Part 10 (1/2)
One was at Devonshi+re House, an ordinary, unpre reception Naturally every one went to Devonshi+re House if asked, and the rooht were fairly full of the usual people
The private secretary was standing alione entered, the famous beauty of the Second Empire How beautiful she may have been, or indeed what sort of beauty she was, Ada of the most refined and aristocratic society in the world, instantly formed a lane, and stood in ranks to stare at her, while those behind hbors' heads; so that the lady walked through this polite mob, stared completely out of countenance, and fled the house at once This was all!
The other strange spectacle was at Stafford House, April 13, 1864, when, in a palace gallery that recalled Paolo Veronese's pictures of Christ in his scenes of ray capote over his red shi+rt, received all London, and three duchesses literally worshi+pped at his feet Here, at all events, a private secretary had surely caught the last and highest touch of social experience; but what it meant--what social, moral, or mental development it pointed out to the searcher of truth--was not aPost or even by a serlione and Garibaldi covered, between them, too much space for simple measurement; their curves were too co the two into any co to orderly developernon Swinburne or Victor Hugo, but was beyond any process yet reached by the education of Henry Adams, ould probably, even then, have rejected, as superficial or supernatural, all the views taken by any of the co and perplexing sights
Froot nothing at all, or next to nothing, that could help hih life Royalty was in abeyance One was tempted to think in these years, 1860-65, that the nicest distinction between the very best society and the second-best, was their attitude towards royalty The one regarded royalty as a bore, and avoided it, or quietly said that the Queen had never been in society The sae Adams never knew even the naed ten words with any member of the royal family; he never knew any one in those years who showed interest in any iven five shi+llings for the opinion of any royal person on any subject; or cared to enter any royal or noble presence, unless the house was made attractive by as much social effort as would have been necessary in other countries where no rank existed No doubt, as one of a swarilded youth who frequented balls and led such dancing as was ue, but they seemed to set no value on rank; their anxiety was only to knohere to find the best partners before ht To the American, as to Arthur Pendennis or Barnes Newcoe was evident enough; he valued it at ratherwhich see which had shi+fting standards, and which no one could catch outright The half-dozen leaders and beauties of his tireat names and of the utes, and the least showy careers
Tired of looking on at society froht of his Court dress; to groan at every announcement of a Court ball; and to dread every invitation to a forave not half the pleasure that one could buy for ten shi+llings at the opera when Patti sang Cherubino or Gretchen, and not a fourth of the education Yet this was not the opinion of the best judges Lothrop Motley, who stood a the very best, said to him early in his apprenticeshi+p that the London dinner and the English country house were the perfection of huMotley could not have thought the dinner itself perfect, since there was not then--outside of a few bankers or foreigners--a good cook or a good table in London, and nine out of ten of the dinners that Motley ate came fro society, coood dinner when they ate it, and could not order one if they were given carte blanche Henry Adae, and knew no more than they, but he heard the complaints, and he could not think that Motley lish cuisine
Equally little could Motley havecould be worse than the toilettes; nothing less artistic than the appearance of the coht be dazzled by family diamonds, but, if an American woman were present, she was sure to make comments about the way the jeorn If there was a well-dressed lady at table, she was either an Ah she were on the stage No one could possibly adlish dinner-table
Least of all did Motley mean that the taste or the lish society were notorious, and the taste orse Without exception every Alish manners In fact, the charm of London which made most impression on Americans was the violence of its contrasts; the extreround for the distinction, refinement, or wit of a few, just as the extreainst the plainness of the crowd The result was ree that ht have startled a roustabout, and soested King Arthur's Round Table; but this artistic contrast was surely not the perfection that Motley had in hisscholarly, worldly, andof his own tastes
Probably he meant that, in his favorite houses, the tone was easy, the talk was good, and the standard of scholarshi+p was high Even there he would have been forced to qualify his adjectives No Gerh, or that it was scholarshi+p at all, or that any wish for scholarshi+p existed in England Nothing that seemed to sht as well have talked of Renan's Christ at the table of the Bishop of London, as talk of Gery at the table of an Oxford don Society, if a small literary class could be called society, wanted to be amused in its old way
Sydney Smith, who had amused, was dead; so was Macaulay, who instructed if he did not amuse; Thackeray died at Christmas, 1863; dickens never felt at home, and seldohtly; Tennyson detested strangers; Carlyle was mostly detested by them; Darwin never ca were such as he hton's breakfasts: Grote, Jowett, Mil, Matthew Arnold, or Swinburne; Bishop Wilberforce, Venables, or Hayward; or perhaps Gladstone, Robert Lowe, or Lord Granville A relatively small class, commonly isolated, suppressed, and lost at the usual London dinner, such society as this was fairly familiar even to a private secretary, but to the literary Aht well see of the sort in America Within the narrow liation was fairly at home; possibly a score of houses, all liberal, and all literary, but perfect only in the eyes of a Harvard College historian They could teach little worth learning, for their tastes were antiquated and their knowledge was ignorance to the next generation What was altogether fatal for future purposes, they were only English
A social education in such a medium was bound to be useless in any other, yet Ada needful for a private secretary, was that he should not only seem, but should actually be, at home He studied carefully, and practised painfully, what seemed to be the favorite accomplishments of society
Perhaps his nervousness deceived him; perhaps he took for an ideal of others as only his reflected ie; but he conceived that the perfection of hu-rooer, and place hi, his back to the fire, with an air of expectant benevolence, without curiosity, h he had dropped in at a charity concert, kindly disposed to applaud the performers and to overlook mistakes This ideal rarely succeeded in youth, and towards thirty it took a fore; but about sixty it mellowed into courtesy, kindliness, and even deference to the young which had extraordinary charm both in women and in men
Unfortunately Ada to earn; and the English air of patronage would earn no income for him anywhere else
After five or six years of constant practice, any one can acquire the habit of going frothat ”in a world where we are all insects, no insect is alien; perhaps they are human in parts”; but the dreamy habit of mind which comes from solitude in crowds is not fitness for social success except in London
Everywhere else it is injury England was a social kingdolishwo until they approached forty years old Then they beco--to the lishwoman's notice, and never received it
Neither understood the other Only in the doe--a young Alishwoe, but it never happened to Henry Adairls, which was professional duty rather than education as long as diplomacy held its own
Thus he found himself launched on waters where he had nevera stream which carried him far from his port His third season in London society saw the end of his diplo land--, the arden-parties, dinners, receptions, and balls had nothing to do One ht stay in no end of country houses without forgetting that one was a total stranger and could never be anything else One land, and feel only the ht pass with a nod and never come nearer Close relation in a place like London is a personal mystery as profound as chemical affinity Thousands pass, and one separates himself from the mass to attach hiroup
One , April 27, 1863, he was asked to breakfast with Sir Henry Holland, the old Court physician who had been acquainted with every American Minister since Edward Everett, and was a valuable social ally, who had the courage to try to be of use to everybody, and hile asking the private secretary to breakfast one day, was too discreet to betray what he s at his breakfast-table the day before He had been friendly with the Legation, in the teeth of society, and was still bearing up against the weight of opinion, so that young Adaed hi, alternately with Mr James M Mason Old Dr Holland was hi all day bare-headed about London, and eating Welsh rarebit every night before bed; he thought that any young man should be pleased to take his early muffin in Brook Street, and supply a few crus of eminent patients Meekly, when su the front door, this particularthe knocker They entered the breakfastrooether, where they were introduced to each other, and Adaraduate, Charles Milnes Gaskell, son of James Milnes Gaskell, the Member for Wenlock; another of the Yorkshi+re Milneses, from Thornes near Wakefield Fate had fixed Ada Milnes Gaskell was intie with Williaree A third chance inspired Mr Evarts with a fancy for visiting Cae, and led William Everett to offer his services as host Adams acted as courier to Mr Evarts, and at the end of May they went down for a few days, when William Everett did the honors as host with a kindness and attention that s Cae was pretty, and the dons were kind Mr Evarts enjoyed his visit but this was merely a part of the private secretary's day's work What affected his whole life was the intiraduate friends, just about to enter the world
Intiland a thousand people, great and sin-shop loafers; attended endless official functions and private parties; visited every part of the United Kingdoations in Paris and Rome; he knew the societies of certain country houses, and acquired habits of Sunday-afternoon calls; but all this gave hi whatever could be gained by escorting Aentle solereat titles, at Court balls, or even by aardly jostling royalty at garden-parties; all this was done for the Government, and neither President Lincoln nor Secretary Seould ever know enough of their business to thank hiet properly done by their own servants; but for Henry Adams--not private secretary--all the time taken up by such duties asted On the other hand, his few personal intimacies concerned him alone, and the chance that made him almost a Yorkshi+reman was one that must have started under the Heptarchy
More than any other county in England, Yorkshi+re retained a sort of social independence of London Scotland itself was hardly more distinct The Yorkshi+re type had always been the strongest of the British strains; the Norwegian and the Dane were a different race from the Saxon Even Lancashi+re had not theLondon could never quite absorb Yorkshi+re, which, in its turn had no great love for London and freely showed it To a certain degree, evident enough to Yorkshi+reland, as they ht choose to express it ThisAdams was drawn there rather than elsewhere
Monckton Milnes alone took the trouble to draw hiland ho out such an un-English effort Neither Oxford nor Caion south of the Hu Aht as a friend
Eccentricity alone did not account for it Monckton Milnes was a singular type, but his distant cousin, James Milnes Gaskell, was another, quite asto rest; Milnes Gaskell never seeroup--Arthur Hallaarded as one of the ; in Parliae; married into the powerful connection of the Wynns of Wynstay; rich according to Yorkshi+re standards; intimate with his political leaders; he was one of the nulish it, and want power only to make it a source of indolence
He was a voracious reader and an admirable critic; he had forty years of parliamentary tradition on his memory; he liked to talk and to listen; he liked his dinner and, in spite of George Canning, his dry chaeneration of 1830, a generation which could not survive the telegraph and railway, and which even Yorkshi+re could hardly produce again To an American he was a character eventhan his distant cousin Lord Houghton
Mr Milnes Gaskell was kind to the young Aht to the house, and Mrs Milnes Gaskell was kinder, for she thought the Alishht The American had the sense to see that she was herself one of the land; her sister, Miss Charlotte Wynn, was another; and both were of an age and a position in society that made their friendshi+p a compliment as well as a pleasure
Their consent and approval settled the land, the family is a serious fact; once adht utterly vanish fro as life lasted, Yorkshi+re lived for its friends
In the year 1857, Mr James Milnes Gaskell, who had sat for thirty years in Parliah of Wenlock in Shropshi+re, bought Wenlock Abbey and the estate that included the olda speci left to decay as a farmhouse She put it in order, and went there to spend a part of the autuuests, and drove about Wenlock Edge and the Wrekin with her, learning the loveliness of this exquisite country, and its stores of curious antiquity It was a new and charreatly to be envied--ideal repose and rural Shakespearian peace--but a few years of it were likely to complete his education, and fit hilishman, an ecclesiastic, and a contemporary of Chaucer
CHAPTER XIV
DILETTANTISM (1865-1866)
THE can of 1864 and the reelection of Mr Lincoln in Nove that he could safely regard his own anxieties as over, and the anxieties of Earl Russell and the Eun With a few months more his own terh the questions still under discussion with England should soht look forith soer fretted The ti into the army had passed If he were to be useful at all, it must be as a son, and as a son he was treated with the widest indulgence and trust He knew that he was doing hi in London, but thus far in life he had done hiood anywhere, and reached his twenty-seventh birthday without having advanced a step, that he could see, beyond his twenty-first For the most part, his friends orse off than he