JOSEPH KNIGHT.
The grave is in the new portion of the Highgate Cemetery (No. 36,819). A block of pure white marble marks our friend's resting-place: "In ever-loving memory of Joseph Knight, F.S.A., born May 24th, 1829; died June 23rd, 1907. Ave Atque Vale."
Knight left two grandchildren Thomas Mansel Sympson, now at Cambridge, and Beatrice Forbes Robertson. To Knight's great grief, his younger grandson, Hilary Reginald Mansel Sympson, died, after a short illness, on the 26th of February, 1907, at Charterhouse. He was not quite sixteen.
Society of
Dramatic
Critics.Among the letters of sympathy received by Mrs. Knight was the following from the Society of Dramatic Critics, dated the 2nd of July, 1907:—
- Staple Inn Buildings (South), Holborn, W.C.
Dear Madam,—I am instructed by the Society of Dramatic Critics to convey to you and your family the expression of their profound sympathy in the irreparable loss which you have sustained.
At a meeting of the Council of that Society held to-day at the above address, the following resolution was unanimously carried:
"The Society of Dramatic Critics desires to place on record its sense of the loss which it has sustained by the death of Mr. Joseph
Knight, one of its first Honorary Members, who during the course of a long and honourable career upheld the dignity of the profession, and enjoyed the universal esteem of his colleagues."
- I have the honour to be, Dear Madam,
- Yours very sincerely,
- F. Moy Thomas
- (Hon. Sec.)
- F. Moy Thomas
- Yours very sincerely,
Mrs. Joseph Knight.
As soon as Knight's death became known, the press, with one accord, paid tribute to him. No discordant note was heard; each
writer seemed anxious to vie with the other in referring to the genial critic's honesty of purpose and his many acts of goodness. His kindly nature often caused him to feel pain when he had to condemn; and I always associated him as a critic in this respect with Charles Wentworth Dilke, of whom it has been written: "His kindly nature made him far more happy to add a name to the roll of fame than when removing an unworthy one from it."
Mr. James Douglas, who knew Knight intimately, thus describes him in M.A.P. on the 6th of July, 1907:—
James Douglas."I have known many great men, but I have never known a man with a greater soul than his. He was one of those giants whose personality is more splendid than their work. The full
