Transcribed from the 1905 edition by David Priceemail ccx074coventryacukCHANTRY HOUSECHAPTER IA NURSERY PROSEAnd if it be the heart of man   Which our existence measuresFar longer is our childhoods span   Than that of manly pleasuresFor long each month and year is then   Their thoughts and days extendingBut months and years pass swift with men   To times last goal descendingISAAC WILLIAMSThe united force of the younger generation has been brought upon meto record with the aid of diaries and letters the circumstancesconnected with Chantry House and my two dear elder brothers  Oncethis could not have been done without more pain than I could brookbut the lapse of time heals wounds brings compensations and whenthe heart has ceased from aching and yearning makes the memory ofwhat once filled it a treasure to be brought forward with joy andthankfulness  Nor would it be well that some of those mentioned inthe coming narrative should be wholly forgotten and their placeknow them no moreTo explain all I must go back to a time long before the morningwhen my father astonished us all by exclaiming Poor old JamesWinslow  So Chantry House is came to us after all  Previous tothat event I do not think we were aware of the existence of thatplace far less of its being a possible inheritance for my parentswould never have permitted themselves or their family to beunsettled by the notion of doubtful contingenciesMy father John Edward Winslow was a barrister and held anappointment in the Admiralty Office which employed him for manyhours of the day at Somerset House  My mother whose maiden namewas Mary Griffith belonged to a naval family  Her father had beenlost in a West Indian hurricane at sea and her uncle Admiral SirJohn Griffith was the hero of the family having been at Trafalgarand distinguished himself in cutting out expeditions  My eldestbrother bore his name  The second was named after the Duke ofClarence with whom my mother had once danced at a ball on boardship at Portsmouth and who had been rather fond of my uncleIndeed I believe my fathers appointment had been obtained throughhis interest just about the time of Clarences birthWe three boys had come so fast upon each others heels in theNovembers of 1809 10 and 11 that any two of us used to look liketwins  There is still extant a feeble watercoloured drawing of thetrio in nankeen frocks and long white trowsers with bare necksand arms the latter twined together and with the free handsGriffith holding a bat Clarence a trap and I a ball  I rememberthe emulation we felt at Griffiths privilege of eldest in holdingthe batThe sitting for that picture is the only thing I clearly rememberduring those earlier days  I have no recollection of the disasterwhich at four years old altered my life  The catastrophe asothers have described it was that we three boys were riding cockhorse on the balusters of the second floor of our house in MontaguPlace Russell Square when we indulged in a general melee whichresulted in all tumbling over into the vestibule below  The othersto whom I served as cushion were not damaged beyond the power ofyelling and were quite restored in halfanhour but I wasundermost and the consequence has been a curved spine dwarfedstature an elevated shoulder and a shortened nearly useless legWhat I do remember is my mother reading to me Miss EdgeworthsFrank and the little do Trusty as I lay in my crib in her bedroomI made one of my nieces hunt up the book for me the other day andthe story brought back at once the little crib or the watered bluemoreen canopy of the big fourposter to which I was sometimes liftedfor a change even the scrawly pattern of the paper which my wearyeyes made into purple elves perpetually pursuing crimson ones theforemost of whom always turned upside down and the knobs in theMarseilles counterpane with which my fingers used to toy  I haveheard my mother tell that whenever I was most languid and sufferingI used to whine out O do read Frank and the little dog Trustyand never permitted a single word to be varied in the curiouschildish love of reiteration with its soothing powerI am afraid that any true picture of our parents especially of mymother will not do them justice in the eyes of the young people ofthe present day who are accustomed to a far more indulgentgovernment and yet seem to me to know little of the loyalveneration and submission with which we have through life regardedour father and mother  It would have been reckoned disrespectful toaddress them by these names they were through life to us inprivate papa and mamma and we never presumed to take a libertywith them  I doubt whether the petting patronising equality ofterms on which children now live with their parents be equallywholesome  There was then however strong love and selfsacrificing devotion but not manifested in softness or cultivationof sympathy  Nothing was more dreaded than spoiling which wasviewed as idle and unjustifiable selfgratification at the expenseof the objects thereof  There were an unlucky little pair inRussell Square who were said to be spoilt children and who usedto be mentioned in our nursery with bated breath as a kind ofmonsters or criminals  I believe our mother laboured under aperpetual fear of spoiling Griff as the eldest Clarence as thebeauty me as the invalid Emily two years younger as the onlygirl and Martyn as the afterthought six years below our sisterShe was always performing little acts of conscientiousness littleas we guessed itThus though her unremitting care saved my life and was such thatshe finally brought on herself a severe and dangerous illness shekept me in order all the time never wailed over me nor weaklypitied me never permitted resistance to medicine nor rebellionagainst treatment enforced little courtesies insisted on everyrequired exertion and hardly ever relaxed the rule of