“Q.”—MR QUILLER-COUCH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 9466, 15 July 1891, Page 6

“ Q.”—MR QUILLER-COUCH.

( PM Mall Buiijct.) The main facts of Mr Couch’s career may be given in a few words. He is, of course, a Cornishmaa. The name of his grandfather, Jonathan Couch, will be, familiar to many as that of the author of “A History of British Pishes,” which, though published so long back, still remains the authoritative work on the subject ; that of his father, Thomas QuillerCouch, attained a fame somewhat less wide as an antiquary and the compiler of several i valuable glossaries of the Cornish dialect, being especially renowned in his native County as the author of the “History of Polperrowhilst yet another member of the family, his uncle Eichard, achieved some success in the same held. Mr Couch was educated at Clifton and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he first gave signs of his literary gifts in excellent sets of verses, squibs, parodies, &c., some of which —notably “In a College Garden,” a composition that the author, of authors the least vain or self-complacent, looks back upon with some satisfaction —may be found in a collection recently published under the title “ Echoes from the Oxford Magazine.” At Oxford also he would appear, to have shown that he inherited his full share of that laziness for which Cornishmen are indebted, as he himself tells us, to Sb Piran of Ireland; for he attended his history lectures at the rate of one a term: bub perhaps this is to be attributed rather to the fact that he rowed stroke in his college boat. Mr Conch assumed the duties of classical lecturer at Trinity—did his lectures resemble at all the " Tanglewood Tales,” one asks involuntarily—for a year after taking his degree, and it was at this period that he submittted the MS. of “ Dead Man’s Eock” to Messrs Cassell and Co. It was accepted, proved a distinct success, and “ Q.” was fairly launched on the ocean of literature.

« Dead Man’s Rock” has been frequently, but unjustly, characterised as a “ shocker." Now, a “ shocker,” as I take it, is ft story that is successful in proportion- to its stock of murders, suicides and horrors of all sorts, whereas it is precisely for its prodigality in this respect that “ Dead Man’s Rock” is mostly to be found fault with. Mr Couch puts a knife into the hands of one or two of his characters, and giv6s them carte blanche to rip up all thereat, with the result that about two in twenty of the original dramatis personas are living to bid adieu to us at the.end of the story. It is a pity that this should be so. The book has in it many dramatic scenes and some splendid passages of description. _ It is pervaded by a slight suggestion of Dickens. This suggestion of Dickens is far stronger in Mr Couch's next work, "The Astonishing History of Troy Town.” "Troy Town ” as a story, bristles with notes of interrogation; in fact, it is not a story, but a collection of sketches, more or less humorous, and connected by links that are stronger in the author’s mind than in the reader’s. Mr Couch has been heard to say that he would give a year of his life not to have written this book, so little pleased with it is he himself. A humorous book, unless it be really sparkling in its humour, may well be apt to grow wearisome to its author, just as the painter tires of the smiling face he has drawn when the smile is not really bewitching. And yet “ Troy Town ” is by no means without its good points, Tamsin, for instance, described though she be only with the most delicate touches, stands out a real person—and a very charming little person she is; while the story of the cynical old raven who indulge% in mocaing/ scepticism at the expense of the scarecrow until suddenly petrified into subjection on perceiving the scarecrow’s staring glass eye, is only not quite worthy of the author of “ The Blue Jays.” " The Splendid Spur” came next, and is far and away " Q.’s ” best work. It is a book to bo bought, not borrowed, for one likes it better on a second reading than on a first. Mr James Payn, thinking he was praising the “ Master of Ballantrae,” said that one would pay a guinea not to have read it so that the pleasure of reading might be still to come. Now the real admirer of Stevenson—the genuine article, as, for instance, “ Q.” himself—would say that the oftener you read it the keener would be your appreciation: and_ this praise, surely the greatest of all, will be accorded by many to " The Splendid Spur.” “ I thought I had done good work this time,” wrote Mr Couch on the appearance of Mr Stevenson's volume a few weeks previous to that of his own, “ and it is hard to be knocked on the head with a masterpiece!” It is great good fortune for a man to have had the book of Nature held open to him in his boyhood, and to have been taught to read in it. It w£s only natural that tlie son and grandson of naturalists, born in one of the most beautiful of English counties should himself be an enthusiast about Nature. Mr Couch’s favourite reading is Nature’s serial story. His works are full of his love of Cornwall and of Cornwall's great neighbour, the ocean. Prom the windows of his “ cottage in Troy ” he sees the years pass from strength to age, notes the swallows going and the redwings coming, and marks the course of the equinox, the “ east wind that parched the blood in the trees, so that their leaves for once knew no gradations of red and yellow, but turned at one stroke to brown and crackled like tinfoil.” So much for "Q. ” the writer. Of “ Q.” the man little need he added. In appearance he is tall and strongly built, and his face, frank and open, with a mass of orange yellow curls rising above the forehead, is lit up by violet eyes gleaming with humour—kindly, good-natured-looking eyes, bearing true witness to kindliness and good nature.