cosmopolitan experience acquired a breadth and humour which the
Frenchman so conspicuously lacks; he united, therefore, the charm
of the French character to that general experience which Lambkin
invariably demanded of his friends, and the fact that he belonged to
a small political minority and had so long associated with foreigners
had winnowed from that fine soul the grossness and one-sidedness, the
mingled vanity and ferocity, which seems so fatal a part of the Gallic
temper. In some ways this friend reminded one of the great Huguenots
whom France to her eternal loss banished by the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes, and of whom a bare twenty thousand are now to be found in
the town of Nîmes. In other ways this gifted mind recalled--and this
would be in his moments of just indignation--the manner and appearance
of a Major Prophet.
Jules de la Vaguère dè Bissac was the first of his family to bear that
ancient name, but not the least worthy. Born on a Transatlantic in the
port of Hamburg, his first experience of life had been given him in the
busy competition of New York. It was there that he acquired the rapid
glance, the grasp, the hard business head which carried him from Buenos
Ayres to Amsterdam, and finally to a fortune. His wealth he spent in
the entertainment of his numerous friends, in the furtherance of just
aims in politics (to which alas! the rich in France do not subscribe
as they should), to the publication of sound views in the press, and
occasionally (for old habit is second nature[80]), in the promotion
of some industrial concern destined to benefit his country and the
world.[81] With transactions, however sound and honest, that savoured
of mere speculation De Bissac would have nothing to do, and when his
uncle and brother fled the country in 1887, he helped, indeed, with his
purse but he was never heard to excuse or even to mention the poor,
fallen men.
His hotel in the Rue des Fortifications (a modest but coquettish
little gem, whose doors were bronze copies of the famous gates of the
Baptistery at Florence), had often received Mr. Lambkin and a happy
circle of friends. Judge then of the horror and indignation with which
Oxford heard that two of its beautiful windows had been intentionally
broken on the night of June 15th, 1896. The famous figure of “Mercy,”
taken from the stained glass at Rheims, was destroyed and one of the
stones had fallen on the floor within an inch of a priceless Sèvres
vase that had once belonged to Law and had been bought from M. Panama.
It was on the occasion of this abominable outrage that Mr. Lambkin sent
the following letter, which, as it was published in the _Horreur_, I
make no scruple of reprinting. But, for the sake of the historical
interest it possesses, I give it in its original form:--
“CHER AMI ET MONSIEUR,
Je n’ai pas de doute que vous aurez souvenu votre visite à Oxford,
car je suis bien sur que je souviens ma visite à Paris, quand je fus
recu avec tant de bienveillance par vous et votre aimable famille.
Vous aurez donc immediatement après l’accident pensé à nous car vous
aurez su que nous étions, moi et Bilkin, vos amis sincerès surtout
dans la politique. Nous avons expecté quelque chose pareille et nous
comprenons bien pourquoi c’est le mauvais Durand qui a jété les
pierres. Vous avez été trop bon pour cet homme là. Souvenez-vous en
future que c’est exactement ceux à qui nous pretons de l’argent et
devraient être dévoués à nous, qui deviennent des ennemis. Voilà
ce qui empêche si souvent de faire du bien excepté à ceux qui nous
seront fideles et doux.
(_All this, being of a private nature, was not printed in M. de
Bissac’s paper. The public portion follows._)
Il est bien evident d’où viennent des abominables et choquants choses
pareilles. C’est que la France se meurent. Un pays où il n’y a
personne[82] qui peut empecher des fanatiques de briser les verres
est un pays en décadence, voilà ce que l’Irlande aurait été si nous
étions pas là pour l’empecher. On briserait des verres très surement
et beaucoup. J’espère que je ne blesse pas votre cœur de Français en
disant tout celà, mais il est bien mieux de connaître ce que l’on a,
même si c’est mortel comme en France.
Vous l’avez bien dit c’est les militarisme et cléricalisme qui font
ces outrages. Examinez bien l’homme qui a fait ça et vous verrez
qu’il a été baptisé et très probablement il a fait son service
militaire. Oh! Mon cher ami que Dieu[83] vous a merveilleusement
préservé de l’influence du Sabe et du Goupillon! Vous n’avez pas
fait votre service et si vous êtes sage ne faites le jamais car il
corrompt le caractère. Je nous ne l’avons pas.
J’ai lu avec grand plaisir votre article “Le Prêtre au Bagne,” oui!
c’est au Bagne que’l on devrait envoyer les Prêtres seulement dans
un pays ou tant de personne sont Catholiques, je crains que les jurys
sentimentales de votre pays aquitterait honteusement ces hommes
néfastes.
J’espère que je ne blesse pas votre Cœur de Catholique en disant
cela.[84] Nos Catholiques ici ne sont pas si mauvais que nos
Catholiques là-bas. Beaucoup des notres sont de très bonnes familles,
mais en Irlande l’ignorance et terrible, et on veut le faire plus
grand avec une Université!
En éspérant que la France redeviendra son vrai même[85] ce que je
crains être impossible, je reste, mon cher ami (et Monsieur) votre
ami sincère, agriez mes vœux pressés, tout-à-toi.
JOSUE LAMBKIN.
XVI.
Interview with Mr. Lambkin.
A representative of _The J. C. R._ had, but a short while before
his death, the privilege of an interview with Mr. Lambkin on those
numerous questions of the day which the enterprise of the Press puts
before its readers. The meeting has a most pathetic interest! Here
was the old man full and portly, much alive to current questions, and
to the last a true representative of his class. Within a week the
fatal Gaudy had passed and he was no more! Though the words here given
are reported by another, they bear the full, fresh impress of his
personality and I treasure them as the last authentic expression of
that great mind.
“Ringing the bell” (writes our representative) “at a neat villa in
the Banbury Road, the door was answered by a trim serving-maid in a
chintz gown and with a white cap on her head. The whole aspect of Mr.
Lambkin’s household without and within breathes repose and decent
merriment. I was ushered into a well-ordered study, and noticed upon
the walls a few handsome prints, chosen in perfect taste and solidly
mounted in fine frames, ‘The meeting of Wellington and Blucher at
Waterloo,’ ‘John Knox preaching before Mary Queen of Scots,’ ‘The trial
of Lord William Russell,’ and two charming pictures of a child and a
dog: ‘Can ’oo talk?’ and ‘Me too!’ completed the little gallery. I
noticed also a fine photograph of the Marquis of Llanidloes, whose
legal attainments and philological studies had formed a close bond
between him and Mr. Lambkin. A faded daguerreotype of Mr. Lambkin’s
mother and a pencil sketch of his father’s country seat possessed a
pathetic interest.
“Mr. Lambkin came cheerily into the room, and I plunged at once ‘in
medias res.’
“‘Pray Mr. Lambkin what do you think of the present position of
parties?’”
“‘Why, if you ask me,’ he replied, with an intelligent look, ‘I think
the great party system needs an opposition to maintain it in order, and
I regret the absence of any man of weight or talent--I had almost said
of common decency--on the Liberal side. The late Lord Llanidloes--who
was the old type of Liberal--such a noble heart!--said to me in this
very room, ‘Mark my words, Lambkin’ (said he) ‘_the Opposition is
doomed_.’ This was in Mr. Gladstone’s 1885 Parliament; it has always
seemed to me a wonderful prophecy. But Llanidloes was a wonderful man,
and the place of second Under-Secretary for Agriculture was all too
little a reward for such services as his to the State. ‘Do you know
those lines,’ here Mr. Lambkin grew visibly affected, ‘Then all were
for the party and none were for the State, the rich man paid the poor
man, and the weak man loved the great’? ‘I fear those times will never
come again.’
“A profound silence followed. ‘However,’ continued he with quiet
emphasis, ‘Home Rule is dead, and there is no immediate danger of any
tampering with the judicial system of Great Britain after the fashion
that obtains in France.’
“‘Yes,’ he continued, with the smile that makes him so familiar, ‘these
are my books: trifles,--but my own. Here’ (taking down a volume), ‘is
_What would Cromwell have done?_--a proposal for reforming Oxford. Then
here, in a binding with purple flowers, is my _Time and Purpose_,--a
devotional book which has sold largely. The rest of the shelf is what
I call my ‘casual’ work. It was mainly done for that great modern
publisher,--Matthew Straight, who knows so well how to combine the
old Spirit with Modern exigencies. You know his beautiful sign of the
Boiling Pot in Plummer’s Court? It was painted for him by one of his
young artists. You have doubtless seen his name in the lists of guests
at country houses; I often meet him when I go to visit my friends, and
we plan a book together.
“‘Thus my _Boys of Great Britain_--an historical work, was conceived
over the excellent port of Baron Gusmann at Westburton Abbey. Then
there is the expansion of this book, _English Boyhood_, in three
volumes, of which only two have appeared--_Anglo-Saxon Boyhood_ and
_Mediæval Boyhood in England_. It is very laborious.
“‘No,’ he resumed, with nervous rapidity, ‘I have not confined myself
to these. There is “_What is Will?_” “_Mehitopel the Jewess of Prague_”
(a social novel); “_The Upper House of Convocation before History_;”
“_Elements of the Leibnitzian Monodology for Schools_” (which is the
third volume in the High School Series); “_Physiology of the Elephant_”
and its little abbreviated form for the use of children, “_How Jumbo
is made Inside_,” dedicated, by the way, to that dear little fairy,
Lady Constantia de la Pole: such a charming child, and destined, I am
sure, to be a good and beautiful woman. She is three years old, and
shooting up like a graceful young lily.’
“‘I fear I am detaining you,’ I said, as the good man, whose eyes
had filled with tears during the last remark (he is a great lover of
children) pulled out a gold watch and consulted its tell-tale dial.
‘Not at all!,’ he replied with finished courtesy, ‘but I always make a
point of going in to High Tea and seeing my wife and family well under
weigh before I go off to Hall. Surely that must be the gong, and there
(as the pleasant sound of children’s high voices filled the house) come
what I call my young barbarians.’
“He accompanied me to the door with true old-world politeness and
shook me beautifully by the hand. ‘Good-bye,’ he said, ‘Good-bye and
God-speed. You may make what use you like of this, that I believe the
task of the journalist to be among the noblest in our broad land. The
Press has a great mission, a great mission.’
“With these words still ringing in my ears I gathered up my skirts to
cross the muddy roadway and stepped into the tram.”
Women’s Printing Society, Ltd., 66, Whitcomb St. W.C.
FOOTNOTES.
[1]
But do not think I shall explain
To any great extent. Believe me,
I partly write to give you pain,
And if you do not like me, leave me.
[2]
And least of all can you complain,
Reviewers, whose unholy trade is,
To puff with all your might and main
Biographies of single ladies.
[3] Never mind.
[4]
The plan forgot (I know not how,
Perhaps the Refectory filled it),
To put a chapel in: and now
We’re mortgaging the rest to build it.
[5] There can be no doubt that the work is a true example of the early
Semitic Comedy. It was probably sung in Parts at the Spring-feast, and
would be acted by shepherds wearing masks and throwing goatskins at one
another, as they appear on the Bas-relief at Ik-shmûl. See the article
in _Righteousness_, by a gentleman whom the Bible Society sent out to
Assyria at their own expense; and the note to Appendix A of Benson’s
_Og: King of Bashan_.
[6] The house is now occupied by Mr. Heavy, the well-known financier.
[7] The old school house has been pulled down to make room for a set
of villas called “Whortlebury Gardens.” I believe No. 35 to be the
exact spot, but was unable to determine it accurately on account of the
uncourteous action of the present proprietor.
[8] I am speaking of 1861.
[9] Mr. Lambkin has assured me that his lordship had maintained these
relations to the day of his death.
[10] To be pronounced as a monosyllable in the American fashion.
[11] Mr. Punt, Mr. Howl, and Mr. Grewcock--(now, alas! deceased).
[12] A neat rendering of “Sublimi feriam sidera vertice.”
[13] _To the Examiners._--These facts (of which I guarantee the
accuracy) were given me by a Director.
[14] A reminiscence of Milton: “Fas est et ab hoste doceri.”
[15] Lambkin told me he regretted this line, which was for the sake of
Rhyme. He would willingly have replaced it, but to his last day could
construct no substitute.
[16] The anecdote will be found in my _Fifty Years of Chance
Acquaintances_. (Isaacs & Co., 44s. nett.)
[17] Lambkin resolutely refused to define Happiness when pressed to do
so by a pupil in June, 1881: in fact, his hatred of definitions was so
well-known as to earn him the good-humoured nick-name of “the Sloucher”
among the wilder young scholars.
[18] τὸ μεσόν
[19] This was the first historical example of Lambkin’s acquaintance
with Hebrew--a knowledge which he later turned to such great account in
his attack on the pseudo-Johannes.
[20] It is the passage that follows which made so startling an
impression on the examiners. At that time young Lambkin was almost
alone in holding the views which have since, through the Fellows of
Colleges who may be newspaper men or colonial governors, influenced the
whole world.
[21] Jocular.
[22] The MS. is here almost illegible
[23] The very word “dormant” comes from the Latin for “sleeping.”
[24] I knew Professor M‘O. in the sixties. He was a charming and
cultured Scotchman, with a thorough mastery of the English tongue.
[25] Dr. von Lieber-Augustin. I knew him well. He was a charming and
cultured German.
[26] How different from the cynical ribaldry of Voltaire.
[27] Mr. Buffin. I know him well. His uncle is Lord Glenaltamont, one
of the most charming and cultured of our new peers.
[28] See especially “Hypnotism,” being the researches of the Research
Society (xiv. vols., London, 1893), and “Superstitions of the Past,
especially the belief in the Influence of Sleep upon Spells,” by Dr.
Beradini. Translated by Mrs. Blue. (London: Tooby & Co., 1895.)
[29] Bk. I. or Bk. IV.
[30] “Amo dormire. Sed nunquam dormio post nonas horas nam episcopus
sum et volo dare bonum exemplum fidelibus.” App. Sid. Epistol., Bk.
III., Epist. 26. (Libermach’s edition. Berlin, 1875.) It has the true
ring of the fifth century.
[31] So Herrick, in his famous epigram on Buggins. A learned prelate of
my acquaintance would frequently quote this.
[32] The same lines occur in several other poets. Notably _Tupper_ and
_Montgomery_.
[33] See “Private Memoirs of the Court of Geo. III. and the Regent,” by
Mrs. Fitz-H----t.
[34] See further, _The Morning Star of England_, in “Stirrers of the
Nations Series,” by the Rev. H. Turmsey, M.A. Also _Foes and Friends of
John of Gaunt_, by Miss Matchkin.
[35] “Latin Proses,” 3_s._ 6_d._ net. Jason and Co., Piccadilly.
[36] Now doing his duty to the Empire nobly as a cattle-man in
Minnesota.
[37] Everyone will remember the striking article on this author in _The
Christian Home_ for July, 1886. It was from Lambkin’s pen.
[38] Lambkin was, when he wrote this letter, fully twenty-six years of
age.
[39] Only a playful term of course.
[40] A considerable discussion has arisen as to the meaning of this.
[41] A jocular allusion.
[42] “Sicut ut homo qui”--my readers will fill in the rest.
[43] The note of exclamation is my own.
[44] Author of _Prussian Morals_.
[45] These are almost the exact words that appeared in the subsequent
and over-rated book of Théophile Gauthier: “Rien ne mène à rien
cependant tout arrive.”
[46] It was by my suggestion (_quorum pars parva fui_) that was added
the motto “They that go down to the sea in ships, they see the wonders
of the Lord.”
[47] _Livorno_ in Italian.
[48] Or “have given rise.” Myself and my colleagues attempted (or had
attempted) to determine this point. But there can be little doubt that
the version we arrived at is right both in grammar and in fact. The MS.
is confused.
[49] Though posted in Gravesend this letter appears to have been
written between London and the Estuary. Some say in Dead Man’s Reach.
[50] This passage was set for the Latin Prose in the Burford
Scholarship of 1875. It was won by Mr. Hurt, now Chaplain of the
Wainmakers’ Guild.
[51] Normans.
[52] Hastings.
[53] These letters were never printed till now.
[54] The late Hon. John Tupton, the amiable colonial who purchased
Marlborough House and made so great a stir in London some years ago.
[55] Mrs. Tupton, senior, a woman whose heroic struggles in the face of
extreme poverty were a continual commentary on the awful results of our
so-called perfected Penal System.
[56] There is great doubt upon the exactitude of this. In his lifetime
Tupton often spoke of “the poor tenement house in New York where I was
born,” and in a letter he alludes to “my birth at sea in the steerage
of a Liner.”
[57] This was perhaps the origin of a phrase which may be found
scattered with profusion throughout Lambkin’s works.
[58] Mr. Lambkin did not give the derivation of this word.
[59] “Alii igni infamiae vitam alii fugâ dederunt.”--_Tacitus, In Omnes
Caesares_, I. viii. 7.
[60] The italicised words were omitted in the article.
[61] The full title of the translation is “The Roman Sandal: Its
growth, development and decay. Its influence on society and its
position in the liturgy of the Western Church.”
[62] Nephew of Mr. Child, the former editor; grandson of Mr. Pilgrim,
the founder; and father of the present editor of _Culture_.
[63] Mr. Cook criticises this sentence. It is a point upon which
friends may “_agréer à différer_.”
[64] Author of _Psychologie de l’Absurde_.
[65] Professor of Micro-graphy at Bonn.
[66] This was rather severe, as M. Bischoff had spent some years in a
Maison de Santé.
[67] An example of these occasional difficulties in style, due to the
eagerness of which I have spoken.
[68] The meaning of this sentence is made clear thus: They (subject)
twitted (predicate), with-his-qualifications (adverbially “how”),
over--the--port (adverbially “where and when”), him (object).
[69] Mr. Lambkin loved to pass a quiet hour over the MSS. in the
Bodleian, and would quote familiarly the rare lines of Chaucer,
especially, among the mediæval poets.
[70] This sentence is an admirable example of Lambkin’s later manner.
[71] Raphael.
[72] P. 347, “The impetuosity of the action ill-suits with what is
known of Lambkin.” It is all very well for the editor of _Great Dead
Men_ to say that this apologises for the misfortune; that apology does
not excuse the imputation of impetuosity (forsooth!) to a man whose
every gesture was restrained.
[73] Better known perhaps as an author than as a cleric. He met his
end in a shocking manner in a railway accident. His life was, however,
insured, and he had upon him a copy of _Golden Deeds_.
[74] Beeker’s _A Torch for the Chapell; or the Nonconformists
out-done_. Folio, 1663, p. 71.
[75] Referring to the edict on Buttoned Boots of Romulus Augustulus: a
very shameless injustice.
[76] Lambkin lived to see its almost universal adoption: a result in
which he was no mean agent.
[77] “On fair Italia’s storied plains,” Biggin, xii., _l._ 32.
[78] I am assured by Mr. Venial that this well-known line originally
took shape on Mr. Lambkin’s lips.
[79] This phrase he noticed early in his studies to be a rhyming
catchword, and pronounced it so to the day of his death.
[80] Hobbes.
[81] Thus M. dè Bissac was the President of the Société Anonyme des
Voitures-fixes.
[82] “Accuracy in the use of negatives,” Mr. Lambkin would say, “is the
test of a scholar.”
[83] Changed to “le Destin” in the newspaper.
[84] M. de Bissac was a Catholic, but one of the most liberal temper.
He respected the Pope, but said that he was led astray by his advisers.
He voted every year for the suppression of public worship in France and
the turning of the churches into local museums. He was in every way
remarkably unprejudiced for a man of that persuasion. His indefatigable
attacks upon the clergy of his country have earned him the admiration
of part of the whole civilised world.
[85] The phrase is “return to her true self.” It was a favourite one of
Lambkin’s, but is I fear untranslatable. The French have no such subtle
ideas. The whole sentence was left out in the _Horreur_, and the final
paragraph began with “Je reste.”
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE.
This eBook makes the following corrections to the printed text:
Pg v footnote
single ladies
single ladies.
Table of Contents
End of Term
End of Term 88
Table of Contents
Mr. Lambkin
Mr. Lambkin 132
Pg 5
the Crumpton’s
the Crumptons
Pg 13
teutonic gutturals
Teutonic gutturals
Pg 14
WITH THE ELECTRIC LIGHT
WITH THE ELECTRIC LIGHT”
Pg 28
our analusis
our analysis
Pg 47
from Ennius to Sidonius Appollinaris
from Ennius to Sidonius Apollinaris
Pg 57
transforms without metamorphysis
transforms without metamorphosis
Pg 63 footnote
London and the Estuary
London and the Estuary.
Pg 71 footnote
never printed till now
never printed till now.
Pg 98 footnote
o me years in a Maison
some years in a Maison
Pg 121
In there no way
Is there no way
Pg 129
si nous etions pas pour l’empecher
si nous étions pas pour l’empecher.
Pg 129
les militarisme et clericalisme
les militarisme et cléricalisme
Pg 133
position of parties?”
position of parties?’”
Pg 136
“Physiology of the Elephant
“Physiology of the Elephant”
Pg 136
‘Not at al!,’
‘Not at all!,’
Pg 137
Whitcomb St. W.C
Whitcomb St. W.C.