BOOKS AND WRITERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19720, 20 August 1927, Page 7 (Supplement)

BOOKS AND WRITERS.

More sidelights on the Victorian age are given in "Art and Anecdote" (Hutchinson), by Mrs. Stephen Smith, niece of the well-known. Academician, William Frederick Jeames, round whose personality and experience the book centres. But no book of this period could be complete without an anecdote about the great, if humourless, figure that dominated the social and, though to a lesser extent, the political life of her day. Queen Victoria comes into a good story about Sir Edwin Landseer. Sir Edwin had a fine stock of animal stories and once, when staying at Balmoral, he related some of these to the Queen. The tallest concerned a poodle which, according to its owner, would retrieve anything, when to prove this he placed a five-pound note under a stone, showed it to the dog, then a couple of miles further on ordered the dog to go back for it. * * » * *

An hour, two hours passed, but no Fiao! Finally as the owner was about to sally forth in search of the dor, they saw it approaching in the distance, but with lagging feet and drooping head. "Slowly, mutely, the dog reached his master's side, opened his mouth and let five sovereigns fall upon the ground. The intelligent animal had been to the bank to get the note changed." Then comes thr inimitable Victorian touch. " That night, as Sir Edwin was preparing for bed, ho heard a kuock at the door. On opening it, he found Prince Albert in dressing gown and slippers. ' Excuse me for disturbing you, Sir Edwin, but the Queen wishes me to let you know how much she enjoyed the anecdotes you related this evening but hopes you did not think she altogether believed the last one."

Another story concerning Landseer isillustrative of the value placed upon an artist's work in those days, especially by the Scottish squirearchy. Landseer was a much sought-after guest in the heme of many a Highland chieftain, chiefly on account of his love of sport, his good company and his ability as an after-dinner raconteur. "In fact, to show how little his talents weighed with these sons of moor and mountain, he would relate with much gusto how he had once met a former Scottish host in London who asked him, making an airy motion with a couple of fingers in the air as though wielding a brush: ' And do you —er —still go on—er ■—doing that?' "

Punch reprints this item from ~a bookseller's catalogue: " Social Life of Scotland in the 18th century, 2 vols. 8vo; a trifle 1005e.."

Under .the title " Nuts in July" E. V. Lucas contributes an amusing article to the London Sunday Times on the new question-book craze. Having imbibed somewhat freely of this., provocative beverage he finds that he knows nothing at all, " that my average is as negligible as those of fast bowlers and wicket-keepers used to be in the good old days when cricket elevens had tails which seldom wagged." Yet he began well, and to the first question: "What great poet was known as the Tentmaker ?" was able to answer " Omar Khayyam." But he was badly beaten by the next: "Who is generally credited with introducing bobbed hair into America?" though he afterwards discovered that the honour belonged to Irene Castle. " And so it went on—every triumn'h immediately paid for by several bad falls. To be able to state offhand that Sir Toby Belch is in " Twelfth Night" no doubt inspires a glow, but of what use is that glow when you come to the poser: "Who is credited with saying,. ' Queen, you said a mouthful' and to whom ?"

Apropos of another question: ""What were the maiden names of Rudolph Valentino's two wives?" the writer glories in his inability to answer it. "We all," he remarks, " have our pet ignorances and high among mine > are the Christian names of movie stars' wives." For the . benefit of his English readers he looked up the answers and found that the graceful tribute quoted above was from the lips of Mrs. Hylan, wife of the' Mayor of New York, and that the Queen was the Queen of Rumania.

As a matter of actual experience, says a writer in a - recent issue of a London weekly, it is much more difficult, despite all our modern apparatus of reference, to get on the tracks of our own times than events of fifty or, still more, a hundred years ago. So " This Generation, a Historv of Great Britain and Ireland from *I9OO-1926, Vol. 1," by T. C. Meech, performs a useful task in recalling those fourteen years which preceded the war, and which the war did so much to render dim and obscure. How remote from the life of to-day, for instance, is the picture presented in the opening paragraph: "The driver on the dickey of the hansom-cab reined in his horse smartly. ... A neatly-built, well-

knit man slowly crossed the street in front of the halted traffic. . • • The hansom-cab was the swiftest public vehicle on the London Streets. Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was the most conspicuous figure in public life." * * * * *

According to John o' London the Margot Asquith oi " Lay Sermons ' is hardly the Margot of the famous Autobiography. " There we had boldness, mischief and malicious anecdote in prolusion.; hero we have worthy sentiments and moral emblems, all in the best traditions of transatlantic uplift." However there are apparently bright spots, as witnessed by the story of the millionaire who, having called in a specialist, was given a long prescription. On leaving, the doctor added: " Now, remember, only one cigar! ' On his second visit, to his inquiries after the success of his treatment, the patient replied: " Well, doctor, i think I really am rather better, if it wasn't for that darned cigar."