LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3036, 24 March 1917, Page 13

LIBER'S NOTE BOOK

The Author of "The lngoldsby Legends," / The' January number of "The Bookman ' is. specially rich in good things, '"eluding .an •"admirable article on the Centenary of the Scotsman," full of gossip interesting to thoso who know Auld Reekie, also articles on the late Jack Lonuou and Theodore "Watts Dunton. The special and, to me. most attractive feature of the' number is a long and exhaustive article- on Richard Harris Barham, the author of that masterpiece of humour, "The lngoldsby Legends," without a good, copy of Which, with the famous Cruikshanks and Leech drawings, no private Ik orary was, when "Liber" was a ; boy, • considered'complete. ■'. Barhan was air' eccentric but most lovable character, ihe son of a Canterbury alderman, a bon vivant, who drank his bottle of port a day,'and, when hV died, tit the age of fifty-eight, who: weighed twentyoT"?, st ,? ne ' waseducated \t St. Paul's School, London, and -after-' ford Intended for the law, hiXviows on life and conduct were greatMAanged by a severe illness, and he'i.i er.e'd Church, holding-,curacies-- a .fordi Kent,, and afterwards-at"Snar-" gate,. the centre of the Rbnmeyiiagl)flistnct, where his parishione^goStlf manfc'- h V,f h6 impudelloe te ' ,£ °™- SSf/i'L 3 belfl ' y I s a Btore fo K'conEventually, hS had the good fortune to be. appointed a Minor Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral" and won was a prominent and popular figure m; London hterarycircles, his Hood Theodore llook, w1 ,, 1 " n n d ? lckens ' For the latter, .when. 'BozV was editing Beritley's ''Miscellany," : Barham wrote some of the famous. 'Legends." Barham, it apmost of the plots or ideas for the . Legends" from a Mrs. Hughes, wife j0 f the Canon Residentiary of St Paul s, a,very remarkabk. woman who had known Scott and Soutbey, and had a vast storo of ghost stories and traditional topographical legends.' This lady, I'may mention, was the grandmotherof Torn Hughes, the author of lorn Browns Schooldays." As time went on Barbara was not confined to Mrs; Hughes for the.source of. his stones.. .He; utilised,- for .instance, many of the legends ho had heard in 811011 as those of "Nell Cook," Ihe Smuggler's Leap" and "The Grey i ol » plun Ho died at his house, No. 1 Amen Corner, where, Sydney Smith had preceded him as tenant, in May, 1844, at the comparatively early age of fifty-six. He was a good father"and devoted husband, and appears to have been a very fine fellow all round. 'The Bookman" article is written by Mr. S. M. Ellis, to whom we owe a long series of excellent biographical studies of well-known Victorian authors. You can buy "The lngoldsby. Legends'' in many editions, and more than one latter-day artist (notably Mr. Arthur Raekham) has tried his hand at illustrating' the book. To me, however, no "lngoldsby" is complete without the original illustrations by George Cruilc-': shanks and John Leech. Like 'the' "Phiz" illustrations to "Pickwick " they are inseparably associated with the book.

A Misrepresentation Confuted. More than one famous' scientist holding agnostic, or at loast unorthodox, views is said 'to...have changed his opinions on his deathbed, and in more than one instance agnostic writers have attributed the conversion to that weakness of mind which often accompanies extreme weariness of the flesh. Ediward Cb'dd, ~ in his" recently publised "Memories," wrote of Bomanes, the famous scientist, that "much was made of his reputed acceptance [of Christianity] by his orthodox widow, who was also his biographer, but here, as in other instances, the facts proved that he had reached a stage of brain decay which made any confession, whether of belief or disbelief, worthless." But Romanes's son writes to the "Times" Literary Supplement to point out that in his/ mother's "Life and Letters" of her distinguished husband she said, "Up to the end he (Romanes) preserved : not.only his mental' vigour, but the keenness of his interest in his scientific pursuits." Mr. Romanes further reminds Mr. Clodd-that his father's posthumous work "Thoughts on Religion'," proves"- clearly that the great scientist, .was in full possession of his faculties up to the last days of his.life." [■■ "It is Well With the Child." '.., Rudyard Kipling wrote some simplyworded but very beautiful versos as a Christmas poem for the London "Daily Telegraph.'' I quote the first and last verses: — The Babe was'laid, in the manger Between the gentle kine. All safe from cold and danger— "But it was not so with mine. "(With mine! With mine!). "Is it well with tho child, is it well?" The waiting mother prayed, "For I know not where hs.fell, "And I know not where he is laid." The Star stands forth in Heaven, . The watchors. watch in vain For sign of the Promise given. Of Peace, on Earth 'again. (Again!' Again!). "But I know for Whom he fell," ; The steadfast mother smiled. "Is it well with tho child; is it well?— It is well—it is well with tho child!" C. B. "Pshaw"! ' Tho everlasting pose of tie Pshaw person finds recent and curious exemplification in his reply to the Drama League of America, which lately invited him to visit the United States. CB.S. replied as follows':— "I cannot help asking myself whether it is not now too late. I could have come when I was mature and capable. I did not. I am now elderly and doddering., Could I live up to my reputation? Have I any right to bring my white hairs and my crowsfeet to blast thp illusions of the young women who send me my own photographs of. 30 years ago to he autographed, and' to address American audiences with a. fictitious clearness of articulation that is due wholly to my dentist? If I were a modest man I should not think of such things. Boing notoriously a vain one. they daunt me. Authors, unlike good little children, should he heard, not seen. I shall leave America ite iderd unshattered." For one good thing, at least, wo may thank the war. . It has completely flattened out the Pshaw person as an influence in British literature and politics. No one pays any attention to his frenzied attempts to gain notoriety by his studiously bizarre references to the war. Stray Leaver That old-established periodical, "The Athenaeum," now published monthly at a shilling instead of, as before, as a threepenny weekly, seems to have changed its character not a little of

late. It now contains a number of wellwritten articles on politics and social economics, especially industrial problems. It is specially stioug in tho expression and criticism of ideas of reconstruction, "whilst at the same time," so its editor reminds us, "maintaining its traditions as an authoritative record and review of tho intellectual life of the country." The detailed list of new books with brief summaries and criticisms is a very useful feature, but it is doubtful whether it was.required, for the same work is done every week by the "Times Literary Supplement/' and done remarkably well. The omission of the "Literary Gossip," so pleasant a feature of the paper in its old form, is regrettable.

Mr. H, (J. Wells's latest book, "Mr. Britling Sees it Through," is having, I read, a great vogue in the United States. Mr. Wells continues to write profusely, and yet generally'wisely, oh war subjects. His contributions to the "Daily Chronicle" are, I see, to be collected and republished in volume form.

The late Lord Lucas left substantial legacies to three" well-known English literary men. To Mr. Hilaire Belloc he left £3000, and the' same sum to Mr. Maurice Baring, Whilst Mr. G. K. Chesterton receives £1000 under the same bequest. All three writers are favourites of mine, especially Mr. Belloc, whose hooks 'of essays make delightful reading for sparo half-hours, and are a reliable resource against boredom. .

I have not as yet read Miss Susan Mitchell's study.of "George Moore," in Messrs. Maunsell's excellent series "Irishmen of To-day," but judging by reviews which appear in the English papers, it'appears to be a very amusing production. Miss Mitchell is just as outspoken in her analysis of the personal George Moore a3 Moore was on Yeats, A.E., and other Irish literary men iu his "Hail and Farewell" autobiography. Mr. Moore, she says, "speaks of the shock he experienced in-fi glimpse of his ugly old face." '■I.wishj" she adds, "that some mirror 'had'shown him his ugly old soul." She quotes, too, a. cleyer Dublin woman ■iwho said, alluding no doubt to J.loore's highly : indiscreet confessions: "Some men .'kiss and tell. Mr. Moore tells, but doesn't kiss." This lady also suggests, apropos" to Moore's-delight in dwelling upon nudity, in life as in art, that "Mr. Moore has never put on his clothes since the day when as a little boy in Stephen's Green he took them, all off, and ran naked, .to the scandal of his nurse."

In his always welcome "Literary Letter" in London "Sphere," Mr. Clement K. Shorter'giyes a picture; of the tomb of, Dr. -Johnson's wife . in . Bromley Church, Kent. , For NewZealanders the picture has a certain interest, in that, so Mr...Shorter informs the circumstance that! Johnson's friend, Dr. John Hawksworth, the editor of "Cook's-Voyage," lived at Bromley, led-' to, her!funeral'there. Johnson's wife, the much-loved "Tetty," was a widow of forty-six when Johnson, then only twenty-six, married her. She was not beautiful, and she had a weakness. for .spirits; but to-Johnson she-was a divinity: whom, the "Great Bear" (as Mrs. Thrale afterwards called him) worshipped most devoutcdly, and, as Boswell has told us, his grief at her death was profound and sincere. In November last a new Carlylo memorial 1 was ' unveiled .in Kelyingrove Park, Glasgow. Ari address delivered on the occasion by Lord Guthrie has been republished in booklet form by Messrs. Aird arid Coghill, Ltd., of Glasgow. I note therein a Carlylo story which is new to me. His (Cariyle's), beliefs differentiated him from most of his familiars,' and from; many of his disciples. When one of these sent him a volume on Voltaire, he said to Professor Campbell Fraser, who told me the story, "Think of them sending to an old man of sev-enty-five, a, book'in which God is spelt with a small 'g.'•"-,, Who was it, I wonder, : who, when asked apropos vto Herbert Spencer, "What is am agnostioPy replied "A man who spells God with a small g." Perhaps one of my readers can tell me...How history repeats itself I In.' a recently-published work on "Frederick the Great; Memoirs of His Eoader, Henri do Catt," I find a saying of Frederick which is curiously apropos to present-day , happenings on the Somme:—'..' Cannon, my dear sir, decides everything. M. de Turenne boasted of his splendid artillery, which consisted of only seventeen pieces of cannon. Wfat would ho say of us, who each of us has more' than 200? I would wnger nearly always to win a battle, but at present we can do. nothing against this frightful artillery. • .So his descendant, the Kaiser, is finding out on the Somme.