We deeply regret to record that Mr. William Watson, whose
verse has the stamp of a very original genius, is suffering from -a second attack on the brain. From the first attack, which occurred about twelve years ago, he so completely recovered that no one would be able to find any trace in the poems which he has written since of any wild or wandering element. He attempted to stop the Duke of Edinburgh's carriage in the Long Walk at Windsor last Sunday, under the impression, apparently, that it belonged to the Queen, with whom he desired to speak, and, of course, he was at once placed under arrest, and has since been sent to the asylum at Stone, near Aylesbury.
After his former attack, which is said to have been much more violent, and from which he completely recovered in about three months, the poet's earliest verse gave expression to the belief that even that sore trial had not been devoid of good :- "Lives there whom Pain hath evermore passed by, And Sorrow shared with an averted eye ? Him do thou pity, him above the rest, Him of all hapless mortals most unblest."
We can only hope that even this recurrence of perhaps the greatest of all mere misfortunes, may leave him, on his recovery, in a state of mind as calm and chastened.
Previous page
