Tracks Of A Rolling Stone By Henry J. Coke




























































































































 -   He edited Isaac Barrow's works for 
the University of Cambridge, also Boswell's 'Johnson,' and 
gave various other proofs of - Page 41
Tracks Of A Rolling Stone By Henry J. Coke - Page 41 of 208 - First - Home

Enter page number    Previous Next

Number of Words to Display Per Page: 250 500 1000

He Edited Isaac Barrow's Works For The University Of Cambridge, Also Boswell's 'Johnson,' And Gave Various Other Proofs Of His Talents And His Scholarship.

He was the most delightful of companions; liberal-minded in the highest degree; full of quaint humour and quick

Sympathy; an excellent parish priest, - looking upon Christianity as a life and not a dogma; beloved by all, for he had a kind thought and a kind word for every needy or sick being in his parish.

With such qualities, the man always predominated over the priest. Hence his large-hearted charity and indulgence for the faults - nay, crimes - of others. Yet, if taken aback by an outrage, or an act of gross stupidity, which even the perpetrator himself had to suffer for, he would momentarily lose his patience, and rap out an objurgation that would stagger the straiter-laced gentlemen of his own cloth, or an outsider who knew less of him than - the recording angel.

A fellow undergraduate of Napier's told me a characteristic anecdote of his impetuosity. Both were Trinity men, and had been keeping high jinks at a supper party at Caius. The friend suddenly pointed to the clock, reminding Napier they had but five minutes to get into college before Trinity gates were closed. 'D-n the clock!' shouted Napier, and snatching up the sugar basin (it was not EAU SUCREE they were drinking), incontinently flung it at the face of the offending timepiece.

This youthful vivacity did not desert him in later years. An old college friend - also a Scotchman - had become Bishop of Edinburgh. Napier paid him a visit (he described it to me himself). They talked of books, they talked of politics, they talked of English Bards and Scotch Reviewers, of Brougham, Horner, Wilson, Macaulay, Jeffrey, of Carlyle's dealings with Napier's father - 'Nosey,' as Carlyle calls him. They chatted into the small hours of the night, as boon companions, and as what Bacon calls 'full' men, are wont. The claret, once so famous in the 'land of cakes,' had given place to toddy; its flow was in due measure to the flow of soul. But all that ends is short - the old friends had spent their last evening together. Yes, their last, perhaps. It was bed-time, and quoth Napier to his lordship, 'I tell you what it is, Bishop, I am na fou', but I'll be hanged if I haven't got two left legs.'

'I see something odd about them,' says his lordship. 'We'd better go to bed.'

Who the bishop was I do not know, but I'll answer for it he was one of the right sort.

In 1846 I became an undergraduate of Trinity College, Cambridge. I do not envy the man (though, of course, one ought) whose college days are not the happiest to look back upon. One should hope that however profitably a young man spends his time at the University, it is but the preparation for something better.

Enter page number   Previous Next
Page 41 of 208
Words from 20533 to 21034 of 106633


Previous 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 Next

More links: First 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200
 Last

Display Words Per Page: 250 500 1000

 
Africa (29)
Asia (27)
Europe (59)
North America (58)
Oceania (24)
South America (8)
 

List of Travel Books RSS Feeds

Africa Travel Books RSS Feed

Asia Travel Books RSS Feed

Europe Travel Books RSS Feed

North America Travel Books RSS Feed

Oceania Travel Books RSS Feed

South America Travel Books RSS Feed

Copyright © 2005 - 2022 Travel Books Online