The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1891-03-17
- aaIE9aEE@IE EAEnEE.M AEoz u 80

stopped for a moment and listened
eagerly to- a singer, whose voice nad
n ached him. He ran OH TO the
wandering minstrel and presently re-
turned, beaming with del1ghb. Inc
man had been singing Lord HougnCo4s
weT-known song, TT Wandered by the
Brookside." He used to say that a
short poem, or ballad, was the surest
passport to Immortality. Ahymn was
better than either, and mentioned
"Rock of Ages" as a case in point,
That this hymn will last, we do moi
doubt; but of the many thousands by
whom it is used, how many could tell
the name of the author? Lord Hough-
ton had a great admiration for it, and
considered it one of the most truly de
votional pieces ever written. New
mans LEAD, Kindly Light" was,
Lord Houghton maintained, and with
Justice, a poem, and not a hymn; and
whereas Rock e6f Ages is sung, at
some time during the year, in almost
every place of worship where, the Eng
nsh language is spoken, poetical works,
however beautiful in character, are
confined to the knowledge of compare
lively few.
Lord Houghton himself will be re-
membered as a writer chiefly by two
or three songs. The calm and placid
current of Mi1nes's verse is little likely
to take the fancy of the age iniwhich
we live. He will fare better than
SOuthey or Rogers, mainly on account
of what he called his "short pieces"
He was acquainted with almost every
composition in verse which appeared
during his day. He may almost be
said to have discovered Swinburne, of
whose great powers, especially when
they first flashed upon the world, he
had an exalted opinion. None of the
Victorian poets, he maintained, had
produced anything finer than the
ehoruses in "Atalanta in Calydon"
1t is curious to find, by the by, that
Lord Houghton should have any doubt
as to the authorship of the song Home,
AthenOeun, written in December, 1871,
he referred to the w5e1-known air as
being S~icilian, but that, we believe, has
never been proved. Sir George Grove
tells us, in the Directory of Music, that
the melody occurs in Bishops opera of
"Clari, or the Maid of Milan, " and that
in the published music it is calledoa
Sicilian air; but he adds, lit is not i'm
possibly Bi~shOp'sown.n However that
may be, it is absolutely certain that
Lord Houghton was wrong in attribut-
ing the words to "Baily or Thomas
Moore" They were written by an
American, John Howard Payne, and
his claim to them has never, so far as
we are aware, been disputed. The Gov
eminent of the United States placed a
monument over his grave, as a tribute
to the author of so popular a song.
Lord HOughtOn's visit to the United
States formed a veritable epoch in his
life, and furnished him, at a period
when hemuch needed them, withmany
new friends and agreeable associations.
Everywhere he went he met withhOsts
of friends, and his popularity was so
great as to astOnish him, for he had not
supposed that his name was widely
known across the Atlantic. AS q mat
ter of fact, however, the Americans
lose sight of very little that is written
or done in the old country, and weneed
not recall the numerous instances in
which the recognition of great merit or
unusual excellence has come from
them. It was with Carlyle, with Her
bert Spencer, with George Meredith,
and with many others. Lord Hough-
tons welcome in America was none
the less cordial, because he had been
one of the few in leading English cir
cles who had sympathized with the
Northern States in the great Civil War,
and had predicted their victory. This
view may have been produced in his
mind, in some degree, by his friendship,
and intercourse with Emerson, Long
fellow, Charles Sumner, and Motley,
and by the influence they had over