Volume I Part 4 (1/2)

Lever averred that his description in 'Arthur O'Leary' of the escape of Con O'Kelly was a faithful account of his own adventures ”deep in Canadian woods.”

IV. DUBLIN--CLAKE--PORT STEWART. 1830-1837

During the year 1830 Lever busied himself in Dublin with the cult of medicine. Possibly his rough experiences in America had chastened him and had induced him to settle down to work. He attended diligently the Medico-Chirurgical--a school now extinct--and Sir Patrick Dunn's Hospital. He was also the life and soul of a medical debating society which met in a house in Grafton Street. One of his fellow-students describes him as being in the habit of speaking with such extraordinary volubility and energy, that it was suspected he was indulging in exhilarating drugs. Walking home one night with a friend from a supper-party, at which he had displayed astonis.h.i.+ng merriment, Lever fell into a taciturn condition. On being rallied by his friend he apologised for his stupidity, or moroseness, by stating that, in order to tune himself up to concert pitch, he had that evening taken sixty grains of opium, and now that the excitement was over he was drowned in depression.

This curious fluctuation of spirits was a marked characteristic: even when he had abandoned the use of opium, he was to be found in the same hour overflowing with gaiety and sunk in the deepest dejection.

Though he worked hard and steadily at his studies in 1830, he did not fail to find sources of amus.e.m.e.nt. He railed against the sameness and the dulness of social life in Dublin. He complained of stupid dinner-parties where men of law and men of physic talked an unintelligible and irritating jargon. Dublin, he declared, was too professedly sociable to patronise the theatre; too sociable to form clubs,--too sociable, in fact, to go into society. He sighed for Gottingen and Heidelberg and for the more s.p.a.cious life of German cities. Then a happy thought occurred to him. Why should he not establish in the Irish capital a Burschenschaft? He consulted Samuel Lover,--painter, song-writer, musician, novelist,--and joining forces with him, a club on the most approved German model was formed. Lever was elected ”Grand Llama,” and was ent.i.tled to be addressed as ”Most n.o.ble Grand.” This club bore a strong resemblance to Curran's ”Monks of the Screw,”* but it was a less aristocratic, and probably a less bibacious, society. The members wore scarlet vests with gilt b.u.t.tons, and a red skull-cap adorned with white ta.s.sels. They met in a room in Commercial Buildings, afterwards used as the Stock Exchange. Suppers, songs, and conversational jousts formed the staple of the entertainment. Lever, as president, occupied a chair placed upon a dais covered with baize, with a representation, in bra.s.s-headed nails, of a sword and tobacco-pipe crossed. Writing thirty-five years later about the club and its functions, he described it as ”very fine fooling,” and he goes on to say that no wittier, no pleasanter, and no more _spirituel_ set of fellows ever sat around a punch-bowl.

* ”The Order of St Patrick,” to give this club its proper t.i.tle, was founded by Barry Yelverton, afterwards Lord Avonmore. Curran was its leading spirit: he wrote its charter song, the famous ”Monks of the Screw,” quoted by Lever in 'Jack Hinton.' The Convent of ”The Order of St Patrick” was in Kevin's Street, Dublin, and the club had another meeting-place in the country, at Curran'a residence, ”The Priory,” in Rathfarnam. Amongst the distinguished brothers of the order were the Marquis of Townshend (the Viceroy), Lord Mornington, Grattan, Flood, Lord Kilwarden, and the Earl of Arran. The club ceased to exist in 1795, but Lever, scorning anachronisms, introduced 'Jack Hinton' to the ”Monks” at a later date.--E. D.

Lever's fellow-student, Francis Dwyer (who afterwards rose to rank in the service of Austria), provides a pleasant description of the Dublin Burschenschaft. He avers that it gave its members a relish for intellectual enjoyment. ”The most n.o.ble grand” conducted the proceedings with tact and delicacy, never permitting any lapse into indecorousness.

”That he himself was a gainer,” Dwyer insists. ”He learned how to lead, and he also acquired a juster estimate of his own powers, and greater confidence in himself. No one, indeed, suspected what was really in the man, and some even shook their heads as to what good could ever come out of his unprofessional pre-eminence.” He was learning in joyousness what he expounded in story.

Lever made his first appearance in print in 'Bolster's Cork Quarterly Magazine.' to which he contributed a paper ent.i.tled ”Recollections of Dreamland.” This essay concerned itself mainly with the writer's real or imaginary experiences of opium-eating and opium visions. In 'Bolster's'

also appeared his first crude attempt at a story, ”A Tale of Old Trinity.” These were anonymous contributions, and their author never acknowledged them, and did not care to have any reference made to them.

In January 1830 ”a weekly chronicle of criticism, belles lettres, and fine arts” was started in Dublin under the t.i.tle of 'The Dublin Literary Gazette.' In the third number of the 'Gazette' Lever commenced ”The Log-Book of a Rambler.” There are some other contributions of his, not of much value, to be found in the 'Gazette.' The periodical lived for only six months, and from its ashes arose 'The National Magazine,'

a monthly publication which started in July 1831 and died during the following year. To 'The National' Lever contributed some papers--of no higher value than his miscellaneous contributions to the 'Gazette.'

In 1831 he would seem to have abandoned, temporarily, literary work, and to have toiled at his medical studies. In the summer of this year he obtained, at Trinity College, the degree of Bachelor of Medicine.* His father's town address was now 74 Talbot Street, and here Lever set up a practice; but business did not flow into Talbot Street, and the young physician soon began to display symptoms of restiveness.

* Dr Fitzpatrick states that he received at the same period a diploma as M.D. of Louvain _in absentia_, but Lever did not obtain the Louvain degree until he was established as a physician at Brussels.--E. D.

Ireland was smitten by a terrible scourge in the year 1832--a sudden visitation of Asiatic cholera. A Board of Health engaged a number of medical men and despatched them to cholera-stricken districts. Lever applied to the Board for an appointment, and in the month of May he was established at Kilrush, County Clare.

Notwithstanding the gloom which pervaded the district, the young doctor contrived somehow to infect it with a little of his own high spirits.

Physicians who worked with him through the awful time declared that wherever Lever went he won all hearts by his kindness, and kept up the spirits of the inhabitants by his cheerfulness. Some of his a.s.sociates were driven to account for his wondrous exuberance, even after he had been sitting up night after night, by supposing that he was ”excited in some unknown and unnatural manner.” Most likely opium was accountable for the phenomenon.

In Kilrush Dr Lever quickly made the acquaintance of a group of companionable men--hard readers and good talkers,--and almost every evening they met at the house of one or the other, or at the cholera hospital. These men were to Clare as the guests at Portumna Castle were to Galway. They knew the country and the people intimately, and they were able to impart their impressions in vivid and interesting guise. To the visitor from Dublin was disclosed another treasury of anecdote and a mine of material for character sketches: and he did not fail to avail himself of the golden opportunity.

Lever remained in Kilrush for about four months and then he returned to Dublin, leaving behind him in Clare many good friends, and bearing with him many pleasant and many ghastly memories.* He could not settle himself down to wait patiently for a city practice, and seeing an advertis.e.m.e.nt in a newspaper for a doctor to take charge of a dispensary at Portstewart, near Coleraine, he applied for the post and obtained it. In addition to the dispensary he was appointed to the charge of the hospital in Coleraine, and the Derry Board of Health invited him to look after their cholera hospital. He had a wide district to supervise, and, in addition to his cholera practice,* he obtained a good deal of private practice. He was able to report in January 1833, to his friend Spencer, that money was coming in so fast that he was in no need of help from his father.

* To give some idea of the awful havoc which the cholera created in Clare, it may be stated that one of Lever's a.s.sociates, Dr Hogan, claimed to have treated 6000 cases.-- E. D.

It seems opportune to refer here to a circ.u.mstance which had a most marked influence on the greater part of Lever's life--his attachment to Miss Kate Baker. He had fallen in love with her while he was a schoolboy, and his devotion to his wife--the most beautiful of all his characteristics--was unsullied to the day of his death. Miss Baker was the daughter of Mr W. M. Baker, who was Master of the Royal Hibernian Marine School,* situated on Sir John Rogerson's Quay. The Bakers moved from Dublin to the County Meath about 1830, Mr Baker being appointed to the charge of the Endowed School at Navan. Young Dr Lever was often to be found boating on the river Boyne with his sweetheart after his return from Canada. The doctor's father was anxious that his brilliant son should make a good match--that is to say that, like Mickey Free, he should ”marry a wife with a fortune”; but much as Charles desired to please his father, he resolved that nothing should induce him to abandon the girl of his heart. His father's objection to Miss Baker was solely because of her dowerless condition. Charles endeavoured fruitlessly to enlist his mother's sympathies: Mrs Lever's faith in her husband's wisdom was not to be shaken. Finding that he could make no impression upon his parents, the young man married Miss Baker privately.

* Mr Baker is described previously as ”Deputy-Treasurer to the Navy and Greenwich Hospital.”

Oddly enough--and as a corollary to the absence of any official birth-record,--no accurate doc.u.ment recording the date of the marriage ceremony could be found when Lever's biographer, Dr Fitzpatrick, inst.i.tuted a search. After long and wearisome investigations he discovered in Navan the Registry Book which chronicles the marriage of ”Dr Lever.” The entry is undated, and there is no mention of the bride's name. The Rector of Navan was of opinion that the ceremony had been performed by a Mr Morton (who was a cousin of the Marchioness of Headfort), but he could throw no further light upon the nebulous entry: he offered a conjecture that the marriage was celebrated between the month of August 1832 and the month of August 1833. There is something delightfully Leverian about this. Despite the imperfectness of the record, Lever's choice was a singularly happy one. Amongst the many things which stand to Mrs Lever's credit are, that at an early stage of her married life she induced her husband to abandon the use of snuff, and she also cured him of another of the bad habits of his student days--indulgence in opium.

The probable date of Lever's marriage is September 1832. During this month he obtained leave of absence in order ”to complete some important private engagements,” and in all probability the most important of these engagements was his wedding. It is certain that the Portstewart dispensary doctor was a married man in January 1833. Early in that month he speaks (in a letter to Spencer) of his ”household” attending a ball in Derry; and in the following May he writes: ”I have two of Kate's sisters here, which makes it more agreeable than usual _chez nous_.”

Early in this year Dr Lever sustained a sad blow: his mother expired suddenly in Dublin. Her death prostrated James Lever, now in his seventieth year. He could not bear to remain in the house where his wife had died, and he retired to the residence of his eldest son at Tullamore.

He never rallied from the shock, and at the end of March 1833 he died in Tullamore. This event finally broke up the Lever establishment in Dublin.

James Lever left all his possessions to his two sons: at the time it was computed that his estate would realise a sufficient sum to bring to each of them about 250 a-year, but it is doubtful if it produced this; and it is certain that Charles realised his share at an early stage of his literary career.

The severity of the cholera was now waning, and the terrible epidemic disappeared as suddenly and as mysteriously as it had come. Coleraine and Derry no longer required the services of Dr Lever, and he was thrown back upon his Portstewart dispensary. The most important man in Portstewart was a Mr Cromie. This magnate was lord of the manor, and he took a keen interest in local affairs. He was chairman of the Dispensary Board, and being of a strait-laced and somewhat evangelical disposition, he could not tolerate the exuberance of spirits displayed by the dispensary doctor. Lever tried to put the chairman into good humour by means which hitherto he had never found to fail; but Mr Cromie was not to be cajoled, and was even unwilling to admit the doctor's contention that he never neglected his duties, and that the poor people in the district could vouch for this.