The schoolmaster William Johnson is remembered for three things, although not under that name. He wrote the most famous of all translations from Greek lyric verse, 'They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead'; he wrote the words of the 'Eton Boating Song'; and in a letter to Francis Warre-Cornish, another Eton schoolmaster, he wrote of his pupil, the future Lord Rosebery: 'I would give you a piece of plate if you would get that lad to work; he is one of those who like the palm without the dust.' Ten years later, Johnson was sacked for fondling one pupil too many and changed his name to Cory. After his death, Warre-Cornish published his old friend's letters and journals. Unfortunately, the collapse of Rosebery's administration after only 15 months was all too fresh in people's minds and Johnson/ Cory's verdict stuck. No other prime minister in British history has surrendered power quite so limply, none more ignominiously except Anthony Eden after Suez.

LRB 22 September 2005 | PDF Download