IMPROVEMENTS AT HAMBLEDEN. 255 But it became necessary to close the old churchyard, and a new cemetery was enclosed outside the village, for which Mr Smith gave the ground. He cordially co-operated in a scheme whereby extensive repairs were carried out in the fabric of the parish church and the tower was rebuilt, in which were hung afresh the old peal of bells. Their melodious chimes, echoing among the hanging beechwoods, and overpowering "The drowsy tinklings of the distant fold," call to mind a bygone state of society, for the tenor bell was won at cards by an eighteenth century incumbent of Hambleden from the rector of a neighbouring parish, who had previously staked and lost to him all that he possessed. Even the fairest rural scenes are subject to visitations of fever and diphtheria, and to this the neighbourhood of Henley and Hambleden was no exception. The difficulty of isolating infectious cases was the subject of much concern to Mr Smith, till, in 1889, he resolved to build a hospital to supply the want. Mr Mackenzie of Fawley Court having granted a suitable and valuable site in the Fair Mile, near Henley, buildings were erected, with separate blocks, airy corridors, and ample offices, under the direction of Mr Keith Young. It was thoroughly furnished and equipped with every instrument of comfort and relief, including a large ambulance, and the whole must have cost the donor. not less than £11,000, but he did not live to see it completed. The part Smith had taken in educational legislation, and his experience on the London School Board, inclined him to take a practical interest in school matters in Henley and Hambleden. He became one of the governing body of Henley Royal Grammar-School, and exerted himself in pre paring and promoting a scheme to adapt that decaying institution to the wants of a rural neighbourhood, rather than bolster it up as a seat of classical learning. The Charity Commissioners stepped in, and taking the matter out of the hands of the governors, brought out a scheme almost exactly on the lines proposed by Mr Smith, whose last appearance among the new governing body was in 1891, when they met to inaugurate the reformed constitution. While he attended in these and other respects to the wants of his poorer neighbours in the country, he by no means neglected the beauty and comfort of his own home. He added very largely to the original house at Greenlands, and delighted in finding his children and children's children assembled there with their friends when, at the end of a hard week in Parliament and a Saturday sitting of the Cabinet, he escaped to spend a quiet Sunday among the deep woods beside the gentle stream. How often he longed for such rest, how gratefully he enjoyed it when it came, finds frequent expression in his letters. One Sunday in 1889, being detained in London, he writes to one of his daughters : At luncheon at the Admiralty yesterday we were discussing our several ideas of rest, and G. Hamilton and Goschen both declared in favour of being allowed to stay at home on Sunday mornings when their wives went to church. I said I almost enjoyed the quietness and rest in the midst of work of being alone in the house, when I was nearly tired out at the end of a session. Those who visited at Greenlands remember how smoothly everything went.1 Some may think that making life in a country house agreeable to guests is merely a question of expenditure, and that nothing is easier than for a rich man 1 After a visit to Greenlands in 1885, where there had been a garden party, Dr (now Sir Henry) Acland wrote to Smith: "And now, what am I to say concerning the last three days? Well, to a quiet worn A WELL-ORDERED HOUSE. 257 with a good house to be a good host. But even the wealthiest are not always successful in the art of entertaining especially those who have made wealth for themselves. The remarkable feature in the Greenlands ménage was the absence alike of fuss or ostentation: everything went as evenly as on board a man-of-war; and it is only fair to say that this was owing in large measure to the fact that Mr Smith's servants, like the officers of his yacht, remained many years in his employ. Both here and in Grosvenor Place people used to contrast the dinner-parties favourably with the interminable feasts which some welldisposed Amphitryons, especially of the political type, seem to think inseparable from right hospitality. Everything of wine or food kind was the best that money could buy, but there was a sort of modesty and graceful measure in their use. Indeed the only respect in which his table approached extravagance was in the display of flowers. These were certainly supplied lavishly, but they were all home-grown, for their owner had spared no expense on his gardens. In the comparatively limited extent of the grounds at Greenlands—the flower-garden occupies but a narrow wedge of land between the highroad and the river— creature of threescore years and ten such an occasion, in such a scene, is certainly a revelation of a new sense. 'Tears such as tender fathers shed, For joy to think when they are dead Those words best express the state of mind I was in while wandering in all your splendid hospitalities, that veiled, but not concealed, the peace and family strength that reigned firm beneath them." 1 Touching the political dinner-parties which Smith used to give in Grosvenor Place on Wednesday evenings during the session of Parliament, it must be well remembered by many who attended them how careful he was to arrange them so that the younger members of the Conservative party should be brought into easy acquaintance with their leaders. It requires but a slight familiarity with political affairs to know how greatly this contributes to the pleasure and harmony of parliamentary life. R a staff of thirty men were employed. There is a very large range of glass-houses, in the planning and management of which Mr Smith used to take much delight, and a constant supply of choicest flowers and fruit was the result. His favourite flower (it is the fashion to record the preference of statesmen for certain flowers-Disraeli's primrose, the third Napoleon's violet, Boulanger's carnation, are instances in point) was lily of the valley, and means were employed to ensure a long succession of that plant, from the earliest forced blooms in January to the latest in July, artificially retarded by being grown on beds of ice. Horticulturists may find some interest in the fact, that in the whole range of the vineries at Greenlands there is not a single specimen of the "Gros Colman " grape- -a deserved favourite for its profuse yield, beautiful clusters of large raisins, and unsurpassed keeping qualities, which generally prevail to counterbalance its deficiency in flavour. If there was one part of his possessions in regard to which Smith used to yield to that weakness of country gentlemen which Disraeli, in one of his novels, calls the "Sundayafternoon-pride-of-proprietorship," it was his garden; for though he was without technical knowledge of the art of horticulture, he enjoyed the fragrance and beauty of flowers so thoroughly that he loved to bring his friends to do the same. His favourite place for a confidential after-dinner talk with a friend was the large conservatory opening off the drawing-room, and the love which he never lost for music used to be gratified at the same time by the strains from the organ, played by one of his daughters in an adjoining room. It was a thoroughly peaceful home, and the only drawback to Smith's complete enjoyment of it was his frequent absence, caused by the incessant and ever-increasing calls of public duty. The perfect harmony which always endured among the members of this family was owing in large measure to the gentle nature of its head. Weary, harassed, suffering in body and anxious in mind as he often was (for he was very far from possessing the excellent constitution and easy temperament of his old idol Palmerston), neither wife, nor child, nor colleague, nor friend, nor servant ever heard him speak a hasty or angry word. Naturally reticent, he was yet always ready to receive the confidence |