Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

The English Adinirals 185
and Rooke and Hawke are picked nan:ies
for men of execution. Frobisher, Rodney,
Boscawen, Foul-Weather, Jack Byron, are all
good to catch the eye in a page of a naval
history. Cloudesley Shovel is a mouthful of
quaint and sounding syllables. Benbow has
a bulldog quality that suits the man's char-
acter, and it takes us back to those English
archers who were his true comrades for
plainness, tenacity, and pluck. Raleigh is
spirited and martial, and signifies an act of
bold conduct in the field. It is impossible
to judge of Blake or Nelson, no names
current among men being worthy of such
heroes. But still it is odd enough, and very
appropriate in this connection, that the latter
was greatly taken with his Sicilian title.
" The signification, perhaps, pleased him," says
Southey ; " Duke of Thunder was what in
Dahomey would have been called a strong
name ; it was to a sailor's taste, and certainly
to no man could it be more applicable."
Admiral in itself is one of the most satis-
factory of distinctions ; it has a noble sound