Forward
A few years ago I asked my father to put down some facts of his life for those of his family who are too young to remember his early years. In his will he bequeathed these “Notes” to my only sister, Mary Theodora, who has lived with him all her life, but she hesitated, in face of the last sentence, to publish them. Although it is true they were not written with a view to publication, it is evident, from a conversation my father had with his wife about them, that he had no objection to their being made public.
My sister therefore prints them now, in the hope that they may interest a few beyond the “two or three persons” for whom they were intended.
W. HALE WHITE.
June 1913.
List of Illustrations
| Mark Rutherford, aged about 12, and His Father | Frontispiece |
| Bedford Bridge | Facing p. [13] |
| ‘The Bedford Times’ Coach | Facing p. [15] |
| The Old Meeting-house | Facing p. [16] |
| Mark Rutherford’s Father | Facing p. [38] |
| The School, Bedford, in 1831 | Facing p. [47] |
| Old Horne Lane, Bedford, in 1835 | Facing p. [50] |
| Mark Rutherford at the Age of 24 | Facing p. [88] |
Autobiographical Notes
I have been asked at 78 years old to set down what I remember of my early life. A good deal of it has been told before under a semi-transparent disguise, with much added which is entirely fictitious. What I now set down is fact.
I was born in Bedford High Street, on December 22, 1831. I had two sisters and a brother, besides an elder sister who died in infancy. My brother, a painter of much promise, died young. Ruskin and Rossetti thought much of him. He was altogether unlike the rest of us, in face, in temper, and in quality of mind. He was very passionate, and at times beyond control. None of us understood how to manage him. What would I not give to have my time with him over again! Two letters to my father about him are copied below: