134 Life and Times of " The Druid!' 



of which, however, held him in much esteem. 

 I can well remember that when " The 

 Druid's " article on the Marquis of Hastings 

 (who died in 1868) appeared in The Daily 

 News, Mr. Labouchere, who was then the 

 proprietor of nearly half that journal, was so 

 much delighted with the prolusion in ques- 

 tion that on hearing of its writer's precarious 

 state of health, he urged Mr. (now Sir J. R.) 

 Robinson, the Editor, to spare no effort or 

 expense in order to keep so valuable a con- 

 tributor alive, if it were possible to do so. 

 Unfortunately, "The Druid" himself was at 

 that time not far from the end of his tether, 

 and, in his own words — applied to the un- 

 fortunate but gallant young Marquis of 

 Hastings — "all the wheels were down." 



I have before me as I write these words 

 almost all the articles written by " The 

 Druid " for the Doncaster Gazette between 

 1847 an d 1850, when he moved from Don- 

 caster to London. After his arrival in the 

 Metropolis he was in the habit of sending 

 a weekly letter to the Doncaster Gazette, 

 which he headed either " Metropolitana," 

 or " The Weekly Compendium." These 



