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PREFACE
It is a frequent occasion of disappointment and regret to persons
desirous of acquainting themselves with transactions of the past, in
which they may be interested, that reliable information is no longer
procurable, the records of them having either failed to be written or
been lost
A single generation may suffice to obliterate the memory of that
immediately preceding, in places especially where from any cause the
population has shifted to other localities.
Of this, a striking instance came a few years ago within my own
cognisance. It was that of an extensive and wealthy parish, a
considerable area of which had, half a century before, been appropriated
for docks, and now inhabited by the labouring class. The ancient
churchyard had been for many years closed, and a proposal was made for
laying it out as a recreation ground for the parishioners.
No step could of course be taken to further the project, before
consulting with the survivors of families who might desire to have their
tombstones and mural monuments left where they had been placed, and
notice was accordingly given in the leading newspapers with the
unexpected and W almost incredible result, that only one reply from a
distant ^ part of the country was received, expressing the writer’s wish
that the grave of his family might remain for the present untouched.
There must have been thousands of burials in the course of years, but
beyond the names, in many cases illegible, upon the stones, their
bearers were as *clean forgotten as a dead man out of mind.1
The truth is, each generation is necessarily and almost exclusively
occupied with its own affairs and interests, every day bringing with it
calls that must be responded to, and there are few who care to disturb
the ashes of the departed, mercifully permitted in many cases to moulder
in oblivion.
The instance just mentioned might doubtless find a parallel in other
localities. Improvements connected with the widening of old, and the
laying out of new thoroughfares, and above all with the construction of
railways, have frequently necessitated the removal of the entire
contents of graveyards with their memorial stones.
There remain indeed the Church Registers, but these were often mutilated
in the course of centuries, and are perhaps in certain places so
ill-cared for as to be of little use, and it is much to be desired that
they were transferred from their present receptacles to safer and more
central repositories, where they might be referred to without entailing
the necessity of a wide correspondence, or expensive journeys, as has
been with great advantage done in Scotland, the Register Office in
Edinburgh supplying on payment of a small fee, and by return of post,
such information as may be in existence.
Irreparable mischief has also been occasioned within the present
generation, by the removal, in so-called restorations, of memorials,
which are in numberless instances the only available means of
identifying persons or families whose descendants no longer reside in
their original homes. In some churches the mural tablets have been
replaced at such a height under the tower or other dark spot, as to be
undecipherable without the help of a ladder1 and a lantern. I
know of one church in which a clean sweep was made of them all, the
stones being left in a heap outside, for the use presumably of masons in
the repair of the churchyard enclosure.
Another instance occurs to me of an ornamental screen, which was erected
by subscription thirty years ago to the memory of a former incumbent,
being relegated to a cemetery chapel for the reason that it was out of
keeping with the *style" of the new chancel.
‘Is it not distressing/ complains my old friend Mr. Norwood, Vicar of
Wrenbury, in his spirited and forcible address at the Annual Meeting of
the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, held in London in
the year 1885, that such vandalism should now be possible! . . . But
some people are insensible to the resuscitating and realising power of
monuments in education and religion, and to their aid in the right
interpretation of history. I am reminded of Chaucer’s Monk, who seems to
have been no Antiquary—
“This ilke Monke let olde things pace And held after the
New World the trace.”
My own experiences of this kind have lain chiefly among country scenes
and country churches, and I declare, with the keenest pain, and in
abject helplessness, I have seen them removed without number for forty
years. We have lost our old village history, which was hardly preserved
anywhere but in the fabrics, monuments, and heraldry of churches. Just
think of what we have lost by sheer demolition
If one were to suggest that ‘they do things better in France/ he would
be liable to be assailed with ridicule. But foreign nations have in
recent years taken steps for the preservation of buildings of
antiquarian interest, by declaring them to be ‘ national monuments/ thus
protecting them from the arbitrary treatment, to which, upon the
strength of a 'faculty' often granted without inquiry, upon the payment
of a five-pound note, they have been subjected in England.
Particulars relating to persons and events, which are recorded in
writing or stored in the memory of the aged,' can scarcely fail, the
objects being worthy, to be interesting and instructive. If left
unnoticed, a few more years may suffice to consign them to oblivion, and
it is to preserve such as have come within my own cognisance, that I
have compiled these Reminiscences.
I have availed myself of an enforced leisure, to peruse a number of
letters and documents which have come into my possession, referring to
matters of which I used to hear much in early life from my parents and
others.
An old clergyman, well known in Edinburgh for his historical writings,
and who had been assistant in Fife to Bishop Low, one of the relics of
the last century when Episcopacy was sunk in obscurity, was wont, in his
frequent visits to my father, to discourse upon matters connected with
that period, and upon old Scotch family traditions, and I have
reproduced as much of what I heard him say, as I can recollect.
Sir John David Hope, with whom I was in correspondence until a few weeks
before his death, also assisted me in certain parts of these memoirs.
His unexpected departure warns me that no time is to be lost in
gathering up the fragments that remain.
As regards other contributors, I may mention my elder brother, Thomas,
Vicar of Elsfield, the Rev. William Bruce of Dunimarle, Mrs. Robert
Cunliffe (Lsetitia Williams); Mrs. Wyer (Jane Russell), Mrs. Percival
(Louisa Wedderbum), Mrs. Wedderbum Ogilvie (Cassie Ramsay), Miss S. A.
Terrot, daughter of the Bishop, and Dr. Fleming.
‘The characters I have endeavoured to portray were a hardy, independent
race of robust constitution, both of body and mind, and I look back upon
them with a feeling of reverence and affection.
At a period when comparatively few books were printed, and there was
scarcely a magazine in circulation, and newspapers costing fourpence
were published once a week, and postage was too expensive for the luxury
of much correspondence, and families were isolated by reason of the
difficulties of travelling, men argued out questions for themselves
which the present generation are often saved the trouble of doing,
leaving that to professional writers in the countless magazines,
reviews, and publications, which have recently come into existence. They
were thus distinguished by an originality which is wanting in their
descendants.
There was also greater simplicity in all classes, greater deference
shown to the elders, and greater respect for parental authority. But
childhood and youth happily see the better side of life, and age is
seldom unmindful of the ‘ reverentia pueris debita.’ As we become better
acquainted with the world, we grow in suspiciousness, and doubt and
hesitation take the place of confidence and trust.
I have in these Reminiscences adhered
to what I know myself, or can state upon good authority, but, where
biographies of friends have been already written, have availed myself of
the information they convey as far as appeared necessary or suitable for
my purpose.
Whether the reminiscences I have set down are "memorabilia," readers
will judge for themselves. I might have let them pass had not two or
three friends, to whom I related several of them, suggested that they
would furnish material for a readable book. It is however scarcely to be
expected that merely personal aud youthful recollections should yield an
interest except for a limited number; but as they cover a lengthened
period, I have endeavoured to connect them with the history and
characteristics of the times, and thus engage a wider circle of readers.
The press teems with biographies of persons more or less distinguished
in their day and generation, some of undue length, which, unless they
are enlivened with personal recollections, become heavy and laboured.
Only for such as have taken part in events of general public import, can
a spun-out ‘Life’ be a fitting monument; and even they are soon
forgotten, and their memorial is perished with them. An American
gentleman’s observation struck me as painfully true, that in every
country, his own especially, the fame and reputation of to-day will have
vanished to-morrow, except in rare instances.
Recollections, like the ever-changing figures in a kaleidoscope, are
liable to run into and overlap one another. But I have as far as
possible observed chronological sequence, although the recalling of
persons and events suggests incidents which, though separated perhaps by
years, cannot conveniently be separated in a record of this kind.
As allusion is so frequently made to the Scottish Episcopal Church, in
which my grandfather and father served for a century, a sketch of its
history will form an appropriate introduction, and this may involve also
occasional reference to the state of the country during the period these
memoranda cover.
I should be lacking in that courtesy which our forefathers exhibited in
a more conspicuous manner than their descendants, if I failed to
acknowledge the readiness with which information has been supplied by
persons with whom I have no acquaintance, but who I thought might have
it in their power to correct or add to my own reminiscences, or to those
which came down from the old time before me. I have received replies
from different parts of the world where relatives are settled, from
Australia, Virginia, Eussia, Poland, and Scotland. * Mark Twain * was
believed in our family to be in some way connected, but not knowing
where he was to be found, I wrote to him, addressing my letter simply,
‘Mark Twain, U.S.A’ This was on the 26th of July. On August 18th, that
is, three weeks later, I received his reply dated ‘Bad, Nauheim,
Germany' of which the subjoined is a copy. I insert it for the sake of
its touching close. I was named Langhome from a valued friend of my
father, but he was not a relative, but a comrade of my father’s youth in
Virginia. I merely served by my name as a remembrance of that loved and
lost comradeship of a vanished day. Yours sincerely, S. Langhorne
Clemens' Let those who decry the Post Office make a note of this
incident.
I ought perhaps to add, although this is a private matter, that I
compiled these memoirs chiefly with my mother’s assistance, as she liked
to recall the friends and events of her early life, her only regret
being that she had not taken note at the time, of circumstances of which
I would have been glad to be more particularly informed, her excellent
memory failing her in certain instances. She formed a valued link
between what is to the existing generation a distant past, and the
present, when nearly everything has been changed. As she has not been
spared to read her own reminiscences, I dedicate them to her revered
memory.
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Reminiscences connected chiefly with Inveresk and Musselburgh here |
