Now I will tell you a little--it can be but a little--about life in the
"great houses," as they are called here. When you are asked to come to
one, a train is suggested, and you are told that a carriage will be at the
station to meet you. Somehow the footman manages to find you out. At ----
which is a little station at which few people get out, I had hardly left
the train when a very respectable-looking person, not a footman, stept up
to me and said, "Lord ----'s carriage is waiting for you, sir." The
carriage and the footman and coachman were, of course, on the other side
of the building. My drive from the station to ---- took quite as long a
time as it took me to come down by rail from London, altho we went at a
grand trot. The country was beautiful, stretching off on both sides in
broad fields and meadows, darkened in lines by hedges, and in spots by
clumps of trees. The roads were very narrow--they seemed rather like
lanes--and this effect was increased by the high walls and hedges on
either side. Two carriages had hardly room to pass in some places, with
careful driving. Being in Lord ----'s well-known carriage, I was quite in
state, and the country folk, most of them, bowed to me as I went on; and
of course I followed the apostolic injunction, and condescended unto men
of low estate.
And, by the way, yesterday afternoon (for a day has passed since I began
this letter, and I am now at ----) Lady ---- drove me through their park
and off to ----, the dowager Lady ----'s jointure house, and I had the
honor of acknowledging for her all the numerous bobs and ducks she
received from the tenants and their children. So, you see, I shall be in
good training when I come into my estate. When and where I entered the
park, either here or at ----, I could not exactly make out. There were
gates and gates, and the private grounds seemed to shade off gradually
into the public. I know that the park extended far beyond the lodge. The
house at ---- is very ugly. It was built by Inigo Jones, and, never
handsome, was altogether spoiled by tasteless alterations in the last
century. The ugliness of English country houses built at that time is
quite inexpressible.
I ought to have said that the ----s are in mourning;... and it was very
kind of them to invite me. I was met at the door by a dignified personage
in black, who asked me if I would go up to Lady ----'s room. She welcomed
me warmly, said that Lord ---- had been called away for a few hours, and
offered me tea from a tiny table at her side. And, by the way, you are
usually asked to come at a time which brings you to five-o'clock tea. This
gives you an opportunity to rub off the rough edge of strangeness, before
you dress for dinner. Lady ----'s own room was large and hung with
tapestry, and yet it was cosy and homelike. The hall is large and square,
and the walls are covered with old arms. The staircase is good, but not so
grand as others that I have seen; that at ----, for instance, where there
was an oriel window on the first landing. This one has no landing; it is
of polished oak, but is carpeted.
Lady ---- is a very attractive and elegant woman, sensible, sensitive, and
with a soft, gentle way of speech and action, which is all the more
charming, as she is tall. Her tea was good. She talked well, and we got on
together very satisfactorily. Presently a nurse brought in her two little
daughters. I thought she must have approved of her savage Yankee guest;
for she encouraged them to come to me and sit upon my knees; and all
mothers are shy about that. Soon in popped Lord ----, and gave me the
heartiest welcome that I have received since I have been in England. He
has altered somewhat since he was in New York; is grown a little stouter,
and a very little graver, but is just the same frank, simple fellow as
when you saw him. About seven o'clock I was asked if I would like to go up
to my room. He went with me,--an attention which I found general; and
"directly he had left me," according to the phrase here, a very
fine-mannered person, in a dress coat and a white tie, appeared, and asked
me for my keys.
I apprehended the situation at once, and submitted to his ministrations.
He did everything for me except actually to wash my face and hands and put
on my clothes. He laid everything that I could need, opened and laid out
my dressing-case, and actually turned my stocking's. Dinner at eight. I
take in Lady ----. Butler, a very solemn personage, but not stout nor
red-faced. I have seen no stout, red-faced butler since I have been in
England. Dining room large and handsome. Some good portraits. Gas in
globes at the walls; candles on the table. Dinner very good, of course.
Menu written in pencil on a porcelain card, with the formula in gilt and a
coronet. Indeed, the very cans that came up to my bedroom with hot water
were marked with coronet and cipher. I was inclined to scoff at this, at
first, as ostentatious; but after all, as the things were to be marked,
how could it be done better?
After dinner, a very pleasant chat in the drawing-room until about eleven
o'clock, when Lord ---- sent Lady ---- to bed. She shakes hands on bidding
me good-night, and asks if half-past nine o'clock is too early for
breakfast for me. I was tempted to say that it was, and to ask if it
couldn't be postponed till ten; but I didn't. The drawing-room, by the
way, altho it was handsome and cheerful, was far inferior in its show to a
thousand that might be found in New York, many of which, too, are quite
equal to it in comfort and in tasteful adornment. Lord ---- and I sit up
awhile and chat about old times and the shooting on Long Island, and when
I go to my room I find that, altho I am to stay but two days, my trunk has
been unpacked and all my clothes put into the wardrobe and the drawers,
and most carefully arranged, as if I were going to stay a month. My
morning dress has been taken away.
In the morning the same servant comes, opens my window, draws my bed
curtain, prepares my bath, turns my stockings, and in fact does everything
but actually bathe and dress me, and all with a very pleasant and cheerful
attentiveness. At a quarter past nine the gong rings for prayers. These
are generally read by the master of the household in the dining-room, with
the breakfast table laid; but here in a morning-room. After breakfast you
are left very much to yourself. Business and household affairs are looked
after by your host and hostess; and you go where you please and do what
you like.
On Sunday I of course went to church with the family: a charming old
church; tower of the time of Edward III.; some fine old monuments. We
merely walked through the park a distance of about the width of Washington
Square, passed through a little door in the park wall, and there was the
church just opposite. It was Harvest Thanksgiving day, a festival recently
introduced in England, in imitation of that which has come down to us from
our Puritan forefathers. There was a special service; and the church was
very prettily drest with oats, flowers, grass, and grapes, the last being
substituted for hops, as it was too late for them. The offerings were for
the Bulgarians; for everything now in England is tinged with the hue of
"Turkish horrors."
After service Lord ---- took me to the chantry, where the tombs of the
family are. It was to show me a famous statue, that of a Lady ---- and her
baby, at the birth of which she died, it dying soon, too. The statue is
very beautiful, and is the most purely and sweetly pathetic work in
sculpture that I ever saw. It had a special interest for me because I
remembered reading about it in my boyhood; but I had forgotten the name of
the subject, and I had no thought of finding it here in a little country
church.