Mr. Hopper did not remain in London beyond the close of the season.
He had proposed to leave for Biskra a week or so after I made his
acquaintance, but the change in the weather decided him to go no
farther south than Palermo, whence he will return by Naples, Rome,
Assisi, Genoa, and Boulogne, visiting on the way the quaint old city
of Strasbourg. He will reach England again some time in the month of
April, 1910, and on his return he proposes to devote some part of
his considerable fortune to the erection of a suitable monument at
Stratford-on-Avon in memory of his great ancestor. This generous gift
will be accompanied by certain conditions, but there is little doubt
that the town will accept the same, and that a fine fountain surrounded
with symbolical figures of Justice, Prudence, and Mercy, and adorned
with medallions of Queens Elizabeth and Victoria, George Washington and
President Roosevelt, will soon adorn the quiet little Warwickshire town.
Mr. Hopper also proposes to found a Shakespeare Scholarship at
Sidney-Sussex College in Cambridge, and another at Wadham College in
Oxford, each of the value of £300 a year, on the model of the Rhodes
Scholarships, such scholarships to be granted not merely for book work
but for business capacity and physical development. He has also planned
a Chair for the propagation of Shakespearean knowledge in Glasgow, and
he will endow a Reader in Shakespeare to the University of Aberdeen.
Mr. Hopper is himself no mean _littérateur_, though a characteristic
modesty has hitherto restrained him from publishing his verse, whether
rhyme, blank, or in sonnet form. It is possible that now he is
acquainted with his great descent his reluctance may be overcome and
he may think better of this decision. I may add that Mr. Hopper places
no credence in the Baconian theory, and hopes by diligent search among
his family papers to prove the authenticity of at least the five major
tragedies and _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_.
Mr. Hopper is a total abstainer; he neither smokes nor chews; his
religious views, always broad and tolerant, incline him strongly
towards the New Theology, and, in common with many other men of
exceptional intelligence, he has been profoundly affected by the
popular translation of Dr. Haeckel’s _Riddle of the Universe_.
Though delighting in social intercourse, Mr. Hopper has the true
gentleman’s instinct against being lionised, and in particular stands
in dread of the Duchess of Dundee. He has therefore begged me to
insist as little as possible on his identity in anything I thought it
my duty to record in print upon so interesting a matter, and I have so
far acceded to his request as to have refrained from publishing these
lines until he had left our shores; but I make little doubt that on his
return in the spring this missing link between the two branches of the
Anglo-Saxon kin cannot but receive the public recognition he deserves.
On the Approach to Western England
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account