PEEPS AT LIFE IN VICTORIAN DAYS.

Shannon News, 26 July 1927, Page 4

PEEPS AT LIFE IN VICTORIAN DAYS.

LADY CAVENDISH AND HER ARRESTING DIARY.

•JLONDON, July 1. Perhaps the most ) complete and vivac--<-4oua picture of the more interesting period of Vitoria’s reign ever given - ia to be found in ‘ ‘The Diary of Lady Frederick Cavendish,” which John Murray published to-day in two volumes. ■ . , , XBorn at Lyttelton, married to a Cavendish, nearly related to the Gladstones and to many of the great houses of the time, maid of honour to Queen Victoria, the-friend of Archbishop Temple and of Dean Stanley, Lady Frederick had an intimate knowledge of the . social,, political and eeclestiastical elides of her day. . The earlier entries—the diary begins when Lady Frederick was thirteen and extends over 28 years, until the murder • of Lord Frederick Cavendish in 1882 — are in a light vein that, even borders C on the frivolous, and her sidelights on Victorian slang and Victorian customs are always entertaining. . Two instances of “slang” must suffice. In those days a “break” was some event that helped to break the monotony of life. .So Miss Lyttelton, as she was then, called the appearance of a new baby in a friend’s house “an immense break. ” • . ; To “shoot” meant to see anyone unexpectedly. Thus a cleric, wrote that ho .“shot the Bishop of London in a corner at the Queen’s party.” Lady Frederick met all the big people, of the time. Here are her,thumb-, nail sketches of Victorian Giants. Tennyson: A dirty man with opium- . glazed eyes and rat-taily hair hanging I down his back. ' Matthew Arnold: Very like a small yellow rabbit. • • • He seems light and vain and does not talk sense. .. . ' I don’t like Mr Arnold. . Disraeli: A grisly sight he is, with bis blue-grey colour and sham old black curls. He was dressed like a*well-to-do bid clo ’ man in a long, light grey coat and loud trousers. Girls had less freedom than they now. ' enjoy, and Lady Frederick confesses that .after walking alone on Brighton X; pier at the age of twenty she “felt scampish, ” while at the sight of a party of young ladies alighting from a hansom in which they had driven down - Oxford Street, ‘ ‘ Lord Cowpcr was probably shocked. ” On August 18, 1858, the arrival of the first message by the Atlantic telegraph is recorded —it took thirty-six minutes! The arrival of- the telephone (1881) • is noted as follows, frdm Hawarden:— That' enchanting new marvel, a telephone, has been put. up, -whereby castle - . and rectory converse adlibitum. Uncle W., who is in some respects the greatest Tory out, will have nothing to say . .to it. Uncle W. was Mr Gladstone. This woman, of strong and lovable character, had a tragic life. She mourned that no children were born to her. Her father, whom she adored, committed suicide, and she knew forty-three ' years of widowhood after the. murder of her husband. Her eighteen years of married life, however, were very happy, for she and her husband were ideally mated. '< An extraet, dated Osborne, January 16, 1864, says:— At Parkhurst, the poor women convicts found out - it was the Queen, and numbers fell on their knees, begging for mercy and pardon, so as quite to upset fhose who heard them, and the Queen, said she was sure, if one had managed to fall down at her feet, she must have forgiven her. In June of the same year Lucy Lyttelton became the wife of Lord Frederick Cavendish. Her life thereafter was crammed with interest. • \ Gladstone had formed . a very high opinion of Lord Frederick, whom lie sent as Chief Secretary to Ireland in ,1881!.- The night before the tragic news came of his death was happy enough. y “ . . we had a very cheery evening,” Lady Frederick writes. “I , felt as if the worst were over, all anxi--'v'' ety as to the decision, and the pain of accepting, and now we had to face it bravely and hopefully. We talked much Of all we should have to do —how smart ! should have to be; I don’t think XWe talked of anything but Ireland. Afterwards, when she was writing to • Mr Gladstone,'her sister-in-law brought the new T s. , .All my blesed joy of many years wrecked in the darkness. In the midst of the black storm a confused feeling came over me that it would kill Uncle W., who had sent him out in such hope —as, indeed, “ a son of his right hand. ” But then Uncle W. himself came ,in. . . , . I saw his-face, pale, sorrovcstrickeu, but like a prophet’s in its look of faith and strength. He came up and almost took me in his arms, and his first words were: “Father, forgive them, for they know- not what they do.”

Then he said to me: “Be assured it Trill not be in vain,’’ and across all my agony there fell a bright ray of hope, and I saw in a vision Ireland at peace, and my darling's life-blood accepted as a sacrifice for Christ's sake, to help 'bring this to pass. * A priest in Connemara read these noble words from the altar, and the whole congregation spontaneously fell down upon their knees. Lady Frederick Cavendish died two years (igo, having spent the long years of her widowhood in. unostentatious social and educational work.