion that Pride of Political Unity is a nobler incentive than Pride of Race. I sought to indicate that view in the phrase 1 Let Pride be in Race ; Patriotism for the Empire.' For I place Patriotism above Pride, even in Race. I need Pride in Race only to redeem Empire from Cosmopolitanism, and to afford a ' school ' for patriotism by cultivating one of its origins, viz. the sentiment of consanguinity. A man, for example, who is proud of his school and his university is better fitted for loyalty, in after life, to larger conceptions ; the Church, the Army, the Navy. So an Irishman who is proud of Milesian, or Norman, Elizabethan or Cromwellian, descent is better fitted for patriotism to the Empire. But I do not exclude pride of Nationality. I only mean that it is a doubtful and perplexing ' middle term,' not so helpful to the ' Development of the State ' as Pride in Race coupled with patriotism for the Empire. But I must apologize for inflicting another lecture. I hope that we may have a talk over the subject one even- ing after dinner at the Lodge. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 514 To Monsieur Auguste Rodin CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 5.xii.04. MON CHER AMI, J'etais enchante de recevoir votre lettre mais, de ces jours-ci, j'ai eu tant d'affaires, de 112 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM discours a prononcer, de voyages a Londres, et de retours a Dublin, qu'il fallait attendre le moment pour ecrire une r^ponse. En fait de 1'exposition a Dublin je ne comprend pas precisement dans tous ces rapports le projet de Mr. Lane. II d6sire, a ce qu'on me dit, que vous permettrez qu'on presente a une galerie a Dublin un exemplaire de 1'Age d'Airain. Nous ne sommes pas bien riches en Irlande et je ne sais pas le prix de ce chef-d'oeuvre. Pour mon buste je suis tout-a-fait de votre avis. C'est a dire qu'il faut envoyer le marbre directement a la ' New Gallery.' Mais je serais tres content de recevoir ici, a Dublin, une epreuve en platre au plus tot possible. a int^ressera mes amis Irlandais qui sont amateurs des Beaux Arts et donnera un elan au projet qu'ils discutent d'acheter 1'Age d'Airain. Je suis toujours votre Ami bien reconnaissant, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 515 To Wilfrid Ward CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, DUBLIN, December 6th, 1904. MY DEAR WILFRID, The Catholic church does, for a Catholic, fulfil my ideal. I am, consequently, deeply interested in the second chapter Oxford, Cambridge and Rome of ' Aubrey de Vere.' I shall write on the whole book ; but not yet. I want to muse after browsing. The period of thought among young men depicted in chapter 2, is most interesting to me. I believe that between that period and our own there has been no original thinking. But you are thinking and writing, what others think. The men who were young in the first period have died off, leaving, until now, in recent years a void of which I would say, in the words applied by Wordsworth to France that it TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 113 ' Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then. Perpetual emptiness ! Unceasing change ! No single volume paramount, no code, No master spirit, no determined road ; But equally a want of books and men ! ' Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 516 To his Sister, Madeline CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 22.xii.04. MOST DARLING MANENAI, I take a fairly long shot at Christmas to wish that it may be ' merry ' for you all ; to send my fondest love ; and to desire, with all my heart, all luck and blessings on you, and Charlie, and all the 4 poussins ' during next year. I am sending you a heavy gift my Address in vellum. But it may become rare and present the attraction of a virgin Alp to intrepid climbers. We got our Perf back late yesterday, it was such a joy. He had pierced the lingual fog of German and French station-masters and the atmospheric fog of lands more articulate (to him). So in he came as brisk as may be. I simply loved my evenings with you during these last weeks of gloom and racket. Here all is serene, incon- sequent, graceful, warm-hearted, Irish, in short and I feel at rest. Everybody here knows me, and Sibell and Percy. Their kindness is beyond words. The less one can do for them, the more loving they are on a common basis of congenial, congenital and patriotic futility. There is nothing like the swing and lilt with which they pursue the rainbow ; and nothing like the comfortable consolation, as of ' a mother of many,' with which they surround a ' horizon- catcher ' when just for once the horizon is still beyond him. These people are worth all the half-penny papers in the world ; and I am off on Wednesday to the worst VOL. II. H 114 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM parts of the West to hear them say ' It 's not so bad after all, and, indeed, it 's very kind of you to take any notice at all of it.' That is their way of facing * Distress.' I prefer it to Trafalgar Square. And so my best love to you, darling Manenai. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 517 To his Father CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, December 22nd, 1904. MY DEAREST PAPA, This is to wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year. Perf arrived last night about 9.30, having * pushed through ' from Frankfurt. He is very well and strong. The Attorney General was dining to play bridge with two secretaries and self. But Perf kept us amused and laugh- ing for an hour and a half with the account of his travels, the life at Frankfurt ; and a hockey match between Frankfurt and Mannheim. Owing to Geidt's establish- ment Frankfurt won by eleven goals to one, amid frenzied plaudits from the crowd and waving of handkerchiefs from German ladies. He tells me that none of them are good-looking enough to pass muster. They, the German ladies (though not up to his standard) are, apparently all ' anglo-manes.' If the hockey is fixed for 2.30 p.m. they parade the town all the morning in short skirts, brandishing then* sticks. He explained some difficulties he encountered at the frontier not having registered his luggage by interject- ing that the custom house officer ' spoke very bad German.' The Attorney General said he ought to be ' an expert witness ' or a member of Parliament. Such resource of debating reply would be wasted on the Army. A plaster ' epreuve ' of my Rodin bust has arrived. It is very good even in plaster. Your loving son, GEORGE. TO HIS MOTHER 115 518 To his Mother CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, December 22nd, 1904. MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you a merry Christmas and most happy New year ! It is much to have Guy back and, I add, Percy with us, tall and strong and well. I am sending you a vellum ' Address,' just as a gift, and just as I gave you a translation of Ovid's * Arion ' at Hyeres in 1873. Amongst all the botherations of Ireland, priceless things occur. This will amuse you and Pamela and Gatty and * Uncle Tom Codley and all.' In the London evening papers you read of desperate symptons of intimidation ; ' black spot ' etc. I plaster on Police Protection ; chiefly for Parliamentary purposes. But this is what really happens. Casey, in Templemore, Tipperary, says he goes in fear of his life from Kennedy. Casey is given two policeman to protect him from Kennedy. They stay at Casey's house, escort him to fairs, and are fed by Casey. Coming back from the fair in the dark, Casey, with two policeman in his cart, says, ' Wait awhile ' and disappears over the bank of the road ; for no purpose but to cut cabbages for the policemen's supper. He selects the garden of Kennedy the man who is supposed to be terrorising him. Kennedy catches him, calls the two police, protecting Casey (from Kennedy) and tells them to arrest Casey. They do so, and resume their drive to Casey's house minus cabbages. Casey pleads guilty. Kennedy, instead of charging the policemen with being accessories to the attempted theft, charges them with ' being drunk ' ! ! Well ! Well ! can I expect the sub-editor of the ' Globe ' to unravel that skein ? Perf arrived rather late last night from Frankfurt, very well. We had a good gallop together this morning and then went off shopping and to see pictures. To-morrow 116 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM we have a hockey-match on the lawn here. The men and maidens bring ' shoes ' to dance afterwards in the ball-room to a * pianola.' Now that Perf is back as master of the revels, all the candles will be lighted. On Saturday we hunt at Celbridge. Next week I shall take a run on motor and ' Granuaile ' round the worst part of the West to see the potato failure. All love to you, most beloved Mamma, from your most loving son, GEORGE. 519 To his Brother CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, PH do so, or even talk about it, until, and unless, the Catholics make a separate peace. I do not, for a moment, impute that to them. In any case we shall fight ; with them for choice ; without them if it must be so. And it 's going to be the biggest fight since 1640. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 581 To his Father HEWEIX GRANGE, REDDITCH, April 2Ist, 1906. MY DEAREST PAPA, I should like to keep the parable on Education for the present. There is much in the suggestion that, if the Religious stimulus or ' animus ' be withdrawn, little enthusiasm for pure knowledge will be left. I enjoyed myself immensely at Clouds. I am spending a quiet Sunday here. I have to speak against the Education Bill twice in the Albert Hall, on May 2nd for the Primrose League, and May llth, at a Mass Meeting of the diocese of London. This controversy will absorb all others for a year. Your loving son, GEORGE. 582 To Wilfrid Ward 35 PARK LANE, W., April 24M, 1906. MY DEAR WILFRID, Many thanks for letting me see the Bishop's letter. I am relieved to hear that there is a good chance of the Irish Party fighting the Education Bill. I am bracing myself for the battle. I feel that r TO WILFRID WARD 185 this has come to me ; I did not seek it and now I rejoice over my resignation of last year. It has given me the right to be myself. I explained to A. J. B. the night before the Session began that, on this question I should fight ' in front of the line ' ; and now I have got to do so. I have been asked to move the Resolution against the Bill at the annual gathering of the Primrose League in the Albert Hall on May 2nd, and also asked to speak on May llth by our Bishop of London. I accept your reproach on my Synthetic 1 lapses. I do mean to attend in future. But May 3rd was booked for Dover just after the Election. All this is by the way. I write to-day because I must. I have not finished ' Out of due Time,' 2 but I want to say now that I am deeply interested, and even excited ; it is far away better than ' One Poor Scruple ' and ' The Light Behind.' It is a book with a life before it. Of course the ' ingredients ' arrest my fancy ; the picture of Derwent is wonderful. I sometimes see that this or that model including yourself has sat for some of the characters. But where did the Count come from ? I have never met anyone like him, and yet I feel that he is real ; certainly real in the impression which he leaves on those who know him. Marcelle is astonishingly good. Where did her French thought in English language come from? I shall write again of this at length. Quite apart from the stage, the characters, the play and the purpose all good the Art of it all is good. Scores of touches delight me by their clean dexterity. I rejoice and lay my warm and profound respect at the feet of the author. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 1 George Wyndham was one of the group of persons interested in the philosophy of religion, who in 1896 founded the Synthetic Society. Mr. "Wilfrid Ward and he were for a time its honorary secretaries, and among their colleagues were Mr. Arthur Balfour ; the present Lord Haldane ; Mr. Henry Sidgwick j Dr. Talbot, now Bishop of Winchester ; Father Tyrrell ; Baron von Hiigel ; Sir Alfred Lyall ; and Sir Oliver Lodge, as well as two veterans who had helped to found the old Metaphysical Society in 1869, namely, R. H. Hutton and Dr. Martineau. See Men and Matters, by Wilfrid Ward. 2 A novel by Mrs. Wilfrid Ward. 186 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 583 To G. K. Chesterton Private. 35 PARK LANE, April 27th, 1906. DEAR MR. CHESTERTON, My excuse for writing is that I had the pleasure of meeting you at Taplow last summer, but my reason is to thank you for your letter in yester- day's * Westminster Gazette.' The many who are grateful will not think of thanks, or dare to give them. But I feel constrained to say my thanks. After four hundred years of battle, always with brains and sometimes with swords, it is a nightmare to watch the Holy Catholic Church being huddled off the stage of history and hope. The people do not mean this, or understand it. I can't say it because I have not the gift of simple speech and, if I could say it, nobody would believe a Tory. Yet, for all I care, we may have Socialism to-morrow if future generations may still believe in the Divine Society here upon earth. However ... I only want to thank you as one, I think, of many who could not believe in Christianity until they grasped the idea of the Church. Yours truly, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. Please do not trouble to acknowledge. 584 To Wilfrid Ward 35 PARK LANE, W., May 2nd, 1906. MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter gave me real pleasure. I_am not greedy of applause but, as I once wrote in verse ' After the thrill Of onset every wind strikes chill.' Even if I discount your friendship and keenness in the TO WILFRID WARD 187 cause, you would not have written as you did unless my speech had * reached ' you. It is a great tax to speak in that Hall. 1 Two ladies who were there to-day told me that the echo made Balfour hard to follow and that it was a strain to hear me. One has to discard most of a speaker's devices. No one can see the speaker's expression and if they have to listen intently no one can be affected by inflections of the voice. So the speaker has to ami at broad, simple, effects. But that entails severe mental concentration and, all the time, there is a dead weight to be lifted without much help from the audience. Nobody could speak to a hostile audience in that arena. To say that, is to say that a speaker has to discard his principal function i.e ' pleading.'' He must declaim and declare, i.e. physically make striking, and, mentally, make simple, what everybody is prepared to admit. And yet, I agree with you about the concourse. The facts that so many people have come from so many places to be in one place for one purpose, make one great fact of sense, and thought, and feeling. The ingredients make the magic broth. The speaker has but to stir it with a big wooden spoon. A demain ! I like your enclosure. If only the Catholics hold firm I moi qui vous parle will answer with my head for the Anglicans. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 585 To Wilfrid Ward WESTON, SHIFNAL, May 13th, 1906. MY DEAR WILFRID, I return the proof, with these observations. I prefer my own punctuation. The first three quatrains 1 The Albert Hall. 188 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM are, really, one sentence ; though a long one. The effec- tive verb is not reached till we get to ' yields ' in the tenth line. This applies even more forcibly to the elimination of a full-stop and substitution of a colon after ' immensities.* ' Their love ' is the nominative of * seems ' five lines lower down. If cut off by a full-stop no one will find it. My only correction of substance is to omit the sixth stanza beginning ' And this their close reality.' I propose the omission for these reasons : (1) A set of verses like a speech gains by excision. (2) ' Reality ' and ' immortality ' are not good English rhymes. They are good French rhymes and were used, no doubt, under the influence of French poetry. (3) The next stanza does the ' business ' more poetically. (4) The total number of quatrains, without the omission, is 13, an unlucky and awkward number. (5) With the omission the twelve quatrains fall into three symmetrical groups of four each. The first four introduce the subject and strike a note of death. The second four dwell on the walls and books with two for each. The last four give the upward movement to life, per- sisting after life. Symmetry is an antiseptic, like style. I am sure I am right. Yours ever, GEOKGE WYNDHAM. P.S. I must stick to initials ' G. W.' I cannot afford to show a target when so many are firing at me as the opponent of the Education Bill. IN A LIBRARY Long rows of books in figured backs Of gleaming leather, dimly lit ; A ticking clock, whose soft attacks Upon the silence deepen it ; TO WILFRID WARD 189 No other sound in all the house But the low fluttering of the fire ; To stab the stillness and arouse The ghosts of anger or desire : Within the warmth of these four walls Yields warrant, then, for quiet mirth ; Without, the chasm of night appals, The full moon grins upon the earth. Her frozen signal of decay, As a dead tree in summer, tells That the whole universe one day Shall speak of death and nothing else. And all who wrote these books are dead, Yet of their laughter and their tears We are not disinherited ; These walls have stood six hundred years. Ancestral legends lichening The parapets of long ago Enchant them with strange dreams that sing Of deeds our childhood seemed to know. And from these books departed souls Shoot out their radiance into mine, As heat, incarcerate in coals, From suns that ceased long since to shine. Nor may I well believe that thus In brute appliances alone, Such souls communicate with us From darkness, whither they are gone. But, as the virtue of a star Thrills through the ether to our eyes, Their love, vibrating from afar, Pierces our night's immensities ; And here, where ancient wit and worth Have still so much of life to tell, Like blinder forces of the earth, Seems also indestructible. 190 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I feel their souls without a sound Growing and glowing nigh and nigher Within the shadows closing round The somnolencies of the fire : Until, possessed by memories Of men who conquered lust and strife, I am persuaded that there is A life persisting after life. G. W. 586 To his Mother WESTON, SHIFNAL, May 15th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Fancy my not having written to you, Beloved, till to-day. I meant to write in the House directly after speaking last Monday, as if I was making notes. But the whole week has been a rush and rather a burden, what with Railway Meetings, prize to Ambu- lance corps and speech, to Dover and speech, to Albert Hall and speech. I should like ' to come to old Khayam and leave the wise to talk ' if as I said to C. G. Gould ' it is the wise who talk.' I always doubt that after speaking myself. We are here very quiet and happy with Ida and New- port, Aldred and Celia Scarborough, for Sunday. The house, spoilt outside by stucco, is very pleasant inside with plenty of good books and bad pictures that are, all the same, interesting and amusing. There are six delightful little hunting pictures by Morland. These are good and more interesting too than his pigs and straw-yards. It was naughty of you to put out your shoulder ! I have been thinking of you all the week. I have to speak at Chester Thursday and mean to rest at Saighton till Monday after and then we shall soon be at Whitsun, with Yeomanry for a change of thought and scene. I am longing for you to be in London. Your most loving son, GEORGE. TO HIS MOTHER 191 587 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, 16th May '06. DARLING PAMELO, It was delicious to see your hand- writing after fourth son. I have been trying to write to you often, but I am rather overworked just now. Indeed I will asterisk 16th and 23rd of June. I never mind crystallizing for the very very few whom I love to be with. Apart from the positive merit, there is the negative merit of filling up one's book, so that one can say * no ' to the rest of the world, without rudeness or deceit. I shall need the water-meadows badly by then, for this Education Bill is going to be a severe strain. Ronsard has come complete in pages, and looks very nice. Pp. 1-60, Introduction ; 61-192, French ; 193-254, my translations. I call it RONSARD'S LA PLEIADE with selections from their Poetry and some translations in the original metre by George Wyndham. Sibell and self are off to Chester to-morrow at 8.30, to speak at 2 p.m. Then I shall rest till Monday, correct- ing proofs. It is delicious to think of my June Sunday with you. I like my fellow-guests. I hope Ronsard will be printed in time. I hate Politics. Ever your devoted brother, GEORGE. 588 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, May 18th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Supposing S. S. thought of letting 35 Park Lane, would you and Papa like me to come to 44 and would it be quite convenient ? It is not at all important and you must not give it a thought unless it is really quite convenient in every way to you all. Sibell is offered a good deal for the House and will be away herself most of the time with Leffie. 192 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I am concentrating on the Education Bill. If it really suited I should come about Monday, llth June. We came here yesterday by 8.30 to Chester ; had some lunch at the Grosvenor Hotel and then a meeting at 2 o'clock. I went to sleep in the carriage driving back after the Meeting and have been sleeping most of the tune since then. The Yeomanry will be a pleasant change from politics. I am longing to see you and will look in on Monday. Would you like me to dine if I can get away ? The new rules will be very severe during the Committee stage, four to eleven o'clock on end without a break. But I daresay it will be possible to slip out to dinner for a bite and sup occasionally. The birds are singing here and the wall a blaze of Alpine plants and saxifrage. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Ronsard looks very nice in pages. 589 To his Mother SAIGHTON, May 20th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I love the thought of coming to * 44 ' and, really, prefer the room upstairs. I have had a little chill and stayed in bed yesterday but am up again and shall be fit for the fray which begins to-morrow. Guy has written me a capital, cheery, letter. He is going to Madrid for the wedding. General French unveils the memorial to the 16th in Canterbury Cathedral on Saturday, June 30th, and the 16th are going to Aldershot in October. All this pleases me. Guy and his regiment are buried at Colchester. Don't count on me to-morrow. It may be best for me to keep in the house once I get there, until I have quite shaken off my chill. Your devoted and most loving son, GEORGE. TO MRS. DREW 193 590 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt HOUSE OF COMMONS, 13th June '06. MY DEAR WILFRID, I am sorry to say that I cannot get to you on Saturday. Sibell is staying at Putney with Lettice, who expects her baby to-morrow, and, as we have been separated for 3 weeks over Yeomanry, she wishes me to go there for Sunday. Would the 30th June do ? I go to Canterbury that day to see the memorial to Guy's regiment, 16th Lancers, un- veiled, and could come on, either across country, or back by special train to Victoria and on to you on Saturday evening. I must send you a copy of Guy's excellent letter about the Madrid bomb. 1 He was on the spot, helped the Queen, and made her courtly speeches. Yours affec- tionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 591 To Mrs. Drew BELGRAVE SQUARE, June 28th, 1906. I THINK I can undertake to.do what you ask in September, and gladly, because you ask it. A better Clause 4, 2 applicable to the future : teachers to teach, and equal facilities all round, is the irreducible minimum without which there cannot be peace. I hope to bring Hugh Cecil to Saighton directly after the Session, so please be at Hawarden first and second weeks in August. We will ride over to see you with Percy, and you shall, will and must come to stay. The idea is a few Churchmen (very few), say Master- man and Gore some ' bloods ' for Percy ponies horses books and conversation flowers and trees. 1 The bomb thrown by the anarchist Morales at the carriage of the King and Queen of Spain on the way from the Cathedral to the Palace after the wedding ceremony. The King of Spain was colonel-in-chief of his brother's regiment the i6th (the Queen's) Lancers. a Of the Education Bill. VOL. II. N 194 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 592 To Mrs. Drew BELORAVE SQUARE, June 29th, 1906. WHAT a blow ! But in September we will oscillate between Hawarden and Saighton. I wish I knew what the Lords will do. I fear Devon- shire and others. I am therefore certain that we ought to keep on insisting on the just solution and do nothing to complicate the approach towards it. But all this takes time to explain, and I am sleepy after a long but deeply interesting day at Canterbury that stirred my heart. General French unveiled a monument to those of my brother's regiment, the 16th Lancers, who died in S. Africa. The Cathedral, a perfect service, with, at appropriate moments, the ' Last Post ' and the ' Reveille ' on trumpets, and nothing else of the pomp of war, assured me of how right it is to fight for the Church. I want your three Angels for Bruera. Do send their names to Sibell. 593 To his Father SAIGHTON, August 9th, 1906. MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed your interesting letter. Percy is very good at polo. The three Millers, who are at the top of the polo tree, want him to stay with them for a fortnight's tuition. I shall give him your message. I am very fairly confident that all he wants is to go into a cavalry regiment, play polo and hunt. I have ordered what you want from the Vote Office. I send Friday's programme of the Polo Tournament. Percy's team not in this programme won the Consola- tion Handicap on Saturday. I have entered in ink the final result of the Ladies' Nomination Tournament. In this kind of tournament TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 195 each of the five teams plays the other four in turn and the team which has at the end the greatest nett number of goals i.e. goals won, minus goals lost, wins. By this means the excitement in every match is maintained to the end. The feature of the whole business was Percy, as number 1 of his team, tackling John Watson (Master of Meath) as back. They are great friends. The final of the Eaton Cup, won by Eaton v. Tatten- Hall by six to four, was a magnificent display. Besides polo, we hunted two mornings with beagles and had a Gymkhana on another. My Harbour difficulties are adjourned till the House meets again. So I am resting. For example I definitely refused to take part in the East Denbigh contest hard by. Hugh Cecil went from here to speak and spoke very well last night in a motor with Sibell, who is quite a politician now. This week I do nothing but lazy summer rides with Hugh Cecil, and talk about books and politics. I shall probably look in at Clouds in the course of the next two or three weeks, with a horse and inspect the Hunkerman's * regiment on the plain. Best love to Mamma and Ditch. Your loving son, GEORGE. 594 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON, 3rd September 1906. BELOVED PAM, I have felt very mischievous the last few days. Some of my friends, and sweet enemies, have been punching at me politically. I gasp at the torrid exuberance of their controversial methods, which remind me of an old French farce, called ' 90 in the Shade.' It seems that I am a political salamander. But when my friends cast me for that part, as if each were a Benvenuto 1 His brother. 196 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Cellini (see autobiography) I feel mischievous. I give them the private retort courteous, await events, and burst into the fantastic for my own behoof. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 595 To his Mother WILSFOBD MANOR, SALISBURY, September 12th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Yes, it was a pity just to miss on Monday, but I shall be with you before this time next week. The life here is delightful. I breakfast with Guy at 7.30, start ' riding horsebag ' at 8.15.' pick up the regi- ment beyond ' the stones ' x at 9 o'clock ; play at soldiers for two hours or more, and then ride home across the downs ; in at noon. Yesterday we did three ' attacks/ In the afternoon there is the river. In the evening we rode again, hunting the hare. We had a fine course with Annie and Welcome and killed. For the rest the only book I am reading is Pickwick and all is Peace . . . pour le moment ! but not, I imagine for long [Long]. 2 This turns out to be a joke ! I am glad you liked what I said at Birmingham. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE. 596 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON, 16th September 1906. BELOVED PAMELO, Wilsford was delicious. That bit, or slip, of the river-valley and down, and the wideness of sky and earth it commands, is a bit, or slip, of my larger dream-life. It plucks at my own heart-strings ! A sudden intimate aspect of loose hedge-rows, a keen, known, smell of chalk-dust and sheep, the little triangle of grass and trees where we branch from Amesbury to 1 Stonehenge. 2 Mr. Walter Long. TO MORETON FREWEN 197 Wilsford, the * stones.' Fargo ; x ... all these are eternal to me. I find that I am the same person who rode there thirty years ago. They have not changed and I have not changed. And what they were 30 years ago, they were 60 years before that. And so was I, 600 years before that. Therefore, I give to you eternal Me. I made a little tune to my song, in the mode of 600, or 6000, years ago. The little air of it tries to sing how every day is new, and, at the same time, a day of the days. Perf and I had a great day to-day ; we rode at 7.15 for two hours and have been together all day. He is just beginning to love Poetry. Imagine my delight at recognizing another aspect of eternity in heritage. We have pretty well gutted Keats to-day, all the Odes and * St. Agnes Eve,' with a plenty of soldiering talk, and riding talk, and political talk, thrown in, to throw up the supremacy of the fantastic. That is the river of life ; the surface that reflects Heaven and derived from far sources in the hills, and goes out at last to sea, to foregather again and reflect Heaven once more. The drudgery of turning the mill, the party-political mill, of hatred, malice and all uncharitableness is but an incident. So, ' Heyday ! and grey day. But every day is new ' and yet, thank God, as old as the hills, and secure as the stars. Send me back my little barbaric air. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 597 To Moreton Frewen 35 PARK LANE, W., September 27th, 1906. MY DEAR MORETON, 2 Your letter gave me real plea- sure. Not that I needed any evidence of your friendship ; 1 Name of a wood near Stonehenge. 2 When forwarding this letter Mr. Moreton Frewen wrote in explanation : ' I had got George to lunch at Tim's house to discuss ' Devolution ' (which seems destined to invade history as the 'Wyndham Policy'), but George would not have it at any price. When the Orange party and the 'Times' made the fuss I offered to write and get Tim to write and say so hence the reply.' 198 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM but because there are times when it does one good to hear from a friend who is not too much engrossed in the spec- tacle of politics to realise that some of the actors in that 4 National pastime ' are fighting for things that are precious to them. I have always thought ' Devolution ' a vague, and therefore foolish, name for an unworkable, and therefore silly, thing ; upon which no two Irishmen would ever agree. I have often said so, and never said anything else. You. remind me that I said so to you. It would interest me if you can remember when I said it. As for writing to the Press, I am disposed to think that anybody, who knows me and does not believe me, will not believe * though one rose from the dead.' You would only get damned for your pains. I should be damned by the ' Times ' for meeting Tim, and Tim- damned by the ' Freeman ' for meeting me. To all this I am impervious, nothing would please me more than to walk arm-in-arm with Tim Healy in front of * Printing House Square.' He was * human ' to a Chief Secretary and that is rare. I shall never forget it. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 598 To Ms Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., September 28th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I was very happy at Clouds and am glad I talked to Papa. I felt from the way you all spoiled me that you thoroughly understood the situation. I dined alone at the Travellers', went to bed at 11 o'clock and slept for 9| hours like a stone at the bottom of a deep well. I did not know where I was when I woke ; or why I was here when I recognized the room. I hope to make a good speech out of my refreshment. I enclose a cutting or two about my Hawarden speech. TO RUDYARD KIPLING 199 Give a great deal of love to Ditchmouse. I was very sorry to miss her. A certain number of people are beginning to go out of their way to please me ; writing me letters and so forth. Among them Colin Campbell [a cousin] sent me a dear letter with a copy of the earliest picture of Lord Edward 1 and a good quotation from Walt Whitman, 'Me Imperturbe . . . . . . Aplomb in the midst of irrational things . . . Me wherever my life is lived, O to be self-balanced for contingencies, To confront night, storms, hunger, ridicule, accidents, rebuffs, As the Trees and Animals do.' I am all for the Animals but, as I pointed out in my reply, they have not to make a speech at Canterbury to-night, and I have. So here goes ! All love to you darling, and to Papa. Your loving son, GEORGE. 599 To Rudyard Kipling SAIGHTON, 5th October 1906. MY DEAR KIPLING, Last night, on finishing ' Puck of Pook's Hill ' with sharp regret, because I shall never read it again for the first time, and huge delight because so many will have that joy I felt that I must say ' Thank you.' This morning, out cub-hunting, I felt that I was a cub for presuming to distinguish myself from the dear many who never say ' Thank you.' But, remembering some talks at Rottingdean, and your father, and your uncle, I will say ' Thank you.' I thank you for every page of it. I thank you, specially, for C. Aquila, Maximus, and ' one man's work.' I thank 1 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, great-grandfather of George Wyndham. 200 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM you, above all, for Maximus. I read my Gibbon again this afternoon, and measured the amount of your creation. It is stupendous. Knowing Maximus intimately, as I do since yesterday I may say that he will not thank you when you meet him in the Elysian fields. But I thank you most for him. I am not unmindful of THE WALL, and the snake along the Wall ; nor un- grateful to you for declaring better than it has been shown before how that the sun really rose, every day, at the usual hour, in the 4th, and llth, centuries just as he does in the 20th century. And he knows how to rise. Such is his Conservatism. I always knew that and, also, that men and women and children, who lived from one to ten thousand years ago, were as like men and women and children of to-day as any million peas, or two suns. But you can shew this, and we can't. That is much genius and so forth. The two officers in charge of The Wall, and Maximus, and the Rescue, are more. That parable tells the men and women and children what they have got to do in the everlasting sunlight, and, even, why they have got to do it. They may now understand that the world rots in everlasting sunlight ; and that they must delay the rot, year in and year out, on the chance that, once in 100 years, a saviour, and once in 500 years, a creator, may or may not appear. That is their glory. Your glory is that you have told them so ! 600 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON, 6th October 1906. BELOVED PAM, I got back to Saighton late last night after a month's racket, more or less, and am alone in my tower ; and alone in many ways. When one is alone, all the other lonely people begin to talk. The Psalmist, shouting out against his enemies in the night, becomes a TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 201 pal. And everything that has been said well becomes a masonic grip of secret fraternity. I read ' Puck of Pook's Hill ' yesterday, and I will be bound to say that nobody has enjoyed it, or will ever enjoy it, more than I did. It will I daresay strike you from the children, governess, tea-time, fairy-tale point of view. And, quite possibly, you will feel that, from that point of view, you know a great deal more than Rudyard Kipling. But anyway that is only the envelope of his letter. His letter what he meant was written to me. Because I am alone in my Tower. So I thanked him. Few of the lonely ones, who confabulate, have ever understood better all the time, and shewn better some of the time, than Browning ; for example, this is all that I could wish to hear about my work in Ireland and afterwards . . . ' So with this thought of yours that fain would work Free in the world : it wants just what it finds The ignorance, stupidity, the hate, Envy and malice and uncharitableness That bar your passage, break the flow of you Down from those happy heights where many a cloud Combined to give you birth and bid you be The roughest of rivers : on you glide Silverly till you reach the summit-edge, Then over, on to all that ignorance, Stupidity, hate, envy, bluffs and blocks, Posted to fret you into form and noise. What of it ? Up you mount in minute mist, And bridge the chasm that crushed your quietude, A spirit-rainbow, earthborn jewelry Outsparkling the insipid firmament, Blue above Terni and its orange-trees.' All I could wish to hear ; I should think so ! But I do hear it now in my tower and know it is far more than I deserve. But that is the way of the lonely people. They are generous. Wasn't it jolly of Browning, only two pages after that, to tell a story of some cognoscenti who hid all the group of the Laocoon, and then invited the 202 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM critics to say what his agony expressed. Then Browning (I feel I may call him Robert) says this : 'One And may he live to write my history Only One, said " I think the gesture strives Against an obstacle we cannot see." ' No more room, except to add that the lonely ones are uncommon good company. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 601 To Mrs. Drew SAIGHTON, October 1906. DEAREST MARY, I am rather jealous of Sibell because you were here when I was not. For a good Patriot and Imperialist, prepared to hear that Portsmouth has been raided by Torpedo Boats German for choice with comparative equanimity, perhaps it would do if the Chairman of my Banquet an ex-Lord Mayor who looked the part shared the fate of the Burgomaster of Kopenick. I think I shall subscribe to a press-cutting agency in the name of the Burgomaster of Kopenick, for I want to read, and engross in an Album, all about him. This wholly delightful event adds one more to the forty good stories which have been told since the Stone Age. And it is fit for ears polite. It beats the thief in the Rhamsonites of Herodotus. It beats the Golden Ass of Apuleius. It beats Don Quixote, it beats Banagher. It is good to live when such things happen. And why did not B. J. live to read it ? But I can feel him laughing and rumpling Morris' hair, and hear the 4 Limerick ' which Rossetti would have composed perhaps not fit for ears polite. It has done me good, as the ladies say in advertisements of Bile Beans. For I have had a bother not of my own* TO MRS. DREW 203 lately which has disposed me to laugh at the grotesque side of the soldier ' as such.' What a moral it conveys, never to do what you are told to do. I hear that you ' reneged ' at ' Puck of Pook's Hill ' and were, more or less, converted by Sibell's report of my enthusiasm. I broke out and wrote to Rudyard Kipling. I backed 4 De Aquila,' but I plumped for ' Maximus ' and ' The Wall. So I was pleased when R. K. wrote back a * Thank you very much for your letter, and especially for what you say about Maximus, which makes me proud as well as pleased. Yes Gibbon was the fat heifer I ploughed with : but all those * decline-and-fall ' officers are so amazingly modern that as soon as I got him started I went on as easily as Mr. Wegg did : they being mellowing to the organ. I swear I didn't mean to write parables much but when situations are so ludicrously, or terribly, parallel, what can one do ? * That raises a question. What Rudyard Kipling does is to wrap up two perfect peep-shows into the past and therefore into all time, in a machinery of children in Sussex and Puck and the rest of it. This nearly stopped me and did stop you, for a time : which is bad. It did not stop the reviewers. But it baffled them and revealed their well revealed what they are, and, specially, how many people they are not. But this * machinery ' is only the ' Walk up ' of the Showman, his ' Boniment,' as the French say. It isn't bad boniment either. But the peep-shows are what I see all the time (better lighted and grouped by R. K.) and piercing through the ages with that flashing main of Eternity which is the Halcyon home of all those sea -blue birds of the Spring who keep a careless heart as they fly over the foam flowers. Perhaps you will feel nothing of this. And then you will tell me so. But tell me whether or No. And then I will tell you what I wrote to Kipling. The soldiers who arrested the Burgomaster made me think of De Aquila and Maximus : R. K.'s. Mr. Wegg 204 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM leads me to say that I have just finished reading ' Little Dorrit ' again. I can't bear to think that I must wait 5 or 10 years 5 if greedy, 10 if prudent, before reading it yet once more. What a great man Dickens is ! And how are the 4 Tite Barnacles ' avenged by the Ulster Party. With what avidity the ' Times ' returns to the vomit of the Circumlocution Office. How readily the dear stupid English folk believe in ' How not to do it.' How intensely they suspect and hate anybody who does anything or might conceivably do anything, arrogating to their dear muddled heads and dear little hearts the right of scolding everybody because nothing is done. And then majestically assassinating anybody who presumes to do anything. This they call ' common sense.' I have often pondered on the linguistic freak or revelation ? which led the Greeks and the French to talk of ' good sense ' and the English to talk of ' common sense.' And the worst of it is that when, now and again, an Englishman is sick of * common ' sense, he does not deviate gracefully into ' good ' sense. He bursts out into ' uncommon nonsense ' and calls it paradox ; as a protest against a commercial education. But this is our Country. And I love it : as a man loves a brutal woman. Yours affectionately, G. W. P.S. But having effected a ' judicial ' on my part 4 separation ' from my country, I do not think that I would ever * marry ' her again in the Registry Office of a Cabinet. I do not seek divorce ' a vinculis.' But I revel in separation * a mensa et thoro.' 602 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, October 19th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I thought so much of you and Aunt Emily, first in your anxiety, and then in your relief over dear Uncle Charlie. TO MRS. DREW 205 Send them my fond love. Thank Papa for cutting on * compulsory mathematics.' My Portsmouth Banquet was a great success. I spoke for fifty-five minutes. I have been very busy of late too busy. I speak at Birmingham on the 25th, Dover the 7th November, and Liverpool, 5th December. Ronsard ought to be out ' anywhen.' I have passed the ' make up ' in ' Dummy.' That is the last act in producing a book. There are only two agreeable moments in this tedious operation. One, when the MS. is sent off ; the other, when you pass the ' Dummy ' and know what clothes your child is to wear. All the rest is sheer labour ; and the labour on ' Proofs ' is more exacting to me than the labour of writing in the first instance. I go up to London Monday or Tuesday for Parliament, 4 to be there ' which Dizzy called the first condition of parliamentary success and to talk over Lords' amend- ments with Lansdowne. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 603 To Mrs. Drew PARK LANE, November 9th, 1906. I took full advantage of your leave to 4 ponder ' and heard yesterday from Mr. Frowde. I will think over books. . . . My life has become a scurry. When I get back to Saighton, we must have a good day in the Tower as a companion picture in memory to the morning under the poplar. It is these little bits of happy serenity that shine out from the past the day in the garden I read you the ' Wood beyond the World ' and half a morning in Shelagh's garden. I have been speaking too much. To-day I broke out with Sibell and saw Holman Hunt's pictures. Silence ought to be imposed in a gallery. When I was taking in the wind-swung lilt of rose cloudlets from Magdelene Tower on the May morning, this is what I heard : 206 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Old Lady (deaf) : ' But how wonderful it is to see the way it 's lasted ! ' Young Lady (shrill) : ' Some of them are not very old.' Pause. Young Lady : ' It 's rather pretty.' They move on to the ' Two Gentlemen of Verona.' Old Lady : ' That looks very modern.' Young Lady : ' Oh no ! that was painted in 1857.' And so on. To-day I go to Wilfrid Blunt for two days of poetry. 604 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., November 16th, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Enclosed came back to me through Dead Letter Office. You know Miss Hamilton's address. Will you send it on as it is to show that I did answer her letter. * Fairy ' King and I are having a great rummage among papers to-day. For I have reached a pause in work. I almost believe that I have finished Dover Harbour. But I shall not send my wire to you till after the 3rd Reading. Next week I am busy ; speaking London on 21st, Dover 22nd, and Oxford 23rd. Shall I come to Clouds, Saturday, 24th, if free ? I have another bunch of speeches on 5th, 6th, and 10th December in Liverpool and Glasgow. So if tired shall rest in London on 24th-26th. But if not, Clouds would be delicious and I long to see you. My new battle-horse is the Navy. We made a grand fight on Land Tenure and the Squires of England ought to be obliged to us. The opposition knew nothing about Rural life and we banged 'em from pillar to post. Your most loving son, GEORGE. TO WILFRID WARD 207 605 To Wilfrid Ward 35 PARK LANE, W., November 16th, 1906. MY DEAR WILFRID, I cannot find time to write any- thing. But if possible I will dine on 28th from the House. A suggestion occurs to me as I write rude and crude. Let me put it in this way : 1. Historical exegesis has so far mainly rejected certain books from canonical books the Bible, as some call the collection. But it has rejected them to be more precise in respect, not of their ecclesiastical authority, but of their traditional ascription to certain authors and dates. 2. Reverse the process. Let historical exegesis examine the traditional value of non-canonical books and legends. What does history make of ' Domine, quo vadis ? ' Of the apostolic conversion of Britain ? of the peregrina- tions of St. James ? Conclusion. Historical exegesis belittles the Canon by demonstrating that Tradition which has grown up round it is irreconcileable with historical results. But these traditions mean something. They are not pure inven- tions. Therefore let historical exegesis appraise all tradi- tions and see what happens. This suggests another track which I once sketched hi a walk we took together. Assuming Revelation, of any kind, it had to be conveyed in a known language but also, with a like necessity, in a familiar order of religious and metaphysical thought. To collate the ' Book of the Dead ' or the sacramental rites of a Zagreus or an Adonis with canonical scriptures does not diminish the authority of Christianity. It only shows that two great ideas in Christianity : (1) reward and punishment after death, (2) the mystery of regeneration by sacrifice were the reli- gious, or metaphysical, medium in which the truths of Christianity had perforce to be stated if they were to be 208 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM understood ; just as Aramaic or Alexandrian Greek, were the linguistic media in which they had, similarly, to be stated, if they were to be intelligible. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 606 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., November 19th, 1906. MY DEAREST PAPA, Many thanks for transferring the securities. I am sure you are right to do so. We shall certainly have some form of graduated income tax the operation of which, combined with Death Duties, must dissipate any fortune in the course of three generations. Unless the Landed Gentry treat their personal estates on the lines of men in business ; i.e. hold it divided as you propose among capable living members of the family, each one of whom should take advice on re-invest- ment from time to time. But you need have no fears of speculation on my part. I merely hold that a little time and attention ought to secure three and three quarters per cent on capital and that unless this is done incomes must perish. A judicious re-investment of Railway securities, even ten years ago, would have increased many private incomes and made them safer at the same time. You will save income tax on my 1800. But I ought to be able to re-invest to cover the payment which will now fall on me. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Tell Mamma that my Land Bill books are found. The Ronsard file will be sent to her when complete Reviews are still coming in. 607 To Mrs. Drew 35 PARK LANE, November 24th, 1906. I want to tell you that the ' Young Squire of Hawarden * did very well (my Oxford Union was the third of three TO WILFRID WARD 209 consecutive speeches). He was by far the best of the four speakers. Talbot was good ; straight, burly and in earnest. Villiers gave a polished, fluent little discourse. But the 4 Young Squire ' 1 has the root of the matter in him. He debated, put his case, came into contact with reality, was at ease and without mannerism of any kind. I ' debated ' his speech and we are embalmed together in the * Tunes.' The whole thing was a pleasant experience and made me wish I was 20 years younger. 608 To Wilfrid Ward 35 PARK LANE, W., December 20th, 1906. MY DEAR WILFRID, Many thanks for your letter and Eccles' review. It is very good. I read it with delight and sounded his praise to a small gathering of ' notables ' last night Robert Cecil, Seely, Masterman, Butcher and Rawlinson. He is not a ' barren rascal ' ! He is not your mere battledore Reviewer returning to the author his shuttlecock, a little frayed. He has fecundity and ripe sayings * an arsenal of glory and a granary of vital sorrows.' At last, to-night I finish this working year. We buried the Education Bill this afternoon. I have won my elec- tion, made speeches, published my little book, made new friends, fought old enemies. I have lived and life is wonderful. I shall wait impatiently for your ' XlXth Century ' article on France. I spent Sunday at Arundel. Norfolk makes little account of French Catholics. Among new friends I have Belloc. But towards Christmas the heart turns to old friends, to you and your wife. And I send you greetings. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 1 William Gladstone, the President of the Union. VOL. II. O 210 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 609 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, December 22nd, 1906. MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year and to send you moun- tains of love. This has been a year of work and at times of anxiety. But it is over. I have enjoyed Guy at 35, Park Lane, immensely. I hope to get to Clouds later on. I was ' in at the death ' of the Education Bill on Thursday. The last three days Monday-Wednesday, were very tense. I was dug out of the Westminster Latin Play Monday night. We conferred in Arthur's room from 9-30 to past midnight, again on Tuesday from 5 to 8 o'clock, and on Wednesday from 12 to 2 o'clock. It was interesting. S. S. and I got here last night. To-day I hunted and had a good gallop which made me very hot and will make me very stiff. Now I am going to hunt and amuse myself. I shall for pleasure begin reading all Walter Scott, as I have to deliver an address on him next November in Edinburgh, which will, afterwards, serve as a little essay. Can you lend me Lockhart's Life from your East Room ? It will make a pleasant holiday task and fit in with my general literary work as another aspect of the Romantic Revival. I am longing to see you. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 610 To his Brother SAIGHTON GRANGE, Christmas Eve, 1906. DEAREST OLD GUY, Let me hear from time to time what you do in the way of hunting. TO HIS NEPHEW, GEORGE WYNDHAM 211 We had good sport to-day with the South Cheshire Heggie Corbett's forty-five minutes, rather moderate, to ground ; and then a capital fox-chase. Found at Broom- hall, ran fast 20 minutes to a covert, dwelt there six or seven minutes, viewed him away, slower hunting, and a fast finish, killed in the open. One hour and fifteen minutes in all. We were quite the ' Huntbaches ' Bendor, Shelagh, ' Pat,' * Mrs. Malone, Madge, John Fowler, Arthur Gros- venor, Gerry Grosvenor, Perl' and self, Ivor Guest and 4 uncle Tom Codley and all.' There was a large field out but plenty of room to ride and lots of ' lepping.' I enjoyed myself hugely. The sun-dial 2 has been erected ' with all military pre- cautions.' Sibell knows nothing of it, nor Percy either. I visited it after coming in from hunting. The rain poured down. The gardeners gave me glimpses of it with a bull's-eye lantern. ' Muin was the word.' And we separated in the darkness before Sibell got back from her last I hope shopping expedition to Chester. Love to all. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 611 To his Nephew, George Wyndham SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 4th, 1907. MY DEAR LITTLE GEORGE, I think I must write to you my Fox-hunting letter this time. I told your father of the good day we had on Wednesday. To-day, again, we had very good sport : first, a run of about fifty minutes, with lots of jumping ; second, forty- five minutes and a kill in the open and third, about twenty- five minutes, not so good. We all enjoyed ourselves. Percy rode a new horse 1 Heremon Lindsay Fitzpatrick. 2 He had bought an old sun-dial and erected it in the garden as a surprise Christmas gift to his wife. 212 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM that jumped well. Bendor and I both took mild tosses in the second run. Your uncle Pat was out too and Mrs. Malone. I am glad that my whip brought you luck and that you got the brush. Your affectionate uncle, GEORGE. 612 To Monsieur Auguste Rodin SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 7 Janvier 1907. MON CHER AMI, J'ai eu tant a faire ces jours-ci que je n'ai pu repondre a votre lettre jusqu' aujourd'hui. Je vous demande mille pardons de ce delai. Ne songez pas que votre lettre ne m'a pas rejoui le coeur. Je suis toujours enchante d'entendre d'un de mes meilleurs amis. Et, encore, je suis plein de reconnaissance pour votre bonne intention de m'envoyer un bronze de mon buste. C'est un vrai cadeau d'amitie" que je cherirai pendant toute ma vie. Egalement pour sa valeur artistique et en souve- nance de nos entretiens d'autour. Qu'ils soient bientdt renouveles est mon ardent desir. Je vous donne d'accord ma permission de placer une troisieme epreuve dans un musee de 1'Etat. En verite" je vous remercie d'un tel honneur, quelqu' indigne que je suis d'etre tant soit peu ' immortalise ' d'une mani^re si imprevue. N'oubliez jamais, cher Monsieur Rodin, que je suis votre ami, GEORGE WYNDHAM. M. AUGUSTE RODIN. 613 To Mrs. Drew SAIGHTON, January 15th, 1907. We had all kinds of adventures with our motor after leaving your Hawarden haven. It could not go up-hill TO HIS BROTHER 213 and was not safe going down, having no * sprag,' what- ever that may be. We got lunch at 3.15, and only just caught the train at Chester at 6.17. The motor, which had stopped at every gradient, finished its performance by running up on to the pavement at the station. We were patient from good-fellowship and brave from igno- rance, with the exception of Charlie Adeane, who has a motor of his own and talked ominously of * sprags.' The pale-faced chauffeur maintained a harassed silence. I give him the prize for patience and courage. 614 To his Brother SAIGHTON GBANGE, CHESTER, January 16th, 1907. DEAREST OLD GUY, I am delighted to hear that Wellington can take little George, all the more as every- one tells me that it is bar Eton the best of all public schools. I have been idle over writing hunting news, for the pleasant reason that our good sport is quite continuous. Excepting New Year's day we have enjoyed ourselves on each day, galloping and jumping to our heart's content. We had two good gallops, Thursday, two good gallops, Friday. The North had a great day Monday ; Watkyn a capital day yesterday and to-day Wednesday we are just in from hunting all round here. (1) Found in Saighton Drives and ran 50 minutes, slow to ground. (2) Found Saighton Gorse and ran very fast forty-seven minutes over the vale and killed. (3) Viewed a fox and ran across the vale through Eaton and nearly to Chester. We whip off every day in the dark, Benny, Shelagh, Perf, Pat and I crack along in front all the time. Apart from the rare sport the weather is so delicious. I sweat through every- thing twice a day, and the country looks beautiful and smells sweet of moist earth. Perf is a recognized exponent of the Art, always in front flight, and often *' cutting out the work.' 214 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM It seems a shame to make you work for the W. O. But I suppose you will be able to get some hunting. Perf and I have six horses between us that all ' know to jump.* The seventh we are selling as he falls from old age. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 615 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 16th, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I have been so occupied with a Railway Board hi London each week and hunting on all other days that I have not had tune to write. I will have a search for the Rossetti ; but do not remember him. As for the seal his fine disc, as well as his Venetian glass handle ask for some rare device. I have G. W. on the old Fox-Pad seal of the 5th January 1880 I You remember the run from Everleigh to West Woods, one hour and thirty minutes. I don't like imitating Morris' motto. I have taken for my motto a Latin line, Virgil, ' Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito ' which means, * Do not yield to misfortunes but rather meet them more boldly.' The last two words would do as thus : AUD ENTIOR ITO or else ' ne quid timide,' Cicero. or else ' optima quseque dies ' which means, ' Each best day.' But do not let us decide in a hurry. You might look into the little book of Emblems I gave you, there were some good tags in that. For the rest, do not trouble over cigarettes etc. I am in much better trim in all those ways. Hunting makes it very easy not to smoke much. Your most loving son, GEORGE. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 215 616 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON, 18th January 1907. MOST DARLING PAMELA, It was a great joy to get your letter. My answer to your question is that I am hunting with Percy just as if nothing had happened. I skip details. We are merely happy. We have 7 hunters and odd mounts from Bendor and bust along and perspire and leave all letters unanswered, except your letter and pressing invitations to speak, which we reject with scorn. In the evenings we read ' Antony and Cleopatra ' and old books about Cheshire and England : Puller's Worthies, The Vale Royal of England, Camden's Britannia, and Froissart. For it is our pleasure, after riding over the country, to retrieve the renown of great men who came from here and fought in France and Spain, under the Black Prince for 40 years Earl of Chester. Thus, we love the horsemanship of the folk we spring from ; and cherish every rise and fall in the ground that nurtured them. We, also, cherish their marksmanship with the Bow. I opened a miniature rifle range last Wednesday week. I made a speech that has made them all think ; quoting from ancient annals. Then, by good fortune, I put up my miniature rifle and beat them all to blazes. 110 shot, and I won by 6 points. It was very lucky as I had said in my speech that shooting like skating and swimming once learned was never forgot. But, in the main, we merely hunt the fox ; and get very hot, and sleep like stones and prepare for the next call to enterprise by thing our body and resting our head. All this sounds very brutal, and in the mode of Squire Western. But say what you will it gives me rest and pleasure, it is jolly to find that 20 years cannot abate one's huge delight in riding to hounds ; and the added joy of seeing Perf always in the first flight and often cutting out the work is exquisite. If I can keep my place of old days 216 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I am pleased like a boy. If he beats me I am in the seventh heaven. Meanwhile I am at last really resting my brain. I sleep like a stone. I weigh half a stone less and I nurse a glorious contempt for all the little people who fuss about nothing. But, occasionally, I write verse again, and I read nothing except Virgil, Catullus, Shakespeare, Walter Scott and Boccacio. So I live, getting younger and younger, loathing the thought of going back into the pig-stye of Politics. But, therefore, preparing to take on Devolution or the Army Scheme with a maximum of refreshed detachment, it is jolly to weigh half a stone less and to sleep and feel free. I rejoice in Bim's poem, it is delightful. But never instigate him. If he writes that now, leave him alone. Encourage him to ride and sail a boat or shoot birds. His brain will dart out only too soon. Muffle it in hardy fatigue. I speak from knowledge. As a boy, and once or twice since, I have been near the precipice of abnormal cere- bration. But the whole truth is, if you have a brain that works at lightning speed when stimulated, to drug it with wholesome fatigue, involving courage and initiative. It will shoot out, fast enough, at any Cabinet Council which he may condescend to illuminate. Your devoted brother GEORGE. 617 To his Father SAIGHTON, January IQth, 1907. DEAREST PAPA, Yes, that is what I mean. The increased volume of Trade stated in terms of .s.d. does not prove any great increase in income ; i.e. profits ; of the ten per cent increase of total trade one half five per cent is attributable to a general rise in prices. The materials cost more as well as the products. Apart from ; TO HIS FATHER 217 that minor consideration, I maintain that no probable increase in taxable income will meet the probable demand for increased revenue. The Government will try to cut down Army and Navy. But they cannot go far enough to make any material difference. Even if they save five million which I think impossible the reaction will set in. We shall have a revival of complaints that barracks are not kept in sanitary repair and of scares that our guns and rifles are not the best, etc. If the Government go on against these storm signals, men like Haldane and Sir John Fisher will resign. On the other hand the Government must find money to meet the growing and excessive demands of their sup- porters. Some day old age pensions will be voted. Apart from these direct payments from the State the time is coming when the Imperial Exchequer will have to help County Councils with grants in aid. Apart from that, they will be driven in order to assist 4 Reforms ' without paying cash to * guarantee ' more loans ; and to lower the rate of interest in existing loans, e.g. Local Loan Stock, or rather Housing Loans based on that stock. All this tends to lower our credit ; i.e. the borrowing power of the Exchequer. The time will, therefore, come when the Government cannot meet the demands made on it unless it restores the credit of the Exchequer. And that can only be done in the long run by paying off debt, i.e. raising revenue another twenty million a year to increase the sinking fund. If the Government try to do this by direct taxation e.g. violent graduation of Income Tax, they will increase the mischief. The City will not lend them money ; or float their loans ; and private persons will invest more and more abroad and ultimately, if they feel they are being unfairly treated, will evade income tax by lodging their securities in banks abroad, say, Switzerland. If the population increases as it does and, at the same time insists on state-aid, as it does, by way of costly 218 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM education, costly Poor Law ; perhaps direct pensions ; and by way of Housing Schemes, and Small Holding Schemes, guaranteed by the State at low interest and long periods of repayment, there is no possible ultimate solution except that the people should pay for all this. And there is no way in which they can pay except by broadening the basis of taxation. That alone yields a sufficient amount of revenue to restore credit, and that alone affords an effective system of graduation i.e. the ' automatic ' graduation as I have called it which proceeds from the relatively poor not buying as many luxuries as the relatively rich. The English delight in discussing these problems in terms of Justice. Even, on that basis, it is absurd to tax a man with 2000 a year and ten children at the same rate of graduation as a bachelor with the same income. It is more reasonable to discuss the problem in terms of common sense and to determine as the old financiers did (1) How much money do we want ? and (2) How can we get it with the least annoyance and disturbance ? Our present system is not sound. It is not effective to depend as largely as we do on taxes of three kinds (1) Taxes on Beer, Spirits, and Tobacco, which hit the poor. (2) Taxes on Stamps which hit the makers of wealth. (3) Death Duties and Income Tax which hit the owners of wealth i.e. the savers and investors. Besides all this, there is another cloud on the financial horizon. I mean the Savings Banks. There is, I think, 200,000,000 in the Savings Banks and no securities. If the Labour Party organised a scare and run on the Savings Banks they could smash our existing system of Finance. Some day a Chancellor of the Exchequer will have the courage to tell the truth. He will have to consolidate the Debt again ; on a two-and-three-quarter per cent basis : including all our Debt, i.e., all the loans we guarantee as well as Consols. He will have to assist the low rateable arrears. TO HIS FATHER 219 He will have to increase the sinking fund. He will have also to restrict the borrowing power of Local Bodies. And to do this, without destroying the Navy and Army (which in turn are necessary for our credit) he will have to increase largely the number of articles on which duty is paid ; so largely, that he may as well go in for an all- round Tariff and use part of it for bargaining with other countries. That is the way in which Fiscal Reform will come. I see that I have not given a plain answer to your question ' How do Consols at 86 affect the Government ? ' The answer is that they cannot get the money they need on reasonable terms ; and sometimes that they cannot get it at all. As things are they cannot get the money for Irish Land Purchase. Very well. They have now got to get the money for Irish labourers. Then their English supporters want Housing Schemes. What is that to be ? Five millions a year would be a flea-bite. But they would have to borrow it. And so on with Small-holdings ; and, of course, with Old Age Pensions. For these purposes they must either borrow, issuing a loan themselves ; or, they must get the City to issue the loan and guarantee the interest. Apart from these larger transactions, a Government has to borrow in the course of every year. The income tax does not come in ' pat ' to the day ; nor do the proceeds of other taxes. But the Government has to pay soldiers and sailors, and postmen once a week, and to pay for ships and public buildings ' on the nail.' With Consols at 86 i.e., with a low credit, they have to borrow at high interest. The Bank rate was six per cent, it is now five per cent. So they cannot get ' cheap ' money for a short period, any more than you can, or a Railway Company. I do not for a moment believe that Arthur will resign 220 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM the Leadership. There is plenty of intrigue against him ; but it is confined to a minority of men in the House, and of men who are likely to get into the House. In a Democracy politicians have to be ' Vote-hunters.' But they can hunt for them in a proper, as well as in an improper, fashion. They can appeal to Patriotism as well as to Pockets, and to common interests as well as to Class jealousies. Bendor, Percy and self, with Cecil Parker and Colonel Lloyd had an interesting shoot to-day, second time over. I have not got the exact bag. But it was pleasantly varied by 7 woodcock, 8 snipe, 6 teal, 1 jay, 1 magpie and one pigeon with, I suppose about 170 pheasants, and a few hares and rabbits. Your loving son, GEORGE. 618 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 20th, 1907. MY DEAREST PAPA, I posted my answer last night. The Navy. The Government did diminish the building programme. But Lord Brassey may be right in saying that the Two-Power standard is maintained ; for the Government declare that they reduced their programme because other countries will not complete some ships they are building as soon as we expected ; that other countries are not ' laying down ' new ships and that, in any case, as we build faster we can out-pace them if they do suddenly lay down new ships. Without fuller knowledge it is not wise to attack the Government for not laying down more ships. The case I make against them is that they are (1) taking Battleships out of full commission (2) putting them into the Reserve and simply christening the Reserve ' The Home Fleet ' and (3) Then recreating the bad type of Reserve which we abolished. This shows it : TO HIS FATHER 221 BATTLESHIPS 1905 In full commission, i.e. at sea all the year round . . .32 At sea with full crews only for part of the year . . -,s * 14 46 1907 26 14 2 40 Having taken six Battleships out of full commission and put them down into the Reserves now called ' Home Fleet.' They have taken six out of that Reserve and, practically, put them into harbour, permanently, with only men to oil the guns etc. sort of caretakers, and a vague promise to take them out sometimes. Now a ship does not ' find herself ' till she has been two months at sea with all the ranks on board that will navigate and fight her in war. Again, by taking ships out of full commission, they keep officers and men ashore who ought to be at sea ; and allow many ' repairs ' to accumulate, the need of which would only be discovered after the ships had been at sea. Besides this they are scamping repairs everywhere. ' Ready, aye, ready ' ought to be our motto for the Navy. Nothing is worse than to have ships laid up in time of Peace that would require over-hauling at the out- break of War. It was precisely that system which we abolished : and now they are bringing it back by degrees to save the cost, in coal, wages and repairs of keeping our First Line at sea, all the year round. We have let our house till about the 10th of March. Would it be quite convenient to give me a bed at 44 during the first three weeks of the session ? Your loving son, GEORGE. 1 We called this the Reserve, of the new kind, with nucleus crews. 2 They call it the Home Fleet ! 222 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 619 To his Sister, Mary SAIGHTON, l.ii.07. MOST DARLING CHANG, I gauged the situation on Monday night and saw that it did not present the elements of a good talk except by going to supper together. I should have liked that. But Sibell was looking white and tired, so I whipped her off to be out of reach of temp- tation. Had I stayed and supped, I should have cheered up and not gone to bed till 3. The first simmer of excitement, the fun of seeing you all, and Pamela and ' notables,' the restless enthusiasm of Blow, the thrill of the * Drums of Oude,' the intolerable twaddle of ' Toddles,' the yawning distance between our chairs, the gnawing pangs of hunger, after a long journey, and 20 minutes' dinner, all pointed either to a large and leisurely supper or else to bed on the principle of ' qui dort dine.' I decided rightly, for as it was Sibell did not get to bed till 1.30 and began again at 6 a.m. to catch the 8.30. I snatched a pretty good hunt between two frosts on Wednesday. The Eaton Party had many casualties. Shelagh fell and got a bruise, but nothing of consequence. Lady Chesterfield and Tullibardine also fell. I picked up Lady C. and we did not lose our places in the first flight. At the end we heard Shelagh was hurt, but soon met her walking and laughing and sent her home safe and warm in a motor which Benny had galloped for to Eaton and driven out himself. Yesterday we shot, a lovely day. Then I had to go again to London last night for Railway Meeting, and back to-day, and here I am with a blazing fire in my room and my books round me. Perf, who went yesterday to the Bicester Ball, got into my carriage at Bletchley. I am eager for a good talk with you. I am interested to read A. J. B.'s speech. I gather TO HIS SISTER, MARY 223 that he is going to ' put his foot down.' I feel more and more that it is very noble of him and rather noble of me I to bother about politics at all. I look forward to the session with disgust approaching to nausea. Since Christmas I have for the first time since I took office felt young and happy ; hunting, reading good books, enjoying Percy, and living, in short. To go back to the House, its dust and dullness and littleness, is like a bad dream. It makes me sick to think of Herbert Gladstone backing an iniquitous Licensing Bill. It makes me sorry to think of poor Birrell talking clever rubbish about Ireland ; and dear Haldane reeling off his ' continuous band ' of undistinguished, but gram- matical, English, in which he ties up and strangles what little of life is left in the Army on which St. John sat heavily, and A. F. stamped furiously. Our own crew are most depressing and peevish. They have no heart in them and no pride of race. There is nothing magnanimous or generous in the whole show of petty intrigue and sheepish cowardice. But for my affection for Arthur and admiration of his tenacity, I doubt whether a waning sense of duty would be strong enough to prevent me from quietly dropping my odious trade before the ' Dyer's hand ' is quite ' subdued to what it works in.' Democracy is a disease for which there is no cure, or, at best, a normal form of senile decay in States. When I was young I read cheerfully such platitudes as that States are like trees, with their periods of growth, maturity and decay. But, as life goes on, the truth of platitudes becomes poignant enough to pierce through their used envelopes. Instead of laughing at them for being stale, one is shocked by them for being true. Age in States, or men, or, above all, in women, is no joke. But at this point in my melancholy reflection the waning sense of duty begins to perk up a little. I despise the French aristocracy for having thrown up the sponge ; and any man or woman who declines into a praiser of past days. 224 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM So I conclude with Dr. Johnson's robust assertion : ' If the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in other insur- mountable distresses of humanity ? It remains that we retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we cannot cure.' But I go further being now on the upward track and say once more, that the Empire is a new State among other new States. And that if we will realise that there may be two or three centuries still ahead of the glorious indiscretions and rapt visions of youth ; the tumbles and victories. We ought to fight for this. So I suppose I shall go up to London on the llth and ' peg away ' as usual. But personally I detest the job, and prefer hunting and the society of the people I am fond of, whether dead and embalmed in books, or alive and pleasant for their beauty and keen wits. Your loving brother, GEORGE. 620 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, February 2nd, 1907. DEAREST PAPA, If you look in to-day's * Times ' you will find that ' P. L. Wyndham, gent.' is gazetted a 2nd Lieutenant, on probation to the Coldstream Guards. Your loving son, GEORGE. 621 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, February 6th, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is just possible that we might not be able to get to you till the Wednesday after Easter Sunday, 3rd April ; for I have to do Yeomanry Musketry here on the 2nd and Sibell would like to do her Easter Festival here. But that ought to leave me a TO HIS FATHER 225 week or two as with an early Easter, I do not suppose the House will rise till the last moment. I, too, have been thinking a great deal over old days. I feel the ' epoch ' of Perf taking the plunge. He is ' posted ' to my old battalion, the 1st. I am glad of that for old sake's sake and because he will be in London this summer and under Billy Lambton as his C.O. The frost has been a disappointment. But I am keep- ing myself idle and fit in spite of it. Yesterday I walked to Chester, round the walls and all the sights, and back by Eccleston, quite twelve miles. I am very glad that Papa is helping Guy. It will make all the difference to his success that he should not have cares, or feel that Minnie is worried. I am longing to see you and will come for a Sunday, pretty soon. The Government are, apparently, going to ' shunt ' their legislation in order to attack the House of Lords. I liked Arthur's speech at Hull. Loving and devoted son, GEORGE. 622 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, February 1th, 1907. DEAREST PAPA, To-night we had what Sibell calls lier ' Social Gathering ' in the School. It is not an Enter- tainment. There is no host and hostess. We merely all go selves, farmers, parson and labourers. We pro- vide tea, etc., and put out games, photographs and any- thing likely to interest or amuse. Anybody sings or plays ; who can. And, when the ice is broken, they push away the table and dance to a concertina. It is amusing to watch Sibell playing some desperate game, such as the ' Counties of England ' with a party of five or six. Lettice came over from Eaton and grinned and beamed at everybody. I felt that they were nearly all out and out Tories and VOL. n. p 226 Protectionists. One wife of a farmer Mrs. Fernall would please you. She is a remarkable woman. They now have 150 cows and make eight cheeses a day. She has been married 36 years ; and milked herself from the age of fourteen to last year. Her ' maids ' ' milk- maids ' were dancing. She was surprised that they could do it so well. Her one ambition is to present a cheese to the King. She is running the politics of the district and asks me to get ' The Duke ' to take a more active part. For her part, she denounces the ' Land Tenure ' Bill and all Radicalism, saying * I want nothing better than to be the Duke's Tenant.' She does not say this to me ; but to the local Radical agitator. Last week I went to our c Eaton,' Yeomanry, Squadron dance, as C.O. of the squadron. Eighty-two men in my squadron rode their own, or their father's horses at the last training. The wife of one N.C.O. Mrs. Moore ne'e Partington has three brothers, a husband, and brother- in-law in the Yeomanry. She, again, is a most capable person and good company runs the farm, backs the Yeomanry, is herself and at her ease. Now, she went to London for the first, and only time, in her life last year. But she is somebody. Most of the people in London are not anybody. All these country people detest and fear the present Government. This interests me in connexion with the general elections. Our people will rally to a traditional, organic England and ' play-up * for Empire if we will lead them. But we must be Conservatives who love the past and Imperialists who believe in the Future. Given that we can enroll battalions. The Midland Conservative Club have asked me to be President for a second year, and I have accepted. lam a Vice-President of the National Union in Kent and, by special request, here in Cheshire and, to-day, I got Bendor to accept the office of President. The vice of the moment consists in natural leaders being swayed by the London Press. ' The only way ' is for each man who can lead to ' hoe his own' row ' in TO MRS. DREW 227 his own district. If we do that we shall win the next election. Perf has written me two letters since he was trapped like a mouse the moment he shewed his nose in barracks after the gazette. * Billy Lambton ' his C.O. said, 4 Have you done any drills ? ' Perf answered * No.' Billy replied, ' Then you had better begin at two o'clock to-day.' So there he is touching his toes from 8 to 5 per diem. He is taking two horses to Windsor for the Drag and I think I shall follow his example, and get hot twice a week. With Lettice, Guy and self in Belgrave Square and Perf at Chelsea Barracks, we shall be quite a colony in Belgravia. The frost has been a cruel disappointment. But, having got very fit by hunting four or five days a week I am keeping fit by walking to Eaton and back and playing hockey on the ice and then squash rackets, by electric light. I hope, in consequence, to take a burly view of the King's speech and to express it bluntly to his ' faithful Commons.' Your loving son, GEORGE. 623 To Mrs. Drew SAIGHTON, February 8th, 1907. I AM crestfallen and really distressed about the article. But also I am burning with curiosity to read it. What does it contain which has scared Wilfrid Ward ? He evidently thinks the patrons of the ' Dublin Review ' would be deeply exercised by its contents. Percy has joined the Coldstream Guards this is to realise middle age with a vengeance ; but I make no complaint. I like middle age, or, rather, enjoy many quiet things that I used to neglect, and can on occasion enjoy all the unquiet things also. I am off to London for the Session, and staying a month with my father at 44 B. Square. 228 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 624 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, St. Valentine's Day, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I opened one of your bills by mistake. I am in your dear room and with old Guy where I was last year. Perf is very busy and happy over his soldiering and has lost his voice shouting at drill. I dined with Pamela last night in her house of pictures and the day before I got a glimpse of Lettie in silver and emeralds after opening of Parliament. She was dressed to match her new house, which is all white and green. I am only sending this as a line of great love, on the pretext of the bill I opened. Most loving son, GEORGE. 625 To Wilfrid Ward 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., February 21st, 1907- MY DEAR WILFRID, I am glad you met brother Guy. We are curiously complementary persons. He has more obstinacy and less imagination than I have. But we have much in common and, as far as nearness in affection can go are regular * Corsican brothers.' We slept in the same room for fifteen out of the first seventeen years of my life. Since then ' the seas between us braid ha' roared.' But I have, more than once, felt his adventures telepathically. I am grinding at the Army question. My mind is a chaos of Regulars and Auxiliaries ; Effectives and non- Effectives. But I hope to be terser than Haldane. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. TO WILFRID WARD 229 626 To his Mother Lady Day, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, We have just celebrated S. S.'s birthday. Guy, Minnie and Lily Zetland dined. I 4 bunched ' S. S. and gave her a new wonderful re- production of Botticelli's Madonna. My ' Bunch ' also was of roses and lilies. And now, for plans. I am coming to Clouds on Wednesday or Thursday and Perf comes on Saturday. We can sleep in one room or do any amount of ' campaigning ' if you are full up. Our great intent is to hunt on Saturday somewhere. I am bringing three horses on Wednesday. But I do not expect a real holiday. I have to ' open the ball ' on Haldane's scheme on the 9th. That means work, and I suppose that Pupsy 1 will put me through my paces into the bargain. 4 Quand mdme ' it will be glorious. Loving son, GEORGE. 627 To Wilfrid Ward 35 PARK LANE, W., Midnight, April 9th-10th, 1907. MY DEAR WILFRID, You were elected unanimously to The Club. 2 I was much concerned over your candida- ture. As Salisbury wrote to me saying he could not be there and Hugh Cecil who ought to have been in the Chair. But that was in your letter. I was much over- driven, as I had to open the Debate and bound by custom to remain on the bench. However, I decided that Friend- 1 Lord Wemyss. 2 A dining club founded by Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Burke in 1764. Its members included besides those mentioned in the letter Sir Edward Grey, Lord Haldane, Mr. Arthur Balfour, Sir George Murray, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, Mr. Spencer Lyttelton and Lord Rosebery. 230 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ship belongs to Eternity and Army Debates to Time. So I broke out, and went to * The Club,' made the 7th necessary to a quorum and proposed you in the absence of your proposer. All this is a reasoned apology for not having answered your letter. I proceeded ' par voie de faits ' ; for a friend my bite is better than my bark. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. The seven present were Arthur Elliot, Lord Kelvin, Asquith, Lord Welby, Spencer Walpole, Sir Alfred Lyall and self. 628 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, W., 28th April 1907. DARLING PAM, Your letter gave me a thrill of pleasure. I am glad that the book x is going to be, and more glad that you are making it. I got your letter just as I was off to make a speech, and I envied your more permanent offspring and the serene atmosphere of its creation. The best books, of all kinds, are not only each a part of its author. The author, in making each, must play his usual part. Shakespeare puts parts of himself in every one of his characters. And, as he lived by the stage, he writes Plays. You are a mother with delightful children and interesting pictures, so you tell the child which is in every man and woman about those pictures. The really good books, big or little, are written by only two classes of authors. In the first, is the author with many parts of humanity in him, who, also, plays many parts in the world. In the second, is the author with one part principally developed in him or her, who keeps, in the main, to one role in the play of life. In the first are Chaucer and Shakespeare ; in the second Borrow and Jane Austen. The literary authors, however great, do 1 'The Children and the Pictures.' TO HIS MOTHER 231 not make such good books. They only approach that when, like Ben Jonson, Dryden, or Dr. Johnson, their parts are books and their world a library. You have a fair chance of writing a little classic. The thing is to write a classic, however little, rather than a book, however big. Send for Walter Raleigh's * Shakespeare.' What a comfort that man is ! What a discomfort, in the long run, is a Gosse or, even, an Andrew Lang. The Lyric Poet is a bird apart like the thrush. He just sings all that matters to all who live in a peculiar trill which no one can imitate. If others are sparrows and feel the Spring, let them say ' cheep, cheep ' and be done with it. I like that. It is good as far as it goes. But they try to go further and make ocarinas. I once heard nn ocarina played in an Earl's Court Exhibition, and recognized the ' Spectator's ' minor poet ; just a bit of mechanicism in a shabby arcade. But I must stop here. Your loving brother, GEORGE. 629 To his Mother Wednesday, July Qth, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I feel sure I can dine Thursday .and shall love to. At 3 o'clock on Thursday, to-morrow afternoon, we have a little ceremony in the crypt of St. Paul's, i.e. handing over Rodin's monument of dear Henley formally to the charge of the Chapter. I shall have to make a little speech what the French xjall ' eloge.' Lord Plymouth unveils the bust. Do come. All friends and admirers were invited by Plymouth's letter to the Press and by notice in the Press. You would enjoy it down there with the tombs of Nelson and Wellington, Poets and Musicians. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 232 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 630 To Mrs. Drew July Uth, 1907. Reading Rodin in St. Paul's made my ' knees chatter/ as Pamela says. But I wanted to honour my dead friend, and succeeded, more or less, in being monumental without being sepulchral. ' The promise of wistful hills ' is Henley. It is beautiful, ' Promise ' to Henley was never more than expectancy based on the goodness of the known past and unlimited possibility of the unknown future. He saw that the naked realities of life were good : Why, then, he asked r should not the vague, iridescent horizon enfold something better to be perhaps unfolded ? 631 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 18.vii.07. MY DEAR P. H., I know you are abroad. But I indite these few lines on the ' Preference ' Vote of Censure. I have read * Bowley .' He merely stimulates my curiosity, But, even if it were satiated after 30 years of investiga- tion, I believe that capable men would still take sides instinctively either for (1) a Cosmopolitan view, supported by the idea of setting an example, or for (2) the Imperial view, supported by the idea of fighting for more freedom in all protected markets, and getting it in our growing Colonial markets. To descend abruptly to the particular. The best speech was a ' maiden ' by Simon, a Fellow of All Souls and barrister, on the Government, Free Trade, side. It was nearly perfect ; indeed, perfect, but for a faint touch of the ' superior person.' Yet he and this is interesting, perhaps significant founded his best attack on preference (as you did in 1903) on the incompatibility of varying colonial products, sup* TO LIEUT.-COL. STEPHEN FREWEN 233 ported by ridicule of any system which taxed food, with a preference, and which did not tax raw material. Here he was excellent. He took the Australian sheep ' meat inside and wool outside.' But his excellence as ever suggested retort. It suggested to me a reply, confined to the concrete, as per invitation, and limited to a contrast of Sheep and Sugar : as thus (i) Sheep and sugar are alike in being, each of them, both food and raw material for industry. (ii) In the case of sheep the two can be and are dis- criminated. The sheep is meat inside and wool outside. But the two come as a rule in separate ships, to wit, as ' Canterbury lamb ' and as wool. Sugar, per contra, though soluble, cannot be melted into food and raw material. (iii) Both contravene the postulate that it is inexpedient for us to tax food and raw material. (iv) But in the case of sheep you can if you choose only tax food ; in the case of sugar, if you tax at all, you must tax both. (v) In the case of sheep taxing only food you can by ' preference ' do a deal with a growing market. In the case of sugar taxing both food and raw material you can only do a deal with Jamaica and are debarred from that by the Convention. So we get back to the fundamental dichotomy Imperi- alism or Cosmopolitanism, with this further observation, that a tax on meat, with preference, falls in with the first, and that a tax on sugar does not fall in with the second, and is plainly a bad tax from any point of view. Yours ever, G. W. 632 To Lieul.-Col. Stephen Frewen HOUSE OF COMMONS, July 2CKA, 1907. DEAR OLD STE., I am a real villain in having left you for so long without a letter, and specially one after your 234 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM illness. But you are often in my thoughts and Lady Grosvenor's, and we are often talking of you and your wife. I pass Tarvin Sands, hunting and with Yeomanry, and never without a regret for old happy days. The old days were happier both for good soldiers and respectable politicians. I put in my share of the work on Haldane's Bill. But we are a feeble folk like the conies in the Bible. And this Government is, at once, the most tyrannical and the most incompetent ever known. My chief quarrel with them (may be compared to yours with the present W. O.) is that they never keep a pledge. The old idea that an honourable man ought to stick by what he says and fulfils his promises, is openly abandoned. This knocks the bottom out of Political and Military life. What is the use of obtaining pledges in Parliament or earning promises of employment in the Army, when both are given merely to delay and deceive ? I agree with what you say about the Army as a profes- sion. Men will work only on one out of three conditions : for (1) a market salary, or (2) prestige, or (3) a good time. But now the pay of an officer is contemptible by com- parison with the emoluments of any other walk in life. So far from prestige being accorded, there is no Under- secretary or penny-a-liner in the Press so obscure as not to feel at liberty to scold the officers of the British Army, day after day and year after year, as if they were mere encumbrances to the State. And, as for a good time ! a subaltern now has to do the combined work of a clerk, a navvy and an usher in a school. But, for all that, I am glad that your boy is joining. Percy joined the Coldstreams in February and is going strong. He was beaten only by a neck in the regimental Point-to-Point within three weeks of joining ; plays in their first Polo team out of three teams, and rows for them in their ' Eight.' As they have night marches most nights, he never gets to bed. I must go and look at your battle-picture. But you TO PHILIP HANSON 235 must not think of giving me a ' proof.' I will get one and give it to Guy. I look forward to riding with you again and forgetting in the chase all the cares and disappointments of middle age. So good luck and my love to you. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 633 To G. K. Chesterton HOUSE OP COMMONS, Aug. 2nd, 1907. MY DEAR MR. CHESTERTON, This is not a mere invita- tion to dine here of all places and at short notice, viz : on Monday next, August 5th, at 8 p.m. I must adopt the historic method to persuade you. Last year, when feeling ran high during the last gasps of the Education Bill, Bob Cecil gave a dinner here to Masterman, Jack Seely, Butcher, Rawlinson and myself. We all remember it. And now I have asked the other five. All have said ' yes,' and all six of us want you, if you will, to come too and make the mystic seven. I hope you can manage this. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 634 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, The Twelfth, of Pious and Immortal Memory, 1907- MY DEAR P. H., You are, maybe, hi France ; but no matter. This is to thank you for the Bowley book of figures. It shall be guarded and returned. I spent all to-day at Dover, 4 assisting ' at the first County Match played there Kent v. Gloucester on the Athletic Ground. It is a huge success nearly 8,000 people yesterday and, they say, more to-day. So here we have another vindica- 236 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM tion of ideas. The original promoters of the ground lost their 10,000. The Corporation bought for 5,000, and have rated the people for upkeep. The people murmured. Now the people are happy. Everybody would have been happy long ago but for the fact always to be remembered that it takes 10 years to get an idea into the head of Englishmen. Incidentally I saw Jessop knock up 74 in no time an exhilarating experience. In 10 years my Revenue argument will begin to attract attention as a paradox. By this easy transition I arrive at the Manchester speech. It is fairly well reported in the ' Guardian,' and got a leader in that intelligent though hostile publication ; but, Lord ! how flat it fell ! The conditions were of the kind that almost kill me : a long journey, a reception by uncongenial persons who drank whiskey at the Club, a show drive funereal for three miles up an East wind to Bellevue, a late start, a large audience 4,000 they said, almost entirely composed of many women and a few boys in a large auditorium that would easily hold 10,000. It was intolerable. So I spoke badly. But all the bones of a good speech are in the ' Guardian ' report, and they are being disinterred from day to day in news- papers and by Alfred Lyttelton, who thought it novel and excellent and proposes to reproduce parts in his Vote of Censure. But to me it was a strain. Per contra the Henley memorial in the crypt of St. Paul's was the best I have yet done. I was horribly frightened ; had to read a long MS. in French by Rodin, and then launch out on my own. Yet I ' did it on my head,' giving my whole philosophy of Life and Death, Art and Nature, War and Peace, France and England, within the compass of 15 minutes in a style that was monumental without being sepulchral and this in a crypt ! Do look me up on your way back ! Yours ever, G. W. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 237 635 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON, 20th August 1907. DARLING PAMELA, I feel inclined to write to you to-night, but not of the ' Polo Week ' at Eaton. That is past, and has already taken its place a small one in the perspective of Time. Percy played well. I hurt my leg, not even at polo, but at racquets. And that is all ; and enough, of such pleasant, and unpleasant, trifles. Hugh Cecil stayed on from Saturday till to-day and Mary Drew joined us. We read and talked gossip com- parative ethics as the late Lord Salisbury had it. And we cultivated the Muses. Now they are all gone ; I mean the guests, not the Nine. Though Terpsichore left last Wednesday, when I hurt my leg, so far as I was con- cerned, and there are only eight little muses for me. I bought a book the other day, of XVIIIth Century children's stories ; partly because you, too, emulate de Genlis ; partly because some of them are called ' Stories of the Wyndham family.' It amuses me. The Preface begins ' To publish a work with the title borne by this, may, perhaps, by some, be thought presumption, when it is recollected that Madame de Genlis has already occupied the Dramatic line, in a manner to be imitated by few, and, probably, to be equalled by none.' Observe her commas ! But the writer is modest and explains : * This short explanation the Authoress thought due to herself, lest she should be suspected of endeavouring to imitate one of the first Authors the Age has produced.' Her Dialogues, she pleads, should ' be considered as an additional barrier against the encroachment of error, and an additional support to the efforts of Virtue.' With a nice discrimina- tion ' Virtue ' has a capital, ' error,' only a little ' e.' In conclusion, she trusts them, ' not without hope, to the <3andour of a generous Public, who at least will give her credit for purity of intention.' The name of ' Wyndham ' is taken I hope not in vain, but still taken. And Mr. 238 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Wyndham plays a subsidiary part in the Dialogues of his offspring. ' Mr. Wyndham ' as the talented authoress puts it, ' will appear in a more amiable light as their father than any other.' This amuses me, and there are two pleasant engravings. But, my Dear ! how different it all is from ourselves ; and first I maintain because it was written in a stirring Age, and we live in dull days : ' Age,' with a capital ' A, r and ' days ' with a little ' d.' They hardly deserve a Big, Big * D.' Tho' they are very annoying. What with my lame leg, and the weather, and a middle- aged walk round the garden, and the receipt of a volume of verse called c The Robin's Song,' and much else of the like order ; I wrote a protest last night. It represents a disillusion which I ever detected in August, and have lately found confirmed by a Cheshire August and Middle Age. It gives a mood, but, for all that, an aspect of truth, and thus it goes : In August fields there are no wild-flowers, The robin sings without a fellow. The trees are dark and their leaves tired. All the meadows are shorn and yellow, The hope of the year has expired. The robin sings alone for hours. Nothing is young, and nothing mellow. ii Cart wheels creak and robins sing. But no thrush flutes of before and after. Rust in the wood and dust on the road Choke defiance and love and laughter. Nothing is won. All has been shewed. There are no mysteries of the Spring, And lofts are bare from floor to rafter. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 239 636 To his Sister, Pamela ST. PAGAN'S, 26th August 1907. DARLING PAM, 1 Your letter amused me very much. It is lucky I can crawl out of the discomfiture of your criticism on my creaking cart-wheels. Permit a brief retort. I said nothing of the corn-fields, if for no other reason, then because there are none round Saighton, * the meadows are shorn and yellow ' observe ! Summer does say * it is finished ' with a sense of satiety and rest. I object to both ; particularly when my leg is lame and I am afraid of getting fat. I will come to you if I can, perhaps third week of September, perhaps on my way to Perth in October, for a speech on the 18th. Punctuation is the devil. I can do it in my own way. A comma means that something is omitted which would be included in a legal document. Except in a legal docu- ment we never rehearse all that must be said in order to avoid any ambiguity of interpretation. They ought not to be used to indicate rhythm. I am pickling away at my address on Sir Walter Scott. I have six or seven things to say about him. As an address is delivered each year it is unnecessary to repeat the obvious. I shall avoid the ' good Sir Walter ' business. Except, perhaps, just to note that his works gain a re- flected charm from our knowledge of a personality which he was at such pains to dissemble. I am very vague at present. Probably the essay will form round two aspects. I. His Art. He was a romantic. That is how he saw things and said them this, with all pertinent comparisons and contrasts, etc. The romantic revival in England and France. Here I am on my native heath. 1 On receipt of the previous letter his sister had chaffingly written the follow- ing criticism : ' Why did the cart wheels creak when the carts were so empty ? The poet tells us "The lofts were bare from floor to rafter." What had happened to the harvest?" 240 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM II. His meaning. What was it that he saw and said ? So I lead up to the last motif, which is Reconciliation reconciliation of Highlands to Lowlands ; of England to Scotland ; of Jacobite to Hanoverian ; of servant to master ; of the present with the past. I sketched a conclusion on those lines which may do. In any case, it is well to have a goal to work up to. In getting there one may diverge to another and a better goal. But here is my sketch of the end : By these reconciliations, by searching for recondite chords of human experience, he feels his way towards the supreme reconciliation of man to man's fate. His ' diapason closes full on man.' This is the work, often unconscious, of great masters. But for their magical counterpoint the present would be all to each of us ; ' an apex,' Pater calls it, ' between two hypothetical eternities ' ; a masked note, so poignant that it pierces. All this has been said, better than I can say it. Only the other day a friend pointed out to me this phrase in Lander's ' Imaginary Conversations,' * the present, like a note in music, is nothing but as it appertains to what is past and what is to come.' But how few among writers, Classic, Romantic, or Realist, have known this, and shewn it. Walter Scott is of those few. He extracted secrets from oblivion so to endow what is with the charm of what has been, and to put us in case to expect the future. He strikes a full chord upon the keys of Time. It is only the greatest musicians of humanity who thus enrich the present by fealty to the past and make it a herald of eternal harmonies. 637 To his Mother ST. PAGAN'S CASTLE, CARDIFF, August 28th, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I love your birthday letter. We had a wonderful expedition to Caldey Island. Some of Sibell's friends have started or re-started there a TO HIS MOTHER 241 monastery of Benedictines ; but Anglican, not Roman. I had read of it in one of her books, and found it was off Tenby, between ninety and one hundred miles from here. So she, Gay 1 and I set out at a quarter to nine yesterday in the motor. S. S. had written to the Abbot and the Island was reported to be at no great distance from the shore. We ate some sandwiches in a field by a little brook between wooded cliffs between Coermarten and Tenby and reached Tenby at a quarter to 2 o'clock. The Abbot owns the Island and a little steamer which we were told was to start at 2 o'clock. We did not get under way till 2.30. The day was divine, sea sky-blue and many medusae pulsating past us. Tenby is like an Italian town and the scenery is lovely. As we drew near the Island we saw the Abbot in his white and black habit waiting to receive us on the sand. The tide was out. We had to get into a little row-boat and be carried out of that by two sailors apiece. Then we made the ' tour de proprietaire ' with the Abbot who was delightful. There were monks there for over a 1000 years down to the dissolution of the monasteries first Celtic and then Benedictines. The beach is grown over with long dried grass as in our Costa picture. Sea-thistles were lovely, beyond are low cliffs, pine-woods, and sycamores growing thick up a chine to the old monastery. On one cliff is a 9th century Watch Tower against pirates and further on a 7th century church. The remains of the old monastery are now surrounded by farm build- ings but there are good 13th century bits and a carved stone of the 6th century, with inscriptions in Latin and Celtic, asking all to pray for the soul of somebody ' the son of the otter ' ! We did not disembark till 5.30, and only got back, after wonderful sunset and moon-rise at a quarter to ten o'clock. I want to come and ride at Clouds very much. But I fear it must be a little later. I have a vague idea that you have said you will be away the third week in September 1 Lady Plymouth. VOL. II. Q 242 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Anyhow I am away the week beginning the 23rd September. We shall stay at Saighton till S. S. goes to Leffy on 15th September. So I might come on the 15th or on the 28th for a day or two and bring you on with me to Saighton. Or both ! Phyllis 1 and Gay would perhaps like to ride, but they could only come 28th or 30th, just for two days. Anyhow, you and Papa come to us early in October and I would not shorten your visit. We go North on the 17th of October. All love to you darling. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 638 To Mrs. Drew August 28th, 1907. . . . We went with motor all the way, more than 90 miles, to Tenby, and then took the Abbot's little steamer and set out to sea for Caldey Island, to visit the Benedictine Monastery that is being revived there by Dom Aelred Carlyle. It was a divine day, the sea was sky-blue and the scenery wonderful. As we approached the shore, we could see the Abbot in his black and white habit awaiting us on the sand. The tide was out, and we were carried ashore by two sailors. The Abbot was perfect, and all he is doing is right. He first showed us the Guest House, built of their own stone, for there are rocky cliffs on the Island. Near it, on a knoll, is a 9th Century tower built by the old Monks to look out for pirates. Further back is a 7th Century Church. The Monks were there for more than 1000 years, first Celtic and then Benedictine. The Church is two cubes of stone with a Celtic arch between. Then we saw two of the Brothers at work in a long row of white cottages, red -roofed, which are to be let to mothers, relations and friends of the Monks. The new Monastery is to be built on a height near a pinewood. We had tea with the Abbot's Mother and went into the old Monastery buildings. The Chapel is 13th Century. It was excavated out of the ground and there is the old 13th Century Gate- 1 Lady Phyllis Clive. TO HIS MOTHER 243 house and Dovecot. There they dug up a strange stone inscribed in Latin and Celtic of the 6th Century, asking our prayers for the soul of ' the son of the otter.' The old fish-ponds are there and the carp are in them still. The Abbot walked us down to embark, looking exactly like a 14th Century picture with his tonsured head against the Mantegna rocks. He blessed us as we took leave ; after a brilliant sunset and magical moonrise, we got back at 9.45. The simplicity of the new buildings and the mystery of the old are beyond admiration. It is a perfect thing. 639 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, September Qth, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I hope ' no more visits ' does not mean that you and Papa are not coming here in October. I shall come to you about the 27th of September for some rides anyhow. And perhaps only perhaps for a day or two next week. But I fear not. I am hard at it on Walter Scott and arranging book, and papers for political campaign. It will be a bit of a miracle if I can get away and serenity during the Autumn will depend on having finished Walter Scott and laid a solid foundation for speeches in the course of the next fortnight. It is the only clear tune I shall have till the 13th of December. I want to think,- and read, and arrange my subjects. I am very happy over Sir Walter. It does one good to live in his company, as I am. I have read again the four volumes, of his Journal two, and of letters two, and skimmed Lockhart and plunged into the period in England, Scot- land and France. The little address will be a ' ridiculous mouse ' from such a ' mountain.' But the task has given excuse and energy for reading all my old loves, Shelley, Keats, right through bits of Byron, and he is much better as one gets older ; early Victor Hugo and his pre- faces which are excellent as e.g. ' Revolutions change 244 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM everything except the human heart.' That knocks out the socialists except as barren rascals and disturbers of humanity ; mere mules ' without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity.' I am also at Jane Austen and Peacock and Raleigh's ' History of the English Novel ' and Nassau Senior's criticisms in the ' Quarterly ' on the ' Waverleys ' as they appeared. ' How it strikes a Contemporary ' may give me a good start. I think I shall bring in Papa's governess being run away with into the laurels at Petworth whilst reading ' Marmion ' to illustrate the vogue. Jack Mackail sent me an excellent lecture of his on William Morris and his circle ' and that goes in too.' ' Put it in the bag ' as we used to say with the clown in the Pantomime, Robinson Crusoe. Walter Scott worked in that way, sticking all that came along into his work. But what giants they were ; and how degenerate are these days ! It is wonderful to think of 1814, Napoleon's last great campaign ' Waverley ' an anonymous novel in a sea-side book box Byron blazing. Even the prices make one jump, 3000 for ' Lady of the Lake ' and 3000 for 'Lalla Rookh,' and 8000 for 'Woodstock,' and 12,000 for the ' Life of Napoleon.' I was offered 1000 the day before yesterday to begin a short History of England. But I am married to that cursed shrew Politics, and must say ' No.' I should be more ' healthy, wealthy and wise ' if she died and I married her sister, Literature, in spite of the Bishops. And consider the marvellous year 1820 two novels from Scott ; some of the best Shelley all the best of Keats some Coleridge, third Canto of ' Childe Harold,' and now, Bernard Shaw ! Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. My reference to MackaiPs lecture is too brief to be intelligible. I mean something like this Walter Scott the greatest force in the Romantic Movement ; that Movement the mother of the Oxford Movement ; and that Movement at least the aunt of the Morris' Movement. And there are now no movements : only stagnation. We TO PHILIP HANSON 245 live in a phase of indolent mediocrity. I remember the seventies and eighties and declare that this is Autumn ; but an Autumn of more mist than usual and no mellow fruit. This is a parable. There is so much mist, so little fruit, such a portentous quietness, that some people think that this is no usual Autumn at all, but the dull blight that broods before an earthquake. For my part as an optimist I hope it is merely Autumn, with rottenness dripping through fogs, only more so. I am still disposed to sing, ' If Winter come, can Spring be far behind.' But we want a ' West Wind ' badly. 640 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 17.ix.07. MY DEAR P. H., I wish it had been possible for you to look in at Saighton during these last glorious days of sunshine. Lady Grosvenor went to Lady Beauchamp yesterday to welcome another grandchild, and I came here to have my leg electrified. To-morrow I go to Derwent, then Hornby Castle, then Clouds, on Thursday or Friday next week. I am writing after a day of happy solitude in a London, neither swept nor garnished, but empty and exhilarated by serene September sunlight. I feel brisk. And the feeling, long lost, chimes with the outward aspect and reminds me of early days at the W. O. in '98 and '99. So my thoughts turn to you. I have ' broken the back ' of my address on ' Walter Scott ' : written the first half and the end and sketched the rest of the second half. This has given me stimulus and excuse for wide reading over 1798-1832. What a time ! Napoleon, Wellington, Pitt, Canning, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Byron, Scott and meanwhile such quin- tennial flowers as Keats and Shelley blossoming unseen. And here we are, rather ' now ' we are, still unravelling the meaning of the so-called Romantic Revival. I see Politics by the light of Art. 246 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM If I do see anything, I see that they the ' makers ' in Politics or Poetry were puzzled by a mistaken, and false, antagonism between the ' Classic ' and ' Romantic.' I see that the ' Classic ' is not an original, or primary, mode of the mind's energy to express the need of the heart. There are two original modes, the Romantic and Realist, based respectively on imagination and observation. Either, or both, become ' Classic.' But that is a secondary mode of either. You choose and polish your imagination or your observation, until the element of Wonder disappears from your image of life. The * Classic ' becomes a statue at Chatsworth : the Realistic a clerk at his desk. Then the passion for Wonder revives in man the wonderer. And the little try to gratify it for pence. The school of Horror substitutes a Hobgoblin for the statue. The school of Scandal substitutes a Profligate for the clerk. Each tries to tickle or shock. Scott's huge performance was to hark back to first springs. He was lucky, like all conquerors. He happened to have read and liked the old Romances and imitated them. He happened to have read and understood the new Realists and analysed Defoe. Then and that is the supreme thing which he did he merged the two in Waverley, anno 1814. He canalised the welter of cross-currents and drew off the power in a stream of literary energy which turned the mills of the Oxford Movement, the Young England Movement, and, last of all, the Morris-Rossetti Movement. Keats and Shelley were beautiful flowers that grew by the brim : Hugo and Byron, tumultuous currents, deep or surface, that never got out of the whirlpool. He did in Literature what Disraeli meant to do in Politics. The literary stream is now almost lost in sand. The Political stream never was canalised. Napoleon nearly did it for the Continent. Here, in our Island, Canning died ; Wellington became ' The Duke ' ; and Disraeli ... I can't finish this sentence because I don't know what exactly happened to him. He would have rounded it off with an epigram. But there is nothing epigram- TO HIS MOTHER 247 matic about a man who starts with observing British institutions : the Peerage, the Church, the Gentry, Labour ; and imagining World History in terms of Oriental Empire ; who despises the first and postpones the second ; and ends by becoming the senile slave of both. It is odd that * Joe,' with acute observation in a succes- sion of limited fields, and impulse as a ' substitute for imagination,' still went so much nearer combining observa- tion and imagination than Balfour or even Gladstone that many have a soft place in their heart for him as they had for Randolph. But that the coupling of imagination and observa- tion, those two engines of the mind to minister to the needs of the heart, is the job of our political giant ; when we get him. Meanwhile, it is meanwhile : a long while and very mean. If only poets would sing, meanwhile ! But they never do, any more than birds, in a mist which optimists, like myself, declare to be mere mists of Autumn, heralds of Winter's lean alacrity, and Spring's exuberance : and pessimists declare to be abnormal vapours brooding before an earthquake. ' The sedge is withered from the lake and no birds sing.' Indeed, a writer in the ' Outlook ' maintains that birds- poets will never sing again. He is chronicling the death of Sully-Prudhomme as the last of those birds. This, says he, is a * practical ' age. But what ' in the name of glory ' do we practise ? Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 641 To his Mother HORNBY CASTLE, BEDALE, YORKSHIRE, September 2Srd, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, S. S. sent me your letter. I a,m glad that you are not anxious about Robert 1 and 1 His nephew, Robert Adeane. 248 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM delighted to hear that Papa is much better. Give him my love. I hope to get to you before Saturday and will let you know. I am sending two horses to Clouds on Thursday or Wednesday. Perf 's leave begins on October 1st, so I want him to come to Clouds and ride about with me. I hope that Gay and Phyllis will come to ride on Monday. I am hard at old Sir Walter Scott and at politics with a small travelling library. There are interesting books here, specially a beautiful illuminated 4 Roman de la Rose ' MS. of about 1450, bound in old cramoisie velvet with letters pounced alternately on the outside covers. When you find out how to read them, they spell this : see below, A O R M U R ER G E T E I D S R E P SO I E D R T O U T BE that is Amour Regret Desir Espoir et Doubte. I hope to be with you Friday, at latest ; perhaps Thursday. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 642 To Charles Whibley CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, 4th October 1907- MY DEAR CHARLES, I have corrected a few ' literals ' in the proof herewith returned. It omits a passage which I cannot recall. But it is an excellent report. I am well. I wish that we met more often. This autumn I ' addict ' myself to Politics, beginning at Perth, on October 18th, and continuing at Hexham, Birmingham, Dover, Manchester, York and Leicester, not to mention an address on Walter Scott at Edinburgh. I do this from a sense of duty. The Gentry of England must not abdicate. But I have little belief in the use- fulness of platform discourse. Nothing will serve but TO WILFRID WARD 249 terror of Germany and a further collapse in Funds at the prospect of Socialism. Something might be done with the pen. A ' tongue with a tang ' will not convince those who like to be scratched where'er they do itch. Still I must ' tang ' away, on the off-chance that the English do not wish to be relieved of all responsibility and liberty. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 643 To Mrs. Drew CLOUDS, October 6th, 1907. . . . The gloom of impending speeches begins to descend on my heart. I mean political speeches I like the others. But political speeches, and in Scotland, is almost more than I can bear. It is no consolation that everybody on all sides Government, Opposition, Irish, Noncons., Labour, Protectionists, Free Traders, Individu- alists, Socialists, Churchmen, Temperance Advocates, Brewers, Soldiers, Sailors, Railway Employees, Directors, Bankers, ' Uncle Tom Codley and all and all ' seem equally disgusted with things in general, except C. B. 1 He ' sits on a stile and continues to smile ' . 644 To Wilfrid Ward 36 PARK LANE, W., October 10th, 1907. MY DEAR WILFRID, If I do not answer your letter now I doubt doing so for many days. I have a very heavy political programme before me which will tax my time and vitality. So I give you an ' Ave Caesar ' : not that I expect to die in the arena but that I am certain to be swallowed by its dust, for many days. I took your letter with me to Dover yesterday and am 1 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman. 250 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM off north to-morrow. May I say that it needed careful deciphering ? What has become of your type-writer ? Though too absorbed to exchange written signals of Amity, I have followed the Encyclical with a personal, almost poignant, interest in its relation to yourself. I half guessed that all the arrows were not drawn at a venture. The ' crux ' is that every shot at you is a shot at New- man, and a shot at all that his apologetics and reconcilia- tions have meant, not only to you and yours, but to others, including myself. It is a bad business. Rather I ought to say a ' tragic ' business. And, having said that, I ought to add that Tragedy is the note of man's endeavour to comprehend the Divine ; just as it was the note of the Divine's con- descension to penetrate man's intelligence through his sympathy. But you are more happy than any non-Catholic can be. For you are instructed in the necessity of waiting and drilled to support the waiting with patience. You are an Army with Generals who may be dilatory, or retro- grade. We are a mob, with individuals who may be brilliant and impulsive. Still, when your Army moves, it moves as a whole. And that is much ; perhaps all. For what else are the ' saecula sseculorum ' ? To alter my image : the complement of 4 securus judicat orbis terrarum,' is, that the mountain-tops are not to shout when tipped with the rosy light of Dawn. But, rather, to be still in hush'd altitudes till the darkest valleys are steeped by noon-day. To compare small things with great you cannot guess how difficult the 4 Protestantism ' of Britain makes Politics. Any man who sees starts on his -ism ; his Socialism or his Individualism, his Imperialism or his Cosmopoli- tanism. Each one who sees has his point of view and his focus of vision. But very few see. Still fewer see together. And the multitude, who don't see, are distracted by the dissen- TO CHARLES BOYD 251 sions of confident seers. The ' Genus irritabile vatum ' becomes more irritable ; the herd, more lethargic. Pisgah is the peak from which one man in isolation sees the promised land. The others wander and halt and retire and advance and grumble and rebel, in a crowd with all its drawbacks. But, in a crowd, they get to the Promised Land, at last. What an intolerable Apologue I have inflicted ! It only means that I should be content with a hush'd alti- tude at Dawn if I were sure of the sun at Noon. I should not fret over the creeping shadows. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 645 To Charles Boyd SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 14.x. 07. MY DEAR CHARLES, Many thanks for a most oppor- tune letter on Socialism, and for another opportune in all but my lack of leisure to reply. I agree that wild hitting is worse than useless. But I am sure that some hitting there must be. I am off to Perth for an orgy of speaking, and on to other places for the same. I mean, at the risk of boring my audience and failing completely, to tackle Socialism and all the -isms. My chain of thought is (1) Individualism the real Cobdenite theory to which Lord B. of B. 1 asks me to revert, Ignored the State. Pretended the world was, or would be cosmopolitan, which it is not and will not be. Asserted Capital would go anywhere, which is true too true ! and that Labour would follow, which is false. Under that system, even as it is, we have Cosmopolitan Capital and ' Stranded ' Labour. (2) Hence the demand for Socialism. But that is out of the frying-pan into the fire. 1 Lord Balfour of Burleigh. 252 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Criticism of Socialism. But there is a great Problem. Penury over-popu- lation, depopulation, unemployment. To defeat false remedy and find a true one, we need a Policy based on Principle and supported by a united Party. (3) Is that to be found in Government ? Obviously not. (4) In Unionism ? yes. It grasps the reality of the ' State ' in all its bearings ; in its external relations and, not less, in its relations to the Individual, not as an individual in a cosmopolitan world, but as a citizen of the State. And for this must accept legitimate development of Unionist Principles, i.e. Tariff Reform. Them 's my sentiments. Yours ever, G. W. 646 To Charles T. Gaily SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 23.x. 07. MY DEAR CHARLES, I have just seen a characteristic letter from the Hon ble P. 1 to Percy. It begins simply and suddenly as follows : 4 MY DEAR PERF, There are 3 things which I hope you will not do : (1) Become a Roman Catholic ; (2) Marry an American girl; (3) Go into the House of Commons.' Certainly there is much to be said against Politics. I hope you are not tiring yourself out over Industries. I got back here, with Sibell, this afternoon and walked back most of the way from Chester. After a fortnight's politics it was refreshing to see Percy come in from hunt- ing without a care. I hope to hunt next week till Friday, when I go to Edinburgh to talk about Walter Scott. Yours ever, G. W. 1 His father. TO CHARLES T. GATTY 253 647 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 30th October 1907. BELOVED PAMELO, I found your book x here Monday and have read it all. It is very good. The structure works out well. The conclusion is excellent, and must have been very difficult. What a lot you have put into it and what a lot of yourself. I think it is a little classic ; not that it is little in size ! I long to hear of the reviews. But I cannot review it in a letter to you. It is very alle- gorical to me ; full of deep sayings that find an echo. The lively bits of observation, the phrases clean-cut and polished, the quips and cranks are all needed to prevent the deep sayings from sounding too sad. But they are all there to amuse and soothe and delight. That is the office of Art to mankind, they are like the twisted ropes of flowering creepers used in some lands for bridges over rivers in chasms. In any true work of Art we need both the bridges and the chasms. And for all the grace of your garland-bridges I can hear the ' muffled tremulous roar.' Sometimes the chasms of hopes that fail, and love, and departing youth in all around, yawn below one. They cannot be bridged by Politics. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 648 To Charles T. Gatty SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 2.xi.07. MY DEAR CHARLES, A thousand thanks for the photo- graph of the Picture. I like it better than the Picture. Also as they say in Germany I hold you to the promise of a visit before, or after, Christmas. You will marvel at the excavations which Sibell and the 1 'The Children and the Pictures,' published by William Heinemann. 254 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM gardener have made at the entrance here on the left after coming in by the gate. It was a bank thickly crowded with shrubs. But and here is the point the wall which you remember on the top of the rock along the road from Chester outside, turns sharp to the left at the gate and runs along the top of the live rock inside. Well, we have excavated and disclosed both, leaving three bastions, revetted with stone, to retain the best of the flowering trees, as lilac, cornel and maple. This enhances the ' rock and fortress ' note of the ancient Abbots' country seat. The work reminded me of old days along the ' Abbot's Walk,' and lends force to my insistence on a visit from you. I understand the weariness of your enterprise. So am I weary to death of my politics. All the more reason is there for re-affirming old days and old ways. One phrase of Walter Scott struck me hard. He is writing to one of a band of early companions, and speaks of the others as * all now sequestered or squandered.' So it is. Some go to the Empire's extremities and others toil in tunnels at home. And now I must toil. ' Man goeth forth to his labour.' Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. Sibell is very well and we expect Perkins to-day on leave from his military duties. 649 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 5.xi.07. MY DEAR P. H., I got your letter yesterday before starting for London. I return to Saighton to-night. I came up for the Railway * crisis.' But of that later on. The only good report fair report of the speech we discussed was in the t Aberdeen Journal ' of 19.x. Your letter interests and impresses me. It is difficult as Joe discovered to propose a policy without detail, and impossible to go into detail on the platform. The aspect of Finance which interests me most is the TO PHILIP HANSON 255 hardest to handle I mean Credit. And it is overlooked most frequently. I come across it over Railway work. Let me use it as an illustration. Railway servants want higher wages and shorter hours. Anyone can sympathise with that. To do anything in that direction you must choose between two alternatives. The first is to pay the shareholders less. Now the reason why you cannot pay the shareholders less is not that they have a right to 3%. It is that until you give them 4% they won't lend you any more money ; and that you cannot proceed unless you can borrow. That being so, if railway servants are to have higher wages and shorter hours, the public must have fewer trains and higher fares. This is an apologue. The general trend of opinion in this country is still Cobdenite. Opinion holds that the remedy for any evil is to have more things at lower prices. I do not believe that this opinion was ever altogether sound. I am sure it is false when opinion, illogically, inclines also and at the same time towards higher wages and shorter hours. Now let me jump to general Fiscals. I differ from you to this extent. You hold that I ought not to ' attack ' without an alternative, in some detail. I hold that Asquith's conundrums are irrelevant unless he can say that the present system is sound. My arguments against the present system are : I. Revenue Argument. (a) Present system is inadequate ; even for Defence and Education ; apart from Housing, Land, Rating ; and hopelessly inadequate if anything is to be done for those three in addition. Increase on Defence and Education during our ten years was 60% on each an increase monstrously in excess of the growth of population. (b) Present system is inelastic. (i) Direct. If you could have 2/- income tax, 20% instead of 10% Death duty on large properties, well and good. But you can't. It drives capital abroad and destroys credit. Asquith before the Election said I/- 256 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM was altogether too high if income tax was to be what it ought to be in any sound system, i.e. a Reserve, 3d. on earned incomes under 2000 total is right enough ; but does not touch question of reserve. (ii). Indirect on articles of ordinary consumption we take 63 millions as against 53 for MacKinley Tariff. Therefore, if you are to subserve the 5 objects named without destroying credit, you must ' broaden basis,' i.e. have more taxes on more articles. II. Argument from Retaliation and Preference. If you do I., you are then free to attempt II. But your attempt must be tentative and experimental. The first tax that can be put on is a Corn tax. The l/- till Low abolished it on pedantic grounds brought in some revenue. When Beach reimposed it, it bid fair to bring in more, and price of bread fell. In order to give pre- ference we advocated 2/-. Price of corn, etc., has gone up from 10/- to 16/-, and price of loaf has only risen Id. in some few places and has not risen in others. It is clear, therefore, that some revenue can be got without raising price. But, then, I advocate a preference. / would not give Canada the whole 2/-. I would give her I/-. I believe that such a plan would have a large sentimental effect. Its tendency would be to foster what is already going on, i.e. labour (all she needs) going to Canada instead of U.S.A. But I do not believe that U.S.A. would sit down and acquiesce. She would try to pour in corn, and it is not improbable that Canada paying I/- and U.S.A. paying 2/- would increase supplies and cheapen. But now I must catch my train. III. Argument is Humanitarian Standard. We cannot have inspectors as well as Consuls abroad, and therefore it is sense to have a low duty on most manufactured articles. If you are interested, I will deal with Asquith's conun- drums about meat and wool in another letter. Yours ever, G. W. TO HIS FATHER 257 650 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, November 5th, 1907. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am not going to buy the Queen's letter. I think it very likely that you will be able to get it for 30/- in six months' or a year's time. I was up in London to-day for the Railway crisis but had not a moment in which to look you up. I quite understand what you feel about politics ; I think that I, too, am getting politically old. For I dislike politics more and more and care less and less for any issues before the country, or likely to come before it in my time. If I can get a good report of my speeches I will send it to you. I shall look up the article on ' Trees ' in the * Times.* Pam's book is very good. The Dreams frighten me and would have given me a fit when I was Clare's age. Poor Pam is worried about her baby ill in Scotland but going on well. I was pleased by the Review in the ' Times' Literary Supplement ' of last Friday ; chiefly because her book supposed a book for children was reviewed and reviewed second, under ' Fiction,' to a work by the man who wrote ' Number (something) John Street ' ; a book that made a great splash. The other works of fiction are reviewed later ; or relegated in shoals to the advertisement column. Perf arrived here Sunday night and was telegraphed for Monday night for a Court Martial. But we both got back this evening, he from the Army, I from the Railway crisis. And now we shall get a hunt or two together. I had two good days last week and enjoyed them immensely. I should like to hunt a provincial pack of hounds, command a Yeomanry Regiment and write a book once in five years ; and let politics ' go hang.' In politics it is impossible to do more than one thing VOL. n. R 258 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM at a time ; and difficult to do one thing since, to do that, you must interest and control a great number of different classes, and traditions and theories. The whole theory of Cobdenism is wrong. Even in the minor matter of the Railway crisis, the practical difficulty arises entirely from a pursuit of cheapness and competition. The hours are long and the wages low, if not for those hours then, certainly, for the amount of work done in them. If you stood on the platform at Crewe for twelve hours you would see an almost continuous procession of trains, coming in and being broken up into sections, going out in different directions to the North. This is a great strain. It arises from four lines racing North, pandering to the lower middle-class and ' blackmailed ' by Parliament and the Press. The only practical way of relieving the strain is to have fewer trains and higher fares. This applies chiefly to the Northern lines. Our men are satisfied and solidly loyal. But then we are a butt of scorn because we do not run an express every half hour at less than cost price. Your loving son, GEORGE. 651 To his Mother THE GRAND HOTEL, DOVER, November 16th, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I return Pam's letters. It is a relief to know as I do from later ones that she is no longer anxious. S. S. and I are comfortable here. We both felt dear Chesham's death. It prevented S. S. from going to Birmingham. But I had to go, not only to be present at the Conference and Mass Meeting but, as President for a second year of the Midland Conservative Club. I had to take the chair there, after Arthur's big speech, to introduce him to the members. It was a heavy day. We started at 10 a.m. and got back after 12.30 at night. I TO PHILIP HANSON 259 then talked to Chang in her room till 2 o'clock. Yesterday I returned to London, dashed across and picking up S. S. I slept all the way in the train to Dover. Last night was our Mayor's banquet. I made two speeches ; proposing the Mayor and returning thanks for self. Now we are doing Dover quietly till Wednesday when I speak on politics. It is a dreary day of fog and rain. Arthur's speech was a complete success. He spoke well with scarcely a note and no hesitation. It was his best chance and, almost, his last chance. But he took it and we are all happy. Best love to papa. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 652 To Philip Hanson GRAND HOTEL, DOVER, 17.ri.07. MY DEAR P. H., This, the 17th, represents my first blow at the air-hole of leisure since yours of the 6th. I cannot, without an effort, remember all that has happened since, and I am too idle to fetch a diary. Now, I remember. I had two great days hunting with Percy, 7th and 8th, enjoyed myself huge>y and took two rattling falls. I was, of course, saddened by Chesham's death. 1 But it was a good death, of a kind, brave, sensible man. I dashed off to meet Lady Grosvenor at Madresfield last Monday, to reconstruct plans. We agreed I must not give up the Birmingham Conference. Thursday was a full, interesting day. I sat at the Conference from eleven onward. Banqueted with A. J. B. at six. Heard him speak at eight. He spoke very well ; hardly looked at a note (on one sheet) and never hesitated for one hour and twenty minutes. He did the trick. We told him it was his best chance ; and his last. So he took it. I some- tunes wish that extremity was not the only ' jumping- board ' from which he can jump. After the mass meet- 1 Lord Chesham was killed by a fall when hunting in Cheshire. 260 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ing I took the chair as President of the Midland Conserva- tive Club, introduced him, etc. ' The old Tory Fortress of the Midlands,' and so forth. He made another nice speech. I got back at twenty to one, and sat up talking to my sister, Lady Elcho, in her bedroom, till any hour. She, rightly, observed that the occasion bespoke anything but prudence. Started early Friday, just caught the train in London, slept like a stone to Dover and made two bright speeches at the Mayor's banquet. Between whiles I have corrected and polished my * Scott.' Sent off the typed copy corrected and touched up, to-night. Some of the last touches amused me : as thus, for the Richardson business ' any party of nobodies seated round a table ' and then the added touch, ' and applying a delicate seismometer to any tremor, however faint, with which the heart responds to any fact, however trivial.' And this other touch : ' The Romantic smoothed to the inane, had to be galvanised to the diabolic. The Realistic sweetened with sentiment, had to be salted with satire.' And that, my dear P. H., is ' the kind of hair- pins we are.' But what the Burgesses and Literary gents of the Modern Athens will make of it all I leave you to surmise. It is now too late to begin preparing my speech for Wednesday, and too early to go to bed, so I am talking to you. It is only 10 o'clock ! But I am too idle to con- tinue my last letter in grim earnest. I will sketch in the faintest outline what I mean by tackling Asquith's conundrum. He says 'what about (1) Corn, (2) Meat, (3) Wool, (4) Wood ? ' There are, at least, Four lines of reply. I. The colonies have never asked for ' distributive justice ' from us, and don't give it to each other. II. They want their production stimulated ; but on what ? Canada on Corn, but not on Wood. Australia on Meat and Corn, but not on Wool (pace that old fat, red-faced donkey Sir ). III. Looking homewards our appetite for food is TO PHILIP HANSON 261 relatively limited by comparison with our appetite for raw material. IV. Anyway, if we are to compare Fiscal systems, will you weigh the comparative merits of ' Sheep and Sugar ? ' I take this comparison because Simon, M.P., made a speech on the Budget about Australian sheep which was taken to be mighty clever and conclusive. He is one of the * rising lights.' Son of Rev. E. Simon, Congregational Minister, Barrister-at-law, Fellow of All Souls ' nec-non and the deuce knows what ' (Browning). Well, says he, look at ' the Australian sheep, meat inside and wool outside.' (Roars of laughter.) ' How are you going to tax one and not the other ? ' (Loud cheers.) Now that is the kind of clever nonsense which I won't stand. I retort : Look at Sheep and Sugar. Each is both food and raw material. But, with this distinction : that the food is the sheep and the raw material, come here separately and can be separately dealt with. The sugar comes solid. If I tax sugar as a food, I must tax sugar as a raw material. If I tax Australian meat, I need not and shall not tax Australian wool. But, waiving the raw material side to the argument (having scored that trick) what of the Food side ? If the tax is on meat, which we produce, and if we give Australia a preference, one of two things must happen, either the Foreigner will pay the tax, or else he will desist from importing because, and when, the Empire becomes self-sufficient. Why not have two good things one after the other, instead of neither at any time ? Personally I believe you will get both. This, I know, makes the Free Trader scream. But that is because he lives in the abstract. In the concrete world sentiment plays a huge part. Senti- ment will stimulate the Australian, and, for that matter, Charlie Adeane, to have rather more sheep the next year after the Tariff. And sentiment will stimulate the Foreigner not to be beat. He will pay a small tax rather than surrender a market. The price of meat will not go up. That is a miracle in the abstract. But a probability, 262 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM verging on a certainty, in the concrete. At any rate I mean to try it. And now I shall go to bed at 10.40. To-morrow I start at 9.30 to go all over the Harbour, and drink the sea breeze, and marvel at the ingenuity with which mind manoeuvres masses, and defies ' the mighty Being ' who 1 doth with his eternal motion make A sound like thunder everlastingly.' Whiles, the ' mighty Being ' puts in one. The other day he put a ship into the Mole, and moved all those 80 ton blocks, pushing a hole through them as if they were bricks. They had not settled down on their concrete beds to their everlasting job. My dear old friend, Mr. Heyn, in charge of the works, multiplied the mass of the ship into her ' velocity ' she was only making 9 knots and found that she knocked the Mole to the tune of a 60,000 ton blow. It is a pleasure to consider these arguments after Simon's windlestraws and Asquith's powder-puffs. But the Harbour is not finished, and Tariff Reform is still in the offing. I spare you ' Tantse molis erat.' Yours ever, G. W. 653 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., December 5th, 1907. MY DEAREST PAPA, This is Perf's birthday 20 years old! I thought I had sent you a report of my speech on Walter Scott. But Sibell writes that I did not. Even the ' Scotsman ' left out the bit I like best. So I send that report and the ' Irish Times.' Read the ' Scotsman ' till you get to (A). Then read the bit marked (A) in the ' Irish Times.' I was pleased to find from the Press cuttings that the Irish papers report me very fully whenever I speak. The English ' Times ' boycotts me. That is because TO LIEUT.-COL. STEPHEN FREWEN 263 Macmillan the publisher's protagonist against the Times Book Club published my Ronsard last year. I had a splendid meeting at Dartford last night. There is a short report in ' Standard ' and ' Morning Post.' And to-morrow I go as a Tariff Reformer into the Lions' Den. For I have to speak in Manchester. Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. All the papers omit from my ' Scott ' a rather amusing exordium. Hanson came from Ireland to hear. A good ' Dog Tray.' 654 To Lieut.-Col. Stephen Frewen SAIGHTON, CHESTER, December 15th, 1907. DEAR OLD STE., What a brick you are to write such long, interesting letters to an old pal. The mistake over the Battle picture * is mine, or rather it is properly to be charged to an excellent young lady who helps me with correspondence, type-writing, etc. I remember nothing about it. But I am sure that she said * Here is a picture ' just when I was preparing a speech and starting off to catch the train. I shall buy the picture and give it to Guy for Christmas. ... I must add that qua speaking I have been galloped pretty near to a standstill this Autumn. I totted up and find that since October 9th I have made 12 big and 7 little speeches. Between all these speeches I have put in some hunts. . . . On Tuesday we had a ' topper ' ; 5 mile point, 7 miles as they ran or more ; in 35 minutes. Yesterday, at Darnhall, we had a fair turn over the Paradise-Wellen- hall, Darnhall country. I remember you on your old grey showing us how to do that. I had a superb toss over wire ; floated over a ' Leicestershire ' fence, and 1 'The Charge at Klipfontein' that was led by the i6th Lancers under com- mand of Lieut.-Col. Frewen, and brought about the relief of Kimberley. 264 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM was turned head over heels with my horse by a wire on the landing side. It is pleasant to find that, in spite of politics, I am not stiff from the fall. I cut my face and had to be ' stitched,' but otherwise am none the worse. Tried a horse to-day and bought him. I only put in all this prattle to revive your memories of old days. Percy is on leave, here, and ' going ' well. He, too, took a toss over rails. In fact, we are all tumbling a good deal this year. It was very blind at the start, and is now very deep. We all felt dear Chesham's death. But it was a good way to end a good life. You must not let your disappointment weigh on your mind. Maybe it can be righted. Maybe it cannot. But what does it matter to an English gentleman who has led a charge in war and can hold his own with the youngsters out hunting ? It matters nothing. In my little Political way I have not received much thanks. But I don't care a damn. And they may want us both, yet. And if they don't want us, we can be ourselves, and ride straight. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 655 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 19.xii.07. MY DEAR P. H., I enclose E. Tennant's letter written on same day as yours. I am hard pressed just in front of the last fence Leicester of my long course. They suddenly shot me for a speech last night at ' The United Empire Club.' I spoke well. There is a report in the ' Morning Post.' To-day I felt tired as the Dinner was long, and the room hot. It was a fine gathering. I am fighting hard to keep January clear of speeches. They want me to be guest of evening at ' 1900 Club,' but I have said February. I am quite happy in my mind about politics. Whether I TO PHILIP HANSON 265 should ever be happy in any conceivable Government is another affair. For I mean business over Social Reform and cannot allow myself to be ' jobbed off ' again. // we get in on T. R. and S. R. 1 and drop the latter, I take a line of my own. Rather, I will not go in without assurances. To-morrow I shall try something like this. Prelude. The reawakened interest in Politics. (N.B. You are right about that. Why were there so few speeches last year ? Because nobody asked us to speak. Why so many now ? Because everybody is clamouring for them.) So next Election, of great and, perhaps, decisive importance. Will reveal temper and purpose of British people. Strain of the 20 years '85 to '05, on the new democracy. What a lot of questions settled. Ireland ; Partition of Africa; Egypt; Navy. Beginning of No wonder a collapse. But were we old and spent, or only tired and irritable ? I hope the latter. If so, take up burden of Empire and Social Reform. But for that must not be distracted must concentrate. My quarrel with Government that they distract by unsettling Navy 2 power standard. Ireland : Union and order to be maintained. These 2 must be held to be settled. House of Lords useful for that. Education can be settled only on basis of State's impartiality. It must be settled and added to the long list of settled policies outside Party conflict India, Asia, Foreign Office, Ireland, Africa, Egypt, Navy. Then can attack Empire and Social Reform. Which ' me judice ' are what interest ; can only be tackled by Tariff Reform, and are outside scope of House of Lords. Very well then : Power of Empire and Welfare of People are closely connected, but must begin somewhere. I will begin at 1 Tariff Reform and Social Reform. 266 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM beginning, not with Empire, or U. K., or Leicester, but with a slum and a child in that slum, returning on a dark winter afternoon from school, without having had a meal, to an insanitary home. What are you going to do ? Something you must do (& la Carlyle). There are only 2 plans, Socialistic and Imperialistic. Look at first. Increase direct taxation and rates, to feed and clothe the child and to pension his parents. Borrow money to build them a better and more expensive house. What happens ? Higher taxes drive capital abroad. Higher rates prevent erection of factories and workshops, etc., etc. Ends in turning England into the Poplar and West Ham of Europe. The plan is bad, because you tried to find out How to remedy the evil, without asking, first, Why it is there. Why was the child hungry ? Because his father was unemployed. Why? Because of Pauper aliens Dumped goods Sweated goods High rates High direct taxes. And into it I go with gusto and glee, and work right up the keyboard to the crashing harmonies of Empire and Employment with a lovely leit-motif of the ' Sister States * bless 'em carolling like birds through the strumming of Statistics and bugle-calls of the higher Patriotism. This exuberance is due to the fact that I have just been to sleep like a stone from 3 to 5, and am refreshed by a cup of tea. Also, I find it easier to write a letter to you than to work at a speech. But incidentally I have made one. So hey ! for Leicester and the Lions' Den of Radical Nonconformity. Yours ever, G. W. TO HIS FATHER 267 656 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, December 22nd, 1907. MOST DARLING MAMMA, So as to be sure of hitting off Christmas I am writing to-night to send you all love and all wishes for a merry Christmas and happy new year. Give my best love to Papa. I finished my speaking campaign at Leicester on Friday. It was an immense relief to get it all over. I spoke at a mass meeting and again later at a working-man's club. Yesterday in the train I felt like a boy coming home for the holidays. And last night I slept for eleven hours on end ! after sleeping for an hour in the afternoon twelve in all. And now I am going to hunt and read good old books. Whilst I was away last week Perf entertained four brother- officers here all hunting with many horses and a motor car. Sibell wrote that they were ' as quiet as mice.' I don't know what she expected ! My * Scott ' speech is being printed as a pamphlet, and I will send you a copy. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 657 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, Christmas, 1907. MY DEAREST PAPA, The hounds meet here to-morrow. Twenty-eight persons are coming out from Eaton. This is,- 1 think, the record of ' Hunt-batches.' With Percy and self it makes a party of thirty. I wonder if Bad- minton ever put such a ' posse comitatus ' in the field. The competition will be keen. For most of Bendor's guests are 4 artists ' Ikey Bell, ' Greepy ' de Crespigny, Rivy Grenfell, Fitzpatrick, Ivor Guest and many more. 268 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM And the local lights will try to hold their own against the paladins of Leicestershire and Meath. It is interesting apart from the fun of it and the sport to see this when political changes may abolish the gentry and their pursuits. Personally, I back the gentry. In addition to hunting, Bendor and I are going to start a political revival in Cheshire. He has asked everybody with a name and a shilling to lunch at the Grosvenor Hotel on January 4th and we are going to tell them that unless they subscribe to and work for our Party they are useless and doomed. We put Tariff Reform in the front and ask for a guarantee of 1000 a year for four years in addition to all subscrip- tions in separate constituencies. Our object is to win back all the seats in Cheshire. Your loving son, GEORGE. 658 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, December 28th, 1907. MY DEAREST PAPA, We are having great fun here after all the grind and wretchedness of a platform cam- paign. On Christmas night we sat down thirty-nine to dinner, and thirty of forty-five hunted Thursday. To- day we were all out again and had three hunts ; the last perfect and the others good. I had great luck all day. In the first run I was third over a hunting-bridge which broke with the tenth man. So nine of us had the hounds to ourselves. And in the evening we had a perfect thirty- five minutes ; after a good thirty minutes in the afternoon. I got a glorious start over a river, after we had been run- ning for ten minutes and then had a divine seventeen or eighteen minutes, leading and ' cutting out the work.' That is the joy of hunting. There is nothing like it. Three of us Hornby, a whip and self sailed away fifty lengths in front of Bendor, Mrs. Tom Galley and the Grenfell ' Twins.' The rest were nowhere. We * spread- eagled ' the field. The pace was too hot to choose your TO HIS FATHER 269 place by a yard. We just took everything as it came with the hounds screaming by our side. Nobody could gain an inch. These are the moments that justify fox-hunting. At the end we forded the river again and had to ' whip -off * at 4-12 p.m. in the dark. Your loving son, GEORGE. 659 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 1st, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, A happy New Year to you ! I am afraid I cannot shoot on the 21st. I have a Railway Board Meeting on that day at 11 o'clock and another at 10-30 on the 22nd. I am shirking two meetings next week and those on the 21st and 22nd are important as we settle everything at them before the half-yearly meeting of the shareholders. But I should love to start the New Year fairly early with you at Clouds and would come on the Saturday, 18th and stay till late Monday night. If, which Heaven avert, it was freezing, I could come on the Friday. I hunted four days last week and Monday and to-day. But now it is over till we get a south-west wind. To-day was impossible. We did some necessary, though belated ' cubbing ' in a little wood where there are eleven foxes and killed one of them. But the gateways and ploughs were too hard to let the hounds go away. I rode back here with de Crespigny over ' the Gap ' in the Cheshire hills. The sun was shining and the view is wonderful. At the ' Gap,' a ' Col ' over the range, you see the whole expanse of the vale to Crewe and, then, directly you cross it, the whole expanse of our vale to Chester. I gave him lunch and got on another horse and rode him over to Eaton. Then I walked the line of our first hunt last Thursday and looked at the jumps. So I got six or seven hours' exercise in what the ' Globe Leader ' describes as ' The biting blasts that blow round the death-bed of the departing year.' 270 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Like * Mobled Queen ' that is a good phrase. Bendor, who is indefatigable, whipped over, after dinner, in his motor, to discuss our last moves in the campaign which we open on Saturday. I think he will make a good speech. Most of the really rich men who hunt five days a week and subscribe only 25 to the Hounds and 1-1-0 to politics, have refused his invitation. But seventeen are coming. You must make a beginning. And in politics, as in hunting, it is useless to ride up and down the fence. We are off 1 And we mean to make the Palatinate of Cheshire a pattern for the Unionist Revival. Bendor and de Crespigny think the photographs of Orpen's pictures the best they have ever seen. De Cres- pigny means to have his father, and Bendor his children painted in the same way. Perf left us last night to resume duty on January 1st, and we miss him very much. He is a glorious sunbeam in the house and an exhilarating companion in the chase. Your loving son, GEORGE. 660 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 1st, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, We loved your telegram and I must send a word of all love to you on this first day of another year. It is strange to recall that I was here twenty years ago, married and hunting with Percy two months old, but so it is ! But not, as Manenai (Bless her from me !) had it in her solitary contribution to English literature ; 1 not * sad to say ' ; but * glad to say.' Here we are ! All loving each other in a wonderful world, full of colour and movement and structure and pur- pose : brothers or sisters of the sun and moon and milky 1 ' The Sad Story of a Pig and a little Girl.' Written by Madeline Wyndham (aged 6 years) and illustrated by Richard Doyle. TO CHARLES T. GATTY 271 way : all, as dear Henley wrote, ' going to the same glad golden time ' : all going with ' the scheme of things,' and therefore, obviously, all coming towards his ' the end I know, is the best of all ! ' These sentiments, like Manenai's masque, and Peck- sniff's (Chuzzlewit) reflections on a syren are ' Pagan, I fear.' But that kind of Paganism is a sound basis for Christianity. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 661 To Charles T. Gatty 35 PARK LANE, W. 2.ii.08. MY DEAR CHARLES, ' Carmina Gadelica ' are despatched to-day. I had ordered a new copy, but found yet a third in my bookcase. I must have laid them down like Port. So you need give no thought to their price, or cost, but you must, rather, consider their value and worth. Their value is their own. Their worth consists in adding solemnity and point to our hilarious divagations over the Springs of Romance and the Macaronic sermons. The introduction should be noted for two reasons : First, because puritanism is there shewn to have made an old fiddler sell his fiddle and break his heart ; secondly, because confirmation is lent to my theory that popular poetry was written by the learned and handed down by the lewd, or unlearned. All songs derive from the Sanctuary or the Court. The Court was the great invention of Barbarism, and marks its triumph over savagery. In the Court, the Barbarian reconciled strength and justice : a startling paradox in his day. In the Sanctuary the Church unveiled Mercy and Peace, and, so, turned the paradox into a platitude. The rivers from each origin flash and mingle in the Poetry of the Middle Age. It is a fair stream reflecting all the personages of the Court of Heaven. It is filled with the water of life in every sense and not choked with the dust of ages. 272 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I have read ' Carmina Gadelica ' through this after- noon. They are full of life and lore, of wisdom and, therefore, of repose. We can repose on the Past. In fine, my gift is the recording stele of our exploration to discover the springs of Romance and their foam-bow of Rhyme. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. ' High are the Peaks and shadow-gloom'd and Huge ! ' * P.S. (2). Please send me the name and number of the Hymn which may give me a model for my Pageant chorus and an air. 662 To Charles Boyd SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 23.ii.08. MY DEAR CHARLES, Precisely ! But if you infest a cottage in a wood by Woking ? What then ? We have both become too truly rural for urbanity. I am all for your dining with us at 35 on a day in the week which begins on Sunday March 1st. Why not that day, if we can secure and fix the now volatile Percy ? Observe. You frequent Woking, (moralising in the necro- polis) no less insistently than I harbour myself here. I kept what is called ' the establishment ' here, with the purpose, fulfilled, of hunting after the Session began and spending my Saturdays and Sundays like Cato major, ' seething parsnips by my fireside.' The speeches you commend were excursions ' into the enemy's country.' I prefer as a staple of living to hunt with Percy and dine off roast mutton with my lady wife. By this absence of device, in despite of falsely supposed artistic divagation, I push and eat my way to a thorough understanding of the English. As thus : on Monday I spoke at Birmingham ; on Tuesday I attended the House and dined at ' the ' Club ; on Wednesday I attended the House closely ; but, on Thursday I came 1 Translation of a line from the Chanson de Roland. TO CHARLES BOYD 273 here and, so, hunted with Percy Friday and Saturday ; 4 walked ' a point-to-point race course with him and Bendor to-day (after attending Church in the morning), dined with Percy and Sibell a trois for the 4th evening in succession, and to-morrow go back for a hideous week of the House and Railway Boards. So repulsive is that week, ending as it does with responding for ' Literature ' to Whitefriars on Friday and may they be fried ! so grim is it, that I adjourn our reunion until it is well or ill over. I am now in middle life. That means (1) that I enjoy being at home and riding to hounds, and (2) that in all human likelihood nay, in inevitable certainty I cannot have these joys for much longer. In ten years Percy will be 31, and, too probably, married. In ten years I may be fat or busy. Very well. Am I to forego the very marrow of life when I have its thighbone between my teeth ? Am I to parade at Westminster and intrigue in its purlieus ? No ! The answer is ' No.' I have a wife, a son, a home, six good hunters and a library of Romance literature. I mean to enjoy them. If I am wanted, I can be found. I spare you Cincinnatus and Cato major (bis). In this part of the world I am known as ' The Colonel ' qua Yeomanry ; as a subscriber to the Cheshire Hounds ; and, politically, as a robust ' true-blue ' with honest leanings towards Protection. And besides I love to hear the thrushes sing and to watch a pair of lesser-spotted woodpeckers that are building in our garden. Yours in the bond, G. W. P.S. What is a letter without a postscript ? Let me add that I am 10 Ibs. lighter than I was ; that I have made 29 speeches since October 18th and hunted on 26 days ; that I have read a good deal of Virgil, and much early French both of the Trouveres and, in smaller quantities, of the Troubadours. That I have studied the trade returns ; Dizzy's ' Sibell ' ; Charlotte Bronte's ' Shirley ' ; some Carlyle and Ruskin, to get the reflexion in literature VOL. n. s 274 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM of the political ineptitudes that must be remedied. That is * the kind of hairpins we are.' To balance Dizzy (early) and Carlyle, I also read Bagehot and Lord Avebury in * The Times.' But they don't balance, anything, but their ledgers ; or discount, anything, but bills. It is clear to me, now, that the British Race has one foe Cosmopolitan Finance with an oriental complexion. * Delenda est Carthago ' is all my song. I have twice repaired to the crest of the Cheshire hills and looked at the fat, fair expanse of English fields with their smoulder- ing girdle of chimneys around the far horizon. And I have sworn that they shall not be sucked like eggs by the weasels of pure finance. No, nor the plains of Ireland either ! I have sworn and it shall be in accordance with my oath. 663 To his Mother 36 PARK LANE, W., February 26th, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, You and Papa will be inter- ested to hear that I shall probably have to follow Asquith on Monday in full-dress debate on Armaments. It is short notice as I have to speak on ' Literature ' Friday night. But I shall dine with Manenai and, perhaps, if she agrees, bring dear Hanson with me. He is here and can help me over the old track. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 664 To Philip Hanson 10.iii.08. MY DEAR P. H., The ' little Gods ' are against me. Thanks to your letter, I have, now, a speech. But I also have a cold & bad cold and I may not be able to make the speech. That will be a pity. But, even so, I shall not mourn. TO PHILIP HANSON 275 For I have got to the heart of this mystery of. the British Army. The answer to the Sphinx is : (1)1 reject your Artillery Special Reserve. (2) I amend your Infantry S. R. into our 1 reserve battalions. I say, at the end, you are for Cardwell ; Sir P, Mac- Dougall said two things : (a) Identify Militia with depot. You have done it with a vengeance. (b) Don't make the Dep6t a battalion in ' the hurry and rush of a great war.' Very well Perge modo Make them what you call them BATTALIONS, and for 2,000,000 a year cheaper than was possible before you had ' IDENTIFIED ' the Militia. These people can't do it. But 1 will. And you must be my Mowatt at the Treasury, for the achievement, It 's worth doing. What pleases me most is that the glacier-like progres- sion of facts (the French ' La chute des choses ' reduced to the speed of the English illogical glacier-progression) does indicate a standard for our Army which is self-con- tained. It is that the Home Regular Army, with colours or in Reserve, must be our old 3 Army Corps or Haldane's re-christened 6 divisions (same thing) if we are to 1. Maintain Garrisons. 2. Liberate Fleet, reinforce Garrisons, deliver counter- attack Any or all, and that for 3. Liberate expeditions, Expand and support it, Main- tain confidence at home. You must (i) avoid chasm between regular and citizen soldiers in peace, if you hope to avoid chaos in war ; and (ii) therefore, in peace, have enough * cadres ' with enough variety of design to cater for tastes. With this observation, if fewer cadres in peace more important they should be filled. 1 (Yours and mine of 1900.) 276 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM If of uniform shape, less likely that they will be filled. There was more to be said for the old affair in Infantry 156 battalions Regulars 123 Militia ? Volunteers, than Brodrick, or Forster, or Haldane have discovered. But, if you absorb the Militia, you must make your Special Reserve of Infantry into a short-service Army, and not into a shelter, competing with the Salvation and Church Army for the manufacture of Unemployed. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. ll.iii.08. I made the speech very shortly I suppose because I was not fit. But I think it was quite clear in outline. It only took just over 40 minutes. The ' lay ' mind in the person of Harry Chaplin, pro- nounced that I had exploded Haldane's scheme. He, Haldane, is going to ' sleep on it ' and reply to- morrow. I shall have to sleep too, if I am to ' toe the line * again. 665 To his Father 35 PARK LANK, W., March 13th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am sorry to say that we have people dining here on Saturday, so I cannot get away. We have been ' dusting ' the Government well during the last fortnight, their supporters are quarrelling and the House looks quite dead. We shall get the ships out of them and I hope to get the Field Artillery. I spoke well last night ; but am badly reported. Haldane got very short and our men were pleased. It is madness to break up thirty-three batteries of Field Artillery hi order to train civilians for ammunition TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 277 columns. And the special Reserve of Infantry is a danger : all the more since it cannot be tested. Nobody will know how bad it is till the war comes. I fear it will prove little better than a ' shelter ' for the unemployed com- peting with the Salvation Army's efforts. All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 666 To his Sister, Pamela, 35 PARK LANE, W., March IGth, 1908. MOST DARLING PAMELA, 1 I have been thinking of you constantly and taking comfort from scraps of news. And I have been meaning to write news to you, since that is all I can do whilst you are imprisoned by this detestable scourge and worried by the baby's illness. But, first, I had to give anything the chance of happening, either to me, or in me, which I could conceivably write about. It was inconceivable that I should write about the House of Commons ; and I lived there till last Saturday. Then I broke out. In the afternoon I went to the Zoo with Sibell, after lunching with darling Manenai. I chose the * Zoo.' There were other suggestions, as, a performance of 'Pilgrim's Progress,' and a concert at the Queen's Hall. But I needed air and life, preferably of a primitive kind. So I chose the Zoo in spite of SibelPs remark that we ought to wait until we could go with children. I wanted to go for myself and specially to look at Birds. When flying from men, I avoid monkeys ' and addict myself ' to birds. (Parrots are not birds ; and are useless to one escaped from the House of Commons. ' O ! for the wings of a dove ' is an aspiration that does not waft me to the voices of parrots.) I went to the real, bird-like birds, who live in a row, 1 Hit sister and children were in quarantine for scarlet fever. 278 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM just to the right, after entering the gardens. These birds are like our birds in a dream, or a Grimm's fairy story. Naturally, many of them are blue ; others are green, or orange, or earth-colour, and one was crimson. Yet they are not Macaws or Toucans or other monstrosities. They are thrushes, starlings, pigeons, doves, robins, partridges and quails ; but of slimmer shape and brighter colour than our birds. And some are mixtures of these, and some are distinct but comparable such as minas, bower- birds and weaver buds. But all are alert and happy and vocal ! ! as they said in the XVIIIth century. In front of the first cage was a Kate Greenaway tree of box the stem three feet six inches high, the spreading top four feet wide. I stepped round the corner and in the heart of the green there sat and looked at me, a thrush, the colour of an orange. There he sits and sings : as yellow as a Walter Crane's ' Yellow Dwarf.' There were miniature doves and quails no larger than wood-wrens, or small pebbles in the desert. And there was one mina not the plump, fat, Indian sort of mina but slim as a shuttle and parti-coloured, black and yellow. His name is ' George.' He loves mankind. He like Jx>rd Nelson never knew fear. He sat on my fingers and the keeper put him into his pocket. As I walked away I saw him in close conversation through the wire with two little red-haired girls, who had walked straight out of an Holman Hunt picture. He does all this from love or mere absence of fear. But these two gifts are almost one. Mere absence of fear carries a delicacy denied to the appetite of gazelles, however graciously embellished by melting eyes and insinuating approach. Now the keeper of these birds has a great contempt for America. ' They call that a " blue bird " the common "blue-bird" of America; but it 's a robin.' And, looking at the profile and beak one sees that it is a robin. Or, again, ' They call that a robin, but it is a thrush.' And one sees that it is a thrush ; only with a red breast and very big and, so, called a robin, by Americans. This keeper pierced the facile deceit of the large and obvious. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 279 He made a profound observation of Americans apolo- getically ' But they were very ignorant when they went there.' Thus, did he dismiss, and forgive, the pilgrim fathers, with an ' Ite, missa est.' So much and no more for the ' Pilgrim Fathers ' who landed on the Plymouth rock. But what of their descendants ? They are still ignorant. They class by superficial resemblance and claim because of size. Some day they will produce an American Bible, much bigger than our Bible and as like it as a thrush is to a robin. From the birds I went to the elephants. I detest half measures : after a fortnight in the House of Commons. The birds are beside man's life. This the Romans knew when they wrote * ubi aves ite angeli ' ' where there are birds there are angels.' But the elephants are before man's life. They are primeval and sacrosanct. Yet they like to be fed ; even on biscuits. A due attention to Birds and Elephants, to the volatile and monumental, innures one to time and prepares one for Eternity. We have the elephant's glacier-like progression towards a Geological museum, and the bird's swift-dip and high quiver of * indomitable song.' Both are for ever falling, at different paces and angles ; as ' Lucretius ' declared in six books ; crystallised by the French in one phrase 4 La chute des choses.' But, for me, the yellow thrush singing in the green bush and the fearlessness of ' George ' are immortal. And, if for me, then for everybody, for ever. I say to both ' Thou wast not meant for death, immortal Bird. No hungry generations tread thee down.' I cannot say so much for the Gazelles. Yet because they are beautiful through voracious, I will give them immortality. But, darling Pamela, the last thing I meant to do was to moralize. I went to the Zoo to escape morality. In the evening we dined with Lettice and Will Beau- champ. It was a pleasing entertainment ; not unlike the Zoo. For we had Ambassadors and Ministers of 280 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM many nations suddenly caged in surprising contiguity, with their wives. It was not too unlike the Zoo. I have dropped into poetry like Silas Wegg. ' It was not too Unlike the Zoo Because the speech Unique to each Discuss'd the food Which all found good Beneath the pall Of sleep for all.' I sat between the beautiful Ambassadress of Spain and the wife of ' Lulu ' Harcourt. The Ambassadress has beautiful sloping shoulders and a delicate way of unmask- ing the batteries of her South-American eyes. I had to talk French of my sort to the Ambassadress. But, to each flank, we talked of the difficulty of talking and the solace of food. So it, really, was the Zoo over again. Speaking and eating are, respectively, the end and origin of life, if you come to think of it : subsistence and expres- sion. This morning still in pursuit of a holiday I walked through Hyde Park. ' Lulu ' Harcourt as First Com- missioner of Works is playing the Devil there. He does not understand that London was London, and cannot become Paris, or Berlin. So he gets workmen to make 4 Places de la Concorde ' and * Tea-house Gazebos.' He is in error. But, just as the yellow thrush and the man- loving because fearless bird 'George' justified the 'Zoo,' so did two British workmen justify Lulu's Tea-house. I saw them leaning, one against the end, the other against the wheel, of a large barrow. They were motion- less figures in the wind-swept variety of the Park in March. It was not a landscape ' animated by figures,' but a group of two statues animated by wind -waved branches. As I advanced they seemed larger in accordance with the law of perspective but they did not move. Nor, do I think, that they spoke. But, as I passed the group, TO HIS MOTHER 281 they spoke, without moving. And this is what they said. For I heard them. First workman to second workman. 4 Well, Sir, I think it 's time that we should do something.' Second workman to first. ' Right you are, and what would be better than half a pint of beer.' They are one with the penguins and gazelles putting beer for fishes and buns. We cannot all be birds or elephants. We cannot all be swift or wise. But some can sing. And I do wish I could sing to you, darling, in your cage, of ' the Daedal Earth and the dancing stars.' For all life is good and Eternal. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 667 To his Mother 36 PARK LANE, W., March I8th, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I saw your letter to S. S. and longed to write at once. But I had a strenuous fort- night over Navy and Army ; on the bench every day and making many speeches. I wanted to say that we have not got the scarlet fever or influenza. But I begin to believe that I did have a touch of influenza, the day I spoke on Vote A for the Army. However, I shook it off spoke, and am none the worse. Enough of these ailments ! After dealing with accumulations of letters I amused myself on Saturday. I wrote of that to Pamela and got Miss King to copy the letter, since the original must be burnt on the altar of scarlet-fever. It may amuse you. I must go back to the bench to-morrow, instead of hunting as I had hoped. I am happy to-night because Perf rode in the Army Point-to-Point and did not fall. I gather that his and my battalion did well. Four of them ' ran-up ' in a race open to the whole Army. To-night, George Curzon dined alone with S. S. and self. He was very dear and affectionate. He is standing for the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow, and 282 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I, yesterday, accepted an invitation to stand for the Lord Rectorship of Edinburgh. It will be amusing to come out together and useful if we both win. I am afraid that he suffers a good deal of pain. I am longing to see you and papa. But I am rather hard pressed just now. Easter will be all the more delightful. We will sing the praises of ' La Regina Avrillosa ' together. I have the ' Army ' again to-day and speak on Monday at Dover against the Licensing Bill. At Easter I shall begin ' The Springs of Romance ' in the Barrel room. It is such a good title that I ought to be able to write a little book ' up to it.' The idea is Where did romance come from ? There was none among our Northern ancestors in the 9th century. It came from contact with the East and West contact with the East owing to the conflict between Christendom and the Paynim from Roncevalles onwards contact with the West, from the Geraldines' transit through Wales into Ireland. The first gives me the run of the ' Chanson de Roland ' down to the ' Arabian Nights,' by way of the Crusades. The second gives me the run of the Arthurian cycle and all the Celtic glamour from ' Ossian ' to ' Percy's reliques.' Incidentally I get two sub-chapters : one, on rhyme, traced to Arabia eastward and the ' Celts ' whoever they were, westward, hi Armorica, Cornwailles, Wales, Ireland, Scotland the other sub-chapter will take the * religious ' aspects, eastward, Platonism, Christianity, Gnosticism, Neo-platonism, and Islam : westward Fairy stories, Folk-lore, Stonehenge Wishing-wells are the relics of some old Nature-Magic that was the religion of the Stone- Age. In all this you will agree there is ' matter for a May morning.' I shall stick it full of all I like The ' Regina Avrillosa 7 and the Border ballads ; The Castle of Clerimont and the Lady of Tripoli, the song of Roland and the fall of Con- stantinople, Marco Polo and Antoine Galand and all the songs that ever were sung and all the incantations. In TO HIS MOTHER 283 conclusion, I can say with Malory ' Now all this was but enchantment,' and invite you to be enchanted. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 668 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., March 26th, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, You will like the enclosed. I answered that I, too, had an Irish mother. I am so rejoiced to hear that Papa is quite well and I cannot tell you how wildly I am looking forward to Clouds at Easter. For added delight the Installation at Dover is postponed. Things generally are smoothing themselves out Pamela is happy again. Guy comes back next Sunday. Perf ran 4th yesterday in the Brigade Point-to-Point. Cuckoo's family are through their measles and other ail- ments. I have finished with the Army Debates for another year etc., etc. If I can get a copy I will send Papa the * Morning Advertiser's ' report of my speech on Monday at Dover against the Licensing Bill. The meeting was the largest I, or anybody else, has ever seen at Dover. The Town Hall was jammed ten minutes after the doors were opened at 7 for the meeting at 8 o'clock. The ' Maison Dieu ' Hall the old ' Hubert de Burgh ' one next to the Town Hall was jammed with the overflow by 7.30, and there were hundreds in the street who could not get in anywhere. The only thing that surprises me is that other people did not foresee as I did two years ago that this could be the only end of such a Government and such a majority. Perf was 4th yesterday out of a field of fifteen. His mare, Solitaire, has everything but the necessary turn of speed. I hope he will get to Clouds for a day or two. I shall bring two or three horses and my lawn-tennis shoes and a small library in a box. I had a good talk to Mark 284 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Sykes, just back from Arabia and found as I supposed that the 12th century is still going on there, with Trouba- dours, and Jongleurs all complete. From Belloc I have another touch for my ' Springs of Romance.' It is strange that all the three Roman Legions in Palestine at the Crucifixion were Gauls. That accounts for the Grail and the spear of Longinus. If Longinus was a Celt present in Hellenistic Syria at the death of Our Lord, it becomes easy to understand Glastonbury. I begin to see that the pleasure of getting older consists in understanding the History of the world better. Your devoted son, GEORGE. 669 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, W., 27th March 1908. MOST DARLING PAMELA, I praise, you can't guess how much I praise your visual phrases as, e.g., ' in grey-leaved cluster ' ; that is admirable. But, if I am to say what I think it is this. You or anybody would have to work for three months at three hours a day on this theme to finish it. And this is the point it is worth your while, or anybody's to work for that period. But work there must be on two separate lines. (1) You must state separate grammatical propositions or aspirations at least in each sonnet. (2) You must finish each sonnet in the form with which you begin. If you don't, or can't, or won't, do that ; then, print the whole thing as an effusion of 6x14=84 lines. I would add that, even in an effusion, you cannot have Dawn, own, lawn, shown as alternating rhymes. They are too like each other, they have no difference beyond the difference of vowel intonation. My difficulty is that you get some visual sentences, and some ethical, or aesthetical feelings. You get them, I can't get them. But, then, you waste them. You put these TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 285 joys into sentences that are not concluded, and you put your conclusive sentences into poetical forms that are not observed. Granting as I do the immense merit oi your des- criptive phrases and general aspiration towards Beauty and Peace, I must say that they demand, and deserve, better treatment. I feel pretty sure that this poem for it is poetry and not verse had better not affect the sonnet form. I am quite sure that if you keep to the sonnet form, the poem must be re-written. But Great Heavens if I had that amount of truly poetical material, I should not bother about Politics or anything else. Taking these 6x14 lines=84 ; you have as much poetic wealth as Gray in his Elegy, and far more poetic wealth than Campbell had for the Battle of the Baltic. Why are Gray and Campbell immortal ? Because Gray worked for 7 years on his Elegy, and because Campbell reduced a foolish ballad of 30 stanzas to a classic of 8 or 9 stanzas. In this desperate business of writing English in verse, it is necessary to do two things. (1) You must say what you mean, without over-lapping or obscurity. (2) You must conform to a known type of verse, or invent a new type and conform to that. In this case I should not affect the sonnet form. I should call the whole thing ' My Garden, ' and give the world 84 lines of good verse, exalted by rhyme. Such lines as ' The Garden has a soul, it has its moods As any sentient mind from hour to hour ' are perfect. They ought not to be cramped in a sonnet sequence. I have written some sonnet-sequences. I cannot print them, unless I either (1) Work at them for 10 years, or (2) Knock them out of the sonnet form, and work them into something else during 10 months. 286 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM This is only a first impression, it amounts to my sure knowledge that you have got in these 84 lines, the pure ore of Poetry. But that you have not yet smelted that ore, so as to ex- clude all dross ; and that when you have done this you must mint it into current coinage. This is only a first impression. Perhaps you would be right to leave it as it stands, it is full of beautiful flowers ; of flowers so beautiful that they cannot die. But you should insist on their living by any precaution of art. You may be right. I am a mere politician. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 670 To his Sister, Pamela 36 PARK LANK, W., 27th March 1908. MOST DARLING PAM, I am so impressed by the beauty, freshness and truth of your Garden Verses, that I must write again. Perhaps you have invented a new form of verse, you certainly have not written sonnets in the strictest sense. But you have gone much nearer than Owen Meredith to importing the joy, without the restrictions, of rhyme-forms into English ten-syllabled lines. Your sequence cannot be made into sonnets, it is a sequence of lines, haunted by the memory of sonnets. Leave it at that, so far as form is matter for discussion. But, now, for sense. What is the sense of the poem ? What do you know, or feel, which you, the poet, mean to teach ? Well, what ? The liveliness and fragrance of flowers, of course, that this is my garden ' connu.' But the new things, and true things, which you say are (1) certain flowers that do not please everybody, please me, because they are in my garden. (2) But why is my TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 287 garden mine ; not by private possession but by peculiar joy ? (3) Because it has no boundaries. There is the paradox, which inspired, explains, and justifies the poem. (4) My garden is my garden a mon gr because it merges into the high chalk Down and into sedgy marsh of water-meadows by the Avon. (5) It has no boundaries and hi its heart are wild-flowers. (6) And to conclude anyway it is fragrant and lovely, and a delight in a two- fold way, (a) it is not restricted ; (6) altho' not restricted, altho' it merges into the Down and the river, altho' wild flowers camp in it, my own selected flowers are there, and I love them, and love them the more, because they flourish in liberty, not denied to the wild-flowers of the land in which I live. Anyway, that is the impression which your poem makes on me. If it is not the impression which you meant your reader to feel, you must begin again. If it is the impression which you meant your reader to feel, you must make your poem more precise. But precise in sense ; not in form. Drop the sonnet form. Concentrate on stating and illustrating what you feel and mean to make other people feel. Above all do not cramp the lovely poetry of your des- criptive epithets in the iron mould of 17th century sonnets. They are flowers like the flowers of your garden, don't bruise them into bunches. Your devoted (but tiresome) brother, GEORGE. 671 To his Sister, Pamela 36 PARK LANE, W., 2Sth March 1908. MOST DARLING PAM, Do not vex yourself with my two long lumbering letters on your poem. I will come to you as soon as you are visible and tell you what I mean. All love to you, beloved, and rejoicings at the end of anxiety. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 288 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 672 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, W., 30th March 1908. DARLING PAM, Your letter made me happy. Before it came, I had concluded that I was right to put my views. But I balanced and swayed, backwards and forwards, in my mind. And as I am very scrupulous about Art, I felt that I had, perhaps, overstated the case against the sonnet-form, when I said (as I think I did) that it would take 10 months work to make your poem, a poem in 6 sonnets. For a penance I attacked it myself, for many hours, just as if it had been mine. I found that I could make something of it that pleased me. That involved leaving out altogether your V., and alter- ing the order of the others to your I., IV., II., III., VI. There are two main things to be done to this poem. The first is to group the ideas which are scattered through it. The second is to reject, quite sternly, anything that ' won't do ' in respect of form. (1) For the first purpose grouping of ideas one has to think what it is that one wishes to say, and to say that in a way that will not mislead, for example ; the ' great hedge ' in I. will start people (who don't know the garden) in the idea that there is a hedge round it, they receive that impression. Later on they come into collision with one of the great ideas, namely, that the garden has no hedge. The mere repetition of the rhymes hedge and edge is a fault. But when that fault confuses the statement of ideas, it destroys the chance of the poem being read with equani- mity. (2) Form. It is hopeless to start a long poem with a quatrain rhyming abb a and then to rhyme all the other octaves a b a b, c d c d. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 289 These, then, are the main considerations. I. To group your ideas, and establish a sequence between them that can be followed. II. To observe a form which fulfils the expectations which it creates or else, to abandon that form and write to please. In another and lower plane less important, but still important it is necessary to observe the two rules laid down by Keats. Rule (1). We must be misers of sound and syllable. Rule (2). We must fill every rift with ore. Briefly, we must not be prolix or thin, but serried and rich. For example in your III. in some ways the best of all the six sonnets there are two faults that must be amended. You make * flower-cups ' rhyme with * buttercups.' That is not an English rhyme because the sound is identical, and it is not a French rhyme because the sense of cups is identical. Having said that, I wish to retract my saying that it would be better to run the thing into a continuous whole. On reflexion, I think you could have five (not six, for 4 the Bee ' is an intruder), but you could have five sets of 14 lines each ; provided that the first 8 in each were con- cluded on the Shakespeare model, a b a b ; cdcd; and the last 6 as sextets on the Petrarchan model. That would be a new form. But, just because it would be new, it would also be imperative to observe it. This could be done, I have done it; working in your excellent material for many hours. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. P.S. Of all that I have said, by far the most important is that you must group your ideas, all the more, since you have at least three main ideas that are new and true : I mean (1) the moods of the Garden at different hours ; (2) the fact that the Garden has no boundary or hedge ; but merges into meadow and the Downs ; (3) that within it VOL. II. T 290 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM there are vagrants such tramps as Ragged Robins and Docks. All these three ideas are worth stating. But each must be stated. There are subsidiary sentiments, of these two are worth preferring (1) the Crown Imperial's tears ; with the child's momentary attention and the world's unheeding dance ; (2) the Hemlock's screen, veiling the sun-filled, unclouded, delight of Tulips, etc., in the sun. But, tho' subsidiary, these sentiments must be arranged or, else, omitted. From all this, the under-current of personal emotion will emerge with greater force, if the general ideas and sentiments are presented in a sequence of thought, instead of being suggested by sensation. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 673 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, W., 6th April 1908. BELOVED PAM,- I am hard at work too ; on a speech two speeches. But unless I send you the scrawl now it will wait a week so, here it is. Only we must talk it over. If you are quite disinfected I might ride to you on way to Clouds. In answer to questions. I think all the octaves should be in one model, and for choice a b a b/ c d c d/. Then the sestet can be e f/ e f e f or e f e f g g/. But, if you have abba/ you must go on abba/ or, at least, a c c a/. If you start a Petrarchan octave the 1st, 4th, 5th and 8th lines must have the same rhyme. Otherwise you disappoint an expectation which is en- grained in the modern mind. TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 291 The first sonnet is the hardest to deal with. One thing I had not mentioned. You cannot have lawn, own, dawn, shewn. Because they are not different enough their consonantal frame-work is the same. I mourn bitterly for * the sunlight pulsing in the flower- cups.' But * sups ' is the only rhyme to ' cups.' If you keep ' flower-cups ' you must have ' sups ' instead of 4 butter-cups.' Now I must do my work. When I am filing at lines absurd suggestions make me laugh. I find myself saying or making the breeze say * the Dawn, the Dawn, and smell of hay ! ' Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 674 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, Afternoon, 6th April 1908. DARLING, Just an after-thought to save your ' flower- cups.' end of your 3. Gardens have souls, and this one has its moods, I love the leafy stillness of its woods. 4. And yet I love its glory of mid-day ! The sunlight pulses in the flower-cups, The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of may golden Round or fields where the bee drones and sups. glittering It is not necessary to say butter-cups. You cannot say butter-cups if you say flower-cups. And it is- not neces- sary, for if you say golden or glittering we shall see butter- cups all right. 292 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM If you say shimmering or quivering we shall guess butter-cups and see the mirage and feel the heat. But lordy ! me I must work at Tariff Reform. Ever devoted brother, GEORGE. 675 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, W., 6th April 1908. MOST DARLING PAMELo, I am delighted with your letters about the sonnets. And now, I have a breath- ing space to write a less breathless answer to your last letter. I have mapped out my big speech for Thursday, attended the House, and welcomed its adjournment for 3 weeks. I feel like a man on his financial beam-ends who has suddenly been left a legacy of 5000. I have two whole days in hand ! Everybody I could play with has gone away. Bendor and Perf went to France, par exemple, this morning. And but for the Leeds speeches I should now be on their track in the night mail, wearing a panama hat, like Chamberlain, as a note of defiant recuperation. I have two days in hand ; in which I can ride for exercise, sleep for rest and work for duty. I am a Croesus of leisure. Nothing like that has happened to me since I had the influenza. So, for joy, and to prevent relapsing into that accursed speech on applied economics, I will infest you with more words on Poetry. It is always well to remember that Poetry means * making ' in the language of the Greeks, who understood how to tell the heart of things in words. Poetry is this business of making. Very well then ; I shall write from memory, for I have posted to you my little sketch of how to make your material. It was only an illustration of the manner of making : not by any means an achievement. Writing from memory ; I take, as my point of departure, the line which we both long to preserve : ' The sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.' TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 293 We cannot have both ' flower-cups ' and ' butter-cups,' so we keep ' flower-cups.' Because that is poetry a con- tribution to poetry, since it is new and true and visualised. That being decided, we must have 4 sups.' Because there is no other rhyme to ' cups ' in English which is not plainly grotesque. (Browning would have written ' downs and ups ' instead of ' ups and downs.' But such inversions are devilish.) Even ' sups ' is grotesque, unless a Bee does the supping. So we must have a Bee. And, note, this is an added reason for omitting the ' Bee ' sonnet. . . . (Here there has been an interlude. Sibell came in and I declaimed to her all the heads of my 'applied economics.' She has now gone to bed, amazed.) I resume. . . . Speaking from recollec- tion ; I put the sunlit quatrain, sharp, against the Hem- lock cavern veiling motif, which ends * I love the leafy stillness of its woods.' I, originally, proceeded : ' But yet I love its glory of mid-day, When sunlight pulses in the dew it sups And all the world swoons to the scent of May In flower round fields of glittering buttercups.' or words to that effect as they say in a law court. On reflexion, I point out that the effect is very poor. Take the first line : ' But yet I love its glory of mid-day/ that is deplorable. I will tell you why. 4 But ' and ' yet ' and * its ' are, all three, built on the same plan of a monosyllable, confined by a ' t.' Consonan- tally, that is impossible, ' its ' and ' mid ' are by vowel sound, identical. Assonantally, that is wretched. Keats said that his music was born from the rich variety of vowel sounds. I say bowing to his grave Yes, with this to be added. Have the same vowel sound to support the greater stresses of rhythm and, so, link your quatrain together, apart from the rhymes. I bow to Keats' precept, 294 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM and cite the example of Shakespeare ; who always sup- ported his quatrains, deliberately, by that device. But this is certain. You must not have the impoverish- ment of identical, or closely similar, effects, either in con- sonantal framework, or vowel sounds, unless you have it on purpose. English poetry revolves itself into I. Selecting and grouping Ideas ; so as to say much, and suggest more. II. Selecting and grouping sounds ; so as to produce rich variety, and sustain consecutive rhythm. So I change the line ' But yet I love its glory of mid-day ' into ' And yet I love its glory of noon-day.' Thus I get 8 different vowel-sounds in one line and bow again to Keats. I would say * the glory ' instead of * its glory,' but for the fact that I mean to end the line with a note of exclamation (!) and go on with the line we cherish : * The sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.' I should like to put * the,' or anything else, instead of * it ' or * its.' Because thinking very properly of the Garden you have ' it ' and 4 its ' multiplied incredibly throughout the sequence. Pausing here . . . (Darling, I am shewing you how I work, perhaps in quite the wrong way.) Pausing here, I see that I need not have ' the sun- light.' I might say more largely 1 And yet I love the glory of noon-day ' (that line is approaching perfection) and go on, ' Hot sunlight pulses in the flower-cups ' or avoiding the ' t ' sound (it, its, yet) and avoiding two * the-s ' in one line : Why not ' Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups ' ? That gives me a useful, purposeful, alliteration from the TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 295 stress on glory, in line 1, to the stress on gold, in line '2. It also suggests the gold colour motif, so that I need net say golden later on. My readers arc seized of the gold colour idea. And if I help them by saying glittering later on, the alliteration will not only clamp the quatrain to- gether by sustaining its major stresses of rhythm, it will, also, make them expect the colour gold, and read it into the resplendance of ' buttercups.' This helps us not to say buttercups. In poetry we suggest by selection of sense and sound. So, after the gloomy, quiet caverns, beneath beech- trees, usurped by Hemlock, that shew the first green and the first sereness ; and dim, or veil, the unabashed sun-kist slopes ; and after reverting to that mood of vast sombre reticence ' I love the leafy stillness of its woods' you explode ! into ' And yet I love the glory of noon-day I Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups. The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of May Round glittering fields where the bee drones and sups.' Personally, I should make the fourth line ' Blown over glittering fields where the bee sups.' I think that is better as thus : 'And yet I love the glory of noon-day ! Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups. The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of May Blown over glittering fields where the bee sups. For is it not my garden's crown of crowns To be encompass'd by no narrowing hedge ? It wanders to the freedom of the Downs And takes its own way to the water's edge. Gaj ragged robin and the vagrant dock Whose seeds you draw into your passing hand Camp in the waste, made pale with ladies-smock, Where pollards lean over a marshy land. for a Shut gardens please. But this one's crown of crowns My own is Is to be merged in meadow and the Downs. 296 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I put ' shut ' instead of ' all ' because (1) it suggests the contrast in idea of the ' hortus inclusus ' and (2) the * sh ' carries on the ' sh ' in marshy or ' Wall'd gardens ' that 's better and carries on the ' ws.' Darling, I could go on for ever in this vein. But you by now are pro- bably asleep ; or too worried to sleep, and ready to rend me. I have been thinking on paper with my pen of your poem. Partly mainly to please you. Partly, hi a lesser degree, to escape the problems of Direct Taxation on the assessment of mutual credits. ' But that way madness lies.' I shall not have lived in vain if we preserve ' The sunlight pulsing in the flower-cups.' Your devoted brother, GEORGE. P.S. As the scribble over the last two lines is a variant to avoid * this one's * not, perhaps, quite a pretty phrase -they would run 'Shut gardens please. But for a crown of crowns My own is merged in meadow and the Downs.' (2) * Still harping on my daughter.' I now want to alter line 4 again, and keep the t droning,' ' o,' sound, to suggest the stresses and clamp the quatrain together ; and force people to see buttercups by repeating * gold.' * And yet I love the glory of noon-day ! Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups. The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of May Round fields of gold where the bee drones and sups.' WILSFORD i (AS CORRECTED BY G. W.) 1. Lilies and Pansies, and the Pink that grows In grey-leav'd clusters by the garden's edge, Sweet-scented Arabis, the climbing Rose, Coil'd Honeysuckle ramping the great hedge, 1 The poem was published in a book of verse under the title of ' Windlestraw,' by Pamela Tennant, but not in this form. The first, third, and fourth stanzas appeared under the title * Wilsford,' the fourth stanza being completely rewritten. The second and fifth stanzas appeared as separate sonnets under the titles ' Crown Imperial ' and ' Dawn. ' TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 297 The Rose named Celeste and Rose named Dawn : These have I knowledge of because I love them. Where lush-green water-meadows meet a lawn They lift their rapture to the sky above them. I love this garden. When the noise and fret Of living saps the citadel of ease, I court its precincts, only to forget All but the sunlight of its silences. I take my spirit's road. At last, the wet Cool rain falls suddenly for thirsty trees. 2. Rare Crown-Imperial holds herself apart ; She droops her petals from the shining skies (or ardent) 'Tis said she has a deeply wounded heart Since tears are ever spangled in her eyes. At whiles a child, abandoning his play Peeps in her blossom, touch'd to interest : ' O, Crown- Imperial 's crying ! ' he will say, And so forget her for another quest. Life scrapes a fiddle for the world to dance, Swung in the cadence of a roundabout. The grave, the gay, the few with radiant glance, All, trace a figure in the motley rout. And Crown-Imperial dances with her peers : Only the wise, or simple, guess her tears. This garden has a soul and, so, its moods As any sentient mind from hour to hour. I know the leafy silence of its woods Vast quiet harbours of the Hemlock-flower. The Hemlock, with her maze of delicate lace, Whose leaf's the first green leaf of all the year, Usurps the beech-trees' overshadowed space To spread her forest that shall first be sere. She weaves a veil, as if to dim the slopes Of sun-kist joy too unabash'd to hide, Where Tulips blaze and, later, Heliotropes Are set with Poppies, hectic in their pride. Gardens have souls ; and this one has its moods : I love the leafy stillness of its woods. 298 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 4. But yet I love its glory of mid-day When sunlight pulses in the dew it sups (or, where the great bee sups) And all the world swoons to the scent of May In flower round fields of glittering Butter-cups. For is it not this garden's crown of crowns To be encompass'd by no narrowing hedge ? It wanders to the freedom of the Downs And takes its own way to the water's edge. Gay Ragged Robin and the vagrant Dock Whose seeds you draw into your passing hand Camp in the waste made pale with Ladies' Smock Where Pollards lean across the marshy land. All gardens please, but this one's crown of crowns Is to be merged in meadow and the Downs. 5. Listen ! I know this garden at the dawn : Before the day breaks on a world made new, When cobwebs drench'd upon the grey-green lawn, Are meshes that have caught the silver dew ; Before the birds sing ; long before the sun Summons the swathes of vapour to arise Just when the night is overpast and done, And yet no daylight quickens in the skies : Then, there 's no murmur from the idle trees. The voiceless Universe is robed in grey And tranced to hear expectant ecstasies ; As if each leaf upon each separate spray Were listening, waiting, till a little breeze Whispers ' the Dawn, the Dawn ' and dies away. CHAPTER XII APRIL 1908 TO JANUARY 1910 The Asquith Ministry Dover Pageant Dover Harbour Cavalry Manoeuvres Francis Thompson's 'Shelley' Lord Rector of the University of Edinburgh The Education Bill France General Election Campaign. 676 To his Father STANWAY, WINCHCOMBE, April 14th, 190B. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am motoring over to Clouds on Thursday with Mary, in Arthur Balfour's motor. I am bringing two horses and a groom. I hunted here on Saturday and had quite a pleasant gallop. The meet was at Broadway. Since then the fun here has been * fast and furious.' The Party consisted of Arty Paget and Lady Muriel, Professor W. Raleigh and his wife Madame Benkendorf, H. Cust and wife, a young man from Balliol, called Ridley, Cyncie, and A. J. B. Mary I must tell you asked me to come ' and see her quiet home life.' I have never heard, and rarely, made more noise before. But all very amusing. A. Paget is a ' Pied Piper of Hamelin ' with his guitar and we were rats who danced to his music. I rode yesterday with Cyncie along the Cotswold and motored to-day to see the stained glass in Fairford Church. Your loving son, GEORGE. 677 To his Sister, Pamela HOUSE OF COMMONS, 7th July 1908. DARLING PAMELO, The invitation is most fascinating. But I am afraid I cannot get away. The last four weeks sra 300 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM of the Session are always odious. And, this year, I have to be in Dover the Monday 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th, for the Pageant. This I must do, as my Doverians have spent 8000 on it, and I have to be there and ask people down, and introduce Royalties and give luncheon, etc., and so on. As I have to get away on the Friday and make a big speech to 8000 people in Cheshire on August 3rd, I dare not encroach on the Saturday-Sunday, 25-26. They are my two days for preparation. I will not grumble. My rule is to acquiesce in July, like a fish letting the rapids go over him. Or rather that is my ideal. The practice is more like a hen dodging motors on the Ripley Road. I know you won't come to Dover on Tuesday 28th or Thursday 30th best days but I wish you would, bring- ing Bim and Clare. It is going to be quite delightful. Arthurian Prologue William the Conqueror coming over to Western Heights and leaving Kent ' Invicta ' with her Saxon customs John and Pandulph Edward i. return- ing with my beloved Eleanor from the last Crusade- Henry v. Harry our King and Kate of France Henry vm. starting for Field of Cloth of Gold and finally Charles i. receiving Henrietta Maria. The last Act is written by Tiercelin in brilliant French Alexandrines. The French parts are acted by French actors and actresses. They will speak real broken English. The English parts by Englishmen who will speak real broken French. I know you won't come, but I should like you to see it, as I invented the selection of scenes as a glorification of the Sea and the ' Entente.' The poetry is by Rhodes and the songs excellent. I am particularly pleased at having brought in King Arthur out of Caxton's preface to Malory. I was tired of the Early Britons and monastic martyrs with skulls, as St. Alban and St. Edmund, so I said * skull for skull, give me Gawain,' whose skull, according to Caxton, was to be seen at Dover. There is a deeper point in this Prologue ; as thus TO HIS MOTHER 301 Our Arthurian Romances were written at the time of Henry n. and John. Besides being poems based on Welsh mythology, picked up as the Geraldines went through Wales to conquer Ireland, they also reflect the politics and events of the age in which they were written. They reflect Henry ii.'s dominion from the Pyrenees to the Grampians ; the Interdict under John ; and the Crusades. They, there- fore, supply a proper prologue to the episodes of John and Edward i. Incidentally we shall build a ship to a sea chorus of hammer'd planks. I propose to attend the Cavalry Manreuvres with Sibell and shall look you up if we get near Stonehenge the week of August 17th. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 678 To his Mother GRAND HOTEL, DOVER, July 29th, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I wished that I could have loeen next you at the Pageant. There was plenty of armour in it but, perhaps, not enough fighting. I thought the 4 Mobled Queens ' very good, when Gawain's corse was carried out. I like best the Arthurian Prologue and the last episode with Henriette Marie, and, above all, the marching and counter-marching at the end. I hope dear Papa was not tired. I am sorry I bundled little George into your full carriage. But I had been keeping the train for him for three minutes and the officials were fussing. Arthur Balfour was very keen and sympathetic. The whole drama is a good work of art. All the ladies near me fell in love with Henry v. a young Irishman French- Blake in the East Kent Yeomanry. I did all the work of carriages and seating forty-seven at lunch and 40 in the Royal enclosure over night. So yesterday morning I amused myself. We did the Castle 302 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM at 10 o'clock and had the Harbour Board Tug at 11 o'clock. In her we went all round the harbour inside and outside. It is pleasant to see and know that the promenade pier, the Prince of Wales' Pier, the National Harbour, the berth for the Red Star Liners, the broadening of the Admiralty Pier for Marine Station, and, last, the Craning Dock which passed the Lords on Monday are all in a considerable degree my own work. I look at them from the flag-staff in the Keep and smile as I remember the hours I have spent treading the alien stairs of Government offices and colloguing with distracted parliamentary agents. After the Pageant S. S. and I drove off and paid a visit of ceremony to Lord and Lady Brassey on the ' Sunbeam.' Tiercelin, the French poet, a Breton and Catholic who wrote the last episode and the Comte de Belabre dined with us. We had a great ' go in ' over French poetry and Celtic legends. This afternoon I must work at my speech and look in at the Pageant for the end which I think quite beautiful. The six silver trumpets are a joy and the ship ' Invicta ' with the shields hanging over her side. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 679 To his Father HEADQUARTER STAFF CAMP, CAVALRY DIVISION, SALISBURY PLAIN, August 16th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, Here I am in General Scobell's Camp. There are four Cavalry Brigades, R.H.A., etc. So we spread over a great extent of country. But this, the Head Quarter Camp, is by Barrow Plantation, on the Salisbury to Devizes road, just two miles north of Orches- ton St. Mary, and one mile west of Rushall Down. I will wire if I hear that we are working your way. We had six days hard polo at Eaton. I enjoyed it very much, but shall enjoy this even more. All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. TO HIS FATHER 303 680 To his Father HEADQUAHTKHS STAFF CAMP, SALISBURY PLAIN, August 17th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am afraid we shall not come towards Clouds. The centre of our camps is Ell-Barrow, which you remember no doubt. We worked from there this morning to Knighton Down and attacked back. It is a magni- ficent sight and one which has never been seen before in England. There are four brigades=12 regiments=36 squadrons and 48 Horse Artillery guns. We galloped the last three miles to-day. It is not possible to describe the effect of such bodies gliding over the downs, up the ridges and sweeping the hollows (where our ponies used to ' take charge ') and finally, charging home. I am riding on Scobell's staff and he is very kind and attentive to me. This is very much better than being in the visitor's camp, where there are 36 officers together who merely ride about and look on, with orders not to show themselves too much. To-morrow we do much the same, Wednesday and Thursday we shall go over the river between Netheravon and Amesbury. The only way you could see anything would be to train to Salisbury and motor out. If you do decide to do this Wednesday or Thursday, send me a wire and I will try to wire where we are likely to be about 11 o'clock. Love to darling Mamma, Your loving son, GEORGE. 681 To Wilfrid Ward ST. PAGAN'S CASTLE, CARDIFF, August 28th, 1908. MY DEAR WILFRID, I have been in camp on Salisbury Plain with the Cavalry Division an invigorating experi- 304 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ence. But the conditions precluded any study of the * Shelley ' article. 1 I reserve that for next week, and am preparing by reading a good deal of Shelley. My interest is sharpened by your letter and the criticism, or rather panegyric, of the ' Observer.' It is, also, but a few weeks four I think, since I visited Wilfrid Blunt, saw a sketch of Francis Thompson drawn just before his death, read some of his poetry aloud and heard all his story in great detail. I believe that Wilfrid Blunt could send you an interesting article on Thompson. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 682 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, August 31st, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am very glad to know that you saw the Cavalry Division at work. It was and, probably will remain, a unique sight. There was never anything quite like it before. And, next year, I expect that the manoeuvres will be on a larger and slower scale, embracing Infantry and Field Artillery. These Cavalry Manoeuvres were an epoch in Cavalry Drill a ' little classic ' in their way. The Learned, when they discuss them, talk of Alexander, Cromwell, and Seidlitz. The point is that masses of mounted men were moved rapidly over gradients in consonance with an idea and without losing co-operation between component parts. That is important. If Germany fights France and we have to go to Belgium, it counts that we can put in four brigades of such Cavalry, with their Horse Artillery. I saw a good deal of your German I. G. General Count Von Dohne. He seemed to me to be a capable man. He looked at every horse and, as I thought too closely at some of our ' dodges ' such as our method of horsing Artillery. But he was a capable and gallant old boy. When I conducted them the foreigners through the 5 By Francis Thompson. TO WILFRID WARD 305 Cavalry School at Netheravon, someone said * the road is up. They have dug a deep trench across it.' I went on and jumped a wide and deep trench with a drain-pipe at the bottom. Old Von Dohne jumped after me and all the rest of the Staff went round. Perf arrived here to-night. We meant to be together with Sibell till you come on the llth, but Lily Zetland is ill and wants Sibell. So Perf and I feel we must make a dash somewhere. We both have work ahead. He has manoeuvres on the 12th and then cramming for his Exam. I have the Autumn session and speeches. We should languish here, so we go off to Venice for a day or two and return for the llth. The choice lay between that and Scotland. And we preferred the sunny South. After our work we hope to hunt together in December and have decided that if it freezes we will, at once, go to St. Petersburg and see Guy. 1 The Mintos asked Perf to spend his leave at Calcutta as an extra Aide-de-Camp. He says * No ' this year. But will do it next year. Their Military Secretary advised them to ask him. I believe that he will make soldiering his profession. I think he is right. WJien I was young soldiering ' petered ' out and politics became important. Now politics are petering out and soldiering is becoming the crux. So, as he must jaunt at his age, I mean to jaunt with him to Venice this week, and to Petersburg if it freezes after Christmas. I am looking forward tremendously to your visit on the llth. 683 To Wilfrid Ward SAIGHTON, CHESTER, September 16/A, 1908. MY DEAR WILFRID, I reached home from Venice on Saturday, and of Venice I will say a word later. I must 1 His brother was Military Attache at St. Petersburg. VOL. II. TJ 306 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM now tell you that I have read Francis Thompson's ' Shelley ' more than once to myself, and once aloud to Sibell, my mother and father. I was rash when I promised a full letter on it. I cannot write one to-night ; nor indeed until I have digested it finally after further rumination. For the moment I will say that it is the most important contribution to pure Letters written in English during the last twenty years. In saying that I compare this essay in criticism with poetry as well as with other critical essays. Speaking from memory, Swinburne's last effective volume, * Astrophel ' with the ' Nympholept ' in it, came out in '87 or '88 ; Browning's 'Asolando' in '89. Tenny- son's ' CEnone ' is also, I think, at the verge of my twenty years. But even so, these were pale Autumn blossoms of more radiant Springs. It may be when posterity judges that Thompson's own poems will alone overthrow this opinion. But I doubt if they ought to. There is more of Thompson in this essay than in his poems. In any case there is a strain in a comparison between criticism and poetry ; prose and verse. It is more natural to seek comparison with other essays devoted to the appreciation of poetry. I have a very great regard for Matthew Arnold's * Essays in Criticism ' : partly reasoned, partly sentimental. But they were earlier. They did not reach such heights. They do not handle subjects as a rule so pertinent to poetry. When they do in the ' Wordsworth ' and ' Byron ' (2nd series) they are outclassed by this essay. The Heine essays deal with religion rather than poetry. The only recent English essay on poetry and, therefore, life temporal and eternal, which challenges comparison as I read Thompson's * Shelley ' is Myers' * Virgil ' and, specially the first part. I think these two are the best English essays on poetry, of our day. Myers gams by virtue of Virgil's wider appeal to mortal men in all ages. Thompson gains by virtue of the fact that he is himself a poet, writing on the poet who, in English, appeals specially to poets. His subject is TO WILFRID WARD 307 narrower, but his style is incomparable in the very quali- ties at which Myers aimed ; of rhythm and profuse illus- tration. Both, perhaps, exceeded in these qualities. But Thompson, the poet, is the better man at varying and castigating his prose style. He is rich and melodic, where Myers is, at moments, sweet and ornate. Both are sentimental, and each speaks out of his own sorrow. Myers sorrowed after confirmation of Immortality. Thompson sorrowed out of sheer misery. When Myers writes of Virgil's ' intimations ' of Immortality he is think- ing of his own sorrow. When Thompson writes of Mangan's sheer misery he is thinking of his own slough of despond. Both meant to be personally reticent. But Thompson succeeds. Unless I knew Thompson's story I could not read between the lines of his wailing over Mangan. But any one who reads Myers sees the blots of his tears. Again, Myers is conscious of Virgil as a precursor on the track of unrevealed Immortality. Thompson seems is, I believe unconscious of any comparison between himself and Shelley, as angels ascending the iridescent ladders of sunlit imagination. He follows the ' Sun-treader ' with his eye, unaware that his feet are automatically scaling the Empyrean. That his article is addressed to Catholics in no degree deflects his aim. It begins with an apologia for writing on Shelley. It ends with an apologia for Shelley. These are but the grey-goose feathers that speed it to the universal heart of man. There it is pinned and quivers. But enough ! I am glad that you display this ' captain jewel ' in a good * carcanet.' The number (of July) is excellent and ' editorially ' a plumb-centre ; with a right good article from the editor into the bargain. Of this I cannot write now ; still less of Venice. At another time I could expatiate, but, believe me, it was good to be alone with my boy on a yacht off the Ponte della Salute ; it was good to see a procession ascend the steps of S. Maria della Salute on the feast of her nativity ; it was good to swim in the Adriatic ; it was good to see Tintoretto ; it was good to read Villehardouin on the spot 308 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM where he and his three companions, as ambassadors of the Chivalry of Europe, knelt in 1202 and would not rise till Venice vouchsafed Christendom's request for ships so that the shame of our Lord might be avenged. The older I get the more do I affect the two extremes- of Literature. Let me have, either pure poetry, or else, the statements of actors and sufferers. Thompson's article, though an essay in prose criticism, is pure poetry, and also, unconsciously, a human document of intense suffering. But I won't pity him. He scaled the heavens because he had to sing, and so dropped in a niche above the portals of the temple of Fame. And little enough would he care for that ! Why should he ? Myers doubted. But he knew that souls, not only of Poets, but of Saints 4 beacon from the abodes where the Eternals are.' He is a meteor exhaled from the miasma of mire. And all meteors, earth-born and heaven-fallen, help the heavens to declare the Glory of God. Coeli enarrant. But the grammar of then* speech is the ' large utterance ' of such men made * splendid with swords.' Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. Reverting to Thompson's article and its place in the pure literature of recent years ; I ought to mention Walter Raleigh's ' Milton,' and with even greater gratitude his 4 Wordsworth.' But these are books. Of single essays on a high poetic theme, I adhere to Myers' * Virgil r and Thompson's ' Shelley,' and put Thompson first. 684 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, Michael Mass, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed my visit to Clouds immensely. I wish Perf could have been there. We mean to grow wild chicory here, if possible. It is a lovely flower. At Wynyard I met an interesting group Buckle, editor of the 'Tunes' who was effusive to me Morant, the permanent head of the Education Office Moneypenny, TO HIS FATHER 309 who is writing the life of Dizzy. I had talks with all three. Then Metternich German Ambassador arrived on the scene. He is not well disposed towards the * Times.' He is always silent. On this occasion he arrived at 6 o'clock. Said nothing turned the whole establishment upside-down in order to send a motor at midnight to Darlington, and left at 8 A.M. the next morning. All this happened because of the Bulgarian crisis which the Germans are fomenting. They mean to have a war : not, necessarily, in the imme- diate future, but some day, and pretty soon. So they pour acids into Morocco and Bulgaria and tell lies all the time. But having neither the old brutality of their Bismarck, nor the finesse of old France, their attempts at lying afford an excellent substitute for blurting out the truth. ' There is no deception ' as the clumsy conjuror has it. On Monday yesterday we had a long walk after partridges with five guns and killed 20 1 brace ; I picked up 15 birds. On our first day of 75 brace, I picked up 47 birds ; 23| brace. Reggie and Margaret Talbot were at Wynyard and she played divinely. Between whiles I wrote two manifestoes. One on the Territorial Army and another ' Message ' which will be published in the new form of the * Manchester Courier.' I have consistently prophesied that this Government would dissolve early next year. Other people are now beginning to say so. I hear it, indirectly from Carson, and also from a member of the Government. I think the election will be in March. To amuse you, I enclose a letter from Perf and another from Belloc. Please return at leisure. I cannot put my hand on your last letter. I should like to shoot the pheasants and, even more, to drive the partridges again. But you must not bother about my dates. I could only shoot on Fridays and Saturdays. I mean to attend the House closely and have speeches on 14th October, llth November, 18th, 19th, 20th Novem- 310 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ber, National Union and Tariff Reform at Cardiff. Dover the next week, i.e. 25th and 26th November, and the Mass Meeting etc. at Liverpool the first week in December. Perf 's spelling reminds one of the ' Paston Letters.' * Mais. il a une maniere bien nette d'exprimer son idee.' Belloc plays the fool, but plays it well. All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. Love from Sibell. 685 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, October 1st, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am just going to write you a line about curlews and wild chicory. And, first, about curlews. Until yesterday I had never seen a curlew in these parts. But they have always haunted me with their cry of watery wildness. I first heard and then saw a curlew flying over Bassenthwaite Lake when fishing with you for perch. And you told me his name. When I wrote my * Shakespeare ' I put in a long note on ' Lyrics ' opposing Bagehot's definition- Although I did not mention a curlew, the note sprang from that. I read of them too much in ' Locksley Hall * between whiles. I was familiar with them on the West Coast of Ireland. But, till yesterday, I had never seen one here. Well, yesterday, as I rode beyond Sir Hugh de Calveley's derelict moat, by the Alford brook, I saw a strange bird. Then I heard his cry, and knew it was a curlew. And, in the twinkling of an eye, a heron came after him, making short barks. The heron was saying ' who are you and what do you mean by being a big bird with a long beak, though not so big as I am, and with a thinner beak, curved too, and altogether outlandish ? so, out you go ! You are too big, anyway, and look as if you might try to catch my fish.' So the curlew flew away towards Saighton and the heron probably the cock TO HIS MOTHER 311 circled back in dignity to the Beechins. He was pro- bably the cock because, soon, another heron came back from the distance into which the curlew had flown, to report about the stranger. This heron talked more than the first. The second heron was probably the hen. She had been ordered to follow up the stranger and came back filling the welkin with information and scandal just to show what a jealous lady-heron she was to her Lord and how jealous of the little heron's right to all the fish ; on the hasty theory that curlews eat fish which they don't. To-day in the morning I took a walk with S. S. over the fields towards Waverton ; on the side of Saighton, and three miles away from the Alford brook. There we saw the strange bird again and stalked him and put him up twice. He was a curlew. And this time the rooks were in the Devil's own stew over the interloper. They could talk of nothing else. They cawed out ' what are we coming to, if a bird as big as ourselves, but of a different colour, and shape, settles here as if the place belonged to him ? ' I thought * it must be my curlew of yesterday, hunted by the herons to face the rooks ! ' But this afternoon I rode again into the marshy flats beyond the site of Sir Hugh's timbered mansion and, lo ! and behold ! I put up seven (7) curlews. My friend of yesterday had called up his supports. I do not think that these seven can have been one brood, for I have been told that the curlew only lays two eggs. If that is true but is it ? here were two families minus one member. Perhaps the missing member was my friend of this morning. How little we know ! How inglorious is our ignorance. That leads me to wild chicory or succory with its bright green leaves and bright blue flower. Papa tells me that he was to drive you to see the wild chicory beyond the plantation opposite Pertwood. Well now, here we are all striving to have blue flowers. Nemophylla and amagallus I am shaky over these names are not in it with chicory. Why not have a patch of chicory in the garden for September days ? Why 312 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM not ? I find from the books that it grows wild anywhere between here and India, but chiefly on chalky soil. I am told by my gardener that the only way to get it is to dig it up in its native sod. I should hate to dig up many near Pert wood. But if you would send me one or two I would lay down a chalky bed to receive them. I should like to do that. But I am not bent upon it. Perhaps it is better to know that they are glorious near Pertwood, and at many other spots, all the way across Europe, Asia Minor and on to India. I have asked Cecil Parker to issue orders that the curlews shall not be shot. So it is rather base to dig up even one plant of chicory. The curlews and chicory are 4 pleasant and lovely in their lives.' I feel that, all the more clearly, as the man who lives at Newbold, between Saighton and the Beechins, has enclosed a square mile and planted it with rare shrubs. The result swears with everything and makes the fox-hunter swear. It looks like a new cemetery. 4 Let 'un live,' x say I. And yet I should like a patch of bright blue chicory; if I felt sure they could live and say ' so am not I ' with the foolish scullion. Indeed, Sterne's foolish scullion was not foolish, but as wise as his starling. Sterne's scullion and starling stand for life and liberty against his dead donkey and dying lieutenant. So do the wild chicory and watery curlews stand against the stunted shrubs of Mr. Colley's plantations. Perhaps we had best leave them at that. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S.I have written all this on the paper you gave me. With such paper there is no impediment to writing on for ever. I put ' reason ' first and then scratched it out. There is always this much of reason for writing, that I love you and all you taught me to love such as curlews and chicory and all that is wild enough and bright enough to deserve loving and be spared from death, or decency, or order. 1 Barne's Dorset Poems, ' The Old Oak Tree.' TO PHILIP HANSON 313 686 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 5.x. 08. MY DEAR P. H., It seems a long while since I heard from, or wrote to, you. It is long and seems longer pro- bably because I have been moving about and enjoying life, I have really followed at last advice which you have often tendered. I have taken a complete holiday of two months. I marvel at the exhilaration which this pro- duces. Sometimes I wonder whether I shall ever work again. I am filled with a new gusto for enjoyment. One of two things may happen. I may either begin to work again with ease, or become by conviction a middle-aged pleasure-seeker. I have not done a stroke of real work since August 3, when I spoke at a mass meeting in Eaton Park. It is only two months and three days ago. But I feel as if I had never worked and almost as if I never would. I went to Clouds and played lawn tennis ; I returned to Eaton and played polo ; I went to Salisbury Plain and played at soldiers, to such purpose that a Guard turned out and mistook me for a General, presented arms and blew a fanfare on a trumpet ; a deserved tribute to grey hair and a red (Yeomanry) cap with a white cover. More by token, I went to Venice with Percy, and led the life of a Monte Cristo. We two had Westminster's yacht to ourselves, safely anchor'd off the Punte della Salute. We chartered a Gondola with a figure (Pagan, naked and unashamed) of Fortune on our prow. We saw Palaces and Churches. We discovered Tintoretto just as if we were Ruskin. We read Villehardouin's own account of his transactions with Dandolo in 1202. We bathed in the Adriatic from the Lido. We gave a Dinner Party on board, and if we did not paint the town red, why I I can only say that is unnecessary in ' Venise, la rouge.' But after that I went to Clouds again and shot partridges. I went to Wynyard and met Buckle and Moneypenny, 314 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM and finally I have, for the first time since 1900, been at Saighton in summer weather. I am here only for a Railway Board, and back to- Saighton immediately after it. I have definitely refused to write an article for the centenary of the ' Quarterly.' I mean without preparation to hurl my exuberance on an effete House of Commons. And then hunt and if it freezes go to see brother Guy at Petersburg. I have just read the proceedings at Cork. They com- plete the illusion of being five years younger, without re-creating the delusion that anything is likely to happen except a war with Germany. Mahaffy has been with us at Saighton, and a quite delightful companion. I wish you could pop over for 48 hours before next Saturday. I crystallised my Italian in Venice. It came to me suddenly like swimming or skating. So that without effort or merit on my part I can now read that language and have read four or five volumes in it. But I can't read German. Perhaps you could tell me the purport of the enclosed remarks on my * Walter Scott.' I shall bear up if the sense is as repellent as the form seems to my untutor'd eye. Anyway let me hear from you. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. Reverting to the German review. I know not the speech, but I am glad to have been spared the first word in the criticism which follows the par. on my W. S_ * Quellenuntersuchungen.' What an awful thing to say about anybody ! 687 To his Father HOUSE OF COMMONS, October I2th, 1908. MY DEAR PAPA, I was much amused to hear that the wild chicory came from Chester, and much interested by the information you have given me about it. It is some TO HIS MOTHER 315 years since I first saw the blue flowers for we were walking partridges. I took some home then and found out that it was the plant used for salad. But as I had never seen the flower in the garden I did not believe it. You explain the mystery. Thanks too, for telling me about the curlew's four eggs. I brought the curlews into a speech at the Conversazione at the ' Charles Kingsley ' Natural History Society in Chester last Thursday. On Friday I went to Derwent and shot grouse Saturday with Edmund Talbot. Owing to a high wind, which blew them off the estate, we only got 66 brace with five guns. A man staying there knew a great deal about birds. I ought to have said before that you must not think of changing your dates for shooting. I shall hope to get to Clouds for a Sunday or two soon. All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 688 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., 29th October 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Your letter besides being dear amuses me, because all my congratulators on the Lord Rectorship are more pleased at Winston's defeat than at my victory. I did not expect to win. But, as I have won, I shall try to say something to them in my address. Meanwhile new links with real youth have a new joy. The unreal youth of middle age is light-hearted. But the real youth of twenty years is portentous in the solemnity of its ignorance. Never having been out of its depth it needs no bladders of mirth to swim with. Little ripples from the tide of fate kiss its ankles. And it walks gravely through them like a conqueror of ' seas of trouble.' On Monday the Leader of the Edinburgh under- graduate opposition and his right hand man sent in their cards to me at the House. They were at pains to- 316 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM explain how much they had wished and how hard they had tried to beat me. But as between gentlemen that being over, they wished to express their respect for ' The Lord Rector.' So I made them dine without dressing, and they regaled Sibell and myself with their earnestness and certainty, over what seems trifles to the middle-aged. Your loving and devoted son, GEORGE. 689 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, Friday Night, October 30th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am counting on coming to Clouds for several Sundays ; and should as you half expected have come to-morrow. But for several reasons : as, for example, Percy comes here to-morrow from Aldershot ; Sibell has a feast of the Church on Sunday ; and I am immersed in arithmetical calculations over the Irish Land Act. But I mean to come soon, perhaps next Friday or Saturday. I will try to see Harold White, meanwhile. I do not think we need worry over the state of affairs. Because all classes are worrying. Margaret Dalton of Saighton village wrote to Sibell much on the lines of your letter. The whole country, and specially what are called the lower classes are shocked at all that is taking place. My main concern is that I fear this wretched Govern- ment will collapse next March and let us in, before we are ready to face national bankruptcy and anarchy in Ireland. I am not a cynic and find no pleasure in the general sordid insanity which seems inherent in the third year of a so-called Liberal administration. Yet the Government's position is diabolically absurd. Four hundred of their supporters are pledged to Woman's Suffrage. The Prime Minister though opposed personally has publicly invited them to ventilate their cause. Their TO HIS FATHER 817 watch- word is, * No taxation without representation/ Excellent. But what do we see ? The House of Commons is often surrounded by a cordon of police. The public galleries are shut. We live in a state of siege. So, too, in Ireland. Yesterday several policemen were shot and a cattle-driver was shot dead. All this goes on. But the House of Commons is only allowed to discuss quite ridiculous provisions in the Licensing Bill. This afternoon, for example, the House of Commons made it a crime for a father to take his boy into a railway station Refreshment Room if there was a ' bar ' on the premises. To ' top up ' or, as the French say, * pour surcroit de bonheur.' We are face to face with national bankruptcy and not too far removed from a war with Germany. In face of that situation we are exporting the Reserve to our protectionist Colonies hi order that they may not starve in Free Trade England. 4 Is that all ? ' as we say in English. ' Merci du peu * as they say in French. I await the explosion. 4 Impavidum ferient ruinae ' as they say in Latin, which is as much as to say in English * I shall not be alarmed,' nor, let me add, surprised. But, alas ! the Party will hardly be ready. Your loving son, GEORGE. 690 To his Father 4.ri.08. MY DEAREST PAPA, I have told them to look for the two letters in the ' Times ' of the 2nd. I have studied ' Invisible Exports ' and Capital invested abroad for some time. Nobody attended to it before 1903. In the Board of Trade Blue-Book, prepared by Gerald Balfour in that year, they took a shot. 318 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM To account for excess of Imports over Exports, they said (a) some pay the freights of our ships, (b) others to the tune of 90,000,000 are interest on capital invested abroad. Schooling in the British Trade Year Book has proved that our shipping does not earn the amount credited to it. I think it far more likely that more much more than 90,000,000 is interest on capital invested abroad coming back in the shape of articles. And I am sure that more must come back in future. It is difficult to identify our capital invested abroad. The only part we can identify is that on which income tax is paid in block by bankers. These are called ' iden- tified profits from abroad.' They show that capital is pouring out of this country. It goes for two reasons : (1) to get a higher interest, because a shilling income tax and death duties force people to try for 5 per cent, preferring the risk to the certainty of being ruined in three generations ; (2) to take refuge behind Tariff walls. The increase is astounding. In the 19 years previous to 1904-1905, capital so identified went abroad at the average rate of 22,000,000 a year. But in the next two years 05/06 06/07 it went at the average of 135,000,000 a year 270,000,000 in the two years. Now the curious point is this. These huge sums did not go in sovereigns or bullion, most of them went as our exports. Yet imports exceeded exports in 1906 : Value. Imports 607,888,500 Exports 375,575,338 Total . 983,463,838 645,807,942 426,035,083 Total . 1,071,843,025 TO HIS MOTHER 319 One result is certain, viz. : the operation of Tariff walls. They tend to make the Imports of 645 millions consist of wholly manufactured articles ; and they tend to make the 426 millions of our Exports consist of raw material, e.g. coal, and partly manufactured articles. Consequently they tend to displace our skilled artisans and to entice yet more capital abroad. The ultimate result is to turn us into a nation of bankers and commission agents, supporting armies of unemployed loafers. That is what happened in ancient Rome, in Constanti- nople, and in Venice, with the results that history teaches. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Few people know that Constantinople in the XlVth century had a revenue as large as ours 150 millions a year. Yet it collapsed like a card-castle before the Turks in 1457 and had been taken already by the Franks in 1204. All this makes me sad. 691 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, Saturday Night, November 7th, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I wish I were at Clouds. And this is to say, definitely, that I shall come to Clouds by the morning tram next Saturday. For many reasons next Sunday is easier than this Sunday. We shall have finished the Committee stage of the Licensing Bill on which I speak every day. On one day I spoke six times ! And with average luck I shall have broken the back of preparation for platform speeches. When that has been done a holiday, before making them, is a holiday and helps me to make them better. But a holiday when I am up to my neck in work is not a holiday. Besides my work on the Licensing Bill, I have circu- lated to ex-colleagues a memo, of 21 pages foolscap typed 320 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM on the finance of the Land Act, and answered every letter that anyone has addressed to me. The decks are cleared for action. I have to speak at the Mayor's Banquet, Dover, on the llth. But my work to-morrow, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, is to get ready for my real platform campaign. On the 18th the Tariff Reform branch of all South Wales gives me a luncheon. On the 19th I hope to speak at the National Union Conference. On the 20th I have a mass meeting. That is three in one week. The next week I speak on the 23rd in the House on Irish Land ; and then in the country platform on 25th and 26th ; the next week on December 1st ; the next, on December 9th and 10th ; all 4 Platform.' I stayed here to-night to reconnoitre the field of opera- tions. I just mean to block it out before I begin. And as I said I have cleared off everything else. My life is swept and garnished for the house-warming of the seven Devils of the Platform. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 692 To his Sister, Pamela SALISBURY, 15th November 1908. DARLING PAM, This is a diminutive herald to our lunch on Tuesday, blowing his little trumpet to announce whence I come, since my stay must be short. I can only nick in on Tuesday. For on Wednesday I have to make a speech and another on Thursday, and another on Friday, and another on Monday, and so on for ever. By luck, and inspiration derived from Clouds, I know just what I mean to say on Wednesday about Tariff Reform. And, by dint of hard plugging at Act, and statistics, I also know just what I mean to say to-morrow week on Irish Land Pur- chase. Having arrived at these by luncheon time, I walked five miles with Dorothy and read, after tea, rather sleepily, Filson Young's last novel. But suddenly one scene woke me. The hero, who can draw, hears O'Donnell TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 321 read a poem to a gathering of artistic prigs. So he says all of a sudden * I can draw that ' and does it. Here are the Arts colloguing. I said to myself ' I can write that.' And went and wrote it. I make Art talk ; and this is what SHE says : ARS LOQUITUR I am the way the ancient trick Of making ; as things must be made, By measure, and arithmetic, And the old custom of a trade. I am the truth the empty gaze At far horizons veiled in mist : I falter as I search the maze Of Dawn's abysmal amethyst. in I am the life the miracle, Of plan and vision, merged in one ; Whose high harmonics soar and dwell In ecstasies of unison. IV I am the way, the truth, the life ; The road to go, the rim to see, The song to shout, above the strife Of rapture with utility. Art says with Moliere * Je prends mon bien ou je le trouve.' And in this case as in so many finds her quarry in the Founder of Christianity. Les beaux esprits se rencontrent. Before Art disinterred that Jewel, I had gaped at the opalescent profundity of the saying ' I am the way, the truth and the life.' It is when stated so evident that life means method and vision. And that, my Darling, is why I make Art say so. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. VOL. II. X 322 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 693 To Wilfrid Ward Private 35 PARK LANE, W., November 27th, 1908. MY DEAR WILFRID, I was on the point of writing to you now at 11 p.m. when I found your letter. I had read the A.J.B. Essay and noted the dexterity with which you have interpolated my suggested * double barrel ' The Imperial Conference plus Asquith's Budget, in 1907. And I had glanced at all the others. The book, for which I am very grateful, came to my hands about six this evening. It reached me at one of those rare moments of forlorn fatigue that occur in the course of strenuous stretches. And at those rare moments the touch of friendship is ' grateful and comforting.' We are troubled to-day. A wire from Madeira, four days ago told us that Westminster, whom we expected from South Africa to-morrow was ill with malaria, and, this morning, a wireless message turned uneasiness to anxiety. So, Sibell and the Duchess have gone off to Southampton with a doctor, and I was left alone. Other- wise I have not had and cannot foresee any gap in the strain of political effort. I spoke at Cardiff on Wednesday and Thursday. On Monday I spoke to the House for an hour on Irish Land Purchase, and at Dover on Wednesday, and to-day I had to speak in the House, in spite of this anxiety. Even if all goes well, I cannot alas ! think of Lotus 1 before Xmas. I must speak on Education in the House and watch it all next week except Tuesday when I speak at Gravesend, and, apart from the House, I have big Meetings the week after on the 7th and 10th. All this is accompanied by exacting work on Irish Purchase and Education, behind the scenes. So as you say Literature cannot be my career. Forgive this explosion ! 1 The name of Mr. Ward's house at Dorking. TO WILFRID WARD 323 I am deeply concerned over the so-called Education Compromise. It makes me sad to feel how remote I am from my countrymen and how remote they are with all their excellent qualities from the rudiments of philosophic thought. It is dear of them to jump at a compromise ; but silly to jump before looking. They will look afterwards. They will look back and say, ' If we had only known.' Yet they do not realise that they preclude themselves from knowing now or ever owing to their inveterate distrust of thinking. Any man who thinks on these occasions, and shows that he is thinking, is suspect. I am suspect. But I -must think ; and I will believe that it is wise to do so. Yet, I am nearly powerless. I thought and spoke on Wednesday. The * Times ' suppressed my speech, the *' Morning Post ' published a sketch of the rest and suppressed all I said upon Education. You have leisure, and a rostrum in the * Dublin Review.' It is your duty to try and make them think. Will you help me to make them see before the smash that there are only two ways of approaching the problem ? (1) To start from Uniformity of religious instruction ; and (2) to start from Unity of the National System of Education. Or, putting it another way (1) to start from a neutral religion, and (2) to start from the neutrality of the State to all religions. From whichever point you make your departure, you must I admit and assert make illogical exceptions to fit in with present practical needs. But and here is the whole matter if you start from a fair theory, cela ne peche pas par la base. No wrecker can find a cranny in your foundation, insert his crowbar, and overthrow the whole edifice. If, on the other hand, you start from an unfair theory as this Bill does no amount of charity and ingenuity is of any avail. There it is, in the black and white of Clause I., that the State's imprimatur is to be affixed only on undenomi- national teaching. If once you say that, 'contracting 324 out ' is a necessary consequence. You may mitigate its secular evils by lavish grants. But you cannot irradicate the stigma. It makes me sad and sick. Think of the irony of the situation. On Tuesday the House of Commons by five to one supported a motion in favour of relieving Roman Catholics from important, but largely sentimental, griev- ances. The accession oath, the prohibition on the appointment of an R.C. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or Lord Chancellor are grievances. They are antiquated insults and irrational disabilities. We said so on Tuesday by five votes to one. Yet because Englishmen will not,, or cannot think, on Thursday, in the same week, within forty-eight hours, we say by nearly two and half votes to- one, that new disabilities not sentimental and antiquated but modern and practical are to be imposed in respect of Education for all the Catholic youth in the country. Nothing can wholly amend that original defect. But the Bill has been * Guillotined.' Clause I. goes through automatically on Monday. I deplore, but accept perforce, that situation. What really kills me is that your people and our people who want to be kind can't think enough to gauge the consequences of that initial mistake. They say, ' If the Government makes the grant big enough what does it matter ? ' They say that because they will not, or cannot, think- Help me to make them think. On their own absurd basis, their Bill is valueless unless it is a settlement. Very well. The cost of education has increased, is increasing, and will increase. Consequently any fixed grant which is fair to-day, will be unfair next year, grossly unfair in five years, and utterly useless in ten years. Therefore, instead of haggling for sixpences, they must insist on paying only a quota for the rights of citizenship. They must say, 4 We think it unfair to pay rates for your religion. We think it sad to be excluded from all your national system of Education, and bad for that system. But you will TO WILFRID WARD 325 have it so. How much are we to pay ? Isn't a shilling in the pound enough ? We have three hundred thousand Catholic children. A child's education costs about 3 a head. Is not nine hundred thousand shillings 45,000 a year a sufficient tax on our religious convictions ? ' Supposing that the House sees the force of that, i.e. that for a permanent settlement the private contribu- tion must be a quota and not a fixed grant then, point out : II. Population increases. When new schools are wanted, you must give us building grants for the same proportion of 19:1. If we need 20,000 for new schools, you must pay 19,000, and we will find 1000. I don't know why I trouble you with all this. At this moment I feel as if I lived in a community of deaf men. The more I talk the more worried they look. , . . And nothing happens. Let us quit all this hopeless, helpless, dumb show of hypnotised Democracy going to its appointed doom of Bureaucracy and Caesarism now, as ever and everywhere, quod semper et ubique. Let us laugh ! We ought to laugh. Surprise is the basis of laughter. And what can be more surprising than to see the leaders of Nonconformity in the House of Commons, bribed by baronetcies, abrogating the constitution, and laughing as well they may at the spectacle of the Anglican Arch- bishop ramming Nonconformity down my throat with the butt end of his crozier ? They laugh. Had not I better laugh too ? ' Taking it hi good part ' is I believe the classic phrase for acquiescing in comic turpitude. But I have not quitted this grim subject of sordid and sardonic infamy. I must or I shall forget to laugh and increase the merriment of other's by getting angry. That would be absurd, when neither Anglican nor Catholic, nor Educationalist, nor Unionists, are willing to think of anything but their Christmas holidays. So now, having relieved my feelings> I will write out some lines which I did write out for you the other day and then tore up. 326 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM They may be condemned on the three grounds of (1) profanity, (2) plagiarism (3) mystical obscurity. And yet, for all that, I am glad to have written them. They sprang from a book about Art. I thought. And it came to me that Art should speak for herself. If her language is obscure it is not she protests more obscure than the language of those who speak for her. This is what she said to me. The Lady speaks : ARS LOQUITUR ' I am the way the ancient trick/ etc., etc. [See preceding letter.] Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 694 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., December 2nd, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, One scribble before I go back to the House to say how sorry I am to hear that Amelia Ireland is dead, and how well I understand what that means to you, Darling. But, then, I am glad that I can know this ; because you and I went to Doncebate together, when she was still just what I knew she had been from your old stories ; I might so easily not have gone, or been prevented by work. The real objection to work is that it prevents one from doing things that leave memories far more lasting than the results of any work. I feel that about work, and par- ticularly about political work. It has no ' smack of immortality ' in it. But kindness and courage and fun and joy are immortal. Now I must just ' pop hi ' to see Shelagh on my way back. S. S. has gone over to see Benny. It is a separate and known tropical fever, caused by a separate and known microbe with some horrible name. This intruder can only be killed by the health of the patient. Nothing but TO MRS. HINKSON 327 rest and the right diet are any good. You have to beat him with your own phagocytes. And Benny will beat him all right in two or three weeks. I made a good speech at Gravesend last night. I started from Gravesend to Suakim in 1885 ! just opposite old Tilbury fort. What a rush it has been since then. And it is a rush now ! I 'm off. Your devoted and most loving son, GEORGE. 695 To Mrs, Hinkson 35 PARK LANE, W., December 2nd, 1908. DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I am not going to apologise for the delay of this reply. Because I know you will have guessed that I waited till I had the chance of reading ' The House of the Crickets ' before thanking you for your gift. I took the chance in the midst of Tariff Reform, and my old Irish Land Act, and Educa- tion. And your book was like the plashing of a pure stream through a frowning gorge. It was true. For it does not veil the bleak desolation or pollute the stream. It is like Life which is made of austerity and kindness. It is not like Death which is ' made up ' of sentiment and corruption. I am sick of the farded skeleton which most novelists call life. Though it is fearful to believe as you make me in such a childhood as the brothers and sisters had ; still, the misery and awe of it made them human. Though one poor boy died and one sister was wild and inconsiderate ; they all found each other. But, in the scent and glare and blare of other authors' * clever ' novels all the avenues of perception were deafened and dazed and suffocated. I thank you sincerely for having written the book, and warmly for having given it to me. Yours very truly, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 328 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 696 To Charles T. Gatty 36 PARK LANK, W., 5.xii.08. MY DEAR CHARLES, I saw Bendor to-day for the second time. He is going on well and his old self, but weak. He may see people. And he begged me to-day most particularly to ask you to come and see him. He wants cheering up. I wasted the ' Peacock ' and * Capers ' on him. You must do them in your * inimitable manner ' ! He is longing to see you. I am looking forward more than I can say to our Christmas together. I am tired ; and have three more fences to jump Land Bill Tuesday, Mass Meeting Wednes- day, and another a luncheon Thursday. Then I go to Mark l to shoot pheasants Friday and come back to wind up on Monday 14th. Then the sooner we forget all about politics and l addict ourselves wholly ' to Christmas, the better ! Yours affectionately, GEORGE W. 697 To Charles Boyd Confidential. 36 PARK LANE, W., 15.xii.08. MY DEAR CHARLES, I shall begin this letter now, to-night ; it is 12.20 and really the 16th of December. I shall finish it later, after attempting to see Seely again before we all dispart for Christmas. I shall write in pencil because I cannot find a pen. I have just returned from seeing 'King Henry V with Lady Grosvenor. It is wonderful. I should like to read it aloud to large audiences instead of speaking about Defence and the Union of the Empire. So far as one member of the Board is concerned to 1 Mark Napier. TO CHARLES BOYD 329 wit, C. B. I shall try the Newfoundland fly. So far as the other G. W. is concerned, he is touched by your suggestion. But really it is not possible. The Slab within the chaplet of weathered boulders calls. But, but, but ... I cannot do all that I have to do as it is. I believe (no one else does) that there will be a general election next year. I am very well, but working all day and every day. I have had to refuse all sorts of attrac- tive jobs an article in the ' Centenary Quarterly,' etc., etc. I am just going to take another holiday till January 21, when I speak at Edinburgh. And I have just finished the biggest course I ever ran over. I won't worry you with details. It has all been ' speeches.' But real ones. The climax came last week. On Tuesday I moved the rejection of Birrell's Land Bill in the House 1 hour and 5 minutes. On Wednesday I spoke at Liverpool to many more than 5,000 persons for 1 hour and 10 minutes on Tariff Reform, and on Thursday I spoke for 30 minutes to the Conservative Club there. Through no merit of mine, but from some touch of actuality, I swept the board three times running. Then I went to York and shot on the wolds for two days and came back braced by a North wind and being 800 feet above the sea. So that I am fitter and fresher than when the race began in October. I don't want a holiday. But I mean to take one ; for, from January 21 onwards, I take off the gloves. Enough of this. Now I go to bed. To-morrow I shall try to see Seely. Give my love to the Doctor even if it makes him jump. I am thinking deeply over your last letter. If you ever see my recent speeches at Cardiff and Liverpool, you will understand how ' pat ' that letter came to my purpose. 4 Finance ' won't do. I see my path quite clearly. I shall follow it. I mean to fight a straight fight for Defend- ing the Empire, Uniting the Empire and (a) * Safeguard- ing ' protecting if you like the skilled artisans in the Mother Country ; (b) doing something to enlist the mob of loafers into the ranks of regular labour. I have said this three times. It is, therefore (see the 330 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ' Hunting of the Snark ') true. But it entails this. The Press bar the ' Standard ' is ' agin ' me. Because the press of England belongs to Cosmopolitan Finance, they suppress my speeches. But thousands come to listen ; and these three speeches have been printed verbatim and are circulated to tens of thousands as leaflets not by me, but by Liverpool and the Tariff Reform League. As that is the kind of ' hairpins we are,' you will guess my view on Rhodesia being made a counter in the Cosmo- politan Financial game. ' It won't do.' It must be stopped. The Bond shall stop it. I look to Rhodesia now, as I did in 1897, to unite South Africa on an Imperial basis. I want South Africa to take up the running. Imperial Preference depends, now, on South Africa. Canada is being caught in the cogs of U.S.A. and French and German Tariffs. The policy of the Matoppos has got to win. C. J. R. and all the men who died in South Africa, shall not have lived and died in vain. But for that Rhodesia, which is the key to South African Unity, just as South Africa is the key to Imperial Unity, must be purged at all costs from any dross and base metal of oriental Finance. I wish you could have heard and seen the thousands in the Sun Hall at Liverpool rise at me when I said that we would not lose all that for which our soldiers and sailors had died during three centuries. If you are on that tack and you are no man will understand you more readily, and gladly, than Jack Seely. . . . Good- night. 698 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., December 15th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, I was very glad to get your letter. ' The Times ' has been very * queer ' lately. I am told that it will turn over a new leaf on January 1st. I think they feel that they owe me some reparation, as yester- day, in the House, their new Lobby representative asked TO HIS MOTHER 331 to be introduced to me, and ceremoniously booked the dates of my next speeches on January 21st at Edinburgh and February 1st at Birkenhead. My Tariff Reform Speech on Wednesday has made a considerable stir. Several of the active Tariff Reformers in the House came to me yesterday, and thanked me for it. I am to see Professor Hewins to-morrow at the Head Office of the League and on another day to meet Garvin at luncheon. I mean to fight this thing through in my own way, without attempting to please the 4 Mugwumps.' The audience in the Sun Hall was magnificent. I should say about 4700 on my side, and 500 or 700 either hostile, or unconvinced. But they all listened. I enclose two small cuttings, one from P. M. G. the other, sent to me, gives a description of the way in which I spoke. The ' Daily Post ' is the big Liberal Paper hi Liverpool. I also enclose a letter from Sir Joseph Lawrence, which I should like to have back. I spoke again, the third time, to a luncheon on Thursday in the Liverpool Conservative Club ; and succeeded really spoke better than the night before, but in a lighter vein. They are printing 20,000 copies of my Mass Meeting speech in Liverpool, and the Tariff Reform League is also going to make it a leaflet. I did not go to Saighton but to York and motored out to Mark Sykes, for two days' wild shooting in the wolds, 800 feet above the sea. It refreshed and braced me. I shot up to my best form at high wild pheasants. The second day we got 8 Woodcock. All love to Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 699 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., December I6th, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I must send a line to say that Sibell and I went to ' Henry V ' last night and 332 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM it was splendid. If it is running in February we ought to go together. I think I must get to Saighton Saturday and come to you in January, for Percy's coming of age celebrations. I am not a penny the worse for my hard week of speak- ing. But now I am going to take tour weeks of complete holiday. Then I shall prepare again for Edinburgh on 21st January, and Birkenhead 4000 Mass Meeting on February 1st. I imagine the House will meet on February 9th. I am just off to see Hewins at the Tariff Reform League. Your loving son, GEORGE. 700 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., December VJth, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, Enclosed from Lawrence will interest you. The meaning of (A) is that the editor of the 'Morning Post' replied that, he agreed; that, however, they never criticized the management of other papers ; and, so, could not publish Lawrence's letter in which he attacked the ' Times ' for suppressing my speeches. My plan is to go on making speeches until they have to report them. Your loving son, GEORGE. 701 To his Father 35 PARK LANK. December I7th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, There is one slip in my Liverpool speech. It is 4 hundredweights,' not tons, of ' tin-plates.' I think it must be the reporters' mistake as I have hundredweights underlined on my notes. It does not affect the argument. I have corrected it and sent the exact figures to two correspondents who wrote on the point. The speech has made a great stir. Indeed, too TO HIS FATHER 333 much in one way ; for I have many letters to answer, all favourable and eager for more. Yet, I really made that speech not so well, but still quite as definitely in April 1907 near Birmingham. But it was not reported. I have no evidence that ' critics on our side ' are annoyed. The opposition papers say they are. But the opposition papers and Gould have lived for five years on exaggerating our differences, especially over a tax on wheat. I shall make a point of pushing (1) the Corn Tax (2) Home Industries, all over again, in January and on the 1st of February at Birkenhead. Meanwhile I shall take no notice of criticism. National Review Article. I have not read it yet. I read a quotation about it in a ' press cutting ' just before I made those three speeches Irish Land and the two at Liverpool. And, as I travelled to York after the third speech I read a Leading Article on it in the ' Yorkshire Post.' I did not take it to heart. Oddly enough, it has rallied a great many people to my side. There is a lot of loose ill-nature in the world. But there is, also, a lot of loose good-nature. And when the first is focussed, the second gets focussed, too, in antagonism to the first. Many members of the House of Commons, without referring to the article, have gone out of their way to stop me in the lobbies, and praise my Irish speech and my Liverpool speech. That is their way of showing that they think the article is outside the rules of the game. Nobody knows who wrote it. ' They say ' (1) Leo Maxie would not have published it as by ' M.P.' unless it was written by an * M.P.' (2) There is no M.P. on our benches bright enough to have written it. (3) So it must have been written by a peer, who, of course, is also a member of Parliament. Sibell who thought I should mind it, when she found I did not started to-night, the surprising, but ingenious, view that it was written by Lucy Toby under the clock. He calls himself in 'Punch' M.P. for Barkshire. It 334 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM amuses me that she should have taken the trouble to think so much. Sometimes women guess things. But I incline to the duller view that it was written by an Irish peer, or somebody like Lord Robertson. I have not thought about it. But as I write it seems to me the product rather of an older man who is cross with the front-benches, who supplanted him ; than of a younger man who wants to supplant them. It smacks of ' spretae injuria formae ' and uric acid. There is little acidity in the young. However I must read it. This opinion is based 011 another ' press cutting ' which gave longer extracts. I will send your note to Perf. You could not have hit on a better present. Perf is very practical. He got the Saighton people to give him their present, before we arrived. Their present was a new saddle, bridle, hunting- horn, etc. And, having got it, he used them all the next day, because the meet was at Saighton. All the donors looked on with admiring eyes and were satisfied that they had hit on something which he was glad to get. I am very sorry not to have heard his speech. But I am more glad that he should have done a sensible and tactful thing without consulting me, or asking for any- body's advice. There is no indecision in his character. He could act Henry v. but not Hamlet. To my sorrow the Plymouths are in great anxiety over their eldest son who is dangerously ill with enteric in India. I shall put my foot down against Perf going to Egypt till he is twenty-three at least. Your loving son, GEORGE. 702 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., December 23rd, 1908. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I will write you a real letter. This is only a scribble of all love to you and to wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year. My heart is TO HIS FATHER 335 very sad because of Oti's 1 death. Is has been such anxiety to them and now this great sorrow. But he was given to the Empire as much as if he had died in battle. Still . . . Well, Darling, I love you. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE. 703 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, December 27th, 1908. MY DEAREST PAPA, This is to wish you a very happy New Year. I think we shall come to you on the 9th, and certainly on the llth. I have had three days' hunting last week with Percy and enjoyed them very much. But now it is snowing and blowing. I will send you the Liverpool speech when I get it. They thought very little of Lloyd George's speech in Liverpool. One of the Liberal papers said that he was nervous and ill-at-ease. I am taking no notice of his criticism until I speak again. Probably I shall reserve my answer to February 1st when I speak at Birkenhead next to Liverpool. At Edinburgh I must be more general and interest the undergraduates . I have some other figures about capital going abroad. If you take the capital authorised and issued from January 1st to November 30th of this year, there was 80,000,000 British out of 230,000,000 in all. So that 150,000,000 went for purposes outside this country. That is new capital raised. The effect of selling British securities and buying Foreign ones is more indirect : but it also tends to diminish employment. For example, the continued sale of British Railway Stock depresses its value and, as a consequence, our Railways postpone work. We put off rebuilding stations, replacing rolling stock etc., because, with Stocks 1 Lord Plymouth's son. 336 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM down we cannot borrow more money except for high interest, and sometimes cannot borrow it at all. Your loving son, GEORGE. 704 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January l&th, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed every minute of the celebrations at Clouds. 1 They were perfectly organized and delightful in every way. I am just in from a great hound run, parts of which were very good to ride ; and all most interesting. We ran from Philo, at Oulton, to Crewe ! That is a good nine mile point, over an arc, with turns, so that we covered a great track of country Philo, Oulton Low, nearly to Darnhall, Church Monshall and on, and then South to Crewe. Shelagh, de Crespigny, Bertie Wilson and young Lord Stafford came from Eaton. I borrowed rugs and got the horses into a train at Crewe. Then we borrowed Lady Crewe's motor and went to Shelagh's, which was at Oulton, and so home. We were all the time over a wild, wet country, with boggy take-offs and hairy fences, and never in a wood or bad country till we got into the outskirts of Crewe, the fox went round some houses and doubled back. Shelagh was so tired and the horses, that we went straight to the station. The fox was only just in front of us the last four miles. All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 705 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, February 5th, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, I was shocked by the sad death of Lady Florence Grant 2 and realised how deeply you would 1 On the coming of age of his son. 2 Lady Florence Grant was knocked down by a man on a bicycle on the hill near Shaftesbury. TO HIS FATHER 337 feel it. I read Mamma's letter to Sibell to-night. It is sad to know that no one had the common sense to put Lady Florence at once in the best room of the Railway Hotel. But I doubt if this would have availed. Very few people recover from a fracture of the base of the skull. And I am certain that she felt nothing. After a wound to the brain, the sub-liminal consciousness takes command. People so wounded, talk and know the essentials of their identity and the locality of their home. But they feel nothing. This is true of concussion, and more true of fracture. Sibell wants me to send you this letter from Bigland, our Candidate from Birkenhead. The meeting was a ' well saved ' and because of that, encouraged me more than a success under good conditions. The strain was so great that I did not know what I was saying and, when I sat down, could not remember what I had said. But, curiously, the reports are very good ; and the speech is to be printed in pamphlet form. I will send you one when they are out. I am afraid we shall not get a report of all that I said ; for I spoke for one hour and twenty minutes. The best thing, at which I worked hardest, is not in any report I have seen. I shall do it again. It was a popular account of what happens when anybody invests, say, 4000 abroad. I shall keep that and do it, earlier, in one of my next speeches. I am speaking on the 27th of March at the 21st annual meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire Working Men's Federation, at Wigan. I spoke 21 years ago at their first meeting. Last year Walter Long spoke at their 20th. The next week, on April 2nd, I collaborate with Austen Chamberlain, and Bonar Law, at the annual meeting of the Tariff Reform League. Hitherto it has always been held in London. This year they invade Yorkshire. A. Chamberlain speaks at Leeds, Bonar Law I forget and I at Huddersfield. Before these two I am to have one big meeting in London to myself. I am inundated with requests for speeches. But I mean, in future, only to take these big meetings, and build up a series of speeches which I shall publish in a VOL. II. Y 338 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM book. Four of them have been printed as pamphlets (including Birkenhead). After Wigan and Huddersfield, I shall have made six or seven with London ; enough for a book. Then, next late summer, I shall make a tour hi Scotland where, as Lord Rector of Edinburgh I get the Press. This has been one of the most active weeks of my life. After Birkenhead I caught the 11.55 at Liverpool for London, and slept in the train. Next day, Tuesday, I did our Railway half yearly from 11 to 2 ; wrote a letter to the ' Standard ' and another to the ' Morning Post/ They sent to ask me for a letter ; because the London Press summary of my speech had a stupid abbreviation which was bound to mislead anyone. I despair of the Press. The London Papers to-day, for example, have columns about the Scotch Divorce Case ; Mrs. Carrie Nation an elderly American matron with a passion for ' smashing ' advertisements and ' twaddle ' by Bernard Shaw about pedantry by Mallock. Austen Chamberlain, I hear, spoke well last night at Shrewsbury for an hour to a great audience. The 4 Times ' gives him 18| inches. The ' Standard,' nothing. That being so, I shall continue to make speeches which are essays ; and then, re-publish them. I came back here Tuesday. On Wednesday I sorted all my corre- spondence and walked ten miles. I was quite alone in the house, Sibell being at Madresfield. And, to wind up the week, yesterday and to-day I did more hunting than usually goes to a fortnight, or even a month. Yesterday I rode in five runs and to-day hi two. I had two horses each day. The first run began about 12 o'clock yesterday, the seventh finished at 3.30 to-day. So that, apart from incidental riding to and from the ' draws ' I have ridden seven gallops in 27 hours. On a minimum estimate I make out that I have galloped and jumped forty miles : 9+3+5+3+9+7+4=40. The ones I have marked x were all five excellent just as fast as you can drive a horse ; and all the seven over grass and TO HIS MOTHER 339 fences. We jumped all there is to jump. Yesterday we jumped the Tattenhall brook three times, and to-day the Cholmondeley drain twice. And these are our two big water leaps. I enjoyed it hugely ; but feel tired, and am going to bed. We killed three foxes. The horses are none the worse but tired too. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. One ought not to think about jumping when intent on the chase. But I was pleased when ' Cardinal ' * looped ' me over quite a high flight of iron rails. 706 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, February 13th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, You will know from my two telegrams how sad we are. We had a little hope yester- day evening. But a little before six o'clock this morning dear Benny rang us up to say the little boy was uncon- scious. I drove Sibell and Lettice over at once. Dr. Dobie whom I met at the door told me there was no hope and at 8.30 Lettice told me the little child was dying. No one was aware really that he was ill till Monday when the Dobies (Chester doctors) advised an operation for appendicitis. Sir Alfred Fripp came Tuesday and said the operation must be performed on Wednesday. This was done, revealing an abcess ; but successfully. But the little fellow suffered from continuous sickness. We were very anxious yesterday. Then he slept for four hours and our hopes rose. But now we have none. Dear Shelagh talked of you and your love, and would I know, love a letter. Will write by second post. Your loving son, GEORGE. 340 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 707 To his Mother SAIGBTON GRANGE, February 13th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I have just sent you the third telegram. The little boy died quite peacefully at 11 o'clock. I had no hope after seven o'clock this morning. He was staying here with us only the week before last ; full of love and fun. Little Ursula has been here since Wednesday and does not know or realise. Beauchamp brought darling Lettice here last night. As I told you in my last letter we had hopes then, for he had slept from 3 to 7 o'clock. Bendor has been wonder- fully brave. On Thursday night he took the chair at a meeting for a few minutes and explained why he had to leave it and go home. Shelagh has been wonderful in the sick-room and Benny has buoyed her up between-whiles. Everything that could be done to save him, was done. He suffered hardly at all : indeed, I think not at all. He was an extraordinarily brave little boy, never complaining and talking a little to his father and mother. Sibell told me this morning that two days ago when they were only anxious Shelagh talked of you and wanted to hear from you. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. 5 p.m. Thanks for dear telegram. I walked with dear Benny to choose the little grave this afternoon. The funeral is at 12 o'clock on Monday. Sibell has told Ursula. EATON, CHESTER, February I4th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Your letter I am told- was a great help to dear Shelagh. I have not seen her. The terrible side of it strikes her. Benny is quite wonder- ful just the simplest courage and great kindness. Darling Cuckoo arrived about 7 o'clock last night. TO CHARLES T. GATTY 341 After dinner S. S. Cuckoo, Lettice and I went over. S. S. had arrayed the little boy's coffin, under a white soft silk pall, in the chancel of the chapel here, with six silver candle-sticks, and lilies in silver vases, and boughs of blossoming trees around it. We, with Benny, Colonel Lloyd and Cecil Parker, and no one else, went there, and S. S. read beautiful sentences out of her old books. Then we all manoeuvred to get Benny and Sibell a night's rest. They both slept. This morning Cuckoo and Lettice, went over to Ben and S. S. and I took little Ursula to Bruera Church, and went on to Eaton, and Ursula saw Shelagh. I am now going to take a walk with Benny. The local papers said that he and Shelagh were prostrate. That is not true. Benny without a touch of bitterness or hardness or complaint is as straight as a sword ; just a simple emblem of finely tempered courage. He is quite natural himself only more so. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 708 To Charles T. Gatty 35 PARK LANE W., 20.ii.09 MY DEAR CHARLES, The play I was trying to recall is named ' The Return from Parnassus.' It was acted by the students of St. John's College, Cambridge. The date is uncertain. Arber argues for January of 1602. What a strange thing memory is. In all the rush of the last 8 days I had forgotten what I was doing three weeks ago. But when you asked me the date of this play, I said 1602 ! though I have not thought of that for eleven years. I do hope you will come to luncheon to-morrow, Sunday. You could glance at the passages about this and similar attacks. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 342 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 709 To his Mother 36 PARK LANE, W., February 20th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is long since Bun used to paste ' Press-cuttings ' in a book, and long since I have read them. But I send you these because I believe the debate which ended yesterday was historic. It is sixty and odd years since Disraeli, bidding farewell to Protection, said ' But the dark and inevitable hour will arrive. Then, when their spirit is softened by mis- fortune they will recur to those principles which made England great, and which, in our belief, alone can keep England great. Then too, perhaps, they may remember, but with kindness, those who, betrayed and deserted, were neither ashamed nor afraid to struggle for the good old cause . . . the cause of labour, the cause of the people, the cause of England.' Yesterday, for the first time since then, an effective party, made an effective fight, for that cause. I am glad that I led the attack yesterday. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. I led the attack yesterday. But Austen Cham- berlain led it on Thursday and made a very good speech. 710 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., February 20th, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, I propose going to Charles at Petworth next Saturday, 27th. I may, possibly, run down on Thursday 25th, for a hunt Friday : but must dine with the Speaker, Friday night, 26th. We had a capital debate on Tariff Reform ; and the best of it all the time. People were pleased with my speech. TO HIS FATHER 343 I spoke for one hour and six minutes. Austen Chamber- lain made a good speech the first day. Arthur was very good in his philosophic way. To win in the country it is necessary to attack more directly the position of the Free Traders and to state facts and figures, which other speakers can use. It is that which puts up a fight all along the line. Unless that is done the untrue assertions that there is more unemployment and dearer living in protected countries impose upon the working-men. Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 711 To his Father NEWLANDS MANOR, LYMINGTON, HANTS, Monday, February 22, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, I ran down here to-day to give dear Bendor some exercise. We took a long walk by the cliffs opposite the Needles and then had a gallop on the sands in which dear Shelagh joined. Our principal exer- cise consisted in making the horses go into the sea. They pretended to be frightened by the waves, but, in the end, enjoyed their bathing very much. I just proposed myself and they jumped at it, I am stay- ing the night and return early to-morrow for the Irish Amendment. Give my love to dear Pug [Pamela Preston], My speech was a success. A good many people said it was the best I have made in this Parliament. I prepared it in the early hours, six to eight of Thursday, and seven to eight o'clock of Friday morning. All my day-time was full-up. My chief interest as I wrote to Mamma was that this is the first time, since Peel broke the party, that ' a party ' have acted together for safe-guarding British employ- ment. The debate has an historic interest and, on our side, was worthy of the occasion. The Government de- fence was weak. Masterman missed the importance of 344 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM the occasion and lost the ' House ' by feeble banter. Lloyd George deliberately shirked speaking for only twenty minutes and Churchill was merely smart. His admission that the, Government might have to take some action in face of the proposed French Tariff gave offence to the ' out and outers ' on his side ; and with reason. For if once they admit that the Tariff reprisals may be less injurious than trusting to the ' Most Favoured Nation *' clause, they are beaten. Their men have been taught to assert the contrary with scornful confidence. They cannot change their tactics now without turning their forces into a mob. There is an instructive letter on the French Tariff in to-day's * Morning Post.' It proves our contention that these Tariffs are designed to attract imports of mainly unmanufactured articles. In this case there is a high duty on wholly manufactured woollens, a low duty on woollen ' threads ' and a rebate^ of 60% even of that, on the export of the finished article. As I put it in a passage not reported the object and, in a large measure, the effect of these Tariffs is to change the contents of the currents hi the vast streams of our Imports and Exports. I hope this frost will go as I may get a day's hunting with Charles 1 at Up Park on Friday come back to dine with the Speaker and return to Petworth Saturday. My horses go there Tuesday. Your loving son, GEORGE. 712 To his Mother 36 PARK LANE, W., Evening, March 31st, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I had a glimpse of dear Minnie to-day, looking her best. I only saw her for a few moments and must have seemed, as indeed I was, ' hardly all there.' I was just ' betwixt and between,' getting out of bed from 1 Lord Lecon field. TO HIS MOTHER 345 chill and temperature and going down to the House to speak on dear old Irish Land Purchase. And what little else there is left of me as a total personality had sped away with S. S. by the 12.10 to see dear Katie and all of them, in the farm house at Woor with dear, beautiful Molly. 1 Now I have a gleam of hope for Molly. S. S. and I couldn't hope much this morning. That 's why she went off to Crewe, to motor out to Katie at the farm. But when I got back here about 9 o'clock I found a good wire from S. S. 4 Better account, hopeful, delighted with flowers.' I had sent a lot of flowers from I. Solompn's. I couldn't do anything, and there was nothing to be said. So I thought that a lot of lovely flowers by special express to the farm would be a little token of companionship and hope and Spring ; just a signal that didn't want an answer. So I was glad to hear that she got them, and liked them. We 've had many a good ride together since, long ago, we jumped the Saighton Drain side by side, when she was a little girl with her hair in a pig-tail, riding ' Oak-apple.' I had that wire to-night, and your excellent wire about dear Papa yesterday, and a glimpse of Perf yesterday morning at 6 o'clock. He had come up overnight to ride a gallop at Kenley. I 'd had a real old-fashioned feverish night only 101 with a draft every three hours. And to hear the boisterous splashing in the bath at 6 a.m. and again, after the ride, at 10, ' bucked me up ' and made me feel that we are all, really, eternally young and endowed with everlasting hope. So I reversed the treatment from febrifuge to tonic ; settled to speak to-day in the House ; settled not to attempt Huddersfield on Friday ; settled not to dream of Dread- noughts and Tariff Reform, and Irish Land, and illness, and accidents, as one wonderful problem, of which I had once known the simple solution ; unaccountably forgotten, and wearily pursued through a feverish night. All that broke and dissolved in the showers of Perf's splashing. And, since his bath, I had your excellent news of Papa and a glimpse of Minnie and the better news of Molly ; and 1 Lady Crichton. 346 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM have spoken for one hour and five minutes on Irish Land ; and none the worse. Indeed all I have to do is to stick to my resolution not to try Huddersfield on Friday. Perhaps that would be tempting ' little gods ' too far. The ' little gods ' have been very busy with us lately. If we beat them back a bit by our eternal youth and everlasting hope : we must not therefore presume. We must be modest and mean and go to bed as I do now. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. All this is only about our own fears and hopes. The great fact of the last three days is that Arthur has been glorious. In his speeches Monday, in the House ; Tuesday, to 10,000 in Agricultural Hall, Islington ; to-day in the Guildhall, he has captured the Empire for Naval supremacy and Tariff Reform ; and now holds those two issues, and all the true forces of the Empire in his hand. Tell this to Papa. We have won the race. But the course is not finished. We have only to think now of ' staying the course.' So, I repeat, I am going to bed. 713 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., Tuesday, April 27th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I shall love to stay at ' 44 ' this summer to be with you and dear Papa. I shall not be living there till after Whitsuntide. But as I go out with Yeomanry on May 9th, it would simplify my arrange- ments if I can send my things to wait for me there, before that date. I was ' shot at short notice ' to be the ' Guest of the evening ' of the Tariff Reform Committee in the House of Commons last night. There was a very full attendance. Edmund Talbot was in the chair. I spoke for thirty or forty minutes. Nobody knows which it was ! I am rarely other than displeased with my own speeches ; and TO HIS MOTHER 347 very rarely pleased. Last night was all right. When that happens it puts me in better heart. And in a quiet way lots of people showed that they wanted to * say sorry.' Some of the extreme Ulster-men attended. People do notice things. F. E. Smith spoke and said that no one had done such platform-work. He said one thing which I would only quote, quite privately, to you, but which I own did please me, and pleases me still : * For three years wherever the clouds were darkest, there you found Wyndham fighting.' Well ! well ! But how silly that makes it all. But the point of the evening was that I converted a ' sinner ' ; like a methodist at a revival. Sir Philip Magnus, who has been little better than a free-fooder, got up after my speech and ' testified.' He said I had convinced him and that, henceforward, he chucked Cobden and would go bald-headed for Tariff Reform. To-morrow night I have to play on a * queer-pitch.' I am the ' Guest of the evening ' at the Militia Club with Lord Wemyss as the other and Duke of Bedford in the Chair. Whew ! There could not be a more difficult moment or a more difficult audience, or a more difficult and deaf ally. Very well. I really love ' cramped odds.' And these are so cramped and exorbitant, that preparation is out of the question. I mean to say just what I think ; after due warning that, as things are, no sane man can do more than brood over the waters of chaos, like the Holy Ghost. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 714 To his Mother 36 PARK LANE, W., April 30th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I send you back something that belongs to you. I made a good speech on Wednesday no reporters to the Militia Club with Bedford in the Chair. Yesterday, Thursday, I played Polo in the morning 348 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM at Wembley Park and enjoyed the game. My side won by seven to three. Guy, Minnie, and little George lunched, then I raced off to the Marjory Eden Wedding at 2 o'clock, and on to the Budget at 3. The Budget t O my eye ' Banbury's description is the best : * The maddest Budget ever introduced.' I hope dear Papa will not permit it to bother him. From a Tariff Reform point of view I am glad it is so mad ; and will pay up cheerfully hi the knowledge that it will make more converts to our cause than any number of speeches. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 715 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., May 13th, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, I was delighted to hear from you. Tunes are pretty bad, but there will soon be a reaction. I came up from our camp on Salisbury Plain to put in two fights on the Budget, and return this afternoon. Harold Cox made a brilliant speech yesterday. I will send it to you. The Government meant to force through the Income Tax resolution last night. But we frightened them to bed soon after 12.30. We expected an all-night sitting. The Yeomanry have turned out in great strength. Our old Brigade, Cheshire under Arthur Grosvenor, Shropshire under Lord Kenyon, Denbighshire under Parry, and a battery of Artillery is encamped at the far end of Salisbury Plain between Ell Barrow and Urchfont Clump. I shall motor over to see you some afternoon soon. It is very cold at night, but glorious in the morning. The Downs are covered with cowslips. Each of the three regiments is between 430 and 450 in strength a big Brigade. It is a fine performance of these farmers to have left their work and travelled all night with the horses in cattle trucks. I set a tactical scheme for two squadrons of Cheshire TO HIS MOTHER 349 against two squadrons of Shropshire which was to be fought to-day. I shall be interested to know what has happened. Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 716 To his Mother THE BELL INN, \WLYE, So. WILTS, May 16th, 1909, 10.30 p.m. MOST DARLING MAMMA, My little adventure is not yet over, but, so far, I have enjoyed it, every minute. What with my having to master the mysteries of a free-wheel and our both having to walk up the hills, it became appar- ent to me that I was delaying Fletcher, and not improbable that I should not stay the whole course. So, when we <^,me to face the long climb up to Great Ridge from the old house at the far end of Chicklade Bottom, we made another plan. By ' facing the climb,' I mean seeing what it was going to be like from the high ground beyond Hindon. Seeing that, we decided that he should push on to the Camp and send a motor back. By that time we reckoned that young Mallet had not succeeded in getting Jack Bennett's motor, or the other visionary one in Shaftesbury. And this, indeed, is now confirmed ; for it is past 10.30. I, for my part, undertook to get to Wylye and wait near the Church. The motor from the camp (when it comes) is to blow its horn. I gave him the map and matches and off he went, like an arrow down the steep hill to the old house at the far end of Chicklade Bottom. After sweeping down I could see him, in the failing light, walking up the long hill to Stockton Wood. By then, I had so far mastered the art of free-wheeling, that I got the whole way down that hill without dismount- ing or being run away with. Then I walked up the long pull to Stockton Wood, sweating at every pore. I remounted and shot through the gloom of Stockton Wood. Having experienced some difficulty in catching the pedal, when it was too dark to see it ; and bethinking 350 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM me that discretion was the better part of valour, I dis- mounted before the very steep part of the descent into the Wylye valley. But I ran most of the way down. As I came to the Railway Bridge over the Salisbury to Bath line, I met a youth and asked if there was any inn near the Church. He recommended the Bell Inn, and here I am. I got here at 9.20 and explained my plight to the Land- lord. He was very sympathetic. I blessed the House of Lords for throwing out the Licensing Bill, and considered in how much deeper a hole I should have been had they passed it. The Inn was full of good fellows and village matrons, ' burring ' away in broad Wiltshire ; all quite sober, civil, kindly and companionable. But mine host impressed by the advent of a real * Bona fide ' traveller and detecting my foreign accent, showed me into a little parlour like a ship's cabin. The walls are enlivened by the old coloured prints of the * First Steeple Chase on record ' ; the one in which officers ride by moon- light in their night-shirts a congenial theme, and opposite me hangs an old coloured print of Wellington and Nelson. He prepared me a supper of fried eggs, broiled slabs of uncured ham, bread, cheese and beer. This was English and quite wonderfully good. It made me feel what a good country England has been, and might be, but for the absurd people who have never lived in the country. The clock is now striking eleven rather fast I make it six minutes to eleven. I calculate that Fletcher cannot get to camp before eleven. I hope he is getting there now. If so I may be relieved at midnight. ' But then, again, No.' The chauffeurs may be in Lavington. They may miss their way. But Fletcher will ' get ' somehow and then, they will know where I am. At worst I shall sleep on the horse- hair sofa and push on at dawn. It takes many off-chances, coming off with a vengeance, to get benighted in England in the xxth century, even on TO HIS MOTHER 351 Salisbury Plain. But this was once a common experience. It is by no means an unpleasant one. I have six illustrated volumes of the ' Russian War ' with steel engravings of Canrobert, Raglan, Lord Cardigan ; the battle of Inkerman, the charge of the Light Brigade. It is prefaced with a synopsis of Russian history, which I have read. I have also read a capital old guide book to Stonehenge, published in 1802. On the title page are four lines from the prize essay of T. S. Salmon. They are very good of their kind. * Wrapt in the veil of Time's unbroken gloom, Obscure as death, and silent as the tomb ; Where cold oblivion holds her dusty reign Frowns her dark pile on Sarum's lonely plain.' This invaluable work contains the ' Various Conjectures ' of Geoffrey of Monmouth Giraldus Cambrencis Camden Jones Charlton Aubrey Sammes Speed Stukeley Wood Smith Wansey Maton King Hoare Britton Browne Weaver Duke Thumham You read them all and take your choice. I have read them all. Browne takes my fancy. He sees in Stonehenge an ' Antediluvian Creation,' and traces the exact manner in which the Flood swept up to the Stones and by guttering through them made certain little channels in the ground between them. The next man on the list, Weaver, was a poor sceptic. He thought these slight depressions were made by all the people who had walked and ridden between them for so 352 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM many years. I shall finish this when (?) I hear the horn, or before starting on my bicycle at Daybreak . . . One a.m. ! has just struck, I have been half asleep on the sofa. Shall now go quite asleep in a bed if I can get one and bicycle on at Dawn. Your loving son, GEORGE. 717 To his Father 44 BELGRAVK SQUARE, S.W., May 27th, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, We are just off to Paris. I am scribbling this in a hurry to tell you that I have heard glowing accounts of Percy's soldiering. (1) On Monday I sat next Lady Halifax at Lettice's dinner-party. Lady H. is related to Sutton, 2nd in command of Perks' battalion. Sutton had told her that Percy was much the best of all the young officers. (2) On Tuesday, at the ' Nulli ' Dinner, Arthur Henniker who commands the 1st Brigade, in the Aldershot Division, with Percy's battalion in it, began talking of him to me. Said he was a very good soldier, that he had employed him as acting Brigade Major ! on some field-days ; that he wanted him to ' gallop ' for him, i.e. be A.D.C., only the present A.D.C. was staying on ; and that Percy ought to try for the ad- jutancy and would make a good one. (3) Colonel * Billy ' Lambton, Percy's C.O. also began the same conversation, wanted him to be adjutant, and would help to ' push ' him for A.D.C. All this made me very happy. 1 Billy ' Lambton seemed to think that I should want to take Percy out of the Brigade. I told him that, whilst Percy was free to carve out his own career, I, personally should much prefer him to stick to the Army and should advise him not to enter politics. If they do put him on the staff of the Brigade, whilst at Aldershot, he will get an early insight into the interest of soldiering and so not be ' choked off ' by the ten or twelve years of regimental routine and guard mounting. TO HIS MOTHER 353 I should love to see him galloping on manoeuvres. They all say he has a true gift for soldiering. If that is so, and he leaves the Army young, he will regret it, no matter how successful he may be at anything else. Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Nelly's * Ball was a triumphant success. I brought on Arthur Balfour from the House, and took Lady Salisbury to supper. Chang and Manenai played up and ' all was gas and gaiters.' 718 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., June 8th, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I have booked 24th for your dear birthday and shall look forward to it. We had a great time in France Chartres, Fontainebleau, Meudon, St. Germain, Meridon, and all the galleries and museums. I enjoyed it very much and feel very well. Tuesday at Fontainebleau was one of the most beautiful days I remember. The sun was hot and had exhaled all the resin from miles of firs and all the oxygen from billions of leaves, and all the scents of moss and heather, and a light evening breeze blew all that incense through the cool caverns under beech-trees one hundred feet high. In the Cluny Museum I saw a treasure after our own hearts, three crowns of Gothic Kings offered at Toledo in about 670 A.D. and dug up not many years ago. This, again, shews that legends and Poets are always in advance of discovery. For all the business of the Romance of old Spam was written long before the archaeologist un- earthed the crowns. Hanging from the lower rim of the largest is a fringe of Gothic letters, each suspended by a separate chain. They say in Lathi that RECCES- w i N T H o s (Recceswinthus) offered his crown to the 1 Mrs. Grahame Stewart. VOL. II. Z 354 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Lord. I used to love the rugged end of their names, especially the Princess Amala-swinthus, which worked in the God-descended Amals, whom Kipling introduces in 4 Pook's Hill.' And now I have seen their crowns. In the Louvre, I was disgusted to see the sword of Charle- magne which you shewed me when I was ten years old, re-labelled xnth Century. Pooh ! Your most loving son, GEORGE. 719 To his Cousin, Gerald Campbell 35 PARK LANE, W., Friday, 29 July '09 MY DEAR GERALD, Many thanks for the book. 1 I shall read it with deep interest. But, now, about a few pp. of introduction. It depends on time. When must you have them ? I must finish the Session before I give a thought to anything else, say to 17 August. Then I must rest for a fortnight, so that I could not write, and revise, before September 20th or so at earliest. If I wrote, it would be to say that all of us first cousins have owed to our mother or father, as the case may be, a love of beauty and fun, a quick, almost eager interest in Nature, an alertness and sense of humour, etc., which goes back undoubtedly to Grandmamma, to whom our parents owed it in turn. Then I could put in any- thing we have and my visit with my mother to Athlone. Then with some traditions the little French nursery songs, a presumption that Grandmamma, who lived with Pamela, imbibed it from her, and so by a slenderer hypo- thesis to Madame de Genlis ; with her love of nature, water-colours, books for children and general Rousseau- ism. To sum up a tradition, handed on as traditions mainly are by mothers. Your affectionate cousin, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 1 ' Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald,' by Gerald Campbell. TO HIS FATHER 355 720 To his Mother ST. FAQAN'S CASTLE, CARDIFF, Vjth August 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is splendid to hear such good accounts of dear Papa after his journey. I am taking my week's holiday, prescribed by A. J. B. and am out all day ; riding with Phyllis before breakfast and playing good lawn-tennis with Plymouth and the two boys. My speech was a success at Plymouth * the town Ply- mouth.' I will send you the ' Western Morning News '- I think it is called which has a long, but not very good report and a leading article. I spoke for one hour and seven minutes. Now I am just filling myself with air and reading Chaucer and Pickwick. We are in for a very long fight of two or three years in Politics. ' And whether it is worth taking so much trouble to learn so little as the charity boy said of the Alphabet ' I do not know. But it must be done, and done well. And there is no need to trouble further than to see that it is done well, and stuck. I shall run down to Clouds often in the Autumn. Give all my love to dearest Papa. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 721 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., August 26th, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, I was just on the point of pro- posing myself to Clouds from Monday next 30th to Wed- nesday morning. I had not realised that Wednesday was St. Partridge's day. But the temptation, now that I am aware of it, is irresistible. It would be pedantry to return in the morning. If we could begin to shoot fairly early, say about 10.30. I would catch an afternoon train and 356 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM go straight to the House from Waterloo in plenty of time for an all-night sitting. I am ' holding the fort ' all this week over the Irish Land Bill with a little army of thirty ! to support me, whilst the others, Arthur, A. Chamberlain, Prettyman, Lyttelton etc. are resting and refreshing themselves. So I shall make no scruple if I can get to the House before dinner on Wednesday. Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. The Budget does not come on before Wednesday. On Monday and Tuesday we have ' Town Planning ' of which I know nothing. 722 To his Sister, Madeline CLOUDS, SALISBURY, 31st August '09. MOST DARLING MANENAi, I loved your dear letter which reached me here this morning. I am glad that you love me. It is. a great rest to feel love going on, when one has so much dull work to do. I spent Sunday at St. Giles with Cuckoo : such a funny mixture and delightful of people : Wilfrid Blunt, Poet ; George Milner, Cavalry Colonel ; Boissier, in Navy ; a Chaplain who is a mystic ; Lilah Ormonde, and Froudy ! The children are very dear, and there are many dogs and a cat. I rode before breakfast yesterday, then walked for two hours with Aileen now Lady Ardee Dunraven's daughter. Then we dragged a pool and took out 61 trout and put them in the lake. Then after infinite delays, Cuckoo, Tony, the little boy and girl and I started to ride at 4 to 5, instead of 4. Then we waited for the children at Hurley Gap, and said good-bye ; then Cuckoo's hat wouldn't work in the wind, and had to be taken off ; then we lost the track and had to jump ; then Cuckoo dropped her pearl-headed hatpin ; then long good-byes at the crest of the Downs ; so that it was 20 to 8 before I arrived ! EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HIS WIFE 357 I am much interested in your Ramsgatc house and shall try to get there. All love to you, darling. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. P.S. Papa is MUCH better. 723 Extract from a letter to his Wife STAN WAY, WINCHCOMBE, September 23rd, 1909. It has, of course, been impossible for me to write during manoeuvres. But I got your letters. I never have had so much joy and interest and pleasure. To you I can say that the great point for me was to be in Percy's life for four days. I wish I could explain. But it almost frightens me to write even to you of my supreme joy in seeing him realise and eclipse all my own dreams when I was his age. It seems silly, and is silly, to write or speak about any- thing of one's own that is obviously all one could wish and far beyond one's wildest hopes. So, just to indicate The 1st Brigade of the 1st. Aldershot Division is the flower of our Army. Arthur Henniker in the Coldstream with me commands it. The Brigade has four battalions Coldstream, Grenadierc, West York, and S. Wales Borderers. Billy Lambton commands my old Coldstream battalion and that is, by universal consent, the best of the four battalions, in the best Brigade. But, besides the four battalions, there are three batteries of Artillery ; two companies of Mounted Infantry ; scouts ; transport of 1st and 2nd line. Now Percy knows and is loved and trusted by everyone from the Brigadier, Brigade Major, four Battalion Commanders, down to the Mounted Infantry and the men who drive the Transport waggons. He is the winged mercury of the whole show. The Brigade Major, Gathorne Hardysaid by all to be the best young Staff Officer volunteered to me on the first day that Percy was the best Aide-de-Camp he had 358 ever known. And I saw it all. He is as quick as light- ning and quite calm always. Understands in a moment, is off like a flash, explains quietly, and makes everyone understand from Colonels down to Transport drivers. And also arranged and ran all our messing. He never tires and after all the marching and fighting, waits at table, like the Squire in Chaucer, on the officers attached to the Head Quarter Staff ; and cracks his little jokes, and leaves his food to look after the last waggon. And comes back all smiles to eat the last bit of cold meat and sleep in his boots and spurs. They all love him. And all the swells only want him to go on, and up. And no one is jealous of him. He looks the part, too. On Tuesday our hardest day he rode both his horses to a stand and then got on mine, Cardinal, and flashed all over the country, jumping brooks and rails to extricate our two Brigades, that were out-numbered and crumpled up. That was a grand day. I went into the attack with my old battalion, and before I knew where I was there I found myself ' in the old prank ' I rode out and spotted a flank attack and got two companies and the maxim on it. When owing to the 2nd brigade wavering, the 1st was left, I admired Billy Lambton's coolness and skill. But we were out-numbered by 3 to 1. We were crushed back into a village called Deanfield. We scraped up three companies of Grenadiers and shoved them in at the critical moment. But we were almost surrounded. Billy asked me to get a message to Sutton who had four companies further back. I nearly got shot by one of our own guns ! Such was the pandemonuim. But I got back, dismounted of course, borrowed a bicycle for some way, and then by running and boring through the fences, got the message through. We got three battalions out of the four into a splendid second position and staved off the disaster, and thus by ' Containing ' as the experts say the superior force against us, pre- vented the enemy from getting back across the Isis in tune. So our left division the other three Brigades carried Farringdon. EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HIS WIFE 359 But all this is gibberish unless I explained the whole of the strategy and tactics which is out of the question. Taking it by the days, I left here at three o'clock on Sunday with Billy Lambton and Percy. We joined the 1st brigade at the outskirts of Cheltenham. We were to march at 4 a.m. So we packed everything and slept on the ground. We got up at three, breakfasted at 3-15, marshalled the column, with advance, flank, and rear guards and stepped out as the clocks of Cheltenham struck 4. We had a long anxious flank march. But, thanks to the splendid work of the Household Cavalry Brigade we did our 28 miles far more for the flank - guard and others who had to go back with guns to repell attacks on our rear. Yet, when \ve halted at dusk, the men swung in singing. The marching of the Infantry has been the chief feature. Everyone and especially the French officers talk of nothing else. Just as we had settled to cold pies and dinner for the men there was a slight night attack. But it came to nothing. We slept in a lovely orchard. I lay on the ground next Perf and watched the stars and slept and woke feeling twenty years younger. Then, Tuesday, came our hard fight all day and retirement whilst our 2nd division carried Faringdon on the other side of the river. On the third day as our Brigade was in reserve I put on a ' neutral ' badge and rode all over the battle field with Ivor Maxie who was umpiring. It was most inter- esting. The battle-front was only four miles long. On Tuesday, the battle was ten miles long. I rode every- where, and had interesting conversations with Duke of Connaught, Lord Roberts, and Repington, the ' Times ' correspondent. At the end I went back to see my brigade deliver the final attack. It was superb. But to cut a long story short, the moral of it all was put as only the French can put things, by a French General, at Dinner with our Divisional General Grierson. (I ought to say that the last attack was by three Brigades of which ours was one though the best.) 360 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM The French General said, * Your attack was excellent, like this glass of port (holding it up in his hand) it only wants refilling. What is one glass of port ? You want three or four.' The keen interest of the French officers in our capacity is a significant symptom. They all believe that Germany will attack us within three years. And now Good-night. I have forgotten all about Politics and shall resume them with a fresh mind and exuberant vitality. This is a ridiculous letter. For it is impossible to explain my pleasure without inflicting a lecture on strategy and tactics etc., etc. And besides, all that there were the dawns and sunsets, the lovely English land, the old churches, the hedge-row elms, the stubble fields, Kelms- cote, the country-folk and through all that mellow peace the humming maze of men, and horses, and bicycles, and guns and field-telegraphs and heliographs and sig- nalling, and the healthy scent of sweat and energy directed by cool intellect. 724 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 30.xi.09. MY DEAR P. H., If you were here you would send me to bed. As you are not here I shall ' compromise ' with a line, to say that you must come to Saighton before Christmas. I should like to sit up and write fully on the problems you unfold. But I mustn't to-night, i.e. the Resolution. I was deeply grieved for Lady Thomson and am going to write to her myself; but not until the rush is over. That is not because I flinch from writing such letters. I have been very close to great sorrow during the last year. It is because it is not natural to say these things at all, unless one can give oneself for an hour to the friend who has suffered. Just now I am * in the " whirl " but not of it.' TO PHILIP HANSON 361 I made a good speech for Professor Hewins near Bradford on the 18th ; a speech which disappointed me, rather badly, for Mark Sykes, on the 20th ; a good speech but not quite the focus at Leith on Friday 26th. Then I thought I was bowled out. I woke at 4 a.m. with a raging feverish cold. But I had to start again to get South for a speech at Cheltenham yesterday, 29th. And just for once again I suppose because I was too seedy to worry I did the trick. Last night I made one of the five speeches of my life. I think it was as good as the one I made at Cardiff on ' the just and necessary war ' which you liked in 1900. Why I can only do this when I am ill, I do not know. But although I have still a heavy catarrh and have to speak to-morrow and Friday and Tuesday next it has bucked me up. After Driffield on the 20th I honestly felt in my heart that this platform business was not my game. After last night I feel as honestly that if it comes to me, like that, once in fifty times, I still ought to go on. I was so interested in the psychology of the event, that, before I went to sleep, I counted up my speeches this year. I found that apart from the House, and even such affairs as six nights running (a whole week) of occasional speeches at Dover, I had made 21 speeches in the country since 1st February. Now why, my dear P. H., should the 21st be so much better than all the other 20 ? Was it the cold in my head ? Was it that the archi- tecture of the Town Hall was good and the lighting perfect ? Was it that I had a simple structure which embraced and defined the whole situation ? Or was it a resultant from all these ? Or was it just the luck of the Devil ? I do not know and I do not care. But the happy chance has braced me. I should like to enter into some questions on Lloyd George's Estimates. (i) * Is it a trick ? ' I think so, or, rather, I believe that Lloyd George does not know, and will not learn, what his experts could tell him. 362 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM (ii) Have I a good answer ? See my letter to ' Times ' of 26th. I cannot accuse him of cheating if he says as he does that the paper of 22 October and the paper of November 5 deal with separate matters. I can only say as 1 have that no distinction is drawn, and note as I have for the next round that he has made an egregious blunder over ' Stamps.' I am reserving this for his reply. But he has not replied. (iii) Was I mistaken ? I think not. What I believe to have happened is this : Lloyd George begged his experts to show increases in future years from (a) Land Value Duties, (b) Excise. They refused. But they made the most of everything on October 22. On November 5 they gave a sober ' official ' estimate. I believe, further, that there would be apart from action of the Lords a bad realised deficit next March of from 3,000,000 to 6,000,000, and perhaps more. I believe that the policy of the Government is dictated by the desire to attribute this deficit to the action of the Lords instead of to the financial rottenness of the Budget. These are mere amateur speculations. But they are not shots in the dark. Some things are ascertained or certain, e.g. (a) Death Duties. Charles Morrison cannot die twice in one year. (b) Stamps. Lloyd George is wrong in saying that the existing duties give an increase of 450,000. They give an increase of 250,000. (N.B. That is held in reserve.) (c) Income Tax yielded f of a million less in first 6 months of this year ; in spite of extra 2d. The bulk, no doubt, comes in at the end of the Financial year. But the 2d. has been taken off all dividend warrants and the causes which effect the decrease are operating more widely as time goes on. (d) Much less tobacco is being smoked. Yet he hopes and declares qua (c) and (d) that there will be no decrease below estimates on Income Tax or Tobacco. TO PHILIP HANSON 363 He has only 'owned up' to 1,300,000 on spirits, because that enabled him to gush about Temperance. Celtic Electioneering is his game. Meanwhile much else is happening. The odds against our whining were 10 to 1 two months ago. They are now even money in the City. As a result people are importing for all they are worth to anticipate the Tariff. That is a hard nut for us to crack. In conclusion, I expect that Asquith's Constitutional Agitation, to begin on Thursday, will be lost in (1st) the right of the Electorate to choose between the Budget and Tariff Reform before being committed to either, and (2) practical concern over (a) realised deficit ; (b) collapse of Income Tax, and further collapse of Excise ; (c) further flight of Capital ; (d) the next Naval panic ; (e) disloca- tion of pure Finance (private, not Exchequer) ; (f ) huge Imports creating more unemployment. Last Word on (f) there is a point, viz. : as things are many who receive imports state the value at far below the real cost. It is not an exaggeration to say that the atrocities of modern architecture are due to importing all our stone ' decoration ' from abroad at less than ^ of its cost by the humblest monumental mason. Nor is it an exaggeration to say that the cost of our lowest cost of production is habitually under-stated at the Customs. But enough, enough, and more than enough. The Constitutional question pales before the realities. Either Government will have a bad time next year. Yours ever, G. W. 725 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., 6.xii.09. MY DEAR P. H., Do make a point of coming on the 18th or 17th if you can. I fear I shall have to go to 364 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Dover on the 20th. But, if you come before then, we could travel up together. I said in Yorkshire that there would be a deficit of 6,000,000. I am, therefore, interested to see that the ' Financial Times ' of 3rd inst. says ditto, and even speaks of 7,000,000. I had a good meeting at the Opera House, Tunbridge Wells, on Friday, with an overflow of 900 in the Great Hall. Lloyd George and Winston have I believe manoeuvred for position. But, so far, we are going strong. The public sees the manreuvring and is suspicious of those two gentlemen. The only sensible plan I have ever seen for reforming the House of Lords is, I fear, outside the range of our old friend, practical Politics. It comes from Horatio Bottomley ! He suggests that the H. of C. and H. of L. should each elect one half of the Second Chamber for the duration of a Parliament. The root of the matter is that no Second Chamber, however composed, would pass the kind of Bill that a modern Liberal Government brings in, i.e. a Bill to please one relatively small minority e.g. Licensing Bill, which is passed through the H. of C. by other log-rolling minorities expectant of their turn. If the Liberal Party cannot exist without that, then either there can be no Liberal Party, or no Second Chamber; and if the Liberal Party drive the country into that choice, the country will I think prefer a Second Chamber to the Liberal Party. That is a matter of opinion. I am not certain and no one can be. But that for what it is worth is my view ; and the view of some Liberals. Yours ever, G. W. 726 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, December llth, 1909. MY DEAREST PAPA, It is long since I have written to you, because I have been in the thick of the fight for a TO HIS FATHER 365 good while. Besides ten nights at Dover, I have spoken to big audiences at Idle (for Professor Henins) and Drif- field in Yorkshire, at Leith (which means Edinburgh), Cheltenham, Tunbridge Wells, Constitutional Club, London, on Tuesday, and to a Cheshire Conference on Wednesday. We are doing well. I do not quite like Arthur's Mani- festo to-day. I can explain what I mean by one example. He says, * If we win, we shall do a great deal. If we fail (but I do not think we shall fail) the loss will be appalling.' That is not a verbatim quotation. But it is the order in which he states that part of his Manifesto, parenthesis and all. We, who know him, realise that he has gone a long way to promise victory and rich fruits of victory. But those who do not know him cannot imagine that a General, saying ' once more into the breach, dear Friends, once more,' would put it in that way. They all, anybody but Arthur, would turn the phrases about. Anyone else in his position would say, ' If we fail, the loss is irreparable. But, as we are going to win, let me point out how great the reward of victory will be.' I am surprised at the progress we have made in the last eight weeks. I cannot get excited over it, because I am working so hard, like a man rowing in an eight-oar, or riding a pulling horse in a steeple-chase. I am too intent to fret over victory or defeat. But, for all that, I feel the growing enthusiasm round me. I hardly like to tell you that we have a chance of winning. I will bnly say that, if we don't win this time, we shall knock them out within two years. But many steady- going people now think we may win. If we do, the greatest joy of it all to me far the greatest joy of it will be that you will have seen your own wisdom justified, and that you will receive the amends of a life spent in waiting. If we win I shall insist on a public recognition of the veterans of ' Fair Trade.' I have always remembered what you said at ' 44 ' x soon after Joe's first speech, six years ago, in 1903. You have not been able to follow my adaptations to Arthur's sinuous leading. But now all is 1 44 Belgrave Square. 366 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM plain. The battle is pitched. We have won the South, and the Midlands. We are going to win a little more than we hoped in Scotland, Northumberland and Durham. The belt of territory in which the difference between Victory and Defeat will be decided is Lancashire and Cheshire on the West, and Yorkshire on the East. That is Sarah Battle's green board, and I 'm not ' unbending ' over it. After my speech at the Constitutional Club on Tuesday I came here, and on Wednesday gave a dinner at 7.30 to those who count in these parts. I ' wound them up ' and we are going to have a big campaign, first at Chester, and then on the Cheshire fringe of Lancashire. I speak at Wolverhampton on Wednesday, 15th. Love to darling Mamma. Your devoted son, GEORGE. P.S. Garvin who writes in * The Observer ' was next me when I spoke at the Constitutional Club. He said that he had heard nothing like it since Joe at Newport five years ago. Everybody is angry with the Press for reporting Winston Churchill at length and boycotting us. It does not matter. We are getting the people on our side. 727 To his Sister, Pamela SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 13th December 1909. MOST DARLING PAMELA, 1 I was thinking of you vividly yesterday and to-day. So I was not surprised to find a letter to-night, mysteriously, at 10.30 p.m., and apart from known deliveries of the Post-Master General. Certainly there was no letter at 8 p.m., for I had cleared the decks of all correspondence, before going into action on a big speech to-morrow. I felt vividly that I had not 1 This letter is in answer to one from his sister in which she told him that her little boy had expressed a wish that Death should not be called ' Death ' ; he said he would not mind it so much if it were called ' Hig. ' TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 367 touched you for long. And that, of course, was you touching me. It is called Hig. And, let me add, with people like David and me, never talk of the c Grave.' We say * Poobles.' In the Hymnal we shall edit, you will read O Hig, where is thy sting ? Where 's Poobles' victory ? We know Hig and Poobles, and don't worry over them. I dislike Joseph. I hate the name and I hate the thing, as Mr. Gladstone used to say of Coercion. The name has in these days been redeemed by the purpose and tragedy of Chamberlain's life and, more so, by the dim public recog- nition of both. But the original Joseph is tiresome with his coat of many colours, and tin cup in the corn sacks, and as I think congenital hesitation over all problems, including ' la pauvre Madame Potiphar.' He was a smug fellow. But when David conies ' to wearing your soul instead of your body,' he dives deep with his little fingers into green wounds. It is the frayed souls for whom forgive- ness is begged by Christ. The spotted souls are admitted into Heaven as curiosities, like cameleopards. But the frayed souls are treasured there, like the sere manuscripts of Poets, and dinted armour, and old gold rings worn to a thread in the sacraments of private tragedies and signet messages that spelt the life and death of nations. And now for my dear little Clare. I long to see her. Let her stop here 18th to 20th. I must to Dover on the 20th. But that Saturday to Monday she would find here Sibell, Perf, self, Mahaffy and Hanson. We should be talking about Greek Influence and Hunting. It is my only lull in this whirlpool of Politics. Perhaps in spite of all you say she might return to hunt herself when the battle is over in the last week of January or first week of February. But she would like that Sunday of books, and horses to feed (8 lovely hunters) and dear dogs. Mahaffy's last book on Greek Influence is by far the best thing he has done and a good book for Clare or you or me to 368 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM read. It is so good and cool ! Just a perfect pool to bathe in, with none of the mud of forest pools and none of the clamour of the ocean. It has only the seclusion of woodland haunts and the salt freshness of the main. So send little Clare here on Saturday. Even if I have to work many hours, she will grasp the place and come back to read and hunt and be a little dear one in my life. I have a gap for her to fill. I have been speaking a great deal and have to speak very often. But to-day I had two hunts of 1 hour and 1| hours with Bendor and Perf. I loved it. I sweated through everything and forgot Tariff Reform, and my flesh was made new like the flesh of a little child. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 728 To his Mother and Father SAIGHTON, December 23rd, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, AND DEAREST PAPA, 1 must send you one line of love to wish you both a Merry Christmas and happy New Year. I have been working hard on the Platform in this fight ; and must go on till the end. But at the back of my head and in all my heart I am always thinking of you. The Latin Epilogue of the Westminster Play in to-day's 4 Times ' pleased me. As I told Chang in my letter to her I was gratified in a vain way by finding my tag about the Dreadnoughts. ' We want eight and we won't wait 'in that Burlesque epitome of the year ; as thus : ' nos poscimus octo naves, nee mora sit ' ' We demand eight ships, and let there be no delay.' But the last couplet might well be inscribed or carved in the Hall of Clouds, with the date Xmas, 1909. I write it longways on the next page, with a free rendering. TO HIS MOTHER 369 XMAS 1909 Interea, quicquid mutato erit ordine rerum Mutatum, iiobis fioreat alma domus. Meanwhile, whate'er of change shall be in all established things For us may our dear family renew eternal springs. Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE. P.S. Or would you prefer in the second line : f May this dear house revive for us perpetual flourishings ! ' 729 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, Christmas, 1909. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am so delighted to hear that dearest Papa is better. And I am amused by your letter asking for tips on a Hunt Breakfast. The Christmas sideboard, somewhat fortified, as for example cold Turkey, a Ham, a large game, or meat, pie, and developed into sandwiches and cake, with drinks, Port and Cherry Brandy, is all and more than enough. Some of the farmers are hungry and, if they come from far, return for a back- hander at luncheon about 2.30 if there has been sport in the morning which brings the hounds back to Clouds. Percy is taking two beautiful horses, * C. B.' and ' Admira- tion,' the pride of his stud. I wish I could come, but it is not possible. On Tuesday 28th I am the speaker at a big Demonstration in the Skating-Rink at Chester with Benny in the Chair ; and on Thursday again at Hale, in the Altrincham Division, near the boundary of Cheshire and Lancashire. The belt across England of Lancashire and Cheshire on the West, and Yorks on the East, is the debatable land where Victory or Defeat will be decided. We shall win in London and the South, * it is here that the battle is fought.' And, more by token, if I was not speaking in Cheshire I should be speaking somewhere else. VOL. II. 2 A 370 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Now that my troubles are over I will tell you what a funny Christmas day I have had. At 9.30 I started in a taxi to Chester and had a big molar tooth with three fangs hauled out under laughing gas. After that I slept most of the morning, ate as I have not eaten for a week and slept the whole afternoon. The relief is beyond words. There was a chronic abscess at the roots of the fangs and I have not slept or eaten for pain since last Sunday. I travelled with that to Dover last Monday, spoke one hour and twenty minutes, made two speeches Tuesday and two Wednesday, travelled back Thursday, went to Dentist three times at Dover, once in London on way back and again yesterday at Chester. They would not pull it out. The modern Dentist, thinking of his profes- sional pride and his pocket, never will pull out a tooth. But yesterday evening I struck and insisted on the thing being done at 10 o'clock this morning. If there had been a free fortnight I might have stuck to it longer. But with speeches this week and continuously after it was an intolerable prospect. In any case I was right, for, with an abscess, I should only have had weeks of pain and pro- bably made myself ill. Now it is over. I send the little quotation from the Westminster Epilogue. You can stick it in the book as an outward sign of my inward presence with you and dearest Papa. It is strange to think that by the end of January we shall know whether we are men or mice. Then, whatever may have happened, I shall be able to come and see you and dearest Papa. The election will be as great a relief to the country as having my tooth out is to me. May the issues be as happy, for this Budget is an abscess gnawing away at the nerves of England. You must make Percy parade on ' Admiration ' so that Papa can see him from a window. He makes a good picture and is the most delightful companion for me when- ever I get an odd day's hunting. We had some good rides together a week ago. He is quite the ' Star ' of the hunt here, and leaves his Papa behind. All love to dearest Papa and you. Your most loving son, GEORGE. TO HIS MOTHER 371 730 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 2nd, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Just a line to say that the two Cheshire meetings were successful. After them on Friday and yesterday I had two excellent days hunting with Percy and Benny and sweated out all the remains of tooth-ache and cold. I have just sorted my books and papers for Dover after writing my address to the Electors. So here we are 4 swept and garnished ' and ready for the seven devils. S. S. and I go to the Burlington Hotel, Dover, to-morrow. Your loving son, GEORGE. 731 To his Mother HOTEL BURLINGTON, DOVER, January 9th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, As a Sunday night 4 treat ' I will write to you and dearest Papa a little line of love and news. It is a treat not to be speaking ! The general result of the whole battle interests me more than my own little tactical combat here. Of the whole result I have said for some time that we should win 130 seats. But now I am more sanguine. At the same time we must admit that the 4 experts ' were never more at variance. As one man says in to-day's ' Observer ' from a majority of 200 for the government, to a majority of 200 for the opposition, anything is possible. My problem here is that, last time, in 1906, I fought a ' carpet-bagger ' who annoyed everybody. So that many liberals abstained and some, I believe, voted for me. There also was a general feeling in the Town that they wanted to ' back ' me after my resignation and ' know the reason why,' etc. 372 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM This time my opponent is a very good fellow, Montague Bradley, about my age, Colonel of the Territorial Artillery, Chairman of the Liberal Party, son of the old Chairman, solicitor to half the undertakings in the place, and a rela- tion by blood or marriage of all the Liberal Party, also a nonconformist and benefactor of Chapels, etc. We get little help from our three conservative papers, whose only idea of contest is to ask me for money. On the other hand, we have capital meetings. I spoke four nights last week and also to three open-air meetings, the Railway Works, Iron Works, and Brewery. I speak all five nights next week, and in the daytime, to Harbour Works, Paper Mills, and the * Shore Force,' that is the porters who handle the continental goods. S. S. is working like a beaver. Also Miss King is can- vassing, and Jenny, SibelPs maid, and Arthur, my valet. He came in flushed with triumph the day before yester- day, saying, ' I Ve got one * as if he had caught a fish. His method is not to argue, to shew the picture of the Graves in the Transvaal, with the names of dear Wiltie 1 and David Airlie on them. Our old Friends are all to the front. There are specially Mrs. Rhodes and ' Snowball,' the hostess of a rather rowdy public -house and a costermonger, who have a special devotion to Sibell and wring our hands before and after the meetings. I only ' claim ' to win by 700. But I shall do better, I hope. The * mob ' and the ' children ' are fond of us. Talking of my opponent, I wonder if he is a relation of the Bradley who taught me Latin in the little room next the drawing-room at Deal Castle ? I wanted a rest to-day. So we went off to Deal, darling, in a taxi. I rather dreaded it. For it is 36 years since I was there. They have built up to the Castle. But it is there untouched and unspoilt. The bridge, the dint in the door from Cromwell's cannon-ball, the archway which you painted, the bastions, the guns, the prints of sailors, the fig-trees in the moat. 1 Marquis of Winchester. TO HIS FATHER 373 I was flooded with memories of the boat the old sailor made for me, cricket beyond the wooden bridge, seats with publicfc on them, and the K painted over to suit modern spelling, the hard-bake shop, the sports of the Marines at the barracks, Sandown Castle blown up and lost in the sea Shellness dear old Godfrey, and George Sumner, and Lord Clanwilliam himself who took me to Isel after my first term at Chittendens. I went into your bedroom, and there, on the walls, were the photographs of Albert Durer's Knight (Sintram) and Titians. They carried an echo from those days. Nothing was gone except the broken shell-bomb in the drawing- room ; a thing like a shattered bit of iron piping. I remember, or have invented as children will that its explosion had killed Lord Clanwilliam's eldest son. Is that memory of a fact, or memory of a child's imagination ? Now I am four years older than at the last Election and twenty years older than when I was first elected. I am an ' institution ' : and yet, my immortal soul feels the same boy's soul, and the same youth's soul. As I looked at the moat I felt my old dread of earwigs, and in the little room could see the page of the Eton 4 Latin Grammar ' from which I learnt * Amo ' ' Amas ' ' Amat.' Anyway * Amo ' I love you, darling Mamma, with all love to dearest Papa. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 732 To his Father DOVER, llth January 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, Your letter is cheering over our prospects in Wilts. I should be particularly pleased if we won Johnny Fuller's seat, not from any ill-will to him, but because it is that type of liberal which most misleads. If Johnny Fuller, with a stake in the country, an officer in the Yeomanry, playing polo, etc., connives at socialism and bolsters up Free Trade, it is not easy to convince Mr. Jones the solicitor, or Mr. Smith the builder, or Tom, 374 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Dick, and Harry, that we are being beaten in manufacture and threatened with defeat in War. The other class, who do even more harm, are the conserva- tives who merely amuse themselves. I prefer the cackling alarmist. It was the geese who saved the Capitol. We are doing well here to the best of my belief. But there was never so uncertain an Election over the country generally. Sibell is working like a Trojan. I have no view on the general result, beyond this. Two months ago I said we should win 130 seats. Now, I believe we shall do better. Of five years hence I can speak with more confidence. I am confident that by then we shall have a large majority for Tariff Reform and Defence ; unless ' absit omen '- we have been wiped out by Germany and social discord before the five years are up. Your loving son, GEORGE. 733 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., January 16th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, You are still asking about five years hence. I agree ; that is my point. My view on it is that in five years time two things will have happened. The ' English ' will have realised that they must resume their part of deciding policy. They will deny the right of the Irish, Welsh, and Scotch to deflect Imperial policy because of Home Rule, Disestablishment, or a belated regard for Mr. Gladstone. The ' English ' will use all constitutional means and, if if need be, extra-constitutional means. (2) In the same way the ' English ' will take note of organised ' Labour ' and deny its right to deflect Imperial policy. Against (1) the Nationalist and (2) the class forces of separation they will assert their own qualities of (1) Indi- vidual independence and (2) Imperial consolidation. For these two objects Tariff Reform is essential. TO HIS FATHER 375 I am quite sure of the result five years hence. If I knew I was going to die next week I should die a happy man in the certainty that our English love of personal indepen- dence and Imperial inter-dependence was going to triumph. In this present acute controversy I see by the first day's results that candidates of definite personality win. For example Tommy Bowles beats Eddy Cadogan. The new House of Commons will be much more like the House of Commons you knew than any we have had for many years. We shall have the best ' men.' To descend from these generalisations, the Central Office (and A. J. B.) will perceive the absurdity of fighting with Candidates called ' Profumo ' or * Bellilios.' After all the ' shouting and the wreaths ' at Dover I felt lost in London this afternoon. But I met Timmy [Winchester] at the Carlton, and Sibell and I dined quietly with him and Tossy. Timmy has made big speeches about the country, and even in Wales has done good work. Why ? Because he, in his way, has studied the question of Tariff Reform. Most of our speakers have not studied it, it takes two years to teach any constituency the elements of the con- troversy between Tariff Reform and the received Free Trade assertions. From that point of view also I conclude that we could not have won the battle in this election. But I also am sure that, as study and controversy proceed, we shall win in five years. Personally, I think we shall win in two years. And, by * winning,' I mean that the whole nation will be converted. So, to sum up, whether we win by ten now, or as I expect are beaten by 40, the future is certain and sound. I have said all along that we should win 130 seats. I said this when most people thought we should win nothing. I said it when many people thought we should win by a working majority. And I say it now. 376 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Supposing that turns out to be true, I give the Govern- ment eighteen months, and then am persuaded that we shall win, and be in for twenty years. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Sibell will tell you what the children of Dover were like. They swarmed like bees on our carriage. They were the children of the poorest. But they might, any one of them, have been my child or Bendor's child. The race has not degenerated. It has been cramped and sold to the foreigner. These half -fed, badly clothed, wretchedly poor children, had clear eyes, good features, clean limbs. They were all 4 gentlemen.' They cheered me, and Sibell, and mark this c Mr. Wyndham's coachman ' and ' the old horses that pull us.' I said no word of politics to them. Sibell as a Christian only suggested that instead of hooting the other side (when we passed their strongholds) they should only cheer louder. That puzzled them, for they love conflict. But of their own selves they said from time to tune ' We want a strong Navy,' or * That 's shut because the Germans take away our father's work.' These little ill-fed, clean-bred, English children are my guarantee of the future and my answer to what will happen five years hence. The whole of Dover went mad last night. I had a crowd of 6000 or 8000 shouting themselves into delirium. Even the night before, on Friday, so many got on to the carriage that they broke the front wheel, and S. S. and I walked home arm-in-arm escorted by thousands of the poorest people in England, who love us because they know we love their country. 734 To his Mother SAIOHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 24th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am picking up fast and shall get out of bed this afternoon. I am only limp, with slow TO HIS FATHER 377 pulse, and so soon as I can eat shall be strong again. I have rested my brain and last night almost ceased dream- ing of politics. I have been reading ' David Copperfield ' for the 4th time. It does annoy me to be 4 out of the hunt ' just for this last bit. But, on the other hand, I have been going hard all the time and I expected I should have to stop. I meant to finish Dover anyhow. And I did. I never missed one meeting though I had bronchial catarrh and the bottom of one lung bunged up. Then I determined I would hang on till after Crewe on Friday night. I did Louth in Lincolnshire on Tuesday, spoke for one hour and ten minutes. But the long journey the next day some- how settled the business, and on Thursday night I hauled down my flag. The general result is excellent. We shall have another Election very shortly : perhaps this year ; and from now till then must keep up a continuous fight with all our foes as if it was one General Election. It is a tiring prospect. But that is what we have got to do. S. S. has let ' 35 ' for February 1st. Could I go to ' 44 ' and be looked after by Margaret ? I should love that if quite convenient. It always inspires my work to be at 44. Your devoted son, GEORGE. 735 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, January 25th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed the card and tape. It worked perfectly. I know that Tariff Reform is not every- thing. But it is a great thing in itself, and, also, in my opinion, the only weapon by which we can defeat the kind of legislation that alarms you. It is a great thing in itself, because you cannot have a healthy State, or Nation, even in Peace, unless it has a Frontier. You must think on all matters of your country as a definite organism, and not as a chance part of a cos- mopolitan community. 378 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM It is the only weapon with which you can fight Socialism ; because ' Labour ' or even the wrecks and misfits of ' Labour ' will always look somewhere for help and subsistence. Cosmopolitan Individualism was never a truth, only a dream, and, I think, a nightmare. In Feudal times, Labour and the * misfits * looked to the ' fief ' and were helped and sustained. When Feudalism as an ideal was destroyed a hundred years ago, people tried cosmopolitan individualism. It never worked. Now they must either look to the State as a State ; or to the world as a Socialistic community. The second is insanity. The first, if realised by Tariff Reform, can help the individual without sapping his independence. The foolish blend of Individualism and Socialism to which the Liberal-Labour Party is reduced is worse than the two ' ideals ' of which it is compounded. They are each insane. For each neglects the Frontier and the Home, which are the two poles of political existence. There is something more repulsive than insanity, and that is sheer Folly ; known to be folly by those who practice it. This foolish Blend which the Lib.-Labs. call a policy combines mental aberration with mental turpitude. There is no mixture more nauseous and deadly. I hope to get to Clouds before the House meets. Just now I am busy getting well. All love to darling Mamma and to you. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 736 To his Mother SAIOHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 25th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, -I am much better to-day. Indeed the Results would revive a Mummy. To-day's results, i.e. of yesterday's polls, are, on examination, the best we have had. For there are only 13 seats to attack TO HIS MOTHER 370 in England, twelve Liberal and one Labour. Out of the twelve Liberal seats we won nine and they only saved three. Oddly enough we also won a seat in Ireland, or ten to the good in all. I have invented the best plan I modestly suggest for shewing day by day how the Lib. -Lab. majority ha^ melted. The sound test for the great questions at stake i.e. Budget, House of Lords, on the Government side is to shew the result of each day's Polling on (1) The Liberal and Labour majority over the Unionists, and (2) the Lib.- Lab. majority over Unionists and Nationalists, i.e. Majority in the whole House. That is the sound test because on the Budget we know that the Irish are against the Lib. -Labs. Whilst on the Constitutional question of the House of Lords, if the Irish are with them, it is only because of Home Rule. If S. S. copies my chart I will send it, but the results which shew the process of ' melting a majority ' are : LIB. AND LAB. MAJORITY Over Unionists. In Whole House. 14th January . 251 168 15th . 223 148 17th . 193 110 18th . 169 86 19th . 133 50 20th . Ill 28 No majority 21st . 75 8 22nd . 79 4 24th . 58 22 That means that if no side won or lost any more seals, then if on the Budget, or the next Budget in May, the 380 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Irish abstained, the Lib.-Labs. would beat us by 58. But if the Irish voted against the Budget, the Lib.-Labs. would be beaten by 24. Of course, if they attack the Lords and buy the Irish, they would have a large majority of 58+82=140. But the country would not stand that, for it involves buying the Irish by (a) letting them off taxes, and putting more taxes on the English ; (b) promising the Irish Home Rule ; and (c) making the Lords incapable of preventing them from carrying the promise out. The English would support the Lords in resisting this ' Yes, I don't think ! ' The above is based on taking present nett gains 97=194 on a division, and, as I said, assuming no more gains, till we get them. But we shall get some more. I prophesied 130 nett gains ; so we still want 33. We shall see. The most amusing result would be if we won exactly 126 nett. For then we should be 294 and the Lib.-Labs. 293, and, as the Speaker is on our side, for practical purposes it would be 293 each, apart from the Irish. There are minor features which must modify results and may prove important and even decisive. (a) The Independent Nationalists under W. O'Brien, who hate Redmond, have won some seats from him. They will raise Hell's delight in the House it" Redmond tries to support the 'Land Values and Licence Taxes' Budget, in order to attack the Lords, on the pretence of getting Home Rule in the long run. (b) Among the so-called Liberals there are several bad eggs from their, and indeed any point of view A , B , C , D . I do not see them out tiger- hunting with Lloyd George. If Asquith is captured again by the extreme left these creatures will probably vote against the Government. The only one of them for whom I have any respect is the 4 shadiest ' of the lot, by common slander, B . TO HIS MOTHER 381 I shall watch him with interest. He is very clever and bold, and has a long score to wipe off against the Govern- ment. He has also taken the precaution of hedging on Tariff Reform. So that he is free to cross the floor when he pleases. And that will be the first time he can stab the Government. That is all fair enough. The men I cannot stomach are those such as D , a financial Polo-Player, Christian names and * dear old boy ' with all of us. Well, he goes and beats a trump like by 50 votes for the gar- bage of political success and the off-chance of a peerage, if he makes enough money by promoting companies to buy one. The above seems to me to be distinctly libellous if it were not as it is a privileged opinion from a son to his mother. I thank God that E , a fraudulent Polish Jew Financier, has been beaten. The insolent cur having bought an English wife, and maltreated her, and bought his entrance into the Hunting Field, proposed to buy an English constituency in order to buy a peerage later on. Luckily he was too blatant even for these days. He had the insolence to say he would buy 500,000 worth of House Property and reduce all the rents ten per cent. Such is the cause of Progress and of * the People versus the Peers.' E , curly haired C , ' dear old chap- pie ' D , and all the other ' bounding brothers ' of cosmopolitan Finance and polyglot ' Society ' and dining off truffles and imitating the Yiddish pronunciation of the letter R with a guttural growl. ' That 's the dog's letter,' as Shakespeare says. ' O their offence is rank, it smells to Heaven.' When they are black-balled for the Yacht-Squadron they attack the House of Lords in order to buy a Peerage. But, thank God, I say again, the English counties have ' carried the scent of the hay over the footlights ' and bust their show. So three cheers for Merry England and down with the Ortolan brigade. Let 382 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM them go to Monte Carlo and play with motor-boats instead of making ducks and drakes of the British Navy. I feel distinctly better after writing the above. I loathe convalescence and it is a real relief to write about E and D . Quite seriously it is the truth that England has been saved by the fact that Mary's coach- man, Prue, and my gardener, whose name happens to be England, share my opinion of them. The E revolution has not been a success. ' Chap- pies ' in Polo-breeches can't lead the Sans-culottes. Proficiency in the Yiddish gutturals prevents Welsh Psalm-singing with the right nasal twang. The Truffle- hunters are poor Apostles of the little loaf. I wish Asquith joy of all his piebald Hybrids and express an earnest prayer that our central office will permit us to fight another tune without the assistance of the Pro- fumos, and Bellilios, and other Levantine levies. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 26.1.10. P.S. Must buck this up in haste. We only won ten yesterday, not eleven. I have corrected the chart. You can go on with it. One has to wait for the full returns of each day, e.g. up to now we have lost two and won one on yesterday. We shall get the other returns to-night or to-morrow morn. All love. P.S. 2. Much better, pulse 56 ! instead of 48. 737 To his Father SA.IGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, January 26th } 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I send you a reprint of my speech at Hale on 30th December, which has been circulated. Hale is eight miles from Manchester in the Cotton district. It was an open mass meeting, so there was not the occa- sion for polished phrases. But the speech is a piece of fair and close argument. They listened to all the last TO HILAIRE BELLOC 388 part about cotton with rapt attention. We shall win cotton in two years' time. But only, I believe, by this kind of advocacy, with figures to support statements. Your loving son, GEORGE. 738 To Hilairc Belloc $AK;HTON GHANK, (JuKSTKii, oO//( January 1910. MY DEAR BELLOC, ' Now the Hurly-Burly 's done ' it is time for us to exchange signs of life and signals of amity. I should not have mourned over your defeat nor you ? But this I will say, if any one of my political opponents was to win I would have chosen you. You ought to be in the House of Commons on public grounds, and I am glad that you are on the private grounds of friendship. For we are companions. I do not propose to write much to-night. Since my election and an incursion into Lincolnshire I have been in bed with congestion of the lungs. But now I am up and well and eager for life and light and brave words about the wonder of living. When the House meets we will eat sausages and drink beer and be merry and wise together. I was glad to see that ' Marie Antoinette ' has gone into a second edition and sorry to recall that you sold her before she was born. If you write to me soon address to 44 Belgrave Square. We have let 35 Park Lane till the end of March. But if you don't write for ten days then write here. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. CHAPTER XIII FEBRUARY 1910 TO MAY 1911 In Opposition Army Debate France His Parents' Golden Wedding His Rectorial Address ' The Springs of Romance ' The General Election His Father's Death? 739 To Philip Hanson STANWAY, WINCHCOMBE, 13.ii. 10. MY DEAR P. H., I read your two articles with interest and will send them back when I next come across a large envelope. They arrived opportunely to give my mind a suitable list, for the Sidney Webbs are here and conversa- tion gravitates into the pit of social regeneration. We are also A. J. B., the Salisburys and Hugh Cecil, and John Hugh Smith. Excepting one talk with A. J. B. I have done no Politics. I have been ' pickling ' rather idly and pleasantly over materials that may, or may not, help in my Rectorial Address. Literature of the Dark Ages, troubadours, etc., etc., and making notes. Side by side with an historical attempt to account for Romance, I am thinking more obscurely (!) of a physical, or metaphysical, explanation of what Romance is. It is still very dim. But whether this is, or is not, of use to the Address, I want to write something more to accom- pany my Scott some day in a book of essays. I know that Zola's realism is wrong, and that Pope is inadequate. As Dr. Johnson said, ' He excelled all others in poetical prudence.' I know that Scott was right. And I ask myself why. Chesterton's criticism is nearly right, too, when he says 884 TO PHILIP HANSON 385 that Dickens was realistic because he was Romantic- only, as usual, he uses words in a way that confounds. His examples, that Murdstone is the step-father as he is to a small child, or, that the characters in ' Copperfield ' are large because David was small, are illuminating. In my Scott we carried it, I think, as far as that Realism (= observation) and Romanticism (= imagination) are the primary modes. I think I see my way to two further steps, perhaps to three further steps. (1) Romanticism = the reaction of the mind on the real, not its mere reflection in a mirror. (2) Romanticism reacts chiefly on the strange, instead of repelling the strange as the Greek mind and Latin mind repelled it. (3) (And this, my dear P. H., is the devil !) Romanticism in accepting the strange, performs an act of recognition, because man's mind is (teste the Greeks (?) a microcosm, and the Bible in the image of God) and so holds all in itself implicitly. But after Classicism, or prolonged routine, some things are atrophied in the Mind. Then, on being met by the Mind, they are recognised, like the prodigal son, and re-united to the familiar with jubilation and extravagance in the matter of a fatted calf. I believe this. But will anybody believe me ? Yours ever, G. W. P.S. I go to Saighton to-morrow and hunt with Percy, return to 44 Belgrave Square Saturday, and dine with A. J. B. And Lettice has a little girl born yesterday, at which we rejoice. P.S. 2. To revert to Unemployment and ' without prejudice ' to Tariff Reform, but looking only to research and classification as preliminaries, I had an idea last night. It sprang from your section on seasonal trades. I rather demurred to your inclusion of Gas-making, merely practically (not imaginatively), for I know that the Dover VOL. ii. 2s 386 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Gas-works have for years in Winter and Summer employed the same numbers. I also know that Gas- works make a great many things beside gas, e.g. dyes and ammonia as by-products. I wondered whether therein lay the explanation. Then I had the idea. Why not discover and classify the by-products of the workers' faculty, e.g. a paper-hanger may be qualified in a secondary way by his aptitude for hanging paper to do something else. Ditto the house -painter, and so on. I think this ought to be true. I know that some faculties disqualify for some other channels of activity. Now if the reverse is also true, we might find that the paper-hanger and house-painter had developed a secondary aptitude which could be exercised after the summer holidays are over. I tried this on Sidney Webb, with whom I had a strenuous two hours, and he did not scout it. But that may be due to his politeness. 740 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, February 16th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am very much obliged to you for letting me put up at 44 till Easter. I will see that all bills are sent in and paid by me and keep the receipts ; also putting my servant on board wages. I had some interesting talk with Arthur Balfour at Stanway. Redmond will, I feel pretty sure, accept Asquith's assurances whatever they may be ; and then quarrel with the Liberals later on. Redmond cannot afford another General Election this year, and Asquith wishes to stay in for a year and a half or two years. That being so, they will both * Humbug ' their respective parties and connive at nothing much happening till 1911 at earliest. That is what they will try to do. They may, however, be stampeded by Lloyd George. TO HIS FATHER 387 I hunted yesterday and am none the worse for it, so I shall hunt to-morrow and Friday and go up for Arthur's dinner and the King's speech on Saturday. Perf is very well. He won a race last Saturday against professional jockeys over hurdles. It was a good performance and has brought him fame in this part of the world. . But I hope he will soon be too heavy for such exploits. Bendor has been hunting six days a week, going well, and giving complete satisfaction to an exacting Field. We are still full of politics in Cheshire and determined to win more seats next time. Love to darling mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 741 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, February 18th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, Perf, Bendor and self are just in from a * Red-letter ' day. After the gale yesterday, which of course spoilt our sport though we did have a rather nice gallop in the evening we settled that to-day, as the wind had dropped, we were going to do great things. As we motored to the Meet about three miles the other side of the Cheshire Hills from Saighton, we settled what run we would like to have and chose the best you could have, by way of the longest point over the best line. Well, we did it twice ! and once back again. We only drew two coverts all day. We found at once at Wardle, a good covert half a mile from the Meet. Viewed away a big dog-fox, ran first away from the hills to Hurleston covert, which is six miles as the crow flies from the hills. Viewed the same fox away and then raced slap for the hills and killed our old dog-fox fair and square in the open after 50 minutes of the best, just a mile short of the hills. Benny then trotted back slowly the whole way to Baddiley, which is one and a half miles further from the 388 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM hills than Hurleston. I have just measured it, a full 7| or 7 as the crow flies. We found at once, ran fast along the canal i.e. parallel to the hills the 7 miles and more from them. Then we turned and ran right to them with- out touching a covert, racing a field off from where we had killed. Fox, and hounds, and the first five or six of us were all together into the little outlying wood of the big woods on the hills. I said to the whip, 4 Perhaps the fox can't face the hill ' which is very steep. He said, ' It may break his heart.' But he was headed by rustics screaming with excitement and that saved him. For he lay down and another jumped up and took them all the way back to Baddiley ! I stopped at the hills and rode home. It was just 50 minutes again to where he lay down. A day to remember. Your loving son, GEORGE. 742 To his Father 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., Sunday, 9 p.m., March 6th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am just back 9 p.m. from a Saturday and a half Sunday at Saighton. I agree that we are in a political crisis of suffering from a National illness. I cannot prove that we shall recover, but I believe we shall. As Disraeli said, ' The history of England is a history of re- actions.' So was the history of Rome. Indeed our case is far more favourable than most of the grave cases from which we, and other nations, have recovered. It is mainly due to idleness and pusillanimity of ' moderate ' men, especially among liberals, but also among conservatives. We have not, so far, to contend with famine, general bank- ruptcy, and the fierce passions which these engender. Yet our ancestors, and the Romans on several occasions, dealt faithfully with these also. Perhaps one might say in a gloomy mood that the absence of such scourges delays the reaction. There are no violent causes to force thoughtful men to think and brave men to act. So, for lack of decision, the crisis and the malady are prolonged. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 389 But I am not gloomy. On the contrary, it is my know- ledge that we are in a tight place which reconciles me to politics. If all were well, I should retire, write a book, and keep a pack of hounds. As it is, I have to work hard and cannot make plans. I may be able to get to Clouds for a Sunday before Easter. But I am hard pressed for time. At such a moment one has to think (and that is a long process) in order to be ready to act. I am very sorry about dear Fly [a dog]. All love to darling mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. P.S. I am in charge of the House during Army Esti- mates to-morrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and must think before I go to bed. 743 To Hilaire Belloc CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY,, 16th April 1910. MY DEAR BELLOC, Many thanks for the ' New Age.' It is very good. I wonder if we could teach the ' reformers ' that their action is not only bad for the poor, because cruel, but bad for themselves, because nothing does a man more harm than being cruel. Do you think they would be frightened about themselves if they realised how dan- gerous it is to be cruel, and that the danger increases when meanness and conceit are added to cruelty ? That this is, indeed, damnable ? That they are damned by doing it ? I believe that they dread damnation. Just as hang- men object to being hanged, so do those who condemn others shrink instinctively from being damned. They dislike the prospect so much that they disapprove of the word, and are shocked when it is used. I wrote these lines on Thursday evening after going to Jimmy Tomkinson's funeral. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 390 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I. M. 14TH APRIL 1910 It was April to-day as I rush'd in a train to bury a friend. Why did I go ? Well, because we had soldier' d and ridden together. I whirl'd up to Cheshire and back, convinced that his death was no end, But a gleam in the laughter and tears of life, that is like April weather. In April there is not a doubt. Vicissitudes promise the store Which every true lover of life accepts from the infinite art Of a world that shouts ' Go ! ' to the young, and to older men, ' Go it once more ! ' For April and courage deny any end to a work of the heart. It is all very well to be wise, to think, and to shrink, and to shirk ; But April is wiser. * Come out ! ' is her cry in the rain, or the sun. Her flowers explain that to live is a challenge no menace can burk, That to be is to do, and to die, the summit of all we have done. 744 To Charles T. Gaily 35 PARK LANE, W., 27.iv.10 MY DEAR CHARLES, I have 10 minutes before starting to Crewe to speak ; I use them to convey a ' clincher ' on the sonnets which I saw in 10 seconds, opening at hazard. Sonnet 70, lines 56-78, demonstrate my theory, because apart from it they are nonsense. ' Time,' at end of line 6, is the Enemy. ' Being woo'd of Time,' means to suffer from the tyrant, but that shows the worth of the sufferer, because he is attacked by Time, the Tyrant. The ' pure unstained Prime ' is the eternal past. The wounds and mud of Time are the * accidents.' TO CHARLES T. GATTY 391 You see that in this sonnet, which seems so personal, the Immortal Bard touches on his perennial theme, i.e. his attack on Time. No upholder of the ultra-personal theory can explain * being woo'd of Time.' 10 minutes up and I 'm off to defend the Constitution which is also being woo'd of Time ; and, indeed, debauched. Yours, G. W. 745 To Charles T. Gatty 85 PARK LANE, 28.iv.10. MY DEAR CHARLES, Just back from Crewe to resume our talk on the Sonnets. I have thought that ' Informer ' was an apostrophe to Time. And it may be that. On the whole, when I was writing and more soaked in the stuff, I compared it to * frailer spies ' hi cxxi. I felt that c to cxxv was one poem. Still you agree with me that the sonnets generally, and c to cxxv specially, are primarily a metaphysical out- burst, but, secondarily, based upon and built up with actual experience, and, probably, addressed to an audience also steeped in neo-platonic attacks on the reality of Time, and also acquainted with political and personal and literary (rival poets) events which had troubled the relations, and darkened the atmosphere, of a poetical circle of friends. You will find what I said on this in the last half of page 250. I had a ' full house ' at Crewe, spoke for one hour and five minutes, and also at an overflow. But my chief interest was to see every bridge between London and Crewe crowded with rustics waiting for the flying-men and silhouetted against one of the most lovely April skies I remember. Yours ever, G. W. 392 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 746 To Charles Boyd 35 PARK LANE, W., 2.V.10. MY DEAR CHARLES, All my energy has been devoted, since we met, to fundamental questions of Public Policy. Whilst ruminating in the Park on these matters I met George Street. To him, in that mood, I said, ' with emphasis,' that I would rather my occasional lines on Jimmy Tomkinson were not published. In so far as I can care about such an ephemeral response to the drama of life, that mood persists, for two reasons : (1) My relations with Jimmy Tomkinson were private. I shrink from giving any one touch to what is sad to his sons and daughters. (2) I may be wanted for the great public contention on the constitution at any moment. It is wiser, in view of that possibility, to offer no ' target.' I am not at liberty to ' unpack my heart ' or ' air my music ' ; ' lights out ' is the motto for men in waiting for the moment of counter- attack. So I would rather not publish anything, or say, or write anything just now. I mean to get the right thing done. Yours ever, G. W. 747 To his Father 35 PARK LANK, W., May Wth, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, The Addresses in the House last Wednesday were moved in good speeches by Asquith and Arthur. Then we got in taxi-cabs and took the Address to the King (new) at Marlborough House. He shook hands with us all simply and kindly. Saturday I went with Bendor by the 8.30 a.m. from Euston to Chester for Yeomanry. We had a pleasant TO HIS FATHER 393 journey with breakfast in the train and talked over Yeo- manry and Politics. We motored to Eaton. On arriving, went straight to the polo ground in the Park, where we had a vigorous practice and got very hot. Then we had a short lunch ; changed into uniform, and motored four miles to Handley, whither two horses were sent on and where the Eaton squadron was assembled. We rode with the squadron to Camp near Cholmondeley about seven miles. Since then I have been very busy. We missed your fine weather, for Saturday night was icy cold and yesterday it rained in a deluge from eight to four in the afternoon. But to-day the sun shone and everybody cheered up. The work of Yeomanry increases every year. They now insist on our doing all our cooking and waiting by ourselves and with our own ovens and utensils and without a contractor. This entails great difficulty in what is called ' interior economy.' In another region of activity, they insist on our training 16 signallers, two maxim gun detach- ments, and twenty trained scouts. In another, they leave us to make the contract for camp and drill and manoeuvre ground. This, owing to difficulties over Chol- mondeley Park, entailed walking six miles and hiring four large fields from farmers. To-day we drilled all the morning. In the afternoon we drilled dismounted and I worked out two manoeuvre schemes and a night outpost scheme with the Adjutant. Then I motored to Crewe and caught the 7.30, arriving here at 11 p.m., as I have to be in Westminster Hall with the * Faithful Commons ' at 11 a.m. to-morrow. I go back to Cholmondeley to-morrow and return Thursday night for the funeral at Windsor to which Sibell and self are both commanded. The great excitement is that dear Guy is coming for it from Petersburg. So we shall be there together. Sibell went to Buckingham Palace to-day at 2 p.m. with Lily Zetland to pass by the coffin in the Throne Room. She says that the six officers of the Brigade who stand like statues round the coffin are most impressive. Percy has come up with three brother officers and 394 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM quartered them here. Lily Zetland is putting up others. Love to darling mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 748 To Charles Boyd SAIGHTON, I7.vi.10. MY DEAR CHARLES, I knew ' The Shropshire Lad ' of old, but I read the book through twice to myself in the train, and a quarter of it aloud to Sibell after dinner. The roses in the garden and buttercups in the fields are beyond science. Tho' seen, they belong to Faith ; like young love and armies at last confronted ! Of the clusters and explosions of crimson roses on the crimson tower I will not even write. Some other art must be invented by man before we too can shout of that summer without making any noise, even of a pen. An element in that art will be to have oceans of green round our silent crimson trumpets, and new-mown lawns leading to them and the shadows of trees. When I see Summer I feel justified of the only attack I have ever made on the Roman Church. How easy it is to write of the contrast of what we adore. Housman writes of death and suicide because he loves the May and the dusty roads of England, and lads insolent with life. All the Art of the world has only caught a few larks in a few cages to remind man of Summer in the blind-alleys of his slum. Yours, G. W. 749 To Charles Boyd 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., Friday, I7.vi.10. 1.20 a.m. MY DEAR CHARLES, I could not get to the Garrick as I was at a concert and am just back. Nor can I be here at 11.30 to-day as I have to do things on the way to Euston for 12.10 to Saighton. TO PHILIP HANSON 395 All this is absurd ! Can you be Napoleonic, cut the painter, and come with me to Saighton by the 12.10 Euston ? I am ordering two seats in luncheon car on the chance. If you are entangled with the Fair, tell a lie. If you are busy with mankind, tell them to go to Hell ! Come along and let us have a jolly journey to see the garden at Saighton. There is no one there but Lady Grosvenor and self. Then, on Saturday, I will get a taxi and we will whirl over the country and do Beeston Castle and Bun- bury Church ; or take Chester by storm. I propose a sudden decision and a noble exploit. I stay at Saighton till Monday and hope to bring Sibell back early for my Mother's birthday on Monday. Come along ! there is no time like the present ; nor, indeed, any other than the present. The remainder consists of two hypothetical eternities. Yours in the bond, G. W. 750 To Philip Hanson SAIGHTON, 1st July 1910. MY DEAR P. H., I had been wondering when I should hear from you, or write to you, and had been talking of you to my Mother and Sibell at luncheon two or three days ago. This, no doubt, moved you to write. I answer at once, partly because I ought to be thinking of the lines of a beast of a speech to 3000 or more Unionist and Tariff Reform Women (!) in the Queen's Hall on Thursday next. I am very glad you liked my Army Speech. I composed it between 7 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, and made the notes on Monday morning, and let it off that afternoon. The official report has some foolish errors. They were cross because I sent my notes to the * Times,' asking that organ to pass them on. But as the ' Times ' did not do so till past 11 p.m., the official reporter paid me out. The speech took one hour and a quarter to 396 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM deliver. But some of our men told me that not a word of it could have been spared. Haldane's verbosity and shiftiness was superb in its way. He has grown idle. He sent under the Gallery three or four times, and could not master the information supplied. A. J. B. told me afterwards, on Wednesday, that my speech alarmed him. I asked why, and he answered that the logic of it was convincing and most disturbing. As you say, it all turns on the ' sealed -pattern ' raid of 70,000. If that a careful revision of the 5000 to 10,000 raid is bosh, then it does not matter even if the Terri- torial Force is slosh and the Special Reserve tosh. But if the ' sealed-pattern ' raid is a thing to be reasonably apprehended, then we are in a bad hole. And if Roberts is right hi saying that it might be 150,000 v. 70,000, then we are asking for it. Haldane's attack on compulsion served the purpose of evading any reply to my criticism on his T.F. reserve and Veteran reserve. The true inwardness of these is that the boom in recruit- ing for the T.F. has been followed by a slump. I know that Esher has reported, or is about to report, that he cannot get on in London any further. So, to make his numbers, Haldane squared the Press, put up Ian Hamilton to slobber over some Surrey Veterans on the Horse Guards Parade, and launched his reserves. He takes 33% of the T.F. Establishment =41% of its strength, i.e. the whole proportion who really do 15 days' training, and says that if they go into the reserve after four years, they may shoot off twenty rounds at the public expense, and need not do any more drill or training at all ! It is sublime ! The Irish names in your letter thrill me. I am delighted to hear of Downing's Bay and Kincashlagh. We liked both places. How I wish it were ten years ago ! Horace Plunkett is going to spend Sunday here on his way back to Ireland. I am sick at the University. Nobody knows what will happen in the Autumn. I, myself, believe that Asquith will manage somehow to play TO HILAIRE BELLOC 397 the Coronation and Imperial Conference off against his malcontents for another year's peace in office, and that Redmond will say of the Budget, ' No matter, let it pass, a ti-ime will come ! ' You must come here in September. Yours ever, GEORGE W. 751 To Hilaire Belloc SAIGHTON, 20th July 1910. MY DEAR BELLOC, I came here to see the Chester Pageant and found my garden in July which I had watched in January. So I wrote a transcendental sonnet, based on Byron. As you detest transcendental belief, I will inflict it on you, as thus : JANUARY JULY 'When the stars twinkle through the loops of Time.' Childe Harold. We starved for snowdrops, now the privet's bloom Adds pungence to the pageantry of change From tenderest green to purple and the mange Of lilies that but blossom to their doom. To bud, flower, breed ; fight, build, out of the gloom, Are incidents of struggling with the strange Which plant, beast, man, unravel in their range To clarion calls of ' more light ' and more room. Our triune tragedy accords the chime Of Beauty's incantation as we build Her parapets compacted out of slime : Our shatter'd arcs declare what she has will'd ' When the stars twinkle through the loops of Time ' And flash eternity on the poor kill'd. This will give you a headache. Yours ever, G. W. 398 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 752 To Hilaire Belloc SAIGHTON GRANGE, 2Qth July 1910. MY DEAR BELLOC, I came here this afternoon. In the train I finished Chesterton's ' What 's Wrong with the World.' When I told you the other day that I did not care for it so much as I care for his other work, I had only read the first half. I find, now, that I have dog's-eared all the last half, blazing my track, and turned down only one page in the first half. It is a big book when finished. And note, it is finished before the little appendix with a reference to my Irish Land Act. But for that, I was on the point of writing to him myself. Not that I have any modesty. I should like some day to tell him and you what a lot of smashing I had to do to get that act made. I agree with him that ' Jones's garden ' is the goal and momentum of my reaction and his revolution. We both want the same thing for the same reasons. But well, let me put it in this way the family lawyer, the manager of the Bank of Ireland, the young man whom Lord Ash- bourne would job into the office of deeds, but for the Land Act, the orphans and widows acting through solicitors who had borrowed on the expectation of remainder-men an expectation destroyed when we bully and bribe the tenant for life to sell out, and, probably, the second cousin to a young man in the office of Crown and Hanaper are each one of them just Jones with a garden. When you barge in as I did you blight their gardens. That amount of splintering is nothing compared to the stocks and shares business ; the commissions to the Bank of Eng- land for floating the stock, the commissions to the national debt Commissioners (and rightly so called) for managing the loan, the commissions to the Bankers, and brokers and jobbers (again named as poets name) here is the rub. (I pray you not to fly off on the Anglo- Judaic oligarchy.) I do not believe that the rub is with the landlord. You TO HILAIRE BELLOC 399 and Chesterton hold the opposite view. I wish we could talk it all out one day. You and he know facts which I don't know, and I know facts which you don't know, and it is on our ignorance that Sidney Webb and his active consort build their gaols and penitentiaries. Chesterton's excellent recapitulation, page 283, breaks down, I believe, on the usurious landlord. At any rate the big landlords are not the usurious land- lords. Mind you, I am not, therefore, in favour of big landlords. I want many small land-owners. But I want Chesterton to consider this. The big land- lord, as such, owns in land a property that is worth less, even absolutely, and relatively far less than it was worth 150 years ago. But, when it was worth more absolutely, and far more relatively, he invested his savings, first in consols, then in British railways, now in outlandish enter- prises and the municipal loans of Mexican cities. Still, as a landlord he prevents the conditions which determinate the hair-cutting business. On the other hand, the men who prepare the way for destroying the glory of dear little English girls, are those who trafficked in the ' agiotage ' of outlandish enterprises, and lent money to rich boys, and, at last, bought landed property. This they treated precisely as a Financier treats the bonds of a Mexican corporation. Now, I believe that you can get the Landlords to sell their land, and be English. ' Young England ' and ' Merry England ' are ideas. But investment, and re-investment, are simply devilish * paperasseries ' to which English landlords are seduced and driven. God knows what they are doing and piling up for the vengeance of other centuries. They don't know. How should they ? But they do know that their fathers loved the English and were loved by them. And they still love the English. I would use that love. If the Noailles gave up their titles because they were French, the big English landlords will give up their land because they are English. What they resent is having their money taken not 400 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM their land in order to pepper the country with Sidney Webb's penitentiaries. They also resent and I am absolutely with them in that having their son disin- herited from his home in order that Sidney Webb may live in it, as Lord High Gaoler, and conduct experimental slavery in their park. If I am forced to choose : I prefer a herd of fallow-deer to a labour colony for people who refuse to become teetotallers. The mere knowledge that there are fallow-deer in the parish and the off-chance not of shooting them, for this is a degenerate age, but of trying to pat them, might be something in any boy's life. On the other hand, the knowledge that his father because he frequented the 4 Bald-headed Stag ' was to water beans with a chemical solution in the park, would be a desolating reflection even for the young people in a County Council school. But why this choice ? Why not more homes, and more properties, with, as a corollary, more publicities ? I will now inflict the last version of AUGUST TO DECEMBER We saw the lilies die. St. Michael's daisies Clanged purple to the gladiolus red : They told the tale of all the flowers had said, To make joy sure before the autumn hazes. The winds were mists of silence in the mazes Of songless woods. The dank leaves dripp'd. A dread Came when the choir of birds, pack'd overhead, Were dumbly bent on flights beyond our gazes. What is there left to care for ? Wastes of snow Betray the tracks of beasts, but bear no life. Their record prophesies the earth's last woe When utter cold shall seal the pulse of strife. No, look ! The dawn breaks in a bloodier glow Of passionate hearths and battles to the knife. I shall go to London on Monday, 44 Belgrave Square, and return here on Tuesday. Yours ever, G. W. TO HIS MOTHER 401 P.S. If you say of my sonnet that it is ' built beyond mortal thought Far in the unapparent ' I shall take it as a compliment. It is a compliment which I pay to Chesterton, when I don't agree with him. 753 To his Mother ST. GILES'S HOUSE, SALISBURY, August 30th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your telegram on my old birthday. I am alive and kicking after a great excursion into parts of France that I knew nothing of before. Belloc telegraphed to me, ' Will you come to France on Wednesday for two or three days ? ' I telegraphed back, * Done with you,' and on Wednesday last we started from Charing Cross at 9 p.m. each with only a small hand-bag besides the clothes we stood up in. I did not know where we were going ; nor did he. But he had in his head some places he wished to see. We reached Paris at 6.15 Thursday morn, drove across to the P.L.M., had a cup of coffee and caught the 7.10 South. We travelled third class in a crowded train, admiring the babies and discuss- ing the crops with our companions. We also hailed, each time we saw it, the great road from Rome to Paris, and looked with awe at the mounded hill of Alexia where Julius Csesar conquered Vercingetorix. We talked of the Senones who over-ran Asia Minor from what is now Sens. And all the time with a railway-guide and map we debated what we should do. At last we settled to get out of the train at Blaisy-Bas, 12.30 p.m., and march right over the hills down into the Burgundian Vineyards of the C6te-d'or. We sent our bags on by train, round the hills to Gevrey- Chambertin, and, at 12.45, swung off on foot up into the Forest. We tried a track marked on the map, but, as eight years have passed since the map was made, the track was interlaced with boughs. We had to push through like VOL. ii. 2 c 402 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM rhinoceroses, taking turn about to lead. In the end we were beaten by the growth of underwood and had to strike west by the sun, to get the driving path. We struck it, emerging from the tangled wood on a height that over- looked the wide valley of the Ouche [a river] ; the view was like Costa's Assisi, only on a wider scale. Below we could see two little hamlets we had to pass, and beyond the pine- covered heights. We had to cross two more ridges and then the descent guessed on the far side 20 miles away. It was a baking hot day. We passed a holy well with a bronze bust of St. Bernard over it against the burning deep blue sky. At Pralons, a little hamlet, we drank beer and talked to its seller. Of the well, he said cautiously (for religion is a ticklish affair in France just now) ' C'est de Panciennete. Autrefois il-y-avait un seigneur au Couvent.' The vines have been spoilt by this awful summer. Of the prospective vintage he said, ' For this year there is what calls itself nothing Pour cette annee il-y-a ce qui s'appelle rien.' We only rested a few minutes and then pushed on to our bridge the Pont de Pany over the Ouche, which we reached at 4.15. Then we toiled up a wonderful road that left the river and canal of Bur- gundy and wound like a snake past low cliffs up to the crest of that ridge, about 2000 feet high. Here there was an undulating plateau. At Uray (beer again), reached at 6 p.m., we could see the next valley, and got another short cut by track over fields and up to the crest of the next ridge and over to Champ-de-bceuf, another little home- stead. It was dark, for the night falls sooner and more suddenly in the South. The stars were marvellous and the Milky Way and all about the glow-worms shone. But We for the moment were beat and our legs too stiff to move, so three-quarters of a mile beyond Champ-de-boeuf we threw ourselves on the ground and looked up at the stars through the leaves of a little chestnut tree. Then we rubbed our legs and swung down the road by a gigantic ravine a black chasm on our right, with high cliffs on our left. We sang all the songs we could remember, and at 8.30 saw a light in the valley. That was Gevrey-Cham- TO HIS MOTHER 403 foertin, t where the wine comes from.' We reached the little Inn at 8.45, after walking for eight hours and doing between 22 and 23 miles. It was good to eat and drink. The station two miles off was shut, so we rolled into bed without any change of clothes in a hostel which was much the same sort of gite as any occupied by anybody from the time of Hadrian down the centuries. I woke at five, they got our bags by seven. We went to the station and took the little local train along to C6te-d'or, past Mirts-St. George and Pouilly and all the vineyards to Beaune at 10.30. There we saw the church and belfry and hospital of 15th century, and eat and took a motor and shot 100 kilometres North by West into ' le Morvan,' a wild upland, 3000 feet high of forest and mountain, more like Wales than France. Then we walked again three hours to Avallon, a little town on a peak. The forest was full of large red slugs. Just as Avallon appeared like a vignette, a storm burst on us. We took refuge in a wayside cottage and made the children dance. Then we climbed up and arrived like draggled rats at the H6tel du Chapeau rouge. The coiffeur next door by a few dexterous strokes of his comb transformed me into the image of a retired Colonel of French chasseurs. I let him have his way, which in- cluded waxing my moustachios into two sharp spikes. I woke at 5.30 and began to mobilise at 6, and started soon after. We walked till 10.30, when we reached the wall of the wonderful pinnacled town of Vezelay, where St. Ber- nard preached the 2nd Crusade to Louis vii. and, Conrad on 31st March 1146. O my 1 What a church ! Byzantine and rebuilt just after that crusade. The XHth century. One ot the Councils of the Empire met there. Our Cceur-de-lion was there, too, before the 3rd Crusade. And now it has 800 inhabitants only and is sound asleep, dreaming of the past. At 1 we got a little trap and drove to a railway. Vezelay is what it is because it is far from any railway. We travelled 3rd class till 4.30, then got out and walked for three hours to Auxerre with its three great churches. We meant to go on at 9 by train to Melun. But no. 404 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM We eat and drank and slept. We started at six and caught the 7 a.m. to Paris on Sunday. Arrived at 10.30, Saw the Luxembourg and Pantheon, and traced the old Roman road and the spot where the first Frenchman re- entered Paris after Jeanne-d'Arc had turned the tide of war. I left Belloc, caught the 4 p.m. slept to Boulogne, Dined on board, reached Charing Cross at 11, and came here by the 8.50 yesterday motoring out from Salisbury as I had promised Cuckoo to celebrate my Birthday with her. Now was not that a good scamper ? I will see you and dearest Papa this week. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 754 To his Mother SAIGHTON, September 8th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am hard at work on my Rectorial Address. I take a run in the garden before breakfast. Work from 10 to 1 o'clock, run, lunch, ride, and then work from 4 to 8 o'clock, dine, and then think till 11.30. It takes a power of thinking to decide on a track through a forest of delightful lore, in which it is all but impossible not to lose oneself. I shall not write till Monday, leaving myself three weeks in which to write. But this is the agonising period. I have to prevent myself from writing, and to curb myself from reading too much. But there is a savage joy in reading, and noting, as one does during the preliminary stage. And I say to myself that, even if I cannot get a clear track, still I shall have had the zest of reading for example la Chanson de Roland and much else a little library with a devilish racing-for-blood concentration, which I cannot get except when I am preparing to write. I know la Chanson de Roland. I sometimes read it. TO HIS MOTHER 405 I often want to read it to you and others. But I can't do this unless I am on the trail to get my scalp. Now I am on the trail. But whether I can make the trail endurable to an audience of Edinburgh Students is a question which cannot be answered until I have worked for another ten days. I will not allow myself to write until I have reduced what I have to say to six, or at most seven, definite propositions, which lead the one to the other, and ultimately compose into a truth. I know I could do this if all went well. And I think I am going to do it. If I don't I think I shall have had a wonderful four weeks of exploring. I can tell you what the real trouble in my mind is, as thus : You remember Charles Kingsley's ' Madam How and Lady Why.' Very well ; I can tell them How Romance came into Europe in 1050, culminated in 1150, and influenced to 1550 and even on to 1600. I can almost tell them Why : But can I tell them What it was ? ? ? That 's the point. Prudence suggests that I should only announce the How sketch the Why and throw out the What in a few mystical sentences. Still, it is a strange thing that Europe soon after 1750 began to feel it had lost something it could not spare (like its shadow or its soul), and that from 1800 till now it has been recovering what it had lost. Now this becomes more strange and significant if we admit, as we must, that the same thing happened before on a greater scale. And the whole thing becomes deliriously interesting when you find that all the business of Romance was written in the French language, in England, by Normans, who had touched Bretons and Welsh on the West, and Arabs in the South in Spain, and in the East owing to the Crusades. 406 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM It is almost too good to be true. Yet it is true that the Chanson de Roland, the tale of Troy, the tale of Thebes, and the tale of Arthur, all the lays of Marie de France, and all there is except perhaps the Alexander tale and the fables about animals were all written in England between 1150 and 1220 by Norman and Southern Frenchmen and Welshmen who wrote French. And that all this happened because of two accidents. I. Roland, a Frank, overwhelmed by Basques in the Pyrenees, was Count of the Breton marches. II. Henry n. married Eleanor the divorced wife of Louis vin. who brought the Troubadours of the South, and the Tronveres of the North, into England and through Wales into Ireland, after going to the East in the second Crusade. Those two accidents do the trick of * Madam How.' But then there is Lady Why, and after that the inscrut- able What was it that happened ? That being in my mind I shall refuse to Define Romance and set out to Discover it : Citing the precedent of Colum- bus who went to America before there was any Map. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 755 To his Father SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, September 17th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I have read your letters and en- closure on the Osborne Judgment with interest. Though busy with my Address I keep an eye on what passes. I do not believe that the House of Commons will reverse the judgment, but am rather concerned at the hot-heads of the Unionist Party plunging in favour of the payment of members. That would be a lesser evil but would com- plete the degradation of the House. But as you truly say I do find it may be foolish consolation in the ' chapter of accidents ' or, as I would put it, in the complexity of incidents that make up national TO HIS MOTHER 407 life and world-politics. Any one of these may suddenly absorb public attention, and the business of Politicians consists in combining them into groups in such a way as to counteract separate tendencies towards evil, and secure some common tendency towards good. This is easier said than done. Your loving son, GEORGE. 756 To his Mother SAIGHTON, September 20th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, It was good of you to send back the French book in white and gold binding. I lose some books that I can ill spare and, notably, I have lost a little old Latin book, ' Historia Regum Britanniae,' by Geoffrey of Monmouth. Luckily I remember it, since it must play a big part in my Address. Possibly I am better without it. For, if it were here, I should find something else in it which I should be tempted to cram into the Address. Anyway * it 's gone,' like the chicken from the ship in ' The Lady of the Aroostook.' I am sure that you and Papa could give me a reference I do want : for the story is one of our old favourites . Who ( ? ) was it who said what (?) on a Cumberland mountain, the gist of which was that he had to remember the cook-shop (?) in (?) (London). Was it Lamb ? If you can give me the reference I will send to the London Library for the book. The tedious part of address- writing is that one has to ' verify one's references ' ; and nobody knows what that is till they Ve tried to do it. The alarming part of writing an Address is that one has to write a book afterwards. An Address on Ronsard at Oxford entailed a little book. This Address will entail a larger book. I shall be driven into writing a book. Just now I am being driven into writing far more than I can say in an hour. I shall select bits out of it for the Address. But the rest, which I must leave out, will haunt me like a ghost till I lay it in a book. 408 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM It would be much simpler to write Poetry, or even to paint Pictures, than to search for the soul of Romance by the historical method. Still, having set myself that task, I mean to do it, and to limit myself, for its execution, to the tools of dry historical research. When that is done I will let myself out in a book and, when that is done, I will write about the other theme of which I spoke to you. Meanwhile you may assure Papa that this kind of work does not unfit me for dealing with the Osborne Judgment. On the contrary I wanted a quiet six weeks of reading and thinking and shall be all the better for them poli- tically. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Have just heard from Perf at Hythe. He, too, is in a lodging by the sea as I was in 1884. It was then that I bought a pearl pin to wear in a black tie because of national mourning for Prince Leopold. I gave you that pin when I went to the Soudan the next year. And you gave it back to me when I returned. And it is still the pin that I wear, in a white tie, when I hunt. I shall hunt every day in the week after the Address. Then I shall make speeches on the 7th, 8th and 9th of November. Hunting and literature are not incompatible with politics. Henry of Anjou (our Henry n.) who made the Empire from the Pyrenees to the Grampians always had ' a bow or a book in his hand.' 757 To Mrs. Drew SAIGHTON, September 22nd, 1910. MY DEAR MARY, Many thanks for the elegiac couplet. It is quite beautiful, and quite untranslatable. I have written my first attempt over the page. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. Lead on, too well-beloved : Go happy part Of our one soul : God calls ; but teach my heart, Mourning alone, to follow where thou art. TO MRS DREW 409 758 To Mrs. Drew SAIGHTON, September 23rd, 1910. ' I, nimium dilecta ; vocat Deus ; I bona nostrae Pars animae; moerens, altera, disce sequi.' MY DEAR MARY, You little knew what you were * in for ' when you sent me that perfect elegiac couplet. You must not trouble to read all my shots at translating the untranslatable. But apart from gratitude for its evasive loveliness, I want to thank you for giving me a ' whetstone for wit ' * cos ingeniorum ' just when I needed one. Now, at odd moments, I sharpen and exercise my wit on ' I, nimium dilecta, etc.,' instead of blunting and tiring it by mumbling the Rectorial Address, if that ever became some- thing saner than Casaubon's ' Key to all the Mythologies ' was it ? in Middlemarch ? so fortunate a result will be due to my possession of and by ' I, nimium, etc.,' for that affords a strenuous relaxation and that was your gift. Thanks to it, the rectorial has made strides. Many pages have been re-written that are at least intelligible and some- times melt into lucidity. After that exordium I must tell you what has happened in my leisure, since I received the couplet. It seemed to me that there were only two things to be done with it : either to forget its form and attempt an original English poem on its theme, or else to aim at the most literal translation compatible with the retention of an English rhythm. I have not tried the first. But who knows ? That may follow the effort at translation. So far, I have tried my hand only at translation. I have always felt that in a translation two rules must be observed. The translator must try to echo the form, e.g. he must not turn a couplet into a quatrain. If the original is a couplet, a couplet he must write. The other rule is that he must try to express all the meaning of the original and add nothing to it. 410 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Within those limits he must seek to obey Rossetti's general injunction, viz. ' not to turn a good poem into a bad one.' All this is, of course, impossible. But that is why it supplies so excellent a whetstone for wit. If ' I, nimium ' is to be translated at all, the translation must be a compromise between a complete and exclusive rendering of the Latin's meaning, on the one hand, and a decent approach to English rhythm on the other. And that compromise must be contained in a couplet. I am still vacillating between two alternative com- promises. If the translation is to be more literal in its meaning than English in its rhythm, it would run : ' Go, too beloved ; God calls. Go, our soul's happier part, That other grief shall learn to follow where thou art.' But if the translation is to be more English in its rhythm to English ears, and more lucid in its syntax to English minds, it would run : ' Go, too beloved ; God calls, our soul's more happy part : What's left shall learn from grief; I '11 follow where thou art.' Sibell prefers the last. I think I am right in translating ' bona ' by ' happy/ ' Bona,' of course, means ' good.' But the word for ' good r in all languages often stands for ' lucky,' or ' happy ' which is the same, with greater dignity. Certainly in a celebrated Latin line ' O Fortunati nimium bona si sua ndrint ' ' bona ' means ' happiness.' The author of our couplet probably had that line singing in the back of his head, as he puts both 'nimium' and 'bona' into his first line. Again, if ' happy ' be justifiable as a translation of the Lathi meaning, ' more happy ' is justifiable in respect of English rhythm, for it is taken from Keats' ' Ode to a Grecian Urn.' Probably the first course, which I have not attempted, is the best, viz. to forget the form of ' I, nimium ' and write an English poem on its theme. ' Manet sors tertia caedi r i.e. ' take a licking ' and leave the Latin as it stands. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. TO PHILIP HANSON 411 759 To Philip Hanson SAIGHTON, 30.ix.10. MY DEAR P. H., I was beginning to miss any news of you, and beginning to hope that you might propose a meeting here. But * mea culpa ' I ought to have written to you long ago and urged you to come. My thoughts, like yours, have been turning back to old days. The sun- light here for the past ten days carried me back ten years. You and Norman and, I think, Ian Malcolm, played lawn tennis with me here in the sun, before we dreamed of leaving the W.O. And when November comes it will be ten years since you and I sailed over a blue sea to Ireland with the collie-dog Chief a little puppy in a basket on the deck. * The days that I regret Are those that are no more.' But they were good days ; and I knew it at the time, so I have no remorse, only regret. I wish you could pop over for even one of the sort of days we put up with now. Let me forecast the immediate future to that end, before I relate the immediate past. I go to London Monday night and return here Wednesday night, 5th October. That would be a good moment, or any other till Tuesday llth, when I go to London and on to Clouds to celebrate my Father's and my Mother's Golden Wedding. I return on the 17th and that would be a good moment for a glimpse of you. Early in the next week I go to Whittinghame and deliver my Address at Edinburgh on Friday 28th. I return the next day, 29th, D.V., and * in any case ' on Monday 31st. That would do well, but not so well, because I then replunge into politics and hunting. This I have not done for many weeks, and am too rusty to answer your questions. Now I relate the immediate Past. I took a month of violent holiday-making after the Session. Played polo hard here 412 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM till the 15th August. Went to South Wales and bathed in the sea. Went to France with Belloc and walked miles and miles over hills to Burgundy and back by V6zelay, where St. Bernard preached the second Crusade. Went to St. Giles and Clouds, and got here on September 5th. Since then I have worked at my Address every day like a miner in the bowels of the earth, and have forgotten pro tern. all about politics. I have been in the valley of the shadow of composition, which is darker than any sub- terranean gallery and less securely propped. Halt sunt li pui e tenebrus e grant Li val parfunt e les ewes curanz. This is not madness : High are the peaks and shadow-gloomed and vast, Profound the valleys where the torrents dash. Nor is this. It is an attempt at the meaning and sound of two lines in the Song of Roland. I have thought of nothing but the subject of my Address since the 5th of September. I say the subject advisedly. For, provided I can make the Address tolerable, even to Scotchmen, I am using the lull of the Conference to learn all that appertains to a book which I mean to write. It will follow on to the * Ronsard ' and ' Walter Scott.' That is to say, its province will be early French literature, and its aim, another definition of Romance, reached by the historic method. I wish you could come for a day and join in. I have just read the first half to brother Guy, who is here till Monday. He prefers it to the Glasgow address, and, indeed, if simplicity can be reached by agony, this should be a white lamb by comparison with that black and hairy Buffalo. After all let me remember, for my peace, that in this address I am not taking on the History of the World, but only four centuries 1050 to 1450 confined to Western Europe and tied down to literature. For the moment, my lamb is tied too tight ; but, when I have got the TO PHILIP HANSON 413 sequence of propositions in the only order, I shall allow that little lamb to frisk and caper like a goat. To change the metaphor : after the historic work, I mean for my own delectation to soar from the earth into the ' blue inane ' of metaphysics, like an airman (see * Daily Mail ' pattern). But, instead of coming down with a bump to the ground, I shall disappear ' Far in the unapparent ' (see Shelley's ' Adonais '). Now am not I well ' Hedged ' ? I believe it will take an hour to speak the historic part. Very well, then I shall have all the fun to myself, and will make a book of it. That is my plan. But if I can pack the history into 45 minutes, the Scots, who like their metaphysics, will have to stomach mine ; or howl me down. In either case we go off to luncheon together at the Union when the Address has been delivered, or interrupted. More than enough of myself. You must not take ' the forties ' to heart. When I had them, badly, in 1905, you helped me as much as any man has been helped by another man. What you feel I have felt. But, now that I am within three years of being fifty, I feel much better. I cannot write of the Conference ; but I am grateful for it. I love the lull. I am very sorry to hear of Lady Atkinson's illness. I laughed out aloud at his ' But it is not padded.' I think you ought to succeed H and outstrip him in the end. I am to speak on Politics most days, on and after November 7th. But to-day, and to-morrow, and until October the 28th, I am bathing in the ' Springs of Romance.' That (but this is, till then, a secret) is the short title of my Address. The full title is THE SPRINGS OF ROMANCE IN THE LITERATURE OF EUROPE Note the limitation. I have tried to observe it. I did not mind foregoing Cathay. But to leave out Architecture 414 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM has been a grim business, considering that St. Bernard preached the second Crusade at Vezelay which I visited last month and that the second Crusade explains Romance, historically. Yours ever, G. W. 760 To his Sister, Mary SAIGHTON, CHESTER, 6.x. 10. MY DARLING CHANG, The great point is that we shall all 5 be together at Clouds on the 15th. 1 I am not skilled in Heraldry, but I like it. If done at all, it must be correct. One thing I do know, and that is that no woman can have a crest. Indeed, in the case of a married woman her husband bears her arms for her. It seems to me that this would not only be correct, but appropriate, to a Golden Wedding. The technical term is that the husband impales his wife's arms. The effect is like this : [Drawing] Au Bon Droit In the half of the escutcheon which I have left blank the Campbell arms of Mamma's Father should be dis- played in full. A woman does not have a crest because she is not sup- posed to wear a helmet. Her husband is her helmet and her shield. So long as he lives, her arms appear beside his on one shield. Nor does a woman have a motto ; for that is a war-cry. Before marriage, young ladies, and after marriage, widows, display their arms, not on a shield, but on a lozenge. 1 For the Golden Wedding of their parents. The discussion of the arms was in connection with the presents the five sons and daughters were preparing. TO HIS FATHER 415 I will see what I can do in the way of a dedication. Your loving brother, GEORGE. P.S. Minnie has some other idea. But I hold to the bound book. It should be made of paper, or parchment, and leather that will last for centuries. 761 To Charles Boyd SAIGHTON, 21.x. 10. MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter of the 17th reached me to-day and was welcome. It would be ' jolly ' if you reached Edinburgh for the Rectorial : Percy would have said, a year ago, ' if you rolled up ; ' now he would say * if you blew in ' a delightful addition to the vocabulary of nonchalance. I am asking Walter Blaikie to send you a ' confidential ' early copy. But, if you do ' blow in ' at the M'Ewan Hall, do not read it. I would like in that event to know from a trusty and truthful comrade whether the thing is tolerable as a spoken Address. I think it is readable. In speaking it I shall omit all quotations, references, qualifications and botherations, in the hope of presenting the naked argument. But all these omissions will be printed. Otherwise many and, for instance, Andrew Lang, will be ' as tire- some as ever.' Blaikie has printed it magnanimously. Yours ever in the bond, G. W. 762 To his Father WHITTINGEHAME, PRESTONKIRK, N.B., October 30th , 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I have booked December 1st and 2nd for shooting at Clouds. 416 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I tried Adey's British Cigars and liked them pretty well for a time. But I got tired of them. I think Havannahs are the best. I am posting a bound copy of my Address to Mamma. It is beautifully printed. Sibell has, I know, written her impressions of the scene, the interruptions made the delivery a strain ; but I managed to fire off a good deal of it and all the end. We motored out, starting at 9.30. I saw dear aunt Connie 1 and Pamela ; and had quite a company of close supporters in the front row. After the Address I inspected the Officers' Training Corps in the quadrangle and said a few words. Then Arthur and I were photographed in many groups. Then we had a huge luncheon about 250 at the Union and, again, a few words in response to our guests. By that it was 3.30 and we were due at the General Council of the University, where Arthur took the Chair. Then to tea with Sir Ludovic Grant, the Regius Professor of Law. I got an hour to myself before dinner and composed my next speech. I dined with all the Professors at the Balmoral Hotel. The dinner is called the Symposium Academicum. The other guests were Lord Finlay, Lord Dunedin and Lord Dundas. We turned out in the balcony to see the Students' Torch-light procession a fine sight like the Carnival with many cars and mounted men. The dinner lasted from 8 to 11.30. I returned thanks for * The Students ' as their representative and made a rather amusing speech. I walked back to the North British with Hepburn Millar, now a professor of law, who used to write in Henley's paper and hails me as a comrade in arms. We smoked a cigar together. He is a Tory of Tories. I took a walk at 8.30 the next morning and had three of the leading Students to breakfast with me at 9 o'clock. The two leaders of the Conservative and Liberal party and the President of the Union. They were very agreeable and we had quite a good talk. Then I motored here where the strenuous life still continues, urged on by Sidney Webb and Mrs. Webb. 1 Lady Leconfield. TO MRS. DREW 417 To-morrow I return to Saighton for a week's hunting ; and then a week's politics. Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE. 763 To Mrs. Drew WHITTINGEHAME, October 3Ist, 1910. ... I read three chapters of ' Martin Eden ' 1 last night, and read it right through to the end to-day. It is a big book. I have marked many pages. Success did not come too late to M. E. If it had come a few weeks earlier, he would have married the false fool ; and that would have been hell for him ; not because she was false, but because she was so little in every way, mind, heart, body. When he was an awkward sailor he mistook the absence of mind, heart and body for the presence of the soul. The author may have lived this in his life or in his imagination. As it seems true, I incline to the belief that he lived it in his imagination. Chaucer could make Emelye, Creseyda and the Wife of Bath ; Shakespeare could make Juliet and Lady Macbeth : this creative busi- ness is done by imagination, not by suffering life. It is a protest against that suffering. What I believe to be true is that the author at present is under the spell of Herbert Spencer and Nietzsche. If he had read poetry instead of biology, Martin Eden would not have climbed through the port-hole at the end, but up to the stars and down again. This book is a work of Art, and, like all works of Art, has a practical value which is mercifully denied to manuals of common sense. I say ' mercifully ' because I hope they will all perish and leave the field some day to Imagination and Art. The by-products of practical value are twofold. In the first place, it ought to be read by every young lady who contemplates matrimony : in the second, it ought to be 1 By Jack London. VOL. II. 2 D 418 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM read by every poet who contemplates publication. The young ladies will learn what they are, and the poets will learn a great deal from the change in the author's style. At the beginning, by his Americanisms and sham culture, he disgusts as he meant to : near the end and in the middle he writes the language which belongs to the truth that transcends nationality and sex and philosophies. In the last six pages he relapses into bosh as we all do at moments of fatigue and relapses the more deeply because he still, doubtfully, believes in Spencer, and still, doubt- fully, admires the superman. I infer that he is still young ; still so young that he can be ' as sad as night for very wantonness.' If I am right, he will, in middle age, cry out, * Hang up Philosophy ! Can Philosophy make a Juliet ? ' He will never make a * Juliet ' or a ' Falstaff,' but he will make some people, and is somebody. 764 To Mrs. Drew SAIGHTON, November 1st, 1910. Your dear human letter is opened last of 40 I found on my return to-night. Sibell tells me she has written about the Address. The youths meant well, but their occasional interruptions, paper darts and snatches of song would have beat me, if I had not worked so hard at the Address that I knew it by heart, and believed in it so much that I made them listen to the last part, after sparing them a good deal of the history and all the qualifications. The only ones who really made a noise were the Officers' Training Corps. And the jolly, illogical fun of this kind of business is that immediately after the Address I in- spected them in the quadrangle. They stood up like rocks and dared not blink an eyelid. To them in that capacity I was a grown man who had been a real soldier that they respected. Romance they considered exces- sive. Then we had a public luncheon, and I made them TO HIS FATHER 419 all laugh. Then we had a Genera] Council of the Uni- versity, and A. J. B. was profoundly perturbed at the suggestion to make French and German equivalent to Greek and Latin. As I discovered that the General Council has no power, I felt calm. For the time being Universities and Courts of Law are not democratic, which is as much as to say the puppets of Financiers and the halfpenny Press. Then Sibell and I went to tea with the Regius Pro- fessor of Law, and were ' death on culture in Chicago ' with the elect of Edinburgh, all in * Edinburgh English.' Then I dined with all the Professors and made them laugh again. Then I walked back to my Hotel with Hepburn Millar, who wrote ' The Literature of the Kail- yard ' and ' The Bounder in Literature.' Then I had the students 3 leaders to breakfast with me at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Then I motored back to Whittingehame and liked ' the Greek Chorus ' very much. On Sunday I played lawn tennis with the Greek Chorus in a grey suit, as a concession to the Sabbath. Then I read ' Martin Eden ' from cover to cover. P.S. And all the time A. J. B. was quite delightful, a perfect host and friend. 765 To his Father SAIOHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, l.xi.10. MY DEAREST PAPA, I will send a bound copy of the Address to dear Aunt Connie. It gave me great pleasure to see her there with her smiling face, full of cleverness and affection. I enclose a letter from the Student (leader of their Con- servative Party) who asked me to stand for the Lord Rectorship. You will see that they meant very well by me, in all their proceedings. 420 The 3rd leading article in to-day's * Times ' is on ' Romance ' and based on the Address. I did mention Homer, as an exception, and the ' Atys ' of Catullus is precisely the kind of thing I had in my mind when I said that the Romantic touches in Classical litera- ture were (1) mainly in the earliest or latest poems, (2) all in poems that deal with alien customs and supersti- tions. The * Atys ' fulfils both conditions. It is early, before the Augustan epoch and deals with the savage rites of religious mutilation. Your loving son, GEORGE. 766 To Philip Hanson SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 3.xL10. MY DEAR P. H., Your letter gave me the keenest pleasure. I was looking out for it and was determined not to make up my own mind about the Address until I had heard yours. I know that you always have a mind of your own and that you always speak it. Imagine, then, my relief at hearing from you that it was ' sweet and easy, simple and firm.' This to a man known only to write in Choktaw ! I care for your appreciation far more than for the reviews in the Press. They, however, are far better than I expected. There is one hi the ' Saturday ' which I naturally like as it is favourable. But it is also informed and I don't know who wrote it. ' Birmingham Post ' was good, but obstinate about Homer ; 4 Daily Telegraph ' very friendly ; ' Times ' had a column ; and so on. I see hi to-day's Literary Supplement of the ' Times ' a review of Sidney Lee's book on Elizabethan borrowings from the French. They mention my name. But Sidney Lee borrowed the idea from my early article in ' Cosmo- polis.' This is not mentioned. I hunted Tuesday and to-day after dining last night TO HIS MOTHER 421 with the Tarporley Hunt Club and amusing them in a speech. But now, my dear Philip, the blackness of night and Tariff Reform overshadows the next seven days. I must work for three, then on Monday, 2.30, I take the chair at a ' Dumping ' exhibition in Manchester, speak at 8 ; move resolution at Conference at 11.30 Tuesday morning ; and take meeting at Bolton on Thursday. I hate politics more and more, and specially after seven weeks of pure Letters. What sort of a copy did Blaikie send you ? If only in grey paper cover, I will send one in buckram. You must get here somehow after the rush of politics. I hear, on good authority, that old Asquith is determined to have a short Session, 4 weeks, whatever happens. There is much to be said for a Prime Minister of his tem- perament. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. If you only knew how much I left out of the Address ! 767 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 6.xi.l(X MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your letter, and if I don't write to you now, ' when will I ? ' For to-morrow I begin a row of speeches in our Lancashire campaign. I have written the first one out and sent a typed copy to the ' Morning Post.' The others must take their chance. I shall be staying at the Midland Hotel, Manchester. I enclose a precious letter. Please return it. W. P. Ker, the writer, is the one man alive, now that Gaston Paris is dead, whose praise of my * Romance ' is a thing past belief. It has flabbergasted me. . I asked him, humbly, if he would allow me to dedicate; it to him ; and he gave his permission. That pleased me more than I can say. And he is not the man to gush over anything. He is the dryest old sarcastic, silent, Fellow-of-All-Souls, on the old celibate foundation ; the ripe embodiment of 422 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM the old Oxford tradition ' nothing new and nothing true, and no matter.* Besides Oxford, he is the history and literature Professor at the London University. Finally, and ' therefore I love him,' in spite of silence and sarcasm, he wrote ' Epic and Romance,' ' The Dark Ages,' and ' Mediaeval Literature.' And yet ... I can't quite be- lieve that he wrote me this letter. Of course one must discount a good deal. It is the tribute of a sportsman to a poacher. And now I must forget it, and get to fresh work. But I must just explain that what he says ' I don't like being spoken of as a master ' is because, in the copy I sent him, I wrote ' To William Paton Ker, the master, from George Wyndham, the disciple,' and I meant it. The fresh work I must get to to-morrow is all Tariff Reform and such tedious botherations, and suspicions, and jealousies, and ' bull-rushes ' from Leo Maxse, and hesitations and all the -ations that rhyme with Damnation. But, on that best of all days which we call ' some day,' 1 promise myself a combination of joy and work. It occurred to me quite suddenly about 4 days ago. I remembered with regret the big book I meant to write about romantic literature, with a leaning towards the French. Then I began to remember all the things I have written, which I had forgotten. They are hidden away in ' The New Review ' (extinct), ' Cosmopolis ' (extinct), and in introductions to books that are out of print, or don't sell. Then it suddenly flashed on me that, without knowing it, I liave written f (or f ) of my book ! And I see exactly what remains to be written. The 4 Springs ' is the first chapter. I never thought of that ; it was a toss up to the last moment, whether I wrote it, or an essay on the theme of the 2 sonnets I read to you the other day at breakfast. Chapter II. not written will be ' The Chroniclers and the Crusades.' It is not written, but I have all the stuff and many notes. That takes me right through the 13th Century. It may become 2 chapters in order to bring in Dante and the Spaniards. Then, just to please myself, I am going to have ' Songs ' (not written). But, after that it is nearly all finished. TO HIS MOTHER 423 IV. (or V.) is my old Poetry of the Prison, about Charles D'Orlans and Villon (' New Review,' out of print) ; V., or VI., is Chaucer (not written) ; VI., or VII., North's Plutarch, written indeed I must cut it down ; VII., or VIII., is Ronsard, written. Indeed I have written it twice and there is a great deal in the old article in ' Cosmo- polis ' that I must print again. VIII., or IX., is Shake- speare, written, and must be cut down. IX., or X., is Elizabethan Mariners in Elizabethan Literature, written in the ' Fortnightly ' 12 years ago. X., or XI., is Scott, written. XI., or XII., is the new French romantics not published, but almost all written with many translations. And besides all these I have written and printed, for a last movement, 2 speeches on literature to learned societies, my panegyric on Henley, my introduction, about Ruskin, to Mary Drew's book, that made 500, for her church not for me. My articles on Henley and Maeterlinck, printed in the ' Outlook.' Aren't you astonished ? I was. I must have written 3 volumes of prose, without knowing it like M. Jourdain, all on Literature, and quite apart from ' The Development of the State ' and articles on Politics. But now I must go to bed. Your most loving son, GEORGE. Enclosure ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD, 5 Nov. 1910. MY DEAR WYNDHAM, This is a glorious thing only I don't like being spoken of as a master tho' it is better than professor, when one thinks of it. I have read the discourse with great delight it is encouraging, and so is your letter. Very different from the organised mechanical research that I come upon in the way of business. An American said to me yesterday that it was a complaint in the Universities there, how people seemed to give up reading when they took to the study of literature . Nothing good is done except by adventurers in that branch of learning anyhow and I hope you will go on. Ever yours truly, W. P. KER. 424 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 768 To Lord Hugh Cecil 35 PARK LANE, W. , 18.xi.10. MY DEAR LINKY, I am most grateful for Percy's poems. I like all those to which you refer me, and shall study them all. I like, too, * The Image of the Heavenly ' on page 19 of ' Broken Lights.' I enclose the two sonnets. I had altered them in several places, but, on the whole, prefer the first form. To a certain extent they belong to you in that form, for I think I wrote them in close connection with a talk we had walking back from Broadway to Stanway. I also send a copy of my Rectorial Address. It is chiefly historical and literary, but at the end as the way is with my thought it fades away ' far in the unapparent.' Yet the last movement was the first in my mind when I began writing. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. THE GREEN ROOM I The world's a stage : ' to tread it we assume A sex, tradition, character and part. We take for granted a great Author's art, Dazed by the glare abolishing our gloom. Bright scenery suggests fair hours and room To conjure laughter, or to wring the heart. Who laughs ? at what ? Do any good tears start ? We guess at all except the curtain's doom. What is the grave? A green-room where the soul Puts by the properties of man or maid. None has created, few can fill a role, Most only walk and leave their lines unsaid. The grave is dumb of all parts, and the whole A drawer for masks after a masquerade. TO HIS FATHER 425 II 'The world's a stage/ where courage, love, and fun, Answer the riddle of Man's agony. The Author, bent on grinding out these three, Contrives a trap no artifice may shun. His tragic plot entangles everyone, Till King and clown, hag, debutante, all see Danger 's for daring ; sorrow, absurdity, For laughter and kindness. Then the play is done. What is the grave ? A green-room where the soul, Disrobed and cleansed from travesty of paint, Stops shuddering at 'the dagger or the bowl.' That grim alternative was only quaint, Since fun, and love, and courage, are the whole, And each poor player, a hero, fool, and saint. G. W. 5.iv.09. 769 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., November 18th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, I am sorry to say that I shall not be able to shoot at Clouds on the 1st. There is more at stake in this election than in any of our time and I must be free to fight every day. If I have a contest in Dover I shall speak there once. Perhaps, even if I do have a contest I shall get leave to fight where the issue is in doubt. In either case I cannot amuse myself during the battle. As at present advised I shall begin in Manchester and surrounding District, work down the West to Cornwall, via Galley's seat in Wiltshire, and then ride a finish in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Arthur made a splendid speech last night and things have gone well with us in the House to-day. So far there is nothing to regret and, even if there was, we have only to fight to the finish. Your loving son, GEORGE. 426 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 770 To his Mother HACKWOOD, BASINGSTOKE, November 20th, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting such a full- blown letter from you at this fate-full crisis. It would be ridiculous to explain. We must act. Well ; I can only say this to you and Papa. All that I am from you the largeness and the precision I have been allowed to say in this utterly secret private body of persons who know, and care, and dare. I do not believe that a more representative group could have met together. Curzon, Arthur Balfour, Lansdowne, Salisbury, Selborne, Harry Chaplin, F. E. Smith and self and others. We have worked hard to-day for five hours. I am satisfied with the result. And now we must fight. But it would make me happier to know that you and Papa realised that we are not sparing ourselves. We mean to declare ; to shew all our cards, to be honest and Patriotic and simple. If we win, all is saved. If we lose ; we shall win when the electorate see. There is nothing to regret. What more can a man ask for. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 771 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, November 23, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I agree with Major Poore. But we must not discuss details however vital, till we have won the battle of a real second chamber against no real one, but a sham, which would be more dangerous than none at all. I feel quite sure that we shall win, if not in the next fortnight, then in the next eighteen months. TO HIS FATHER 427 No ! I see that Major Poore has got hold of my plan viz. : You must group County Councils and County Boroughs together ; and in that grouping we shall revert to something rather like the Heptarchy. But now I must work. I am speaking at the Dover Chamber of Commerce dinner to-night, and shall revive dear Papa's old battle-cry by denouncing the Declaration of London, as he denounced the Declaration of Paris. We are doing well all along the line. I go to Lancashire on Monday. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. If the other side demand details now our answer is that these are precisely what the Parliament they have burked ought to discuss. 772 To his Father 35 PARK LANE, W., November 25th, 1910. MY DEAREST PAPA, Delighted to get your letter in such good heart, considering the stresses we are in. The Declaration of London is as you guess the out- come of Campbell-Bannerman's tomfoolery at the Hague. In spite of what you say justly about the action of Conservatives in the seventies, I think it possible that this extreme folly may lead to a reversion in favour of your contention against the Declaration of Paris. This new Declaration of London has been attacked by the Chambers of Commerce of London, Glasgow, Liver- pool and Bristol. The attack will go home. Incidentally it is a great collateral support to Preference. It is almost incredible but shortly this is the position. (a) We abandoned our right to take Enemy's goods (by the Declaration of Paris) in neutral ships with as a set- off the abolition of privateering (not subscribed to by America and Spain). (b) The new Declaration of London puts ' Food-stuffs ' first in articles of conditional Contrabands. 428 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM The conditions allow Germany to take or sink any ship bringing food-stuffs to England ; and leave us powerless. It is a premium on War by Germany on us, without declaration of War. We may not transfer our shipping to another flag (an ignominious expedient but the main argument for the Declaration of Paris urged by Sir W. Harcourt) unless we do so thirty days before War. But Germany may change a merchant ship into a vessel of War, after hostilities. That is tantamount to reviving privateering. And this is to be the rule of the game after (1) We have surrendered the supremacy of the sea. (2) Concentrated all our Fleet in the North Sea, leaving the Ocean unprotected. (3) With no punishment for destroying a ship, except paying the cost if you are in the wrong ! ! ! (4) Whether you are right or wrong is to be decided by an International Board on which Roumania and Argentina have a voice equal to our own. It is mad. And so are the Governments. Your devoted son, GEORGE. P.S. But I do believe it will scare Lancashire. P.S. 2. If you want to look into this ask Lord Des- borough (Willy Grenfell) to send you the report of the Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce over which he presided. He will be glad to get any further publicity. Tommy Bowles is wild about it. Edward Grey has promised not to ratify until after a debate in both houses. 773 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., November 26, 1910. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am deeply grieved to read the sad news that our friend's wife is dead. I have written TO CHARLES WHIBLEY 429 one word to her son, Rudyard. Will you tell Mr. Kipling that I am thinking of him ? . . . Asquith's speech is a splendid ' target.' I have been hard at work, arming for the battle. On Monday it begins. My interventions are Monday, Man- chester, Tuesday, Manchester, Wednesday, Warrington, Saturday, Cheltenham, Tuesday, Stourbridge, Friday, Swindon, Tuesday, Eyde. Beyond that I wait orders. And probably I shall put in one or two more in between. But these seven, that are arrayed, are all to big audiences of 3000 to 4000 each. In one sense it is a great tax to take large audiences, but, in another, it must be more difficult to speak in rural villages. Each man to his job : and each man to the large audience of employers and artizans ; or to the small audience of squire and farmer and solicitor and labourer can be quite sure of his cause on the Constitution and on Tariff Reform; and sure that we are fighting honourable. Very well ! I repeat this is very well and to my taste. It is a great comfort to say ' Let God defend the right ' and to mean it ! My love to Papa. Your loving son, GEORGE. 774 To Charles Whibley SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 21st December 1910. MY DEAR CHARLES, I am moved to write to you. I am back here after six weeks and two days of Politics. I wish you could come here for a bit in the course of the next fortnight. You may retort that I have not been to Wavenden Manor. That is true. But consider to how many places I have been owing to the combined results of democracy and an inept central office. During this Election, and well inside of three weeks, I have been up and down England three times. I think I have done 430 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM nearly 3000 miles in the train. Very well, then ; why should not you come here even although I have not been to see you ? I put it to you that I ought to stay here for at least a fortnight. I must think, before acting. I ran up against Northcliffe in the corridor of the Houses of Parliament, just before the Election. We suddenly met and pleasantly. I would now like to do what we have spoken of more than once. I want to get five or six or seven who belonged to W. E. H. 1 to dine with me in February. I note that W. E. H.'s ' lines ' are becoming parts of English speech. He would have been glad to see that happen. It was inevitable. But it has happened soon. I wonder if this always happened soon. Did everybody with an inkpot quote * I could not love thee, dear, so much,' etc., within ten years ? I purposely take a hackneyed quotation. Some things stick. ' Where 's Tray and where 's the Maypole in the Strand ' sticks. ' It 's only pretty Fanny's way ' sticks. And now quite a number of Henley's lines have begun to stick. But it is of his best that sticks. He is there with his best. That is a great sign of excellence. All this is relaxation. I have been fighting hard in twelve constituencies, and I know we have to fight harder for all that has value. I should like to talk over the muffled revolution with you. I don't want to * spar ' in private. But I do want to submit my idea of a counter-revolution to a friend who is not a politician, but a student of politics and an Imperialist. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 775 To Hilaire Belloc SAIGHTON, Xmas Eve, 1910. MY DEAR HILAIRE BELLOC, I will write to you once more about your ' Verses ' ; 2 but only garrulously. This is not a considered appreciation. It is the resultant of 1 W. E. Henley. 2 Verses by H. Belloc. Published by Duckworth and Co. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 431 two forces. New poetry compels my attention. Old letters and how many lie unanswered before me dispel my industry. I will have none of them to-night. I have done my share of work the last six weeks. I had taken a resolve not to lapse into letters. I had sworn to myself that I would rest and ride and tackle Politics in four days' time. And, then, here you come along with your volume of Verse ; and I don't want to rest ; I read them before dinner ; read some of them to Sibell at dinner ; read them again after dinner. Now I am in a warm, lighted room at the top of my tower. The wind is trying to say the world's story of wrong and liberty. It is trying to talk like a dog whose feelings have been hurt by its master's absence, or like a ghost with a tremendous secret and no articulate tongue to tell it. The wind shuffles and whimpers round the corners of the tower and bluffs off in gusts of despair to the hills, and then comes back suddenly and tugs at the latticed windows. The wind's inarticulate tongue and wounded wrath and soft gushes of clean air prove to me the great need of verse. Without verse Man is as helpless as the wind and more miserable. Glad am I to have not only the lighted warmth but also your Verses. I will not deny that people are right when they say that 4 The South Country ' is the best of them. Nor will I deny that your sarcastic verses about the rich and South Africa seem to me not so much out of place as in the way of the larger sayings. 4 Everybody,' I suppose, will say these two things : and I belong to the herd. Perhaps because this is Christmas Eve I am lured by 4 Noel ' and 4 The Birds ' and ' Our Lord and Our Lady.' But, of that group, 4 In a Boat ' is the one that hits me and will hit the herd, some day. In literature a great deal depends on what the writer does with the great emotions of Man ; and by these I mean (at this moment) Passionate love, Passionate courage and Passionate fear. Now most writers shirk Fear. Some and I am one smother it under Courage and Love. I have said that 432 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM courage is the fundamental thing. But after reading your Verses I am prepared to be taught that Fear is under courage. I used to hate the ' Fear of God ' in the Bible. But no honest man will deny that the sense of chasm and inanity and being lost like a child is the base of man's being. You get that ' In a Boat ' ! You soothe that in ' The Night.' You comfort that with magic in ' The Leader.' ' The Leader ' is large enough and vague enough to help us all. It helps the practical man in us with ' And after them all the guns, the guns.' It helps the seeing man in us with ' She stretched her arms and smiled at us Her head was higher than the hills.' And then you revert to the primal truth of our station, or absence of station : ' She led us to the endless plains, We lost her in the dawn.' ' The Leader ' is a poem : I believe, a great poem. But the biggest thing in your book is ' The Prophet Lost in the Hills at Evening.' That is great ; because you have taken the emotional vision which came to you in the Pyrenees ; and made it true for us all anywhere. It is as true of a General Election as of ascending a mountain range and coming down on the same side. This is the biggest thing you have done ; and you have done it on the right, crusading, side of Faith. When Peter Wanderwide meets St. Peter, the Porter of Heaven, and St. Michael, they will both know beforehand that you wrote it. They will love you for your faults but they will respect you for this. You will, probably, be very angry with me for saying so, and furious when I compare it with Henley and Kipling. Yet that is the comparison. Your ' Prophet ' is as vast and true as ' out of the night that covers me ' but it is more true. It is as brave as Kipling's ' But I didn't, but I didn't, I went down the other side ' ; but it has the. humility of a greater courage. ' By God 'tis Good ' (Ben Jonson), and it is by God. . . . TO HILAIRE BELJAJC 433 At this moment the Waits have cornc to sing outside my Tower. In their way they arc ringing 'And harbour me Almighty God ! ' under the inscrutable stars. And the uneasy wind has dropped. It is rumbling an obligato accompaniment to their simple crystal melody of certi- tude in the inane. Naturally I delight in the " Cuckoo ' and the Drinking songs and ' The Little Serving Maid.' These are the songs that men have sung for 30,000 ycavs and you sing them well. If I presumed to ' appreciate ' 1 should rank them next after the Christmas Carols Our Ldy group. Both these groups are of things that are necessary and you have done them right well for us, once again. ' In a Boat ' is a transition from these to the heights of 4 The Leader ' and the summit of c The Wophet Lo^t in the Hills at Evening.' The other Group in your book that ranks with these and will be preferred by some though net by me, is made up of ' A Bivouac.' (That 's true ! It happened to rnc in the Soudan. I was asleep dreaming behind the Zariba of those I loved, and then the Hadendowas suddenly shot at us and knocked out the signal lamp.) And of ' The Yellow Mustard.' The Yellow Mustard is as good as it can be. Some will prefer it to the * Prophet.' It is the way, or a way, by which some, who cannot defy the chasm of space, or appeal from its grisly immensity ' And harbour me Almighty God ! ' do get to an absolute release from horror. Any man who can sing To see the yellow mustard grow Beyond the town above, beloAv Beyond the purple houses, oh ! To see the yellow mustard grow is happy, and safe. He doesn't know why he is happy and safe. But he knows that he is secure. He breaks out of the prison of Time into Eternity. Like God, in the first chapter of Genesis, he sees that it is good. VOL. II. 9.V. 434 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I am not as well versed as I should be in the ' Old Testa- ment.' But, speaking from memory on the moment, I believe I have always felt that in Genesis alone God descends to Man, and that, between Genesis and the In- carnation, you have nothing but the Chasm and Jeremiads. The best things in your book are each in its separate way the ' Prophet ' and the 4 Yellow Mustard.' One gives a refuge and the other an evasion. But the refuge is best. In the ' Prophet ' you sing of immortality hi immortal words. . . . And now, once more, the Waits are singing the English version of ' Adeste Fideles.' I am glad to know that the tune is comparatively modern. * I am not Time's fool,' though I do hanker after the thirteenth century. I can say with all my heart and more than all my brain ' O come let us adore Him.' The little figure of Notre Dame de Paris which I bought, ' te duce ' after our walk into Burgundy, is now in a beautiful gold shrine (in Sibell's chapel) made by the village carpenter. How and when did you write 4 The Prophet Lost in the Hills at Evening ' ? It does not matter. Thank God that you wrote it and accept my thanks as an earnest of Man's gratitude. ' By God 'tis Good.' I don't suppose you know how good it is. The critic will say that I hunger and I have no bread. My gourd is empty of the wine. Surely the footsteps of the dead Are shuffling softly close to mine ! is the best thing in it. He will fail to observe that this imaginative simplicity is led up to by the two preceding quatrains. He will fail to observe the ' It darkens,' that follows immediately, and the repeat, c it darkens,' which precedes the climax. Stand about my wraith, And harbour me Almighty God ! I am glad that so big a thing has been done secundum Artem. To make * wraith ' rhyme with ' Faith ' at the TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 435 finish not only inevitably but, accumulatively, ' beats Banagher.' But all the rhymes are glorious and the Poem they wing on its flight hits the gold of emancipa- tion from the sorrow of Man. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. ' And I am awfully afraid.' I bow to you for that line. The whole poem is the best I have read by any man now living. It will be repeated by little children know- ing nothing of the horror you have sounded as long as our language is spoken. My Christmas present to you is a solemn declaration that in this poem you have 4 done it.' You, who are more troubled than I over Immortality, have attained it in this poem and given it to others. What a mercy it was that you lost your way in the Pyrenees ! 776 To his Sister, Madeline SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, ll.i.ll. MOST DARLING MANENAi, I must wind up to-day with a word of love to you. For one reason, naughty Sibell only gave me to-day your little Christmas note of 23 December 1910 ! I do not blame her. In the absence of Benny and Shelagh she tries to run everything. To- night she went, with Clare, who is here to hunt, to Chester to judge a children's Fancy Dress Ball for the League of Pity. But where does Pity come in ? It left me in, even for me, the most funny surroundings. I dined alone with (1 ) Clare's French Governess, (2) Ursula's German Governess . Well, I made the best of it, and really enjoyed my evening. We talked French all the time and wound up with Rostand's ' Chantecler.' I was quite happy and welcomed the opportunity of three hours' French on end. Pamela sent little Clare here, to hunt and be with us. So far it has been a great success I think and we are off to hunt together to-morrow. Charles Gatty, George Street, Mark Sykes, Mahaffy, 436 Ronny Norman, and so forth, have been here all very literary and archaeological. But we did get a point on Saturday. We went to Beeston, the old Norman ruined castle on a crag. On the way up, Mark Sykes said, ' That cutting the way they rode up must be Roman, not Norman.' I answered, ' Roman ! My dear boy, a knob like this has been held by man for 10,000 or 20,000 years before the Romans got here.' Hardly had I spoken, when at the very top, loosened out from its secure abode by the last night's rain, we found the most perfect little flint arrow-head I have ever seen, with clear cut edges, point and both barbs, and as transparent as onyx a gem. My dear ! why do we fret ? Life is immortal. Your devoted brother, GEORGE. 777 To Wilfrid Ward SAIGHTON, CHESTER, January I3th, 1911. MY DEAR WILFRID, I have read the January ' Dublin ' with deep and varied interest. Your political article is most true, because it is profound and calm. My knowledge such as it is informs me that ' Demo- cracy ' has never lasted a whole generation. Ferrero's new history of Rome demonstrates this. When an oli- garchy, based on war and farming, perishes, you get a good two generations, or three generations, of ' Roman Equites.' The prudent and thoughtful oust the political militia. But, they always invoke Democracy after thirty or sixty years. Then Democracy develops the ' cry ' and the * caucus ' and so dies ; giving place to Bureaucracy, or Caesarism, or a combination of the two. My ' little knowledge ' tells me that this is our disease. But my astonishing at forty-seven years of age credulity and buoyant animal spirits say to me ' Tush ! the English will do something that no one else has done.' TO HIS MOTHER 437 If it were possible to tell one's friends all that one thinks and writes and does, I should like to show you all the memoranda I have written during the last year. But that would take as long as it has taken to play my part in this obscure drama. Again, in the January ' Dublin,' Belloc is good. Some will denounce him for making things too obvious. Still, he does, in that article, explain to Tariff Reformers, and Socialists what it is that is worrying them. I read again, after many years, Ruskin's introduction to ' Unto this Last.' Some one, who has time, ought to write an article on that. It is wonderful that any man in 1858-9 should have demanded (1) for the start of life, National Education ; (3) for the end of life, ' Old Age Pensions.' Given these ratifications of what then seemed ranting, it is well worth any man's while to read his (2) for the middle of life. It is the middle of life that I care for. The voyage is more essential than the yard in which the ship is built or the ' port ' which she makes. The 1 yard ' and the ' port ' exist for the ' voyage.' Of course I was enchanted by Eccles on Romance. I can't say how glad I am. I knew where he would criticise ; and deliberately left out the argument founded on St. Michael, which he puts in a foot-note. W. P. Ker who knows more about these things than any one now Gaston Paris is dead, wrote me a letter about that address which took my breath away. He is not lavish of praise, or, indeed, of any words. Yet he said ' This is a glorious thing.' So, I got the only people for whose opinion I care ; on that subject. Yours ever, GEORGE W. 778 To his Mother SAIGHTON GRANGE, CHESTER, 23rd January 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, It was like you to produce the very box for my flint arrow-head. I got a glimpse 438 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM of Cyncie on Thursday and dined with Benny. I had not seen him since his South African tour. We had a great talk over S. African politics and his 2nd. property there on which he is growing wonderful crops of cotton. This venture is exactly the kind of thing which rich people ought to do and all the cotton magnates are agog with interest. He has grown 5 worth of cotton from each acre for which he paid two pennies. But, then, he took the lead and the risk and is now deeply interested in getting the Chartered Company and the Colonial Office to realise what has been done. I do not suppose that you know what good work ' Timmy ' is doing as a director of the Chartered Company. Timmy, with Birchenough and Jameson, are the three whom everybody respects for their work, and for ' developing ' the country instead of merely ' floating ' shares. Benny, Perf and I, had quite a good day's hunting on Friday, and on Saturday we had the ' real thing ' a slashing gallop and forty minutes to the first check. I enjoyed it hugely, but was very stiff after it. Yesterday I dined with our new General, Sir W. Henry Mackinnon at Government House, and had a useful evening. At last we have a man who will move. We have got one, and may get two, ranges for musketry. Chang, Ego, Letty and Guy Charteris came here Saturday to Monday. We hunt to-morrow and other days. On Friday I must attend my half-yearly Railway meeting, but get back to have the 2nd in command, 4 Squadron Leaders and Adjutant to dine and sleep here ; so as to discuss Yeo- manry before I am engulfed in Politics. Of course I am doing too many things. But . . .well ? I still like doing them ; and the Railway people, and Yeomanry and soldier people, and hunting people all help to pull together ; so do the literary people. I brought Belloc back late last night after my dinner with the General. He had been lecturing in Manchester, and Liverpool and lectured again to-night. He was in great form and enchanted us at luncheon to which Benny came. The Political people, on the other hand, with whom my TO HIS MOTHER 439 lot is cast, do not pull together and do not enchant me. Yet as a consolation I reflect that the great woof of English life, with its soldiering, and railways, and sporty, and literature, goes on getting woven and is far more substantial than the intrigues of Party Politics or the grasping dreams of Socialism. That is why I cannot share dear Papa's depression over politics. The real working life of the country is so much more to me than the mischievous tomfoolery of cranks and scamps. I do not deny the menace of their tomfoolery. But I do defy it. I do not believe in its lasting power for evil. I know that all the people feel with me and would follow if one ever had to give a lead. Meanwhile, no doubt, it is irritating to be bound down to the theatrical insincerity of Politics. But that is the price, paid beforehand, for perhaps one more chance of making something an army, perhaps, or a sensible Poor Law, or an Imperial Tariff. It is so delightful to make anything that will last. That being so, naturally, the price of the chance of making anything, is a high one in Politics. But it is not higher than the price of making anything in that or literature. In any case, to * make ' anything, from a horse out of a colt, or a book out of the English language, or a human society out of the jealousies and vanities of mankind- is not easy. It is not meant to be easy ; and demands, in each case, a sort of careless courage, which helps and calms. Of course there is the danger of getting to like ' the pretty quarrel as it stands ' for the sake of its neat antag- onism. But the truth of the matter is that even Sir Lucius O'Trigger does not enjoy pretty antagonism, unless he believes in something worth fighting for. If a man believes that the Universe is not necessarily absurd because it is incomprehensible, he can be happy in that belief, and all the happier because the riddle exercises his ingenuity and patience. Your loving son, GEORGE. 440 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 779 To his Father SAIGHTON, 29th January 1911. MY DEAREST PAVA, I was very sorry indeed to hear of Mr. Kipling's death. I enjoyed my last evening with him and we shall all miss him very much. I agree with you about the Declaration of London. We have got to think of these matters in terms of a War in which we are a Belligerent. All the mischief has arisen from the complaints of certain ship-owners whose vessels were interfered with during the Russian and Japanese war. Percy and I have been hunting hard and having quite good sport. Percy ' pounded ' the first flight yesterday over a gate that was tied up. Your loving son, GEORGE. 780 To Philip Hanson 35 PARK LANE, W., Private. l st March 1911. MY DEAR P. H., 4 Them 's my sentiments.' I believe that everything turns on achieving fairness between ' Parties.' In work of this kind one must expect ' ups and downs.' After writing to you I had a bad ' down ' on Monday. But yesterday I had a much better 4 up,' and I am hopeful. When I say ' hopeful/ I am not thinking of the immediate future : I mean exactly what you say, viz. : that honest work, based on the facts and on prolonged thought, without any party bias, must have a touch of immortality in it, and must be useful. I have a speech to make to-morrow in Hammersmith. Unluckily I have a heavy cold on me, so that ' the dull brain perplexes and retards.' In spite of that, I shall try to do some ' thinking aloud.' The occasion is fairly suggestive. It appears that on TO PHILIP HANSON 441 the 2nd March twenty-five years ago, Randolph Churchill invented the name ' Unionist,' and we celebrate the anniversary. I am trying to say that ' Unionism ' is a true and lasting Political Creed opposed to all other -isms, and profoundly different from Opportunism and from log-rolling. (I did not know I was saying that till I wrote it to you.) I did mean to say and shall say perhaps with that addition that Unionism consists in finding certain prin- ciples common to several * parties ' or ' States in the Empire,' and then standing on those principles, and inviting others to stand with you ; and that this involves the mutual concession of many political predilections which do not conflict with those principles. Suppose, for example, that qua the Constitution I laid down I. Stability. II. Predominance of the House of Commons. III. Ultimate decision of the People. I could deduce from those principles a Constitution on which most people could agree if they were ready to waive non-essentials. I. Stability does involve two Chambers on facts and possibilities, for a * written Constitution ' comparable to that of the U.S.A. is neither actual, possible, nor desirable. II. Predominance of House of Commons does in- volve a smaller second Chamber, and does, I believe, exclude a second Chamber wholly elected, from huge Constituencies. III. Ultimate decision of the people does involve either frequent Elections on mixed issues, or Referendum for rare and grave cases. These are only examples, but they are fundamental. I should then say that on the political creed of Unionism it was impossible to present such a scheme unless in a shape which was not only sincerely, but obviously, free from Party bias. I believe I can make something of this. But to-morrow the offspring of my brain can only be embryonic. By 442 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM next week, when I speak at Cambridge, I shall have licked the cub into shape. My crux at this moment is the difficulty of persuading good, clever and honest men that they must not ' pack ' the initial * second Chamber.' They cannot ' cast their bread on the waters.' The clever ones give excellent, and sincere, reasons for refraining from that imaginative exercise, e.g. ' We shall be betraying the Union ' a shaft peculiarly deadly when it is shot at me, although, if Ulster speeches mean any- thing, I am now credited with having done as much to save the Union as anyone else. I can think of a far more clever defence for ' packing,' but God forbid I should tell them of it. The clever defence of ' packing ' would be that under any reasonable plan for a second Chamber, e.g. with longer tenure of office on (a) ' big constituency elec- tions,' and (b) nominations by P. M., we should now have a * remainder ' majority in the second Chamber, that we are, therefore, entitled to ' make it so ' in initial, transi- tory, provisions ; arguing, at the same tune, that the per- manent provisions will give Asquith a majority in the second Chamber before his majority in the House of Commons is melted or reversed. That argument is not only clever, it is, also, sound. But to strike the imagination it is essential to be, not only fair, but generous. If only all could grasp the exaggerated profits of the ' beau r61e,' all would be well. Unluckily they grasp neither that nor anything. They clutch the air with cramped fingers. Yours ever, G. W. 781 Telegram EAST KNOYLE, March 13, 1911. To Charles Gatty, 92 Victoria Street, London, W. My dear father passed away quite peacefully soon after ten this morning. GEORGE WYNDHAM. CLOUDS. TO MRS. MACKAIL 443 782 To Charles T. Gatty CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, 16.iii.ll. MY DEAR CHARLES, Bless you for your kindness. You know what the loss is. My Mother is splendidly brave ; my dear brother, Guy, has just arrived from Petersburg. It is hardest for him. I believe dear Benny is coming to the funeral. Come too. We shall all love to grasp your hand and you will see nothing here but courage and peace. Of course you must not if it is at all inconvenient. The train leaves Waterloo at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Bless you. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 783 To Mrs. Mackail CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, 17.iii.ll. VERY DEAR MARGARET, I loved your message. 1 I have thought of you and yours very often during these last days, because of Wilbury, and because of Rottingdean, Dear, when I had a second vision of you, doing, so beauti- fully, what I have been trying to do. And before this came I often thought of you as I realised that I could not bicycle down to see you and Angela and Denis and Clare and the Dormouse (was it a Dormouse ?) as I did once or twice, to be happy, and learn about clavichords and spinets. I have realised that very often. But I did not regret. Because I am quite sure that the few, really beautiful things that come to us, are immortal, somehow or other, and, probably, in millions of ways. I do thank you and bless you. Yours, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 1 On his father's death. 444 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 784 To Philip Hanson CLOUDS, EAST K.VOYLE, SALISBURY, S.iv.ll. MY DEAR P. H., I would have written long ago to thank you for your letter, had I not been in bed for a week with tonsilitis. My dear Father was absolutely himself to the very end, and was, indeed, ready for either alternative. He did not surrender weakly, but neither did he struggle to live. His mind was as clear as crystal to the end. The evening before he died he saw Percy, asked about his hunting hi Ireland, and his musketry at Hythe, and then said ' I 'm very sorry about G 's marriage, you won't do that, Percy ? ' in a clear, kind voice. And Percy answered 4 No, I won't.' All the work I have to do here only increases if that were possible my deep respect for his definite character and my admiration of his justice and generosity. Let me know if you are likely to be over any time after Easter. Nothing could be more consoling than a good stump with you round Regent's Park. My dear Mother sends you her love and is wonderfully brave and well. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 785 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., 19th April 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your letter because it was like you. I am not going to guess and fret over the mere machinery of living ' at my time of life.' But just now, for these few weeks, partly because I have great, deep waves of sadness sweeping through me from the loss of Papa ; partly because that feeling impells me to try at least to realise his objects ; partly because it is only \yy using my brains and energy now to put the new life on TO HIS MOTHER 445 a self-working basis, for the very purpose of freeing my brain and energy for large national and imperial duties : for these three reasons I am concentrating, just now, on the ' mere machinery of life.' I hope I have not 4 fussed ' ; but, if I have at all, it is only to protect all concerned from 4 fuss ' in the near future and the far future. I believe that everything will work out well, if I put in a little concentration, and I know that nothing will work out if I don't. Also, I know that my chance of concentrating is a short one. Yesterday, for example, I was, at once, sucked into the Parliamentary Vortex and found myself in charge of our side till 4.30 a.m. ! This morning I was in charge because Arthur went to vote in East Lothian, and nobody else was there except Lyttelton, whom I sent to bed, as he had to speak to-night. Bless you. I love you and, between us, we will see that every- thing goes well. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 786 To his Mother HOUSE OF COMMONS, 20th April 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, Rather a curious thing hap- pened to-day. Our lawyer, H. White, told me that Lloyd's bank had a small parcel of jewellery * which they could only deliver to me. It has to be valued. So I called on my way to the House at that Bank, after making an appointment by telephone. They brought the little parcel and made me open it to show it had not been tampered with. It was sealed ; twice, on the outside cover of brown paper, and once on the inside cover of white paper, and addressed to Papa care of Herries and Farquhar. I do not know the handwriting. The seals show a crest of a stag's head, and on the shield a stag's 1 The jewellery had belonged to his great-grandmother Pamela, Lady Edward Fitzgerald. It had been placed in the bank by his father, and owing to some mistake in the receipt could not be traced by the bank a few years before his father's death. Hence it was believed to have been lost. 446 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM head in a twisted rope across the shield. The date, on both covers, is March 1871 ; just over forty years ago. There was a small square case inside, about the size of a case for a miniature ; and in it one narrow necklace of rather small pearls, with a little round ornament of small diamonds ; and second necklace consisting of an orna- ment, a little gorget I suppose it might be called suspended on a thin chain. I have told them to preserve the paper covers in case the seals and handwriting can throw any light on it. Do you think these could be Aunt Helen's ? You once told me that some packet of hers had been lost. We had better not jump to conclusions ; or speak about it, until I have set White on to tracing the seals and handwriting. All love to you most beloved. Your loving son, GEORGE. 787 To Mrs. Hinkson 44 BELORAVE SQUARE, S.W., May 29th, 1911. MY DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I love ' The Dearest of All.' The poems are beautiful and most true of this sorrow which has come into both our lives. I will never shrink from the dear Dead ; and am sitting in my Father's chair at this moment. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. CHAPTER XIV JUNE 1911 TO JUNE 1913 Wookey Hole The ' Die Hard ' Movement His Silver Wedding The Chapel at Clouds His Library His Son's Engagement and Marriage Rural England. 788 To his Mother THE SWAN HoTEr,, WKLLS, SOMERSET, About 1th or 5th June 1911. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, Your letter about the soft green boughs waving their welcome with the noiseless motion of an owl's flight was delicious. And here we are very happy in this glorious weather. Dear Benny is lending us a motor that arrives to-day. But we wanted to take this place in slowly first. We started from Paddington at 10.30 yesterday, changed and had luncheon-basket at Westbury ; changed at Witham, and arrived at about 1.30. (When we have a motor the 10.30 from Paddington to Westbury will be an alternative route to Clouds.) Apart from preliminaries in and around the Cathedral, Palace, Deanery, Close, Chain-gate and St. Cuthbert's I walked to Wookey Hole, of which I have heard all my life. It is a cavern in the Mendip Hills 1| miles off. Out of it the River Axe flows, transparent and green, into a wooded cleft in the hill-side. I found the guide a youth at the farm with candles and a can of paraffin oil and in we went. It is marvellous. These are the entrails of hill in which our early forefathers took refuge. When the lake-village by Glastonbury was destroyed, the Celts Britons hid in this long hole, and have left their pottery, and coins, and needles and pins, and their bones, in the soil. This Wookey -Hole is but 447 448 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM one of five great galleries into the rock. The other four, above it, used to be the bed of the river Axe ages and ages ago ; now the Axe wells in pools, and flows down the corridors in the lowest gallery ; but you can climb up into the fourth with a rope-ladder. Sometimes the passage is quite narrow and so low that you have to stoop ; then it opens into great chambers, like chapter-houses, 75 feet high. If you scatter paraffin on the Axe and light it, you can see into its green depths. I found out from the guide that the leading spirit in the excavations is a Mr. Balch, in the Post Office. I walked back over the hill by a footpath with a distant view of Glastonbury Tor and as I reached the ridge the Cathedral before me in the evening light. Directly I got back I started out to find Balch and unearthed him in a cottage with a garden full of flowers and children. He was a man after my own heart and in two minutes we were hard at it just as if I was talking to Charles Gatty. My dear ! what a good talk ! He has querns found in the cavern, in which he has ground corn ; a beautiful silver denarius (Roman coin) of 124 B.C. Now perpend ! How is that ? The Roman conquest was in 70 A.D. I plumped at once for the theory that it had filtered through the dim, but civilized, Europe of which Morris tells his tales. And Balch agreed with me. Then he showed me a piece of pottery, striped, but with little holes punched between the stripes, and scattered like constellations, or the chance borings of book-worms. Yet each had been made with an instrument. He asked me what I thought it could be ? I said I have never seen anything like this, and he answered ' and no one else before six weeks ago when I found it.' Then I hazarded ' Is there any repetition of the pattern, because, if there is, you might find a likeness to oghams * just dots in clay, instead of notches in stone.' And his wide, speculating blue eyes, lit with almost insane enthu- siasm. He gasped out, ' Yes, yes, there is repetition, I sent it to London and only one of the Archaeological 1 Ogham is a particular kind of steganography, or writing in cypher, practised by the Irish. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 449 Society doubts it 's accepted as writing ; and as wonderful as Egyptian hieroglyphics only we can't read it.' He has other pottery, with wave patterns, and rows of the wooden combs with which those patterns were drawn precisely as the ' British Workman ' 1 grained his oak, and a little triangle with a hole in each corner. That stumped me. But by the striation in the holes he proves that it was an invention, perhaps of one man, for twisting a triple cord ; and he can make a beautiful triple cord with it. And so on, as the sun set, and the flowers lit up and the moths came out and bats ; bats early in June ! When I told Sibell she telegraphed for Gatty. But we do very well as we are. After dinner I took Sibell up to the ridge and walked back by moonlight, and finished the evening watching a cheap-Jack selling his wares under a gas-flare in the market place. To-day we went to early service at 8. Then I thoroughly explored the Cathedral and at 12.15 got into the library with Canon Holmes and had a debauch with old Manu- scripts. They have a Papal Bull of 1061 with this excellent abbreviation at the end Ix which is BENE VALETE Fare you well, so I will say Fare well, darling. To-morrow we do Glastonbury, sleep here again, and on Tuesday motor to Dunster. I will plant the oak as soon as possible after coronation day. But you must choose where he is to live. With all love. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 789 To Hilaire Belloc SWAN HOTEL, WELLS, (SOMERSET), 6th June 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, I did not answer your letter because you threatened never to write again if I subjected myself to that exertion. Also I was busy and could not see you on Friday. I was busy because I meant to escape a 1 A book of comic pictures by Sullivan. VOL. II. g F 450 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM good word for a great adventure on Saturday. And escape I did with Sibell by the 10.30 a.m. from Paddington to Westbury, where a slip-carriage pulled up in obedience to immutable law (of gravitation). There I remembered with a sharp pang that I had so waited, on the same plat- form, on my last visit but one to my father, and my last visit that was to find him as I had known him from my childhood. But I did not dwell on this, since my purpose was to escape. I ' changed ' and went more towards the west to Witham. There I ' changed ' again and went still more towards the west in a panting little train by Shepton Mallet to Wells. I thanked God, and the imbecility of the English, for a train service which so far has pro- tected Wells and left it habitable. I went to Wells, for a number of reasons : imprimis Sibell loves to live near a Cathedral ; (2) I wanted to see the Cathedral again myself (3) I wanted to have a quiet spell in the library (4) I did not know Somerset and cherished a great regard for Somerset. It is a Diocese which coincides with a settlement. It is a port indeed it is of the Europe before Rome conquered Europe. It was a settlement of the Belgse 800 or 900 years before it was a settlement of Saxons. It was once upon a time a system of sea-meres (Sea-mere-settlement) akin to your Landes and to Venice of the Veneti. It was and it is a part of Europe, and not a settlement for coal-soot. In the train I glanced but once, say twice at a Guide book and learned that Wookey Hole was near Wells. I walked from the station to this town whilst Sibell took the one-horse bus. Twenty years ago there was a one- horse bus at Chartres. That is still the vehicle at Wells. As I walked I read ' Wookey Hole ' on a sign-post : and that determined my fate. [But here I must digress. I admit that the sign-posts in Somerset are enamelled in white and blue like adver- tisements of 4 Simplex ' or ' Cymplus ' water-closets. I admit this. But take it that the boys of Somerset have TO HILAIRE BELLOC 451 so bombarded the sign-posts with stones as to leave little of the enamel and much of the rusted iron foundation.] That sign-post decided my Fate. On the plea that I needed exercise after a perfunctory turn round the Cathedral I walked to Wookey Hole. It is a pure joy : I think the only natural wonder and human legacy from languages in this country which has not been spoilt. You ask for a guide at a farm ; walk through somebody's stable-gates, into somebody's orchard full of white chickens, wander on by a path that undulates on one wooded bank of a dell hewn by the river Axe and wait for the guide. When he comes he is a farm lad of fifteen years armed with two candles and a can of paraffin. With that boy you penetrate into the entrails of the Mendip Hills. You climb and descend tortuous corridors into great chambers, like Chapter-Houses, and see beneath you the subter- ranean River Axe. Now, the boy-guide speaks of one, Mr. Balch, as the excavator. So when I emerged (like Virgil) and returned to Wells I sought out Mr. Balch, the assistant Post-Master, and found him in a cottage no more with a garden full of flowers and his children. In two minutes we were at it, talking as we talk together of old times. That man has the fiery particle. He is a Celt, with blue eyes. His pride is that Wookey Hole was not inhabited in the Stone Age, but was a fastness of Celts, who used bronze and iron and made pottery, and wove and kept goats. He has an immense collection of their works. He rejoices (as our grandfathers did over Waterloo) because when the people who lived in the mere by Glaston- bury were swept away, some Celts * our people ' held on in that ' reduit ' of the limestone crags. I could tell you of the coins and combs and needles and querns that he has found. But I won't. Not I ! For I purpose that you and I shall one day and quarn primum start from Clouds, with a motor (merely to revert to old routes and save time) ; and that we shall ourselves try to understand the civilization of 300 B.C. (1) on the upland of Salisbury plain (2) by the Sea-meres that being reclaimed are now So-mer-set. 452 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Meanwhile I am sure of many things that I suspected and of one that I never guessed. The one thing I never guessed, though you may have known it for years, is that the comb, as an ornament for a lady's hair, is the comb with which she pulled down the warp on the web, when weaving, and, sticking it in her back-hair (as a clerk puts his pen behind his ear) retained it for an ornament and symbol of married estate. It would be great fun to dis- cover that the spinster only spun and that the mother who wove stuck the weaving comb in her tresses. What fun that would be ! And that is the kind of fun which I mean to combine with shooting partridges for my younger friends. I have mentioned the comb. But I have three things much more marvellous and enticing of which I will say no word ; no I not one word even when we meet. They are the bait that are to attract you to these parts. You may infer that I have cared only of archaeology. You are wrong. I had a great time in the library also. What I liked best, and far beyond an autograph of Erasmus, an Aldine Aristotle etc. etc., was just a Papal Bull of 1061 A.D. five years before the conquest. It was a com- fortable thing, in legible Latin ; Petrus et Paulus-^-or it might be of last week. And it ended with an excellent abbreviation as this : =Bene Valete and so say I to you and yours. Yours ever, GEORGE W. P.S. I go to Dunster to-morrow. Then to Cirencester. Then north and my next * address ' is Hewell Grange, Redditch. (Hewell Grange, Redditch) on Friday. I shall fetch London about the 16th. TO CHARLES T. GATTY 458 790 To Charles T. Gatty THE SWAN HOTEL, WELLS, SOMERSET, 4th June 1911. Facing the Cathedral. MY DEAR CHARLES, This is the kind of hair-pins we are. Sibell was so impressed by my excitement over Mr. Balch assistant Post-master (for his profession) and a genius at archaeology (for his glory and our delight) that she telegraphed incontinently to you to join us. I knew it was impossible. But the ebullition expressed our feel- ings. Let me explain at once. . . . Mr. Balch burrows into the entrails of the Mendip Hills and emerges from Troglodyte habitations, laden with flint implements, bone implements, bronze implements, iron implements, and the bones of our predecessors in Britain. He has been a pure joy to me a Celt with speculation in his clear blue eyes, who rejoices, as our grandfathers did over Waterloo, because in his opinion (buttressed by an array of facts) when the Lake Village near Glastonbury was blotted out, ' our people ' as he says stuck it out through the Roman occupation, returning to the caverns of the Stone Age and the Hyaena, and held their own till the last waves of Saxon conquest pushed them over the Parrot river, and even into Wales. Having explained why I am pleased, I will now revert to the Historic Method. By this device you will know all the time that * Balch ' is looming beyond the normal expectations and fulfilments of a visit to an ancient Cathedral. We left Paddington at 10.30 a.m. yesterday, Saturday 3rd June, 1911. It seems years since to me. Our ' slip ' carriage stopped at Westbury in obedience to the law of gravitation. We changed and went West by Frome to Witham. We changed and went West again by Shepton Mallet to Wells. Thanks to the imperfect railway system of our Motherland, Wells is habitable. We arrived about 454 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 1.30 on a sultry day. Perfunctory glances at the * Guide to Somerset ' had as I travelled told me that ' Wookey Hole * was near Wells. I walked to this Inn, whilst Sibell took the one-horse 'bus, and, so, passed a signpost on which I plainly read Wookey Hole. This determined my fate. After a preliminary stroll round the Cathedral and that is wonderful for the statues, and specially the statue of William the Conqueror, with his elbows more than akimbo by 45 degrees and the chain gate, etc., I said to Sibell that I should be bilious if I did not take a walk. So, on the plea of health, and the cheerful disposi- tion that springs from health, and is essential to a holiday, I started along the road (knowing no better) for Wookey Hole. I vaguely knew the name and was informed by the Guide book that Boyd Dawkins found a Hyaena cave there 50 and more years ago. That was all my know- ledge, but enough to direct my purpose. I found the village of Wookey Hole, and was told I could get a guide to the Cavern at the farm by the paper- mill. All in due order, a smiling maiden at the farm set me on the track to the cavern, and said the guide would come. Charles, as Sir Thomas Malory frequently remarks, ' all this was but enchauntement,' for Wookey Hole is no place of holiday resort, like Stonehenge. When you leave the road, by the Farm, you pass through a stable gate into an orchard full of white chickens ; you see a little path from the orchard beginning to climb and fall and climb along the left side of a steep dell, which promises to become a gorge, with the river Axe that is so soon to make paper translucent and green over white sand below you. You sit down and await the guide. He appears a youth of 15 or 16 years, with two candles and a can of paraffin oil. He speaks in the language of Barnes, 1 which is easier to read than to hear. Away you go with him along the dell that becomes strange. It is heavily wooded on both sides ; there is a hanging mist over the water. The path rises, and, as the river Axe is now 50 feet below you, issuing 1 The Dorsetshire poet. TO CHARLES T. GATTY 455 from the rock, you are confronted by a beetling crag of limestone, from every ledge of which the jackdaws discuss your advent. In the base of that crag there is a little locked door 4' 6" high. You unlock it. The youth advises me to leave my stick inside, I add ' and my hat.' He says * No, it might save you from a blow on the head later on.' We light our tapers and go in. The narrow passage, between boulders, and threatened by hanging boulders, descends and mounts as the path had undulated. Only it is inside the mountain. He throws a flask of paraffin on the rock and lights it with the taper, now and again, to assist climbing or descent. Then he began to talk about what sounds like Mr. Bosh. I become in- terested in Mr. Bosh. I ask how tactlessly ! him to spell the name. He thinks there is a r and an h in it. But, anyway, this is where his hero found a skeleton of a man and the skeleton of two goats and pottery. And this shewing a sheer cliff up to the left, is where his hero gets up by a rope ladder into other galleries and halls. After descending a steep incline, so steep and long that we reach the level of the River Axe, we come into a great cavern, like a Chapter House, 75 feet high, with a diameter of 40 yards, and there is the Rivei Axe. He throws paraffin on its surface, lights it, and reveals cool depths of translucent green over white sand. We go on, and do this twice more. For there are three great chapter-houses inside the hill, and more beyond, now blocked by the water-level. Balch has explored them when the water is drawn off by the mill, half a mile behind us. We return. I walk back by a footpath over the hill, with Glastonbury Tor six miles to my right and Wells Cathedral in front of me. I miss Sibell, and ask for Balch. I need him. I am conducted by the 'bus-driver of the Inn to an alley leading to a cottage garden full of flowers and children. The 'bus-driver goes to the back and hammers. Balch, the blue-eyed Celt appears at the front door. I announce myself, and my dear Charles 456 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM in two minutes I am ' up to the hilt ' with him as though you and I were talking together. My dear, this man is a man to know. He has plans and sections. He has written ' The Nether- world of the Mendips.' He has his rows of flint implements and his photographs of all else. He is perfectly simple and wide-eyed with enthu- siasm ; but a true scholar. There are the querns from Wookey Hole which he has mounted, and with which he has ground flour to taste what it was like. Then come the simple questions, 4 What do you think of this Denarius of Marcia 124 B.C. ? It is nearly 200 years before the Roman occupation.' I say I think it was not hoarded by a Roman, but that it filtered through the Europe of 124 B.C. He agrees. We get on to Rhodes' gold coin of Antoninus at Zimbabwe in Rhodesia. He knows all about that and has a brother there. Back, then, to Wookey Hole and Conundrum No. 2. He shows me the bulk of an earthenware jar with stripes from top to bottom, and between them holes deliberately made with a wooden tool, but disposed well like the constellations, or the chance holes made by bookworms in wooden bind- ings. And he asks what I think of that. I say * I have never seen anything like it.' He answers, * Nor anyone else till six weeks ago when I found it in Wookey Hole. I 've sent it to London. What do you think it can be ? ' I felt excited and said, ' If there 's any repetition of pattern, or anything like the oghams, holes in clay, instead of notches in stone, you may have got a script.' His blue eyes blazed. He said * They all think that in London except one man. We read the Egyptian hieroglyphs and dig in Crete ; why don't we try to understand the things here ? ' I said, ' I hope you can stay here.' He answered, 4 1 have stayed for sixteen years and prevented my pro- motion, and now my friend, who worked with me, is gone.' I asked if the P.M.G. knew of his work. He answered ' No.' Then he came to Conundrum No. 3. A bronze equi- lateral triangle with a round hole in each angle. I was TO CHARLES T. GATTY 457 absolutely flummoxed. I thought of silly solutions an ornament for harness stuck on with gold pins, etc. any- way a plaque of some sort. But he said ' No ; each of those holes is striated. This is the invention perhaps of one man for making a perfect rope with a triple cord ; and I 've made them with it.' Well, my dear, I must not go on any longer. But this is a man to know and a place to study. I asked him to luncheon with Sibell and self to-day. He accepted. But I saw it would be better not to press. I said, 4 This is my holiday at Wells. But it 's your holiday too, and you must not bother about me. I live within easy motor reach and have a friend, Charles Gatty, who loves these things, and we must come to see you together.' So he gave me his address, and showed me a short way back to the Inn, and remained in his cottage garden full of flowers and his children, just as the moths and bats were coming out in the sunset air. Sibell was an angel about my delay and merely tele- graphed to you. I walked her out after dinner by moonlight to the heights ; went to early service at 8, and collared Canon Holmes and got into the Library at 12.15. The Library ! But for the Stone Age and the Celtic resistance to Rome and the Saxons, I should have been wild over the library. Mark you, there is no break in the Deans of Wells. It never had a Monastery. So Henry viu, of uxorious memory, did not smash it. Free- man says that here are more ecclesiastical buildings still devoted to worship and learning, than in any other city of Europe. And that is so. We have a Cathedral, a Palace, a Deanery, a close, a Theological College in the buildings of the 14th Century, and miles of high walls overgrown with saxifrage and Valerian * lilac d'Espagne.' What I liked best in the Library above other treasures e.g. an autograph of Erasmus and a Pliny by Jensen I think is a Bull of 1061 five years before the Conquest 458 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM in legible Latin Petrus et Paulus, etc. With this perfect abbreviation at the end =Bene Valete and so say I. Yours affectionately, GEORGE W. P.S. We do Glastonbury to-morrow. Go to Dunster Tuesday. To Cirencester Wednesday, and wind up on Friday the 9th at Hewell Grange, Redditch. It is evident to me that you and I must motor to Wells from Clouds, and stay there two or three days, and hear all that Balch has to say, and see all that Balch has to show. Also, perhaps, you being in touch both with Hudson and Archaeology and loving the Celts might let Lloyd George know that Balch ought to have a Chair of Celtic archaeology in a Celtic University, or that he should, at least, be curator of a Celtic museum. 791 To his Mother KING'S HEAD, CIRENCESTER, 1th June 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, S. S. and I have been drinking in this miraculous June weather, so I just write to tell you, Darling, that we do know how wonderful it is. We have never had a motor. I have known for long that S. S. would like to do a tour in England, Benny lent us a motor and here we are. I told you a little bit about Wells and forget where I left off. But that does not matter, for the beauty of these days is continuous, like Eternity. It has no end and no beginning ; but pervades. I have seen some things in these two or three days that belong to eternal beauty. And I enjoyed them all the more because a rush south from Dunster to Exeter, through * scenery ' (The Exe river valley) set an edge on my rapture over things that are so much more beautiful than * scenery.' If I tried to tell you of orchards, and the horizon of the Down and many churches and some tombs, TO HIS MOTHER 459 and high walls with Valerian in full bloom, and one rose- bush near Glastonbury and the after-glow this evening, and the moon, with a planet hard-by, this night : I should drop into the language of Bottom the Weaver. ' This shall be called Bottom's dream because it has no bottom.' Wessex in such a June is profound and ethereal. I have learned much history and invented more. But to take the bones of our voyage : We left Wells yesterday morning ; sped across the old sea Mere (whence Somerset Seo meare soetan) past Glaston- bury, the Isle of Avalon (built by Hugh of the other Avalon in Burgundy) up the shoulder of the Polden Hills (here was the rose-bush) and then down the spine of them (they are low amicable hills) with the plain of Sedge- moor to the Quantock on our left (or West), and the inland mystery of Avalon enclosed by the Mendips on our Right (or East) and so, turning West, to Bridgewater and over the Parrett river (with ships in it) that was for over 100 years the frontier between Saxons and British. We sped then along the west of the Bristol Channel to Dunster, The Priory Church is beautiful, the screen right across the church, from wall to wall cutting off both circles as well as the Choir, is evidently the model which Bodley has imitated and profaned. Beyond it were many monuments of the de Mohuns and one that made me gasp. It had a head on a cusp one of four heads. But the one [Drawing] I have marked X is of such surpassing beauty of the beauty of 1220 A.D. that I go on bowing to it like a china Mandarin. Need I say that there is no copy, or drawing, or photograph or cast of it in all England. But there it is, and also in my mind's eye for ever. Then, as we have done forty-six miles before luncheon, as I knew S. S. liked to see all Cathedrals and as Exeter was but another forty-two away, I plunged right South to Exeter along the Valley of the Exe, and we watched it grow from a spring to a river. It was a glorious day. 460 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM But that valley is ' scenery ' and Exeter Cathedral is not of the 18th, still less of the 12th, century. It has two Norman towers, oddly enough, perhaps uniquely, at each end of the transept. And it has one tomb of my Black Prince period. (There is no photograph of that tomb.) Then back those forty-two miles to Dunster. We are glad we did this. Because it is glorious to move through the air on such a day and because it made to-day more beautiful. To-day, with a fresh wind blowing and a power for seeing for forty miles, we came back up the Polden Hills, saw the Tor of Glastonbury and understood its place in the Europe of 300 B.C. Here I digress, to give, or anticipate, a view long held which I focussed at dinner and, now, knew to be true. Near Glastonbury there is a lake village. Archaeologists start with the idea that Lake Dwellings are primitive and almost savage. They are surprised to find, combs, bronze bowls, etc., etc. They don't see two things. (1) the point is, that if people lived thus on mud-piles in a swamp, other people in 300 B.C. must have lived far otherwise and to more splendid purpose on the Isle of Avalon. The Lake Dwelling was to Avalon what Pentonville is to St. James's. (2) The second is, that a few years before 200 B.C. the * Gauls ' captured Rome, and overran Asia Minor. Now, think of those two things. Do they not demon- strate the absurdity of considering all that happened before the Roman conquest of Britain as barbarous and primitive. I could go on. But what a digression ! I conclude it. We got back to Wells and shot up the East shoulder of the Mendips on to the uplands and lunched at Ammer- down with Lord and Lady Hylton. We started again at 4 p.m. through Trowbridge, passing the old Inn at which Monmouth slept the night before the Battle of Sedgemoor. Then we turned due North to Melksham, and Chippenham and Malmesbury. At Malmesbury we had tea, and saw all that is left of the Abbey. I cannot explain my satis- faction at being back architecturally in the 12th and early 13th century. But I know. Without attempting argument I assert ; and, if challenged, I avoid discussion TO HILAIRE BELLOC 461 to silently believe, that the art of 1180 to 1230 was a perfect expression of man's tenure of this planet ; There it was ; and there, thank God, some of it, is. Then we called at Charlton ; a good Jacobean House. Then we shot, further north, to this place, Cirencester. I had associated it with rhymes to ' sister ' and Percy's ' point- to-point races.' Instead of which the church though late is wonderful. There is nothing tremendous between true ' Romanesque ' (Norman and transitional, if you like) and the ethereal decadent (?) attempt to say ' I will build my Palace of God out of Glass.' This Church is a wonder, of aspiration and stalwart discovery. Because evidently, to the eye when they pulled down the old thick walls of the Early English nave, in order to build four naves, which you can see through (such is the extent of the glass) they said to themselves ' But will the old Tower stand ? ' They asked themselves that question. And they answered it by two stone flying buttresses such as I have never seen : for they go from the shoulders of the Tower right down into the earth. And they undulate to leave free the West windows of the naves. This was long after dinner in the after-glow. The tower was rosy from the after-glow and, when you went beyond it, a dark blue concentration of stone against a star-lit aquamarine sky. But, to me, there was something greater and more homely and immemorial. My Henry n. had built Almshouses on arches. And there they are. For nearly eight hundred years his foundation has sheltered the wrecks of men. Well, well, enough, if there could ever be enough. The moral is : to travel, and in England, and in June. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 792 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., June 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, Hurrah for ' More Peers.' I found them on my return yesterday and took both copies to 462 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM dinner with Westminster ; so that we could read aloud to each other at the same time. And this we did with glee. Let me know when you will be in London and let me see you soon. Yours ever, G. W. 793 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S. W., 20th June 1911. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, This is your dear Birthday and I have not written in time ! But I am thinking of you and loving you and wishing you many many returns to be loved by me and all of us. I saw Percy who had loved being at Clouds. I now send you back your little tree notices. The Valuers have been here. The ' expert ' says the picture of Percy O'Brien Wyndham is it ? that hangs in the front drawing-room over the cabinet between the two doors is a Romney. I wonder if it is. And he made a great fuss over the Monk in a red hood eating gruel, that is in your boudoir. I expect he means to crack it on both of them. Darling I am longing to see you. S. S. and I enjoyed our motor and when we have yours, you and I must go to Wells. I will write you a proper letter soon. This is only to send you all my love, Beloved. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 794 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 29/A June 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, The last few days have been rather strenuous for me. I had said, weeks ago, that I would move the first resolution at the Annual meeting of TO HIS MOTHER 463 the National Service League. Lord Roberts asked me to do this. And the debate on ' The Declaration of London ' came on at the same time. So, on Saturday to Tuesday I had to study all the voluminous material on two big and complicated questions, and to prepare a speech on each. Then the usual things happened. I spoke to a full audience in the Queen's Hall on ' National Service ' and no paper except the ' Morning Post ' re- ported me. In respect of the speech on ' Declaration ' I was told to speak to-day, then telephoned for to speak last night, then told no more. So I had to speak suddenly at a few minutes notice. Under all these discouraging circumstances nothing but my love of Papa would have helped me to prepare, at all, a speech on the Declaration of London. But, just because he worked so well against the ' Declaration of Paris ' in ' the days of ignorance,' and the House was ' counted out ' on the night when he had first place, I did, superstitiously, and filially, work at the second speech. So, when, quite suddenly I had to get up, I spoke for forty-five minutes in the House. I did this work as a tribute to Papa, who understood forty years ago, what the people are learning now. But for my memory of his undeserved neglect, I could not have gone on. Your most loving son, GEORGE. I had such happy dreams after making up my mind to go on. 795 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.., 1st July 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your letter. It made me glad to have spoken to the House and glad to have written to you about it. The ills from which England is suffering demand a long cure. I may not live to see her convalescence. But I think we have 4 touched bottom,' or sunk so deep that we must believe in rising. 464 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I do believe that we shall rise and emerge. And I know that when that happens all men will revert to revere the memory of those who, like Papa, saw clearly in the dazzle of false sunshine. My duty is to see clearly in the gloom of real darkness. I do see, and I shall act. Your most loving son, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. I am not gloomy. There is less light. But the things are here in England. We shall see them when the sun rises. 796 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELQRAVE SQUARED S.W., 1st July 1911. MY DEAR, BELLOC, The ' British Revolution ' is huge and subtile. I have been reading it to Westminster and he has carried off my copy. ' By God 'tis good and if you like 't, you may.' We do like it. Although you and I and Westminster and e.g. Sir Francis Hopwood let us say differ over theories, all men are agreed that what is going on is absurd. The Party System, and the House of Lords, and the bumptious Colonials and the Humanitarians and the Socialist gaolers of children are absurd. Let them go, and if to Hell, why not ? Unless they go there ; everybody else will. I wish I could laugh at it, to stop crying like Byron. But I can do neither. It is too ridiculous for laughter and too sad for tears. It is only silly. England like poor Ophelia is drowning herself to echoes of Bawdry and simple flowers. Meanwhile other Powers are more philosophic than Hamlet and more resolute than Fortin- brass. * Under these circumstances ' and Hurrah for a cliche I will wear no willow. Let us rather enact what faded prints report of our ancestors. Yours ever, G. W. TO WILFRID WARD 465 797 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 3rd July 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, Thanks for a great letter. I hope that you will heckle Baron de Forest. And now you are never to talk of not coming in, or of not proposing yourself, at any hour on any day : for many reasons of which I will instance a few, e.g. (1) this is the basis of friendship. (2) It is my protection against those who are not my friends eating into my life or, to change the metaphor, perturbing its orbit. By a friend I am never perturbed. (3) By coming in and talking about the Declaration you enabled me to speak on it, the day after my National Service speech. (4) Had you refrained I should have addled my brains over one speech instead of clearing them over two. (5) I insist on seeing you when you who are really busy have a spare moment. Agadir. ' Does my memory serve me ' in ' seeming to suggest ' that you told me the French greased the boots of their Infantry to prevent the occupation of this very place and would have fought on that issue ? Yours ever, GEORGE W. 798 To Wilfrid Ward 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., July 19th, 1911. MY DEAR WILFRID, I have read the eleven slips. But I doubt if, beyond chronicling that fact, I can say more that is worth saying. For, at this moment, I am not only watching, but taking part, in the political welter, com- parable to the theological welter of seventy years ago and onwards. And this demands all my energy. But and this is my excuse for writing at all it does not exhaust it. On the contrary, your acute analysis of Newman's temperament and intellect in a theological whirlpool, VOL. II. 2 G 466 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM helps me to grasp the antics of my comrades in a political whirlpool. Let me jump to the moral. The moral is that action (by martyrdom or championship) does more at the moment and, often, for many years, than can be effected by a balance of acumen and virtue. On the other hand, the strange, or rare, (same thing) combination in one man of ' sceptical ' acumen with * military ' loyalty if he has the gift of speech leaves a cue to the progressive integration of Truth, which becomes intelligible and illuminating after seventy or one hundred and fifty years. Then, and then only, is that man acknowledged as something else, or beyond, a martyr and champion. It is then seen that he was a seer. The mechanical difficulty with which you are to contend consisted in the anachronism of writing the life of Newman 50 or 100 years before the world can be expected to detect the prophet as the third person (if I may use an analogy which is not profane) in a Trinity, which includes the more obvious champion and martyr. For any great cause there is needed the champion of the past and the past is the Eternal Father of the present and future there, is, also needed, the Martyr to the exigencies of the present, in conflict with tradition ; and there is also needed the Prophetic soul, proceeding. It is this proceeding which gravels the critics. They can dimly perceive and, in part, assess the creative tradi- tion ; or else, they can assert the majestic agency of the irreconcileable offspring. But they rarely connote the two ; and the critics never apprehend the ghostly emana- tion from that conflict which is the Comforter of the elect. Now, to drop this parable, you have tried to explain the co-incidence in Newman of the Champion and Martyr ; and, not satisfied with that attempt, you have proceeded to invite a world-wide acknowledgment of a ghostly emanation from his alternations of triumph and despair. You are right ! But you are so right that you are in the same boat with him. That is to say that you are in the boat that is always apparently wrecked by the TO HILAIRE BELLOC 467 waves of the world that sin against the Holy Ghost. But that is the only boat that in reality reaches the Haven of Peace. I know that boat ; and am trying very ineffectually to navigate it through my little cess-pool of Politics. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 799 To his Mother 44 BELGBAVE SQUARE, S. W., 2,Qth July 1911. 10 a.m. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, If anything could make me love you more your letter would. But nothing can as I love you all together and your letter is a piece of your own self. If only the 304 Peers who mean to ' walk out ' of History into limbo and nothingness had been born of Mothers like you History would be different. ' Non ragionem di lor mal guarda a passu.' Now I am back to the fight. Bless you, darling. Ever most loving son, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 800 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELGBAVE SQUARE, S.W., 29th July 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, I have read your article on the Declaration with interest and approval. But don't you think that amendment should not be confined to food i.e. to Food as conditional Contraband ? Surely we ought also to insist on amendment in respect of the destruction of neutrals when taking them to a port involves ' danger ' ... to the operations in which the captor is at the time engaged ? The destruction of neutrals in 1904 by Russia shocked the world. We protested and received some assurances. The practice was discontinued. When it was repeated in 1905, we protested and Russia replied it was a mistake 468 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM due to their maritime disorganisation. Surely it is pre- posterous for us to ask the world to sanction the de- predations which shocked the world at that time and conduced, perhaps more than anything else, to precipi- tate an attempt at improving International Law ? As a minimum of compromise (1) Food should not be con- traband unless obviously for the use of armed Forces and (2) Neutrals should never be destroyed unless (1) carrying munitions of war and (b) no other course is open to the captor. Please read the report in Hansard of the speech I made yesterday. The ' Times ' report is an outrage. Yester- day they * boycotted ' my speech on National Service. To-day they mutilate my speech on the Convention and put (hear, hear) at the end instead of ' cheers.' This declaration of London is a bad business. Yours ever, GEORGE W. 801 To Wilfrid Ward 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., July 30th, 1911. MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter needs no excuse. It states simply what is in the minds of most men. There is a fierce indignation against those who threaten to vote with the Government against their own convic- tions, for the sole purpose of preventing the creation of peers at all costs, including the cost of a general acquies- cence in a policy which the majority of Englishmen believe to be disastrous. That indignation will burn up the Unionist party if this outrage is committed. Against the Peers who have formed no judgment of their own nothing can be said if they follow the advice of Lord Lansdowne. But among those who have announced their intention of * walking out ' with Lord Lansdowne there are some who will do so from a sense of loyalty, although they have formed a judgment opposed to his view, and are sincerely convinced that they ought if free to vote against the Government. TO WILFRID WARD 469 There is a strong feeling that Lord Lansdowne ought to restore liberty of action to men whose consciences are wounded by what he asks them to do, and that he ought to denounce the project of any Unionist Peer voting with the Government. Those of us who act with Lord Halsbury will not yield to any pressure. The Peers among us will vote with him, and the members of the House of Commons will support their action in the country. We shall not publish a list of Peers who will vote, for two reasons. In the first place, the essence of our cause, is that members of a second chamber ought to be inde- pendent, and ought not to be ' items ' in a voting machine. We hold that their personal independence is necessary to the corporate independence of a second chamber ; just as we believe that the corporate independence of a second chamber affords the last safeguard of the nation's right to pronounce on grave measures before they are decided by the Party-caucus. In the second place ; if we with- hold our list those who say they will vote with the Govern- ment must discover for themselves the exact number of 4 black-legs ' needed to consummate the ruin of the House of Lords and destroy the constitution for ever. We are not going to measure the margin of treachery required to complete so infamous an act. They must attempt that nauseous task unaided save by the authors of the Revolu- tion and the Harmsworth Press. We believe that they cannot effect their purpose and are determined to defeat it. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 802 To Wilfrid Ward 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S. \V., August 4th, 1911. MY DEAR WILFRID, I must write a line of thanks for your letter and enclosure, although I am tired. Our Meetings to-night at Chelsea and Holborn which were only advertised to put hearts in our troops have been passionate triumphs. 470 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I cannot explain the situation, for it changes from hour to hour. Last night the Government decided to risk defeat without creation of Peers ; as preferable to risking both defeat and creation of Peers. To-night on the brink of our Meetings something like a white flag reached us by devious channels from the ' Abstainers.' But nothing will shake or divide, or puzzle us. We shall fight on Wednesday unless all our opponents friends and foes surrender. And we shall stand the racket of a ' stricken field.' If we are beaten by Unionist abstentions and deser- tions to the Revolution all is lost except and for this we fight the one chance of restoring the constitution which resides in our refusal to abandon the constitution. If we win on Wednesday we win * the day ' ; but know quite well that victory will be the mere beginning of a long campaign. I do not share Froude's regret, and yours at the absence of public response to Norfolk's letter. He has saved the State. We ask no more than he has done. It is enough if the Peers are not deaf to the call of Honour and blind to the signals of common sense. All through the days when the Court, the Bishops, the Press, and both Party machines were firing at us, with threats and ridicule and bitter blows I have believed. I told Sibell there would be a miracle. And behold ! ! we have the country with us and what is far more a sure faith that will survive defeat and save this nation. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 803 To Wilfrid Ward ST. FAGAN CASTLE, CARDIFF, August 13th, 1911. MY DEAR WILFRID, The issue is tragic, even more so than you would deduce from our numbers 114 in the TO WILFRID WARD 471 Lobby. We knew that we should reach that figure there or thereabouts. But we hoped I did almost to the end that we should get a rally from independent Peers who had not declared themselves. We thought that our case, being the best case, would win votes during the debate ; and the more so, since our speakers by their sincerity ought in our judgment to have prevailed over the insincere and base and timid. I went through our list of promises with Willoughby de Broke, for the hundredth, and last time on Friday morning. We numbered 115. In view of the chances and changes of life it was a splendid result to poll 114. In Politics we are always told to deduct 10% from pro- mises. But our Poll represents over 99% of the result indicated by promises. Of course there were slight variations of detail. Aber- corn deserted in the afternoon and Mayo was too ill to travel. As against these two we got Norfolk and Halifax. There was only one missing whom I have not traced. Our estimate on the morning was that taking gross numbers, our 115 versus all official Liberals adding to them ten Bishops and twenty-one renegades, there would be a tie at 115. Some of those who played the poorest part, kept assur- ing me that there would be few renegades. I was shewn a list of nine. But I replied that we put them much higher. To all intents and purposes 37 men voted against their convictions and the Archbishops and Bishops were 13 instead of 10. It is a bad business. For the moment I cannot see the future. There is no getting away from the fact that Unionist Peers and Bishops carried the day for single-chamber tyranny, knowing that it inevitably involves Home Rule and Disestablishment in Wales ; and that they did so at the bidding of Harmsworth Press which was directed and informed by Curzon and Midleton. I would and I will dismiss the suspicion that our Leaders connived 472 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM at this tragedy. I will believe that they were blind and obstinate. . . . Even so, I cannot see any Future. Perhaps there is no future. I try to dismiss this as an effect of fatigue and prefer to think that a mist has risen between me and the future, and that it will evaporate and reveal some horizon again. After a short rest, during which we have agreed to say nothing, my Friends will meet and consider the new situation. I cannot get to ' Lotus ' next Sunday and will write in a day or two to say if Monday the 21st is possible. I have not shaped my views and must await a clearer vision. But they tend to condense round the three propositions : (1) There must be action. (2) Action must not be hostile to the abstainers, but (3) It must be separate from them. So it seems to me. But I must rest and think and confer. Then we must act. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 804 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 24/A August 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I never answered your last beloved letter. I go to Saighton to-morrow for only a day or two. As they have cancelled Army Manoeuvres a bitter disappointment to me I must arrange for a Camp and training in Cheshire. I am coming to Clouds on the 31st vrith Perf and Guy and no one else just to look round at the partridges and shoot a few for your dinner. I cannot write yet about the Betrayal in the House of Lords. But I have not been idle. I should have wished to act at once. But others cannot be got together at present. Still I am not letting the grass grow under my feet and the 4 Conspirators ' are in close touch through the post. I am afraid that the news about Germany is worse. TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 478 I was very pleased with my Yeomanry as I had only 20 applications for leave. I should not have granted more than ten and would have brought out the regiment practically at full strength. I shall now put my back into training them and then prepare for hard politics all the Autumn. All love to you, Most darling, and may England pull through the betrayal of politicians, strikes of socialists and menace of Germany. Anny way, we have to help Her all we can ! Your most loving son, GEORGE. 805 To his Sister, Madeline SAIGHTON, 27.viii.ll. MOST DARLING MANENAi, I must send you a line of intense regret over the cancelled manoeuvres . It is cruel to lose such a joy. But there it is precisely where most of the things one cares about are. It was a shrewd blow to be beaten in the Lords by 13 Prelates and 31 traitors and 6 mountebanks. My ' book ' on the morning of the 10th allowed for 10 Prelates and 21 traitors. And, behold, there were more. But so things befall in these days. And we must begin all over again like Robert Bruce's tiresome spider. I have begun the manoeuvre business ' over again ' by getting a capital camp in the Park here at Eaton for train- ing. I have fixed up the water supply, settled a road for access, etc., etc., and to-day walked 9 miles with Percy over the adjoining country making out schemes for field- days. I mean to give them the best training I can, because like Cassandra (who was always right though never re- garded) I take a grave view of the Franco-German mess in Morocco. It is always 100 to 1 against war till war breaks out. But one must treat the off-chance seriously. 474 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Indeed, I cannot take the cancelling of our manoeuvres because of ' drought ' seriously. They were cancelled the day after an inch of rain fell. On the same day the German manoeuvres were cancelled I don't know why. The French manoeuvres were cancelled because of ' foot and mouth disease.' Our Indian manoeuvres were can- celled because of drought. And the French Ambassador to Berlin went to bed, instead of going to Berlin. All this is as Alice in Wonderland puts it ' curiouser and curiouser.' So I train here close to headquarters and give no leave. If you, Charlie and Poussins all or any of you are left rather ' flat ' by the cancelling, do come all or any to Saighton for our training, 9th to 23rd. Your loving brother, GEORGE. 806 To Charles T. Gaily CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 2.ix.ll. MY DEAR CHARLES, This is a scribble, to try and secure you for a little archaeology from Clouds. I hope to get back here from Yeomanry on 23rd September, and have suggested 25, 26, 29th or 30th for a visit to my friend Mr. Balch, of Wookey Hole. He writes that all his Celtic ' finds ' have now been returned from London, and that he has a good deal to show me. He would like to see any of my books about Celtic inscriptions in Ireland. My Yeomanry trains 9th-23rd in the Park at Eaton. I wonder if you could come to Saighton first and see some- thing of Sibell, Benny and self ? Then we could travel back together on the 23rd. We might motor all the way in the new motor and look at Stokesay Castle en route. Yours ever, GEORGE W. TO HIS NIECE, CLARE TENNANT 475 807 To his Niece, Clare Tennant CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLK, SALISBURY, 4th September 1911. DARLING LITTLE CLARE, I loved your letter and the Equestrian portrait. I shall frame it and keep it in my room. It is very good and natural. Percy and I have 8 hunters here. They love being visited. When they hear my steps, out comes a long row of long faces on long necks over the bars of loose-boxes. Then they rub me with their noses and think in their dear, slow, puzzled way about hunting ; remembering dimly that there is something else in life more glorious than eating. On Wednesday to their huge surprise at 6 o'clock in the morning they will see the Hounds and the Hunt Servants' liveries. Then they will remember it all dis- tinctly, and give a little squeak of joy and throw a buck. But the summer flies will remind them that it is only cub- hunting, and their slow thoughts will revolve back to the cool comfort of their stables. But on Thursday Terence and Cardinal will say 4 Hullo, going by train, are we ? ' and get into horse-boxes by force of habit. When they get out in the evening they will think they are going to their stable at Saighton, and wonder why they are ridden to Eaton. Then they will see white tents and remember the call of trumpets and the other glory of mimic war, and * the thunder of the Captains and the Shouting.' So they will be very happy doing the things that their ancestors did with Man's ancestors 15,000 years ago. For the men of the first Stone Age drew some excellent portraits of long-faced horses on the tusks of mammoths ; and, we must suppose, loved the horses. Terence and Cardinal will feel that it is wise to go on doing what horses have learned in 5000 generations to do. They feel this. They will not think it, for they are happier than philosophers and feel things an art which philo- 476 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM sophers lose the knack of. They will see and smell and hear that, in camp, there are as many horses as men, and be very proud of the equality, and of the number of horses all pawing the ground and grunting together. When the silver-throated trumpets blow ' Feed ' ; they will all neigh together ; partly because they are always ready to eat ; but, also, because they feel a strange thrill in their slow brains when one sound makes them remember one thing distinctly : the strange thrill that Man felt when he was learning to speak. The next morning when the trumpet sings ' Troops right wheel ' round they will go so suddenly that the recruit more ignorant than they will nearly tumble off on the near side. Thus, again, will they feel the joy of companionship with Man, heightened by generous emulation in the Arts of Peace and War. Your loving uncle, GEORGE. 808 To Hilaire Belloc CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 6th September 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, I write a few words of companion- ship. This letter is not to suggest or settle anything. It is only, in written words, that which, in spoken words, is called by the young and careless ' passing the time of day.' For this is a profound truth and a nice discrimina- tion between categories. The old, who are wise and careful, say * It 's a fine day ' or, perplexed by doubt, ask ' Do you think it will rain ? ' But the young and the very young with greater insistence and repetition ask again and again ' Please, Sir, can you tell me the time ? ' Now we, who are neither old nor young, may wisely avoid assertions about the weather, and, yet, usefully, communicate knowledge about tune. For example, I will even now tell you that it is twenty minutes to twelve, after noon, on this day, the sixth of September A.D. 1911 (G.ix.ll). Of that I am sure. (For I have looked TO HILA1HE BELLOC 477 at a good clock, after looking at the stars.) And, thus, we may hug some security : and take heart of grace. I have been happy to-day. I got up at 5 a.m. and rode out through the mists with my boy at a quarter to six and drew for foxes (Cub hunting) and found them and then breakfast at 9. And then, the Estate Carpenter (who employs ten men) at ten. And then the Secretary for a bit. (As a result he has written thirty-seven letters.) And then the agent (of the farmer class) and then lunch. And then household business ; and then two hours sleep. And then Lawn Tennis. And then old memories at dinner with my mother. Now, all this sounds trivial. But it means content to a number of Englishmen. And through it all I have been reading G. K. C.'s Ballad of the White Horse. And through it all I have been hoping that you and he will some day, on a day of the days come here and take in the downs and the vale with me and be glad of England. I say ' and be glad of England.' Of course, politically and economically it is sad and we are divided about remedies, and prepared if it must be to be beaten, or shamed by Germany. But the lovely land is here and the loveable folk, and the old memories and the hope as good as when the same stars shone on it, any time these ten thousand years. Some day I would like I would love you and Gilbert Chesterton to poke about the detail of this bit of Wessex with me ; not as archaeologists or ' literary gents ' but as lovers of this land and of its people. Yours ever, GEORGE W. P.S. You may consider this letter an affront to Sussex. On the contrary the Habitable or (Ecumenical parts of the earth consist for Englishmen in the counties of Sussex, Wiltshire, and parts of the counties of Gloucestershire, Hampshire and Dorset. With the rest we have to do, but it is in these that we can live. And to applaud the 478 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM excellence of any one of these is for us to assert the necessity to us of them all. If we grasp that we can understand on equal terms the Latin and the Gael. I will not be troubled over others. And, we can revel in * The Ballad of the White Horse.' Nay more if you come we can go and look at him. P.S. 2. I am aware that Chesterton has gone to live in Kent and deplore his departure from London. There was much to be said for Kent and something may still be said. But, O Lord, the aliens that infest it ! London but to write of London would be excessive. In a second postscript it is enough to say that London if Cockney is respectable. 809 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLB, SALISBURY, 1st October 1911. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I cannot say how much I miss you here at every moment. I don't think I have ever been at Clouds without you. I went out early the morning after you left and found two doves, one on each feeding-bracket to right and left of your window, like supporters to a coat of arms. Detmar Blow put in good work over the Memorial 1 and the Library. The Partridge shooting was a success 136| brace and 110| brace. I have been wandering about the Park and, when next you are here, we will toddle round together and you shall confirm or advise on some clean- ing up and clearing out, which would I think enable people to enjoy the views and good trees better. I shall have to be in London on business and Politics (Die-Hards) for a day or two this week. So we will meet, darling Mamma. Perf thinks that when there is Electric light when ? the lamp-room would make a beautiful Crypt chapel for S. S. 1 To his father. TO MRS. HINKSON 479 Charles Gatty has been looking through some of the old deeds about this place and has found two beautiful ones. (1) of Charles n, with engraved portrait of the Monarch and gold letters. (2) of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector. I am going to frame them leaving a record that this has been done and putting the record also on the backs of the frames. They are beautiful bits of engraving and writing and interesting. So they ought to be seen. Darling I do miss you here very much indeed and very badly. The Pomegranate has blossomed on the 1st of October ! Your most loving son, GEORGE. Willoughby de Broke was enchanted with the place. 810 To Mrs. Hinkson 35 PARK LANE, W., October 12th, 1911. DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, You have often given me joy by your books ; and by your letters, at those moments of life that count for ever, a sense of peace and companionship. But I like your last letter because it is long and a letter of a friend, though we have never met. As life goes on, and some are taken from us, and some whom we love are away for long absences, we realise the minor importance of such accidents as seeing and hearing. Such a friendly letter from one whom I have never seen chimes with such thoughts. I did like the new poems and am glad that you write in the ' Eye- witness.' To read a poem by Katherine Tynan in a paper edited by a friend carries me back to the days of the ' National Observer ' and Henley. I will send you a photograph and believe that prayer and kind thoughts are an armour of protection. I wrote a few lines the other day and send them as a poor return for your poems. 480 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ARX AMORIS. Because I love, and death threatens, but shall never Take into darkness my adored, I will build a city that shall last for ever, And fight for it with my sword. Truth soon grows old, life lags for death to end it, Love only is beautiful and still new : I will cradle it in stone, and set steel to defend it, And forget fear and be true. Yours gratefully, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 811 To Lionel Amery 35 PARK LANE, W., 18.X.1911. MY DEAR AMERY, I have had a bad cold since the 12th, and a good deal of work. So forgive the delay of this reply. I have studied your notes on the Home Rule Question carefully, and will make, first, some comments in passing necessarily hurried and then state, also shortly, the policy which I believe should be pursued. (1) (2) To sum up. My conclusion is that, now, with a fight before us, for National and Imperial existence, we should, in respect of the Irish section of the Fighting Line, do 3 things. A. Denounce the tainted origin of the Home Rule Bill ; decline to look at any measure by means of the overthrow of our Constitution ; insist that the Union was handi- capped by charges of political corruption and duress and that Home Rule cannot even by Home Rulers be launched by the actual commission of those crimes. And retaliate by declaring that, being at war, you will dis- franchise Redmond's rotten boroughs. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 481 B. (1) Strike at the false analogy with Colonial self- Government and strike hard. (2) Declare for Ulster and never abandon her. C. (1) Insist on Tariff Reform and National Tariff. (2) Restoration of Land Purchase ; National welfare. (3) National Transport. This needs more careful con- sideration, in the course of which two factors must be taken into account, (i) We shall have a recommendation in favour of nationalising Railways ; supported by Socialists and resisted by Shareholders, (ii) If credit and cash is devoted to this object, there will be neither for the institution of small ownership. My inclination and I would be glad of your view upon it is To defend the shareholders against the Socialists, and, as a quid pro quo, to get through rates for agricultural produce on all railways in the United Kingdom ; accom- panying this stipulation if need be by guaranteeing existing profits on transport of such produce in return for the construction of suitable rolling-stock, refrigerator cars, etc. This has been done in Canada. We have a great opportunity which will be missed unless we link up a ' Rural policy ' with a * Railway ' policy ; and cannot be taken until we get Tariff Reform. Such a Policy would tighten the Union and relieve our Industrial centres from the back-wash of ruined husbandmen. It is a Unionist Policy for all parts of the United Kingdom, and leads to what I most desire, a square fight of Unionists against Separatists and Socialists. 812 To Hilaire Belloc 36 PARK LANE, W., 22nd October 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, I am ignorant and eager to learn. I only know of Alfred's doings in our country by oral tradition and the names of ' King's Settle J 1 and * Alfred's Tower.' 1 A wood near Shaftesbury. VOL. II. 2 H 482 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM But I am sure you are right. Alfred camped just west of Great Ridge Wood. I have always felt the mystery of that spot. You may remember that I pointed it out to you as we motored from Warminster and that I told you I must take you to Wylye Wood : that 's the place, or hard by to it. Why called Wylye Wood I don't know for it is miles from Wylye village and the river of that name. I am sensitive to such places. I discovered some such interest about the Lea Mill near Saighton and took people to see the place and feel it for years before I knew that Sir Hugh de Calverley lived there. But the wild land between the west of Great Ridge and Wylye Wood is haunted. Here we have one of those eddies of deep emotion which persist long after the stream of Time has passed on. It is a haunted spot. The Stone-Curlew or Thick-knee breeds there. Just off to Clouds after making a speech about Nelson last night. Yours ever, G. W. 813 To Charles Boyd SAIGHTON, 23.xi.ll. MY DEAR CHARLES, I am grateful for your thoughts. Think of me again to-morrow, Friday, night. I have to take on the Free Trade Hall a large order. I am deeply interested in Tariff Reform, but it is difficult to put it to a vast audience. I felt the sadness of things when Arthur Balfour re- signed. But he chose the moment with all the wonderful clearness of his mind, and the manner with all the kindness of his heart. ' He nothing common did, nor mean, Upon that memorable scene.' And he wrote me an affectionate letter which I prize, and told me not to be too pessimistic. For all that, and all that . . . you can understand. Yours ever, G. W. TO HIS MOTHER 483 814 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, llth December 1911. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I was just going to write to you * for company ' when S. S. brought in the design of Fisher's Cross for dear Papa's grave. I am so glad that you do not like red brick. Here in this land of green and grey waiting for the glories of blossom in Spring and Summer and of the Sky, at many hours on most days in the year, it is an outrage to put red bricks anywhere, and an insult to put them in the grass, near a wood, hard-bye to a 13th century Church tower and under a northern sky that changes from dove-colour to crimson and gold, and Persian blue behind the shifting scenery of soft clouds. Your cross with green-sandstone about it will begin my monument in the right way. I shall finish my monu- ment or if I die Percy will finish it. But the great thing is to begin in the right way. Then the rest has to conform. I shall finish our plot in the church-yard and my library just with Mallet, 1 using the wood that grows from, and the stone that lies beneath this soil. And, most beloved, your beginning will guide me. All the ' ways ' of life show me that Eternity is true, and not time, and that other 4 times ' however good are manifestly false. Blow, 2 who lived in 1220, now lives in 1690. But we live for ever and must say so in what we make. I shall, therefore, to come back to the library, do it in my own way and not in Blow's ' period.' All this consoles me for the cross-purposes of Time. I had arranged my duties so as to be here with Percy. But, I had to make speeches while he was here and now that I am here he has to do Adjutant at Wellington Barracks. So it is and how can I regret ? I do mean to get out of Politics when I can. But I 1 The estate carpenter. 2 Mr. Detmar Blow. 484 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM can't now. Percy is so sought after in his soldiering that I have had to pursue him in order to arrange my own Time-Table so as to see him sometimes. He was offered, and accepted, a staff post as Aide-de- Camp to General Rawlinson commanding the 3rd Divi- sion at Cholderton(\) Then he was offered the Adjutancy of his battalion ; and he had to choose. He has chosen the A.D.C. job. I think rightly ; as he had said ' done ' on that before the other chance opened. I think that Papa would have liked him to stick to the thing he had accepted. As that is so ; he will live and that does 4 touch up ' the past at Park House where we used to go and see the race-horse Fox-hall ! I hope after the next three days at the House of Commons to get four weeks solid here and to get Percy for most of it. After that I have to run a political campaign in Here- fordshire and another big one in Lancashire and Cheshire. Meanwhile I am to write an essay on * Land Purchase ' for a book jointly composed against Home Rule : and I am Chairman of the Sub-Committee on ' Defence ' in the Halsbury Club. So that ; with these two campaigns of speaking and two campaigns of writing and organising I am ' full up ' till Easter ; as I shall have to do * Army Estimates ' and also so I hear our opposi- tion to Welsh Disestablishment. I got a day's hunting to-day and as Perf is away had three horses to ride. I enjoyed it very much ; had good talks to farmers, got very hot ; and felt fairly young. Love to darling Manenai and to Charlie and Poussins and all love to you, Beloved. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 815 To Charks T. Gatty CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 19.xii.lJ. MY DEAR CHARLES, We are overjoyed ! I think you had better telephone to the stationmaster at Waterloo and TO HIS MOTHER 485 ask him what would be a good train, and then let me know. The usual afternoon train is 3.30 p.m. to Semley. But the time-table may be altered. You will find me hard at the Library. We have knocked down four walls and are up to our waists in bricks and mortar. Also, to descend to the basement, I am making a chapel for Sibell in the lamp-room and have got about 100 feet of beautiful old panelling, with pilasters. I have four different plans for using the panels, and you shall help me to decide. I am glad you are coming. Yours affectionately, GEORGE W. 816 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 21st December 1911. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I send you all my love for Xmas. I miss you here all day long ; and am counting the days till you are back to look at the first flowers. I hunted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and hope to hunt Friday and Saturday. Meanwhile Mallet and I are getting on very fast with the library. We had to change Blow's design as it would have cut down the windows outside and spoilt the face of the house. So this gave me a good excuse for changing his plan inside too. Only I wish, most Beloved, that you were here to tell me how to do it. I must send you his drawing and Mallet's ; so that you can tell me to stop if I am spoiling it. I don't think I am. Blow left 1| feet between the book-cases and the beam in the ceiling with an ornament squashed by the beam. Mallet and I are carrying the cases up to support the beams. It will look safe and I believe be safer. Then, Darling, in the Lamp-room I am making Sibell's Chapel. I bought about 100 feet of very dark, formal, beautiful panelling, with a lovely pilaster every twenty- 486 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM seven inches dividing the panels. It is exactly the right height ; and with a white-washed barrel-vaulted ceiling, and red brick floor, gives a simple deep colour chord to the whole. It was the deuce to know how to manage the panelling round the two square brick columns that carry the two low arches running North to South between the three barrel-vaults. But I think I have done it and Mallet approves ! I put a pilaster in the centre of each face of the two columns ; and in the centre of each face of the four projections two in north and two in south wall, that are opposite the columns. Then I put a pilaster, the middle one of nine, in the centre of each of the side walls West and East. By a miracle if you mitre the panelling on each side of the pilasters round the two square brick columns they fit with a waste of only two inches of panelling. But I can't describe this. I will draw it for you. And now I give you a great hug and all my love and a longing to see you. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE. 817 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 2lst December 1911. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I said in my letter of this afternoon that I could not describe my idea for Sibell's chapel but would draw it for you. Well here is the scrawl I have made after dinner ! Owing to drawing away without a plan it looks like a hall in a Palace. In fact, the space is limited and the ceiling low. Also the breadth west to east is less than the length north to south, whereas, in the scrawl you would suppose the contrary. The scrawl is made from my memory of the Lamp- room and from my imagination of the Chapel. The points are three : TO HIS MOTHER 487 (1) The cornice of the panelling exactly reaches to the spring of : (a) The 3 barrel vaults springing from W. to E. and (b) The spring of the 4 low arches that (in two pairs) divide the barrel vaults. The plan of the room is like this : [Drawing.] (2) By putting a pilaster (a) On the S. faces of the projections from the North wall ; (b) On the N. faces of the projections from the S. wall ; (c) In the middle of the W. and E. wall ; (d) On all four faces of the two columns : It follows that the pilasters conform to, and emphasise, Philip Webb's architecture of 3 barrel- vaults, divided and supported, by two low arches. So much for form. (3) Colour. The floor is rich red bricks. The panelling is deep brown old Italian ' noce ' chestnut- wood. All the roof (vaults and arches) is white ; white-wash on good brickwork. That those three things are the idea. The luck was that having been in the Lamp-room once I saw at a glance that the panelling would just do the trick. The charm is that the Lamp-room becomes a brother to the chantry underground at Assisi which I saw in 1887. The purpose is to have no little things in this chapel. It needs no more than some silver sconces and the smell of bees-wax and incense. Of course I leave the space behind the altar i.e. between the projections from the south wall to S. S. There she can go 4 nap ' by degrees in a gold-cloth reredos and embroidered altar front. The opposite recess will have no pilasters for two 488 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM reasons. (1) There are none to spare (2) It will be the family seat and a flat back to one's own back will not be amiss. Your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. Detail. I have got 39 pilasters to ' play with.' On S. wall 3 each side of Altar recess = 6 On W. and E. walls 9 =18 On N. wall (W. side) = 3 "27 That leaves me 12 To wit : on face of N. & S. projections 4 On four sides | Columns 8 T2 The altar recess in S. wall has no pilasters ; because it can have a reredos. The opposite recess in N. wall has no pilasters because there are none to spare and we don't want to scratch our backs. The remaining third of the N. wall has no pilasters because there are none to spare and there is the wide door into the chapel which can be adequately treated with jambs and a panel on each side. It is almost miraculous that a chance purchase should fit the lamp room. (S. S. is really pleased) It is not quite miraculous because the whole thing is as men of science say * susceptible of the simplest explanation.' The explanation is that Philip Webb * was a man of genius. S. S. tells me that the wine-cellar if properly treated - might challenge the forest of pillars at Cordova. I shall look for the Lion-Court in the Brush-room ! 818 To Hilaire Belloc CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLK, SALISBURY, 22nd December 1911, MY DEAR BELLOC, It is high time I should write to you and Christmas is the time for writing to friends. Yesterday I wrote to my Mother, my brother and three 1 The architect of Clouds House. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 489 sisters. To-night I write to you : not that I am over- burdened with news or with views. I have nothing to say. I follow a natural inclination. As the vernacular has it * I feel like writing to you.' And I just do it without excuse, explanation or purpose. It would be an imperti- nence to tell you what I have been doing (and suffering) : because we have not been doing and putting up with it together. It would be a savage act to solicit your account of your farings. But I must fore-gather with you in the lull of Christmas. Lord ! How I love that lull. Like so much else it is mechanical. I contrive it by sending my secretary away to his home, for his holiday ; and then, treating my correspondence with contempt. He ' barges ' in from Chester, where his Father lives, with ' urgent business.' I lock it up in a despatch box and swear to Xmas that no business will I 4 transact ' That was the word ? before the 5th of January. I escaped from the cut-throat cage of Politics, in which slime usurps the place of gore, last Friday. I became once more an animal and a man. I shot rabbits with two neighbours on Saturday. I hunted the fox, with neighbours, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and to-day Friday. I shall hunt the Fox to-morrow with neighbours. On Thursday I wrote of my love to my nearest and dearest. This Fox-hunting is a great matter. I have not lived here since 1886-87. But, just by these few days, I know the whole terrain 30x20 miles and I know many who such is the pass we are in were eager to welcome me. Now, to-day, just because my boy Percy and I asked forty Farmers to course hares here twice, farmer after farmer found me out and begged me to ride over their land. The coursing of Hares stigmatised by the Pundit of Fox-hunting as ' mad for a minute and melancholy for an hour ' is the oldest sport. And now that Alas ! fewer farmers can afford to hunt the Fox it is what they love. They breed the greyhounds and have as a rule, only two outlets for their skill and keenness. They read the |d Press about the Waterloo Cup and have one rotten, betting-bedevilled-meeting. But when you 490 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM welcome them all onto the land and have a lunch of sandwiches in a barn and a bottle or so of vintage port, why then you feel that in the South Country we have not been Jew-ed out of the England of Shake- speare and Chaucer (before him) and Michael Dray- ton who in Polyolbion has a great passage about coursing hares. What a glorious piece of the earth is South England ! And how happy we can be together in it. Now about your coming here and Mrs. Belloc and your musical cousin, if she so pleases. My holiday lasts only to the 5th January. Then I must work and go to Hell, viz. : the Platform till the end of January. But, after the end of January, I mean to take the first fortnight of February solid here, with my friends. So, if it smiles on you come from now to 5th January or, from 1st to 14th February ; or both. February would be the best time ; as Christmas and the New Year involve local duties. I hunt the Fox most days and you may infer that I should not be companionable. On that supposition you would err. Because I have a motor. That implies that my friend if he likes can go out with me in the machine leaving at 10 a.m., see the country, visit the ancienc monu- ments ; lunch at an Inn and take me back at 3 to tea here at 4 and have four hours to dinner ; two hours at dinner and two to three hours after dinner. During these hours 9 to 12 I prosecute the Muses and two as I think interesting ventures. I am making the whole top of the house on South side into a library and, in the bottom of the house I am making a chapel for Sibell. It is great fun. I am doing it with my carpenter. We have knocked a vista from one side of the house to the other upstairs : and are just at the ecstatic moment of deciding the size and shape of a band of mullioned windows West and East of the roof. Downstairs in what was the Lamp room and will be the chapel of Our Latly I am having the time of my life. This crypt for such it is consists of three barrel-vaults with two pairs of low arches between them. I found thirty metres of old Italian TO HILAIRE BELLOC 491 panelling with thirty-nine pilasters. I am enthralled in the task of making that Lamp-room a counterpart to the underground church at Assisi : with no silly pedantry. The carpenter and I do it. I have just read the last ' Eye-Witness.' It is very good. Wedgewood is insane and that spoils his paper. But the rest is all I could wish. But here I stop. God forbid that I should slide back into the slime. I liked Junius' letter to Brookfield. He puts far better what I said to Selborne and others three weeks ago. They were babbling in chorus on the false line. I stopped them by saying ' If I make a silly joke about the Holy Ghost it may be in the worst taste but it is not so offensive as a long dull book to prove there is no God ! ' I gather that Robertson in * Pagan Christs ' has concentrated the range and venom of Frazer. I have thought since the first (mild) edition of 'The Golden Bough 'that comparative Mythology ambushed Christianity to a more deadly result than (1) Astronomy (2) Geology (3) Darwinism. But, when I first reconnoitred this new attack, I replied to Wilfrid Ward (1) If there was a revelation it could not be in Choctaw. It was in Greek. (2) It could not be in mythology as alien from Mediterranean thought, as Choctaw from the Greek tongue. It was in the religious tradition of early Europe. Since then I have reflected that Western and Northern Europe (with Baldur) provided the channels which the Jews and Arabs could not provide for a relatively fuller revelation of God. The Epiphane was the other way about. It was only when the Jews hit the West that Christianity began. It was only when the North hit the Mediterranean that God was in part revealed. The true date of the Epiphane is about 1170 A.D. The result may be seen in the architecture and social fabric of the 13th century. The effects of reaction towards the East may be read in the * Eye-Witness.' A merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you and Mrs. Belloc. Yours ever, G. W. 492 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM 819 To Hilaire Belloc CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 29th December 1911. MY DEAR BELLOC, In order to be clear I begin about dates. Your dates are the best for me, say 6th February to 13th. On that day I must dine with Bonar Law before the By Our Lady Session. I have steeped my body and brain in wind and rain. For I hunted five days last week and four this and always get soaked to the skin. But in the ancient riding-coat, leather breeches and boots this does a man good. He becomes a hot, happy, soppy, sweaty animal with a blithe heart and no mind. So I cannot write lucid prose or undulating verse. I can only wish to you and Mrs. Belloc All Happiness in the New Year and say how glad I shall be, and Sibell, to welcome you on the 6th February. Yours ever, G. W. 820 To Mrs. Hinkson CLOUDS, SALISBURY, December 29th, 1911. MY DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I did not know to whom I was indebted for the ' Life of Edward Fitzgerald ' and now hasten to thank you for the gift which I shall prize. It will be a link between us if you should live at Frescati and will deeply interest my beloved mother. She was touched and pleased by your book which reached her through Lady Grosvenor. I can only thank you with all my heart for the unseen, but nearly felt, friendship which you show me and wish to you and yours all happiness in the New Year. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. Your letter made me home-sick for Ireland. We talked only of Ireland last night. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 493 821 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 29th December 1911. MOST DARLING, BELOVED, MAMMA, This is not a letter, only a line of LOVE and little outburst of my need to talk to you, at every moment of every day, here. Mallet is a real trump. I keep getting further and further away from Blow's design for the library. Having ' scrapped ' it in principle I am now at new detail in close harmony with Philip Webb's work. But I walk warily. I was struck the other night by the fact that Webb's oak panelling on the staircase does ' die into ' his white panelling round the Hall. That made me look at his oak panelling round the column in the library. Out of the two Mallet and I have concocted a flat ' bench-end ' with panels ; and set it up in dummy. I think I shall get it quite right by degrees. The new windows outside will be ^-sisters to the window in the roof of the kitchen ; and the panelling and book- cases inside will be ^-brothers to the wood-work in the hall, staircase and dining-room. I think that dear Benny is coming to hunt here with Perf and me. Indeed I feel sure he is as he is sending four grooms and six horses ! So there will be twenty horses in the stables. And now, Darling, once more I wish you a most Happy New Year and lots of it spent together. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 822 To Hilaire Belloc 35 PARK LANE, W., 29th January 1912, a Monday, 10 a.m. MY DEAR BELLOC, Your letter rejoiced me. And, when you and Mrs. Belloc come to Clouds I shall rejoice 494 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM the more. Sibell is grieved at having to be away but she always goes to Lettice when another little Beauchamp enters this perplexing place of existence and this time her presence is exacted by the fact that Beauchamp has to be away a good deal for Cabinets. If anything could increase my pleasure at your both coming it would be that without you I should be very lonely during the last few days before the horrors of Parliament. I had kept them clear for merry-making, and merriment there shall be, seasoned with deep discourse on the possibility of saving agriculture and creating owners of the soil. There I am with you, and, what is more, I found that working-men in Lancashire, weavers, spinners and a miner (one) quite understand that Rural England must be restored. I cannot write about politics for I am but just reviving. I was ' ridden out ' by Saturday night having made eleven speeches in five days at Chester, Southport, Blackburn, Warrington, Bolton, Manchester and Rochdale. Golly ! what a country or, to be precise, what a town. It is one town. But the people are sound and strong. It is the Merchants who live on commissions and the Oriental Financiers that ruin it. I was so tired that I could not eat, and could not drink. The last day I drank only light beer ; which is meat and drink and the only fuel for a tired body. I went to bed at 9.30 last night. This morning I hear from you of your ' Enchanted Mug.' I might have gone on another week had I possessed such a treasure. I want someone to give me a simpler aid to existence ; a case for my glasses (pince-nez glasses) thai, shall be of a brilliant scarlet colour with gold spots on it. The dark-green one I try to possess eludes possession. It performs its own * esca- motage ' and I spend say one hour fifteen minutes a day looking for it in my pockets and on the floor. I read the ' Eye-Witness ' with close attention and interest on (1) Expeditionary Force (2) Belfast. I could say not write much on these subjects and listen to any amount. It is strangely refreshing to find a newspaper TO HILAIRE BELLOC 495 and one mind that sees these problems and refrains from hiding them. Ninety per cent of our countrymen cannot see them. Nine per cent see them and say ' O Lord ! nobody else must be allowed to see.' The mam objection to a separate Expeditionary Force is a conviction not negligeable because it is based on experience that separate Armies go to the Devil them- selves through pride and exclusiveness and send other Forces to the Devil through a soured humility. It may be that a solution lurks in a revival ' up-to-date ' of the old system of a ' rota ' by which a particular regiment, keeping its tradition, is ear-marked during a period of years for a particular kind of service. There are remnants of this system in the practice still observed of a regiment going to India for fifteen years with a different and larger establishment and longer period of service with the colours. This might be expanded and differentiated to subserve the several military needs we have to meet. I worked it out once and have the Memo somewhere. E.g. as a rough illustration out of 100 battalions 30 for Expedi- tionary force, 20 at Home, 50 in India. Next you must decide on colour and reserve service for each, during its allocation to its task and these will have to be shortened all round (a) to meet the difficulty of landing men in civil life when too late to learn a trade (b) because with the multiplication and cheapening of transit it is foolish to keep a man eight years in India and cheaper to increase the vote for Transport than to increase the vote for pay and Pensions. The Recruit will choose the service which he fancies and the first should offer better terms in pay and deferred pay ; e.g. for Expeditionary Force three years with colours three in reserve, for Home battalions two and six. For Indian battalions five and 3. The last adjustment I shall not attempt it is for what periods the battalion (not the man) shall be detailed for these three services and in what order, it can be done. But enough of this except to say that (me judice amico contradicente). National training however short in a 496 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Territorial Force would enlarge, and not restrict, the number of men who would be tempted to take any one of the three options in the Regular Army, each of which must be voluntary. The main objection to the Belfast Enclave is that (a) there are many Nationalists in Belfast (b) many Orange- men in Down, Antrim, Monaghan etc. Intellectually the heart of the problem is that you must ' satisfy Ireland's aspiration in a way to which you can secure England's consent.' Unless you believe that can be done in a new way it is better to stick to the old way however unsatisfactory. Dismissing for a moment the ' tainted origin ' argu- ment against the Union, (for why bandy words ? It is easy to retort that the alternative is being launched by bribery and corruption) it remains true that Pitt and, above all, Cornwallis sought by the Union to give Irish- men (not you may say Ireland) political equality with Englishmen and that Grattan, Sheridan and other Irish leaders said that Ireland would not be satisfied with any- thing less than political equality. It is probable and I believe that this is still true. The ' dry light ' shews me that to give Ireland ' self Government ' and deny her government any say in Defence and Finance is an enormity too monstrously divergent from all known types of politics. It would not last two years. On the other hand psychological instinct tells me that the English will not consent to making Ireland a Sister State with as much latitude in respect of Defence and Finance as is granted to Canada, Australia and South Africa. The English instinct is probably right ; just because of Defence and Finance. It is not that Ireland is more important than Canada. It is that altering a Frontier and dividing an Exchequer are damned ticklish jobs. That is the heart of the problem. The ' representation at Westminster ' argument is merely dialectical ; because who is represented at West- minster now ? And by whom ? and how ? and why ? TO HIS MOTHER 497 Observe to go back that if England treated the sister state solution with a gambler's generosity it might work. But, also, if Ireland treated the Union in like manner, it also, might work. Either might conceivably work. But to me it is not conceivable that a Plan would work which pretended to give Ireland self-government and gave her no say in Defence and Finance. So, till the 6th and come sooner if you can. With my best wishes to your wife. Yours ever, G. W. 823 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 1st February 1912. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I got back here on Tuesday- after a very hard ten days' tour which tired me out. But I have revived. S. S. is with Lettice and kept there as Will Beauchamp has to be away for Cabinets. So Perf and I are two bachelors. None the less we have enter- tained a lady. Dear Lady Paget came and stayed although S. S. could not be here. I have asked dear old Guy to come with all, or any of his family, to keep company with us. Belloc and Mrs. Belloc are coming on the 6th other- wise we mean as it is still freezing and we cannot hunt to do all that Miles * and the farmers and folk can want in the way of understanding and planning. I went to see your cross on dear Papa's grave. It is very good. Mallet and I will complete the wall and plot without further reference to Blow. It is perhaps ? too cold for you to travel as yet. But here we are if the spirit moves you. If it is too cold, let us all come here together for Sunday 25th or the next Sunday so that you may see everything and help me when the first flowers come out. It would be heavenly if you felt inclined to come now. But you must not make an 1 The agent. VOL. II. 2 I 498 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM effort. Only if you felt inclined I would meet you in the motor at Salisbury any day. I come to London on the 13th. Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE. 824 To Philip Hanson CLOUDS, EAST K.NOYLE, SALISBURY, S.ii.12. MY DEAR P. H., I am wrestling with my Essay on Land Purchase under notable disabilities. (i) I am late because of Tariff Reform tour (a success, but O ! what a grind 11 speeches in 5 days). (ii) I am torpid owing to frost. (iii) Poor Hyde 1 is in bed with influenza. There is one small point on which you could help me (but don't if it is a trouble, for I must as things are avoid small points and figures and boldly assert). The small point is this : Mr. Stewart's letter to you of 15th December 1911 gave from 9th September to 1st December, 1911, Applications and amount 2,227 348,660 x Your letter to me of 14th September, 2,227 651,340 x Your figure agrees qua applications, differs qua amount. Your figure is obtained in both cases by subtracting the figures up to 9th September (Report of Landowner's Con- vention, p. 8) from the figure totals in Mr. Stewart's letter of 14th December, 11. How then does he get 348,660 for amount ? When he and you give 2,227 for applications ? If there is any easy and readily accessible explana- tion, may I have it ? But do not put yourself out. I must avoid figures and go for big features. I have all that is necessary in my memo, of 1908, and, above all, in our correspondence of that date. 1 Denis -Hyde, his secretary. TO G. K. CHESTERTON 499 There is also this further cause for content. In the memo. I put 300 as ' outside estimate ' of average price for farms still unpurchased. Well, the average price since March 1908 closing point of memo. is 283. This confirms my argument that the best articles were sold first, and proves that the worst will cost less. The real big points are (i) If you stick to abolishing dual-ownership, the problem is not large. (ii) If you add to that the new inflated dealing with congestion a question of policy you increase the size of the financial problem but over many years and only by 10,000,000. (iii) If you cut up the grass to start new men, you shatter the show and make the Finance impossible for a United Exchequer and preposterous under Home Rule. (iv) The starting of new men is a policy to be considered, if at all, for England no less than Ireland, on equal terms, in a remote future, after (a) abolishing dual ownership in Ireland, and (b) helping tenants in Great Britain to buy their holdings. Lady Grosvenor is with Lady Beauchamp, so Percy and I are two old bachelors at Clouds. Yours ever, G. W. 825 To G. K. Chesterton 35 PARK LANE, W., (Feb. ?) 1912. MY DEAR CHESTERTON, You are not to answer this letter. I must write it. I must thank you for the * White Horse.' I cannot go on reading it to myself (4 times) and reading it aloud at the top of my voice (5 times) and refrain any longer from thanking you. It is your due to be told that many eyes shine with delight at its strength, and that knots climb up the throats of women and men at its beauty. Its wisdom we shall patiently learn. ' At last ! ' and * Thank God I ' are what people say when 500 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM they read it or hear it read. But I thank you in addition to thanking God and my stars, for having been given what I most needed in the largest measure. I am not selfish over it. I do not hoard it for my own satisfaction. On the contrary, I read it aloud to all my friends and have huge joy in watching it working in them. This I can easily do over the top of the book, as I know most of the plums by heart. Like all great gifts, it goes round. It can be shared. It is not like a diamond or a sonnet in a language that few people know. To read the * White Horse ' aloud is like bathing in the sea or riding over the downs in a company that becomes good company because of the exhilaration. Belloc tells me that the address ' Beaconsfield ' will find you. I hope so, as I cannot contain my thankful- ness. Yours sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 826 To Wilfrid Ward CLOUDS, SALISBURY, February llth, 1912. MY DEAR WILFRID, I was on the point of writing many days ago to congratulate you on the achievement of your great work and on the reviews being intelligent. Then I was tempted to wait until I had read the ' Newman.' It arrived with the Publisher's compliments. Doubtless I owe this to you and am most grateful for the gift. When you come to Clouds I will ask you to ' inscrire.' I am making a library which will I hope be not unworthy of such works. But I was tempted, once more, to wait till I had read the two volumes. Well, I have not done so yet but I can no longer delay the congratulations of a friend to a friend who has triumphed. Yours affection- ately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. TO CHARLES BOYD 501 827 44 BEIXJKAVK SQUARK, 8. \V. , 27th February 1912. MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter is most helpful, and please thank your brother from me for the information it contains. I hate bothering anybody about my private affairs, but the difficulties of the gentry have ceased to be private. I hear next year's Budget is to finish off those who love the land. Very well, I don't believe it. But even if it should prove to be true, we have no grievance against Fate. We are not forced to say with Fleury, after Sedan, ' Never mind, we have amused ourselves well for twenty years,' because we have been a happy part in the being and doing of England for much longer. I shall stick on and your letter helps, in its degree, to show how. These personal and class problems do not interest me much. I am not supercilious ; the pictures and ' marbles ' and books that the Gentry collected, were worth collecting. The sport they gave their neighbours was worth giving ; the services they gave their country when others had no opportunity as soldiers and sailors and ambassadors and statesmen, has been duly perhaps excessively acknowledged : their ' urn will not be unlamented.' What does interest me I will not say frightens me, for, rather, it suddenly arrests attention, is the census of production. It startles to know that, of all our people, only 7,000,000 produced only 700,000,000 worth of goods (omitting agriculture and fishing) in a ' boom ' year 1907. For think what that means. It means less than 2 a week per producer for taxes, rates, deprecia- tion, experiment, profits, wages. In the light of that revelation the * minimum wage ' and the National Insurance Bill becomes incredible. The ' balance of wealth ' falsely so-called, comes from invest- 502 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ment e.g. the Robinson Mine ; and ' virtuoso ' perform- ances, e.g. the barrister who earns 20,000 a year, and the musical comedy lady who earns 100 a week. It is politics apart impossible to tax Finance and [word illegible] i.e. skill in producing intellectual or sensual luxuries without smashing the machine which makes pro- duction possible, and extends the higher rewards that persuade a people to produce. The situation quite apart from Germany's challenge, Ireland's dissidence, and the coal crisis is dark and damnably like Byzantium before the Turks took that Banking Centre in 1453 (I think ?). But just because the future is so dim and the present so precarious, it is more worth while to be living. To hear a thrush sing in February, or to see a soldier on sentry-go, prove that it is well to live in England and right to die there, or elsewhere, for England. I am dropping into the ballad vein, as thus . . . how shall it go ? THE SOLDIER'S SONG (TO GERMAN AIR) I '11 not bewail my home Or loves that waved good-bye ; Soldiers engaged to roam Without a sigh. Far lands are calling loud, Louder than winds that cry ; But I am glad and proud To do or die. That is the sort of stuff that soldiers like to sing. But, as Ruskin observed in the ' Roots of Valour,' they do go and they do die if need be ; whereas the merchant and the usurer do not go and do not die ; they remain and prosper. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. The socialists' argument depends on asserting that a paint-brush is a little broom ; because it looks like it, and the house must be swept ; whereas the picture TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 503 need not be painted. For all that I am this may shock you theoretically persuaded that a minimum wage is right ; with, of course, the corollary that the man who can't earn it is a deserving object of discriminating charity. Ruskin was right. The State ought to launch the young ; and provide a haven for the old. Between youth and age, the State should say that a good man deserves a living. At what year in the human span you can end youth and begin age depends on the amount of wealth accumulated. It is really simple. Nothing surprises me more than that we do in the country give a minimum wage and yet are horrified at proposing it for the Town. I pay a stableman l a week in Cheshire and 16/ in Wilt- shire. If he cannot groom two horses I get someone else. This has been done for 200 years in the country. It is not socialism, but a survival of the wise Middle Ages. Cobden was a donkey. 828 To his Sister, Pamela 35 PARK LANE, ll.iti.12. DARLING PAMELO, I simply must dine with you on the 18th, if you will have me on the basis that I may be forced to return to the House about 10 p.m. I hardly ever accept an invitation to dinner ; but this is different. On the days of the week owing to Leap Year this is the day on which Papa died. All that happened last year on the Sunday, Sunday night and Monday morn was very present to my mind. I can't tell you the loveliness of the dawn at Clouds this morning. I watched it, and sunrise, and the mists, and the moon, from my window for 1J hours. It was more beautiful and more dramatic than any opera of Wagner. All the while I felt glad that Papa's spirit was not per- turbed by the incidence of strikes and so forth through the limitations of illness. He would have been unhappy if he had lived. 504 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Do you know Richepin's poem about a Mother's Heart ? It means something like this : ' There was a poor wretch who loved a woman who would not love him. She asked him for his Mother's heart, so he killed his Mother to cut out her heart and hurried off with it to his love. He ran so fast that he tripped and fell, and the heart rolled away. As it rolled it began to speak and asked "Darling child have you hurt yourself ? " ' Your devoted brother, GEORGE. P.S. * The last person in the world ' etc. i.e. a political agent, asked me to locate a quotation which he could not remember, or attribute. But he wanted it for a speech against killing birds, for ladies' hats ! This is the best news I have had of Party Politics for a long time. * Epuis la memoire.' Even agents perceive beauty and shrink from silly destruction. I feel sure that the quotation he sought must be ' Never to blend our pleasure or our pride With SOITOW of the meanest thing that feels.' WORDSWORTH, ' Hart-Leap Well ' and I advised him to that effect by return of post. 829 D To Hilaire Belloc Personal. 35 PARK LANE, W., Uth March 1912. MY DEAR BELLOC, Only a word between friends before I go back to my task at 11 p.m. I have just read to-day's ' Outlook.' I daresay all I read in it on the pro-striker side is untrue ' What is truth ? ' I am sure it is ex parte=ihe presentment of a case from one side. But it is profoundly interesting, illuminating and moving. I do not easily surrender to another's will and I never surrender conviction. Yet I say to you that I am now persuaded that you were right over the falsity of Parliament and the venality of the Press. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 505 A fortnight of free Debate in the House and of free journalistic comment would not have been too much for n free country to ask. I daresay again that the case of investors in coal mine securities would be ex parte very powerful on the other side. What I declare to be intolerable is that neither side should be able to state their case in Parliament or the Press. Yet that is true of this urgent, immediate national domestic problem. It is also true of Defence. To-day the Speaker prevented any demand for a reply from Seely on the criticism of admitted gaps yawning chasms in our Army Defence. So we talked about pensions. On Monday the Navy will be ' starred ' and ' boomed ' to side-track the Coal-strike and only no one thinks of that the need for an Army. Times are bad ; but friends are good so I wave to you in the gloom. Yours ever, G. W. 830 To Hilaire Belloc 35 PARK LANE, W., 23rd March 1912. MY DEAR BELLOC, Just a ' signal of Amity.' I have not had a moment last week. But I think we ought to meet Tuesday or Wednesday. This has been a tense week. I doubt if we should agree about the problem. I don't mean on the solution on which any ? intelligent men differ but on the terms. To my thinking the only question at issue is whether it is best to have a statutory presumption for rates of wages by ' callings ' ; or for rates of wages by the custom of districts. Let me illustrate that. In the North, rail- way-men get higher wages, which are lower than the wages of artisans. In the South railway-men get low 506 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM wages which are higher than the wages of agricultural labourers. Which is best to create a parliamentary pre- sumption that ' porters ' and ' signalmen ' are to have a normal wage, as such, with exceptions qua districts ; or to create a parliamentary presumption that * porters ' and 4 signal-men ' are to have a living wage in their respec- tive localities ? The test case of the whole problem is the agricultural labourer's position. Unless we can help him the whole nation is damned. Can we help the agricultural labourer by saying that no Englishman ought to be such a ' mean white ' as to earn less than 20/ a week ? That to me is the crux. And I say no ; we cannot help him in that way. We might enact a 20/ minimum per week for him and it would be little enough. But if we did as a Free Trade country all England would go under grass, of which two-thirds would become mossy grass. With 4 the best intentions ' we should depopulate rural England. I would like to hear your comment or denunciation as your lucid mind may decide. More widely. Does not a minimum wage imply that if any trade, in any District, cannot support that minimum, then it ought to be ' scrapped.' Now I admit, and assent, that a Patriot can patriotically say ' yes ' or * no ' to that question. But I incline to the belief that Ruskin was right in ' Unto this Last ' and that the true answer is for the State to run industries with a high minimum wage against any who prefer masters and men to run industries at a low minimum wage, in order to have any wage. I think Ruskin will prove right here, as he has proved to be right about Free Education at the start of life, and about Old Age Pensions at the end of life ; both of which were scouted by all men in 1860, when he laid down the three propositions. However that may be, I am unable to understand any one of the views we are asked to consider in the absence of a Tariff. Yours ever, G. W. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 507 831 To Hilaire Belloc STAN WAY, WINCHCOMBE, 4th April 1912. MY DEAR BELLOC, Deep gratitude for your letter and adequate information in re Hague Conference. But I have got my mind hitched (like some weeds caught round a snag in a river). I have been riding for two days on the Cotswold. I have read at night your last volume of Essays * First and Last Things.* The snag that snared my mind was the essay called * The Lost Things.' It told me of other, and more notable, examples of what I saw : and could not understand. What I saw (a) on the map, the Roman roads shooting out from Cirencester : (b) as I rode, undoubtable pre- Roman roads along the heights that were lost in some valleys, to reappear on the next height and so on all the way to Kelmscott on the Isis. How, when, why, were they lost ? Again, how, when and why did your road to Boulogne get lost ? The answer came to-night, ' Per do,' I lose is also ' Per do,' I destroy. They were Perdita, destroyed. Yes, but how thoroughly ? I would say as thoroughly as the degree we may gleam from the Old Testament an excellent book. Not one stone was left upon another ; then the thing was ploughed up ; and, afterwards salted. These * things that are lost ' were destroyed as Bridges, and Railways are destroyed by modern armies ; but to a more lasting purpose. Each conquering race with its plan meant its plan to succeed. Each conquering race effected that object by two means ; (1) by the excellence of their plan ; (2) by the imbecility of the older plan. They made the best plan they could as, e.g. the roads (Roman) of which Cirencester is the star-point. But they took jolly good care to make the plan they superseded 508 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM imbecile. They ' blew it up ' where it could not be mended. I know that this is the answer to your question, because I have followed a pre-Roman road on horseback in the morning and read your Essay in the evening. It was so. Even if I had not seen it, I could have guessed it after reading your Essay. I now know that this has happened many times. What the Romans did to the Roads of their predecessors, the Normans did when it suited their strategy to the Roman Roads. And the predecessors of the Romans with iron weapons, did it to their predecessors with bronze weapons, and they did it to their predecessors with flint weapons ; and each wave of intelligent strategy was guided more in this matter of perdition by the transport- habit than by the missile-habit of the people they ruined : and shoved off the open spaces into the bogs or mountains. This truth can be seen on the Cotswolds and on Salisbury Plain. I have, also, seen it in Africa. There, too, when once you are up above the morass-level, you see a network of roads and tracks. Everywhere some of these roads, or tracks, end in- explicably except on the hypothesis, that new-comers with new tracks for new military and commercial needs, spoilt the old tracks by deleting them where they descended into valleys, or approached harbours, or fastnesses. The Arts of War and Peace consist in making your Roads, and destroying the Roads of your predecessor and possible antagonist. That has always been true and it is true now ; but the Cobdenites have forgotten the truth. I do not ask you to believe me. If you ever come to Salisbury Plain or the Cotswold, you will believe your eyes. You asked me to write of anything. I have written the truth. Yours ever, G. W. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 509 832 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELGRAVK SQUARK, S.W.. June 1912. MY DEAR BELLOC, The passer-by shall hear me still A boy that sings on Duncton Hill. Perge, prosit, esto perpetua-or-us. O King, live for ever ! You have written the wisdom that never did die in simple words that live for ever. You will sing for ever in the morning. And now I must go to bed. And to-morrow I must wrestle with a speech and be damned to all such thoughts ! The passer-by shall hear me still A boy that sings on Duncton Hill. Lord ! How I do love that. If I had read those two lines in the waiting-room of a railway station, with texts on the wall, a decanter of water, one glass (unbreakable) and a Bible in American leather on the table, I should not have rested until I had found the man who wrote those two lines. But I must go to bed. Also believe me that to say of new flames that they are like leaves of Holly is to be Immortal. To Feed, to Fight, and to Be-get offspring are the heroic purposes of man. But to sing is to be more than man. And to sing of Eternity without singing of love is Divine. I can only sing of love when I escape from time and so sing sadly ; as thus : But since such joys are doomed by time I take Eternity And all the stars that wheel and climb For you and love and me 510 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM The galaxies of endless space Contain not room enough To fold the radiance of your grace And the passion of my love. It is better to sing for ever, a boy on Duncton Hill. Yours, G. W. 833 To his Sister, Madeline 35 PARK LANE, W., G.viii.1912. MOST DARLING MANENAi, When your dear letter reached me at Clouds, I did not understand it, as I had no idea you were all going to spoil Sibell and me with such a lovely present. I am most grateful to you and dear Charlie for joining in this beautiful gift. 1 We took in with great solemnity and put the Cross on the altar. 2 I wish you could have been at Clouds for Chang's birth- day : and you must come some Sunday after manoeuvres. I shall see you then. I am by way of going with Sir John French, but could I come to you just before, or just after ? I motored Chang all the way to Pixton to see Mary Herbert's home yesterday, and am very sleepy and end-of-the-Season-ish. I wonder if you and Charlie and a Poussin, or so, could come to Clouds earlier, say the week beginning September 2 ? There are no partridges to shoot as they are all drowned. But per- haps Lettice is coming and we could make an expedition to Wells. Bless you, Darling, again. Your devoted brother GEORGE. 1 His mother and brother and sisters gave as a silver wedding present a cross designed and made by Mr. Fisher. 1 In the chapel that he had designed and was then carrying out the work of at Clouds. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 511 834 To Hilaire Belloc CLOUDS, KAST KNOYI.K, SALISBURY, 24th August 191?. MY DEAR BELLOC, I have mislaid your last letter at least I think so. I have one of 19th before me which says you cannot come here on September 2nd. Damn ! Come on 7th. I can't make out when you start for Russia. All I do know is that the 3rd Division which I call Percy's Division as he is A.D.C. to its General Sir H. Rawlinson will be inspected on the 9th and 10th. That means that they will do a scheme probably near Pewsey, North of Salisbury Plain, over 48 hours or longer. I have asked Repington here for it and shall look on by means of motor and horses and sleep out at inns. Now if you can come it will be a joy. When that is over I shall go to Cambridge and see the Army Manoeuvres which begin on the 16th. The rain depresses me. I am also hipped as I am pre- paring for a Tariff Reform Campaign. I go to Cumber- land on Wednesday, speak Workington Thursday, Cocker- mouth Saturday and return that night. I stay at Cocker - mouth Castle. This will please me ; as I lived there from the age of one to the age of six and remember hearing my Father speak from the hustings in 1868 on the meadows by the river where I, in turn, shall speak on August 31st after an interval of forty-four years. When will the Burgundy I bought be ready to drink ? Our friend of the Hotel de la Paste said in three years. So I fear I must wait one more year. Now let this be a warning to you. Next year you must come in September and look on at the troops and drink our Burgundy. We are not immortal. Anni labuntur. It is good to be in the open air with soldiers and to drink Burgundy after- wards. But these manly exercises are denied to those who go in for Foreigneering and travel for five days I 512 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM think in a train propelled by the burning of wood, instead of coal, in the hope of seeing Moscow. The rain has dished me. The wheat cut ten days ago has begun to sprout. Also owing to Foot and Mouth disease I could not sell 500 sheep at Bridport a month ago and must wait to sell them at Wilton in September. Meanwhile the brutes eat all the winter feed and I get no cheque for sheep sold but overdraw at my Bank, instead. The library here is going to be a perpetual delight. The solid oak is going up and by October I hope it will be finished. Yours ever, G. W. 835 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 12. ix. 1912. MY DEAR WILFRID, I am moved to write first, to ask whether you will be at New Buildings 27th and onward, because if that be so I will send you 3 hares ; secondly, and generally, to exchange such news as either of us may feel disposed to give ; not that I have a large parcel. On the contrary, for my part, I have become a squire with an interlude of Tariff Reform speeches in Cumberland. The interlude, of aforesaid propaganda, had its touches of mortality and the remembrance of childish joys, for I stayed at Cockermouth Castle with Charles Leconfield. I had not slept in that house since I was 6 years old, or seen it since I was 14. I found and recalled my night- nursery and day-nursery. My Mother's room over the gateway is now the housekeeper's. The place is the same. I felt that I had dreamed for 43 years of the ruins, and the sound of the weir and of the wind through the trees in the courtyard. The eagle-owl I knew in confinement is now stuffed in the sitting-room. The stone hall, adorned in old days, somewhat gauntly, by the skin of General Wyndham's charger, has fallen in and joined the ruins. The frame of the large window that commanded the Derwent river, remains in a framework of touchwood. I TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT 513 left Clouds at 9 a.m. and reached Cockermouth at 9.40 p.m. I had not dined. I supped with Charles and his wife looking on. The next day, after preparing a speech in the morning, I looked on at two ' sports ' of which I had heard, but never seen. Both are good for spectators. The first was a trial of sheep-dogs who, obey- ing the gestures and whistles of their owners, tied by a string to the starting-point, persuade 3 sheep to follow an intricate course round flags and between hurdles and finally but how rarely ! induce them to enter a narrow pen. The second is called a Hound Trail. Some 15 lean fox-hounds, all baying the welkin in agonised expectancy and wild recollection of earlier triumphs and defeats, are unleashed in a row on a drag, and are off like a flight of arrows. They disappear into the scenery. I am told that the drag has been laid over 17 miles to Bassen- thwaite Lake and Skiddaw, and that I shall see them again coming down the ridge of Hay Hill. This prophecy after watching the jumping of horses and wrestling of men in a withering wind proves true. They appear and amid a hubbub of hoarse cries the winners and second and third come through the last fence and are caught, 1, by Lady Leconfield, 2, by Charles, 3, by Jefferson, M.F.H. 4 Climber,' the favourite, was beat by a neck, and 4 Merry Maid,' an outsider, at 40 to 1, launched a lad of 13 years on the road to ruin, or fame, by winning him 5 for the modest risk of half-a-crown. At 7.20 p.m. Charles and I went in an open motor through blinding rain to Workington, and there, in the * Opera House,' I spoke for an hour and then for 20 minutes to an overflow. Next day, 30th August, I started at 9 and shot grouse with Charles on Fauld Brow, and recognised the mountain scenery that I knew long ago and have seen magnificent in dreams ever since. On the 31st Charles entertained 700 Tariff Reform delegates to luncheon in a vast tent, and I spoke to 3,500 people from a large Punch and Judy show platform, in the open. I travelled back here, through the night and half the next day, to be a squire, diversified by being a VOL. II. 2 K 514 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM conceivable Minister for War looking on at Manoeuvres near Stonehenge, where I hawked and hunted, not so long ago, but still many years since, from Wilbury. We have looked at what should have been the harvest ; wondered if enough partridges have survived the deluge, sold 550 sheep at Wilton for just over 40/- apiece, exhibited 2 hunters at the Shaftesbury Show, and ridden over the plain 4 days to observe the final training and inspection of what I call ' Percy's Division,' because he is A.D.C. to the General. Manoeuvres in these days are realistic. Nobody ate and few slept for 48 hours. In the course of such exercises the whole division passed the Avon between Amesbury and Bulford after midnight and fought till 1.30 the next day. J^ow, that is all my news. My Library goes on and takes shape in close conformation to my idea. I shall roof in the Windmill before the frosts, with a stone-slate roof, like the shell of a tortoise, and four dormer windows from which it will be possible to enjoy the landscape of the South-West in any weather and ensure complete seclu- sion in an upper chamber, approached by a staircase winding in a spiral up the interior walls of the old building. Again, I am building a cow-shed for 36 cows at Pertwood, where I have already started a stud for hunters on the tiny scale of one mare, ' Justice,' with a filly ' Portia,' by ' The Duke.' The sire of the next foal being ' Border Prince,' the offspring if a colt will be named ' Jedburgh.' For the moment I am no more concerned with politics than to mete out ' Jedburgh Justice,' if I can, on the Plutocrats who have bought the Government in order to sell the country. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 836 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 27/A October 1912. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I am treasuring up next Sunday to be here with you. TO HIS MOTHER 515 What a bust we are going ! I have to make seven platform speeches between now and Christmas, in addi- tion to House of Commons. I am really * training ' for it. I have managed to put the dates on Thursdays in the hope of getting here for the Fridays to Mondays. But two Sundays are gone one the 8th to 10th to stay with Willoughby de Broke and 29th to 2nd December to stay with Cuckoo. That leaves me Friday 1st (and you), 15th and 22nd to be here. Perhaps you can run back with me for those two also if the weather is fine and, any way, I shall ' infest ' 44 Belgrave Square and sometimes bring Carson and your fighting friends to dinner from the House. I have seen a good deal of Carson lately. We are closely bound by kindred passions for definite fighting. I have been too busy to write. My ' raid ' on Limerick was a joy to me, it made me happy. Perf accompanied me with a large stick. I think that at the back of his head he meant to hit anyone who hit me. But we revelled in it all. We crossed on Tuesday night the 8th, breakfasted at the North Wall with Hanson ! and then Hanson and I toured round all the old haunts of the Phoenix in a motor lent us by Horace Plunkett, it was a day of days, all gold and azure and diamonds in the air. Perf trotted off to see a horse near Sallins. I went on at 12.30 and picked him up ; having on the train two luncheon baskets. Then we bumped along the old line to Boher, near Limerick, remembering old days. We stayed with Sir Charles Barrington at Glendall. He was the perfect Irish host : aged 62 and singing all over the house. Indeed he sat down to the piano and sang ' The girl that came from Clare ' before dinner. The meeting was a huge success. Then we had a riot and ultimately had to wait in a garage till we could motor out to a wayside station. I had the old cam- paigner's sense to telegraph for luncheon baskets at Limerick Junction. It was 9 p.m. before we got them half a hot chicken in each. After the meal you would 516 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM have thought two hawks had been regaling, for nothing but polished bones were left. Then across the sea to Fishguard. The stars were shining and the wind warm. I lay in my night things with the ports open and bathed in the sea-wind : an outing to remember and rejoice over for ever. I liked your little hint about Death Duties and Insur- ance. But I have done it already. Papa used to say and I quite agreed then that people with an income from investments ought to save and not insure. Now all is changed owing to the heavy death duties. If I died before I can save Percy could not live at Clouds, so I have insured my life and my saving must consist in paying the premiums. With that Perf could find the rest without having to let the place. I have paired for Monday to attend the opening meet of the Hounds with Perf. Give my great love to darling Aunt Emily and all my love to you. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 837 To Charles T. Gatty 35 PARK LANE, W., 9.xii.l2. MY DEAR CHARLES, I am counting on you for Christmas. What, you may well ask, is Christmas to such as you ? I reply (a) / go to Clouds Friday next 18th, and if I return to House of Commons on Monday 16th, still (b) I return to Clouds again on Friday 20th and stay there till Monday 30th. So much Asquith permits. Very well then : Come on the 18th and stay till the 30th and if you will stay on to greet my next return on Friday 3rd January, 1913, to Monday the 6th, and so on, in- definitely. The ' fat ' of the business is between the 20th and 30th, the ' frills ' before and after. It remains to ask and answer two questions. (1) Who TO HIS MOTHER 517 will be there ? No one but us, for certain, but I have a hope that the Edmunds [Talbots] and Marks [Sykes] may come. They are nibbling. A neighbour at our gates has a Chapel of your Faith. And where else can they go for so short a time ? (2) What will be there ? Our old friends the Library, the Windmill, the Chapel, the plantations ; in short, the * angulus ille ' and ' interiore nota ' ; ' nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis ' I invite you with me to * Ducere sollicitae jucunda oblivia vitae ' to taste the Falernian and pile up the logs on a hearth in a Home. It is very necessary that you should do this. There will also be Perkins and dogs and close friendships. Yours affectionately, GEORGE W. P.S. You needn't ride the Horses. 838 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, Xmas Eve, 1912. MOST, MOST, DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I do love you. I have been thinking of you so intensely and vividly ever since I got here on Friday night. I always think of you and love you every day of my life. I was worrying about you last week, when I had four days solid on the bench (Front) ! and kept wondering how you were and being sorry that I could not pop in to 44 to ' see for myself.' But here this place is you and you haunt it in the heavenly way of haunting. Next year you must be here for Christmas, darling ; and Manenai and the Poussins, too. I do hope and pray that you are well, Darling. Clouds has been beautiful these days. The Dawns are wonderful and I think of all the Dawns you have watched here. I think a great deal of Papa, and feel that he is pleased with Perkins and knows that all the farmers and everyone love him. I went round the Park with Miles and Perkins yesterday looking at each tree and settling where to put 518 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM some limes, that have grown too big for .the nursery garden. I rode in the morning through Great Ridge to the view over the plain. On Saturday I had quite a good gallop with Perf in the Blackmoor Vale. He rides very well and sails away in front of everybody, and as they say in Ireland ' throws a great seat on a horse.' The library is nearly finished. I am giving Sibell some crimson stuff to go behind the altar in the chapel ; designed by Leonardo da Vinci with doves, and flames, and our motto almost : ' A Bon Droit.' Give fondest love to darling Manenai and take in all the love I pour out to you and take great care of yourself and come here directly the flowers begin to blossom, and bless you darling Mamma. Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE. 839 To Mrs. Hinkson CLOUDS, SALISBURY, December 28tfi, 1912. MY DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I wish I could ! I should love to see your Irish home and to place in sur- roundings what I must be allowed to call our friendship* But, as things are, I am cast for the part of the ' Flying Dutchman.' I hardly know how to get to Limerick and back between duties before and after. So it is, but so it must not be. I want, badly, to come to Ireland for Friendship, apart from Politics, that weary me more and more. And, if ever you come to England, do come here and look at pictures that would interest you, and at the downs that are as poor and happy and hospitable as Ireland is. It was most kind of you to write so dear a letter. I know that I had not thanked you for ' Sally ' : but I loved ' Sally ' and waited for the right moment which you have bestowed. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM. TO HIS MOTHER 519 840 To his Mother 35 PARK LANE, W., 19th January 1913. MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I have been want- ing to write to you. And now, first, just for business that 's pleasure could you, quite conveniently, put me up at 44 towards the end of this week ? S. S. has let this house, I think, after the 28th. I am off to Gateshead on Tuesday, 21st., to speak in Northumberland, and come back on Wednesday 22nd. If I could move my papers to 44 on Thursday or Friday 24th, it would help. But, darling, if it is not quite con- venient it doesn't matter at all. I 'd love a talk with you one of these days. You will have known that politically the ' old ' iron has entered into my * old ' soul, these last three weeks. Not that it 's any use ' talking ' even to you, most darling. Things are bad, and times are bad, and one must just put a brave face on them and go on and begin all over again, like Alfred in his march, and Bruce with his spider. I didn't know that so many men were cowards. Yet, I ought to have known it ! After the Lords ran away in the ' Die-hard ' time on 10th August 1911, 1 never expected much. For all that, and all that, I took them on at Llandudno on Wednesday week last, and at Dover on Wednesday last, and did the House of Commons Thursday ; and spoke there Friday, and ran to Charing Cross and caught the train back to Dover ; and made three speeches there yesterday ; and attended the Parish Church ; and got back here to-night ; and, after work and the House to-morrow, I am off Tuesday to take them on at Gateshead. I am not dismayed. But the words of Napoleon ring in my ears : * Unless men are firm in heart, and in purpose, they ought not to meddle with War or Government ' and, again, * Whether to advance, or not to advance, is a ques- 520 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM tion for the gravest consideration at the commencement of a campaign. But, when once the offensive has been assumed, it must be sustained to the last extremity ; ' and, again, * In a battle your enemy's losses will be nearly equal to your own. But, in a retreat the losses will be yours only.' I say this to you, Darling, but I say it over and over again to myself ; and dream of it at night ; and wake early to realise its dawn-cold truth. But I don't let the poor shivering Sheep-men know that I know this. I tell them to go on. And if they are too sheepish to listen, I go on alone. But it is not so bad as all that. On the contrary, Bonar Law, Austen Chamberlain, and Edward Carson are good men and true. We have been crushed together for company. And there are seventy men who mean well, of whom, unluckily, only fifteen can say ' BO ' to a goose and quite one hundred who will ' rat ' back to the seventy if they think the seventy are going to win. So, to Gates- head, on Tuesday and unless Fortune is a ' triple- turned whore ' a meeting soon in the Free-Trade Hall at Manchester. Indeed, darling Mamma, I will go there alone. But I needn't be alone. Ten M.P.'s and three thousand artizans will back me up against a corrupt Press and the alien millionaires. Whatever else happens I do not think that Mond and Chiozza Money are the * Natural Leaders ' of the English people. ' / don't think.' With all and all of love to my lion-hearted Mamma. Your devoted son, GEORGE. 841 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 2Qth January 1913. MY DEAR BELLOC, I read so much as the * Press * permitted of your duel. You did well to the old only good tune of * Hey-diddle-diddle, Pink him in the TO HILAIRE BELLOC 521 middle ' a good ' Naval engagement ' so I thought in so far as the Press permitted materials for an opinion. And, now, I burst into Song ! How good it is that I and you Are sure that nothing matters If this, or that, obsequious Jew From Mirth, or Terror, chatters. He chatters of perennial Peace And ' Bulls ' to make a rise In golden-edged securities But ' O ! what a surprise.' When Turks, are Turks, he understands In spite of Norman Angel, That even Turks prefer their lands To his brand-new evangel. How good it is that you and I Should know his abject terror Is but the first reluctant cry Wrung from abysmal error. For when he 'takes on' Europe, then, The children of the church, Our mother, who has made us men, Will leave him in the lurch. And that is just the only place Where he and his must die ; Because no Fatalist dare face The lot, like you and I. Come one, come all, come Hell on Earth ; No numbers can deceive One man, whose heritage of birth Is to Believe : And so be * damned ' to the Usurers. They can't play their own game. We needn't damn them. They were born damned and unfruitful : just sterilities. And now, my dear Belloc, having burst into song, I will go to bed : and make several speeches to-morrow 522 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM and then go Home and breathe the southern air and look at the Downs, and thank God, that my property, being chalk, will not be distributed by you for who would thank you for distribution ? or nationalised by Shaw for what Jew would Finance the transfer ? No my job is to see that the people who have lived there, shall live there, and drink beer, and poach Hares, and plough fields, and plash hedges and be merry. Yours ever, GEORGE W. P.S. 30.1.13 This is my first day out : Had a chill since Saturday last. 842 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 30.U3. MY DEAR WILFRID, I write at once although tired because I appreciate a letter from you at any time, and, the more so, when I am having a bad time. I got out to-day & wreck did a Railway meeting of shareholders at 12 noon ; spoke in the House of Commons on Welsh Church ; dined with Generals and the whole staff of the ' Times ' on Army Defence : a long, varied, exhausting day for the first day of convalescence. But so it is. So let me add it should not be. I do regret your departure from Chapel Street. I hope that here, or at 35 Park Lane, you will be my guest, when Spring returns, and revives us ; and I am determined to be your guest with luck, when the birds are in chorus and * in any case ' when the wild roses bloom. You are fortunate. To select, and print Poetry, with dear Dorothy's accomplished assistance, seems to me, after influenza, in a dark drizzle, and damned to the hell of politics, an inconceivable extravagance of joy. Now, if this World was made, the design must have been for joy. If it was not made, our revolt should be for joy. TO HILAIRE BELLOC 523- You are accomplishing the Design of the Great Arti- ficer ; or else (if he never was) helping to fill the gap of his non-existence. But I, Good Lack ! am a Member of Parliament ! I mean, however, to escape, and to get you to London to see pictures and plays ; or to go to you and hear the birds and see the blossoms. I am glad that a Buck has been killed. Fond as I am of wild creatures and loath as I am to arrest their felicity, I am also glad when something definite is done. Let there be murder, or even rape, rather than vague aspiration and no end achieved. Let something be done even to DEATH. I feel this fiercely after my Parlia- mentary experience, in which nothing happens. Ajax defied the lightning because he knew that Achilles was an ass to sulk in his tent. A flash and a crash even if they mean only the explosion of Obby's gun and the fall of a fat beast, are better, because more definite, than the murky drizzle of the Mother of Parliaments. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 843 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BKLGRAVE SQUARK, S.W. r 5th February 1913. MY DEAR BELLOC, What ho ! P.T.O. Observe the rhyme ! And you will read an appreciation of your verse : Spondaic ? Why yes. You have more than once flattered my use of the heavy-footed Turn-Turn, And here or there, over the page it says, with due solemnity, what I think. Yours, G. W, TO HILAIRE BELLOC O, your Hexameter ! Aptitude tells us, ' Here is an Artist ' f Pouring the lilt of our tongue into a mould of the past ; Tense steel, blended by you from the phantasmagorical symbols Folks, forgotten, shaped, long before nations Mere named. 524 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM You make new metal reforged arin'd mad petillations, Sparks, called ' soldiers/ crack, scaling the chimney of dreams Whilst you sing, Hearth, God, Home, hush'd penetralia, Life charr'd : Only that embers may blaze shooting at stars that excel. G. W. P.S. And it is a pretty compliment, but, let me add, a penetrating appreciation of your work. I have managed to say in your damned elegiacs what you are doing * all the time.' P.S. 2. We belong to our age. My verse reminds me of Persius who wrote in a decadence. My verse exhibits the opalescence of decay. It is therefore prismatic. 844 To Sir Charles Waldstein 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., February 13th, 1913. MY DEAR CHARLES, All that you say is only too sad and more true than you can know. I am worn out with work. I get away to-morrow for three weeks' holiday. So Sibell and I cannot be in London before March 10th. We had no holiday at Christmas, or, indeed, for years. But I will not despair. A time will come, and then, when good times come back, we will meet and remember the * good old times.' At present my life is that of a train in a tunnel that never ends. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 845 To his Son CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLK, SALISBURY, 15.ii.1tf. MOST DARLING PERKINS, What a Valentine ! You know how much I love you and that your marriage means far more to me than anything else could mean. You TO HIS SON 525 are evidently in love ; and that is essential. I have read your letter several times, and the sentence ' I know I am doing right ' is the one to which I pin my hopes, although when people fall in love they rarely do know what they are doing. Anyway I give you consent, love and blessing, and will do all I can to add to the happiness of your marriage. ' I agree ' as you put it to everything except again, as you put it that you have been a ' Blighter.' You have been a loving child to me and a good soldier. And I know you will go on being the first. I hope you will go on being the second. I was much pleased to read that the young lady ' wants you to go on soldiering and everything.' I see that her family motto is ' Retinens vestigia famae,' and I hope she will make you stick to it. If she wants to win my heart not a difficult enterprise you may tell her with my love that that is the way to set about it. You remember my joke about the blank stone to be kept in the cellar ? Already I shall not have to inscribe ' married nobody ' on it ; and if she helps you to serve our country, I need not put ' and did nothing.' Darling Perks, I am deeply moved and will do all I can, and you must explain to Diana that I like being spoilt by being allowed to share in the happiness and purport of your life. I have been saving every penny I could in case you came one fine day to say you wanted to marry. I make no conditions. I believe as you know in liberty and light hands. But you also know that, if you and she can, of your own free will, get to know this place, and help this little bit of England for which we are responsible, and ' belong ' here then you will crown my life and I shall sing 4 Nunc dimittis ' my task is done.' It was impossible to keep the secret here, what with asking to have your letter the moment it arrived and firing off our telegrams. So I told Icke J in the sten- torian tone his deafness demands, and, at once, with an xvmth century bow, he replied ' I hope you will tell 1 The butler. 526 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Mr. Percy on behalf of us all here that we are delighted to hear it and wish him all happiness.' If Rawley 1 gives any trouble I will wheel him into line. It will be great fun if I can take a Mrs. Perkins to manoeuvres in our motor, as extra A.D.C. to the 3rd Division. Now for plans : Memmy and I will bustle up to 44 by the 9.30 Monday, and tell Finlay to have a good luncheon at 1 p.m. Then I will do whatever you wish. Perhaps it will be best to go back to Leicestershire together Monday even- ing. Indeed I would like to see what the last phase of your bachelor life was like. I have been getting well for that as quickly as I could. But, of course, if you would like to bring her here Monday instead, that would be delightful, too. In any case I hope she can come here Thursday or Friday. I simply couldn't forego the plea- sure of welcoming Diana here on her first visit. I am sorry she has to go abroad. I don't know what your idea of a ' short ' engagement is, but I suppose you mean April (May is unlucky !). I am free till Monday 10th March. Then very busy till the 31st in London over Army Estimates. Then from 1st April on I could throw myself into settlements and trousseau. Mrs. Simnet has just burst in and wrung me by the hand. She is very proud, as through a maid of Aunt Mary's, she knows the young lady's photograph ; a feather in her cap which she flourishes. I don't believe I have ever set eyes on Diana. I knew there must be something important when you wired me to look out for a letter. I had to tell Memmy it was no use trying to guess. We inclined to think it might mean that you were off with Rawley to the Balkans, or further afield. Now I must stop. All love till Monday : Leicester- shire or not, as you please ; and, if you can, DO bring Diana here Thursday or Friday. You can have the East 1 General Sir Henry Rawlinson. TO HIS MOTHER 527 room to play in, and horses to ride. I must introduce her to Clouds and Wiltshire. Bless you, Darling. Devoted, PUPS. 846 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 15th February 1913. MOST, DARLING, BELOVED MAMMA, I waited to get here to write lots to you about being with you in London, or your coming here. And now, my dear ! ! ! I have got lots with a Bless- ing of News. Am gasping at it myself. Percy is engaged to marry Diana Lister, Lord Ribblesdale's daughter. Well there it is. ... It is no use being surprised, or thinking of this or that of course one does think. I had not the remotest inkling. But he is evidently in love ; lyrically in love. And you must take risks for love and marriage, of health and fortune. Still it is better to be brave and rather careless than to be cautious and rather selfish. You know my views. I am astounded ; as people always are when their son marries the last person they would have thought of, as they often do. The fact that she has no money is all to the good. The fact that he was very happy, soldiering and hunting, and not without friends, and happy with us all, proves that he must know what he is about ; in so far as anyone can know what they are about when they fall in love. He has written me sheets all the old ' consecrated ' litany that people smile at and that is so pathetic. ' It 's really the most wonderful thing that has ever happened ' so it is. We 've never heard that before. 4 Yes, I don't think.' And he goes on ' I can't explain it, but it 's just abso- lutely perfect. If only I had any command of the English language I might try and tell you, but it 's beyond any- thing I know ' and so on, for pages ! You will not be 528 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM surprised to hear that in his opinion she is ' perfect woman and girl mixed,' that she only wants to help him, that they like being poor, that he only wants an ' uneventful happy home life with a wife ' that he is ' quite calm and collected,' that I have ' only to see her to understand quite ' ' et toute la lyre.' Well., well., well, and it shall be well by God's blessing. Anyway all I have to do is to join in from the start and not croak and suddenly pretend to be the ' Heavy Father ' a part for which I have no aptitude. Let 'em try to be happy and I will help all I can. Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE. Perkins is 25 and she is 20. 847 To Mrs. Drew CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 15.il. 13. MY DEAR MARY, If I had surmised, however remotely, what I learn for the first time to-day, I would have con- sulted your friendship and superlative understanding of matrimonial problems. But as things are Sibell and I, alone here, in this vast, empty house, received a telegram from Percy last night asking us to await a letter by first post. I pointed out as men will the futility of guess- ing at its contents ; and then as men do guessed away not too cheerfully for hours, and, at last, in the same inconsequent vein, said : ' Well ! we must go to bed.' This morning I rushed down to grasp the letter and read, after endearments : 4 Here is rather a sudden shock for you, but it is All Right ! I am engaged to Diana Lister.' Sibell and I have been staggering together all day under this ' blessing ' from the Blue. We had no idea nor, indeed, do I think had Percy But who knows ? that he contemplated marriage at present, or for years. But there it is. I have never seen Diana Lister. I have heard praise of her sister, now Lady Lovatt. Do TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT 529 write me an affectionate, indiscreet, understanding letter. Please do ! Dear Mary. I have written this amazing intelligence only to my Mother, sisters and brother, and to You the Expert. But I must not pretend that I am divulging a secret which otherwise would not leak out. I should have thought that ' Mum was the word ' till Tommy Ribblesdale had some say. But after telegrams to me sheets signed ' Percy and Diana,' and telegrams to Sibell signed ' Your loving daughter Diana,' well, My Dear, knowing the local post office as I do, and the young lady who runs it, further mystery at Clouds is ' off.' The Butler has made me a speech, the Housekeeper has wrung my hand, the House- maid has burst into tears, the Agent has tactfully sug- gested that we had better postpone rebuilding the village in spite of the * Land Campaign.' They are all quivering with emotion and tingling to ring the Bells. They are drinking their healths downstairs. So, reverent as I am of ancient decorum, I know that Tommy Ribblesdale and I have only to ' conform ' ; to get ' in front of the band ' if we can. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. But tell me all you know. I know nothing. SibelPs dear love. 848 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 16.ii.13. MY DEAR WILFRID, A sudden thing has happened, which affects my life and is therefore of interest to you because of our kinship and affection. Percy my boy is engaged to marry Ribblesdale's daughter, Diana Lister. I have written to my mother, sisters and brother, and now I write to you. But I have little to tell. I came here Friday afternoon to rest after influenza and speeches. I received a telegram from Percy asking VOL. II. 2 L 530 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM me to look out for a letter by early post. Sibell and I, alone in this large, empty house, speculated on the import of a strange message from a competent child. I insisted as men will in domestic circles, however confined on the self-evident futility of guessing. But I guessed away and was disposed cheerlessly to imagine that Percy meant to go off, somewhere far away in the B. Empire you detest. It was not so. The letter which I pounced on at 8.30 a.m. yesterday began, after endearments 4 This will be rather a sudden shock to you, but it 's All Right ! ! I am engaged to Diana Lister.' It was sudden. Fate is determined to intertwine our family with the Tennants. It is pleasant that young people should * fall in love.' I thought they had forgotten that declension. Percy, whose orthography is a soldier's, writes ' I never meant to marry for years and I tried hard not to ask her for days, but it poped out last night.' Let me explain. He rarely doubles his consonants. He means that his declaration ..* popped ' out on Wednesday. They hunted Thursday and so he says were * wildly happy.' I have no aptitude for playing the part of the ' Heavy Father.' I revere Love. This is one of its expressions. They the young pair have not consulted me or Tommy Ribblesdale, we have only to conform. It is for them to set the * Pace and Direction ' and for LOVE to Laugh or Cry, over the End. But damn the End ! Love is Love, even between a young Guardsman and a maid of 20 years whom he meets out hunting in Leicestershire. 4 Thine heart it was so ruddy red That every Archer knew How best he might impale thee, And drive his Arrows through.' Percy is a stricken heart : and I must provide, gladly, for their bower of bliss, and I hope a nursery to follow. I write at once to you because you and one other are near to me in all that really touches my life. Decorum would enjoin reticence until Tommy Ribbles- dale had given his assent. But the young lady who pre- TO HIS MOTHER 531 sides over the Post Office at Clouds, though all but dense to the reception of a message, is all alacrity in the diffu- sion of gossip. After sheets of telegrams to me signed 4 Percy and Diana,' and sheets to Sibell, signed ' Your loving daughter Diana,' there is no mystery about it in this village and household. The Butler has made me a speech in the smoking room. Bertha, the Housemaid, has burst into tears. Mrs. Simnet, the Housekeeper, has wrung my hand off. Mallet, the House Carpenter, has put in a few chosen words. They drank healths in the Room and Hall last night, and I was mobbed after Church this morning. But in so far as ' official ' intelligence goes, I write to you, at once. Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 849 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., Wth February 1913. MOST DARLING MAMMA, I long to share all this with you. I feel at every moment that if I turned round you would be there. Now, will try to tell you what has happened, and what Diana is like. We came up Monday and found your dear letter ; also a very nice one from Tommy Ribblesdale asking me to call at 6 instead of 5.30. So I saw him at the Cavendish Hotel, Jermyn Street where he lives. He is very pleased and bubbled away. On returning we got a telegram asking us to meet Percy and Diana at St. Pancras Station 7.40 p.m. So S. S. and I bundled off in a taxi. It was a strange expedition. The train was 8 minutes late. We grouped ourselves under an electric standard, so as to be easily recognised. Of course we did not see them as the train pulled up. Then I got a prod in the back from an umbrella (Percy's) and felt a little dog bombarding my tummy with his paws (Peter), Then I saw Percy's grin to Diana, it showed simplicity 532 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM and courage to enter her new family, tired by hunting and travel, under the unflattering rays of a blue electric light. She was rather smaller than I expected. We all four got into the taxi, dropped Percy, then Diana, then Sibell then self : all very hungry. I liked Diana but, as you will hear, I am quite sure I like her very much now. This was the start. Tommy, dear old Guy, Diana, Percy, Sibell and I dined at last ; after 9. Cuckoo had come in to hug them and I assisted in a dressing-gown. I liked her much more at dinner. Yesterday I took a. little trip with her and Percy to a photographer, and whilst he waited at the Guards' Club was alone with her in the taxi and liked her more. Then we all dined at Leffie's (No. 13) to meet her family. Barbara and Wilson, Laura and Lovat ; and an Aunt (also Margot) watched Perf and Diana and liked her most. They are very much in love. She is a little cameo ; very well-bred, with a sort of look of Aunt Connie as a girl, only smaller. I saw the Aunt, Tommy's unmarried sister watching them ; and saw her face passing from the curious stage to frank content and admiration of Percy. And she looked such a lady, the Aunt. So I really was satisfied. Percy the ' infatuated ' started at 7 to hunt in Leicestershire and I am to take Diana down there this afternoon. We dine at Little Dally, Percy's bachelor hunting box. Sibell conies on Saturday to Glady and Edward Wyndham ' Warwick Lodge.' S. S. and I return Monday and on to Clouds to welcome them on Friday 28th. Now, darling, London is beastly just now such a black bitter N.E. wind. Would you like to come to Clouds on the 24th and see the fun : probably a meet of hounds early the next week ? I will write again if this is so. If you stick to coming here 24th I could hug you on my way through. But I think Clouds would be better than London for you darling and I long to be with you. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE. P.S. I fixed up the settlements yesterday and the wedding will be on the 17th April. TO MRS. MACKAIL 533 They had never seen each other till 24th January out hunting and were engaged on 12th February. Percy said to Tony Shaftesbury ' It was no use beating about the bush.' 850 To his Niece, Mrs. H. H. Asquith THE VICARAGE, LITTLE DALBY, MELTON MOWBRAY, Saturday, 22.ii.13. DARLING NYNCLE, It was dear of you to write. I am you * love ' Diana as I have a great opinion of your taste and wisdom. I am very fond of her. She rides beautifully. Percy was allowed to come here by the early train, so I had the honour of escorting Dian. We all hunted together yesterday and to-day. It is a glorious country and such fun to be humming along with young people and capering over the perfect fences. I go to Clouds Monday to prepare a welcome and enter- tain Hugh Cecil. The happy pair join us on Friday or Saturday. Could you and Beb come too ? 28th to 3rd, or 7th to 10th, or both, or for all the time ? Do ! Percy has done all I ever asked. I told him not to marry an American, or a Jewess, or an heiress, but just a,n English young lady. So he has conformed. With much love to Nyncie. From her Uncle, GEORGE. 851 To Mrs. Mackail THE VICARAGE, LITTLE DALBY, MELTON MOWBRAY, 23.ii.13. DEAREST MARGARET, You wrote me a heavenly letter. It does make one * feel nice and in love oneself.' Jack has written too, and Angela. That was good of her. Of course she remembered my plunging in at her ecstatic 534 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM moment ; but it was good to write and say so. She recommends marriage. It is a ' whack ' of Happiness and Spring to me already. I rather wanted one. It has cured a sore throat that had marred me for five weeks ; and cured me also of inward invisible ungraciousness of which the sore throat was the outward and sensible sign too inward, all the same. And now for a time perhaps for all the Autumn of my days a long Farewell to dismal shadows ; and a Welcome to ' the newness of Life ' once more. I am 20 years younger. I must come and pump-handle your dear hand. And you must come to the Wedding, already fixed for Thursday, 17th April, in the morning. Angela still ' holds the record ' for time ; but for com- plete initiative and independence of action Percy ties with her. He saw Diana for the first time out hunting on January 24th. Made a point of seeing her on foot, on Wednesday following, and was accepted that day fort- night after as he says ' trying hard not to ask her for days.' They are wildly in love. It amuses me that Sibell has always taken the most melancholy view of his coming to hunt here. To her Melton is the haunt of man-eating Delilahs. ' Instead of which ' we get a very early Victorian romance of roseate simplicity ; all done ' By the simplicity of Venus' doves/ I came down to examine the scene of action ; and know exactly how, when and where everything happened. This is a bleak little vicarage at the top of a hill, where Percy and a friend, George Drummond, had come to be ostentatious bachelors, living Spartan lives, never dining out, to bed at 10 ; no hot air and little hot water for the one bath ; chops and tapioca pudding for dinner. So Venus smiled and all the birds are singing ' Ring-a -ding- ding.' And I am ever your ever affectionate GEORGE. I was wise to turn the Nurseries into a library. I 'm glad you spotted that successful challenge to Fortune. Going to Clouds to-morrow. TO HIS MOTHER 535 852 To Wilfrid Ward WARWICK LODGE, MELTON MOWBRAY, February 23rd, 1913. MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter of congratulation was most welcome. I am pleased at Percy's engagement and satisfied with his choice. It came as a complete surprise. I had never seen the young lady nor, indeed, had he until the 24th of January, out hunting. They were engaged, after post, on the 12th of February and I received Percy's announcement on the 15th. Since then I have seen Diana and my prepossession in her favour, based on a long friendship with her father, is confirmed by her charm and simplicity. I am truly content and happy at the prospect. My only wish was that he should marry an English lady and this he proposes to do. They fell in love with each other in the early Victorian manner. Their happy story might have been written by Miss Young in collaboration with Whyte-Melville. I go to Clouds to-morrow to prepare a welcome. With my kindest remembrance to your wife. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. 853 To his Mother CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 28th February 1913. MOST DARLING AND BELOVED MAMMA, Just before I go to bed, I must write you a little line. Percy and Diana and Tommy Ribblesdale are coming here to-morrow ; and I can't help feeling ' diddle.' It was that, or some such word, I used when you read to me the ' Ice Maiden.' But, all the while, my intention is if I can if I could to deepen your structural imprint on Clouds, so that nobody can alter it. I have had just now a great talk with S. S. and she really does understand what I am driving at. 536 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I think you would like the library ; and I think Philip Webb would approve. It is good ' And the evening and the morning were the first day.' I have, all the time, seen * in my mind's eye, Horatio ' that when books were put in the shelves of the North wall, the proportion would be apparent. Now, to-day, I filled one section with books and, Darling, there is the proportion of the attic-Gallery for any Ass to see. Equally in the Lamp-room-Chapel. There, too, Mallet and I are making straight for a ' grand slam.' But so also in the Billiard-room. The Billiard table is now quite comfortable ensconced in the Barrel- room. And the ' Billiard-room ' that was assumes once more its original delight. But I want you badly to help me. I am at it with Miles, outside. The immediate nut I have to crack is Milton village. I have been round it, cottage by cottage, and tree by tree, with Miles. I will not spoil that village. But I will without spoil- ing it rebuild every house, that gets no sun, on the opposite slope. That is to say I am making a plan which can be followed if Percy cares to follow in 10 or 20 or 30 years, as money may, or may not, be available. My plan is to fulfil three objects. (1) The people must have good houses. (2) Their houses must be the sort of houses which my neighbours can build. (3) Milton, in thirty years' time, must be a Wiltshire village, built of stone and chalk ; and more beautiful than it is now, because its owner will have cared to think of every house, and family, and of * old England ' made new : as it was in the days of ' John Ball.' The real distinction is not between old things and new things ; but between good things and bad things. Do not, for one moment, suppose that I am careless about money. I realise that I must do my part, in my generation. I cannot have a stink in Milton if 150 will get rid of the stink. The stink is there : and it must go. But I realise quite vividly that launching Percy into TO PHILIP HANSON 537 matrimony with a young lady who requires four hunters is what financialists call a ' stiff proposition.' So I am raking through all the money there is, or might be, like an * 'Ebrew Jew.' And I think I see my way. There is some ' dead wood.' For example, a Mill Terwick Mill in Sussex ; head- rents in Yorkshire ; a property nobody knows anything about in Australia. Well ; if I sell these eccentricities kept for votes, and ' plural voting ' is ' off ' or kept in Australia because they were there ; I can raise enough to give Diana a necklace and pay Percy's debts, without endangering the property. Any way, most beloved Mamma, it is all joy to me that Percy is to marry and I won't lose the ship of his venture for a ' porth of Tar.' I don't want to spend any more money on myself than I have done for the last twenty years. I 'm a * cheap man.' I write that to reassure you. On the one hand, Percy is my only son. On the other, in launching him, I shall be ' careful.' But he must be launched. I am glad that Diana is only a child. I am glad that Percy's General likes her. Because that means that Percy will go on with his soldiering and that Diana prompted by me and Percy's General will make Percy go to the Staff College. My part is to smooth over the acerbity of the ' Red House ' by tidying up the garden and putting in some chintzes and china. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 854 To Philip Hanson CLOUDS, EAST K NO VLB, SAJJSBURY, 2.iii.l913. MY DEAR PHIL, I have been * enjoying the engage- ment,' and without a moment for responding to your appeal to my egotism. 538 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM But before I write about myself let me say a word or two about you. What does ' being now retired from active affairs ' mean ? Are you antedating the Royal assent to the Home Rule Bill ? Or has the shadow cast before it already eclipsed your work ? Do you no longer think of returning to the Civil Service ' on this side ' ? I ply you with questions. But even if as I hope you continue to serve the State, I would welcome a work from you on the ' Philosophy of Politics.' What the age needs is a modern Bagehot. Most of the recent Political Economy is amateurish socialism. I wish you would write as Bagehot did. His works I have turned to them lately are obsolete in matters though still attractive in treatment. Percy is to be married on April 17th. Can you come and pass the Friday to Monday with me here ? Do. As for myself : I did too much Platform work last year. It tires me. Also I am scarred by (1) the cowardice and snobbishness of the Peers on 10 August, 1911 ; (2) the cowardice over duties on Foreign Food-stuffs. I doubt whether the Unionist Party will ever do any great work again. It has the faults the moral faults of the Coalition without their dexterity at electioneering. The truth is that the candidates, on both sides, are not fit to be MJVs. They are selected for their wealth and lack both brains and character. The majority have no views at all ; and a heavy percentage of the minority with views are incapable of explaining or defending them. The absence of brains and character in 70% to 80% of our politicians depresses me. Towards the end of the Session I had influenza, and my speech on February 10th at Manchester was an effort that left me exhausted. But it was a good speech and success- ful. I will send you a copy. You will dissent from it ; but it may interest you. The worst of it is that I have become in these degenerate days a * popular turn ' on the platform. People come as they would to a good conjurer or cinematograph. Both sides come and pay compliments. But I am under no> TO PHILIP HANSON 539 illusion. A set speech is the respectable dissipation of our urban centres. On the other hand to be more cheerful I am getting more and more deeply interested in agriculture and Rural England. Sibell calls me ' Farmer George.' It is too late for me to be an English * Horace ' (organiser, 1 not Poet), but in a small way I believe I could get a good deal done. I am entering into correspondence with Landlords of relatively small properties round here, who depend on their estates for a living. The ' magnates ' are of no use to the smaller landowners, men with 2,000 to 3,000 acres or so, or to anyone else. But if these smaller men would (1) create for themselves a system of mutual credit, (2) have a housing policy of their own with ' standardised ' plans and ' spare parts/ (3) carry the Farmers with them and convince the Farmers that the * whole show ' is doomed unless the labourers are treated better why, then a beginning could be made. Although I have little free money almost none now that Percy is to marry I am not ' tied up ' by settle- ments and burdened by charges ; so I can * move and have my being.' When I dismiss the Magnates I must except Lord Radnor. He is a good man who works hard at his job. I doubt whether any Government can do much for Agriculture. I am convinced that a great deal must be done and am not without hope that co-operation might do it. You must come here. The library is finished. I have sorted all the labourers into three categories, so as to know what I spend on elderly and idle men. In the same way I have sorted all the cottages into ' good, bad and indifferent,' and have started a mild ' town-planning ' for the village of Milton. Upon the whole I incline to the view that public life is only useful as an education for private enterprise. Let us correspond more frequently and begin by explain- 1 Sir Horace Plunkett. 540 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM ing what you mean by the phrase * being now retired from active affairs.' If you are going to write, you had better come and study the English Land Question in Wiltshire. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. Sibell and I are thinking of you with your Mother and Father, and send them our kindest remembrance. I am really overjoyed at Percy's choice. His young woman is a lady ; and fond of the country, and not over- educated. She grasps that he has got to be a soldier first and a squire next. Perkins can do those two things well and has no aptitude for politics or literature. Diana rides beautifully. 855 To Philip Hanson CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, G.iii.lo. MY DEAR PHIL, I am glad to hear that the enigmatic sentence only meant more work. Now for immediate plans. Percy will be married on the 17th April, in London, at St. Margaret's. I feel sure that for you to come then and go with me to Clouds on the 18th, or evening of 17th, will be the best plan, and very delightful. I had considered Easter, but (1) there will be no Easter holiday, (2) I shall be absorbed in Army Estimates, (3) the only counter-inducement Percy and Diana being here is more than doubtful, as he must go to her people at Gisbourne that, Easter, Sunday. So we will say ' done ' and book the 17th. I am impressed, and pleased, by your approval of my contemplated escape frcm Party Politics. Hugh Cecil who came here last week at first scoffed at the idea ; but after a little talk and reflection, he, too, approved. I cannot desert, with honour, during this bout of opposition. But after the next General Election, and 25 years in the House of Commons, I shall feel that I have finished that TO PHILIP HANSON 541 part of my duty. I shall be out of the Yeomanry, too, and 52 or 53 years of age. That is a good age for begin- ning 10 or 20 years of new work ' in novitate vitae.' Whereas another round of opposition would kill me ; and office does not tempt me ; even if we won the Elec- tion, which I, for one, do not expect. In any case I mean to study the English Land Question, and you shall see the ' start ' on April 18th. It is evident that * Plunkett ' co-operation will not work here. My present belief is that we must start from the * top ' and get the small Landowners together for mutual credit, and standardised housing. Then, as a second stage, the large farmers may conform. I.e. IF (???) the small landowners had succeeded qua their part of the job, the large farmers might wish to come in qua their part of the job. At this point, the syndicated landowners would insist on (1) holding the cottages for the whole Trust, instead of letting them with Farms ; (2) a higher wage for labourers. (I am skipping detail although indeed, because I am well aware that the detail at this juncture is decisive : so I skip it, to think the more.) (If I did not skip, I should have to go into (a) standard- ising gardens for all cottages, (b) motor traction, owned by the first landowners as an additional bait to large farmers.) And at this juncture my parentheses would never end. A very important one would include buying out Glebe and obsolete tenantry rights so that the standardised housing-cum-transport should not be marred by slovenly ' enclaves.' Supposing all that is attempted with some hope of success. Then, and then only, could co-partnership or any other long name for a simple and rather hopeless experi- ment be brought in. At this point, the small-holder of whom I hope little (and so will you when you see Sangar's small holding) and 542 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM the rising labourer, of whom I hope much, would come in. Enough ! * Basta Vedremo,' as the Italians say. But you must * wait and see ' with me. The twin Tom-fooleries of Mr. George and Ernest Pretyman consist in hurrying and never watching. The suicide of Landowners consists in not knowing their maps and their country-sides. Without maps, and ways of proceeding on horse and foot, I am lost. E.g. I know the upland here which I farm myself. I don't know the vale. A few days ago I tried it on foot. I didn't know my boundary, I got bogged and scratched : bogged in morasses and scratched in unkempt fences. That is all wrong. I am putting it right. E.g. 2. The pressure of finding some money for Percy to marry on has forced me to take stock of what I possess. What do I find ? (1) That I own acres in South Australia. At last I got a map ; and mean to realise. (2) That I own a mill and some few acres in Sussex. (8) That I own a head rent in Yorkshire. All that sort of thing is the Devil. It is a mere excuse for lawyers and stamps and bitter resentment on the part of occupiers. It is all wrong and detestable from any human angle of vision. I shall sell these execrescences very carefully to selected persons who can do their duty by them, and put the capital, 8,000 to 6,000, into doing my duty by the little stretch of England for which I am responsible. And now to run on to the end of a garrulous letter : It is interesting to shape and improve bits of England. To-day, for the first time since September, I made a moment to see what I had created ' in my mind ' at Pertwood. My dear P. H., it thrilled me. For 1,000 to 1,400 I have pumped water, by a 3| horse power engine 1| miles over a great hill, and built a PERFECT cow- stable (designed by Mallet and self and executed by a small man at Hindon with some help in carting and material from me), and fenced in a patch of clay smeared TO HILAIRE BELLOC 543 on to the high Downs ; noted in Domesday Book as pasture, and neglected till now. Well, that 's a milk farm made and the capital value of 400 acres doubled. And the Farmers out hunting come to me and talk about it. The Game and it 's a ripping Game is to combine (a) all the old traditions here with (b) the eye and imagina- tion and cash balance of a man prospecting in N.W. Canada. It is a Game ! But, quite seriously, I believe it to be a Duty that has been abominably neglected. Yours ever, G. W. P.S. I believe it can only be played in England from the ' top ' with inducements lor all and sundry in their order to come in. Anyway or, as you say over the water, anny-way if the squires are ' scrapped ' by the Plutocrats in the very act of playing this great Game of Rural England they will be deeply regretted and will go down with a grand flag flying. 856 To Hilaire Belloc 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 12th March 1913. MY DEAR BELLOC, Prudence a bitch counsels that I should go to bed quam primum. I wave her away and take notice only of your letter. You are a fortunate man. You have left the House of Commons. You have been to Glastonbury and are converted. It was the city of Glass v it stood in a lake. It was Avalon. It glistened and was vitreous and opalescent and enchanted and the source of many fables. It is not dead like Stonehenge because Christianity was spliced onto its superstitions. Now Wiltshire is remarkable because it is just East of the Mystery-line. But its mysteries are dead. Stone- henge is dead. Yarnboro' Castle is dead, White Sheet 544 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM Castle, Castle ditches, Ogglebury's camp, Quarley Hills, are all gone dead ; and a new wonder of Rome in a trance supervenes. Wiltshire is not dead ; not mys- terious ; but Romantic. That 's why I love Wiltshire ; stand in awe of Glastonbury ; and shudder at Stone- henge (hi Wiltshire but not of it ; any more than the aeroplane station is of it, with flag always at half mast for seme brave fellow dashed to death). Wiltshire is a Belle au bois dormant not a sepulchre : a cataleptic not a skeleton. Wiltshire is living and entranced. But now I must go to bed. Army Estimates are on early next week ; perhaps on Monday. I only got the Annual Report (dated 30 Sept. 1912) to-day, and have only Seely's promise of an early ! copy of the Estimates. I must work. Propose a meeting the night after Army Estimates. I continue to rejoice hi my son's early marriage. I care for nothing else, and rejoice hi that without a care. I have been bucketted about. Welcomed the young couple at Clouds, Saturday March 1st, to London March 3rd, back to Clouds March 4th, to London March 8th to dine with Bonar Law (a moth-eaten affair), to Wimbledon to breakfast with step -daughter Lady Shaftesbury March 9th ; back to Clouds. To London March 10th for open- ing of Parliament (a rat-eaten affair). To Maidenhead March llth to my beloved Mother and her elder sister Mrs. Ellis no words can say what charm and joy surrounds ladies of 78 and 79 years of age who are young. Back here March 12th to-day, and determined to say what has to be said about our microscopic army. The standard for the Infantry of the line is 5 ft. 3" and the Estimates which Seely will not print will disclose a death-rattle in recruiting. Sed victa Catoni, 1 is my motto. Yours ever, G. W. I-- 1 Lucan. TO HIS MOTHER 545 857 To his Mother 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 13th March 1913. MOST BELOVED MAMMA, I have thought of Papa to-day l and gone on with my work, as he would have done. I can't be sure of getting to you this Sunday. I am trying to extract a copy of Army Estimates : and in that process Good News. Failing all else I ran Seely to ground about 6 p.m. and, before answering my demand for the Estimates, he told me he had approved dear old Guy's appointment to good work at the War Office in next October. That rolls a load off my heart. And * for this relief much thanks,' but, as always, and cheerfully this time, I must pay. I can't get the Estimates till late Saturday. Bonar Law who saw me to-day wants to see me seriously on Monday. I must wait for those Estimates; eviscerate them Sunday ; think over them Monday morn ; have it pat for Bonar Law Monday afternoon ; re-cast my speech Tuesday and make it Wednesday. And, Beloved, this is one of those moments, that rarely come to summon one's best. So, it will be delicious if you come back here Monday, 17th, for you will find me as in 1900 doing my very best in preparation on Monday and Tuesday and in execution on Wednesday and Thursday. * Anyway ' it is jolly for you that (1) Guy's life will no more be wasted and (2) that I am * at it again ' to per- suade the English people that National Security is the first thing they ought to think of. I had a little symposium here to-night of Bonar Law's secretary and his brother who is in the War Office. And now ' to bed ' without one thought of the fact that 1 The anniversary of his father's death. VOL. ii. SM 546 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM I have to speak to the Annual Conference of the Tariff Reform League at 10.30 a.m. to-morrow 1 I will take that hi my stride. Your most loving son, GEORGE. 858 To Winston Churchill Private and Personal. CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE, SALISBURY, 27.iii.13. DEAR WINSTON, I had to catch the last train to these parts yesterday evening. That obligation, combined with the outburst in the House, prevented me from hearing your speech and so defeated the object for which I had journeyed to London. I wish you to know that I intended, on personal and patriotic grounds, to listen carefully ; for I knew that your speech would necessarily be for good or evil an historic declaration. I have read I may say that I have studied your speech in the * Times.' And, again, I wish you to know that in my deliberate judgement your speech is wholly admirable ; that it presents no points for misconception, here, in the Empire, in Germany, or in France ; that it is not * open to criticism ' : briefly and I could not say more that it was worthy of the occasion. You ex- celled your opportunity and fulfilled the exactions of an epoch. That is my calm and measured judgement. I am glad that I had to leave the House. Here, in the country like myriads the world over I read and weighed what you said and was grateful. In terms of the tunes in which we live, and of Party Politics this letter is an impertinence. But it is not irrelevant to much that will endure. It would be an impertinence for which no further con- sideration could atone to select for special praise where all is so good. I risk it, and say the 4 False dilemma * and TO HIS NIECE, MRS. H. H. ASQUITH 547 * Imperial Imperial Squadron ' were the best of all, the first in thought, the second in imaginative grasp. Nothing could have been ' happier ' than the topical exordium. The only doubt that creeps into my mind amarum aliquid is whether the men will be forthcoming and your speech will help mightily to remove the causes of that doubt. May you often speak as simply and powerfully is my wish for the Navy and the Empire. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM. P.S. No answer ! 859 To his Niece, Mrs. H. H. Asquith 44 BKLGRAVE SQUARE, S.W., 10. iv. 13. DARLING NYNCIE, It was delicious to hear from you. You mustn't bother to answer my letters ; at any rate till the Toy arrives. I must hustle it. I dash to Clouds whenever I can and spend happy hours listening to the birds and arranging my books. There is one thrush in the rhododendron who, now and again, between liquid lilts, suddenly emits the imperative of a large steel whistle, with a pea in it. I thought it was Ursula (Bendor's little girl) making fun of me, and ran back to see. As for my books, they come in packing-cases from Saighton and 35 Park Lane, go into the lift, are hoisted to the attics, and dumped on the library floor. Then I take them in arm- fuls and shove them on to one shelf. Then I think better of it, take them down and shove them into another. It is glorious exercise. So pleasant was it to ride and listen to birds and watch tiny leaves and to handle poetry in bulk, that I burst into song, as thus : I have forgotten how to sing If ever I sang, so I only say That I am glad, for here is Spring ! And I am alive, thank God, to-day. 548 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM And I have forgotten other men's songs That made me jubilant long ago Before I knew of rights and wrongs And the death of delight in Beauty's show. So I only say that I am glad To live, and breathe, and hear, and see The ecstasy of a world gone mad To a mood of Heaven's virginity. ! the ringing and singing and clinging of joy, Bird-calls, and new blossom, young grass and live Trees ! They were dead ; but are springing to flaunt an ' Ahoy ! ' For signals that nutter back ' Do as you please.' O ! the leisure, and pleasure, and treasure of Love ! The time to be happy and room to be free, The unbounded horizon and azure above, The miracle of Spring ... to me. 1 like the change to ' rag-time ' in the 4th quatrain ; and it ends suddenly like a thrush. With much love, GEORGE. 860 To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt 44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, 16.iv,13. MY DEAR WILFRID, I ought to have written long ago. Your Wedding Present to Percy is, in fact, a most price- less gift to me. I know, and love, that Ronsard. Percy has been soldiering with his General all over the S.W. of England, so we only met to-day on the eve of his marriage. He had, as I had not, opened the parcel and will thank you. He proposed to put the Ronsard in my Library, and, in time, (I omit ' due ') he will write to you, what he said to me, in warm appreciation. These days have been tense. Rosebery I don't know why asked me to dinner yesterday week, the 8th April. He felt then that unless the Emperor of Russia TO HILAIRE BELLOC 549 could squash the King of Montenegro, there might be a mobilisation here before Percy's wedding. But those clouds are dispersed. So we have enjoyed the preliminaries of Percy's nuptials. We had a display of gifts at Ribblesdale's house this afternoon, and a dinner of both Families at Grosvenor House this evening. We all feel that Politics are a bore and should be quitted by honest men, and that soldiers are menaced. So as you won't come to Clouds we by which I mean Percy, Diana, and myself hope in the interval of Peace, to invade you at New Buildings in the course of Summer. I would like you to see Percy and Diana in the prime of their mating. It is just possible that they have * hit off ' an alliance of Heroic Love combined with matrimony. If this should prove to be so, they are lucky. In any case they are happy and exorbitant for the moment. For the moment they are lovers, and they ought to visit your shrine and lay a wreath at the feet of Proteus. As a rule people do not know hiw to love ; as an excep- tion they love now here ; now there ; as a rarity almighty lovers find each other after both are married. It is extravagant to suppose that Percy and Diana are going to be lovers and, also, husband and wife. But it is pleasant to contemplate the hypothesis. Li any case I ought to take them, in their youth and delight, to see you. Yours affectionately, G, W. 861 To Hilaire Belloc CLOUDS^ 30fA May 1913. MY DEAR BELLOC, Many thanks for the Cockle-shell. I have noted, and shall indubitably test, its virtue of pre- serving travellers. It may even be though this is not certain that I shall dash over to Paris the 2nd of June, and proceed to Hotel Lotti wherever that may be to 550 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM join Westminster and take a complete holiday of a few days. You may ask, why a holiday ? But I cannot suppose that you would put so foolish a question. Still at the back of your head there may linger a surmise that I have been making holiday since the unspeakable House of Commons closed its doors. It is not so. I have enjoyed myself ; but without a moment's relaxation. The Yeomanry regiment 6 which I have the honour to command ' belongs with the Shropshire and Denbigh to the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade. Furthermore it the Brigade is commanded by Colonel Herbert, who believes he is a Welshman (he is undoubtedly a Catholic) and cherishes a misplaced affection for his native hills. It followed that for sixteen days I was marooned on a morass at the foot of a mountain plateau called in the Welsh outlandish tongue MYNNID EPPYNT, which ranges from 1400 to 1600 feet above the sea and is intersected by bogs. Again to shore-up the sham of the Territorial Force, our camp was run entirely by amateurs and, owing to the absurd fifteen days training for all, our supply and transport arrived on the day that I did. To complete ; it rained in deluges and the winds roared. We were exposed to the elements ; drowned out ; obliged to change horse-lines and shift tents. On to this scene of inexperi- enced effort confronted by unaccustomed difficulties, there descended (to shore-up the sham) 1. The Inspector General of the Home Forces (2) The Inspector General of Cavalry (3) The General Officer Commanding in Chief the Western Command. (4. 5. 6. 7. etc.) The rag-tag and bob- tail of staff officers who pursue Generals on inspection ' just as ' to quote the Homeric simile of General Tucker ' ail the dogs hi the barrack are tied to a bitch on heat ! * I therefore had to work hard for long hours and not without success ; prejudiced indeed but only for a few moments when I nearly bogged the whole illustrious group in a deep morass and only extricated them by galloping to a stone ford, left by the Romans that I knew of and had missed by 300 yards. The generals were afraid of being bogged. Not so the gallant Yeomen. They galloped TO HILAIRE BELLOC 551 cheerily right in and tumbled about with their horses, by sixes and even dozens in the treacherous mire. I motored back, 51 miles east to Hereford and then 105 miles south to Clouds. Since then I have ridden early and answered scores of letters and meditated on agriculture. Fortunatus et ille decs qui novit agrestes . . . Ilium non populi fasces, non purpura regum Flexit, et infidos agitans discordia fratres . . . which is as much as to say that I, when here riding about my fields, do not care a damn, about (1) a row at Dover over a clock (2) The King's levee on Monday (3) The ' differences ' in the Unionist Party. I simply am happy in the glory of May. In this mood I get a telegram from Westminster asking me to go to Paris on Saturday. I reply I cannot having guests but will try to do so on Monday. Consider well whether you would not come here with Mrs. Belloc on Friday June 13th ? My brother and sister- in-law the Zetlands will be here : But they are quiet folk. The library is very good. I am in it now. Yours ever, GEORGE W. P.S. Westminster expects me to dine Monday. Ring up at Hotel Lotti. 862 To Hilaire Belloc HOTEL LOTTI, 7 ET 9 RUE DE CASTIGLIONE, PARIS, 4M June 1913. MY DEAR BELLOC, I quite understand. My view you know : for I repeated it I fear more than twice last night. But a man's own instinct is the only guide in these matters. It may be even, apart from that, an act to return as you are returning. Shewing a front is sometimes an act and not merely a semblance. May it prove to be so in this case. ' Te absente ' I went book-hunting this morning. The 552 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM sport was poor, but I have marked down some quarries for to-morrow. I have harboured I hope a stag. I was a * limier ' to-day. To-morrow I shall be ' la meute ' in full cry. ' Negative information ' in soldier slang is often of great value. For example we you and I now know that the Restaurant of Henry iv. at St. Germain s is unworthy of the Vert galant and his renown. To-night, therefore, I ' cast back ' to the Restaurant Le Doyen. Now I would not for the world a phrase, but let it pass have missed revisiting with you the woods that were a part of your boyhood and, therefore a ma guise an index to Man's Immortality. But again I would not for the world let us pass the phrase once more have missed the dinner I ate and the wine I drank at Le Doyen. Potage St. Germain, a Barbue the whole of him with a sauce that was Maitre d'Hotel sublimated with mush- rooms. A cold quail, stuffed with truffles and garnished with aspic and parsley, and supported by a salad. Hot Asperges vertes, as big as the white ones, with sauce mousseline. A cold salade Russe without ham but with a perfect mayonnaise. And then the best strawberries I can remember. For wine a Richebourg of 1890 which stood to other wines and stands in the relation of Homer and Shakespeare to other poets. It was a miracle of the Earth's entrails searched by the sun and responding with all the ethereal perfumes of a hot day in Summer tempered by the whispering and cool shadows of a breeze. No Jew was there. No American. No Englishman but myself. The French were dining under a sapphire sky, by an old willow-tree, a fountain and a nymph in bronze. I had struck an oasis of civilisation. There were few women, and that was fit. For how few women understand ? The service was traditional. One man human and experienced took the order and reminded me that / had forgotten the Asparagus. Another man human and zealous set the meats before me. Both rejoiced in my content and took their tips in the spirit of gentlemen knighted on the field of battle. TO HILA1RE BELLOC 553 And the whole show for three persons with 6 francs to the waiter and 5 francs to the head-waiter, cost less than last night's ghetto. There was no band. You shall dine with me there after a walk of three day--. -Yours, G. W. [George Wyndham made the expedition with Mr. Belloc, visiting, amongst other places, the home of the latter' s youth. On Friday 6th he spent the day driving and walking in the Forest of Fontainebleau with Lady Plymouth and her daughter. He was full of life and interest though at times he appeared to be a little tired. They did not return to Paris till 9 P.M., and he then owned to having occasionally felt a pain in the diest. The following morning he completed the purchase of the books that he alludes to in the preceding letter and at dinner that night he had apparently quite recovered and was in high spirits. At 6 o'clock on Sunday morning the pain had returned, and at 8 o'clock a doctor was sent for, who found a slight con- gestion of the right lung. Throughout the day his temperature was not above 99 and he experienced little discomfort except for the pain in the chest. The doctors did not apprehend any danger but advised the postponement of his journey home for two or three days. At 7 o'clock in the evening he was given a slight injection of morphia. On saying good-night to Lady Plymouth he asked her to send a telegram to his brother that he would dictate hi the morning and settled himself comfortably to sleep. Lady Plymouth returned to the hotel, but at 9.45 P.M. was summoned by the nurse on the telephone, and on her arrival ten minutes later was told of his death. She found him ' as if he were asleep, serene and peaceful.' The doctors pronounced his death due to the passage of a clot of blood through the heart. His son arrived in Paris the following day and wrote to his mother ' The Majesty of death is so wonderful. When one is with him one cannot cry or moan he looks too much a con- queror. His soul must be right high in the Heaven now and his beautiful Body just looking as if he had won : One cannot mourn for him, he looks too splendid : He is triumphant. Let us think of that and be brave ourselves.' 554 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM The following letter was found after his death in his dispatch box. His son posted it, and Wilfrid Ward found it on his return from attending the funeral at Clouds. Though not the last letter written, it was the last received, and is placed at the close of these volumes, for the brave words of the post- script are most characteristic of his brave life.] To Wilfrid Ward CLOUDS, SALISBURY, May 8th, 1913. MY DEAR WILFRID, I had your letter of April 30th typed for better accuracy of interpretation. Then I mislaid the typed copy, so to-night I have tackled the original and I say, cheerily, that I will be your * man of the world ' who ' is not a Catholic.' I will read your reminiscences with avidity and answer your question which is Should they be published in the ' Dublin Review ' instead of waiting (as A. J. B. and H. C. advise) to be Chapter 1. of a book ? I am off to-morrow to command my Yeomanry in the uttermost parts of Wales. I could not write and you could not read the address. But, if you will send the thing, marked ' to be forwarded ' to 44 Belgrave Square, it will be forwarded and I shall read it and reply. I have just been glancing at W. Morris's socialist lectures, published under the title ' Signs of Change ' in 1888 and was arrested by a note in pencil at the end written by my father, a Tory. It runs, ' Pages 188 and 9. Splendid passage, I hope prophetic Wonderful and impossible as the change in condition, shadowed forth on pages 20 and 21, appears from our present standpoint, it is not more wonderful and impossible than our present standpoint would appear to those who lived thousands of years ago/ That is an interesting note coming from my father, a Tory. The young couple Percy and Diana are very happy and preoccupied by starting as householders. For myself apart from Politics, Finance (how to float TO WILFRID WARD 555 the couple and pay Death Duties) and the round of duty I am absorbed in two subjects : Rural England and my library. * We know what we are but we know not what we may be.' I may perhaps take office again. But I doubt it. * Invent portum.' My work, I am almost persuaded, must be to tackle the problem of Rural England, and my play, I am convinced, to finish my library. The two together would give me happy and useful employment for twenty years. I am attacking ' Rural England,' (1) by action ; based on study of the past from Domesday Book onwards and on modern science ' so-called.' I think best in action and experiment. So I have given the go-by to theory and have already pumped water several miles over considerable hills ; built cow-sheds ; bought a motor-trolly to supersede four cart-horses and done much else ; which will I believe put back this bit of England to where it . stood in the 17th century and afford working models to my neighbours, who lack any capital and imagination. It is jolly work. (2) But I attack ' Rural England ' also with my pen and have written a * private ' essay that has been * highly commended ' by Lansdowne and Milner. As for my play, you and your wife and Maisie must come to see my Library in early June, or late July. (Between June 20 and late July I must shut up to put in a larger water-supply.) I have finished the structure of the Library and nearly filled it with books. There are six desks for people who mean business. It is inspired by Wells, Merton, San Marco at Florence etc. But it will be a place at the top of the house in which you and Hugh Cecil and I and others can read and write. Party Politics leave me cold. But the country-side of England and the literature of Europe make me glow. Yours ever, GEORGE W. P.S. Incidentally to the two main purposes of my life I am finishing a chapel in the basement. 556 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM It is exhilarating to make things yourself. The car- penter and I, without architect or contract, have made the Library, the Chapel, the new cow-farm and much else. When I told Hugh Cecil a few weeks ago that this would be my work and not Party-Politics, he was shocked. But after seeing what I was at he came round to my view. Some people inherit an estate and go on as if nothing had happened. I can't do that. My father never told me anything about this place. I lived and worked in Cheshire and Ireland. Suddenly I find myself respon- sible for farming 2400 acres and for paying sums that stagger me by way of weekly wages and repairs. So I ask myself ' What are you going to do.' I mean to use all my imagination and energy to get something done that shall last and remind. INDEX TO THE LETTERS Recipients of Letters in , ., Vol. II. PERCY LYULPH WYND- HAM, ESQ 481, 485. LADY WEMYSS . . . 507, 619, 760. MRS. ADEANE . . . 419, 478, 516, 529, 552, 570, 722, 776, 805, 833. LADY GLENCONNER . . 454, 483, 500, 501, 502, 558, 558, 559, 569, 578, 587, 594, 596, 600, 616, 628, 635, 636, 647, 666, 669, 670, 671, 672, 673, 674, 675, 677, 692, 727, 828. COLONEL GUY WYND- HAM, C.B., M.V.O. . 421, 430, 431, 437, 440, 519, 610, 614. GEORGE HEREMON WYNDHAM, ESQ. . . 6n. CHARLES T. GATTY, ESQ. 418, 457, 458, 476, 541, 551, 646, 648, 661, 696, 708, 744, 745, 782, 790, 806, 815, 837. CHARLES Bo YD, ESQ., C.M.G 422, 442, 445, 474, 4 8 6, 499, 506, 511, 546, 645, 662, 697, 746, 748, 749, 761, 813. MRS. DREW .... 446, 448, 461, 462, 464, 467, 468, 472, 475, 477, 487, 498, 508, 524, 553, 591, 592, 601, 603, 607, 613, 623, 630, 638, 643, 757, 758, 763, 764, 827, 847. SIR CHARLES WALDSTEIN 463, 534, 844. MONSIEUR AUGUSTS RODIN 47. 485, 5*4. 520, 612. WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT, ESQ 503, 504, 538, 545, 590, 835, 842, 848, 860. WILFRID WARD, ESQ. . 473, 505, 5*5, 535, 543, 5^8, 580, 582, 584, 585, 605, 608, 625, 627, 644, 681, 683, 693, 777, 798, 801, 802, 803, 826, 852, 861. SIDNEY C. COCKERELL, ESQ 479- MORETON FREWEN, ESQ., M.P 489, 597- COLONEL STEPHEN FREWEN .... 494, 6 3 2 , 654. PHILIP HANSON, ESQ. . 495, 496, 536, 542, 549, 550, 631, 634, 640, 649, 652, 655, 664, 686, 724, 725, 739, 750, 759, 766, 78o, 784, 824, 854, 855. 557 yok f" 50 - /, DATE DUE PMINTCOIM U.S.A. _ inillill Hill llfll mil luff (Jin mil |||