LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
[Letters of the length of one of our leading paragraphs are often more read, and therefore more effective, than those which fill treble the space.J THE LATE LORD GLENCONNEE.
LTO ME EDITOR or THE SPECTATOS."]
SI14—The death of Lord Glenconner in the prime of life has brought a sharp tense of loss to many widely different classes. lu Scotland especially the regret will be deep and abiding. lie led for the most part the life of a country gentleman of the elder school, taking of late years small interest in the party politics for which he had no liking, but faithfully fulfilling a multitude of duties more burdensome and far more useful than belong to many showier careers. No cause of public welfare appealed to him in vain, and he gave of his wealth so wisely and fastidiously that the magnitude of his generosity passed alno.si unnoticed. Be had no liking for publicity and, so far as his position allowed, he chose the fallentis Semite vitae. I think it may be said of him that he had a supreme talent for living. Ile knew precisely ulna he liked and why he liked it, and vas rarely distracted and never bored. Modestly he had taken the measure of his gifts and wasted no time on futile ventures. In wild nature and sport, in his family. in good books and like- minded friends he found his chief solace, and in the immediate duties of life his profession. In everything he did there was on old-fashioned dignity and simplicity.
Such was the figure he presented to the world, but to Ids friends there was infinitely more. A shy gentleness radiated from him and brightened the air. There was a perpetual warmth in that heart which he never wore upon his sleeve. A man of many acquaintances. I do not think lie gave his friend- ship readily, but when once given it was irrevocable. Friend- ship to him was a very sacred relationship, for which no toil was too groat. Ho had a pleasant, slightly formal, courtesy which made him a little stiff to strangers; all the moors delight- ful when the shyness vanished in congenial company. lie vas at his best at his home of Glen among his own people, the keepers and foresters and shepherds; or at those shootieg parties on his Peobleashire moors, when, with Alfred Lyttellon and Lord Grey of Fallodon, he used to compile famous bags; or at gatherings like the Twoeddale Club dinners, where the atmosphere of an earlier generation could be recaptured. The older he grew the more Scottish he became, till I used to think of him as a handsome Raeburn portrait come to life, lie us, most notably a Lowland Scot, owing his chief allegiance in literature to the brave genius of Sir Walter, delighting in Border legend and ballad and in the stories of that ancient countryside. As Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland and Lord-Lieutenant of his county he played a large part in modern Scottish life, and did much to preserve its historic continuity. For in every fibre of his being he was conscious of the past.
I have written of his talent for life, but suck un endowment is only a pagan virtue at the best. Ho added to a flno dignity and scrupulousness of taste the Christian graces of humility and tenderness. A rare spirituality dwelt behind his reflective, and he bore his sorrows not with stoicism only, but with that gallant rebound of the soul -which carries a man to something higher than tranquillity. There can have been few men who. born to his position anti estate, have remained more truly simple and humble of heart, more hopeful and faithful. The loss to Scotland is great of one so studious of her lore and PO zealous in his affection; and to his intimates it is as if another fire Imo gone out in the fast chilling house of life. As an old friend and a fellow Borderer, I would pay my last tribute
to a very perfect gentleman.—I am. Sir, Lie., Toms BUCHAN. Elsfield Manor, Oxford.
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