LORD HOUGHTON. 
works. No one who is acquainted with them will doubt that those 
Poems of Many Years " are instinct with the fire of genius, and 
that if he had never been an active politician, a peer, a philanthropist, 
or a distinguished member of society, he would still have been 
remembered as the author of some of the most exquisite verses in 
the English language. One or two of his minor pieces have attained 
a world-wide popularity. There is, for example, the charming song 
of which the refrain is, "The beating of my own heart was the only 
sound I heard." In conversation with a friend not very long ago 
Lord Houghton described how he had composed that well-known song 
whilst riding on an Irish car from a railway station in Ireland to the 
house of a friend whom he was about to visit. When he arrived at 
the residence of his friend he committed the verses to paper, and 
after dinner read them to his host and the other guests. The advice 
given to him was to destroy the trifle as not being worthy of his 
reputation and his genius. He thought better of it himself, however, 
and sent it to London, where it was immediately published, and 
attained a popularity such as few modern songs have ever gained. 
Less than twelve months after," said Lord Houghton, when relating 
the incident, " I had a letter from a friend who was travelhng in the 
United States, and who told me that as he sailed down the Mississippi 
he heard the slaves upon the banks of the great river singing my song, 
and keeping time to the refrain with their feet as they worked among 
the ridges of the cotton fields." Of prose works, his most important 
was that entitled, Monographs : Personal and Social," published in 
1873, in which he gave the world a charming account of the Miss 
Berries and some of the other notable personages with whom he 
became acquainted during the earlier part of his career in London. 
Shortly before he died he completed a work which for several years past 
had engaged his time at intervals, and the appearance of which, at the 
time of his death, was awaited with the greatest interest by his 
friends. This was his "Reminiscences." How valuable such a book 
from such a pen must be will be known to all who have had the 
privilege of Lord Houghton's acquaintance. As we have already said, 
in the course of this sketch, he had known during his long life an 
extraordinary number of celebrated persons. Some years ago, in 
