The two most recent books emanating from Olney are “The Life of Walter Pater”, by Mr Thomas Wright, and “With the 10th Imperial Yeomanry”, by Mr Alfred Smith, coal merchant, & c.

The book on Pater obtained phenomenal success - its first edition being sold out on the day of publication, thus testifying to the esteem in which its author is looked upon in the publishing world. It teems with quaint remarks and doings funnily put together by Mr Thomas Wright, so much so that it attracted the attention of Punch who is ever on the alert for tit-bits. Mr Punch jocularly suggests the illustrations for “Darwin and his Family,” a work which we need scarcely say Mr Wright is not engaged upon.

The “Charivari” account of April 3rd, 1907, is as follows:-

“Having successfully brought out his monumental illustrated Life of the late WALTER PATER, Mr THOMAS WRIGHT has, we are informed, now returned to the completion of his biographical magnum opus, Darwin and his Friends. Here for the first time a flood of light will be thrown on the great Victorian philosopher and naturalist’s inner life, which will, as in the case of PATER, be inexorably illustrated by a profusion of magnificent and poignantly appropriate plates, many hundreds in number. Of these the most important and significant are the following:- (1) Figure head of the Beagle, in which DARWIN made his celebrated voyage to South America. (2) Belaying-pin from the Beagle, kindly lent by the grandson of the purser who sailed on the voyage in question. (3) Photograph of the Eton Beagles breaking up a hare. (4) Portrait of the Headmaster of Eton conversing with Mr WRIGHT (5) Portraits of Mr SILAS K HOCKING, Miss MARIE CORELLI, and Mr MORLEY ROBERTS, illustrating DARWIN'S notorious fondness for novels. (6) Facsimile (life-size) of early Victorian bull's eyes, to illustrate DARWIN'S extraordinary partiality as a boy for sweetmeats. (7) Pen-drawing of DARWIN'S dustbin, with Mr WRIGHT in the foreground. (8) Facsimile of one of DARWIN'S washing bills now in the possession of a biographer. (9) Facsimile of a letter from DARWIN declining an honorary degree from the University of Speonk, NY. (10) Daguerreotype portrait of the hairdresser who used to cut the hair of the great philosopher. (11) Daguerreotype portraits of five other hairdressers who never cut DARWIN'S hair. (12) Photograph of the stocks at Down (Kent), with Mr WRIGHT in the foreground (13) Photograph of Down Street Station on the Brompton-King's Cross Tube Railway. (14) Photograph of DARWIN'S family boot trees. (15) Pen drawing of two lumps of sugar which DARWIN refused to have put in a cup of tea while paying an afternoon visit on Mrs BEGTHWAYT, a neighbour of his in Kent. (16) Water-colour sketch of a rocking-horse belonging to the grand-niece of DARWIN'S groom, ANDREW BOAKES. (17) Enlarged photograph of an earthworm recently discovered at Down by Mr WRIGHT. (18) Photograph (reduced) of a carpet bag belonging to JOSEPH WORNUM, a schoolmate of DARWIN'S who subsequently made a fortune as a hardware manufacturer. (19) Collotype portraits of three friends of DARWIN of whom no one has ever heard. (20) Three-colour print of a toboggan run at Montana (Switzerland), representing "The Descent of Man". (21) Pen drawing of waste-paper basket formerly belonging to DARWIN, now in the possession of his biographer. (22) Portrait of Mr BERNARD DARWIN, the famous amateur golfer, as he appeared when interrogated by Mr WRIGHT on the subject of missing links. (23) Photograph of Wright's Lane, Kensington. (24) Snapshots of the DARWIN family on receiving the momentous intelligence that Mr WRIGHT was determined to undertake the biography of their illustrious ancestor

NB: The three below remind one of those who trotted Punch round the town - failing themselves to see where the laugh came in.

The following reviews give a fair idea of how our well-known townsman’s book was received.

The Daily News says: "Certainly for the first time in biography Pater lives and moves in this narrative."

The Athenæum says: "The book contains a good deal of new material, especially in the account given of the literary relations between Pater and Oscar Wilde".

The Pall Mall Gazette says: "Mr Wright has produced a work of great interest ………he has succeeded in compiling a record which must be consulted by all students of Pater's work and character".

The Standard says: "Mr Thomas Wright ..... leaves no stone unturned, no interview unaccomplished, no letter unwritten, no pilgrimage unmade, in the attempt to sweep all things, great and small, into the great drag net of the kind of biography in which he excels".

The Scotsman says: "Mr Wright's work makes faith at once as a book distinguished primarily and essentially by the scholar's virtue of patient research and exact learning…… This biographer does not deny Pater insight and genius, and so may be said to allow him everything; but it must be for erudition, for substantial value as a storehouse of hard facts………that these volumes rank as important in the history of English literature in the nineteenth century. They have a rich equipment of portraits of Pater and his friends (including him who was the model for Marius, the Epicurean) and of the places associated with Pater's academic and literary activities. They are remarkably wealthy in particulars concerning his youthful years and his life at school and as an undergraduate. They give an interesting account of the central event of his life, his connection with the St Austin's "monkery". They are full of anecdote, full of facts, full of interesting little things".

The Times draws attention to "the mass of new facts accumulated by Mr Wright".

The Outlook says: "Much amusement may be collected from these two large volumes".

P.T.O. says "Ruthless in anecdote, Boswellian in candour, unlimited in curiosity is Mr Thomas Wright's biography……..The Life of Walter Pater, as Mr Wright has written it, is a wonderfully full and entertaining account of a man's relation to his age".

The Oxford Chronicle say: Mr Wright's researches have brought to light a great many facts about Pater's school days at Canterbury of which nothing has been given by previous biographers.

Mr Smith’s “With the 10th Imperial Yeomanry”, who terms himself “Tommy Atkins” on page 68, line 31, of his brochure, gives a graphic illustration of his remembered experiences from the time he volunteered for active service in South Africa on December 22nd 1899, until he returned on April 22nd, 1901. He had many exciting experiences and home sicknesses, but never-the-less came through the ordeal of warfare fairly well, as his present smiling face and agile appearance leads one to believe.


There are many comical incidents which might have been illustrated for the amusement of readers of these pages had space permitted. The following quotation will fully explain the six illustrations depicted herewith upon the scroll at the side of “Tommy” who is standing sentry upon the South African veldt, as “A Soldier of the Queen”.