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 BURTON-UPON-TRENT 483 characteristic books, full of learning, observation, and privately printed, 1885-88), which occupied the greater humour. part of his leisure at Trieste. As a monument of his After serving on the staff of Beatson’s Bashibazouks at Arabic learning and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Dardanelles, but never getting to the front in the Eastern life this translation was his greatest achievement. Crimea, Burton returned to Africa in 1856. The Foreign It is open to criticism in many ways; it is not so exact Office, moved by the Royal Geographical Society, com- in scholarship, nor so faithful to its avowed text, as might missioned him to search for the sources of the Nile, and, be expected from his reputation; but it reveals a profound again accompanied by Speke, he explored the lake regions acquaintance with the vocabulary and customs of the of equatorial Africa. They discovered Lake Tanganyika Muslims, with their classical idiom as well as their vulin 1 ebruary 1858, and Speke, pushing on during Burton’s garest “Billingsgate,” with their philosophy and modes illness and acting on indications supplied by him, lighted of thought as well as their most secret and most disgustupon Victoria Nyanza. The separate discovery led to a ing habits Burton’s “anthropological notes,” embracing bitter dispute, but Burton’s expedition, with its discovery a wide field of pornography, apart from questions of of the two lakes, was the incentive to the later explora- taste, abound m valuable observations based upon long tions of Speke and Grant, Baker, Livingstone, and Stanley; study of the manners and the writings of the Arabs. and his report in volume xxxiii. of the Proceedings of the The translation itself is often marked by extraordinary Royal Geographical Societyz and his Lake Regions of resource and felicity in the exact reproduction of the sense Equatorial Africa (1860), are the true parents of the of the original; Burton’s vocabulary was marvellously multitudinous literature of “ darkest Africa.” Burton was extensive, and he had a genius for hitting upon the right the first Englishman to enter Mecca, the first to explore word; but his fancy for archaic words and phrases, his Somaliland, the first to discover the great lakes that feed habit of coming words, and the harsh and rugged style he the Nile. His East African pioneering coincides with affected,. detract from the literary quality of the work areas which have since become peculiarly interesting to without in any degree enhancing its fidelity. With grave the British Empire and three years later he was exploring defects, but sometimes brilliant merits, the translation on the opposite side of Africa, at Dahomey, Benin, and holds a mirror to its author. He was, as has been well the Gold Coast, regions which have also entered amono- said, an Elizabethan born out of time; in the days of the imperial “ questions ” of the day. Before middle age Drake his very faults might have counted to his credit. Burton had compressed into his life, as Lord Derby said, Of his other works, Vikram and the Vampire, Hindu Tales “ more ^ study, more of hardship, and more of successful (1870), a translation of The Lusiads of Camoens (1880) enterprise and adventure, than would have sufficed to fill and a history of his favourite arm, The Book of the Sword up the existence of half a dozen ordinary men.” (vol. i. 1884, unfinished), may be mentioned. A manuSince 1849 his connexion with the Indian army had script translation of the “ Scented Garden,” from the been practically severed ; in 1861 he definitely entered the service of the Foreign Office as consul at Fernando Arabic, was burnt by his widow, acting in what she to be the interests of her husband’s reputation Po, whence he was shifted successively to Santos in Brazil believed Burton married Isabel Arundell in 1861, and owed much (1865), Damascus (1869), and Trieste (1871), holding the to her courage, sympathy, and passionate devotion. Her last post till his death on 20th October 1890. Each of romantic and. exaggerated biography of her husband, with these posts produced its corresponding books: Fernando all its faults, is one of the most pathetic monuments which Po led to the publishing of Wanderings in West Africa the unselfish love of a woman has ever raised to the (1863), Abeokuta and the Cameroons (1863), A Mission memory of her hero. Another monument is the Arab to Gelele, king of Dahorne (1864), and Wit and Wisdom tent of stone and marble which she built for his tomb at < eSt r ca 'n oan^was ^ (1864). The Highlands the travelBrazil Mortlake. (1869) the^ result of four years’ residenceofand Besides Lady Burton’s Life of Sir Richard F. Burton, 2 vols., mg • and Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870) 2nd edltlon > condensed, edited, a preface, W H relate to a journey across South America to Peru. Damas- id-!,’Wdkms, 1898, there are A Sketch of thewith Career of R. F.by Burton cus suggested Unexplored Syria (1872), and might have E aCI VRa Ani,rew ,n Life of Captain Wilson, and St Clair Baddeley (188o); '2 The True Sir Richard F. Burton, by his ed to much better work, since no consulate in either riW hemisphere was more congenial to Burton’s taste and niece, G. M. Stisted(1896); and a brief sketch by the present writer prefixed to Bohn s edition of the Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah and linguistic studies; but he mismanaged his opportunities, VUeccaA _ (1898), from which some sentences have here been byJ got into trouble with the Foreign Office, and was removed permission reproduced. ^ L _p ) to Trieste, where his Oriental prepossessions and prejudices Burton-upon-Trent, a municipal (1878) and could do no harm, but where, unfortunately, his Oriental learning was thrown away. He did not, however, abandon county borough (1901) in the Burton parliamentary jus Eastern studies or his Eastern travels. Various fresh division of Staffordshire, and the Southern parliamentary journeys or revisitings of familiar scenes are recorded in division of Derbyshire, England, on the Midland, London and North-Western, North Staffordshire, and Great J1j® .Jer,,books’ such as Zanzibar (1872), Ultima Thule Northern railways. Recent structures are two Established Mruscan nn. V Bologna (1876), Sind Revisited (1877) churches, new buildings for the Roman Catholic church, MUian 1879 and To the 0M < these >> had more than aOwe far Wesleyan and Baptist chapels, a bridge over the Trent, bold (1883). None of passing m erest. Burton had not the charm of style or imagina- constructed at Lord Burton’s expense, and a market tion which gives immortality to a book of travel. He hall. The municipal buildings have been presented by wrote too fast, and took too little pains about the form, Lord Burton to the corporation, which has purchased tlis blunt, disconnected sentences and ill-constructed chap- t e ferry rights over the Trent. There are eight recreation ers were full of information and learning, and contained grounds. At Burton there are about twenty firms of not a few thrusts for the benefit of Government or other brewers, representing nearly one-tenth of the brewing people, but they were not “readable.” There was some- trade of the United Kingdom. The premises of Bass’s mg ponderous about his very humour, and his criticism brewery extend over 500 acres, and contain 17 miles of was personal and savage. By far the most celebrated railway directly connected with outer railway systems. The brewery at Burton employs about 3500 men and Tq.-jL1 ,, jkooks is the translation of the “Arabian boys. The total annual barrelage for 1901 exceeded a lfle gnts Thousand Nights and a Night, 16 vols., million and a half, of which the largest part was pale