The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-27 00:00:00

'Walter Savage Lander came of an old Warwickshire
family, He was born at Ipsley Court, in that county, Jan,
50, 1775. lie was educated at Rugby and Trinity College,
Oxford; but, having been "rusticated" for firing a gun in
Trinity quadrangle, he did not think it worth his while to
return to the university for the purpose of taking a degree.
Ile was rather changeable in his notions of a profession.
The army ho was supposed to joint and he ilt-clinr.d. The
law next cfered hint its attractioT:s, and he r nounced
them. He deterznined to devote himself to literature.
In 1802 he visited Paris, and about ,11,- time of his visit
Napoleon was made Consul for lift:, On his return he spent
£7,000 in improving his Monmouthshire property (Llan-
thony Abbey); but, in 1806, one of his tenants absconded,
and in disgust he parted with the prop.z,rty which had been
in his family for 7CO years.
In 1808 Mr Lander topk part in the Spanish insurrec-
tion against Napoleon, and he was the first Englishman
who went to the assistance of the Spanish patriots. Ho
raised a body of troops at his own expense, conducted them
from Corunna to Aguilar (the headquarters of Gen. Blake,
viceroy of Galicia), presented 20,00) reals to the cause, and
was appointed colonel in the Spanish army for his liberality.
He resigned his commission on the restoration of King
Ferdinand and the subversion of the constitution framed by
the Spaniards during their struggle for independence. Ile
declared that, " although he was willing to aid the Spanish
people in the assertion of their liberties against tho'antago-
nist of Europe, he would have nothing to do with a per-
jurer and a traitor."
Mr Landor's reputation was made by ~r Gebir," which he
published at the age of twenty-three. Southey, as is well
known, thought most highly of it, and spoke as he thought.
In 1815 Mr Landor (who

liar de Malaperte, a daughter of the Baron de Nitalveville,
a descendant and representative of the nobleman of- that
name who had been first gentleman of the bedchamber to
Charles VIII.) resided in Italy, occupying first the Medici
Palace at Florence, and, secondly, a villa and gardens which
he had purchased of Count Gherardesce, at Fiesole. At
Pisa, in 1820, Mr Landor produced his " Idyllia Heroica,"
with an appendix in Latin prose on the reasons why the
modern Latin poets were not generally read by scholars.
From 1824 to 1829 he delighted English society with his
" Imaginary Conversations"—classical, scholarly, and
tasteful papers. In 1831 appeared "Count Julian, and
other Poems."
Ralph Waldo Emerson, who visited London about this
time, has given a characteristic description of him. "I
had inferred," he says, "from his books, or magnified from
some anecdotes, an impression of Achillean wrath, an un-
tameable petulance. Ido not know whether the imputa-
tion was just or not, but certainly en this day his courtesy
veiled that haughty mind, and he was the most patient and
gentle et hosts. Ile carries to its height the love of freak,
which the English delight to indulge in, as if to signalise
their commanding freedom. He has a wonderful brain ,
despotic,violent, inexhaustible, meant for a soldier—by what
hence converted to letters, in which there is not a style or
tint unknown to him." Southey says of Landor—" That I
have obtained his approbation as a poet, and preserved his
friendship as a man, will be remembered among the hon-
ours of my lire when the petty enmities are forgotten, and
ephemeral reputations have passed away. Landor's Eng-
lish has been strangely undervalued, sometimes savagely
attacked in reviews; but year after year scholars must go
to Landor for a multitude of elegant sentences, for wisdom,
wit, and indignation unforgetable."
In 1836 Mr Landor published "Pericles and Aspasia,"
" Satire on Satirists and Admonition to DatractOrs," and
" Letters of a Conservative, in which are shown the only
means of Saving what are left of the English Church ;" in
1837 appeared " Pentanaeron and Pentalogia ;" in 1839,
" Aadres of Hungary and Giovanna of Naples ;" in 1848,
" Hellenics ;" in 1851, " Popery, British and Foreign ;"
in 1853, " Last Fruit from an Old Tree."
Walter Savage Landor was a man of high genius, but an
irritable, cantankerous, impetuous person—" genus irrita-
bile vatum." Tom Moore, in 1838, wrote of him, "Savage
Lander is a very different man from what I expected to find.
He has all the air and laugh of a hearty country gentleman
—a gios rejoui—and whereas his writings had given me
rather a disrelish to the man, I shall take more readily now
to his writings from having seen the man." Landor was
one of the most eminent scholars in Europe ; even at Rugby
he was too clever to remain in the school as a boy; his
scholarship was of the highest class, and even to his later
years his fine limnau hand " could ba discovered in
Latin epigrams and poems innumerable in a well known
weekly paper.
Whatever cloud has overshadowed his declining years, the
of N1171.4441,-CW.4.8,> _I-AxuAur will adwuya bu remembered
with respect and regard by all Etiglishmen who admire
genius, though they may regret its perversion.—.Afor fling