178
��NOTES BY THE WAY.
��His niece, Miss F. C. Carey, on his last days.
��Tfte
Athenaeum
anticipates
for ' Festus ' a
glorious
revival.
��relatives, and had enjoyed the companionship of his son. All did their best to mitigate his loss. The close of the long life came after but a short illness.
On the 1st of September, 1902, his niece wrote to me that " at the beginning of August the pleasant seat in the garden had to be given up, and he stayed upstairs in his study adjoining his bedroom, amongst his beloved books, and did not wish to go down again." When he was a boy his father had given him a copy of ' Childe Harold,' just after its publication. This he at once learned by heart, and it remained through life one of his favourite poems. One morning, after a very restless night, he told her that " last night when I was awake I repeated the fourth canto of ' Childe Harold,' one of the finest poems." On Saturday, the 6th of September, he peacefully passed away, almost his last words being " Good-bye for a little while." After his death by his express wish they placed him in the scarlet toga of his old university, Glasgow (which in 1901 conferred upon him the degree of LL.D.) , and some flowers I had sent him were placed in the coffin. On the Tuesday following he was buried in the beautiful church cemetery at Notting- ham, in the same grave as his wife, and close to that of others who had been very dear to him. One is glad to read in the sympathetic notice which appeared in The Athenaeum of the 13th of September that the writer anticipates for ' Festus ' a glorious revival. May this be so, and the poet's prayer be realized :
Grant us, O God, that in Thy holy love The universal people of the world May grow more great and happy every day, Mightier, wiser, humbler, too, towards Thee, And that all ranks, all classes, callings, states Of life, so far as such seem right to Thee, May mingle into one, like sister trees, And so in one stem flourish.
�� �
