Part 55 (1/2)
”'Old Lady Hereford, my aunt, was quite one of the old school. She had a large gla.s.s pew in church, and the service was never allowed to begin till she had arrived, settled herself, and opened the windows of her pew. If she did not like the discourse, she slammed down her windows. After the service was over, her steward used to stand by the pew door to receive her orders as to which of the congregation were to be invited to dine in her hall that day.'
”While the party were talking of the change of manners, Lord Belhaven said:--
”'I just remember the old drinking days:[298] they were just dying out when I entered the army. Scarcely any gentlemen used to drink less than two bottles of claret after dinner. They used to chew tobacco, which was handed round, and drink their wine through it, wine and tobacco-juice at the same time. A spittoon was placed between every two gentlemen. It was universal to chew tobacco in country-houses: they chewed it till they went in to dinner, and they began again directly the ladies left the room, when tobacco and spittoons were handed round.
”'There were usually the bottles called ”Jeroboams” on the table, which held six bottles of port. The old Duke of Cleveland[299]
always had his wine-gla.s.ses made without a foot, so that they would not stand, and you were obliged to drink off the whole gla.s.s when you dined with him.
”'I remember once dining at a house from which I was going away the next morning. I got to bed myself at twelve. When I came down to go off at eight, I asked when the other gentlemen had left the diningroom. ”Oh,” said the servant, ”they are there still.” I went in, and there, sure enough, they all were. When they saw me, they made a great shout, and said, ”Come, now, you must drink off a b.u.mper,” and filled a tumbler with what they thought was spirits, but to my great relief I saw it was water. So I said, ”Very well, gentlemen, I shall be glad to drink to your health, and of course you will drink to mine,”--so I drank the water, and they drank the spirits.'”
”_Castlecraig, n.o.blehouse, Sept. 9._--I came out this morning by the railway to Broomlee, a pretty line, leading into wild moorland, and at the station a dogcart met me, and brought me six miles farther, quite into the heart of the Pentlands. The ascent to this house is beautiful, through woods of magnificent alpine-looking firs. Addie Hay[300] was waiting for me. You would scarcely believe him to be as ill as he is, and he is most cheerful and pleasant, making no difficulties about anything. He is often here with my present host, Sir William Carmichael.”
”_Winton Castle, Sept. 10._--Yesterday I saw the beautiful grounds of Castlecraig--green glades in the hills with splendid pines, junipers, &c., and part of the garden consecrated as a burial-ground, with mossgrown sculptured tombs of the family ancestors on the green lawn.
”At Eskbank Lady Ruthven met me, and I came on with her to Newbattle. It is an old house, once an abbey, lying low in a large wooded park on the banks of the Esk--a fine hall and staircase hung with old portraits, and a beautiful library with long windows, carved ceiling, old books, illuminated missals, and stands of Australian plants. Lady Lothian is very young and pretty,[301] Lord Lothian a hopeless invalid from paralysis. She showed me the picture gallery and then we went to the garden--most lovely, close to the rus.h.i.+ng Esk, and of medi?val aspect in its splendid flowers backed by yew hedges and its stone sundials. After seeing Lady Lothian's room and pictures, we had tea in the garden. The long drive back to Winton was trying, as, with the thermometer at 70?, Lady Ruthven would have a large bottle of boiling water at the bottom of the close carriage.
”Lady Ruthven is most kind, but oh! the life with her is so odd.
One day a gentleman coming down in the morning looked greatly agitated, which was discovered to be owing to his having looked out of his window in the middle of the night, and believing that he had seen a ghost flitting up and down the terrace in a most ghastly clinging white dress. It was the lady of the castle in her white dressing-gown and night-gown!”
”_Wishaw, Sept. 14._--I came here (to the Belhavens) after a two days' visit to Mrs. Stirling of Glenbervie, whence I saw Falkirk Tryste--the great cattle fair of Scotland. It was a curious sight, an immense plain covered with cattle of every description, especially picturesque little Highland beasts attended by drovers in kilts and plumes. When I saw the troops of horses kicking and prancing, I said how like it all was to Rosa Bonheur's 'Horse Fair,' and then heard she had been there to study for her picture.
”We dined yesterday at Dalzel, Lady Emily Hamilton's,[302] a beautiful old Scotch house, well restored by Billings. To-day is tremendously hot, but though I am exhausted by the sun, I am much more so by all the various hungers I have gone through, as we had breakfast at half-past ten and luncheon at half-past five, and in the interval went to Bothwell--Lord Home's,--beautiful shaven lawns above a deep wooded ravine of the Clyde, and on the edge of the slope a fine old red sandstone castle.”
”_Lagaray, Gareloch, Sept. 17._--How I longed for my mother on Friday in the drive from Helensburgh along a terrace on the edge of the Gareloch, shaded by beautiful trees, and with exquisite views of distant grey mountains and white-sailed boats coming down the loch! I was most warmly welcomed by Robert Shaw Stewart[303] and his wife.... Yesterday we went an immense excursion of forty-five miles, seeing the three lakes--Lomond, Long, and Gareloch.”
”_Carstairs House, Lanarks.h.i.+re, Sept. 18._--Nothing could exceed the kindness of the Shaw Stewarts, and I was very sorry to leave them. The Gareloch is quite lovely, such fine blue mountains closing the lake, with its margin of orange-coloured seaweeds....
The Monteith family were at luncheon when I arrived at this large luxurious house--the guests including two Italians, one a handsome specimen of the Guardia n.o.bile--Count Bolognetti Cenci, a nephew by many greats of the famous Beatrice. After luncheon we were sent to the Falls of the Clyde--Cora Linn--a grand ma.s.s of water foaming and das.h.i.+ng, which the Italians called 'carina'!”
Before returning home, I went again to Chesters in Northumberland, to meet Dr. Bruce, the famous authority on ”The Roman Wall” of Northumberland, on which he has written a large volume. It was curious to find how a person who had allowed his mind to dwell exclusively on one hobby could see no importance in anything else. He said, ”Rome was now chiefly interesting as ill.u.s.trating the Roman Wall in Northumberland, and as for Pompeii, it was not to be compared to the English station of Housesteads.”
At the end of September I returned home, and had a quiet month with the dear mother, who was now quite well. I insert a fragment of a letter from a niece who had been with her in my absence, as giving a picture of her peaceful, happy state at this time:--
”Auntie and I have spent our evenings in reading old letters and journals, which have made the past seem nearer than the present.
Hers is such a sweet peaceful evening of life. There have been many storms and sorrows, but her faith has stood firm, and she is now calmly waiting her summons home. Oh! I pray that she may be spared to us yet awhile, now so doubly dear to us, the one link left with the loved and lost.”
We left Holmhurst at the beginning of November, and went to Italy by the Mont Cenis, with Emma Simpkinson, the gentle youngest sister of my Harrow tutor, as our companion. Fourteen horses dragged us over the mountain through the snow in a bright moonlight night, during the greater part of which I crouched upon the floor of the carriage, so as to keep my mother's feet warm inside my waistcoat, so great was my terror of her having any injury from the cold.
MY MOTHER _to_ MISS LEYCESTER.
”_Spezia, Nov. 11, 1865._--The day was most lovely on which we left Genoa, and so was the drive along the coast, reminding us of Mentone in its beauty--the hills covered with olive-woods and orange-groves, the mountains and rocky bays washed by the bluest of blue waves. We dined at Ruta, a very pretty place in the mountain, and slept at Chiavari. Sat.u.r.day was no less beautiful, the _tramontana_ keen when we met it, like a March day in England, but the sun so burning, it quite acted as a restorative as we wound up the Pa.s.s of Bracco after Sestri--lovely Sestri. We had the carriage open, and so could enjoy the views around and beneath us, though the precipices were tremendous. However, the road was good, and occasionally in some of the worst places there was a bit of wall to break the line at the edge. Nothing could be more grand than the views of the billowy mountains with the Mediterranean below. At Borghetto was our halting-place, and then we had a rapid descent all the way here, where we arrived at half-past six.”
”_Pisa, Nov. 14._--To continue my history. Sunday was again a splendid day, and the Carrara mountains most lovely, especially at sunset. On Monday we drove to Porto Venere, and spent the morning in drawing at the ruined marble church. We dined, and at half-past five set out, reaching Pisa at half-past seven. And here was a merciful preservation given to me, where, to use the words of my favourite travelling Psalm (xci.), though my feet 'were moved,' the angels had surely 'charge over me.' Augustus had just helped me down from the train and turned to take the bags out of the carriage. When he _re_-turned to look after me, I lay flat on the ground in the deep cutting of the side railway, into which, the platform being narrow, unfinished, and badly lighted, I had fallen in the dark. I believe both Augustus and Lea thought I was dead at first, so frightful was the fall, yet, after a little, I was able to walk to the carriage, though of course much shaken. Three falls have I had this year--in the waves of the Atlantic, in Westminster Abbey, and at Pisa--and yet, thanks be to G.o.d, no bones have been broken.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE Pa.s.s OF BRACCO.[304]]
At Pisa we stayed at the excellent Albergo di Londra, which was kept by Flora Limosin, the youngest daughter of Victoire[305] and foster-sister of Esmeralda. Victoire herself was living close by, in her own little house, filled with relics of the past. I had not seen her since Italima's death, and she had many questions to ask me, besides having much to tell of the extraordinary intercourse she had immediately after our family misfortunes with Madame de Trafford--the facts of which she thus dictated to me:--
[Ill.u.s.tration: AT PORTO VENERE.[306]]
F?lix and Victoire followed Italima from Geneva to Paris. Victoire says--”We rejoined Madame Hare at the house of Madame de Trafford.
I went with her and Mademoiselle to the station in the evening.