writers who have given us any genuine anecdotes about him. Unfortunately, he was not often thrown into the same society. Elsewhere an extract will be found from Redgrave's Memoirs concerning the visit paid by Lowe to Hatfield House in 1868; on which occasion he also relates the following story in connection with Mr. Gladstone and Cobden. Dining some days previously with Mr. Gladstone, a lady being seated between them, Gladstone, speaking across her, said to Mr. Lowe: I cannot think why they call Cobden the Inspired Bagman.' Neither can I,' said Lowe, for he was neither inspired nor a bagman; in fact, it reminds me of a story told of Madame de Maintenon, when someone offered to obtain admission for her into the Maison des Filles Repenties. Nay,' said Madame, 'I am neither a fille, nor am I repentie.' At this the lady between the two politicians burst into a laugh, but Mr. Gladstone pulled rather a long face. In the subsequent conversation which Redgrave held with Count Strzelecki on Lowe's great abilities, the Count, who was a most accomplished man of the world, shrewdly remarked on the drawback of deficient eyesight to a public man. 'Besides,' said he, 'Lowe has a natural antipathy to a fool, and so he offends, as a matter of course, all the fools in his audience. He is quite the reverse of Lord Palmerston, who knew that fools predominate both in the House of Commons and out of it, and always addressed himself so as to conciliate the fools, and thus was very popular.' But Count Strzelecki's criticism was only applicable to Lord Sherbrooke in his public capacity. In private circles, while generally brilliant, he was always amiable. Sir John Lubbock, who for many years was on very friendly terms with him, says: 'It was always a great pleasure when he came to us, for his conversation was most interesting, and he always tried to make things go off well.' Sir John adds: 'I was much attached to him'-a feeling which mere intellectual brilliancy can never evoke. Mr. Goschen, who, as well as being a political colleague for many years, was in intimate social relations with Lord Sherbrooke, remarks that his wit and epigrammatic humour would flow as freely at breakfast time, when he might only have an audience of a governess and her pupils, as they would at a gathering of distinguished men. 'Most brilliant men,' says Mr. Goschen, are occasionally dull; but in my long intercourse with him I never found him so, and he could even show himself up to the mark when strangers were introduced to him, and looked for some pointed phrase an ordeal under which most clever men entirely break down. I remember once, just after the great Reform debates of '66, taking up a foreigner to him. The foreigner paid him some commonplace compliment on the brilliancy of his orations. Mr. Lowe replied: "Oh! we are not now thinking of Reform; we are thinking of the cattle plague, for the difference between the two is this, that Reform will only ruin our children, while the cattle plague will ruin ourselves." "But," said the foreigner, "you have discovered a remedy for the cattle plague, have you not? You mix asafoetida with their food." 666 Yes," he said, "our cattle are now all fed à la Sou But if, instead of merely accepting or conventionally deprecating the compliment of a stranger, his alert mind would thus at once set the ball rolling, it was, by the testimony of all his friends, still more remarkable to see him with children. He was passionately fond of them for one thing, and his wise head seemed full of nonsense verses, nursery rhymes, and quaint and ludicrous stories. He never failed at once to secure their interest, and in all the houses he visited, where children were to the fore his advent was welcomed with clamorous delight. This was, of course, owing far more to what Mr. Goschen calls his extreme kindness of heart' than even his rare gift of wit and humour, but it was a trait in his character which cannot be overlooked in forming an estimate of him as a man. Mr. Hamilton, of the 23rd Regiment, remembers his excitement, as a schoolboy at Caterham, on being called out from lessons to speak to Lord Sherbrooke, and finding him on horseback at the school entrance, having brought a pot of jam for him in each pocket. This kindness of heart did not limit itself to the human family. It was a pleasant sight to see the horses in the paddock come close up to the fence when he whistled as he passed along the garden walks on his tricycle, often followed by a posse of dogs and cats, and even the peacocks, who refused to budge or get out of the way. The old horse that had taken him into town for twenty years was really a fourfooted friend; he has survived his master, but his race was commemorated in the following lines: The Horses' Epitaph Soft lie the turf, on these who find their rest They ne'er intrigued a rival to displace; They ran, but never betted on the race; Of whom his epitaph can say as much! These verses, like almost all the efforts of Lord Sherbrooke's muse, were written at the request of a lady; in this case, they were expressly intended for a tablet which was placed in Lady Dorothy Nevill's cemetery for pets of all kinds-horses, dogs, and cats-at Dangstein. Nothing would have been more displeasing to the late Lord Sherbrooke than to have been placarded as a poet.' The history of the publication of the little book, Poems of a Life, has been referred to in the first volume. After the publication of the book, Lord Sherbrooke, who was naturally much vexed at the offering he had meant for his wife being given to the public without introduction or revision, wrote in his diary: In the course of my life I have written a number of poems, without any intention of publishing them. To please my wife, who was in very bad health, I allowed them to be printed, but not published. I gave a number of these poems to my friends. They were published without either my consent or knowledge.' When the publisher expressed contrition, the mistake was forgiven and forgotten. Lord Sherbrooke, as his niece, Mrs. Chaworth Musters, relates, was, indeed, passionately fond of poetry. More than the Prophet's sight I prize the Poet's song. He hardly can be right Who hardly can be wrong. But his own verses were strictly impromptu or occasional; and he had neither the vanity nor the abnegation of the true poet. Nevertheless, I venture to think that some of these occasional verses have real merit, apart from the interest attaching to the fact that they were the solace of a busy statesman in his rare moments of idleness, and written purely for the gratification of his friends. What could be more graceful than the following, written at the desire of Blanche, Countess of Airlie ? Lines on the Garden of Friendship (Cortachy Castle, 1873) Is life a good? Then, if a good it be, Shiver when Caledonia's tempests rise, There floats an influence o'er the rising grove Is good and gracious, true and fair and wise. Even during the heat and turmoil of the Reform agitation, if he could get away for a few days into the country his poetising faculty would reawaken. It was at Pencarrow, Lady Molesworth's place, that he wrote the following graceful lines for Mrs. Harvey, of Ickwell-Bury :— On a Photograph The outline of that sweet fair face No human artist drew, The Sun himself alone could trace A picture worthy you. Bright impress of the solar beam, Ah no! Thy faultless, lifeless grace No solace can impart, The sunbeam rests upon thy face, Pencarrow: September 16, 1866. When typewriters first came into vogue they immediately attracted Lord Sherbrooke's inquiring mind. Writing had always been an almost intolerable strain; though it is wonderful how he contrived to overcome the difficulty, with his increasingly short and painful vision. His penmanship varied a great deal, but the letter to his brother, selected for reproduction in this volume is a very fair sample. Sometimes, however, the characters were larger and more unformed; at others, he really contrived to write a small, neat, and legible hand. But he hailed the typewriter as a boon indeed, though it is to be feared that, after the novelty of the toy had worn off, |