William Fraser Rae

“ Two years later the president o the Rhenish railway proposed, with the approval of his colleagues, that J. M. Cook be appointed paid agent for all the companies concerned in traffic through Germany, by way of the Brenner Pass, to Brindisi. During the Franco-German war this route was alone available for English visitors to the Riviera. At the close of the Franco-German war the French railway companies, which till then had refused to allow through tickets to be used over their lines, appointed J. M. Cook their agent for the development of this form of traffic. ”

“ In early days Paget was an ardent whig, and enrolled himself among those who were prepared to fight for the Reform Bill. He joined the Reform Club when it was founded in 1836, and was a member of the library committee there for twenty-four years, being chairman of it from 1861 to 1865. On 1 March 1839 he married Elizabeth, daughter of William Rathbone of Greenbank, Liverpool. ”

“ PAGET, JOHN (1811–1898) , police magistrate and author, was the second son of Thomas Paget of Humberstone, Leicestershire, where he was born on 14 May 1811. His father was a banker in Leicester, and head of the Huguenot family descended from Valerian Paget who fled to England after the massacre of St. Bartholomew (Smiles, The Huguenots, p. 517) . The boy was entirely educated at home. ”

“ A year before, the Khedive of Egypt had appointed Cook government agent for passenger traffic on the Nile. In 1873 he opened a branch office at Cairo, and instituted a regular service of steamers to the first cataract, and two years later between the first and the second, becoming also sole agent for the postal service. ”

“ Bentley was a member of the Stationers' Company and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was very conservative in his tastes and his feelings, his firm being the last to continue the custom, dating from the end of the seventeenth century, of an annual trade dinner, to which the principal booksellers were invited, and at which new and standard publications were offered for sale after the cloth was removed. ”

“ Cook in the Nile campaign could have been done by nobody else ' (Times, 23 July 1891) . Cook gave the following figures to illustrate the growth of his business. In 1865 the total receipts for the year were under 20,000l; in 1890 no less than 3,262,159 tickets had been issued, and they had refunded 44,644. for unused tickets. In 1865 the staff consisted of his father, himself, and two assistants ; in 1890 the fixed salaried staff was 1,714, while the offices numbered eighty-four, and the agencies eighty-five. His tourist business had expanded into a banking and shipping business as well. ”

“ KNATCHBULL-HUGESSEN, EDWARD HUGESSEN, first Baron Brabourne (1829–1893) , was eldest son, by the second wife, of Sir Edward Knatchbull, ninth baronet [q.v.] , of Mersham Hatch, Kent, where he was born on 29 April 1829. His mother, a niece of Jane Austen, was a daughter of Edward Knight of Godmersham Park, Kent, and of Chawton House, Hampshire. Knatchbull went to Eton in 1844, and matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford, on 9 July 1847. ”

“ Arnould thereupon interpolated two lines to the effect that he whom
' ... a world could not subdue
Bent to thy prowess, chief of Waterloo'
(Pycroft, Oxford Memories, ii. 4) . Writing to his wife, John Wilson Croker, who was present, styled the verses 'very good,' adding that, after the last word had been spoken, the whole assembly started up, and 'some people appeared to me to go out of their senses—literally to go mad' (The Croker Papers, ii. 228) . ”

“ He was not included in Gladstone's second administration, which was formed on 28 April 1880, but on 24 March in that year he was gazetted a peer, with the title of Baron Brabourne of Brabourne in the county of Kent. After he entered the House of Lords his political views entirely changed, and he became a member of the Carlton Club. ”

“ His movements were closely watched by spies in the service of foreign police in order that they might discover how revolutionary documents were imported into their respective countries. These papers were really smuggled among the shipments of fire-bricks which were made from Blaydon Burn to foreign parts. ”

“ Afterwards Cook issued the coupons for hotel expenses which are now familiar to travellers. An excursion to Scotland was next undertaken, 350 persons journeying from Leicester to Glasgow and back for a guinea each. ”

“ Brabourne's story books, which pleased the uncritical readers for whom they were produced, were entitled:
'Stories for my Children,' 1869. 'Crackers for Christ-mas: more Stories,' 1870. 'Moonshine: Fairy Stories,' 1871. 'Tales at Teatime: Fairy Stories,' 1872. 'Queer Folk: Seven Stories,' 1873. ”

“ His eminence as a publisher was attained at the cost of great personal labour and to the injury of his health, which was always delicate. During fifteen years he passed each winter at Tenby in South Wales. ”