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[Illustration: Juliana Horatia Ewing]
JULIANA HORATIA EWING
AND HER BOOKS.
BY
HORATIA K.F. EDEN
(_née_ GATTY).
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
LONDON: NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.
BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET.
NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG & CO.
[Published under the direction of the General Literature Committee.]
PREFACE.
In making a Selection from Mrs. Ewing's Letters to accompany her
Memoir, I have chosen such passages as touch most closely on her Life
and Books. I found it was not possible in all cases to give references
in footnotes between the Memoir and Letters; but as both are arranged
chronologically there will be no difficulty in turning from one to the
other when desirable.
The first Letter, relating Julie's method of teaching a Liturgical
Class, should be read with the remembrance that it was written
thirty-two years ago, long before the development of our present
Educational System; but it is valuable for the zeal and energy it
records, combined with the common incident of the writer being too ill
to appear at the critical moment of the Inspector's visit.
In a later letter, dated May 28, 1866, there are certain remarks about
class singing in schools, which are also out of date; but this is
retained as a proof of the keen sense of musical rhythm and accent
which my sister had, and which gave her power to write words for music
although she could play no instrument.
It is needless to add that none of the letters were intended for
publication; they were written to near relatives and friends _currente
calamo_, and are full of familiar expressions and allusions which may
seem trivial and uninteresting to ordinary readers. Those, however,
who care to study my sister's character I think cannot fail to trace
in these records some of its strongest features; her keen enjoyment of
the beauties of Nature,--her love for animals,--for her Home,--her
_lares_ and _penates_;--and her Friends. Above all that love of
GOD which was the guiding influence of everything she wrote
or did. So inseparable was it from her every-day life that readers
must not be surprised if they find grave and gay sentences following
each other in close succession.
Julie's sense of humour never forsook her, but she was never
malicious, and could turn the laugh against herself as readily as
against others. I have ventured to insert a specimen of her fun, which
I hope will not be misunderstood. In a letter to C.T.G., dated March
13, 1874, she gave him a most graphic picture of the erratic condition
of mind that had come over an old friend, the result of heavy
responsibilities and the rush of London life. Julie had no idea when
she wrote that these symptoms were in reality the subtle beginnings of
a breakdown, which ended fatally, and no one lamented the issue more
truly than she; but she could not resist catching folly as it flew,
and many of the flighty axioms became proverbial amongst us.
The insertion of Bishop Medley's reply to my sister, April 8, 1880,
needs no apology, it is so interesting in itself, and gives such a
charming insight into the friendship between them.
The _List of Mrs. Ewing's Works_ at the end of the Memoir was made
before the publication of the present Complete Edition; this,
therefore, is only mentioned in cases where stories have not been
published in any other book form. All Mrs. Ewing's Verses for
Children, Hymns, and Songs for Music (including two left in MS.) are
included in Volume IX.
Volume XVII., "Miscellanea," contains _The Mystery of a bloody hand_
together with the Translated Stories, and other papers that had
appeared previously in Magazines.
In Volume XII., "Brothers of Pity and other tales of men and beasts,"
will be found _Among the Merrows_; _A Week spent in a Glass Pond_;
_Tiny's Tricks and Toby's Tricks_; _The Owl in the Ivy Bush, and
Owlhoots I. II._, whilst _Sunflowers and a Rushlight_ has been put
amongst the Flower Stories in Vol. XVI., _Mary's Meadow_, etc.
The Letter with which this volume concludes was one of the last that
Julie wrote, and its allusion to Gordon's translation seemed to make
it suitable for the End.
After her death the readers of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ subscribed
enough to complete the endowment (£1000) of a Cot at the Convalescent
Home of the Hospital for Sick Children, _Cromwell House, Highgate_.
This had been begun to our Mother's memory, and was completed in the
joint names of _Margaret Gatty_ and _Juliana Horatia Ewing_. So
liberal were the subscriptions that there was a surplus of more than
£200, and with this we endowed two £5 annuities in the _Cambridge Fund
for Old Soldiers_--as the "Jackanapes," and "Leonard" annuities.
Of other memorials there are the marble gravestone in Trull
Churchyard, and Tablet in Ecclesfield Church, both carved by Harry
Hems, of Exeter, and similarly decorated with the double lilac
primrose,--St. Juliana's flower.
In Ecclesfield Church there is also a beautiful stained window, given
by her friend, Bernard Wake. The glass was executed by W.F. Dixon, and
the subject is Christ's Ascension. Julie died on the Eve of Ascension
Day.
Lastly, there is a small window of jewelled glass, by C.E. Kempe, in
St. George's Church, South Camp, Aldershot, representing St. Patrick
trampling on a three-headed serpent, emblematical of the powers of
evil, and holding the Trefoil in his hand--a symbol of the Blessed
Trinity.
HORATIA K.F. EDEN.
_Rugby_, 1896.
* * * * *
_The frontispiece portrait of Mrs. Ewing is a photogravure produced by
the Swan Electric Engraving Company, from a photograph taken by Mr.
Fergus of Largs_.
_All the other illustrations are from Mrs. Ewing's own drawings,
except the tail-piece on p. 136. This graceful ideal of Mrs. Ewing's
grave was an offering sent by Mr. Caldecott shortly after her death,
with his final illustrations to "Lob Lie-by-the-Fire."_
All hearts grew warmer in the presence
Of one who, seeking not his own,
Gave freely for the love of giving,
Nor reaped for self the harvest sown.
Thy greeting smile was pledge and prelude
Of generous deeds and kindly words:
In thy large heart were fair guest-chambers,
Open to sunrise and the birds!
The task was thine to mould and fashion
Life's plastic newness into grace;
To make the boyish heart heroic,
And light with thought the maiden's face.
* * * * *
O friend! if thought and sense avail not
To know thee henceforth as thou art,
That all is well with thee forever,
I trust the instincts of my heart.
Thine be the quiet habitations,
Thine the green pastures, blossom sown,
And smiles of saintly recognition,
As sweet and tender as thy own.
Thou com'st not from the hush and shadow
To meet us, but to thee we come;
With thee we never can be strangers,
And where thou art must still be home.
"_A Memorial_."--JOHN G. WHITTIER.
JULIANA HORATIA EWING
AND HER BOOKS.
PART I.
In Memoriam
JULIANA HORATIA,
SECOND DAUGHTER OF THE REV. ALFRED GATTY, D.D.,
AND MARGARET, HIS WIFE,
BORN AT ECCLESFIELD, YORKSHIRE, AUGUST 3, 1841,
MARRIED JUNE 1, 1867, TO ALEXANDER EWING,
MAJOR, A.P.D.,
DIED AT BATH, MAY 13, 1885,
BURIED AT TRULL, SOMERSET, MAY 16, 1885.
I have promised the children to write something for them about their
favourite story-teller, Juliana Horatia Ewing, because I am sure they
will like to read it.
I well remember how eagerly I devoured the Life of my favourite
author, Hans Christian Andersen; how anxious I was to send a
subscription to the memorial statue of him, which was placed in the
centre of the public Garden at Copenhagen, where children yet play at
his feet; and, still further, to send some flowers to his newly-filled
grave by the hand of one who, more fortunate than myself, had the
chance of visiting the spot.
I think that the point which children will be most anxious to know
about Mrs. Ewing is how she wrote her stories. Did she evolve the
plots and characters entirely out of her own mind, or were they in any
way suggested by the occurrences and people around her?
The best plan of answering such questions will be for me to give a
list of her stories in succession as they were written, and to tell,
as far as I can, what gave rise to them in my sister's mind; in doing
this we shall find that an outline biography of her will naturally
follow. Nearly all her writings first appeared in the pages of _Aunt
Judy's Magazine_, and as we realize this fact we shall see how close
her connection with it was, and cease to wonder that the Magazine
should end after her death.
Those who lived with my sister have no difficulty in tracing
likenesses between some of the characters in her books, and many whom
she met in real life; but let me say, once for all, that she never
drew "portraits" of people, and even if some of us now and then caught
glimpses of ourselves under the clothing she had robed us in, we only
felt ashamed to think how unlike we really were to the glorified
beings whom she put before the public.
Still less did she ever do with her pen, what an artistic family of
children used to threaten to do with their pencils when they were
vexed with each other, namely, to "draw you ugly."
It was one of the strongest features in my sister's character that she
"received but what she gave," and threw such a halo of sympathy and
trust round all with whom she came in contact, that she seemed to see
them "with larger other eyes than ours," and treated them accordingly.
On the whole, I am sure this was good in its results, though the pain
occasionally of awakening to disappointment was acute; but she
generally contrived to cover up the wound with some new shoot of Hope.
On those in whom she trusted I think her faith acted favourably. I
recollect one friend whose conscience did not allow him to rest quite
easy under the rosy light through which he felt he was viewed, saying
to her: "It's the trust that such women as you repose in us men, which
makes us desire to become more like what you believe us to be."
If her universal sympathy sometimes led her to what we might hastily
consider "waste her time" on the petty interests and troubles of
people who appeared to us unworthy, what were we that we should blame
her? The value of each soul is equal in God's sight; and when the
books are opened there may be more entries than we now can count of
hearts comforted, self-respect restored, and souls raised by her help
to fresh love and trust in God,--ay, even of old sins and deeds of
shame turned into rungs on the ladder to heaven by feet that have
learned to tread the evil beneath them. It was this well-spring of
sympathy in her which made my sister rejoice as she did in the
teaching of the now Chaplain-General, Dr. J.C. Edghill, when he was
yet attached to the iron church in the South Camp, Aldershot. "He
preaches the gospel of Hope," she said--hope that is in the latent
power which lies hidden even in the worst of us, ready to take fire
when touched by the Divine flame, and burn up its old evil into a
light that will shine to God's glory before men. I still possess the
epitome of one of these "hopeful" sermons, which she sent me in a
letter after hearing the chaplain preach on the two texts: "What
meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God"; "Awake, thou that
sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
It has been said that, in his story of "The Old Bachelor's Nightcap,"
Hans Andersen recorded something of his own career. I know not if this
be true, but certainly in her story of "Madam Liberality"[1] Mrs.
Ewing drew a picture of her own character that can never be surpassed.
She did this quite unintentionally, I know, and believed that she was
only giving her own experiences of suffering under quinsy, in
combination with some record of the virtues of One whose powers of
courage, uprightness, and generosity under ill-health she had always
regarded with deep admiration. Possibly the virtues were
hereditary,--certainly the original owner of them was a relation; but,
however this may be, Madam Liberality bears a wonderfully strong
likeness to my sister, and she used to be called by a great friend of
ours the "little body with a mighty heart," from the quotation which
appears at the head of the tale.
[Footnote 1: Reprinted in "A Great Emergency and other Tales."]
The same friend is now a bishop in another hemisphere from ours, but
he will ever be reckoned a "great" friend. Our bonds of friendship
were tied during hours of sorrow in the house of mourning, and such as
these are not broken by after-divisions of space and time. Mrs. Ewing
named him "Jachin," from one of the pillars of the Temple, on account
of his being a pillar of strength at that time to us. Let me now quote
the opening description of Madam Liberality from the story:--
It was not her real name; it was given to her by her brothers and
sisters. People with very marked qualities of character do
sometimes get such distinctive titles to rectify the indefiniteness
of those they inherit and those they receive in baptism. The
ruling peculiarity of a character is apt to show itself early in
life, and it showed itself in Madam Liberality when she was a
little child.
Plum-cakes were not plentiful in her home when Madam Liberality was
young, and, such as there were, were of the "wholesome"
kind--plenty of breadstuff, and the currants and raisins at a
respectful distance from each other. But, few as the plums were,
she seldom ate them. She picked them out very carefully, and put
them into a box, which was hidden under her pinafore.
When we grown-up people were children, and plum-cake and
plum-pudding tasted very much nicer than they do now, we also
picked out the plums. Some of us ate them at once, and had then to
toil slowly through the cake or pudding, and some valiantly
dispatched the plainer portion of the feast at the beginning, and
kept the plums to sweeten the end. Sooner or later we ate them
ourselves, but Madam Liberality kept her plums for other people.
When the vulgar meal was over--that commonplace refreshment
ordained and superintended by the elders of the household--Madame
Liberality would withdraw into a corner, from which she issued
notes of invitation to all the dolls. They were "fancy written" on
curl-papers, and folded into cocked hats.
Then began the real feast. The dolls came and the children with
them. Madam Liberality had no toy tea-sets or dinner-sets, but
there were acorn-cups filled to the brim, and the water tasted
deliciously, though it came out of the ewer in the night-nursery,
and had not even been filtered. And before every doll was a flat
oyster-shell covered with a round oyster-shell, a complete set of
complete pairs which had been collected by degrees, like old family
plate. And, when the upper shell was raised, on every dish lay a
plum. It was then that Madam Liberality got her sweetness out of
the cake. She was in her glory at the head of the inverted
tea-chest, and if the raisins would not go round the empty
oyster-shell was hers, and nothing offended her more than to have
this noticed. That was her spirit, then and always. She could "do
without" anything, if the wherewithal to be hospitable was left to
her.
When one's brain is no stronger than mine is, one gets very much
confused in disentangling motives and nice points of character. I
have doubted whether Madam Liberality's besetting virtue were a
virtue at all. Was it unselfishness or love of approbation,
benevolence or fussiness, the gift of sympathy or the lust of
power, or was it something else? She was a very sickly child, with
much pain to bear, and many pleasures to forego. Was it, as the
doctors say, "an effort of nature" to make her live outside
herself, and be happy in the happiness of others?
All my earliest recollections of Julie (as I must call her) picture
her as at once the projector and manager of all our nursery doings.
Even if she tyrannized over us by always arranging things according to
her own fancy, we did not rebel, we relied so habitually and entirely
on her to originate every fresh plan and idea; and I am sure that in
our turn we often tyrannized over her by reproaching her when any of
what we called her "projukes" ended in "mulls," or when she paused for
what seemed to us a longer five minutes than usual in the middle of
some story she was telling, to think what the next incident should be!
It amazes me now to realize how unreasonable we were in our
impatience, and how her powers of invention ever kept pace with our
demands. These early stories were influenced to some extent by the
books that she then liked best to read--Grimm, Andersen, and
Bechstein's fairy tales; to the last writer I believe we owed her
story about a Wizard, which was one of our chief favourites. Not that
she copied Bechstein in any way, for we read his tales too, and would
not have submitted to anything approaching a recapitulation; but the
character of the little Wizard was one which fascinated her, and even
more so, perhaps, the quaint picture of him, which stood at the head
of the tale; and she wove round this skeleton idea a rambling romance
from her own fertile imagination.
I have specially alluded to the picture, because my sister's artistic
as well as literary powers were so strong that through all her life
the two ever ran side by side, each aiding and developing the other,
so that it is difficult to speak of them apart.[2]
[Footnote 2: Letter, May 14, 1876.]
Many of the stories she told us in childhood were inspired by some fine
woodcuts in a German "A B C book," that we could none of us then read, and
in later years some of her best efforts were suggested by illustrations,
and written to fit them. I know, too, that in arranging the plots and
wording of her stories she followed the rules that are pursued by artists
in composing their pictures. She found great difficulty in preventing
herself from "overcrowding her canvas" with minor characters, owing to her
tendency to throw herself into complete sympathy with whatever creature she
touched; and, sometimes,--particularly in tales which came out as serials,
when she wrote from month to month, and had no opportunity of correcting
the composition as a _whole_,--she was apt to give undue prominence to
minor details, and throw her high lights on to obscure corners, instead of
concentrating them on the central point. These artistic rules kept her
humour and pathos,--like light and shade,--duly balanced, and made the
lights she "left out" some of the most striking points of her work.
[Illustration: POST MILL, DENNINGTON.]
But to go back to the stories she told us as children. Another of our
favourite ones related to a Cavalier who hid in an underground passage
connected with a deserted Windmill on a lonely moor. It is needless to
say that, as we were brought up on Marryat's _Children of the New
Forest_, and possessed an aunt who always went into mourning for King
Charles on January 30, our sympathies were entirely devoted to the
Stuarts' cause; and this persecuted Cavalier, with his big hat and
boots, long hair and sorrows, was our best beloved hero. We would
always let Julie tell us the "Windmill Story" over again, when her
imagination was at a loss for a new one. Windmills, I suppose from
their picturesqueness, had a very strong attraction for her. There
were none near our Yorkshire home, so, perhaps, their rarity added to
their value in her eyes; certain it is that she was never tired of
sketching them, and one of her latest note-books is full of the old
mill at Frimley, Hants, taken under various aspects of sunset and
storm. Then Holland, with its low horizons and rows of windmills, was
the first foreign land she chose to visit, and the "Dutch Story," one
of her earliest written efforts, remains an unfinished fragment;
whilst "Jan of the Windmill" owes much of its existence to her early
love for these quaint structures.
It was not only in the matter of fairy tales that Julie reigned
supreme in the nursery, she presided equally over our games and
amusements. In matters such as garden-plots, when she and our eldest
sister could each have one of the same size, they did so; but, when it
came to there being _one_ bower, devised under the bending branches of
a lilac bush, then the laws of seniority were disregarded, and it was
"Julie's Bower." Here, on benches made of narrow boards laid on
inverted flower-pots, we sat and listened to her stories; here was
kept the discarded dinner-bell, used at the funerals of our pet
animals, and which she introduced into "The Burial of the Linnet."[3]
Near the Bower we had a chapel, dedicated to St. Christopher, and a
sketch of it is still extant, which was drawn by our eldest sister,
who was the chief builder and caretaker of the shrine; hence started
the funeral processions, both of our pets and of the stray birds and
beasts we found unburied. In "Brothers of Pity"[4] Julie gave her hero
the same predilection for burying that we had indulged in.
[Footnote 3: "Verses for Children, and Songs for Music."]
[Footnote 4: "Brothers of Pity, and other Tales of Beasts and Men."]
She invented names for the spots that we most frequented in our walks,
such as "The Mermaid's Ford," and "St. Nicholas." The latter covered a
space including several fields and a clear stream, and over this
locality she certainly reigned supreme; our gathering of violets and
cowslips, or of hips and haws for jam, and our digging of earth-nuts
were limited by her orders. I do not think she ever attempted to
exercise her prerogative over the stream; I am sure that, whenever we
caught sight of a dark tuft of slimy _Batrachospermum_ in its clear
depths, we plunged in to secure it for Mother, whether Julie or any
other Naiad liked it or no! But "the splendour in the grass and glory
in the flower" that we found in "St. Nicholas" was very deep and real,
thanks to all she wove around the spot for us. Even in childhood she
must have felt, and imparted to us, a great deal of what she put into
the hearts of the children in "Our Field."[5] To me this story is one
of the most beautiful of her compositions, and deeply characteristic
of the strong power she possessed of drawing happiness from little
things, in spite of the hindrances caused by weak health. Her fountain
of hope and thankfulness never ran dry.
[Footnote 5: "A Great Emergency, and other Tales."]
Madam Liberality was accustomed to disappointment.
From her earliest years it had been a family joke, that poor Madam
Liberality was always in ill-luck's way.
It is true that she was constantly planning; and, if one builds
castles, one must expect a few loose stones about one's ears now
and then. But, besides this, her little hopes were constantly being
frustrated by Fate.
If the pigs or the hens got into the garden, Madam Liberality's bed
was sure to be laid waste before any one came to the rescue. When
a picnic or a tea-party was in store, if Madam Liberality did not
catch cold, so as to hinder her from going, she was pretty sure to
have a quinsy from fatigue or wet feet afterwards. When she had a
treat, she paid for the pleasurable excitement by a head-ache, just
as when she ate sweet things they gave her toothache.
But, if her luck was less than other people's, her courage and good
spirits were more than common. She could think with pleasure about
the treat when she had forgotten the head-ache.
One side of her face would look fairly cheerful when the other was
obliterated by a flannel bag of hot camomile flowers, and the whole
was redolent of every possible domestic remedy for toothache, from
oil of cloves and creosote to a baked onion in the ear. No
sufferings abated her energy for fresh exploits, or quenched the
hope that cold, and damp, and fatigue would not hurt her "this
time."
In the intervals of wringing out hot flannels for her quinsy she
would amuse herself by devising a desert island expedition, on a
larger and possibly a damper scale than hitherto, against the time
when she should be out again.
It is a very old simile, but Madam Liberality really was like a
cork rising on the top of the very wave of ill-luck that had
swallowed up her hopes.
Her little white face and undaunted spirit bobbed up after each
mischance or malady as ready and hopeful as ever.
Some of the indoor amusements over which Julie exercised great
influence were our theatricals. Her powers of imitation were strong;
indeed, my mother's story of "Joachim the Mimic" was written, when
Julie was very young, rather to check this habit which had early
developed in her. She always took what may be called the "walking
gentleman's" part in our plays. Miss Corner's Series came first, and
then Julie was usually a Prince; but after we advanced to farces, her
most successful character was that of the commercial traveller,
Charley Beeswing, in "Twenty Minutes with a Tiger." "Character" parts
were what she liked best to take, and in later years, when aiding in
private theatricals at Aldershot Camp, the piece she most enjoyed was
"Helping Hands," in which she acted Tilda, with Captain F.G. Slade,
R.A., as Shockey, and Major Ewing as the blind musician.
The last time she acted was at Shoeburyness, where she was the guest
of her friends Colonel and Mrs. Strangways, and when Captain
Goold-Adams and his wife also took part in the entertainment. The
terrible news of Colonel Strangways' and Captain Goold-Adams' deaths
from the explosion at Shoebury in February 1885, reached her whilst
she was very ill, and shocked her greatly; though she often alluded to
the help she got from thinking of Colonel Strangways' unselfishness,
courage, and submission during his last hours, and trying to bear her
own sufferings in the same spirit. She was so much pleased with the
description given of his grave being lined with moss and lilac
crocuses, that when her own had to be dug it was lined in a similar
way.
But now let us go back to her in the Nursery, and recall how, in spite of
very limited pocket-money, she was always the presiding Genius over
birthday and Christmas-tree gifts; and the true 'St. Nicholas' who filled
the stockings that the "little ones" tied, in happy confidence, to their
bed-posts. Here the description must be quoted of Madam Liberality's
struggles between generosity and conscientiousness;--
It may seem strange that Madam Liberality should ever have been
accused of meanness, and yet her eldest brother did once shake his
head at her and say, "You're the most meanest and the _generousest_
person I ever knew!" And Madam Liberality wept over the accusation,
although her brother was then too young to form either his words or
his opinions correctly.
But it was the touch of truth in it which made Madam Liberality
cry. To the end of their lives Tom and she were alike, and yet
different in this matter. Madam Liberality saved, and pinched, and
planned, and then gave away, and Tom gave away without the pinching
and the saving. This sounds much handsomer, and it was poor Tom's
misfortune that he always believed it to be so; though he gave away
what did not belong to him, and fell back for the supply of his own
pretty numerous wants upon other people, not forgetting Madam
Liberality. Painful experience convinced Madam Liberality in the
end that his way was a wrong one, but she had her doubts many times
in her life whether there were not something unhandsome in her own
decided talent for economy. Not that economy was always pleasant to
her. When people are very poor for their position in life, they can
only keep out of debt by stinting on many occasions when stinting
is very painful to a liberal spirit. And it requires a sterner
virtue than good nature to hold fast the truth that it is nobler to
be shabby and honest than to do things handsomely in debt.
But long before Tom had a bill even for bull's-eyes and Gibraltar
rock, Madam Liberality was pinching and plotting, and saving bits
of coloured paper and ends of ribbon, with a thriftiness which
seemed to justify Tom's view of her character. The object of these
savings was twofold,--birthday presents and Christmas-boxes. They
were the chief cares and triumphs of Madam Liberality's childhood.
It was with the next birthday or the approaching Christmas in view
that she saved her pence instead of spending them, but she so
seldom had any money that she chiefly relied on her own ingenuity.
Year by year it became more difficult to make anything which would
"do for a boy;" but it was easy to please Darling, and "Mother's"
unabated appreciation of pin-cushions, and of needle-books made out
of old cards, was most satisfactory.
Equally characteristic of Julie's moral courage and unselfishness is
the incident of how Madam Liberality suffered the doctor's assistant
to extract the tooth fang which had been accidentally left in her jaw,
because her mother's "fixed scale of reward was sixpence for a tooth
without fangs, and a shilling for one with them," and she wanted the
larger sum to spend on Christmas-tree presents.
When the operation was over,
Madam Liberality staggered home, very giddy, but very happy.
Moralists say a great deal about pain treading so closely on the
heels of pleasure in this life, but they are not always wise or
grateful enough to speak of the pleasure which springs out of pain.
And yet there is a bliss which comes just when pain has ceased,
whose rapture rivals even the high happiness of unbroken health;
and there is a keen pleasure about small pleasures hardly earned,
in which the full measure of those who can afford anything they
want is sometimes lacking. Relief is certainly one of the most
delicious sensations which poor humanity can enjoy!
The details which can be traced in Julie's letters after undergoing
the removal of her tonsils read very much like extracts from Madam
Liberality's biography. During my sister's last illness she spoke
about this episode, and said she looked back with surprise at the
courage she had exercised in going to London alone, and staying with
friends for the operation. Happily, like Madam Liberality, she too
earned a reward in the relief which she appreciated so keenly; for,
after this event, quinsies became things of the past to her, and she
had them no more.
On April 14, 1863, she wrote--
"MY DEAREST MOTHER,--I could knock my head off when I
think that _I_ am to blame for not being able to send you word
yesterday of the happy conclusion of this affair!! * * I cannot
apologize enough, but assure you I punished myself by two days'
suspense (a letter had been misdirected to the surgeon which
delayed his visit). I did intend to have asked if I might have
spent a trifle with the flower-man who comes to the door here, and
bring home a little adornment to my flower-box as a sugar-plum
after my operation * * now I feel I do not deserve it, but perhaps
you will be merciful!
"It was a tiresome operation--so choking! He (Mr. Smith, the
surgeon) was about an hour at it. He was more kind and considerate
than can be expressed; when he went I said to him, 'I am very much
obliged to you, first for telling me the truth, and secondly for
waiting for me.' For when I got 'down in the mouth,' he waited, and
chatted till I screwed up my courage again. He said, 'When people
are reasonable it is barbarous to hurry them, and I said you were
that when I first saw you.'"
April 16, 1863. "Thank you so much for letting me bring home a
flower or two! I do love them so much."
As Julie emerged from the nursery and began to take an interest in our
village neighbours, her taste for "projects" was devoted to their
interests. It was her energy that established a Village Library in
1859, which still remains a flourishing institution; but all her
attempts were not crowned with equal success. She often recalled, with
great amusement, how, the first day on which she distributed tracts as
a District Visitor, an old lady of limited ideas and crabbed
disposition called in the evening to restore the tract which had been
lent to her, remarking that she had brought it back and required no
more, as--"My 'usband does _not_ attend the public-'ouse, and we've no
unrewly children!"
My sister gave a series of Lessons[6] on the Liturgy in the
day-school, and on Sunday held a Class for Young Women at the
Vicarage, because she was so often prevented by attacks of quinsy from
going out to school; indeed, at this time, as the mother of some of
her ex-pupils only lately remarked, "Miss Julie were always cayling."
[Footnote 6: Letter, August 19, 1864.]
[Illustration: SOUTH SCREEN, ECCLESFIELD CHURCH.]
The first stories that she published belong to this so-to-speak
"parochial" phase of her life, when her interests were chiefly divided
between the nursery and the village. "A Bit of Green" came out in the
_Monthly Packet_ in July 1861; "The Blackbird's Nest" in August
1861; "Melchior's Dream" in December 1861; and these three tales, with
two others, which had not been previously published ("Friedrich's
Ballad" and "The Viscount's Friend"), were issued in a volume called
"Melchior's Dream and other Tales," in 1862. The proceeds of the first
edition of this book gave "Madam Liberality" the opportunity of
indulging in her favourite virtue. She and her eldest sister, who
illustrated the stories, first devoted the "tenths" of their
respective earnings for letterpress and pictures to buying some
hangings for the sacrarium of Ecclesfield Church, and then Julie
treated two of her sisters, who were out of health, to Whitby for
change of air. Three years later, out of some other literary earnings,
she took her eldest brother to Antwerp and Holland, to see the city of
Rubens' pictures, and the land of canals, windmills, and fine
sunsets.[7] The expedition had to be conducted on principles which
savoured more of strict integrity and economy than of comfort; for
they went in a small steamer from Hull to Antwerp, but Julie feasted
her eyes and brain on all the fresh sights and sounds she encountered,
and filled her sketch-book with pictures.
[Footnote 7: Letters, September 1865.]
[Illustration: IN OWNING A GOOD TURN]
"It was at Rotterdam," wrote her brother, "that I left her with her
camp-stool and water-colours for a moment in the street, to find
her, on my return, with a huge crowd round her, and before--a baker's
man holding back a blue veil that would blow before her eyes--and she
sketching down an avenue of spectators, to whom she kept motioning
with her brush to stand aside. Perfectly unconscious she was of _how_
she looked, and I had great difficulty in getting her to pack up and
move on. Every quaint Dutch boat, every queer street, every peasant in
gold ornaments, was a treasure to her note-book. We were very happy!"
I doubt, indeed, whether her companion has experienced greater
enjoyment during any of his later and more luxurious visits to the
same spots; the _first_ sight of a foreign country must remain a
unique sensation.
It was not the intrinsic value of Julie's gifts to us that made them
so precious, but the wide-hearted spirit which always prompted them.
Out of a moderate income she could only afford to be generous from her
constant habit of thinking first for others, and denying herself. It
made little difference whether the gift was elevenpence
three-farthings' worth of modern Japanese pottery, which she seized
upon as just the right shape and colour to fit some niche on one of
our shelves, or a copy of the _edition de luxe_ of "Evangeline," with
Frank Dicksee's magnificent illustrations, which she ordered one day
to be included in the parcel of a sister, who had been judiciously
laying out a small sum on the purchase of cheap editions of standard
works, not daring to look into the tempting volume for fear of
coveting it. When the carrier brought home the unexpectedly large
parcel that night, it was difficult to say whether the receiver or the
giver was the happier.
My turn came once to be taken by Julie to the sea for rest (June
1874), and then one of the chief enjoyments lay in the unwonted luxury
of being allowed to choose my own route. Freedom of choice to a
wearied mind is quite as refreshing as ozone to an exhausted body.
Julie had none of the petty tyranny about her which often mars the
generosity of otherwise liberal souls, who insist on giving what they
wish rather than what the receiver wants.
I was told to take out Bradshaw's map, and go exactly where I desired,
and, oh! how we pored over the various railway lines, but finally
chose Dartmouth for a destination, as being old in itself, and new to
us, and really a "long way off." We were neither of us disappointed;
we lived on the quay, and watched the natives living in boats on the
harbour, as is their wont; and we drove about the Devon lanes, all
nodding with foxgloves, to see the churches with finely-carved screens
that abound in the neighbourhood, our driver being a more than
middle-aged woman, with shoes down at heel, and a hat on her head.
She was always attended by a black retriever, whom she called "Naro,"
and whom Julie sketched. I am afraid, as years went on, I became
unscrupulous about accepting her presents, on the score that she
"liked" to give them!--and I only tried to be, at any rate, a gracious
receiver.
[Illustration: "THE LADY WILL DRIVE!"]
There was one person, however, whom Julie found less easy to deal
with, and that was an Aunt, whose liberality even exceeded her own.
When Greek met Greek over Christmas presents, then came the tug of war
indeed! The Aunt's ingenuity in contriving to give away whatever plums
were given to her was quite amazing, and she generally managed to
baffle the most careful restrictions which were laid upon her; but
Julie conquered at last, by yielding--as often happens in this life!
"It's no use," Julie said to me, as she got out her bit of cardboard
(not for a needle-book this time!)--"I must make her happy in her own
way. She wants me to make her a sketch for somebody else, and I've
promised to do it."
The sketch was made,--the last Julie ever drew,--but it remained
amongst the receiver's own treasures. She was so much delighted with
it, she could not make up her mind to give it away, and Julie laughed
many times with pleasure as she reflected on the unexpected success
that had crowned her final effort.
I spoke of "Melchior's Dream" and must revert to it again, for though
it was written when my sister was only nineteen, I do not think she
has surpassed it in any of her later _domestic_ tales. Some of the
writing in the introduction may be rougher and less finished than she
was capable of in after-years, but the originality, power, and pathos
of the Dream itself are beyond doubt. In it, too, she showed the
talent which gives the highest value to all her work--that of teaching
deep religious lessons without disgusting her readers by any approach
to cant or goody-goodyism.
During the years 1862 to 1868, we kept up a MS. magazine, and, of
course, Julie was our principal contributor. Many of her poems on
local events were genuinely witty, and her serial tales the backbone
of the periodical. The best of these was called "The Two Abbots: a
Tale of Second Sight," and in the course of it she introduced a hymn,
which was afterwards set to music by Major Ewing and published in
Boosey's Royal Edition of "Sacred Songs," under the title "From
Fleeting Pleasures."
The words of this hymn, and of two others which she wrote for the use
of our Sunday school children at Whitsuntide in the respective years
1864 and 1866 have all been published in vol. ix. of the present
Edition of her works.
Some years after she married, my sister again tried her hand at
hymn-writing. On July 22, 1879, she wrote to her husband:
"I think I will finish my hymn of 'Church of the Quick and Dead,' and
get thee to write a processional tune. The metre is (last verse)--
'Church of the Quick and Dead,
Lift up, lift up thy head,
Behold the Judge is standing at the door!
Bride of the Lamb, arise!
From whose woe-wearied eyes
My God shall wipe all tears for evermore.'"
My sister published very few of the things which she wrote to amuse us
in our MS. "Gunpowder Plot Magazine," for they chiefly referred to
local and family events; but "The Blue Bells on the Lea" was an
exception. The scene of this is a hill-side near our old home, and Mr.
Andre's fantastic and graceful illustrations to the verses when they
came out as a book, gave her full satisfaction and delight.
In June 1865 she contributed a short parochial tale, "The Yew Lane
Ghosts," to the _Monthly Packet_, and during the same year she gave a
somewhat sensational story, called "The Mystery of the Bloody
Hand,"[8] to _London Society_. Julie found no real satisfaction in
writing this kind of literature, and she soon discarded it; but her
first attempt showed some promise of the prolific power of her
imagination, for Mr. Shirley Brooks, who read the tale impartially,
not knowing who had written it, wrote the following criticism: "If the
author has leisure and inclination to make a picture instead of a
sketch, the material, judiciously treated, would make a novel, and I
especially see in the character and sufferings of the Quaker,
previous to his crime, matter for effective psychological treatment.
The contrast between the semi-insane nature and that of the hypocrite
might be powerfully worked up; but these are mere suggestions from an
old craftsman, who never expects younger ones to see things as
veterans do."
[Footnote 8: Vol. xvii. "Miscellanea."]
In May 1866 my Mother started _Aunt Judy's Magazine for Children_, and
she called it by this title because "Aunt Judy" was the nickname we
had given to Julie whilst she was yet our nursery story-teller, and it
had been previously used in the titles of two of my Mother's most
popular books, "Aunt Judy's Tales" and "Aunt Judy's Letters."
After my sister grew up, and began to publish stories of her own, many
mistakes occurred as to the authorship of these books. It was supposed
that the Tales and Letters were really written by Julie, and the
introductory portions that strung them together by my Mother. This was
a complete mistake; the only bits that Julie wrote in either of the
books were three brief tales, in imitation of Andersen, called [9]"The
Smut," "The Crick," and "The Brothers," which were included in "The
Black Bag" in "Aunt Judy's Letters."
[Footnote 9: These have now been reprinted in vol. xvii.
"Miscellanea."]
Julie's first contribution to _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ was "Mrs.
Overtheway's Remembrances," and between May 1866 and May 1867 the
three first portions of "Ida," "Mrs. Moss," and "The Snoring Ghosts,"
came out. In these stories I can trace many of the influences which
surrounded my sister whilst she was still the "always cayling Miss
Julie," suffering from constant attacks of quinsy, and in the
intervals, reviving from them with the vivacity of Madam Liberality,
and frequently going away to pay visits to her friends for change of
air.
We had one great friend to whom Julie often went, as she lived within
a mile of our home, but on a perfectly different soil to ours.
Ecclesfield stands on clay; but Grenoside, the village where our
friend lived, is on sand, and much higher in altitude. From it we have
often looked down at Ecclesfield lying in fog, whilst at Grenoside the
air was clear and the sun shining. Here my sister loved to go, and
from the home where she was so welcome and tenderly cared for, she
drew (though no _facts_) yet much of the colouring which is seen in
Mrs. Overtheway--a solitary life lived in the fear of God; enjoyment
of the delights of a garden; with tender treasuring of dainty china
and household goods for the sake of those to whom such relics had once
belonged.
Years after our friend had followed her loved ones to their better
home, and had bequeathed her egg-shell brocade to my sister, Julie had
another resting-place in Grenoside, to which she was as warmly
welcomed as to the old one, during days of weakness and convalescence.
Here, in an atmosphere of cultivated tastes and loving appreciation,
she spent many happy hours, sketching some of the villagers at their
picturesque occupations of carpet-weaving and clog-making, or amusing
herself in other ways. [10]This home, too, was broken up by Death, but
Mrs. Ewing looked back to it with great affection, and when, at the
beginning of her last illness, whilst she still expected to recover,
she was planning a visit to her Yorkshire home, she sighed to think
that Grenoside was no longer open to her.
[Footnote 10: Letters, Advent Sunday, 1881, 25th November, 1881,
January 18, 1884.]
On June 1, 1867, my sister was married to Alexander Ewing, A.P.D., son
of the late Alexander Ewing, M.D., of Aberdeen, and a week afterwards
they sailed for Fredericton, New Brunswick, where he was to be
stationed.
A gap now occurred in the continuation of "Mrs. Overtheway's
Remembrances." The first contributions that Julie sent from her new
home were, "An Idyl of the Wood," and "The Three Christmas Trees."[11]
In these tales the experiences of her voyage and fresh surroundings
became apparent; but in June 1868, "Mrs. Overtheway" was continued by
the story of "Reka Dom."
[Footnote 11: Letter, 19th Sunday after Trinity, 1867.]
In this Julie reverted to the scenery of another English home where
she had spent a good deal of time during her girlhood. The winter of
1862-3 was passed by her at Clyst St. George, near Topsham, with the
family of her kind friend, Rev. H.T. Ellacombe, and she evolved Mrs.
Overtheway's "River House"[12] out of the romance roused by the sight
of quaint old houses, with quainter gardens, and strange names that
seemed to show traces of foreign residents in days gone by. "Reka Dom"
was actually the name of a house in Topsham, where a Russian family
had once lived. Speaking of this house, Major Ewing said:--On the
evening of our arrival at Fredericton, New Brunswick, which stands on
the river St. John, we strolled down, out of the principal street, and
wandered on the river shore. We stopped to rest opposite to a large
old house, then in the hands of workmen. There was only the road
between this house and the river, and, on the banks, one or two old
willows. We said we should like to make our first home in some such
spot. Ere many weeks were over, we were established in that very
house, where we spent the first year, or more, of our time in
Fredericton. We _called_ it "Reka Dom," the River House.
[Footnote 12: Letter, February 3, 1868.]
[Illustration: THE RIVER HOUSE.
VIEW FROM THE WINDOW OF REKA DOM.]
For the descriptions of Father and Mother Albatross and their island
home, in the last and most beautiful tale of "Kerguelen's Land," she
was indebted to her husband, a wide traveller and very accurate
observer of nature.
To the volume of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ for 1869 she only sent "The
Land of Lost Toys,"[13] a short but very brilliant domestic story, the
wood described in it being the "Upper Shroggs," near Ecclesfield,
which had been a very favourite haunt in her childhood. In October
1869, she and Major Ewing returned to England, and from this time
until May 1877, he was stationed at Aldershot.
[Footnote 13: Letter, December 8, 1868.]
Whilst living in Fredericton my sister formed many close friendships.
It was here she first met Colonel and Mrs. Fox Strangways. In the
society of Bishop Medley and his wife she had also great happiness,
and with the former she and Major Ewing used to study Hebrew. The
cathedral services were a never-failing source of comfort, and at
these her husband frequently played the organ, especially on occasions
when anthems, which he had written at the bishop's request, were sung.
To the volume of _Aunt Judy's Magazine_ for 1870 she gave "Amelia and
the Dwarfs," and "Christmas Crackers," "Benjy in Beastland," and
eight[14] "Old-fashioned Fairy Tales." "Amelia" is one of her
happiest combinations of real child life and genuine fairy lore. The
dwarfs inspired Mr. Cruikshank[15] to one of his best water-colour
sketches: who is the happy possessor thereof I do not know, but the
woodcut illustration very inadequately represents the beauty and
delicacy of the picture.
[Footnote 14: Letter, Sexagesima, 1869.]
[Footnote 15: Letters, August 3, 1880.]
[Illustration: IN THE DEAR OLD CAMP. NO. 1 HUT, X LINES, SOUTH CAMP.]
Whilst speaking of the stories in this volume of _Aunt Judy's
Magazine_, I must stop to allude to one of the strongest features in
Julie's character, namely, her love for animals. She threw over them,
as over everything she touched, all the warm sympathy of her loving
heart, and it always seemed to me as if this enabled her almost to get
inside the minds of her pets, and know how to describe their
feelings.[16]
[Footnote 16: October 20, 1868.]
Another Beast Friend whom Julie had in New Brunswick was the Bear of
the 22nd Regiment, and she drew a sketch of him "with one of his pet
black dogs, as I saw them, 18th September, 1868, near the Officers'
Quarters, Fredericton, N.B. The Bear is at breakfast, and the dog
occasionally licks his nose when it comes up out of the bucket."
[Illustration: CAN HANG NO WEIGHT UPON MY HEART.]
The pink-nosed bull-dog in "Amelia" bears a strong likeness to a
well-beloved "Hector," whom she took charge of in Fredericton whilst
his master had gone on leave to be married in England. Hector, too,
was "a snow-white bull-dog (who was certainly as well bred and as
amiable as any living creature in the kingdom)," with a pink nose that
"became crimson with increased agitation." He was absolutely gentle
with human beings, but a hopeless adept at fighting with his own kind,
and many of my sister's letters and note-books were adorned with
sketches of Hector as he appeared swollen about the head, and subdued
in spirits, after some desperate encounter; or, with cards spread out
in front of him, playing, as she delighted to make him do, at "having
his fortune told."[17] But, instead of the four Queens standing for
four ladies of different degrees of complexion, they represented his
four favourite dishes of--1. Welsh rabbit. 2. Blueberry pudding. 3.
Pork sausages. 4. Buckwheat pancakes and molasses; and "the Fortune"
decided which of these dainties he was to have for supper.
[Illustration: THE BULLDOGUE's FORTUNE]
[Footnote 17: Letter, November 3, 1868.]
Shortly before the Ewings started from Fredericton they went into the
barracks, whence a battalion of some regiment had departed two days
before, and there discovered a large black retriever who had been left
behind. It is needless to say that this deserted gentleman entirely
overcame their feelings; he was at once adopted, named "Trouvé," and
brought home to England, where he spent a very happy life, chiefly in
the South Camp, Aldershot, his one danger there being that he was such
a favourite with the soldiers, they over-fed him terribly. Never did a
more benevolent disposition exist, his broad forehead and kind eyes,
set widely apart, did not belie him; there was a strong strain of
Newfoundland in his breed, and a strong likeness to a bear in the way
his feathered paws half crossed over each other in walking. Trouvé
appears as "Nox" in "Benjy," and there is a glimpse of him in "The
Sweep," who ended his days as a "soldier's dog" in "The Story of a
Short Life." Trouvé did, in reality, end his days at Ecclesfield,
where he is buried near "Rough," the broken-haired bull-terrier, who
is the real hero in "Benjy," Amongst the various animal friends whom
Julie had either of her own, or belonging to others, none was lovelier
than the golden-haired collie "Rufus," who was at once the delight
and distraction of the last year of her life at Taunton, by the tricks
he taught himself of very gently extracting the pins from her hair,
and letting it down at inconvenient moments; and of extracting, with
equal gentleness from the earth, the labels that she had put to the
various treasured flowers in her "Little Garden," and then tossing
them in mid-air on the grass-plot.
A very amusing domestic story, called "The Snap Dragons," came out in
the Christmas number of the _Monthly Packet_ for 1870.
"Timothy's Shoes" appeared in AUNT JUDY'S volume for 1871.
This was another story of the same type as "Amelia," and it was also
illustrated by Mr. Cruikshank. I think the Marsh Julie had in her
mind's eye, with a "long and steep bank," is one near the canal at
Aldershot, where she herself used to enjoy hunting for kingcups,
bog-asphodel, sundew, and the like. The tale is a charming combination
of humour and pathos, and the last clause, where "the shoes go home,"
is enough to bring tears to the eyes of every one who loves the patter
of childish feet.
The most important work that she did this year (1871) was "A Flat-Iron
for a Farthing," which ran as a serial through the volume of _Aunt
Judy's Magazine_. It was very beautifully illustrated by Helen
Paterson (now Mrs. Allingham), and the design where the "little
ladies," in big beaver bonnets, are seated at a shop-counter buying
flat-irons, was afterwards reproduced in water-colours by Mrs.
Allingham, and exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in
Water-Colours (1875), where it attracted Mr. Ruskin's attention.[18]
Eventually, a fine steel engraving was done from it by Mr. Stodart.[19]
It is interesting to know that the girl friend who sat as a model for
"Polly" to Mrs. Allingham is now herself a well-known artist, whose
pictures are hung in the Royal Academy.
[Footnote 18: The drawing, with whatever temporary purpose executed, is
for ever lovely; a thing which I believe Gainsborough would have given
one of his own pictures for--old-fashioned as red-tipped daisies are,
and more precious than rubies.--Ruskin, "Notes on some of the Pictures
at the Royal Academy." 1875.]
[Footnote 19: Published by the Fine Art Society, Bond-street.]
The scene of the little girls in beaver bonnets was really taken from
an incident of Julie's childhood, when she and her "duplicate" (my
eldest sister) being the nearest in age, size, and appearance of any
of the family, used to be dressed exactly alike, and were inseparable
companions: _their_ flat-irons, I think, were bought in Matlock.
Shadowy glimpses of this same "duplicate" are also to be caught in
Mrs. Overtheway's "Fatima," and Madam Liberality's "Darling." When "A
Flat-Iron" came out in its book form it was dedicated "To my dear
Father, and to his sister, my dear Aunt Mary, in memory of their good
friend and nurse, E.B., obiit 3 March, 1872, æt. 83;" the loyal
devotion and high integrity of Nurse Bundle having been somewhat drawn
from the "E.B." alluded to. Such characters are not common, and they
grow rarer year by year. We do well to hold them in everlasting
remembrance.