Letters From Baghdad Read online

  To F. B.

  BERLIN, Feb. 5th, 1897.

  ... .The Court Ball on Wednesday was a fine show. We were asked for eight o'clock and at a quarter past we formed up for waiting. The ambassadresses sat on a line of chairs to the left of the throne in the Weiser Saal, and we stood meekly behind them. After about half an hour someone tapped tapped on the floor with a wand and in came a long procession of pages followed by the 'Kaiser Paar' and all the 'Furstliche Personen.' The whole room bobbed down in deep curtseys as they came in ... In to supper ... back to the ball room. The room was almost empty and the few people that were there were dancing the 'trois temps' — one is only allowed to dance the 'deux temps' when the Empress is there. It was a very delicious half-hour for the floor is peerless and all these officers dance so well. Then followed the gavotte which Florence danced very prettily.

  To H. B.

  BERLIN, Feb. 8th, 1897

  I wish you many many happy returns of your birthday and may your children become less and less tiresome with every succeeding year!... .

  The house is all upside down for the ball. Wherever one goes one finds lines and lines of waiters arranging tables. We can seat 340 people at supper. There are to be tables in all the ball rooms, the Chancery ante-room and even the big bedroom. We all intend to bring our partners up to the big bedroom which makes a delightful supper-room. Florence and I went into the kitchen this morning and inspected the food. I never saw so many eatables together... .

  To F.B.

  BERLIN, Feb. 10th, 1897.

  ... It was a great success and very splendid. Florence and I were of course (as it was in our own house) covered with bows and loaded with flowers. There were supper tables in all the drawing-rooms — it looked extremely nice... .

  I went to tea with Marie von Bunsen and stayed till past 7. She is most interesting... .

  To F.B.

  BERLIN, Feb. 12th, 1897.

  The Court Ball on Wednesday was much nicer than the first one... The Emperor wore a gorgeous Austrian uniform in honour of an Austrian Archduke who was there — the brother of the man who is heir to the throne. He will be Emperor himself someday as the heir is sickly and unmarried. The Emperor William is disappointing when one sees him close; he looks puffy and ill and I never saw anyone so jumpy. He is never still a second while he is talking... .

  Uncle Frank is in a great jig about Crete. He thinks there is going to be red war and an intervention of the Powers and all sorts of fine things. I wonder.

  To F.B.

  BERLIN, Feb. 14th, 1897.

  ... Florence and I spent the most heavenly morning at the 'Haupt Probe'. . . Since then we have been bicycling round the house for exercise as it is raining and we could not go out... .

  On Friday Mr. Acton, Mr. Spring Rice and Lord Granville dined with us. After dinner we played hide and seek till we were so hot we could play no longer and finished up the evening with pool and baccarat ... I went to the National Gallery to see the modern pictures ... .I had been reading about modern German painters and knew what I wanted to look at... Should like to go out but I mayn't go by myself. So I suppose I can't!

  To F.B.

  BERLIN, Feb. 17th, 1897.

  [The play referred to in this letter is the second part of Henry IV.]

  We had a most exciting evening at the play yesterday. We were all sent for in the entr'acte. We had a very agreeable tea with the Emperor and Empress and her sister... It was like an act out of another historical drama — but a modern one. A sheaf of telegrams were handed to the Emperor as we sat at tea. He and Uncle fell into an excited conversation in low voices; we talked on to the Empress trying to pretend we heard nothing but catching scraps of the Emperor's remarks, " Crete ... Bulgaria ... Serbia ... mobilizing," and so forth. The Empress kept looking up at him anxiously; she is terribly perturbed about it all and no wonder for he is persuaded that we are all on the brink of war... .

  CHAPTER IV

  1897-1899 - ROUND THE WORLD, DAUPHINIE, ETC.

  [Gertrude came back to England at the beginning of March. My sister Mary Lascelles died on April 3rd, after three days' illness. Her death made a terrible gap in Gertrude's life.]

  To F.B.

  REDCAR, April 7th, 1897.

  I have been to Clarence to-day-it was no use sitting and moping so I thought I had better make myself useful if I could... .

  [In August of that year we all went to the Dauphiné, staying at La Grave under the shadow of the Meije, objective of all Dauphin climbers, This holiday makes an epoch, as it was the beginning of Gertrude's climbing experiences, although this year she did nothing very adventurous.

  She went over the Brèche with two guides, slept at the refuge, came down over the Col des Cavales and proudly strode back into the village next morning between her guides, well pleased with herself.

  She was at home with us all the rest of the year.

  On the 29th December 1897 Gertrude and her brother Maurice left home for Southampton, to embark on a voyage round the world.

  Gertrude kept a diary letter on the voyage. She posts from Jamaica, Guatemala, San Francisco — wherever she had an opportunity. It is not worth while reproducing all that she and Maurice saw on this well-known route, which has so often been described. They enjoyed it all, taking part in the unpretentious diversions of a voyage. They asked the Captain's permission to mark out a golf course on board, which had a great success.]

  "There are a lot of children on board, with whom I have made friends," she writes.

  "Eight of us are playing a piquet tournament: I am first-favourite at present."

  (Then there was a ball on board.)

  "We took a great deal of trouble to make it go, Maurice was the life and soul of it."

  [Then we are told of]

  "a partial eclipse of the moon, seated in the stalls, so to speak, our deck chairs. It was most luxuriously arranged by nature."

  "I won the piquet tournament to the great joy of the other members of the party."

  [She and Maurice returned to London in June.

  In September, after a delightful two months in the West of Scotland — we had taken the Manse at Spean Bridge for the summer — Gertrude is at Redcar again, enchanted to return to her books.]

  To F.B.

  REDCAR, September 2nd, 1898.

  ... .Hugo has been playing golf and we are now going to have a game of racquets before settling down to our work. Oh, how I wish I were going to have a month of this. The bliss of being really at work is past words.

  Herbert Pease stands for Darlington, I see in the evening papers ... .

  To H. B.

  Saturday 22nd September, 1898.

  . . .I'm going to Rounton on Sunday ... having finished a great batch of Arabic and Persian for Mr. Ross. [Now Sir Denison Ross.

  To F.B.

  REDCAR, Autumn 1898.

  I have been at the Infirmary all the afternoon. I've got another engagement — to lecture at the High School. I've been arranging about my lantern slides... .

  By the way, confided to Lisa that she felt quite anxious about Elsa because she thought we were all so beautiful and so clever that we couldn't all go on living. Elsa won't mind being the 'offer' to the jealous gods, I hope!

  To F.B.

  LONDON 1898.

  ... That angel of a Mr. Vaughan Williams has found me a real Persian-at least he is an Afghan and his name is Satdar and he speaks beautiful Persian. I have written to him to-day. Isn't it interesting... .

  [Gertrude begins the year 1899 at Redcar, she and Hugo are left together for a few days at Red Barns.]

  To F.B.

  REDCAR, January 6th, 1899.

  ... Hugo and I have made an excellent 'ménage' — we get on admirably and I have come to know him much better, chiefly because he has told me all his views as to his future. They are rather a blow to me, I admit. He is one of the most lovable and livable with people I have ever come across.

  To her sister Elsa.

  LONDON, Ja
n. 1899.

  ... I thought the braid a little too braidy. A modification of it would be lovely. I should have no braid on the coat just the seams strapped. 'Tis very smart so. I went to Prince's this morning and skated ... with Flora and a lot of people... Next time I'm in London I shall have a few lessons there. It's silly not to be able to skate well when everybody does.

  My new clothes are very dreamy. You will scream with delight when you see me in them!

  To F. B.

  LONDON, Jan. 1899.

  I have sent off the purple dress and a grey one which is nine guineas and very nice indeed. It has a dark coat and everything suitable to Elsa. My only doubt is whether the black trimming is not too black. There is another most elegant elephant grey costume strapped with grey, but the coat is quite tight fitting so that it might not be so becoming to Elsa... .

  To F.B.

  LONDON, Thursday, Mar. 17th, 1899.

  . . . I write from a sofa. This morning at Prince's I fell violently on my knees and when I shortly after took my skates off, I found I couldn't walk... Maclagan, however, says I must lie up for a few days. Isn't it boring? I'm writing to all the amusing people to come and see me, having dressed the part well in a Japanese tea gown... .

  I shall beguile the time with my pundits while I'm invalided. I've told them all to come.

  It is so provoking because I was getting to skate really well.

  [In the spring of the year 1899 Gertrude went abroad again to Northern Italy, by herself, then to Greece, with her father and her uncle Thomas Marshall, a classical Scholar and translator of Aristotle, deeply interested at going to Greece for the fifth time. A most successful tour altogether. In Athens they find Dr. Hogarth and go the Museum, " where Mr. Hogarth showed us his recent finds-pots of 4000 B.C. from Melos. Doesn't that Make one's brain reel?" Another distinguished archaeologist, Professor Dôrpfeld is there also. They listen with breathless interest to his lecture on the Acropolis: "he took us from stone to stone and built up a Wonderful chain of evidence with extraordinary ingenuity until we saw the Athens of 600 B.c. I never saw anything better done."

  She also writes from Athens Papa has bought him a grey felt hat, in which he looks a dream of beauty and some yellow leather gaiters to ride in the Peloponnesus. He will look smart, bless him ... . .

  Then to Constantinople, and back again to England in May.

  In August she started with Hugo for Bayreuth, joining on the way Sir Frank Lascelles and his daughter Florence, and Mr. Chirol (now Sir Valentine Chirol). They go to Nuremberg and Rothenburg on the way, enjoying themselves ecstatically everywhere. She writes]

  " this is really too charming. You never met a more delightful travelling party. Florence is in the seventh heaven all the time. His Ex. a perfect angel, Mr. Chirol, and in fact all of us, endlessly cheerful and delighted with everything."

  [They hear Parsifal and The Ring at Bayreuth. Gertrude, "tief gerührt", as she tells us, sends home long, vivid descriptions of the performances. These letters on a subject now almost hackneyed are too long to insert here. She was not, and did not pretend to be, an expert on music) but she cared for it very much.

  Hugo, who was an admirable musician, was conservative in his tastes and was at first prepared to be on the defensive with regard to Wagner.

  Gertrude also records some personal social experiences.]

  To F.B.

  BAYREUTH.

  Frau Cosima has asked us all to a party on Friday evening. Great Larks! ... The restaurant was crowded when the door opened and in came the whole Wagner family in procession, Frau Cosima first on Siegfried's arm. There was a great clapping as she passed down the room to her table.

  To F.B.

  BAYREUTH, Wed. Aug. 16th, 1899.

  This morning about half past 8 came a message from the Grand Duke [of Hesse] asking us whether we could be at the theatre at 9 as he would show us the stage. We bustled up and arrived only a few minutes late. It was most entertaining; we were taken into every corner, above and below. We descended through trap doors and mounted into Valhalla. We saw all the properties, and all the mechanism of the Rhine maidens; we explored the dressing rooms, sat in the orchestra and rang the Parsifal bells! The Grand Duke was extremely cheerful and agreeable — he's quite young — and of course everyone was hats off and anxious to show us all we wanted to see. It's a very extraordinary place, the stage; the third scene of Siegfried was set. We shall feel quite at home when we see it to-night. Hugo is delighted with it all. He was much impressed by the Walküre though he says it will take a great deal to make him a Wagnerian.

  [After Bayreuth the party breaks up, all of them except Gertrude returning to England.]

  I'm awfully sorry to have parted with Hugo. He really is one of the most delightful people in the world. The Harrachs, you will be glad to hear, thought him very beautiful . . . when I told you that they were people of discernment!

  [After this Gertrude went back through Switzerland to the Dauphiné and fulfilled her year-old purpose of ascending the Meije.)

  To H.B.

  LA GRAVE, Monday, 28th August, 1899 .

  I sent you a telegram this morning [" Meije traversée") for, I thought you would gather from my last that I meant to have a shot at the Meije and would be glad to hear that I had descended in the approved, and in no other manner. Well, I'll tell you — it's awful! I think if I had known exactly what was before me I should not have faced it, but fortunately did not, and I look back on it with unmixed satisfaction — and forward to other things with no further apprehension... .

  We left here on Friday at 2:30, Mathon, Marius and I, and walked up to the Refuge de l'Alpe in two hours. Two German men turned up at the Refuge... Madame Castillan gave us a very good supper and I went at once to bed. I got off at 4:30 and got to the top of the clot at 8:10. In the afternoon, there arrived a young Englishman called Turner with Rodier as guide and a porter. I went out to watch the beautiful red light fading from the snows and rocks. The Meije looked dreadfully forbidding in the dusk. When I came in I found that Mathon had put my rug in a corner of the shelf which was the bed of us all and what with the straw and my cloak for a pillow I made myself very comfortable. We were packed as tight as herrings, Mr. Turner next to me, then the two Germans and Rodier. Mathon and the porters lay on the ground beneath us. Our night lasted from 8 till 12, but I didn't sleep at all. Marius lighted a match and looked at his watch. It was ten o'clock. " Ah, c'est encore trop matin," said Rodier. It seemed an odd view of 10 p.m. We all got up soon after 12 and I went down to the river and washed a little. It was a perfect night, clear stars and the moon not yet over the hills... We left half an hour later, 1 a.m., just as the moon shone into the valley. Mathon carried a lantern till we got on to the snow when it was light enough with only the moon... .

  At 1:30 we reached the glacier and all put on our ropes... It wasn't really cold, though there was an icy little breath of wind down from the Brèche. This was the first time I had put on the rope ... we went over the glacier for another hour ... we got into the Promontoir, a long crest of rock and rested there ten minutes ... we left there at 2:40... We had about three hours up very nice rock, a long chimney first and then most pleasant climbing. Then we rested again for a few minutes... I had been in high feather for it was so easy, but ere long my hopes were dashed! We had about two hours and a half of awfully difficult rock, very solid fortunately, but perfectly fearful. There were two places which Mathon and Marius literally pulled me up like a parcel. I didn't a bit mind where it was steep up, but round corners where the rope couldn't help me! ... And it was absolutely sheer down. The first half-hour I gave myself up for lost. it didn't seem possible that I could get up all that wall without ever making a slip. You see, I had practically never been on a rock before. However, I didn't let on and presently it began to seem quite natural to be hanging by my eyelids over an abyss... just before reaching the top we passed over the Pas du Chat, the difficulty of which is much exaggerated... It was not till I was over it tha
t Mathon told me that it was the dreaded place. We were now at the foot of the Pyramide Duhamel and we went on till we came in sight of the Glacier Catré, where we sat down on a cornice, 7:45... The Germans got up a quarter of an hour later having climbed up the rock a different way... At 8:45 we got to the top between the Pic du Glacier carré and the Grand Pic de la Meije and saw over the other side for the first time. We left at 9 and reached the summit at 10:10, the rock being quite easy except one place called the Cheval Rouge. It is a red flat stone, almost perpendicular, some 15 feet high, up which you swarm as best you may with your feet against the Meije, and you sit astride, facing the Meije, on a very pointed crest. I sat there while Marius and Mathon went on and then followed them up an overhanging rock of 20 feet or more. The rope came in most handy — ! We stayed on the summit until 11. It was gorgeous, quite cloudless... I went to sleep for half-an-hour. It's a very long way up but it's a longer way down-unless you take the way Mathon's axe took. The cord by which it was tied to his wrist broke on the Cheval Rouge and it disappeared into space. There's a baddish place going down the Grand Pic. The guides fastened a double rope to an iron bolt and let Mr. Turner and me down on to a tiny ledge on which we sat and surveyed the Aiguille d'Arve with La Grave in the foreground. Then was a very nasty bit without the double rope-how anyone gets down those places I can't imagine. However, they do. Then we crossed the Brèche and found ourselves at the foot of the first dent. Here comes the worst place on the whole Meije. I sat on the Brèche and looked down on to the Châtelleret on one side and La Grave on the other... Then Mathon vanished, carrying a very long rope, and I waited... Presently I felt a little tug on the rope. " Allez, Mademoiselle," Said Marius from behind and off I went. There were two little humps to hold on to on an overhanging rock and there La Grave beneath and there was me in mid-air and Mathon round the corner holding the rope tight, but the rope was sideways of course-that's my general impression of those ten minutes. Added to which I thought at the time how very well I was climbing and how odd it was that I should not be afraid. The worst was over then, and the most tedious part was all to come. It took us three hours to get from the Grand Pic to the Pic Central-up and down over endless dents. We followed the crest all the way, quite precipitous rock below us on the Châtelleret side and a steep slope on the other. There was no difficulty, but there was also no moment when you had not to pay the strictest attention... I felt rather done when we got to the Pic Central... There was an hour of ice and rock till at last we found ourselves on the Glacier du Tabuchet and with thankfulness I put on my skirt again. It was then 3 and we got in at 6:30. The glacier was at first good then much crevassed. We skirted for nearly an hour the arête leading up to the Pic de Momme and it was 5:30 before we unroped... When I got in I found everyone in the Hotel on the doorstep waiting for me and M. Juge let off crackers, to my great surprise... .