Mrs Humphry Ward's 'The Case of Richard Meynell' 1911

 

Smith, Elder, & Co. first edition - 1911

This is the second novel I have read by Mrs Humphry Ward (née Mary Arnold). Once again, like Helbeck of Bannisdale in 1898 (which the author first imagined as romantic, and haunting and original), it deals with love - carnal, romantic and spiritual - and religious turmoil. Before I put down my own thoughts on the book, I looked on the Internet to see if there had been any contemporary reviews available. The only one I found was a smug, nearly caustic appraisal in The Churchman (December 1911). It reeked of the Established church's complacency: the new novel was marked, like so many of her books, by the unpleasant people who figure in it, and the unpleasant moral situations that it discloses...[it] leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth...she has, or she thinks she has, a religious mission. The journal's position was that the 'hero' and his Modernists behaved without any semblance of authority (my emphasis) ... the Church of England does not want, and will not welcome, either rationalism or Romanism. The Churchman, founded in October 1879, became just Churchman between 1977 and 2020, and now goes by the name of The Global Anglican. One wonders what its UK circulation is! The attitude of the majority, just over one hundred years' later, to the C of E is one of indifference. The public only get mildly aroused when one or both of the archbishops (or the occasional bishop) peddle left-wing or 'woke' sentiments. Not so in 1911.

A key to Mary Ward's writings lies in her maiden name. She was the daughter of Tom Arnold, niece of Matthew Arnold, and the grand-daughter of the famous Dr Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School. Through the mouth of the fictitious white-haired Bishop of Dunchester, the author wrote (p.460): just before I was born there were two great religious leaders in England - Newman and Arnold of Rugby. Arnold died prematurely (before Mary was born), at the height of bodily and spiritual vigour...today we have been listening again, as it were, to the voice of Arnold, the great leader whom the Liberals lost in '42....a church of free men co-extensive with the nation, gathering into one fold every English man, woman and child, that was Arnold's dream, just as it is Meynell's...and, earlier in the book (p.173) 'Meynell has always gone for the inclusion of Dissenters.' 'Well, it was Arnold's game!' said the Canon, his look kindling. 'Don't let's forget that. Meynell's dream is not unlike his - to include everybody that would be included.'

True - Methodists (mainly Primitive) and other non-conformists flock to hear Richard Meynell preach and avidly read his writings. His last great sermon, at the end of the book, charges the Modernist supporters to stand firm: ...just as science, and history, and philosophy, change with this ever-living and growing advance, so religion - man's ideas of God and and his own soul...the sons of tradition and dogma have no monopoly in the exaltation, the living passion of the Cross! Thus the Rector of Upcote, the 40 year-old Meynell, soon probably to be defrocked with other clergy, takes his stand. And standing with him is Mary Elsmere, a 26 year-old, whose bright reddish hair mingled charm and reticence and whose eyes were sweet and shy...the shyness was the shyness of strong character, rather of mere youth and innocence. This is the love story which permeates the entire book; it is based on intellectual and philosophical coming together, as much as passion. Her mother, Catherine Elsmere, widow of 20 years from Robert Elsmere (the subject of Mary Ward's most famous novel), tall, very thin, her brown hair very lightly touched with grey and arranged with the utmost simplicity...the mouth austere and finely cut, is a believer in tradition and only slowly comes round to her daughter's choice. Both women are touchingly drawn (the last line in the book signals Catherine's death) and realistic.

Others who support Meynell include Hugh and Rose Flaxman, Catherine Elsmere's brother-in-law and sister. Hugh plays a major role in sustaining Meynell in times of trial and helping him to defeat the enmity of Henry Barron, Squire of the parish and a wealthy man  of the White House, Upcote Minor, who is determined to bring Meynell down by fair means or foul.. His deaf daughter Theresa, nearly 30...passed generally for a dull and plain woman, ill-dressed, with a stoop that was almost a deformity, and a deafness that made her socially useless is also a life-like character. Perhaps the eldest son, Stephen Barron, a local clergyman devoted to Meynell and the Modernist movement is not so well delineated. The younger son, Maurice Barron, is a cad - deceitful, the originator of an untruthful tract against Meynell which circulates around the area and then reaches the national press. He rightly gets rumbled and his comeuppance. 

Woven into the above - the Modernist-Traditional clash and the love story - is the tragedy of the spinster Alice Puttenham, whose illegitimate daughter Hester was passed off as the offspring of the late Sir Ralph Fox-Wilton and Lady Fox-Wilton (her sister). Hester is now 17-18 year old, vivacious, headstrong, disliked by her 'parents', whom she cordially dislikes too, and doomed to a sticky end. Meynell has promised to look after her as her Guardian, in response to an appeal from her father (who then committed suicide soon after Hester's birth). Matters are further complicated by the present occupant of nearby Sandford Abbey  5 miles away- Sir Philip Meryon (his mother Lady Meryon and the Rector's mother were sisters) ne'er-do-weel... dark, slim fellow, finely made  BUT modified by certain loose and common lines in the face. He seduces Hester and this dark drama regularly diverts Meynell from 'the cause'. Perhaps the scenes relating to Hester's death were guilty of purple passages, but at least she was able to "call me mother" before she expired.

Hester goes to her doom

Another sympathetic character is Francis Craye, Bishop of Markborough, physically a person of great charm. He was small...never detracted from the reverence inspired by the innocence and unworldliness of his character. I found the arguments meted out between the main antagonists and the soul-searching and compelling. Unlike The Churchman, I approved of Mary Ward's leanings. I recall my father, a much milder man than myself, angrily producing a broadsheet in 1950 against Pope Pius XII's absurd declaration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. To that I could add Papal Infallibility, the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection. These definitely don't preclude the historical fact of Jesus being an inspiring teacher and prophet. All religious dogma/doctrine is man made and, certainly, not infallible!

Inspired by Helbeck and Meynell, I have purchased John Sutherland's biography of Mrs Humphry Ward (Clarendon Press, 1990) and look forward to reading it before too long.