"SOCIAL HOURS WITH CELEBRITIES."

Otago Witness, Issue 2303, 21 April 1898, Page 49

"SOCIAL HOURS WITH CELEBRITIES."

Interesting .Reminiscences. When Mrs Pitt Byrne, the author of 11 Gossip of the Century," died, she left behind a considerable qaantity of matter for further volumes of personal reminiscences. That matter Las now been edited by her sister. Miss Busk, and published by Messrs Ward and Downey in two volumes entitled " Social Hours with Celebrities." Mrs Byrne knew many persons of note in literary, ecclesiastical, fashionable, and political circles, and the biographical sketches and anecdotes which she has set down, if at times rather " spua out," make fairly interesting reading.

CHARLES LEVER AND HIS PATIENTS.

Mra Byrne travelled a good deal, and a considerable portion of the first volume is taken up with chapters dealing: with social celebrities in Franca, Belgium, Hungary, and Spain. At Brussels one of her acquaintances was Charles Lsver, respecting whom she writes : —

Dr Lever was at that time (1840) the only English physician in Brussels, and never perhaps was a physician leas fitted for his calling. Although (possibly "pressed by hunger and request of friends ") he " practised," he could not and did not inspire much coDfideuoe in his patients, for he mado no secret of being a medecin mcilgrc lvi, loudly proclaiming even among his clientele his hatred of Ihe occupation, and taking every opportunity of practically proving his words. He used to come into his consulting room in the most literary style of costume, wearing a black velvet dressing-gown, confined at the waist by * scarlet silk cord and tassels, and with the inevitable pen behind his ear, not for the convenience of inditing preBcriptions, but to lose no time in getting back to his magazine articles as soon as he should have despatched his patient. Ultimately, of course, Lever left the profession and took to literature entirely, finally getting a consulship at Spezzia, which he held till he died. OAKDINAL MANNING AND HiS CONVERSION.

Being on intimate terms with Cardinal Manning, Mrs Byrne has a good deal to say concerning that eminent ecclesiastic. The period of her closest acquaintance with him began when he had just been received into the Roman Catholic Church, and she thus describes his attitude in regard to his conversion i

The impression I retain of him is that of a man who has cast off a heavy moral burden, and seems to move almost with wings ; not that he manifested his sense of emancipation with any approach to levity or swagger, for then, as at all times, he carried himself with a degree of unaffected and natural dignity which became bis singularly refiaed and gentlemanly personality. At the same time his attitude alone in the first fervour of conversion had a persuasiveness which* added to the natural fascination of

his manners, to which few (especially women) were insensible, no doubt materially assisted the results of his proselytising zeal. At that time Manning retained great activity, and " for long alter practised the schoolboy habit of coming down three steps at a time. 1 ' THE CARBINAI/S HUMOUK. Dr Manning had a strong sense of humour, and delighted in telling Irish stories. One related to an Irish labourer, who was thus addressed by a passing Englishman :—: — "What's that you're building, Paddy?" "Shure an' it's a church, yet Houuer." ' " Is it a Protestant Church ? " " No, yet Hoxiner." " A Catholic Church, then? " " ludade an' ifc is that same, ysr Honner." " I'm very sorry to hear it, Pat." " So's ihe divil, yer Honner."

The Cardinal on one occasion arrived in full merriment, though informing his friends that he had been all but run over, and he added, "IE the accident had been more effectual my epitaph must have been — Sad was his fate, it haprened thus. He was run over by a 'bus." THE CARDINAL'S WIFE.

Manning in late years wished that no allusion should ever be uaade to his marriage. Bat, according to Mrs Byrne, he wai a devoted husband, and deeply feh the lose of both child and wife :—: —

At the rectory tA Wood i.avingbon the room occupied by Mrs Manning was reverently preserved intact iv precisely the same slate iv which Mrs Manning had loft it ; her workbox and thimble remaining where she last used them. ... 1 heard some time before the cardinal's death ttiat toose friend told him he had receutly visited the churchyard in which Mrs Manning was buried, and that ou observing to his Eminence that her grave needed attention, and inquiring whether he would like him to see to it, the cardinal, after reflecting foe a moment, said — "No, let it be ; it is better so."

The sacerdotal party of the " Old Catholics " could never brook Manning's appointment es cardinal, and one priest was heard to say that ",the greatest raisfortuns that ever happened fcotbe [Roman] Church had been the death of Manning's wife." CARDINAL WISEMAN'S STORIES. Another of Mrs Byrne's friends was Cardinal Wiseman, and she tells of seeing Father Faber at the cardinal's table laugh till the tears rolled down his face at some of his Eminence's anecdotes. A<storyo£ Wiseman'6 was about a French priest to whom he had expressed the hope, after his first Lent in England, that he had got through his 40 days of abstinence without much difficulty :

" All to ze contrairie, Eminence,' replied the Southerner, (< I have do most well. I finded a comestible that succeed me most good. You fishmen here, zsy do sell am veryaseful food for ze Carenae. I ask t>ot better, and I live on im nil ze time." "Ah ! potted char, probably." " I zink nofe, Eminence ; zat is not; ze name zey call im. No, ibvos . . . lebmasee . . . how do you say . . r ab, ' Brawn.' "

Another referred to a Hibernian malcontent who averred that absenteeism was the greatest grievance of Ireland. "Oh, yes," answertd an Englishman, " that's the old stalking horse; I don't believe in your absentees." " Not belave in 'em ! " was the angry reply. " W&y, come to Dublin with me and I'll ahow ye 'em by the hundred. Why, the onld cour/thry jist swarms with 'gm,' 1

SQTJIBE WATERTON,

There ai'G aoiae vevy interesting particulars concerning Charles YYatertoE.. the naturalist, whona the author visit ed in 1861 at Walton Hall. How Waterton collected birds and beasis and gave them a safe asylum in his grounds is well known. And there was a perfectly good understanding between the squire and these inhabitants of bis domain :

The peaece'es or. the lawn, however depressing ihe weather, seemed to vie with each other the moment they saw him approach in strolling eagerly forward and spreading out the glory of their fantails for his delectation. Most remarkable of all, however, wa«j ifc in the woods, where it was impossible not to believe the- birds recognised their benefactor when one saw them come out to meet him, flying about him as he walked, settling on his shoulder, and even oa his hand when he held it out to them, while a call from his voice would bring them from *.ny distance.

It is said that when his body was being conveyed in a boat across the lake for burial in a sequestered nook of the. park which he had himself selected, "a flight of birds suddenly appeared, gathering as it went, and followed the boat to its destination."