JOHN BULL UP-TODATE

Hokitika Guardian, 22 August 1930, Page 8

JOHN BULL UP-TO-DATE

GENIUS THROUGH THE •CENTURIES. (Jjy: BEATRICE BUDD ,in the Auckland “Star.”) Old John Bull is dead ; that bowlegged bullock, of a ,man with mutton chops, whiskers, genial, stupid, generous, prickling with prejudices. Victorian -.England was his home, and he /died when motor cars .came in. The new John Bull, his . son, is very much alive and in his prime. He is just as hale and hearty, as his lather, but built more for speed Than comfort. He is smarter in dress, and his sympathies are international than insular. John Bull junior belongs to Georgian England, and went through the war. Quite unexpectedly I met him the other night at a London bookseller’s The place was packed with pale .and tired-looking men and women from the city. Their- love of books had drawn them there to. hear a lecture by K. H. Mottram, the author of that fine English war book, “The. Spanish .harm, published in 1924. Like a breath of cold, clean wind- be came into that hot crowded room. His checks,.were rosy, his-blue eyes clear and fearless, ana Ills ifine broad shoulders and. independent manner made one think of colonial men. Yet his clothes and carriage had the smartness of an Englishman. When he spoke, energy, enthusiasm, • and idealism filled that stuffy room. His • humour made it ring .with daughter, his sincerity swept it clean of sentimentality. The characteristics which Britishers like to think they possess, wore embodied in this man. He. was, in .fact, John -Bull up to date. “AN ESCAPED BANK CLERK.” The librarian of Norwich, a great booklover, took the chair. His "library "was founded in 1608, and,has the distinction of being the.oldest in England. He mentioned with pride- that the roots of the Mottram family tree were firmly planted in Norwich. Mottram had entered Barclay’s Bank as a clerk in 1900 and; he remained there until a year or two ago, when his writing demanded more time. His father and. grandfahter had both been managers, of the .same bank before him. From them,.Mr Slot ram had drawn his characters in ‘'Our Mr Dormer,” which he .wrote after the“ Spanish. Farm” trilogy. The.lib’ rarian spoke of .the; great success oi Mr Mottram’s. book,, and.praised his latest ‘The Boroughmonger.” No doubt Mr Mottram knew how .to invest his, book royalties with safety and. advantage.

Mr Mottram declared that it was the first time he had listened to his own obituary notice, -and he was tlianktuithat his wife and family were not.there Had they heard him called a success, his life would not have been worth living at home.“ Don’t think of me as an •author, but as an escaped bank clerk,” he said. He disclaimed all pretensions as a writer,- and said “Most of my . writing is done on a corner of the dining room table.” He had a strong hearty voice and jovial manner. The Norfolk accent, as - though so;, deeply rooted in his stock, clung to his speech, giving a roll to the “r” and a hint of “oi” to the vowel “i.” Here was an Englishman as we like to picture him, strong, honest, intellectual, kind, sincere and -la vffjhteir--loving. ‘■The Native Soil” was the title of jiis lecture, and he used it to show that every town and every country in Britain had produced its own crop of poet* and writers. No country or district had a monopoly of genius or craftsmanship “They sprang up like the daisy and heather all over the British Isles, ‘and -had done so through the centuries. He chose to talk about Norwich, not . as a boost for tourist traffic,- but because m had lived there always, and knew.something about it. Every town in Great Britain had a similar history.

HISTORY LETTERS. Simply and methodically, he told tile story of-five writers of Norwich, Robert Greene, .Sir Thomas Browne; Harriet Martineau, James Martineau, and George Borrow. Their lives give a glimpse of Norwich and its people from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth. Houses in which they had lived stni cling tenaciously to the city streets, holding their ground against the demands of modern life. Robert Greene was a product of the Elizabethan era. that extraordinary period when England felt her power for the first time, when she was on the crest of the wave of prosperity and achievement. Two centuries later, Harriet Martineau was | born iii Norwich. She belonged to the ' age o>f Dissenters arid the first political.; economists, and shared in both move-j. ments. She had a keen, restless mind and an un-English logic, which she inherited from her French grandparents who had come as Huguenot refugees >■

to England. Her first activity was to? write for Sunday school papers free of charge. Then she caught the whisper of political economics in the air and wrote a series of tales embodying economic a principles entitled “Illustrations of Political Economy.” A London publisher accepted them, and Harriet Martineau found herself as famous as a woman could he at that time. Later, she I travelled through America, and found there a new object for her Sympathy and championship, the African negrt.. She believed, in common with, the negro enthusiasts at that time, that when a

negro died lie became white like herself. Quite different from these writers was George, Borrow, author of “Romany Rye,” “Lavengro” and “The Bible in Spain.” Here was a genius, wild, untameable, inexplicable. He had an'ainaa ing gift for languages. In Norwich library, there are still ancient books in Arabic and Sanskrit,, ivjucli Borrow read and covered with his notes. He used to demand a job when he needed one, aiTd never pretended to die modest about h.s superb mental and physical virility. After working for the Bible Society in Europe, he returned to Norwich and 'took a cottage. He was whimsical, eccentric, and out of sympathy with his age. , His next-door neighbours complained: that be always lighted a big fire on their washing day, and that his chimney was full of soot. His genius and his love of outdoor life had enriched our language. ,