In my last blog I described how I discovered the personal notebook of Lieutenant (later Commander) Charles Haultain R.N. and discussed the sheet of additional naval numerical signals I found tucked in the back. Today I want to share with you some of the personal entries that make up the bulk of the contents of the notebook. In modern terms, I suppose it was the equivalent of an iPad, containing both information that was important professionally to the owner and material designed to entertain and amuse him during the long weeks and months at sea. So what did a twenty-four year old man who had seen action in Egypt, the Mediterranean, the Irish Station and the Adriatic over a twelve-year period, select to while away the dull and dismal hours?
On the inside covers and on the fly-leaf, he stuck some very early examples of moveable pictures, the forerunners of today’s pop-up books pictures. The German inscription on the picture of a piece of furniture on the right above translates as follows:
Even if the bookcase appears so small,
If you, I beg, make the effort,
To draw the curtains right and left,
I hope the contents will please you.
And this is what is revealed:
On the inside covers and on the fly-leaf, he stuck some very early examples of moveable pictures, the forerunners of today’s pop-up books pictures. The German inscription on the picture of a piece of furniture on the right above translates as follows:
Even if the bookcase appears so small,
If you, I beg, make the effort,
To draw the curtains right and left,
I hope the contents will please you.
And this is what is revealed:
A selection of press cuttings have been glued in. The topics are varied and include an extract from a London Gazette Extraordinary reports on the Capture of Alexandria in 1801, an Ode of Congratulation to His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence on his being appointed Admiral of the Fleet (December 1811), and various amusing anecdotes such as the duel fought over the waltz and the patient who fled in panic on encountering a skeleton in his doctor’s rooms. Other snippets of information from the wars are more amusing than military in nature e.g.
We find also a detailed account of a masquerade, listing the costumes worn by some of the guests; reports of an inquest, a bull-baiting and the supposed discovery in Malta of the burial-place of Hannibal. There is a considerable amount of verse, both as press-clippings and carefully copied out. The verse is a peculiar mixture of the sentimental, the tragic and the comic, interspersed with some lines that have stood the test of time such as Ben Jonson’s ‘The Sweet Neglect,’ and Robert Southey’s ballad Inchcape Rock and sonnet O God! have mercy, in this dreadful hour
The first handwritten entry is called The Sailor’s Adieu, verses that appeared in The Sporting Magazine in 1811 but may have been known earlier. In every version I have found, the sailor bids farewell to Eliza, but Haultain changed the name of the beloved to Mary. Further on in the book however, we discover lines addressed to Mary in which he laments ‘But I now mourn that e’er I knew/A girl so fair and so deceiving. We do not know if these were addressed to a particular lady called Mary but in August 1814 he married a lady called Eliza Saward.
A series of bathetic verses written in three-line stanzas, each addressed to a different family member e.g. My Mother, My Father, My Daughter, My Woman comes next. Here is a brief sample:
Who in my helpless Infancy
Assisted oft to wait on me
To ease my Mother’s arm and knee?
My Father.
or
“When harm or sickness made me cry
Who was it watched my heavy Eye
And wept for fear that I should die?
My Mother”
or
How was my aching bosom torn
With doubts and fears upon that morn
When thou first pledge of love wert born?
My Daughter.
This must have been a popular style at the time as it was later parodied by Thomas Hood in his verses A Lay of Real Life in which he lists all his relations, starting with his grandfather and concludes that he can only rely upon himself. Indeed, I remember my own father reciting over a hundred and fifty years later:
“Who took me from my nice warm cot
And put me on a cold, cold pot,
Whether I wanted to or not?
My mother”
Charles Haultain also collected jokes, epigrams and riddles that were stuck or written in to the notebook wherever space permitted. Unfortunately he frequently only jotted down the riddle questions so I cannot enlighten you as to Why a Spectator is like a Beehive or why Two Laughing Girls are like the Wings of a Chicken. On the back inside cover, he stuck another German movable picture of a man raising a stein to his mouth. The inscription translates as 'to your health'.
A series of bathetic verses written in three-line stanzas, each addressed to a different family member e.g. My Mother, My Father, My Daughter, My Woman comes next. Here is a brief sample:
Who in my helpless Infancy
Assisted oft to wait on me
To ease my Mother’s arm and knee?
My Father.
or
“When harm or sickness made me cry
Who was it watched my heavy Eye
And wept for fear that I should die?
My Mother”
or
How was my aching bosom torn
With doubts and fears upon that morn
When thou first pledge of love wert born?
My Daughter.
This must have been a popular style at the time as it was later parodied by Thomas Hood in his verses A Lay of Real Life in which he lists all his relations, starting with his grandfather and concludes that he can only rely upon himself. Indeed, I remember my own father reciting over a hundred and fifty years later:
“Who took me from my nice warm cot
And put me on a cold, cold pot,
Whether I wanted to or not?
My mother”
Charles Haultain also collected jokes, epigrams and riddles that were stuck or written in to the notebook wherever space permitted. Unfortunately he frequently only jotted down the riddle questions so I cannot enlighten you as to Why a Spectator is like a Beehive or why Two Laughing Girls are like the Wings of a Chicken. On the back inside cover, he stuck another German movable picture of a man raising a stein to his mouth. The inscription translates as 'to your health'.
Charles Haultain was born in December 1787. He came from a service family: his father was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the 66th Regiment of Foot and Charles was the eldest of four brothers, all of whom saw service—Francis in the Royal Artillery, Arthur with the East India Company and Frederick in the navy. Charles appears to have entered the royal navy within a month of his twelfth birthday in Jan. 1800. He joined as an Able Seaman but within two years attained the rating of Midshipman and on 26 April 1806 was promoted to a lieutenancy. He cannot have had much formal education but would have received additional instruction on board ship. His handwriting is clear and fluent, with very few erasures or corrections. It is difficult to date the entries in his notebook exactly, but it seems as if he may have started it in 1811 when he was twenty-four. Some of the press-cuttings are dated earlier and he may have transferred these from a previous book.
He was promoted to Commander in June 1814 but, despite his best efforts, saw no further naval employment but presumably remained on half-pay. He was made a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order in the New Year's honours of 1833. Although this order was instituted by the Prince Regent in 1815, it was always regarded as a foreign order in the United Kingdom and while members could use the appropriate initials - in Haultain's case, KH - after their names, they were not entitled to the style of 'Sir'.
Commander Charles Haultain K. H. was later the originator and compiler of the New Navy List. He died in 1845 and is buried in the graveyard of St. Mary's Church, Fairford, Co. Gloucester.
He was promoted to Commander in June 1814 but, despite his best efforts, saw no further naval employment but presumably remained on half-pay. He was made a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order in the New Year's honours of 1833. Although this order was instituted by the Prince Regent in 1815, it was always regarded as a foreign order in the United Kingdom and while members could use the appropriate initials - in Haultain's case, KH - after their names, they were not entitled to the style of 'Sir'.
Commander Charles Haultain K. H. was later the originator and compiler of the New Navy List. He died in 1845 and is buried in the graveyard of St. Mary's Church, Fairford, Co. Gloucester.