The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1885-08-20
Charleston News and Courier
RICHARD MONCkTON MII.NEs.

The deatI of Richard Monckton Mines,
Uord lloughton,) which was mentioned
briefly in our telegraphic columns yes
terday will recall many memories to the
readers OF forty years ago. The slim
volumes of" Palm Leaves" and Poems
Of Many Years." which delighted: our
mothers and grandmothers in the davs
when every month did not, as now, pro-
duce new poet, contain many verses
which have achieved, if not exactly inn
mortality, at least 4 permanent place in
all English anthologies worthy of the
that with the familiar refrain =
The beating OF my own heart
Was all The sound heard
But there are stanzas in " The Men of
Old" which come very near to having
that true ring of strength and sincerity
and melody combined which gives the
only imperishable quality to verse.
"Great thoughts, great feelings came to them
Like instincts, unawares :;
and
a mans best things are nearest him.
Lie close about his feet :;
are passages of this sort. And what
can be finer in its way than this verse
from the same poem
ITO them life was simple art
OF duties to bc done;
A game where each man takes his part;
\ race which all must run;
A battle whose great scheme and scope
They little cared To know
Content, like men alarms, to cope
Each with his fronting foe"
One OF Mines's lyrics beginning
The words that trembled on your lips
Were uttered not know it well -
has always struck us as one of the best
examples of the glaver sort of society
verse that we have in English. And
there are several others of his poems
which are worthy to stand beside it.
Lord Ioughton's life was long one,
and extended over a broad and fruitful
period of English literature. He was born
in 1909, and was raised to the peerage in
1863. His Life of Keats was publish
ed in ls4s and his Monographs, Per-
sonal and Social" in 1873. In his early
youth he was one of the .jeunesse doree of
London society, and it was upon him
that Sydney Smith conferred the title of
"The cool of the evening" in reference
to his unabashed serenity and Indifference
to dignties. lie mellowed down, how
ever, into a general and unassuming man
of letters, and when Hawthorne met him
IN 1854 he impressed him as "a very
agreeable, kindly man." an admirable
"conversl tionist," and with simple and
natural manners. He was prominent fg-
ure in the social and literary life of Lon
don, and fhe has left any memoirs behind
him they will probably prove valuable
addition to contemporary history. In
his place in parliament he did good and
useful work, but doubtless he felt with
Fletcher Of Saltoun that his best and
real work was not that done within the
walls Of ST. Stephens. He had helped to
make the songs OF the people, and could
| afford to care little for those who made
| their laws.
This will be the European view and the
! Northern view of the life of Lord Hough
ton; but we Of the South will remember
him, and love him best, for his unselfish
devotion to the cause of the Southern
Confederacy. In that cause went down
his personal fortune, as our fortunes went
down, and when the poet-priest wrote
"The Conquered Banner" circulated by
stealth and recited with bated breath in
those dark days, the echoing words ol
hope and faith and courage faith in
truth, hope in right-came back swiftly
to us from England from the pen, ana
from the heart and soul, of Lord Hough
ton. Would that they could publish
to-day the Reply to the Conquered
Banner" al Lord Houghton's fttes,
elegy.
/ II Ia annf nnf inil0lu ran,a ekod H.