LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1812, 26 July 1913, Page 11

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK.

Stevenson's "Cummy." ' A brief cable message the other day recorded the death, at iiklinburgh, at the ripo old age of ninety-three, of Alison Cunningham, the faithiul Scots nurse who watched so patiently and carefully over a sickly child whoso name was destined to become so famous wherever tho English language is spoken. This was none other than Robert Louis Stevenson. The novelist's affection for "Oummy" was lifelong-, as may be seen by the "Letters." One of the last letters written at Vailinia was to the faithful Scotswoman, tho "angel of his infant life," to whom'he dedicated "A Child's. Garden, of Verses," in some singularly graceful and pathetic lines. "Cummy," "tho brisk and capable young woman who came from Torrybum" i to nurse the delicate, ever-ailing child at his early Edinburgh home in Howard Place, was largely responsible for instilling in the future novelist's mind that love of romance which never deserted him. In that excellent book, "The Stevenson Originals," Moss Eva Blantyre Simpson, sister of the Sir Walter Simpson who was Stevenson's fellow adventurer of "The Inland Voyage," says that "Cummy" (Stevenson's childish pet-name for his nurse), 'told him of ail thetules of that west neuk of Fife from the far and past times when the king sat in Dumfcrimiue- tower, and the neighbouring Culross- Abbey was a flourishing monastery down to her own recollections of a now vanished Scotland." During what R.L.S. calted his "Covenanting childhood," it was "Cummy" who read to him on Sundays, from I'bxe's "Book of Martyrs," and his daily portion of the Bible was so liberal that several times "Cummy"-read to him the little Bible from cover to cover, a fine literary ground-work. The "jovial Cameronian," as Andrew Lang 'calls her, taught her "Lew" (short for Lewis, for Lewis, and not, Louis, was Stevenson christened), to recite "The Burial of Sir John Moore." As her wee and muchloved laddie grew older, it was "Cummy" who told him weird stories of smugglers and of tho resurrectionists, who' served as "bogey" to many Edinburgh children in the days of Stevenson's youth. The resurrectionists who harried the graveyards by the shores of Fife, took their gruesome cargo across the water at night and drove them ou to Edinburgh. "Cummy's" mother, says Miss Simpson, "had grown up in sneh a. dread of the dead being torn from their resting-graves, and sold to the dissecting-room, that she desiTed in 18/0 to bo buried in an Edinburgh cemetery, and not beside her kith and kin, on the fringe of Fife." One of the first of the author's copies of "The Inland Voyage" went to "Cummy," with a letter expressing gratitude for her care of him whoso first important book was now published. Thcro is a portrait of tho faithful old nurso in one of the* volumes of the recently published "Swanston" selection of Stevenson's works;, the same portrait serving as a frontispiece to the charming little pocket edition of "A Child's Garden of Verses," published by Longmans. It shows. a_ typically Scots face, full of grave dignity, and yet with a suggestion in the eyes of that appreciation of humour which was one of "Cummy's" characteristics. The dedicatory verses I reproduce herewith :— TO ALISON CUNNINGHAM, FROM HER BOY. For the long nights you lay awake And watched for my unworthy sake: For your most comfortable hand That led mo through the uneven land; For all tho story-books you read, For all the pains you comforted; e For all you pitied, all you bore. In sad and happy days of yore:— My second Mother, my First Wife, The angel of my infant life— From tne sick child, now well and old,

Take nurse, the little book you hold! And grant it, Heaven, that all who read May find as dear a nurse at need, And every child who lists my rhyme, In the bright fireside, nursery clime. May hear it in as kind a voice As made my childish days rejoico! -K.L.S. The New Poet Laureate. I can scarcely "figure to myself," as tho French say, Robert Bridges as tho traditional Poet Laureate, a poet who, at a, day's notice, would turn you out a Coronation Ode, an epithalamium in honour of some Royal princess, a poetic expression of a nation's joy or lamentation. For tho banging of the poetic drum Imperial, friend Kipling would be the very man. Alfred iN'oyes, too, for a panegyric of liome great'naval hero, cuu'd not be bettered. Again, when sonorous indignation is required, give me William Watson. But Bridges generally strikes a less deliberate, much quieter, note. His note, as one critic has written, is "unforced. He has little or no rhetoric. His colours arc true and tender, not gaudy or hot. . . . Healthy, harmonious, happy, born in the golden climo, dowered with the heavenly gifts, and possessed of that indefinable something which kindles verso into poetry, he is a true poet,, no living poet more English or more true." Some of his blank verse, especially in bis pl.v-s "Achilles in Scyros" and "The Return of Ulysses," is as fine in quality as anything that Tennyson ever wrote. But I prefer his shorter poems. Take, for instance, tfhe delightiully Horatian "Invitation to the Country," or, even better still, the lines in "Clear and Gontlo Stream," in which lie sings the charm of the beautiful Upnor Thames: "Thero is a hill beside the silver Thames Shady with birch and beach and odorous pine. And brilliant under foot with, thousand gems, Steeply the thickets to his floods' decline. Straight trees in every place, Their thick tops interface, And pendent branches trail their foliage fine Upon his watery face. A reedy island guards the sacred bower, And hides it from the meadow, where in peace The lazy cows ivrpnch many a scented flower, Bobbing tho golden market of the bee 3. And laden branches float By banks of myosote; And scented flag and golden fleur-de-lys

Delay i-bo boitering boat. I would fain quote other examples of the grace and charm of Bobertlßridjjes's verse,' but space forbids. It is,perhaps very largely, tho poet's own fault that Urns work is not more widely known. For many years his poems were published, in small but exquisitely printed editions, from the private press, established Uy Mr. Daniel, of Worcester College, Oxford. These editions now bring a high prico, being greatly sought after by, bibliophiles. Bell and Sons publish the "Short Pnoms.' , which have gone through several editions and quite recently the "Collected Poems of Robert- Bridges" (comprising all his work outside the plays) have appeared in a two shilling edition published by the Oxford University Press. In the past Dr. Bridges has never "run after fame," but, as his friend and admirer, Mr. Herbert Warren, puts it, in an admirable essay on Bridges'.? work in Miles's "Poets and Poetry of tho Century," "shunniii" rather the full stream of the world, has developed his art 'in der Stille,' and quietly finding himself, has been ever true to the self ho has found." Now, however, that ho is Poet Laureate, his work should gain, as it so well deservos, a wider popularity. Stray Leaves. "The Britannic Confederation," by Richard- Jebb (Longmans and Co.; per S. and W. Mackay), .is an important.contribution to tho literature of current Imperial politics. Detailed reference to Mr. Jebb's arguments will appear later on.

Constables announce an English translation of a French study of "George Meredith," by M. Photiades, which has had a considerable success in the original. Meredith's popularity is said .to be steadily increasing in-France. Reviews of two mucli-discussed new books, Maurice' Hewlett's "Lore of Prosperine" and Algernon Blackwood's "A Prisoner in Fairyland" are held over. v * * Amongst new Macmillan novels to appear very shortly are: "Tho Passionate Friends," by H. G. Wells; ''Here Aro Ladies," by James Stephens, author of "The Crock of Gold"; and "The Custom of the Country," by Edith Whartoii. Tho liamly-sized and pTettily-bound little volumes of that-.excellent" series, Messrs. Williams and Jsorgate's "Home University Library," have had a large 'sale. iir Wellington, owing, no doubt, to the fact that the books .deal wit'h many questions of almost topical interest and that they are written by experts who wisely eschew any undue technicality or pedantry. A now batch oi' Jive volumes was to be issued in London last month, and will be on sale locally in a few weens. The list includes the following titles:— "Germany of To-day," by Charles Tower; "Plant Life," illustrated, by Professor J. B. Farmer; /'The Writing of English," by Professor Brewster; "A History of Freedom of Thought," by Professor J. ■B. Bury; and "Ancient' Art and Ritual," by Miss Jane Harrison.

To editions of "Lorna Doone," there is no end. A week or two ago I' alluded *to. the excellent little edition recently issued by the Oxford University Press, in the "World's Classics" series. I havesinco received a copy of an even cheaper and admirable edition published.by Collins Brothers, at ninepence. This edition contains several illustrations, from photographs of scenes in the picturesque Doone country, Nowadays, especially in the summer months, visited by hordes of American and other tourists anxious to trace the scenes of the storv. A cinema version of the story is now having a considerable vugiie ftt the English picture theatres.

Jeffrey FarncJ, the author of that capital book, "Tbe Broad Highway," and of the .equally successful "Amateur Gentleman,' has written a Christmas tale, entitled "The Honourable Mr. Tawnish," for which Mr. Brock, the artist, who illustrated the ediUon-do-luxe of tlvo "Broad Highway," is making a mirnler of sketches to be reproduced in colour. Mr. # Farnol's new story, which is not an ordinary novel, will probably be in wide demand as a Christmas gift-book. Sampson Low's are the publishers.