LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
RIVERSIDE
LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
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LETTERS OF
GEORGE WYNDHAM
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1877-1913
COMPILED BY
GUY WYNDHAM
VOL. II
EDINBURGH: PRIVATELY PRINTED
T. AND A. CONSTABLE
PRINTERS TO HIS MAJESTY
1915
CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
NOVEMBER 1900 TO FEBRUARY 1905
PACK
Chief Secretary of State for Ireland The South African War-
The Land Bill' The Development of the State ' .1
CHAPTER X
MARCH 1905 TO JANUARY 1906
Illness and journey abroad Lecture on Ronsard Election
Campaign ....... 121
CHAPTER XI
JANUARY 1906 TO APRIL 7ra 1908
In Opposition The Education Bill Death of W. E. Henley-
Address on Walter Scott The Fiscal Question The Army
The Licensing Bill . . . . . .177
CHAPTER XII
APRIL 1908 TO JANUARY 1910
The Asquith Ministry Dover Pageant Dover Harbour Cavalry
Manoauvres Francis Thompson's ' Shelley ' Lord Rector of
the University of Edinburgh The Education Bill France
General Election Campaign ..... 299
vi LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
CHAPTER XIII
FEBRUARY 1910 TO MAY 1911
PAGE
In Opposition Army Debate France His Parents' Golden
Wedding His Rectorial Address ' The Springs of Romance'
The General Election His Father's Death . . 384
CHAPTER XIV
JUNE 1911 TO JUNE 1913
Wookey Hole The 'Die Hard' Movement His Silver Wedding
The Chapel at Clouds His Library His Son's Engage-
ment and Marriage Rural England .... 447
INDEX TO THE LETTERS 557
CORRIGENDA
VOL. II.
P. 23, 1. 25, read ' promontory ' for ' promenade.
P. 31, 1. 9, read ' man or a mouse.'
P. 257, 1. 2, read 'Letters' for 'letter.'
P. 365, 1. 2, read ' Hewins' for 'Henins.'
P. 435, 1. 3, read 'goal' for 'gold.'
P. 482, 1. 12, read 'Calveley' for 'Calverley.'
P. 486, 1. 14, read 'measure' for 'mitre.'
P. 555, 1. 20, read 'my' for 'any.'
LETTERS
CHAPTER IX
NOVEMBER 1900 TO FEBRUARY 1905
Chief Secretary of State for Ireland The South African War The
Land Bill 'The Development of the State.'
417
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTLE November VJth, 1900.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Old Briggs has written to me also.
It is a ' distinction ' to be out of the Cabinet anyway.
I have been here a week and find plenty to do and
many interests and memories. I ride in the Phoenix
8.30 to 9.30, breakfast at 10, read papers, to Castle at
11.30 and leave at 6 o'clock.
Everyone is very kind but I see rocks ahead.
I return to London December 7th ; if you could start
not before 10th or 12th I should see you and Mamma and
Perf . We shall be at ' 35 ' from 7th to end of session
about 17th Dec. then back here for Christmas and until
the House meets in February. We have handed Saighton
over to Bendor pro tern, so as to confirm our resolution
not to be absentees.
Best love to Mamma and Ditchmouse. Your loving
son, GEORGE.
418
To Charles T. Gatty
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTLE, 1? 'th November 1900.
MY DEAR OLD CHARLES, I find that the Government
of this country is carried on by continuous conversation.
VOL. II. A
2 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I have now been talking and listening for a week. That
is why I am so late in thanking you for your congratulations.
I am already intensely interested hi my work here.
You simply must come and stay with us hi January.
Nice house, Phoenix Park, divine view of Wicklow Hills,
golden and green glamour over everything, Celtic twi-
light always on tap Religion, Comparative Mythology,
Ethnology, round the corner.
Come, my dear, and do Celtic Crosses, the Book of
Kells, or what you will, provided you come. Yours
affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
419
To his Sister, Madeline
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 25th November 1900.
MOST DARLING MANENAI, I loved your dear letter.
I am very happy here. Not that I hope to succeed
personally. A man who expected personal success hi
Ireland would be ripe for Hanwell. But the work is
most interesting, and the ' call ' peremptory. I feel
that I was destined to come here. My solitary trump is
Mamma. Dear old things remember dancing with her.
And everyone in the country says 4 at any rate his Mother
was born hi Ireland.' It is a land of sorcery ; false, but
so fair that the adventurer willingly dives beneath the
waters to reach the enchanted palace of the Princess
Arianrhod. This means that I swim in ' Celtic twilight '
but through the green and golden witchery comes the
piercing appeal of grinding and hopeless poverty. I
walk like the mermaid in Andersen on pointed knives.
I got back from the congested districts last night.
Have driven for three days over tracks of stone and bog
with houses like pigsties, huddled on to every soppy knoll
that swells out of the quagmire. In one room, 11 feet
by 7 feet, was a family of five. In the other room of the
hovel, a family of 7, a loom, a pig, a cow, a donkey, a
bed, a spinning-wheel and a cradle. It is beyond belief.
3
And every soul is a gentleman or a lady who entertains
you with wit and pathos.
I travelled all yesterday back from Mallaranny near
Achill dressed at the Hotel and on to a public Dinner
of bigwigs and the Irish Hospital. The toast list was
interminable. I did not speak till 20 to 12. But luckily
' got home ' and so back to bed about 1.15, dog-tired.
In this country you must never be tired and never in
a hurry. You must listen and laugh with everyone and
master the land-acts and agricultural returns in stolen
moments. But still you get wonderful experience, for
all the departments are under the Chief Secretary.
Love to Charlie. Your most loving brother,
GEORGE.
420
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, November 25th, 1900.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your letter and I
believe in its ideal. We are the children of the Past,
England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, and we have
younger brothers and sisters by a second marriage, Canada,
Australasia, South Africa. Ireland is the daughter about
whom the parents quarrelled. She has been Cinderella
and is poor and hurt. But now invited back to her seat
on the dais she may take a common pride in being one of
the first family. But all this is far away and not ready
as yet even to be spoken of. She is still too poor.
We will have a long talk hi London. I am not only
reconciled to being here. I see it was inevitable. A
Chief Secretary is like a Ghibellme Duke of the 13th
century representing Empire and a larger organic concep-
tion in a Guelf republic. Many have failed here because
they did not realize that they were not in the 19th century.
I always have a difficulty in persuading myself that I
am. I really love the Irish and they have been very
kind and courteous to me during the last fortnight.
4 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I went round the North of Connaught to Mallaranny
by Achill from Tuesday to Saturday. It was of the
greatest service to me and a brilliant tragi-comedy all
the time. We drove and drove such a party ! Self,
Hanson ; Wrench, a Unionist, loyal, sensible land com-
missioner. Father O'Hara, Father O'Flyn who was
' advanced ' and is enchanting. Mr. Doran, the other
type, a slow pragmatical Irishman, whose eye only gleams
when he points out arterial drainage. And so we bumped
round, going into the cottiers' wretched hovels. No one
knows in England what ' Hell or Connaught ' means.
And all the Nationalist remedies of confiscation and
compulsory sale would only stereotype an intolerable
existence. I wish you and Pamela could have seen Srah,
a heap of hovels huddled on to one soppy knoll above the
bog level in effect a simple piggery. One house had a
family of five in one room 11 feet by 7 feet. In the other
room a family of seven. It was complete and picturesque,
stooping to get under the lintel and waiting till your eyes
could pierce the peat-haze there slowly emerged to sight
a hand loom ; the pig ; the cow and her manger ; the
donkey ; the bed ; a rocking-cradle with child ; the
hearth ; the spinning-wheel.
Yesterday morning at Mallaranny with its wild fuschia
hedges we had the full rain-laden blast from the Atlantic.
Took a special at 12.20 to Westport and caught the mail
passing Athlone to Broadstone at 7.15. I drove off and
dressed at the Shelbourne Hotel and on to a Public Dinner
to the Irish Hospital. His Excellency, the Lord Chan-
cellor, Attorney General, Lord Iveagh and many swells
and officials were present. I did not speak till twenty
to twelve, and then luckily made quite a hit. I was very
thankful as I feared after the long drives and pre-occupa-
tion in economic problems and long railway journey, that
my brains would not work. I, however, followed my new
prescription for oratory, viz. : to sleep like a log all the
afternoon. I am glad I did not ' jolly ' the fence which
was likely with such a take off. I found S. S. on getting
here and have spent the morning expatiating on the
TO HIS BROTHER 5
possibilities of the garden. We dine at the Vice-regal
to-night. I am your own son on these occasions and all
Ireland knows that you were reared at Athlone ! Your
most loving son, GEORGE.
421
To his Brother
CHIEF SECRETAHY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTI.K, Xor.ember 29th, 1900.
DEAREST OLD GUY, I have not written because I
have been in the dumps at your not coming home with
Brock, and more than in the dumps because you were
not made 2nd in Command.
But don't mind. These things happen. When they
have happened to me they have generally come more
than right in the end. Never fear for a moment that
your good work will be overlooked, so I dare to hope that
you will be given some adequate reward for all you have
done. That might mean a few years in England instead
of South Africa and no delay to your getting the command
in the long run. But I did hope that perhaps you would
get it in a year or so when Bethune went back to the
staff. However !
Dear old Guy you can't think how full this place is of
memories. I would give anything to have you here and
to go off hunting together. When you get leave you
must come with Minnie. I met Grace Malone out hunting
the other day. I have been out twice * jollying ' over the
banks and trotting back twelve miles to the ' special.'
I have two horses from the Captain and shall be able to
scrape more together. It simply must be, and I hope.
soon.
My work is cut out for me here and no mistake. Every-
body was up on end and T. W. Russell has gone nap on a
wild compulsory purchase scheme.
There will be wigs on the green. Ever your most loving
brother, GEORGE.
LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
422
To Charles Boyd
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTLE, S.xii.OO.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter was most interesting
and very welcome. I have thrown myself into this show.
But, at times, the twinge of separation from friends,
from home life, from my part in ' the wide world dreaming
upon things to come,' is sharp within this grey and circum-
scribed horizon. Yet it is good discipline and a grand
training. I have my province.
Now as to Glasgow don't come ! I have rarely been
so apprehensive. It is too late to talk of Military Defence ;
too early to talk of Ireland ; too foolish to buck about the
General Election ; too rash to prophesy that we shall
justify the confidence given by the people under compulsion
of the Opposition's acephalous futility.
So that I have nothing to say. And no man says
nothing with a more awkward appreciation of inanity.
I only wish to say that they are damned fools to have a
meeting at such a juncture. From this I am debarred
in my capacity as guest.
I like my province. It can be governed only by con-
versation and arbitrary decisions. To be an affable but
inexorable Haroun al Raschid is the only chance. Yours
ever, GEORGE W.
423
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTLE, Christmas Eve, 1900.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you and
dearest Aunt Emily and all at Hyeres a most Merry
Christmas and happy New Year.
The tutor sounds well for the present at any rate.
But Mr. Perkins must work more than two hours a day.
TO HIS MOTHER 7
He might either do exercises and read in preparation or
else master the French language with a French tutor in
the afternoons. It is a golden opportunity to learn
French and to read French books. I hope you all talk
French !
I have had such glowing accounts of Guy from all sides.
His General Brock told me he had told Roberts that
Guy would be wasted on a regiment and ought to have a
brigade. A man I believe Stewart, but I don't know
him or his name introduced himself to me at Willis'
restaurant, because he must tell me about Guy. He had
commanded a colonial mounted regiment attached to
Guy's brigade. He said Guy had done everything ; was
the bravest in South Africa ; had extricated them from
many tight places ; had re-horsed the brigade after
Ladysmith in three weeks and then his regiment hi seven
days was a head and shoulders above anyone in the
Natal Army, etc., etc., till I nearly sat down on the floor !
Kitchener gives much better account of the war than
you would surmise from the papers. Mountains of love
to you. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE.
424
To his Mother
CHIKF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCBNIX PARK, DUBLIN, January I5th, 1901.
MOST DARLING, Thanks for your letter. I agree to
all that you and Mr. Lancaster settle. Thank him for
his letter. Health comes first. But let some French be
acquired.
I am delighted but not surprised at dear old Guy's
mention in despatches.
I am off to Mount Stewart and hope there to find time
for a long letter of all my doings.
I long for you every day. You must come in August
or September. Last night I dined at Trinity College.
It is so strange to be the honoured guest and to walk up
8 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the Hall with the Provost under the gauging eyes of the
undergraduates. I sat next the Bursar, Grey, who
remembers as a boy seeing your father riding about at
Athlone.
I am enjoying my hunts and have made hosts of friends.
The Museum will enchant you and remind us both of
Wake's (?) shop and OUT early prowls after fossils and
remains.
I am quite ' diddle ' over some parts of my work. If
only I can do something that will last. I enjoyed the
congested District Board last week. I was in the Chair
for six hours on Wednesday, crossed to England by
night and went to dear uncle Henry's funeral Thursday ;
recrossed that night and took the chair on Friday. I
gave them a grand Friday lunch oysters, ' Bisque '
soup, soles and curried lobster which Father O'Hara
enjoyed. We burrowed away at plans for making a new
Heaven of Mayo, and had sly digs at each other over the
meeting I had proclaimed near his parish.
Now, Darling, I must be off. Best love to you and all
at Hyeres. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE.
425
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
March 3rd, 1901.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am afraid that you have
all been much more ill than I supposed. Is little Perf's
4 irritability of the heart ' a result of 4 la Grippe ' ? I
remember that it affected Arthur Balfour's heart some
years ago. I hope it is that and not a new constitutional
weakness.
S. S. and Leffie go out to you on the 7th. I propose,
if convenient, to come directly the House rises, starting
2nd, 3rd, or 5th of April as the case may be. Then I
could bring Perf back with me about the llth or 12th.
But in that we must be guided by the doctor.
TO HIS MOTHER 9
I am well and absorbed in difficult Parliamentary
gyrations on uncommonly thin ice surrounded by suspicious
friends and flattering foes. Without Public money or
Parliamentary time one can make no advance in Ireland
so Lord Clanricarde's skating must for the present be the
model of my policy an alternation of quick turns and
quiescence.
I must send you a delightful book, the story of Early
Gaelic literature, by Douglas Hyde. A pre-christian
dialogue between Cairbre and Cormac, grandson of Con
of the Hundred Battles, gives the truest and fullest
instruction for the government of Ireland. Cairbre asks
4 for what qualifications is a King elected over countries
and tribes of people ? ' Cormac answers : ' From the
goodness of his family, from his experience and wisdom,
from his prudence and magnanimity, from his eloquence,
and bravery in battle, and from the number of his friends.'
Cairbre goes on ' O, descendant of Con, what was thy
deportment when a youth ? ' Cormac answers, ' I was
cheerful at the banquet, fierce in battle, but vigilant and
circumspect. I was kind to friends, a physician to the
sick, merciful towards the weak, stern towards the head-
strong. Although possessed of knowledge I was inclined
to taciturnity. Although strong I was not haughty.
I mocked not the old, although I was young. I was not
vain, although I was valiant. When I spoke of a person
in his absence I praised, not defamed him, for it is by
these customs that we are known to be courteous and
civilized.' Later he enjoins, ' Be not slothful, nor
passionate, nor pernicious, nor idle, nor jealous, for he
who is so is an object of hatred to God as well as to man.'
I do hope, darling, that you are really better.
The Exhibition of the ' British School ' at Burlington
House is the best we have had for years : all the beau-
tiful Masons and most of the Fred Walkers. Mason's
4 Pastoral ' boy piping to two girls who dance, with
sea in distance and Walker's ' Boys Bathing ' and his
' Plough ' were sights for sore eyes loved long since and
lost awhile. Also there are three water-colours by Walker,
10 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
new to me and miraculous. Also two water-colours by
Boyse very good. Some good early Millais, dear B. J.'s
St. Dorothy ; some Rossetti and Dyce and not too much
of anything. But the Masons and Walkers sing out
' Non moriar sed vivam et narrabo opera Domini.' ' I
shall not die, but live, and I will declare the works of the
Lord.' That is the artist's true profession of immortality.
I suggested it to Fisher for a ' plaque ' on his shrine which
I have given to Sibell. For the porphyry sarcophagus
I composed by selection from Queen Elizabeth's latin
Prayer Book of 1574 the following, putting together a
bit of the Creed / bit of Easter preface / and bit of Psalm
for Easter/. As thus :
Passus et sepultus est et resurrexit tertia die
Qui mortem moriendo destruxit et resurgendo Vitam
jEternam nobis reparavit
A Domino factum est istud et id mirabile est in oculis nostris.
He sufferred and was buried and rose again on the third day
Who by dying destroyed death and by rising restored to us
eternal life
This was of the Lord's doing and it was wonderful in our eyes.
Best love to Papa, Ditch, and poor Bun and to dearest
Aunt Emily and all at Hyeres. Ever your most loving
son, GEORGE.
426
To his Father
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
March 29th, 1901.
MY DEAEEST PAPA, Many thanks for your letter.
I will not forget the cigars. I propose starting Wednesday
morning and being with you for * Dejeuner ' on Thursday.
We have had plenty of Irish obstruction quite in the
old style. And (since we were being driven on to the
brink of the financial year) the twelve o'clock rule has
been in chronic suspense. In short, we never go to bed
till two or three and pretty often not until five or six
o'clock.
TO HIS FATHER 11
The London Papers * boycot ' Irish questions and
debates. I have had from twenty to thirty-six questions
every day and two or three supplementaries to each.
But I keep wonderfully well and enclose a tribute (news-
paper cutting) to my physical endurance.
It is freezing hard with occasional blizzards. You will
triumph when I tell you that I explain my survival solely
by the fact that I now wear long woollen drawers. They
have doubled my vitality.
Best love to all. Your loving son, GEORGE.
427
To his Father
35 PARK LANE,
April 20th, 1901.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am delighted at Guy's brevet
Lieutenant Colonel. This is the best he could have got ;
far better professionally than a D.S.O.
If you analyse the list of brevet Lieutenant Colonels,
you will see that there are only fifteen in all for the Cavalry.
Of these many are given to officers already temporary
Lt. Colonels, that is to say, who are really commanding
their regiments in South Africa. And three are to the
Life-Guards, Carter, Bingham, Grenfell.
If you omit Life-Guards and Dragoons who are rather
apart and take the Hussars and Lancers, the whole list
is :
Byng - V VV ' . 10th Hussars.
*Haig . . . 7th Hussars.
Nicholson r V 7th Hussars.
*Lawrence .'./; '' * 17th Lancers.
Peyton . w<r 15th Hussars.
*Guy . . . 16th Lancers,
or six in all.
What pleases me most is that Haig and Lawrence,
whom I have marked, are pre-eminently the 'fancy'
12 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
cracks in the first-flight according to War Office views
and general reputation throughout the service, so that
dear old Guy at last gets the official stamp on the place
which he has hardly won and earned well in the ' first-
flight.'
To be one of six out of all the light cavalry in an Honours
Gazette is a real distinction which marks the dear fellow
for future employment and promotion. Note also that
this Gazette is for services before the 29th November last,
1900, and that his rank dates from that day.
I am hugely delighted. Love to darling Mamma and
Perf and Ditch. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
428
To his Mother
May 23rd, 1901.
DARLING, This anonymous letter will amuse you.
Ever your loving son, GEORGE.
* " Their language was an heirloom of the Irish."
Bravo ! bravo ! ! bravo ! ! !
* Thank God we have a gentleman as Chief Secretary
for Ireland. All difficulties in the way of English dominion
will disappear if dealt with in a similar spirit.
* More power to ye.'
' Couldn't you give Sir Alfred Milner a hint '
429
To his Father
LATIMER,
CHESHAM, June 4th, 1901.
DEAREST PAPA, I gather that Minnie starts from South
Africa to-day or to-morrow and will arrive, I suppose,
about 21st or 22nd.
I return for House on Thursday and, if I have time,
will look in for luncheon.
I had a grand trip in the Granuaile to Clare Island,
Killary Bay and the Arran Isles. The pre-historic fort
TO HIS BROTHER 13
of Dun Angus on a sheer precipice down into the Atlantic-
is one of the best things I have seen. The other chief
point of interest consisted in the choughs on these islands.
They are delightful birds, very graceful in their flight and
when running. It is amusing to see their red legs tucked
under them when overhead. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
430
To his Brother
LATIMKK,
CHKSHAM, June (Mh, 1901.
MY DEAREST OLD GUY, Have just heard of your
appointment to column on 9th May. Am too sorry for
you and Minnie but overjoyed that, at last, they are
letting you come 4 through your horses.' I do feel deeply
for you and Minnie. But now is the time to sit down
and ride. I never like interfering with advice from a
distance but, if darling Minnie has started, it will console
you, if she has not, it may help to decide you to know
confidentially that K. is beginning to refer in his telegrams
to the difficulties of making proper arrangements for the
Plague and to insist that wives of officers not in permanent
garrison should be induced to go home. I ought to tell
you this as ' the stable-key often decides the trial,' and
K. is a thorough-going sort of cuss, who might other
things being equal give a command to the man whose
wife was at home. But, dear old boy, I do feel for you
and miss you very much. I am told that Douglas Haig
is to command the 17th not officially but on good
authority. D. H. is in Cape Colony with a column,
there are ructions there ; French has gone there. With
luck this should mean that you will be left in Command
and I hope with an increased command. Now is the time
for those who have stuck it out to reap their reward and
what is far more to do the job. I dreamt last night
that you got another brevet and the D.S.O. and this
morning I have the good news of your appointment.
I have had a hard session and an interesting Whitsun.
14 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
There was a row on the Dillon Estate purchased by
Congested Districts Board, so I went off to Ballaghaderreeii
to settle it, the moment the House rose. The ' Freeman '
beat up an opposition to me and two agitator M.P.'s
O'Donnell and Cullinan went to hold a rival meeting
at same time and place. All, however, went off well.
Their meeting was damped by the rain and I remained
in possession of the field. After that I went to Westport
embarked on the Granuaile and visited Clare Island and
the Arran Isles ; got caught in a gale off Slyne Head but
enjoyed myself and did a good stroke of business. House
meets to-morrow and I expect a stiffish two months of
it. But I 'm still in the saddle and got a letter yesterday
from a Nationalist telling me to stick to it and not mind
the agitators. Nor do I.
But all this is skittles to the terrible grind you have
had. K.'s news is, on the whole, encouraging. I believe
you will finish the war by September. If not, I expect
that we shall begin again and give you all a richly earned
holiday. But I long for you and the others who have
done all the work to reap all the rewards. I have no
doubt but that you and the other few who have seen it
all will get what is going. Every time a general comes
back I throw up my hat and feel you are nearer the top
and nearer which as I said is far more important nearer,
the work you are fitted to do. So buck up and ride the
Hell of a finish ! All your recent staff work and this
command is since November from which your brevet
dates. It is a separate campaign in which you start as
a Lieutenant-Colonel with a command.
God bless you dear old Boy. Ever your most loving
brother, GEORGE.
431
To his Brother
June 15th, 1901.
DEAREST OLD GUY, Heartiest congratulations ! The
papers say you marched 40 miles by night and jumped
TO HIS MOTHER 15
some Boers. The * Times ' mentioned you in its leader.
You must have done it just at the time when I was think-
ing of you.
Well, more power to your elbow ! Your loving brother,
GEORGE.
432
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTLE, August 8th, 1901.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your letter and will
certainly call on Amelia Ireland with Sibell. I got through
this session with less reaction and ' de'soeuvrement ' than
ever before. I must be stronger than I used to be.
Now we are having a regular old-fashioned summer
holiday time framed on the model of my earlier exploits.
Perf is better than for years and has constituted himself
master of the ceremonies. He knows all the polo, cricket,
racing and theatrical fixtures and takes care that the
Chief Secretary shall make a creditable public appear-
ance wherever the 4 Fancy ' and ' le Sport ' are gathered
together.
The day presents a wonderful blend of all the family^
proclivities. At 8.30 I read prayers to Sibell, the cook,
and the butler. At 8.40 I ride ' harsing in the Phanix '
with Perf and Tony Shaftesbury. Perf was very keen
to ride and organised it for the first day, last Thursday.
His nerve has quite come back and he goes full gallop
for an hour every day with his Papa trotting and cantering
a quarter of a mile behind. At 9.45 he eats voraciously.
After my breakfast, I have up the Under-Secretary, or
Vice-President of Local Government Board, etc., etc.,
and put in two or three hours of easy-going work. Then
Percy takes me to cricket-matches, polo, Leopardstown,
etc., etc. And we wind up with frantic lawn-tennis till
7.30. Dinner at eight. Perf to bed at 9.30. Then music
as a rule till 12 o'clock.
We have had really good music Gatty playing accom-
16 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
paniments ; Tony Shaftesbury singing and Ian Malcolm
working in an ' obligato ' on the violin. Last night they
4 swept the floor ' with the * Two Grenadiers.' We have
had a poet, too, called O'Connor and have debauched over
the Museum. The latest theory by a man called Ridge-
way admirably reviewed in 4 Quarterly ' of, I think,
July fits in with the long bronze swords here and is
most exciting.
Also as Fraulein says we are contriving a large
block of Public Buildings. I fly about with all my
secretaries, Chairman of Board of Works etc., etc.
Gatty who was operated on, most successfully for
carbuncle (It is only here that such things happen in
one's house) and O'Connor left to-day. There remain
darling Cuckoo and Tony, Hilda and Charlie Southampton,
Cecil Parker and his daughter, Malcolm, Captain Daven-
port. That is my Horse-show party. I have lots of
transport sociable and pair, brougham, and two cars
at two guineas a day. So we appear everywhere at all
hours. To-day we rode, saw a Field-day ; did the Rich-
mond Hospital speaking to every patient, and neglecting
not even the kitchen, scullery and laundry. Then on
to Horse-show ; in the ring with the judges (Parker
*and Southampton are judging) ; Back for polo. Perf,
as usual was half an hour ahead of me and when I reached
the ground I found him in the member's stand a little
intent silhouette with hat well on the back of its head.
He paved the way for entry by introducing us to the
secretary. You and Papa would enjoy seeing him. He
goes everywhere with absolute composure and uncon-
sciousness and everybody is enjoying him. He dined
for once at a full-fig stars and garters Vice-Regal
Dinner by special command. They all say he is just
like you.
After that we played tennis. Perf and Malcolm against
Tony and self. He plays quite well.
Cuckoo and Tony are regular Paddies too. It turns
out that Tony, through his mother a Chichester owns
150,000 acres in Donegal. He and Cuckoo have been
TO HIS MOTHER 17
dining and lunching the whole oi the country-side in
Inish-owen. On next Saturday they carry me off captive
to their ' bow and spear ' to Moville on Loch Foyle.
Malcolm, Hanson, Willeby the musician with piano
let down into the S.S. Granuaile, and violin and Green
the Fishery Inspector join that good ship at Derry on
Sunday. Monday, we have deputations and speeches
and guarantee prosperity to the entire peninsular of
Inish-owen. Then we work round the West coast, with
Perf, right down to Kenmare River.
It is a grand campaign. I have ' laid on ' Glasgow
manufacturers, Quarry-owners, County-Councils, Mag-
nates etc., etc., all the way round ; I have worked in
short visits to Mrs. Adair, Dunraven, Lansdowne, Sir
John Colomb and Lady Kenmare. Sibell joins us South
by train.
Meanwhile all my Departments are working in lines
I have laid down to collect every proposal whether for
railways, harbours, or arterial drainage, and we shall
together beat out a policy on my return.
I cross to England with Percy for Eton on 18th, and
then will come to you perhaps with Sibell, shoot the
following Tuesday and Wednesday as arranged, and return
here Thursday 26th to work at my Land Bill.
To-morrow I have a Congested District Board at 9.45
a.m. and at 1.30 we all go in pomp with His Excellency,
Lancer escort etc., etc., to the Horse Show. x
Thursday, we celebrate my birthday and Cuckoo's
an old custom and Tony's and have a banquet here of
all the Heads of Departments Sir David Harrell, Under
Secretary, Colonel Ross of the Dublin Police, Neville
Chamberlain of the R.I.C., the Attorney General, General
Gossett, commanding Dublin District, etc., etc., about
26 of us in all.
What with Horse-show, Cricket, Polo, Racing, Hospitals,
Congested Districts, Lawn-tennis, Croquet, Billiards, and
Ping-Pong we manage to ' keep the Tambourine a rowlin.'
Love to Papa, Ditch and all. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
VOL. II. B
18 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
433
To his Mother
GREENCASTLE,
LOCH FOYLE, September 2, 1901.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, The Butterfly was too beautiful.
He has 4 some taste of immortality in him.'
And so has this spot. ... I must bring you here some-
how to see it anyhow I pretend that we shall be here
on such a sky-blue, sea-blue, grass-green, sun-shimmering
day next year after the Horse-show for which I have
booked you, Papa and Ditchmouse.
I am sitting on a deep-piled grass terrace fifteen yards
wide, then a foot wall ; the tops of two wild fuschia clumps
and. some rocks showing above it. Beyond, the narrow
entry to Loch Foyle blue and vitreus as the Butterfly,
stretches between me and the low sandy flat of Magilligan's
Point opposite. Behind that rises a transparency of green
fields, purple moorlands and Basalt scars. To the right
the loch sweeps and broadens out and narrows again
eighteen miles off to Deny. To the left is the Atlantic,
the dun headland of the Giant's Causeway and most
faint in the summer haze Islay, the Paps of Jura, Rathlin
Island and yesterday but to-day lost in the haze, the
Mull of Kintyre. Behind this manor house a little sea,
wood of Scotch firs and sycamores, and rocks fifty feet
high shut it in with a wonderful garden blazing with
summer holiday flowers between pergola walls and fuchsia
hedges. Three hundred yards off is the huge ruin of
Greencastle, built by de Burgo.
At 12 noon I receive a large deputation to talk over a
steam-ferry from here to Magilligan's Point.
We steamed here from Deny Saturday afternoon.
Yesterday we steamed to Giant's Causeway and back
by the Skerries, Dunluce Castle, Port Rush and Stewart,
down to Moville. Thence we drove on a car to a bay
more to the West and walked back over the mountain.
TO HIS MOTHER 19
From the col we could see the sea behind us and the
loch in front a breathless view.
After the deputation we start to round Malin Head and
anchor to-night in Sheep Haven and go on right round to
Kenmare and Killarney.
' How fresh was every sight and sound
On open sea and winding shore,
We knew the merry earth was round
And we could sail for evermore.'
I prepared for this trip by getting out an indexed
abstract of every public work for which anybody has
ever asked.
I have this on my lap with a good map on which they
are all marked. Then I sail round and see the places
and the people so as to select those which are most
urgent and likely to work in best for both developing
fishing and, also, for giving transit facilities to the small
congested farms and, also, for working in new industries
with Morton.
Our party consists of Hanson, Malcolm, Percy, Willeby
the musician, and Green, a delightful Fishery Inspector
who knows all about fishes and all about the legendary
and historic personalities whose great names haunt these
highlands and islands De Burgo, O'Doherty, Shane
O'Neil, Sorey Boyle, McDonnell, Sir Francis Drake, the
McCahan and so on to the country of Granuaile and the
ferocious O'Flahertys.
I wish I were an Emperor to do exactly what I please
for the people here. But something somehow shall be
done.
You can easily see this particular problem from the
map. The whole peninsula of Inish-owen is congested
and the northern part here twenty miles of carting away
from Derry. We have made a railway to Carndonagh
but the high mountains prevent it from helping the
thick fringe of population on this the eastern side of
Inish-owen.
Tony Shaftesbury, as descendant through his mother
20 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
from Sir Arthur Chichester to whom the whole country
was given in 1612, is head landlord of 150,000 acres about
here, and he and dear Cuckoo mean to do all they can
hence my presence and the deputation. But, as ever,
there are difficulties and jealousies mail contracts to
Deny, rival railway companies and behind all the grim
Treasury. What of it ? Something shall be done.
Best love to all. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
434
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGED
September 15th, 1901.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I got your letter and Guy's
three on return here last night. You must not be down-
cast about Guy. He is having very hard work. But
it is a mistake to take one sentence out of a letter the
feeding being a strain and to base a view on that. The
letters show that he is really fit and keen. Minnie and
you attached far too much importance to the * Times '
Correspondent. That letter referred, not to these of
Guy written llth, 14th and 17th of August, but to the
letters of which you sent me copies describing the Camdeboo
mountain trek of a fortnight or more earlier. French
gets Guy's reports not the correspondent's twaddle
written after it is all over from the top of a mountain
commanding a view of the whole country from which
the enemy has been shifted.
The best plan is to note only what Kitchener reports.
4 No change in the situation ' means that Guy is still
pursuing Smit. And now and again, Guy's name is
mentioned. He, for example, came up with Smit on
August 30th and inflicted some loss on that commando.
A coup such as ScobelPs would be pleasant reading and
Guy will, with a little luck, pull one off soon. But it is
no use to fret over the hitches and disappointments of
war. It is made up of them until the moment comes.
TO HIS MOTHER 21
I have had a most interesting sail round the west of
Ireland from Giant's Causeway to Dunmanus Bay, back
to Kenmare River and up to Drumquinna, winding up
with a miraculous drive through Windy Gap down on to
Muckross and Killarney.
Percy has thriven on it. He was very plucky when
the gale blew and stuck it out on the bridge with me in
oilskins like two canaries under a water-spout.
Itinerary Saturday, August 31st. To Deny by * Granuaile '
to Greencastle.
Sunday, September 1st. Out West to Giant's Causeway
and back to Greencastle.
September 2nd. Deputation and steamed, stopping at
Malin Head to Sheep Haven. A perfect summer day
and golden sunset bathing Tory Island.
September 3rd. Drove from Port-na-blagh, near Dun-
fanaghy to Glenveagh Mrs. Adair's deer forest ; had
talk with contractor of the new railway.
September 4th. Started 7.30 a.m. and drove by moun-
tains Muckish and Errigall, past Gweedore to Bunbeg.
Thence sailed in boat through the Island, to the ship.
Called at Gort-na-Sate and anchored at Port Noo some
way out to sea. Sailed back to the ship into an after-glow
of Japanese reds and old golds. The wind sending us
nine knots. Wonderful.
September 5th. On to Kilcar, and on to Killybegs.
Steamed across Sligo bay and by night round the Mullet
to anchor in morning at Black Rock point. It was very
rough a gale.
September 6th. Landed at granite quarries trawled in
the bay and then round Achill Head. It blew a gale and
the ' glory and glee ' ot the storm were an ecstacy. Achill
falls sheer two thousand feet into the sea. The whole
surface of the Atlantic was a weaving haze of spin-drift
from the wind. The great rollers hit the cliff and roared
and spouted up two hundred feet.
Percy had gone below sick. But I carried him up on
to the bridge in his oilskins and he began to exult in it.
We went from Achill past Clare Island. A sun-burst
22 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
in the storm threw a rainbow over Achill. It was one
of the best moments in my life holding Percy to the
rails with my arms and l galumphing ' over the rollers.
We could not trust Cleggan Harbour, so put into Bally-
nakill, as there was daylight to thread the maze of islands.
Then the sky cleared and we watched a divine sunset
on the twelve pins of Connemara and Percy shot at bottles
and caught dog-fish.
I have forgotten to say that when coming South along
the Mullet we steamed for an hour at night through
mackerel. The sea was full of phosphorus. The shoals
of fish were like breakers of blue light and, as the prow
overtook them, these light waves particularized themselves
into ghostly fishes bursting away into bouquets of blue
rockets.
September 7th. Steamed to Cleggan Deputation. And
then, hardening our hearts, we doubled Slyne Head and
made Roundstone. That was the day of real storm. It
was past all * whooping.' We all kept going on the bridge
in oil-skins and singing at the top of our voices. We
were determined not to be beat by the weather ; and
yelled at Slyne Head as we swooped and staggered past it.
* If you want to know who we are, we 're gentlemen from
Japan ' etc., etc. After that one by one Willeby and
Hanson and Malcolm gave up and went below. But
Percy stood by. At Roundstone we landed and found the
whole place gay with bunting. There, with flags and
cheers, I had a capital meeting.
The glass kept falling and wind getting more to the
west, so there was no chance of getting into a natural
harbour.
We were due at Liscannor Harbour, Co. Clare at 4 p.m.
the next day. So we hardened our hearts again and
went plumb for the wind's eye to get shelter under the
lee of the Aran Isles. The wind roared and the rain hit
our eyes like redhot pellets. Nobody but Percy stayed
on the bridge with me. At Aran we could not land ;
so rode it out on two anchors with very fair shelter.
September 8th. We decided it would be impossible to
TO HIS MOTHER 23
land at Liscannor so steamed before the wind to Olenina
near Ballyvaghan on the north coast of Clare and drove
twenty miles past Killfenora to Liscannor.
There we found one thousand persons and had a great
time Speeches, an aldermanic Belshazzar with the Priest
and then on to Lahinch where we did two more deputations
and supped at ten o'clock.
September 9th. Got up at five and took the 6 o'clock
train to Kilrush. Sailed from there to the steamer and
on to the Fenit River in Tralee Bay.
After that a wonderful afternoon and evening of coast
scenery and sunset. Past Brandon Head, three thousand
feet, Ballydavid, the Three Sisters and Sybil Head. And
so through the Blaskets to Valencia.
I longed for you to be there. The Atlantic was blue
with a heavy swell, the headlands changed from peach-
blossom to heliotrope, from heliotrope to cyclamen from
cyclamen to violets, from violets to mysteries of green and
deep purple. The sun sank like a Japanese lantern.
The Blaskets and Skelligs became transparent, obsidian
and serpentine. Well ! Well ! It can only be seen.
September IQth. Sibell and Lady Castlerosse joined us
by the Valentia railway. We took them out to the
Skelligs but could not land. The great Skellig is a
promenade seven hundred feet high sheer out of the
Atlantic with its ruins of a fifth century monastery. The
small Skellig is the home and breeding ground of all the
Gannets.
September Ilth. Steamed to Bear Haven and on to
Dorneen in Dunmanus Bay and back through Dursey's
sound where Murty O'Sullivan slipped the frigate
to Parknasilla.
September I2th. Landed at Garinish, Derreen and
Drumquinna.
September 13th. Drove over the mountain to Killarney.
I will tell you all about it on Saturday when I come to
Clouds. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
24 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
435
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, October 3rd, 1901.
MOST DARLING, Here is the letter. I am having a
steady pull at creative work : have finished 30 pages of
quarto on Fisheries ; detailed orders to Police in respect
of agitation, and am now up to my neck in a Land Bill.
I like that kind of * firsthand ' work best but it takes it
out of one. Still I must get it all in print within the
next ten days. Then I go West to stay with the O'Conor
Don : do a couple of speeches in England, and then
' sit down to ride ' on the detailed application of created
wholes. (Fish : Police : Land :) Even if I succeed in
accomplishing little, ideas are immortal. They impregnate
the others and ultimately assert themselves over the
general inertia of the world.
But I believe I shall win on Fisheries and ' law and
order ' and go nearer winning on Land than I really
thought possible a year ago.
How hard dear old Guy is working. There is a sense of
serenity about work which is beyond recompense and even
beyond intelligent appreciation by the Powers. Your
most loving son, GEORGE.
436
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, November 8th, 1901.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Many thanks for dear old
Guy's letter.
The work is terribly hard and the newspapers at home
destitute of imagination, common sense and dignity.
But ' it really doesn't matter ! ' Good work well done
is complete in itself apart from results and, all the more,
apart from recognition. .
TO HIS BROTHER 25
I squibbed over to London on Wednesday night and
put in a record of interviews yesterday. Lord Balfour
of Burleigh at 9.30, the Chancellor at 11.30, Austen Cham-
berlain at 1, lunch with Cadogan 2 to 3 o'clock, and
Lansdowne in the afternoon.
I did pretty well and returned in better spirits, not
that I can complain on that score ! Travelling back all
to-day was quite a holiday.
But I wish ' column leaders ' here or in South Africa
could be left to do their job in their own way. Let us
all register an oath that if our turn ever comes we will
let our subordinates ' rip ' as the man said when he stuck
a fork into the cat.
All love to darling Chang. Ever your most loving son,
GEORGE.
437
To his Brother
DUBLIN, 19th November 1901.
MY DEAREST OLD GUY, Your letter of October 16th
from Piquetberg Road gave me great pleasure. It pro-
duced another illustration of the ' Corsican Brothers '
theory. Oddly enough I had said a week before to
Mrs. Fleming R. Kipling's sister who goes in for
telepathy etc., that I had dreamed of you several tunes
just before getting a letter or hearing of you in the papers.
The night before your letter came I dreamt of you most
vividly and the dream was an exaggeration of the turn
of events told in your letter when it came. I was talking
to you and you were worried and preoccupied. I said
' how well you Ve done, you '11 get another brevet soon.'
You said, ' Oh no, they don't appreciate the difficulties
and I am only a sergeant now ! ' Then the dream changed.
You got a splendid message from French and three extra-
ordinary decorations and we were both in tearing spirits
smacking each other on the back and making silly jokes.
When your letter came it told me of French having sent
26 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
for you and said he was completely satisfied. But you
are too busy to bother about dreams. Mamma is over-
joyed at the French interview. She has been referring
to him in recent letters as ' a poor blind mortal ' incapable
of recognizing merit.
I am having a hard time of it just now. The agitation
in the West is beginning to give me a hand-full. Not
that it troubles me in itself. On the contrary, proclama-
tions, baton-charges and, possibly, prosecutions are
simple enough. My trouble is that it complicates my
labours with the Cabinet to get a proper Land Purchase
Bill. I have been slaving at that. Having fired off five
long memos, drafted two Bills and paid three visits to
s.ee Beach and others in London, I am still hard at it
and have only had one day's hunting. A skurry from
' Turnings ' and ride home to Sallins along the Canal
reminded me of old days. How I long for you to be
here and ride my horses whilst I sit trying to cajole the
Treasury.
I mean to make another swoop into the West as I
do not intend to let Dillon have ' all the limelight.'
I see copies of your letters and all the telegrams to
Brodrick, so I know pretty well what is going on. The
Government is growled at by everyone. But as there
is no opposition and everyone wants the War pushed
at all costs if need be for ever, nothing comes of the
growling.
I hope two Cavalry regiments will ease the work out
there. It is interesting to see the regular Army and,
above all, the Cavalry coming out alone as the War goes
on. They seem to give you all the most tiresome work.
But the War Office and Government have their eye on
the young column leaders and nobody else will get nearly
such a show at the end. I must now plug again at my
work. Best luck to you. Ever your loving brother,
GEORGE.
TO HIS MOTHER 27
438
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGED
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, November 19th, 1901.
MOST DARLING, No time to write. I loved your letter
and feel guilty at having bottled one from old Guy to me.
You will see by my note that it was a real case of the
* Corsican brothers ' I cannot convey the vividness of my
dream. It was, of course, absurd, in a sense, as dreams
are. Guy said to my congratulations, c Oh no, I 'm only
a sergeant now ! ! ' and would not be bothered to talk
about the war. Then a message came from French and
three extraordinary decorations in a case. At once we
were smacking each other on the back and playing the
fool together as we used to do. Then, when I got to
Dublin the next morning came his letter, following in
waking-sense the exact turn of events prefigured in my
dream.
I am having a hard time with the Treasury and Cabinet
over legislation. But I mean to win and am * fighting
fit.' Ever most loving son, GEORGE.
439
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, December I5th, 1901.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, 1 You have probably seen
enclosed (newspaper cutting) in the * Morning Post.'
What an amazing * lingo ' they do write : * did ample
justice,' * black-feathered visitors,' ' venerable bird.'
I have not seen the book yet but Sibell encountered
a pile of it hi the book-shop at Chester.
I have been bucketted about a good deal lately owing
to the Cabinet being continually postponed. And now
1 The letter refers to ' The Ballad of Mr. Rook,' some verses written by
George Wyndham, and illustrated by his mother, to amuse his boy, Percy.
28 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I have to cross back again on Wednesday to do business
in London with some of them on Thursday and Friday.
I long to see you and Papa and Clouds. It is ages since
I was there. I shall try to spend my Sundays with you
after the meeting of Parliament as in 1900 when I pre-
pared my War speeches in the Smoking-room.
I want a holiday badly and shall try to make one about
Christmas with my Perf who is very well and has got up
to 10th in school order of his Division.
Best love to you Darling and to all at Clouds. Ever
your most loving son, GEORGE.
440
To his Brother
PHCENIX PARK,
Christmas Eve, 1901.
MY DEAREST OLD GUY, I must write to you first this
Christmas Eve. It is never much use to take aim through
the post so that a letter may arrive at Christmas. By
writing it we secure an appropriate date at one end any
way. And dear old Boy, all my thoughts are with you
to-night as ever. The ' Evening Mail ' says you had
ten casualties on the 20th including two officers wounded.
How I long to welcome you back. I am very glad that
dear Minnie will be at hand if not with you, when this
reaches. I do trust and pray that you are not wearing
yourself out. I hear all the news for what it is worth.
I can only say that your big-wigs are in much better
spirits than they have been for months. French seems
to be in high fettle and generally blesses all his columns.
You must ask Minnie to write and tell me, if there is any-
thing I can send to you or do for you. I will make a
point of seeing your little George hi January and write a
description of him to you.
I have had a chill from cold and over- work not improved
by crossing three times in twelve days to see the Cabinet,
each time in a gale of sleet. My Irish friends are being
as naughty as they dare. I have had to prosecute four
TO HIS BROTHER 29
M.P.s and ten or fifteen minor agitators. In short, the
agitation storm-cone is hoisted and I am in for a bout
of the old, old business. It is a great waste of time and
energy which I could spend to better purpose if they
would allow me to go on with constructive work. But
there it is.
We shall have a hard time when the House meets on
January 16th. They will obstruct us on new ' rules and
procedure ' to jockey Irish obstruction. The Irish will
raise Cain over my prosecutions and the Rosebery-ites
will try to beat us over the ' Education.' My belief is
that we shall stay in till the War is over and then go out
with a vengeance. I cannot tell you how blissfully,
blatantly, reconciled I should be to retiring for a space
into private life. If only it might be after the War and
mean that you and I could lay ourselves out to rest and
be thankful for some six months. That will come all
right, never fear ! You shall bring your whole family here
and ' harse in the Phrenix ' and, I will spend my Sundays
with you at Westbrook, smoking together, as of old, on
the lawn and wondering why others are such mortal fools
as to work themselves out. But all that is for June or
September. Meanwhile ' once more unto the breach.'
I want to smash the agitation, introduce a Land Bill, get
money for a Harbour-fishing Policy in the West and float
a Catholic University. After that any one may be a
Minister who prefers missing all the joys of life.
Give my love to dearest Minnie. I shall send you some
books and things soon. Perf has grown a great deal and
passed into 4 Remove.' We had a great gallop in the
Park to-day, and afterwards went shopping. But I am
too tired to enjoy much now and look forward all the
time to rest and being together and happy, and letting
things rip. But we must just put in five or six more
months.
God bless you, dearest old Guy. Your most loving
brother, GEORGE.
30 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
441
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PutKNix PARK, DUBLIN, Christmas, 1901.
DEAREST PAPA, I have just got your letter and send
you a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
I feel the separation and the impossibility of throwing
off the work here. Nobody tries to delegate work more
than I but here everyone looks to the Chief Secretary
of the day and few will take any responsibility. They
vyatch your every gesture as a dog does instead of going
in the direction you point out. In the end you must go
yourself.
I must carry on till Easter. Then I should very much
like to come to Clouds and bring Percy and have him taught
to shoot. He is fourteen and ought to learn to handle a
gun at rabbits.
I sent full particulars in my letter to Mamma of his work
and Trials.
I earnestly hope that we shall be turned out so soon as
the War is over and I wish Rosebery and his friends joy
of ' efficiency.' Your loving son, GEORGE.
442
To Charles Boyd
[Line undated, but probably
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE, 1901.]
I have fixed up the motor-transit scheme which shall
make Ireland a Pioneer, Begob !
Also ' at last, you Dogs,' I have got my Railways to
make proper links to my Western Harbours.
I pull and push at administering the Land Bill.
I am happy hi the midst of ' cross-currents ' which are
slowly, though tumultuously here and there, changing
this country to a better state.
TO HIS FATHER 31
It is slow work, mostly invisible, but it is there, or
rather here.
All Good Luck in the New Year.
G. Parker or E. Talbot are the best. Yours ever,
old boy, GEORGE W.
443
To his Mother
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
January 20th, 1902.
DARLING MAMMA, A splendid letter from dear old Guy
about his Convoy fight. Am having it typed before
sending it on. He lost 20 per cent, in casualties and was,
as he says ' a man on a mouse ' for eight hours. I grudge
keeping you waiting but want a copy to shew to St. John
and A. J. B. He is so pleased because all the work was
done by the 16th whom he ' knew could pull him through.'
That reminds me that Harry Bourke had a talk with
an Irishman in the 16th, back on sick leave. He said of
Guy 4 By the Holy I 'd go through the fire of Hell for him.'
Your most loving son, GEORGE.
444
To his Father
35 PARK LANK, W.,
January 26th, 1902.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am glad to hear your view of
Geoff Brooke and the Irish Guards. He saw me for a
moment, told me his income and of his Trustees' consent.
I said I could not take any responsibility and that he must
decide for himself in consultation with you since you had
been helping him in the matter. But that if he wanted
to know whether it was possible to be in the Guards at
that figure I could only say that it was and that many
of my friends had done it. This is all the more true of
the Irish Guards who will frequently be quartered in
Dublin where a man can have more sport, good society
32 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and recreation for less money than in any other town in
Europe. I then received your first letter and was glad of
that as last night at the Abercorns I met Vesey Dawson,
an old brother officer, who commands the Irish Guards.
He approached me of his own accord on the subject
and asked many questions about Geoffrey.
He was much pleased with my account of him and is
bent on having Geoffrey in his regiment.
He told me that there was much less extravagance than
in my day and no gambling. They have a good lot of
pleasant professional soldiers and I am quite sure that
Geoffrey could not do better than go in for them. Hang-
ing about with Crammers and Militia majors is a terrible
waste of impressionable years, so that is all for the best.
I had a talk, too, with Lord Roberts and, in the
afternoon, with Colonel Ward. The ulterior news from
South Africa continues to be very cheerful.
I am riding a long patient race in Ireland disregarding
the excited advice which is showered on me. Nobody
knows better than I do the risk of doing anything in that
country. But I know that the risk of doing nothing is
far greater and that to take the advice of extremists at
either pole is not a risk but a certainty of disaster.
The ' parochialism ' of the Ulster right wing is beyond
belief.
So far all my calculations and forecasts have been
justified. My ' Fishing Policy ' and ' Land Policy ' are
ready to take the stage and, in Ireland, arouse a great
deal of interest. But you must not be disconcerted if
my Land Policy is received with howls from both the
extremist sections. It may even be scouted for a time.
All the same it is the only sound policy.
Turning to ' Agitation ' and ' Coercion ' I do not expect
to win for eighteen months ; but I am winning. The
De Freyne Estate Plan of Campaign has broken down,
and I know everything about their internal disputes.
That is why I go on ' riding the race ' in my own way
and why I hope to win in June 1903.
Even if I am wrong and have not got hold of the best
TO MRS. DREW 33
policy it is an advantage to know exactly what you
intend to do and, in Ireland, almost a certainty that the
person with definite views will succeed in impressing
them on that country.
I shall pass a Land Bill, reconstruct the Agricultural
Department and Congested District Board, stimulate
Fishing and Horse-breeding ; and revolutionize Education.
Then I shall ' nunc dimittis ' and let some one else have a
turn. Your devoted son, GEORGE.
445
To Charles Boyd
36 PARK LANE, W.,
ll.ii.02.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter fills me with apprehen-
sion. 1 I trust that we may be spared so great a public
loss and so keen a private sorrow to those who have known
and therefore loved C. J. R. Yours ever, GEORGE W.
446
To Mrs. Drew
March 1902.
I will first answer the two questions in your letter,
adding a very few remarks, and then I mean to indulge
myself by writing a short letter to you on my own account.
But business first.
I will gladly help to give these letters 2 a wider life, to
bring the Porch into being, and to show that I jump at
a chance of doing anything that you ask that can be done.
I find I have answered both questions. Because I
would not help to give the letters a wider life if I thought
them too trivial. For I should not like any but very
foolish people to be in a position to criticise you for printing
1 The letter told him of the seiious condition of Cecil Rhodes, who died on
March 28th.
8 Letters of Mr. Puskin to Mrs. Drew.
VOL. II. C
84 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the letters. Very foolish people may do so as it is. But
their opinions do not count.
The letters. They are valuable and delightful inasmuch
as they reveal something more of a great man . . . great
in himself and greater because he changed the minds of
many. But for Ruskin, much of Carlyle's teaching would
never have reached people who, in their turn again, have
been allowed to reach yet others. Even if we leave Art,
Nature and the philosophy of Science aside, the man who
wrote ' Unto This Last ' remains a great force which,
thank God, is not expended.
The letters are generally valuable because they show
that great men may be playful and affectionate. In
particular, the references to your Father in No. 1 ; to-
Browning in No. 5 ; to the Land League in No. 17 ; to
the law of landowning in 24 ; though unluckily not free
from obscurity, are all of public importance.
Again, in another category, ' the planes twisted by rock-
winds,' and the profound thought on Morning and Evening,,
Spring and Autumn, in 5 ; the ' move the shadow from
the dial for evermore ' in 8 ; the * olives, grass and
cyclamen ' in 28, are treasures which you ought to dispense*
The reference to Lady Day in 13, and, to make a quick
change, I like, at any rate, to possess the Bishop and
Pigsty in 33.
I have a doubt about the reference to Arthur Balfour
if it is to him in 4. It is not clear and might be
misunderstood. . . .
And now I may please myself by writing to you. That
is a very poor substitute for seeing you at Saighton ;
there is just a chance I may be at Eaton on Sunday
week. I would stay over Monday if you held out a hope
that you could come over and take the 5 personally.
Sibell and I would meet you on bicycles.
The postscript to your letter stirs the deep and bitter
waters of my life. It may be that I am meant to ' break
my heart ' as a necessary object lesson to others. I can't
write about that, but I should love to hear you talk of it.
I confess that I have been depressed, for me, during the
TO HIS FATHER 85
last three weeks. I had to get some things done and to
prevent others with a high temperature, from my bed
. . . that is an unusual ' coign of vantage ' in my life,
and probably I magnified and distorted matters which
are quite big and ugly enough hi themselves.
But blessings were suddenly showered on me and mine
on Lady Day, as Sibell was careful to point out. First
a telegram from my brother Guy, to say he had three
months' leave. He has been through the whole war,
away for three years. I have been frightened at the
strain this has put on my Mother ; now she has three
months' rest from anxiety. My boy passed his Trials,
in spite of influenza, also on Lady Day. The Land Bill
survived a deliberate attempt on the part of the ' Times,'
* Morning Post,' etc., to stab me and my offspring. This
means something and may mean a great deal. Last,
but not least, you wrote on Lady Day and brought back
a flood of Saighton and poetry and gentleness and peace
and wisdom and general pleasantness, of which my life
has been wholly stripped for months.
So I thank you and purposely keep back the 5 as an
excuse, at worst, for writing again, and at best for seeing
you Monday week.
447
To his Father
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
April 7th, 1902.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I have had some interesting and
amusing days since I left the haven of Clouds. It was a
rough passage on Thursday but, after testing the force
and bitterness of the wind for half an hour I slept like a
stone and arrived very fresh and well. I talked business
with Cadogan till dinner. At dinner and after till nearly
twelve o'clock I polished off (1) Judge Meredith, head of
Land Commission, leaving him assured that the Land
Bill was the best possible under circumstances of War
deficits and (2) Colonel Chamberlain, Inspector General
36 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
of the R. I. C. with whom I went at great length into the
4 state of the country.'
Friday I galloped a pulling horse from 8.30 to 9.30 and
got to the Castle at 10.45. I had a grand morning of
concentrated work with Harrell, Under Secretary, the
Attorney General etc., etc., till 2 o'clock. Lunched at
Kildare Street Club with other officials ; took on the Lord
Lieutenant and others at 3 o'clock in formal Council till
5.30, wrote and telegraphed till 7 o'clock. I then felt
the want of air, so walked on the Quays till 7.30 and dressed
at the Kildare Street Club for my Landlords' dinner.
It was a great success and as good as a play. We sat
down fourteen ; Dermot (Lord Mayo) in command at
my left ; Lords Clonbrock, Rosse, Rathdonnell, Cloncurry,
The O'Conor Don, Mr. Bruen, Bagwell, O'Callaghan
Westrop, De Fellenburg, Montgomery, their Secretary
Willis, and Solicitor Moore, with Hanson. The com-
parative gene of the start was relieved by Dermot, who
ordered in more and more waiters until at one moment
they could not wait it was a small room for numbers
and then, at the next, as a corrective, he marshalled them
erect behind our chairs at an interval of four feet like
N.C.O.'s on parade. Twenty minutes of alternation
between the two manoeuvres having led to no one getting
4 bite or sup ' he resigned the command and the dinner
really got under way. At 9.30 we cleared the cloth and
* got to.' They had questions drawn up as points of
departure. At first it was rather slow going in sticky
ground. But, somehow, I steadily increased the pace.
By 11 o'clock we were galloping : and at 12.15 we separated
in reciprocal enthusiasm. Friday I wrote a memo : in
the morning. Worked through the other Departments,
Local Government Board, and Valuation Office, etc.
Caught the 6.45 to Kingstown, dined 7 to 8 with Wrench,
the most practical Land Commissioner ; went on Board
and had an entrancing passage of stars, sparks and fresh
wind ; got to Eaton at 3 a.m. and slept till 11 o'clock.
I found Bendor and Shelagh very well and happy.
Benny had won the 14 stone Hunt race himself on
TO HIS FATHER 37
Rainbow II., bought from Steeds, and the lightweight
with Etona, ridden by young Garnett, a Cheshire Squireen.
He bought the mare from Harry Bourke. Garnett was
staying with Lady Olivia, Daisy and Hans Pless, Corn-
wallis, and a South African Officer invalided home an
amazing amalgam. Cornwallis and Hans Pless great
on the Income Tax, Compulsory Service, Bridge, etc.
Bendor quite sees the fun and sails through intent on
horses, motors and Yeomanry.
I welcome keenness at his age in anything and he is
delightfully keen. The whole place has been turned into
a glorified embodiment of a boy's holidays. In the Park,
just to the left front of the great iron gates and Watts'
Statue, he has constructed a steeple-chase course with
a mile and a half of high tarred rails round it, giving the
impression that a railway is being laid down in front of
the house. The water-jump is regulation width, puddled,
and always full of water from a pipe. The old Deer-house
is now the home of badgers whose lives have been spared
after digging out to assist fox-hunting. The stables are
crammed with hunters, chase-horses, polo ponies, Basutos,
carriage horses, American Trotter and two motor cars.
He enjoys it all from morning to night and gives unbounded
satisfaction to a horse-loving community. In the interval
of ' stripping ' the horses, which takes from two to three
hours per diem, he directs my attention to marked passages
in the works of Mark Twain. But it is all very boyish
and delightful : no luxury. I was quite glad to sleep in
a room like a servant's room, with hard bed and windows
blazing into my eyes.
To-day they all went off hi motors and waggonettes to
Yeomanry Point to Point races. I have just got a telegram
from Lettice to say that Bendor won the Open Cup with
Etona and the officers' race with Rainbow, riding both
himself. So that, given his present object, not even
Rosebery could criticise the ' efficiency ' with which he
pursues. It won't last, of course, but after all my weeks
and months of stuffy intelligence I was frankly delighted
to embrace so much of health and open-air activity. As
88 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Dizzy said, ' They never read ' ; barring ' Mark Twain.'
But there is nothing ' slang ' or ' fast ' or ' raffish.' He
has laid out a very good Dutch garden, gets up early,
takes an interest in the trees and has collected more four-
footed companions about him than any of our contempo-
raries with the exception of Khama King of Palapye.
I am coming to you for Sunday. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
448
To Mrs. Drew
April 9th, 1902.
I must bless and thank you for your letter. Let me
tell you one more story of Rhodes.
After the South African Commission on which I brought
out facts, not to defend for that was impossible but
to make some of his actions intelligible, I called on him
by appointment for breakfast. He had been riding and
was dressing. He was shy, but unconventional always.
So he suddenly walked in from his room in a shirt, his
face lathered all over, a shaving brush in one hand and a
razor in the other. With these precautions against any
physical exhibition of gratitude, he said abruptly. in his
high voice, ' Wyndham, I can't embrace you, but you
know what I mean.'
Monday is a precious possession to me. I am sure it
will not be wasted. And ' you know what I mean.'
To his Mother
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, April ISth, 1902.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Your telegrams have kept us
going. Sibell and I are with you and dear Madge and
darling little Dick, 1 all the time in thought and prayer.
I have written to Madge about Woodcock [his brother's
. * His brother's second son was dangerously ill with pneumonia.
TO HIS FATHER 39
servant] ; also suggesting that I should send our William
to help at such a moment. He is all willingness and smiles,
full of good nature and resource, based let me say
on being a Christian of Sibell's persuasion.
Consequently he never gives any trouble and always
gives a great deal of help.
I have wandered round our walk, thinking of you and
praying for Dick, and hoping that this sunny day is helping
the little darling.
I wrote to Madeira, saying nothing of the illness but
offering all possible facilities to Guy and Minnie on arrival.
Darling we will hope and believe.
It is not presumptuous to see with Sibell something
uncommonly like intelligent and kindly guidance when we
consider where we should be if Guy had sailed in the
Kinfauns 1 That ship is wrecked near the Needles. So
all have been spared embarrassment and further anxiety.
Let us then believe and hope.
And now darling I am glad that you are getting the
Doctors to put you right. Get well now.
Sibell, Perf and I will make Clouds our head-quarters
for a week, at least. Papa suggests it.
We go up to-morrow to have Perf over-hauled, first
by Douglas Powell for chest, and then by Robson Roose
for general advice.
Meanwhile we pray for Peace. Things are just a little
bit better than they look in the papers and I am not
without hope of Peace.
God bless you, darling, and little Dick. Ever your most
loving son, GEORGE.
450
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
April Uth, 1902.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I must congratulate you on having
* lived to see the registration duty re-imposed on Corn.'
The Budget is bold and honest I have my doubts
40 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
of the 2d., instead of Id., on cheques and dividend warrants.
It seems ' fidgetty ' for half a million.
You could not have taken the 2,650,000 on corn without
putting another penny on the income tax.
To fill the remaining gap of 500,000 I should, I confess
have preferred some attempt by a further stamp duty to
get at the people who have large sums to invest and who
gamble on the Stock Exchange.
The Id. on cheques will worry the very people who feel the
Income Tax most, i.e., those with from 700 to 2000 a year.
But it is a good Budget ; both sound in the revival
of a principle and opportune in the moment for applying
it. Your loving son, GEORGE.
451
To his Mother
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
April 18th, 1902.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I wired to remind you to wire
to Guy whatever the doctors authorize and you think fit
to-morrow so as to run no risk of missing if his ship gets
to Madeira early Monday. It is due on Monday,
' S.S. Dunvegan Castle,
Funchal,
Madeira.
I long for better news.
I had a Field-day yesterday in the House and the result
in papers to-day is much better than I could have hoped
for.
All love to you. Give my love to little Dick. Your
most loving son, GEORGE.
452
To his Mother
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, April 20th, 1902.
DARLING, How restful it is to be so much less anxious
about little Dick and to think of seeing dear old Goukie
[Guy] in less than a week !
TO HIS MOTHER 41
I have written to Sir Francis Evans and shall let all
concerned know the probable hour of the Dunvegan's
arrival. If, as Minnie says, it is a bad ship, I doubt her
coming in before Saturday morning. I have looked out
all the trains. The two most likely to suit are, Southampton
West 11.50 a.m. Dorchester 1.56 ; and 4.6 p.m. Dorchester
5.50. Those are the best trains in the day. So at one or
other of those hours on Friday or Saturday we ought to
concentrate. I say Dorchester but Weymouth may be
better ; or, we may, by boating to Fawley and driving on,
catch a better service. I will keep you advised.
Tell dear Madge not to bother about bedrooms in view
of nurses etc. I can make my own arrangements to sleep
at an Inn in Weymouth. Whatever happens I want to
see old Guy during the Sunday. I shall insist on not
having Irish Estimates Friday.
Am so rejoiced to hear you are getting better. I did
not like your ' wheeze ' when last together here. But
with the ' stitch in time ' and the summer coming on you
will be able now to enjoy Guy.
I am hopeful about Peace : not immediately, but
surely.
' Sumer is i cumen in
Loud sing Cucu ! '
I rode with Perf yesterday on his * Perfection.' I have
slept eleven hours since then. To-day I am being gloriously
idle to get ready for speech at Brighton on Wednesday.
With Guy back and little Dick getting well nothing else
matters. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
453
To his Mother
April 22nd, 1902.
DARLING, Papa is writing, but I am so pleased I cannot
help putting my oar in.
Sir Francis Evans says the ship will arrive between
5 and 6 a.m. on Saturday morning.
42 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
We all go down by the 4.50 from Waterloo. I expect,
D.V. we shall come on Papa, Madge and I by the
11.50 Saturday, due Dorchester 1.56 for lunch at 2.30.
I am just off to get a ' Cat ' for Guy, a silver cup of
some sort with
Crest
Au bon droit
GUY from GEORGE
April 1899 : April 1902
Per tot discrimina rerum
which is as who should say, * Through so many bedevil -
ments of affairs.' It is from Virgil of ^Eneas one of the
nine Worthies getting home at last, with household
Gods, to the strand of Lavinia after his many notable
adventures by sea and land. Hoo Roo ! Your most
loving son, GEORGE.
454
To his Sister, Pamela
WESTBROOK,
UPWEY, April 27th, 1902.
BELOVED PAMELA, I must share with you, and the
others if you think it worth sending on, some little bits
of our great experience in welcoming dear old Guy.
But it can only be little bits, for, as you know better
than most, the great occasions of life, particularly if long,
must be lived. The sluice gates of perception are all
drawn up and every minute of long-drawn hours floods
your soul with the usual, the unusual, and the unexampled,
each sharply defined and preternaturally significant.
We arrived at Southampton, about 6.30, Papa, Sibell
and self, and met there Madge and Walter. We knew
from a notice that the ship could not be in before 7 o'clock
next morning and from charts we made out the berth she
would take up. But this would not suffice. We recon-
noitred Papa and I the mile and a quarter of wind-
swept desolation to the ocean quay, pursued sometimes
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 43
by three engines abreast, for the whole extent is one level
crossing. The great ships and deep docks, the rubbish
heaps and refreshment shanties became then and remain
for ever permanent fixtures in the retentive memory of
over-wrought expectation.
We reported that at any hour of the night we could find
the way at a moment's notice, and gave orders to be called
at 4.30 a.m. although told with some insistence that we
should be warned an hour and a half before the ship came
in, on receipt of a wire signalling her at Hurst Castle.
Some of the party, none the less, kept waking all night
and at five minutes to four, I bounded out of bed, unable
to keep from ' doing.' So Madge, Walter and I fared
out at 5.20 and reached the berth, No. 35, at quarter to
six. We got up a great excitement on seeing a Union-
Castle Liner turn the corner of Calshot Castle at that
moment and steam in. But no. She anchored, and was
not the Dunvegan Castle. The wind was bitter. We
tried three mugs of tea and two ice-cakes for 4d. in the
navvies' beer-hall. Then Sibell arrived, having missed
Papa. No hope of the ship before 7.30. So back I sent
her out of the wind ; followed, and rinding her and Papa
at the Dock Gates, back we came again arriving this
time at 7 o'clock, with the certainty of having but one
half hour to wait. Then suddenly in the offing,
mysteriously sharp and magically tall was the prow of
our ship only twenty minutes more to wait and the
prow was visibly, though slowly, growing taller and taller,
dominating the tugs and anchored yachts and proving
how absurd it had been to magnify the smaller vessels
of the past hour and a half with the ship.
Then she began to turn. We took up a good position,
craning our necks and straining our eyes to scan the long
row of faces. No one we knew on the forecastle, or the
waist, or the stern, and then again just as the chill began
to grip expectation, quite simply Guy slung out of the
stern cabin-shelter longer of limb and broader of shoulder
than our memory of him ; and Minnie all laughter by his
side. We waved, they waved. The crowd on the Quay
44 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
jammed the navvies with the gangway, feeble handker-
chiefs were fluttered by the foolish fond, there were some
gulps and nervous little cheers. A lady who had not seen
her husband for three years scuttled on board with the
luggage porters and seemed about to kiss everybody.
And there was Guy ten yards off, tall and big and calm,
smiling and finishing a cigarette.
Then we ground each other's hands and grinned and
exchanged light pats on the shoulder. And so in two flys
to breakfast, with bouquet and Cup of welcome. [George
presented Guy with a large silver bowl for the centre of
dining table on the occasion of his return.] Hubbub
quadrupled by Mai West and Daisy Pless.
Madge and Walter had confided to us that Upwey
meant to welcome Guy. They were afraid he would be
annoyed, had done their best to restrain the village
enthusiasm. But not at all. The villagers had never
seen Guy ; but he was coming back from the war to the
' big house ' and they were not going to be done out of
proprietory rights in the Colonel ! During a three hours
creeping journey along Poole harbour and the Hampshire
coast little Walter kept giggling. It was impossible to
explain that his ebullitions were due to the promised
reception, and we had some difficulty in starting fresh
topics to cover these bursts of hilarity. At Bournemouth
a porter ex-soldier insisted on brushing Guy's khaki
coat. As we swung out of the Dorchester tunnel the
* murder was out.' Flags were flying across the streets
and from the trees of the straggling village suddenly
revealed. We drew up ; and had our first sight of a
figure that was to pervade and dominate all subsequent
proceedings, giving that touch of the absurd which is
essential to relieve the pathetic. There he was Mr.
Drake by name once reputed to have been a soldier and
anyhow claiming to have a son at the war.
He had been inspired beyond the highest flight ever
attained by R. Caldicott, to mount a shaggy black village
pony with rope bridle, and for the greater glory, my dear,
had armed himself with a large wooden hay-fork, to one
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 45
tip and to the handle of which were tied the two corners
of a large red and white flag, like a Giant's Bandana.
We saw him mount, assisted by many, to be in the saddle
before the train alarmed his steed. Some cheers were
given, Guy touched his khaki staff-cap ; Minnie grinned
over her bouquet, and Mr. Drake took command. Minnie
and Guy in seats of honour were ushered into a village
landau with one white horse, jogged with difficulty into
a shamble by flyman, with hat brushed the wrong way.
Madge and I scrambled into a dog-cart. Mr. Drake having
held up his banner, called for, * Three cheers for Colonel
Wyndham,' and took his post at the head of the column.
Westbrook House is not three furlongs from the station.
But you must not think we were to drive there straight.
We went up the valley and down again, past every house
which could pretend to be included in Upwey. Flags
flew, and bunches of laurel decked the handles of mops
ingeniously secured by shutting down the windows on
their heads.
Mr. Drake held up his fork in warning and cried, Halt !
The old horse was slowly unharnessed and the patriots
proceeded to drag the carriage by a rope. We were now
complete in our parade for the avenue. Drake mounted
and flourishing his fork. Then the draggers, then the
landau bearing the flyman aloft, whose hat, now that his
occupation was gone, seemed twice brushed the wrong
way : the Colonel and his lady ; all the school-children
hanging on behind, and last Madge, straining her wrists
not to run over them. At the bridge, in front of the gates
the Chairman of the Parish Council stopped the cortege
and made a few appropriate remarks. Guy said nothing,
but saluted ; and with a cheer in we went through the
fluttering flags in the grounds, to look up and see little
Dick held up at the window, in a quilt, and darling Mamma
with a nurse clinging to each of her arms. Drake, the
immortal Drake had saved the situation ! The nurses
were anxious that the emotion would be too much for
Mamma. But when Drake rode in even she could smile
and laugh.
46 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
We have all been perfectly happy. Guy looks stronger
and greater than ever ; talks as slowly and contentedly
as ever. So let us all thank God, and sing God save the
King. Ever your devoted brother, GEORGE.
455
To his Mother
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
April 2Qth, 1902.
BELOVED MAMMA, I missed seeing you in the hurry
of departure. What a wonderful two days we had. I
hope to come again next Saturday.
I have just received a second wonderful gift. Some
days ago I was given a beautiful green enamel and rose
diamond pin of Lord Edward's. Yesterday an unknown
letter enclosed and please keep it sent me a beautiful
seal that belonged to him. Herewith is an impression
of it.
Get well darling, give my best love to little Dick. Ever
your most loving son, GEORGE.
456
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE,
May 9th, 1902.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am getting on very well ;
much better each day. But Roose will not give me leave
to travel in this weather. It is most provoking. If the
wind changes I shall take the law into my own hands.
If it does not I must submit. Nothing can make amends
for losing these two Sundays with you and Guy. When
he and Minnie are with you in London I shall keep all
my evenings clear and under the new rules drop in to
8 o'clock dinner most nights.
The bitterness here and darkness are beyond belief.
I hope you will take great care of your chest in these
fiendish winds.
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 47
Pamela dropped in yesterday looking very well and
composed. I also see a good deal of Papa.
Hugh Cecil made a magnificent speech on the Education
Bill.
You must not be disappointed if the Boers when they
meet on the 15th May create all kinds of difficulties.
They are slim and slow and will argue, delay, break-off
again and again in order to get all they can for the little
they have to offer. None the less it will in the end spell
Peace.
Best love to all. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
457
To Charks T. Gatty
IRISH OFFICE,
OLD QUEEN STREET, S.W., 26/6/02.
MY DEAR CHARLES, It is long since we met. I always
want your company, but exceptionally at times, such as
this, when the companionship of most is an added burden.
Please make a special effort to see me Saturday or Sunday.
Little Percy is coming up from Eton. But I wish parti-
cularly to see you for a serious talk on Catholic University
and allied projects. You might be able to help.
I suggest Saturday or Sunday lunch, and a good ' pow-
wow ' in Kensington Gardens. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
458
Private
To Charles T. Gatty
SOth June '02.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter has crossed with
mine. The common and ' scooped sand-dunes,' with the
quest of pigmy arrowheads from 10 a.m. to 7.30 or 8 p.m.,
is a great discovery. Let me never hear again of Alpine-
climbing or golf.
Do not let my letter of yesterday perturb you. Come
48 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and stay when you can ; before Saturday, if you want to
see Lettice and Sibell. I have a matter of ' great pith
and moment ' in which the Catholic University plays an
important part. But no more of that till we meet.
Your letter about ' real life ' with pines and birds, has
given me a reflected glory which impels me to write. I
now (11 a.m. Monday) go down into the pit from which
I emerge on Friday at 5.30 p.m.
So far I have next Friday night free.
Percy was up Saturday to Sunday. We did the Zoo
with Bendor, Shelagh, Cuckoo and Shaf tesbury in the after-
noon. In the evening we had a large family dinner ;
fed an exhausted Bishop of Stepney ; and afterwards
with the help of Tony S. and Mrs. Arkwright, got through
some ' Arundel ' to a Harpsichord.
Next Autumn, if all goes well, should be a time of deep
interest to me in Ireland. I am marshalling many con-
verging movements. But what gives me hope is that
battalions and forces for which I am in no way responsible,
keep turning up. Fate is calling and the appointed hour.
See Maeterlink on ' Luck ' passim. Say nothing to nobody,
but come and listen to my tale. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE W.
459
To his Mother
HOUSE OP COMMONS,
July Uth, 1902.
DARLING MAMMA, Many thanks for your letter. Dear
Lord S. has sloped away with characteristic ' insouciance.'
The papers are very ignorant of constitutional procedure.
What is called a Prune Minister or Premier does not
exist constitutionally.
The Sovereign has the right to send for anyone and to
ask him to * form an administration.' If he succeeds he
is Prime Minister until he dies or resigns. When he
resigns he advises the Sovereign to send for some one else.
In the more usual case of resignation after defeat in the
TO HIS MOTHER 49
House or at the Polls he advises the Sovereign to send for
the leader of the opposite party. When that happens
everybody realises that one Government or, properly,
Administration has come to an end and that another must
be formed.
But when, as now, he resigns and advises that one of
his supporters should be sent for the same holds good.
Arthur could, in theory, appoint new men to all the offices.
We only go on by grace and for convenience.
Of course he will do nothing of the kind. His first act
was to secure Chamberlain and Devonshire and to try
and secure Beach.
Nobody knows how big the shuffle will be or when it
will begin : not, I imagine before the 9th August.
I hope they will do it then as the Press paragraphs and
expectant eyes of aspirants are neither of them very
pretty.
Love to darling Manenai. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
460
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, September 5th, 1902.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your birthday letter.
We had a rush of ' divarsion ' here during horse-show
week and, even now, the house keeps pretty full, especially
at meals.
It is a great joy to have Dorothy, who wears delightful
clothes and wreaths and looks very pretty.
We ride in the morning with a dear collie dog, Chief,
who barks and pretends to hunt the cows and jumps up
at our horses' noses.
Then people come to lunch and dinner and we talk of
nothing but Ireland.
I am absorbed in my work. Ireland is more interesting
than at any time since 87. There is more to win and
lose in the next six months than ever before. A certain
VOL. II. D
50 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
amount of fighting is necessary to prevent them from
bullying each other. But with that there are better hopes
of a larger peace than I have seen.
I have bombarded the new Chancellor, Ritchie, with
memoranda and have boiled down all that can be done
into a simple comprehensive policy : that can be stated
on a sheet of notepaper.
To-morrow I go to stay on an island near Cork with
Penrose Fitzgerald. On Monday to Fota with Barrymore.
On Tuesday Sibell, Perf, self and the Lyttons visit the
Cork Exhibition and lunch with the Lord Mayor.
Wednesday to Adare and back Thursday. I doubt if I
shall get to the West : perhaps for a day to Kin Cassia
in Donegal from Baron's Court and Belfast.
We are all very well and occupied. But I long for
you to be here. You must come next September. By
then it may be that the clouds of Coercion will have
broken and that some results of work will begin to be
visible. Ever your most loving son, GEORGE.
461
To Mrs. Drew
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
October 1th, 1902.
MY DEAR MARY, I will ' crystallise ' the letter (of
March 27) and work in your suggestions. ... I go to
London Wednesday night for Cabinet on 9th. The early
meeting of that body has telescoped a fortnight's work
into a week, so that I could not answer before.
I am full of sorrow for much that goes on here, but far
fuller of hope for much that will go on ; and sooner than
I dared to hope. Mayo is, as you say, a ' brick,' and so
are many on both sides, if they only knew how to apprise
each other of the fact. Sometimes I almost wish to be
out of office so as to speak and write all that is in my mind.
I wished you could have been with us in the Far West
the other day. I took Sibell, Minnie Ebury, Lytton,
and Secretaries, by 7 a.m. train to Mallaranny in Clew
TO MRS. DREW 51
Bay ; they all behaved beautifully getting up at 5.30,
as of course, preserving astonishing appetite for coarse
food, and maintaining the temper of Angels.
Sibell was a revelation to the Cotters in their Hovels,
full of beasts and filth. On Achill they said 4 We have seen
many ladies but you are the first that has been kind to
us.' I took them out to Clare Island, back to Mallaranny,
and then at 5 p.m. steamed round Achill Head and
anchored at 9.30 p.m.
I had effected a concentration of Chairmen, Board of
Works, Fishery Commissioners, Engineers, etc. It was
splendid to see them thaw and then glow and shine.
I started 8 next day from the ship ; rowed ashore,
drove 7 miles to Belmullet, saw the Priest, set down the
' Board of Works ' on the spot, and then drove on through
Erris to the most man-forsaken wilderness God ever
continued to remember. If I told one-tenth of what it
is, I should be condemned as a sentimental idiot ; there
are no fences, no roads, and typhus fever most years.
I drove and walked all day : they want so much help
and direction ; they are quite outside politics ; do not
know the name of their Member, some of them. I got
back to Belmullet at 6.15, and there behold two depu-
tations, and finally a bonfire and a speech (!) to the
crowd.
I keep all this to myself as the newspapers are too idle
and malicious. We got to the shore about 8.30 and were
carried pick-a-back to the boat through 50 yards of water,
to go to the ship about 9 p.m. It was a day never to be
forgotten, and ought to give me enough ' steam ' and
guidance to get something done at last.
The next day was peerless : an opal sea, the sun rising,
a crimson sphere, clean out of his bath, and the cone of
Slievemore suspended, like Japan's Fuziyama, high in
heaven over the faint mist. So I took a header into the
Atlantic at 6.30 and swam through the opal waters. We
started at 7.30 and did all we had to do, steaming across
Blackrock bay, and then cruising up a creek for miles
in the boat. The sticky Engineer became ecstatic
52 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and, one way or another, these people shall get their
chance.
Sibell started with me by 7 a.m. train the next morning
and visited Foxford for five hours on the way back. Since
then I have been immersed in the ' Land Question *
here.
I have great faith and believe the time has nearly come.
Archbishop Walsh wrote a Christian letter to to-day's
paper and the Landowners' Convention is beginning to
help.
Forgive this outburst. Ever your friend,
GEORGE W.
462
To Mrs. Drew
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
October 7th, 1902.
Bless you for your letter. It has by natural grace
turned 5 into 10, and that only as an index to other
things of far greater import which it multiplies by larger
factors than by a little 2.
Let there be no more W's or D's after either of our
names.
Dunraven has weighed in with a fine letter on Land*
The pace here is becoming delirious, so that London, even
with Cabinet, will seem a stagnant pool.
Nothing permanent can be done here until we settle
the Land and Catholic Higher Education. I am up to
my neck in both, and up to my knees in the next. You
ought to watch a paper here called the ' Daily Independent.'
It is beginning to represent the sane men.
No tune now for more than thanks from the heart.
I should love to see you and talk as on that Spring morning
in the Dutch garden at Eaton.
I too have been longing for Kipling. . . . Walter Scott
made Scotland.
With fervent thanks and hope. Ever yours,
GEORGE.
TO MRS. DREW 58
463
To Charles Waldstein
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 8th, 1902.
MY DEAR CHARLES, The ' Argive Herseum ' is magnifi-
cent ; a noble gift and token of friendship. I thank you
with all my heart and shower congratulations on the
achievement of such splendid work. Some day I must
get to Cambridge. Just now I am passing through a
critical time. Ireland is more plastic now than at any
period I recollect since 1887. Many there are growing
weary of barren conflict. They should now turn to
fruitful work ' without prejudice,' to further constitutional
and economic strife. My plain duty is to make this easy
by giving protection, avoiding offence, and ' laying nest
eggs ' of encouragement to self-help in industrial enterprise.
But this, dear Charles, for the time absorbs me body and
soul. Ever your friend,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
464
To Mrs. Drew
PARK LANE,
November 22nd, 1902.
' Jog to the elbow ' or not, your letter was most welcome.
For it makes me write as children say, ' a real letter,' in
succession to many imaginary ones despatched to you by
my mind and heart during the last six weeks.
In the midst of O'Brien's uproar I wanted to tell you
that the ' hissing ' and the rest of it, made no shadow of
difference to what I stated in my last letter after my
plunge into the Atlantic. I have a conviction almost
superstitious that from October of this year the change
in Ireland has begun.
I hope you approve my appointment of Sir Antony
MacDonnell ? I took that as a test of my superstition.
54, LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It was a difficult thing to get done. On one night in
September I thought I had failed. But I returned to
the charge and won. The ' Westminster ' and all the
Liberal papers are behaving very well.
Sibell and self go to Windsor to-day till Monday with
Arthur Balfour ; this also will help.
I should love to see you. Oughtn't you to come to
London before Christmas ?
465
To his Father
i
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, December 17th, 1902.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I was right in my impression of
the run on Tuesday. It has already ceased to be the run
of the season and became historic. The pundits of the
chase, after careful comparison, give it the record, till
now held by the Warrenstown run of years ago, of which
the track is traced and framed in Harry Bourke's house.
They now say that we went 13 miles as the crow flies
and 22 as hounds ran.
I only rode for one hour and persisted for another
twenty minutes at a trot on the roads etc. The real
point was that we galloped for 53 minutes. After that
they muddled on for three hours in all and the fox saved
his brush because every horse was stone cold.
It was just like my luck to fall into a historic run at
the first draw of my season. The legend of it is expanding
day by day. Next week it will be a twenty mile point I
Luckily I did not know that the third fence was a noted
chasm. It appears that we jumped the Ratoath dram
and the Sutherland double in the first six fences. That,
at the delirious pace we maintained for fifty minutes,
with one hover, accounts for the fact that one hundred
and fifty people never saw us again.
But, on my bay horse, Martin, I was sublimely uncon-
scious ; only realising that I had attained felicity.
To-day, with the Kildares, we had a fair hunting run ;
TO HIS MOTHER 55
forty-three minutes from find to kill in the open from
Betaghstown Bog, by Clane to Bella villa.
I rode Michael and he jumped ' like the book of Arith-
metic.' Your loving son, GEORGE.
466
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, December 22nd, 1902.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to send all love to you
and Papa and Ditch and Bun, all wishes for Christmas
and 1903.
We are here alone, S. S., Perf and I and very restful
and happy. It is the first time we have been alone for
years.
I hunt to-morrow with the Meath. I am fighting for
a holiday between now and the New Year and hunting
is my only chance. Unless I am definitely out hunting
people come, even from Belfast, to take their chance of
seeing me.
The enclosed will interest you from Lady Bloomfield ! !
I wrote her an official answer and also a covering letter to
* My dear Godmother ' in which I truthfully told her that,
oddly enough, I had at Bowood the day before talked
of her in a conversation on God-mothers and cited a
mechanical duck which she gave me and which I sailed
on the pond at Petworth.
She wrote me a very nice letter in reply left in London
saying she was eighty years old and would like to see
me and sending much love * to dearest Madeline '=you.
I had a cheery letter from Guy who had seen Aunt
Conny Leconfield, Bendor and Shelagh.
Ian Hamilton talked of him to me in the train c off his
own bat.' I think we may rest assured that they know
his value.
This Country is going nicely into the bit just now and
I begin to hope that by next August I shall be able to show
it you, bending in a discreet manege canter.
56 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
The inside work of Cabinet and so forth, has been very
interesting lately. I find that I have to check a recrud-
escence of my old foible in childish days when I wanted
to be stage manager of every play. But I do check it
and enjoy being behind the scenes even though not allowed
to play the tomb scene in pitch darkness.
I look forward to Fridays to Mondays in February and
March. We will count the daffodils together. Ever most
loving son, GEORGE.
To Mrs. Drew
Confidential. CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
January 4th, 1903.
MY DEAR MARY DEAR, I am in such high spirits that
I must deliberately reproduce an accident in a previous
effort to spell your name. I have just read an advance
copy of the Report of the Land Conference. It is full
of good sense and good feeling. The dry bones can live.
The sun I saw rise as I swam in the Atlantic was a sign.
This I know is the ' hot fit.' But we see more clearly
when the hot fit is on us. The cold fit jaundices our eyes.
I am well aware that I am only a third or a quarter of
the way on this quest. But then, how inconceivable it
seemed to most people a year ago that we should ever
get so far. I feel like the Old Woman in Pamela's ' Village
Notes ' who saw in golden letters at the foot of her death-
bed * Thou shalt not die but live,' and added, ' And I
didn't die! Hived! Hived!'
Sibell brought me your letter of the 1st, and I thank
you for its dear messages. I was positively engaged at
the time on reconnoitring the proofs and transcripts of
Ruskin's letters. You shall have a Preface soon as a
New Year gift, and thank-offering for the way we are
making here.
Antony MacDonnell is a trump !
All Blessings on you. Ever yours affly.
GEORGE W.
TO HIS FATHER 57
468
To Mrs. Drew
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
January 19th, 1903.
Yesterday being Sunday, I tried to reverse the engines
from Land and Catholic University into your ' Porch '
Preface. But the wheels slid round. To-day something
of sorts did come which you shall have by to-morrow's
post. I wish I could have done better. Tear it up if
you are displeased : dissatisfied you must be. But the
task, though slight, was not easy. The letters are so
delicate ; the excerpts from your Father's journal and the
two letters to Carlyle and Alfred so hard to fit in, that
anything ponderous, or even coherent, would have seemed
out of place. I did not scamp the work and doubt if I
can improve it under present circumstances. So tear it
up without a qualm, or if you, finding bad gaps, can
suggest the kind of additions needed, indicate them and
I will supply to specification.
20th Jan. '03. I forgot to say the Preface would run
to about 12 pp. in print. It is an amorphous Crystal
after all. Yr. GEORGE.
If I manage a day at Eaton on the way to House of
Commons, I shall hope for you in the Dutch garden.
469
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN, January 21st, 1903.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Mr. ' Puffinger ' [his son] is now
* free of the craft.' Yesterday he rode a horse of Dudley's,
called ' Wexford ' with the Meath. Walter Lindsay (left
in charge of Dudley's horses) piloted him. We did not
have a good day ; but lots of jumping near Dunshaughlin,
58 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Perf jumped everything and I was very pleased. To-day
he rode ' Moyglare,' with the Ward.
We went fast and straight for forty minutes over really
big places including two whacking doubles, one with a
very narrow bank, also a veritable Alp into a road and
some wide ' rivers.'
I never supposed that he could have kept up. But in
less than two minutes after the check, Puffinger arrived
his face beaming, eyes flashing, hat bashed in, wet up to
the waist having taken an imperial toss over the narrow
double ; caught his horse and come on again, using a
cutting whip at all the big ' leps.' Walter Lindsay said
that he really rode the horse grandly. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
470
To Monsieur Auguste Rodin
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 25.1.03.
MON CHER AMI, Je ne saurais dire combien de plaisir
et d'orgueil j'ai ressenti en lisant votre lettre si pleine de
sympathie et d'amitie.
J'ai fait, du reste, tres peu de choses a Londres pour
meriter de tels remer9iments.
Mais votre lettre est d'autant plus chere puisqu'elle
provient de votre bonte plutot que des pauvres services
que j'ai pu rend re pour t^moigner mon devouement aux
beaux Arts dans la personne d'un grand maitre. Je conte
aussi avec ardeur sur la joie de vous serrer la main au
printemps. Tout a vous, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
471
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
DUBLIN CASTLE, Sunday, January 25th, 1903.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, A thousand thanks for the
beautiful ' Victory.' I could not guess from whom it
TO HIS MOTHER 59
came and only discovered just before your letter to Sibell
arrived. Robertson had written to say ; but his letter
was opened by secretaries who assumed that I knew from
you. One wing, alas ! had come off, broken. So she
is a * winged ' Victory in more senses than one and, there-
fore, far more like such victories as we win here and more
likely to prove a true emblem and harbinger. And,
besides, Sibell says she can mend the wing with milk,
and this, also, would be normal. She is very beautiful
and buoyant : the Nik6 of Samothrace who stood on the
prow of a war-galley.
I began to spell * buoyant ' the wrong way. That
reminds me that Dermot (Mayo), when drafting the final
Report of the Land Conference during Dunraven's absence,
put down his pen and asked, ' How do you spell
" grievance " ? ' eliciting the exclamation ' You 're a
nice Irishman not to know how to spell grievance ! '
I had three days hunting last week and am glowing with
health in consequence. This sounds idle. But the fact
is I have got far ahead of colleagues in London and leaders
of sections here. So I must pull up and wait.
On Tuesday in the hunting-field I saw a stranger whom
it was impossible to classify : impeccably dressed in
scarlet and leathers, with a port -wine coloured hunting-
collar. Yet he was ' foreign ' ; though with a shrewd
clean-shaved face and twinkling Irish eyes. I heard he
was an American master of hounds. He rode desperately
hard. I got myself introduced and found he was Mr.
Collier, master of hounds in New Jersey, staying with
John Watson, and buying all his horses from him. I
asked him to dine and found he had been a poor Irish boy
who, aged twelve, hunted on a donkey with Watson's
father in Carlow. He went to America, became the
greatest publisher (!) there ; paying 60,000 a year in
wages. He told me that he knew and liked Percy Wynd-
ham [cousin] and had mounted him.
Percy Wyndham came to stay here yesterday, so I
asked Collier too and had an ' Industrial Revival ' dinner
last night : Collier, the successful emigrant who rides
60 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
hard ; Percy, our diplomatist at Washington, La Touche,
the manager of Guinness Brewery ; Father Finlay, the
chief supporter of Horace Plunkett in co-operative farming,
industries etc., Pirie, the brains of Belfast ship-building,
and Hanson. We sat at the table till 10 to 11 p.m. and
I never assisted at a keener symposium.
They are all beginning to catch my optimism. The
Chief Justice makes jokes about the Millennium from the
bench. The lion frisks with the lamb. The serpent coos
from a branch. The dove says there is a good deal of
pigeon-nature in the serpent after all.
How long will it last ? I hope until I have started other
projects to engage everyone's attention, excite their hopes,
and stimulate their generous emulation. But, as I said,
for the moment I must make a 4 check ' and give them
tune to breathe.
Steeds told me a good story on that. A wild young
rough-rider in Limerick had been pounding everyone,
riding very jealous. The hounds checked. He de-
liberately trotted into the middle of the pack and began
circling round and round through them. 4 My God 1 '
cried out the next man to arrive, 4 Are you mad ? ' ' No,*
was the answer, ' I 'm beat, and I 'm dispersing the dogs.
You '11 none of ye go on.'
There are Cabinets on Friday 6th and Saturday 7th.
This, for your private information in case anything takes
you or Papa up to London at the time.
Love to all. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
472
To Mrs, Drew
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
February 2nd, 1903.
MY DEAR MARY DEAR, ' How you do go it ! ' that
is a quotation from a song about a blackbird. In the rush
here your letter only came to me through Secretaries,
late last night. To-day I am meditating a revised version
TO WILFRID WARD 61
of the Psalms : * O that my friend would write a preface
that I might correct his proofs and leave no opportunity
for revision.' 1
I wired the printers to await my revise. Perhaps it
is too late. If so, no matter. If not, I am introducing
a fair compromise on your emendations, etc., etc. There
is a hopeless misprint Parsonian for Porsonian. A
playful allusion to a well-known story of Porson, who
slipped up and sat down when trying to open his hall
door, and said ' D n the laws of Nature ! ' Otherwise
all may stand, and I think I have behaved very well.
Indeed, I am glad and grateful to you for liking it
at all.
They have just shown me a joyous passage in to-day's
' Irish Society.' ' Lady MacCalmont has presented a
monkey to the Zoological Gardens. It is her son who
has inherited the MacCalmont Millions.'
This would have pleased Ruskin and your Father.
The blackbird song runs :
' O Blackbird, what a boy you are,
How you do go it !
Blowing your bugle to a star,
How you do blow it ! '
So we who love Ireland will blow our bugle to a star.
473
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
March 20th, 1903.
MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter comes at a moment
when such a letter impresses and encourages.
I am keeping quite still and saving every * ion ' of
vitality. As Bowles once put it in the House I mean to
1 Note by Mrs. Drew. I corrected and altered his proofs and sent them to
publisher with orders to print, if hearing nothing to the contrary from author,
within twelve hours.
62 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
stay here ' and pull down the blinds to create the impres-
sion that I have gone to Margate.'
Still, if you and Mrs. Ward would just look in at tea-
time Saturday, and Sunday, I should love to grasp your
hand.
I have been quite surprisingly harassed up to the last
moment by embarrassing suggestions and fatal counsels
of timidity.
So I have ' sported my oak.' It is going to be a very
hard fight but I do hope to win and take courage from the
date ' Lady-day.' Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
474
To Charles Boyd
35 PARK LANE, W.,
24.iii.03.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I have just lifted a diluted glass
for I am in training to * the Bond.' Your letter
has given me pleasure and encouragement. ' What a
phrase ! ' ' Christ ! ' as Will H. 1 would put it, ' what
a phrase ! ' But, and let this damp your ardour (if need
it must) I am qua (cf. C. R. 2 ) phraseology in a Mid-
Victorian mood.
To-morrow I must ' imprimis ' be understood by Irish
Patriots and City brokers: by s (cf. Will H.'s
vocabulary). And to be intelligible is a serious enterprise,
a desperate adventure.
If I may put it in an Irish way, on a First-Reading-
Speech, Ebullitions must be submerged. Underneath my
cautious and platitudinarian diction there will be many
tacit phrases and ' quotes ' sub voce. To wit.
4 1 believe that a benignant spirit is abroad,' etc. See
William Wordsworth. Or, since it is Lady Day, and my
Lady's Birthday, all sorts of pretty words which I shall
be thinking but not saying. Or, since we are talking of
Land and " good -will " to a "mixed congregation." '/n
terra Pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.'
1 W. E. Henley. 2 Cecil Rhodes.
TO MRS. DREW 3
Of these things I shall be thinking I shall speak
of * paramount interest ' and ' flotations below par ' !
Consols at 90 ! My God . . . and so on.
Seriously, dear old Charles, I have had a worse time than
any of you suspect. There have been desperate encounters
protracted to the last moment. But the ' Bell rings '
and after all I am there.
Understand that the future of Ireland, my future for
what it is worth and the grouping of parties on the next
turn of the kaleidoscope all do turn on what happens
to-morrow.
Yours ever in the bond and do drop in to dinner here
at 8. G. W.
Chief of the Bond.
475
To Mrs. Drew
PARK LANE,
March 26th, 1903.
I must write one word to you. Many people have
telegraphed and written good wishes to the Land Bill.
* Many thanks ' have been telegraphed to each. But
in obedience to an instinct I must write to you, although
there is nothing to say except that, so far, the miracles
go on ; so, I believe, it is not a case of ' asking for a sign.'
They rain on the hope.
Some things are eternal. I may be beaten, although
I mean to win. But, if I am beaten, the wonderful
unanimity remains : the good sense and goodwill of so
many people remain. The four Dublin papers are quite
extraordinary.
We must pull it through. And there is more to follow.
Immediately you will see a project of private enterprise
by great capitalists to help in the matter of transport for
Irish produce, of which I have assurance that America
will underwrite the loan for three years.
64 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
476
To Charles T. Gatty
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Sunday, 5th April 1903.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Look in to lunch if you are free.
T.'s 1 letter is encouraging. I am looking forward to
Wednesday as a real treat and rest. You and T. see
things and feel them as I do. With all the others
except Arthur Balfour Irish or English, there is so
much else of politics and commerce mixed up.
They are sincere and honest, and so on ; but they have
not the single desire that men, women and children
should be happy and hopeful in Ireland, and the single
belief that this can only be by the Grace of God and not
by our ingenuity and industry.
It will refresh me to be with you two.
May I, then, be spared the American ?
I have had so much of that kind of thing lately, that I
don't think I can stand any more before getting a holiday.
It does some good, but at the expense of how many
' canards ' I ! Yours affectionately, GEORGE W.
477
To Mrs. Drew
PARK LANE,
April 7th, 1903.
I am enchanted with the book in its smooth green
binding, and very proud to have had a hand in it.
The reference to ' Lady Day ' in the preface and c Why
rushed the discords in but that Harmony should be prized,*
seem now prophetic.
I thank you and bless you.
1 T. Healy.
TO SIDNEY C. COCKERELL 65
478
To his Sister, Madeline
35 PARK LANE, W.,
8tfi May 1903.
MOST DARLING MANENAI, I can't say what joy your
letter gives me. I am sending it on to S.S. The whole
business * surprises by itself.' My speech does not matter.
But even on that the same miraculous spirit worked.
I never in all my life felt less able to speek. I am a wreck
after Influenza, and the three days on the bench, without
exercise or appetite and with actual sickness from sequelae
of influenza, made me feel that I could not rise at the fence.
I had prepared one speech and made another. But the
air was electrical and though I did not know what I was
saying, it felt quite easy and inevitable all through.
May God grant that there will be * a new light set in
the eyes of dark Rosaleen.' That end of Healy's speech
made me gulp. Do you know Mangan's poem from
which he quoted ? Your most loving brother,
GEORGE.
479
To Sidney C. Cockerell
BABRAHAM,
CAMBRIDGE, 14 May 1903.
DEAR MR. COCKERELL, My father sent me ' Letters
to Ireland ' 1 given to him by you.
I have been here to * pick up ' after the influenza. In
the few minutes that remain before I start to replunge,
let me say :
(1) That peasant-proprietors afford the best, perhaps
the only, form of community in which there is now scope
for all that you desire. They will receive delight from the
processes of the year and return it, during long winter
months, in beautiful handiwork, but (2) their handiwork
cannot receive, any more than their crops, that due meed
1 The pamphlet referred to was written by Lady Margaret Sackville.
VOL. II. E
66 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
of security, food and raiment, unless it can be brought to
market by organised transport at fair rates. (3) Unless
it is brought to market it cannot influence the world.
No man, or community, can live unto itself alone. If
cut off from the Human Race he, and they, wither.
Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. Ireland is going to revolutionise America, and
America the World.
480
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Tuesday, June 2nd, 1903.
MY DEAREST PAPA, We go to France to-morrow.
I am not going to rush about or see things. Our plan is
to get away to see leafage in June weather. So we go to
Amiens a short journey and on to Compiegne. There
I shall spend three quiet days in the Forest and simply
exist.
I send you a good letter from Perf about the terrible
fire at Eton. Sibell went there to-day. Percy says that
Kindersley, the master, was magnificent. Arthur Ellis
who met Sibell told her that all the boys in and out of
Kindersley's house behaved splendidly. Nobody lost
his head. But for this many would have been burned.
All the bars were taken away to-day. It took the carpenter
an hour to remove them from one window in Percy's house.
The tune has not yet come for me to discuss the Tariff
problem fully. My modest hope is to adjourn that tune.
The worst battles are those in which the advance guard
is prematurely committed. Your loving son, GEORGE.
481
To his Son
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
25th June '03.
DARLING LITTLE PERF, Your Mamma is much con-
cerned at your Ascot performance. I am very sorry that
TO HIS MOTHER 67
you went after the new regulations (absence at 4 and 6)
which make it a more serious offence than in old days,
I imagine. You are sensible enough not to do foolish
things.
Your Mamma says she has written suggesting that you
should tell Mr. de Havilland. You must decide on this
for yourself. It may be that to do so might get the others
into trouble. In that case it may be right to say nothing.
You must be the judge.
But, of course, if you are asked a question by anyone
who has the right to ask it, your tutor or House-master,
or other person in authority, you will simply tell the
truth about yourself.
The Land Bill is going on well. Don't spoil my pleasure
in that by doing silly things. But, anyhow, come to me
if you ever get into a scrape. Your most loving PUPS.
482
To his Mother
MADRESFIELD COURT,
MALVERN LINK, June 2Gth, 1903.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Imagine my going off yester-
day without giving you a hug for your birthday ! It
was all I could do to catch the train as I was very sleepy
after my speech. I used Papa's story about the singer
with great effect and all the other quotations.
I thought of you a great deal yesterday and we had one
surprise in bird-life which you would have enjoyed.
Sibell, or Letty, said after lunch * what an extraordinary
bird there is on the lawn. Is it a young pheasant ? '
We looked and saw that it had a red back to its head,
dark cheeks and a long bill which it kept driving into the
ground. We got glasses and watched it from a window
not twenty yards off. It was the big woodpecker ! I
had never seen one before and there he was on the lawn
quite close to us. If only we had possessed a camera
we might have won a prize in ' Country Life.' He was
68 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
huge nearly, if not quite, as big as the white doves on
the lawn with him. I stalked him afterwards and put
him up three yards from my feet. As he flew away his
back was quite green and his head crimson. Then I
examined the ground and saw that he had been driving
his bill an inch into the earth to eat ants in the beginnings
of ant-heaps. So there is no doubt about him.
I shall look in about 12.20 on my way to the office.
With many, many many happy returns to us all of your
birthday. Ever darling, your loving son, GEORGE.
483
To his Sister, Pamela
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, 25 July 1903.
DARLING PAM, I must begin a letter to you to-day
perhaps finish it as you, more than anyone else, will
appreciate the dramatic and pathetic completeness of
the triumph which the King and Queen have won in
Irish hearts. You love them because you have a fountain
of loyalty in you which must gush out if it is allowed a
channel. That is just how it is with the Irish and how it
has ever been. But they have hardly ever been given a
channel for their loyalty. In all history the only sove-
reigns who ever tried, even, to be Kings to them were
John, Richard n., and George iv. ; a sorry trio. But
the Irish loved them ; the first two, to failure and death ;
the last, until he turned on them or from them, and threw
in his lot wholly with Orange uncouthness. I exclude
James n., because he only went to Ireland to fight for his
own crown and failed to do that.
To begin at the end, the situation was summed up this
morning by a little girl, one of the thousands and thou-
sands of children who for days have done nothing but
smile and cheer and wave and yearn towards the King
and Queen. She said to the philanthropist who was
marshalling them for the last goodbye ' I am so glad
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 69
that we may love the King now because he spoke so
nicely about the Pope.'
I revert to the beginning and the simple narration of
things as I saw them.
26 July 1903.
On Monday 20th, I caught the Irish mail (8.45 p.m.)
from the House of Commons, found it full of Irish notables,
(laid down 4 hours sleep to have it in hand) and was met
at Holyhead by a naval officer in a white cap. We
climbed across a couple of ships to a steam pinnace and
waited for the King's messenger in the second half of the
mail. The waning moon hung low with a planet for
pendant. The transparent sky paled towards dawn.
The iron-clads seemed grey monsters in the distance.
At last the second half droned in, a string of lights, and,
with our King's messenger and despatch boxes aboard,
we ripped through the dawn-tinted glassy sea out to the
Royal Yacht, with the grey monsters for her advance
guard. My cabin was large, with pretty, clean chintzes
and pale blue silk duvet on the berth. It was too beauti-
ful to sleep. I watched the daylight grow, or Torpedo-
catchers tear by like nightmares ; heard the clock strike 4
and 5, and dropped off to the sound of weighing anchor.
I woke at 7 to a sense of discouragement. The fairy
serenity of overnight and dawn had changed to grey skies,
grey seas, white horses and pitiless, plunging rain. Through
the mist and torrents the grey monsters on either side
moved on, ignoring the waves. The Kish lifeboat danced
foolishly in a flutter of many-coloured bunting, and
popped off two two-penny guns whose smoke merged in
the mist and surf.
I bathed, dressed in uniform with medals and Patrick
badge, longed for breakfast, met Lds. Knollys, Churchill,
Admiral Stevenson, Condie Steevens, etc., all more or
less in uniform, and all longing for breakfast. The rain
still fell, but less relentlessly. I could not forego the entry ;
so mounted to hurricane deck and watched the greater
herd of grey monsters all the Channel and Home Fleets
reaching in a giant avenue out to sea. We passed
70 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
between .them. Each was manned, and from each a
bugle blew as we passed. The rack began to lift. Watery
gleams spread and contracted, to spread again through
the French-grey and chalky leadenness of the clouds over
the Wicklow mountains. Kingstown a mile ahead blazed
with bunting, like beds of geranium and calceolaria, with
numberless white yachts within the moles. Torpedo-
catchers again ploughed by, and, at last, breakfast.
We began this with an awkward mixture of free and
easy help-yourself added to attentions from powdered
footmen in scarlet liveries. Nobody was at ease. The
ladies looked as if it was earlier than usual. Knollys
asked me what I thought of the Pope's death. The
rain still fell, but now in jewels. An empty place at
the head of the table next me had three substantial
silver dishes, covered, in front of it. A hasty signal
from Churchill warned me off them and to the side-
board for my food. As I returned in came the King,
fresh, happy, most kind, in uniform, and everybody
was at their ease. The Pope's death and the weather
did not matter so much.
He ate well, looked well, spoke well. ' The Pope's
dead, of course we had expected it.' . . . 'A boiled egg.'
. . . * Did you sleep well ? ' . . . l Some more bacon.'
. . . ' You are my Minister in attendance as well as Chief
Secretary, you know.' . . . And so on with greatest
kindness, good sense and calm, monumental confidence
that everything does go right.
With but 20 minutes to spare before landing, but
without a trace of effort or fuss, I found myself smoking
a cigarette with him, altering the reply to the Kingstown
address under his instructions ; getting it type-written,
countermanding the Theatre, writing and telegraphing
to Cardinal L >gue, sending a communique to the Press,
all as if there was any amount of time and no difficulties
and the kindness beaming every moment more benignant
and all-embracing.
Off I went in a steam pinnace, landed under an awning
of white and old gold in stripes eighteen inches wide.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 71
On the wide red carpet were Duchess of Connaught, two
little princesses and Lady Dudley in chairs ; Dudley and
Vice-Regal Court, the Deputation, and beyond State
carriages, escort, soldiers, crowds, grand-stands packed,
and, to the booming of salutes from all the grey monsters,
the King's barge of deep navy blue with a huge Royal
ensign, was pulled up by 12 blue-jackets. It was the
first of many moments that thrilled.
We drove, mostly at a walk, through 11 miles of bunting
and cheering crowds ; growing denser and more vociferous.
It culminated in the triangular space bounded by Trinity
College and the old Parliament House. My companions
of the English Court began to admit that the people
were really there and really jubilant. Every window and
housetop was packed. The Bands took up ' God save
the King ' for mile after mile ; the colours fell flat in the
mud as the Sovereign passed. They cheered me a good
deal, and the Land Bill and Wolseley and Bobs. As we
reached the Vice-Regal the sun went in and the rain,
poured down. The King and Queen shook hands with
us all, seeming as ever to be in no hurry and only engaged
in making every one happy.
This and the prolonged roar, blare, glare, glitter and
glamour of two variegated, agitated, sonorous hours,
telescoped the long, grey expectation of the morning, so
that Kingstown and the Fleet became old memories, and
the moon over Holyhead Harbour an experience in another
life. (Aside to Pamela) ' I doubt whether a letter on
this scale can be finished However. . . .'
At my Lodge I found Sibell, Ormonde, Constance
Butler, Dunraven and Lady vague as usual ; and Col.
Brock, the Queen's Equerry, and many more, then or
later, for I have no recollection of the people who have
slept and fed here.
Tuesday evening we dined at Vice-Regal Lodge with
the King and Queen. I sat next to Princess Victoria.
She is good, gentle and sensible and absolutely unselfish.
We had great fun ; Lady Gosford on my right ; the Queen
giving us little nods and smiles, pretending to be shocked
72
and being amused at our laughing and chatter. Lady
Gosford, wife of an ultra landlord, has made friends with
me, and frankly acknowledges that the people do cheer
the King more than in Scotland or London. The Queen
talked to me after dinner and is delicious.
Wednesday 22nd. Started at 10 a.m., with Ormonde
in full fig, sociable and pair, etc. Was cheered on the
way. Chaffed Ormonde for being in infantry uniform.
He explained that he was Colonel of the Kilkenny Militia,
' a fine lot of rebels, but they fought wonderfully well in
South Africa.'
In St. Patrick's Hall, Arthur Ellis and others coached
us. I knew my part pretty well, but it is a strain to cling
to the King's reply and learn up all the deputations in
their order. There were 82 of them. The roar of cheers r
' God save the King,' clatter of the escort, and we process
and group ourselves about the Throne. I stood on the
steps and presented each of the 82 deputations. They
were to present the addresses. But they did anything
but that ; shook the King's hand and marched off with
address under arm ; were retrieved and address extracted.
The last touch came, when the spokesman of the Land
Surveyors touched the tip of the King's fingers, shot the
address into the waste-paper basket (into which I threw
the cards after calling the names) and bolted at five
miles an hour. The Queen was very naughty and did her
best to make me laugh, so that my next was delivered in
quavering tones. Yet the Queen did this in such a way
as to make everyone, including the culprit, feel comfortable
and witty. I cannot adequately express the kindness
and coolness of the King. He coached them in a fat,
cosy whisper ' Hand me the address,' and then accepted
it with an air and gracious bow, as if gratified at finding
such adepts in Court ceremonial.
The only people who approached him in simplicity
and charm, were the two carmen who presented an address
signed by 1200 jarveys. Only the Irish can do these
things. They had not put on Sunday best, but their
best ordinary clothes, scrupulously brushed. They never
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 73
faltered and invented something between a bow and a
curtsey that seemed exactly appropriate.
After that a levee of 1500. We all got tired ; for the
sun beat in on our eyes. It did, however, come to an end.
There was just time to get back, lunch and change into
frock coat, then off to Vice -Regal to see the King at
3.30. He, in no hurry and, if possible, with greater kind-
ness, discussed many points which had arisen, suggested
emendations in replies, all of them happy and dead on
the Bull's eye. At 4 p.m. I started with King, Queen and
Princess Victoria. He has always made me drive in their
carriage. The enthusiasm of the crowd was even greater
than on Tuesday. For 3 miles to Trinity one roar of
cheers and frenzy of handkerchiefs. Every woman with
a baby in Dublin was there to jump him up and down at
the King ; every ragged urchin, every sleek shopkeeper
every rough, every battered old Irish- woman with jewel
eyes in wrinkled Russian leather face. They do not
say ' God save the King ' as we do, anyhow. They lift
their hands to Heaven to imprecate ' God BLESS the
King,' as if adjuring the Deity to fulfil their most ardent
desire and His most obvious duty. You may have read
of Trinity. The papers did not repeat the drive back.
We returned by Sackville Street the finest in Dublin
and here the people became merely delirious. They
worked themselves into an ecstasy and all sang ' God
save the King.' The Queen kept pointing to this or that
tatterdemalion saying ' The poorer they are, Mr. Wyndham,
the louder they cheer.' We went on through the poorest
parts by North Circular road, and ever and always, there
was the same intense emotion. It brought tears to the
Queen's eyes, and a lump in my throat. No one who did
not drive in their carriage will ever know how mesmeric
it was. It made me understand the Mussulman conquests
and the Crusades. For here was a whole population in
hysteria. Polo was still going on as we neared the Vice-
Regal Gates and at the end of such a day nothing would
serve but that we should drive on to the grass. The
Queen asked them to play an extra ten minutes, for the
74 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
game was over. And they did play to the tune of
' If doughty deeds my lady please.' Nobody, how-
ever, was killed. Though in one charge they drove a
pony on to the rail, and turned him and rider head
over heels into the spectators. We had a dinner party
that night.
Thursday 23rd. Presented colours to the Hibernian
School of little soldier boys. And then to the Review.
This was the culmination. We rode in a cavalcade from
the Vice-Regal, grooms, escort, etc., then the King and
Duke of Connaught. He asked me to ride just behind him
with Duke of Portland. I wore my Yeomanry uniform
and rode a little thoroughbred mare I had commandeered
from the 21st Lancers. As we started the royal salute
opened. At the Gate a scene, which I shall never forget,
began. The Phoenix monument was a pyramid of mad
humanity, screaming, blessing, waving hats and hand-
kerchiefs, and so on down an interminable lane of frenzied
enthusiasm. I love riding and a row ; but never before,
or again, shall I witness such a sight. Some people
thought it dangerous. But our blood was up and the
King paced on perfectly calm among dancing dervishes
and horses mad with fear and excitement. Even the
horses of the Blues got quite out of control, rearing and
pirouetting. It looked as if they must knock the King
over. But as they plunged towards him, the Duke of
Connaught or Roberts moved between and Portland or
self backed up. You must imagine 100 acres of green
sward, framed by trees, with the mountains beyond
changing under shafts of light between storms that never
burst. There were thunderstorms all round ; but a
sheet of burning sunshine on the review. The horses,
maddened by the cheers from a Nation, did knock down
the whole of the Admirals and Captains specially invited
from the Fleet. We rode away and down the line, my
mare just behaved with enough spirit. And now, as I
tell you everything, I will tell you two things that pleased
me. Yesterday, a carman said to me ' We knew you
in your uniform and watched you all the time with glasses
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 75
from the wall.' And that afternoon the Queen said to me
' How beautifully you ride.' She knows how to say
what will please.
Overnight Osbert Lumley told me that the great point,
the 4 clou ' as they say in France, was to be that the
cavalry would line the whole route back to the Vice-
Regal gates. This nearly settled the business. The
stupendous cheering and surging of the crowds drove the
horses out of their senses. Groups screamed at us out of
the trees overhead, women and children wriggled through
the horses' legs to get nearer. They knocked over Arthur
Ellis, who is laid up with gout in consequence. A Lancer's
chestnut horse put his fore-feet almost on to my shoulders.
The King paced on and lit a cigarette, bowing and smiling
and waving his hand to the ragamuffins in the branches.
That finished me and now I love him. When we dis-
mounted he laughed, thanked us all, and beamed enough
to melt an iceberg. Sir William Ewart said to me that he
had never seen such enthusiasm even for the late Queen.
It is of no use to try and describe it ; but a great possession
to have been there.
In the afternoon we went to races, in the evening
to dine with the Connaughts. It was memorable. The
avenue to the Royal Hospital was festooned with Chinese
lanterns. We banquetted in the great Hall of old oak,
hung with armour. We sat down at two gigantic round
tables, 32 at each, laden with roses. But I begin to tire
and so do you. After that we had a court at the Castle.
My solace and keen pleasure was to stand near the Queen.
Her Garter ribband brought out the blue of her eyes.
Her cramoisie train was hung to her shoulders by
great jewels of dropping pearls. She had a high open-
work lace collar, a breastplate and gorget you may
say of diamonds and ropes of round pearls falling to her
lap. And she is an Angel. We got to bed about 3 a.m.
Friday 24th. This is described in the papers. We
slummed together in the most squalid streets. The bare-
legged children and tattered members of the submerged,
hurra-ed themselves hoarse and, incidentally, smashed
76 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Portland's hat, with a hard, heavy bunch of cottage
flowers, dog-daisies and sweet peas tied up to the con-
sistency of a cabbage.
But this is enough. We went to Maynooth in the
afternoon by train see papers and on the way back,
with their supernatural kindness the King and Queen
came here and loitered and talked and thanked and
overpraised and made me love them just as if they had
done nothing and had nothing to do except to please
Sibell and myself. ' Kindness like this is genius ' and the
line as Bossuet wrote it may stand for Her ; only it is
sweetness as much as beauty.
In the evening we went to a Party. The King kept me
after all were gone, showed the most eager desire to under-
stand every twist in the Labyrinth of Irish life and was
so kind to me that I cannot speak of it.
Yesterday, we saw them off, and I agreed in sentiment
with an old Irishwoman on the platform, who just sobbed,
saying, ' Come back, Ah ! ye will come back ! ' That
was the cry that pierced through the blaring of the bands,
and the Blessings and the cheers. ' Come back ' they
kept calling in every street. And these are the people
whom some call disloyal. Your most loving brother,
GEORGE.
484
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, August 23rd, 1903.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your letter
and am truly thankful to think of you safe and sound at
Clouds. We are here, very happy together : Sibell,
Perf, Minnie and old Guy alone till to-morrow when our
Horse Show guests arrive. I made a brilliant recovery
from my chill and think that it economises time to be
definitely ill for two days after a long session. It rests
me and starts me on another scale of easier life.
Darling Minnie and all of us had great disappointment
TO HIS MOTHER 77
this morning. Guy has not got his extension of leave.
It is purely damnable. On the other hand, Ned Talbot
says 16th will be next for home.
Our party has expanded in the most extraordinary way
owing to nice people inviting themselves. We shall be
Sibell, Perf, self ; Guy, Minnie, Madge, Geoffrey ; Lord
and Lady Rossmore ; two Secretaries, ' Mr. Ho. and Mr.
Ha.' l The above are party as contemplated. To which
add Leinster, and Mr. Victor Corkran asked at odd moments
and, Shelagh, Molly Crighton, Lady Mab Crighton who
invited themselves by telegram. So we rely once more
on the elasticity of an Irish house.
Guy and I come to you on the 1st. We cannot get to
you on the 31st without travelling on Sunday night. We
could shoot Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Just off to Church at Hibernian school.
I am very happy here and have quite broken the ' wheel
of thought ' in my old noddle. I hope to cheer Minnie
up with horse-show and polo and races, and a fiddler, one
evening, for Madge.
The Irish climate is most soothing.
Thank Papa for his letter. The writer in the * Times '
is my friend Street, who knows Pamela. Papa would
delight in him. He was one of dear Henley's young
men, clean shaved, chubby, rosy-gilled, sedate, literary,
humourous, old Tory of 1745 ; portentously wise in all
but making money, a ripe, mellow, preternaturally old
young-man of letters who might, for anything you can
observe to the contrary, have been staying last week
at Crotchet Castle.
Have you ever read Peacock's ' Crotchet Castle ' and
4 Maid Marian ? ' Peacock was Shelley's and Byron's
4 Creeky-Peeky.' ' Crotchet Castle ' shows that we are
no more modern and no less convinced of the folly of
modernity than were sensible people one hundred years
ago. Using electric lights instead of wax-candles makes
no difference to good books, good company, good sense
and good fellowship, and these, after all, as Arthur
1 Mr. Hornibrook and Mr. Hanson.
78 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
says (very often) in his speeches are most of life that is
worth enjoying. The fourteen professors ought to have
stayed at Crotchet Castle with Street.
Love to all. Your devoted son, GEORGE.
P.S. I mention * Maid Marian ' because you can get
it in one volume with 'Crotchett Castle' and because it
was written at the same time as ' Ivanhoe ' which I re-
read in bed after seeing Coningsburgh a wonderful
Donjon.
485
To Monsieur Auguste Rodin
35 PARK LANE, W.,
\st September '03.
MON CHER AMI, Puis-je vraiment conter sur une
visite de votre part pendant cet Automne ? Je serai
chez moi en Irlande du 10 Septembre jusqu'a la fin
d'Octobre : trop heureux de vous recevoir et tout dispose^
a poser pour mon buste.
Mon adresse sera
Right Hon ble George Wyndham, M.P.,
Chief Secretary's Lodge,
Phoenix Park,
Dublin.
Je ne puis me consoler de la mort si triste de notre ami,
Henley. C'etait un grand Artiste et un brave coeur mais
pour moi surtout un ami sans pareil.
Je suis toujours a vous, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
486
To Charles Boyd
Private BBLLINGHAM CASTLE,
CASTLEBELLINGHAM, IRELAND, Qth October '03.
MY DEAR CHARLES,
' In spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
" I remain " as you see an
I-i-i-i-rishman ! '
TO MRS. DREW 79
It is a curious development that, with Exchequer,
Colonies and W.O. vacant, I should feel it an absolute
duty to stay here. You will none of you excepting
yourself and dear Henley when still with us quite under-
stand how imperative is my duty here.
If I had deserted them all, the work since A. J. B. in
'87-91 would have been imperilled and the tender plant
of belief in our sincerity rooted up, not even to be sown
again until after another weary round of 15 or 20 years.
Now it thrives and is beginning to shoot out the frailest
tendril of further belief in the Empire. Will it some day
receive and shelter the birds of the air ? I do not know.
But just now, and without prejudice, and until cause is
otherwise shown, and with all the qualifications, reserva-
tions, trepidations you can suggest, they do still in fact
believe in me and tremble toward a belief in the Empire
because of their belief in me.
By ' they ' I mean the whole lot Unionist, Nationalist,
Celt, Norman, Elizabethan, Cromwellian, Williamite ;
Agriculturist and Industrialist ; Educationist and Folk-
lorist. What more do you want ? Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
487
To Mrs. Drew
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
October llth, 1903.
... I re-visited Mallaranny and recalled my ' plunge *
into the sea. I looked back upon the vicissitudes
greater than you know of the Land Act with gratitude
for your sympathy of a year ago. The Cabinet crisis
convinced me of the stress your Father had in his time
to face. The undoubted and growing desire of many
interests in Ireland to draw together and treat each other
in a more kindly and reasonable spirit, and though I
can scarcely breathe it to you the resurrection, in all
but absolute identity, of the Irish position on Catholic
University Education which your Father was prevented
80 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
from turning to account all these things bring from day
to day a memory of you to my mind and an increasing
wish that you would make some sign of friendship.
Even if you are angry with us all politically, that would
not make a difference would it ?
Anyhow your Father's Life is the last touch and I must
write. I wish I could see you. I stayed here to work
on at the Land Question and to hope for another miracle
over the University Question. That seemed a plain duty.
With new English universities in Liverpool, Leeds, Man-
chester (the old Victoria), Birmingham and now Sheffield,
it is madness to leave Ireland once more behind. It is
odious to do so out of spite or cowardice. But perhaps
one cannot have two miracles in two years.
I find from the note on p. 223, Vol. i., that you are my
cousin, my fourth cousin, but still of my kin. For Sir
W. Wyndham was my great-great-great, and apparently
yours also. (He was Grandfather to Lady Glynne) That
is a pleasant thought.
Be very dear and write to say that, Fiscals or no Fiscals,
you hope that I may do something for University Educa-
tion here. But do not, as yet, say to others that I am off
again after dreams. If I fail I shall help the other side
when they come in to right this ancient wrong.
488
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, October I5th, 1903.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I have been commiserating with
you very much. But, as you say, the big political wigs
are providing a good entertainment. If anything were
needed to expose the folly of those who cried ' efficiency,'
and cried for ' business methods ' it is that they no longer
cry for these things, but sit down in the stalls to enjoy
a down-right rhetorical hammer-and-tongs set-to between
the big wigs. That is what Englishmen enjoy without
TO HIS FATHER 81
your excuse of convalescence. The huge blue-book of
statistics ; the speeches by manufacturers, all that is
expert or informed, the rival theories of economic schools,
are bundled aside to a general ' Ah ' of relief and satisfac-
tion, punctuated by ' go it, Joey,' ' bravo ! here 's Rose-
bery in the ring ! ' Even the War Commission report is
used only as a missile. South Africa, the Far East,
Morocco, Ireland, the Navy may ' go hang.' Education
was all very well ; but, with Nonconformists who can't
fight well, or won't fight fair, it pales before a classic cam-
paign of renowned gladiators. ' Heavy pounding, gentle-
men, and who can pound longest ' is the one consideration.
This instinct of Englishmen is probably sound. You
must drop building when the battle begins. I prefer
building to fighting. But, once fighting has begun, I
believe in fighting hard in order to get it over and get on
to building again. Arthur's ' little ministry ' is not a
bad ' fighting unit.' Arnold Forster and Graham Murray
are good men on the platform. Austen Chamberlain
carries weight, Selborne is pretty useful. Stanley can
rally Lancashire. I mean to ' lift ' the Irish division and
Kent brigade.
I have written to all my new colleagues welcoming
them to the fray and suggesting that, for the present, they
should not busy themselves in their offices but stick to
hitting the other side. We must out -gun the enemy in
the ' Artillery Preparation ' during the Autumn ; fire
two shots to their one, and be careful not to mask each
other's fire by speaking on the same day.
If the press backs us the ' little Ministry ' will win as,
to compare small things with great, Pitt and his young
friends won after the collapse of the Rockingham Whigs.
My Edinburgh meeting stands. It is on November 27th.
But I feel I ought to give my own constituents the first
turn. So Sibell and I come to England on Wednesday
next, 21st, and on Friday, 23rd I speak at a Dover Public
Meeting. On 28th I take Primrose League Banquet
there. I mean also to speak at Cockermouth, or
Workington, on my way from Edinburgh.
VOL. II. F
82 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I shall be careful, of course, but not timid. I have
' cleared the deck,' by hard work of Land Act administra-
tion, etc., and am free to collect ammunition for the
campaign.
My Dover friends are nervous and would like me to
postpone the public meeting until after the municipal
election. I do not agree. I am all for slow strategy but
do not believe in dilatory tactics. Once within striking
distance, hit hard and hit often, and the more so if you
have been led within that distance sooner than your own
judgment thought it wise
We shall look you up on Wednesday evening or Thursday
morning. Your loving son, GEORGE.
489
Private.
To Moreton Frewen
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
DUBLIN, November 14A, 1903.
MY DEAR MORETON, I am sorry to have missed you.
I am disappointed and chagrined by recent events.
Nor can I take the sanguine view that the Land Act will
fulfil the objects of the Land Conference if it is to be
assailed daily by the ' Freeman,' Davitt and Dillon.
My power of usefulness to Ireland is already diminished
and may be destroyed.
I had convinced my colleagues, a majority of our
supporters in the House, and a still larger majority in
the large towns of England, that it was right in itself to
foster Union among Irishmen, and to obliterate the
vestiges of ancient feuds without troubling ourselves about
the ultimate effect of social reconciliation on Ireland's
attitude towards the ' Home Rule ' VCTSUS ' Union '
controversy.
And this is set back, you cannot deal with the ' University
Question ' or the ' Labourers ' question if so large and
beneficent a measure of the Land Act is to be used only to
divide classes more sharply.
TO MORETON FREWEN 83
Take the labourer's question. All things, in the end,
turn on Finance, the resources for the labourers' Acts turn
ultimately on local loan stock. That stock is interwoven
with all the loans of municipal corporations, etc., etc.
Our credit is low.
How can I negotiate for better terms, extension of
period of repayment not to mention the allocation of
any savings that can be effected in the cost of Irish
Government if the only result of authorising a loan of
100,000,000 at 2f with a 68 years' period of redemption,
is to produce a pandemonium in Ireland ?
The English are very jealous of the Land Act. They
want credit on easy terms for many purposes for their
own labourers, for artisan dwellings, for equalizing ratec,
for municipal schemes.
Unless those who care for Ireland can show that the
Conference and Land Act have produced social recon-
ciliation, I cannot get a hearing for using Imperial credit
and Irish savings in accordance with the views of a United
Ireland.
That is my policy. It is not heroic. But it would
directly be of great benefit ; and indirectly of far greater
results. There is no scope for heroic Finance just now.
If, however, I had a united Irish Party, with leaders
not subject to repudiation, prepared to co-operate, to a
certain extent, with Irish landlords, scholars and business
men, I could get Irish savings for Irish purposes and
equivalent grants whenever England helps herself too
freely out of the common Exchequer.
My point is that I get beaten in detail if I am rebuffed
by jeering allusions to Irish reconciliation. I am nearly
tired out.
I have been slaving away with the Treasury ; with
Trinity and the Presbyterians ; with the Chairmen of
Irish railways ; and had hoped to be in a position to
approach Redmond preferably to approach not only
the leader of the Irish Party, but something like a larger
conference and to secure the united action of Ireland on
Education, allotments, housing.
84 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Now I suppose it would only embarrass Redmond
to meet me, or correspond on these matters. And, in
any case, my position is much weaker than it was three
weeks ago, because Ireland's position is weaker.
So long as Dillon and the ' Freeman ' show that their
object is to cut down the incomes of the landlords, it is
impossible to deal with ' Evicted Tenants ' and ' Con-
gestion/ and still more impossible to take on new subjects.
It is very hard on Redmond that anyone should have
made capital out of the sale of his estate. O'Brien ought
not to have left him without warning.
But I will not lose heart. There is a bad set back. I
cannot be as confident as I was of having much to offer,
If Dillon persists in ' wrecking,' the credit for this Land
Act will not expand beyond 5,000,000 a year to the
Orangemen, and their allies will criticise my reductions
in the police.
To put it shortly : I cannot (1) get Imperial credit ;
(2) make and keep savings for Ireland if every action
taken by the Government on the advice, and with the
assent, of Irishmen, is used only to attack the fortunes
and insult the feelings of those classes in Ireland whom
the great majority of people in England feel bound to
protect.
On the other hand, if the English were once assured of
their safety, Parliament would I believe be very ready
to sanction the development of Ireland on Irish lines.
This might take us very far indeed in what I believe to
be the right direction.
The two countries are utterly dissimilar, both in their
needs and their resources, and above all, in the genius
and temperament of their inhabitants.
If the Irish could so far agree as to demonstrate the
safety of threatened classes, and to allow them some
place in local government, the English would welcome
that fact as the discharge of an onerous obligation, and
as time went on admit any reasonable consequences.
Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
TO HIS FATHER 85
490
To his Father
35 PARK LANE W.,
November 21st, 1903.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am not surprised at your inability
to follow the ' exits and entrances ' of Irish Leaders. I
understand, but it is not easy to explain.
Briefly, there are two fundamental groups in Irish
Nationalism: (1) The political descendants of the 'Young
Irelander.' They, as a rule, wish to improve the economic
and constitutional position of Ireland in order some day,
to make what they hold to be better economic and
constitutional terms with England. They hate the Union
and hate ' British ' ideas, but, as a rule, would like to
gather up all the personal resources of Ireland, Moderate
landlords, the Bar, the Towns, Commerce, etc. into a
more harmonious and therefore stronger Ireland hoping,
immediately, to get more generous financial treatment
and acquiescence to Irish modes of thought e.g. Protection,
State-aid to Industry etc., and ultimately, to get Home
Rule, or a large measure of Local Self Government.
(2) The second group are, primarily, Agrarian Socialists
and, secondarily, professional agitators who attack pro-
perty and sow dissension in order to postpone any solution.
Historically ; Parnell belonged to group (1) but, for a
time, fused with it group (2) in his * No Rent ' agitation,
in order to * kick up a dust * and collect money in America.
Per contra, O'Brien belonged to group (2) but, seeing
the misery and futility of Agrarian Agitation, joined
Redmond in signing the Land Conference Peace.
They meant to go for Class Reconciliation.
But Dillon, who is a pure Agrarian sore-head, Davitt,
who is a pure Revolutionary Socialist ; Sexton, Editor
of the ' Freeman,' who has been left out of Parliamentary
life ; joined together to ' spike ' conciliation. The high
water-mark of Class Conciliation is represented by the
* Irish People ' O'Brien's paper of November 7th.
86 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Immediately after publishing that, with an article in
it by Dunraven praise of myself the substitution of
' shamrocks ' for crossed ' pikes and muskets ' between
the paragraphs, he ' threw up the sponge,' resigned and
stopped the paper.
This, on the face of it, is bad. But it has frightened the
moderates ; and I am re- weaving my web.
The Roman Catholic Church wobbles from one side to
the other.
Meanwhile the dynamic finance of the Land Act con-
tinues to operate and good sense will win, though not
quite so soon as I might have hoped.
Redmond went to Limerick a city and was well
supported.
His fear, and the fear also of the landlords is that I
may resign in disgust. It is all to the good that they
should be frightened. But I have not the slightest
intention of taking their antics to heart and hope that,
in some ways, all the pother will do good.
Just for the moment the Irish Government is the only
popular and powerful force in Irish life.
This shows how right I was to stick to Ireland. If I
had gone elsewhere O'Brien would have resigned and
saddled me with the blame for leaving him and Redmond
alone exposed to the ' Freeman,' and Davitt Dillon & Co.
I have left all that in train and am concentrating on
speeches at Edinburgh, November 27th : Workington,
Cockermouth, a luncheon, and Liverpool.
All love to all at Clouds. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
491
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W. f
November 22nd, 1903.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Are you reading Morley's ' Glad-
stone ' ? Vol. i. chapter 8, and especially pp. 254 onwards
will interest you in connexion with ' Fiscals.'
TO HIS MOTHER 87
It seems to me that we have paid the penalty of a
historical muddle.
Peel did do a great thing.
Finding (i.) a deficit for three cumulative years, (ii.)
indirect taxation on 1200 articles, (iii.) a corn tax pro-
hibitive at 70/- a quarter, (iv.) stupid aggravations from
the wooden operation of the sliding scale, (v.) the operatives
in the towns at the mercy in the age of sailing ships and
undeveloped continents of our own harvest ; he :
(a) imposed an income tax.
(b) worked towards a fixed duty on corn at 8/- (or 10/-
no matter).
(c) revised the taxes intelligently on 750 out of 1200
articles.
That is great, intelligent work.
We want to get back to a like intelligent and compre-
hensive handling of these questions in the light of new
conditions developed continents ; steam instead of
sails ; reaping machines ; national competition ; bounties ;
trusts ; dumping.
We in a sense are Peelites. See specially Gladstone
on p. 262. Your loving son, GEORGE.
492
To his Mother
ROSSHORE,
MONAGHAN, IRELAND, December 23rd, 1903.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you a most
happy Christmas. I loved your letter about Bassen-
thwaite, and Withup Hill. I felt it intensely too and was
in mind a boy of seven to fourteen. I think, now, that
I should like to go there with you some August or
September. I do not believe that either you or I have
changed much inside, if at all, in the last thirty years.
Anyway ghosts ought not to be unhappy. The fact that
there are only a few ghosts at all, apparently, discontented
about trifles seems to show that the great majority of
ghosts are very happy and too absorbed in iridescent
88 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
recollections when they revisit immemorial scenes to
trouble about manifesting themselves to the living.
I enjoyed being a ghost all the way from Penrith to
Workington with a kind of inverted home-sickness. And,
in the evening, I went to a political meeting instead of
a play with Mr. Holland. Otherwise it might have been
the last day of the holidays in -73, -4, -5, or -6.
All love to you, most Darling. Ever your most loving
son, GEORGE.
493
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, Christmas Eve, 1903.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I wish you a happy Christmas
and all good luck in the New Year. Perf and I had a
good hunt last Saturday with the Kildares from Enfield.
He went very well.
In the hunting field several landlords and tenants
thanked me for the Land Act. It is winning its way
slowly but steadily. The English Press seems more
ignorant than ever of all that happens in this country.
I should have made a disastrous mistake if I had left in
September.
We shot Perf and I two days with Lord Rossmore.
Perf shot well. I saw him kill five rabbits running rapidly
among rocks and bracken and he shot two woodcock.
We got twenty-three altogether yesterday and a bag of
nearly 300 head, mostly pheasants and rabbits.
The Cabinets have been very interesting lately ; but
entail much heavy work, at them and between them.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
494
To Lt.-Col. Stephen Frewen
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
DUBLIN, December 28th, 1903.
MY DEAR STE, Many thanks for your letter, good
wishes and ' cuttings.' My enthusiasm is not damped
TO PHILIP HANSON 89
by the * Freeman.' The Land Act is winning steadily
against that organ. All the ' able editors ' and ' village
Solomons ' in Ireland can only delay it a little, and, with
Consols at 88, that is not an unmixed evil.
All the same, they were great fools to give the English
an excuse for going slowly.
All good luck to you in the New Year. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
495
To Philip Hanson
Private and Confidential.
IRISH OFFICE,
OLD QUEEN STREET, S.W., 29.1.04.
MY DEAR P. H., You will see by enclosed that Co.
Mayo has responded. Now, can the B. of W. go ' full
steam ahead ' ?
Redmond has sent me a courteous notice of his intention
to raise the whole question of Irish Government and
inefficiency in all departments. So tremble !
I have asked U. S. to get from each Department a brief
and I mean by that a brief, very brief statement of
noble benefits conferred, and lavish Financial assistance.
Lansdowne suggests that I should defend our old W. O.
in 1899 against Robson, K.C., and the War Commission.
We are ' whizzing ' over the Army and Foreign affairs.
Altogether a merry tune, and I miss you. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
496
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
12.40 a.m., 24th February '04.
MY DEAR P. H., I am minded to write to you, not to
convey or seek information but, (observe Henley comma)
merely for companionship. Your photograph hangs on
my wall, bearing the significant legend 1898-1904. I
90 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
wish we could have had the last three weeks together.
They have projected a reflex pale but insistent of
February 1900. The Irish have, seemingly, reverted to
1 Constitutional methods ' a la Butt, which is as much as
to say, polite, but insatiable, demands for information
and pronouncements of policy from the Chief Secretary
coupled with veiled obstruction and unabashed interrup-
tion of everybody else; the whole framed in a bold
declaration that they vote on all questions irrespective
of their merits for the sole purpose of baiting the Govern-
ment and Opposition Caesar and Pompey, very much
alike, specially Pompey.
I gather from A. P. MacDonnelPs postal and telegraphic
and reiterated communications ' qua ' Irish University
that, in Ireland, you have no conception of the Devil's
own rumpus which is exploding furibondically on this side
the water. I am in my element : Consols at 85 ;
European complications ; unimaginable Estimates for
Navy and Army ; Roberts sacked ; Protestant campaign ;
no substantive legislation for any, bar Brewers ; huge
deficit ; panic on Continental Bourses ; insults to Wanklyn
from * my Secretary ' Moore ' Junior ' ; pistols and coffee
for two, or more. Such time as I can spare from eating,
sleeping and talking is spent in walking the corridors of
the House, arm-in-arm with desperately earnest men.
Such is life in 1904.
Give me, say I, space of 4 dimensions, or the Absolute ;
or the ' Plastic stress.' I ask for no more after making a
speech of one hour, equally acceptable to Willie Redmond
and Banbury, and equally intelligible to both. Yours
ever, G. W.
497
To his Father
BELVOIR CASTLE,
GRANTHAM, February 2&th, 1904.
MY DEAREST PAPA, We came here Saturday to
Monday on a family visit of ceremony to the Duke ;
TO CHARLES BO YD 91
' uncle John ' as Sibell calls him. It is rather hard to
follow the relationships owing to the length of some of the
generations. The Duke's sister was SibelFs grandmother.
It is curious to stay with anybody whose mother was
married in the XVIIIth Century. Yet so it is. His
father and mother married in 1799. My host is the
great-grandson of the Marquess of Granby, Commander-
in-Chief and the great -grand-uncle of Mister Percy !
I have been by way of coming here ever since I married
seventeen years ago. Your loving son, GEORGE.
498
To Mrs. Drew
HOUSK OF COMMONS,
St. Patrick's Day, 1904.
I * am little better than one of the wicked ' not to have
answered before. I always love the sight of your hand-
writing and I long for a talk I will not grumble hi a
letter. But I am rather tired and wholly overworked.
It is dear of you to tell me of books to read. But I want
to see you.
Could you, miraculously, come to London to go with
me and Pamela to see the Irish National Theatre play
at the Royalty on Saturday 26th March ? They are new
and true : all light and delight. The man and woman
who act have genius. Barrie tried to get her at 50 a
week to act in ' Little Mary.' But they are wrapped up
in their revival, and properly contemptuous. Do come.
I am sure we can put you up at 35 Park Lane. I am
starved of friendship.
499
To Charles Boyd
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
St. Patrick's Day, 1904.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter gave me great joy
in the ' companionship of your letter.' I have been
92 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
starved of friendship latterly ; overworked, and put on
as a 4 smoother ' where smoothing could scarcely be.
That makes for Fatigue.
But, anon, we will have better times.
Now as to your question : not a bracelet, or ornament.
She has too many and cares not for them. If you desire
to please as you do seek some old and beautiful book
of Devotion ; the Life of a Saint ; a Vulgate ; an Italian
crucifix ; an ivory Virgin. Or else, just a beautiful
object ; a box, or enamel, etc. That is the line. Yet
flowers would be as welcome. I will choose a day for
dinner soon. Just now I am hypothecated body and
soul, up to the armpit. Yours ever in the brotherly bond,
GEORGE W.
500
To his Sister, Pamela
IRISH OFFICE,
Ou> QUEEN STREET, S.W., 1st May 1904.
MOST DARLING PAMELA, I am glad that you spread
yourself over quarto on St. George's Day. I have since
then been contracted by the Royal Visit to Ireland, but,
arrived this morning, I now in turn bulge out.
It was a blow to miss you and the Bims at Easter.
I am undergoing a phase always a welcome sign of life.
It took the form of nausea at Politics, nostalgia for poetry,
and a lurch in that direction ; a pious, ghostly and regretful
return to * fallen places of my dead delight.' For the
moment it seemed less empty than asking of the Irish
* Why does one Punch-and-Judy beat the other Punch-
and-Judy ? ' It feels like falling in love again with the
same person. I say to poetry, as Catullus to Lesbia :
' Ut liceat nobis tota producere vita
Aeternum hoc sanctae foedus amicitiae.'
' O that it may be vouchsafed to us to draw out and on
through the whole of life this eternal compact of holy
affection.' Instead of which . . but avaunt ! I must
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 93
get the life of Hayden ; must see you ; and meet Margaret ; l
and soon. Now, my dear, the only day I can propose in
any near future is Saturday the 14th May. Next Saturday,
the 7th, is also possible, but probably too near. I should
like to meet Margaret very much.
For Whitsuntide I go to Paris to be ' busted ' by Rodin
in ten days. I desire to keep touch with letters and
sculpture during these divine days of spring leaves and
sunshine and so keep an escape way open from the dusti-
ness and fustiness of politics. I did not see your Legend
of the N. W., but I heard of him and nothing that was
not to his credit.
The Queen was as beautiful as ever in Ireland, and the
King as kind as ever. I love being with them. You
would have appreciated the ' Command ' night at the
theatre. The audience, 4000 in uniform and tiaras, with
a gallery packed from the streets, stood up in one wave
towards the Royal Box. And then the Gallery sang
' God save the King ' for two minutes, without a note
from the band ; hi the same key.
But I wish it meant more for Ireland ; that they were
not such Punches and such Judys ; that the English were
not so fulfilled with the rubbish of the moment ; in short,
that people would think and feel and dream more, and
fuss and scold less. Let me obey my own precept and
refrain from scolding anybody.
I hunger for someone to arise and write a very beautiful
book, at once restrained and lyrical. 'How all
impoverished and fallen from renown ' are these days !
whilst April laughs above us through her tears. Will
no one shine again above the little arts and devices of
a day ?
' Urit enim fulgore suo qui praegravat artes
Infra se impositas; extinctus amabitur idem.'
4 For he burns with his own splendour who presses down
the arts beneath his excellence ; when his light has gone
out he is still loved the same.'
1 Mrs. Mackail.
94 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Well, well, I shall go out and see the green leaves and
come to you by glassy waters. And the Past shall sing
to us of the Future. Your most loving brother,
GEORGE.
501
To his Sister, Pamela
PA VILLON DE BELLEVUE.
24 Mai, 1904.
DARLING PAMELO, I came to these parts as you know
to be ' busted ' by Rodin, and, at last, have struck a
perfect 4 pitch,' here at Belle vue. We went first to the
H6tel d'lena and I hated it : darkness filled with other
people's conversation through their partitions and mainly
in the American voice. I pined for three days apart from
Rodin, who was perfect, and two dinners at Paillard, at
one of which I saw a really beautiful French woman,
and learned from the waiter that she was Madame
Leterrier, wife of the Editor of ' Le Journal.' We dined
also with Alphonse Rothschild ; saw a beautiful Raphael,
which I remembered in Rome, anno 1887, and there, too,
I had a capital talk with a Marquis de Dulau ; the witty,
well-bred Frenchman of the past, who make the best
companions for most evenings. In politics he is a dis-
enchanted Orleanist. We dejeune-ed to-day with
Duchesse de Luynes, our Legitimist friend. They are
children, arrested in intelligence and so narrow that you
couldn't put a knife into them even if you wanted to.
They hate us (as a nation ; love us as friends), hate
Jews, Americans, the present and last two centuries,
the Government, Rodin, the future, the Fine Arts. Apart
from an arsenal of dislikes, they are unconscious of the
Universe.
You may imagine how I delighted in Rodin for four or
five solid hours a day. I stand for hour and then talk
for ten minutes. We have run over the whole Universe
lightly, but deeply. His conversation is something like
this :
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 95
La beaute est partout ; dans le corps humain, dans
les arbres, les animaux, les collines, dans chaque partie
du corps, aussi bien dans la vieillesse que dans la jeunesse.
Tout est beau. Le modele n'est qu'un. Dieu 1'a fait
pour re'fle'ter la lumiere et retenir 1'ombre. Si nous
parlons images, c'est ainsi qu'il s'est exprime en faisant
la terre. Je ne lis pas le Grec ; les Grecs me parlent par
leurs ceuvres. . . . Eh bien, oui, voyez . . . (prenons un
moment de repos) . . . (Showing one of his groups) . . .
C'est la main de Dieu. Elle sort du rocher, du chaos, des
nuages. Elle a bien la pouce d'un sculpteur. Elle tient
le limon et la-dessus se creent Adam et Eve. La femme
c'est la couronne de Phomme. La vie, Penergie c'est
tout . . . Ces portes ? Oui, elles seront bientot finies.
J'y ai travaille pendant vingt ans. Mais j'ai beaucoup
appris pendant ce temps-la. D'abord, je cherchais le
mouvement. Apres, j'ai su que les Grecs ont trouve la
vie dans le repos. C'est tout ce qu'il faut. Ou la vie
circule, la sculpture plait !
All this is Greek to Madame de Luynes ; so * nous
de"testons Rodin.' Meanwhile he is there all the time,
and perhaps, for all time. In any case a very great man
and the greatest Dear.
So here we are near his house at Meudon. This, Belle vue,
is a French Richmond. We came to it, 20 minutes in
a boat, and up 100 yards in a funicular. We are on a
height, amid tree-tops, in silence, with the forest of Meudon
behind us. We drove in it before dinner, heard the cuckoo ;
smelt the damp woods, saw the sun set and dined on a
terrace as the stars came out. It is an ideal spot, 20
minutes from picture galleries, and any friend you want
to see such a difference and two minutes walk from a
forest. Our rooms are large, light and clean and look
out over the void into the stars. It is just like Cliveden.
The site was chosen by Madame de Pompadour, and the
ruins of her ' Brimborion ' are next the terrace, overgrown
with ivy.
That is all there is to tell you.
I met Ian Malcolm and his wife. They reminded me
96 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
that I had promised an inscription for the cup I gave them
as a wedding present, so I wrote this :
' I gave this cup, Love filled it, drink and prove
How everlasting is the fount of love.'
excellent advice, given in the manner of the Greek
Anthology.
The bust is going to be very good ; not in the least
catastrophic or Demiurgic, but just simply Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
P.S. Not ' in his habit as he lived,' for there are no
clothes.
502
To his Sister, Pamela
PAVJLLON DE BELLEVUE.
26 Mai, 1904.
DARLING PAMELO, I must just add to my letter that
nightingales sing here all night. I listened to them at
midnight and again at 2 a.m. this morning. It is much
to be on a height amid tree tops, with nightingales, six
or seven, singing between you and the river below, and
beyond the river, a deep violet gloom, picked out by the
tearful lights of Paris. The nightingales are singing now
10.45 terrifically. I wonder what they thought of
the Band which played Faust and Tristram among their
trees till an hour ago ?
There are soft scarfs of cloud against the stars, and
sapphire darkness overhead. The acacias are Japanese
in blossom. The roses ramp up old stocks. The band
thank God has gone to bed, a dog is barking in Auteuil,
over the river I hear the whistle and pantings of trains.
And these nightingales go it jug-jug-tu-whee-whee-reu-
reu-reu-whee-tu-tu-tereu, jug-jug-whee-whee, pissle-pissle-
rew-too and so forth.
As Rodin says it is curious that with all our Art, our
sculpture, our painting, our theatres, we have done
nothing so good as Nature. What an irony it is of the
TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT 97
Aristophanes of Heaven that we labour, with our Imperial-
isms and our Nationalisms, our gold-mines and transits,
our Education (may God forgive us !) to make more people
who shall see, and be able to see, the beauty of the World.
And yet all the time we destroy it.
Here, for how long ? for a year or two more, the old
road reaches in zig-zag up a forbidding ascent of cobble-
stones to forests as they were in the 13th century. The
river flows 100 yards below. And beyond the dog barks,
as when he guarded savages in their wattled forts. But
further the trains pant and rumble and whistle and ' tout
Paris ' asserts itself in points of electric light. Your
devoted brother, GEORGE.
503
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
35 PARK LANE, W.,
11 August '04.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I think I saw the draft, but am
not quite sure. I hope to leave London almost imme-
diately. Perhaps it would be well to send it registered to
me next week at
Madresfield Court,
Malvern Link.
I shall try to meet you at Clouds September 1st. I
should enjoy immensely some riding with you and a
Squire's Partridge shoot, with tune-honoured keepers,
untrained dogs, cider for lunch and recitations from the
4 Idler's Calendar.'
Am very much overworked and disposed to hum
' In Summer when the shaws be sheen
And leves both brode and longe,
Full merye Hyt is in faire Forest
To hear the foulys songe.'
Yours affectionately, GEORGE W.
VOL. II. G
98 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
504
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
CLOUDS,
.SALISBURY,, 1 September 1904.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I return, in another large envelope,
the draft of the settlement which I have read and approve.
I am very glad to find that we shall meet here if you
hold by your plan of coming on Monday. Sibell and
Percy will also be here, so do not fail. If you will send
me a line indicating your route from Stonehenge, I will
ride out early on Monday to meet you with Dorothy, if
I can get her to accompany me. I imagine that you will
come by Wylie and will reconnoitre for you beyond.
If you make an early start you would be at Wylie between
8 and 9.
Percy has been touring through Connemara in buggies
with a party of friends. He has written me capital letters
which I will show you. I rode here from Cranborne
Manor yesterday, over 5 miles of down, then 3 of Cran-
borne Chace to the high ridge of down and on by Fern,
Wardour, Pyt House, Summerleas to E. Knoyle. Sibell
and Percy are expected to-night. I hope you will not
change your plans, as I want to see you, shoot, ride and
talk ; and I want Percy to know you well. Yours
affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
505
To Wilfrid Ward
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
DUBLIN, October 9th, 1904.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I have awaited Sunday to thank
you for the ' Aubrey de Vere ' and once more to express
gratitude for the ' Dedication.' I have not had leisure
to read the book yet, but I have followed the Reviews.
Evidently you have scored a marked success. You hold
a strong and established position from which you can
TO CHARLES BOYD 99
exert much influence on the views of your contemporaries.
That is power. And you use your power to the best ends.
I am wrestling with my Rectorial Address. The pen,
for a longish effort, has become rather unfamiliar to me.
My inclination is to speak and my tendency to be too
rhetorical for a Rector. So soon as I have read the book
I will write again.
With my kindest regards to your wife. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
506
To Charles Boyd
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 18th October '04.
MY DEAR CHARLES, First let me write of immediate,
and selfish, matters.
By the Bond, and the brotherhood of the Bond, these
presents adjure you that you do instantly and forthwith
repair to Constable's your London Constable's or Edin-
burgh Constable's preferably London Constable's, so
that you may enforce by word and if need be by blows
instead of by letter. Repair then to your Constable's
and arrange (i.) that they print without delay my Address ;*
that they send it in * galleys,' twice, if need be, here ;
that they print it for my own use in type which I shall
select, vouchsafing to them (for the time being and under
your responsibility of blood -bondship) my treasure, to wit,
the sheets from which A. J. B. read his Glasgow address.
(ii.) Arrange with your Constables, for me, that they
publish my address ; reserve foreign and American
rights ; pay me whatever you think proper ; to undertake
that I may if I choose republish at some future date
in a volume of collected Essays with Plutarch, Shake-
speare, etc. if the whim so prompts me.
In all seriousness I am hard pressed and over-pressed.
I know what printers are. Unless you will personally
harangue and kick them I shall get no ' proof ' in time.
1 The Development of the State.'
100 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
If they ' buck up ' under your personal persuasion,
you shall choose the date of the Address. The second
week in November late in that, or early in the third
smiles at me. Cabinets are apt to fall on Fridays or
Mondays ; for we pander to week-enders.
So to arrive at Glasgow, clean and crisp, or to get back
for a Cabinet, Wednesday looks like the day. The 9th
is impossible. Manent the 16th and 23rd.
I am not happy about the Address. It is suggestive,
but congested. I have written it with blood and sweat
against time and amid continual interruptions. Still,
I finished the MS. this afternoon. But I must cut and
expand and ' comb ' * no end ' on the proofs. This the
excellent Constable must take into account.
Now, / do ask you to help in the above. For I am water-
logged in administration here.
And, secondly (see first line) I come to your S. African
problem. I write under the seal of the Bond very
bluntly and coarsely. If you find wisdom in my words,
sharpen and sweeten and moderate before you pass on
that wisdom. After Milner we need a man of character,
but not an ingenious man, not a man of initiative, or
ideas.
To my mind W will not do. To select him is to
repeat the mistake sometimes made even by C. J. R.,
that is, in avoiding a man likely to strike out a line of his
own, we tumble on a dumpling, apparently rotund, but
essentially plastic to other people's ideas; without initiative,
which is good ; but inert into the bargain, which is bad.
Avoid him. He is a ' stumer.'
Of course if A. L. can be translated, why ' Hurray ! '
I am all for that. It would be an experiment ; but a
grand experiment and signal illustration of the Imperial
thesis. The interchangeability of Cabinet Ministers and
pro-consuls is the first step in practical demonstration.
If that ' cock won't fight,' I should ask B. of B., ex-
Colonial Governors, retired Generals, and all the ancient
vamps.
TO HIS SISTER, MARY 101
Do something else and something new, right away.
In my political crowd novelty and safety would be good
in one of two men. Lord Stanley, the P.M.G., has character,
saw S. Africa ; has blatant, (apparent) good-nature, but
is sterling. No risk of ideas and initiative, and no risk of
being directed or transmogrified. His father is young.
He is popular with the other side. He might accept and
would not be recalled.
2. Graham Murray ; he is adroit, but sound. I know
you think this impracticable. But he would prove an
excellent bureaucrat, play the game, and avoid sensation.
I mean what I write. Verb. sap.
And now under the Bond <listil this, and do arrange
(a) the printing, (b) the subsequent publication of my
address. Yours, G. W.
507
To his Sister, Mary
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LOI>GE,
PEKENIX PARK, DUBLIN, IQth October '04.
BELOVED CHANG, Excellent. I will come on Saturday
afternoon and take a real holiday on Sunday with you,
dear Evelyn 1 and darling Mamma. Give my love to
Cyncie and let us all have a ride in the Phcenix on Monday
afternoon. You can go on by the evening boat and sleep
the better for the exercise.
I thought Arthur's Edinburgh speech perfect. It has
rallied all ' bien pensants ' Free Fooders and yet enabled
Imperialists like your little brother, to pursue their
mission which has nothing in common with Protection,
and very little with Retaliation. I am working in the
Castle to-day for a change. I finished the M.S. of my
Address yesterday : after two * smashing ' days. So
am tired and happier. Of course that is only the first
stage ; there follow, (1) typed copy, (2) proof in ' galleys,'
(3) proof in pages. And these are the critical stages.
1 Lady de Vesci.
102 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I do more work in them than when writing, but they
do not tire me. It is the mental strain of composing, of
avoiding committal to blind alleys and excursions over
4 illimitable veldts ' of interesting, but irrelevant, matter,
accompanied by the to me physical weariness and
' nausea ' of driving a pen for 9 or 10 hours that sickens
and kills. I retch from nervous abhorrence of the task.
But as Dr. Johnson justly observed, ' any man can write
if he will set himself doggedly to do it.' I ' dogged ' it
for 48 hours and feel to-day serene and buoyant. I
should like to give the address the day before Arthur's
Glasgow speech and stay for that. He speaks I think
on November 23rd.
Nobody ' stage-manages ' for Arthur. I used to when
I was his P. S. And it is important. It does not do
as the proverb goes ' to let the Devil have all the good
tunes.' A. J. ought to have Cabinet Ministers and fair
ladies, and many M.P.'s, on his platform when he makes
a big speech as P. M. and leader of our Party.
508
To Mrs. Drew
MADRESFIELD,
October 30th, 1904.
I have waited until the North Sea crisis is over as I
trust and believe it to be. So I too am here with the
Saints, Sibell and Lettie, between Friday's Cabinet and
another at 12.30 to-morrow. I feel as if balm had been
poured all over me. Lettie's attitude towards imminent
maternity is a pure joy. One almost expects to find
haloes hung up on the hat-pegs. It makes me feel that
the family, and above all the Mother and Child, constitute
the central fact and final end of human life and politics,
as they were the origin.
Are you, by chance, following Oliver Lodge's pronounce-
ments ? They interest me deeply. He is a sage in the
front of modern science. A year and a half ago, he was
at the point of saying to me that Christianity and the
TO MRS. DREW 103
Church had made Faith unnecessarily hard to thinkers.
But at Babraham the other day, after Arthur's Address
to the British Association, he said suddenly, ' I begin to
see that the Church was right about the Incarnation.'
I am not, therefore, surprised to find Ray Lankester and
other Weissmann-ites pommelling him in the Press for,
I imagine, subconscious betrayal of this change in his
lectures and addresses.
I shall try and interpolate a bit of Lord Acton in my
Address. The Address is, I hope, suggestive, but I know
congested. I ought to blow it to bits and build something
more modest out of the debris. I do not quite agree with
his (Lord Acton's) views on Nationality. But the diffi-
culty of agreeing, or even of dissenting, in these matters,
is partly due to the fact that we all mean different things
when we speak of Nationality ; and that the word once
meant, and still suggests, a number of other things all
differing from any one thing which any one of us may
mean now.
And this is the tangled skein which I am proposing to
unwind ! If Switzerland as he declares is a Nationality
although its inhabitants speak French, German and
Italian, are undoubtedly descended from all three, and
most probably also from a non-Aryan, round-headed
Race which took refuge in the Alps, where I ask myself
are we ? Why is Nationality to stop at Switzerland,
or at France, hammered together out of Bretons, Gauls,
Franks, Burgundians, Basques, etc. ?
My inclination is to say that the process which produced
these complex politics will continue to act, and that you
cannot say ' halt ! ' at the stage of development contained
in your own epoch. Things are going to proceed as they
have proceeded. But and here I agree with Lord
Acton if that be so, there must be reverence for the
liberty of Individuals, and also for the local and traditional
* patriotism ' of various races. And so on. . . .
I do not think that Devolution is practicable or wise,
until we have had the pluck, or the luck, or both, necessary
to settle the last stage in Catholic Emancipation. After
104 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
that, in conditions which we do not know, something may
present itself which we cannot now foresee.
At present there is a darkness that can be felt in front
of us all a general tendency in Home politics and World
politics to mistake fishing craft for torpedo boats. ' Shoot
first,' is the Bismarckian message to mankind. To me
it seems hysterical and carries the incidental disadvantage
of reconstructing Christendom on the model of a mining-
camp bar-saloon.
I rejoice at Hawarden's propinquity to Saighton, and
insist on seeing a great deal of you next Autumn.
509
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 23rd, 1904.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I have written Mamma a long
letter on the Address and the students. The leader in,
the ' Glasgow Herald ' the Liberal paper is the most
interesting and fair, to the point of generosity. For all
that, I could begin arguing it all over again. For example
the ' Westminster ' cites America as a State which exhibits
a complete solution of the ' race ' difficulty. Of course,
I had America in my mind through every denunciation
of * cosmopolitanism.' The ' polyglot restaurants and
international sleeping cars ' and ' shoddy ' Universities,
and Carnegie bribes give the classical example of all I
detest. But, then, I could not attack America.
Glasgow University has existed for 453 years. Among
my predecessors who have delivered Rectorial Addresses
are Burke, Adam Smith, Brougham, Sir Robert Peel,
Lord John Russell, Macaulay, Bulwer Lytton, Palmerston,
Derby, Disraeli, Gladstone, Bright, Balfour, Chamberlain
and Rosebery. Their ' shades ' were close and menacing
when I faced the audience. Your loving son,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. Burke ' broke down ' for the first and only time
in his life during his Address.
TO HIS MOTHER 105
510
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 23rd, 1904.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your letter
yesterday morning before ' going into action.' I acknow-
ledge that I was nervous. And nobody said anything
to make me less nervous. They harped on the rowdyism
of Finlay's function last year ; advised me to be popular
and humourous ; talked of Disraeli's marvellous exhibition
of memory in 1871 when he declaimed his Address on
4 The Spirit of the Age ' without a glance at the paper
before him ; and so on. I had gone through a hard week
State Banquet at Windsor, Wednesday ; speech of hour
and five minutes Dover, Thursday ; Cabinet in London
and speech at Dover, Friday ; three speeches Saturday
and kick-off at a Football Match ; desperate journey
through blizzard on Monday.
But I trusted the students, absolutely, because, like
you, I belong all the time to the secret society of youth
and they guess it. Well, nothing could have been more
delightful than the students. They were all things by
turn ; noisy and solemn, warm-hearted and respectful ;
showing the fantastic high-spirits and preternatural
seriousness of extreme youth. They looked on me as
their own property ; treated me with the mingled awe
and familiarity with which a boy treats his first gun or
hunter a thing that is his own property with two aspects ;
partly the last and best toy of his boyhood, partly the first
talisman of his manhood, instinct with mysterious pro-
phecies of unknown possibilities.
But you can't analyse youth and I must just write down
a few facts for, unless I do so now, I never shall. The old
bothers begin again to-morrow.
The blizzard had cleared and there was a full moon
shining on the frost when we arrived. Sibell went off
with my ' Assessor.' I was taken for an hour's torchlight
procession by the students. They were many of them,
106 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
say two hundred in fancy dress, Zulus, policemen,
clowns, etc. They leapt with excitement, cheered, sang
songs and dragged me up a steep hill to the Principal's
House. There I had to make them a short speech. I
had only twenty minutes to dress for a big dinner of
dons, M.P.'s, bishops and so forth, all very gracious.
And Mrs. Storey, my hostess was a mother to me. After
that a party with introductions to many and a smoke
with two professors. The next morning I felt like Mar-
lowe's Faustus waiting for the Devil to take him at 12.
But on these occasions one becomes an automaton. I
put on my Rectorial Robes, signed a Latin Declaration
in a hall of the University and drove off with the Principal
and my Assessor, preceded in another carriage by the
Bedellus (Beadle in fact) with 15th century mace, and
followed by a procession of open flys filled with dons in
robes. So we reached Hengler's Circus. It was bitterly
cold. The auditorium held between two and three
thousand, and all the students were there raising Cain !
We marched in, preceded by the Bedellus. They gave me
a great reception. The Lord Provost and Corporation
were there in robes and ermine. I found myself on the
stage. Saw Sibell in a box. Heard the students inter-
rupting a long Latin prayer with nasal Amens, penny
whistles and trumpets and, introduced only by the words
* The Lord Rector ' plunged into my Address. It was a
strain. I had put up a great deal of weight. It seemed
interminable. I had one or two panics that it would
last two hours ; that they were only suffering me, not
gladly ; that they would lose patience and break out.
This was borne in twice by organized shuffling of feet.
Afterwards I heard this was a protest against two people
who left the hall. At the words ' entrenched in a medley
of there was a wild outburst afterwards explained by
the fact that the name of one lecturer is Medley. But
I did not betray any qualms and declaimed away, to a
death-still attention, broken rather often by loud and
prolonged applause. At the end they cheered again and
again. By a miracle the trick had been done. They
TO HIS MOTHER 107
nearly pulled my arms out of my body clutching my hands
in powerful and frenzied grips of enthusiasm. They took
the horses out and dragged me the whole way through the
town. They made me speak again out of the landau.
Then we had lunch. After lunch I made almost, if not
quite, the best ' after dinner ' speech I have ever made,
just to show that I could be playful and speak without
preparation. A brief interim of tea-drinking at the
Principal's house and, lo, there were the students outside
to take me to the ' Union ' ; evidently there, to judge
by wild echoes of ' For he 's a jolly good fellow.' I went
out and was at once picked up and carried shoulder high
to the ' Union.' There I made the Liberal leader speak,
by replying to the now familiar cry of ' Speech ' with a
retort ' Debate.' We resolved ourselves into an informal
smoking-concert, at the end of which I had to stand on
the table and make another speech in which I pleased
them a great deal. So they carried me all the way back,
shoulder-high, singing 'And will ye no come back again.'
Some of the nicest professors, specially Ramsay ' of
Humanity ' which means ' Latin ' up there, called and
were very kind. I then slept like a stone for an hour,
dressed and dined with my Assessor, Baird, to meet
students and dons. One don, Jones, a Welshman and
lecturer on philosophy came in and we had a splendid
discussion on the themes of the Address which they had
all got hold of. The University Magazine, ' G. U. M.,'
had a verbatim report on sale in the streets the moment
I left Hengler's Circus. (I had given the Editor a copy
and they had printed it in the night.) So they had read
it after hearing it. I slept well and the students saw me
off at the station with the old songs, etc. etc. Altogether a
memorable experience. It proves once more that ' grand
jeu ' is the best game. They took the ' steepness ' of the
Address as a compliment. It confirms my conviction that
you should never play down to an audience. Still I will
own that when I got up to deliver the Address, and once or
twice during its delivery, I felt like poor old ' Manifesto '
the steeple-chase horse with fourteen stone on his back.
108 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
And now I must go to bed ; for to-morrow I have to
prepare against the United Club Dinner on Friday after
a Cabinet. I am sending to Clouds a packet of the
newspapers. The ' Scotsman ' and ' Glasgow Herald *
report verbatim and the ' Herald,' considering it is liberal,
is very fair, indeed more than fair.
Best love to Papa and Ditch. Ever your most loving
son, GEORGE.
511
To Charles Boyd
IRISH OFFICE,
OLD QUEEN STREET, S.W., 24.xi.04.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter of 20th has only now
reached me 4 p.m. but it has reached to touch. I
give three cheers for the Bond.
Last night I thought you might, perhaps, have been
back, and sent you a note stating I was lonely ' after the
Fair.'
I realised as deeply as you can have done the immense
interest of Glasgow and of your presence for ' fraternity/
I had my eye on you at the little speech I made after
luncheon on the 22nd. Indeed I made that speech to you.
For me, alas, there is no rest. I am grappling with a
speech for to-morrow night, and am be-devilled by other
public bothers. So I swear by the Bond ; and have,
also, become a Scot & Breadalbane Campbell x in the
future, if you please ; with proclivities tor the Stone Age.
A 1000 thanks for the letter and for Constable. Ever
your affectionately GEORGE W.
512
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 2,6th, 1904.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am waiting to send a respectable
copy of my Address to Clouds : bound in vellum and
1 His mother's family.
TO THE LORD BISHOP OF OSSORY 109
printed on paper instead of the wood-fibre and porcelain
cement of a * shilling shocker.'
But the publishers are * slow dogs.' Meanwhile I send
you, as an advance copy, a specimen of the shilling
edition.
The three Latin quotations on the fly-leaf state the
4 themes ' of the symphony. The first from Ennius says,
* The Roman state stands on ancient customs and on
men.'' That is Tradition. The second from Claudian
' floruit ' 430 says, ' This is she who alone (among
nations) accepted into her embrace those whom she had
conquered . . . after the manner, not of an Empress,
but of a Mother, and called those to be her citizens whom
she had overthrown, and bound to herself by a chain of
love the uttermost parts of the world. All of us owe to
her peaceful practice that each guest enjoys her hospitality
as if he were at home ; that it is easy to change your
residence.' That is Transit. The third from Virgil,
says, ' A greater configuration of the State is borne in
upon me ; I am suggesting a " bigger business." That
is : I am asking you to consider an ideal of the State,
which embraces both Conservative tradition and modern
intercommunication with its consequences : but is newer
and larger than either taken alone.
The address has been well received ; but it has puzzled
everybody. That is just what I aimed at. I wanted to
make them think : an unusual enterprise in our day.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
513
To the Lord Bishop of Ossory
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
DUBLIN, November 28, 1904.
MY DEAR DEAN, I must thank you for the great
kindness of your letter. I acknowledge the complexity
of the issues I raised and plead guilty to a 4 congestion '
in my exposition which, if not inevitable, was at any rate
not avoided.
110 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
But your letter shows that my address was intelligible ;
for you seize my points as clearly as they present them-
selves to my own mind up to one point which cannot, I
believe, be made. I mean a complete answer to the
question ' What is a Nation ? '
Your citation of the Jews is very just. Their attitude
towards the Gentiles, or nations, offers a close parallel
to the attitude of the Romans towards the ' nations.*
The Jews and, I might add, the Arabs have remained a
race, though each, for a comparatively brief period,
played a part in State-building.
I asked the question ' What do we now call a Nation ? *
and gave instances to prove that no answer, ready and com-
plete, can be found. I said that the use of the word was
a matter of feeling rather than of thought. It is almost a
question of taste. But, accepting both your tests together,
i.e. racial affinity and political union, I feel that a people
which has enjoyed both together for a considerable period,
does not cease to be a nation because other powers tear
it to pieces. Now, in respect of the Poles, they had a
kingdom for many centuries. The ' political ' predecessor
of the Tsar, i.e. the Grand Duke of Muscovy, paid homage
to the King of Poland in the days of our Queen Elizabeth,
when Scotland was a separate kingdom. Dryden satirises
Shaftesbury in the ' Medal ' for his supposed ambition
to be elected ' King of Poland.' Poland was for long and
until recently a kingdom.
It is, as I say, a question of feeling. The Armenians
offer a nicer and a harder occasion for definition. In
many respects they are like the Jews ; but, I suppose
they might urge their king Tigranes.
My desire was to show that the word is ' equivocal '
and that the thing wasj never ' the State ' except from
the 16th century on to our time when it has ceased
or is ceasing to be * the State ' because of Imperial
expansion.
Those who agree with Lord Acton would stereotype the
state at the stage of fc Nation-States,' actually constructed
in the 15th and 16th centuries and of others which might
TO MONSIEUR AUGUSTS RODIN 111
have been constructed then e.g. Italy, though they were
not till later ; or others, e.g. Poland, existing then and
demolished since.
I say that ' Empire-States ' now being perfected are
not more artificial than ' Nation-States.'
But to save an Empire-State from ' cosmopolitanism *
I would cherish pride hi Race, to give feature and colour.
So that I gladly accept your conclusion that Pride
of Political Unity is a nobler incentive than Pride of
Race. I sought to indicate that view in the phrase
1 Let Pride be in Race ; Patriotism for the Empire.'
For I place Patriotism above Pride, even in Race.
I need Pride in Race only to redeem Empire from
Cosmopolitanism, and to afford a ' school ' for patriotism
by cultivating one of its origins, viz. the sentiment of
consanguinity. A man, for example, who is proud of
his school and his university is better fitted for loyalty,
in after life, to larger conceptions ; the Church, the Army,
the Navy.
So an Irishman who is proud of Milesian, or Norman,
Elizabethan or Cromwellian, descent is better fitted for
patriotism to the Empire.
But I do not exclude pride of Nationality. I only
mean that it is a doubtful and perplexing ' middle term,'
not so helpful to the ' Development of the State ' as Pride
in Race coupled with patriotism for the Empire.
But I must apologize for inflicting another lecture.
I hope that we may have a talk over the subject one even-
ing after dinner at the Lodge. Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
514
To Monsieur Auguste Rodin
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 5.xii.04.
MON CHER AMI, J'etais enchante de recevoir votre
lettre mais, de ces jours-ci, j'ai eu tant d'affaires, de
112 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
discours a prononcer, de voyages a Londres, et de retours
a Dublin, qu'il fallait attendre le moment pour ecrire une
r^ponse.
En fait de 1'exposition a Dublin je ne comprend pas
precisement dans tous ces rapports le projet de Mr. Lane.
II d6sire, a ce qu'on me dit, que vous permettrez qu'on
presente a une galerie a Dublin un exemplaire de 1'Age
d'Airain. Nous ne sommes pas bien riches en Irlande
et je ne sais pas le prix de ce chef-d'oeuvre.
Pour mon buste je suis tout-a-fait de votre avis. C'est
a dire qu'il faut envoyer le marbre directement a la ' New
Gallery.' Mais je serais tres content de recevoir ici, a
Dublin, une epreuve en platre au plus tot possible. a
int^ressera mes amis Irlandais qui sont amateurs des
Beaux Arts et donnera un elan au projet qu'ils discutent
d'acheter 1'Age d'Airain. Je suis toujours votre Ami bien
reconnaissant, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
515
To Wilfrid Ward
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
DUBLIN, December 6th, 1904.
MY DEAR WILFRID,
The Catholic church does, for a Catholic, fulfil my ideal.
I am, consequently, deeply interested in the second
chapter Oxford, Cambridge and Rome of ' Aubrey de
Vere.' I shall write on the whole book ; but not yet.
I want to muse after browsing.
The period of thought among young men depicted
in chapter 2, is most interesting to me. I believe that
between that period and our own there has been no
original thinking. But you are thinking and writing,
what others think. The men who were young in the first
period have died off, leaving, until now, in recent years
a void of which I would say, in the words applied by
Wordsworth to France that it
TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 113
' Hath brought forth no such souls as we had then.
Perpetual emptiness ! Unceasing change !
No single volume paramount, no code,
No master spirit, no determined road ;
But equally a want of books and men ! '
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
516
To his Sister, Madeline
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 22.xii.04.
MOST DARLING MANENAI, I take a fairly long shot
at Christmas to wish that it may be ' merry ' for you all ;
to send my fondest love ; and to desire, with all my heart,
all luck and blessings on you, and Charlie, and all the
4 poussins ' during next year.
I am sending you a heavy gift my Address in vellum.
But it may become rare and present the attraction of a
virgin Alp to intrepid climbers.
We got our Perf back late yesterday, it was such a joy.
He had pierced the lingual fog of German and French
station-masters and the atmospheric fog of lands more
articulate (to him). So in he came as brisk as may be.
I simply loved my evenings with you during these last
weeks of gloom and racket. Here all is serene, incon-
sequent, graceful, warm-hearted, Irish, in short and I
feel at rest.
Everybody here knows me, and Sibell and Percy. Their
kindness is beyond words. The less one can do for them,
the more loving they are on a common basis of congenial,
congenital and patriotic futility. There is nothing like
the swing and lilt with which they pursue the rainbow ;
and nothing like the comfortable consolation, as of ' a
mother of many,' with which they surround a ' horizon-
catcher ' when just for once the horizon is still beyond
him. These people are worth all the half-penny papers
in the world ; and I am off on Wednesday to the worst
VOL. II. H
114 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
parts of the West to hear them say ' It 's not so bad after
all, and, indeed, it 's very kind of you to take any notice
at all of it.' That is their way of facing * Distress.' I
prefer it to Trafalgar Square.
And so my best love to you, darling Manenai. Your
devoted brother, GEORGE.
517
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, December 22nd, 1904.
MY DEAREST PAPA, This is to wish you a merry
Christmas and happy New Year.
Perf arrived last night about 9.30, having * pushed
through ' from Frankfurt. He is very well and strong.
The Attorney General was dining to play bridge with two
secretaries and self. But Perf kept us amused and laugh-
ing for an hour and a half with the account of his travels,
the life at Frankfurt ; and a hockey match between
Frankfurt and Mannheim. Owing to Geidt's establish-
ment Frankfurt won by eleven goals to one, amid frenzied
plaudits from the crowd and waving of handkerchiefs
from German ladies. He tells me that none of them are
good-looking enough to pass muster. They, the German
ladies (though not up to his standard) are, apparently
all ' anglo-manes.' If the hockey is fixed for 2.30 p.m.
they parade the town all the morning in short skirts,
brandishing then* sticks.
He explained some difficulties he encountered at the
frontier not having registered his luggage by interject-
ing that the custom house officer ' spoke very bad German.'
The Attorney General said he ought to be ' an expert
witness ' or a member of Parliament. Such resource of
debating reply would be wasted on the Army.
A plaster ' epreuve ' of my Rodin bust has arrived.
It is very good even in plaster. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
TO HIS MOTHER 115
518
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN, December 22nd, 1904.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you a merry
Christmas and most happy New year ! It is much to
have Guy back and, I add, Percy with us, tall and strong
and well. I am sending you a vellum ' Address,' just
as a gift, and just as I gave you a translation of Ovid's
* Arion ' at Hyeres in 1873.
Amongst all the botherations of Ireland, priceless things
occur. This will amuse you and Pamela and Gatty and
* Uncle Tom Codley and all.'
In the London evening papers you read of desperate
symptons of intimidation ; ' black spot ' etc. I plaster
on Police Protection ; chiefly for Parliamentary purposes.
But this is what really happens.
Casey, in Templemore, Tipperary, says he goes in fear
of his life from Kennedy. Casey is given two policeman
to protect him from Kennedy. They stay at Casey's
house, escort him to fairs, and are fed by Casey. Coming
back from the fair in the dark, Casey, with two policeman
in his cart, says, ' Wait awhile ' and disappears over the
bank of the road ; for no purpose but to cut cabbages for
the policemen's supper. He selects the garden of Kennedy
the man who is supposed to be terrorising him. Kennedy
catches him, calls the two police, protecting Casey (from
Kennedy) and tells them to arrest Casey. They do so,
and resume their drive to Casey's house minus cabbages.
Casey pleads guilty. Kennedy, instead of charging the
policemen with being accessories to the attempted theft,
charges them with ' being drunk ' ! ! Well ! Well ! can
I expect the sub-editor of the ' Globe ' to unravel that
skein ?
Perf arrived rather late last night from Frankfurt, very
well. We had a good gallop together this morning and
then went off shopping and to see pictures. To-morrow
116 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
we have a hockey-match on the lawn here. The men
and maidens bring ' shoes ' to dance afterwards in the
ball-room to a * pianola.' Now that Perf is back as master
of the revels, all the candles will be lighted. On Saturday
we hunt at Celbridge. Next week I shall take a run on
motor and ' Granuaile ' round the worst part of the West
to see the potato failure.
All love to you, most beloved Mamma, from your
most loving son, GEORGE.
519
To his Brother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, Christmas Eve, 1904.
DEAREST OLD GUY, Perf and I are just in from a
capital day with Kildares : galloping and jumping all
the time. Met Celbridge (1) Demesne Hunt, with good
scent and bad fox, one loop out and out to ground at the
end. (2) Grof ton's Rath, a bright burst, fast but not racing,
over good clean big c leps ' check after fifteen minutes ;.
slow hunting, again to ground. (3) Taghado (Tattoo)
fox and pack away within two minutes of putting in ;
hounds a field ahead as we galloped round the corner ;
breast-high scent, racing pace straight for just under
fifteen minutes, check but only just time to breathe ;
on again very fast, check ; on again and to ground in
fifty minutes all told : a fine hunt : the best so far this
year. The * going ' is perfect. We went over the cream
of the country, Perf and I both well carried, and no falls.
There was any amount of grief. Did not see much of
it as kept a good place, but at each check five or six loose
horses came up. I had about the best of the first burst,
with Turrell and Cub Kennedy. Perf was close up
having been stopped by a man falling in front of him.
He beat me altogether in the last part, as the fox turned
a good deal at the end and I got too wide on the left
crediting with a better point. I rode with Perf the second
burst, but he finished four or five lengths in front of me,
TO MONSIEUR AUGUSTE RODIN 117
even then. The pace of the first burst from Taghado was
terrific : have not seen hounds go faster.
We are looking out for hirelings to fill up with when
you are here. Scent has been good all last week and I
believe we are in for a spell of good sport. Your loving
brother, GEORGE.
520
To Monsieur Auguste Rodin
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHOSNIX PARK, DUBLIN, 25th Decembre 1904.
MONSIEUR ' LE MA!TRE ' ET CHER AMI, Je n'ai pas
encore vu le marbre qui est, sans doute, a Londres, mais
de 1'epreuve en platre qu'est-ce que je puis dire ? Enfin
j'ai passe une heure avec Mr. Lane, extasies tous les deux,
en regardant ce chef-d'oeuvre. C'est bien un portrait,
et des plus saisissants. C'est vrai et vivant au point
qu'en regardant le gosier on s'attend a voir le buste avaler.
Mais c'est plus que cela ; et beaucoup plus. C'est PHomme
de quarante ans, et jamais on n'a fait a, personne ne 1'a
fait. Nous avons des maitres la jeunesse ; et puis, le
vieillard. Nous n'avons pas, de qui que ce soit, un ceuvre
qui est, et sera toujours, a la fois, un portrait, le Vrai la
Vie et l'Homme en pleine carriere, avec ses regrets, ses
soucis, sa force, ses espoirs, son elan.
J'ai compris parfaitement, avant meme que vous me
1'aviez signale, que 1'absence des prunelles, surtout dans
le platre qui jette des ombres trop accuses, donnait un
air un peu tracasse" au buste quand on le regarde d'en
face. Mais 1'epreuve en platre est pour les intelligents.
Mais avec les yeux moins creux, en platre et davantage
en marbre ou en bronze, la serenite surviendra sans
amoindrir tout ce qu'il y a de vif et de vecu.
Apres ma conversation avec M. Lane je puis vous dire
precis6ment ce que nous esperons de votre buste ! II
s'agit d'une galerie de 1'Art moderne pour Dublin. Je
vous enverrai si je puis mettre la main dessus des
renseignements sur le projet. Mais en deux mots, Sargent,
118 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
et d'autres nous ont donne pour cinquante pieces. Nous
osons esperer d'acheter la ' collection Forbes,' c'est a dire
quinze Corot, des Millet, des Mauve, des Maril, des
D'Aubigne, des Constable.
Alors nous desirons deux choses. Pour ma part je
donnerai mon buste en bronze. Et puis, la Societ6
desire d'acheter ' 1'Age d'Airain.' Qa ira 1 nous allons
voir a Dublin une galerie dont on parlera quand ceux qui
aiment, soit l'Art, ou soit PIrlande ou les deux auront
joui pendant des siecles du repos de la mort. Et pendant
ce temps la le peuple Irlandais, endormi dans la douleur,
mais si dispose a la vie, et a l'Art, se reveillera a 1'appel
de vos chef-d'ceuvres.
Je suis desole d'entendre ce mot funeste la grippe
soignez-vous bien, et agr6ez 1'assurance de mon ann'tie"
profonde et mes souhaits ardents que le nouvel an vous
comble de bienfaits. GEORGE WYNDHAM.
521
To his Mother
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PHOENIX PARK, DUBLIN, 27.12.04,
St. Stephen's Day.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, The enamel is too lovely.
We are overjoyed to have it. You spoil us both.
Mr. Lane is very anxious to get one of your paintings
for the Gallery of Modern Art which he, and others, are
starting in Dublin. We are trying to buy the best of
old Forbes's collection for 30,000, and many of the great
have given a work each. Watts left one in his will. I
should like to see one of yours in your own city.
They want Rodin's bust of my ' nob.' I think you
will like it ; even if Sibell is right in saying that it is more
like Guy than me. Rodin writes that the mould plucked
out the eyes in the plaster proof which I have. This
gives the full face a worried look that will disappear when
the deep shadows are gone. White plaster is not a good
medium. Indeed, unless lit only by a suffused top light
TO HIS MOTHER 119
the shadows are exaggerated, as in a photographic nega-
tive. It is a very fine and instructive piece of work.
With thanks over and over again, beloved Mamma,
for the beautiful enamel. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
522
To his Father
CHIEF SECRETARY'S LODGE,
PH<ENIX PARK, DUBLIN, January 2-ith, 1905.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am much pleased to hear your
appreciation of the Rodin bust. It is a great work apart
from the likeness. It might be called ' I'homme a
quarante.' There are fine busts of youths and also of
old men with completed careers carved in their faces.
Each type has its own repose ; and can, more or less,
easily be rendered. But the ' man of forty ' is hard to
render. Rodin has captured the blend of fatigue and
alacrity and created a new type.
I have loved sculpture since I was at Rome in 1887
and think such a bust for 400 a far more interesting
possession than a picture for 1500.
Pamela and Eddy are here with little Clare. They
enjoy the place very much.
Love to all. Your loving son, GEORGE.
523
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
February 18th, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I love your letter. I am
quite happy and now that the big 4 Cat ' Dudley is
out of the bag, no longer worried.
My only remaining anxiety is, not to be apologetic, and
to avoid talking about myself; I don't want to excul-
pate myself by ' sitting on ' Dudley and Antony.
120 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Uncle D.'s speech was outrageous in the Lords. I can,
however, show that without attacking him.
I feel much more free and light-hearted than at any
time these last four and a half months, and Arthur is a
' brick.' The only difficulty now is a purely technical
one. On Monday I shall be by way of repelling a Home
Rule amendment to an audience exclusively concerned
with the personal question of Dunraven, MacDonnell,
Dudley and self.
Nobody will listen to me on the motion before the
House and then they will say that I ' shelved it.'
I can't go quite so far as Arthur in his parting words
to me last night : ' Well, George, I really think you '11
have very good fun on Monday.' We shall see. Any-
how my spirits are bounding up because I am not one
of the throng ' whose sails were never to the tempest
given.' Your most loving son, GEORGE.
524
To Mrs. Drew
85 PARK LANE,
February 24M, 1905.
You are an Angel ! Sibell will tell you how grateful,
and almost necessary, to me at this moment is such a
letter from such a friend. My brain is rather weary and
I take gloomy views ; which is absurd.
So I 'm off for two days to Clouds, to
' Flee far away, dissolve and quite forget
What Thou among the leaves hast never known,
The weariness, the Fever, and the Fret '
Yours gratefully and affectionately, G. W.
P.S. I underline Fever because, just at moments, I
have felt like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego rolled
into one.
But that 's all nonsense I really had nothing to do
but to say everything.
CHAPTER X
MARCH 1905 TO JANUARY 1906
Illness and journey abroad Lecture on Ronsard Election
Campaign.
525
To his Father
FRANKFURTER-HOF, FRANKFURT A. MAIN,
St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1905.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Percy will have given you a good
account of us. I am making steady progress and hope
earnestly that neither you, nor Mamma, nor Mary, nor
Manenai nor anyone will be in the least anxious about
me or doubtful of my being quite myself at an early date.
I want to ' potter ' for a time. Then I will do as much
Veightly etc. as anybody may desire. But, at present,
I want to stop introspection of mind and body. Distance
and the Spring will heal me up to the point at which
Doctors may begin.
If I were in England I could not rest. I should want
to help Arthur at every turn and fret because that would
be impossible.
We mean as at present advised to go on to Lucerne.
The English papers come here and I can't resist reading
them. So I am going further afield.
Fondest love to Mamma, Ditch and all. Your most
loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. I can never say how much I realised and appre-
ciated all you were to me at Clouds. When I get there
again I shall be another person.
121
122 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
526
To his Mother
HOTEL MONOPOL & METROPOLE,
LUCERNE, March 19th, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I must send you one line of
great love. S. S. will have told you that I am much
better to-day. My plan of aimless travelling suits me
best. As I get farther away the impossibility of answer-
ing letters becomes a physical fact and, by degrees, I
let the ropes that bind me to the past slip away. We
paddled peacefully in a steamer up the lake to Brunnen
and back from 2.15 to 6 this afternoon. I enjoyed it and
felt much healthier after the air. Air is what I need. I
shall not hurry back.
We are quite idle, except that S. S. writes letters. I
don't.
I have read the second volume of Creighton's Life
and enjoyed the theological hair-splitting. He was too
clever. But I read very little. I don't want to spoil
any poetry by reading it now. It is sufficient to see
the wild duck swing in pairs over-head, and to watch
the tame ducks and coots squabbling for bread under
the old bridge.
Sibell is reconciled to Lucerne because it reminds her
of Earl's Court !
The contests in Parliament over estimates and Jam
look very small from here, as reported in the ' Daily Tele-
graph.' So I turn back to the Ducks and Coots ; their
squabbles are more interesting.
I see that my dear Congested District Board passed
vote of thanks to me.
Now I am going to bed 9.45. All love to you darling,
and to Papa, Ditch and all dear ones. Your most loving
son, GEORGE.
TO HIS MOTHER 123
527
To his Mother
HOTEL AUGST, BORDIGHKRA,
ITALIE, Friday, March 24th, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I got your letter to-day out
of the Poste Restante. We are anxious about darling
Lettice. She had an operation yesterday. We only
heard by telegram last night. But it was thank God
successful and her state satisfactory. Sibell cannot start
back as she has a chill nothing serious. But there it
is. ...
A good doctor, Dr. Danvers came early this morning.
It is a chill with temperature only one degree up (99*4).
I am taking the greatest care of her : giving her milk and
a recommended water, and Brand's essence of chicken.
We can only pray for darling Lettie and wait and be
patient. Sibell cannot travel until her temperature is down.
She went out again the day before yesterday in the
evening. It was raining and she got this chill. I was
asleep from 4 to 8 o'clock, or I should have kept her in.
There is some sun to-day. We have two windows wide
open to the sea.
Darling Mamma I hope your leg is really well. Take
great care of yourself.
There is nothing to do except to get Sibell well and
pray for Lettice. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
Thanks for the nice ' pig ' letter.
We are as near home here as at Lucerne. It is very
quiet. I am much better and, of course, too absorbed
in Sibell and sweet Leffie to think of insignificant things.
GEORGE.
528
To his Mother
HOTEL AUGST,
BORDIGHERA, Friday, March 24th, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, We are much happier to-night.
We got good telegrams about darling Leffie at 3.15 and
124 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
SibelPs temperature was down almost to normal when
the doctor came at 5 o'clock. Also she has had four
4 goes ' of milk and ' San Gemini ' and one of Brands'
Essence since 1 o'clock. So we are much happier.
The blatant picture of this hotel on the writing-paper
strikes the grotesque note, never absent from crisis. And
the perfect beauty of the sun-lit day whilst we waited
and waited for news also seemed familiar. These moments
reconstruct one's life. In the evening there was a fine
thunderstorm in the hills ; but the sunset beat the storm,
enveloping its edges and piercing its ragged rims with a
rosy-copper-golden suffusion and long gleams of light
across the sea.
Taking care of Sibell has cured me. We are not like
* buckets in a well,' but like acrobats who alternately
support each other.
I avoid the Table d'hote and dine, with a book, in the
deserted Restaurant. Across the ' dead waste ' of the
waxed floor the Grand Duke Cyril, who went down in
the iron-clad at Port Arthur, dines with an Aide-de-camp.
So, like the two ship-wrecked mariners in the Ballads
(who had not been introduced), we ' consider ourselves '
apart. Yet that is not quite it. Men do not moralize
in breathing spaces after a storm or between storms ?
They wonder like children at a world which is new to
them and full of little things and big things of surprising
interest. 4 Cceli enarrant ' ' The Heavens declare the
Glory of God ' in sunlight and storm : and, then again,
to think that each sheet of this paper is covered with a
bit of flimsy to protect the engraving of the Hotel Augst !
Such are the artless Heavens ; such is ingenious Man in
the XXth century. A piece of the flimsy paper has
you will observe adhered to the engraving.
I, now, read the Psalms to Sibell. The first one for
to-day CXVI is the one set apart for little ladies
saved from danger of death. We took it for an omen
a good omen whilst we waited for news of Lettie :
4 Quia eripuit animam meam de morte,' ' because he has
snatched my darling from death.'
TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 125
And now, Good -night to you, Darling ! I have been
writing for company as Sibell is dozing. The night is
lovely from our balcony. A cool wind is shuffling the
palms. The cadence of the frogs' chorus rises and falls.
A light is leaping from a far-off promontory. I can hear
a train coming the whole length of the Riviera with a
meaning noise. And, so, really Good-night and love to
you all.
Lady Day.
Doctor gives capital account of S. S. He has gone
down-stairs to order a light pudding (!) which she is to
eat at 12 o'clock. So there you are !
All love to you all. Your devoted son, GEORGE.
529
To his Sister, Madeline
HOTEL AUGST,
30th March 1905.
MOST DARLING MANENAi, This is to wish you many,
many happy returns of your dear birthday, to-morrow.
It will reach you too late. For I took a long walk on the
hills yesterday and missed the post. But I have been
remembering your birthday for several days past and
often thinking of you, Darling. I am so full of thankful-
ness for darling Lettie's escape that I am not troubling
to think of anything else. This is a good place when you
get up into the hills behind it. The little Duchess of
Leeds lives up in the hills at the back and Lady Paget
and Lady Windsor have been staying there since Friday.
So I have been two expeditions with them. At other
tunes after taking care of S. S. I just go up a hill and
pretend to read some little old Italian books which I bought
at Milan. I ' pickle away ' occasionally at Virgil's Georgics
and enjoy the Psalms in Latin. My theory is that when
one is tired it is restful to read in languages one but half
understands. You can't race through and it reproduces
126 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the pleasing ignorance of childhood to wonder what
things mean exactly. We are going on, I believe, to
Florence to stay with Lady Paget. Her conversation
has the same feature of being partially unintelligible,
so that I need not dispute propositions which I do not
understand and without sacrifice of truth give a tacit
assent to Vegetarianism, Metempsychosis and the virtues
of the German Emperor. S. S. is really resting and quite
* chirpy ' again. Give my love to Charlie and the Poussins.
I am longing to see you, Beloved. I hope to be very free
from work and care this summer, and so to have time to
enjoy you. Ever your devoted brother, GEORGE.
530
To his Mother
TORRE m BELLOSGUARDO,
April 7th, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I had a great time all this
morning in the Laurentian Library with the Director
Biagi. The illuminations are wonderful. A Psalter for
Corvinus J King of Hungary is most beautiful. I had out
all the MSS. of Virgil, Boccacio, Alfieri, a Jarrow Bible
of 680 ; Tacitus and so on. We had a great talk about
Castiglione's Courtier and I promised to write him a
short article on the influence of that book in England
through Hoby's translation. I am trying to learn Italian
and can read the newspaper and old poetry pretty well,
but nothing else between those extremes so far.
Lady Paget is excellent company full of scandal, forty
years old, which, like old wine, gains in strength and
loses in acerbity. The Spring here is divine. I am
1 Mathias Corvinus was elected King of Hungary in 1459. He defeated the
Turks in 1474, and waged war successfully as an independent sovereign against
the Empire, laying siege to and taking Vienna in 1477. The psalter was
ordered by Lorenzo il Magnifico for the King, but Corvinus died in 1490
before the book had been delivered. Lorenzo himself died two years later and
the psalter remained in Florence.
TO HIS MOTHER 127
rather idle about picture galleries. I remembered them
all too well. The buildings, sculptures and illuminated
MSS. are my principal toys. One of the latter had days
of creation that B. J. would have loved, rather, no doubt,
did love. I long to look at these illuminations with you.
They are better than any I knew at the British Museum
and they gain enormously by being where they are, in
the library of the Medici, to whom they were brought by
the earliest humanists. One gives me a great thrill : a
beautifully illuminated MS. of Aristotle in Latin, written
by Agiropoulos, the Greek from Constantinople, and
given to Lorenzo with a picture of Agiropoulus on the
first page. That is the revival of learning with a ven-
geance. And there it is in his library. There is also a
fine Latin Bible of 680 with gold letters on purple vellum
for the front sheet and excellent illuminations. It was
written at Jarrow in Northumberland and after many
adventures is here. The name of the Northumbrian
Abbot has been erased and an Italian name substituted.
What you would enjoy with me is the picture of the life
at Jarrow hi 680 proving as I always maintain that
people were just as, or more, civilised then. The book-
case might have been made by Morris from a design of
Webb i.e. the bookcase depicted in the illumination
with lovely books bound in red lying side by side in the
shelves and the table would do for tea in our gold room
at ' 35.' It is by looking at these illuminations and
reading in the fresh handwriting Latin which might be
written to-day, of an easy-going simple, modern kind ;
that you can dispel the false conceit of archaism of age.
It is all fresh and full of new life as the Spring. The
people who wrote and painted it might ' ha died o' Wednes-
day ' or meet one to-morrow. This gives the sense of
Eternity and makes Time and Age and Death the accidents
they are. ' I am not Time's fool.' The old book-shop
of Frances-chini would have proved as tempting to you
as to me, with our love of rubbish. I bought an old
Decameron, a Plutarch's Morals in Latin and a Bembo :
glorious rubbish. The old books were piled four feet deep
128 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
on the floor and the aged, very dirty, enthusiast encou-
raged me to wade in them and take what I liked.
Love to all. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
531
To his Father
TORRE m BELLOSGUARDO,
FIRENZE, April llth, 1905.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I was amused by your postcard
and subsequent letter to Lady Paget. I wrote to Mamma
a day or two ago. But I am so idle and contented as
to make me lazy about writing. The after-momentum
of high-pressure maintained through years has expended
itself. I am in a state of passive and peaceful enjoy-
ment, detached from any immediate purpose. Some
people lunched here on Saturday, the Humphrey Wards
and Placi, a dilettante Italian, who remembers you all
at 4 Lung Arno and pretends to remember me. I had
a pleasant talk to him about modern Italian poetry and
walked with him in the afternoon. On Sunday I took
a slashing walk of nine miles beyond the Certosa and back
by a westward loop along the valley of the Greve river.
After four o'clock Lord Halifax called and I walked with
him for another two hours. I called on the Stanhopes
one evening and was made very welcome as a cousin.
Yesterday the morning was divine with a hot sun and
air like champagne. I took Sibell to San Marco the
Annunziata, Peragirn's fresco in St. Maddelena de Pazzi
and the Belle Arti. We met May Talbot and Lord and
Lady Wolseley. But I have not slaved at sight-seeing.
I care much for only a few pictures and prefer to receive
general impressions. Lady Paget and selves lunched
formally with the Stanhopes, talked of B. J. and Morris
and Rosetti. Afterwards I called on Lady Airlie who
has been very kind to me. We returned at 4 for Lady
Paget's ' day.' There came a delightful old Princess
aged 80 with whom I conducted an animated conversa-
TO HIS FATHER 129
tion in French, several Italian Princesses or swells of
sorts, and Lady Mabel Howard, a sister of Lord Antrim.
I have read a good, gossipy book in two volumes about
La Grande Mademoiselle, Lauzun and the Court of Louis
Quatorze. I learn a little Italian. I have also been read-
ing Lady Paget's Memories. They are very interesting on
Diplomatic Society in Copenhagen, Florence and Rome for
1860-1872. I am trying to get Sibell rested. For myself,
the general plan of the day is, breakfast with Lady Paget
in the garden at 8-30 ; lunch in the open loggia upstairs
at 1 o'clock, dinner at 8, conversation to 10 o'clock
and then to bed reading Memoires and so forth till 11
or 12 o'clock. Lady Paget is a most agreeable companion.
Between-whiles I walk, spend a good deal of time in the
Laurentian library with Biagi and enjoy the general
architecture more than the pictures with a few excep-
tions. We do not change much. The pictures and statues
which I picked out in -87 and -95 are still the only ones
to me. I have learned little since then except about
literature and history. Art belongs to no particular date
or place. A little of it is very good, eternal and universal.
The rest is unimportant. In a way though it takes
longer to discover this only a certain number of people
and books are important and these, also, have always
been the same ; just like the thrushes that are now sing-
ing, and the ilex trees on which they sing. I enjoy it
all, art, books, people and nature and in my present
mood do not want to change anything. It seems
simpler to appreciate what is good and ignore the rest.
The ' Guards ' plan of which Percy writes exists in
common with all Army plans at present only in embryo.
I shall not oppose his wishes if the plan is ever defined
and adopted ; and I have written to Codrington. Mean-
while he cannot do better than read for Oxford. He is
counting the days to his Easter holiday and longs to
be at Clouds. I look forward to being there again in
good health and taking long rides.
I should have preferred the Oxford method of entry
for it would have allowed of travel abroad with Percy.
VOL. II. I
130 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I want to bring him here. He must learn to speak French
also.
All love to darling Mamma and Ditch. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
532
To his Mother
FRANKFURTER-HOF,
FRANKFURT A. MAIN, April 14th, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, We are on our way back by
easy stages. As Percy's establishment here is closed for
Easter holidays, it is absurd to keep him doing nothing
and he longs to be at Clouds. I do not much want to
be back before the House rises. But it is dull to stay
here without him. So I shall come quietly to Clouds and
arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. I will telegraph the train
when I get to England. Perf has to leave us from Easter
Tuesday to Friday for an exam, at Oxford ; an addi-
tional reason for not delaying here. We are sending a
horse and Perfection with a groom to Clouds for riding.
I am really very well and in excellent spirits. I enjoyed
Florence enormously but will keep all the news till I
arrive.
As I say I hope to arrive Tuesday, or Wednesday, but
I don't mean to racket myself by travelling too fast as I
want to prove that Italy is a better cure than Electricity.
And I must do justice to my own prescription. Love to
all. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
533
To Mrs. Hinkson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
May 17th, 1905.
DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I am grateful to you
for having written and for what you have written. I was
glad to get your book and thought that, perhaps, you
TO CHARLES WALDSTEIN 131
would write. And now we have only got to wait for the
next chance of helping somebody, whoever he may be,
to get something done. You must never for one moment
allow yourself to believe that Ireland is unlucky, or that
she brings ill-luck. It is because people allow themselves
to believe this that things sometimes go wrong in Ireland
or, rather, that it is harder to set them right when they
do go wrong ; in Ireland as elsewhere. The great thing
is to be quite sure that :
' All we have hoped of good shall exist,
not its semblance, but itself. . . /
If enough people believe that a great many will live to
see it. Your books help me to believe this. That is
why I want you to go on writing books in the same vein
of charity and it is one of the reasons why I am, Yours
gratefully, GEORGE.
534
To Charles Waldstein
35 PARK LANE, W.,
May 17th, 1905.
MY DEAR CHARLES, When I left England for the
continent I was too ill to read the many, many letters
written me by my friends. They were kept from me till
my return, and then my first duty was to attend to arrears
of work that called for immediate attention.
But now it is a great solace to me to read such letters
as the one you wrote.
This is not yet the time to say or write anything of my
work and hopes in Ireland. Yet the hopes are not extin-
guished. I dare to believe that these vicissitudes will
have their uses for many. For me, at least, they have
brought friends nearer. Ever your friend,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
132 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
535
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
May 28th, 1905.
MY DEAR WILFBID, I have read your article with
great interest. It is a fine piece of psychological analysis.
In an ideal world no one would be expected to say ' yes '
or * no ' to a project for closer commercial union with the
Colonies. You cannot do so ' without prejudice.'
During the Boer War when the French press was out-
rageous to our feelings, no sensible man would have
declared for or against an understanding with France.
In theology many express an aspiration towards the re-
union of Christendom. But they do so at their peril.
And their peril is extreme if the aspiration is connected
with some concrete questions as e.g. the validity of Orders.
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
536
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
June 6th, '05.
MY DEAR P. H., Thanks for a clean breath from the
Atlantic and for soft airs from Donegal. It was good of
you to write at such length, and very good for me. And
yet another set of ' Western ' photographs links me across
the breach to the happy past. I am very glad to hear
of Meredith and the old man who waved his cap for us
from the rock at Kincasslagh.
Meanwhile do not be concerned for my health. I have
made a distinct advance since last Saturday, which I spent
at Eton (3rd, for 4th of June a Sunday) quietly with
Ainger and Lulu Harcourt. I missed Percy and felt
sentimental when the ' Thelion ' swept by in green and
purple.
TO PHILIP HANSON 133
My interests have been varied and not onerous. I have
been in close touch with the P. M. over Albert Hall, and
with other anxious hearts. Lansdowne was good in the
Lords yesterday.
I have also been engaged with Crundall and Mowll
over Dover Harbour and the Railways. This is interest-
ing. The Harbour Board and the Railways have come
to a complete deadlock. If I can persuade them to ' drop
their swords and daggers,' I shall do a big thing for
everybody concerned. Why is it so hard to persuade
people to follow their own interests instead of attacking
the interests of others ? As in Ireland, a number of in-
genious gentlemen have devoted their intellects and
other people's money during three years to achieve the
following results : (1) No proper accommodation at
Dover ; (2) 700,000 spent at Folkestone which cannot
be made into a port ; (3) A poll-tax on all passengers and
no visible results ; (4) Worse services to the Continent ;
(5) Railways, no power to evict the Harbour Board ;
(6) Harbour Board, no power to spend another penny
without guarantee from Railways. A complete stale-
mate, as the sole result of years of work and an expendi-
ture of 1,300,000. It shocks nobody ; it surprises
nobody, and everybody is solely interested to show how
cleverly he stopped the other fellow at every stage, and
how easy it will be to go on doing so ' ad infinitum.'
I dine with Lansdowne to meet the King of Spain
to-morrow, and then I am off to ' camp ' with my Yeomanry
in Delamere Forest. You must approve of that !
Later I go to Dover and make myself pleasant to all
eschewing oratory and dilating merely -on * our Historic
Past.'
The Cabinet-making of the Opposition will become
delirious now that Lansdowne has suggested that there
may actually be an Election within a year. It was obvious
that we could not deal with the report of a Conference
which only meets in June 1906, and may not report till
we should be in a seventh Session. Yet good men and
true worry over it, and take God to witness, and quarrel
134 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
for all the world as if anything ever did happen. Whereas
it is well known that nothing ever does happen except
of course, casus, 4 fallings down.' ' All the King's horses
and all the King's men ' are perennially engaged on the
abortive hoisting of Humpty-Dumpty. That is Politics.
Occasionally it is well to take a turn in the part of
Humpty-Dumpty. I was amused to hear that, when
A. J. B.'s illness threatened non-appearance at the Albert
Hall, an anxious group of Conservative M.P.'s, after
ruling out Liberal Unionists and Beach and Douglas,
wondered whether I could be got back in time to take
the meeting 1 How funny of them not to guess that
Humpty-Dumpty sticks to the privilege of inertia sits,
falls and acquiesces in re-hoisting but never climbs.
Yours ever, G. W.
537
To his Mother
OAKHERB CAMP,
NORTHWICH, June 13, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I got your delightful letter
a nice fat one and, as our Field-day is put off for half
an hour, am answering straight away. What fun you
and uncle Freddy and the two Jackasses must be having
all together. I am very glad the two Jackasses have
arrived. I hate any change in places that I love and
missed their laughter the last few times at Clouds.
I am very well. We have the first sprinkle of rain
this morning. Till now it has been as dry as a bone here.
The nights were cold ; but I thrived on them. At first
I put on long drawers under my pyjamas and many
blankets and a fur rug. But as that almost crushed me
011 a camp bed and as I became rapidly acclimatised I
now sleep with only a couple of blankets. This is a
lovely spot a long upland glade one and a half mile by
a third of a mile with the forest on each side, Scotch firs,
birches, chestnuts and bracken. We are on the high
TO HIS MOTHER 135
ground on the further side of ' High Billings ' from
Saighton. I spent Sunday there with Sibell and felt
quite keen to get back to my books and the garden.
The Yeomanry has made a good transition from Ireland
back to Cheshire. Everybody is so pleased to see us
and all the old hunting and camp stories carry me back
ten years. All the young officers are good fellows. We
drill, or manoeuvre in the Forest all the morning and
in the afternoon stimulated by our C. O. Lord Harrington
we cut at heads and posts and shoot children's coloured
air-balloons as we jump, a la Dick Turpin. As I am
always really only sixteen years old inside I enjoy this
as much as Percy could. My new horse, Terence, takes
to soldiering well. He is very fond of me already and
wise. Horses are immensely proud and self-conscious
when they find themselves with hundreds of other horses.
They think that the uniforms and the Flag-staff and the
Trumpets are all there in their honour. Personally I
know no better amusement than commanding a squadron
on a good horse. Arty Grosvenor and Bendor are in
the squadron and all the young riding farmers from
round Saighton. Our Sergeant Major from the Blues
weighs 20 stone and we have a horse in the ranks over
18 hands high. He is called ' Dick ' which amuses me
and is a general favourite. Now the sun is bursting out
and I am off to ' umpire ' at the fight a canter out of
five miles through the Forest. We shall lunch out and
be six or seven hours in the saddle.
I will let you know about coming to ' 44.' I want
Sibell to stay at Saighton as much as possible. She
rackets herself to death in London and is much happier
here.
I am very glad that they made Alphonso Colonel of
the 16th. I read about the Cavalry charge at Aldershot
and heard of old Guy at the Court Ball. I suppose he
will get a Spanish order and wear a locket.
I go on to Letty's Ball at Madresfield.
Love to all. Ever your most loving son,
GEORGE.
136 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
538
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
35 PARK LANE, W.,
June 22, '05.
MY DEAR WILFRID, My thoughts turned to you at
Mamma's Birthday dinner party on Tuesday. And,
now, I want to settle a day for my visit to you at New-
buildings. Would Saturday July 1st be convenient ?
Between now and then I have to go to Dover.
Button 1 is dining with me here to-night.
The Fancy Dress Ball at Madresfield Lettice's home
was a great success. Lettice and Beauchamp appeared
as a Lord and Lady Beauchamp of Powick, anno 1450.
I wore my Palaeologus dress of 1437 which you saw once
at Saighton. Percy who came from Germany wore a
beautiful Valois dress, and Bendor went as the Earl of
Surrey temp. Henry vin. after a picture at Hampton
Court. They made a fine pair and Sibell was very proud
of them. She wore a dress, also from picture at Hampton
Court, of Miss Stewart, afterwards Duchess of Richmond.
But Sibell called herself Margaret Godolphin, supposed
to be, perhaps, the only perfectly respectable lady of the
Restoration Court.
I hope that June is doing you good. I wrote some
verses on June which I will show you at Newbuildings.
Ever yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
539
To Bertram W indie
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE,
July I4th, 1905.
MY DEAR DOCTOR WINDLE, Your 4 Wessex ' is a
delightful book to read at any time and in any place, but,
above all, in London and mid July. I am most grateful
1 Hon. Algernon Bourke.
TO HIS FATHER 137
for the gift. I admire Mr. New's illustrations. Am I
right in believing that he illustrated one of the Kelmscott
books ? At any rate the combination is a most effective
one.
Wiltshire, Dorset and the Cotswolds are my favourite
tracks in England. Some day I hope to do a little Wilt-
shire with you from Clouds, my father's place.
I shall press Education on Mr. Long. It is the thing
most needed and the only thing that can be done under
existing circumstances.
Thanking you again. Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
540
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, August 8th, 1905.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I appreciated your letter and
shall follow its advice.
I am very well. I finished my lecture on Ronsard
some days ago, and have polished it up without effort.
In the mornings I play Polo ! at Eaton or, rather,
knock the ball about with Bendor and Shelagh and
two of the Demigods who played for England against
America.
Bendor has on hand a Polo Tournament. It is great
fun. There are nine teams and ninety-two ponies, worth
500 a piece, put up for the week.
Hugh Cecil is staying with me and is quite absorbed in
the Polo. At first we were rather afraid of the swells,
Nickalls, Millers, Wilson etc. But they are very kind
and affable. What with the concentration of motors,
the herds of famous ponies, the ' Bloods,' the wives
of the 'Bloods,' the bands (1) Military, (2) Gotlieb,
the concourse of the County etc., it is a sort of Eglinton
Tournament ' up to date.' Your loving son,
GEORGE.
188 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
541
To Charles T. Gatty
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 18th August '05.
MY DEAR CHARLES, It was delightful to see your
handwriting in a letter to Sibell, and to know that I shall
soon see you. But I insist on more than one day's visit
that is absurd and I propose that you come on, or
as soon after September 1st as you can manage. Cuckoo
comes on the first. Try and come 1st or 2nd and stay
a few days. I have invaded the upper room in the tower
the 4 girls' schoolroom ' eheu fugaces ! There I feel
like the Greek tyrant who slept in the top storey and
pulled the ladder up after him through a hole in the floor.
The room is cleared and whitewashed. I retain my own,
old, lower room also. I started to sort my books on the
broad principle of poetry, literature, books of reference,
upstairs; history, politics, philosophy, science, down-
stairs. I found that nine-tenths of the books in each
class were not in the storey of their ultimate destination,
but in the other. So I spent 2 days on the turret stairs,
perspiring freely, with 10 volumes on each journey clasped
between my hands and chin. Now order reigns, and
it is mighty pleasant.
Hugh Cecil spent some five days with me. We dis-
cussed most of the Centuries and Continents, read Poetry,
mapped out the future of the Church, and assigned their
provinces and ideals to novel combinations of parties in
Home Politics. Also we attended, day by day, the
Polo Tournament organised by Bendor on a basis of
11 teams and 92 ponies.
I wrote a lecture on Ronsard and delivered it at Oxford
in my Doctor's gown.
Now I perpend and wait for the Seven Devils to occupy
my swept and garnished life.
I have two offers to write on Shakespeare ; an inclina-
tion to write a few essays on my own account, and
TO PHILIP HANSON 139
a determination not to join this Government whatever
happens.
I trust that your images are really within sight of
repaying you. But, dear Charles, don't work yourself
to death even in the cause of gypsum.
I stayed with the Dean of Christchurch for the lecture
and met interesting people : Armstrong, an authority on
Italian poetry, and many more.
Among them Canon Henson, a pathetic figure ; clever,
and overworked.
I do hope that you will come as early as you can in
September and stay for some days. Yours affection-
ately, GEORGE W.
542
To Philip Hanson
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 25.viii.05.
MY DEAR P. H., Your letter is conclusive on the
theory of telepathy. I thought of you a good deal yester-
day ; realised that I had not heard from you for quite a
tune ; and determined to write myself the first thing to-day
Then pat ! comes just the letter I was missing. It is
very welcome, every line of it. When do you take your
holiday ? and can you look in here on the way ? We
shall be here 1st to 4th and 12th to 18th September, and
then from about 10th October onwards. The gaps repre-
sent a visit, or so, and Dover.
Sometimes Politics surge up from the back caverns of
thought and memory. But I put them aside. I read
the ' Seething Pot ' in Florence. It is good. The other
aspect of Ireland, what I may call the Polo-Ground
aspect is more insistent. I loved the Phoenix Park, and
the Lodge, and am haunted by memories of people who
were kind. Yet I agree it is ' all nonsense really,' as you
say. Nevertheless, give my warm remembrance to Lady
Thomson and Sir T. Myles and others.
140 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
The ' erraticke sterres ' are not in it with Percy. He
called on you the other day, being at Leopardstown, etc.,
returned to have a tSte-a-tete with the Dean of Christ-
church, and, after settling to read hard lor another ' shot '
in December, looked in here yesterday, and was off again
to Dublin ! It is jolly to be as young as all that.
Ronsard was good fun. I lectured in crimson glory of
D.C.L. robes, the perspiration dripping from my brow,
to a large audience about 1,200 mostly composed of
lean and earnest ladies. Need I tell you that I had to
throw more than a quarter overboard, although speaking
pretty fast for one hour and ten minutes ?
Macmillan wants to publish and make ' something
rather nice of it.' But the Devil has tempted me to
' finish ' the section I omitted, influence on Elizabethans.
You ought to be here to take it away from me. I will
send it off to-day : and finish on the * proofs.'
I made a great effort after austerity and only break out
once or twice. The structure is of Spartan simplicity :
(1) The Age and the Man ; (2) Sources of Inspiration and
Aim of Art ; (3) Achievement and Influence. So far, so
good. But when I said to Walter Raleigh as I left the
platform, ' I 'm afraid it was three lectures,' he answered
' No, a book.'
Sidney Lee in his ' Elizabethan Sonnets,' published
only last year, forestalled a good deal that I had worked
out 10 years ago. But no matter for that.
* B-o-o-k, Book,' and then go and write it as I must
now.
Be really happy, write soon ; let us meet. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
543
To Wilfrid Ward
August 26th, 1905.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I did not refer to your proposed
4 notes on Ireland,' because as you rightly judged I
do prefer not to offer any opinion.
TO HIS MOTHER 141
Much that I said has been so misconstrued that, for
the present, I maintain silence.
It is not the case that I tried to construct a moderate
party i.e. a body with an organisation, leader, programme,
etc.
What I preached in season and out of season was that
all, no matter to what parties they belonged, or what
extreme views they might hold, should endeavour to
agree on practical proposals of a moderate character.
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
544
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, September 1st, 1905.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, The Mallaranny Picture is
quite beautiful : a beautiful picture and a beautiful poem,
in one. It is a work of genius. You must paint some
more sketches from recollection. They are worth many
enamels. The mind selects what the imagination has
received. Louis Stevenson, in one of his essays on travel
says that he can only describe a country properly after
he has left it and then, only, if he has no notes, or con-
temporary letters to refer to. These, he argues, inter-
fere with the process of natural selection in the mind
which, if unembarrassed by notes, leads up to a ' survival
of the fittest.' Your sketch of Mallaranny proves that
this is true of painting also. It gives vision.
Lavery, the painter, told me that he painted in that
way sometimes and could best give a landscape in that
way.
I am very well. Macmillan is publishing my Ronsard
lecture, as a little book, or pamphlet. Courtney asked
me to send it to the ' Fortnightly ' but I had said ' done '
to Macmillan and prefer a separate publication for a
thing that appeals to a small audience.
I cannot quite make up my mind whether I shall, or
142 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
shall not, add an Appendix of some of my translations.
Probably I shall.
Hanson is staying here for a night and Gatty till
Tuesday, also darling Cuckoo. We are very happy.
We go to Derwent on the 5th, to Wynward on the
8th, and return on the 12th.
Bless you, darling, for the lovely picture and ' alli-
gator ' on the back and letter. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
545
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
SAIGHTON,
September 3, '05.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I have been thinking of you
constantly, during long stretches, day after day. Your
presence is strangely insistent. The last two nights I
have spent in reading your poetry. Your poetry touched
me first when I was very young and turned me into what
I am. But, reading it again, I receive two vivid impres-
sions ; that you are a Poet, without any shadow of doubt,
destined to great praise in years still long distant ; and,
again, that the stuff of your poetry is linked very closely
with my life. I feel coerced to write this to-night. I have
left everybody downstairs to do it.
September 4M.
I was interrupted by Charles Gatty, who is here. We
often talk of you. Please ask Cockerell to write and tell
me how you are. I expect to go south at the end of
September, in order to visit my constituents, and I shall
come to see you early in October. I enjoyed my lecture
on Ronsard at Oxford. I delivered it in my crimson
D.C.L. robes. Macmillan is publishing it. I stayed
with the Dean at Christchurch. His lawn between
Cardinal Wolseley's library and the Cathedral of St.
Frydeswytte (I am not sure of the lady's name) is a
perfect spot for meditation. The remains of St. Frydes-
wytte's shrine are very beautiful and were much admired
TO CHARLES BO YD 143
by Burne-Jones. The adventures of her corpse give an
epitome of the English Reformation. When Edward vi.
came to the throne, Somerset disinterred St. Frydeswytte
and buried, in her place, the wife of Peter Martyr, a nun
who had broken her vows. When Mary Tudor succeeded,
Mrs. Peter Martyr was removed and St. F. replaced.
When Elizabeth reigned in her place she put them both
in together, and there they are just like the Communion
Service in the Prayer Book.
I have been riding with Percy and long for the day when
I shall ride with you again. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
546
To Charles Boyd
35 PARK LANE, W.,
10.x. 05.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I was delighted to get your letter.
What a ten years it has been ! My plan of campaign is
simple, viz. : to remain young, to make Dover doubly
secure, to entrench myself politically for some months
in Conservative principles as a base from which to
operate towards closer Imperial Unity. Incidentally I
attend at Dover, Chamber of Commerce Banquet,
Mayor's Dinner, Primrose League Dinner, etc., etc.
I spoke for one hour and twenty minutes at Dover on
the 27th to a large audience. But just now no one must
start new plans.
The Government make a mistake in staying in. They
are boring the country and tiring out their army. All
the more reason say I that those who mean business
should keep within their lines of Torres Vedras. After
that Imperial Organisation by all means. But don't
touch compulsory service for the Army. The proper
plan as I informed the House of Commons 4| years
ago is to have Militia in all parts of the Empire, receiving
a small Imperial retainer and all coming on to a uniform
rate of Imperial pay in the hour of Imperial Emergency.
144 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
That is part of Imperial Organisation. Conscription
at home by whatever name you like to call it is Insular.
Our Empire is Oceanic. That fact is the test stone of
every plan for Imperial organisation.
Meanwhile, Percy is here for a week's holiday. We
went cub-hunting to-day from 7.45 to 1.45, and jumped
many brooks and fences.
I have to deliver a ' Short Address ' in Chester to-
morrow. Macmillan is publishing my lecture on Ronsard.
I go to London on Monday next, the 16th, and could dine
or talk after dinner. I go to bed early now and take
immense care of my health. Yours ever in the bond,
GEORGE W.
547
To Bertram W indie
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, November 1st, 1905.
MY DEAR DOCTOR WINDLE, Your letter has given me
something more than pleasure. It makes me hope that
you will achieve some of the projects for which I worked.
And, being human, I cannot but be glad to hear from you
that some remember that I did work and guess, perhaps,
how deeply I cared.
I tried very hard to get a Central Committee for enquiry
and advice on questions of commerce, transit, manufacture
and handicraft. I know the political rocks and shoals,
and can estimate the considerable measure of success
which you have attained. The list of speakers for
November 21st and 22nd proves to me that much has
already been accomplished. It is most encouraging to
see that, in addition to the Chairman of the Cork and
Dublin Chambers of Commerce, the New Department,
and the Bishops of Cloyne and Waterford, you have also
secured politicians representing so many divergent sections
of political opinion. Messrs. Boland, T. W. Russell,
William Field, Sloan and Captain Donelan, with Lord
Dunraven, comprise almost every shade. I regret that,
TO BERTRAM WINDLE 145
excepting Mr. Russell and Mr. Sloan whose usefulness
I would by no means minimise Belfast is not yet,
apparently, ready to throw in her lot with the general
prosperity of Ireland. Her Captains of Industry hold
back. It is slow work, demanding infinite patience.
It may be that Belfast will always stand aside. If so,
there is all the more reason for closer communion through-
out the centre and south.
I also read with pleasure and relief that you ' find
plenty to do and never have an idle moment.' That
reconciles me to having lured you into such troublous
seas.
I shall read your inaugilral address with keen interest.
Some day I shall pay you a visit. But, for the present,
I cannot help Ireland. Any action or words of mine
would be misrepresented, and serve only to em-
barrass those who at I am sure considerable risk are
willing to take up the task of assisting Ireland * to find
Herself.'
In the long run it may prove that my failure to secure
support in Ireland and financial assistance from Parlia-
ment, is not to be regretted.
If Irishmen come to understand how little English
politicians Conservatives, Liberals, Free-Traders, Pro-
tectionists and Labour men know or care about Irish
interests, they will discover that they cannot afford to
imitate the worst features in our Party system.
It is all to the good that no one can say of the 'First
Irish Industrial Conference ' that it is promoted or
engineered by a Chief Secretary. That makes it easier
for Irish politicians to co-operate, and easier for them to
defend their co-operation from malicious attacks.
So, as a private individual without any political * arriere
pensee,' who merely cares for the well-being of Ireland,
your Conference and your attempts to improve the oppor-
tunities for Higher Education, have my heartfelt good
wishes. Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
VOL. n.
146
548
To his Father
RICHMOND, ASKE,
YORKSHIRE, November 26th, 1905.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I owe you several letters. I
have been interested in politics and deluged with corres-
pondence, which mounts up during a shooting party.
Last week I spent with Sir William Eden at Windle-
stone. We shot three days and hunted Friday. It was
a mixed party and amused me when I got used to it.
The guns were, besides host and self, Lord Villiers, ' Jack '
Menzies, Hunter, Cazalet and George Lambton.
Hunter is husband to Mrs. Hunter, sister to Ethel
Smythe. She has been painted by Sargent and * sculp-
tured ' by Rodin ; Mrs. Menzies and Muriel Beckett were
younger ' beauties.'
I raised a horse in the neighbourhood and enjoyed
hunting with Willy Eden and George Lambton, though
the run was too short. It reminded me of old days.
My horse was a good jumper.
We are alone here with the Zetlands and he mounts
me with his hounds to-morrow.
There is a beautiful Sir Joshua here of George rv. as
a young man the companion picture to Col. St. Leger.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
549
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
28.xi.05.
MY DEAR P. H., Your letter only reached me this
morning in Yorkshire. I go on to Dover to-morrow and
cannot be sure when I shall get back to Saighton. Even
if I am as I expect at Saighton, Sunday I shall be too
busy to enjoy Filgate's company, for I start again on
Monday.
I should like to see you immensely, and not in such a
TO PHILIP HANSON 147
hurry. Could you come later and stay longer ? Then,
by all means, let Filgate accompany you for a day.
Next Sunday I must l sport my oak.' Now I come to
think of it, I get back Friday, give prizes that night with
speech on Education, and hunt Saturday, so that Sunday
is my only day for getting things ship-shape again.
I want a talk with you : I shall be at Saighton, I think,
13th-17th, and continuously after, say, the 20th or 21st.
You MUST see us on way to and from Christmas.
I have, at last, begun to study ' Fiscals ' seriously. A
great deal has happened lately.
PRIVATE. I took a decisive step about a month ago,
rather less. First A. C. and then J. C. asked me to join
in an agitation for Tariff Reform. I felt the time had
come to define my position. I wrote to J. C. definitely
declining an all-round Tariff for double object of (i) giving
employment, (ii) raising surplus millions to relieve rates
and promote social legislation. That being so, I added that
an ' agitation at least in my hands (!) could serve only
to accentuate Party divisions on the eve of an Election.'
I have corresponded with others, including the P. M.
We are all risking much ; so that Politics have regained
their dignity.
In view of the general ruction I have agreed to address
4000 people at Huddersfield on January 23rd.
I have never been daunted by Colonial Preference.
For a laudable object and adequate return I will tax,
with preference to Colonies, (a) luxuries, (b) corn up to
2/- if necessary.
Or take Retaliation : let us try negotiating, and, if
need be, fighting to get our goods into markets from which
they are shut out. If we do, with any regard to facts
and common sense, again the counter-blow would fall
on (a) luxuries, (b) food, rather than on manufactures.
When a manufacturer and this is a favourite Pro-
tectionist argument transfers his mill to Germany, it
is because he sold his goods to Germany and can do so
no longer. To ' protect ' his manufactures here effects
nothing ; it irritates without hurting.
148 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Both these projects make against, rather than for,
protection.
My difficulty begins with ' broadening the basis of
taxation.'
I do not believe that either of the two projects named
would protect ; but neither do I believe that they would
bring in Revenue to any appreciable extent. In so far
as they fulfil their ostensible and to me real objects,
they will do neither. Indeed, a tax on wine might
decrease Revenue. For our existing taxes have reached
the limit of productivity qua indirect, and the limit of
prudence qua direct taxation.
There 's the rub ! I preach economy, honestly. But
in my heart of hearts I know that Imperial Defence
developing the Unity of Empire bettering the conditions
of life at home must mean greater expenditure. Whether
at the W. O. or the I. O., I found many things that ought
to be done and could not be done for lack of funds.
I cannot, therefore, say that I will never put on new
taxes. Indeed, if I were Chancellor of Exchequer in
ten years' tune, I should be driven to it.
Taxes on manufactured articles will not, I believe,
produce much revenue. They will, probably, merely
shift employment from one trade into another, or from
one grade into another grade of the same trade. They
would protect certain trades, or processes, i.e. the agri-
culturist would pay more tor his machine, and the opera-
tive would make more pig-iron and iewer tin-plates.
If, therefore, I found it necessary to discover new taxes
for Revenue, the most effective and fairest course would
be to have a revenue tariff, really general and really non-
protective, except accidentally to an insignificant degree.
To be brief : the ideal is, that such taxes should be
universal and very low.
I have two objects : (i) Imperial, (ii) domestic.
(i) Imperial. I go to my conference hoping for closer
Union, less taxation on my manufactures, trade routes
within the Empire, and last, but not least, some appreci-
able contribution from the Colonies towards Imperial
TO PHILIP HANSON 149
Defence, say, the Navy, and imperial retainer for Militia
throughout the Empire.
Now, most of our Colonies have a protective tariff for
manufactures, but also a genuine revenue tariff. It
used to be 7% ad valorem at the Cape when I was there.
If I am to devise a plan for the Empire, I must take
into account the custom of all the parts.
I may say that taxes which go exclusively into the
Exchequer and give no indirect protection, are best for
me. But I cannot say they are best for South Africa
or India. So without violating the Free Trader's theory
qua this Island, I can advocate an all-round 2% ad
valorem, the proceeds of which are to be ear-marked for
Imperial defence. In the Cape or India it would be a
slight addition to their customary system. Here it would
be an insignificant exception from our system.
Having dealt thus with (i) Imperial, I turn to (ii)
Domestic, and put on another l%-3% in all to make
a k pool ' for carrying out Balfour of Burleigh's Report.
I should come out with an Imperial and Domestic policy
based on all round 3% taxes for Revenue.
Protection disappears. Retaliation is left rather high
and dry. If needed, the 4 blows ' ought to be devised
to act as threats. They ought to hit where it hurts and
not to be of a protective character.
I did not mean to write all this. It is purely speculative.
For the moment we must keep clear of J. C.'s 10% on
manufacture. Yours ever, G. W.
550
To Philip Hanson
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, l.xii.05.
MY DEAR P. H., Many thanks for your letter. You
must come on the 21st. Percy will be here and we shall
have a royal time. Bring Charles with you.
I wrote to the Orange Colonel, Wednesday, on the
' Times ' Report. So far I have received no reply, explana-
tion, or even acknowledgment.
150 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It is curious that all the people who go for Joe have
begun to knife the people who don't.
The Irish are getting excited. The only thing that
angers me is when they attack A. J. B.
I am just in from a short address on Education at
Chester, after Prizes by my Lady. I said one thing that
still pleases me. I led up to it with * danger of gospel of
Efficiency pushed to excess ' ; why should we ' beat the
Foreigner ' unless our descendants are to be ' Heirs of all
the ages ' ? And then my epigram ' Do not make a
scrap-heap of the Past and a treadmill of the Future.'
You must allow that this was good for the students.
I begged them to preserve the qualities which used to
distinguish man from the brutes in the past, and ought
to distinguish him from machines in the future. What
are these inherent qualities ? To find them we must, in
accordance with Modern Science, go to the nursery and
study children, or to uncivilised countries and study
savages. What do we find ? (1) Pommeling, (2) Riddles,
(3) Mud-pies. To fight, to understand, to make.
Fighting men or nature is sufficiently preserved in
games and sport. In earliest periods Fighting and Hunt-
ing pursued to exclusion of all else. Danger now is that
so-called ' Battle of Life ' with nothing of primitive
daring and loyalty, shall be pursued also to exclusion of
all else. Danger is that we shall become machines. So
hark back to the Understanding and Making. (Aside
Here Charles will interrupt with gypsum.)
We must know truth and model beauty, etc., etc.
They all liked it ! Yours ever, GEORGE W.
551
To Charles T. Gatty
35 PARK LANE, W.,
4.xii.05.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Many thanks for your letter. I
hope to be back at Saighton on Wednesday 7th, unless
TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 151
detained. Her ladyship will be there till Friday, and both
of us back Wednesday 13th.
I should like to see you.
Saunderson accepts my contradiction unreservedly.
What an extraordinary people they are.
Bendor, you may have noticed, is Lord Lieutenant of
Cheshire.
In answer to your question, I do not believe that the
Irish Vote turns 142 seats, or, indeed, any considerable
number.
C. B. will form a Government, I feel pretty sure.
The situation is curiously analogous to that of 1845.
Lord John Russell then failed to do so because one man,
Howick (afterwards Grey), refused to join. Peel then
resumed and carried on, execrated by the Protectionists
and just supported by the Liberals till Repeal was passed.
Then the Protectionists and Irish joined forces and
smashed him. Yours ever, G. W.
552
To his Sister, Madeline
35 PARK LANE, W.,
13.xii.05.
MOST DARLING MANENAi, I am coming without fail
and will let you know train. 1 I may have to cut the visit
very short as, besides Dover, the smash at Charing Cross
is taxing my time. You spell the second name Philfip
with II I shall spell it Phi/ip with one I merely as a
supporter of compulsory Greek. It ought to be PhilMpjp.
But nobody spells it that way, and, out of deference to
convention, even I refrain. I hope he will love the
Horse. Your devoted brother, GEORGE W.
Off to Dover !
1 For the christening of her son.
152 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
553
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
December 20th, 1905. Midnight.
MY DEAR MARY, I forgive you because you ask me to
do so, and am very, very sorry to have missed you.
I am too tired to argue to-night.
I stated my position in advance, on the Address of
1901. It was a difficult position to assume, and defend.
It has not been made easier for me by ' the other party.'
On the contrary, it was made untenable.
I asked then (1901), and again and again, during more
than four years, that the questions of Land, Education,
etc., should be discussed on their merits, with a desire
to make progress and without reference to Home Rule :
as I put it, ' without making them stalking horses for
Home Rule.'
Yet most Liberal speakers, and all Liberal papers, have
insisted that I did not mean what I said.
Finally, at a moment when nobody believes that the
Liberals can pass, or even introduce a Home Rule Bill,
the Leader of the Liberal Party quite gratuitously asserts
that everything done for the benefit of Ireland is to be
considered, not on its merits, but as a step to Home
Rule.
Let me put it in this way : if, for what seems the Party
object of proving that I and the Unionist Government
were ready to work towards Home Rule, Liberal speakers
persistently ignore the distinction I drew, then no course
is open to me but to draw that distinction more sharply.
And, believe me, there is nothing but disappointment
and bitterness and delay to all progress in confusing
as I would put it such practical questions, on which
agreement is possible, with the creation of a legislative
Assembly upon which agreement is not possible.
I deplore C. B.'s speech, because I believe that it adjourns
evert/thing for 5 or 10 years.
TO HIS FATHER 153
I did not mean to argue. But I care intensely for these
things.
It was bad enough to be murdered ' politically ' as a
reformer in Ireland. It is almost worse to see your Party
committing suicide in a like capacity.
Fortunately I am young. And when your Party has
reaped, in turn, its crop of savage ingratitude, I may
still hope to see the parties working together for what is
possible in Ireland as they are now working together for
what is possible in Foreign Affairs.
I need hardly add that the report which you have seen
of my speech is a scanty presentment of 45 minutes.
My constituents know, and approve, my desire to see
practical work done for Ireland. They are entitled to
know that I object to handing over legislation, except
for private Bills, to a subordinate Parliament. As I
have stated that objection repeatedly for 18 years, I
am entitled to re-state it when it is persistently discredited
by a combination of English Liberals and Ulster Fanatics.
Now I must ask you to forgive me. We are close on
Christmas, and, apart from charity, I am, yours
affectionately, G. W.
554
To his Father
SAIGHTON,
December 22nd, 1905.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Your letter of 16th was interesting.
But much has happened since then. I was ' slated.'
But, politically, my position is beginning to emerge from
the morass of hard lying. I wrote Saunderson a quiet,
but firm, letter contradicting him flatly for the second
time. He has not replied. If he ever raises the matter
in the House I have but to read the correspondence in
order to blow him out of the water.
After that ' private scrimmage ' I went to Bowood,
Friday to Tuesday, and had interesting talks with
Metternich and Lansdowne. Then, on Wednesday week,
154 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
13th, I took on Dover. I spoke nine times in four nights
and was in very good form. I went over Harbour Works
and Iron Works all the mornings, had political or social
lunches, slept the whole afternoon, had tea and eggs
and spoke freely, without preparation, in the evenings
from 7.30 to 12 o'clock. I did three meetings first night,
one the second, four the third and one the fourth reported
more or less.
On Sunday I needed a rest so I went with George Peel
who with his father, Lord Peel, happened to be at my
hotel to Canterbury by the 9 a.m. train and mooned
about the cathedral till 3 o'clock. It is unparalleled. In
the afternoon I returned to Dover and called on retired
officers the ' upper-crust ' who would be ' huffy ' if I
only attended to capital and labour and shop-keepers.
Monday I went to Babraham for the christening of
Manenai's heir, on Tuesday. It was perfect. Our pro-
cession of ' Lady Libbet ' with a crutch-handled stick
darling Chang and self as God-parents, dowager baby and
four sisters was inimitable. Beyond the little stream
there was another procession of all the babies in the parish
hi perambulators, silhouetted, beyond the cut-limes,
against the green meadows. The church was full. I
put in a morning at Cambridge, by motor, with Charlie ;
looked up Walter Durnford Master of King's and Mayor
of Cambridge, saw King's and John's library and the
Templar's church.
I ran down here Wednesday night with Perf who had
' flitted ' to London, for the day, to try on clothes.
All this is introduction. For the moment though
enchanted with C. B.'s folly at the Albert Hall, I am
absorbed in hunting.
S. S. and I open our campaign at Dover at 7 p.m. on
28th with torchlight procession and speech from windows
of the Carlton Club, Dover. But, till then, I merely
hunt, every day. I suppose I ought to write my address
on Sunday. All my ' followers ' are clamouring for it
and Colonel Haigh the new man in Middleton's place
is besieging me to speak all over the country. But
TO HIS FATHER 155
as I said this is beer and skittles by comparison with
hunting. So, let me write about that.
Perf, besides riding far, far better than I did at his age
has developed a faculty for successful horse-coping.
Besides the capital mare which he bought for 21 at
Wrexham in September he has bought with my money
a black thoroughbred near Aston for 70. He rode
the black blood-horse with great distinction on Tuesday.
They hunted fast all over the cream of south Cheshire and
the first flight tell me that Perf went in front all the time.
To-day, we met at Holt, five miles from here. We
had one of those days that make hunting a romance,
comparable only to fighting. It was perfect. Shelagh
Westminster and her uncle, Heremon FitzPatrick were
out from Eaton ; Perf and I, from Saighton : and I may
say that we four will concede equality only to Cholmon-
deley and W. Jones, and Weaver the horse-dealer
and superiority, only to Goswell, the Steeple-chase jockey
and trainer. I admit that he beat us. Nobody else did.
* A southerly wind and a cloudy sky ' with a rising glass
' proclaimed a hunting morning.'
We found at * Royalty ' the best of Watkin Wynn's
coverts, in the pick of the vale, two and a half miles from
Saighton. There was the scent which only comes once
or twice in the few seasons which men remember. We
ran our fox to ground an eight and a quarter mile point
fourteen to fifteen miles, as we ran, over all the best
country, in one hour and fifteen minutes. Royalty,
Garden, Edge Park, Overton Scar, Broughton. Perf
was the first man at the Garden River, and the only one
who got over it. Wengy Jones nearly drowned himself
and his horse. I had the best of the start. But, to my
huge delight, Perf pounded me and the whole field at a
' supposed ' unjumpable place. Excepting Goswell ; Perf,
Fitzpatrick, Shelagh and self, saw the whole run as well
as anybody. And ' anybody ' only means Wengy Jones,
Maiden (the huntsman), Cholmondeley and Weaver.
Indeed, the hounds beat us altogether the last twenty
minutes of this sublime one hour and fifteen minutes.
156 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I am glad to say that Weaver, Wengy, Jones and self
jumped the paddock rails into Broughton Park after we
had been running over the hour. In short, the hounds
carried such a head that a horse could jump anything
and putt after he ought to have been tired out.
But this was not nearly all. We changed horses and
drew Garden Cliff. I viewed the fox away and, with
' Rock ' (Cholmondeley) and Goswell, had the best of
the first rush to the check (fifteen minutes). Then we
hunted again, for about thirteen to fourteen miles after
a loop right across the vale into the Cheshire country,
and * whipped off ' in the dark at Tattenhall, ibur miles
from home. There were divine bits of racing pace,
three or four times, over the best of the Cheshire Vale.
It is not possible to describe this kind of thing. Putting
the two hunts together we must have galloped and jumped
for at least twenty-six miles probably thirty. The
hounds were never cast in either of the two runs. We
hunt again to-morrow.
Perf, with his hat on the back of his head, sailing away,
gives me undiluted joy. He has taken his place, straight
away, in the very first flight of the seven or ten people
who ride hard and see runs. The * professionals ' like
Weaver and Goswell all mention him to me ; and it is
notable to c pound ' such a field over an unjumpable
brook and to see two such hunts to their conclusion.
We rode back together in the dark, absolutely happy,
and played a game of picquet together after dinner.
And so I wish you, and darling Mamma, and Ditch-
mouse, and Guy and Minnie, and all at Clouds a Merry
Christmas and most Happy New Year. Your loving son,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. You like accuracy. Perf, alone, jumped the
Garden river and cleared it. But his horse would have
slipped back with him. So he threw himself off, pulled the
horse up the opposite bank, remounted, and sailed away.
P.S. 2. When Wengy Jones got into the Garden River
I saw that I could not get over it. So I shouted to Perf,
as he remounted, ' You Ve got 'em to yourself, Go on ! '
TO MRS. HINKSON 157
555
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, Christmas Eve, 1905.
MOST DARLING, This is to wish you a most Merry
Christmas and Happy New Year, and to send you all my
love.
Bendor is just back, very well and dear to everybody.
Cuckoo's children are staying with us. Perf and I are
very happy. Give my love to Papa, and dear old Guy
and Minnie, and Ditchmouse and all.
I am not writing other letters this year as I am hard
at it to hunt and get plenty of oxygen into my blood and
to put together papers, etc., for the election campaign.
Your most loving son, GEORGE.
556
To Mrs. Hinkson
SAIGHTON,
CHESTER, Christmas Eve, 1905.
MY DEAR MRS. KATHARINE TYNAN, I thank you for
* Innocencies.' Children explain the riddle of life. They
are the only rest we know. And I thank you, too, for
the ' Dedication.' For the sake of the children of the
future a ' grown-up ' like myself must follow the gleam ;
and, sometimes, through murky defiles in cumbrous
armour.
But that is just when your song leads my own self out
of its case and grime, beyond the sunless gorges, over the
hills and far away ' Adown the pale green avenues ' to
where ' the wind ruffles the windflower.' I and many,
many more than you suppose thank you for that
deliverance.
As you have sent me so many songs, I will send you one
which I wrote years ago in 1891 because your poetry
is to me what I felt then.
158 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
AFTER SICKNESS IN SPRINGTIME
Out in the air again,
Over the downs ;
How the wind drowns
Body and brain !
Hums in my ears,
Blinds me with tears,
Washing the world of the dead winter's stain
Spring winds are here again,
Scouring the world ;
See the dust whirled
Over the plain !
Cleansing the mind
Foully confined.
Day after day in the prison of pain.
Listen ! The lark again
Sings where the skies
Dazzle our eyes.
Oh ! How his strain,
Sharper than sight,
Pierces the height,
Tingles from Heaven like glittering rain.
When I read ' Innocencies ' I cry, ' Listen, the lark
again ! '
Was it your husband who wrote to the P. M. G. a letter
about the * Catholic Association ' ? I hope so.
Late, on this Xmas eve, all my thanks and good wishes,
go out to you. Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
557
To Bertram W indie
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, Christmas Eve, 1905.
MY DEAR DR. WINDLE, I cannot resist writing to
thank you for your good wishes, and to reciprocate them
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 159
most warmly. Lady Grosvenor, who joins me in wishing
you a happy Christmas and successful New Year, is
delighted with ' Ad Matrem.'
I am much struck by the passage in Dr. O'Dwyer's
address, and, even more, by your Bishop's action in
respect of the Students' sodality.
We are getting to work here to battle over a Home
Rule proposal which may never be made.
These fights of ' Bates and Crows ' would be grotesque
if they did not mean the distraction of attention from
practical work on which men of all political views can
agree. As it is, they are tragic and to no one more so
than to yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
558
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, Xmastide, 1905.
MOST DARLING PAMELO, I have been thinking of you
these days and send all love to you and real dynamic
wishes that you shall be happy and blessed in the New
Year. Give love to Eddy and much to the children.
You must tell me what good set of books Clare would
really like from me. Bowdler's Shakespeare in 6 vols. ;
or all Walter Scott, or all Dickens. Or would she like
a desk.
As for Bim, I think a desk ? if he has not got one. Let
me know at your leisure.
To-day 28th I start now for the Election ; and shall
scarcely be human for three weeks. It seems a silly way
to govern a country for everybody to talk loud, and boast
and bicker and malign during three weeks. The only
thing that redeems it to my mind is that it resembles the
conduct of dogs when suddenly surprised by a normal
incident, such as the moon rising, or the dinner bell
ringing. Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
160 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
559
To his Sister, Pamela
HOTEL BURLINGTON,
DOVER, 31st December 1905.
MOST DARLING PAM, I love the Book of Peace and
the quotation. I like one from Troilus (Chaucer) :
' Let not this wretched woe thine herte grieve.
But manly set the world on six and seven
And if thou die a martyr, go to Heaven.'
(Half the fun is to write on this outrageous paper. It
gives the local colour of an Election.)
I am immensely amused by the numbers, enthusiasm
and complete ignorance of Dover ladies, dying to help.
I have armies of lady canvassers. But they are bowled
out by the first question of the canvassee. Like irregular
horse, they come back plunging through the ranks for
support from Head Quarters. It is now decided that I
am to give them a lecture. A ladies' class will gather,
and I shall explain Fiscals, Education and Licensing to
them. They hope after I have served out the ammuni-
tion to do great execution. But I have my doubts.
Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
560
To his Father
HOTEL BURLINGTON,
DOVER, January 9th, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Sibell and self are both keeping
very well. To-day I feel a little limp, partly owing to
the weather, partly because last night one of those occa-
sions came to me which make me speak far better than
my form. I gave so much of my vitality to the audience
that I feel the reaction ; all the more as I spoke at a
second meeting when I was very tired. But it was worth
TO HIS FATHER 161
it. My Chairman had tears in his eyes and I worked
up the meeting to a frenzy of anger and enthusiasm.
So far I have always held, and sometimes ' swept ' my
audiences. But as they vote for me unanimously, or
with only three to five dissentients, it is clear that they
agree in the main.
You must not be disappointed even if I were beaten.
I have three difficulties. My friends are the supporters
of the Conservative Corporation. They have burdened
the rates, and are hated by many. So that my Army,
though loyal, is a stage army, turning up every night and
numbering ? That is the rub ! Is it 2000 or 2500 ?
My second difficulty is that all the Nonconformists
have been, and are working against me with silent, but
relentless, animosity.
My third difficulty is the one you note in your letter
to S. S. The Trades Union leaders and socialists have
issued orders to all the working-men.
The Railway Vote is shaky : Weetman Pearson, a
Liberal, is employing 1500 on the Harbour works ; the
Flour mills ; Paper mills and Gas works are all, I fear,
doubtful. There are 2000 new Electors, who, like Brer
Rabbit, * lay low, and say nothink ! ' So we mustn't
mind a beating if it comes.
I expected to win by 500. I now put it at 300, a slender
margin on 6300 electors of whom 2000 are an unknown
quantity.
But we have * put up ' a grand fight and, as I could
not have done more, my mind is quite peaceful.
S. S. is a constant source of amusement to me. I wish
I could remember all her sayings.
I want to win and figure in the ' little band ' of Con-
servatives who will emerge from this tempest.
I have made seventeen speeches and have only four
more. The ' Telegraph ' reports a bit from Dover most
days.
All love to darling Mamma and all at Clouds. Your
loving son, GEORGE.
VOL. ii. r.
162 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
561
To his Mother
HOTEL BURLINGTON,
DOVER, January 10th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, We loved your letter. If I
did not feel that you had all been very busy over ' Red
Riding Hood ' 1 I should feel rather selfish for not having
told you more of our contest. But I have been going
4 top pace ' every day, without a moment to spare. I
have made 21 speeches. We have got the mob and the
aristocracy with us. So I suppose we are Tories.
My chief amusement consists in S. S.' gradual, but
rapid, conversion into an out-and-out Electioneer-er. She
now comes to all my meetings. A certain number of
working-men one a pale-faced enthusiast with blue eyes,
another, a sort of Goblin who dances after every meeting
follow me wherever I go and take front places and watch
me with gleaming, strained, attention. Well, S. S. and
these demoniacs are now hand-in-glove, on the ' Here we
are again ' principle. As far as enthusiasm goes we are
all demented. The climax of each night beats the night
before. Any man who interrupted would have his neck
broke. But last night in respect of S. S., beat all. I
4 swept ' the Harbour men at 4 p.m. Had a unanimous
meeting (with the pale enthusiast and goblin at 7.30)
another mad meeting of enthusiasm at 8.45 to 1O
o'clock. Then we went at my Chairman's suggestion to
the Town Hall. Our Ward Committees three of them
were meeting in the Council Chamber, Mayor's Parlour
and another room, at the back. Bryce, my opponent,
had a mass meeting in front, i.e. in the Town Hall itself.
So we entered by the police door, crept like Guy Faux
past the cells, and up a ladder into the dock in the court,
and so got to our Ward meetings. We could hear the
cheers and applause in the big hall like sounds in a
1 Children's theatricals at Clouds.
TO HIS MOTHER 163
phonograph. And suddenly, in went S. S. and self into
the Council Chamber. There were 300 and more stalwarts
working at the organization. It was a miracle to her.
They took her on whilst I spoke to that Ward to the
other in the Mayor's Parlour. There she made a speech ! ! !
And, so on, to the third Ward Committee. All the time
we heard the ghostly cheers and clapping from the enemy's
mass meeting under the same roof.
Papa says I am more of a Chamberlain-ite than twelve
months ago.
I have never mentioned Chamberlain, except in refer-
ence to the outrageous interruption at Derby.
I preach the * official ' programme. But I serve it up
so * piping hot ' hot with anger against the foreigners ;
hot with enthusiasm for our colonies that the delirium
grows.
It 's a hard fight. I, myself, only hope to win by three
hundred to five hundred . My workers talk of one thousand,
but they are excited.
I see that one little gibe of mine has got into the London
Press. I enclose cutting. It would have pleased dear
Webber.
It comes from Henry vi and is a good parallel to
C. B.'s fatuous vacillation. Henry vi. says * For Margaret
my Queen, and Warwick too,' I have only changed the
names.
The Irish are polling for me on Religious Education
and work done, in defiance of the National League. That
makes me happy. I have the soldiers solid. I have
about three quarters of the working-men on Fiscal Reform.
Some who have always been Radical are with me.
On the other hand, every Nonconformist in the Town
is voting against me.
They mean to hold back and vote in a solid army from
6 o'clock to 8 in the evening, in the hope of blocking the
polling-booths against our working-men who generally
delay.
There are 6300 voters. I have 3600 promises in
round numbers.
164 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
If you discount both figures, it comes to a near thing.
But my people believe I shall win by a good majority.
Anyway we * go in ' on the first day and are straining
every nerve to set an example. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
562
To his Mother
HOTEL BURLINGTON,
DOVER, January 12th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, S. S. did show me your letter,
but only just now, after all the meetings, and roaring,
and canvassing and trapesing are Thank God ! over.
I am rather sorry I said I might be beaten. But it was
right, really, to let you know. I am enthusiastic when
anything can be done by ' having the God in you.' That
is what enthusiasm means in Greek. The literal English
would be ' God-inside-of-us-ness.' But no one is cooler
over chances. That is why I played at gambling when a
boy, before I worked at things when a man.
Now, on the canvassing returns, if you take an 80 %
Poll, that is, if you assume that only four will vote at all
out of five on the register ; and if you take 75 % of your
promises, that is, that only three will vote out of four
who say they will I should only win by 270.
If I assume that the Freemen are in some cases entered
twice on the Register ; once as Freemen and again as
occupiers, and write off half of them on that score :
then my majority would be 470.
These are narrow margins on 6730 electors.
A wave against you would play the Devil !
My opponents have tried every trick.
They got Sir Weetman Pearson, the Contractor for
the Naval Harbour Works, to wire that he hoped Bryce
would win. Well, 2000 men are employed on the Harbour.
So there you are ! at least let us hope so.
The great thing is to get the wave the other way.
If I have done that I may swell my 270, or my 470, up
TO HIS MOTHER 165
to 700. I almost hope I have done it, or that S. S. and
I, have done it between us.
We hunt down the * doubtfuls,' for every vote counts.
And we play right up to the ' Mob.'
The mob I have got and the soldiers.
You must not abuse dear Dover.
My people have worked splendidly, and we S. S. and
I have the funniest friends, the landlady of a Public
House, all the real working-men of Dover ; and Army.
On the other hand what will Pearson's men do ? and the
Railway men ? and the Gas Works ?
I shall know to-morrow night. We had a wild evening.
There have never been such doings.
They tried to break up my meeting far the largest
ever held.
We stood at bay for fifteen or twenty minutes. I
started twice, and then sat down and smoked a cigarette
(quite right for once) I got 'em at last and spoke for
forty or fifty minutes.
Then I stood on a chair in the next Hall and addressed
the overflow. Then S. S. and I were dragged round the
town without horses Mrs. Rhodes, the landlady, at the
door, and the funny man who dances on the box.
Then I spoke to them again from the carriage.
I love the real working-man and he loves us. Your
loving son, GEORGE.
563
To his Mother
HOTEL BURLINGTON,
DOVER, Midnight, 13/A January 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, We are all astounded at our
victory. It upsets all reasonable, and received rules. I
reckoned on getting | 75 % of those who promised, that
is, told the canvassers they were ' for Wyndham.' I sent
my estimate up to the Central office in London ; because
they are very ' jumpy ' there and had their eye on Dover.
Our Chief Colonel Haig Middleton's successor, wrote
166 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
back that my estimate was the one he had found correct
during sixteen years as chief Agent in Scotland.
Very well : I did the sum and it gave me a 470 majority.
I felt I had the people, the mob, the men, women and
children with me, and, towards the end, thought the
' wave ' might carry me to ' 700.'
But we have upset all calculations. We have swept
the board. Instead of polling three out of four promises,
I polled seven out of eight. What Trojans they are 1 !
I love them.
S. S. has been superb. What I love is that the working
men love me. I won by their hearts.
My people were scared to-day when Sir Weatman
Pearson, the contractor for the Admiralty telegraphed
all to support Bryce and to go against Fiscal Reform.
I was quite overcome by the immense response.
Of course we have used our heads as well as our hearts.
I think we have beaten all records of electioneering, initia-
tive and ingenuity and dash.
Instead of six or seven nomination papers, I had 95
with ten names to each, representing all interests. When
3270 (?) people said ' Yes ' to my canvassers, I wrote an
autograph letter, had it lithographed and sent it to each,
thanking them and asking them to increase my obliga-
tion and add to the value of their support of * our prin-
ciples ' by polling between 8 and 11 in the morning.
Last night I beat organized interruption and then spoke
for fifty minutes ; and then got on a chair and spoke to
an overflow meeting ; and then drove all round the
town, horses taken out spoke again here from the
carriage.
To-day S. S. and I started at 9 o'clock and drove round
till 6.30 and off again at 7.30 to the Town Hall. All the
children were with me. They clustered like bees on my
carriage singing electioneering songs.
I drove up the oldest sailors in our sociable. Men
walked in six miles labourers to vote for me.
The sea of faces at the declaration remains bitten into
my memory. Then we went to the Carlton Club and I
TO HIS MOTHER 167
spoke from the window to a solid square of humanity
filling the Market Square, and so on and so on.
My hand is crushed with hand-shakes. We all love
each other.
My joy is that in spite of Pearson, and Trades Unions, I
polled out the Working-man for the Empire.
I have never attacked my opponent or anyone else.
All my song has been the brotherhood of the Empire
for us all, fair terms from the Foreigner, and the glory of
Empire for our children with a little straight talk for
Christianity in our schools, as the birthright of English
children.
Instead of being ' smart ' at the expense of my opponents
I have opened my heart to all their hearts and, we just
love each other.
I won on Toryism, Empire and Fiscal Reform. The
Irish voted for me ; the Fishermen voted for me, the
Soldiers voted tor me, the Artisans voted for me ! simply
because we liked each other and love the traditions of the
past and the Glory of the Future. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
564
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 24th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Your long, wonderful ' Mother's '
letter, found me just at the right moment.
We are anxious about darling Cuckoo's little Mary.
* Satisfactory ' wire this morning : but she has pneu-
monia, at Madresfield. S. S. is there.
So I am alone just arrived and Perf out hunting.
Now you see how clever it was of you to write yesterday
and address the letter here !
SibelPs letter which met me in the brougham made me
anxious about little Mary my God-daughter and such
.a sweet and, then, Cuckoo. . . . Then I found a wire to
Perf, here, sent to-day which said it was satisfactory.
168 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
This touch of the actual would make me realize the
insignificance of Electioneering ; if I needed a reminder.
But I do not.
I have felt a great deal and thought a great deal in the
last year. I do not think with you, Darling, that I am
an ' instrument,' in the sense of being necessary or im-
portant. But I know I am an ' instrument ' in the
sense that I have been made to feel more and, perhaps,
to think more, than others. That gives me, or strengthens
hi me, the odd power that I certainly have not of myself
over great masses of people.
They listen and believe. I have not always got it to-
the full. It fluctuates. But when I am really magnetic I
can sweep crowd after crowd. It is not oratory. Because,
when I have it, they do not wait for me to finish my sen-
tences. I have it on alternate days. Monday, at Penarth,
I only ' held ' a huge meeting, and only argued. But
Tuesday, at the blackest of the rout, I spoke better and
exerted more influence than at any time in my life with
the two exceptions of my speech on the War, and my
speech on the Land Act in the House. It was almost
frightening to be so intimate with so many. I know the
symptoms. But they made me gasp at the end. They
mobbed up to the platform and made me sign my name
on cards and tickets, and bits of torn paper till my hand
ached and then dragged me round the town.
I shall never forget my night, alone at the Royal Hotel,
Cardiff. The ' Mail ' office flashed Liberal wins with
red lights into my room, all night till 1 a.m. amid hoarse
cheers and shouts of execration. I was alone with those
Danger Signals. Yet I had a great, intoxicated wave
of humanity with me.
At Brigend on Wednesday I did very well but without
magic. On Saturday I again ' swept ' my audience on
Market day in the Shire Hall. On Monday I went to
Bognor to help Edmund Talbot. They had the biggest
meeting ever known in the Assembly Rooms. I spoke
for an hour and did well but no magic, and then spoke
at an overflow with magic. Then I drove to Chichester
TO HIS MOTHER 169
with his daughter, Magdalene. Yesterday, Tuesday, I
had a hard day. Went to London, saw Ned Talbot for
a moment, drove to St. Pancras, ten minutes lunch at
the station, and long journey to Hyde in Cheshire. I
arrived too late for Dinner, had some bread and butter
and was delivered, worn-out and unprepared, to an
audience of 4000 in the theatre. They did all I detest.
Put up the Candidate who cannot speak. Asked me to
wait and speak after Balcarres. He was at the ' over-
flow ' ; did not get back in time etc., etc. So that, tired,
hungry, I suddenly had to speak. And once more, the
power came to me. I made them delirious. Then they
took me to the overflow and I spoke again. Then they
took me to the Club and I made my third speech.
I refused to speak to-night. To-morrow I speak at
Crewe, and on Friday at Rhyl.
I wish you had been there on Tuesday, or last night.
But I cannot count on doing it. It happens to me.
Last night, when I had conquered all opposition and
lit a light in many eyes, it was too late to argue. Some
verses of Davidson, came into my head :
' The Present is a Dungeon Dark
Of Social Problems. Break the Jail !
Get out into the splendid Past
Or bid the splendid Future hail.'
To-day it seems silly to quote that.
Last night I quoted it, and applied it, and turned and
twisted it up spirals of impassioned words, until as I
shouted ' Bid the more splendid Future hail ! And go
forward to meet it ! ! ' There was such a roar of cheering
that I sat down ; having ' done it ' once more.
And, now, to-day comes the human touch of loneliness
and little Mary's danger.
I remember your saying, when Clouds was burnt, that
it made you feel the truth of immortality. Papa dissented.
But that is what I feel.
I never felt so sure that Conservatism and Imperialism
are true and immortal, than to-day.
170 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I am sorry that I am not speaking to-night.
I do not feel vindictive. I do look forward to the
Debate on the Address.
Only one thing has persisted in this turmoil. That is
the blatant, lower-middle-class, fraud, called Liberalism
or * Free Trade.'
Two things that are real emerge :
Labour and Imperialism. They aim at the same goal :
a better life for more of us.
I believe in my method. They believe in their method.
We shall see.
But, whether we are Socialists or Imperialists, we are
living men.
The others are old women and senile professors.
They have got to clear out of ' the ring ' in which we
are going to have a * fight to the finish.' Your ever loving
son, GEORGE.
565
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 2&th, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am much interested in your
letter, but too tired to reply.
Melbourne's observation on ' fools ' was in respect of
Catholic Emancipation. He was right on existing facts.
He was wrong on the facts that were to be. If the ' fools '
who were right on existing facts had prevailed against
the common sense of the Duke of Wellington we should
have endured sixty years ago, what we now have to face,
but the question would have been poisoned by religious
enmity.
Conservatives who reverence, and believe in, the Past,
can alone gaze at the Future.
The rotten mystification of Radicalism consists in
fidgeting and fussing, about the Present.
My detachment from the present sometimes troubles me.
But it gives me an immense power over mobs. They
TO HIS FATHER 171
feel that I do not worry over the Present. And, because
they feel that, they listen to me when I applaud the Past
and unfold the Future.
I have three talismans which help me in such a welter
as we are now confronting.
1. Pater. ' The Present, is an apex between two
hypothetical Eternities.'
2. Bagehot. ' A Romantic attachment to the Past is
a very different thing from a slavish adoration of the
Present.'
3. When the last Emperor of Eastern Rome, Constantine
Palaeologus, fell buried under a pyramid of Eastern chivalry
in 1453, all seemed lost.
But he * fought to a finish.' And that colossal over-
throw created the Renaissance of Modern Europe.
Now, to-day in England, we are fighting to a finish
* damned badly ' I admit.
But in the course of the fight, the Education Act, and
Home Rule, and Chinese Slavery, and ' Dear Food ' are
so much ammunition which has thinned our ranks but is,
now, expended.
Two ideals, and only two, emerge from the vortex :
(1) Imperialism, which demands Unity at Home,
between classes, and Unity throughout the Empire ; and
which prescribes Fiscal Reform to secure both.
(2) Insular Socialism and Class Antagonism.
Both these ideals are intellectually reasonable. But
the first is based on the past, on experience, and looks to
the Future. The second looks only at the Present,
through a microscope.
Between these two ideals a great battle will be fought.
I do not know which will win. If Imperialism wins we
shall go on and be a great Empire.
If Socialism wins we shall cease to be. The rich will
be plundered. The poor will suffer. We shall perish
with Babylon, Rome and Constantinople.
The fight is a ' square ' fight.
As for the * Liberals ' and ' Unionist Free Traders '
the * Whigs ' of our day Well ! Their day is over.
172 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It is they who are drowned.
The Imperialists and Socialists emerge.
That is the dividing line of future parties.
The Bankers and Hair-dressers and 4 epiciers,' are out
of the hunt.
It is a good fight for huge stakes.
As for C. B. and the remnants of * Whiggery ' there is
no room for their subterfuges.
We, the Imperialists, using Fiscal Reform as our weapon,
are only beginning. Your affectionate son,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
566
To Bertram Windle
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 25th, 1906.
MY DEAR DR. WINDLE, It is always a pleasure to see
your handwriting. I appreciated your kind letter of
congratulations on Dover above almost all that reached
me, and now we come to a business which I long to see
concluded.
I am writing a brief note to Mr. Bryce by this post,
directing his attention to the formal memo, which I sent
to Mr. Long, and asking for an interview at an early date.
I wish we could both of us meet him soon. The personal
obligation on my part to you is the only outstanding Irish
Question which vexes me But apart from, and beyond,
that, I can enjoy no public peace of mind until something
is done to get rid of the disparity in respect of opportunities
for Education under which Ireland suffers.
That is outside the Home Rule controversy. I read
Mr. Haldane's speech with pleasure and relief.
The Liberals have a chance which I never enjoyed. I
hope they will use it for Irish Education. It is the only
Irish question they can advance. I have suffered in that
cause and am ready to suffer again. But they must drop
4 step by step to constitutional Home Rule.' That spells
ruin to all practical measures. I am fighting our ' lost
TO HIS MOTHER 173
cause ' de node in noctem. But I have time for the things
that I care about ; and Irish Education is one of them.
Yours very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. I have marked this ' private.' But you may,
of course, send it to the Chief Sec.
567
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 27th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I found your two letters on
arriving here at the end of my campaign.
I had neuralgia on Thursday. But I ' came to time '
for the Crewe meeting that night. I slept in the tram
there, found the hotel full up for the Hunt Ball, but slept
three-quarters of an hour on a sofa in the commercial
travellers' room. My neuralgia was gone. And to my
pleasant surprise I carried my audience away. You
cannot imagine the wild enthusiasm. They hoisted me
up on their shoulders and pitched me into the carriage.
Then they took out the horses and dragged me to the
Market-Square and made me speak to the cheering and
yelling crowds. We have lost the seat. But over 5000
men are mad on the revenge. That night I worked on
the contrast between the Albert Hall speech of C. B. and
the smooth sedative of Haldane at the end after the lies
had done the trick. I took for my text the line in the
Peers' chorus of lolanthe, 4 We did nothing in particular
and did it very well.' I showed them the composite
victory won by lies about slavery, lies about dear food
etc., and then I said, there are only two parties that face
facts The Labour Party and our Party. I denounced
them the Labour Party's methods alliance with Home
Rule, reliance on Foreign socialists and defiance to our
own Colonies. But I applauded their aim. I then held
up our method to reach the same goal, interdependence
instead of class antagonism, Union, Empire, fair play,
etc., etc. When, for the third or fourth time I said, and
174 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
now, after all the Hullabaloo, it means that Haldane
and Asquith are to do nothing in particular, but to do it
very well, they yelled in derision of the most infamous-
swindle ever imposed on the public.
Last night I went to St. Asaph and spoke at Rhyl..
There is no chance there. The Bishop's son is standing.
I can never speak except to persuade. How was I to
do it at this last moment of a lost campaign ? I had twa
' motifs.'' (1) Comic The Giant Majority ' Even real
giants, that you see at a Fair, are not very strong especi-
ally in the head (roars of laughter) and medical science
teaches us that the head of the giant has a less perfect
control over the limbs than in the case of ordinary persons.
But made up giants, whom you see in a Pantomime always
come to pieces before the end of the Performance ! ! ! '
(2) My other serious motif was that whether we
won or lost every vote for a Unionist had a meaning
and a value, it meant fiscal Reform, it bought the applica-
tion of the sound remedy a day nearer !
I am glad to say that I spoke better last night even-
than at Cardiff or Hyde or Crewe. I made their eyes
glitter.
My campaign has not been futile. We have polled
2,300,000 votes for ' Facing Facts and finding a remedy
in Fiscal Reform.'
The Liberals have polled 2,500,000. But of these how
many are Nationalists and Labour who detest the sham
of ' profit sharing ' liberalism ?
By fighting on up-hill we have won a moral victory,
' There is a budding morrow in midnight.'
And now I am going to rest ; hoping and believing,
that on the Address, and after, I shall have much to say
to the point, without a button on it.
I am ' journalier ' as you know. I am sorry that I did
not ' come off ' at Bognor on Monday. I am sorry that
I have spoken better since Dover than at Dover.
But for reasons which I cannot understand, I have
spoken at Cardiff, Brigend, Hyde, Crewe and Rhyl far
better than when all went well in 1900.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 175
And I am at last my own self again. I sleep sound.
My tongue is as pink as a raspberry. And, after speaking
thirty-five times, I have only just begun to unfold my
argument. Your loving son, GEORGE.
568
To Wilfrid Ward
SAIGHTON,
January 28lh, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, At last I have a moment to myself,
and can thank you for your congratulations.
I have been speaking, all over the country to good
audiences. It is a strange experience and, I imagine, a
bad one on the whole. To be the centre of cheering and
yelling for nearly five weeks cannot be good for the soul,
the mind, or the body. The general impression to me is
always barbaric and sometimes savage.
But it has a good side. All barriers of birth and wealth
and education are cast down. You make real, intimate
friends of men whom otherwise you would never have
known. The intimacy of naked contention is bracing
though primitive. And there are pretty touches ; the
election of Ned 1 in his absence for example.
But, in the main, the whole business is blatant and
barbaric.
With my kindest regards to your wife and children,
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
569
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 28th January 1906.
DARLING PAMELO, ' Now the hurly-burly 's done,' I
must write to congratulate on Eddy's victory. I have
been speaking continuously for over four weeks.
To-day I have been dealing with my correspondence
1 Lord Edmund Talbot.
176 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
a desolating experience. The phrase always suggests to
my mind a smiling lunatic, with straws in his hair, deal-
ing out his letters as if for Bridge, in fact I have got mine
into four packets, marked ' Pressing,' ' Immediate,'
4 Dover,' and ' Friends.' More, at present, I cannot
attempt, so I just write to thank you for Eddy's victorious
portrait, and to congratulate.
Let us enjoy the first part of the Session. Ever your
devoted brother, GEORGE.
570
To his Sister, Madeline
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 28.i.06.
DARLING MANENAI, I send one line of thanks for your
dear congratulations.
' Whew ! ' what a licking we have taken.
I enjoy a losing fight and have taken ' delight of battle
with my peers ' for nearly five weeks.
My meetings have been glorious.
I am quite sure that we shall win on Fiscal Reform. I
would not be on the other side for the fortune of an
American millionaire. I am glad Charley is not of that
camp of lying and hypocrisy.
Now at last we have a straight fight before us
(1) Tariff Reform and the Empire against (2) Cosmopolitan
sentiment and parochial malice.
In the autumn I felt a longing to ' chuck the whole
show.' Now I am ready to fight on, for years, in the sure
confidence of victory. I have made 35 speeches and
* trained on ' all the time. But my audiences have
' trained on ' far better. As Buller said, ' the MEN are
splendid.' We have no use for those who are not MEN.
Your loving brother, GEORGE.
CHAPTER XI
JANUARY 1906 TO APRIL TTH 1908
In Opposition The Education Bill Death of W. E. Henley-
Address on Walter Scott The Fiscal Question The Army The
Licensing Bill.
571
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, February 4th, 1906.
DEAREST PAPA, Since I saw you I have been in the thick
of ' the Crisis.' I had an hour and a quarter alone with
Arthur just before he dined alone with Joe on Friday,
and I return to-morrow, Monday, at his suggestion. A
good deal is going on, if indeed ' on ' is the right word to
put after ' going,' that is what we shall see.
I had written to him a long letter the previous Sunday
and was just off by the 4. p.m. (after seeing Wilfrid),
luckily I looked in at ' 44 ' and found two telegrams tell-
ing me to come to Arthur.
I caught the 7-30 after our talk, and was given on the
platform a letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury,
begging me to see him Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday
on Education.
So I start early to-morrow on these quests. It seems
impossible to hunt this year and Percy is benefitting to
the extent of the amalgamated stud.
I have read Lord Masham's obituary notice in the
'Times' of 3-2-06. I put it in a long envelope with
this note. N.B. This short life is (1) Best reply to the
theory that all wealth is created by labour (2) Best argu-
ment for social reform. Your loving son, GEORGE.
VOL. II. M
178 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
572
To his Father
44 BELGUAVE SQUARE, S.W. r
February \lth, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am here for * swearing in ' and
now must stay over to-morrow for Party Meeting. I
should like to return Saturday for Arthur Balfour's ' Oppo-
sition Dinner.' If really quite convenient I should also
like to make * 44 ' my headquarters for the fortnight of
the Address i.e. till March 3rd. I then go to Dover.
Sibell has let our house till March 9th, at twenty-five
guineas a week a sum we cannot afford to despise.
But apart from any other arrangements, Pamela would
like me to stay at Lennox Gardens, so that if it is at all
inconvenient for me to be here I can get board very easily.
I should very much like to be with you at ' 44 ' and
indulge in constitutional comparisons between the pre-
sent situation and those which you remember.
I can easily do my writing in your dressing-room
upstairs without troubling Margaret to keep a fire in the
boudoir or elsewhere.
I am very busy, I intend to take a line of my own on
South Africa and the Education Bill. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
573
To his Mother
44 BELORAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
February 14th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, What a nice Valentine ! Yes r
these cross-loyalties make a teazing net. But I am not
going to write now after dinner as I am really in
training for the Future and determined not to excite
my brain before going to bed.
I enclose the best substitute for a look ! a snap-shot
taken as I walked away from the House yesterday which
TO HIS MOTHER 179
appears I am told in the ' Daily Mirror.' The man
sent it me.
I, probably, go to Dover March 3rd to the 9th after
the Address.
Now to bed ! I want to be fresh for the Party Meeting.
Ever most loving son, GEORGE.
574
To his Mother
HOUSE OP COMMONS,
February 20th, 1906.
DARLING MAMMA, Easter will be delightful. I am
very busy and very well. ' 44 ' is quite comfortable. I
am in your room enjoying ' Cupid and Psyche ' : and using
the dressing-room as an office.
The debates have been dull. I intend to take up
Education and defend the Church. I keep quiet and
wait. Education, South Africa, Army, Ireland ; on all
these I have a great deal to say and then, Fiscals and
Empire.
Unless I am dragged into debate on the Address I shall
wait for the peremptory call of circumstance. Your most
loving son, GEOKGE.
575
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
February 28th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I hardly think it would be
worth while to come to Dover. I doubt if there would
be any big functions ; probably only a supper to Ward
Committee and a dinner to the Carlton Club ; in fact, I
feel sure that the election fever is over. You must come
to a big Meeting in the Autumn, I hope by then to have
done something to make the Party grateful.
I was at Basingstoke the night of the division on Chinese
Labour. Our leaders are in bed. Arthur and I ' chipped
180 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
in ' this afternoon on Rules of Procedure. I wanted to
make more row. But there is no backing at present.
I am anxious over South Africa. But the defensive
forces are great and can be marshalled. Clouds will be
delightful. Perf is very happy with Allen reading Euri-
pides, Cicero, Burke, and Gibbon.
Love to all. Your loving son, GEORGE.
576
To his Father
GRAND HOTEL,
DOVER, March 3rd, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I find that there will be even less
going on at Dover than I expected, so that it certainly
would not be worth Mamma's while to go there now.
Churchill only left me fourteen minutes for my reply
before midnight. I had, therefore, to get my shots on
the target very quickly, merely making my points without
developing them.
The Government are playing the very Devil with South
Africa.
Love to all. Your loving son, GEORGE.
577
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, March 24th, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, We came here yesterday for a rest
and breath of fresh air.
Bendor had a grand meeting of ' delegates ' from all
North Wales gave lunch to five hundred and sat from
12 to 4.30. Telegraphed, and sent a message to Lord
Milner and, on Tuesday, Bendor will speak in the Lords
on Land Settlement in South Africa.
He is really a splendid fellow and is becoming a very
great personage in these parts.
We all hunted to-day and had very good sport with
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 181
Watkin Wynn. First we went up into the hills, chopped
a fox, and drove another into the vale. We had to get
down a precipice and those who had climbed the hill and
4 negotiated ' the precipice enjoyed a capital hunting run,
with a * holding ' scent. We ran to ground near the
Wyches a point of from five to six miles.
In the afternoon we had a good gallop from one of the
best vale coverts about thirty-five minutes over the
cream of the country. But for one check it would have
been ideal. Bendor, Wengy Jones, and I ' cut out the
work ' to the check and enjoyed ourselves, hugely, over
flying fences, rails and the Grafton brook.
Hunting is certainly the best ' stand-by ' one can have.
It requires no practice. After four weeks in the House
one can just simply float away in the first flight.
Golf and shooting take more time and exact practice.
But with hunting, given a scent, you have only got to
enjoy yourself. There is no bother or anxiety about it.
I feel ten years younger after my ride. Your loving
son, GEORGE.
578
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIOHTON,
Lady Day, 1906.
MOST DARLING PAMELO, How would next Saturday
suit for crossing the lintel ? Sunday is the first of
April, the real New Year's Day, so that I should begin
the year with you in the new Wilsford. April, Avril
the month of Aphrodite, is my favourite out of all the
pomp. I want to be one of the first to cross the lintel,
and hope that my little gifts for the children will be ready
by then. But I must find something for Christopher
and David.
I saw a silly joke in a shop window the other day ; a
picture of a fat man drowning in mid-stream and calling
out * help ! help ! I can't swim.' A lean American on
the bank replies ' Wall, I can't swim either, but I don't
make such a durned noise about it.'
182 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
We came here Friday, after much penting at West-
minster, and on Saturday I had a good hunt two capital
gallops over the vale. To-day I played with my books
and defied the North East wind.
The owls woke me at five o'clock. I could hear their
wings as they brushed past our windows. They are paid,
like old watchmen, to call the birds, for the dawn chorus
began immediately. The garden is full of confiding
thrushes with latticed breasts, looking sentimental out
of round, liquid eyes. What with the east wind and
over-eating, they are ' as sad as night for very wantonness,'
sad, of course, in the comfortable, over-fed, sentimental
way that makes for liquid eyes and liquid utterance.
There is nothing austere about a thrush. Lyrical people
are never austere.
Sibell, Percy and I go to Clouds for Easter, and I shall
ride over to see you then. But I hope Saturday next
will suit for I long to see the House whilst it is still self-
conscious and appreciative of attention. Houses and
children pass beyond that stage so soon, and hate being
told that you remember them when they were so high.
Why have I written lintel twice instead of threshold ?
I can think of no reason except that I like the word better.
Nobody threshes corn in the doorway now, and, if they
ever did, I doubt if they gave a utilitarian name to such a
mystical limit. I shall call it the door-sill and not the
threshold, since I may not call it the lintel. Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
579
To his Mother
WILSFORD MANOR,
SALISBURY, April 1st, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is too bad that darling
Guy should be laid up. But Minnie's wire of yesterday
to you is consoling.
This is a beautiful home full of peace and happy children.
The architecture gives me positive joy and plenty of it.
Pam is very well. Eddy, Pam in Mouse cart and I
TO WILFRID WARD 188
walked up to the Stones yesterday and engaged in village
humour with the policeman in charge, who was born at
Newton Toney and served with dear old Guy at Canterbury
in the 16th.
The desk I have given to Bim was a great success and
also the set of Dickens to Clare.
I love this country. Love to all. Your most loving
son, GEORGE.
580
To Wilfrid Ward
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, April Ilth, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I devoted my first afternoon of
holiday to the April ' Dublin Review.' It is a good number.
I always want to cross-examine Barry ; mainly because
I want to accept the conclusions towards which he
manoeuvres. But I have a sense that he is 4 manoeuvring '
and this increased by a style which has become more
laboured. Contrast O'Dwyer ! How direct he is, and
with what sober gallantry his sentences march !
But, perhaps, I am influenced not only by his style
but even more by his matter.
He has made me feel a fool and I am glad of it.
He is right. The next step is to endow and deliver
the Senate of the Royal University. I feel a fool for not
having thought of that. It is so obvious when stated.
We were blinded by the true objections to an Examining
University. But I agree with every word he has written.
Aim at a teaching residential University ; but find your
constituent Assembly ready to hand for its construction
in the Senate of the existing Examining University. That
is sound conservative and constructive statemanship.
But the Government might accept it on the plea of letting
Irishmen settle the matter. But if it is to be done it must
be done quickly. Birrell's Bill spells war to the knife for
all English Churchmen.
Settle the Irish University question before English
184 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
elementary education develops as it will into the most
savage fight since the seventeenth century.
On that issue I am content to fight for five, ten, or
twenty years.
If the Catholics desert, we the Church of England
shall fight for our own hand. But we shall not begin tx>
do so, or even talk about it, until, and unless, the Catholics
make a separate peace. I do not, for a moment, impute
that to them. In any case we shall fight ; with them for
choice ; without them if it must be so. And it 's going
to be the biggest fight since 1640. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
581
To his Father
HEWEIX GRANGE,
REDDITCH, April 2Ist, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I should like to keep the parable
on Education for the present.
There is much in the suggestion that, if the Religious
stimulus or ' animus ' be withdrawn, little enthusiasm
for pure knowledge will be left.
I enjoyed myself immensely at Clouds.
I am spending a quiet Sunday here. I have to speak
against the Education Bill twice in the Albert Hall, on
May 2nd for the Primrose League, and May llth, at a
Mass Meeting of the diocese of London.
This controversy will absorb all others for a year.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
582
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
April 24M, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, Many thanks for letting me see
the Bishop's letter. I am relieved to hear that there is a
good chance of the Irish Party fighting the Education
Bill. I am bracing myself for the battle. I feel that
r
TO WILFRID WARD 185
this has come to me ; I did not seek it and now I rejoice
over my resignation of last year. It has given me the
right to be myself. I explained to A. J. B. the night
before the Session began that, on this question I should
fight ' in front of the line ' ; and now I have got to do so.
I have been asked to move the Resolution against the
Bill at the annual gathering of the Primrose League in
the Albert Hall on May 2nd, and also asked to speak on
May llth by our Bishop of London.
I accept your reproach on my Synthetic 1 lapses. I do
mean to attend in future. But May 3rd was booked for
Dover just after the Election.
All this is by the way. I write to-day because I must.
I have not finished ' Out of due Time,' 2 but I want to say
now that I am deeply interested, and even excited ; it is
far away better than ' One Poor Scruple ' and ' The Light
Behind.' It is a book with a life before it.
Of course the ' ingredients ' arrest my fancy ; the
picture of Derwent is wonderful. I sometimes see that
this or that model including yourself has sat for some
of the characters. But where did the Count come from ?
I have never met anyone like him, and yet I feel that he
is real ; certainly real in the impression which he leaves
on those who know him. Marcelle is astonishingly good.
Where did her French thought in English language come
from?
I shall write again of this at length. Quite apart from
the stage, the characters, the play and the purpose all
good the Art of it all is good. Scores of touches delight
me by their clean dexterity. I rejoice and lay my warm
and profound respect at the feet of the author. Yours
ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
1 George Wyndham was one of the group of persons interested in the
philosophy of religion, who in 1896 founded the Synthetic Society. Mr. "Wilfrid
Ward and he were for a time its honorary secretaries, and among their colleagues
were Mr. Arthur Balfour ; the present Lord Haldane ; Mr. Henry Sidgwick j
Dr. Talbot, now Bishop of Winchester ; Father Tyrrell ; Baron von Hiigel ;
Sir Alfred Lyall ; and Sir Oliver Lodge, as well as two veterans who had
helped to found the old Metaphysical Society in 1869, namely, R. H. Hutton
and Dr. Martineau. See Men and Matters, by Wilfrid Ward.
2 A novel by Mrs. Wilfrid Ward.
186 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
583
To G. K. Chesterton
Private.
35 PARK LANE,
April 27th, 1906.
DEAR MR. CHESTERTON, My excuse for writing is that
I had the pleasure of meeting you at Taplow last summer,
but my reason is to thank you for your letter in yester-
day's * Westminster Gazette.' The many who are grateful
will not think of thanks, or dare to give them. But I
feel constrained to say my thanks.
After four hundred years of battle, always with brains
and sometimes with swords, it is a nightmare to watch
the Holy Catholic Church being huddled off the stage of
history and hope.
The people do not mean this, or understand it. I can't
say it because I have not the gift of simple speech and, if
I could say it, nobody would believe a Tory. Yet, for
all I care, we may have Socialism to-morrow if future
generations may still believe in the Divine Society here
upon earth.
However ... I only want to thank you as one, I
think, of many who could not believe in Christianity until
they grasped the idea of the Church. Yours truly,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. Please do not trouble to acknowledge.
584
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
May 2nd, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter gave me real pleasure.
I_am not greedy of applause but, as I once wrote in verse
' After the thrill
Of onset every wind strikes chill.'
Even if I discount your friendship and keenness in the
TO WILFRID WARD 187
cause, you would not have written as you did unless my
speech had * reached ' you.
It is a great tax to speak in that Hall. 1 Two ladies
who were there to-day told me that the echo made Balfour
hard to follow and that it was a strain to hear me. One
has to discard most of a speaker's devices. No one can
see the speaker's expression and if they have to listen
intently no one can be affected by inflections of the
voice.
So the speaker has to ami at broad, simple, effects.
But that entails severe mental concentration and, all
the time, there is a dead weight to be lifted without much
help from the audience. Nobody could speak to a hostile
audience in that arena. To say that, is to say that a
speaker has to discard his principal function i.e ' pleading.''
He must declaim and declare, i.e. physically make striking,
and, mentally, make simple, what everybody is prepared
to admit.
And yet, I agree with you about the concourse. The
facts that so many people have come from so many places
to be in one place for one purpose, make one great fact
of sense, and thought, and feeling.
The ingredients make the magic broth. The speaker
has but to stir it with a big wooden spoon.
A demain ! I like your enclosure. If only the Catholics
hold firm I moi qui vous parle will answer with my
head for the Anglicans. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
585
To Wilfrid Ward
WESTON,
SHIFNAL, May 13th, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I return the proof, with these
observations.
I prefer my own punctuation. The first three quatrains
1 The Albert Hall.
188 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
are, really, one sentence ; though a long one. The effec-
tive verb is not reached till we get to ' yields ' in the tenth
line.
This applies even more forcibly to the elimination of a
full-stop and substitution of a colon after ' immensities.*
' Their love ' is the nominative of * seems ' five lines lower
down. If cut off by a full-stop no one will find it.
My only correction of substance is to omit the sixth
stanza beginning ' And this their close reality.'
I propose the omission for these reasons :
(1) A set of verses like a speech gains by excision.
(2) ' Reality ' and ' immortality ' are not good English
rhymes. They are good French rhymes and were used,
no doubt, under the influence of French poetry.
(3) The next stanza does the ' business ' more poetically.
(4) The total number of quatrains, without the omission,
is 13, an unlucky and awkward number.
(5) With the omission the twelve quatrains fall into
three symmetrical groups of four each.
The first four introduce the subject and strike a note of
death.
The second four dwell on the walls and books with two
for each.
The last four give the upward movement to life, per-
sisting after life.
Symmetry is an antiseptic, like style.
I am sure I am right. Yours ever,
GEOKGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. I must stick to initials ' G. W.' I cannot afford
to show a target when so many are firing at me as the
opponent of the Education Bill.
IN A LIBRARY
Long rows of books in figured backs
Of gleaming leather, dimly lit ;
A ticking clock, whose soft attacks
Upon the silence deepen it ;
TO WILFRID WARD 189
No other sound in all the house
But the low fluttering of the fire ;
To stab the stillness and arouse
The ghosts of anger or desire :
Within the warmth of these four walls
Yields warrant, then, for quiet mirth ;
Without, the chasm of night appals,
The full moon grins upon the earth.
Her frozen signal of decay,
As a dead tree in summer, tells
That the whole universe one day
Shall speak of death and nothing else.
And all who wrote these books are dead,
Yet of their laughter and their tears
We are not disinherited ;
These walls have stood six hundred years.
Ancestral legends lichening
The parapets of long ago
Enchant them with strange dreams that sing
Of deeds our childhood seemed to know.
And from these books departed souls
Shoot out their radiance into mine,
As heat, incarcerate in coals,
From suns that ceased long since to shine.
Nor may I well believe that thus
In brute appliances alone,
Such souls communicate with us
From darkness, whither they are gone.
But, as the virtue of a star
Thrills through the ether to our eyes,
Their love, vibrating from afar,
Pierces our night's immensities ;
And here, where ancient wit and worth
Have still so much of life to tell,
Like blinder forces of the earth,
Seems also indestructible.
190 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I feel their souls without a sound
Growing and glowing nigh and nigher
Within the shadows closing round
The somnolencies of the fire :
Until, possessed by memories
Of men who conquered lust and strife,
I am persuaded that there is
A life persisting after life.
G. W.
586
To his Mother
WESTON,
SHIFNAL, May 15th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Fancy my not having written
to you, Beloved, till to-day. I meant to write in the House
directly after speaking last Monday, as if I was making
notes. But the whole week has been a rush and rather
a burden, what with Railway Meetings, prize to Ambu-
lance corps and speech, to Dover and speech, to Albert
Hall and speech. I should like ' to come to old Khayam
and leave the wise to talk ' if as I said to C. G. Gould
' it is the wise who talk.' I always doubt that after
speaking myself.
We are here very quiet and happy with Ida and New-
port, Aldred and Celia Scarborough, for Sunday. The
house, spoilt outside by stucco, is very pleasant inside
with plenty of good books and bad pictures that are, all the
same, interesting and amusing. There are six delightful
little hunting pictures by Morland. These are good and
more interesting too than his pigs and straw-yards.
It was naughty of you to put out your shoulder ! I
have been thinking of you all the week. I have to speak
at Chester Thursday and mean to rest at Saighton till
Monday after and then we shall soon be at Whitsun,
with Yeomanry for a change of thought and scene. I
am longing for you to be in London. Your most loving
son, GEORGE.
TO HIS MOTHER 191
587
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE,
16th May '06.
DARLING PAMELO, It was delicious to see your hand-
writing after fourth son. I have been trying to write to
you often, but I am rather overworked just now.
Indeed I will asterisk 16th and 23rd of June. I never
mind crystallizing for the very very few whom I love to
be with. Apart from the positive merit, there is the
negative merit of filling up one's book, so that one can
say * no ' to the rest of the world, without rudeness or
deceit. I shall need the water-meadows badly by then,
for this Education Bill is going to be a severe strain.
Ronsard has come complete in pages, and looks very
nice. Pp. 1-60, Introduction ; 61-192, French ; 193-254,
my translations. I call it RONSARD'S LA PLEIADE with
selections from their Poetry and some translations in
the original metre by George Wyndham.
Sibell and self are off to Chester to-morrow at 8.30, to
speak at 2 p.m. Then I shall rest till Monday, correct-
ing proofs.
It is delicious to think of my June Sunday with you.
I like my fellow-guests. I hope Ronsard will be printed
in time. I hate Politics. Ever your devoted brother,
GEORGE.
588
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, May 18th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Supposing S. S. thought of
letting 35 Park Lane, would you and Papa like me to
come to 44 and would it be quite convenient ? It is not
at all important and you must not give it a thought
unless it is really quite convenient in every way to you
all. Sibell is offered a good deal for the House and will
be away herself most of the time with Leffie.
192 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I am concentrating on the Education Bill. If it really
suited I should come about Monday, llth June.
We came here yesterday by 8.30 to Chester ; had some
lunch at the Grosvenor Hotel and then a meeting at
2 o'clock. I went to sleep in the carriage driving back
after the Meeting and have been sleeping most of the tune
since then. The Yeomanry will be a pleasant change
from politics.
I am longing to see you and will look in on Monday.
Would you like me to dine if I can get away ? The new
rules will be very severe during the Committee stage, four
to eleven o'clock on end without a break. But I
daresay it will be possible to slip out to dinner for a bite
and sup occasionally.
The birds are singing here and the wall a blaze of Alpine
plants and saxifrage. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. Ronsard looks very nice in pages.
589
To his Mother
SAIGHTON,
May 20th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I love the thought of coming
to * 44 ' and, really, prefer the room upstairs.
I have had a little chill and stayed in bed yesterday but
am up again and shall be fit for the fray which begins
to-morrow.
Guy has written me a capital, cheery, letter. He is
going to Madrid for the wedding. General French unveils
the memorial to the 16th in Canterbury Cathedral on
Saturday, June 30th, and the 16th are going to Aldershot
in October. All this pleases me. Guy and his regiment
are buried at Colchester.
Don't count on me to-morrow. It may be best for
me to keep in the house once I get there, until I have
quite shaken off my chill. Your devoted and most
loving son, GEORGE.
TO MRS. DREW 193
590
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
13th June '06.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I am sorry to say that I cannot
get to you on Saturday. Sibell is staying at Putney with
Lettice, who expects her baby to-morrow, and, as we have
been separated for 3 weeks over Yeomanry, she wishes
me to go there for Sunday.
Would the 30th June do ? I go to Canterbury that day
to see the memorial to Guy's regiment, 16th Lancers, un-
veiled, and could come on, either across country, or back by
special train to Victoria and on to you on Saturday evening.
I must send you a copy of Guy's excellent letter about
the Madrid bomb. 1 He was on the spot, helped the
Queen, and made her courtly speeches. Yours affec-
tionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
591
To Mrs. Drew
BELGRAVE SQUARE,
June 28th, 1906.
I THINK I can undertake to.do what you ask in September,
and gladly, because you ask it.
A better Clause 4, 2 applicable to the future : teachers
to teach, and equal facilities all round, is the irreducible
minimum without which there cannot be peace.
I hope to bring Hugh Cecil to Saighton directly after
the Session, so please be at Hawarden first and second
weeks in August. We will ride over to see you with
Percy, and you shall, will and must come to stay.
The idea is a few Churchmen (very few), say Master-
man and Gore some ' bloods ' for Percy ponies
horses books and conversation flowers and trees.
1 The bomb thrown by the anarchist Morales at the carriage of the King and
Queen of Spain on the way from the Cathedral to the Palace after the wedding
ceremony. The King of Spain was colonel-in-chief of his brother's regiment
the i6th (the Queen's) Lancers. a Of the Education Bill.
VOL. II. N
194 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
592
To Mrs. Drew
BELORAVE SQUARE,
June 29th, 1906.
WHAT a blow ! But in September we will oscillate
between Hawarden and Saighton.
I wish I knew what the Lords will do. I fear Devon-
shire and others. I am therefore certain that we ought
to keep on insisting on the just solution and do nothing
to complicate the approach towards it. But all this
takes time to explain, and I am sleepy after a long but
deeply interesting day at Canterbury that stirred my heart.
General French unveiled a monument to those of my
brother's regiment, the 16th Lancers, who died in S. Africa.
The Cathedral, a perfect service, with, at appropriate
moments, the ' Last Post ' and the ' Reveille ' on trumpets,
and nothing else of the pomp of war, assured me of how
right it is to fight for the Church.
I want your three Angels for Bruera. Do send their
names to Sibell.
593
To his Father
SAIGHTON,
August 9th, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed your interesting letter.
Percy is very good at polo. The three Millers, who are
at the top of the polo tree, want him to stay with them
for a fortnight's tuition. I shall give him your message.
I am very fairly confident that all he wants is to go into
a cavalry regiment, play polo and hunt.
I have ordered what you want from the Vote Office.
I send Friday's programme of the Polo Tournament.
Percy's team not in this programme won the Consola-
tion Handicap on Saturday.
I have entered in ink the final result of the Ladies'
Nomination Tournament. In this kind of tournament
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 195
each of the five teams plays the other four in turn and the
team which has at the end the greatest nett number of
goals i.e. goals won, minus goals lost, wins. By this
means the excitement in every match is maintained to
the end.
The feature of the whole business was Percy, as number
1 of his team, tackling John Watson (Master of Meath)
as back. They are great friends.
The final of the Eaton Cup, won by Eaton v. Tatten-
Hall by six to four, was a magnificent display.
Besides polo, we hunted two mornings with beagles
and had a Gymkhana on another.
My Harbour difficulties are adjourned till the House
meets again. So I am resting. For example I definitely
refused to take part in the East Denbigh contest hard by.
Hugh Cecil went from here to speak and spoke very
well last night in a motor with Sibell, who is quite a
politician now.
This week I do nothing but lazy summer rides with
Hugh Cecil, and talk about books and politics.
I shall probably look in at Clouds in the course of the
next two or three weeks, with a horse and inspect the
Hunkerman's * regiment on the plain.
Best love to Mamma and Ditch. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
594
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON,
3rd September 1906.
BELOVED PAM, I have felt very mischievous the last
few days. Some of my friends, and sweet enemies, have
been punching at me politically. I gasp at the torrid
exuberance of their controversial methods, which remind
me of an old French farce, called ' 90 in the Shade.' It
seems that I am a political salamander. But when my
friends cast me for that part, as if each were a Benvenuto
1 His brother.
196 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Cellini (see autobiography) I feel mischievous. I give
them the private retort courteous, await events, and burst
into the fantastic for my own behoof. Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
595
To his Mother
WILSFOBD MANOR,
SALISBURY, September 12th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Yes, it was a pity just to
miss on Monday, but I shall be with you before this time
next week.
The life here is delightful. I breakfast with Guy at
7.30, start ' riding horsebag ' at 8.15.' pick up the regi-
ment beyond ' the stones ' x at 9 o'clock ; play at soldiers
for two hours or more, and then ride home across the
downs ; in at noon. Yesterday we did three ' attacks/
In the afternoon there is the river. In the evening we
rode again, hunting the hare. We had a fine course with
Annie and Welcome and killed. For the rest the only
book I am reading is Pickwick and all is Peace . . . pour
le moment ! but not, I imagine for long [Long]. 2 This
turns out to be a joke !
I am glad you liked what I said at Birmingham. Ever
your most loving son, GEORGE.
596
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON,
16th September 1906.
BELOVED PAMELO, Wilsford was delicious. That bit,
or slip, of the river-valley and down, and the wideness of
sky and earth it commands, is a bit, or slip, of my larger
dream-life. It plucks at my own heart-strings ! A
sudden intimate aspect of loose hedge-rows, a keen,
known, smell of chalk-dust and sheep, the little triangle
of grass and trees where we branch from Amesbury to
1 Stonehenge. 2 Mr. Walter Long.
TO MORETON FREWEN 197
Wilsford, the * stones.' Fargo ; x ... all these are
eternal to me. I find that I am the same person who
rode there thirty years ago. They have not changed and
I have not changed. And what they were 30 years ago,
they were 60 years before that. And so was I, 600 years
before that. Therefore, I give to you eternal Me.
I made a little tune to my song, in the mode of 600, or
6000, years ago. The little air of it tries to sing how every
day is new, and, at the same time, a day of the days.
Perf and I had a great day to-day ; we rode at 7.15
for two hours and have been together all day. He is
just beginning to love Poetry. Imagine my delight at
recognizing another aspect of eternity in heritage. We
have pretty well gutted Keats to-day, all the Odes and
* St. Agnes Eve,' with a plenty of soldiering talk, and
riding talk, and political talk, thrown in, to throw up the
supremacy of the fantastic.
That is the river of life ; the surface that reflects Heaven
and derived from far sources in the hills, and goes out at last
to sea, to foregather again and reflect Heaven once more.
The drudgery of turning the mill, the party-political
mill, of hatred, malice and all uncharitableness is but an
incident. So, ' Heyday ! and grey day. But every day
is new ' and yet, thank God, as old as the hills, and secure
as the stars.
Send me back my little barbaric air. Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
597
To Moreton Frewen
35 PARK LANE, W.,
September 27th, 1906.
MY DEAR MORETON, 2 Your letter gave me real plea-
sure. Not that I needed any evidence of your friendship ;
1 Name of a wood near Stonehenge.
2 When forwarding this letter Mr. Moreton Frewen wrote in explanation :
' I had got George to lunch at Tim's house to discuss ' Devolution ' (which
seems destined to invade history as the 'Wyndham Policy'), but George would
not have it at any price. When the Orange party and the 'Times' made the
fuss I offered to write and get Tim to write and say so hence the reply.'
198 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
but because there are times when it does one good to hear
from a friend who is not too much engrossed in the spec-
tacle of politics to realise that some of the actors in that
4 National pastime ' are fighting for things that are
precious to them.
I have always thought ' Devolution ' a vague, and
therefore foolish, name for an unworkable, and therefore
silly, thing ; upon which no two Irishmen would ever
agree.
I have often said so, and never said anything else. You.
remind me that I said so to you.
It would interest me if you can remember when I said it.
As for writing to the Press, I am disposed to think that
anybody, who knows me and does not believe me, will not
believe * though one rose from the dead.'
You would only get damned for your pains. I should
be damned by the ' Times ' for meeting Tim, and Tim-
damned by the ' Freeman ' for meeting me.
To all this I am impervious, nothing would please me
more than to walk arm-in-arm with Tim Healy in front
of * Printing House Square.' He was * human ' to a
Chief Secretary and that is rare. I shall never forget
it. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
598
To Ms Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
September 28th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I was very happy at Clouds
and am glad I talked to Papa. I felt from the way
you all spoiled me that you thoroughly understood the
situation.
I dined alone at the Travellers', went to bed at 11 o'clock
and slept for 9| hours like a stone at the bottom of a deep
well. I did not know where I was when I woke ; or why
I was here when I recognized the room.
I hope to make a good speech out of my refreshment.
I enclose a cutting or two about my Hawarden speech.
TO RUDYARD KIPLING 199
Give a great deal of love to Ditchmouse. I was very
sorry to miss her.
A certain number of people are beginning to go out of
their way to please me ; writing me letters and so forth.
Among them Colin Campbell [a cousin] sent me a dear
letter with a copy of the earliest picture of Lord Edward 1
and a good quotation from Walt Whitman,
'Me Imperturbe . . .
. . . Aplomb in the midst of
irrational things . . .
Me wherever my life is lived,
O to be self-balanced for contingencies,
To confront night, storms, hunger,
ridicule, accidents, rebuffs,
As the Trees and Animals do.'
I am all for the Animals but, as I pointed out in my reply,
they have not to make a speech at Canterbury to-night,
and I have. So here goes ! All love to you darling, and
to Papa. Your loving son, GEORGE.
599
To Rudyard Kipling
SAIGHTON,
5th October 1906.
MY DEAR KIPLING, Last night, on finishing ' Puck
of Pook's Hill ' with sharp regret, because I shall never
read it again for the first time, and huge delight because
so many will have that joy I felt that I must say ' Thank
you.'
This morning, out cub-hunting, I felt that I was a cub
for presuming to distinguish myself from the dear many
who never say ' Thank you.' But, remembering some
talks at Rottingdean, and your father, and your uncle,
I will say ' Thank you.'
I thank you for every page of it. I thank you, specially,
for C. Aquila, Maximus, and ' one man's work.' I thank
1 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, great-grandfather of George Wyndham.
200 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
you, above all, for Maximus. I read my Gibbon again
this afternoon, and measured the amount of your creation.
It is stupendous. Knowing Maximus intimately, as I
do since yesterday I may say that he will not thank
you when you meet him in the Elysian fields.
But I thank you most for him. I am not unmindful
of THE WALL, and the snake along the Wall ; nor un-
grateful to you for declaring better than it has been
shown before how that the sun really rose, every day,
at the usual hour, in the 4th, and llth, centuries just as
he does in the 20th century. And he knows how to rise.
Such is his Conservatism.
I always knew that and, also, that men and women
and children, who lived from one to ten thousand years
ago, were as like men and women and children of to-day
as any million peas, or two suns. But you can shew this,
and we can't. That is much genius and so forth. The
two officers in charge of The Wall, and Maximus, and
the Rescue, are more.
That parable tells the men and women and children
what they have got to do in the everlasting sunlight,
and, even, why they have got to do it. They may now
understand that the world rots in everlasting sunlight ;
and that they must delay the rot, year in and year out,
on the chance that, once in 100 years, a saviour, and once
in 500 years, a creator, may or may not appear. That
is their glory. Your glory is that you have told them
so !
600
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON,
6th October 1906.
BELOVED PAM, I got back to Saighton late last night
after a month's racket, more or less, and am alone in my
tower ; and alone in many ways. When one is alone,
all the other lonely people begin to talk. The Psalmist,
shouting out against his enemies in the night, becomes a
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 201
pal. And everything that has been said well becomes a
masonic grip of secret fraternity. I read ' Puck of Pook's
Hill ' yesterday, and I will be bound to say that nobody
has enjoyed it, or will ever enjoy it, more than I did. It
will I daresay strike you from the children, governess,
tea-time, fairy-tale point of view. And, quite possibly,
you will feel that, from that point of view, you know a
great deal more than Rudyard Kipling. But anyway
that is only the envelope of his letter. His letter what
he meant was written to me. Because I am alone in my
Tower. So I thanked him.
Few of the lonely ones, who confabulate, have ever
understood better all the time, and shewn better some
of the time, than Browning ; for example, this is all that
I could wish to hear about my work in Ireland and
afterwards . . .
' So with this thought of yours that fain would work
Free in the world : it wants just what it finds
The ignorance, stupidity, the hate,
Envy and malice and uncharitableness
That bar your passage, break the flow of you
Down from those happy heights where many a cloud
Combined to give you birth and bid you be
The roughest of rivers : on you glide
Silverly till you reach the summit-edge,
Then over, on to all that ignorance,
Stupidity, hate, envy, bluffs and blocks,
Posted to fret you into form and noise.
What of it ? Up you mount in minute mist,
And bridge the chasm that crushed your quietude,
A spirit-rainbow, earthborn jewelry
Outsparkling the insipid firmament,
Blue above Terni and its orange-trees.'
All I could wish to hear ; I should think so ! But I do
hear it now in my tower and know it is far more than I
deserve. But that is the way of the lonely people. They
are generous. Wasn't it jolly of Browning, only two
pages after that, to tell a story of some cognoscenti who
hid all the group of the Laocoon, and then invited the
202 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
critics to say what his agony expressed. Then Browning
(I feel I may call him Robert) says this :
'One
And may he live to write my history
Only One, said " I think the gesture strives
Against an obstacle we cannot see." '
No more room, except to add that the lonely ones are
uncommon good company. Your devoted brother,
GEORGE.
601
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
October 1906.
DEAREST MARY, I am rather jealous of Sibell because
you were here when I was not. For a good Patriot and
Imperialist, prepared to hear that Portsmouth has been
raided by Torpedo Boats German for choice with
comparative equanimity, perhaps it would do if the
Chairman of my Banquet an ex-Lord Mayor who looked
the part shared the fate of the Burgomaster of Kopenick.
I think I shall subscribe to a press-cutting agency in the
name of the Burgomaster of Kopenick, for I want to read,
and engross in an Album, all about him. This wholly
delightful event adds one more to the forty good stories
which have been told since the Stone Age. And it is fit
for ears polite. It beats the thief in the Rhamsonites of
Herodotus. It beats the Golden Ass of Apuleius. It
beats Don Quixote, it beats Banagher. It is good to live
when such things happen.
And why did not B. J. live to read it ? But I can feel
him laughing and rumpling Morris' hair, and hear the
4 Limerick ' which Rossetti would have composed perhaps
not fit for ears polite.
It has done me good, as the ladies say in advertisements
of Bile Beans. For I have had a bother not of my own*
TO MRS. DREW 203
lately which has disposed me to laugh at the grotesque
side of the soldier ' as such.' What a moral it conveys,
never to do what you are told to do.
I hear that you ' reneged ' at ' Puck of Pook's Hill '
and were, more or less, converted by Sibell's report of my
enthusiasm.
I broke out and wrote to Rudyard Kipling. I backed
4 De Aquila,' but I plumped for ' Maximus ' and ' The
Wall. So I was pleased when R. K. wrote back a * Thank
you very much for your letter, and especially for what
you say about Maximus, which makes me proud as well
as pleased. Yes Gibbon was the fat heifer I ploughed
with : but all those * decline-and-fall ' officers are so
amazingly modern that as soon as I got him started I
went on as easily as Mr. Wegg did : they being mellowing
to the organ. I swear I didn't mean to write parables
much but when situations are so ludicrously, or terribly,
parallel, what can one do ? *
That raises a question. What Rudyard Kipling does
is to wrap up two perfect peep-shows into the past and
therefore into all time, in a machinery of children in
Sussex and Puck and the rest of it.
This nearly stopped me and did stop you, for a time :
which is bad. It did not stop the reviewers. But it
baffled them and revealed their well revealed what
they are, and, specially, how many people they are not.
But this * machinery ' is only the ' Walk up ' of the
Showman, his ' Boniment,' as the French say. It isn't
bad boniment either. But the peep-shows are what I
see all the time (better lighted and grouped by R. K.)
and piercing through the ages with that flashing main of
Eternity which is the Halcyon home of all those sea -blue
birds of the Spring who keep a careless heart as they fly
over the foam flowers.
Perhaps you will feel nothing of this. And then you
will tell me so. But tell me whether or No. And then
I will tell you what I wrote to Kipling.
The soldiers who arrested the Burgomaster made me
think of De Aquila and Maximus : R. K.'s. Mr. Wegg
204 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
leads me to say that I have just finished reading ' Little
Dorrit ' again. I can't bear to think that I must wait
5 or 10 years 5 if greedy, 10 if prudent, before reading
it yet once more.
What a great man Dickens is ! And how are the
4 Tite Barnacles ' avenged by the Ulster Party. With
what avidity the ' Times ' returns to the vomit of the
Circumlocution Office. How readily the dear stupid
English folk believe in ' How not to do it.' How intensely
they suspect and hate anybody who does anything or
might conceivably do anything, arrogating to their dear
muddled heads and dear little hearts the right of scolding
everybody because nothing is done. And then majestically
assassinating anybody who presumes to do anything.
This they call ' common sense.' I have often pondered
on the linguistic freak or revelation ? which led the
Greeks and the French to talk of ' good sense ' and the
English to talk of ' common sense.' And the worst of it
is that when, now and again, an Englishman is sick of
* common ' sense, he does not deviate gracefully into
' good ' sense. He bursts out into ' uncommon nonsense '
and calls it paradox ; as a protest against a commercial
education.
But this is our Country. And I love it : as a man loves
a brutal woman. Yours affectionately, G. W.
P.S. But having effected a ' judicial ' on my part
4 separation ' from my country, I do not think that I
would ever * marry ' her again in the Registry Office of
a Cabinet. I do not seek divorce ' a vinculis.' But I
revel in separation * a mensa et thoro.'
602
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, October 19th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I thought so much of you and
Aunt Emily, first in your anxiety, and then in your relief
over dear Uncle Charlie.
TO MRS. DREW 205
Send them my fond love.
Thank Papa for cutting on * compulsory mathematics.'
My Portsmouth Banquet was a great success. I spoke
for fifty-five minutes.
I have been very busy of late too busy.
I speak at Birmingham on the 25th, Dover the 7th
November, and Liverpool, 5th December.
Ronsard ought to be out ' anywhen.' I have passed
the ' make up ' in ' Dummy.' That is the last act in
producing a book. There are only two agreeable moments
in this tedious operation. One, when the MS. is sent
off ; the other, when you pass the ' Dummy ' and know
what clothes your child is to wear. All the rest is sheer
labour ; and the labour on ' Proofs ' is more exacting
to me than the labour of writing in the first instance.
I go up to London Monday or Tuesday for Parliament,
4 to be there ' which Dizzy called the first condition of
parliamentary success and to talk over Lords' amend-
ments with Lansdowne. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
603
To Mrs. Drew
PARK LANE,
November 9th, 1906.
I took full advantage of your leave to 4 ponder ' and
heard yesterday from Mr. Frowde. I will think over
books. . . . My life has become a scurry. When I get
back to Saighton, we must have a good day in the Tower
as a companion picture in memory to the morning under
the poplar. It is these little bits of happy serenity that
shine out from the past the day in the garden I read
you the ' Wood beyond the World ' and half a morning
in Shelagh's garden. I have been speaking too much.
To-day I broke out with Sibell and saw Holman Hunt's
pictures. Silence ought to be imposed in a gallery.
When I was taking in the wind-swung lilt of rose cloudlets
from Magdelene Tower on the May morning, this is what
I heard :
206 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Old Lady (deaf) : ' But how wonderful it is to see the
way it 's lasted ! '
Young Lady (shrill) : ' Some of them are not very old.'
Pause.
Young Lady : ' It 's rather pretty.'
They move on to the ' Two Gentlemen of Verona.'
Old Lady : ' That looks very modern.'
Young Lady : ' Oh no ! that was painted in 1857.'
And so on.
To-day I go to Wilfrid Blunt for two days of poetry.
604
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 16th, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Enclosed came back to me
through Dead Letter Office. You know Miss Hamilton's
address. Will you send it on as it is to show that I
did answer her letter.
* Fairy ' King and I are having a great rummage among
papers to-day. For I have reached a pause in work.
I almost believe that I have finished Dover Harbour.
But I shall not send my wire to you till after the 3rd
Reading. Next week I am busy ; speaking London on
21st, Dover 22nd, and Oxford 23rd. Shall I come to
Clouds, Saturday, 24th, if free ?
I have another bunch of speeches on 5th, 6th, and 10th
December in Liverpool and Glasgow. So if tired
shall rest in London on 24th-26th. But if not, Clouds
would be delicious and I long to see you.
My new battle-horse is the Navy.
We made a grand fight on Land Tenure and the Squires
of England ought to be obliged to us. The opposition
knew nothing about Rural life and we banged 'em from
pillar to post. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
TO WILFRID WARD 207
605
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 16th, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I cannot find time to write any-
thing. But if possible I will dine on 28th from the
House.
A suggestion occurs to me as I write rude and crude.
Let me put it in this way :
1. Historical exegesis has so far mainly rejected
certain books from canonical books the Bible, as some
call the collection.
But it has rejected them to be more precise in respect,
not of their ecclesiastical authority, but of their traditional
ascription to certain authors and dates.
2. Reverse the process. Let historical exegesis examine
the traditional value of non-canonical books and legends.
What does history make of ' Domine, quo vadis ? ' Of
the apostolic conversion of Britain ? of the peregrina-
tions of St. James ?
Conclusion. Historical exegesis belittles the Canon by
demonstrating that Tradition which has grown up round
it is irreconcileable with historical results. But these
traditions mean something. They are not pure inven-
tions. Therefore let historical exegesis appraise all tradi-
tions and see what happens.
This suggests another track which I once sketched hi a
walk we took together. Assuming Revelation, of any
kind, it had to be conveyed in a known language but also,
with a like necessity, in a familiar order of religious and
metaphysical thought. To collate the ' Book of the
Dead ' or the sacramental rites of a Zagreus or an Adonis
with canonical scriptures does not diminish the authority
of Christianity. It only shows that two great ideas in
Christianity : (1) reward and punishment after death, (2)
the mystery of regeneration by sacrifice were the reli-
gious, or metaphysical, medium in which the truths of
Christianity had perforce to be stated if they were to be
208 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
understood ; just as Aramaic or Alexandrian Greek, were
the linguistic media in which they had, similarly, to be
stated, if they were to be intelligible. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
606
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 19th, 1906.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Many thanks for transferring
the securities. I am sure you are right to do so. We
shall certainly have some form of graduated income tax
the operation of which, combined with Death Duties, must
dissipate any fortune in the course of three generations.
Unless the Landed Gentry treat their personal estates
on the lines of men in business ; i.e. hold it divided as
you propose among capable living members of the
family, each one of whom should take advice on re-invest-
ment from time to time.
But you need have no fears of speculation on my part.
I merely hold that a little time and attention ought to
secure three and three quarters per cent on capital and
that unless this is done incomes must perish.
A judicious re-investment of Railway securities, even
ten years ago, would have increased many private incomes
and made them safer at the same time.
You will save income tax on my 1800. But I ought
to be able to re-invest to cover the payment which will
now fall on me. Your loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. Tell Mamma that my Land Bill books are found.
The Ronsard file will be sent to her when complete
Reviews are still coming in.
607
To Mrs. Drew
35 PARK LANE,
November 24th, 1906.
I want to tell you that the ' Young Squire of Hawarden *
did very well (my Oxford Union was the third of three
TO WILFRID WARD 209
consecutive speeches). He was by far the best of the
four speakers. Talbot was good ; straight, burly and
in earnest. Villiers gave a polished, fluent little discourse.
But the 4 Young Squire ' 1 has the root of the matter
in him. He debated, put his case, came into contact
with reality, was at ease and without mannerism of any
kind.
I ' debated ' his speech and we are embalmed together
in the * Tunes.'
The whole thing was a pleasant experience and made
me wish I was 20 years younger.
608
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December 20th, 1906.
MY DEAR WILFRID, Many thanks for your letter and
Eccles' review. It is very good. I read it with delight
and sounded his praise to a small gathering of ' notables '
last night Robert Cecil, Seely, Masterman, Butcher and
Rawlinson. He is not a ' barren rascal ' ! He is not your
mere battledore Reviewer returning to the author his
shuttlecock, a little frayed. He has fecundity and ripe
sayings * an arsenal of glory and a granary of vital
sorrows.'
At last, to-night I finish this working year. We buried
the Education Bill this afternoon. I have won my elec-
tion, made speeches, published my little book, made new
friends, fought old enemies. I have lived and life is
wonderful.
I shall wait impatiently for your ' XlXth Century '
article on France. I spent Sunday at Arundel. Norfolk
makes little account of French Catholics. Among new
friends I have Belloc. But towards Christmas the heart
turns to old friends, to you and your wife. And I send
you greetings. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
1 William Gladstone, the President of the Union.
VOL. II. O
210 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
609
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, December 22nd, 1906.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, This is to wish you a merry
Christmas and happy New Year and to send you moun-
tains of love. This has been a year of work and at
times of anxiety. But it is over. I have enjoyed Guy
at 35, Park Lane, immensely. I hope to get to Clouds
later on.
I was ' in at the death ' of the Education Bill on Thursday.
The last three days Monday-Wednesday, were very
tense. I was dug out of the Westminster Latin Play
Monday night. We conferred in Arthur's room from
9-30 to past midnight, again on Tuesday from 5 to 8
o'clock, and on Wednesday from 12 to 2 o'clock. It was
interesting.
S. S. and I got here last night. To-day I hunted and
had a good gallop which made me very hot and will make
me very stiff.
Now I am going to hunt and amuse myself.
I shall for pleasure begin reading all Walter Scott,
as I have to deliver an address on him next November in
Edinburgh, which will, afterwards, serve as a little essay.
Can you lend me Lockhart's Life from your East Room ?
It will make a pleasant holiday task and fit in with my
general literary work as another aspect of the Romantic
Revival.
I am longing to see you. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
610
To his Brother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
Christmas Eve, 1906.
DEAREST OLD GUY, Let me hear from time to time
what you do in the way of hunting.
TO HIS NEPHEW, GEORGE WYNDHAM 211
We had good sport to-day with the South Cheshire
Heggie Corbett's forty-five minutes, rather moderate, to
ground ; and then a capital fox-chase. Found at Broom-
hall, ran fast 20 minutes to a covert, dwelt there six or
seven minutes, viewed him away, slower hunting, and a
fast finish, killed in the open. One hour and fifteen
minutes in all.
We were quite the ' Huntbaches ' Bendor, Shelagh,
' Pat,' * Mrs. Malone, Madge, John Fowler, Arthur Gros-
venor, Gerry Grosvenor, Perl' and self, Ivor Guest and
4 uncle Tom Codley and all.'
There was a large field out but plenty of room to ride
and lots of ' lepping.' I enjoyed myself hugely.
The sun-dial 2 has been erected ' with all military pre-
cautions.' Sibell knows nothing of it, nor Percy either.
I visited it after coming in from hunting. The rain
poured down. The gardeners gave me glimpses of it
with a bull's-eye lantern. ' Muin was the word.' And
we separated in the darkness before Sibell got back from
her last I hope shopping expedition to Chester. Love
to all. Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
611
To his Nephew, George Wyndham
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 4th, 1907.
MY DEAR LITTLE GEORGE, I think I must write to you
my Fox-hunting letter this time. I told your father of
the good day we had on Wednesday.
To-day, again, we had very good sport : first, a run of
about fifty minutes, with lots of jumping ; second, forty-
five minutes and a kill in the open and third, about twenty-
five minutes, not so good.
We all enjoyed ourselves. Percy rode a new horse
1 Heremon Lindsay Fitzpatrick.
2 He had bought an old sun-dial and erected it in the garden as a surprise
Christmas gift to his wife.
212 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
that jumped well. Bendor and I both took mild tosses
in the second run. Your uncle Pat was out too and
Mrs. Malone.
I am glad that my whip brought you luck and that you
got the brush. Your affectionate uncle, GEORGE.
612
To Monsieur Auguste Rodin
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 7 Janvier 1907.
MON CHER AMI, J'ai eu tant a faire ces jours-ci que je
n'ai pu repondre a votre lettre jusqu' aujourd'hui. Je vous
demande mille pardons de ce delai. Ne songez pas que
votre lettre ne m'a pas rejoui le coeur. Je suis toujours
enchante d'entendre d'un de mes meilleurs amis. Et,
encore, je suis plein de reconnaissance pour votre bonne
intention de m'envoyer un bronze de mon buste. C'est
un vrai cadeau d'amitie" que je cherirai pendant toute ma
vie. Egalement pour sa valeur artistique et en souve-
nance de nos entretiens d'autour. Qu'ils soient bientdt
renouveles est mon ardent desir.
Je vous donne d'accord ma permission de placer une
troisieme epreuve dans un musee de 1'Etat. En verite" je
vous remercie d'un tel honneur, quelqu' indigne que je
suis d'etre tant soit peu ' immortalise ' d'une mani^re si
imprevue.
N'oubliez jamais, cher Monsieur Rodin, que je suis
votre ami, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
M. AUGUSTE RODIN.
613
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
January 15th, 1907.
We had all kinds of adventures with our motor after
leaving your Hawarden haven. It could not go up-hill
TO HIS BROTHER 213
and was not safe going down, having no * sprag,' what-
ever that may be. We got lunch at 3.15, and only just
caught the train at Chester at 6.17. The motor, which
had stopped at every gradient, finished its performance
by running up on to the pavement at the station. We
were patient from good-fellowship and brave from igno-
rance, with the exception of Charlie Adeane, who has
a motor of his own and talked ominously of * sprags.' The
pale-faced chauffeur maintained a harassed silence. I
give him the prize for patience and courage.
614
To his Brother
SAIGHTON GBANGE,
CHESTER, January 16th, 1907.
DEAREST OLD GUY, I am delighted to hear that
Wellington can take little George, all the more as every-
one tells me that it is bar Eton the best of all public
schools.
I have been idle over writing hunting news, for the
pleasant reason that our good sport is quite continuous.
Excepting New Year's day we have enjoyed ourselves on
each day, galloping and jumping to our heart's content.
We had two good gallops, Thursday, two good gallops,
Friday. The North had a great day Monday ; Watkyn
a capital day yesterday and to-day Wednesday we are
just in from hunting all round here. (1) Found in Saighton
Drives and ran 50 minutes, slow to ground. (2) Found
Saighton Gorse and ran very fast forty-seven minutes
over the vale and killed. (3) Viewed a fox and ran across
the vale through Eaton and nearly to Chester. We whip
off every day in the dark, Benny, Shelagh, Perf, Pat and
I crack along in front all the time. Apart from the rare
sport the weather is so delicious. I sweat through every-
thing twice a day, and the country looks beautiful and
smells sweet of moist earth. Perf is a recognized exponent
of the Art, always in front flight, and often *' cutting out
the work.'
214 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It seems a shame to make you work for the W. O. But
I suppose you will be able to get some hunting. Perf and
I have six horses between us that all ' know to jump.*
The seventh we are selling as he falls from old age. Your
devoted brother, GEORGE.
615
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 16th, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I have been so occupied with
a Railway Board hi London each week and hunting on
all other days that I have not had tune to write.
I will have a search for the Rossetti ; but do not
remember him.
As for the seal his fine disc, as well as his Venetian
glass handle ask for some rare device. I have G. W. on
the old Fox-Pad seal of the 5th January 1880 I You
remember the run from Everleigh to West Woods, one
hour and thirty minutes.
I don't like imitating Morris' motto.
I have taken for my motto a Latin line, Virgil, ' Tu ne
cede malis, sed contra audentior ito ' which means, * Do
not yield to misfortunes but rather meet them more
boldly.' The last two words would do as thus :
AUD
ENTIOR
ITO
or else ' ne quid timide,' Cicero.
or else ' optima quseque dies ' which means, ' Each best
day.'
But do not let us decide in a hurry. You might look
into the little book of Emblems I gave you, there were
some good tags in that.
For the rest, do not trouble over cigarettes etc. I am
in much better trim in all those ways. Hunting makes
it very easy not to smoke much. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 215
616
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON,
18th January 1907.
MOST DARLING PAMELA, It was a great joy to get your
letter. My answer to your question is that I am hunting
with Percy just as if nothing had happened. I skip
details. We are merely happy. We have 7 hunters and
odd mounts from Bendor and bust along and perspire
and leave all letters unanswered, except your letter and
pressing invitations to speak, which we reject with scorn.
In the evenings we read ' Antony and Cleopatra ' and
old books about Cheshire and England : Puller's Worthies,
The Vale Royal of England, Camden's Britannia, and
Froissart. For it is our pleasure, after riding over the
country, to retrieve the renown of great men who came
from here and fought in France and Spain, under the
Black Prince for 40 years Earl of Chester.
Thus, we love the horsemanship of the folk we spring
from ; and cherish every rise and fall in the ground that
nurtured them. We, also, cherish their marksmanship
with the Bow. I opened a miniature rifle range last
Wednesday week. I made a speech that has made them
all think ; quoting from ancient annals. Then, by good
fortune, I put up my miniature rifle and beat them all to
blazes. 110 shot, and I won by 6 points. It was very
lucky as I had said in my speech that shooting like
skating and swimming once learned was never forgot.
But, in the main, we merely hunt the fox ; and get very
hot, and sleep like stones and prepare for the next call to
enterprise by thing our body and resting our head.
All this sounds very brutal, and in the mode of Squire
Western. But say what you will it gives me rest and
pleasure, it is jolly to find that 20 years cannot abate one's
huge delight in riding to hounds ; and the added joy of
seeing Perf always in the first flight and often cutting out
the work is exquisite. If I can keep my place of old days
216 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I am pleased like a boy. If he beats me I am in the
seventh heaven.
Meanwhile I am at last really resting my brain. I
sleep like a stone. I weigh half a stone less and I nurse
a glorious contempt for all the little people who fuss about
nothing.
But, occasionally, I write verse again, and I read nothing
except Virgil, Catullus, Shakespeare, Walter Scott and
Boccacio.
So I live, getting younger and younger, loathing the
thought of going back into the pig-stye of Politics. But,
therefore, preparing to take on Devolution or the Army
Scheme with a maximum of refreshed detachment, it is
jolly to weigh half a stone less and to sleep and feel free.
I rejoice in Bim's poem, it is delightful. But never
instigate him. If he writes that now, leave him alone.
Encourage him to ride and sail a boat or shoot birds. His
brain will dart out only too soon. Muffle it in hardy
fatigue.
I speak from knowledge. As a boy, and once or twice
since, I have been near the precipice of abnormal cere-
bration. But the whole truth is, if you have a brain
that works at lightning speed when stimulated, to drug
it with wholesome fatigue, involving courage and initiative.
It will shoot out, fast enough, at any Cabinet Council
which he may condescend to illuminate. Your devoted
brother GEORGE.
617
To his Father
SAIGHTON,
January IQth, 1907.
DEAREST PAPA, Yes, that is what I mean. The
increased volume of Trade stated in terms of .s.d. does
not prove any great increase in income ; i.e. profits ;
of the ten per cent increase of total trade one half five
per cent is attributable to a general rise in prices. The
materials cost more as well as the products. Apart from
; TO HIS FATHER 217
that minor consideration, I maintain that no probable
increase in taxable income will meet the probable demand
for increased revenue.
The Government will try to cut down Army and Navy.
But they cannot go far enough to make any material
difference. Even if they save five million which I
think impossible the reaction will set in. We shall have
a revival of complaints that barracks are not kept in
sanitary repair and of scares that our guns and rifles are
not the best, etc. If the Government go on against these
storm signals, men like Haldane and Sir John Fisher will
resign.
On the other hand the Government must find money
to meet the growing and excessive demands of their sup-
porters. Some day old age pensions will be voted.
Apart from these direct payments from the State the
time is coming when the Imperial Exchequer will have
to help County Councils with grants in aid.
Apart from that, they will be driven in order to assist
4 Reforms ' without paying cash to * guarantee ' more
loans ; and to lower the rate of interest in existing loans,
e.g. Local Loan Stock, or rather Housing Loans based on
that stock.
All this tends to lower our credit ; i.e. the borrowing
power of the Exchequer.
The time will, therefore, come when the Government
cannot meet the demands made on it unless it restores
the credit of the Exchequer. And that can only be done
in the long run by paying off debt, i.e. raising revenue
another twenty million a year to increase the sinking fund.
If the Government try to do this by direct taxation e.g.
violent graduation of Income Tax, they will increase the
mischief. The City will not lend them money ; or float
their loans ; and private persons will invest more and
more abroad and ultimately, if they feel they are being
unfairly treated, will evade income tax by lodging their
securities in banks abroad, say, Switzerland.
If the population increases as it does and, at the
same time insists on state-aid, as it does, by way of costly
218 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
education, costly Poor Law ; perhaps direct pensions ;
and by way of Housing Schemes, and Small Holding
Schemes, guaranteed by the State at low interest and
long periods of repayment, there is no possible ultimate
solution except that the people should pay for all this.
And there is no way in which they can pay except by
broadening the basis of taxation.
That alone yields a sufficient amount of revenue to
restore credit, and that alone affords an effective system
of graduation i.e. the ' automatic ' graduation as I have
called it which proceeds from the relatively poor not
buying as many luxuries as the relatively rich.
The English delight in discussing these problems in
terms of Justice. Even, on that basis, it is absurd to
tax a man with 2000 a year and ten children at the same
rate of graduation as a bachelor with the same income.
It is more reasonable to discuss the problem in terms
of common sense and to determine as the old financiers
did (1) How much money do we want ? and (2) How
can we get it with the least annoyance and disturbance ?
Our present system is not sound. It is not effective
to depend as largely as we do on taxes of three kinds
(1) Taxes on Beer, Spirits, and Tobacco, which hit the
poor.
(2) Taxes on Stamps which hit the makers of wealth.
(3) Death Duties and Income Tax which hit the owners
of wealth i.e. the savers and investors.
Besides all this, there is another cloud on the financial
horizon. I mean the Savings Banks. There is, I think,
200,000,000 in the Savings Banks and no securities. If
the Labour Party organised a scare and run on the
Savings Banks they could smash our existing system of
Finance.
Some day a Chancellor of the Exchequer will have the
courage to tell the truth.
He will have to consolidate the Debt again ; on a
two-and-three-quarter per cent basis : including all our
Debt, i.e., all the loans we guarantee as well as Consols.
He will have to assist the low rateable arrears.
TO HIS FATHER 219
He will have to increase the sinking fund. He
will have also to restrict the borrowing power of Local
Bodies.
And to do this, without destroying the Navy and Army
(which in turn are necessary for our credit) he will have to
increase largely the number of articles on which duty is
paid ; so largely, that he may as well go in for an all-
round Tariff and use part of it for bargaining with other
countries.
That is the way in which Fiscal Reform will come.
I see that I have not given a plain answer to your
question ' How do Consols at 86 affect the Government ? '
The answer is that they cannot get the money they
need on reasonable terms ; and sometimes that they
cannot get it at all.
As things are they cannot get the money for Irish Land
Purchase.
Very well. They have now got to get the money for
Irish labourers.
Then their English supporters want Housing Schemes.
What is that to be ? Five millions a year would be a
flea-bite. But they would have to borrow it. And so
on with Small-holdings ; and, of course, with Old Age
Pensions.
For these purposes they must either borrow, issuing a
loan themselves ; or, they must get the City to issue the
loan and guarantee the interest.
Apart from these larger transactions, a Government
has to borrow in the course of every year. The income
tax does not come in ' pat ' to the day ; nor do the proceeds
of other taxes. But the Government has to pay soldiers
and sailors, and postmen once a week, and to pay for
ships and public buildings ' on the nail.'
With Consols at 86 i.e., with a low credit, they have
to borrow at high interest. The Bank rate was six per
cent, it is now five per cent. So they cannot get ' cheap '
money for a short period, any more than you can, or a
Railway Company.
I do not for a moment believe that Arthur will resign
220 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the Leadership. There is plenty of intrigue against him ;
but it is confined to a minority of men in the House, and
of men who are likely to get into the House.
In a Democracy politicians have to be ' Vote-hunters.'
But they can hunt for them in a proper, as well as in an
improper, fashion. They can appeal to Patriotism as
well as to Pockets, and to common interests as well as to
Class jealousies.
Bendor, Percy and self, with Cecil Parker and Colonel
Lloyd had an interesting shoot to-day, second time over.
I have not got the exact bag. But it was pleasantly
varied by 7 woodcock, 8 snipe, 6 teal, 1 jay, 1 magpie and
one pigeon with, I suppose about 170 pheasants, and a
few hares and rabbits. Your loving son, GEORGE.
618
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 20th, 1907.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I posted my answer last night.
The Navy. The Government did diminish the building
programme. But Lord Brassey may be right in saying
that the Two-Power standard is maintained ; for the
Government declare that they reduced their programme
because other countries will not complete some ships
they are building as soon as we expected ; that other
countries are not ' laying down ' new ships and that, in
any case, as we build faster we can out-pace them if they
do suddenly lay down new ships.
Without fuller knowledge it is not wise to attack the
Government for not laying down more ships.
The case I make against them is that they are (1)
taking Battleships out of full commission (2) putting them
into the Reserve and simply christening the Reserve ' The
Home Fleet ' and (3) Then recreating the bad type of
Reserve which we abolished.
This shows it :
TO HIS FATHER 221
BATTLESHIPS
1905
In full commission, i.e. at sea all
the year round . . .32
At sea with full crews only for
part of the year . . -,s * 14
46
1907
26
14 2
40
Having taken six Battleships out of full commission
and put them down into the Reserves now called ' Home
Fleet.'
They have taken six out of that Reserve and, practically,
put them into harbour, permanently, with only men to
oil the guns etc. sort of caretakers, and a vague promise
to take them out sometimes.
Now a ship does not ' find herself ' till she has been two
months at sea with all the ranks on board that will navigate
and fight her in war. Again, by taking ships out of full
commission, they keep officers and men ashore who ought
to be at sea ; and allow many ' repairs ' to accumulate,
the need of which would only be discovered after the
ships had been at sea.
Besides this they are scamping repairs everywhere.
' Ready, aye, ready ' ought to be our motto for the
Navy. Nothing is worse than to have ships laid up in
time of Peace that would require over-hauling at the out-
break of War. It was precisely that system which we
abolished : and now they are bringing it back by degrees
to save the cost, in coal, wages and repairs of keeping our
First Line at sea, all the year round.
We have let our house till about the 10th of March.
Would it be quite convenient to give me a bed at 44 during
the first three weeks of the session ? Your loving son,
GEORGE.
1 We called this the Reserve, of the new kind, with nucleus crews.
2 They call it the Home Fleet !
222 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
619
To his Sister, Mary
SAIGHTON,
l.ii.07.
MOST DARLING CHANG, I gauged the situation on
Monday night and saw that it did not present the elements
of a good talk except by going to supper together. I
should have liked that. But Sibell was looking white
and tired, so I whipped her off to be out of reach of temp-
tation. Had I stayed and supped, I should have cheered
up and not gone to bed till 3.
The first simmer of excitement, the fun of seeing you
all, and Pamela and ' notables,' the restless enthusiasm
of Blow, the thrill of the * Drums of Oude,' the intolerable
twaddle of ' Toddles,' the yawning distance between our
chairs, the gnawing pangs of hunger, after a long journey,
and 20 minutes' dinner, all pointed either to a large and
leisurely supper or else to bed on the principle of ' qui
dort dine.' I decided rightly, for as it was Sibell did not
get to bed till 1.30 and began again at 6 a.m. to catch
the 8.30.
I snatched a pretty good hunt between two frosts on
Wednesday. The Eaton Party had many casualties.
Shelagh fell and got a bruise, but nothing of consequence.
Lady Chesterfield and Tullibardine also fell. I picked
up Lady C. and we did not lose our places in the first
flight. At the end we heard Shelagh was hurt, but soon
met her walking and laughing and sent her home safe and
warm in a motor which Benny had galloped for to Eaton
and driven out himself.
Yesterday we shot, a lovely day. Then I had to go
again to London last night for Railway Meeting, and back
to-day, and here I am with a blazing fire in my room and
my books round me. Perf, who went yesterday to the
Bicester Ball, got into my carriage at Bletchley.
I am eager for a good talk with you.
I am interested to read A. J. B.'s speech. I gather
TO HIS SISTER, MARY 223
that he is going to ' put his foot down.' I feel more and
more that it is very noble of him and rather noble of
me I to bother about politics at all. I look forward to
the session with disgust approaching to nausea. Since
Christmas I have for the first time since I took office felt
young and happy ; hunting, reading good books, enjoying
Percy, and living, in short.
To go back to the House, its dust and dullness and
littleness, is like a bad dream. It makes me sick to think
of Herbert Gladstone backing an iniquitous Licensing
Bill. It makes me sorry to think of poor Birrell talking
clever rubbish about Ireland ; and dear Haldane reeling
off his ' continuous band ' of undistinguished, but gram-
matical, English, in which he ties up and strangles what
little of life is left in the Army on which St. John sat
heavily, and A. F. stamped furiously.
Our own crew are most depressing and peevish. They
have no heart in them and no pride of race. There is
nothing magnanimous or generous in the whole show of
petty intrigue and sheepish cowardice. But for my
affection for Arthur and admiration of his tenacity, I
doubt whether a waning sense of duty would be strong
enough to prevent me from quietly dropping my odious
trade before the ' Dyer's hand ' is quite ' subdued to
what it works in.'
Democracy is a disease for which there is no cure, or,
at best, a normal form of senile decay in States. When I
was young I read cheerfully such platitudes as that States
are like trees, with their periods of growth, maturity and
decay. But, as life goes on, the truth of platitudes becomes
poignant enough to pierce through their used envelopes.
Instead of laughing at them for being stale, one is shocked
by them for being true. Age in States, or men, or, above
all, in women, is no joke.
But at this point in my melancholy reflection the waning
sense of duty begins to perk up a little. I despise the
French aristocracy for having thrown up the sponge ;
and any man or woman who declines into a praiser of
past days.
224 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
So I conclude with Dr. Johnson's robust assertion :
' If the changes that we fear be thus irresistible, what
remains but to acquiesce with silence, as in other insur-
mountable distresses of humanity ? It remains that we
retard what we cannot repel, that we palliate what we
cannot cure.'
But I go further being now on the upward track
and say once more, that the Empire is a new State among
other new States. And that if we will realise that
there may be two or three centuries still ahead of the
glorious indiscretions and rapt visions of youth ; the
tumbles and victories.
We ought to fight for this. So I suppose I shall go up
to London on the llth and ' peg away ' as usual. But
personally I detest the job, and prefer hunting and the
society of the people I am fond of, whether dead and
embalmed in books, or alive and pleasant for their beauty
and keen wits. Your loving brother, GEORGE.
620
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
February 2nd, 1907.
DEAREST PAPA, If you look in to-day's * Times ' you
will find that ' P. L. Wyndham, gent.' is gazetted a 2nd
Lieutenant, on probation to the Coldstream Guards.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
621
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, February 6th, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is just possible that we
might not be able to get to you till the Wednesday after
Easter Sunday, 3rd April ; for I have to do Yeomanry
Musketry here on the 2nd and Sibell would like to do her
Easter Festival here. But that ought to leave me a
TO HIS FATHER 225
week or two as with an early Easter, I do not suppose
the House will rise till the last moment.
I, too, have been thinking a great deal over old days.
I feel the ' epoch ' of Perf taking the plunge. He is
' posted ' to my old battalion, the 1st. I am glad of that
for old sake's sake and because he will be in London this
summer and under Billy Lambton as his C.O.
The frost has been a disappointment. But I am keep-
ing myself idle and fit in spite of it. Yesterday I walked
to Chester, round the walls and all the sights, and back by
Eccleston, quite twelve miles.
I am very glad that Papa is helping Guy. It will make
all the difference to his success that he should not have
cares, or feel that Minnie is worried.
I am longing to see you and will come for a Sunday,
pretty soon.
The Government are, apparently, going to ' shunt '
their legislation in order to attack the House of Lords. I
liked Arthur's speech at Hull. Loving and devoted son,
GEORGE.
622
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, February 1th, 1907.
DEAREST PAPA, To-night we had what Sibell calls
lier ' Social Gathering ' in the School. It is not an Enter-
tainment. There is no host and hostess. We merely
all go selves, farmers, parson and labourers. We pro-
vide tea, etc., and put out games, photographs and any-
thing likely to interest or amuse. Anybody sings or
plays ; who can. And, when the ice is broken, they push
away the table and dance to a concertina.
It is amusing to watch Sibell playing some desperate
game, such as the ' Counties of England ' with a party
of five or six. Lettice came over from Eaton and grinned
and beamed at everybody.
I felt that they were nearly all out and out Tories and
VOL. n. p
226
Protectionists. One wife of a farmer Mrs. Fernall
would please you. She is a remarkable woman. They
now have 150 cows and make eight cheeses a day. She
has been married 36 years ; and milked herself from the
age of fourteen to last year. Her ' maids ' ' milk-
maids ' were dancing. She was surprised that they
could do it so well. Her one ambition is to present a
cheese to the King. She is running the politics of the
district and asks me to get ' The Duke ' to take a more
active part. For her part, she denounces the ' Land
Tenure ' Bill and all Radicalism, saying * I want nothing
better than to be the Duke's Tenant.' She does not say
this to me ; but to the local Radical agitator.
Last week I went to our c Eaton,' Yeomanry, Squadron
dance, as C.O. of the squadron. Eighty-two men in my
squadron rode their own, or their father's horses at the
last training. The wife of one N.C.O. Mrs. Moore ne'e
Partington has three brothers, a husband, and brother-
in-law in the Yeomanry. She, again, is a most capable
person and good company runs the farm, backs the
Yeomanry, is herself and at her ease. Now, she went
to London for the first, and only time, in her life last year.
But she is somebody. Most of the people in London are
not anybody. All these country people detest and fear
the present Government.
This interests me in connexion with the general elections.
Our people will rally to a traditional, organic England
and ' play-up * for Empire if we will lead them.
But we must be Conservatives who love the past and
Imperialists who believe in the Future. Given that we
can enroll battalions.
The Midland Conservative Club have asked me to be
President for a second year, and I have accepted. lam
a Vice-President of the National Union in Kent and, by
special request, here in Cheshire and, to-day, I got Bendor
to accept the office of President.
The vice of the moment consists in natural leaders
being swayed by the London Press. ' The only way ' is
for each man who can lead to ' hoe his own' row ' in
TO MRS. DREW 227
his own district. If we do that we shall win the next
election.
Perf has written me two letters since he was trapped
like a mouse the moment he shewed his nose in barracks
after the gazette. * Billy Lambton ' his C.O. said, 4 Have
you done any drills ? ' Perf answered * No.' Billy replied,
' Then you had better begin at two o'clock to-day.' So
there he is touching his toes from 8 to 5 per diem.
He is taking two horses to Windsor for the Drag and I
think I shall follow his example, and get hot twice a week.
With Lettice, Guy and self in Belgrave Square and
Perf at Chelsea Barracks, we shall be quite a colony in
Belgravia.
The frost has been a cruel disappointment. But,
having got very fit by hunting four or five days a week I
am keeping fit by walking to Eaton and back and playing
hockey on the ice and then squash rackets, by electric light.
I hope, in consequence, to take a burly view of the
King's speech and to express it bluntly to his ' faithful
Commons.' Your loving son, GEORGE.
623
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
February 8th, 1907.
I AM crestfallen and really distressed about the article.
But also I am burning with curiosity to read it. What
does it contain which has scared Wilfrid Ward ? He
evidently thinks the patrons of the ' Dublin Review '
would be deeply exercised by its contents.
Percy has joined the Coldstream Guards this is to
realise middle age with a vengeance ; but I make no
complaint. I like middle age, or, rather, enjoy many
quiet things that I used to neglect, and can on occasion
enjoy all the unquiet things also.
I am off to London for the Session, and staying a
month with my father at 44 B. Square.
228 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
624
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE,
St. Valentine's Day, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I opened one of your bills by
mistake. I am in your dear room and with old Guy
where I was last year.
Perf is very busy and happy over his soldiering and has
lost his voice shouting at drill.
I dined with Pamela last night in her house of pictures
and the day before I got a glimpse of Lettie in silver and
emeralds after opening of Parliament. She was dressed
to match her new house, which is all white and green.
I am only sending this as a line of great love, on the
pretext of the bill I opened. Most loving son,
GEORGE.
625
To Wilfrid Ward
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
February 21st, 1907-
MY DEAR WILFRID, I am glad you met brother Guy.
We are curiously complementary persons. He has more
obstinacy and less imagination than I have. But we
have much in common and, as far as nearness in affection
can go are regular * Corsican brothers.' We slept in
the same room for fifteen out of the first seventeen years
of my life. Since then ' the seas between us braid ha'
roared.' But I have, more than once, felt his adventures
telepathically.
I am grinding at the Army question. My mind is a
chaos of Regulars and Auxiliaries ; Effectives and non-
Effectives. But I hope to be terser than Haldane.
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
TO WILFRID WARD 229
626
To his Mother
Lady Day, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, We have just celebrated S. S.'s
birthday. Guy, Minnie and Lily Zetland dined. I
4 bunched ' S. S. and gave her a new wonderful re-
production of Botticelli's Madonna. My ' Bunch ' also
was of roses and lilies. And now, for plans.
I am coming to Clouds on Wednesday or Thursday and
Perf comes on Saturday. We can sleep in one room or
do any amount of ' campaigning ' if you are full up.
Our great intent is to hunt on Saturday somewhere.
I am bringing three horses on Wednesday. But I do
not expect a real holiday. I have to ' open the ball ' on
Haldane's scheme on the 9th. That means work, and I
suppose that Pupsy 1 will put me through my paces into
the bargain.
4 Quand mdme ' it will be glorious. Loving son,
GEORGE.
627
To Wilfrid Ward
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Midnight, April 9th-10th, 1907.
MY DEAR WILFRID, You were elected unanimously to
The Club. 2 I was much concerned over your candida-
ture. As Salisbury wrote to me saying he could not be
there and Hugh Cecil who ought to have been in the
Chair. But that was in your letter. I was much over-
driven, as I had to open the Debate and bound by custom
to remain on the bench. However, I decided that Friend-
1 Lord Wemyss.
2 A dining club founded by Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Burke in
1764. Its members included besides those mentioned in the letter Sir Edward
Grey, Lord Haldane, Mr. Arthur Balfour, Sir George Murray, Mr. Alfred
Lyttelton, Mr. Spencer Lyttelton and Lord Rosebery.
230 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ship belongs to Eternity and Army Debates to Time.
So I broke out, and went to * The Club,' made the 7th
necessary to a quorum and proposed you in the absence
of your proposer.
All this is a reasoned apology for not having answered
your letter. I proceeded ' par voie de faits ' ; for a
friend my bite is better than my bark. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. The seven present were Arthur Elliot, Lord
Kelvin, Asquith, Lord Welby, Spencer Walpole, Sir
Alfred Lyall and self.
628
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE, W.,
28th April 1907.
DARLING PAM, Your letter gave me a thrill of pleasure.
I am glad that the book x is going to be, and more glad
that you are making it. I got your letter just as I was
off to make a speech, and I envied your more permanent
offspring and the serene atmosphere of its creation.
The best books, of all kinds, are not only each a part
of its author. The author, in making each, must play his
usual part. Shakespeare puts parts of himself in every
one of his characters. And, as he lived by the stage, he
writes Plays. You are a mother with delightful children
and interesting pictures, so you tell the child which is in
every man and woman about those pictures.
The really good books, big or little, are written by only
two classes of authors. In the first, is the author with
many parts of humanity in him, who, also, plays many
parts in the world. In the second, is the author with one
part principally developed in him or her, who keeps, in
the main, to one role in the play of life. In the first are
Chaucer and Shakespeare ; in the second Borrow and
Jane Austen. The literary authors, however great, do
1 'The Children and the Pictures.'
TO HIS MOTHER 231
not make such good books. They only approach that
when, like Ben Jonson, Dryden, or Dr. Johnson, their
parts are books and their world a library. You have a
fair chance of writing a little classic. The thing is to
write a classic, however little, rather than a book, however
big.
Send for Walter Raleigh's * Shakespeare.' What a
comfort that man is ! What a discomfort, in the long
run, is a Gosse or, even, an Andrew Lang.
The Lyric Poet is a bird apart like the thrush. He
just sings all that matters to all who live in a peculiar trill
which no one can imitate. If others are sparrows and feel
the Spring, let them say ' cheep, cheep ' and be done with
it. I like that. It is good as far as it goes. But they
try to go further and make ocarinas. I once heard
nn ocarina played in an Earl's Court Exhibition, and
recognized the ' Spectator's ' minor poet ; just a bit of
mechanicism in a shabby arcade. But I must stop here.
Your loving brother, GEORGE.
629
To his Mother
Wednesday, July Qth, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I feel sure I can dine Thursday
.and shall love to. At 3 o'clock on Thursday, to-morrow
afternoon, we have a little ceremony in the crypt of St.
Paul's, i.e. handing over Rodin's monument of dear
Henley formally to the charge of the Chapter.
I shall have to make a little speech what the French
xjall ' eloge.'
Lord Plymouth unveils the bust. Do come. All
friends and admirers were invited by Plymouth's letter
to the Press and by notice in the Press. You would enjoy
it down there with the tombs of Nelson and Wellington,
Poets and Musicians. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
232 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
630
To Mrs. Drew
July Uth, 1907.
Reading Rodin in St. Paul's made my ' knees chatter/
as Pamela says. But I wanted to honour my dead friend,
and succeeded, more or less, in being monumental without
being sepulchral.
' The promise of wistful hills ' is Henley. It is beautiful,
' Promise ' to Henley was never more than expectancy
based on the goodness of the known past and unlimited
possibility of the unknown future. He saw that the
naked realities of life were good : Why, then, he asked r
should not the vague, iridescent horizon enfold something
better to be perhaps unfolded ?
631
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
18.vii.07.
MY DEAR P. H., I know you are abroad. But I indite
these few lines on the ' Preference ' Vote of Censure.
I have read * Bowley .' He merely stimulates my curiosity,
But, even if it were satiated after 30 years of investiga-
tion, I believe that capable men would still take sides
instinctively either for (1) a Cosmopolitan view, supported
by the idea of setting an example, or for (2) the Imperial
view, supported by the idea of fighting for more freedom
in all protected markets, and getting it in our growing
Colonial markets.
To descend abruptly to the particular. The best
speech was a ' maiden ' by Simon, a Fellow of All Souls
and barrister, on the Government, Free Trade, side. It
was nearly perfect ; indeed, perfect, but for a faint touch
of the ' superior person.'
Yet he and this is interesting, perhaps significant
founded his best attack on preference (as you did in 1903)
on the incompatibility of varying colonial products, sup*
TO LIEUT.-COL. STEPHEN FREWEN 233
ported by ridicule of any system which taxed food, with
a preference, and which did not tax raw material. Here
he was excellent. He took the Australian sheep ' meat
inside and wool outside.'
But his excellence as ever suggested retort.
It suggested to me a reply, confined to the concrete,
as per invitation, and limited to a contrast of Sheep and
Sugar : as thus
(i) Sheep and sugar are alike in being, each of them,
both food and raw material for industry.
(ii) In the case of sheep the two can be and are dis-
criminated. The sheep is meat inside and wool outside.
But the two come as a rule in separate ships, to wit,
as ' Canterbury lamb ' and as wool.
Sugar, per contra, though soluble, cannot be melted
into food and raw material.
(iii) Both contravene the postulate that it is inexpedient
for us to tax food and raw material.
(iv) But in the case of sheep you can if you choose
only tax food ; in the case of sugar, if you tax at all, you
must tax both.
(v) In the case of sheep taxing only food you can
by ' preference ' do a deal with a growing market.
In the case of sugar taxing both food and raw material
you can only do a deal with Jamaica and are debarred
from that by the Convention.
So we get back to the fundamental dichotomy Imperi-
alism or Cosmopolitanism, with this further observation,
that a tax on meat, with preference, falls in with the first,
and that a tax on sugar does not fall in with the second,
and is plainly a bad tax from any point of view. Yours
ever, G. W.
632
To Lieul.-Col. Stephen Frewen
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
July 2CKA, 1907.
DEAR OLD STE., I am a real villain in having left you
for so long without a letter, and specially one after your
234 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
illness. But you are often in my thoughts and Lady
Grosvenor's, and we are often talking of you and your wife.
I pass Tarvin Sands, hunting and with Yeomanry, and
never without a regret for old happy days. The old days
were happier both for good soldiers and respectable
politicians.
I put in my share of the work on Haldane's Bill. But
we are a feeble folk like the conies in the Bible. And
this Government is, at once, the most tyrannical and the
most incompetent ever known.
My chief quarrel with them (may be compared to yours
with the present W. O.) is that they never keep a pledge.
The old idea that an honourable man ought to stick by
what he says and fulfils his promises, is openly abandoned.
This knocks the bottom out of Political and Military life.
What is the use of obtaining pledges in Parliament or
earning promises of employment in the Army, when both
are given merely to delay and deceive ?
I agree with what you say about the Army as a profes-
sion. Men will work only on one out of three conditions :
for (1) a market salary, or (2) prestige, or (3) a good time.
But now the pay of an officer is contemptible by com-
parison with the emoluments of any other walk in life.
So far from prestige being accorded, there is no Under-
secretary or penny-a-liner in the Press so obscure as not
to feel at liberty to scold the officers of the British Army,
day after day and year after year, as if they were mere
encumbrances to the State. And, as for a good time !
a subaltern now has to do the combined work of a clerk,
a navvy and an usher in a school.
But, for all that, I am glad that your boy is joining.
Percy joined the Coldstreams in February and is going
strong. He was beaten only by a neck in the regimental
Point-to-Point within three weeks of joining ; plays in
their first Polo team out of three teams, and rows for them
in their ' Eight.' As they have night marches most nights,
he never gets to bed.
I must go and look at your battle-picture. But you
TO PHILIP HANSON 235
must not think of giving me a ' proof.' I will get one and
give it to Guy.
I look forward to riding with you again and forgetting
in the chase all the cares and disappointments of middle
age. So good luck and my love to you. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
633
To G. K. Chesterton
HOUSE OP COMMONS,
Aug. 2nd, 1907.
MY DEAR MR. CHESTERTON, This is not a mere invita-
tion to dine here of all places and at short notice, viz :
on Monday next, August 5th, at 8 p.m.
I must adopt the historic method to persuade you.
Last year, when feeling ran high during the last gasps
of the Education Bill, Bob Cecil gave a dinner here
to Masterman, Jack Seely, Butcher, Rawlinson and
myself.
We all remember it. And now I have asked the other
five. All have said ' yes,' and all six of us want you, if
you will, to come too and make the mystic seven.
I hope you can manage this. Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
634
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE,
The Twelfth, of Pious and Immortal Memory, 1907-
MY DEAR P. H., You are, maybe, hi France ; but no
matter. This is to thank you for the Bowley book of
figures. It shall be guarded and returned. I spent all
to-day at Dover, 4 assisting ' at the first County Match
played there Kent v. Gloucester on the Athletic Ground.
It is a huge success nearly 8,000 people yesterday and,
they say, more to-day. So here we have another vindica-
236 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
tion of ideas. The original promoters of the ground lost
their 10,000. The Corporation bought for 5,000, and
have rated the people for upkeep. The people murmured.
Now the people are happy. Everybody would have been
happy long ago but for the fact always to be remembered
that it takes 10 years to get an idea into the head of
Englishmen.
Incidentally I saw Jessop knock up 74 in no time an
exhilarating experience.
In 10 years my Revenue argument will begin to attract
attention as a paradox. By this easy transition I arrive
at the Manchester speech.
It is fairly well reported in the ' Guardian,' and got a
leader in that intelligent though hostile publication ;
but, Lord ! how flat it fell ! The conditions were of the
kind that almost kill me : a long journey, a reception by
uncongenial persons who drank whiskey at the Club, a
show drive funereal for three miles up an East wind
to Bellevue, a late start, a large audience 4,000 they
said, almost entirely composed of many women and a
few boys in a large auditorium that would easily hold
10,000. It was intolerable. So I spoke badly. But all
the bones of a good speech are in the ' Guardian ' report,
and they are being disinterred from day to day in news-
papers and by Alfred Lyttelton, who thought it novel
and excellent and proposes to reproduce parts in his Vote
of Censure. But to me it was a strain.
Per contra the Henley memorial in the crypt of St.
Paul's was the best I have yet done. I was horribly
frightened ; had to read a long MS. in French by Rodin,
and then launch out on my own. Yet I ' did it on my
head,' giving my whole philosophy of Life and Death,
Art and Nature, War and Peace, France and England,
within the compass of 15 minutes in a style that was
monumental without being sepulchral and this in a
crypt ! Do look me up on your way back ! Yours ever,
G. W.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 237
635
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON, 20th August 1907.
DARLING PAMELA, I feel inclined to write to you
to-night, but not of the ' Polo Week ' at Eaton. That
is past, and has already taken its place a small one
in the perspective of Time. Percy played well. I hurt
my leg, not even at polo, but at racquets. And that is
all ; and enough, of such pleasant, and unpleasant, trifles.
Hugh Cecil stayed on from Saturday till to-day and
Mary Drew joined us. We read and talked gossip com-
parative ethics as the late Lord Salisbury had it. And
we cultivated the Muses. Now they are all gone ; I
mean the guests, not the Nine. Though Terpsichore left
last Wednesday, when I hurt my leg, so far as I was con-
cerned, and there are only eight little muses for me.
I bought a book the other day, of XVIIIth Century
children's stories ; partly because you, too, emulate de
Genlis ; partly because some of them are called ' Stories
of the Wyndham family.' It amuses me. The Preface
begins ' To publish a work with the title borne by this,
may, perhaps, by some, be thought presumption, when
it is recollected that Madame de Genlis has already occupied
the Dramatic line, in a manner to be imitated by few, and,
probably, to be equalled by none.' Observe her commas !
But the writer is modest and explains : * This short
explanation the Authoress thought due to herself, lest
she should be suspected of endeavouring to imitate one
of the first Authors the Age has produced.' Her Dialogues,
she pleads, should ' be considered as an additional barrier
against the encroachment of error, and an additional
support to the efforts of Virtue.' With a nice discrimina-
tion ' Virtue ' has a capital, ' error,' only a little ' e.' In
conclusion, she trusts them, ' not without hope, to the
<3andour of a generous Public, who at least will give her
credit for purity of intention.' The name of ' Wyndham '
is taken I hope not in vain, but still taken. And Mr.
238 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Wyndham plays a subsidiary part in the Dialogues of his
offspring. ' Mr. Wyndham ' as the talented authoress
puts it, ' will appear in a more amiable light as their father
than any other.' This amuses me, and there are two
pleasant engravings.
But, my Dear ! how different it all is from ourselves ;
and first I maintain because it was written in a stirring
Age, and we live in dull days : ' Age,' with a capital ' A, r
and ' days ' with a little ' d.' They hardly deserve a Big,
Big * D.' Tho' they are very annoying.
What with my lame leg, and the weather, and a middle-
aged walk round the garden, and the receipt of a volume
of verse called c The Robin's Song,' and much else of the
like order ; I wrote a protest last night. It represents a
disillusion which I ever detected in August, and have
lately found confirmed by a Cheshire August and Middle
Age. It gives a mood, but, for all that, an aspect of
truth, and thus it goes :
In August fields there are no wild-flowers,
The robin sings without a fellow.
The trees are dark and their leaves tired.
All the meadows are shorn and yellow,
The hope of the year has expired.
The robin sings alone for hours.
Nothing is young, and nothing mellow.
ii
Cart wheels creak and robins sing.
But no thrush flutes of before and after.
Rust in the wood and dust on the road
Choke defiance and love and laughter.
Nothing is won. All has been shewed.
There are no mysteries of the Spring,
And lofts are bare from floor to rafter.
Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 239
636
To his Sister, Pamela
ST. PAGAN'S, 26th August 1907.
DARLING PAM, 1 Your letter amused me very much.
It is lucky I can crawl out of the discomfiture of your
criticism on my creaking cart-wheels. Permit a brief
retort. I said nothing of the corn-fields, if for no other
reason, then because there are none round Saighton, * the
meadows are shorn and yellow ' observe ! Summer does
say * it is finished ' with a sense of satiety and rest. I
object to both ; particularly when my leg is lame and I
am afraid of getting fat.
I will come to you if I can, perhaps third week of
September, perhaps on my way to Perth in October, for
a speech on the 18th.
Punctuation is the devil. I can do it in my own way.
A comma means that something is omitted which would
be included in a legal document. Except in a legal docu-
ment we never rehearse all that must be said in order to
avoid any ambiguity of interpretation. They ought not
to be used to indicate rhythm.
I am pickling away at my address on Sir Walter Scott.
I have six or seven things to say about him. As an address
is delivered each year it is unnecessary to repeat the
obvious. I shall avoid the ' good Sir Walter ' business.
Except, perhaps, just to note that his works gain a re-
flected charm from our knowledge of a personality which
he was at such pains to dissemble. I am very vague at
present. Probably the essay will form round two aspects.
I. His Art. He was a romantic. That is how he saw
things and said them this, with all pertinent comparisons
and contrasts, etc. The romantic revival in England and
France. Here I am on my native heath.
1 On receipt of the previous letter his sister had chaffingly written the follow-
ing criticism : ' Why did the cart wheels creak when the carts were so empty ?
The poet tells us "The lofts were bare from floor to rafter." What had happened
to the harvest?"
240 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
II. His meaning. What was it that he saw and said ?
So I lead up to the last motif, which is Reconciliation
reconciliation of Highlands to Lowlands ; of England to
Scotland ; of Jacobite to Hanoverian ; of servant to
master ; of the present with the past.
I sketched a conclusion on those lines which may do.
In any case, it is well to have a goal to work up to. In
getting there one may diverge to another and a better
goal. But here is my sketch of the end :
By these reconciliations, by searching for recondite
chords of human experience, he feels his way towards the
supreme reconciliation of man to man's fate. His
' diapason closes full on man.' This is the work, often
unconscious, of great masters. But for their magical
counterpoint the present would be all to each of us ; ' an
apex,' Pater calls it, ' between two hypothetical eternities ' ;
a masked note, so poignant that it pierces. All this has
been said, better than I can say it. Only the other day a
friend pointed out to me this phrase in Lander's ' Imaginary
Conversations,' * the present, like a note in music, is
nothing but as it appertains to what is past and what is
to come.' But how few among writers, Classic, Romantic,
or Realist, have known this, and shewn it.
Walter Scott is of those few. He extracted secrets
from oblivion so to endow what is with the charm of what
has been, and to put us in case to expect the future. He
strikes a full chord upon the keys of Time. It is only the
greatest musicians of humanity who thus enrich the
present by fealty to the past and make it a herald of
eternal harmonies.
637
To his Mother
ST. PAGAN'S CASTLE,
CARDIFF, August 28th, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I love your birthday letter.
We had a wonderful expedition to Caldey Island. Some
of Sibell's friends have started or re-started there a
TO HIS MOTHER 241
monastery of Benedictines ; but Anglican, not Roman.
I had read of it in one of her books, and found it was off
Tenby, between ninety and one hundred miles from here.
So she, Gay 1 and I set out at a quarter to nine yesterday
in the motor. S. S. had written to the Abbot and the
Island was reported to be at no great distance from the
shore. We ate some sandwiches in a field by a little
brook between wooded cliffs between Coermarten and
Tenby and reached Tenby at a quarter to 2 o'clock. The
Abbot owns the Island and a little steamer which we were
told was to start at 2 o'clock. We did not get under way
till 2.30. The day was divine, sea sky-blue and many
medusae pulsating past us. Tenby is like an Italian town
and the scenery is lovely.
As we drew near the Island we saw the Abbot in his
white and black habit waiting to receive us on the sand.
The tide was out. We had to get into a little row-boat
and be carried out of that by two sailors apiece.
Then we made the ' tour de proprietaire ' with the Abbot
who was delightful. There were monks there for over a
1000 years down to the dissolution of the monasteries
first Celtic and then Benedictines.
The beach is grown over with long dried grass as in
our Costa picture. Sea-thistles were lovely, beyond are
low cliffs, pine-woods, and sycamores growing thick up
a chine to the old monastery.
On one cliff is a 9th century Watch Tower against
pirates and further on a 7th century church. The remains
of the old monastery are now surrounded by farm build-
ings but there are good 13th century bits and a carved
stone of the 6th century, with inscriptions in Latin and
Celtic, asking all to pray for the soul of somebody ' the
son of the otter ' ! We did not disembark till 5.30, and
only got back, after wonderful sunset and moon-rise at
a quarter to ten o'clock.
I want to come and ride at Clouds very much. But I
fear it must be a little later. I have a vague idea that
you have said you will be away the third week in September
1 Lady Plymouth.
VOL. II. Q
242 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Anyhow I am away the week beginning the 23rd September.
We shall stay at Saighton till S. S. goes to Leffy on 15th
September. So I might come on the 15th or on the 28th
for a day or two and bring you on with me to Saighton.
Or both ! Phyllis 1 and Gay would perhaps like to ride,
but they could only come 28th or 30th, just for two days.
Anyhow, you and Papa come to us early in October and
I would not shorten your visit. We go North on the
17th of October.
All love to you darling. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
638
To Mrs. Drew
August 28th, 1907.
. . . We went with motor all the way, more than 90
miles, to Tenby, and then took the Abbot's little steamer
and set out to sea for Caldey Island, to visit the Benedictine
Monastery that is being revived there by Dom Aelred
Carlyle. It was a divine day, the sea was sky-blue and
the scenery wonderful. As we approached the shore, we
could see the Abbot in his black and white habit awaiting
us on the sand. The tide was out, and we were carried
ashore by two sailors. The Abbot was perfect, and all
he is doing is right. He first showed us the Guest House,
built of their own stone, for there are rocky cliffs on the
Island. Near it, on a knoll, is a 9th Century tower built
by the old Monks to look out for pirates. Further back
is a 7th Century Church. The Monks were there for more
than 1000 years, first Celtic and then Benedictine. The
Church is two cubes of stone with a Celtic arch between.
Then we saw two of the Brothers at work in a long row
of white cottages, red -roofed, which are to be let to mothers,
relations and friends of the Monks. The new Monastery
is to be built on a height near a pinewood. We had tea
with the Abbot's Mother and went into the old Monastery
buildings. The Chapel is 13th Century. It was excavated
out of the ground and there is the old 13th Century Gate-
1 Lady Phyllis Clive.
TO HIS MOTHER 243
house and Dovecot. There they dug up a strange stone
inscribed in Latin and Celtic of the 6th Century, asking
our prayers for the soul of ' the son of the otter.' The
old fish-ponds are there and the carp are in them still.
The Abbot walked us down to embark, looking exactly
like a 14th Century picture with his tonsured head against
the Mantegna rocks. He blessed us as we took leave ;
after a brilliant sunset and magical moonrise, we got back
at 9.45. The simplicity of the new buildings and the
mystery of the old are beyond admiration. It is a perfect
thing.
639
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, September Qth, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I hope ' no more visits ' does
not mean that you and Papa are not coming here in
October. I shall come to you about the 27th of September
for some rides anyhow. And perhaps only perhaps
for a day or two next week. But I fear not. I am hard
at it on Walter Scott and arranging book, and papers for
political campaign. It will be a bit of a miracle if I can
get away and serenity during the Autumn will depend on
having finished Walter Scott and laid a solid foundation
for speeches in the course of the next fortnight. It is the
only clear tune I shall have till the 13th of December. I
want to think,- and read, and arrange my subjects. I am
very happy over Sir Walter. It does one good to live in
his company, as I am. I have read again the four volumes,
of his Journal two, and of letters two, and skimmed
Lockhart and plunged into the period in England, Scot-
land and France. The little address will be a ' ridiculous
mouse ' from such a ' mountain.' But the task has given
excuse and energy for reading all my old loves, Shelley,
Keats, right through bits of Byron, and he is much
better as one gets older ; early Victor Hugo and his pre-
faces which are excellent as e.g. ' Revolutions change
244 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
everything except the human heart.' That knocks out
the socialists except as barren rascals and disturbers of
humanity ; mere mules ' without pride of ancestry or
hope of posterity.' I am also at Jane Austen and Peacock
and Raleigh's ' History of the English Novel ' and Nassau
Senior's criticisms in the ' Quarterly ' on the ' Waverleys '
as they appeared. ' How it strikes a Contemporary '
may give me a good start. I think I shall bring in Papa's
governess being run away with into the laurels at Petworth
whilst reading ' Marmion ' to illustrate the vogue.
Jack Mackail sent me an excellent lecture of his on
William Morris and his circle ' and that goes in too.' ' Put
it in the bag ' as we used to say with the clown in the
Pantomime, Robinson Crusoe. Walter Scott worked in
that way, sticking all that came along into his work.
But what giants they were ; and how degenerate are
these days ! It is wonderful to think of 1814, Napoleon's
last great campaign ' Waverley ' an anonymous novel
in a sea-side book box Byron blazing. Even the prices
make one jump, 3000 for ' Lady of the Lake ' and 3000
for 'Lalla Rookh,' and 8000 for 'Woodstock,' and
12,000 for the ' Life of Napoleon.'
I was offered 1000 the day before yesterday to begin
a short History of England. But I am married to that
cursed shrew Politics, and must say ' No.' I should be
more ' healthy, wealthy and wise ' if she died and I married
her sister, Literature, in spite of the Bishops.
And consider the marvellous year 1820 two novels
from Scott ; some of the best Shelley all the best of
Keats some Coleridge, third Canto of ' Childe Harold,'
and now, Bernard Shaw ! Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. My reference to MackaiPs lecture is too brief to
be intelligible. I mean something like this Walter Scott
the greatest force in the Romantic Movement ; that
Movement the mother of the Oxford Movement ; and that
Movement at least the aunt of the Morris' Movement.
And there are now no movements : only stagnation. We
TO PHILIP HANSON 245
live in a phase of indolent mediocrity. I remember the
seventies and eighties and declare that this is Autumn ;
but an Autumn of more mist than usual and no mellow
fruit. This is a parable. There is so much mist, so little
fruit, such a portentous quietness, that some people think
that this is no usual Autumn at all, but the dull blight
that broods before an earthquake.
For my part as an optimist I hope it is merely
Autumn, with rottenness dripping through fogs, only
more so. I am still disposed to sing, ' If Winter come,
can Spring be far behind.' But we want a ' West Wind '
badly.
640
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
17.ix.07.
MY DEAR P. H., I wish it had been possible for you
to look in at Saighton during these last glorious days of
sunshine. Lady Grosvenor went to Lady Beauchamp
yesterday to welcome another grandchild, and I came
here to have my leg electrified. To-morrow I go to
Derwent, then Hornby Castle, then Clouds, on Thursday
or Friday next week. I am writing after a day of happy
solitude in a London, neither swept nor garnished, but
empty and exhilarated by serene September sunlight. I
feel brisk. And the feeling, long lost, chimes with the
outward aspect and reminds me of early days at the W. O.
in '98 and '99. So my thoughts turn to you.
I have ' broken the back ' of my address on ' Walter
Scott ' : written the first half and the end and sketched
the rest of the second half. This has given me stimulus
and excuse for wide reading over 1798-1832. What a
time ! Napoleon, Wellington, Pitt, Canning, Goethe,
Victor Hugo, Byron, Scott and meanwhile such quin-
tennial flowers as Keats and Shelley blossoming unseen.
And here we are, rather ' now ' we are, still unravelling
the meaning of the so-called Romantic Revival. I see
Politics by the light of Art.
246 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
If I do see anything, I see that they the ' makers ' in
Politics or Poetry were puzzled by a mistaken, and false,
antagonism between the ' Classic ' and ' Romantic.' I
see that the ' Classic ' is not an original, or primary, mode
of the mind's energy to express the need of the heart.
There are two original modes, the Romantic and Realist,
based respectively on imagination and observation. Either,
or both, become ' Classic.' But that is a secondary mode
of either. You choose and polish your imagination or
your observation, until the element of Wonder disappears
from your image of life. The * Classic ' becomes a statue
at Chatsworth : the Realistic a clerk at his desk.
Then the passion for Wonder revives in man the
wonderer. And the little try to gratify it for pence. The
school of Horror substitutes a Hobgoblin for the statue.
The school of Scandal substitutes a Profligate for the
clerk. Each tries to tickle or shock.
Scott's huge performance was to hark back to first
springs. He was lucky, like all conquerors. He happened
to have read and liked the old Romances and imitated
them. He happened to have read and understood the
new Realists and analysed Defoe.
Then and that is the supreme thing which he did he
merged the two in Waverley, anno 1814. He canalised
the welter of cross-currents and drew off the power in a
stream of literary energy which turned the mills of the
Oxford Movement, the Young England Movement, and,
last of all, the Morris-Rossetti Movement. Keats and
Shelley were beautiful flowers that grew by the brim :
Hugo and Byron, tumultuous currents, deep or surface,
that never got out of the whirlpool. He did in Literature
what Disraeli meant to do in Politics.
The literary stream is now almost lost in sand. The
Political stream never was canalised. Napoleon nearly
did it for the Continent. Here, in our Island, Canning
died ; Wellington became ' The Duke ' ; and Disraeli
... I can't finish this sentence because I don't know
what exactly happened to him. He would have rounded
it off with an epigram. But there is nothing epigram-
TO HIS MOTHER 247
matic about a man who starts with observing British
institutions : the Peerage, the Church, the Gentry,
Labour ; and imagining World History in terms of Oriental
Empire ; who despises the first and postpones the second ;
and ends by becoming the senile slave of both.
It is odd that * Joe,' with acute observation in a succes-
sion of limited fields, and impulse as a ' substitute for
imagination,' still went so much nearer combining observa-
tion and imagination than Balfour or even Gladstone
that many have a soft place in their heart for him as
they had for Randolph.
But that the coupling of imagination and observa-
tion, those two engines of the mind to minister to the
needs of the heart, is the job of our political giant ; when
we get him.
Meanwhile, it is meanwhile : a long while and very
mean.
If only poets would sing, meanwhile ! But they never
do, any more than birds, in a mist which optimists, like
myself, declare to be mere mists of Autumn, heralds of
Winter's lean alacrity, and Spring's exuberance : and
pessimists declare to be abnormal vapours brooding before
an earthquake. ' The sedge is withered from the lake
and no birds sing.'
Indeed, a writer in the ' Outlook ' maintains that birds-
poets will never sing again. He is chronicling the death
of Sully-Prudhomme as the last of those birds. This,
says he, is a * practical ' age. But what ' in the name of
glory ' do we practise ? Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
641
To his Mother
HORNBY CASTLE,
BEDALE, YORKSHIRE, September 2Srd, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, S. S. sent me your letter. I
a,m glad that you are not anxious about Robert 1 and
1 His nephew, Robert Adeane.
248 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
delighted to hear that Papa is much better. Give him
my love. I hope to get to you before Saturday and will
let you know. I am sending two horses to Clouds on
Thursday or Wednesday. Perf 's leave begins on October
1st, so I want him to come to Clouds and ride about with
me. I hope that Gay and Phyllis will come to ride on
Monday. I am hard at old Sir Walter Scott and at
politics with a small travelling library. There are
interesting books here, specially a beautiful illuminated
4 Roman de la Rose ' MS. of about 1450, bound in old
cramoisie velvet with letters pounced alternately on the
outside covers. When you find out how to read them,
they spell this : see below,
A O R M U R
ER G E
T E I D S R
E P SO
I E D R T O
U T BE
that is Amour Regret Desir Espoir et Doubte.
I hope to be with you Friday, at latest ; perhaps
Thursday. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
642
To Charles Whibley
CLOUDS,
EAST KNOYLE, 4th October 1907-
MY DEAR CHARLES, I have corrected a few ' literals ' in
the proof herewith returned. It omits a passage which I
cannot recall. But it is an excellent report.
I am well. I wish that we met more often. This
autumn I ' addict ' myself to Politics, beginning at Perth,
on October 18th, and continuing at Hexham, Birmingham,
Dover, Manchester, York and Leicester, not to mention
an address on Walter Scott at Edinburgh.
I do this from a sense of duty. The Gentry of England
must not abdicate. But I have little belief in the use-
fulness of platform discourse. Nothing will serve but
TO WILFRID WARD 249
terror of Germany and a further collapse in Funds at the
prospect of Socialism.
Something might be done with the pen. A ' tongue
with a tang ' will not convince those who like to be
scratched where'er they do itch.
Still I must ' tang ' away, on the off-chance that the
English do not wish to be relieved of all responsibility
and liberty. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
643
To Mrs. Drew
CLOUDS, October 6th, 1907.
. . . The gloom of impending speeches begins to descend
on my heart. I mean political speeches I like the
others. But political speeches, and in Scotland, is almost
more than I can bear. It is no consolation that
everybody on all sides Government, Opposition, Irish,
Noncons., Labour, Protectionists, Free Traders, Individu-
alists, Socialists, Churchmen, Temperance Advocates,
Brewers, Soldiers, Sailors, Railway Employees, Directors,
Bankers, ' Uncle Tom Codley and all and all ' seem
equally disgusted with things in general, except C. B. 1
He ' sits on a stile and continues to smile ' .
644
To Wilfrid Ward
36 PARK LANE, W.,
October 10th, 1907.
MY DEAR WILFRID, If I do not answer your letter
now I doubt doing so for many days. I have a very
heavy political programme before me which will tax my
time and vitality.
So I give you an ' Ave Caesar ' : not that I expect to
die in the arena but that I am certain to be swallowed by
its dust, for many days.
I took your letter with me to Dover yesterday and am
1 Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
250 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
off north to-morrow. May I say that it needed careful
deciphering ? What has become of your type-writer ?
Though too absorbed to exchange written signals of
Amity, I have followed the Encyclical with a personal,
almost poignant, interest in its relation to yourself. I
half guessed that all the arrows were not drawn at
a venture.
The ' crux ' is that every shot at you is a shot at New-
man, and a shot at all that his apologetics and reconcilia-
tions have meant, not only to you and yours, but to
others, including myself.
It is a bad business. Rather I ought to say a ' tragic '
business. And, having said that, I ought to add that
Tragedy is the note of man's endeavour to comprehend
the Divine ; just as it was the note of the Divine's con-
descension to penetrate man's intelligence through his
sympathy.
But you are more happy than any non-Catholic can be.
For you are instructed in the necessity of waiting and
drilled to support the waiting with patience. You are
an Army with Generals who may be dilatory, or retro-
grade. We are a mob, with individuals who may be
brilliant and impulsive. Still, when your Army moves,
it moves as a whole. And that is much ; perhaps all.
For what else are the ' saecula sseculorum ' ?
To alter my image : the complement of 4 securus
judicat orbis terrarum,' is, that the mountain-tops are
not to shout when tipped with the rosy light of Dawn.
But, rather, to be still in hush'd altitudes till the darkest
valleys are steeped by noon-day.
To compare small things with great you cannot guess
how difficult the 4 Protestantism ' of Britain makes
Politics.
Any man who sees starts on his -ism ; his Socialism
or his Individualism, his Imperialism or his Cosmopoli-
tanism. Each one who sees has his point of view and his
focus of vision.
But very few see. Still fewer see together. And the
multitude, who don't see, are distracted by the dissen-
TO CHARLES BOYD 251
sions of confident seers. The ' Genus irritabile vatum '
becomes more irritable ; the herd, more lethargic.
Pisgah is the peak from which one man in isolation sees
the promised land. The others wander and halt and
retire and advance and grumble and rebel, in a crowd
with all its drawbacks. But, in a crowd, they get to the
Promised Land, at last.
What an intolerable Apologue I have inflicted ! It
only means that I should be content with a hush'd alti-
tude at Dawn if I were sure of the sun at Noon. I should
not fret over the creeping shadows. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
645
To Charles Boyd
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 14.x. 07.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Many thanks for a most oppor-
tune letter on Socialism, and for another opportune in all
but my lack of leisure to reply.
I agree that wild hitting is worse than useless. But I
am sure that some hitting there must be.
I am off to Perth for an orgy of speaking, and on to
other places for the same.
I mean, at the risk of boring my audience and failing
completely, to tackle Socialism and all the -isms. My
chain of thought is
(1) Individualism the real Cobdenite theory to which
Lord B. of B. 1 asks me to revert,
Ignored the State. Pretended the world was, or
would be cosmopolitan, which it is not and will not be.
Asserted Capital would go anywhere, which is true
too true ! and that Labour would follow, which is false.
Under that system, even as it is, we have Cosmopolitan
Capital and ' Stranded ' Labour.
(2) Hence the demand for Socialism.
But that is out of the frying-pan into the fire.
1 Lord Balfour of Burleigh.
252 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Criticism of Socialism.
But there is a great Problem. Penury over-popu-
lation, depopulation, unemployment. To defeat false
remedy and find a true one, we need a Policy based on
Principle and supported by a united Party.
(3) Is that to be found in Government ?
Obviously not.
(4) In Unionism ? yes.
It grasps the reality of the ' State ' in all its bearings ; in
its external relations and, not less, in its relations to the
Individual, not as an individual in a cosmopolitan world,
but as a citizen of the State.
And for this must accept legitimate development of
Unionist Principles, i.e. Tariff Reform.
Them 's my sentiments. Yours ever, G. W.
646
To Charles T. Gaily
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 23.x. 07.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I have just seen a characteristic
letter from the Hon ble P. 1 to Percy. It begins simply
and suddenly as follows :
4 MY DEAR PERF, There are 3 things which I hope you
will not do :
(1) Become a Roman Catholic ; (2) Marry an American
girl;
(3) Go into the House of Commons.'
Certainly there is much to be said against Politics.
I hope you are not tiring yourself out over Industries.
I got back here, with Sibell, this afternoon and walked
back most of the way from Chester. After a fortnight's
politics it was refreshing to see Percy come in from hunt-
ing without a care.
I hope to hunt next week till Friday, when I go to
Edinburgh to talk about Walter Scott. Yours ever,
G. W.
1 His father.
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 253
647
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 30th October 1907.
BELOVED PAMELO, I found your book x here Monday
and have read it all. It is very good. The structure
works out well. The conclusion is excellent, and must
have been very difficult. What a lot you have put into
it and what a lot of yourself. I think it is a little classic ;
not that it is little in size ! I long to hear of the reviews.
But I cannot review it in a letter to you. It is very alle-
gorical to me ; full of deep sayings that find an echo.
The lively bits of observation, the phrases clean-cut and
polished, the quips and cranks are all needed to prevent
the deep sayings from sounding too sad. But they are
all there to amuse and soothe and delight. That is the
office of Art to mankind, they are like the twisted ropes
of flowering creepers used in some lands for bridges over
rivers in chasms. In any true work of Art we need both
the bridges and the chasms. And for all the grace of
your garland-bridges I can hear the ' muffled tremulous
roar.' Sometimes the chasms of hopes that fail, and love,
and departing youth in all around, yawn below one.
They cannot be bridged by Politics. Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
648
To Charles T. Gatty
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 2.xi.07.
MY DEAR CHARLES, A thousand thanks for the photo-
graph of the Picture. I like it better than the Picture.
Also as they say in Germany I hold you to the promise
of a visit before, or after, Christmas.
You will marvel at the excavations which Sibell and the
1 'The Children and the Pictures,' published by William Heinemann.
254 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
gardener have made at the entrance here on the left after
coming in by the gate. It was a bank thickly crowded
with shrubs. But and here is the point the wall which
you remember on the top of the rock along the road from
Chester outside, turns sharp to the left at the gate and
runs along the top of the live rock inside. Well, we have
excavated and disclosed both, leaving three bastions,
revetted with stone, to retain the best of the flowering trees,
as lilac, cornel and maple. This enhances the ' rock and
fortress ' note of the ancient Abbots' country seat.
The work reminded me of old days along the ' Abbot's
Walk,' and lends force to my insistence on a visit from
you. I understand the weariness of your enterprise. So
am I weary to death of my politics. All the more reason
is there for re-affirming old days and old ways. One
phrase of Walter Scott struck me hard. He is writing
to one of a band of early companions, and speaks of the
others as * all now sequestered or squandered.' So it
is. Some go to the Empire's extremities and others toil
in tunnels at home.
And now I must toil. ' Man goeth forth to his labour.'
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. Sibell is very well and we expect Perkins to-day
on leave from his military duties.
649
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
5.xi.07.
MY DEAR P. H., I got your letter yesterday before
starting for London. I return to Saighton to-night. I
came up for the Railway * crisis.' But of that later on.
The only good report fair report of the speech we
discussed was in the t Aberdeen Journal ' of 19.x.
Your letter interests and impresses me. It is difficult
as Joe discovered to propose a policy without detail,
and impossible to go into detail on the platform.
The aspect of Finance which interests me most is the
TO PHILIP HANSON 255
hardest to handle I mean Credit. And it is overlooked
most frequently. I come across it over Railway work.
Let me use it as an illustration. Railway servants want
higher wages and shorter hours. Anyone can sympathise
with that. To do anything in that direction you must
choose between two alternatives. The first is to pay
the shareholders less. Now the reason why you cannot
pay the shareholders less is not that they have a right
to 3%. It is that until you give them 4% they won't
lend you any more money ; and that you cannot proceed
unless you can borrow.
That being so, if railway servants are to have higher
wages and shorter hours, the public must have fewer
trains and higher fares. This is an apologue. The general
trend of opinion in this country is still Cobdenite. Opinion
holds that the remedy for any evil is to have more things
at lower prices. I do not believe that this opinion was
ever altogether sound. I am sure it is false when opinion,
illogically, inclines also and at the same time towards
higher wages and shorter hours.
Now let me jump to general Fiscals.
I differ from you to this extent. You hold that I ought
not to ' attack ' without an alternative, in some detail.
I hold that Asquith's conundrums are irrelevant unless
he can say that the present system is sound.
My arguments against the present system are :
I. Revenue Argument.
(a) Present system is inadequate ; even for Defence
and Education ; apart from Housing, Land, Rating ;
and hopelessly inadequate if anything is to be done for
those three in addition.
Increase on Defence and Education during our ten years
was 60% on each an increase monstrously in excess of
the growth of population.
(b) Present system is inelastic.
(i) Direct. If you could have 2/- income tax, 20%
instead of 10% Death duty on large properties, well and
good. But you can't. It drives capital abroad and
destroys credit. Asquith before the Election said I/-
256 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
was altogether too high if income tax was to be what it
ought to be in any sound system, i.e. a Reserve, 3d. on
earned incomes under 2000 total is right enough ; but
does not touch question of reserve.
(ii). Indirect on articles of ordinary consumption we
take 63 millions as against 53 for MacKinley Tariff.
Therefore, if you are to subserve the 5 objects named
without destroying credit, you must ' broaden basis,'
i.e. have more taxes on more articles.
II. Argument from Retaliation and Preference. If
you do I., you are then free to attempt II. But your
attempt must be tentative and experimental.
The first tax that can be put on is a Corn tax. The l/-
till Low abolished it on pedantic grounds brought in some
revenue. When Beach reimposed it, it bid fair to bring
in more, and price of bread fell. In order to give pre-
ference we advocated 2/-. Price of corn, etc., has gone
up from 10/- to 16/-, and price of loaf has only risen Id.
in some few places and has not risen in others.
It is clear, therefore, that some revenue can be got
without raising price.
But, then, I advocate a preference. / would not give
Canada the whole 2/-. I would give her I/-.
I believe that such a plan would have a large sentimental
effect. Its tendency would be to foster what is already
going on, i.e. labour (all she needs) going to Canada
instead of U.S.A.
But I do not believe that U.S.A. would sit down and
acquiesce. She would try to pour in corn, and it is not
improbable that Canada paying I/- and U.S.A. paying
2/- would increase supplies and cheapen.
But now I must catch my train.
III. Argument is Humanitarian Standard.
We cannot have inspectors as well as Consuls abroad,
and therefore it is sense to have a low duty on most
manufactured articles.
If you are interested, I will deal with Asquith's conun-
drums about meat and wool in another letter. Yours
ever, G. W.
TO HIS FATHER 257
650
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, November 5th, 1907.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am not going to buy the Queen's
letter. I think it very likely that you will be able to
get it for 30/- in six months' or a year's time.
I was up in London to-day for the Railway crisis but
had not a moment in which to look you up.
I quite understand what you feel about politics ; I
think that I, too, am getting politically old. For I
dislike politics more and more and care less and less for
any issues before the country, or likely to come before it
in my time.
If I can get a good report of my speeches I will send it
to you.
I shall look up the article on ' Trees ' in the * Times.*
Pam's book is very good. The Dreams frighten me
and would have given me a fit when I was Clare's age.
Poor Pam is worried about her baby ill in Scotland but
going on well. I was pleased by the Review in the ' Times'
Literary Supplement ' of last Friday ; chiefly because her
book supposed a book for children was reviewed and
reviewed second, under ' Fiction,' to a work by the man
who wrote ' Number (something) John Street ' ; a book
that made a great splash.
The other works of fiction are reviewed later ; or
relegated in shoals to the advertisement column.
Perf arrived here Sunday night and was telegraphed for
Monday night for a Court Martial. But we both got
back this evening, he from the Army, I from the Railway
crisis. And now we shall get a hunt or two together.
I had two good days last week and enjoyed them
immensely. I should like to hunt a provincial pack of
hounds, command a Yeomanry Regiment and write a
book once in five years ; and let politics ' go hang.'
In politics it is impossible to do more than one thing
VOL. n. R
258 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
at a time ; and difficult to do one thing since, to do that,
you must interest and control a great number of different
classes, and traditions and theories.
The whole theory of Cobdenism is wrong. Even in
the minor matter of the Railway crisis, the practical
difficulty arises entirely from a pursuit of cheapness and
competition. The hours are long and the wages low, if
not for those hours then, certainly, for the amount of work
done in them.
If you stood on the platform at Crewe for twelve hours
you would see an almost continuous procession of trains,
coming in and being broken up into sections, going out
in different directions to the North. This is a great
strain. It arises from four lines racing North, pandering
to the lower middle-class and ' blackmailed ' by Parliament
and the Press.
The only practical way of relieving the strain is to have
fewer trains and higher fares. This applies chiefly to
the Northern lines. Our men are satisfied and solidly
loyal. But then we are a butt of scorn because we do
not run an express every half hour at less than cost price.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
651
To his Mother
THE GRAND HOTEL,
DOVER, November 16th, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I return Pam's letters. It is
a relief to know as I do from later ones that she is no
longer anxious.
S. S. and I are comfortable here. We both felt dear
Chesham's death. It prevented S. S. from going to
Birmingham. But I had to go, not only to be present
at the Conference and Mass Meeting but, as President
for a second year of the Midland Conservative Club.
I had to take the chair there, after Arthur's big speech,
to introduce him to the members. It was a heavy day.
We started at 10 a.m. and got back after 12.30 at night. I
TO PHILIP HANSON 259
then talked to Chang in her room till 2 o'clock. Yesterday
I returned to London, dashed across and picking up S. S.
I slept all the way in the train to Dover. Last night was
our Mayor's banquet. I made two speeches ; proposing
the Mayor and returning thanks for self. Now we are
doing Dover quietly till Wednesday when I speak on
politics. It is a dreary day of fog and rain.
Arthur's speech was a complete success. He spoke
well with scarcely a note and no hesitation. It was his
best chance and, almost, his last chance. But he took it
and we are all happy.
Best love to papa. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
652
To Philip Hanson
GRAND HOTEL,
DOVER, 17.ri.07.
MY DEAR P. H., This, the 17th, represents my first
blow at the air-hole of leisure since yours of the 6th. I
cannot, without an effort, remember all that has happened
since, and I am too idle to fetch a diary. Now, I remember.
I had two great days hunting with Percy, 7th and 8th,
enjoyed myself huge>y and took two rattling falls. I
was, of course, saddened by Chesham's death. 1 But it
was a good death, of a kind, brave, sensible man. I
dashed off to meet Lady Grosvenor at Madresfield last
Monday, to reconstruct plans. We agreed I must not
give up the Birmingham Conference. Thursday was a
full, interesting day. I sat at the Conference from eleven
onward. Banqueted with A. J. B. at six. Heard him
speak at eight. He spoke very well ; hardly looked at a
note (on one sheet) and never hesitated for one hour and
twenty minutes. He did the trick. We told him it was
his best chance ; and his last. So he took it. I some-
tunes wish that extremity was not the only ' jumping-
board ' from which he can jump. After the mass meet-
1 Lord Chesham was killed by a fall when hunting in Cheshire.
260 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ing I took the chair as President of the Midland Conserva-
tive Club, introduced him, etc. ' The old Tory Fortress
of the Midlands,' and so forth. He made another nice
speech. I got back at twenty to one, and sat up talking
to my sister, Lady Elcho, in her bedroom, till any hour.
She, rightly, observed that the occasion bespoke anything
but prudence. Started early Friday, just caught the
train in London, slept like a stone to Dover and made two
bright speeches at the Mayor's banquet.
Between whiles I have corrected and polished my
* Scott.' Sent off the typed copy corrected and touched
up, to-night. Some of the last touches amused me : as
thus, for the Richardson business ' any party of nobodies
seated round a table ' and then the added touch, ' and
applying a delicate seismometer to any tremor, however
faint, with which the heart responds to any fact, however
trivial.' And this other touch : ' The Romantic smoothed
to the inane, had to be galvanised to the diabolic. The
Realistic sweetened with sentiment, had to be salted with
satire.' And that, my dear P. H., is ' the kind of hair-
pins we are.'
But what the Burgesses and Literary gents of the
Modern Athens will make of it all I leave you to surmise.
It is now too late to begin preparing my speech for
Wednesday, and too early to go to bed, so I am talking
to you. It is only 10 o'clock ! But I am too idle to con-
tinue my last letter in grim earnest. I will sketch in the
faintest outline what I mean by tackling Asquith's
conundrum.
He says 'what about (1) Corn, (2) Meat, (3) Wool,
(4) Wood ? '
There are, at least, Four lines of reply.
I. The colonies have never asked for ' distributive
justice ' from us, and don't give it to each other.
II. They want their production stimulated ; but on
what ? Canada on Corn, but not on Wood. Australia
on Meat and Corn, but not on Wool (pace that old fat,
red-faced donkey Sir ).
III. Looking homewards our appetite for food is
TO PHILIP HANSON 261
relatively limited by comparison with our appetite for
raw material.
IV. Anyway, if we are to compare Fiscal systems, will
you weigh the comparative merits of ' Sheep and Sugar ? '
I take this comparison because Simon, M.P., made a
speech on the Budget about Australian sheep which was
taken to be mighty clever and conclusive. He is one of
the * rising lights.' Son of Rev. E. Simon, Congregational
Minister, Barrister-at-law, Fellow of All Souls ' nec-non
and the deuce knows what ' (Browning). Well, says he,
look at ' the Australian sheep, meat inside and wool
outside.' (Roars of laughter.) ' How are you going to
tax one and not the other ? ' (Loud cheers.)
Now that is the kind of clever nonsense which I won't
stand.
I retort : Look at Sheep and Sugar. Each is both
food and raw material. But, with this distinction : that
the food is the sheep and the raw material, come here
separately and can be separately dealt with. The sugar
comes solid. If I tax sugar as a food, I must tax sugar
as a raw material. If I tax Australian meat, I need not
and shall not tax Australian wool.
But, waiving the raw material side to the argument
(having scored that trick) what of the Food side ?
If the tax is on meat, which we produce, and if we give
Australia a preference, one of two things must happen,
either the Foreigner will pay the tax, or else he will desist
from importing because, and when, the Empire becomes
self-sufficient. Why not have two good things one after
the other, instead of neither at any time ? Personally I
believe you will get both. This, I know, makes the Free
Trader scream. But that is because he lives in the abstract.
In the concrete world sentiment plays a huge part. Senti-
ment will stimulate the Australian, and, for that matter,
Charlie Adeane, to have rather more sheep the next year
after the Tariff. And sentiment will stimulate the Foreigner
not to be beat. He will pay a small tax rather than
surrender a market. The price of meat will not go up.
That is a miracle in the abstract. But a probability,
262 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
verging on a certainty, in the concrete. At any rate I
mean to try it.
And now I shall go to bed at 10.40.
To-morrow I start at 9.30 to go all over the Harbour,
and drink the sea breeze, and marvel at the ingenuity
with which mind manoeuvres masses, and defies ' the
mighty Being ' who
1 doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder everlastingly.'
Whiles, the ' mighty Being ' puts in one. The other day
he put a ship into the Mole, and moved all those 80 ton
blocks, pushing a hole through them as if they were bricks.
They had not settled down on their concrete beds to their
everlasting job. My dear old friend, Mr. Heyn, in charge
of the works, multiplied the mass of the ship into her
' velocity ' she was only making 9 knots and found that
she knocked the Mole to the tune of a 60,000 ton blow.
It is a pleasure to consider these arguments after Simon's
windlestraws and Asquith's powder-puffs. But the Harbour
is not finished, and Tariff Reform is still in the offing. I
spare you ' Tantse molis erat.' Yours ever, G. W.
653
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December 5th, 1907.
MY DEAREST PAPA, This is Perf's birthday 20 years
old!
I thought I had sent you a report of my speech on
Walter Scott. But Sibell writes that I did not. Even
the ' Scotsman ' left out the bit I like best. So I send
that report and the ' Irish Times.'
Read the ' Scotsman ' till you get to (A). Then read
the bit marked (A) in the ' Irish Times.'
I was pleased to find from the Press cuttings that the
Irish papers report me very fully whenever I speak.
The English ' Times ' boycotts me. That is because
TO LIEUT.-COL. STEPHEN FREWEN 263
Macmillan the publisher's protagonist against the Times
Book Club published my Ronsard last year.
I had a splendid meeting at Dartford last night. There
is a short report in ' Standard ' and ' Morning Post.' And
to-morrow I go as a Tariff Reformer into the Lions'
Den. For I have to speak in Manchester.
Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. All the papers omit from my ' Scott ' a rather
amusing exordium. Hanson came from Ireland to hear.
A good ' Dog Tray.'
654
To Lieut.-Col. Stephen Frewen
SAIGHTON,
CHESTER, December 15th, 1907.
DEAR OLD STE., What a brick you are to write such
long, interesting letters to an old pal. The mistake over
the Battle picture * is mine, or rather it is properly to be
charged to an excellent young lady who helps me with
correspondence, type-writing, etc. I remember nothing
about it. But I am sure that she said * Here is a picture '
just when I was preparing a speech and starting off to
catch the train. I shall buy the picture and give it to
Guy for Christmas. ... I must add that qua speaking
I have been galloped pretty near to a standstill this
Autumn. I totted up and find that since October 9th I
have made 12 big and 7 little speeches.
Between all these speeches I have put in some hunts.
. . . On Tuesday we had a ' topper ' ; 5 mile point, 7
miles as they ran or more ; in 35 minutes. Yesterday,
at Darnhall, we had a fair turn over the Paradise-Wellen-
hall, Darnhall country. I remember you on your old
grey showing us how to do that. I had a superb toss
over wire ; floated over a ' Leicestershire ' fence, and
1 'The Charge at Klipfontein' that was led by the i6th Lancers under com-
mand of Lieut.-Col. Frewen, and brought about the relief of Kimberley.
264 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
was turned head over heels with my horse by a wire on
the landing side. It is pleasant to find that, in spite of
politics, I am not stiff from the fall. I cut my face and
had to be ' stitched,' but otherwise am none the worse.
Tried a horse to-day and bought him.
I only put in all this prattle to revive your memories
of old days. Percy is on leave, here, and ' going ' well.
He, too, took a toss over rails. In fact, we are all tumbling
a good deal this year. It was very blind at the start,
and is now very deep. We all felt dear Chesham's death.
But it was a good way to end a good life.
You must not let your disappointment weigh on your
mind. Maybe it can be righted. Maybe it cannot. But
what does it matter to an English gentleman who has led
a charge in war and can hold his own with the youngsters
out hunting ? It matters nothing. In my little Political
way I have not received much thanks. But I don't care
a damn.
And they may want us both, yet. And if they don't
want us, we can be ourselves, and ride straight. Yours
ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
655
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
19.xii.07.
MY DEAR P. H., I enclose E. Tennant's letter written
on same day as yours.
I am hard pressed just in front of the last fence
Leicester of my long course. They suddenly shot me
for a speech last night at ' The United Empire Club.' I
spoke well. There is a report in the ' Morning Post.'
To-day I felt tired as the Dinner was long, and the room
hot. It was a fine gathering. I am fighting hard to keep
January clear of speeches.
They want me to be guest of evening at ' 1900 Club,'
but I have said February.
I am quite happy in my mind about politics. Whether I
TO PHILIP HANSON 265
should ever be happy in any conceivable Government is
another affair. For I mean business over Social Reform
and cannot allow myself to be ' jobbed off ' again. // we
get in on T. R. and S. R. 1 and drop the latter, I take a line
of my own. Rather, I will not go in without assurances.
To-morrow I shall try something like this.
Prelude. The reawakened interest in Politics.
(N.B. You are right about that. Why were there so
few speeches last year ? Because nobody asked us to
speak. Why so many now ? Because everybody is
clamouring for them.)
So next Election, of great and, perhaps, decisive
importance.
Will reveal temper and purpose of British people.
Strain of the 20 years '85 to '05, on the new democracy.
What a lot of questions settled. Ireland ; Partition of
Africa; Egypt; Navy. Beginning of
No wonder a collapse. But were we old and spent, or only
tired and irritable ? I hope the latter.
If so, take up burden of Empire and Social Reform.
But for that must not be distracted must concentrate.
My quarrel with Government that they distract by
unsettling Navy 2 power standard.
Ireland : Union and order to be maintained.
These 2 must be held to be settled.
House of Lords useful for that.
Education can be settled only on basis of State's
impartiality. It must be settled and added to the long
list of settled policies outside Party conflict India, Asia,
Foreign Office, Ireland, Africa, Egypt, Navy.
Then can attack Empire and Social Reform.
Which ' me judice ' are what interest ; can only
be tackled by Tariff Reform, and are outside scope of
House of Lords.
Very well then :
Power of Empire and Welfare of People are closely
connected, but must begin somewhere. I will begin at
1 Tariff Reform and Social Reform.
266 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
beginning, not with Empire, or U. K., or Leicester, but
with a slum and a child in that slum, returning on a dark
winter afternoon from school, without having had a meal,
to an insanitary home. What are you going to do ?
Something you must do (& la Carlyle).
There are only 2 plans, Socialistic and Imperialistic.
Look at first.
Increase direct taxation and rates, to feed and clothe
the child and to pension his parents.
Borrow money to build them a better and more expensive
house. What happens ?
Higher taxes drive capital abroad.
Higher rates prevent erection of factories and workshops,
etc., etc.
Ends in turning England into the Poplar and West
Ham of Europe.
The plan is bad, because you tried to find out How to
remedy the evil, without asking, first, Why it is there.
Why was the child hungry ?
Because his father was unemployed.
Why?
Because of
Pauper aliens
Dumped goods
Sweated goods
High rates
High direct taxes.
And into it I go with gusto and glee, and work right up
the keyboard to the crashing harmonies of Empire and
Employment with a lovely leit-motif of the ' Sister States *
bless 'em carolling like birds through the strumming
of Statistics and bugle-calls of the higher Patriotism.
This exuberance is due to the fact that I have just been
to sleep like a stone from 3 to 5, and am refreshed by a
cup of tea.
Also, I find it easier to write a letter to you than to
work at a speech. But incidentally I have made one.
So hey ! for Leicester and the Lions' Den of Radical
Nonconformity. Yours ever, G. W.
TO HIS FATHER 267
656
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, December 22nd, 1907.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, So as to be sure of hitting off
Christmas I am writing to-night to send you all love and
all wishes for a merry Christmas and happy new year.
Give my best love to Papa.
I finished my speaking campaign at Leicester on Friday.
It was an immense relief to get it all over. I spoke at a
mass meeting and again later at a working-man's club.
Yesterday in the train I felt like a boy coming home for
the holidays. And last night I slept for eleven hours on
end ! after sleeping for an hour in the afternoon twelve
in all.
And now I am going to hunt and read good old books.
Whilst I was away last week Perf entertained four brother-
officers here all hunting with many horses and a motor
car. Sibell wrote that they were ' as quiet as mice.' I
don't know what she expected !
My * Scott ' speech is being printed as a pamphlet, and
I will send you a copy. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
657
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, Christmas, 1907.
MY DEAREST PAPA, The hounds meet here to-morrow.
Twenty-eight persons are coming out from Eaton. This
is,- 1 think, the record of ' Hunt-batches.' With Percy
and self it makes a party of thirty. I wonder if Bad-
minton ever put such a ' posse comitatus ' in the field.
The competition will be keen. For most of Bendor's
guests are 4 artists ' Ikey Bell, ' Greepy ' de Crespigny,
Rivy Grenfell, Fitzpatrick, Ivor Guest and many more.
268 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
And the local lights will try to hold their own against the
paladins of Leicestershire and Meath. It is interesting
apart from the fun of it and the sport to see this when
political changes may abolish the gentry and their pursuits.
Personally, I back the gentry. In addition to hunting,
Bendor and I are going to start a political revival in
Cheshire. He has asked everybody with a name and a
shilling to lunch at the Grosvenor Hotel on January 4th
and we are going to tell them that unless they subscribe
to and work for our Party they are useless and doomed.
We put Tariff Reform in the front and ask for a guarantee
of 1000 a year for four years in addition to all subscrip-
tions in separate constituencies. Our object is to win
back all the seats in Cheshire. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
658
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, December 28th, 1907.
MY DEAREST PAPA, We are having great fun here
after all the grind and wretchedness of a platform cam-
paign. On Christmas night we sat down thirty-nine to
dinner, and thirty of forty-five hunted Thursday. To-
day we were all out again and had three hunts ; the last
perfect and the others good. I had great luck all day.
In the first run I was third over a hunting-bridge which
broke with the tenth man. So nine of us had the hounds
to ourselves. And in the evening we had a perfect thirty-
five minutes ; after a good thirty minutes in the afternoon.
I got a glorious start over a river, after we had been run-
ning for ten minutes and then had a divine seventeen or
eighteen minutes, leading and ' cutting out the work.'
That is the joy of hunting. There is nothing like it.
Three of us Hornby, a whip and self sailed away fifty
lengths in front of Bendor, Mrs. Tom Galley and the
Grenfell ' Twins.' The rest were nowhere. We * spread-
eagled ' the field. The pace was too hot to choose your
TO HIS FATHER 269
place by a yard. We just took everything as it came with
the hounds screaming by our side. Nobody could gain an
inch. These are the moments that justify fox-hunting.
At the end we forded the river again and had to ' whip -off *
at 4-12 p.m. in the dark. Your loving son, GEORGE.
659
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 1st, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, A happy New Year to you ! I
am afraid I cannot shoot on the 21st. I have a Railway
Board Meeting on that day at 11 o'clock and another at
10-30 on the 22nd. I am shirking two meetings next
week and those on the 21st and 22nd are important as we
settle everything at them before the half-yearly meeting
of the shareholders. But I should love to start the New
Year fairly early with you at Clouds and would come on
the Saturday, 18th and stay till late Monday night. If,
which Heaven avert, it was freezing, I could come on the
Friday.
I hunted four days last week and Monday and to-day.
But now it is over till we get a south-west wind. To-day
was impossible. We did some necessary, though belated
' cubbing ' in a little wood where there are eleven foxes
and killed one of them. But the gateways and ploughs
were too hard to let the hounds go away. I rode back
here with de Crespigny over ' the Gap ' in the Cheshire
hills. The sun was shining and the view is wonderful.
At the ' Gap,' a ' Col ' over the range, you see the whole
expanse of the vale to Crewe and, then, directly you cross
it, the whole expanse of our vale to Chester. I gave him
lunch and got on another horse and rode him over to Eaton.
Then I walked the line of our first hunt last Thursday and
looked at the jumps. So I got six or seven hours' exercise
in what the ' Globe Leader ' describes as ' The biting blasts
that blow round the death-bed of the departing year.'
270 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Like * Mobled Queen ' that is a good phrase.
Bendor, who is indefatigable, whipped over, after dinner,
in his motor, to discuss our last moves in the campaign
which we open on Saturday. I think he will make a good
speech.
Most of the really rich men who hunt five days a week
and subscribe only 25 to the Hounds and 1-1-0 to
politics, have refused his invitation. But seventeen are
coming. You must make a beginning. And in politics,
as in hunting, it is useless to ride up and down the fence.
We are off 1 And we mean to make the Palatinate of
Cheshire a pattern for the Unionist Revival.
Bendor and de Crespigny think the photographs of
Orpen's pictures the best they have ever seen. De Cres-
pigny means to have his father, and Bendor his children
painted in the same way.
Perf left us last night to resume duty on January 1st,
and we miss him very much. He is a glorious sunbeam in
the house and an exhilarating companion in the chase.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
660
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 1st, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, We loved your telegram and
I must send a word of all love to you on this first day of
another year.
It is strange to recall that I was here twenty years ago,
married and hunting with Percy two months old, but so
it is ! But not, as Manenai (Bless her from me !) had
it in her solitary contribution to English literature ; 1 not
* sad to say ' ; but * glad to say.'
Here we are ! All loving each other in a wonderful
world, full of colour and movement and structure and pur-
pose : brothers or sisters of the sun and moon and milky
1 ' The Sad Story of a Pig and a little Girl.' Written by Madeline Wyndham
(aged 6 years) and illustrated by Richard Doyle.
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 271
way : all, as dear Henley wrote, ' going to the same glad
golden time ' : all going with ' the scheme of things,' and
therefore, obviously, all coming towards his ' the end
I know, is the best of all ! '
These sentiments, like Manenai's masque, and Peck-
sniff's (Chuzzlewit) reflections on a syren are ' Pagan, I
fear.' But that kind of Paganism is a sound basis for
Christianity. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
661
To Charles T. Gatty
35 PARK LANE, W.
2.ii.08.
MY DEAR CHARLES, ' Carmina Gadelica ' are despatched
to-day. I had ordered a new copy, but found yet a third
in my bookcase. I must have laid them down like Port.
So you need give no thought to their price, or cost, but
you must, rather, consider their value and worth. Their
value is their own. Their worth consists in adding
solemnity and point to our hilarious divagations over the
Springs of Romance and the Macaronic sermons.
The introduction should be noted for two reasons :
First, because puritanism is there shewn to have made
an old fiddler sell his fiddle and break his heart ; secondly,
because confirmation is lent to my theory that popular
poetry was written by the learned and handed down by
the lewd, or unlearned.
All songs derive from the Sanctuary or the Court. The
Court was the great invention of Barbarism, and marks
its triumph over savagery. In the Court, the Barbarian
reconciled strength and justice : a startling paradox in
his day. In the Sanctuary the Church unveiled Mercy
and Peace, and, so, turned the paradox into a platitude.
The rivers from each origin flash and mingle in the
Poetry of the Middle Age. It is a fair stream reflecting
all the personages of the Court of Heaven. It is filled
with the water of life in every sense and not choked
with the dust of ages.
272 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I have read ' Carmina Gadelica ' through this after-
noon. They are full of life and lore, of wisdom and,
therefore, of repose. We can repose on the Past.
In fine, my gift is the recording stele of our exploration
to discover the springs of Romance and their foam-bow
of Rhyme. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. ' High are the Peaks and shadow-gloom'd and
Huge ! ' *
P.S. (2). Please send me the name and number of the
Hymn which may give me a model for my Pageant chorus
and an air.
662
To Charles Boyd
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 23.ii.08.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Precisely ! But if you infest a
cottage in a wood by Woking ? What then ? We have
both become too truly rural for urbanity.
I am all for your dining with us at 35 on a day in the
week which begins on Sunday March 1st. Why not that
day, if we can secure and fix the now volatile Percy ?
Observe. You frequent Woking, (moralising in the necro-
polis) no less insistently than I harbour myself here. I
kept what is called ' the establishment ' here, with the
purpose, fulfilled, of hunting after the Session began and
spending my Saturdays and Sundays like Cato major,
' seething parsnips by my fireside.'
The speeches you commend were excursions ' into the
enemy's country.' I prefer as a staple of living to
hunt with Percy and dine off roast mutton with my lady
wife. By this absence of device, in despite of falsely
supposed artistic divagation, I push and eat my way
to a thorough understanding of the English. As thus :
on Monday I spoke at Birmingham ; on Tuesday I attended
the House and dined at ' the ' Club ; on Wednesday I
attended the House closely ; but, on Thursday I came
1 Translation of a line from the Chanson de Roland.
TO CHARLES BOYD 273
here and, so, hunted with Percy Friday and Saturday ;
4 walked ' a point-to-point race course with him and
Bendor to-day (after attending Church in the morning),
dined with Percy and Sibell a trois for the 4th evening
in succession, and to-morrow go back for a hideous week
of the House and Railway Boards. So repulsive is that
week, ending as it does with responding for ' Literature '
to Whitefriars on Friday and may they be fried !
so grim is it, that I adjourn our reunion until it is well or
ill over.
I am now in middle life. That means (1) that I enjoy
being at home and riding to hounds, and (2) that in all
human likelihood nay, in inevitable certainty I cannot
have these joys for much longer. In ten years Percy
will be 31, and, too probably, married. In ten years I
may be fat or busy. Very well. Am I to forego the
very marrow of life when I have its thighbone between
my teeth ? Am I to parade at Westminster and intrigue
in its purlieus ? No ! The answer is ' No.'
I have a wife, a son, a home, six good hunters and a
library of Romance literature. I mean to enjoy them.
If I am wanted, I can be found. I spare you Cincinnatus
and Cato major (bis).
In this part of the world I am known as ' The Colonel '
qua Yeomanry ; as a subscriber to the Cheshire Hounds ;
and, politically, as a robust ' true-blue ' with honest
leanings towards Protection. And besides I love to hear
the thrushes sing and to watch a pair of lesser-spotted
woodpeckers that are building in our garden. Yours in
the bond, G. W.
P.S. What is a letter without a postscript ? Let me
add that I am 10 Ibs. lighter than I was ; that I have made
29 speeches since October 18th and hunted on 26 days ;
that I have read a good deal of Virgil, and much early
French both of the Trouveres and, in smaller quantities,
of the Troubadours. That I have studied the trade
returns ; Dizzy's ' Sibell ' ; Charlotte Bronte's ' Shirley ' ;
some Carlyle and Ruskin, to get the reflexion in literature
VOL. n. s
274 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
of the political ineptitudes that must be remedied. That
is * the kind of hairpins we are.' To balance Dizzy (early)
and Carlyle, I also read Bagehot and Lord Avebury in
* The Times.' But they don't balance, anything, but
their ledgers ; or discount, anything, but bills.
It is clear to me, now, that the British Race has one
foe Cosmopolitan Finance with an oriental complexion.
* Delenda est Carthago ' is all my song. I have twice
repaired to the crest of the Cheshire hills and looked at
the fat, fair expanse of English fields with their smoulder-
ing girdle of chimneys around the far horizon. And I
have sworn that they shall not be sucked like eggs by
the weasels of pure finance. No, nor the plains of Ireland
either ! I have sworn and it shall be in accordance with
my oath.
663
To his Mother
36 PARK LANE, W.,
February 26th, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, You and Papa will be inter-
ested to hear that I shall probably have to follow Asquith
on Monday in full-dress debate on Armaments.
It is short notice as I have to speak on ' Literature '
Friday night. But I shall dine with Manenai and, perhaps,
if she agrees, bring dear Hanson with me. He is here and
can help me over the old track. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
664
To Philip Hanson
10.iii.08.
MY DEAR P. H., The ' little Gods ' are against me.
Thanks to your letter, I have, now, a speech. But I
also have a cold & bad cold and I may not be able
to make the speech. That will be a pity.
But, even so, I shall not mourn.
TO PHILIP HANSON 275
For I have got to the heart of this mystery of. the
British Army.
The answer to the Sphinx is :
(1)1 reject your Artillery Special Reserve.
(2) I amend your Infantry S. R. into our 1 reserve
battalions.
I say, at the end, you are for Cardwell ; Sir P, Mac-
Dougall said two things :
(a) Identify Militia with depot.
You have done it with a vengeance.
(b) Don't make the Dep6t a battalion in ' the hurry and
rush of a great war.'
Very well Perge modo
Make them what you call them BATTALIONS, and
for 2,000,000 a year cheaper than was possible before you
had ' IDENTIFIED ' the Militia.
These people can't do it. But 1 will. And you must
be my Mowatt at the Treasury, for the achievement,
It 's worth doing.
What pleases me most is that the glacier-like progres-
sion of facts (the French ' La chute des choses ' reduced
to the speed of the English illogical glacier-progression)
does indicate a standard for our Army which is self-con-
tained. It is that the Home Regular Army, with colours
or in Reserve, must be our old 3 Army Corps or Haldane's
re-christened 6 divisions (same thing) if we are to
1. Maintain Garrisons.
2. Liberate Fleet, reinforce Garrisons, deliver counter-
attack
Any or all, and that for
3. Liberate expeditions, Expand and support it, Main-
tain confidence at home.
You must (i) avoid chasm between regular and citizen
soldiers in peace, if you hope to avoid chaos in war ; and
(ii) therefore, in peace, have enough * cadres ' with enough
variety of design to cater for tastes.
With this observation, if fewer cadres in peace more
important they should be filled.
1 (Yours and mine of 1900.)
276 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
If of uniform shape, less likely that they will be
filled.
There was more to be said for the old affair in Infantry
156 battalions Regulars
123 Militia
? Volunteers,
than Brodrick, or Forster, or Haldane have discovered.
But, if you absorb the Militia, you must make your
Special Reserve of Infantry into a short-service Army,
and not into a shelter, competing with the Salvation and
Church Army for the manufacture of Unemployed.
Yours ever, G. W.
P.S. ll.iii.08.
I made the speech very shortly I suppose because I
was not fit. But I think it was quite clear in outline. It
only took just over 40 minutes.
The ' lay ' mind in the person of Harry Chaplin, pro-
nounced that I had exploded Haldane's scheme.
He, Haldane, is going to ' sleep on it ' and reply to-
morrow. I shall have to sleep too, if I am to ' toe the
line * again.
665
To his Father
35 PARK LANK, W.,
March 13th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am sorry to say that we have
people dining here on Saturday, so I cannot get away.
We have been ' dusting ' the Government well during
the last fortnight, their supporters are quarrelling and the
House looks quite dead.
We shall get the ships out of them and I hope to get the
Field Artillery. I spoke well last night ; but am badly
reported. Haldane got very short and our men were
pleased. It is madness to break up thirty-three batteries
of Field Artillery hi order to train civilians for ammunition
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 277
columns. And the special Reserve of Infantry is a danger :
all the more since it cannot be tested. Nobody will know
how bad it is till the war comes. I fear it will prove
little better than a ' shelter ' for the unemployed com-
peting with the Salvation Army's efforts.
All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
666
To his Sister, Pamela,
35 PARK LANE, W.,
March IGth, 1908.
MOST DARLING PAMELA, 1 I have been thinking of you
constantly and taking comfort from scraps of news. And
I have been meaning to write news to you, since that is
all I can do whilst you are imprisoned by this detestable
scourge and worried by the baby's illness. But, first, I
had to give anything the chance of happening, either to
me, or in me, which I could conceivably write about. It
was inconceivable that I should write about the House
of Commons ; and I lived there till last Saturday. Then
I broke out.
In the afternoon I went to the Zoo with Sibell, after
lunching with darling Manenai. I chose the * Zoo.' There
were other suggestions, as, a performance of 'Pilgrim's
Progress,' and a concert at the Queen's Hall. But I
needed air and life, preferably of a primitive kind. So I
chose the Zoo in spite of SibelPs remark that we ought
to wait until we could go with children. I wanted to go
for myself and specially to look at Birds. When flying
from men, I avoid monkeys ' and addict myself ' to birds.
(Parrots are not birds ; and are useless to one escaped
from the House of Commons. ' O ! for the wings of a
dove ' is an aspiration that does not waft me to the voices
of parrots.)
I went to the real, bird-like birds, who live in a row,
1 Hit sister and children were in quarantine for scarlet fever.
278 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
just to the right, after entering the gardens. These birds
are like our birds in a dream, or a Grimm's fairy story.
Naturally, many of them are blue ; others are green, or
orange, or earth-colour, and one was crimson. Yet they
are not Macaws or Toucans or other monstrosities. They
are thrushes, starlings, pigeons, doves, robins, partridges
and quails ; but of slimmer shape and brighter colour
than our birds. And some are mixtures of these, and
some are distinct but comparable such as minas, bower-
birds and weaver buds. But all are alert and happy and
vocal ! ! as they said in the XVIIIth century.
In front of the first cage was a Kate Greenaway tree of
box the stem three feet six inches high, the spreading
top four feet wide. I stepped round the corner and in
the heart of the green there sat and looked at me, a thrush,
the colour of an orange. There he sits and sings : as
yellow as a Walter Crane's ' Yellow Dwarf.'
There were miniature doves and quails no larger than
wood-wrens, or small pebbles in the desert. And there
was one mina not the plump, fat, Indian sort of mina
but slim as a shuttle and parti-coloured, black and yellow.
His name is ' George.' He loves mankind. He like
Jx>rd Nelson never knew fear. He sat on my fingers
and the keeper put him into his pocket. As I walked
away I saw him in close conversation through the wire
with two little red-haired girls, who had walked straight
out of an Holman Hunt picture. He does all this from
love or mere absence of fear. But these two gifts are
almost one. Mere absence of fear carries a delicacy denied
to the appetite of gazelles, however graciously embellished
by melting eyes and insinuating approach.
Now the keeper of these birds has a great contempt for
America. ' They call that a " blue bird " the common
"blue-bird" of America; but it 's a robin.' And, looking
at the profile and beak one sees that it is a robin. Or,
again, ' They call that a robin, but it is a thrush.' And
one sees that it is a thrush ; only with a red breast and
very big and, so, called a robin, by Americans. This
keeper pierced the facile deceit of the large and obvious.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 279
He made a profound observation of Americans apolo-
getically ' But they were very ignorant when they went
there.' Thus, did he dismiss, and forgive, the pilgrim
fathers, with an ' Ite, missa est.' So much and no more
for the ' Pilgrim Fathers ' who landed on the Plymouth
rock. But what of their descendants ? They are still
ignorant. They class by superficial resemblance and
claim because of size. Some day they will produce an
American Bible, much bigger than our Bible and as like
it as a thrush is to a robin.
From the birds I went to the elephants. I detest half
measures : after a fortnight in the House of Commons.
The birds are beside man's life. This the Romans knew
when they wrote * ubi aves ite angeli ' ' where there are
birds there are angels.' But the elephants are before
man's life. They are primeval and sacrosanct. Yet
they like to be fed ; even on biscuits. A due attention
to Birds and Elephants, to the volatile and monumental,
innures one to time and prepares one for Eternity. We
have the elephant's glacier-like progression towards a
Geological museum, and the bird's swift-dip and high
quiver of * indomitable song.' Both are for ever falling,
at different paces and angles ; as ' Lucretius ' declared
in six books ; crystallised by the French in one phrase
4 La chute des choses.' But, for me, the yellow thrush
singing in the green bush and the fearlessness of ' George '
are immortal. And, if for me, then for everybody, for
ever. I say to both
' Thou wast not meant for death, immortal Bird.
No hungry generations tread thee down.'
I cannot say so much for the Gazelles. Yet because
they are beautiful through voracious, I will give them
immortality.
But, darling Pamela, the last thing I meant to do was
to moralize. I went to the Zoo to escape morality.
In the evening we dined with Lettice and Will Beau-
champ. It was a pleasing entertainment ; not unlike
the Zoo. For we had Ambassadors and Ministers of
280 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
many nations suddenly caged in surprising contiguity,
with their wives. It was not too unlike the Zoo. I have
dropped into poetry like Silas Wegg.
' It was not too
Unlike the Zoo
Because the speech
Unique to each
Discuss'd the food
Which all found good
Beneath the pall
Of sleep for all.'
I sat between the beautiful Ambassadress of Spain and
the wife of ' Lulu ' Harcourt. The Ambassadress has
beautiful sloping shoulders and a delicate way of unmask-
ing the batteries of her South-American eyes. I had to
talk French of my sort to the Ambassadress. But,
to each flank, we talked of the difficulty of talking and
the solace of food. So it, really, was the Zoo over again.
Speaking and eating are, respectively, the end and origin
of life, if you come to think of it : subsistence and expres-
sion.
This morning still in pursuit of a holiday I walked
through Hyde Park. ' Lulu ' Harcourt as First Com-
missioner of Works is playing the Devil there. He does
not understand that London was London, and cannot
become Paris, or Berlin. So he gets workmen to make
4 Places de la Concorde ' and * Tea-house Gazebos.' He
is in error. But, just as the yellow thrush and the man-
loving because fearless bird 'George' justified the 'Zoo,'
so did two British workmen justify Lulu's Tea-house.
I saw them leaning, one against the end, the other
against the wheel, of a large barrow. They were motion-
less figures in the wind-swept variety of the Park in March.
It was not a landscape ' animated by figures,' but a group
of two statues animated by wind -waved branches. As I
advanced they seemed larger in accordance with the
law of perspective but they did not move. Nor, do I
think, that they spoke. But, as I passed the group,
TO HIS MOTHER 281
they spoke, without moving. And this is what they said.
For I heard them. First workman to second workman.
4 Well, Sir, I think it 's time that we should do something.'
Second workman to first. ' Right you are, and what
would be better than half a pint of beer.' They are one
with the penguins and gazelles putting beer for fishes
and buns. We cannot all be birds or elephants. We
cannot all be swift or wise. But some can sing. And I
do wish I could sing to you, darling, in your cage, of ' the
Daedal Earth and the dancing stars.' For all life is good
and Eternal. Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
667
To his Mother
36 PARK LANE, W.,
March I8th, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I saw your letter to S. S. and
longed to write at once. But I had a strenuous fort-
night over Navy and Army ; on the bench every day
and making many speeches. I wanted to say that we
have not got the scarlet fever or influenza. But I begin
to believe that I did have a touch of influenza, the day
I spoke on Vote A for the Army. However, I shook it
off spoke, and am none the worse.
Enough of these ailments !
After dealing with accumulations of letters I amused
myself on Saturday. I wrote of that to Pamela and got
Miss King to copy the letter, since the original must be
burnt on the altar of scarlet-fever. It may amuse you.
I must go back to the bench to-morrow, instead of
hunting as I had hoped. I am happy to-night because
Perf rode in the Army Point-to-Point and did not fall.
I gather that his and my battalion did well. Four of
them ' ran-up ' in a race open to the whole Army.
To-night, George Curzon dined alone with S. S. and
self. He was very dear and affectionate.
He is standing for the Lord Rectorship of Glasgow, and
282 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I, yesterday, accepted an invitation to stand for the Lord
Rectorship of Edinburgh. It will be amusing to come
out together and useful if we both win. I am afraid that
he suffers a good deal of pain.
I am longing to see you and papa. But I am rather
hard pressed just now. Easter will be all the more
delightful. We will sing the praises of ' La Regina
Avrillosa ' together. I have the ' Army ' again to-day
and speak on Monday at Dover against the Licensing Bill.
At Easter I shall begin ' The Springs of Romance ' in
the Barrel room. It is such a good title that I ought to
be able to write a little book ' up to it.' The idea is
Where did romance come from ? There was none among
our Northern ancestors in the 9th century. It came
from contact with the East and West contact with the
East owing to the conflict between Christendom and the
Paynim from Roncevalles onwards contact with the
West, from the Geraldines' transit through Wales into
Ireland.
The first gives me the run of the ' Chanson de Roland '
down to the ' Arabian Nights,' by way of the Crusades.
The second gives me the run of the Arthurian cycle and
all the Celtic glamour from ' Ossian ' to ' Percy's reliques.'
Incidentally I get two sub-chapters : one, on rhyme,
traced to Arabia eastward and the ' Celts ' whoever they
were, westward, hi Armorica, Cornwailles, Wales, Ireland,
Scotland the other sub-chapter will take the * religious '
aspects, eastward, Platonism, Christianity, Gnosticism,
Neo-platonism, and Islam : westward Fairy stories,
Folk-lore, Stonehenge Wishing-wells are the relics of
some old Nature-Magic that was the religion of the Stone-
Age.
In all this you will agree there is ' matter for a May
morning.'
I shall stick it full of all I like The ' Regina Avrillosa 7
and the Border ballads ; The Castle of Clerimont and the
Lady of Tripoli, the song of Roland and the fall of Con-
stantinople, Marco Polo and Antoine Galand and all the
songs that ever were sung and all the incantations. In
TO HIS MOTHER 283
conclusion, I can say with Malory ' Now all this was but
enchantment,' and invite you to be enchanted. Your
most loving son, GEORGE.
668
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
March 26th, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, You will like the enclosed. I
answered that I, too, had an Irish mother.
I am so rejoiced to hear that Papa is quite well and I
cannot tell you how wildly I am looking forward to Clouds
at Easter. For added delight the Installation at Dover
is postponed.
Things generally are smoothing themselves out
Pamela is happy again. Guy comes back next Sunday.
Perf ran 4th yesterday in the Brigade Point-to-Point.
Cuckoo's family are through their measles and other ail-
ments. I have finished with the Army Debates for
another year etc., etc.
If I can get a copy I will send Papa the * Morning
Advertiser's ' report of my speech on Monday at Dover
against the Licensing Bill. The meeting was the largest
I, or anybody else, has ever seen at Dover. The Town
Hall was jammed ten minutes after the doors were opened
at 7 for the meeting at 8 o'clock.
The ' Maison Dieu ' Hall the old ' Hubert de Burgh '
one next to the Town Hall was jammed with the overflow
by 7.30, and there were hundreds in the street who could
not get in anywhere.
The only thing that surprises me is that other people
did not foresee as I did two years ago that this could be
the only end of such a Government and such a majority.
Perf was 4th yesterday out of a field of fifteen. His
mare, Solitaire, has everything but the necessary turn of
speed. I hope he will get to Clouds for a day or two.
I shall bring two or three horses and my lawn-tennis shoes
and a small library in a box. I had a good talk to Mark
284 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Sykes, just back from Arabia and found as I supposed
that the 12th century is still going on there, with Trouba-
dours, and Jongleurs all complete.
From Belloc I have another touch for my ' Springs of
Romance.' It is strange that all the three Roman Legions
in Palestine at the Crucifixion were Gauls. That accounts
for the Grail and the spear of Longinus. If Longinus was
a Celt present in Hellenistic Syria at the death of Our Lord,
it becomes easy to understand Glastonbury.
I begin to see that the pleasure of getting older consists
in understanding the History of the world better. Your
devoted son, GEORGE.
669
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE, W.,
27th March 1908.
MOST DARLING PAMELA, I praise, you can't guess how
much I praise your visual phrases as, e.g., ' in grey-leaved
cluster ' ; that is admirable. But, if I am to say what
I think it is this. You or anybody would have to
work for three months at three hours a day on this theme
to finish it. And this is the point it is worth your while,
or anybody's to work for that period.
But work there must be on two separate lines.
(1) You must state separate grammatical propositions
or aspirations at least in each sonnet.
(2) You must finish each sonnet in the form with which
you begin.
If you don't, or can't, or won't, do that ; then, print the
whole thing as an effusion of 6x14=84 lines.
I would add that, even in an effusion, you cannot have
Dawn, own, lawn, shown as alternating rhymes. They
are too like each other, they have no difference beyond the
difference of vowel intonation.
My difficulty is that you get some visual sentences, and
some ethical, or aesthetical feelings. You get them, I can't
get them. But, then, you waste them. You put these
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 285
joys into sentences that are not concluded, and you put
your conclusive sentences into poetical forms that are not
observed.
Granting as I do the immense merit oi your des-
criptive phrases and general aspiration towards Beauty
and Peace, I must say that they demand, and deserve,
better treatment.
I feel pretty sure that this poem for it is poetry and
not verse had better not affect the sonnet form. I am
quite sure that if you keep to the sonnet form, the poem
must be re-written.
But Great Heavens if I had that amount of truly
poetical material, I should not bother about Politics or
anything else.
Taking these 6x14 lines=84 ; you have as much poetic
wealth as Gray in his Elegy, and far more poetic wealth
than Campbell had for the Battle of the Baltic. Why
are Gray and Campbell immortal ? Because Gray worked
for 7 years on his Elegy, and because Campbell reduced a
foolish ballad of 30 stanzas to a classic of 8 or 9 stanzas.
In this desperate business of writing English in verse,
it is necessary to do two things.
(1) You must say what you mean, without over-lapping
or obscurity.
(2) You must conform to a known type of verse, or
invent a new type and conform to that.
In this case I should not affect the sonnet form. I
should call the whole thing ' My Garden, ' and give the
world 84 lines of good verse, exalted by rhyme. Such
lines as
' The Garden has a soul, it has its moods
As any sentient mind from hour to hour '
are perfect. They ought not to be cramped in a sonnet
sequence.
I have written some sonnet-sequences. I cannot print
them, unless I either (1) Work at them for 10 years, or (2)
Knock them out of the sonnet form, and work them into
something else during 10 months.
286 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
This is only a first impression, it amounts to my sure
knowledge that you have got in these 84 lines, the pure ore
of Poetry.
But that you have not yet smelted that ore, so as to ex-
clude all dross ; and that when you have done this you
must mint it into current coinage.
This is only a first impression.
Perhaps you would be right to leave it as it stands, it is
full of beautiful flowers ; of flowers so beautiful that they
cannot die. But you should insist on their living by any
precaution of art.
You may be right. I am a mere politician. Your
devoted brother, GEORGE.
670
To his Sister, Pamela
36 PARK LANK, W.,
27th March 1908.
MOST DARLING PAM, I am so impressed by the beauty,
freshness and truth of your Garden Verses, that I must
write again.
Perhaps you have invented a new form of verse, you
certainly have not written sonnets in the strictest sense.
But you have gone much nearer than Owen Meredith to
importing the joy, without the restrictions, of rhyme-forms
into English ten-syllabled lines.
Your sequence cannot be made into sonnets, it is a
sequence of lines, haunted by the memory of sonnets.
Leave it at that, so far as form is matter for discussion.
But, now, for sense.
What is the sense of the poem ?
What do you know, or feel, which you, the poet, mean to
teach ? Well, what ?
The liveliness and fragrance of flowers, of course, that
this is my garden ' connu.'
But the new things, and true things, which you say are
(1) certain flowers that do not please everybody, please
me, because they are in my garden. (2) But why is my
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 287
garden mine ; not by private possession but by peculiar
joy ? (3) Because it has no boundaries. There is the
paradox, which inspired, explains, and justifies the poem.
(4) My garden is my garden a mon gr because it
merges into the high chalk Down and into sedgy marsh of
water-meadows by the Avon. (5) It has no boundaries
and hi its heart are wild-flowers. (6) And to conclude
anyway it is fragrant and lovely, and a delight in a two-
fold way, (a) it is not restricted ; (6) altho' not restricted,
altho' it merges into the Down and the river, altho' wild
flowers camp in it, my own selected flowers are there, and
I love them, and love them the more, because they flourish
in liberty, not denied to the wild-flowers of the land in
which I live.
Anyway, that is the impression which your poem makes
on me.
If it is not the impression which you meant your reader
to feel, you must begin again.
If it is the impression which you meant your reader to
feel, you must make your poem more precise.
But precise in sense ; not in form. Drop the sonnet
form. Concentrate on stating and illustrating what you
feel and mean to make other people feel.
Above all do not cramp the lovely poetry of your des-
criptive epithets in the iron mould of 17th century sonnets.
They are flowers like the flowers of your garden, don't
bruise them into bunches. Your devoted (but tiresome)
brother, GEORGE.
671
To his Sister, Pamela
36 PARK LANE, W.,
2Sth March 1908.
MOST DARLING PAM, Do not vex yourself with my
two long lumbering letters on your poem. I will come to
you as soon as you are visible and tell you what I mean.
All love to you, beloved, and rejoicings at the end of
anxiety. Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
288 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
672
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE, W.,
30th March 1908.
DARLING PAM, Your letter made me happy. Before
it came, I had concluded that I was right to put my views.
But I balanced and swayed, backwards and forwards, in
my mind. And as I am very scrupulous about Art, I felt
that I had, perhaps, overstated the case against the
sonnet-form, when I said (as I think I did) that it would
take 10 months work to make your poem, a poem in 6
sonnets.
For a penance I attacked it myself, for many hours, just
as if it had been mine.
I found that I could make something of it that pleased
me.
That involved leaving out altogether your V., and alter-
ing the order of the others to your I., IV., II., III., VI.
There are two main things to be done to this poem.
The first is to group the ideas which are scattered
through it.
The second is to reject, quite sternly, anything that
' won't do ' in respect of form.
(1) For the first purpose grouping of ideas one has
to think what it is that one wishes to say, and to say that
in a way that will not mislead, for example ; the ' great
hedge ' in I. will start people (who don't know the garden)
in the idea that there is a hedge round it, they receive that
impression. Later on they come into collision with one of
the great ideas, namely, that the garden has no hedge.
The mere repetition of the rhymes hedge and edge is a
fault. But when that fault confuses the statement of ideas,
it destroys the chance of the poem being read with equani-
mity.
(2) Form. It is hopeless to start a long poem with a
quatrain rhyming abb a and then to rhyme all the
other octaves a b a b, c d c d.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 289
These, then, are the main considerations.
I. To group your ideas, and establish a sequence between
them that can be followed.
II. To observe a form which fulfils the expectations
which it creates or else, to abandon that form and write
to please.
In another and lower plane less important, but still
important it is necessary to observe the two rules laid
down by Keats.
Rule (1). We must be misers of sound and syllable.
Rule (2). We must fill every rift with ore.
Briefly, we must not be prolix or thin, but serried and
rich.
For example in your III. in some ways the best of
all the six sonnets there are two faults that must be
amended.
You make * flower-cups ' rhyme with * buttercups.'
That is not an English rhyme because the sound is
identical, and it is not a French rhyme because the sense
of cups is identical.
Having said that, I wish to retract my saying that it
would be better to run the thing into a continuous whole.
On reflexion, I think you could have five (not six, for
4 the Bee ' is an intruder), but you could have five sets of
14 lines each ; provided that the first 8 in each were con-
cluded on the Shakespeare model, a b a b ; cdcd; and
the last 6 as sextets on the Petrarchan model. That
would be a new form. But, just because it would be new,
it would also be imperative to observe it.
This could be done, I have done it; working in your
excellent material for many hours. Your devoted brother,
GEORGE.
P.S. Of all that I have said, by far the most important
is that you must group your ideas, all the more, since you
have at least three main ideas that are new and true : I
mean (1) the moods of the Garden at different hours ; (2)
the fact that the Garden has no boundary or hedge ; but
merges into meadow and the Downs ; (3) that within it
VOL. II. T
290 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
there are vagrants such tramps as Ragged Robins and
Docks.
All these three ideas are worth stating. But each must
be stated. There are subsidiary sentiments, of these two
are worth preferring (1) the Crown Imperial's tears ;
with the child's momentary attention and the world's
unheeding dance ; (2) the Hemlock's screen, veiling
the sun-filled, unclouded, delight of Tulips, etc., in the
sun.
But, tho' subsidiary, these sentiments must be arranged
or, else, omitted.
From all this, the under-current of personal emotion
will emerge with greater force, if the general ideas and
sentiments are presented in a sequence of thought, instead
of being suggested by sensation. Your devoted brother,
GEORGE.
673
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE, W.,
6th April 1908.
BELOVED PAM,- I am hard at work too ; on a speech
two speeches.
But unless I send you the scrawl now it will wait a
week so, here it is.
Only we must talk it over. If you are quite disinfected
I might ride to you on way to Clouds.
In answer to questions.
I think all the octaves should be in one model, and for
choice a b a b/ c d c d/. Then the sestet can be e f/ e f e f
or e f e f g g/. But, if you have abba/ you must go on
abba/ or, at least, a c c a/. If you start a Petrarchan
octave the 1st, 4th, 5th and 8th lines must have the same
rhyme.
Otherwise you disappoint an expectation which is en-
grained in the modern mind.
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 291
The first sonnet is the hardest to deal with.
One thing I had not mentioned. You cannot have
lawn, own, dawn, shewn. Because they are not different
enough their consonantal frame-work is the same.
I mourn bitterly for * the sunlight pulsing in the flower-
cups.' But * sups ' is the only rhyme to ' cups.' If you
keep ' flower-cups ' you must have ' sups ' instead of
4 butter-cups.'
Now I must do my work.
When I am filing at lines absurd suggestions make me
laugh. I find myself saying or making the breeze say
* the Dawn, the Dawn, and smell of hay ! ' Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
674
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE,
Afternoon, 6th April 1908.
DARLING, Just an after-thought to save your ' flower-
cups.'
end of your 3.
Gardens have souls, and this one has its moods,
I love the leafy stillness of its woods.
4.
And yet I love its glory of mid-day !
The sunlight pulses in the flower-cups,
The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of may
golden
Round or fields where the bee drones and sups.
glittering
It is not necessary to say butter-cups. You cannot say
butter-cups if you say flower-cups. And it is- not neces-
sary, for if you say golden or glittering we shall see butter-
cups all right.
292 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
If you say shimmering or quivering we shall guess
butter-cups and see the mirage and feel the heat.
But lordy ! me I must work at Tariff Reform. Ever
devoted brother, GEORGE.
675
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE, W.,
6th April 1908.
MOST DARLING PAMELo, I am delighted with your
letters about the sonnets. And now, I have a breath-
ing space to write a less breathless answer to your last
letter. I have mapped out my big speech for Thursday,
attended the House, and welcomed its adjournment for
3 weeks. I feel like a man on his financial beam-ends
who has suddenly been left a legacy of 5000. I have
two whole days in hand ! Everybody I could play with
has gone away. Bendor and Perf went to France, par
exemple, this morning. And but for the Leeds speeches
I should now be on their track in the night mail, wearing
a panama hat, like Chamberlain, as a note of defiant
recuperation. I have two days in hand ; in which I can
ride for exercise, sleep for rest and work for duty. I am
a Croesus of leisure. Nothing like that has happened to
me since I had the influenza.
So, for joy, and to prevent relapsing into that accursed
speech on applied economics, I will infest you with more
words on Poetry. It is always well to remember that
Poetry means * making ' in the language of the Greeks,
who understood how to tell the heart of things in words.
Poetry is this business of making.
Very well then ; I shall write from memory, for I have
posted to you my little sketch of how to make your
material. It was only an illustration of the manner of
making : not by any means an achievement. Writing
from memory ; I take, as my point of departure, the line
which we both long to preserve :
' The sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.'
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 293
We cannot have both ' flower-cups ' and ' butter-cups,'
so we keep ' flower-cups.' Because that is poetry a con-
tribution to poetry, since it is new and true and visualised.
That being decided, we must have 4 sups.' Because
there is no other rhyme to ' cups ' in English which is not
plainly grotesque. (Browning would have written ' downs
and ups ' instead of ' ups and downs.' But such inversions
are devilish.)
Even ' sups ' is grotesque, unless a Bee does the supping.
So we must have a Bee. And, note, this is an added
reason for omitting the ' Bee ' sonnet. . . . (Here there has
been an interlude. Sibell came in and I declaimed to her
all the heads of my 'applied economics.' She has now gone
to bed, amazed.) I resume. . . . Speaking from recollec-
tion ; I put the sunlit quatrain, sharp, against the Hem-
lock cavern veiling motif, which ends * I love the leafy
stillness of its woods.'
I, originally, proceeded :
' But yet I love its glory of mid-day,
When sunlight pulses in the dew it sups
And all the world swoons to the scent of May
In flower round fields of glittering buttercups.'
or words to that effect as they say in a law court.
On reflexion, I point out that the effect is very poor.
Take the first line :
' But yet I love its glory of mid-day/
that is deplorable. I will tell you why.
4 But ' and ' yet ' and * its ' are, all three, built on the
same plan of a monosyllable, confined by a ' t.' Consonan-
tally, that is impossible, ' its ' and ' mid ' are by vowel
sound, identical. Assonantally, that is wretched.
Keats said that his music was born from the rich variety
of vowel sounds. I say bowing to his grave Yes, with
this to be added. Have the same vowel sound to support
the greater stresses of rhythm and, so, link your quatrain
together, apart from the rhymes. I bow to Keats' precept,
294 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and cite the example of Shakespeare ; who always sup-
ported his quatrains, deliberately, by that device.
But this is certain. You must not have the impoverish-
ment of identical, or closely similar, effects, either in con-
sonantal framework, or vowel sounds, unless you have it
on purpose.
English poetry revolves itself into
I. Selecting and grouping Ideas ; so as to say much,
and suggest more.
II. Selecting and grouping sounds ; so as to produce
rich variety, and sustain consecutive rhythm. So I
change the line
' But yet I love its glory of mid-day '
into
' And yet I love its glory of noon-day.'
Thus I get 8 different vowel-sounds in one line and bow
again to Keats. I would say * the glory ' instead of * its
glory,' but for the fact that I mean to end the line with a
note of exclamation (!) and go on with the line we cherish :
* The sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.'
I should like to put * the,' or anything else, instead of
* it ' or * its.' Because thinking very properly of the
Garden you have ' it ' and 4 its ' multiplied incredibly
throughout the sequence. Pausing here . . . (Darling,
I am shewing you how I work, perhaps in quite the wrong
way.) Pausing here, I see that I need not have ' the sun-
light.' I might say more largely
1 And yet I love the glory of noon-day '
(that line is approaching perfection) and go on,
' Hot sunlight pulses in the flower-cups '
or avoiding the ' t ' sound (it, its, yet) and avoiding
two * the-s ' in one line :
Why not
' Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups ' ?
That gives me a useful, purposeful, alliteration from the
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 295
stress on glory, in line 1, to the stress on gold, in line '2.
It also suggests the gold colour motif, so that I need net
say golden later on. My readers arc seized of the gold
colour idea. And if I help them by saying glittering later
on, the alliteration will not only clamp the quatrain to-
gether by sustaining its major stresses of rhythm, it will,
also, make them expect the colour gold, and read it into
the resplendance of ' buttercups.' This helps us not to
say buttercups. In poetry we suggest by selection of
sense and sound.
So, after the gloomy, quiet caverns, beneath beech-
trees, usurped by Hemlock, that shew the first green and
the first sereness ; and dim, or veil, the unabashed sun-kist
slopes ; and after reverting to that mood of vast sombre
reticence
' I love the leafy stillness of its woods'
you explode ! into
' And yet I love the glory of noon-day I
Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.
The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of May
Round glittering fields where the bee drones and sups.'
Personally, I should make the fourth line
' Blown over glittering fields where the bee sups.'
I think that is better as thus :
'And yet I love the glory of noon-day !
Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.
The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of May
Blown over glittering fields where the bee sups.
For is it not my garden's crown of crowns
To be encompass'd by no narrowing hedge ?
It wanders to the freedom of the Downs
And takes its own way to the water's edge.
Gaj ragged robin and the vagrant dock
Whose seeds you draw into your passing hand
Camp in the waste, made pale with ladies-smock,
Where pollards lean over a marshy land.
for a
Shut gardens please. But this one's crown of crowns
My own is
Is to be merged in meadow and the Downs.
296 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I put ' shut ' instead of ' all ' because (1) it suggests the
contrast in idea of the ' hortus inclusus ' and (2) the
* sh ' carries on the ' sh ' in marshy or ' Wall'd gardens '
that 's better and carries on the ' ws.' Darling, I could
go on for ever in this vein. But you by now are pro-
bably asleep ; or too worried to sleep, and ready to rend me.
I have been thinking on paper with my pen of your
poem. Partly mainly to please you. Partly, hi a
lesser degree, to escape the problems of Direct Taxation
on the assessment of mutual credits.
' But that way madness lies.'
I shall not have lived in vain if we preserve
' The sunlight pulsing in the flower-cups.'
Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
P.S. As the scribble over the last two lines is a variant
to avoid * this one's * not, perhaps, quite a pretty phrase
-they would run
'Shut gardens please. But for a crown of crowns
My own is merged in meadow and the Downs.'
(2) * Still harping on my daughter.' I now want to alter
line 4 again, and keep the t droning,' ' o,' sound, to suggest
the stresses and clamp the quatrain together ; and force
people to see buttercups by repeating * gold.'
* And yet I love the glory of noon-day !
Gold sunlight pulses in the flower-cups.
The whole world swoons to the sweet scent of May
Round fields of gold where the bee drones and sups.'
WILSFORD i
(AS CORRECTED BY G. W.)
1.
Lilies and Pansies, and the Pink that grows
In grey-leav'd clusters by the garden's edge,
Sweet-scented Arabis, the climbing Rose,
Coil'd Honeysuckle ramping the great hedge,
1 The poem was published in a book of verse under the title of ' Windlestraw,'
by Pamela Tennant, but not in this form. The first, third, and fourth stanzas
appeared under the title * Wilsford,' the fourth stanza being completely rewritten.
The second and fifth stanzas appeared as separate sonnets under the titles ' Crown
Imperial ' and ' Dawn. '
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 297
The Rose named Celeste and Rose named Dawn :
These have I knowledge of because I love them.
Where lush-green water-meadows meet a lawn
They lift their rapture to the sky above them.
I love this garden. When the noise and fret
Of living saps the citadel of ease,
I court its precincts, only to forget
All but the sunlight of its silences.
I take my spirit's road. At last, the wet
Cool rain falls suddenly for thirsty trees.
2.
Rare Crown-Imperial holds herself apart ;
She droops her petals from the shining skies (or ardent)
'Tis said she has a deeply wounded heart
Since tears are ever spangled in her eyes.
At whiles a child, abandoning his play
Peeps in her blossom, touch'd to interest :
' O, Crown- Imperial 's crying ! ' he will say,
And so forget her for another quest.
Life scrapes a fiddle for the world to dance,
Swung in the cadence of a roundabout.
The grave, the gay, the few with radiant glance,
All, trace a figure in the motley rout.
And Crown-Imperial dances with her peers :
Only the wise, or simple, guess her tears.
This garden has a soul and, so, its moods
As any sentient mind from hour to hour.
I know the leafy silence of its woods
Vast quiet harbours of the Hemlock-flower.
The Hemlock, with her maze of delicate lace,
Whose leaf's the first green leaf of all the year,
Usurps the beech-trees' overshadowed space
To spread her forest that shall first be sere.
She weaves a veil, as if to dim the slopes
Of sun-kist joy too unabash'd to hide,
Where Tulips blaze and, later, Heliotropes
Are set with Poppies, hectic in their pride.
Gardens have souls ; and this one has its moods :
I love the leafy stillness of its woods.
298 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
4.
But yet I love its glory of mid-day
When sunlight pulses in the dew it sups (or, where
the great bee sups)
And all the world swoons to the scent of May
In flower round fields of glittering Butter-cups.
For is it not this garden's crown of crowns
To be encompass'd by no narrowing hedge ?
It wanders to the freedom of the Downs
And takes its own way to the water's edge.
Gay Ragged Robin and the vagrant Dock
Whose seeds you draw into your passing hand
Camp in the waste made pale with Ladies' Smock
Where Pollards lean across the marshy land.
All gardens please, but this one's crown of crowns
Is to be merged in meadow and the Downs.
5.
Listen ! I know this garden at the dawn :
Before the day breaks on a world made new,
When cobwebs drench'd upon the grey-green lawn,
Are meshes that have caught the silver dew ;
Before the birds sing ; long before the sun
Summons the swathes of vapour to arise
Just when the night is overpast and done,
And yet no daylight quickens in the skies :
Then, there 's no murmur from the idle trees.
The voiceless Universe is robed in grey
And tranced to hear expectant ecstasies ;
As if each leaf upon each separate spray
Were listening, waiting, till a little breeze
Whispers ' the Dawn, the Dawn ' and dies away.
CHAPTER XII
APRIL 1908 TO JANUARY 1910
The Asquith Ministry Dover Pageant Dover Harbour Cavalry
Manoeuvres Francis Thompson's 'Shelley' Lord Rector of the
University of Edinburgh The Education Bill France General
Election Campaign.
676
To his Father
STANWAY,
WINCHCOMBE, April 14th, 190B.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am motoring over to Clouds on
Thursday with Mary, in Arthur Balfour's motor.
I am bringing two horses and a groom. I hunted here
on Saturday and had quite a pleasant gallop. The meet
was at Broadway. Since then the fun here has been
* fast and furious.' The Party consisted of Arty Paget and
Lady Muriel, Professor W. Raleigh and his wife Madame
Benkendorf, H. Cust and wife, a young man from Balliol,
called Ridley, Cyncie, and A. J. B.
Mary I must tell you asked me to come ' and see her
quiet home life.' I have never heard, and rarely, made
more noise before. But all very amusing. A. Paget is
a ' Pied Piper of Hamelin ' with his guitar and we were
rats who danced to his music.
I rode yesterday with Cyncie along the Cotswold and
motored to-day to see the stained glass in Fairford Church.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
677
To his Sister, Pamela
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
7th July 1908.
DARLING PAMELO, The invitation is most fascinating.
But I am afraid I cannot get away. The last four weeks
sra
300 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
of the Session are always odious. And, this year, I have
to be in Dover the Monday 27th, 28th, 29th and 30th, for
the Pageant. This I must do, as my Doverians have
spent 8000 on it, and I have to be there and ask people
down, and introduce Royalties and give luncheon, etc.,
and so on. As I have to get away on the Friday and make
a big speech to 8000 people in Cheshire on August 3rd,
I dare not encroach on the Saturday-Sunday, 25-26.
They are my two days for preparation.
I will not grumble. My rule is to acquiesce in July,
like a fish letting the rapids go over him. Or rather that
is my ideal. The practice is more like a hen dodging
motors on the Ripley Road.
I know you won't come to Dover on Tuesday 28th or
Thursday 30th best days but I wish you would, bring-
ing Bim and Clare. It is going to be quite delightful.
Arthurian Prologue William the Conqueror coming over
to Western Heights and leaving Kent ' Invicta ' with her
Saxon customs John and Pandulph Edward i. return-
ing with my beloved Eleanor from the last Crusade-
Henry v. Harry our King and Kate of France
Henry vm. starting for Field of Cloth of Gold and finally
Charles i. receiving Henrietta Maria.
The last Act is written by Tiercelin in brilliant French
Alexandrines. The French parts are acted by French
actors and actresses. They will speak real broken English.
The English parts by Englishmen who will speak real
broken French.
I know you won't come, but I should like you to see it,
as I invented the selection of scenes as a glorification of
the Sea and the ' Entente.'
The poetry is by Rhodes and the songs excellent.
I am particularly pleased at having brought in King
Arthur out of Caxton's preface to Malory. I was tired of
the Early Britons and monastic martyrs with skulls, as
St. Alban and St. Edmund, so I said * skull for skull, give
me Gawain,' whose skull, according to Caxton, was to be
seen at Dover.
There is a deeper point in this Prologue ; as thus
TO HIS MOTHER 301
Our Arthurian Romances were written at the time of
Henry n. and John.
Besides being poems based on Welsh mythology, picked
up as the Geraldines went through Wales to conquer
Ireland, they also reflect the politics and events of the age
in which they were written. They reflect Henry ii.'s
dominion from the Pyrenees to the Grampians ; the
Interdict under John ; and the Crusades. They, there-
fore, supply a proper prologue to the episodes of John and
Edward i.
Incidentally we shall build a ship to a sea chorus of
hammer'd planks.
I propose to attend the Cavalry Manreuvres with Sibell
and shall look you up if we get near Stonehenge the week
of August 17th. Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
678
To his Mother
GRAND HOTEL,
DOVER, July 29th, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I wished that I could have
loeen next you at the Pageant. There was plenty of
armour in it but, perhaps, not enough fighting. I thought
the 4 Mobled Queens ' very good, when Gawain's corse
was carried out. I like best the Arthurian Prologue and
the last episode with Henriette Marie, and, above all, the
marching and counter-marching at the end. I hope dear
Papa was not tired. I am sorry I bundled little George
into your full carriage. But I had been keeping the train
for him for three minutes and the officials were fussing.
Arthur Balfour was very keen and sympathetic. The
whole drama is a good work of art. All the ladies near
me fell in love with Henry v. a young Irishman French-
Blake in the East Kent Yeomanry.
I did all the work of carriages and seating forty-seven
at lunch and 40 in the Royal enclosure over night. So
yesterday morning I amused myself. We did the Castle
302 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
at 10 o'clock and had the Harbour Board Tug at 11
o'clock. In her we went all round the harbour inside
and outside. It is pleasant to see and know that the
promenade pier, the Prince of Wales' Pier, the National
Harbour, the berth for the Red Star Liners, the broadening
of the Admiralty Pier for Marine Station, and, last, the
Craning Dock which passed the Lords on Monday are
all in a considerable degree my own work. I look at them
from the flag-staff in the Keep and smile as I remember the
hours I have spent treading the alien stairs of Government
offices and colloguing with distracted parliamentary agents.
After the Pageant S. S. and I drove off and paid a visit
of ceremony to Lord and Lady Brassey on the ' Sunbeam.'
Tiercelin, the French poet, a Breton and Catholic who
wrote the last episode and the Comte de Belabre dined
with us. We had a great ' go in ' over French poetry
and Celtic legends.
This afternoon I must work at my speech and look in
at the Pageant for the end which I think quite beautiful.
The six silver trumpets are a joy and the ship ' Invicta '
with the shields hanging over her side. Your most loving
son, GEORGE.
679
To his Father
HEADQUARTER STAFF CAMP,
CAVALRY DIVISION,
SALISBURY PLAIN, August 16th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Here I am in General Scobell's
Camp. There are four Cavalry Brigades, R.H.A., etc.
So we spread over a great extent of country. But this,
the Head Quarter Camp, is by Barrow Plantation, on the
Salisbury to Devizes road, just two miles north of Orches-
ton St. Mary, and one mile west of Rushall Down. I will
wire if I hear that we are working your way.
We had six days hard polo at Eaton. I enjoyed it very
much, but shall enjoy this even more. All love to darling
Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE.
TO HIS FATHER 303
680
To his Father
HEADQUAHTKHS STAFF CAMP,
SALISBURY PLAIN, August 17th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am afraid we shall not come
towards Clouds.
The centre of our camps is Ell-Barrow, which you
remember no doubt. We worked from there this morning
to Knighton Down and attacked back. It is a magni-
ficent sight and one which has never been seen before
in England. There are four brigades=12 regiments=36
squadrons and 48 Horse Artillery guns. We galloped the
last three miles to-day. It is not possible to describe the
effect of such bodies gliding over the downs, up the ridges
and sweeping the hollows (where our ponies used to ' take
charge ') and finally, charging home.
I am riding on Scobell's staff and he is very kind and
attentive to me. This is very much better than being in
the visitor's camp, where there are 36 officers together who
merely ride about and look on, with orders not to show
themselves too much.
To-morrow we do much the same, Wednesday and
Thursday we shall go over the river between Netheravon
and Amesbury. The only way you could see anything
would be to train to Salisbury and motor out. If you
do decide to do this Wednesday or Thursday, send me a
wire and I will try to wire where we are likely to be about
11 o'clock. Love to darling Mamma, Your loving son,
GEORGE.
681
To Wilfrid Ward
ST. PAGAN'S CASTLE,
CARDIFF, August 28th, 1908.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I have been in camp on Salisbury
Plain with the Cavalry Division an invigorating experi-
304 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ence. But the conditions precluded any study of the
* Shelley ' article. 1 I reserve that for next week, and am
preparing by reading a good deal of Shelley. My interest
is sharpened by your letter and the criticism, or rather
panegyric, of the ' Observer.' It is, also, but a few weeks
four I think, since I visited Wilfrid Blunt, saw a sketch
of Francis Thompson drawn just before his death, read
some of his poetry aloud and heard all his story in great
detail. I believe that Wilfrid Blunt could send you an
interesting article on Thompson. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
682
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
August 31st, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am very glad to know that you
saw the Cavalry Division at work. It was and, probably
will remain, a unique sight. There was never anything
quite like it before. And, next year, I expect that the
manoeuvres will be on a larger and slower scale, embracing
Infantry and Field Artillery. These Cavalry Manoeuvres
were an epoch in Cavalry Drill a ' little classic ' in their
way. The Learned, when they discuss them, talk of
Alexander, Cromwell, and Seidlitz. The point is that
masses of mounted men were moved rapidly over gradients
in consonance with an idea and without losing co-operation
between component parts. That is important.
If Germany fights France and we have to go to Belgium,
it counts that we can put in four brigades of such Cavalry,
with their Horse Artillery.
I saw a good deal of your German I. G. General Count
Von Dohne. He seemed to me to be a capable man. He
looked at every horse and, as I thought too closely at
some of our ' dodges ' such as our method of horsing
Artillery. But he was a capable and gallant old boy.
When I conducted them the foreigners through the
5 By Francis Thompson.
TO WILFRID WARD 305
Cavalry School at Netheravon, someone said * the road is
up. They have dug a deep trench across it.' I went on
and jumped a wide and deep trench with a drain-pipe at
the bottom. Old Von Dohne jumped after me and all the
rest of the Staff went round.
Perf arrived here to-night. We meant to be together
with Sibell till you come on the llth, but Lily Zetland is
ill and wants Sibell. So Perf and I feel we must make a
dash somewhere. We both have work ahead. He has
manoeuvres on the 12th and then cramming for his Exam.
I have the Autumn session and speeches. We should
languish here, so we go off to Venice for a day or two and
return for the llth. The choice lay between that and
Scotland. And we preferred the sunny South.
After our work we hope to hunt together in December
and have decided that if it freezes we will, at once, go to
St. Petersburg and see Guy. 1 The Mintos asked Perf to
spend his leave at Calcutta as an extra Aide-de-Camp.
He says * No ' this year. But will do it next year.
Their Military Secretary advised them to ask him. I
believe that he will make soldiering his profession. I
think he is right.
WJien I was young soldiering ' petered ' out and politics
became important. Now politics are petering out and
soldiering is becoming the crux.
So, as he must jaunt at his age, I mean to jaunt with
him to Venice this week, and to Petersburg if it freezes
after Christmas.
I am looking forward tremendously to your visit on the
llth.
683
To Wilfrid Ward
SAIGHTON,
CHESTER, September 16/A, 1908.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I reached home from Venice on
Saturday, and of Venice I will say a word later. I must
1 His brother was Military Attache at St. Petersburg.
VOL. II. TJ
306 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
now tell you that I have read Francis Thompson's ' Shelley '
more than once to myself, and once aloud to Sibell, my
mother and father. I was rash when I promised a full
letter on it. I cannot write one to-night ; nor indeed
until I have digested it finally after further rumination.
For the moment I will say that it is the most important
contribution to pure Letters written in English during
the last twenty years. In saying that I compare this
essay in criticism with poetry as well as with other critical
essays.
Speaking from memory, Swinburne's last effective
volume, * Astrophel ' with the ' Nympholept ' in it, came
out in '87 or '88 ; Browning's 'Asolando' in '89. Tenny-
son's ' CEnone ' is also, I think, at the verge of my twenty
years. But even so, these were pale Autumn blossoms
of more radiant Springs. It may be when posterity
judges that Thompson's own poems will alone overthrow
this opinion. But I doubt if they ought to. There is
more of Thompson in this essay than in his poems. In
any case there is a strain in a comparison between criticism
and poetry ; prose and verse.
It is more natural to seek comparison with other essays
devoted to the appreciation of poetry.
I have a very great regard for Matthew Arnold's * Essays
in Criticism ' : partly reasoned, partly sentimental. But
they were earlier. They did not reach such heights.
They do not handle subjects as a rule so pertinent to
poetry. When they do in the ' Wordsworth ' and ' Byron '
(2nd series) they are outclassed by this essay. The Heine
essays deal with religion rather than poetry.
The only recent English essay on poetry and, therefore,
life temporal and eternal, which challenges comparison
as I read Thompson's * Shelley ' is Myers' * Virgil ' and,
specially the first part.
I think these two are the best English essays on poetry,
of our day. Myers gams by virtue of Virgil's wider appeal
to mortal men in all ages. Thompson gains by virtue of
the fact that he is himself a poet, writing on the poet who,
in English, appeals specially to poets. His subject is
TO WILFRID WARD 307
narrower, but his style is incomparable in the very quali-
ties at which Myers aimed ; of rhythm and profuse illus-
tration. Both, perhaps, exceeded in these qualities.
But Thompson, the poet, is the better man at varying
and castigating his prose style. He is rich and melodic,
where Myers is, at moments, sweet and ornate. Both are
sentimental, and each speaks out of his own sorrow.
Myers sorrowed after confirmation of Immortality.
Thompson sorrowed out of sheer misery. When Myers
writes of Virgil's ' intimations ' of Immortality he is think-
ing of his own sorrow. When Thompson writes of Mangan's
sheer misery he is thinking of his own slough of despond.
Both meant to be personally reticent. But Thompson
succeeds. Unless I knew Thompson's story I could not
read between the lines of his wailing over Mangan. But
any one who reads Myers sees the blots of his tears. Again,
Myers is conscious of Virgil as a precursor on the track of
unrevealed Immortality. Thompson seems is, I believe
unconscious of any comparison between himself and
Shelley, as angels ascending the iridescent ladders of
sunlit imagination. He follows the ' Sun-treader ' with
his eye, unaware that his feet are automatically scaling
the Empyrean.
That his article is addressed to Catholics in no degree
deflects his aim. It begins with an apologia for writing
on Shelley. It ends with an apologia for Shelley. These
are but the grey-goose feathers that speed it to the
universal heart of man. There it is pinned and quivers.
But enough ! I am glad that you display this ' captain
jewel ' in a good * carcanet.' The number (of July) is
excellent and ' editorially ' a plumb-centre ; with a right
good article from the editor into the bargain.
Of this I cannot write now ; still less of Venice. At
another time I could expatiate, but, believe me, it was
good to be alone with my boy on a yacht off the Ponte
della Salute ; it was good to see a procession ascend the
steps of S. Maria della Salute on the feast of her nativity ;
it was good to swim in the Adriatic ; it was good to see
Tintoretto ; it was good to read Villehardouin on the spot
308 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
where he and his three companions, as ambassadors of the
Chivalry of Europe, knelt in 1202 and would not rise till
Venice vouchsafed Christendom's request for ships so that
the shame of our Lord might be avenged.
The older I get the more do I affect the two extremes-
of Literature. Let me have, either pure poetry, or else,
the statements of actors and sufferers. Thompson's
article, though an essay in prose criticism, is pure poetry,
and also, unconsciously, a human document of intense
suffering. But I won't pity him. He scaled the heavens
because he had to sing, and so dropped in a niche above the
portals of the temple of Fame. And little enough would
he care for that ! Why should he ? Myers doubted.
But he knew that souls, not only of Poets, but of Saints
4 beacon from the abodes where the Eternals are.' He is
a meteor exhaled from the miasma of mire. And all
meteors, earth-born and heaven-fallen, help the heavens
to declare the Glory of God. Coeli enarrant. But the
grammar of then* speech is the ' large utterance ' of such
men made * splendid with swords.' Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. Reverting to Thompson's article and its place
in the pure literature of recent years ; I ought to mention
Walter Raleigh's ' Milton,' and with even greater gratitude
his 4 Wordsworth.' But these are books. Of single
essays on a high poetic theme, I adhere to Myers' * Virgil r
and Thompson's ' Shelley,' and put Thompson first.
684
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
Michael Mass, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed my visit to Clouds
immensely. I wish Perf could have been there. We mean
to grow wild chicory here, if possible. It is a lovely flower.
At Wynyard I met an interesting group Buckle, editor
of the 'Tunes' who was effusive to me Morant, the
permanent head of the Education Office Moneypenny,
TO HIS FATHER 309
who is writing the life of Dizzy. I had talks with all
three. Then Metternich German Ambassador arrived
on the scene. He is not well disposed towards the * Times.'
He is always silent.
On this occasion he arrived at 6 o'clock. Said nothing
turned the whole establishment upside-down in order
to send a motor at midnight to Darlington, and left at
8 A.M. the next morning. All this happened because of
the Bulgarian crisis which the Germans are fomenting.
They mean to have a war : not, necessarily, in the imme-
diate future, but some day, and pretty soon. So they pour
acids into Morocco and Bulgaria and tell lies all the time.
But having neither the old brutality of their Bismarck,
nor the finesse of old France, their attempts at lying afford
an excellent substitute for blurting out the truth. ' There
is no deception ' as the clumsy conjuror has it.
On Monday yesterday we had a long walk after
partridges with five guns and killed 20 1 brace ; I picked up
15 birds.
On our first day of 75 brace, I picked up 47 birds ; 23|
brace.
Reggie and Margaret Talbot were at Wynyard and she
played divinely.
Between whiles I wrote two manifestoes. One on the
Territorial Army and another ' Message ' which will be
published in the new form of the * Manchester Courier.'
I have consistently prophesied that this Government
would dissolve early next year. Other people are now
beginning to say so. I hear it, indirectly from Carson,
and also from a member of the Government. I think the
election will be in March.
To amuse you, I enclose a letter from Perf and another
from Belloc. Please return at leisure.
I cannot put my hand on your last letter. I should like
to shoot the pheasants and, even more, to drive the
partridges again. But you must not bother about my
dates. I could only shoot on Fridays and Saturdays.
I mean to attend the House closely and have speeches
on 14th October, llth November, 18th, 19th, 20th Novem-
310 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ber, National Union and Tariff Reform at Cardiff. Dover
the next week, i.e. 25th and 26th November, and the Mass
Meeting etc. at Liverpool the first week in December.
Perf 's spelling reminds one of the ' Paston Letters.' * Mais.
il a une maniere bien nette d'exprimer son idee.' Belloc
plays the fool, but plays it well. All love to darling
Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE.
Love from Sibell.
685
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, October 1st, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am just going to write you a
line about curlews and wild chicory.
And, first, about curlews. Until yesterday I had never
seen a curlew in these parts. But they have always
haunted me with their cry of watery wildness. I first
heard and then saw a curlew flying over Bassenthwaite
Lake when fishing with you for perch. And you told me
his name. When I wrote my * Shakespeare ' I put in a
long note on ' Lyrics ' opposing Bagehot's definition-
Although I did not mention a curlew, the note sprang from
that. I read of them too much in ' Locksley Hall *
between whiles. I was familiar with them on the West
Coast of Ireland. But, till yesterday, I had never seen
one here.
Well, yesterday, as I rode beyond Sir Hugh de
Calveley's derelict moat, by the Alford brook, I saw a
strange bird. Then I heard his cry, and knew it was
a curlew. And, in the twinkling of an eye, a heron
came after him, making short barks. The heron was
saying ' who are you and what do you mean by being a
big bird with a long beak, though not so big as I am, and
with a thinner beak, curved too, and altogether outlandish ?
so, out you go ! You are too big, anyway, and look
as if you might try to catch my fish.' So the curlew flew
away towards Saighton and the heron probably the cock
TO HIS MOTHER 311
circled back in dignity to the Beechins. He was pro-
bably the cock because, soon, another heron came back
from the distance into which the curlew had flown, to
report about the stranger. This heron talked more than
the first. The second heron was probably the hen. She
had been ordered to follow up the stranger and came
back filling the welkin with information and scandal
just to show what a jealous lady-heron she was to her
Lord and how jealous of the little heron's right to all the
fish ; on the hasty theory that curlews eat fish which
they don't.
To-day in the morning I took a walk with S. S. over
the fields towards Waverton ; on the side of Saighton, and
three miles away from the Alford brook. There we saw
the strange bird again and stalked him and put him up
twice. He was a curlew. And this time the rooks were
in the Devil's own stew over the interloper. They could
talk of nothing else. They cawed out ' what are we coming
to, if a bird as big as ourselves, but of a different colour,
and shape, settles here as if the place belonged to him ? '
I thought * it must be my curlew of yesterday, hunted
by the herons to face the rooks ! ' But this afternoon I
rode again into the marshy flats beyond the site of Sir
Hugh's timbered mansion and, lo ! and behold ! I put up
seven (7) curlews. My friend of yesterday had called up
his supports. I do not think that these seven can have
been one brood, for I have been told that the curlew only
lays two eggs. If that is true but is it ? here were two
families minus one member. Perhaps the missing member
was my friend of this morning. How little we know !
How inglorious is our ignorance.
That leads me to wild chicory or succory with its
bright green leaves and bright blue flower. Papa tells
me that he was to drive you to see the wild chicory beyond
the plantation opposite Pertwood.
Well now, here we are all striving to have blue flowers.
Nemophylla and amagallus I am shaky over these
names are not in it with chicory. Why not have a
patch of chicory in the garden for September days ? Why
312 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
not ? I find from the books that it grows wild anywhere
between here and India, but chiefly on chalky soil. I
am told by my gardener that the only way to get it is to
dig it up in its native sod. I should hate to dig up many
near Pert wood. But if you would send me one or two I
would lay down a chalky bed to receive them.
I should like to do that. But I am not bent upon it.
Perhaps it is better to know that they are glorious near
Pertwood, and at many other spots, all the way across
Europe, Asia Minor and on to India.
I have asked Cecil Parker to issue orders that the curlews
shall not be shot. So it is rather base to dig up even one
plant of chicory. The curlews and chicory are 4 pleasant
and lovely in their lives.' I feel that, all the more clearly,
as the man who lives at Newbold, between Saighton and
the Beechins, has enclosed a square mile and planted it
with rare shrubs. The result swears with everything
and makes the fox-hunter swear. It looks like a new
cemetery.
4 Let 'un live,' x say I. And yet I should like a patch
of bright blue chicory; if I felt sure they could live and
say ' so am not I ' with the foolish scullion. Indeed,
Sterne's foolish scullion was not foolish, but as wise as his
starling. Sterne's scullion and starling stand for life and
liberty against his dead donkey and dying lieutenant.
So do the wild chicory and watery curlews stand against
the stunted shrubs of Mr. Colley's plantations. Perhaps
we had best leave them at that. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S.I have written all this on the paper you gave me.
With such paper there is no impediment to writing on for
ever. I put ' reason ' first and then scratched it out.
There is always this much of reason for writing, that I
love you and all you taught me to love such as curlews
and chicory and all that is wild enough and bright enough
to deserve loving and be spared from death, or decency,
or order.
1 Barne's Dorset Poems, ' The Old Oak Tree.'
TO PHILIP HANSON 313
686
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
5.x. 08.
MY DEAR P. H., It seems a long while since I heard
from, or wrote to, you. It is long and seems longer pro-
bably because I have been moving about and enjoying
life, I have really followed at last advice which you have
often tendered. I have taken a complete holiday of two
months. I marvel at the exhilaration which this pro-
duces. Sometimes I wonder whether I shall ever work
again. I am filled with a new gusto for enjoyment. One
of two things may happen. I may either begin to work
again with ease, or become by conviction a middle-aged
pleasure-seeker. I have not done a stroke of real work
since August 3, when I spoke at a mass meeting in Eaton
Park. It is only two months and three days ago. But
I feel as if I had never worked and almost as if I never
would. I went to Clouds and played lawn tennis ; I
returned to Eaton and played polo ; I went to Salisbury
Plain and played at soldiers, to such purpose that a Guard
turned out and mistook me for a General, presented
arms and blew a fanfare on a trumpet ; a deserved tribute
to grey hair and a red (Yeomanry) cap with a white cover.
More by token, I went to Venice with Percy, and led the
life of a Monte Cristo. We two had Westminster's yacht
to ourselves, safely anchor'd off the Punte della Salute.
We chartered a Gondola with a figure (Pagan, naked and
unashamed) of Fortune on our prow. We saw Palaces
and Churches. We discovered Tintoretto just as if we
were Ruskin. We read Villehardouin's own account of
his transactions with Dandolo in 1202. We bathed in
the Adriatic from the Lido. We gave a Dinner Party
on board, and if we did not paint the town red, why I I
can only say that is unnecessary in ' Venise, la rouge.'
But after that I went to Clouds again and shot partridges.
I went to Wynyard and met Buckle and Moneypenny,
314 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and finally I have, for the first time since 1900, been at
Saighton in summer weather.
I am here only for a Railway Board, and back to-
Saighton immediately after it.
I have definitely refused to write an article for the
centenary of the ' Quarterly.'
I mean without preparation to hurl my exuberance on
an effete House of Commons. And then hunt and if
it freezes go to see brother Guy at Petersburg.
I have just read the proceedings at Cork. They com-
plete the illusion of being five years younger, without
re-creating the delusion that anything is likely to happen
except a war with Germany.
Mahaffy has been with us at Saighton, and a quite
delightful companion. I wish you could pop over for
48 hours before next Saturday.
I crystallised my Italian in Venice. It came to me
suddenly like swimming or skating. So that without
effort or merit on my part I can now read that language
and have read four or five volumes in it. But I can't
read German. Perhaps you could tell me the purport
of the enclosed remarks on my * Walter Scott.' I shall
bear up if the sense is as repellent as the form seems to
my untutor'd eye.
Anyway let me hear from you. Yours ever, G. W.
P.S. Reverting to the German review. I know not
the speech, but I am glad to have been spared the first
word in the criticism which follows the par. on my W. S_
* Quellenuntersuchungen.' What an awful thing to say
about anybody !
687
To his Father
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
October I2th, 1908.
MY DEAR PAPA, I was much amused to hear that the
wild chicory came from Chester, and much interested by
the information you have given me about it. It is some
TO HIS MOTHER 315
years since I first saw the blue flowers for we were walking
partridges. I took some home then and found out that
it was the plant used for salad. But as I had never seen
the flower in the garden I did not believe it. You explain
the mystery. Thanks too, for telling me about the
curlew's four eggs. I brought the curlews into a speech
at the Conversazione at the ' Charles Kingsley ' Natural
History Society in Chester last Thursday.
On Friday I went to Derwent and shot grouse Saturday
with Edmund Talbot. Owing to a high wind, which
blew them off the estate, we only got 66 brace with five
guns.
A man staying there knew a great deal about birds.
I ought to have said before that you must not think of
changing your dates for shooting. I shall hope to get to
Clouds for a Sunday or two soon. All love to darling
Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE.
688
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
29th October 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Your letter besides being
dear amuses me, because all my congratulators on the
Lord Rectorship are more pleased at Winston's defeat
than at my victory.
I did not expect to win. But, as I have won, I shall
try to say something to them in my address. Meanwhile
new links with real youth have a new joy. The unreal
youth of middle age is light-hearted. But the real youth
of twenty years is portentous in the solemnity of its
ignorance. Never having been out of its depth it needs
no bladders of mirth to swim with. Little ripples from
the tide of fate kiss its ankles. And it walks gravely
through them like a conqueror of ' seas of trouble.'
On Monday the Leader of the Edinburgh under-
graduate opposition and his right hand man sent in
their cards to me at the House. They were at pains to-
316 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
explain how much they had wished and how hard they
had tried to beat me. But as between gentlemen that
being over, they wished to express their respect for ' The
Lord Rector.' So I made them dine without dressing,
and they regaled Sibell and myself with their earnestness
and certainty, over what seems trifles to the middle-aged.
Your loving and devoted son, GEORGE.
689
To his Father
35 PARK LANE,
Friday Night, October 30th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am counting on coming to
Clouds for several Sundays ; and should as you half
expected have come to-morrow. But for several reasons :
as, for example, Percy comes here to-morrow from
Aldershot ; Sibell has a feast of the Church on Sunday ;
and I am immersed in arithmetical calculations over the
Irish Land Act. But I mean to come soon, perhaps next
Friday or Saturday.
I will try to see Harold White, meanwhile.
I do not think we need worry over the state of affairs.
Because all classes are worrying. Margaret Dalton of
Saighton village wrote to Sibell much on the lines of your
letter. The whole country, and specially what are called
the lower classes are shocked at all that is taking place.
My main concern is that I fear this wretched Govern-
ment will collapse next March and let us in, before we
are ready to face national bankruptcy and anarchy in
Ireland.
I am not a cynic and find no pleasure in the general
sordid insanity which seems inherent in the third year of
a so-called Liberal administration. Yet the Government's
position is diabolically absurd.
Four hundred of their supporters are pledged to Woman's
Suffrage. The Prime Minister though opposed personally
has publicly invited them to ventilate their cause. Their
TO HIS FATHER 817
watch- word is, * No taxation without representation/
Excellent. But what do we see ?
The House of Commons is often surrounded by a cordon
of police. The public galleries are shut. We live in a
state of siege.
So, too, in Ireland. Yesterday several policemen were
shot and a cattle-driver was shot dead.
All this goes on. But the House of Commons is only
allowed to discuss quite ridiculous provisions in the
Licensing Bill.
This afternoon, for example, the House of Commons
made it a crime for a father to take his boy into a railway
station Refreshment Room if there was a ' bar ' on the
premises.
To ' top up ' or, as the French say, * pour surcroit de
bonheur.' We are face to face with national bankruptcy
and not too far removed from a war with Germany. In
face of that situation we are exporting the Reserve to our
protectionist Colonies hi order that they may not starve
in Free Trade England.
4 Is that all ? ' as we say in English. ' Merci du peu *
as they say in French.
I await the explosion. 4 Impavidum ferient ruinae ' as
they say in Latin, which is as much as to say in English
* I shall not be alarmed,' nor, let me add, surprised.
But, alas ! the Party will hardly be ready. Your
loving son, GEORGE.
690
To his Father
4.ri.08.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I have told them to look for the
two letters in the ' Times ' of the 2nd.
I have studied ' Invisible Exports ' and Capital invested
abroad for some time.
Nobody attended to it before 1903.
In the Board of Trade Blue-Book, prepared by Gerald
Balfour in that year, they took a shot.
318 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
To account for excess of Imports over Exports, they
said (a) some pay the freights of our ships, (b) others to
the tune of 90,000,000 are interest on capital invested
abroad.
Schooling in the British Trade Year Book has proved
that our shipping does not earn the amount credited
to it.
I think it far more likely that more much more than
90,000,000 is interest on capital invested abroad coming
back in the shape of articles. And I am sure that more
must come back in future.
It is difficult to identify our capital invested abroad.
The only part we can identify is that on which income
tax is paid in block by bankers. These are called ' iden-
tified profits from abroad.'
They show that capital is pouring out of this country.
It goes for two reasons : (1) to get a higher interest,
because a shilling income tax and death duties force
people to try for 5 per cent, preferring the risk to the
certainty of being ruined in three generations ; (2) to
take refuge behind Tariff walls.
The increase is astounding. In the 19 years previous
to 1904-1905, capital so identified went abroad at the
average rate of 22,000,000 a year. But in the next two
years 05/06 06/07 it went at the average of 135,000,000
a year 270,000,000 in the two years.
Now the curious point is this. These huge sums did
not go in sovereigns or bullion, most of them went as
our exports. Yet imports exceeded exports in 1906 :
Value.
Imports 607,888,500
Exports 375,575,338
Total . 983,463,838
645,807,942
426,035,083
Total . 1,071,843,025
TO HIS MOTHER 319
One result is certain, viz. : the operation of Tariff walls.
They tend to make the Imports of 645 millions consist
of wholly manufactured articles ; and they tend to make
the 426 millions of our Exports consist of raw material,
e.g. coal, and partly manufactured articles.
Consequently they tend to displace our skilled artisans
and to entice yet more capital abroad.
The ultimate result is to turn us into a nation of bankers
and commission agents, supporting armies of unemployed
loafers.
That is what happened in ancient Rome, in Constanti-
nople, and in Venice, with the results that history teaches.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. Few people know that Constantinople in the
XlVth century had a revenue as large as ours 150
millions a year. Yet it collapsed like a card-castle before
the Turks in 1457 and had been taken already by the
Franks in 1204.
All this makes me sad.
691
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE,
Saturday Night, November 7th, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I wish I were at Clouds. And
this is to say, definitely, that I shall come to Clouds by
the morning tram next Saturday. For many reasons next
Sunday is easier than this Sunday. We shall have finished
the Committee stage of the Licensing Bill on which I
speak every day. On one day I spoke six times ! And
with average luck I shall have broken the back of
preparation for platform speeches. When that has been
done a holiday, before making them, is a holiday and
helps me to make them better. But a holiday when I am
up to my neck in work is not a holiday.
Besides my work on the Licensing Bill, I have circu-
lated to ex-colleagues a memo, of 21 pages foolscap typed
320 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
on the finance of the Land Act, and answered every letter
that anyone has addressed to me.
The decks are cleared for action.
I have to speak at the Mayor's Banquet, Dover, on the
llth. But my work to-morrow, Tuesday, Thursday and
Friday, is to get ready for my real platform campaign.
On the 18th the Tariff Reform branch of all South Wales
gives me a luncheon. On the 19th I hope to speak at the
National Union Conference. On the 20th I have a mass
meeting. That is three in one week. The next week I
speak on the 23rd in the House on Irish Land ; and then
in the country platform on 25th and 26th ; the next
week on December 1st ; the next, on December 9th and
10th ; all 4 Platform.'
I stayed here to-night to reconnoitre the field of opera-
tions. I just mean to block it out before I begin. And
as I said I have cleared off everything else. My life is
swept and garnished for the house-warming of the seven
Devils of the Platform. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
692
To his Sister, Pamela
SALISBURY, 15th November 1908.
DARLING PAM, This is a diminutive herald to our
lunch on Tuesday, blowing his little trumpet to announce
whence I come, since my stay must be short. I can only
nick in on Tuesday. For on Wednesday I have to make
a speech and another on Thursday, and another on Friday,
and another on Monday, and so on for ever. By luck, and
inspiration derived from Clouds, I know just what I mean
to say on Wednesday about Tariff Reform. And, by dint
of hard plugging at Act, and statistics, I also know just
what I mean to say to-morrow week on Irish Land Pur-
chase. Having arrived at these by luncheon time, I
walked five miles with Dorothy and read, after tea, rather
sleepily, Filson Young's last novel. But suddenly one
scene woke me. The hero, who can draw, hears O'Donnell
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 321
read a poem to a gathering of artistic prigs. So he says
all of a sudden * I can draw that ' and does it. Here
are the Arts colloguing. I said to myself ' I can write
that.' And went and wrote it. I make Art talk ; and
this is what SHE says :
ARS LOQUITUR
I am the way the ancient trick
Of making ; as things must be made,
By measure, and arithmetic,
And the old custom of a trade.
I am the truth the empty gaze
At far horizons veiled in mist :
I falter as I search the maze
Of Dawn's abysmal amethyst.
in
I am the life the miracle,
Of plan and vision, merged in one ;
Whose high harmonics soar and dwell
In ecstasies of unison.
IV
I am the way, the truth, the life ;
The road to go, the rim to see,
The song to shout, above the strife
Of rapture with utility.
Art says with Moliere * Je prends mon bien ou je le
trouve.' And in this case as in so many finds her
quarry in the Founder of Christianity. Les beaux esprits
se rencontrent. Before Art disinterred that Jewel, I had
gaped at the opalescent profundity of the saying ' I am
the way, the truth and the life.' It is when stated so
evident that life means method and vision. And that,
my Darling, is why I make Art say so. Your devoted
brother, GEORGE.
VOL. II. X
322 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
693
To Wilfrid Ward
Private
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 27th, 1908.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I was on the point of writing to
you now at 11 p.m. when I found your letter. I had
read the A.J.B. Essay and noted the dexterity with which
you have interpolated my suggested * double barrel '
The Imperial Conference plus Asquith's Budget, in 1907.
And I had glanced at all the others. The book, for which
I am very grateful, came to my hands about six this
evening. It reached me at one of those rare moments
of forlorn fatigue that occur in the course of strenuous
stretches. And at those rare moments the touch of
friendship is ' grateful and comforting.'
We are troubled to-day. A wire from Madeira, four
days ago told us that Westminster, whom we expected
from South Africa to-morrow was ill with malaria, and,
this morning, a wireless message turned uneasiness to
anxiety. So, Sibell and the Duchess have gone off to
Southampton with a doctor, and I was left alone. Other-
wise I have not had and cannot foresee any gap in the
strain of political effort. I spoke at Cardiff on Wednesday
and Thursday. On Monday I spoke to the House for
an hour on Irish Land Purchase, and at Dover on
Wednesday, and to-day I had to speak in the House,
in spite of this anxiety.
Even if all goes well, I cannot alas ! think of Lotus 1
before Xmas. I must speak on Education in the House
and watch it all next week except Tuesday when I
speak at Gravesend, and, apart from the House, I have
big Meetings the week after on the 7th and 10th.
All this is accompanied by exacting work on Irish
Purchase and Education, behind the scenes. So as you
say Literature cannot be my career. Forgive this
explosion !
1 The name of Mr. Ward's house at Dorking.
TO WILFRID WARD 323
I am deeply concerned over the so-called Education
Compromise. It makes me sad to feel how remote I am
from my countrymen and how remote they are with
all their excellent qualities from the rudiments of
philosophic thought. It is dear of them to jump at a
compromise ; but silly to jump before looking. They
will look afterwards. They will look back and say, ' If
we had only known.' Yet they do not realise that they
preclude themselves from knowing now or ever owing
to their inveterate distrust of thinking. Any man who
thinks on these occasions, and shows that he is thinking,
is suspect. I am suspect. But I -must think ; and I
will believe that it is wise to do so. Yet, I am nearly
powerless. I thought and spoke on Wednesday. The
* Times ' suppressed my speech, the *' Morning Post '
published a sketch of the rest and suppressed all I said
upon Education.
You have leisure, and a rostrum in the * Dublin Review.'
It is your duty to try and make them think.
Will you help me to make them see before the smash
that there are only two ways of approaching the problem ?
(1) To start from Uniformity of religious instruction ;
and (2) to start from Unity of the National System of
Education. Or, putting it another way (1) to start from
a neutral religion, and (2) to start from the neutrality of
the State to all religions.
From whichever point you make your departure, you
must I admit and assert make illogical exceptions to
fit in with present practical needs.
But and here is the whole matter if you start from
a fair theory, cela ne peche pas par la base. No wrecker
can find a cranny in your foundation, insert his crowbar,
and overthrow the whole edifice.
If, on the other hand, you start from an unfair theory
as this Bill does no amount of charity and ingenuity is
of any avail.
There it is, in the black and white of Clause I., that the
State's imprimatur is to be affixed only on undenomi-
national teaching. If once you say that, 'contracting
324
out ' is a necessary consequence. You may mitigate its
secular evils by lavish grants. But you cannot irradicate
the stigma.
It makes me sad and sick. Think of the irony of the
situation. On Tuesday the House of Commons by five
to one supported a motion in favour of relieving Roman
Catholics from important, but largely sentimental, griev-
ances. The accession oath, the prohibition on the
appointment of an R.C. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland or
Lord Chancellor are grievances. They are antiquated
insults and irrational disabilities. We said so on Tuesday
by five votes to one. Yet because Englishmen will not,,
or cannot think, on Thursday, in the same week, within
forty-eight hours, we say by nearly two and half votes to-
one, that new disabilities not sentimental and antiquated
but modern and practical are to be imposed in respect
of Education for all the Catholic youth in the country.
Nothing can wholly amend that original defect.
But the Bill has been * Guillotined.' Clause I. goes
through automatically on Monday.
I deplore, but accept perforce, that situation.
What really kills me is that your people and our people
who want to be kind can't think enough to gauge the
consequences of that initial mistake.
They say, ' If the Government makes the grant big
enough what does it matter ? '
They say that because they will not, or cannot, think-
Help me to make them think.
On their own absurd basis, their Bill is valueless unless
it is a settlement. Very well.
The cost of education has increased, is increasing, and
will increase.
Consequently any fixed grant which is fair to-day, will
be unfair next year, grossly unfair in five years, and
utterly useless in ten years. Therefore, instead of
haggling for sixpences, they must insist on paying only a
quota for the rights of citizenship. They must say,
4 We think it unfair to pay rates for your religion. We
think it sad to be excluded from all your national system
of Education, and bad for that system. But you will
TO WILFRID WARD 325
have it so. How much are we to pay ? Isn't a shilling
in the pound enough ? We have three hundred thousand
Catholic children. A child's education costs about 3
a head. Is not nine hundred thousand shillings 45,000
a year a sufficient tax on our religious convictions ? '
Supposing that the House sees the force of that, i.e.
that for a permanent settlement the private contribu-
tion must be a quota and not a fixed grant then, point
out :
II. Population increases. When new schools are
wanted, you must give us building grants for the same
proportion of 19:1. If we need 20,000 for new schools,
you must pay 19,000, and we will find 1000.
I don't know why I trouble you with all this.
At this moment I feel as if I lived in a community of
deaf men. The more I talk the more worried they look.
, . . And nothing happens.
Let us quit all this hopeless, helpless, dumb show of
hypnotised Democracy going to its appointed doom of
Bureaucracy and Caesarism now, as ever and everywhere,
quod semper et ubique.
Let us laugh !
We ought to laugh. Surprise is the basis of laughter.
And what can be more surprising than to see the leaders
of Nonconformity in the House of Commons, bribed by
baronetcies, abrogating the constitution, and laughing
as well they may at the spectacle of the Anglican Arch-
bishop ramming Nonconformity down my throat with the
butt end of his crozier ? They laugh. Had not I better
laugh too ? ' Taking it hi good part ' is I believe the
classic phrase for acquiescing in comic turpitude.
But I have not quitted this grim subject of sordid and
sardonic infamy. I must or I shall forget to laugh and
increase the merriment of other's by getting angry.
That would be absurd, when neither Anglican nor
Catholic, nor Educationalist, nor Unionists, are willing
to think of anything but their Christmas holidays.
So now, having relieved my feelings> I will write out
some lines which I did write out for you the other day
and then tore up.
326 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
They may be condemned on the three grounds of (1)
profanity, (2) plagiarism (3) mystical obscurity.
And yet, for all that, I am glad to have written them.
They sprang from a book about Art. I thought. And
it came to me that Art should speak for herself. If her
language is obscure it is not she protests more obscure
than the language of those who speak for her. This is
what she said to me. The Lady speaks :
ARS LOQUITUR
' I am the way the ancient trick/ etc., etc.
[See preceding letter.]
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
694
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December 2nd, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, One scribble before I go back
to the House to say how sorry I am to hear that Amelia
Ireland is dead, and how well I understand what that
means to you, Darling. But, then, I am glad that I can
know this ; because you and I went to Doncebate together,
when she was still just what I knew she had been from
your old stories ; I might so easily not have gone, or been
prevented by work.
The real objection to work is that it prevents one from
doing things that leave memories far more lasting than
the results of any work. I feel that about work, and par-
ticularly about political work. It has no ' smack of
immortality ' in it. But kindness and courage and fun
and joy are immortal.
Now I must just ' pop hi ' to see Shelagh on my way
back. S. S. has gone over to see Benny. It is a separate
and known tropical fever, caused by a separate and known
microbe with some horrible name. This intruder can
only be killed by the health of the patient. Nothing but
TO MRS. HINKSON 327
rest and the right diet are any good. You have to beat
him with your own phagocytes. And Benny will beat
him all right in two or three weeks.
I made a good speech at Gravesend last night. I
started from Gravesend to Suakim in 1885 ! just opposite
old Tilbury fort. What a rush it has been since then.
And it is a rush now ! I 'm off. Your devoted and most
loving son, GEORGE.
695
To Mrs, Hinkson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December 2nd, 1908.
DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I am not going to
apologise for the delay of this reply. Because I know you
will have guessed that I waited till I had the chance of
reading ' The House of the Crickets ' before thanking
you for your gift. I took the chance in the midst of
Tariff Reform, and my old Irish Land Act, and Educa-
tion. And your book was like the plashing of a pure
stream through a frowning gorge. It was true. For it
does not veil the bleak desolation or pollute the stream.
It is like Life which is made of austerity and kindness.
It is not like Death which is ' made up ' of sentiment
and corruption.
I am sick of the farded skeleton which most novelists
call life.
Though it is fearful to believe as you make me in
such a childhood as the brothers and sisters had ; still,
the misery and awe of it made them human. Though
one poor boy died and one sister was wild and inconsiderate ;
they all found each other.
But, in the scent and glare and blare of other authors'
* clever ' novels all the avenues of perception were
deafened and dazed and suffocated.
I thank you sincerely for having written the book, and
warmly for having given it to me. Yours very truly,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
328 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
696
To Charles T. Gatty
36 PARK LANK, W.,
5.xii.08.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I saw Bendor to-day for the
second time. He is going on well and his old self, but
weak. He may see people. And he begged me to-day
most particularly to ask you to come and see him.
He wants cheering up. I wasted the ' Peacock ' and
* Capers ' on him. You must do them in your * inimitable
manner ' ! He is longing to see you.
I am looking forward more than I can say to our
Christmas together. I am tired ; and have three more
fences to jump Land Bill Tuesday, Mass Meeting Wednes-
day, and another a luncheon Thursday. Then I go
to Mark l to shoot pheasants Friday and come back to
wind up on Monday 14th. Then the sooner we forget
all about politics and l addict ourselves wholly ' to
Christmas, the better ! Yours affectionately,
GEORGE W.
697
To Charles Boyd
Confidential.
36 PARK LANE, W.,
15.xii.08.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I shall begin this letter now,
to-night ; it is 12.20 and really the 16th of December. I
shall finish it later, after attempting to see Seely again
before we all dispart for Christmas. I shall write in
pencil because I cannot find a pen. I have just returned
from seeing 'King Henry V with Lady Grosvenor. It
is wonderful. I should like to read it aloud to large
audiences instead of speaking about Defence and the
Union of the Empire.
So far as one member of the Board is concerned to
1 Mark Napier.
TO CHARLES BOYD 329
wit, C. B. I shall try the Newfoundland fly. So far as
the other G. W. is concerned, he is touched by your
suggestion. But really it is not possible. The Slab
within the chaplet of weathered boulders calls. But,
but, but ... I cannot do all that I have to do as it is.
I believe (no one else does) that there will be a general
election next year. I am very well, but working all day
and every day. I have had to refuse all sorts of attrac-
tive jobs an article in the ' Centenary Quarterly,' etc.,
etc. I am just going to take another holiday till January
21, when I speak at Edinburgh. And I have just finished
the biggest course I ever ran over. I won't worry you
with details. It has all been ' speeches.' But real ones.
The climax came last week. On Tuesday I moved the
rejection of Birrell's Land Bill in the House 1 hour and
5 minutes. On Wednesday I spoke at Liverpool to many
more than 5,000 persons for 1 hour and 10 minutes on
Tariff Reform, and on Thursday I spoke for 30 minutes
to the Conservative Club there. Through no merit of
mine, but from some touch of actuality, I swept the board
three times running. Then I went to York and shot on
the wolds for two days and came back braced by a North
wind and being 800 feet above the sea. So that I am
fitter and fresher than when the race began in October.
I don't want a holiday. But I mean to take one ; for,
from January 21 onwards, I take off the gloves. Enough
of this. Now I go to bed. To-morrow I shall try to see
Seely.
Give my love to the Doctor even if it makes him jump.
I am thinking deeply over your last letter. If you
ever see my recent speeches at Cardiff and Liverpool, you
will understand how ' pat ' that letter came to my purpose.
4 Finance ' won't do. I see my path quite clearly. I
shall follow it. I mean to fight a straight fight for Defend-
ing the Empire, Uniting the Empire and (a) * Safeguard-
ing ' protecting if you like the skilled artisans in the
Mother Country ; (b) doing something to enlist the mob
of loafers into the ranks of regular labour.
I have said this three times. It is, therefore (see the
330 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
' Hunting of the Snark ') true. But it entails this. The
Press bar the ' Standard ' is ' agin ' me. Because the
press of England belongs to Cosmopolitan Finance, they
suppress my speeches. But thousands come to listen ;
and these three speeches have been printed verbatim and
are circulated to tens of thousands as leaflets not by
me, but by Liverpool and the Tariff Reform League.
As that is the kind of ' hairpins we are,' you will guess
my view on Rhodesia being made a counter in the Cosmo-
politan Financial game. ' It won't do.' It must be
stopped. The Bond shall stop it. I look to Rhodesia
now, as I did in 1897, to unite South Africa on an Imperial
basis. I want South Africa to take up the running.
Imperial Preference depends, now, on South Africa.
Canada is being caught in the cogs of U.S.A. and French
and German Tariffs. The policy of the Matoppos has
got to win. C. J. R. and all the men who died in South
Africa, shall not have lived and died in vain. But for
that Rhodesia, which is the key to South African Unity,
just as South Africa is the key to Imperial Unity, must
be purged at all costs from any dross and base metal
of oriental Finance.
I wish you could have heard and seen the thousands
in the Sun Hall at Liverpool rise at me when I said that
we would not lose all that for which our soldiers and
sailors had died during three centuries. If you are on
that tack and you are no man will understand you
more readily, and gladly, than Jack Seely. . . . Good-
night.
698
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December 15th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I was very glad to get your letter.
' The Times ' has been very * queer ' lately. I am told
that it will turn over a new leaf on January 1st. I think
they feel that they owe me some reparation, as yester-
day, in the House, their new Lobby representative asked
TO HIS MOTHER 331
to be introduced to me, and ceremoniously booked the
dates of my next speeches on January 21st at Edinburgh
and February 1st at Birkenhead.
My Tariff Reform Speech on Wednesday has made
a considerable stir. Several of the active Tariff Reformers
in the House came to me yesterday, and thanked me for
it. I am to see Professor Hewins to-morrow at the Head
Office of the League and on another day to meet Garvin
at luncheon.
I mean to fight this thing through in my own way,
without attempting to please the 4 Mugwumps.' The
audience in the Sun Hall was magnificent. I should say
about 4700 on my side, and 500 or 700 either hostile, or
unconvinced. But they all listened. I enclose two small
cuttings, one from P. M. G. the other, sent to me, gives
a description of the way in which I spoke. The ' Daily
Post ' is the big Liberal Paper hi Liverpool. I also enclose
a letter from Sir Joseph Lawrence, which I should like
to have back.
I spoke again, the third time, to a luncheon on Thursday
in the Liverpool Conservative Club ; and succeeded really
spoke better than the night before, but in a lighter vein.
They are printing 20,000 copies of my Mass Meeting
speech in Liverpool, and the Tariff Reform League is
also going to make it a leaflet.
I did not go to Saighton but to York and motored out
to Mark Sykes, for two days' wild shooting in the wolds,
800 feet above the sea. It refreshed and braced me. I
shot up to my best form at high wild pheasants. The
second day we got 8 Woodcock.
All love to Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE.
699
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December I6th, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I must send a line to say
that Sibell and I went to ' Henry V ' last night and
332 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
it was splendid. If it is running in February we ought
to go together.
I think I must get to Saighton Saturday and come to
you in January, for Percy's coming of age celebrations.
I am not a penny the worse for my hard week of speak-
ing. But now I am going to take tour weeks of complete
holiday. Then I shall prepare again for Edinburgh on
21st January, and Birkenhead 4000 Mass Meeting on
February 1st.
I imagine the House will meet on February 9th.
I am just off to see Hewins at the Tariff Reform League.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
700
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December VJth, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Enclosed from Lawrence will
interest you. The meaning of (A) is that the editor of
the 'Morning Post' replied that, he agreed; that, however,
they never criticized the management of other papers ;
and, so, could not publish Lawrence's letter in which he
attacked the ' Times ' for suppressing my speeches.
My plan is to go on making speeches until they have to
report them. Your loving son, GEORGE.
701
To his Father
35 PARK LANK.
December I7th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, There is one slip in my Liverpool
speech. It is 4 hundredweights,' not tons, of ' tin-plates.'
I think it must be the reporters' mistake as I have
hundredweights underlined on my notes. It does not
affect the argument. I have corrected it and sent the
exact figures to two correspondents who wrote on the
point. The speech has made a great stir. Indeed, too
TO HIS FATHER 333
much in one way ; for I have many letters to answer,
all favourable and eager for more.
Yet, I really made that speech not so well, but still
quite as definitely in April 1907 near Birmingham. But
it was not reported.
I have no evidence that ' critics on our side ' are annoyed.
The opposition papers say they are. But the opposition
papers and Gould have lived for five years on exaggerating
our differences, especially over a tax on wheat.
I shall make a point of pushing (1) the Corn Tax (2)
Home Industries, all over again, in January and on the
1st of February at Birkenhead. Meanwhile I shall take
no notice of criticism.
National Review Article. I have not read it yet. I
read a quotation about it in a ' press cutting ' just before I
made those three speeches Irish Land and the two at
Liverpool. And, as I travelled to York after the third
speech I read a Leading Article on it in the ' Yorkshire
Post.' I did not take it to heart.
Oddly enough, it has rallied a great many people to
my side. There is a lot of loose ill-nature in the world.
But there is, also, a lot of loose good-nature. And when
the first is focussed, the second gets focussed, too, in
antagonism to the first.
Many members of the House of Commons, without
referring to the article, have gone out of their way to stop
me in the lobbies, and praise my Irish speech and my
Liverpool speech. That is their way of showing that they
think the article is outside the rules of the game.
Nobody knows who wrote it. ' They say ' (1) Leo
Maxie would not have published it as by ' M.P.' unless it
was written by an * M.P.' (2) There is no M.P. on our
benches bright enough to have written it. (3) So it must
have been written by a peer, who, of course, is also a
member of Parliament.
Sibell who thought I should mind it, when she found
I did not started to-night, the surprising, but ingenious,
view that it was written by Lucy Toby under the clock.
He calls himself in 'Punch' M.P. for Barkshire. It
334 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
amuses me that she should have taken the trouble to
think so much. Sometimes women guess things. But I
incline to the duller view that it was written by an Irish
peer, or somebody like Lord Robertson.
I have not thought about it. But as I write it
seems to me the product rather of an older man who is
cross with the front-benches, who supplanted him ; than
of a younger man who wants to supplant them. It
smacks of ' spretae injuria formae ' and uric acid. There
is little acidity in the young.
However I must read it. This opinion is based 011
another ' press cutting ' which gave longer extracts.
I will send your note to Perf. You could not have hit
on a better present. Perf is very practical. He got the
Saighton people to give him their present, before we
arrived. Their present was a new saddle, bridle, hunting-
horn, etc. And, having got it, he used them all the next
day, because the meet was at Saighton. All the donors
looked on with admiring eyes and were satisfied that they
had hit on something which he was glad to get.
I am very sorry not to have heard his speech. But I
am more glad that he should have done a sensible and
tactful thing without consulting me, or asking for any-
body's advice. There is no indecision in his character.
He could act Henry v. but not Hamlet.
To my sorrow the Plymouths are in great anxiety over
their eldest son who is dangerously ill with enteric in
India. I shall put my foot down against Perf going to
Egypt till he is twenty-three at least. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
702
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
December 23rd, 1908.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I will write you a real letter.
This is only a scribble of all love to you and to wish you
a merry Christmas and happy New Year. My heart is
TO HIS FATHER 335
very sad because of Oti's 1 death. Is has been such anxiety
to them and now this great sorrow.
But he was given to the Empire as much as if he had
died in battle. Still . . .
Well, Darling, I love you. Ever your most loving son,
GEORGE.
703
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, December 27th, 1908.
MY DEAREST PAPA, This is to wish you a very happy
New Year. I think we shall come to you on the 9th,
and certainly on the llth.
I have had three days' hunting last week with Percy
and enjoyed them very much. But now it is snowing
and blowing.
I will send you the Liverpool speech when I get it.
They thought very little of Lloyd George's speech in
Liverpool. One of the Liberal papers said that he was
nervous and ill-at-ease.
I am taking no notice of his criticism until I speak
again. Probably I shall reserve my answer to February
1st when I speak at Birkenhead next to Liverpool. At
Edinburgh I must be more general and interest the
undergraduates .
I have some other figures about capital going abroad.
If you take the capital authorised and issued from January
1st to November 30th of this year, there was 80,000,000
British out of 230,000,000 in all. So that 150,000,000
went for purposes outside this country.
That is new capital raised.
The effect of selling British securities and buying
Foreign ones is more indirect : but it also tends to diminish
employment. For example, the continued sale of British
Railway Stock depresses its value and, as a consequence,
our Railways postpone work. We put off rebuilding
stations, replacing rolling stock etc., because, with Stocks
1 Lord Plymouth's son.
336 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
down we cannot borrow more money except for high
interest, and sometimes cannot borrow it at all. Your
loving son, GEORGE.
704
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January l&th, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed every minute of the
celebrations at Clouds. 1 They were perfectly organized
and delightful in every way. I am just in from a great
hound run, parts of which were very good to ride ; and
all most interesting. We ran from Philo, at Oulton, to
Crewe ! That is a good nine mile point, over an arc,
with turns, so that we covered a great track of country
Philo, Oulton Low, nearly to Darnhall, Church Monshall
and on, and then South to Crewe. Shelagh, de Crespigny,
Bertie Wilson and young Lord Stafford came from Eaton.
I borrowed rugs and got the horses into a train at Crewe.
Then we borrowed Lady Crewe's motor and went to
Shelagh's, which was at Oulton, and so home.
We were all the time over a wild, wet country, with
boggy take-offs and hairy fences, and never in a wood or
bad country till we got into the outskirts of Crewe, the
fox went round some houses and doubled back. Shelagh
was so tired and the horses, that we went straight to
the station. The fox was only just in front of us the last
four miles. All love to darling Mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
705
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, February 5th, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I was shocked by the sad death
of Lady Florence Grant 2 and realised how deeply you would
1 On the coming of age of his son.
2 Lady Florence Grant was knocked down by a man on a bicycle on the hill
near Shaftesbury.
TO HIS FATHER 337
feel it. I read Mamma's letter to Sibell to-night. It is
sad to know that no one had the common sense to put
Lady Florence at once in the best room of the Railway
Hotel. But I doubt if this would have availed. Very
few people recover from a fracture of the base of the skull.
And I am certain that she felt nothing. After a wound
to the brain, the sub-liminal consciousness takes command.
People so wounded, talk and know the essentials of their
identity and the locality of their home. But they feel
nothing. This is true of concussion, and more true of
fracture.
Sibell wants me to send you this letter from Bigland,
our Candidate from Birkenhead. The meeting was a
' well saved ' and because of that, encouraged me more
than a success under good conditions. The strain was
so great that I did not know what I was saying and, when
I sat down, could not remember what I had said. But,
curiously, the reports are very good ; and the speech is
to be printed in pamphlet form. I will send you one when
they are out. I am afraid we shall not get a report of all
that I said ; for I spoke for one hour and twenty minutes.
The best thing, at which I worked hardest, is not in any
report I have seen. I shall do it again. It was a popular
account of what happens when anybody invests, say,
4000 abroad. I shall keep that and do it, earlier, in one
of my next speeches. I am speaking on the 27th of
March at the 21st annual meeting of the Lancashire and
Cheshire Working Men's Federation, at Wigan. I spoke
21 years ago at their first meeting. Last year Walter
Long spoke at their 20th. The next week, on April 2nd,
I collaborate with Austen Chamberlain, and Bonar Law,
at the annual meeting of the Tariff Reform League.
Hitherto it has always been held in London. This year
they invade Yorkshire. A. Chamberlain speaks at Leeds,
Bonar Law I forget and I at Huddersfield. Before
these two I am to have one big meeting in London to
myself. I am inundated with requests for speeches. But
I mean, in future, only to take these big meetings, and
build up a series of speeches which I shall publish in a
VOL. II. Y
338 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
book. Four of them have been printed as pamphlets
(including Birkenhead). After Wigan and Huddersfield,
I shall have made six or seven with London ; enough for
a book. Then, next late summer, I shall make a tour hi
Scotland where, as Lord Rector of Edinburgh I get the
Press.
This has been one of the most active weeks of my life.
After Birkenhead I caught the 11.55 at Liverpool for
London, and slept in the train. Next day, Tuesday, I
did our Railway half yearly from 11 to 2 ; wrote a letter
to the ' Standard ' and another to the ' Morning Post/
They sent to ask me for a letter ; because the London
Press summary of my speech had a stupid abbreviation
which was bound to mislead anyone. I despair of the
Press. The London Papers to-day, for example, have
columns about the Scotch Divorce Case ; Mrs. Carrie
Nation an elderly American matron with a passion for
' smashing ' advertisements and ' twaddle ' by Bernard
Shaw about pedantry by Mallock. Austen Chamberlain,
I hear, spoke well last night at Shrewsbury for an hour
to a great audience. The 4 Times ' gives him 18| inches.
The ' Standard,' nothing.
That being so, I shall continue to make speeches which
are essays ; and then, re-publish them. I came back
here Tuesday. On Wednesday I sorted all my corre-
spondence and walked ten miles. I was quite alone in the
house, Sibell being at Madresfield.
And, to wind up the week, yesterday and to-day I did
more hunting than usually goes to a fortnight, or even
a month. Yesterday I rode in five runs and to-day hi two.
I had two horses each day. The first run began about 12
o'clock yesterday, the seventh finished at 3.30 to-day.
So that, apart from incidental riding to and from the
' draws ' I have ridden seven gallops in 27 hours. On a
minimum estimate I make out that I have galloped and
jumped forty miles : 9+3+5+3+9+7+4=40. The ones
I have marked x were all five excellent just as fast as
you can drive a horse ; and all the seven over grass and
TO HIS MOTHER 339
fences. We jumped all there is to jump. Yesterday we
jumped the Tattenhall brook three times, and to-day the
Cholmondeley drain twice. And these are our two big
water leaps. I enjoyed it hugely ; but feel tired, and
am going to bed. We killed three foxes. The horses
are none the worse but tired too. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. One ought not to think about jumping when
intent on the chase. But I was pleased when ' Cardinal '
* looped ' me over quite a high flight of iron rails.
706
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, February 13th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, You will know from my two
telegrams how sad we are. We had a little hope yester-
day evening. But a little before six o'clock this morning
dear Benny rang us up to say the little boy was uncon-
scious.
I drove Sibell and Lettice over at once. Dr. Dobie
whom I met at the door told me there was no hope and
at 8.30 Lettice told me the little child was dying.
No one was aware really that he was ill till Monday
when the Dobies (Chester doctors) advised an operation
for appendicitis. Sir Alfred Fripp came Tuesday and
said the operation must be performed on Wednesday.
This was done, revealing an abcess ; but successfully.
But the little fellow suffered from continuous sickness.
We were very anxious yesterday. Then he slept for
four hours and our hopes rose. But now we have none.
Dear Shelagh talked of you and your love, and would
I know, love a letter.
Will write by second post. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
340 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
707
To his Mother
SAIGBTON GRANGE,
February 13th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I have just sent you the third
telegram. The little boy died quite peacefully at 11
o'clock. I had no hope after seven o'clock this morning.
He was staying here with us only the week before last ;
full of love and fun. Little Ursula has been here since
Wednesday and does not know or realise.
Beauchamp brought darling Lettice here last night.
As I told you in my last letter we had hopes then, for he
had slept from 3 to 7 o'clock. Bendor has been wonder-
fully brave. On Thursday night he took the chair at a
meeting for a few minutes and explained why he had to
leave it and go home.
Shelagh has been wonderful in the sick-room and
Benny has buoyed her up between-whiles.
Everything that could be done to save him, was done.
He suffered hardly at all : indeed, I think not at all. He
was an extraordinarily brave little boy, never complaining
and talking a little to his father and mother.
Sibell told me this morning that two days ago when
they were only anxious Shelagh talked of you and wanted
to hear from you. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. 5 p.m. Thanks for dear telegram. I walked
with dear Benny to choose the little grave this afternoon.
The funeral is at 12 o'clock on Monday. Sibell has told
Ursula.
EATON, CHESTER,
February I4th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Your letter I am told-
was a great help to dear Shelagh. I have not seen her.
The terrible side of it strikes her. Benny is quite wonder-
ful just the simplest courage and great kindness.
Darling Cuckoo arrived about 7 o'clock last night.
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 341
After dinner S. S. Cuckoo, Lettice and I went over. S. S.
had arrayed the little boy's coffin, under a white soft
silk pall, in the chancel of the chapel here, with six silver
candle-sticks, and lilies in silver vases, and boughs of
blossoming trees around it.
We, with Benny, Colonel Lloyd and Cecil Parker, and
no one else, went there, and S. S. read beautiful sentences
out of her old books.
Then we all manoeuvred to get Benny and Sibell a
night's rest. They both slept. This morning Cuckoo
and Lettice, went over to Ben and S. S. and I took little
Ursula to Bruera Church, and went on to Eaton, and
Ursula saw Shelagh.
I am now going to take a walk with Benny.
The local papers said that he and Shelagh were prostrate.
That is not true. Benny without a touch of bitterness
or hardness or complaint is as straight as a sword ; just
a simple emblem of finely tempered courage. He is quite
natural himself only more so. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
708
To Charles T. Gatty
35 PARK LANE W.,
20.ii.09
MY DEAR CHARLES, The play I was trying to recall is
named ' The Return from Parnassus.' It was acted by
the students of St. John's College, Cambridge. The date
is uncertain. Arber argues for January of 1602.
What a strange thing memory is. In all the rush of
the last 8 days I had forgotten what I was doing three
weeks ago. But when you asked me the date of this
play, I said 1602 ! though I have not thought of that for
eleven years.
I do hope you will come to luncheon to-morrow, Sunday.
You could glance at the passages about this and similar
attacks. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
342 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
709
To his Mother
36 PARK LANE, W.,
February 20th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is long since Bun used to
paste ' Press-cuttings ' in a book, and long since I have
read them.
But I send you these because I believe the debate which
ended yesterday was historic.
It is sixty and odd years since Disraeli, bidding farewell
to Protection, said ' But the dark and inevitable hour
will arrive. Then, when their spirit is softened by mis-
fortune they will recur to those principles which made
England great, and which, in our belief, alone can keep
England great. Then too, perhaps, they may remember,
but with kindness, those who, betrayed and deserted,
were neither ashamed nor afraid to struggle for the good
old cause . . . the cause of labour, the cause of the
people, the cause of England.'
Yesterday, for the first time since then, an effective
party, made an effective fight, for that cause.
I am glad that I led the attack yesterday. Your
loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. I led the attack yesterday. But Austen Cham-
berlain led it on Thursday and made a very good speech.
710
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
February 20th, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I propose going to Charles at
Petworth next Saturday, 27th. I may, possibly, run
down on Thursday 25th, for a hunt Friday : but must
dine with the Speaker, Friday night, 26th.
We had a capital debate on Tariff Reform ; and the best
of it all the time. People were pleased with my speech.
TO HIS FATHER 343
I spoke for one hour and six minutes. Austen Chamber-
lain made a good speech the first day.
Arthur was very good in his philosophic way. To win
in the country it is necessary to attack more directly the
position of the Free Traders and to state facts and figures,
which other speakers can use. It is that which puts up a
fight all along the line.
Unless that is done the untrue assertions that there
is more unemployment and dearer living in protected
countries impose upon the working-men.
Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
711
To his Father
NEWLANDS MANOR,
LYMINGTON, HANTS, Monday, February 22, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I ran down here to-day to give
dear Bendor some exercise. We took a long walk by the
cliffs opposite the Needles and then had a gallop on the
sands in which dear Shelagh joined. Our principal exer-
cise consisted in making the horses go into the sea. They
pretended to be frightened by the waves, but, in the end,
enjoyed their bathing very much.
I just proposed myself and they jumped at it, I am stay-
ing the night and return early to-morrow for the Irish
Amendment. Give my love to dear Pug [Pamela Preston],
My speech was a success. A good many people said it
was the best I have made in this Parliament. I prepared
it in the early hours, six to eight of Thursday, and seven
to eight o'clock of Friday morning. All my day-time was
full-up.
My chief interest as I wrote to Mamma was that this
is the first time, since Peel broke the party, that ' a party '
have acted together for safe-guarding British employ-
ment. The debate has an historic interest and, on our
side, was worthy of the occasion. The Government de-
fence was weak. Masterman missed the importance of
344 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the occasion and lost the ' House ' by feeble banter.
Lloyd George deliberately shirked speaking for only
twenty minutes and Churchill was merely smart. His
admission that the, Government might have to take some
action in face of the proposed French Tariff gave offence
to the ' out and outers ' on his side ; and with reason.
For if once they admit that the Tariff reprisals may be
less injurious than trusting to the ' Most Favoured Nation *'
clause, they are beaten.
Their men have been taught to assert the contrary with
scornful confidence. They cannot change their tactics
now without turning their forces into a mob.
There is an instructive letter on the French Tariff in
to-day's * Morning Post.'
It proves our contention that these Tariffs are designed
to attract imports of mainly unmanufactured articles. In
this case there is a high duty on wholly manufactured
woollens, a low duty on woollen ' threads ' and a rebate^
of 60% even of that, on the export of the finished article.
As I put it in a passage not reported the object and,
in a large measure, the effect of these Tariffs is to change
the contents of the currents hi the vast streams of our
Imports and Exports.
I hope this frost will go as I may get a day's hunting
with Charles 1 at Up Park on Friday come back to dine
with the Speaker and return to Petworth Saturday.
My horses go there Tuesday. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
712
To his Mother
36 PARK LANE, W.,
Evening, March 31st, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I had a glimpse of dear Minnie
to-day, looking her best. I only saw her for a few moments
and must have seemed, as indeed I was, ' hardly all there.'
I was just ' betwixt and between,' getting out of bed from
1 Lord Lecon field.
TO HIS MOTHER 345
chill and temperature and going down to the House to
speak on dear old Irish Land Purchase. And what little
else there is left of me as a total personality had sped
away with S. S. by the 12.10 to see dear Katie and all of
them, in the farm house at Woor with dear, beautiful
Molly. 1 Now I have a gleam of hope for Molly. S. S. and
I couldn't hope much this morning. That 's why she
went off to Crewe, to motor out to Katie at the farm.
But when I got back here about 9 o'clock I found a good
wire from S. S. 4 Better account, hopeful, delighted with
flowers.' I had sent a lot of flowers from I. Solompn's.
I couldn't do anything, and there was nothing to be said.
So I thought that a lot of lovely flowers by special express
to the farm would be a little token of companionship and
hope and Spring ; just a signal that didn't want an answer.
So I was glad to hear that she got them, and liked them.
We 've had many a good ride together since, long ago, we
jumped the Saighton Drain side by side, when she was a
little girl with her hair in a pig-tail, riding ' Oak-apple.'
I had that wire to-night, and your excellent wire about
dear Papa yesterday, and a glimpse of Perf yesterday
morning at 6 o'clock. He had come up overnight to ride
a gallop at Kenley. I 'd had a real old-fashioned feverish
night only 101 with a draft every three hours. And
to hear the boisterous splashing in the bath at 6 a.m. and
again, after the ride, at 10, ' bucked me up ' and made
me feel that we are all, really, eternally young and endowed
with everlasting hope.
So I reversed the treatment from febrifuge to tonic ;
settled to speak to-day in the House ; settled not to attempt
Huddersfield on Friday ; settled not to dream of Dread-
noughts and Tariff Reform, and Irish Land, and illness,
and accidents, as one wonderful problem, of which I had
once known the simple solution ; unaccountably forgotten,
and wearily pursued through a feverish night. All that
broke and dissolved in the showers of Perf's splashing.
And, since his bath, I had your excellent news of Papa and
a glimpse of Minnie and the better news of Molly ; and
1 Lady Crichton.
346 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
have spoken for one hour and five minutes on Irish Land ;
and none the worse.
Indeed all I have to do is to stick to my resolution not
to try Huddersfield on Friday. Perhaps that would be
tempting ' little gods ' too far. The ' little gods ' have
been very busy with us lately. If we beat them back a
bit by our eternal youth and everlasting hope : we must
not therefore presume. We must be modest and mean
and go to bed as I do now. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. All this is only about our own fears and hopes.
The great fact of the last three days is that Arthur has
been glorious. In his speeches Monday, in the House ;
Tuesday, to 10,000 in Agricultural Hall, Islington ; to-day
in the Guildhall, he has captured the Empire for Naval
supremacy and Tariff Reform ; and now holds those two
issues, and all the true forces of the Empire in his hand.
Tell this to Papa.
We have won the race. But the course is not finished.
We have only to think now of ' staying the course.' So,
I repeat, I am going to bed.
713
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Tuesday, April 27th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I shall love to stay at ' 44 '
this summer to be with you and dear Papa. I shall not
be living there till after Whitsuntide. But as I go out
with Yeomanry on May 9th, it would simplify my arrange-
ments if I can send my things to wait for me there, before
that date.
I was ' shot at short notice ' to be the ' Guest of the
evening ' of the Tariff Reform Committee in the House of
Commons last night. There was a very full attendance.
Edmund Talbot was in the chair. I spoke for thirty or
forty minutes. Nobody knows which it was ! I am
rarely other than displeased with my own speeches ; and
TO HIS MOTHER 347
very rarely pleased. Last night was all right. When that
happens it puts me in better heart.
And in a quiet way lots of people showed that they
wanted to * say sorry.' Some of the extreme Ulster-men
attended. People do notice things. F. E. Smith spoke
and said that no one had done such platform-work. He
said one thing which I would only quote, quite privately,
to you, but which I own did please me, and pleases me
still : * For three years wherever the clouds were darkest,
there you found Wyndham fighting.' Well ! well ! But
how silly that makes it all. But the point of the evening
was that I converted a ' sinner ' ; like a methodist at a
revival. Sir Philip Magnus, who has been little better
than a free-fooder, got up after my speech and ' testified.'
He said I had convinced him and that, henceforward,
he chucked Cobden and would go bald-headed for Tariff
Reform.
To-morrow night I have to play on a * queer-pitch.' I
am the ' Guest of the evening ' at the Militia Club with
Lord Wemyss as the other and Duke of Bedford in the
Chair. Whew ! There could not be a more difficult
moment or a more difficult audience, or a more difficult
and deaf ally.
Very well. I really love ' cramped odds.' And these
are so cramped and exorbitant, that preparation is out of
the question. I mean to say just what I think ; after
due warning that, as things are, no sane man can do more
than brood over the waters of chaos, like the Holy Ghost.
Your most loving son, GEORGE.
714
To his Mother
36 PARK LANE, W.,
April 30th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I send you back something
that belongs to you. I made a good speech on Wednesday
no reporters to the Militia Club with Bedford in the
Chair. Yesterday, Thursday, I played Polo in the morning
348 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
at Wembley Park and enjoyed the game. My side won
by seven to three. Guy, Minnie, and little George lunched,
then I raced off to the Marjory Eden Wedding at 2 o'clock,
and on to the Budget at 3.
The Budget t O my eye ' Banbury's description is the
best : * The maddest Budget ever introduced.' I hope
dear Papa will not permit it to bother him. From a Tariff
Reform point of view I am glad it is so mad ; and will
pay up cheerfully hi the knowledge that it will make more
converts to our cause than any number of speeches. Your
most loving son, GEORGE.
715
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
May 13th, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I was delighted to hear from you.
Tunes are pretty bad, but there will soon be a reaction.
I came up from our camp on Salisbury Plain to put in
two fights on the Budget, and return this afternoon.
Harold Cox made a brilliant speech yesterday. I will
send it to you. The Government meant to force through
the Income Tax resolution last night. But we frightened
them to bed soon after 12.30. We expected an all-night
sitting.
The Yeomanry have turned out in great strength. Our
old Brigade, Cheshire under Arthur Grosvenor, Shropshire
under Lord Kenyon, Denbighshire under Parry, and a
battery of Artillery is encamped at the far end of Salisbury
Plain between Ell Barrow and Urchfont Clump. I shall
motor over to see you some afternoon soon.
It is very cold at night, but glorious in the morning.
The Downs are covered with cowslips. Each of the three
regiments is between 430 and 450 in strength a big
Brigade. It is a fine performance of these farmers to have
left their work and travelled all night with the horses in
cattle trucks.
I set a tactical scheme for two squadrons of Cheshire
TO HIS MOTHER 349
against two squadrons of Shropshire which was to be fought
to-day. I shall be interested to know what has happened.
Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE.
716
To his Mother
THE BELL INN,
\WLYE, So. WILTS,
May 16th, 1909, 10.30 p.m.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, My little adventure is not yet
over, but, so far, I have enjoyed it, every minute. What
with my having to master the mysteries of a free-wheel
and our both having to walk up the hills, it became appar-
ent to me that I was delaying Fletcher, and not improbable
that I should not stay the whole course. So, when we
<^,me to face the long climb up to Great Ridge from the
old house at the far end of Chicklade Bottom, we made
another plan. By ' facing the climb,' I mean seeing what it
was going to be like from the high ground beyond Hindon.
Seeing that, we decided that he should push on to the
Camp and send a motor back. By that time we reckoned
that young Mallet had not succeeded in getting Jack
Bennett's motor, or the other visionary one in Shaftesbury.
And this, indeed, is now confirmed ; for it is past 10.30.
I, for my part, undertook to get to Wylye and wait near
the Church. The motor from the camp (when it comes)
is to blow its horn. I gave him the map and matches and
off he went, like an arrow down the steep hill to the old
house at the far end of Chicklade Bottom. After sweeping
down I could see him, in the failing light, walking up the
long hill to Stockton Wood.
By then, I had so far mastered the art of free-wheeling,
that I got the whole way down that hill without dismount-
ing or being run away with. Then I walked up the long
pull to Stockton Wood, sweating at every pore.
I remounted and shot through the gloom of Stockton
Wood. Having experienced some difficulty in catching
the pedal, when it was too dark to see it ; and bethinking
350 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
me that discretion was the better part of valour, I dis-
mounted before the very steep part of the descent into the
Wylye valley. But I ran most of the way down. As I
came to the Railway Bridge over the Salisbury to Bath
line, I met a youth and asked if there was any inn near
the Church. He recommended the Bell Inn, and here I
am.
I got here at 9.20 and explained my plight to the Land-
lord. He was very sympathetic. I blessed the House of
Lords for throwing out the Licensing Bill, and considered
in how much deeper a hole I should have been had they
passed it.
The Inn was full of good fellows and village matrons,
' burring ' away in broad Wiltshire ; all quite sober, civil,
kindly and companionable.
But mine host impressed by the advent of a real * Bona
fide ' traveller and detecting my foreign accent, showed
me into a little parlour like a ship's cabin. The walls are
enlivened by the old coloured prints of the * First Steeple
Chase on record ' ; the one in which officers ride by moon-
light in their night-shirts a congenial theme, and opposite
me hangs an old coloured print of Wellington and Nelson.
He prepared me a supper of fried eggs, broiled slabs of
uncured ham, bread, cheese and beer. This was English
and quite wonderfully good.
It made me feel what a good country England has been,
and might be, but for the absurd people who have never
lived in the country.
The clock is now striking eleven rather fast I make
it six minutes to eleven.
I calculate that Fletcher cannot get to camp before
eleven. I hope he is getting there now. If so I may be
relieved at midnight. ' But then, again, No.' The
chauffeurs may be in Lavington. They may miss their
way. But Fletcher will ' get ' somehow and then, they
will know where I am. At worst I shall sleep on the horse-
hair sofa and push on at dawn.
It takes many off-chances, coming off with a vengeance,
to get benighted in England in the xxth century, even on
TO HIS MOTHER 351
Salisbury Plain. But this was once a common experience.
It is by no means an unpleasant one.
I have six illustrated volumes of the ' Russian War '
with steel engravings of Canrobert, Raglan, Lord Cardigan ;
the battle of Inkerman, the charge of the Light Brigade.
It is prefaced with a synopsis of Russian history, which
I have read. I have also read a capital old guide book
to Stonehenge, published in 1802.
On the title page are four lines from the prize essay of
T. S. Salmon. They are very good of their kind.
* Wrapt in the veil of Time's unbroken gloom,
Obscure as death, and silent as the tomb ;
Where cold oblivion holds her dusty reign
Frowns her dark pile on Sarum's lonely plain.'
This invaluable work contains the ' Various Conjectures '
of
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Giraldus Cambrencis
Camden
Jones
Charlton
Aubrey
Sammes
Speed
Stukeley
Wood
Smith
Wansey
Maton
King
Hoare
Britton
Browne
Weaver
Duke
Thumham
You read them all and take your choice. I have read
them all.
Browne takes my fancy. He sees in Stonehenge an
' Antediluvian Creation,' and traces the exact manner in
which the Flood swept up to the Stones and by guttering
through them made certain little channels in the ground
between them.
The next man on the list, Weaver, was a poor sceptic.
He thought these slight depressions were made by all the
people who had walked and ridden between them for so
352 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
many years. I shall finish this when (?) I hear the horn,
or before starting on my bicycle at Daybreak . . .
One a.m. ! has just struck, I have been half asleep on
the sofa. Shall now go quite asleep in a bed if I can get
one and bicycle on at Dawn. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
717
To his Father
44 BELGRAVK SQUARE, S.W.,
May 27th, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, We are just off to Paris. I am
scribbling this in a hurry to tell you that I have heard
glowing accounts of Percy's soldiering. (1) On Monday I
sat next Lady Halifax at Lettice's dinner-party. Lady H.
is related to Sutton, 2nd in command of Perks' battalion.
Sutton had told her that Percy was much the best of all
the young officers. (2) On Tuesday, at the ' Nulli '
Dinner, Arthur Henniker who commands the 1st Brigade,
in the Aldershot Division, with Percy's battalion in it,
began talking of him to me. Said he was a very good
soldier, that he had employed him as acting Brigade
Major ! on some field-days ; that he wanted him to
' gallop ' for him, i.e. be A.D.C., only the present A.D.C.
was staying on ; and that Percy ought to try for the ad-
jutancy and would make a good one. (3) Colonel * Billy '
Lambton, Percy's C.O. also began the same conversation,
wanted him to be adjutant, and would help to ' push ' him
for A.D.C. All this made me very happy.
1 Billy ' Lambton seemed to think that I should want
to take Percy out of the Brigade. I told him that, whilst
Percy was free to carve out his own career, I, personally
should much prefer him to stick to the Army and should
advise him not to enter politics.
If they do put him on the staff of the Brigade, whilst
at Aldershot, he will get an early insight into the interest
of soldiering and so not be ' choked off ' by the ten or
twelve years of regimental routine and guard mounting.
TO HIS MOTHER 353
I should love to see him galloping on manoeuvres. They
all say he has a true gift for soldiering. If that is so, and
he leaves the Army young, he will regret it, no matter how
successful he may be at anything else.
Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. Nelly's * Ball was a triumphant success. I
brought on Arthur Balfour from the House, and took Lady
Salisbury to supper. Chang and Manenai played up and
' all was gas and gaiters.'
718
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
June 8th, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I have booked 24th for your
dear birthday and shall look forward to it. We had a
great time in France Chartres, Fontainebleau, Meudon,
St. Germain, Meridon, and all the galleries and museums.
I enjoyed it very much and feel very well.
Tuesday at Fontainebleau was one of the most beautiful
days I remember. The sun was hot and had exhaled all
the resin from miles of firs and all the oxygen from billions
of leaves, and all the scents of moss and heather, and a
light evening breeze blew all that incense through the cool
caverns under beech-trees one hundred feet high.
In the Cluny Museum I saw a treasure after our own
hearts, three crowns of Gothic Kings offered at Toledo
in about 670 A.D. and dug up not many years ago. This,
again, shews that legends and Poets are always in advance
of discovery. For all the business of the Romance of
old Spam was written long before the archaeologist un-
earthed the crowns. Hanging from the lower rim of the
largest is a fringe of Gothic letters, each suspended by a
separate chain. They say in Lathi that RECCES-
w i N T H o s (Recceswinthus) offered his crown to the
1 Mrs. Grahame Stewart.
VOL. II. Z
354 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Lord. I used to love the rugged end of their names,
especially the Princess Amala-swinthus, which worked in
the God-descended Amals, whom Kipling introduces in
4 Pook's Hill.' And now I have seen their crowns. In
the Louvre, I was disgusted to see the sword of Charle-
magne which you shewed me when I was ten years old,
re-labelled xnth Century. Pooh ! Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
719
To his Cousin, Gerald Campbell
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Friday, 29 July '09
MY DEAR GERALD, Many thanks for the book. 1 I
shall read it with deep interest.
But, now, about a few pp. of introduction. It depends
on time. When must you have them ? I must finish the
Session before I give a thought to anything else, say to
17 August. Then I must rest for a fortnight, so that I
could not write, and revise, before September 20th or so
at earliest.
If I wrote, it would be to say that all of us first cousins
have owed to our mother or father, as the case may be,
a love of beauty and fun, a quick, almost eager interest
in Nature, an alertness and sense of humour, etc., which
goes back undoubtedly to Grandmamma, to whom
our parents owed it in turn. Then I could put in any-
thing we have and my visit with my mother to Athlone.
Then with some traditions the little French nursery
songs, a presumption that Grandmamma, who lived with
Pamela, imbibed it from her, and so by a slenderer hypo-
thesis to Madame de Genlis ; with her love of nature,
water-colours, books for children and general Rousseau-
ism.
To sum up a tradition, handed on as traditions mainly
are by mothers. Your affectionate cousin,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
1 ' Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald,' by Gerald Campbell.
TO HIS FATHER 355
720
To his Mother
ST. FAQAN'S CASTLE,
CARDIFF, Vjth August 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, It is splendid to hear such good
accounts of dear Papa after his journey. I am taking my
week's holiday, prescribed by A. J. B. and am out all day ;
riding with Phyllis before breakfast and playing good
lawn-tennis with Plymouth and the two boys.
My speech was a success at Plymouth * the town Ply-
mouth.' I will send you the ' Western Morning News '-
I think it is called which has a long, but not very good
report and a leading article. I spoke for one hour and
seven minutes.
Now I am just filling myself with air and reading Chaucer
and Pickwick. We are in for a very long fight of two or
three years in Politics. ' And whether it is worth taking
so much trouble to learn so little as the charity boy said of
the Alphabet ' I do not know. But it must be done, and
done well. And there is no need to trouble further than
to see that it is done well, and stuck.
I shall run down to Clouds often in the Autumn. Give
all my love to dearest Papa. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
721
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
August 26th, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I was just on the point of pro-
posing myself to Clouds from Monday next 30th to Wed-
nesday morning. I had not realised that Wednesday was
St. Partridge's day. But the temptation, now that I am
aware of it, is irresistible. It would be pedantry to return
in the morning. If we could begin to shoot fairly early,
say about 10.30. I would catch an afternoon train and
356 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
go straight to the House from Waterloo in plenty of time
for an all-night sitting.
I am ' holding the fort ' all this week over the Irish
Land Bill with a little army of thirty ! to support me,
whilst the others, Arthur, A. Chamberlain, Prettyman,
Lyttelton etc. are resting and refreshing themselves.
So I shall make no scruple if I can get to the House before
dinner on Wednesday.
Love to darling Mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. The Budget does not come on before Wednesday.
On Monday and Tuesday we have ' Town Planning ' of
which I know nothing.
722
To his Sister, Madeline
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, 31st August '09.
MOST DARLING MANENAi, I loved your dear letter
which reached me here this morning. I am glad that you
love me. It is. a great rest to feel love going on, when one
has so much dull work to do.
I spent Sunday at St. Giles with Cuckoo : such a funny
mixture and delightful of people : Wilfrid Blunt, Poet ;
George Milner, Cavalry Colonel ; Boissier, in Navy ; a
Chaplain who is a mystic ; Lilah Ormonde, and Froudy !
The children are very dear, and there are many dogs and
a cat. I rode before breakfast yesterday, then walked for
two hours with Aileen now Lady Ardee Dunraven's
daughter. Then we dragged a pool and took out 61 trout
and put them in the lake. Then after infinite delays,
Cuckoo, Tony, the little boy and girl and I started to ride
at 4 to 5, instead of 4. Then we waited for the children
at Hurley Gap, and said good-bye ; then Cuckoo's hat
wouldn't work in the wind, and had to be taken off ; then
we lost the track and had to jump ; then Cuckoo dropped
her pearl-headed hatpin ; then long good-byes at the crest
of the Downs ; so that it was 20 to 8 before I arrived !
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HIS WIFE 357
I am much interested in your Ramsgatc house and shall
try to get there.
All love to you, darling. Your devoted brother,
GEORGE.
P.S. Papa is MUCH better.
723
Extract from a letter to his Wife
STAN WAY,
WINCHCOMBE, September 23rd, 1909.
It has, of course, been impossible for me to write during
manoeuvres. But I got your letters. I never have had
so much joy and interest and pleasure. To you I can say
that the great point for me was to be in Percy's life for
four days. I wish I could explain. But it almost frightens
me to write even to you of my supreme joy in seeing him
realise and eclipse all my own dreams when I was his age.
It seems silly, and is silly, to write or speak about any-
thing of one's own that is obviously all one could wish and
far beyond one's wildest hopes.
So, just to indicate The 1st Brigade of the 1st.
Aldershot Division is the flower of our Army. Arthur
Henniker in the Coldstream with me commands it.
The Brigade has four battalions Coldstream, Grenadierc,
West York, and S. Wales Borderers. Billy Lambton
commands my old Coldstream battalion and that is, by
universal consent, the best of the four battalions, in the
best Brigade.
But, besides the four battalions, there are three batteries
of Artillery ; two companies of Mounted Infantry ; scouts ;
transport of 1st and 2nd line. Now Percy knows and
is loved and trusted by everyone from the Brigadier,
Brigade Major, four Battalion Commanders, down to the
Mounted Infantry and the men who drive the Transport
waggons. He is the winged mercury of the whole show.
The Brigade Major, Gathorne Hardysaid by all to be
the best young Staff Officer volunteered to me on the
first day that Percy was the best Aide-de-Camp he had
358
ever known. And I saw it all. He is as quick as light-
ning and quite calm always. Understands in a moment,
is off like a flash, explains quietly, and makes everyone
understand from Colonels down to Transport drivers.
And also arranged and ran all our messing. He never
tires and after all the marching and fighting, waits at
table, like the Squire in Chaucer, on the officers attached
to the Head Quarter Staff ; and cracks his little jokes, and
leaves his food to look after the last waggon. And comes
back all smiles to eat the last bit of cold meat and sleep
in his boots and spurs.
They all love him. And all the swells only want him
to go on, and up. And no one is jealous of him. He looks
the part, too. On Tuesday our hardest day he rode
both his horses to a stand and then got on mine, Cardinal,
and flashed all over the country, jumping brooks and
rails to extricate our two Brigades, that were out-numbered
and crumpled up. That was a grand day. I went into
the attack with my old battalion, and before I knew where
I was there I found myself ' in the old prank ' I rode
out and spotted a flank attack and got two companies
and the maxim on it. When owing to the 2nd brigade
wavering, the 1st was left, I admired Billy Lambton's
coolness and skill. But we were out-numbered by 3 to 1.
We were crushed back into a village called Deanfield.
We scraped up three companies of Grenadiers and shoved
them in at the critical moment. But we were almost
surrounded. Billy asked me to get a message to Sutton
who had four companies further back. I nearly got shot
by one of our own guns ! Such was the pandemonuim.
But I got back, dismounted of course, borrowed a bicycle
for some way, and then by running and boring through
the fences, got the message through. We got three
battalions out of the four into a splendid second position
and staved off the disaster, and thus by ' Containing '
as the experts say the superior force against us, pre-
vented the enemy from getting back across the Isis in
tune. So our left division the other three Brigades
carried Farringdon.
EXTRACT FROM A LETTER TO HIS WIFE 359
But all this is gibberish unless I explained the whole
of the strategy and tactics which is out of the question.
Taking it by the days, I left here at three o'clock on
Sunday with Billy Lambton and Percy. We joined the
1st brigade at the outskirts of Cheltenham. We were to
march at 4 a.m. So we packed everything and slept on
the ground. We got up at three, breakfasted at 3-15,
marshalled the column, with advance, flank, and rear
guards and stepped out as the clocks of Cheltenham
struck 4. We had a long anxious flank march. But,
thanks to the splendid work of the Household Cavalry
Brigade we did our 28 miles far more for the flank -
guard and others who had to go back with guns to repell
attacks on our rear. Yet, when \ve halted at dusk, the
men swung in singing. The marching of the Infantry
has been the chief feature. Everyone and especially the
French officers talk of nothing else.
Just as we had settled to cold pies and dinner for the
men there was a slight night attack. But it came to
nothing. We slept in a lovely orchard. I lay on the
ground next Perf and watched the stars and slept and
woke feeling twenty years younger. Then, Tuesday,
came our hard fight all day and retirement whilst our
2nd division carried Faringdon on the other side of the
river.
On the third day as our Brigade was in reserve I put
on a ' neutral ' badge and rode all over the battle field
with Ivor Maxie who was umpiring. It was most inter-
esting. The battle-front was only four miles long. On
Tuesday, the battle was ten miles long. I rode every-
where, and had interesting conversations with Duke of
Connaught, Lord Roberts, and Repington, the ' Times '
correspondent. At the end I went back to see my brigade
deliver the final attack. It was superb.
But to cut a long story short, the moral of it all was put
as only the French can put things, by a French General,
at Dinner with our Divisional General Grierson. (I ought
to say that the last attack was by three Brigades of which
ours was one though the best.)
360 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
The French General said, * Your attack was excellent,
like this glass of port (holding it up in his hand) it only
wants refilling. What is one glass of port ? You want
three or four.'
The keen interest of the French officers in our capacity
is a significant symptom. They all believe that Germany
will attack us within three years.
And now Good-night. I have forgotten all about
Politics and shall resume them with a fresh mind and
exuberant vitality.
This is a ridiculous letter. For it is impossible to
explain my pleasure without inflicting a lecture on strategy
and tactics etc., etc. And besides, all that there were
the dawns and sunsets, the lovely English land, the old
churches, the hedge-row elms, the stubble fields, Kelms-
cote, the country-folk and through all that mellow peace
the humming maze of men, and horses, and bicycles,
and guns and field-telegraphs and heliographs and sig-
nalling, and the healthy scent of sweat and energy directed
by cool intellect.
724
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
30.xi.09.
MY DEAR P. H., If you were here you would send me
to bed. As you are not here I shall ' compromise ' with
a line, to say that you must come to Saighton before
Christmas. I should like to sit up and write fully on the
problems you unfold. But I mustn't to-night, i.e. the
Resolution.
I was deeply grieved for Lady Thomson and am going
to write to her myself; but not until the rush is over.
That is not because I flinch from writing such letters. I
have been very close to great sorrow during the last year.
It is because it is not natural to say these things at all,
unless one can give oneself for an hour to the friend who
has suffered. Just now I am * in the " whirl " but not
of it.'
TO PHILIP HANSON 361
I made a good speech for Professor Hewins near Bradford
on the 18th ; a speech which disappointed me, rather
badly, for Mark Sykes, on the 20th ; a good speech but
not quite the focus at Leith on Friday 26th. Then I
thought I was bowled out. I woke at 4 a.m. with a
raging feverish cold. But I had to start again to get
South for a speech at Cheltenham yesterday, 29th. And
just for once again I suppose because I was too seedy
to worry I did the trick. Last night I made one of the
five speeches of my life. I think it was as good as the
one I made at Cardiff on ' the just and necessary war '
which you liked in 1900. Why I can only do this when I
am ill, I do not know. But although I have still a heavy
catarrh and have to speak to-morrow and Friday and
Tuesday next it has bucked me up.
After Driffield on the 20th I honestly felt in my heart
that this platform business was not my game. After last
night I feel as honestly that if it comes to me, like that,
once in fifty times, I still ought to go on.
I was so interested in the psychology of the event, that,
before I went to sleep, I counted up my speeches this
year. I found that apart from the House, and even such
affairs as six nights running (a whole week) of occasional
speeches at Dover, I had made 21 speeches in the country
since 1st February. Now why, my dear P. H., should
the 21st be so much better than all the other 20 ?
Was it the cold in my head ? Was it that the archi-
tecture of the Town Hall was good and the lighting
perfect ? Was it that I had a simple structure which
embraced and defined the whole situation ? Or was it
a resultant from all these ? Or was it just the luck of
the Devil ?
I do not know and I do not care. But the happy chance
has braced me.
I should like to enter into some questions on Lloyd
George's Estimates.
(i) * Is it a trick ? ' I think so, or, rather, I believe that
Lloyd George does not know, and will not learn, what his
experts could tell him.
362 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
(ii) Have I a good answer ? See my letter to ' Times '
of 26th.
I cannot accuse him of cheating if he says as he does
that the paper of 22 October and the paper of November 5
deal with separate matters. I can only say as 1 have
that no distinction is drawn, and note as I have for the
next round that he has made an egregious blunder over
' Stamps.' I am reserving this for his reply. But he
has not replied.
(iii) Was I mistaken ? I think not.
What I believe to have happened is this : Lloyd George
begged his experts to show increases in future years from
(a) Land Value Duties, (b) Excise. They refused. But
they made the most of everything on October 22.
On November 5 they gave a sober ' official ' estimate.
I believe, further, that there would be apart from
action of the Lords a bad realised deficit next March of
from 3,000,000 to 6,000,000, and perhaps more.
I believe that the policy of the Government is dictated
by the desire to attribute this deficit to the action of the
Lords instead of to the financial rottenness of the Budget.
These are mere amateur speculations. But they are
not shots in the dark.
Some things are ascertained or certain, e.g.
(a) Death Duties. Charles Morrison cannot die twice in
one year.
(b) Stamps. Lloyd George is wrong in saying that the
existing duties give an increase of 450,000. They give
an increase of 250,000. (N.B. That is held in reserve.)
(c) Income Tax yielded f of a million less in first 6
months of this year ; in spite of extra 2d. The bulk, no
doubt, comes in at the end of the Financial year. But
the 2d. has been taken off all dividend warrants and the
causes which effect the decrease are operating more widely
as time goes on.
(d) Much less tobacco is being smoked.
Yet he hopes and declares qua (c) and (d) that there
will be no decrease below estimates on Income Tax or
Tobacco.
TO PHILIP HANSON 363
He has only 'owned up' to 1,300,000 on spirits, because
that enabled him to gush about Temperance.
Celtic Electioneering is his game.
Meanwhile much else is happening. The odds against
our whining were 10 to 1 two months ago. They are now
even money in the City. As a result people are importing
for all they are worth to anticipate the Tariff. That is a
hard nut for us to crack.
In conclusion, I expect that Asquith's Constitutional
Agitation, to begin on Thursday, will be lost in (1st) the
right of the Electorate to choose between the Budget and
Tariff Reform before being committed to either, and (2)
practical concern over (a) realised deficit ; (b) collapse of
Income Tax, and further collapse of Excise ; (c) further
flight of Capital ; (d) the next Naval panic ; (e) disloca-
tion of pure Finance (private, not Exchequer) ; (f ) huge
Imports creating more unemployment.
Last Word on (f) there is a point, viz. : as things are
many who receive imports state the value at far below
the real cost.
It is not an exaggeration to say that the atrocities of
modern architecture are due to importing all our stone
' decoration ' from abroad at less than ^ of its cost by the
humblest monumental mason.
Nor is it an exaggeration to say that the cost of our
lowest cost of production is habitually under-stated at
the Customs.
But enough, enough, and more than enough.
The Constitutional question pales before the realities.
Either Government will have a bad time next year.
Yours ever, G. W.
725
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
6.xii.09.
MY DEAR P. H., Do make a point of coming on the
18th or 17th if you can. I fear I shall have to go to
364 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Dover on the 20th. But, if you come before then, we
could travel up together.
I said in Yorkshire that there would be a deficit of
6,000,000. I am, therefore, interested to see that the
' Financial Times ' of 3rd inst. says ditto, and even speaks
of 7,000,000.
I had a good meeting at the Opera House, Tunbridge
Wells, on Friday, with an overflow of 900 in the Great
Hall. Lloyd George and Winston have I believe
manoeuvred for position. But, so far, we are going strong.
The public sees the manreuvring and is suspicious of those
two gentlemen.
The only sensible plan I have ever seen for reforming
the House of Lords is, I fear, outside the range of our
old friend, practical Politics. It comes from Horatio
Bottomley ! He suggests that the H. of C. and H. of L.
should each elect one half of the Second Chamber for the
duration of a Parliament.
The root of the matter is that no Second Chamber,
however composed, would pass the kind of Bill that a
modern Liberal Government brings in, i.e. a Bill to please
one relatively small minority e.g. Licensing Bill, which
is passed through the H. of C. by other log-rolling minorities
expectant of their turn. If the Liberal Party cannot
exist without that, then either there can be no Liberal
Party, or no Second Chamber; and if the Liberal Party
drive the country into that choice, the country will I
think prefer a Second Chamber to the Liberal Party.
That is a matter of opinion. I am not certain and no
one can be. But that for what it is worth is my view ;
and the view of some Liberals. Yours ever, G. W.
726
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, December llth, 1909.
MY DEAREST PAPA, It is long since I have written to
you, because I have been in the thick of the fight for a
TO HIS FATHER 365
good while. Besides ten nights at Dover, I have spoken
to big audiences at Idle (for Professor Henins) and Drif-
field in Yorkshire, at Leith (which means Edinburgh),
Cheltenham, Tunbridge Wells, Constitutional Club, London,
on Tuesday, and to a Cheshire Conference on Wednesday.
We are doing well. I do not quite like Arthur's Mani-
festo to-day. I can explain what I mean by one example.
He says, * If we win, we shall do a great deal. If we fail
(but I do not think we shall fail) the loss will be appalling.'
That is not a verbatim quotation. But it is the order in
which he states that part of his Manifesto, parenthesis and
all. We, who know him, realise that he has gone a long
way to promise victory and rich fruits of victory. But
those who do not know him cannot imagine that a General,
saying ' once more into the breach, dear Friends, once
more,' would put it in that way. They all, anybody but
Arthur, would turn the phrases about. Anyone else in
his position would say, ' If we fail, the loss is irreparable.
But, as we are going to win, let me point out how great
the reward of victory will be.'
I am surprised at the progress we have made in the last
eight weeks. I cannot get excited over it, because I am
working so hard, like a man rowing in an eight-oar, or
riding a pulling horse in a steeple-chase. I am too intent
to fret over victory or defeat. But, for all that, I feel
the growing enthusiasm round me.
I hardly like to tell you that we have a chance of winning.
I will bnly say that, if we don't win this time, we shall
knock them out within two years. But many steady-
going people now think we may win. If we do, the greatest
joy of it all to me far the greatest joy of it will be
that you will have seen your own wisdom justified, and
that you will receive the amends of a life spent in waiting.
If we win I shall insist on a public recognition of the
veterans of ' Fair Trade.' I have always remembered
what you said at ' 44 ' x soon after Joe's first speech, six
years ago, in 1903. You have not been able to follow my
adaptations to Arthur's sinuous leading. But now all is
1 44 Belgrave Square.
366 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
plain. The battle is pitched. We have won the South,
and the Midlands. We are going to win a little more
than we hoped in Scotland, Northumberland and Durham.
The belt of territory in which the difference between
Victory and Defeat will be decided is Lancashire and
Cheshire on the West, and Yorkshire on the East. That
is Sarah Battle's green board, and I 'm not ' unbending '
over it.
After my speech at the Constitutional Club on Tuesday
I came here, and on Wednesday gave a dinner at 7.30 to
those who count in these parts. I ' wound them up '
and we are going to have a big campaign, first at Chester,
and then on the Cheshire fringe of Lancashire. I speak
at Wolverhampton on Wednesday, 15th.
Love to darling Mamma. Your devoted son,
GEORGE.
P.S. Garvin who writes in * The Observer ' was next
me when I spoke at the Constitutional Club. He said
that he had heard nothing like it since Joe at Newport
five years ago. Everybody is angry with the Press for
reporting Winston Churchill at length and boycotting us.
It does not matter. We are getting the people on our
side.
727
To his Sister, Pamela
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 13th December 1909.
MOST DARLING PAMELA, 1 I was thinking of you
vividly yesterday and to-day. So I was not surprised
to find a letter to-night, mysteriously, at 10.30 p.m., and
apart from known deliveries of the Post-Master General.
Certainly there was no letter at 8 p.m., for I had cleared
the decks of all correspondence, before going into action
on a big speech to-morrow. I felt vividly that I had not
1 This letter is in answer to one from his sister in which she told him that her
little boy had expressed a wish that Death should not be called ' Death ' ; he
said he would not mind it so much if it were called ' Hig. '
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 367
touched you for long. And that, of course, was you
touching me.
It is called Hig. And, let me add, with people like
David and me, never talk of the c Grave.' We say
* Poobles.' In the Hymnal we shall edit, you will read
O Hig, where is thy sting ?
Where 's Poobles' victory ?
We know Hig and Poobles, and don't worry over them.
I dislike Joseph. I hate the name and I hate the thing,
as Mr. Gladstone used to say of Coercion. The name has
in these days been redeemed by the purpose and tragedy
of Chamberlain's life and, more so, by the dim public recog-
nition of both. But the original Joseph is tiresome with
his coat of many colours, and tin cup in the corn sacks,
and as I think congenital hesitation over all problems,
including ' la pauvre Madame Potiphar.' He was a smug
fellow.
But when David conies ' to wearing your soul instead
of your body,' he dives deep with his little fingers into
green wounds. It is the frayed souls for whom forgive-
ness is begged by Christ. The spotted souls are admitted
into Heaven as curiosities, like cameleopards. But the
frayed souls are treasured there, like the sere manuscripts
of Poets, and dinted armour, and old gold rings worn to
a thread in the sacraments of private tragedies and signet
messages that spelt the life and death of nations.
And now for my dear little Clare. I long to see her.
Let her stop here 18th to 20th. I must to Dover on the
20th. But that Saturday to Monday she would find here
Sibell, Perf, self, Mahaffy and Hanson. We should be
talking about Greek Influence and Hunting. It is my
only lull in this whirlpool of Politics. Perhaps in spite
of all you say she might return to hunt herself when the
battle is over in the last week of January or first week of
February. But she would like that Sunday of books, and
horses to feed (8 lovely hunters) and dear dogs. Mahaffy's
last book on Greek Influence is by far the best thing he
has done and a good book for Clare or you or me to
368 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
read. It is so good and cool ! Just a perfect pool to
bathe in, with none of the mud of forest pools and none of
the clamour of the ocean. It has only the seclusion of
woodland haunts and the salt freshness of the main. So
send little Clare here on Saturday. Even if I have to
work many hours, she will grasp the place and come back
to read and hunt and be a little dear one in my life. I
have a gap for her to fill. I have been speaking a great
deal and have to speak very often. But to-day I had two
hunts of 1 hour and 1| hours with Bendor and Perf. I
loved it. I sweated through everything and forgot
Tariff Reform, and my flesh was made new like the flesh
of a little child. Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
728
To his Mother and Father
SAIGHTON, December 23rd, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, AND DEAREST PAPA, 1 must
send you one line of love to wish you both a Merry Christmas
and happy New Year.
I have been working hard on the Platform in this fight ;
and must go on till the end.
But at the back of my head and in all my heart I am
always thinking of you.
The Latin Epilogue of the Westminster Play in to-day's
4 Times ' pleased me. As I told Chang in my letter to
her I was gratified in a vain way by finding my tag
about the Dreadnoughts.
' We want eight and we won't wait 'in that Burlesque
epitome of the year ; as thus :
' nos poscimus octo naves, nee mora sit '
' We demand eight ships, and let there be no delay.'
But the last couplet might well be inscribed or carved
in the Hall of Clouds, with the date Xmas, 1909. I write
it longways on the next page, with a free rendering.
TO HIS MOTHER 369
XMAS 1909
Interea, quicquid mutato erit ordine rerum
Mutatum, iiobis fioreat alma domus.
Meanwhile, whate'er of change shall be in all established
things
For us may our dear family renew eternal springs.
Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE.
P.S. Or would you prefer in the second line :
f May this dear house revive for us perpetual flourishings ! '
729
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, Christmas, 1909.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am so delighted to hear
that dearest Papa is better. And I am amused by your
letter asking for tips on a Hunt Breakfast. The Christmas
sideboard, somewhat fortified, as for example cold Turkey,
a Ham, a large game, or meat, pie, and developed into
sandwiches and cake, with drinks, Port and Cherry Brandy,
is all and more than enough. Some of the farmers are
hungry and, if they come from far, return for a back-
hander at luncheon about 2.30 if there has been sport in
the morning which brings the hounds back to Clouds.
Percy is taking two beautiful horses, * C. B.' and ' Admira-
tion,' the pride of his stud. I wish I could come, but it is
not possible. On Tuesday 28th I am the speaker at a
big Demonstration in the Skating-Rink at Chester with
Benny in the Chair ; and on Thursday again at Hale, in
the Altrincham Division, near the boundary of Cheshire
and Lancashire. The belt across England of Lancashire
and Cheshire on the West, and Yorks on the East, is the
debatable land where Victory or Defeat will be decided.
We shall win in London and the South, * it is here that the
battle is fought.' And, more by token, if I was not
speaking in Cheshire I should be speaking somewhere else.
VOL. II. 2 A
370 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Now that my troubles are over I will tell you what a
funny Christmas day I have had. At 9.30 I started in a
taxi to Chester and had a big molar tooth with three fangs
hauled out under laughing gas. After that I slept most
of the morning, ate as I have not eaten for a week and
slept the whole afternoon. The relief is beyond words.
There was a chronic abscess at the roots of the fangs and
I have not slept or eaten for pain since last Sunday. I
travelled with that to Dover last Monday, spoke one hour
and twenty minutes, made two speeches Tuesday and
two Wednesday, travelled back Thursday, went to
Dentist three times at Dover, once in London on way
back and again yesterday at Chester. They would not
pull it out. The modern Dentist, thinking of his profes-
sional pride and his pocket, never will pull out a tooth.
But yesterday evening I struck and insisted on the thing
being done at 10 o'clock this morning. If there had been
a free fortnight I might have stuck to it longer. But
with speeches this week and continuously after it was an
intolerable prospect. In any case I was right, for, with
an abscess, I should only have had weeks of pain and pro-
bably made myself ill. Now it is over.
I send the little quotation from the Westminster
Epilogue. You can stick it in the book as an outward
sign of my inward presence with you and dearest Papa.
It is strange to think that by the end of January we shall
know whether we are men or mice. Then, whatever may
have happened, I shall be able to come and see you and
dearest Papa. The election will be as great a relief to
the country as having my tooth out is to me. May the
issues be as happy, for this Budget is an abscess gnawing
away at the nerves of England.
You must make Percy parade on ' Admiration ' so that
Papa can see him from a window. He makes a good
picture and is the most delightful companion for me when-
ever I get an odd day's hunting. We had some good
rides together a week ago. He is quite the ' Star ' of the
hunt here, and leaves his Papa behind. All love to dearest
Papa and you. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
TO HIS MOTHER 371
730
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 2nd, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Just a line to say that the
two Cheshire meetings were successful. After them on
Friday and yesterday I had two excellent days hunting
with Percy and Benny and sweated out all the remains
of tooth-ache and cold.
I have just sorted my books and papers for Dover after
writing my address to the Electors. So here we are
4 swept and garnished ' and ready for the seven devils.
S. S. and I go to the Burlington Hotel, Dover, to-morrow.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
731
To his Mother
HOTEL BURLINGTON,
DOVER, January 9th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, As a Sunday night 4 treat ' I
will write to you and dearest Papa a little line of love and
news. It is a treat not to be speaking !
The general result of the whole battle interests me more
than my own little tactical combat here.
Of the whole result I have said for some time that we
should win 130 seats. But now I am more sanguine.
At the same time we must admit that the 4 experts '
were never more at variance. As one man says in to-day's
' Observer ' from a majority of 200 for the government, to
a majority of 200 for the opposition, anything is possible.
My problem here is that, last time, in 1906, I fought a
' carpet-bagger ' who annoyed everybody. So that many
liberals abstained and some, I believe, voted for me.
There also was a general feeling in the Town that they
wanted to ' back ' me after my resignation and ' know
the reason why,' etc.
372 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
This time my opponent is a very good fellow, Montague
Bradley, about my age, Colonel of the Territorial Artillery,
Chairman of the Liberal Party, son of the old Chairman,
solicitor to half the undertakings in the place, and a rela-
tion by blood or marriage of all the Liberal Party, also a
nonconformist and benefactor of Chapels, etc.
We get little help from our three conservative papers,
whose only idea of contest is to ask me for money.
On the other hand, we have capital meetings. I spoke
four nights last week and also to three open-air meetings,
the Railway Works, Iron Works, and Brewery. I speak
all five nights next week, and in the daytime, to Harbour
Works, Paper Mills, and the * Shore Force,' that is the
porters who handle the continental goods.
S. S. is working like a beaver. Also Miss King is can-
vassing, and Jenny, SibelPs maid, and Arthur, my valet.
He came in flushed with triumph the day before yester-
day, saying, ' I Ve got one * as if he had caught a fish.
His method is not to argue, to shew the picture of the
Graves in the Transvaal, with the names of dear Wiltie 1
and David Airlie on them.
Our old Friends are all to the front. There are specially
Mrs. Rhodes and ' Snowball,' the hostess of a rather rowdy
public -house and a costermonger, who have a special
devotion to Sibell and wring our hands before and after
the meetings. I only ' claim ' to win by 700. But I
shall do better, I hope. The * mob ' and the ' children '
are fond of us.
Talking of my opponent, I wonder if he is a relation of
the Bradley who taught me Latin in the little room next
the drawing-room at Deal Castle ?
I wanted a rest to-day. So we went off to Deal, darling,
in a taxi. I rather dreaded it. For it is 36 years since I
was there. They have built up to the Castle. But it is
there untouched and unspoilt. The bridge, the dint in
the door from Cromwell's cannon-ball, the archway which
you painted, the bastions, the guns, the prints of sailors,
the fig-trees in the moat.
1 Marquis of Winchester.
TO HIS FATHER 373
I was flooded with memories of the boat the old sailor
made for me, cricket beyond the wooden bridge, seats
with publicfc on them, and the K painted over to suit
modern spelling, the hard-bake shop, the sports of the
Marines at the barracks, Sandown Castle blown up and
lost in the sea Shellness dear old Godfrey, and George
Sumner, and Lord Clanwilliam himself who took me to
Isel after my first term at Chittendens.
I went into your bedroom, and there, on the walls, were
the photographs of Albert Durer's Knight (Sintram) and
Titians. They carried an echo from those days. Nothing
was gone except the broken shell-bomb in the drawing-
room ; a thing like a shattered bit of iron piping. I
remember, or have invented as children will that its
explosion had killed Lord Clanwilliam's eldest son. Is
that memory of a fact, or memory of a child's imagination ?
Now I am four years older than at the last Election
and twenty years older than when I was first elected. I
am an ' institution ' : and yet, my immortal soul feels
the same boy's soul, and the same youth's soul. As I
looked at the moat I felt my old dread of earwigs, and in
the little room could see the page of the Eton 4 Latin
Grammar ' from which I learnt * Amo ' ' Amas ' ' Amat.'
Anyway * Amo ' I love you, darling Mamma, with all
love to dearest Papa. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
732
To his Father
DOVER, llth January 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Your letter is cheering over our
prospects in Wilts. I should be particularly pleased if we
won Johnny Fuller's seat, not from any ill-will to him,
but because it is that type of liberal which most misleads.
If Johnny Fuller, with a stake in the country, an officer
in the Yeomanry, playing polo, etc., connives at socialism
and bolsters up Free Trade, it is not easy to convince Mr.
Jones the solicitor, or Mr. Smith the builder, or Tom,
374 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Dick, and Harry, that we are being beaten in manufacture
and threatened with defeat in War.
The other class, who do even more harm, are the conserva-
tives who merely amuse themselves. I prefer the cackling
alarmist. It was the geese who saved the Capitol.
We are doing well here to the best of my belief. But
there was never so uncertain an Election over the country
generally. Sibell is working like a Trojan. I have no
view on the general result, beyond this. Two months
ago I said we should win 130 seats. Now, I believe we
shall do better.
Of five years hence I can speak with more confidence.
I am confident that by then we shall have a large majority
for Tariff Reform and Defence ; unless ' absit omen '-
we have been wiped out by Germany and social discord
before the five years are up. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
733
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
January 16th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, You are still asking about five
years hence. I agree ; that is my point. My view on it
is that in five years time two things will have happened.
The ' English ' will have realised that they must resume
their part of deciding policy. They will deny the right
of the Irish, Welsh, and Scotch to deflect Imperial policy
because of Home Rule, Disestablishment, or a belated
regard for Mr. Gladstone.
The ' English ' will use all constitutional means and, if
if need be, extra-constitutional means.
(2) In the same way the ' English ' will take note of
organised ' Labour ' and deny its right to deflect Imperial
policy.
Against (1) the Nationalist and (2) the class forces of
separation they will assert their own qualities of (1) Indi-
vidual independence and (2) Imperial consolidation.
For these two objects Tariff Reform is essential.
TO HIS FATHER 375
I am quite sure of the result five years hence. If I knew
I was going to die next week I should die a happy man in
the certainty that our English love of personal indepen-
dence and Imperial inter-dependence was going to triumph.
In this present acute controversy I see by the first day's
results that candidates of definite personality win. For
example Tommy Bowles beats Eddy Cadogan.
The new House of Commons will be much more like
the House of Commons you knew than any we have had
for many years.
We shall have the best ' men.'
To descend from these generalisations, the Central
Office (and A. J. B.) will perceive the absurdity of fighting
with Candidates called ' Profumo ' or * Bellilios.'
After all the ' shouting and the wreaths ' at Dover I
felt lost in London this afternoon. But I met Timmy
[Winchester] at the Carlton, and Sibell and I dined quietly
with him and Tossy.
Timmy has made big speeches about the country, and
even in Wales has done good work.
Why ? Because he, in his way, has studied the question
of Tariff Reform.
Most of our speakers have not studied it, it takes two
years to teach any constituency the elements of the con-
troversy between Tariff Reform and the received Free
Trade assertions.
From that point of view also I conclude that we could
not have won the battle in this election. But I also am
sure that, as study and controversy proceed, we shall win
in five years. Personally, I think we shall win in two
years. And, by * winning,' I mean that the whole nation
will be converted.
So, to sum up, whether we win by ten now, or as I
expect are beaten by 40, the future is certain and sound.
I have said all along that we should win 130 seats. I said
this when most people thought we should win nothing.
I said it when many people thought we should win by a
working majority. And I say it now.
376 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Supposing that turns out to be true, I give the Govern-
ment eighteen months, and then am persuaded that we
shall win, and be in for twenty years. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. Sibell will tell you what the children of Dover
were like. They swarmed like bees on our carriage. They
were the children of the poorest. But they might, any
one of them, have been my child or Bendor's child. The
race has not degenerated. It has been cramped and sold
to the foreigner. These half -fed, badly clothed, wretchedly
poor children, had clear eyes, good features, clean limbs.
They were all 4 gentlemen.' They cheered me, and Sibell,
and mark this c Mr. Wyndham's coachman ' and ' the
old horses that pull us.' I said no word of politics
to them. Sibell as a Christian only suggested that
instead of hooting the other side (when we passed their
strongholds) they should only cheer louder. That puzzled
them, for they love conflict.
But of their own selves they said from time to tune
' We want a strong Navy,' or * That 's shut because the
Germans take away our father's work.'
These little ill-fed, clean-bred, English children are my
guarantee of the future and my answer to what will
happen five years hence.
The whole of Dover went mad last night. I had a
crowd of 6000 or 8000 shouting themselves into delirium.
Even the night before, on Friday, so many got on to the
carriage that they broke the front wheel, and S. S. and
I walked home arm-in-arm escorted by thousands of the
poorest people in England, who love us because they know
we love their country.
734
To his Mother
SAIOHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 24th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am picking up fast and shall
get out of bed this afternoon. I am only limp, with slow
TO HIS FATHER 377
pulse, and so soon as I can eat shall be strong again. I
have rested my brain and last night almost ceased dream-
ing of politics. I have been reading ' David Copperfield '
for the 4th time.
It does annoy me to be 4 out of the hunt ' just for this
last bit. But, on the other hand, I have been going hard
all the time and I expected I should have to stop. I
meant to finish Dover anyhow. And I did. I never
missed one meeting though I had bronchial catarrh and
the bottom of one lung bunged up. Then I determined
I would hang on till after Crewe on Friday night. I did
Louth in Lincolnshire on Tuesday, spoke for one hour and
ten minutes. But the long journey the next day some-
how settled the business, and on Thursday night I hauled
down my flag.
The general result is excellent. We shall have another
Election very shortly : perhaps this year ; and from now
till then must keep up a continuous fight with all our foes
as if it was one General Election. It is a tiring prospect.
But that is what we have got to do.
S. S. has let ' 35 ' for February 1st. Could I go to ' 44 '
and be looked after by Margaret ? I should love that if
quite convenient. It always inspires my work to be at
44. Your devoted son, GEORGE.
735
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
January 25th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I enjoyed the card and tape. It
worked perfectly. I know that Tariff Reform is not every-
thing. But it is a great thing in itself, and, also, in my
opinion, the only weapon by which we can defeat the
kind of legislation that alarms you.
It is a great thing in itself, because you cannot have
a healthy State, or Nation, even in Peace, unless it has a
Frontier. You must think on all matters of your country
as a definite organism, and not as a chance part of a cos-
mopolitan community.
378 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It is the only weapon with which you can fight Socialism ;
because ' Labour ' or even the wrecks and misfits of
' Labour ' will always look somewhere for help and
subsistence.
Cosmopolitan Individualism was never a truth, only a
dream, and, I think, a nightmare.
In Feudal times, Labour and the * misfits * looked to
the ' fief ' and were helped and sustained.
When Feudalism as an ideal was destroyed a hundred
years ago, people tried cosmopolitan individualism. It
never worked.
Now they must either look to the State as a State ; or
to the world as a Socialistic community.
The second is insanity. The first, if realised by Tariff
Reform, can help the individual without sapping his
independence.
The foolish blend of Individualism and Socialism to
which the Liberal-Labour Party is reduced is worse than
the two ' ideals ' of which it is compounded. They are
each insane. For each neglects the Frontier and the
Home, which are the two poles of political existence.
There is something more repulsive than insanity, and that
is sheer Folly ; known to be folly by those who practice it.
This foolish Blend which the Lib.-Labs. call a policy
combines mental aberration with mental turpitude.
There is no mixture more nauseous and deadly.
I hope to get to Clouds before the House meets.
Just now I am busy getting well. All love to darling
Mamma and to you. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
736
To his Mother
SAIOHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 25th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, -I am much better to-day.
Indeed the Results would revive a Mummy. To-day's
results, i.e. of yesterday's polls, are, on examination, the
best we have had. For there are only 13 seats to attack
TO HIS MOTHER
370
in England, twelve Liberal and one Labour. Out of the
twelve Liberal seats we won nine and they only saved
three.
Oddly enough we also won a seat in Ireland, or ten to
the good in all.
I have invented the best plan I modestly suggest
for shewing day by day how the Lib. -Lab. majority ha^
melted.
The sound test for the great questions at stake i.e.
Budget, House of Lords, on the Government side is to
shew the result of each day's Polling on (1) The Liberal
and Labour majority over the Unionists, and (2) the Lib.-
Lab. majority over Unionists and Nationalists, i.e. Majority
in the whole House.
That is the sound test because on the Budget we know
that the Irish are against the Lib. -Labs. Whilst on the
Constitutional question of the House of Lords, if the Irish
are with them, it is only because of Home Rule.
If S. S. copies my chart I will send it, but the results
which shew the process of ' melting a majority ' are :
LIB. AND LAB. MAJORITY
Over Unionists.
In Whole House.
14th January
. 251
168
15th
. 223
148
17th
. 193
110
18th
. 169
86
19th
. 133
50
20th
. Ill
28
No majority
21st
. 75
8
22nd
. 79
4
24th
. 58
22
That means that if no side won or lost any more seals,
then if on the Budget, or the next Budget in May, the
380 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Irish abstained, the Lib.-Labs. would beat us by 58. But
if the Irish voted against the Budget, the Lib.-Labs. would
be beaten by 24.
Of course, if they attack the Lords and buy the Irish,
they would have a large majority of 58+82=140.
But the country would not stand that, for it involves
buying the Irish by (a) letting them off taxes, and putting
more taxes on the English ; (b) promising the Irish Home
Rule ; and (c) making the Lords incapable of preventing
them from carrying the promise out.
The English would support the Lords in resisting this
' Yes, I don't think ! ' The above is based on taking
present nett gains 97=194 on a division, and, as I said,
assuming no more gains, till we get them. But we shall
get some more.
I prophesied 130 nett gains ; so we still want 33. We
shall see.
The most amusing result would be if we won exactly
126 nett. For then we should be 294 and the Lib.-Labs.
293, and, as the Speaker is on our side, for practical
purposes it would be 293 each, apart from the Irish.
There are minor features which must modify results
and may prove important and even decisive.
(a) The Independent Nationalists under W. O'Brien,
who hate Redmond, have won some seats from him.
They will raise Hell's delight in the House it" Redmond
tries to support the 'Land Values and Licence Taxes'
Budget, in order to attack the Lords, on the pretence of
getting Home Rule in the long run.
(b) Among the so-called Liberals there are several bad
eggs from their, and indeed any point of view A ,
B , C , D . I do not see them out tiger-
hunting with Lloyd George.
If Asquith is captured again by the extreme left these
creatures will probably vote against the Government.
The only one of them for whom I have any respect is
the 4 shadiest ' of the lot, by common slander, B .
TO HIS MOTHER 381
I shall watch him with interest. He is very clever and
bold, and has a long score to wipe off against the Govern-
ment.
He has also taken the precaution of hedging on Tariff
Reform. So that he is free to cross the floor when he
pleases. And that will be the first time he can stab the
Government.
That is all fair enough. The men I cannot stomach are
those such as D , a financial Polo-Player, Christian
names and * dear old boy ' with all of us. Well, he goes
and beats a trump like by 50 votes for the gar-
bage of political success and the off-chance of a peerage,
if he makes enough money by promoting companies to
buy one.
The above seems to me to be distinctly libellous if it
were not as it is a privileged opinion from a son to
his mother.
I thank God that E , a fraudulent Polish Jew
Financier, has been beaten. The insolent cur having
bought an English wife, and maltreated her, and bought
his entrance into the Hunting Field, proposed to
buy an English constituency in order to buy a peerage
later on. Luckily he was too blatant even for these
days. He had the insolence to say he would buy 500,000
worth of House Property and reduce all the rents ten
per cent.
Such is the cause of Progress and of * the People versus
the Peers.' E , curly haired C , ' dear old chap-
pie ' D , and all the other ' bounding brothers ' of
cosmopolitan Finance and polyglot ' Society ' and dining
off truffles and imitating the Yiddish pronunciation of
the letter R with a guttural growl. ' That 's the dog's
letter,' as Shakespeare says. ' O their offence is rank, it
smells to Heaven.' When they are black-balled for the
Yacht-Squadron they attack the House of Lords in order
to buy a Peerage. But, thank God, I say again, the
English counties have ' carried the scent of the hay over
the footlights ' and bust their show. So three cheers for
Merry England and down with the Ortolan brigade. Let
382 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
them go to Monte Carlo and play with motor-boats instead
of making ducks and drakes of the British Navy.
I feel distinctly better after writing the above. I
loathe convalescence and it is a real relief to write about
E and D . Quite seriously it is the truth that
England has been saved by the fact that Mary's coach-
man, Prue, and my gardener, whose name happens to be
England, share my opinion of them.
The E revolution has not been a success. ' Chap-
pies ' in Polo-breeches can't lead the Sans-culottes.
Proficiency in the Yiddish gutturals prevents Welsh
Psalm-singing with the right nasal twang. The Truffle-
hunters are poor Apostles of the little loaf.
I wish Asquith joy of all his piebald Hybrids and express
an earnest prayer that our central office will permit us
to fight another tune without the assistance of the Pro-
fumos, and Bellilios, and other Levantine levies. Your
most loving son, GEORGE.
26.1.10.
P.S. Must buck this up in haste. We only won ten
yesterday, not eleven. I have corrected the chart. You
can go on with it. One has to wait for the full returns of
each day, e.g. up to now we have lost two and won
one on yesterday. We shall get the other returns to-night
or to-morrow morn. All love.
P.S. 2. Much better, pulse 56 ! instead of 48.
737
To his Father
SA.IGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, January 26th } 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I send you a reprint of my speech
at Hale on 30th December, which has been circulated.
Hale is eight miles from Manchester in the Cotton district.
It was an open mass meeting, so there was not the occa-
sion for polished phrases. But the speech is a piece of
fair and close argument. They listened to all the last
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 388
part about cotton with rapt attention. We shall win
cotton in two years' time. But only, I believe, by this
kind of advocacy, with figures to support statements.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
738
To Hilairc Belloc
$AK;HTON GHANK,
(JuKSTKii, oO//( January 1910.
MY DEAR BELLOC, ' Now the Hurly-Burly 's done ' it
is time for us to exchange signs of life and signals of amity.
I should not have mourned over your defeat nor you ?
But this I will say, if any one of my political opponents
was to win I would have chosen you. You ought to be
in the House of Commons on public grounds, and I am
glad that you are on the private grounds of friendship.
For we are companions.
I do not propose to write much to-night. Since my
election and an incursion into Lincolnshire I have been in
bed with congestion of the lungs. But now I am up and
well and eager for life and light and brave words about
the wonder of living. When the House meets we will
eat sausages and drink beer and be merry and wise
together. I was glad to see that ' Marie Antoinette ' has
gone into a second edition and sorry to recall that you
sold her before she was born.
If you write to me soon address to 44 Belgrave Square.
We have let 35 Park Lane till the end of March. But
if you don't write for ten days then write here. Yours
ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
CHAPTER XIII
FEBRUARY 1910 TO MAY 1911
In Opposition Army Debate France His Parents' Golden
Wedding His Rectorial Address ' The Springs of Romance ' The
General Election His Father's Death?
739
To Philip Hanson
STANWAY,
WINCHCOMBE, 13.ii. 10.
MY DEAR P. H., I read your two articles with interest
and will send them back when I next come across a large
envelope. They arrived opportunely to give my mind a
suitable list, for the Sidney Webbs are here and conversa-
tion gravitates into the pit of social regeneration. We
are also A. J. B., the Salisburys and Hugh Cecil, and
John Hugh Smith.
Excepting one talk with A. J. B. I have done no Politics.
I have been ' pickling ' rather idly and pleasantly over
materials that may, or may not, help in my Rectorial
Address. Literature of the Dark Ages, troubadours, etc.,
etc., and making notes.
Side by side with an historical attempt to account for
Romance, I am thinking more obscurely (!) of a physical,
or metaphysical, explanation of what Romance is. It is
still very dim. But whether this is, or is not, of use to
the Address, I want to write something more to accom-
pany my Scott some day in a book of essays. I know
that Zola's realism is wrong, and that Pope is inadequate.
As Dr. Johnson said, ' He excelled all others in poetical
prudence.' I know that Scott was right. And I ask
myself why.
Chesterton's criticism is nearly right, too, when he says
884
TO PHILIP HANSON 385
that Dickens was realistic because he was Romantic-
only, as usual, he uses words in a way that confounds.
His examples, that Murdstone is the step-father as he is
to a small child, or, that the characters in ' Copperfield ' are
large because David was small, are illuminating.
In my Scott we carried it, I think, as far as that Realism
(= observation) and Romanticism (= imagination) are the
primary modes.
I think I see my way to two further steps, perhaps to
three further steps.
(1) Romanticism = the reaction of the mind on the real,
not its mere reflection in a mirror.
(2) Romanticism reacts chiefly on the strange, instead
of repelling the strange as the Greek mind and Latin
mind repelled it.
(3) (And this, my dear P. H., is the devil !) Romanticism
in accepting the strange, performs an act of recognition,
because man's mind is (teste the Greeks (?) a microcosm,
and the Bible in the image of God) and so holds all
in itself implicitly. But after Classicism, or prolonged
routine, some things are atrophied in the Mind. Then,
on being met by the Mind, they are recognised, like the
prodigal son, and re-united to the familiar with jubilation
and extravagance in the matter of a fatted calf.
I believe this. But will anybody believe me ? Yours
ever, G. W.
P.S. I go to Saighton to-morrow and hunt with Percy,
return to 44 Belgrave Square Saturday, and dine with
A. J. B.
And Lettice has a little girl born yesterday, at which
we rejoice.
P.S. 2. To revert to Unemployment and ' without
prejudice ' to Tariff Reform, but looking only to research
and classification as preliminaries, I had an idea last
night.
It sprang from your section on seasonal trades. I
rather demurred to your inclusion of Gas-making, merely
practically (not imaginatively), for I know that the Dover
VOL. ii. 2s
386 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Gas-works have for years in Winter and Summer
employed the same numbers. I also know that Gas-
works make a great many things beside gas, e.g. dyes
and ammonia as by-products. I wondered whether
therein lay the explanation. Then I had the idea.
Why not discover and classify the by-products of the
workers' faculty, e.g. a paper-hanger may be qualified
in a secondary way by his aptitude for hanging paper
to do something else. Ditto the house -painter, and
so on.
I think this ought to be true.
I know that some faculties disqualify for some other
channels of activity. Now if the reverse is also true, we
might find that the paper-hanger and house-painter had
developed a secondary aptitude which could be exercised
after the summer holidays are over.
I tried this on Sidney Webb, with whom I had a
strenuous two hours, and he did not scout it. But that
may be due to his politeness.
740
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
February 16th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am very much obliged to you
for letting me put up at 44 till Easter. I will see that all
bills are sent in and paid by me and keep the receipts ;
also putting my servant on board wages.
I had some interesting talk with Arthur Balfour at
Stanway. Redmond will, I feel pretty sure, accept
Asquith's assurances whatever they may be ; and then
quarrel with the Liberals later on. Redmond cannot
afford another General Election this year, and Asquith
wishes to stay in for a year and a half or two years. That
being so, they will both * Humbug ' their respective parties
and connive at nothing much happening till 1911 at
earliest. That is what they will try to do. They may,
however, be stampeded by Lloyd George.
TO HIS FATHER 387
I hunted yesterday and am none the worse for it, so I
shall hunt to-morrow and Friday and go up for Arthur's
dinner and the King's speech on Saturday. Perf is very
well. He won a race last Saturday against professional
jockeys over hurdles. It was a good performance and
has brought him fame in this part of the world. . But I
hope he will soon be too heavy for such exploits. Bendor
has been hunting six days a week, going well, and giving
complete satisfaction to an exacting Field.
We are still full of politics in Cheshire and determined
to win more seats next time.
Love to darling mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
741
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, February 18th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Perf, Bendor and self are just in
from a * Red-letter ' day. After the gale yesterday, which
of course spoilt our sport though we did have a rather
nice gallop in the evening we settled that to-day, as the
wind had dropped, we were going to do great things. As
we motored to the Meet about three miles the other side
of the Cheshire Hills from Saighton, we settled what run
we would like to have and chose the best you could have,
by way of the longest point over the best line. Well, we
did it twice ! and once back again.
We only drew two coverts all day. We found at once
at Wardle, a good covert half a mile from the Meet.
Viewed away a big dog-fox, ran first away from the hills
to Hurleston covert, which is six miles as the crow flies
from the hills. Viewed the same fox away and then raced
slap for the hills and killed our old dog-fox fair and square
in the open after 50 minutes of the best, just a mile short
of the hills.
Benny then trotted back slowly the whole way to
Baddiley, which is one and a half miles further from the
388 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
hills than Hurleston. I have just measured it, a full 7|
or 7 as the crow flies. We found at once, ran fast along
the canal i.e. parallel to the hills the 7 miles and more
from them. Then we turned and ran right to them with-
out touching a covert, racing a field off from where we had
killed. Fox, and hounds, and the first five or six of us
were all together into the little outlying wood of the big
woods on the hills. I said to the whip, 4 Perhaps the fox
can't face the hill ' which is very steep. He said, ' It
may break his heart.' But he was headed by rustics
screaming with excitement and that saved him. For he
lay down and another jumped up and took them all the
way back to Baddiley ! I stopped at the hills and rode
home. It was just 50 minutes again to where he lay down.
A day to remember. Your loving son, GEORGE.
742
To his Father
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
Sunday, 9 p.m., March 6th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am just back 9 p.m. from a
Saturday and a half Sunday at Saighton. I agree that we
are in a political crisis of suffering from a National illness.
I cannot prove that we shall recover, but I believe we shall.
As Disraeli said, ' The history of England is a history of re-
actions.' So was the history of Rome. Indeed our case
is far more favourable than most of the grave cases from
which we, and other nations, have recovered. It is mainly
due to idleness and pusillanimity of ' moderate ' men,
especially among liberals, but also among conservatives.
We have not, so far, to contend with famine, general bank-
ruptcy, and the fierce passions which these engender.
Yet our ancestors, and the Romans on several occasions,
dealt faithfully with these also. Perhaps one might say
in a gloomy mood that the absence of such scourges
delays the reaction. There are no violent causes to force
thoughtful men to think and brave men to act. So, for
lack of decision, the crisis and the malady are prolonged.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 389
But I am not gloomy. On the contrary, it is my know-
ledge that we are in a tight place which reconciles me to
politics. If all were well, I should retire, write a book,
and keep a pack of hounds.
As it is, I have to work hard and cannot make plans.
I may be able to get to Clouds for a Sunday before Easter.
But I am hard pressed for time. At such a moment one
has to think (and that is a long process) in order to be
ready to act.
I am very sorry about dear Fly [a dog]. All love to
darling mamma. Your loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. I am in charge of the House during Army Esti-
mates to-morrow, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and must
think before I go to bed.
743
To Hilaire Belloc
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY,, 16th April 1910.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Many thanks for the ' New Age.'
It is very good. I wonder if we could teach the ' reformers '
that their action is not only bad for the poor, because cruel,
but bad for themselves, because nothing does a man more
harm than being cruel. Do you think they would be
frightened about themselves if they realised how dan-
gerous it is to be cruel, and that the danger increases when
meanness and conceit are added to cruelty ? That this
is, indeed, damnable ? That they are damned by doing
it ? I believe that they dread damnation. Just as hang-
men object to being hanged, so do those who condemn
others shrink instinctively from being damned. They
dislike the prospect so much that they disapprove of the
word, and are shocked when it is used.
I wrote these lines on Thursday evening after going to
Jimmy Tomkinson's funeral. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
390 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I. M.
14TH APRIL 1910
It was April to-day as I rush'd in a train to bury a friend.
Why did I go ? Well, because we had soldier' d and ridden
together.
I whirl'd up to Cheshire and back, convinced that his death was
no end,
But a gleam in the laughter and tears of life, that is like
April weather.
In April there is not a doubt. Vicissitudes promise the store
Which every true lover of life accepts from the infinite art
Of a world that shouts ' Go ! ' to the young, and to older men,
' Go it once more ! '
For April and courage deny any end to a work of the heart.
It is all very well to be wise, to think, and to shrink, and to
shirk ;
But April is wiser. * Come out ! ' is her cry in the rain, or
the sun.
Her flowers explain that to live is a challenge no menace can
burk,
That to be is to do, and to die, the summit of all we have
done.
744
To Charles T. Gaily
35 PARK LANE, W.,
27.iv.10
MY DEAR CHARLES, I have 10 minutes before starting
to Crewe to speak ; I use them to convey a ' clincher '
on the sonnets which I saw in 10 seconds, opening at
hazard. Sonnet 70, lines 56-78, demonstrate my theory,
because apart from it they are nonsense. ' Time,' at end
of line 6, is the Enemy. ' Being woo'd of Time,' means
to suffer from the tyrant, but that shows the worth of the
sufferer, because he is attacked by Time, the Tyrant.
The ' pure unstained Prime ' is the eternal past. The
wounds and mud of Time are the * accidents.'
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 391
You see that in this sonnet, which seems so personal, the
Immortal Bard touches on his perennial theme, i.e. his
attack on Time.
No upholder of the ultra-personal theory can explain
* being woo'd of Time.' 10 minutes up and I 'm off to
defend the Constitution which is also being woo'd of Time ;
and, indeed, debauched. Yours, G. W.
745
To Charles T. Gatty
85 PARK LANE,
28.iv.10.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Just back from Crewe to resume our
talk on the Sonnets.
I have thought that ' Informer ' was an apostrophe to
Time. And it may be that. On the whole, when I was
writing and more soaked in the stuff, I compared it to
* frailer spies ' hi cxxi. I felt that c to cxxv was one
poem.
Still you agree with me that the sonnets generally, and
c to cxxv specially, are primarily a metaphysical out-
burst, but, secondarily, based upon and built up with
actual experience, and, probably, addressed to an audience
also steeped in neo-platonic attacks on the reality of Time,
and also acquainted with political and personal and literary
(rival poets) events which had troubled the relations, and
darkened the atmosphere, of a poetical circle of friends.
You will find what I said on this in the last half of
page 250.
I had a ' full house ' at Crewe, spoke for one hour and
five minutes, and also at an overflow. But my chief
interest was to see every bridge between London and
Crewe crowded with rustics waiting for the flying-men
and silhouetted against one of the most lovely April skies
I remember. Yours ever, G. W.
392 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
746
To Charles Boyd
35 PARK LANE, W.,
2.V.10.
MY DEAR CHARLES, All my energy has been devoted,
since we met, to fundamental questions of Public Policy.
Whilst ruminating in the Park on these matters I met
George Street.
To him, in that mood, I said, ' with emphasis,' that I
would rather my occasional lines on Jimmy Tomkinson
were not published.
In so far as I can care about such an ephemeral response
to the drama of life, that mood persists, for two reasons :
(1) My relations with Jimmy Tomkinson were private.
I shrink from giving any one touch to what is sad to his
sons and daughters.
(2) I may be wanted for the great public contention on
the constitution at any moment. It is wiser, in view of
that possibility, to offer no ' target.' I am not at liberty
to ' unpack my heart ' or ' air my music ' ; ' lights out '
is the motto for men in waiting for the moment of counter-
attack. So I would rather not publish anything, or say,
or write anything just now. I mean to get the right thing
done. Yours ever, G. W.
747
To his Father
35 PARK LANK, W.,
May Wth, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, The Addresses in the House last
Wednesday were moved in good speeches by Asquith and
Arthur. Then we got in taxi-cabs and took the Address
to the King (new) at Marlborough House. He shook hands
with us all simply and kindly.
Saturday I went with Bendor by the 8.30 a.m. from
Euston to Chester for Yeomanry. We had a pleasant
TO HIS FATHER 393
journey with breakfast in the train and talked over Yeo-
manry and Politics. We motored to Eaton. On arriving,
went straight to the polo ground in the Park, where we
had a vigorous practice and got very hot. Then we had
a short lunch ; changed into uniform, and motored four
miles to Handley, whither two horses were sent on and
where the Eaton squadron was assembled. We rode with
the squadron to Camp near Cholmondeley about seven
miles. Since then I have been very busy. We missed your
fine weather, for Saturday night was icy cold and yesterday
it rained in a deluge from eight to four in the afternoon.
But to-day the sun shone and everybody cheered up.
The work of Yeomanry increases every year. They
now insist on our doing all our cooking and waiting by
ourselves and with our own ovens and utensils and without
a contractor. This entails great difficulty in what is called
' interior economy.' In another region of activity, they
insist on our training 16 signallers, two maxim gun detach-
ments, and twenty trained scouts. In another, they
leave us to make the contract for camp and drill and
manoeuvre ground. This, owing to difficulties over Chol-
mondeley Park, entailed walking six miles and hiring four
large fields from farmers.
To-day we drilled all the morning. In the afternoon
we drilled dismounted and I worked out two manoeuvre
schemes and a night outpost scheme with the Adjutant.
Then I motored to Crewe and caught the 7.30, arriving
here at 11 p.m., as I have to be in Westminster Hall with
the * Faithful Commons ' at 11 a.m. to-morrow. I go
back to Cholmondeley to-morrow and return Thursday
night for the funeral at Windsor to which Sibell and self
are both commanded. The great excitement is that dear
Guy is coming for it from Petersburg. So we shall be
there together.
Sibell went to Buckingham Palace to-day at 2 p.m. with
Lily Zetland to pass by the coffin in the Throne Room.
She says that the six officers of the Brigade who stand like
statues round the coffin are most impressive.
Percy has come up with three brother officers and
394 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
quartered them here. Lily Zetland is putting up
others.
Love to darling mamma. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
748
To Charles Boyd
SAIGHTON, I7.vi.10.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I knew ' The Shropshire Lad ' of
old, but I read the book through twice to myself in the
train, and a quarter of it aloud to Sibell after dinner.
The roses in the garden and buttercups in the fields are
beyond science. Tho' seen, they belong to Faith ; like
young love and armies at last confronted ! Of the clusters
and explosions of crimson roses on the crimson tower I
will not even write. Some other art must be invented by
man before we too can shout of that summer without making
any noise, even of a pen. An element in that art will be
to have oceans of green round our silent crimson trumpets,
and new-mown lawns leading to them and the shadows of
trees.
When I see Summer I feel justified of the only attack
I have ever made on the Roman Church. How easy it is
to write of the contrast of what we adore. Housman
writes of death and suicide because he loves the May and
the dusty roads of England, and lads insolent with life.
All the Art of the world has only caught a few larks in a
few cages to remind man of Summer in the blind-alleys of
his slum. Yours, G. W.
749
To Charles Boyd
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
Friday, I7.vi.10. 1.20 a.m.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I could not get to the Garrick as
I was at a concert and am just back. Nor can I be here
at 11.30 to-day as I have to do things on the way to Euston
for 12.10 to Saighton.
TO PHILIP HANSON 395
All this is absurd ! Can you be Napoleonic, cut the
painter, and come with me to Saighton by the 12.10
Euston ? I am ordering two seats in luncheon car on the
chance.
If you are entangled with the Fair, tell a lie. If you
are busy with mankind, tell them to go to Hell ! Come
along and let us have a jolly journey to see the garden at
Saighton. There is no one there but Lady Grosvenor and
self. Then, on Saturday, I will get a taxi and we will
whirl over the country and do Beeston Castle and Bun-
bury Church ; or take Chester by storm. I propose a
sudden decision and a noble exploit. I stay at Saighton
till Monday and hope to bring Sibell back early for my
Mother's birthday on Monday. Come along ! there is no
time like the present ; nor, indeed, any other than the
present. The remainder consists of two hypothetical
eternities. Yours in the bond, G. W.
750
To Philip Hanson
SAIGHTON, 1st July 1910.
MY DEAR P. H., I had been wondering when I should
hear from you, or write to you, and had been talking of
you to my Mother and Sibell at luncheon two or three days
ago. This, no doubt, moved you to write. I answer at
once, partly because I ought to be thinking of the lines of
a beast of a speech to 3000 or more Unionist and Tariff
Reform Women (!) in the Queen's Hall on Thursday next.
I am very glad you liked my Army Speech. I composed
it between 7 a.m. and 9.30 a.m. on Sunday morning, and
made the notes on Monday morning, and let it off that
afternoon. The official report has some foolish errors.
They were cross because I sent my notes to the * Times,'
asking that organ to pass them on. But as the ' Times '
did not do so till past 11 p.m., the official reporter paid
me out. The speech took one hour and a quarter to
396 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
deliver. But some of our men told me that not a word of
it could have been spared.
Haldane's verbosity and shiftiness was superb in its way.
He has grown idle. He sent under the Gallery three or four
times, and could not master the information supplied.
A. J. B. told me afterwards, on Wednesday, that my speech
alarmed him. I asked why, and he answered that the
logic of it was convincing and most disturbing.
As you say, it all turns on the ' sealed -pattern ' raid of
70,000. If that a careful revision of the 5000 to 10,000
raid is bosh, then it does not matter even if the Terri-
torial Force is slosh and the Special Reserve tosh. But
if the ' sealed-pattern ' raid is a thing to be reasonably
apprehended, then we are in a bad hole. And if Roberts
is right hi saying that it might be 150,000 v. 70,000, then
we are asking for it.
Haldane's attack on compulsion served the purpose of
evading any reply to my criticism on his T.F. reserve and
Veteran reserve.
The true inwardness of these is that the boom in recruit-
ing for the T.F. has been followed by a slump. I know
that Esher has reported, or is about to report, that he
cannot get on in London any further. So, to make his
numbers, Haldane squared the Press, put up Ian Hamilton
to slobber over some Surrey Veterans on the Horse Guards
Parade, and launched his reserves. He takes 33% of the
T.F. Establishment =41% of its strength, i.e. the whole
proportion who really do 15 days' training, and says
that if they go into the reserve after four years, they may
shoot off twenty rounds at the public expense, and need
not do any more drill or training at all ! It is sublime !
The Irish names in your letter thrill me. I am delighted
to hear of Downing's Bay and Kincashlagh. We liked
both places. How I wish it were ten years ago !
Horace Plunkett is going to spend Sunday here on his
way back to Ireland.
I am sick at the University.
Nobody knows what will happen in the Autumn. I,
myself, believe that Asquith will manage somehow to play
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 397
the Coronation and Imperial Conference off against his
malcontents for another year's peace in office, and that
Redmond will say of the Budget, ' No matter, let it pass,
a ti-ime will come ! '
You must come here in September. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
751
To Hilaire Belloc
SAIGHTON, 20th July 1910.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I came here to see the Chester
Pageant and found my garden in July which I had watched
in January. So I wrote a transcendental sonnet, based
on Byron. As you detest transcendental belief, I will
inflict it on you, as thus :
JANUARY JULY
'When the stars twinkle through the loops of Time.'
Childe Harold.
We starved for snowdrops, now the privet's bloom
Adds pungence to the pageantry of change
From tenderest green to purple and the mange
Of lilies that but blossom to their doom.
To bud, flower, breed ; fight, build, out of the gloom,
Are incidents of struggling with the strange
Which plant, beast, man, unravel in their range
To clarion calls of ' more light ' and more room.
Our triune tragedy accords the chime
Of Beauty's incantation as we build
Her parapets compacted out of slime :
Our shatter'd arcs declare what she has will'd
' When the stars twinkle through the loops of Time '
And flash eternity on the poor kill'd.
This will give you a headache. Yours ever, G. W.
398 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
752
To Hilaire Belloc
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
2Qth July 1910.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I came here this afternoon. In the
train I finished Chesterton's ' What 's Wrong with the
World.' When I told you the other day that I did not care
for it so much as I care for his other work, I had only read
the first half. I find, now, that I have dog's-eared all the
last half, blazing my track, and turned down only one
page in the first half. It is a big book when finished.
And note, it is finished before the little appendix with a
reference to my Irish Land Act. But for that, I was on
the point of writing to him myself. Not that I have any
modesty. I should like some day to tell him and you what
a lot of smashing I had to do to get that act made. I
agree with him that ' Jones's garden ' is the goal and
momentum of my reaction and his revolution. We both
want the same thing for the same reasons. But well,
let me put it in this way the family lawyer, the manager
of the Bank of Ireland, the young man whom Lord Ash-
bourne would job into the office of deeds, but for the Land
Act, the orphans and widows acting through solicitors
who had borrowed on the expectation of remainder-men
an expectation destroyed when we bully and bribe the
tenant for life to sell out, and, probably, the second cousin
to a young man in the office of Crown and Hanaper are
each one of them just Jones with a garden. When you
barge in as I did you blight their gardens. That amount
of splintering is nothing compared to the stocks and
shares business ; the commissions to the Bank of Eng-
land for floating the stock, the commissions to the national
debt Commissioners (and rightly so called) for managing
the loan, the commissions to the Bankers, and brokers and
jobbers (again named as poets name) here is the rub.
(I pray you not to fly off on the Anglo- Judaic oligarchy.)
I do not believe that the rub is with the landlord. You
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 399
and Chesterton hold the opposite view. I wish we could
talk it all out one day. You and he know facts which I
don't know, and I know facts which you don't know, and
it is on our ignorance that Sidney Webb and his active
consort build their gaols and penitentiaries.
Chesterton's excellent recapitulation, page 283, breaks
down, I believe, on the usurious landlord.
At any rate the big landlords are not the usurious land-
lords. Mind you, I am not, therefore, in favour of big
landlords. I want many small land-owners.
But I want Chesterton to consider this. The big land-
lord, as such, owns in land a property that is worth less,
even absolutely, and relatively far less than it was worth
150 years ago. But, when it was worth more absolutely,
and far more relatively, he invested his savings, first in
consols, then in British railways, now in outlandish enter-
prises and the municipal loans of Mexican cities. Still,
as a landlord he prevents the conditions which determinate
the hair-cutting business.
On the other hand, the men who prepare the way for
destroying the glory of dear little English girls, are those
who trafficked in the ' agiotage ' of outlandish enterprises,
and lent money to rich boys, and, at last, bought landed
property. This they treated precisely as a Financier
treats the bonds of a Mexican corporation.
Now, I believe that you can get the Landlords to sell
their land, and be English. ' Young England ' and
' Merry England ' are ideas.
But investment, and re-investment, are simply devilish
* paperasseries ' to which English landlords are seduced
and driven. God knows what they are doing and piling
up for the vengeance of other centuries. They don't
know. How should they ? But they do know that their
fathers loved the English and were loved by them. And
they still love the English. I would use that love.
If the Noailles gave up their titles because they were
French, the big English landlords will give up their land
because they are English.
What they resent is having their money taken not
400 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
their land in order to pepper the country with Sidney
Webb's penitentiaries. They also resent and I am
absolutely with them in that having their son disin-
herited from his home in order that Sidney Webb may
live in it, as Lord High Gaoler, and conduct experimental
slavery in their park. If I am forced to choose : I prefer
a herd of fallow-deer to a labour colony for people who
refuse to become teetotallers.
The mere knowledge that there are fallow-deer in the
parish and the off-chance not of shooting them, for this
is a degenerate age, but of trying to pat them, might be
something in any boy's life. On the other hand, the
knowledge that his father because he frequented the
4 Bald-headed Stag ' was to water beans with a chemical
solution in the park, would be a desolating reflection even
for the young people in a County Council school.
But why this choice ? Why not more homes, and more
properties, with, as a corollary, more publicities ?
I will now inflict the last version of
AUGUST TO DECEMBER
We saw the lilies die. St. Michael's daisies
Clanged purple to the gladiolus red :
They told the tale of all the flowers had said,
To make joy sure before the autumn hazes.
The winds were mists of silence in the mazes
Of songless woods. The dank leaves dripp'd. A dread
Came when the choir of birds, pack'd overhead,
Were dumbly bent on flights beyond our gazes.
What is there left to care for ? Wastes of snow
Betray the tracks of beasts, but bear no life.
Their record prophesies the earth's last woe
When utter cold shall seal the pulse of strife.
No, look ! The dawn breaks in a bloodier glow
Of passionate hearths and battles to the knife.
I shall go to London on Monday, 44 Belgrave Square,
and return here on Tuesday. Yours ever, G. W.
TO HIS MOTHER 401
P.S. If you say of my sonnet that it is
' built beyond mortal thought
Far in the unapparent '
I shall take it as a compliment. It is a compliment which
I pay to Chesterton, when I don't agree with him.
753
To his Mother
ST. GILES'S HOUSE,
SALISBURY, August 30th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your telegram
on my old birthday. I am alive and kicking after a great
excursion into parts of France that I knew nothing of before.
Belloc telegraphed to me, ' Will you come to France on
Wednesday for two or three days ? ' I telegraphed back,
* Done with you,' and on Wednesday last we started from
Charing Cross at 9 p.m. each with only a small hand-bag
besides the clothes we stood up in. I did not know where
we were going ; nor did he. But he had in his head
some places he wished to see. We reached Paris at 6.15
Thursday morn, drove across to the P.L.M., had a cup of
coffee and caught the 7.10 South. We travelled third
class in a crowded train, admiring the babies and discuss-
ing the crops with our companions. We also hailed, each
time we saw it, the great road from Rome to Paris, and
looked with awe at the mounded hill of Alexia where
Julius Csesar conquered Vercingetorix. We talked of the
Senones who over-ran Asia Minor from what is now Sens.
And all the time with a railway-guide and map we debated
what we should do. At last we settled to get out of the
train at Blaisy-Bas, 12.30 p.m., and march right over the
hills down into the Burgundian Vineyards of the C6te-d'or.
We sent our bags on by train, round the hills to Gevrey-
Chambertin, and, at 12.45, swung off on foot up into the
Forest. We tried a track marked on the map, but, as
eight years have passed since the map was made, the track
was interlaced with boughs. We had to push through like
VOL. ii. 2 c
402 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
rhinoceroses, taking turn about to lead. In the end we
were beaten by the growth of underwood and had to strike
west by the sun, to get the driving path. We struck it,
emerging from the tangled wood on a height that over-
looked the wide valley of the Ouche [a river] ; the view was
like Costa's Assisi, only on a wider scale. Below we could
see two little hamlets we had to pass, and beyond the pine-
covered heights. We had to cross two more ridges and
then the descent guessed on the far side 20 miles away.
It was a baking hot day. We passed a holy well with a
bronze bust of St. Bernard over it against the burning
deep blue sky. At Pralons, a little hamlet, we drank beer
and talked to its seller. Of the well, he said cautiously
(for religion is a ticklish affair in France just now) ' C'est
de Panciennete. Autrefois il-y-avait un seigneur au
Couvent.' The vines have been spoilt by this awful
summer. Of the prospective vintage he said, ' For this
year there is what calls itself nothing Pour cette annee
il-y-a ce qui s'appelle rien.' We only rested a few minutes
and then pushed on to our bridge the Pont de Pany
over the Ouche, which we reached at 4.15. Then we toiled
up a wonderful road that left the river and canal of Bur-
gundy and wound like a snake past low cliffs up to the
crest of that ridge, about 2000 feet high. Here there was
an undulating plateau. At Uray (beer again), reached at
6 p.m., we could see the next valley, and got another short
cut by track over fields and up to the crest of the next
ridge and over to Champ-de-bceuf, another little home-
stead. It was dark, for the night falls sooner and more
suddenly in the South. The stars were marvellous and
the Milky Way and all about the glow-worms shone. But
We for the moment were beat and our legs too stiff to
move, so three-quarters of a mile beyond Champ-de-boeuf
we threw ourselves on the ground and looked up at the
stars through the leaves of a little chestnut tree. Then
we rubbed our legs and swung down the road by a gigantic
ravine a black chasm on our right, with high cliffs on our
left. We sang all the songs we could remember, and at
8.30 saw a light in the valley. That was Gevrey-Cham-
TO HIS MOTHER 403
foertin, t where the wine comes from.' We reached the
little Inn at 8.45, after walking for eight hours and doing
between 22 and 23 miles. It was good to eat and drink.
The station two miles off was shut, so we rolled into bed
without any change of clothes in a hostel which was much
the same sort of gite as any occupied by anybody from the
time of Hadrian down the centuries. I woke at five, they
got our bags by seven. We went to the station and took
the little local train along to C6te-d'or, past Mirts-St.
George and Pouilly and all the vineyards to Beaune at
10.30. There we saw the church and belfry and hospital
of 15th century, and eat and took a motor and shot 100
kilometres North by West into ' le Morvan,' a wild upland,
3000 feet high of forest and mountain, more like Wales
than France. Then we walked again three hours to
Avallon, a little town on a peak. The forest was full of
large red slugs. Just as Avallon appeared like a vignette,
a storm burst on us. We took refuge in a wayside cottage
and made the children dance. Then we climbed up and
arrived like draggled rats at the H6tel du Chapeau rouge.
The coiffeur next door by a few dexterous strokes of his
comb transformed me into the image of a retired Colonel
of French chasseurs. I let him have his way, which in-
cluded waxing my moustachios into two sharp spikes.
I woke at 5.30 and began to mobilise at 6, and started soon
after. We walked till 10.30, when we reached the wall
of the wonderful pinnacled town of Vezelay, where St. Ber-
nard preached the 2nd Crusade to Louis vii. and, Conrad
on 31st March 1146.
O my 1 What a church ! Byzantine and rebuilt just
after that crusade. The XHth century. One ot the
Councils of the Empire met there. Our Cceur-de-lion
was there, too, before the 3rd Crusade. And now it has
800 inhabitants only and is sound asleep, dreaming of the
past. At 1 we got a little trap and drove to a railway.
Vezelay is what it is because it is far from any railway.
We travelled 3rd class till 4.30, then got out and walked
for three hours to Auxerre with its three great churches.
We meant to go on at 9 by train to Melun. But no.
404 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
We eat and drank and slept. We started at six and
caught the 7 a.m. to Paris on Sunday. Arrived at 10.30,
Saw the Luxembourg and Pantheon, and traced the old
Roman road and the spot where the first Frenchman re-
entered Paris after Jeanne-d'Arc had turned the tide of
war. I left Belloc, caught the 4 p.m. slept to Boulogne,
Dined on board, reached Charing Cross at 11, and came
here by the 8.50 yesterday motoring out from Salisbury
as I had promised Cuckoo to celebrate my Birthday with
her.
Now was not that a good scamper ?
I will see you and dearest Papa this week. Your most
loving son, GEORGE.
754
To his Mother
SAIGHTON,
September 8th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am hard at work on my
Rectorial Address. I take a run in the garden before
breakfast. Work from 10 to 1 o'clock, run, lunch, ride,
and then work from 4 to 8 o'clock, dine, and then think
till 11.30.
It takes a power of thinking to decide on a track through
a forest of delightful lore, in which it is all but impossible
not to lose oneself.
I shall not write till Monday, leaving myself three weeks
in which to write. But this is the agonising period. I
have to prevent myself from writing, and to curb myself
from reading too much. But there is a savage joy in
reading, and noting, as one does during the preliminary
stage.
And I say to myself that, even if I cannot get a clear
track, still I shall have had the zest of reading for example
la Chanson de Roland and much else a little library
with a devilish racing-for-blood concentration, which I
cannot get except when I am preparing to write.
I know la Chanson de Roland. I sometimes read it.
TO HIS MOTHER 405
I often want to read it to you and others. But I can't do
this unless I am on the trail to get my scalp.
Now I am on the trail. But whether I can make the
trail endurable to an audience of Edinburgh Students is a
question which cannot be answered until I have worked
for another ten days.
I will not allow myself to write until I have reduced what
I have to say to six, or at most seven, definite propositions,
which lead the one to the other, and ultimately compose
into a truth.
I know I could do this if all went well. And I think I
am going to do it. If I don't I think I shall have had a
wonderful four weeks of exploring.
I can tell you what the real trouble in my mind is, as
thus :
You remember Charles Kingsley's ' Madam How and
Lady Why.'
Very well ; I can tell them How Romance came into
Europe in 1050, culminated in 1150, and influenced to 1550
and even on to 1600.
I can almost tell them Why :
But can I tell them What it was ? ? ?
That 's the point. Prudence suggests that I should only
announce the How sketch the Why and throw out the
What in a few mystical sentences.
Still, it is a strange thing that Europe soon after 1750
began to feel it had lost something it could not spare
(like its shadow or its soul), and that from 1800 till now it
has been recovering what it had lost.
Now this becomes more strange and significant if we
admit, as we must, that the same thing happened before
on a greater scale.
And the whole thing becomes deliriously interesting
when you find that all the business of Romance was written
in the French language, in England, by Normans, who had
touched Bretons and Welsh on the West, and Arabs in the
South in Spain, and in the East owing to the Crusades.
406 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It is almost too good to be true.
Yet it is true that the Chanson de Roland, the tale of
Troy, the tale of Thebes, and the tale of Arthur, all the lays
of Marie de France, and all there is except perhaps the
Alexander tale and the fables about animals were all
written in England between 1150 and 1220 by Norman and
Southern Frenchmen and Welshmen who wrote French.
And that all this happened because of two accidents.
I. Roland, a Frank, overwhelmed by Basques in the
Pyrenees, was Count of the Breton marches.
II. Henry n. married Eleanor the divorced wife of
Louis vin. who brought the Troubadours of the South, and
the Tronveres of the North, into England and through Wales
into Ireland, after going to the East in the second Crusade.
Those two accidents do the trick of * Madam How.'
But then there is Lady Why, and after that the inscrut-
able What was it that happened ?
That being in my mind I shall refuse to Define Romance
and set out to Discover it : Citing the precedent of Colum-
bus who went to America before there was any Map.
Your most loving son, GEORGE.
755
To his Father
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, September 17th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I have read your letters and en-
closure on the Osborne Judgment with interest. Though
busy with my Address I keep an eye on what passes. I
do not believe that the House of Commons will reverse
the judgment, but am rather concerned at the hot-heads
of the Unionist Party plunging in favour of the payment
of members. That would be a lesser evil but would com-
plete the degradation of the House.
But as you truly say I do find it may be foolish
consolation in the ' chapter of accidents ' or, as I would
put it, in the complexity of incidents that make up national
TO HIS MOTHER 407
life and world-politics. Any one of these may suddenly
absorb public attention, and the business of Politicians
consists in combining them into groups in such a way as
to counteract separate tendencies towards evil, and secure
some common tendency towards good. This is easier said
than done. Your loving son, GEORGE.
756
To his Mother
SAIGHTON,
September 20th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, It was good of you to send
back the French book in white and gold binding. I lose
some books that I can ill spare and, notably, I have lost
a little old Latin book, ' Historia Regum Britanniae,' by
Geoffrey of Monmouth. Luckily I remember it, since it
must play a big part in my Address. Possibly I am better
without it. For, if it were here, I should find something
else in it which I should be tempted to cram into the
Address. Anyway * it 's gone,' like the chicken from the
ship in ' The Lady of the Aroostook.'
I am sure that you and Papa could give me a reference I
do want : for the story is one of our old favourites . Who ( ? )
was it who said what (?) on a Cumberland mountain, the
gist of which was that he had to remember the cook-shop (?)
in (?) (London). Was it Lamb ? If you can give me the
reference I will send to the London Library for the book.
The tedious part of address- writing is that one has to
' verify one's references ' ; and nobody knows what that is
till they Ve tried to do it.
The alarming part of writing an Address is that one has
to write a book afterwards. An Address on Ronsard at
Oxford entailed a little book. This Address will entail a
larger book. I shall be driven into writing a book. Just
now I am being driven into writing far more than I can say
in an hour. I shall select bits out of it for the Address.
But the rest, which I must leave out, will haunt me like a
ghost till I lay it in a book.
408 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
It would be much simpler to write Poetry, or even to
paint Pictures, than to search for the soul of Romance by
the historical method. Still, having set myself that task,
I mean to do it, and to limit myself, for its execution,
to the tools of dry historical research.
When that is done I will let myself out in a book and,
when that is done, I will write about the other theme of
which I spoke to you.
Meanwhile you may assure Papa that this kind of work
does not unfit me for dealing with the Osborne Judgment.
On the contrary I wanted a quiet six weeks of reading
and thinking and shall be all the better for them poli-
tically. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. Have just heard from Perf at Hythe. He, too, is
in a lodging by the sea as I was in 1884. It was then that
I bought a pearl pin to wear in a black tie because of
national mourning for Prince Leopold. I gave you that
pin when I went to the Soudan the next year. And you
gave it back to me when I returned. And it is still the pin
that I wear, in a white tie, when I hunt. I shall hunt
every day in the week after the Address. Then I shall
make speeches on the 7th, 8th and 9th of November.
Hunting and literature are not incompatible with politics.
Henry of Anjou (our Henry n.) who made the Empire
from the Pyrenees to the Grampians always had ' a bow
or a book in his hand.'
757
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
September 22nd, 1910.
MY DEAR MARY, Many thanks for the elegiac couplet.
It is quite beautiful, and quite untranslatable.
I have written my first attempt over the page. Yours
affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
Lead on, too well-beloved : Go happy part
Of our one soul : God calls ; but teach my heart,
Mourning alone, to follow where thou art.
TO MRS DREW 409
758
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
September 23rd, 1910.
' I, nimium dilecta ; vocat Deus ; I bona nostrae
Pars animae; moerens, altera, disce sequi.'
MY DEAR MARY, You little knew what you were * in
for ' when you sent me that perfect elegiac couplet. You
must not trouble to read all my shots at translating the
untranslatable. But apart from gratitude for its evasive
loveliness, I want to thank you for giving me a ' whetstone
for wit ' * cos ingeniorum ' just when I needed one. Now,
at odd moments, I sharpen and exercise my wit on ' I,
nimium dilecta, etc.,' instead of blunting and tiring it by
mumbling the Rectorial Address, if that ever became some-
thing saner than Casaubon's ' Key to all the Mythologies '
was it ? in Middlemarch ? so fortunate a result will be
due to my possession of and by ' I, nimium, etc.,' for that
affords a strenuous relaxation and that was your gift.
Thanks to it, the rectorial has made strides. Many pages
have been re-written that are at least intelligible and some-
times melt into lucidity. After that exordium I must tell
you what has happened in my leisure, since I received the
couplet.
It seemed to me that there were only two things to be
done with it : either to forget its form and attempt an
original English poem on its theme, or else to aim at the
most literal translation compatible with the retention of
an English rhythm.
I have not tried the first. But who knows ? That may
follow the effort at translation. So far, I have tried my
hand only at translation.
I have always felt that in a translation two rules must
be observed. The translator must try to echo the form,
e.g. he must not turn a couplet into a quatrain. If the
original is a couplet, a couplet he must write. The other
rule is that he must try to express all the meaning of the
original and add nothing to it.
410 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Within those limits he must seek to obey Rossetti's general
injunction, viz. ' not to turn a good poem into a bad one.'
All this is, of course, impossible. But that is why it
supplies so excellent a whetstone for wit.
If ' I, nimium ' is to be translated at all, the translation
must be a compromise between a complete and exclusive
rendering of the Latin's meaning, on the one hand, and a
decent approach to English rhythm on the other. And
that compromise must be contained in a couplet.
I am still vacillating between two alternative com-
promises.
If the translation is to be more literal in its meaning
than English in its rhythm, it would run :
' Go, too beloved ; God calls. Go, our soul's happier part,
That other grief shall learn to follow where thou art.'
But if the translation is to be more English in its rhythm
to English ears, and more lucid in its syntax to English
minds, it would run :
' Go, too beloved ; God calls, our soul's more happy part :
What's left shall learn from grief; I '11 follow where thou art.'
Sibell prefers the last.
I think I am right in translating ' bona ' by ' happy/
' Bona,' of course, means ' good.' But the word for ' good r
in all languages often stands for ' lucky,' or ' happy '
which is the same, with greater dignity. Certainly in a
celebrated Latin line ' O Fortunati nimium bona si sua
ndrint ' ' bona ' means ' happiness.' The author of our
couplet probably had that line singing in the back of his
head, as he puts both 'nimium' and 'bona' into his first line.
Again, if ' happy ' be justifiable as a translation of the
Lathi meaning, ' more happy ' is justifiable in respect of
English rhythm, for it is taken from Keats' ' Ode to a
Grecian Urn.'
Probably the first course, which I have not attempted, is
the best, viz. to forget the form of ' I, nimium ' and write
an English poem on its theme. ' Manet sors tertia caedi r
i.e. ' take a licking ' and leave the Latin as it stands.
Yours affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
TO PHILIP HANSON 411
759
To Philip Hanson
SAIGHTON, 30.ix.10.
MY DEAR P. H., I was beginning to miss any news of
you, and beginning to hope that you might propose a
meeting here. But * mea culpa ' I ought to have written
to you long ago and urged you to come. My thoughts,
like yours, have been turning back to old days. The sun-
light here for the past ten days carried me back ten years.
You and Norman and, I think, Ian Malcolm, played lawn
tennis with me here in the sun, before we dreamed of
leaving the W.O. And when November comes it will be
ten years since you and I sailed over a blue sea to Ireland
with the collie-dog Chief a little puppy in a basket on
the deck.
* The days that I regret
Are those that are no more.'
But they were good days ; and I knew it at the time, so I
have no remorse, only regret.
I wish you could pop over for even one of the sort of
days we put up with now. Let me forecast the immediate
future to that end, before I relate the immediate past. I
go to London Monday night and return here Wednesday
night, 5th October. That would be a good moment, or
any other till Tuesday llth, when I go to London and on
to Clouds to celebrate my Father's and my Mother's
Golden Wedding. I return on the 17th and that would be
a good moment for a glimpse of you. Early in the next
week I go to Whittinghame and deliver my Address at
Edinburgh on Friday 28th. I return the next day, 29th,
D.V., and * in any case ' on Monday 31st. That would
do well, but not so well, because I then replunge into
politics and hunting. This I have not done for many
weeks, and am too rusty to answer your questions. Now
I relate the immediate Past. I took a month of violent
holiday-making after the Session. Played polo hard here
412 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
till the 15th August. Went to South Wales and bathed in
the sea. Went to France with Belloc and walked miles
and miles over hills to Burgundy and back by V6zelay,
where St. Bernard preached the second Crusade. Went
to St. Giles and Clouds, and got here on September 5th.
Since then I have worked at my Address every day like
a miner in the bowels of the earth, and have forgotten
pro tern. all about politics. I have been in the valley of
the shadow of composition, which is darker than any sub-
terranean gallery and less securely propped.
Halt sunt li pui e tenebrus e grant
Li val parfunt e les ewes curanz.
This is not madness :
High are the peaks and shadow-gloomed and vast,
Profound the valleys where the torrents dash.
Nor is this. It is an attempt at the meaning and sound of
two lines in the Song of Roland.
I have thought of nothing but the subject of my Address
since the 5th of September. I say the subject advisedly.
For, provided I can make the Address tolerable, even to
Scotchmen, I am using the lull of the Conference to learn
all that appertains to a book which I mean to write. It
will follow on to the * Ronsard ' and ' Walter Scott.' That
is to say, its province will be early French literature, and
its aim, another definition of Romance, reached by the
historic method.
I wish you could come for a day and join in. I have
just read the first half to brother Guy, who is here till
Monday. He prefers it to the Glasgow address, and,
indeed, if simplicity can be reached by agony, this should
be a white lamb by comparison with that black and hairy
Buffalo.
After all let me remember, for my peace, that in this
address I am not taking on the History of the World, but
only four centuries 1050 to 1450 confined to Western
Europe and tied down to literature. For the moment,
my lamb is tied too tight ; but, when I have got the
TO PHILIP HANSON 413
sequence of propositions in the only order, I shall allow
that little lamb to frisk and caper like a goat.
To change the metaphor : after the historic work, I
mean for my own delectation to soar from the earth into
the ' blue inane ' of metaphysics, like an airman (see
* Daily Mail ' pattern). But, instead of coming down
with a bump to the ground, I shall disappear ' Far in the
unapparent ' (see Shelley's ' Adonais ').
Now am not I well ' Hedged ' ? I believe it will take
an hour to speak the historic part. Very well, then I
shall have all the fun to myself, and will make a book of
it. That is my plan. But if I can pack the history into
45 minutes, the Scots, who like their metaphysics, will
have to stomach mine ; or howl me down. In either
case we go off to luncheon together at the Union when the
Address has been delivered, or interrupted.
More than enough of myself. You must not take ' the
forties ' to heart. When I had them, badly, in 1905, you
helped me as much as any man has been helped by another
man. What you feel I have felt. But, now that I am
within three years of being fifty, I feel much better.
I cannot write of the Conference ; but I am grateful for
it. I love the lull. I am very sorry to hear of Lady
Atkinson's illness. I laughed out aloud at his ' But it is
not padded.'
I think you ought to succeed H and outstrip him
in the end.
I am to speak on Politics most days, on and after
November 7th. But to-day, and to-morrow, and until
October the 28th, I am bathing in the ' Springs of Romance.'
That (but this is, till then, a secret) is the short title of my
Address. The full title is
THE
SPRINGS OF ROMANCE
IN THE
LITERATURE OF EUROPE
Note the limitation. I have tried to observe it. I did
not mind foregoing Cathay. But to leave out Architecture
414 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
has been a grim business, considering that St. Bernard
preached the second Crusade at Vezelay which I visited
last month and that the second Crusade explains Romance,
historically. Yours ever, G. W.
760
To his Sister, Mary
SAIGHTON,
CHESTER, 6.x. 10.
MY DARLING CHANG, The great point is that we shall
all 5 be together at Clouds on the 15th. 1
I am not skilled in Heraldry, but I like it. If done at
all, it must be correct.
One thing I do know, and that is that no woman can
have a crest. Indeed, in the case of a married woman her
husband bears her arms for her. It seems to me that
this would not only be correct, but appropriate, to a
Golden Wedding. The technical term is that the husband
impales his wife's arms. The effect is like this :
[Drawing]
Au Bon Droit
In the half of the escutcheon which I have left blank
the Campbell arms of Mamma's Father should be dis-
played in full.
A woman does not have a crest because she is not sup-
posed to wear a helmet. Her husband is her helmet and
her shield. So long as he lives, her arms appear beside
his on one shield. Nor does a woman have a motto ; for
that is a war-cry.
Before marriage, young ladies, and after marriage,
widows, display their arms, not on a shield, but on a
lozenge.
1 For the Golden Wedding of their parents. The discussion of the arms was
in connection with the presents the five sons and daughters were preparing.
TO HIS FATHER 415
I will see what I can do in the way of a dedication.
Your loving brother, GEORGE.
P.S. Minnie has some other idea. But I hold to the
bound book. It should be made of paper, or parchment,
and leather that will last for centuries.
761
To Charles Boyd
SAIGHTON, 21.x. 10.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter of the 17th reached
me to-day and was welcome. It would be ' jolly ' if you
reached Edinburgh for the Rectorial : Percy would have
said, a year ago, ' if you rolled up ; ' now he would say
* if you blew in ' a delightful addition to the vocabulary
of nonchalance.
I am asking Walter Blaikie to send you a ' confidential '
early copy. But, if you do ' blow in ' at the M'Ewan
Hall, do not read it. I would like in that event to
know from a trusty and truthful comrade whether the
thing is tolerable as a spoken Address. I think it is
readable.
In speaking it I shall omit all quotations, references,
qualifications and botherations, in the hope of presenting
the naked argument.
But all these omissions will be printed. Otherwise
many and, for instance, Andrew Lang, will be ' as tire-
some as ever.'
Blaikie has printed it magnanimously. Yours ever in
the bond, G. W.
762
To his Father
WHITTINGEHAME,
PRESTONKIRK, N.B., October 30th , 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I have booked December 1st and
2nd for shooting at Clouds.
416 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I tried Adey's British Cigars and liked them pretty well
for a time. But I got tired of them. I think Havannahs
are the best.
I am posting a bound copy of my Address to Mamma.
It is beautifully printed. Sibell has, I know, written
her impressions of the scene, the interruptions made the
delivery a strain ; but I managed to fire off a good deal of
it and all the end. We motored out, starting at 9.30. I
saw dear aunt Connie 1 and Pamela ; and had quite a
company of close supporters in the front row. After the
Address I inspected the Officers' Training Corps in the
quadrangle and said a few words. Then Arthur and I
were photographed in many groups. Then we had a
huge luncheon about 250 at the Union and, again, a
few words in response to our guests. By that it was 3.30
and we were due at the General Council of the University,
where Arthur took the Chair. Then to tea with Sir
Ludovic Grant, the Regius Professor of Law.
I got an hour to myself before dinner and composed
my next speech. I dined with all the Professors at the
Balmoral Hotel. The dinner is called the Symposium
Academicum. The other guests were Lord Finlay, Lord
Dunedin and Lord Dundas. We turned out in the balcony
to see the Students' Torch-light procession a fine sight
like the Carnival with many cars and mounted men.
The dinner lasted from 8 to 11.30. I returned thanks for
* The Students ' as their representative and made a rather
amusing speech. I walked back to the North British
with Hepburn Millar, now a professor of law, who used
to write in Henley's paper and hails me as a comrade in
arms. We smoked a cigar together. He is a Tory of
Tories. I took a walk at 8.30 the next morning and had
three of the leading Students to breakfast with me at
9 o'clock. The two leaders of the Conservative and
Liberal party and the President of the Union. They were
very agreeable and we had quite a good talk. Then I
motored here where the strenuous life still continues,
urged on by Sidney Webb and Mrs. Webb.
1 Lady Leconfield.
TO MRS. DREW 417
To-morrow I return to Saighton for a week's hunting ;
and then a week's politics. Love to darling Mamma.
Your loving son, GEORGE.
763
To Mrs. Drew
WHITTINGEHAME,
October 3Ist, 1910.
... I read three chapters of ' Martin Eden ' 1 last
night, and read it right through to the end to-day. It is
a big book. I have marked many pages. Success did
not come too late to M. E. If it had come a few weeks
earlier, he would have married the false fool ; and that
would have been hell for him ; not because she was false,
but because she was so little in every way, mind, heart,
body. When he was an awkward sailor he mistook the
absence of mind, heart and body for the presence of the
soul. The author may have lived this in his life or in
his imagination. As it seems true, I incline to the belief
that he lived it in his imagination. Chaucer could make
Emelye, Creseyda and the Wife of Bath ; Shakespeare
could make Juliet and Lady Macbeth : this creative busi-
ness is done by imagination, not by suffering life. It is a
protest against that suffering. What I believe to be true
is that the author at present is under the spell of
Herbert Spencer and Nietzsche. If he had read poetry
instead of biology, Martin Eden would not have climbed
through the port-hole at the end, but up to the stars and
down again.
This book is a work of Art, and, like all works of
Art, has a practical value which is mercifully denied to
manuals of common sense. I say ' mercifully ' because I
hope they will all perish and leave the field some day to
Imagination and Art.
The by-products of practical value are twofold. In the
first place, it ought to be read by every young lady who
contemplates matrimony : in the second, it ought to be
1 By Jack London.
VOL. II. 2 D
418 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
read by every poet who contemplates publication. The
young ladies will learn what they are, and the poets will
learn a great deal from the change in the author's style.
At the beginning, by his Americanisms and sham culture,
he disgusts as he meant to : near the end and in the
middle he writes the language which belongs to the truth
that transcends nationality and sex and philosophies. In
the last six pages he relapses into bosh as we all do at
moments of fatigue and relapses the more deeply because
he still, doubtfully, believes in Spencer, and still, doubt-
fully, admires the superman.
I infer that he is still young ; still so young that he can
be ' as sad as night for very wantonness.' If I am right,
he will, in middle age, cry out, * Hang up Philosophy !
Can Philosophy make a Juliet ? ' He will never make a
* Juliet ' or a ' Falstaff,' but he will make some people,
and is somebody.
764
To Mrs. Drew
SAIGHTON,
November 1st, 1910.
Your dear human letter is opened last of 40 I found on
my return to-night. Sibell tells me she has written about
the Address. The youths meant well, but their occasional
interruptions, paper darts and snatches of song would
have beat me, if I had not worked so hard at the Address
that I knew it by heart, and believed in it so much that
I made them listen to the last part, after sparing them a
good deal of the history and all the qualifications.
The only ones who really made a noise were the Officers'
Training Corps. And the jolly, illogical fun of this kind
of business is that immediately after the Address I in-
spected them in the quadrangle. They stood up like
rocks and dared not blink an eyelid. To them in that
capacity I was a grown man who had been a real soldier
that they respected. Romance they considered exces-
sive. Then we had a public luncheon, and I made them
TO HIS FATHER 419
all laugh. Then we had a Genera] Council of the Uni-
versity, and A. J. B. was profoundly perturbed at the
suggestion to make French and German equivalent to
Greek and Latin. As I discovered that the General
Council has no power, I felt calm. For the time being
Universities and Courts of Law are not democratic, which
is as much as to say the puppets of Financiers and the
halfpenny Press.
Then Sibell and I went to tea with the Regius Pro-
fessor of Law, and were ' death on culture in Chicago '
with the elect of Edinburgh, all in * Edinburgh English.'
Then I dined with all the Professors and made them
laugh again. Then I walked back to my Hotel with
Hepburn Millar, who wrote ' The Literature of the Kail-
yard ' and ' The Bounder in Literature.'
Then I had the students 3 leaders to breakfast with
me at 9 a.m. on Saturday, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Then I motored back to Whittingehame and liked ' the
Greek Chorus ' very much.
On Sunday I played lawn tennis with the Greek Chorus
in a grey suit, as a concession to the Sabbath. Then I
read ' Martin Eden ' from cover to cover.
P.S. And all the time A. J. B. was quite delightful, a
perfect host and friend.
765
To his Father
SAIOHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, l.xi.10.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I will send a bound copy of the
Address to dear Aunt Connie. It gave me great pleasure
to see her there with her smiling face, full of cleverness
and affection.
I enclose a letter from the Student (leader of their Con-
servative Party) who asked me to stand for the Lord
Rectorship. You will see that they meant very well by
me, in all their proceedings.
420
The 3rd leading article in to-day's * Times ' is on
' Romance ' and based on the Address.
I did mention Homer, as an exception, and the ' Atys '
of Catullus is precisely the kind of thing I had in my mind
when I said that the Romantic touches in Classical litera-
ture were (1) mainly in the earliest or latest poems, (2)
all in poems that deal with alien customs and supersti-
tions.
The * Atys ' fulfils both conditions. It is early, before
the Augustan epoch and deals with the savage rites of
religious mutilation. Your loving son, GEORGE.
766
To Philip Hanson
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 3.xL10.
MY DEAR P. H., Your letter gave me the keenest
pleasure. I was looking out for it and was determined
not to make up my own mind about the Address until I
had heard yours. I know that you always have a mind
of your own and that you always speak it. Imagine,
then, my relief at hearing from you that it was ' sweet
and easy, simple and firm.' This to a man known only
to write in Choktaw ! I care for your appreciation far
more than for the reviews in the Press. They, however,
are far better than I expected. There is one hi the
' Saturday ' which I naturally like as it is favourable.
But it is also informed and I don't know who wrote
it. ' Birmingham Post ' was good, but obstinate about
Homer ; 4 Daily Telegraph ' very friendly ; ' Times ' had
a column ; and so on.
I see hi to-day's Literary Supplement of the ' Times ' a
review of Sidney Lee's book on Elizabethan borrowings
from the French. They mention my name. But Sidney
Lee borrowed the idea from my early article in ' Cosmo-
polis.' This is not mentioned.
I hunted Tuesday and to-day after dining last night
TO HIS MOTHER 421
with the Tarporley Hunt Club and amusing them in a
speech.
But now, my dear Philip, the blackness of night and
Tariff Reform overshadows the next seven days. I must
work for three, then on Monday, 2.30, I take the chair at
a ' Dumping ' exhibition in Manchester, speak at 8 ; move
resolution at Conference at 11.30 Tuesday morning ; and
take meeting at Bolton on Thursday.
I hate politics more and more, and specially after seven
weeks of pure Letters. What sort of a copy did Blaikie
send you ? If only in grey paper cover, I will send one
in buckram.
You must get here somehow after the rush of politics.
I hear, on good authority, that old Asquith is determined
to have a short Session, 4 weeks, whatever happens.
There is much to be said for a Prime Minister of his tem-
perament. Yours ever, G. W.
P.S. If you only knew how much I left out of the
Address !
767
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 6.xi.l(X
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your letter, and if I
don't write to you now, ' when will I ? ' For to-morrow
I begin a row of speeches in our Lancashire campaign. I
have written the first one out and sent a typed copy to
the ' Morning Post.' The others must take their chance.
I shall be staying at the Midland Hotel, Manchester.
I enclose a precious letter. Please return it. W. P.
Ker, the writer, is the one man alive, now that Gaston
Paris is dead, whose praise of my * Romance ' is a thing
past belief. It has flabbergasted me. . I asked him,
humbly, if he would allow me to dedicate; it to him ; and
he gave his permission. That pleased me more than I
can say. And he is not the man to gush over anything.
He is the dryest old sarcastic, silent, Fellow-of-All-Souls,
on the old celibate foundation ; the ripe embodiment of
422 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the old Oxford tradition ' nothing new and nothing true,
and no matter.* Besides Oxford, he is the history and
literature Professor at the London University. Finally,
and ' therefore I love him,' in spite of silence and sarcasm,
he wrote ' Epic and Romance,' ' The Dark Ages,' and
' Mediaeval Literature.' And yet ... I can't quite be-
lieve that he wrote me this letter. Of course one must
discount a good deal. It is the tribute of a sportsman to
a poacher. And now I must forget it, and get to fresh
work. But I must just explain that what he says ' I don't
like being spoken of as a master ' is because, in the copy
I sent him, I wrote ' To William Paton Ker, the master,
from George Wyndham, the disciple,' and I meant it.
The fresh work I must get to to-morrow is all Tariff
Reform and such tedious botherations, and suspicions,
and jealousies, and ' bull-rushes ' from Leo Maxse, and
hesitations and all the -ations that rhyme with Damnation.
But, on that best of all days which we call ' some day,'
1 promise myself a combination of joy and work.
It occurred to me quite suddenly about 4 days ago. I
remembered with regret the big book I meant to write
about romantic literature, with a leaning towards the
French. Then I began to remember all the things I
have written, which I had forgotten. They are hidden
away in ' The New Review ' (extinct), ' Cosmopolis '
(extinct), and in introductions to books that are out of
print, or don't sell. Then it suddenly flashed on me that,
without knowing it, I liave written f (or f ) of my book !
And I see exactly what remains to be written. The
4 Springs ' is the first chapter. I never thought of that ;
it was a toss up to the last moment, whether I wrote it,
or an essay on the theme of the 2 sonnets I read to you
the other day at breakfast. Chapter II. not written
will be ' The Chroniclers and the Crusades.' It is not
written, but I have all the stuff and many notes. That
takes me right through the 13th Century. It may become
2 chapters in order to bring in Dante and the Spaniards.
Then, just to please myself, I am going to have ' Songs '
(not written). But, after that it is nearly all finished.
TO HIS MOTHER 423
IV. (or V.) is my old Poetry of the Prison, about Charles
D'Orlans and Villon (' New Review,' out of print) ; V.,
or VI., is Chaucer (not written) ; VI., or VII., North's
Plutarch, written indeed I must cut it down ; VII., or
VIII., is Ronsard, written. Indeed I have written it
twice and there is a great deal in the old article in ' Cosmo-
polis ' that I must print again. VIII., or IX., is Shake-
speare, written, and must be cut down. IX., or X., is
Elizabethan Mariners in Elizabethan Literature, written
in the ' Fortnightly ' 12 years ago. X., or XI., is Scott,
written. XI., or XII., is the new French romantics not
published, but almost all written with many translations.
And besides all these I have written and printed, for a
last movement, 2 speeches on literature to learned societies,
my panegyric on Henley, my introduction, about Ruskin,
to Mary Drew's book, that made 500, for her church not
for me. My articles on Henley and Maeterlinck, printed
in the ' Outlook.'
Aren't you astonished ? I was. I must have written
3 volumes of prose, without knowing it like M. Jourdain,
all on Literature, and quite apart from ' The Development
of the State ' and articles on Politics.
But now I must go to bed. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
Enclosure
ALL SOULS COLLEGE,
OXFORD, 5 Nov. 1910.
MY DEAR WYNDHAM, This is a glorious thing only I
don't like being spoken of as a master tho' it is better
than professor, when one thinks of it. I have read the
discourse with great delight it is encouraging, and so is
your letter. Very different from the organised mechanical
research that I come upon in the way of business. An
American said to me yesterday that it was a complaint
in the Universities there, how people seemed to give up
reading when they took to the study of literature . Nothing
good is done except by adventurers in that branch of
learning anyhow and I hope you will go on. Ever yours
truly, W. P. KER.
424 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
768
To Lord Hugh Cecil
35 PARK LANE, W. ,
18.xi.10.
MY DEAR LINKY, I am most grateful for Percy's
poems. I like all those to which you refer me, and shall
study them all. I like, too, * The Image of the Heavenly '
on page 19 of ' Broken Lights.'
I enclose the two sonnets. I had altered them in several
places, but, on the whole, prefer the first form. To a
certain extent they belong to you in that form, for I
think I wrote them in close connection with a talk we
had walking back from Broadway to Stanway.
I also send a copy of my Rectorial Address. It is
chiefly historical and literary, but at the end as the way
is with my thought it fades away ' far in the unapparent.'
Yet the last movement was the first in my mind when I
began writing. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
THE GREEN ROOM
I
The world's a stage : ' to tread it we assume
A sex, tradition, character and part.
We take for granted a great Author's art,
Dazed by the glare abolishing our gloom.
Bright scenery suggests fair hours and room
To conjure laughter, or to wring the heart.
Who laughs ? at what ? Do any good tears start ?
We guess at all except the curtain's doom.
What is the grave? A green-room where the soul
Puts by the properties of man or maid.
None has created, few can fill a role,
Most only walk and leave their lines unsaid.
The grave is dumb of all parts, and the whole
A drawer for masks after a masquerade.
TO HIS FATHER 425
II
'The world's a stage/ where courage, love, and fun,
Answer the riddle of Man's agony.
The Author, bent on grinding out these three,
Contrives a trap no artifice may shun.
His tragic plot entangles everyone,
Till King and clown, hag, debutante, all see
Danger 's for daring ; sorrow, absurdity,
For laughter and kindness. Then the play is done.
What is the grave ? A green-room where the soul,
Disrobed and cleansed from travesty of paint,
Stops shuddering at 'the dagger or the bowl.'
That grim alternative was only quaint,
Since fun, and love, and courage, are the whole,
And each poor player, a hero, fool, and saint.
G. W.
5.iv.09.
769
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 18th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, I am sorry to say that I shall not
be able to shoot at Clouds on the 1st. There is more at
stake in this election than in any of our time and I must
be free to fight every day.
If I have a contest in Dover I shall speak there once.
Perhaps, even if I do have a contest I shall get leave to
fight where the issue is in doubt. In either case I cannot
amuse myself during the battle.
As at present advised I shall begin in Manchester and
surrounding District, work down the West to Cornwall,
via Galley's seat in Wiltshire, and then ride a finish in
Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.
Arthur made a splendid speech last night and things
have gone well with us in the House to-day. So far there
is nothing to regret and, even if there was, we have only
to fight to the finish. Your loving son, GEORGE.
426 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
770
To his Mother
HACKWOOD, BASINGSTOKE,
November 20th, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting such a full-
blown letter from you at this fate-full crisis.
It would be ridiculous to explain. We must act.
Well ; I can only say this to you and Papa. All that
I am from you the largeness and the precision I have
been allowed to say in this utterly secret private body of
persons who know, and care, and dare.
I do not believe that a more representative group could
have met together. Curzon, Arthur Balfour, Lansdowne,
Salisbury, Selborne, Harry Chaplin, F. E. Smith and self
and others.
We have worked hard to-day for five hours.
I am satisfied with the result.
And now we must fight.
But it would make me happier to know that you and
Papa realised that we are not sparing ourselves. We
mean to declare ; to shew all our cards, to be honest and
Patriotic and simple.
If we win, all is saved. If we lose ; we shall win when
the electorate see.
There is nothing to regret. What more can a man ask
for. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
771
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE,
November 23, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I agree with Major Poore.
But we must not discuss details however vital, till we
have won the battle of a real second chamber against
no real one, but a sham, which would be more dangerous
than none at all.
I feel quite sure that we shall win, if not in the next
fortnight, then in the next eighteen months.
TO HIS FATHER 427
No ! I see that Major Poore has got hold of my plan
viz. : You must group County Councils and County
Boroughs together ; and in that grouping we shall revert
to something rather like the Heptarchy.
But now I must work. I am speaking at the Dover
Chamber of Commerce dinner to-night, and shall revive
dear Papa's old battle-cry by denouncing the Declaration
of London, as he denounced the Declaration of Paris.
We are doing well all along the line. I go to Lancashire
on Monday. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. If the other side demand details now our answer
is that these are precisely what the Parliament they have
burked ought to discuss.
772
To his Father
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 25th, 1910.
MY DEAREST PAPA, Delighted to get your letter in
such good heart, considering the stresses we are in.
The Declaration of London is as you guess the out-
come of Campbell-Bannerman's tomfoolery at the Hague.
In spite of what you say justly about the action of
Conservatives in the seventies, I think it possible that
this extreme folly may lead to a reversion in favour of
your contention against the Declaration of Paris.
This new Declaration of London has been attacked by
the Chambers of Commerce of London, Glasgow, Liver-
pool and Bristol.
The attack will go home.
Incidentally it is a great collateral support to Preference.
It is almost incredible but shortly this is the position.
(a) We abandoned our right to take Enemy's goods (by
the Declaration of Paris) in neutral ships with as a set-
off the abolition of privateering (not subscribed to by
America and Spain).
(b) The new Declaration of London puts ' Food-stuffs '
first in articles of conditional Contrabands.
428 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
The conditions allow Germany to take or sink any ship
bringing food-stuffs to England ; and leave us powerless.
It is a premium on War by Germany on us, without
declaration of War.
We may not transfer our shipping to another flag
(an ignominious expedient but the main argument for
the Declaration of Paris urged by Sir W. Harcourt) unless
we do so thirty days before War.
But Germany may change a merchant ship into a
vessel of War, after hostilities. That is tantamount to
reviving privateering.
And this is to be the rule of the game after
(1) We have surrendered the supremacy of the sea.
(2) Concentrated all our Fleet in the North Sea, leaving
the Ocean unprotected.
(3) With no punishment for destroying a ship, except
paying the cost if you are in the wrong ! ! !
(4) Whether you are right or wrong is to be decided by
an International Board on which Roumania and Argentina
have a voice equal to our own.
It is mad.
And so are the Governments. Your devoted son,
GEORGE.
P.S. But I do believe it will scare Lancashire.
P.S. 2. If you want to look into this ask Lord Des-
borough (Willy Grenfell) to send you the report of the
Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce over
which he presided. He will be glad to get any further
publicity. Tommy Bowles is wild about it.
Edward Grey has promised not to ratify until after a
debate in both houses.
773
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
November 26, 1910.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I am deeply grieved to read
the sad news that our friend's wife is dead. I have written
TO CHARLES WHIBLEY 429
one word to her son, Rudyard. Will you tell Mr. Kipling
that I am thinking of him ? . . .
Asquith's speech is a splendid ' target.'
I have been hard at work, arming for the battle. On
Monday it begins. My interventions are Monday, Man-
chester, Tuesday, Manchester, Wednesday, Warrington,
Saturday, Cheltenham, Tuesday, Stourbridge, Friday,
Swindon, Tuesday, Eyde.
Beyond that I wait orders. And probably I shall put
in one or two more in between.
But these seven, that are arrayed, are all to big audiences
of 3000 to 4000 each.
In one sense it is a great tax to take large audiences,
but, in another, it must be more difficult to speak in rural
villages. Each man to his job : and each man to the
large audience of employers and artizans ; or to the small
audience of squire and farmer and solicitor and labourer
can be quite sure of his cause on the Constitution
and on Tariff Reform; and sure that we are fighting
honourable. Very well ! I repeat this is very well and
to my taste. It is a great comfort to say ' Let God
defend the right ' and to mean it !
My love to Papa. Your loving son, GEORGE.
774
To Charles Whibley
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 21st December 1910.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I am moved to write to you. I
am back here after six weeks and two days of Politics. I
wish you could come here for a bit in the course of the
next fortnight. You may retort that I have not been
to Wavenden Manor. That is true. But consider to
how many places I have been owing to the combined
results of democracy and an inept central office. During
this Election, and well inside of three weeks, I have been
up and down England three times. I think I have done
430 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
nearly 3000 miles in the train. Very well, then ; why
should not you come here even although I have not been
to see you ? I put it to you that I ought to stay here for
at least a fortnight. I must think, before acting.
I ran up against Northcliffe in the corridor of the Houses
of Parliament, just before the Election. We suddenly
met and pleasantly. I would now like to do what we
have spoken of more than once. I want to get five or
six or seven who belonged to W. E. H. 1 to dine with me
in February. I note that W. E. H.'s ' lines ' are becoming
parts of English speech. He would have been glad to see
that happen. It was inevitable. But it has happened
soon. I wonder if this always happened soon. Did
everybody with an inkpot quote * I could not love thee,
dear, so much,' etc., within ten years ?
I purposely take a hackneyed quotation. Some things
stick. ' Where 's Tray and where 's the Maypole in the
Strand ' sticks. ' It 's only pretty Fanny's way ' sticks.
And now quite a number of Henley's lines have begun to
stick. But it is of his best that sticks. He is there with
his best. That is a great sign of excellence.
All this is relaxation. I have been fighting hard in twelve
constituencies, and I know we have to fight harder for all
that has value. I should like to talk over the muffled
revolution with you. I don't want to * spar ' in private.
But I do want to submit my idea of a counter-revolution
to a friend who is not a politician, but a student of politics
and an Imperialist. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
775
To Hilaire Belloc
SAIGHTON,
Xmas Eve, 1910.
MY DEAR HILAIRE BELLOC, I will write to you once
more about your ' Verses ' ; 2 but only garrulously. This
is not a considered appreciation. It is the resultant of
1 W. E. Henley.
2 Verses by H. Belloc. Published by Duckworth and Co.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 431
two forces. New poetry compels my attention. Old
letters and how many lie unanswered before me dispel
my industry. I will have none of them to-night. I have
done my share of work the last six weeks. I had taken a
resolve not to lapse into letters. I had sworn to myself
that I would rest and ride and tackle Politics in four days'
time. And, then, here you come along with your volume
of Verse ; and I don't want to rest ; I read them before
dinner ; read some of them to Sibell at dinner ; read them
again after dinner. Now I am in a warm, lighted room
at the top of my tower. The wind is trying to say the
world's story of wrong and liberty. It is trying to talk
like a dog whose feelings have been hurt by its master's
absence, or like a ghost with a tremendous secret and no
articulate tongue to tell it. The wind shuffles and whimpers
round the corners of the tower and bluffs off in gusts of
despair to the hills, and then comes back suddenly and
tugs at the latticed windows. The wind's inarticulate
tongue and wounded wrath and soft gushes of clean air
prove to me the great need of verse. Without verse Man
is as helpless as the wind and more miserable. Glad am I
to have not only the lighted warmth but also your Verses.
I will not deny that people are right when they say that
4 The South Country ' is the best of them. Nor will I deny
that your sarcastic verses about the rich and South Africa
seem to me not so much out of place as in the way of the
larger sayings.
4 Everybody,' I suppose, will say these two things : and
I belong to the herd.
Perhaps because this is Christmas Eve I am lured by
4 Noel ' and 4 The Birds ' and ' Our Lord and Our Lady.'
But, of that group, 4 In a Boat ' is the one that hits me
and will hit the herd, some day.
In literature a great deal depends on what the writer
does with the great emotions of Man ; and by these I
mean (at this moment) Passionate love, Passionate
courage and Passionate fear.
Now most writers shirk Fear. Some and I am one
smother it under Courage and Love. I have said that
432 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
courage is the fundamental thing. But after reading
your Verses I am prepared to be taught that Fear is
under courage. I used to hate the ' Fear of God ' in the
Bible. But no honest man will deny that the sense of
chasm and inanity and being lost like a child is the
base of man's being. You get that ' In a Boat ' ! You
soothe that in ' The Night.' You comfort that with
magic in ' The Leader.' ' The Leader ' is large enough
and vague enough to help us all. It helps the practical
man in us with ' And after them all the guns, the guns.'
It helps the seeing man in us with
' She stretched her arms and smiled at us
Her head was higher than the hills.'
And then you revert to the primal truth of our station,
or absence of station :
' She led us to the endless plains,
We lost her in the dawn.'
' The Leader ' is a poem : I believe, a great poem.
But the biggest thing in your book is ' The Prophet Lost
in the Hills at Evening.' That is great ; because you
have taken the emotional vision which came to you in
the Pyrenees ; and made it true for us all anywhere. It
is as true of a General Election as of ascending a mountain
range and coming down on the same side. This is the
biggest thing you have done ; and you have done it on the
right, crusading, side of Faith. When Peter Wanderwide
meets St. Peter, the Porter of Heaven, and St. Michael, they
will both know beforehand that you wrote it. They will
love you for your faults but they will respect you for this.
You will, probably, be very angry with me for saying
so, and furious when I compare it with Henley and Kipling.
Yet that is the comparison. Your ' Prophet ' is as vast
and true as ' out of the night that covers me ' but it is
more true. It is as brave as Kipling's ' But I didn't,
but I didn't, I went down the other side ' ; but it has
the. humility of a greater courage. ' By God 'tis Good '
(Ben Jonson), and it is by God. . . .
TO HILAIRE BELJAJC 433
At this moment the Waits have cornc to sing outside
my Tower. In their way they arc ringing 'And harbour
me Almighty God ! ' under the inscrutable stars. And
the uneasy wind has dropped. It is rumbling an obligato
accompaniment to their simple crystal melody of certi-
tude in the inane.
Naturally I delight in the " Cuckoo ' and the Drinking
songs and ' The Little Serving Maid.' These are the
songs that men have sung for 30,000 ycavs and you sing
them well.
If I presumed to ' appreciate ' 1 should rank them next
after the Christmas Carols Our Ldy group. Both
these groups are of things that are necessary and you have
done them right well for us, once again.
' In a Boat ' is a transition from these to the heights of
4 The Leader ' and the summit of c The Wophet Lo^t in
the Hills at Evening.'
The other Group in your book that ranks with these
and will be preferred by some though net by me, is made
up of ' A Bivouac.' (That 's true ! It happened to rnc
in the Soudan. I was asleep dreaming behind the Zariba
of those I loved, and then the Hadendowas suddenly shot
at us and knocked out the signal lamp.) And of ' The
Yellow Mustard.' The Yellow Mustard is as good as it
can be. Some will prefer it to the * Prophet.' It is the
way, or a way, by which some, who cannot defy the chasm
of space, or appeal from its grisly immensity ' And
harbour me Almighty God ! ' do get to an absolute
release from horror. Any man who can sing
To see the yellow mustard grow
Beyond the town above, beloAv
Beyond the purple houses, oh !
To see the yellow mustard grow
is happy, and safe.
He doesn't know why he is happy and safe. But he
knows that he is secure. He breaks out of the prison of
Time into Eternity. Like God, in the first chapter of
Genesis, he sees that it is good.
VOL. II. 9.V.
434 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I am not as well versed as I should be in the ' Old Testa-
ment.' But, speaking from memory on the moment, I
believe I have always felt that in Genesis alone God
descends to Man, and that, between Genesis and the In-
carnation, you have nothing but the Chasm and Jeremiads.
The best things in your book are each in its separate
way the ' Prophet ' and the 4 Yellow Mustard.' One
gives a refuge and the other an evasion. But the refuge
is best. In the ' Prophet ' you sing of immortality hi
immortal words. . . .
And now, once more, the Waits are singing the English
version of ' Adeste Fideles.' I am glad to know that the
tune is comparatively modern. * I am not Time's fool,'
though I do hanker after the thirteenth century. I can
say with all my heart and more than all my brain ' O come
let us adore Him.' The little figure of Notre Dame de
Paris which I bought, ' te duce ' after our walk into
Burgundy, is now in a beautiful gold shrine (in Sibell's
chapel) made by the village carpenter.
How and when did you write 4 The Prophet Lost in
the Hills at Evening ' ? It does not matter. Thank God
that you wrote it and accept my thanks as an earnest of
Man's gratitude. ' By God 'tis Good.' I don't suppose
you know how good it is.
The critic will say that
I hunger and I have no bread.
My gourd is empty of the wine.
Surely the footsteps of the dead
Are shuffling softly close to mine !
is the best thing in it.
He will fail to observe that this imaginative simplicity
is led up to by the two preceding quatrains. He will fail
to observe the ' It darkens,' that follows immediately,
and the repeat, c it darkens,' which precedes the climax.
Stand about my wraith,
And harbour me Almighty God !
I am glad that so big a thing has been done secundum
Artem. To make * wraith ' rhyme with ' Faith ' at the
TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 435
finish not only inevitably but, accumulatively, ' beats
Banagher.' But all the rhymes are glorious and the
Poem they wing on its flight hits the gold of emancipa-
tion from the sorrow of Man. Yours ever, G. W.
P.S. ' And I am awfully afraid.'
I bow to you for that line.
The whole poem is the best I have read by any man
now living. It will be repeated by little children know-
ing nothing of the horror you have sounded as long
as our language is spoken. My Christmas present to
you is a solemn declaration that in this poem you have
4 done it.' You, who are more troubled than I over
Immortality, have attained it in this poem and given it
to others.
What a mercy it was that you lost your way in the
Pyrenees !
776
To his Sister, Madeline
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, ll.i.ll.
MOST DARLING MANENAi, I must wind up to-day with
a word of love to you. For one reason, naughty Sibell
only gave me to-day your little Christmas note of 23
December 1910 ! I do not blame her. In the absence
of Benny and Shelagh she tries to run everything. To-
night she went, with Clare, who is here to hunt, to Chester
to judge a children's Fancy Dress Ball for the League of
Pity. But where does Pity come in ? It left me in, even
for me, the most funny surroundings. I dined alone with
(1 ) Clare's French Governess, (2) Ursula's German Governess .
Well, I made the best of it, and really enjoyed my
evening. We talked French all the time and wound up
with Rostand's ' Chantecler.' I was quite happy and
welcomed the opportunity of three hours' French on end.
Pamela sent little Clare here, to hunt and be with us.
So far it has been a great success I think and we are
off to hunt together to-morrow.
Charles Gatty, George Street, Mark Sykes, Mahaffy,
436
Ronny Norman, and so forth, have been here all very
literary and archaeological.
But we did get a point on Saturday. We went to
Beeston, the old Norman ruined castle on a crag. On the
way up, Mark Sykes said, ' That cutting the way they
rode up must be Roman, not Norman.' I answered,
' Roman ! My dear boy, a knob like this has been held
by man for 10,000 or 20,000 years before the Romans got
here.' Hardly had I spoken, when at the very top,
loosened out from its secure abode by the last night's
rain, we found the most perfect little flint arrow-head I
have ever seen, with clear cut edges, point and both barbs,
and as transparent as onyx a gem.
My dear ! why do we fret ? Life is immortal. Your
devoted brother, GEORGE.
777
To Wilfrid Ward
SAIGHTON,
CHESTER, January I3th, 1911.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I have read the January ' Dublin '
with deep and varied interest.
Your political article is most true, because it is profound
and calm.
My knowledge such as it is informs me that ' Demo-
cracy ' has never lasted a whole generation. Ferrero's
new history of Rome demonstrates this. When an oli-
garchy, based on war and farming, perishes, you get a
good two generations, or three generations, of ' Roman
Equites.' The prudent and thoughtful oust the political
militia. But, they always invoke Democracy after thirty
or sixty years. Then Democracy develops the ' cry ' and
the * caucus ' and so dies ; giving place to Bureaucracy, or
Caesarism, or a combination of the two.
My ' little knowledge ' tells me that this is our disease.
But my astonishing at forty-seven years of age credulity
and buoyant animal spirits say to me ' Tush ! the English
will do something that no one else has done.'
TO HIS MOTHER 437
If it were possible to tell one's friends all that one thinks
and writes and does, I should like to show you all the
memoranda I have written during the last year. But
that would take as long as it has taken to play my part
in this obscure drama.
Again, in the January ' Dublin,' Belloc is good. Some
will denounce him for making things too obvious. Still,
he does, in that article, explain to Tariff Reformers, and
Socialists what it is that is worrying them.
I read again, after many years, Ruskin's introduction
to ' Unto this Last.' Some one, who has time, ought to
write an article on that. It is wonderful that any man
in 1858-9 should have demanded (1) for the start of life,
National Education ; (3) for the end of life, ' Old Age
Pensions.' Given these ratifications of what then seemed
ranting, it is well worth any man's while to read his (2)
for the middle of life. It is the middle of life that I care
for. The voyage is more essential than the yard in which
the ship is built or the ' port ' which she makes. The
1 yard ' and the ' port ' exist for the ' voyage.'
Of course I was enchanted by Eccles on Romance. I
can't say how glad I am. I knew where he would criticise ;
and deliberately left out the argument founded on St.
Michael, which he puts in a foot-note.
W. P. Ker who knows more about these things than
any one now Gaston Paris is dead, wrote me a letter about
that address which took my breath away. He is not
lavish of praise, or, indeed, of any words. Yet he said
' This is a glorious thing.' So, I got the only people for
whose opinion I care ; on that subject. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
778
To his Mother
SAIGHTON GRANGE,
CHESTER, 23rd January 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, It was like you to produce
the very box for my flint arrow-head. I got a glimpse
438 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
of Cyncie on Thursday and dined with Benny. I had not
seen him since his South African tour. We had a great
talk over S. African politics and his 2nd. property there
on which he is growing wonderful crops of cotton. This
venture is exactly the kind of thing which rich people
ought to do and all the cotton magnates are agog with
interest. He has grown 5 worth of cotton from each
acre for which he paid two pennies. But, then, he took
the lead and the risk and is now deeply interested in
getting the Chartered Company and the Colonial Office
to realise what has been done. I do not suppose that
you know what good work ' Timmy ' is doing as a director
of the Chartered Company. Timmy, with Birchenough
and Jameson, are the three whom everybody respects for
their work, and for ' developing ' the country instead of
merely ' floating ' shares.
Benny, Perf and I, had quite a good day's hunting on
Friday, and on Saturday we had the ' real thing ' a
slashing gallop and forty minutes to the first check. I
enjoyed it hugely, but was very stiff after it. Yesterday
I dined with our new General, Sir W. Henry Mackinnon
at Government House, and had a useful evening. At
last we have a man who will move. We have got one,
and may get two, ranges for musketry. Chang, Ego,
Letty and Guy Charteris came here Saturday to Monday.
We hunt to-morrow and other days. On Friday I must
attend my half-yearly Railway meeting, but get back to
have the 2nd in command, 4 Squadron Leaders and
Adjutant to dine and sleep here ; so as to discuss Yeo-
manry before I am engulfed in Politics.
Of course I am doing too many things. But . . .well ?
I still like doing them ; and the Railway people, and
Yeomanry and soldier people, and hunting people all
help to pull together ; so do the literary people. I brought
Belloc back late last night after my dinner with the
General. He had been lecturing in Manchester, and
Liverpool and lectured again to-night. He was in great
form and enchanted us at luncheon to which Benny came.
The Political people, on the other hand, with whom my
TO HIS MOTHER 439
lot is cast, do not pull together and do not enchant me.
Yet as a consolation I reflect that the great woof of
English life, with its soldiering, and railways, and sporty,
and literature, goes on getting woven and is far more
substantial than the intrigues of Party Politics or the
grasping dreams of Socialism. That is why I cannot
share dear Papa's depression over politics. The real
working life of the country is so much more to me than
the mischievous tomfoolery of cranks and scamps.
I do not deny the menace of their tomfoolery. But I
do defy it. I do not believe in its lasting power for evil.
I know that all the people feel with me and would follow
if one ever had to give a lead. Meanwhile, no doubt, it is
irritating to be bound down to the theatrical insincerity
of Politics. But that is the price, paid beforehand, for
perhaps one more chance of making something an army,
perhaps, or a sensible Poor Law, or an Imperial Tariff.
It is so delightful to make anything that will last. That
being so, naturally, the price of the chance of making
anything, is a high one in Politics. But it is not higher
than the price of making anything in that or literature.
In any case, to * make ' anything, from a horse out of a
colt, or a book out of the English language, or a human
society out of the jealousies and vanities of mankind-
is not easy. It is not meant to be easy ; and demands,
in each case, a sort of careless courage, which helps and
calms.
Of course there is the danger of getting to like ' the
pretty quarrel as it stands ' for the sake of its neat antag-
onism. But the truth of the matter is that even Sir
Lucius O'Trigger does not enjoy pretty antagonism,
unless he believes in something worth fighting for. If a
man believes that the Universe is not necessarily absurd
because it is incomprehensible, he can be happy in that
belief, and all the happier because the riddle exercises his
ingenuity and patience. Your loving son, GEORGE.
440 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
779
To his Father
SAIGHTON,
29th January 1911.
MY DEAREST PAVA, I was very sorry indeed to hear of
Mr. Kipling's death. I enjoyed my last evening with
him and we shall all miss him very much.
I agree with you about the Declaration of London.
We have got to think of these matters in terms of a War
in which we are a Belligerent. All the mischief has arisen
from the complaints of certain ship-owners whose vessels
were interfered with during the Russian and Japanese
war.
Percy and I have been hunting hard and having quite
good sport. Percy ' pounded ' the first flight yesterday
over a gate that was tied up. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
780
To Philip Hanson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Private. l st March 1911.
MY DEAR P. H., 4 Them 's my sentiments.' I believe
that everything turns on achieving fairness between
' Parties.'
In work of this kind one must expect ' ups and downs.'
After writing to you I had a bad ' down ' on Monday.
But yesterday I had a much better 4 up,' and I am hopeful.
When I say ' hopeful/ I am not thinking of the immediate
future : I mean exactly what you say, viz. : that honest
work, based on the facts and on prolonged thought,
without any party bias, must have a touch of immortality
in it, and must be useful.
I have a speech to make to-morrow in Hammersmith.
Unluckily I have a heavy cold on me, so that ' the dull
brain perplexes and retards.'
In spite of that, I shall try to do some ' thinking aloud.'
The occasion is fairly suggestive. It appears that on
TO PHILIP HANSON 441
the 2nd March twenty-five years ago, Randolph Churchill
invented the name ' Unionist,' and we celebrate the
anniversary.
I am trying to say that ' Unionism ' is a true and lasting
Political Creed opposed to all other -isms, and profoundly
different from Opportunism and from log-rolling.
(I did not know I was saying that till I wrote it to you.)
I did mean to say and shall say perhaps with that
addition that Unionism consists in finding certain prin-
ciples common to several * parties ' or ' States in the
Empire,' and then standing on those principles, and inviting
others to stand with you ; and that this involves the
mutual concession of many political predilections which
do not conflict with those principles.
Suppose, for example, that qua the Constitution I laid
down
I. Stability.
II. Predominance of the House of Commons.
III. Ultimate decision of the People.
I could deduce from those principles a Constitution on
which most people could agree if they were ready to waive
non-essentials.
I. Stability does involve two Chambers on facts and
possibilities, for a * written Constitution ' comparable to
that of the U.S.A. is neither actual, possible, nor desirable.
II. Predominance of House of Commons does in-
volve a smaller second Chamber, and does, I believe,
exclude a second Chamber wholly elected, from huge
Constituencies.
III. Ultimate decision of the people does involve
either frequent Elections on mixed issues, or Referendum
for rare and grave cases.
These are only examples, but they are fundamental.
I should then say that on the political creed of Unionism
it was impossible to present such a scheme unless in a
shape which was not only sincerely, but obviously, free
from Party bias.
I believe I can make something of this. But to-morrow
the offspring of my brain can only be embryonic. By
442 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
next week, when I speak at Cambridge, I shall have licked
the cub into shape.
My crux at this moment is the difficulty of persuading
good, clever and honest men that they must not ' pack '
the initial * second Chamber.' They cannot ' cast their
bread on the waters.'
The clever ones give excellent, and sincere, reasons for
refraining from that imaginative exercise, e.g. ' We shall
be betraying the Union ' a shaft peculiarly deadly when
it is shot at me, although, if Ulster speeches mean any-
thing, I am now credited with having done as much to
save the Union as anyone else. I can think of a far more
clever defence for ' packing,' but God forbid I should tell
them of it. The clever defence of ' packing ' would be
that under any reasonable plan for a second Chamber, e.g.
with longer tenure of office on (a) ' big constituency elec-
tions,' and (b) nominations by P. M., we should now have
a * remainder ' majority in the second Chamber, that we
are, therefore, entitled to ' make it so ' in initial, transi-
tory, provisions ; arguing, at the same tune, that the per-
manent provisions will give Asquith a majority in the
second Chamber before his majority in the House of
Commons is melted or reversed.
That argument is not only clever, it is, also, sound.
But to strike the imagination it is essential to be, not
only fair, but generous. If only all could grasp the
exaggerated profits of the ' beau r61e,' all would be well.
Unluckily they grasp neither that nor anything. They
clutch the air with cramped fingers. Yours ever,
G. W.
781
Telegram
EAST KNOYLE,
March 13, 1911.
To Charles Gatty, 92 Victoria Street, London, W.
My dear father passed away quite peacefully soon after
ten this morning. GEORGE WYNDHAM.
CLOUDS.
TO MRS. MACKAIL 443
782
To Charles T. Gatty
CLOUDS,
EAST KNOYLE, 16.iii.ll.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Bless you for your kindness. You
know what the loss is. My Mother is splendidly brave ;
my dear brother, Guy, has just arrived from Petersburg.
It is hardest for him.
I believe dear Benny is coming to the funeral. Come
too. We shall all love to grasp your hand and you will
see nothing here but courage and peace. Of course you
must not if it is at all inconvenient. The train leaves
Waterloo at 11 a.m. on Saturday. Bless you. Yours
affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
783
To Mrs. Mackail
CLOUDS,
EAST KNOYLE, 17.iii.ll.
VERY DEAR MARGARET, I loved your message. 1 I
have thought of you and yours very often during these
last days, because of Wilbury, and because of Rottingdean,
Dear, when I had a second vision of you, doing, so beauti-
fully, what I have been trying to do.
And before this came I often thought of you as I realised
that I could not bicycle down to see you and Angela and
Denis and Clare and the Dormouse (was it a Dormouse ?)
as I did once or twice, to be happy, and learn about
clavichords and spinets.
I have realised that very often. But I did not regret.
Because I am quite sure that the few, really beautiful
things that come to us, are immortal, somehow or other,
and, probably, in millions of ways.
I do thank you and bless you. Yours,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
1 On his father's death.
444 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
784
To Philip Hanson
CLOUDS, EAST K.VOYLE,
SALISBURY, S.iv.ll.
MY DEAR P. H., I would have written long ago to
thank you for your letter, had I not been in bed for a
week with tonsilitis. My dear Father was absolutely
himself to the very end, and was, indeed, ready for either
alternative. He did not surrender weakly, but neither
did he struggle to live. His mind was as clear as crystal to
the end. The evening before he died he saw Percy, asked
about his hunting hi Ireland, and his musketry at Hythe,
and then said ' I 'm very sorry about G 's marriage,
you won't do that, Percy ? ' in a clear, kind voice. And
Percy answered 4 No, I won't.'
All the work I have to do here only increases if that
were possible my deep respect for his definite character
and my admiration of his justice and generosity.
Let me know if you are likely to be over any time after
Easter. Nothing could be more consoling than a good
stump with you round Regent's Park. My dear Mother
sends you her love and is wonderfully brave and well.
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
785
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
19th April 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved your letter because it
was like you. I am not going to guess and fret over the
mere machinery of living ' at my time of life.' But just
now, for these few weeks, partly because I have great,
deep waves of sadness sweeping through me from the loss
of Papa ; partly because that feeling impells me to try
at least to realise his objects ; partly because it is only
\yy using my brains and energy now to put the new life on
TO HIS MOTHER 445
a self-working basis, for the very purpose of freeing my
brain and energy for large national and imperial duties :
for these three reasons I am concentrating, just now,
on the ' mere machinery of life.' I hope I have not
4 fussed ' ; but, if I have at all, it is only to protect all
concerned from 4 fuss ' in the near future and the far
future. I believe that everything will work out well, if
I put in a little concentration, and I know that nothing
will work out if I don't. Also, I know that my chance of
concentrating is a short one. Yesterday, for example, I
was, at once, sucked into the Parliamentary Vortex and
found myself in charge of our side till 4.30 a.m. ! This
morning I was in charge because Arthur went to vote in
East Lothian, and nobody else was there except Lyttelton,
whom I sent to bed, as he had to speak to-night. Bless
you. I love you and, between us, we will see that every-
thing goes well. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
786
To his Mother
HOUSE OF COMMONS,
20th April 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, Rather a curious thing hap-
pened to-day. Our lawyer, H. White, told me that
Lloyd's bank had a small parcel of jewellery * which they
could only deliver to me. It has to be valued. So I
called on my way to the House at that Bank, after making
an appointment by telephone. They brought the little
parcel and made me open it to show it had not been
tampered with. It was sealed ; twice, on the outside
cover of brown paper, and once on the inside cover of
white paper, and addressed to Papa care of Herries and
Farquhar. I do not know the handwriting. The seals
show a crest of a stag's head, and on the shield a stag's
1 The jewellery had belonged to his great-grandmother Pamela, Lady
Edward Fitzgerald. It had been placed in the bank by his father, and owing
to some mistake in the receipt could not be traced by the bank a few years
before his father's death. Hence it was believed to have been lost.
446 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
head in a twisted rope across the shield. The date, on
both covers, is March 1871 ; just over forty years ago.
There was a small square case inside, about the size of a
case for a miniature ; and in it one narrow necklace of
rather small pearls, with a little round ornament of small
diamonds ; and second necklace consisting of an orna-
ment, a little gorget I suppose it might be called suspended
on a thin chain. I have told them to preserve the paper
covers in case the seals and handwriting can throw any
light on it.
Do you think these could be Aunt Helen's ? You once
told me that some packet of hers had been lost. We had
better not jump to conclusions ; or speak about it, until I
have set White on to tracing the seals and handwriting.
All love to you most beloved. Your loving son,
GEORGE.
787
To Mrs. Hinkson
44 BELORAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
May 29th, 1911.
MY DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I love ' The Dearest
of All.' The poems are beautiful and most true of this
sorrow which has come into both our lives. I will never
shrink from the dear Dead ; and am sitting in my Father's
chair at this moment. Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
CHAPTER XIV
JUNE 1911 TO JUNE 1913
Wookey Hole The ' Die Hard ' Movement His Silver Wedding
The Chapel at Clouds His Library His Son's Engagement and
Marriage Rural England.
788
To his Mother
THE SWAN HoTEr,, WKLLS,
SOMERSET, About 1th or 5th June 1911.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, Your letter about
the soft green boughs waving their welcome with the
noiseless motion of an owl's flight was delicious. And
here we are very happy in this glorious weather. Dear
Benny is lending us a motor that arrives to-day. But
we wanted to take this place in slowly first. We started
from Paddington at 10.30 yesterday, changed and had
luncheon-basket at Westbury ; changed at Witham, and
arrived at about 1.30. (When we have a motor the 10.30
from Paddington to Westbury will be an alternative route
to Clouds.) Apart from preliminaries in and around the
Cathedral, Palace, Deanery, Close, Chain-gate and St.
Cuthbert's I walked to Wookey Hole, of which I have
heard all my life. It is a cavern in the Mendip Hills
1| miles off. Out of it the River Axe flows, transparent
and green, into a wooded cleft in the hill-side. I found
the guide a youth at the farm with candles and a
can of paraffin oil and in we went. It is marvellous.
These are the entrails of hill in which our early forefathers
took refuge. When the lake-village by Glastonbury was
destroyed, the Celts Britons hid in this long hole, and
have left their pottery, and coins, and needles and pins,
and their bones, in the soil. This Wookey -Hole is but
447
448 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
one of five great galleries into the rock. The other four,
above it, used to be the bed of the river Axe ages and ages
ago ; now the Axe wells in pools, and flows down the
corridors in the lowest gallery ; but you can climb up
into the fourth with a rope-ladder. Sometimes the
passage is quite narrow and so low that you have to stoop ;
then it opens into great chambers, like chapter-houses,
75 feet high. If you scatter paraffin on the Axe and light
it, you can see into its green depths. I found out from
the guide that the leading spirit in the excavations is a
Mr. Balch, in the Post Office. I walked back over the
hill by a footpath with a distant view of Glastonbury Tor
and as I reached the ridge the Cathedral before me
in the evening light. Directly I got back I started out to
find Balch and unearthed him in a cottage with a garden
full of flowers and children. He was a man after my own
heart and in two minutes we were hard at it just as if
I was talking to Charles Gatty. My dear ! what a good
talk ! He has querns found in the cavern, in which he
has ground corn ; a beautiful silver denarius (Roman
coin) of 124 B.C. Now perpend ! How is that ? The
Roman conquest was in 70 A.D. I plumped at once for
the theory that it had filtered through the dim, but
civilized, Europe of which Morris tells his tales. And
Balch agreed with me. Then he showed me a piece of
pottery, striped, but with little holes punched between
the stripes, and scattered like constellations, or the chance
borings of book-worms. Yet each had been made with
an instrument. He asked me what I thought it could be ?
I said I have never seen anything like this, and he answered
' and no one else before six weeks ago when I found it.'
Then I hazarded ' Is there any repetition of the pattern,
because, if there is, you might find a likeness to oghams *
just dots in clay, instead of notches in stone.' And his
wide, speculating blue eyes, lit with almost insane enthu-
siasm. He gasped out, ' Yes, yes, there is repetition, I
sent it to London and only one of the Archaeological
1 Ogham is a particular kind of steganography, or writing in cypher, practised
by the Irish.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 449
Society doubts it 's accepted as writing ; and as wonderful
as Egyptian hieroglyphics only we can't read it.' He
has other pottery, with wave patterns, and rows of the
wooden combs with which those patterns were drawn
precisely as the ' British Workman ' 1 grained his oak,
and a little triangle with a hole in each corner. That
stumped me. But by the striation in the holes he proves
that it was an invention, perhaps of one man, for twisting
a triple cord ; and he can make a beautiful triple cord
with it. And so on, as the sun set, and the flowers lit
up and the moths came out and bats ; bats early in June !
When I told Sibell she telegraphed for Gatty. But we
do very well as we are. After dinner I took Sibell up to
the ridge and walked back by moonlight, and finished the
evening watching a cheap-Jack selling his wares under a
gas-flare in the market place.
To-day we went to early service at 8. Then I thoroughly
explored the Cathedral and at 12.15 got into the library
with Canon Holmes and had a debauch with old Manu-
scripts. They have a Papal Bull of 1061 with this excellent
abbreviation at the end Ix which is BENE VALETE
Fare you well, so I will say Fare well, darling. To-morrow
we do Glastonbury, sleep here again, and on Tuesday
motor to Dunster. I will plant the oak as soon as possible
after coronation day. But you must choose where he is
to live. With all love. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
789
To Hilaire Belloc
SWAN HOTEL, WELLS,
(SOMERSET), 6th June 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I did not answer your letter because
you threatened never to write again if I subjected myself
to that exertion. Also I was busy and could not see you
on Friday. I was busy because I meant to escape a
1 A book of comic pictures by Sullivan.
VOL. II. g F
450 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
good word for a great adventure on Saturday. And
escape I did with Sibell by the 10.30 a.m. from Paddington
to Westbury, where a slip-carriage pulled up in obedience
to immutable law (of gravitation). There I remembered
with a sharp pang that I had so waited, on the same plat-
form, on my last visit but one to my father, and my last
visit that was to find him as I had known him from my
childhood.
But I did not dwell on this, since my purpose was to
escape. I ' changed ' and went more towards the west
to Witham. There I ' changed ' again and went still
more towards the west in a panting little train by Shepton
Mallet to Wells. I thanked God, and the imbecility of
the English, for a train service which so far has pro-
tected Wells and left it habitable.
I went to Wells, for a number of reasons : imprimis
Sibell loves to live near a Cathedral ; (2) I wanted to see
the Cathedral again myself (3) I wanted to have a quiet
spell in the library (4) I did not know Somerset and
cherished a great regard for Somerset. It is a Diocese
which coincides with a settlement. It is a port indeed
it is of the Europe before Rome conquered Europe. It
was a settlement of the Belgse 800 or 900 years before
it was a settlement of Saxons. It was once upon a
time a system of sea-meres (Sea-mere-settlement)
akin to your Landes and to Venice of the Veneti. It
was and it is a part of Europe, and not a settlement
for coal-soot.
In the train I glanced but once, say twice at a Guide
book and learned that Wookey Hole was near Wells. I
walked from the station to this town whilst Sibell took
the one-horse bus. Twenty years ago there was a one-
horse bus at Chartres. That is still the vehicle at Wells.
As I walked I read ' Wookey Hole ' on a sign-post : and
that determined my fate.
[But here I must digress. I admit that the sign-posts
in Somerset are enamelled in white and blue like adver-
tisements of 4 Simplex ' or ' Cymplus ' water-closets. I
admit this. But take it that the boys of Somerset have
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 451
so bombarded the sign-posts with stones as to leave little
of the enamel and much of the rusted iron foundation.]
That sign-post decided my Fate. On the plea that I
needed exercise after a perfunctory turn round the
Cathedral I walked to Wookey Hole. It is a pure joy :
I think the only natural wonder and human legacy from
languages in this country which has not been spoilt. You
ask for a guide at a farm ; walk through somebody's
stable-gates, into somebody's orchard full of white chickens,
wander on by a path that undulates on one wooded bank
of a dell hewn by the river Axe and wait for the guide.
When he comes he is a farm lad of fifteen years armed
with two candles and a can of paraffin. With that boy
you penetrate into the entrails of the Mendip Hills. You
climb and descend tortuous corridors into great chambers,
like Chapter-Houses, and see beneath you the subter-
ranean River Axe. Now, the boy-guide speaks of one,
Mr. Balch, as the excavator. So when I emerged (like
Virgil) and returned to Wells I sought out Mr. Balch, the
assistant Post-Master, and found him in a cottage no
more with a garden full of flowers and his children. In
two minutes we were at it, talking as we talk together of
old times. That man has the fiery particle. He is a Celt,
with blue eyes. His pride is that Wookey Hole was not
inhabited in the Stone Age, but was a fastness of Celts,
who used bronze and iron and made pottery, and wove
and kept goats. He has an immense collection of their
works. He rejoices (as our grandfathers did over Waterloo)
because when the people who lived in the mere by Glaston-
bury were swept away, some Celts * our people ' held
on in that ' reduit ' of the limestone crags.
I could tell you of the coins and combs and needles and
querns that he has found. But I won't. Not I ! For I
purpose that you and I shall one day and quarn primum
start from Clouds, with a motor (merely to revert to old
routes and save time) ; and that we shall ourselves try
to understand the civilization of 300 B.C. (1) on the upland
of Salisbury plain (2) by the Sea-meres that being
reclaimed are now So-mer-set.
452 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Meanwhile I am sure of many things that I suspected
and of one that I never guessed. The one thing I never
guessed, though you may have known it for years, is that
the comb, as an ornament for a lady's hair, is the comb
with which she pulled down the warp on the web, when
weaving, and, sticking it in her back-hair (as a clerk puts
his pen behind his ear) retained it for an ornament and
symbol of married estate. It would be great fun to dis-
cover that the spinster only spun and that the mother
who wove stuck the weaving comb in her tresses. What
fun that would be ! And that is the kind of fun which I
mean to combine with shooting partridges for my younger
friends.
I have mentioned the comb. But I have three things
much more marvellous and enticing of which I will
say no word ; no I not one word even when we
meet. They are the bait that are to attract you to these
parts.
You may infer that I have cared only of archaeology.
You are wrong. I had a great time in the library also.
What I liked best, and far beyond an autograph of Erasmus,
an Aldine Aristotle etc. etc., was just a Papal Bull of
1061 A.D. five years before the conquest. It was a com-
fortable thing, in legible Latin ; Petrus et Paulus-^-or it
might be of last week. And it ended with an excellent
abbreviation as this :
=Bene Valete
and so say I to you and yours. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
P.S. I go to Dunster to-morrow. Then to Cirencester.
Then north and my next * address ' is Hewell Grange,
Redditch. (Hewell Grange, Redditch) on Friday. I shall
fetch London about the 16th.
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 458
790
To Charles T. Gatty
THE SWAN HOTEL, WELLS,
SOMERSET, 4th June 1911.
Facing the Cathedral.
MY DEAR CHARLES, This is the kind of hair-pins we
are. Sibell was so impressed by my excitement over Mr.
Balch assistant Post-master (for his profession) and a
genius at archaeology (for his glory and our delight) that
she telegraphed incontinently to you to join us. I knew
it was impossible. But the ebullition expressed our feel-
ings. Let me explain at once. . . . Mr. Balch burrows
into the entrails of the Mendip Hills and emerges from
Troglodyte habitations, laden with flint implements, bone
implements, bronze implements, iron implements, and
the bones of our predecessors in Britain. He has been a
pure joy to me a Celt with speculation in his clear blue
eyes, who rejoices, as our grandfathers did over Waterloo,
because in his opinion (buttressed by an array of facts)
when the Lake Village near Glastonbury was blotted out,
' our people ' as he says stuck it out through the Roman
occupation, returning to the caverns of the Stone Age
and the Hyaena, and held their own till the last waves
of Saxon conquest pushed them over the Parrot river, and
even into Wales.
Having explained why I am pleased, I will now revert
to the Historic Method. By this device you will know
all the time that * Balch ' is looming beyond the normal
expectations and fulfilments of a visit to an ancient
Cathedral.
We left Paddington at 10.30 a.m. yesterday, Saturday
3rd June, 1911. It seems years since to me. Our ' slip '
carriage stopped at Westbury in obedience to the law of
gravitation. We changed and went West by Frome to
Witham. We changed and went West again by Shepton
Mallet to Wells. Thanks to the imperfect railway system
of our Motherland, Wells is habitable. We arrived about
454 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
1.30 on a sultry day. Perfunctory glances at the * Guide
to Somerset ' had as I travelled told me that ' Wookey
Hole * was near Wells. I walked to this Inn, whilst Sibell
took the one-horse 'bus, and, so, passed a signpost on
which I plainly read Wookey Hole. This determined my
fate. After a preliminary stroll round the Cathedral
and that is wonderful for the statues, and specially the
statue of William the Conqueror, with his elbows more
than akimbo by 45 degrees and the chain gate, etc., I
said to Sibell that I should be bilious if I did not take a
walk. So, on the plea of health, and the cheerful disposi-
tion that springs from health, and is essential to a holiday,
I started along the road (knowing no better) for Wookey
Hole. I vaguely knew the name and was informed by
the Guide book that Boyd Dawkins found a Hyaena cave
there 50 and more years ago. That was all my know-
ledge, but enough to direct my purpose.
I found the village of Wookey Hole, and was told I
could get a guide to the Cavern at the farm by the paper-
mill. All in due order, a smiling maiden at the farm set
me on the track to the cavern, and said the guide would
come. Charles, as Sir Thomas Malory frequently remarks,
' all this was but enchauntement,' for Wookey Hole is no
place of holiday resort, like Stonehenge. When you leave
the road, by the Farm, you pass through a stable gate into
an orchard full of white chickens ; you see a little path
from the orchard beginning to climb and fall and climb
along the left side of a steep dell, which promises to become
a gorge, with the river Axe that is so soon to make paper
translucent and green over white sand below you. You
sit down and await the guide. He appears a youth of
15 or 16 years, with two candles and a can of paraffin oil.
He speaks in the language of Barnes, 1 which is easier to
read than to hear. Away you go with him along the dell
that becomes strange. It is heavily wooded on both sides ;
there is a hanging mist over the water. The path rises,
and, as the river Axe is now 50 feet below you, issuing
1 The Dorsetshire poet.
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 455
from the rock, you are confronted by a beetling crag of
limestone, from every ledge of which the jackdaws discuss
your advent. In the base of that crag there is a little
locked door 4' 6" high. You unlock it. The youth
advises me to leave my stick inside, I add ' and my hat.'
He says * No, it might save you from a blow on the head
later on.' We light our tapers and go in. The narrow
passage, between boulders, and threatened by hanging
boulders, descends and mounts as the path had undulated.
Only it is inside the mountain. He throws a flask of
paraffin on the rock and lights it with the taper, now and
again, to assist climbing or descent. Then he began to
talk about what sounds like Mr. Bosh. I become in-
terested in Mr. Bosh. I ask how tactlessly ! him to
spell the name. He thinks there is a r and an h in it.
But, anyway, this is where his hero found a skeleton of
a man and the skeleton of two goats and pottery. And
this shewing a sheer cliff up to the left, is where his
hero gets up by a rope ladder into other galleries and
halls. After descending a steep incline, so steep and
long that we reach the level of the River Axe, we come
into a great cavern, like a Chapter House, 75 feet high,
with a diameter of 40 yards, and there is the Rivei
Axe. He throws paraffin on its surface, lights it, and
reveals cool depths of translucent green over white sand.
We go on, and do this twice more. For there are three
great chapter-houses inside the hill, and more beyond,
now blocked by the water-level. Balch has explored
them when the water is drawn off by the mill, half a
mile behind us.
We return. I walk back by a footpath over the hill,
with Glastonbury Tor six miles to my right and Wells
Cathedral in front of me. I miss Sibell, and ask for
Balch. I need him. I am conducted by the 'bus-driver
of the Inn to an alley leading to a cottage garden full of
flowers and children. The 'bus-driver goes to the back
and hammers. Balch, the blue-eyed Celt appears at the
front door. I announce myself, and my dear Charles
456 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
in two minutes I am ' up to the hilt ' with him as
though you and I were talking together. My dear, this
man is a man to know. He has plans and sections. He
has written ' The Nether- world of the Mendips.' He has
his rows of flint implements and his photographs of all
else. He is perfectly simple and wide-eyed with enthu-
siasm ; but a true scholar. There are the querns from
Wookey Hole which he has mounted, and with which he
has ground flour to taste what it was like. Then come
the simple questions, 4 What do you think of this Denarius
of Marcia 124 B.C. ? It is nearly 200 years before the
Roman occupation.' I say I think it was not hoarded
by a Roman, but that it filtered through the Europe of
124 B.C. He agrees. We get on to Rhodes' gold coin
of Antoninus at Zimbabwe in Rhodesia. He knows all
about that and has a brother there. Back, then, to
Wookey Hole and Conundrum No. 2. He shows me
the bulk of an earthenware jar with stripes from top to
bottom, and between them holes deliberately made with a
wooden tool, but disposed well like the constellations,
or the chance holes made by bookworms in wooden bind-
ings. And he asks what I think of that. I say * I have
never seen anything like it.' He answers, * Nor anyone
else till six weeks ago when I found it in Wookey Hole.
I 've sent it to London. What do you think it can be ? '
I felt excited and said, ' If there 's any repetition of
pattern, or anything like the oghams, holes in clay, instead
of notches in stone, you may have got a script.' His
blue eyes blazed. He said * They all think that in London
except one man. We read the Egyptian hieroglyphs and
dig in Crete ; why don't we try to understand the things
here ? ' I said, ' I hope you can stay here.' He answered,
4 1 have stayed for sixteen years and prevented my pro-
motion, and now my friend, who worked with me, is
gone.' I asked if the P.M.G. knew of his work. He
answered ' No.'
Then he came to Conundrum No. 3. A bronze equi-
lateral triangle with a round hole in each angle. I was
TO CHARLES T. GATTY 457
absolutely flummoxed. I thought of silly solutions an
ornament for harness stuck on with gold pins, etc. any-
way a plaque of some sort. But he said ' No ; each of
those holes is striated. This is the invention perhaps
of one man for making a perfect rope with a triple cord ;
and I 've made them with it.'
Well, my dear, I must not go on any longer. But this
is a man to know and a place to study. I asked him to
luncheon with Sibell and self to-day. He accepted. But
I saw it would be better not to press. I said, 4 This is
my holiday at Wells. But it 's your holiday too, and
you must not bother about me. I live within easy motor
reach and have a friend, Charles Gatty, who loves these
things, and we must come to see you together.' So he
gave me his address, and showed me a short way back to
the Inn, and remained in his cottage garden full of
flowers and his children, just as the moths and bats were
coming out in the sunset air.
Sibell was an angel about my delay and merely tele-
graphed to you. I walked her out after dinner by
moonlight to the heights ; went to early service at 8,
and collared Canon Holmes and got into the Library
at 12.15.
The Library ! But for the Stone Age and the Celtic
resistance to Rome and the Saxons, I should have been
wild over the library. Mark you, there is no break in
the Deans of Wells. It never had a Monastery. So
Henry viu, of uxorious memory, did not smash it. Free-
man says that here are more ecclesiastical buildings still
devoted to worship and learning, than in any other city
of Europe. And that is so. We have a Cathedral, a
Palace, a Deanery, a close, a Theological College in the
buildings of the 14th Century, and miles of high
walls overgrown with saxifrage and Valerian * lilac
d'Espagne.'
What I liked best in the Library above other treasures
e.g. an autograph of Erasmus and a Pliny by Jensen
I think is a Bull of 1061 five years before the Conquest
458 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
in legible Latin Petrus et Paulus, etc. With this
perfect abbreviation at the end
=Bene Valete
and so say I. Yours affectionately, GEORGE W.
P.S. We do Glastonbury to-morrow. Go to Dunster
Tuesday. To Cirencester Wednesday, and wind up on
Friday the 9th at Hewell Grange, Redditch.
It is evident to me that you and I must motor to Wells
from Clouds, and stay there two or three days, and hear
all that Balch has to say, and see all that Balch has to
show.
Also, perhaps, you being in touch both with Hudson
and Archaeology and loving the Celts might let Lloyd
George know that Balch ought to have a Chair of Celtic
archaeology in a Celtic University, or that he should, at
least, be curator of a Celtic museum.
791
To his Mother
KING'S HEAD,
CIRENCESTER, 1th June 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, S. S. and I have been drinking
in this miraculous June weather, so I just write to tell you,
Darling, that we do know how wonderful it is. We have
never had a motor. I have known for long that S. S.
would like to do a tour in England, Benny lent us a motor
and here we are. I told you a little bit about Wells
and forget where I left off. But that does not matter,
for the beauty of these days is continuous, like Eternity.
It has no end and no beginning ; but pervades.
I have seen some things in these two or three days that
belong to eternal beauty. And I enjoyed them all the
more because a rush south from Dunster to Exeter,
through * scenery ' (The Exe river valley) set an edge on
my rapture over things that are so much more beautiful
than * scenery.' If I tried to tell you of orchards, and the
horizon of the Down and many churches and some tombs,
TO HIS MOTHER 459
and high walls with Valerian in full bloom, and one rose-
bush near Glastonbury and the after-glow this evening,
and the moon, with a planet hard-by, this night : I should
drop into the language of Bottom the Weaver. ' This
shall be called Bottom's dream because it has no bottom.'
Wessex in such a June is profound and ethereal. I
have learned much history and invented more.
But to take the bones of our voyage : We left Wells
yesterday morning ; sped across the old sea Mere
(whence Somerset Seo meare soetan) past Glaston-
bury, the Isle of Avalon (built by Hugh of the other
Avalon in Burgundy) up the shoulder of the Polden Hills
(here was the rose-bush) and then down the spine of
them (they are low amicable hills) with the plain of Sedge-
moor to the Quantock on our left (or West), and the inland
mystery of Avalon enclosed by the Mendips on our Right
(or East) and so, turning West, to Bridgewater and over
the Parrett river (with ships in it) that was for over 100
years the frontier between Saxons and British. We sped
then along the west of the Bristol Channel to Dunster,
The Priory Church is beautiful, the screen right across
the church, from wall to wall cutting off both circles
as well as the Choir, is evidently the model which
Bodley has imitated and profaned. Beyond it were many
monuments of the de Mohuns and one that made me gasp.
It had a head on a cusp one of four heads. But the one
[Drawing]
I have marked X is of such surpassing beauty of the
beauty of 1220 A.D. that I go on bowing to it like a china
Mandarin. Need I say that there is no copy, or drawing,
or photograph or cast of it in all England. But there it
is, and also in my mind's eye for ever.
Then, as we have done forty-six miles before luncheon,
as I knew S. S. liked to see all Cathedrals and as Exeter
was but another forty-two away, I plunged right South
to Exeter along the Valley of the Exe, and we watched
it grow from a spring to a river. It was a glorious day.
460 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
But that valley is ' scenery ' and Exeter Cathedral is not
of the 18th, still less of the 12th, century. It has two
Norman towers, oddly enough, perhaps uniquely, at each
end of the transept. And it has one tomb of my Black
Prince period. (There is no photograph of that tomb.)
Then back those forty-two miles to Dunster.
We are glad we did this. Because it is glorious to move
through the air on such a day and because it made to-day
more beautiful. To-day, with a fresh wind blowing and
a power for seeing for forty miles, we came back up the
Polden Hills, saw the Tor of Glastonbury and understood
its place in the Europe of 300 B.C.
Here I digress, to give, or anticipate, a view long held
which I focussed at dinner and, now, knew to be true.
Near Glastonbury there is a lake village. Archaeologists
start with the idea that Lake Dwellings are primitive and
almost savage. They are surprised to find, combs, bronze
bowls, etc., etc. They don't see two things. (1) the point
is, that if people lived thus on mud-piles in a swamp,
other people in 300 B.C. must have lived far otherwise and
to more splendid purpose on the Isle of Avalon. The
Lake Dwelling was to Avalon what Pentonville is to St.
James's. (2) The second is, that a few years before 200 B.C.
the * Gauls ' captured Rome, and overran Asia Minor.
Now, think of those two things. Do they not demon-
strate the absurdity of considering all that happened before
the Roman conquest of Britain as barbarous and primitive.
I could go on. But what a digression ! I conclude it.
We got back to Wells and shot up the East shoulder of
the Mendips on to the uplands and lunched at Ammer-
down with Lord and Lady Hylton. We started again at
4 p.m. through Trowbridge, passing the old Inn at which
Monmouth slept the night before the Battle of Sedgemoor.
Then we turned due North to Melksham, and Chippenham
and Malmesbury. At Malmesbury we had tea, and saw
all that is left of the Abbey. I cannot explain my satis-
faction at being back architecturally in the 12th and
early 13th century. But I know. Without attempting
argument I assert ; and, if challenged, I avoid discussion
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 461
to silently believe, that the art of 1180 to 1230 was a
perfect expression of man's tenure of this planet ; There
it was ; and there, thank God, some of it, is. Then we
called at Charlton ; a good Jacobean House. Then we
shot, further north, to this place, Cirencester. I had
associated it with rhymes to ' sister ' and Percy's ' point-
to-point races.' Instead of which the church though
late is wonderful. There is nothing tremendous between
true ' Romanesque ' (Norman and transitional, if you
like) and the ethereal decadent (?) attempt to say ' I
will build my Palace of God out of Glass.' This Church
is a wonder, of aspiration and stalwart discovery. Because
evidently, to the eye when they pulled down the old
thick walls of the Early English nave, in order to build
four naves, which you can see through (such is the extent
of the glass) they said to themselves ' But will the old
Tower stand ? ' They asked themselves that question.
And they answered it by two stone flying buttresses such
as I have never seen : for they go from the shoulders of the
Tower right down into the earth. And they undulate to
leave free the West windows of the naves. This was long
after dinner in the after-glow. The tower was rosy from
the after-glow and, when you went beyond it, a dark blue
concentration of stone against a star-lit aquamarine sky.
But, to me, there was something greater and more homely
and immemorial. My Henry n. had built Almshouses
on arches. And there they are. For nearly eight hundred
years his foundation has sheltered the wrecks of men.
Well, well, enough, if there could ever be enough.
The moral is : to travel, and in England, and in June.
Your most loving son, GEORGE.
792
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
June 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Hurrah for ' More Peers.' I found
them on my return yesterday and took both copies to
462 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
dinner with Westminster ; so that we could read aloud
to each other at the same time. And this we did with
glee.
Let me know when you will be in London and let me
see you soon. Yours ever, G. W.
793
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S. W.,
20th June 1911.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, This is your dear
Birthday and I have not written in time ! But I am
thinking of you and loving you and wishing you many
many returns to be loved by me and all of us. I saw
Percy who had loved being at Clouds.
I now send you back your little tree notices. The
Valuers have been here. The ' expert ' says the picture
of Percy O'Brien Wyndham is it ? that hangs in the
front drawing-room over the cabinet between the two
doors is a Romney. I wonder if it is. And he made a
great fuss over the Monk in a red hood eating gruel, that
is in your boudoir.
I expect he means to crack it on both of them.
Darling I am longing to see you. S. S. and I enjoyed
our motor and when we have yours, you and I must go
to Wells.
I will write you a proper letter soon. This is only to
send you all my love, Beloved. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
794
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
29/A June 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, The last few days have been
rather strenuous for me. I had said, weeks ago, that I
would move the first resolution at the Annual meeting of
TO HIS MOTHER 463
the National Service League. Lord Roberts asked me
to do this. And the debate on ' The Declaration of
London ' came on at the same time. So, on Saturday to
Tuesday I had to study all the voluminous material on
two big and complicated questions, and to prepare a
speech on each. Then the usual things happened. I
spoke to a full audience in the Queen's Hall on ' National
Service ' and no paper except the ' Morning Post ' re-
ported me. In respect of the speech on ' Declaration ' I
was told to speak to-day, then telephoned for to speak
last night, then told no more. So I had to speak suddenly
at a few minutes notice. Under all these discouraging
circumstances nothing but my love of Papa would have
helped me to prepare, at all, a speech on the Declaration
of London. But, just because he worked so well against
the ' Declaration of Paris ' in ' the days of ignorance,' and
the House was ' counted out ' on the night when he had
first place, I did, superstitiously, and filially, work at the
second speech. So, when, quite suddenly I had to get
up, I spoke for forty-five minutes in the House.
I did this work as a tribute to Papa, who understood
forty years ago, what the people are learning now. But
for my memory of his undeserved neglect, I could not
have gone on. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
I had such happy dreams after making up my mind to
go on.
795
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W..,
1st July 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I loved getting your letter.
It made me glad to have spoken to the House and glad to
have written to you about it.
The ills from which England is suffering demand a long
cure. I may not live to see her convalescence. But I
think we have 4 touched bottom,' or sunk so deep that
we must believe in rising.
464 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I do believe that we shall rise and emerge. And I know
that when that happens all men will revert to revere the
memory of those who, like Papa, saw clearly in the dazzle
of false sunshine. My duty is to see clearly in the gloom
of real darkness. I do see, and I shall act. Your most
loving son, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. I am not gloomy. There is less light. But the
things are here in England. We shall see them when the
sun rises.
796
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELQRAVE SQUARED S.W.,
1st July 1911.
MY DEAR, BELLOC, The ' British Revolution ' is huge
and subtile. I have been reading it to Westminster and
he has carried off my copy. ' By God 'tis good and if
you like 't, you may.' We do like it.
Although you and I and Westminster and e.g. Sir
Francis Hopwood let us say differ over theories, all
men are agreed that what is going on is absurd. The
Party System, and the House of Lords, and the bumptious
Colonials and the Humanitarians and the Socialist gaolers
of children are absurd. Let them go, and if to Hell, why
not ? Unless they go there ; everybody else will.
I wish I could laugh at it, to stop crying like Byron.
But I can do neither. It is too ridiculous for laughter
and too sad for tears. It is only silly. England like
poor Ophelia is drowning herself to echoes of Bawdry
and simple flowers. Meanwhile other Powers are more
philosophic than Hamlet and more resolute than Fortin-
brass. * Under these circumstances ' and Hurrah for
a cliche I will wear no willow. Let us rather enact
what faded prints report of our ancestors. Yours ever,
G. W.
TO WILFRID WARD 465
797
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
3rd July 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Thanks for a great letter. I hope
that you will heckle Baron de Forest.
And now you are never to talk of not coming in, or of
not proposing yourself, at any hour on any day : for many
reasons of which I will instance a few, e.g. (1) this is the
basis of friendship. (2) It is my protection against those
who are not my friends eating into my life or, to change
the metaphor, perturbing its orbit. By a friend I am
never perturbed. (3) By coming in and talking about
the Declaration you enabled me to speak on it, the day
after my National Service speech. (4) Had you refrained
I should have addled my brains over one speech instead
of clearing them over two. (5) I insist on seeing you when
you who are really busy have a spare moment.
Agadir. ' Does my memory serve me ' in ' seeming to
suggest ' that you told me the French greased the boots
of their Infantry to prevent the occupation of this very
place and would have fought on that issue ? Yours
ever, GEORGE W.
798
To Wilfrid Ward
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
July 19th, 1911.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I have read the eleven slips. But
I doubt if, beyond chronicling that fact, I can say more
that is worth saying. For, at this moment, I am not only
watching, but taking part, in the political welter, com-
parable to the theological welter of seventy years ago and
onwards. And this demands all my energy. But and
this is my excuse for writing at all it does not exhaust it.
On the contrary, your acute analysis of Newman's
temperament and intellect in a theological whirlpool,
VOL. II. 2 G
466 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
helps me to grasp the antics of my comrades in a political
whirlpool.
Let me jump to the moral. The moral is that action
(by martyrdom or championship) does more at the moment
and, often, for many years, than can be effected by a
balance of acumen and virtue.
On the other hand, the strange, or rare, (same thing)
combination in one man of ' sceptical ' acumen with
* military ' loyalty if he has the gift of speech leaves
a cue to the progressive integration of Truth, which
becomes intelligible and illuminating after seventy or one
hundred and fifty years. Then, and then only, is that
man acknowledged as something else, or beyond, a martyr
and champion. It is then seen that he was a seer.
The mechanical difficulty with which you are to contend
consisted in the anachronism of writing the life of Newman
50 or 100 years before the world can be expected to detect
the prophet as the third person (if I may use an analogy
which is not profane) in a Trinity, which includes the
more obvious champion and martyr. For any great
cause there is needed the champion of the past and the
past is the Eternal Father of the present and future
there, is, also needed, the Martyr to the exigencies of the
present, in conflict with tradition ; and there is also
needed the Prophetic soul, proceeding.
It is this proceeding which gravels the critics. They
can dimly perceive and, in part, assess the creative tradi-
tion ; or else, they can assert the majestic agency of the
irreconcileable offspring. But they rarely connote the
two ; and the critics never apprehend the ghostly emana-
tion from that conflict which is the Comforter of the elect.
Now, to drop this parable, you have tried to explain
the co-incidence in Newman of the Champion and Martyr ;
and, not satisfied with that attempt, you have proceeded
to invite a world-wide acknowledgment of a ghostly
emanation from his alternations of triumph and despair.
You are right ! But you are so right that you are in
the same boat with him. That is to say that you are in
the boat that is always apparently wrecked by the
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 467
waves of the world that sin against the Holy Ghost. But
that is the only boat that in reality reaches the Haven
of Peace.
I know that boat ; and am trying very ineffectually
to navigate it through my little cess-pool of Politics.
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
799
To his Mother
44 BELGBAVE SQUARE, S. W.,
2,Qth July 1911. 10 a.m.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, If anything could
make me love you more your letter would. But nothing
can as I love you all together and your letter is a piece
of your own self.
If only the 304 Peers who mean to ' walk out ' of
History into limbo and nothingness had been born of
Mothers like you History would be different.
' Non ragionem di lor mal guarda a passu.'
Now I am back to the fight. Bless you, darling. Ever
most loving son, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
800
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELGBAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
29th July 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I have read your article on the
Declaration with interest and approval. But don't you
think that amendment should not be confined to food
i.e. to Food as conditional Contraband ?
Surely we ought also to insist on amendment in respect
of the destruction of neutrals when taking them to a port
involves ' danger ' ... to the operations in which the
captor is at the time engaged ?
The destruction of neutrals in 1904 by Russia shocked
the world. We protested and received some assurances.
The practice was discontinued. When it was repeated
in 1905, we protested and Russia replied it was a mistake
468 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
due to their maritime disorganisation. Surely it is pre-
posterous for us to ask the world to sanction the de-
predations which shocked the world at that time and
conduced, perhaps more than anything else, to precipi-
tate an attempt at improving International Law ? As
a minimum of compromise (1) Food should not be con-
traband unless obviously for the use of armed Forces
and (2) Neutrals should never be destroyed unless (1)
carrying munitions of war and (b) no other course is open
to the captor.
Please read the report in Hansard of the speech I made
yesterday. The ' Times ' report is an outrage. Yester-
day they * boycotted ' my speech on National Service.
To-day they mutilate my speech on the Convention and
put (hear, hear) at the end instead of ' cheers.'
This declaration of London is a bad business. Yours
ever, GEORGE W.
801
To Wilfrid Ward
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
July 30th, 1911.
MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter needs no excuse. It
states simply what is in the minds of most men.
There is a fierce indignation against those who threaten
to vote with the Government against their own convic-
tions, for the sole purpose of preventing the creation of
peers at all costs, including the cost of a general acquies-
cence in a policy which the majority of Englishmen believe
to be disastrous. That indignation will burn up the
Unionist party if this outrage is committed.
Against the Peers who have formed no judgment of
their own nothing can be said if they follow the advice of
Lord Lansdowne. But among those who have announced
their intention of * walking out ' with Lord Lansdowne
there are some who will do so from a sense of loyalty,
although they have formed a judgment opposed to his
view, and are sincerely convinced that they ought if
free to vote against the Government.
TO WILFRID WARD 469
There is a strong feeling that Lord Lansdowne ought to
restore liberty of action to men whose consciences are
wounded by what he asks them to do, and that he ought
to denounce the project of any Unionist Peer voting with
the Government.
Those of us who act with Lord Halsbury will not yield
to any pressure. The Peers among us will vote with
him, and the members of the House of Commons will
support their action in the country.
We shall not publish a list of Peers who will vote, for
two reasons. In the first place, the essence of our cause,
is that members of a second chamber ought to be inde-
pendent, and ought not to be ' items ' in a voting machine.
We hold that their personal independence is necessary to
the corporate independence of a second chamber ; just as
we believe that the corporate independence of a second
chamber affords the last safeguard of the nation's right
to pronounce on grave measures before they are decided
by the Party-caucus. In the second place ; if we with-
hold our list those who say they will vote with the Govern-
ment must discover for themselves the exact number of
4 black-legs ' needed to consummate the ruin of the House
of Lords and destroy the constitution for ever. We are
not going to measure the margin of treachery required to
complete so infamous an act. They must attempt that
nauseous task unaided save by the authors of the Revolu-
tion and the Harmsworth Press. We believe that they
cannot effect their purpose and are determined to defeat
it. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
802
To Wilfrid Ward
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S. \V.,
August 4th, 1911.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I must write a line of thanks for
your letter and enclosure, although I am tired. Our
Meetings to-night at Chelsea and Holborn which were
only advertised to put hearts in our troops have been
passionate triumphs.
470 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I cannot explain the situation, for it changes from hour
to hour.
Last night the Government decided to risk defeat
without creation of Peers ; as preferable to risking both
defeat and creation of Peers.
To-night on the brink of our Meetings something
like a white flag reached us by devious channels from the
' Abstainers.'
But nothing will shake or divide, or puzzle us. We
shall fight on Wednesday unless all our opponents friends
and foes surrender. And we shall stand the racket of
a ' stricken field.'
If we are beaten by Unionist abstentions and deser-
tions to the Revolution all is lost except and for this
we fight the one chance of restoring the constitution
which resides in our refusal to abandon the constitution.
If we win on Wednesday we win * the day ' ; but know
quite well that victory will be the mere beginning of a
long campaign.
I do not share Froude's regret, and yours at the absence
of public response to Norfolk's letter. He has saved the
State. We ask no more than he has done. It is enough
if the Peers are not deaf to the call of Honour and blind
to the signals of common sense.
All through the days when the Court, the Bishops, the
Press, and both Party machines were firing at us, with
threats and ridicule and bitter blows I have believed.
I told Sibell there would be a miracle. And behold ! !
we have the country with us and what is far more a
sure faith that will survive defeat and save this nation.
Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
803
To Wilfrid Ward
ST. FAGAN CASTLE,
CARDIFF, August 13th, 1911.
MY DEAR WILFRID, The issue is tragic, even more so
than you would deduce from our numbers 114 in the
TO WILFRID WARD 471
Lobby. We knew that we should reach that figure
there or thereabouts. But we hoped I did almost to
the end that we should get a rally from independent
Peers who had not declared themselves. We thought
that our case, being the best case, would win votes during
the debate ; and the more so, since our speakers by their
sincerity ought in our judgment to have prevailed over
the insincere and base and timid.
I went through our list of promises with Willoughby
de Broke, for the hundredth, and last time on Friday
morning. We numbered 115. In view of the chances
and changes of life it was a splendid result to poll 114.
In Politics we are always told to deduct 10% from pro-
mises. But our Poll represents over 99% of the result
indicated by promises.
Of course there were slight variations of detail. Aber-
corn deserted in the afternoon and Mayo was too ill
to travel. As against these two we got Norfolk and
Halifax. There was only one missing whom I have not
traced.
Our estimate on the morning was that taking gross
numbers, our 115 versus all official Liberals adding to
them ten Bishops and twenty-one renegades, there
would be a tie at 115.
Some of those who played the poorest part, kept assur-
ing me that there would be few renegades. I was shewn a
list of nine. But I replied that we put them much higher.
To all intents and purposes 37 men voted against their
convictions and the Archbishops and Bishops were 13
instead of 10.
It is a bad business. For the moment I cannot see the
future.
There is no getting away from the fact that Unionist
Peers and Bishops carried the day for single-chamber
tyranny, knowing that it inevitably involves Home Rule
and Disestablishment in Wales ; and that they did so
at the bidding of Harmsworth Press which was directed
and informed by Curzon and Midleton. I would and
I will dismiss the suspicion that our Leaders connived
472 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
at this tragedy. I will believe that they were blind and
obstinate. . . .
Even so, I cannot see any Future. Perhaps there is no
future. I try to dismiss this as an effect of fatigue and
prefer to think that a mist has risen between me and the
future, and that it will evaporate and reveal some horizon
again.
After a short rest, during which we have agreed to say
nothing, my Friends will meet and consider the new
situation.
I cannot get to ' Lotus ' next Sunday and will write
in a day or two to say if Monday the 21st is possible.
I have not shaped my views and must await a clearer
vision. But they tend to condense round the three
propositions :
(1) There must be action.
(2) Action must not be hostile to the abstainers, but
(3) It must be separate from them.
So it seems to me. But I must rest and think and
confer. Then we must act. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
804
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
24/A August 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I never answered your last
beloved letter. I go to Saighton to-morrow for only a day
or two. As they have cancelled Army Manoeuvres a bitter
disappointment to me I must arrange for a Camp and
training in Cheshire. I am coming to Clouds on the 31st
vrith Perf and Guy and no one else just to look round at
the partridges and shoot a few for your dinner.
I cannot write yet about the Betrayal in the House of
Lords. But I have not been idle. I should have wished
to act at once. But others cannot be got together at
present. Still I am not letting the grass grow under my
feet and the 4 Conspirators ' are in close touch through the
post. I am afraid that the news about Germany is worse.
TO HIS SISTER, MADELINE 478
I was very pleased with my Yeomanry as I had only
20 applications for leave. I should not have granted
more than ten and would have brought out the regiment
practically at full strength.
I shall now put my back into training them and then
prepare for hard politics all the Autumn. All love to you,
Most darling, and may England pull through the betrayal
of politicians, strikes of socialists and menace of Germany.
Anny way, we have to help Her all we can ! Your most
loving son, GEORGE.
805
To his Sister, Madeline
SAIGHTON,
27.viii.ll.
MOST DARLING MANENAi, I must send you a line of
intense regret over the cancelled manoeuvres . It is cruel
to lose such a joy. But there it is precisely where most
of the things one cares about are. It was a shrewd blow
to be beaten in the Lords by 13 Prelates and 31 traitors
and 6 mountebanks. My ' book ' on the morning of the
10th allowed for 10 Prelates and 21 traitors. And,
behold, there were more.
But so things befall in these days.
And we must begin all over again like Robert Bruce's
tiresome spider.
I have begun the manoeuvre business ' over again ' by
getting a capital camp in the Park here at Eaton for train-
ing. I have fixed up the water supply, settled a road for
access, etc., etc., and to-day walked 9 miles with Percy
over the adjoining country making out schemes for field-
days.
I mean to give them the best training I can, because
like Cassandra (who was always right though never re-
garded) I take a grave view of the Franco-German mess
in Morocco. It is always 100 to 1 against war till war
breaks out. But one must treat the off-chance seriously.
474 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Indeed, I cannot take the cancelling of our manoeuvres
because of ' drought ' seriously. They were cancelled
the day after an inch of rain fell. On the same day the
German manoeuvres were cancelled I don't know why.
The French manoeuvres were cancelled because of ' foot
and mouth disease.' Our Indian manoeuvres were can-
celled because of drought. And the French Ambassador
to Berlin went to bed, instead of going to Berlin. All
this is as Alice in Wonderland puts it ' curiouser and
curiouser.' So I train here close to headquarters and
give no leave.
If you, Charlie and Poussins all or any of you are
left rather ' flat ' by the cancelling, do come all or any
to Saighton for our training, 9th to 23rd. Your loving
brother, GEORGE.
806
To Charles T. Gaily
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 2.ix.ll.
MY DEAR CHARLES, This is a scribble, to try and secure
you for a little archaeology from Clouds.
I hope to get back here from Yeomanry on 23rd
September, and have suggested 25, 26, 29th or 30th for
a visit to my friend Mr. Balch, of Wookey Hole. He
writes that all his Celtic ' finds ' have now been returned
from London, and that he has a good deal to show me.
He would like to see any of my books about Celtic
inscriptions in Ireland.
My Yeomanry trains 9th-23rd in the Park at Eaton.
I wonder if you could come to Saighton first and see some-
thing of Sibell, Benny and self ? Then we could travel
back together on the 23rd. We might motor all the way
in the new motor and look at Stokesay Castle en route.
Yours ever, GEORGE W.
TO HIS NIECE, CLARE TENNANT 475
807
To his Niece, Clare Tennant
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLK,
SALISBURY, 4th September 1911.
DARLING LITTLE CLARE, I loved your letter and the
Equestrian portrait. I shall frame it and keep it in my
room. It is very good and natural.
Percy and I have 8 hunters here. They love being
visited. When they hear my steps, out comes a long row
of long faces on long necks over the bars of loose-boxes.
Then they rub me with their noses and think in their dear,
slow, puzzled way about hunting ; remembering dimly
that there is something else in life more glorious than
eating.
On Wednesday to their huge surprise at 6 o'clock in
the morning they will see the Hounds and the Hunt
Servants' liveries. Then they will remember it all dis-
tinctly, and give a little squeak of joy and throw a buck.
But the summer flies will remind them that it is only cub-
hunting, and their slow thoughts will revolve back to the
cool comfort of their stables. But on Thursday Terence
and Cardinal will say 4 Hullo, going by train, are we ? '
and get into horse-boxes by force of habit. When they
get out in the evening they will think they are going
to their stable at Saighton, and wonder why they are
ridden to Eaton. Then they will see white tents and
remember the call of trumpets and the other glory of
mimic war, and * the thunder of the Captains and the
Shouting.' So they will be very happy doing the things
that their ancestors did with Man's ancestors 15,000
years ago. For the men of the first Stone Age drew some
excellent portraits of long-faced horses on the tusks of
mammoths ; and, we must suppose, loved the horses.
Terence and Cardinal will feel that it is wise to go on
doing what horses have learned in 5000 generations to do.
They feel this. They will not think it, for they are happier
than philosophers and feel things an art which philo-
476 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
sophers lose the knack of. They will see and smell and
hear that, in camp, there are as many horses as men, and
be very proud of the equality, and of the number of horses
all pawing the ground and grunting together. When the
silver-throated trumpets blow ' Feed ' ; they will all
neigh together ; partly because they are always ready to
eat ; but, also, because they feel a strange thrill in their
slow brains when one sound makes them remember one
thing distinctly : the strange thrill that Man felt when
he was learning to speak.
The next morning when the trumpet sings ' Troops
right wheel ' round they will go so suddenly that the
recruit more ignorant than they will nearly tumble
off on the near side. Thus, again, will they feel the joy
of companionship with Man, heightened by generous
emulation in the Arts of Peace and War. Your loving
uncle, GEORGE.
808
To Hilaire Belloc
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 6th September 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I write a few words of companion-
ship. This letter is not to suggest or settle anything. It
is only, in written words, that which, in spoken words, is
called by the young and careless ' passing the time of
day.' For this is a profound truth and a nice discrimina-
tion between categories. The old, who are wise and
careful, say * It 's a fine day ' or, perplexed by doubt, ask
' Do you think it will rain ? ' But the young and the
very young with greater insistence and repetition ask
again and again ' Please, Sir, can you tell me the time ? '
Now we, who are neither old nor young, may wisely
avoid assertions about the weather, and, yet, usefully,
communicate knowledge about tune. For example, I
will even now tell you that it is twenty minutes to
twelve, after noon, on this day, the sixth of September A.D.
1911 (G.ix.ll). Of that I am sure. (For I have looked
TO HILA1HE BELLOC 477
at a good clock, after looking at the stars.) And, thus,
we may hug some security : and take heart of grace.
I have been happy to-day. I got up at 5 a.m. and rode
out through the mists with my boy at a quarter to six
and drew for foxes (Cub hunting) and found them and
then breakfast at 9. And then, the Estate Carpenter
(who employs ten men) at ten. And then the Secretary
for a bit. (As a result he has written thirty-seven letters.)
And then the agent (of the farmer class) and then lunch.
And then household business ; and then two hours sleep.
And then Lawn Tennis. And then old memories at
dinner with my mother.
Now, all this sounds trivial. But it means content to
a number of Englishmen.
And through it all I have been reading G. K. C.'s Ballad
of the White Horse.
And through it all I have been hoping that you and he
will some day, on a day of the days come here and
take in the downs and the vale with me and be glad of
England.
I say ' and be glad of England.' Of course, politically
and economically it is sad and we are divided about
remedies, and prepared if it must be to be beaten,
or shamed by Germany.
But the lovely land is here and the loveable folk, and
the old memories and the hope as good as when the same
stars shone on it, any time these ten thousand years.
Some day I would like I would love you and Gilbert
Chesterton to poke about the detail of this bit of Wessex
with me ; not as archaeologists or ' literary gents ' but
as lovers of this land and of its people. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
P.S. You may consider this letter an affront to Sussex.
On the contrary the Habitable or (Ecumenical parts of the
earth consist for Englishmen in the counties of Sussex,
Wiltshire, and parts of the counties of Gloucestershire,
Hampshire and Dorset. With the rest we have to do,
but it is in these that we can live. And to applaud the
478 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
excellence of any one of these is for us to assert the
necessity to us of them all.
If we grasp that we can understand on equal terms
the Latin and the Gael. I will not be troubled over
others. And, we can revel in * The Ballad of the White
Horse.' Nay more if you come we can go and look
at him.
P.S. 2. I am aware that Chesterton has gone to live
in Kent and deplore his departure from London. There
was much to be said for Kent and something may still be
said. But, O Lord, the aliens that infest it ! London
but to write of London would be excessive. In a second
postscript it is enough to say that London if Cockney
is respectable.
809
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLB,
SALISBURY, 1st October 1911.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I cannot say how much I
miss you here at every moment. I don't think I have
ever been at Clouds without you. I went out early the
morning after you left and found two doves, one on each
feeding-bracket to right and left of your window, like
supporters to a coat of arms.
Detmar Blow put in good work over the Memorial 1 and
the Library. The Partridge shooting was a success 136|
brace and 110| brace. I have been wandering about the
Park and, when next you are here, we will toddle round
together and you shall confirm or advise on some clean-
ing up and clearing out, which would I think enable people
to enjoy the views and good trees better.
I shall have to be in London on business and Politics
(Die-Hards) for a day or two this week. So we will meet,
darling Mamma.
Perf thinks that when there is Electric light when ?
the lamp-room would make a beautiful Crypt chapel
for S. S.
1 To his father.
TO MRS. HINKSON 479
Charles Gatty has been looking through some of the
old deeds about this place and has found two beautiful
ones.
(1) of Charles n, with engraved portrait of the Monarch
and gold letters.
(2) of Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector. I am going
to frame them leaving a record that this has been done
and putting the record also on the backs of the frames.
They are beautiful bits of engraving and writing and
interesting. So they ought to be seen.
Darling I do miss you here very much indeed and very
badly.
The Pomegranate has blossomed on the 1st of October !
Your most loving son, GEORGE.
Willoughby de Broke was enchanted with the place.
810
To Mrs. Hinkson
35 PARK LANE, W.,
October 12th, 1911.
DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, You have often given
me joy by your books ; and by your letters, at those
moments of life that count for ever, a sense of peace and
companionship. But I like your last letter because it is
long and a letter of a friend, though we have never met.
As life goes on, and some are taken from us, and some
whom we love are away for long absences, we realise the
minor importance of such accidents as seeing and hearing.
Such a friendly letter from one whom I have never seen
chimes with such thoughts. I did like the new poems and
am glad that you write in the ' Eye- witness.' To read a
poem by Katherine Tynan in a paper edited by a friend
carries me back to the days of the ' National Observer '
and Henley. I will send you a photograph and believe
that prayer and kind thoughts are an armour of protection.
I wrote a few lines the other day and send them as a
poor return for your poems.
480 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ARX AMORIS.
Because I love, and death threatens, but shall never
Take into darkness my adored,
I will build a city that shall last for ever,
And fight for it with my sword.
Truth soon grows old, life lags for death to end it,
Love only is beautiful and still new :
I will cradle it in stone, and set steel to defend it,
And forget fear and be true.
Yours gratefully, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
811
To Lionel Amery
35 PARK LANE, W.,
18.X.1911.
MY DEAR AMERY, I have had a bad cold since the
12th, and a good deal of work. So forgive the delay of
this reply.
I have studied your notes on the Home Rule Question
carefully, and will make, first, some comments in passing
necessarily hurried and then state, also shortly, the
policy which I believe should be pursued.
(1)
(2)
To sum up. My conclusion is that, now, with a fight
before us, for National and Imperial existence, we should,
in respect of the Irish section of the Fighting Line, do 3
things.
A. Denounce the tainted origin of the Home Rule Bill ;
decline to look at any measure by means of the overthrow
of our Constitution ; insist that the Union was handi-
capped by charges of political corruption and duress and
that Home Rule cannot even by Home Rulers be
launched by the actual commission of those crimes. And
retaliate by declaring that, being at war, you will dis-
franchise Redmond's rotten boroughs.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 481
B. (1) Strike at the false analogy with Colonial self-
Government and strike hard.
(2) Declare for Ulster and never abandon her.
C. (1) Insist on Tariff Reform and National Tariff.
(2) Restoration of Land Purchase ; National welfare.
(3) National Transport. This needs more careful con-
sideration, in the course of which two factors must be
taken into account, (i) We shall have a recommendation
in favour of nationalising Railways ; supported by
Socialists and resisted by Shareholders, (ii) If credit and
cash is devoted to this object, there will be neither for the
institution of small ownership.
My inclination and I would be glad of your view upon
it is
To defend the shareholders against the Socialists, and,
as a quid pro quo, to get through rates for agricultural
produce on all railways in the United Kingdom ; accom-
panying this stipulation if need be by guaranteeing
existing profits on transport of such produce in return for
the construction of suitable rolling-stock, refrigerator cars,
etc. This has been done in Canada.
We have a great opportunity which will be missed unless
we link up a ' Rural policy ' with a * Railway ' policy ;
and cannot be taken until we get Tariff Reform.
Such a Policy would tighten the Union and relieve our
Industrial centres from the back-wash of ruined husbandmen.
It is a Unionist Policy for all parts of the United Kingdom,
and leads to what I most desire, a square fight of Unionists
against Separatists and Socialists.
812
To Hilaire Belloc
36 PARK LANE, W.,
22nd October 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I am ignorant and eager to learn.
I only know of Alfred's doings in our country by oral
tradition and the names of ' King's Settle J 1 and * Alfred's
Tower.'
1 A wood near Shaftesbury.
VOL. II. 2 H
482 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
But I am sure you are right. Alfred camped just west
of Great Ridge Wood. I have always felt the mystery
of that spot. You may remember that I pointed it out
to you as we motored from Warminster and that I told
you I must take you to Wylye Wood : that 's the place,
or hard by to it. Why called Wylye Wood I don't know
for it is miles from Wylye village and the river of that
name.
I am sensitive to such places. I discovered some such
interest about the Lea Mill near Saighton and took people
to see the place and feel it for years before I knew that
Sir Hugh de Calverley lived there. But the wild land
between the west of Great Ridge and Wylye Wood is
haunted. Here we have one of those eddies of deep
emotion which persist long after the stream of Time has
passed on. It is a haunted spot. The Stone-Curlew or
Thick-knee breeds there.
Just off to Clouds after making a speech about Nelson
last night. Yours ever, G. W.
813
To Charles Boyd
SAIGHTON,
23.xi.ll.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I am grateful for your thoughts.
Think of me again to-morrow, Friday, night. I have to
take on the Free Trade Hall a large order. I am deeply
interested in Tariff Reform, but it is difficult to put it to
a vast audience.
I felt the sadness of things when Arthur Balfour re-
signed. But he chose the moment with all the wonderful
clearness of his mind, and the manner with all the
kindness of his heart.
' He nothing common did, nor mean,
Upon that memorable scene.'
And he wrote me an affectionate letter which I prize, and
told me not to be too pessimistic. For all that, and all
that . . . you can understand. Yours ever, G. W.
TO HIS MOTHER 483
814
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, llth December 1911.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I was just going to
write to you * for company ' when S. S. brought in the
design of Fisher's Cross for dear Papa's grave. I am so
glad that you do not like red brick. Here in this land of
green and grey waiting for the glories of blossom in Spring
and Summer and of the Sky, at many hours on most days
in the year, it is an outrage to put red bricks anywhere, and
an insult to put them in the grass, near a wood, hard-bye
to a 13th century Church tower and under a northern
sky that changes from dove-colour to crimson and gold,
and Persian blue behind the shifting scenery of soft clouds.
Your cross with green-sandstone about it will begin my
monument in the right way. I shall finish my monu-
ment or if I die Percy will finish it. But the great
thing is to begin in the right way. Then the rest has to
conform.
I shall finish our plot in the church-yard and my library
just with Mallet, 1 using the wood that grows from, and
the stone that lies beneath this soil. And, most beloved,
your beginning will guide me.
All the ' ways ' of life show me that Eternity is true,
and not time, and that other 4 times ' however good
are manifestly false. Blow, 2 who lived in 1220, now lives
in 1690. But we live for ever and must say so in what
we make. I shall, therefore, to come back to the library,
do it in my own way and not in Blow's ' period.'
All this consoles me for the cross-purposes of Time. I
had arranged my duties so as to be here with Percy. But,
I had to make speeches while he was here and now that
I am here he has to do Adjutant at Wellington Barracks.
So it is and how can I regret ?
I do mean to get out of Politics when I can. But I
1 The estate carpenter. 2 Mr. Detmar Blow.
484 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
can't now. Percy is so sought after in his soldiering that
I have had to pursue him in order to arrange my own
Time-Table so as to see him sometimes.
He was offered, and accepted, a staff post as Aide-de-
Camp to General Rawlinson commanding the 3rd Divi-
sion at Cholderton(\) Then he was offered the Adjutancy
of his battalion ; and he had to choose. He has chosen
the A.D.C. job. I think rightly ; as he had said ' done '
on that before the other chance opened. I think that Papa
would have liked him to stick to the thing he had accepted.
As that is so ; he will live and that does 4 touch up '
the past at Park House where we used to go and see the
race-horse Fox-hall !
I hope after the next three days at the House of
Commons to get four weeks solid here and to get Percy
for most of it.
After that I have to run a political campaign in Here-
fordshire and another big one in Lancashire and
Cheshire. Meanwhile I am to write an essay on * Land
Purchase ' for a book jointly composed against Home
Rule : and I am Chairman of the Sub-Committee on
' Defence ' in the Halsbury Club. So that ; with these
two campaigns of speaking and two campaigns of writing
and organising I am ' full up ' till Easter ; as I shall have
to do * Army Estimates ' and also so I hear our opposi-
tion to Welsh Disestablishment.
I got a day's hunting to-day and as Perf is away
had three horses to ride. I enjoyed it very much ; had
good talks to farmers, got very hot ; and felt fairly young.
Love to darling Manenai and to Charlie and Poussins
and all love to you, Beloved. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
815
To Charks T. Gatty
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 19.xii.lJ.
MY DEAR CHARLES, We are overjoyed ! I think you
had better telephone to the stationmaster at Waterloo and
TO HIS MOTHER 485
ask him what would be a good train, and then let me know.
The usual afternoon train is 3.30 p.m. to Semley. But
the time-table may be altered.
You will find me hard at the Library. We have knocked
down four walls and are up to our waists in bricks and
mortar.
Also, to descend to the basement, I am making a chapel
for Sibell in the lamp-room and have got about 100 feet
of beautiful old panelling, with pilasters.
I have four different plans for using the panels, and you
shall help me to decide.
I am glad you are coming. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE W.
816
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 21st December 1911.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I send you all my
love for Xmas. I miss you here all day long ; and am
counting the days till you are back to look at the first
flowers. I hunted Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and
hope to hunt Friday and Saturday. Meanwhile Mallet and
I are getting on very fast with the library. We had to
change Blow's design as it would have cut down the
windows outside and spoilt the face of the house. So
this gave me a good excuse for changing his plan inside
too. Only I wish, most Beloved, that you were here to
tell me how to do it. I must send you his drawing and
Mallet's ; so that you can tell me to stop if I am spoiling
it. I don't think I am. Blow left 1| feet between the
book-cases and the beam in the ceiling with an ornament
squashed by the beam. Mallet and I are carrying the
cases up to support the beams.
It will look safe and I believe be safer.
Then, Darling, in the Lamp-room I am making Sibell's
Chapel. I bought about 100 feet of very dark, formal,
beautiful panelling, with a lovely pilaster every twenty-
486 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
seven inches dividing the panels. It is exactly the right
height ; and with a white-washed barrel-vaulted ceiling,
and red brick floor, gives a simple deep colour chord to
the whole.
It was the deuce to know how to manage the panelling
round the two square brick columns that carry the two
low arches running North to South between the three
barrel-vaults. But I think I have done it and Mallet
approves ! I put a pilaster in the centre of each face of
the two columns ; and in the centre of each face of the
four projections two in north and two in south wall,
that are opposite the columns. Then I put a pilaster,
the middle one of nine, in the centre of each of the side
walls West and East. By a miracle if you mitre the
panelling on each side of the pilasters round the two square
brick columns they fit with a waste of only two inches of
panelling.
But I can't describe this. I will draw it for you.
And now I give you a great hug and all my love and a
longing to see you. Ever your most loving son,
GEORGE.
817
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 2lst December 1911.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I said in my letter
of this afternoon that I could not describe my idea for
Sibell's chapel but would draw it for you. Well here
is the scrawl I have made after dinner !
Owing to drawing away without a plan it looks like a
hall in a Palace. In fact, the space is limited and the
ceiling low. Also the breadth west to east is less than the
length north to south, whereas, in the scrawl you would
suppose the contrary.
The scrawl is made from my memory of the Lamp-
room and from my imagination of the Chapel.
The points are three :
TO HIS MOTHER 487
(1) The cornice of the panelling exactly reaches to the
spring of :
(a) The 3 barrel vaults springing from W. to E.
and
(b) The spring of the 4 low arches that (in two
pairs) divide the barrel vaults.
The plan of the room is like this :
[Drawing.]
(2) By putting a pilaster
(a) On the S. faces of the projections from
the North wall ;
(b) On the N. faces of the projections from the
S. wall ;
(c) In the middle of the W. and E. wall ;
(d) On all four faces of the two columns :
It follows that the pilasters conform to, and emphasise,
Philip Webb's architecture of 3 barrel- vaults, divided and
supported, by two low arches.
So much for form.
(3) Colour. The floor is rich red bricks. The panelling
is deep brown old Italian ' noce ' chestnut- wood. All the
roof (vaults and arches) is white ; white-wash on good
brickwork.
That those three things are the idea.
The luck was that having been in the Lamp-room once
I saw at a glance that the panelling would just do the
trick.
The charm is that the Lamp-room becomes a brother
to the chantry underground at Assisi which I saw in
1887. The purpose is to have no little things in this
chapel.
It needs no more than some silver sconces and the smell
of bees-wax and incense.
Of course I leave the space behind the altar i.e. between
the projections from the south wall to S. S.
There she can go 4 nap ' by degrees in a gold-cloth
reredos and embroidered altar front.
The opposite recess will have no pilasters for two
488 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
reasons. (1) There are none to spare (2) It will be the
family seat and a flat back to one's own back will not be
amiss. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
P.S. Detail. I have got 39 pilasters to ' play with.'
On S. wall 3 each side of Altar recess = 6
On W. and E. walls 9 =18
On N. wall (W. side) = 3
"27
That leaves me 12
To wit : on face of N. & S.
projections 4
On four sides | Columns 8
T2
The altar recess in S. wall has no pilasters ; because it
can have a reredos. The opposite recess in N. wall has
no pilasters because there are none to spare and we don't
want to scratch our backs. The remaining third of the N.
wall has no pilasters because there are none to spare
and there is the wide door into the chapel which can be
adequately treated with jambs and a panel on each side.
It is almost miraculous that a chance purchase should
fit the lamp room. (S. S. is really pleased) It is not quite
miraculous because the whole thing is as men of science
say * susceptible of the simplest explanation.' The
explanation is that Philip Webb * was a man of genius.
S. S. tells me that the wine-cellar if properly treated -
might challenge the forest of pillars at Cordova. I shall
look for the Lion-Court in the Brush-room !
818
To Hilaire Belloc
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLK,
SALISBURY, 22nd December 1911,
MY DEAR BELLOC, It is high time I should write to
you and Christmas is the time for writing to friends.
Yesterday I wrote to my Mother, my brother and three
1 The architect of Clouds House.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 489
sisters. To-night I write to you : not that I am over-
burdened with news or with views. I have nothing to
say. I follow a natural inclination. As the vernacular
has it * I feel like writing to you.' And I just do it without
excuse, explanation or purpose. It would be an imperti-
nence to tell you what I have been doing (and suffering) :
because we have not been doing and putting up with it
together. It would be a savage act to solicit your account
of your farings. But I must fore-gather with you in the
lull of Christmas. Lord ! How I love that lull. Like
so much else it is mechanical. I contrive it by sending
my secretary away to his home, for his holiday ; and then,
treating my correspondence with contempt. He ' barges '
in from Chester, where his Father lives, with ' urgent
business.' I lock it up in a despatch box and swear to
Xmas that no business will I 4 transact ' That was the
word ? before the 5th of January. I escaped from the
cut-throat cage of Politics, in which slime usurps the place
of gore, last Friday. I became once more an animal and
a man. I shot rabbits with two neighbours on Saturday.
I hunted the fox, with neighbours, on Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday and to-day Friday. I shall hunt the Fox
to-morrow with neighbours. On Thursday I wrote of
my love to my nearest and dearest.
This Fox-hunting is a great matter. I have not lived
here since 1886-87. But, just by these few days, I know
the whole terrain 30x20 miles and I know many who
such is the pass we are in were eager to welcome me.
Now, to-day, just because my boy Percy and I asked
forty Farmers to course hares here twice, farmer after
farmer found me out and begged me to ride over their
land. The coursing of Hares stigmatised by the Pundit
of Fox-hunting as ' mad for a minute and melancholy
for an hour ' is the oldest sport. And now that Alas !
fewer farmers can afford to hunt the Fox it is what
they love. They breed the greyhounds and have as a
rule, only two outlets for their skill and keenness. They
read the |d Press about the Waterloo Cup and have
one rotten, betting-bedevilled-meeting. But when you
490 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
welcome them all onto the land and have a lunch of
sandwiches in a barn and a bottle or so of vintage
port, why then you feel that in the South Country we
have not been Jew-ed out of the England of Shake-
speare and Chaucer (before him) and Michael Dray-
ton who in Polyolbion has a great passage about
coursing hares.
What a glorious piece of the earth is South England !
And how happy we can be together in it.
Now about your coming here and Mrs. Belloc and your
musical cousin, if she so pleases. My holiday lasts only
to the 5th January. Then I must work and go to Hell,
viz. : the Platform till the end of January. But, after
the end of January, I mean to take the first fortnight of
February solid here, with my friends. So, if it smiles on
you come from now to 5th January or, from 1st to 14th
February ; or both. February would be the best time ;
as Christmas and the New Year involve local duties.
I hunt the Fox most days and you may infer that I
should not be companionable. On that supposition you
would err. Because I have a motor. That implies that
my friend if he likes can go out with me in the machine
leaving at 10 a.m., see the country, visit the ancienc monu-
ments ; lunch at an Inn and take me back at 3 to tea
here at 4 and have four hours to dinner ; two hours at
dinner and two to three hours after dinner. During
these hours 9 to 12 I prosecute the Muses and two as
I think interesting ventures. I am making the whole
top of the house on South side into a library and, in
the bottom of the house I am making a chapel for Sibell.
It is great fun. I am doing it with my carpenter. We
have knocked a vista from one side of the house to the
other upstairs : and are just at the ecstatic moment of
deciding the size and shape of a band of mullioned windows
West and East of the roof. Downstairs in what was the
Lamp room and will be the chapel of Our Latly I am
having the time of my life. This crypt for such it is
consists of three barrel-vaults with two pairs of low arches
between them. I found thirty metres of old Italian
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 491
panelling with thirty-nine pilasters. I am enthralled in
the task of making that Lamp-room a counterpart to the
underground church at Assisi : with no silly pedantry.
The carpenter and I do it.
I have just read the last ' Eye-Witness.' It is very
good. Wedgewood is insane and that spoils his paper.
But the rest is all I could wish. But here I stop. God
forbid that I should slide back into the slime. I liked
Junius' letter to Brookfield. He puts far better what
I said to Selborne and others three weeks ago. They
were babbling in chorus on the false line. I stopped them
by saying ' If I make a silly joke about the Holy Ghost
it may be in the worst taste but it is not so offensive
as a long dull book to prove there is no God ! ' I gather
that Robertson in * Pagan Christs ' has concentrated
the range and venom of Frazer. I have thought since
the first (mild) edition of 'The Golden Bough 'that
comparative Mythology ambushed Christianity to a
more deadly result than (1) Astronomy (2) Geology
(3) Darwinism.
But, when I first reconnoitred this new attack, I replied
to Wilfrid Ward (1) If there was a revelation it could
not be in Choctaw. It was in Greek. (2) It could not
be in mythology as alien from Mediterranean thought, as
Choctaw from the Greek tongue. It was in the religious
tradition of early Europe.
Since then I have reflected that Western and Northern
Europe (with Baldur) provided the channels which the
Jews and Arabs could not provide for a relatively
fuller revelation of God. The Epiphane was the other
way about. It was only when the Jews hit the West that
Christianity began. It was only when the North hit the
Mediterranean that God was in part revealed. The
true date of the Epiphane is about 1170 A.D. The result
may be seen in the architecture and social fabric of the
13th century. The effects of reaction towards the East
may be read in the * Eye-Witness.'
A merry Xmas and a Happy New Year to you and
Mrs. Belloc. Yours ever, G. W.
492 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
819
To Hilaire Belloc
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 29th December 1911.
MY DEAR BELLOC, In order to be clear I begin about
dates. Your dates are the best for me, say 6th February
to 13th. On that day I must dine with Bonar Law before
the By Our Lady Session.
I have steeped my body and brain in wind and rain.
For I hunted five days last week and four this and always
get soaked to the skin. But in the ancient riding-coat,
leather breeches and boots this does a man good. He
becomes a hot, happy, soppy, sweaty animal with a blithe
heart and no mind. So I cannot write lucid prose or
undulating verse. I can only wish to you and Mrs.
Belloc All Happiness in the New Year and say how glad
I shall be, and Sibell, to welcome you on the 6th February.
Yours ever, G. W.
820
To Mrs. Hinkson
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, December 29th, 1911.
MY DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I did not know to
whom I was indebted for the ' Life of Edward Fitzgerald '
and now hasten to thank you for the gift which I shall
prize. It will be a link between us if you should live at
Frescati and will deeply interest my beloved mother.
She was touched and pleased by your book which reached
her through Lady Grosvenor.
I can only thank you with all my heart for the unseen,
but nearly felt, friendship which you show me and wish
to you and yours all happiness in the New Year. Yours
very sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. Your letter made me home-sick for Ireland. We
talked only of Ireland last night.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 493
821
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 29th December 1911.
MOST DARLING, BELOVED, MAMMA, This is not a letter,
only a line of LOVE and little outburst of my need to
talk to you, at every moment of every day, here.
Mallet is a real trump.
I keep getting further and further away from Blow's
design for the library. Having ' scrapped ' it in principle
I am now at new detail in close harmony with Philip
Webb's work. But I walk warily. I was struck the
other night by the fact that Webb's oak panelling on the
staircase does ' die into ' his white panelling round the
Hall. That made me look at his oak panelling round the
column in the library. Out of the two Mallet and I have
concocted a flat ' bench-end ' with panels ; and set it up
in dummy. I think I shall get it quite right by degrees.
The new windows outside will be ^-sisters to the window
in the roof of the kitchen ; and the panelling and book-
cases inside will be ^-brothers to the wood-work in the
hall, staircase and dining-room.
I think that dear Benny is coming to hunt here with
Perf and me. Indeed I feel sure he is as he is sending
four grooms and six horses ! So there will be twenty
horses in the stables.
And now, Darling, once more I wish you a most Happy
New Year and lots of it spent together. Your most
loving son, GEORGE.
822
To Hilaire Belloc
35 PARK LANE, W.,
29th January 1912, a Monday, 10 a.m.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Your letter rejoiced me. And,
when you and Mrs. Belloc come to Clouds I shall rejoice
494 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the more. Sibell is grieved at having to be away but she
always goes to Lettice when another little Beauchamp
enters this perplexing place of existence and this time her
presence is exacted by the fact that Beauchamp has to
be away a good deal for Cabinets. If anything could
increase my pleasure at your both coming it would be
that without you I should be very lonely during the last
few days before the horrors of Parliament. I had kept
them clear for merry-making, and merriment there shall
be, seasoned with deep discourse on the possibility of
saving agriculture and creating owners of the soil.
There I am with you, and, what is more, I found that
working-men in Lancashire, weavers, spinners and a
miner (one) quite understand that Rural England must
be restored.
I cannot write about politics for I am but just reviving.
I was ' ridden out ' by Saturday night having made eleven
speeches in five days at Chester, Southport, Blackburn,
Warrington, Bolton, Manchester and Rochdale. Golly !
what a country or, to be precise, what a town. It is one
town. But the people are sound and strong. It is the
Merchants who live on commissions and the Oriental
Financiers that ruin it.
I was so tired that I could not eat, and could not drink.
The last day I drank only light beer ; which is meat and
drink and the only fuel for a tired body. I went to bed
at 9.30 last night. This morning I hear from you of your
' Enchanted Mug.' I might have gone on another week
had I possessed such a treasure. I want someone to
give me a simpler aid to existence ; a case for my glasses
(pince-nez glasses) thai, shall be of a brilliant scarlet
colour with gold spots on it. The dark-green one I try
to possess eludes possession. It performs its own * esca-
motage ' and I spend say one hour fifteen minutes a day
looking for it in my pockets and on the floor.
I read the ' Eye-Witness ' with close attention and
interest on (1) Expeditionary Force (2) Belfast. I could
say not write much on these subjects and listen to any
amount. It is strangely refreshing to find a newspaper
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 495
and one mind that sees these problems and refrains from
hiding them. Ninety per cent of our countrymen cannot
see them. Nine per cent see them and say ' O Lord !
nobody else must be allowed to see.'
The mam objection to a separate Expeditionary Force
is a conviction not negligeable because it is based on
experience that separate Armies go to the Devil them-
selves through pride and exclusiveness and send other
Forces to the Devil through a soured humility. It may
be that a solution lurks in a revival ' up-to-date ' of the
old system of a ' rota ' by which a particular regiment,
keeping its tradition, is ear-marked during a period of
years for a particular kind of service. There are remnants
of this system in the practice still observed of a regiment
going to India for fifteen years with a different and
larger establishment and longer period of service with
the colours.
This might be expanded and differentiated to subserve
the several military needs we have to meet. I worked
it out once and have the Memo somewhere. E.g. as a
rough illustration out of 100 battalions 30 for Expedi-
tionary force, 20 at Home, 50 in India. Next you must
decide on colour and reserve service for each, during its
allocation to its task and these will have to be shortened
all round (a) to meet the difficulty of landing men in civil
life when too late to learn a trade (b) because with the
multiplication and cheapening of transit it is foolish to
keep a man eight years in India and cheaper to increase
the vote for Transport than to increase the vote for pay
and Pensions. The Recruit will choose the service which
he fancies and the first should offer better terms in pay
and deferred pay ; e.g. for Expeditionary Force three
years with colours three in reserve, for Home battalions
two and six. For Indian battalions five and 3.
The last adjustment I shall not attempt it is for what
periods the battalion (not the man) shall be detailed for
these three services and in what order, it can be done.
But enough of this except to say that (me judice amico
contradicente). National training however short in a
496 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Territorial Force would enlarge, and not restrict, the
number of men who would be tempted to take any one
of the three options in the Regular Army, each of which
must be voluntary.
The main objection to the Belfast Enclave is that (a)
there are many Nationalists in Belfast (b) many Orange-
men in Down, Antrim, Monaghan etc. Intellectually
the heart of the problem is that you must ' satisfy Ireland's
aspiration in a way to which you can secure England's
consent.'
Unless you believe that can be done in a new way it is
better to stick to the old way however unsatisfactory.
Dismissing for a moment the ' tainted origin ' argu-
ment against the Union, (for why bandy words ? It is
easy to retort that the alternative is being launched by
bribery and corruption) it remains true that Pitt and,
above all, Cornwallis sought by the Union to give Irish-
men (not you may say Ireland) political equality with
Englishmen and that Grattan, Sheridan and other Irish
leaders said that Ireland would not be satisfied with any-
thing less than political equality. It is probable and I
believe that this is still true.
The ' dry light ' shews me that to give Ireland ' self
Government ' and deny her government any say in
Defence and Finance is an enormity too monstrously
divergent from all known types of politics. It would not
last two years.
On the other hand psychological instinct tells me that
the English will not consent to making Ireland a Sister
State with as much latitude in respect of Defence and
Finance as is granted to Canada, Australia and South
Africa. The English instinct is probably right ; just
because of Defence and Finance. It is not that Ireland is
more important than Canada. It is that altering a Frontier
and dividing an Exchequer are damned ticklish jobs.
That is the heart of the problem.
The ' representation at Westminster ' argument is
merely dialectical ; because who is represented at West-
minster now ? And by whom ? and how ? and why ?
TO HIS MOTHER 497
Observe to go back that if England treated the
sister state solution with a gambler's generosity it might
work. But, also, if Ireland treated the Union in like
manner, it also, might work.
Either might conceivably work. But to me it is not
conceivable that a Plan would work which pretended to
give Ireland self-government and gave her no say in
Defence and Finance. So, till the 6th and come sooner
if you can.
With my best wishes to your wife. Yours ever,
G. W.
823
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 1st February 1912.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I got back here on Tuesday-
after a very hard ten days' tour which tired me out. But
I have revived. S. S. is with Lettice and kept there as
Will Beauchamp has to be away for Cabinets. So Perf
and I are two bachelors. None the less we have enter-
tained a lady. Dear Lady Paget came and stayed although
S. S. could not be here. I have asked dear old Guy to
come with all, or any of his family, to keep company with
us. Belloc and Mrs. Belloc are coming on the 6th other-
wise we mean as it is still freezing and we cannot hunt
to do all that Miles * and the farmers and folk can want
in the way of understanding and planning.
I went to see your cross on dear Papa's grave. It is
very good. Mallet and I will complete the wall and plot
without further reference to Blow.
It is perhaps ? too cold for you to travel as yet.
But here we are if the spirit moves you. If it is too cold,
let us all come here together for Sunday 25th or the next
Sunday so that you may see everything and help me when
the first flowers come out. It would be heavenly if you
felt inclined to come now. But you must not make an
1 The agent.
VOL. II. 2 I
498 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
effort. Only if you felt inclined I would meet you in the
motor at Salisbury any day. I come to London on the
13th. Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE.
824
To Philip Hanson
CLOUDS, EAST K.NOYLE,
SALISBURY, S.ii.12.
MY DEAR P. H., I am wrestling with my Essay on
Land Purchase under notable disabilities.
(i) I am late because of Tariff Reform tour (a success,
but O ! what a grind 11 speeches in 5 days).
(ii) I am torpid owing to frost.
(iii) Poor Hyde 1 is in bed with influenza.
There is one small point on which you could help me
(but don't if it is a trouble, for I must as things are
avoid small points and figures and boldly assert).
The small point is this :
Mr. Stewart's letter to you of 15th December 1911 gave
from 9th September to 1st December, 1911,
Applications and amount
2,227 348,660 x
Your letter to me of 14th September,
2,227 651,340 x
Your figure agrees qua applications, differs qua amount.
Your figure is obtained in both cases by subtracting the
figures up to 9th September (Report of Landowner's Con-
vention, p. 8) from the figure totals in Mr. Stewart's letter
of 14th December, 11.
How then does he get 348,660 for amount ?
When he and you give 2,227 for applications ?
If there is any easy and readily accessible explana-
tion, may I have it ?
But do not put yourself out. I must avoid figures and
go for big features.
I have all that is necessary in my memo, of 1908, and,
above all, in our correspondence of that date.
1 Denis -Hyde, his secretary.
TO G. K. CHESTERTON 499
There is also this further cause for content. In the
memo. I put 300 as ' outside estimate ' of average price
for farms still unpurchased. Well, the average price
since March 1908 closing point of memo. is 283.
This confirms my argument that the best articles were
sold first, and proves that the worst will cost less.
The real big points are
(i) If you stick to abolishing dual-ownership, the problem
is not large.
(ii) If you add to that the new inflated dealing with
congestion a question of policy you increase the size
of the financial problem but over many years and only
by 10,000,000.
(iii) If you cut up the grass to start new men, you shatter
the show and make the Finance impossible for a United
Exchequer and preposterous under Home Rule.
(iv) The starting of new men is a policy to be considered,
if at all, for England no less than Ireland, on equal terms,
in a remote future, after (a) abolishing dual ownership
in Ireland, and (b) helping tenants in Great Britain to buy
their holdings.
Lady Grosvenor is with Lady Beauchamp, so Percy
and I are two old bachelors at Clouds. Yours ever,
G. W.
825
To G. K. Chesterton
35 PARK LANE, W.,
(Feb. ?) 1912.
MY DEAR CHESTERTON, You are not to answer this
letter. I must write it. I must thank you for the * White
Horse.' I cannot go on reading it to myself (4 times)
and reading it aloud at the top of my voice (5 times) and
refrain any longer from thanking you. It is your due to
be told that many eyes shine with delight at its strength,
and that knots climb up the throats of women and men
at its beauty. Its wisdom we shall patiently learn. ' At
last ! ' and * Thank God I ' are what people say when
500 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
they read it or hear it read. But I thank you in addition
to thanking God and my stars, for having been given
what I most needed in the largest measure. I am not
selfish over it. I do not hoard it for my own satisfaction.
On the contrary, I read it aloud to all my friends and have
huge joy in watching it working in them. This I can
easily do over the top of the book, as I know most of the
plums by heart. Like all great gifts, it goes round. It
can be shared. It is not like a diamond or a sonnet in a
language that few people know. To read the * White
Horse ' aloud is like bathing in the sea or riding over the
downs in a company that becomes good company because
of the exhilaration.
Belloc tells me that the address ' Beaconsfield ' will
find you. I hope so, as I cannot contain my thankful-
ness. Yours sincerely, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
826
To Wilfrid Ward
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, February llth, 1912.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I was on the point of writing many
days ago to congratulate you on the achievement of your
great work and on the reviews being intelligent. Then I
was tempted to wait until I had read the ' Newman.' It
arrived with the Publisher's compliments. Doubtless I
owe this to you and am most grateful for the gift. When
you come to Clouds I will ask you to ' inscrire.' I am
making a library which will I hope be not unworthy of
such works. But I was tempted, once more, to wait till
I had read the two volumes. Well, I have not done so
yet but I can no longer delay the congratulations of a
friend to a friend who has triumphed. Yours affection-
ately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
TO CHARLES BOYD 501
827
44 BEIXJKAVK SQUARK, 8. \V. ,
27th February 1912.
MY DEAR CHARLES, Your letter is most helpful, and
please thank your brother from me for the information
it contains. I hate bothering anybody about my private
affairs, but the difficulties of the gentry have ceased to be
private. I hear next year's Budget is to finish off those
who love the land.
Very well, I don't believe it. But even if it should
prove to be true, we have no grievance against Fate. We
are not forced to say with Fleury, after Sedan, ' Never
mind, we have amused ourselves well for twenty years,'
because we have been a happy part in the being and doing
of England for much longer. I shall stick on and your
letter helps, in its degree, to show how.
These personal and class problems do not interest me
much. I am not supercilious ; the pictures and ' marbles '
and books that the Gentry collected, were worth collecting.
The sport they gave their neighbours was worth giving ;
the services they gave their country when others had
no opportunity as soldiers and sailors and ambassadors
and statesmen, has been duly perhaps excessively
acknowledged : their ' urn will not be unlamented.'
What does interest me I will not say frightens me,
for, rather, it suddenly arrests attention, is the census of
production. It startles to know that, of all our people,
only 7,000,000 produced only 700,000,000 worth of
goods (omitting agriculture and fishing) in a ' boom '
year 1907. For think what that means. It means less
than 2 a week per producer for taxes, rates, deprecia-
tion, experiment, profits, wages.
In the light of that revelation the * minimum wage '
and the National Insurance Bill becomes incredible. The
' balance of wealth ' falsely so-called, comes from invest-
502 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ment e.g. the Robinson Mine ; and ' virtuoso ' perform-
ances, e.g. the barrister who earns 20,000 a year, and the
musical comedy lady who earns 100 a week. It is
politics apart impossible to tax Finance and [word
illegible] i.e. skill in producing intellectual or sensual
luxuries without smashing the machine which makes pro-
duction possible, and extends the higher rewards that
persuade a people to produce.
The situation quite apart from Germany's challenge,
Ireland's dissidence, and the coal crisis is dark and
damnably like Byzantium before the Turks took that
Banking Centre in 1453 (I think ?).
But just because the future is so dim and the present
so precarious, it is more worth while to be living. To
hear a thrush sing in February, or to see a soldier on
sentry-go, prove that it is well to live in England and right
to die there, or elsewhere, for England. I am dropping
into the ballad vein, as thus . . . how shall it go ?
THE SOLDIER'S SONG
(TO GERMAN AIR)
I '11 not bewail my home
Or loves that waved good-bye ;
Soldiers engaged to roam
Without a sigh.
Far lands are calling loud,
Louder than winds that cry ;
But I am glad and proud
To do or die.
That is the sort of stuff that soldiers like to sing. But,
as Ruskin observed in the ' Roots of Valour,' they do go
and they do die if need be ; whereas the merchant and
the usurer do not go and do not die ; they remain and
prosper. Yours ever, G. W.
P.S. The socialists' argument depends on asserting
that a paint-brush is a little broom ; because it looks like
it, and the house must be swept ; whereas the picture
TO HIS SISTER, PAMELA 503
need not be painted. For all that I am this may shock
you theoretically persuaded that a minimum wage is
right ; with, of course, the corollary that the man who
can't earn it is a deserving object of discriminating charity.
Ruskin was right. The State ought to launch the young ;
and provide a haven for the old. Between youth and
age, the State should say that a good man deserves a
living. At what year in the human span you can end
youth and begin age depends on the amount of wealth
accumulated. It is really simple. Nothing surprises me
more than that we do in the country give a minimum
wage and yet are horrified at proposing it for the Town.
I pay a stableman l a week in Cheshire and 16/ in Wilt-
shire. If he cannot groom two horses I get someone else.
This has been done for 200 years in the country. It is
not socialism, but a survival of the wise Middle Ages.
Cobden was a donkey.
828
To his Sister, Pamela
35 PARK LANE,
ll.iti.12.
DARLING PAMELO, I simply must dine with you on the
18th, if you will have me on the basis that I may be forced
to return to the House about 10 p.m. I hardly ever accept
an invitation to dinner ; but this is different. On the
days of the week owing to Leap Year this is the day
on which Papa died. All that happened last year on the
Sunday, Sunday night and Monday morn was very present
to my mind.
I can't tell you the loveliness of the dawn at Clouds
this morning. I watched it, and sunrise, and the mists,
and the moon, from my window for 1J hours. It was
more beautiful and more dramatic than any opera of
Wagner.
All the while I felt glad that Papa's spirit was not per-
turbed by the incidence of strikes and so forth through
the limitations of illness. He would have been unhappy
if he had lived.
504 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Do you know Richepin's poem about a Mother's Heart ?
It means something like this :
' There was a poor wretch who loved a woman who
would not love him. She asked him for his Mother's
heart, so he killed his Mother to cut out her heart and
hurried off with it to his love. He ran so fast that he
tripped and fell, and the heart rolled away. As it rolled
it began to speak and asked "Darling child have you hurt
yourself ? " ' Your devoted brother, GEORGE.
P.S. * The last person in the world ' etc. i.e. a political
agent, asked me to locate a quotation which he could not
remember, or attribute. But he wanted it for a speech
against killing birds, for ladies' hats ! This is the best
news I have had of Party Politics for a long time. * Epuis
la memoire.' Even agents perceive beauty and shrink
from silly destruction.
I feel sure that the quotation he sought must be
' Never to blend our pleasure or our pride
With SOITOW of the meanest thing that feels.'
WORDSWORTH, ' Hart-Leap Well '
and I advised him to that effect by return of post.
829
D To Hilaire Belloc
Personal.
35 PARK LANE, W.,
Uth March 1912.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Only a word between friends before
I go back to my task at 11 p.m.
I have just read to-day's ' Outlook.' I daresay all I
read in it on the pro-striker side is untrue ' What is
truth ? ' I am sure it is ex parte=ihe presentment of a
case from one side. But it is profoundly interesting,
illuminating and moving.
I do not easily surrender to another's will and I never
surrender conviction.
Yet I say to you that I am now persuaded that you
were right over the falsity of Parliament and the venality
of the Press.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 505
A fortnight of free Debate in the House and of free
journalistic comment would not have been too much for
n free country to ask.
I daresay again that the case of investors in coal
mine securities would be ex parte very powerful on the
other side.
What I declare to be intolerable is that neither side
should be able to state their case in Parliament or the
Press. Yet that is true of this urgent, immediate national
domestic problem.
It is also true of Defence.
To-day the Speaker prevented any demand for a reply
from Seely on the criticism of admitted gaps yawning
chasms in our Army Defence. So we talked about
pensions.
On Monday the Navy will be ' starred ' and ' boomed '
to side-track the Coal-strike and only no one thinks of
that the need for an Army.
Times are bad ; but friends are good so I wave to
you in the gloom. Yours ever, G. W.
830
To Hilaire Belloc
35 PARK LANE, W.,
23rd March 1912.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Just a ' signal of Amity.' I have
not had a moment last week. But I think we ought to
meet Tuesday or Wednesday. This has been a tense
week.
I doubt if we should agree about the problem. I don't
mean on the solution on which any ? intelligent men
differ but on the terms.
To my thinking the only question at issue is whether
it is best to have a statutory presumption for rates of
wages by ' callings ' ; or for rates of wages by the custom
of districts. Let me illustrate that. In the North, rail-
way-men get higher wages, which are lower than the
wages of artisans. In the South railway-men get low
506 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
wages which are higher than the wages of agricultural
labourers. Which is best to create a parliamentary pre-
sumption that ' porters ' and ' signalmen ' are to have
a normal wage, as such, with exceptions qua districts ;
or to create a parliamentary presumption that * porters '
and 4 signal-men ' are to have a living wage in their respec-
tive localities ?
The test case of the whole problem is the agricultural
labourer's position.
Unless we can help him the whole nation is damned.
Can we help the agricultural labourer by saying that no
Englishman ought to be such a ' mean white ' as to earn
less than 20/ a week ? That to me is the crux. And I
say no ; we cannot help him in that way.
We might enact a 20/ minimum per week for him and
it would be little enough. But if we did as a Free Trade
country all England would go under grass, of which
two-thirds would become mossy grass.
With 4 the best intentions ' we should depopulate rural
England.
I would like to hear your comment or denunciation
as your lucid mind may decide.
More widely. Does not a minimum wage imply that
if any trade, in any District, cannot support that minimum,
then it ought to be ' scrapped.'
Now I admit, and assent, that a Patriot can patriotically
say ' yes ' or * no ' to that question.
But I incline to the belief that Ruskin was right in
' Unto this Last ' and that the true answer is for the State
to run industries with a high minimum wage against any
who prefer masters and men to run industries at a low
minimum wage, in order to have any wage.
I think Ruskin will prove right here, as he has proved
to be right about Free Education at the start of life,
and about Old Age Pensions at the end of life ; both of
which were scouted by all men in 1860, when he laid down
the three propositions. However that may be, I am unable
to understand any one of the views we are asked to consider
in the absence of a Tariff. Yours ever, G. W.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 507
831
To Hilaire Belloc
STAN WAY,
WINCHCOMBE, 4th April 1912.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Deep gratitude for your letter and
adequate information in re Hague Conference. But I
have got my mind hitched (like some weeds caught round
a snag in a river).
I have been riding for two days on the Cotswold. I
have read at night your last volume of Essays * First and
Last Things.* The snag that snared my mind was the
essay called * The Lost Things.' It told me of other, and
more notable, examples of what I saw : and could not
understand.
What I saw (a) on the map, the Roman roads shooting
out from Cirencester : (b) as I rode, undoubtable pre-
Roman roads along the heights that were lost in some
valleys, to reappear on the next height and so on all the
way to Kelmscott on the Isis.
How, when, why, were they lost ? Again, how, when
and why did your road to Boulogne get lost ? The answer
came to-night, ' Per do,' I lose is also ' Per do,' I destroy.
They were Perdita, destroyed. Yes, but how thoroughly ?
I would say as thoroughly as the degree we may gleam
from the Old Testament an excellent book. Not one
stone was left upon another ; then the thing was ploughed
up ; and, afterwards salted. These * things that are
lost ' were destroyed as Bridges, and Railways are
destroyed by modern armies ; but to a more lasting
purpose.
Each conquering race with its plan meant its plan
to succeed. Each conquering race effected that object
by two means ; (1) by the excellence of their plan ; (2) by
the imbecility of the older plan.
They made the best plan they could as, e.g. the roads
(Roman) of which Cirencester is the star-point. But
they took jolly good care to make the plan they superseded
508 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
imbecile. They ' blew it up ' where it could not be
mended.
I know that this is the answer to your question, because
I have followed a pre-Roman road on horseback in the
morning and read your Essay in the evening. It was so.
Even if I had not seen it, I could have guessed it after
reading your Essay.
I now know that this has happened many times. What
the Romans did to the Roads of their predecessors, the
Normans did when it suited their strategy to the
Roman Roads. And the predecessors of the Romans
with iron weapons, did it to their predecessors with bronze
weapons, and they did it to their predecessors with flint
weapons ; and each wave of intelligent strategy was
guided more in this matter of perdition by the transport-
habit than by the missile-habit of the people they ruined :
and shoved off the open spaces into the bogs or mountains.
This truth can be seen on the Cotswolds and on Salisbury
Plain.
I have, also, seen it in Africa. There, too, when once
you are up above the morass-level, you see a network of
roads and tracks.
Everywhere some of these roads, or tracks, end in-
explicably except on the hypothesis, that new-comers
with new tracks for new military and commercial needs,
spoilt the old tracks by deleting them where they descended
into valleys, or approached harbours, or fastnesses.
The Arts of War and Peace consist in making your
Roads, and destroying the Roads of your predecessor and
possible antagonist.
That has always been true and it is true now ; but the
Cobdenites have forgotten the truth.
I do not ask you to believe me. If you ever come to
Salisbury Plain or the Cotswold, you will believe your
eyes.
You asked me to write of anything. I have written
the truth. Yours ever, G. W.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 509
832
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELGRAVK SQUARK, S.W..
June 1912.
MY DEAR BELLOC,
The passer-by shall hear me still
A boy that sings on Duncton Hill.
Perge, prosit, esto perpetua-or-us. O King, live for ever !
You have written the wisdom that never did die in simple
words that live for ever. You will sing for ever in the
morning.
And now I must go to bed.
And to-morrow I must wrestle with a speech and be
damned to all such thoughts !
The passer-by shall hear me still
A boy that sings on Duncton Hill.
Lord ! How I do love that.
If I had read those two lines in the waiting-room of a
railway station, with texts on the wall, a decanter of
water, one glass (unbreakable) and a Bible in American
leather on the table, I should not have rested until I had
found the man who wrote those two lines.
But I must go to bed. Also believe me that to say of
new flames that they are like leaves of Holly is to be
Immortal.
To Feed, to Fight, and to Be-get offspring are the heroic
purposes of man. But to sing is to be more than man.
And to sing of Eternity without singing of love is Divine.
I can only sing of love when I escape from time and so
sing sadly ; as thus :
But since such joys are doomed by time
I take Eternity
And all the stars that wheel and climb
For you and love and me
510 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
The galaxies of endless space
Contain not room enough
To fold the radiance of your grace
And the passion of my love.
It is better to sing for ever, a boy on Duncton Hill.
Yours, G. W.
833
To his Sister, Madeline
35 PARK LANE, W.,
G.viii.1912.
MOST DARLING MANENAi, When your dear letter
reached me at Clouds, I did not understand it, as I had
no idea you were all going to spoil Sibell and me with such
a lovely present. I am most grateful to you and dear
Charlie for joining in this beautiful gift. 1
We took in with great solemnity and put the Cross on
the altar. 2
I wish you could have been at Clouds for Chang's birth-
day : and you must come some Sunday after manoeuvres.
I shall see you then. I am by way of going with Sir
John French, but could I come to you just before, or
just after ?
I motored Chang all the way to Pixton to see Mary
Herbert's home yesterday, and am very sleepy and
end-of-the-Season-ish. I wonder if you and Charlie
and a Poussin, or so, could come to Clouds earlier,
say the week beginning September 2 ? There are no
partridges to shoot as they are all drowned. But per-
haps Lettice is coming and we could make an expedition
to Wells.
Bless you, Darling, again. Your devoted brother
GEORGE.
1 His mother and brother and sisters gave as a silver wedding present a cross
designed and made by Mr. Fisher.
1 In the chapel that he had designed and was then carrying out the work of
at Clouds.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 511
834
To Hilaire Belloc
CLOUDS, KAST KNOYI.K,
SALISBURY, 24th August 191?.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I have mislaid your last letter
at least I think so. I have one of 19th before me which
says you cannot come here on September 2nd. Damn !
Come on 7th. I can't make out when you start for
Russia.
All I do know is that the 3rd Division which I call
Percy's Division as he is A.D.C. to its General Sir H.
Rawlinson will be inspected on the 9th and 10th. That
means that they will do a scheme probably near Pewsey,
North of Salisbury Plain, over 48 hours or longer.
I have asked Repington here for it and shall look on by
means of motor and horses and sleep out at inns. Now
if you can come it will be a joy.
When that is over I shall go to Cambridge and see the
Army Manoeuvres which begin on the 16th.
The rain depresses me. I am also hipped as I am pre-
paring for a Tariff Reform Campaign. I go to Cumber-
land on Wednesday, speak Workington Thursday, Cocker-
mouth Saturday and return that night. I stay at Cocker -
mouth Castle. This will please me ; as I lived there from
the age of one to the age of six and remember hearing my
Father speak from the hustings in 1868 on the meadows
by the river where I, in turn, shall speak on August 31st
after an interval of forty-four years.
When will the Burgundy I bought be ready to drink ?
Our friend of the Hotel de la Paste said in three years. So
I fear I must wait one more year.
Now let this be a warning to you.
Next year you must come in September and look on at
the troops and drink our Burgundy.
We are not immortal. Anni labuntur. It is good to be
in the open air with soldiers and to drink Burgundy after-
wards. But these manly exercises are denied to those
who go in for Foreigneering and travel for five days I
512 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
think in a train propelled by the burning of wood,
instead of coal, in the hope of seeing Moscow.
The rain has dished me. The wheat cut ten days ago
has begun to sprout. Also owing to Foot and Mouth
disease I could not sell 500 sheep at Bridport a month
ago and must wait to sell them at Wilton in September.
Meanwhile the brutes eat all the winter feed and I get no
cheque for sheep sold but overdraw at my Bank, instead.
The library here is going to be a perpetual delight. The
solid oak is going up and by October I hope it will be
finished. Yours ever, G. W.
835
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 12. ix. 1912.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I am moved to write first, to ask
whether you will be at New Buildings 27th and onward,
because if that be so I will send you 3 hares ; secondly,
and generally, to exchange such news as either of us may
feel disposed to give ; not that I have a large parcel. On
the contrary, for my part, I have become a squire with an
interlude of Tariff Reform speeches in Cumberland.
The interlude, of aforesaid propaganda, had its touches
of mortality and the remembrance of childish joys, for I
stayed at Cockermouth Castle with Charles Leconfield.
I had not slept in that house since I was 6 years old, or
seen it since I was 14. I found and recalled my night-
nursery and day-nursery. My Mother's room over the
gateway is now the housekeeper's. The place is the same.
I felt that I had dreamed for 43 years of the ruins, and the
sound of the weir and of the wind through the trees in the
courtyard. The eagle-owl I knew in confinement is now
stuffed in the sitting-room. The stone hall, adorned in
old days, somewhat gauntly, by the skin of General
Wyndham's charger, has fallen in and joined the ruins.
The frame of the large window that commanded the
Derwent river, remains in a framework of touchwood. I
TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT 513
left Clouds at 9 a.m. and reached Cockermouth at
9.40 p.m. I had not dined. I supped with Charles and
his wife looking on. The next day, after preparing a
speech in the morning, I looked on at two ' sports ' of
which I had heard, but never seen. Both are good for
spectators. The first was a trial of sheep-dogs who, obey-
ing the gestures and whistles of their owners, tied by a
string to the starting-point, persuade 3 sheep to follow an
intricate course round flags and between hurdles and
finally but how rarely ! induce them to enter a narrow
pen. The second is called a Hound Trail. Some 15 lean
fox-hounds, all baying the welkin in agonised expectancy
and wild recollection of earlier triumphs and defeats, are
unleashed in a row on a drag, and are off like a flight
of arrows. They disappear into the scenery. I am told
that the drag has been laid over 17 miles to Bassen-
thwaite Lake and Skiddaw, and that I shall see them
again coming down the ridge of Hay Hill. This prophecy
after watching the jumping of horses and wrestling of
men in a withering wind proves true. They appear and
amid a hubbub of hoarse cries the winners and second
and third come through the last fence and are caught, 1,
by Lady Leconfield, 2, by Charles, 3, by Jefferson, M.F.H.
4 Climber,' the favourite, was beat by a neck, and 4 Merry
Maid,' an outsider, at 40 to 1, launched a lad of 13 years
on the road to ruin, or fame, by winning him 5 for the
modest risk of half-a-crown.
At 7.20 p.m. Charles and I went in an open motor through
blinding rain to Workington, and there, in the * Opera
House,' I spoke for an hour and then for 20 minutes to an
overflow. Next day, 30th August, I started at 9 and
shot grouse with Charles on Fauld Brow, and recognised
the mountain scenery that I knew long ago and have seen
magnificent in dreams ever since. On the 31st Charles
entertained 700 Tariff Reform delegates to luncheon in a
vast tent, and I spoke to 3,500 people from a large Punch
and Judy show platform, in the open.
I travelled back here, through the night and half
the next day, to be a squire, diversified by being a
VOL. II. 2 K
514 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
conceivable Minister for War looking on at Manoeuvres
near Stonehenge, where I hawked and hunted, not so long
ago, but still many years since, from Wilbury.
We have looked at what should have been the harvest ;
wondered if enough partridges have survived the deluge,
sold 550 sheep at Wilton for just over 40/- apiece, exhibited
2 hunters at the Shaftesbury Show, and ridden over the
plain 4 days to observe the final training and inspection
of what I call ' Percy's Division,' because he is A.D.C. to
the General. Manoeuvres in these days are realistic.
Nobody ate and few slept for 48 hours. In the course
of such exercises the whole division passed the Avon
between Amesbury and Bulford after midnight and fought
till 1.30 the next day.
J^ow, that is all my news. My Library goes on and
takes shape in close conformation to my idea. I shall
roof in the Windmill before the frosts, with a stone-slate
roof, like the shell of a tortoise, and four dormer windows
from which it will be possible to enjoy the landscape of
the South-West in any weather and ensure complete seclu-
sion in an upper chamber, approached by a staircase
winding in a spiral up the interior walls of the old building.
Again, I am building a cow-shed for 36 cows at Pertwood,
where I have already started a stud for hunters on the
tiny scale of one mare, ' Justice,' with a filly ' Portia,' by
' The Duke.' The sire of the next foal being ' Border
Prince,' the offspring if a colt will be named ' Jedburgh.'
For the moment I am no more concerned with politics than
to mete out ' Jedburgh Justice,' if I can, on the Plutocrats
who have bought the Government in order to sell the
country. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
836
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 27/A October 1912.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I am treasuring up
next Sunday to be here with you.
TO HIS MOTHER 515
What a bust we are going ! I have to make seven
platform speeches between now and Christmas, in addi-
tion to House of Commons. I am really * training '
for it.
I have managed to put the dates on Thursdays in the
hope of getting here for the Fridays to Mondays.
But two Sundays are gone one the 8th to 10th to
stay with Willoughby de Broke and 29th to 2nd December
to stay with Cuckoo.
That leaves me Friday 1st (and you), 15th and 22nd
to be here. Perhaps you can run back with me for those
two also if the weather is fine and, any way, I shall
' infest ' 44 Belgrave Square and sometimes bring Carson
and your fighting friends to dinner from the House.
I have seen a good deal of Carson lately. We are closely
bound by kindred passions for definite fighting. I have
been too busy to write.
My ' raid ' on Limerick was a joy to me, it made me
happy. Perf accompanied me with a large stick. I think
that at the back of his head he meant to hit anyone
who hit me. But we revelled in it all. We crossed on
Tuesday night the 8th, breakfasted at the North Wall
with Hanson ! and then Hanson and I toured round all
the old haunts of the Phoenix in a motor lent us by Horace
Plunkett, it was a day of days, all gold and azure and
diamonds in the air. Perf trotted off to see a horse near
Sallins. I went on at 12.30 and picked him up ; having
on the train two luncheon baskets. Then we bumped
along the old line to Boher, near Limerick, remembering
old days. We stayed with Sir Charles Barrington at
Glendall. He was the perfect Irish host : aged 62 and
singing all over the house. Indeed he sat down to the
piano and sang ' The girl that came from Clare ' before
dinner. The meeting was a huge success. Then we had
a riot and ultimately had to wait in a garage till we could
motor out to a wayside station. I had the old cam-
paigner's sense to telegraph for luncheon baskets at
Limerick Junction. It was 9 p.m. before we got them
half a hot chicken in each. After the meal you would
516 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
have thought two hawks had been regaling, for nothing
but polished bones were left. Then across the sea to
Fishguard. The stars were shining and the wind warm.
I lay in my night things with the ports open and bathed
in the sea-wind : an outing to remember and rejoice over
for ever.
I liked your little hint about Death Duties and Insur-
ance. But I have done it already. Papa used to say
and I quite agreed then that people with an income from
investments ought to save and not insure. Now all is
changed owing to the heavy death duties. If I died before
I can save Percy could not live at Clouds, so I have insured
my life and my saving must consist in paying the premiums.
With that Perf could find the rest without having to let
the place.
I have paired for Monday to attend the opening meet
of the Hounds with Perf.
Give my great love to darling Aunt Emily and all my
love to you. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
837
To Charles T. Gatty
35 PARK LANE, W.,
9.xii.l2.
MY DEAR CHARLES, I am counting on you for Christmas.
What, you may well ask, is Christmas to such as you ?
I reply (a) / go to Clouds Friday next 18th, and if I
return to House of Commons on Monday 16th, still (b) I
return to Clouds again on Friday 20th and stay there till
Monday 30th. So much Asquith permits. Very well
then : Come on the 18th and stay till the 30th and if
you will stay on to greet my next return on Friday
3rd January, 1913, to Monday the 6th, and so on, in-
definitely. The ' fat ' of the business is between the 20th
and 30th, the ' frills ' before and after.
It remains to ask and answer two questions. (1) Who
TO HIS MOTHER 517
will be there ? No one but us, for certain, but I have a
hope that the Edmunds [Talbots] and Marks [Sykes] may
come. They are nibbling. A neighbour at our gates has
a Chapel of your Faith. And where else can they go for
so short a time ?
(2) What will be there ? Our old friends the Library,
the Windmill, the Chapel, the plantations ; in short, the
* angulus ille ' and ' interiore nota ' ; ' nunc veterum
libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis ' I invite you with
me to * Ducere sollicitae jucunda oblivia vitae ' to taste
the Falernian and pile up the logs on a hearth in a Home.
It is very necessary that you should do this. There will
also be Perkins and dogs and close friendships. Yours
affectionately, GEORGE W.
P.S. You needn't ride the Horses.
838
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, Xmas Eve, 1912.
MOST, MOST, DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I do love
you. I have been thinking of you so intensely and vividly
ever since I got here on Friday night. I always think
of you and love you every day of my life. I was worrying
about you last week, when I had four days solid on the
bench (Front) ! and kept wondering how you were and
being sorry that I could not pop in to 44 to ' see for myself.'
But here this place is you and you haunt it in the heavenly
way of haunting. Next year you must be here for
Christmas, darling ; and Manenai and the Poussins, too.
I do hope and pray that you are well, Darling. Clouds
has been beautiful these days. The Dawns are wonderful
and I think of all the Dawns you have watched here. I
think a great deal of Papa, and feel that he is pleased with
Perkins and knows that all the farmers and everyone
love him. I went round the Park with Miles and Perkins
yesterday looking at each tree and settling where to put
518 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
some limes, that have grown too big for .the nursery
garden. I rode in the morning through Great Ridge to
the view over the plain. On Saturday I had quite a good
gallop with Perf in the Blackmoor Vale. He rides very
well and sails away in front of everybody, and as they
say in Ireland ' throws a great seat on a horse.' The
library is nearly finished. I am giving Sibell some crimson
stuff to go behind the altar in the chapel ; designed by
Leonardo da Vinci with doves, and flames, and our motto
almost : ' A Bon Droit.'
Give fondest love to darling Manenai and take in all the
love I pour out to you and take great care of yourself and
come here directly the flowers begin to blossom, and bless
you darling Mamma. Your most loving and devoted
son, GEORGE.
839
To Mrs. Hinkson
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, December 28tfi, 1912.
MY DEAR MRS. TYNAN-HINKSON, I wish I could ! I
should love to see your Irish home and to place in sur-
roundings what I must be allowed to call our friendship*
But, as things are, I am cast for the part of the ' Flying
Dutchman.' I hardly know how to get to Limerick and
back between duties before and after. So it is, but so it
must not be. I want, badly, to come to Ireland for
Friendship, apart from Politics, that weary me more and
more. And, if ever you come to England, do come here
and look at pictures that would interest you, and at the
downs that are as poor and happy and hospitable as
Ireland is.
It was most kind of you to write so dear a letter. I
know that I had not thanked you for ' Sally ' : but I
loved ' Sally ' and waited for the right moment which you
have bestowed. Yours very sincerely,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
TO HIS MOTHER 519
840
To his Mother
35 PARK LANE, W.,
19th January 1913.
MOST DARLING BELOVED MAMMA, I have been want-
ing to write to you. And now, first, just for business
that 's pleasure could you, quite conveniently, put me
up at 44 towards the end of this week ? S. S. has let this
house, I think, after the 28th.
I am off to Gateshead on Tuesday, 21st., to speak in
Northumberland, and come back on Wednesday 22nd.
If I could move my papers to 44 on Thursday or Friday
24th, it would help. But, darling, if it is not quite con-
venient it doesn't matter at all.
I 'd love a talk with you one of these days. You will
have known that politically the ' old ' iron has entered
into my * old ' soul, these last three weeks. Not that it 's
any use ' talking ' even to you, most darling. Things
are bad, and times are bad, and one must just put a brave
face on them and go on and begin all over again, like
Alfred in his march, and Bruce with his spider.
I didn't know that so many men were cowards. Yet, I
ought to have known it ! After the Lords ran away in
the ' Die-hard ' time on 10th August 1911, 1 never expected
much.
For all that, and all that, I took them on at Llandudno
on Wednesday week last, and at Dover on Wednesday
last, and did the House of Commons Thursday ; and spoke
there Friday, and ran to Charing Cross and caught the
train back to Dover ; and made three speeches there
yesterday ; and attended the Parish Church ; and got
back here to-night ; and, after work and the House
to-morrow, I am off Tuesday to take them on at Gateshead.
I am not dismayed. But the words of Napoleon ring
in my ears : * Unless men are firm in heart, and in purpose,
they ought not to meddle with War or Government ' and,
again, * Whether to advance, or not to advance, is a ques-
520 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
tion for the gravest consideration at the commencement
of a campaign. But, when once the offensive has been
assumed, it must be sustained to the last extremity ; ' and,
again, * In a battle your enemy's losses will be nearly equal
to your own. But, in a retreat the losses will be yours
only.'
I say this to you, Darling, but I say it over and over
again to myself ; and dream of it at night ; and wake
early to realise its dawn-cold truth.
But I don't let the poor shivering Sheep-men know that
I know this. I tell them to go on. And if they are too
sheepish to listen, I go on alone.
But it is not so bad as all that. On the contrary, Bonar
Law, Austen Chamberlain, and Edward Carson are good
men and true. We have been crushed together for
company. And there are seventy men who mean well,
of whom, unluckily, only fifteen can say ' BO ' to a goose
and quite one hundred who will ' rat ' back to the seventy
if they think the seventy are going to win. So, to Gates-
head, on Tuesday and unless Fortune is a ' triple-
turned whore ' a meeting soon in the Free-Trade Hall
at Manchester.
Indeed, darling Mamma, I will go there alone. But
I needn't be alone. Ten M.P.'s and three thousand
artizans will back me up against a corrupt Press and the
alien millionaires. Whatever else happens I do not think
that Mond and Chiozza Money are the * Natural Leaders '
of the English people. ' / don't think.'
With all and all of love to my lion-hearted Mamma.
Your devoted son, GEORGE.
841
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
2Qth January 1913.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I read so much as the * Press *
permitted of your duel. You did well to the old only
good tune of * Hey-diddle-diddle, Pink him in the
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 521
middle ' a good ' Naval engagement ' so I thought in
so far as the Press permitted materials for an opinion.
And, now, I burst into Song !
How good it is that I and you
Are sure that nothing matters
If this, or that, obsequious Jew
From Mirth, or Terror, chatters.
He chatters of perennial Peace
And ' Bulls ' to make a rise
In golden-edged securities
But ' O ! what a surprise.'
When Turks, are Turks, he understands
In spite of Norman Angel,
That even Turks prefer their lands
To his brand-new evangel.
How good it is that you and I
Should know his abject terror
Is but the first reluctant cry
Wrung from abysmal error.
For when he 'takes on' Europe, then,
The children of the church,
Our mother, who has made us men,
Will leave him in the lurch.
And that is just the only place
Where he and his must die ;
Because no Fatalist dare face
The lot, like you and I.
Come one, come all, come Hell on Earth ;
No numbers can deceive
One man, whose heritage of birth
Is to Believe :
And so be * damned ' to the Usurers. They can't play
their own game. We needn't damn them. They were
born damned and unfruitful : just sterilities.
And now, my dear Belloc, having burst into song, I
will go to bed : and make several speeches to-morrow
522 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and then go Home and breathe the southern air and look
at the Downs, and thank God, that my property, being
chalk, will not be distributed by you for who would
thank you for distribution ? or nationalised by Shaw
for what Jew would Finance the transfer ?
No my job is to see that the people who have lived
there, shall live there, and drink beer, and poach Hares,
and plough fields, and plash hedges and be merry. Yours
ever, GEORGE W.
P.S. 30.1.13
This is my first day out : Had a chill since Saturday
last.
842
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
30.U3.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I write at once although tired
because I appreciate a letter from you at any time, and,
the more so, when I am having a bad time.
I got out to-day & wreck did a Railway meeting of
shareholders at 12 noon ; spoke in the House of Commons
on Welsh Church ; dined with Generals and the whole
staff of the ' Times ' on Army Defence : a long, varied,
exhausting day for the first day of convalescence. But
so it is.
So let me add it should not be.
I do regret your departure from Chapel Street.
I hope that here, or at 35 Park Lane, you will be my
guest, when Spring returns, and revives us ; and I am
determined to be your guest with luck, when the birds
are in chorus and * in any case ' when the wild roses
bloom.
You are fortunate. To select, and print Poetry, with
dear Dorothy's accomplished assistance, seems to me,
after influenza, in a dark drizzle, and damned to the
hell of politics, an inconceivable extravagance of joy.
Now, if this World was made, the design must have been
for joy. If it was not made, our revolt should be for joy.
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 523-
You are accomplishing the Design of the Great Arti-
ficer ; or else (if he never was) helping to fill the gap of
his non-existence.
But I, Good Lack ! am a Member of Parliament !
I mean, however, to escape, and to get you to London
to see pictures and plays ; or to go to you and hear the
birds and see the blossoms.
I am glad that a Buck has been killed. Fond as I am
of wild creatures and loath as I am to arrest their felicity,
I am also glad when something definite is done.
Let there be murder, or even rape, rather than vague
aspiration and no end achieved. Let something be done
even to DEATH. I feel this fiercely after my Parlia-
mentary experience, in which nothing happens. Ajax
defied the lightning because he knew that Achilles was
an ass to sulk in his tent. A flash and a crash even if
they mean only the explosion of Obby's gun and the fall
of a fat beast, are better, because more definite, than the
murky drizzle of the Mother of Parliaments. Yours
affectionately, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
843
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BKLGRAVE SQUARK, S.W. r
5th February 1913.
MY DEAR BELLOC, What ho ! P.T.O. Observe the
rhyme ! And you will read an appreciation of your
verse : Spondaic ? Why yes. You have more than
once flattered my use of the heavy-footed Turn-Turn,
And here or there, over the page it says, with due
solemnity, what I think. Yours, G. W,
TO HILAIRE BELLOC
O, your Hexameter ! Aptitude tells us, ' Here is an Artist ' f
Pouring the lilt of our tongue into a mould of the past ;
Tense steel, blended by you from the phantasmagorical symbols
Folks, forgotten, shaped, long before nations Mere named.
524 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
You make new metal reforged arin'd mad petillations,
Sparks, called ' soldiers/ crack, scaling the chimney of dreams
Whilst you sing, Hearth, God, Home, hush'd penetralia, Life
charr'd :
Only that embers may blaze shooting at stars that excel.
G. W.
P.S. And it is a pretty compliment, but, let me add,
a penetrating appreciation of your work. I have managed
to say in your damned elegiacs what you are doing * all
the time.'
P.S. 2. We belong to our age. My verse reminds me
of Persius who wrote in a decadence. My verse exhibits
the opalescence of decay. It is therefore prismatic.
844
To Sir Charles Waldstein
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
February 13th, 1913.
MY DEAR CHARLES, All that you say is only too sad
and more true than you can know. I am worn out with
work. I get away to-morrow for three weeks' holiday.
So Sibell and I cannot be in London before March 10th.
We had no holiday at Christmas, or, indeed, for years.
But I will not despair. A time will come, and then,
when good times come back, we will meet and remember
the * good old times.'
At present my life is that of a train in a tunnel that
never ends. Yours ever, GEORGE WYNDHAM.
845
To his Son
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLK,
SALISBURY, 15.ii.1tf.
MOST DARLING PERKINS, What a Valentine ! You
know how much I love you and that your marriage means
far more to me than anything else could mean. You
TO HIS SON 525
are evidently in love ; and that is essential. I have read
your letter several times, and the sentence ' I know I am
doing right ' is the one to which I pin my hopes, although
when people fall in love they rarely do know what they
are doing. Anyway I give you consent, love and blessing,
and will do all I can to add to the happiness of your
marriage. ' I agree ' as you put it to everything
except again, as you put it that you have been a
' Blighter.' You have been a loving child to me and a
good soldier. And I know you will go on being the first.
I hope you will go on being the second. I was much
pleased to read that the young lady ' wants you to go on
soldiering and everything.' I see that her family motto
is ' Retinens vestigia famae,' and I hope she will make
you stick to it. If she wants to win my heart not a
difficult enterprise you may tell her with my love
that that is the way to set about it. You remember my
joke about the blank stone to be kept in the cellar ?
Already I shall not have to inscribe ' married nobody ' on
it ; and if she helps you to serve our country, I need not
put ' and did nothing.'
Darling Perks, I am deeply moved and will do all I can,
and you must explain to Diana that I like being spoilt
by being allowed to share in the happiness and purport
of your life.
I have been saving every penny I could in case you
came one fine day to say you wanted to marry. I make
no conditions. I believe as you know in liberty and
light hands. But you also know that, if you and she can,
of your own free will, get to know this place, and help this
little bit of England for which we are responsible, and
' belong ' here then you will crown my life and I shall
sing 4 Nunc dimittis ' my task is done.'
It was impossible to keep the secret here, what with
asking to have your letter the moment it arrived and
firing off our telegrams. So I told Icke J in the sten-
torian tone his deafness demands, and, at once, with an
xvmth century bow, he replied ' I hope you will tell
1 The butler.
526 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Mr. Percy on behalf of us all here that we are delighted
to hear it and wish him all happiness.'
If Rawley 1 gives any trouble I will wheel him into
line. It will be great fun if I can take a Mrs. Perkins to
manoeuvres in our motor, as extra A.D.C. to the 3rd
Division.
Now for plans : Memmy and I will bustle up to 44 by
the 9.30 Monday, and tell Finlay to have a good luncheon
at 1 p.m.
Then I will do whatever you wish. Perhaps it will be
best to go back to Leicestershire together Monday even-
ing. Indeed I would like to see what the last phase of
your bachelor life was like. I have been getting well for
that as quickly as I could. But, of course, if you would
like to bring her here Monday instead, that would be
delightful, too. In any case I hope she can come here
Thursday or Friday. I simply couldn't forego the plea-
sure of welcoming Diana here on her first visit.
I am sorry she has to go abroad.
I don't know what your idea of a ' short ' engagement
is, but I suppose you mean April (May is unlucky !).
I am free till Monday 10th March. Then very busy
till the 31st in London over Army Estimates. Then from
1st April on I could throw myself into settlements and
trousseau.
Mrs. Simnet has just burst in and wrung me by the
hand. She is very proud, as through a maid of Aunt
Mary's, she knows the young lady's photograph ; a
feather in her cap which she flourishes. I don't believe
I have ever set eyes on Diana.
I knew there must be something important when you
wired me to look out for a letter. I had to tell Memmy
it was no use trying to guess. We inclined to think it
might mean that you were off with Rawley to the Balkans,
or further afield.
Now I must stop. All love till Monday : Leicester-
shire or not, as you please ; and, if you can, DO bring
Diana here Thursday or Friday. You can have the East
1 General Sir Henry Rawlinson.
TO HIS MOTHER 527
room to play in, and horses to ride. I must introduce
her to Clouds and Wiltshire. Bless you, Darling.
Devoted, PUPS.
846
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 15th February 1913.
MOST, DARLING, BELOVED MAMMA, I waited to get
here to write lots to you about being with you in London,
or your coming here.
And now, my dear ! ! ! I have got lots with a Bless-
ing of News. Am gasping at it myself. Percy is engaged
to marry Diana Lister, Lord Ribblesdale's daughter.
Well there it is. ... It is no use being surprised, or
thinking of this or that of course one does think. I had
not the remotest inkling. But he is evidently in love ;
lyrically in love. And you must take risks for love and
marriage, of health and fortune. Still it is better to be
brave and rather careless than to be cautious and rather
selfish. You know my views.
I am astounded ; as people always are when their son
marries the last person they would have thought of, as
they often do.
The fact that she has no money is all to the good. The
fact that he was very happy, soldiering and hunting, and
not without friends, and happy with us all, proves that
he must know what he is about ; in so far as anyone can
know what they are about when they fall in love.
He has written me sheets all the old ' consecrated '
litany that people smile at and that is so pathetic.
' It 's really the most wonderful thing that has ever
happened ' so it is. We 've never heard that before.
4 Yes, I don't think.'
And he goes on ' I can't explain it, but it 's just abso-
lutely perfect. If only I had any command of the English
language I might try and tell you, but it 's beyond any-
thing I know ' and so on, for pages ! You will not be
528 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
surprised to hear that in his opinion she is ' perfect woman
and girl mixed,' that she only wants to help him, that
they like being poor, that he only wants an ' uneventful
happy home life with a wife ' that he is ' quite calm and
collected,' that I have ' only to see her to understand
quite ' ' et toute la lyre.'
Well., well., well, and it shall be well by God's blessing.
Anyway all I have to do is to join in from the start and
not croak and suddenly pretend to be the ' Heavy Father '
a part for which I have no aptitude. Let 'em try to be
happy and I will help all I can.
Your most loving and devoted son, GEORGE.
Perkins is 25 and she is 20.
847
To Mrs. Drew
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 15.il. 13.
MY DEAR MARY, If I had surmised, however remotely,
what I learn for the first time to-day, I would have con-
sulted your friendship and superlative understanding of
matrimonial problems. But as things are Sibell and
I, alone here, in this vast, empty house, received a telegram
from Percy last night asking us to await a letter by first
post. I pointed out as men will the futility of guess-
ing at its contents ; and then as men do guessed away
not too cheerfully for hours, and, at last, in the same
inconsequent vein, said : ' Well ! we must go to bed.'
This morning I rushed down to grasp the letter and read,
after endearments : 4 Here is rather a sudden shock for
you, but it is All Right ! I am engaged to Diana Lister.'
Sibell and I have been staggering together all day under
this ' blessing ' from the Blue. We had no idea nor,
indeed, do I think had Percy But who knows ? that
he contemplated marriage at present, or for years.
But there it is. I have never seen Diana Lister. I
have heard praise of her sister, now Lady Lovatt. Do
TO WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT 529
write me an affectionate, indiscreet, understanding letter.
Please do ! Dear Mary.
I have written this amazing intelligence only to my
Mother, sisters and brother, and to You the Expert. But
I must not pretend that I am divulging a secret which
otherwise would not leak out. I should have thought
that ' Mum was the word ' till Tommy Ribblesdale had
some say. But after telegrams to me sheets signed
' Percy and Diana,' and telegrams to Sibell signed ' Your
loving daughter Diana,' well, My Dear, knowing the local
post office as I do, and the young lady who runs it, further
mystery at Clouds is ' off.' The Butler has made me a
speech, the Housekeeper has wrung my hand, the House-
maid has burst into tears, the Agent has tactfully sug-
gested that we had better postpone rebuilding the village
in spite of the * Land Campaign.' They are all quivering
with emotion and tingling to ring the Bells. They are
drinking their healths downstairs. So, reverent as I am
of ancient decorum, I know that Tommy Ribblesdale and
I have only to ' conform ' ; to get ' in front of the band '
if we can. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. But tell me all you know. I know nothing.
SibelPs dear love.
848
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 16.ii.13.
MY DEAR WILFRID, A sudden thing has happened,
which affects my life and is therefore of interest to you
because of our kinship and affection.
Percy my boy is engaged to marry Ribblesdale's
daughter, Diana Lister.
I have written to my mother, sisters and brother, and
now I write to you. But I have little to tell.
I came here Friday afternoon to rest after influenza
and speeches. I received a telegram from Percy asking
VOL. II. 2 L
530 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
me to look out for a letter by early post. Sibell and I,
alone in this large, empty house, speculated on the import
of a strange message from a competent child. I insisted
as men will in domestic circles, however confined on
the self-evident futility of guessing. But I guessed away
and was disposed cheerlessly to imagine that Percy
meant to go off, somewhere far away in the B. Empire
you detest. It was not so. The letter which I pounced
on at 8.30 a.m. yesterday began, after endearments
4 This will be rather a sudden shock to you, but it 's All
Right ! ! I am engaged to Diana Lister.'
It was sudden.
Fate is determined to intertwine our family with the
Tennants.
It is pleasant that young people should * fall in love.'
I thought they had forgotten that declension.
Percy, whose orthography is a soldier's, writes ' I never
meant to marry for years and I tried hard not to ask her
for days, but it poped out last night.' Let me explain.
He rarely doubles his consonants. He means that his
declaration ..* popped ' out on Wednesday. They hunted
Thursday and so he says were * wildly happy.'
I have no aptitude for playing the part of the ' Heavy
Father.' I revere Love. This is one of its expressions.
They the young pair have not consulted me or Tommy
Ribblesdale, we have only to conform. It is for them to
set the * Pace and Direction ' and for LOVE to Laugh
or Cry, over the End. But damn the End ! Love is
Love, even between a young Guardsman and a maid of
20 years whom he meets out hunting in Leicestershire.
4 Thine heart it was so ruddy red That every Archer
knew How best he might impale thee, And drive his
Arrows through.'
Percy is a stricken heart : and I must provide, gladly,
for their bower of bliss, and I hope a nursery to follow.
I write at once to you because you and one other are
near to me in all that really touches my life.
Decorum would enjoin reticence until Tommy Ribbles-
dale had given his assent. But the young lady who pre-
TO HIS MOTHER 531
sides over the Post Office at Clouds, though all but dense
to the reception of a message, is all alacrity in the diffu-
sion of gossip. After sheets of telegrams to me signed
4 Percy and Diana,' and sheets to Sibell, signed ' Your
loving daughter Diana,' there is no mystery about it in
this village and household. The Butler has made me a
speech in the smoking room. Bertha, the Housemaid,
has burst into tears. Mrs. Simnet, the Housekeeper, has
wrung my hand off. Mallet, the House Carpenter, has
put in a few chosen words. They drank healths in the
Room and Hall last night, and I was mobbed after Church
this morning.
But in so far as ' official ' intelligence goes, I write to
you, at once. Yours affectionately,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
849
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
Wth February 1913.
MOST DARLING MAMMA, I long to share all this with
you. I feel at every moment that if I turned round you
would be there. Now, will try to tell you what has
happened, and what Diana is like. We came up Monday
and found your dear letter ; also a very nice one from
Tommy Ribblesdale asking me to call at 6 instead of 5.30.
So I saw him at the Cavendish Hotel, Jermyn Street where
he lives. He is very pleased and bubbled away. On
returning we got a telegram asking us to meet Percy and
Diana at St. Pancras Station 7.40 p.m. So S. S. and I
bundled off in a taxi. It was a strange expedition. The
train was 8 minutes late. We grouped ourselves under
an electric standard, so as to be easily recognised. Of
course we did not see them as the train pulled up. Then
I got a prod in the back from an umbrella (Percy's) and felt
a little dog bombarding my tummy with his paws (Peter),
Then I saw Percy's grin to Diana, it showed simplicity
532 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
and courage to enter her new family, tired by hunting
and travel, under the unflattering rays of a blue electric
light. She was rather smaller than I expected. We all
four got into the taxi, dropped Percy, then Diana, then
Sibell then self : all very hungry. I liked Diana but, as
you will hear, I am quite sure I like her very much now.
This was the start. Tommy, dear old Guy, Diana, Percy,
Sibell and I dined at last ; after 9. Cuckoo had come in
to hug them and I assisted in a dressing-gown. I liked
her much more at dinner. Yesterday I took a. little trip
with her and Percy to a photographer, and whilst he waited
at the Guards' Club was alone with her in the taxi and
liked her more. Then we all dined at Leffie's (No. 13) to
meet her family. Barbara and Wilson, Laura and Lovat ;
and an Aunt (also Margot) watched Perf and Diana and
liked her most. They are very much in love. She is a
little cameo ; very well-bred, with a sort of look of Aunt
Connie as a girl, only smaller. I saw the Aunt, Tommy's
unmarried sister watching them ; and saw her face
passing from the curious stage to frank content and
admiration of Percy. And she looked such a lady, the
Aunt. So I really was satisfied. Percy the ' infatuated '
started at 7 to hunt in Leicestershire and I am to take
Diana down there this afternoon. We dine at Little
Dally, Percy's bachelor hunting box. Sibell conies on
Saturday to Glady and Edward Wyndham ' Warwick
Lodge.' S. S. and I return Monday and on to Clouds to
welcome them on Friday 28th.
Now, darling, London is beastly just now such a black
bitter N.E. wind. Would you like to come to Clouds on
the 24th and see the fun : probably a meet of hounds early
the next week ?
I will write again if this is so. If you stick to coming
here 24th I could hug you on my way through. But I
think Clouds would be better than London for you darling
and I long to be with you. Ever your most loving son,
GEORGE.
P.S. I fixed up the settlements yesterday and the
wedding will be on the 17th April.
TO MRS. MACKAIL 533
They had never seen each other till 24th January out
hunting and were engaged on 12th February. Percy said
to Tony Shaftesbury ' It was no use beating about the
bush.'
850
To his Niece, Mrs. H. H. Asquith
THE VICARAGE, LITTLE DALBY,
MELTON MOWBRAY, Saturday, 22.ii.13.
DARLING NYNCLE, It was dear of you to write. I am
you * love ' Diana as I have a great opinion of your
taste and wisdom. I am very fond of her. She rides
beautifully. Percy was allowed to come here by the
early train, so I had the honour of escorting Dian. We
all hunted together yesterday and to-day. It is a glorious
country and such fun to be humming along with young
people and capering over the perfect fences.
I go to Clouds Monday to prepare a welcome and enter-
tain Hugh Cecil. The happy pair join us on Friday or
Saturday. Could you and Beb come too ? 28th to 3rd,
or 7th to 10th, or both, or for all the time ? Do !
Percy has done all I ever asked. I told him not to
marry an American, or a Jewess, or an heiress, but just
a,n English young lady. So he has conformed.
With much love to Nyncie. From her Uncle,
GEORGE.
851
To Mrs. Mackail
THE VICARAGE, LITTLE DALBY,
MELTON MOWBRAY,
23.ii.13.
DEAREST MARGARET, You wrote me a heavenly letter.
It does make one * feel nice and in love oneself.' Jack
has written too, and Angela. That was good of her. Of
course she remembered my plunging in at her ecstatic
534 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
moment ; but it was good to write and say so. She
recommends marriage.
It is a ' whack ' of Happiness and Spring to me already.
I rather wanted one. It has cured a sore throat that
had marred me for five weeks ; and cured me also of
inward invisible ungraciousness of which the sore throat
was the outward and sensible sign too inward, all the
same.
And now for a time perhaps for all the Autumn of my
days a long Farewell to dismal shadows ; and a Welcome
to ' the newness of Life ' once more. I am 20 years
younger. I must come and pump-handle your dear hand.
And you must come to the Wedding, already fixed for
Thursday, 17th April, in the morning.
Angela still ' holds the record ' for time ; but for com-
plete initiative and independence of action Percy ties
with her. He saw Diana for the first time out hunting
on January 24th. Made a point of seeing her on foot, on
Wednesday following, and was accepted that day fort-
night after as he says ' trying hard not to ask her for
days.' They are wildly in love.
It amuses me that Sibell has always taken the most
melancholy view of his coming to hunt here. To her
Melton is the haunt of man-eating Delilahs. ' Instead of
which ' we get a very early Victorian romance of roseate
simplicity ; all done ' By the simplicity of Venus' doves/
I came down to examine the scene of action ; and know
exactly how, when and where everything happened.
This is a bleak little vicarage at the top of a hill, where
Percy and a friend, George Drummond, had come to be
ostentatious bachelors, living Spartan lives, never dining
out, to bed at 10 ; no hot air and little hot water for the
one bath ; chops and tapioca pudding for dinner. So
Venus smiled and all the birds are singing ' Ring-a -ding-
ding.' And I am ever your ever affectionate
GEORGE.
I was wise to turn the Nurseries into a library. I 'm
glad you spotted that successful challenge to Fortune.
Going to Clouds to-morrow.
TO HIS MOTHER 535
852
To Wilfrid Ward
WARWICK LODGE,
MELTON MOWBRAY, February 23rd, 1913.
MY DEAR WILFRID, Your letter of congratulation
was most welcome. I am pleased at Percy's engagement
and satisfied with his choice. It came as a complete
surprise. I had never seen the young lady nor, indeed,
had he until the 24th of January, out hunting. They
were engaged, after post, on the 12th of February and I
received Percy's announcement on the 15th. Since then
I have seen Diana and my prepossession in her favour,
based on a long friendship with her father, is confirmed
by her charm and simplicity. I am truly content and
happy at the prospect. My only wish was that he should
marry an English lady and this he proposes to do. They
fell in love with each other in the early Victorian manner.
Their happy story might have been written by Miss
Young in collaboration with Whyte-Melville.
I go to Clouds to-morrow to prepare a welcome. With
my kindest remembrance to your wife. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
853
To his Mother
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 28th February 1913.
MOST DARLING AND BELOVED MAMMA, Just before I
go to bed, I must write you a little line. Percy and Diana
and Tommy Ribblesdale are coming here to-morrow ;
and I can't help feeling ' diddle.' It was that, or some
such word, I used when you read to me the ' Ice Maiden.'
But, all the while, my intention is if I can if I could
to deepen your structural imprint on Clouds, so that
nobody can alter it.
I have had just now a great talk with S. S. and she
really does understand what I am driving at.
536 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I think you would like the library ; and I think Philip
Webb would approve. It is good ' And the evening and
the morning were the first day.' I have, all the time, seen
* in my mind's eye, Horatio ' that when books were put
in the shelves of the North wall, the proportion would be
apparent. Now, to-day, I filled one section with books
and, Darling, there is the proportion of the attic-Gallery
for any Ass to see.
Equally in the Lamp-room-Chapel. There, too, Mallet
and I are making straight for a ' grand slam.'
But so also in the Billiard-room. The Billiard table
is now quite comfortable ensconced in the Barrel-
room. And the ' Billiard-room ' that was assumes once
more its original delight.
But I want you badly to help me.
I am at it with Miles, outside. The immediate nut I
have to crack is Milton village. I have been round it,
cottage by cottage, and tree by tree, with Miles.
I will not spoil that village. But I will without spoil-
ing it rebuild every house, that gets no sun, on the
opposite slope. That is to say I am making a plan which
can be followed if Percy cares to follow in 10 or 20
or 30 years, as money may, or may not, be available.
My plan is to fulfil three objects.
(1) The people must have good houses.
(2) Their houses must be the sort of houses which my
neighbours can build.
(3) Milton, in thirty years' time, must be a Wiltshire
village, built of stone and chalk ; and more beautiful
than it is now, because its owner will have cared to think
of every house, and family, and of * old England ' made
new : as it was in the days of ' John Ball.'
The real distinction is not between old things and new
things ; but between good things and bad things.
Do not, for one moment, suppose that I am careless
about money. I realise that I must do my part, in my
generation. I cannot have a stink in Milton if 150 will
get rid of the stink. The stink is there : and it must go.
But I realise quite vividly that launching Percy into
TO PHILIP HANSON 537
matrimony with a young lady who requires four hunters
is what financialists call a ' stiff proposition.'
So I am raking through all the money there is, or might
be, like an * 'Ebrew Jew.'
And I think I see my way. There is some ' dead wood.'
For example, a Mill Terwick Mill in Sussex ; head-
rents in Yorkshire ; a property nobody knows anything
about in Australia. Well ; if I sell these eccentricities
kept for votes, and ' plural voting ' is ' off ' or kept in
Australia because they were there ; I can raise enough to
give Diana a necklace and pay Percy's debts, without
endangering the property.
Any way, most beloved Mamma, it is all joy to me that
Percy is to marry and I won't lose the ship of his venture
for a ' porth of Tar.'
I don't want to spend any more money on myself than
I have done for the last twenty years. I 'm a * cheap
man.' I write that to reassure you.
On the one hand, Percy is my only son. On the other,
in launching him, I shall be ' careful.' But he must be
launched.
I am glad that Diana is only a child. I am glad that
Percy's General likes her. Because that means that
Percy will go on with his soldiering and that Diana
prompted by me and Percy's General will make Percy
go to the Staff College.
My part is to smooth over the acerbity of the ' Red
House ' by tidying up the garden and putting in some
chintzes and china. Your most loving son, GEORGE.
854
To Philip Hanson
CLOUDS, EAST K NO VLB,
SAJJSBURY, 2.iii.l913.
MY DEAR PHIL, I have been * enjoying the engage-
ment,' and without a moment for responding to your
appeal to my egotism.
538 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
But before I write about myself let me say a word or
two about you. What does ' being now retired from
active affairs ' mean ? Are you antedating the Royal
assent to the Home Rule Bill ? Or has the shadow cast
before it already eclipsed your work ? Do you no longer
think of returning to the Civil Service ' on this side ' ?
I ply you with questions.
But even if as I hope you continue to serve the State,
I would welcome a work from you on the ' Philosophy
of Politics.' What the age needs is a modern Bagehot.
Most of the recent Political Economy is amateurish
socialism. I wish you would write as Bagehot did. His
works I have turned to them lately are obsolete in
matters though still attractive in treatment.
Percy is to be married on April 17th. Can you come
and pass the Friday to Monday with me here ? Do.
As for myself : I did too much Platform work last year.
It tires me. Also I am scarred by (1) the cowardice and
snobbishness of the Peers on 10 August, 1911 ; (2) the
cowardice over duties on Foreign Food-stuffs.
I doubt whether the Unionist Party will ever do any
great work again. It has the faults the moral faults
of the Coalition without their dexterity at electioneering.
The truth is that the candidates, on both sides, are not
fit to be MJVs. They are selected for their wealth and
lack both brains and character. The majority have no
views at all ; and a heavy percentage of the minority
with views are incapable of explaining or defending them.
The absence of brains and character in 70% to 80% of our
politicians depresses me.
Towards the end of the Session I had influenza, and my
speech on February 10th at Manchester was an effort that
left me exhausted. But it was a good speech and success-
ful. I will send you a copy. You will dissent from it ;
but it may interest you.
The worst of it is that I have become in these degenerate
days a * popular turn ' on the platform. People come
as they would to a good conjurer or cinematograph. Both
sides come and pay compliments. But I am under no>
TO PHILIP HANSON 539
illusion. A set speech is the respectable dissipation of
our urban centres. On the other hand to be more
cheerful I am getting more and more deeply interested
in agriculture and Rural England. Sibell calls me
' Farmer George.'
It is too late for me to be an English * Horace ' (organiser, 1
not Poet), but in a small way I believe I could get a good
deal done.
I am entering into correspondence with Landlords of
relatively small properties round here, who depend on
their estates for a living. The ' magnates ' are of no use
to the smaller landowners, men with 2,000 to 3,000 acres
or so, or to anyone else.
But if these smaller men would (1) create for themselves
a system of mutual credit, (2) have a housing policy of
their own with ' standardised ' plans and ' spare parts/
(3) carry the Farmers with them and convince the Farmers
that the * whole show ' is doomed unless the labourers are
treated better why, then a beginning could be made.
Although I have little free money almost none now
that Percy is to marry I am not ' tied up ' by settle-
ments and burdened by charges ; so I can * move and
have my being.'
When I dismiss the Magnates I must except Lord
Radnor. He is a good man who works hard at his job.
I doubt whether any Government can do much for
Agriculture. I am convinced that a great deal must be
done and am not without hope that co-operation might
do it.
You must come here. The library is finished. I have
sorted all the labourers into three categories, so as to
know what I spend on elderly and idle men. In the same
way I have sorted all the cottages into ' good, bad and
indifferent,' and have started a mild ' town-planning ' for
the village of Milton.
Upon the whole I incline to the view that public life
is only useful as an education for private enterprise.
Let us correspond more frequently and begin by explain-
1 Sir Horace Plunkett.
540 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
ing what you mean by the phrase * being now retired from
active affairs.'
If you are going to write, you had better come and
study the English Land Question in Wiltshire. Yours
ever, G. W.
P.S. Sibell and I are thinking of you with your Mother
and Father, and send them our kindest remembrance.
I am really overjoyed at Percy's choice. His young
woman is a lady ; and fond of the country, and not over-
educated. She grasps that he has got to be a soldier first
and a squire next. Perkins can do those two things well
and has no aptitude for politics or literature.
Diana rides beautifully.
855
To Philip Hanson
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, G.iii.lo.
MY DEAR PHIL, I am glad to hear that the enigmatic
sentence only meant more work.
Now for immediate plans. Percy will be married on
the 17th April, in London, at St. Margaret's. I feel sure
that for you to come then and go with me to Clouds on
the 18th, or evening of 17th, will be the best plan, and
very delightful.
I had considered Easter, but (1) there will be no Easter
holiday, (2) I shall be absorbed in Army Estimates, (3)
the only counter-inducement Percy and Diana being
here is more than doubtful, as he must go to her people
at Gisbourne that, Easter, Sunday. So we will say ' done '
and book the 17th.
I am impressed, and pleased, by your approval of my
contemplated escape frcm Party Politics. Hugh Cecil
who came here last week at first scoffed at the idea ;
but after a little talk and reflection, he, too, approved. I
cannot desert, with honour, during this bout of opposition.
But after the next General Election, and 25 years in the
House of Commons, I shall feel that I have finished that
TO PHILIP HANSON 541
part of my duty. I shall be out of the Yeomanry, too,
and 52 or 53 years of age. That is a good age for begin-
ning 10 or 20 years of new work ' in novitate vitae.'
Whereas another round of opposition would kill me ;
and office does not tempt me ; even if we won the Elec-
tion, which I, for one, do not expect.
In any case I mean to study the English Land Question,
and you shall see the ' start ' on April 18th.
It is evident that * Plunkett ' co-operation will not
work here. My present belief is that we must start from
the * top ' and get the small Landowners together for
mutual credit, and standardised housing. Then, as a
second stage, the large farmers may conform.
I.e. IF (???) the small landowners had succeeded qua
their part of the job, the large farmers might wish to come
in qua their part of the job.
At this point, the syndicated landowners would insist
on (1) holding the cottages for the whole Trust, instead
of letting them with Farms ; (2) a higher wage for
labourers.
(I am skipping detail although indeed, because I am
well aware that the detail at this juncture is decisive :
so I skip it, to think the more.)
(If I did not skip, I should have to go into (a) standard-
ising gardens for all cottages, (b) motor traction, owned
by the first landowners as an additional bait to large
farmers.)
And at this juncture my parentheses would never end.
A very important one would include buying out Glebe
and obsolete tenantry rights so that the standardised
housing-cum-transport should not be marred by slovenly
' enclaves.'
Supposing all that is attempted with some hope of
success.
Then, and then only, could co-partnership or any
other long name for a simple and rather hopeless experi-
ment be brought in.
At this point, the small-holder of whom I hope little
(and so will you when you see Sangar's small holding) and
542 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
the rising labourer, of whom I hope much, would
come in.
Enough ! * Basta Vedremo,' as the Italians say. But
you must * wait and see ' with me.
The twin Tom-fooleries of Mr. George and Ernest
Pretyman consist in hurrying and never watching.
The suicide of Landowners consists in not knowing
their maps and their country-sides. Without maps, and
ways of proceeding on horse and foot, I am lost.
E.g. I know the upland here which I farm myself. I
don't know the vale. A few days ago I tried it on foot.
I didn't know my boundary, I got bogged and scratched :
bogged in morasses and scratched in unkempt fences.
That is all wrong. I am putting it right.
E.g. 2. The pressure of finding some money for Percy
to marry on has forced me to take stock of what I possess.
What do I find ?
(1) That I own acres in South Australia. At last I got
a map ; and mean to realise.
(2) That I own a mill and some few acres in Sussex.
(8) That I own a head rent in Yorkshire.
All that sort of thing is the Devil. It is a mere excuse
for lawyers and stamps and bitter resentment on the part
of occupiers. It is all wrong and detestable from any
human angle of vision. I shall sell these execrescences
very carefully to selected persons who can do their duty
by them, and put the capital, 8,000 to 6,000, into doing
my duty by the little stretch of England for which I am
responsible.
And now to run on to the end of a garrulous letter :
It is interesting to shape and improve bits of England.
To-day, for the first time since September, I made a
moment to see what I had created ' in my mind ' at
Pertwood. My dear P. H., it thrilled me. For 1,000 to
1,400 I have pumped water, by a 3| horse power engine
1| miles over a great hill, and built a PERFECT cow-
stable (designed by Mallet and self and executed by a
small man at Hindon with some help in carting and
material from me), and fenced in a patch of clay smeared
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 543
on to the high Downs ; noted in Domesday Book as
pasture, and neglected till now.
Well, that 's a milk farm made and the capital value
of 400 acres doubled. And the Farmers out hunting come
to me and talk about it.
The Game and it 's a ripping Game is to combine
(a) all the old traditions here with (b) the eye and imagina-
tion and cash balance of a man prospecting in N.W.
Canada. It is a Game ! But, quite seriously, I believe
it to be a Duty that has been abominably neglected.
Yours ever, G. W.
P.S. I believe it can only be played in England from
the ' top ' with inducements lor all and sundry in their
order to come in.
Anyway or, as you say over the water, anny-way
if the squires are ' scrapped ' by the Plutocrats in the
very act of playing this great Game of Rural England
they will be deeply regretted and will go down with a
grand flag flying.
856
To Hilaire Belloc
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
12th March 1913.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Prudence a bitch counsels that
I should go to bed quam primum. I wave her away and
take notice only of your letter.
You are a fortunate man. You have left the House of
Commons.
You have been to Glastonbury and are converted. It
was the city of Glass v it stood in a lake. It was Avalon.
It glistened and was vitreous and opalescent and enchanted
and the source of many fables.
It is not dead like Stonehenge because Christianity was
spliced onto its superstitions.
Now Wiltshire is remarkable because it is just East of
the Mystery-line. But its mysteries are dead. Stone-
henge is dead. Yarnboro' Castle is dead, White Sheet
544 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
Castle, Castle ditches, Ogglebury's camp, Quarley Hills,
are all gone dead ; and a new wonder of Rome in a
trance supervenes. Wiltshire is not dead ; not mys-
terious ; but Romantic. That 's why I love Wiltshire ;
stand in awe of Glastonbury ; and shudder at Stone-
henge (hi Wiltshire but not of it ; any more than the
aeroplane station is of it, with flag always at half mast
for seme brave fellow dashed to death). Wiltshire is a
Belle au bois dormant not a sepulchre : a cataleptic
not a skeleton. Wiltshire is living and entranced. But
now I must go to bed.
Army Estimates are on early next week ; perhaps on
Monday.
I only got the Annual Report (dated 30 Sept. 1912)
to-day, and have only Seely's promise of an early ! copy
of the Estimates. I must work. Propose a meeting the
night after Army Estimates.
I continue to rejoice hi my son's early marriage. I
care for nothing else, and rejoice hi that without a care.
I have been bucketted about. Welcomed the young
couple at Clouds, Saturday March 1st, to London March
3rd, back to Clouds March 4th, to London March 8th to
dine with Bonar Law (a moth-eaten affair), to Wimbledon
to breakfast with step -daughter Lady Shaftesbury March
9th ; back to Clouds. To London March 10th for open-
ing of Parliament (a rat-eaten affair). To Maidenhead
March llth to my beloved Mother and her elder sister
Mrs. Ellis no words can say what charm and joy surrounds
ladies of 78 and 79 years of age who are young. Back
here March 12th to-day, and determined to say what has
to be said about our microscopic army. The standard
for the Infantry of the line is 5 ft. 3" and the Estimates
which Seely will not print will disclose a death-rattle
in recruiting. Sed victa Catoni, 1 is my motto. Yours
ever, G. W.
I-- 1 Lucan.
TO HIS MOTHER 545
857
To his Mother
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
13th March 1913.
MOST BELOVED MAMMA, I have thought of Papa to-day l
and gone on with my work, as he would have done.
I can't be sure of getting to you this Sunday.
I am trying to extract a copy of Army Estimates : and
in that process Good News. Failing all else I ran
Seely to ground about 6 p.m. and, before answering my
demand for the Estimates, he told me he had approved
dear old Guy's appointment to good work at the War
Office in next October. That rolls a load off my heart.
And * for this relief much thanks,' but, as always, and
cheerfully this time, I must pay.
I can't get the Estimates till late Saturday.
Bonar Law who saw me to-day wants to see me
seriously on Monday.
I must wait for those Estimates; eviscerate them
Sunday ; think over them Monday morn ; have it pat
for Bonar Law Monday afternoon ; re-cast my speech
Tuesday and make it Wednesday. And, Beloved, this
is one of those moments, that rarely come to summon
one's best.
So, it will be delicious if you come back here Monday,
17th, for you will find me as in 1900 doing my very
best in preparation on Monday and Tuesday and in
execution on Wednesday and Thursday.
* Anyway ' it is jolly for you that (1) Guy's life will no
more be wasted and (2) that I am * at it again ' to per-
suade the English people that National Security is the
first thing they ought to think of.
I had a little symposium here to-night of Bonar Law's
secretary and his brother who is in the War Office.
And now ' to bed ' without one thought of the fact that
1 The anniversary of his father's death.
VOL. ii. SM
546 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
I have to speak to the Annual Conference of the Tariff
Reform League at 10.30 a.m. to-morrow 1
I will take that hi my stride. Your most loving son,
GEORGE.
858
To Winston Churchill
Private and Personal.
CLOUDS, EAST KNOYLE,
SALISBURY, 27.iii.13.
DEAR WINSTON, I had to catch the last train to these
parts yesterday evening. That obligation, combined with
the outburst in the House, prevented me from hearing
your speech and so defeated the object for which I had
journeyed to London. I wish you to know that I intended,
on personal and patriotic grounds, to listen carefully ; for
I knew that your speech would necessarily be for good or
evil an historic declaration.
I have read I may say that I have studied your
speech in the * Times.' And, again, I wish you to know
that in my deliberate judgement your speech is wholly
admirable ; that it presents no points for misconception,
here, in the Empire, in Germany, or in France ; that it is
not * open to criticism ' : briefly and I could not say
more that it was worthy of the occasion. You ex-
celled your opportunity and fulfilled the exactions of an
epoch.
That is my calm and measured judgement.
I am glad that I had to leave the House. Here, in
the country like myriads the world over I read and
weighed what you said and was grateful.
In terms of the tunes in which we live, and of Party
Politics this letter is an impertinence. But it is not
irrelevant to much that will endure.
It would be an impertinence for which no further con-
sideration could atone to select for special praise where
all is so good. I risk it, and say the 4 False dilemma * and
TO HIS NIECE, MRS. H. H. ASQUITH 547
* Imperial Imperial Squadron ' were the best of all, the
first in thought, the second in imaginative grasp. Nothing
could have been ' happier ' than the topical exordium.
The only doubt that creeps into my mind amarum
aliquid is whether the men will be forthcoming and your
speech will help mightily to remove the causes of that
doubt.
May you often speak as simply and powerfully is my
wish for the Navy and the Empire. Yours ever,
GEORGE WYNDHAM.
P.S. No answer !
859
To his Niece, Mrs. H. H. Asquith
44 BKLGRAVE SQUARE, S.W.,
10. iv. 13.
DARLING NYNCIE, It was delicious to hear from you.
You mustn't bother to answer my letters ; at any rate till
the Toy arrives. I must hustle it. I dash to Clouds
whenever I can and spend happy hours listening to the
birds and arranging my books. There is one thrush in
the rhododendron who, now and again, between liquid
lilts, suddenly emits the imperative of a large steel whistle,
with a pea in it. I thought it was Ursula (Bendor's little
girl) making fun of me, and ran back to see. As for my
books, they come in packing-cases from Saighton and 35
Park Lane, go into the lift, are hoisted to the attics, and
dumped on the library floor. Then I take them in arm-
fuls and shove them on to one shelf. Then I think better
of it, take them down and shove them into another. It
is glorious exercise.
So pleasant was it to ride and listen to birds and watch
tiny leaves and to handle poetry in bulk, that I burst into
song, as thus :
I have forgotten how to sing
If ever I sang, so I only say
That I am glad, for here is Spring !
And I am alive, thank God, to-day.
548 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
And I have forgotten other men's songs
That made me jubilant long ago
Before I knew of rights and wrongs
And the death of delight in Beauty's show.
So I only say that I am glad
To live, and breathe, and hear, and see
The ecstasy of a world gone mad
To a mood of Heaven's virginity.
! the ringing and singing and clinging of joy,
Bird-calls, and new blossom, young grass and live Trees !
They were dead ; but are springing to flaunt an ' Ahoy ! '
For signals that nutter back ' Do as you please.'
O ! the leisure, and pleasure, and treasure of Love !
The time to be happy and room to be free,
The unbounded horizon and azure above,
The miracle of Spring ... to me.
1 like the change to ' rag-time ' in the 4th quatrain ;
and it ends suddenly like a thrush. With much love,
GEORGE.
860
To Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
44 BELGRAVE SQUARE,
16.iv,13.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I ought to have written long ago.
Your Wedding Present to Percy is, in fact, a most price-
less gift to me. I know, and love, that Ronsard. Percy
has been soldiering with his General all over the S.W. of
England, so we only met to-day on the eve of his marriage.
He had, as I had not, opened the parcel and will thank
you. He proposed to put the Ronsard in my Library,
and, in time, (I omit ' due ') he will write to you, what
he said to me, in warm appreciation.
These days have been tense. Rosebery I don't know
why asked me to dinner yesterday week, the 8th
April. He felt then that unless the Emperor of Russia
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 549
could squash the King of Montenegro, there might be a
mobilisation here before Percy's wedding.
But those clouds are dispersed.
So we have enjoyed the preliminaries of Percy's nuptials.
We had a display of gifts at Ribblesdale's house this
afternoon, and a dinner of both Families at Grosvenor
House this evening.
We all feel that Politics are a bore and should be quitted
by honest men, and that soldiers are menaced. So as
you won't come to Clouds we by which I mean Percy,
Diana, and myself hope in the interval of Peace, to
invade you at New Buildings in the course of Summer. I
would like you to see Percy and Diana in the prime of
their mating.
It is just possible that they have * hit off ' an alliance
of Heroic Love combined with matrimony. If this should
prove to be so, they are lucky. In any case they are
happy and exorbitant for the moment.
For the moment they are lovers, and they ought to
visit your shrine and lay a wreath at the feet of Proteus.
As a rule people do not know hiw to love ; as an excep-
tion they love now here ; now there ; as a rarity almighty
lovers find each other after both are married.
It is extravagant to suppose that Percy and Diana are
going to be lovers and, also, husband and wife.
But it is pleasant to contemplate the hypothesis.
Li any case I ought to take them, in their youth and
delight, to see you. Yours affectionately, G, W.
861
To Hilaire Belloc
CLOUDS^
30fA May 1913.
MY DEAR BELLOC, Many thanks for the Cockle-shell.
I have noted, and shall indubitably test, its virtue of pre-
serving travellers. It may even be though this is not
certain that I shall dash over to Paris the 2nd of June,
and proceed to Hotel Lotti wherever that may be to
550 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
join Westminster and take a complete holiday of a few
days. You may ask, why a holiday ? But I cannot
suppose that you would put so foolish a question. Still at
the back of your head there may linger a surmise that I
have been making holiday since the unspeakable House of
Commons closed its doors. It is not so. I have enjoyed
myself ; but without a moment's relaxation.
The Yeomanry regiment 6 which I have the honour to
command ' belongs with the Shropshire and Denbigh
to the Welsh Border Mounted Brigade. Furthermore it
the Brigade is commanded by Colonel Herbert, who
believes he is a Welshman (he is undoubtedly a Catholic)
and cherishes a misplaced affection for his native hills. It
followed that for sixteen days I was marooned on a morass
at the foot of a mountain plateau called in the Welsh
outlandish tongue MYNNID EPPYNT, which ranges from
1400 to 1600 feet above the sea and is intersected by
bogs. Again to shore-up the sham of the Territorial
Force, our camp was run entirely by amateurs and, owing
to the absurd fifteen days training for all, our supply and
transport arrived on the day that I did. To complete ;
it rained in deluges and the winds roared. We were
exposed to the elements ; drowned out ; obliged to change
horse-lines and shift tents. On to this scene of inexperi-
enced effort confronted by unaccustomed difficulties,
there descended (to shore-up the sham) 1. The Inspector
General of the Home Forces (2) The Inspector General of
Cavalry (3) The General Officer Commanding in Chief the
Western Command. (4. 5. 6. 7. etc.) The rag-tag and bob-
tail of staff officers who pursue Generals on inspection
' just as ' to quote the Homeric simile of General Tucker
' ail the dogs hi the barrack are tied to a bitch on heat ! *
I therefore had to work hard for long hours and not without
success ; prejudiced indeed but only for a few moments
when I nearly bogged the whole illustrious group in a
deep morass and only extricated them by galloping to a
stone ford, left by the Romans that I knew of and had
missed by 300 yards. The generals were afraid of being
bogged. Not so the gallant Yeomen. They galloped
TO HILAIRE BELLOC 551
cheerily right in and tumbled about with their horses, by
sixes and even dozens in the treacherous mire.
I motored back, 51 miles east to Hereford and then 105
miles south to Clouds. Since then I have ridden early and
answered scores of letters and meditated on agriculture.
Fortunatus et ille decs qui novit agrestes . . .
Ilium non populi fasces, non purpura regum
Flexit, et infidos agitans discordia fratres . . .
which is as much as to say that I, when here riding about
my fields, do not care a damn, about (1) a row at Dover
over a clock (2) The King's levee on Monday (3) The
' differences ' in the Unionist Party. I simply am happy
in the glory of May. In this mood I get a telegram from
Westminster asking me to go to Paris on Saturday. I
reply I cannot having guests but will try to do so on
Monday.
Consider well whether you would not come here with
Mrs. Belloc on Friday June 13th ? My brother and sister-
in-law the Zetlands will be here : But they are quiet folk.
The library is very good. I am in it now. Yours ever,
GEORGE W.
P.S. Westminster expects me to dine Monday. Ring
up at Hotel Lotti.
862
To Hilaire Belloc
HOTEL LOTTI,
7 ET 9 RUE DE CASTIGLIONE,
PARIS, 4M June 1913.
MY DEAR BELLOC, I quite understand. My view
you know : for I repeated it I fear more than twice
last night. But a man's own instinct is the only guide
in these matters. It may be even, apart from that, an
act to return as you are returning. Shewing a front is
sometimes an act and not merely a semblance. May it
prove to be so in this case.
' Te absente ' I went book-hunting this morning. The
552 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
sport was poor, but I have marked down some quarries
for to-morrow. I have harboured I hope a stag. I
was a * limier ' to-day. To-morrow I shall be ' la meute ' in
full cry. ' Negative information ' in soldier slang is
often of great value. For example we you and I now
know that the Restaurant of Henry iv. at St. Germain s
is unworthy of the Vert galant and his renown. To-night,
therefore, I ' cast back ' to the Restaurant Le Doyen.
Now I would not for the world a phrase, but let it pass
have missed revisiting with you the woods that were a
part of your boyhood and, therefore a ma guise an
index to Man's Immortality. But again I would not
for the world let us pass the phrase once more have
missed the dinner I ate and the wine I drank at Le Doyen.
Potage St. Germain, a Barbue the whole of him with a
sauce that was Maitre d'Hotel sublimated with mush-
rooms. A cold quail, stuffed with truffles and garnished
with aspic and parsley, and supported by a salad.
Hot Asperges vertes, as big as the white ones, with
sauce mousseline.
A cold salade Russe without ham but with a perfect
mayonnaise. And then the best strawberries I can
remember. For wine a Richebourg of 1890 which stood
to other wines and stands in the relation of Homer
and Shakespeare to other poets. It was a miracle of the
Earth's entrails searched by the sun and responding with
all the ethereal perfumes of a hot day in Summer tempered
by the whispering and cool shadows of a breeze. No Jew
was there. No American. No Englishman but myself.
The French were dining under a sapphire sky, by an old
willow-tree, a fountain and a nymph in bronze. I had
struck an oasis of civilisation. There were few women,
and that was fit. For how few women understand ?
The service was traditional. One man human and
experienced took the order and reminded me that / had
forgotten the Asparagus. Another man human and
zealous set the meats before me. Both rejoiced in my
content and took their tips in the spirit of gentlemen
knighted on the field of battle.
TO HILA1RE BELLOC 553
And the whole show for three persons with 6 francs to
the waiter and 5 francs to the head-waiter, cost less than
last night's ghetto. There was no band.
You shall dine with me there after a walk of three day--.
-Yours, G. W.
[George Wyndham made the expedition with Mr. Belloc,
visiting, amongst other places, the home of the latter' s youth.
On Friday 6th he spent the day driving and walking in the
Forest of Fontainebleau with Lady Plymouth and her daughter.
He was full of life and interest though at times he appeared
to be a little tired. They did not return to Paris till 9 P.M.,
and he then owned to having occasionally felt a pain in the
diest.
The following morning he completed the purchase of the
books that he alludes to in the preceding letter and at dinner
that night he had apparently quite recovered and was in high
spirits.
At 6 o'clock on Sunday morning the pain had returned,
and at 8 o'clock a doctor was sent for, who found a slight con-
gestion of the right lung. Throughout the day his temperature
was not above 99 and he experienced little discomfort except
for the pain in the chest. The doctors did not apprehend any
danger but advised the postponement of his journey home for
two or three days.
At 7 o'clock in the evening he was given a slight injection
of morphia. On saying good-night to Lady Plymouth he asked
her to send a telegram to his brother that he would dictate hi
the morning and settled himself comfortably to sleep. Lady
Plymouth returned to the hotel, but at 9.45 P.M. was summoned
by the nurse on the telephone, and on her arrival ten minutes
later was told of his death. She found him ' as if he were
asleep, serene and peaceful.'
The doctors pronounced his death due to the passage of a
clot of blood through the heart.
His son arrived in Paris the following day and wrote to his
mother ' The Majesty of death is so wonderful. When one is
with him one cannot cry or moan he looks too much a con-
queror. His soul must be right high in the Heaven now and
his beautiful Body just looking as if he had won : One cannot
mourn for him, he looks too splendid : He is triumphant.
Let us think of that and be brave ourselves.'
554 LETTERS OF GEORGE WYNDHAM
The following letter was found after his death in his dispatch
box. His son posted it, and Wilfrid Ward found it on his
return from attending the funeral at Clouds. Though not the
last letter written, it was the last received, and is placed at
the close of these volumes, for the brave words of the post-
script are most characteristic of his brave life.]
To Wilfrid Ward
CLOUDS,
SALISBURY, May 8th, 1913.
MY DEAR WILFRID, I had your letter of April 30th
typed for better accuracy of interpretation. Then I
mislaid the typed copy, so to-night I have tackled the
original and I say, cheerily, that I will be your * man
of the world ' who ' is not a Catholic.' I will read your
reminiscences with avidity and answer your question
which is Should they be published in the ' Dublin Review '
instead of waiting (as A. J. B. and H. C. advise) to be
Chapter 1. of a book ?
I am off to-morrow to command my Yeomanry in the
uttermost parts of Wales. I could not write and you
could not read the address. But, if you will send the
thing, marked ' to be forwarded ' to 44 Belgrave Square,
it will be forwarded and I shall read it and reply.
I have just been glancing at W. Morris's socialist lectures,
published under the title ' Signs of Change ' in 1888 and
was arrested by a note in pencil at the end written by my
father, a Tory. It runs, ' Pages 188 and 9. Splendid
passage, I hope prophetic Wonderful and impossible as
the change in condition, shadowed forth on pages 20 and
21, appears from our present standpoint, it is not more
wonderful and impossible than our present standpoint
would appear to those who lived thousands of years ago/
That is an interesting note coming from my father, a
Tory.
The young couple Percy and Diana are very happy
and preoccupied by starting as householders.
For myself apart from Politics, Finance (how to float
TO WILFRID WARD 555
the couple and pay Death Duties) and the round of duty
I am absorbed in two subjects : Rural England and my
library.
* We know what we are but we know not what we may
be.' I may perhaps take office again. But I doubt
it. * Invent portum.' My work, I am almost persuaded,
must be to tackle the problem of Rural England, and my
play, I am convinced, to finish my library. The two
together would give me happy and useful employment for
twenty years.
I am attacking ' Rural England,' (1) by action ; based
on study of the past from Domesday Book onwards
and on modern science ' so-called.' I think best in
action and experiment. So I have given the go-by to
theory and have already pumped water several miles over
considerable hills ; built cow-sheds ; bought a motor-trolly
to supersede four cart-horses and done much else ; which
will I believe put back this bit of England to where it .
stood in the 17th century and afford working models to
my neighbours, who lack any capital and imagination.
It is jolly work.
(2 