CARRINGTON MEWS,
SHEPHERD MARKET,
_19th December._
My Dear Agatha,--I am sorry you accuse me of levity. It wasn't in human
nature to resist the unique opportunity for mischief provided by the
meeting between Katherine and Mrs. D. I followed it up with lunch in
Curzon Street, during which I discovered in myself a quite new and
marked talent for fiction. I won't say more out of consideration for
your scruples, but I may mention it's a long while since I had such an
excellent lunch. It must be many days, too, since Katherine was provided
with so surprising a succession of thrills in the course of an hour and
a half.
[Illustration: THE FOUNDLING HOSPITAL.]
This Sunday morning Mrs. D. and I have been to service at the Foundling
Hospital, a place I have never before visited, although I have often, in
passing, looked inquisitively through the iron railings at the immense
block of buildings at the top of Great Coram Street.
Hogarth has painted the portrait of Thomas Coram, the old sailor who
endowed the hospital, and the picture hangs in the gallery there. A
kindly gentleman he looks, with ruddy smiling face which may well be the
index of a heart large enough to hold the big family he fathers.
That family sits in the galleries of the church on each side of the
organ, the girls in their white caps and aprons to the right, to the
left the boys in their funny uniform of brown cloth, with red waistcoats
and twinkling brass buttons. "Love children!" It always seems to me, by
the way, that the term is an aspersion against the institution of
marriage. Why can't _all_ children be "love children"?
It is a touching sight, and Mrs. D., who is very soft-hearted, was
visibly affected. The cherubic face of the smallest of the children
certainly finds out the chink in the armour of even an old bachelor like
myself. Mrs. D. said the boys looked like robin redbreasts in their
cut-away coats and red waistcoats, and there certainly is something of
the perkiness of that bird in the little round heads above the white
collars and black bows. I noticed that Mrs. D.'s attention was focussed
on the boys. The poor old lady lost two sons in the war, and I expect
she was seeing them again as small boys in some of those youngsters in
the red waistcoats. For myself, it was the girls who distracted my
attention from prayers and psalms. Those small maidens with their
burnished hair under the white caps, their rosy faces and primly clasped
hands! How well drilled they were, and how well behaved! No fidgeting or
giggling, not even any wandering glances in _my_ direction. One's eyes
travelled along the tiers of faces and figures, noting the variety of
types. No two children wore their uniform in quite the same way. The cap
and apron on some seemed a badge of servitude, on others the prettiest
of adornments, suggestive of musical comedy.
Those same aprons play a quaint part in the ritual of the service when,
during prayers, the children raise the aprons and hide their small
countenances behind them. The demure gesture has a savour of bygone
times, and is no doubt as old as the institution.
As we left our seat in the gallery we met, face to face, the brown-clad
boys clattering down the stairs opposite. They all wore trousers, big
and little, and one of the smallest of them took a joyous slide over the
tiled pavement of the ambulatory. No doubt he was glad to be out of
church, and was looking forward to his dinner. We shared his pleasant
anticipations. It was the prospect of seeing him and his companions feed
which had brought Mrs. D. and myself to the hospital that morning, and
the sight well rewarded us for the journey.
The rooms are long, having a gallery-like effect, with rows of windows
on one side, and everywhere is cleanliness and light and space. There
was an appetising smell of potatoes baked in their jackets, and cold
roast mutton, and down the long tables were placed at intervals a knife
and fork, a mug, a piece of bread and a cake. The girls came trooping in
and stood each by her place behind the forms, then at a given signal
they stepped over the forms and stood to sing grace. At another signal
they seated themselves, and the nurses who were serving placed portions
of meat and potatoes on plates, which were handed from one to another
down the long length of the narrow tables.
The children seemed quite unconscious of the spectators who had come to
stare at them whilst they ate their Sunday dinner, and as one watched
their contented faces and unconcerned manners one felt that, no matter
what tragedies had accompanied their advent into a world of dark
problems, _here_, at least, there was no tragedy.
"An' to think," said Mrs. D., as we followed the attendant upstairs to
inspect the dormitories, "to think that there might 'ave bin some of the
_mothers_ in that very church this mornin'."
"_And_ fathers," I reminded her.
"I _don't think_," answered the old lady. "A father out er wedlock's a
very different thing to a mother out er wedlock. Nature never took much
account er the _fathers_. _They_ ony got a walkin'-on part, and some of
them's precious quick at _walkin' orf_ when it's a case er payin' the
piper."
The long, long rows of little white-counterpaned beds in the dormitories
were an eloquent comment on the old lady's indictment of my sex, and I
am glad it was a _man_ who thought of making a home for the babies. If
Thomas Coram's ghost walks, it must sometimes pay a visit to the little
sleepers who have no mothers to tuck them up. Those long dormitories,
too, must often be haunted at nights by ghosts of the living women, who,
in their dreams, look for _one_ round face on its pillow--the one who is
_theirs_. To visit them in the flesh is not allowed. The surrender of
the babies is complete, no alternative being compatible with the working
of the scheme which is to save the child and at the same time to hide
the mother's shame.
One hears stories of callous behaviour on the part of some of the
mothers. But such cases are rare, I should think, and that long pathway
leading from the hospital to the iron gates must have been a _via
dolorosa_ to many a woman who trod it on her way back home with empty
arms.
No child is received after the age of twelve months, and they are put
out to nurse in country homes until the age of five, when they are
returned to the hospital. Would a woman who had parted from her child of
a year old know it again at five? Did such women ever go to that
prosaic-looking church and search the rows of small faces for the one
which belonged to her by rights of the flesh? If she did she must,
anyhow, have found comfort in the sight of that happy-looking crowd of
youngsters.
Mrs. Darling asked me if I thought the children ever found their parents
when, at the age of fifteen and sixteen, they left the hospital? It was
a question which opened up all sorts of possibilities and situations.
There must be mothers who had died, mothers who, in the course of years,
had become reconciled to the loss of their children, but what of those
who had _not_ forgotten or died?
In one of the yearly reports which I saw there is mention of _one_ child
only restored to its mother. I believe instances of this kind are rare,
very searching inquiry being made by the governors before they consent
to such an application. As a rule, once the institution takes the
children they belong to it practically for life. It does not wash its
hands of them when it sends them out to service or apprenticeship, but
gives them substantial assistance (when needed, and as far as the means
of the Institution permit) to the day of their death.
The situation of these children is not only pathetic but strange in the
entire isolation from the ordinary ties and obligations of humanity. No
going home for holidays, no parcels from fond parents, no one particular
person to whom the small boy or girl _belongs_. They do not miss these
things because they have never known them, and, at least, they are not
burdened with objectionable or tiresome relatives. There must, though,
be moments when they feel lonely: moments when they could sympathise
with the little drudge I once saw in a play who wrote letters to
herself, and put a crape band on her arm for the death of a supposed
relative.
The picture gallery, with its polished floor, its great expanse of
Turkey carpet, its richly carved plaster ceiling, is a room in which to
spend a winter afternoon with a book, watching the light fade through
the row of long windows, and finding fresh horrors in Rafaelle's "Murder
of the Innocents," an enormous cartoon which covers nearly the whole of
the wall at one end. The apartment is the Court Room as well as the
picture gallery, and it must have been the Calvary of many a woman who
parts from her child within its walls.
The "tokens," used as a means of identification in those days when
children were received indiscriminately in a basket hung at the gate of
the hospital, have a dumb eloquence. In a glass case before the windows
are the old coins, pieces of ribbon worked in beads, metal hearts,
crosses, and buttons which were attached to the persons of the children
when they were left behind. On a mother of pearl shield, dated 1757, I
noticed inscribed, "James, son of James Concannon, gent.," the "gent."
being scratched in as an afterthought apparently.
Those two Jameses have long ago passed away, but human nature is the
same, and there are still such James the firsts to father such James the
seconds. Probably many of the children we had been watching in the
chapel could write "gent." after their father's name. "Breed _will_
out," said Mrs. D., and one could see it in the faces and figures of
some of the small boys and girls.
There is an autograph of Queen Elizabeth in one of the cases, and if
character can be read by handwriting, this autograph should offer a
lifelong study. Mrs. D., who is interested in Elizabeth since she saw
her wax effigy, said, "No one but a queen could have the cheek to sign
her name _like that_!" The signature certainly has a regal significance
in its largeness and maze-like convolutions. The ink is faded and
brown, the flourishes have the shakiness of age. One would give a great
deal for an intimate knowledge of the occasion on which it was written.
The Earl of Leicester's autograph is close by, and it bears a marked
resemblance to Elizabeth's. Did he model it on that of his royal
mistress? Did Elizabeth love Leicester? and if she did, was it with a
tragic unconsciousness of his self-seeking? A woman as clever as
Elizabeth can lose her head and be strangely blind in matters of sex;
also, Elizabeth was vain. But no--I don't think Elizabeth was blind. On
the contrary, it was her clear-sightedness which prevented her marriage
with the man who appealed to the natural instincts of her sex. She was
woman enough to like to love and be loved, but shrewd enough to know
where to stop.
Outside the birds were singing, and the light falling through the long
rows of windows had in it something of the quality of spring. I should
have liked to linger in the old rooms for a while--the Stone Hall, the
Picture Gallery, and the Secretary's Room--all of which have treasures
demanding a great deal more than a cursory glance. One has to _live_
with such things to appreciate them, and these passing glimpses seem to
me in the nature of an insult. There is, behind those glimpses, a
haunted atmosphere made up of the echoes of laughter long since
silenced, of words spoken, and dreams dreamed, and to breathe it is to
capture romance. True, it is only a mirage, but actually to set foot in
a mirage and stay there awhile is an achievement for which to thank the
gods.
* * * * *
It occurred to me after lunch that, instead of sitting over the fire
with a novel I would go to the National Portrait Gallery. Sir Walter
Scott says that portraits of our ancestors enable us "to compare their
persons and countenances with their sentiments and actions," and I
wanted to see if the Earl of Leicester's countenance fitted the story of
his relations with Elizabeth, whether Nell Gwynne was as attractive as I
had been told, if Pepys resembled the bust on his tomb, also to renew
acquaintance with dear old Sir Thomas More and some other of those
"ancestors" whose haunts I had lately been exploring.
Mrs. Darling excused herself. No power on earth will on a Sunday
afternoon draw her from the fireside, where she can, in comfort, study
humanity through the pages of "The News of the World".
A visit to the National Portrait Gallery isn't exactly a restful
experience. Those long rows of faces, each making its appeal for
understanding, have an exhausting effect after a time. They promise so
much to Paul Pry, then baffle him with their underlying secretiveness.
Sunday afternoon is not the best time to go. Early on a week-day morning
is better, when the gallery is almost deserted, and in the silence you
can hear the traffic in the street outside, and the echoes of an
attendant's voice in some far room where he gossips to a companion. The
rows upon rows of faces staring patiently from its walls give a
curiously crowded sense to its emptiness, and one pictures them at
closing time when the last visitor has gone, and the attendant has
switched off the lights. I think I should give the Duke of Monmouth,
painted after his execution, a wide berth _then_. There are others, too,
who would not be cheerful companions--some of those waxen mediaeval
countenances would glimmer unpleasantly in the dusk, and one would be
conscious of a stirring amongst the gathering of kings and queens, poets
and statesmen, courtesans and cardinals, at the approach of night.
I found Leicester, next to Elizabeth--a haughty-looking gentleman
in his high collar and ruff. I don't like his eyes. They aren't
trustworthy--but perhaps that is because I _know_. Anyhow, he has an air
which would win favour with women, and he played a big part in the life
of his queen from her girlhood's days until his death. There have been
sinister stories told about Leicester. Ben Jonson said the Earl gave
his wife "a bottle of liquor which he willed her to use in any
faintness, which she, not knowing it was poison, gave him, and so he
died". According to the gossip of the times, the Queen's favourite seems
to have been accounted a veritable Bluebeard. Well, the secrets of his
life were buried with him three hundred years ago and more, and no
matter how deep we dig, we shall never discover them.
I found Pepys, and he looks much more _material_ in paint than he does
in stone. There is, though, an expression of childlike speculation in
the eyes, and there one finds Samuel of the Diary. Bunyan hangs next to
him, a humorous looking old chap, a man one could trust. The same can be
said of Sir Thomas More, with his gentle, clean-cut face, and his kind,
intellectual brown eyes.
Nell Gwynne is neighbour to her Charles. She is pert, with a look of the
gamin about her as she points a derisive finger in direction of her
royal lover. By the by, I didn't know Whitfield squinted! There is a
quaint picture of him preaching to an audience of four, and an admiring
female in the front row is making a vain effort to catch his eye.
What a mixed company it is! and how do they pair off at nights when, in
the darkness and echoing silence of the long galleries, they step out
of their frames? Pepys might hob-nob with Bunyan very easily, Sir Thomas
More with Hannah More, and Charlotte Bronte with Dr. Johnson, but how
about Nell Gwynne with Charles's lawful consort. How about "Bloody Queen
Mary" with old John Foxe and Elizabeth with Mary Queen of Scots?
Meanwhile Horace Walpole would be quizzing the lot of them (I know it by
the bright busy-body expression in his eyes), and writing letters to
Madame du Deffand to tell her all about it. I have always been curious
about his friendship with the infatuated old Frenchwoman of sixty-nine,
and very disgusted with Walpole for causing his correspondence with her
to be destroyed. By the way, Madame du Deffand was blind. I wonder who
had the privilege of reading Horace's letters to her?
I left the gallery pondering the odd situation, and was met by Mrs. D.
on my return with the announcement that she had got crumpets for
tea--would I like some? I said I would; moreover, I suggested that I
should eat them in her company and have a cup of tea out of her tea-pot.
I told her about Horace Walpole and Madame du Deffand as we sat over the
fire drinking our tea, and she remarked that there were "no fools like
old fools". This was a bit damping, and I said to myself, "George, you
must be a _very_ lonely man to seek the company of such an unsympathetic
woman!" Nevertheless, I was in no hurry to return to my solitary room,
but sat smoking and watching the old lady mend my socks until the bells
began to ring for evening service, and I bethought myself of this letter
I had in my mind to write to you. Here it is, with the affectionate
thought of
Your old friend,
GEORGE.