1881—1889
APPOINTMENT BY THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS
This period of return to work was marked by many very welcome
successes. The consent of Ruskin to the legal transfer of his houses
in Paradise Place to Octavia, and the purchase by Mr. Shaen of
Freshwater Place were proofs of the stability of her plans.
From 1883 to 1889 lasted the great movement for rescuing Parliament
Hill and the neighbouring land from the builder, and adding it to
Hampstead Heath; and many other victories in the open space struggle
were also achieved at this time.
But perhaps the most remarkable change in Octavia’s position, as a
worker, was her appointment by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to
manage a great part of their property in Southwark. She was asked to
attend a meeting of that body. They wished to learn if she would buy
some old courts belonging to them. This, she said, was impossible.
Then they asked if she would take a lease of these same houses; and,
when she declined to do so, they asked if she would undertake the
management. This she consented to do; and the Commissioners were so
much impressed with the capable business-like character of her
remarks, and with her subsequent management, that they afterwards
extended the territory under her care.
It should be noted, in this connection, that this position gave her
the first opportunity of planning cottages, while Red Cross Hall and
Garden gave further occasion for her development of entertainments and
outdoor-life for the poor. It is in this period also that her links
with foreign workers were extended. Some housing work had begun in
Paris, at an earlier time; and the translation by H.R.H. Princess
Alice of “The Homes of the London Poor” into German had led to the
formation of the “Octavia Hill Verein” in Berlin. Swedish and Russian
ladies also came to ask advice, and Miss Le’Maire has given an account
in an Italian magazine of the impression left upon her by her visit to
Octavia.
[Sidenote: WORK IN DEPTFORD]
It was during this time that Octavia took over the management of some
houses in Deptford, the care of which seemed to weigh heavily on her
mind. If, indeed, one compares her descriptions of these South London
courts with the early letters about some of the Marylebone tenants,
there can be no reason to suppose that the prospects of improvement
were more hopeless in the later effort than in the earlier; but
Octavia had now begun to realise that management from a distance was
an almost insuperable difficulty; and that to delegate or transfer
distant work would become a necessary duty. Although, therefore,
marked improvement was made in the relations between her and her
Deptford tenants, as will be seen from the letter written in 1885
during the Trafalgar Square riots, she felt it better in the end to
hand the care of these houses over completely to a very efficient
fellow-worker, who succeeded in managing the courts in a satisfactory
way.
A curious incident connected the Deptford work with another successful
effort to save an open space. When visiting one of the tenants in
Queen Street, Deptford, Octavia noticed a glass filled with flowers,
and on enquiry found that they had been picked in a place known as
“Hilly Fields.” Octavia was struck with the name, followed up the
clue, and eventually succeeded in securing the Fields as a public open
space. This story rests on the authority of the American lady, Miss
Ellen Chase, who worked with Octavia in Deptford, and who, on
returning to Massachusetts, carried out the same principles in the
management of houses in her own country.
Park Farm, Limpsfield,
April 16th, 1881.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
Now I come to my crowning news. I have had a most grateful and
affectionate note from Mrs. Severn, with messages from Ruskin. He gladly
accepts my offer for Paradise Place, and will be _very_ glad if I can
find a purchaser for Freshwater Place. I think, the receipts and
expenditure shewing so very good a balance, I should have _no_ fear of
our buying it too ourselves; but there are several things to think of,
one being the question of ready money. I must try and take up the
things, one after another; they take so much thinking.
This refers to questions of preservation of a common near Sheffield.
Abinger Hatch, Dorking,
April 21st, 1881.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
I must say in spite of what Mr. H. says I cannot help thinking it
_would_ be better to help them, always supposing one could get a
barrister, who really cared, and was in earnest.
You see one great reason Mr. Hunter seems to hesitate is, that he says
so rich a place as Sheffield ought to do it itself, and that the people
of the place have not done much for themselves. But first, it seems to
me hard to punish the poor of Sheffield for the omissions of the rich;
second, I think the subject still so new that a town may wake up too
late, and bitterly regret what it has lost; third, these commons seem to
me national treasures, and less and less to concern only the towns or
villages nearest to which they happen to be (I am sure we are feeling
this just now in this little driving tour); and there is no reason to
punish England for supineness on the part of Sheffield; and fourthly, I
am not at all sure that Sheffield _has_ been supine. Clearly from Mr.
B.’s letter a section of the public there are keenly interested, and
have been at work.
[Sidenote: ADVANTAGES OF INDIVIDUAL ACTION]
All Mr. H. says might tell with a society heavily weighted with past
efforts, as I daresay the C.P.S. is, or bound to keep power to take
initiatory action where local strength may be forthcoming after a time,
but not necessarily governing my decision about the money that I really
_have_ in hand, available for precisely the only opportunity open at
this moment, by which I can help forward the preservation of commons.
Every year that we can keep them, people care more and do more; every
acre kept is a certain possession for ever. The more serious point of
Mr. Hunter’s letter seems to me that in which he calls Mr. A.’s “not a
strong case.” By which I gather that he means not sure to win. But then
he goes on to say that it is an important suit, as keeping the common
till some plan for regulation can be arranged.
On the whole, therefore, I am strongly inclined to give the money.... If
it be lost, in the sense of not winning the suit, and yet if the suit is
essential to keeping the question open, it is worth while for someone to
be the loser. I expect that causes are like stakes which are driven into
a marsh and are buried, but carry the roadway; and who could lose the
money better than I, to whom the hope and future are so clear, and to
whom people have trusted money, just that I may be able at critical
moments to _dare_ something for a great and possible good?
April 25th, 1881.
TO MR. SHAEN.
I am indeed delighted to hear that there is a chance of your buying
Freshwater Place.
So strongly do I feel about the playground and a garden, so sure am I of
the great pressure that would be put upon owners to sell or let, for
building a church or a chapel, or a school, or an institution, if not
houses, that, quite independently of my old affection and memories of
the place and the tenants, I feel as if it must not go into strange
hands. I’ve been thinking it all over, and whether I ought to buy it
myself; but, if I were ill, or away, or dead, its management might be a
trouble to my sisters. Now would you be afraid to share it with me? I
couldn’t throw myself into the personal work down there; I couldn’t
stand it; but, while I keep at all well, I would look into its affairs,
choose and watch its workers, remove or guide them, and have its
accounts regularly audited. There would then be an almost certainty of
its paying 5 per cent.; and, at the worst, if anything prevents my
watching it, you would only have risked half the money.
Abinger Hatch, Dorking,
May 3rd, 1881.
TO MRS. SHAEN.
Oh, dear! I am so thankful about Freshwater Place. I wonder what you
will all think of it, and do with it. I hope you do not expect much. It
is only when one feels what the _narrow_ courts are, and how the people
get maddened with the heat of them in summer, and how the children have
_no_ where to play, and how their noise hurts their mothers’ nerves,
that one feels what these few square yards of ugly space are.—But,
things being as they are in London, _that_ air, _that_ space are quite
riches to the poor.
I quite feel what Mr. Shaen says about joint ownership; one never gets
the same love for a place, because never the same sense of
responsibility.
Brantwood,
May 5th, 1881.
FROM RUSKIN.
I have had great pleasure in hearing, thro’ Mrs. Severn, of the
arrangements of Marylebone, etc., and am entirely glad the thing should
pass into your hands, and that you are still able to take interest in
it, and encourage and advise your helpers. I trust, however, you will
not be led back into any anxious or deliberative thought. I find it a
very strict law of my present moral being—or being anyway—to be anxious
about nothing and to determine on nothing!
Letter to a Mr. Green, who had served on the Battersea C.O.C., but who
had afterwards broken down in health, and who had sent some flowers
for the children of the tenants:—
[Sidenote: HER LOVE OF DAISIES]
May 18th, 1881.
TO MR. GREEN.
I do want some common daisy roots, not the double daisy, but the
ordinary white daisy. They bloom on and on in London so vigorously, and
quite startle one with pleasure, when one comes on these little white
flowers, against the dark background of some London court. I think their
very simplicity reminds the people of their childhood. As for me, I have
quite a longing for them, and have only two here; so I should venture to
keep some, if you are good enough to send some. They are things we have
never had sent to us; and I do not often get an opportunity of bringing
any. But I hope that you will take no real trouble; only we should be
glad if it were easy to send them.
June 3rd, 1881.
TO MRS. SHAEN.
We had such a _very_ interesting afternoon at Morris’s. He took us all
over the garden and into his study, and such an interesting carpet
factory, which reminded me of Megara in its simplicity, silence, beauty
and quiet. It was just in his own garden. The tapestry he had been
making himself in his study was beautiful!!
Tortworth,
February 27th, 1882.
TO HER MOTHER.
All the visitors have now departed except Mrs. S. and myself. I had not
been very fortunate in seeing much of Lowell till this morning, when we
had a long and very interesting talk over poets and poems, specially
Browning and Mrs. Browning. I like Lord Aberdare very much, and had a
good deal of interesting talk with him. Of Mr. Hughes I have seen much,
and had much talk of old times and people; one felt very heartily and
deeply in sympathy with him.... Lord Ducie has been asking me to look
over some Greek charts, and tell him about what we saw and did; so I
must do it before afternoon tea, to be sure to be ready. Mrs. Lowell is
much of an invalid still, having had a terrible fever in Spain, from
which she has not recovered. I had a long and interesting talk with her
to-day.
San Gemignano,
April 18th, 1883.
TO HER MOTHER.
The people here look very flourishing. I can’t help thinking education
is beginning to tell. The young people look so well-behaved and
intelligent and clean. They still spin as they walk in the fields, and
weave in their dark hollows of houses; but I hear their voices singing
among the olives as they lay out their linen to bleach; and the
contadini, who come up with the sleek, well-fed, strong oxen, look
comfortable and well-to-do.... I think I shall join some Latin class
when I return, tho’ I shall have no advanced pupils. It gives a great
freshness to one’s teaching, and there are many little things one might
hear that would be useful. I have never heard Latin taught. I wish I
could hear of a good teacher. I should care more for that than for an
advanced class.... I would rather join a class than have separate
lessons. I want to hear other people taught. Individual teachers, if
they find you advanced in certain ways, assume that you know the
elements.
[Sidenote: IMPROVEMENT IN ITALIAN PEASANTRY]
14, Nottingham Place, W.,
July 19th, 1883.
TO HER MOTHER.
A TENANTS’ PARTY AT HILLSIDE.
I must snatch a few minutes to tell you what a great success yesterday
was. Everything was so beautifully arranged. Gertrude had thought of
everything for the people. To see little Blanche, flitting about in an
utterly unconscious state of sweet serviceableness, was quite beautiful.
The others too were very good and happy, but nothing to dear little
Blanche. We walked across the fields some seventy strong, but they
seemed nothing in those wide, free meadows.... The boys went with Mr.
Morley, who brought his dog and sent him into the water. The children
ran and sang and made merry; the women enjoyed the bright air and quiet.
We all relieved them of their babies as much as we could, and we rested
often. Near the lane we found little Blanche, blushing with joy and
shyness. She led us back; Gertrude and the others came out to receive
us, and we turned into the field, which was looking lovely. The children
ran to the swings, and began games. Gertrude had had trusses of straw
put in a sort of tier of benches up by the summer house, dry and warm,
and soft and comfortable. The children had tea there.... The elders had
tea at the same time in the garden on the lawn.... We were very strong
in entertainers.... The people were delighted with the garden, the
field, the house. The boys played cricket with the gentlemen; everyone
was amused, and happy, and good. The arrangements were perfection. Two
waggonettes took _all_ the women and babies and toddling children back
to the station.... Dear little Blanche had her wish about the
strawberries. She had an exquisite bunch of flowers, which she gave with
her own hands to each grown person before they started....
I have been this morning to see a stately, dear old clergyman, a certain
Prebendary Mackenzie, who wrote to me about some ground that the
Haberdashers’ Company own. He is a member of the Company, and was to-day
to bring before them a plan for using the ground as a garden. It is near
Old Street Road. I found such a fine old man, with stately,
old-fashioned ways. He was sitting with his wife in a parlour in Woburn
Square. I send you some more letters from donors; sums keep coming in. I
feel, like Florence, that I like these small sums much.
I have been to-day to see Spitalfields churchyard. It is _the_ one I
should like to see laid out.... Mr. Mason had his flower show in the
little garden; 400 people came in each night, paying 3_d._ or 6_d._ He
says this is the first garden fête in Bethnal Green.
[Sidenote: A TRIBUTE FROM RUSSIA]
19, Avenue Hoche, Paris,
23rd April, 1884.
FROM A RUSSIAN LADY.
I take the liberty of enclosing an article on the Homes of the London
Poor, which appeared in the _Journal de St. Petersbourg_, in which I
have expressed very faintly the admiration I feel for your book, and the
deeds of which the book gives us a glimpse.
I have scarce the courage of taking any of the time, on which there are
so many calls; and yet I would be very grateful if you would glance
through my poor attempt, and take it as a proof of my sympathy and
respect.
For people who pass their life in wishing they might be useful, there is
something saddening, and yet inspiriting, to find that all the time some
have been up and doing. That is the mixed feeling with which I read your
delightful volume; but what predominated was the pleasure and pride of
seeing what a woman can do.
I shall be in London before long, and, if it is not asking too much, may
I hope to see you and tell you what I have vainly tried to write?
* * * * *
I am afraid, after all, that I have gone too far, and that when, if
ever, I have the pleasure of standing before you, all my courage will
evaporate, and I will be utterly unable to express the feelings with
which I look up to you, much as a raw recruit on the general who has led
victory in many a good fight.
So accept my unexpressed sympathy, and excuse me again for troubling
you.
Queen’s Hotel, Penzance,
April 25th, 1884.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
As to the opening of Wakefield Street,[94] the date must depend on the
grass. I fear it will have to be late in June.... The more difficult
thing, to my mind, is to think of the sort of ceremony that would be
interesting, possible, and more than a form. I think the absence of any
square space a difficulty. There is no space for speaking, or gathering
people together. If we could have had anything like our May festival,
and had the poor in, I should have liked it; but I see no space for
anything but a procession, which would hardly do. Perhaps some brilliant
idea will be suggested....
What a _very_ nice account of the donation fund results! It is just
possible Deptford and Southwark may open up new needs to us. If not, you
and I will have still further to lay our heads together to spend the
money well. It takes a great deal of work to spend _well_ so _large_ a
sum. I don’t know if it would suit you for me to come on Saturday; but
don’t let a creature know I’m coming, if I do come.
... I have quite a tremendous day on Monday, as I have to take over the
Eccles Com. work, _and_ to see to Deptford. Besides the necessary work
at home, ... Sir C. Dilke asks me if I can give evidence before the
Royal Commission on Tuesday....
What a shame not to tell you of the beauty and the quiet! but it is
quite late, and I have written such a number of letters.
[Sidenote: BRET HARTE’S POEMS]
14, Nott. Place,
Sunday, August 3rd, 1884.
TO HER MOTHER.
... I have read a good deal of Mr. Maurice’s life. How very beautiful it
is, specially, I think, the letter written in 1871, on “Subscription no
Bondage”! I have also been poring over “Thomas à Kempis,” of which I
never tire. To-day at Hillside I read Ruskin’s “Story of Ida.” It
reminds me, in its perfect simplicity of narrative, with quiet
undercurrent of unobtrusive feeling, of the very early painters’ work.
It goes right to one’s heart; and one utterly forgets everything and
everyone but the subject. I have read, too, a little of Bret Harte, and
liked him better. There was one poem of his about a lost child, found
after prayer, and the speaker’s conviction that the angels had taken
care of the child, which ends with a quaint, but very natural statement
that they were better so employed than “loafing about the throne.” It
makes one feel how much more one real memory of an actual deliverance
goes home to a man than fanciful descriptions....
October 21st, 1884.
TO MISS BARTER.
I was much interested by your letter. Thank you for it. I have always
made the houses under my charge pay 5 per cent.; but it would be a great
responsibility to accept for their purchase the entire capital of
anyone, and specially of a young lady probably unaccustomed to business.
Such undertakings are necessarily subject to the possible variations in
value, hitherto certainly advancing, but not necessarily always so, of
house property let to working people.
But thank you all the same for thinking of it. The spirit in which you
do so makes me think that possibly there might be some other way in
which you could help us. I wonder whether you would care to come any day
and talk this over with me, so that I could realise the facts; but I
assure you the responsibility of even considering your generous project,
seeing it relates to your whole capital, is one I could not take.
1885.
LETTER TO FELLOW WORKERS.
I have, since I last wrote to you, been successful in establishing my
work in South London, according to the long-cherished wish of my heart.
In March of 1884, I was put in charge, by the owner, of forty-eight
houses in Deptford. In May of the same year, I undertook the care of
several of the courts in Southwark for the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.
In November of the same year, the Commissioners handed over to me an
additional group of courts. In January of 1885 I accepted the management
of seventy-eight more houses in Deptford. A friend is just arranging to
take forty-one houses in Southwark on lease from the Commissioners. But
I hope to retain trained workers and a portion of the tenants in a
considerate and responsible way, which is quite independent of me or my
advice. I ought, however, to repeat here once more that there is much
which is technical, and which must be thoroughly learnt; and that unless
intending workers set aside a time to learn their business thoroughly
with us or others who have experience, they will do more harm than good
by undertaking to manage houses.
One distinct advance, that is noticeable since I last wrote, is the
readiness shown by men of business and companies to place their houses
under our care. A deeper sense of responsibility as to the conduct of
them, a perception of how much in their management is better done by
women, and I hope, a confidence that we try faithfully, and succeed
tolerably, in the effort to make them prosperous, have led to this
result. This method of extending the area over which we have control has
been a great help. It has occurred at a time when, owing to the altered
condition of letting in London, I could no longer, with confidence, have
recommended to those who are unacquainted with business, and who depend
on receiving a fair return for their capital, to undertake now the
responsibility of purchasing houses.
[Sidenote: PROGRESS IN SOUTHWARK AND DEPTFORD]
When we began in Southwark, we secured an almost entirely new group of
volunteers, who learnt there under one or two leaders, and who now form
a valued nucleus from which to expand further.
In Deptford, I was obliged at first to take with me helpers from some
distance, as we had none near there; but gradually, I am delighted to
say, we have found many living at Blackheath and its neighbourhood who
are co-operating with us; and we hope they, as the years roll on, will
be quite independent of us.
Of the success of our work? Well! I am thankful and hopeful. Of course
it has varied with the nature and constancy of our workers, and with the
response our tenants give us. The new places always tax our strength,
and we have had our difficulties in them, but we seem to make steady
progress; I feel all must go well in proportion as we love our people
and aim at securing their real good, and base our action on wise and
far-sighted principles. There is not a court where I do not mark
distinct advance; but none know better than I how much more might have
been done in each of them, and how much lies before us still to do.
LETTER TO FELLOW WORKERS, 1887, ABOUT RED CROSS GARDEN.
It was, when handed over to me, a waste, desolate place. There had been
a paper factory on one half of it, which had been burnt down. Four or
five feet of unburnt paper lay in irregular heaps, blackened by fire,
saturated with rain, and smelling most unpleasantly. It had lain there
for five years, and much rubbish had been thrown in. A warehouse some
stories high fronted the street on the other half of the ground, with no
forecourt or area to remove its dull height further from the rooms in
the model dwellings which faced it. Our first work was to set bon-fires
alight gradually to burn the mass of paper. This took about six weeks to
do, tho’ the fires were kept alight day and night. The ashes were good
for the soil in the garden, and we were saved the whole cost of carting
the paper away. Our next task was to pull down the warehouse, and let a
little sun in on our garden, and additional light, air and sight of sky
to numerous tenants in the blocks in Red Cross Street.
The next work was to have a low wall and substantial iron railings
placed on the side bounded by the street, so that the garden could be
seen and the light and air be unimpeded.
Then came the erection of a covered playground for the children; it runs
the whole length of a huge warehouse which bounds the garden on one
side. It is roofed with timber from the warehouse we pulled down, and
the roof is supported by massive pillars. The space is paved with red
bricks set diagonally, so as to make a pretty pattern. At one end of
this arcade is a drinking fountain.
The roof of this covered playground is flat, and forms a long terrace,
which is approached by a flight of stairs.
[Illustration:
SOUTHWARK.
Red Cross Cottages and Garden. Opened June, 1887.
]
[Sidenote: QUESTION OF LIVING WITH THE POOR]
Hotel Bellevue, Wäggis,
May 24th, 1885.
TO HER MOTHER.
I am much interested in the _Spectator_ cutting, tho’ I believe myself
that the strain of living _in_ the worst places would be too trying
_yet_ to educated people; it would diminish their strength, and so their
usefulness; The reform must be, I believe, more gradual. The newspapers
go in for such extremes, from utter separation to _living_ in a court! I
should urge the spending of _many_ hours weekly there, as achieving
_most_ just now, because it is less suicidal than the other course, and
more natural.
Hotel Lukmanner, Ilanz, Grisons,
June 7th, 1885.
TO HER MOTHER.
Dissentis seems to me a very old-world place. A dear old lady keeps the
inn, which is _very_ comfortable; but one seems nearer the life of the
people here than where modern hotels have invaded.... How striking to me
is the character of every separate house in these valleys. Something, of
course, is due to the varieties of the ground, but much, too, I cannot
help seeing, to the fact that the houses belong to the inhabitants. I
wonder if we shall live to see a larger number of English owners? I
doubt it. It seems to me that the impediments come by no means mainly
from the landlords. Of course they would cling, especially in towns, to
possession where value is rising, but I doubt the tenants caring to buy
_much_ for occupation. They, like the landlords, like to buy houses
rising in value, with an idea of letting or selling; but few, I fancy,
desire to bind themselves to one spot and way of life. They like the
freedom and the change of hiring. Even young married people, who, as a
class, settle in with most sense of attachment to place and things,
expect to move to another neighbourhood if work changes, or to a larger
house if it prospers. Perhaps it is partly the great cost of living, and
the fact that rent has to be paid. But one rarely sees in English towns
a house lived in by a family for generations, the large families filling
from cellar to attic, and the small ones using the best rooms mainly.
One fancies a small family should like a small house. Whereas clearly
houses in the country in old times must have been handed down to very
various occupants. Some little sense of individuality would be quickly
stamped, even on London houses, if they were owned by occupiers. But the
attachment to things seems giving place to a desire for their
perfection, and we seem inclined rather to hire furniture or appliances
for special occasions than to accept, even our houses, as in any way
permanent. If they don’t suit us, for the moment, we change them. Well
there is a noble independence of things as well as a noble attachment to
them; and “the old order changeth, giving place to new, And God fulfils
Himself in many ways.” There will have to come back, however, in one
form or another, that element of rest in which alone certain human
virtues can live; but it may come in ways we do not know.
Deptford,
September, 1885?
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
All is very bright and well with us here, except poor Queen Street,
which is a constant anxiety. My great fear is that Mr. T. will sell it,
and take the management out of my hands. I am sure we should get on in
time. However, all that is out of my hands. I don’t know that I could
have done differently at any juncture; and so I must just abide the
result, and accept it as purposed, and look to see what next opens out;
meantime, till it is decided, I am clinging on to the hope of it rather
passionately. The MacDonalds came to town yesterday. I am to dine there
on Tuesday.... I’ve been preparing my corn for a green refreshment to us
a little later, and putting in my hyacinths. It is a great delight to me
to come back to such things from Deptford.
[Sidenote: THE PARLIAMENT HILL MOVEMENT]
October 15th, 1885.
MIRANDA TO MR. EDMUND MAURICE.
We hear that the Metropolitan Board received the subject of Parliament
Hill favourably.... There came in a petition from representative working
men.... There were trade societies, co-operative societies, benefit
societies represented. Mr. B. said the co-operative signatures
represented 2,000 working men. The petition from East End Clergy had
fifty names of clergy and dissenting ministers, and the list was headed
by the Bishop of Bedford....
Octavia goes down to Lady Ducie for three days. I shall be glad of the
change of thought for her. She is so worn with Deptford. Things are
still _very_ discouraging there; they seem unable to get respectable
tenants, the new ones they hoped were good, turning out unsatisfactory.
Still helpers are rallying round her.... It is nice to find old pupils
coming to the front.
November 11th, 1885.
Octavia will have told you the result of the meeting of the Hampstead
Heath Committee _re_ Parliament Hill extension. Everyone seems to say
“Go on agitating thro’ the Press, and get the matter well before the
public, there is yet hope.” But I think Octavia has little hope.
Did I tell you about the old woman at Deptford who said to Octavia in a
voice of reassurance and yet wonder, “You _have_ feelings! When you
first came you did not know us, and we did not know you; but you _have_
feelings!” As if O. would be as surprised as _she_ was at the discovery!
1884 or 5.
MISS ELLEN CHASE TO OCTAVIA.
King (a Deptford tenant) had torn his garden all to pieces and broken
pale of fence and windows here and there, and did not show himself at
all. We were non-plussed. First I hoped to slip notice under door, but
the weather-board was too close; that is a reason against putting them
on. Then we debated how legal a service pinning to the back door would
be, but Mr. P. thought it would be awkward if I was summoned for
breaking into his premises; and to post it we thought would not be
customary; so we were balked and Mrs. Lynch smiled sweetly all the time
at her door. Mrs. T. had the cheek to offer nothing, so I took her a
notice. I gave out several jobs of cleaning to even off the £7. Mrs.
Sandal’s cistern was leaking worst sort. Matthews and Arter both said
floor too old to pay for removal. My unlets have come down 10_s._
[Sidenote: MIRANDA’S INFLUENCE]
14 Not. Place,
November 7th, 1885.
OCTAVIA TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
I am so much interested to hear of all you have been seeing; but I think
I’d better write of things here. I’ve just come back from a Hampstead
Heath Committee,—a large, strong, determined one. They decided to bring
a Bill into Parliament. Mr. S. Lefevre and Mr. Hunter went off to see
Lord Mansfield’s agent....
1 think Deptford is in a very thriving state in many ways; we are
getting in such a quantity of local strength.
Miranda seems to me _very_ happy, and, I hope, tolerably well. Her
sweetness with everyone is beyond description, and also her merry fun
over all that takes place. She is quite delightful as a coadjutor,
bringing all the people so sweetly together, and never making
difficulties in anything; and all her spirits and power come out....
The Bishop of Manchester’s death is greatly felt. They say Jews,
Catholics, the Greek Patriarch and people of all kinds went to the
memorial service, and that they call him the “Bishop of all
denominations.”
Sarsden, Chipping Norton,
October 17th, 1885.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
... It is very delightful to escape to sunlight and colour here from
Deptford and London. All, however, is, I think, going towards good with
us in the work. Mr. T. is prepared to spend a good deal on the houses,
with a view of raising the property; and I hope it may be a help to us
in raising the people. I hope and believe too that I and my workers are
all better for a certain amount of difficulty, and unpopularity; and
that it tests them, and draws them together. In these days when
benevolence is popular, I think we may be thankful to have difficulty to
surmount. All my workers have stood to their guns splendidly, and have
been so helpful too.
14 Not. Pl., W.,
November 23rd, 1885.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
We have been having much busy and interesting work of various kinds. No.
8 B. Ct. has been handed over to us in an awful state of dirt and
dilapidation, and we are busy with estimates and workmen. Miss J.’s new
houses in Southwark will be ready at Xmas; and the company which owns
the new blocks there have made repeated application to us to manage for
them. Miss J. seems inclined to get a group of workers round her, and do
this....
The Hampstead Heath meeting was in some respects satisfactory.... Still
the money needed is so large, and only the Met. Bd. can do it, and there
isn’t a sign they will; so I have next to no hope, or rather expect
something to turn up, if success _is_ to come.... I have been more
successful than I at one time feared about the dilapidation money at Pn.
Street; but it is still bad enough.... I am just back from Deptford. I
really do think it is getting on.... The houses are filling slowly. We
are getting much more local co-operation....
Interrupted. (Undated) probably November, 1885.
I dined at Lord Hobhouse’s on Friday. Mr. Ghose, an Indian gentleman,
and his wife were there, Mr. Ghose’s brother is standing for Deptford.
Lord H. says he would not have a chance with a middle-class or rich
constituency; but that there is a strong feeling among the working men
that he ought to get in.... We have a group of co-operators, who have
taken Miss Y.’s hall for a monthly gathering. The tenants’ plays, one
for grown up people and two for children, are in full swing.
[Sidenote: VISIT TO GEORGE MACDONALD]
Casa Coraggio, Bordighera,
December 10th, 1885.
TO HER MOTHER.
Thank you for your sweet birthday letter.... To-night we are having some
charades in honour of Mr. MacDonald’s birthday. The house is large and
full and happy, and I think very good for Edmund. To-day we have rain.
It is strange they prophesied rain yesterday, in consequence of a
practice, or rather sham fight, of the French men-of-war. We heard a
violent noise at dinner yesterday; and, going up to the loggia to
discover the cause, we saw seven large men-of-war. They said they were 5
miles off, and that they often went out from some bay near Cannes, where
they spend the winter, to practise firing. We could see them all
confused in the smoke, and the great heaving mass of water somehow
caused by the firing,
The MacDonalds are getting up all manner of Christmas things, among
others a series of sacred tableaux; they say the peasants come from far
and near to see them.
The little Octavia is a sweet child. It is very touching to see Mrs.
MacDonald with her, and also to see young Mr. Jamieson’s widowed house,
with all the things Grace made and did.... I try not to think too much
of you all, and of all the things at home, but you will realise how much
my heart turns to England. However, I mean to have a really good
holiday. It is very restful here, at once very homelike, and yet with no
duties. MacDonald’s bright faith and sweet sympathy are beautiful; and I
must say Mrs. MacDonald’s way of gathering people in is delightful to
me.
Casa Coraggio,
December 16th, 1885.
TO HER MOTHER.
I have been longing to write to you. I have been away to Mentone and
Nice. I had a delightful visit to Lady Ducie; she was so sweet, looks
much better, and seemed so very glad to see me. She has a little basket
carriage and two little ponies, and she took me the most beautiful drive
all along by those lovely bays of the blue, clear Mediterranean, with
their olive and cypress set slopes of cliff and promontory, and
beautiful waves breaking against the rocks....
All is very peaceful and good here, and the spirit of the house quite
beautiful. Last night MacDonald read aloud to us one of Hawthorne’s
stories; it was so very beautiful. I think it might do to read at
Christmas. He has given me the book. But it would lose a good deal in
losing his reading; and perhaps some of you will have thought of
something better. Oh! to think of the delight of finding you at home,
when I come back, and the blessed Christmas time. I shall be _much_
happier about Minnie for having seen her, and I like to think of her
here.... I often think of Florence and how she would rejoice in the
beauty.
[Sidenote: RECOLLECTIONS OF ASSISI]
14, Nott. Place, W.,
December 27th, 1885.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
I have been thinking over your plans.... The city (Siena) is quite the
loveliest and most interesting I ever saw. As to Assisi, it is just a
vision of angels; it is like having looked thro’ the gates of heaven for
a season. If there’s any chance of your going to Assisi, be sure you
read, before you go, the little popular Italian book called “Fiorettini
di San Francesco” used by the peasants. You can buy it for a few
centesimi, Flo says. I should be glad if you’d buy it, and bring it back
to me. I’m so fond of it, and it would be good Italian reading for you,
it’s so easy. Don’t be cavilling, but read it and love it as I do....
My love to the MacDonalds;[95] tell them how entirely happy and
refreshed I was by my visit to them, and how glad I am to have seen them
in their new home....
I got thro’ the bulk of the accounts on Thursday. I had a fine staff,
and they are getting capable. Mr. Shaen hasn’t finished the deeds, and
we can’t take over Zoar Street to-morrow!... I have an offer of £2,000
for houses. As a gift or investment, I think I shall risk it, and the
Bishop of Rochester’s £1,000 to buy houses in Southwark to keep our
workers together. I had a comfortable journey, changed carriages at
Marseilles, couldn’t lie down till Dijon; but had a reassuring crowded
company of 6 ladies!
January, 1886.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
I knew you would hear some report of the riots, and would be anxious for
news.... You need not be anxious about Deptford. Of course, after such a
breakdown of police administration, one feels as if one _might_ meet
violence _any_ where; but I think of all places I should feel, if it
came, safest in Deptford. That this is so marks progress that I had
hardly realised till your postcard recalled the old state of things. The
people are gentle, responsive, and tractable there, if sometimes a
little ill-tempered—that is the worst. At least I know they would stand
by us. _No_ one thinks the outbreak came from workmen; _no_ one thinks
it was excited by Socialists. It was just thieves and vagabonds; and the
amount of excitement from the Socialists is also clear. I was interested
to hear from Sir U. Shuttleworth that it has been the custom of late
years to enter into communication with the promoters of working men’s
gatherings; and, if they themselves considered they could keep order, to
leave it to them; and you would notice the workmen mentioned having told
off 500 marshals, as if they felt themselves in charge; and from the
very first they warned Hyndman and Co. off the ground. Of course Sir U.
is retained for the Government; and I hear from others that a force of
police _is_ always ready, or I conclude ought to be; but it is nice to
feel in what way the working men themselves are trusted. I wonder what
Edmund would say as to prosecuting Hyndman. My impulse would be for
doing so. All seems very quiet now, and people say it is as safe as it
is after a railway accident. It has seemed a very strange week in
London. We had a very successful Berthon St. party. Ld. and Lady Wolmer
came, and he was such a help at the door. I rarely saw such courtesy,
firmness, tact, sympathy, and care shown among strangers.... We had a
C.O.S. meeting at the Davenport Hills’ yesterday. Mr. Pell was in the
chair, and I spoke; it seemed so strange, being there without Edmund and
you. One felt as if it were unnatural and almost wrong. Dear Mrs. Godwin
was there.... The meeting was very full.... You will have seen about the
huge relief fund formed at the Mansion House; it has reached £20,000. No
one seems to me really to believe in the exceptional distress. It is a
dreadful calamity, this fund being formed....
[Sidenote: CHARITY ORGANISATION MEETING]
I dined at the John Hollands’ on Wednesday, and met Sir U. Shuttleworth,
Bryce, and Mr. O’Connor Power. The former told me the impression was
that Gladstone would prepare his scheme, bring it in, be beaten, and
then go to the country.
FROM MIRANDA.
Octavia has left her letter unfinished for me to add something.... She
read such a very beautiful paper on Saturday.... I think people felt her
paper very much. She spoke with such feeling.
14 Nottingham Place,
January 17th, 1886.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
My affairs are going really well. We had a beautiful Hereford party;
Mrs. Macdonell’s children have got up a Christmas tree for poor
children, and they have let me send six children with Mrs. Read. I am so
glad. Miranda’s play of “Beauty and the Beast” is to be acted at St.
Christopher’s. Col. Maurice’s lecture at Southwark is on Friday, and our
dance at Bts. Court. There was a meeting at the Mansion House yesterday
about Home Arts and industries, and the use of the Board Schools for
classes for them, for singing and recreation ... many working men have
offered their help as teachers. To-morrow is the C.O.S. annual meeting.
I mean to go; there may be unpopularity and difficulty and one ought to
be there, tho’ it is a Monday.[96] Deptford is slow, and silence is
perhaps best; I can’t help thinking the sound work we are putting into
it must be telling. The snow was a _great_ difficulty last week, it
melted and then froze, leaving three inches of ice in the gutters, which
blocked them; the houses were partly flooded, and much of our
expenditure on internal repairs will have to be done again. The tenants
were very hopeless and listless; but, strange to say, _not_ angry or
ill-tempered. I do get very fond of them, when I am among them. Bts.
Court is _most_ flourishing.... There has been a trial about Cross
Bones,[97] and it is decided that they may NOT build. I had a funny
interesting visit from Mr. T. who represents the lady who offers the
£1,000 for houses; it is absolutely at my disposal; now I have to find
houses to replace those the Commissioners will pull down. I met the
Bishop of London, the other day, at an exhibition of the people’s own
work. Mr. Tanner[98] is brimful of energy, and the assistant secretary
very capable.
[Sidenote: A DANCE WITH THE TENANTS]
14 Nottingham Place, W.
February 7th, 1886.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
We had a most triumphantly successful party at Southwark. It was a huge
number, tho’ it was only half our tenants. Mrs. J. Marshall came and her
band, and they did play so beautifully, and we had musical chairs, and
Sir Roger. The hall had been decorated by the Kyrle and looked very
pretty. Miss Johnson and Miss Tait brought the loveliest flowers in
pots, tulips, red, white and yellow, cyclamen, etc. Miss Barter had sent
a hamper of oranges.... Lord S. came looking _very_ clean and prim. I
set him soon to bring some very dusty chairs and so broke the formality;
and he was soon waltzing away with one of the tenants to the merry tune
the band was playing. He said most decidedly, in going away, that no one
had enjoyed it more than he, and that he hoped I should ask him to the
second. The Bishop wrote very warmly, but couldn’t come. He is thinking
of selling London House, and going to live in Clerkenwell to be near the
poor. Miss J. and Miss I. were delightful among their people, and W. was
helping heartily. I invited the Ashmores, our new superintendents at
Berthon Street.... On Wednesday we have a party at Berthon Street, and I
want Ashmore to take the lead. Miss H. is a great success. A. and I
decide that no one was ever so happy here. She seems to pick up like a
flower you put in water. She can do everything, and is strong on the
human, artistic, and gardening sides....
14 Nottingham Place,
February 21st, 1886.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
... Even if there is distress, this miserable huge fund, which can be
used for nothing radical, won’t help.... We had a very successful dance
at St. Christopher’s. Dr. Longstaff came and was the life and soul of
the party. We had a very poor man, named Pearce, who lives in our houses
in Bell Street, and belongs to Mrs. J. Marshall’s band. He plays the
violin and reads beautifully, and is very glad to earn a small sum by
playing, and we feel the violin a great help. Mrs. Martin,[99] from
Burley, is living at 3 Adspar Street.... She sent me a most affectionate
message. Miranda is succeeding delightfully in Horace Street, her
gentleness is winning all hearts....
14, Nottingham Place, W.
February 28th, 1886.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
[Sidenote: FAILURE OF MANSION HOUSE FUND]
The Mansion House Fund, its terrible mistakes and failures, have
occupied us a great deal. Mr. Alford has taken up the matter strongly,
and, tho’ _deeply_ deploring the fund, has undertaken to administer it
in his parish and St. Mark’s. He has a very good Committee. Miranda and
I attended the first meeting. I hear that the working men on the
Committees, especially those who represent the Oddfellows and Foresters,
are the greatest help in the only four parishes where any order is
attempted. As a rule, the most utter confusion prevails; and the crowd
of regular roughs awes some into giving soup tickets! So low have we got
with a fund, the only excuse for which is that the distress has reached
a higher class than ever would apply! Men in work are getting the relief
unknown. Vestrymen and publicans initial papers, which are treated like
cheques which must be honoured. People who ought to have £5 have 3_s._
tickets, and tickets are sold for drink. Five Committees meet in one
room to decide cases, the only data being statements written by clerks
from applicant’s dictation. The City Missionary at Deptford says that,
if the money had been thrown into the sea, it would have been better.
Perhaps you saw Shipton’s magnificent answer refusing to co-operate, and
that of the Engineers’ Trade Society. The Mansion House refused £2,000
to the Beaumont Trustees for laying out gardens, etc.; and the £1,000
they did give was not enough, and has had to be returned. Lord
Brabazon’s money seems the only portion of the fund which is doing good.
Everyone is praying for the fund to be exhausted. I am _therefore_, and
therefore only, thinking of getting the Kyrle to accept money for labour
for Sayes Court and St. George’s, if they can be now put in hand.
Miranda is delightful among the poor people. She remembers all their
wants and knows their characters. It is quite delightful having her as a
link with Paradise Place and Horace Street.... Miss Hogg is charming,
and so valuable among the people. One gets quite human links with the
tenants now in her part. We are all much occupied with a family named
C——, man in full work at £1 a week, rent 5_s._ 6_d._, seven children,
the eldest still at school, and the wife able to do nothing but see to
them.... I hope you will have some real Italian spring before you come
back.
August 8th, 1886.
TO MIRANDA ABOUT A TENANT IN B—— COURT.
Mrs. P. had been out in the yard with her baby just before, well and
cheerful, and she suddenly burst out crying that it was dead; and,
indeed, its eyes were glazing over, and it looked half dead. I said a
warm bath at once; but someone cried, “The doctor,” on which she tore
down the street with it in her arms, quite mad. I sent Sam Moore after
her, the only person I could find; and was left alone with two almost
babies and the house. I filled and put on kettles, borrowed tub and
extemporised sponge and blanket. When they came back they said the
doctor had ordered a warm bath. Mrs. C. and Mrs. R. helped nicely, and
we left little Albert happily asleep and better.
Loch Maree,
September 18th, 1886.
TO HER MOTHER.
I received Miranda’s telegram with grand news of the passing of the
Heath Bill. I do really think that makes it nearly sure that we shall
have 50 acres saved, and every acre saved makes the saving of others
more likely. Did you hear of Charles’s[100] enormous energy when he saw
the Bill was coming on? He _ran_ from Crockham Hill to Westerham in
twenty-seven minutes to catch the train. I wonder if a letter I wrote
was sent to _The Times_.
February 12th, 1887.
FROM MIRANDA TO MISS HARRIS.
I went with Octavia yesterday to see the piece of ground that the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners have given for the garden. It is a larger
piece than I had expected, and is in the midst of poor people’s houses.
It will be a boon. At present it is in a deplorable state—covered with
rubbish, and with an empty warehouse on it, and high back walls on each
side. Lord Ducie told his wife he thought it “the most unpromising piece
of ground that he had ever seen.” But all the more delightful will it be
to get trees, grass, and water there. Thou knows that Lady Ducie has
promised all the money for the laying out, and O. is now busy planning a
large hall near the garden, to be available for parties, classes, etc.
She thinks that she can arrange it so as to keep several cottages still
standing (always her great wish in this time of huge blocks), if the
Commissioners will let her lease the site that she wishes for. She has
thoroughly interested their surveyor in her plan.
[Sidenote: DEATH OF MR. SHAEN]
14, Nottingham Place,
March 4th, 1887.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
I gather that you have not seen the terribly sad news which reached me
yesterday about dear Mr. Shaen. He is gone from us, and in a moment. I
think of the girls and Mrs. Shaen, but I cannot help feeling, too, how
irreparable is such a loss of a friend of nearly thirty years’ standing,
who never failed in noble and wise counsel, and to whose judgment nearly
all the work I ever did has owed so much. And one was so sure, not only
of his wisdom and generosity, but of his kindness. It is a heavy blow.
14, Nottingham Place, W.,
March 15th, 1887.
TO MISS SHAEN.
DEAREST MAGGIE,
Looking back on Mr. Shaen’s life as I remember it, and his character, as
I saw it, nothing is to me so wonderful as the tenderness and the
silence of it. The pity and the chivalry were quite infinite; and the
expression of them was absolutely in deeds only. Then, I should think,
there never was a more entire truth of nature than his; no shadow of lie
or equivocation could sully it. Hence, I think, the purity of his
nature. Amid the noisy and shallow philanthropy we see around us, how
the silent service of a life stands out! The memory of it is a
possession for ever; and there is a rebuke to our faithlessness in the
memory of his faith that the only thing was the right thing. How poor
all these words seem! but, believe me, they come with a love that will
last on, and on which you may count.—I am
Your affte. old friend,
OCTAVIA HILL.
The laying out as a garden of the Quaker Burial Ground.
14, Not. Pl., W.
Sunday, March 15th.
TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
Miss Y. and I went down to Quaker St. yesterday. The ground seems nicely
finished.... Mrs. W. was very full of joy about it—said she thought it
would save the children from accidents; the streets were so crowded with
drays, and children could play in the garden till parents or elders
fetched them. She said it had been crowded with children when the man
was painting there. Mr. W. came in while we were there. He said he had
hoped for some little opening (ceremony), but added, “it is a small
thing,” in a voice that showed it was anything but that to them. He said
quite cheerfully he should just have their teachers, and march the
children in, and have a little chat about not throwing stones.
[Sidenote: RUSKIN’S INFLUENCE]
April 2nd, 1887.
TO SYDNEY COCKERELL.
I think your own instincts will guide you better than any words of mine,
when you come face to face with Ruskin, as to what to talk of with him.
It will be an event in your life, and I hope you may talk only of what
is bright as well as good. If you felt as if any mention of me, or the
work you help me in, comes under this head, I should be greatly
delighted; but, if it does not, then I am quite ready to leave all in
silence, till the time when the understanding of all we have all meant
here shall be perfect. Don’t risk clouds in your visit, _whatever you
do_....
January 18th, 1888.
I beg you in all advice and in all speech to think _only_ of what is
best for Mr. Ruskin; that is _really_ all that matters now.
June 8th, 1887.
TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL.
It is the greatest joy to me to think that you and Olive will be able to
be such a comfort to Mr. Ruskin, and that you will have the marvellous
joy of the intercourse with him. You will gather memories which life
will never take away.... It is a high honour and great blessing which
has come to you both. I believe you will walk worthily of it in the time
to come, with, as it were, your shoes put off your feet; for indeed the
spirit which will be near you will make the place holy ground.
April 24th, 1888.
It is very nice to have some news now and again from out of the
death-like silence into which the friendship of nearly a lifetime has
fallen. As you know, I believe the silence is the best for Mr. Ruskin;
and so, if you take my advice, you will not break it on that side.
Switzerland,
(July 2nd?) 1887.
TO HER MOTHER.
... I suppose Miranda will have told you of the offer of the ticket for
the Abbey[101] to me. I do not know whether it is the news coming here,
so far away; but it has impressed me rather. I cannot think why I, who
have done so simply, and at no great cost, just what lay before me,
should be singled out in this kind of way. I always feel as if I ought
to do, or be, something more, in order to deserve it. What a wonderful
state London seems to have been in about the Jubilee! What recollections
the Queen must have had crowding on her at the service!
March, 1887.
? TO THE SECRETARY OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS.
DEAR SIR,
You were interested about the plan of my taking charge of the houses
occupied by the poor on the Southwark Estate of the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners; and I am anxious you should know how matters stand, as I
feel as if the future of the people might be influenced by it. May I
therefore tell you the state of affairs?
[Sidenote: ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS]
I was ready to have taken over all the weekly property in Southwark in
the hands of the Commissioners. I was very willing to accept the
decision that I should begin with a third or so of it, which I took over
on May 5th. I was _most_ anxious to have leased to me the portion of the
ground allotted to the permanent housing of the poor, which was then
unlet to builders. It would have rendered the personal work that we are
doing among the tenants tenfold more useful, because we could have
continued our work among them, and kept them together, with some sense
of a corporate body, when the time came for the destruction of the
present houses, instead of their being either scattered or handed over
to the government of an ordinary builder.
The portion of the property handed over to our charge appears to be that
most directly doomed to destruction, either by rebuilding by others, or
by railways, or owing to its condition or situation. A large part of it,
we are told, may be wanted this month. The whole of the land for
rebuilding for the poor is now let.
The past cannot be helped. But I wonder if there is anything that you
can do, to render our work more permanent, or to let it lead up to
anything. I have written to Lord Stanhope and to Mr. Clutton to ask, in
another form, the same question. They are both most kind; but I am
anxious that you too should know the facts. Their past action makes me a
little fear that either they hardly grasp the importance of the point,
in their interest and pleasure in the new buildings, or, for some other
reason, they may not decide to hand over more to our care....
It is always difficult to take away paid work from those who have done
it in the old way well, in order to introduce another plan. Whether it
is right to do so, must depend on the excellence of the new plan, which
must be a matter of opinion.
In my estimation, of course, such personal work as my friends and I can
give is the only way to raise these people. We are quite willing to go
on, and do what little we can, till our tenants must leave us; but what
we do can never have the effect that it would have, if, in any way, we
could retain them longer near us.
What is still feasible is, first, to give over to our care some of the
weekly tenements which are in a more solid state of repair, and which
may therefore stand longer as cottages; and to give us these in addition
to what we have. So you would extend our work. So you would give us the
interest of more permanent work. So you would enable us, perhaps, to
keep near us some of the tenants to whom we feel it most important, when
our present houses are pulled down. Second, you might give me, or some
of my friends, a lease of some of your houses. As you (as Commissioners)
do not see your way to keep them under your own direct control, you
might lease them to us, though leases are hateful things.
I fancy the latter plan is the one to which Mr. Clutton sees his way;
but I hope that it will not be all that you will do. Several courts,
substantial in themselves, and not, as I understand, doomed to come
down, unless they interfere with larger schemes, remain in your hands.
If there is no valid reason, unknown to me, I hope these may be confided
to us.
[Sidenote: THE VAUXHALL GARDEN]
July ?, 1887.
FROM MIRANDA TO MRS. EDMUND MAURICE.
Our life is a very busy one, as usual. Octavia’s Sunday afternoons in
Red Cross Hall have been a wonderful success; the people have come in
increasing numbers, and seem to enjoy the music and the books and
illustrated papers greatly.... We are now very busy and interested about
another Open Space—a garden for Vauxhall. Fawcett’s house stands there;
and the large grounds of that and the adjoining house are offered for
sale for a public park.... Out of £44,000, all has been promised except
£7,000, and Octavia is working with all her might to get this together.
There is to be a meeting at Lambeth Palace at which Mrs. Fawcett and
Octavia are to speak. It is to us so strange that there is such
readiness to give large sums to technical schools, which could be built
at any time, and such backwardness about giving to Open Spaces, which,
if lost now, can never be recovered. Individuals are generous about it,
and certainly public interest in the question has grown; but corporate
bodies, with money to give at their discretion, seem slow to see the
advantages as yet.
July 17th, 1887.
MIRANDA TO MARY HARRIS.
Octavia and I were at such an interesting open-air meeting at South
Lambeth yesterday, to consider the advisability of buying The Lawn
(Fawcett’s old house and grounds), and the adjoining grounds, which are
large and beautifully wooded, to form a park for Lambeth. The speakers
were in waggons, the audience chiefly working men. The appreciation of
the Open Spaces was very striking. Octavia said how public opinion on
the subject has grown. The working men’s comments that we—being in the
crowd—heard, were very interesting. I must say I thought their spirit
very good. The only thing was they would not listen to any speakers on
the other side, tho’ asked to do so by their chairman—evidently a
popular man; and tho’ several of the nicest of the audience said, “Give
the man a hearing,” “Let’s hear the other side.” But the desire to gain
the park, even at the increase of rates, was _very_ strong, quite
unmistakable; also the warm way in which they responded to a speaker who
described the temptation to drink, of people who had been sleeping and
working in impure air, and who said that drink really took more strength
out than it put in. “What is the best tonic after labour?” asked he—and
many voices shouted “Fresh air, fresh air.” In fact I thought the
Temperance view of the question excited more enthusiasm than any other,
except the good the park would do to the children. “If we can’t enjoy it
often, the little uns will,” I heard one man say to another aside.
We are so delighted that the Hampstead Vestry has at last voted £20,000
for the purchase of Parliament Hill, by forty-five votes to ten. There
was a majority of twenty-one against it on the last occasion.
The Countess of Ducie’s, Tortworth Court,
August 21st, 1887.
OCTAVIA TO MISS ELLEN CHASE.
I hope that you and Miss Terry reached home safely.... You would find
some troublesome little scraps of paper about roofs. They were all I
could manage before I left. I write now to say that I must ask you to
use your own discretion on arriving at Queen Street. My own strong
impression is that the downpour probably arose from causes which
operated in all sorts of houses, poor and rich; that is, that the
arrangements were not calculated to meet such a storm as Wednesday’s. I
know the gutters, which run from back to front of houses in Queen
Street, are narrow. They are formed of flat pieces of zinc which are
turned up at the edges under the tiles—thus.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: REFORMS IN DEPTFORD]
If the bit which runs up is not wide, the water gets over the edge, if
the gutter becomes too full, and enters the house under the tile. For
this there is no remedy but a wider gutter. This I do not think it worth
while to put for exceptional storms. If this seems to you likely, or if
you can elicit from Moore that this is the cause, just say nothing;
order the plaster of ceilings, or other urgent internal work to be
reinstated. We can take our time as to further radical improvement. If,
however, the gutter is itself defective, or Moore distinctly asserts
that it is, and that he can patch it up for a few shillings, let him do
that; and the sooner the better.... If the E.’s are gone, get on swiftly
with repairs required for letting there. Tell French polisher at 33 that
we shall have a house when it is done up; but try not to show it, till
it looks pretty nice....
November 14th, 1887.
TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL.
You will remember well Mr. Cooper’s great gift to us, and will have seen
his death in Saturday’s paper.
I propose to put up to him a slab in the wall at Southwark, with these
words:—
“To the Honble. Henry Frederick Cooper, whom we never saw, whom we hoped
to see; but God took him to Himself before we could rejoice him by our
joy here, or thank him with audible words. November, 1887.”
If you think that any of the members of the club, poor or rich, would
_like_ to join in the memorial by giving a few pence, will you, when
occasion offers, ask them? The money I shall myself provide gladly; so
no one need help who doesn’t wish to. I write to you because you know
all about the gift, and how it helped us. Don’t say a word if you think
it better not; I leave it entirely to you.
I send you a copy of our Parliament Hill papers, ... but we have a huge
sum still to raise, upwards of £20,000; it comes in daily, and we mean
to carry it through; but we shall have to strain every nerve.
14, Nottingham Place, W.,
March 2nd, 1888.
TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL.
After an elaborate discussion of a difference between the members of the
club and the trustees, and suggestions for removing that difference, she
says they (the club members) are much the best judges of their own
business, and if they don’t think it does we must see if we can think of
a plan that they approve.
I am sorry that they didn’t approve of the scheme of our appointing a
representative. I didn’t mean it for want of confidence in them; but a
club is a changing body; who is to say which of its members will be
there and powerful for the whole time of the lease?
[Sidenote: PATH OVER SKIDDAW SECURED]
May 17th, 1888.
MIRANDA TO MRS. DURRANT.
We are very much interested just now in the defence of foot-paths in
Lake District. Some land-owners are shutting up old rights of way, and
preventing people from ascending the mountains. A very brave
clergyman,[102] a friend of Octavia’s, who has a parish at Keswick, has
taken up the defence of these rights, and is threatened with a very
expensive law-suit. He and the other “defenders” are appealing to the
public of the large towns to help with a guarantee fund. A meeting was
organised at Hampstead which turned out very successfully.
14, Nottingham Place,
July 14th, 1888.
TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL.
I hope you have had a very happy time away. What a wonderful thing it
seems your meeting Mr. Ruskin! and what an added interest it must have
been to all things, translating them into vivid and permanent life! A
memory that will be a possession for ever.
You will be interested to see the great Latrigg[103] success! I fancy
you may like to have a copy of the speech that I made at the perilous
juncture, now happily no more needed for distribution.
Larksfield,
September 2nd, 1888.
TO HER MOTHER.
I think of you, dearest Mama, a great deal, and long for the time when
you will be nearer us; meantime I never feel far away at all, I am so
sure of your sympathy about all I am thinking of and working for. I do
not think you know MacDonald’s “Diary of an Old Soul,” do you? There is
a very beautiful part of the August portion of it, about forgetfulness
of God, and His memory of us, and the nearness to Him, which I think you
would like. The last verse always naturally makes me think of you; but I
think there never could have been any mother, of whom it was so true
that she desired no personal nearness, so that she was entirely one with
what her children did. Your love seems entirely free from a touch of
self in it; and I always feel as near you away as when I am by you.
14, Nottingham Place, W.,
September 23rd, 1888.
TO HER MOTHER.
We had the first evening performance at Red Cross Hall yesterday of “The
Pilgrim’s Progress.” The hall looked beautiful, lighted up. It was a
moonlight night, and the cottages and gardens looked lovely. I found the
Committeemen very busy and happy and important. Everything was ready,
and the curtain up and looking very pretty. The hall was full. Many of
the workers were there and very happy. One of the Committeemen said to
me, “Considering the neighbourhood, you couldn’t have a more respectable
audience!” The MacDonalds seemed happy and busy. When the play began it
was most beautiful. It is wonderful they can act it as they do, with the
blanks in their company death has made; but it only seems to have made
it to them truer and more solemn. Some of the scenes—notably that in the
Valley of Humiliation—seem to me more beautiful than ever; so is the
grouping. Also, in the dark valley, when the little boy asks Great Heart
to draw his sword against the shadow, and he tells him that no weapon
avails there but All Prayer, and they fall into a short procession,
Great Heart first, alone, then the two couples of little boys in their
red and black little dresses, then Christiana and Mercy, the one in a
lovely old black dress, and the other in the fairest blue and white, and
they troop off chanting, all their hands raised. It is _most_ beautiful.
The working men, I hear, felt the play most. I fancy they followed the
sense best.
[Sidenote: PERFORMANCE OF PILGRIM’S PROGRESS]
14, Nottingham Place,
October 8th, 1888.
TO HER MOTHER.
As you say, the teachings of history show us the reason of our hope.
There is no subject so curious to me as this of the influence of
circumstances. In some cases their power, in others their powerlessness.
But that we must _all_ try to make them better with might and main,
there is no doubt. Then we may leave all trustfully in God’s hands....
I see no chance of even a day at my beloved thistles[104] as yet—am very
busy.
December 16th, 1888.
MIRANDA HILL TO ELLEN CHASE.
The Lawn Meeting went off very well yesterday at Lambeth Palace. The
speeches were capital, the Dean of Windsor’s (Miss Tait’s
brother-in-law), and Mrs. Fawcett’s, Mr. Edwards’s (the clergyman of the
district, who gave an interesting sketch of the movement) and finally
Mr. Lester’s. He is a working man, such an enthusiast for the garden,
and his was a delightful speech. He told us he was an engine-driver, and
was at work from 4 a.m. to 7 p.m. often. He said, I earn my bread by the
sweat of my brow and am quite agreeable to do so; but, when I come down
from that beastly stokehole, I do wish to breathe some of that pure air
that the Almighty has made for all men. I think his speech interested
people more than anybody else’s. Miss Octavia’s, of course, was
beautiful, and was valued, I think. Such a beautiful letter from
Florence Nightingale was read to the meeting. Miss O. says that of all
the people who have spoken or written on Open Spaces, F. Nightingale has
got most to the heart of the matter.
January 7th, 1889.
TO MIRANDA.
I thought you ought to know before the world that the meeting went
beautifully to-day. The men’s spirit was really beautiful, so
child-like, trustful and dignified. The Prince’s face is refined and
intellectual and full of power. His speech was beautiful, very simple
and very human, very fluently graceful. Mrs. Benson came, and she and
the Prince and the Archbishop were charmed with the men’s spirit, and
the naturalness of the whole little ceremony. They said they wished all
meetings were like that.... The great certainty as to the thoroughness
of the work they had themselves done, mingled with their interest in the
Royal visit, was delightful. They were most keen to have a card framed
in record of the day, and apologised for not thinking my scrubby little
thing quite good enough! I brought them up to the Archbishop telling
them he, not I, should sign it, whereupon they explained it was for
their “offspring,” that if, L. added “I should live, and he should live
to be King, I might tell them I’ve shaken hands with the Crown.” Also
they were very emphatic about the hearty good shake of the hand the
Prince had given each. “None of your shaking with one little finger. We
working men know a right good shake of the hand. We haven’t all been
dragged up,” said one man.
[Sidenote: BUSINESS VIRTUES]
January 13th, 1889.
TO A FRIEND WHO IS GIVING UP ART FOR BUSINESS.
I cannot but feel how hard the sacrifice is to you just now; but do you
know I really believe that the partnership will be the best. I remember
so well somewhat similar trial in my own early life, and how I seemed to
have to turn away from my ideal; and, by unexpected ways, I found, years
afterwards, that just the sacrifice I had to make brought me, by ways
that I did not know, to that ideal. Anyway, I think that the steady
work, combined with the love of all high things, will be so good.
Anyway, I pray that all may be ordered for you in your Father’s own way
for the very best.
South Lodge,
January 21st, 1889.
MRS. HILL TO MIRANDA.
Octavia told us a great deal about Charles’s election,[105] all very
pleasant. He seems to have won golden opinions by his directness, and
has been much touched by the extreme kindness he has received. The
election has been conducted on most honourable and courteous terms.
Charles says he never should have won but for Gertrude. Her wonderful
organising power told on the day. Octa. spoke at the evening meeting
(she seems no longer to dread speaking). Charles’s working men were
enthusiastic, waited till two o’clock in the morning to hear the result.
February 24th, 1889.
MIRANDA TO MISS ELLEN CHASE.
The other week Octavia made such a beautiful speech for the C.O.S. at
Fulham Palace (the Bishop of London’s). I went with her and Miss Yorke
to the meeting there. The old palace is so fine, stands in a park with a
moat, and looks as if it were far in the country—not near town at all.
There is an old hall, built in Henry VII.’s time (though altered in the
last century), with carved wooden screen and ancient full-length
portraits.... In _that_ hall the meeting was.... The Bishop—Temple
(former headmaster of Rugby), and his wife were very friendly. He gave a
most amusing account in his speech of how Miss O. had convinced him and
the other Ecclesiastical Commissioners that they were wrong, and she was
right, about certain points. He said: “When she had talked to us for
half an hour we were quite refuted. I never had such a beating in my
life! Consequently I feel great respect for her. So fully did she
convince us, that we not only did what she asked us on that estate, but
proceeded to carry out similar plans on other estates.” Miss O. supposes
he refers to the gift of land for Open Spaces, and is very pleased, not
having known before that those gifts were the result of her
representations to the Coms. about Red X Garden.
14, Nottingham Place,
February 18th, 1886.
TO MIRANDA.
I left Mama at South Lodge this morning. She read me yesterday some of
Miss Wedgwood’s book,[106] XI.—the chapter about the Romans and Law. It
reminded me a little of things that Mr. Maurice has said, but was very
different, too. I was much interested by what she says about the
influence of women, as shown in Homer and Virgil, and on to the Middle
Ages.
[Sidenote: THE PARLIAMENT HILL MOVEMENT]
March, 1889.
This letter requires a few words of explanation. The long negotiation
for securing the addition of Parliament Hill and the adjoining lands to
Hampstead Heath, begun in 1884, had just been concluded. They had
involved negotiations with the old Metropolitan Board of Works (which
expired just at the close of our negotiations), and with two ground
landlords, besides appeals to three vestries and to a large number of
private persons. The meeting, referred to in the following letter, was
held at Grosvenor House to decide on the question of the application of
the surplus of the funds raised by the Committee. Octavia and the
majority of the Committee were in favour of using the money for the
general movement for preserving open spaces; the proposal of the
amendment was to apply it to securing access from Kentish Town to the
Parliament Hill Fields.
TO MIRANDA.
The meeting was a great success, and very animated. It was very full.
There were fourteen reporters. The Duke of Westminster came up on
purpose to take the chair, but was ill, and could not.
Rogers Field moved his amendment _re_ the balance. Mr. Ewan Christian
seconded. There was great excitement, and I thought great sympathy with
the amendment. Mr. Baines replied, and then Edmund made a speech. We won
by 22 votes. Miss Yorke was very keen, and asked me with great eagerness
if she might vote, and did it _con amore_.
Sir Thos. Farrer[107] made a beautiful speech, referring to his memories
of Coleridge and Crabbe at Hampstead. Lord Hobhouse made a fine speech,
noble in tone, dwelling on London as a whole, and what it might be, if
municipal feeling drew together the great Londoners.
Mr. Saml. Hoare referred to the struggle that he remembered his father
had had, _nearly alone_, to save the Heath itself, and the growth of
public interest in the subject. He also spoke of Mr. Shaw-Lefevre’s help
in those early difficult days.
Maud[108] was there, and much interested in seeing Mr. Shaw-Lefevre,
whose face she much liked.
March 30th, 1889.
TO MIRANDA.
I had a pleasant Red Cross Committee, very. The gymnasium was in full
swing; such a number of great hulking youths, so energetic and happy.
Mr. B. was very much delighted, and said that it did so much good to
their physique. He says our sergeant is very good. The appeal for the
corps reads so well. Was it you who helped me with it? They propose a
meeting, with some military man in the chair, some afternoon at four
o’clock; and the local magnates invited by a card, to be sent out with a
printed appeal. The men were delighted with the idea, and seemed so full
of sympathy and go.
I thought you would like to see Miss Sewell’s nice letter. (Miss Sewell
was head of Southwark settlement.) I have, as you will know, replied
that we should not dream of any move till winter next year, and must be
guided by what we see best then.
I cannot tell whether dear old Marylebone or Southwark will seem the
most natural working centre, nor how far such a body as the Settlement
would leave you and me enough sense of home.
[Sidenote: RED CROSS CLUB]
April 26th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
Lady Nicholson has brought the loveliest panels, painted for Red Cross
Men’s Club. A large set of water lilies and other water plants, with
bulrushes and kingfishers for the centre over the mantelpiece. A panel
with swallows and wild roses, one with titmice, one with a wren, and one
with a robin. She has given me £2 for fixing and mounting. Will it not
be nice to have all that colour down in Southwark? Miranda and I were
there to-day, and found everything looking very nice. M. was much
pleased with Gable Cottages.... Miss Cons seems to be doing beautiful
work at the L. C. Council, inspiring everyone, and keeping herself in
the shade. She amused us much with her account of getting the Lawn
resolution passed.
M. and I went to-day to see Mr. Hoole[109] about some more cottages. He
was so nice. He is just going to Wells, where you know he is building
some cottages for the Bishop. I am so glad to have given him the
introduction. He seems to have been delighted with both Bishop and
beauty of town.
We have just received a basket of camellias from Hillside. I wish you
could see their lovely red and white. _That_ is what I am always wishing
about all things. However, the next best thing is the telling you about
them.
Crockham,
May 5th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I went to Waterloo and met Col. Maurice, and we proceeded to Blackheath.
A pleasant little victoria met us, and drove us to the Ranger’s Lodge, a
house which stands facing Blackheath, with a magnificent view of blue
distance; and on the London side such a space of blue quite studded with
steeples and towers. The Ranger’s Lodge is an old mansion, with great
panelled rooms all painted white, and hung with old portraits. The house
belongs to the Queen, and has been given to Lord Wolseley for his
lifetime. It belonged to Lord Chesterfield and to Lady Mayo. In what is
now the kitchen garden stood the house where Queen Caroline lived; and
her mother (the Duchess of Brunswick?) lived in the Ranger’s Lodge.
There are twenty acres of lovely old garden, with smooth lawns and great
cedar trees; and all round the grounds stretch the glades of Greenwich
Park; one magnificent avenue of chestnuts, in full young green,
specially delighted me. Lady W. is so delighted with the place.... I was
charmed with her, and with her simple, tall, pretty daughter; also I
liked Lord W. very much; and it was very interesting to hear him talk.
He has a very simple, reverent sort of interest in all sorts of
subjects, not his own.... They were all very kind and helpful to me....
Mindful of your words, I was out at 5½ this morning gardening in the
cool. The cuckoo and lark kept me glad company.
[Sidenote: PLEA FOR THE CADET CORPS]
Larksfield,
May 19th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I am specially interested about article by Col. Maurice, because I have
been thinking a great deal about the matter lately. Of course I realise
all you say about war; but I do not feel any doubts about the Volunteer
Cadet Corps; for at least three reasons. First, I do feel defensive war
right, if by sad necessity it should ever be called for, which I greatly
doubt. Secondly, because the volunteer movement seems to me a helpful
form for preparation to take, contrasting strongly with all standing
armies. And a peculiarly safe form for military preparation, because
(_sic_) men who have homes and professions and very varied sympathies
and thoughts do not seem to me the least likely to hurry us on to any
war. Thirdly, because I do so clearly see that exercise, discipline,
obedience, _esprit-de-corps_, camping out, manly companionship with the
gentlemen who will be their officers, will be to our Southwark lads the
very best possible education. I see very forcibly all Mr. Brooke says
about how it fills a great gap in their education; also I have watched
the marvellous growth in the few Queen Street young men who have joined
the militia. It has been the saving of them. I dare say a great deal
will be said about the movement, on its military side, that I shall in
no way agree with; but I a little stand aside, and let the good and true
men, who are helping, and whose scheme it really is, carry on, a little
by my strength, their own thoughtfully planned scheme; just as I might
lend a hall to Salvationists or others, who on the whole were teaching
what was right, tho’ I could not myself teach or agree with all they
say. Only in this case I am more heartily with my fellow workers. I do
feel that neither Mr. Barnett nor Mr. Brooke, who believe this movement
reaches a sort of boy that nothing else does, and reforms him, are
either of them men to desire to strengthen a love of war. In fact I see,
what they, who know the lads better than I, say most emphatically, that
all the temptations to war are entirely absent from these boys; they are
cowardly and wanting in power of endurance, wanting in power of standing
together, worshippers of money. All which the volunteer movement will
teach them will, I believe, be helpful. So at least they say, and so I
believe, and to a great degree have seen....
14 Nottingham Place, W.
May 29th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I am delighted to think of the day being fixed for seeing you. Miss
Yorke is not here to-night, but she would, I know, be _delighted_ for
you to come to Crockham. It is the very thing she has been building on,
and caring to try to plan for. I long to have you there in the silent,
cheerful little house, which catches every ray of sunlight there is, and
where, even tho’ we have no real garden, the buttercups, the broom, the
forget-me-nots, and the daisies are set like gems among the grass and
bright sorrel. Miss Yorke wants you to occupy the room that has access
to the balcony, so that we shall have a little out-door sitting-room
when we want to be absolutely quiet, and there are writing places and
things so that we can sit up there, indoors too, whenever we like. I
shall bring down needle work; and I am looking forward to reading and
work together; and it seems to me as if it would be so peaceful and so
bright. Miss Yorke has specially planned this little separate place,
because she knows how much you care for solitude, and how much I am
looking forward to a quiet time with you.... I could bring you any or
every meal you like. I hope to get the little carriage for some drives;
and I am counting the hours till you come. Still I know what a hermit
you sometimes like to be.
[Sidenote: MRS. HILL’S VISIT TO MISS YORKE]
... No dear Mama, I did not accept the post on the Commission.[110] Even
if I could have done the work (and I had no special qualifications),
there are others who can and will be pretty sure to do it; and I could
not have done it without losing some of the near intercourse with
tenants and workers, and even with you all, which makes work go so very
differently. I have so often in my life thought, in deciding about
taking work, of Marion Earle’s[111] words, when she leaves the work the
fashionable people are asking for, and goes to nurse the bed-ridden
comrade who is poor and out of sight,
“Let others miss me
Never miss me, God.”
I wrote a very careful letter, not a formal one, in reply, and have had
the enclosed very nice answer.
Larksfield,
June 9th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
It is strange how that word “Society” is always used for that which is
superficial and selfish, if not worse. I have not read Garibaldi’s life,
but one gets a vivid idea of it from Mrs. King’s “Disciples.”
Andy will tell you how busy I have been with references for Ossington.
It is refreshing to come in contact with such happy-looking neat little
homes.... I think a lark has built in our long grass; it returns so
often to the same spot; and two wood pigeons frequent the place and
perch on the small trees so prettily. The thistles are vigorous; every
time I cut them I expect next time they will be weaker, but they are
not; however, there are much more various things growing among them,
each of which delights me.
14, Nottingham Place, W.
June 17th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I put some heartsease in my dress, a thing I hardly ever do; but there
came into my mind that bit from the Pilgrim’s Progress when the shepherd
hands it to the pilgrims, and says it grows so well in the Valley of
Humility, and comes fresh from the king’s hand every day, and that it
increases by sharing. So, feeling a little low at having left you, I put
some in my dress and Margy’s brooch on, and sat down to write, a
formidable pile of letters being before me.... I am glad to have heard
the latter part of the beautiful life of Garibaldi.
[Sidenote: LARKSFIELD CROCKHAM HILL]
Larksfield,
June 23rd, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
Oh it is so lovely here! And it is so delightful to watch what nature
has done, now that she has taken possession of the ground, what lovely
and various things she has set in it. I have been thinking how you would
rejoice in it all. There are wild roses in the hedges, and many more
foxgloves than last year; then there are great beds of white clover, and
patches of golden lady’s finger, and spaces of buttercup and potentilla,
and tall large heads of crimson clover; the pink mallow is in bud; so is
the sweet brier; but all these and many more are set in great spaces of
the loveliest tall grass and sorrel, every colour from emerald green
thro’ gold and silver and grey and orange, to deep crimson and russet
brown, gradating one into another, and glowing as the wind bends the
tufts of grass.... I keep thinking how you would enjoy the wealth of
wild beauty all round; one just steps out of this window and finds
oneself on a sort of fraternal nearness with tall grass and stately and
lovely flower. Every one that passes away this year I have wished you
could see.
July 6th, 1889.
TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL.
You have chosen work which is not after your own heart, rightly, I
think; and I believe a great blessing will be on it. I think it will
give continuity and reality to a life that might else have gone like so
many artists’ lives into freaks and fancies, instead of into
practicable, serviceable work, glorified by imaginative thought, high
ideals, and artistic joy; but having chosen it, and the days in the main
being not what call out your full power, I hope you may have many
opportunities of real enjoyment; and for this you will need all spare
power, seeing that you will, I know, always be helping those nearest you
very abundantly....
I quite feel what you say as to the duty of seeing first to whatever
grows naturally out of your own work. It is certainly a first duty, and
I should be very wrong if, for the sake of retaining your help, I said a
word on the other side. You must discount anything I say with the
thought that I may be unconsciously biassed. In fact I hesitate to give
advice. For I think you will probably feel your way to what is right for
you to do, with a true instinct. But as you ask me, I will tell you one
or two things that strike me about it. I understand your letter to mean
that there are two kinds of work which might lead you to give up
Southwark. One is required for the conduct and development of the
business. On this clearly I can give no opinion at all. So far as the
Southwark work interferes with due performance of this, clearly it must
be given up; and all one would want you to remember is the importance of
rightly estimating the “due”; for, first, it must be generously and
liberally estimated; secondly it must be estimated with full care of
health; and thirdly there is a something, small it may be when one is
young, but still a something, which in every life may and should be
given to the help of the desolate people and districts out of one’s beat
or outside one’s work, which, rightly estimated, and deliberately
restricted, may be continued for years, and tell by its continuity, and
by the fact that the donor has gained weight and power in other fields.
Then, secondly, I read your letter to mean that you think such gift
should be to your own employés, and those nearer you. There I am
heartily with you; manifestly that is every man’s first duty, and all
the more so, because the coming in contact with them in business also
tests the wisdom and truth of the work and its spirit. So that I should
naturally have looked forward to that sphere, when the time comes....
I purposely say nothing of how _very_ much I should miss you. I do not
like to think of it.
[Sidenote: THE “BALLAD-MONGER”]
14, Nottingham Place.
July 20th, 1889.
TO MR. SYDNEY COCKERELL.
Miranda and I were delighted with the “Ballad-Monger,” and very much
interested to think of your pleasure in it. I think Gringoire very
wonderful. That artist’s nature, _alive_ from head to heels; that
exquisite appreciation of life full of joy, with the utter readiness to
lay it down, which comes from holding things, as it were, loosely,
because so much by the heart. It gave me a little the same feeling as
St. Francis, against whom everything was powerless, because he was above
pain, or loss, or death, or exile, or fear, and yet to whom every bird
was a brother. The utter unselfishness and dignity of Gringoire was
wonderful.
The King and Loyse were each beautiful in their way; the stillness of
Loyse when she is, as it were, drawn to him, was very beautiful. We both
have to thank you for a great pleasure.
July 21st, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I am probably going to Oxford on the 31st, to read a paper at the
opening meeting of the University Extension.... There will be 1,000
people; but I understand them to break up into sections. I do not know
what audience I shall have.... (Then follows an account of the
“Ballad-Monger”) ... I went to Red X Hall yesterday, as the police band
were to play.... It was very nice to talk to the men, and see their
great delight in watching the growth of the trees and creepers and
plants. Last night I dined at Lambeth; the Archbishop telegraphed to ask
me. He is to speak on the clause about children being employed in
theatres, in the House of Lords on Monday, and wanted to talk it over. I
had time to arm myself with a capital letter from Miss Davenport Hill;
and we had a very interesting, and I hope not useless, talk.
July 28th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
The great event of the week was the party at Arthur’s,[112] which was
beautiful. The grounds and gardens are lovely.... You will have heard of
the torrents of rain as we went to the station, but has anyone told you
that the sunlight was quite exquisite all the afternoon?—also that two
waggons and two carriages took, I should think, quite 100 people? No one
is one bit worse for the rain; they only seem to remember the kindness
and the beauty.... We have been making progress towards securing the
“Laundry” long desired by Miss Yorke.... Two ladies interested in the
neighbourhood have sent £200 to help the scheme forward.
Larksfield,
August 11th, 1889.
TO MIRANDA.
I was _so_ delighted to receive your sweet letter to-day; and quite like
a child in my delight at the bags. They are pretty, and the letters
exactly what I wanted. We pinned some paper ones on on Tuesday; and they
all came off, to the great confusion of the money. Also these nice
letters give a kind of individuality which I do like in a bag, or a cup,
or anything I use.
Larksfield,
August 15th, 1889.
TO MR. S. COCKERELL.
I have never thought the world’s regard, or money-success, or worldly
surroundings worth anything; and, when they fall away from us, I think
that it is often that they may leave us freer to enter into realities.
[Sidenote: OCTAVIA’S FEELING TO RUSKIN]
December 7th, 1889.
TO MR. S. COCKERELL.
I return the valuable letter with many thanks to Olive and to you for
letting me see it. I had not done so before. I think he is right about
the forgiveness; and I think it _is_ hard that any of you should expect
a man, who had the place in the world that he had when he knew me as a
girl of not fifteen years, should ask forgiveness. Not for a moment do I
myself wish it, unless in any way it took away from him the sadness of
the memory of what he did. I tell you, most distinctly, I do not think
there is very much in the whole affair; that is, when the imperfections
of earth and speech are taken away, I do not think that there will be
very much to clear up between Mr. Ruskin and me. Till that time, touched
as I am by your chivalrous kindness about it, I do seriously assure you
I think a merciful silence is at once the best and the most dignified
course, for him and me. What has the world to do with it, if we both
feel silence all that is needed? There are things that nothing will ever
put right in this world; and yet they don’t really touch what is right
for all worlds.
I say this for your sake, that you may feel at peace about it all; else
nothing would make me say anything. Be at peace about it. I am. I hope
Mr. Ruskin is. He may be. The thing is past, let us bury it; that which
the earth will not cover, which is not of it, lives in the Eternal
Kingdom; and in the thought of it earthly imperfection or mistakes seem
very small things.
14, Nottingham Place,
December 29th, 1889.
TO MARY HARRIS.
Thank you so very much for your loving letter. I was so very glad to
have news of you. I can imagine what an interest the Home is with all
its human work, now that books are more cut off from you than they were;
and I like to think, too, that you will have many round you who love you
and look to you.
I wonder what you thought of “Asolando.” I have hardly read it all yet.
I fear it does not strike me, that it contains any poems on a level with
his finest.
When I heard of Browning’s death, in the thought of his rejoining her, I
could not help remembering every word of the Epilogue to Fifine, which
is very beautiful.
I wish you could hear Mr. Alford’s sermons. No one, since Mr. Maurice,
seems to me so abundantly well worth hearing.
I have taken charge of nine new blocks of buildings, within a stone’s
throw of this house. We are buying some of the worst houses that remain
in Blank Court. I am preparing to build in Southwark, besides all the
old work. I have a grand band of workers; but one has much to do for and
with them.
[Sidenote: WORK IN DEPTFORD AND SOUTHWARK]
14, Nottingham Place, W.
April 28th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
Miranda and I concocted a letter to the owners of some dreadful
buildings in Southwark, which Miss J. is ready to undertake, asking to
have them put under her care. So we have sent that off; and it _may_
bear fruit now or later. Then we finished the accounts of Gable
Cottages, and despatched report of same. They are now complete! Then I
settled about the painting of Hereford Buildings. We had an evening’s
work over Income Tax returns.... To-morrow I collect in Deptford; Miss
Hogg is still away; also Mr. T. is sending his manager to talk over
matters with me. Then I have to go right up near Paddington to a Com. of
the Women’s University Settlement for Southwark. I hope much from the
link with them, and the members interest me much. They are all very
refined, highly cultivated (all, I fancy, have been at one of the
Universities), and _very_ young. I feel quite a veteran among them; and
they are so sweet and humble and keen to learn about the things out of
their old line of experience. I much delight in thinking one may link
their young life with the houses, and hall, and garden in Southwark.
It feels like home now Miranda is back again; and it is wonderful to see
the atmosphere of love and peace and duty she spreads round her....
My horse-chestnut and one oak grow quite tall; and all my ferns are in
little rolls waiting for a little more warmth and rain and time to
uncurl; the children’s voices (but soft and as if far away) are singing
hymns in the school; the birds are chirping, and a quiet sense of Sunday
calm is over things.
December 4th, 1889.
TO MISS M. SHAEN.
We are busy as usual, and all goes with wonderful success—a sort of
thorough, quiet, steady progress and life that often amazes me. The
great stir of strikes and free dinners and huge gifts, the excitement of
those who feel as if action now alone were beginning, and as if all had
to be rearranged, replanted, as it were, before it would grow, touches
us little; and in the steady friendship of old days, and slow but
definite improvement of tangible things in a few places, work goes
quietly forward as the years roll on. We are helped, no doubt, by the
wave of right hearty sympathy and sincere sense of duty now pervading
the educated classes, and largely helped; and from my heart I thank God
for it. But for the crude theories, I can only hope that many of them
will be exploded before they do real harm.
October 25th, 1889.
MIRANDA TO MARY HARRIS.
The _Nineteenth Century_ article brought Octavia several offers of
personal help—one which will be very valuable, I think. Professor
Tyndall sent her such a nice letter, full of sympathy with her article,
sending her £10, and saying if he were younger he would have offered
personal help himself.
Octavia has had so many interviews and so much to decide—a letter from
Chief Commissioner about police, interview with Ecclesiastical
Commissioners’ man of business about land for more cottages near Red
Cross, which she _much_ hopes to get; interview with Lord Rowton about
some housing scheme; besides the Red Cross entertainments beginning next
week, which all want arranging for. I am glad to say that she has handed
over to me a good deal of the correspondence.
[Sidenote: WORK FOR ECCLESIASTICAL COMMISSIONERS]
November 12th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I thought you would be glad to know that I had a _most_ satisfactory
interview with Mr. De Bock Porter, who represents the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners. Times are indeed changed! I saw him about what I call
White Cross Cottages; and I think they will meet me most kindly about
it. It will be very delightful if I can get six cottages there. It will
widen the passage, preserve light and sight of sky in the garden, make
the approach to the hall by night much better, besides providing six
more pleasant homes for people near the garden. I am so very happy about
it! I also had a very useful talk about the whole estate.
Larksfield,
September 15th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
I am very much interested about my Southwark building, which is
progressing well; think of having twenty more such cottages as Red Cross
ones! Our working men are so happy about the arrangements for the
“Pilgrim’s Progress.”[113] Each of them will have fifty tickets to give
away. They are also very busy and important with the various things with
which they can help. It is very pretty and cheering to see them.
14, Nottingham Place, W.,
June 29th, 1889.
TO HER MOTHER.
... It is time for closing the books for the half-year; and I have been,
therefore, specially busy this week, but I hope now we are through the
worst of it. On Monday I went to poor Deptford. Lady Maud is doing
beautifully; and it is pleasant to follow Miss Hogg’s good work; but
poor Miss —— seems to have done badly indeed. I hardly knew to what a
miserable extent she depended on me. It is very unfortunate. On Tuesday
we had our first Ossington collection. In the afternoon I went to the
University Settlement meeting. They had borrowed Red Cross Hall. It was
a sad meeting ... but I hope now _that_ difficulty is over. Mr. Loch
came and spoke beautifully, striking the right note, and pointing out
the practical question before the meeting. They _all_ responded except
Miss ——. It was a splendid body of women, young, thoughtful, refined,
and earnest, and looking so pretty. The head of Lady Margaret’s Hall,
Miss Wordsworth, was there; and Mrs. H. Sidgwick and FitzJames Stephen’s
daughter spoke so well.... The Lochs had never seen the Hall, Garden and
Cottages before, and were so delighted. After the meeting we had tea and
talk. Miss Gladstone was there and very friendly. It all kept me so late
there that I saw the garden in its evening fullness; all the people
seemed enjoying it.