RAZOR-FISH 



READE 



593 



the consts of Britain and of all the northern parts 

 of the Atlantic Ocean. In March and April they 

 congregate in great numbers on cliff's and islands 

 for the breeding season. A single egg, measur- 

 ing about 3 inches in length, and of a white or 

 light brown colour streaked with dark brown, is 

 laid in a crevice or under a ledge of rock. The 

 male helps to sit on the eggs. The razor-bill 

 measures about 17 inches. The plumage is of a 



flossy greenish black on the upper parts and 

 azzling white underneath. It is a handsomer 

 bird than the Guillemot (q.v.), and can be readily 

 distinguished from it at a distance by its upturned 

 tail. The flesh of the rax.or-bill is used for food, 

 and the eggs are esteemed a delicacy. They are 

 less easily obtained than those of the guillemot, 

 being usually laid in concealed situations. 



Razor-Ash, or RAZOR-SHELL (Solen), a genus 

 of bivalves of which the common British species 

 S. filiyiia and S. ensis are familiar examples. The 

 shell is remarkably elongated, and gapes at both 

 ends, the siphons are short, the foot is large and 

 powerful. The species are numerous, and inhabit 



Razor or Solen-fish (Solen giliqua}. 



the sands of all seas except in the coldest parts of 

 the world. Some of the tropical species have shells 

 of great beauty. The xolens burrow in sand, 

 making vertical holes 2 or 3 feet in depth, and 

 ascending and descending by means of their foot, 

 which i- capable of being elongated and contracted 

 to bore a passage fur the animal, and to drag it 

 through. They are used for food, and also by 

 fishermen for bait. To obtain them, a hooked iron 

 implement is used. Another method is to dro|> a 

 quantity of salt on the mouth of the hole, which 

 causes them to come up, when they are quickly 

 seized. 



R^, ILE HE (Rex insula), is a small, low-lying 

 island off the coast of the French department of 

 Charente-Inferieiire, op|>osite the city of La 

 Rochelle, from which it is separated by the Pertuis 

 Breton. It is al>out 18 miles long and 3 broad, 

 measures 28 sq. m., and has about 16,000 inhabit- 

 ant*, who are chiefly engaged in the preparation of 

 salt (32,000 tons annually). The west coast is 

 rocky ; on the east side there are some good har- 

 bours. Oyster-farming has of late become an im- 

 portant branch of industry (3o, 000, 000 annually). 

 \Virie is made and exported. The chief town, St 

 Martin (pop. 2788), was fortified by Van ban. Ars 

 and La Hotte have each about 2000 inhabitants. 



Reade, CHARLES, novelist and playwright, w;is 

 l*>rn at Ipsden House on 8th June 1814. The 

 youngest of eleven, he came on both sides of gocxl 

 lineage, his father an Oxfordshire squire, his 

 mother a clever Evangelical ; from her he ' in- 

 herited his dramatic instinct.' After five years 

 {all Hogging) at Iffley, and six under two other 

 and milder private tutors, in 1831 he gained a 

 <iemyship at Magdalen College, Oxford, and in 1835, 

 having taken a third class in honours, was duly 

 elected t<> a lay fellowship. Next year he entered 

 at Lincoln's Inn, and in 1843 was called to the bar, 

 meanwhile having made the first of many tours 

 402 



abroad and at home, and developed a craze for 

 trading in violins. ' I studied,' he tells us, ' the 

 great art of Fiction for fifteen years before I pre- 

 sumed to write a line of it ;' and it was not till 1850 

 that he put pen seriously to paper, 'writing first 

 for the stage about thirteen dramas, which no- 

 body would play.' Through one of these dramas, 

 however, he formed his platonic friendship with 

 Mrs Seymour, a warm-hearted actress, who from 

 1854 till her death in 1879 kept house for him. She 

 animated, counselled, guided him ; and, apart 

 from his quarrels and lawsuits (which were many), 

 his life after 1852 is little except a record of the 

 production of plays and novels, by the former of 

 which he generally lost money, by the latter won 

 profit and fame. The plays include Masks and 

 Faces (1852), written in conjunction with Tom 

 Taylor, and having Peg Woffington for its leading 

 character; Gold (1853), the germ, and Sera JV- 

 guam (1865), the dramatised form, of Never too 

 Late; and Drink (1879), an adaptation of Zola's 

 L'Assommoir. Of his eighteen novels may be 

 mentioned Pea Woffington (1853); Christie John- 

 stone ( 1853), tne Newhaven fisher lass ; It is Never 

 too Late to Mend (1856), a tale of prison abuses 

 and life in Australia ; The Cloister and the Hearth 

 (1861), its hero Erasmus' father, condemned, like 

 Reade himself, to celibacy; Hard Cask (1863), 

 against private lunatic- asylums ; Griffith Gaunt, or 

 Jealousy ( 1866) ; Foul 1'ini/ ( 1869), in conjunction 

 with Dion Boucicault, against ship-knackers ; Put 

 Yourself in liis Place ( 1870), against trades-unions ; 

 A Terrible Temjitatiun (1871); and A Woman- 

 hater (1877), for woman's rights. His last years 

 clouded by sorrow and ill-health, he died at Shep- 

 herd's Bush on Good Friday, llth April 1884, and 

 was buried in Willesden 'churchyard beside his 

 ' beloved friend.' 



Charlea lleade was not one of the greatest 

 novelists of the century (who number three, at 

 most four) ; but of the second order he is perhaps 

 the best. He is sometimes coarse, theatrical some- 

 times rather than dramatic, and sometimes even 

 dull, weighed down with authorities the blue- 

 books, books of travel, and the like, witli which 

 he fettered his imagination. With the greatest 

 novelists one is conscious only of the story, with 

 him one is always conscious of the story-teller ; 

 some tone or mannerism from time to time jam 

 upon us. And yet what a story-teller it is. How 

 lie carries us with him, stirs us, saddens, gladdens, 

 terrifies, delights. No novels are better than his 

 to read aloud. For they hold the listeners spell- 

 iKiund, and 'Bravo!' or of tener just a long-drawn 

 ' Oh ! ' attests Reade's magnificent powers far 

 better than can all the fine-spun criticisms in 

 which A. concedes and B. denies him the gifts of 

 humour and pathos ; in which M. declares that 

 ' Reade invented the True Woman,' and X. that 

 'of the woman who is essentially of our time he 

 has never had even the faintest conception ; ' in 

 which X. discovers 'in the short, Wani/ei-imj li,ir 

 at least half a dozen situations all new and all 

 strong,' and Y. pronounces it ' very decidedly the 

 worst of Reade's shorter stories. ' These things need 

 not perplex us, the simple admirers of Griffith Gaunt, 

 of the fight with the pirates, of the bursting of the 

 reservoir, and of the scenes at the gold-diggings. 

 At the same time we may rejoice in the unanimous 

 verdict that is passed by the critics on The Cloister 

 and the Hearth. It Mr Swinburne from whom 

 praise is praise indeed places 'among the very 

 greatest masterpieces of narrative. Its tender 

 truthfulness of sympathy, its ardour and depth 

 of feeling, the constant sweetness of its humour, 

 the frequent passion of its pathos, are qualities 

 in which no other tale of adventure so stirring 

 and incident so inexhaustible can pretend to a 



