Forty years of 'Spy'

Name: Forty years of 'Spy'
Author: Ward, Leslie, Sir

Ward, Leslie, Sir

Artists -- Correspondence, reminiscences, etc.; Painters -- Great Britain -- Biography; Ward, Leslie, Sir, 1851-1922

While sitting next to Lord Houghton at dinner one evening at the
Beefsteak Club, I watched him make a lengthy scrutiny of the menu,
which made me anticipate a wonderful selection to come. He ordered a
herring! When the fish came, he regarded it stealthily for some time
and then suddenly picking it up by the tail shook it violently
(ostensibly to remove the flesh) and while I carefully picked off the
bits of herring that covered me, the absent-minded poet ate the
fragments that had accidentally lodged upon his plate.

He used to take out his teeth at meal times, and, growing accustomed
to remove them, he became occasionally rather mixed in his discretion
as to their removal. One day, on meeting a lady of his acquaintance,
instead of taking off his hat, as he intended to do, he plucked out
his teeth and waved them enthusiastically.

I remember the eccentric lord coming into the club one evening looking
tired and hungry. Over the mantelpiece a white paper gleamed. It was a
list of the Derby Lottery. Something stirred in his mind which was far
away on other subjects bent, and reminded him that he was hungry. He
scanned the Lottery list, anxiously rubbing his head as though he were
apparently shampooing it. At last he was heard to murmur in
dissatisfied tones, "Waiter, I don't see anything to eat there."

One couldn't help laughing at his funny ways, but he was a
distinguished man after all and very kind.




CHAPTER IX

THE LAW

     The Inspiration of the Courts.--Montagu Williams.--Lefroy.--
     The De Goncourt case.--Irving.--Sir Frank Lockwood.--Dr.
     Lampson, the poisoner.--Mr. Justice Hawkins.--The Tichborne
     case.--Mr. Justice Mellor and Mr. Justice Lush.--The Druce
     case.--The Countess of Ossington.--The Duke's portrait.--
     My models.--The Adventuress.--The insolent omnibus conductor.
     --I win my case.--Sir George Lewis.--The late Lord Grimthorpe.
     --Sir Charles Hall.--Lord Halsbury.--Sir Alfred Cripps (now
     Lord Parmoor).--Sir Herbert Cozens-Hardy.--Lord Robert Cecil.
     --The late Sir Albert de Rutzen.--Mr. Charles Gill.--Sir
     Charles Matthews.--Lord Alverstone.--Mr. Birrell.--Mr. Plowden.
     --Mr. Marshall Hall.--Mr. H. C. Biron.

     "The reason of the Law is ... the law."--_Sir Walter Scott._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

Forty years of 'Spy'Ward, Leslie, Sir

General

Forty years of 'Spy'

Ward, Leslie, Sir

Artists -- Correspondence, reminiscences, etc.; Painters -- Great Britain -- Biography; Ward, Leslie, Sir, 1851-1922

While sitting next to Lord Houghton at dinner one evening at the
Beefsteak Club, I watched him make a lengthy scrutiny of the menu,
which made me anticipate a wonderful selection to come. He ordered a
herring! When the fish came, he regarded it stealthily for some time
and then suddenly picking it up by the tail shook it violently
(ostensibly to remove the flesh) and while I carefully picked off the
bits of herring that covered me, the absent-minded poet ate the
fragments that had accidentally lodged upon his plate.

He used to take out his teeth at meal times, and, growing accustomed
to remove them, he became occasionally rather mixed in his discretion
as to their removal. One day, on meeting a lady of his acquaintance,
instead of taking off his hat, as he intended to do, he plucked out
his teeth and waved them enthusiastically.

I remember the eccentric lord coming into the club one evening looking
tired and hungry. Over the mantelpiece a white paper gleamed. It was a
list of the Derby Lottery. Something stirred in his mind which was far
away on other subjects bent, and reminded him that he was hungry. He
scanned the Lottery list, anxiously rubbing his head as though he were
apparently shampooing it. At last he was heard to murmur in
dissatisfied tones, "Waiter, I don't see anything to eat there."

One couldn't help laughing at his funny ways, but he was a
distinguished man after all and very kind.




CHAPTER IX

THE LAW

     The Inspiration of the Courts.--Montagu Williams.--Lefroy.--
     The De Goncourt case.--Irving.--Sir Frank Lockwood.--Dr.
     Lampson, the poisoner.--Mr. Justice Hawkins.--The Tichborne
     case.--Mr. Justice Mellor and Mr. Justice Lush.--The Druce
     case.--The Countess of Ossington.--The Duke's portrait.--
     My models.--The Adventuress.--The insolent omnibus conductor.
     --I win my case.--Sir George Lewis.--The late Lord Grimthorpe.
     --Sir Charles Hall.--Lord Halsbury.--Sir Alfred Cripps (now
     Lord Parmoor).--Sir Herbert Cozens-Hardy.--Lord Robert Cecil.
     --The late Sir Albert de Rutzen.--Mr. Charles Gill.--Sir
     Charles Matthews.--Lord Alverstone.--Mr. Birrell.--Mr. Plowden.
     --Mr. Marshall Hall.--Mr. H. C. Biron.

     "The reason of the Law is ... the law."--_Sir Walter Scott._

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Forty years of 'Spy'

Forty years of 'Spy'

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