HOMES AND SHRINES OF GREAT BRITAIN.
He who sees only the cities and villages of Great Britain misses one
of the most interesting features of English life. Land tenure is
so different here from tenure in the United States that the reader
will pardon a sketch of the old-fashioned manor. In England, the
right of primogeniture still remains and the family home descends to
the oldest son. It not only descends to him, but it continues its
descent through him to his son and his son's son, and is not subject
to alienation. It was our good fortune to be invited to several of
these homes, some of them rich in family heirlooms and of historic
interest.
Our ambassador, Mr. Reid, is occupying one of the most famous
estates in England; it is known as Wrest Park and is about forty
miles from London. During the London season, many spend the "week's
end" at their country home, and after a fortnight's experience in
London we could appreciate the necessity for it, for the dinner hour
is eight or eight fifteen, while receptions and balls begin at any
hour from ten to twelve. The House of Commons does not convene until
three o'clock in the afternoon, and generally sits until midnight.
Little wonder that there is an exodus on Saturday morning.
We spent our first week's end at Wrest Park and were shown through
its spacious grounds. The house itself is only about seventy years
old, but the land has been in the hands of the family for several
centuries. The estate consists of about seven thousand acres,
most of it in cultivation, but enough is left adjoining the house
for woods, parks, lawns and gardens, and these have been laid out
and ornamented by landscape gardeners. There are walks lined with
statuary, green stretches of velvet turf, miles of well kept hedges
of holly and box and cedar, stately oaks, summer houses, tea houses,
green houses and everything in the way of ornament that taste could
dictate and money supply. The gardens are especially attractive.
They were shut in by high walls, and against these walls fruit
trees, vines and flowers are trained with artistic effect. In the
hot houses peaches are ripening before their season, and huge
bunches of grapes are growing purple. Cucumbers, tomatoes and many
other vegetables, as well as fruits which we grow out of doors, are
in England raised and ripened under glass. The strawberries are of
enormous size, and the gooseberries are as large as pigeon eggs.
Within the house are spacious rooms hung with pictures of the
nobility that have occupied the estate, and of members of the royal
family who have visited there. The library contains several thousand
books accumulated through many generations.
Not far from the house stands the manor church supported by tithes,
the owner of the estate usually selecting the minister. In many
places the "living," as it is called, has ceased to be of great
value.
[Illustration: MELROSE ABBEY.]
The inheritance tax is quite a heavy burden upon the owners of these
estates, and many of the landholders are so impoverished that they
are obliged to rent their estates in order to raise the money to
meet the tax.
Mr. Moreton Frewen, who contributed many articles to the silver
literature in 1896, and whose wife is of American birth, took us
down to his place, Brede, which is within sight of the battlefield
of Hastings. It is a fine old house with a splendid view, and the
oak doors and woodwork, although five or six hundred years old,
are as good as new. On the way to Brede we stopped for luncheon
at Knole, another famous country place owned by the West family.
The present occupant, Lord Sackville West, was once Ambassador to
America. It is a historic place, and has seven courts, fifty-two
stairways and three hundred and sixty-five windows. The earliest
record shows that the Earl of Albemarle gave the estate to his
daughter when she was married to the Earl of Pembroke. Afterward, it
came into the possession of Lord Saye and Sele, and he conveyed it
to the Archbishop of Canterbury, who at his death bequeathed it to
the See of Canterbury. Cranmer occupied the place in the sixteenth
century, and conveyed it to Henry the Eighth. (Cranmer will be
remembered as one of the three bishops who were burned at the
stake.) It was once in the possession of Queen Mary and afterward of
Queen Elizabeth, who conveyed it to Dudley, her favorite Earl. The
house is a veritable museum and art gallery, and contains hundred
of pictures, many of them of kings and others prominent in English
history. One of the rooms was fitted up by James First for himself
when he paid a visit to Knole, and the room is kept as it was. The
bed is said to have cost forty thousand dollars, and the curtains
and bed cover are embroidered with gold and silver. The mattresses
are of white satin, and the walls are hung with Flemish tapestry
representing scenes from the history of Nebuchadnezzar.
The great hall used as a dining room is seventy-five feet long and
half as wide. At one end is a raised floor where the table of the
Lord of the Manor stood; below him sat the retainers and lower
members of the household. A list of one hundred and twenty-six
names is preserved, that being the number of those who regularly
took their meals in the hall in 1624. In this hall there is a large
collection of silver and pewter vessels handed down from generation
to generation. The grounds and gardens, I need hardly add, are in
keeping with the interior of the castle. We saw here one of the
prettiest specimens of the skill of the horticulturist's art that
has come under our observation. Grape vines are grown in large
pots and trained upon a hoop-like trellis. When we were there the
clusters of ripened grapes added to the beauty of the vines.
We spent one night at Broughton Castle as the guests of Lord and
Lady Lennox. The host and hostess have often visited the United
States, and are quite liberal in their political views. They are
also identified with the community, encouraging artistic industry
such as wood carving and the like, by which the young people may add
to their income as well as develop their taste. In this connection
it should be explained that the owner of an estate occupies a
responsible position. While he draws rent from his tenants, he is
expected to be their patron and protector, as well as their general
advisor. He provides the Christmas festivities, gives presents to
the children and looks after the sick.
The moral standards which he sets up have a large influence upon the
religious and social life of the community, and the conscientious
land owner is able to do a great deal of good.
Broughton Castle is near Banbury--the Banbury Cross, immortalized
in child rhymes by the woman "who rode a white horse"--and was
frequented by Cromwell and his chiefs. In fact, in one of the
rooms, as tradition goes, the death warrant of Charles the First
was signed. The house is of stone and the roof is covered with
stone tiles--and a good roof it still is, though six hundred years
old. In some of the rooms fine oak paneling had been painted over,
and in other rooms handsome stone walls had been disfigured with
plaster, but the present occupant is restoring these. As in many of
the larger and older country places, Broughton has a little chapel
of its own where the family assembled for divine service. The castle
is surrounded by a shaded lawn, ornamented by hedge, evergreens,
flower beds and rose-covered arbors, and around all these runs the
moat, fed from neighboring streams. The memory of feudal times is
preserved by the towers, drawbridge and massive gates. English
history is illuminated by these ancient country seats, and much in
English home life is explained that would otherwise be difficult to
understand.
Warwick Castle is near Lemington and but a few miles from Broughton.
It is probably the most visited of all the castles of England and is
still in the family of the Earl of Warwick, the king maker. It is
built upon the banks of the Avon and has a deep, dark dungeon and
lofty towers and all the accessories of an ancient fortress. The
great hall is filled with armor and heirlooms. The house contains a
valuable collection of paintings by old masters and the furniture
of the sleeping rooms is as remarkable for its design as for its
antiquity. A few weeks ago a pageant, illustrating the history of
the castle, was given on the banks of the stream and attended by
some twenty thousand visitors.
So much for the great estates of England. They are still maintained
and the system is still defended by manly English statesmen as the
one best calculated to preserve the family and the present social
structure. There does not seem to be as much opposition here as an
American would suppose to this system, under which priority of birth
carries with it so great an advantage over those born afterward.
The younger children, reared to expect little except in case of the
death of those older, seem to accept the situation as a matter of
course, and tenants, descended from generations of tenants, seem to
acquiesce without protest in a tenure which deprives them of the
prospect of ownership. While one can appreciate the beauty of the
manors and admit that they could not be maintained under any other
system than that which gives them entire to one member of the family
and prevents alienation, still an American finds his admiration for
American institutions increasing while he travels, for to him the
advantages that flow from individual ownership, and the division of
estates at death, seem infinitely greater than any that are to be
derived from the English system. A hundred farmers, stimulated by
hope and secure in their holdings, contribute more than one country
gentleman and ninety-nine tenants possibly can to the strength and
vigor of a state.
[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF ROBERT BURNS.]
After all, the large estates are insignificant in number when
compared with the homes of the middle classes in the various cities
and villages, but these are so much like the homes in America, both
in appearance and in management, that it is not necessary to dwell
upon them. The owners of these homes are potent in parliamentary
elections, as are also the laboring men. The House of Lords
represents the landed proprietors, more than one-third of all the
farm lands in England being owned by members of that body.
We took occasion to visit some of the shrines of Great Britain. Of
course, no one place is so rich in historic memories as Westminster
Abbey, it being the burial place of most of the illustrious of
England. One of the most frequented places outside of London is
Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace and burial place of Shakespeare.
The house in which he was born is still standing and is well
preserved, considering the years that have passed over it. From its
size and arrangement it is evident that Shakespeare's father was a
man of some means. The house is now public property and serves as a
museum where numerous Shakespearian relics are exhibited. One oil
painting of him, made when he was still a young man, would indicate
that even then he enjoyed some distinction among his fellows,
although succeeding generations have appreciated him vastly more
than his own.
[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTH-HOUSE RESTORATION.]
The grammar school which Shakespeare attended is still to be
seen, and at the church they have the baptismal font used at his
christening and the parish register in which his baptism and burial
are entered. His grave is in the floor of the church and there is
nothing to mark the stone slab that covers it but the familiar lines:
"Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare,
To digg the dust enclosed heare.
Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones,
And curst be he yt moves my bones."
At Edinburgh we saw the home of John Knox and were impressed anew
with the tremendous influence which he exerted upon the religious
life of Scotland. Seldom has it fallen to the lot of one man to so
stamp his thought upon so many people. In Edinburgh also stands the
little chapel, less known to tourists, in which the Covenanters
met and in which the struggle began between them and the Church of
England. It is hard to believe that so short a time ago there was a
bloody war between two branches of the Protestant Church, in which
thousands suffered martyrdom for their religious convictions.
We visited Loch Katrine and Loch Lomond, to which Scot has given a
permanent place in literature, and after seeing them will not enter
into a dispute with any Highlander, however extravagant his praise
of these beautiful lakes. And if I may digress for a moment, we
also visited the lakes of Killarney of which Moore sang. They also
are beautiful enough to move a poet's heart and inspire a poet's
pen, although to be truthful I must assert that Lake Tahoe, which
shines like a jewel in the crown of the Sierras, on the boundary
line between California and Nevada, need not fear comparison with
any of the lakes of Scotland or Ireland. In one thing, however,
we cannot compare with England, Scotland and Ireland, namely, the
ivy-mantled ruin. It is picturesque and pleasing to the eye and yet
who would exchange a plain cottage, occupied by a happy family, for
the crumbling vine-clad walls of a tenantless castle?
From Glasgow we went by automobile to Ayr, the birthplace of Burns.
Thirty-three miles out and thirty-three miles back, and it rained
nearly the entire way! We were sustained amid the discomforts of the
trip by our interest in Scotland's rustic bard, whose simple lays
have endeared him to the universal heart, but our sympathies went
out to two kind friends, Mr. McKillup, a member of parliament, and
Mr. Henry Wright, a Glasgow barrister, who accompanied us. It was an
humble cottage in which Burns first saw the light and in which he
lived when he made the acquaintance of those rollicking companions,
Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnny. Near by is the famous bridge over
the "Bonny Doon" of whose "banks and braes" he sang, and not far
away are the old bridge and the new one which his fancy clothed with
life and brought together in animated dialogue. After visiting the
places and looking upon the scenes enshrined in literature by his
verse one reads with even greater zest the homespun ballads of this
impulsive apostle of democracy. I was glad to learn that increasing
thousands wend their way to his birthplace each year and that among
the visitors Americans are very numerous.
We reserved for the conclusion of our tour of the British Isles
Hawarden Castle, the home of Gladstone. With our usual luck we
reached Hawarden just as Mr. Henry Gladstone arrived from his home,
eight miles away, and were taken through the house and grounds by
him. The estate of several thousand acres, which came into the
family from Mrs. Gladstone's ancestors, has just passed, according
to the law of primogeniture, into the hands of a grandson of
Mr. Gladstone. The new owner is a sober, studious young man who
has already achieved distinction in college debates and who is
preparing himself for a public career. While we enjoyed a drive
through the woods and through the park, where the elder Gladstone
was wont to cut down trees for exercise, our interest naturally
centered in the big, roomy house, castle-like in its structure,
and in the commodious library where England's Christian statesman
labored for more than threescore years, for it must be remembered
that his public life extended over two generations. The walls are
concealed by books, and shelves jut out into the room at right
angles. Gladstone was a prodigious worker and, amidst the cares of
official life, found time to devote to the classics, to the sciences
and to religious discussion. Among the busts in the room is one of
Disraeli, his most conspicuous political antagonist. The prominence
thus given to his distinguished opponent may possibly be explained,
as Hercules explained the courtesy shown by him to the goddess whose
enmity compelled him to perform the labors which made him immortal.
Opening off from the library is a fireproof vault in which Mr.
Gladstone kept his papers and valuable documents, and he was so
methodical that Mr. John Morley, his biographer, found the materials
for his work in excellent order. Not far from the house is a large
building, erected as a memorial to Gladstone, which contains his
religious library of several thousand volumes. The family has built
a dormitory adjoining the library to accommodate the students who
come from all countries to study theological questions.
[Illustration: HAWARDEN CASTLE--HOME OF GLADSTONE]
[Illustration: W. E. GLADSTONE.]
We also visited the chapel near by where the statesman attended
church and often read the service. His son-in-law, the present
rector, showed us the memorial, since unveiled, which will draw
multitudes to this historic edifice. It is a marble group by the
sculptor Richmond and represents the great Commoner and his wife
sleeping side by side, an angel guarding them with outstretched
wings. It is fitting that they should thus rest at the end of life,
for they had together borne life's burdens and together shared the
many triumphs that crowned their efforts. While he was master of
the ship of state, she was mistress of an ideal home; while he was
seeking to ameliorate the condition of the whole people, she was
conducting a private orphanage within a stone's throw of the castle,
an institution still maintained in her memory. So happy was the long
married life of this well-mated pair that at the approach of death
he requested the family not to permit his interment in Westminster
Abbey, except on condition that his wife be given a place beside
him, and this unusual honor was paid them.
Although nations boast of material wealth and manufacturing plants,
their most valuable assets are their men and women of merit, and
their greatest factories are their institutions of learning,
which convert priceless raw material into a finished product of
inestimable worth. Gladstone, vigorous in body, strong in mind and
elevated in moral purpose, was an ornament to the age in which he
lived and will be an inspiration to succeeding generations.
[Illustration: WINDSOR CASTLE]