And I your Father Edmund Brudenell, Such is my hope of Richard my Sonn. "In 1276," so runs the record, "a fine of messuages, lands and rents, in Stoke Maundewyl, granted by William Geve, of Stoke, clerk, to Master Roger Geve, of the same, for life." The Edmund Brudenell mentioned above died seised of the manor of Newbury in Stoke Mandeville parish, having by his testament (of 1425) bequeathed an annual rent of ten marks out of the manor for a chaplain to pray for his soul and the soul of Alice, his wife, for thirty years. It does not appear why he would only need prayers for that fixed number of years. ... Another record says that "King John having exchanged part of Risberge. . . for certain lands in Stoke Mandeville; one moiety of the manor was held in 1302 by William de Kirkeby, who died seised of it in that year. . . . The site of the lands among the hills and woods is near Prestwood Common, between Missenden and Hampden, on the left-hand side . . . near Rignall on the north and Honour End Farm on the south, being an insulated portion of Stoke Mandeville parish, and by a memorable circumstance connected with English history, as the land assessed for ship money when in possession of the patriot Hampden; giving rise to the trial which brought Mr. Hampden into great celebrity, and was ultimately productive of such important consequences to the King and the nation, as well as to Hampden himself." As we left the station on our homeward journey a wedding party was being sent off amid showers of confetti-with the flash in the pan of the sudden, hastily struck-up jest ; with the lingering clasp of hands that, perhaps, had lain close, the one in the other's, in the old life that was done with; with the farewell message of old friendship in the eyes that the lips could not trust themselves to say. The guard signalled, the train moved out of the station, the last showers of confetti were flung hastily and laughingly, and we had looked our last on the pleasant old village among the hills. 1. GIBERNE SIEVEKING. DOCTOR MAGINN. N the quiet little churchyard at Walton-on-Thames there is an of William Maginn. The career of this great wit and scholar and brilliant littérateur was very remarkable. "Doctor Maginn of 'Fraser's,"" as he came to be universally known, was born on July 10, 1793, in Dean Street, Cork. His father, John Maginn, was a schoolmaster, and it was in his academy that young Maginn's education was begun. So rapid was his progress in his studies, and such a genius for learning did he exhibit, that at the early age of ten years he was entered in Trinity College, Dublin, where he took his B.A. degree in 1811. It is obvious that the youth who could take his B.A. degree when only eighteen must have been a lad of uncommon parts, as indeed Maginn was. His college course over, during which he had the advantage of having the learned Dr. Kyle, afterwards Provost of Trinity, and subsequently Bishop of Cork, as his tutor, Maginn returned home and acted as classical teacher in his father's school, meanwhile pursuing his studies for the degree of LL.D., which was conferred upon him by Trinity College, Dublin, in 1816. He was the first who ever received this degree so young. On his father's death, three years previously, young Maginn, to the astonishment of his associates, who could not reconcile his character with that of a schoolmaster, undertook the conduct of the academy, to which there came pupils from distant parts, whither the fame of his scholarship had spread. For ten years he continued at this uncongenial work, relieving the tedium of teaching by writing light satirical sketches for the local papers. His genius, however, sought a better outlet, and we soon find him contributing to William Jerdan's "Literary Gazette" and to "Bentley's Miscellany;" but he found the medium exactly suited for the exercise of his marvellous gifts in the pages of "Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," in which he made his first appearance, in the number for June 1819, with a continuation of Coleridge's beautiful poem, "Christabel;" his second appearance in that magazine was in the number for November of the same year, with a remarkable and excellent Latin translation of "Chevy Chase." After being a contributor to "Blackwood" for some time from Cork, and wearying of the monotony of a teacher's life, he went to Edinburgh in May, 1820, and introduced himself personally and in a characteristically humorous fashion to William Blackwood, whose guest he remained for six weeks, during which time he revelled in the society of Professor John Wilson ("Christopher North "), John Gibson Lockhart, Gillies, Hamilton, and other literary notabilities. Blackwood declared himself "delighted with his wild Irish assistant," whose social qualities, constitutional gaiety, convivial pleasantry, and flow of conversation, at once learned and witty, were such as could not fail to render him a favourite in cultured circles. Here is a pen-picture of him at this period : "All were listening to someone who sat in the middle of a group. A low-seated man, short in stature, was uttering pleasantries and scattering witticisms about him with the careless glee of his country. His articulation was impeded by a stutter, yet the sentences he stammered forth were brilliant repartees, uttered without sharpness, and edged rather with humour than with satire. His countenance was rather agreeable than striking; its expression sweet rather than bright. The grey hair coming straight over his forehead gave a singular appearance to a face still bearing the attributes of youth. He was thirty or thereabouts; but his thoughtful brow, his hair, and the paleness of his complexion, gave him many of the attributes of age. His conversation was careless and offhand, and but for the impediment of speech would have had the charm of a rich comedy. His choice of words was such as I have rarely met with in any of my contemporaries." John Wilson Croker, writing to a friend, thus describes him :— "On the few occasions of my having the pleasure of being in his society, his conversation was very lively and original—a singular mixture of classical erudition and Irish fun. There was a good deal of wit, and still more of drollery, and certainly no deficiency of what is called conviviality and animal spirits. I remember on one occasion having heard from some common friend, that he seemed to be throwing away a great deal of talent on some ephemeral productions. I took the liberty of advising him to direct his great powers to some more permanent objects, and he told me that he contemplated some serious work, I think on the Greek drama, but of this I am not quite sure. It might have been the Greek orators. I had a high opinion of his power to illustrate either." Three years later he married a lady named Ellen Bullen, described by Jerdan as an excellent woman, and finding the income from the school inadequate to support a wife, he severed his connection with it and proceeded to London, resolved to devote himself to literature. He soon became intimate with Theodore Hook (a kindred spirit), and wrote for the "John Bull," a political journal, which was soon abandoned at a heavy loss. A similar fate awaited the "London Literary Journal," with which Maginn was associated, also in conjunction with Theodore Hook. Maginn's facile pen had attracted the notice of John Murray, and he found employment on the "Quarterly Review." All this time, however, he was a continual contributor to "Blackwood," scarce a number of which did not contain one or more articles from him, and in its pages he, with Wilson, originated the celebrated "Noctes Ambrosianæ," a very large share of which was all his writing, as was also the famous Greek motto with its exceedingly free translation: This is a distich by wise old Phocylides, An Ancient who wrote crabbed Greek in no silly days; Readers of "Father Prout" know how that worthy delighted to turn some of Moore's melodies into French, Latin, and Greek verse, and then playfully accuse their author of plagiarism! Maginn, in the character of the learned Dr. Pandemus Polyglott, performed similar feats with equal skill and dexterity. He translated Canning's "Needy Knife-grinder" into both Greek and Latin; George Wither's "The Shepherd's Resolution," Waller's "Rose," Henry Phillips's admirable ditty "Woman," Ben Jonson's "Take, oh, take those lips away," and a host of others, into excellent Latin verse. Here is a verse from his Latin translation of "The glasses sparkle on the board," which he humorously assigned to an Alcaic poet, one "Cæsius Bassus": The glasses sparkle on the board, The wine is ruby bright; The reign of pleasure is restored, The day is done, the night's our own, Then let us feast the soul; Should any pain or care remain, Why, drown it in the bowl. CARMEN: AUCTORE CASIO Basso. Invitat Euho! nox est; absit dies; Quod superest cyatho doloris. Whether it was traceable to the attraction which the sparkle of the glasses had for hit or not it is not now easy to determine, but certain it is that in the beginning of the year 1830 he quarrelled with his friend Blackwood, and the intimacy which had grown and lasted during ten years was interrupted. There was no interruption, however, to Maginn's literary labours, for he worked as hard as ever, if not harder. As a magazine writer his like has never been seen. His fertility and variety were inexhaustible; nothing came amiss to him. So richly stored was his mind and so ready his pen, that he could without effort write articles of sound, earnest, well-reasoned criticism, political articles and parodies, poems and translations. He always appeared master of every subject, recondite or familiar, and yet, according to an eyewitness, "he seldom wrote except in company, and generally in the midst of tumult. In the middle of a sentence he would relieve the strain of thought by throwing himself back in his chair and telling a humorous story; then, while his companions were convulsed with laughter, he would suddenly break off in his talk and resume his pen." Goethe, it would seem, was right when he said, "Rapid change from seriousness to trifling, from sympathy to indifference, from joy to grief, must lie at the foundation of the Irish character." One of his jovial companions was a briefless barrister and man about town named Hugh Fraser, and to him Maginn proposed, after his quarrel with Blackwood, that they should have a magazine of their own. Fraser was quite agreeable, and they both made a selection from their papers, with which they filled their pockets, and sallied forth to find a publisher. Going down Regent Street, the name Fraser over No. 215 attracted Maginn, who said to his companion, "Here's a namesake1 of yours, Fraser; let's try him." They entered, and submitted their proposal, which was adopted without hesitation; and in February 1830 appeared the first number of "Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country." To say that It was the shop of Mr. James Fraser, publisher, Hugh Fraser's brother. X |