The Rev. Dean Hole 105 



Doctor Johnson's tour in the Hebrides, when the conversation 

 on one occasion turned on some lady's indiscretion. The 

 daughter of the house turned to the learned but uncouth Doctor, 

 saying, " Ah, sir ! if she had had such a son as you, would 

 not her offence have been excused ? " We are told that 

 Johnson was immensely pleased by this charming remark. 



It is curious how small social changes take place and are 

 immediately forgotten. When Hole was a young man, and 

 archery was still fashionable, he was friends with most of the 

 famous archers of the day, such as Higginson, Hippesley, and 

 Peckett — household names then, but now they sound quite 

 strange to the ear. At that time it was an ordinary thing to see 

 three or four earnest gentlemen sitting round the library fire 

 dabbing their fingers with lightning-like rapidity on a hot 

 poker in their efforts to make their finger-tips hard for using the 

 bow-string. It was on one of these occasions, while Hole was 

 staying with people for an archery meeting, that his hostess's 

 dress was set on fire by the hot poker, and was extinguished by 

 Hole rolling her up in one of the dressing-gowns men wore 

 while smoking their after-dinner cigars — another forgotten 

 custom of yesterday. Imagine the surprise of a dinner host of 

 to-day asking his guest to have a cigar and getting the answer, 

 " Thanks, but just wait a moment while I fetch my dressing- 

 gown ! " These little things are not remembered because 

 contemporary writers never think of mentioning them, which is 

 a great pity, for the value of autobiographical writers to suc- 

 ceeding generations mainly depends on these very details, as 

 witness, for instance, Pepys and Boswell. 



Hole's archery was brought to an untimely end by his cutting 

 his thumb so badly that it spoilt his grip of the bow for ever 

 after, which was a great grief to him, as he was a very good 

 amateur performer. People got bitten with archery then just 

 as they now do with golf, and solemn warnings used to be 

 launched against them giving up too much time to it. 



Dean Hole was the happy possessor of a keen sense of 

 humour, which is the gift above all others that helps most to 

 give its owner happiness. His good stories were proverbial, 

 and made him beloved of hostesses at dinner-parties ; but most 

 of his stories have already been recorded, I am afraid. 



He was a great admirer of the Americans, our kinsmen, who 



