New-York tribune., 1906-12-29
Some Brilliant Cambridge Men Of
the Last Century.


wifi pleasant anticipations. 1t deals with the
sane group OF brilliant men. ii is animated by
the same cheerful and adrniring spirit 1t Is
,,,orfh reading though il must be admitted that
Il IS q little thin The best OF the Brookfield
material Was nut into the earlier book. with the
consequence that some Of these new characteri-
cations are rather unimportant and some of the
letters trivial
The ..Arostles" We may remind the reader,
was the cant name given I'm raillery TO GER
tain Cambridge Conversations Society in the
third and fourth decades of the last century,
when il numbered among its members under
graduates OF more than ordinary talents and Of
originsl personality. The twelve distinguished
Apostles who Were friends of the late Will
lam Henry Broolfield the subjects of these
sketches and we accordingly find here more or
less interesting notes on such men as Tenny-
son. French. Arthur Hallam. Richard Monck-
ton Mines and John Sterling The weekly meet
ings OF this group Of remarkable youths were
devoted 10 talk-talk always intellectual. gen
orally speculative and daring. Each in his turn
read an essay and then followed discussion.
Theological and political investigations. as be-
came the time and place. abounded; sometimes
the theme was purely metaphysical sometimes
scientific or literary; but each and every SUD-
sect which they took and pondered over was
EQ.
themselves" For period we are told, poetry
ruled supreme, and this. perhaps, was their Ia
Write subiect-let il be recorded that they
,r,ould have only the work Of the masters only
..that which they considered 10 be the hlghest.
= Was in the light of this flaming standard that
,ba, discussed the labors OF the poets among
them. Tennyson was the chief Of them:
one Of the favorite relaxauons, of the set, Ct
seems 70 have been afrs9 4e9 verse The days
Nylich he produced something fresh-I%oI % S one
g SSmPef tor Pfptsclsa Pem%ere redette with
tess Sar te latest eort had portions sent
10 them with bidding 10 come on lle ~ ~ Sis
poems were siways as ,Ss 10 Sd monastio work. labor
~ I6ve-and they each OF them made ana oisuIO-
uted more than one copy
In the matter Of prose, alfred" was OF no
service 10 the original purpose or the soclelS'
for he only partly finished the essay demahoeo
NJ him. He had chosen Ghosts as ms sUO-
tect Mrs Brookheld tells US that the warm
loxe for him OF his felow-'Apostles pi1'ueu
.be,, IN his personal eccentricities. On the
rare occasions that they perceived these anu
demonstrated with him-especially IN referehc0
- his slovenllness-the effort was wholly
,-,s+e5 Mrs Brookfeld says of him in a1ter
days:
What he liked best, n his innermest heart was was
q, bs unconventional in we-ordered cohNe1o it
sgToupdingt i gatTe a1 deanded Occasionally some
hold spirit would rePr;mana Gi Gaa6 On With Aubrey
De We're sullen mood oVertook ni., u SI1J S1InJys,gS
against the nny Of dancing & RS o4d Eas aeg egt Ga on
him short saying, how ii1 TTIu et lis anlusements
= = . Voice as deep as lions? request that you
Will 1 .9Sgssr g. HRss2isEs Sophia RSt TO On dance az .-
His sudden attacks OF ii-auIao[ T-oI IbeV would
come over him abruptly ana TgI 1Se the
summer =; &. gtoI og abSenfmndedness wandering
INTO the Royal circle, and Loro S E9SeTa oueS 10 be
pelS heaTd: ''t Surely Her Majesty might keep her
funkeys in better ORDER.
Mrs. Brookfeld describes an amusing scene
enroDos Of the sonnet which Tennyson wrote
IN memory Of her father-in-law:
When he had completed that + SSfgfgq STa grooIeG ST2eG
ana her son Charles TO make an M io1 round
cloak his scGoa ,s o. tiSeriv iady|not unknown on
MED by a naSsIS; o1 ne bsc drawing room stage
- 1isorad in a tight-Gttlng violet NeIytL oLess
Win long 5d tTsin s5ce s e4 G hasba1ds @ death and both
ne and She felt somewhat cos cs az, criot To his
ooons15on SAYING Here. you'd better rea;a
this The iady +b N an6s les pa?tslly unroed it ad
Tance6 TO the centre OF the room, 9u ;,dh facial
exTressio9, as Se2 tegu suddenly falling upon both
airfrs 10 be read IN any otheF az az ,eeft
a. a. rer,en,bered as being the brightest ana
- -. - the .Apostles" The youth who
- - become a distinguished Anglo-saHon
,..,,- had as much poetic fervor as any OF the
,~ag5,at;ve group to which he belonged All
- ,5e "Anostles" loved him. and believed mat
.rsClr,. was TO become a burning light his
s-+,,,esaetic nature betrayed him into joining
she Inflated Torrijos expedition for the freeing
of Srain His comrade, Boyd, was taken ana
evecpted. and there were runors in England
,ha- Kembe was in danger. Out OF TINS serious
,ioa one Of his irreverent friends extracted
-, bai,y accustomed 20 tell at Cambridge
tbis story. when Jacky Kernble returned from
.bs rrorriios affair In Spain 20 college. ne
bsd . story of adventure which had three YER
sians Ia the first. say IN the stage OF friendly
confidence he would say once strayed De-
,,ons our lines alone and unarmed. and suddenly
came upon fifteen Spanish grenadiers. who were
,iosf-,, ro,,ns me. when I took 10 my heels and
though pursued by few shots escaped win
my Iife and unharmed.' Somewhat later the
,,ersio, bepan in the same way as the first. but
proceeded-I disarmed them-most OF EN-
wounded several-and the rest fed with the
deyu take the hindmost' The third. or
o'clocl, in the morning version, commenced like
the others. but continued-'they fell at my feet
to q man and irnplored mercy Well what did
you do. Jacky? Did you let them go! No.
by -. ! Slei0 them Gl!"
" "A. Brookfield was not himself one OF the
"AnostJes" but was throughout their college
days and afterward the beloved friend Of all
OF ther,. In the chapters devoted TO him his
daughter-in-law quotes much entertaining stun
from his diaries and letters. There are many
gimpses Of Thackeray here-Thackeray, the
chosen intimate OF Brookheld's heart. whom he