Part 2 (2/2)

Barron, a rallying place in those days of intellectual society Edward Barron, the son of a rich saddler or leather h, was a man typical of the time When he was a child, he had once been patted on the head in his father's shop by no less a h canvassing for Mr Thrale; and the child was true to this early consecration 'A life of lettered ease spent in provincial retirerapher of that remarkable man, William Taylor, announces his subject; and the phrase is equally descriptive of the life of Edward Barron The pair were close friends, 'W T and a pipe render everything agreeable,' writes Barron in his diary in 1828; and in 1833, after Barron had moved to London and Taylor had tasted the first public failure of his powers, the latter wrote: 'To my ever dearest Mr Barron say, if you please, that I ret him-that I acquiesce in his retirement from Norwich, because I could ill brook his observation ofdebility of mind' This chosen companion of William Taylor must himself have been no ordinary man; and he was the friend besides of Borroho in his Latin But he had no desire for popular distinction, lived privately, hter of Dr Enfield of Enfield's _Speaker_, and devoted his time to the education of his family, in a deliberate and scholarly fashi+on, and with certain traits of stoicism, that would surprise a est daughter, Eliza, who learned under his care to be a sound Latin, an elegant Grecian, and to suppress en after the manner of the Godwin school This was the irl really derived froh-flown romantic temper, I wish I could find space to illustrate She was but seven years old, when Alfred Austin remarked and fell in love with her; and the union thus early prepared was singularly full Where the husband and wife differed, and they did so on momentous subjects, they differed with perfect temper and content; and in the conduct of life, and in depth and durability of love, they were at one Each full of high spirits, each practised so of the same repression: no sharp as uttered in their house The sauest was sacred and stood within the pale from criticism It was a house, besides, of unusual intellectual tension Mrs Austin ree, the three brothers, John, Charles, and Alfred,to and fro, each with his hands behind his back, and 'reasoning high' till ; and how, like Dr Johnson, they would cheer their speculations with as h, before the date of Fleeo retired from the world at Brandeston, and John already near his end in the 'rae, Alfred Austin and his ere still a centre of much intellectual society, and still, as indeed they remained until the last, youthfully alert in e, Anne, and she was herself soht up, as she had been, like her mother before her, to the standard of a man's acquirements Only one art had she been denied, she ht was too monstrous even for the Austins; and indeed it would seem as if that tide of reform which we ree even receded; for though Miss Austin was suffered to learn Greek, the accouilt But whether this stealth was caused by a backward ht since the tihtened Norwich to barbarian London, I have nopresented his letter, he fell in love at first sight with Mrs Austin and the life, and atmosphere of the house There was in the society of the Austins, outward, stoical conforestive of essential eccentricity, so of intellectual effort, that could not fail to hit the fancy of this hot-brained boy The unbroken enanified kindness of these married folk, had besides a particular attraction for their visitor He could not but compare what he sahat he knew of hispossessed, he could never count on being civil; whatever brave, true-hearted qualities he was able to admire in Mrs

Jenkin, mildness of demeanour was not one of them And here he found per sons ere the equals of his mother and himself in intellect and width of interest, and the equals of his father inan active virtue, and he always loved it He went away fro to himself that his own married life should be upon that pattern, his wife (whoever she ht be) like Eliza Barron, himself such another husband as Alfred Austin What is olden opinions Helad; but there shone out of hience, and appreciation, that to persons already soently the perennial cohtful By a pleasant coincidence, there was one person in the house whom he did not appreciate and who did not appreciate him: Anne Austin, his future wife His boyish vanity ruffled her; his appearance, never impressive, was then, by reason of obtrusive boyishness, still less so; she found occasion to put hi a false quantity; and when Mr Austin, after doing his visitor the al hion her handso'

This first visit to the Austins took place in 1855; and it seean to know his er ere he ventured to show it The corrected quantity, to those who knew him well, will seem to have played its part; he was the man always to reflect over a correction and to adator And fall in love he did; not hurriedly but step by step, not blindly but with critical discrimination; not in the fashi+on of Romeo, but before he was done, with all Roh favour to which he presently rose in the esteeive him ambitious notions; but the poverty of the present and the obscurity of the future were there to give hian to settle round Miss Austin, he tasted, perhaps for the only tis of diffidence There was indeed opening before hied into the service of Messrs Liddell & Gordon; these gentleraphy; and Flee was already face to face with his life's work That iround, which an to fall from him

New problems which he was endowed to solve, vistas of new enquiry which he was fitted to explore, opened before hioal And with this pleasure of effective exercise, thereup at once the hope of what is called by the world success But fros, it was a far look upward to Miss Austin: the favour of the loved one seems always more than problematical to any lover; the consent of parentsman with a small salary and no capital except capacity and hope But Flee for the lack of trial; and at length, in the autumn of 1857, this boyish-sized, boyish-ineer, entered the house of the Austins, with such sinkings as we hter Mrs Austin already loved hiive hiht to inquire into his character; from neither was there a word about his prospects, by neither was his income mentioned 'Are these people,' he wrote, struck onder at this dignified disinterestedness, 'are these people the same as other people?' It was not till he was armed with this permission, that Miss Austin even suspected the nature of his hopes: so strong, in this unmannerly boy, was the principle of true courtesy; so powerful, in this is of self-repression And yet a boy he was; a boy in heart and mind; and it ith a boy's chivalry and frankness that he won his wife His conduct was a model of honour, hardly of tact; to conceal love from the loved one, to court her parents, to be silent and discreet till these are won, and then without preparation to approach the lady-these are not arts that I would reco saved Flee from that fate, but one circumstance that cannot be counted upon-the hearty favour of the ift that is iniift of a nature essentially noble and outspoken A happy and high-h his despair: it won for him his wife

Nearly two years passed before it was possible to marry: two years of activity, now in London; now at Birkenhead, fitting out shi+ps, inventing newinto electrical experiraph cruise between Sardinia and Algiers: a busy and delightful period of bounding ardour, incessant toil, growing hope and fresh interests, with behind and through all, the ie of his beloved A few extracts froive the note of these truly joyous years 'My profession gives me all the excitement and interest I ever hope for, but the sorry jade is obviously jealous of you'-'”Poor Flee overpools of slush in waste places inhabited by wandering locoh and cured his toothache'-'The whole of the paying out and lifting ned and ordered in two or three days, and I aood ball, the excite to and frousts of rain and wind till near eleven, and you cannot think what a pleasure it was to be blown about and think of you in your pretty dress'-'I am at the works till ten and sometimes till eleven But I have a nice office to sit in, with a fire to ht brass scientific instruments all round me, and books to read, and experily I find the study of electricity so entertaining that I alect my other work' And for a last taste, 'Yesterday I had so electrical experi? a Greek play?'

It was at this time besides that he made the acquaintance of Professor, now Sir William, Thomson To describe the part played by these two in each other's lives would lie out of ether on the Coether at the laying down or the repair of , not only with the 'worshi+p' (the word is his own) due to great scientific gifts, but with an ardour of personal friendshi+p not frequently excelled To their association, Flee; but he never thought or spoke of himself where Sir Williaular instance of this modest loyalty to one whom he admired and loved He drew up a paper, in a quite personal interest, of his own services; yet even here he must step out of his way, he must add, where it had no claim to be added, his opinion that, in their joint work, the contributions of Sir Williaain, I shall not readily forget hat emotion he once told me an incident of their associated travels On one of the 's pony bolted between Sir Williaood fortune and thanks to the steadiness of Sir Willia saw his friend hurled into the sea, and almost by his own act: it was a memory that haunted hie-His Married Life-Professional Difficulties-Life at Claygate-Illness of Mrs F Jenkin; and of Fleeh

ON Saturday, Feb 26, 1859, profiting by a holiday of four days, Flee was married to Miss Austin at Northiam: a place connected not only with his own fa, he was at work again, fitting out cableshi+ps at Birkenhead Of the walk froraphic sketch in one of his letters: 'Out over the railway bridge, along a wide road raised to the level of a ground floor above the land, which, not being built upon, harbours puddles, ponds, pigs, and Irish hovels;-so to the dock warehouses, four huge piles of building with no s, surrounded by a wall about twelve feet high-in through the large gates, round which hang twenty or thirty rusty Irish, playing pitch and toss and waiting for eates and which branches down between each vast block-past a pilot-engine butting refractory trucks into their places-on to the last block, [and] down the branch, sniffing the guano-scented air and detecting the old bones The hartshorn flavour of the guano beco, as I near the docks where, across the _Elba's_ decks, a huge vessel is discharging her cargo of the brown dust, and where huge vessels have been discharging that sao for the last fivewife on the morrow of his return She had been used to the society of lawyers and civil servants,in that circle which seems to itself the pivot of the nation and is in truth only a clique like another; and Flee was to her the na his inglorious business, as she no for herself, aht theht to her of theshi+ps dressed out with flags 'How lovely!' she cried 'What is it for?'-'For you,' said Flee Her surprise was only equalled by her pleasure But perhaps, for e ineer; who is a great man in out-of-the-way places, by the dockside or on the desert island or in populous shi+ps, and remains quite unheard of in the coteries of London

And Flee the feho had an opportunity of knowing hie was the one decisive incident of his career; froht to which all the rest were tributary, the thought of his wife No one could know hireatness of that sentiment; nor can any picture of the man be drawn that does not in proportion dwell upon it This is a delicate task; but if we are to leave behind us (as ish) some presentment of the friend we have lost, it is a task that must be undertaken

For all his play of ence-and, as ti had views of duty that were even stern He was too shrewd a student of his fellow-id formulae of conduct Iron-bound, impersonal ethics, the procrustean bed of rules, he soon saw at their true value as the deification of averages 'As to Miss (I declare I forget her na, 'people only ue-which is not at all the sah-road of Life really have less opportunity for taking a comprehensive view of it than those who have leaped over the hedges and strayed up the hills; not but what the hedges are very necessary, and our stray travellers often have a weary time of it So, you may say, have those in the dusty roads' Yet he was hiht safety and found dignity in the obvious path of conduct; and would palter with no sie in particular, of the bond so forations incurred, of the debt men owe to their children, he conceived in a truly antique spirit: not to blame others, but to constrain himself

It was not to blame, I repeat, that he held these views; for others, he could e allowance; and yet he tacitly expected of his friends and his wife a high standard of behaviour Nor was it always easy to wear the ar upon these beliefs; conceiving that he had indeed 'given hi of these words) for better, for worse; painfully alive to his defects of temper and deficiency in char last of hi was in soht of an unfortunate e

In other ways, it is true he was one of the most unfit for such a trial

And it was his beautiful destiny to remain to the last hour the same absolute and ro-draped vessels in the Mersey No fate is altogether easy; but trials are our touchstone, trials overco to conquer It was given to him to live for another, not as a task, but till the end as an enchanting pleasure 'People may write novels,' he wrote in 1869, 'and other peoplethem can write to say how happy a man may be, who is desperately in love with his wife after ten years of ain in 1885, after e, and within but five weeks of his death: 'Your first letter froives me heavenly pleasure-for which I thank Heaven and you too-who are my heaven on earth' The ood or more fortunate

Any woman (it is the defect of her sex) comes sooner to the stable mind of maturity than any rowth In the next chapter, when I coive some taste of his correspondence, the reader will still find him at twenty-five an arrant school-boy His wife besides was hly educated than he In ht; in hted to be outshone All these superiorities, and others that, after the ed for hiinal love Only once, in all I know of his career, did he show a touch of s correctly; his wife told him so and desisted from her lessons; and the mortification was so sharply felt that for years he could not be induced to go to a concert, instanced hiain I tell it; for the fact that this stood singular in his behaviour, and really aine to commend the tenor of his si for his wife Others were alelcoh at him; if it amused them, or if it amused him, he would proceed undisturbed with his occupation, his vanity invulnerable With his wife it was different: his wife had laughed at his singing; and for twenty years the fibre ached Nothing, again, was more notable than the formal chivalry of this unmannered man to the person on earth hom he was the most fa vivacity and roughness and he was never forgetful of his first visit to the Austins and the vow he had registered on his return There was thus an artificial eleht alrounds; for this was how he sought to shelter from his own petulance the woman as to him the symbol of the household and to the end the beloved of his youth

I wish in this chapter to chronicle slance at sole; and reserving till the next all thematter of his cruises

Of his achievements and their worth, it is not for me to speak: his friend and partner, Sir William Thomson, has contributed a note on the subject, which will be found in the Appendix, and to which I must refer the reader He is to conceive in the ements: his service on the Committee on Electrical Standards, his lectures on electricity at Chatham, his chair at the London University, his partnershi+p with Sir Williaenious patents, his growing credit with engineers and men of science; and he is to bear in mind that of all this activity and acquist of reputation, the i had left the service of Messrs Liddell & Gordon, and entered into a general engineering partnershi+p with Mr Forde, a gentleood way of business It was a fortunate partnershi+p in this, that the parties retained their ret; but men's affairs, like men, have their times of sickness, and by one of these unaccountable variations, for hard upon ten years the business was disappointing and the profits et , not without a touch of bitterness, describe his occupation

Even the patents hung fire at first There was no salary to rely on; children were co up; the prospect was often anxious In the days of his courtshi+p, Flee had written to Miss Austin a dissuasive picture of the trials of poverty, assuring her these were no figments but truly bitter to support; he told her this, he wrote, beforehand, so that when the pinch came and she suffered, she should not be disappointed in herself nor tenanimity: a letter of admirable wisdom and solicitude But now that the trouble cahtly It was his principle, as he once prettily expressed it, 'to enjoy each day's happiness, as it arises, like birds or children' His optiain by the ; if it found nothing but blackness in the present, would hit upon soround of consolation in the future or the past And his courage and energy were indefatigable In the year 1863, soon after the birth of their first son, they ate near Esher; and about this time, underfroive us, please God, health and strength I will love and cherish you o where you wish, you shall receive whom you wish-and as for money you shall have that too I cannot be mistaken I have now measured myself with many men I do not feel weak, I do not feel that I shall fail In s I have succeeded, and I will in this And , which, please Heaven, shall not be long, shall also not be so bitter Well, well, I promise much, and do not know at this moment how you and the dear child are If he is but better, courage, ate stood just without the village, well surrounded with trees and coarden was turfed over to for becarew ardent, too, in gardening This he took up at first to please his wife, having no natural inclination; but he had no sooner set his hand to it, than, like everything else he touched, it becas in the coach-house; if there caht, he would rise out of bed to protect his favourites; when he was throith a dull coh for hiardener; on his travels, he would go out of his way to visit nurseries and gather hints; and to the end of his life, after other occupations prevented hiraulated

He had begun by this time to write His paper on Darhich had theon one point the philosopher his; but his pen was not idle at Claygate; and it was here he wrote (as) that review of '_Fecundity_, _Fertility_, _Sterility_, _and Allied Topics_,' which Dr

Matthews Duncan prefixed by way of introduction to the second edition of the work Theseems to cheer the vanity of the most incompetent; but a correction accepted by Darwin, and a whole review borrowed and reprinted by Matthews Duncan are compliments of a rare strain, and to a man still unsuccessful must have been precious indeed

There was yet a third of the same kind in store for him; and when Munro himself owned that he had found instruction in the paper on Lucretius, wehad been crowned in the capitol of reviewing

Croquet, charades, Christe children, an a; plenty of hard work by day; regular visits to s of the British association, fro: 'I cannot say that I have had any a the dulness and dry bustle of the whole thing'; occasional visits abroad on business, when he would find the ti hints for his or new fashi+ons of dress for his wife; and the continual study and care of his children: these were the chief ele Captain and Mrs Jenkin, Mr and Mrs

Austin, Clerk Maxwell, Miss Bell of Manchester, and others can Office, his wife and his daughter, were neighbours and proved kind friends; in 1867 the Howitts caht, clever young people'; {113} and in a house close by, Mr Frederick Ricketts came to live with his fa his short life; and when he was lost with every circu ive the best idea of Flee in this time of his early married life, by a few sustained extracts from his letters to his wife, while she was absent on a visit in 1864

'_Nov_ 11-Sunday was too wet to walk to Isleworth, for which I was sorry, so I staid and went to Church and thought of you at Ardwick all through the Commandments, and heard Dr - expound in a remarkable way a prophecy of St Paul's about Roman Catholics, which _mutatis mutandis_ would do very well for Protestants in some parts Then I e, grubbing in wet earth with leggings and gray coat on Then I tidied up the coach-house to ed by _bouts-rih tipoetry or rhyed over the box withnotes from myself One I should say my first letter, which little Austin I should say would rejoice to see and shall see-with a drawing of a cottage and a spirited ”cob” What was more to the purpose, I found with it a paste-cutter which Mary begged hu