New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-10-09
FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

sip like this concerning Mrs. Garrick: Il now
and then get a lively note from her. hear she
lately went 20 see 4 friend who was not at home
She told the servant she wanted some fruit On
his making difficulty. she asked for adder'
mounted it and gathered for herself No mean
exploit at ninety-fve"'
Even the serious minded Miss More could not
but yield 70 what Nathaniel Wraxall. writing to
Pepvs in 1921. complained of as the insatia-
BILE Rage for anecdote. True or false. the pub
lie will have il. and devour it. Look at the
newspapers. They contain in one week in 1921
more anecdote than lasted our ancestors only
a Hundred years ago for twelvemonth." The
considerable group OF letters addressed by
wraxau to Pepys are the most spirited and
amusing in these volumes The greater part OK
them were written during his travels on the Con-
tinent in the years after his loyal service TO
Caroline Matilda the unhappy Queen OF Den
mark, had made his name widely known in
England. One OF wraxalrs idols was his Prus-
sian majesty. Frederick. and he thus writes Of
the old King as he him In 11I1:
His mind has something about II uncOnQuera-
BILE and which no bodily inhrmities or com,
plants can enfeeble or bend down. AT the Giran9
Reviews in September last he would command
though he had not been able TO walk for several
weeks from a rheumatic complaint He did. but
the instant he diSmOunted from his morse ne
tainted. l never any cOuntenance so char
may so express myself. His eye Is Infinitely
piercing. and there is not a line IN his race
without its meaning or which may not De stuu-
led. He enters the Drawing Room on Day OF
Gala precisely habited as he would into a camp
A plain blue uniform coat. lined with red shaI-
Loom q star on his breast most enormous nat
and panache boots and a Iorgnette in his hand
This is the King of Prussia When the GRAND
Duke OF Russia came TO Berlin he said 10 frlnce
Frederic OF Brunswick, II am going TO turn
Beau: I have bought me new hat and
Feathers" This was the sole alteration he made
In his wardrobe How little as / loSke dat at
Princes! He looks down on all those exteriors
OF royalty as far beneath him. He rises
IN N Sa9 IT n dnes T 1s 1S and
little He reads walks In his Gallery OF
Paintings. writes. and. above all. resigns him
self In his leisure hours to his favOrite passion
for music He has given up. tho reluctantly
the flute. and now usually performs on the
harpsichord.
William Pepys Che pronounced the name
sPeppis" by the way) lived TO be an OctOGena-
rian and remained In the nineteenth century
what no was in the eighteenth-a happy, Wig
orous. intelligent and amiable man. He enjoyed
life 20 the last moment his delight In literature
often recalling TO his mind answer made by
an old uncle of his when congratulated upon re-
tanning his relish for the Georgia: II desire 70
live no longer than can retain my relish for
Poetry and Apple Pye." Pepys was given TO
long walks alone. and he records the pleasure
he took those walks in repeating TO himself
the finest passages OF the Psalms and OF Homer.
The practice OF learning by heart much OF the
nOblest verse he continually urged upon his
children and his friends The letters written In
his old age to his equally venerable friend Han
nah More reveal him one OF the most fOrtu-
nate OF men: Here am I. passed fOurscOre. In
perfect health. with the same relish for books,
conversation and music that ever had: sur
rounded by children who have turned out every
thing that the fondest parent could desire, with
the very singular comfort OF having my most
intimate friend In the person OF my eldest son.
who is my constant and most delightful COM
panionl- Age I'm sense withered his sensibiTl-
ties or narrowed his mind: as his years 60 ON
the letters grow less stilted and more tolerant
and genial
There is not much skin exhibited In the COM
piling OF these volumes II Is apparently the
work of an unpractIsed writer and one who d
moreover. unduly oppressed by . sense OF the