Eustace Talbot : born 1 Sept. 1873. Died 26 May 1905 some recollections / [Gwendolen Stephenson, Walter Morley Fletcher, M. R. J].

  • Stephenson, Gwendolen.
Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Eustace Talbot : born 1 Sept. 1873. Died 26 May 1905 some recollections / [Gwendolen Stephenson, Walter Morley Fletcher, M. R. J]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    “ We’m twins,” Evelyn used to say when she and Ish were hardly more*than babies; and so close was the twinship that “Ish” was at first an interchangeable name, which finaUy survived as Evelyn’s attempt at “ Eustace.” This was one instance of the way Evelyn always shirked intellectual responsibility. Whenever she was questioned at lessons, the answer came “Ish’ll know,” and once “ Ish is always so glad he wasn’t born a ’eathen, because then he wouldn’t have known about God.” They were just “ the twins.” “ Mr Eustace was such a pudgy little boy,” Toody said; and “ slammockv ” was a word she always applied to his clothes. I remember him first as fat and round, always untidy and always sweet-tempered. Once as he was wa^Jiing a cow peacefully grazing he was heard to say “ Grand life, cows, one continual feed, and nothing whatever to do,” very solemnly; and after one of us had been thrown off his pony, Ish remarked, “ I could sit on a ’orse for ages.” And that was the sort of little boy I can remember setting off in a new gray overcoat and manly hat for his first term at Temple Grove; while his poor little twin consoled herself with the composition of a sentimental poem and the care of their joint possessions till the holidays. But the holidays revealed the sad fact that a new era had begun, for Ish wished to play cricket with Jack and disdained an imaginative game with hoops, for which Evelyn had been making careful preparations. E. T. 1