HAPPY ENGLAND
AGENTS IN AMERICA
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK
[Illustration: 1. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
_Fradelle & Young._
H. Allingham (signature)]
Beautiful Britain
HAPPY ENGLAND
BY HELEN ALLINGHAM,
R.W.S. TEXT
BY MARCUS B. HUISH
ROYAL CANADIAN EDITION
LIMITED TO 1000 SETS
[Illustration]
CAMBRIDGE CORPORATION, LIMITED
MONTREAL
A. & C. BLACK, LONDON
Contents
CHAPTER I
Page
Our Title 1
CHAPTER II
Paintresses, Past and Present 13
CHAPTER III
The Artist's Early Work 27
CHAPTER IV
The Artist's Surrey Home 67
CHAPTER V
The Influence of Witley 81
CHAPTER VI
The Woods, the Lanes, and the Fields 98
CHAPTER VII
Cottages and Homesteads 118
CHAPTER VIII
Gardens and Orchards 151
CHAPTER IX
Tennyson's Homes 168
CHAPTER X
Mrs. Allingham and her Contemporaries 181
List of Illustrations
1. Portrait of the Artist _Frontispiece_
CHAPTER I
Owner of Original. Facing page
2. In the Farmhouse Garden _Mrs. Allingham_ 8
3. The Market Cross, Hagbourne _Mrs. E. Lamb_ 10
4. The Robin _Mr. S. H. S. Lofthouse_ 12
CHAPTER II
5. Milton's House, Chalfont _Mrs. J. A. Combe_ 22
St. Giles
6. The Waller Oak, Coleshill _Mrs. Allingham_ 24
7. Apple and Pear Blossom _Mr. Theodore Uzielli_ 26
CHAPTER III
8. The Young Customers _Miss Bell_ 50
9. The Sand-Martins' Haunt _Miss Marian James_ 54
10. The Old Men's Gardens, _Mr. C. Churchill_ 56
Chelsea Hospital
11. The Clothes-Line _Miss Marian James_ 58
12. The Convalescent _Mr. R. S. Budgett_ 60
13. The Goat Carriage _Sir F. Wigan, Bt._ 62
14. The Clothes-Basket _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 62
15. In the Hayloft _Miss Bell_ 64
16. The Rabbit Hutch _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 64
17. The Donkey Ride _Sir J. Kitson, Bt., M.P._ 66
CHAPTER IV
18. A Witley Lane _Mr. H. W. Birks_ 74
19. Hindhead from Witley Common _The Lord Chief Justice of 76
England_
20. In Witley Village _Mr. Charles Churchill_ 76
21. Blackdown from Witley Common _Lord Davey_ 78
22. The Fish-Shop, Haslemere _Mr. A. E. Cumberbatch_ 80
CHAPTER V
23. The Children's Tea _Mr. W. Hollins_ 86
24. The Stile _Mr. Alfred Shuttleworth_ 88
25. "Pat-a-Cake" _Sir F. Wigan, Bt._ 90
26. Lessons _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 90
27. Bubbles _Mr. H. B. Beaumont_ 92
28. On the Sands--Sandown, _Mrs. Francis Black_ 92
Isle of Wight
29. Drying Clothes _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 94
30. Her Majesty's Post Office _Mr. H. B. Beaumont_ 94
31. The Children's Maypole _Mrs. Dobson_ 96
CHAPTER VI
32. Spring on the Kentish Downs _Mrs. Beddington_ 102
33. Tig Bridge _Mr. E. S. Curwen_ 104
34. Spring in the Oakwood _Mrs. Allingham_ 106
35. The Cuckoo _Mr. A. Hugh Thompson_ 106
36. The Old Yew Tree _Mrs. Allingham_ 108
37. The Hawthorn Valley, Brocket _Lord Mount-Stephen_ 108
38. Ox-eye Daisies, near _Mrs. Allingham_ 110
Westerham, Kent
39. Foxgloves _Mrs. C. A. Barton_ 112
40. Heather on Crockham Hill, Kent _Mrs. Allingham_ 114
41. On the Pilgrims' Way " " 114
42. Night-jar Lane, Witley _Mr. E. S. Curwen_ 116
CHAPTER VII
43. Cherry-tree Cottage, _The Lord Chief Justice of 130
Chiddingfold England_
44. Cottage at Chiddingfold _Mr. H. L. Florence_ 130
45. A Cottage at Hambledon _Mr. F. Pennington_ 132
46. In Wormley Wood _Mrs. Le Poer Trench_ 134
47. The Elder Bush, Brook Lane, _Mr. Marcus B. Huish_ 136
Witley
48. The Basket Woman _Mrs. E. F. Backhouse_ 138
49. Cottage at Shottermill, _Mr. W. D. Houghton_ 140
near Haslemere
50. Valewood Farm _Mrs. Allingham_ 142
51. An Old House at West Tarring " " 142
52. An Old Buckinghamshire House _Mr. H. W. Birks_ 142
53. The Duke's Cottage _Mr. Maurice Hill_ 144
54. The Condemned Cottage _Mrs. Allingham_ 144
55. On Ide Hill _Mr. E. W. Fordham_ 146
56. A Cheshire Cottage, _Mr. A. S. Littlejohns_ 146
Alderley Edge
57. The Six Bells _Mr. George Wills_ 148
58. A Kentish Farmyard _Mr. Arthur R. Moro_ 150
CHAPTER VIII
59. Study of a Rose Bush _Mrs. Allingham_ 156
60. Wallflowers _Mr. F. G. Debenham_ 156
61. Minna _The Lord Chief Justice of 158
England_
62. A Kentish Garden _Mrs. Allingham_ 158
63. Cutting Cabbages _Mr. E. W. Fordham_ 160
64. In a Summer Garden _Mr. W. Newall_ 160
65. By the Terrace, Brocket Hall _Lord Mount-Stephen_ 162
66. The South Border _Mrs. Allingham_ 164
67. The South Border _W. Edwards, Jun._ 164
68. Study of Leeks _Mrs. Allingham_ 166
69. The Apple Orchard _Mrs. Dobson_ 166
CHAPTER IX
70. The House, Farringford _Mr. J. Mackinnon_ 176
71. The Kitchen-Garden, Farringford _Mrs. Combe_ 176
72. The Dairy, Farringford _Mr. Douglas Freshfield_ 176
73. One of Lord Tennyson's _Mr. E. Marsh Simpson_ 176
Cottages, Farringford
74. A Garden in October, Aldworth _Mr. F. Pennington_ 176
75. Hook Hill Farm, Freshwater _Sir J. Kitson, Bt., M.P._ 176
76. At Pound Green, Freshwater _Mr. Douglas Freshfield_ 178
77. A Cottage at Freshwater Gate _Sir Henry Irving_ 178
CHAPTER X
78. A Cabin at Ballyshannon _Mrs. Allingham_ 196
79. The Fairy Bridges " " 198
80. The Church of Sta. Maria _Mr. C. P. Johnson_ 200
della Salute, Venice
81. A Fruit Stall, Venice " " 202
_The illustrations in this volume have been engraved and printed by the
Hentschel Colourtype Company._
Happy England
CHAPTER I
OUR TITLE
To choose a title that will felicitously fit the lifework of an artist
is no easy matter, especially when the product is a very varied one,
and the producer is disposed to take a modest estimate of its value.
In the present case the titles that have suggested themselves to one
or other of those concerned in the selection have not been few, and a
friendly contest has ensued over the desire of the artist on the one
hand to belittle, and of author and publishers on the other to fairly
appraise, both the ground which her work covers and the qualities which
it contains.
The first point to be considered in giving the volume a name was
that it forms one of a series in which an endeavour--and, to judge
by public appreciation, a successful endeavour--has been made to
illustrate in colour an artist's impressions of a particular country:
as, for instance, Mr. John Fulleylove's of the Holy Land, Mr. Talbot
Kelly's of Egypt, and Mr. Mortimer Menpes's of Japan. Now Mrs.
Allingham throughout her work has been steadfast in her adherence to
the portrayal of one country only. She has never travelled or painted
outside Europe, and within its limits only at one place outside the
British Isles, namely, Venice. Even in her native country her work has
been strictly localised. Neither Scotland nor Wales has attracted her
attention since the days when she first worked seriously as an artist,
and Ireland has only received a scanty meed, and that due to family
ties. England, therefore, was the one and only name under which her
work could be included within the series, and that has very properly
been assigned to it.
But it will be seen that to this has been added the prefix "Happy,"
thereby drawing down the disapprobation of certain of the artist's
friends, who, recognising her as a resident in Hampstead, have
associated the title with that alliterative one which the northern
suburbs have received at the hands of the Bank Holiday visitant; and
they facetiously surmise that the work may be called "'Appy England! By
a Denizen of 'Appy 'Ampstead!"
But a glance at the illustrations by any one unacquainted with Mrs.
Allingham's residential qualifications, and by the still greater number
ignorant even of her name (for these, in spite of her well-earned
reputation, will be the majority, taking the countries over which this
volume will circulate), must convince such an one that the "England"
requires and deserves not only a qualifying but a commendatory prefix,
and that the best that will fit it is that to which the artist has now
submitted.
We say a "qualifying" title, because within its covers we find only
a one-sided and partial view of both life and landscape. None of the
sterner realities of either are presented. In strong opposition to the
tendency of the art of the later years of the nineteenth century, the
baser side of life has been studiously avoided, and nature has only
been put down on paper in its happiest moods and its pleasantest array.
Storm and stress in both life and landscape are altogether absent.
We say, further, a "commendatory" title, because as regards both life
and landscape it is, throughout, a mirror of halcyon days. If sickness
intrudes on a single occasion, it is in its convalescent stage; if old
age, it is in a "Haven of Rest"; the wandering pedlar finds a ready
market for her wares, the tramp assistance by the wayside. In both life
and landscape it is a portrayal of youth rejoicing in its youth. For
the most part it represents childhood, and, if we are to believe Mr.
Ruskin, for the first time in modern Art; for in his lecture on Mrs.
Allingham at Oxford, he declared that "though long by academic art
denied or resisted, at last bursting out like one of the sweet Surrey
fountains, all dazzling and pure, you have the radiance and innocence
of reinstated infant divinity showered again among the flowers of
English meadows of Mrs. Allingham."
This healthiness, happiness, and joy of life, coupled with an idyllic
beauty, reveals itself in every figure in Mrs. Allingham's story, so
that even the drudgery of rural life is made to appear as a task to be
envied.
And the same joyous and happy note is to be found in her landscapes.
Every scene is
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
One feels that
Every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
Rain, wind, or lowering skies find no place in any of them, but each
calls forth the expression
What a day
To sun one and do nothing!
No attempt is made to select the sterner effects of landscape which
earlier English painters so persistently affected. With the rough
steeps of Hindhead at her door, the artist's feet have almost
invariably turned towards the lowlands and the reposeful forms of the
distant South Downs. Cottages, farmsteads, and flower gardens have been
her choice in preference to dales, crags, and fells.
And in so selecting, and so delineating, she has certainly catered for
the happiness of the greater number.
What does the worker, long in city pent, desire when he cries
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven?
And what does the banished Englishman oftenest turn his thoughts to,
even although he may be dwelling under aspects of nature which many
would think far more beautiful than those of his native land? Browning
in his "Home Thoughts from Abroad" gives consummate expression to the
homesickness of many an exile:--
Oh! to be in England
Now that April's there!
* * * * *
All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
The Buttercups, the little children's dower,
Far brighter than this gaudy melon flower!
And Keats also--
Happy is England! I could be content
To see no other verdure than its own,
To feel no other breezes than are blown
Through its tall woods, with high romances blent.
These, the poets' longings, suggested the prefix for which so lengthy
an apology has been made, and which, in spite of the artist's demur,
we have pressed upon her acceptance, confident that the public verdict
will be an acquittal against any charge either of exaggeration, or that
he who excuses himself accuses himself.
If an apology is due it is in respect of the letterpress. The necessity
of maintaining the size to which the public has been accustomed in the
series of which this forms a part, and of interleaving the numerous
illustrations which it contains, means the provision of a certain
number of words. Now an artist's life that has been passed amid such
pleasant surroundings as has that of Mrs. Allingham, cannot contain a
sufficiency of material for the purpose. Indulgence must, therefore, be
granted when it is found that much of the contents consists merely of
the writer's descriptions of the illustrations, a discovery which might
suggest that they were primarily the _raison d'être_ of the volume.
As regards the illustrations, a word must be said.
The remarkable achievements in colour reproduction, through what is
known as the "three-colour process," have enabled the public to be
placed in possession of memorials of an artist's work in a way that
was not possible even so recently as a year or two ago. Hitherto
self-respecting painters have very rightly demurred to any colour
reproductions of their work being made except by processes whose cost
and lengthy procedure prohibited quantity as well as quality. Mrs.
Allingham herself, in view of previous attempts, was of the same
opinion until a trial of the process now adopted convinced her to the
contrary. Now she is happy that a leap forward in science has enabled
renderings in little of her water-colours to be offered to thousands
who did not know them previously.
The water-colours selected for reproduction have been brought together
from many sources, and at much inconvenience to their owners. Both
artist and publishers ask me to take this opportunity of thanking
those whose names will be found in the List of Illustrations, for the
generosity with which they have placed the originals at their disposal.
It was Mrs. Allingham's wish that the illustrations should be placed
in order of date, and this has been done as far as possible; but this
and the following chapter being in a way introductory, it has been
deemed advisable to interleave them with three or four which do not
fall in with the rest as regards subject or locality. For reasons of
convenience the description of each drawing is not inserted in the
body, but at the end of the chapter in which it appears.
[Illustration:
2. IN THE FARMHOUSE GARDEN
_From the Water-colour in the possession of the Artist._
Painted 1903.]
A portrait of Vi, the daughter of the farmer at whose house in Kent
Mrs. Allingham stays.
Mrs. Allingham was tempted to take up again her disused practice of
portrait-painting, by the attraction of the combination of the yellow
of the child's hair and hat, the red of the roses, and the blue of the
distant hillside.
[Illustration:
3. THE MARKET CROSS, HAGBOURNE
_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mrs. E. Lamb._
Painted 1898.]
Berkshire, in spite of its notable places and situation, does not
boast of much in the way of county chronicles, and little can be
learnt by one whose sole resource is a Murray's _Guide_ concerning the
interesting village where the scene of this drawing is laid, for it is
there dismissed in a couple of lines.
Hagbourne, or Hagborne, is one of the many "bornes" which (in the
counties bordering on the Thames, as elsewhere) takes its Saxon affix
from one of the burns or brooks which find their way from thence into
the neighbouring river. It lies off the Great Western main line, and
its fine church may be seen a mile away to the southward just before
arriving at Didcot. This proximity to a considerable railway junction
has not disturbed much of its old-world character.
The buildings and the Cross, which make a delightful harmony in greys,
probably looked much the same when Cavalier and Puritan harried this
district in the Civil War, for with Newbury on one side and Oxford on
the other, they must oftentimes have been up and down this, the main
street of the village. The Cross has long since lost its meaning. The
folk from the countryside no longer bring their butter, eggs, and
farm produce for local sale. The villagers have to be content with
margarine, French eggs, and other foreign commodities from the local
"stores," and the Cross steps are now only of use for infant energies
to practise their powers of jumping from. So, too, the sun-dial on the
top, which does not appear to have ever been surmounted by a cross,
is now useless, for everybody either has a watch or is sufficiently
notified as to meal times by a "buzzer" at the railway works hard
by.
Mrs. Allingham says that most of her drawings are marked in her memory
by some local comment concerning them. In this case a bystander
sympathetically remarked that it seemed "a mighty tedious job," in
that of "Milton's House" that "it was a foolish little thing when
you began"--the most favourable criticism she ever encountered only
amounting to "Why, it's almost worth framing!"
[Illustration:
4. THE ROBIN
_From the Water-colour in the possession of Mr. S. H. S. Lofthouse._
Painted 1898.]
One of the simplest, and yet one of the most satisfying of Mrs.
Allingham's compositions.
It is clearly not a morning to stay indoors with needlework which
neither in size nor importance calls for table or chair. Besides,
at the cottage gate there is a likelier chance of interruption and
conversation with occasional passers-by. But, at no time numerous on
this Surrey hillside, these are altogether lacking at the moment,
and the pink-frocked maiden has to be content with the very mild
distraction afforded by the overtures of the family robin, who is
always ready to open up converse and to waste his time also in
manœuvres and pretended explorations over ground in her vicinity, which
he well knows to be altogether barren of provender.