THE VICTORIANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20372, 28 September 1929, Page 23 (Supplement)

THE VICTORIANS.

BY KOTAHE,

THEIR GARDENS.

Mr. Dion Clayton Calthrop has summed up his Victorian memories under the pro-

voking title " I Will Bo Good." In my boyhood Victoria's first words on learn-

ing that sho wan Queen of England wcro hold up in season and out of season to our emulation and imitation. lliey sounded the kevnoto of a young girl's lifo and a great Queen's reign, und the death-knell of a long and very evil court tradition.

The trouble was that tho Victorian era canio to substitute for its Queeu's noblo resolution a smug self-satisfaction; instead of saying " I will be good," it regarded itself with respectful admiration and roundly affirmed "I am good." As a result Victoria's epoch-marking words became in later days a jest. It was tho fashion, and still is, so far as 1 can see, to quote tho Queen's words with a sneer. No young uiau, says Robert Louis, will

lightly forego the reputation of vice. And tho modern mind finds something exquisitely humorous in tho idea of a persistent pursuit of virtue. \et that young woman changed tho whole course of Eng-

lish life. It is safe to say that Victoria's swift dedication of herself to certain ideals long unpopular with royalty, and tho strength of mind that kept her true to her initial resolution, placed the Throne in a position against which the tumult of nineteenth-century politics, and the most violent of social unheaveals, and the kingdestroying tides liberated by tho Great War havo beat in vain.

That is one of the things I like best in Mr. Calthrop. He considers that many of

tho Victorian standards were asinine, especially as they related to women; but he frankly admits that tho young Queen added an element to English life that has been a"s salt preserving it through a century's chances and changes. It takes pluck to thrust such an acknowledgment before tho modern literary world in the first pages of his book. Conventions. It seems that the Victorians loved two things above all others, funerals and gardens. The fascination of tlie mortuary overlapped mv own youthful years. 1 hey believed in enjoying themselves in their own gloomy and thorough fashion in all grades of society when what obsequies camo their way. Whatever else money was saved on there was no stint here. Tho hoardings of years of economy were squandered lavishly from some obscure sense of obligation to tho departed and a still more emphatic sense of what was due to convention. Nothing else mattered if all tho forms were

observed. An 3izo like our own which pretends to regard "convention as usually evil and probably absurd, which has made a convention of disregard of convention, finds the whole business ridiculous; probably it was. But it expressed in its curious fashion that strong feeling of family unity which helped to hold (society togethei and whoso absence to-dav is not one or the hopeful signs of the times. But it is when Mr. Calthrop comes to the gardens that ho grips nio. " Wherever you find Englishmen there you will find gardens; wherover you find Frenchmen there you will find a cafe. Tho Romans left us gardens as a legacy and I think tho sun gavo France her outdoor cafe life." The garden meant much more to tho Victorian household than it does to us; and for two reasons, I judge. 'lho

first was that women's interests were so narrow and any athletic physical outlet for their health and vigour was denied them. Tho garden naturally became the woman's special province. Then tho kitchen garden was an essential part 01 the household economy. Certain herbs went with certain dishes and it was the garden that supplied them, not the greengrocer or the can. Gardens. " What a ritual! What a lot of good things our garden must supply! It must give us lavender to put away with our linen and rose leaves for pot-pourri.' And from the survivals on our own dining tables we can guess something of tho strict ritual that governed even tho most domestic of meals and which made necessary tho well-stocked kitchen garden. Tlio ritual seems to havo _ had two as °cts. At certain seasons it was de rigueur for the housewife to present to her lord and master certain dishes. It was a reflection on her housekeeping if she did not. Easter must sco lamb on the table with its inevitable accompaniment of mint sauce. At Whitsuntide the first, gooseberry tart must make its appearance. Michaelmas was nothing without goose, Christmas nothing without turkev, and Good .Friday demanded cod and egg-sauce. Table Ritual. Why certain things had always to appear together no 0110 seems to know. It may havo been the wisdom of the centuries that determined tho only appropriate sauces and garnishing*. Once they were decreed a convention was established that Victorian England could not break even if it would; and many of them persist, to show that thero is still with us something of the V ictonan reverence i for tho ritual of dining. It may interest some New Zcalanders to seo how far wo are following Victorian convention and how far wc have let new conditions interfere with the established customs of the table. There were caper 3 for boiled mutton and onion sauco for roast mutton. I seem to remember that George Borrow declares _ that boiled mutton and onion sauce is tho noblest dish in tho English cuisine. Borrow seems to havo boon an iconoclast in this as other matters. If custom said that only capers went with boiled mutton ho would find no sympathy for his heresy in Victorian England. Men have gone to tho stake for less. By tho way I noto that the housewives of England preserved large quantities of nasturtium seeds; why, Mr. Calthrop does not say. I suppose they served as capers when supplies from abroad wero not available. Stuffed fish was served with burnt parsley, salmon with cucumber, redcurrant jelly adorned saddle of mutton only. Carrots and turnips took tho placo of Mr. Jiggs' cabbage with corn beef. Domestic duck was tasteless without sago and onion, while wild duck was tolerable oidv with orange salad. The origin of some of these apparently haphazard groupings was tho desirability of covering the taint of meat in days when ice was unprocurable. A rhymed cookerybook shows that tho same difficulty led to the same results in the sixteenth century. " Mustard is meoto for brawne, beef or powdred rnotoun; verjuis (lemon, shall wc say?) to boiled capoun, veel, chicken or bakouri; ginger sawco to lamb, kyd, pigge, or fawn; to feysand, partricbo or conv, mustard with tho stigare. Whatever the reason, tho Victorians followed their ritual and their own gardens usually provided tho wherewithal. Tho Victdrian women who had no chance to shine at tennis or golf would leave our modern maidens far behind when it came to gardening; and here I take it is tho seciet. of that physical robustness which in spite of hampering clothes and a dread of fresh air fitted our grandmothers for tasks that would b« beyond their athletic descendant#.