PREFACE THE THE title prefixed to these reminiscences does not more indicate the person with whom they are mainly concerned, than a characteristic of the work itself. Turning now and again from gay to grave, it treats of the social as well as the scholastic life in which its subject moved, and derives much of whatever interest it may possess from its many points of contact with various kinds of peopleprinces and peers, parsons and professors, lawyers and legislators. In its personal application I use the epithet versatile to indicate rather the wide interests of an active mind and the manifold sympathies of a large heart, than any superficiality in the quest for knowledge, or any restless insincerity of disposition. To Edward Nares this versatility was doubtless a source both of strength and weakness, contributing in some ways to the success, and in others to the comparative failure, of his career. For while it led him so to extend his range of knowledge as to enable him to treat many subjects from various aspects, it hindered him from applying himself to any definite object as the goal of his ambition. There was, therefore, in his earlier years a lack of purpose and proportion, which might have more seriously hampered him in his later work had it not been to a large extent qualified by a sincerely religious disposition, a high sense of duty, and an untiring diligence. Later writers have done scant justice to his career in their brief references to it. Dean Stanley, for instance, in his "Life of Dr. Arnold," speaks of the Professorship having been practically in abeyance for twenty years owing to the infirmities of the occupant of the Chair. When, however, it is seen that Dr. Nares lectured regularly up to within at least six years of his death, and completed the publication of his "Life of Lord Burleigh" only four years previously, it is obvious that the Dean's statement was, unintentionally, somewhat exaggerated. It is only needful to add that the following pages are drawn mainly from Dr. Nares' own record of his life and work, and letters found among his papers. A TRIP TO FLANDERS-A CAPUCHIN VICAIRE-A POINT OF REGIMENTAL HONOUR-RIGHT HON. J. BARRÉ, M.P.— |