Part 55 (1/2)
_Foxholes, October 3rd._--I have read a great part of the 'Life of Pusey'--an appalling book from the length of the letters in it. In my opinion it lays bare, as nothing else has done, the total weakness and inconsistency of the Tractarians, and their absolute disloyalty to the Church of England. It is very difficult and very important to find a suitable person to review such a work, for it must be done in the spirit of the articles of Arnold, Tait, and Arthur Stanley, which express the principles of the 'Edinburgh Review.' I incline to think it had better be done by a layman. The parsons are all hostile to their own Church.
_To Rear-Admiral Bridge_
62 _Rutland Gate, November 12th._--We are come to town, and I hope it will not be long before I have the pleasure of seeing you. Meanwhile, I have been reading again the article on Mediterranean Politics which you gave us last autumn. The combination of the French and Russian fleets seems to me to be a matter of grave importance. Both those countries are unhappily animated by very hostile intentions to us. They have discovered that it is only by a superiority of sea power in the Mediterranean that they can accomplish their twofold object, which I take to be for Russia to force the Dardanelles and for France to compel us to evacuate Egypt. This seems to me to be the _but_ of the alliance, in as far as it is an alliance. It is all very well to talk of our maritime supremacy, but have we got it? You know, and I do not. But to my mind, the worst is that we have got a Government--or rather a minister--profoundly incapable of foreseeing a great emergency or providing against it. It is quite possible that the Gladstone administration may be blown up by a tremendous catastrophe. These thoughts perplex me; but I hope you will tell me that I am quite wrong and that Britannia rules the waves.
An exceptional chance gives us a picture of Foxholes, at this time, when twenty years' occupation had enabled its owner to perfect all the details which go to make up comfort.
During his absence in London in the beginning of 1894, he let it, for the only time, to his friend, Lord Hobhouse, for many years a member of the Judicial Committee, and just then convalescent after a serious illness. A couple of notes which Lord Hobhouse wrote during his four weeks' tenancy may be cla.s.sed as 'Interiors' or 'Exteriors' from the practical point of view.
Foxholes, February 16th.
My dear Reeve,--I imagine that this morning Mrs. Reeve will have got a note from my wife telling her of our settlement here. I was contemplating 'a few words' to you, when Lady H. told me of her writing; and now comes your letter, partly of welcome, partly of information.
I don't think it possible that we could be more happily housed. Size, arrangement, warmth, beauty, inside and out, evidences everywhere of cultivated taste and refined pursuits--all is calculated for enjoyment and repose, probably for anybody, certainly for an invalid. I have established myself in a corner of the library--which, partly from its intrinsic advantages and partly from the presence of a thick cus.h.i.+on in the seat of the armchair, I conjecture to be yours--between the writing desk and the N.W. bookcase, with the N.E. window at my back and my legs protruding beyond the jamb of the mantelpiece into the sacred [Greek: temeuos], which is guarded by a low marble fence, and over which the fire which I wors.h.i.+p has sway. Both by day and by night the situation is perfect for distribution of light and warmth. And I can read almost all my waking hours; for all through my illness my head has been clear. My princ.i.p.al embarra.s.sment is to choose among the many temptations with which your goodly bookcases beset me. However, after reading Traill's 'William III.'
(a rather thin composition, I think) I have settled into Gardiner's 'Civil War,' which is much more solid and satisfying.
This morning I have been reading your little notice of Lord Derby; and I think you do not speak at all too highly of his capacity for examining political and social movements. In 1880 I delivered a lecture, which was printed and circulated, on the eternal division of political tendencies--movement and rest; and I took Lord Derby (then temporarily in the Liberal Camp) as the best type of conservatism; cool, patient, keen, sceptical, critical, just, impartial, with a mind always open to conviction, but refusing to move until convinced. Such men are an invaluable element in the deliberative stages of every question; but their very critical powers paralyse action, and when movement becomes necessary their hesitations are a drawback. I fancy that Cornewall Lewis was just such another, but I did not know so much about him....
For me, I improve, slowly but enough, I think, to show at least that our move was not premature. In the pick of the day (would that it were always afternoon) I am able to walk for an hour or more, and I get good sleep in the most luxurious of beds. Pray give my kind remembrances to Mrs. Reeve, and believe me,
Sincerely yours,
HOBHOUSE.
_Foxholes, March 6th._--Alas, alas! time flies away, and pleasant things come to an end, and I shall not have many days' more enjoyment of your charming house and library and outlook. But my time has not been wasted. I have recovered strength, a good deal more than I expected, and am probably now--at all events hope, by our return next Monday or Tuesday, to be--able to re-enter the ordinary routine of life. Of course, we have had, like other people, a great deal of bl.u.s.tering wind--for the most part from north-west--very cold and very noisy in your chimneys. But there has also been a great deal of suns.h.i.+ne with the gales, and the exposure of your house to south-east has, on most days, given us a sheltered walk. Moreover, your soil is so porous and absorbent, that one gets dry walking immediately after rain. I have only been kept indoors two days since our arrival.
A few letters from Reeve himself show the continued activity of his mind, and at the same time his consciousness of, his readiness for, the end which was drawing nigh.
_To Mr. T. Norton Longman_
_Foxholes, May 29th._--Lord Derby's Speeches contain more political wisdom than any other book of our time. I think people will find out its permanent value.
_June 13th._--I have nothing to correct or alter in the Greville Memoirs, and am glad to find that some sale of them goes on.
I am much touched by the [approaching] death of Coleridge, whom I have known so well and so long. I expect he will not survive to-day. He dined with us at The Club on April 24th, and was then very well. _Sic transit._
_Foxholes, October 23rd_.--The notices of our old friend Froude [Footnote: He died on October 20th, in his 77th year.] have been very gratifying--especially the leader in the 'Times.' He leaves the world quite glorified, and they now find out what a great man he was. I wonder whether you are going to attend the funeral. I never send wreaths on such occasions, but if I ever did send one it would be now, for I am truly affected by the loss of such a friend. The newspapers seem to have discovered that there were some big men in the last generation, and that there are very few of them in the present.
_Rutland Gate, February 16th, 1895._--I am pretty well--not worse than usual; but I don't go out.
My dear old friend, Lady Stanley of Alderley, died this morning. She was only ill four days, and expired without pain or suffering at eighty-seven.
To me an irreparable loss, and to a vast circle of descendants and friends.
[Footnote: Among Reeve's papers there are a great many letters from Lady Stanley of Alderley, telling plainly of the long and close friends.h.i.+p between the two. Unfortunately, there are no available letters from Reeve to her.]
_To Rear-Admiral Bridge_ [Footnote: At this time Commander-in-Chief in Australian waters.]
62 Rutland Gate, May 2nd.