Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/123

 NOTES BY THE WAY. 53

With this celebration Mr. Thoms's public life may be said to have closed. The next thirteen years were passed for the most part quietly in the sanctuary of home, surrounded by those he loved, until the end came, in the old home endeared to him by so many memories. His life had been so long that few of his earlier friends had been spared to follow him to the cemetery at Brompton. My companion on that occasion was one of his oldest friends and con- tributors, Mr. Hyde Clarke, since passed to his rest. The Athenceum Hyde Clarke of the 14th of October, 1899, announced the death of another of his old friends, Col. Francis Grant. Mr. Thoms's library of some fifteen thousand volumes, which included a large collection of works on Pope and Junius, was sold by Messrs. Sotheby in February, 1887.

In this little record of Mr. Thoms's life I have been aided by his eldest son, Mr. Merton A. Thorns, whom I have been trying to persuade to give us a volume about his father, to include some of the rich stores of correspondence now in his possession.

With the death of Mr. Thorns my sketch of Notes and Queries is brought to a close. Only those well acquainted with its pages can realize the pleasure I have enjoyed in reviving so many memories. ' N. & Q.' has been to me a household word for nearly the whole of its existence, and the writing of this history has indeed been a labour of love. It is only by turning over the volumes, as I have done, that one can form any idea of the great storehouses they constitute. The references under Shakespeare alone exceed three thousand four hundred ; the ' Proverbs and Phrases ' number two thousand five hundred ; the ' Quotations ' four thousand ; the ' List of Anonymous Works ' is considerably over three thousand ; the various Folk-lore charms, superstitions, and customs amount to eighteen hundred. There are sixteen hundred remarkable epitaphs, and over four hundred epigrams. Bibliography, heraldry Bible literature, are prominently treated. Much special informa- tion is provided respecting America, its early history, customs, and laws, as well as relating to France and other nations. There are also many details relating to the lives of Nelson, Wellington, Napoleon, and others, not to be found elsewhere. During my search I have observed how helpful ' N. & Q.' must be to the historian and the biographer. I will give just one instance of this.

On the 8th of January, 1870, Mr. F. Gledstanes-Waugh inquired for particulars about Ebenezer Jones, the Chartist, who had pub- lished a volume in 1843, entitled ' Studies of Sensation and Event.' This brought a reply (which appeared on the 5th of February) from Dante G. Rossetti, who stated that

" this remarkable poet affords nearly the most striking instance of Dante Gabriel neglected genius in our modern school of poetry. This is a more Rossetti on important fact about him than his being a Chartist, which however he Ebenezer

was, at any rate for a time. I met him only once in my life, I believe ^ l ne *! .^

L/Dcirtist.

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