THE LATEST OF LUCY

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 90, 13 October 1923, Page 19

THE LATEST OF LUCY

•"The Diary of- a Journalist. Fresh Extracts." By. Henry Lucy. London : John^ Murray .* "'-■■"

Sir Henry Lucy, the veteran journalist, whose chatty letters' from London were always welcome': to ■•readers..in Australia and New Zealand, in time past, has written a third, volume of stories. • Some of them may have-been heard- before, even so, they will bear telling again. Selecting a few of them, just to whet- the appetite for the others, quotation may first be made of an incident in the life of Mr. Winston Churchill. One morning at breakfast Lady Randolph Churchill showed Sir Henry a letter the mail had brought her from her son, Winston, then at_ Sandhurst. It was a most dutiful epistle, humbly begging ' his mother's permission to go out to Cuba and take

part in a little war at that time going on in the island. It concluded with the expression of the hope that his mother would not offer any objection to a course dear to his heart. Then came the postscript, characteristically brief and to the point. "I start for Cuba on Saturday."

There is a pleasing story told, too, of the Prince of Wales, who, when a child, asked a lady to tell him a story She suggested he should tell,one, so he invented this :—

"Once upon a time there was an old couple- who lived in a little cottage on the edge of a lonely moor. They- were poor, oh! so poor, they hadn't had anything to eat for a. day and a half. The man heard his' wife moaning. "What's the matter with you, my dear?" he asked. "I'm so hungry," she replied. "I hardly know what to do." "Very' well," said her husband, "I'll see to it." So he got up, rang the bell for the footman, and when ho came in ordered him immediately to bring a plate of bread-and-butter."

Sir Henry : remarks :■ "There is something delightful beyond the' power of trailed art in this childish incongruity of ringing a.bell in the room of a lonely cottage and •'. instantly appears a footman, probably powdered; who straightway from the unknown recesses produces a plate of bread-and-butter, and so averts imminent starvation."

Of Blrs. Loudon, an authoress who wrote and illustrated interesting books on gardening,- Sir Henry tells a most amusing story;—

"In one of her works she desired to insert a sketch of the 'Waterloo Beeches' at Strathfieldsaye—a picturesque clump planted to commemorate our deliverance from the Corsican tyrant. Accordingly, she wrote to the Duke of Wellington, requesting leave to sketch the beeches, signing herself, in her usual form, 'J. Loudon.'. The Duke, who, in spite of extreme age and eyesight not quite so clear as it had once been, insisted on doing all his own correspondence, replied as follows :—

" 'F. M. the Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to the Bishop of London. The Bishop is quite at liberty : to make a sketch of' the breeches which ! the Duke wore at Waterloo, if they can : be found. But the Duke is not aware that .they differed in eny way from the . breeches he generally wears.' " ! Another extract from Sir Henry's .' diary is an illustration of ready Irish | wit, related by an M.P. on his return .man Ireland :—

"For many years he has been accustomed in the autumn to repair to a busy little port on the west coast in search of sea-fishing. He had regularly employed a boatman, hitherto anxiously looking forward to his arrival. On this last visit he was amazed to find the service of his old companion unavailable. " "I am too busy,' was the response to his remonstrance. 'Got another job.' " 'What is it?' asked the Englishman. After a pause, Pat replied: 'Well, if you must know, the German Government pay me five pound a week for laying mines outside the port.' "The Englishman was equally amazed and indignant. He pointed out the enormity, of the crime of an Irishman selling •himself. to f a : , foreign enemy with whom thousands of his fellow-countrymen were engaged in fierce struggle. . " 'Whisht,' said ..Pat, a humorous snulsJightirig up_his -rugged countenance. 'THe"EngUsh''Gbverriment pay me brother Mike six pounds a week for taking them up.' "

Sir Henry, in his recollections of- a once young member of the House of Lords who was an amateur locomotive driver, writes that h e entered his name on the Labour sheet of the London and .South-Western. Railway,, and succeeded m becoming an expert engine-driver.

. ,".Qne, morning he received a visit from a- perennially needy ne'er-do-well kineman, who represented himself as being more than usually near the verge of ruin. .. An immediate advance of £100 was the only way of preventing .his toppling over. His lordship had not' at the moment £100 to spare. But ;his generous heart could not resist this appeal. He raised the money and gave it to his. visitor. Next morning ho had a letter from the railway manager informing him that a special train had been ordered to run-down to Southamp ton in the afternoon,.and, if he liked, he might drive it. The offer was joyfully accepted, and the journey brilliantly accomplished. Arrived at the station the driver thought he would like to see-his passenger. Strolling casually by the coach he beheld his needy kinsman accompanied by a rouged female en route for a.-little trip to' Paris." _ Sir Henry's third book is as fascinating as its predecessors, and equal to them in the .copiousness of his anecdotes. -