DEAR SIRS,

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editors of the 'Eagle.'

The notice inserted in the Eagle of June 1894, asking those members of the College, who wished information sent them respecting the Johnian Dinner, to communicate with us, has produced, we regret to say, very few replies. We wish therefore to draw the attention of your readers to the Dinner once more, especially as we shall not be able to distribute circulars this year so widely as was done a year

ago.

A short report of last year's Dinner, and a list of those then present, will be found in the Eagle of last June. The list shows that the gathering was the largest and most representative which has yet been held, nearly every year from 1850 being represented. But we think that, to be worthy of the College, the Dinner should be made larger and more representative still, and we therefore urge all Johnians, young or old, whether their names are still on the boards or not, if possible, to come to the Dinner and help to ensure its successs, or at least to send us their names and addresses, so that they may receive regular notice in future years.

We think we may say that the Dinner has heretofore given much enjoyment to those who have attended it, and has proved a convenient meeting-place for old College friends who have had few opportunities of seeing each other.

We hope that no one will be deterred from coming by the fear that he will meet none of his acquaintances. In such a case we venture to suggest that he should persuade one or more of his friends to meet him at the Dinner, where they will be seated together if we receive notice of the desire to be so placed.

We would also ask the younger generations of Johnians not

to consider themselves as debarred from, or out of place at, the Dinner, which aims at being representative of all years and

all interests.

We would specially urge resident members of the College to come, as the Dinner is in no way intended to be confined to those who have left Cambridge.

We would also ask all readers of the Eagle to impress on any Johnians, whom they may meet, the necessity of supporting the Dinner. We shall be glad to give further information if desired.

The Dinner will this year be held on Thursday, April 18th, at Limmer's Hotel, George Street, Hanover Square, W., at 7.30 p.m.

The Master has kindly consented to preside.

The price of tickets (not including wine) will be 8s. 6d. each.

We hope to arrange a good musical programme to provide entertainment after the Dinner.

Any communication with regard to the arrangement of seats, reaching us not later than April 17th, will be attended to as far as possible. Subject to any such communication, the seats will be arranged, as far as may be, with reference to the different years. It will greatly facilitate this arrangement, if, in applying for tickets, the applicants would kindly state the years during which they were in residence at St John's.

We remain,

Yours faithfully,

ERNEST PRESCOTT,

76, Cambridge Terrace,
Hyde Park, W.

R. H. FORSTER,

Members' Mansions,

Victoria Street, S.W.

Hon. Secretaries.

THE JOHNIAN DINNER, 1895.

Honorary Committee:

The Rev C. Taylor D.D., Master of St John's.
The Right Rev the Lord Bishop of Manchester D.D.

The Right Hon Lord Windsor.

The Hon C. A. Parsons.

The Right Hon C. P. Villiers M.P.

The Right Hon Sir J. E. Gorst Q.C. M.P.

The Right Hon L. H. Courtney M.P.

Sir T. D. Gibson-Carmichael Bart.

Sir F. S. Powell Bart. M.P.

Obituary.

THE REV GERALD THOMSON LERMIT LL.D.

The Rev Gerald Thomson Lermit (who died at St Florence on the 25 October 1894), was born 25 April 1825, at Mundlaisin, in India. His father, Captain Lermit, died from fever when he was only three years old, and his widowed mother at once returned to England. He was educated at Stamford Grammar School, of which Dr Gretton was then Head Master, and at Boulogne. In 1845 he entered St John's, and took his degree as a Junior Optime in 1849. He was ordained Deacon in the same year and Priest in 1850 by Bishop Murray of Rochester, and held curacies near Colchester. In 1849 he married Elizabeth Henrietta, daughter of Mr William Donnes of Hill House, Dedham, and in 1853 was appointed Head Master of Queen Elizabeth's School, Dedham, where for thirty-one years he worked unweariedly at the School house, gaining the respect and affection, not only of his pupils and their parents (who fully appreciated his efforts to make their sons Christian gentlemen as well as able scholars), but also all his neighbours of every rank.

In 1885 he was presented by the College to the Rectory of St Florence, in Pembrokeshire, where he devoted himself to the church and parish. In 1892 Mrs Lermit passed away, and his life had been so bound up with hers that he never really recovered her loss; two years later strength suddenly failed, he gently fell asleep and was laid to rest in the quiet churchyard with her he loved so well.

THE REV THEOBALD RICHARD O'FFLAHERTIE.

By the death of the Rev Theobald Richard O'Flahertie, the Church of England has lost one of those curiously learned and yet consistently faithful country clergymen who are becoming rarer and rarer among us every year.

Mr O'Flahertie was born on the 7 October 1818, at Castletown, in Queen's County, Ireland. He was the son of the

Rev John O'Flahertie, of Trinity College, Dublin, and a scion of an ancient family seated in the county of Galway for many centuries. From boyhood he appears to have been of studious habits and a great lover of books. He entered at St John's in 1839 and graduated B.A. in January 1843. It appears that he went up to Cambridge with no other object in view than to qualify himself for Holy Orders, and having taken his degree he ceased to be a member of our College. He was almost immediately ordained to the Curacy of Odiham, in Hants, by Bishop Sumner, and admitted to Priest's Orders in the usual course. In 1846 he moved from Odiham to Tadley in the same County, and in 1848 he married Mary Anne, daughter of Captain John Scott R.N., and was presented to the Perpetual Curacy of Capel, near Dorking, Surrey, the only preferment which he ever held and which at no time brought him in an income of three hundred a year. In 1851 he became Chaplain of Dorking Union Workhouse, which post he retained for sixteen years, resigning it in 1867. In 1873 he succeeded to the family estates in Galway which were put under the management of his son, who, I presume, has now inherited them; but with the exception of an annual visit to Ireland to show his interest in his tenantry, Mr O'Flahertie very rarely was absent from his parish, and he died Vicar of Capel on the 20 November 1894, having been a clergyman in the diocese of Winchester for more than fifty-one years, and never having received the smallest recognition at the hands of his diocesan.

Mr O'Flahertie had a family of fourteen children, who "worked" the parish with a cheerful and vigilant zeal, that earned for them the deep affection and esteem of all classes. The Sunday school teachers and district visitors-the constant attendants at the beautiful Cottage Hospital-the managers of all the good works that were carried on in the parish were the "Deaconesses" and "Sisters" of the Vicar's family. They took it all in the day's work, and were so busy that they had no time to advertise themselves.

When the late Dean Alford's Edition of Dr Donne's works was published, six volumes 8vo, in 1839, O'Fflahertie's attention was drawn to the book by the severe criticism which it called forth. If the truth must be told, Alford, at the time he undertook to edit Donne, was quite ridiculously unfit for such a task. Nevertheless the collected edition of Donne's work was much