296 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



like sacking the premises, and certainly a good many got 

 away with copies for which they had not paid but 

 what matter ? We were on the fighting lay, and those 

 Cruikshank horrors thrilled the public. 



I never was what is called a politician in these days, 

 when politicians are paid, but I had and have in my 

 inmost soul certain fixed views, which were never so well 

 expressed as by Disraeli, and I sent out those startling 

 sheets not for any other reason than to show the Irish 

 question in its true and always abiding light. 



Of all the staff of St Stephen's Review little Percy Reeve 

 was the nearest akin to me in thought, sentiment and 

 methods of using the English language. We were very 

 different, as it might seem, for he was a musician whose 

 work was perfect, with never a touch of commonplace. 

 He never made himself a persona grata to the higher powers, 

 so that he gained no great publicity, but his knowledge of 

 music in every detail was complete, his genius was to 

 me at any rate obvious, and the fullest sympathy was 

 in his every composition, whether it were grave or gay. 

 Poor little chap ! There have been few funerals that I 

 have attended with more real sorrow. And yet to 

 strike another chord I cannot but remember being with 

 him at a performance of The Taming of the Shrew and we 

 supped afterwards at the Garrick Club, where we met 

 Irving and I think Beerbohm Tree. Anyhow, we re- 

 mained there some tune, and walked home to Victoria 

 Street we both lived in the same building. 



It was nearly 2 A.M. and, as we passed Buckingham 

 Palace, Percy Reeve began to think that Shakespeare 

 was a wonderful man and that he alone knew how women 

 should be managed. He held forth to me on this point 

 and I fully agreed or seemed to agree with him. 

 So we went home, and Mrs Reeve, who is one of the best 

 in the world, had, of course, no idea of being " tamed," 

 neither had my good lady though I must admit that 

 such an enterprise never entered into my wildest 

 imagination. 



