Elizabeth Gilbert and Her Work for the Blind Part 22

During the autumn of 1866 Mr. F. Green, who for many years had rendered great service by his work on the Committee, presented to the a.s.sociation five shares of 100 in the Marine Insurance Company, of which he was a director. They yielded at that time 40 a year, and the gift was a source of much gratification to Bessie.

She was at Chichester in December, and wrote thence on the 21st to her widowed sister, Mrs. Elliot, dwelling on the service she could render to others:

"Having you must make all the difference," she says, when alluding to a succession of troubles which had fallen upon Lady Minto, with whom Mrs. Elliot was staying. "Really there is not and will not be any lack of work for you. You have had, I should think, quite as much as you could do for some time past.... There is a chance of Tom's coming in January.... I suppose you know all about him and his doings. I can't think how he would have got on without you."

Then she gives news from home:

I am expecting them in after the ordination every moment. This time it is in the cathedral; twelve candidates I think. Papa came down to breakfast this morning, and was to go in time for the whole service. Only think, one of the priests has been in agonies of toothache all through the examination; but in spite of it Mr.

Browne was delighted with all he did. The poor man had two teeth taken out, and happily to-day was flourishing.... I do hope you will like the little paper knife which I am so very glad to send you. I was quite taken with the little bells of the lilies.... Nora to-day is quite in her element and full of work, putting up a number of parcels to send off in different directions.... Ever your loving sister, BESSIE GILBERT.

"Tom," of whom she speaks, had recently been appointed Vicar of Heversham, near Milnthorpe; and Mrs. Elliot had visited him at the vicarage, and superintended the domestic arrangements of her bachelor brother.

Bessie received no Christmas box which gave her more pleasure than the following poem, which appeared in _Punch_ on the 29th of December:

A BOX FOR BLINDMAN'S BUFF.

Sit down to eat and drink on this glad day, And blest be he that first cries, "Hold, enough!"

Gorge, boys, and girls; and then rise up to play.

You _can_. A game in season's Blindman's Buff.

The ready fillet round the seamless brow Of youth or maiden while quick fingers bind, Beneath the golden-green pearl-berried bough, What fun it is to play at being blind!

But some at Blindman's Buff with eyes unbound Might join, for whom less sport that game would be Because it is their life's continual round: The Blindman's Buff of those that cannot see.

If poor, for alms they can but grope about.

But Science to their need a.s.sistance lends; And "knowledge, at one entrance quite shut out,"

Puts veritably at their fingers' ends.

Thus they who else would starve to labour learn.

Does that consideration strike your mind?

Their living do you wish that they should earn, Instead of crying "Pity the poor Blind?"

Then know there's not a charitable Dun, Subscription seeking at your gate who knocks, That more deserves your bounty than the one Who for the Blind requests a Christmas Box.

At Oxford Street's two-hundred-and-tenth door Inquire within about the Blind Man's Friend.

Or send your guinea, if you like, or more; As many more as you can spare to send.

_Punch, 29th December 1866._

In August 1867 Bessie paid her first visit to the Vicar of Heversham.

She writes a "frame" letter from the North to Mrs. Elliot, and sends warm appreciation of her work in the house, and of the "little three-cornered things in the pink room." The "nice woman" was probably a certain Jane Todd, formerly a servant, but at that time settled in a home of her own. Quite an extraordinary friendship sprang up between her and Bessie, and to the end of her life Jane Todd daily offered up special prayers on behalf of her friend the blind lady.

There are again ominous allusions to her difficulty in walking. "I walk better here," she says; and again, "I can't tell you how much I enjoy moving more freely."

HEVERSHAM, MILNTHORPE, _23d August 1867_.

MY DEAR K.--I meant my first frame letter from here to be to you, so now I am beginning it. I have the morning room which you used to have, and enjoy it very much. How nice the house is, and how you must have worked to make it so. Mrs. Argles and Mrs. Braithwaite seem very much impressed with all your hard work. Is it true that those little three-cornered things in the pink room with the china on them were washhand stands? You have made a capital use of them.... I walked up the lower Head yesterday, then stayed there and had some tea brought me, and afterwards walked to the school through all those stiles. After the meeting we came back by the road. I have been able to walk better here, and it is such a pleasure. I can't tell you how much I enjoy moving more freely.

Wednesday I walked as far as the house at Levens and back after a rest at a cottage near, where we found a very nice woman who certainly talked Westmoreland, but really with a pretty accent....

Your loving sister, BESSIE.

The difficulty in walking, to which she alludes, had again increased; and in 1867 or 1868 she consulted Sir James Paget with regard to it. He thought it proceeded from weak ankles and general debility, and prescribed rest and care.

She was at Queen Anne Street in February 1868, and much interested in a public dinner at Chichester at which her father was to be present Dean Hook wrote to give her an account of the proceedings.

THE DEANERY, CHICHESTER, _5th February 1868_.

MY DEAR MISS GILBERT--I cannot help writing to tell you that the dear good Bishop was yesterday more animated and more eloquent than I ever heard him. He seemed so well and so happy that I am glad he went. It was indeed an ovation to his lordship, as much as to the Mayor; he was so enthusiastically received. As I knew that you were anxious about him, under the notion that he was doing too much, I trouble you with this note. The calm serenity with which he always does his duty, and in performing it does his best, is a very beautiful trait in his character, and I doubt not now that he will get through his visitation duties without suffering too much from fatigue. It is not work, it is worry which tries a man, and all his clergy will exert themselves to save him from worries.--Believe me to be, your affectionate friend, W. F. HOOK.

Bessie's own work at this time was mainly the preparation for the annual meeting in May, together with appeals for custom to the secretaries of public inst.i.tutions.

The Lady Superintendent of the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street replies that brushes for the Hospital are always purchased at the depot in Euston Road.

The Secretary of the Islington Shoe Black Brigade tells her that so far as he can, consistently with the interests of his Society, and as regards the price charged for various articles, he has always given the Society for the Blind as much custom as possible. These are types of innumerable answers; and she went on with this drudgery year after year; every ign.o.ble detail of it glorified by the constant presence of the aim for which she worked. The sufferings of the blind poor were always borne in her heart; the hope of alleviating them was the mainspring of all her actions. Letters, accounts, appeals, pet.i.tions, these are all the machinery with which she works. She has learnt the proportion of result to be expected, and is seldom disappointed or disheartened by indifference or coldness. But encouragement and approval from those whom she honours is very helpful to her.

At the meeting held on 14th May 1868 Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Fawcett, and Professor Owen were amongst the princ.i.p.al speakers. Mr. Gladstone wrote as follows on the 8th:

11 CARLTON HOUSE TERRACE, S.W., _8th May 1868_.

MY DEAR MADAM--If Mr. Levy will kindly call on me at half-past one on the 14th, I will take the instructions and information from him with reference to the meeting. I cannot be quite sure of escape from my duties in the House (which meets on Wednesdays at twelve) but unless necessity keeps me away you may depend upon me.--I remain, very faithfully yours, W. E. GLADSTONE.

Miss Gilbert.

Mr. Gladstone's speech at that meeting is best described by its effect upon Bessie herself. She writes as follows:

PALACE, CHICHESTER, _20th June 1868_.

MY DEAR KATE--I have long been wishing to write to you, and, indeed, before the meeting a dictated letter was just begun to you, but there was no time to write it. After the meeting I was only too glad to do anything rather than write letters; any, therefore, which I could avoid I did, and also I wished to wait until I should have time and opportunity to write to you quietly myself. So now you see I have begun. Had it been at any other time I should have liked you to have been present at the meeting. To you I can say without fear of reproof that some of Mr. Gladstone's words often come back upon me with a force and power that seems to kindle new life within me. I long to realise them, that I may more really feel them to be deserved. Professor Owen's was a beautiful speech. I think we shall clear about a hundred and twenty pounds.... From your ever loving sister, BESSIE.

CHAPTER XVIII

BLIND CHILDREN OF THE POOR

"Toutes les bonnes maximes sont dans le monde, on ne manque qu'a les appliquer."--PASCAL, 391.