Apology of the Translator to the Original. 1 What English verse can rival such Latinity, I do not know on which of these versions my uncle wrote the lines: Scripsi equidem carmen: tam bellè, tamque facetè [I penned these lines indeed: but taste so fine Lord Beaconsfield acknowledged the congratulations on 26 August, from Hughenden Manor, in the following characteristic note. Dear Bishop of St. Andrews,-It is the happiest union since Beaumont and Fletcher. I am deeply gratified by such an expression of sympathy from men so distinguished for their learning and genius. Your faithful and obliged servant, BEACONSFIELD. Henceforth, in their correspondence, my uncle was Beaumont,' and Stanley, being a Bishop's son, was Fletcher,' though, as my uncle felt, the parallel between the union of two dramatists in one play was not exactly akin to their conjunction. The last communication from Stanley seems to be on a post-card (dated 30 December, 1 Note by Chas. W.-I was of Christ Church, Oxford, but my father being Master of Trinity, my home was at Cambridge. 1880), in which he excuses himself from undertaking some similar brotherly task. But it breathes a very happy spirit of joyful friendliness. Divus Petrus ' is of course the Church of St. Peter's, Westminster. The reader will notice that Stanley calls it his valediction.' I must at least attempt to do justice to such tender and pathetic playfulness. Age to venerated age Needs must send the sad message: I've no longer at command Trick of verse or sleight of hand English to your lines to give, And in all men's mouths to live: For they're infinitely fine, Whether in English or Latine. Friend, who art learned, good and strong, And gentle, take my parting song! Let St. Peter thankfully To his Andrew bid goodb'ye, Ever happy to be joined With so brotherly a mind. 2. Latin verses connected principally with St. Andrews. The Bishop also employed his Muse to convey his own kindly appreciation and sympathy to his friends and neighbours in the University of St. Andrews. The following lines to Professor Lewis Campbell, the editor and translator of Sophocles, were written indeed before he went to reside there, and enclosed in the letter which explains them from the Feu House, Perth, 30 December, 1875. My dear Sir,-If I had not been more than commonly occupied since I received your favour of the 26th inst., it would have been acknowledged sooner, with due thanks-which I now beg to give-for your response to my 'friendly and obliging challenge,' and for the pleasure you have afforded me by letting me see the classical elegiacs which accompanied your letter. I have nothing to offer in return which is at all worthy of your acceptance but Sophocles himself is so much gratified by the two-fold honour you have done him by your emaiveσis, and still more by your translation, that he has requested me to present to you the tribute of thanks which you will find on the next page. Viro Reverendo Doctissimoque L. Campbell Græc. lit. in Acad. Qui me reddideris Graium sermone Britanno, Namque meam, fama est, Musam, te interprete, plausus These lines may be roughly Englished, as a Dean Stanley is not at hand, in the following manner : I thank thee, poet, who hast taught my Greek I do not know whether my uncle consciously wished to make out that Sophocles had learnt to write Latin in Elysium: but, for some reason or other, he himself almost gave up writing Greek verse (of which he was a master) in his later years. Professor Campbell, however, replied in good Greek, expressing his modesty in receiving such a compliment. ὦ μάκαρ, οἷόν μ' εἶπες· ἄγη μ' ἔχει ὡς δέ με τιμᾷς, εὐφημοῦμ ̓ ἂν ἐγώ, σὴν χάριν ἀζόμενος. I must again be interpreter, though rather too tersely : With awe thy praise I hear, O spirit blest! In silence to receive such grace is best. Another longer set of verses shows how the friendship had grown in closer acquaintance at St. Andrews (10 December, 1878). To Professor Campbell on his recovery from bronchitis. Qui sæva indiderat gutture tela tuo; Non erat indignum Phobo succurrere vati, He imagined Phoebus, the healer (Pæonius) as well as harper, to have a particular tenderness for one who was so sweet a singer, and to have himself mixed the medicines for his throat. So all must sing a 'Pæan' in his praise. After he had been a few years at St. Andrews, he received the nineteenth volume published by Dr. Boyd-a frequent and always kindly correspondent-who from being a' Country Parson' had now come to be Incumbent of the Parish Church of the ancient city. The reader will I think acknowledge that the compliment was both pretty and appropriate. Rustico Pastori, hodiè urbano Pastor fraternus Undevicesimo ejus volumine gratissimé recepto. Quot fessos homines, quot tristia corda, quot ægros, Te recreans, scriptis recreâsti, Rustice Pastor: Non equidem invideo, miror magis: et prece posco, In lectulo ante lucem, Jan. XV. 1879. The sense may be given somewhat in this fashion: How many years have sickness, toil and grief, Yet still the Country Parson's lively chime The wish with which the little poem concludes was fulfilled; and the Bishop had an opportunity of gracefully acknowledging, I think, a twenty-second and even a twentythird volume. A more serious note is struck in the following elegy on Principal Tulloch, dated 8 April, 1886. There is no doubt that my uncle felt his death as a real personal loss, and as a loss to the cause he had so much at heart: for Tulloch |