John Patrick, Third Marquess of Bute, K.T. (1847-1900) Part 21

I had a conversation with Lord Salisbury on Sat.u.r.day, and consequently made my maiden speech in the House of Lords to-day. There were only two {200} or three Peers present, but I was so nervous that I don't know what I said. However, Lord Windsor told me that I had been perfectly smooth and lucid, so I suppose I repeated mechanically the few sentences I had prepared.

A sequel, and to himself a very interesting one, to Bute's new and intimate connection with St. Andrews was his acquisition of the site of the ancient priory of canons-regular adjoining the ruined cathedral.

Part of this was occupied by a modern villa, around and under which Bute carried out a series of exploratory excavations which must have been somewhat disconcerting to the occupants of the house. The discoveries consequent on these digging operations (_Scotice_ "howkings"), including that of a hitherto unknown vaulted chamber beneath the old refectory, were a very welcome diversion from the hara.s.sing duties of the Lord Rectors.h.i.+p. Bute always undertook and pursued such researches with the acutest zest and interest. "I think,"

a friend wrote of him with kindly humour, "some of the happiest hours of his life were spent standing by, wrapped in his long cloak and smoking innumerable cigarettes, while a band of workmen, directed by one of his many architects, dug out the foundations of a mediaeval lady-chapel, or broke through a nineteenth-century wall in search of a thirteenth-century doorway."

How seriously Bute took his unremitting efforts "to save St. Andrews,"

as his own expression was, is shown in a characteristic pa.s.sage of one of his letters describing a recent discovery among the priory remains:

A head of Christ in stone, seemingly life-size, has just been found under the earth at the Priory. {201} I would I could take this as an intimation of His favour towards the [Greek: _temenos_] of His [Greek: _protokletos_].[3] I have written for much prayer at the grave of the Apostle, primarily thanksgiving for the graces bestowed upon him in time and eternity.

Bute had of course visited more than once the tomb of St. Andrew at Amain, of which he speaks in the striking peroration, already quoted, of his Rectorial address. At his request the Archbishop of Amalfi sent him a large number of photographs, including some of the tomb, and one, specially taken, of the skull of the Apostle, which Bute, who attached much importance to craniological evidence, greatly valued.

[Sidenote: 1894, Winter sports in Scotland]

The winter of 1894-1895 was an unusually severe one, even in the mild and sheltered Isle of Bute; and Bute, always complacent towards the frolics of the younger generation, speaks of curling, sleighing, and tobogganing as the order of the day, and of the "extraordinary descent of a snow-covered slope by Mr. S---- (a distinguished architect at that time a guest at Dumfries House) upon, or rather with, a tea-tray." He writes further, in this connection, of his schoolboy sons:

J---- and N---- seem both devoted to curling; and this fact, and the way in which it a.s.sociates them with the people, delights me.[4]

{202}

The latter reference is interesting, and even pathetic, recalling as it does the pleasure Bute himself had always taken from his boyhood, notwithstanding his natural shyness, in a.s.sociating on kindly terms, whether at weddings or less formal social gatherings, whenever opportunity offered, with his humbler neighbours in Butes.h.i.+re and elsewhere. It was this characteristic, combined with his singular courtesy and unpretentiousness of manner, which won the affection as well as the respect of the reserved and undemonstrative people among whom, for the most part, his life was spent.[5]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _The Marquess of Bute, Lord Rector of St. Andrews University, 1892-1897_]

A letter written in March, 1895, just after the death of Professor Blackie, gives a thumbnail sketch of that eccentric scholar, who was as unconventional in dress as in everything else:

The last time I met him (by invitation) he was dressed in a long velvet gown bound with a bright cherry-coloured sash, and a big _sombrero_ hat. There was a middle-aged lady present, to whom he introduced me, and whom he insisted on my _kissing_. I think we kissed to please him.

His accent (p.r.o.nunciation) was so vile in Greek, and I believe in Gaelic, as almost to argue a physical defect of ear.

In this same spring Bute visited Sanquhar, where {203} he had lately bought back the ancient Crichton Peel tower, which the first Earl of Dumfries had sold to the Buccleuch family in 1639. "The Duke," he notes, "had allowed the tower to fall almost completely down. I bought some mugs here--'Presents from Sanquhar'--for the children, and found on investigation that they were made in Germany!"

An interesting little bit of Fife folk-lore is noted on April 6:

I found the children of Falkland rolling Easter eggs downhill, calling the day "Pace (Pasch) Sat.u.r.day." It was a week too soon, according to the Kalendar; but one little girl said that Pace Sat.u.r.day was always the first Sat.u.r.day in April.

[Sidenote: 1895, Lord Acton]

Bute received this summer a letter, which pleased him much, from the eminent historian Lord Acton, a recently "capped" doctor of St. Andrews University, to whom Bute had presented a hood made in the mediaeval fas.h.i.+on.[6]

The Athenaeum, _July_ 5, 1895.

DEAR LORD BUTE,

I have just received the historic and venerable hood you are so very kind as to bestow on me. It has a very real value to me as coming from you, personally as well as from your sovereign position in the university to which I am proud to belong; and I beg to thank you for it as heartily and sincerely as it is possible to acknowledge an act of friends.h.i.+p.

If I was not one of your own recommendation,[7] {204} I shall deem henceforward that you have adopted me, just as if you had named me for the distinguished honour I have received.

Believe me, most sincerely and gratefully yours,

ACTON.

Towards the close of his three years' Rectors.h.i.+p, Bute showed his interest in the city, as well as the university, of St. Andrews, by presenting to it a handsome chain of office for the use of the provosts. A member of the council, who had himself pa.s.sed the civic chair, wrote thus to him in reference to this gift:

_February_ 3, 1893.

I need not say what our appreciation is of your most handsome act. In an informal conversation held yesterday by the Provost, Dr. Anderson and myself, it was agreed that while it was in the power of any wealthy man to perform the mere act, yet there was only one n.o.bleman in the three kingdoms who could perform it in the delicate and gracious way in which it will now come before the Town Council.

In the early autumn of 1895 Bute was able, in the course of a cruise in his yacht _Christine_, to revisit the Orkneys, and to set foot again in Kirkwall, Egilsay, and other spots sacred in his eyes to the memory of St. Magnus, as he had done when a youth of twenty, nearly thirty years previously. "These islands," he notes, "are far more picturesque than I remember them before, and I am much struck by the number, industry, and wealth of their inhabitants."

[Sidenote: 1895, Bute opposed by Lord Peel]

A cause of special satisfaction to Bute, and that for more than one reason, was his re-election, at the end {205} of November, 1895, to the Lord Rectors.h.i.+p of St. Andrews University. Viscount Peel had been nominated for the office by the party opposed to Bute's policy, and the Master of Balliol had sent to the students a printed testimonial to Lord Peel's qualifications, and an urgent appeal to them to support his candidature. "This," wrote a member of the professorial staff to Bute, "is quite a new departure in Rectorial elections, and its legality is, I should say, as questionable as its taste." He adds in the same letter:

We had a very large and influential meeting [in London] last evening of the St. Andrews Graduates' a.s.sociation. The President, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, made a very strong speech in your favour. It was followed by what was virtually an ovation, so enthusiastic was the whole a.s.semblage.

A letter to the press, shortly before the election, stated that the writer could not understand how any man of honour and intelligence, _knowing all the facts_, could possibly stand in opposition to Bute.

His comment on this letter was as follows:

I cannot for a single moment believe that Lord Peel knows the facts, or that he in the least realises the fearfully burdensome nature of the duties. His only alternative, if elected, would be either to take that yoke upon him, or to neglect the duty of doing so. The writers of some things that have appeared in the papers seem to be under the impression that the Lord Rector's sole duty is to deliver a literary address!

I enclose a letter received a few months ago: you may show it to any one you please. It may be good for some people at this juncture to know what the great Presbyterian Duke thinks.

{206}

The last sentence, of course, refers to the Duke of Argyll, Chancellor of St. Andrews University since 1851, whose eminent abilities and distinguished personal character placed him at that time in the very forefront of the Scottish n.o.bility. The Duke had written:

Inveraray, _March_ 7, 1895.

I wish I could accept your invitation, but in my present state of health, barely recovered from a sharp attack of this insidious epidemic, it is impossible. You have always made Falkland very pleasant to me, and I enjoy seeing the great public spirit with which you discharge all your duties. I hope I need not a.s.sure you of the indignation with which I have seen the attempt to arouse a sectarian spirit against you,[8] whose whole course of conduct has been so signally liberal, in the best sense of that much-abused word.