LITERARY GOSSIP.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12506, 19 May 1906, Page 7

LITERARY GOSSIP.

On-o of tho rno«t touching things in Edgar Allan Poo'k unhappy lifo wa.s tho intense devotion of his mother-in-law, ill's Clemni. It has now conic out that Mrs Clcmm died in the panic institution in which Poo himself expired many yea re befoiv. tho Churc-li Home at Baltimore. When sho was admitted she choso for her room one upon tho same floor, and very nw to tho epet whore her "<loar Erldio" hatl lain in h.e la-t moment- , , an , .! whence ho had been borne to Ire burial. She made daily vieite to "Eddie's room," as fiho called it, and pro-orved in her own apartment many mementoes of the. poet and his wife, which at her death wero given to Poo's Baltimore relatives.

It i* proposed to erect in Eastbourne a memorial to Edna Lyall. and a committee 'has been formed for the purpo of raising subscriptions and deter- l--minin.i on tlio actual form the memorial shall take. Tho first idea, ie to place a stained-glass window in St. Peter's Church, where Edna Lyall was « constant worshipper, and , towards tho furnishing of which e-ho largely contributed. The Rev. H. G. Jnmeson, Edna Lyall's brother-in-lnw, has lx?cn vicar of _ St. Peter's since the church was built ten Tears ago. Lord Curzon of Kedloston, who till Mo other day was Viceroy of Indaa, will be tho Romanes Lecturer this year. Lord Cu.rzon was educated at Eton nnd Balliol Colleges, and was President of the Union, in 18S0. He woir the Lothian Essay Prize in 1833, his subject being Justinian, and his opsny on Sir Thomas More secured the Arnold Prizo in 1884. -Ho b tea mo a Follow of All Souls in 1883, and at the Encaenia in 1904 had tho Hon. D.C.L. conferred upon him. Viscount Haya<?hi (Mr James Milnes tells us in '"The Book Monthly," in tho course of an interesting interview with tho Japaneso Ambassador) thinks that the greatest period of Japaneso literature should bo placed about , 150 or 200 years ago. Their greatest romances and their beet works on astronomy and pec-try were written at that period. But they were Kn-vd on Chinese models and done in Chinese characters, end ho thinks a change miint come with tho adoption of lic-inan characters, which ho believes to bo imminent. By this means a new world of intollectu.nl intercourse will be opened up to Japan, and a freer play given to Japanese genius. The Japaneso novel, raid Viscount Hayashi, ie an old institution, 1300 years old or more, but their drama is more chairacfcristioally Japanese than nil their other literary pcesiesMions, and hae been least influenced by Ohineso models. Shakespearo ha.s been translates] into Japanese, but not very successfully. Maoauky, John Stuart Mill and Herbert Spencer havo beon better rendered. Of foreign bocks, English take tho firet place in Japan, German come stcond and French third. Naturally the Japanese are a sentimental people,' and poetry is a widely practised art. Many of the soldiers in the late war wrote homo in veree. Viscount Hnya-hi is himself an author. Ho has translated some English books on political economy into Japanese, and a year or two ago he published an English veixion of an old Japanese hero-story. Two centuries have passed since the death of John Evelyn, tho famous diarist. He \vi\R horn of wealthy parentage at Wotton, near I)orkin< T , on October 31st, IG2O. ami died on February 27th, 1706. He was educated at Balliol College, and was admitted at the Middle Temple in 1040. He travelled in France, Italy and Sv.-itzorland. At Paris he married tho English Ambassador's daughter in 16-17,' and, returning to England, settled at Saves Court, Deptford, and made there a rea-lly beautiful home. He was a prominent member of tho Pioynl Society. In addition to his "Diary' he was also author of thirty-four other works dealing with architecture, engraving, painting history, polities, education, gardening and other subject?. His 'Diary' was first published in 1818. His bicentenary is l>ying celebrated by the issue of two editions of his chief work, one of which is being edited by Mr Austin Dobson.

Recently the "Manchester Guardian " published an. interesting sketch of Sayea Court. A visitor to Deptford. says the writer, is reminded at every turn of Evelyn. Half the teini still be'ongflto the Evelyn family: Evelyn street brings you to Sayes Court ; where the diarist spent forty years of his life, rebuilt his houec, and laid out the garden?, which were a wonder of hi=; tJmo. When his eldest brother died, in 1699, and he succeeded to tho pa f eraal estates, he went to live at Wot ton and let Sayes Court to Admiral Benbow, who in 'urn let it to Tsar Poter, who came to instruct hirrself in shipbuilding at the Royal Dockyaid-s in Deptford. Then oame disaster to Evelyn's cherMied garden. Tho house was at once 'fiDed with people right msty,' or Evelyn's gardener put it, and Peter the Great's favourite exorcise was to run a wheelbarrow through Evelyn's 'impregnable hedge of plittorino; holly.' After tlie Tsar had gone Sir Christopher "Wren came down to ofifima'e the damage, and £107 was paid by the Treasury for the injury to tho hoiuvand garden and £133 to eoele and chstttebs. The accounts still exist, and en* item is 'for three wheelbai rows lost aw' broke.'" The place was then, allowed to fall into decay and given over to the

builder of mean streets. Only a fragment of the old mansion remains and a strip of kitchen garden, which Mr W. J. Evelyn has presented to tbo town.

Mr Max PesnvbextoTi has resigned tie editorship of "Caasell's Magazine" affer a successful reign of nearly ten years, during which he secured for it a high place in the EnsJaßh periocacal press. Freed from the responsibilities and worries of tlie editorial chair, Mr ton. will have more leisure for his more serious work, the tcHiag cf stirring take of advonture, into which ho throws all tho brightness cf his awn cheery energetic temperament. Some twre-nty yea"s ago Max Pemberton tms oira of the band of young journAlistß who liolpod Alfred Hannsworth, now Lord Northdiffe, to mako "Answers" a success. There were anxious days for aQ concerned in the enterprise. Ono day Mr Harmsworth sent back to ''Max" all t'he articles he ihad written that wt'ok. "I like your work as much ns ever," ho wrote. "I should like to print every linet, but the pa.por is doing imiily. and I fear I should not be able t-o pay you for your work. Perhaps you can us-e it else where." Mr Pemborto'n, p?rt the articles again to tho paper, telling hi* frien:! that he was ready to take the rick, and "Answers" turned the ernior nnd beca.mo a success, tho foundation of many inoro successes for ail concerned.

In an article in, the "Century" for Maich on John Hay, U.S. Secretary of iSraU>, Mr Joseph Bucklin 13ie-hop quotes a letter ho received from Hay in ivgard to his celebrated v-wecs o>n Jim IShidso, the lieroic engineer d tho burning s'-e-amer, who undertook '"'to liold her nozzle ag'i.n' tho bank till tho Ins: gahot's afihoTO." ITie vwws wero orglnuLly published in 1871. They ob-ta-ne-J ronvvved vegue in ISBS. when a Mississippi steamer, as Mr Bishop relates, was buni'od under co<n del ions Ktrikingly similar to t>hoso deßcri.bod in

"Jim Hindoo." She caught fire, and her pi!ot !head©d her for the shore, jumping overboard when sho reached it. T1il» sieamer was burning furiously, and the , lives of the pasisenigers were in peril. Sho drifted away from the shore ac sooji nr, tho piloit left tho wheel. Janie-; Givcns, a deck-hand, ran to the whi-el, brought the steamers head again to the ba.rak, and, in order to hold her there, locked the wheel in petition. Whil« ho was doing this the flames completely surrounded the pilot-house. Givens, when his task wr.s done, made a dash through the flames, jumped into tho river, and jitruggled ashore, but died later cf has injuries. Ho had literally "3w?'ld her niozz'.o agin the bank," in truo Bludso fashion, and he savwl eeven,ty of the 'hundred lives cm board. London jouit'nale were especially in the coincidence, and made it tho mibject of a vcritaiblo renaissance of Hay literature. Mr Bishop made a collection o.f these utterances, and sent them to Hay, who in reply wrote:— 'On tho firet appearance of 'J. 8.,' Mark Twain ■wrote to mc saving that I wa.<? a.ll wrong making him an engineer —that only a pilot couM have done what I represented him as dcing. Thie troulled mo somowhat—though I thought I was right. During tho rummer of '91 a cotton-broker of New Orleans, a scot of 'J.B. (whose name was Oliver FairchiLd, by tho way), came io see mc at the Tribune' office, and alwolutely confirmed my etory, eayinig that h;s father ivas engineer of the Fashion, and <lied in. just that way. But the case was, of course, uncommon —tho pilot us-uaUy does the work—and Jam Givens comee again to discredit mc. I am afraid this is ominous of my fate—to be right as α-historian anid wrong as an artist."