Page:Pen, pencil, baton and mask; biographical sketches (IA penpencilbatonma00blaciala).pdf/349

Rh Beyond the great double drawing-rooms, divided by a white arch, there can be seen an extension recess; the pale-tinted yellow walls are hung with original drawings by Sir John Tenniel, Sambourne, and Du Maurier; the art-blue felt is strewn with Persian rugs of subdued tints, and on the carved white overmantels and genuine old Chippendale bureaus and cabinets stand many choice specimens of old blue and Oriental china; but there is one special corner which takes you back in imagination to the last century-every detail is correct, from the old-fashioned and quaint mirror and ancient grandfather clock to the framed Mask of Flowers ' programme of the entertain- ment given at Gray's Inn which Arthur à Beckett arranged, edited, and produced, and in which he was chosen by H.R.H. the Duke of Connaught and the other benchers to act as Master of the Revels. The original drawing is in the possession of the Hon. Society of Gray's Inn, with which seat of learning the names of three generations of à Becketts are associated.

Arthur à Beckett is the third son of the late Gilbert Abbott á Beckett Metropolitan Police Magistrate--who was on the original staff of · Punch' with Thackeray, Dickens, Douglas Jerrold, and other literary giants. He was born at Portland Housc, close to the Addison Road Railway Station--Punch's Railway' it was called, because the elder Mr. Å Beckett used to chaff it in that humorous journal when the line-at first in utter failure, now valuable property-cut through and spoilt his garden. The young Arthur was first sent to a private tutor, Mr. Dominie' Birch, who had been an officer in the army; the result was that, hearing so much about facings, drills, and other military matters, nearly every boy under his care obtained a commission in the army as he would have done himself had he been allowed. Later, when the family moved to Hyde Park Gate, he attended the Kensington Grammar School, where the late Dr. Payne Smith, subsequently Dean of Canterbury, was heal