; 9 8 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



October 1, 191i 



the country which formed the Bubject of his 

 study. So far as it is possible for any 

 Western to achieve thai very difficult task. 

 he may be said to have gol to the back of the 

 Oriental mind. 



The following anecdote is worth re- 

 peating. Lord Cromer says : — 



I remember Lyall. who had a very keen 

 sense of humour, telling me an anecdote as 

 an illustration of the news held by the un- 

 educated classes in India on the subject of 

 Western reforms. The officer in charge of a 

 district got up a cattle-show, with a view to 

 improving the breed of cattle. Shortly after- 

 wards, an Englishman, whilst out shooting, 

 entered into conversation with a peasant who 

 happened to be passing by. He asked the 

 man what he thought of the cattle-show, and 

 added that he supposed it had done a great 

 deal of good. "Yes," the native — who was 

 probably a Moslem — replied, after some re- 

 flection; "last year there was cholera. This 

 year there was Cattle Show. We have to 

 bear these afflictions with what patience we 

 in a\ . Are they not all sent by God?" 



GEORGE WYNDHAM. 



The many admirers of the late George 

 Wyndham will appreciate " Some Im- 

 pressions by a Friend " which appear in 

 the Quarterly Review. The writer, who 

 signs himself " W.W.," has had access 

 to private letters which reveal something 

 of the purposes which dominated one 

 whose loss will be long felt in so many 

 circles. Of his interest in the problems 

 of the country and his outlook on life 

 generally we have a clear sidelight in 

 the following letter: — 



For myself— apart from politics, finance, 

 and the round of duty — I am absorbed in two 

 subject-: Rural England and my library. 

 ... I am attacking " Rural England " by 

 action, based on study of the past — from 

 Domesday Rook onwards — and on modern 

 scienci — "so-called." I think best in action 

 and experiment. So I have given the go-by 

 to theory and have already pumped water 

 several miles over considerable bills, built 

 cow-sheds, bought a motor-trolly to supersede 

 four cart-horses, and done much else which 

 will, 1 believe, put back this bit of England 

 to where it stood in the seventeenth century, 

 and afford working models to [tbo.se] who lack 

 my capital and imagination. It is jolly work 

 at the top of the house in which you and X. 

 and I and others can read and write. Party 

 politics leave me cold. Rut the countryside 

 of England and the literature of Europe make 

 me grow. . . . 



Incidentally, to the two main purposes of 

 my life, I am finishing a chapel in the be 

 ment. 



It is exhilarating to make things yourself. 

 The carpenter and I. without architect or 



contract, have made the library, the chapel, 

 the new cow-farm, and much else. When 1 

 told X. a few weeks ago that this would be 

 my work, and not party politics, he was 

 shocked. But after seeing what I was at, he 

 came round to my view. Some people inherit 

 an estate, and go on as if nothing had hap- 

 pened. I can't do that. My father never 

 told me anything about this place. I lived 

 and worked in Cheshire and Ireland; sud- 

 denly I find myself responsible for farming 

 myself 2400 acres, and for paying sums that 

 stagger me by way of weekly wages and re- 

 pairs. So I ask myself, " What are you going 

 to do?" I mean to use all my imagination 

 and energy to get something done that shall 

 last and remind. 



Writing in the Dublin Revieiv, the 

 Editor pens the following estimate of 

 Mr. Wyndham's powers : — 



Time and thought are needed for any satis- 

 factory analysis of a mind so far-reaching and 

 gifts so various. Mr. Wyndham was a poet 

 as well as a prose writer, and one cannot 

 but hope that some of his poems will now be 

 published as a volume. He had the poet's- 

 imaginative temperament in a very high de- 

 gree, and it threw a halo round all his under- 

 takings, even where they involved dry details. 

 They became poems in his own mind and in 

 his presentation of them to others. He was 

 also a wonderful letter writer. If I mistake 

 not, much that is unsuspected by the world at 

 large will be revealed when a representative 

 selection from his correspondence is made 

 public. High as he stands now in the popular 

 estimation, I venture to predict that he will 

 stand far higher when such a revelation has 

 been made of the reach of his powers and 

 interests. 



" One of His Irish Friends " pays a 

 tribute of affection in the British Re- 

 view : — 



He had a genius for friendship. Happy 

 they who were his friends. His friendships 

 were very often literary. He was a man of 

 letters by temperament essentially — although 

 the man who conceived and executed the 

 Wyndham Land Act must have been a states- 

 man, a man of affairs essentially, as well. 

 One hardly associates his beautiful smiling 

 personality with industry, yet he brought a 

 monumental industry to bear on his Land 

 \ i. His years in Ireland were very stren- 

 uous. . . . 



I thought it was significant that a Dublin 

 tram-conductor should have told me of his 

 death as he collected the fares. Such a one 

 would not have been greatly or at all con- 

 cerned with the deaths of English statesmen. 

 The memory of him, something dazzling and 

 young, has gone far down. . . . 



Greatly loved, perfectly happy in his inti- 

 mate life, a benefactor to the country he 

 loved, full of happy interests, of hopes and 

 aspirations, he has passed away unsmirched. 

 Self-seeking never came near him. No one 



