DOI Heft:
Nr. 100 (July 1901)
DOI Artikel:Baldry, Alfred Lys: The work of J. M. Swan, A.R.A., [1]
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.19788#0099
Stanhope Forbes, A.R.A.
THE WORK OF STANHOPE A. of its hospitalities; it is a cottage on a high-lying
FORBES, A.R.A. BY NORMAN farm, where he lives as idyllic an existence as is
GARSTIN. permitted to men so far removed from the Golden
Age.
Mr. Stanhope Forbes comes of a great railway Mr. Forbes possesses to a supreme degree the
family, whose daily life consists in arranging capacity of appreciation; the spiral blossoms of a
intricate combinations and manoeuvres necessitat- hollyhock move him to admiration, but so does
ing the extremes of forethought, and compelling the irresistible force of an ironclad as she sweeps,
unflagging attention and precise obedience through- cleaving great curves of foam, through the blue
out all the various grades of their army of workers, waters of Mount's Bay stretched out below his
They are in their own province lords over men home ; so does a good story, a concert, or a smooth
and controllers of forces and finances that might road under his Dunlop tyres. All this helps us to
make many princelings envious. It is hardly a understand the man—for the artist is after all only
metaphor to say that Mr. Forbes has been a man who deals in pleasurable emotions, and
nourished by steam and electricity, and that iron reflects in some medium or another the waves of
has entered into his soul in a sense not intended feeling that fall upon him from the infinite sugges-
by the sacred writer. tions of nature. Each facet in the complicated
This is not mere rhe-
toric ; we are all moulded
by circumstances, though
their vast number and
complexity make it almost
impossible to pronounce
as to which has been a chief
factor in forming our char-
acters. But what I want
to say is, that Mr. Forbes
•comes of a stock which
is essentially of the nine-
teenth century, full of its
movement and its restless
activity.
His nature is an unusual
■compound of enthusiasm
and scepticism, of strong
•opinions and generous de-
ference to the ideas of
others, the whole blended
and kept sane and whole-
some by an unfailing sense
of humour. This is an
•elixir of good sense, a drop
of which, falling into some
wrong-headed argument or-
■exaggerated proposition,
•explodes all the nonsense
and party feeling, and clears
the air of heat and vaporous
obscurity, and no one has
done so much to hold
the little community of
Newlyn together as Mr.
Stanhope Forbes. His
pretty home is the centre portrait of stanhope a. forbes, a.r.a. uy mrs. s. a. forbes
XXIII. No. ioo.—July, 1901. 81
THE WORK OF STANHOPE A. of its hospitalities; it is a cottage on a high-lying
FORBES, A.R.A. BY NORMAN farm, where he lives as idyllic an existence as is
GARSTIN. permitted to men so far removed from the Golden
Age.
Mr. Stanhope Forbes comes of a great railway Mr. Forbes possesses to a supreme degree the
family, whose daily life consists in arranging capacity of appreciation; the spiral blossoms of a
intricate combinations and manoeuvres necessitat- hollyhock move him to admiration, but so does
ing the extremes of forethought, and compelling the irresistible force of an ironclad as she sweeps,
unflagging attention and precise obedience through- cleaving great curves of foam, through the blue
out all the various grades of their army of workers, waters of Mount's Bay stretched out below his
They are in their own province lords over men home ; so does a good story, a concert, or a smooth
and controllers of forces and finances that might road under his Dunlop tyres. All this helps us to
make many princelings envious. It is hardly a understand the man—for the artist is after all only
metaphor to say that Mr. Forbes has been a man who deals in pleasurable emotions, and
nourished by steam and electricity, and that iron reflects in some medium or another the waves of
has entered into his soul in a sense not intended feeling that fall upon him from the infinite sugges-
by the sacred writer. tions of nature. Each facet in the complicated
This is not mere rhe-
toric ; we are all moulded
by circumstances, though
their vast number and
complexity make it almost
impossible to pronounce
as to which has been a chief
factor in forming our char-
acters. But what I want
to say is, that Mr. Forbes
•comes of a stock which
is essentially of the nine-
teenth century, full of its
movement and its restless
activity.
His nature is an unusual
■compound of enthusiasm
and scepticism, of strong
•opinions and generous de-
ference to the ideas of
others, the whole blended
and kept sane and whole-
some by an unfailing sense
of humour. This is an
•elixir of good sense, a drop
of which, falling into some
wrong-headed argument or-
■exaggerated proposition,
•explodes all the nonsense
and party feeling, and clears
the air of heat and vaporous
obscurity, and no one has
done so much to hold
the little community of
Newlyn together as Mr.
Stanhope Forbes. His
pretty home is the centre portrait of stanhope a. forbes, a.r.a. uy mrs. s. a. forbes
XXIII. No. ioo.—July, 1901. 81