The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1882-09-22
AN ODD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN.
Lord Dodley's Habit of Thinking Out Loud
---Other Eccentricities-
tAn the Year Round.l

Lord Dodley's Habit of Thinking Out Loud
---Other Eccentricities.
IAN the Year RoundI
lord Dudley says Mr.. Moore, at
~ well known, has a trick of rehearsing
over to himself, In an undertone, the
good things he Is about to deliver
To the company, 30 that the per
son who sits next TO him has generally
tho advantage of his wit before any of
the rest of the party. A man not very
remarkable for his agreeableness once
proposed to walk from the House of
Commons to the Travellers club with
Lord Dudley Ohio, discussing the pro-
posal meptally (as he thought) with
himself, said audibly, L don't think it
will bore me very much to let him walk
with me that distance On another oc-
easion, when he gave somebody seat
III his carriage from some country
house, he was overheard by his COM
panions, after a fit of thought and ST.
lence, saying to himself: Now, shall
l. ask this man to dine with me when
we arrive in town. 1t is said that the
fellow-traveler muttered out in the
same sort of tone: Now, If Lord Dud-
ley should ask me to dinner, shall 1 ac-
oept his invitationY
A happy specimen of his wit was this
retort TO German lady at Vienna who
had somewhat rudely complained of the
bad French spoken by you English"
In London. "True, madam" he said,
I'VE have not enjoyed the advantage of
having had the French twice in our
capital"
This recalls retort about as good
made by an Englishmsn to the Due de
Broglie when Ambassador in England,
who said, with equally lax manners,
that they were right in thinking the
English nation of shopkeepers. per
haps So" was his reply, "just as we al
ways thought you were nation of sol
diers."
After his retirement his curious ma
MIA and various oddities increased to an
extravagant degree, and were the talk
of the town, which, however, soon came
to accept them as it does all kinds of
oddity. He would go TO dinner parties
and sit without uttering a word except
ing TO himself. During some brief
flashes of silence" Mr.. Raikes tells of
q friend of his whom he describes as
a.
man, not overlooking with intellect. 1T
was at q time when poor Dudley's mind
was on the wape, when his caustlc hui
NOR would still find vent through the
cloud that was gradually overshadow-
ing his mastery intellect; he was sit
ting III his room, unheeding those
around him, and soliloquizing aloud, as
was SO often his custom. His favorite
New Foundland dog was at his side,
who seemed to engross his whole at
tention. At length, patting his head,
he exclaimed: 'Fido, mic, they say
dogs have no souls Humph! And still
they say - has a soul! Upon one
occasion he found Mr.. Allen at Whites,
about o'clock, and asked him to din
ner. On his arrival at Park lane, he
found it was tete-a-tete with the host.
When in the evening, he was asked how
the dinner went off, Allen said: Lord
Dudley spoke little to his servant and
a great deal to his dog, but said moth
ing"
In this state, too, he would invite
large companies TO dinner, who,
stranger still, would accept his invita-
tons, though, when they came he
would not address them. MIR. Moore,
who loved cheerfulness and grayetv,
complained mournfully of these festivi-
ties as damping and depressing. For
the host would sit the whole time In q
sort of stupor, or converse with him
self, or have a volume of Hume open
before him, which he would read
throughout the dinner. This was the
beginning Of the end. A short time
afterward, in 1882, it was known that
the doctors had directed that he should
be put under restraint, and on the 9th
OF March, 1888, this brilliant, but ec-
centric man expired. He was only 50.
A relation of his, the Rev. Mr.. Ward,
succeeded to the title with $4,000 a
year only, while f80,00e year passed
to this clergy mans son, the present
holder Of the title.