J. Comyns Carr: Stray Memories, by His WifeCarr, Alice Vansittart Strettel
General
J. Comyns Carr: Stray Memories, by His Wife
Carr, Alice Vansittart Strettel
Carr, J. Comyns (Joseph Comyns), 1849-1916
One of these younger men--Mr. Hammond, by no means an
“obscure” one--writes: “There have been few men
whose companionship was so delightful to all who had the privilege
of knowing him.... I always remember with gratitude that he allowed
even young and obscure people to enjoy the pleasure of his best
conversation--one of the rarest intellectual pleasures that I have ever
known.”
And Mr. Hugh Sidgwick--killed in the prime of his own rare intellectual
career--follows with what might be called an echo: “I can’t
say how much I owe to him and to you for the many happy hours I spent
at your house. He never let the barrier of the generations stand
between him and us young men and we all of us looked on him as a real
friend and the most delightful of companions. There are memories of
many good talks and jovial discussions--with Mr. Carr always leading
and contributing more than his share of life and vivacity to them. And
it was inspiring to us--more perhaps than appeared--to meet one who was
so young in heart, so full of life and so sensitive to all the beauties
of all the arts.”
The words of W. A. Moore--blessed with his own Celtic temperament and
eager fighting quality--sound the same note:
“It was a great thing to have known him,” he writes
from Salonica, “I can never forget him for he was a most
radiant personality.” It is a curious thing that a kindred
epithet--“joyous personality”--was a favourite one of his
own, and he would maintain that you could see two men in the Seven
Dials--one lean, soured and scowling, his companion stout, merry,
humorous and full of vitality, though both dwelt on the same gutter and
wore the same threadbare garments.
It is, of course, quite impossible to give on paper any idea whatever
of the charm and brilliancy which these and many more testimonies
prove; to quote some words spoken by our friend Sir Arthur Pinero,
“It is rather like trying to remember the summers of years
ago!” and he left so few letters, possibly because he possessed
that “genius of conversation,” that he has few words to say
for himself; but it may not be inappropriate here to quote two which he
wrote to an old friend who had affectionately watched his whole career
and highly appraised his powers and judgment.
The first is in answer to an appeal as to whether it showed
“symptoms of senile decay” not to be able to admire _The
Hound of Heaven_ by Francis Thompson, which had been hailed with a
shout of praise from a section of the public. I quote it as showing
Joe’s own confession of faith in regard to the poetry that
endures.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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