that apostle of temperance, contains no water, but is full of spirit. On the verge of the crowded tombstones of Haworth churchyard, he has placed the dreary parsonage where the Brontës lived their intense imaginative lives— the picture being perhaps his reply to the question, "Tell me, where is Fancy bred?" In early days he gave us the many comic outlines of daily life which adorned 'Punch,' and the grotesque illustrations of our national history which he describes as rejected in the competition for decorating the walls of Westminster. But his real business lay with the scenery of that pleasant moonlit land where Oberon ruled in the days of Duke Theseus and Bully Bottom, and which in more recent times had been illustrated by the French fairy chroniclers, Perrault and Madame d'Aulnois.

A superficial observer would never have guessed from Mr Doyle's aspect that he was connected intimately with the inhabitants of fairyland, or painter-in-ordinary to its royal family. Goodly of stature, he was also substantial of person, and could not be thought of for a moment as one who could join in racing on rabbits, leaping over toadstools, riding bats, or floating about clothed in glorified cobwebs; nor, on the other hand, was he of a temper to challenge dragons to combat. Kind and

pleasant of discourse, gentle of voice, courteous of bearing, his value as a companion was very widely recognised, and his society was much coveted by the Titanias of Mayfair and Belgravia. His agreeable humour was by no means restricted to his pictures: he was quaint in speech as in art; and his way of showing that something uttered had amused him by retiring into his cravat, in the recesses of which a soft smothered laugh would be heard, and then emerging to cap the jest was special to himself. For the many who appreciated him, some of the brightness and grace which spread a wholesome illusion over common life died out of the world last year with Richard Doyle.

T

MR HAYWARD AND HIS LETTERS.1

WHEN Mr Hayward died nearly three years ago, he had been for a long time a remarkable figure in the social life of London. What it was that made him notable did not at first sight appear. He had been bred to the Bar, and had attained to the dignity of Queen's Counsel, but he had for long abandoned the practice of his profession. He wrote reviews in an exceedingly good and popular style, but they were mostly on subjects of a light class, and they were purely and simply reviews, containing nothing which was not founded on the acts or thoughts of others. His conversation, likewise, afforded no evidence of originality; it was not in the least brilliant, and displayed

1 A Selection from the Correspondence of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., from 1834 to 1884, with an Account of his Early Life. Edited by Henry E. Carlisle. London: John Murray. 1886.

chiefly a remarkable memory and power of quotation, great accuracy in dates and facts, strong opinions strongly expressed, and an impatience of contradiction, or even of dissent, amounting to intolerance, and not unfrequently leading to unpleasant collisions of temper. He was evidently not a rich man-he might even be called a poor one-inhabiting a small set of rooms on the second floor of a house in St James's Street, and sallying thence to dine at his club, the Athenæum. To the great majority of those who might chance to notice his small bent figure traversing Pall Mall with a rapid step, he was absolutely unknown by name. It might be supposed from all this that there was nothing greatly to distinguish him from a number of others who write essays and reviews anonymously in excellent English. But to have supposed this would have been a mistake. Though unaided by fortune or fame, he exercised in many respects an influence due only to a commanding intellect in a commanding position. In London and in country-houses he moved in a very elevated stratum of society -in most gatherings of the most fashionable people he was pretty sure to be found. Great ladies talked of him as "Hayward." Eminent persons dining at his club gravitated to the table where, like Cato, he gave his little senate

laws.

Foreign statesmen, known throughout Europe, were his correspondents, and when they visited London, would seek interviews with him. But his influence appeared most distinctly in a political crisis, when great leaders would send for him, discuss the situation, and employ him in negotiating with statesmen of the class from which ministries are formed. This remarkable difference between the position which his apparent merits might naturally have gained for him and that which he actually enjoyed, forms a curious problem. It is to be accounted for not so much by his intellectual as by his moral characteristics. He was an exceedingly social man, and pushed his way with a hardihood which seemed to defy denial. His fondness for the company of persons of worldly consideration, backed by his strong self-confidence, procured for him a great number of important acquaintances, and these, it must be said, he never sought to propitiate by flattery; in all companies he was still Hayward, ready to meet all comers, and asserting himself and his opinions without compromise. Then he took

an intense interest in public affairs and in other people's affairs. Though he never held any public office, he threw himself into the questions of the day with all the ardour of a professional politician, and always as an uncom