NOTES BY THE WAY.
History of
his firm in
Le Livre.
His love of
books
and flowers.he was attacked with heart disease, and died at his residence at Upton after a few hours' illness. Mr. George Bentley entered the Burlington Street firm in 1870 being in that year taken into partnership by his father, Mr. Richard Bentley, who, as is well known, commenced business with Mr. Colburn in 1829, from whom he separated in 1832. In 1837 Mr. Bentley started Bentley's Miscellany. In 1866 this was incorporated with Temple Bar, of which Mr. George Bentley was editor at the time of his death. Many accounts of the founding of the firm of Richard Bentley & Son have appeared from time to time in the press, and an interesting account, by Mr. S. R. Townshend Mayer, of the first publisher of the name of Bentley, temp. Charles II., was given in 'N. & Q.' of April 12th, 1879; but the most complete history is to be found in
Le Livre for October, 1885. This was reprinted, with additional notes, for private circulation, in July, 1886, the volume being illustrated with two most speaking portraits of Richard Bentley and his son. Mr. George Bentley became head of the firm on the death of his father in 1871, and in 1884 he took his only son Richard into partnership, upon whom for many years, owing to the delicate state of his father's health, the active management of the business has devolved. Mr. George Bentley was a frequent contributor to what he was pleased to call "that invaluable little paper Notes and Queries." A great lover of books and an admirer of nature, he considered the best two possessions that a man could have were a library and a good old-fashioned garden full of roses, of which he was a careful
cultivator, and of sweet-smelling flowers. He delighted in the quiet aspect of life, and cared not for the "glare and glitter of modern society, with its crowded evening assemblies, and the other amusements of an age ravenous for gossip." He would modestly describe himself as "not a man of learning, but as a mere lover of books. I play about the honey collected by the learned bees, and sympathize with their wisdom and the consolation they got out of their learning." Mr. Bentley must have left a valuable collection of correspondence, for in his quiet retirement at Upton he held frequent communication with many of those best known in literature. On Wednesday, in the bright sunshine and with the singing of the birds, he was borne through his lovely garden to Upton churchyard, and there laid in a grave all beautiful with the roses he had loved so well. He will be gratefully remembered for his kindly advice to young authors, readily and cheerfully given, while to his friends his noble, unselfish character, his pure and blameless life, will ever be a bright example. We can well say of him what he once said of one of his friends: "He has passed away, and lies in peace—
- In the sweet peace that goodness bosoms ever—
leaving a memory sweet as June roses, and likely to endure until every friend he had has likewise passed away."
