New-York tribune., 1907-06-08
STORIES OF Il TORY.
Glimpses Of Period No1c Passing.
LORD BEACONsFIELD AND OTHER TORY
MEMORIES. BY T. +. Kehbel. With Por-
traits. Syo. pp. 500 Mitchell Kennerley.

MEMORIES By +. E Kebbei With Por-
traits. $40, pp. 800. Mitchell hennerley.
These recollections Of English life. men and
manners of the past sixty years offered by
a Tory journalist of wide acquaintance and
trained observation. It is Tory England with
which he concerns himself-Tory statesmen.
writers, sportsmen, clubmen and university
dons, Tory Arcadia ard Tory Bohemia. His
"reminiscences Of DisraeH fill several chapters
and are interesting in their Glimpses of the man
rather than of the political leader. 1t is worth
noting, by the way, that ono OF the journalists
early communications from his eminent patron
was to the effect that he was not admirer
of contemporary biography and disiked to be
the subject OF It" 1t is pleasant TO contemplate
Disraeli as a country gentleman devoted 10 his
books and his trees. Unlike Gladstone lie could
not endure to destroy a tree. and Mr.. Kebbel re-
members his grief over the loss of his fayorite
ash tree blown down by a storm. He had a
special love. too, for birds and could not bear
10 look upon one that was dead. He did not
hunt, nor shoot, fish. HE liked 70 look in
a the cottages and talk to the village matTons
at their tea time" says his admirer, 'and he has
remarked with what perfect good breeding a
peasants wife would receive you. She was
never uncertain of her position. uncertainty
which, he said was the main cause Of awkward
ness in society This was one Of his sayings
which I have treasured up. He loved the coun-
try and its beech woods, as I have said lie
reveled in warm. bright sun, and once told
me he never wondered at the sUn-wOrshippefs"
OF another former Premier, Lord Derby, as
country gentleman. Mr.. KebbeI tells this story:
After resigning Office in December, 1852. he ran
down to Knowlsley like boy escaped rom SGilo0l.
ing days rabbit shooting gave vent TO his feel
ings in tie following Characteristic manner: "Ha!'
Il Il
Eoe1 Gladstone; hope / haven't missed him. There.
He'll be none the worse for few pellets in his
ribs" and so on through the rest
There is much that IS entertaining in the
authors "reminiscences of the Tory Arcadia OF
his youth, a period when the country parson
was often a hunting man and often something
of a tyrant in his parish. a period when the
owners and cultivators of the soil were on good
terms and the squire's farms were not left
rented on his hands. He remembers that in
those days boys were rather encouraged TO
drink wine at the family table. and taught to
consider it q manly thing to be able to bear
good deal. He not himself brought up in
this way by the Leicestershre vicar, his father.
a fact which seemed 10 be resented by the boys
godmother, "a most impeachabe Tory female"
who stirred up his youthful ambition by telling
him she knew of a boy not older than himself
who could drink his six glasses of port wine
and be as steady a jug after it." 'These
were her very words. She said jug mind not
Judge Having thus briefly intimatcd to me
in which direction the path of honour lay, she
dropped the subject and left her words. and the
look Of with which they Wee accom-
panied, TO fructify in my BOSOM" To Arcadia
sometimes came the old Duke OF Cambridge,
father OF the late Commander in Chief, the
guest of Sir Henry Halford, the "Chesterfeld
of physicians" He kind old man, simple
hearted and jolly:
The dukes eccentricities are well known. In
church when he repeated ate, the verse II the Psalms,
essary stoop down and tell Sir Henrys grandson.
then boy Of eleven twelve years of age, that
known in his later years the good duke, for
other reason It would seem than because he was
at public dinners or discharge any other functions
oxford undergraduate wrote paper which Dickens
published IN Household Words. called The Good
WePa BPopnd to- recognize in this animal the same
social virtues which pleased them so greatly IN the
bathe and show himself generally for their amuse-
meant fer a s1iteful satire nor was it ever taken
SUCH and the duke himself. If he ever saw It,
work in the morning used to hear his royal high
praying most fervently, as the reapers reaphS
early heard the Lady of shaiott
Mortimer Collins a journalist who will live
only in a little charmngly dainty verse, was
one Of the leading figures in Mr.. Kebbers Tory
Bohemia-a ferocious Tory, and an uncIean, dis
reputable looking object He was an odd COM
bination:-"This rafting. boisterous man. the
loudest laugher in the tavern, coarse In his
language, coarse in his tastes" was a genuine
lover of nature. fond of birds and flowers as
woman might be ITO illustrate his fondness
for birds and the confidence with which he in
spired them, SAYS Kebbel, "he showed me a
thrush's nest, in which the old bird was sitting.
She suffered Collins to approach her and gently