Bodh   Gaya

Spot visited by the Lama in Kipling's "Kim."
Snap sent by B. Ten Broeke, a "Kipling Society" member in India

The Kipling Journal

The Organ of the Kipling Society

QUARTERLY                        No. 41                       MARCH, 1937

Contents

Plate: Bodh Gaya

News and Notes      ......      1           Kipling the Artist......    10

Branch Reports        ......      5           Kipling and Yorkshire    ..     ..    18

Reviews and New Books..     ..      6          X2   R.H.A.........    26

The Cinema     ........      9           Letter Bag..........    29

Obituary..........       9           Secretary's Corner......    32

News and Notes

ONE of our Members in India, Mr. B. St. L. Ten-Broeke, has very-
kindly sent the photograph which we reproduce in this  issue.
This is the shrine visited by the Lama in " Kim."   Bodh (or
Buddha) Gaya is about sixty miles from Patna, in the Province of
Bihar and Nagpur.

X            X            X            X            X

The second Meeting of the 1936-37 Session was held at the Hotel
Washington, Curzon Street, W., on Wednesday, 9th December, at
4.30 p.m. The subject of the Paper was " Kipling the Artist," very
ably presented by " Arthur Hood " (Mrs. Mends-Gibson), a poet of
' no mean powers.' The Chairman was the Rev. A. G. B. West,
Master Parson of St. Dunstan-in-the-East, who, without preamble,
introduced the Lecturer, reserving his remarks until later. During
the Lecture Miss Nancy Bayne recited, with great charm of manner
and admirable quality of diction, " Ford o' Kabul River," " The
Gipsy Trail," and " Recessional." The Discussion which followed
was full of interest—a tribute to the Lecturer's ability to rouse a de-
bate. A cordial Vote of Thanks to Mrs. Mends-Gibson for her splen-
did Paper and to Miss Bayne was carried with acclamation.

X            X            X            X            X

The Third Meeting of the 1936-37 Session was held at the Hotel
Washington, Curzon Street, W., on Wednesday,  13th January, at

2                          THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL

8.30 p.m. Mr. R. E. Harbord, Member of Council, was in the Chair
and introduced the Lecturer, Dr. Vaughan Bateson, who gave the
Members and their guests an interesting Paper on " Kipling and York-
shire," which was full of information and proved an answer to those
who assert that Kipling knew only Sussex among the English Counties.
Mr. Maitland, Hon. Librarian, moved the Vote of Thanks to Dr.
Vaughan Bateson; this was unanimously and enthusiastically carried
by all. present.

X               X               X               X               X

The fourth Meeting of the 1936-37 Session was held at the Hotel
Washington, Curzon Street, W., on Wednesday, 17th February, at
4.30 p.m. On this occasion a change was made in the usual type
of programme : Mr. B. M. Bazley, Hon. Editor, gave, instead of a
Paper, a Reading of some of Kipling's Parodies, with comments and
comparisons with the originals, with special mention of those collected
under the heading of " The Muse among the Motors." The innova-
tion proved quite successful, as, for some reason, the motor
parodies have generally escaped attention ; an animated, if informal,
discussion followed the Lecturer's readings, this facet of Kipling's
genius being found very amusing. Miss Phyllis Brooks gave some
exceedingly beautiful renderings of Kipling Songs : " Of all the Tribe
of Tegumai " and " The First Friend," both from the " Just So
Song Book " by Edward German ; she was heartily encored and
sang " Old Mother Laidinwool " by Martin Shaw ; her clear pro-
nunciation and lovely vocal quality were very greatly admired. She
was ably accompanied by Miss Dora Bright. As Miss Brooks had
to leave early, Mr. W. G. B. Maitland, Hon. Librarian, who proved
an excellent Chairman, asked Major E. Dawson to move a cordial
Vote of Thanks to the singer, which was carried with enthusiasm.
After the Discussion, Mr. R. E. Harbord, Member of Council, moved
the Vote of Thanks to the Lecturer :—" It is a very great pleasure
indeed to me to do this. I have had to do this more than once, but
never have I done it so readily and with so much real pleasure. Mr.
Bazley's Paper was delightful, his choice of the parodies marvellous,
and his beautiful reading has made some of them certainly mean more
to me than they did. I cannot read them myself at all, and it has
been a great joy to have them read so beautifully. I think we appreci-
ated it thoroughly, and I ask you to join with me in thanking Mr.
Bazley most heartily for his wonderful reading ; it is no easy task

THE  KIPLING  JOURNAL                           3

to read poetry aloud, and Kipling's Parodies are more difficult than
most. On your behalf I thank Mr. Bazley for his extremely inter-
esting afternoon."

X               X               X               X               X

A few more sources, to use a rather hard-driven word, of Kipling's
quotations have come to light.    F. E. Sawyer's Lecture on Sussex
Songs and Music (1885) contains the following six lines :—
I've bin to Plymouth and I've bin to  Doöver,
I've  bin  ramblin,   boys,   all   de  wurld  oöver,
Over,  and over,  and over, and oöver,
Drink up  your  liquor  and  turn  yur  cup  over.
Over and over,  and over,  and oöver.
De liquor's drink't up, and de cup is turned oöver.

Two lines of this, with a slight variation, are sung by Tom Shoe-
smith in  " Dymchurch Flit."

As a heading to " Soldiers Three " there are two lines :—
We   be   Soldiers   Three—
Pardonnez-moi  je  vous  en  prie.

This appears to be taken from " With Never a Penny of Money "
by Thomas Ravenscroft (1592-1635), the full first verse being :—
We   be   souldiers   three,
(Pardona moy ie vous an pree)
Lately come forth of the Low Country,
With  never  a  penny  of money.
Fa  la  la  la  lantido   dilly.

Both the above are to be found in " A Tankard of Ale " compiled
by Theodore Maynard, published by Erskine Macdonald, Ltd.
. .The heading to " On Greenhow Hill," commencing " To Love's
low voice she lent a careless ear," Kipling quotes from a poem called
" Rivals," which appears, with two more lines, in a little book named
" Hand in Hand : Verses by a Mother and Daughter." The two
authors are, of course, Kipling's mother and sister.

x            x         x         x         x

In 1919 the Rev. Frederic W. Macdonald wrote a book of recollec-
tions, in which there is much information about Kipling's family.
The author was the brother of Mrs. J. L. Kipling, and the title of
his book is, " As a Tale that is Told."    This title has a peculiar

4                         THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL

¦

significance, as the full quotation, " We spend our years as a tale
that is told," taken from Psalm 90, verse 9, was the text from which
the Rev. Joseph Kipling, Rudyard Kipling's paternal grandfather,
preached his final sermon.

x           x          x          x           x

At the Church of St. Dunstan-in-the-East the Master Parson, the
Rev. A. G. B. West, arranged a Memorial Service to Kipling on the
First Anniversary of our Master's passing away—a " First Commemor-
ation Thanksgiving for Rudyard Kipling." The great church was
filled with a congregation who were much impressed with the beauty
of the Service and the magnificent sermon by the Master Parson.
Among the hymns sung were three by Kipling : " Recessional," " Let
us now praise famous men," and " My New-Cut Ashlar." The
Precentor offered up a prayer, by Dr. Donne, for the Fairbridge
Farm Schools. The First Lesson, taken from Ecclesiasticus XLIV,
verse 1-15, was read by Mr. B. M. Bazley, Hon. Editor ; the Second
Lesson, taken from St. Luke X. 38-42, was read by Mr. J. H. C.
Brooking, Founder. Members of the Society formed a large part
of the congregation.

X            X            X            X            X

Since the publication of "Something of Myself" in the Morning
Post and in book form there has been much correspondence both
in the above journal and in the Daily Telegraph. Mr. G. C. Beres-
ford (M'Turk) started the ball rolling, and the President (Stalky)
has answered in the negative. Various others have joined in the fray,
" not without dust and heat," as Kipling says in " Stalky and Co."
The accuracy of certain statements in the Autobiography has been
questioned : we print one answer (from Captain Rayner), which
goes to show that Kipling's memory was generally more reliable than
that of the correspondents who correct him.

X                         X                         X                         X

From our President, who, we are glad to hear is now getting over
a severe bout of rheumatism, we have received a poem by Donald
Mackintosh entitled " Kipling Passes." It is a fine tribute to
the genius of our Master, and we hope to print it in a future
number.

X                X                X                 X                X

The well-known lecturer, Miss Ellen Bowick, is giving a lecture-

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                        5

recital on " Kipling : The Man and his Work " at Caxton Hall,
Westminster, on Thursday afternoon, April 30th. Tickets can be
obtained from the A. & N. Stores and the usual agencies.

Branch Reports

Victoria B.C., Canada. In spite of the holiday season, which
prevented some members of the Society from attending, the Members
and Kipling admirers turned out well for the annual dinner of the
Branch on the Author's birthday, December 30th. The Guest of
the evening was Mr. R. L. Reid, K.C., of Vancouver, who, as a con-
temporary of Kipling, gave some interesting reminiscences of the
past generation. Speaking of the vividness of Kipling's art Mr. Reid
said :—" I do not know of any other writer who can take an absolutely
improbable subject—one you know could never happen—and make
it so absolutely clear and distinct that you think you are looking at it."
In proposing the toast in memory of our Master Mr. Reid said :—
" To the Poet Laureate of the British Empire—no matter who holds
the English title." Among the songs and recitations given were :
"Merrow Down," "The Gipsy Trail," "Mandalay," "Back to
the Army Again," and " Eddi's Service," rendered by Miss Dorothy
H. White, Mr. K. W. Seymour, Mr. Arthur Jackman, Mr. James
McGrath and Mrs. W. J. Neal. During the past year this Society
has done its share of entertaining. A Kipling Night was given by
the President and some members to the Cathedral Men's Guild,
and a talk on Kipling was given by the President to the Young People's
Society of the United Churches, Oak Bay, Victoria.

M. Neal, Publicity Secretary.

Auckland, N.Z. Branch. This Branch celebrated its First Birth-
day at a Special Meeting of Members on December 9th, 1936, at
the Society of Arts Rooms which had been very beautifully decorated
by one of its members. There was a competition on titles of Kipling
poems, followed by the cutting of the Birthday Cake, which was adorned
with one candle and an elephant. A musical programme followed :
the Cyril Scott Suite, " The Jungle," for the piano, played by Miss
Parker ; " Mandalay," sung by Mr. Norman Boyes ; and leadings
of : " The King's Pilgrimage " by Miss Boult, " The Secret of the
Machines " by Miss Mackenzie, and " A Song of French Roads "

6                        THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL

by Mr. Townley Little. On September 29th, 1936, Mr. Norman
Boyes gave an exhaustive and clever Paper on " The Poetry of Kip-
ling," which brought out Kipling's idea of the British Empire as a

great   family.

Edith M. Buchanan, Hon. Secretary.

Manitoba, Canada. On the First Anniversary of the passing of
Rudyard Kipling a Meeting was held at St. Michael's Parish Hall ;
this was attended by many besides the members of the Branch.
The Hon. Secretary gave a very fine rendering of Kipling's " Justice,"
followed by the appropriate " L'Envoi." Owing to the opening of
the Manitoba Parliament, our President, General Ketchen, will be
fully occupied, so the Branch activities will be somewhat curtailed
for a time. A Vote of Thanks was expressed to the Headquarters
of the Society for a kind gift of Christmas Cards to Branch Members.

In reply to inquiries from Members abroad we mention that there
are three editions of Kipling's Poems (selections only), published by
Messrs. Methuen and Co., Ltd., Essex Street, Strand, London,
W.C.2. These are : " Twenty Poems " (1s.) ; " Selected Verse "
(1s.) ;  " A  Choice  of Songs "   (2s.).

Reviews and New Books

Something of Myself. Rudyard Kipling. (Macmillan, 7s. 6d.
and pocket editions). This posthumous book has been eagerly
awaited by all Kipling's readers, nor will it disappoint them. It is
of Kiplingesque brevity, it is interesting, it sheds light on many obscure
matters, and it is very readable ; the format matches the Uniform
Edition of the author's other works. There is much self-revelation
by one who was neither talkative nor egoistic. It comes as a shock
when we learn that the tale of " Baa Baa, Black Sheep " is a personal
reminiscence ; the dark years were broken only by a month's annual
holiday at the home of Lady Burne-Jones, who had no idea of the
state of things with her nephew :—" Often and often afterwards, the
beloved Aunt would ask me why I never told any one how I was being
treated. Children tell little more than animals, for what comes to
them they accept as eternally established. Also, badly-treated children
have a clear notion of what they are likely to get if they betray the

THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL                        7

secrets of a prison-house before they are clear of it." The final
remark on this subject is typical :—" In the long run these things,
and many more of the like, drained me of any capacity for real, per-
sonal hate for the rest of my days." " Stalky and Co.," which we
have always held to be a ' human document,' seems singularly true
in its characterisation ; even some of the more bizarre incidents do
not appear strange when we sense the Westward Ho ! atmosphere.
Cool judgment sways the reviews of his schooldays :—" Naturally,
Westward Ho ! was brutal enough, but, setting aside the foul speech
that a boy ought to learn early and put behind him by his seventeenth
year, it was clear, with a cleanliness that I never heard of in any other
school." And how true is his summary of bullying :—" The most
persistent bullying comes not less from the bigger boys, who merely
kick and pass on, than from young devils of fourteen acting in con-
cert against one butt." We shall value the Stalky tales even more
now that we have the author's imprimatur on their verity.

When at Lahore he tells us how he acquired that accuracy of detail,
for which he became famous ; he met at the Club only picked men
from every branch of Government service and remembered care-
fully their sayings when they talked shop :—" It follows then that
that ' show of technical knowledge ' for which I was blamed later
came to me from the horse's mouth, even to boredom." Literary
craftsmanship came to him in those days ; and we get a glimpse of
the dishonesty of governments when trying to gain their ends, and of
those servants who do what is asked of them against their convictions,
with their excuses ; these last are summed up as " all the Devil-pro-
vided camouflage for the sinner-who-faces-both-ways." This hatred
of dishonesty and insincerity always made Kipling rigidly honest
and frank with himself. He gives us the source of his plot for " The
Story of the Gadsbys "—how many of his contemporaries would
be great enough to acknowledge indebtedness to the work of others ?
The celebrated line in " The English Flag " he attributes to his mother,
who said to him :—" You're trying to say : " What do they know
of England who only England know.' " And how many could—or
would—have kept to this rule :—" I have never directly or indirectly
criticised any fellow-craftsman's output, or encouraged any man
or woman to do so." The young author is duly warned against the
drug of fulsome praise, oral or written. Of amusement there is plenty ;
it ripples all the way through, but breaks out triumphantly in the

8                        THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL

chapter on South Africa. Here it comes in waves over " The Absent-
Minded Beggar," a few Service scenes, and the ' atrocities ' discovered
by the  Little Englanders.

So we come to the record of life at Bateman's and the coming of
the motor-car ; this part is full of pleasant details and sayings. On
being asked what there was to do in the country, his reply is :—
" Everything except time to do it." Never a lioniser, Kipling does
not weary his reader with lists of eminent folk known or met. Refer-
ences drop in casually, when they have a bearing on the text : Mr.
Baldwin in the private capacity of a cousin ; Lord Dufferin talking
to him, ' deep calling to deep ;' Professor Saintsbury, " a solid rock
of learning and geniality whom I revered all my days." There is
more about Rhodes, of whom he saw much as a neighbour.

Very instructive is the ending, called " Working Tools." Our
Author tells how he dreamed of writing a really big novel ; he was dis-
suaded by the Father who " thought that the setting of my life and
work would be against it." He says, later, that " The Light that
Failed " (much liked in France) " was only a conte—not a built book.
Kim, of course, was nakedly picaresque and plotless—a thing imposed
from without." By implication we get an idea of his care in writing,
and of the need for rigorous revision :—" Mercifully, the mere fact
of writing was, and always has been, a physical pleasure to me. This
made it easier to throw away anything that did not turn out well :
and to practise, as it were, scales." He does not like the ' Higher
Critics ' of our times, and says so, with reasons. His standard for
his own work was high :—" Never play down to your public—not
because some of them do not deserve it, but because it is bad for your
hand." After perusing this remarkable swan song most readers
will probably regret that they never knew the author, one of the most
compelling  and attractive  personalities  of our epoch.

Rudyard Kipling in New England. Howard C. Rice. (Stephen
Day Press, Brattleboro, Vermont.). This is a charming little essay
about Kipling's life at " Naulakha " from 1892 to 1896, with the
events that lead Mr. and Mrs. Kipling to reside in Vermont. Kipling
in his Autobiography has covered some of the ground, but there are
many additional details in Mr. Rice's booklet :—" Here at Naulakha,
in sight of Monadnock, Kipling lived and worked until August,
1896.    Although he disliked any unnecessary invasion of his private

THE  KIPLING   JOURNAL                        9

life, he was the most genial and hospitable of hosts to those whom he
accepted as his friends." We get a glimpse of our Author's dramatic
aspirations :—" A small model theatre provided another diversion.
In this Kipling would manipulate the entrances and exits of paper
figures while discussing his ambition to write a play."

The Cinema
"Toomai of the Elephants" by Rudyard Kipling

The screen version of " Toomai of the Elephants " is Kipling's
Toomai plus a great deal of extra matter which, taken as a whole, make
up an entirely different story. What that story is, I must not divulge,
but it is cleverly conceived and executed, quite in harmony with
the Kipling tradition.

As a film, it is unquestionably a remarkable production for which
I see a great popular success. The little Indian boy who plays the
part of Toomai is a real discovery upon which Mr. Korda deserves
every congratulation. Kala Nag has to be seen to be believed and the
bond of sympathy and affection between the great elephant and this
little boy is most effectively shown. I cannot altogether approve
of Kala Nag running amok as that, I have always been led to believe,
is a habit confined to the opposite sex in elephants and at certain times
only, but as a spectacle it is magnificent and its dramatic termination
by Toomai will bring a lump into the throat of the most hardened.
We also see the legendary " Dance of the Elephants " and how Mr.
Korda produced that passes my comprehension.

With the exception of Petersen Sahib who has not been happily
cast, the film is quite outstanding. Whether it will inspire a taste
for Kipling amongst those in the vast audiences who have not read
him, I would not like to venture an opinion. But as grand spectacle
and as furnishing an example of some truly magnificent acting, it is
an entertainment which I cordially recommend to our most hardened
film-cynic and one which every member of the Kipling Society must
make a special point of seeing.

C. H. Robinson.

Obituary

We greatly regret to announce the death of Dr. George H. Locke,
a Vice-President of the Society. Dr. Locke was Chief Librarian of the
Toronto Public Library, a post he had held with distinction since 1908;

10                         THE KIPLING JOURNAL

he passed away or January 18th. He was always a keen reader of
Kipling and an authority on the works of our Master ; he was the
founder of the famous ' Kipling Room ' at the Toronto Library.

Kipling The Artist
By Arthur Hood (Mrs. Mends-Gibson)

IN addressing the members of the Kipling Society who know, of
course, so  much of his work, I must ask your forbearance if   I

touch on certain points that you are well acquainted with. But
perhaps you are not so aware that the modern youth disregards al-
together our great poet—will not allow that he is great at all. I have
been brought much in contact with modern verse writers—I do not
always allow them the title of poet. What spleen and anger they
display in discussing Kipling and his work ! But, personally, I do not
envy the intelligence that prefers the whistling from the sewer-haunted
pipes that many of the modern writers blow. My desire this evening
is to point out the art—the sensitive art—and the craftsmanship of
Rudyard Kipling. Now let us remember famous men. There
are certain writers in whose presence we feel that it is good for us
to be here—and this is as true of their memory as when they are alive.
We feel in the presence of Rudyard Kipling that it is good for us to
be here.

Rudyard Kipling was a man of great vitality and healthy enthusiasm,
which he expresses in virile language. He made himself one with
the ordinary people ; he wrote of them with the keen understanding
of an all-embracing humour.    He spoke truly when he said :—

"It   is   enough   that   through   Thy   Grace

I   saw   naught   common   on   Thy   earth."

" The people, Lord, Thy people, are good enough for me."

His marvellous sympathy embraced all.    Also he loved the animals :
are there any other lines concerning a dog so tender as these ?—
" I  have mostly done what most men do,
And pushed   it   out  of  my  mind;
But I can't forget, if I wanted to,
Four-feet trotting behind.

The simplicity of all things true is not disturbed by being described
by a man's brain without his heart :—" Little foot, light as the mari-
gold flowers, that might lie in the palm of a man's one hand."

D. H. Lawrence has had great praise for writing almost exactly
the same lines, but, as he wrote many years after Kipling, we must
allow that Kipling takes the palm.

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                       11

You will recollect how, recently, young Mr. Baldwin spoke very
slightingly of Kipling's works. Mary Postgate, far from being a
bitter and horrible story, is, I think, the hall-mark of the author's
genius, and his far-reaching comprehension and sympathy with
the heart of even a quite plain, poorly paid companion. But Mr.
Baldwin did not in the least see what our author visioned so under-
standingly, the tragedy of an ageing, unlovely old maid who uncon-
sciously had given her whole heart to a young airman.

And even while rejoicing in his poems one is continually recalling
the lovely rhythm of his prose. It has been said that his greatest
poetic art is to be found in his prose. In this he has been likened to
Thomas Hardy. Thomas Hardy's finest concepts are embodied in
his prose, certainly ; his poems mostly appear hard and declamatory.
But there the resemblance ends. Hardy had none of Kipling's faith
in humanity, or the love of his country that is so evident in Kipling.

As to Kipling's craftsmanship : his ear was acutely sensitive and he
could play on alliteration as a man plays on the harp. Listen to his
" Winds of the World, give answer !" And he makes of what has
been called the serpent letter " S " a musical echo, as when he makes
the North wind speak. It was his ear that caught the sounds. His
use of the letter " O " has been criticised, but, write the sounds as
you will, you will discover that Kipling's is the only way of using
that letter. And it is remarkable how he always chose plain, simple,
English words—almost Saxon words ; he very seldom introduced
into his poems words of different extraction ; or, as one suffers from
so much in the modern poets, extraordinary words that have about
fourteen syllables. It is a very arresting point to be remembered :
you may not perhaps care for the subject he has chosen, and may think
sometimes that he has a little of the banjo lilt in his verses ; yet you
will find it extremely difficult to alter any phrasing he uses without
destroying the intense sincerity and virility of the whole line. I
can imagine the humorous look he would have given anyone who
suggested that his consonants were a little hard, or that another word
might be more beautiful. " Yes," he would have said, " it would
certainly be more ladylike."

As a specimen of his work that is most haunting and pathetic,
in which he portrays the friendship of David and Jonathan in two
troopers, I will ask Miss Nancy Bayne to recite to you his " Ford o'
Kabul River."

12                         THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL

Kipling could also write a mystical poem, such as " Cold Iron."
He gives us, as it were, a ballad, yet you find yourself in the presence
of Christ. There are many mystical references in Kipling's poems,
yet he is so often remembered only as the author of the Barrack-Room
Ballads. But his Christ was no weak man, falling beneath the weight
of the cross, but a great Master that demands of His servants strength,
valour and endurance.

His " Sons of Martha." There is much that is true in this poem,
though Kipling for once seems to have wilfully shut his eyes to the
insight and power of the Visionary. St. John did more for Christ's
Church than St. Paul : without vision the people perish. But it
was the quality of endurance that Kipling rejoiced to discover, and
sang of—the endurance of the toiler, the pioneer, the man who has
a job to do and does it though he die in the doing of it. That is why
his death is so great a calamity in these days of wild diversion. To
Kipling the worth of a man lay in his work : he says in his homely
manner :—

" The wisest thing, we suppose, that a man can do for his land,

Is the work that lies under his nose, with the tools that lie under his hand."

Kipling seldom touched on love. He wrote very little about women
in his poems, but we remember his mention of the nurses in the
Boer War :—

" And the faces of the Sisters and the glory in their eyes,
and when they died—

". . . little wasted bodies, ah, so light to lower down."

He understood, too, the heart of a mother when he wrote :—
"If I were  hanged on the highest hill."    etc.

Undoubtedly there was something of the stern Puritan about
Kipling, which may account for the dislike that many express for his
work. Kipling stood for duty and loyalty—weakness and vanity
were his abominations. Love of his motherland and her children
flamed ever in his heart. In his later years he sang more of the whis-
pers in England's lanes and woods, and delighted in her folk lore.
We remember him chiefly as the singer of rough men, using their
language—or lack of language—but we also recollect how exquisitely
he introduced to us the beauties of the English countryside, as in
his poem " The Gipsy Trail," which I have asked Miss Bayne to
recite to you. After singing that delicious song, he reveals his extra-
ordinary wisdom in the poem called " Natural Theology."

THE  KIPLING  JOURNAL                       13

The finest stanza of the poem called The Rabbi's Song is typical
of his attitude towards broken and despairing souls. His manly
warning lest we allow our sorrows to affect others :—

" The arrows of our anguish
Fly farther than we guess."

His theory all through is that a man's heart is only destroyed when
he fears to face either his work or his duty. And consider how with
trumpets and shawms he wrote of the sea. " White Horses " is too
long to give you, and, in any case, too well known to you. If any
man deny that Rudyard Kipling had poetic craft, let him study these
poems and see how in these lines consonant after consonant, vowel
and vowel, fall easily into place.

But in the end we come back to our remembrance of the prophetic
force of this man of vision. Rudyard Kipling ever called on his
countrymen to remember the great heritage won for them by their
forefathers—not an inheritance of ease not the tearing about for amuse-
ment, but the stern, austere work that built up our Empire ; for this
is the ' Faith that the White Men held ' when they built their homes
afar—freedom for ourselves and freedom for our sons and, failing
freedom, War." We heartily need a Kipling to-day to speak in his
clarion tones to those fools who prate glibly of their enlightened
souls and who declare that it makes no difference whether our country—
" this dear land, this precious storm set in a silver sea"—be under
the Russ., or the Hun. or the Dago ; those who would sell their
birthright for a mess of pottage. Kipling strove to instil the nobleness
of toil, and of bearing the White Man's Burden. " For all we have
and are " expresses his deep conviction, and his message to his fellow-
countrymen. It was the overwhelming surge in his heart that caused
him to dwell upon it so insistently. In future years, when all classes
will talk like trim school-marms, our descendants, if they are still
British, will rejoice in Kipling's strong, rude language as we rejoice
in Chaucer. It was not only his command of simple words, but he
saw so differently. One becomes a little fatigued by the many des-
scriptions of woods and flowers, but his " belt upon belt, the wooded,
dim blue goodness " is so rich and perfect. And he had so many
qualities—his tenderness for little things, and—that which must
ever endear him to the English—his love of laughter and mirth.

Honours were offered to him, but were refused. And when he
died, Bernard Shaw could find nothing more to say than that Rudyard

14                       THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL

Kipling never grew up. And John Masefield, that he was a " writer
of short stories." This grudging half-praise of a great man, a great
author, a veritable poet, comes with very little grace from two such
men. We will try to be charitable and conclude that what the great
Irish scholar meant to convey was that those whom the gods love
die young, that Kipling could never be old. To quote Kipling's
own words, it could never be said of him " the lamp of our youth
will be utterly out." He kept the sovereignty of his mind until he
gave it back to his Lord, and stood to the very last a gentleman un-
afraid. In the words of a friend of his :—" So he passed, a great
man and a splendid friend. The Empire will mourn him, for he
understood our fellow citizens across the sea, and they understood
him. It is our grievous loss that we shall not hear that trumpet blast
blow out across our fields to refresh and encourage us." Kipling,
by reason of his art, his mighty great-heartedness, his wisdom and his
humour, his brave character, and his poetic craft, endears himself
to our memories the better we know, even by heart, his very words.
I will conclude by asking Miss Bayne to give you his " Recessional."

DISCUSSION

Mr. Fox, Bristol. We shall all forgive the lecturer for speaking
rather slightingly of " The Sons of Martha " for the whole of the
rest of her delightful paper, but I cannot resist the temptation to
point out what I have had to point out many times—that there is
nothing in the poem in the slightest degree against the spirituality
of Mary. And I would also point out to the ladies present that the
distinction is not between Mary and Martha, but between the sons of
Mary and the sons of Martha. And may I just quote the last verse
but one :—

" Raise ye the stone or cleave the wood to make

a   path   more   fair   or   flat ;
Lo, it is black already with blood some Son of

Martha   spilled   for   that !
Not as a ladder from earth to heaven, not as a

witness  to  any creed,

But  simple  service  simply  given to  his  own kind
in  their  common  need."

Now the next time our lecturer delights an audience with her beauti-
ful words, and her appreciation of our poet, I hope she will read the
poem again and perhaps look at it in a somewhat different light. In
my view, it is one of the most stirring poems that Kipling ever wrote.

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                         15

Mr. Bazley, Hon. Editor. I think we have had to-night what we
very seldom get : a reasoned appreciation. Mrs. Mends-Gibson's
knowledge of Kipling's work is very thorough but very true. Her
paper has been thoroughly delightful. Having had the privilege of
seeing a little of it before, I knew what we should get, and I have not
been disappointed. It is always pleasant to have one's t's crossed
and one's i's dotted in this very delightful way. Kipling has been
very much misquoted, and at times he had a great contempt for people
who wilfully misunderstood him. But I think perhaps he some-
times forgot that other people were not so well educated as himself.
He had the best of educations ; he was extraordinarily well read ;
and when he read, he took in what he was reading, and remembered it.
I recall one little thing in the matter of misquotations : Mr. Robert
Graves—one of the men who were very young when the war started,
wrote a little essay on Kipling—D. H. Lawrence wrote one on Gals-
worthy, equally bad. Grave's work on Kipling is not distinguished
for any kind of merit whatever, but I remember that he assigns the
" Land of Hope and Glory " to him. There is another interesting
thing brought out by Mr. E. V. Lucas, who compiled a little book
of letters from various eminent people—among them one from Kipling.
He had written to Kipling asking the meaning of a certain line in
" The Islanders "—' Idle, except for your boasting—and what is
your boasting worth. If ye grudge a year of service to the lordliest
life on earth !" Mr. Lucas wrote, " I do not think this means exactly
what the critics have said ; they appeal to think it means conscription
straight away—I think you must have some other explanation."
Kipling wrote in answer, that if the critics would read two lines further
on, they would see his meaning was that all this wealth and comfort
in England was worth a struggle to preserve—he did not mean that
everyone should rush forward and shout ' Hoch.'

Mr. Beresford. About this abuse of Kipling, and hostility in
his critics.

All modern poets are downing Kipling because he gets in their
light—they always do it : and they will praise some obscure, hopeless
person, because there is no chance of his getting in front of them.
It is very wise, it helps them in their little bit of work. As to mis-
quotations : you will always find that if there is anything at all gushing,
the average ignorant person will put it down to Kipling.    As to Bern-

16                       THE  KIPLING  JOURNAL

ard Shaw saying that he never grew up—of course we know he only
said this to keep the accusation off himself ; he is always saying it
of somebody—because he has never grown up himself. Kipling's
simplicity came from his being mentally and always practical. He
avoided long, extraordinary words, or pretty words ; he had worked
through them all, a forest of them, and come out at the other end.
When the Barrack-Room Ballads were published, they put him down
as a chap who wrote about the Lahore Bazaar !

Mr. Brooking. (Founder). Mrs. Mends-Gibson's paper has so
many sides to it that it is very difficult to think of any one that is
worth more than another. But one point I would emphasize as worth
considering is, that Kipling sometimes wrote very poor stuff. I do
not think I am quite alone in that opinion, and I would like to quote
from a letter from my most esteemed friend, Mr. Fox, who wrote
me in 1934. " Kipling has published some 1,500 or 1,600 poems.
It must be admitted that many are second-rate, some possibly third
or fourth rate ; but this very same might be said of all great poets,
from Shakespeare downwards." This may be controversial, but
it is anticipated that there will be published shortly an entire complete
edition of Kipling. With that in view (one might see the publishers
and ascertain whether it is likely to come out this year, or next year),
I have a suggestion to make to the publishers for their consideration
when it is likely to come out. That suggestion is, that there should
be one complete book of everything that Kipling has written, and
another in which there is only the best of what he has written ; and,
in my humble opinion, only about 20 per cent. of what he has written
would be eligible to go into the latter book. It has been suggested,
if the publishers agreed, that the proof be submitted to a Quality
Committee of this Society, and that they should go through it and
put down those items which they suggest might be included in this
final summary of his best poems, and cut out those not worthy of it.
I have had that in mind, and have been going through my books,
scratching some things out, querying others. I think this might be
the subject of a paper, and possibly a subject for general discussion
by at least those of our members who have gone into Kipling perhaps
more deeply than others.

Mrs. Mends-Gibson, replying : I did not mean to disparage
the ' Sons of Martha,' and I was very glad to have it pointed out that

THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL                       17

it was the sons, not the women—they generally get the blame. But
I do admire the poem. Perhaps Mr. Beresford remembers that
one of the poets said that it was a very good thing that he
had finally disposed of Milton as a poet ! Miss Sitwell has
said of her brother's poem that it was the finest poem in the Eng-
lish language that had been written for over a century ! I rather
disagree with Mr. Brooking when he says that only about 20 per cent.
of Kipling's verse would be eligible to be included in a book of the
best things he has written. Every poet, as he said, has some poor
lines—even   Shakespeare   wrote :—

Never was a tale of greater woe
Than that of Juliet and Romeo.

I do not feel that Kipling has erred quite so greatly. We may not
be able to consider that some of his Barrack-Room Ballads are actually
poetry, but they show an extraordinary insight into life. Let us
allow at least 70 per cent.—I should go into great mourning if only
20 per cent. were included.

Mr. Fox. May I speak again ? Mr. Brooking is the founder of
this Society, and if there is one man in the room who would not de-
preciate Kipling, it is Mr. Brooking. What he means, I think, and
what I meant, was that there would be 20 per cent. of Kipling's verse
that would stand by the side of anything that has ever been written
in this world, whereas the other 70 or 80 per cent. is far above any-
thing that has been written in the last forty years by anyone else, but
perhaps is not so great as his greatest. I am quite sure neither Mr.
Brooking nor I would depreciate anything that came from our master.

Mr. Beresford (again). I entirely agree. All these epics—these
plays, I simply cannot read them. Browning's The Ring and the
Book, or whatever it is called ; these Hyperions, Queen Mab, etc., I
get lost in about three pages—they are no use to me at all.

The Chairman. I believe I am voicing the opinion of everybody
here when I say we have been extraordinarily delighted with what
we have listened to from our speaker—all she has said, her pregnant
suggestions, and the way in which she has led us on to think upon
and to remember the really more important parts of the work of the
man with whom we are dealing, and whom I, I suspect as long as any-
one, have revered as a master. I feel I ought to make an apology
for being in this position : I tried to keep out of it, for I am the youngest
member of the Society.

18                       THE  KIPLING  JOURNAL

I have been not a little interested in hearing the comparative dis-
cursiveness of our subject. I set out thinking to myself that we were
going to have something that would carry me right out of my depth,
and, in one way, we have done so. For this lady has got Kipling's
music. I have wondered wherein lay his extraordinary power. One
would hardly say it was in his style. I suppose Bacon is the man
who has laid down the question of style once and for all. My feeling
about style is that quite a number of books live by their style rather
than by their contents. It is a sad thing to reflect upon, but I suspect
that the poetry of Isaiah, the language of the Bible, has had quite
as much to do with its popularity as some of its stern doctrines.

I was glad the lecturer laid stress on the enormously deep religious
teaching of our man. Kipling has taught us better than any other
man the nobility of tackling your own job and making a success of it.
And I am so glad that now we have a society which is going to encour-
age people to look at, to study and learn—not to over-value and not
to spill over in unnecessary laudation—but to esteem and to thank
God for such a life.

I would like to thank the lecturer again for her paper. And I must
add, what I think we all feel, that we should not have enjoyed it quite
so much if she had not had such a charming lady to recite to us.

Another Speaker. I think you have still missed one point—we
should say, such an efficient reciter as well as charming lady. Her
reciting was exquisitely beautiful. We have had recitations in the
past, but no reciter who has given us such a beautiful rendering of
Kipling's   works.

Kipling and Yorkshire
By Dr. Vaughan Bateson
"Two things greater than all things are.
The first is Love, and the second War"

and Rudyard Kipling has also said, " Let a fellow sing o' the little
things he cares about." This, is the only apology I have to offer
for  claiming  your attention  to-night.

Even in the early Twenties Kipling was in the forefront of world
writers ; he conquered the reading public by his youthful tales. He
brought India to England with a series of pictures unsurpassed even
to-day by the cinema.    Decade after decade he has continued to

THE  KIPLING   JOURNAL                        19

portray all kinds of men, country and animals.

Let us, then, try to investigate the origins of this great master of
words, this ' Teacher of the Alphabet,' as he called himself. Each
man is the product, firstly of his inheritance, secondly of his environ-
ment, and thirdly, of the experiences that have influenced his character.
But genius is elusive and not to be treated as something ordinary
or common—it pertains to the fourth dimension of space. At a
very early age Kipling proved himself the master of the heart of man
and the soul of things—he wrote always as though he saw his char-
acteis from within rather than from without. He never wrote with-
out absolute sincerity about anything; he was always so transparent
and sincere ; we find in his works the self-revelation which is the best
key to the artist and can be verified by his subjects. How a young
man could express the experiences of an old Indian official—to the
alarm and amazement of the Government—as he did in " One Viceroy
Resigns," or depict the poignant atmosphere of " The Galley Slave,"
is a miracle. And all Anglo-Indians were thrilled to tears by " Christ-
mas in India."

Kipling never wrote anything in a careless manner, he was always
conscientious and painstaking, and found nothing too difficult or
tedious to ensure accuracy, perfection and truth—" By the wisdom
of the centuries I speak to the tune of yester morn I set the truth."
And re-reading gives us more and more the knowledge, delight and
charm which is the magic of his works. Such a world-wide appeal
and varied sympathy with the heart of humanity cannot belong to
any one time or place—he was " a man akin to all the universe."
Let us consider the influences which produced this magician of words.

Born, as you know, in Bombay, between the Palms and the Sea,
where the world-end steamers wait, he imbibed the world spirit, and
was free from any petty mentality, which was always abhorrent to
him. Varied were his early experiences, and his great originality
was doubtless due to the fact that he had to think for himself at a
very early age, among strangers and foreign races. You have in the
Memorial number a fair epitome of Rudyard Kipling's family, and
I think you will agree that while such a genius belongs to the Empire,
to the world of great minds, yet no part owns so great a share in his
origin as the County of Broad Acres.

Kipling is an old Yorkshire name—I know many who are related to
him,—and Rudyard Kipling did not forget " the rock out of which

20                        THE  KIPLING  JOURNAL

he was hewn." The Records of Yorkshire go back to very early days.
Kipling in the parish of Catterick, was the home of the Baltimore
family who left in 1633 to found Baltimore, U.S.A., and not very
far from Richmond, where Kipling's ancestors chiefly lived. Kipling
Cotes is the oldest, longest, and most gruelling of horse races in England,
it has been run for more than four centuries—it originated in 1519—
and is still run on the Yorkshire Wolds. Kipling's great great grand-
father came from Bedale, Richmond. There were also members of
the family near Barnard  Castle.

While most of the Kiplings stuck to their farms and their estates,
we hear of one Thomas who was Dean of Peterborough in 1798.
And a son of William Kipling, a cattle salesman, was educated at
Scruton, went to St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1764 and became
a Fellow in 1770, and D.D. in 1784. In 1800, we find at Lythe, a
little North of Whitby, a Wesleyan Methodist Church presided over
by John Kipling. In this village lived Kipling's great grandfather,
spoken of as a " good, upright man, but sadly too fond of a joke."
He had two sons, the eldest of which, Joseph, was born at Lythe
in 1805. Joseph was of a serious, studious disposition, and, in-
fluenced by his mother, soon became a local preacher. He entered
the Methodist Ministry in 1831. A few years later he married Frances,
daughter of William Lockwood, of Cleveland, North Yorkshire, a
grand-daughter of Peter Murray. It was through this Peter Murray
that the name Lockwood came to John Lockwood Kipling. ' This
was a very happy union, because the shrewd common sense and
practicability of Frances as a housewife many times helped to over-
come difficulties in those rough days. She is spoken of as an old-
fashioned Puritan saint, with a face like a chaste cameo and a mystic
light in her eye, who kept her clear intellect, charm and humour up
to the date of her death. Joseph Kipling possessed a voice of rare
sweetness, and music was his delight. He was also keenly interested
in nature and his garden was his hobby. He was never of robust
health. He died at Skipton in 1862, and is buried in Old Raikes
Churchyard. He and his wife had spent all their ministerial life
in Yorkshire.

These, then, were Rudyard Kipling's grandparents, and I have no
hesitation in submitting that his sense of proportion, his sane, healthy
outlook on life, his love of truth, associated with a strong Puritan strain,
came to him from these Yorkshire worthies.    He deals with senti-

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                         21

ment but is never sentimental ; his humour never degenerates into
farce ; and his clean, sane dealing with sexual matters is a refreshing
change from modern ways. His tragedy keeps free from morbid
romance, and his constant acceptance of toil—toil under all conditions—
is exactly that of a Yorkshire farmer with his ever urgent duties.

Kipling was christened Joseph Rudyard Kipling, his first name after
his grandfather. Under the name of "Yussuf " he wrote in Mac-
millan's Magazine in 1890 The Ballad of the King's Jest and The
Ballad of East and West.

Much water has flowed under London Bridge since young Rudyard
Kipling spent his holidays at Skipton ; the last visit I can trace was in
August, 1883. He would then be 17 years old. Yet through all
his wanderings his impressions remained so clear that many years
afterwards he could write, in "On Greenhow Hill," "Rumbolds Moor
stands over Skipton Town." Amongst the relations with whom he
spent his holidays was his uncle Burne Jones, who was very encouraging
to him, and of whom it was written that he had a great interest in the
family :—" he gave us eyes to see that beauty is truth, truth beauty."

But he who wrote with such fluid, wistful, catchy cadency—words
that haunt the hearer with their music and magic, also wrote :—
" Remember that in all the millions permitted there are no more than
five—five little lines—of which one may say ' These are the pure
magic. These are the clear Vision. The rest is only poetry.' "
It was his constant consciousness of the vision that made his works
inspired as those of Shakespeare and sacred Script. Such vision
comes only to the elect who worship in the Temple. Many are the
Wandbearers but few are the chosen.

It was in 1868 that Kipling's father and mother came to England,
where his sister Alice was born. They returned to India again in
1872, coming back to England in 1877, when Rudyard was about
eleven years of age. Kipling had been very unhappy and I think
undoubtedly Baa Baa Blacksheep is a portrayal of circumstances which
he had endured. If any confirmation of this idea is needed, in 1907,
when addressing young graduates at Montreal, he tells the same tale
as a personal experience :—" Some of you here know and I remember,
that youth can be a season of great depression, despondencies, doubts,
waverings, which are all the worse because they seem to be peculiar
to ourselves. There is a certain darkness into which the soul of a
young man sometimes descends, a horror of desolation, abandonment,

22                         THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL

and realised worthlessness, which is one of the most real of the hells
in which we are compelled to walk—I know of what I speak—due to
a variety of causes, the chief of which is egotism. At least believe
you are not of sufficient importance to be taken too seriously by the
Powers above or beneath us. In other words, take anything or every-
thing seriously except yourselves."

Another piece of pure autobiography is when he describes a hot night
in the printing office in India.

A tale of Yorkshire interest is found in Plain Tales from the Hills.
" A Bank Fraud."    You will remember the ' Natural Curiosity from
England in the Accountant line.'—the rawboned Yorkshireman, Mr.
Silas Riley.    Kipling was interested in the Yorkshire dialect, but never
felt he really mastered it.    He also understood and was interested in
the Yorkshire mentality. Years ago, in the uncollected matter on the
Kipling Calendar that came out in 1900, I found this :—
" Will a North countryman give you anything
but warm hospitality for nothing ? ...
....    Anything but brass is his motto."

Bradford was the place in " On Greenhow Hill " where the famous
Yorkshire soldier, Learoyd, enlisted. Close to the city boundary
is the Woodhouse Grove School, and there it was that his father,
Lockwood Kipling, and his grandfather on the Macdonald side re-
ceived their education.

I cannot possibly do justice in a few words to the diamond of genius,
with its many facets and multicoloured rays that shone through the
eyes and brain of Rudyard Kipling. The common round, the daily
drudgery of life is lit with sparkles which none had noticed until his
brilliance shone upon it. He showed the knowledge of duty well
done as a thing sublime. A virile writer, every phrase pregnant with
suggestion. When one considers his early tales, one realises how high
he stands among men of genius, and will stand as long as man needs
such writing on the mystery of his own race.

A good deal of his work went into the waste paper basket. It is
said that he destroyed a whole book after it had been actually printed.
He had asked a friend, Mr. Robert Barr, what he thought of it. " As
good as Plain Tales" replied the friend. " Not better ?" asked Kip-
ling. " No." " Then it won't be published." The book has been
called " The book of one hundred mornings " This seems rather
incredible to me, as I think Kipling was too sensible to do such a
thing on impulse.

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                         23

Kipling had a great many Yorkshire characteristics. A few that
strike one are—his great humility and abhorrence of self-advertisement
—very obvious in his Yorkshire relatives to-day. His superhuman
industry, devotion to duty, and capacity for infinite painstaking to
produce a true picture. Real Yorkshire traits. His courage is another
outstanding characteristic. It required great courage to face the
frantic attacks of political opponents, none did more than he to sus-
tain the morale of the beleaguered town in the South African War.
His intimate knowledge of horses and dogs—typically Yorkshire.
No dog lover has ever approached the expression given in the poem
"The power of the dog" of what so many thousands have felt. His
intimate knowledge of all the books of the Bible ; of the works of
John Bunyan, and of Defoe (who created the famous mariner of York
City, Robinson Crusoe.) His Holy War was a trumpet blast in 1917—
pure  Pilgrim's Progress.

His hatred of idleness, frivolity, and waste of words—very typical
of the county of broad acres. His belief in a personal Deity. His
old-fashioned respect of parents and home life. He dedicated his
first real book to his mother, and to his father he pays a very high tri-
bute in the preface to Life's Handicap.

The first book he published, when quite a young man—Depart-
mental Ditties—was at first brought out merely done up in a brown
paper cover, stitched to look like a Government envelope, printed
on one side only, and tied round with red tape. Although there
were other editions, Kipling said that " he loved it best in that form,
like a little brown baby with a pink string round its stomach, a child's
child, afflicted with all its infantile ailments."

I think Kipling's bad eyesight had a very important influence
upon him. It prevented him from playing games (without spectacles
he was very nearly blind), and therefore he was thrown into an intro-
spective frame of mind. At an early age he had to quickly unravel
the partial pictures which he got of his environment. He was a good
swimmer, and did some fishing. I do not think he was ever a horse-
man, in spite of The Maltese Cat, that wonderful description of the
polo pony. Nor was he a cricketer ; and he did not drive his own
motor car. In The Light that Failed we get repeated his experience
of going blind. But right down to the bottom of his mind Kipling
was an optimist ; he always looked on the bright side of things. To
his friends he was a fascinating figure.   Many great men are dis-

24                       THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL

appointing to those admirers who meet them in the flesh, but it was
not so with Kipling, he struck you at once as a man of character ;
one's first impression was that he should be building bridges and
battleships—a typical man of action lather than of thought. It has
been said that he was austere, but this is not at all true. He has been
maligned when described as difficult and brusque ; he was one of the
most sympathetic men that ever lived, and of very acute intuitive power.
When those blue eyes pierced the shade of the shaggy brows and he
blamed with his magnetic look of kindly personality, all feeling of
severity vanished. But he was not interested in keeping a proper
crease in his trousers ; and he was a man with a message for the
world, and had to be free from constant interruptions.

Unless a man is frittering away his soul, or steeped in bestiality,
Kipling must surely send his thoughts far afield from this material
hurly-burly of things. He sang of our heritage of King and Empire,
as well as of that young generation who in our time died for country
and freedom. Kipling was above all the interpreter of the English
ideas to the English themselves, just as his cousin Stanley Baldwin
is the type of true Englishman at the present time. In these times
much that is good gets swept away, but Kipling's fame will endure
because, above all others, he made real to his fellows the romantic
traditions of their race. He sang a new pride and a wider view, a
nobler manhood, into the Victorian times, and brought the romance
of the Elizabethan age into modern times. We may justly say, " Living
he was the land, and dead, his soul shall be her soul."

DISCUSSION

Chairman. I am sure we are most deeply grateful to Dr. Vaughan
Bateson for his wonderful paper. I shall not take up time because
I want everybody to speak, but just take my own share. The Doctor
has welcomed me into the Clan of Yorkshiremen because he knows
a family of the same name as mine. I feel it a great honour. Dr.
Bateson mentioned the tale A Bank Fraud : being a Bank man, I
am very glad it was the accountant who was the Yorkshireman—the
Manager was probably a Northerner.

Mr. Bazley. I should like to mention one little point on the an-
cestry of Kipling that was dug out by a Mr. Percy Kipling of Liverpool
—no relation—in tracing the family line. Some Kiplings he found
in the far West Riding, almost on the Lancashire border.    He traces

THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL                         25

them back again into Westmorland, then into Cumberland, and I
believe there is a trace of them in South West Northumberland. The
only point of interest I have to tell is that there are several Kiplings,
so he says, still living near Kirkby Stephen, Westmorland, just over
the  county boundary.

Mr. Griffin. I think we will all agree that Dr. Vaughan Bateson
has given us a very delightful revelation of a Yorkshireman. Perhaps
the title of his paper was a little misleading. Not being a Yorkshire-
man, although I know Catterick very well, I thought perhaps this
evening would not be anything like as interesting as it has been. I
think others must have felt the same or there would have been a larger
attendance. One small point I would like to raise in reference to
what the lecturer has said about Baa Baa Blacksheep. Is there any
ground for thinking that in his youth Kipling went through the kind
of thing portrayed ? It is new to me. It cannot have gone on very
long. When he went to Westward Ho ! he had a very different atmo-
sphere, and one with a very different mentality to what is conjured up
in the Baa Baa Blacksheep story.

Mr. Brooking. I would like to join with Mr. Griffin in what he
has said. None of us anticipated such an excellent lecture—such
a lot of information about Mr. Kipling's early days and ancestors.
Perhaps we thought we should hear more of Learoyd and the items in
Kipling's writings that deal with Yorkshire : we have been very agree-
ably  disappointed.

The paper must have been particularly interesting to everybody
whether from Yorkshire or, like us, the ' lesser breeds without the
law.' I feel very pleased that I have been able to see the home of
the minister in Lythe. I am sorry to say it has been altered, or re-
constructed, so much that there is practically nothing left of the old
place. There were two neighbouring houses, Kipling's grandfather's
house and another. The man next door has got both now, and has
altered them in a very pleasant, up-to-date way and has let the
other. Their present state is nothing at all like when Kipling's
grandfather lived there.

The fact that Kipling's birthday book has a lot of uncollected matter
in it is of great interest. I have one with Kipling's signature on his
birthday that I got nearly thirty years ago—it makes it even more
valuable to know that it contains a lot that is uncollected.

26                        THE  KIPLING  JOURNAL

Mr. Maitland, proposing a vote of thanks to the lecturer, said :
I do not think I have ever listened to a more interesting lecture on Kip-
ling than I have to-night. The title was certainly, if not frightening—
perhaps that is the wrong word to use—intriguing. I did not know
what it meant, because I did not think Kipling spent many of his days
in Yorkshire, although he wrote a great deal about it. His ancestry,
we know, came from Yorkshire. But, as the lecture went on, I began
to see how very interesting it was going to be.

Dr. Vaughan Bateson, replying : I appreciate very greatly
the kind words said. I feel very apologetic because, unfortunately,
I have been very rushed and have been unable to concentrate on put-
ting my ideas together. Not having Kipling's genius of concentration,
I have had to miss out a great deal. I always felt it a great piece of
good luck to have met Rudyard Kipling—whenever I did, we always
seemed to be absolutely in harmony. And we, this Society, are here
together because we realise what a great genius, what a great light,
came to us. I hope the Society will be able to keep that light burning
more and more brilliantly as the years go by.

Miss Florence Macdonald has kindly produced her photographs
(rare) of R.K.'s Mother, and Sister at my request, and I believe for
the first time.

[The following unsigned article appeared in the St. James's
Gazette, about the same time as " The Battle of Rupert Square,"
which is known to be a Kipling story. The two together have
lain in Sir George MacMunn's scrapbook for forty years. It is
in the same style and episode as " The Jacket," when " the
Captain waved a corkscrew in 'is 'and," the said captain being one
Dalbiac of the R.H.A., famous on the Pink 'Un's staff as the Trea-
sure. Poor Treasure ! killed with the Yeomanry at Senekal,
in the Orange Free State in 1900.]

X2 R.H.A.

HER Majesty's Horse Artillery are supposed to go everywhere
cavalry can, and do everything cavalry can't.    This is contra-
dicted by the cavalry, but the Horse Artillery believe it twice
as much to make up for the deficiency.    And in this manner do the
various arms and services adapt themselves brotherly.    Further a
battery of Horse Artillery is divided into three ' divisions ' of two guns

THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL                       27

each, and each division is commanded by a subaltern. A major
and a captain do their best to control the subalterns, and become
prematurely grey-haired in the process, because Artillery subalterns,
when not on garrison duty, are singularly lively young gentlemen.
Lieutenant Julian Osprey had never been on garrison duty in his
life ;1 he commanded the third division of X2 R.H.A., and looked
down on the world including the cavalry from the saddle of a 16.2
charger of imperfect manners. The reaction of much severe study
at Woolwich had affected him singularly. He preserved externally
the gravity of a pious young Lieutenant of Engineers, he was filled
with the ambitions that attack a subaltern of irregular horse. He
should never have entered the Artillery.

Fate brought him his opportunity at an inconvenient moment. His
battery was refitting after a campaign, in an Eastern town that was
flowing with efficient substitutes for milk and honey ; and the men
were enjoying themselves very much indeed, when the order came for
Lieutenant Julian Osprey to take his division very far afield, and after
the manner of the English to attack the Children of the Lost Foot-
steps, with two nine-pounder guns and all the audacity that he was
possessed of. The Children had been too active of late, and were
to be chastised. And since it was probable that the Children would
take their chastisement standing up, Lieutenant Osprey was to be
particularly careful that he was well supplied with case-shot, which
is a highly specialised form of projectile, very useful up to four hundred
yards and something like a bee-hive with the dome cut off. When it
is necessary to use case-shot against a civilized enemy, the gunner
usually shakes hands with his neighbour and says " goodbye Bill."

The Children of the Lost Footsteps were not civilised and had a
veneration for ' case ' which is shared by many savage people.

So the Lieutenant trotted forth, with thirty-six rounds of ammuni-
tion, eight common and twenty-eight shrapnel shell in the limbers of
his guns, and four rounds of case on the axletree boxes of each gun,
according to the regulations. The division, by reason of past casual-
ties lacked men more than material. Exclusive of horse holders,
there were about five men per gun, but there was a mounted escort
to be picked up somewhere in the desert.    The Lieutenant would

1 The writer means service in the Garrison or Fortress Branch of
the Artillery.

28                         THE   KIPLING  JOURNAL

have hammered Metz on these terms, and so would his men. The
Children of the Desert, received him with acclamations, for two H.A.
guns, look very much of no account on a field of yellow sand. The
escort had managed to misunderstand their orders, and were hunting
for the Lieutenant in remote parts. Being of a methodical turn of
mind, Osprey opened fire with great deliberation at a medium range
of 2,200 yards, slow time, common shell, to get the elevation. This
disgusted the Children and they retired, antwise, behind an embank-
ment that they had scraped together.

After a decent interval, the big blind eye of a forty pounder Krupp
peered over that slope, and began to roll its socket. The Children
were provided with all the accessories of an advanced civilization ;
but when their warning shell pitched a hundred yards to his rear,
Lieutenant Julian Osprey only murmured, " Be-ewtiful ! Be-ewtiful !
give her another three degrees elevation, No. 1," and a nine pound
billet doux, curled gracefully over the embankment, and did its business
out of sight.

But as the long hot morning wore on, and there was no sign of the
support, and the sun began to flay them under their temples and in
the napes of their necks, the gunners looked at the drivers and the
drivers looked at the swarming Children of the Desert, and they all
looked at the Lieutenant sitting upon his mare, who was pricking her
ears at the puffs of sand that almost blew in her face.

" Beg pardon, Sir !" said a much privileged bombardier, " but we
can't  'old  'em,   Sir.    Hadn't  we  better. ..."

" Try case," said the Lieutenant ; and the men stared, for the
nearest of the enemy were still 800 yards away. But they swung
the lids of the axle-tree boxes back, and when they saw what was
beneath they were contented. For it was Heidsieck Dry, and a little
Perriet Jouet, and Kinahan's LLL, and Christopher and Grant's
Morella Cherry Brandy. It has been explained that that Eastern
town was  flowing with milk and honey.

The enemy fired ; but there was no reply from the battery for ten
minutes, though the limber was speckled with grey bullet splashes,
and a No. Three lay white and gasping across the guard irons of his
seat.    Then the last two rounds of shrapnel went off together.

" And now " said the Lieutenant, " There are no more projectile
for the guns. We had better use the guns as projectiles. Prepare
to mount !   This is a German manoeuvre."

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                         29

But it was English, quite English. The drivers had each a bottle
and a half of Heidsieck under their belts, the limber gunners were ablaze
with LLL. and the horse holders rocked in their saddles under the
combined influence of a blazing sun, and nips of cherry brandy.
It struck them all as the most natural thing in the world that they
should move on, first at a walk, then at a trot, and then at a gallop.
The Children were about 400 yards away waiting, chiefly behind a
low wall. They observed first, the advance of the guns, and later,
just when they were preparing to laugh, a cloud of dust most like to
the spray that a steamer makes when she drives into a heavy sea.
There was a scuffle, the cracking of whips, the struggle of a fallen
horse, and the two guns came through the wall in two separate places,
and the revolvers of the drivers began to work merrily. That was
enough for the Children. The broad gunwheels were ploughing into
their backs, as they ran towards their cherished Krupp, just in time
to run afresh as the gun swung on its platform and, with more skilled
rangefinders, fired into its late owners, while a nine-pounder gun and
limber was dancing a driving competition figure of eight, among the
fugitives,  to  a funereal crackling of whips.

Then the delayed cavalry escort came up, the Commandant saw the
track of the gun wheels, and the holes in the wall.

" Do you mean to tell me you came that way ?" said he.

" Go everywhere that cavalry can " began Lieutenant Julian Osprey
" and . . . but we're glad you came.    We'd run out of case."

When the cavalry and guns went back together, they passed in the
desert one dead gunner, and a pile of scattered champagne and whiskey
bottles lying on the desolate sand.

" Ah !" said the commandant of cavalry, " Now I begin to see, it
strikes me that you ought to get the V.C., and a court martial."

" Shan't get either," said the Lieutenant, and he never did.

Letter Bag

You will doubtless remember that in the last paragraph of my paper
on " Epitaphs " in the September issue of the Journal, I asked that
if any other members knew of other Epitaphs than those which I
had mentioned, I would like to hear of them. In response to this
appeal, I received a very kind letter from Lady Crewe, of East London,
C.P., South Africa, of which this is the important extract :—

" I wondered if you knew that he (R.K.) wrote the epitaph on



30                          THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL

the Memorial to the Alan Wilson   Patrol whose bodies were taken
to the Matopos, and are buried near Cecil Rhodes' grave, and
Dr   Jameson's.    The words are as follows :—
'TO   BRAVE   MEN.'

(and below)

' There   was   no   survivor.'

You can see the stern economy of the wording, and realise even
that " There were no survivors " would mean and sound quite differ-
ently. Each word falls like a relentless blow, or the stroke of a great
bell, and makes one shiver. Long ago, not knowing the author-
ship, but after visiting the Memorial, I spoke to Mrs. Kipling of the
Epitaph, and she told me then, that Mr. Kipling had written it, and
that he would be pleased to know that it had thus moved one reader,
as that was just the effect an Epitaph should have."

C. H. Milburn, Colonel.

" Plain Tales from the Hills "—Presentation Copy to the Lady of

the Dedication.

In Miss Macdonald's article on Kipling's father and mother, which
appeared in The Journal, No. 39, September, 1936, she mentions
that Mrs. Fleming told her that in the copy which he gave his mother
he wrote " To the Lady of the Dedication from her unworthy son."
As I happened to have possessed the copy that Kipling presented
to the Lady of the Dedication, may I say that the inscription thereon

was as follows :—

" To the Lady of the Dedication, in sign of service the writer sends
this little book, praying that she will forgive a hundred faults. January,
88." The facsimile of this inscription can be seen in the large paper
issue of my Bibliography, as also can the inscription in the copy which
Kipling gave to his parents, which also was in my possession. The
latter inscription is as follows :—
" Jan. 88.   To Father and Mother from Ruddy who wrote it all by

himself :—                                                                 .

" But we brought forth and reared in hours

Of change, alarm, surprise,
What shelter to grow ripe is ours,
What leisure to grow wise ?"

The Presentation copy to the Lady of the Dedication was sold by

auction in New York on 16th January, 1928 for 5,000 dollars-over

£1,000.                                                               E. W. Martindell.

THE   KIPLING   JOURNAL                         31

With reference to the recent correspondence in the Daily Tele-
graph, I have known York, Pickering, and Malton and the Wolds
Country all my life.—over 60 years anyhow. There are Kiplings
who can give proof of Holy Writ of their relationship to our one and
only R.K. still in the neighbourhood. The incident of York Station
is as true as the needle to the Pole. When I was a youngster the out-
side of the Station as a parking place was one of the sights of York
on Saturday market day. Eheu fugaces. " To him (Mulvaney)
turned for help and comfort six and a half feet of slow-moving, heavy-
footed Yorkshireman, born on the wolds, bred in the dales, and edu-
cated chiefly among the carriers' carts at the back of York railway-
station. His name was Learoyd. . . .         This is remarkable
certainly, to me as a Yorkshireman who knew York over 60 years ago,
and knows also the Wolds where Learoyd was born. Up to the
coming of the tramway past York Station, and the consequent con-
gestion of space in the roadway, carriers' and farm wagons, and country
people's dog-carts and similar conveyances used the space outside
the covered carriage-way to the Station as a ' parking ' place, thus
saving baiting expenses. Doubtless Learoyd came in with some cart
from the country ; he would pick up here much lore and education
of a sort that would be useful in later life. Kipling came to the York
district as a young man. It is remarkable that he recollected the
carriers' wagons behind York Station as I do, and very many York
people who possibly never heard of R.K. These debunking 'Sceptics'
really should be sure of their instances before they commence their
chorus of attempted belittlement.

G. H. Rayner.

Note.—Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd. will shortly publish the
new "Sussex" Edition of Kipling in 37 Vols, at 50s. per vol., and the
last 3 vols. of the Edition de Luxe.

32                        THE   KIPLING JOURNAL

Secretary's Corner

The Annual Luncheon will take place this year at the Criterion Restaurant,
Piccadilly Circus on Wednesday, 16th June, 1937 at 1 p.m. Our Guests of
Honour, this year, will be Lord Macmillan and Sir Edward Grigg. As we are
expecting a large number of members from Overseas on account of the Corona-
tion, we hope that as many home members as possible will attend the Lun-
cheon to extend a hearty welcome to our visiting members. We hope to
arrange a special reception for these members, particulars of which will be
announced as soon as we know what numbers we are likely to be able to
expect from overseas. In the meanwhile, we should be very glad of as early
notice as possible from those overseas members who will be in London for
the Coronation.

It is, I suppose, inevitable, that in every Society such as ours members must
resign from time to time. The necessity for cutting down one's expenses,
for instance, is a thing which most of us are up against more than once in our
lives. But when members wish to resign, I do wish they would be so kind
as to drop me a post card and say so. In the vast majority of cases, members
simply refrain from sending in their subscriptions when due, and take no notice
of any " reminders " or letters. This, of course, gives your Secretary a great
amount of extra work and costs the Society unnecessary expenditure in postage
and stationery. A Society numbering nearly 900 members involves an amount
of routine work which would surprise many people, and when that work
is done single-handed by only one man, any little extra saving of labour counts
a great deal. It is for" that reason that our Council has just inaugurated a
slightly lower subscription rate for those members who pay by Bankers' Order.

C. H. R.

Members Enrolled since the December Issue

1465    Lord O'Hagan                           1477    Mrs. G. Broughton

Bury St. Edmunds                                         Australia.

1466    General Lucock, C.B.,                1478    Col. G.P.Vanier, D.S.O.,
C.M.G., D.S.O.                                   M.C,

St. Albans.                                             London.

1467    Captain Mangin                        1479    G. Delgado, Esq.

London.                                             London.

1468    C. Lake, Esq., F.S.A.,               1480    Miss D. Harrison

M.R.S.L. London.                                             London.

1469    Mrs. L.Simson                         1481    Graham Miller, Esq., W.S.

London.                                              Gifford.

1470    Mrs. Frank Straker              A.   1482    Miss Ethel Bosomworth

London.                                      Scarborough.

1471    S. R. Clarke, Esq.                      1483    Miss Mary Scott

London.                                             London.

1472    C. H. Owen, Esq., M.A.,        1484    Miss Mitchinson

F.S.A.                                                                             London

Harrogate.        1485    Miss E. M. Bedell

D.   1473    E. G. W. Hannan, Esq.                                                      London

St. Leonards-on-Sea.                      Branches

1474    A. F. Crawford, Esq.            A.  55        Mrs. M. McAlister

London.                                  Auckland,  N.Z.

1475    H.W.Feilden, Esq.             V.  26        Mrs. Winter

Burwash.                                    Victoria,   B.C.

1476    Mrs. Fleming

Edinburgh.

A.    Associate   Member.                     D.    Donor   Member.