A Son of Oxford

My World as in my Time. .Memoirs of Sir Henry Newbolt,

THE author of these attractive. memoirs is a ,type of the men produced by the public schools and Oxford in the last quarter of last century. . Though born -at a vicarage in the " Black Country," he grew up. with hardly any knowledge of the life that, unfortunately, must be led by the enormous majority of his countrymen. Passing-from the school of Cliftonwith a scholarship to Corpus, Oxford, he was able to pursue learning tempered with athletic exercises. He was a good shot at the butts, a good runner' on the course, a good -speaker at the 13nion. He made excellent. friends ..even in the suburbs of Oxford ; the Dons thought highly of him ; and he did credit to his College in one of the :big exams. He imbibed all the highest culture ,from Plato down to Pater, and was able early to enjoy visits to country houses and Switzerland. Since he did not win a Fellowship, as a matter of course he .proceeded to the Bar. - The President of Corpus ("_BigT :a 'Tommy " Fowler, s we called him in distinction from Little Tommy " FoWler, the historian of :Roman life and true lover of birds) was much: relieved to hear that Newbolt was. eating dinners for. the Bar instead of staying .up_ on the chance of tutorial work. 7' Hi myself," he said (the great man was always very resolute, on aitches) 7' have never left Oxford since I took. myi degree but then I was invited to .stay on, . which quite. halters the ease:',' "i'et it was certainly more usual to go to- pike Bar than to- stay on. ." Are you going to read for the.Bar '? " I u:as asked on a similar occasion " NO," I replied. " Why not ? " was the retort,

in those sweetly enitiYated yeara of an Oxford which was

tittering the last enchantments of the Victorian Age, we get glimpses of Ruskin, Borne Jones, William Morris and the Max Mailers. It is delightful to hear of Max Muller; regarded in Oxford as a great philologist, sitting to listen while his father's songsof Die &Vine Midkrin were sung to Sehuberts' music. But I like best a,quotation -from Tommy -Case, an eccentric tutor of great authority in philosophy at the time :

hope you won't get led away by fellows like T. II: Green,' he

said to Newbolt, who was just setting. out upon dreats. ' I've not read a word of him Myself, and, of course, I wouldn't eondemn any -man unheard, but I can assure you his philosophy is all rot.' " That is a.greatyclief to me, for we were all taught that Green

o was the only real philosopher in Oxford, and I Used to break out from Christ Church, under heavy penalties, on Saints Days to hear him in BallioL alWays returning without having understood a single sentence: The gentle allurements pf Oxford life in the early 'eighties have, of course, paSsed away with time, and I cannot say whether modern youth has anything to compare with them. One advantage it has certainly lost—the, sense of permanence and security. Oxford was then a region apart ; .Sir Henry rightly calls it a fairy island. When I remember the self- complacency of the Dons and of the wives who were fast arriving, I envy and am astonished. It is true that we sometinies heard of a doctrine tolled Socialism, 'and men like Arnold •Toynbee and T. H. Green himself were protesting for

some consideration towards the, working people,-, Newlt WAS not untouched by -the startling enthusiasm- for philan.

thropy—a Word which then did not send out- a stinking savour.' He tells us that he tried visiting clubs -in Bethnal Green and Notting Hill. But he was still able to continue an existence as delicious as Oxford's while living in pleasant

-lodgings in London, and paying still more charming visits to the agreeable country houses which he called his Archipelago_ -scattered islands of -joy adapted -for shooting, fishing and

-yachting. -Here he could associate' with the most delightful -men and women of the day—some eminent, all charming, His record-:should be preserved to prove to- future generations how enviable during the 'nineties was the existence of a few

cultured and well-to-do persons, while the country's power and prosperity were at their height.

It wasin the middle 'nineties that he suddenly found himself fanious upon the broadsheets of . an evening paper, which placarded " Drake's Drum."-. It, hit:the moment as a defiance

-to the Kaiser's naval ambitions, and I like the judgement of Robert. Bridges, always a true and admiring friend of the • young poet :

" He read it again with-great deliberation. -Then ho looked at me and said ' You'll never write anything better than that—it isn't 'given to man to write anything better than that. I wish I had ever

written anything half so good.' " . . .

That judgement holds, even against . the :well-known and 'beautiful lioeMs. that folloWed. But in spite of his Mpidly growing poetic fame, New-lxilt appears to haVc worked at Law with some success. For a Bencher of Lincoln's Inn, -noW a Judge in Chaneery, remarked to Win': " You think you are'famous for your poems, and so you may be. but whiq has given you immortality iayour_work in the Law Digost."-

Nevertheless, it was his literary fame that gave him the editorship of John Murray's Monthly Review for the first four years of this century—a difficult time owing to the Boer War, which began the undermining of the country's self-satisfaction, and Joseph Chamberlain's premature attempt to revive Protection, while. Newbolt was a firm Free Trader. is to _ . the Boer War, the author says :

" In London, among the'people with whom we lived, Mier() 114A a small but indignant minority, belonging--mostlY to the modern eategory of ' highbrows ' : the loyalists labelled them pro-Bow, and were genuinely hurt by their passionate teproacheA." - - -

I should like to quote many other passages in this interesting record of 'a literary and enviable life especially the finely discerning estimate of Lord Rosebery, with whom the author 'Was, naturally, intiniate. But I will mention only one mistake which May be easily corrected before the promised second volume appears (the present one ends abruptly with Joseph Conrad in 190.5). In the well-known lines, " Says Tweed to

Till " Mid so on, the words " I " and " ye " in the fourth and fifth lines. arc falsely transposed, making nonsense of the

whole. In his Oxford Book of Verse Sir Quiller Condi made the same mistake. Strange that two such scholars and poets should have fallen into the error. • Ruskin did-not.

HENRY W. NEVINSON.