Part 57

Dietrich, somewhat disconcerted, paused, and then asked, “Where, sir, do you intend the English squadron to be, should, unhappily, a conflict ensue between the American Navy and that of his Imperial Majesty?” “Ask Dewey,” was the only answer vouchsafed, and the German retired down the side of the vessel growling in his beard.

Immediately significant orders were issued, and the four British men-of-war steamed across the line of the German vessels, the _Immortalité_ leading, and the others following in line, and when the senior vessel was about two ship-lengths off, the band of the _Olympia_ played “God Save the Queen,” and the band of the _Immortalité_ responded with “The Star-spangled Banner.” It was but a common, everyday act of courtesy, but it was vastly appreciated by the Americans who witnessed it, and it was a significant hint of “hands off” to the Germans.

Towards nightfall, when it was evident that the American fleet was not going into action, the French cruisers _Bayard_ and _Pascal_, and the German cruisers _Kaiser_ and _Kaiserin Augusta_ returned to their former anchorage. The American cruisers _Concord_ and _Petrel_ steamed slowly up the bay in front of the city, and anchored between it and the foreign warships, but all through the night kept the searchlight travelling over the water between them.

Next morning Dietrich sent an apology to the Yankee admiral.

The exact details were never officially divulged. The significance of this dramatic action was that it convinced the world that England was on the side of the United States, and that, to use the old familiar phrase, “Blood is thicker than water.” Hitherto, the Americans had been jealous and suspicious of Great Britain, and believed it possible that England might have sided with the Germans in the negotiations which it was understood were then taking place in Europe for the combination of the Old World forces against the States in favour of Spain. As a contemporary writer had it: “It was the first signal demonstration which the Americans received that the sympathies of their kith and kin were with them, and that the jealousy of no third Power would be allowed to interfere with the just retribution which they were about to exact from their enemy. Sir Edward made history that day. He wiped out the memories of Bunker Hill and New Orleans--so far as they were bitter memories.” That his conduct was approved at home was shown by the Government conferring on him the C.M.G. On another occasion, when in the China seas, Captain Chichester had an opportunity of making history, and make it he would have had he been supported by the Government at home. The incident shall be given in his own words:--

“I ran into Port Arthur one morning and anchored alongside a Russian cruiser. Well, there was the devil of a to-do. The Port Admiral put off and told me I could not anchor there. I said I was already anchored. He said I must weigh again and get out. I told him I wouldn’t budge an inch until it suited me, and in the meantime I must have fresh provisions and vegetables. Then there was no end to the excitement, Russian pinnaces and Chinese pinnaces darting all over the harbour. I went quietly about my business. The Chinese said they would complain to my Government. I grinned. This went on for some time, and then I got orders from home--Salisbury was getting old then, and probably a little weak--to leave Port Arthur and sail for Chefoo. When I reached Chefoo, the Russians took possession of Port Arthur. Had I remained, the history of the Far East would have changed for all time.”

With all officers with whom he had been shipmates, as with the men of the lower deck, the feeling entertained for Sir Edward was one of real affection. He was a sailor after the sailor’s own heart--bluff, hearty, and just and generous to a degree, and as fearless as he was just. In his manner of bearing there was an entire absence of that characteristic which in the service as in civil life is generally known as _side_. To his great disappointment he was never engaged in naval warfare; but there can be no manner of doubt that he would have proved a brilliant commander in an engagement at sea.

During the South African war in 1899 to 1900, he was again employed as Transport Officer, this time at Cape Town. It was no light matter to transport a quarter of a million men over five thousand miles of sea, and to land them at the Cape without a hitch. It was no fault of his that the troops were dumped down in chaotic groups and in unsanitary spots. All he had to do was to convey these men who were sent to him from England to Africa.

As the _Morning Chronicle_ said:--

“During the South African war, Sir Edward Chichester, as Chief Naval Transport Officer, superintended the disembarkation of the troops, horses, guns, and provisions, which the country poured into the subcontinent. The smoothness and the skill and the absence of casualty with which that difficult work was carried through, won for the gallant officer universal approbation.”

Chichester was a man of blunt speech, and most of the stories told of him illustrate this roughness. Sir Edward ordered, on one occasion, the captain of one of the transports lying in Cape Town docks to move his ship out, in order to make room for another. The captain did not want to go, and raised difficulties. “He had not his steam up--could not possibly change quarters that night.” Sir Edward remarked, “Give him an hour, and if he is not out by then, we will shift him.”

The hour elapsed without a move being made. Then, at a signal, two Government tugs shot out, ran alongside, and in twenty minutes the steamer was had out and anchored in the bay.

Into his room at Cape Town one day burst a Volunteer colonel, swelling with importance. “Who are you, sir?” asked Sir Edward.

“I am Colonel Blank,” was the reply, given with much pomposity.

“Oh, indeed, is that all?” said Sir Edward. “I thought at least you were an admiral.”

He was busy writing in his office on the quay on another occasion, and took no notice of a ponderous person waiting impatiently.

“Will you please to attend to me?” the man asked at length.

Sir Edward looked up and inquired, “Have you bought these docks, sir?”

“Most certainly not. I do not know what you mean.”

“Then go to the devil,” Sir Edward remarked, going on with his writing. Then, summoning his clerk, he said: “Here! stick up on my door the notice in big letters, ‘Office of the Chief Transport Officer, and _not a general inquiry office_.’” But he had also inscribed on his office door, “Walk right in; no Red Tape here.”

On one occasion the captain of a big Union-Castle liner came in to make a report. Chichester had a great objection to the uniforms worn by the officers of these ships, because he thought they were modelled too closely on the lines of the naval uniforms. Seeing this gorgeously clad individual in his office he stood up, and gravely saluting him remarked:--

“I am sorry, _Admiral_, that the Government have thought it necessary to send you out to supersede me in my duties. I hoped that I was giving satisfaction, but----”

“There is some mistake, Sir Edward,” was the reply. “I am Captain----, of the _---- Castle_.”

“Oh! Then why the devil do you deck yourself up in that rig?” roared out the Chief Transport Officer. “If that is all you are, you can wait till I’ve finished my letter.”

Bored on another occasion by some officer over a trumpery affair, he burst out, “Look here, sir! you are sent out to South Africa to kill Boers, and not to kill time. Anyhow, you shall not kill mine.”

Mr. Douglas Story tells the following: An anæmic officer came to Sir Edward one day during the Boer war, and demanded attention.

“H’m, what do you want?” growled the Chief Naval Transport Officer.

“Food, sir, for my men.”

“Well, haven’t they got any? What are they living on?”

“Biscuits, sir; beastly dry biscuits.”

“Can’t they live on biscuits? The Navy men manage to subsist on them.”

“They are used to ’em; our Tommies are not. Theirs is a better stomach for biscuits than that of the men in the army.”

“Aye, and they have a d---- d better stomach for fighting, too!” roared the Captain, and resumed his work.

When the Devon Volunteers landed in South Africa, Sir Edward saw to their disembarkation, and also saw them leave for the front. One of the Barnstaple men relates that as they moved away Sir Edward put his hands to his mouth, funnel-wise, and shouted: “Mind, you Devon chaps, give the Boers a d---- d good hiding.”

During the war Sir Edward stayed in one of the smallest hotels in Cape Town, near the docks, as more convenient to his work than one that was larger and up town. But the food provided there was execrable. Sir Edward, unable to stomach this, one day provided himself with a gigantic cheese that he had purchased, and entered the coffee-room carrying it, and thereon he made his lunch.

At the same time there was staying in the hotel a Dutchman whom every one looked upon as a spy. In the evening Sir Edward was late for dinner, and the Hollander early. Imagine, therefore, the gallant captain’s disgust when on entering the room he found the Dutchman tucking into his cheese. He paused in the doorway, stared, and then thundered out: “I say, waiter, look there! I’m d---- d if that Boer spy isn’t eating my cheese! By heavens, it’s a bullet or two he should have inside him and not my cheese!”

Every one but the Dutchman burst into a roar of laughter.

He was made C.B. in October, 1900, and was naval A.D.C. to Queen Victoria, and afterwards to the King, from 1899 to 1904. On his return from South Africa he took command of the fleet reserve at Devonport. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral in January, 1902, and on June 10th, 1904, was appointed Admiral-Superintendent, with charge of His Majesty’s naval establishments at Gibraltar. He had married the daughter of the late Commander R. C. Whyte, /R.N./, of Instow, in 1880, and by her had four sons and six daughters.

He returned to England hale and cheerful in 1900. On arriving in North Devon he was welcomed by his tenantry with great rejoicings, and was presented with an illuminated address, which was read in the presence of a large assembly of local notabilities by his brother, the rector of Sherwill. His first words in reply were, “You said that very well, Pass’n Charles.”

He went back to his duties at Gibraltar, where he died on September 17th, 1906. The body was brought to Plymouth in the _Formidable_, and thence conveyed by train to North Devon, and the obsequies took place at Sherwill. Sir Edward had seldom resided at Youlston when in England, but at his bungalow, Instow.

“Outside his own country and navy,” said the Paris edition of the _New York Herald_, “the untimely death of Rear-Admiral Chichester, /R.N./, cannot be more regretted than by the American people and its naval service. During the critical period succeeding the capture of Manila, this British officer proved himself a steadfast supporter of our rights in those waters. While scrupulously observing the obligations imposed on him as a neutral, his official and personal conduct strengthened the hands of Admiral Dewey, harassed as he was by the inexplicable and annoying performances of the German admiral on that station. The prompt and graceful action of Rear-Admiral Brownson on his arrival off Gibraltar, with the American armoured cruiser division, in furnishing an escort for the funeral of this distinguished officer, will therefore be earnestly approved by our Government and people. It was both a recognition of the personal esteem in which Rear-Admiral Chichester was held, and a fitting official testimony to the services rendered by him when our friends were few and far between.”

The _Morning Chronicle_ said: “Admiral Sir Edward Chichester was a splendid specimen of the British naval officer. In physique, in his bluff heartiness of manner, in his racy conversation, in the very roll of his walk, he was every inch a sailor. Wherever he went he carried with him the savour of the sea. A thorough West-countryman--a man ‘of Bideford in Devon’--he preserved the traditions of the old Elizabethan sailors, and seemed indeed to be in the lineal succession to Grenville and Hawkins, to Drake and Raleigh.”

Equally sympathetic was a notice in the _Standard_:--

“In Rear-Admiral Sir Edward Chichester there has passed away a sailor after Lord St. Vincent’s own heart. We had said after Nelson’s, but Nelson had no hand in the administrative work of the Navy, in which Sir Edward took so great, if subordinate, a share. He belonged to a class which will probably become more and more rare in the Navy--the type of blunt sailor who is a sailor first, second and last, but who, just because he is all a sailor, is also an inimitable diplomatist, prompt and resolute, seeking no quarrel, but fearing no responsibility. We do not for a moment imply that these qualities are not to be found in abundance in the new Navy; but the naval officer of to-day has the habits and manners of the world in a degree to which a sailor of the school of Sir Edward Chichester did not attain.”

At a dinner given in honour of Sir Redvers Buller in Exeter, in November, 1900, the late Lord Clinton, in the course of a speech on that occasion, said:--

“I believe if ever there was the right man in the right place, it was Sir Edward Chichester. Go outside England--go to America, and ask what is thought of him there. We know that the opinion is very high. I believe if the American Navy were at war, and found Sir Edward Chichester on the high seas without an escort, they would kidnap him, and place him at the head of the American Navy. Many American stories are told about Sir Edward. They are perhaps not all true. But if not all true, I think they are well conceived. There is one I have heard about an admiral who greatly admired Sir Edward, and greatly admired England. The admiral bought a lion cub, and wishing always to have the type of Britain before him, he called it _Chichester_. Sir Edward Chichester, I dare say to his sorrow, was never a combatant officer in this war, but his heart was with his gallant comrades who arrived so opportunely at Ladysmith.”

Some remarkable coincidences were noted on the occasion of the death of Admiral Chichester.

His flagship, the sloop _Cormorant_, was formally paid off on the date of his death, and recommissioned for similar service under Rear-Admiral J. G. C. Goodrich, who left Plymouth for Gibraltar to take up his appointment. In accord with an arrangement made some weeks before, the battleship _Formidable_ was directed to call at Gibraltar and embark the paid-off men of the _Cormorant_ for passage home. The _Formidable_ on reaching Gibraltar received the news of Sir Edward’s death, and was at once ordered to arrange for the body to be received on board, so that the late admiral and the crew of his flagship came home in the same vessel--a vessel which was also bound to her paying-off port. The paying-off of a flagship on the same day as that on which the death took place of the admiral whose flag she bore was probably unique in the annals of the British Navy. It was also a noteworthy circumstance that Rear-Admiral Goodrich, who in the ordinary way would have succeeded Admiral Chichester early in the ensuing month, left Plymouth Sound on the very same day as that on which the body of his predecessor arrived at that port from Gibraltar.

The speech of Captain Chichester to the German admiral--“That is a matter known only to Dewey and me”--may be seen inscribed in the Naval School in Annapolis, U.S.A., where it embellishes one of the walls of the academy. It may be noted that Annapolis is one of the most British towns in the United States, in the style of its streets and architecture generally, and there is surely no English name more beloved in the American Navy than that of bluff old Admiral Chichester.

INDEX

Abbott, Mr. Frank, 54

Abbott, Mrs., 197, 200, 202

Abdul Gopher, 381

Abede, 118, 119

Aberdeen, 356, 738

Aberystwyth, 429

Abingdon, Lord, 256

_Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans_, 169

Ackermann, 572

Acland, Sir Thomas, 479, 533

Adams, Jane, 215

Adams, Mr., 663

Addison, Joseph, 245, 246, 247

Admirable Crichton. _See_ James Wyatt

Affeton, 262, 278, 285

Aix, 419

Albemarle, Duke of, 242

Albury, 256, 257

Aldgate Workhouse, 367

Algiers, 84, 152-158, 167

Alley, Daniel, 192, 193

Almondsbury, 35, 39, 41

Alphington, 17

Alphington Ponies, the, 16-20

---- strange appearance of, 16, 18, 20

---- excuses of the impecunious, 18

Alquenezes, Marquess, 91, 92

Altarnun, 302

Amery, Mr. J. S., 456

American prisoners, 634-699

---- are shot down, 646

---- mutiny, 645, 653

---- report on massacre, 674

Anderson, Lord, 104

Andrews, Charles, 634, 637, 641, 646, 647, 650, 697, 698

Andrews, William, 64

_Annals of the East India Company_, 381

Annapolis, 787

Anne, Queen, 48, 233, 243, 415

Annery, 182, 183

_Annual Register_, 67, 68, 368, 400, 524 _note_

Anstey, Bat, 540, 558

_Antiquities_, 226, 232

Antongil Bay, 386

Apparitions, 725

Appledore, 235, 775

Apples, 14

---- at a Church Congress, 2

---- grown by Stafford, 2

---- in church, 50

---- Royal Wilding, 6-9, 12, 13

Arber, Mr., 94

_Architectural Antiquities_, 571

Architecture, Gothic, 574, 614

Architecture, painter of. _See_ Samuel Prout

Architecture, Works on, 575

Argyll, Duke of, 417

Arlington, 772

Arms of Lord Ashburton, 632

---- Bidlake family, 217

---- Blundell family, 619

---- Gould family, 619

---- Harris family, 619

---- Kelloway family, 1

---- Prowse family, 565

---- Raleigh family, 281

---- Stafford family, 1

---- Young family, 619

Arnold, Andrew, 716

Arnold, John, 680

Arnold, Richard, 675, 677, 678

Arnull, Mrs., 563

Arscott, 47

Arscott family, the, 47, 57

Arscott, John, 47-57

---- his characteristic kindness, 49

---- his conduct in church, 50

Arscott, John, his jester, 53

---- his toad, 49, 53

Arscott, “the wicked,” 49

Ash, Dr. Linnington, 544, 563

Ashburton, first Lord, 630

Ashburton, 279, 370, 436, 437, 440, 442, 445, 447, 452, 478, 604, 619, 622-624, 628, 633

_Ashburtonian_, 456

Ashprington, 371

Ashton, John, 277

Ashwater, 371

Aspect, reason for north, 223

Assassination of Henry III, attempted, 226

_As You Like It_, 514

Audley End, 196

Aurungzebe, 381

Austen, Rudolphus, 13

Austin, Alfred, 329

Austin, Tom, 175, 176

Avelyn, Lieutenant, 656 _note_, 660, 670, 695

Averie, Elizabeth, 251

Avery, Captain John, 375-389

---- autocracy in Madagascar, 376, 386, 388

---- as pirate, 381

---- captures Great Mogul’s daughter, 381

Aveton Gifford, 520, 524

Baba Hasan, 159

Babbage, Jack, 553, 554, 556, 557, 562

Babley, 414

Badger, John, 65

Baggator, 702

Bagnal, Sir Nicholas, 268

Bagshot, 203, 281

Bailey, Mr., 708

Baker, Archdeacon, 372

Baker, Bessie, 73

Baker, J., 334, 375

Baker, Mary. _See_ Caraboo

Baker, Sir Richard, 183

_Baker’s Chronicle_, 183

_Ballads and Songs_, 328

_Ballads, A Century of_, 277

Ballad of Cyder, 15

---- of Dick Simmins, 524

---- of Lady Howard, 210

---- of “Lusty” Stucley, 273

---- of the Bideford Witches, 277

---- of Wrestling, 515

_Ballads_, 244, 417, 503, 615 “The Bay of Biscay,” 354 “The Death of the Smuggler,” 354 “The Death of Parker,” 364-368 “Dear Catholic Brother,” 243 “The Fish on the Coast,” 253 “The Hunting of Arscott, of Tetcott,” 54, 243 “Joy to Great Cæsar,” 245 “Just Like Love,” 353 “The Lamentation of Strangwidge,” 103 “The Little Girl down the Lane,” 445 “May We Never Want a Friend,” 354 “Mrs. Page’s Lament,” 102 “Nice Young Maidens,” 423 “One Long Whitsun Holiday,” 245 “The Scotch Yoke,” 5

Ballard, Joseph, 415

Baller, Anthony, 422

Bampfylde, Mr., 613

Bancroft, Mr. and Mrs., 33

Banks, Sir Joseph, 750

_Banterer_, 775

Barclay, 133

Baring, Charles, 616

Barker, Hon. Charles, 257

Barnes, Grace, 276

Barnes, John, 320-324

---- taverner to highwayman, 321

---- executed, 324

Barnstaple, 102-104, 224, 230-234, 326, 414, 417, 422, 543, 561, 772, 774, 782

_Barnstaple, Literary History of_, 103

Baron, John, 222

Barré, Colonel Isaac, 628, 629

Barry, Mr., 472

Barum ware, 234

Baskerville, Mary, 458

Bastard, Colonel, 482, 483, 704

Batavia, 38, 387

Bateman, Mary, 394

Bath, 40, 45, 420, 429

_Bath Chronicle_, 40

Bath, Earl of, 231

Bathurst, Lord, 418

_Battle of Alcazar_, 272, 273, 734

Battyn, 47

Batworthy, 755

_Baviad_, 451, 453, 455

Bawden the Mole-catcher, 520

Bayard, 238

Bay of Biscay, 86

Beaford, 541

Bear, John, 744

Beare, Dr., 274

Beasley, Reuben G., 635, 639, 673

Beaumont, Robert de, 773

_Beauties of England and Wales_, 568, 571

Bebb, Mr., 27

Becket, Thomas à, 549

Bedford, Earl of, 204, 209, 754

Beer, 308, 309, 318

Beggar, a disguised, 432, 433

_Beggars’ Opera, The_, 414-421

---- complete success of, 419

Belgrave, Lord, 448

Bell, Mr., 241

Bell, James, 698

_Belle’s Stratagem, The_, 31

Bell-ringing, contests in, 370

---- songs of, 370, 371

Belmont, 716

Belstone, 709

Beltrees, 241

Bennett, John, 694

Bennett’s Cross, 700

Benson, Thomas, 233

---- donor of bowl and ladle, 234

---- King of Lundy, 234-237

---- M.P. for Barnstaple, 234

Bent, Dr., 256

Berkeley, Colonel, 24-26

Berkeley, Earl of, 24

Berlin, 616, 628

Bermondsey, 393

Bernasconi, Miss, 563

Berry, 251

Berry, Sarah, 603

Bertie, Dr., 256

Berwick, 266, 483

Bevan, 602

Bewick, 578

Beyeck, Joseph, 698

Bible, value of the, 341

Bickford, William, 47

Bickleigh, 188, 189, 426, 435, 568

Bicton, 591

Bideford, 233, 234, 274, 276, 327, 329, 330, 384, 385, 389, 414, 417, 436, 775, 785

Bidlake, 212, 217, 223, 737

Bidlake, Dr., 459, 566, 567, 568

Bidlake family, the, 212-223, 737

Bidlake, Henry, 215, 219, 222

---- fights for Royalists, 220

Bidlake, Henry, hides in a clock, 220

Bidlake, John, 219

Bidlake, William, 215, 218

Bilbao, 152

Binus, 469

Birch Tor, 700, 701, 705

Bird, Mr. E., /R.A./, 41, 46

Bird of the Oxenhams, the, 249-261

---- appears to foretell death, 249, 254, 256, 258-261

---- probable origin of legend, 254, 255

Birds of the Crozet Islands, 342

Birdwood, Miss, 133

Birmingham, 62, 68, 329

Bisett, Margaret, 227

Bishops, bad character of, in 16th century, 214

Bishop, John, 597

Bishop, Robert, 597

Bishops of Exeter, 48, 124, 125, 214, 217, 218, 249, 529, 531, 532, 538, 556, 557, 558, 583, 590, 747

Bishop of Limoges, 239

Bishop of London, 43, 739

Bishop of Saint Flores, 239

Bishopstawton, 104

“Black Assize, The,” 103

Blackabrook, 186

Blackhall, 711

Black Horse, Captain of the, 207

“Black Horse Tavern,” 320, 321, 323

Black John, 52-55

Blackmail, 383

Blackmore, Robert D., 528, 549, 556, 561

Blake, Admiral, 158, 377

Blake, William, 699

Blisland, 56

Bliss, Mr. Joe, 502

Bloomers introduced by the Alphington Ponies, 20

Blore, Mr., 564

_Bloudie Booke, The_, 193

Blow, Dr. John, 241, 614

Blundell, Peter, 438, 619

Blundell’s School, 426, 535

Board of Trade, 776

Boconnoc, 605

Bodleian Library, 324

Bodmin, 317, 525, 738

Bodmin Moors, 302

Body-snatching, 365, 405-413

Boer War, 780, 782

Boggs, John, 685

Boleyn, Mary, 263

Bolton, Duke of, 418

Bombay, 381

Boogoos, the, 38

_Book of the West, The_, 6, 14

Bordeaux, 268, 309, 605

_Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy_, 95

Boringdon, 713

Borrow, George, 466, 469, 471

Boscastle, 302

Boscawen, Mrs., 743

Boston, 384, 697

Boswell, James, 627, 750

Bötcher, 604

Boughthayes, 187

Boulogne, siege of, 263

Boundye, Thomas, 597

Bovey, 535

Bovey Heathfield, 482

Bowring, Benjamin, 510

Boyce, John, 533

Boyle, Robert, 489

Brabant, 205

Braddons, The, 18

Bradford, 68

Bradiford stream, 773

Bradmore, 524

Bradstone, 213, 222

Bradworthy, 594, 595

Bratton Clovelly, 97

Braunton, 329

Bray, Mrs., 95, 96

Bray, Rev. E. A., 95

_Brazen Mask, The_, 353