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DEAR TOBY,--It was in my mind to write to you some days ago, but I have
had my time much occupied with a subject of domestic interest. In fact,
I have just been laying the carpet presented to me by our
fellow-citizens of the ancient and important community of Kidderminster.
The carpet, regarded individually, is a desirable and an acceptable
thing. It is, as you have observed in the newspaper reports, woven of
the wool known to the trade as the Queen's Clip. In colour it is a rich
damson, and in quality Wilton. Apart from its suitability and
acceptability, we here see in it the beginning of what I confess we
should be inclined to regard as a pleasing habit on the part of our
fellow-countrymen. As you are aware, my wife and myself have for some
years been the recipients of gifts consisting of what a well-known
person of the name of _Wemmick_ was accustomed to call, articles of
portable property. Our journeys to Scotland were always marked by the
presentation of gifts that even became embarrassing by reason of their
quantity and variety. We have quite a stock of Paisley shawls. Dundee
marmalade is a drug in our domestic market. Plaids, snuff-boxes,
walking-sticks, and, above all, axes I have in abundance. Through the
medium of an interesting periodical, of which you may have heard--(it is
known as _Exchange and Mart_)--we have managed to average our
possessions, a process not entirely free from adventure. In one instance
an unscrupulous individual, probably a member of the Primrose League,
succeeded in obtaining a two-dozen case of marmalade and a Scotch plaid
presented by the working-men of Glasgow, in promise, yet unfulfilled, of
delivery of a bicycle warranted new. I have rather a hankering after
trying a bicycle. LOWE gave his up with the ultimate remainder of his
Liberal principles. But in old times I have heard him speak with
enthusiasm of the exercise. When I noticed this person advertising in
_Exchange and Mart_ his desire of bartering his bicycle, we entered upon
the negotiation which has ended so unfortunately. He has our Paisley
plaid and Dundee marmalade, and we have not his bicycle.
This, however, by the way. What I had at heart to write to you about,
suggested by the Kidderminster carpet, is the new opening here offered
for manifestations of political sympathy at a serious political crisis.
We are, to tell the truth, towards the close of a long career, a little
overburdened with articles of portable property of the kind already
indicated. But our residence is large, and, if I may say so, receptive.
Carpets, though a not unimportant feature in the furnishing of a house,
do not contain within themselves the full catalogue of a furnishing
establishment.
If Kidderminster has its carpets, there are other localities throughout
the Kingdom which have their tables and chairs, their bed-room
furniture, their curtains, their brass stair-rods, and their
gas-fittings. History will, I believe, look with indulgent eye upon an
ex-Premier, the Counsellor of Kings, the leader of a great Party,
assisting at the hauling in and laying down of an eleemosynary carpet,
the wool of which is made from Queen's Clip, has a rich damson colour,
and is of Wilton quality. Why should I not give a back to an arm-chair
presented by an admiring Liberal Association? or walk upstairs with a
bolster under either arm, token of the esteem and admiration of the West
of England Home Rulers?
I throw out these thoughts to you, dear TOBY, as I sit in my study and
survey the carpet of Wilton quality, which covers the floor. As you will
have seen in the newspaper reports, "on entering the room where the
carpet was displayed the Right Honourable Gentleman remarked that it had
a quiet tone, which was so pleasant to the eye; adding that it was a
great mistake, (which used to be committed about fifty years ago) when
carpets were made with staring patterns." It is, I need hardly say, the
growth of Liberal principles which has effected this change in the
public taste for carpets. Whether indeed, suppose we were in need of a
battle-cry, "Our Quiet Tones and Our Liberal Principles," would not
serve as opposed to "Toryism and Staring Patterns," I am not certain.
These things we must leave to the evolution of time. Meanwhile I will
not deny in the confidence of a friendly letter that we could very well
do with a sofa, the tone and construction of which should, of course,
match the carpet from Kidderminster. If you are attending any public
meeting and you find the popular indignation against the Government of
Lord SALISBURY rising to an ungovernable pitch, you might gently and
discreetly guide it in this direction.
Always yours faithfully,
_H-w-rd-n C-stle._ W. E. GL-DST-NE.
P.S.--A mangle and a garden-roller might later, and in due order, occupy
your kindly thought.
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