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BY PRINCIPAL GRANT,
KINGSTON, ONT.
Lord and Lady Aberdeen
keep open house at Haddo for Canadians, as if they, still represented
the Queen to them; and the fact that their hospitality, cannot now be
considered in any sense official, but wholly, personal, makes it all the
more grateful to the recipients. As Lord-Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, he
is the representative of the Queen in his native County, and is
therefore constantly called upon to act in an official capacity; but it
is in the personal relations which exist between the head of an ancient
house and his tenants that the grace of his character is best seen. His
personal influence was felt even in Canada, where the size of the
country makes it all but impossible for any Governor-General to impress
himself permanently on us. We can therefore form some idea of the ties
between him and families who have looked up to him or his ancestors, as
far back as they can remember, and to whom the House is the centre of
society. Haddo has
little claims to architectural beauty. The nucleus is a massive square,
which is impressive from the entire absence of anything pretentious.
This has been flanked on each side by so many successive erections that
it is now a pretty long walk to go from the exquisite chapel at one end
to the great hall at the other, which forms the last addition made to
the building. The grounds, with the fine trees which are to be seen on
almost every ancient place in the old country, are spacious and well
kept; but the great attraction is the house itself with treasures of
painting and sculpture, the Library and galleries filled at different
times but more particularly by the Earl who was Prime Minister some
fifty years ago and by the present Earl. In the most conspicuous places
are the memorials of his Excellency's life in Canada, and the beautiful
present made to Her Excellency, I think, by the Senate and the House of
Commons. Although
on a visit to Scotland for the purpose of recruiting, and declining
therefore invitations which I would fain have accepted, I made an
exception in favor of Haddo. Indeed, an invitation from those who had so
long and so worthily, represented the Queen in Canada still seemed to me
a command. I was abundantly, rewarded; for in addition to the Highland
hospitality which was a matter of course, I met the Gordon Highlanders,
recently home from Dargai and already whispering to each other that they
would be sent to face the Boers as soon as they got hack to the castle
of Edinburgh. I
shall not soon forget my first sight of the Gordons, as they, swung down
the avenue and past Haddo House to the field where they were to camp. It
was in the afternoon, about 5 o'clock. They had been on the march since
10 o'clock in the forenoon, under a cold, pitilessly-pelting rain, which
had kept every one of us indoors. Not for a moment did the rain cease to
fall or the wind to drive it home to the marrow. The men had been soaked
for hours. From plumes to boots they were drenched, and every kilt must
have held gallons of rain. But they marched past with lithe and regular
steps, as if they had just come out of a band-box, cheering
spontaneously and lustily, every man looking fit as a fiddle, and the
whole presenting an appearance of ordered strength which one felt would
have dared anything that man could do. I saw them an hour or two after
in a big marquee, seated at dinner, with their kilts exchanged for dry
trews, and they polished off that dinner in a way to satisfy the most
exacting cook. The same evening and the next forty-two sat down to
dinner in the House, but there was no more apparent strain than usual on
the domestic service. Lady Aberdeen has been accused of spoiling
servants, and let that be my excuse for saying that I have never been in
contact with so well managed a household.
Well, in the evening there was a dance in
the big hall for the officers, and for friends from the neighborhood
representing the volunteers, and others from different parts of the
county; and a bonny, sight it was to see the scarfs and the sashes and
tartans flashing in and out between the sober dress coats and outshining
in attractiveness even the ladies' dresses. The heavy day's march had
not wearied any one's legs; that was quite evident. But, as it was
Saturday, the dancing ceased before midnight, though bonfires, at which
the men dried their clothes as best they could, continued to burn all
through the night.
On Sunday forenoon the rain still poured steadily down. It was
impossible to go to the Parish Church, so service was held in the
beautiful chapel which the present Lord built soon after his marriage, a
copy of which on a small scale he built of wood, in connection with
Rideau Hall and presented to Canada for the use of his successors in
office. At noon, the rain ceased and the the sun came out, to the joy of
every one, for it had been announced that a special service for the
soldiers would be held at 4 p.m., to which the volunteers of the
neighboring parishes and the people generally, had been invited.
I shall long remember that afternoon, and
shall not forget even the sermon, though ministers are said from sheer
forgetfulness—so to forget what they have preached that they repeat
themselves over and over again. The Chaplain took the devotional part of
the service, the band of the regiment led the singing, Lord Aberdeen
read the lessons, and I preached. The good Chaplain had previously
impressed upon me that the men couldn't stand long sermons. ''Whatever
you do, be brief," he urged with a tone that had so much entreaty in it
that I asked why he was so anxious, and whether he was ignorant that I
was a Chaplain before he was born and was still Chaplain to the 47th
Battalion of the Canadian Army. "Oh," he replied naively, ''the men have
heard that you are very eloquent and consequently they are afraid that
you'll preach for more than an hour." He added with a ring of modest
self-satisfaction in his voice, ''I give them fifteen minutes, or at the
most," and he paused to make sure of being strictly accurate, ''perhaps
seventeen." I gave him no assurance of being merciful, except what he
might gather from one of my reminiscences, that I had often preached to
the Seaforths for nearly an hour and no one had complained. How long my
sermon to the Gordons was I shall not say, but I must tell what a fine
gentleman Colonel Downman is. He gently rebuked me for having cut it
short! He did, and I rewarded him when saying good-bye at Edinburgh
Castle, by an assurance that I would cross the Atlantic to preach to the
Gordons again, when they returned from South Africa. How many of the
fine fellows to whom I spoke at Haddo shall I meet again, when I go back
to fulfil my promise? Who knows? None but God. But this we all know that
the honour of their Queen and the Empire is safe in their hands, and
that whether a man sleeps his last sleep under the shadow of a Kopje or
the shadow of Benachie matters nothing in comparison with that.
"How many of the men stayed away from the
service on account of yesterday's drenching?" I enquired of the
Sergeant-Major. He looked surprised, ''Not one, sir. Pfuh," he added
with the faintest touch of scorn at my ignorance, "that was nothing for
the Gordon Highlanders."
Since the above was written word has come
that Colonel Downman, fell at Modder River, face to his foes. and near
their trenches. Honour to the brave, all the more when, as in his case,
the brave are sweet-natured and gentle? He and his gallant brigadier,
General Wauchope, sleep side by side far away from Edinburgh Castle, and
many kindly Scots have sore hearts this Christmas. G.M.G. |
