Part 31 (2/2)
I can add to this, that the chimney-piece was originally made for wood- fires, and that long after a grate was set in and the inscription added.
{13} Also given as Delaund or Dellaund in one copy. De Quincey was proud of his descent from De la Laund. I may here say that John Leyland, who is a painstaking and conscientious antiquarian and accomplished genealogist, has been much impressed with the extraordinary similarity of disposition, tastes, and pursuits which has characterised the Lelands for centuries. Any stranger knowing us would think that he and I were nearly related. It is told of the manor of Leyland that during the early Middle Ages it was attempted to build a church there in a certain place, but every morning the stones were found to be removed. Finally, it was completed, but the next dawn beheld the whole edifice removed to the other spot, while a spirit-voice was heard to call (one account says that the words were found on a mystic scroll):
”Here shall itt bee, And here shall itt stande; And this shall bee called: Ye Churche of Leyland.”
{16} A similar incident is recorded in _Kenelm Chillingly_. I had long before the publication of the work conversed with Lord Lytton on the subject--which is also touched on in my _Sketch-Book of Meister Karl_, of which the ill.u.s.trious author had a copy.
{56} Since writing the foregoing, and by a most appropriately odd coincidence or mere chance, I have received with delight a copy of this work from Jesse Jaggard, a well-known dealer in literary curiosities in Liverpool, who makes a specialty of _hunting up_ rarities to order, which is of itself a quaint business. The book is ent.i.tled ”Curiosities for the Ingenious, Selected from the Most Authentic Treasures of Nature, Science and Art, Biography, History, and General Literature. London: Thomas Boys, Ludgate Hill, 1821.” Boys was the publisher of the celebrated series of ”The Percy Anecdotes.” I should here, in justice to Mr. Jaggard, mention that I am indebted to him for obtaining for me several rare and singular works, and that his catalogues are remarkably well edited.
{98} May I be pardoned for here mentioning that Mr. Symonds, not long before his death, wrote a letter to one of our mutual friends, in which he spoke ”most enthusiastically” of my work on ”Etruscan Roman Traditions in Popular Tradition.” ”For that alone would I have writ the book.”
{101} ”Susan Cushman was extremely pretty, but was not particularly gifted; in personal appearance she was altogether unlike Charlotte; . . .
the latter was a large, tall woman” (”Gossip of the Century,” vol. ii.).
John Du Solle took me for the first time to see Charlotte Cushman, and then asked me what I thought she looked like. And I replied, ”A bull in black silk.”
{156} He was the real head, and the most sensible, of that vast array of wild antiquaries, among whom are Faber, G.o.dfrey Higgins, Inman, Bryant, and several score more whom I in my youth adored and devoured with a delight surpa.s.sing words.
{225} (Here I forgot myself--this occurred in New York.)
{237} Herzen once sent me a complete collection of all his books.
{242} Abraham Lincoln once remarked of the people who wanted emanc.i.p.ation, but who did not like to be called Abolitionists, that they reminded him of the Irishman who had signed a temperance pledge and did not like to break it, yet who sadly wanted a ”drink.” So going to an apothecary he asked for a gla.s.s of soda-water, adding, ”an', docther dear, if yees could put a little whisky into it _unbeknownst_ to me, I'd be much obliged to yees.” I believe that I may say that as Mr. Lincoln read all which I published (as I was well a.s.sured), I was the apothecary here referred to, who administered the whisky of Abolition disguised in the soda-water of Emanc.i.p.ation.
{252} Chapman Biddle himself was a very remarkable man as a lawyer, and a person of marked refinement and culture. He became my friend in after years, as did his son Walter. Both are now departed. I wrote and publicly read an ”In Memoriam” address and poem on his death, in delivering which I had great pains to refrain from weeping, which was startling to me, not being habitually expressive of emotion.
{266a} In reference to ”heaving out” by main force, cannon from some deep slough, perhaps of stiff clay, which holds like glue, or, what I think far more wearisome, urging them along for miles over the heaviest roads or broken ways, when the poor exhausted mules have almost given out. Though, as he says, he was only nineteen and seemed very fragile, the indomitable pluck and perseverance of Gilder in all such trials were such as to call special commendation from my brother Henry, who was not habitually wasteful of praise.
{266b} ”Well do I remember” also what accursed work it was, the ground consisting chiefly of broken stone, and how a number of Paddies, who were accustomed to such labour, a.s.sembled above and around us to enjoy the unusual sight of ”jontlemen” digging like ”canawlers,” and how I, while at my spade, excited their hilarity and delight by casting at them sc.r.a.ps of ”ould Eerish,” or Irish. The fight of the section here alluded to was, I believe, rather of the nature of an improvised rencontre, albeit two or three rebels were killed in the artillery duel. Corporal Penington was, I believe, as usual, the inspiring Mephistopheles of the affair.
{267} This reply, which is much better in every respect than that of ”The old guard dies but never yields,” was made in the face of far more overwhelming numbers, and has few parallels for sheer audacity, all things considered, in the history of modern warfare. It pa.s.sed into a very widely-spread popular _mot_ in America. It is more than an _on dit_, for I was nearly within ear-shot when it was uttered, and it was promptly repeated to me. Yet, if my memory serves me right, there is something like this, ”Come and take it!” recorded in the early Tuscan wars in Villari's introduction to the ”Life of Machiavelli,” translated by his accomplished wife. I have, as I write this note, just had the pleasure of meeting with the Minister and Madame Villari at a dinner at Senator Comparetti's in Florence, which is perhaps the reason why I recall the precedent. And I may also recall as a noteworthy incident, that at this dinner Professor Milani, the great Etruscologist and head of the Archaeological Museum, congratulated me very much on having been the first and only person who ever discovered an old Etruscan word still living in the traditions of the people--_i.e._, _Intial_, the Spirit of the Haunting Shadow. This is a little discursive--_mais je prends mon bien ou je le trouve_, and it is all autobiographic! ”It is all turkey,”
as the wolf said when he ate the claws.
The proposal of General Smith to resist with us alone the tremendous maddened rush of half of Lee's veterans has its re-echo in my ballad, where Breitmann attempts with his b.u.mmers to stem the great army of the South. The result would have probably been the same--that is, we should have been ”gobbled up.” But he would have undoubtedly tried it without misgiving. I have elsewhere narrated my only interview with him.
{268} The thunder of the artillery at Gettysburg was indeed something to be long and well remembered. It was so awful that on the field wild rabbits, appalled by the sound, ran to the gunners and soldiers and tried to take refuge in their bosoms. Those who have only heard cannon fired singly, or a single discharge of cannon, can have no conception of what such sounds when long sustained are like.
{274} Apropos of Olcott he did good and n.o.ble work in the war, in the field, and also out of it as a Government detective, and I am very far from being ashamed to say that I aided him more than once in the latter capacity. There was a lady in Philadelphia who availed herself of a distinguished position in society so as to go and come from Richmond and act as spy and carry letters between rebel agents. I knew this and told Olcott of it, who put a stop to her treason. I also learned that a rascally contractor had defrauded Government with adulterated chemicals.
Olcott had him heavily fined.
{309} The reader may find some interesting references to Robert Hunt in the Introduction by me to the _Life of James Beckwourth_, the famous chief of the Crow Indians. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1893.
{333} ”CUSTER was the life and soul of the greatest hand-to-hand victory ever gained over the Indians of the Plains--except Patsy Connor's Bear River Fight.”--_The Masked Venus_, by RICHARD HENRY SAVAGE.
{334} Miss Owen is well known to all folk-lorists as the first living authority on _Voodoo_.
{346} I am revising this MS. in the beautiful palazzo built for Ristori, 22 Lung Arno Nuovo, Florence. It is now the Pensione Pellini. On the ground floor are statues representing Ristori in different parts.
<script>