Part 9 (1/2)

The people whose hospitality Willis was accused of violating wrote to assure hiiven theree in one sentihtful production was never issued by the press The Duke and duchess of Gordon were here lately, and expressed theton did not withdraw her friendshi+p, but Willis adret than that his indiscretion should have checked the freedo reviews, the book sold with the readiness of a _succes de scandale_, though it had been so rigorously edited for the English market, that very few indiscretions were left

The unexpurgated version of the _Pencillings_ was, however, copied into the English papers and eagerly read by the persons most concerned, such as Fonblanque, who bitterly complained of the libel upon his personal appearance, O'Connell, who broke off his lifelong friendshi+p with Moore, and Captain Marryat, as furious at the re Like Lockhart, he revenged hiazine, the _Metropolitan_, in which he denounced Willis as a 'spurious attache,' and e

This attack was too personal to be ignored Willis dee, and after a long correspondence, most of which found its way into the _Times_, a duel was fixed to take place at Chathae matters between their principals, and the affair ended without bloodshed This was fortunate for Willis, as little used to fire-arms, whilst Marryat was a crack shot

In his preface to the first edition of the _Pencillings_ Willis explains that the ephemeral nature and usual obscurity of periodical correspondence gave a sufficient warrant to his mind that his descriptions would die where they first saw the light, and that therefore he had indulged himself in a freedom of detail and topic only customary in posthumous memoirs He expresses his astonishment that this particular sin should have been visited upon him at a distance of three thousand miles, when the _Quarterly_ reviewer's own faravated instance of a book of personalities published under the very noses of the persons described (_Peter's Letters to his Kinsfolk_) After observing that he was little disposed to find fault, since everything in England pleased hied myself in strictures upon individual character I but repeated what I had said a thousand tinant echo to its truth, that the editor of that Revieas the rant literary injustice, e to the _Quarterly_ every spark of ill-feeling that has been kept alive between England and America for the last twenty years The sneers, the opprobrious epithets of this bravo of literature have been received in a country where thewas not understood, as the voice of the English people, and animosity for which there was no other reason has been thus periodically fed and exasperated I conceive it to be my duty as a literary man--I _know_ it isme Thank God, I have escaped the slime of his approbation'

The winter was spent in London, and in the following March Willis brought out his _Inklings of Adventure_, a reprint of the stories that had appeared in various sby These were supposed to be real adventures under a thin disguise of fiction, and the public eagerly read the tawdry little tales in the hope of discovering the identities of the _dras' deal with the ro literary h-born ladies, and is made much of in aristrocratic circles The author revels in descriptions of luxurious boudoirs in which recline voluptuous blondes or exquisite brunettes, with hearts always at the disposal of the all-conquering Philip Slingsby Fashi+onable fiction, however, was unable to support the expense of a fashi+onable establishment, and in May 1836 the couple sailed for America Willis hoped to obtain a diploood, but all his efforts were vain, and he was obliged to rely on his pen for a livelihood His first undertaking was the letterpress for an illustrated volume on American scenery; and for some months he travelled about the country with the artist as responsible for the illustrations On one of his journeys he fell in love with a pretty spot on the banks of the Owego Creek, near the junction with the Susquehanna, and bought a couple of hundred acres and a house, which he named Glenmary after his wife

Here the pair settled down happily for so _Letters froe_ for the _New York Mirror_ In these he prattled of his garden, his farates Unfortunately, he was unable to devotebut flowers of speed, but was forced to spend more and more time in the editorial office, and to write hastily and incessantly for a livelihood In 1839, owing to a temporary coolness with the proprietor of the _Mirror_, Willis accepted the proposal of his friend, Dr Porter, that he should start a neeekly paper called the _Corsair_, one of a whole crop of pirate weeklies that started up with the establishment of the first service of Atlantic liners In May 1839 the first steam-vessel that had crossed the ocean anchored in New York Harbour, and thenceforward it was possible to obtain supplies froht of publication It was arranged between Dr Parker and Willis that the crealand, France, and Germany should be conveyed to the readers of the _Corsair_, and of course there was no question of payment to the authors whose wares were thus appropriated

The first number of the _Corsair_ appeared in January 1839, but apparently piracy was not always a lucrative trade, for the paper had an existence of little more than a year In the course of its brief career, however, Willis paid a flying visit to England, where he accoreat deal of literary business He had written a play called _The Usurer Matched_, which was brought out by Wallack at the Surrey Theatre, and is said to have been played to crowded houses during a fairly long run, but neither this nor any of his other plays brought the author fas of Travel_, a collection of stories and sketches, a fourth edition of the _Pencillings_, an English edition of _Letters froed with Virtue for works on Irish and Canadian scenery In addition to all this, he was contributing jottings in London to the _Corsair_ As ht be supposed, he had not much time for society, but he met a few old friends, made acquaintance with Kemble and Kean, went to a ball at Allinton Tournament, which watery catastrophe he described for his paper One of theof his new acquaintances was Thackeray, then chiefly renowned as a writer for the azines On July 26 Willis writes to Dr Porter:--

'I have engaged a new contributor to the _Corsair_ Who do you think? The author of _Yellowplush_ and _Major Gahagan_ He has gone to Paris, and rite letters frouinea a _close_ colu in my life For myself, I think hi, fine creature too' In his published _Jottings_, Willis told his readers that 'Mr Thackeray, the author, breakfasted with hted to hear that I have engaged this cleverest and azine-writers of London to becoular correspondent of the Corsair_

Thackeray is a tall, athletic-looking ht-and-twenty], with a look of talent that could never be htsland, as well as the most brilliant of periodical writers' Thackeray only wrote eight letters for the _Corsair_, which were afterwards republished in his _Paris Sketch-book_ There is an allusion to this episode in _The Adventures of Philip_, the hero being invited to contribute to a New York journal called _The Upper Ten Thousand_, a phrase invented by Willis

When the _Corsair_ ca employment on other papers He is said to have been the first Aazine-writer as tolerably well paid, and at one ti about a thousand a year by periodical work That his na his own countryentleuessed that Goethe was the NP Willis of Germany'

The tales written about this time were afterwards collected into a volume called _Dashes at Life with a Free Pencil_ Thackeray h Review_ for October 1845, more especially of that portion called 'The Heart-book of Ernest Clay' 'Like Caesar,' observed Thackeray, 'Ernest Clay is alriting of his own victories duchesses pine for hirandet their families and their propriety, and fall on the neck of this ”Free Pencil”' He quotes with delight the description of a certain Lady Mildred, one of Ernest Clay's nulides into the room at a London tea-party, 'with a step as elastic as the nod of a water-lily A snowy turban, fro on either teht-dew; long raven curls of undisturbed grace falling on shoulders of that indescribable and dewy coolness which follows abath' How naively, comments the critic, does this nobleman of nature recommend the use of this rare cosmetic!

In spite of his popularity, Willis's affairs were not prospering at this ti from the estate of his father-in-laho died in 1839, his publisher failed in 1842, and he was obliged to sell Glenmary and rehtly letter to a paper at Washi+ngton This was the year of dickens's visit to America, and Willis was present at the 'Boz Ball,' where he danced with Mrs dickens, to whom he afterwards did the honours of Broadway In 1843 Willis ain became joint-editor of the _Mirror_, which, a year later, was changed from a weekly to a daily paper His contributions to the journal consisted of stories, poems, letters, book-notices, answers to correspondents, and editorial gossip of all kinds

In March 1845 Mrs Willis died in her confine her (teirl 'An angel without fault or foible' was his epitaph upon the woman to whom, in spite of his many fictitious _bonnes fortunes_, he is said to have been faithfully attached But Willis was not born to live alone, and in the following summer he fell in love with a Miss Cornelia Grinnell at Washi+ngton, and was married to her in October, 1846 The second Mrs Willis was nearly twenty years younger than her husband, but she was a sensible, energetic young woman, who made him an excellent wife

The title of the _Mirror_ had been changed to that of _The Home Journal_, and under its new name it beca spirit of the enterprise, set hi plays, dances, picture-exhibitions, sights and entertainments of all kinds in the airy manner that was so keenly appreciated by his countrynised as an authority on fashi+on, and his correspondence coluuidance in questions of dress and etiquette He was also a favourite in general society, though he is said to have been, next to Fenimore Cooper, the best-abusedcharacteristics was his ready appreciation and encourage writers, for he was totally free from professional jealousy He was the literary sponsor of Aldrich, Bayard Taylor, and Lowell, a others, and the last-named alludes to Willis in his _Fable for Critics_ (1848) in the following flattering lines:

'His nature's a glass of chane with the foam on't, As tender as Fletcher, as witty as Beaus are done in the heat of the moment

He'd have been just the fellow to sup at the 'Mer jokes at rare Ben, with an eye to the bar up as Canary ran down,-- The topht bubble on the wave of the town'

After 1846 Willis wrote little except gossiping paragraphs and other epheainst thisaway his talents, he was accustomed to reply that the public liked trifles, and that he was bound to go on 'buttering curiosity with the ooze of his brains' He read but little in later life, nor associated with h intellect or serious ai preference for the frivolous and the feazine stories called _People I have Met_ This appeared in London as well as in New York, and Thackeray again revenged himself for that close colu up his forht he describes the amusement that is to be found in NP Willis's society, 'amusement at the iiousness of his self-esteem; amusement alith or at Willis the poet, Willis the man, Willis the dandy, Willis the lover--now the Broadway Crichton--once the ruler of fashi+on and heart-enslaver of Bond Street, and the Boulevard, and the Corso, and the Chiaja, and the Constantinople Bazaars It is well for the general peace of families that the world does not produce hters in their senses were such fascinators tous; but it is comfortable that there should have been a Willis; and as a literary man myself, and anxious for the honour of that profession, I a should have come, should have seen, should have conquered as Willis has done There is more or less of truth, he nobly says, in these stories--more or less truth, to be sure there is--and it is on account of this more or less truth that I for my part love and applaud this hero and poet We live in our own country, and don't know it; Willis walks into it, and doiven to very few of us He sees things that are not given to us to see We see the duchess in her carriage, and gaze with much reverence on the strawberry-leaves on the panels, and her grace within; whereas the odds are that that lovely duchess has had, one time or the other, a desperate flirtation with Willis the Conqueror Perhaps she is thinking of him at this very moment, as her jewelled hand presses her perfuuidly stops to purchase a ruby bracelet at Gunter's, or to sip an ice at Howell and James's He must have whole mattresses stuffed with the blonde or raven or auburn tresses of England's fairest daughters When the felish aristocracy read the title of _People I have Met_, I can fancy the whole fee of Willis's time in a shudder; and the melancholy marchioness, and the abandoned countess, and the heart-stricken baroness treuilty conscience, ”Gracious goodness, is theto show up ed to travel for the benefit of his declining health, took a fancy to the neighbourhood of the Hudson, and bought fifty acres of waste land, upon which he built himself a house, and called the place Idlewild Here he settled down once more to a quiet country life, took care of his health, cultivated his garden, and wrote long weekly letters to the _Hoe had stolen upon hier pose as his own allconquering hero, his hand see His editorial articles, afterwards published under the appropriate title of _Ephe of the years; yet slight and superficial as the best of the His manuscripts were a mass of erasures and interlineations, but his copy was so neatly prepared that even the erasures had a sort of 'wavy elegance' which the compositors actually preferred to print His rew upon him in his later years, and he beca of neords and phrases, only a fehich proved effective Besides the noorn term, the 'upper ten thousand,' he is credited with the invention of 'japonicadom,' 'come-at-able,' and 'stay-at-ho, such as his request for Washi+ngton Irving's blotting-book, because it was the door-hts of his last book had wiped their sandals before they went in; and his remark that to ask a literarya penny-post for the pleasure of it

On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Willis went to Washi+ngton as war-correspondent of his paper It does not appear that he saw any harder service than the dinners and receptions of the capitol, since an opportune fit of illness prevented his following the army to Bull's Run The correspondent who took his place on the march had his career cut short by a Southern bullet Willis,about with Mrs Lincoln, hoh she reproached hi of her 'motherly expression' in one of his published letters, she being at that titon, and describes him as very shy and reserved in manner, but adds, 'I found he was a lover of mine, and we enjoyed our acquaintance very reat Civil War was the extinguishi+ng of Willis's literary reputation; his frothy trifling suddenly becas to think about than the cut of a coat, or the etiquette of a an to demand realities, even in its fiction, the circulation of the _Home Journal_ fell off, and Willis, who had always affected a horror of figures and business enerally, found hied to let Idlewild, and return, in spite of his rapidly failing health, to the editorial office at New York

The last few years of Willis's career afford aHealth, success, prosperity--all had deserted hi re even after epileptic attacks had resulted in paralysis and gradual softening of the brain The failure of hisas possible, but in November, 1866, he yielded to the entreaties of his wife and children, knocked off work for ever, and went home to die His last few months were passed in helpless weakness, and he only occasionally recognised those around him The end came on January 20, 1867, his sixty-first birthday

Selections from Willis's prose works have been published within recent years in Aland, while a carefully written Life by Mr De Beers is included in the series of 'American Men of Letters' But in this country at least his fame, such as it is, will rest upon his sketches of such celebrities as La as we retain any interest in them and their works, we shall like to kno they looked and dressed, and what they talked about in private life It is iether to approve of the Penciller--his absurdities were too marked, and his indiscretions too many--yet it is probable that feho have followed hisThackeray's dictum: 'It is comfortable that there should have been a Willis!'

LADY HESTER STANHOPE

PART I

[Illustration: Lady Hester Stanhope fro by R J Hauished by a well-enerally find the unGodly flourishi+ng perhteous apparently forsaken and begging his bread But it occasionally happens that a human life illustrates some moral lesson with the triteness and crudity of a Sunday-school book, and of such is the career of Lady Hester Stanhope, a Pitt on the mother's side, and randfather, the great Commoner himself Her story contains the useful but conventional lesson that pride goeth before a fall, and that all earthly glory is but vanity, together with a warning against the ambition that o'erleaps itself, and ends in failure and humiliation That humanity will profit by such a lesson, whether true or invented for didactic purposes, is doubtful, but at least Nature has done her best for once to usurp the seat of the preacher, 'to point a moral and adorn a tale' Lady Hester, as born on March 12,1776, was the eldest daughter of Charles, third Earl of Stanhope, by his first wife Hester, daughter of the great Lord Chatham Lord Stanhope seems to have been an uncomfortable person, who combined scientific research with democratic principles, and contrived to quarrel with most of his family In order to live up to his theories he laid down his carriage and horses, effaced the ars from his plate, and removed from his walls some famous tapestry, because it was 'so d----d aristocratical' If one of his daughters happened to look better than usual in a beco coarse put in its place The children were left alovernesses and tutors, their step- a fashi+onable fine lady, who devoted her whole time to her social duties, while Lord Stanhope was absorbed by his scientific pursuits The hoirls of the first e, or for the three sons of the second In 1796 Rachel, the youngest daughter, eloped with a Sevenoaks apothecary named Taylor, and was cast off by her fahter, married a Mr Tekell, of Hae III used to call Deer Lady Stanhope