Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of Henry Reeve, C.B., D.C.L. Part 33

The Journal notes:--

_January 1876_.--I meant to go to Paris, but gout came on, and I gave it up.

_March 28th_.--Sent down furniture, &c. by vans to Foxholes.

_April 2nd_.--Took possession of Foxholes; cold and windy, and I gouty.

_To Mr. T. Longman_

_Foxholes, April 19th_.--Lady Holland has written me a note quite as amiable as her brother, and all the family seem to be satisfied with my article. The little crack of the whip just nicked the fly on Abraham's ear.

A touch is often more keenly felt than a blow, when dealt in the right place.

The only fault to be found with living here is that life glides away too rapidly, and I feel as if I should hardly have time to read over again the works of the Immortals, before I go to join them.

We have just got a splendid billiard table, and Hopie and I intersperse cannons and winning hazards with literature.

And the Journal:--

_April 27th_.--Returned to town. Very bad fit of gout. This was the year of my grand climacteric (sixty-three), and I was uncommonly ill. I went to Aix, May 30th; but was worse there, and came back, June 19th.

_July 7th_.--Garden party at Holland House; the only thing I was able to go to this year from incessant gout.

_12th_.--Came down to Foxholes. Great heat; no rain from April till August.

_To Lord Derby_

62 Rutland Gate, April 28th.

My Dear Lord Derby,--I cannot forbear to express to you our very great and cordial sympathy in the great loss you have sustained.[Footnote: The Dowager Countess of Derby died on April 26th, 1876.] It was Gray, I think, who said that a man can have but one mother, and in losing her one loses the only real witness of the tenderest part of the growth of life. n.o.body else has any memory for infancy, childhood and youth, and no one else has the same claims to dutiful affection. The loss is irreparable. I find it so myself every day. Lady Derby had the happiness to see you combine with the most affectionate regard for her the public duties and honours which are almost hereditary in your family. Few women have seen life played out on a n.o.bler scale. She was the link between two generations of statesmen, and lived in the entire intimacy and affection of both. But these considerations cannot alleviate sorrow!

With every a.s.surance of sincere regard to yourself and Lady Derby from Mrs.

Reeve and myself, believe me, always faithfully yours,

H. Reeve.

Continuing the Journal:--

_August 12th_.--Disraeli made Earl Beaconsfield.

_14th_.--From Southampton to Havre and Rouen with Christine and Hopie.

Dined with the Cardinal de Bonnechose; Circourt joined us there.

_17th_.--To the Chateau d'Eu; found there the Duc de Montpensier and Infanta Christine, Duc and d.u.c.h.esse de Chartres, Mme. de Rainneville and Lambert de Sainte-Croix. Drive in forest; very hot.

_21st_.--Celebrated our silver wedding at Eu. To Dieppe and back by Havre on the 24th. William Longman came to Foxholes. Saw Lady Charlotte Bacon [Footnote: See _ante_, vol. i. p. 88.] again.

Mrs. Reeve gave 'Ianthe,' whom they met at a luncheon party at Bournemouth, a fuller notice. She wrote, 'A bad husband and narrow means kept her out of England for thirty-five years or so, and she is now a corpulent matron of seventy, with no trace of those charms sung by the poet.'

All this autumn an immense agitation was kept up, chiefly by Gladstone, on the 'Bulgarian Atrocities.' Meetings were held all over the kingdom. I published an article in the 'Review' in October, which Lord Derby said was the first thing that turned the tide. It soon turned altogether; and in a few months the people were as anxious to attack the Russians as they had been to coerce the Turks.

To Mr. Dempster

_Foxholes, October 17th._--Can you, who know all the genealogies of Scotland better than the Red Lion himself, tell me what relation Countess Purgstall was to Dugald Stewart? [Footnote: She was his wife's sister.] I know she was a Cranstoun; but was she related to the great Professor? When my father was in Vienna in 1805, she received him very kindly, because he had known Dugald Stewart, and followed his lectures in Edinburgh.

I enjoy my life here above all things. Four months have slipped away in this Olympian calm, between the sea and the sky, and I fancy that the New Forest is the Highlands; but it is time to be up and doing, and next week I return to London, with a large stock of health and good spirits.

Matters look very black in the East. I am afraid it is a deep-laid Russian plot, which Gladstone has done not a little to promote and encourage. You will see that I have held to my own line in the Blue and Yellow.

To Mr. T. Longman

_Rutland Gate, November 1st._--I have a great dislike to the proposal of reprinting an article of my own in a cheap form. It seems to me to be descending to the level of Mr. Gladstone's sixpenny agitation. Moreover, the political situation is now considerably altered. Many things which were said hypothetically on October 12th have a.s.sumed a different shape on November 1st. But if any arrangement can be made to supply the Mayor of Bristol with one hundred copies of the 'Review,' at a cheap rate, I shall be very glad of it. The cheap republication of the attractive article would be just as injurious to booksellers who have copies of the 'Review' on hand as the distribution of copies of the 'Review.' Both measures interfere with the regular course of sale, and are therefore mischievous.

The Journal notes:--

_January 23rd_, 1877.--The Folkestone (Ritualist) case [Footnote: Ridsdale _v._ Clifton and others. See _Times_, January 24th and following days.

Judgement, _Times_, July 19th.] heard by the Judicial Committee, by eleven privy councillors, and five bishops. It lasted nearly a fortnight.

_January 24th_.--Christine and I went to pay a visit to the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland at Battle Abbey. It was singularly interesting and agreeable. Nothing could exceed the vivacity of the d.u.c.h.ess, or her attention to her guests. The party consisted of Maud Stanley, Charles Newton, Banks-Stanhope, Raglan Somerset, and the Mercer Hendersons.

I have known the Duke these forty years, having first met him at the d.u.c.h.esse de Mailly's, in Paris, about the year 1836. He is the only Englishman I ever knew who is perfectly at home in the best French society, and as Lord Harry Vane he was extremely popular in Paris. There is now n.o.body living who has known so many of my oldest and best friends--most of whom are now no more--both in Paris, Geneva, and London; and our talk of these old times was most abundant.

Battle Abbey is certainly one of the most curious and beautiful remains in England, and as it was built on the morrow of the Conquest (1067), it is astonis.h.i.+ng how much remains. The present drawing-room is a long, low-arched room, with Gothic arches springing from columns of Purbeck marble. Much of the great refectory and part of the cloisters still remains. This is part of the original building of William the Conqueror.

The great gateway and outer wall is of the time of Edward III. The great hall is about two hundred years old. The Abbey was given by Henry VIII. to Sir Anthony Browne, and afterwards purchased in 1722 by the Websters, from whom the Duke of Cleveland bought it a few years ago.

The d.u.c.h.ess drove us over to call at Ashburnham, about three miles on the other side of Battle. There we saw a most beautiful Sir Joshua of Lady St.

Asaph (the present Earl's grandmother) and the s.h.i.+rt King Charles wore on the day of his execution. Lady Ashburnham told us that old women had, in our time, asked for leave to spread the cloth which is with it over children to cure the King's evil.

Lord Ashburnham [Footnote: He died in June 1878, in his eighty-first year.] is himself a sight--a man of eighty, in high boots, very deaf, very caustic, and clever; possessing under lock and key most wonderful literary treasures and curiosities. He gave 3,000 for a ma.n.u.script bible, but that we did not see.

_February 3rd_--Lady Smith died at Lowestoft, aged 103 and 9 months.

_March 13th_--Tennyson dined at The Club; Archbishop and Chancellor there.

_16th_--To Foxholes. April 14th, back to town.

It was about this time that Miss Agnes Clerke--who has since come into the foremost rank as a popular exponent of science and as the biographer of its votaries--was making her _debut_ in literature, and contributed two articles to the 'Edinburgh Review,' the one in April on 'Brigandage in Sicily,' and the other, which appeared in July, on 'Copernicus in Italy,'

subjects which her residence in Italy had brought more immediately under her notice. Just before the publication of the first of these Reeve wrote to her, introducing M. de Circourt, who was then at Florence where Miss Clerke was. A fortnight later he wrote again in answer to her reply.

Rutland Gate, April 19th.

My Dear Miss Clerke,--It gives me very sincere pleasure to have contributed to introduce you to your first literary success. I hope it may be the prelude to many more. I can hardly venture to recommend to you the course in which you should steer your bark. On scientific subjects I am very ignorant, but there has been an article in the 'Review' on Spectrum a.n.a.lysis, by Professor Roscoe, and another on the Transit of Venus last year. You have the advantage of seeing before your eyes the intellectual _renaissance_ of Italy, and it has already supplied you with two very good subjects.

It is probable that before October something else may turn up. If not, I will send you a book from England to review--for instance, Miss Wynne's Letters and Journals, which are being printed, and will come out in October. Miss Wynne was a delightful person, who lived in the society of Paris, when it was most agreeable. M. de Circourt is the last survivor of it--unless I may be reckoned a survivor too. I am glad you appreciate him.

He was private secretary to M. de Polignac in 1830, and married in 1832 an incomparable Russian--Mlle. de Kl.u.s.tine. They used to say that she knew seventeen languages and he eighteen. She died some years ago from a burn, and Circourt now pa.s.ses his life chiefly with Mme. d'Affry and her daughter, the d.u.c.h.ess Colonna.

I have another cousin (besides Mrs. Ross) who pa.s.ses her winters in Florence, or near it--Mrs. James Whittle. She is a great invalid, and never goes out. But she is now returning to a Schloss (Syrgenstein) they have in Bavaria. ... You are right. I have left my hill, which overlooks the great seaway between the Needles and Hengistbury Head, and come to London for the next three months; but I had much rather stay in my hermitage. London is as disagreeable as an east wind can make it. Believe me,

Yours faithfully,