Of his satirical _vers-de-société_, which it amused him to distribute in private, he never, I believe, gave any to the world, but they deserve preservation. Some serious reflections on the advantages of the British occupation of Egypt close with the quotation:-- "Let them suffice for Britain's need-- No nobler prize was ever won-- The blessings of a people freed, The consciousness of duty done." These were, in a high degree, the rewards of Lord Cromer himself. After his settlement in London, Mr. T.E. Page sent him a book, called _Between Whiles_, of English verse translated into Latin and Greek. Lord Cromer was delighted with this, and the desire to write in metre returned to him. He used to send his friends, in letters, little triolets and epigrams, generally in English, but sometimes in Greek. But he was more ambitious than this. So lately as February 1911, during the course of one of our long conversations upon literature, he asked me to suggest a task of translation on which he could engage. It was just the moment when he was particularly busy with Constitutional Free Trade and Woman Suffrage and other public topics, but that made no difference. It had always seemed to me that he had been most happy in his versions of the Bucolic poets, and so I urged him to continue his translations by attempting the _Europa_ of Moschus. He looked at it, and pronounced it unattractive. I was therefore not a little surprised to receive a letter, on March 25th, in which he said:-- "Not sleeping very well last night, I composed in my head these few lines merely as a specimen to begin _Europa_:-- "When dawn is nigh, at the third watch of night, What time, more sweet than honey of the bee, Sleep courses through the brain some vision bright, To lift the veil which hides futurity, Fair Cypris sent a fearful dream to mar The slumbers of a maid whose frightened eyes Pictured the direful clash of horrid war, And she, Europa, was the victor's prize." "They are, of course, only a first attempt, and I do not think much of them myself. But do you think the sort of style and metre suitable?" He went steadily on till he completed the poem, and on April 27th I received a packet endorsed "Patched-up Moschus returned herewith." So far as I know, this version of the _Europa_, conducted with great spirit in his seventieth year, has never been published. It is the longest and most ambitious of all his poetical experiments.