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 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,

and called attention to some required modification in the new Poor-Law Bill.  Lord Melbourne referred him to his brother George.  “I have been with him,” was the reply, “but he damned me, and damned the Bill, and damned the paupers.”  “Well, damn it, what more could he do?” was the rejoinder.  And in East Anglia there was a good deal of swearing among the gentry.  I can remember an ancient peer who had been brought up in the Navy, who resided in the Eastern Counties, and who somehow or other had been prevailed upon to attend as chairman at a meeting of the local Bible Society.  I have forgotten the greater part of the noble Lord’s speech, but I well remember how his Lordship not a little shocked some of his hearers by finishing up with the remark—that the Bible Society was a damned good Society, and ought to be damned well supported.  Another noble Lord, of Norfolk, had some fair daughters, who distinguished