life was divided between london from january to august, then devonshire till after christmas. in the nursery and the early part of the schoolroom period we used to go to coombe in the summer. coombe seemed to be inextricably interwoven with london and parallel to it; and i remember dinner-parties happening, and a hungarian band playing on the lawn, unless i have dreamt that. but there came a time, i think i must have been six or seven, when coombe was sold, and we went there no more, and life was confined to membland and charles street. london in the winter, and summer in devonshire, with sometimes brief visits to devonshire at easter and whitsuntide, and brief visits to london in november, when my father and mother went up by themselves.
it is not any false illusion or the glamour of the past that makes the whole of that period of life until school-time was reached seem like fairyland. i thought so at the time, and grown-up people who came to coombe and membland felt, i think, that they had come to a place of rare and radiant happiness.
but i will begin with london first.
this was the routine of life. we all had breakfast at nine downstairs. i remember asking how old my father was, and the answer was fifty-three. as he was born in 1828 and i was born in 1874, i must have been seven years old at the time of this question. i always thought of my father as fifty-three years old. my brothers john, cecil, and everard were at eton at warre’s house, and hugo was five years old and still in the nursery.
after breakfast, at about a quarter to ten, my father drove to the city, and he never came home to luncheon except on saturdays.
[15]
we went for a walk with chérie, and after this lessons lasted from eleven, i think, till two, in the schoolroom.
the schoolroom was a long room with three windows looking out on to the street. there was a cottage pianoforte at an angle, and in the niche of one of the windows a small table, where chérie used to sit and read the daily news in the morning. we each of us had a cupboard for our toys, and there were some tall bookcases, containing all the schoolroom books, noel and chapsal’s grammar, and many comfortable, shabby books of fairy-tales. we each of us had a black writing-desk, with a wooden seat attached to it, in which we kept our copybooks, and at which we did our work. a long table ran right down the middle of our room, where we did our lessons, either when everyone did them together, collectively, with chérie, who sat at the head of the table, or with mrs. christie, who sat at one side of the table at the farther end.
at two o’clock we all came down to luncheon, and as my mother was at home to luncheon every day, stray people used to drop in, and that was a great excitement, as the guests used to be discussed for hours afterwards in the schoolroom.
lady dorothy nevill, who lived in the same street, used often to come to luncheon and make paper boats for me. she used also to shock me by her frank expression of tory principle, not to say prejudice, as we were staunch liberals, and lady dorothy used to say that mr. gladstone was a dreadful man.
mr. alfred montgomery was a luncheon visitor, and one day bobby spencer, who was afterwards to be margaret’s husband, was subjected to a rather sharp schoolroom criticism owing to the height of his collars. i sometimes used to embarrass chérie by sudden interpellations. one day, when she had refused a dish, i said: “prends en, chérie, toi qui es si gourmande.” another day at luncheon a visitor called colonel edgcumbe bet my mother a pound there would be war with france within three years. i expect he forgot the bet, but i never did. another time my mother asked mademoiselle ida what was the most difficult piece that existed for the pianoforte, and mademoiselle ida said liszt’s “spinnelied.” my mother bet her a pound she would learn it in a month’s time (and she did).
there were two courses at luncheon, some meat and a sweet, and then cheese, and we were not allowed to have the sweet unless we had the meat first, but we could always have two[16] helpings if we liked. after luncheon we went for another walk. at five there were more lessons, and then schoolroom tea, presided over by chérie, and after that various games and occupations, and sometimes a visit to the drawing-room.
there were two drawing-rooms downstairs, a front drawing-room with three windows looking out on to the street, and a back drawing-room at right angles to it. the drawing-rooms had a faded green silk on the walls. over the chimney-piece there was a fine picture by cuyp, which years later i saw in a private house in the bois de boulogne. the room was full of flowers and green sèvres china. in the back drawing-room there was a grand pianoforte and some bookcases, and beyond that a room called the gilding-room, a kind of workshop where my mother did gilding. i only once saw a part of the operation, which consisted of making size. later on this room became the organ room and was enlarged. the drawing-room led to a small landing and a short staircase to the front hall. on the landing wall there was an enormous picture of venice, by birket foster, and from this landing, when there was a dinner-party, we used to peer through the banisters and watch the guests arriving. we were especially forbidden to slide down the banisters, as my mother used to tell us that when she was a little girl she had slid down the banisters and had a terrible fall which had cut open her throat, so that when you put a spoon in her mouth it came out again through her throat. when hugo, the last of the family to be told this story, heard it, he said, “did you die?” and my mother was obliged to say that she did not.
on the ground floor was a room looking out into the street, called the library, but it only possessed two bookcases let into louis xv. white walls, and this led into the dining-room, beyond which was my father’s dressing-room, where, when we were quite small, we would watch him shave in the morning.
dinner downstairs was at eight, and when we were small i was often allowed to go down to the beginning of dinner and draw at the dinner-table on a piece of paper, and the girls used to come down to dessert, bringing an occupation such as needlework. we were always supposed to have an occupation when we were downstairs, and i remember susan, being asked by chérie what needlework she was going to take to the dining-room, saying: “mon bas, ma chemise, et ma petite wobe, chéwie.”
[17]
on saturday afternoons we often had a treat, and went to the german reed’s entertainment and corney grain, or to maskelyne and cook, and hengler’s circus, and on sundays we often went to the zoo, or drove down to coombe when coombe existed.
lessons were in the hands of chérie and mrs. christie. chérie taught me to read and write in french, french history out of lamé fleury, not without arguments on my part to learn it from the bigger grown-up book of guizot, and french poetry. every day began with a hideous ordeal called “la page d’ecriture.” chérie would write a phrase in enormous letters in a beautiful copy-book handwriting on the top line of the copy-book, and we had to copy the sentence on every other line, with a quill pen. mrs. christie, besides struggling with my arithmetic, used to teach us english literature, and make us learn passages from shakespeare by heart, which were quite unintelligible to me, and passages from byron, walter scott, campbell, and southey, and various pieces from the children’s garland and macaulay’s lays of ancient rome. i enjoyed the latter whole-heartedly.
sometimes mrs. christie and chérie used to have conversations across the children, as it were, during lessons. i remember mrs. christie saying to chérie while i was doing my lessons by chérie’s side one day: “that child will give you more trouble than all the others.”
i liked history lessons, especially lamé fleury’s french history and mythology; and in lamé fleury’s french history the favourite chapter was that beginning: “jean ii. dit le bon commen?a son règne par un assassinat.” the first book i read with mrs. christie was called little willie, and described the building of a house, an enchanting book. i did not like any of the english poetry we read, not understanding how by any stretch of the imagination it could be called poetry, as shakespeare blank verse seemed to be a complicated form of prose full of uncouth words; what we learnt being clarence’s dream, king henry iv.’s battle speeches, which made me most uncomfortable for chérie’s sake by their anti-french tone, and passages from childe harold, which i also found difficult to understand. the only poems i remember liking, which were revealed by mrs. christie, were milton’s l’allegro and penseroso, which i copied out in a book as soon as i could write.[18] one day she read me out gray’s elegy and i was greatly impressed. “that is,” she said, “the most beautiful elegy in the language.” “is it the most beautiful poem in the language?” i asked, rather disappointed at the qualification, and hankering for an absolute judgment. “it’s the most beautiful elegy in the language,” she said, and i had to be content with that.
i don’t want to give the impression that we, any of us, disliked mrs. christie’s lessons in english literature. on the contrary, we enjoyed them, and i am grateful for them till this day. she taught us nothing soppy nor second-rate. the piece of her repertoire i most enjoyed, almost best, was a fable by gay called “the fox at the point of death.” she was always willing to explain things, and took for granted that when we didn’t ask we knew. this was not always the case. one of the pieces i learnt by heart was shelley’s “arethusa,” the sound of which fascinated me. but i had not the remotest idea that it was about a river. the poem begins, as it will be remembered:
“arethusa arose
from her couch of snows
in the acroceraunian mountains.”
for years i thought “acroceraunian” was a kind of pin-cushion.
mrs. christie had a passion for sir walter scott and for the waverley novels. “you can’t help,” she said, “liking any king of england that sir walter scott has written about.” she instilled into us a longing to read sir walter scott by promising that we should read them when we were older. one of the most interesting discussions to me was that between chérie and mrs. christie as to what english books the girls should be allowed to read in the country. mrs. christie told, to illustrate a point, the following story. a french lady had once come across a french translation of an english novel, and seeing it was an english novel had at once given it to her daughter to read, as she said, of course, any english novel was fit for the jeune personne. the novel was called les papillons de nuit. “and what do you think that was?” said mrs. christie. “moths, by ouida!”
the first poem that really moved me was not shown me by mrs. christie, but by mantle, the maid who looked after the girls. it was mrs. hemans’: “oh, call my brother back to me, i cannot[19] play alone.” this poem made me sob. i still think it is a beautiful and profoundly moving poem. besides english, mrs. christie used to teach us latin. i had my first latin lesson the day after my eighth birthday. this is how it began: “supposing,” said mrs. christie, “you knocked at the door and the person inside said, ‘who’s there?’ what would you say?” i thought a little, and then half-unconsciously said, “i.” “then,” said mrs. christie, “that shows you have a natural gift for grammar.” she explained that i ought reasonably to have said “me.” why i said “i,” i cannot think. i had no notion what her question was aiming at, and i feel certain i should have said “me” in real life. the good grammar was quite unintentional.
as for arithmetic, it was an unmixed pain, and there was an arithmetic book called ibbister which represented to me the final expression of what was loathsome. one day in a passion with chérie i searched my mind for the most scathing insult i could think of, and then cried out, “vieille ibbister.”
i learnt to read very quickly, in french first. in the nursery grace and annie read me grimm’s fairy tales till they were hoarse, and as soon as i could read myself i devoured any book of fairy-tales within reach, and a great many other books; but i was not precocious in reading, and found grown-up books impossible to understand. one of my favourite books later was the crofton boys, which mrs. christie gave me on 6th november 1883, as a “prize for successful card-playing.” it is very difficult for me to understand now how a child could have enjoyed the intensely sermonising tone of this book, but i certainly did enjoy it.
i remember another book called romance, or chivalry and romance. in it there was a story of a damsel who was really a fairy, and a bad fairy at that, who went into a cathedral in the guise of a beautiful princess, and when the bell rang at the elevation of the host, changed into her true shape and vanished. i consulted mrs. christie as to what the elevation of the host meant, and she gave me a clear account of what transubstantiation meant, and she told me about henry viii., the defender of the faith, and the reformation, and made no comment on the truth or untruth of the dogma. transubstantiation seemed to me the most natural thing in the world, as it always does to children, and i privately made up my mind[20] that on that point the reformers must have been mistaken. one day chérie said for every devoir i did, and for every time i wasn’t naughty, i should be given a counter, and if i got twenty counters in three days i should get a prize. i got the twenty counters and sallied off to hatchard’s to get the prize. i chose a book called the prince of the hundred soups because of its cover. it was by vernon lee, an italian puppet-show in narrative, about a doge who had to eat a particular kind of soup every day for a hundred days. it is a delightful story, and i revelled in it. on the title-page it was said that the book was by the author of belcaro. i resolved to get belcaro some day; belcaro sounded a most promising name, rich in possible romance and adventure, and i saved up my money for the purpose. when, after weeks, i had amassed the necessary six shillings, i went back to hatchard’s and bought belcaro. alas, it was an ?sthetic treatise of the stiffest and driest and most grown-up kind. years afterwards i told vernon lee this story, and she promised to write me another story instead of belcaro, like the prince of the hundred soups. the first book i read to myself was alice in wonderland, which john gave to me. another book i remember enjoying very much was the king of the golden river, by ruskin.
i enjoyed my french lessons infinitely more than my english ones. french poetry seemed to be the real thing, quite different from the prosaic english blank verse, except la fontaine’s fables, which, although sometimes amusing, seemed to be almost as prosy as shakespeare. they had to be learnt by heart, nevertheless. they seemed to be in the same relation to other poems, victor hugo’s “napoléon ii.” and “dans l’alcove sombre,” which i thought quite enchanting, as meat was to pudding at luncheon, and i was not allowed to indulge in poetry until i had done my fable, but not without much argument. i sometimes overbore chérie’s will, but she more often got her way by saying: “tu as toujours voulu écrire avec un stylo avant de savoir écrire avec une plume.” i learnt a great many french poems by heart, and made sometimes startling use of the vocabulary. one day at luncheon i said to chérie before the assembled company: “chérie, comme ton front est nubile!” the word nubile having been applied by the poet, casimir de la vigne, to joan of arc.
the first french poem which really fired my imagination[21] was a passage from les enfants d’édouard, a play by the same poet, in which one of the little princes tells a dream, which margaret used to recite in bloodcurdling tones, and his brother, the duke of york, answers lyrically something about the sunset on the thames.[1] those lines fired my imagination as nothing else did. we once acted a scene from this play, margaret and i playing the two brothers, and susan the tearful and widowed queen and mother, and hugo as a beefeater, who had to bawl at the top of his voice: “reine, retirez-vous!” when the queen’s sobs became excessive, and indeed in susan’s rendering there was nothing wanting in the way of sobs, as she was a facile weeper, and margaret used to call her “madame la pluie.” indeed there was a legend in the schoolroom that the decline of louis xiv., king of france, moved her to tears, and being asked why she was crying, she sobbed out the words: “la vieillesse du grand woi.”
as far back as i remember we used to act plays in french. the first one performed in the back drawing-room in charles street was called comme on fait son lit on se couche, and i played some part in it which i afterwards almost regretted, as whenever a visitor came to luncheon i was asked to say a particular phrase out of it, and generally refused. this was not either from obstinacy or naughtiness; it was simply to spare my mother humiliation. i was sure grown-up people could not help thinking the performance inadequate and trifling. i was simply covered with prospective shame and wished to spare them the same feeling. one day, when a frenchman, monsieur de jaucourt, came to luncheon, i refused to say the sentence in question, in spite of the most tempting bribes, simply for that reason. i was hot with shame at thinking what monsieur de jaucourt—he a frenchman, too—would think of something so inadequate. and this shows how impossible it is for grown-up people to put themselves in children’s shoes and to divine their motives. if only children knew, it didn’t matter what they said!
another dramatic performance was a scene from victor hugo’s drama, angelo, in which margaret, dressed in a crimson[22] velvet cloak bordered with gold braid, declaimed a speech of angelo podesta of padua, about the council of ten at venice, while susan, dressed in pink satin and lace, sat silent and attentive, looking meek in the part of the venetian courtesan.
all this happened during early years in london.
mademoiselle ida used to enliven lessons with news from the outside world, discussions of books and concerts, and especially of other artists. one day when i was sitting at my slate with mrs. christie, she was discussing english spelling, and saying how difficult it was. mrs. christie rashly said that i could spell very well, upon which mademoiselle ida said to me, “you would spell ‘which’ double u i c h, wouldn’t you?” and i, anxious to oblige, said, “yes.” this was a bitter humiliation.
besides music lessons we had drawing lessons, first from a miss van sturmer. later we had lessons from mr. nathaniel green, a water-colourist, who taught us perspective. one year i drew the schoolroom clock, which mr. jump used to come to wind once a week, as a present for my mother on her birthday, the 18th of june.
sometimes i shared my mother’s lesson in water-colours. mr. green used to say he liked my washes, as they were warm. he used to put his brush in his mouth, which i considered dangerous, and he sometimes used a colour called antwerp blue, which i thought was a pity, as it was supposed to fade. i was passionately fond of drawing, and drew both indoors and out of doors on every possible opportunity, and constantly illustrated various episodes in our life, or books that were being read out at the time. i took an immense interest in my mother’s painting, especially in the colours: rubens madder, cyanine, aureoline, green oxide of chromium, transparent—all seemed to be magic names. the draughtsman of the family was elizabeth. none of my brothers drew. elizabeth used to paint a bust of clytie in oils, and sometimes she went as far as life-size portraits. besides this, she was an excellent caricaturist, and used to illustrate the main episodes of our family life in a little sketch-book.
lessons, on the whole, used to pass off peacefully. i don’t think we were ever naughty with mrs. christie, although elizabeth and margaret used often to rock with laughter at some private joke of their own during their lessons, but with chérie we were often naughty. the usual punishment was to[23] be privé de pudding. when the currant and raspberry tart came round at luncheon we used to refuse it, and my mother used to press it on us, not knowing that we had been privé. sometimes, too, we had to write out three tenses of the verb aimer, and on one occasion i refused to do it. it was a saturday afternoon; there was a treat impending, and i was told i would not be allowed to go unless i copied out the tenses, but i remained firm throughout luncheon. finally, at the end of luncheon i capitulated in a flood of tears and accepted the loan of my mother’s gold pencil-case and scribbled j’aime, tu aimes, il aime, etc., on a piece of writing-paper.
in the drawing-room we were not often naughty, but we were sometimes, and tried the grown-ups at moments beyond endurance. my mother said that she had had to whip us all except hugo. i was whipped three times. before the operation my mother always took off her rings.
upstairs, margaret and elizabeth used sometimes to fight, and susan would join in the fray, inspired by the impulse of the moment. she was liable to these sudden impulses, and on one occasion—she was very small—when she was looking on at a review of volunteers, when the guns suddenly fired, she stood up in the carriage and boxed everyone’s ears.
not long ago we found an old mark-book which belonged to this epoch of schoolroom life, and in it was the following entry in chérie’s handwriting: “elizabeth et marguerite se sont battues, suzanne s’est jetée sur le pauvre petit maurice.” whenever margaret saw that i was on the verge of tears she used to say that i made a special face, which meant i was getting ready to cry, and she called this la première position; when the corners of the mouth went down, and the first snuffle was heard, she called it la seconde position; and when tears actually came, it was la troisième position. nearly always the mention of la première position averted tears altogether.
on monday evenings in london my mother used to go regularly to the monday pops at st. james’s hall, and on saturday afternoon also. dinner was at seven on mondays, and we used to go down to it, and watch my mother cut up a leg of chicken and fill it with mustard and pepper and cayenne pepper to make a devil for supper. margaret was sometimes taken to the monday pop, as she was supposed to like it, but the others were seldom taken, in case, my mother used to say,[24] “you say when you are grown up that you were dragged to concerts, and get to dislike them.” the result was a feverish longing to go to the monday pop. i don’t remember going to the monday pop until i was grown up, but i know that i always wanted to go. i was taken to the saturday pop sometimes, and the first one i went to was on 8th november 1879. i was five years old. this was the programme:
quartet, e flat mendelssohn
mme norman neruda, ries, zerbini, piatti.
song “o swallow, swallow” piatti
mr. santley.
violoncello obbligato, signor piatti.
sonata, c sharp minor “moonlight” beethoven
mlle janotha.
sonata in f major for pianoforte and violin, no. 9 mozart
mlle janotha and mme norman neruda.
song “the erl king” schubert
mr. santley.
trio in c major haydn
mlle janotha, mme norman neruda, signor piatti.
every winter we were taken to the pantomime by lord antrim, and the pantomimes i remember seeing were mother goose, robinson crusoe, sinbad the sailor, aladdin, and cinderella, in which the funny parts were played by herbert campbell and harry nicholls, and the princess sometimes by the incomparably graceful dancer, kate vaughan.
i also remember the first gilbert and sullivan operas. pinafore i was too young for; but i saw the children’s pinafore, which was played by children. patience and iolanthe and princess ida i saw when they were first produced at the savoy.
irving and ellen terry we never saw till i went to school, as irving’s acting in shakespeare made my father angry. when he saw him play romeo, he was heard to mutter the whole time: “remove that man from the stage.”
then there were children’s parties. strangely enough, i only remember one of these, so i don’t expect i enjoyed them. but i remember a children’s garden party at marlborough house, and the exquisite beauty, the grace, and the fairy-tale-like welcome of the princess of wales.
[25]
two of the great days for the children in london were valentine’s day, on the eve of which we each of us sent the whole of the rest of the family valentines, cushioned and scented valentines with silken fringes; and the 1st of april, when susan was always made an april fool, the best one being one of chérie’s, who sent her to look in the schoolroom for les mémoires de jonas dans la baleine. she searched conscientiously, but in vain, for this interesting book.
on one occasion, on the prince of wales’ wedding-day, in march, the whole family were invited to a children’s ball at marlborough house. the girls’ frocks were a subject of daily discussion for weeks beforehand, and other governesses used to come and discuss the matter. they were white frocks, and when they were ready they were found to be a failure, for some reason, and they had to be made all over again at another dressmaker’s, called mrs. mason. it was on this occasion that chérie made a memorable utterance and said: “les pointes de madame mason sont incomparables,” as elizabeth had for the first time risen to the dignity of a pointe (the end of the pointed “bodies” of the fashions of that day). it was doubtful whether the new frocks would be ready in time. there was a momentous discussion as to whether they were to wear black stockings or not. finally the frocks arrived, and we were dressed and were all marshalled downstairs ready to start. my father in knee-breeches and myself in a black velvet suit, black velvet breeches, and a white waistcoat. i was told to be careful to remember to kiss the princess of wales’ hand.
i can just remember the ballroom, but none of the grown-up people—nothing, in fact, except a vague crowd of tulle skirts.
one night there was a ball, or rather a small dance, in charles street, and i was allowed to come down after going to bed all day. people shook their heads over this, and said i was being spoilt, to chérie, but chérie said: “cet enfant n’est pas gaté mais il se fait gater.”
the dance led off with a quadrille, in which i and my father both took part. after having carefully learnt the pas chassé at dancing lessons, i was rather shocked to find this elegant glide was not observed by the quadrille dancers.
all this was the delightful epoch of the ’eighties, when the shop windows were full of photographs of the professional beauties, and bands played tunes from the new gilbert and[26] sullivan in the early morning in the streets, and people rode in rotten row in the evening, and chérie used to rush us across the road to get a glimpse of mrs. langtry or the princess of wales.
dancing lessons played an important part in our lives. our first dancing instructor was the famous ex-ballerina, madame taglioni, a graceful old lady with grey curls, who held a class at lady granville’s house in carlton house terrace. it was there i had my first dancing lesson and learnt the tarantelle, a dance with a tambourine, which i have always found effective, if not useful, in later life. then madame taglioni’s class came to an end, and there was a class at lady ashburton’s at bath house, which was suddenly put a stop to owing to the rough and wild behaviour of the boys, myself among them. finally we had a class in our own house, supervised by a strict lady in black silk, who taught us the pas chassé, the five positions, the valse, the polka, and the lancers.
another event was mrs. christie’s lottery, which was held once a year at her house at kentish town. all her pupils came, and everyone won a prize in the lottery. one year i won a stuffed duck. after tea we acted charades. on the way back we used to pass several railway bridges, and chérie, producing a gold pencil, used to say: “par la vertu de ma petite baguette,” she would make a train pass. it was perhaps a rash boast, but it was always successful.
we used to drive to mrs. christie’s in a coach, an enormous carriage driven by maisy, the coachman, who wore a white wig. it was only used when the whole family had to be transported somewhere.
another incident of london life was mademoiselle ida’s pupils’ concert, which happened in the summer. i performed twice at it, i think, but never a solo. a duet with mademoiselle ida playing the bass, and whispering: “gare au dièse, gare au bémol,” in my ear. what we enjoyed most about this was waiting in what was called the artists’ room, and drinking raspberry vinegar.
but the crowning bliss of london life was hamilton gardens, where we used to meet other children and play flags in the summer evenings.
this was the scene of wild enjoyment, not untinged with romance, for there the future beauties of england were all at[27] play in their lovely teens. we were given tickets for concerts at the albert hall and elsewhere in the afternoon, but i remember that often when hugo and i were given the choice of going to a concert or playing in the nursery, we sometimes chose to play. but i do remember hearing patti sing “coming thro’ the rye” at the guildhall, and albani and santley on several occasions.
but what we enjoyed most of all was finding some broken and derelict toy, and inventing a special game for it. once in a cupboard in the back drawing-room i came across some old toys which had belonged to john and cecil, and must have been there for years. among other things there was an engine in perfectly good repair, with a little cone like the end of a cigar which you put inside the engine under the funnel. you then lit it and smoke came out, and the engine moved automatically. this seemed too miraculous for inquiry, and i still wonder how and why it happened. then the toy was unaccountably lost, and i never discovered the secret of this mysterious and wonderful engine.
during all this time there were two worlds of which one gradually became conscious: the inside world and the outside world. the centre of the inside world, like the sun to the solar system, was, of course, our father and mother (papa and mamma), the dispenser of everything, the source of all enjoyment, and the final court of appeal, recourse to which was often threatened in disputes.
next came chérie, then my mother’s maid, dimmock, then sheppy, the housekeeper, who had white grapes, cake, and other treats in the housekeeper’s room. she was a fervent salvationist and wore a salvationist bonnet, and when my father got violent and shouted out loud ejaculations, she used to coo softly in a deprecating tone.
then there was monsieur butat, the cook, who used to appear in white after breakfast when my father ordered dinner; deacon, his servant, was the source of all worldly wisdom and experience, and recommended brown billycock hats in preference to black ones, because they did not fade in the sea air; harriet, the housemaid, who used to bring a cup of tea in the early morning to my mother’s bedroom, and frank the footman. i can’t remember a butler in london, but i suppose there was one; but if it was the same one we had in the country, it was mr. watson.
[28]
dimmock, or d., as we used to call her, played a great part in my early life, because when i came up to london or went down to the country alone with my father and mother she used to have sole charge of me, and i slept in her room. one day, during one of these autumnal visits to london, i was given an umbrella with a skeleton’s head on it. this came back in dreams to me with terrific effect, and for several nights running i ran down from the top to the bottom of the house in terror. the umbrella was taken away. i used to love these visits to london when half the house was shut up, and there was no one there except my father and mother and d., and we used to live in the library downstairs. there used to be long and almost daily expeditions to shops because christmas was coming, as d. used to chant to me every morning, and the christmas-tree shopping had to be done. d. and i used to buy all the materials for the christmas-tree—the candles, the glass balls, and the fairy to stand at the top of it—in a shop in the edgware road called eagle. i used to have dinner in the housekeeper’s room with sheppy, and spent most of my time in d.’s working-room. one day she gave me a large piece of red plush, and i had something sewn round it, and called it red conscience. never did a present make me more happy; i treated it as something half sacred, like a mussulman’s mat.
on one occasion d. and i went to a matinée at st. james’s theatre to see a scrap of paper, played by mr. and mrs. kendal. this year i read the play (it was translated from sardou’s pattes de mouche) for the first time, and i found i could recollect every scene of the play, and mrs. kendal’s expression and intonation.
another time madame neruda, who was a great friend of my mother’s, whom we saw constantly, gave me two tickets for a ballad concert at which she was playing. the policeman was told to take me into the artists’ room during the interval. d. was to take me, but for some reason she thought the concert was in the evening, and it turned out to be in the afternoon; so as a compensation my father sent us to an operetta called falka, in which miss violet cameron sang. i enjoyed it more than any concert. the next day madame neruda came to luncheon and heard all about the misadventure. “and did you enjoy your operetta?” she asked. “yes,” i said, with enthusiasm. “say, not as much as you would have enjoyed[29] the ballad concert,” said my mother. but i didn’t feel so sure about that.
i used to do lessons with mrs. christie, and have music lessons from mademoiselle ida, and in the afternoon i often used to go out shopping in the carriage with my mother, or for a walk with d. but i will tell more about her later when i describe membland.
the girls had a maid who looked after them called rawlinson, and she and the nursery made up the rest of the inside world in london.
in the outside world the first person of importance i remember was grandmamma, my mother’s mother, lady elizabeth bulteel, who used to paint exquisite pictures for the children like the pictures on china, and play songs for us on the pianoforte. she often came to luncheon, and used to bring toys to be raffled for, and make us, at the end of luncheon, sing a song which ran:
“a pie sat on a pear tree,
and once so merrily hopped she,
and twice so merrily hopped she,
three times so merrily hopped she,”
each singer held a glass in his hand. when the song had got thus far, everyone drained their glass, and the person who finished first had to say the last line of the verse, which was:
“ya-he, ya-ho, ya-ho.”
and the person who said it first, won.
everything about grandmamma was soft and exquisite: her touch on the piano and her delicate manipulation of the painting-brush. she lived in green street, a house i remember as the perfection of comfort and cultivated dignity. there were amusing drawing-tables with tiles, pencils, painting-brushes; chintz chairs and books and music; a smell of potpourri and lavender water; miniatures in glass tables, pretty china, and finished water-colours.
in november 1880—this is one of the few dates i can place—we were in london, my father and mother and myself, and grandmamma was not well. she must have been over eighty, i think. every day i used to go to green street with my mother and spend the whole morning illuminating a text. i was told grandmamma was very ill, and had to take the nastiest[30] medicines, and was being so good about it. i was sometimes taken in to see her. one day i finished the text, and it was given to grandmamma. that evening when i was having my tea, my father and mother came into the dining-room and told me grandmamma was dead. the text i had finished was buried with her.
the next day at luncheon i asked my mother to sing “a pie sat on a pear tree,” as usual. it was the daily ritual of luncheon. she said she couldn’t do “hopped she,” as we called it, any longer now that grandmamma was not there.
another thing grandmamma had always done at luncheon was to break a thin water biscuit into two halves, so that one half looked like a crescent moon; and i said to my mother, “we shan’t be able to break biscuits like that any more.”