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1、国外英文文学系列 A Lady of EnglandTitle: A Lady of England The Life and Letters of Charlotte Maria TuckerAuthor: Agnes GiberneAUTHORS PREFACEThe principal mass of materials for this Biography was placed in my hands last summer by the Rev. W. F. Tucker Hamilton, nephew of Charlotte Maria Tucker (A. L. O. E.)
2、, and since then many other relatives or friends, both in England and in India, have contributed their share of help, either in the way of written recollections or of correspondence. A paucity of materials exists as to the early part of the life; but in later years the difficulty is of a precisely o
3、pposite description, arising from a superabundance of details. Hundreds of letters, more or less interesting in themselves, have had to be put ruthlessly aside, to make room for others of greater interest. From first to last the long series between Charlotte Tucker and her own especial sister-friend
4、, Mrs. Hamilton, takes precedence of all other letters in point of freedom, naturalness, and simplicity. The perfect trust and unshadowed devotion which subsisted between these two form a rare and beautiful picture.It has seemed to me, and it may seem to others, that the main question in the Life of
5、 Miss Tucker is, not soiv much what she did here or there, in England or in India, as what she was. Many a discussion has taken place, and doubtless will again take place, as to the wisdom of her modes of Missionary work, and as to the degree of success or non-success which attended her labours. I h
6、ave endeavoured to give fairly certain opposite views upon this question, even while strongly impressed with the conviction that no human being is capable of judging with respect to the worth of work done in his own age and generation. Subtle consequences, working below the surface, are often far mo
7、re weighty, far more lasting, than the most approved results following immediately upon certain efforts,results which are, not seldom, found after a while to be of the nature of mere froth. Nothing can be more unprofitable, usually, than the task of endeavouring to count conversions. It is of infini
8、tely greater importance to note with what absolute self-devotion Miss Tucker entered into the toil, with what resolution she persevered in the face of obstacles, with what eagerness she did the very utmost within her power.In writing the story of Miss Tuckers life at Batala, it has been impossible n
9、ot to write also, in some degree, the story of the Infant Church at Batala. My main object has of course been simply to show what Charlotte Maria Tucker herself was; and Mission work, Mission incidents, Missionaries themselves, come in merely incidentally, asv part of the background to her figure. M
10、ention of them is accidental and fragmentary; not systematic. At the same time there is no doubt that nothing would have gratified Miss Tucker more than that any use should have been made of her letters likely to help forward the great work of Missions among the Heathen. Some years before the end, w
11、hen in severe illness she thought herself to be passing away, she spoke of the possibility that her long correspondence about Batala might be so employed, and earnestly hoped that, if it were so, no one-sided account should be given, but that shadow as well as sunshine, the dark as well as the brigh
12、t aspect, should be frankly presented. I have endeavoured to carry out her wishes in this particular.It is to be regretted that at least a few letters from Mrs. Hamilton to Miss Tucker cannot be interspersed among the many from Miss Tucker to Mrs. Hamilton. None, however, have come to hand. Before M
13、iss Tucker went to India she destroyed the bulk of her papers, after a ruthless fashion; and it does not appear that while in India she kept any of the letters that she received.After some hesitation I have decided to give generally the names in full of those Missionaries, with whom she was most clo
14、sely associated. I have also decided not to give the names of Indian Christians, with very fewvi exceptions,as of the Head Master of the Native Boys School at Batala, whom she counted a personal friend; also of one or two Ordained Native Clergymen, and one or two contributors of slight material towa
15、rds this Life. In many instances it would be very difficult to decide wisely at so great a distance, and without a knowledge of the individuals themselves. It is therefore best to be on the safe side. Many of the initials are the true initials; but many are not even that,especially in the case of th
16、ose who are still Heathen or Muhammadan.In the spelling of Indian words and names I have endeavoured to follow mainly the more modern plan, adopted of late years, except in the case of a very few words which are practically Anglicised. Miss Tuckers own spelling of Indian words and names varies extre
17、mely; the word being often given differently when occurring twice in a single page. The spelling has therefore been altered throughout her correspondence. To avoid confusion in the minds of English readers, I have also taken the same liberty with letters from some others who have not adopted the mod
18、ern mode.In conclusion, I have only to express my sincere thanks for the most kind trouble taken by many friends of A. L. O. E. in contributing materials for my guidance.AGNES GIBERNE.Worton House, Eastbourne.PREFACEIt would scarcely be fitting that this Volume should go forth to the Public without
19、a few words of Preface from one of A. L. O. E.s own family.Only my beloved Motherthe Laura of these pagescould have penned the words which should adequately tell all that my dear Aunt was to those who knew her best and loved her most fondly. And she, little as she had expected it, was the first of t
20、he two to be called Home.It has, however, been a great satisfaction to me to intrust the preparation of the Life to Miss Giberne; and I am glad to have this opportunity of expressing my hearty appreciation of the literary skill, the sympathy, and the fidelity to truth with which she has accomplished
21、 her task.Averse as my Aunt ever was to any fuss being made about her, nothing would have reconciled her to the publication of a Biography, save the hope that its story might be used of God to stimulate others to consecrate their lives to the Service of Christ, whether in the Foreignviii or Home Mis
22、sion Field. It is in such hope that it is now sent forth, with the earnest prayer that His blessing may rest upon it.W. F. TUCKER HAMILTON.Christ Church, Woking.Note.Any profits derived by A. L. O. E.s relatives from the publication of this volume will be apportioned among those Missionary Societies
23、 in which she was especially interested.PART ILIFE IN ENGLAND2Constant discipline in unnoticed ways, and the hidden spirits silent unselfishness, becoming the hidden habit of the life, give to it its true saintly beauty, and this is the result of care and lowly love in little things. Perfection is a
24、ttained most readily by this constancy of religious faithfulness in all minor details of life, in the lines of duty which fill up what remains to complete the likeness to our Lord, consecrating the daily efforts of self-forgetting love.T. T. Carter.3CHAPTER IA.D. 1771-1835THE STORY OF HER FATHERChar
25、lotte Maria Tucker, known widely by her nom de plume of A. L. O. E.,signifying A Lady Of England,as the successful author of numberless childrens books, deserves to be yet more extensively known as the heroic Pioneer of elderly and Honorary volunteers in the broad Mission-fields of our Church.Her bo
26、oks, which were much read and appreciated in the youth of the present middle-aged generation, may to some extent have sunk into the background, as the works of successive story-tellers do in the majority of cases retire, each in turn, before newer names and newer styles; but the splendid example set
27、 by Charlotte Tucker, at a time of life when most people are intent upon retiring from work, and taking if they may their ease,an example of then buckling on her armour afresh, and of entering upon the toughest toil of all her busy life, will surely never be forgotten.She was the sixth child and thi
28、rd daughter of Henry St. George Tucker, a prominent Bengal Civilian, and, later on, Chairman of the East India Company. All her five brothers went to India, and all five were there in the dark days of the Mutiny. Thus by birth she had a close connection with that great eastern branch of the British
29、Empire, to which her last eighteen years were entirely4 devoted. People in general go out early, and retire to England for rest in old age. Miss Tucker spent fifty-four active years in England, and then yielded her remaining powers to the cause of our fellow-subjects in Hindustan.It seems desirable
30、that a slight sketch of her fathers earlier life should precede the story of hers.Henry St. George Tucker came into this world on the 15th of February 1771. He was born in the Bermudas, on the Isle St. George, whence his name, and was the eldest of ten children. An interesting reference to this even
31、t is found in a letter of Charlotte Tuckers, written February 15, 1890: As I went in my duli to villages this morning, I thought, “One hundred and nineteen years ago a precious Baby was born in a distant island”; and I thanked God for our beloved and honoured Father.Henry St. Georges father was a ma
32、n of good descent, of high reputation, and of a leading position in the islands. His mother, a Miss Bruere before marriage,probably the name was a corruption of Bruyere,was daughter of the then governor of the Bermudas, a gallant old soldier, possessing fourteen children and also a particularly iras
33、cible temper.The elder Mr. Tucker appears to have been a man of gentle temperament and liberal views; I do not mean Liberal in the mere party sense, but liberal as opposed to illiberal. Whatever his own opinions may have been, he did not endeavour to force them upon his children; he did not, in fact
34、, petrify the childrens little fancies by opposition into a lasting existence. It is amusing to read of the opposite tendencies among his boys, one taking the loyal side and another the republican side in the dawning struggle between England and her American Colonies. Long after, Henry St. George sp
35、oke of himself as having then been a bit of a rebel; adding, But my republican zeal was very5 much cooled by the French Revolution; and if a spark of it had remained, our own most contemptible revolution of 1830 would have extinguished it, and have fixed me for life a determined Conservative.He had
36、on the whole a strong constitution, though counted delicate as a child; and his early life in the Bermudas was one of abundant fresh air and exercise. Much more time was given to riding and boating than to books; indeed, his education seems hardly to have been begun before the age of ten years, when
37、 he was sent to school in England. Whether such a plan would answer with the ordinary run of boys may well be doubted. Henry St. George Tucker was not an ordinary boy; and he showed no signs of loss in after-life through ten years of play at the beginning of it.One piece of advice given to him by hi
38、s mother, when he was about to start for England, cannot but cause a smile. She was at pains to assure him that it would be unnecessary to take off his hat to every person whom he might meet in the streets of London. Henry St. George, speaking of this in later years, continues: But habit is strong;
39、and even now, when I repair to the stables for my horse, I interchange bows with the coachman and the ostlers and all the little idle urchins whom I encounter in the mews. One would have been sorry indeed to see so graceful a habit altered. It might far better be imitated. Exceeding courtesy was thr
40、ough life characteristic of the man, and it descended in a marked degree upon many of his descendants, notably so upon Charlotte Maria, the A. L. O. E. of literature.School education, begun at ten, ended at fourteen. The boy worked hard, and rose in his classes quickly; though at an after period he
41、spoke of his own learning in those days as superficial. He had been intended by his father for the legal profession, and many years of hard work were6 supposed to lie before him. These plans were unexpectedly broken through. One of his aunts, who lived in England, acting impulsively and without auth
42、ority, altered the whole course of his career. She asked him, Would he like to visit India? A more unnecessary question could hardly have been put. What schoolboy of fourteen would not like to visit India? Young Henry seized upon the idea; and the said aunt, under the impression that she was kindly
43、relieving his father of needless school expenses, actually shipped the lad off as middy in a merchant vessel bound for India, not waiting to write and ask his fathers permission. She merely wrote to say that the deed was done.Officious aunts do exist in the world; but surely few so officious as this
44、. The deepest displeasure was felt and shown when Henrys father learned what had happened. But by the time that his grieved remonstrances reached the boy, Henry was fifteen thousand miles away, hunting wild animals on the plains of Behar. In the present day a boy so despatched might be sent back aga
45、in; but in those days India was separated from England by a vast gulf of distance and of time. Any one writing from India to England could not look for a reply in less than a year; and his father was at Bermuda, not even at home, which made a further complication.The boys condition must at first hav
46、e been forlorn enough. After a petted and luxurious boyhood, he had to live for months together upon salt junk; and his bed was only a hencoop. But there was stuff in him, and hardships of all kinds were most pluckily endured. On landing at Calcutta he found himself in a strange country, among stran
47、ge faces, without money and without work, though happily not quite without friends. His mothers brother, Mr. Bruere, was one of the Government Secretaries in Calcutta; and in the house of Mr. Bruere and of Mr. Brueres pretty little sylph-like wife the young adventurer found7 shelter for some months,
48、 until an opening could be secured for him.Fifteen years followed of a hard and continuous struggle. As long after he said of himself, he looked the world in the face in those days; and while a mere boy of fifteen or sixteen he set himself resolutely to get on. From the first he grappled with the Native languages, showing a vigour and persistency in the study which, many many years later, were visible again in his daughter Charlotte, when grappling with the very same task. Only he was young; and she, when she followed his example, was well on in middle life.Towards the end o