An oblong one, 21-1/2 inches wide, 285 guineas. An upright
secretaire, 580 guineas. A small Louis XVI. chest of drawers, 315
guineas. A pair of Louis XVI. mahogany cabinets, 950 guineas. A
pair of Louis XVI. bronze candelabra brought 525 guineas; and an
ebony cabinet of the same time fetched the extraordinary price of
1700 guineas; and a little Louis XV. gold chatelaine sold for 300
guineas.
The grand total obtained by this remarkable sale, together with some of
the plate and jewels, amounted to £158,000!
For thirty-four years, as a widow, Mrs. Lyne Stephens administered,
with the utmost wisdom and the broadest generosity, the large trust
thus placed in her most capable hands. Building and restoring churches
for both creeds (she being Catholic and her late husband Protestant);
endowing needy young couples whom she considered had some claim upon
her, if only as friends; further adding to and completing her art
collections, and finishing and beautifying her different homes in
Norfolk, Paris, and Roehampton.
Generous to the fullest degree, she would warmly resent the least
attempt to impose upon her. An amusing instance of this occurred many
years ago, when one of her husband's relations, considering he had
some extraordinary claim upon the widow's generosity, again and again
pressed her for large benevolences, which for a season he obtained.
Getting tired of his importunity, she at last declined to render
further help, and received in reply a very abusive letter from the
claimant, which wound up by stating that if the desired assistance
were not forthcoming by a certain date, the applicant would set up
a fruit-stall in front of her then town-house in Piccadilly, and so
shame her into compliance with his request. She immediately wrote him
a pretty little letter in reply, saying, "That it was with sincere
pleasure she had heard of her correspondent's intention of pursuing for
the first time an honest calling whereby to earn his bread, and that if
his oranges were good, she had given orders that they should be bought
for her servants' hall!"
During the Franco-German war of 1870 she remained in Paris in her
beautiful home in the Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, and would daily sally
forth to help the sufferings which the people in Paris were undergoing.
No one will ever know the vast extent of the sacrifice she then made.
Her men-servants had all left to fight for their country, and she was
alone in the big house, with only two or three maids to accompany her.
During the Commune she continued her daily walks abroad, and was always
recognised by the mob as a good Frenchwoman, doing her utmost for the
needs of the very poor. Her friend, the late Sir Richard Wallace, who
was also in Paris during these troubles, well earned his baronetcy by
his care of the poor English shut up in the city during the siege; but
although Mrs. Lyne Stephens' charity was quite as wide and generous as
his, she never received, nor did she expect or desire it, one word of
acknowledgment or thanks from any of the powers that were.
She died at Lynford, from the result of a fall on a parquet floor,
on the 2nd September 1894, aged 82, full of physical vigour and
intellectual brightness, and still remarkable for her personal beauty;
finding life to the last full of many interests, but impressed by
the sadness of having outlived nearly all her early friends and
contemporaries.
She lingered nearly three weeks after the actual fall, during which her
affectionate gratitude to all who watched and tended her, her bright
recognition when faces she loved came near, her quick response to all
that was said and done, were beautiful and touching to see, and very
sweet to remember. Her last words to the writer of these lines when
he bade her farewell were, "My fondest love to my beloved Julian;"
our invalid son at Foxwold, for whom she always evinced the deepest
affection and sympathy.
In her funeral sermon, preached by Canon Scott, himself an intimate
friend, in the beautiful church she had built for Cambridge, to a
crowded and deeply sympathetic audience, he eloquently observed:
"Greatly indeed was she indebted to God; richly had she been
endowed with gifts of every kind; of natural character, of special
intelligence, of winning attractiveness, which compelled homage from
all who came under the charm of her influence; with the result of
widespread renown and unbounded wealth.... Therefore it was that the
blessing of God came in another form--by the discipline of suffering
and trial. There was the trial of loneliness. Soon bereft, as she was,
of her husband, of whose affection we may judge by the way in which
he had laid all he possessed at her feet; French and Catholic, living
amongst those who were not of her faith or nation, though enjoying
their devoted friendship. With advancing years, deprived by death even
of those intimate friends, she was lonely in a sense throughout her
life.... Nor must it be omitted that her great gift to Cambridge was
not merely an easy one out of superfluous wealth, but that it involved
some personal sacrifice. Friends of late had missed the sight of costly
jewels, which for years had formed a part of her personal adornment.
What had become of a necklace of rarest pearls, now no longer
worn?--They had been sacrificed for the erection of this very church."
Again, in a Pastoral Letter by the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Northampton to his flock, dated the 28th of November 1894, he says:
"We take occasion of this our Advent pastoral, to commend to your
prayers the soul of one who has recently passed away, Mrs. Lyne
Stephens. Her innumerable works of religion and charity during her
life, force us to acknowledge our indebtedness to her; she built
at her sole cost the churches of Lynford, Shefford, and Cambridge,
and she gave a large donation for the church at Wellingborough. It
was she who gave the presbytery and the endowment of Lynford, the
rectory at Cambridge, and our own residence at Northampton. By a large
donation she greatly helped the new episcopal income fund, and she was
generous to the Holy Father on the occasion of his first jubilee. Our
indebtedness was increased by her bequests, one to ourselves as the
Bishop, one for the maintenance of the fabric of the Cambridge Church,
another for the Boy's Home at Shefford, and a fourth to the Clergy
Fund of this Diocese. Her name has been inscribed in our _Liber Vitæ_,
among the great benefactors whether living or dead, and for these we
constantly offer up prayers that God may bless their good estate in
life, and after death receive them to their reward."
To the inmates of Foxwold she was for nearly a quarter of a century
a true and loving friend, paying them frequent little visits, and
entering with the deepest sympathy into the lives of those who also
loved her very dearly.
The house bears, through her generosity, many marks of her exquisite
taste and broad bounty, and her memory will always be fragrant and
beautiful to those who knew her.
There are three portraits of her at Roehampton. The first, as a most
winsome, lovely girl, drawn life-size by a great pastellist in the
reign of Louis Philippe; the second, as a handsome matron, in the happy
years of her all too short married life; and the last, by Carolus
Duran, was painted in Paris in 1888. This has been charmingly engraved,
and represents her as a most lovely old lady, with abundant iron-grey
hair and large violet eyes, very wide apart. She was intellectually
as well as physically one of the strongest women, and she never had a
day's illness, until her fatal accident, in her life. Her conversation
and power of repartee was extremely clever and brilliant. A shrewd
observer of character, she rarely made a mistake in her first estimate
of people, and her sometimes adverse judgments, which at first
sight appeared harsh, were invariably justified by the history of
after-events.
Her charity was illimitable, and was always, as far as possible,
concealed. A simple-lived, brave, warm-hearted, generous woman, her
death has created a peculiar void, which will not in our time be again
filled:--
"For some we loved, the loveliest and the best,
That from his Vintage, rolling Time hath prest,
Have drunk their Cup, a Round or two before,
And one by one crept silently to rest."
The Index
"_Studious he sate, with all his books around,
Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profound;
Plunged for his sense, but found no bottom there;
Then wrote, and flounder'd on, in mere despair._"
--Pope.
America. Humours of a voyage to, 18.
Baxter, Robert. His hospitality, 53.
Bedford Town and Schools, 73.
Binders and their work, 41.
Bradley, A. G. Life of Wolfe, 10.
Bright, John. Letter from, 134.
Calverley, C. S., 2.
Charles II. and Lord Northesk, 101.
Christie's. A sale at, 11.
Christie's. Lyne Stephens sale, 148.
Coleridge, Hartley. Letter from, 129.
Combe Bank, 109.
Craze, modern. For work, 48.
Cunarder. On board a, 18.
"Cynical Song of the City," 50.
Dickens. On over-work, 48.
Dobson, Austin, 63.
Ethie Castle and its ghost story, 104.
Fox, Caroline. John Bright's letter to, 134.
Fox, Mrs. Charles, of Trebah, 128.
Fox, Mrs. Charles, and Hartley Coleridge, 129.
Foxwold and its early train, 51.
French Revolution of 1848, 85.
Gainsborough's portrait of Wolfe, 8.
Ghost story at Ethie, 104.
Gosse, Edmund. Poem by, 61.
Grain, R. Corney. Sketch of, 3.
" " His charity, 4.
" " Letter from, 6.
Guthrie, Anstey. Bon-mot of, 52.
Hamilton's parodies, 123.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 59.
Humours of an Atlantic voyage, 18.
"Jane will return." A true story, 119.
Jerrold, Douglas. Drawing of, 68.
Laureateship, The, 58.
Lehmann, R. C. Poem by, 78.
Letter from John Bright, 134.
" " Hartley Coleridge, 129.
" " Charles II., 101.
" " R. Corney Grain, 6.
" " Lord Lauderdale, 102.
Letter from John Poole, 83.
" " John Ruskin, 137.
" " G. A. Sala, 69.
Longfellow. Extract from, 117.
Lyne Stephens, Mrs., 144.
" " Sketch of her life, 145.
" " Her art collections, 147.
" " Thackeray's sketch of her, 145.
" " Her death, 154.
" " Her funeral sermon, 155.
" " Great sale at Christie's, 148.
Lytton, Robert, Lord. Poem by, 60.
Manning, Cardinal, 109.
Manning, Charles John, 109.
Mayhew, Horace, 67.
Meadows, Kenny. Drawing of, 68.
Newgate. Visit to, 34.
Northesk, Lord, and Charles II., 101.
Parody. An unknown one, 123.
Payn, Mr. James. His lay-sermons, 126.
Poets who are not read, 115.
Poole, John. Letter from, 83.
Portland, Duke of, and his books, 42.
Portraits of Mrs. Lyne Stephens, 159.
_Punch._ Memorials of, 66.
" Portraits of writers to, 66.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua. Portrait by, 11.
Ruskin, John. Letters from, 137.
Sala, G. A. Letter from, 69.
" " Picture by, 69.
Sales at Christie's, 11, 148.
Schools, Bedford, 73.
Ségur, Marquis de. Portrait of, 143.
Sheridan, R. B. Portrait of, 11.
Stevenson, R. L., 77.
Stories. American, 18.
Scott, Canon. Sermon by, 155.
Symon, Arthur. Poem by, 63.
Texts, inappropriate, 55, 56, 57.
Thackeray's description of Mrs. Lyne Stephens, 145.
Westerham. Birthplace of Wolfe, 9.
Wolfe, General. Portrait of, 9.
Woods, Mr. Thomas H., 13.
Work, modern. Craze for, 48.
Z---- sale of pictures, 15.
* * * * *
The Reader (_loquiter_).
"_Glad of a quarrel, straight I clap the door;
Sir, let me see your works and you no more!_"
--Pope.
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| Transcriber's Note: |
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| In this etext the caret ^ represents a superscript character. |
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| Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. |
| |
| Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant |
| form was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. |
| |
| Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained. |
| |
| Mid-paragraph illustrations have been moved to the beginning of |
| the chat in which they occurred. The List of Illustrations |
| paginations were not corrected. |
| |
| Other corrections: |
| |
| -- Page 89: 'Hotel des Affaires Étrangers,' changed to 'Hôtel des |
| Affaires Étrangères,' |
| -- Page 125: Caligraphy changed to calligraphy. |
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