Fifty-One Years of Victorian Life

Warwickshire Hunt to drink my health. I fear that their kind wishes were so far of no avail that I never became a sportswoman, though I always lived amongst keen followers of the

the populace to attend this sporting carnival at my father's expense. He was a splendid man and a fearless rider while health and strength permitted-rather too fearless at times-and among the many applicants for his bo

and I believe he was as prompt in falling in love with her as she confessed to having been with him. An old relative who remembered their betrothal told me that she knew what was coming whe

tisfaction to the villagers, who were eagerly watching to see the bride out walking, by lifting his little wife in his arms and carrying her over a wet

ndfather died and we moved to Stoneleigh when I was far too young to remember any other home. In those days we drove by road from one house to the other, and on one occasion my father undertook to convey my cradle in h

heard plenty about it, but oddly enough one print that impressed me most was a French caricature which represented an Englishman distributing the prizes to an expectant throng with words to this effect: "Ladies and Gentlemen, some intrusive foreigners have come over to compete with our p

E OF WE

! no more) at Grosvenor House. I do not remember the incident, but he was the Hero in those days, and I was told it so often

alive. As almost all these uncles and aunts married and most of them had large families, it will be readily believed that we did not lack cousins, and the long Gallery was a splendid gathering-place for the ramifications of the Grosvenor side of our family. Apart from the imposing pictures, it was full

even in those days. Sir George Higginson once told me that when boxes of miscellaneous gifts arrived it was the custom to hold an auction. On one occasion among the conten

ration I suppose follow wars by their toys. Despite the comradeship of English and French in the Crimea, I do not believe that we ever quite ceased to r

before that, however, when we were only three children, Gilbert, the brother next to me, a baby sister Agnes, and myself, our adventurous parents took us to the South of France. I was four years old a

NG IN TH

ns, until we reached Mentone, where we spent some time, and I subsequently learnt that we were then the only English in the place. I think that my parents were very brave to take about such young children, but I suppose the experiment answered p

th his hands, wiping them between each sale on the animal's fur. At Rome she told me how she and one of her sisters, girls of some twelve and thirteen years old, used to wander out alone into the Campagna in the early morning, which seems very strange in view of the stories of restraint placed upon children in bygone days. As to my grandfather Leigh, I believe he travelled with his family for about two years, to Switzerland, France

ERN

born in Russia, and with the unconscious cruelty of children taunted her on this account. Anyhow her stay was short, and she was succeeded about a year later by an Englishwoman, Miss Custarde, who kept us in very good order and stayed t

al sins which prevented her from kissing me or showing me affection-an ostracism which generally resulted in violent fits of penitence. She had more than one admirer before she ended by marrying a schoolmaster, with whom she used to take long walks in the holidays. One peculiarity was that she would give me sketches of admirers and get me to write long stories embodying their imaginary adventures. I suppose these were shown as great jokes to the heroes and their friends. Of course she did not think I knew the "inwardness" of her various friendships, equally of course as time went on I understood them perfectly. Miss Custarde is not the only governess I have known who acquired extraordinary influence over her pupils. In Marcel Prevost's novel Anges Gardiens, which represents the dangers to French families of engaging foreign governesses, he ma

dancy. With one her relations were so strained that the two ladies had their suppers at different tables in the schoolroom, and when the Frenchwoman wanted the salt she rang the bell for the schoolroom-maid to bring it fro

t only in her wisdom but in her ability was unlimited. I remember being regarded as almost a heretic by the younger ones because I ventured to doubt whether she could make a watch. Vainly did I hedge by asserting that I was certain that if she had learnt she could make the most beautiful watch in the world-I had infringed the first article of family faith by thinking that there was anything which she could not do by the uninstructed light of nature. She was a good musician, and a r

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mother's cousin the Duke of Norfolk in the days when the girls of the family were Protestants though the boys were Roman Catholics. When the Duchess (daughter of Lord Lyons) went over to the Roman Church the Protestant nurse's position became untenable, as the daughters had to follow their mother. She told us that this was a g

she stayed a hundred years I should not love her as I had done "Brownie." "And if I stay a hundred years," was the repartee, "I shall not love you as I did the little boy I have just left"-so we started

e had read and of which she changed the names and condensed the incidents in a most ingenious manner. On Sunday evenings Pilgrim's Progress in her own words was substituted for the novels. Miss Cust

om an old recipe. Few people can have made mead in this generation-it was like very strong rather sweet beer. We all loved "Walley"-but she failed us on one occasion. Someone said that she had had an uncle who had fought at Waterloo, so we rushed to her roo

TORIA AT

he Bracebridge family and had been secured for the recreation of the people of Birmingham. Naturally there was great excitement at the prospect. For months beforehand workmen were employed in the renovation and redecorat

I. To put everything in order was no light task. The rooms for the Queen and Prince Consort were enclosed on one side of the corridor leading to them by a temporary wall, and curtained off where the corridor led to the main staircase. In addition to every other preparation, the outline of the gateway, the main front of the house, and some of the ornamental flower-beds were traced out with little lamps-I think there were 22,000-which were lighted at night with truly fairy-like effect. By that tim

red up with its escort of Yeomanry. My father had, of course, met Her Majesty at the station. The Queen was more than gracious and at once won the hearts of the children-but we did not equally appreciate the Prince Consort. Ass

naturally became very critical of the "grown-up" salutations, particularly when one nervous lady on passing the royal presence tossed her head back into the air by way of reverence. I think the same night my father escorted the Queen into the garden in front of the hou

e curtsy, though we unkindly asserted that it was behind the Queen's back, but the baby boys were overcome by

INCE C

es. We rushed forward to be in time to see the performance, but he sternly swept us from the royal path. No doubt he was justifie

cultivated long ringlets on either side of her face. She once confided to me that as a child she had had beautiful curls, and that, living near Kensington Palace, they had on one occasion been cut off to make "riding curls" for Princess (afterw

cousins at tea-parties and visited them in return. We were generally taken in the autumn to some seaside place such as Brighton, Hastings, Rhyl, or the Isle of Wight. We estimated

ROW E

1860 and 1861. The railroad did not extend nearly so far as at present and the big travelling-carriage again came into play. One day it had with considerable risk to be conveyed over four ferries and ultimately to be driven along a mountainous road after dark. As far as I remember we had postilions-certainly the charioteer or charioteers had had as much whisky as was good for them, with the result that the back wheels of the heavy carriage went right over the edge of a precipice. The servants seated behind the carriage gave themselves over for lost-we children were half-asleep inside and unconscious of our peril, when the horses made a desperate bound forward and dragg

mountains and

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dren were our favourite cousins on the Grosvenor side, and we loved our many visits to Ardgowan both when we went to the moors and in after years. There were excursions on the hills and bathing in the salt-water of the Clyde, fi

o my mother, but we regarded our aunts as additional playfellows bound to provide us with some kind of amusement. The favourite was certainly "Aunt Georgy," the youngest daughter but one. She had an unfailing flow of spirits, could tell stories and join in games, and never objected to our invasion of her room at any time. Poor "Aunt Gussie" (Augusta) was less fortunate: she had bad health and would scold us to make us affectionate-an unsuccessful method to say the least of it-the natural result was, I fear, that we teased her whenever

T STON

st cheerful of companions, loving to take us about to any kind of sights or entertainments which offered, and buying us toys and presents on every possible occasion. The only constraint put upon us, which is not often used with the modern child, concerned religious observance. We had to come in to daily Prayers at 10 o'clock even if it interfered with working in our gardens or other out-door amusement-and church twice on Sundays was the invariable rule as soon as we were old enough to walk to the neighbouring villages of Stoneleigh and Ashow, or to attend the ministrations of the chaplain who generally officiated once each Sunday in the chapel in the house. We had to learn some "Scripture lesson" every day and two

LEIGH

S AND

ar of Stoneleigh still preaching in the black silk Geneva gown. At Ashow-the other church whose services we attended-the Rector when I was small was an old Charles Twisleton, a cousin of my father's. He, however, had discarded the black gown long before my day. My father told me that when the new Oxford School first took to preaching in surplices Mr. Twisleton adopted this fashion. Thereupon the astonished fa

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father or of which the livings were in his gift, but they had no idea of giving their consciences into ecclesiastical keeping. In fact my grandmother Westminster o

rk. This was exactly opposite our large "Squire's Pew" across the aisle. There had from time immemorial been a Village Harvest Home with secular rejoicings, but at last there came the great innovation of service with special decoration and appropriate Psalms and Lessons in church.

clerk-old Job Jeacock-and when the first "special" was given out he utterly failed to find it. The congregation waited while he des

was always a Christmas Tree one evening laden with toys and sweetmeats. Among other Christmas customs there was the bullet-pudding-a little hill of flour with a bullet on the top. Each person in turn cut a slice of the pudding with his knife, and when the bullet ultimately fell into the flour whoever let it down had to get it out again with his mouth. Snap-dragon was also a great institution. The raisins had t

ATR

with family and household for audience in which we performed was Bluebeard, written in verse by my mother, in which I was Fatima. After that we had many performances-sometimes

well known as Father Adderley, was particularly fond of dressing up-he was a well-known actor-and I am not sure that he did not carry his histrionic tastes into the Church of which he was a greatly esteemed prop. Another numerous family of cousins were the children of my father's fifth sister, married to the Rev. Henry Cholmondeley-a son of Lord Delamere-who held the living of my father's other place-Adlestrop. Uncle Cholmondeley was clever and devoted enough to teach all his five sons himse

dren, of whom twelve were alive to attend her funeral when she died at the age of ninety. So I reckoned at one time

enever opportunity served and enough nephews and nieces were ready to perform he wrote for us what he called "Businesses"-variety entertainments to follow our little plays-in which we appeared in a