A Sailor's Life under Four Sovereigns. By Admiral of the
Fleet the Hon. Sir Henry Keppel, G.C.B., D.C.L. (Macmillan and Co. 30s.)—Sir Henry Keppel's Life is long in more senses than one. The gallant old seaman, who is now in his ninety-first year, hale and hearty, we are glad to know, has given the world his autobiography in a work of three volumes, each as long as a three-decked novel, which from a literary, and probably from a service, point of view is long enough in all conscience. It could not well have been longer had Sir Henry been all the Admirals of the Fleet who have flourished since the time of Nelson rolled into one. Frankly, it is too long, made so in great measure by such trivialities as these, of which there are whole chapters, ex- tracted from his sea log-book and shore journal :—" Visited old Michael Quin; laid up." "A gallop with Synge. Dined with Caine, Sir Henry Pottinger and the Rear-Admiral meeting there. Slow with humbug." "On board to see Chads off. A good fellow." "Mount with scratch pack of harriers." "To forenoon church, Charles Kingsley performing." And as every item, though it con- sists only of three words, is a separate paragraph, they run into a good deal of "copy," as a Fleet Street word-spinner would say; yet to do the Admiral justice, he is no word-spinner, going straight to his point, and firing away as if he were in action, with a disregard for grammar, and a confusion of relative pronouns which is often amusing, and occasionally mysterious. Yet, despite its faults (which, had the author taken counsel with a man of letters, might have been avoided), the book is distinctly interesting, and has the great merit of being frankly self-revealing. The impression it gives is that of a naval officer endowed with all the character- istics of those heroes of the main who in times past have defended the integrity and upheld the honour of the Empire. None of them, it is safe to affirm, excelled him in love for his calling, devotion to duty, and delight in danger. Had Henry Keppel come into the world thirty years earlier he would certainly, with fair luck, have taken high rank among the paladins of the great war. During the Crimean War he gave up the command of a ship, "which he loved," to take command of the naval brigade before Sebastopol, and participate in all the horrors and hardships of the siege. In 1857 there was war with China, and Commodore Keppel led an attack on a strong force of junks posted in Fatshan Creek. The fight was hot ; his boat was sunk, the loss of life grea t, the victory complete, as to which he thus delivers himself : —"Words fail me, on looking back to this stirring day, to express my gratitude that I was allowed to take part in this action. When my ship was lost (the 'Raleigh,' wrecked a short time previously), I felt as if my day was done. But fate was kind, and Fatshan Creek gave me another chance in the service I so ardently loved." His insensibility to danger, or contempt of it, was something remarkable, and as conspicuous in his mature age as in his hot youth. He would risk his life either to tease a friend or oblige a lady, with as little concern as he would step a measure or propose a toast. In 1828 Sir Henry, being at the Cape of Goed Hope, took to tandem-driving, and one day was going along a rough road, on one side of which were rocks and steep banks on the other, broken stone walls, with bushes growing between them. Both horses were inclined to run away, which be "did not so much mind," if he could keep in the road. Then, he continues : "Martin (his companion) held the whip, while I twisted the leader's rein round my forearm, and pulled all I could. Martin, instead of sitting quiet, began to touch the leader up. I told him my neck was as strong as his, and chucked the reins on the shaft-horse's head. The leader threw up his head, turned sharp round to the left, jumped fence and broken wall. I had an idea, as I lay in the road, of some huge bird passing in the air. Both horses were on their backs, when I heard a voice from the bush calling my attention to the upper wheel, the only thing that could move, spinning round as if it would catch fire.". Now for a companion incident, which befell nearly half a century afterwards. The Admiral, then in his sixty-seventh year, while hunting with the Blackmore Vale hounds, came to a stiffish fence with but one gap, which be left "to the fair sex." Hard by was an unused road covered with long grass, and close d with heavy bars, in lieu of a gate. This he eharged, and though he broke the upper bar, came down the heaviest cropper he ever experienced. When found by "friend Digby " the horse and himself were as quiet "as if they had been shot in action." It was eight days before he could be moved to London, whence he was taken to Haslar Hospital, where he remained for nearly six months. Whether Sir Henry hunted again he does not say, but a month before lie completei his ninetieth year he danced at a ball at Portsmouth, given in honour of the Prince of Wales. What is the secret of this extra- ordinary vitality ? Ninety is an age which many have surpassed, but for a man to be half killed when nearly seventy while riding to hounds, and dance at a ball when fourscore and ten must be an almost unique experience. Nobody who did not come of a healthy and vigorous race could achieve feats so remarkable, and Admiral Keppel's originally fine constitution was kept in tone by high spirits and active habits. His life has been spent mainly at sea and in the open air. A keen sportsman, he seems never to have refused a mount with bounds, a day's shooting or an invitation to a dance. Moreover, he has had no corroding cares, and been greatly favoured by fortune, for though now and then, as he tells us, troubled by the "eternal want of pence," he was never seriously embarrassed, and comparative poverty is perhaps more conducive to length of days than great wealth. As the son of a Peer he had powerful connections who helped him on in his profession, and his geniality, evidence of which abounds
in his book, secured him "troops of friends," some of them the highest in the land, and made him welcome whithersoever he went. There have been few lives at once so happy and so long, and as Sir Henry Koppel has visited many lands, sailed over many seas, and met many men and women of mark, the "Life," though, as we have said, there is rather too much of it, makes pleasant reading, and we rise from its perusal with a kindly feeling for its gallant and venerable author whose dancing days may, we hope, be prolonged far into the coming century.
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