MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON EDGAR VINCENT, first Viscount D'Abernon, has died in a nursing home in Hove at the age of eighty-two. It is some years now since illness struck at that magnificent frame, and although from time to time he would dictate letters which dis- played the old trenchancy of judgement, yet the last phase of his life was spent in retirement. The picture of him in the lavish prime of his life thus remains for his admirers undimmed by later sadness ; we see him always, as in the sketch by MacEvoy, triumphant against a background of blue sky and fleeting clouds, shining in the sunshine, rejoicing in his homeric strength. Few men have been able to gather so fine a vintage from life's varied vineyard. He acquired riches; honours and power ; he had been soldier, traveller, banker, politician and diplomatist ; he could estimate and create good literature ; his knowledge of art was discrminating and wide ; he could speak with sportsmen on their own level ; he was intimate with the greatest men of his age ; he was an important Englishman at a time when Englishmen were immensely important ; and at the summit of his life he was able to mould history into channels which, if adhered to, might well have spared us the insanity in which today we live.
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