The record-union., 1892-09-24

In the pre-vulgarized travelling days. one
was, and perhaps still is, accustomed to
look for in an Englishman of the upper
class. The elder Of these ladies shortly
after became Mrs Gladstone.
Our author is sometimes iconoclastic in
ms opinions. AS to George Eliot, he
hints that she has been overrated. There
fore he deyotes himself to her personality
rather than to her literary work.
IN THE PRIoRY.
The Priory" was a quiet, simple, I'M
pretending yet elegant villa, where one
seemed to breathe an atmosphere of lit
erature. The almost classic drawing
room, half library, had pleasant look
out into the garden, and was so entirely
the recognized habitat of its occupants
tnat one knew intutively before being
SHOWN IN that as soon as the door was
opened the pair would be ''discoveredn-
George Lewes in his easy chair on the
rlght-hand side of the fireplace, as you
faced 1t, and George Eliot on the left.
You were equally sure of cordial recep-
ton from this gifted couple, whose Sun
day lat homes" thoughlcertainly not al
ways lively, were necessarily interesting;
they brought together literary and an
tlstlc celebrities and their M3cenases,
mostly men, of course; still, as it was al
ways chance gathering, there was much
uncertainty as 10 the materials of which
fore varied considerably ia brilliancy and
attractiveness.
NO RESPECT FOR DICKENS.
Charles Dickens was once by chance
my feliow-traveler on the Boulogne
packet; travelling with him was lady
not ms wife, nor his sister-in-law, yet he
strutted about the deck with the air of a
man bristling with self-importance:
every line OF his face and every gesture
Oh his limbs seemed haughtily to say:
q. aLook at me; make the most of YOUR
cnance. am the great, the only Charles
Dickens. Whatever | may choose to do
is justified by that fact"
1t is very possible that the wife of
Charles Dickens may, in consequence of
his own altered proclivities and position
subsequently to his marriage, have be-
come unsuited to him, but should that
have been visited upon her? None who
know the history of her outraged life can
respect Dickens as man, however much
they may admire him as q writer. The
members of his family hold their own
views as to his heartlessness. for, even
allowing for the lowness of his anteced-
ents and origin, his deficient education
and his recognized lack of the instincts of
a gentleman, no one can afford to over
look his immoral life. his unchastened
vanity and seltishness and the presump-
tlon with which he blazoned forth his in
dlt1erence to the feelings of those he in
Jured, to the opinion of the world and to
the sacredness OF his own vows.
LADY BULwER HAD RED HAIR.
To the best of my recollection, Lady
Bulwer had not a winning expression.
though some may have considered her
handsome. Her hair, as well as that of
the little girl, might by courtesy have
been called auburn" but had a strong
inclination III h,,a
not always admired in this country. The
child was their only daughter and died
in 1913.
If Sir Edward was bitter against his
wife, she on her side was not sparing of
harsh terms when speaking of him: and
she certainly lost some sympathy she
might have won from the world by TAX
ing this line, although her sarcasms were
often cleverly expressed.
GRoTEsQUE pAaANINI.
But for the intense expression of genius
which nothing could obscure Paganini's
features and figure would have been alb
solutely repulsive; as it was, his appear
ance and manner suggested that there
must be something either more or less
than human about him, and the weird
ness Of his performances never ap-
preached by any other artist may have
gone far to give color to the popular sus-
picion that his skill was the result of Sa-
anic aid.
Taglioni made one of those unaccounta-
bic mistakes too often committed by great
artists in returning to the stage after she
had once retired; no one who had seen
her in her palmy days would have recog-
nized her; her joints seemed to have be-
come stitfened, her limbs had lost their
activity, her muscles their power. and as
for her mimetic genius, 1t had altogether
departed. l thought it much to be de-
plored exhibition of vanished and scarcely
traceable Professionalism York Herald.