The Days Before Yesterday | Page 4

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 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 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