poem  must  count  for  something,  and  that,  there-
fore, the  Iliad  might  have  a  prior  claim.  He,
however,  stuck  to  his  opinion  that  the  Agamemnon
is  "  the  grandest  work  of  creative  genius  in  the
whole  range  of  literature,"  and  added  that,  the
oftener  he  read  it,  the  more  he  admired  it.
Others  of  his  friends  besides  Miss  Swanwick
had  experience  of  his  attempts  to  break  the  social
ice  by  plunging  headlong  into  a  discussion.  A
very  shy  young  lady,  paying  him  a  first  visit,  was
startled  by  the  question  :  "  Which  is  your  favourite
English  sonnet  ?  "  He  himself  was  especially
fond  of  Wordsworth's  sonnet  on  Westminster
Bridge,  and  of  Blanco  White's  only  sonnet.  I
am  told  that  he  sometimes  asked  ladies  what  they
thought  of  this  last  sonnet,  as  a  sure  test  of  their
literary  judgment.  He  cared  little  for  John
Inglesant.  To  a  lady  who  inquired  whether  he
liked  it,  he  gave  what  in  the  Art  of  Pluck  is  called
the  answer  indirect :  "  You  are  asking  me  what
everybody  asks  me  everywhere."  I  am  now
bordering  on  a  province  of  my  subject  which  I
enter  with  some  trepidation.
