J. Comyns Carr: Stray Memories, by His Wife

								


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J. COMYNS CARR

MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MADRAS
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO
DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
J. COMYNS CARR
Stray Memories
BY
HIS WIFE
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON
1920

COPYRIGHT

GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD.

TO
OUR GRANDSONS
RICHARD AND JOHN COMYNS CARR

FOREWORD

My husband wrote his own Reminiscences in his two books--Some Eminent
Victorians and Coasting Bohemia, and it might justly be brought up
against me that I could have nothing to add to what he has said himself.
But a critic remarked at the time that there were few “Reminiscences”
in which the pronoun “I” occurred so seldom; and it is upon this ground
that I venture to take my stand.
His friends meant so much to him that his talk is all of them. But they
also loved him, and the few who are left among those of whom he wrote,
as well as the many more of the younger generation who testify to-day
to the exhilaration of his presence and the tonic of his humour may, I
hope, find in my effort something which may recall to them his urbane
and inspiring personality.

CONTENTS

                                             PAGE



    I. COURTSHIP 1



    II. THE HOME OF BOYHOOD 10



    III. MARRIAGE 16



    IV. HOME LIFE AND DRAMATIC CRITICISM 28



    V. JOURNALISM AND LETTERS 43



    VI. BOOKS AND TRAVEL 63



    VII. GROSVENOR AND NEW GALLERIES 76



    VIII. DRAMATIC WORK AND MANAGEMENT 83



    IX. SOCIAL OCCASIONS 115



    X. FOREIGN HOLIDAYS 129



    XI. FISHING HOLIDAYS 156



    XII. EARLY VERSE 175

Frontispiece
J. COMYNS CARR
From a photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co. Ltd.

CHAPTER I
COURTSHIP

It was in June of the year 1873 that I first saw my husband.
Aimée Desclée was beginning a memorable season of French Plays at the
Royalty Theatre, and it was in the capacity of dramatic critic to The
Echo--a post to which he had recently been appointed--that “Joe
Carr,” as his friends called him, sat awaiting the curtain to
rise on that remarkable performance of Frou-Frou which set the
cosmopolitan world of London aflame in its day.
He was twenty-four years of age; but he looked more, for though he had
the complexion almost of a girl and that unruly twist in his fair,
curling hair which belongs to early youth, he was broad-shouldered and
had the strong build of the Cumberland statesmen from whom he was as
proud to claim ancestry on his father’s side as he was of the
Irish blood that came to him from his mother.
Not that I could have described him that evening: the stalls were too