User talk:Aussie Article Writer/Elizabeth Anstice Baker

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 * Analysis

Books

 * Another enterprise in which Monsignor Benson took a quite special interest appears to me to have been the "Motor Mission." It is true that his personal connection with it was intermittent and did not last long : but I know that he ranked it, for importance, very high indeed. The Motor Mission is an element in the propaganda of the Catholic Missionary Society, which undertakes the spreading, by every active means, of the Catholic Faith in England. The Motor Mission consists of a kind of gipsy van which is really an automobile chapel ; it contains an altar, harmonium, kneeling-stools, a large crucifix and a banner of Our Lady, and a huge "question box." It tours the country, preceded by those who should make straight its paths ; and its evangelists, to those who raise the cry : " No Popery ! " retort in Father Bernard Vaughan's now consecrated phrase : " Know Popery." The car was blessed by the Archbishop of Westminster in June, 1911, and the first Mass was said in it at Ware by the President of St. Edmund's College on June 19. The association was admirably conceived. St. Edmund's, more than anywhere, perhaps, in England, links up the fortunes of modern English Catholics with that superb tradition now so accessible to all in the great series of volumes its historians are producing.
 * The motor's first tour was in the Eastern counties, and from August 14-20 Father Benson preached for it at East Dereham in Norfolk. The mission had started amid storms. At Haverhill the advent of the motor had been well advertised, and its preaching was rivalled by some Kensit lectures, which, promising to deal with immoralities of monks and nuns, attracted a delighted group of boys and bar-loungers. They, when the missioners came out of the Corn Exchange, where they held their first meeting, booed and hustled these priests, and, even more, a party of ladies (one only was a Catholic) who had motored over from a distance and appeared fair game. The crowd grew, and appeared at the outset to represent public opinion : but the cheerful courtesy of the missioners and the extreme pluck and savoir-faire of the visitors created a revulsion of feeling little short of miraculous, and the Fathers left Haverhill escorted by a cheering crowd who bade them welcome back.
 * Of the ladies who played so notable a part in preparing for the different missions, it may be permitted to mention two, both withdrawn, to-day, from this life of visible activity. Miss Elizabeth Anstice Baker was herself a convert, and her relationships had put her into a fascinating connection with the political interests of both England and America. In her Father Benson found one of his most trusted allies : in his letters I constantly find him mentioning her as " a wonderful woman ; a very great friend of mine, with whom I want to put you in touch. You can trust her," he said, "as you would a priest." He wrote, too, a preface to a late edition of her Modern Pilgrim's Progress, a book which has brought incalculable help to souls touched slightly, it may be, by the maladie du siecle, but anyhow utterly impervious to the customary pious or apologetic literature. Her talents, however, were practical and organising rather than philosophical or literary. She possessed in a high degree that personal magnetism, that utter fearlessness, that temperamental incapacity for saying that this or that can't be done, which carries every position however impregnable it be deemed, which compensates for what is vulgarly esteemed of supreme importance in the way of outside attractiveness, and which can neutralise the gravest disadvantages, such as the severe deafness which she did not for a moment intend to allow to interfere with her plans. I have seen a platformful of grave personages, looking ruefully at a great lecture hall, too thinly populated for its size : " If only," it was sighed, " they had all been told to congregate in the body of the hall, and not to scatter through the galleries... Mismanagement as usual ! " " Did I understand you to say," murmured Miss Baker, " that you wanted the galleries cleared? " Oh well, it would have been very nice," they answered, 44 but it's clearly quite impossible to do it now." Miss Baker effaced herself. A moment later, a stir was noticeable in the hall. Distant tiers of seats were being evacuated. . . . The front rows on the floor were filling up. ... In less than seven minutes this deaf old lady had effected the results despaired of by princes and by prophets. The amazing aplomb with which she, on these motor expeditions, carried all before her, from starched and High Church Vicar to Nonconformist grocer, made the endless delight of Monsignor Benson, and certainly, were such our duty, could be illustrated with the most delightful and indiscreet of anecdotes. It would be quite wrong, however, were I to leave the impression of an ardent, exterior, and perhaps impertinent activity. Her tenderness and infinite tolerance, in which a Christian love and a deep knowledge of the world and of human hearts helped each the other, were more secret, perhaps, but not less real or loved.
 * Another enterprise in which Monsignor Benson took a quite special interest appears to me to have been the "Motor Mission." It is true that his personal connection with it was intermittent and did not last long : but I know that he ranked it, for importance, very high indeed. The Motor Mission is an element in the propaganda of the Catholic Missionary Society, which undertakes the spreading, by every active means, of the Catholic Faith in England. The Motor Mission consists of a kind of gipsy van which is really an automobile chapel ; it contains an altar, harmonium, kneeling-stools, a large crucifix and a banner of Our Lady, and a huge "question box." It tours the country, preceded by those who should make straight its paths ; and its evangelists, to those who raise the cry : " No Popery ! " retort in Father Bernard Vaughan's now consecrated phrase : " Know Popery." The car was blessed by the Archbishop of Westminster in June, 1911, and the first Mass was said in it at Ware by the President of St. Edmund's College on June 19. The association was admirably conceived. St. Edmund's, more than anywhere, perhaps, in England, links up the fortunes of modern English Catholics with that superb tradition now so accessible to all in the great series of volumes its historians are producing.
 * The motor's first tour was in the Eastern counties, and from August 14-20 Father Benson preached for it at East Dereham in Norfolk. The mission had started amid storms. At Haverhill the advent of the motor had been well advertised, and its preaching was rivalled by some Kensit lectures, which, promising to deal with immoralities of monks and nuns, attracted a delighted group of boys and bar-loungers. They, when the missioners came out of the Corn Exchange, where they held their first meeting, booed and hustled these priests, and, even more, a party of ladies (one only was a Catholic) who had motored over from a distance and appeared fair game. The crowd grew, and appeared at the outset to represent public opinion : but the cheerful courtesy of the missioners and the extreme pluck and savoir-faire of the visitors created a revulsion of feeling little short of miraculous, and the Fathers left Haverhill escorted by a cheering crowd who bade them welcome back.
 * Of the ladies who played so notable a part in preparing for the different missions, it may be permitted to mention two, both withdrawn, to-day, from this life of visible activity. Miss Elizabeth Anstice Baker was herself a convert, and her relationships had put her into a fascinating connection with the political interests of both England and America. In her Father Benson found one of his most trusted allies : in his letters I constantly find him mentioning her as " a wonderful woman ; a very great friend of mine, with whom I want to put you in touch. You can trust her," he said, "as you would a priest." He wrote, too, a preface to a late edition of her Modern Pilgrim's Progress, a book which has brought incalculable help to souls touched slightly, it may be, by the maladie du siecle, but anyhow utterly impervious to the customary pious or apologetic literature. Her talents, however, were practical and organising rather than philosophical or literary. She possessed in a high degree that personal magnetism, that utter fearlessness, that temperamental incapacity for saying that this or that can't be done, which carries every position however impregnable it be deemed, which compensates for what is vulgarly esteemed of supreme importance in the way of outside attractiveness, and which can neutralise the gravest disadvantages, such as the severe deafness which she did not for a moment intend to allow to interfere with her plans. I have seen a platformful of grave personages, looking ruefully at a great lecture hall, too thinly populated for its size : " If only," it was sighed, " they had all been told to congregate in the body of the hall, and not to scatter through the galleries... Mismanagement as usual ! " " Did I understand you to say," murmured Miss Baker, " that you wanted the galleries cleared? " Oh well, it would have been very nice," they answered, 44 but it's clearly quite impossible to do it now." Miss Baker effaced herself. A moment later, a stir was noticeable in the hall. Distant tiers of seats were being evacuated. . . . The front rows on the floor were filling up. ... In less than seven minutes this deaf old lady had effected the results despaired of by princes and by prophets. The amazing aplomb with which she, on these motor expeditions, carried all before her, from starched and High Church Vicar to Nonconformist grocer, made the endless delight of Monsignor Benson, and certainly, were such our duty, could be illustrated with the most delightful and indiscreet of anecdotes. It would be quite wrong, however, were I to leave the impression of an ardent, exterior, and perhaps impertinent activity. Her tenderness and infinite tolerance, in which a Christian love and a deep knowledge of the world and of human hearts helped each the other, were more secret, perhaps, but not less real or loved.
 * Of the ladies who played so notable a part in preparing for the different missions, it may be permitted to mention two, both withdrawn, to-day, from this life of visible activity. Miss Elizabeth Anstice Baker was herself a convert, and her relationships had put her into a fascinating connection with the political interests of both England and America. In her Father Benson found one of his most trusted allies : in his letters I constantly find him mentioning her as " a wonderful woman ; a very great friend of mine, with whom I want to put you in touch. You can trust her," he said, "as you would a priest." He wrote, too, a preface to a late edition of her Modern Pilgrim's Progress, a book which has brought incalculable help to souls touched slightly, it may be, by the maladie du siecle, but anyhow utterly impervious to the customary pious or apologetic literature. Her talents, however, were practical and organising rather than philosophical or literary. She possessed in a high degree that personal magnetism, that utter fearlessness, that temperamental incapacity for saying that this or that can't be done, which carries every position however impregnable it be deemed, which compensates for what is vulgarly esteemed of supreme importance in the way of outside attractiveness, and which can neutralise the gravest disadvantages, such as the severe deafness which she did not for a moment intend to allow to interfere with her plans. I have seen a platformful of grave personages, looking ruefully at a great lecture hall, too thinly populated for its size : " If only," it was sighed, " they had all been told to congregate in the body of the hall, and not to scatter through the galleries... Mismanagement as usual ! " " Did I understand you to say," murmured Miss Baker, " that you wanted the galleries cleared? " Oh well, it would have been very nice," they answered, 44 but it's clearly quite impossible to do it now." Miss Baker effaced herself. A moment later, a stir was noticeable in the hall. Distant tiers of seats were being evacuated. . . . The front rows on the floor were filling up. ... In less than seven minutes this deaf old lady had effected the results despaired of by princes and by prophets. The amazing aplomb with which she, on these motor expeditions, carried all before her, from starched and High Church Vicar to Nonconformist grocer, made the endless delight of Monsignor Benson, and certainly, were such our duty, could be illustrated with the most delightful and indiscreet of anecdotes. It would be quite wrong, however, were I to leave the impression of an ardent, exterior, and perhaps impertinent activity. Her tenderness and infinite tolerance, in which a Christian love and a deep knowledge of the world and of human hearts helped each the other, were more secret, perhaps, but not less real or loved.
 * Of the ladies who played so notable a part in preparing for the different missions, it may be permitted to mention two, both withdrawn, to-day, from this life of visible activity. Miss Elizabeth Anstice Baker was herself a convert, and her relationships had put her into a fascinating connection with the political interests of both England and America. In her Father Benson found one of his most trusted allies : in his letters I constantly find him mentioning her as " a wonderful woman ; a very great friend of mine, with whom I want to put you in touch. You can trust her," he said, "as you would a priest." He wrote, too, a preface to a late edition of her Modern Pilgrim's Progress, a book which has brought incalculable help to souls touched slightly, it may be, by the maladie du siecle, but anyhow utterly impervious to the customary pious or apologetic literature. Her talents, however, were practical and organising rather than philosophical or literary. She possessed in a high degree that personal magnetism, that utter fearlessness, that temperamental incapacity for saying that this or that can't be done, which carries every position however impregnable it be deemed, which compensates for what is vulgarly esteemed of supreme importance in the way of outside attractiveness, and which can neutralise the gravest disadvantages, such as the severe deafness which she did not for a moment intend to allow to interfere with her plans. I have seen a platformful of grave personages, looking ruefully at a great lecture hall, too thinly populated for its size : " If only," it was sighed, " they had all been told to congregate in the body of the hall, and not to scatter through the galleries... Mismanagement as usual ! " " Did I understand you to say," murmured Miss Baker, " that you wanted the galleries cleared? " Oh well, it would have been very nice," they answered, 44 but it's clearly quite impossible to do it now." Miss Baker effaced herself. A moment later, a stir was noticeable in the hall. Distant tiers of seats were being evacuated. . . . The front rows on the floor were filling up. ... In less than seven minutes this deaf old lady had effected the results despaired of by princes and by prophets. The amazing aplomb with which she, on these motor expeditions, carried all before her, from starched and High Church Vicar to Nonconformist grocer, made the endless delight of Monsignor Benson, and certainly, were such our duty, could be illustrated with the most delightful and indiscreet of anecdotes. It would be quite wrong, however, were I to leave the impression of an ardent, exterior, and perhaps impertinent activity. Her tenderness and infinite tolerance, in which a Christian love and a deep knowledge of the world and of human hearts helped each the other, were more secret, perhaps, but not less real or loved.

Newspapers

 * Resignation from State Children's Council -
 * Reappointment to State Children's Council =
 * Resignation from State Children's Council -
 * Reappointment to State Children's Council =
 * Resignation from State Children's Council -
 * Reappointment to State Children's Council =
 * Resignation from State Children's Council -
 * Reappointment to State Children's Council =
 * Resignation from State Children's Council -
 * Reappointment to State Children's Council =
 * Reappointment to State Children's Council =

Misc

 * RCDEA record - lives at 18 Egerton Terrace, London in 1903

Bio

 * born to John Baker and Isabella Baker ( Allan) - and
 * siblings: Mary Anstice (died at one year old), Richard, George, Mary, Isabel -
 * born at "Morialta" (mansion, name means "flowing waters" in language of Kaurna people -
 * girls taught at home by governesses