Memories of an Old Etonian, 1860-1912

The Countess Czerwinska—The Countess Broel Plater—Mlle. de Laval—The Duchesse de Grammont—An Absent-Minded Gentleman—Dusauty, the Fencing Master—The Marquis of Anglesey—Charming...

It happened so long ago, and I was so very young at the time—not more than five or six years old—that I should be almost tempted to believe that it was all a dream, were it not...

When I was seven years old, my parents left me at a school in Frankfurt, kept by Herr Kirchhofer, a good-looking, fair-haired man of thirty-five. He was married and had an only...

On leaving Frankfurt, we went to Brussels, where we lived in a large house on the Boulevard de Waterloo, which looked out on to a very fine avenue of trees. Captain Dorrien came...

Before going to school in England, I was taken to Richmond to see my mother’s aunt, Lady Caroline Murray, who was now an old lady and lived in a house near the Thames, for, as t...

My parents were at this time living in Paris, in a small hôtel in the Avenue d’Antin, which was so shut in by the houses that surrounded it, that the rooms were very dark, and,...

There was a certain _cachet_ attached to an Etonian in those days which I have not found with boys of any other school, assuredly not in England. I may almost say not in Europe,...

Boys at Eton rarely made friends outside their respective houses. Therefore, when Hodgson left, I spent most of my spare time with Doyne, who even then was very stout, and, thou...

Henley Regatta was an event which was always eagerly looked forward to by us boys. I used to go there with Mr. James and Mrs. Bower and some of the boys in our house. Sometimes...

Just after I left Eton, in 1870, I went over to Ireland to stay with my friend Doyne, who lived in County Wexford, and had a fine estate near the sea, about half an hour’s walk...

During the Franco-German War, while I was at Eton, my parents remained in Paris, and though my father left the city during the Commune, my mother stayed until the very last, whe...

Paris was very dull in the way of entertainments and parties after the Commune, and people spoke of hardly anything but the siege. Mrs. Healy, an aunt of Viscount Dillon, who li...

On my arrival at Bonn, I stayed at the Hôtel Rheineck, which commanded a splendid view of the distant mountains. Here I made the acquaintance of the late Mr. Ranyard, the celebr...

The Countess Czerwinska—The Countess Broel Plater—Mlle. de Laval—The Duchesse de Grammont—An Absent-Minded Gentleman—Dusauty, the Fencing Master—The Marquis of Anglesey—Charming...

During the winter months, I was very fond of going on Sundays to Pasdeloup’s concerts, which were held in the Cirque d’Hiver. One Sunday, I met the Vicomte d’Assailly there, who...

It was not until two years after I had passed my examination for the Army, in 1872, that I obtained my commission, when I was gazetted as a sub-lieutenant to the 2nd Battalion o...

On our arrival at Chatham Barracks, I was allotted a single room in the officers’ quarters, which was much smaller and less comfortable than either of the two rooms which I had...

My father accompanied me to Portsmouth in the winter of 1873, where the troopship in which I was to sail for India was lying. We had first to touch at Queenstown, to embark a li...

Murree is a very charming town. The houses, which bear some resemblance to those of Switzerland, but are mostly constructed of wood and have rarely more than two storeys, are bu...

Amongst our amusements at Murree were balls, which were given periodically at the Club by the officers of the battalion. Although the majority of the fair guests were married wo...

In the autumn of 1874 the other sub-lieutenants and myself had to go through a course of instruction at Sialkote, in order to qualify as lieutenants. At Rawal Pindi I called on...

At Portsmouth, I was met by my father and Ernest Berkeley, a son of Lord Berkeley, who some time afterwards obtained a commission in my regiment, and with them I travelled to Pa...

It was through the influence of the Adjutant-General, Lord Airey, that I had been transferred to the 3rd Battalion of the 60th Rifles, in June, 1875. On joining, I went into the...

When I got my winter’s leave, I started for Paris, to see my parents; intending afterwards to visit Vienna and Buda-Pesth. On the last evening of my stay in Paris, I went to the...

Soon after my return to Chatham, my company had to go to Gravesend for a course of musketry. The officers who went were Cramer, Gunning and myself. We had to superintend the sho...

Shortly after I had passed my lieutenant’s examination, I was sent to Woolwich, where a detachment of my battalion was to do duty for the Horse Artillery. The room I was given,...

the singular behaviour of this individual, who was calmly pocketing as many spoons and forks as he could lay his hands on, whenever he fancied that he was unobserved. The mess-w...

My next winter leave I spent in Paris with my parents, who now occupied an _appartement_ at No. 65, Rue de Morny, Champs-Elysées, and, as the winter season in the French capital...

I spent my winter leave in Paris, where I suffered more or less all the time from rheumatism of the heart, for which I took a good many Turkish baths, without, however, obtainin...

My Colonel appeared anything but pleased at my return. He had, it seems, been hopeful that my application for sick leave was but a preliminary step to my resigning my commission...