Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/465

 ri s. YIII, DEC. e, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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In 'Memories of George Meredith ' we are taken back to the days of the long defunct Critic, in which William Rossetti reviewed Meredith's first book, the poems of 1851, and "had the wisdom to quote ' Love in the Valley.' " Sir Robertson Nicoll con- siders that "none of the paintings and photographs of Meredith do him justice. He had a finer head than any of them presents to posterity, and the serene and honoured evening of his life brought to his features an expression of peace and geniality not fully found in any likeness." Biography is, as it is with the present reviewer, Sir Robertson Nicoll's favourite form of reading, and he is the fortunate possessor of over four thousand bio- graphical works. He tells us what he considers the six best biographies: they are Boswell's 'John- son,' Lockhart's * Scott,' Mrs. Gaskell's ' Charlotte Bronte,' Trevelyan's ' Maoaulay,' Froude's 'Car- lyle,' and Morley's 'Gladstone'; but there are many other masterpieces evidently very dear to him, such as ' Arnold ' by Stanley, Burgon's ' Twelve Good Men.' and " one of the most de- lightful biographies I possess is the life of George Crabbe, by his son."

Two letters relate to Emerson and the secret of his teaching : " Love, but do not love too much. Do not bind up your life and happiness with another life. Be controlled in love as in all else. Friend- ship is safer a great deal than love, and a friendship between those who are wedded is more tranquil, more safe, than the ardour of a mastering affection."

In two letters on David Masson we have an account of his first coming to London, where he met T. K. Hervey, then editor of The. Athemeum, at the Museum Club. Hervey asked him to do some reviewing, and said to him : " It' I send you a book by my own brother, and you do not like it, you are to say so frankly." From that time he became a regular contributor. Sir Robertson Nicoll well says of him that " his zeal for righteousness was a con- suming flame," that he "lived and died amid universal love and reverence. None of his contem- poraries has left behind him a more splendid and stainless name."- The work by which he will be mainly remembered is his life of Milton, which " is the great history of Puritanism, and it will remain so not merely on account of the author's research, but because of its literary power and splendour, and the vehement passion for religious liberty which inspires it throughout."

A letter on the troubles of essayists takes us back to the days of Arthur Helps's 'Friends in Council,' and toA.K. H. Boycl and his ' Recreations of a Country Parson.'

The letter on Theodore Watts-Dunton tells how, on Norman Maccoll's succeeding Hepworth Dixon as editor of The Afhencvum, Watts-Dun ton became a constant contributor. They were both young men at the time and thoroughly in sympathy. Watts-Duntpn enjoyed reviewing, and "began his work young indeed, but after a long preparation. In his silence," writes Sir Robertson Nicoll, "he had acquired a knowledge of the literature of the world which was at once minute and extensive, and completely at command. He made no claim to significance or importance. He was not dogmatic or pedantic, and he shunned violence. Good manners characterized everything he wrote, though with all his benignity there was an occasional gleam as of sleeping lightning which he would not use."

In the letter on Walter Besant an extract is given from an article of his in The British Weekly, ' Books which have Influenced Me,' in which he wrote, "It still seems to me 'The Pilsrim's Pro- gress ' has influenced the minds of Englishmen more than any other outside the Bible." Besant's memory was marvellous : he read Scott between the age of eleven and sixteen, and. although he had not read the books again, remembered them in his old age.

Avon when he was only forty-seven ? ' is full of thoughtful suggestions.
 * Why did Shakespeare retire to Stratford-on-

Swinburne forms the subject of another letter* To the last, we are told, " he gave the impression of youthful vitality and enjoyment of one young with the youth of nature, if not with the youth of years." He "broadened and mellowed with the- years." If he had been asked the reason of this, we feel he would have said, "I owe it all to my dear friend Watts-Dunton."

We turn with anticipation to the letter on Frederick Greenwood, for it treads on paths but little known. In it we are taken back to the days of Vizetelly and The Illustrated Times (in which those bright descriptive papers 'The Inner Life of the House of Commons, by William White, ap- peared), as well as to the founding by George Smith of The Pall Mall Gazette, of which Greenwood was the first editor. At the public dinner given to the- latter in 1905 "his old antagonist in the Press, John Morley, presided." Of The Pall Matt Gazette he said that " it had started as a sort of pleasure yacht, but it soon became an armed cruiser, with guns of heavy calibre, and a captain on the bridge possessed of a gallantry and a martial quality that had never been surpassed in the history of English journalism." What Sir Robertson tells us of Greenwood causes us to long for more, and we join with him in the hope that the friend of his life, by whose advice " he burnt his boats at Nottingham, and ventured on the wider world of London," Sir James Barrie, may be induced to write a memoir of him.

We can make reference to only two more letters, those relating to " Mark Rutherford " (Hale White). We owe it in a large measure to Sir Robertson Nicoll that this writer is now so well known, for the- author himself was so retiring that he always avoided publicity. His first book, 'Mark Ruther- ford,' attracted little attention, and it has only been in recent years that he has taken the position to which he is entitled.

These letters will afford book-lovers many a delightful half-hour, and we close by saying " More will be welcome." The paper and print are all that can be desired, and the volume can be procured for the small sum of four shillings and sixpence.

THE December Fortnightly is, perhaps, weighty rather than exhilarating. Mr. Edmund Gosse dis- courses with all his usual charm upon Lord Lytton's recently published life of his grandfather, and M. Antonio Cippico has an interesting short article on 4 Le Canzoni della Gesta d'Oltremare ' of D'An- nunzio. He tells us that these " canzoni," which first appeared in a daily paper, were read and re- read, copied and recited, by the men in the trenches and on the ships in the recent war. Their form is the triplet of Dante ; their matter heroic ex- ploits. Princess Troubetzkoy's poem, 'Isolation,*" has in it some of the true poetic stuff, but worked