In Memoriam.

In the power and faculty of wit which ran through every mood from the grotesque of the pathetic , but with no faintest taint of coarseness , or malice , or unkindliness , and to luring all kinds of people to join in it , no one in onr day has come near him . It was a faculty which had been kept much in restraint in early life , while ho was fighting his way to independence through Glasgow and Cambridge , until he had gained the temporary haven of a Trinity fellowship . But . his reputation as master of tho revels had

already begun to spread when he came to Loudon in 1844 to road for the Bar . So he was at once recruited by " the old stagers , " who had just started on the " tumbling" career which has made the Canterbury week famous . With John Doe aud Richard Roe , the Hon . S . Whitehead , the Chevalier Esrom , the Smith family , and the rest of that unique band , he helped to make the little country theatre and the long room at the Fountain Inn a sort of central shriuo of good wholesome English fun , pouring himself out in prologues , epilogues , play-bills , and squibs , many of which would well repay the zeal of any collector of good things wUo will hunt them up . It was for them that in 1846 ho wrote the first piece which

made his reputation as a dramatist—To Parents and Guardians . And one of them ( a contemporary at Cambridge , now a grave metropolitan magistrate ) became his chum iu the Temple , iu the chambers where Thackeray deposited his wig and gown under their charge , and wrote up his name with theirs over the door , in some vague expectation of possible professional benefits to accrue from that ceremony . Tho rooms were at 10 , Crown Office-row , looking over the Temple gardens , and approached by a staircase from the row . They had also , as a double set , access to a back staircase leading into Hare Courtfrom which circumstanceand the jocose use which both Thackeray and he made

, , of it , the rumour spread of the impecuuiosity of the trio , and of the shifts and stratagems for the mnuipulatiou of clients and the defeat of dims which the second staircase enabled them to perpetrate , with the aid of their boys ( the heroes of the farce Onr Clerks ) . It may be said in passing , however , that there was not a shadow of foundation for such stories . No taint of Bohemia hung about him in this matter . He spent liberally what he earned , but nothing more .

The rooms were among the oldest in the Inn , dating from the Fire of London , but convenient enough , with the exception of one gloomy hole christened by Tom " the hall of waistcoats , " because in it stood the wardrobe in which his chum , a well-dressed man , kept the liberal supply of clothing which he had brought from Cambridge . In it also swung the hammock iu which an occasional belated visitor slept and the laundress deposited her baby when she came to clean the rooms or help cook . The block has been pulled down and rebuilt ; but he has left a memorial of them in the "Templar's Tribute , " part of which may well be repeated here : —

They were fusty , they were musty , they were grimy , dull , and dim , The paint scaled off the panelling , the stairs were all untrim ; The flooring cracked , the windows gaped , the door-posts stood awry , The wind whipped round the corner with a sad and wailing cry . In a dingier set of chambers no man need wish to stow Than those , old friend , wherein we denned at 10 , Crown Office Row .

But we were young if they were old ; we never cared a pin , So the windows kept the rain out and let the sunshine in ; Onr stout hearts mocked the crazy roofs , onr hopes bedecked the wall , We were happy , we were hearty , strong to meet what might befall . Will sunnier hours be ever ours than those which used to go Gay to their end , my dear old friend , in 10 , Crown Office Row ? : * # & " if # = * ' % Those scramblingscreaming dinnerswhere all was frolic fun

, , , From the eager clerks who rushed about , like bullets from a gun , To the sore-bewildered laundress , with Soyer ' s shilling book Thrust of a sudden in her hands , and straightway bade to cook . What silver laughs , what silver songs from those old walls would flow Could they give out all they drank in at 10 , Crown Office Row .

: Jp # VF :. V W W : r ,: You , too , have found a loving mate ; ah , well , 'twas time to go ; So wives we had—the one thing bad—in 10 , Crown Office Kow . Good-bye old rooms , where we chummed years without a single fight , Far statelier sets of chambers will arisempon jour site ; More airy bedrooms , wider panes , our followers will see , And wealthier , wiser tenants the Bench may find than we j But lighter hearts , or truer , I'll defy the town to show Than yours , old friend , and his who penned this , 10 , Crown Office Sow