But to anyone who knew him as intimately as I
did, such an hypothesis is untenable; nor, if admitted, would it explain
some of the strangest incidents. Moreover, it was strongly negatived by
Dr. Frobisher, from whose verdict in such matters there was at the time
no appeal, by Dr. Dobie, and by Dr. Bruton, who had known Sir John from
his infancy. It is possible that towards the close of his life he
suffered occasionally from hallucination, though I could not positively
affirm even so much; but this was only when his health had been
completely undermined by causes which are very difficult to analyse. When I first knew him at Oxford he was a strong man physically as
well as mentally; open-hearted, and of a merry and genial temperament. At the same time he was, like most cultured persons--and especially
musicians,--highly strung and excitable. But at a certain point in his
career his very nature seemed to change; he became reserved, secretive,
and saturnine. On this moral metamorphosis followed an equally startling
physical change. His robust health began to fail him, and although there
was no definite malady which doctors could combat, he went gradually
from bad to worse until the end came. The commencement of this extraordinary change coincided, I believe,
almost exactly with his discovery of the Stradivarius violin; and
whether this was, after all, a mere coincidence or something more it is
not easy to say. Until a very short time before his death neither Miss
Maltravers nor I had any idea how that instrument had come into his
possession, or I think something might perhaps have been done to save
him. Though towards the end of his life he spoke freely to his sister of the
finding of the violin, he only told her half the story, for he concealed
from her entirely that there was anything else in the hidden cupboard at
Oxford. But as a matter of fact, he had found there also two manuscript
books containing an elaborate diary of some years of a man's life. That
man was Adrian Temple, and I believe that in the perusal of this diary
must be sought the origin of John Maltravers's ruin. The manuscript was
beautifully written in a clear but cramped eighteenth century hand,
and gave the idea of a man writing with deliberation, and wishing to
transcribe his impressions with accuracy for further reference. The
style was excellent, and the minute details given were often of high
antiquarian interest; but the record throughout was marred by gross
licence. Adrian Temple's life had undoubtedly so definite an influence
on Sir John's that a brief outline of it, as gathered from his diaries,
is necessary for the understanding of what followed. Temple went up to Oxford in 1737. He was seventeen years old, without
parents, brothers, or sisters; and he possessed the Royston estates
in Derbyshire, which were then, as now, a most valuable property. With the year 1738 his diaries begin, and though then little more than
a boy, he had tasted every illicit pleasure that Oxford had to offer. His temptations were no doubt great; for besides being wealthy he was
handsome, and had probably never known any proper control, as both his
parents had died when he was still very young. But in spite of other
failings, he was a brilliant scholar, and on taking his degree, was
made at once a fellow of St. John's. He took up his abode in that
College in a fine set of rooms looking on to the gardens, and from this
period seems to have used Royston but little, living always either at
Oxford or on the Continent. He formed at this time the acquaintance of
one Jocelyn, whom he engaged as companion and amanuensis. Jocelyn was a
man of talent, but of irregular life, and was no doubt an accomplice in
many of Temple's excesses. In 1743 they both undertook the so-called
"grand tour," and though it was not his first visit, it was then
probably that Temple first felt the fascination of pagan Italy,--a
fascination which increased with every year of his after-life. On his return from foreign travel he found himself among the stirring
events of 1745. He was an ardent supporter of the Pretender, and made no
attempt to conceal his views. Jacobite tendencies were indeed generally
prevalent in the College at the time, and had this been the sum of his
offending, it is probable that little notice would have been taken by
the College authorities. But his notoriously wild life told against the
young man, and certain dark suspicions were not easily passed over. After the _fiasco_ of the Rebellion Dr. Holmes, then President of the
College, seems to have made a scapegoat of Temple. He was deprived of
his fellowship, and though not formally expelled, such pressure was put
upon him as resulted in his leaving St. John's and removing to Magdalen
Hall. There his great wealth evidently secured him consideration, and he
was given the best rooms in the Hall, that very set looking on to New
College Lane which Sir John Maltravers afterwards occupied. In the first half of the eighteenth century the romance of the middle
ages, though dying, was not dead, and the occult sciences still found
followers among the Oxford towers. From his early years Temple's mind
seems to have been set strongly towards mysticism of all kinds, and he
and Jocelyn were versed in the jargon of the alchemist and astrologer,
and practised according to the ancient rules. It was his reputation as
a necromancer, and the stories current of illicit rites performed in
the garden-rooms at St. John's, that contributed largely to his being
dismissed from that College. He had also become acquainted with Francis
Dashwood, the notorious Lord le Despencer, and many a winter's night
saw him riding through the misty Thames meadows to the door of the sham
Franciscan abbey. In his diaries were more notices than one of the
"Franciscans" and the nameless orgies of Medmenham. He was devoted to music. It was a rare enough accomplishment then, and a
rarer thing still to find a wealthy landowner performing on the violin. Yet so he did, though he kept his passion very much to himself, as
fiddling was thought lightly of in those days. His musical skill
was altogether exceptional, and he was the first possessor of the
Stradivarius violin which afterwards fell so unfortunately into Sir
John's hands. This violin Temple bought in the autumn of 1738, on the
occasion of a first visit to Italy. In that year died the nonagenarian
Antonius Stradivarius, the greatest violin-maker the world has ever
seen. After Stradivarius's death the stock of fiddles in his shop was
sold by auction. Temple happened to be travelling in Cremona at the time
with a tutor, and at the auction he bought that very instrument which we
afterwards had cause to know so well. A note in his diary gave its cost
at four louis, and said that a curious history attached to it.