MONK'S ORCHARD,
UPTON,
Nov. 8, 1904.
DEAR HERBERT,--I have been trying to read the letters of T. E. Brown.
Do you know anything about him? He was a Manxman by birth, a fellow of
Oriel, a Clifton Master for many years, and at the end of his life a
Manxman again--he held a living there. He wrote some spirited tales in
verse, in the Manx vernacular, and he was certainly a poet at heart. He
was fond of music, and a true lover of nature. He had a genius for
friendship, and evidently had the gift of inspiring other people;
high-minded and intelligent men speak of him, in the little memoir that
precedes the letters, with a pathetic reverence and a profound belief
in the man's originality, and even genius. I was so sure that I should
enjoy the book that I ordered it before it was published, and, when it
appeared, it was a very profound disappointment. I don't mean to say
that there are not beautiful things in it; it shows one a wholesome
nature and a grateful, kindly heart; but, in the first place, he writes
a terrible style, the kind of style that imposes on simple people
because it is allusive, and what is called unconventional; to me it is
simply spasmodic and affected. The man seems, as a rule, utterly unable
to say anything in a simple and delicate way; his one object appears to
be not to use the obvious word. He has a sort of jargon of his own--a
dreadful jargon. He must write "crittur" or "craythur," when he means
"creature"; he says "Yiss, ma'am, I'd be glad to jine the Book Club";
he uses the word "galore"; he talks of "the resipiscential process"
when he means growing wiser--at least I think that is what he means.
The following, taken quite at random, are specimens of the sort of
passages that abound:--
"Rain, too, is one of my joys. I want to wash myself, soak myself in
it; hang myself over a meridian to dry; dissolve (still better) into
rags of soppy disintegration, blotting paper, mash and splash and hash
of inarticulate protoplasm."
I suppose that both he and his friends thought that picturesque; to me
it is neither beautiful nor amusing--simply ugly and aggravating.