Part 13 (1/2)

In the loneliness that followed, the prince a up a lively correspondence with his feminine acquaintance, for whom, even at seventy, he had not lost his fascinations His celebrity as an author and a traveller brought himand answering the sentimental effusions of his unknown adnito to Muskau, the first since he had left it eighteen years before, though Branitz was but a few leagues away He was recognised at once, and great was the joy in the little town over the return of its old ruler, as honoured with illuht processions The estate had passed into the hands of Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, who had carried out all its former master's plans, and added enerously ade a share in creating, and then went contentedly back to his _kleine Branitz_, his only regret being that he could not live to see it, like Muskau, in the fulness of its matured beauty In 1866, ar broke out between Prussia and Austria, this grand old ed to be attached to the headquarters' staff His request was granted, and he went gallantly through the brief can, but was bitterly disappointed because he was not able to be present at the battle of Koniggratz, owing to the indisposition of the king, upon whom he was in attendance

In 1870, when France declared war against Prussia, he again volunteered, and was deeplydeclined his services on account of his advanced age For the first time he seems to have realised that he was old, and it is probable that the disappointth rapidly declined, his memory failed, and on February 4,1871, after a brief illness, he sank peacefully to rest He was buried in a tomb that he had built for hih, which stood upon an acre of ground in the centre of an artificial lake The two inscriptions that the prince chose for his sepulchre illustrate, appropriately enough, the sharply contrasting qualities of his strange individuality--his romantic sentimentality, and his callous cynicism The first inscription was a line from the Koran:

'Graves are the mountain summits of a far-off, fairer world'

The second, chosen presum:

'Allons Chez Pluto plutot plus tard'

WILLIAM AND MARY HOWITT

PART I

[Illustration: Mary Howitt Froaret Gillies]

The names of Willialand of the early nineteenth century, with the re-discovery of the beauty and interest of their native land, with the renaissance of the national passion for country pleasures and country pursuits, and with the slow, painful struggle for a wider freedoracious life The Howitts had no genius, nor were they pioneers, but, where the unfamiliar was concerned, they were open-ree that is unfortunately rare in persons of their perfect uprightness and strong natural piety If they flashed no new radiance upon the world, they were always a the first to kindle their little torches at the new laht to those who, but for the stones at the incomprehensible illuminations

Of the two inal It was one of those everyday miracles--the miracles that do happen--that in spite of the severity, the narrowness, the repression of her early training, she should have forced her way through the shell of rigid sectarianise of drab denials, and opened both heart and e

In her husband she found a kindred spirit, and during the ether their eyes were ever turned towards the saifted, they were equally disinterested, equally enlightened, and equally anxious for the advancement of humanity They took themselves and their vocation seriously, and produced an immense quantity of careful, conscientious work, the work of honest craftsmen rather than artists, with the quality of a finished piece of cabinet-, or a strip of fine ehter of Samuel Botham, a land-surveyor at Uttoxeter His father, the descendant of a long line of Staffordshi+re yeo ee his own propensities He seems to have had a talent for netis herbs for headache--snuffs, and healing ointments Samuel, as soon as he had served his apprenticeshi+p, found plenty of eentlemen, who had taken alarm at the revolutionary ideas newly introduced fro anxious to have their acres measured, and their boundaries accurately defined

While at work upon Lord Talbot's Welsh estates in 1795, he became attracted by a 'convinced' Friend, na discovery that both had a passion for nuts, together with the gentle ement, and the couple were hter of Willia Ireland with copper coin (obtained by bribing the duchess of Kendal) was turned into a national grievance by Swift, and led to the publication of the _Drapier Letters_ Although Wood's half-pence were admitted to be excellent coin, and Ireland was short of copper, the feeling against their circulation was so intense, that Ministers were obliged to withdraw the patent, Wood being corant of 3000 a year for a term of years, and 'places'

for some of his fifteen children Ann's father, Charles, when very young, was appointed assay-land in middle life he married a lively ent into business as an iron-uished hi first ht froena in New Spain

After his death, Ann, the only serious member of a 'worldly' family, found it impossible to remain in the frivolous atmosphere of her home, and determined, insooverness or companion in various families, she became converted to Quaker doctrines, and was received into the Society of Friends

Samuel Botham took his bride to live in the paternal home at Uttoxeter, where the preparation of the old quack doctor's herbal reat deal of discohters were born to the couple; Anna in 1797, and Mary on March 12, 1799 At the tih a period of pecuniary distress, owing to a disastrous speculation; but with the opening of the new century a piece of great good fortune befell Samuel Botham He was one of the two surveyors chosen to enclose and divide the Chase of Needwood in the county of Stafford In the early years of the nineteenth century there was, unfortunately for England, aancient forests Needwood, which extended for nificent old oaks, limes, and hollies, and no less than twenty thousand head of deer In after years, Mary Howitt often regretted that her family should have had a hand in the destruction of so vast an extent of solitude and beauty, in a country that was already thickly populated and trimly cultivated Still, for the nine years that the work of 'disafforesting' lasted, the two little girls got a great deal of enjoy sulades, while their father parcelled out the land and raphy_ [Footnote: Edited by her daughter Margaret, and published by Messrs Isbister in 1889] Mary declares that it is iive an adequate idea of the stillness and isolation of her childish life So intense was the silence of the Quaker household, that, at four years old, Anna had to be sent to a daht learn to talk; while even after both children had attained the use of speech, their ignorance of the right naed them to coin words of their own 'My childhood was happy in many respects,' she writes 'It was so, as far as physical health, the enjoyment of a beautiful country, and the companionshi+p of a dearly loved sister could make it--but oh, there was such a cloud over all froious education, it almost made cowards and hypocrites of us, andto be feared and hated' The fas of Madame Guyon, Thoht literature there were Telemachus, Fox's _Book of Martyrs_, and a work on the _Persecution of the Friends_ But it is iainst all the stratagems by which the spirit of evil--or huain an entrance into a Godly household In the case of the Bothaood and evil was learnt froes acquainted with hbourhood, accustomed their infant ears to oaths, and--ht the the nursery tea-tray into a card-table In that silent household it was easy to keep a secret, and though the little girls often tree, they never betrayed her confidence

In 1806 another daughter, Emma, was born to the Bothams, and in 1808 a son, Charles In the midst of their joy and airls asked each other anxiously: 'Will our parents like it?' Only a short tier had inquired if they had any brothers, and they had replied in all seriousness: 'Oh no, our parents do not approve of boys' Now, much to their relief, they found that their father and hly approved of their own boy, who beca of the austere household A new nurse was engaged for the son and heir, a lady of many love-affairs, who made Mary her confidante, and induced the child, then nine years old, to write an iinary love-letter The unlucky letter was laid between the pages of the worthy Madame Guyon, and there discovered by Mr Botham Not much was said on the subject of the document, which seems to have been considered too awful to bear discussion; but the children were removed from the influence of the nurse, and allowed to attend a day-school in the neighbourhood, though only on condition that they sat apart from the other children in order to avoid contas

In 1809 the two elder sisters were sent to a Quaker school at Croydon, where they found theest, the most provincial, and the worst dressed of the little coe, Mary had a keen memory for the costumes of her childhood, and the mortification that these had caused her On their arrival at school the little girls were attired in brown pelisses, cut plain and straight, without plait or fold, and hooked down the front to obviate the necessity for buttons, which, being in the nature of trience of the lust of the eye On their heads they wore little drab beaver bonnets, also destitute of tris, and so plain in shape that even the Quaker hatter had to order special blocks for their irls were busy over various kinds of fashi+onable fancy-work, but the little Bothams were expected, in their leisure moments, to make half-a-dozen linen shi+rts for their father, button-holes and all They had never learnt to net, to weave coloured paper into baskets, to plait split straw into patterns, nor any of the other amateur handicrafts of the day But they were clever with their fingers, and could copy al that they had seen done 'We could buckle flax or spin a rope,' writes Mary 'We could drive a nail, put in a screw or draw it out We knew the use of a glue-pot, and how to paper a room We soon furnished ourselves with coloured paper for plaiting, and straw to split and weave into net; and I shall never forget old paper on a black ground It was my first attempt at artistic handiwork'

After a few irls were recalled to Uttoxeter on account of their mother's illness; and as soon as she recovered they were despatched to another Friends' school at Sheffield In 1812, when Mary was only thirteen and Anna fifteen, their education was supposed to be coood But Mr Bothaed the master of the boys' school to teach thelobes The death of this instructor obliged them thenceforward to rely on a system of self-education 'We retained and perfected our rudi others Our father fitted up a school-room for us in the stable-loft, where, twice a week, ere allowed to teach poor children In this room, also, we instructed our dear little brother and sister Our father, in his beautiful handwriting, used to set them copies, texts of Scripture, such as he no doubt had found of a consolatory nature On one occasion, however, I set the copies, and well remember the tribulation I experienced in consequence I alarred infor hts_, caion, a cheerful heart gathering up the joyfulness of surrounding nature; on which the poet says: ”'Tis iood reat fact which ought to be noised abroad, wrote it down in my best hand as a copy It fell under our father's eye, and sorely grieved he was at such a sentiator'

The sisters can never have found the ti heavy on their hands, for in addition to their educational duties, their mother required them to be expert in all household matters; while, in their scanty hours of leisure, they attee for beauty and knowledge 'We studied poetry, botany, and flower-painting,' Mary writes 'These pursuits were almost out of the pale of permitted Quaker pleasures, but we pursued the in secret that which we dared not do openly, such as reading Shakespeare, the elder novelists, and translations of the classics We studied French and che our e This was good as far as it went, but I now deplore the secrecy, the subterfuge, and the fear under which this ill-digested, ill-arranged knowledge was obtained'

The young Quakeresses picked up ideas and models for their artistic handicraft from the most unlikely sources A shop-, full of dusty plaster ave theas to be seen in nearly every house in Uttoxeter, while a few of the s in the pale blue ware, ornaures These precious specimens the Bothaures by means of moulds made of paper pulp They also etched flowers and landscapes on panes of glass, and manufactured 'transparencies' out of different thicknesses of cap-paper 'I feel a sort of tender pity for Anna andafterwards, 'when I re after the beautiful, and after artistic production, though we knew nothing of art I am thankful that we made no alms-baskets, or hideous abortions of that kind What we did was fros of our souls for perfection in forh crude and poor, was the genuine outcome of our own individuality'

It was one of the heaviest crosses of Mary's girlish days that she and Anna were not pere their taste for the beautiful, in their own dress But they found a faint vicarious pleasure inelaborate irl-friend as allowed to wear fashi+onable clothes, and even to go to balls Even their ultra-plain costuuise the fact that Anna and Mary Botha the young men-Friends of Uttoxeter But the sisters held a low opinion of the e Quaker, an opinion that was only shaken by a report of theWilliam Howitt of Heanor, as said to be not only a scholar, but a born genius William's mother, Phoebe, herself a noted arandfather, the herbal doctor, but the young people had never met However, in the autumn of 1818, William paid a visit to some relations at Uttoxeter, and there irls, who discovered that this young man-Friend shared nearly all their interests, and was full of sympathy with their studies and pursuits

Before the end of the year Mary Botha then six-and-twenty and she nineteen 'The tastes of ly similar,' she observes, 'so also was our mental culture; but he was in every direction so far in advance of e in the broadest sense was the aim of our intellectual efforts; poetry and nature were the paths that led to it Of ballad poetry I was already enamoured, William made me acquainted with the realistic life-pictures of Crabbe; the bits of nature and poetry in the vignettes of Bewick; with the earliest works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley, and the first marvellous prose productions of the author of _Waverley_'