_Mary_. Do tell us something more, Mamma, about the Great Rebellion
and how it began.
_Mrs. M_. Well, my dear, you must know that in the previous reign it
had been the fashion for middle-aged and elderly people to behave
and dress as if they were still juvenile. Mothers neglected their
daughters and went to balls and theatres every night, where they were
conspicuous for their extravagant attire and strange conversation.
They would not allow their daughters to smoke, or, if they did,
provided them with the cheapest cigarettes. Fathers of even advanced
years wore knickerbocker suits on all occasions and spent most of
their time playing a game called golf. This at last provoked a violent
reaction, and the Great Rebellion was the consequence. Although there
was no bloodshed many distressing scenes were enacted and something
like a Reign of Terror prevailed for several years.
_Richard_. Oh, Mamma, please go on!
_Mrs. M_. Parents trembled at the sight of their children, and
fathers, even when they were sixty years old, stood bareheaded before
their sons and did not dare to speak without permission. Mothers never
sat down in the presence of their grown-up daughters, but stood in
respectful silence at the further end of the room, and were only
allowed to smoke in the kitchen.
_George_. That cannot have been very good for the cooking.
_Mrs. M_. The daughters of the family were seldom educated at home,
and when they returned to their father's roof their parents were only
admitted into the presence of their children during short and stated
periods.
_Mary_. And when did the English begin to grow kinder to their
parents?
_Mrs. M_. I really cannot say. Perhaps a climax was reached in the
Baby Suffrage Act; but after that matters began to improve, and the
Married Persons Amusements Act showed a more tolerant spirit towards
the elderly. But even so lately as when my mother was a child young
people were often exceedingly harsh with their parents, and she has
told me how on one occasion she locked up her mother for several hours
in the coal-cellar for playing a mouth-organ in the bathroom without
permission.
_Richard._ Pray, Mamma, did the English speak Irish then, as they do
now?
_Mrs. M_. Compulsory Irish was introduced under ALFRED as a concession
to Ireland for the services rendered by that kingdom to art and
literature and the neutrality which it observed during England's wars.
There was a certain amount of opposition, but it was soon overcome
by ALFRED'S wisely insisting on the newspapers being printed in both
languages. Since then the variations in dialect and pronunciation
which prevailed in different districts of England have largely
disappeared, and from Land's End to John o' Groat's the bilingual
system is now securely established, though my mother told me that as a
child she once met an old man in Northumberland who could only speak a
few words of Irish, and had been deprived of his vote in consequence.
_Richard_. What were the Thirty-Nine Articles? I don't think I ever
heard of them before.
_Mrs. M_. When you are of a proper age to understand them they shall
be explained to you. They contained the doctrines of the Church of
England, but were abolished by Archbishop WELLS, who substituted
seventy-eight of his own. But as Mary is looking tired I will now
conclude our conversation.
* * * * *