26 AUGUST 1922, Page 3

He spent his -youth in the great Impeopkd plains of

South America, and he seemed always to wear about him the air of those vast quiet spaces which he loved. This was always very apparent when on rare occasions one found him in a drawing-room full of clever talk. He was the most modest and retiring of men. His readers know little or nothing of his life. When writing, he was always so objectively interested in his matter that while his writings are records of his own experiences he himself is always in the background. His careful style has a Latin clarity which came from his early associations with Spanish. Its quality is constant to the point of monotony. His scope was narrow, but within it he produced great beauty.