The Lost Stradivarius

The Lost Stradivarius, by John
Meade Falkner

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Title: The Lost Stradivarius
Author: John Meade Falkner
Release Date: November 21, 2004 [eBook #14107]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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STRADIVARIUS***
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THE LOST STRADIVARIUS

by
J. MEADE FALKNER
1895
Penguin Books Harmondsworth Middlesex, England 245 Fifth Avenue,
New York, U.S.A.

THE AUTHOR
John Meade Falkner was a remarkable character, as he was not only a
scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858, the
son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and
Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to
the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the
Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his
employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without
connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his intellect,
he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915, chairman of this
enormous business. He was actually chairman during the important
years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926.
His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found
time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in
Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with
foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library.
His researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and
in connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he
was also decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments.
His scholastic interests included archæology, folklore, palæography,
mediæval history, architecture and church music; and he was a
collector of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an
Honorary Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in
Palæography to Durham University, and Honorary Librarian to the
Chapter Library of Durham Cathedral, which he left one of the best

cathedral libraries in Europe. He died at Durham in 1932.
Apart from The Lost Stradivarius, Falkner was the author of two other
novels, The Nebuly Coat (1903--also published in Penguin Books) and
Moonfleet (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks
to that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some
mediævalist verse.

THE LOST STRADIVARIUS

Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS to her Nephew, SIR
EDWARD MALTRAVERS, then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford.
13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath, Oct. 21, 1867.
MY DEAR EDWARD,
It was your late father's dying request that certain events which
occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your
coming of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own
recollection, which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of
notes taken at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full
age, I submit the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been
exceedingly painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is
better that you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from
others who did not love your father as I did.
Your loving Aunt, SOPHIA MALTRAVERS
To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart.

"A tale out of season is as music in mourning." --ECCLESIASTICUS
xxii. 6.

MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY
CHAPTER I
Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and
succeeded his father and mine, who died when we were still young
children. John was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he
was nineteen years of age, it was determined that he should go to
Oxford. It was intended at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr.
Sarsdell, who visited us at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr.
Thoresby, our guardian, to send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr.
Sarsdell was himself Principal of that institution, and represented that
John, who then exhibited some symptoms of delicacy, would meet with
more personal attention under his care than he could hope to do in so
large a college as Christ Church. Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his
ward's welfare, readily waived other considerations in favour of an
arrangement which he considered conducive to John's health, and he
was accordingly matriculated at Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839.
Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of