AN AUTHOR WHO TURNED GARDENER

Evening Star, Issue 22026, 11 May 1935, Page 6

AN AUTHOR WHO TURNED GARDENER

“ Lorua- Boone ” Blackmore. as a novelist, is almost emblematic- of the declining literary periodical. ‘Lorna Boone ’ was his third novel; the public suddenly began to read it, read it in thousands, and have continued to read it ever since. But, though he wrote eleven more novels, he never succeeded in repeating the faintest echo ol his first success, and posterity not Only remembers the names of none ol them, but rarely associates his own name with his solitary famous book. Mention ol Jfc. B. Blackmore occasions a puzzled wrinkling of the brows; he is. merely “ the author of ‘ Lorna Boone. ! ” His was not the case, so common in literary history', of incapacity to .sustain a success which caine as a fluke or flash in the pan; the whole ol his work reveals exceptional consistency of quality and talent. Moreover, ho was sufficiently acute to tealise that a novelist must label himself for Hie libraries as the protagonist of a particular style, and an attempt to keep faith with his popular reputation is apparent in the titles of ‘ The Maid of Sker ’ and ‘ Alice Lorraine,’ which followed ‘ Lorna Boone.' But he was a serious literary artist, and the notion of writing variations upon the theme of Lorna Boone for the rest of his life never occurred to him. . . . lie built a square brick house, respectable and comfortable, which he called Gomor House after a favourite dog, and settled down, at the age of 113. to a peaceful, healthy, unambitious existence as a fruit grower and market gardener. He marketed his produce at Covent Garden, whither it was transported in big baskets, with his name in large letters on their sides. He developed a Bockfordian crankiness about fruitgrowing. Careless of expense, lie imported fruit trees from all over the globe; he is said to have possessed tho only peach orchard in England, and, at one time, six hundred different varieties of pears within his own grounds. ... “ Any ass can write novels (at least in the opinion of the pubfishers),” he remarked on another occasion, “ but to make a vine needs intellect.” When, .long after the date of ‘ Lorna Boone,’ he made one of his rare ventures into literary society by visiting Mrs Oli-. pliant, bo “ talked of apple trees in all their glory of blossom and fruit, of cherries. and strawberries, ahcl the big carts that travelled through the night to Covent Garden, and the new rose which lie hoped to give the world.” and afterwards wrote a note of apology lor having talked about gardening, fearing lest his hostess might think that “when two writers of fiction got together they ought perhaps to have talked of books.” —Malcolm El win, in ‘ Victorian Wallflowers.’

There are now 3.500 cables, with a total length of 300,000 miles, linking ovorv corner of the world. It requires about 50 vessels to keep them in order. On the anniversary of the death ol Queen Emma of the Netherlands a wreath from 40 old servants and one from Ihe ex-Kaiser wore placed on her -tomb.

ON THE WORD OF A KING LETTERS Of CHARLES 11. Before we know where we are, .Charles IJ.'s statue will be in Palace Vard watching over the House of Cominon.s, lor which he did not care the throw of a handkerchief, or on the Admiralty arch; unveiled by Mr Bryant, than whom no one alive has written of the King with more persuasiveness, knowledge, and charm, tie was a king and a sinner, who eared for women and llie Navy with an experienced love, he rebuilt London, be created Newmarket, he preferred pleasure to work and merriment to rigour, he lived dangerously, and he died game. No wonder that he has kept men's affection! •' let the earth lie soft on his royal ashes " (writes Keith Foiling, in the ' Observer '). Here appears the first of several volumes of such royal letters, and good reading it is (' The Letters, Speeches, and Declarations of King Charles J J.,' edited by Arthur . Bryant). The scheme is "to comprise in a single volume all the most interesting of Charles's letters," with a selection from his official declarations of policy; buckled together by Mr Bryant's skilful running commentaries- wherein, in a different rubrical print and with almost liturgical devotion, he points the moral and expounds the royal creed. One difficulty in such a series must be the scanty number of personal letters surviving of early kings; until we reach the enormous monotony of George 111. in this book a good deal of room is therefore taken up by parliamentary speeches and proclamations, which presumably Charles did not compose, or oven by a letter on the boundaries of Pennsylvania at which, we suppose, he never glanced. For even important despatches had to be summarised for his eve. Yet enough remains to give us Charles Stuart, a black-visaged man 6ft high. .• His letters have some qualities indis.pensa.ble to lastingness. Those written after hunting were often the best, but. at all times his mind was a fresh one, bearing direct to or evading the point, with humour at the end of the quill. Unlike the climax of his endless storifis his meaning in a letter is never in doubt. And so to the faithful censorious Clarendon: " Whosoever I find to be my Lady-Castlemaine's enemy in this matter. J do promise, upon my word, to be his enemy as Jong as T live." Hear the polite Disraelian letter writer to his queen's mother-- " and I wish to say of my wife that I cannot sufficiently either look at her or talk to her." Never admiring mankind, he loved some liteu and women, comforting himself in his last hours with the hope that kindliness would land him at heaven's gate. He bade his sister Minette be stoical in her child-bearing—" a boy will recompense two grunts more, and so good-night, for fear I fall into natural philosophy before f think of it "—a philosophy expressed to her m another turn, " malice is a much greater sin than a poor frailty of nature." N And he was si king who could write a simple consolation to his finest subject on the final theme, that to Ormonde Oh the death of Ossory, " in which I take myself to be an equal sharer with you both." , , His corner in the English, heart is warm and secure, but L hope, in all seriousness, that the reading public will not wholly accept Mr Bryant's view of his policy. Sometimes, no doubt, sheer need of compression makes it partial; but, somehow, we ought to be aware that the Triple Alliance was no gallant gesture of nationality, but the climax of long, cynical bargaining. Nor, I think, is it just to say that Charles " would not yield aii inch " on French naval armaments; for surely ho did so before, in 1672. the day-of glory-dawned. But 'it is the general impression left bv these eloquent passages that matters. When Charles was breaking municipal charters and the Triennial Act he is " again at peace with his subjects." When he takes French monev, it is apt to be an honourable subsidy, but when the Whigs accept. it to 'influence votes against a standing army which they deemed " Popish," it becomes "French gold." When Parliament would earmark revenue for the Navy, they " insulted the King." The aim, we read, of tho Exclusion Parliaments was " to destroy the hereditary monarchical principle bv striking at its weakest part, the Catholic successor"; as if the police are housebreakers when they force, the locks of a house on fire. And so again: when in the height oi* the Popish plot Charles ordered James to leave England, or took Opposition leaders into council, he " anticipated modern constitutional practice." (We must get that statue in Palace Yard.) Nor, surely, was the ponce of Nimwegen primarily due to a robust British mobilisation, but forced through, to Charles's indignation, by the Dutch republican party who would have peace whatever England did. As to details, " Sir Barnard, unnoted on p. 251. must' be Sir Bernard Gascoyne or Guasconi: while in the Secretary of State's papers, and elsewhere, there are at least one or two really good speeches of the King, unused. If Charles, then, was not Bishop Burnet's Tiberius, he was not the Henri Quatre of Mr Bryant. There is too much virtue on, the other side of the scales, and too much dishonour on this; Lady Russell against Mistress Nelly, the French seizure of Strassburg and Luxemburg against the Sledway', the long Balkan cruelties of Lauderdale against the mercy shown to Argyll, not to speak of the Covenanters' sufferings which touched a rare eindtion in John and Sarah Churchill. Store than most men, Sir Bryant has extinguished the legendary Charles, despotic but lounging, denationalised, deracine. I hope his admirable art will not set him among the mighty: the lord who broke the bonds of Borne. Oliver, and William 1 If.. Elizabeth of most happy memory. "We need not be ashamed to call her so," said Oliver. Are we really to say the same of Charles T. 1.? Hardly, while the Trimmer's words are read, or the secret treaty of Dover rests in its home on the edge of Dartmoor.