Notes Form a Diary, 1892-1895 Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1904 Excerpt: ...where I had not been since I went on a like melancholy errand after the death of Lord Derby. 4. Sat long with Reeve. He told me that he had been reading a good deal lately on the period of the Commonwealth, and threw quite a new light upon Milton's famous sonnet, by telling me that many of the massacres in the Waldensian valleys were perpetrated by Irish Catholics, who had been driven from their homes by Cromwell. He showed me, too, the Life of Cousin, in three volumes, just completed by Barthe"lemy St. Hilaire, who must be about ninety. That led to some talk about Cousin and his amusing perplexity when he found himself transferred from the Sorbonne to the Ministry of Education, which he described as a "Couvent de jeunes filles revolves." Finished Christianity and the Roman Empire, by Mr. Addis, which Dr. James Martineau praised when I went to see him on New Year's Day; a very sane little manual, but not containing much that was new to me. Here and there, however, I came on a curious fact, as for example, that when St. Benedict went to Monte Casino in 529, he found the people in that neighbourhood still worshipping Venus and Apollo. Dined at Grillion's--a party of six. Conversation found its way to a very eminent person, whose field of fame, however, had not been the House of Commons. "He was making a very dull speech one evening," said Lord Ashbourne, "when I remarked to on the dreariness of the performance. 'He is an admirable man, ' was the reply; 'I wish we had him.' 'What would you do with him?' 'Do with him? Send him to Ireland, of course He would disperse any unlawful assembly in five minutes '" An engagement just announced led to talk about Englishmen marrying Americans, and to the aversion which they have, on the ...