Surrounded by attached friends, universally respected for his upright and prepossessing character, cherished by those who approached him nearest, and the object of popular admiration all over the world, Longfellow lived one of the most prosperous, and it may be supposed one of the happiest, lives recorded in poetic annals. Fame sought him early, clung to him tenaciously, and never abandoned him; and Fortune allied herself to Fame." "In In the same number are two poems Memoriam "-one by Mr. Austin Dobson, and the other by Mr. T. Hall Caine. A proposal made by Dr. W. C. Bennett, the well-known author of 'Songs for Sailors,' to place by public subscription a bust of Longfellow in Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey, was received with universal approbation. The committee formed by Dr. Bennett numbered above five hundred. The Prince of Wales accepted the office of chairman, and Mr. Francis Bennoch was the honorary treasurer. The marble bust, by Mr. Thomas Brock, A.R.A., was admitted to its present place in the Abbey by Dean Bradley, this being the first monument of an American author placed there. The five hundred autograph adhesions to the committee were presented by the honorary secretary, Dr. Bennett, to the American Longfellow Memorial His bust Westminster placed in Abbey. Committee, to be placed in such public institution as should best enable them to be inspected by the public of the United States.* On the 1st of April also particulars are given of the sale at Messrs. Sotheby's of some valuable Mr. Beresford books and manuscripts from the library of Mr. Hope's books and MSS. Beresford Hope. The entire sale, comprising Review. America's 466 lots, produced 2,310, and included the First Folio Shakspeare, which fetched 2381; the Second, 35% 10s.; the Third, 727. 10s.; and the Fourth, 247.; the first edition of Homer in Greek, 71.; Bedæ Exposicio Lucæ et Actuum Apostolorum,' MS. on vellum, written for Ferdinand of Castile, 557.; and Biblia Polyglotta, printed at the expense of Cardinal Ximenez, 1661. An obituary notice of Mr. Beresford Hope, founder of the Saturday Review, appeared in the Athenæum of the 29th of October, 1887. The first number of the Saturday Review was published on the 3rd of November, 1855, with Mr. John Douglas Cook as editor. He was succeeded by Mr. Philip Harwood, who died in December, 1887. Denis Florence MacCarthy died on the 7th *The Share of America in Westminster Abbey' share in is the subject of an article by Archdeacon Farrar in Westminster Harper's Magazine for January, 1888, in which an illustration of the Longfellow bust is given. Abbey. Florence of April, 1882, at Blackrock, near Dublin. He Denis was born at Dublin about the year 1817, and first MacCarthy. became known as a writer through his poetical contributions to the Nation. The Athenæum of the 15th of April states that "Mr. MacCarthy's poems, notably the Bell-Founder,' the 'Voyage of St. Brendan,' the 'Foray of Con O'Donell,' and the Pillar Towers of Ireland,' acquired and still retain wide popularity among the Irish people. One of the most generally admired of his lyrics was that entitled 'Summer Longings,' commencing : Ah! my heart is weary waiting, Waiting for the May Waiting for the pleasant rambles Where the fragrant hawthorn brambles, Scent the dewy way. .In addition to his translations of Calderon Mr. MacCarthy published a curious treatise on the 'Mémoires de Villars,' printed for the Philobiblon Society in 1862, and a volume in 1872 on 'Shelley's Early Life.' In the latter book a question was raised which excited some interest in connexion with a satirical poem supposed to have been published by Shelley in 1811, but of which no copy seems to be now obtainable. Mr. MacCarthy's last work was an ode for the centenary of Thomas Moore in 1879." 'Summer Longings.' Dante Gabriel Rossetti. On April 15th, 1882, also appears an affectionate tribute to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, from his friend Mr. Theodore Watts: "A life more devoted to literature and art than his it is impossible to imagine. Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti was born at 38, Charlotte Street, Portland Place, London, on the 12th of May, 1828. He was His father. the first son and second child of Gabriele Rossetti, the patriotic poet, who, born at Vasto in the Abruzzi, settled in Naples, and took an active part in extorting from the Neapolitan king Ferdinand I. the constitution granted in 1820, which constitution being traitorously cancelled by the king in 1821, Rossetti had to escape for his life to Malta with various other persecuted constitutionalists. From Malta Gabriele Rossetti went to England about 1823, where he married in 1826 Frances Polidori, daughter of Alfieri's secretary and sister of Byron's Dr. Polidori. He became Professor of Italian in King's College, London, became also prominent as a commentator on Dante, and died in April, 1854. His children, four in number-Maria Francesca, Dante Gabriel, William Michael, and Christina Georgina all turned to literature or to art, or to both, and all became famous. There can, indeed, be no doubt that the Rossetti family will hold a position quite unique in the literary and artistic annals of our time......In the spring of 1860 he His marriage. married Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall, who being very beautiful was constantly painted and drawn by him. She had one still-born child in 1861, and died in February, 1862." Rossetti died on Easter day, 1882, at Birchington-on-Sea, supported on one side by his closest friend, Mr. Theodore Watts, on the other by Mr. T. Hall Caine. In addition to Mr. Watts's memoir, an account of Rossetti's career as a painter is given. On the 29th of April Miss Christina G. Rossetti contributes a poem, 'Birchington Churchyard'; and on the 4th of November Recollections of Dante Hall Caine's Gabriel Rossetti,' by T. Hall Caine, is noticed. On the 12th of March, 1887, a review appears of 'The Collected Works of Dante Gabriel Rossetti,' edited, with preface and notes, by William M. Rossetti. "Not the least interesting portion of these volumes is the preface, in which the outline of the poet's life is sketched by his brother......To tell biographers to take it as a model would be idle, for the quality in question, being the natural and inevitable outcome of individual character, can no more be acquired than the 'marsh mallow can steal the breath of the violet.' To appreciate it fully one must contrast it with Forster's writings upon Dickens and Landor." 'Recollections.' His collected works, edited by William M. Rossetti. |