

E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Melissa Er-Raqabi, and the Project
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THE LOST STRADIVARIUS

by

J. MEADE FALKNER

1895

Penguin Books
Harmondsworth Middlesex, England
245 Fifth Avenue, New York, U.S.A. THE AUTHOR


John Meade Falkner was a remarkable character, as he was not only a
scholar and a writer, but a captain of industry as well. Born in 1858,
the son of a clergyman in Wiltshire, he was educated at Marlborough and
Hertford College, Oxford. On leaving the university, he became tutor to
the sons of Sir Andrew Noble, then vice-chairman of the
Armstrong-Whitworth Company; and his ability so much impressed his
employer that in 1885 he was offered a post in the firm. Without
connections or influence in industrial circles, and solely by his
intellect, he rose to be a director in 1901, and finally, in 1915,
chairman of this enormous business. He was actually chairman during the
important years 1915-1920, and remained a director until 1926. His intellectual energy was so great that throughout his life he found
time for scholarship as well as business. He travelled for his firm in
Europe and South America; and in the intervals of negotiating with
foreign governments studied manuscripts wherever he found a library. His
researches in the Vatican Library were of special importance, and in
connection with them he received a gold medal from the Pope; he was also
decorated by the Italian, Turkish and Japanese governments. His scholastic interests included archæology, folklore, palæography,
mediæval history, architecture and church music; and he was a collector
of missals. Towards the end of his life he was made an Honorary Fellow
of Hertford College, Oxford, Honorary Reader in Palæography to Durham
University, and Honorary Librarian to the Chapter Library of Durham
Cathedral, which he left one of the best cathedral libraries in Europe. He died at Durham in 1932. Apart from _The Lost Stradivarius_, Falkner was the author of two other
novels, _The Nebuly Coat_ (1903--also published in Penguin Books) and
_Moonfleet_ (1898). He also wrote a History of Oxfordshire, handbooks to
that county and to Berkshire, historical short stories, and some
mediævalist verse. THE LOST STRADIVARIUS





  Letter from MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS
  to her Nephew, SIR EDWARD MALTRAVERS,
  then a Student at Christ Church, Oxford. 13 Pauncefort Buildings, Bath,
  Oct. 21, 1867. MY DEAR EDWARD,

  It was your late father's dying request that certain events which
  occurred in his last years should be communicated to you on your coming
  of age. I have reduced them to writing, partly from my own recollection,
  which is, alas! still too vivid, and partly with the aid of notes taken
  at the time of my brother's death. As you are now of full age, I submit
  the narrative to you. Much of it has necessarily been exceedingly
  painful to me to write, but at the same time I feel it is better that
  you should hear the truth from me than garbled stories from others who
  did not love your father as I did. Your loving Aunt,
  SOPHIA MALTRAVERS


To Sir Edward Maltravers, Bart. "A tale out of season is as music in mourning." --ECCLESIASTICUS xxii. 6. MISS SOPHIA MALTRAVERS' STORY

CHAPTER I


Your father, John Maltravers, was born in 1820 at Worth, and succeeded
his father and mine, who died when we were still young children. John
was sent to Eton in due course, and in 1839, when he was nineteen years
of age, it was determined that he should go to Oxford. It was intended
at first to enter him at Christ Church; but Dr. Sarsdell, who visited us
at Worth in the summer of 1839, persuaded Mr. Thoresby, our guardian, to
send him instead to Magdalen Hall. Dr. Sarsdell was himself Principal of
that institution, and represented that John, who then exhibited some
symptoms of delicacy, would meet with more personal attention under his
care than he could hope to do in so large a college as Christ Church. Mr. Thoresby, ever solicitous for his ward's welfare, readily waived
other considerations in favour of an arrangement which he considered
conducive to John's health, and he was accordingly matriculated at
Magdalen Hall in the autumn of 1839. Dr. Sarsdell had not been unmindful of his promise to look after my
brother, and had secured him an excellent first-floor sitting-room, with
a bedroom adjoining, having an aspect towards New College Lane. I shall pass over the first two years of my brother's residence at
Oxford, because they have nothing to do with the present story. They
were spent, no doubt, in the ordinary routine of work and recreation
common in Oxford at that period. From his earliest boyhood he had been passionately devoted to music,
and had attained a considerable proficiency on the violin. In the autumn
term of 1841 he made the acquaintance of Mr. William Gaskell, a very
talented student at New College, and also a more than tolerable
musician. The practice of music was then very much less common at Oxford
than it has since become, and there were none of those societies
existing which now do so much to promote its study among undergraduates. It was therefore a cause of much gratification to the two young men, and
it afterwards became a strong bond of friendship, to discover that one
was as devoted to the pianoforte as was the other to the violin. Mr.
Gaskell, though in easy circumstances, had not a pianoforte in his
rooms, and was pleased to use a fine instrument by D'Almaine that John
had that term received as a birthday present from his guardian. From that time the two students were thrown much together, and in the
autumn term of 1841 and Easter term of 1842 practised a variety of music
in John's rooms, he taking the violin part and Mr. Gaskell that for the
pianoforte. It was, I think, in March 1842 that John purchased for his rooms a piece
of furniture which was destined afterwards to play no unimportant part
in the story I am narrating. This was a very large and low wicker chair
of a form then coming into fashion in Oxford, and since, I am told,
become a familiar object of most college rooms. It was cushioned with a
gaudy pattern of chintz, and bought for new of an upholsterer at the
bottom of the High Street. Mr. Gaskell was taken by his uncle to spend Easter in Rome, and
obtaining special leave from his college to prolong his travels; did not
return to Oxford till three weeks of the summer term were passed and May
was well advanced. So impatient was he to see his friend that he would
not let even the first evening of his return pass without coming round
to John's rooms. The two young men sat without lights until the night
was late; and Mr. Gaskell had much to narrate of his travels, and spoke
specially of the beautiful music which he had heard at Easter in the
Roman churches.