H THEN AND NOW ./ : V : V . O :' THEN AND NOW BY DEAN HOLE . . Author of "A Book About Roses," "A Little Tour in Ireland," " The Memories of Dean Hole," "Our Gardens," etc. "THE OLD ORDER CHANGETH, YIELDING PLACE TO NEW " EIGHTH AND POPULAR EDITION London HUTCHINSON 6f CO. Paternoster Row . 1907 PRINTED BY HAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, TL.TD. IONDON AND AYLESBURY. PREFACE IT was suggested to me that, having lived a long life, as a squire and a parson, a churchman and a sportsman, in country and city, with high and low, I should have something to say, which would interest others, about the changes which I have seen ; and with the hope which is given to every man who has done his best, the result of that suggestion is presented by the writer to those who have so long and so kindly encouraged him to write. I make no apology for sudden transitions from solemn to humorous discourse. Thoughts grave and mirthful bring shadow or sunshine to our hearts, like the uncertain glories of an April day, and I have sketched them as they came. S. REYNOLDS HOLE. THE DEANERY, ROCHESTER, November ; 1901. CONTENTS CHAP. PACK I. BABIES AND CHILDREN ...... I II. EDUCATION 17 III. GENTLE AND OTHER MEN 28 IV. BETTING AND GAMBLING ..... 43 V. THE TRUE GENTLEMAN 54 VI. GENTLE AND OTHER WOMEN ..... 66 VII. THE WIFE Si VIII. THE NURSE ........ 91 IX. GAMES 1 08 X. SPORTS 128 XI. RECREATIONS 142 XII. TEETOTALLERS, WISE AND OTHERWISE . . 159 XIII. CLERGY AND LAITY 174 XIV. PREACHING AND SPEAKING . . . . . IQO XV. LOCOMOTION . .213 vii viii Contents CHAP. PAGE XVI. CYCLING . . . . . . . .231 XVII. BOOKS OLD AND NEW 241 XVIII. PARTIES. I. POLITICAL 273 XIX. PARTIES. II. SOCIAL 283 XX. PARTIES. III. RELIGIOUS ... . 292 XXI. OUR HOMES 302 XXII. OUR HORTICULTURE ...... 316 CONCLUSION 332 HEN AND NOW CHAPTER I Babies and Children Ye are better than all the ballads That ever were sung or said, For ye are living poems, And all the rest are dead. LONGFELLOW. I DO not observe any distinctive features in the babies of Then and Now. I notice the same proportion of infants plump and placid, smiling or sleeping, and of others mewling and puking, or with countenances of a carmine tint howling their miseries from enormous mouths, and fiercely fighting the air. The babes are identical, but in the middle and upper there is an extension of an evil habit as to their Limentary treatment. The natural process has been irgely discarded as tedious, disfiguring, and interfering nth social enjoyments, and has been relegated to other lothers, or to the cow.* Our infants, instead of being There is an admirable essay on this subject in Knox's filter Evenings i vol. i. p. 363. Then and Now privately regaled at home, hold a symposium of topers in our streets, and the heart's desire among mothers seems now to be " May we ne'er want a babe, or a bottle to give him." They are under the impression that they have greatly improved upon the time when Shakespeare's daughter inscribed on her mother's grave : " Ubera tu, mater, tu lac, vitamque dedisti." It is not an edifying sight, and it is associated with a much more severe affliction. These babes are mounted infantry, or, rather, they are " carriage company," and Master Redhead's phaeton, and Miss Merry's victoria, with a procession of diminutive vehicles of all denominations, stop the way " where men most do congregate." For many years of my earlier existence we were mercifully spared this plague of perambulators, which now, in consequence of some national degradation, Little Englandism, barbed wire, pigeon-shooting, or croquet, has spread like locusts through the land. I shall never forget the ordeal when, in attempting to avoid one of these machines, I lost my balance and stumbled on another, upsetting it, and ejecting the occupant. I fell clear of it ; but the nurse, although the baby was screaming loudly, immediately announced, " He has killed the child ! " and it was evidently the verdict of the spectators that I had out-Heroded Herod, and ought to die. The nursemaid loves the perambulator. In the first place, we have long been convinced that it ill becomes us, as the most civilised nation on the face Babies and Children 3 of the earth, to carry anything, even for ourselves, much less to bear one another's burdens ; that, being supreme on the face of the waters also, no Briton, male or female, shall ever be a slave ; and that only as helps, colleagues, auxiliaries, employes, but never as servants, will we co-operate with our fellow-men ; and this upon one immutable condition, that the maximum of wage shall accompany the minimum of work. There are associations more tender and sweet. The perambulator may be taken far from the madding crowd to the quiet suburb and the peaceful park ; and when it is located awhile in the scorching sunshine, the chilly shade, or in " all the airts the wind can blow," with the head of the inmate dangling over the side, pretty Jane can enjoy delightful converse with Mr. Atkins, of his Majesty's army, or Mr. Peeler, of his Majesty's police. Should the babe be preserved from sunstroke, catarrh, and strangulation, a new peril awaits his early child- hood from this same custodian and culprit so soon as he is able to understand it, and an arrow that flieth by night is far more hurtful than any pestilence which walketh by noonday. Miss Jenny has heard from her friend the policeman of deeds of violence, of burglars, murderers, and executions, and has read in her favourite publications of spectres, and of giants, dwarfs, and other deformities. With a cruel ignorance she repeats these records in the nursery, and the result in many cases inflicts so much suffering, such an agony of t Then and Now terror, that, in all seriousness, I would earnestly entreat those persons that are married, or intend to take that estate upon them, to remember and to avert this miserable distress, not only by a thoughtful caution as to the words which they speak in the hearing of their children, but by forbidding their servants to tell them these idle tales. Keble has said that " the heart of childhood is all mirth/* but this mirth may be overwhelmed by that horrible dread, by that awful, appalling con- sciousness of the presence of evil, and that terrible apprehension of its power, which convince us that there are angels of darkness as well as angels of light, and which can only be dispelled by the prayerful faith that greater are they which are with us than those that are against us. It is wicked to tell children of those things only which are vile and hateful, and not of those which are beautiful and true, and it is this omission which aggravates the terrors and sorrows of childhood, and causes the tender, sensitive spirit to feel them more acutely than at any other period of life. I write of my own experience. I have been in positions of great peril, nigh unto death, on the sea, on the precipice, on the rail, and on the hunting-field, but I have never realised so helplessly, so hopelessly, the torment of fear as when a little child alone in the night I have expected to feel the touch or to hear the voice of some monster described to me in the preceding day with threats of a visitation. I can distinctly remember visions w"Jiich I had in my dreams more than Babies and Children 5 seventy years ago of Burke and Hare, two villains in Edinburgh who suddenly sprang upon their victims and suffocated them with pitch-plasters. I saw them as they had been introduced to me by Jenny two short, stout men, with fur caps and ferocious faces, standing at the bottom of my bed. I was also terrified by recollections of giants who were constrained by moral obligations to punish naughty children, and at the same time to replenish their larder, by carrying them away in the night. Or, remembering our sorrows, have we ever felt so acutely the misery of grief, the anguish of a great despair, since, after some foolish disobedience, some imaginary neglect or slight, we shed those bitter tears, and sobbed our heart away, as we thought that we had lost for ever the love of those whom we loved the most, and the burden laid upon us seemed greater than we could bear ? Ghosts are no longer that which they have been : they are not Now as Then ; there seems to be neither time nor place for them ; their favourite occupations of banging doors, audibly though invisibly walking up and down stairs, rolling heavy weights over the floors of distant apartments, gliding along passages in gowns which rustle as though they were barristers who had recently " taken silk," excite no sympathy. They are denounced, on the contrary, as altogether beneath the dignity of a spirit, bodied or disembodied, and as a frivolous waste of energy and time. The surroundings are not congenial, as when there were gloomy corridors, 6 Then and Now clattering windows, and creaking furniture. The solemn four-poster, with its dismal draperies, is superseded by the open couch, with its bright coverlet and shining brass. The dingy old bedroom, which depressed like a dungeon, enlivens with a gay delight. The fire- grate, about the size of *a soup-tureen, with an occasional brick included to prevent the lavish con- sumption of coal, so constructed as to send its heat up the chimney and its smoke into the room, has been removed for a more ample accommodation of fuel, and, bordered with its pretty encaustic tiles, warms the chamber with its cheerful glow. The electric light may be turned on in a second, and in its brilliant splendour the faint halo of the astonished spectre must pale its ineffectual fire. Ghosts have deteriorated in character and declined in popularity from their association with spiritualists and spooks. The spirits have so frequently presented themselves as pre-eminently ignorant of grammar, erratic in spelling, silly in their conversation, and mendacious in their announcements, that they cannot be regarded as worthy companions of the ghosts who, whatever their debilities may have been, have generally, as members of ancient families, behaved like gentlemen, and have not given themselves away as third-class dunces or as unsuccessful knaves. Literature, in its connection with spooks, failing to impress the reading public, has been hurtful rather than helpful to the reputation of ghosts, and psycho- logical studies and inquiries as to phenomena claiming Babies and Children 7 to be supernatural have not tended to reinstate them. There was a time when everybody knew somebody who had a friend who had seen a ghost, but one never could get at the friend, much less at his mysterious mate. I have been in places most favourable for an interview, which, in the language of the sanguine sportsman, were " almost a certain find," but there was neither sight nor sniff. I have slept in " Byron's Tower," in his own rooms, when the winds roared, and sighed, and soughed, and the ivy tapped and scraped at the windows, but there were no Don Juans, no corsairs, no Giaours, no visitors, until "jocund day stood tiptoe on the misty mountain top " and a foot- man brought me hot water. I have been where O'er all there hung a shadow and a fear, A sense of mystery the spirit daunted, And said as plain as whisper in the ear This place is haunted; but it wasn't. There seems to have been a general exodus to those mer climes which do not freeze the imagination or nip romance in the bud ; to communities which are not so bigoted as our own by a rigid preference for facts, but which give a more kindly welcome to the senti- mental balloonist, the aerial architect, and the voyager in unknown seas. I remember a remarkable exit. At a tenants' ball given at a great country house to celebrate the coming of age of the heir, a small lady of middle age and 8 Then and Now respectable appearance, very simply and neatly attired in mourning dress, appeared among the guests. No one knew her, and she gradually attracted more inquiry and attention, until after supper she suddenly vanished from the crowd and was seen by two or three persons in the hall to pass through the great door with a strange and solemn expression on her face, and pointing with one hand heavenward as though in a trance. Then the suggestion was made by some superstitious individual, and was told in whispers, and by many gravely accepted, that the visitor was no less than the " Dark Lady " who was traditionally reported to have rambled and rustled for generations in this ancient house ; and with this impression the company retired to rest, and rose early to spread the report far and wide through the county. It was suddenly suppressed by the announcement that my lady's maid had missed some valuable jewels from my lady's dressing-table, that the housemaids were unable to find a large number of miniatures, and that the butler missed a gold snuff-box from his sideboard and ten of his apostle spoons. On collecting such evidence as was available with regard to the move- ments and behaviour of the ghost, they came to the conclusion that their lost treasures had gone away in her pocket ; and a detective, who came quickly from town, not only endorsed their decision, but expressed his confident belief that the Dark Lady was an adroit burglar, fair and slim, and well known to the metro- politan police for his successful annexation of property Babies and Children 9 when disguised in female attire. As time went on there arose a strong suspicion that this accomplished artist was identical with a footman who was known to have dressed himself as the Dark Lady, and to have nearly frightened some inmates of the house into fits. He was never trusted ; money went mysteriously ; the house from which he came had been robbed, and he was finally dismissed. There is an immeasurable difference between ghosts and other apparitions between that which witnesses declare they saw with their own eyes when they were wide awake, as Hamlet saw the ghost of his father and Macbeth saw Banquo, and that which presents itself to us when we are asleep, or in that condition between waking and sleeping which makes the vision so like reality. I do not believe in the former, and I am fully persuaded in my own mind that the wonderful stories which we hear are to be accounted for either as exaggerations or as the result of natural causes which have been misstated or suppressed ; but many of us have had experience of the latter of those visions of the night which have seemed so real, and which in some instances have brought us in- formation as to occurrences before unknown to us, but subsequently proved to be true. I must not repeat the records of my own experience, which I have written elsewhere,* but I may add another example suggested by its association with the children now in our thoughts. * In The Memories of Dean Hole. io Then and Now George Benfield, a driver on the Midland Railway living at Derby, was standing on the footplate oiling his engine, the train being stationary, when he slipped and fell on the space between the lines. He heard the express coming on, and had only just time to lie full length on the " six-foot " when it rushed by, and he escaped unhurt. He returned to his home in the middle of the night, and as he was going up the stairs, he heard one of his children, a girl about eight years old, crying and sobbing. " Oh, father," she said, " I thought somebody came and told me that you were going to be killed, and I got out of bed and prayed that God would not let you die." Was it only a dream, a coincidence ? George Benfield and some others believed that he owed his life to that prayer. I recall another instance in which the intercession of a little child, its effectual, fervent prayer, prevailed to prolong a life. A friend informed me that he was in his garden with a daughter of seven years when a visitor came and told him that a near neigh- bour was at the point of death, that he had just seen the- doctor, and that there was no hope of recovery. The little girl hurried away, and when her father called to her and asked where she was going, she said, " Oh, father, I'm going to my room to ask God that Mr. may not die." The sick man was restored to health. The Turks in this matter are no " infidels." When the plague was raging in Constantinople, thousand; Babies and Children n : ousands of children were assembled on a hill out- side the city, and there, standing between the dead and the living, prayed that the plague might cease. Reverting to the perils of childhood, when it emerges from the perambulator and passes to the closer intimacy and supervision of parents, it may have to encounter the most disastrous danger of all. They who should be its best friends may be its most cruel enemies ; its foes may be those of its own house. It is sad indeed to see anything that was once pure and beautiful, and full of power and promise, defiled, deformed, perverted, and abused ; and such a sight is the most miserable when it is seen in the beginning of a life, when the stream is polluted at the spring, when the blight is on the blossom and the worm is in the bud. What is there more lovable, more joyous, on earth than a child in its innocence, gently but firmly taught and trained, obedient, reverent, affectionate, tender-hearted ? What is there more deplorable, more prophetic of evil, than spoiled child, sullen, defiant, greedy, revengeful ? The best of them are not angels, but in their purity and their happiness they most resemble them ; and it is the duty of parents, pastors, and teachers to maintain, not to mar, the likeness. They are not angels ; they have the taint of the Fall ; and it should be the first object of those who are nearest, and should be dearest, to them to lead and to help them how to overcome evil with good. They inherit 12 Then and Now the spirit of " man's first disobedience,** and they themselves seem to be conscious that the instinct is sinful, though parents neither explain nor denounce it. There is a power which teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight, that we may resist the oppressor and defend the right, and there is a power which teaches our hands to strike and our fingers to scratch from mere anger, cruelty, and spite. It is told of the child of a famous painter that, from want of due repression and discipline, he gave way from time to time to paroxysms of violent and vindictive rage, and that in one of these furious moods he kicked and spat at his father. Soon afterwards, downcast and remorseful, he drew near and made his humble confession, " Fat 'her ', the devil told me to kick you ; the spitting was my own idea" The apology is quaint in its expression, but it is in perfect conformity with the Christian faith as to two of the three sources of temptation. Socially, what a nuisance these spoilt children are to us ! No one loves them in their integrity more than I, but I must confess that when I see childhood in its degradation, see it misrepresented by conceited little prigs in their ostentatious finery, and hear their querulous " Shan't, can't, and won't," I am visited by a truculent suggestion that just one discriminating ogre in a county might be a blessing in disguise ; although in strict justice the parents, who have done the wrong, and not the child, should be punished, selfishly permitting the weaker human instincts of Babies and Children 13 fondness, indolence, or indifference to prevail over the higher dictates of duty and discipline. The Wise Man spake no words wiser than these : " The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to him- self bringeth his mother to shame." I have never forgotten the corporal castigation (the only one, I regret to say) which my father gave me, when I persisted in making experiments with my new knife upon the more prominent shoots of some valuable trees and shrubs recently planted in his garden. Keen was the shaft, but keener far to feel I winged the pinion which impelled the steel. I was at that period so rapidly developing my pro- portions that the tightness of my costume gave additional smartness to the switch, but I bore it as bravely, as I could. I had been forewarned, and conscience assured me that the gods are just, And of our pleasant vices make whips to scourge us. My neighbour, Smith, has two children Master Zachary Macaulay, aged seven, and Miss Felicia Hemans, aged six. They despise government ; they revel in mischief. Their appearance, although they are gaudily attired, is disappointing. Being coddled and kept as much as possible from fresh air and outdoor exercise, they have chronic catarrhs of a most effusive character, and when nurse makes for them with a pocket-handkerchief they fly howling into the wilderness, or they stand and cuff. They 1 4 Then and Now wear an expression of green and yellow melancholy, which indicates surfeit and indigestion. I missed Zachary Macaulay from a garden-party for children which we gave in the summer, and having sought him with anxious presentiments, I found him lying on the floor of our morning-room, contemplating my largest gold-fish, which he had removed for closer inspection from its bowl to the hearthrug. When I addressed him with some asperity, he requested me to " Shut up ! " I generally miss something after he has paid us a visit, and always a dislocation of goods and chattels. He delights in saying words that may do hurt, affecting a sweet simplicity, though with malice prepense. Smith invited his neighbours to shoot, and when they were assembled in his hall, Zachary went up to one of them and said, " Oh, Mr. Brown, are you going to shoot ? I heard daddy tell Uncle Jack you couldn't hit a haystack." He told some guests who had just arrived for a visit that he knew they were coming, and when asked whence his know- ledge came, he replied, " Oh, I heard mammy say some days ago that she had invited the Goods, and daddy said, ' Oh, blow those Goods ! * He has an observant eye as well as an attentive ear, and he informed a large party at Christmas time that he had seen Captain Wilson kissing Isabel where there wasn't a bit of mistletoe, he was quite sure. Ordinarily the questions, commentaries, and specu- lations of the ingenuus puer delight, though they defy explanation. It was told to me by his near relation Babies and Children 15 that a bright little fellow, very fond of horses and poultry, came home from a walk in a state of great perplexity to inform his mother that " The mare in the paddock has got a foal, and we never saw her sitting " ! And my grandson John observed, during a con- versation having reference to his father's wedding, " We " turning to his sister " were not alive then. / suppose we were in the incubator" It is interesting to evoke the impressions and wishes of children, so very different from our own. When we restored the western front of our Cathedral here in Rochester at a cost of many thousand pounds, we had a great function and congress of dignitaries the Arch- bishop and Bishops, the Lord Lieutenant, the High Sheriff, our Member of Parliament, the Mayor, the Admiral of the Dockyard, the General of the District and we proceeded in state. A little boy who watched from the window was asked what he thought of the spectacle, and he frankly replied that he did not think much of it. He remarked that there was not a single elephant, and he "did think they might have had a kangaroo" I invited another little fellow to say what he would ost like for a present on his birthday. At first he pressed a preference for Buckingham Palace, of which ere was an engraving in his nursery, but he ultimately cided on " a white mouse in a box, with a sliding lid, d plenty of cotton wool." Another, when he was promised a tea-party in the rbour, and inquiry was made as to his choice of 1 6 Then and Now guests, whether, supposing they would accept his invitations, he would desire the company of the Queen, the Lord Mayor of London, and a noble duke who was the Marquis of Carabbas in his neighbourhood, promptly declared that he should much prefer the presence of the old man at the toll-bar (there were toll- bars in abundance at that period), of Mr. Cooper, the coachman, and Susan from the laundry. Some of the anachronisms and combinations suggested by children are remarkable ; as when a small nephew of mine, roseate, with golden curls, came to inform me that Mitter (Mr.) Noah, whom he had taken out of the ark for a ride in his railway train, had fallen into the chimney of the engine head downwards, and could I get him out with a corkscrew ? CHAPTER II Education God to thy teaching delegates the art To form the future man. The care be thine ; No shape unworthy from the marble start, Reptile or monster, but with just design Copy the heavenly model, and impart, As best thou canst, similitude Divine. MANX. 'ASS ING from Then to Now, we must regard with a great respect and thankfulness the efforts which are being made to protect, to rescue, to teach, and generally to promote the welfare of the children of the poor. We cannot read the records of such societies as that for the prevention of cruelty to children, for the finding homes for our waifs and strays, for orphanage and jformatories, without sympathy and sorrow of heart for the miseries of poverty and the tyrannies of sin, for le hunger and the thirst and the nakedness in the foul ur and filth of overcrowded homes, for the brutal treat- lent of those who cannot defend themselves. No wonder that we have Hooliganism in our streets, wonder that the reformatory ship is set on fire ! "hey become utterly reprobate, these children of the Irunken father and the cruel mother, " the seed of the '7 2 1 8 Then and Now adulterer and the whore." They are more like wild animals than Christian boys. Mr. Rudolf, the Secretary of the Society for Pro- viding Homes for the Waifs and Strays, told me that a country clergyman came to their office in London with a request that one of the lads under their care might be transferred to him, that he might take him to his own home, instruct and improve him. He also expressed his special desire to have the most villainous and reprobate of the baser sort committed to his charge. In vain he was informed that if his request was granted he would be associated with a young barbarian who realised more nearly than any other barbarian of their acquaintance St. James's description of the tongue as that which no man can tame. Expostulation only increased his eagerness, and he bore his miscreant away He returned in a fortnight, a sadder and a wiser man. " I am convinced," he said, " that the miscreant is a fiend in disguise, and that the disguise is thin and transparent. From the time of his arrival he performed a succession of diabolical acts, which for originality, malignity, and destructiveness could only have been arranged by Satan. The parishioners were white with terror, the village policeman declined to interfere, two young farmers proposed to shoot him. " His misdemeanours would fill a Newgate Calendar. His first enterprise on meeting with a girl on her way home from the village shop was the distribution of her purchases on the road and the adjoining fields, and the final adorning of her person with a complete !ducation covering of Reckitt's Blue, transforming her into a striking companion picture to Gainsborough's c Blue Boy,' and causing much painful astonishment to her mother, who failed at first to recognise her child. Finally, he got on the roof of the Rectory, and pelted me with the tiles. I returned the article, with thanks." Such a case is, of course, exceptional, and, as a rule, these societies have successful power, which well deserves the pecuniary help of those who are hindered from rendering personal service, remembering always that prevention is better than cure, and that it is better and easier to keep the young from wickedness than to get them out of it, better to keep them from falling than to raise them when they are down. Every earnest endeavour, every kindly help to promote self- respect, a sense of duty, and of the " nobility of labour," a love of those things which are really beautiful, of truth, and honour, and mercy ; a contempt of those things which, behind the mask and the paint and the glitter, are so false and foul ; any organisation which tends to convince the young that life is happier, hopes are brighter, health is stronger, for those who work than for those who are idle, for those who are obedient than for those who rebel all such aids which are given to our lads that they may keep innocence and do the thing that is right must bring a blessing to him that gives and to him that takes them. We want more public playgrounds for cricket and football, more gymnasiums and baths, more gardens and allotments, more bands of music for boys, more 20 Then and Now Church Lads* Brigades, more inducements to study science and natural history. In the higher grades of society the treatment of children, in some particulars, differs Now from Then. We were accustomed seventy years ago to a more simple diet, and to a discipline somewhat more severe. I have never overcome the satiety which ensued from the frequent repetitions of rice and batter puddings. Apple dumplings and roley-poleys were reserved for festive occasions, and like all things which When they seldom come, they wished for come, I have loved them ever since. We went to our beds and left them on the strike of the clock, and Christmas was " that only night of all the year" when we sat up to hear the singers. There were compensations. We were sometimes taken down to dessert (the dinner hour was earlier then), having been washed and brushed with a violence which was altogether superfluous ; and there were occasions when, " company " (as Jenny designated guests) being invited to dine, we descended silently and in white attire, like young ghosts, into regions where the dishes rested awhile in their passage to and fro, and bore away in triumph our surreptitious spoil. We had, moreover, at our nursery tea an abundance of preserves gooseberry, raspberry, strawberry " no satis to our jams " ; but on the whole our fare was more frugal than that of our descendants, and when I made a remark to this effect to one of them, helping himself Education 21 with a free hand, as an autocrat of the breakfast table, and told him that in my boyhood no such licence was allowed, he promptly answered : " Oh, but, uncle, you must know that things have greatly improved since then." I doubt the improvement in this case, and I dispute the argument of a parent who said to me, c< Let them have what they like, and they will cease to crave " they will only cease to crave until the doctor has restored the power of craving. Education religious, moral, and rational has made all classes whom it has reached more thoughtful and intelligent, more considerate of others, less deceived by silly superstitions, and this enlightenment being manifest in our domestic servants, including those who have the care of children, the special tyranny the reign of terror to which I have referred is past. It is cruel ignorance which seeks to prevail through fear, which makes many hypocrites, but no converts ; it is the true wisdom which wins through love. This principle is acknowledged far more practically than in the days of old by our teachers that while punishment must follow wilful, persistent disobedience, persuasion will conquer where force has failed. There may be perilous abuse, weak concessions, which Mr. Gladstone denounced as " depraved accommodations " ; ignoble minds may take advantage of this benevolence, and may attribute it only to cowardice ; but it is evidently achieving good results, and has exercised a successful influence ever since Dr. Arnold told his boys that he should confide in their integrity and believe their word. 22 Then and Now Children in the days of my childhood regarded with abhorrence the period when they would be sent to school, with doleful anticipations of suffering, as though they were going to the dentist, who at that time vied with the inquisitors of old in the infliction of exquisite torture. Pupils went to their lessons in a dismal despair, as the children of .Israel to the making of bricks without straw. The village schoolmaster in his fusty little school (John Leech declared that his hall was ever fragrant with reminiscences of a boy in corduroys, who had been sent for " copy " from the Punch office) taught his boys to spell, to read, to write, to add, to multiply, to subtract, to work by rule-of-three, but beyond this he was incapable, and until the National Society for the Education of the Poor intro- duced a new regime^ he was either a Squeers or cr^oXacrri^os (in the worst sense of the word), he was either a tyrant or a butt. The governess at the hall was politely snubbed and suppressed. She lived like Elaine the fair, Elaine the lovable, high in her chamber up a tower to the east, in alternations of heat and cold which would have warmed claret or iced champagne. She had her meals where and when it pleased the housekeeper, and consequently when she emerged from her refrigerator in December, or from her oven in August, she did not always bring with her that vigour of mind or that sweetness of temper which are so helpful to those who teach. Why should the communication of knov/ledge be made Education 23 as repugnant to pupils as that of castor-oil and black dose to patients. Why should they be dosed all round with brimstone and treacle, whether they be strong or weak ? Why should children with different abilities, tempers, and inclinations be treated as though there were no diversities of gifts ? Who has not sad remembrance of schoolfellows who were made miser- able by lessons which they could not learn, having all the while a natural aptness and eager desire for certain pursuits and occupations in which they might have attained excellence, had they been encouraged and trained. The Spartans, we are told, would not permit the parents themselves to bring up their children in accordance with their own intentions. They were divided into companies at an early age and after every effort was made to ascertain their various capabilities, they were disciplined accordingly for the public service. There is a method of education " made in Germany " which is helpful in this matter, and if the Latin and French proverbs be true, that " He who makes a good beginning is half way on his journey," this com- mencement of a child's education should be the cornerstone of a goodly edifice. Some seventy years ago Friedrich Frftbel designed and showed to the world the more excellent way of attracting the mind, in the first development of its power, to the acquisition of knowledge by con- genial inducements, pleasant surroundings, kind words of affectionate sympathy and of joyful hope. He called his new school, which was open to the youngest 24 Then and Now whom mothers could send, four, five and six years old, the kindergarten (the " and all we labourers was scurfs " (serfs ?) How about Now and Then ? Without consideration whether the great changes which have taken place the depopulation of our villages and the depletion of the squires were inevitable ; whether pollution in our atmospheres, the poisoning of our streams, the stunted 6 4 Then and Now growth, not only of our vegetation, but of our men, women, and children, have been fraught with inestimable blessings ; I venture to suggest a doubt whether the villagers of England are happier under the administra- tion of the parish council than they were under the feudal system. Thackeray has given us in Colonel Newcome the bright presentment, and in his Book of Snobs and his History of the Georges definitions terse and truthful, of a gentleman. " What is it," he asks, "to be a gentleman ? It is to be honest, to be gentle, to be generous, to be brave, to be wise, and, possessing all these qualities, to exercise them in the most graceful outward manner. He should be a loyal son and a true husband ; his life should be decent, his bills should be paid, his tastes should be elegant, his aims in life lofty and noble. He should have the esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the love of his fireside ; he should bear good fortune, suffer evil with constancy, and through good or evil always maintain truth." The last is the supreme ordeal and test. No man can be accepted as a true gentleman who has not learned what a noble thing it is to suffer and be strong. Not on the yacht, but in the lifeboat ; not on parade, but marching in weariness and waste through an enemy's land; not in prosperity, but in adversity, can there be a sure discernment between the coward and the hero, the deceitful and the honest, the carnal and the spiritual man. 1 Charles Dickens, in Barnaby Rudge, one of his The True Gentleman 65 greatest achievements (where shall we find a more splendid example of descriptive power than in his narration of the Gordon riots and the burning of Newgate?), has set before us in admirable contrast a gentleman in sorrow and persecution and a cad in sensuality and sloth ; between Haredale who main- tained and lived up to his rule that no man should deviate from the path of honour, that all good ends can be worked out by good means, and that all others should be left alone and Chester, who never com- promised himself by doing an " ungentlemanly " action, according to his own definitions, and never did a manly one in his life. Haredale, severe in his self-restraint, was tender in his compassion for others and always ready to help them ; Chester, never denying himself an indulgence, was pitiless and vindictive. On the same level as to social position, no two men could be more unlike. Haredale was a Christian, in the world but not of it ; Chester had nothing but the world to worship, although to him it was nothing more than a despised and broken idol. Only religion can teach the self-denial and the integrity which make a gentleman. There is only one perfect example The best of men That e'er wore earth about him was a sufferer, A sweet, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit, The first true gentleman that ever breathed. CHAPTER VI Gentle and other Women I do not mean to tell you that there are no women in the world vulgar and ill-humoured, rancorous and narrow-minded, mean schemers, son-in-law hunters, slaves of fashion, and hypocrites ; but I do respect, admire, and almost worship good women ; and I think there is a very fair number of such to be found in this world, and I have no doubt in every educated Englishman's circle of society whether he finds that circle in palaces in Belgravia and Mayfair, in snug little suburban villas, in ancient, comfortable old Bloomsbury, or in back parlours behind the shop. THACKERAY. I ENTER fearlessly upon a survey which may seem to some to be rash and dangerous, because there is, comparatively, so little to censure and so much to praise, and because I know that a large majority of my male readers, believing themselves to be associated with the most admirable of mothers, wives and daughters, will appropriate to them all the commendations, and will transfer to others any criticisms which may suggest reproof* They will find no more difficulty in dis- tributing these admonitions, and in connecting them with their rightful owners, than an old woman in my village, who, after a recent sermon, expressed her profound astonishment " 'ow Sammy Potts could sit there, as unconsarned as a hinnocent babe, and 'ear 66 Gentle and other Women 67 hissel' called a child of the devil, when every man and woman in that church know'd full well as parson meant it for Sam." Many years ago, when the telegraph was first set up by the railways, a navvy working on a Northamptonshire line, hearing overhead the vibration of the wires, turned to his mate and said, " They're getting it hot at Thrapston ! " Let the galled jade wince : our withers are un wrung. We are, of course, delighted to hear Brown's panegyric of his saintly mother ; to note the pride and affection which sparkle in Jones's eye when he gazes on his diminutive bride ; to hear Robinson whispering that he may tell us confidentially that Edith, his daughter, was the belle of the hospital ball. We do not for a moment doubt their sincerity, but really, you know, when we think of a certain portrait with silver hair in our dining-room at home ; when we recall Mrs. Brown as we saw her when we left that same room to join the ladies with a few friends who had partaken of our hospitality, with her mouth open, fast asleep ; and when we cannot forget how Miss Robinson tried to drown our sweet little Gwendolen's voice in the duet, ar\d blew out one of the candles on the piano well, not wishing to hurt anybody's feelings, we will only add how grateful we ought to be for these satisfactory contrasts, and how willing we are, as will appear hereafter, cheerfully to join in that " general chorus of mankind " which sings the praise of the gentler sex. We must not, however, be diverted from our 68 Then and Now intention, nor prevented by our own privileges ih particular, or by our admiration of feminine excellence in general, from protesting against errors and eccen- tricities which derogate from the dignity and grace of womanhood. There are fascinations which dazzle into blindness, and which have compelled even the jilted critic and the frigid misogamist to ignore the faults, If to her share some venial errors fall, Look in her face and you'll forget them all. How can we resist, they plead, the enchantress, who captivates both by her conversation and her personal charms, makes every man believe that he takes pre- cedence in her sympathy, like Penelope Sweet hope she gave to every youth apart, With well-taught look and a deceitful heart and sends him away saying to himself, "They tell me thou art the favoured guest"? She assures the admiral that a life on the ocean wave has always been her dream of felicity, and that a blue jacket is her ideal of beauty. She informs the general, with a pathetic depression, that the one great sorrow of her existence has been the sad misfortune that she was not born a boy, so that she might have joined the most- glorious of all professions. She entreats the bishop not to kill himsel with his overwhelming work, and his lordship, having a keen sense of humour, replies gravely that her request shall have his best consideration ; and she tells the dean that a cathedral service is " quite too heavenly." Gentle and other Women 69 She talks to elderly men about politics, and to young men about polo. She is somewhat contradictory in her statements and superlative in her enthusiasm, but she persuades herself and others that she is temporarily sincere, and is monarch of all she surveys. She rejoices in the exercise of her power, her subjects rejoice in her service, and so far all is well. Wise men and wise women know the boundaries, and do not go beyond. They discern between good and evil ; and as with the former 'Tis excellent To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous To use it as a giant, so with the latter 'tis excellent to have a syren's song, but it is tyrannous to use it as a syren. To suggest hope only to crush it, to pretend that which is not felt, to induce an offer of the lowliest homage, the most devoted affection, which one human being can offer to another, only to reject and deride what cruelty can be more contemptible than this? Who can pity when retribution comes to her who refuses to Pray Heaven for a human heart, And let the foolish yeoman go, or to her who, " playing with edged tools," and accepting offers from two lovers, is found out by both of them, and left " lovely and lonely, on the winter cast." There are some women in our own, as in former, days who imperil their claim to the title of " gentle " by 70 Then and Now adopting the costumes and the customs of men. We are no longer under the law, but under grace ; but on what plea shall we regard as obsolete and refuse to obey the Divine commandment the "woman shall not wear that which appertaineth unto the man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment." It has been well said that God has made the sexes distinct, let not the tailor confound them ; but that modern institution, the man-milliner, with jacket, waistcoat, knickerbockers, gaiters, with the supplement of a pot-hat, stick-up collars, tie and pin, has laughed law and precept to scorn. Add a dog-whip and whistle, a bulldog, a case for cigarettes, and a book for bets, and behold an hermaphrodite, neither " fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring," the demolition of a woman, the caricature of a man, ridiculed as " our friend from Middle Sex," toasted as "the ladies, once our examples, now our imitators ; once our superiors, now our equals." I have a distinct recollection of an attempt to intro- duce into this country the " Bloomer costume " for women. It was invented by Mrs. Ann Bloomer, of the United States, and was an attempt to substitute the lighter and more convenient dress for the present heavy and inelegant attire. It was neither immodest nor ungraceful. The skirt, less ample than before, reached down half-way between the knee and the ankle, over trousers of a Turkish fashion, which were fastened round the ankle by a band and clasp. It met with no encouragement on either side of the Atlantic. The originator was not popular, holding strong views Gentle and other Women 71 about woman's rights (with very weak notions, as usual, about woman's duties), and had no intellectual attractions or social influence. The novelty of this dress and the effrontery of those who wore it were the main causes of condemnation. With regard to modesty, the Bloomer costume must now be considered as severe, Quakerish, and prim, when compared with the abbre- viated draperies of the cycle and of the ball. I am speaking of exceptional cases, in which certain indiscreet persons do, despite the truer spirit of their sex, seem to vie with each other who shall go first and fastest upon ice which is known to be " dangerous." Two brothers went to the same school. They were absent for a fortnight, and then only one returned. "Where is your brother, Thomas?" " Oh, if you please, sir, there isn't any Tommy now. We played at a game, which should lean the farthest out of the top attic window, and 'Tommy won" Not many months ago, several benevolent members of the dramatic vocation (and there is no profession more generous in its charitable sympathies) arranged a very interesting series of performances and recitations at the Globe Theatre for the benefit of the Sailors' Home at Chatham. I went to see, and was greatly delighted with the comedietta ofATair of Knickerbockers. A bridegroom not many days after marriage discovers, on inviting his bride to a walking tour, that to his infinite disgust and distress he has inseparably attached himself to a disciple of the new school of women. She presents herself prepared for the promenade in a suit 72 Then and Now which is not in any part to be distinguished from that in which he is clad the same hat, collar, tie, coat, waistcoat (brilliant scarlet), breeches, stockings, and boots. " A moment o'er his face a tablet of unutterable thoughts was traced," and then in an agony of indignant sorrow and shame he made his protest, a most powerful, pathetic appeal to argument and to affection. He was fearless in denouncing that which he believed to be wrong, tender and persuasive in his love ; but the wife had evidently anticipated the crisis, made herself ready for the battle, and was determined not to yield. At last, after a contest long and painful, he left the room in despair. And then after an interval a lucid interval, a thoughtful magni- ficent interval he returns to his bride, attired in a spacious bonnet, a gay shawl, some underclothing ignorantly arranged, and only covering in part his nether garments. When he announces in a cheerful tone that he is quite ready for their promenade, she turns, and the victory is won. Supposing at first that it is only done in jest, her horror on finding that he most certainly intends to accompany her in his dis- figurement, unless she abandons her own, asserting the right, which she cannot dispute, of the man to wear the woman's costume if she wears the man's, seems to overpower her, and after an expostulation as vain as his own she too, disappears. She also has her lucid interval, and when on her return her husband looks and sees her sitting and clothed and in her right mind I need not add the rest. Gentle and other Women 73 Apropos of the drama, there was a time, we know, when women were not allowed to appear on the stage, and the heroines were represented by young men, who were like David, ruddy and of a fair counten- ance ; and when, after the Restoration, King Charles the Second protested against a long delay which took place before the commencement of a tragedy, the manager came with profuse apologies to explain that the Queen was in the act of shaving. I have twice seen men successfully attired as women Bedford, Wright, and Oxberry as the Three Graces. Bedford must have weighed nearly twenty stone, and, dressed as a danseuse, with a wreath of roses, he performed a pirouette during which you might have boiled an egg ; and Sam Brandram, attired as a Scotch fisherwoman, delighted every one who heard his " Caller Herring " ; but it is best to have no confusion of the sexes, and except in such cases as that in which Shakespeare sends Portia to plead, no actress outside the music halls will disguise herself as a man. Let every woman take Angelo's advice to heart : Be that you are, That is, a woman : if you are more, you're none. Some, notwithstanding, are dissatisfied with their personal appearance, and forgetting that rien nest fas beau que le vrai, waste time and money in their attempts to correct mistakes and to supply omissions ; but there is no foliage so becoming to a flower as that which nature provides for it, and no alteration or 74 Then and Now addition of feathers would improve the beauty, agility, and utility of a bird. Wherefore Hamlet warns : " God hath given you one face and you give yourself another. Now get you to my lady and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must come ; " and the Puritan, Philip Stubbs, makes a righteous accusation against those who, disapproving their natural appearance, must adulterate the Lord's handiwork with far-fetched, dear-bought liquors, unguents, and cosmetics all of them, he might have added, uncertain in their results, detested, ridiculed, and despised ;.some of them containing rank poison, and producing cutaneous disease. Nor can I believe in a gentlewoman adorning her- self with hair often known To be the dowry of a second head The skull that bred them in the sepulchre, or shorn from the head of some peasant girl in Brittany. The ideal lady, whom I honour and revere, is never overdressed. She wears at high festivals robes of richest material and of brilliant hue, but there is never gaudiness or incongruity. As a rule, her dress is like herself unassuming, graceful, in perfect harmony with her surroundings. Every one says, " How well she dresses ! " yet no one can remember what she wore. I do not assume for a moment that she is indifferent in this matter. She would be the first to affirm that every woman, for her own satisfaction as well as for Gentle and other Women 75 the satisfaction of others, should make the best of her appearance, but she possesses, together with the taste and refinement which suggest the less obtrusive costume, and the modesty which shrinks from display, the knowledge that good looks and good qualities will assert themselves, sooner or later ; and that it is the picture which pleases and not the frame. Who has not noticed the perversity of stubborn mankind in making for a pretty or a clever head, without reference to rank or raiment, the reckless youth devot- ing himself exclusively to a little governess with a pleasing intellectual face who had come into the drawing-room to sing and play after a banquet, instead of surrendering to the daughter of the house in accord- ance with his bounden duty, leaving velvets and satins for plain black silk, for one Vested in a simple robe, the best attire, Beyond the pomp of dress ; for loveliness Needs not the foreign aid of ornament. The gentlewoman has, or course, a voice gentle and low, an excellent thing in woman, and in her laughter there is mirth and music, although it is never loud. She despises slang, and does not tell you that whatever she may approve is " awfully jolly," whether it be a strawberry ice or a hymn. I heard a gay young person of the feminine gender make a declaration that golf was u stunning " and hockey was " ripping," and that she did not know which she " loved " the most ; and when I inquired why, if the 7 6 Then and Now one induced stupefaction and the other rent and tore, she was attached to either exercise, she favoured me with a smile such as we usually bestow upon infants and upon those of whom we have been told in con- fidence "that they are not quite all there, you know." She is earnest, enthusiastic, sentimental ; but she abstains from exaggeration, display, and gush. She is not one of those of whom the critic said that " mendacity was bad, but womendacity was worse." Even in the time of love's young dream she will not depress you with doleful ditties about " We two," " He and I," " He came," One more," " He left," " No more," " Oh, do not ask me not to die," etc., etc. She believes that charity begins at home, and does not look beyond the duties which surround her for occupations which seem more attractive, like the daughter who complained that her father was getting so blind and her mother so deaf that she was strongly inclined to join a sisterhood, or take to hospital work. She avoids extremes. She does not tell you with a jaunty air in the middle of dinner that she rather thinks of going over to Rome, or ask you whether you are saved. She does not provoke her father to speak, as a country squire spoke to his daughter : "I am told, Augusta, that you have adopted another * father/ a clerical gentleman about your own age, and that he is so kind as to call you his child. Oblige me by informing him that I have not resigned the paternal office, and do not require a Gentle and other Women 77 coadjutor. I have also heard that finding your parents, your clergyman, your Bible, and your con- science incapable as guides, and mistaken in their instructions, you have engaged a ' director.' Let me, therefore, suggest a further intimation, that if I meet the c director ' on any part of my property, I shall direct him off with a stick." I am told that it is a " selfish and silly prejudice which would debar women from the harmless enjoyment of a cigarette." Having consumed and distributed (occa- sionally to poor old women) a large amount of tobacco, I am not in a position to deny the assertion, and am quite content to leave the limitations to the ladies them- selves. At the same time, I am in full sympathy with the country squire who placed a notice outside the door of his smoke-room, " For men only," and I felt much more inclined to tip than to rebuke the Eton boy who, thinking that it was bad form in his sister to smoke, disguised his feelings, and presented her with a cigarette of his own manufacture, into which he intro- duced with startling results a small pinch of gunpowder. Neither could I condemn the undergraduate, who, deploring his sister's desire to bet on races, also pre- tended sympathy, and sent her " a moral " (by which is meant, in the morality of the turf, a horse certain to win), whereby she was induced to ask a racing friend whether he would put a couple of sovereigns for her on Cornelius Nepos for the Oaks. The friend replied that, without disputing the " moral " qualifications of Nepos, he had positive information that he would not 78 Then and Now be present on the occasion to which she referred, as the meeting was for ladies only. The brother scored a grand success, for the story was passed from smoke- room to smoke-room, from course to course, and the young girl was so cruelly chaffed that her betting book was thrown into the fire. She is now a matron in middle age, but is still reminded from time to time by her brother the colonel of rofession. Hence the admirable results of their research. On a winter's morn some years ago 1 met my friend and physician, Dr. Vincent Bell, in the streets 7 98 Then and Now of Rochester, and with that insatiable desire which animates every Englishman to impart information concerning the weather to those who already possess it, I lost no time in remarking that the frost had been severe, on which he said (or, rather, I thought he said), "Yes, happily ; it kills my crows." "Kills your crows ! " I exclaimed in astonishment. " I never heard of such an event ; my crows were all right when I left the Deanery." " Oh," he replied, "I did not mention crows I referred to microbes ; " and then he gave me much interesting information about bacillas, bacteria, and germs of disease which surprised me even more than the crows. Think of the blessings bestowed on suffering humanity by the anaesthetic and antiseptic treatment ! In all times and climes men have sought to discover some anodyne for pain in opium, mandragora, hemp, and other sedatives, but the process has been in most cases as painful as, and more perilous than, the affliction, and the invention has been reserved for our own days of applications which produce insensibility during the most severe and critical operations. Sir James Paget, who held the pride of place in his profession, and was beloved by all who knew him, wrote on this subject : " I have just witnessed with intense interest a surgical operation. If any one had told me, ten years ago, that it would be performed without profuse hemorrhage, endangering life, and without acute pain to the patient, I should have regarded him as insane ; but under anaesthetic treatment all the objects of the operator were The Nurse 99 successfully achieved without any suffering and with the loss of two drops of blood ! " Experto crede. My dentist suggested certain elimi- nations which would be very tedious and distasteful under the ordinary process, but would be comparatively brief* and altogether innocuous under ether. I found myself accordingly placed on a seat which was in the days of my boyhood about as comfortable as the rack of the inquisitor, but which science is gradually con- verting into quite an easy chair, with two M.R.C.S.'s in front of me. They presented me with a red bag and bade me inhale from it freely. I suppose I took too large a gulp, for it was accompanied by an agony of suffoca- tion which caused me to place a hand on each of my companions, and to repel them with such force that they recessed with the rapidity of a dissolving view to the end of the surgery, where they stood like a pair of male caryatides supporting the chimney-piece on either side of the fire. Then I made request that I might inspire the ether more gradually; a pleasant exposition of sleep came upon me, the elegant extracts were completed, and after sitting for half an hour in a quiet room, I left with only the taste of the anaesthetic lingering in my mouth, and with a thankful heart. Let the name of Dr. Morton, dentist, of Boston, in the United States of America, be held in remembrance with honour and admiration always ; let it be enrolled with such names as Jenner and Lister, not among 1" black-lettered saints " more or less mythical, but in letters of gold, among those who were sent to be ioo Then and Now the real benefactors of mankind, and whose works do follow them. In the days of my youth dentists were associated in our thoughts with fiends and the enemies of mankind. They certainly inflicted upon our race a large and unnecessary amount of cruelty, but they erred, not from intention, but from ignorance, and the same excuse might be pleaded for them as was pleaded in a church of the Far West during troublous times : " Don't shoot the organist ; he is doing his best." Their tender mercies were cruel. You may have seen at some public dinner, when the guests were many and the waiters were few, the violent wrenching of wires with a powerful forceps from the bottles which hold the champagne. The per- formance suggests the impetuosity of the dentist and the bulk of his rude instruments seventy years ago. It was not only that children must be coaxed and bribed to repeat a visit to the tormentor in trembling terror, but we were all afraid of him, For there was never yet philosopher Who could endure the toothache patiently, and there came upon us a sense of shrinking if we only passed the brazen plate upon his door. I knew a man in the vigorous prime of his manhood, of strong determination, fearless in the chase, and he went to his dentist for the extraction of a tooth. He was asked to wait in a dismal apartment, scantily draped and furnished, suggestive of a mortuary chapel. Presently he heard a loud exclamation of pain, and The Nurse 101 then the hurried tr.imp of footsteps, as of some one trying to escape from it. He looked forth from his chamber. All was silent below, but distinct sounds of affliction were audible from above. His toothache was gone : why should he stay? He opened the front door ; the sun shone in the street abiit, excessit, evasit, erupit. I have cause to believe that neither the toothache nor the proprietor of the tooth returned, but it was a sad exposition of cowardice, enhanced by the fact that the culprit continually refers to the incident with far more pride than penitence. The fear of the dentist is gone. In no department of surgical science has a more welcome progress been made, and not only in the discovery and application of anaesthetics, but in the general treatment of dental decay and disease, in manipulation, stopping, filing, extracting, substituting artificial teeth. America takes precedence, and many of our successful operators have learned their art on the other side of the Atlantic. All the world rejoices in these and other alterations, which have been mercifully granted to patient study, careful practice, and long experience, and Christian chanty can find no work more worthy of its zeal than the communication of these comforts to those who need them. Here in England, in addition to the mandates and the sympathies of our religion, we have special encouragement and examples. The interest which Queen Victoria of blessed memory always felt in the building and improvement of 102 Th&n and Now hospitals and in the training of nurses was wonderful unto all men. She was not only a founder, patron, and subscriber, but a frequent visitor, especially to those hospitals appropriated to her sick and wounded soldiers and sailors ; and when, on the occasion of her Jubilee in 1887, the women of England presented an offering of ,70,000, the Queen generously devoted it to a scheme for supplying and supporting trained nurses in districts throughout the land. No man has done so much for the hospitals of London as her son the Prince of Wales, now King of England. All the members of the Royal Family seem to inherit the same sacred sympathies. The beloved Princess Mary, Duchess of Teck, gave every help in her power to hospitals, visiting them frequently in her own neighbourhood, or when staying with friends, going through the wards, talking kindly to the patients ; and her daughter, H.R.H. the Duchess of Cornwall and York, has the like beneficent spirit. When this quality of mercy is seen in high places, when Tis mightiest in the mighty and becomes The throned monarch better than his crown, it has a very potent influence. It often induces those who give to give more abundantly, and it stimulates the niggard and persuades the churl to be bountiful. An American lady is said to have deserted the Christian community to which she belonged, not because she differed from its tenets, but because the Episcopal The Nurse 103 Church was "so much more toney" and there are persons not a few who, though they will not give from a sense of kindness or of duty, think it more body believes, and fully prepared to entertain their iends with imaginary descriptions of the run. And now I venture, as an old soldier (has not Mr. Jorrocks described the chase as "the image of war without its cruelty, and only five and twenty per cent, of its danger''?), to offer a few suggestions to fe young recruit. He must have a horse well up to s weight^ or he may experience the most miserable Then and Now catastrophe which can befall the sportsman, and which will be a sorrow to him for the rest of his life he may break a horse's back. To a heavy man a good start is indispensable cest le 'premier fas qui coute ; dimidium facti, qui bene cepit, habet but to all it is most advantageous. When hounds are in covert, you won't see the true sportsman loafing afar off, or hear him chaffing with the c< loud laugh that tells the vacant mind." He seems like the jolly young waterman, to be " thinking of nothing at all," but his eye and his ear are intent upon every sight and sound, and on the very first intimation of a " find," he is off towards the place from whence it came. You take twice as much out of your horse when you are galloping in search of hounds as when you are riding in sight of them and in a run, while the skirter is always on the move to make up for lost ground. You will have those oppor- tunities of rest and a slower pace which generally occur from checks and other stoppages, and which are bene- ficial, though they may be brief. Make the most of them. If the pace begins to tell on your horse, dismount awhile when you may. Having obtained a good place, you must keep it. Yes, " It's a nasty one," but you must have it, and having made up your mind to do it, do it with your might. You must not let your horse refuse, or he will acquire the habit. There are exceptions very few when he knows more than you do, and evades a danger which you do not see. In a good run near my Nottinghamshire home, we came to the Caunton brook Sports 133 r here it is narrow and quite negotiable from grass to grass, even for a heavy man well mounted. The huntsman gave me precedence, but my horse made a sudden stop