Part 16 (1/2)
I devoted a great deal ofup a ”one-man-show,” my first ofthe Afghan picture I have alreadyCo of 1904 My husband's command of the Western District terminated on January 31st, 1905, and with it his career in the are The Liberal Party was very keen on having hilad the idea did not materialise I knoould have happened He would have set out full of honest and worthy enthusiasm to serve the _Patria_ Then, little by little, he would have found what political life really is, and thrown the thing up in disgust An old story _Non Patria sed Party!_ So utterly outside my own life had politics been that I had an a before ulf!
”_January 31st_, 1905--Will is to stand for East Leeds It is all very sudden Liberals so eager that he has alreat enterprise Herbert Gladstone, Campbell-Bannerman and other leaders have written aloes to the election at Leeds he is to be 'put to no expense whatever,' and they are confident of a 'handsoiven a ate certain ugly-looking matters connected with the Boer War stores scandal that require clearing up I a him for this
”_February 13th_--We went to a very brilliant and (toat the Campbell-Bannermans' All the leaders of the Liberal Party there, an interesting if not very noble study All so cordial to Will Treot down to the ot in the general hubbub all sounded so uish twinkle in his eye, Herbert Gladstone and his lovely wife, our bluff, rosy host and other 'leaders' were very interesting, and we ratulate' All these MP's seereat fascination, this working to get your side in, as at a football eneral election in course of tiht in the Liberal Party with an overwhel majority My husband did not stand for East Leeds He had to abandon the idea, as a Catholic, on account of the religious difficulties connected with the Education Act
Our life in the glorious west of Ireland, which followed our retirement from Devonport, has been so fully described by this pen of ht sketch of it here Those were days when one could give one's whole heart, so to speak, to Erin, before the dreadful cloud had fallen on her which, as I write, has lent her her present forbidding glooht through from London and its noise and superfluous fuss and turmoil into the absolute peace and purity of County Mayo in perfect summer weather was such a relief to mind and body that one felt it as an eood sleep, enjoyment of pure air and noble scenery; kindly, unsophisticated peasantry--all these things were there, and the flocks and herds and the sea birds In thepoetry, so peculiar to Ireland, I had a funny object lesson of a prosaic kind at romantic Mulranny, on Clewe Bay In the little station I saw a big heap in sackcloth lying on the platforo_”--and the country able to ”cure” thewool in the haland_”--and all those sheep around us! Outside the shop door a horse had the usual big nose-bag--_”Made in Austria”!_ All these things, with a little energy, should have coe native industry, when found, by ordering woollen hose at the convent school No two stockings of the sath
The bay was rich in fish, and one day ca boats--_from France!_ There was Ireland to-day in a nutshell What of to-morrow? Is this really Ireland's heavy sleep before the dawn?
I have seen some of the most impressive beauties of our world, but never have I been randeur of the h Patrick, asit on the evening of our arrival at Mulranny The last flush of the after-glow lingered on its dark slopes and the red planet Mars flamed above its cone, all this sole waters At Mulranny I spent nearly allstudies of sheep and landscape for the next picture I sent to the Acadeave me a period of theup of this picture was in itself an idyll But the public didn't want idylls from me at all ”Give us soldiers and horses, but pastoral idylls--no!”
People had a slightly reproachful tone in their co my poor pastoral on the Acadehty fallen!”
We made our home in the heart of Tipperary, under the Galtee Mountains
It seeetting, by the world forgot,” but we did not succeed in our intention In 1906 h Cape Colony and the (former) Boer Republics on a literary oal There I had the great pleasure of the coined hat feelings we re-trod the old haunts in and about that city together
”_April 9th, 1906_--We had a charardens, where the oldest, hoariest cypresses are to be seen, and fountains and water conduits of graceful and fantastic shape, wherever one turns, all gushi+ng with iardens revelled in their fanciful designs and sported with the responsive flood Cascades spout in all directions from the rocks on which Tivoli is built We had _dejeuner_ under a pergola at the inn right over one of these waterfalls, where, far below us, birds flew to and fro in the mist of the spray Nature and art have joined in play at Tivoli I always have had a healthy dislike of burrowing in tombs and catacoypt--the land, of all others, of limpid air and sunshi+ne and dryness--is not in any way attractive tointo the Roman catacombs out of the sunny Appian Way On forh theround I learnt all that the catacombs teach in my early years, and am not likely to lose that trena day, as Italianised as I could ola of an Appian Way-side inn, watched by half a dozen hungry cats, that unattractive, wild, irl aited on us drew our white wine in a decanter froarden It had, apparently, not 'been cool'd a long age in _that_ deep-delved earth,'
but it did very well I was perfectly happy This old-fashi+oned _al fresco_ entertainment had the local colour which I look for when I travel and which is getting rarer year by year Our Colosseuht was e, battered, woeful, waning old h the broken arch An opportune ohich had been screeching like a cat in the shade, flitted across its sloping disc just at the supreme moment”
To receive Holy Coe for which we should be very thankful It wasthat year, at his private Mass in the Sistine Chapel There I saw Pius X for the first tientle face It is the general custo' on the Pope's hand before receiving, but Pius X very markedly prevents this One can understand! Our audience with the Holy Father took place on the eve of our departure There was a never-absent look with him of what I may call the submissive sense of a too-heavy burden of responsibility No photographs convey the right impression of this Pope He was very pale, very spiritual, very kind and a little weary;in his manner The World War at its outset broke that tender heart I sent him my ”Letters from the Holy Land,” for which I received very urbane thanks from one of the cardinals I don't think the Holy Father knows a single word of English, and I wonder what heFlorence and Venice on the way, I think ill take that as read I revel in the Diary in all the dear old Italian details, ards her broken silence The hurry of modern life has invaded even the ”silent city,” and there is too ht, for the old enjoy quite shabby above the incandescent globes on the Riva
Fro jue of twenty-one balls in six weeks in each of the two seasons 1907--1908
Little did I think that it would be quite an unmixed pleasure to me to do _chaperon_ for some five hours at a stretch; but so it turned out It all depends what sort of daughter you have on the scene! The Aberdeens were then in power
Lady Aberdeen was untiring in her endeavours to trace and combat the dire disease which seemed to fasten on the Irish in an especialto the people with a tuberculosis ”caravan”
She brought it to Cashel, andspeech at her exhibition there But her addresses cas exhibited in the ”caravan” in spirits of wine appealed in vain She actually asked the people that day to go back to their discarded oatmeal ”stir-about”!
They prefer their stewed tea and their artificially whitened, so-called bread, with the resultant loss of their teeth My experiences at the different Dublin horse shoere sociable and pleasant There you see the finest horses and the ives you that hospitality which is the most admirable quality in the Irish nature
Sir Willia, by addresses to the people in different parts of the country, to quicken their sense of the necessity for industry, sobriety, and a more serious view of existence They did not see the air I re appeal he ht to iven in his vivid and friendly Irish style, touched with humour to leaven the severity, would have impressed his hearers The applause disappointed me Well, he did his best to the very last for the country and the people he loved He had vainly longed all his life for Home Rule within the E?
I recall in this connection an episode which was eloquent of the hearty appreciation of his worth, quite irrespective of politics At a banquet given in Dublin to welcoe, he was called upon to respond for ”the Guests” For fully one minute the cheers were so persistent when he rose that he had to wait before his opening words could be heard The company were nearly all Unionists
After all the s connected with Sir William's association with the Boer War and its antecedents had been righted at last, these words of a distinguished general at Headquarters were spoken: ”Butler stands a head and shoulders above us all”
The year 1910 is one which in our family remains for ever sacred My dear mother died on March 13th