The Right Hon.

Sir Henry Austen Layard, G.C.B., D.C.L.

FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY.

APRIL 15, 1885-JULY 5, 1894.

The closing words of the President's Address, breathing that spirit of indomitable energy and enthusiasm which characterised him through life up to the very end, have now a pathetic interest for all members of the Society, and especially for those who, in listening to them, felt constrained, though hoping against hope, to persuade themselves that what they heard was indeed the prelude to their President's further work, and not his last farewell. Yet so it was, and in less than two months all was over and the Society was left to mourn an irreparable loss.

Henry Austen Layard was born at Paris on March 5, 1817, his father being an Englishman, but of Huguenot origin and connected with many distinguished Huguenot families. Born in France and brought up in Italy, Layard passed his early life amid surroundings forming a curious counterpart to those of his closing years, which were destined to be so largely spent at Venice and in elucidating the history of France in its Huguenot aspect. At sixteen he left Italy for England, and the future explorer and diplomatist began life in the uncongenial atmosphere of a lawyer's office, being articled to his uncle, Mr. Austen, a London solicitor. Useful as this training was to him (and Layard was not the man to neglect its advantages or disparage its value), it necessarily failed to satisfy his spirit of adventure and natural aptitude for widely different pursuits, and in a very few years we find him turning his steps eastwards to begin that remarkable and stirring series of travels, adventures and discoveries, with which he has made all the world familiar by his successive volumes on Nineveh, Babylon

and (last in order of publication, though first in subjectmatter) his early wanderings in Persia, etc.

On such well-known works it is needless here to dwell, but passing mention may be made of their author's habitual reluctance to respond to the attempts so often made to induce him to talk about his own explorations and their interest and importance. A relative of the present writer has told him that she was one of a large party at Burghley House where Layard happened to be staying when in the hey-day of his fame on returning from his first expedition to Nineveh. The lady in question was taken in to dinner by the lion of the evening, her host whispering to her that she (a young girl at the time) ought to think herself lucky in being so honoured. "But," she used to say, "not only did Mr. Layard preserve an almost oriental silence to myself, but not once all through the evening could anyone prevail upon him to tell us anything about Nineveh, and he seemed as unconscious of its existence as if he had never been there!" This reticence and a generally reserved and at times brusque manner, distinguished Layard through life, but he was nevertheless one of the most genial and kind-hearted of men, with a keen sense of humour, full of warm sympathy when his feelings were aroused, and ever ready to help anyone in any way possible. He was perhaps easily misunderstood by those who did not know him, but those who did were wont to regard him with the strongest attachment.

Layard's career in middle life in the field of politics and diplomacy is of minor interest compared with the brilliant achievements of his earlier years, and even these do not appeal to the members of the Huguenot Society so strongly as the memory of him as their first President, and of all the keen interest he took in the Society's work and well-being from the day when he occupied the chair at its foundation to the closing days of his own life, when, as he said in his Address, he had not strength to do more than send those few words to be read at the Annual Meeting. Sir Henry's very last work for the Society was to append his signature to the diplomas of the Fellows elected during the past Session, but after he could no longer attempt even so slight an exertion, he still continued to enquire eagerly after the Society's

affairs and to say how much he hoped it would continue to prosper and carry on the work he felt so happy in having been able to help in beginning.

Although his residence at Venice for the greater part of the year prevented him from being a regular attendant at the Society's ordinary Meetings, Sir Henry was very far from being a merely nominal President. Ample proof of this is to be seen in his literary work for the Society which is patent to all, but few can be aware of the many efforts he was constantly making to promote the Society's objects and welfare in every possible way, of the pains he took to keep himself acquainted with all its affairs, and to do all that lay in his power to prevent his absences from England being in any degree prejudicial to its interests or lowering his high standard of what should be the duties of its President. Time and trouble, talent and influence, were all ungrudgingly bestowed in the Society's service, and Sir Henry's only regret seemed to be that more work could not be found for him to do for it.

Those who have been most intimately connected with him in the administration of the Society will long miss his active help, his ready tact, his wise counsel, in every matter of doubt and difficulty. But even more than all these will be missed the kindly manner, the warm heart, the many little acts of friendliness, which endeared him. to his colleagues, and which will ever be a pleasant memory to them.

Not long before his death, Sir Henry Layard had prepared for the press a revised and popular edition of his "Early Adventures in Persia, etc." This will shortly be published by Mr. Murray, and prefixed to it will be a Memoir of Sir Henry from the pen of his old friend, Lord Aberdare, which will give full details of the varied life of our late President.

R. S. F.