Ninety years of work and play. Sketches from the public and private career of John Christian Schetky ...

Front matter

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THE GLEN COLLECTION OF SCOTTISH MUSIC

Preface

The following pages have been written in consequence of the expressed desire of many friends to possess some connected history of the life of one to whom they were warmly attached. These will not be impatient of the small details, often so characteristic, which are interwoven with the more eventful portions of his career ; and to those who read the book for the sake merely of its connection with matters of more general interest, I can but offer as explanation the private nature of its origin.

On the other hand, it is probable that I have omitted to make mention of some persons and incidents that would have proved interesting

Vlll PREFACE.

to all, but with which I am naturally unacquainted, owing to my father's having left no continuous record of his long life.

I am well aware that in the eyes of many I may have laid myself open to the charge of undue partiality in dealing with my subject, but against this I am not careful to defend myself; and will only say that I have written not as a critic but as a daughter, and have given the portrait as it is mirrored in my memory. My desire has been to let my father and his contemporaries speak for themselves as much as possible, which is the reason I have introduced so many letters.

How difficult and yet how dear my task has been, those who knew the original will understand ; and I can only ask all to think leniently of the imperfections of which I am myself but too conscious.

My warmest thanks are due to those who have kindly allowed me the free use of letters, or have otherwise aided me in my task ; and in a special degree to Dr Douglas Maclagan of Edinburgh, whose sympathy and advice have

PREFACE. ix

been ever ready, and who, during the scanty intervals of leisure in an over-busy Hfe, has yet found time to undertake for me the actual work of revision.

S. F. L. S.

Rapallo, February 1877,

Introduction

Edinburgh in the last century — Schetky's Hungarian ancestors— His father — Settles in Edinburgh, ,

Chapter I

Early reminiscences — Edinburgh High School in old time — Playing truant— Passion for the sea — His early home-life — Visit to Italy — Personal recollections — A surgical controversy — A cold bath — A friend in need — An Alpine storm — A painful parting — Suspicious companions — Rome at last — Sights in Rome — A narrow escape — From Dover to London — A cordial encounter — An odd introduction— After-thoughts — The last of the Stuarts, . .11

Chapter II

Sagacity of "Peter" — Meeting with his brother — Letter from Sir Walter Scott— A dilatory ferryman — With the Ettrick Shepherd — Illustrations to Scott's ' Lay ' — Christopher North— Visit to Portugal— A skirmish there — The Duke of Wellington — An alarm — Tour in Portugal— A guerilla leader — His brother Alexander — French generosity, 55 xii CONTENTS.

Chapter III

Retirement from Marlow — His boatswain's call — His brother's sketches — Promotion of his brother — Efforts on behalf of friends — A friend in need — Home-sickness — Connection with Royal Family begins — J. M. W. Turner — Thomson of Duddingston — Rhyming letter to his father— Death of his dog Peter — A novel feat of seamanship— Sale of the Wanderer — His new boat Lufra, . . 91

Chapter IV

With the King in Ireland — The Academy Exhibition — Accompanies George IV. to Scotland — Letter from Turner — Generosity towards brother artists — Pleasant holidays — Last letter from his brother — Death of his brother Alexander — Last illness of his father — Visit to Sir Walter Scott — Engagement to Miss Trevenen — Letter to his betrothed — His marriage — Lines on his wife's birthday— Intended trip to Paris — Letters to his wife — The French Revolution of 1830 — Sir William Allan in Turkey — Ascent of Olympus, 122

Chapter V

Death of an infant son — Last meeting with Sir Walter Scott — Letter to Admiral White — Dissolution of Portsmouth College — Appointed Professor at Addiscombe — Letter from Professor Wilson — Letter from Sir Edmund Lyons-:— Illness of his mother-in-law — Letters to his wife — Paintings on which engaged — Sale of picture of Royal George— Discipline at Addiscombe— A party at Stanfield's, ..,..,....!(

CONTENTS. XIU

Chapter VI

Letter to Admiral White — Sudden excursion to Berlin — Introduced to Humboldt — ^^Dantzic and Berlin — Poles on the Vistula— Voyage down the Loire— Meetings with old friends — Friendship with Duke of Rutland — The visit of Louis Philippe — A Royal luncheon — Commissions from the Queen, &c. — With the Queen at Spithead — Sailing of the fleet — Introduced to King Leopold — A great mistake — Painting of La Hogue — Recognises drawings by his brother — Starts for a ' Cruise in Scotch waters' — A glimpse of old friends — In Leith Roads again — Lines with a wedding-day gift — The cholera in 1849 — Characteristic songs— Nimrod ahoy ! . . . .

Chapter VII

Loss of a valuable sketch-book — The Baltic fleet in 1854 — Retirement from his professorship — Letter on his retirement— Carriage accident at Belvoir — His rapid recovery — In the gorge at Coruisk — An old friend — Visit to Ingestre — Catalogue of mishaps — His accidents, . . 236

CHAPTER VIIL

The Channel Fleet at Greenock — Enthusiasm in helping others — Passion for music — Prince and Princess of Wales — Inspection of drawings by the Queen — "Wrinkled care beguiled " by art — Royal visit to Belvoir Castle — 'Veterans of the Sea' — Death of his wife — On the quarter-deck once more — Last visits — Drawing to the close — His last hours and death — Character of his life, . • 258

SKETCH ES

FROM THE

PUBLIC AND PRIVATE CAREER

OF

JOHN CHRISTIAN SCHETKY.

INTRODUCTION.

On the 14th February 1773 — when Edinburgh still reckoned the Cowgate an aristocratic locality, and " Peter Ramsay's Inn " in St Mary's Wynd as no mean rival to '' The White Horse" in the Canongate — two strangers rode into the old city by the southern road, and drew bridle at the door of Ramsay's hostelry. The afternoon was dark and raw, and there was nothing very inviting in the ill-lighted streets and high gloomy - looking houses first seen under the damp chilly influences of an easterly haar; so,

A perhaps, it was not wonderful that the elder traveller turned to his companion with manifest disgust, and a hasty proposition to seek some more congenial shelter. But the other was less impatient : " Let us at any rate see what the place is like within, Christoff,'^ said he. And after some hesitation Christoff dismounted and strode into the inn, calling for dinner and some good wine. The prompt and satisfactory response to his demands soon restored his equanimity ; and, dinner over, he asked mine host whether any musical entertainment was to be had in the good town of Edinburgh ?

" Eh, sirs ! " was the reply ; " have ye no heard tell o' the gran' concerts in the new * Saint Cecilia Ha"'"' in Niddry's Wynd, that are keepit up by a' the lairds an leddies an' naebody else?"

" Ha ! " with a glance at his companion ; " and when will there be one of these concerts ? "

^'Ou, there's just ane the nicht ; but ye'll no get ad;^^^sion wi'out ye ken some o' the gran' folk."

" Why, Karl, we are in luck ! Let us go and hear what they call music in Scotland."

* "Built in 1762 from a design of Sir Robert Mylne, after the model of the great opera theatre of Parma." — Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh. . ^

EDINBURGH IN THE LAST CENTURY. 3

A little later a grand altercation was going on at the door of the famous Concert Hall in the Cowgate — our travellers insisting on finding an entrance, the doorkeeper as stoutly refusing them admittance ; and at last turning in despair to one of his comrades and bidding him '' gae ca Maister Reinagle, and gar him step ben an' get speech o' thae gentles, for they canna comprehen' gude Scotch, Fm thinkin' ! "

A few words with Mr Reinagle, a member of the orchestra, altered the aspect of affairs. " What ! Herr Christoff Schetky, my countryman, whom we have been expecting ! Welcome to our Concert Hall." And the strangers were led up the room, — crowded on either side with the flower of the Scotch aristocracy, — and well placed to hear the remainder of the concert.

" Karl," said the elder presently, " this is very fine ; we do not do better than this in Darmstadt."

Meanwhile a rumour had found its way round the room, and one was saying to another, "Do you see those two foreigners sitting there ? One of them is the great violoncellist from Hesse Darmstadt who has been expected here. I wonder . if he will play to-night ! " And the wonderlngs presently shaped themselves Into a request from both audience and orchestra that Herr Schetky would permit them to enjoy one of the violoncello solos whose fame had reached them from many quarters. The request was at once complied with — the younger brother, Karl, whose love and admiration for Christoff had led him to leave their Fatherland in order to follow his fortunes, listening well-pleased to the applause lavished upon his brother; and the Herren Schetky returned to their rooms in St Mary's Wynd under promise to visit ere long some of the best families in Edinburgh, and well satisfied with the result of the engagement made by the elder during a previous stay in London, to undertake the post of first violoncellist at the then celebrated Saint Cecilia concerts.

Such was my grandfather's introduction to the city which thenceforth became his home, and where his name and that of his sons John Christian and John Alexander Schetky are still remembered and honoured. But, in order to make my introductory chapter complete, it will be necessary for me to go back still further, and to give a sketch of the causes which led our famil}^ from Hungary to Scotland.

HIS HUNGARIAN ANCESTORS. 5

In the beginning of the sixteenth century there existed, about two leagues from Hermanstadt, in Transylvania, the Castle Teschky ;''^ whose possessors, the Barons Von Teschky, came of an old Hungarian family represented at the time of which we first have record by one brother and sister, both unmarried. Persecution, either religious or political, obliged the Baron, who was a Protestant, first to conceal himself in a subterranean chamber which he had accidentally discovered under his laboratory (for, after the custom of many of the upper classes of that day, he was wont to pass his leisure hours in the study of chemistry — perhaps alchemy), and finally to escape for his life to Leipzig, whither he had previously transferred as much as possible of his money and other valuables to the safe custody of his banker, Herr Beringer, by whom he was himself received and honourably entertained. Shortly afterwards he heard that his castle had been seized — his sister (who had insisted on remaining there) thrown into prison, where she died — his estates confiscated ; and all hope of a return to his home being thus destroyed, Baron Wences-

* This is probably the German form of the Hungarian name Tesky or Cesky, las von Teschky dropped his title, transposed the letters of his name, and as Herr Schetky entered into partnership with his banker, whose daughter he afterwards married, and settled at Leipzig. He had a son and a daughter, the former of whom (another Wenceslas) was the ancestor, some five generations back, of my grandfather, John George Christoff Schetky, whose father, Louis Schetky, was secretary to the reigning Landgraf of Hesse Darmstadt, but in a more comprehensive sense than we should connect with that position. Amongst his duties were the fitting out and keeping in pay a certain number of troops for the home service, and the provisioning of the household and dependencies ; and being highly educated, and an accomplished musician, he also led the Court concerts.

Wealth, however, did not abound with him, and the best he could do for his large family was to give them a liberal education, and thus enable his sons to maintain themselves in the law, the army, the medical and musical professions. My grandfather, the eldest of the family, was intended for the first of these, and educated at the University of Jena ; but his distaste for legal studies was equalled by his

HIS FATHER. 7

devotion to music, in which he excelled ; and he at length obtained permission to follow the bent of his inclinations. He soon became celebrated as a composer and violoncellist, and while holding a good appointment at the Court of Hesse travelled for two years through Italy and France, obtaining much notice at the Courts of the different sovereigns. On his way back he paid his respects to Stanislaus, the dethroned King of Poland, who was then residing at Luneville, and who expressed his satisfaction with his musical attainments by presenting to him a gold snuff-box containing twelve louis d'or, and desiring him to go to Plombieres to seek an audience of the two younger daughters of Louis Quinze of France, Mesdames Victoire and Adelaide. These Princesses were accomplished musicians, playing well on the harpsichord and violin ; and being highly pleased with an air with variations composed for them by my grandfather, they requested him to arrange it as a duet for their two instruments. From Plombieres Christofif Schetky returned to Darmstadt, whence with four other members of the Court orchestra he was afterwards sent to Frankfort to form part of the Imperial orchestra, during the solemnities attendant on the coronation of Joseph, King of the Romans, and again attracted royal notice by a violoncello concerto of his own composition, and by the depth and richness of tone with which he executed it.

After the death, some few years later, of his constant friend and patron the Landgraf of Hesse, he determined to visit London ; and on his way thither, while staying at Lisle in Flanders, where he gave a concert, he met Mr Bremner (then the first music-publisher in London), who was commissioned by the musical world of Scotland to engage a first violoncellist for the St Cecilia concerts in Edinburgh. My grandfather accepted the offered post, with the understanding that his final answer should be given from London ; and finding that the climate and habits of that city did not suit his health, he proceeded to the northern capital, his introduction to which I have already described.

His last surviving daughter (from whom I obtained this account) writes of his retirement to Edinburgh as follows : " Was it not strange that, after being flattered and admired at foreign Courts, and meeting with so much prosperity everywhere, he should at last settle down in a

SETTLES IN EDINBURGH. 9

small place such as Edinburgh then was, in the remote country of Scotland ! But I have sometimes imagined that this country then must have been more like an old Continental city than in its present state of progress. There were all the nobility of the country assembled from their ancient fastnesses in the north — the courts of law — the university — the little exiled Court of France at Holyrood, where my father often appeared'" — those splendid St Cecilia concerts (the audience composed exclusively of the aristocracy,) combining so much talent — add to this, the easy access a well-educated and accomplished foreigner found to the best society, — these things must, I think, have combined to make him like the place."

It was natural that my grandfather should soon become intimate with the family of his compatriot and first friend in Edinburgh, Joseph Reinagle, who had formerly served in the Hungarian army under the Empress Maria Theresa, and had followed Prince James Edward Stuart to Scotland in 171 5; and accordingly, we find recorded in the January of the year 1774, the

* Herr Schetky used to play at the private concerts given by the banished Princes, afterwards Louis XVI 1 1, and Charles X., during their residence at Holyrood Palace after the Revolution of '93.

marriage of John George ChristofF Schetky with Maria Anna Theresa, eldest daughter of Joseph Reinagle and his wife Anne Laurie. My grandmother is thus described by the same daughter from whose letters I have quoted above: "My mother was a highly-accomplished artist in both painting and music, having a splendid voice. She painted in various styles, but miniature -painting was her forte. How excellent she was in all respects ! a perfect lady in manner and goodness and piety — such a wife and mother in devotedness, and so beloved and respected ! I was never so happy as by her side."

For twenty - one years this artistic couple lived together in their quaint old house in the Old Town, and there their eleven children were born, and baptised in the old Episcopal Church of St Michael (where their marriage had been solemnised), situated in the Cowgate, and now in the possession of the Roman Catholics under the name of St Patrick's. Seven of these sons and daughters lived to grow up, the third of whom is the subject of the following memoir.

Chapter I

John Christian Schetky was the fourth son of Chrlstoff and Maria Schetky, but as the brother next above him in age died while an infant, he occupies the third place in the family annals.

Of the old house in Ainslie's Close, Edinburgh, in which he was born on the nth August 1778, we have no record; but about four years later his parents removed to one in Foulis's Close, which is still standing, and to which he always looked back fondly as his first home. I remember one evening in 1863 his describing a visit he had paid it long after it had been vacated by his family, and had fallen into a state of dilapidation. His words set it before us so graphically, that we wrote them down at the time.

"How well I remember," he said, ''going with Frank Home '"' to see our old houses in FouHs's Close ! Frank's father lived in Lord Foulis's house, which was at the end of the close, as the great man's house always was ; it was a gloomy old mansion, with fine rooms, and a garden at the back : and then all the retainers and so forth lived on either side. I never was so disgusted as when I saw the state of our house. The great door with its iron bars and nails, opening with a cre-e-ak, was taken away, so there was a common stair, and a family in every room. In the kitchen a family; in the next room — that was Betty's, the renowned Betty's ! t — a family ; then there was George's and mine, then a little pantry (I don't think any one lived there), then the best room — the big room, as we called it — the dining-room, and my father and mother's room, — in every one a family, and in the big room two ! no partition between them ! Poor Frank ! he came to me

* An old school-fellow, afterwards Colonel Home of the Scots Fusilier Guards, and distinguished for his gallant defence of Hougoumont at the battle of Waterloo. The friendship between him and my father remained unbroken till the death of the former in 1858, when his friend nursed him devotedly through his last illness.

+ The old Scotch nurse who took charge of the household after my grandmother's death, and ruled the children as sternly as she served them faithfully.

EARLY REMINISCENCES. 13

after he had seen his father's house, which was larger than ours, and he was in such a rage at the state of it ! When we went into our house (I was a Httle fellow then), it had been condemned thirty years before as having rotten joists, and so on — that was seventy years ago, and it is standing now ! "

That old house saw some quaint scenes within its walls during the peaceful years in which my grandmother presided over it. At one time when John was about six years old, and his elder brothers, Charles and George, respectively ten and eight, Mr and Mrs Cramer came from Germany, bringing their son John (afterwards the celebrated composer, and even then a wonderful pianist), on a musical tour through England and Scotland ; and on reaching Edinburgh were received by my grandfather with his accustomed hospitality. The two boys, John Schetky and John Cramer, being about the same age, soon made friends ; and while their elders were refreshing themselves in the dining-room, they, casting about for some desirable amusement, lighted upon Herr Cramer's travelling pistols which he had left upon the piano in the " big room." With these delightful playthings they ensconced themselves under the piano, and with the most cheerful unconciousness were endeavouring to consign each other to an early grave, when the parents happily returned in time to put a stop to the valiant attempt. Mrs Cramer signalised the occasion by fainting away in my grandfather's arms, but in due time recovered sufficiently to console little John Schetky for the loss of the pistols by dressing him up in her son's coat, which he greatly admired, as it was of bottlegreen cloth with gilt buttons. But his happiness in stroking the buttons faded before the grievous necessity of restoring the coat to its rio^htful owner, and the incident ended in a flood of tears.

A few years later it was the young Hummel who came to Edinburgh with his father and made the acquaintance of the Schetky family. His coat was a scarlet one. But, to the consternation of young John, who was summoned to entertain him, he spoke nothing but German, so that conversation was a difficulty. However, fresh from the High School, my father was not to be daunted by such small hindrances ; and havinof ascertained that his oruest had learned Latin, he proposed that their intercourse should be held in that tongue, to which Hummel

EDINBURGH HIGH SCHOOL IN OLD TIME. 15

agreed ; and the conversation of the elders broke off in hearty laughter at hearing their sons addressing each other in obsolete Latin phrases.

Those years at the High School of Edinburgh were not very prosperous ones with young John Schetky. School discipline wasconducted on a rough-and-ready principle at that time, and he was never of a studious turn of mind^far more given to drawing pictures in his books than to learning lessons from them. We have some jottings from his reminiscences of that period in his life, which, slight as they are, have in them his peculiarly racy descriptive power. One evening, in 1864, a friend asked him if he remembered Francis Horner the politician?''' "Frank Horner?" he answered ; " to be sure ! I was at school with him and Leonard, his brother. He was dux, and I was always at the bottom of the class — Davie Home and I, the idle ones. I remem-

* Son of John Horner, a linen manufacturer, born in Edinburgh about 1780. Began life at the English bar, but afterwards became an M.P., and was looked upon as one of the rising men of his party. His promising career was, however, cut short by his early death in Italy, 1817. His younger brother, Leonard Horner, devoted himself to scientific pursuits ; he held for many years an inspectorship of factories, and exerted himself perseveringly therein. '

ber one day, when Frank Horner was at fault, old Crooky (that was Cruickshank, the master) called me up to help him out in Caesar — the * Bello Galileo/ My book had not the passage by sixteen or seventeen pages, but I had it all by heart hearing the fellows repeat it ; so I kept turning the page, turning the page, and saying it off, to the astonishment of Cruickshank, who thought me a perfect dolt. And I was sent across the hall to the very top from the bottom, and as I passed the master's chair he paid me a compliment. I was not long there, however ; and, while there, I was as uncomfortable as Damocles with the sword hanging over his head. The reason so many leaves were gone from my Caesar was that all my books were full of pictures of little ships chasing one another, with always a man on the bowsprit of the hindermost one, much bigger than the ship, firing at the one he was chasing ; and then the fellows used to make me tear out the pages and give them to them for the pictures."

Our next record of his school days finds him with his brother Charles playing truant one fine summer day — when the gleam of the Firth seen from the Castle Hill was too tempting to be resisted — and spending the hours which

PLAYING TRUANT. 1 7

should have been devoted to the classics in an expedition to Leith, where dwelt an old fisherman, upon the hire of whose boat they generally spent all their small pocket-money. Returning late in the afternoon tired, hot, and hungry, from their sail, they took a short cut through the Old Town, hoping to slink into the house by a back way, and thereby escape a scolding and obtain a supper; but forgot that their road lay past the house of one of the masters, familiarly called " Willie Nicol." As they passed this house a window was suddenly thrown up, and, to their consternation, the heads of their master and their father appeared thereat, and the dreaded rating at once began, with threats of more extreme measures soon to follow. " Ah, you idle fellows, I shall have something to say to you when I come home ! No supper will you get to-night, mind you."

" Shame on ye, ne'er-do-weel callants that ye are ! Wait till I come at ye the morn an' see hoo ye like a taste o' my tawse ; aye deedledawdlin wi' your boats an' your pictures, instead o' mindin' your books like decent lads !"

Then a third face looked over the master's shoulder, and the crestfallen boys recognised another friend of their father's — Allan Master-

B ton''^ — watching their discomfiture with irrepressible amusement. But another moment and the aspect of affairs had changed, for another head appeared between the first two, and a stalwart pair of arms pushed them right and left : '' Hoot, sirs, what are ye about ? Whisht, Schetky ! whisht, Nicol ! haud your tongue, an' dinna look sae dour on the puir laddies. Eh, my lads, nae doubt but ye're hungry eneuch ; here are some bawbees to buy bannocks to your supper. An' noo rin hame like gude bairnies, an' get to your schule the morn."

" And that was Robert Burns," my father always wound up when he told the story. ''And so I remember having seen together that day the three men mentioned in Burns's song —

' O, Willie brewed a peck o' maut, An' Rab an' Allan cam' to pree ! '

and my father with them. They were all dining together at NicoPs as it happened, and saw us pass the window. That was the only time I ever saw Robert Burns."

The love of the sea which thus showed itself so early, soon developed into an intense desire to enter the navy ; and with much reluctance

* Writing-master at the High School, and a musical genius in his way, being the composer of the song alluded to below.

PASSION FOR THE SEA. 19

Mr and Mrs Schetky yielded to their son's wishes so far as to get his name placed on the books of H.M. frigate Hind in 1792, the same year and the same frigate as that in which the late Lord Dundonald began his career in the fleet. But their hearts afterwards failed them, and they withdrew the permission they had given ; and thenceforward John Schetky consoled himself by painting the great swan-like vessels in which he longed to sail, and In which even in old age he was more at home and surefooted than on land.

When only about fifteen years old he began to assist his mother in teaching drawing to a class of ladies which she had formed. His sister writes of him at this time : " Your father was a most affectionate son, devoted to his mother in every way; she being proud of her gifted son. He assisted her in her class for painting, where he won the hearts of all the ladies — as all through his long life he won all hearts by the beautiful ingenuousness of his pure youth and manhood. He be^an to teach on his own account about this time." Amongst the early patrons of whom my father always spoke gratefully as having encouraged his first attempts at self-support, were the then Duchess of

Buccleuch (of whom after her death Sir Walter Scott wrote —