I then had breakfast and slept for a bore. Sidney Smith used to call it the short time before I was obliged to at-"Chapel of Ease to Lansdowne House," tend consultations. At ten o'clock I where, at that time, every one with any .went into court, and there remained claim to distinction and celebrity used until it was time to go to the House, to be gathered round the Mecenas of where I stayed answering questions the age. until the small hours of the morning. Drawn together by the New Poor Often I was called upon to make a Law, Lord Lansdowne was one of my speech at the end of the debate, and father's most intimate and kindest so da capo to the next day of toil and friends. Breakfasts were all the fashtrouble." ion. When two or three politicians wished to lay their heads together, or two friends wanted an intimate chat without interruption, they asked each other to breakfast. My father used to breakfast in this way two or three times a week with Lord Lansdowne, and constantly a friend or two dropped in at our own table. Lord Dalmeny (father of the present Lord Rosebery) was one of our most constant and welcome guests. Besides these intimate little On one occasion, when he was lord chancellor, he had to reply to the Duke of Newcastle, who annoyed him by speaking of him constantly as a "lawyer." He got tired of this, and said, "I do not understand why the noble duke is constantly calling me a lawyer,' I have never called him a 'states man.'" He went through all this labor, although he was subject to severe attacks of illness. Even these did not person- gatherings, breakfast parties were given ally injure him, for on his ninetieth birthday I took my little children to Boyle Farm and heard him make a speech to the schoolchildren of the neighborhood, to whom he gave this fête to commemorate the event, and he lived four years afterwards. He told me an amusing story of his being shut up in the great lunatic asylum near Dublin when he was Irish chancellor. He was riding out quite alone before breakfast, and thought he would go and visit it. All went well till he tried to get out, when the officials strenuously opposed his departure. "But I am the lord chancellor,” he said. Ah, I dare say," was the answer, 66 we have a many lord chancellors here." 66 I by Lord Lansdowne, Monckton Milnes, Bear Ellice, Van der Weyer, and many others. My father was very fond of giving them, and the most interesting and nourishing conversations I ever heard were at these parties. They would not suit the unwieldy society of the present day; they were too small (twelve the very outside, including ourselves) to be of any use in paying off social debts. The same people were invited again and again if they were good talkers or listeners, or people that others wished to meet. It was the best opportunity for general conversation. Very few women were invited (Mrs. Grote used to say that women were non-conductors, and would split a party into tête-à-têtes). No one could say that such parties were waste of time, for it was more improving to listen to Whately, Macaulay, Sidney Smith, Bunsen, Guizot, or Tocqueville than to read a chapter of their works. My father was so thoroughly social that he used to like us all to sit in his room or be running in and out of it. A young prig of those days complained that he could never see Mr. Senior except surrounded by his family. remember once bursting in when I was Another social function of those days a child and seeing a stout, dark gentle- was the ride in Rotton Row. It was a man, whom my father called the Comte | much more important part of the day de Survilliers, alias, King Joseph of than it is now. Afternoon parties were Spain. There never was a house better adapted for society. Lady Duff Gordon used to say that ours was the best house she knew to meet a friend or to avoid a rare, and voted bores; and ladies' days of reception, except Sunday afternoons, were unknown. It was the custom to ride all through the spring and summer 1 处 The and They always sang from five to seven. Three times a week days of the Italian opera, and Mario, a military band played to a fashionable Grisi, Persiani, Lablache, Tamburini, as well as motley audience on foot in and many others were all heard within Kensington Gardens, just before the the walls of that magnificent concertbridge over the Serpentine, and the room. None but the best singers of riders used to congregate round on the the day were admitted to perform. edge of the road. Often the queen in Everybody made a point of being puncher carriage, with her military escort tual, although the room was so large and outriders in scarlet liveries, would that it never became crowded. sweep through the Row, and the riders royalties, the Duke of Wellington, form into a hedge on either side, their other great grandees sat in front. Preshorses reduced to unwilling immobility. ently a thrill went through the audience Then the band would strike up "God when Lord Lansdowne entered with Save the Queen," and loyalty was Grisi on his arm and followed by the stirred in every breast. Nowhere but other performers. in London could such a scene take their best at Lansdowne House for they place, such an assemblage of fine horses knew how highly they were appreciated and of men and women completely at by their courteous host. The dinner home in their saddles. Any attempt at and evening parties were equally agreeshow-off was in bad taste. The em- able. Besides all the celebrated peoperor, at that time Prince Louis Napo-ple one wished to stare at, one met all leon, used to mount a fiery steed which one's most agreeable friends. The first pranced and curvetted down the Row, great party I ever was at was at Lansand excited nothing but ridicule. Peo- downe House, and I was introduced to ple of all sorts and ages rode. Bishops, the poet Moore, whose last party it was. ministers, politicians, idlers, lawyers; As everybody knows, his cottage was besides the gay motes brought out by near Bowood, where a room was always the London season. Early in the forties reserved for him and called the Poet's I was promoted. to ride with my father, Room. My father spent some time of and for more than twenty years we every year at Bowood. There is a good were joined in turn by nearly all the story of his being busily engaged in writmost distinguished men of the day, and ing in a room full of company, to whom by no one more frequently than Lord Moore was singing, and the scratch of Lansdowne, who talked over almost my father's pen was by no means an every political question with Mr. Senior. agreeable accompaniment. So one of When in London they met several the guests said very politely, "You are times a week, and when parted they not fond of music, Mr. Senior." "No," kept up a lively correspondence, of said my father, "but it does not disturb which I have a great many letters on me in the least, pray go on." It was both sides. Lord Lansdowne was like not till the year 1850 that I was promy father in one respect. He preferred moted to accompany my father in these listening to talking, but in a small party visits. The society was made up of the no one told better stories or was more same elements as that at Lansdowne delightful. His kindness and courtesy House: statesmen, philosophers, auwere perfect. He was essentially a thors, foreigners, distinguished people "grand seigneur," and he fulfilled all of all sorts, beauties, authoresses, and the demands made by society on those artists. I remember very few musiwho occupy such an exalted position. cians, but very probably my father was At Bowood he had a splendid collection not invited to the musical parties as he of pictures, most of which were chosen was absolutely without ear and had to be by himself, and Lansdowne House was told when "God Save the Queen was also full of treasures. He was exceed-played. I remember one visit to Bo ingly fond of music, and there never wood, when the last four blue coats and were such concerts as those at Lans- brass buttons were present-our host downe House. It was in the palmy wore one-the ordinary dinner dress LIVING AGE. VOL. LXXXII. 4215 of the beginning of the century, and | speak his voice, manner, and enunciaLord Palmerston, Mr. Byng, called in tion proclaimed him the grand seigneur those days Poodle Byng; the fourth, I think, was Lord John Russell, but I am not sure. Sometimes at Christmas time there was a family partythe Howards, Lady Kerry, and Mr. Gore, the Flahaults - M. de Flahault The painter Turner's old caretaker was the father of Lady Shelburne (now does not seem to have been gifted with the Dowager Lady Lansdowne). On penetration, for one of Lord LansNew Year's day the Calne band came downe's favorite stories was of her to play in the gallery at dinner time, calling to him up the area of the house and once when they were playing, in Queen Anne Street where Turneri "Partant pour la Syrie," I turned to stored his pictures, "Please be you the Lord Shelburne and said that it must be cat's-meat man?" Another of his in honor of M. de Flahault (who was stories was of driving home in the himself the original of the "jeune et afternoon from Holland House with beau Dunois.") He was sitting on the the Lord Dudley of those days—a sinother side and caught what I said, and gularly absent man given to talk to replied, "Et j'en ai le droit puisque himself. When they reached the turnque c'est pour moi que c'était fait." pike at Hyde Park Corner, Lord Dudley On one occasion Tom Taylor got up began soliloquizing, “I suppose I must some very amusing charades. Miss ask this man to dinner. It's a great. Mary Boyle, who was an admirable bore, I don't want him." So Lord actress, was the prima donna. The Lansdowne began in his turn, "I hope word was "Gulliver," and for the I shan't be obliged to dine with this whole the present governor-general of man. It's a great nuisance, he gives. India, then a small boy, was discovered shocking bad dinners." This considerlying asleep; surrounded by the Brob- ation would not really have had much dingnags, of whom Sir Henry Codring-weight in Lord Lansdowne's mind, for ton was one (he was six feet five), and he told us that when the French ambaswith a head on the top of his own pre-sador, M. de St. Aulaire, left London, sented an imposing appearance. In the the Lansdownes inherited his chef. Afmornings I generally used to walk alone ter a short time the cook gave warning, with my father, and in the afternoons and when asked what he had to complain some drove, but my father and I were of, said that" there was nothing against. always of the troop of riders who, with M. and Madame de Lansdowne; but Lord Lansdowne at their head, went they never said anything about the dinscouring over the country. Long be- ners, and flesh and blood couldn't stand fore my time Miss Edgeworth was stay- it." So they began to praise and blame, ing at Bowood with her sister, and on and the cook was happy. Lord Lansthe morning fixed for her departure, downe was extremely near-sighted, and Lord Lansdowne was handing her into used to say that he knew his friends. her carriage and said with his exquisite better by their backs than by their courtesy, "I am sorry you cannot stay faces. He had a royal power of standlonger," whereupon she replied, "Oh! ing, which was sometimes embarrassing but, my lord, we can. The trunks to the person to whom he was talking. were taken off, the carriage sent away, and the ladies returned, to the consternation of their hosts. which I have said he was. It was curi-12 ous that he retained the pronunciation ar of his own early days-called RomeRoom, obliged obleeged, China Chany, and so forth. There was nothing aristocratic in Lord Lansdowne's appearance. He was small and spare; he had very bushy grey eyebrows and by no means regular features; but when he began to Our last visit to Bowood was in the winter of 1862-63. For the last few years as I drove through what were called the Golden Gates of the park, I had not been able to help saying, "We shall probably never come here again," " and my father answered rather impatiently, "You have said that so often I am quite tired of hearing it." But down the steps. With something bethis was the last time for host and tween a shriek and an execration the guest. Lord Lansdowne died from the young man jumped to one side, and aleffects of a fall not many weeks after most at the same moment a voice prowe left, and the next year was the last ceeding from the crack under the door of my father's life. whence the flood had issued, said in a measured and stately tone, "I beg your pardon, sir. Now I am able to see your boots, I perceive you are not Mrs. Joshua Higgs." Now the door was unbolted, and, opening a crack, showed a section of a tall, loose-jointed man over sixty, with spectacles, a bald forehead, a long, shaven upper lip, and a thin grey beard. When he saw Charles he immediately flung the door wide open, exclaiming, Oh, Mr. Charles, my dear, pray walk in! You have had a most ungracious reception, I fear; but I am sure you will excuse me when I tell you I mistook you for my niece." "Is that the way you usually receive ladies, Joel Garside ?" asked Mr. Charles sternly, pulling off his snow boots. Joel smiled a slow, indulgent smile. "Ladies! Oh dear me, Charles! I cannot even imagine what I should do were a lady to honor my humble roof. But as I told you, I mistook you for a female relative." Once more Mr. Charles fell upon the shabby door and delivered a thundering volley of knocks with the handle of his immaculate umbrella. He could hear some one moving within, but the door remained obstinately closed. Outside it was bitterly cold. Below him the narrow street, so steep it broke here and there into steps, plunged down apparently into a pit of gathering darkness, but really into the crowded centre of the little town, whose tall chimneys and huddled roofs he could still discern distinct in the black and white of twilight and snow. The house before which he stood was the last; beyond it lay a white, desolate world, whose boundary of hills could be half perceived, half divined against the sky. The snow, in some temporary thaw, had slipped down the roofs, and lay curling and hanging in long sheets and fantastic festoons over the eaves of the houses, where irregular fringes of icides were hanging too. The street was lonely and almost dark, except for the long windows of the garrets, brightly lighted behind their lattice panes, and showing sometimes the silhouettes of leoms and of figures moving behind them. As the young man stood stamp-chanically. ing with cold and impatience in the frosty dusk, he could hear all about him the click-clack of the busy shuttles. Presently he heard the thud and clink of a heavy zinc pail deposited on the stone floor; immediately afterwards a Niagara of ice-cold and remarkably arty water burst from under the door, dashed over his feet, and so flowed The narrow passage in which they stood was rendered narrower by a row of large wooden boxes placed on their sides against the wall, and converted into bookcases. The stone floor was wet, and the unprotected flame of the gas jet waved this way and that in the violent draught. It was here that Joel commonly entertained his visitors. The habit had been originally engendered by a jealous dislike of admitting strangers or indifferent persons to his sanctum, but it was now exercised me "I suppose we must talk in the passage," said Charles resignedly; "but it's beastly cold." "Walk in, Charles, walk in, I beg! cried Joel, opening the door of his parlor with alacrity. "You are well aware that my little apartment is hardly fit to receive visitors, but you are always welcome." Joel Garside had a precise, elaborate her to conduct herself thus. The Garmanner of speech. He treated his syllables with judicial impartiality, giving to each its meed of careful enunciation, and disdaining to curtail the meanest verb that is. He spoke like a man who reads more than he talks, and without a trace of his native dialect; unless the exuberance of his "h," which he inserted at every available point in his words, might be reckoned as such. sides ignorantly suppose it to be an Joel rose, and seizing a duster, began vehemently to polish the chair on which he was sitting, as though to work off the irritation caused by the intolerable reflection that men, and more particularly women, of the tribe of Garside might yet live to make observations over his grave, to which he would not be in a position to reply. Mr. Charles entered the parlor and seated himself on the table, opening his fur coat, and showing evening dress beneath. The slim young figure, with the bright hair and clear-cut features, strikingly blonde in the rich setting of the sealskin collar, brought a strange, incongruous note of luxury and grace into the little parlor. Not that it was poverty-stricken, but it was bare of furniture and encumbered with books. interrogatively. There were books on the sofa, books on the chairs, and books innumerable on the floor; not in any disorder, but piled up regularly, one on the top of the other. "And what does Mrs. Higgs say to you, Joel, when she does get in?" asked Charles. "I scarcely like to repeat to an educated man like you, Charles, what a coarse, ignorant person like Mrs. Higgs is capable of saying," returned Joel, seating himself with as much dignity as he could on a chair, already occupied by two quarto volumes and several octavos; "but since you will have it, I will tell you. She personally insults me," he paused. "She says," he drew himself up and breathed rather hard- "she actually says that-that I have come to a time of life when it is my duty to make my last will and testament. Imagine it, Charles! She says this to a man like myself, in his very prime, and likely, as I frequently tell Rebecca Higgs, to outlive her and most of his relatives. Yes, she calls upon me to make my last will and testament." ""I suppose she wants to secure your money for young Higgs," replied Charles. "No, sir; I will say for Rebecca it is mainly a sense of family duty that leads "You have not given them a hint about the Institution?" said Charles Joel shook his head slowly with an air of infinite sagacity. "You must pardon my continuing my household operations," he said in a minute. "One that's gone would under any circumstances be sadly shocked at the state of the room, could she return; but I should not like to think she would be positively unable to sit down without soiling her dress." "You could casily get some woman to do all that for you," suggested Charles. "Oh no, my dear," replied Joel promptly and emphatically. "Why not, Joel?" Joel smiled his slow smile, that curled up the corners of his straight-lipped mouth, and at the same time, by some law of its mechanism, drew the eyelids down almost over his eyes. It gave him a look of immense superiority to his interlocutor, of profound and subtle wisdom. "She would marry me," he said. Oh, I'd back you to defend yourself," replied Charles carelessly. Joel looked at him, smiled again, and shook his head. |