Mrs. J. tell their story : —

British Legation, Belgrade,
%th April 1903.

" It's an awful place. The two girls have just taken us
for a walk to see the fortress, and the view, which is
wonderful, as the building, or what is left of it, stands on
a promontory at the junction of the Save and the Danube.
Unfortunately the day is dull, with an east wind ; in fact
just such a day as one would have if one went to Ely, and
the view not unlike that from the Cathedral tower, except
that the Danube is a trifie wider than the Cam ! All this
is interesting enough ; but the town, as I said, is awful.
It reminds me rather of those unfinished towns in Algeria,
about which the French guide-book was so eloquent. The
streets are wide, but paved with huge stones laid anyhow,
so that you jolt to and fro when you drive ; and you can
pick your way when you walk, as if you were crossing a
stream on stepping-stones. The houses are generally in
two floors only, but in the streets that are called principal
they are loftier. All, however, have a woebegone, starved
look, as though they had once been better oft'. I don't
suppose the place ever was different to what it is, but it
looks as if it had gone to seed.

" The house is very nice indeed — the drawing-room
quite charming. The Bolognese furniture is all a great
success ; especially one wonderful settee, with quite a high
back returned along the ends, and gilt. It is a marvel,
and impressed me so much that I dreamt about it !

M



lyS y, as ^E^gistrary

" By the way, if I had arrived a day sooner, I should
have come in for an emeute. Yesterday, being Sunday,
and therefore a holiday, some students got up a riot
ao-ainst an unpopular journalist, and broke windows
and burnt copies of the offending paper, etc. Part of it
was just opposite the windows of this house, so the wreck-
ing of the office could be easily witnessed. Then the
troops were called out, and they fired, and killed a few
people, and then it began to rain (fortunately), and so
everybody went home. The spring here is very back-
ward ; but while the trees are not showing leaf, the lilacs
are in flower. There's an untidy spot called a public
garden, but destitute of flowers — no spring bulbs — no
primroses — nothing but a few flowering shrubs."

Constantinople,
Wednesday Morning, Hth April 1903.

" The scenery from Belgrade to Constantinople was very
interesting, in so far as it gave one some slight idea of
an important fragment of the earth's surface — to wit,
Bulgaria. It is very like some parts of England, with
ample pasture grounds and a few cornfields; and every-
where the said pastures seem to be well stocked with
sheep, tended by a pair of huge dogs and a shepherd clad
in skins, with the hair turned in and the leather turned out.

" Last night I went to bed very early in order to ensure
being up when we got in sight of Constantinople. First
the railway reached the sea, which, after the manner of
the sunny South whenever I visit it, looked cold and grey.
The coast is there very low, and no trees. Plenty of
wading birds — tall storks and ducks. Then came a
quantity of miserable, tumble-down Turkish villas; and,
at last, these were succeeded by the old walls, wonderfully
well preserved, seeing all that they have had to endure.
Then came more green fields and large gardens, just as
there used to be within the walls of Rome, and still are,
as you may remember, between the Aventine and the
Lateran."

Constantinople,

IQth April V.)m.

"... This wonderful place grows on one every hour.
I have never seen anything like it. No description gives



Constanthiople 179



the slightest idea of it, and I think that most of what has
been written fails of the mark, or deals with the time
before European influence was what it is now. . . . The
streets are my chief delight. Such a crowd, and composed
of such strange elements. The almost total absence of
ladies or women of the lower orders even ; everybody m
a fez or a turban or some unusual head-gear ; the curious
objects of traffic — carts drawn by buffaloes, heavily laden
mules, men with enormous burdens on their heads, and
all talking and shouting at once — make an ensemble of
the strangest description.

"Of course I have been to see Santa Sophia. I went
in with a thrill, and the first impression does not wear
off. It is a singularly solemn and dignified building,
which looks much larger than it is. The central square
is only 207 ft. square, about two-thirds of the length of
King's Chapel. The Turks have not damaged it at all,
and a very few hours would suffice to restore it to
Christian worship. . . . The real mischief was done by the
Crusaders in 1203. I did not know this before, and I
strongly suspect that Byron ^ confused the Turkish Con-
quest of 1453 with the Venetian piracy of 1203, when that
old thief Dandolo took the city and sacked the churches !

" We are going to-day to see the Sultan go to his
mosque ! Hal thinks this a suitable occupation for Good
Friday — I think it doubtful. However, the exception
may be allowed."

" The ceremony of the Selamlik is very splendid and
curious. We visitors took our places at about 11.30 on a
terrace overlooking the road down which the Sultan drives
to the Mosque, which was directly opposite to where we
stood. . . . Gradually squadron after squadron of the
Turkish army marched up — splendid-looking men, in
smart, clean uniforms — until about 15,000 had been got
together, lining the road and blocking every avenue
leading up to the palace and mosque. (Hal was much
edified with their bearing, and thought they would take
a good deal of beating, as I am afraid they will.)
Punctually at twelve the muezzin mounted the minaret

^ " Oh for one hour of blind old Dandolo !

Th' octogenarian chief, Byzantium's conquering foe."

— Childe Harold, Canto iv. Stanza 12.



i8o y- ^^ T{egistrary



of the mosque and called the faithful to their prayers,
and immediately afterwards the Sultan appeared in an
open carriage drawn by two horses. We saw him very
well as he came slowly down the hill — a pale, careworn-
looking creature in uniform, with a fez, not a turban.
. . . The service took about half an hour; and on leavinor
the mosque he entered another and smaller carriage, which
he drove himself, the servants preceding on foot, and the
court running after. . . .

" As a sample of the feeling with which the Sultan is
regarded by the better class of his unfortunate subjects,
here is what a Turk, high in office, said to H. B. :
" D'habitude je ne bois pas, mais le jour que ce coquin
ci'evera, je me griserai comme un polonais. . . .*"

Constantinople, 12th April 1903.

" Yesterday we went with H. B. to Stamboul, to hunt
for a curious old Byzantine Church called the Saviour
Pantocrator ( = All-powerful), near which is an octagonal
building said to have been once the library attached to
the Church. I am sure I don"'t know whether it was,
but it is a curious place. Then we went to the great
Mosque of Sultan Mahmoud — the Conqueror — the man
who took Constantinople in 1453, a magnificent building,
a good deal larger than Santa Sophia, with a very com-
plex and effective system of lighting. Hundreds of small
lamps, in shape like one of my big claret-glasses, are sus-
pended from rods, at a height of not more than 10 or
12 feet from the ground. The eff*ect must be very mar-
vellous when they are lighted — the floor a blaze of light,
and the upper part of the church all gloom. But what
is most curious of all is the great fore-court with a cloister
all round, and a fountain in the centre, with a cypress
at each angle, for all the world like Santa Maria degli
Angeli at Rome ; and behind it is a second court, without
a cloister, but arranged as a garden, with tombs. In the
centre is a special building called a Turbeh, in which
Sultan Mahmoud reposes in a huge sarcophagus, with
a gigantic taper at each angle, just like a bier in a
Roman Catholic church. I wonder which relimon bor-
rowed from the other. I am rather excited about the
fore-court, for as Santa Sophia had one (which served as



Athens 1 8 1

a model for all the others), and as it was built in a.d. 532
by Justinian, it seems to me very probable that our
builders took the idea of a cloister from the East, as they
did the pointed arch, and other matters.

" \?iih April. — Yesterday afternoon Henry took us to
see the old walls of the city on the land side. They were
built by Theodosius and other emperors, and are in a
wonderful state of completeness when we reflect on their
antiquity."

Hotel d'Angleterre, Athens,
\^th April 1903.

"... The Parthenon, ruinous as it is, is indescribably
lovely, especially when seen in such a glorious atmosphere,
and with the cloudless sunshine we had yesterday. To-day
we have a scirocco of great violence which brings with it
clouds of dust. The dust is such a pest here, that they
have two men stationed at the door of the hotel with
large plumeaux in their hands, who dust the visitor when
he comes in."

On his return to Cambridge J. was confronted with a
Report of the Council on "The List of Benefactors in the
Commemoration Service." He criticised this report in the Arts
Schools in rather a merciless way. He began, as he loved to
do, with the history of the whole thing ; he considered under
various headings "the persons to be commemorated "; he pointed
out some really extraordinary omissions in the revised list, and
commented upon the retention of names entirely unconnected
with the University. In fact he thought the list, as Talleyi-and
thought a certain lady's dress, "commence trop tard et finit
trop tot."

In the following year, 1904, I came up after the Christmas
vacation on 12th January to find a note from J. on my table
saying that our common friend J. S. Budgett was lying in his
lodgings very ill with black water fever. Budgett had returned
two or three months before from the Congo, having after several
years' work and innumerable journeys at last solved the problem
of the development of the strange fish Polypterus. He was
alone in his rooms, and until his people could come J. had taken



I 8 2 y. as %^gistrary

command and had seen that he was well nursed and cared for.
His writing to tell me was just typical of his thought for others.
On the 12th January Lord Braybrooke, Master of Magdalene
College, died, and his family, as everyone in trouble seemed to
do, at once sent for J. " Busy all day looking after them and
Budgett. Overtired and much knocked up at night," is the
entry for this day. Budgett ^ died on 19th January, and J.
"spent most of the day in talking to his family and arranging
for a funeral service in Trinity Chapel."

This spring, on a bitterly cold day, 1st March, King Edward
and his Queen and the Princess Victoria visited Cambridge to
open certain of the recently finished Science Schools and the
Squire Law Library. The arrangements for this visit took up
much time, but J. threw himself into them with his accustomed
vigour, and the visit went off well. In connexion with it J.
wrote a learned article on previous Royal Visits to Cambridge,
which appeared in the Cambridge Keviezv.

From time to time J. as Registrary had to edit new editions
of the Statutes and the Ordinances; these he seemed to enjoy
doing, though largely they were matters of scissors and paste.
The most important work of this kind that he produced was
that on the "Endowments of the University,"" a mine of care-
fully sifted and valuable information ; this he prepared in the
spring of 1904. This year he also wrote his Concise Guide to
Ely Cathedral and a number of other shorter papers. In
August the British Association met at Cambridge and J.
had as his guests M. Yves Guyot, Sir William and Lady
Abney, and his old friends Mr. and Mrs. Maudslay. On
the third day of the Meeting he gave an afternoon lecture
at the Theatre on " The Origin and Growth of the University
of Cambridge."

This period was a sad one for J. He had an extraordinary
genius for cultivating the friendship of the young, and he knew
the way to the heart of a boy. Little more than a year after

^ I have written a short Memoir of him^ which prefixes his "Collected
Papers."



His Young Friends 183

his friend Budgetfs death came a telegram to say that Wilham
Bennett Pike,^ whom J. had known from infancy, and who
was a great friend of both Edward and Willy, had been
drowned in the Mediterranean. At the end of May came the
news that Eustace Talbot had died after an operation.
Eustace was one of J.'s dearest friends and was beloved by all
who knew him. Without making any great mark as a medical
student at Cambridge he had always done well. In the social
world of the University he held a high and an honourable
position, and since he had been at St. Bartholomew's Hospital
he had acquired a notable knowledge of diagnosis. Without
doubt had he lived he would have made a great physician.

The following is a kind letter written in 1905 by J. to
a young friend who had failed to take a first class in one part
of a Tripos : —

"' My dear G., — I hope you are not disappointed at
your place in the Tripos. Having regard to the severity
of the examination, I think it is a very good one ; and if
you should be troubled with any regrets, let me add a
crumb of comfort. The benefit of a University education
is by no means confined to what a man gets out of books.
They are splendid things no doubt, and the study of the
past has its advantages ; but for anyone who is to occupy
a public place in the world (and a clergyman is one of
those) a knowledge of men is even more important. So I
think that a man who can make the best of both worlds —
the past and the present^who goes into many societies,
and takes part in many things that are going forward and
claiming the interest of his contemporaries, leaves
Cambridge a better man than one who has been a student
and nothing else. So if you should look at the first class
regretfully, think over what I have said, which is my firm
conviction based upon a long experience, and not merely
invented for the sake of making myself pleasant to you."
Ever your affectionate friend, J. W. Clark."

All this year J. was unusually busy ; he had taken up a
campaign in favour of the University Library, and was writing,

^ Shortly before J.'s death Willy married his widow.



184 y, as "^gistrary



with his own hands, two or three letters a day to friends
and old members of the University, appealing for funds.
He was extraordinarily successful, and in five years got together
nearly =C20,000. This year also he wrote numerous articles,
and now began to contribute to Country Life, to which he
sent some ten beautifully illustrated descriptions of colleges or
libraries. He was also preparing an edition of Loggan's
Cantabrigia Ilhistrata, issued by Messrs. Bowes & Bowes in
1905.

Throughout the spring and summer J. had been constantly
ailing ; the old pains in the head and dizziness had reappeared,
and there is constant reference to them in the diary. In spite
of this he was able to lecture in August twice to the Library
Association, once in and on the Chapel of King's College, and
again on " The Evolution of the Bookcase." Shortly after these
lectures were over, he started, under orders from his doctors,
for Royat, accompanied again by H. J. Edwards of Peterhouse.
As usual we have a series of vivid letters to his wife : —



lO^A September 1905.

"Things are going on much as usual. We had a
pouring torrent of water on Wednesday night and
Thursday morning, but yesterday was a real fine day, and
Hal and I went to Orcival — a pretty village in a fold of
the hills nearer Mont Dore than to this place. It was a
long drive of three hours, with a pair of horses. I got a
dispensation from one glass of water, as the whole affair
took from 10 to 6. But it was well worth the trouble.
The whole country was extremely beautiful, the road
commanding views of all the extinct volcanoes of these
parts, and Orcival itself is in a most picturesque situation,
almost hidden amongst the hills, so that you are not aware
of its existence till you are close to it. The church is
magnificent — quite a little cathedral — about 150 feet long
— with nave and aisles, transepts, and choir raised on a
crypt. This choir has four apses, a most unusual number.
The whole is in a pure Romanesque style, dated about
1150 I should think; it is in excellent preservation, and
has never been restored (happy church !)."



L,a Chaise Dieu 185

Lk Puy, Ylth September 1905.

"The one piece of luck has been the visit to La Chaise
Dieu. The morning began, as usual, with rain and a thick
mist, but it lifted all of a sudden, and we really saw the
place to great advantage, even getting the view from the
battlements outside very thoroughly. It's a wonderful
place, and I am delighted to have seen it, though of course
it has a woebegone, departed-grandeur sort of air. . . .
But still, enough is left to make one realise what a huge
Benedictine monastery in a remote situation must have
been — with its fortified enceinte, its lofty tower of observa-
tion, and gate of entrance protected by an adjoining turret
with loopholes in it. Then there is the library, intact, over
part of the cloister, which tells me some things that I did
not know before about the way in which these fifteenth-
century monastic libraries were built and cared for."

Early in 1906 J. was working with his friend Mr. A. T. Bar-
tholomew of Peterhouse on a. Hand-list of the Works of Richard
Bentley, which was printed for private circulation. This was
followed in 1908 by a larger work on the same subject, pub-
lished by Messrs. Bowes & Bowes.

J. paid his annual Easter visit to Paris, accompanied this

time by Willy, and later they went on to Venice. Mrs. J. had had

a serious attack of influenza in March and was slow in recovering.

As the following letters show, J. was anxious about his wife's

health, and indeed he found her, when he hurried back, ill in bed

with pleurisy, looking " worse than I have ever seen her." The

recovery was but slow : —

Venice, 2\st April 1906.

" I was indeed relieved to get your letter this morning
dated the 18th, for I was beginning to imagine all sorts of
horrors. I think you will do well to stay at home and be
careful, though I had been thinking that the seaside would
be the best thing for you. However, Le pere propose, et
les medecins disposent — nothing goes straight.

" I have already told you what a perfectly lovely day
yesterday was. I was too tired to stir out early, so went
in a gondola to call on Mme. W. and make arrange-
ments. She was at dejeuner — so I just saw her only and



1 86 jf' ^^^ ^{egistrary



arranged for a meeting between five and six. Charming
woman, 50-55, trts mstnLite. After my dejeuner (where
they tried to make me eat rognons sautes followed by
rumpsteak, but failed) I wandered about the piazza,
looked into St. Mark's, and so forth. Then I took ship
and went to the Edens where I saw the famous garden. It
occupies about two acres, I should think, on the Giudecca
with a view out to Chioggia. Such a wealth of greenery
and colour. All sorts of things flowering together that
we only see separately. A bank of cinerarias, freesias,
ixias, arums, and in the borders blue irises, tulips, narcissi,
kc. &c. The borders seem to be edged with Madonna
lilies with no sign of disease."

Venice, 22nd April 1906.

"The people here are delightful. I have completely
won over to my interest the librarian, Signor Frati, and
he offered to-day to take me into the old library, where we
penetrated on the occasion of our last visit. To-morrow
morning at 9 a.m. I am to meet the architect of the new
building, and if I fail to get out of him a copy of his plan
for the roof,^ my name is not what it is ! I am also allowed to
do what I please in the library in the way of copying docu-
ments, so that I hope to have materials for a pretty lecture.
... I always turn the Latin races round my little finger.

" You ask about the Campanile. I can't be quite sure
what my feelings are. Personally I never cared much
about the building, except the squat obelisk at the top,
which had a strangely picturesque effect. But somehow
without it the square looks odd — St. Mark's so much larger
than formerly, the huge mass of the Campanile being absent.

J. returned early in May, and for the months of July and
August they took a house at Woking for the sake of Mrs. J.'s
health, and Mrs. Edward Clark went with them to look after
her. In August J. was again ordered away to Royat, where
Willy joined him. Here are a few letters from there : —

1 The Marciaiia Library had recently beeu removed from the Ducal
Palace to the Zecca, and the court-yard of the Zecca had been roofed in
so as to form a reading-room, somewhat after the plan which J. had
advocated for the University Library at Cambridge (see p. 175). On his
return J. lectured on the Marciana. This lecture was printed in 1911 by
the Cambridge Antiquarian Society.



T{oyat 187

RoYAT, 30^A August 1906.

"... I am going through a course of Anatole France.
' La Grece s'abrutit,' I said to myself. ' You know nothing
about contemporary P'rench literature.'' So I have read
Le Mannequin d'Osier, which I don*'t care much about, and
am now deep in VOrme du Mail, which is charming."

J. to A. T. Bartholomew.

3()th August 1906.

" I am very glad you are so happy in your Cornish
exile. I can imagine Ovid\s feelings in Pontus, panvre
cher Jiomme, and I suspect mine in Cornwall would not
be very different. I wish I did care more for wild places.
I used to do so ; and when I was your age I travelled
in Norway (when it was a very rough, wild country) with
great delight. So enjoy it while you can. I confess that
even now Fd like to see a good rough sea beating over
the Tintagel coast, ybr a short time.

"31^^ August. . . . You must know that in these
parts we are either Gauls or Romans. Vercingetorix had
his camp at Gergovie close by, and he is duly commemo-
rated everywhere. To return to myself. At 9 I take a
bath of warm water — Eau Eugenie, to commemorate the
Empress, I suppose. This is mildly warm — and it is a bain
coulant, that is to say, the water goes on running, so that
it does not get chilly. Dejeuner at 11.30, and very ready
one is for it I can assure you. After dejeuner I do various
things. I sometimes stroll ; or go into Clermont Ferrand,
where there are shops and public buildings and picturesque
streets ; or sit in my room and work. At 4.30 Eau Cesar
again, and at 5.30 Eau Saint Mart. Who this Saint was
I leave to the Provost ^ and other hagiologues to say. ' II
me fait I'air d'un soldat Romain ' (Martins). At 6.30 we
dine, and then we go to bed. The interval may be filled
up variously. You can smoke in the garden, or gamble
(Petits chevaux or Baccarat), or listen to a band which I
am told plays out of tune, or go to the Theatre, which is
not bad at all. I have been twice.

" Besides all this, or worked in among it, I do some
work. I am finishing this dreadful Barnwell ^ by making

^ i.e. of Kings, Dr. M. R. James.
^ The Liber Memorandorum.



1 88 y- ^^ %egistrary



a first draft of the Index. When that is done, more
articles ^ must be written. In fact I have not a moment
to call my own."

J. to C. Sayle.

Hotel Continental,

Royat-les-Bains, P.D.D.,

Qth September 1906.

" I rather envy your being within reach of Munich.
It is the one German capital I really like. Dresden
is too full of English, and Berlin is impossible. But
I thought the theatre, or rather the Opera, was the
principal object of interest there. Don't you rise to
the Ring? If you have never heard it, take my advice
and don't miss it. Ifs worth living on bread and water
for six months to save money for such an experience, and
I have only heard a scratch performance of it in London,
where Brunhild's steed was a seedy cab-horse, who funked
the fire. At Munich they have, or used to have, a dear
beast who knew his cues quite well, and walked straight
into the fire as if it was his stall. That is art !

" Somebody ought to edit the catalogue of Perne's
Library. You, I fancy, gave up the task, but why not
resume it? ... It is my rooted conviction that every-
body has time for everything if they choose, i.e. if they take
a real interest in what they are asked to undertake.

" I am deep in Anatole France, whom I had not read
before. I have now read UOiTtie du Mail and Crinque

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32