Salutation to Five: Mrs. Fitzherbert, Edmond Warre, Sir William Butler, Leo Tolstoy, Sir Mark Sykes

by Shane Leslie, Leslie Shane

SALUTATION TO FIVE SALUTATION TO FIVE by SHANE LESLIE Biography Index Reprint Series BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES PRESS FREEPORT, NEW YORK CONTENTS RETROSPECT .. .. .. .. i I. MRS. FITZHERBERT . . . . . . z6 n. EDMOND WARRE . . . . . . 42 m. SIR WILLIAM BUTLER . . . . . . 66 IV. LEO TOLSTOY . . . . . . . . 99 V. SIR MARK SYKES . . . . 133 7104961 KANSAS CITY MO. PUBUC LIBRARY MORTUIS MORITURUS RETROSPECT THE five essays in biography which compose this volume Edmond Warre, Headmaster of Eton Sir William Butler, British General and Irish patriot Sir Mark Sykes, Orientalist and traveller Mrs. Fitzherbert, wife of George IV and Leo Tolstoy have little in common except their personal interest in my mind for this preface is autobiography. They need framing in the manner that old photographs are glued into a family scrap-book. They need not be relatives but may be objects of hero-worship. All five have been so much a part of my life that I feel I shall carry their remem brance away with me. Warre, the god of Eton days Butler, my first steersman on Irish troubled water Tolstoy, inspiration of my Paris days Mark Sykes, an Occidental star who dipped under the horizons of Versailles not to reappear, Mrs. Fitzherbert, naturally, was the one of the five I could not know while she lived. But her mysterious and gracious memory had remained like a family ghost in my home and I was destined to be her final champion with the pen. llie others passed one by one into my impressionable ken until I felt the debt could only be paid by writing. While weaving each into essay form, I found my own mind s biography collecting in the margins like dust upon the gilt-edge. Life is too short to decide whether chance or heredity, choice or environments play the strongest influences. All shared in mine but particularly certain characters, some strong and some quaint or queer. Thanks to books, one can double and redouble life s brevity. In a great library one can taste or drain the life-blood of the great writers But the great who have not written, one must follow awhile and write into literature for oneself. Autobiography is the result of following back one s own SALUTATION TO FIVE tracks and recording impressions which may one day be examined like any dead film of the past. The mind of man is like some indestructible toy. It brings back visions out of invisible memory and it can construct possible futures. There is no doubt which is the more restful. Everyone who can think a little can flutter backwards in his own life or borrow the mightier wings of great writers. Not for nothing did the Latin for feather give us the word for pen I have found the power of fluttering back one of the pleasantest variants to life. I have envied the power of the Lady of Shalott to sit in a trance and watch a mirrored world pass by. The mirror of the mind is literature. The supreme gift of an education is the power of reading, the fascination of dipping into other worlds and being able to conjure greater spirits than oneself. It reconciled me to being a sap at Eton under the athletic reign of Warre when any appreciation of literature left one despised and avoided. This was otherwise in the more civilised parts of the School, but I was dropped into a dark corner. I was glad to exchange the Playing Fields for the Champs filys es of Paris before I had been confirmed in Church principles or even in the right style of rowing. The exploration of Letters kept me busily delighted in the Latin Quarter and I could have subscribed to what a great poet picked as the greatest line in Kipling concerning fools that were flannelled and oafs that were muddy. The France of 1 900 was largely innocent of the games of sport. Generally speaking, the Arts took their place. I once asked what incident most symbolised the gulf between English and French mentality...

156 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Sir Shane Leslie, Bt., KCSG

A prolific figure in Irish literature and a man of letters, Leslie achieved success on both sides of the Atlantic. Christened "John Randolph" in honour of his father John and his maternal uncle by marriage and godfather Lord Randolph Spencer Churchill (who had married his maternal aunt Jennie Jerome).

He was a graduate of Eton and received his degree from King's College, University of Cambridge.

An Irish Nationalist and supporter of Home Rule for Ireland, he changed his name to Shane - an Irish equivalent of John. A convert to Roman Catholicism, many of his literary works reflect his Catholic faith.

In 1910 he narrowly lost election to Parliament as representative for Derry City. His own political ambitions were not fulfilled, but his family was politically well-connected as his maternal first cousin was Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

He wrote novels, poetry, biographies, studies of Celtic legend and folklore, apologetics, histories, and several volumes of memoirs. In 1916, he became editor of the prestigious 'Dublin Review.'

A frequent visitor and lecturer in the United States (he was half-American, via his mother), he was the earliest literary mentor of F. Scott Fitzgerald who later dedicated his novel 'The Beautiful and Damned' (1922) to him.

During World War One, before the entry of the United States in the war, Leslie volunteered for service with the American Ambulance Corps and was wounded. He was later engaged by the British government to visit the United States (1916 to 1917) and assist the British Ambassador, Sir Cecil Arthur Spring-Rice, in gauging the attitudes of Irish-Americans toward the Great War and forming an alliance with Great Britain. As an Anglo-Irish aristocrat who was also a Catholic and half-American, he was well-suited for the role in helping to sway the majority of Catholic Irish-American opinion toward support of Britain in the war.

During World War Two, he volunteered for service in the British Army's Home Guard and was duly commissioned. He was stationed in the West End of London where he served as a captain during the Blitz. Upon his father's death in 1944, he became the third Baronet (Leslie of Glaslough).

He promoted the teaching of the Irish language in schools, was a strong advocate for reforestation in Ireland, and encouraged conservation. Proud of his American heritage, in 1947 he became a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by the University of Notre Dame, was an Associate Member of the Irish Academy of Letters, invested a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great (KCSG) in 1960, and was appointed Privy Chamberlain of the Sword & Cape to Pope Pius XI. Proud of his half-American ancestry, as well as his English and Anglo-Irish heritage, he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.

Leslie and his work have been the focus of several biographical and critical studies. His papers are in collections held by Eton College, University of Cambridge, Georgetown University, Boston College, University of Notre Dame, the National Library of Ireland, and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.

- Biographical sketch provided courtesy of its researcher.