Part 9 (2/2)

I do not think that it is necessary that it should be wholly ive an illustration: your lordshi+pshumour and fancy, which was in everybody's hands when it was first published, there is a collection of strange words where ”there are” (to use the language of the author) ”two s packed up into one word” No one would say that those were not invented words

Still they contain ais wrapped up in them if you can only find it out

Before I leave the subject of the ”Looking-Glass,” I should like to mention one or two circumstances in connection with it which illustrate his reverence for sacred things In his original manuscript the bad-tempered flower (pp 28-33) was the passion-flower; the sacred origin of the name never struck him, until it was pointed out to hier-lily Another friend asked him if the final scene was based upon the triuress” He repudiated the idea, saying that he would consider such trespassing on holy ground as highly irreverent

He seemed never to be satisfied with the amount of work he had on hand, and in 1872 he deter anatoy Professor Barclay Tho purchased the needful books, he set to work in good earnest His e by his happening to be at hand when a man was seized with an epileptic fit He had prevented the poor creature fro, but was utterly at a loss what to do next To be better prepared on any future occasion, he bought a little encies” In later years he was constantly buying ical works, and by the end of his life he had a library of which no doctor need have been ashamed There were only two special bequests in his will, one of some small keepsakes to his landlady at Eastbourne, Mrs Dyer, and the other of his medical books to my brother

Whenever a new idea presented itself to his mind he used to make a note of it; he even invented a system by which he could take notes in the dark, if soested itself to hiht Like most men who systematically overtax their brains, he was a poor sleeper He would soh a whole book of Euclid in bed; he was so faures before him in the dark, and did not confuse the letters, which is perhaps even h many were entirely useless from a practical point of view For instance, he has an entry in his Diary on Nove an idea (which I think occurred towell-known poe a collection of them to hoax the public”

Calverley's reply to this letter was as follows:--

My dear Sir,--I have been laid up (or laid down) for the last few days by acute luo, or I would have written before It is rather absurd that I was on the point of propounding to you this identical idea I realised, and I regret to add revealed to two girls, a fortnight ago, the truth that all existing poems were in fact acrostics; and I offered a sy” within half an hour! But it never occurred to me to utilise the discovery, as it did to you I see that it ht be utilised, now youwo their friends

This is the way Mr Calverley treated Kirke White's poeht either be ignored or oht say that a pri of a dark and sullen sire!

Whosestor Spring first questioned Winter's sway, And dared the sturdy blusterer to the fight, W a R Thee on this bank he threw To mark his victory

In this low vale, the proale, Unnoticed and alone I ncognit O Thy tender elegance

So Virtue blooht forth amid the storms Of chill adversity, in some lone walk Of life she rears her head L owlines S Obscure and unobserved

While every bleaching breeze that on her blows Chastens her spotless purity of breast, And hardens her to bear D isciplin E Serene the ills of life

In the course of their correspondence Mr Calverley wrote a Shakespearian sonnet, the initial letters of which form the name of William Herbert; and a parody entitled ”The New Hat” I reproduce theht spreads her mantle dun, In drea the dark: but when the royal sun Looks o'er the pines and fires the orient skies, I bask no longer in thy beauty's ray, And lo! ht see day now seeht

End, weary day, that art no day to ht, to me the best of days!

But O my rose, whoaze!

Replete with thee, e'en hideous night grows fair: Then ould sweet morn be, if thou wert there?

THE NEW HAT

My boots had been wash'd, ash'd, by a shower; But little I car'd about that: What I felt was the havoc a single half-hour Had made with my beautiful Hat

For the Boot, tho' its lustre be dimm'd, shall assume New coinal bloom, When once it hath fled, to the Tile

I clomb to my perch, and the horses (a bay And a brown) trotted off with a clatter; The driver look'd round in his humorous way, And said huskily, ”Who is your hatter?”

I was pleased that he'd noticed its shape and its shi+ne; And, as soon as we reached the ”Old Druid,”

I begged hilass of ratified smile sat, I own, on my lips When the bar inside with his hands on his hips), ”Just look at that gentleanman paus'd in reat foreign _ent wiz _ze joli chapeau_

Yet hoift is the transit frohter to tears!

How rife with results is a day!