Qualities, Manners, Morals, and Society;" but these, too, were treated from their light sides, and the same gay stream of agreeable gossip about them bore on its tide great shoals of anecdotes. "Sir Henry Holland's Recollections," "Madame de Sévigné," "Madame du Deffand," suggest papers in which he would be quite in his element, passing with a light step through scenes made picturesque and interesting by the notable and historic figures which crowded them. But of the whole list, the two in which Hayward must have revelled most are "Holland House" and "Strawberry Hill"; combining researches into corners of the history of former generations with personal recollections of famous guests who had frequented those mansions along with him; the whole illustrated by a wealth of anecdote such as no one but himself had amassed, and much of which, until he recorded it, was drifting on the casual current of oral narrative towards oblivion. To tell a good story about famous people for the first time was probably as high a pleasure as he could know. Towards the end of his life his strong memory perhaps began a little to fail him. In his "Madame de Sévigné," published in the volume of 1880, he quotes the wellknown passage about Cleopatra thus translation of Faust,' his earliest publication; the other the biography of Goethe for "Blackwood's Foreign Classics "-written when he was already a very old man. We have been induced to offer this sketch of Mr Hayward because, as we have already noted, he presented a very remarkable individuality, and one well worth preserving, which is nowhere made apparent in these Letters. They might have been written by a man fond of society, of almost any profession or almost any persuasion. When he wrote his letters he put off his shoes of swiftness and laid aside his sword of sharpness, but put on his cloak of darkness, and went masquerading in the, for him, fancy costume of a quite commonplace character. In all companies he was irrepressible and conspicuous. Nobody who knew him could imagine him as conceding, or conciliating, or deferring, or implying concurrence which he did not feel, or meeting dissent with silence, or ignoring arrogant pretension, or resorting to any of the amiable shifts which oil the machinery of social life. He was nothing if not a gladiator. And he led, under these somewhat adverse conditions, a very pleasant life. That there was plenty of matter to outweigh his defects is apparent from the fact that most of his friends went on habitually dining with him up to the last with high mutual satisfac "Age cannot weary her, nor custom tire tion. He alludes, in the letters, to Her infinite variety." instead of "wither" and "stale." This was pointed out to him as a supposed injury done to him by the printer; but he shook his head and said he feared he, not the printer, was the culprit. Besides the seven volumes of his selected Essays, he appears only to have published two other works in volumes-the one his the well-known table at the Athenæum, which he had got to consider his own, as "the Corner," where his most frequent companion was his old and intimate friend Mr Kinglake, whom he esteemed probably more than he esteemed anybody else. Here he enjoyed, on most evenings when he was not dining out-which he very often wasone of the greatest pleasures he could desire, that of being a conspicuous member of a party of distinguished men. To the old friends who generally assembled round him, he added, at every opportunity, any eminent foreigner or stranger admitted as a temporary guest by the rules of the Club -and only such are admitted. To say the truth, he carried this appropriation of desirable guests to an extreme; and many a projected quiet converse between old friends, just met after long separation, has been upset by Hayward insisting on laying hands on the illustrious stranger. Here he would air his anecdotes, ventilate his projects, report the progress of his literary work in hand, and inveigh against his enemies, including in that comprehensive class everybody who differed from him. These scenes he continued to vary by visits to some of the most agreeable houses in England, and to most entertainments in London where many great people were gathered together. For this kind of life he made his income suffice; and it is quite probable that an accession of wealth would not have made him happier. He had quite enough to preserve, what he doubtless valued above most things, his independence. He was of a small, slight figure, stooping a good deal-pale of complexion and high-featured, large of nose and mouth. His hair, white latterly, was smooth, and ended in rows of small curls-insomuch that a lady to whom we pointed him out across Bond Street, noting this fleecy chevelure, observed that he was like a pet lamb -an animal which he did not in other respects resemble. He seemed to enjoy unfailing health up to his final illness, when, in his eighty-third year, at the approach of winter, he found that he could no longer take his seat at the Club. He remained for many weeks in his rooms, still able to enjoy the company of the many fast friends who came to sit with him, his chief consolation being in the company of his tried associate Kinglake, who was unremitting in those visits which gave such comfort to the departing Hayward. For the last few days he took to his bed, having a nurse to take care of him. Towards the close he wandered a little, and at one time fancied the Government wanted to talk with him about difficulties in Egypt, and that he ought to go to them. The nurse, experienced in such matters, sought to soothe him—“No, no, Mr Hayward, 'tis all right about Egypt!" This audacity of hers, first in contradicting him, and then in presuming to know anything about Egypt, recalled his wandering faculties. Looking at the erring though wellmeaning woman, he said, "You hold your tongue; you don't know anything at all about it!"-which characteristic utterance was one of his very last. Of the book itself we have said little, for there is little to say. Many of the letters are written by notable persons; but the subject-matter is dull, and often trivial. An unusual amount of it consists of what people don't want to read, or of what they have read elsewhere. To take an instancethere are many letters about the Crimean war; but what new light do they throw on it? How can it interest anybody to be told what each of several correspondents thought of each of Mr Hayward's articles? or that the Duke of Newcastle was anxious to get into the Athenæum Club? Yet if all matter of this kind were taken out of the book, what would be left? MOSS FROM A ROLLING STONE. XIV. THE ATTACK ON THE BRITISH LEGATION IN JAPAN IN 1861. three hundred yards long, led to a second gateway behind which stood the temple buildings. In the outside court were the servants' offices and stables, in which stood always, saddled and bridled, like those of the knights of Branksome Hall, the horses of our mounted Japanese body-guard, without whose escort no member of the Legation could at that time take a ride abroad. Besides these, there was a foot-guard, partly composed of soldiers of the Tycoon, or Temporal Emperor, as he was then called, and partly by retainers of the Daimios, or feudatory chiefs of the country-the whole amounting to 150 men. These guards were placed here by the Government for our protection, although some of us at the time thought that the precaution was altogether exaggerated and unnecessary, and that their constant presence was intended rather as a measure of surveillance over our movements. To what extent this latter motive operated it is impossible to conjecture, but the sequel showed that the apprehensions of the Government for our safety were by no means unfounded. I had been accompanied from England by Mr Reginald Russell, who had been appointed attaché, and it was with no little curiosity that we rode up the avenue to what was to be our future home. IN October 1860, Mr de Nor- large gateway, an avenue, about man, First Secretary of Legation in Japan, who was temporarily attached to Lord Elgin's second special embassy to China, was barbarously tortured and murdered at Pekin; and early in the following year I was sent out to succeed him. Sir Rutherford Alcock, who had been appointed Minister to Japan under the treaty which we made with that country in 1858, when I was acting-secretary to the special mission, had applied for two years' leave; and thus the prospect was opened to me of acting as chargé d'affaires at Yedo for that period. It was one which my former brief experience in that interesting and comparatively unknown country rendered extremely tempting; and early in June I reached Shanghai, on my way to Yokohama. I was extremely sorry to find that I had just missed Sir Rutherford, who had left Shanghai, only a fortnight before, for Nagasaki, from which town he intended to travel overland to Yedo-a most interesting journey of at least a month, through an entirely unknown country; an experience which, in view of my future residence in it, would have been valuable in many ways. There was nothing left for it but to go, on the first opportunity, by sea; and towards the end of the month I reached Yokohama, from which port I lost no time in pushing on to Yedo. Here I found the Legation established in a temple at the entrance to the city, in one of its principal suburbs, called Sinagawa. It was separated from the sea by a highroad, and on entering the Two or three members of the Legation were waiting to receive us, and showed us over the quaint construction which had been appropriated by the Japanese Government to the use of the first on wiry ponies shod with straw shoes, and with a marked tendency to being vicious and unmanageable. These exploratory rides were a great source of delight and interest to me, for although I had been in the country before, my visit had only lasted a fortnight; and my time had been exclusively devoted to official work, and the examination of the city of Yedo itself, so that I had seen nothing whatever of the surrounding country. Now we scampered across it, to the great consternation of our escort, who found great difficulty in keeping up with us so much so, that upon more than one occasion only two or three of the original number succeeded in reaching home with us. I had determined, moreover, upon making an entomological collection for the British Museum, and set the juvenile part of the population of the villages through which I passed to collecting insects, in the hope that on subsequent visits I might find something worth having. I was successful in almost my first ride foreign Minister who had ever resided in their capital. Part of the building was still used for ecclesiastical purposes, and haunted by priests; but our quarters were roomy and comfortable, the interior economy being susceptible of modification in the number, size, and arrangement of the rooms, by the simple expedient of moving the partition-walls, which consisted of paper-screens running in grooves. The ease with which these could be burst through, as it afterwards proved, afforded equal facilities of escape and attack. One felt rather as if one was liv ing in a bandbox; and there was an air of flimsiness about the whole construction by no means calculated to inspire a sense of security in a capital of over two millions of people, a large proportion of whom we were given to understand were thirsting for our lives. Fortunately for our peace of mind, we did not realise this at the time, and were taken up rather by the quaintness and novelty of our new abode, and the picturesqueness of its surroundings. We congratu- in finding a common-looking but lated ourselves upon the charming garden and grounds, comprising probably two or three acres, abundantly furnished with magnificent wide-spreading trees, and innumerable shrubs and plants which were new to us; while small ponds and tiny islands contributed a feature which is generally to be found in the landscape-gardening in which the Japanese are so proficient. Sir Rutherford Alcock was not expected to arrive for a week, and I occupied the time in establishing myself in my new quarters, and in exploring the neighbourhood on horseback. On these occasions we were always accompanied by an escort of twenty or thirty horsemen, or yaconins, as they are called, mounted very rare beetle; and in this pursuit my English servant-who had spent his youth in the house of a naturalist and ornithologist, and was skilled in the use of the blowpipe, and in the cleaning and stuffing of birds-took an eager interest. After I had been at Yedo about a week, we received news of the approach of Sir Rutherford Alcock and his party, and rode out ten miles to meet them. We were delighted to see them arrive safe and sound after a land-journey of thirty-two days, as we had not been without anxiety on their behalf -for Japan at that period was a region in which sinister rumours were rife, and we never knew how much or how little to believe of them; but now the great ex periment of traversing the country material than the usual paperfor the first time by Europeans screens. Thinking that the dishad been safely and successfully turbances was probably caused by accomplished, and perhaps contrib- some quarrel among the servants, uted to lull us into a security, I jumped out of bed, intending the fallacy of which was destined to arm myself with my revolver, so shortly to be proved to us. which was lying in its case on the table. Unfortunately my servant had that day been cleaning it, and after replacing it and locking the case, had put the key where I could not lay my hands upon it. A box which contained a sword and a coat of mail, which had been laughingly presented to me before leaving England by an anxious friend, had not been opened; so, although well supplied with means both of offence and defence, I was forced in the hurry of the moment to content myself with a hunting-crop, the handle of which was so heavily weighted, that I considered it a sufficiently formidable weapon with which to meet anybody belonging to our own household that I was likely to encounter. Meantime the dog continued to bark violently, and to exhibit unmistakable signs of alarm. Stepping past him, I proceeded along the passage leading to the front of the house, which was only dimly lighted by an oillamp that was standing in the dining-room; the first room on my left was that occupied by Russell, whom I hurriedly roused, and then hearing the noise increasing, rushed out towards it. I had scarcely taken two steps, when I dimly perceived the advancing figure of a Japanese, with uplifted arms and sword; and now commenced a struggle of which it is difficult to render an account. I remember feeling most unaccountably hampered in my efforts to bring the heavy butt-end of my hunting-whip to bear upon him, and to be aware that he was aiming blow after blow at me, and no less unaccountably On the night of the 5th of July a comet was visible, a circumstance to which some of us possibly owed our lives, for we sat up till an unusually late hour looking at it. As one of the party was gifted with a good voice and an extensive repertory of songs, and the evening was warm and still, we protracted our vigil in the open air until past midnight. At our mid-day halt on my ride from Yokohama to Yedo, I had acquired the affections of a stray dog, by feeding him with our luncheonscraps; and this animal had permanently attached himself to me, and was lying across the threshold of the door of my room when I went to bed. I had scarcely blown out my candle and settled myself to a grateful repose, when this dog broke into a sudden and furious barking, and at the same moment I heard the sounds of a watchman's rattle. We had two of these functionaries, whose business it was to perambulate the garden alternately throughout the night, and to show that they were on the alert by springing from time to time a rattle made of bamboo which they carried. Roused by these noises, I listened attentively, and distinctly heard the sounds of what seemed a scuffle at the front door. My room was on the other side of the house, and opened on to the garden, from which quarter it was entirely unprotected. It was connected with the front of the house by a narrow passage, the walls of which, if I remember right, were of lath-and-plaster, or at all events of some firmer |