_LORD HALIFAX_
There can scarcely be two more typically English names than Wood
and Grey. In Yorkshire and Northumberland respectively, they have
for centuries been held in honour, and it was a happy conjunction
which united them in 1829. In that year, Charles Wood, elder son of
Sir Francis Lindley Wood, married Lady Mary Grey, youngest daughter
of Charles, second Earl Grey, the hero of the first Reform Bill.
Mr. Wood succeeded his father in the baronetcy, in 1846, sat in
Parliament as a Liberal for forty years, filled some of the highest
offices of State in the Administrations of Lord Palmerston and
Mr. Gladstone, and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Halifax
in 1866.
Lord and Lady Halifax had seven children, of whom the eldest was
Charles Lindley Wood--the subject of the present sketch--born in
1839; and the second, Emily Charlotte, wife of Hugo Meynell-Ingram,
of Hoar Cross and Temple Newsam. I mention these two names together
because Mrs. Meynell-Ingram (whose qualities of intellect and character
made a deep impression on all those who were brought in contact with
her) was one of the formative influences of her brother's life.
The present Lord Halifax (who succeeded to his father's peerage
in 1885) writes thus about his early days:
"My sister was everything to me. I never can remember the time
when it was not so between us. I hardly ever missed writing to
her every day when we were away from one another; and for many
years after her marriage, and as long as her eyes were good, I
don't think she and I ever omitted writing to one another, as,
indeed, we had done all through my school and college life. She
is never out of my mind and thoughts. Her birthday, on the 19th
of July, and mine, on the 7th of June, were days which stood out
amongst all the days of the year."
This extract illustrates the beautiful atmosphere of mutual love
and trust in which the family of Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood
were reared. In other respects their upbringing was what one would
naturally expect in a Yorkshire country-house, where politics were
judiciously blended with fox-hunting. From the enjoyments of a bright
home, and the benign sway of the governess, and the companionship of
a favourite sister, the transition to a private school is always
depressing. In April, 1849, Charles Wood was sent to the Rev. Charles
Arnold's, at Tinwell, near Stamford. "What I chiefly remember about
the place is being punished all one day, with several canings,
because I either could not or would not learn the Fifth Declension
of the Greek Nouns."
So much for the curriculum of Tinwell; but it only lasted for one
year, and then, after two years with a private tutor at home, Charles
Wood went to Eton in January, 1853. He boarded at the house of the
Rev. Francis Vidal, and his tutor was the famous William Johnson,
afterwards Cory. "Billy Johnson" was not only a consummate scholar
and a most stimulating teacher, but the sympathetic and discerning
friend of the boys who were fortunate enough to be his private
pupils. In his book of verses--_Ionica_--he made graceful play
with a casual word which Charles Wood had let fall in the ecstasy
of swimming--"Oh, how I wish I could fly!"
"Fresh from the summer wave, under the beech,
Looking through leaves with a far-darting eye,
Tossing those river-pearled locks about,
Throwing those delicate limbs straight out,
Chiding the clouds as they sailed out of reach,
Murmured the swimmer, 'I wish I could fly!'
"Laugh, if you like, at the bold reply,
Answer disdainfully, flouting my words:
How should the listener at simple sixteen
Guess what a foolish old rhymer could mean,
Calmly predicting, 'You will surely fly'--
Fish one might vie with, but how be like birds?
* * * * *
"Genius and love will uplift thee; not yet;
Walk through some passionless years by my side,
Chasing the silly sheep, snapping the lily-stalk,
Drawing my secrets forth, witching my soul with talk.
When the sap stays, and the blossom is set,
Others will take the fruit; I shall have died."
Surely no teacher ever uttered a more beautiful eulogy on a favourite
pupil; and happily the poet lived long enough to see his prophecy
fulfilled.
The principal charm of a Public School lies in its friendships;
so here let me record the names of those who are recalled by
contemporaries as having been Charles Wood's closest friends, at
Eton--Edward Denison, Sackville Stopford, George Palmer, George
Lane-Fox, Walter Campion, Lyulph Stanley,[1] and Augustus Legge.[2]
With Palmer, now Sir George, he "messed," and with Stopford, now
Stopford-Sackville, he shared a private boat. As regards his pursuits
I may quote his own words:
[Footnote 1: Now (1918) Lord Sheffield.]
[Footnote 2: Afterwards Bishop of Lichfield.]
"I steered the _Britannia_ and the _Victory_. I used to take long
walks with friends in Windsor Park, and used sometimes to go up to
the Castle, to ride with the present King.[3] I remember, in two
little plays which William Johnson wrote for his pupils, taking the
part of an Abbess in a Spanish Convent at the time of the Peninsular
War; and the part of the Confidante of the Queen of Cyprus, in
an historical in which Sir Archdale Palmer was the hero, and a
boy named Chafyn Grove, who went into the Guards, the heroine. In
Upper School, at Speeches on the 4th of June, I acted with Lyulph
Stanley in a French piece called _Femme à Vendre_. In 1857, I and
George Cadogan,[4] and Willy Gladstone, and Freddy Stanley[5] went
with the present King for a tour in the English Lakes; and in the
following August we went with the King to Koenigs-winter. I was in
'Pop' (the Eton Debating Society) at the end of my time at Eton,
and I won the 'Albert,' the Prince Consort's Prize for French."
[Footnote 3: Edward VII.] [Footnote 4: Afterwards Lord Cadogan.]
[Footnote 5: The late Lord Derby.]
A younger contemporary adds this pretty testimony:
"As you can imagine, he was very popular both among the boys and
the masters. One little instance remains with me. There was a custom
of a boy, when leaving, receiving what one called 'Leaving Books,'
from boys remaining in the school; these books were provided by
the parents, and were bound in calf, etc. The present Lord Eldon
went to Eton with me, and when Charles Wood left, in July, 1858,
he wanted to give him a book; but knowing nothing of the custom
of parents providing books, he went out and bought a half-crown
copy of _The Pilgrim's Progress_, and sent it to C. Wood's room.
Two shillings and sixpence was a good deal to a Lower Boy at the end
of the half; and it was, I should think, an almost unique testimony
from a small boy to one at the top of the house."
In October, 1858, Charles Wood went up to Christ Church. There
many of his earlier friendships were renewed and some fresh ones
added: Mr. Henry Chaplin coming up from Harrow; Mr. H. L. Thompson,
afterwards Vicar of St. Mary-the-Virgin, Oxford, from Westminster;
and Mr. Henry Villiers, afterwards Vicar of St. Paul's, Knightsbridge,
from a private tutor's. Charles Wood took his full share in the
social life of the place, belonging both to "Loder's" and to
"Bullingdon"--institutions of high repute in the Oxford world;
and being then, as now, an admirable horseman, he found his chief
joy in hunting. In his vacations he visited France and Italy, and
made some tours nearer home with undergraduate friends. In 1861
he took his degree, and subsequently travelled Eastward as far as
Suez, and spent a winter in Rome. In 1862 he was appointed Groom of
the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, and in this capacity attended
his royal master's wedding at St. George's, Windsor, on the 10th
of March, 1863, and spent two summers with him at Abergeldie. At
the same time he became Private Secretary to his mother's cousin,
Sir George Grey, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, and
retained that post until the fall of Lord Russell's Administration
in 1866.
"There was," writes Lord Halifax, "a question of my standing for
some Yorkshire constituency; but with my convictions it was not
easy to come out on the Liberal side, and the project dropped.
I never can remember the time when I did not feel the greatest
devotion to King Charles I. and Archbishop Laud. I can recall now
the services for the Restoration at Eton, when everyone used to
wear an oak-leaf in his button-hole, and throw it down on the floor
as the clock struck twelve."
This may be a suitable moment for a word about Lord Halifax's
"convictions" in the sphere of religion. His parents were, like
all the Whigs, sound and sturdy Protestants. They used to take
their children to Church at Whitehall Chapel, probably the least
ecclesiastical-looking place of worship in London; and the observances
of the Parish Church at Hickleton--their country home near
Doncaster--were not calculated to inspire a delight in the beauty
of holiness. However, when quite a boy, Charles Wood, who had been
confirmed at Eton by Bishop Wilberforce, found his way to St. Barnabas,
Pimlico, then newly opened, and fell much under the influence of
Mr. Bennett at St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, and Mr. Richards, at All
Saints', Margaret Street. At Oxford he became acquainted with Dr.
Pusey and the young and inspiring Liddon, and frequented the services
at Merton College Chapel, where Liddon used often to officiate. By
1863 his religious opinions must have been definitely shaped; for
in that year his old tutor, William Johnson, when paying a visit
to Hickleton, writes as follows:
"He told me of Mr. Liddon, the saintly and learned preacher; of
the devout worshippers at All Saints', whose black nails show they
are artisans; of the society formed to pray daily for the restoration
of Christian unity."
And again:
"His father and mother seem to gather virtue and sweetness from
looking at him and talking to him, though they fight hard against
his unpractical and exploded Church views, and think his zeal
misdirected.... And all the while his mother's face gets brighter
and kinder because she is looking at him. Happy are the parents
who, when they have reached that time of life in which the world is
getting too strong and virtue is a thing of routine, are quickened
by the bold, restless zeal of their sons and daughters, and so
renew their youth."
In 1866 he was induced by his friend Mr. Lane-Fox, afterwards Chancellor
of the Primrose League, to join the English Church Union.
"At that time," he writes, "I was much concerned with the affairs
of the House of Charity in Soho and the Newport Market Refuge.
1866 was the cholera year, and I recollect coming straight back
from Lorne's[*] coming of age to London, where I saw Dr. Pusey,
with the result that I set to work to help Miss Sellon with her
temporary hospital in Commercial Street, Whitechapel."
[Footnote *: Afterwards Duke of Argyll.]
In this connexion it is proper to recall the devoted services which
he rendered to the House of Mercy at Horbury, near Wakefield; and
those who know what religious prejudice was in rural districts
forty years ago will realize the value of the support accorded to
an institution struggling against calumny and misrepresentation
by the most popular and promising young man in the West Riding.
There lies before me as I write a letter written by an Evangelical
mother--Lady Charles Russell--to her son, then just ordained to
a curacy at Doncaster.
"I want to hear more about Lord and Lady Halifax. I knew them pretty
well as Sir Charles and Lady Mary Wood, but I have lived in retirement
since before he was raised to the peerage. His eldest son was not
only very good-looking, but inclined to be very good, as I dare
say Dr. Vaughan may have heard. Do you know anything about him?"
That "very good" and "very good-looking" young man was now approaching
what may be called the decisive event of his life. In April, 1867,
Mr. Colin Lindsay resigned the Presidency of the English Church
Union, and Mr. Charles Lindley Wood was unanimously chosen to fill
his place. Eleven years later Dr. Pusey wrote: "As to his being
President of the E.C.U., he is the sense and moderation of it." He
has administered its affairs and guided its policy through fifty
anxious years. Indeed, the President and the Union have been so
completely identified that the history of the one has been the
history of the other. His action has been governed by a grand and
simple consistency. Alike in storms and in fair weather, at times
of crisis and at times of reaction, he has been the unswerving
and unsleeping champion of the spiritual claims of the English
Church, and the alert, resourceful, and unsparing enemy of all
attempts, from whatever quarter, to subject her doctrine and discipline
to the control of the State and its secular tribunals. The eager
and fiery enthusiasm which pre-eminently marks his nature awakes
a kindred flame in those who are reached by his influence; and,
even when the reason is unconvinced, it is difficult to resist
the leadership of so pure and passionate a temper.
It would be ridiculous for an outsider, like myself, to discuss the
interior working of the E.C.U., so I avail myself of the testimony
which has reached me from within.
"Like most men of his temperament, Lord Halifax seems now and again
to be a little before his time. On the other hand, it is remarkable
that Time generally justifies him. There is no question that he
has always enjoyed the enthusiastic and affectionate support of
the Union as a whole."
It is true that once with reference to the book called _Lux Mundi_,
and once with reference to the "Lambeth Opinions" of 1899, there
was some resistance in the Union to Lord Halifax's guidance; and
that, in his negotiations about the recognition of Anglican Orders,
he would not, if he had been acting officially, have carried the
Union with him. But these exceptions only go to confirm the general
truth that his policy has been as successful as it has been bold
and conscientious.
It is time to return, for a moment, to the story of Lord Halifax's
private life. In 1869 he married Lady Agnes Courtenay, daughter
of the twelfth Earl of Devon, and in so doing allied himself with
one of the few English families which even the most exacting
genealogists recognize as noble.[1] His old tutor wrote on the 22nd
of April:
[Footnote 1: "The purple of three Emperors who have reigned at
Constantinople will authorize or excuse a digression on the origin
and singular fortunes of the House of Courtenay" (Gibbon, chapter
xii.).]
"This has been a remarkable day--the wedding of Charles Wood and
Lady Agnes Courtenay. It was in St. Paul's Church, Knightsbridge,
which was full, galleries and all, the central passage left empty,
and carpeted with red. It was a solemn, rapt congregation; there
was a flood of music and solemn tender voices. The married man
and woman took the Lord's Supper, with hundreds of witnesses who
did not Communicate.... Perhaps a good many were Church Union folk,
honouring their Chairman."
Of this marriage I can only say that it has been, in the highest
aspects, ideally happy, and that the sorrows which have chequered
it have added a new significance to the saying of Ecclesiastes
that "A threefold cord is not quickly broken."[2]
[Footnote 2: Charles Reginald Lindley Wood died 1890; Francis Hugh
Lindley Wood died 1889; Henry Paul Lindley Wood died 1886.]
In 1877 Mr. Wood resigned his office in the household of the Prince
of Wales. It was the time when the affairs of St. James's, Hatcham,
and the persecution of Mr. Tooth, were first bringing the Church
into sharp collision with the courts of law. The President of the
Church Union was the last man to hold his peace when even the stones
were crying out against this profane intrusion of the State into
the kingdom of God; and up and down the country he preached, in
season and out of season, the spiritual independence of the Church,
and the criminal folly of trying to coerce Christian consciences by
deprivation and imprisonment. The story went that an Illustrious
Personage said to his insurgent Groom of the Bedchamber: "What's
this I hear? I'm told you go about the country saying that the
Queen is not the Head of the Church. Of course, she's the Head of
the Church, just the same as the Pope is the Head of his Church,
and the Sultan the Head of _his_ Church.'" But this may only be
a creation of that irresponsible romancist, Ben Trovato; and it
is better to take Lord Halifax's account of the transaction:
"I remember certain remonstrances being made to me in regard to
disobedience to the law and suchlike, and my saying at once that I
thought it quite unreasonable that the Prince should be compromised
by anyone in his household taking a line of which he himself did
not approve; and that I honestly thought I had much better resign
my place. Nothing could have been nicer or kinder than the Prince
was about it; and, if I resigned, I thought it much better for him
on the one side, while, as regards myself, as you may suppose,
I was not going to sacrifice my own liberty of saying and doing
what I thought right."
In those emphatic words speaks the true spirit of the man. To "say
and do what he thinks right," without hesitation or compromise
or regard to consequences, has been alike the principle and the
practice of his life. And here the reader has a right to ask, What
manner of man is he whose career you have been trying to record?
First and foremost, it must be said--truth demands it, and no
conventional reticence must withhold it--that the predominant feature
of his character is his religiousness. He belongs to a higher world
than this. His "citizenship is in Heaven." Never can I forget an
address which, twenty years ago, he delivered, by request, in Stepney
Meeting-House. His subject was "Other-worldliness." The audience
consisted almost exclusively of Nonconformists. Many, I imagine,
had come with itching ears, or moved by a natural curiosity to
see the man whose bold discrimination between the things of Cæsar
and the things of God was just then attracting, general attention,
and, in some quarters, wrathful dismay. But gradually, as the high
theme unfolded itself, and the lecturer showed the utter futility
of all that this world has to offer when compared with the realities
of the Supernatural Kingdom, curiosity was awed into reverence, and
the address closed amid a silence more eloquent than any applause."
"That strain I heard was of a higher mood."
As I listened, I recalled some words written by Dr. Pusey in 1879,
about
"One whom I have known intimately for many years, who is one of
singular moderation as well as wisdom, who can discriminate with
singular sagacity what is essential from is not essential--C. Wood."
The Doctor went on:
"I do not think that I was ever more impressed than by a public
address which I heard him deliver now many years ago, in which,
without controversy or saying anything which could have offended
anyone, he expressed his own faith on deep subjects with a precision
which reminded me of Hooker's wonderful enunciation of the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity and of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ."
After so solemn a tribute from so great a saint, it seems almost
a profanity--certainly a bathos--to add any more secular touches.
Yet, if the portrait is even to approach completeness, it must be
remembered that we are not describing an ascetic or a recluse,
but the most polished gentleman, the most fascinating companion,
the most graceful and attractive figure, in the Vanity Fair of
social life. He is full of ardour, zeal, and emotion, endowed with
a physical activity which corresponds to his mental alertness, and
young with that perpetual youth which is the reward of "a conscience
void of offence toward God and toward man."
Clarendon, in one of his most famous portraits, depicts a high-souled
Cavalier, "of inimitable sweetness and delight in conversation,
of a glowing and obliging humanity and goodness to mankind, and
of a primitive simplicity and integrity of life." He was writing
of Lord Falkland: he described Lord Halifax.