Part 1

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MEMOIRS OF EIGHTY YEARS.

by

GORDON HAKE,

Physician.

“Could we elude the fiat,—all must die,— Men would become their own posterity.”

London: Richard Bentley and Son, Publishers in Ordinary to Her Majesty the Queen. 1892.

(All rights reserved.)

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I.

My birth and parentage—My education, beginning eighty-four years ago, still incomplete—Death of my father 1

II.

Obscure origin of Hakes and Gordons 3

III.

My sister and my brother—Mischief, a sign of health in children—Friendship, a graft that can only be made while we are growing 6

IV.

My aunt Wallinger—My vivid memory—Our relations in Yorkshire, the Rimington family—My mother’s uncles, the Clarkes 8

V.

The Clarkes and the Pollocks—William Clarke a governor of St. Paul’s and of Christ’s Church Schools—He gave Sir Frederick Pollock a presentation to the one and me to the other. My first school-days at Hertford, and how after measles and scarlet fever I was sent home in order to die 11

VI.

My rapid recovery and return to mischief after my illness, and the brutal treatment I received from the boys while I was falling sick 15

VII.

From school to Seaford for the holidays, spent by me and my cousin, a Shore, with the Wallingers—The rotten borough, its owners and surroundings—My aunt Shore, a sister of my mother, and the Shore family—Mrs. Wallinger’s despotic kindness to her nephews—Our Denton cousins, the Gwynnes—The Reverend William Gwynne and his lady, also my mother’s sister 17

VIII.

The Gwynne family—Character of Mrs. Gwynne, and of her husband—The training of their offspring 21

IX.

My monastic life in London—The cloisters, the dormitories, the playground—The influence of their history on the boyish mind—I am ordered to fight 24

X.

Influence of Shakespeare and Virgil over me—“Cozing” after bed-time; story-telling; the reading of forbidden books; the novels of the past; the new novel now worn out—The great epochs, all of a transitory duration, except that of religion 27

XI.

The classical masters—The dress of the clergy—The writing masters—The lower officials—steward, beadles—No teaching except Greek, Latin, writing and arithmetic. Religion not taught, only heard 30

XII.

On bishop, priests, and deacons 34

XIII.

Henry William Gordon, my uncle, mixes his blood with that of Enderby, whence sprang a giant of middle stature, Chinese Gordon 36

XIV.

My last holiday spent in the mediæval city of Exeter—The dead weight of the clergy relieved by Yates acting Falstaff—Professor Shelden and his mummy—Squire Northmore and his great discovery—Gifford and his Mastership of the Rolls 39

XV.

Lifelong friendships, their physiology—The king’s ward—Games—Handsome boys, and others 43

XVI.

Boys of some mark—Christ’s unrevisited—Life at Woolwich—Drawing-room manners—Colonel Wylde—Soldiers the best servants 47

XVII.

Seaford revisited—The Wallinger family—A domestic seaside season of relatives and friends not unknown to fortune 50

XVIII.

Vaulting ambition, a retrospect—Gravitation of my mother from west to south—She settled at Lewes—My intellect, dieted on its sense of nothingness, takes growth—The process of brain-culture, and its accessories 53

XIX.

Youth—Our first recognition of Nature as something more than ourselves—My modesty always in proportion to my ignorance—My early habit of pumping those who knew more than myself—A country town, a cemetery in which great men are buried alive—Gideon Mantell, prince of geologists—Sir John Shelley and Sir George Shiffner, the last of the pigtail wearers—They represent Lewes in those Tory times 56

XX.

A county town has many mansions, in which the small succeed to the great—Mantell, surgeon-apothecary: his struggles—Lord Egremont’s bounty—He removes to Brighton, sells his museum, vanishes again—The liberality of Government to art, but not to science—Minor celebrities of Lewes 59

XXI.

I become a student of medicine under Thomas Hodson, a great operator—The superior skill of the surgeon, who knows exactly what he is about—Hodson’s strange character—His pre-eminence in county practice—Glynde, Lord Hampden, John Ellman, and south-down mutton 62

XXII.

John Ellman, a sketch—The south-down sheep not extinct—Lord Hampden’s funeral—Southover—The three weird sisters—My studies continued in London at St. George’s—Dr. Thomas Young, the greatest of theorists 65

XXIII.

The order of physicians—Halford, Warren, Chambers—The heavy costs of getting to the front of the profession—The difference between the old and new physicians, how brought about—Dr. James Clark made master of the situation—I become a pupil of Faraday, the eminent lecturer of the day—Family deaths and changes—St. George’s Hospital in the olden time 68

XXIV.

In due course I proceeded to Edinburgh to visit the Scotch Universities—I made the acquaintance, on board the steamer, of a “young fellow”—Dr. Greville, the botanist: his great work on the _Cryptogamia_—Dr. Robert Knox, whose calling and whose hobby were one—His enthusiasm and geological foresight—Physic is seldom a hobby—Aberdeen and Principal Jack—St. Andrew’s—Glasgow College and its professors 72

XXV.

The Glasgow theatre and Edmund Kean—A tour to the lochs and bens with my brother—Wrote poetry, sent it to Sir Walter Scott on the chance of his being an Edmund Burke—Poetry and its patrons in the past—What a poet is for: _nascitur, non fit_ 75

XXVI.

Breadalbane Castle—Hospitality in the shepherd’s cot—We traverse Loch Long, we become footpads—My brother returns southwards, I remain at Glasgow to pursue my studies—I graduate there—Impressions of Scotch character 79

XXVII.

A retrospect through a long avenue of time to when studies were no longer compulsory—A sixty years’ view—Taking stock of my knowledge—I feel the want of foreign languages—I return to London, and my next important step is to visit Italy—Calais—Paris—Colonel de Courcy—Geneva—The Simplon—Milan 81

XXVIII.

Styles and stylists—Why no author has described a perfect gentleman or a perfect lady—The temporary gentleman—Ladies in high office not to flirt, ugliness essential to their success—Women mistresses of the nervous style of writing—The muscular style best suited to men—The scientific style a good model 85

XXIX.

Nature is the only true stylist; I take my first lesson of her on the summit of the Alps—The English then in Florence—Landor—Trelawny—Colonel Burdett—Bankhead 90

XXX.

William IV. and Queen Adelaide—Sir William Martens—The Marchioness of Waterford—Sir Herbert Taylor—Sir Andrew Buchanan; anecdote of the Court 95

XXXI.

Brighton; a string of anecdotes 96

XXXII.

The Earl of Elgin my friend—His marbles—He was a great and patient sufferer from _tic douleureux_—Hahnneman and homœopathy—The earl’s amiable family—Mr. Bruce, the ambassador at Pekin—Lady Elgin and the ladies Charlotte and Augusta Bruce—The earl’s first family—The next Earl of Elgin—My drama, called the “Piromides” 99

XXXIII.

A tirade on friendships—Sir David Scott at Brighton—His interview with George IV.—A passage of snuffs 101

XXXIV.

The Countess de Montalembert; her versatility—Strange effect on the understanding when those who were in full vigour on our last seeing them, grow feeble and die—The Rev. H. M. Wagner—His labours—Horace Smith—Dr. George Hall—The Smith family—Evening receptions of Lady Carhampton and of the Hon. Mrs. Mostyn, a daughter of Thrale 106

XXXV.

The human race not purposed to be very intellectual—The clergy interpolate Nature with dogma—Count Pepoli, professor of Italian at University College—His opera of “I Puritani,” written for Bellini—He was robbed and exiled by Pius IX., who did not set the Tiber on fire, hard as he tried to astonish feeble minds—Sir Matthew Tierney—Dr. Bankhead and the other king’s physicians at Brighton 111

XXXVI.

The charm of Brighton in the olden time before railways—The “Age” coach—Sir St. Vincent Cotton and the Marquis of Worcester—The Dispensary, the Sussex County Hospital, and its noble patrons—Essay on manners—The dandy—The triumph of the cigar over women—Essay on vanity—Vain to the last—Addison—Vain in death—The least vain of men is the suicide—His anomalous character portrayed—Too systematic to be insane—His courage inscrutable 116

XXXVII.

There is no such thing as merit; it is not boastful in any man to describe his own capabilities correctly—Delinquencies most objected to by delinquents—Those who try to define genius are too clever to succeed—Being a little less clever myself, I give its definition—If I appear too clever at any time, the corrective is close at hand—My early exertions—The enormous increase of good writing in the country—Criticism the profoundest of studies 122

XXXVIII.

Liars, their division into three classes—No man is truly great unless a love of truth places his mind parallel with nature—Its immense use in criticism—A new criticism discoverable in Shakespeare on this basis, illustrated by three parallels—Nature’s mysterious number—Shakespeare’s thirty-third sonnet—Coleridge’s “Time, Real and Imaginary”—His “Work without Hope”—The three parallels rarely found except in authors of the highest genius 126

XXXIX.

Wordsworth tried and found wanting—The parables of the Lord examined and found absolutely free from metaphor—The poetic mind never fully matures—The Fame Insurance Company’s proceedings—Shakespeare a master of simplicity, and comparatively free from metaphor, which is not strictly sincere—The Prodigal Son and the Ten Virgins, perfect models—Milton’s style magnificent and insincere—The retrospective and prospective imagination of the parables; the introspective only belongs to the poet who substitutes himself for Nature, of whom he knows little 132

XL.

I spend a year in Paris, then take up my residence in London, publishing work there in 1839—I resolve on country life, and settle down at Bury St. Edmunds—The residents there—Its celebrated school, where a bishop of London, a lord chancellor, and a president of the College of Physicians were educated, and were still living—The Marquis of Bristol and Ickworth Building—The singular history and will of the previous earl, Bishop of Derry—An account of Ickworth—The unparalleled career of the earl-bishop—The Hervey family 138

XLI.

Culture in the Suffolk families—Sir Henry Bunbury—His character—The son of H. B., the eminent caricaturist and friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds—Barton Hall: among several of Reynolds’s works there is Venus sacrificing to the Graces, a full length portrait of Lady Sarah Lennox, wife of Sir Charles Bunbury, and the most famous beauty of her day—Her after marriage to the Hon. Colonel Napier, and she becomes the mother of a family of heroes—The Napier family—The second Lady Bunbury, a daughter of Lady Sarah, marries Sir Henry; and Cecilia Napier, her grand-daughter, marries his son, Colonel Bunbury—Sir Henry’s mission to Bonaparte—Sir George Napier—Sir Charles, the hero of Scinde—Sir Charles Fox Bunbury married to Miss Horner, sister of Lady Lyell 147

XLII.

The Duke of Norfolk; his simple life—The Earl of Surrey—Lord Fitzalan, who marries Admiral Lyons’ daughter—The beneficent character of that lady—The family seat of Fornham All Saints sold to a Lord Manners—Hengrave Hall and Sir Thomas Gage—Culford, formerly the seat of the Cornwallis family, then of Mr. Benyon de Beauvoir and his nephew 152

XLIII.

The Wilsons of Stowlangtoft—Their circle—Samuel Rickards, rector of the parish, and the Tractarians, Newman, Manning—Sir John Yarde Buller—Sir Richard Kindersley—The Porchers—Mrs. Henry Wilson, daughter of Lord Charles Fitz-Roy; her admirable character—A dinner at Trinity College, Cambridge—Kindersley, Professor Sedgwick, and Dr. Donaldson—Henry Wilson’s generous character—Anecdote of Sir George Wombwell, former owner of Stowlangtoft—The Thornhills of Riddlesworth—The character of Rickards; his charming wife—The death of friends 155

XLIV.

The Rickardses at home—Miss Rickards paints and glazes new windows for the church—The Rev. Mr. Mozley, a Tractarian and a writer on the _Times_ paper—A _Times_ Commissioner—Lord Thurlow—The Oakes family of Newton Court—Great Saxham Hall and the Mills family—Barrow rectory; the Rev. Arthur Carrighan; his remarkable history—Mrs. Mills; her daughters—George Borrow 160

XLV.

Borrow’s contradictory character—His fine person; Mr. Murray’s portrait of him—As my guest he accompanies me to a dinner at Sir Thomas Cullum’s—The party present—Borrow and Thackeray the lions—Milner Gibson—Borrow accompanies me to a dinner at Mr. Bevan’s, a truly awkward occasion for all parties—Anecdote of Borrow and Miss Agnes Strickland, told me by Mr. J. W. Donne, the Censor 164

XLVI.

Charles Buller, the pet of the House of Commons, secretary to Lord Durham in Canada, and one of a Whig clique, himself a charming person—The parsonage of Rickards on the whole the best literary centre—Hospitality of Riddlesworth Hall—Lord Sandwich there; anecdote of his father-in-law, the Marquis of Anglesey—Colonel Keppel, the late Earl of Albemarle; his charm of manner—One misses the society of one’s own class in high circles, but there are many compensations—The decline of influence in men of rank as well as of position—Mrs. Thornhill, a daughter of Mrs. Waddington, and sister of Moncton Milnes—Our parishes, with their resident squires, like happy republics—The Newtons of Elvedon and Duleep Singh—The Duke of Grafton and Euston Hall—Mr. Angerstein; his family and their princely home in Norfolk 168

XLVII.

The clergy of Bury—The Church the only profession in which practitioners do not get their own living, being already endowed—It will last their time—A parsonic anecdote 176

XLVIII.

The Cookesley family—Dr. Cookesley attacks Dr. Donaldson’s work, “Jashar”—Donaldson, the head-master of Bury school, a man of complicated character, governed by overweening vanity—He wished to be the Christian Voltaire and the Bentley of his day—The true origin of “Jashar” was Knights’s book on “Phallic Worship” 180

XLIX.

Perowne’s attack on Donaldson, as champion of orthodoxy—A clear line drawn between physics and metaphysics 184

L.

I tire of country life, and visit America, and its principal cities—I return to England; make an excursion to Jersey, then settle down in Grosvenor Street—I am invited to take charge of Lord Ripon’s health and move to Putney Heath—At his death I take a house in Spring Gardens—Later, I settle at Roehampton, for some years, and for some more years in Parson’s Green; finally I move to St. John’s Wood, and there I remain—Such are the gaps to be yet filled in with travels many, and adventures few, of forty more years—Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence at Boston—Their ministerial residence in London—Mr. Lawrence a man of the world, Mrs. Lawrence a lady of the United States—Her estimate of Sir Charles Lyell’s progress towards civilization—Mr. Prescott—I am asked to give a lecture—The medical men of Boston—Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft—A visit to Quebec—A party at the Governor-General’s—Mr. Lawrence—Messrs. Middleton at New York—_Terrapine_ at Philadelphia 188

LI.

The death of Lord Ripon—Spring Gardens—The West London Hospital—I continue my medical services with Lady Ripon—The noble character of that lady—The Disbrowes—The Gordons of Ellon—Mr. Wellesley, afterwards Lord Cowley—Count Pozzo di Borgo—A young Buonaparte—The Duchess of Somerset—Lord Edward and the Earl St. Maur—I prove myself a good diagnostic, when agnostics were in their infancy 196

LII.

My researches on the bones in scrofula—Dr. Baly—The Medico-Chirurgical Society—The Earl and Countess de Grey and Ripon—The present Lord Ripon’s public services—His descent from both Hampden and Cromwell—Other representatives of Cromwell—Mr. Field and Count Palavicini—Dr. Marcet—The Chemical Society—Dr. Faraday—Mr. Davies Gilbert—My paper on “Vital Force”—Contributions to the medical press—My research on the powers of the alphabet—A new cosmogony—On Drapery—My work on “Varicose Capillaries,” published in 1839, and forgotten, resuscitated in 1890 by the Pathological Society 201

LIII.

Lady Ripon’s declining health—I frequently visit her at Putney Heath, and I settle at Roehampton—Her friends and guests—Sir Charles and Lady Douglas—Mrs. Charles Lushington—George Borrow my frequent guest—Dr. Robert Latham—D. G. Rossetti—My visits to Nocton Hall, the country place of Lady Ripon—My poem of “The Lily of the Valley” describes Nocton Wood—How I came to write “Old Souls”—A volume printed for private circulation, called “The World’s Epitaph,” sprang from these poems—How the work fared—The impression it made on Rossetti 204

LIV.

Dr. Latham—He brings Mr. Theodore Watts to see me—I introduce Watts to George Borrow—We stroll over Richmond Park—Latham has a wish to meet Borrow, which I arrange—Latham’s behaviour towards my guest—His assumption—The finale 208

LV.

A dinner at Rossetti’s—Mr. W. B. Scott, Mr. Sidney Colvin, Mr. Joseph Knight, Mr. William Rossetti, Dr. Hüffer, Dr. Westland Marston and his son Philip, Mr. Madox Brown and Dr. Appleton—Rossetti’s poetry, his life, the artistic colouring of his mind—The nobility of his nature while in health, his change of character through disease—His poetry and paintings are one; both suffer by separation—The cause of his success as a poet—A critical view of his “Blessed Damozel” 213

LVI.

Opinion of “Sister Helen”—The “lascivious pleasing” of the sonnets—Rossetti’s poetry introspective—His companionable nature, his justice, freedom from jealousy and readiness to serve a friend—Residence in Perthshire with Rossetti in 1872—Stobbs Castle—Crieff—Rossetti at Kelmscott—At Bognor 218

LVII.

Mr. Noble, the sculptor—His recumbent statue of Lord Ripon in Nocton church—My visits to Nocton—The healthiness of Lincolnshire and the Eastern counties in summer—Rossetti’s generous review of “Madeline” in _The Academy_—He introduces my work to Dr. Westland Marston, who reviews it in _The Athenæum_—The costs of publication—Mr. Eden—“Madeline” and Theodore Watts 230

LVIII.

The origin of “Madeline”—Theodore Watts—His many endowments—Now a leading critic—His review of my work, “New Symbols,” in the _Examiner_—Harrison Ainsworth—The novel in general—The origin of “Parables and Tales”—Rossetti, Hüffer, and “The Cripple”—“The Blind Boy,” and Morley’s _Fortnightly Review_—I go to Bath—Beckford’s cemetery and tomb—Proceed to Germany—The wonders of Stassfurt—The old Saxon church—Dr. Dupré, my son-in-law, at Stassfurt 233

LIX.

My daughter’s marriage—The breakfast and the wedding guests—The likeness of Mr. Dupré, the elder, to the Bonapartes—His relationship to that family by descent—The French family of Dupré; the Buckinghamshire branch—Salt-water in England confined to the coast—Germany soaked in it—The drinking pilgrims—Their bodily sins—Family rambles—My youngest son, Henry, a student at Giessen, joins me in Turin—An autumn in Genoa 241

LX.

The Riviera Levante—Nervi—Its charm of scenery and colour, which commissions me to write “The Painter”—The Palazzo Rosso—The coast of Genoa spoilt by its fortifications—The vineyards and villas—The Villa Paganini—A feast of grapes—A knife-fight—The Via Nuova—The statue of Columbus—We proceed to Spezia—Lerici, Shelley’s last home but one—The Temple of Venus—The marble hills of Carrara—Florence once more—Old friends replaced by new—Madame Mazzini, now the wife of Signor Villari, a senator and Minister of Education—My longings to see Florence again—The Tuscans—Their bright intellects and fine faces—The kindness and attentions of the Italians to strangers 244

LXI.

At Florence after forty years—My pleasant apartments on the Lungarno—I repeat my old walks—I still receive reviews of “Parables and Tales,” always in their favour—My visit to Rossetti at Kelmscott—I describe his home while there in a poem—“Reminiscence”—My next work, “New Symbols”—Rossetti’s remarks on certain stanzas of “The Birth of Venus,” and “Michael Angelo”—William Rossetti reviews “New Symbols” in _The Academy_, in 1876 248

LXII.