2 AUGUST 1902, Page 15

THE GORDON STATUE.

[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SrmarAT0s.1 Sin,—Probably few of the thousands who daily pause to admire Onslow Ford's statue of "Gordon mounted on a Camel," just erected in a most appropriate and effective site by the National Portrait Gallery and one of London's chief recruiting grounds, realise that its sojourn there is temporary, and that shortly, and doubtless with an equally effective and appropriate result, it will be set up in Khartoum. It would surely be fitting, whether by general subscription or, if needs must be, through a gift of private munificence, to secure a replica for this site in the Metropolis of the home- country. Gordon's fame is, of course, aere perenniys ; but that is no ground for depriving our civic life of the inspira- tion of a noble image. London has, alas! few worthy statues of England's real heroes; and Onslow Ford, who did as much as any modern sculptor to redeem the credit of his art, is now gone from us. To obtain and erect such a replica would be a double tribute to the artist's memory and, what is of even greater merit, to the glory of a man who more than any other since the days of Sir Philip Sidney carried into the conduct of his military life and the manner of his dying the qualities of a noble gentleman and a simple Christian.—I am, Sir, &c.,

W. H. D.