Lady Burton was hardly less abnormal in her way than Sir Richard. She had shared his wanderings, and was intimate, as no one else was, with the eccentricities of his thoughts and deeds. Whatever these might happen to be, she worshipped her husband notwithstanding. For her he was the standard of excellence; all other men were departures from it. And the singularity is, her religious faith was never for an instant shaken - she remained as strict a Roman Catholic as when he married her from a convent. Her enthusiasm and cosmopolitanism, her NAIVETE and the sweetness of her disposition made her the best of company. She had lived so much the life of a Bedouin, that her dress and her habits had an Eastern glow. When staying with the Birds, she was attended by an Arab girl, one of whose duties it was to prepare her mistress' chibouk, which was regularly brought in with the coffee. On one occasion, when several other ladies were dining there, some of them yielded to Lady Burton's persuasion to satisfy their curiosity. The Arab girl soon provided the means; and it was not long before there were four or five faces as white as Mrs. Alfred Wigan's, under similar circumstances, in the 'Nabob.'
Alfred Wigan's father was an unforgettable man. To describe him in a word, he was Falstag REDIVIVUS. In bulk and stature, in age, in wit and humour, and morality, he was Falstaff. He knew it and gloried in it. He would complain with zest of 'larding the lean earth' as he walked along. He was as partial to whisky as his prototype to sack. He would exhaust a Johnsonian vocabulary in describing his ailments; and would appeal pathetically to Miss Bird, as though at his last gasp, for 'just a tea-spoonful' of the grateful stimulant. She served him with a liberal hand, till he cried 'Stop!' But if she then stayed, he would softly insinuate 'I didn't mean it, my dear.' Yet he was no Costigan. His brain was stronger than casks of whisky. And his powers of digestion were in keeping. Indeed, to borrow the well-known words applied to a great man whom we all love, 'He tore his dinner like a famished wolf, with the veins swelling in his forehead, and the perspiration running down his cheeks.' The trend of his thoughts, though he was eminently a man of intellect, followed the dictates of his senses. Walk with him in the fields and, from the full stores of a prodigious memory, he would pour forth pages of the choicest poetry.
But if you paused to watch the lambs play, or disturbed a young calf in your path, he would almost involuntarily exclaim: 'How deliciously you smell of mint, my pet!' or 'Bless your innocent face! What sweetbreads you will provide!'
James Wigan had kept a school once. The late Serjeant Ballantine, who was one of his pupils, mentions him in his autobiography. He was a good scholar, and when I first knew him, used to teach elocution. Many actors went to him, and not a few members of both Houses of Parliament. He could recite nearly the whole of several of Shakespeare's plays; and, with a dramatic art I have never known equalled by any public reader.
His later years were passed at Sevenoaks, where he kept an establishment for imbeciles, or weak-minded youths. I often stayed with him (not as a patient), and a very comfortable and pretty place it was. Now and then he would call on me in London; and, with a face full of theatrical woe, tell me, with elaborate circumlocution, how the Earl of This, or the Marquis of That, had implored him to take charge of young Lord So-and-So, his son; who, as all the world knew, had - well, had 'no guts in his brains.' Was there ever such a chance? Just consider what it must lead to! Everybody knew - no, nobody knew - the enormous number of idiots there were in noble families. And, such a case as that of young Lord Dash - though of course his residence at Sevenoaks would be a profound secret, would be patent to the whole peerage; and, my dear sir, a fortune to your humble servant, if - ah! if he could only secure it!'
'But I thought you said you had been implored to take him?'
'I did say so. I repeat it. His Lordship's father came to me with tears in his eyes. "My dear Wigan," were that nobleman's words, "do me this one favour and trust me, you will never regret it!" But - ' he paused to remove the dramatic tear, 'but, I hardly dare go on. Yes - yes, I know your kindness' (seizing my hand) 'I know how ready you are to help me' - (I hadn't said a word) - 'but - '
'How much is it this time? and what is it for?'
'For? I have told you what it is for. The merest trifle will suffice. I have the room - a beautiful room, the best aspect in the house. It is now occupied by young Rumagee Bumagee the great Bombay millionaire's son. Of course he can be moved. But a bed - there positively is not a spare bed in the house. This is all I want - a bed, and perhaps a tuppenny ha'penny strip of carpet, a couple of chairs, a - let me see; if you give me a slip of paper I can make out in a minute what it will come to.'
'Never mind that. Will a ten-pound note serve your purposes?'
'Dear boy! Dear boy! But on one condition, on one condition only, can I accept it - this is a loan, a loan mind! and not a gift. No, no - it is useless to protest; my pride, my sense of honour, forbids my acceptance upon any other terms.'
A day or two afterwards I would learn from George Bird that he and Miss Alice had accepted an invitation to meet me at Sevenoaks. Mr. Donovan, the famous phrenologist, was to be of the party; the Rector of Sevenoaks, and one or two local magnates, had also been invited to dine. We Londoners were to occupy the spare rooms, for this was in the coaching days.
We all knew what we had to expect - a most enjoyable banquet of conviviality. Young Mrs. Wigan, his second wife, was an admirable housekeeper, and nothing could have been better done. The turbot and the haunch of venison were the pick of Grove's shop, the champagne was iced to perfection, and there was enough of it, as Mr. Donovan whispered to me, casting his eyes to the ceiling, 'to wash an omnibus, bedad.' Mr. Donovan, though he never refused Mr. Wigan's hospitality, balanced the account by vilipending his friend's extravagant habits. While Mr. Wigan, probably giving him full credit for his gratitude, always spoke of him as 'Poor old Paddy Donovan.'
With Alfred Wigan, the eldest son, I was on very friendly terms. Nothing could be more unlike his father. His manner in his own house was exactly what it was on the stage.
Albany Fonblanque, whose experiences began nearly forty years before mine, and who was not given to waste his praise, told me he considered Alfred Wigan the best 'gentleman' he had ever seen on the stage. I think this impression was due in a great measure to Wigan's entire absence of affectation, and to his persistent appeal to the 'judicious' but never to the 'groundlings.' Mrs. Alfred Wigan was also a consummate artiste.
