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been the happiest. He did not write as a professional author, but yet no author has ever had The check for twentyso great a remuneration. thousand pounds that he received from the Longmans on account of sales of his history is one of the wonders of the nineteenth century.

He lies buried in Westminster Abbey, that great temple of reconciliation" he loved so well to describe, and of all the eminent Englishmen with whose dust his own now mingles there are few greater than he.

"MOCK PEARLS OF

BIOGRAPHY."

APOCRYPHAL STORY OF LORD MACAULAY.

ABRAHAM HAYWARD, in his essay on "The Pearls and Mock Pearls of History," speaks of the persistence of anecdotes and stories about great men that continue to be repeated over and over again, though their improbability or falsity has often been exposed. These he calls "mock pearls."

A "mock pearl" of this sort came under my notice a few years ago for the first time concerning Lord Macaulay, that seemed so improbable that I took some pains to inquire into it.

This story has again appeared in an article written by Rev. T. H. S. Escott, a well-known London writer, published in a recent number of Chambers's Journal.

The article describes some of the old inns in and around London and among others the

"Star and Garter" at Richmond, celebrated for its whitebait, and goes on to say:

In that same apartment some six-and-forty years earlier had dined, without any companion, another gentleman of unimpressive and plebeian appearance, also on the eve of his departure for the East. Sitting over his solitary glass of claret, this gentleman amused himself by piling the wine glasses and decanters within his reach one upon another till he had reared a crystal pyramid of some height, and he was crowning the structure with some other article when suddenly the crash came and the guest found himself surrounded by a litter of glass splinters. The customer sighed; the waiter, evidently familiar with the proceeding, brought the bill without the slightest sign of surprise, quietly as if the crash of glass were not a bit more out of the common than the ringing of the bell. Nor, indeed, was it. It was the little custom of a great man after dinner-the common-looking gentleman who took his pleasure thus oddly. He happened to be Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay. In 1834 he had just been appointed legal adviser to the Supreme Council of India, and he was then preparing to bid a long adieu to whitebait.

This story is sometimes given under one date and sometimes under another. Here is another form of it:

The pleasant coffee-room of the old "Star and Garter" at Richmond-which was burned down in 1869-was patronized by statesmen, politicians, and writers, On Saturday evenings it was regularly visited by a middle-aged gentleman of rather broad stature, with gray hair and a large shirt collar, which formed a conspicuous feature in his attire. He would dine

always alone at a particular corner table, and after dinner it was his humor to build up before him a pyramid of tumblers and wine-glasses, which he topped with a decanter. Occasionally the whole structure would topple over and litter the table with its ruins. Then the middle-aged gentleman would rise, pay his bill, including the charge for broken glass, and depart. The waiters knew him well-he was Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay !

This grotesque anecdote seemed to me so absurd and so utterly out of keeping with Macaulay's character that several years ago I inclosed the story in a letter to Sir George Otto Trevelyan, Macaulay's nephew and biographer, and asked him what foundation, if any, there was for it.

Under date of February 10, 1899, I received the following answer :

The alleged anecdote about Macaulay is, as you suppose, an absurdity. He was very normal in all his personal habits and quite free from eccentricity. He appears to have heard of the paragraph at the time, though not to have seen it, for there is an entry to this effect in his diary. quote from recollection, for I have not the diary by me: "There is a story going the rounds of the newspapers about my having knocked over a decanter in a coffee-room and not having seemed disconcerted by it. I do not recollect the circumstance, but if it had occurred I do not think that I should have lost my self-possession."

I remain yours truly,

G. O. TREVELYAN.

JOHN N. CRAWFORD.

I have not published this note before, for I hardly expected to see this "mock pearl" bob up again, but inasmuch as it has been set going, with a responsible indorser, I will send the note after it, knowing full well, however, that the truth can never overtake a well-told lie.

The period of the first form of the story is on the eve of Macaulay's departure for India, and he is described as of "unimpressive and plebeian appearance." This was in 1834, when he was in his thirty-fourth year.

In the second he is "a middle-aged gentleman of rather broad stature, with gray hair and a large shirt collar." This, of course, must have been after his return from India.

Both stories speak of him as "Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay," which is also absurd, for that was not the style of his title. He was Baron or Lord Macaulay of Rothley. He was not made a peer until August, 1857, long after he had ceased to visit the "Star and Garter," if, indeed, he had ever been in the habit of going there at all.

The whole thing, including the descriptions of his personal appearance, is as absurd and ridiculous as can well be imagined. No person that knows anything whatever of Lord Macaulay

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