Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/613

 10 s. VIL JUNE 29, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

501

JOSEPH KNIGHT.

ON Sunday last, after some weeks of illness, Joseph Knight passed to a peace-
 * ul end in his seventy-ninth year.

Since 1883 our venerable and well- loved Editor had been looking after N. & Q.' All those who have had any communication with him, either per- sonally or by letter, will realize how great is the loss that we feel to-day, when we have to work without the charm of that gracious personality to aid and encourage us, deprived of that ripe and spacious outlook over the world of men and letters which was a marvel alike in its length and its brightness. Those who have been closely associated with our Editor cannot as yet appreciate their loss. He, the youngest of veterans, the brightest of scholars, the readiest of learners when he did not know, the kindliest of teachers, seemed privileged to live for ever. His many excellences, especially his zeal for scholarship as the greatest thing in the world, and his wonderful endowments of physical ! strength and high spirits, suggested other \ centuries than those in which we live, j He was an example to himself, and did , not seem subject to the ordinary rules j of life. Men certainly of no greater powers than he have obtained much wider recognition, but he has the rarest of claims to regard. He made innumer- able fellow-creatures the brighter for his acquaintance. He was happy in his life, and a cause of happiness in others. He had a genius for friendship, and a delicate regard for others which led him to forget himself. He never adver- tised, never pushed himself forward.

What our late Editor frequently im- pressed on me was that Westland Marston was the one man who was an inspiration to him and who led him to do his best work. Marston' s parties formed a centre of good talk and cultivated Bohemianism distinguished by the presence of many famous men of letters. Dr. Sebastian Evans, the accomplished scholar who translated the ' History of the Holy Graal,' was another friend singled out in former days for special intimacy. But the endless procession of friends who rejoiced in the radiance of Joseph Knight cannot be counted. No man, I think, was so widely loved ; and not even his extra- ordinary memory could hold the names

of all who claimed his acquaintance everywhere, well knowing the pleasant- ness of that privilege. Joseph Knight was never old in spirit, and his friend- ships with men younger than himself were a striking feature of his life. During his last years the writer of this notice sat daily beside him, and was proud to receive as much of his confidence as any one. That handsome face and noble brow could not fail to express distinction and intellect ; but day after day, as he unfolded fresh stores of knowledge, " the wonder grew " that even that big head " could carry all he knew."

He was probably as complete a man as will be seen for many a day a success- ful amateur of life as of books. His remi- niscences would have made a most enter- taining volume, but he was too kindly, too great a gentleman, to run the risk of offending the sensibilities of others by his records of the past. Not that there was really any danger of such intimate revelations on his part. He was no De Quincey, to lay bare with venomous veracity the frailties of his fellows : when he had occasion to touch on such faults, it was done with a delicacy that few could equal. He was, as might have been expected, the recipient of many confidences in letters from famous men.

He came to London rather late, having been employed in his father's business as a cloth-worker ; but he had been from his earliest days imbued with literature beyond his years. When he was elected Dux of his school a position, no doubt, obviously his alike from his alertness of wit and personal charm the only question as to his promotion (settled by his fellows) was whether a boy who had the disability of knowing Pope's and Byron's works could be elected ; but his popularity won the day. He was somewhat kept back by ill-health before this period, and, being allowed to run free as he liked, set him- self to reading widely. Consequently, when he went to school he had a good deal of undigested knowledge of his own acquiring, and his natural ability sent him up quickly through form after form, without that grounding in grammar and such solidities which clever boys usually get for their partial delay and subsequent advantage.

He always regretted that he did not know Latin well ; but he made himself