THE LATE BISHOP OF DURHAM.
[TO yes Etwroa OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Snt,—All admirers of the late Bishop will have read your correspondent's reminiscences of his earlier days in the Spectator of August 17th with interest. About three years ago I asked a clergyman to try to obtain from the Bishop a list of books which he would recommend a commercial man to read, and his advice was as follows :—Stanley's Life of Arnold, Life of D. M. Macleod, Life of Kingsley, Life of Lord Lawrence, Life of Sir Henry Lawrence, Matthew Arnold's "Selections from Wordsworth" with the introductory essay, Hobson's " Problems of Poverty," Marshall's " Economics of Industry," and Trevelyan's " Macaulay." The Bishop had evidently a remarkably good memory, for within the last three-months I had the opportunity of a lengthened conversa- tion With him, and asked him whether he remembered giving a list of books to the Rev. Mr. B--. He replied that he did ; and when I told him that this had been a request of mine, he turned to me with a strangely sympathetic and fascinating smile and said, " This is extremely intelestitig." He proceeded to recapitulate the books be had suggested, and our • conversation turned upon Trevelyan's " Macaulay," which work, I gathered, had somewhat altered the Bishop's opinion of the historian, particularly when he had read of his great love for the works of Euripides. Possessed of "small Latin and less Greek," I felt the conversation getting out of my depth, and was some- what relieved to hear an announcement that coffee was pro- vided for those who wished to smoke for a few minutes in an adjoining room. The occasion was a luncheon, and the Bishop's peculiar aversion to smoking in his presence had not been overlooked. Out of one hundred people only five or six remained behind, presumably ton-smokers, which resulted in a startled exclamation from the Bishop : Can this be the correct proportion of smokers and non-smokers 1 "—I am.
A CONSTANT READER.
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