New-York tribune., 1920-10-17
Egerton Castle, Romanticiist
A Brilliant Figure Dating From Prolific Eng
lish Period

"ohucl now many lovers Of that artist
would share my conviction that Eyer
ton Castle fashioned for Stevenson the
lcbcst labor Of love that has ever been
dedicated to him? Sidney Colvin once
wrote to Castle that the admirers Of
Prince Otto were the true Stevensoni-
ans. Others have said that, but Castle
proved the faith that was in him by
undertaking to translate the book into
French. He gave his version Of a
chapter to Charles Baxter, who prom
lsed to submit 1t to the author at
Samoa. 1t was too late, but after Ste
vensons death he went on with the
work. lie Roman du Prince Othon was
published in Paris in the usual CHEAP
yellow back. In England John Lane
brought 1t out in buckram, with title
page and frontispiece etched BY D. Y.
Cameron, one of the handsomest VOL
umes ever issued from the Bodley
Head.
That was In 1898. Castle had already
made some ventures as man IF LET
ters. He had published his Schools
and Masters Of Fence. He was known
as the author of English Book Plates.
and students Of the Georgian period
had valued him as the editor of The
birmingham Letters.
In fiction, too, he had made his
! debut, though not conspicuously, and
with Walter Herries Pollock he had
written play for Henry Irving, "Savi-
olo." But with The Pride Of Jennico in
1898 and Young April in the following
year he came into his own.
He wrote, with inspiration. pure ro-
nance. In one of his earliest letters to
me he says:
Il never could bear spending my
time on nero pot-boilers."
Writing Was Joy
He wrote the novels have Just
cited and others, too, in collaboration
with his wife, and the writing was not
so much work as it was sheer Joy. In
another letter find these lines:
"The summer. for US, was partly
spent in round of visits In Scot
land, chiefly on the west coast with
in the rough bounds as they arc
called in Moidart and Arsaig, Neull,
etc. And fine stock of new i'm
pressions we have garnered during
that time, much of which, | trust.
VIII find its way into book which
! is already taking coodly shape in
our two heads thinking as one'-and
bring there the color and perfume Of
heather and the sea"
That was the way of the Castles. The
renaissance of the '90s meant for them
/ not saturatlon in bookish things or
Aeories Of style, but the play of mag
nation In scenes developed out Of con-
act with nature. They were wont to
iraw their themes from the past. Once
when I was in Paris Castle wrote me
Tow to get hold of cheap reprint of
that marvellous map Of the old city
known as the Plan de Turgot, telling
ne that it would prove a perfectly en-
chanting companion to the novels of
Dumas. He was always documenting
mis- excursions into history Nor did
Ne turn to books alone.
II have passed many an hour" he
added. walking in imagination through
-he fast vanishing Old town But, mind
YOU, GO and see the old Quarter des
coles and the lie St Louis, with its
ncient hotels of the nobility, now. de
graded like those fine houses In Lin
coins Inn which | showed You (in our
Cheshire Cheese days. to humble tene-
nents."
His stories are packed with things
that he had seen, but the reason why
his reader never thinks of "research'
is that Castle had the authentic ro-
mancer's touch.
The Touch OF an Artist
1t is the touch that Is everything
the touch Of tho artist doubled with
the lover Of mankind. Like a magic
wand, it turns nominally Fictitious
things into human stuff. The gaillard
omniscient hero; the melting-and
hopelessly unintelligent-damsel in
distress; the double-dyed villain, bald
taciturn, inscrutable, and possessed
Ike some malformed Smallwecd, Of
/ centuries of owlish wisdom; the in
escapable perils and the sublime in
genuities which reduce them to but