Transcribed from the 1898 James Clarke & Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
CHRISTOPHER CRAYON’S
RECOLLECTIONS:
The Life and Times of the late
JAMES EWING RITCHIE,
As told by Himself.
London:
james clarke & co., 13 & 14, fleet street.
1898.
CONTENTS.
chapter | page | |
I. | East Anglia in 1837 | |
II. | A Life’s Memories | |
III. | Village Life | |
IV. | Village Sports and Pastimes | |
V. | Out on the World | |
VI. | At College | |
VII. | London Long Ago | |
VIII. | My Literary Career | |
IX. | Cardiff and the Welsh | |
X. | A Great National Movement | |
XI. | The Old London Pulpit | |
XII. | Memories of Exeter Hall | |
XIII. | Men I Have Known | |
XIV. | How I Put Up for M.P. | |
XV. | How I was Made a Fool Of | |
XVI. | Interviewing the President | |
XVII. | A Bank Gone | |
CHAPTER I.
East Anglia in 1837.
In 1837 Lord Melbourne was Prime Minister—the handsomest, the most cultivated, the most courteous gentleman that ever figured in a Royal Court. For his young mistress he had a loyal love, whilst she, young and inexperienced, naturally turned to him as her guide, philosopher and friend. The Whigs were in office, but not in power. The popular excitement that had carried the Reform Bill had died away, and the Ministry had rendered itself especially unpopular by a new Poor-Law Bill, a bold, a praiseworthy, a successful attempt to deal with the growing demoralisation of the agricultural population. Lord Melbourne was at that time the only possible Premier. “I have no small talk,” said the Iron Duke, “and Peel has no manners,” and few men had such grace and chivalry as Lord Melbourne, then a childless widower in his manhood’s prime. He swore a good deal, as all fine gentlemen did in the early days of Queen Victoria. One day Mr. Denison, afterwards Lord Ossington, encountered Lord Melbourne as he was about to mount his horse,