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Otago Daily Times, Issue 18750, 2 January 1923, Page 6

The history of the byways of English literature preserves few reputations more fragrant than that of Izaak Walton, the seventeenth century “sacer vates” of the gentle art of angling, whose cottage in his native county of Stafford ha# (as a cable message told us a few days ago) been acquired for the purposes of a memorial museum, by moans of the testamentary liberality of a rich American business man who was “a lover of England.” It has been said that “there is hardly a name in our literature, even of the first rank, whose immortality is more secure, or whose personality is the subject of a more devoted cult.” The very spelling of his Christian name helps the quaint charm which invests the records of this simple and lovable soul; ‘‘lsaac’’ would not suit him half so well as “Izaak.” In his personal aroma, eo to say, there is a pleasant blend of the civic and the pastoral; for though his childhood and his elderly leisure were spent in the country, during the middle years he was, like John Gilpin', “a citizen of famous London town.” He was, again like John Gilpin, a linen draper. He is also described as a “sempster”—.a term which still survives in the feminine form. Retiring from business when the civil war broke out, the last forty of his ninety years were passed in “ideal leisure and occupation, the old man travelling here and there, visiting clerical and other brethren of the angle, compiling the biographies of congenial spirits, and collecting here a little and there a little for the enlargement of his famous treatise ‘‘The Compleat Angler.” “Compleat” seems, in relation to Walton, to be better 1 than “complete,” even as "Izaak” is better than “Isaac.”

Tok Marquis -of Crewe has a considerable reputation as a statesman; but, while public affairs are his vocation, literature is (to give an abused word it® due) his avocation. Like his father (tho first Lord Houghton) he writes occasional verses, and, like his father-in-law (the Earl of Rosebery), be writes occasional ‘ prose. Eleven months ago he read a most interesting paper before the Royal Society of Literature, entitled “Some Writers on English Country Life”; and a copy of the volume of the society’s “Transactions” which contains this dissertation happens to have come our way. Naturally, in treating such a subject, tho Marquis had something to say about Izaak Walton and “The Compleat Angler”—“one of the most famous hooks in the language, though not because of its unusual technical merit.” All through tho easy dialogue in which the book is framed the writer drinks m all the delight and the peace of the countryside. But ho enjoys observing its manner# too; he studies the way# of gipsies, who told fortunes and stole chickens as freely then as they j have done ever since. Nor did he find toe beggars less interesting. ... He dwells on the blessings cf health and of a quiet conscience, and on the good fortune of those “healthful and cheerful like us, who with the expense of little money have ate and drank, and laughed, and angled, and sung, and slept securely ; and rise next day and cast away care, and sung and laughed and angled again.”

We should like to reproduce some more of the passages which Lord Crewe cites, but must be content with noting his remark that “everyone must recognise, in each of these quotations, the charm ,of the straightforward seventeenth century English, on which even the greatest masters of our language have never since been able to improve.” And now “where’s a bookshop” containing copies galore of “The Compleat Angler” ?

Tub mission to Tibet, the return of which has been reported from Delhi, is presumably the British Mission, unofficial and non-political, which, with the sanction of the Indian Government and some assurance of -welcome from the Tibetan authorities, entered the domains of the Grand Lhama some months ago. Since the mission seems to have made an unexpectedly quick return it can scarcely have realised very satisfactorily all the purposes it had in view, these comprehending an addition to the world’s store of knowledge in quite a number of directions Apart from its topographical and geological aspects, much of the work that was contemplated was to be anthropological. ‘ Data were to be sought bearing not only upon the existing peoples, but also upon the long lost and forgotten Empires of Central Asia. It was hoped that by measurement of some of the old fossil remains known to exist in great quantities in Tibet fresh knowledge might be obtained concerning primitive man. No small expectations were based, moreover, upon access to the monastic libraries of Tibet, rich in books and manuscripts hitherto known to scholars of the outside world only by repute. In it? interesting personnel the mission included, as interpreter and adviser and in fact ns general scientific head, Dr William Montgomery M'Goveru, known as one of the leading Orientalists of the world, despite the fact that he was born not more than a quarter of a century ago. The career of this youthful savant makes romantic reading. The son of a North of Ireland farmer, he was from boyhood attracted by the East, and in Ins early teens made his way to Japan and entered the great Buddhist temple at Kyoto, living there for years the austere and studious life of the Buddhist neophyte. Not only did he become a master of the Japanese language written and spoken—“the unloarnable language”— but, like all highly educated Japanese, he studied the Chinese classics, and devoted himself to the intensely difficult study of Buddhist philosophy. Finally, ere yet 20 years of age, he took a distinguished' degree which entitled him to a priestly dignity. Dr M'Govern is said to be the only living Englishman who holds the status of a Buddhist priest.

“Thk fashion wears ont more apparel than the man.” The illustration of the truth cf the aphorism is so constant and allpervading that it goes almost unobserved. In his encyclical letter of last week the Pope deplored, as no doubt he well might, the spread of marked restlessness among pee pi e of all ages. He expressed concern that ‘‘modesty in women and girls has been trampled underfoot by looseness in dressing, talking, and dancing.” To speak of looseness in talk is to use language not difficult to interpret. The term does not fit so closely when applied —no doubt in this instance with a secondary implication pointing to wont of de-

corum—to women’s attire apd the mode they affect. It would no doubt bo commendable in present day fashions did they induce women to robe themselves in a literal sense loosely and in a manner conducive generally of freedom and health. But it must be a kind of wantonnes* in dress to which the Vatican makes sorrowful reference, though not precisely tho kind to which Herrick alludes in hi* imperishable lines:— ' A sweet disorder in the drees Kindles hi clothes a wantonness • A careless shoe-string, in whose tie I see a wild civility: Do more bewitch me. than when art Is too precise in every part Ben Jenson has exalted! “robes loosely flowing” and other “sweet neglect’’ as taking beyond “all the adulteries of art.” “Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown” vociferates Grpmio for the tailor’s dumbfounding in that rich sartorial scene in “The Taming of the Shrew." Those mysterious personages—a triumvirate surely according to ancient precedent—that decree how women shall be gowned in order to be in the fashion are now declaring, it seems, through their instruments, the modistes, “that tight bodices with long full jkirta are the latest style for gowns," What will the Vatican say to this? The decree seems to imply the emergence of fresh temptations to indulgence in that delicate art known as tight-lacing. If so, modern women will have to assert their emancipation.