TASTES AND HOBBIES
_Variety's the very spice of life._
COWPER: "THE TASK."
Many of our son's vacations were spent in Llanelly, South Wales,
where his mother's and my own kindred dwell. Llanelly is not a
beautiful town--industrial centres seldom are--but Paul loved every
aspect of it--the busy works, the spacious bay with its great
stretches of sandy beach, the green and hilly hinterland, dotted
with snug farmhouses and cheerful-looking cottages. Accompanied by
his cousin Tom, for whom he had an intense affection, and under the
guidance of his uncle, Mr. Edwin Morgan, a consulting engineer of
high repute, he visited in process of time every industrial
establishment in the neighbourhood--steel works, foundries,
engineering shops and tinplate works. His insatiable curiosity, his
desire to know the reason for everything, his alert interest in all
the processes of manufacture, were noted with smiling admiration by
managers and workmen. His last visit to Llanelly was in the summer
of 1914. We joined him there in the third week of August. Clear in
recollection is an incident that took place during our stay there.
One sunny afternoon we were out in Carmarthen Bay in a little
tug-boat and hailed a large four-masted vessel that had dropped
anchor and was awaiting a pilot. She had just arrived from Archangel
with timber. Her crew, athirst for news about the War, were most
grateful for a bundle of newspapers. Paul thrilled at this meeting
at sea with a vessel that had come direct from Russia, and he
followed with fascinated interest the conversation between the
tugboatmen and the crew of the barque. Little did any of us think
then that the War was destined to claim Paul's life!
Celtic on his mother's side and mine, he was proud of the fact that he
sprang from an "old and haughty nation, proud in arms." On many of his
school books he wrote in bold lettering: "Cymru am byth!" ("Wales for
ever!") His instinctive love of Wales was strengthened by his visits
to Llanelly and by holidays on the Welsh countryside, where, amid
romantic surroundings and far from the fret and fever of modern life,
he obtained an insight into rural ways and things. Welsh love of music
and Welsh prowess in football also appealed powerfully to him.
Like most boys he went through the usual run of hobbies: silkworms,
carpentry, stamp-collecting, photography, parlour railways.
Thoroughness was his quality even in his hobbies. He had the
note-taking habit in marked degree. Even as a small boy on a long
railway journey he would carefully record in his notebook the name of
every station through which the train passed, and then, on reaching
his destination, would work out the distances by maps and books, and
finally draw an outline showing the route with the principal stations
and junctions marked. The same passion for classifying facts made him,
as soon as he began to follow cricket closely, compile tables showing
the batting and bowling averages of the leading players. Similarly
with football. He was familiar with the record of the leading Rugby
clubs and the characteristics of the principal players.
Machinery had for him the fascination of life in motion. He would gaze
with rapture at the rhythmic movement of a flywheel and was thrilled
by the harmonious movement of cogs and eccentrics, pistons and
connecting-rods, all "singing like the morning stars for joy that they
are made." As a child visiting a printing office he used to clap his
hands with delight at the sight of "the wheels all turning." For
engines of all sorts he had a passion. At Plymouth he loved to watch
the great G.W.R. locomotives steaming into Millbay terminus, and would
often engage the driver or stoker in conversation. After our removal
to London he spent part of one vacation in an engineering shop. When
he was fifteen we bought for him a small gas-engine which was fixed in
an upper room. Clad in overalls he spent many a happy hour with this
engine, generating electricity which he used sometimes for lighting,
sometimes for driving the engine and train on his miniature railway.
Here are extracts from one of his vacation diaries:
JANUARY, 1912
_January 1._--Went with Mother to first night of _Nightbirds_ at
the Lyric. Workman and Constance Driver excellent; Farkoa also
very good.
_January 2-5._--Busy making switchboard at home. At the
engineering workshop I am starting on a steel rod; cutting with
hack saw, cutting 5/16 standard Whitworth thread; grooving it.
All this on a Drummond 3-1/2-inch lathe.
_January 6._--Heard of 4 v. 20 a.h. accumulator for 10s. 6d. I
must buy it. Splendid acc. it is. Finished switchboard; all
correct; polished up meters and instruments. [Here is diagram of
connections.]
Evening.--At _Tales of Hoffmann_, Opera House, with Mother. Good
performance. First and third acts excellent; second ("Barcarolle"
act) poor. Orchestra superb. Felice Lyne, Pollock, Victoria
Fer--artistes of great promise. Renaud a master.
_January 7._--Wrote Economic Electric for new dynamo. Received
letter from "Humber" recommending motor bike. I will probably buy
one later on, or a "Triumph."
_January 10._--Took my old accumulator to electrician. To my
great pleasure he said there was nothing wrong, only wanted
filling and charging.
_January 11._--Tried my acc. on the train, running through
switchboard; a great success. Engine runs very well. All
switchboard connections absolutely correct; the reading when
running: volts 3.5 to 4.25, amps. 1 to 2.5.
_January 12._--To Bassett Lowke's and bought wagon; yellow
colour, red lettering; splendid model.
_January 13._--At matinee _Orpheus in the Underground_, at His
Majesty's. Exceedingly good show. Courtice Pounds, L. Mackinder
and Lottie Venn--all first rate; good voices and not afraid to
use them.
_January 15._--To Hippodrome. The feature two amazingly clever
Chimpanzees. Leo Fall's _Eternal Waltz_ a pretty operetta.
_January 16._--Final golf match between Dad and myself. Dad wins
match and rubber by 1 up.
_January 17._--Got back my P.O. bank book. Total now L6 3s.
Discovered slight leakage at joint between the cylinder and
combustion head of the gas engine, owing to wearing away of
asbestos washer, so causing a very small but appreciable
diminution of compression. Made a temporary stopping with
vaseline.
Evening.--Dad and I to _Tales of Hoffmann_, at the Opera House.
This time a magnificent performance.
_January 19._--Dynamo arrived. A beautiful machine.
_January 20._--Went with Dad to International football match,
England _v._ Wales, at Twickenham. Score--England, 8 points;
Wales, _nil_. A splendid game. Wales beaten chiefly owing to
their very poor three-quarters. Little to choose between the
packs.
_January 31._--Having re-started music with a good teacher, a
pupil of Professor Hambourg, I have practised very hard on the
piano these last few days.
In his enthusiasm for engineering he devoured books like "Engineering
Wonders of the World," "How it Works," "How it is Made," "Engineering
of To-day," "Mechanical Inventions of To-day"; also books on wireless
telegraphy and aviation. A great lover of books, he liked on off-days
to visit London bookshops and rummage their shelves. Very proud he was
of his purchases during these excursions. From time to time he would
have a run round the museums and picture galleries of London or take a
trip to Hampton Court--Wolsey's palace and William III's home--a spot
dear to him for its links with history and for the beauty of its
surroundings. He was always enthralled at the British Museum by the
Rosetta Stone--that key by means of which Champollion unlocked for the
modern world the long-hidden secret of Egypt's ancient civilisation.
A subject which he pursued keenly for a couple of years--from fifteen
to seventeen--and which held him in fascinated wonder, was Astronomy,
a branch of knowledge that happens to be strongly represented among my
books. Often on starry nights he would be a watcher of the heavens.
Many a night from yonder ivied casement,
Ere he went to rest,
Did he look on great Orion, sloping
Slowly to the west.
Many a night he saw the Pleiads, rising
Thro' the mellow shade,
Glitter like a swarm of fireflies, tangled
In a silver braid.
It has been stated that most of Paul's vacations were spent in Wales,
but in 1913 he went farther afield, accompanying his mother, his
brother and myself on a tour in Germany. He was enraptured with this,
his first visit to the Continent. On our outward journey we halted at
Brussels, in those days a bright and happy city with nothing in its
cheerful, prosperous air to suggest that in less than a year there
would descend upon it the baleful shadow of the Great War. Much in the
old Germany appealed powerfully to our son, and even of the new
Germany, with its energy and its zeal for learning, he was something
of an admirer. But he hated in modern Germany its brazen materialism
and boastful arrogance. He attributed the change in the spirit of the
German people to the hardness of their Prussian taskmasters, whose
yoke was submissively borne because of the glamour of the military
victories achieved since 1866, and the rapid growth in wealth that had
followed the attainment of German unity. He read and spoke German and
was familiar with the literature and history of the country. Two great
Germans, Goethe and Wagner, he intensely admired. It so happened that
we were at Frankfort on the centenary of Goethe's death. Paul visited
the Goethe house and spent a couple of hours examining its souvenirs
with loving interest. He liked to see the places and the houses
associated with the names or lives of great men. On our homeward
journey down the Rhine he left us at Bonn to visit the house where
Beethoven was born, joining-us subsequently at Cologne.
This holiday in the Rhineland and the Black Forest brought deep
enjoyment to him. His enthusiasm at his first sight of the Rhine was
unrestrained, and the morning after our arrival he plunged into its
waters for a swim. Professor Cramb, writing of the love of Germans for
the Rhine, quotes a letter from Treitschke, in which that fire-eating
historian said on the eve of his leaving Bonn: "To-morrow I shall see
the Rhine for the last time. The memory of that noble river will keep
my heart pure and save me from sad or evil thoughts throughout all the
days of my life." Paul in a marginal note writes: "Wonderful
attraction of the Rhine. I have felt it myself, though not a German."
He got on excellently with the German people. One Sunday afternoon,
doing the famous walk from Triberg to Hornberg, he had a long and
friendly talk with a German reservist in the latter's native tongue,
about the relations of Germany and England. Both agreed that war
between the two nations would be madness, and both dismissed it as to
the last degree improbable, but the German said significantly that he
feared the Crown Prince was a menace to peace.
In the spring of the following year (1914) Paul spent Easter week with
me in Paris. Never had I seen the French capital more beautiful or
happier-seeming than in that bright and joyous springtime. Who could
have dreamt then that war was only three months distant? Paris was a
revelation to Paul. He crowded a lot of sight-seeing into half a dozen
busy days. All that was noble or beautiful in Art as in Nature
appealed instinctively to him. I can see him now at the Louvre gazing
rapt from various angles at that glorious piece of statuary the Venus
of Milo. His knowledge of history made his visit to the glittering
palace of Louis XIV at Versailles an undiluted pleasure. Fascinated by
the genius of Napoleon, he spent a long time at the Invalides gazing
down on the sarcophagus within which the conqueror of Europe sleeps
his last sleep.
Later in the year he and two other Dulwich boys arranged to spend
three weeks of the summer vacation in the house of a professor at
Rouen. They were to have left London on the second week in August.
This hopeful project was frustrated by the rude shock of war.