Evening star., 1909-06-19
MERED|TH'S PASSING
Fitting That He Should Follow
SWinburne So Soon.
LONDON PRIDE IN WRITER
Pen Picture of the Life of Great
5 Literary Man.
MOST ESSENTIAL LONDONER
King Edwards Cycling Exercises
Limited. Prefers Walking-Fa-
nous Snuff Box Collection.
MOST ESSENTIAL LOND0NER

II is fitting that Meredith should .o1ow
Swinburne quickly 10 the grave. for
they both belonged to the great brother
hood OF giants who kept up the tradi-
tions OF English literature and art to
our own time. Meredith spent the great
er part Of his life at his beautiful home
near Dorking in Surrey. He suffered
from loconotor ataxy. and his outings
were limited to 8 daily ride along the
downs in a little donkey carriage.
He had. however. regular visits from
his friends in London. Among these were
Mr.. Haldane. the minister for war. whose
friendship with Meredith was most inti-
mate The writer, however was more
militant than the minister for war. and
urged him to take the step 10 compulsory
service. For Meredith. like many quiet
men, loved the soldierly and adventurous
life. and wished TO see the military spirit
applied to all the affairs of life.
Among his old visitors were Lord Nor
ley. also a kindred spirit. Once when
nightly Review he put Meredith in his
place while he went on holiday. John
Burns was another frequent Nisiin:'. and
was greatly admired for his pugnacioas
rather peculiar contradiction in his char-
acter, for. az rule his tastes were
representative and ultra -esthetic.
There is. Of course, the story that he
gave up sharing rooms with Dante Ros-
setti, because he could not stand seeing
the artist make his daily breakfast off
cold poached eggs, lying on mass OF
coaguiated bacon. Meredith once tried
to explain this away by saying that it
was not the eggs and bacon he objected
TO. but he could not understand how an
artist could do his work after breakfast
ing on so indiReStibie a dish
If ever fine life ran finely to Its close
surely it has been George Meredith's. To
have had all these years OF gJlden s,i-
premacy, the work done the DRY grow
master as they owed him thirty years
ago, and. best of all, the master still
owning the coming Of the young men,
with no stiffening of interest or under
standing-truly he had the wearing Of his
crown. Here In London perhaps the
greatest wonder Of the wonderful man In
these late years has been what one heard
of the young writer's visits to him.
His Noble Traits.
II is noble thing that man of eighty
years of age. writer who published his
So much In very different days. should
still have been personal and not merely
artistic inspiration. I think it might
be said that the innern1ost London set
OF the men OF letters were pro,lder Of be-
ing the set that knew Iered.t.: than
they were OF their own work. They were
jealous, too, no doubt in the way in
which they regarded the great friendship.
But then that is Indication II how
little II was matter OF formal homage
and how much matter of "A living and
even exacting exchange of wits worth
guarding from people who could not rec
ognize its language.
/. Meredith was the most essential Lon
doner Of all English novelists-tl,at for
him, more even than for Dickens Lon
don and what London thinks made the
pivot of his work and the real ainspring
OF the action of his plots. A sort Of cor
oliary to that suggests itself in his re-
action. or rather the reaction of the great
idea of him, on the London sets 81
writer's You can see II in many of Hen
ry James stories The Pattern IN tie
Carpet "John Delavoy' and The
Death Of the Lion all work round tie
conception Of great man of letters un-
known to the majority. making no artistic
concessions personally remote, but in
tnttely inspiring to the ardent and made
by them, in no cynical sense of the word,
a cult. touchstone for their own artistic
conscfences. He has been much more
than the founder of a school, either or
thought or of method. He has been the
great background Of literary life for the
last thirty years. and therefore though
at first sight with his active work so far
behind him, his death might seem TO take
from us, after all. not 80 very much, yet
tho loss is a real and a heavy one
Great lover of London that he vast
was the one place for which he cared 20
leave his home at all in the late years
1t is nevertheless rather difficult 10
place" him as Londoner. One has to
get nd OF a good many associations of
London which are more recent than one
always remembers them to be- He was
really OF the flfties and sixties of the
days when the regency view or life was
not yet extinct. though the regency hab-
its were passing. So you find in him
none Of the club life or the club outlook
OF the later LOndoner. His London is OF
that paradoxical period when classes were
both more widely separated and more
closely associated The rich landed men
poor. but saw far more OF them in a
sccfable way than they do now His
great people make a tradesman miserable,
and yet put prize fighters and clerks at
their ease He missed, In fact. the mid
die class. He missed by some accident
of date and temperament the effect Of the
later school, both socially and political v
Even In so late a book as "One OF Our
Conquerors' he had not really felt the
later London Victor Radnor never goes
tn his club. Meredith seems to be Of the
age when the Carlton and Reform were
new and bustling.
Mrs. Asquith's Piquancy.
The story Of Mrs. Asauith aud the
French dressmaker still holds the field for
piquancy. So many ladies in society at
tended the display when the prime min
ister's official residence at the famous No.
10 Downing street was transformed Iuto a
Partisan showroom. with costumes and
models all complete. that one or other
may be met at nearly every social func-
ton.
The only wonder is that so much sur
prise should be expressed at the action of
this versatile lady who as "Margot'' Ten
nant was famous for her unconvention-
ality. and was pri -ileged to exhibit it
without causing any especial remark
She was always said to be the original Of
Mr.. Benson's heroine .'Dodo' the life Of
the Souls" and the wonder of the hunt