Page:A history of booksellers, the old and the new.djvu/135

103 THE L ONGMAN FA MIL Y, 1 03 for the purpose." In Moore's diary, too, for 1837, we find many regrets for the loss of Rees a man " who may be classed among those solemn business-ties, the breaking of which by death cannot but be felt solemnly, if not deeply." And again, later on, in 1840: "Indeed, I will venture to say that there are few tributes from authors to publishers more honour- able (or I will fairly say more deserved) than those which will be found among my papers relative to the transactions for many years between myself and my friends of the ' Row.' " Thornas Longman the third was now an old man, but still constantly attentive to business. In his time he had seen many changes, but none more striking than those that occupied his latter days. Madoc was still lying on his shelves, but Southey was poet-lau- reate. Scott and Byron had in succession entranced the world. They had now withdrawn, and no third king arose to demand recognition. It was in the calm that followed that Wordsworth obtained a hearing. In 1839, the University of Oxford conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Laws, amid the enthusiastic applause of a crowded theatre. Younger men were coming to the fore, and though his contemporaries were fast dying off, still Longman was as eager for business as ever, and as ready, when it was over, for his chief pleasure the enjoyments of domestic life ; for his favourite pursuits the love of music and the cul- ture of fruits and flowers. As far as health and activity went, though in his /2nd year, he was still in the prime of life, when, on his usual ride to town, his horse fell, near the Small-pox Hospital, St. Pancras, and he was thrown over the animal's head and struck the ground with such violence as to fracture his skull and injure