My grandfather the fan
And today is the 156th birthday of my other grandfather, Allan! I've posted various extracts from his published works in recent years, but today I'm going for a couple of letters to his sister-in-law May, detailing his excitement at meeting his hero William Morris at a dinner in 1892.
At this time, May and Allan's brother William were farming in New Zealand with two young sons, the elder, Allan, named after his uncle; William was becoming engaged in local politics, though he did not succeed in getting into parliament. Meanwhile, Allan was preparing to marry Lucy Dowie, an artist like his sister Florence, and, though he had not yet had any of his own writing published, he was taking an intense interest in the literary scene.
Manchester
Oct 14/92
My dear May
As I had a long letter from you last night and you said there had been a gap of two months, I will begin at once.
Florence has been staying at Littleborough painting Mrs Molesworth's portrait. A propos of the Laureateship, Mr Molesworth asked Florence if she had ever heard of a man named Bridges, who wrote poems. He was astonished to find that she had and that Bridges was taken seriously as a distinguished man. He is Molesworth's cousin and his relatives have never taken the matter in a serious spirit at all.
I am looking forward to the time when Allan will write to me. Give him my love and say that I want to be fond of him, but he will have to be a very high-class sort of boy to attain this. You may put it in your own way.
The Lancaster visit passed off all right. I travelled with Will* and we had an entertaining journey, as there were two priests and two drunkards and the latter discussed religion from different standpoints. One of the drunkards said he was mayor of some place and I am inclined to think he was speaking the truth.
I have an invitation for Saturday evening, something like an invitation this time. I am really highly gratified about it. This is one of the advantages of sticking to the old world. You once had a pat on the head from Ruskin, hadn't you? Well I have a letter this morning from Charles Rowley asking me to dinner at the Reform Club on Saturday evening to meet WILLIAM MORRIS. Of course I am going. I wonder whether he will snub me, or bite my head off, or ignore me - these are the chances, I believe. I am afraid that I shall spoil myself by nervousness. I hope there won't be many people there. I see by the papers that he has suggested the Marquis of Lorne as the most likely man for Poet Laureate. We ought to get him on this subject.
We shall be glad to hear how William gets on with his political opponents. This is just what was foretold. By-the-bye doesn't a member of Parliament get paid in New Zealand? You will be a great lady yet and have a "salon". Couldn't William draw the pay and get a boy to manage the farm? You would have to go to Wellington with him. My own belief is that he is much better out of it.
Yes, you must come to see the Great Bear someday. Can't the gaffer get a commission to enquire into the working of the English County Council?
Your affectionate brother
Allan Monkhouse
[* Will - May's brother, not Allan's]
Knutsford
Oct 26/92
My dear May
The William Morris dinner came off all right & the great man was full of talk & vitality. There were eight or nine of us. Mr Rowley put me next to Morris but I did very little talking as the conversation was general & Morris took about three quarters of it. Several of the men there were pretty well up in some of the subjects such as type about which he talked a great deal in connection with his books. I did put him in possession of one fact namely that Tennyson had written a play called 'Beckett'. He didn't know & I think he said that he hadn't read his plays, though he condemned them. He also said that Irving was very bad in Macbeth & I thought it would waste time to say that I disagreed with him. He thinks that actors are not what they were - liked Jefferson in Rip van Winkle very much.
Jimmy Whistler was a clever man but enormously overrated by himself & friends. - Hamlet ought to be played in an hour & a half & all Shakespearean long speeches should be cut out. Hamlet is a very bad play - the finest piece of introspection in the language of course. - Ibsen is very interesting but disagreeable. I can't remember what he said - he was very rash & aggressive & interesting - he never said a word about socialism.
There was a man there named Rogers - I don't know whether he is a Manchester man - who said that Irving told him one day that Tennyson had sent for him & that Irving didn't like to go but had to. He knew it was about a play & felt sure that it wouldn't do but felt it deuced awkward to say so.
We broke up about 10.30. Florence & Lily went the next day - Sunday - to hear him lecture. I am not a socialist - don't understand it - but I think William Morris is one of the finest fellows in England - he is representative of very much that is soundest & best in English life, & succeeds Ruskin as Ruskin succeeded Carlyle.
Florence is away at Littleborough again painting Mrs Molesworth.
I have just given Aunt Kate "The Christmas Carol" to read. She is staying until the beginning of the week.
Cory Badcock will be here for this week end.
Of course you knew George Hutton. He has died very suddenly. I am sorry, for he was a very nice fellow. A fortnight last Saturday I had lunch with him at London Road station before going out to Disley & if I am not mistaken he played golf on the following Saturday & made the best return - one better than Will. He died on the next Saturday. I have not heard any particulars about it as I haven't seen Will since we travelled north together.
There is a new volume of poems by Meredith. They are pretty stuff & I haven't got into them fairly yet. I have been rereading Tourgenieff lately & have got a couple of volumes in French as they are not all available in English. I had some idea of a paper on him, but I am doubtful whether it will come off.
It is Lucy's birthday today & I have sent her 5 old silver spoons of a curious shape that I bought at a kind of curiosity shop. I expect that they are just the kind of thing that she will like. I am glad to hear from her that there is a word of commendation in the Scotsman for some black & white designs that she has exhibited. She was getting rather down on her luck.
As to getting married she says that we "might go somewhere to play golf, & if it was a fine day, & the sun shining & one felt inclined, be married afterwards supposing one had made a good score." It would be impossible for us to get married quietly in Edinburgh I think, while Mrs Dowie is about. She is a very foolish gossiping lady & can't keep anything to herself.
Miss Burton & her mother - Lucy's friends - are going to Japan for the winter. Miss Burton's brother married a Japanese lady & is out there.
Aunt Kate made a wrong start on "The Christmas Carol". I had chosen "The Cricket on the Hearth" in preference as I thought that Old Marley's ghost might be too much for her.
This is not a long letter but I think I will get it off rather than run the risk of delaying it.
Love to William & the boys -
Your affectionate brother
Allan Monkhouse
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
At this time, May and Allan's brother William were farming in New Zealand with two young sons, the elder, Allan, named after his uncle; William was becoming engaged in local politics, though he did not succeed in getting into parliament. Meanwhile, Allan was preparing to marry Lucy Dowie, an artist like his sister Florence, and, though he had not yet had any of his own writing published, he was taking an intense interest in the literary scene.
Manchester
Oct 14/92
My dear May
As I had a long letter from you last night and you said there had been a gap of two months, I will begin at once.
Florence has been staying at Littleborough painting Mrs Molesworth's portrait. A propos of the Laureateship, Mr Molesworth asked Florence if she had ever heard of a man named Bridges, who wrote poems. He was astonished to find that she had and that Bridges was taken seriously as a distinguished man. He is Molesworth's cousin and his relatives have never taken the matter in a serious spirit at all.
I am looking forward to the time when Allan will write to me. Give him my love and say that I want to be fond of him, but he will have to be a very high-class sort of boy to attain this. You may put it in your own way.
The Lancaster visit passed off all right. I travelled with Will* and we had an entertaining journey, as there were two priests and two drunkards and the latter discussed religion from different standpoints. One of the drunkards said he was mayor of some place and I am inclined to think he was speaking the truth.
I have an invitation for Saturday evening, something like an invitation this time. I am really highly gratified about it. This is one of the advantages of sticking to the old world. You once had a pat on the head from Ruskin, hadn't you? Well I have a letter this morning from Charles Rowley asking me to dinner at the Reform Club on Saturday evening to meet WILLIAM MORRIS. Of course I am going. I wonder whether he will snub me, or bite my head off, or ignore me - these are the chances, I believe. I am afraid that I shall spoil myself by nervousness. I hope there won't be many people there. I see by the papers that he has suggested the Marquis of Lorne as the most likely man for Poet Laureate. We ought to get him on this subject.
We shall be glad to hear how William gets on with his political opponents. This is just what was foretold. By-the-bye doesn't a member of Parliament get paid in New Zealand? You will be a great lady yet and have a "salon". Couldn't William draw the pay and get a boy to manage the farm? You would have to go to Wellington with him. My own belief is that he is much better out of it.
Yes, you must come to see the Great Bear someday. Can't the gaffer get a commission to enquire into the working of the English County Council?
Your affectionate brother
Allan Monkhouse
[* Will - May's brother, not Allan's]
Knutsford
Oct 26/92
My dear May
The William Morris dinner came off all right & the great man was full of talk & vitality. There were eight or nine of us. Mr Rowley put me next to Morris but I did very little talking as the conversation was general & Morris took about three quarters of it. Several of the men there were pretty well up in some of the subjects such as type about which he talked a great deal in connection with his books. I did put him in possession of one fact namely that Tennyson had written a play called 'Beckett'. He didn't know & I think he said that he hadn't read his plays, though he condemned them. He also said that Irving was very bad in Macbeth & I thought it would waste time to say that I disagreed with him. He thinks that actors are not what they were - liked Jefferson in Rip van Winkle very much.
Jimmy Whistler was a clever man but enormously overrated by himself & friends. - Hamlet ought to be played in an hour & a half & all Shakespearean long speeches should be cut out. Hamlet is a very bad play - the finest piece of introspection in the language of course. - Ibsen is very interesting but disagreeable. I can't remember what he said - he was very rash & aggressive & interesting - he never said a word about socialism.
There was a man there named Rogers - I don't know whether he is a Manchester man - who said that Irving told him one day that Tennyson had sent for him & that Irving didn't like to go but had to. He knew it was about a play & felt sure that it wouldn't do but felt it deuced awkward to say so.
We broke up about 10.30. Florence & Lily went the next day - Sunday - to hear him lecture. I am not a socialist - don't understand it - but I think William Morris is one of the finest fellows in England - he is representative of very much that is soundest & best in English life, & succeeds Ruskin as Ruskin succeeded Carlyle.
Florence is away at Littleborough again painting Mrs Molesworth.
I have just given Aunt Kate "The Christmas Carol" to read. She is staying until the beginning of the week.
Cory Badcock will be here for this week end.
Of course you knew George Hutton. He has died very suddenly. I am sorry, for he was a very nice fellow. A fortnight last Saturday I had lunch with him at London Road station before going out to Disley & if I am not mistaken he played golf on the following Saturday & made the best return - one better than Will. He died on the next Saturday. I have not heard any particulars about it as I haven't seen Will since we travelled north together.
There is a new volume of poems by Meredith. They are pretty stuff & I haven't got into them fairly yet. I have been rereading Tourgenieff lately & have got a couple of volumes in French as they are not all available in English. I had some idea of a paper on him, but I am doubtful whether it will come off.
It is Lucy's birthday today & I have sent her 5 old silver spoons of a curious shape that I bought at a kind of curiosity shop. I expect that they are just the kind of thing that she will like. I am glad to hear from her that there is a word of commendation in the Scotsman for some black & white designs that she has exhibited. She was getting rather down on her luck.
As to getting married she says that we "might go somewhere to play golf, & if it was a fine day, & the sun shining & one felt inclined, be married afterwards supposing one had made a good score." It would be impossible for us to get married quietly in Edinburgh I think, while Mrs Dowie is about. She is a very foolish gossiping lady & can't keep anything to herself.
Miss Burton & her mother - Lucy's friends - are going to Japan for the winter. Miss Burton's brother married a Japanese lady & is out there.
Aunt Kate made a wrong start on "The Christmas Carol". I had chosen "The Cricket on the Hearth" in preference as I thought that Old Marley's ghost might be too much for her.
This is not a long letter but I think I will get it off rather than run the risk of delaying it.
Love to William & the boys -
Your affectionate brother
Allan Monkhouse
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.