Catholic Profiles: 351

SIR SHANE LESLIE
BEFORE the Second Empire had fallen in 1870, the Empress Eugenie was welcoming
to the Court of the Tuileries an American lady with three incomparable daughters. Their father, Leonard Jerome, was the owner of newspapers and racehorses in New York, but his wife preferred a European career and launched her daughters in English society. The eldest married in 1874 one of the most brilliant members of England's aristocracy—Lord Randolph Churchill, and became the mother of our last Prime Minister ; the third married Mr. Moreton Frewea and became the mother of Clare Sheridan; 'the second, Leonie, an officer, the heir to an Irish baronetcy. and the Irish estate of Castle Leslie Her eldest son was born sixty years ago, eleven years after Winston Churchill first saw the light in Bien. helm Palace.
At that time his parents, Lord and 1. I, tt y Randolph Churchill, were aremarkablemong tfigures
m osi
Randolph w a s Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Salisbury's Government. and after him the Ledies mimed their son John Randolph. As J R Leslie he went to Eton just before the turn of the century and with a wit and literaty taste went on from there to King's, at a time when the Catholic cause in the University was in the hands of two memorable Monsignori. who were both converts, both Etonians One was no other than Hugh Benson, the other was known and revered in Oxford and Cambridge for the next twenty years as Mgr. (pronounced Mugger) Barnes.
As an undergraduate Leslie soon fell under their spell, accepted their faith, and was launched early upon the world as tt young Catholic writer, set in a most interesting circle, and assisted on his way not only by an aunt who, as Lady Randolph Churchill. sparkled like an opal with hidden fires, but also by a mother whose charm also made her a favourite with royalty, especially with the Dike of Connaught He used to invite her to stay with him year by year until his death. None ever knew Lady Leslie but with a heart warmed to gratitude for what her presence gave them. Thus the favour of princes, the sparkle of good company, the enterprise of America combined in this marvel among mothers with the background of an Irish country house to endow the new convert with an enviable heritage A Catholic in Ire land, Leslie espoused her causes, and gave his Christian name the Irish form of Shane.
HIS Eton, Cambridge, Ire
land and his family home in turn absorbed his attention; and he in fact first essayed that art of combining reminiscence with his books which has since been carried to such fine success by Mr. Harold Nicolson, who also found —with his grandfather, Lord Dufferin —an Irish home. So—and always with his native Irish witShane Leslie developed his literary career, from his home in St. John's Wood; he has now succeeded to the baronetcy and Castle Leslie. his fascinating mother having died in 1943.
It is plain that Sir Shane Leslie and Mr. Nicoison have much in common. Both, as we saw, have taken advantage of social opportunities to concentrate upon attractive
hpolished their wit in themes both g d society,
Each has the style of a connoisseur. But. tvhfieMr Nicolson is the son
0t n Ambassador, tondyeartosiletifind sneelfarilay
legations and emba ssie s, retiring from them to
continue official connections a n d
cultivate polities
with a leftists tinge, Sir Shane has looked on every subject from the point of view of one who is first a Catholic, and secondly by one who is by marriage, as well as by origin, connected with America He has eschewed any official connections: he has never stressed his kinship with Mr. Winston Churchill; he has lived, in fact. a freer life, established in that sense of relation to things enduring which set the Catholic apart from the transitory world in a region both happier and more historic. As lady Leslie combined Ireland and America with the throne, so he has combined his interests with reverence for the Altar. To his stories of Eton and Cambridge, with his memories of Lady Anderson's father, Mr. Bartley. or of George IV and Mrs. Fitaherbert, he has added a Life of Cardinal Manning, a book on the Oxford movement, and an anthology of Catholic poets. His writings are always marked by the over-tones of Faith, by a style delightful in its interplay of paradox and wit, and by a taste for that sweetest freshness deep down things which makes a poet delight in a wilderness, and makes Sir Shane Leslie a student of trees.
(ConOnued on page 5)