THE RECOLLECTIONS OF ISABELLA. FYVIE MAYO.*
PrnoNo sense, humour, and sympathy are among the characteristics of Mrs. Mayo's interesting volume of Recol- lections. This is not saying that every reader will agree with all her opinions, or accept all her conclusions ; indeed, there is considerable matter for argument in these very truthful and personal pages, and the writer herself would be the last to expect to be received with a universal chorus of assent. She knows this controversial world too well for that. To mention three subjects—religion, social work among the poor, and psychical research—may suffice to show the nature of the discussions that the book rather forcibly suggests. On the first two it is perhaps enough to say that Mrs. Mayo's note of sincerity, reality, and moral strength should go far to disarm those whose beliefs and experiences may differ from hers. Life teaches us all varying lessons in varying ways, and people of very decided convictions cannot always take the widest view. In saying this we are asking Mrs. Mayo's own tolerance for some of those old-fashioned squires, clergy, and others of whom she is inclined to be scornful. That the training of an elder world had its merits her own charming story of Lady Londonderry may prove. Lady Londonderry gave a banquet to her colliers, and some of her other guests were seen to smile (" snigger" hardly seems the word) when the men drank out of their finger-glasses. Lady Londonderry drank out of her own.
Beyond question the most interesting part of the book is Mrs. Mayo's own story of the long, hard straggle by which, in mid-Victorian days, she reached the assured position that " Edward Garrett " has ever since held among English writers. The picture of literary life in London of the "sixties" is indeed well worth studying for its vivid interest, its pathos, and the realisation of the marvellous change that fifty years have brought about. A young, brilliant woman, resolved to do more than make her own living, to set her family free of debt, had then to work against certain special opposing forces whose strength is hardly notice- able now. Of course the chances were greater ; the profession was not crowded; editors had time for benevolent consideration and choice. Jean Ingelow, Charles Dickens, Recollections of What I Saw, What I Lived Through, and What I Learned, during more than Fills Years of Social and Literary Szyeriettee. By Isabella Fyvie Mayo (Edward Garrett). With Portraits and Illustrations. London John Murray. [10s. 6d. net.] Mrs. S. C. Hall, were not alone in stretching out a kind hand to a new contrii;utor : even great publishers wrote encouraging letters to young persons of promise who, daring and hoping, sent them manuscripts tied with blue ribbons ! But there was no Society of Authors in those days, no Writers' or Lyceum Club, no literary agent to advise, no flood of cheap magazines in which early work might expect to appear. A struggling author had to work in the dark and alone. And yet, as we say, the chances were greater, and modest merit, in the writing line, was more likely to be recognised then than now.
The first years of Mrs. Mayo's energetic working life were devoted to law-copying and secretarial work, and many were the curious experiences through which these labours were carried on. She employed her brain and her little leisure time in writing verse which met with gradually easier accept.. ance in the magazines of the day, and the acquaintance with editors thus begun led on to the writing of novels and of those attractive papers, half essay, half story, which made " Edward Garrett" a familiar name, not to readers of the Sunday Magazine alone. That name was always associated for us with a particular tone of delicate thoughtfulness and religiosity, refined yet not weak, a sort of broad-minded Puritanism, even a special look of print and feel of paper, all of which had its own poet, Jean Ingelow, its own editor, Dr. Guthrie, its own publisher, Alexander Strahan. The Sunday Magazine and Good Words had an atmosphere of their own, typical of their exact place in the world of Victorian thought. It was not all one wanted, but it was a good deal, and its influence meant sweetness and light. Mrs. Mayo, looking back, feels its attractions and deficiencies as we do.
Few who were young in those days have forgotten the charming old book, Studies for Stories, which must have been one of Mr. Strahan's successes. Written by Jean Ingelow and illustrated by Millais, it owed its publication by a curious circumstance to Miss Isabella Fyvie. She had known the stories, or most of them, in the Youth's Magazine, and in the days of Jean Ingelow's celebrity she mentioned them to Mr. Strahan, who proposed to reprint them. But Jean Ingelow " had kept no copies, either in print or in manuscript. I per- suaded my mother," says Mrs. Mayo, " to make a sacrifice of seven of her treasured volumes of the Youth's Magazine," and from these Studies for Stories was mainly reprinted. Rather sadly Mrs. Mayo records what seems strange indeed, that Mr. Strahan, " unlike his general lavishness," gave her no copies of the book.
Mrs. Mayo's personal recollections of Alexander Strahan, who held in some ways a marked place of his own among publishers, gathering round him much real talent of the kind indicated above, are among the most interesting things in her book. Perhaps no one ever thoroughly understood the rather sudden disappearance from London publishing life of that characteristic figure. Both Dr. Guthrie and Dr. MacLeod were deeply attached to Mr. Strahan, and the parting of the ways meant serious trial and very real sorrow to them both. Mrs. Mayo's recol- lections of Dr. Guthrie are particularly clear and complete, and bring out the facts of his singular charm, both as a man and an editor, better than anything of the kind we have lately read. Her slight but vivid and characteristic sketches, often giving the very words of that wisest, keenest, most benevolent of men, show that "Edward Garrett's " pen has by no means lost its cunning. One of the most pleasing illustrations in the book is reproduced from Sir George Harvey's picture, " Dr. Thomas Guthrie Preaching at Loch-
lee." Against a wild background of mountains and glens the slight, long-haired, black-clad figure stands erect, and in the group of thirty or forty people sitting round, intently listening, are included portraits of such well-known characters as Professor Hugh Miller, Lord Dalhousie and his sisters, and several of Dr. Guthrie's own family, while farmers and shepherds of the hills, with their wives and children and sheep-dogs, make up the congregation.
London, Edinburgh, Aberdeen,—each has its set of reminis. cences, and many are the interesting names of men and women in every line of life which meet us as we turn these pages. The book will attract readers of differing tastes. For ourselves, we have most enjoyed the pictures of old London and the literary chronicle of the " sixties " ; others may prefer Mrs. Mayo's suggestive treatment, based on her own experience, of various domestic problems. In her hands the study of these leads on naturally to that of the darker side of life, criminal psychology, and the subject of prisons and reforming punishment. Then follows a curious chapter on dreams, visions, and spiritualism, in which the more mystery-loving side of Mrs. Mayo's Scottish genius has full play; but she ends her string of wonderful stories with the wise warning to leave "experimentation" in these regions to "the direction of disciplined and disinterested minds. To draw into it the young, the ignorant, the excitable, or the sorrowing, is to court dire disaster." Better or more necessary advice could hardly be given.
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