We Three - Act III , Scene 2

CHAPTER 10 - 1876 

ISABEL HOLT MARRIES HERBERT Z HERRMANN

ACT III, Scene 2

Date July 15, 1876, 3 p.m.

Place: Hope Street Unitarian Church, Liverpool

Scene: Outside church, after wedding, characters are watching the family come out of
church, but the wedding party can’t be seen.

Charles Walker: How nice to see you both again. Here 'We Three' are again, at another wedding. Has anyone kept track of how many weddings and how many funerals we have spent together in the last 25 years?

Lindsay: It must be 20 at least, but this wedding reminds me of Robert’s wedding to Mary Holt, back in 1856 - just before Emily and I got married. And at the same church, and with the same minister.

Charley: Isn’t it interesting how our various families intertwine through marriages over the years
- the Herrmanns, the Holts, the Halls. Only you, Charles, seem to have avoided this intermarriage business.

Charles: Yes, that is true. Being an only child helps, but Mary’s brothers and sisters didn’t
seem impressed by my cousins when they met.

Charley: As well as having all our families intertwined, we all seem to be more or less staying in
the same line of business. That is true with your brother, Robert, isn’t it Lindsay? All of his sons are going into the cotton brokers business, despite the recent slump. But my son, Charles, wants to be
an artist. I hope to dissuade him. My brother, Edward, has the same tendencies, but has always kept a proper job as well, but my Charles wants to make it his life’s work. He is off in Devon at the moment, living off who knows what, and I hope when he gets hungry enough, he will get it out of his system.

Lindsay: My son, Bernard, is going to be an artist too. We have sent him to art college in London,
and he’s also been abroad studying. But I don’t think he will starve. He has a great talent. He excels in music, as you would expect, seeing who his grandfather was, but his preference is for art. I am very proud of him, but equally so of my other sons, who seem to be taking more traditional paths.

Charles: I must say, I am curious about the Holt family. I know you know them very well, Lindsay, and count George as being a good friend. I was pleased to see him walk Isobel down the aisle. He has taken on the mantle of father figure for the whole family. Theodoria and Ellen both live with him, and speaking of artists, Ellen, as well, dabbles in painting.

Lindsay: I had a long talk with Robert about Unitarianism the other night. You know he is a staunch
supporter, and all his children are very involved. They have that in common with the other George Holt and his family. I think they are loosely related, but, of course, the ship owning Holts are far richer and more important. Anyway, we had this discussion about what the Unitarians believe, and I was surprised to find out that they don’t believe that Jesus is God. In fact they don’t believe in the
Trinity, so that is why they are called Unitarians - meaning only one God, rather than the three persons that most Christian religions preach.

Charles: How can they be called Christians if they don’t believe in the divinity of Christ? I thought that was a major concept that one had to hold.

Lindsay: Well from what George told me, they believe in the tenets of the Christian religion - and
that Jesus was the son of God and a great prophet, and they go along with what he said and did, but they fall short of thinking of him as an equal to God, the Father. And as far as the Holy Ghost is
concerned, they don’t count him at all.

Charley: This church has been here a long time, and has had very important men attached to it. It
sets itself up as a “thinking man’s church” - for those who don’t follow religion blindly but wish to use it as an intellectual exercise. At least that's my understanding of it.

Lindsay: It actually goes back a long way. This church itself was founded in 1811. But according to
George, Unitarianism started back between 1548, and was called an Anti-trinitarian church, which was quickly made a capitol offence, and many had to sacrifice their lives for their beliefs including the physician and author, Francis Kett in 1579.

Charles: I tend to think of Unitarians as free thinkers and dissenters, evolving their beliefs in the direction of freedom, tolerance, rationalism and humanism. 

Lindsay: They believe that reason and belief are complementary and that religion and science can
co-exist and guide them in their understanding of nature and God. They also do not enforce belief in creeds or dogmatic formulas. Adherents generally accept religious pluralism and find value in all
teachings, but remain committed to their core belief in Christ's teachings.

Charles: Certainly important people have identified themselves as Unitarians, including Florence
Nightingale, Charles Dickens and, of course, one of the founders, Joseph Priestly.

Charley: I feel like I should add something to this discussion too, but I can remember hearing
somewhere that the famous American woman activist - pushing for civil liberties as well as women’s rights - Susan B Anthony, is a sort of Unitarian.

Charles: So did George tell you what they do believe in - as well as what they don’t?

Lindsay: Most Unitarian Christians would say that Jesus of Nazareth and his followers would
today be defined as Unitarian Christians, and that Unitarian Christianity is the form of Christianity most closely following the direct teachings of Jesus. However, they usually respect the beliefs
of others and do not believe that their way is the only way to follow God's will.

Charles: So which important local people, other than the Holts, do you know who are Unitarians?

Lindsay: Well, there’s George Melly who has played a prominent part in Liverpool public life.
Although he was never very successful here in the things he tried. He was a prominent Liberal and contested Everton ward for the City Council without success in 1857 but a year later he was elected a member of the Select Vestry, which he held until 1860. About that same time he was appointed J.P., and eventually got to be an MP for Stoke until he retired last year. He seemed particularly interested in philanthropic movements.

Charles: And I know I am forever going on about the slave trade and its effect on Liverpool, but, I
must admit that those who fought against slavery, William Smith and William Roscoe, both Unitarians, did more than most MPs to bring abolition about. I remember hearing one of them say something like this. “We are on a religious quest which asserts the inherent dignity and worth of all human beings, a religious quest not bound by dogma or creed, a religious quest in which our spirits are free and with that precious gift of freedom we will strive to make the world a better place for all.”

Lindsay: Well, there are the Durnings, of course, the shipping Holts forebears. Not that I knew
them personally, but the Gaskells in Manchester also spring to mind. And do you know they are actually considering having a woman as a minister in the Scottish branch? I can’t see that coming here for a long time, if at all. But, certainly, if things go down that route, my thought is that they will alienate themselves even more from the conventional churches.

Charley: There they are, the happy bride and groom. I do wonder each time I see old Mrs. Herrmann,
how long she will endure. With her 15 children, although they have lost one now, such a list of grandchildren she must have. I hear that Alphonse is going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a music professor as well.

Lindsay: And his sister, Ada. They have both been equally involved, although she is a wonderful
singer, and tends towards that aspect of music.

Charles: But not the groom, Herbert. He is an architect, and a very successful one from what I
have heard. I wonder how dainty Isobel will take to living in London.

Lindsay: From what Robert’s wife, Mary, tells me, she has always been somewhat delicate, so I
hope she will have some family support.

Charles: I’m sure that Herbert has sisters in the London area. Surely they will take her under their
wing. Didn’t Verena marry a stock broker? And that reminds me of another thing that puzzled me. Josephine’s husband is a vicar. I rather thought he would be asked to officiate at this wedding, as he
has done for others of the Herrmanns. But it was not to be.

Lindsay: I think that the two churches are not in harmony sufficiently for them to entertain the
idea of a joint ceremony. But I am sure Rev. George Banner, the Vicar of Roby, near Prescot, will be very much in evidence at the dinner.

Charley: Between us and our various friends and their spouses, we certainly have kept the cotton
industry going. There is William Boxwell. Although he also deals in general produce, he keeps up the cotton broker element too, like you do Lindsay. I have never tried anything but cotton, and it has given me a good life.

Lindsay: How are you coping without Eliza, now Charley? It has been awhile. Any thoughts of
marrying again?

Charley: No, I don’t think it would have been possible with the young children we had. But I had
such a good help in our housekeeper, Mrs. Elizabeth Cleyminton, who more or less raised the younger children. And now my older sons are off with their own lives. And it won’t be long before my daughters get married, and then I will be on my own.

Lindsay: Just between the three of us, things are not going well between me and Emily. She has
threatened to leave me, and I think she means it.

Charley: Why, for heaven’s sake? You have given her a very good life.

Lindsay: Well, things are not as good as they once were, and with Bernard likely to be settling in
London for the sake of his art, I think she would want to be with him, or at least near him. They are very close.

Charles: Don’t you think perhaps your gambling has something to do with it? I have heard,
although you can correct me if I am wrong, that you lost very heavily on the last Grand National.

Lindsay: You and your moralizing, Charles. I win some, I lose some, but betting on horse races is an important part of my life and I am not going to give it up for her - let her leave if she wants to.

Charley: You, Charles, who married last, seem to be the only one with a long-lasting and happy
relationship. Not that Eliza and I weren’t happy, and I can only wish that we had had more years together.

Charles: No one is ever completely happy with their lot. I wonder how long this couple (gesturing
towards the bride and groom) will have. It’s all very much in the lap of the Gods, or perhaps I
should say the God, singular, due to where we are at the moment.

Curtain.