Part 7 (1/2)
With regard to Public Entertainments in the hly favoured We had Irving and Miss Terry at the height of their powers, with all the gorgeous yet accurate ”staging” which Irving had originated We had Lady Bancroft with that wonderful undertone of pathos in even her brightest comedy, and her accomplished husband, whose peculiar art blended so harentlee-land, and the Kendals with their quiet excellence in Drawing-roolory of Mrs John Wood, whose performances, with Arthur Cecil, at the Court Theatre, will always re memories of my life Midway between the Theatre and the Opera, there was the long and lovely series of Gilbert and Sullivan, who surely er aer number of people than any two artists who ever collaborated in the public service
As to the Opera itself, I ures so often in these pages, because none ever understood London so perfectly as he
”What will strike you le person you ever saw before in your life It is strange; and it shohat a mass of wealth and taste and refinement there is in this wonderful metropolis of ours, quite irrespective of the circles in which we rossed thehly, the seasons of 1867-1870; and they still hold good, to a considerable extent, of my earlier years in London The Opera was then the resort of people who really loved music It had ceased to be, what it had been in the 'thirties and 'forties, a merely fashi+onable resort; and its social resurrection had scarcely begun
Personally, I have always been fonder of real life than of its drareatly attracted me was that provided by the Law Courts To follow the intricacies of a really interesting trial; to observe the demeanour and aspect of the witnesses; to listen to the i counsel; to note its effect on the Twelve Men in the Box; and then to see the Chinese Puzzle of conflicting evidence arranged in its dae, is to me an intellectual enjoyment which can hardly be equalled I have never stayed in court after the jury had retired in a capital case, for I hold it iony of a fellow-creature; but the trial of Johann Most for inciting to tyrannicide; of Gallagher and his gang of dyna his brother-in-law, can never be forgotten Not so thrilling, but quite as interesting, were the ”Jockey Trial,” in 1888, the ”Baccarat Case,” in 1891, and the ”Trial at Bar,”
of the Raiders in 1896 But they belong to a later date than the period covered by this chapter
My fondness for the Law Courts est that I was inclined to be a lawyer Not so Only two professions ever attracted ree,--Holy Orders and Parlia-line of 1874 cut my life in two, it occurred to ht pass a few years at the Parliamentary Bar, pleasantly and not unprofitably, until an opportunity of entering Parliament occurred Partly with that end in view, and partly because it seeraceful to have no definite occupation, I became, in 1875, a student of the Inner Temple I duly ate my dinners; or, rather, as the Teh a for was constantly reminded of the experiences of my favourite ”Pen” The ways of Law-students had altered wonderfully little in the lapse of forty years
”The ancient and liberal Inn of the Inner Temple provides in its Hall, and for a most moderate price, an excellent and wholesome dinner of soup, meat, tarts, and port wine or sherry, for the Barristers and Students who attend that place of refection The parties are arranged in messes of four, each of which quartets has its piece of beef or leg of mutton, its sufficient apple-pie, and its bottle of wine 'This is boiled beef day, I believe, Sir,' said Lowton to Pen 'Upon er; this is an to point out to him the notabilities in the Hall
'Do you see those four fellows seated opposite to us? They are regular swells--tip-top fellows, I can tell you--Mr Trail, the Bishop of Ealing's son, Honourable Fred Ringwood, Lord Cinqbars' brother, you know; and Bob Suckling, who's alith him I say, I'd like to mess with those chaps' 'And why?' asked Pen 'Why! they don't come down here to dine, you know, they only o to sorand dinner-party You see their na Post_ at all the fine parties in London They dine! They won't dine these two hours, I dare say' 'But why should you like to mess with them, if they don't eat any dinner?' Pen asked, still puzzled 'There's plenty, isn't there?' 'How green you are,' said Lowton 'Excuse reen!
They don't drink any wine, don't you see, and a fellow gets the bottle to himself, if he likes it, when he ot in with them'”
Such were dinners at the Teal studies were superintended by my friend Mr J S Fox, now KC, and Recorder of Sheffield Should this book ever fall under his learned eye, I should be interested to know if he has ever completed the erudite hich in those distant days he conte,
”Tell a Lie and Stick to it:”
A Treatise on the Law of Estoppel
But this is a digression
Before I leave London as it hen first I dwelt in it, I ought to recall some of the eminent persons who adorned it Lord Beaconsfield was at the zenith of his power and popularity Mr Gladstone, though the crowning triumph of 1880 was not far off, was so unpopular in Society that I was asked to meet him at a dinner as a favour to the hostess, who found it difficult to collect a party when he was dining Lord Salisbury had just e to play for the Premiershi+p Mr Chamberlain was spoken of with a kind of awe, as a desperate de to head a revolution; and Lord Randolph Churchill was hardly known outside the Turf Club
Laas presided over, as I have already said, by the brilliant cockburn, and theto succeed him People whispered wonders about Charles Bowen; and Henry James and Charles Russell had established their positions In the hierarchy of Medicine there were several leaders Jenner ruled his patients by terror; Gull by tact, and Andrew Clark by religiousof dyspepsia, he prescribed a diet with the Pauline formula: ”I seek to impose a yoke upon you, that you may be truly free” In the chief seat of the Church sat Archbishop Tait, the nified prelate whom I have ever met in our communion, and a really impressive spokesman of the Church in the House of Lords The Northern Primate, Dr Thomson, was styled ”The Archbishop of Society”; and the Deanery at Westrace and culture in the fragile person of Dean Stanley G H Wilkinson, afterwards Bishop of Truro and of St Andrews, had lately been appointed to St Peter's, Eaton Square, and had burst like a gunboat into a Dead Sea of lethargy and formalism
Of course, the list does not pretend to be exhaustive It only aiures, in different walks of life, which coan to know--otherwise than as a schoolboy can know it--what London is, means, and contains Five and thirty years have sped their course My Home in the country has ceased to exist; and I findages, have loved London and found it their natural dwelling-place I fancy that Lord St Aldwyn is too much of a sportsman to applaud the sentin of Charles II, but it is exactly land to winter in, whereof ht be put for examples If the air of the streets be fulsome, then fields be at hand If you be weary of the City, you o to the Court If you surfeit of the Court, you may ride into the country; and so shoot, as it were, at rounds with a roving arrow You can wish for no kind of meat, but here is a market; for no kind of pastime, but here is a companion If you be solitary, here be friends to sit with you If you be sick, and one doctor will not serve your turn, you , you may walk into St Paul'sin the Middle Aisle you may hear what the Protestants say, and in the others what the Papists whisper; and, when you have heard both, believe but one, for but one of both says true you may be assured”
We clear the chas the same tune as Squire Hicks
”The happiness of London is not to be conceived but by those who have been in it I'll venture to say, there isand science within the circumference of ten do to some people; but to a man whose pleasure is intellectual, London is the place”
”The town is my element; there are my friends, there are my books, to which I have not yet bid farewell, and there are my amusements”
But even Johnson, who is always quoted as the typical lover of London, was not more enthusiastic in its praise than Gibbon To him ”London was never dull, there at least he could keep the monster _Ennui_ at a respectful distance” For him its heat was always tempered; even its solitude was ”delicious” In ”the soft retire-days pass unheeded ”Char to dine alone Afterwards I shall walk till dark in _al supper and early bed in Bentinck Street I lead the life of a philosopher, without any regard to the world or to fashi+on”
So hteenth centuries;return to the nineteenth and are listening to Sydney Smith ”I look forward anxiously to the return of the bad weather, coal fires, and good society in a crowded city” ”The country is bad enough in sus doomed to such misery for misdeeds in another state of existence” ”You may depend upon it, all lives lived out of London are rievous--but mistakes” ”I shall not be sorry to be in town I a, and worse cookery”