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The Days Before Yesterday

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Title: The Days Before Yesterday

Author: Lord Frederic Hamilton

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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

panting breath could be recovered, and the necessary stolid look assumed before entering the hall.

There was another voyage, rich in its promise of ultimate rewards, but so perilous that it would only be

undertaken under escort. That was to the housekeeper's room through a maze of basement passages. On the

road two fiercely-gleaming roaring pits of fire had to be encountered. Grown-ups said this was the furnace

that heated the house, but the little boy had his own ideas on the subject. Every Sunday his nurse used to read

to him out of a little devotional book, much in vogue in the "sixties," called The Peep of Day, a book with the

most terrifying pictures. One Sunday evening, so it is said, the little boy's mother came into the nursery to find

him listening in rapt attention to what his nurse was reading him.

"Emery is reading to me out of a good book," explained the small boy quite superfluously.

"And do you like it, dear?"

"Very much indeed."

"What is Emery reading to you about? Is it about Heaven?"

"No, it's about 'ell," gleefully responded the little boy, who had not yet found all his "h's."

Those glowing furnace-bars; those roaring flames ... there could be no doubt whatever about it. A hymn spoke

of "Gates of Hell" ... of course they just called it the heating furnace to avoid frightening him. The little boy

became acutely conscious of his misdeeds. He had taken ... no, stolen an apple from the nursery pantry and

had eaten it. Against all orders he had played with the taps in the sink. The burden of his iniquities pressed

heavily on him; remembering the encouraging warnings Mrs. Fairchild, of The Fairchild Family, gave her

offspring as to their certain ultimate destiny when they happened to break any domestic rule, he simply dared

not pass those fiery apertures alone. With his hand in that of his friend Joseph, the footman, it was quite

another matter. Out of gratitude, he addressed Joseph as "Mr. Greatheart," but Joseph, probably unfamiliar

with the Pilgrim's Progress, replied that his name was Smith.

The interminable labyrinth of passages threaded, the warm, comfortable housekeeper's room, with its red

curtains, oak presses and a delicious smell of spice pervading it, was a real haven of rest. To this very day,

nearly sixty years afterwards, it still looks just the same, and keeps its old fragrant spicy odour. Common

politeness dictated a brief period of conversation, until Mrs. Pithers, the housekeeper, should take up her

wicker key- basket and select a key (the second press on the left). From that inexhaustible treasure-house

dates and figs would appear, also dried apricots and those little discs of crystallised apple-paste which,

impaled upon straws, and coloured green, red and yellow, were in those days manufactured for the special

delectation of greedy little boys. What a happy woman Mrs. Pithers must have been with such a prodigal

wealth of delicious products always at her command! It was comforting, too, to converse with Mrs. Pithers,

for though this intrepid woman was alarmed neither by bears, hunchbacks nor crocodiles, she was terribly

frightened by what she termed "cows," and regulated her daily walks so as to avoid any portion of the park

where cattle were grazing. Here the little boy experienced a delightful sense of masculine superiority. He was

not the least afraid of cattle, or of other things in daylight and the open air; of course at night in dark passages

infested with bears and little hunchbacks ... Well, it was obviously different. And yet that woman who was

afraid of "cows" could walk without a tremor, or a little shiver down the spine, past the very "Gates of Hell,"

where they roared and blazed in the dark passage.

Our English home had brightly-lit passages, and was consequently practically free from bears and robbers.

Still, we all preferred the Ulster home in spite of its obvious perils. Here were a chain of lakes, wide, silvery

expanses of gleaming water reflecting the woods and hills. Here were great tracts of woodlands where

countless little burns chattered and tinkled in their rocky beds as they hurried down to the lakes, laughing as

they tumbled in miniature cascades over rocky ledges into swirling pools, in their mad haste to reach the

CHAPTER I 11