New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-02-04
LIFE IN LONDON.
CHIEFLY ABOUT THE WEATHER AND THE
PEERAGE.
Westminster. January 10.

tifc evidence there has not been such a winter
known to the present generation. Skating
the Serpentine and the lesser waterways and the
Parks has been in vogue for seven weeks. and now
we have reached the advanced point OF driving a
tandem across the ice The Thames at Westmin-
ster. and far below it, presents novel appearance,
an incessant procession of ice blocks going out with
the tide Some miles up country the traditional.
if not hitherto apochryphal, task of roasting
OK on the icc-bound Thames has been actually
complished Whilst we have the frost nearly
ALWAYS with us sometimes it SHOWS and often it
is foggy This last is worst of ALL making life
not worth living for most of and impossible
for some
London fog must be tasted, smelt taken in
at the pores, before its infinite vileness can be
even guessed at. The only man ever heard say
q friendly word for the London fog is Mr. Russell
Lowell The observation made years ago,
at the time when Mr.. Lowell still Minister at
this Court But it made such an impression on
nv mind that il remains there still fresh. IL
was at the dinner table of Sir Charles Dixie then
a Cabinet Minister i suppose dozen guests had
been bidden but, suddenly, an hour before dinner
time. the fog swooped down on London Ike
black vulturc tearing out from It's hie all llSht
and color and joyousnesS. OF Sir Charles guests
only some five or six had CROPPED their way to
by whose side it CHANGED / sat at dinner, and who
poured ont a prose poem in praise of the log ana
its power of endowing familiar thngs-such as
lamp posts and street corners-~ith mystic beauty
| am not sure whether this cncomium had It's
origin in the courtesy Of a sOjourner or IN the
fancy of a poet Perhaps it was both. Anyhow
it was amazing to a Londoner.
The weather in its manifold iniquity, has played
sad havoc with the frail and the aged. Inc
Rcgister-Generals returns, just Issued, snow Il
striking increase in the death rate. the average oil
the last week having exceeded that OF The CORE
srondinp pcrod over space of twenty years
Kinglake long lingering in his SICK room, died
in the grip of the hard weather. and so the other
day did the Archbishop of York. 1t has been
death on dukes two dying within twenty-iour hours
of each other, an event said to he unprecedented
in English history. even in time Of CIVIL war
Close upon the deaths of the Duke of Somerset ana
tbe Duke of Bedford came news of the passing
away of the Earl of Devon, thus making room for
three new peers in the hereditary Chamber 'h"V
| resumes its sittings next week.
OF the three peers, the most respected, possibly
| bocause the least known was the Duke Of Somer-
set. A plain. commonplace parsonage, for whom
| his great ancestor might, if he had lived in his
| time have found an appropriate place in his ser
! vice rs bailif on the estate The Duke of ledloid
was much more widely known, seeing that he was
| one of the largest owners Of house property IN
| London. Square acres of streets leading out oil
| the Strand and in other centres of the metropolis
! belong to the Bcdfords The Covent Garden Mar
! ket is theirs, perhaps the most famous market III
the Old World. certainly yielding the richest
tribute to the fortunate owner, The BedIords nave
had nothing to do for the last century but to SIT
still and grow rich Their case is the apotheosis
Of uncarned increment. Large areas OF London
have had nothing TO do since Queen Anne was
dead but to increase in value so as to pour eold
into the Golfers of Woburn Abbey. Mr.. Chamber
! lain does not in these days speak dlsrcspccuuN
Of dukes But when, only few years ago, he
| was still unrecenerate and scornfullN dch0uhce"
those who toll not, neither do they spin, IT was
| understood that he had the Duke OF BEDFORD
! sncciallv in his mind Now the Duke is dead ana
| crematcd which last ats afIording good example
| IN Iondoners with Ovcrcrowdcd gravcyaTds, IS
probably one Of the most useful public acts Win
which. through long career, his name has pcch
associated.
The Earl Of Devon was very different man
from his brother peers, upon whose hea'h MS 80
quickly succeeded. lie, at least, Was not common
place Scarcely, indeed, if he had not been heir
apparent TO an cardom, would he have been re
cardcd as respectable His late father, eleventh
| Earl was worthy OF the best traditions oi hn'
that gocs straight back to the Crusaders Nhch
he came into the peeragc he found II GrIeFou'!I
IMPOVERISHED, and viii. the instincts oil an non 81
man. set himself 20 put matters str'iSht an" 10
leave an nnencumbcrad heritage 70 his son. But
for the son he would have succeeded. But Lord
Courtcnay arranged things otherwise. As is usua!
with the hcir-apparcnt Of the Devon pccra2e' as
! soon as he left the university "A seat was ipuh1
| for him in the House OF Commons. In his twenty
first year he had before him rs fair prospect oil Il
| career MS falls 10 the lot OF the best endowed.
| lie had. in fact, all the world before him where
TO choose and he chose tie path Of tie pf""l-a'''
| with II special call "plunger' on the tufl.
| He was TO the fore some twenty-five or three years
ago. when the Marquis OF Hastings was per
| sonarc al Newmarket ard EPSON. Lord Conrichay,
for a brief space. out-lIcrodcd Lord Hastings
| Whilst his father remained al home s1Nlhg ana
STRUGGLING to remove the incubus of DEBT rom the
| boarv.turretS OF Powdcrham Castle. his son ana
heir payly incurred turf debts exceeding loo'ooo
mounds On the morning Of the Derby Day, 1850.
| lord Courtenay stood to win sam that wouli
clear of all his debts and set him up for at least
| opotbcr vcors dissipation. When the darkness Of
evening stole over Epson Downs lie was ruined
man The next day he fled the country ana re-
manned absent many years, whilst LIS affairs made
disastrous progress through the Bankruptcy Court
| This was IA knock-down blow for the Earl. MS
father. who, aged before his time, broken-hcar~d
and hopeless withdrew as far as possible from the
| ken of man still, though with increased leebe
ness. pegging away at his sacred task OF hsh'eh-
ing the water-loggcd Snip that had fallen 10 MS
care. A little more than two years ago he dlel,
and Lord Courtenay. sinking home, became Ian
Of Devon and one of our hereditary legislators.
But. like his fortunes, he was himself wreck
and died at ifty-iive.
1t is pleasant to turn from these pages OF 'he
necraqp and chat for a moment about the Earl "i
Roscbery. lie has been spending Christmas quiet
Il. A. Ncntmorc the dover house Miss Hannah
Rothschild brought him. Soon after the funeral
IL. u,fo ord RosrbcrV feeling de