. George Meredith; his life and friends in relation to his work. nths passed, and he saw andheard for the last time the magic of Spring. OnFriday, 14th May, 1909, he went in his usual healthfor his customary drive. He contracted a chill,which was aggravated by going out again the nextday—the last time he was to traverse Box was taken seriously ill on the Sunday and,despite every attention, the action of the heartfailed, though he was conscious almost to the son and daughter, and his faithful attendant,Miss Nicholls, were with him. And he rememberedhis dog Sandie almost to the l
. George Meredith; his life and friends in relation to his work. nths passed, and he saw andheard for the last time the magic of Spring. OnFriday, 14th May, 1909, he went in his usual healthfor his customary drive. He contracted a chill,which was aggravated by going out again the nextday—the last time he was to traverse Box was taken seriously ill on the Sunday and,despite every attention, the action of the heartfailed, though he was conscious almost to the son and daughter, and his faithful attendant,Miss Nicholls, were with him. And he rememberedhis dog Sandie almost to the last. With face to the dawn, George Meredith died on18th May, 1909, at that early hour of the morningnear dawn he had so exquisitely pictured in Lovein the Valley. He died in green-winged spring, when thelovely surroundings of his home were clothed intheir most beautiful vestments. There was an ex-ceptional ecstasy of blossom that year in the Surreygardens and lanes, lilac and laburnum and horse-chestnut and hawthorn blending with the glorious ???V Vv /. ?^ -O - a o ? DEATH 819 sunshine in harmonious blaze of colour to light thelast journey of him whose credo was Nature, and whohad been Natures supreme Singer for sixty years. It is needless to discuss here the illogical decisionwhich denied to George Merediths cremated ashesa resting-place in Westminster Abbey while at thesame time it provided a memorial service therefor this Naturist whose views were unorthodox toclerics of the Higher Criticism. Far better wasit to bury him, as he wished, beside his second wifein Dorking Cemetery. Sweeter the green grassturf than Abbey pavements, he said. He rests in his own loved valley, guarded byRanmore, Leith Hill, Norbury, and Box , Surrey holds Meredith in death as in life. The following sonnet was one of the last things written by Watts-Dunton, and it is published for the first time here by the kindpermission of Mrs Watts-Dunton and the executor. To George Meredith on his L
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