The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 41, May, 1894: An Illustrated MonthlyVarious
General
The Strand Magazine, Vol. 07, Issue 41, May, 1894: An Illustrated Monthly
Various
English literature -- Periodicals; Short stories, English -- Periodicals
The only member whose faithful attachment to his umbrella equalled Lord
Ravensworth's was the late Mr. Tom Collins. Judging from the shade of
the gingham, the determination of the bulge in the middle where it was
tied round with a piece of tape, and the worn condition of the ferrule,
the umbrella dated back to the epoch of the Great Exhibition. So dear
was it to the heart of its owner that he would not risk accident or
loss by leaving it to take its chance with the miscellaneous multitude
in the cloak-room. Like Lord Ravensworth, he carried it with him in
all weathers, and before entering the House to take part in the solemn
institution of prayers, he reverently deposited it behind the chair
of the principal doorkeeper. Mr. Collins was not a man of abnormally
suspicious nature. All his colleagues in the House of Commons were
honourable men. Still, human nature is weak. To see an umbrella like
that hanging loosely on a peg, or to find it ready to hand mixed up
with a lot of ordinary articles, might prove too strong a temptation
for a weak brother. Mr. Collins spared many a possible pang by placing
his umbrella out of range of casual sight in personal charge of the
doorkeeper.
[Illustration: LORD SPENCER.]
[Sidenote: SOME OTHER PEERS.]
I never saw Lord Salisbury in the Lobby, and do not recall any time
when his burly figure was seen looking down from the gallery on the
arena in which the first Lord Robert Cecil played a lively part. Earl
Spencer comes over occasionally for consultation with his colleagues.
Lord Rosebery, with the cares of the Empire on his shoulders, finds
time occasionally to look in at the House, for a seat in which, as he
has sometimes hinted, he would gladly barter his coronet.
_A Bohemian Artists' Club._
BY ALFRED T. STORY.
London numbers many societies for artists; but there is not another so
quaint in its style and so characteristic in all its methods as the
Langham Sketching Club, or, as it is called in brief parlance, and,
in fact, more correctly, "The Langham," for the Sketching Club is in
reality only a part of the whole. It is a very modest and retiring
body, and does not make much ado, or call public attention to itself by
the usual and popular methods of gaining notoriety.
These have always been its leading characteristics. It thought so
little of itself, indeed, in the first instance that it allowed itself
to be ushered into existence in a lowly shed at the bottom of a mews,
or in a stonemason's yard, as some say. This humble abode was situated
in Clipstone Street, Fitzroy Square, and the society's nativity took
place what time the Sailor King ruled the land, some eight years before
Her present Gracious Majesty ascended the throne.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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