272 The PytcJiley Hunt, Past and Present. 



tone, formed an amalgam that has been vouchsafed to 

 few. 



Of striking appearance, sh'ght of frame and of gentle 

 mien ; with an eye that you felt gauged you at a glance, 

 and a smile that at once restored your amour-propre, there 

 was that in the countenance of Whyte Melville which 

 denoted that his life was not without its " aliquid amari/' 

 and accounted for the tone of sadness that pervaded 

 many of his writings. 



Anxious to see something of the pomp and circum- 

 stances of war, Whyte Melville took service with the 

 Turkish army during the Crimean expedition, and then it 

 was that he laid the foundation for one of the most inte- 

 resting of all his novels, ^' The Interpreter." Far more 

 brilliant as a conversationalist than George Payne, quicker 

 in reply, and of a more cultivated mind, he possessed 

 many of his attractive qualities ; and it would be hard to 

 say which of the two was the most popular and admired 

 member of Society — which the most lamented when death 

 had removed him from it. 



THE HON. H. LIDDELL (Loed Ravenswoeth). 



The tiny villa-like cottage at Boughton did not long 

 remain unoccupied. A sportsman, embracing in his love 

 of sport an area exceeding that of the author of " The 

 Galloping Squire '' himself — inasmuch as it included the 

 pursuit of the '^ rat " in the old barn opposite, and the 

 jack snipe on the banks of the Nene— now took up his 

 residence in the little white-faced house of literary 

 notoriety. 



