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The Days Before Yesterday Project Gutenberg's The Days Before Yesterday, by Lord Frederic Hamilton Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check the laws for your country before redistributing these files!!! Please take a look at the important information in this header. We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an electronic path open for the next readers. Please do not remove this. This should be the first thing seen when anyone opens the book. Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they need about what they can legally do with the texts. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These Etexts Are Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and further information is included below, including for donations. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 Title: The Days Before Yesterday Author: Lord Frederic Hamilton Release Date: March, 2003 [Etext #3827] [Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule] [The actual date this file first posted = 09/29/01] Edition: 10 Language: English Project Gutenberg's The Days Before Yesterday, by Lord Frederic Hamilton **********This file should be named tdbys10.txt or tdbys10.zip********** Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, tdbys11.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tdbys10a.txt This etext was produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions, all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a copyright notice is included. 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Money should be paid to the: "Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." If you are interested in contributing scanning equipment or software or other items, please contact Michael Hart at: hart@pobox.com [Portions of this header are copyright (C) 2001 by Michael S. Hart and may be reprinted only when these Etexts are free of all fees.] [Project Gutenberg is a TradeMark and may not be used in any sales of Project Gutenberg Etexts or other materials be they hardware or software or any other related product without express permission.] *END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END* This etext was produced by Charles Franks, Robert Rowe and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE DAYS BEFORE YESTERDAY FOREWORD The Public has given so kindly a reception to The Varnished Pomps of Yesterday (a reception which took its author wholly by surprise), that I have extracted some further reminiscences from the lumber-room of recollections. Those who expect startling revelations, or stale whiffs of forgotten scandals in these pages, will, I fear, be disappointed, for the book contains neither. It is merely a record of everyday events, covering different ground to those recounted in the former book, which may, or may not, prove of interest. I must tender my apologies for the insistent recurrence of the first person singular; in a book of this description this is difficult to avoid. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Early days The passage of many terrors Crocodiles, grizzlies and hunchbacks An adventurous journey and its reward The famous spring in South Audley Street Climbing chimney-sweeps The story of Mrs. Montagu's son The sweeps' carnival Disraeli Lord John Russell A child's ideas about the Whigs The Earl of Aberdeen "Old Brown Bread" Sir Edwin Landseer, a great family friend A live lion at a tea-party Landseer as an artist Some of his vagaries His frescoes at Ardverikie His latter days A devoted friend His last Academy picture CHAPTER II The "swells" of the "sixties" Old Lord Claud Hamilton My first presentation to Queen Victoria Scandalous behaviour of a brother Queen Victoria's letters Her character and strong common sense My mother's recollections of George III. and George IV Carlton House, and the Brighton Pavilion Queen Alexandra The Fairchild Family Dr. Cumming and his church A clerical Jazz First visit to Paris General de Flahault's account of Napoleon's campaign of 1812 Another curious link with the past "Something French" Attraction of Paris Cinderella's glass slipper A glimpse of Napoleon III The Rue de Rivoli The Riviera in 1865 A novel Tricolour flag Jenny Lind The championship of the Mediterranean My father's CHAPTER I 6 boat and crew The race The Abercorn wins the championship CHAPTER III A new departure A Dublin hotel in the "sixties" The Irish mail service The wonderful old paddle mail-boats The convivial waiters of the Munster The Viceregal Lodge Indians and pirates The imagination of youth A modest personal ambition Death- warrants; imaginary and real The Fenian outbreak of 1866-7 The Abergele railway accident A Dublin Drawing-Room Strictly private ceremonials Some of the amenities of the Chapel Royal An unbidden spectator of the State dinners Irish wit Judge Keogh Father Healy Happy Dublin knack of nomenclature An unexpected honour and its cause Incidents of the Fenian rising Dr. Hatchell A novel prescription Visit of King Edward Gorgeous ceremonial, but a chilly drive An anecdote of Queen Alexandra CHAPTER IV Chittenden's A wonderful teacher My personal experiences as a schoolmaster My "boys in blue" My unfortunate garments A "brave Belge" The model boy, and his name A Spartan regime "The Three Sundays" Novel religious observances Harrow "John Smith of Harrow" "Tommy" Steele "Tosher" An ingenious punishment John Farmer His methods The birth of a famous song Harrow school songs "Ducker" The "Curse of Versatility" Advancing old age The race between three brothers A family failing My father's race at sixty-four My own A most acrimonious dispute at Rome Harrow after fifty years CHAPTER V Mme. Ducros A Southern French country town "Tartarin de Tarascon" His prototypes at Nyons M. Sisteron the roysterer The Southern French An octogenarian pasteur French industry "Bone- shakers" A wonderful "Cordon-bleu" "Slop-basin" French legal procedure The bons-vivants The merry French judges La gaiete francaise Delightful excursions Some sleepy old towns Oronge and Avignon M. Thiers' ingenious cousin Possibilities French political situation in 1874 The Comte de Chambord Some French characteristics High intellectual level Three days in a Trappist Monastery Details of life there The Arian heresy Silkworm culture Tendencies of French to complicate details Some examples Cicadas in London. CHAPTER VI Brunswick Its beauty High level of culture The Brunswick Theatre Its excellence Gas vs. Electricity Primitive theatre toilets Operatic stars in private life Some operas unknown in London Dramatic incidents in them Levasseur's parody of "Robert" Some curious details about operas Two fiery old pan- Germans Influence of the teaching profession on modern Germany The "French and English Clubs" A meeting of the "English Club" Some reflections about English reluctance to learn foreign tongues Mental attitude of non-Prussians in 1875 Concerning various beers A German sportsman The silent, quinine-loving youth The Harz Mountains A "Kettle-drive" for hares Dialects of German The odious "Kaffee-Klatch" Universal gossip Hamburg's overpowering hospitality Hamburg's attitude towards Britain The city itself Trip to British Heligoland The island Some peculiarities Migrating birds Sir Fitzhardinge Maxse Lady Maxse The Heligoland Theatre Winter in Heligoland CHAPTER II 7 CHAPTER VII Some London beauties of the "seventies" Great ladies The Victorian girl Votaries of the Gaiety Theatre Two witty ladies Two clever girls and mock-Shakespeare The family who talked Johnsonian English Old-fashioned tricks of pronunciation Practical jokes Lord Charles Beresford and the old Club-member The shoeless legislator Travellers' palms The tree that spouted wine Ceylon's spicy breezes Some reflections Decline of public interest in Parliament Parliamentary giants Gladstone, John Bright, and Chamberlain Gladstone's last speech His resignation W.H. Smith The Assistant Whips Sir William Hart-Dyke Weary hours at Westminster A Pseudo-Ingoldsbean Lay CHAPTER VIII The Foreign Office The new Private Secretary A Cabinet key Concerning theatricals Some surnames which have passed into everyday use Theatricals at Petrograd A mock-opera The family from Runcorn An embarrassing predicament Administering the oath Secret Service Popular errors Legitimate employment of information The Phoenix Park murders I sanction an arrest The innocent victim The execution of the murderers of Alexander II The jarring military band Black Magic Sir Charles Wyke Some of his experiences The seance at the Pantheon Sir Charles' experiments on myself The Alchemists The Elixir of Life, and the Philosopher's Stone Lucid directions for their manufacture Glamis Castle and its inhabitants The tuneful Lyon family Mr. Gladstone at Glamis He sings in the glees The castle and its treasures Recollections of Glamis CHAPTER IX Canada The beginnings of the C.P.R Attitude of British Columbia The C.P.R. completed Quebec A swim at Niagara Other mighty waterfalls Ottawa and Rideau Hall Effects of dry climate Personal electricity Every man his own dynamo Attraction of Ottawa The "roaring game" Skating An ice-palace A ball on skates Difficulties of translating the Bible into Eskimo The building of the snow hut The snow hut in use Sir John Macdonald Some personal traits The Canadian Parliament buildings Monsieur l'Orateur A quaint oration The "Pages' Parliament" An all-night sitting The "Arctic Cremorne" A curious Lisbon custom The Balkan "souvenir-hunters" Personal inspection of Canadian convents Some incidents The unwelcome novice The Montreal Carnival The Ice-castle The Skating Carnival A stupendous toboggan slide The pioneer of "ski" in Canada The old-fashioned raquettes A Canadian Spring Wonders of the Dominion CHAPTER X Calcutta Hooghly pilots Government House A Durbar The sulky Rajah The customary formalities An ingenious interpreter The sailing clippers in the Hooghly Calcutta Cathedral A succulent banquet The mistaken Minister The "Gordons" Barrackpore A Swiss Family Robinson aerial house The child and the elephants The merry midshipmen Some of their escapades A huge haul of fishes Queen Victoria and Hindustani The Hills The Manipur outbreak A riding tour A wise old Anglo-Indian Incidents The fidelity of native servants A novel printing-press Lucknow The loss of an illusion CHAPTER VII 8 CHAPTER XI Matters left untold The results of improved communications My father's journey to Naples Modern stereotyped uniformity Changes in customs The faithful family retainer Some details Samuel Pepys' stupendous banquets Persistence of idea Ceremonial incense Patriarchal family life The barn dances My father's habits My mother A son's tribute Autumn days Conclusion THE DAYS BEFORE YESTERDAY CHAPTER I Early days The passage of many terrors Crocodiles, grizzlies and hunchbacks An adventurous journey and its reward The famous spring in South Audley Street Climbing chimney-sweeps The story of Mrs. Montagu's son The sweeps' carnival Disraeli Lord John Russell A child's ideas about the Whigs The Earl of Aberdeen "Old Brown Bread" Sir Edwin Landseer, a great family friend A live lion at a tea-party Landseer as an artist Some of his vagaries His frescoes at Ardverikie His latter days A devoted friend His last Academy picture. I was born the thirteenth child of a family of fourteen, on the thirteenth day of the month, and I have for many years resided at No. 13 in a certain street in Westminster. In spite of the popular prejudice attached to this numeral, I am not conscious of having derived any particular ill-fortune from my accidental association with it. Owing to my sequence in the family procession, I found myself on my entry into the world already equipped with seven sisters and four surviving brothers. I was also in the unusual position of being born an uncle, finding myself furnished with four ready- made nephews the present Lord Durham, his two brothers, Mr. Frederick Lambton and Admiral-of-the-Fleet Sir Hedworth Meux, and the late Lord Lichfield. Looking down the long vista of sixty years with eyes that have already lost their keen vision, the most vivid impression that remains of my early childhood is the nightly ordeal of the journey down "The Passage of Many Terrors" in our Irish home. It had been decreed that, as I had reached the mature age of six, I was quite old enough to come downstairs in the evening by myself without the escort of a maid, but no one seemed to realise what this entailed on the small boy immediately concerned. The house had evidently been built by some malevolent architect with the sole object of terrifying little boys. Never, surely, had such a prodigious length of twisting, winding passages and such a superfluity of staircases been crammed into one building, and as in the early "sixties" electric light had not been thought of, and there was no gas in the house, these endless passages were only sparingly lit with dim colza-oil lamps. From his nursery the little boy had to make his way alone through a passage and up some steps. These were brightly lit, and concealed no terrors. The staircase that had to be negotiated was also reassuringly bright, but at its base came the "Terrible Passage." It was interminably long, and only lit by an oil lamp at its far end. Almost at once a long corridor running at right angles to the main one, and plunged in total darkness, had to be crossed. This was an awful place, for under a marble slab in its dim recesses a stuffed crocodile reposed. Of course in the daytime the crocodile PRETENDED to be very dead, but every one knew that as soon as it grew dark, the crocodile came to life again, and padded noiselessly about the passage on its scaly paws seeking for its prey, with its great cruel jaws snapping, its fierce teeth gleaming, and its horny tail lashing savagely from side to side. It was also a matter of common knowledge that the favourite article of diet of crocodiles was a little boy with bare legs in a white suit. Even should one be fortunate enough to escape the crocodile's jaws, there were countless other terrors awaiting the traveller down this awe-inspiring passage. A little farther on there was a dark lobby, with cupboards surrounding it. Any one examining these cupboards by daylight would have found that they contained innocuous cricket-bats and stumps, croquet- mallets and balls, and sets of bowls. But as soon as the shades of night fell, these harmless sporting accessories were changed by some mysterious and malign agency CHAPTER XI 9 into grizzly bears, and grizzly bears are notoriously the fiercest of their species. It was advisable to walk very quickly, but quietly, past the lair of the grizzlies, for they would have gobbled up a little boy in one second. Immediately after the bears' den came the culminating terror of all the haunt of the wicked little hunchbacks. These malignant little beings inhabited an arched and recessed cross- passage. It was their horrible habit to creep noiselessly behind their victims, tip tip tip-toeing silently but swiftly behind their prey, and then with a sudden spring they threw themselves on to little boys' backs, and getting their arms round their necks, they remorselessly throttled the life out of them. In the early "sixties" there was a perfect epidemic of so-called "garrotting" in London. Harmless citizens proceeding peaceably homeward through unfrequented streets or down suburban roads at night were suddenly seized from behind by nefarious hands, and found arms pressed under their chins against their windpipe, with a second hand drawing their heads back until they collapsed insensible, and could be despoiled leisurely of any valuables they might happen to have about them. Those familiar with John Leech's Punch Albums will recollect how many of his drawings turned on this outbreak of garrotting. The little boy had heard his elders talking about this garrotting, and had somehow mixed it up with a story about hunchbacks and the fascinating local tales about "the wee people," but the terror was a very real one for all that. The hunchbacks baffled, there only remained a dark archway to pass, but this archway led to the "Robbers' Passage." A peculiarly bloodthirsty gang of malefactors had their fastnesses along this passage, but the dread of being in the immediate neighbourhood of such a band of desperadoes was considerably modified by the increasing light, as the solitary oil-lamp of the passage was approached. Under the comforting beams of this lamp the little boy would pause until his heart began to thump less wildly after his deadly perils, and he would turn the handle of the door and walk into the great hall as demurely as though he had merely traversed an ordinary everyday passage in broad daylight. It was very reassuring to see the big hall blazing with light, with the logs roaring on the open hearth, and grown-ups writing, reading, and talking unconcernedly, as though unconscious of the awful dangers lurking within a few yards of them. In that friendly atmosphere, what with toys and picture-books, the fearful experiences of the "Passage of Many Terrors" soon faded away, and the return journey upstairs would be free from alarms, for Catherine, the nursery- maid, would come to fetch the little boy when his bedtime arrived. Catherine was fat, freckled, and French. She was also of a very stolid disposition. She stumped unconcernedly along the" Passage of Terrors," and any reference to its hidden dangers of robbers, hunchbacks, bears, and crocodiles only provoked the remark, "Quel tas de betises!" In order to reassure the little boy, Catherine took him to view the stuffed crocodile reposing inertly under its marble slab. Of course, before a grown-up the crocodile would pretend to be dead and stuffed, but the little boy knew better. It occurred gleefully to him, too, that the plump French damsel might prove more satisfactory as a repast to a hungry saurian than a skinny little boy with thin legs. In the cheerful nursery, with its fragrant peat fire (we called it "turf"), the terrors of the evening were quickly forgotten, only to be renewed with tenfold activity next evening, as the moment for making the dreaded journey again approached. The little boy had had the Pilgrim's Progress read to him on Sundays. He envied "Christian," who not only usually enjoyed the benefit of some reassuring companion, such as "Mr. Interpreter," or "Mr. Greatheart," to help him on his road, but had also been expressly told, "Keep in the midst of the path, and no harm shall come to thee." This was distinctly comforting, and Christian enjoyed another conspicuous advantage. All the lions he encountered in the course of his journey were chained up, and could not reach him provided he adhered to the Narrow Way. The little boy thought seriously of tying a rolled-up tablecloth to his back to represent Christian's pack; in his white suit, he might perhaps then pass for a pilgrim, and the strip of carpet down the centre of the passage would make an admirable Narrow Way, but it all depended on whether the crocodile, bears, and hunchbacks knew, and would observe the rules of the game. It was most improbable that the crocodile had ever had the Pilgrim's Progress read to him in his youth, and he might not understand that the carpet representing the Narrow Way was inviolable territory. Again, the bears might make their spring before they realised that, strictly speaking, they ought to consider themselves chained up. The ferocious little hunchbacks were clearly past praying for; nothing would give them a sense of the most elementary decency. On the whole, the safest plan seemed to be, on reaching the foot of the stairs, to keep an eye on the distant lamp and to run to it as fast as short legs and small feet could carry one. Once safe under its friendly beams, CHAPTER I 10 [...]... from the soles of their bare feet to the crowns of their heads, except for the whites of their eyes They could not have been above eight or nine years old I looked on them as awful warnings, for of course they would not have occupied their present position had they not been little boys who had habitually disobeyed the orders of their nurses Even the wretched little climbing-boys had their gala-day on the. .. ideas as to the Whigs and their traditional policy I gathered that, with their tongues in their cheeks, they advocated measures in which they did not themselves believe, should they think that by so doing they would be able to enhance their popularity and maintain themselves in office: that, in order to extricate themselves from some present difficulty, they were always prepared to mortgage the future... never gave either of them the faintest twinge of gout These little mutual attentions were then expected on both sides Neither my father nor mother ever used the word "hotel" in speaking of any hostelry in the United Kingdom Like all their contemporaries, they always spoke of an "inn." In 1860 a new contract had been signed with the Post Office by the London and North-Western Railway and the City of... the floor, and ye wouldn't believe the way we worked, setting out the dishes, and the flowers and the swatemates on the table 'Now,' says I, 'for the love of God let none of them sit down at the table, or they'll feel the waiters with their feet Lave it to me to get His Excellency out of this, and then hurry the drunk waiters away!' And I spoke a word to the boys in the pantry 'Boys,' says I, 'as ye... fit, as the strain on his heart had been very great It took the doctors over an hour to bring him round, and we all thought that he had died I was eleven years old at the time, and the shock of the collision, the sight of the burning coaches, the screams of the women, the wreckage, and my brother's narrow escape from death, affected me for some little while afterwards It was the custom then for the Lord-Lieutenant... wriggle their way up by digging their toes into the interstices of the bricks, and by working their elbows and knees alternately; stifled in the pitch-darkness of the narrow flue by foul air, suffocated by the showers of soot that fell on them, perhaps losing their way in the black maze of chimneys, and liable at any moment, should they lose their footing, to come crashing down twenty feet, either to... dropping the spoons and forks about, the way they'll not hear it if the drunk waiters get snoring,' and then the thrain arrives, and we run up to meet His Excellency your father "We went down to the saloon for a moment, and every one says that they never saw the like of that for a supper, the boys in the pantry keeping up such a clatteration by tumbling the spoons and forks about, that ye'd think the bottom... of a December morning, they crept down to the lake with their guns With the first gleam of dawn, they saw that there were plenty of wild fowl on the water, and they succeeded in shooting three or four of them When daylight came, they retrieved them with a boat, but were dismayed at finding that these birds were neither mallards, nor porchards, nor any known form of British duck; their colouring, too,... the sweep, and then you will have to climb up the chimney." When the dust-sheets laid on the floors announced the advent of the sweeps, I used, if possible, to hide until they had left the house I cannot understand how public opinion tolerated for so long the abominable cruelty of forcing little boys to clamber up flues These unhappy brats were made to creep into the chimneys from the grates, and then... refuses to let me say who) suggested that as the woven flowers on the carpet looked rather faded, it might be as well to water them The boys present, including the little Princes, gleefully emptied can after can of water on to the floor in their attempts to revive the carpet, to the immense improvement of the ceiling and furniture of the room underneath In the "sixties" Sunday was very strictly observed . life The barn dances My father's habits My mother A son's tribute Autumn days Conclusion THE DAYS BEFORE YESTERDAY CHAPTER I Early days The passage. The Days Before Yesterday Project Gutenberg's The Days Before Yesterday, by Lord Frederic Hamilton Copyright laws are changing all over the world,