FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE

CHAPTER I

BOYHOOD AND COLLEGE DAYS, 1824-1848

FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, the eldest of the four sons of Sir Francis Palgrave, K.H., Deputy Keeper of Her Majesty's Records, was born on September 28, 1824, at Great Yarmouth. His father is chiefly remembered as an historian and antiquarian. He was the intimate friend of Henry Hallam, while among those with whom he was well acquainted were such men as Southey, Samuel Rogers, Macaulay, and Sir Walter Scott. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Dawson Turner, a woman of remarkable culture and brilliancy of mind. Her influence from the beginning tended to foster the innate love of art that later on developed into that peculiar refinement of taste and of criticism which was so apparent in her son; while it was to her father's extensive library and collection of the finest engravings that he owed his childish appreciation of Italian works of art and the power of distinguishing the merits of the different schools of painting. Although he seems to have been a more than usually intelligent child, his mother frequently complained of his childishness

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and love of play; this was partly due, perhaps, to the high standard to which, as an exceptionally gifted and clever woman, she expected her children to attain at a very early age. Both parents were eminently pious people, and were accustomed constantly to bring forward matters of religion to bear upon the occupations and amusements of their children. To point a moral,' my father has said, was one of their first principles in the early training and education of their boys. Always imbued with strictly Church principles, they were much influenced by the Tractarian movement; while it is easy to trace the effect which the teaching of J. H. Newman exercised on their lives. With their eldest son this regard for Cardinal Newman ripened into a reverence and an enthusiastic admiration which continued and strengthened to the end. The boys were brought up to go to church on weekdays; and on Sundays, besides generally attending two services at Hampstead, they would often walk in the evening to Christ Church, Albany Street. It was Frank's amusement, as a child, to construe the sermon into blank verse whilst it was being delivered.

His mother's Journal thus describes him shortly before he was two years old:

Frank listens with much interest to accounts of anything he sees-mills, clocks, and wheels are his great favourites, and he perpetually asks us to draw these for him, requesting that the moon may shine on the mill,' and thus showing that he understands in some degree their several natures. He has continued to improve in appearance; he is fair, rosy, and fat, with yellow curling

hair and pretty, small features. His beauty has been much admired at Yarmouth, and his general good-temper and docility have made him a universal favourite. . People tell me he is a handsome child. I see that he is very agreeable-looking when his little face is not disfigured by those wilful passions which so early characterise the 'mal seme d'Adamo.' In outward appearance he is certainly favoured more than most children-may God bless his heart and mind!

Again, at three years old:

Frank does not make a rapid progress in his book at present-he seems unable to understand that the letters are the symbols of the sound: if pronounced to him, he spells them very fairly by ear, but not by eye. . . . His memory is excellent, and he knows many little poems by heart.

When four and a half, he

takes pleasure in learning a few Latin words, and considers it a reward to be allowed to commit two or three to memory after he has spelled and read, and he takes much pleasure in acquiring geographical information. He has read the first chapter of Genesis by himself, with great ease and interest. This day we first took our dear eldest child to worship God in His own house (St. Margaret's Church, Westminster): his entire attention and reverential silence proved that his mind was duly influenced.

At eight years old:

I think he is fairly advanced for his age, though he is fonder of play than of work, and seldom reads any but a story book for his own pleasure merely. In contributing to the schooling of poor children and such objects of charity, Frank at present shows a very liberal spirit. But he is disposed to argue and strive for his own will, often tyrannical and obstinate; poor child, human nature in him

is very strong! . . . His and Giffy's faults are mercifully so adapted that they seldom disagree, and both admire and wonder at the ability of the other, in a way which is often very droll.

At twelve, his

favourite reading for amusement is anything on the subject of architecture, in which he takes great pleasure, and which he will, if he has practice, soon draw very nicely; he delights in making temples and altars, &c. in clay, and then burning them in the fire; and he is quite childish, and, I hope and believe, innocently minded.

The greater part of his childhood was spent in their pretty old-fashioned house at Hampstead, varied by constant visits to Yarmouth, the home of their grandfather. He always hated London-quâ London-with a vehemence which never lessened, although he owned that were it to be all London or all country, it would have to be all London. He has described the feeling of dismay with which as a child he had observed a lamp post in a suburban lane, that it had hitherto delighted him to fancy was in the real country. So it was that until within the last few years of his life, he found it hard to realise that genuine unspoiled 'country' was to be reached within forty miles of London. His love of the country did not spring from any particular zeal for country pursuits; it was a love mainly arising from the poetical and artistic side of his mind. He was keenly alive to Nature's sounds, and delighted in reading Lucretius or Virgil within hearing of a trickling stream or the breaking of waves on the shore. His first journey to Italy, at the age of four

teen, with his parents and his brother Gifford, produced an impression never to be effaced, and on his return the chief joy of the brothers' playtime was painting in fresco fashion on the garden walls, and clay modelling in make-believe imitation of Florentine sculpture. His affection for Italy, her people, and above all her Art, became a passion, only intensified by each successive visit in later years.

His education at Charterhouse did not begin until he was fourteen. This he always regretted, maintaining that early going to school was the only remedy for priggishness-which weakness he admitted in himself-or for boyish cockyness' and lack of manners; but in spite of this he quickly fell into the ways of school life, entering with considerable zest into the Carthusian games, and making many friends. His intense interest in the best literature was already very marked in these school days, and it was one of his greatest delights to read Dante with his mother and the Greek plays with his father after the day's lessons were over. These readings, together with his amusements, were always shared with his brother Gifford, and one of their most popular games was acting scenes from Homer. This brother, so near in age, so clever and so brilliant, Frank always loved and admired with an almost touching reverence through the many changes of his very varied career. Soon after this began the intimacy with Baron Alderson's children, which was to prove indeed a lifelong friendship; perhaps among all Frank Palgrave's friends, Mr. Charles Alderson was more to him than any other. Another