TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES This ebook was created in honour of Distributed Proofreaders 20th Anniversary. Changes made are noted at the end of the book. J. COMYNS CARR [Illustration] MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA · MADRAS MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO DALLAS · SAN FRANCISCO THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO [Illustration] J. COMYNS CARR _Stray Memories_ BY HIS WIFE MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED ST. MARTIN’S STREET, LONDON 1920 _COPYRIGHT_ GLASGOW: PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. TO OUR GRANDSONS RICHARD AND JOHN COMYNS CARR FOREWORD My husband wrote his own Reminiscences in his two books--_Some Eminent Victorians_ and _Coasting Bohemia_, and it might justly be brought up against me that I could have nothing to add to what he has said himself. But a critic remarked at the time that there were few “Reminiscences” in which the pronoun “I” occurred so seldom; and it is upon this ground that I venture to take my stand. His friends meant so much to him that his talk is all of them. But they also loved him, and the few who are left among those of whom he wrote, as well as the many more of the younger generation who testify to-day to the exhilaration of his presence and the tonic of his humour may, I hope, find in my effort something which may recall to them his urbane and inspiring personality. CONTENTS PAGE I. COURTSHIP 1 II. THE HOME OF BOYHOOD 10 III. MARRIAGE 16 IV. HOME LIFE AND DRAMATIC CRITICISM 28 V. JOURNALISM AND LETTERS 43 VI. BOOKS AND TRAVEL 63 VII. GROSVENOR AND NEW GALLERIES 76 VIII. DRAMATIC WORK AND MANAGEMENT 83 IX. SOCIAL OCCASIONS 115 X. FOREIGN HOLIDAYS 129 XI. FISHING HOLIDAYS 156 XII. EARLY VERSE 175 _Frontispiece_ J. COMYNS CARR From a photograph by the London Stereoscopic Co. Ltd. CHAPTER I COURTSHIP It was in June of the year 1873 that I first saw my husband. Aimée Desclée was beginning a memorable season of French Plays at the Royalty Theatre, and it was in the capacity of dramatic critic to _The Echo_--a post to which he had recently been appointed--that “Joe Carr,” as his friends called him, sat awaiting the curtain to rise on that remarkable performance of _Frou-Frou_ which set the cosmopolitan world of London aflame in its day. He was twenty-four years of age; but he looked more, for though he had the complexion almost of a girl and that unruly twist in his fair, curling hair which belongs to early youth, he was broad-shouldered and had the strong build of the Cumberland statesmen from whom he was as proud to claim ancestry on his father’s side as he was of the Irish blood that came to him from his mother. Not that I could have described him that evening: the stalls were too ill lit and my excitement over the play was too great.