The Days Before Yesterday

The Public has given so kindly a reception to The Varnished Pomps of Yesterday (a reception which took its author wholly by surprise), that I have extracted some further reminiscences from the lumber-room of recollections. Those who expect startling revelations, or stale whiffs of forgotten scandals in these pages, will, I fear, be disappointed, for the book contains neither. It is merely a record of everyday events, covering different ground to those recounted in the former book, which may, or may not, prove of interest. I must tender my apologies for the insistent recurrence of the first person singular; in a book of this description this is difficult to avoid.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Early days--The passage of many terrors--Crocodiles, grizzlies and hunchbacks--An adventurous journey and its reward--The famous spring in South Audley Street--Climbing chimney-sweeps--The story of Mrs. Montagu's son--The sweeps' carnival--Disraeli--Lord John Russell--A child's ideas about the Whigs--The Earl of Aberdeen--"Old Brown Bread"--Sir Edwin Landseer, a great family friend--A live lion at a tea-party--Landseer as an artist--Some of his vagaries--His frescoes at Ardverikie--His latter days--A devoted friend--His last Academy picture

CHAPTER II

The "swells" of the "sixties"--Old Lord Claud Hamilton--My first presentation to Queen Victoria--Scandalous behaviour of a brother--Queen Victoria's letters--Her character and strong common sense--My mother's recollections of George III. and George IV.--Carlton House, and the Brighton Pavilion--Queen Alexandra--The Fairchild Family--Dr. Cumming and his church--A clerical Jazz--First visit to Paris--General de Flahault's account of Napoleon's campaign of 1812--Another curious link with the past--"Something French"--Attraction of Paris--Cinderella's glass slipper--A glimpse of Napoleon III.--The Rue de Rivoli--The Riviera in 1865--A novel Tricolour flag--Jenny Lind--The championship of the Mediterranean--My father's boat and crew--The race--The Abercorn wins the championship

CHAPTER III

A new departure--A Dublin hotel in the "sixties"--The Irish mail service--The wonderful old paddle mail-boats--The convivial waiters of the Munster--The Viceregal Lodge--Indians and pirates--The imagination of youth--A modest personal ambition--Death-warrants; imaginary and real--The Fenian outbreak of 1866-7--The Abergele railway accident--A Dublin Drawing-Room--Strictly private ceremonials--Some of the amenities of the Chapel Royal--An unbidden spectator of the State dinners--Irish wit--Judge Keogh--Father Healy--Happy Dublin knack of nomenclature--An unexpected honour and its cause--Incidents of the Fenian rising--Dr. Hatchell--A novel prescription--Visit of King Edward--Gorgeous ceremonial, but a chilly drive--An anecdote of Queen Alexandra

CHAPTER IV

Chittenden's--A wonderful teacher--My personal experiences as a schoolmaster--My "boys in blue"--My unfortunate garments--A "brave Belge"--The model boy, and his name--A Spartan regime--"The Three Sundays"--Novel religious observances--Harrow--"John Smith of Harrow"--"Tommy"--Steele--"Tosher"--An ingenious punishment--John Farmer--His methods--The birth of a famous song--Harrow school songs--"Ducker"--The "Curse of Versatility"--Advancing old age--The race between three brothers--A family failing--My father's race at sixty-four--My own--A most acrimonious dispute at Rome--Harrow after fifty years

CHAPTER V

Mme. Ducros--A Southern French country town--"Tartarin de Tarascon"--His prototypes at Nyons--M. Sisteron the roysterer--The Southern French--An octogenarian pasteur--French industry--"Bone-shakers"--A wonderful "Cordon-bleu"--"Slop-basin"--French legal procedure--The bons-vivants--The merry French judges--La gaiete francaise--Delightful excursions--Some sleepy old towns--Oronge and Avignon--M. Thiers' ingenious cousin--Possibilities--French political situation in 1874--The Comte de Chambord--Some French characteristics--High intellectual level--Three days in a Trappist Monastery--Details of life there--The Arian heresy--Silkworm culture--Tendencies of French to complicate details--Some examples--Cicadas in London.