One hundred years ago
We regret to notice the death, on Monday morning, of Mr. T Chenery, the Editor of the Times, and one of the most learned Orientalists in England. He was not, we think, quite in his place as a journalist, though he had wide know- ledge, wrote well, and devoted himself to his work with a fidelity which helped to shorten his life; but he was a man of wide and varied attainments, and great goodness of heart. It is said that he knew Hebrew as few scholars even of Hebrew descent have known it, being able to use it like a modern language; he was a recognised Arabic scholar; he talked Romaic with the Greeks of the Fanar, knowing, moreover, the ancient Greek literature well; he spoke and wrote with ease in German and French, and his greatest enjoyment was to attend some conference of Oriental scholars and philologists. According to his biographer in the Times, he had also a singular acquaintance with affairs, gain- ed partly by extensive travel, and though we cannot say that this appeared in his management of the Times, he must have been a man of most unusually varied powers, and with a hearty love and reverence for knowledge for its own sake. That is becoming rarer, we fear, among us, the restlessness of the age kill- ing out among strong men the power of sitting still to study and reflect.
Spectator, 16 February 1884
Previous page
