[B] In "Gilbert Gurney," Hook makes Daly say, "I am the man; I did it;
for originality of thought and design, I _do_ think that was perfect."
[C] Mr. Barham has a confused account of this incident. He was not
present on the occasion, as I was, standing close by the piano when it
occurred.
[D] His biographer does not seem aware that for several months before he
became editor of the "New Monthly" he wrote the "Monthly Commentary" for
that magazine,--a pleasant, piquant, and sometimes severe series of
comments on the leading topics or events of the month.
[E] Mr. Peake, the dramatist, who wrote most of the "Mathews at Home,"
attributes this epitaph to John Hardwicke. Lockhart gives it to Hook.
Hook pictures Beazley in "Gilbert Gurney":--"His conversation was full
of droll conceits, mixed with a considerable degree of superior talent,
and the strongest evidence of general acquirements and accomplishments."
[F] "He was plump, short, with an intelligent countenance, and
near-sighted, with, a constitution and complexion fresh enough to look
forty, when _I_ believed him to be at least four times that
age."--_Gilbert Gurney._
[G] He played a practical joke upon the actors of the Brighton Theatre,
who were defective of a letter in their dialogue, by sending to them a
packet, containing, on cards of various sizes, the letter H.
[H] While on his death-bed, Sir Robert Peel sent him a sum of money,
probably not the first. It arrived in time to pay his funeral expenses.
In September, 1842, a subscription was made for the widow and children
of Dr. Maginn,--Dr. Giffard (then editor of the "Standard") and Lockhart
being trustees in England, the Bishop of Cork and the Provost of Trinity
College, Dublin, in Ireland, and Professor Wilson in Scotland. The card
that was issued said truly,--"No one ever listened to Maginn's
conversation, or perused even the hastiest of his minor writings,
without feeling the interest of very extraordinary talent; his classical
learning was profound and accurate; his mastery of modern languages
almost unrivalled; his knowledge of mankind and their affairs great and
multifarious"; but it did not state truly, that, "in all his essays,
verse or prose, serious or comic, he never trespassed against decorum or
sound morals," or that "the keenness of his wit was combined with such
playfulness of fancy, good-humor, and kindness of natural sentiment,
that his merits were ungrudgingly acknowledged even by those of politics
most different from his own."