SIR ALEXANDER COOKBURN. G.C.B.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3732, 10 December 1880, Page 2

SIR ALEXANDER COOKBURN. G.C.B.

The death of the Lord .Chief Justice of England is an event which will He deeply deplored in what is emphatically the beat society in London, for his town reaidenoe . at No. 40, Hertford street, Mayiair, resembled one of the old salons in Bane when these were in the zenith of their attractiveness. Whatever was moit distinguished in literature, art,., music, scholarship, statesmanship, and wit, was sure to be drawn, to hia. koe» pitable table, and to be found gracing the drawing room and library of the late Sir Alex. Cockburn. The list of his friend* would comprise the names of the intellectual aristocracy of. the last, half t a > century. Maeaulay, Lords Lytton and Dalling, Joachim and Halle*, Messrs J, ; , T. Delane and A. Hayward, Adelaide Eemble and her sister Fanny, Sir Edwin Landseer, and Sir' Frederick Leighton, actors, authors, and artists—all who wire capable of presenting the passport of talent, were welcomed by that accomplished gentleman and genial host. For he was something more than an effective orator and a.great lawyer. He was an exceedingly well read man, not : only in the literature of his own country, bnt in that of Franoe and Italy; ana his nature was essentially aramvthetie towards art and artists, using those words >v in their most comprehensive mum. Musio was his passion, and he has bead '-, seen to stand in his own drawing roojiptt* the side of the piano, with the .teen ; coursing each other down his furrowed cheeks, while some gifted vocalist warbled a simple ballad; er clapping his handa with'all the glee, of a schoolboy, when „ Charles Halle* executed a brilliant caprice on the instrument, and exclaiming, f I would give a hundred ponnds to hear that again." At Convent Garden and. Her Majesty's during the eeaton the late Chief Justice might be seen listening to the best singers of the day with nub a rapt attention as seemed to indicate that he was altogether unconscious of the r < presence of an audience, and wholly • absorbed by%the business of the scone, and at 75 his mind, was as yonthfnl all. that of the youngest member of the. bar, while the bonhomie of disposition wai... expressed in his still handsome face, and in the kindly smile into which his well ■. formed month so readily shaped itself."-* - Argus. ,