Untitled

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18129, 19 July 1924, Page 11

Ho knew a good deal about life, but he did not know much about English letters, Stephen Graham tells us ot the late Wilfrid Ewart, who died so tragically in Mexico. He adored Thomas Hardy and carried "Tess" with him wherever he went. But he had never read Shakespeare, Carlyie, bcott, Jieredith, Browning, and as Mr btephen Granaan remains*, ."he had.thereto e no true literary continuity." \«t without any manner of doubt ne possessed toe true literary instinct. ..Dram his «u----liest writings to Ms latest— and ■ wbuudle is but small-he possessed tho indefinable gift of style, style baaed, no doubt, on what he had read or Hardy and other modern writers bu in no sense an imitation. \Vhethei or no it is reasonable to expect literature from Guardsmen, Ewart was a soldier who could write, and he was tbfetoro entrusted with the task ot collecting and arranging the annals of the fecou. Guards. He was occupied with tm* work when death overtook l«m »> Mexico City—strange as it may seem to choose America as a background tor work of this kind. But Ewart w* 'born with the malady of writing, and with his notebook in his hand and tne ever-ready pencil he was always amassing and arranging and co-ordinatim, his materials. He had a wind, too, and that is a gift sufficiently rare v> evoke some interest when exhibited d> a Guardsman. '"The best fighters aieoften but indifferent writers, 1 ' remaiKs Mr Graham, a little sadly. "Ike boots Guards was not a literary regiment.

Miss Alice Law, F.R.S.L., has written a. biography of Patrick BramweU Bronte, in the course of w.uich she attempts to prove that Bramwell, ana not Emily Bronte, was the author oi that remarkably powerful boot. "Wuthering Heights.' It is_a darK, disagreeable story, but, as Stevenson has remarked, one of the most P° w «'- ful in the English language. But it seems rather late in the day to deny lEmily Bronte's authorship ~~ot it i n favour of her unfortunate and erring brother. At all events, it was puoj lished as the work of "Ellis Bell, which was !•> s nom=-de-plume, and her sister, Charlotte, wrote a preface, showing that she fully believed it to Be [Emily's work. <?n the otfier hand, BramwelJ was known to have written a novel, and nothing is known of its fate.