Page 17 - Life of Gertrude Bell

EARLY DAYS 5
years that followed her death. In April 1871 Lowthian’s brother
John and his second wife Margaret Elizabeth (‘Lizzie* to the
family) were on holiday in Italy when the news came to them from
Hugh’s sister Florence. Lizzie made a cryptic entry in her diary:
‘Hear from Fanny Bell’s letter that we shall see Mary Hugh no
more.’ The influence of the Bell family in those days may be
judged from the fact that a Royal Navy warship was made avail­
able to them to speed their journey home, though they do not,
in fact, seem to have hurried unduly. On June 20th Lizzie noted:
‘Start by train for Rounton. Find Isaac and the girls well and after
lunch walk to Mary’s grave and talk to Isaac about her.’ It seems
that Gertrude’s grandfather had moved to Rounton Grange, his
new home near Northallerton, by then, which perhaps explains
why Mary was buried there. Ada Bell, Hugh’s unmarried sister,
was living with him at Red Barns at that time and playing a large
part in the upbringing of Gertrude and Maurice. Lizzie visited
her often and they would take the children over to Rounton to
put flowers on the grave. But Gertrude’s fondest reminder of her
mother was in her constant childhood companion and life-long
friend Horace Marshall, who was the son of Mary’s sister Kate,
Mrs Thomas Marshall. Horace was almost exaedy her own age
and he shared her adventurous spirit. Maurice had some difficulty
in keeping up with her tomboyish behaviour — she was seldom
unequal to the challenge of a tree or building—but her cousin,
with whom she spent coundess holidays at his home in Leeds and
Scotland, was a companion after her own heart.
The clear and painstaking handwriting which Gertrude culti­
vated as a child endured until she was nine or ten years old.
Afterwards it degenerated quickly into the impetuous scrawl that
was to cause many a headache among recipients of her letters and
those who came to read them in later years. She had not yet taken
to writing on trains and boats, though she was already a seasoned
traveller for her tender years. In 1876 she was in London again
and in April wrote to her father: ‘Dear Papa, I like the riding very
much I see the primroses in the hedges and I am learning to ride
in my stirrups. Today we went for a drive with the maids and
gathered lots of primroses.’ Her abiding love of flowers was
another of the qualities which showed themselves in childhood.
There is an affectionate portrait of father and daughter at this
time, painted by Sir Edward Poynter. Gertrude is shown as a
pretty child with an oval face, curly shoulder-length hair and a