REMINISCENCES OF THE PURPLE.
THE death of the Duke of Cambridge recalled many instances of the kindly
nature of the old warrior. Abused and ridiculed by the ignorant and
unwashed for actions—more or less imaginary—that he was supposed to have
been guilty of in the Crimea, it is established on the testimony of
eye-witnesses that no man showed more personal bravery at Inkerman than
the late illustrious Duke. Oblivious to danger, and literally wandering
in and out amongst the dense masses of Russians, he seemed to bear a
charmed life, and if on any occasion he selected an umbrella—which is by
no means admitted—what greater proof of absolute indifference to danger?
As well might one accuse Fred Burnaby of cowardice for confronting the
Dervishes in the Soudan with a simple blackthorn. But royalty has its
penalties as well as its advantages, and if the grandson of George III.
was subject to intense excitement verging on delirium under exceptionally
trying circumstances, let us be fair, gentlemen, and give the bluff old
warrior his dues.
In the zenith of his career, so unable was his Highness to refuse almost
any personal request, that it was found necessary to chain a bulldog of
the most pronounced Peninsular type on the very threshold of the
Commander-in-Chief’s office.
For this service General MacDonald was selected as military secretary,
and any one who had the capacity of passing his meshes was enabled to
present himself at his Royal Highness’s next levée.
These functions were divested of all formality; an extension of leave, a
request to go to the depôt, an application to join the service companies,
was invariably more successful if preferred personally, and “Well, sir,
what is it?” with a kindly shake of the hand saved many a heart-burning
and protracted filtration through a dozen departments, usually ending in
a snub.
Seated in the room was his aide-de-camp—the solitary specimen in uniform.
Colonel Fraser, V.C., had commanded for years the celebrated
“Cherry-bobs” (11th Hussars), and if a little unsociable whilst in actual
command, the mannerism had entirely disappeared in the courteous
mouthpiece of the Duke.
Gazing one afternoon on the placid features of the “Royal George” before
the new War Office, the occasion on which he once visited a station not
100 miles from London and told the colonel and officers generally that he
didn’t believe a word they said, and stamped and fumed and swore and
threatened, came vividly to my mind. There had been a fracas in the
canteen during the officers’ mess hour, which eventually developed into a
riot, and then was quelled. No one in the mess-house appears to have
heard it, and it was only next morning that the matter, after
investigation, was reported to the Horse Guards. The “Royal George,” who
was distinctly apoplectic, ran many such chances of combustion in his
younger days, for the old warrior was by no means mealy-mouthed and was
not above playing to the gallery, as represented by the Press, and
although he could never aspire to rank with General Pennefather, he
could, when circumstances demanded, swear like any trooper.
It was the 11th that Lord Cardigan brought to such a wonderful state of
perfection and for the command of which he had paid upwards of £20,000
over regulation. It was in the 11th that the fire-eating Colonel shot a
captain of his regiment dead in a duel, and only saved his commission by
his overwhelming interest. It was a regiment in which every private was
dressed and redressed at his Captain’s expense as if his uniform had been
made by Poole, and where the overalls and sleeves were so tight that one
marvelled how officers or men ever got in or out of them.
What a beautiful regiment it was in the old sixties. And one felt it was
a national crime to send such troops to India. But all that, alas! is
long since changed; the Pimlico Clothing Works, economy, and paternal
letters to _The Times_ have done the rest; and the abolition of purchase,
the breech-loader, and the new type of British officer have completed the
inauguration of the “slops” period, and abolished once and for ever
well-dressed regiments and _esprit de corps_.
Whilst on this delicate subject memory suggests many presumptuous
reminiscences.
When Prince Alfred was a supernumerary Lieutenant of the _Racoon_, what
an ideal brick he was! Scraping on a fiddle, myself at the piano, and
Arthur Hood (lately become Viscount Bridport) with a brass instrument of
deafening intensity, what harmonious discord has not shaken the rafters
of the old Casemates at Gibraltar; and when the Prince seated himself at
the piano and sang “In ancient days there lived a squire,” one forgets
the retiring potentate that eventually ruled over Gotha.
It was on one of these occasions that during a lull in the festivities a
steady tramp outside was wafted to our musical ears, and going out to
discover the cause, I was horrified to see an elderly gentleman, ablaze
with decorations, in evening attire, who, with numerous apologies, was
conducted into the room.
He was in fact the Duc d’Alençon’s equerry, who had honoured the private
concert with his presence, and for the past hour had sat a transfixed
witness of our marvellous harmony. At this time the _Racoon_ was
commanded by Count Gleichen—a nephew of the late Queen’s—who once
happened to be on the P. and O. at the same time as myself, both
returning from leave to Gibraltar.
In those days life on a P. and O. was a mass of enjoyment: youngsters
joining their regiments, old officers—naval and military—returning from
leave, the ship’s officers, all joined nightly in harmless jokes, and as
lights were put out and the steward’s room closed, each roysterer
ascended to the upper deck and songs and what-not ensued. No one entered
into the revelry more than Count Gleichen, as, with a tumbler of
contraband grog, he quaffed and laughed as only a British sailor can.
Years later, when the Duke of Edinburgh commanded the _Galatea_, he still
remembered his musical colleague, and a pretty snake ring with a
turquoise in the head that he presented to me was lost in an accident
that nearly cost me my life.
Boating has never been my forte, and in endeavouring on one occasion to
enter a boat, it drifted with the impact, and, with one leg on the jetty
and another in the boat, I soused into six feet of the muddiest “old
Mole” water. Eventually I was hooked out, more “mud than alive,” but the
ring was gone, and still reposes in the turgid waters of the
Mediterranean.
Amongst the ship’s officers was Lord Charles Beresford, at the time the
most inveterate Fourth Lieutenant of practical jokers. After a function
at which the Duke and the ship’s company were on one occasion present,
the local Inspector-General of Police, who had deemed his presence
necessary, was staggered next morning by shouts of laughter as he
peacefully slumbered in his bungalow.
Rushing to the window, conceive his horror on seeing Charlie Beresford,
in his full uniform, strutting about and giving words of command in
imitation of the original. But he was a bumptious buckeen, and no one
sympathised with his discomfiture.
When the King was doing his goose-step at the Curragh, it was my high
reflexed privilege to be doing mine in the next lines.
It was during this season that a march for the whole division was ordered
to Maryborough, twenty-two miles distant.
The Prince, who was attached to the Grenadiers, accompanied us to and
fro, and even after the fatiguing march might later on have been seen in
the streets of Maryborough, accompanied by “his governor,” General Bruce,
as if nothing unusual had occurred. It was lamentable the effect it had
on those splendid types of humanity, the 1st Grenadiers, and their superb
“Queen’s Company,” every man six feet and upwards. But the misfortune
can hardly be laid to their charge; suddenly transferred from their sweet
pastures in London, what wonder that the good things they had revelled in
should seek an outlet on the dusty plains of Kildare! And so it came to
pass that every ditch contained a guardsman, and long before the
twenty-two miles had been covered every ambulance in the division was
filled by the warriors.
The Vansittart family in those long-ago days were represented by some
interesting scions.
“The Croc,” in many ways perhaps the most unique, was a remnant of a past
generation who adapted surroundings to modern requirements, and was the
terror of gouty old members who dined before four when “table money” came
into force, consumed a loaf in a sixpenny bowl of soup, and drank their
beer for nothing.
“Pop,” on the other hand, was of the highly-refined class, had a flat in
Paris, and only occasionally flashed upon London immaculately clothed in
ultra-fashionable attire. But the gem of the family was the dear old
Admiral, who combined apparently the better points of “The Croc” and
“Pop” in his own weather-beaten person. At the time I knew him he was in
command of the _Sultan_, and had the reputation—in conjunction with
Admiral Hornby—of being the highest authority on ironclads. But what
brought him into notice was a combination of fearless seamanship and
bluff loyalty whilst in command of the _Hector_ that convoyed the Prince
of Wales from Canada. For days the weather had been rough till, coming
up Channel, Vansittart hailed a fishing smack, and possessing himself of
the pick of the last haul, bore down upon the _Serapis_. Attached to her
yard-arm was a basket, and as the spars of the two frigates literally
rattled against one another, down dropped the offering at the feet of the
heir-apparent.
No greater exhibition of nerve and seamanship can well be conceived; had
the manoeuvre resulted in accident no explanation would have satisfied
“my lords,” for a nasty sea was running and sea room was advisable,
however commendable the motive. It was an action worthy of association
with Sir Harry Keppel sailing out of Portsmouth Harbour in sheer devilry
with every stitch of canvas set, and showed Admiral Vansittart as in
every way worthy of being bracketed with that grand old bluejacket of the
past.
The man who commanded the _Galatea_ and afterwards the _Sultan_, was a
very different person to the lieutenant of the _Racoon_, and genial and
adventurous as he once was, the captain soon developed into a morose and
unpopular commander.
On board the _Galatea_ was the pick of the Navy, whilst the social
addenda associated with the supposed requirements of Royalty were
represented by the present Lord Kilmorey, Eliot Yorke, Arthur Haig, and
sprigs of nobility, “interest,” and nonentity. Of the two equerries
Eliot Yorke’s forte may best be described as of the delicate type; so
delicate, indeed, that it may be left to the imagination. Arthur Haig,
on the other hand, was of the firm and reliable sort—a reasonable
proportion of “suaviter” with a superabundance of the other thing. It
was he whose daily duties included an epitome of the events of the day,
intended for no eyes but those of the Queen, and carefully included in
every “bag” that left the ship. Haig, in short, had been nominated by
the Queen, and was the only man on board of whom the Prince had a
wholesome dread. Eliot Yorke, on the other hand, was the selection of
the Royal Alfred. Not that the Prince was without his appreciation of a
practical joke, and when a fat old gentleman that had been specially
invited to a farewell lunch at one of the foreign stations suddenly
discovered that the ship was under way and a jump into the bumboat
imperative, no laugh was heartier nor louder than that of the Royal
joker.
The Duke, it was said, was one of the best commanders of an ironclad; he
had the technique at his fingers’ ends, and knew every bolt and screw
from the keel to the upper deck; some toadies even asserted he was
superior to Hornby or Vansittart, and was a typical British tar in the
truest acceptation of the term. His sympathies, as I have heard him
assert, however, were German to the backbone, and his eyes would fill
with tears when singing some guttural sonnet of the Vaterland. His
marriage brought things to a head, and the curtain was rung down on Lardy
Wilson and all other workers of iniquity after the garden party at
Clarence House in honour of his wedding.
With an excellent piper like Farquharson, engaged to combine grooming and
boot cleaning with occasional pibrochs and reels, it may be accepted that
H. R. H. was a thorough believer in the precept that “it is more blessed
to receive than to give.”
His proficiency as a musician was another fable, and though he
“graciously condescended” to be first violin at the Albert Hall
Orchestral Society (founded by himself), uncharitable people are known to
have asserted that the royal bow was soaped. But a point on which no two
opinions can exist was the questionable taste he displayed on one
occasion when entering Simon’s Bay. Every commander, as is well known,
is bound to salute the commodore’s flag after taking up moorings; but the
Prince had run up the Royal Standard—and so the commodore had to salute
first. Etiquette demanded that this should be done—after, and not
before—and the “reports” that followed ended as might be expected, and
the good old sailor was shelved, and a scandal hushed up that some
attributed to von-Kümmel and others to less potent causes.
It was the most beautiful woman of the day in the long-ago fifties—the
Empress of the French—that introduced the diabolical “appanage” known as
the crinoline to conceal her “interesting condition,” and the peg-top
heels that followed as a consequence, to give height to the unpleasant
beam the crinoline involved on the wearer, were answerable for more
accidents, _faux pas_, and unpleasantries than any combination of female
adornments before or since.
Once at St. Peter’s, Eaton Square, whose incumbent was known as Saint
Barnabas, a fair worshipper was noticed still in a devotional attitude
when the rest of the congregation had settled down to the fashionable
discourse their souls thirsted for, but the posture continuing, the
verger delicately approached, and found that nothing more serious had
occurred than that her heels had caught in the hoops and that she was
unable to move a peg. The hopes of an advertisement over a fashionable
proselyte were thus shattered, and his reverence resumed his theme.
On another occasion, returning from Cremorne at 2 a.m., when every cab
had been taken, my attention was attracted by a handsome young cavalier
tenderly supporting a fair sinner, who was leaning trustfully on his
shoulder. It appears he had found her motionless and in tears on an area
grating, her heel through her hoop, and the heel itself wedged as in a
vice. Nothing but prompt action could save the situation, and the last I
saw of the interesting couple was progressing by easy stages and heading
towards Oakley Square.
The same young cavalier might have been recognised not long since as a
grim old warrior, munching a sandwich in the vestibule of Stafford House
after the levée in honour of the Mutiny heroes!
And the charming lad who was responsible for the introduction of the
diabolical appendage. We all remember the shock that literally smote
every heart when the news of the Prince Imperial’s untimely death reached
England.
A youth divested of every suspicion of affectation, possessing to an
inordinate degree that fascination of manner rarely to be found except
amongst the old nobility of France, discarding every comfort to fight in
the ranks of an alien army, to be assegaied by a handful of Zulus! Was
ever such irony of fate for the great-nephew of Bonaparte, who, had he
lived, would assuredly by his charm have eventually won back his throne.
One voice only struck a discordant note, the overrated Quaker Solon of
Rochdale. “Perish India,” he once said in his wisdom. “He went out to
kill the Zulus, and the Zulus killed him” was this time his funeral
oration.
It was in the early seventies—if I remember rightly—that I had many
acquaintances amongst the various embassies and legations, which
frequently brought me to the St. James’s, the club of the foreign
attachés generally. My most intimate friend was Baron Spaum—at the time
naval attaché at the Austrian Embassy—and at the present moment
Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Austrian Navy. I was also familiar
with Prince Hohenlohe and Count Mongela, of the same embassy, and, in a
lesser degree, with Count Beust, son of the Austrian Ambassador. Amongst
the Russians I knew Count Adelberg well, and it was through his
representations that I eventually came into contact with that wonderful
man Count Schouvaloff. Count Paul Schouvaloff at the time was Russian
Ambassador in London. An intimate and trusted friend of the Czar, his
Excellency had filled every office in his country that called for
administrative and diplomatic talents of the first order. As Chief of
the Secret Police his power was literally absolute and irresponsible; as
governor of a vast province he had ruled almost as an independent
sovereign; and in later years was the ruling spirit—and certainly the
most difficult nut to crack—at the Congress of Berlin, when Lord
Beaconsfield was accredited with having returned with “Peace with
Honour.”
It was as the guest of this historical personage that I one day found
myself at Chesham House, eating the most delightful lunch, drinking the
rarest Crimean wines, and marvelling at the courteous, retiring-mannered
man who plied me with the most delicate attentions.
His English, as may be supposed, was faultless, and so it was that my
admiration was turned to astonishment when a personage to whom I assumed
there could be nothing new under the sun asked me if I would do for him
the great favour of piloting him amongst the sights of London.
Not many nights later a muster of some dozen souls paraded at my rooms in
Charles Street, and as all were scrupulously attired in pot hats and
shooting coats it would have been difficult for the most observant to
have sorted ambassadors or attachés from the less diplomatic clay made in
England.
The muster roll contained the Russian Ambassador, Count Adelberg, Count
Beust, Count Mongela, Baron Spaum, Prince Hohenlohe, Colonel (Charlie)
Norton, Sir Edward Cunynghame (Ned), the Duke of Hamilton, and my humble
self.
The programme had been settled prior to all this with the assistance of
an ex-detective, who made a princely addition to his slender pension by
piloting exploration parties to latitudes where much depended on
diplomacy.
Our first visit was to Turnham’s, a pot-house in Newman Street, where
extensive arrangements had been made for some badger drawing under the
personal auspices of Bill George. In later years this canine authority
developed into a trusted dog-provider to the nobility, and resided in the
vicinity of Kensal Green; at the time of which I write his transactions
in dog-flesh were of a more miscellaneous character, and, as he once told
me with pride, a letter addressed “Bill George, Dog Stealer, London,”
would reach him without delay.
Our next move was to Jimmy Shaw’s, but whether it was to Windmill Street
or to a new house he took when his old place was demolished (next to the
stage door of the Lyric Theatre) I cannot recollect.
Here rats in sackfuls were awaiting us, amongst others a rough-haired
mongrel terrier, which not long previously had performed the astounding
feat of killing 1,000 rats in an incredibly short space of time.
To see 1,000 sewer rats not long in captivity together in a pit, after
having seen each one counted out by an expert rat-catcher diving into a
sack, is something my enlightened twentieth-century reader will never
again see in London.
For, although not absolutely prohibited, the shadow of Exeter Hall was
already spreading over the land, and the police—already tainted—were not
to be trusted, even when a live ambassador was present.
Tom King—ex-champion—had also consented, for a consideration, to again
put on the gloves, and brought with him a burly opponent; the slogging
that ensued was really splendid, and Count Schouvaloff was literally in
ecstasies.
Our next move was to Endell Street, and here greater precautions were
necessary, for cock-fighting was the unpardonable sin, and the pains and
penalties terrible. So we split into twos and threes, and going by
different ways eventually found ourselves in the cock-pit below ground.
Tom Faultless was the last of the old type of British bulldog sportsman.
Over seventy years old, he had in his youth assisted at bull-baiting,
dog-fights, cock-fighting, and every sport that once gave unalloyed
delight to high and low.
To his able hands the conduct of this particular department was
entrusted; nor were we long in realising that the supply was more than
enough to meet the most extravagant demands, as, banging the door to, we
were assailed by the defiant crows of a dozen gladiators, and this not
far from midnight, when the denizens of that virtuous quarter were
courting gentle sleep, and sounds carried like steam whistles.
It was close upon 2 a.m. before we again resumed our pilgrimage, and with
the aid of half a dozen four-wheelers wended our way towards the Mint.
It is unnecessary here to repeat what is fully set out in a previous
chapter, suffice to say our experiences on this occasion were equally as
interesting of those of ’62, and that his Excellency vowed that amid all
his miscellaneous experiences nothing so unique had ever equally
delighted him.
Five o’clock was striking as we drove past Covent Garden, and having
suggested that excellent eggs and bacon were to be obtained at Hart’s
Coffee House, all alighted and all ate as only diplomatists and night
birds can.
As we drove still further West the strings of market carts wafted the
odours of country life and green things into our debauched nostrils, and
we slunk away to our respective homes more or less delighted with our
adventures.
Whilst on the subject of Russian diplomatists a deafening experience I
had a few years later may not be without interest.
It was on the Grand Duke Alexis’s flagship that I had the honour of
finding myself one of some sixty guests. In addition to the Russian
battleship there were men-of-war of England, France, and Sweden in the
harbour, and the Grand Duke was presiding at the table.
Needless to describe the excellent cookery—for Russian cookery is very
difficult to beat—nor the choice Crimean wines, many of which are
unobtainable except at the Imperial table, but when the dinner was over
the row _literally_ began.
First the Grand Duke proposed the Czar’s health, smashing the glass so
that no less worthy toast should again defile it, and 101 guns began a
salute on the deck immediately over our heads.
Barely had it ceased when the battleships of England, France, and Sweden
followed—not simultaneously, but one after another—and again the Grand
Duke arose and proposed the Queen of England to a repetition of the same
diabolical accompaniment. And then followed the toast to the rulers of
France and Sweden till the viands we had consumed seemed to rattle in
their astonishment, and our heads to whirl with after-dinner loyalty.
And when the adjournment to the main deck for coffee and cigarettes took
place, it is no exaggeration to assert that we waded ankle deep through
broken glass.
The impetus given to that industry must have been enormous!