1902] Peploe Broivn 19 



in his chair, but preserving all his old powers of talk. He sits there 

 a pathetic figure in his studio in York Place surrounded by canvases 

 of gigantic size, the monuments of ancient failures in his art, blind 

 and alone but for the devotion of a man servant who waits always 

 within call. This man, Fred, deserves a medal of gold if ever a 

 servant did, for he puts his whole soul into his service, and I fancy 

 even without wages, for Brown is almost penniless. Poor Brown, 

 what a terrible life! yet he does not complain because he can still 

 see light out of the corner of one eye, also he suffers no pain, and he 

 sleeps well. 



" 2nd March (Sunday). — Walked across the Park and lunched 

 with Frederic Harrison. I sat next to Miss Hobhouse, recently come 

 back from South Africa where she was prevented by our authorities 

 from landing. She is an amiable middle-aged woman, much perse- 

 cuted on account of her action in the concentration camps. People are 

 rude to her, refuse to shake hands, and they get up to go when she 

 enters a drawing-room. Others of the party were Henry Arthur 

 Jones the playwright, young Trevelyan the poet, and Lady Gregory. 



" In the evening with Lady Gregory to Newton Hall to hear 

 Harrison deliver his farewell address on retiring from the leader- 

 ship of the Positivists. The beginning of it was rather tame and I 

 iwas dosing off when I was awakened by an allusion to my work in 

 Egypt and hearing my name cheered. After this Harrison gave a 

 really fine address, saying many hard things and true things of 

 modern England, touching, too, from the fact of its being his last 

 spoken word. 



" nth March. — Learned last night of the defeat and capture of 

 Methuen by Delarey. The news of the capture was heartily cheered 

 by the Irish in the House. It was the King's wedding-day. 



" 12th March. — Called on Father John Gerard, S. J., in Farm Street, 

 whom I had last seen fifty years ago at Stonyhurst where he was 

 my special boy friend. He had written to me, and hence my visit. 

 I found him a worthy matter-of-fact Jesuit advanced in years but 

 preserving just the little touch of romance which had prompted his 

 letter to me about our childish school friendship when we were both 

 twelve years old. He reminded me that we used to keep caterpillars 

 in paper boxes and that I had insisted upon pricking holes in the 

 lids in the form of the constellations so that the caterpillars inside 

 might think they were still out of doors and could see the stars. 



" 14th March. — Methuen has been released and the newspapers 

 are full of praise of Delarey, the first time they have had a word of 

 civility for any Boer since the war began. 



"15th March. — To the Zoological Gardens to look at Prevalsky's 

 wild horses, just arrived. They are miserable specimens, like the 



