Transcriber’s Note
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EMMANUEL BURDEN
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
PARIS
MARIE ANTOINETTE
THE PYRENEES
HILLS AND THE SEA
ON NOTHING AND KINDRED SUBJECTS
ON EVERYTHING
ON SOMETHING
FIRST AND LAST
THIS AND THAT AND THE OTHER
A CHANGE IN THE CABINET
[Illustration: A SKETCH OF MR BURDEN—FROM MEMORY]
EMMANUEL BURDEN
MERCHANT
OF THAMES ST., IN THE CITY OF
LONDON, EXPORTER OF HARDWARE
A RECORD OF
HIS LINEAGE, SPECULATIONS,
LAST DAYS AND DEATH
BY
HILAIRE BELLOC
WITH THIRTY-FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS
BY G. K. CHESTERTON
THIRD AND CHEAPER EDITION
METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON
_First Published_ _September 1904_
_Second Edition_ _December 1904_
_Third Edition (2s. net)_ _April 1915_
TO
HERBERT A. L. FISHER
INTRODUCTION
Though no prominent citizen is now-a-days permitted to pass “beyond
the veil” without an account of him being drawn up for posterity, yet
books of this sort have recently grown so common that some warrant
for the publication of a new biography may well be demanded.
Mr Burden’s public position, combined with his sterling piety and
considerable wealth, would alone merit such recognition: to these
must be added the fact that he was a Justice of the Peace for the
County of Surrey. His connection, moreover, with Imperial Finance
has, through the medium of the Press, lent a very general interest to
his name even in those parts of London with which he was personally
unfamiliar.
I am well aware that the task of writing this history could have
fallen into abler hands, but it could have been achieved by no
one more devoted to his subject, or more familiar with the final
catastrophe of this singularly beautiful and modest life. That I
possessed the qualifications necessary for a work of this kind, was
so evident to writers like Charles Egton, T. T. Batworthy, George K.
Morrel, and Mrs Hooke as to cause them to withdraw voluntarily from
a field in which they had already—I regret to say—laboured with some
assiduity.
If, in the face of such a testimony, Mr and Mrs O’Rourke persist in
issuing their ill-informed and prejudiced version of the last sad
months, I fear I am powerless to dissuade them.
I had at first intended my notes for the perusal of friendly
eyes alone: to my astonishment, I find them praised almost
enthusiastically by two powerful critics (—journalists; valued
friends; men whose fingers are ever upon the pulse of the nation),
and a little later I learnt that the Directors of the M’Korio Delta
Development Company would not be displeased to see printed such a
vindication of their methods as my pen had produced. I was assured
by Lord Benthorpe, in person, that no salaried agent upon the daily
press, nor any professional author they had employed—not even
“Ultor”—had given them the full satisfaction they had received from
my manuscript. I, therefore, reluctantly consented to rewrite and
publish the whole, with such added embellishments of style and fancy,
as a wider public deserves.
It has eagerly been enquired by many clergymen and others whether I
had before me a moral purpose in the compilation of this work.
I cannot pretend that I had intended it at the outset to convey any
great religious or political lesson to the world, but I will confess
that long before my monograph was perfected a conscious meaning
inspired my pen. Rather let me put it more humbly, and say that I
became vividly sensitive to a Guiding Power of which I was but the
Instrument. Each succeeding phrase, though intended for nothing but
a statement of fact, pointed more and more to the Presence of some
Mysterious Design, and I arose from the Accomplished Volume with the
certitude that more than a mere record had been achieved. The very
soul of Empire rose before me as I re-read my simple chronicle. I was
convinced of the Destiny of a People; I was convinced that every man
who forwarded this Destiny was directly a minister of Providence. I
was convinced that the Intrepid Financier, the Ardent Peer—nay, the
Soldier of Fortune, whom twenty surrenders cannot daunt—had in them
something greater than England had yet known.
To such convictions the reader owes those snatches of hymns, those
citations from the sermons of eminent divines, and those occasional
ethical digressions which diversify and enliven the pages now before
him.
* * * * *
Of the form of the book I have little to say. Type, paper, and
binding I left to the choice of specialists, as did I also the
impagination, the size of the margin, the debate as to whether the
leaves should be uncut, and the proportion of public advertisement
requisite to a merited fame.
The proofs I read myself.
The question of illustration was discussed at some length. An
excellent photograph of Mr Burden was unfortunately discovered to
be the property of a firm who had flattered him by making it a
complimentary portrait during the last short period of his public
fame. They demand for its reproduction a sum I have certainly no
intention of paying. No other picture of him exists save a faded
daguerreotype taken many years ago on the occasion of a fancy dress
ball. It represents Mr Burden in the character of Charles I., and
seemed to me wholly unsuitable.
The principal characters connected with the M’Korio have, however,
consented to sit to a mutual friend, and his sharp if rapid
impressions of their strong features coupled with a few sketches
of Mr Burden, drawn from memory, will aid my readers to a fuller
comprehension of my work.
My thanks are due to Messrs Marian, solicitors, who procured for
me the best advice of counsel upon passages since omitted; to Mr
Banks, Lord Benthorpe’s butler, who has provided me with much of my
material. To the anonymous author of “A History of Upper Norwood”;
to Mr English, sometime editor of _The Patriot_, now manager of
“The Feathers” Tavern, Greenwich; to the Master of St Barnabas
College, Oxford; to the chaplain and especially to the porter of
the same college; to Mr Carey employed at St Catherine’s College,
long a servant of Mr Cosmo Burden’s; to Lord Garry, to Mr Tammin,
to Mrs Gough, to Charles Parker, Henry Grimm, Peter Cowdrey, C. T.
Knowles, T. Cummins, Loring, Gibbs, Hepton, Rubble and Tuke, and to
many others of lesser note who will, I trust, accept this general
recognition in place of a more personal expression of gratitude.
The MSS. and correspondence which have reached me from all parts of
the world have been of the utmost service. I cannot congratulate
myself too warmly on the receipt of Mr Barnett’s blotting-pad which
his office-keeper had the courtesy to retain for me. The autograph
letters from Prince Albert and Baron Grant to the first Lord
Benthorpe have proved most useful material; his grandson, the present
peer, who figures so prominently in these pages, was good enough to
sell them at an astonishingly cheap rate to a gentleman who was my
agent.
Such notes, memoranda of obligations and short agreements as have
reached Mr Cosmo Burden through me, he is indeed happy to have
received, and he begs me to render thanks for him most heartily in
this place. I am further to assure all who read these lines that any
further scraps in his handwriting that may be received—especially
any letters addressed to Miss Capes—will be warmly and substantially
acknowledged.
It will be noticed that I have alluded throughout these pages to
Lord Lambeth under his original name as Mr Barnett. The public are
more familiar with him in this form, for Barnett is and remains the
name he has rendered famous; and, moreover, his acceptance of the
Peerage was not announced till half this edition had been struck
off. I have his permission for the retention of his simple English
surname. Similarly I speak throughout my work of the Right Rev. the
Right Honourable,[1] the Lord Mauclerc, Bishop of Shoreham, as “the
Rev. the Honourable Peregrine Mauclerc.” The death of his lordship’s
brother, and his own induction to the See of Shoreham, occurred too
late for me to make the requisite alteration.
* * * * *
One word more.
I trust I have nowhere forgotten that delicacy in mentioning the
private affairs of others which is the mark of the gentleman.
If I have spoken strongly of Mr Abbott, it must be remembered that a
patriotic duty has claims superior to those of convention: moreover,
Mr Abbott has himself made a verbal declaration of the strongest
kind, accompanied with an oath, that he is indifferent to my opinions.
It may be mentioned in this connection that the unhappy difficulties
of the Benthorpe family, on which I was compelled (however
reluctantly) to touch, are of no further moment, since young Mr
Benthorpe has wooed and won Antigua, the only daughter of the Count
Brahms de la Torre de Traicion y Crapular, a Spanish nobleman of
immense resources.
For the rest, I have throughout striven earnestly—and I believe
successfully—to avoid giving the slightest pain to any sentient being.
“He prayeth best who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the great God who loveth us,
He made and loves them all.”
—COLERIDGE
Or words to that effect.
CHELSEA, 1904
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The phrase used by “Asterisk” in the _Daily American_ of April
9th has no meaning. _Very Rev._, _Very Honourable_, are titles that
cannot exist in combination. As to the “_Most_”: “_Most_ Honourable,
_Most_ Rev.,” of “Clara,” in the _Evenudg German_, it is not
impossible, but is here inaccurate. His Lordship is not a marquis,
nor has he any intention of ascending the steps of the Archiepiscopal
throne.
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
A Sketch of Mr Burden—from memory _Frontispiece_
Mr Burden’s Nephew, Hildebrand Worthing, whose
inheritance of gentle blood sadly unfitted him
for a commercial life _To face page_ 7
Mrs Burden at the age of forty-three. From a miniature ” ” 12
Spiritual anxiety of Mr Legros. An impression from
the pencil of a friend and pastor, whose house he
would frequent for the solution of doctrinal doubts ” ” 15
Mrs Burden. An interpretation by Miss M^cKee, long
a governess in the family ” ” 16
Cosmo Burden. From the only photograph which
adequately renders the restrained but permanent
sadness of his features ” ” 23
Mr Capes. (A chance study made for the publishers
of “Rural England.” No other portrait was
obtainable) ” ” 34
Mr Harbury ” ” 42
Mr Ashington, from a portrait—(under his country
name of Mr Curlew)—in “Hosts and Hostesses
of Rutlandshire” ” ” 53
Lord George Hampton, Pioneer and Explorer, of
whom mention is made on page 60. (From a
sketch very kindly communicated by the artist,
his sister, Lady Oona Hampton) ” ” 55
Captain Ronald. (By the kind permission of the Author
and Publisher of “Rulers of Men”) ” ” 60
A “Moro-Kanu,” or member of the upper class of the
Yaba. This class possesses most of the land, and
obtains all the political direction of the Delta.
Indeed it is from their domination of a closely
aristocratic policy that the principal hopes of an
imperial education of that province depend ” ” 62
Lord Lambeth (Mr Barnett). From the portrait by
Sir Henry Moseley, R.A., K.V.O. ” ” 67
The Editor of “The Doctrinaire.” (As he appeared
reading his paper—“Causes of our success in
South Africa,” to the Royal Society) ” ” 95
Lord Benthorpe preventing the disruption of the
Empire ” ” 116
Mrs Warner’s retreating figure ” ” 149
Lord Benthorpe recognising the importance of business
men to the Empire ” ” 151
The Smile ” ” 158
The Bishop of Shoreham (the Honourable the Rev.
Peregrine Mauclerc) sitting as an assessor at the
trial of Canon Cone for heresy, piracy, conspiracy
and schism. An excellent likeness, which we take
from the “Cone Trial Illustrated Supplement”
of “Christian Soldiers” ” ” 169
Mr Burden offering to subscribe whatever may be
necessary ” ” 181
The Rev. Charles Gapworthy, B.A. (From a block
very kindly lent by “The St Lazarus Hys Hostel
Magazine: a Review of Social Progress”) ” ” 183
Canon Cone in repose, discussing matters unconnected
with dogma at the Duchess of Lavington’s. (A
sketch purchased from her Grace’s secretary at
the time, now door-keeper at the Variety, Bismark,
P.A., U.S.A.) ” ” 184
Canon Cone delivering his chivalrous attack upon the
Incarnation. (A thumbnail sketch taken by the
reporter of “Christendom,” and called by him,
“Canon Cone in Action”) ” ” 184
Dr Mohl. From the oil painting presented to the
University of Dorpott by His Majesty William
II., Emperor and King ” ” 187
Baron Bloch. (From a photograph by M. M. Ballaru
et Cie, 147 _bis_, Rue St Loup. Les Clichés sont
la propriété exclusive de la Maison) ” ” 188
Major Pondo. (An extract from the picture of the
reception at Barnett House. By the courtesy of
the proprietors of “Social Sketches,” a weekly
magazine) ” ” 192
“Competition, sir! competition!” ” ” 199
Mr Barnett thoroughly at home ” ” 211
The Porter of the M’Korio Delta Development Co.
(From a group) ” ” 221
“And then the band played” ” ” 250
The Three Doctors ” ” 258
The unexpected Appearance of Mr Burden ” ” 268
Mr Burden in his last unfortunate fit of passion. (From
a sketch very kindly provided by Mr Harbury) ” ” 297
The serious indisposition of Mr Burden in the train ” ” 302
MR BURDEN
CHAPTER I
It is remarkable, and a little saddening, to find how few people have
heard of Mr Burden, who recently died at his residence, Avonmore, 37
Alexandrovna Road, Upper Norwood. He was, all his life, a man whose
influence, though indirect, was considerable; a man certainly not
without weight in the foreign policy of this country, and one that
affected still more profoundly its social structure.
The assiduity and the regularity of his demeanour forbade him,
perhaps, the notoriety that is so prized by many lesser men. His
ambitions, where they were not domestic, regarded his business
and the preservation of the fortune he had honestly acquired. His
judgment, which was excellent, he exercised upon problems connected
with the commercial interests into which he had been born, and from
which he had never, during a useful life of sixty-four years, desired
to dissociate himself.
To the administration of the suburb in which his villa was situated
he was far from indifferent; but he had never attempted to enter
the House of Commons, though his station, means, and connections
would have afforded him ample opportunities in middle age for a
career which Englishmen justly regard as among the most honourable,
lucrative and eminent.
Such men, happily, exercise, under the orderly conditions of modern
England, a far deeper influence upon the fortunes of our great
empire than their lack of public fame might argue in less favoured
communities. It would be an impertinence to insist upon the many
friendships which bound Mr Burden by the closest ties to men who
direct no small part of our national fortunes. To those who knew
him well it would appear redundant, and, to those who had not heard
of him, beside the mark, were an account of all his financial,
philanthropic, or religious activity to occupy any part of the
following pages. Those pages were called forth under the strong and
painful impression of his recent death, and it is their only object
to trace a rapid sketch of his family and social position, to make
some mention of the last few days of his life, and at the same time
to leave some permanent record, lest the memory of such a character
and of its trials should perish.
The name of Burden is first seen in the beginning of the seventeenth
century, when a Henry Burden appears in the court rolls of Beccles,
in Suffolk, in connection with sundry sales of wool to Ghent.
It is not certain whether this Henry was an ancestor or no; but
within ten years the name twice reoccurs, once in the form of Burdyn,
and once in that of Bird.
A receipt presented at Bungay, dated in the year 1616, when our
Shakespeare died, and acknowledging payment for wood used in burning
a witch, bears the signature Barton: and a deed of 1638 conveys and
devises 47 hogsheads of mild ale to Zachary Pyorden, who is later
known for a zealous defender of the public liberties.
It is interesting to note that a Master Barreden sailed for Holland
from Yarmouth, in company with some fifteen or twenty of “God’s
servants,” shortly afterwards, with a large and very valuable cargo
of wool. He was presumably a nephew of the foregoing. There is
a family of Bourdons in Bradford, Mass., who, though claiming a
Canadian origin, are very possibly descended from this early champion
of religious liberty.
No mention of the Burdens during the Civil Wars remains. We may
imagine them, if we will, following the Parliamentary cause; whether
passively—as did so many of the sturdy East-Anglian stock—or
actively; accepting the wage, and loyally fighting the battles of the
great Protector. However that may be, the name reappears with another
John Burden in 1672, a religious enthusiast who preached the Word to
the people of Saxmundham during the hot summer of that year.
He seems to have been an honest God-fearing man, devoted to the cause
of true religion in the first period of his ministry.
A government which could permit the entry of the Dutch into the
Medway, and produce the infamous shorthand notes of a Pepys, did not
tolerate the mystical zeal of Bunyan’s contemporary. He was thrown
into Ipswich gaol, on his release from which place he proceeded to
Aldeburgh, and declared himself the Messiah—at some time between
April and June 1684.
Few believed him, but he suffered nothing further from the
authorities, and died peacefully in the occupation of cobbling, at
Orford, on the 5th or 6th of January 1701/1700.
The race of Burden is then lost sight of for nearly a century. There
is almost certainly some connection between Mr Burden’s ancestry and
that of Sir Algernon Burden, of Pelham Thorpe, near Norwich, for Mr
Cosmo Burden (Mr Burden’s surviving son) has recently borne the same
crest as the baronet.
The College of Heralds, who, under the able direction of Lion d’Or,
have accumulated these details at a considerable expense, trace
continuous filiation from John Burden, whose mother may have boasted
gentle birth, and who established himself as a corn chandler at
Colchester in the year 1785. John Burden, confining himself strictly
to the wheat market, drove a prosperous business in Colchester during
the Napoleonic wars. His subscriptions to the charities which were
so necessary in those times of high prices and public famine appear
no less than six times between 1801 and 1815. He was an Alderman of
his town, and died in 1833, leaving a son, George Burden, whom he had
established as a large ironmonger at 106 Thames Street, in the City
of London, and who was the father of the remarkable Englishman this
memoir commemorates.
Mr George Burden, of Thames Street, married on March 8th, 1835, at
his parish church of St Catherine’s, Jane Elizabeth, the daughter of
Ezechiel Cranby, a shipmaster of Wapping. The union was blessed with
two still-born and eleven living children, of whom my own friend, the
Mr Burden with whom these pages deal, was the third, born on January
19th, 1841, and baptised the next day under the scriptural name of
Emmanuel.
As is so often mysteriously the case with even numerous families,
the name of the Burdens survived in but a single member. Of the
three other sons, James, Thomas, and Cranby, the first died while
yet a child; the second was drowned at sea as first mate of one of
his grandfather’s vessels; and the third, whose intellect had always
been deficient, did not long survive his thirtieth year, but passed
away, unmarried, in Dr Milford’s private home at Reading. Two of the
sisters also perished in tender years. Of the five that survived,
Charlotte and Victoria remained unmarried, Patience was early left a
childless widow and retired to Bournemouth, while Esther, who wedded
a wealthy Australian in June 1865, sailed with him to Melbourne some
months later, and has never since been heard of by her family.
[Illustration: MR BURDEN’S NEPHEW, HILDEBRAND WORTHING, WHOSE
INHERITANCE OF GENTLE BLOOD SADLY UNFITTED HIM FOR A COMMERCIAL LIFE]
The youngest, however, who was christened Maria, but was known in
the family as “Baby,” made, when barely twenty-six, an alliance with
the younger son of Mr Arthur Worthing, of Worthing Court, Bucks.
This marriage, whatever social attractions it may have offered
to the younger members of the household, proved unfortunate. Her
husband was dissipated and improvident and encountered repeated
difficulties in the society of Boulogne sur Mer, in France, where
his father-in-law supported him on a small pension for some years.
After the premature death of his young wife in 1873, he returned to
England, led a random and useless life among his old associates,
but had upon his deathbed the satisfaction of knowing that his
brother-in-law (Emmanuel) had paid the greater part of his debts,
and had renovated his wife’s grave in the Protestant cemetery of the
French seaport town where she lay at rest in God’s acre. Hildebrand,
the only fruit of this marriage, was placed as a clerk in the office
of Bowler & Co., by Mr Burden—for he was ever solicitous of the
honour of his blood.
At the suitable age of thirty-one, Emmanuel Burden, who was thus
destined to centre in himself the greater part of his father’s
fortune, married a lady for whom he had felt an unvarying attachment,
and to whom he had indeed been engaged for some eight years.
She was a person of modest but engaging demeanour, the fourth
daughter of the Rev. Harward Sefton of Hagden Courtney, in the county
of Huntingdon, and of Miriam Davis, his wife; from whom, perhaps,
Mrs Burden inherited her power of rapid calculation and her acute
judgment of human weakness. Mr Burden’s father, while fully accepting
his son’s choice of Eliza (for such was the lady’s name), was wisely
opposed to an improvident marriage, and deemed it prudent to make the
young people wait until his son had thoroughly learnt and taken on
the business he was to inherit in Thames Street.
Their courtship, though protracted, was peaceable and happy. They
learnt to know each other fully in the long walks which they would
take together over Hampstead or Putney heaths. Their families even
permitted sometimes a more intimate intercourse. Young Mr Burden (as
he then was) would receive his affianced wife in the social evenings
of his father’s house (they then resided above the shop in Thames
Street) or, in turn, would appear as an honoured guest from Saturday
to Monday at the Rev. Mr Sefton’s vicarage: taking the train from
Liverpool Street at 1.15 on the former and returning to town by the
9.20 from Hagden Courtney upon the latter day.
They were married, as his father had been, at St Catherine’s. Miss
Sefton had accepted the hospitality of her aunt for the occasion.
Rice was thrown;—and a shoe. Jests were exchanged. The honeymoon was
spent in Wales.
Mr Burden, senior, judged it well that the newly-married couple
should take, on their return, a house at some distance from London.
His business had largely increased; the first floor had already been
invaded for some years by the wares necessary to a show-room, and the
whole premises should properly have long been given up to the storage
of his goods and the accommodation of his offices. Mrs Burden,
senior, had died during the engagement of her son, and so at last it
was arranged that a new household should be formed on the heights to
the south of London, where the fresh air and larger spaces of the
country could be combined with the exigencies of a daily train to
town.
Mr Burden’s father decided therefore upon Norwood.
The suburb was indeed somewhat changed since the reign of George
IV.; but nothing could obliterate the charms which still clung to
it in the mind of the old man. In deference to the wishes of the
bride, he consented to purchase a property in a somewhat new and
outlying portion of the Ringwell estate. He settled upon a half acre
of land, whereon a new house already stood awaiting a tenant. It was
surrounded by gravel paths and newly transplanted shrubs, several of
which had died. Though it still stood isolated in the midst of bare
land and fields it already bore the number 37 in Alexandrovna Road,
a circumstance which lent an additional pleasure to its acquirement.
Some slight debate arose between the old father-in-law and young
Mrs Burden as to what the name of the new domain should be; the
former favouring the designation of “Chatsleigh,” the latter that
of “Avonmore,” which last, in graceful deference to her wishes, was
finally painted upon either gate in white letters picked out with
green, upon a grey ground.
The house stood high, and commanded, upon fine days, a view of London
to the north. Many familiar points in the landscape attached Mr
Burden’s father to the memories of his laborious and successful life:
the shot tower, St Paul’s, and the roof of Cannon Street Station were
clearly visible; and he had but to turn his gaze to rest it upon the
Crystal Palace, to which the memories of Prince Albert and Hyde Park,
his natural patriotism, and a sense of the magnificent, made him
incline with pleasure.
His father having thus installed them in a commodious and modern
residence, took up his abode with Mr Burden and his young wife. Still
maintaining his full proprietorship in the business in Thames Street,
he would at first visit the premises from time to time, while he
insisted that his son should leave punctually for town by the first
train after breakfast, and at evening discuss with him the business
of the day and whatever matters of general interest might have
appeared in the morning paper.
Certain of the old man’s habits would have jarred upon a man and
woman of less regular habits, or possessed of less self-control
than were Mr Burden and his wife. Thus he had taken, of a sudden,
a considerable interest in gardening, a matter upon which neither
of the young people felt any great concern; he became weather-wise,
and he was forever fetching in an artizan whom he patronised,
to rearrange those bells and hinges, wherewith his son and his
daughter-in-law were already perfectly contented. A more serious
difficulty was the attachment which Mr Burden, senior, unexpectedly
conceived for the policy of Mr Disraeli; whereas young Mr Burden
could not disguise his loyalty to Mr Gladstone, a sentiment in which
his wife supported him with a zeal only tempered by her repeated
references to the Irish Church.
Indeed, when Mr Gladstone’s windows in Harley Street were broken by
a mob, nothing but Mr Burden’s filial piety restrained him from
rebuking the excessive glee of his now aged father; and when Mr
Disraeli was promoted to the peerage and offered a golden wreath by
a co-religionist, Mr Burden went so far as to take Mrs Burden to the
seaside for a week, until the storm should have blown over.
It would be unjust to insist upon these trivial inconveniences. The
respect due to his father’s years was soon enhanced by Mr Burden’s
anxiety for his health. In the January of 1880, Mrs Burden having by
that time given birth to three children (their grandfather’s delight
and pride), her husband, who had long become the sole head of the
great business in Thames Street, had the pain of seeing the old man
take to his bed, whereon, some eight months later, he very peacefully
expired.
It needs but little space to follow the existence led by Mr Burden
after this revolution in his fortunes; for it is the purpose of these
few pages rather to record the impression of his own much more recent
demise, and to leave some record of his character, than to follow at
any length the history of his life.
[Illustration: MRS BURDEN AT THE AGE OF FORTY-THREE FROM A MINIATURE]
The three children, Ermyntrude, Cosmo, and Gwynnys, were trained in
those excellent traditions which the family had inherited for now
three generations of decent affluence; but Mr Burden and his wife
justly considered that the steady increase of their fortunes (which
they naturally ascribed to their considerable capacity, but which
were perhaps, more due to the evolution of modern industry) permitted
them to entertain some legitimate ambitions for the future of their
offspring.
Certain developments in the structure of our English society made it
increasingly difficult to continue the custom of taking high tea at
half-past six. This meal had already been supplanted by a set dinner
at the more fashionable hour of seven, when Mrs Burden introduced
the change whereby her two daughters, aged respectively fourteen and
twelve years, were withdrawn from Mrs Cathcart’s seminary at Dulwich,
and put under the care of a private governess, a Miss M’Kee, of whom
Mrs Burden had heard from a friend who was intimate with the niece of
Lady Bagshawe.
Thanks to the able guidance of this lady, Ermyntrude and Gwynnys very
rapidly acquired an acquaintance with all that best suited the part
they would be called upon to play in their social rank. A thorough
knowledge of German, some elements of French, and a good grounding in
psychology and practical nursing, left them at the ages of eighteen
and twenty all that charming, simple English girls should be.
They came out together (for Ermyntrude looked, if anything, younger
than her sister) at the Jubilee Ball given in the Town Hall of
Sydenham in 1897.
Mr Burden had never disguised his intention of portioning his
daughters. The elder was soon married to a young doctor of
considerable ability, who emigrated with his wife to Winnipeg, in
which distant capital he still pursues a prosperous career. Long
a president of the Orange Lodge[2] in that city, he was recently
returned to the Dominion Parliament on the Manitoba Catholic schools
question; his career will doubtless be familiar to many who may read
these lines.
[Illustration: SPIRITUAL ANXIETY OF MR LEGROS AN IMPRESSION FROM THE
PENCIL OF A FRIEND AND PASTOR, WHOSE HOUSE HE WOULD FREQUENT FOR THE
SOLUTION OF DOCTRINAL DOUBTS]
Gwynnys, on the contrary, during a visit to her sister in Canada,
married, somewhat abruptly, Karl P. Legros, a dark young officer in
the local army. The captain (for such was his rank) was unfortunate
in his business of butter-brokering. He became involved, through
no fault of his own, in the collapse and subsequent trial of the
Milwaukee Butter-King. Driven by the mysterious instinct resident
in all scions of our race beyond the seas, Karl P. Legros sought
England in the hour of his need; nor did England fail him. After
a short period of hesitation, and, it must be confessed, of some
spiritual anxiety, he took Holy Orders, and was soon installed, by
the efforts of his father-in-law, as rector of the small living of
Benthanger, in Kent. He has continued, for many years, to fulfil the
duties of his sacred calling in this place, and has been supported
unwaveringly throughout a life of arduous and unremitting labour by
his noble and devoted wife; a true Christian matron, to whom her
father made, till his death, a small yearly allowance.
Mrs Burden was laid to rest less than a year after Gwynnys Legros’
return to England. She had the satisfaction, before dying, of hearing
that Ermyntrude’s husband had been elected to the Parliament of his
colony, while her visit to the vicarage of Benthanger had at once
consoled her with the vision of her daughter’s content, and permitted
her to breathe the atmosphere of her early years: the sober comfort
of a country parsonage to which, for all her wealth, she had so long
been a stranger.
This excellent woman sleeps in the Cemetery Park of Norwood, in a
dry, roomy, and well-built vault which, with the exception of a
yearly rental of five guineas, is the unencumbered property of her
husband’s family.
Having thus described the fortunes of the two daughters, it is my
duty to indicate, however briefly, the youth of their brother, Cosmo.
His participation in the last efforts of his father’s life, and the
fact that he became, after the mother’s death, his father’s sole
companion, make it necessary to follow the young man’s training, if
we are to comprehend the failing spirit of which he was so long the
unique support and comrade.
[Illustration: MRS BURDEN
AN INTERPRETATION BY MISS M’KEE, LONG A GOVERNESS IN THE FAMILY]
Cosmo had never enjoyed such health as had his sisters. The first
months of his life had been marred by the use of an artificial food
improper to the sustenance of infants, but honestly recommended by
the old family doctor, who had so firm a faith in its virtues as to
have accepted an interest in its sale. One effect of this nutriment
was to make the child large and heavy beyond his years, a physical
characteristic which he preserved throughout his life. It had also,
however, the result of weakening his heart, and permanently impairing
his digestion. From these causes he developed as a boy a nervous and
irritable temper, which his parents thought it imprudent to correct.
When he had passed through the excellent discipline of an English
Public School, these faults disappeared in his general demeanour,
and were observable only in the occasional friction that inevitably
accompanies the incidents of home-life; abroad they were replaced by
a certain indolence and indecision of manner, far preferable to the
peevishness which had formerly given his family so much anxiety and
pain.
As a boy of ten, when his sisters were barely out of the schoolroom,
he was placed in the preparatory school of Dr Stanton at Henley.
Many as are the applications for admission to this fashionable
establishment, and difficult as it was to find room for the boy, Dr
Stanton had far too much sense to hesitate upon his reception, or
to consider for one moment the slight difference of social position
between Cosmo’s family and those of the bulk of his pupils. The
excellent divine was of that new and vigorous school in English
Pedagogy, which rightly regards the great commercial activities of
the country as co-equal with its territorial interests. The name
of Burden was already familiar to him, not only from the enamelled
advertisements in blue and white which frequently met his eyes as he
paced the platforms of the Great Western Railway, but also from the
part taken by Mr Burden in the Mansion House reception of the Sadar
of Nak’, when that potentate was visiting England during his late
embroilment with the Russians.
The schoolmaster was, therefore, delighted to receive Cosmo, and
permitted the delicate boy certain extras which the parents of the
more robust of his pupils saw no occasion to command. These included
a plate of cold meat at breakfast, and a weekly visit from Dr Byle,
an old and valued friend of the schoolmaster’s, and the medical
attendant of Lord Bannering of Marlsford Park.
Careful as was the training which the boy received at this excellent
academy, his life was not happy; he recovered somewhat in the
refined atmosphere of Radley, but it was not till his entry into the
University, towards the age of twenty, that his life began to assume
a normal aspect.
The wealth which he would inherit, his reserved and self-centred
temperament, his readiness to meet men of all kinds, and his
detestation of friction and quarrel, save with those nearest to him,
deservedly secured him a number of friends of that sort which is
most prominent in our national life. He was a member of the Club, he
could ride without discomfort, and though not himself attracted to
any games save golf and hockey, he was the associate of men who were
distinguished in whatever the University has to teach.
He possessed, to a remarkable degree, that art of compromise
upon which the characters, not only of our statesmen, but of our
commonwealth itself are based. He had an instinct for the feeling of
his peers; and, if a certain lack of energy forbade him to attempt
to mould his contemporaries, he was at least able to receive with
remarkable fidelity the general impress of the forces around him.
Though not proficient in the pastime, he was yet able, upon occasion,
to write verse; and his style in prose, which, as a Freshman,
had been somewhat inchoate and abrupt, very soon developed that
“viscosity which is more potent than fluency” (I quote the Bishop
of Shoreham), and that “power of condensing truth into metaphor” (I
quote the same authority) which distinguishes our modern English from
the less plastic manner of the earlier century.
Indeed, there is little doubt that, had he turned his attention
towards politics, or (what would perhaps have suited his nature
better) the Church, he would have found, after a little experience of
the outer world, every opportunity, as he had every qualification for
success.
In the School of Modern Languages he carried off, after four years’
study, a Second, which was very near to being a First Class. His
father, my friend Mr Burden, already sufficiently gratified by his
son’s success, was assured by his tutor in a private letter I have
myself seen, that Cosmo only failed to obtain the highest distinction
from a curious inaccuracy in the spelling of Latin quotations, “a
subject,” as this careful and popular young Don[3] very properly
remarked, “alien to the spirit of the School.”
At this period of life Cosmo had grown to the manhood which his
youth had promised. His frame was soft from that fault in his
early nutrition to which I have already alluded, but his careful
grooming, his constant and regular shaving, and his close curling
hair, gave an impression of alacrity. He stood over six feet in
height. This stature was of little advantage to him, save with first
acquaintances; it very probably developed a weakness of the heart,
and a persistent supineness of demeanour which, with an intellect
less trained, might have gravely affected his life. His features
were somewhat devoid of meaning, the mouth especially: indeed he
found it difficult to control a looseness of lip and expression,
which marred what would otherwise have been a well-set face; but he
boasted a healthy colour, red, white, and, in our colder seasons,
blue. The contour of his nose was not accentuated. His eyes, which
were of a pale grey, were restless, and seemed always to betray a
certain anxiety. These, added to his cleanliness and heavy gait, must
complete a picture which should be framed by the judgment of the
Master of his College: “Whatever else he is, he is a gentleman.”
Those whose interest in Mr Burden has proved sufficient to carry
them thus far in my relation will excuse, I hope, the insistence I
have laid upon Cosmo’s character and early life. It was through his
son that my friend Mr Burden came into touch with those forces of
the modern world, which might have been of such value to him, but
which proved so fatal. It was Cosmo’s facility and social character
which had made him the intimate friend of Charles Benthorpe, for
example, of the Master of his own College (a man most marvellously
able to estimate social influence of every kind),[4] and especially
of Mr Harbury, whose considerable public reputation, though he is
not directly connected with the University, is in itself the best
recommendation that can be given to his University friends.
For Mr Harbury had not only known Cosmo, he had sought to know him;
and in the multitude of Cosmo’s acquaintance there was no one, except
perhaps himself, who did not understand what an honour and what a
passport such a friendship would become.
[Illustration: COSMO BURDEN
FROM THE ONLY PHOTOGRAPH WHICH ADEQUATELY RENDERS THE RESTRAINED BUT
PERMANENT SADNESS OF HIS FEATURES]
FOOTNOTES:
[2] Also a P.M. of the A.O.B., V. of the T. S. and Third Illuminate.
[3] Mr, now the Rev. S—— Fafner.
[4] The Master of St Katherine’s is nowhere more vividly portrayed
than in a phrase of the late Duchess of Buckingham’s, in her book of
reminiscences, ‘The Life Serene’ (Bischoffheim & Co., 31s nett, 3
vols., cr. 8vo, uncut, with 8 photogravures), vol. iii., p. 127, “He
was what I call a _good_ man.” There is a charming description of her
grace’s visit to the University town. She passed the night at the
Magpie.