Chapter I: Preface

When, some time ago, a collection of my mother’s reminiscences was given to the public, we received a large number of suggestions that a second similar volume would be certain of the same cordial welcome as was extended to the first. The following pages, containing memories and observations extending over a long period of years, are the result of these kindly exhortations.

The task of arrangement and of selection from my mother’s scrap-books and note-books has been carried out by me under her supervision; and I have also included as many recollections, hitherto unpublished, as her very excellent memory was able to furnish. Of the many anecdotes which are given, the majority, it is hoped, are here told for the first time in print; most of them, indeed, recount personal experiences of her own or of some of the well-known people with whom during a long life it has been her privilege to meet. In preparing the volume valuable assistance, which it is our desire here gratefully to acknowledge, has been rendered by many well-wishers, some of them old friends, some of them unknown to us except by their encouraging and helpful letters.

It may be added that my only aim in the pages which follow has been to arrange a mass of material—some of it no doubt old, but a great deal, I hope, new—in such a form as may interest and amuse the reader and thus serve to occupy a few leisure hours. If failure be the result, the blame must be laid entirely at my door; while should the book in any measure achieve its aim, the whole credit belongs properly to my mother.

RALPH NEVILL.

CONTENTS

I

PAGE
My scrap-books—A female politician of other days—Souvenirs of past
elections—_The Nottingham Lamb_—Bernal Osborne and his Irish
friend—Taxes—Political caricatures—Sir F. Carruthers Gould—Sir
Frank Lockwood—Lord Vernon and the Pope—Old menus—Weddings of the
past—Some anecdotes—Mrs. Norton—The Duchess of Somerset—_The
Owl_—The Fourth Party—Sir Henry Drummond Wolff—The Comte de Paris
and the Primrose League—Lord Randolph Churchill and his resignation
of office 1

II

Society—Conversation and the lack of it—Miss Gordon Cumming and Munro
of Novar—The Duke of Wellington’s hatred of publicity—Sir Robert
Peel’s wedding at Apsley House—Mr. Delane—An eccentric patron—A
curate’s wit—The Stock Exchange and the West End—Prince Edward of
Saxe-Weimar’s drive home—American influence—Lions—Mr. Watts and the
crinolette—Matchmaking—Lady Beaconsfield—Some anecdotes—Lord Henry
Lennox and the Duchess of Cleveland—Maria, Marchioness of
Ailesbury—Frances, Lady Waldegrave 22

III

Country houses—Letter from Lord Beaconsfield—Political influence of
landowners—Guests down with the
fish—Longleat—Hinchingbrooke—Goodwood—Old-time country
visitors—Colonel Nelthorpe and “Wulliam”—the Norfolk Militia in the
’fifties—My father and Casanova—A good-natured giant—Old Lady
Suffield—Lord George Bentinck—Admiral Rous—George Payne and Lord
Alexander Lennox—Religion of the former—The Duchess of Cleveland
and Battle Abbey—Anecdotes—Duke William of Normandy 41

IV

Lady Holland’s girlhood at Battle Abbey—Her “court” at Holland
House—Her relationship to myself—Her ways—Her
insolence—Anecdotes—Lady Palmerston—Cobden and Lord Palmerston—Lord
John Russell—Lady Jersey and Lady Londonderry—Their social
influence exerted in favour of Mr. Disraeli—Letters from Lady
Beaconsfield—Her dinners—Lord Lyndhurst and Mr.
Disraeli—Interesting letter from the latter—His difficulties in
early life—His opinion of Mr. Gladstone—An ingenuous diplomatist 59

V

A memorandum by Napoleon—English opinions concerning him in other
days—His effigy burnt at Norwich—The Chevalier de
Bardelin—Interesting relics at Highclere—My sight of Marie
Louise—The Emperor at Mass—His love of church bells—Sir Henry
Drummond Wolff’s visit to Elba—Hears recollections of Napoleon’s
gardener—Anecdotes—The Emperor and General Lecourbe—Baron von
Kleist—Mr. Manning—Napoleon in London—“The Midnight Review” 78

VI

The Bourbons—Mdlle. Félicie de Fauveau and her vow—Marie Antoinette
at the Petit Trianon—A buried treasure—Madame du Barry and her
bankers—Her lost jewels—A possibility of existence at some bank—Her
destroyers—Zamor and the Englishman Grieve—Mrs. Atkyns and the
Dauphin—Her gallant effort to save the Queen—Naundorff—An American
Dauphin—Eleazar Williams—Mystery surrounding the death of Louis
XVII 98

VII

Travelling abroad—Munich—Lack of comforts—Baths and bathing, then and
now—A careless traveller—A carriage on a railway truck in recent
years—The last of the Sedan-chairs—An eccentric menu—Abraham
Hayward—Acclimatising crayfish—English truffles—Change in dinner
hour—Old English fare—Careless housekeeping—Cookery books—Soyer and
his wife—An obsolete custom—The triumph of tobacco 120

VIII

London of the past—Eccentricities of modern architecture—Dreary
modern streets—Decay of the picturesque—The dignity of old
London—“The only running footman”—Berkeley Square and its
memories—Lady Cowper—Lord and Lady Haversham—Charles Street and
Mayfair—Curzon Street and Piccadilly—Wimborne House—A great
party—Changes since the ’sixties—The last of the apothecaries—Lady
Londonderry—The Sultan and his Ambassadress—Shadows of the past 140

IX

The London parks—Old prints—Rural London—Deer in Hyde Park—Its
gates—Proposed railway station in the Park—Riots—Origin of the name
“Rotten Row”—An unlucky suitor and his trousers—Lady Diana
Beauclerk and the Baron de Géramb—Decadence of dress—The
_vis-à-vis_—The end of duelling—Lord Camelford’s will—His
burial-place—The first Lord Camelford—His Lines on Lady Hervey 160

X

Family pictures—Nelson and the Walpoles—A group by Devis—A fine old
French picture saved by Mr. Cobden—Eccentricity of Lord
Hertford—Dr. Schlieman’s bequest—Some beautiful books in Lord
Carnarvon’s collection—Fashion in art—Sir Patrick Grant and the red
cloak—Mr. Graves—Lord Leighton—Mr. Aidé—A genial artist—Sir David
Wilkie—Scene-painting and art—Stewart relics—Silhouettes—Anecdotes
of William IV.—Lady Georgiana Curzon and “Ugly
Mugs”—Watch-papers—The origin of Christmas cards 179

XI

Collecting—Old watchstands—Samplers—Needlework pictures—Old military
prints—French engravings—French furniture—The Hôtel de Ménars—Mr.
Alfred Rothschild’s collection—The Tilsit table at Hertford House
and its history—A £20,000 commode in danger—Eccentricity of Mr.
Hawkins—Old English furniture inadequately represented in National
Collections—Chippendale and the austere Sheraton—An apostle of good
taste—Lady Hamilton’s cabinet—Furniture supports—Knole and its
treasures—Origin of the dumb-bell—A gifted lady 203

XII

Favourites of the past—Siamese cats—Sir William Gregory—A feline
tragedy—A dog’s last farewell—Chinese dogs at Goodwood—A reluctant
swain—Mr. Mallock’s epitaph—Sandringham—Riding and driving—Anecdote
of a parrot—Strange diet of a stork—My choughs and their
nests—Disappointed hopes—An unwelcome arrival—Mr. Darwin’s interest
in my garden—Mr. Cobden’s letter from Algiers—His interest in my
silkworms—Garden books—Some pretty verses by Mr. Lowe 226

XIII

A Diorama of Florence—Vauxhall Gardens—Causes of their end in
1855—_Fête_ at Cremorne—The Coliseum—Rinks and
Roller-skating—Aquariums—Zazel and Mr. Watts—Nelly Farren—The rise
of the Music Hall—A visit to Evans’—Paddy Green as a collector—The
Opera in old days—Taglioni and Cerito—Paul Bedford—Mr. Toole—His
joke upon Sir Henry Irving—The Exhibition of 1851—Houdin, the
Prince of Conjurers—Theatre at Rome—Old days at Töplitz—A libel
upon the Queen 246

XIV

Changes—Old customs—Country houses—A dispirited Conservative—Wigs—The
last Bishops to wear them—Some witty replies—Nightcaps—Dr. Burney
and Nelson—Posy rings—Mutton-fat candles in 1835—Belvoir
Castle—Old-world
country life—Poachers—The last of the smugglers—A terrible
crime—Hanging in chains—Pressing to death—Books bound in the skin
of criminals—Sussex roads—Old ironwork—Cowdray—The monk’s
curse—Otway’s birthplace—Trotton—Charles James Fox—Midhurst and its
tokens—Oratory in the country 265

XV

Retrospection—The first train from Norwich—Disappearance of
coaches—Railway mania of the ’forties—Hudson and his house—Steam
carriages of the past—Letter franking—Society and its love of
pleasure—Bridge—Decrease of betting and increase of
speculation—Changes in Parliament—The late Mr. Bradlaugh—An
unfortunate speech—Growth of the Press—Lady Seymour and the
cook—Louis Napoleon—His witty criticism—The Franco-German
war—_Paris Herself Again_—Mr. Mackenzie Grieves—The overflow of
London—Disappearance of nursery gardens—Modern
villagers—Folklore—Friends who have passed away 291

APPENDIX

SOME SECRET NEGOTIATIONS OF THE PRETENDER WITH SIR ROBERT WALPOLE 317

INDEX 343

PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES

LADY DOROTHY NEVILL. Painted by G. F. WATTS, R.A., in 1844 _Frontispiece_

LADY DOROTHY NEVILL. From a Portrait by the Hon. HENRY
GRAVES _Face page_189