AN IDEAL HOME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16330, 20 January 1921, Page 9

AN IDEAL HOME.

+ Lord Frederick Hamilton, in bis book The Days Before Yesterday.” draws a picture of singular charm of the home life of the distinguished family of which lie was the thirteenth child. “ 1 was born.” be writes. ” the thirteenth child of a family of fourteen, on the thirteenth day of the month- | and T have for many years resided at No. 18 in a certain street in West- j minster. In spite of the popular prejudice attached to this numeral. I ara j not conscious of having derived any j particular ill-fortune from my acci- | dental association with it. Mv father , had one peculiarity: he never altered j his manner of living, whether the house was full of visitors, or lie were j alone with mv mother, after his child- j ren had married and left him. At ; Baron’s Court, when quite by them- j selves, they used the largo rooms, and j had them all lighted up at night, exactly as though the house were full j of guests. There was, to my mind. | something very touching in seeing an ; aged couple, after more than fifty years of married life together, still .preserving the affectionate relations of lovers with cacti other: They played their chess together nightly in n room 98ft long, and delighted in still singing together, in the quavering tones of old age, the simple little Italian duets that, they had sung on the far-off days of their courtship. As his years increased. mv father did not care to venture much beyond the circle of his own family, though as thirteen of his children bad grown up, and be bad seven | married daughters.- the two elder of whom had each thirteen children of her own. the number of bis immediate descendants afforded him a fairly wide field of selection. “ In his old age he liked to have his j five sons round him all the winter, to- j getlier with their wives and children- j Accordingly, every October my three i married brothers arrived at Baron’s i Court with their entire families, and j remained there till January, so that j the house persistently rang with child- | ten's laughter. What with governesses. ; children, nurses and servants. this ; meant thirty-three extra people all | through the winter, so it was fortunate j that Baron's Court was a large house, and that there was plenty of room left for visitors. Tt entailed no great hardship on tho sons, for the autumn saVtnon fishing in the turbulent Mourne is exeellent. there was abundance ol shooting. and AT. Go'iffe, tho cook, was 3 noted artist.