It is with great regret that we record the death
of Lord Burghclere, President of the Board of Agriculture in Mr. Glad- stone's last Government. Lord Burghclere was a man of singular charm, and his loss will be felt not only by the men of his own generation, but also by many younger men and women. Ho was as popular with the new generation as with the old. What enhanced the fascination of his character was a certain quality which is more generally associated with Frenchmen than with Englishmen. lie had a touch of true Gallic lightness and gaiety, and yet plenty of appreciation of the serious sides of both life and literature. What better proof of this could there be than the fact that Virgil was his favourite poet, and that while he was a Minister he managed to translate the Georgics into admirable English ? And remember, he did this not out of affectation or to show off his scholarship, but out of a real love of the poem. Curiously enough, his only original contribu- tion to literature was a series of plays, brilliantly written comedies composed for the most part for amateur acting. As a young man he was a devotee of tho stage. The deepest sympathy will be felt for Lady Burgholero by a very largo company of friends. She is one of the most distinguished writers of historical biography in the present generation. Hor father was Lord Carnarvon—a statesman of real vision whose liking for the Spectator somewhat perturbed his chief, Disraeli, as we see from the last volume of Mr. Buckle's Life.
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