Read Ebook: Wit and Wisdom of Lord Tredegar by Morgan Godfrey Charles

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When I came into the room I expected to find one half of the company on crutches and the other half in splints. I am not at all certain that I am the proper man to be President of this club, because I think that the President of an athletic club should measure at least 48 inches round the chest, and ought to have biceps of 18 inches, and scale at least 14 stone 7 lbs. I am afraid all the dumb bells in the world would not get me up to that. I am what might be called an old fossil, though I cannot boast of the garrulity of old age, and therefore I will not tell you that when I played football I was always kicking the ball out of the ground into the river; or that when I played cricket I always drove the ball into the river. Those are facts well known in Newport.

HUNTING.

I am always delighted to see any member of the Corporation at the meet of my hounds. If they came out horrid Radicals they would go back half Tories.

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," and there is nothing like a meet in the open country for setting things right between friends and neighbours.

A clever satirist has said that nature made the horse and hounds and threw in the fox as a connecting link. In my opinion, fox-hounds and hunting are the connecting links between the landlord and the tenant farmer.

I have made many pleasant acquaintances lately in my hunting expeditions, and I hope we shall always remain on the most amicable terms. But some have astonished me with their argument. Said one, "Beg pardon, Major, I have lost such a sight of poultry." "Dear me," I said. "Yes, we lost forty ducks the other night." "Oh, the devil!" I exclaimed. "No, not the devil," said the farmer, "but the fox." I asked the farmer how he managed to count so many. "Well," was the reply, "I had four ducks sitting on ten eggs each; and that made forty." Well, the Chamber of Agriculture has not yet settled the knotty point of "compensation for unexhausted improvements." However, the argument ended in our parting very good friends, as, said the farmer, "I and my landlord have been friends hitherto, and as I hope we shall continue to be."

TWO UNPROFITABLE HONOURS.

I have the honour to hold two offices which, if I did not enjoy the friendship of the farmers, would be very thorny ones. One of them is that of being a member of Parliament for an agricultural county. You will agree with me that, in such a position, if I were not on good terms with the farmer, I would often be on a bed of thorns.

The other office I hold is that of master of a pack of hounds. I think also if I were not on good terms with the farmer that would not be a very pleasant position. I do not know that there is any similarity between the two offices, except that neither of them has any salary. I hope and trust that it will be a very long time before the country will be unable to find men willing to do the duties in either capacity without being paid for them.

THE HAPPY FARMER.

A great many people fancy that the farmer lives in a beautiful cottage, with vines climbing over it, that the cows give milk without any milking, that the earth yields forth her fruits spontaneously, and that the farmer has nothing to do but sit still and get rich.

EQUINE EXPRESSIONS.

Our great orators, whenever they want to be more expressive than usual, make use of phrases savouring of horses and carriages. When the Grand Old Man came into power, it was said he would have an awkward team to manage. Again, when a great division was expected some time ago, and there were doubts as to which way two gentlemen would go, it was said that Mr. Fowler had kicked over the traces and that Mr. Saunders would jib. Equine expressions are quite in the fashion.

KINDNESS TO ANIMALS.

My experience of life is that a man who loves horses is a good member of society. A man who is kind to his horses is kind to everyone else. I belong to a Four-in-hand Club, two of the leading members, Lord Onslow and Lord Carrington, being close personal friends of mine. A relative of Lord Onslow once wrote:

"What can Tommy Onslow do He can drive a coach and two; Can Tommy Onslow do no more Yes, he can drive a coach and four."

Yet Lord Onslow and Lord Carrington are something more than splendid whips; they are highly successful governors of British Dependencies.

TALKS ON EDUCATION.

I have been delighted to hand so many prizes to lady pupil teachers, and I recall the philosopher who once said, "All that is necessary is that a girl should have the morals of an angel, the manners of a kitten, and the mind of a flea." But after this distribution one cannot go away with the impression that the female mind is only the mind of a flea.

We have been informed, to-night of different foreign educational systems, the German, the French, and the American, which we are generally told in this country we ought to copy. In the French system there is too much centralization. Every teacher, whether at a university or at a small elementary school, is simply a Government Official. The German system is a splendid one, but it is all subsidized by Government. The English Government is not generous enough to do that for English Schools, so we can hardly hope to copy the German system. Then there is the American system. That is also certainly splendid, but unfortunately we have no great millionaires in England who will help us to copy the American system. It has been said that when an Englishman becomes a millionaire, and he feels that he is nearing his end, he thinks--to use a sporting expression--that it is time to "hedge for a future state." Then he builds a Church. The American millionaire founds a university, or leaves large sums of money for a training college, and I think he is right.

Sir William Preece has said that there were five new elements discovered within the last century. There were others undiscovered, and it only remained for some student to discover one of them to make himself famous, and, like Xenophon, return to find his name writ large on the walls of his native town. A celebrated poet once declared--

"You can live without stars; You can live without books, But civilized man Cannot live without cooks."

Some people may be able to live without books and only with cooks. But without science and books we should not have had our Empire. Books and science help us to keep up the Empire. It is for these reasons that I do what I can to encourage technical and scientific education.

You can be quite certain that no hooligan ever attended an art school. The intelligence and refinement of manners brought about by the study of sculpture, painting, and architecture have more to do with the stopping of drunkenness than any other teaching you could think of.... The charm of these art schools for me lies in the fact that we are always expecting something great, just as a fisherman at a little brook, where he has never caught anything much larger than his little finger, is always expecting to hook some big monster. In these art schools I am always expecting some great artist or sculptor turned out--somebody from Newport Schools--not only a credit to himself but to any town, somebody who will become a second Millais or a great sculptor.

Newport has improved a good deal of late years, and I am sure the study of painting and architecture has had much to do with it. In looking over some old papers in the Tredegar archives the other day, I came across a description by two people who passed from Cardiff through Newport about 100 years ago. They said: "We went over a nasty, muddy river, on an old rotten wooden bridge, shocking to look at and dangerous to pass over. On the whole this is a nasty old town."

Sir John Gorst has made reference to the indisposition of the territorial aristocracy to encourage high intellectual attainment. I think "territorial aristocracy" is rather an undefinable term, and perhaps school children will be asked what it is. I do not think that those who own land are as a class opposed to high intellectual attainment. The County Councils to some extent are representative of territorial aristocracy, and 41 of the 49 County Councils of England and Wales have agreed to spend the whole of the Government grant in education. That is a sign that the territorial aristocracy are not averse to intellectual attainment.

Perhaps Colonel Wallis will ask some of the children in the school what the meaning of "territorial aristocracy" is. I read that when a child was asked what the meaning of the word Yankee was, the reply was that it was an animal bred in Yorkshire.

Victor Hugo once said that the opening of a school means the closing of a prison. That is very true, regarded as an aphorism, and I wish it were true in reality, because there would not be any prisons left in England.

I am pleased that technical schools are taking such a firm hold in the town. I feel more and more that the teaching of art is doing a great deal of good. There is a great improvement in the tastes of the people, shown by the architectural beauty of their residences and in decorations generally.

I was very much surprised a short time ago at reading a strong article by "Ouida"--whose novels I have read with a great deal of interest--on the ugliness of our modern life. She certainly took a very pessimistic view of the matter and seemed to look only at the workaday part of the world--at the making of railways, the knocking down of old houses, and the riding of bicycles. I do not see that those things come under the title of art. One of the objects of instruction at the art schools is to induce students to create ideas of their own. At the same time I do not think you could do much better than study the old masters, than whose works I do not see anything better amongst modern productions. The great silver racing cups given away now, worth from ?300 to ?500, do not compare with the handiwork of Italian and Venetian silver workers. I have some pieces of plate in the great cellar under Tredegar House which I do not think it possible to improve upon.

One or two little incidents in my own experience lately shew the value of studying some particular trade or science or some form of art. Only the other day I met a young lady at a country house. Before I had seen her a few minutes she remarked: "I suppose you don't remember me, Lord Tredegar?" If I had been young and gallant, it would have been natural for me to have replied: "Such a face as yours I am not in the least likely to forget." But I thought I was too old for that, and merely said that I did not remember at the moment having met her previously. The young lady then informed me that she had received a prize at my hands at a great school, and that in handing her the prize I had remarked, "You have well earned the prize, and it is a branch of art that, if continued, will prove very useful in after life." That branch of art had enabled her to take the position she then occupied.

The other incident was that of a young man who had been left by his parents very poor. He had the greatest difficulty in getting anything at all to do, because he had never made himself proficient in any particular trade or science. I agree with the man who said one should know something about everything and everything about something.

It has been well said, I forget by whom, but I think it was Dr. Johnson, that you can do anything with a Scotsman, if you catch him young. I think you can say just the same of the Welshman or the Monmouthshire man.

One day I accompanied a young lady to her carriage on leaving a public function at which I had officiated. The band struck up a martial air, and I stepped actively to the time of the music. Remarking to the young lady that the martial air appealed to an old soldier, she said, "Why, Lord Tredegar, were you ever in the Army?" That is the reason why I think we should have memorials and why I shall be very glad to have this picture in my house.

The commander of the French Army said of the Balaclava Charge that it was magnificent, but that it was not war. I do not know what the French general called war, but my recollection of the charge is that it was something very nearly like it. I have to thank the Power above for being here now, fifty-five years after the charge took place. Whether this statue will commemorate me for a long time or not is of little moment, but I know it will commemorate for ever the sculptor, Mr. Goscombe John.

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF MONMOUTHSHIRE.

Anyone who lives in Monmouthshire, a county rich in its old castles, churches, camps, and cromlechs, cannot fail to be some sort of an archaeologist, and it is this mild type I represent. I have always had a great fancy for history, and anyone who studies the archaeology of Monmouthshire must be well grounded in the history of England. The county has held a prominent place in history from the earliest period down to the present day, commencing with the Silures, and passing on to the Romans, Saxons, and Normans. Some locality or other in the county was connected with each of those periods.

One little failing about archaeology which has always been a sore point with me is that it is apt to destroy some of those little illusions which we like to keep up. I hope when we go to Caerwent, during the next day or two, my illusion concerning King Arthur will not be dispelled, for I love to think of King Arthur and his Round Table having been at that place. Alexander wept because there were no new worlds to conquer, but I hope archaeologists will not weep because there are no new ruins to be discovered. An old stone has been picked up on the moors at Caldicot, and scientific men know that the stone proves the Marches to have been reclaimed from the sea by the Romans. The question of the origin of Roman encampments is one about which there is a great deal of doubt, and I hope to hear some new story when we inspect the ancient part in Tredegar Park.

MONMOUTHSHIRE STILL WELSH.

FREEDOM OF MORGAN BROTHERHOOD.

I take my opinion of freedom from Dr. Samuel Johnson, and that is good enough for me. Dr. Johnson said that freedom was "to go to bed when you wish, to get up when you like, to eat and drink whatever you choose, to say whatever occurs to you at the moment, and to earn your living as best you may."

The Lord Mayor has hoped that he will prove to be a member of the Tredegar family. The name of Morgan is a splendid name. You can, with that name, get your pedigree from wherever you like. Whenever I talk of bishops, I remember to speak of Bishop Morgan. If I speak to a football player, I talk of Buccaneer Morgan, and so it goes on in any subject you wish. I do not care--even if there is a great murder--a Morgan is sure to be in it! I do not wish to detract from the Lord Mayor's desire to be in the pedigree, but, at all events, we can all belong to a Morgan Brotherhood.

When the agitation for the new Technical Institute was going on, I daresay most of you heard all sorts of objections to it on the ground of expense and of there being no necessity for an institute of this description. Some of the agitators went back to Solomon. They said, "Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, and he has told us that 'He who increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.' So why," said they, "do you want to have more knowledge?" Another objector said, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing," and then somebody else said, "Of the making of books there is no end," and "Much study is a weariness of the flesh."

All those old sayings were trotted out, but there was the other side to bring before you. There was the dear old lady who was so proud of her son--he was a kind of artist--that she thought he would become a second Gainsborough. He got on very well, as she thought, and one day, meeting his professor, she said, "Oh, Professor, do you think my son will ever learn to draw?" and he replied, "Yes, madam, if you harness him to a wagon." Happily, Newport went the right way, and built what I fancy is quite one of the most up-to-date technical institutions in the country.

It is very difficult to address a mixed school of boys and girls. You require totally different things for boys and girls. A learned gentleman was once asked his ideal of a girl, and he replied, "Most like a boy." Asked his ideal of a boy, he replied, "Only a human boy who dislikes learning anything." I was a human boy myself once, about 70 years ago, and I hated learning anything except running about and making myself disagreeable to everyone. My experience of girls is that girls want to learn when a boy doesn't. A girl is nearly always anxious to learn, whilst a boy only wants to amuse himself.

A great M.P. gave an address about education a week or so ago, and said our system was all wrong, that facts were no use, and that thinking was what they wanted. I totally disagree with him. Facts are wanted, for it is from facts you get on to thinking. One examiner was much amused by the notion of a boy who said that what struck him most was the toughness of wood, the wetness of water, and the magnificent soapiness of soap. That boy was going to get on; he was thinking more about facts than anything else.

Another great school question is with regard to punishment, whether it is good to order a boy or girl to write out a certain number of lines or learn so many lines of poetry. A well known gentleman of the world, politically and otherwise, when at school was what they called "a devil of a chap to jaw." That was the expression of a fellow pupil. He was constantly in the playground jawing, and they sentenced him to run around the ground five times when he spoke for more than three minutes. That was supposed to cure him, but it did not. He speaks now more than anyone in the House of Commons.

A HYBRID COUNTY.

We in Monmouthshire are in a sort of hybrid county. A great many people think we are in Wales and a great many people think we are not. Cardiff is very jealous of us--jealous because we can get drunk on Sundays and they can't. I hope we shall continue to be a county of ourselves, and when this great Home Rule question, which is so much talked about, is settled we shall, no doubt, have a Parliament at Newport-on-Usk, or else at Monmouth-upon-Wye.

INTEREST IN EXPLORATION.

I wish to renew interest among the people of the neighbourhood in the exploration work at Caerwent. The reason, perhaps, why some of the interest has fallen off, is the illness and death of the late Vicar of Caerwent, who always took the greatest possible delight in explaining to visitors the history of the ancient city and the nature of the work of excavation.

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