AUBREY DE VERE.
(To THZ EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOIL.1 SIR,—In the excellent letter of Mr. John Dennis's in the Spectator of February 1st there is one opinion differing BO widely from my own that, bound as I am to Mr. Aubrey de Vera by grateful memories of his long friendship with my parents and with me and mine, as well as by family connec- tion, I feel constrained to question it, taking the opportunity to add a few words of tribute. Mr. Dennis says that, "like Wordsworth, he had neither wit nor humour." These qualities hardly appeared in Mr. de Vere's writings, but I should say that the rare charm of his society was in no small measure derived from them, as well as from his memories and his fancy, his kindliness and delight in giving pleasure. Satiric wit, and even irony, were uncongenial to him, but his sayings were often rememberable for felicity and humour. I recollect a happy description of a certain type,—" Some people take downright- ness for uprightness." And stories of Irish humour could hardly be better told than they were by him. Even if he assumed an air of sentimental regret in recounting the slovenly feudalism of Irish squires and their crowd of depen- dants as known to his youth, it was with a humorous sense of the slovenliness as well as the sentiment. He was a devout Roman Catholic, a patriotic Irishman, and a staunch Unionist, believing the Union to be necessary to the best development of both islands, and scorning the fallacy that dissimilarity must mean antipathy. He by no means ignored (as I have seen stated elsewhere) the countenance given by most Irish priests to anti-Unionist objects and methods which he con- demned, and would strongly denounce some highly placed clergy on this ground, though of course he welcomed and made the most of the minority who were on the other side or tried tG keep the Church aloof from political agitation. Moral earnest- ness underlay his winning Irish bonhomie, and he sometimes seemed to feel the dark side of things all the more for the reluctance with which he brought himself to look on it. By nature he was formed to say with the sun-dial, and to help all around him to say, Horas non numero yin serenas.—I am, Sir,
Brackensicle, Chislehurst. ERNEST MYERS.
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