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I 


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CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  n 


4  «         ^ 


e^  ^.^S^^z:) 


CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.  II 


^^_^  c;^^^^z:> 


Cjjarles  iBoUxtp  Jtclani 

A  BIOGRAPHY 

BY 

ELIZABETH  ROBINS  PENNELL 

IN  TWO  VOLUMES 
VOL.    II 

WITH    ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFUN  AND  COMPANY 

10)1  lUkcr^bt  ^pttttt  CttntMbft 

1^6 


COPTRXORT   igpS  AND  I906  BY  BLXZABSTR   ROBtNS  PXlfNXLL 

ALL  RIGHTS  RBSBRVXD 

Fmblisktd  September  /gob 


CONTENTS 

X.  Life  and  Work  in  England  .        •  z 

XL   Return  to  Philadelphia   •        .        •  62 
XIL  In  Philadelphia  :  the  Industrial  Art 

School 98 

XIII.  The  Romany  Rye                    •        •  124 

XIV.  The  Romany  Rye  {Continued)      .        •  159 
XV.  Tinkers  and  Red  Indians      •        •  2x4 

XVI.  In  England  Again      •        •       •       •  251 

XVII.  *'  In  an  Atmosphere  of  Witchcraft  "  293 

XVIII.  In  Florence 332 

XIX.  The  End 380 

Bibliography 429 

Index 435 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Charlks  G.  Leland,  from  a  portrait  taken 

IN  FtORRNCB,  not  LONG  BSfORB  HIS  DKATH 

Frontisfiue 
^'Thx  Dutch  havx  takxn  Harvard^  •    lao 

BiATnr  Cooper 13a 

Sylvester  Boswell,  a  welltKnown  old  gypsy  134 
Letter  from  George  Borrow  •  .  •  14s 
Letter  from  Professor  K  H.  Palmer  .  •  173 
Letter  from  Tennyson,  referring  to  *'£ng- 

usH  Gypsy  Songs"  •        .       .        176 

Page  from  duekerin  lil,  a  fortunb-telung 

BOOK 184 

Page  from  dukkerin  ul,  a  fortunetelling 

BOOK 185 

An  old  Dye 196 

Sketch  from  original  made  by  Indian  344 

Sketch  from  original  made  by  Indian  .       .  246 

Maddalena,  a  Florentine  witch  .       .  310 

Page  of  letter  from  Mr.  Leland  to  Miss 

M.  A.  Owen ,    .  362 

Page  of  letter  from  Mr*  Leland      •       •  400 


CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHAPTER  X 

.  LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND 

When  I  turn  to  the  correspondence  with  the 
new  friends  the  Rye  made  in  England,  my  pile 
of  letters  becomes  a  sort  of  cinematograph  in 
writing  of  the  literary  life  of  London  during  the 
seventies,  —  of  the  few  men  and  women  whose 
greatness  has  grown  with  the  years,  of  the  many 
who  already  in  their  work  appear  to  us  as  old- 
fashioned  as  the  tiny  sheets  of  paper,  fit  for  a 
doll's  house,  upon  which  they  wrote,  and  the 
elaborate  crossing  of  their  pages.  The  picture, 
to  my  regret,  is  imperfect;  whole  sections  of  it 
have  disappeared.  I  find  hardly  a  reference  to 
the  Saturday  receptions  in  Park  Square;  a  re- 
gret for  one  special  Saturday  from  John  Payne, 
translator  of  Villon  and  "Your  Brother  in  Rabe- 
lais," as  he  signs  himself,  is  the  chief  trace  as  yet 
discovered  of  evenings  memorable  to  all  London 
old  enough  to  have  enjoyed  them. 


2        CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

But)  if  there  is  nothing  of  the  people  who 
came  to  the  Rye,  there  is  much  of  those  who 
wanted  him  to  go  to  them,  and  they  were  ahnost 
everybody  then  worth  going  to.  Asked  who  was 
the  centre  of  the  literary  world  that  entertained 
in  those  days,  most  Londoners  would  answer 
promptly  Lord  Houghton.  I  must  own  to  some 
satisfaction  in  chancing  upon  an  invitation  from 
him  to  one  of  the  breakfasts  which  were  for  a 
while  so  renowned,  though  their  model  was  sup- 
plied by  Rogers  and  their  glory  has  been  eclipsed 
by  Whistler.  The  note  is  in  the  handwriting  that 
made  Lord  Houghton  the  despair  of  his  friends 
and  the  terror  of  the  compositor.  Delighted  as 
I  am,  for  the  sake  of  appropriateness,  that  the 
Rye  should  have  received  this  invitation  so  char- 
acteristic of  the  period,  I  cannot  read  it  and  not 
feel  relieved  that  I  was  never  exposed  to  the  hon- 
our. Breakfast  as  understood  in  England  —  it 
is  another  matter  in  France  —  is  the  most  bar- 
barous form  of  entertainment  ever  devised  by 
man.  I  do  not  marvel  that  Sydney  Smith  ob- 
jected because  it  "deranged"  him  for  the  day* 
But  Lord  Houghton  managed  to  add  to  its  ter- 
rors, if  I  can  judge  by  the  note  before  me,  with- 
out a  date  but  from  Atkinson's  Hotel,  Clifford 
Street,  Bond  Street,  where  in  1877  he  was  hav- 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND      3 

ing  '^some  good  Saturday  breakfasts."  ^'Will 
you,"  the  note  says,  "do  me  the  pleasure  of 
breakfasting  with  me  here  at  10  o'clock  this 
morning?"  At  what  imearthly  hour  then,  I  ask 
with  compassion,  did  Lord  Houghton  rout  his 
unfortunate  guests  out  of  their  beds  to  summon 
them  to  the  morning  feast  ?  And  what  gain,  in 
the  form  of  bacon  and  eggs,  or  talk,  however 
good,  would  make  up  for  the  loss  of  the  last  pre- 
cious minutes  to  the  man  with  a  talent  for  sleep- 
ing? However,  the  Rye  always  kept  up  the  good 
American  habit  of  breakfasting  early,  and  prob- 
ably to  him  the  drawback  was  that  bacon  and 
eggs  had  long  ago  been  disposed  of,  when  his 
summons  came,  and  work  was  already  too  well 
started  to  be  interrupted  by  any  talk.  As  for 
"all  London,"  had  it,  with  Carlyle,  looked  upon 
Lord  Houghton  as  a  mere  Robin  Redbreast  of 
a  man,  it  would  still  have  thought  no  inconve- 
nience too  heavy  a  price  for  being  seen  at  one 
of  his  breakfasts. 

Social  success  in  those  days  might  have  the 
official  seal  put  upon  it  at  Lord  Houghton's 
breakfast  table,  but  to  be  received  by  Mrs. 
Norton  was,  even  in  the  seventies,  a  privilege 
more  certain  to  be  its  own  reward.  Hers  is  the 
more  picturesque  figure,  and  from  her  there 


4       CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

are  two  notes  —  in  delicate,  slanting,  very  femi- 
nine writing,  one  on  violet-bordered  paper,  in 
the  style  of  both  something  of  old  '^Keepsake" 
affectations  and  elegance  —  signed  "Caroline 
Norton."  Old  as  she  was  when  the  notes  were 
written,  her  attraction  must  have  been  distinctly 
more  than  the  mere  reflection  of  a  romantic  past. 
It  was  two  or  three  j^ears  later  on  that  she  mar- 
ried Sir  William  Stirling-Maxwell.  As  "the 
most  charming  woman  I  ever  met,"  the  Rye 
recalls  her  in  his  "Memoirs,"  and  again  in  the 
"Memoranda."  I  have  an  idea  it  was  because 
this  "Beauty  with  wit"  could  not  help  seeming 
charming  to  everybody,  that  she  got  so  on  the 
nerves  of  Harriet  Martineau,  especially  as  Miss 
Martineau,  with  the  advantage  of  not  being 
charming  in  the  least,  did  not  accomplish  any 
more,  if  as  much,  for  the  legal  welfare  of  her 
own  sex.  The  notes  are  slight.  Perhaps  the 
signature,  the  writing,  and  the  many  under- 
scored and  doubly  imderscored  words,  have 
helped  me  to  find  in  them  more  of  old  "  Keep- 
sake" sentiment  than  there  really  is. 

MRS.  CAROLINS  NORTON  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  I  called  at  Langham 
Hotel  to  know  if  Mrs.  Leland  was  "at  home" 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND      5 

—  and  understood  that  you  were,  but  she  was 
NOT.  Will  you  —  if  ever  you  have  a  spare  half - 
hour — rem^nber  that  I  always  remain  at 
home  from  4  to  7  cm  Tuesdays? 

I  should  be  so  pleased  to  see  you  and  to  thank 
you  perscmally  for  your  kind  remembrance  of 
me  in  sending  me  your  poems. 

No  one  can  admire  them  more  than  I  do,  — 
except  perhaps  my  Brother  Brinsley  Sheridan, 
who  is  very  ei^r  about  them.  He  is  not  in  town 
just  now,  but  I  hope  by  and  bye  to  make  him 
acquainted  with  you. 

The  other,  written  a  fortnight  later  (June 
19),  is  to  Mrs.  Leland,  and  be^ns:  — 

''Card  leaving  is  a  very  barren  cultivation 
of  acquaintance.  Do  you  think  you  are  suffi- 
ciently free  from  engagements  to  be  able  to  dine 
here  on  Monday,  July  ist? 

"Let  me  know  soon,  for  it  is  very,  very  sel- 
dom I  venture  on  such  an  ambitious  mode  of 
securing  the  company  of  friends.'' 

Safely  put  away  with  this  invitation  was  a  lit- 
tle card  "just  to  remind,"  but  from  Mrs.  Norton 
could  a  reminder  have  been  needed?  Of  the 
dinner  I  know  but  one  fact.  "To-day  it  is 
only  the  reception  of  the  Hon.  Mrs.  Norton,  the 


6       CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

poetess/'  a  letter  from  the  Rye  to  Mrs.  Harris 
son  says.  "We  dined  with  her  lately,  where  we 
met  the  belle  des  belles  of  London,  Lady  Polti- 
more — tall,  stately,  dignified,  and  magnificently 
wooden!" 

The  interest  of  the  innumerable  other  invi- 
tations, apart  from  the  rare  opportmiity  they 
offer  to  the  autograph-hunter,  is  in  showing  by 
how  many  and  what  different  people  the  Rye 
in  London  was  appreciated  for  his  work  and 
liked  for  himself.  It  was  the  demand  he  was  in, 
I  do  not  doubt,  that  sent  him  on  many  long  visits 
to  Brighton  and  Oatlands  Park.  It  is  amusing, 
for  the  sake  of  contrast,  to  take  the  notes  in 
the  order  —  or  disorder  —  in  which  they  come. 
For  on  the  top  of  the  pile  lie  some  invitations 
from  Mr.  John  Morley  to  his  country  house 
near  Guildford  —  as  hermitage,  it  figures  in  the 
first  (1871),  the  visit  suggested  for  the  4th  or 
5th  of  July,  and  if  the  Fourth,  is  a  dinner  of 
spread  eagle  to  be  prepared?  —  this  tribute  to 
the  Rye's  coxmtry  followed  by  a  tribute  to  the 
Rye's  countryman,  for  George  Boker,  though 
their  acquaintance  was  short,  was  also  counted 
among  Mr.  Morley's  best  friends.  Immedi- 
ately after  Mr.  Morley^s  invitation,  I  open  one 
to  afternoon  tea,  from  Mrs.  Lynn  Linton,  in 


UFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND      ? 

** ladylike"  writing  on  pale  green  note-paper, 
in  itself  a  reproach  and  an  example  to  the  Girl 
of  the  Period.  Next,  in  an  all  but  illegible  scrawl, 
comes  one  from  Tom  Taylor,  to  limcheon  at 
Lavender  Sweep  and  a  talk  over  the  affairs  of 
the  Road,  for  he  too,  he  says,  is  an  aficianado^ 
—  and  I  can  only  hope  the  Gypsies  treated  him 
more  tenderly  than  the  Butterfly  did,  though  if 
it  had  not  been  for  the  Butterfly's  stings,  Tom 
Taylor,  perhaps  because  "too  clever"  as  Fit2&- 
Gerald  thought,  would  be  a  name  forgotten. 
Then  follow  many  letters  in  the  neat  writing 
of  George  Augustus  Sala,  also,  for  some  un- 
known reason,  a  power  in  journalism  during 
the  seventies,  the  letters  as  fuU  of  quotations 
and  references  as  if  destined  for  his  column  of 
G.  A.  S.  —  surely  none  but  an  Englishman  could 
have  used  such  a  signature  in  all  seriousness  1 

After  Sala,  it  is  Jean  Ingelow;  asking  the 
Rye  to  every  possible  meal,  her  friendliness 
coloured  by  gratitude  because,  as  she  writes 
in  one  letter,  scarcely  a  day  passes  that  she  has 
not  to  thank  an  American  for  some  kindness. 
The  marvel  to  me  is  how  she  ever  summoned 
up  courage  to  invite  any  one  to  anything.  For 
I  remember  too  well,  being  then  new  to  London 
ways  and  the  Londoner's  gift  of  silence,  how 


8        CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

at  the  only  garden  party  at  her  Kensingtoa 
house  to  which  I  went,  she  was  so  shy  that  her 
shyness  seemed  to  communicate  itself  to  every- 
body there:  a  memorable  occasion,  however,  as 
the  one  party  of  any  kind  at  which  I  ever  saw 
Charles  Keene,  morose  enough  at  the  time^ 
recent  honours  lavished  upon  artists,  he  grum- 
bled, having  made  even  a  retired  person  like 
himself  live  in  hourly  dread  of  the  postman's 
knock.  A  reference  to  one  of  these  entertain- 
ments at  Miss  Ingelow's  is  in  a  letter  to  Mrs. 
Harrison:  ''We  were  at  Jean  Ingelow's  on  Sat- 
urday, and  as  usual  met  some  very  nice  people 

—  she  has  the  nicest  in  London.  Mrs.  Procter, 
the  wife  of  old  Mr.  Procter  (Barry  Cornwall), 
renewed  her  acquaintance  and  we  caUed  on 
her  the  next  day.  Her  husband  is  over  95  — 
so  Belle  says  —  at  any  rate  he  is  entirely  gone 
except  his  mind,  and  they  niurse  him  like  a  baby. 
But  he  can  read  just  as  weH  as  ever.  Mrs.  Proc- 
ter converses  wonderfully  well  and  has  the  kind- 
est manners.  They  live  very  near  us.  Jean 
Ingelow  has  gone  to  Italy  for  a  month.  Mrs. 
Procter  asked  me  about  Nanny  Lea  (and  her 
picture),  of  whom  she  had  heard  from  Brown- 
ing." Miss  Ingelow  is  followed  by  Lady  Wilde, 

—  ^'Esperanza,"  a  name  as  redolent  of  "An- 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND      9 

nual"  days  and  '' Keepsakes"  as  Mrs.  Norton's 
phrases,  —  she  also  oppressed  with  gratitude, 
since  she  also  numbered  among  her  friends 
''many  gifted  Americans,  some  of  the  noblest 
specimens  of  Humanity  we  could  meet."  And 
next  it  is  her  son,  Oscar  WUde,  in  the  first  flush 
of  notoriety  —  his  "Bimthome"  long  since  as 
old-fashioned  as  her  ^^Esperanza"  —  wanting 
to  talk  ''on  many  subjects,"  and  so  proposing 
a  dinner.  And  next,  W.  W.  Story,  expanding  in 
the  afterglow  of  his  London  triimaph,  suggest- 
ing a  visit  to  Cumberland,  where  "  we  will  smoke 
and  talk  and  eat  and  sleep  and  set  the  world 
right."  And  next.  Professor  Palmer,  the  nearest 
and  dearest  of  all  the  new  friends  made,  insepa- 
rable from  the  other,  or  Gypsy,  side  of  the  Rye^s 
life,  but  leading  enough  of  a  dual  existence  him- 
self to  write  not  only  news  of  Egypt,  but  invi- 
tations to  Cambridge;  and  Walter  Besant,  the 
great  person  then  of  the  Savile  Club  and  an- 
other of  the  more  intimate  of  the  new  friends; 
and  Ralston,  the  reading  of  his  "  Russian  Folk- 
Tales,"  his  bait;  and  old  George  Cruikshank, 
celebrating  his  Golden  Wedding;  and  the  Triib- 
ners,  if  that  could  be  invitation  to  a  house  where 
the  Rye  was  entirely  at  home;  and  fellow 
Americans  passing  throu^,  or  established,  in 


lo      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

London,  —  Mrs.  JiUia  Ward  Howe  longing  to 
see  an  old  friend  again,  Kate  Field  about  to 
lecture  on  Dickens,  Dr.  Moncure  Conway  ex- 
pecting "a  few  gentlemen"  to  dinner. 

A  letter  from  Dr.  Conway,  in  it  no  invitation 
at  all,  is  typical  of  the  reverential  attitude  to- 
wards Carlyle  to  which  the  literary  world  had 
been  brought  in  the  seventies,  and  the  diplo- 
macy with  which  he  had  to  be  approached  by 
the  admiring  stranger,  however  distinguished. 
There  is  no  date,  but  it  was  probably  in  187 1, 
when  the  Rye  says  in  his  "Memoirs!'  that  he 
met  Carlyle.  "It  was  necessary  to  find  out  one 
or  two  matters  before  sending  you  to  Carlyle," 
Dr.  Conway,  who  managed  the  meeting,  writes. 
"I  now  have  much  pleasing  in  writing  to  say 
that  if  you  will  call  upon  him  between  2  and  3 
to-morrow,  or  the  day  after,  or  the  day  after 
that,  he  will  be  glad  to  see  you.  His  residence 
(as  you  probably  know)  is  5  Great  Cheyne  Row, 
Chelsea  —  a  substantial  distance  from  you.  It 
is  probable  that  Carlyle  takes  his  afternoon 
walk  about  three,  and  you  will  know  by  tact 
whether  he  wishes  to  have  company  —  as  is 
sometimes  the  case  —  or  would  walk  alone. 
He  will  be  glad  to  hear  all  you  can  tell  him 
about  Germany  and  Germans,"  and  then  as 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND     ii 

postscript:  "Caxlyle  will  be  prepared  —  send  up 
enclosed  card."  A  visit  to  royalty  could  not 
have  called  for  more  diplomatic  handling.  But 
my  uncle,  who  was  the  most  impatient  of  men 
with  anjrthing  that  he  thought  savoured  of  sham 
or  pretension,  was  deference  itself  before  genius, 
and  he  made  no  objection  in  this  case  to  pla}ring 
the  courtier.  His  compliance  had  its  reward. 
According  to  the  "Memoirs,"  the  visit  was  a 
success,  and  the  difficult  Carlyle  of  the  seven- 
ties happening  to  be  in  a  gracious  mood,  a  walk 
in  the  Park  together  was  its  conclusion. 

Tennyson  was  as  difficult  of  approach  —  but 
then,  though  even  those  who  know  him  best 
had  a  way  of  forgetting  it,  he  was  as  easy  when 
he  wanted  to  see  any  one.  There  is  a  letter  to 
the  Rye  from  Frederick  Locker  that  reads  very 
much  as  if  Tenny^n's  friends  were  less  sure 
of  themselves  in  their  capacity  as  special  am- 
bassador, than  Carlyle's.  Locker  writes  with 
an  effect  of  light  and  easy  confidence,  but  winds 
up  his  suggestion  of  how  the  meeting  can  be 
arranged  with  a  "Mind  you  do  this"  that  makes 
me  suspect  a  private  tremor  of  apprehension. 
However,  the  Rye  did  meet  Tennjrson,  and  the 
meeting  was  friendly,  for  if  the  worship  of  the 
crowd  could  become  an  insupportable  tax  on 


12      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  time  and  patience  of  a  popular  poet  laureate, 
Hans  Breitmann,  the  Romany  Rye,  was  not 
one  of  the  crowd  —  which  made  all  the  differ- 
ence. The  sequel  to  the  visit  is  in  the  entry  in 
Lady,  then  Mrs.,  Tennyson's  Journal  for  March 
17th,  1874:  ^^Sir  Samuel  and  Lady  Baker,  Dr. 
Quain  and  Mr.  Leland  (the  American  author  of 
the  Breitmann  Ballads,  very  humorous)  came  to 
dinner.'* 

Another  of  the  older  men  of  the  seventies 
who  ranked  high  in  the  Rye's  esteem  was  Bul- 
wer.  It  is  hard  for  oiu:  generation  to  share  his 
enthusiasm.  I  admit  frankly  that  I  cannot  now 
read  the  novels,  though  I  did  once  go  through 
them  all,  beginning  with  the  ''Last  Days  of 
Pompeii,"  which  in  my  school-days  was  thought 
especially  adapted  to  improve  the  mind  and  do 
no  harm  in  the  process.  But  to  open  any  one 
of  them  of  late  years  means  to  be  bored  to  ex- 
tinction. The  fault,  no  doubt,  is  mine.  I  know 
that  Mr.  Birrell,  for  one,  revels  in  the  very 
''eloquence"  which  I  am  in  all  haste  to  skip. 
But  I  can  imderstand  my  xmcle's  admiration, 
for  Bulwer  dealt  with  the  subjects  he  loved. 
Whoever  was  interested  in  the  occult,  the  mys- 
terious, the  unknown,  was  sure  of  the  s)mipathy 
of  the  student  of  Gypsy  Sorcery,  Florentine 


UFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    13 

Legends,  and  Etruscan  Remains.  It  is  very 
touching  to  me,  in  a  volume  of  the  "Memo- 
randa" as  recent  as  1893,  to  come  upon  passages 
carefully  copied  from  the  "Last  of  the  Barons," 
"Zanoni,"  "No  Name,"  "Kenehn  ChiUingly," 
showing  that  Bulwer  remained  with  the  Rye  a 
sort  of  fetich  to  the  last.  He  got  to  know  Bulwer 
better  than  either  Carlyle  or  Tenn)rson,  he 
stayed  at  Knebworth,  and  was  on  fairly  friendly 
terms  as  these  things  go  in  London:  would,  in- 
deed, have  been  called  intimate  by  the  English- 
man who  looks  upon  every  one  he  does  not  cut 
—  or  "  'eave  'arf  a  brick  at "  —  as  a  friend.  But 
of  the  correspondence,  only  two  letters  have 
been  preserved,  on  the  tiny  sheets  of  paper,  with 
the  violet  coronet  in  the  comer,  that  make  them 
seem  as  remote  from  us  as  if  they  had  been 
written  hundreds  instead  of  thirty  years  ago. 
I  quote  the  longer  of  the  two  because  there  is 
more  of  Bulwer  in  it,  and  because  it  is  a  tribute 
I  am  glad  the  Rye  received  from  the  man  whose 
opinion  he  so  keenly  valued. 

LORD  LYTTON  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Argyll  Hall.,  Torquay,  Feb.  22,  1872. 

My  dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  Many  thanks  for 
"Meister  Karl,"  to  whom  you  are  very  unjust 


14      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

I  am  delighted  with  him.  There  is,  I  think,  no 
greater  sign  of  promise  in  a  young  writer  than 
abundant  vigour  of  animal  spirits  —  and  this 
book  overflows  with  that  healthful  strength. 
Of  course  there  are  traces  of  imitation  in  the 
style  and  mannerisms  —  but  in  that  kind  of 
humour  it  would  be  impossible  to  sweep  Rabe- 
lais and  Sterne  out  of  one's  recollection.  To 
me,  and  I  think  to  most  men,  it  is  like  breathing 
fresh  mountain  air  —  after  a  languid  season  in 
town  —  to  get  at  a  work  of  fiction  which  lifts 
itself  high  from  the  dull  level  of  the  conventional 
Novel,  and  awakens  thought  and  fancy  in  one- 
self while  it  interests  and  amuses  in  the  play  of 
its  own  fancy  and  the  course  of  its  own  thought 
I  shall  lend  the  book  to  some  lovers  of  German 
literature  here  and  guess  how  much  it  will  charm 
them.  I  ought,  of  course,  to  have  acknowledged 
the  receipt  of  the  little  volume  of  poems,  last 
sent,  but  the  plain  truth  is  that  I  am  keeping  it 
in  reserve  for  a  more  holiday  time  than  I  have  at 
present.  I  find  that  I  can  never  judge  fairly  of 
poetry  when  my  mind  is  not  attimed  to  it^- 
and  it  never  is  attimed  to  it  when  I  am  hard  at 
work  upon  prosy  things,  which  I  have  been  for 
several  weeks,  to  say  nothing  of  causes  of  great 
domestic  anxiety  which  have  been  occasioned 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND     15 

first  by  a  prolonged  illness  of  my  son  at  Vienna 
(he  is  convalescent)  and  second  by  an  alarming 
attack  of  bronchitis  which  has  laid  up  my  bro- 
ther on  the  banks  of  the  Upper  Nile,  200  miles 
from  a  doctor. 
With  repeated  thanks  for  all  your  courtesies, 
Faithfully  yours,  Lytton. 

If  Bulwer's  sun  was  setting  in  the  seventies, 
Browning's  was  still  high  in  the  heavens,  and 
from  Browning  one  letter  at  least  has  survived; 
the  reason  for  it  an  exchange  of  books.  Prob- 
ably "Meister  Karl"  and  the  "Music  Lesson 
of  Confucius"  are  the  two  the  Rye  had  sent  to 
him,  but  what  Browning's  book  was,  it  is  less 
easy  now  to  decide. 

robert  browning  to  charles  godfrey  leland 

Warwick  Crescent. 

I  was  on  the  point  of  writing  to  thank  you 
heartily  for  your  first  book,  the  letter  that  ac- 
companied it,  and  the  pleasure  given  to  me 
by  both,  when  a  second  gift  made  me  your 
debtor,  and  now,  before  I  can  discharge  any 
part  of  what  I  owe,  your  letter  from  Brighton 
comes  to  add  to  the  burthen  of  my  obligations, 
if  what  is  so  pleasant  could  be  justly  called 


i6      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

burthensome.  This  is,  however,  the  least  plea- 
sant and  most  burthensome  part  of  the  busi- 
ness, that  your  kind  words  about  my  own  book 
do  really  obstruct  the  very  sincere  congratula- 
tions I  was  about  to  oflFer  you  on  your  book, 
and  other  books  beside,  which  I  have  long  ago 
delighted  in.  For  my^lf ,  if  I  know  myself  at  all, 
such  appreciation  as  you  assure  me  of  is  quite 
reward  enough,  and  a  "third  reading"  from 
you  is  the  best  honour  you  can  pay  me.  Believe 
in  the  grateful  acknowledgments  and  true  re- 
gards of  Yours, 

Robert  Browning. 

Another  letter  that  I  quote,  not  only  for  the 
name  signed  to  it,  but  as  a  suggestive  comment 
on  the  value  of  lion-hunting,  —  to  the  lion, — 
is  from  Bret  Harte.  The  date  is  February  i8, 
1876.  The  Rye  had  been  six  years  in  England, 
—  time  enough  for  the  people  who  ran  after 
him  to  know  who  he  was  and  what  he  had 
done.  The  "Heathen  Chinee"  and  the  "Luck 
of  Roaring  Camp"  had  made  Bret  Harte 
already  as  famous.  But  the  eagerness  of  lion- 
hunters  outruns  their  knowledge.  Hans  Breit- 
mann  and  Bret  Harte  were  perpetually  being 
confused  when  both  were  together  in  London. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    17 

''Mr.  Hart  Bretmann''  was  a  combination  for 
which  lion-hunters  roared  in  vain.  As  the  ''au- 
thor of  Bret  Harte/'  Hans  Breitmann  was 
criticised.  And  so,  I  suppose,  it  was  only  ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  compensation  that  the 
photograph  of  the  Rye  should  have  been  seen 
about  town  with  the  name  of  Bret  Harte  at- 
tached to  it,  and  that  one  of  the  Rye's  stories 
should  have  been  entirely  credited  to  him.  It 
was  about  this  that  Bret  Harte,  in  New  York, 
at  the  moment,  wrote. 

BRET  HARTK  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LBLAND 

My  dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  I  confess  I  was  a 
little  astonished  yesterday  in  reading  in  the 
"Tribime"  a  statement  —  made  with  all  that 
precision  of  detail  which  distinguishes  the  av- 
erage newspaper  error  —  that  I  had  written  a 
story  for  "Temple  Bar"  entitled  "The  Dan- 
cing God."  But  the  next  day  I  received  my 
regular  copy  of  the  magazine  and  find  your 
name  properly  affixed  to  the  story.  The  error 
was  copied  from  the  English  journals  evidently 
before  the  correction  had  been  made. 

Nevertheless,  let  me  thank  you,  my  dear  sir, 
for  your  thoughtful  courtesy  in  writing  to  me 
about  it.    You  are  a  poet  yourself,  and  know 


i8      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

his  "irritability"  —  to  use  the  word  the  critics 
apply  to  that  cahn  conceit  which  makes  us  all 
shy  from  the  apparitions  of  a  praise  we  know 
belongs  to  another.  But  I  am  glad  of  this 
excuse  to  shake  hands  with  an  admirable  and 
admired  fellow-countrynaan  across  the  water, 
and  I  beg  you  to  believe,  dear  Mr.  Leland,  that 
I  would  not  pluck  one  leaf  from  that  laurel 
which  our  appreciative  cousins  have  so  worthily 
placed  on  yoiu:  brow. 
Always  your  admiring  compatriot  and  friend, 

Bret  Harte. 

One  document,  not  a  letter,  which  is  of  in- 
terest in  itself  and  also  as  a  reminder  of  another 
house  he  used  to  visit,  is  a  pencil  sketch  of 
George  Eliot.  It  is  the  work  of  the  amateur, 
for  the  Rye  never  drew  the  face  or  figure  with 
the  ease  he  developed  in  designing  a  decora- 
tive border.  But  he  foimd  the  sketch  a  good 
likeness,  and  so  did  others  who  saw  it  at  the 
time.  There  is  a  reference  to  it  in  the  "Memo- 
randa" for  1894.  He  had  been  reading  "Gossip 
of  the  Century,"  and  the  gossip  naturally  took 
him  back  to  the  days  when  he  saw  much  of 
many  of  the  people  gossiped  about.  He  noted 
down,  for  his  own  amusement,  some  of  their 


UFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    19 

names  as  he  read,  —  Rossetti  and  Christina 
Rossetti,  remembered  less  for  words  spoken 
than  "as  sympathetic  personalities;"  Calver- 
ley,  "a  yomig  and  very  genial  man;"  Lockyer, 
"at  Triibner's,"  where,  "standing  behind  the 
Christmas  tree,  he  told  me  all  his  marvellous 
discoveries  by  means  of  the  spectrum  analysis;" 
Max  Muller,  who  "tried  to  persuade  me  to  give 
up  Gypsies,  and  devote  myself  to  Red  Indian 
languages,  or  lore;"  Lady  Franklin,  to  whose 
house  in  Kensington  Gore  I  have  numbers  of 
notes  inviting  him;  "a  daughter  of  W.  M. 
Praed,"  who  had  given  him  a  copy  of  Praed*s 
Life;  the  daughters  of  Horace  Smith  in  their 
delightful  house  at  Brighton;  the  DufiFus  Hardys 
—  Sir  Thomas  Duffus  Hardy,  remembered  as 
"very  amiable,  clever  and  refined  —  very  good 
whiskey  —  I  think  he  gave  me  a  botfle;"  but, 
"above  all,  George  Eliot  and  George  Lewes." 
The  author  of  "Gossip  of  the  Century,"  he 
writes,  "declares  that  both  George  Eliot  and 
George  Lewes  were  *  singularly  imencumbered 
with  personal  attractions,'  which  may  be  true 
from  a  barber  wax  bust  ideal  point  of  view,  but 
not  from  that  of  cultiure,  which  finds  personal 
attraction  in  expression  and  loveliness  in  living 
action.  In  the  solemn  welcome  of  the  wondrous 


20      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

eyes  of  George  Eliot,  as  in  the  uncanny  fire  and 
keen  fancies  of  Lewes,  there  was  something 
never  to  be  forgotten.  If  this  is  not  personal 
attraction,  I  know  not  what  it  can  be.  When 
I  close  my  eyes,  I  can  recall  the  two  as  if  pic- 
tured. How  many  *  belles  and  swells*  have  I 
known  since  their  death  —  who  have  passed 
away  comma  les  neiges  iPantan.  The  best  like- 
ness I  ever  saw  of  George  Eliot  (all  agreeing 
with  me  sit  verbo  venial)  was  a  sketch  that  I 
made  from  memory  years  after  I  had  last  seen 
her.  It  is,  I  fear,  now  lost.  [There,  fortunately, 
he  was  wrong.]  By  the  t\ray,  G.  H.  Lewes  had 
an  extraordinary  resemblance  to  Dr.  Rufus  Gris- 
wold,  as  the  latter  had  been  when  younger." 

If  I  keep  to  my  scheme  of  taking  the  letters 
as  they  come,  stranger  contrasts  follow.  For 
from  Tom  Hughes,  at  Trinity  College,  writing 
with  something  of  the  "sunshine"  Lowell  loved 
in  him,  to  recall  "the  pleasant  hoiurs  your  visit 
to  Cambridge  gave  to  me  and  my  friends" 
(1875),  I  turn  at  once  to  Agnes  and  Dion  Bou- 
cicault  sending  just  a  few  sad  words  on  black- 
edged  paper,  to  acknowledge  the  sympathy 
offered  them  on  the  death  of  their  son  (i876). 
Letters  from  William  Allingham,  at  the  very 
end  of  his  working  life  —  the  letters  short  and 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    21 

perfunctory  enough,  but  the  signature  bringing 
with  it  memories  of  Rossetti  and  his  own  "Mu- 
sic Master/'  the  book  that  inaugurated  the 
great  days  of  English  illustration  —  are  inunedi- 
ately  succeeded  by  letters  from  Edmund  Gosse, 
on  the  very  threshold  of  his  career.  And  Mr. 
Gosse  gives  place  to  Miss  Grenevieve  Ward, 
begging  the  Rye  to  come  that  they  may  "Ro- 
manize together;"  and  Fanny  Janauschek,  who 
to  him  was  the  greatest  of  tragic  actresses,  but 
to  me  just  missed  greatness,  probably  owing  to 
the  same  lack  of  humour,  or  sense  of  propor- 
tion, that  prevented  her  seeing  the  absiuxiity 
of  a  woman  of  her  massive  presence  answering 
to  the  name  of  "Fanny;"  and  Herman  Meri- 
vale,  lurging  a  visit  to  his  house  at  Eastbourne; 
and  Frances  Elliot,  whom  the  Rye,  in  his  usual 
fashion,  was  helping,  the  particular  work  then 
in  question  being  her  Byron;  and  Max  Adder, 
thanking  him  for  his  trouble  in  finding  an  Eng- 
lish publisher  for  a  book  that  is  to  be  called 
"Out  of  the  Hurly  Burly;  or.  Life  in  an  Odd 
Comer;"  and  Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  the  "Sir," 
in  parenthesis,  prefixed  to  the  signature,  and  a 
happy  little  note  below  to  explain  that  "Her 
Majesty  has  lately  been  pleased  to  make  me 
K.  C.  L  E.I"    I  am  not  sufficiently  familiar 


22      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

with  Sir  Edwin's  affairs  to  be  sure  as  to  the 
period  to  which  the  letter  belongs,  and  it  is  not 
dated.  "I  examined  his  hand,"  the  Rye,  writing 
of  him  in  the  "Memoranda,"  recalls,  "and 
found  it  very  characteristic  and  well  lined.  Un- 
fortimately,  all  hands  which  are  well  lined  by 
fate  are  not  equally  so  by  fortune."  But  Sir 
Edwin  Arnold,  surely,  was  one  of  the  excep- 
tions for  whom  Fortune  justified  the  signs. 

I  do  not  know  what  lines  the  Rye  may  have 
found  in  the  hand  of  another  of  his  correspond- 
ents, Edwin  Edwards,  but  I  do  know  that 
whatever  they  were,  Fortime  ignored  them  in 
his  case.  For  Edwards,  an  excellent  artist,  was 
never  recognised  during  his  lifetime  as  he  should 
have  been,  and  he  is  now,  except  by  a  few,  best 
remembered  as  the  friend  of  Charles  Keene  — 
"the  Master,"  C.  K.  called  him  —  and  Fitz- 
Gerald,  who  counted  Edwards  "among  his 
pleasures."  One  of  Edwards's  letters  has  for 
me  a  particularly  personal  interest.  "Z^  citoyen 
Bracquemondy^  he  writes,  "has  just  finished 
a  very  fine  portrait  of  my  friend  C.  Keene  and 
now  wants  you  to  come  and  sit.  Don't  dis- 
appoint us  —  he  thinks  of  doing  only  thai  large 
heady  and  that  of  course  will  include  the  beard 
and  just  a  tip  of  shoulder  —  now  this  won't 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    23 

take  long — do  write  or  come  at  once."  Bracque- 
mond  was  not  disappointed,  for  I  have  the 
etching  as  proof  that  the  proposed  sitting  was 
given.  He  was  hardly  the  artist,  however,  to  do 
full  justice  to  the  beauty  and  impressiveness  of 
"that  large  head."  There  is  another  etching 
by  Legros,^  also  made  probably  at  the  sugges- 
tion of  Edwards,  —  the  friend  of  both  tiiese 
artists,  as  of  Fantin  and  Whistler  and  all  the 
distinguished  group  who  began  life  together 
in  Paris,  and  were,  in  M.  Duret's  phrase, 
Vavant  garde  of  everything  that  is  most  vital 
and  original  in  modem  art.  I  have  always  re- 
gretted that  there  are  so  few  portraits  of  my 
uncle.  Besides  these  two,  I  know  of  none,  ex- 
cept a  very  early  painting  by  Mrs.  Merritt,  and 
a  drawing  by  Mr.  Alexander,  done  for  the  "  Cen- 
tury Magazine."  It  is  a  pity.  He  was  an  un- 
usually handsome  man,  even  in  his  old  age, 
when  he  looked  the  prophet,  a  model  for  Michel- 
angelo or  Rembrandt. 

The  letters  the  Rye  wrote  to  Edwards  ex- 
plain the  relations  between  the  two  men,  and 

1  «  Bracequemond  and  Legxx>s  both  etched  my  portrait  on 
copper,"  the  Rye  wrote  in  his  '^  Memoirs,"  my  authority  for 
the  above  statement  But  on  referring  the  matter  to  Profes- 
sor Legros,  he  tells  me,  to  my  regret,  that  he  has  no  recollec- 
tion or  record  of  having  made  the  portrait 


24      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  reason  why  Edwaxds  felt  the  chaxm  which 
in  the  Rye  was  great  for  those  who  cared  for 
him,  why  the  Rye  felt  what  there  was  in  Ed- 
wards that  had  already  won  the  friendship  of 
Keene  and  FitzGerald.  I  regret  that  I  have 
space  only  for  one,  the  first,  written  from  Lon- 
don in  1870,  as  I  learn  from  the  postmark  on 
the  little  old  envelope.  The  etching  to  which 
it  refers  is  one  made  in  the  course  of  a  river 
excursion  with  Edwards.  I  have  foimd  some 
proofs  among  my  papers.  It  is  not  a  remarkable 
performance  as  a  work  of  art,  but  amusing  as 
the  first  and  only  etching  by  Hans  Breitmann. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  EDWIN  EDWARDS 

Saturday,  July  i6th. 

My  dear  Edwards,  —  ^^Take  my  hatr^ 
This  means  in  American,  that  youVe  got  me. 
...  I  really  think  that  making  a  man  an 
Eichist  in  spite  of  himself  is  something  unpre- 
cessdentified  in  "^Esthetic  History."  And  this 
word  His  Story  puts  me  in  mind  of  my  friend 
W.  W.  Story,  who  said  to  me  yesterday,  "Scratch 
a  Russian  and  you'll  find  a  Tartar  Emetic." 
Etching  and  scratching  are  allied.  You  simply 
peel  oflf  a  piece  of  paper  (the  original  says,  Peel 
a  Russian)  and  you  find  an  etching. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    25 

Don't  you  think  you  could  )nake  a  Raflf  — 
I  mean  a  Raphael  of  me?  I'm  open  to  con- 
viction. Byron  woke  one  morning  and  found 
himself  famous.  /  came  down  ce  matin  and 
foimd  mein  sdbst  2l  regular  topsawyer  in  art. 
For  willingly  as  I  would  be  blind  to  my  own 
merits,  I  must  cordially  avow  that  my  etching 
is  a  very  fine  production.  There  are  touches 
in  it  which  anybody  ought  to  give  a  guinea  for. 
In  the  words  of  Pompey  Smash  (one  of  my 
great  American  contemporaries),  "Not  to  praise 
myself,  I'm  a  damn  smart  nigger."  (Smart 
means  intelligent  and  genius-fuU  in  America.) 
No  man  knows  what  he  can  do  till  he  tries. 

Seriously,  my  dear  artist,  you  have  over- 
whelmed me.  In  looking  over  those  etchings 
you  gave  me,  I  feel  as  my  sister  once  said  when 
I  gave  her  a  prettily  framed  copy  of  "The  Light 
of  the  World:"  "WAo/  have  I  done  to  deserve 
all  this?"  For  our  day  on  the  river  and  for 
everjrthing,  you  and  Dame  Edwards  —  that 
blessed  good  soul  —  must  receive  additional 
gratitude.  I  suppose  it  is  art  which  refines  the 
soul  and  makes  folk  genial  —  for  verily  no  one 
in  England  has  gone  so  far  out  of  the  way, 
and  tried  so  hard  to  smooth  the  path  of  the 
pilgrim,  as  you.    And  since  VappStU  vient  en 


26      CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

mangeant,  and  you  write  me  —  I  would  like  two 
or  three  more  proofs  of  that  strangely  obtained 
etching. 
"And  your  Petitioner  will  ever  pray"  — 

For  further  details  of  this  period,  I  go  back 
to  the  more  intimate  letters  to  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
John  Harrison,  giving  as  many  and  as  long 
extracts  as  I  can. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  BCR.  JOHN  HARRISON 

Lqndon,  Brighton,  England, 
Oct  20, 1870. 

Dear  John,  — ...  Our  plan  of  living  here 
is  as  follows.  So  much  for  rooms,  gas,  washing, 
bed  linen,  napkins  and  towels,  fire,  lights  and 
kitchen  fire  —  which  last  means  cooking,  and 
no  extra  charge  for  service.  At  the  hotel  they 
charged  us  4  shillings  a  day  for  servicCy  and  we 
had  to  give  about  2  pounds  more  when  we  left. 
Belle  does  the  marketing.  You  can  get  very 
good  brandy  here  for  4  or  5  shillings  a  bottle, 
and  wines  are  cheap.  But  it  is  about  as  dear 
living  here  as  at  home.  A  man  is  really  not  of 
any  account  in  society  on  less  than  5,000  or 
6,000  poxmds  a  year.  Position  requires  4  or  5 
man-servants  in  livery  and  one  constant  stream 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    27 

of  expensive  hospitality.  Men  and  women  too 
drink  all  the  time  like  topers  at  home,  and  the 
average  of  young  ladies  top  oS  six  glasses  of 
mixed  wines  at  dinner.  I  leam  this  from  a  young 
lady  who  has  unlimited  opportunities  of  judging. 
As  for  the  men,  the  one  who  does  not  show  the 
eflFects  of  heavy  drinking  is  a  great  exception. 
There  is  a  very  pretty  young  married  lady  lives 
close  by  us,  and  the  other  day  at  dinner  she  took 
six  glasses  of  wine  before  the  fish  had  arrived. 
I  was  at  the  dinner.  The  amount  of  drinking 
everywhere  is  awful.  I  had  to  tell  a  lady  the 
other  day  that  it  was  easier  to  get  a  quart  of 
wine  than  a  drop  of  water  in  her  house.  And 
it  was  true.  Whenever  I  wanted  water,  the  ser- 
vants had  to  be  called  up  and  all  hell  set  loose 
before  the  aqua  fontana  could  be  produced. 
Well,  I  made  her  a  present  of  an  American  ice 
pitcher,  but  it  was  so  handsome  they  stowed  it 
away.  Then  I  kicked  up  another  row  —  and 
finally  they  quite  fell  in  love  with  it,  and  I  got 
my  water.  I  am  considered  a  miracle  of  total 
abstinence  on  my  11  o'clock  brandy  and  my 
little  quart  of  strong  ale  at  dinner. 

By  the  way,  look  in  the  last  "British  Quar- 
terly Review"  for  an  article  on  American  Hu- 
mourists, which  says  I  am  the  biggest  frog  in 


28      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  pond.  That  magazine  has  a  tremendous 
literary  influence,  and  many  a  far  greater  writer 
than  I  has  considered  himself  as  built  up  by 
such  praise  from  such  a  quarter.  Well,  they  are 
selling  my  photographs  in  London,  and  if  I  could 
write  I  could  get  plenty  to  do  here.  But  I  can't 
stand  it  as  yet.  I  can  do  a  little  work  but  I  have  n't 
the  work  in  me  I  used  to  have,  and  precious 
sorry  I  am  for  it.  I  am  behindhand  with  my 
new  edition  of  "Breitmann."  I  hear  that  poor 
old  stupid  Philadelphia  is  in  despair  over  me 
and  can't  conceive  what  there  is  in  my  fow, 
vidgaty  illiterate  Dutch  English  to  induce  the 
English  to  set  me  up  so.  I  had  a  little  row  with 
the  London  "Standard"  the  other  day  for  pub- 
lishing an  imitation  of  Breitmann  ridiculing 
King  William.  I  got  my  refutation  in,  and  then 
gave  them  rats  in  Triibner's  "Record."  I  un- 
thinkingly dated  it  from  our  hotel  here,  and  the 
landlady  came  and  thanked  Belle  for  giving 
them  such  an  advertisement. 

The  English  are  a  very  queer  people  and  do 
everything  by  line  and  angles.  The  men  are  all 
swells  and  wear  gold  ornaments  and  bouquets 
and  look  as  if  they  felt  awfully  dressed  up.  They 
can't  conceal  it;  from  the  lord  to  the  shop-boy, 
they  seem  to  say,  "I  have  got  a  new  coat  on; 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    29 

God  knows  I  have  got  a  new  coat  on."  They 
dress  a  great  deal  and  feel  it  inunensely.  But 
their  average  of  good  manners  is  below  ours, 
though  they  are  very  kind  and  very  hospitable. 
Some  are  very  nice.  There  is  among  the  lords 
and  such,  a  certain  kind  of  arrogant  impudence 
which  jrields  at  once  to  a  severe  hit  hacky  or  else 
to  extreme  politeness.  But  among  the  best  of 
them  who  have  seen  a  great  deal  of  the  world, 
there  are  the  finest  men  I  have  ever  met.  Such 
a  man  is  Sir  Charles  Dilke,  and  Sir  Henry  Bul- 
wer,  with  whom  I  dined  not  long  ago. 

CHARLES  GODFRXY  IXLKtTD  TO  MRS.  JOHN  HARRISON 

Brighton,  Dec.  17, 1871. 

Dear  Emily,  —  You  must  not  think  because 
I  do  not  write  very  often  that  I  as  seldom  think 
of  you,  for  the  truth  is  I  recall  every  day  your 
goodness  and  kindness  and  know  perfectly  well 
that  of  all  those  I  left  behind  me,  not  one  cares 
a  tenth  part  about  me  as  much  as  you  do,  or 
wishes  to  see  me  a  tenth  part  as  much.  As  for 
your  kind  care  of  our  house,  I  really  cannot 
thank  you  as  I  ought,  for  thanks  are  most  warmly 
bestowed  on  strangers,  while  I  feel  that  if  I  could 
do  as  much  for  you  I  should  not  like  to  be 
thanked  for  it  —  it  is  an  eccentricity  of  mine 


30      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

to  be  very  impatient  of  thanks  when  I  know 
that  people  feel  grateful,  just  as  I  am  deeply 
contemptuous  of  ingratitude.  The  English  have 
a  very  short  cut  to  gratitude.  They  estimate 
the  most  loving  favours,  the  kindest  acts,  at 
just  so  much  money,  and  promptly  send  a  pre- 
sent of  the  value.  And  if  they  are  rich,  they  are 
very  impatient  of  receiving  any  kindness  from 
poorer  people  and  always  pay  up.  Well,  dear, 
I  have  very  little  to  tell  you,  for  time  in  Brighton 
passes  more  monotonously  than  in  London.  I 
have  told  you  about  ever3liiing.  Nanny  Lea 
has  told  you,  I  suppose,  about  my  coming  out 
as  a  riding  character.  I  go  very  often  now  on 
the  hunt  and  yesterday  I  went  out  with  the  har- 
riers and  leaped  a  fence  in  grand  style,  and  had 
a  good  race,  and  was  in  at  the  death,  having  a 
superb  horse  worth  a  hundred  guineas.  I  had 
on  corduroy  breeches,  long  boots,  spurs  and  a 
velveteen  coat  —  very  light  yellow  breeches  — 
imagine  me  in  such  a  rig,  and  yet  everybody 
says  I  never  looked  so  well. 

.  .  .  You  can  conceive  nothing  more  roman- 
tic and  singular  than  our  himts.  The  whole 
country  here  is  destitute  of  trees  save  around 
the  widely  scattered  farm-houses,  and  it  con- 
sists of  gently  sweeping  round-topped   hills. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    31 

All  is  covered  with  very  short  velvety  grass  and 
the  whole  is  one  lump  of  coarse  chalk.  Villages 
lie  a  mile  or  so  apart,  and  these  are  generally 
picturesque,  with  a  little  time-worn  old  Gothic 
church,  sometimes  Norman,  and  here  and  there 
a  curious  old  farm-house.  The  chief  huntsman 
and  the  dogs  find  a  hare,  and  then  we  ride  after, 
and  the  country  sweeps  by  like  a  panorama. 
Sometimes  one^has  the  sea  not  far  off  in  the  dis- 
tance, and  perhaps  Brighton.  I  hire  my  horse 
here,  it  costs  a  guinea  to  hunt  the  hare  and  2 
guineas  for  a  fox  hunt,  and  5  shillings  to  the 
hunt  It  seems  dear,  but  a  day's  himting  wearies 
a  horse  for  3  or  4  dajrs,  so  that  it  is  reaUy  cheap, 
and  of  course  I  do  not  ride  every  day  or  even 
every  week.  I  am  following  up  my  Gypsies  with 
great  success  and  have  one  regular  Romany 
Chal  who  passes  Saturda}^  with  me.  I  am  really 
getting  to  talk  the  language  quite  well  and  could 
write  you  a  letter  in  it.  Nobody  ever  yet,  ex- 
cept Borrow,  got  into  their  good  graces  so,  and 
they  tell  me  their  tricks  and  secrets  without 
reserve. 

.  .  .  My  book  of  poems  is  printed  but  not 
published.  There  is  a  little  literary  coterie  here, 
which  gathers  aroimd  Miss  Horace  Smith, 
daughter  of  Horace  Smith  of  the  "Rejected  Ad- 


32      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

dresses."  She  is  a  jolly  old  maid,  and  gives  fre-  ' 

quent  small  parties^  and  she  has  the  best  society 
here.  I  am  alwajrs  invited  there.  One  meets 
Maitland  the  novelist,  Sir  John  and  Lady  Har- 
rington, and  another  jolly  old  Baronet  Sir  Lionel 
Darrell,  once  a  clergyman,  and  Lady  Darrell, 
and  indeed  quite  anmnber  of  nice  people.  I 
was  there  yesterday  to  a  little  dramatic  enter- 
tainment. This  party  read  my  new  book  with 
great  interest,  —  in  fact  I  am  the  poet  of  the 
Brighton  literary  circle!  Miss  Smith  is  very 
learned  and  witty,  and  she  has  known  all  the 
great  men  of  England  for  fifty  years, — known 
them  very  well  indeed.  If  you  see  or  hear  of  any 
American  reviews  of  my  books  please  send  them 
to  me.  Please  tell  T.  B.  Peterson  to  give  you  a 
copy  of  my  book  "M.  Karl"  and  put  to  my  ac- 
count, and  "  Breitmann "  if  you  want  it.  The 
winter  has  been  mild  thus  far,  but  we  have  all 
suffered  with  colds.  My  himting  is  doing  me  a 
great  deal  of  good,  and  although  I  have  suffered 
a  great  deal  from  dulness  and  depression  of 
spirits,  my  health  has  been  remarkable  and  my 
complexion,  weight,  &c.,  go  beyond  anything  for 
years.  I  have  a  good  appetite  and  drink  a  great 
deal  of  Bass's  ale  in  bottles.  I  have  a  touch  of 
rheimtiatism  sometimes. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    33 

.  .  .  George  Boker  will  soon  be  in  London. 
He  has  been  very  kind  in  preparing  my  "  Meister 
Karl "  for  the  press,  when  he  had  his  hands  full. 
I  do  a  little  wood  carving,  but  American  walnut 
is  dear  here  and  oak  is  hard  on  the  tools.  I  have 
got  in  London  a  beautiful  old  Grothic  chest  which 
I  picked  up  there. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LBLAND  TO  MRS.  JOHN  HARRISON 

Melrose,  Scotland,  Sept  Tth,  1872. 

Dear  Sister  Emily,  —  I  was  so  much  de- 
lighted to  hear  from  you,  and  to  get  my  birth- 
day present,  which  I  received  in  Edinburgh  this 
day  week.  Bless  your  dear  little  loving  heart! 
We  had  been  travelling  in  the  distant  foreign 
realms  of  Tipperary,  Limerick  &  Co.  and  then 
in  Scotland  —  and  got  no  letters  from  Aug.  8 
till  Sep.  ist,  and  so  I  shall  keep  my  present  till 
I  get  to  London,  where  I  can  buy  a  helmet  — 
but  really  I  never  had  an  idea  I  was  giving  you 
a  hint.  Well,  we  went  to  Salisbury  and  Chester, 
and  so  crossed  over  to  Holyhead  and  Dublin 
and  saw  the  great  Irish  Exhibition,  which  was 
really  wonderful,  and  thin,  by  me  sowl,  we  wint 
to  the  Rock  of  Cashel  jist  where  the  owld  kings 
of  L^land  are  buried  —  it 's  mighty  few  thravel- 
lers  iver  gits  to  that  blissid  little  town  I  belave! 


34      CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

An'  there  we  saw  the  ddoitful  ruins  and  mit 
wid  a  praste  from  Ameriky.  An  ye  should  have 
seen  the  bits  of  bys  runnin  af  ther  us  —  sure  we 
had  a  rigimint  av  them  —  the  gossoons  —  beg- 
gin  for  pinnies.  An  sez  I,  as  I  set  on  top  of  the 
lofthy  owld  castle,  "Bys,  go  to  the  divil  wid 
yees,  an'  don't  be  afther  disturbin  me."  "An' 
troth  we  won't,  yer  honor, "  sez  they.  "  We  '11  jist 
go  and  wait  for  ye  down  below,  an'  yer  can  be 
givin  us  the  pinnies  whin  ye  go  out ! "  So  I  made 
an  iligant  sketch  av  the  owld  round  tower  that 
was  bilt  by  the  Turks  an  haythens  long  before 
King  Cormac  (the  Heavens  be  his  bed!)  bilt 
the  iligant  chapel  —  sure  I  copied  his  coat  of 
arms  oS  the  wall,  and  here  it  is  jist.  [A  drawing 
follows.]  Ye  can  thrace  the  iligant  style  av  the 
early  Celtic-Norman-Irish  in  ivery  line  av  this 
beautiful  sculpthure  —  sure  the  style  bates  ivery- 
thing.  (Its  meself  that's  full  of  feelin  for  the 
anthiquities)  an  the  guide  was  drunk  as  a  piper 
and  sung  us  a  song  in  Owld  Irish,  an  indid  by 
lockin  us  up  in  the  ruin  an  going  away  —  bad 
cess  to  the  blaggard !  And  he  lift  three  nice  Irish 
young  ladies  imprisioned  wid  us  —  an  I  im- 
proved the  occasion  to  prache  thim  a  beautiful 
lecthure  on  anthicquities  —  and  they  towld 
me  af therwards  that  that  divil  av  a  guide  had 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    35 

whispered  to  thim  that  I  was  a  Frinch  gentle- 
man of  exthraordinary  intilligince  such  as  sildim 
inspecthed  the  arrikiteckture  of  the  cathaydril. 
And  sure  they  had  been  in  France  thimselves, 
and  whin  I  found  they  were  Catholics  I  towld 
thim  that  Saint  Pathrick  and  Bridget  were  owld 
heathen  gods  av  the  early  Irishers,  and  that  the 
crosses  on  the  graves  av  the  owld  abbots  would 
make  iligant  pathrons  for  crochet  wurrek  an 
imbroidery  —  an  wan  av  thim  said  she  should  n't 
think  it  right  to  apply  thim  to  sitch  a  pur'rpose. 
By  and  by  the  guide  let  us  out,  an'  I  saw  the 
young  lady  drive  herself  oflE  in  a  jaunting  car  — 
and  the  horse  was  a  divil  intoirely  —  but  she 
managed  him  as  if  she  was  a  young  divil  her- 
self. 

And  thin  we  wint  to  Killamey,  and  sure  we 
had  a  great  time,  and  saw  the  place  where  St. 
Patrick  drowndhed  the  snakes  in  a  bit  of  a  lake, 
an'  it  was  mysilf — praise  the  Lord!  —  that  dis- 
kivired  an  owld  Irish  Ogham  inscripthion  in 
the  ruins  of  Agadoe,  which  I  copied  and  sint 
to  me  friend  Dochthor  Caulfield,  the  principal 
of  the  Royal  Cork  Insthitution  —  it's  he  that's 
a  gintleman!  Sure  at  Killamey  we  got  the  bist 
av  atin  and  dhrinkin,  and  sailed  in  a  boat  on 
the  Lakes  —  And  thin  we  wint  to  Correckan, 


36      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

• 

thin  to  Blarney,  where  I  kissed  the  Blarney  stone 
(Belle  didn't  go  up);  and  thin  thro'  siviral 
places  to  Galway,  and  the  Giant's  Causeway. 
An'  there  I  got  two  owld  Irish  axe  heads  of  stone 
an  two  arry  hids  an  a  bade  from  an  owld  tomb. 
And  we  had  a  beautiful  fine  day  and  saw  the 
sanery  and  an  owld  ruin,  an'  firin  wid  a  rifle  I 
hit  the  bulls  eye  at  55  yards  —  the  saints  be 
good  to  me! 

Crossing  from  Belfast  to  Glasgow  —  12  hours 
—  we  had  a  lovely  smooth  passage.  But  with  the 
exception  of  one  fiine  day's  sail  around  the  isle 
of  Mull,  when  we  saw  Fingal's  Cave  and  Staffa, 
and  went  into  the  great  cave,  oxu:  whole  Scotch 
tour  has  been  one  wretched  rain.  We  staid  a 
week  in  Edinburgh  waiting  for  dear  weather, 
and  then  went  through  the  Trossachs  in  heavy 
rain.  Fortunately  there  is  a  fine  Museum  of 
antiquities  in  Edinburgh.  .  .  .  Then  yesterday 
we  returned  to  Edinburgh  and  this  morning 
came  here,  and  have  to-day  visited  Abbotsford, 
Dryburgh,  and  Melrose  Cathedral.  To-morrow, 
if  possible,  I  am  going  to  a  little  town  beyond 
Kelso,  called  Yetholm,  where  there  is  an  old 
settlement  of  Scotch  Gypsies. 

And  so,  dear,  dear  Emily,  I  must  conclude. 
I  thank  you  with  deeper  feeling  than  you  can 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    37 

believe  for  so  kindly  remembering  brother 
Charley  with  your  dear  gift.  DonH  forget  to 
thank  John  for  his  kind  care  of  my  affairs.  I 
think  of  it  every  day  of  my  life,  and,  dear,  I 
thank  you  so  much  for  looking  after  my  house. 
Give  my  love  to  everybody.  Belle  sends  her 
love  and  will  write  very  soon.  I  wish  I  could 
write  more,  but  cannot  at  present.  So  believe 
me  truly  your  own  dear  brother, 

Charley. 

If  the  record  in  letters  of  the  Rye's  manner 
of  life  during  these  ten  years  is  large,  it  is  nothing 
to  the  record  in  letters  of  his  work.  The  packets 
from  publishers  are  the  bulkiest.  The  corre- 
spondence with  Trubner  alone  would  make  a 
volume.  For  the  English  period  yielded  a  long 
list  of  book  after  book,  and  the  greater  number 
were  issued  by  Trubner,  who  was  quick  to  take 
advantage  of  the  success  of  Breitmann.  Almost 
at  once  he  produced  the  second  edition  —  the 
first  in  England  —  of  "Meister  Karl's  Sketch 
Book,"  to  which  I  have  referred.  He  also  pub- 
lished in  fairly  rapid  succession  the  translation 
of  Scheffel's  "Gaudeamus"  and  "The  Music 
Lesson  of  Confucius"  (1872),  a  collection  of 
poems,  not  very  successful,  —  the  public  never 


38      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

recognising  nor  admitting  the  possibility  of  seri- 
ousness in  a  man  who  has  first  become  known 
as  a  hnmomist;  "The  English  Gypsies"  and 
"The  Egyptian  Sketch  Book,"  both  in  1873; 
"Fusang,  or  The  Discovery  of  America  by 
Chinese  Buddhist  Priests  in  the  Fifth  Century, " 
—  that  translation  made  so  many  years  before 
at  Munich  of  Professor  Nemnann's  treatise; 
and  also  "The  English-Gypsy  Songs,"  in  1875; 
"Pidgin-English  Sing-Song,"  in  1876.  Nor  did 
these  end  the  list.  The  Rye  wrote  the  "Life  of 
Lincoln"  for  the  "New  Plutarch  Series,"  edited 
by  Walter  Besant  and  published  by  Marcus 
Ward  &  Co.,  in  1879.  His  "Johnnykin"  (1876), 
a  story  for  children,  and  his  "Minor  Arts" 
(1880),  a  volume  in  the  "Arts  at  Home  Series," 
edited  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Loftie,  were  published  by 
Macmillan.  He  was  also  contributing  a  weekly 
letter  to  Colonel  Forney's  "Progress"  and  con- 
stant articles  to  the  magazines,  —  most  notable 
of  all  the  story  of  "Ebenezer,"  published  in 
"Temple  Bar"  in  1879. 

All  these  books  and  articles  would  seem  more 
than  sufficient  to  fill  the  time  of  a  man  who  was 
being  lionised,  and  who  was  travelling  contin- 
ually from  place  to  place.  But  they  were  light 
compared  to  the  chief  task  of  his  years  in  Eng- 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    39 

land.  In  1874  he  was  asked  to  contribute  to, 
and  then  to  act  as  English  editor  for,  Johnson's 
"  Cydopaedia."  He  was  to  contribute  as  many 
articles  as  he  could  and  to  order  those  he  could 
not  write  from  the  proper  authorities.  He  threw 
himself  into  this  rather  ponderous  task  as  other 
adventurers  might  into  a  new  quest  for  hidden 
treasure.  During  the  next  year  or  so,  he  was 
one  of  the  most  conspicuous  figures  in  the  read- 
ing room  of  the  British  Museum.  Day  after 
day  found  him  at  his  post.  The  correspond- 
ence alone  which  his  editorship  entailed  was 
by  no  means  a  light  labour.  There  are  reams 
of  letters  from  the  editor-in-chief,  Mr.  F.  A.  P. 
Barnard,  then  president  of  Columbia  College. 
There  are  bundles  upon  bundles  from  the  con- 
tributors,—  a  mine  for  the  autograph-hunter. 
Most  of  the  distinguished  literary  and  scientific 
men  of  the  time  were  his  collaborators.  From 
their  letters  it  might  be  imagined  that  all  Eng- 
land had  caught  the  fever  of  his  enthusiasm 
for  the  "Cyclopaedia."  And  yet  his  editorship 
ended  in  xmpleasantness.  There  were  business 
complications,  and  though  he  had  not  under- 
taken to  look  after  the  business  end  of  the  en- 
terprise, though  the  editor-in-chief  approved  of 
everything  he  had  done,  he  could  not  rid  him- 


40      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

self  of  a  quite  unnecessary  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility. It  was  a  bitter  return  for  the  energy  and 
devotion  he  had  squandered  wholesale  upon 
the  work.  The  affair  would  have  damped  the 
ardour  of  any  other  man.  He,  fortunately,  was 
not  any  other  man,  but  himself;  perhaps  over 
sensitive  —  he  could  never  refer  to  the  matter 
without  wincing  from  the  old  wound  —  but  too 
buo}rant  to  be  killed  by  discouragement  or  dis- 
appointment. 

Busy  as  he  was,  as  he  loved  to  be,  he  had, 
like  all  busy  people,  always  time  to  do  more, 
and,  unlike  most  people,  busy  or  otherwise,  he 
was  as  ready  to  do  this  little  more  for  somebody 
else  as  for  himself .  A  bundle  apart  could  be 
made  of  the  letters  from  friends  and  strangers 
whom  he  helped  by  advice  or  by  throwing  work 
in  their  way.  And  as  astonishing  to  me  —  who, 
when  my  day's  work  is  done,  like  to  put  pen  and 
ink  weU  out  of  sight  —  he  never,  at  his  busiest, 
spared  himself  any  pains  in  writing  to  anybody 
to  whom  he  thought  his  letters  might  be  useful. 
A  letter,  to  him,  then  as  always,  was  a  letter  to 
be  written  carefully  and  with  thought,  usually 
with  illustrations,  and  not  a  note  to  be  scrib- 
bled off  anyhow;  I  do  not  know  what  he  would 
have  said  to  the  present  fashion  of  doing  all 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    41 

one's  correspondence  by  telegraph.  And  he  ex- 
pected the  same  care  and  thought  from  his  cor- 
respondents, as  they  knew  to  their  cost,  for  his 
standard  was  high.  But  if  he  required  a  great 
deal  of  them,  it  was  for  their  good,  it  was  to  help 
them  to  acquire  facility  and  to  develop  a  style 
in  writing. 

"I  was  very  much  pleased  with  your  last 
letter,"  is  a  fragment  of  one  of  his  to  a  cor- 
respondent of  the  seventies,  of  whom  he  hoped 
to  make  a  writer.  "It  evinces  much  greater 
care  than  the  preceding  in  every  respect  and 
shows,  as  I  expected,  that  you  are  really  capable 
of  writing  well  if  you  try.  Do  not  be  offended 
if  I  urge  it  on  you  never  to  write  heedless  idle 
letters  in  the  school-girl  style,  without  any  pre- 
paration, or  any  care  beyond  a  chattering  filhng- 
up!  —  such  flimsy  pitces  de  tnanufacture  are 
never  carried  off  successfully  by  giggles  and 
flippancy  and  protestations  that  there  is  nothing 
to  write  about  —  and,  worst  of  all,  a  final  fear 
that  you  will  find  this  a  very  duU  letter  —  and 
I  will  not  inflict  any  more  upon  you,  and  et 
cetera  —  und  weiter.  People  who  accuse  them- 
selves of  folly  and  dulness  in  their  letters  gen- 
erally deserve  to  be  condemned  for  it,  for  no 
one  has  any  business  to  be  so  impolite  as  to 


42      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

act  stupidly  and  foolishly  before  folk  —  and 
writing  is  even  more  deliberate  than  acting." 
He  did  not  want  people  to  write  him  priggish 
essays.  The  merrier  they  could  be  on  paper  the 
better.  That  is  why  he  usually  illustrated  his 
letters,  and  urged  everybody  to  do  the  same 
by  him.  "It  makes  letters  so  jolly,"  he  wrote 
to  one  correspondent.  Of  his  own  at  this  period, 
or  of  as  many  of  them  as  have  come  into  my  pos- 
session, I  find  none  more  characteristic  —  that 
is,  none  more  helpful  and  friendly  and  stimu- 
lating —  than  his  letters  to  Miss  Lily  Doering. 
With  her  mother  and  sister,  she  had  been  at 
Oatlands  Park  Hotel  in  the  autumn  of  1873, 
which  he  and  Mrs.  Leland  spent  there,  and  a 
strong  friendship  had  sprung  up  between  the 
two  families.  Miss  Doering  was  very  yoimg 
and  was  just  beginning  to  paint.  That  she  was 
beginning  to  do  an3rthing  in  the  shape  of  work 
was  enough.  His  every  letter  to  her  after  she 
left  Oatlands  Park,  and  for  many  years,  was  a 
goad  to  further  effort.  I  wish  I  could  find  room 
for  them  all.  One  of  the  fiirst,  with  no  date,  but 
evidently  from  Oatlands  Park  shortly  after  her 
departure,  is  decorated  at  the  beginning  with 
a  big  capital  D,  upon  which  a  little  cherub  is 
perched. 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    43 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  LILY  DOERINO 

Thursday. 

.  .  .  Don't  you  admire  my  initial  ?  I  recom- 
mend you  to  try  this  way  of  getting  up  beautiful 
original  designs  out  of  newspapers!  Do  try  it. 
Your  last  letter  is  perfectly  charming,  and  you 
are  rapidly  improving  as  a  writer.  My  dear 
little  friend,  nothing  imder  the  sun  improves 
one  in  every  conceivable  mental  way  so  much 
as  writing  well.  It  teaches  you  to  think  more 
accurately  and  vigorously,  it  induces  you  to 
make  greater  effort  to  express  yourself  well  in 
conversation  and  to  be  entertaining  —  and, 
finally,  it  greatiy  raises  the  standard  of  your 
thought.  I  cannot  too  highly  commend  your 
habit  of  translating  from  such  a  brilliant  writer 
as  Heine.  It  will  inevitably  improve  your  mind 
and  style,  and  the  more  you  do,  the  better  it  will 
be.  You  know  what  a  deep  interest  I  take  in 
you  and  how  firmly  I  believe  that  your  mind 
only  requires  vigorous  effort  and  perseverance 
to  lift  it  out  of  the  commonplace  and  Little 
Girlish  to  become  decidedly  superior  and  pos- 
sibly creative.  Now,  don't  "chaff"  and  make 
feeble-funny  remonstrances.  I  was  really  de- 
lighted when  you  told  me  in  this  letter  that  you 


44      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

were  reading  Lewes  and  Heine  and  translating 
bits.  The  more  you  do,  the  better,  and  don't 
be  afraid  of  anything.  I  wish  you  lived  here,  for 
then  perhaps  I  could  keep  you  up  to  work.  And 
as  I  said,  your  style  is  improving  wonderfully. 
.  .  .  When  one  goes  beyond  petty  amateurism 
into  a  regular  occupationy  then  and  not  till  then 
does  real  happiness  begin  for  any  person  of 
mind.  I  consider  every  life  as  thrown  away 
and  wasted  which  has  never  achieved  the  doing 
some  one  thing  in  a  masterly  or  at  least  able 
manner.  I  don't  think  you  will  ever  make  a 
painter  —  at  least,  not  until  intellectual  vigour 
and  development  shall  have  given  you  more 
energy,  though  I  make  no  doubt  that  that  will 
come.  I  wish  you  could  feel  how  much  in  earnest 
I  am  and  how  interested  in  you  —  if  you  were 
only  half  so  much  interested  in  yourself  as  I  am 
to  help  you,  you  would  never  rest. 

For  you  have  it  in  you  and  it  must  come  out. 
If  it  costs  any  labour,  any  pains,  any  familiaris- 
ing yourself  with  unwonted  or  startling  ideas 
—  no  matter  what  —  make  it  come.  Why,  it 
may  be  that  those  souls  become  immortal  which 
are  developed  into  something  —  and  though 
the  mark  you  leave  in  the  world  may  be  no 
larger  than  a  pin's  prick,  it  is  a  great  thing  to 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    45 

leave  one.  And  remember  that  any  one  who 
can  understand  great  or  deep  writers,  and  write 
good  English,  and  be  lively  and  piquant  (and 
you  excel  in  this,  for  you  are  very  lively  in  your 
writing  now)  can  write  something  that  the  world 
will  be  glad  to  get,  sooner  or  later.  This  merits 
being  considered  as  hopefully  and  answered  as 
seriously  as  I  mean  it  and  hope  that  you  will 
study  yourself  carefuUy  and  cheerfully  and  be- 
lieve in  me  as  I  believe  in  you.  .  .  . 

Your  family  picture  is  very  good.  Always 
draw  the  lines  around  the  edges  with  a  ruler 
and  finish  your  commonest  scribbles  more,  so 
as  to  look  like  engravings.  You  may  make  the 
drawing  rude  —  but  finish  it  so  as  to  give  it  the 
air  of  being  really  cut  out  and  pasted  on  —  not 
as  if  it  were  painted  on  the  paper.  Always  do 
your  best  at  everything.  I  don't  mean  always  to 
make  great  and  finished  pictures  —  but  do  the 
least  thing  artistically. 

And,  by  the  way,  could  n't  you  write  a  letter 
inRomani?  You  will  wonder  why  I  should  care 
to  have  you  learn  the  useless  jargon.  My  dear 
Lily,  everything  quaint,  marked,  unusual  brings 
you  to  new  forms  and  phases  of  reflection.  Think 
how  much  more  you  know  now  of  that  vagabond 
curious  class  —  the  Romanies  —  than  most  peo- 


46      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

pie.  You  have  a  great  and  natural  aptitude 
for  the  Grotesque,  and  all  this  improves  it  — 
and  as  I  must  now  conclude,  so  with  much 
regards  and  "no  more  the  divims^^  [no  more 
to-day]  I  remain 

Tutes  tacheni  pal  [Your  true  friend], 

Charles  G.  LxxANb. 

One  other  letter  to  Miss  Doering,  written 
from  London,  November  i,  1879,  I  want  to 
quote,  because,  though  pages  are  missing, 
enough  remains  to  indicate,  as  nothing  I  have 
hitherto  quoted  could,  the  drift  of  his  most  se- 
rious thoughts  during  these  years  of  work  and 
play.  I  have  said  nothing  whatever  of  his  re- 
ligion hitherto,  for  the  simple  reason  that  accord- 
ing to  the  usual  standard  of  church-going  as  a 
test  of  religion,  he  had  none.  Since  the  days 
when  he  went  to  hear  Dr.  Fumess  preach  in 
the  Unitarian  church  at  Philadelphia,  and,  to 
escape  the  prevailing  Presb)rt:erianism,  attended 
the  Episcopal  church  at  Princeton,  no  church 
of  any  kind  had  often  seen  him.  But  he  had 
the  religious  temperament.  He  could  not  dis- 
pense with  some  sort  of  religion,  and  he  felt  the 
need,  —  the  more  as  he  grew  older.  Through 
science  and  mysticism,  he  had  gradually  evolved 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    47 

a  creed  for  himself.  He  had  written  it  out,  as 
he  wrote  out  anything  that  occupied  his  thoughts, 
but  the  MS.  was  never  published.  I  remember 
reading  it,  after  he  was  back  in  Philadelphia  in 
the  early  eighties,  and  being  struck  with  its  ear- 
nestness and  honesty.  But  it  has  now  vanished, 
not  a  trace  of  it  left.  The  only  record  is  in  the 
portion  of  a  letter  to  Miss  Doering.  I  am  glad  it 
has  survived,  for  without  it  —  the  MS.  being 
lost — this  English  period  would  be  incomplete. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  LILY  DOERING 

.  .  .  Everybody  seems  to  take  it  so  much 
for  granted  that  I  have  "no  fixed  principles 
in  religion,"  when  in  fact  there  is  not  a  man 
living  with  such  a  clearly  defined,  soul-inspir- 
ing faith  as  mine.  A  year  ago  —  finding  that 
the  belief  which  had  been  slowly  growing  for 
20  years  was  beginning  to  assume  definite  pro- 
portions—  I  wrote  it  down  in  a  MS.  of  per- 
haps 200  pages.  I  was  determined  to  know 
exactly  what  I  did  believe.  It  is  a  higher,  dearer, 
more  definite  and  more  humane  form  of  the 
Religion  of  Humanity  than  any  one  has  yet  set 
forth.  Swinburne's  hymn  and  Comte's  form 
are  confused  and  mystical.  It  has  done  me  much 
good,  the  writing  out  of  this.   But  I  want  a  few 


48      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

readers  —  and  believers.  The  object  and  aim 
and  end  of  religion  should  be  to  make  people 
better  —  to  induce  them  to  work  and  develop 
all  their  powers  and  never  to  rest  in  seeking  and 
realising  the  ideals  of  all  things,  and  the  road  to 
this  is  by  Love  —  by  mutual  aid  and  worship. 
What  is  Jehovah?  An  rnj&nite  Jew.  What  is 
the  Virgin?  The  ideal  of  maternity.  What  was 
Olympus?  The  Greek  Areopagus  realised. 
What  has  every  God  been?  Man's  innate  sense 
of  reliance  put  in  a  national  form.  Greek  gods 
were  of  marble,  severely  s)mMnetrical  like  all 
Greek  thought.  The  Middle  Age  coloured  its 
gods  —  but  they  were  still  motionless  —  like 
the  Church  which  in  Egypt,  India,  or  Eiurope 
has  alwa)rs  sought  —  immobility.  Now  since 
Man  has  always  created  God  in  his  own  image, 
why  does  he  not  go  to  the  archetype  and  real- 
ise and  worship  himself  in  others?  The  Infi- 
nite source  is,  and  always  will  be  —  Unknown. 
No  one  has  ever  proved  or  disproved  theism  or 
atheism.  Only  that  there  are  Ideals  of  Every- 
thing—  this  we  know  —  and  that  our  best  in 
all  things  consists  in  seeking  and  developing  in 
every  way  these  Ideals.  Think  it  over  and  it 
will  be  clear.  In  Man  are  more  excellencies 
of  every  kind  than  are  combined  in  ajtiy  other 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    49 

being.  He  or  she  is  the  most  complete,  the 
most  beautiful,  the  most  intelligent — the  high- 
est form  created.  Therefore,  if  the  eflEort  to 
become  better  and  higher  and  to  rise  to  the 
Superior  be  religion,  its  true  form  exists  in 
Humanity.  Two  or  three  are  the  Church, — 
people  who  try  constantly  to  perfect  themselves 
in  each  other's  eyes,  in  every  way,  are  rising  to 
the  Unknown  Source  and  are  worshipful.  .  .  . 

It  certainly  seems  absurd  to  a  vulgar  mind 
to  think  of  worshipping  any  human  being.  To 
me  who  hear  Grod,  the  Unknown,  in  yonder 
surf  billows  roaring  in  sunshine  as  if  wild  with 
joy,  I  am  worthy  of  worship,  for  it  is  /  who 
conceive  God  moving  in  glorious  beauty,  and 
it  is  God  in  Me  who  inspires  the  thought.  Now 
nothing  is  till  it  is  formedy  and  the  Infinite  Glory 
and  the  Fearful  Beauty  and  Tremendous  Splen- 
dour of  God  the  Unknown  are  first  put  into 
form  in  man's  mind.  Now  are  not  we,  who 
form  such  thoughts,  forms  of  God,  the  Infinite 
Unknown  Will  which  is  always  bursting  into 
life  and  reality  in  myriad-million  forms  —  in 
every  motion  of  matter?   We  are. 

Now  when  I  think  of  all  this,  when  I  write 
it,  I  am  Gott-trunkene.  I  know  how  they  felt 
of  old  who  went  forth  into  all  lands  to  preach 


so      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

new  faiths.  This  will  one  day  swallow  up  all 
religions,  for  it  is  the  Beginning  and  the  End 
of  them  all.  The  Son  of  Man  and  the  Son  of 
Gkxi  and  God's  Messenger  all  mean  Man  who 
has  attained  a  sincere  seeking  for  Ideals.  There- 
fore this  Theo-anthropism  is  Christian.  .  .  . 

I  cannot  believe  that  any  himian  being  ever 
believed  in  anything  so  earnestly,  and  also  so 
clearly  —  so  without  mysticism  —  as  I  believe 
in  this.  With  the  new  coming  weeks  comes 
forth  fresh  faith  and  dearer  intelligence.  I  have 
found  it  —  I  have  learned  it  —  I  shall  live  in 
it,  and  in  it  I  will  die,  and  with  it  I  shall  live  as 
I  trust  eternally  —  I  know  not  how,  and  pro- 
gress —  whither  ?  I  do  not  know.  For  as  the 
Will  which  bursts  into  life  from  the  eternal  Be- 
ginning in  every  creature  dlwsys  was^  so  we  in 
it  always  were. 

A  little  exaggerated  this  might  seem  in  any 
one  save  the  man  whose  every  thought,  whose 
every  emotion  steered  straight  for  the  marvel- 
lous. "  K I  were  in  solitary  confinement  I  should 
have  adventures,  for  my  dreams  would  make 
them,"  is  the  comment  in  the  "Memoranda" 
on  a  review  of  his  "Memoirs,"  that  described 
him  as  a  man  who  was  always  either  under- 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN'  ENGLAND    51 

going  strange  experiences  or  in  search  of  them. 
Religion,  friendship,  everything  with  him  must 
lead  above  and  beyond  to  something  stranger, 
higher  still,  even  if  that  something  could  not 
always  be  defined  as  dearly  to  himself  as  his 
wonderful  new  Religion  of  Humanity.  No  mat- 
ter upon  what  enterprise  he  might  be  embarked, 
he  strove  instinctively  to  make  it  a  stepping-stone 
to  stranger  and  greater  things. 

The  period  in  England  was  brought  to  a  dose, 
was  rounded  out  as  it  should  have  been,  with 
a  very  characteristic  example  of  this  tendency 
in  his  nature,  —  the  founding  of  the  Rabelais 
Club,  one  of  the  events  which,  in  looking  back 
over  his  past  life,  gave  him  most  satisfaction. 

Literary  men  have  always  had  a  fancy  —  a 
passion  really  —  for  joining  together  in  Clubs, 
with  eating  and  drinking  in  some  fashion  as 
the  inmiediate  object,  and  a  doser  social  union, 
and  consequent  intellectual  stimulus,  as  the  ul- 
timate hope.  Did  not  Dr.  Johnson  take  The 
Club  as  solemnly  as  he  was  taken  by  it  and  all 
its  members?  Was  not  Dr.  Holmes,  from  the 
beginning  to  the  end,  as  eager  for  the  monthly 
dinner  of  the  Saturday  Club  as  a  child  for  its 
first  party  ?  Would  not  voluntary  absence  from 
the  '^  Diner  Magny"  have  seemed  a  mortal, 


52      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

if  not  the  unpardonable,  sin  to  the  De  Gon- 
courts?  But  of  all  literary  Clubs,  the  Rabelais 
was  to  be  the  most  wonderful,  with  infinite  pos- 
sibilities that  not  even  those  who  share  Mr. 
Henry  James's  opinion  of  Clubs  as  "a  high 
expression  of  the  civilisation  of  our  time,"  can 
value  at  their  full  worth,  as  they  expanded  in 
the  Rye's  imagination.  He  already  belonged, 
as  I  have  said,  to  the  Savile.  He  was  one  of  the 
little  group  who  always  lunched  there  on  Satur- 
days, when  there  was  "generally  very  good 
talk  ...  sometimes  clever  talk,  sometimes 
amusing  talk;  one  always  came  away  pleased, 
and  often  with  new  light  on  diflFerent  subjects 
and  new  thoughts,"  Besant  says  in  his  "Au- 
tobiography;" and  then,  going  on  to  explain 
why  there  was  such  good  talk:  "Among  the 
men  one  met  on  Satiu*days  were  Palmer,  al- 
ways bubbling  over  with  irrepressible  mirth 
—  a  schoolboy  to  the  end  ;  Charles  Leland 
(Hans  Breitmann),  full  of  experiences;  Walter 
Herries  Pollock,  then  the  assistant  editor  of 
the  *  Saturday  Review;'  Gordon  Wigan,  always 
ready  to  personate  some  one  else;  Charles 
Brookfield,  as  fine  a  raconteur  as  his  father;' 
Edmund  Gosse,  fast  becoming  one  of  the  bright- 
est of  living  talkers;  Saintsbury,  solid  and  full 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    S3 

of  knowledge,  a  critic  to  the  finger  tips,  whether 
of  a  bottle  of  port,  of  a  mutton  chop,  or  a  poet; 
H.  E.  Watts,  formerly  editor  of  the  'Melbourne 
Argus,'  and  translator  of  'Don  Quixote;' 
Dufiield  of  the  broken  nose,  who  also  translated 
'Don  Quixote;'  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  then 
young,  and  as  singularly  handsonie  as  he  was 
dever  and  attractive." 

It  was  such  good  company,  and  the  talk  was 
so  pleasant,  that  most  of  the  little  group  were 
content  with  things  as  they  were.  But  things 
had  only  to  be  good  for  the  Rye,  to  awaken  in 
him  more  ambitious  ideals.  His  pleasure  in 
the  Savile  set  him  longing  for  the  perfect  Club 
that  was  to  accomplish  the  marvels  the  Savile 
could  not,  —  the  marvels  that  were  to  be  so 
stupendous,  so  surpassing  the  aims  and  per- 
formance of  any  other  Club  that  I  fancy  they 
remained,  even  with  him,  a  little  nebulous  to 
the  end.  But  his  correspondence  on  the  subject 
with  Walter  Besant  has  in  it  the  conviction  and 
zeal  that  would  convert  the  most  cynical.  The 
idea  —  the  "Golden  Find,"  he  called  it  —  was 
originaUy  his,  as  no  one  coidd  doubt  who  knew 
how  for  him,  as  for  "the  wisest  and  sotmdest 
minds"  before  him,  the  whole  philosophy  of 
life  was  contained  in  Rabelais.     But  there  is 


54      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

further  evidence.  For  whfle  I  have  not  the  first 
letter  in  which  he  actually  made  the  suggestion, 
I  have  Besant's,  almost  as  zealous,  in  answer. 
The  date  is  the  fourth  of  November,  1878. 

My  dear  Leland,  —  Your  idea  is  a  most 
captivating  one.  Let  us  by  all  means  talk  it 
over.  I  am  going  to  meet  Pollock  at  the  Savile 
on  Saturday  to  discuss  his  Richelieu.  Come 
round  then  at  1.15  and  talk  about  the  Rabe- 
lais Club,  which  we  will  instantly  found. 

I  wish  I  could  give  the  entire  correspondence. 
But  I  do  believe  there  is  something,  if  not  every- 
thing, about  the  Club  in  almost  all  the  Rye's 
letters  to  Besant  at  this  period.  I  must,  how- 
ever, find  place  for  at  least  one,  or  the  greater 
part  of  it,  to  show  how  much  more  than  dining 
he  expected  to  come  of  the  enterprise.  It  was 
written  after  the  two  friends  had  pushed  the 
"Golden  Find"  a  good  deal  further. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  WALTER  BESANT 

.  .  .  Now  this  Rabelais  is  and  must  be  in 
your  hands  and  mine.  We  ought  to  manage 
it,  without  doubt.  It  is  a  grand  idea.  We  in- 
vented it.   Carry  it  out  as  it  should  be  car- 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    55 

ried  out,  and  we  shall  make  a  great  power  of 
it  Let  us  go  step  by  step  and  only  admit 
strong  men  of  European  or  world  fame.  Just 
now  we  are  (beyond  ourselves)  Lord  Hough- 
ton, Sir  Patrick  Colquhoun,  Bret  Harte,  Pol- 
lock, Palmer,  James,  Collier. 

.  Now  while  I  admit  that , ,  and 's 

other  nominee  (whose  name  I  forget)  are  aU 
good  men  and  true,  I  object  to  them,  entre  nouSy 
far  the  present.  Just  now  we  need  Names.  Of 
course  names  with  genius.  It  is  all  very  pleasant 
for  us  to  have  jolly  and  clever  boys,  but  we 
must  not  yield  to  personal  friendship.  I  want 
these  smaller  men  to  apply  to  us. 

My  dear  friend,  if  to  these  names  we  should 
add  Lowell  and  the  great  French  and  German 
guns  —  we  shall  make  at  once  a  world-name. 
B.  and  D.  are  not  known  outside  of  the  Sa- 
vile.  Let  us  settle  these  points  at  once.  James 
is  unobjectionable,  but  he  was  proposed  and 
elected,  I  may  say,  without  my  knowing  any- 
thing about  it. 

We  have  an  able  man  in  Sir  Patrick  Col- 
quhoim.  Knowing  nothing  of  your  plan,  he 
has  sent  me  vnitten  in  pure  French,  with  a 
delicious  oldtime  smack,  a  modest  suggestion  or 
basis  to  work  on,  for  our  rules.  .  .  . 


56      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Collier,  Palmer,  and  I  revised  your  programme 
on  Sunday,  but  Sir  Patrick  had  given  such  an 
original  and  excellent  plan  that  I  must  revise 
it  with  you.  Entends-tu?  He  is  an  old  stager, 
a  wise  head  of  great  experience  and  an  incar- 
nate Pantagruelist.  God  has  been  very  good 
to  us,  my  dear  Besant,  in  our  little  work. 

I  do  not  know  or  remember  whether  Sir  P. 
heard  your  rules  read.    Did  he? 

It  will  require  only  a  little  resolution  and 
understanding  between  you  and  me  to  make  a 
great  thing  of  this.  But  frankly,  I  see  that  we 
must  manage  it  to  make  of  it  a  power.  There 
has  been  no  neglect,  no  slowness,  but  a  great 
deal  too  much  haste  and  democracy  in  it.  We 
are  to  meet  at  Sir  Patrick's  on  the  13th  March, 
Thursday,  at  8  p.  m.,  and  will  then  and  there 
settle  details.   Don't  forget. 

From  this  it  is  clear  that  the  Club,  to  him, 
meant  not  only  a  friendly  association  of  writers 
and  artists,  but  a  tremendous  force,  a  wide  in- 
fluence: "We  must  make  it  very  great  to  begin 
with  and  make  it  real  at  the  same  time.  We, 
its  founders,  must  be  earnest  and  true."  Only 
get  the  right  elements  into  it  in  the  right  way, 
and  "we  shall  make  a  power  of  it."   "We  may 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    57 

m§ke  it  the  very  first  in  London  if  we  are  wise 
and  careful."  This  "  Rabelais  —  this  Savile  — 
we  ought  to  make  the  Circle  of  the  Cyclus  of 

the  Decade  somehow.    Why,  even  M has 

ambition  to  make  the  Savile  beat  the  Athe- 
naeum. When  I  hear  him  talk  so,  /  blush.  It 
could  be  done.  Build  up  the  Savile  and  draw 
its  best  into  the  Rabelais,"  —  so  he  keeps  on 
repeating  in  letter  after  letter.  As  for  the  right 
elements,  the  name  of  the  Club  expresses  what 
should  be  the  definition  of  rightness.  For  ^^to 
understand  and  feel  Rabelais  is  per  se  a  proof 
of  belonging  to  the  higher  order  —  the  very 
aristocracy  of  intellect.  As  etching  is  an  art  for 
artists  only,  as  a  Icve  of  etching  reveals  the  true 
art-sense,  so  Rabelais  is  a  writer  for  writers 
only."  Love  of  Rabelais,  too,  may  be  a  pro- 
test against  a  younger  generation  that,  however 
clever,  "is  very  rotten  with  sentiment,  pessi- 
mism, and  a  sort  of  putrid  Byronism,  and  sees 
in  Rabelais  howling,  rowdy,  blackguard  trash, 
just  as  Voltaire  did."  But  this  love  or  under- 
standing of  "the  Master"  was  not  sufficient 
of  itself.  No  one  was  to  be  elected  who  had  not 
done  great  or  good  work,  who  had  not  "dis- 
tinctly made  a  name  in  letters  or  art."  "Let 
rejection  be  encouraged."   While,  to  secure  the 


58      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

right  people,  no  effort  coidd  be  thought  too 
troublesome.  Lord  Houghton  must  be  treated 
as  un  pete  noble  —  not  "a  gilded  bait,"  but  it 
was  still  best  that  no  further  appointments  be 
made  till  "his  cordial  cooperation  be  secured." 
"  Great  names  are  our  great  game."  "  Admit 
foreign  members  by  all  means;  for  one.  About, 
through  whom  Victor  Hugo  may  be  reached 
and  captured  —  About  can  persuade  Victor 
Hugo,  etc."  "  For  others  Lowell,  Longfellow, 
Holmes,  in  America;  and  Tennyson  will  hardly 
decline  when  invited,"  by  these  three,  which  will 
"punish"  Browning,  who 'did  decline  imme- 
diately, as  if  he  "thought  himself  too  good  for 
the  Rabelais,"  who  might  be  a  "great  poet," 
but  —  well,  that  is  all  over  and  past,  why  re- 
vive it  ?  It  is  pleasant,  however,  in  the  light  of 
after  events,  to  note  that  Besant  proposed,  as 
contributor  to  one  volume  of  the  "Recreations 
of  the  Rabelais  Club,"  "Young  Stevenson," 
whom  both  the  founders  of  the  Club,  so  much 
his  seniors,  were  to  outlive. 

The  Rye  returned  to  America  at  the  end  of 
1879,  but  the  Rabelais  was  still  dear  to  him. 
"Let  us  rejoice!"  a  letter  in  February,  1880, 
begins,  "for  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  has  joined  the 
Rabelais.   I  had  a  long,  very  jolly  interview  with 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN  ENGLAND    59 

him  in  his  house  in  Boston.  Before  he  appeared  I 
heard  him  singing  for  joy  that  he  was  to  see  me 
again,  and  his  greeting  was  effusive."  And  Dr. 
Hohnes  suggested  Mr.  HoweUs,  then  editing 
the  "Atlantic," —  and  what  with  the  Autocrat, 
James,  Howells,  Bret  Harte,  George  Boker, 
and  Hans  Breitmami  himself,  Lowell  cannot 
decline,  and  here  is  a  fine  American  contingent 
anyway.  "  Great  names  draw  great  names  and 
make  us  a  great  Club  —  small  or  mediocre 
names  detract  from  every  advantage.  .  .  .  Now 
the  Rabelais  has  enough  men  to  be  jolly  at  its 
dinners  —  but  not  enough  great  men.  When 
it  is  so  strong  that  nobody  can  afford  to  decline, 
when  it  is  distinctly  a  proof  of  the  very  high- 
est literary-social  position  to  be  in  it,  —  when 
we  shall  be  all  knowi;  men,  then  I  shall  be  sat- 
isfied to  admit  the  mute  Miltons.  I  have  never 
got  over  Browning's  declining.  I  want  him  to 
regret  it.  He  will  regret  it  if  we  progress  as  we 
are  doing.  We  might  have  got  Browning  had 

not  undertaken  to  scoop  him  in.     Poor 

boy,  he  wrote  a  regular  wooden  schoolboy  letter, 
and  this  kind  of  thing  requires  infinite  finessed 
And  from  another  letter,  also  from  America: 
"I  want  the  Rabelais  to  comiscate  —  whizz, 
blaze  and  sparkle,  fulminate  and  bang.  It  must 


6o      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

be  great  and  wise  and  good,  ripstavering,  bland, 
dynamitic,  g^tle,  awful,  tender,  and  tremu- 
lous." 

It  may  be  because  he  was  in  America,  things 
did  not  go  as  he  wanted  with  the  Rabelais. 
"Messenger  of  Evil,"  a  letter  in  April  of  1881 
begins,  "did  ever  man  unfold  such  a  budget 
of  damnable  news  as  you  anent  the  Rabelais  ?  " 
It  was  not,  however,  until  1889  that,  as  Besant 
puts  it,  the  Club  "fell  to  pieces." 

But  Besant's  accoimt  of  it  in  his  "Autobi- 
ography" is  the  proof  of  the  great  gulf  between 
the  Club  as  it  was  and  the  Club  as  its  founders 
meant  it  to  be.  "We  dined  together  about  six 
times  a  year, "  Besant  says;  "we  had  no  speeches 
and  but  one  toast  — '  The  Master.'  We  miis- 
tered  some  seventy  or  eighty  members,  and  we 
used  to  lay  on  the  table  leaflets,  verses,  and  all 
kinds  of  literary  triflings.  These  were  after- 
wards collected  and  formed  three  volumes  called 
'Recreations  of  the  Rabelais  Club,'  only  a  hun- 
dred copies  of  each  being  printed."  The  eighty 
members  included  enough  great  names  to  please 
the  Rye,  —  Thomas  Hardy,  John  Hay,  besides 
those  already  mentioned.  The  three  volumes 
remain  as  curiosities  for  the  collector  interested 
in  limited  editions.     But  how  far  short  this 


LIFE  AND  WORK  IN   ENGLAND    6i 

achievement  falls  of  all  the  Rye  had  dreamed 
for  it!  He  thought  it  was  made  too  democratic^ 
and  democracy,  whatever  it  may  be  to  political 
and  social  life,  is  fatal  to  art  and  letters.  On 
the  other  hand,  some  people  thought  the  Club 
too  eager  to  be  "correct,"  in  outward  forms 
anyway.  "When  the  Rabelais  Club  dine  to- 
gether, it  is,  I  imderstand,  de  rigueur  to  wear 
evening  clothes,  though  I  doubt  whether  the 
'Master'  would  have  quite  approved  of  it," 
James  Payn  wrote  in  reproach.  Besant  was 
more  practical.  "Perhaps,"  he  concludes,  "we 
had  gone  on  long  enou^;  perhaps  we  spoiled 
the  Club  by  admitting  visitors.  However,  the 
Club  languished  and  died." 


CHAPTER  XI 

RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA 

In  December,  1879,  the  Rye  suddenly  broke 
up  the  house  in  Park  Square,  left  England, 
and,  after  an  absence  of  ten  years,  returned 
to  Philadelphia; 

This  brings  me  nearly  to  the  period  when  I 
can  speak  of  him  from  my  own  knowledge  as 
his  daily  companion:  a  period  to  which  I  owe 
so  much  —  as  I  might  as  well  admit  candidly 
at  the  start  —  that  I  write  of  it  with  a  prejudice 
I  could  not  forgive  myself  if  I  did  not  feel.  My 
misfortune  was  to  lose  the  first  four  months  of 
his  return.  The  very  day  before  or  after  his 
arrival,  I  remember,  I  went  to  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, for  the  winter.  The  ten  years  of  his  ab- 
sence had  been  no  more  eventfu^  for  him  than 
for  Philadelphia  and,  indeed,  all  the  United 
States;  many  things  had  happened,  among 
others  the  Centennial  Exposition,  the  impetus 
to  American  art  that  Philadelphians  like  to 
think  it.  "The  houses  and  the  roads  were  old- 
new  to  me,"  he  writes  in  "The  Gypsies, "  "there 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA       63 

was  something  familiar-foreign  to  jne  in  the 
voices  and  ways  of  those  who  had  been  my 
earliest  friends;  the  very  air,  as  it  blew,  hummed 
tunes  which  had  lost  tones  in  them  that  made 
me  marvel."  I  must  alwa3rs  regret  that  I  did  not 
have  the  benefit  of  his  first  impressions  in  their 
freshness. 

These  impressions,  however,  fill  his  letters 
at  the  time,  especially  to  Besant,  and  in  them 
I  can  follow  him,  step  by  step,  until  the  moment 
when  I  need  no  letters  to  guide  ine.  To  an 
Englishman,  who  could  not  have  understood, 
it  was  useless  to  dwell  on  the  changes  and  differ- 
ences, or  to  enter  into  the  comparison,  inevitable 
after  the  prolonged  visit  to  England,  that  to  us 
to-day  would  be  so  suggestive.  But  it  is  easy  to 
gather  from  the  tone  of  his  letters  that  these 
changes  and  differences  were  great  enough  to 
make  him  seem  in  the  beginning  almost  a 
stranger  in  his  native  land,  and  that  he,  taking 
small  comfort  in  the  fact,  could  not  decide 
whether  or  no  to  remain.  Some  of  the  more 
obvious  contrasts  the  letters  do  note,  and  it  is 
amusing  to  find  how  a  ten  years^  course  of  the 
bacon  and  eggs,  the  joints  and  tarts  of  England 
made  the  civilised  food  at  home  a  perpetual 
mirade  in  his  eyes  —  though,  to  be  sure,  Phila- 


64      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

delphia  alwa3rs  has  had  a  way  of  astonishing 
the  unaccustomed  by  its  genius  for  eating  and 
drinking.  These  passages  are  the  more  amusing 
because  few  men  could  be  more  abstemious 
than  he.  It  was  another  of  the  instances  where 
his  delight  was  not  so  much  in  the  thing  itself 
as  in  the  idea  of  it.  The  letters  have  more  to  say 
about  his  new  schemes  and  occupations;  they 
touch  lightly  on  the  many  honours  paid  him, 
for  the  return  of  so  distinguished  an  American 
could  not  pass  unnoticed;  they  enter  deeply 
into  the  "educational  experiment"  and  the  two 
books,  "The  Gypsies"  and  "The  Algonquin 
Legends,"  that  were  the  chief  works  of  his  four 
years  in  America. 

The  first  weeks  were  saddened  by  the  death 
of  his  wife's  mother,  Mrs.  Rodney  Fisher,  who 
had  returned  with  him  and  Mrs.  Leland.  She 
had  been  very  ill  on  the  voyage  over,  and  she 
died  almost  immediately  after  landing.  The 
Rye  had  always  been  devoted  since  the  day  of 
his  meeting  her  and  mistaking  her  for  one  of 
her  own  daughters,  many  years  before.  When 
there  was  no  longer  the  chance  for  such  a  mis- 
take, when  she  was  old  and  her  beauty  had 
faded,  and  he  was  a  successful  man  of  letters  in 
London,  she  had  come  to  live  with  him  and  his 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        65 

wife,  and  his  home  had  henceforward  been  hers. 
He  felt  her  death  as  a  genuine  loss,  and  this 
was  the  reason  why  he  began  the  year  (1880) 
very  quietly,  going  hardly  anywhere,  socially  as 
retired  as  he  had  been  gay  in  London.  I  think 
it  also  added  to  his  uncertainty  as  to  his  future 
plans  and  movements,  an  uncertainty  that  kept 
him  from  establishing  himself  in  his  own  Locust- 
Street  house.  He  stayed  awhile  with  his  sister, 
Mrs.  John  Harrison.  Then  he  took  rooms  at 
No.  220  South  Broad  Street,  where  the  Art  Club 
is  now,  and  there,  as  it  turned  out,  he  lived  imtil 
he  left  Philadelphia  again  for  England.  Quiet 
as  he  was,  however,  one  form  of  entertainment 
could  not  be  refused,  and  in  his  first  letter  to 
Besant,  dated  from  his  sister's  house,  he  is  en- 
joying not  only  the  sunshine  and  food  of  Phila-- 
delphia,  but  the  welcome  home  offered  him  in 
other  towns. 

CHARLBS  GODFRXY  LELAND  TO  WALTER  BSSANT 

1628  Locust  St.,  Jan.  23d,  i88o. 

Dear  Besant,  —  The  weather  so  far  here 
has  been  like  Naples.  One  snow  —  but  almost 
every  day  deliciously  sunshiny  and  just  October 
cold.  I  go  out  mostly  without  an  overcoat.  I 
have  a  far  better  study  than  I  had  in  Park  Square, 


66      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

about  as  much  bric-k-brac  in  the  same  style, 
and  have  discovered  among  my  old  books  lots 
of  Gautier-Garguilles,  Bruscambilles,  Tabarins, 
BigarrureSy  etc. 

Oysters  are  wonderful  here.  He  must  be 
hungry  who  can  eat  twelve.  I  had  twelve  yester- 
day, every  one  four  inches  long  —  sweet,  well- 
flavoured,  tender  as  any  native — and  two  glasses 
of  good  bitter  —  all  for  fourteenpence.  And 
at  the  evening  entertainments  1 1  Fancy  what 
I  saw  Saturday  night.  A  great  block  of  ice  neatly 
cut  out  into  a  dish  holding  a  gallon  of  raw  oysters 
—  just  from  the  shell.  And  I  stood  on  the  mar- 
gin of  this,  and  shovelled  out  one  plateful  arter 
another  1  And  the  darkeys  kept  on  a-bringing 
*em  —  roasted  and  in  every  way,  and  imploring 
me  politely  to  have  hock  —  champagne  is  twice 
as  dear  here,  but  I  never  saw  such  lots  destroyed 
in  all  my  life.  Yesterday  at  dinner  in  om:  board- 
ing house,  I  had  chicken,  lamb,  and  scolloped 
oysters  —  ad  libitum.  There  is  better  mutton 
and  lamb,  however,  in  England. 

You  are  extremely  well  known  in  America 
and  greatly  admired.  We  are  aU  gready  ad- 
mired. The  whole  Rabelais  is  greatly  admired 
and  has  been  in  every  newspaper.  .».  .  You 
need  not  be  afraid  that  I  shall  wish  to  live  here. 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        67 

The  vitdes  is  good  and  the  life  generally,  but 
I  have  found  nothing  to  keep  me  here.  There 
is  nothing  to  engage  my  ambitions  —  such  as 
they  are.  I  am  in  some  hope  of  making  a  very 
good  newspaper  connection  and  of  writing  from 
Europe,  but  it  is  all  as  yet  uncertain.  I  am 
invito  to  go  on  a  grand  railway  excursion  to 
Kansas  in  September.  This  would  be  very  jolly 
and  give  me  piles  of  material  to  write  about. 
The  Lotos  Club  are  to  give  me  a  dinner  on 
Saturday  week.  It  is  a  tip  top  honour  to  get.  I 
was  to  have  had  it  on  the  loth,  but  Mrs.  Fisher's 
death  prevented  it. 

I  ¥nsh  that  you  could  come  here  in  ten  min- 
utes. I  should  like  to  have  you  and  the  rest  — 
just  to  grub  occasionally —  and  to  consult  with. 
I  have  lots  to  write  about,  but  cannot  write 
any  more  at  present.  ...  I  have  just  seen  the 
last  four  "Punches."  Du  Manner's  "Little 
Bo-peep"  and  the  "Cimabue  Browns"  are  di- 
vine. 

Ever  sincerely, 

Chakles  G.  Leland. 

The  next  letter  in  the  packet  is  clearly  not 
to  Besant,  thou^  preserved  with  his,  but  to 
another  friend  and  member  of  the  Rabelais. 


68      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

The  Lotos  Club  dinner  had  now  been  eaten. 
The  account  of  it  is  preceded  by  an  opening 
paragraph  too  t3rpical  to  be  omitted.  The  news- 
paper letters  referred  to  are  the  weekly  articles 
he  had  written  from  abroad  for  Colonel  Forney's 
"Progress." 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  

220  South  Broad  St.,  Feb.  4th,  1880. 

My  dear  Walter,  —  Many  deep  thanks  for 
your  long  letter.  Firstly,  my  dear  boy,  let  us 
so  covenant  and  agree  and  manage  that  no 
bothered  or  bothering  publisher  or  publishing 
shall  come  between  us.  For  you  are  bothering 
yourself  with  these  d — d  letters  and  I  am  sorry 
for  it.  Forney  is  really  poor  and  he  has  been 
spoiled  with  my  awfully  long  letters  for  a  pound. 
To  be  sure,  I  scissored  by  the  yard  to  pady  and 
you  either  won't  do  it  or  have  n't  got  the  art 
of  cribbing  other  men's  paragraphs.  To  think 
I  should  find  you  my  moral  superior  in  any- 
thing, oh  naughty  little  Walter!  Now  if  you  are 
bothered  with  this  correspondence,  drop  it.  We 
could  either  of  us  do  far  better  as  regards  writing 
for  money  —  the  sum  is  ridiculous.  But  I  have 
been  in  the  past  under  great  obligation  to  Col. 
Forney  and  I  still  am.    But  if  you  are  quite  in 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        69 

earnest  as  to  not  caring  for  this  confounded 
quarter-paid  correspondence,  why,  drop  it,  my 
dear  little  boy.  I  did,  I  do,  I  alwa3rs  will  per- 
fectly appreciate  your  kindness  in  carrying  it  on 
for  me  and  to  oblige  me.  Depend  upon  it,  I  will 
find  you  something  better.  I  think  I  shall  ere 
long  be  able  to  do  it. 

You  have  received  the  newspaper  with  an 
account  of  the  stupendous  dinner  given  to  me 
by  the  Lotos  Club.  There  were  over  a  himdred 
present  and  the  whole  thing  was  superb.  Three 
great  halls  with  three  or  four  tables  —  lights  — 
flowers!  As  I  got  a  glimpse  of  the  splendour, 
I  thought,  "Great  Glory,  is  all  this  for  me?'' 
For  one  day  I  was  the  lion  of  New  York.  It  will 
always  remain  a  legend  of  New  York  —  this 
dinner!  There  never  was  such  an  assembly 
of  New  York  cleverness  and  wit  before  at  such 
a  dinner.  I  thought  of  you  and  of  Besant  and  of 
the  Rabelais,  and  wished  they  were  all  there 
from  my  very  soul.  If  you  were  here  noWj  you 
could  do  well  lecturing,  but  it  would  not  do  for 
you  to  pull  up  stakes  to  come.  I  had  a  jolly  long 
call  on  Ada  Cavendish  on  Sunday.  She  was 
the  first  one  from  England  I  have  seen  since  I 
have  been  here,  and  I  kept  her  laughing  for  an 
hour  and  a  half.    How  we  did  review  all  our 


JO      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

dear  London  hmiie  BoKhnet  I  saw  Dana  —  he 
is  making  a  fortune  annually.  .  .  . 

Now  I  must  tell  you  that  my  speech  before 
the  Lotos  was  praised  as  being  well  delivered, 
and  I  felt  as  cool  as  a  cucumber,  and  my  voice 
was  distinctly  caught.  Therefore  I  mean  to 
speak  again  the  first  chance  I  get  and  perhaps 
I  will  lecture.  There  is  an  art  school  of  girls 
here  and  I  have  been  told  I  could  lecture  them. 
I  should  n't  feel  afraid  or  shamefaced  at  aH  be- 
fore them,  and  it  would  get  me  accustomed.  .  .  • 

And  now  I  must  come  to  an  end.  The  sun 
shines,  the  white  snow  unmelting  glitters  on 
roof  and  walk  —  the  weather  changes,  but  I, 
oh  Walter!  remain  unchanged  in  gravity  and 
virtue  and  in  truth  and  things.  Do  thou,  oh 
Walter,  like  the  early  Chantidere,  ever  constant 
in  well  doing,  up  early,  gathering  the  grains  of 
righteousness,  and  making  yourself  generally 
charming,  as  you  were  in  the  beginning  and 
ever  will  be. 

About  the  same  time,  he  was  writing  much 
less  gaily  to  Besant.  I  can  see  that,  though 
pleased  with  ever]^thing  done  for  him,  he  was 
still  so  unsettled,  so  imoccupied  —  and  occu- 
pation was  his  chief  condition  of  happiness  — 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        71 

that  he  almost  succeeded  in  conyincing  himself 
America  was  no  place  for  him. 

CHARLES  GODFRXY  LBLAND  TO  WALTER  BSSANT 

Philadelphia,  Febniaiy,  i88a 

Dear  Besant,  —  I  was  glad  to  get  your  let* 
ter.  AU  goes  well.  I  shall  be  ^ad,  however, 
to  return.  Very  glad.  It  is  all  very  nice  to  have 
so  much  sunshine,  and  in  this  respect  the  weather 
is  miractdous  —  and  the  fare  is  good.  I  have 
made  a  second  visit  to  New  York  as  the  guest  of 
a  Dr.  Hammond  —  who  has  the  largest  practice 
of  any  doctor  in  N.  Y.  His  house  is  wonderful 
in  bric*k-brac  and  the  Bayeux  tapestry  copy  for 
a  frieze  in  his  drawing-room,  and  four  bath- 
rooms on  the  first  floor,  and  all  that.  Entre  nous^ 
and  a  dose  secret  —  if  I  chose  to  edit  a  daily 
in  New  York  I  have  found  men  who  volunteer 
to  raise  the  money — but  I  don't  see  my  way  to 
so  much  hard  work  and  such  responsibilities.  I 
am  really  sorry  that  Pollock  was  so  grieved  over 
that  puflP.  It  was  kindly  meant  —  nobody  here 
would  be  vexed  at  such  a  trifle.  I  gave  my 
cousin,  Gus.  Kissel,  a  note  to  you.  He  is  very 
nice  and  a  scholar.  You  appear  often  in  the  Amer- 
ican papers.  Even  a  notice  of  your  additional 
chapter  to  Rabelais  has  gone  the  rounds.  •  .  • 


72      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

There  is  a  Papyras  Club  in  Boston  —  a  grand 
Culture  Club.  It  gives  me  a  dinner  on  the  19th 
inst.  •  .  • 

I  almost  think  I  have  the  original  Ebenezer, 
not  in  Clarence,  but  in  Eugene,  one  of  our  two 
waiters  in  this  house.  He  carves  wood,  does 
everything,  yearns  to  learn  drawing,  and  al- 
ways gets  me  the  chicken  breast  and  saves  the 
oysters  for  me.  All  the  servants  are  dark  in 
every  house  I  visit. 

I  shall  add  some  Gypsy  sketches  to  the  "  Rusr 
sian  Gypsies  "  and  make  a  little  book  of  ^'Ro- 
many Rambles." 

A  letter  with  an  account  of  the  Papjniis  Club 
dinner  follows  almost  at  once. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  WALTER  BESAMT 

Philadelphia,  February,  18S0. 

Dear  Besant,  —  I  have  just  returned  from 
Boston,  where  I  went  to  be  the  honoured  guest 
of  the  Papyrus  Club.  There  were  about  75 
gendemen  and  as  many  ladies.  After  dinner 
during  the  speeching,  there  came  to  me  a  note 

from  Miss  L B ,  whom  I  used  to  know 

at  the  Langham.  Miss  L —  is  a  very  pretty 
brunette  —  and  she  told  me  she  had  read  your 
last  novel  through  four  times,  and  picked  this 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        73 

rosebud  from  her  bouquet,  and  bade  me  send 
it  to  you. 

I  staid  almost  a  week  with  Dr.  Hanunond 
in  New  York.  Also  an  admirer  of  yours.  I 
think  there  ought  to  be  an  illustrated  edition 
of  the  "Golden  Butterfly."  It  would  sell  well 
as  a  gift  book.  .  .  .  Tell  Pollock  that  I  saw 
Miss  Maud  Howe,  who  retains  lively  and  agree- 
able memories  of  him.  There  is  a  sugar-pliun 
for  each  of  you.  .  .  . 

Do  you  know  that  I  find  I  can  lecture!  I  can 
fill  the  largest  hall  very  easily  with  my  voice 

and  I  don't  scare  worth  a .   I  am  entirely 

self-possessed,  and  they  say  I  have  an  easy  con- 
versational manner.   Eureka! 

It  began  to  look  as  if  his  ambitions  would 
be  "engaged"  at  home.  With  the  discovery  of 
his  ease  in  lecturing,  the  tide  turned  in  favour 
of  America.  Upon  the  fact  of  his  being  asked 
to  lecture  in  other  places,  and  the  subject  he 
chose  for  the  purpose,  much  was  to  depend,  as 
begins  to  be  evident  ia  the  next  letters. 

CHARLES  GODFRSy  LSLAND  TO  WALTKR  BESANT 

220  South  Broad  St^  April  i6th,  1880. 

•  •  •  I  have  a  great  deal  to  do.  I  find  I  can 
lecturCj  and  I  am  told  my  voice  is  good,  etc. 


74      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

There  are  two  or  three  women's  schools  of  art 
here,  and  they  very  much  need  lecturing  to. 

missed  it  like  a  fool  when  he  declined  my 

^' Minor  Arts."  There  is  a  great  universal  anxi- 
ety in  America  to  know  how  to  create  a  general 
taste  for  Art  among  the  multitude,  with  a  strong 
feeling  that  drawing  schools  will  not  do  it.  My 
coming  out  with  the  ''Small  Arts"  just  hits  the 
question. 

I  think  that  Ward's  rival  Prang  will  do  the 
"Minor  Arts"  in  numbers.  •  •  . 

Yesterday  evening  at  my  sister's  —  shad, 
strawberries,  terrapin,  light  hot  biscuit,  choco- 
late, etc.  In  Baltimore,  on  Saturday,  strawber- 
ries were  selling  on  the  street  in  a  snowstorm. 
They  are  cheap  and  abundant  now.  I  bought 
them  ten  days  ago  at  two  shillings  a  quart. 

In  Baltimore,  where  strawberries  were  cheap, 
he  was  further  to  test  his  powers  as  lecturer  and 
to  become  more  confirmed  in  his  new  ambition, 
as  he  is  quick  to  tell  Besant. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  WALTER  BESANT 

220  South  Broad  St.,  April,  1880. 

....  I  have  been  to  Baltimore,  by  invita- 
tion, to  lecture  on  Decorative  Arts.  Was  kindly 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        75 

treated  —  made  a  sensation  —  had  a  reception 
given  me  with  unlimited  broiled  oysters  and 
champagne.  They  are  charming  people  —  re- 
fined, easy  of  manner,  naive,  hospitable.  My 
idea  of  teaching  the  Minor  Arts  delighted  them. 

There  is  a  Ladies'  Circle,  or  Society,  devoted 
to  the  Decorative  Arts  in  Baltimore.  Let  us 
start  one  in  London,  and  bring  all  the  Rabelais 
and  other  influences  to  help  it.  We  and  our 
friends,  ladies  and  all,  would  thus  study  Art 
for  nothing.  Don't  you  see  ?  We  could  sell  the 
things  and  pay  all  expenses  out  of  the  commis- 
sion, and  hire  teachers,  etc.  This  is  what  the 
Club  does  in  Baltimore,  and  surely  we  could 
do  it  in  London. 

I  improve  with  every  lecture,  don't  know 
what  timidity  is,  can  fill  a  hall  as  easily  as  I  can 
empty  a  pint,  and  long  to  be  called  to  an  Eng- 
lish rostrum.  There  is  a  great  moral  reform  for 
you. 

They  are  only  about  half  civilised  here.  Two 
or  three  days  ago,  two  yoimg  swells  of  the  first 
Club  fought  a  duel,  over  the  line  in  Dela- 
ware, and  yesterday  there  was  an  Hite  wedding 
and  one  of  these  young  blackguards  was  chief 
usher.  Nobody  was  hit  —  only  one  shot  apiece 
—  a  miserable  affair.    I  would  have  had  a  sec- 


76      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

ond  shot,  by  Jove,  if  I  had  had  to  shoot  the 
Doctor. 

Shortly  after  he  wrote  this,  I  came  back  from 
Richmond.  I  remembered  him,  of  course,  but 
above  all  for  the  fear  he  had  inspired  in  the 
shy  child  I  was  when  I  had  last  seen  him. 
From  the  vague  memories  of  my  childhood,  he 
emerged  a  distinct  figure;  his  unusual  height, 
his  fine  head,  his  long  flowing  beard  were  not 
easily  to  be  forgotten;  but  his  commanding 
presence  might  have  been  less  real  to  me  in 
memory  if  before  it  I  had  not  so  often  trem- 
bled. One  experience  in  particular  coloured  all 
my  recollections  of  him.  I  had  come  home  from 
the  Convent  for  the  holidays,  with  no  better 
defence  against  the  world  I  had  been  taught 
to  dread  than  my  own  very  un-American  and 
much-to-be-deplored  shyness,  and  he  had  asked 
—  with  a  kindly  gaiety  I  can  now  realise  — 
what  I  was  learning  from  the  Nuns,  and  could 
I  tell  him  who  discovered  America?  "Christo- 
pher Columbus,"  I  had  answered  glibly,  with 
infinite  relief,  unconscious  of  such  pitfalls  as  the- 
ories of  Chinese  in  Mexico  or  Scandinavians  in 
New  England.  He  had  laughed :  Was  that  all  they 
knew  at  the  Convent?   And  the  laugh  rang  in 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        jj 

my  ears,  for  years  afterwards,  whenever  I  heard 
his  name.  They  seemed  still  to  tingle  with  its 
reecho  on  the  warm  April  evening  when  I  turned 
into  Broad  Street  to  make  my  first  call  upon 
my  aunt  and  himself. 

That  was  the  end  of  my  fears.  They  left  me 
forever  at  the  door  of  the  parlour  in  the  spacious 
old-fashioned  house.  I  found  the  same  command- 
ing presence  I  remembered:  the  beard  not  so 
brown,  perhaps,  the  hair  grown  thin ;  there  was  no 
other  difference.  But  then  I  found,  too,  the  great 
kindness  the  absurdly  shy  child  had  missed. 
And  I  found  it  at  once,  —  in  the  grasp  of  the 
hand,  in  the  light  in  the  strange  blue  eyes.  The 
eyes,  I  think,  were  alwa3rs  what  struck  people 
most  on  meeting  him.  He  was  conventional 
in  his  dress,  would  have  avoided  the  old  devices 
of  astonishing  the  Philistine  as  scrupulously 
as  he  shunned  the  company  of  men  who  de- 
lighted in  them.  I  can  still  recall  his  formal 
frock  coat  and  black  tie  that  April  evening. 
But  there  was  nothing  conventional  about  the 
eyes,  —  the  eyes  of  the  seer,  the  mystic,  —  as 
unlike  those  of  the  rest  of  the  world  as  the  deco- 
ration of  his  walls  —  the  musical  instruments, 
the  Gothic  grotesques  —  differed  from  fashion- 
able ornament. 


78      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

The  once  alarming  uncle  now  asked  no  dis- 
turbing questions.  He  sat  down  and  talked  to 
me  as  I  had  never  been  talked  to  before,  of  his 
life  in  England,  of  his  work,  of  his  interests, 
—  of  things  I  had  hitherto  believed  inmieasur- 
ably  beyond  my  reach.  I  had  read  a  great  deal 
in  a  desultory  fashion;  most  of  my  friends  were 
people  who  did  read.  But  I  knew  no  one  who 
actually  wrote  books.  It  was  not  such  a  com- 
mon accomplishment  twenty-five  years  ago. 
What  impressed  me  most  in  his  talk  was  its 
great  range  and  his  great  seriousness.  He  had 
no  small  talk.  He  talked  of  everything  except 
every-day  topics.  He  was  discussing  the  Phi- 
losophy of  the  Will,  or  the  Religion  of  Agnosti- 
cism, at  the  point  where  conversation  usually 
dallies  with  the  weather.  Darwin,  Huxley,  Car- 
penter were  names  oftener  in  his  mouth  than 
those  of  the  heroes  and  heroines  of  the  newest 
scandal.  His  was  gossip  that  led  to  metaphys- 
ical depths  before  you  knew  where  you  were, 
and  the  amulet  drawn  from  his  pocket  was  of 
more  importance  than  the  latest  despatch  in 
the  latest  edition  of  the  afternoon  paper.  And 
there  was  no  resisting  his  seriousness.  All  his 
thought,  aU  his  energy  was  concentrated  upon 
what  he  w^  sa3dng:  it  was  matter  of  life  and 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        79 

death  to  him;  and  his  maimer  was  as  fascinating 
as  the  deep  blue  eyes  that  held  you  as  he  car- 
ried on  his  argument  or  elaborated  his  descrip- 
tion. His  voice  was  low  and  slightly  monotonous. 
But  every  now  and  then  there  was  a  pause, 
unconsciously  dramatic,  as  if  the  thought  was 
too  great  for  utterance,  and  then,  at  last,  as  the 
word  was  spoken,  both  hands  were  stretched 
out  open,  the  palms  toward  you,  as  if  to  force 
the  truth  into  your  very  soul.  What  he  had  to 
say,  he  said  with  all  his  might.  And  it  was  the 
same  when  he  laughed.  It  was  usually  silent 
laughter.  '*  I  really  never  laughed  once  in  my 
life,"  he  wrote  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Owen, — 
'^sometimes  I  utter  an  Indian  huh.  I  had  a 
brother  —  now  gone  —  who  was  a  great  hu- 
mourist. Nor  did  he  ever  laugh.  Nor  my  father. 
We  are  a  very  grave  family."  But,  silent  as 
his  laugh  may  have  been,  it  had  the  quality 
of  sincerity  that  struck  one  so  in  his  talk.  I 
remember  that  first  evening  I  said  little  in  re- 
turn —  what  could  I  say?  —  but  I  listened  with 
an  attention,  an  absorption,  I  think  he  felt  and 
liked.  Anyway,  from  that  evening,  we  were 
friends. 

This  was  the  beginning  of  my  dose  associ- 
ation with  him.    Because  of  the  relationship,  I 


8o      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

would  probably  have  seen  much  of  him  in  any 
case,  though  too  often  a  relation  means  a  per- 
son to  be  avoided.  But  it  was  a  question  of  work 
that  brought,  or  rather  held,  us  together.  True, 
up  to  that  time,  I  had  never  done  a  stroke  of 
work  myself,  but  my  curiosity  about  his,  in  the 
first  wonder  of  it  all,  was  boimdless,  and  I  could 
not  stay  idle  if  I  wanted  to  see  anything  more  of 
him.  For  I  quickly  discovered  that  if  he  must 
alwa}rs  be  doing  something  himself,  he  was  as 
determined  not  to  let  any  one  in  whom  he  was 
interested  continue  doing  nothing. 

"Doing  something,"  with  him,  meant  do- 
ing it  for  a  certain  purpose.  He  did  n't  whit- 
tle his  sticks  just  to  pass  the  time.  If  he  had 
five  odd  minutes  to  dispose  of  —  before  dinner 
or  between  engagements  —  there  was  always 
a  piece  of  carving  to  pick  up,  or  a  design  to 
carry  on,  or  a  letter  to  write.  To  sit  with  hands 
folded  was  out  of  the  question,  and  his  reading 
was  usually  reserved  for  the  evening.  His  own 
account  of  his  amusements  in  his  "Memo- 
randa" is,  "When  I  have  anjrthing  to  write 
about,  I  prefer  it  to  reading,  and  I  like  small 
art  work  so  much  more  than  either  that  I  some- 
times think  I  might  have  been  an  artist."  For 
the  serious  tasks  of  his  working  hoiurs,  he  was 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        8i 

just  then  putting  his  second  series  of  Gypsy 
papers  into  shape  for  publication  in  book  form, 
and  elaborating  his  theories  of  Industrial  Art 
training  which  he  had  first  expressed  in  his 
''Manual  of  the  Minor  Arts."  One  of  these 
theories  was  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child 
who  willed  it,  could  learn  to  draw  sufficiently 
well  to  make  designs  and  execute  them  in  wood 
or  metal  or  other  material,  and  so  earn  a  de- 
cent living,  and  I  am  even  to-day  often  worried 
by  the  idea  that  he  looked  to  me  to  prove  it.  For 
he  set  me  to  drawing  at  once.  *'The  poor  Rye! 
How  he  preached,  Never  say  canHI^^  an  old 
friend  of  his  wrote  to  me  recently.  He  never 
said  canHj  and  I  was  never  allowed  to  say  it  as 
long  as  he  was  trying  to  make  a  draughtsman 
of  me  —  an  experiment  that  I  could  have  told 
him  from  the  start  was  hopeless.  But  I  noticed 
that,  gradually,  I  was  asked  for  fewer  straight 
lines  and  spirals,  and,  swallowing  his  disap- 
pointment as  best  he  could,  he  set  to  work  to 
teach  me  Romany  and  to  try  and  make  a  writer 
of  me. 

I  say  this,  at  the  risk  of  seeming  to  say  too 
much  about  m3rself ,  because  I  cannot  speak  of 
him  during  this  period  and  not  say  something 
of  alll  owe  to  him,  and  because  I  do  not  know 


82      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

how,  better  than  by  sajdng  it,  to  show  the  kind- 
liness most  people  did  not  suspect  in  him.  For 
most  people  did  and  could  not  see  the  side  I 
saw  intimately.  He  was  so  impatient  of  shams, 
so  outspoken  in  his  hatred  of  affectation  and 
pretence  and  petty  social  conventions,  that  those 
who  met  him  casuaUy  carried  away  a  very 
different  impression.  Like  ail  men,  or  women, 
of  strong  character,  he  was  sometimes  disliked 
as  cordially  as  at  others  he  was  liked.  But  for 
any  one  who  was  in  earnest,  there  was  nothing 
he  would  not  do.  I  remember  now  with  amaze- 
ment the  trouble  he  took  over  me,  his  patience 
with  my  first  attempts  in  authorship  or  jour- 
nalism, his  constant  endeavour  to  help  me  by 
telling  me  of  so  much  I  had  never  heard,  by 
explaining  so  much  that  I  had  never  under- 
stood. Within  a  month,  my  whole  scheme  of  life 
was  revolutionised,  and  the  world  in  general, 
and  Philadelphia  in  particular,  seemed  a  much 
pleasanter  place  than  I  had  ever  yet  fancied. 
Of  all  my  memories  of  that  spring,  as  of  that 
first  evening  in  the  Broad  Street  rooms,  the 
most  vivid  are  of  his  extraordinary  talk  and  the 
revelation  there  was  in  it  for  me.  The  back- 
ground, as  time  went  on,  was  more  often  the 
open  street,  —  the  red  brick  street  of  Philadel- 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        83 

phia,  brilliant  in  May  and  June  sunshine.  For 
he  would  let  me  go  with  him  on  the  long  walk 
that  not  a  day  passed  without  his  taking.  I  can 
see  him  now,  in  his  loose  light  tweeds  and  his 
wide-brinmied  felt  hat  reserved  for  these  tramps, 
as  he  talked  his  way  out  Broad  Street  or  to  the 
Park  or  through  Camden  or  sometimes  —  it 
was  an  unusually  hot  spring  —  to  Mrs.  Bimis^s 
in  Fifteenth  Street  for  a  plate  of  the  ice-cream 
that  was  as  marvellous  to  him  as  the  oysters 
and  the  shad:  Mrs.  Bums,  alas!  vanished  with 
so  many  friendly  old  features  of  the  Philadel- 
phia I  loved.  I  can  see  the  vigorous  hands  out- 
stretched in  emphasis.  And  I  can  see,  too,  the 
great  form  stooping  over,  as  he  picked  up  the 
chance  bit  of  red  string  at  his  feet.  Once,  when 
his  talent  for  adventure  was  commented  upon, 
"This  means  that  I  observe,"  he  wrote  in  the 
"Memoranda"  (1894).  "Life  is  a  romance  to 
everybody  who  observes  it."  And  so,  not  even 
the  bit  of  red  string  on  the  pavement  escaped 
him,  and  he  was  so  serious  in  his  superstition 
that  I  used  to  think  he  prized  it  as  a  sjmibol  of 
the  strange,  the  spiritual  things  always  lurking 
somewhere  in  his  thoughts  and  his  conversa- 
tion —  the  things  he  cared  for  most.  He  was 
never  happier,  nor  his  talk  more  eloquent,  than 


84      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

when  he  was  lost  in  speculation  where  I  could 
but  dimly  follow.  I  doubt  if  such  a  true  mystic 
had  walked  and  talked  in  the  streets  of  Phila- 
delphia since  Penn,  and  Pastorius,  and  the  early 
seekers  after  the  Inner  Light.  It  often  struck 
me  that,  could  they  have  come  back,  they  would 
have  imderstood  him,  as  I  am  afraid  his  con- 
temporaries did  not. 

Mysticism,  however,  never  interfered  with 
his  practical  interests.  And  the  work  to  which 
he  was  then  devoting  most  of  his  time  and  en- 
ergy was  preeminently  practical  in  its  aims  and 
intentions.  To  it  he  attached  so  much  impor- 
tance, and  it  monopolised  so  greatly  the  four 
years  in  Philadelphia,  from  1880  to  1884,  that 
I  must  explain  what  it  was  he  wanted,  why  he 
wanted  it,  and  his  own  attitude  or  position 
throughout. 

All  his  life  —  from  the  early  days  at  Ded- 
ham  when  he  had  found  sport  in  carving  spoons 
and  serpents  out  of  wood  —  he  had  amused 
himself  drawing,  and  practising  what  he  called 
the  little  or  Minor  Arts.  He  had  never  had  any 
technical  training  or  art  training  of  any  kind 
except  what  was  to  be  derived  from  the  lectures, 
first  of  Dodd  at  Princeton,  and  then  of  Thiersch 
at  Mimich.  And  he  never  pretended  to  be  more 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        85 

than  an  amateur.  But  his  love  of  art,  especially 
decorative  art,  had  always  been  strong;  he  says 
in  the  "Memoranda"  he  began  to  study  these 
arts  very  seriously  from  about  1870  —  that  is, 
as  soon  as  he  had  time  to  give  them.  He  realised 
the  degradation  to  which  decoration  had  sunk 
during  the  early  Victorian  period.  Already  in 
England,  South  Kensington  Museum,  with  its 
schools,  had  been  established,  probably  the  most 
costly  means  of  reform  ever  devised.  The  Rye, 
while  in  London,  must  have  learned  what  it 
was  doing  or  attempting  to  do.  But  had  South 
Kensington  been  as  practical  and  influential  an 
educational  institution  as  it  was  intended  to 
be,  and  was  not,  it  would  not  have  covered  the 
ground  for  him  and  his  theories.  The  schools 
there,  however  inefficient,  presupposed  the 
craftsman  devoted  solely  and  wholly  to  the  study 
and  practice  of  art.  The  Rye  looked  to  quite 
another  class  to  achieve  the  reform  he  desired. 
It  was  not  from  schools  that  the  boy  jewellers 
he  had  watched  in  the  bazaars  of  Cairo  had 
been  developed;  it  was  not  from  schools,  so  he 
believed,  the  mediaeval  carver  of  the  rude  chests 
and  chairs  we  now  pay  fabulous  prices  for,  had 
come.  With  them  decoration,  according  to  his 
theory,  was  instinctive,  and  to  make  it  so  again 


86      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

with  the  people  it  was  necessary,  he  argued,  to 
go  back  to  the  people,  —  to  train  every  child, 
every  labourer,  every  peasant.  Besides,  there 
was  for  him  the  '' singular  fascination  in  all  such 
small  fancy  work,"  noted  in  the  journal  of  1869, 
and  he  did  not  see  why  it  should  not  be  as  great 
a  resource  as  reading  for  idle  women,  or  even 
busy  men  in  their  leisure  moments. 

It  was  in  these  beliefs  he  wrote  his  "Minor 
Arts"  and,  in  the  Preface,  suggested  that  classes 
of  men,  and  women,  and  children  should  be 
formed  in  every  village  and  in  every  district 
of  large  towns  for  the  study  of  decorative  work. 
The  book  was  published  before  he  left  England. 
He  returned  to  America  to  find  educational  au- 
thorities struggling  with  a  problem  that,  at  first 
sight,  might  seem  to  have  little,  if  any,  connec- 
tion with  art  of  any  kind.  It  was  beginning  to 
be  felt  keenly  that,  whatever  the  Public  Schools 
had  accomplished,  in  one  respect  their  influ- 
ence had  been  disastrous.  The  scheme  of  pub- 
lic education  had  as  yet  made  no  allowance 
for  manual  work,  though  every  youth  from  the 
grammar,  or  even  the  high  schools  could  not 
hope  to  become  a  clerk  or  teacher.  The  worst 
of  it  was,  the  school  not  only  failed  to  teach 
the  pupil  how  to  use  his  hands,  but  confirmed 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        87 

him  in  his  objection  to  use  them  for  his  liv- 
ing. The  evil  was  recognised,  but  no  remedy 
had  been  hit  upon.  It  was  not  easy  to  teach  a 
trade  in  the  course  of  a  school  education;  be- 
sides, to  attempt  it  was  to  rouse  every  trade- 
union  in  the  country.  This  was  the  problem  to 
which,  it  struck  the  Rye,  the  Minor  Arts  were 
the  one  possible  solution.  He  did  not  imagine, 
as  some  of  his  critics  were  eager  to  conclude, 
that  he  was  going  to  make  an  artist  of  every 
child  in  the  public  schools.  "I  would  begin," 
I  remember  his  saying  at  the  time,  ^^with  draw- 
ing, modelling,  and  aesthetic  culture,  to  end 
by  making  a  good  shoemaker  or  carpenter;" 
neither,  as  others  insinuated,  had  he  no  ambi- 
tion beyond  helping  them  to  waste  their  time, 
messing  with  clay  and  pla]ang  with  paint.  His 
suggestion,  prompdy  offered  once  it  occurred 
to  him,  was  that  the  Minor  Arts  could  be  taught 
in  the  public  schools,  that  they  would  quicken 
the  iatelligence  of  pupils  and  acctistom  them 
to  work  with  their  hands,  in  the  end  opening 
their  eyes  to  the  beauty  there  could  be  in  this 
work.  He  kept  to  himself  the  dream  he,  the 
dreamer,  had  of  a  great  future  when  the  people 
of  the  United  States,  after  three  or  four  genera- 
tions had  been  thus  trained  in  decorative  art. 


88      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

would  become  craftsmen  by  instinct,  —  rivals 
of  the  artisans  who  decorated  the  cathedrals  of 
Europe,  and  who  made  of  every  pot  or  pan  a 
thing  of  beauty  now  to  be  treasured  in  museums. 
One  may  think  he  was  too  optimistic,  one  may 
believe  rather,  with  Whistler,  that  the  people 
turn  naturally  to  the  vulgar,  the  tawdry,  when 
they  have  the  chance.  One  may  question  whether 
undivided  attention,  and  unrelenting  study, 
and  continual  practice  are  not  as  essential  to 
the  hxunblest  craftsman  as  to  the  artist,  whether 
art  of  any  kind  should  be  turned  into  a  pastime. 
But  for  the  Rye  himself,  belief  in  his  theory 
was  too  strong  to  admit  of  doubt. 

He  had  no  thought  of  becoming  a  practical 
teacher.  He  was  far  too  modest.  No  one  was 
more  deferential  to  the  professional  artist  than 
he,  and  had  he  been  asked  at  that  stage  to 
undertake  any  classes,  he  would  have  ridiculed 
the  proposition.  What  he  had  to  give,  what  he 
determined  to  have  accepted,  was  his  idea,  his 
theory,  his  method.  He  had  found  out  to  his 
own  surprise  that  he  could  lecture;  when, 
within  a  short  time  of  his  return,  the  opportu- 
nity had  come,  he  had  chosen  as  his  subject 
the  Decorative  Arts,  and,  occasionally,  Eye- 
Memory,  which  he  held  to  be  part  of  the  same 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        89 

training.  By  the  30th  of  May  he  was  writing  to 
Besant,  from  Philadelphia,  "I  had  a  very  pleas- 
ant evening  lately,  lecturing  before  about  150 
of  the  female  schoolteachers  of  this  city,  who 
are  learning  drawing.  They  were  very  much 
interested,  and  had  put  a  pretty  bouquet  of 
white  rosebuds  on  the  lecture  table  for  me. 
After  it  was  over,  I  was  introduced  to  many, 
and  it  was  altogether  very  agreeable." 

I  remember  going  with  him,  a  week  or  so 
later,  when  he  lectured  again  on  the  same  sub- 
ject at  the  Franklin  Institute,  And  I  remem- 
ber what  a  terribly  warm  June  evening  it  was. 
Any  ardour,  however  intense,  must  melt  in  the 
Philadelphia  summer.  Already,  in  that  letter  of 
the  30th  of  May  to  Besant,  he  was  complain- 
ing of  the  heat,  "nice"  as  the  weather  was  in 
some  respects.  Besides,  schools  are  shut,  teach- 
ers are  gone,  boards  do  not  meet  in  July  and 
August.  Nothing  was  to  be  accomplished  by 
sta)dng  in  town,  and  his  first  sunmier  after  his 
European  wanderings  was  spent  journeying  to 
Niagara,  Montreal,  and  Quebec,  and  settling 
down  at  Newport.  It  was  his  holiday,  but  in 
his  letters  to  Besant  there  is  no  suggestion  of 
idling. 


90      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  WALTER  BESANT 

Newport,  R.  L,  Aug.  20,  i88a 

My  dear  Besant,  — ...  This  is  a  charm- 
ing  place,  peopled  by  the  Hite  and  highly  cul- 
tured —  a  sort  of  Sybaritic  Boston-ling.  ...  I 
am  to  lecture  this  evening  in  a  drawing-room. 
George  Bancroft  and  a  lot  of  swells  to  be  there. 

Oh,  my  son  —  peaches  at  ten  cents  a  quart, 
and  great  water-melons,  and  all  kinds  of  nice 
things  1  I  never  knew  what  good  living  was 
except  in  this  country. 

I  was  two  weeks  at  Niagara  —  just  opposite 
the  Falls,  —  and  for  ten  days  had  the  gout  I 

Also  Montreal  and  Quebec,  etc. 

Here's  to  you  in  a  Monongahela  whiskey 
cocktail! 

I  hear  that  aU  the  town  is  talking  about  my 
lecture.  I  have  just  got  a  letter  from  Francis 
Galton  about  it.  He  says  he  is  going  to  cite  me 
in  his  lecture  on  the  same  subject  —  Eye-Mem- 
ory. 

Thank  God  I  am,  if  not  an  orator,  at  least 
cool.   I  don't  know  stage  fright. 

Such  a  lot  of  good  stories  as  I  hear  every 
dayl  Decidedly  the  Americans  are  the  only 
story-tellers. 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        91 

By  September,  he  was  at  his  post  again  in 
Philadelphia.  Affairs  had  come  to  a  point  where 
England  was  indefinitely  postponed.  There 
were  ambitions  now  to  hold  him  to  the  spot. 
But  they  made  him  only  the  gayer,  and,  for 
Besant's  edification,  he  still  revelled  in  the  won- 
derful food  of  his  native  land,  the  wonder  grow- 
ing with  the  seasons. 

charles  godfrey  leland  to  walter  bbsant 

Phu^adelphia,  1628  Locust  St., 
Sept.  i8th,  iSSo. 

Dear  Besant,  —  At  last  I  am  again  in  Phila- 
delphia, in  my  nephew's  study  —  he  goes  to 
Harvard  in  a  few  da)rs  —  all  the  pipes  and  books 
of  my  olden  days  around  me.  This  town  is 
a  sensual  Paradise  when  the  cool  days  begin. 
Peaches  of  the  best  from  a  penny  down  to  four 
a  penny,  and  such  incredible  luxury  of  great 
watermelons  —  pears!!  Yesterday  morning  we 
had  grilled  chicken  and  ortolans  (reed  birds, 
rather  nicer  than  ortolans)  and  cantaloupes,  each 
half  filled  with  broken  ice,  for  breakfast ;  at 
dinner  (the  family  being  away)  I  had  at  the 
hotel  oysters,  oyster  soup,  ortolans  again,  and 
a  soft  shell  crab  —  water  ice,  melon,  peaches, 
grapes.    I  send  you  the  menus  of  this  hotel.    I 


92      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

have  been  feeding  there  for  $io  a  week,  and  for 
the  money  can  eat  from  6  A.  m.  till  midnight, 
and  order  what  I  please,  tout  comprisi 

My  Minor  Arts  has  grown  into  a  grand  edu- 
cational reform!  I  For  many  years  the  prac- 
tical Americans  have  been  longing,  yearning 
for  somebody  to  introduce  hand  work  into  the 
Public  Schools.  The  Governor  has  every  year 
recommended  it,  but  nobody  knew  how  to  do 
it!  For  teaching  trades,  such  as  shoemaking, 
baking,  etc.,  required  all  the  time,  interfered 
with  studies,  and  injured  the  boys'  health. 
There  are  hundreds  of  boys  in  the  House  of 
Refuge  (a  sort  of  prison-reformatory),  and  they 
need  work,  but  many  are  not  there  long  enough 
to  learn  trades.  Well  —  there  is  here  a  Social 
Reform  Association  composed  of  our  gravest 
judges,  professors,  etc.,  and  the  educational 
committee  held  a  special  meeting  last  week  to 
listen  to  me.  There  was  no  counter-argument 
and  no  dissent.  Everybody  saw  it.  They  knew 
that  a  popular  demand  is  springing  up  for 
mosaic  la3ring,  stencilling,  etc.,  and  especially 
for  hand-made  work,  and  that  all  these  crafts 
are  to  be  learned  in  a  few  days.  The  leading 
architect  and  decorator  here  says  that  there 
would  be  an  illimitable  demand  for  such  arti- 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        93 

cles  if  they  were  cheap,  and  that  children  could 
do  the  work.  In  the  Girard  College  here  are 
1000  boys,  and  it  has  long  been  a  question 
what  kind  of  hand  work  could  be  taught  them. 
The  Minor  Arts  are  fully  admitted  to  be  the 
thing.  They  have  invited  me  to  set  forth  my 
views  in  a  lecture  in  October,  when  the  principal 
dty  magnates  will  be  present.  God  help  me  — 
I  really  think  that  there  is  great  Future  in  all 
this.  For  it  means  not  only  training  yoimg  fin- 
gers and  eyes  to  work,  but  the  making  hand- 
made Art  at  home  in  every  house,  —  a  mosaic 
floor  in  every  cottage,  stencilled  walls,  carved 
oak  dadoes,  aU  for  a  trifling  cost.  It  is  this 
that  made  Greece  artistic  —  that  decorative  art 
was  hand-made  and  cheap.  This  same  reform 
will  be  called  for  in  England.  I  now  under- 
stand why  it  was  that  Mr.  Mundella  caught  at 
it,  —  he  saw  more  in  it  than  I  did.  .  .  . 

I  don't  think  I  shall  return  to  England  for 
some  time.  OA,  les  affairesl  If  you  hear  of  any 
reviews  of  my  new  book  on  the  "Minor  Arts," 
let  me  know. 

This  "great  educational  reform"  occupied 
him  all  the  autumn  of  1880,  spent,  after  he  had 
left  Mrs.  Harrison's,  first  at  the  St.  George's 


94      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Hotel,  and  then  in  the  more  comfortable  Broad 
Street  rooms.  But  his  next  letter  to  Besant  is 
the  best  account  of  his  work  and  its  progress 
during  the  autumn  months. 

CHARLSS  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  WALTER  BESANT 

220  South  Broad  St.,  Jan.  i8th,  1881. 

My  dear  Besant,  —  I  have  been  very  busy 
and  very  much  fought  against  by  Fate,  for  I 
have  at  last,  after  months  of  weary  swimming 
against  the  tide,  and  in  darkness,  seen  day- 
light, and  while  struggling  towards  the  Morn- 
ing Rednesse  (as  Jacob  Bohme  calls  the  first 
gleam  of  illumination)  have  been  seized  with 
a  cramp.  Id  est,  I  have  at  last  really  got  my 
project  of  making  Hand-work  a  branch  in  every 
school  fairly  into  life,  but  have,  while  I  most 
required  freedom  to  work,  been  laid  up  with 
gout.  Since  Christmas  day,  I  have  been  con- 
fined every  day,  save  three,  to  the  house,  and 
not  long  before  that  I  had  an  attack.  To-day 
I  am  very  much  better,  and  it  may  be  on  cards 
for  me  to  go  out  to-morrow.  The  thermometer 
has  been  about  zero  for  weeks,  but  the  weather 
is  the  finest  I  ever  felt  in  my  life.  I  really  think 
that  cold  winter  weather  here  is  the  finest  in  the 
world.    It  is  much  preferred  by  everybody  to 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        95 

summer.  There  is  no  sense  of  cold,  no  unpleas* 
antness.  The  sidewalks  are  dean  and  dry, 
while  the  street  is  a  hard  bed  of  snow-ice  like 
stone,  over  which  the  sleighs  go  like  lightning, 
with  m3nriad  bells.  Every  horse  has  a  girdle  of 
bells.  The  thermometer  between  Philadelphia 
and  the  West  ranges  from  10  degrees  below 
zero  to  56! 

I  received  your  letter  yesterday  and  sat  down 
in  the  evening  to  read  Christie's  '^Etienne 
Dolet."  I  finished  it  at  one  sitting  without  miss- 
ing a  word,  and  was  so  intensely  interested  that 
I  could  stand  a  very  good  examination  on  it. 
It  is  a  book  of  a  decade.  The  imaSected  purity 
of  the  English  is  miraculous,  the  impartiality 
and  dear  sound  judgment  as  to  Dolet  is  not 
less.  I  never  met  with  better  criticism  as  to 
character  or  morale.  When  the  author  is  — 
alas!  too  rardy!  —  humorous,  he  is  more  dryly 
droll  than  any  living  wit  I  know  of.  All  of 
Bumand's  fun  put  together  is  not  equal  to 
either  of  two  passages  in  "Etienne  Dolet." . . . 

I  have  discovered  the  edition  of  "Don 
Quixote"  of  which  Duffield  doubted  the  exist- 
ence. It  was  printed  in  an  obscure  New  Eng- 
land village  in  1827,  in  four  volumes.  I  read 
recently  that  to  have  discovered  an  unknown 


96      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

edition  is  to  have  made  a  reputation.  I  have 
discovered  one  of  "Don  Quixote,"  one  of  Lu- 
ther's "Catechism,"  and  that  the  most  impor- 
tant, the  only  known  fragment  of  Sir  Gray 
Steele,  and  the  13th  known  copy  of  Sir  William 
Wallace. 

I  have  received  a  letter  from in  which 

she  tells  me  how  good  and  kind  you  have  been 
to  her,  and  that  you  have  sent  her  some  work. 
I  feel  very  grateful  myself  and  would  add  my 
thanks  to  hers.  Nothing  has  occurred  for  a  long 
time  which  has  pleased  me  so  much  as  your 
doing  this.  •  .  . 

After  much  trouble  I  have  got  the  Industrial 
Committee  of  the  school  board  of  Philadelphia 
to  take  up  my  project  of  introducing  hand- 
work into  schools.  I  have  a  room  or  rooms 
given  me;  I  am  to  have  money  for  materials 
and  to  pay  an  assistant  teacher.  There  is  a 
large  class  of  teachers  in  the  public  schools  who 
are  coming  to  my  classes,  and  I  am  to  have  as 
many  scholars  and  children  as  I  can  manage. 
A  number  of  ladies  interested  in  education  will 
take  a  hand.  We  shall  go  at  wood-carving, 
leather,  brass,  mosaic,  etc.,  etc.  When  this  is 
started  it  will  go  of  itself.  All  the  pupils  will 
have  their  work  sold  and  share  the  profits.    A 


RETURN  TO  PHILADELPHIA        97 

house  in  New  York  will  take  all  the  plaques  I 
can  supply.  .  .  . 

Remember  me  very  badly  to  Walter  Pollock 
and  Palmer.  Palmer  is  no*  correspondent.  I 
am  becoming  quite  proficient  in  Schmussen, 
or  the  low-(jerman  Hebrew  dialect.  One  does 
not,  as  with  Gypsies,  have  to  go  far  and  wide 
to  find  the  talkers  of  it. 

We  were  at  a  hotel,  but  have  returned  to  our 
old  quarters  in  Broad  Street.  We  have  two 
very  large  rooms  on  the  ground  floor  and,  what 
with  some  of  oiu:  own  furniture,  are  very  com- 
fortable. 


CHAPTER  XII 

IN  PHILADELPHIA:  THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART 

SCHOOL 

Early  in  1881  the  Industrial  Art  School  was 
established,  or  rather,  the  school  board  consented 
to  make  the  experiment.  In  a  very  fragmen- 
tary journal  of  this  period  a  few  entries  refer  to 
it 

Saturday f  April  i6th.  Afternoon,  4  P.  M. 
Meeting  at  G.  Harrison's,  1620  Locust  Street, 
with  Miss  Pendleton,  Mrs.  Harrison,  Mrs.  Les- 
lie, Dr.  Cadwalader,  Mr.  Whitney,  etc.,  to  form 
an  Association  for  Public  Education.  I  was  ap- 
pointed one  of  the  three  to  make  constitution, 
etc.  A  very  interesting  meeting,  with  large  views, 
and  well  planned.  Evening,  my  School,  Locust 
Street.  Very  few  in  attendance,  but  all  getting  on 
nicely  and  hopefully. 

Sunday,  17th.  G.  H.  Boker  called.  He  very 
much  approved  of  my  School. 

Wednesday,  20th.  Meeting  of  the  Educational 
Society  at  Miss  Pendleton's.  In  the  evening  my 
Industrial  Art  School.  A  great  many  visitors,  and 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    99 

some  who  could  have  been  spared,  as  they  be- 
haved in  a  vulgar,  patronising  manner — talked 
about  and  criticised  the  scholars,  and  offended 
them.  The  wood-carving  class  under  my  teach- 
ing getting  on  very  well. 

Saturday,  23d.  Evening  School.  Very  good 
and  attentive  class. 

After  a  few  more  entries  as  brief,  the  Journal 
ends  almost  altogether.  His  days  were  too 
crowded  for  journalising.  A  letter  to  Besant, 
however,  goes  into  detail. 

charles  godfrey  lsland  to  walter  besant 

220  South  Broad  Street, 
Apr.  18th,  1881. 

.  .  •  There  is  a  very  great,  deep,  and  general 
spirit  of  reforming  education  here,  and  it  is 
principally  due  to  my  introducing  industrial 
and  decorative  work  into  the  public  schools  as 
a  regular  branch.  I  have  at  present  a  primary 
or  normal  school  of  my  own,  with  sixty  female 
teachers  in  the  schools  as  pupils.  There  are 
105,000  scholars  in  our  public  schools,  and  I  am 
preparing  to  have  them  all  industrially  educated. 
I  am  also  making  inquiries  as  to  having  a  higher 
standard  introduced  into  oiu:  prisons,  reforma- 


100    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

tory  schools,  and  all  similar  institutions.  The 
representatives  of  the  Girard  College  for  Or- 
phans, the  House  of  Refuge,  etc.,  etc.,  all  want 
me  to  set  'em  up  in  this  lay.  I  am  really  doing  a 
great  work  here.  They  were  all  ready  for  it,  and 
had  been  talking  for  years  about  it,  but  nobody 
knew  exactly  what  to  teach.  Now  I  did  know  — 
and  could  even  show  them  how  with  my  own 
hands. 

I  teach  so  far  china  painting,  wood  carving, 
and  modelling.  We  have  volunteer  assistant 
teachers  and  classes  twice  a  week. 

You  want  me  to  establish  a  society  in  London. 
I  have  already  a  much  larger  one  in  operation 
in  the  Lake  country.  Mrs.  Jebb  of  Ellesmere, 
Shropshire,  taking  the  hint  from  my  book,  has 
established  a  circle  or  congeries  or  association  of 
village  schools  which  is  largely  increasing,  in 
which  the  Minor  Arts  are  taught.  ...  If  you 
know  any  ladies  willing  to  establish  little  local 
schools  or  decorative  art  associations  to  teach  the 
poor  or  yoimg  Something  to  Do,  pray  get  them 
to  write  to  Mrs.  Jebb.  .  .  .  [This  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Home  Arts  in  England.] 

There  are  just  now  two  large  Gypsy  camps  on 
either  side  of  the  city.  My  niece  has  learned 
Romany  quite  '^  flick,"  and  we  have  had  a  great 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    loi 

deal  of  fun  visiting  the  tents.  The  Romany  Rye 
is  an  unknown  being  as  yet  in  America.  .  .  . 

I  expect  to  go  to  Mount  Desert,  Maine,  in 
July.  Injims  live  there  who  take  you  out  in  their 
canoes! 

I  miss  Alsopp! 
How  is  Pig? 

I  have  a  nice  collection  of  Gypsy  sketches  or 
Romany  Rambles  written. 

And  a  book  on  Education  going  about  seeking 
a  publisher.  .  .  . 

I  have  read  the  negro  stories.  If  I  had  time  I 
could  get  up  a  fine  coloured  volume  here.  My 
particular  servant  Eugene  is  as  good  as  Ebenezer 
and  capable  of  everything.  I  have  met  with  a 
coloured  woman  (quad)  cleverer  than  any  white 
lady  in  Philadelphia.  Such  a  stunning  public 
speaker  as  she  is! 

Now,  if  you  were  here,  we  cotdd  be  in  a  few 
hours  among  deer  and  bears. 

To  his  story  in  his  letters,  I  can  add  a  few 
facts,  as  I  worked  with  him,  fired  by  his  enthu- 
siasm —  it  was  irresistible  —  and  believing  many 
things  I  have  not  the  heart  to  believe  any  longer. 
Mr.  MacAlister  was  then  the  Superintendent  of 
the  Public  Schools,  and  members  of  the  Board  I 


102    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

remember  as  specially  active  and  sympathetic 
were  Mr.  Edward  .T.  Steel,  then  the  President, 
and  Mr.  William  Gulagher.  As  the  school,  in  the 
beginning,  was  but  an  experiment,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  limit  the  number  of  pupils  and  the  cost  of 
the  classes.  The  plan  was  to  start  in  a  central 
school-house,  where  there  were  vacant  rooms  that 
could  be  used  for  the  purpose,  and  to  select  the 
children  from  the  schools  all  over  Philadelphia. 
The  teachers  interested  enough  to  want  to  come 
were  to  have  a  special  class  in  the  evening.  The 
school-house  chosen  was  the  Hollingsworth,  in 
Locust  Street  above  Broad,  but  a  step,  fortunately, 
from  the  Rye's  home.  To  have  a  school,  but  no 
instructors,  would  have  daunted  anybody  less 
brave.  The  one  assistant  paid  was  a  man  with 
the  ideas  of  the  schoolmaster,  who  could  not 
understand  the  Rye's  larger,  more  far-seeing  am- 
bitions. A  few  volunteered  their  services.  After 
the  disastrous  results  of  my  short  apprenticeship, 
nothing  was  to  be  hoped  for  from  me  as  instructor. 
But  I  could  keep  books  in  order,  and  manage  the 
clerical  business.  Miss  Lucy  Moss,  well  known 
in  Philadelphia,  offered  to  take  charge  of  a 
needlework  class.  After  the  school  had  got  go- 
ing, Mr.  J.  Liberty  Tadd  interested  himself  and 
suggested  that  he  could  manage  the  classes  in 


THE  INDUSTRIAL   ART  SCHOOL    103 

painting  and  modelling.  But  the  brunt  of  it  fell 
on  the  Rye,  and  he,  who  had  never  taught  in  all 
his  life,  who  made  no  pretension  to  professional 
proficiency  and  was  all  modesty  before  the 
artist,  who  would  not  have  accepted  a  cent,  if  it 
had  been  oflFered, — and  I  cannot  remember  that 
it  ever  was  offered,  —  found  himself  chief  in- 
structor of  drawing,  capnf^  in  wood,  working  in 
metal  and  leather.  Really,  in  his  life  of  adven- 
ture, nothing  seems  to  me  more  adventurous 
than  the  brave  way  in  which  he  met  this  diffi- 
culty, —  the  unselfish  way,  I  ought  to  add.  His 
own  work  and  innimierable  interests  more  per- 
sonal might  be  clamouring  for  him.  Spring 
might  be  in  the  air  and  Gypsies  on  the  road.  But, 
with  nothing  to  gain,  he  shut  himself  up  deliber- 
ately in  the  stufiy  schoolroom,  going  regularly 
from  boy  to  boy,  from  girl  to  girl,  setting  copies, 
presiding,  directing,  encouraging.  And  I  might 
as  well  say  here  that  he  never  failed  when  he  was 
wanted, — that  from  the  first  class,  held  in  1881, 
until  he  left  Philadelphia,  in  1884,  he  always  did 
teach  and  never  was  paid  for  it,  and  that,  from 
beginning  to  end,  he  missed  not  more  than  half 
a  dozen  lessons,  if  that  many. 

I  may  as  well  also,  for  the  sake  of  continuity, 
finish  at  once  the  story  of  the  school,  which  he 


104    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

ranked  as  the  greatest  achievement  of  his  life. 
By  the  autumn  of  1881,  the  School  Board  was 
sufficiently  satisfied  with  the  experiment  to  place 
the  school  on  a  firmer  basis.  A  more  generous 
grant  was  made,  and  salaries  were  now  possi- 
ble. Miss  Moss  and  Mr.  Tadd  were  retained. 
Mr.  Uhle  was  engaged  to  teach  wood-carving; 
Eugene,  who  continued  to  seem  as  good  as 
Ebenezer,  was  given  a  class  in  carpentering. 
My  clerical  services  were  also  considered  worth 
being  paid  for.  In  fact,  we  all  profited,  save  the 
one  man  who  gave  everjrthing,  — ideas,  methods, 
time,  advice,  hard  work.  For  he  continued  to 
teach.  His  was  the  largest  class,  the  class  upon 
which  the  others  depended,  the  class  of  draw- 
ing and  design.  I  have  no  intention  to  go  into 
technical  details;  this  would  not  be  the  place  for 
them.  But  it  should,  in  justice,  be  recorded  that 
to  the  Rye  was  due  not  only  the  idea  of  intro- 
ducing the  Minor  Arts  into  the  Public  Schools, 
but  the  method  by  which  they  were  to  be  taught. 
Of  this  method  he  has  left  the  explanation  in 
various  pamphlets  and  manuals  in  which  it  can 
be  read  at  length.  It  will  be  enough  here  to 
borrow  from  the  "Memoranda"  a  short,  simple 
statement  of  the  fundamental  theory  of  his  sys- 
tem and  some  of  the  maxims  by  which  he  sup- 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    105 

ported  it.  ^'Tfae  leading  idea  is  that  designing 
original  patterns  can  be  taught  from  the  first 
lesson  with  drawing,  that  such  exercise  of  inven- 
tion  stimulates  and  pleases  the  youthful  mind, 
and  causes  great  and.  rapid  progress."  "The 
Minor  Arts  are  really  only  drawing  in  different 
materials  with  different  implements."  "The 
decorative  artist  who  can  design  is  a  Dives,  the 
one  who  cannot  is  a  Lazarus  who  lives  on  the 
crumbs  and  scraps  from  the  rich  man's  table." 
"Decorative  art  without  design  is  a  flower  cut 
from  the  root.  Design  is  the  root  which  sends 
forth  endless  flowers."  "  The  artistic  designer 
can  do  everything  well;  the  specialist,  without 
drawing,  can  do  only  one  thing  as  a  mere  work- 
man." And  he  believed,  further,  that  the  feeling 
for  decoration  "does  wonders  in  refining  people 
and  elevating  their  intelligence;"  that  interest 
in  the  Minor  Arts  develops  general  intelligence 
and  love  of  literature;  that  "a  knowledge  of 
art,  or  how  to  make  one  or  more  things,  is  of 
immense  value  in  stimulating  in  every  mind  a 
love  of  industry."  The  logical  conclusion  of  this 
belief  was  that  all  the  children,  before  being 
put  to  anything  else,  should  be  taught  drawing. 
To  be  taught  practically,  he  insisted  that  they 
should  be  made  to  draw  "  freely  from  the  shoul- 


io6    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

der/'  and  that  they  should  begin  to  design  by 
mastering  the  simple  spiral,  from  which  the  most 
complicated  patterns  could  be  evolved. 

It  was  not  only  to  the  school  he  sacrificed 
himself,  in  order  to  prove  his  theory  by  teaching 
his  method.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the  time 
that  followed  the  opening  of  the  school  was 
devoted  to  expounding  his  system  and  endeav- 
ouring to  promulgate  it  throughout  the  country. 
He  wrote  for  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education  a 
pamphlet  on  the  Minor  Arts  as  a  branch  of 
public  education  ("Industrial  Art  in  Schools:" 
Circular  No.  4,  1882),  a  pamphlet  distributed 
in  the  fashion  in  which  the  Government  at 
Washington  manages  such  matters,  and  bringing 
him,  in  consequence,  such  a  mass  of  correspon- 
dence from  North,  South,  East,  and  West,  that 
it  was  a  constant  marvel  to  me  how  he  got 
through  with  it.  He  edited  a  series  of  "Art  Work 
Manuals"  for  Toumure  in  New  York,  suppl)dng 
most  of  the  text  and  designs  himself.  (Published 
by  the  Art  Interchange  Co.,  1881-82.)  He  wrote 
constantly  to  Mrs.  Jebb,  helping  her  in  forming 
classes  that  were  to  lead  to  the  Cottage  Arts 
Association,  and  so,  eventually,  to  the  Home 
Arts,  as  directly  the  outcome  of  his  teaching  as 
the  school  in  Locust  Street:  his  suggestion  in 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL     107 

the  "Minor  Arts,"  that  classes  should  be  formed 
in  every  village,  having  been  Mrs.  Jebb^s  inspi- 
ration. He  started  a  Decorative  Art  Club,  for  I 
think  it  was  more  than  he  could  stand  to  consider 
all  the  idle  women  in  Philadelphia,  and,  as  an 
active  President,  he  spared  himself  neither  time 
nor  labour.  He  lectured,  here,  there,  and  every- 
where. He  saw  innumerable  people  who  came 
to  consult  him,  and  seldom  failed  to  talk  them 
into  enthusiasm. 

Until  both  club  and  school  were  firmly 
enough  established  to  run  themselves,  the  Rye 
never  thought  of  going  back  to  England.  The 
club  survived  only  a  few  years  after  he  had  gone 
—  Philadelphia  women  not  being  sufficiently 
lured  from  idleness  to  ensure  for  it,  by  work,  a 
longer  lease  of  life,  and  the  end  being  brought 
on  precipitately  by  an  unfortunate  lawsuit.  But 
the  school  did  not  depend  upon  amateurs, 
and  it  developed  into  the  Public  Industrial 
Art  School,  Broad  and  Spring  Garden  Streets. 
After  the  Rye  left  Philadelphia,  there  was  a  long 
interval  when  it  seemed  as  if  Philadelphia,  with 
its  usual  distrust  of  its  prophets,  was  bent  upon 
ignoring  the  founder,  the  creator  of  the  school 
and  even  of  its  method.  There  was  an  attempt  to 
pass  the  credit  on  where  credit  did  not  belong. 


io8    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

and  to  let  others  enjoy  the  fruits  of  his  disinter- 
estedness, as  all  who  cared  for  him  at  home  saw 
to  their  grief  and  indignation.  Word  came  to 
him  in  England  that  old  Dr.  Fumess  was  wish- 
ing for  his  return,  that  he  might  vindicate  his 
claim  to  the  credit  of  introducing  "  all  these  artis- 
tic manual  training  schools/'  for  it  seemed  as  if 
"  there  were  others  who  would  take  the  whole  of 
it."  George  Boker  wrote  indignantly  of  the  way 
the  Rye's  ideas  and  methods  were  being  used 
and  no  credit  given  to  him:  "I  do  not  fail  to 
express  my  wrath  on  all  occasions,"  Boker  adds. 
This  was  in  1887.  Only  three  or  four  years  ago, 
I  went  to  hear  a  lecturer  in  London  describe 
the  methods  of  the  Philadelphia  school,  and 
he  failed  to  mention  once  the  name  of  Charles 
Godfrey  Leland,  without  whom  it  never  would 
have  been.  It  seemed  as  if  everybody  save  him- 
self was  to  continue  to  profit  by  his  ideas  and  his 
labours  in  the  cause  of  industrial  education.  It 
is  a  grief  to  me  now  to  remember  the  grief  all 
this  meant  to  him.  But,  as  I  write,  I  believe 
the  interval  of  forgetfulness  is  at  an  end.  At  a 
meeting  held  to  do  honour  to  his  memory,  not 
long  after  his  death,  he  was  duly  acclaimed,  as 
he  should  always  have  been,  as  the  founder  of 
school  and  system  both.  And  the  two  "  Charles 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    109 

Godfrey  Leiand  Scholarships,"  presented  by 
Mrs.  John  Harrison,  will  make  generations  of 
students  in  the  future  venerate  his  name  and 
appreciate  the  work  he  did  for  them. 

If  the  school,  with  its  many  off-shoots,  was  the 
chief  outcome  of  his  short  visit  to  Philadelphia, 
it  did  not  exhaust  his  time  and  energies.  That 
would  have  been  a  degree  of  self-sacrifice  more 
than  useless.  He  allowed  himself  a  few  amuse- 
ments, though,  to  the  average  man,  they  might 
have  seemed  anything  but  amusements.  For, 
from  the  social  standpoint,  he  lived  almost  a 
hermit's  life.  London  had  made  him  for^t  a 
little  the  distaste  for  social  pleasures  he  began  to 
feel  when  he  left  home  in  1869.  But,  back  in 
Philadelphia,  it  seized  upon  him  with  renewed 
force,  chiefly,  I  think,  because  he  could  not  do 
everjrthing,  and  the  innumerable  other  things  he 
had  to  do  amused  him  far  more  than  what  is 
called  society.  I  do  not  mean  that  he  did  hot  see 
any  one.  His  sister's  house  was  always  open  to 
him.  As  in  the  old  da}rs,  his  Sunday  afternoons 
were  spent  with  CSteorge  Boker,  only  now  Boker 
came  to  him  with  "Young  George,"  as  the  Rye 
alwa]rs  called  the  son.  And  he  met,  more  or 
less  occasionally,  men  like  Walt  Whitman,  Dr. 
Fumess,  Mr.  Talcott  Williams,  and  old  news- 


no    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

paper  friends.  That  sadly  fragmentary  journal 
notes,  too,  a  few  special  functions  he  attended, 
a  few  meetings  with  distinguished  strangers. 
There  are  loose  cards,  that  somehow  have  suc- 
ceeded in  never  dropping  out  from  the  much 
travelled  book,  inviting  him  to  a  dinner  given 
by  Irving  to  the  Clover  Club  at  the  Bellevue,  to 
a  reception  to  Irving  by  the  Journalists'  Club, 
to  the  Penn  Club  to  meet  Principal  J.  W.  Daw- 
son of  McGill  University,  Montreal  —  what 
characteristic  Philadelphia  functions  those  are! 
In  the  Journal  itself  I  read:  — 

Saturday f  April  23d  (1881).  Called  with  Eliza- 
beth on  P.  T.  Bamum.  Anecdotes  of  elephants, 
etc.  He  was  very  amusing,  and  noted  down 
my  suggestion  to  bring  out  a  Hungarian  Gypsy 
orchestra.     [How  P.  T.  B.  did  talk!] 

Saturday,  April  30th  (1881).  Went  with 
Elizabeth  out  to  Kirkbride's  Lunatic  Asylum, 
saw  the  lady  patients  sawing  fretwork.  I  pro- 
mised to  go  there  some  time  and  lecture.  Re- 
turning home,  we  met  old  Walt  Whitman  in  the 
car.  He  was  quite  charming  and  asked  us  to 
come  and  see  him  when  in  Camden.  He  had 
been  roaming  in  the  country,  and  had  enjoyed 
himself  very  much,  and  said  the  day  had  not  cost 
a  dollar.  He  had  recently  returned  from  Boston, 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL  in 

where  he  said  they  had  f^ted  and  dined  him  so 
much  that  he  retreated  home.  He  said  that  he 
had  never  met  Dr.  Hohnes,  and  I  expressed  great 
astonishment  at  it.  He  had  on  a  dark  broad  felt 
—  I  have  always  seen  him  in  a  white  one  which 
some  poet  in  a  newspaper  lately  compared  to  a 
lily!  He  remarked  that  the  Boston  newspaper 
had  said  so  much  of  his  clothes.  And  truly  they 
and  all  have  had  more  to  say  of  his  hat  than  his 
head,  and  of  his  shirt  collar  than  of  his  soul.  He 
told  me  that  his  best  photograph  had  been  made 
by  Wenderoth  —  this  in  answer  to  my  question. 
Once,  he  told  me,  that  —  in  the  darkest  years  of 
his  life,  when  he  almost  despaired,  he  had  been 
kept  up  to  hope  by  two  letters  —  one  from  my 
brother  Henry,  who,  then  in  Italy,  had  seen  some 
of  his  first  scattered  poems,  and,  not  knowing 
him,  had  written  to  him  very  encouragingly,  or 
well,  —  or  however  it  was.  Therefore,  he  is  so 
much  interested  in  me.  E.  is  better  informed  as 
to  what  the  reviewers  say  of  him  than  I  am,  and 
I  wondered  that  she  did  not  tell  him  of  an  Eng- 
lish review,  in  a  just  published  work,  that  calls 
him  the  greatest  living  poet,  for  I  think  he  may 
not  have  seen  it. 

May  loth  (1882).  While  Mr.  Augustus  Hop- 
pin,  the  artist,  was  calling,  a  messenger  came 


112    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

from  Oscax  Wilde,  who  appeared  himself  before 
long.  [I  remember  well.  Wilde  came,  got  up 
as  a  far-away  imitation  of  a  cowboy,  whom  he 
thought  the  most  picturesque  product  of  Amer- 
ica, and  he  was  fresh  from  Camden,  and  an  hour 
at  the  feet  of  Walt  Whitman.]  He  went  to  see 
the  work  at  the  schoolroom,  and  told  me  he  had 
often  described  my  education  in  his  lectures, 
and  answered  many  letters  inquiring  as  to  it.  I 
gave  him  some  specimens  of  work, — a  vase,  two 
brass  placques,  a  wood  carved  panel,  and  an 
India  ink  design.  He  went  off  to  lecture,  and  in 
two  hours'  time  there  came  in  eight  or  ten  young 
lady  artists  who  had  been  to  the  lecture  and  said 
that  he  had  praised  my  school  as  constituting  a 
new  era,  and  exhibited  the  plates,  etc.,  praising 
them  highly.  We  held  a  meeting  of  the  Executive 
Committee  of  the  Ladies'  Art  Club,  and  resolved 
to  call  a  general  meeting. 

December  27th  (1883).  Invited  and  went  to 
dinner  given  to  Matthew  Arnold.  Introduced  to 
him.  He  is  strikingly  like  the  portrait  caricature 
of  Talmage,  the  sensational  preacher.  I  said 
so,  and  was  told  it  was  a  libel.  I  asked  on  whom, 
Arnold  or  Talmage  ?  Arnold  abuses  Philistines. 
A  runaway  monk  never  praises  his  convent.  He 
is  zealous  against  them.   "  One  renegade  is  a 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    113 

fiercer  Mahometan  than  the  Turks."  In  reply 
to  Wayne  MacVeagh's  speech,  he  made  a  very 
shambling,  awkward,  feeble  reply,  which  was 
charmingly  cooked  and  sauced  up  by  the  report- 
ers. He  is  a  sad  contrast  to  Henry  Irving  —  or 
any  other  man.  He  seems  to  be  the  prince  of 
Prigs. 

The  next  entry  is  dated  from  London,  six 
months  later.  Whatever  his  social  amusement 
may  have  been  from  time  to  time,  I  think  his 
real  relaxation  was  in  his  afternoon  tramps. 
Sometimes  we  went  Gypsying,  but  our  adven- 
tures, when  we  did,  belong  to  the  story  of  him  in 
his  Gypsy  incarnation;  though  I  must  at  least 
mention  here  how  I  used  to  find  myself  holding 
my  breath,  in  fear  almost,  when  I  looked  at  him, 
the  centre  of  the  group  of  vagabonds  for  whom 
Philadelphia  had  but  disdain,  and  then  sud- 
denly considered  what  the  members  of  the  school 
board  and  the  pupils  of  the  school  would  think, 
could  they  see  him.  The  chances  are,  the  same 
comparison  suggested  itself  to  him,  and  half 
his  pleasure  was  in  it.  Sometimes  we  merely 
rambled  about  the  streets.  But  he  loved  the 
streets  and  the  shops  in  Philadelphia,  no  less 
than  Charles  Lamb  in  London.  He  would  stand 


114    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

entranced  before  the  shop  windows,  and,  in 
memory,  I  see  him  again  putting  on  his  glasses 
carefully  the  better  to  study  the  display.  And 
he  loved  to  buy  things, — old  things  by  prefer- 
ence. Philadelphia  was  not  like  Florence,  where, 
the  last  years  of  his  life,  he  coidd  gratify  this 
passion  in  the  old  shops  and  at  the  old  barrows, 
until  he  had  made  the  collection  of  books  which 
Mrs.  Harrison  has  since  presented  to  the  Penn- 
sylvania Museum.  Antiquity  shops  in  Phila- 
delphia then  were  few.  Fryer's  was  only  for  the 
millionaire,  while  the  German  whose  name  I 
have  forgotten — now,  I  am  told,  a  very  important 
person  —  was  in  my  day  just  starting  in  life. 
Often,  all  the  Rye  brought  home  from  his  ram- 
bles was  some  ingenious  little  Yankee  contri- 
vance for  his  writing  table;  at  others,  it  was  a 
huge  pear  for  me,  and  this  pleased  him  the  more, 
for  it  was  bought  from  "a  Dago,"  and  five  cents 
was  cheap  for  the  talk  in  Italian,  by  which  the 
bargain  was  clinched, — how  many  pears,  colos- 
sal Bartlett  pears,  have  I  eaten  in  the  cause  of 
philology!  Or  else,  it  was  a  bit  of  cheap  blue 
and  white  china  from  an  Eighth  Street  Jew,  the 
greeting  in  Schmussen  thrown  in  for  nothing; 
and  I  cannot  look  at  the  pieces  that  remain  of 
the  collection  he  thus  made  for  me,  without 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    115 

hearing  again  his  laugh  of  exultation  after  his 
Shaiem  Alaicham,  and  the  Jew's  stare  of  aston- 
ishment "What  jolly  walks  about  townl"  he 
wrote  to  me,  recalling  them  ten  years  afterwards, 
—  "  Buykg  Japanese  china !  —  Henrietta !  — 
Gypsies!  —  Geoig^  Boker  —  Walt  Whitman  — 
Mercantile  Library — Campobellol"  Andagain^ 
"I  was  never  as  happy  as  in  those  days.  How 
fast  life  flies!  Those  days  are  beginning  to  min- 
gle with  old  time  reminiscences  and  take  a  little 
of  the  cdour  of  fairyland." 

The  reference  to  Campobello  is,  for  me,  an 
eloquent  reminder  of  the  part  his  sununers 
should  have  in  any  accoimt  of  his  amusements 
at  the  time.  The  first  at  home  he  spent  in  New- 
port. The  second  (1881),  from  whidi  fresh  inter- 
ests and  much  work  were  to  come,  he  went  to 
Mt.  Desert.  On  the  way,  he  stopped  at  Boston 
and  Cambridge.  He  had  been  a^ed  to  read  the 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  poem  at  Harvard,  an  honoiu: 
that  gave  him  genuine  pleasure.  He  wrote  it 
with  even  more  than  the  usual  care  and  enthu- 
siasm he  lavished  upon  whatever  he  might  have 
to  do.  As  I  was  seeing  him  daily  at  that  period, 
he  would  read  me  in  the  afternoon  the  lines  he 
had  written  in  the  morning.  It  meant  much  to 
him  —  he  made  it  almost  a  profession  of  faith. 


Ii6    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

It  was  never  published,  and,  after  this  long  inter- 
val, I  should  not  venture  to  explain  its  subject  in 
detail.  But  I  know  it  touched  upon  the  modem 
materialism  that  he  believed  was  leading  to  the 
noblest,  the  most  perfect  spiritualism  ever  yet 
evolved.  Therefore  what  he  thought  the  indif- 
ference of  his  audience  when  he  read  the  poem 
at  Harvard  was  a  deep  disappointment,  and  he 
felt  it  enough  to  say  so  frankly  to  Dr.  Holmes. 
I  do  not  know  which  pleases  me  better,  his  own 
frankness  or  the  equal  frankness  with  which  the 
Doctor  met  it. 

DR.  OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY 

LELAND 

Beverly  Farms,  July  i8th,  1881. 

My  dear  Leland,  —  I  was  sorry  for  the  cir- 
cimistance  you  mention  so  quietly  —  very  sorry. 
Now  I  will  tell  you  one  or  two  things  about  the 
Phi  Beta  Poem.  Over  and  over  again  I  wanted 
to  get  up  and  tell  you  that  the  last  portion  of 
many  lines  could  not,  I  felt  sure,  be  heard.  But 
it  is  so  awkward  to  interrupt  —  and  to  be  in- 
terrupted—  that  I  refrained  from  doing  it.  I 
was  confident  that  many  of  the  best  points  were 
not  taken,  simply  because  they  were  not  clearly 
heard.   It  is  the  conmionest  faXdt  of  those  who 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    117 

read  their  own  verse  to  let  their  voices  drop  at 
the  end  and  toward  the  end  of  a  line.  My  wife 
has  so  often  reproved  me  for  it  that  I  have 
learned  pretty  well  to  avoid  it.  .  .  .  You  must 
remember  also  that  Boston  was  almost  liter- 
ally empty  of  its  proper  world  when  you  were 
there,  and  that  "everybody"  scattered  oflf  from 
Cambridge  m  every  direction  in  the  afternoon 
trains. 

In  delivering  your  poem,  you  were  at  such  a 
disadvantage  as  perhaps  no  other  Phi  Beta  poet 
ever  was  before.  Wendell  Phillips  at  Harvard 
was  an  event  —  I  don't  doubt  some  of  the  other 
alumni  went  into  convulsions  about  it.  He  had 
utterly  exhausted  the  sensibilities  of  his  audi- 
ence before  you  had  a  chance  at  them.  I  saw  at 
once,  before  you  opened  your  lips,  that  you  had 
an  impossible  task  —  to  address  an  audience 
which  was  exhausted  by  two  hours  of  electric 
shocks.  It  is  always  a  difficult  matter  to  interest 
an  audience  tired  with  a  long  piece  of  declama- 
tion. I  do  not  think  that  your  predecessors  of 
late  years  have  succeeded  in  doing  it.  I  have 
myself  on  one  occasion  delivered  a  poem  after 
an  eloquent  and  taking  address,  and  experienced 
a  wretched  sense  of  depression  after  it  in  con- 
sequence.  Your  poem  will  read  well,  I  have  no 


Ii8    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

doubt,  and  would  have  gohe  off  finely  if  you  had 
had  a  fresh  audience. 

One  or  two  pleasant  incidents  there  were, 
however,  to  make  up  for  a  disappointment 
caused,  I  do  not  doubt,  by  nothing  more  serious 
than  the  tendency  "to  somnolence  among  the 
men  and  a  desperate  resort  to  their  fans  on  the 
part  of  the  women,"  that  Lowell  deplored  as  a 
danger  to  be  carefully  foreseen  on  these  occasions. 
One  of  the  redeeming  incidents  was  the  dinner, 
when  Dr.  Holmes  greeted  him  and  Wendell 
Phillips  — "The  Dutch  have  taken  Harvard" 
—  in  the  verses  without  which  an  occasion  in 
Boston  would  not  then  have  been  an  occasion. 

And  yoQ,  our  quasi  Dutchman,  what  welcome  should  be 
yours 

For  all  the  wise  prescriptions  that  work  your  laughter-cures  ? 

•* Shake  before  taking?"  Not  a  bit,  the  bottle  cuie*s  a 
sham; 

Take  before  shaking,  and  you'll  find  it  shakes  your  dia- 
phragm. 

**  Hans  Breitmann  gif  a  barty —  vhere  is  dot  barty  now?  " 
On  every  shelf  where  wit  is  stored  to  smooth  the  careworn 

brow  I 
A  health  to  stout  Hans  Breitmann  I  How  long  before  we  see 
Another  Hans  as  handsome — as  bright  a  man  as  he ! 

That  was  a  welcome  pleasant  to  listen  to. 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    119 

Another  incident  was  the  meeting  with  Alcott, 
who  had  not  forgotten  the  old  Philadelphia  days, 
and  the  small  pupil  who  had  read  through  the 
"Faerie  Queene  "  and  so  much  besides.  But 
pleasantest  of  all  was  the  incident  that  reveals 
something  of  the  boyish  element  both  the  Rye 
and  Dr.  Holmes  retained  to  the  end,  and  that  is 
on  record  in  the  "  Memoranda : "  "  When  I  went 
to  Boston  to  deliver  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Poem 
in  1881,  Dr.  Holmes  invited  me  to  pass  a  day 
with  him  at  his  place  in  Beverly.  It  was  a  very 
delightful  day.  I  went  out  to  take  a  walk  with 
him,  and  picked  up  on  the  shore  some  of  the 
shells  of  the  Unio,  a  thick  pearl  mussel.  Dr. 
Holmes  said  something  to  the  effect  that  it  was 
a  pity  such  beautiful  objects  should  be  without 
value,  when  I  replied  that  I  could  easily  make 
them  sell  for  five  dollars  apiece !  So  I  took  some 
to  the  house,  and  asked  the  doctor  to  write  his 
name  on  each,  which  he  did,  and  I  then  said, 
*  These  will  now  easily  sell  for  five  dollars  each.' 
At  which  he  was  much  pleased,  and  I  think  was 
deeply  touched  when  I  remarked .  that  by  this 
shelling  out  I  should  induce  collectors  of  auto- 
graphs to  fork  over,  as  is  usual  in  consuming 
oysters." 
Of  the  Indians  who  were  the  great  event  of 


I20    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  summer  of  1881,  as  also  of  1882  and  1883, 1 
wait  to  write  in  connection  with  the  book  he 
made  out  of  them,  "The  Algonquin  Legends." 
The  hours  in  their  tents  by  the  sea  helped  to 
give  him  courage  for  the  routine  of  work  in 
Philadelphia.  The  quiet,  industrious,  civilised 
Passamaquoddies  danced  no  war  dances  with 
him,  — led  him  on  no  wild  chase  across  the 
plains.  As  I  saw  them,  they  were  tranquillity 
itself.  But  the  old  fire,  the  old  wildness,  the  old 
magic  was  in  their  legends,  and  in  each,  as  he 
forced  it  from  them  by  his  own  spell  of  sympathy, 
he  drew  a  fresh  breath  of  life.  I  remember  what 
splendid  form  he  was  always  in  when  he  got 
back  to  Philadelphia  and  to  work  in  the  fall, 
his  note-book  full  of  Indian  words  and  phrases 
and  stories,  his  trunk  full  of  birch-bark  boxes. 
The  procession  of  savages,  armed  with  toma- 
hawks, grasping  each  other's  long  hair,  that 
encircled  some  of  the  boxes,  proved  to  me  how 
well  the  Indians  had  been  initiated  into  the 
mystery  of  spirals. 

The  summer  of  1882  was  spent  partly  at  Rye 
Beach,  partly  at  Campobello,  then  just  begin- 
ning to  be  heard  of  as  a  rival  to  Bar  Harbor.  A 
letter  from  the  Rye  recalls  to  me  now  many 
things,  and  is  characteristic  of  him. 


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THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    121 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LSL4MD  TO  JOSEPH  PENNELL 

Rye,  N.  H.,  June  25thy  1882. 

My  dear  Mr.  Pennell,  —  If  you  want  my 
picture,  you  must  go  to  Gutekunst  and  get  that 
one  with  the  broad-brimmed  hat.  Tell  him  it 
is  to  be  engraved  to  his  honour  and  glory  and 
eternally. 

We  are  all  well,  and  yesterday  went  to  Ports- 
mouth and  saw  some  marvellous  old  houses. 

Yours  truly, 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

P.  S.  I  write  in  great  haste.  I  am  quite  full 
of  the  idea  of  writing  a  book  to  be  called  the 
"Vagabonds,"  you  to  do  the  pictures.  Run  it 
first  through  "Scribner."  Miss  Robins  is  all 
right,  and  anticipating  doing  a  jolly  lot  of  work. 
This  is  a  very  nice  place. 

In  the  summer  of  1883, 1  joined  him  at  Cam- 
pobello  for  a  few  weeks,  and  there  he  took  me 
to  spend  long  afternoons  with  Tomah  and  the 
others  under  the  pines  near  the  Tyn-e-Coed 
House,  and  to  ramble  long  mornings  in  the 
woods,  almost  primeval  in  their  wildness.  In 
his  rough  flannels  and  wide-brinmied  straw  hat, 
he  looked  like  the  pioneer  seeking  a  trail  or  blaz- 


122    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

ing  a  new  one,  as  he  literally  hacked  his  way 
through.  For  he  carried  a  great  knife,  and,  as  he 
went,  he  cut  down  here  a  branch,  gnarled  and 
twisted,  that  with  two  or  three  touches  of  the 
knife  he  could  make  into  a  grotesque  as  strange 
as  the  grinning  gargoyle  of  some  old  cathedral; 
or  there  a  great  fungus,  bracket-like  in  form,  in 
which  he  divined  decorative  possibilities.  And 
so  we  would  come  home  to  lunch,  laden  with 
trophies  that  hung  for  the  rest  of  the  summer 
on  the  walls  of  his  room.  He  could  not  live  in  a 
room  with  bare  walls,  and  the  more  barbarous 
the  ornament,  the  more  it  pleased  him.  And 
at  Campobello,  too,  the  idle  were  set  to  work. 
Spirals  were  made  with  as  great  assiduity  on  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  as  on  the  banks  of  the  Delaware. 
But  if  half  the  time  he  was  the  stem  school- 
master to  the  young  women  in  the  hotel,  whose 
talent  heretofore  had  been  for  idleness,  he  was 
also,  the  other  half,  the  magician  who  could  tell 
fortunes  and  cast  spells.  On  how  many  a  windy 
evening,  before  the  great  wood  fire  in  the  hall, 
have  I  seen  a  smaU  hand  stretched  out  that  he 
might  read  the  lines,  how  many  times  have  I  seen 
"  that  fine  head  "  bending  over  it  with  the  gravity 
and  intensity  he  gave  to  his  every  action ! 
It  was  this  curious  contrast  in  his  interests — 


THE  INDUSTRIAL  ART  SCHOOL    123 

a  contrast  incomprehensible  to  some  people — 
which  made  him  the  extraordinary  man  he  was, 
and  gave  his  life  its  zest.  After  knowing  him, 
I  have  imderstood  better  that  once  inscrutable 
figure  of  Borrow,  Romany  Rye  and  agent  in 
Spain  and  Russia  for  the  Bible  Society.  The  Rye 
was  the  happier  gossiping  in  the  garden  with  a 
tinker  because,  the  moment  before,  he  had  been 
interviewing  a  school  director  in  his  study.  He 
was  the  gayer  in  the  Gypsy  tent  because  of  the 
hours  in  the  schoolroom.  I  saw  both  sides  during 
the  four  years  in  Philadelphia.  I  have  shown 
one ;  now  I  want  to  show  the  other,  —  the  more 
picturesque,  and,  I  am  half  tempted  to  believe, 
to  him  the  better  side. 


CHAPTER    XIII 

THE  ROMANY  RYE* 

To  the  many  who  do  not  understand,  it  is  not 
easy  to  explain  the  charm  of  the  Gypsy.  But 
what  it  means  to  the  few  who  feel  it,  Borrow, 
long  ago,  left  no  chance  of  doubt.  I  have  come 
under  the  spell.  There  was  a  time  when  I  found 
my  hand's  breadth  of  romance,  "  'mid  the  blank 
miles  round  about,"  on  the  road  and  in  the 
tents.  But  when  I  look  back  to  the  camps  by  the 
wayside  where  I  was  at  home,  the  centre  of  the 
group  round  the  fire  or  under  the  trees  was  not 
the  Gypsy,  but  a  tall,  fair  man,  with  flowing 
beard,  more  like  a  Viking, — the  Rye,  without 
whom  I  would  never  have  found  my  way  there. 
When  he  took  me  to  see  the  Gypsies,  after  his 
return  to  Philadelphia  in  the  winter  of  1880,  he 
had  already  written  his  first  books  about  them, 

*  One  word  of  explanation :  I  am  not  responsible  for  the 
vagaries  in  the  Romany  spelling  of  the  Romany  Ryes.  A 
moment  came  when  they  strove  for  uniformity.  But  at  first 
they  were  as  independent  in  the  matter  as  the  Gypsy  is  in 
life,  with  infinite  confusion  for  the  student  as  result. 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  125 

was  already  honoured  as  a  Romany  scholar 
throughout  the  learned  world,  and  welcomed  as 
a  friend  in  every  green  lane  where  G3rpsies  wan- 
der. I  like  best  to  remember  him  as  he  was  on 
these  tramps,  gay  and  at  ease  in  his  velveteen 
coat  and  soft  wide-brinmied  hat,  alert  for  dis- 
covery of  the  Romany  in  the  Philadelphia  lots, 
and  like  a  child  in  his  enjoyment  of  it  all,  from 
the  first  glimpse  of  the  smoke  curling  through  the 
trees  and  the  first  sound  of  the  soft  Sarishan  of 
greeting.  Of  his  love  for  the  Gypsies,  I  can 
therefore  speak  from  my  memory  of  the  old  days. 
And  as,  since  his  death,  all  his  Gypsy  papers 
and  collections  have  been  placed  in  my  hands,  I 
now  know  no  less  well  —  perhaps  better  than 
anybody  —  just  how  hard  he  worked  over  their 
history  and  their  language.  For,  if  "  Gjrps3ang" 
was,  as  he  said,  the  best  sport  he  knew,  it  was  also 
his  most  serious  pursuit.  There  are  notebooks, 
elaborate  vocabularies,  stories,  proverbs,  songs, 
diaries,  lists  of  names,  memoranda  of  all  sorts; 
there  are  great  bundles  of  letters,  a  few  from 
G3rpsies,  the  greater  nimiber  from  Romany 
Ryes;  for  nothing,  I  do  believe,  ever  united  men 
as  closely  as  love  of  the  Gypsy,  — when  it  did  not 
estrange  them  completely,  —  and  it  happened 
that  never  was  there  a  group  of  scholars  so  ready 


126    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

to  be  drawn  together  by  this  bond,  Borrow  their 
inspiration,  as  they  would  have  been  the  first  to 
admit. 

If  a  Romany  Rye  is,  as  Groome  explained, 
one,  not  a  G3rpsy,  who  loves  the  race  and  has 
mastered  the  tongue,  Borrow  did  not  invent  him. 
Already  students  had  busied  themselves  with  the 
language;  already  Gypsy  scholars,  like  Glan- 
vill's  —  or  Matthew  Arnold's?  —  "had  roam'd 
the  world  with  that  wild  brotherhood."  Bilt 
they  had  been  scattered  through  the  many  cen- 
turies since  the  first  Gypsy  had  appeared  in 
Europe.  It  was  Borrow  who,  hearing  the  music 
of  the  wind  on  the  heath,  and  feeling  the  charm 
of  the  Gypsy's  life,  made  others  hear  and  feel 
with  him,  till,  where  there  had  been  but  one 
Romany  Rye,  there  were  now  a  score,  learning 
more  of  Romany  in  a  few  years  than  earlier 
scholars  had  in  hundreds,  and,' less  fearful  than 
Glanvill's  youth,  giving  the  world  their  know- 
ledge of  the  language  and  the  people  who  spoke 
it.  A  very  craze  for  the  G3rpsy  spread  through 
the  land.  I  know  of  nothing  like  it,  save  the 
ardour  with  which  the  F61ibrige  took  root  in 
Provence.  Language  in  both  cases  —  with  the 
F61ibres  their  own,  with  the  Romany  Ryes  that  of 
the  stranger  —  led  to  meetings,  and  friendships, 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  127 

and  rivalries,  and  collaboration,  and  exaltation 
even;  only,  the  sober  men  of  the  North  were 
less  intoxicated  with  the  noise  of  their  own  voices, 
less  theatrical  in  proclaiming  their  Brotherhood, 
less  eager  to  make  of  a  common  study  a  new 
religion  —  and  more  self-conscious.  They  would 
hav$  been  ashamed  to  blow  their  trumpets  in 
public,  to  advertise  themselves  with  joyous  self- 
abandonment.  The  Fflibres  were  proud  to  be 
Frovengal;  the  Romany  Ryes  loved  to  play  at 
Gypsying.  And  so,  while  the  history  of  the 
F^Ubrige  —  probably  with  years  of  life  before  it 
—  has  been  written  again  and  again,  the  move- 
ment Borrow  started  still  waits  its  historian, 
though,  if  the  child  has  been  bom  who  will  see 
the  last  Gypsy,  the  race  of  Gypsy  scholars  must 
now  be  dying  out.  It  is  a  pity.  The  story  of  their 
studies  and  their  friendships  and  their  fights,  as 
I  read  it  in  these  yellowing  letters  and  note- 
books, is  worth  immortalising. 

Of  all  the  little  group,  not  one  got  to  know  the 
Gypsies  better,  loved  them  more  honestly,  and 
wrote  about  them  more  learnedly,  yet  delight- 
fully, than  the  Rye, — the  name  by  which  they, 
as  well  as  I,  knew  him  best.  If  his  study  of  the 
Romanies  began  only  when  he  came  to  settle  in 
England  in  1870,  it  was  simply  because,  until 


128    CHARLES  GODFREY   LELAND 

then,  he  had  found  no  Romanies  to  study.  Love 
of  them  must  alwa]^  have  been  in  his  blood.  His 
passion  for  the  mysterious  predestined  him  to 
dealings  of  the  "deepest"  with  the  Gypsies  — 
everything  connected  with  whom  is  a  mystery,  as 
Lavengro  told  the  Armenian  —  once  the  Gyp- 
sies came  his  way.  The  Rye  did  not  make  Sor- 
row's pretence  to  secret  power;  he  did  not  pose 
as  the  Sapengro^  their  master.  Nor  was  there 
anything  of  the  vagabond  about  him.  I  cannot 
imagine  him  in  the  dingle  with  the  Flaming  Tin- 
man and  Isopel  Bemers.  He  would  have  been 
supremely  imcomfortable  journeying  through 
Norway,  or  through  life,  with  Esmeralda.  He 
could  not  have  wandered  as  the  Gypsy  with 
Wlislocki  or  Herrmann  in  the  mountains  of 
Transylvania,  or  Sampson  on  Welsh  roads.  It 
was  not  his  way  of  caring  for  the  G)rpsies;  that 
was  the  only  diflference;  he  cared  for  them  no 
less.  For  him  the  fascination  was  in  the  message 
their  dark  faces  brought  from  the  East,  the 
"fatherland  of  divination  and  enchantment;" 
in  the  shreds  and  tatters  of  myths  and  magics 
that  clung  to  them ;  in  their  black  language  — 
the  kalo  jib  —  with  the  something  mysterious 
in  it  that  drew  Borrow  to  the  Irish  tongue. 
Besides,  his  love  of  Nature,  though  it  would 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  129 

no  more  have  driven  him  into  the  wilderness  with 
Thoreau  than  love  for  the  Gypsy  could  have  led 
him  to  pitch  his  tent  in  Borrow's  dingle,  was  very 
real,  and  opened  his  heart  to  the  people  whom 
he  thought  the  human  t)rpes  of  this  love  which  is 
vanishing.  In  his  ears,  theirs  was  "the  cheerful 
voice  of  the  public  road;"  to  its  "sentiment," 
their  presence  gave  the  clue;  and  he  believed 
that  Borrow  felt  this  with  him.  I  am  not  so  sure. 
For  all  the  now  famous  picture  of  the  Gypsy  as 
the  human  cuckoo  adding  charm  to  the  green 
lanes  in  spring  and  summer,  it  is  a  question 
whether  Nature  ever  really  appealed  to  Borrow, 
save  as  a  backgroimd  for  his  own  dramatic  self. 
With  the  Rye,  however,  I  have  wandered  often 
and  far  enough  to  know  that  he  loved  the  wood, 
the  sea,  the  road,  none  the  less  when  all  himian- 
ity  had  been  left  behind.  And  out  of  this  love  of 
Nature  and  the  people  nearest  to  her,  came  the 
gift  of  which  he  boasted  once  in  a  letter  to  Bor- 
row; he  had  always,  he  said,  been  able  to  win 
the  confidence  of  Indians  and  Negroes.  It  was 
natural  then  that  he  and  the  Gypsies,  as  soon  as 
they  met,  should  understand  each  other. 

I  do  not  mean  that  he  did  not  enjoy  the  dra- 
matic moment  when  it  came.  He  did.  He  liked 
to  astonish  the  Gypsies  by  talking  to  them  in 


I30    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

their  own  language.  He  liked  to  be  able,  no 
matter  where  he  chanced  upon  them  —  in  Eng- 
land or  America,  Hungary  or  Italy,  Egypt  or 
Russia  —  to  stroll  up,  to  all  appearance  the 
complete  GorgiOy  or  Gentile;  to  be  greeted  as 
one;  and  then,  of  a  sudden,  to  break  fluently 
into  Romany,  "to  descend  upon  them  by  a  way 
that  was  dark  and  a  trick  that  was  vain,  in  the 
path  of  mystery,"  and  then  to  watch  their  won- 
der. That  was  "a  game,  a  jolly  game,  and  no 
mistake,"  —  a  game  worth  all  the  philological 
discoveries  in  the  world,  which,  I  must  say,  he 
played  uncommonly  well.  Everything  about  him 
helped,  —  his  imposing  presence;  his  fine  head, 
with  the  long  flowing  beard,  always  towering 
above  the  Romanies;  his  gestures  —  that  im- 
pressive way,  all  his  own,  of  throwing  out  his 
large  hands  as  he  spoke  the  magic  words;  his 
earnestness,  for  he  was  tremendously  in  earnest 
in  everything  he  did,  and  no  Romany  Rye  ever 
"looked  fixedly  for  a  minute"  into  the  Gypsy's 
eye  —  the  first  move  in  the  game  —  with  more 
telling  effect.  To  have  an  audience,  especially 
a  disinterested  audience,  added  to  the  effect  and 
the  pleasure.  "Wait,  and  you  will  see  some- 
thing queer,"  the  Rye  told  the  friend  who  was 
with  him  at  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1878,  when 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  131 

he  spoke  to  the  Hungarian  Gypsies.  There  you 
have  it.  And  the  "queer  thing"  did  not  end  with 
the  first  breathless  second  of  astonishment.  For 
he  could  tell  the  Romanies  their  own  stories  and 
fortunes,  sing  them  their  own  songs,  put  them  up 
to  their  own  tricks,  every  bit  as  well  as  they  could 
themselves,  if  not  better,  and  look  the  Gorgio  all 
the  time.  "How  do  you  do  it  up  to  such  a  high 
peg?"  one  of  them  asked  him  once.  "It's  the 
air  and  the  style!"  To  become  a  mystery  to  the 
people  of  mystery  was  a  situation  to  which  the 
study  of  no  other  language  could  lead.  And  to 
have  somebody,  even  a  chance  passer-by,  see 
him  do  it  —  to  force  an  involuntary  "Do  you 
know,  sir,  I  think  you're  the  most  mysterious 
gentleman  I  ever  met  I "  —  but  made  his  triumph 
complete. 

If  at  home,  up  to  1869,  he  had  never  fallen 
among  Gypsies,  Fate  so  willed  it  that  in  England 
he  should  spend  much  of  his  time  in  the  town 
of  all  others  where  to  escape  them  was  impos- 
sible for  the  few  who  did  not  want  to  escape, 
though  most  people  there  would  not  have  known 
a  Gypsy  had  they  seen  one.  This  was  Brighton, 
middle-class  and  snobbish,  still  too  dazzled  by 
the  royalty  that  once  patronised  it  to  have  eyes 
for  the  Romanies  who,  however,  were  always  to 


132    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

be  found  at  the  Devil*s  Dyke,  but  a  few  m3es  oflf. 
It  was  another  piece  of  luck  that  chief  among 
these  Romanies  should  be  old  Matty  Cooper,  in 
his  way  as  remarkable  a  personage  as  the  Re- 
gent had  been  before  him.  Matty  is  effectively 
described  in  a  letter  to  Mrs.  John  Harrison  from 
Brighton  (October  28, 1871):  "There  is  a  very 
romantic  and  extraordinary  place,  six  miles  from 
here,  called  the  Devil's  Dyke.  It  is  a  very  large 
old  Roman  encampment  a  mile  long,  around 
a  very  high  hill  from  which  one  can  see  sixty 
steeples  and  several  interesting  places.  I  walked 
over  there  one  Sunday,  and  while  there,  asked 
for  Old  Gentilla,  the  Gipsy  who  tells  fortunes, 
whom  I  had  not  seen  for  a  year.  I  found  a  Gipsy 
man  in  Romany  rig,  i.  e.,  with  red  and  yellow 
neckerchief,  knee  breeches,  and  cut-away  coat 
— her  brother.  So  I  accosted  him  with  Sarishan  I 
(Greeting),  to  which  he  replied,  Cushto  diwus — 
(Good  day).  And  I,  How  ^ve  you  been  beshen 
sore  acovar  tattoben?  (How  have  you  been  all 
sunmier?)  And  he  said  he  had  been  picking 
hops  and  earned  shtar  chindiSy  or  four  shillings, 
a  day.  For  I  am  getting  quite  fluent  in  Gypsy, 
which  is  very  queer,  for  they  always  refuse  to 
talk  it  or  teach  it  —  but  I  verily  believe  that  I 
have  some  magic  power  over  them,  for  they 


r 


THE   ROMANY  RYE  133 

really  seem  to  like  to  teach  me  all  they  can.  I 
am  told  that  I  am  probably  the  only  man  in 
England  except  Borrow  who  has  learned  it." 
The  result  of  this  meeting  was  that,  presently, 
Matty  Cooper  was  coming  to  the  Rye's  rooms 
three  and  four  times  a  week,  sometimes  every 
day,  to  teach  him  Romany.  ''  I  read  to  him  aloud 
the  *  Turkish  Gypsy  Dictionary  of  Paspati,'" 
the  Rye  wrote  years  afterward  to  Ibbetson,  a 
Romany  Rye  of  a  later  generation.  "When  he 
remembered  or  recognised  a  word,  or  it  recalled 
another,  I  wrote  it  down.  Then  I  went  through 
the  vocabularies  of  Liebich,  Pott,  Simson,  etc., 
and  finally  through  Brice's  *  Hindustani  Dic- 
tionary,' and  the  great  part  of  a  much  larger 
work,  and  one  in  Persian."  Matty  had  the  cour- 
age, during  the  lesson,  to  face  any  dictionary 
his  pupil  chose  to  open,  though  how  he  faced  his 
people  in  the  tents  afterwards,  what  language  he 
used  to  them,  is  not  on  record.  There  is  no  sign 
of  the  master  playing  truant  in  the  note-books, 
some  nine  or  ten  in  number,  in  which  the  date 
of  each  lesson  is  entered,  and  the  sum  paid  for  it, 
and  it  is  to  Matty's  credit  that  there  were  weeks 
when,  at  the  rate  of  three  shillings  a  lesson,  he 
earned  twenty-one.  Then  follows  a  list  of  the 
new  words  learned,  or  the  old  words  discussed, 


134    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

each  accompanied  by  its  definition,  its  possible 
derivation,  its  variations  suggested  by  different 
Gypsies  and  Gypsy  scholars,  and  its  practical 
application.  There  is  no  question  that  the  lessons 
were  not  all  "beer  and  baccy"  for  Matty. 

But  there  are  other  entries  that  explain  how 
he  managed  to  bear  the  strain.  Sometimes,  the 
pupil  records,  "  I  went  with  my  professor  to  visit 
the  Gypsies  can^ped  about  Brighton  far  and 
near,"  and  by  the  time  he  left  Brighton  for 
Oatlands  Park,  the  open  road  had  become  the 
usual  class-room.  At  first,  I  fancy,  the  Rye 
hoped  to  continue  his  studies  by  correspondence. 
OUierwise,  I  can  hardly  explain  a  couple  of  let- 
ters which  I  have  found  among  his  papers.  One, 
still  in  its  envelope,  is  ingeniously  directed ."  To 
the  Gendeman  at  123  Marine  Parade,  Brighton." 
Both  are  undated,  but  both,  internal  evidence 
proves,  come  from  Gypsies  at  the  Dyke.  Here  is 
the  first,  of  which  the  second  is  practically  but 
the  repetition,  even  to  the  entire  absence  of  punc- 
tuation :  — 

My  dear  Sir,— I  received  your  kind  letter 
and  happy  to  hear  you  was  quite  well,  also  your 
friend  Sir  i  have  sorry  to  tell  you  that  my  poor 
sist^  is  very  ill  i  do  not  think  she  will  be  here 


SYLVESTER  HOSWELL,  A  WELL-KNUWN  0 


■>       < 

V    « 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  135 

long  i  cannot  tell  you  anything  about  Romni 
Chib  in  the  letter  but  if  you  will  come  down  to  see 
me  i  have  a  little  more  to  say  to  you  as  you  know 
where  i  live  and  if  i  have  not  at  home  i  ham 
aways  up  on  the  Dike  i  must  thank  you  for  tell- 
ing me  about  my  niphews  so  no  more  from  your 
well  wisher. 

However,  the  Romany  University  is  all  out- 
doors, and  Matty  was  as  much  at  home  along  the 
shores  of  the  Thames  as  at  the  Devil's  Dyke. 
Indeed,  he  was  best  known  as  ''The  Windsor 
Froggie,"  and  Windsor  is  not  far  from  Oatlands 
Ptok,  which,  in  its  turn,  is  not  far  from  Walton 
Bridge  and  the  old  willow  tree  through  which, 
some  thirty  years  ago,  —  alas,  I  cannot  say  how 
it  is  now,  —  the  blue  smoke  was  always  curling, 
as  sure  a  sign  of  the  presence  of  Gypsies  as  the 
flag  floating  from  Windsor  tower  is  of  royalty. 
And  in  all  the  country  round  about  —  the  coim- 
try  of  the  old  church  towers  the  Rye  loved,  rising 
over  fringes  of  forest,  of  ancient  castles  with  the 
village  at  their  feet,  of  the  river  and  bridge  in  the 
foreground  —  Gypsies  were  forever  coming  and 
going.  By  the  cool  banks  of  the  Thames,  by  the 
"turf-ed^  way,"  they  pitched  their  smoked 
tents,  and  in  the  little  ale-house,  at  the  coimtry 


136    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

fair,  on  every  near  racecourse  the  pupil  was  sure 
of  finding  his  Romany  professor  or  one  or  ^more 
of  his  tutors.  The  note-books  now  are  full  of  the 
sound  of  running  water  and  rustling  leaves;  the 
sun  shines  in  them,  the  rain  pours.  Borrow, 
teaching  Isopel  Bemers  Armenian,  was  not  freer 
of  academic  traditions  than  the  Rye  taking  his 
frequent  lesson  from  Matty  Cooper.  Certainly, 
nothing  could  be  farther  from  the  methods  of 
Harvard  or  of  Oxford  than  the  session  on  Sim- 
day,  November  i6,  1873 :  — 

"Went  to  the  Bridge,  but  no  Matty.  Went 
to  Joshua  Coop)er's  tent  —  not  there.  Finally 
found  Joshua  out  of  breath,  who,  having  just 
been  chased  by  a  gav-mush  [policeman],  escaped 
by  throwing  away  the  wood  he  was  carrying 
home. 

Convey,  the  wise  it  call. 

So  we  had  a  long  session  and  a  very  stormy  one 
—  the  children  squalling,  the  Gypsies  chingering 
[quarrelling],  and  old  Matty  as  Head  Dictionary 
shutting  them  all  up.  Finally,  young  Smith, 
Sally  Buckland's  grandson,  and  another  came  to 
visit,  and,  after  praising  my  great  generosity,  got 
a  tringrushi  [shilling],  and  departed  in  a  boat 
with  a  jug,  returning  jo3rfully,  singing  cheerfiil, 
with  three  quarts,  whidi  made  the  Sabbath  sweet 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  137 

unto  them.  During  all  the  confusion,  I  extracted 
the  following. " 

And  the  following  means  several  pages  of 
Romany  words.  Or  here  is  another  entry  two 
days  later:  — 

^'  Matty  was  waiting  at  the  gate  and  took  me  a 
long  walk,  perhaps  25  miles  —  visiting  on  the 
way  Ripley  and  Woking.  .  .  .  We  got  luncheon 
in  Woking,  Matty  feasting  on  cold  pork,  and  I 
on  beefsteak,  hot  baked  'taturs,  bread  and  but- 
ter and  ale."  And  this  was  the  day  when,  ''as 
we  got  on,  Matty  became  more  excited,  and 
when,  after  dusk,  we  got  near  the  Park,  he  began 
to  sing  jollily,"  with  a  gay  "  Diddle  dumpty  dum 
Hurrah!"  a  song  all  about  the  hunger  of  his  chil- 
dren and  the  cold  in  his  tent,  a  subject  which 
would  hardly  strike  any  one  save  a  Gypsy  as 
something  to  be  particularly  jolly  about.  But,  the 
Rye  adds, "  I  got  the  following  words  from  him," 
and  there  are  ten  pages  of  them. 

''I  ran  after  the  beagles,  Matty  of  course  was 
on  the  ground;"  "out  with  the  beagles,  meeting 
Gypsies;"  "another  cold,  frosty,  bright  morning, 
we  started  for  Cobham,"  are  examples  of  some 
of  the  further  entries  that  follow  each  other  in 
rapid  succession. 

English  Gypsies  have  not  outgrown  the  prime- 


138    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

val  fashion,  which  they  brought  with  them  from 
the  East,  of  expressing  gratitude  through  gifts. 
Jasper  Petulengro  was  as  ready  to  lend  Borrow 
the  money  to  buy  a  horse,  as  the  wild  Gitano 
in  Badajoz  was  to  throw  down  before  him  the 
bursting  pomegranate,  his  one  possession.  And 
the  Rye's  friends  were  as  eager  to  give  him 
something  as  to  take  from  him,  and  words  being 
about  all  they  had  worth  giving  and  what  he 
most  wanted,  words  were  lavished  upon  him: 
in  the  daily  lesson,  at  every  chance  meeting,  even 
by  trusty  messenger.  It  is  amusing  in  the  note- 
books to  come  across  such  an  entry  as:  '^ Chris- 
topher Jones,  a  half-breed  Gypsy,  but  whose 
mother  was  a  full  blood  (a  Lee),  and  said  to  be 
deeply  learned  in  old  Gypsy,  told  Cooper  to  ask 
me  if  I  knew  that  water  was  called  the  boro 
Duvd.  C.  Jones  had  much  intercourse  with  old 
Gypsies."  The  scholar,  of  course,  would  prize 
the  facts  in  the  note-books,  however  acquired. 
But  it  is  the  entries  like  this  that  please  me, 
and  the  little  memoranda,  scribbled  in  pencil, 
meant  to  be  rubbed  out  later,  but  left  as  witnesses 
to  the  friendly  relations  between  the  Rye  in  the 
horo  ketchema  (big  hotel)  and  the  Gypsies  in  their 
tan  (tent)  by  the  roadside:  "Write  to  G.  Coo- 
per," one  of  these  entries  says,  "ask  if  she  has 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  139 

seen  Louisa  Lee  —  tell  her  her  mother  is  dead. 
Oliver  ill.     Send  your  love." 

The  Rye  gradually  came  to  be  looked  upon  as 
a  sort  of  general  news-agent  and  letter-writer 
for  all  the  Romanies  in  the  South,  a  trust  he 
accepted  with  good-nature,  or  an  "ever  loving 
friend"  would  not  have  written  from  the  tents, 
to  charge  him,  in  one  breathless  outburst, "  if  you 
should  see  my  boy  again  you  might  ask  him 
where  his  sister  is  as  i  should  like  to  hear  from 
her  as  well  as  i  should  from  him  if  you  see  Valen- 
tine Stanley  you  might  give  my  love  to  him  and 
tell  him  i  should  be  glad  to  hear^from  him  or  his 
Brother  at  Any  time  and  you  might  give  my  kind 
love  and  best  wishes  to  Anybody  that  ask  About 
me  give  my  kind  love  and  best  Respects  to  your 
wife  and  niece  sir  if  you  should  see  any  of  the 
Smalls  again  plase  to  tell  them  there  is  some 
money  left  them  By  the  death  of  their  Aunt  Eliza 
What  Was  in  Australia  the  house  is  to  be  sold  in 
taunton  and  the  money  is  to  be  divided  among 
her  Brothers  Children." 

In  the  midst  of  this  hard  work  —  or  pleasant 
play  —  or,  rather,  when  he  first  embarked  upon 
it,  the  Rye's  thoughts  naturally  turned  to  Bor- 
row. No  one  could  then,  or  can  ever  again,  see  or 
hear  of  Romanies  without  thinking  of  Borrow. 


I40    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

And  Borrow  was  still  living;  not  the  magnificent, 
young,  heroic  Borrow,  inviting  wonder  wherever 
he  went,  whatever  he  did,  whether  fighting  the 
Horrors  or  the  Tinman,  talking  to  an  old  apple- 
woman  on  London  Bridge  or  drinking  beer  at  a 
wayside  inn,  translating  the  Bible  into  Mant-chu 
or  distributing  it  to  the  heathen  in  Spain  (by 
the  way,  only  a  few  years  ago,  I  saw  the  sign  "G. 
Borrow,  Agent  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  "  high  up  on  a  house  in  the  Plaza  de  la 
Constitucion,  in  Seville);  but  it  was  now  the 
old  Borrow,  ill-natured,  grumpy,  living  like  any 
city  man  in  a  respectable  Brompton  Square, 
passing  his  afternoons  at  the  Savile  Club,  still 
ready,  however,  to  pose,  if  we  can  believe 
Groome,  who  saw  him  in  the  winter  of  1873. 
"He  posed  even  to  me,  a  mere  lad,"  Groome 
says,  as  he  had  to  old  Esther  Faa  in  Yetholm 
or  to  Colonel  Napier  in  Seville.  But  of  this  tal- 
ent for  grumpiness  and  for  posing,  the  Rye  was 
agreeably  ignorant.  All  he  knew  was  that  he 
owed  to  George  Borrow  the  sport  he  cared  more 
for  than  any  other  in  the  world.  "  For  twenty 
years  it  [Borrow's  work]  has  had  an  incredible 
influence  over  me,"  he  wrote  in  his  first  letter, 
asking  for  an  interview.  G3rpsy  scholars  who 
came  after  Borrow  might  point  out  flaws  and 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  •  141 

blunders  in  his  work,  and  find  fault  with  his  want 
of  exactness,  and  the  meagreness  of  his  know- 
ledge of  Romany.  I  tremble  when  I  think  of 
his  rage,  could  he  read  some  of  the  letters  now 
lying  before  me.  "  Borrow  will  never  make  much 
of  his  book,"  writes  Professor  Palmer  on  the 
first  appearance  of  the  "Lavo-lil; "  "he  is  essen- 
tially priggish  and  makes  such  display  of  his 
smattering  of  various  tongues  that  he  constantly 
comes  to  grief."  "Sorrow's  work  I  should  like 
very  much  to  review,"  Groome  says  in  a  letter. 
"On  my  return  home,  I  found  Bright's  'Hun- 
gary' come  from  the  library  for  me,  and  do  you 
know  I  have  discovered  a  fact  which  seems  to 
have  escaped  your  notice,  viz:  that  Borrow  has 
quietly  appropriated  Bright's  Spanish  Gypsy 
words  for  his  own  work,  mistakes  and  all,  with- 
out one  word  of  recognition.  I  think  one  has  the 
ancient  impostor  there.  Bright  is  the  origin  of 
all."  Dr.  Bath  Smart  was  another  who  was  dis- 
appointed in  the  "Lavo-lil;"  his  own  collection 
of  words  was  larger.  And  yet  I  do  not  think 
there  was  one  of  them  all  who  would  not  have 
agreed  with  Groome  in  ranking  "  George  Borrow 
above  every  other  writer  on  the  Gypsies."  Inex- 
actness and  shallowness  matter  just  nothing  in 
the  man  who  could  write  "  The  Bible  in  Spain" 


142    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

and  "Lavengro."  The  entire  human  race  of 
"  mere  philologists  "  could  be  spared,  rather  than 
this  one  great  artist-tramp, "  the  horse-coper  with 
a  twang  of  Hamlet  and  a  habit  of  Monte  Cristo. " 
"To  mystify"  was  Sorrow's  game  in  life:  a 
game  which  the  Rye  could  also  play,  when  he 
held  a  leading  hand,  and  it  is  characteristic  that, 
between  them,  they  should  have  made  their  short 
acquaintance  a  problem  as  baffling  as  the  Rom- 
any was,  before  they  gave  the  world  the  solution. 
The  letter  to  which  I  have  referred,  published 
by  Mr.  Knapp  in  his  Life  of  Borrow,  is  dated 
October  i8, 1870.  There  is  a  second  from  the 
Rye,  dated  January,  187 1, — both  were  written 
from  Brighton,  —  and  Mr.  Ejiapp  finds  in  it 
proof  that  during  the  interval  the  desired  meeting 
had  taken  place.  And  yet,  the  only  letter  from 
Borrow  which  I  have  found  among  the  Rye's 
papers,  written  as  if  no  meeting  had  taken  place, 
is  dated  November  2, 187 1.  It  is  from  22  Here- 
ford Square,  Brompton,  and,  though  not  en- 
thusiastic, is  at  least  not  discoiuraging  from  the 
Borrow  of  those  daj^. 

Sir,  —  I  have  received  your  letter  and  am 
gratified  by  the  desire  you  express  to  make  my 
acquaintance. 


Ul 


A 


11  fW^i  V\,\Vx 


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L. 


^mt 


\a 


!5^t 


tvtw 


WUV  Uwvis*5[i 


FROM  GEORGE  BORROW 


»  M  ^  * 

•        •  >  *  * 


^  • 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  143 

Whenever  you  please  to  come,  I  shall  be  happy 
to  see  you. 

Truly  yours, 

George  Borrow. 

This  might  settle  matters,  did  not  the  Rye  state 
in  his  "Memoirs"  and  again  in  "The  Gypsies" 
—  without  date  of  course,  but  1870  is  the  year  of 
which  he  is  speaking  in  the  "Memoirs"  —  that 
he  was  introduced  by  chance  to  Borrow  in  the 
British  Museum,  where,  afterwards,  he  again 
met  and  talked  several  times  with  the  "Nestor  of 
Gypsyism."  Perhaps  the  most  accurate  account, 
because  written  at  the  time,  is  in  a  letter  to 
Mrs.  John  Harrison  (London,  July  9, 1872).  "I 
have  become  quite  at  home  in  the  great  library 
of  the  British  Museum,"  he  tells  her.  "There  is 
a  queer  old  lady,  an  American,  Mrs.  Lewis, 
*Estelle,'  who  always  writes  a  letter  to  some 
American  newspaper  about  everjrthing  that 
comes  into. her  head;  I  believe  if  I  asked  her  to 
look  at  the  clock  she  would  write  a  clock  letter  at 
once.  She  inhabits  the  Reading  Room  and  is 
very  useful  to  me  in  pointing  out  celebrities,  and 
the  other  day  she  rejoiced  greatly  in  telling  me 
that  it  had  got  about  that  I  was  there,  and  in 
proving  incontestably  that  this  or  that  novelist 


144    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

or  editor  had  stopped  to  look  at  me !  She  intro- 
duced me  to  old  George  Borrow,  with  whom  I 
talked  Gipsy.  I  hear  he  expressed  himself  as 
greatly  pleased  with  me."  However,  it  does  not 
matter  just  when  they  met;  the  main  thing  is 
that  the  younger  Gypsy  scholar  did  once  see 
Borrow  plain,  —  cannot  you  fancy  them  look- 
ing at  each  other  "fixedly  for  a  few  moments" 
in  the  approved  Romany  Rye  fashion  ?  —  that 
several  meetings  followed,  and  that  the  Rye,  so 
far  from  being  disillusioned,  offered  the  "  Dedi- 
cation of  his  ^  English  Gypsies,' "  when  the  book 
was  written,  to  the  man  he  looked  up  to  as  mas- 
ter. The  letter  carrying  the  offer  was  directed  to 
the  care  of  Murray,  the  publisher,  who  assured 
the  Rye  it  must  have  reached  Borrow,  and  this 
assurance  is  also  in  my  pile  of  letters,  the  letters 
that  tell  me  the  whole  story  of  those  full  years 
of  Gypsy  scholarship.  But  Borrow's  only  answer 
was  the  public  announcement,  a  few  days  later, 
of  his  "Lavo-lil."  When  it  came  to  interest  in 
the  Gypsy,  Lavengro  drew  the  line  at  himself. 

But  hurry  as  Borrow  might  to  throw  together 
anyhow  the  words,  stories,  and  names  col- 
lected during  long  years,  the  Rye's  book  came 
out  first,  (Triibner,  1873.)  I  am  not  sure  if 
"The  English  Gypsies"  is  remembered  by  a 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  145 

public  dazzled  by  the  melodramatic  Romany  of 
fiction,  and  incapable  of  appreciating  the  R3^'s 
study  of  the  origin  of  the  Romany  and  his  lan- 
guage. Since  Borrow,  there  had  been  no  such 
contribution  to  Gypsy-lore.  But  the  book  has 
something  more  than  learning.  It  sings  the  jojrs 
of  the  road  and  of  the  things  that  make  life 
sweet  to  the  wanderer,  it  has  the  indefinable 
charm  of  the  Gypsy  himself.  What  the  public  in 
the  seventies  thought  of  it  is  shown  by  the  fact 
that  it  went  quickly  into  a  second  and  a  third 
edition.  What  the  Romany  Ryes  thought,  they 
inmiediately  wrote  and  told  its  author.  It  must 
have  been  a  surprise  to  find  how  many  there 
were,  when  he  had  fancied  himself  alone  with 
Borrow.  They  all  wrote, — Groome,  from  G6t- 
tingen:  bed  impossible,  he  said,  until  he  had 
finished  reading  the  book  to  the  last  page ;  Cauld- 
well,  from  Cardiff:  "I  was  so  enchanted  with 
the  book  that  I  read  every  line,  word,  and  sylla- 
ble in  it  at  a  night's  sitting;"  Professor  Palmer, 
from  Cambridge,  his  letter  the  beginning  of  their 
warm  friendship;  Bath  Smart,  from  Manches- 
ter, the  photograph  of  old  Mrs.  Petulengro  sent 
as  a  guarantee  of  his  genuineness,  and  also  his 
collaborator,  Crofton;  Mr.  Hubert  Smith,  just 
launching  his  book  about  the  journey  through 


146    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Norway  with  Esmeralda  and  her  brothers,— 
they  aU  wrote,  and  not  only  to  the  Rye,  but  to 
each  other.  There  was  a  frenzy  of  correspon- 
dence. And  visits  were  made,  photographs  were 
exchanged:  one  of  Groome  is  in  the  bundle  be- 
fore me,  young,  gay,  the  world  still  to  conquer; 
another  of  Palmer,  long-bearded  like  a  prophet; 
a  third  of  Hubert  Smith,  in  Highland  dress;  a 
fourth  of  Esmeralda,  delicately  tinted,  out  of 
compliment  to  her  sex.  When  I  look  at  the  let- 
ters received  by  my  uncle  alone,  I  cannot  help 
asking  how  the  men  who  wrote  them  had  time 
to  do  anything  else.  It  strikes  me  as  one  of  the 
little  ironies  of  life,  that  the  Gypsy,  smoking  and 
dreaming  the  years  away,  should  have  excited 
his  lovers  to  such  a  delirium  of  industry. 

Groome  was  the  first  to  write,  which  was  only 
in  keeping,  he  being  the  youngest  of  them  all, 
and  his  enthusiasm  in  the  first  freshness  of  youth. 
As  the  son  of  FitzGerald's  old  friend  and  neigh- 
bour at  Monk  Soham  Rectory,  Francis  Hindes 
Groome  would  be  remembered  in  any  case.  But 
it  happens,  and  no  Gypsy  scholar  would  deny  it, 
that  he  holds  the  highest  rank  as  an  authority  on 
Romany.  Years  after,  in  1899,  the  Rye  wrote  to 
him,  "  I  am  indeed  the  doyen  as  regards  age,  but 
I  believe  that  you  know  more  than  anybody." 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  147 

Perhaps  Groome  knew  too  much,  was  too  over- 
laden with  facts.  But  his  books  seem  to  me 
to  express  far  less  of  his  joy  in  Gypsying  than 
these  early  letters.  I  wish  I  could  publish  them 
all.  They  are  young,  fresh,  frank,  enthusiastic, 
but  they  are  enormously  long, — twelve,  sixteen, 
eighteen,  closely  written  pages  long.  The  first 
five  are  from  G^ttingen.  They  are  not  dated;  I 
am  growing  used  to  the  G3rpsy  scholar's  vague- 
ness in  such  a  mere  detail.  But  as  "The  English 
Gypsies"  came  out  in  the  autumn  of  1873,  the 
dates  can  be  guessed  within  a  few  days. 

FRANCIS  HIKDSS  GROOMS  TO  CHARLB8  GODFREY  LBLAMn 

GdTTIKGEN« 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  suppose  I  should  by  rights 
apologise  for  the  somewhat  irregular  proceeding 
of  writing  to  a  perfect  stranger,  but  my  motive 
for  so  doing  must  be  my  excuse,  and  strangers  to 
one  another  we  are  not  exactly.  At  any  rate,  I 
think  I  can  establish  "a  Mutual  Friend"  in 
Matty  Cooper,  "the  old  Windsor  Frog,"  from 
whom  I  have  heard  of  an  American  gentleman 
who  can  hardly  be  other  than  you.  I  have  n*t  set 
eyes  on  Matty  for  some  time  now,  but  it  was  im- 
possible to  mistake  the  white  hat,  red  waistcoat, 
and  yellow  handkerchief.   If  you  see  him  soon. 


I4»    CHARLES  GODFREY   LELAND 

remember  me  to  him.  Whether  he  knows  me  I 
doubt.  But  he'll  remember  me  quick  enough, 
as  having  seen  him  last  at  Ascot,  the  race  week, 
a  year  back.  I  got  your  book  late  last  evening, 
and  I  sat  up  until  I  had  ended  the  last  page,  so 
you  may  imagine  that  I  read  it  with  interest:  but 
if  I  read  it  with  interest,  I  read  it  with  ten  times 
more  regret.  I  have  known  Romani  a  long  time 
now,  ever  since  I  was  quite  a  small  child,  at  first 
in  the  Eastern  counties,  latterly  in  almost  every 
part  of  England,  as  well  also  as  in  Germany  and 
Hungary.  ...  I  am  very  sorry  that  this  book 
has  appeared.  I  had  seen  it  long  announced  in 
the  papers,  as  also  one  by  Borrow,  which  I  have 
not  yet  seen.  Of  the  latter  I  had  little  fear,  as 
Borrow  has  such  a  wonderful  way  of  mixing  up 
English,  Spanish,  and  Hungarian  Romani,  that 
there  is  little  to  be  learnt  out  of  his  works,  except 
by  one  who  knows  a  good  deal  of  the  language. 
Of  your  book,  too,  I  will  own,  I  had  also  little 
fear.  All  I  knew  of  your  powers  of  Romani  was 
from  a  song  you  published  some  time  ago  in  a 
volimie  of  the  H.  B.  Ballads,  and  which,  as  you 
would  probably  own  now,  is  not  the  ordinary 
English  Romani.  But  I  am  disappointed,  for 
your  book  contains  some  deep,  very  deep  Rom- 
ani. Well,  the  result,  I  take  it,  will  be  the  hasten- 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  149 

ing  of  that  rapid  vanishing  of  the  language  of 
which  you  speak  in  your  preface,  and  with  the 
language  of  the  people  as  a  people.  Trae,  you 
say  the  book  is  written  only  for  philologists,  and 
that  only  philologists  will  read  it.  But  that 
will  hardly  be  the  case,  to  judge  from  Sorrow's 
books,  which  are  accountable  for  most  of  the 
Gipsy  gentlemen,  who  are,  I  take  it,  accountable 
for  the  loss  of  the  language  and  the  race.  I  wish 
I  could  put  the  case  better,  but  the  fact  stands 
that  99  of  100  Romanis  would  be  against  pub- 
lishing a  book  of  their  words.  How  often  have 
I  heard  them  —  Angelina  Lovell,  if  you  know 
her — speak  of  and  against  Borrow !  .  .  .  Your 
book  has  brou^t  back  a  lot  of  pleasant  recol- 
lections to  me,  sorry  though  I  am  that  it  has 
appeared,  and  for  these  I  thank  you.  If  I  could 
do  it,  I  would  be  back  in  England  to-morrow 
and  follow  the  old  Romani  life  from  now  on. 
For  I  have  tried  it  in  England,  and  I  know  some- 
thing of  what  it  is  in  Hungary,  and  with  all  its 
disadvantages,  which  are  not  a  few,  there  is 
yet  none  like  it.  Unfortunately  there  is  an  "if " 
in  the  case  which  will  probably  ever  remain 
there.  •  •  • 

On  one  point  Groome  was  mistaken.    The 


ISO    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Gypsies,  as  a  rule  (there  Vfrere  exceptions),  did 
not  resent  being  written  about  When  he  got 
over  his  scruples  and  published  "In  Gypsy 
Tents,"  it  made  no  difference  in  his  relations 
with  the  Romanies,  except  that  some  of  them 
wondered  why  he  demeaned  himself  by  writing 
a  book  that  was  "nothing  but  low  language  and 
povertiness,  and  not  a  word  of  grammar  or  high- 
lamed  talk  in  it  from  beginning  to  end."  Mr. 
Sampson  tells  how  old  Lias  Robinson  used  gaily 
to  improvise  songs  about  his  coming  to  see  the 
Gypsies  to  learn  words  and  put  them  in  his 
books.  And  as  for  the  Rye,  he  did  not  lose  a 
Gypsy  friend,  and  in  one  case  this  first  Gypsy 
book  only  strengthened  the  friendship,  to  judge 
from  the  letter  of  an  old  Romany,  to  whom  the 
Rye  had  sent  a  copy.  The  letter  is  characterised 
by  the  usual  Gypsy  ingenuity  in  the  matter  of 
spelling  and  the  usual  Gypsy  contempt  in  the 
matter  of  ptmctuation :  — 

"I  now  take  my  pen  in  hand  to  answer  your 
kind  and  welcome  Letter  and  book  wich  I 
receved  yesterday  and  ham  verry  much  please 
with  it  I  had  some  of  the  book  read  I  ham  verry 
proud  with  it  Dear  Friend  I  have  sent  you  my 
Daughter  Likness  I  hav  had  A  Letter  from  my 
son  in  Chinia  and  his  Likness  as  soon  as  I  cane 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  151 

get  the  chanc  of  one  to  be  coppey  I  will  send  you 
one  if  you  should  see  any  of  my  parents  you  cane 
tell  them  I  ham  well  and  harty  Dear  Friend  I 
should  like  to  have  your  likness  in  full  Statue  so 
as  I  could  have  it  frame  and  keep  it  for  your 
sake." 

I  am  told  that  Groome  destroyed  many  letters 
in  his  later  years.  Only  two  from  the  Rye  to  him 
have  come  into  my  hands,  and  they  were  written 
as  recently  as  1899.  But  that  the  Rye  answered 
Groome,  not  only  promptly  but  sympathetically, 
I  know  from  Groome's  second  letter.  It  is  im- 
possible to  give  it  all,  but  even  in  a  short  extract 
his  great  love  of  the  people  can  be  read  between 
the  lines. 

FRANCIS  HINDBS  GROOMB  TO  CHARLBS  GODFRXY  LELAND 

G5TTINGBN. 

...  To  leave  the  language  a  bit  and  come  to 
the  people.  You  have  done  them  ample  justice, 
I  believe,  though  possibly  not  so  much  as  they 
would  do  themselves  or  as  I  might  have  done 
them,  barring  the  word  "justice."  They  have 
one  merit,  that  Romani  vices  are  at  least  often 
more  amusing  than  gorgiko  virtues.  But  they 
have  their  virtues,  though  not  always  after  the 
gorgiko  standard.  I  have  always  found  that  they 


152    CHARLES   GODFREY   LELAND 

are  ready  to  help  one  who  has  helped  them.  You 
speak  of  their  readiness  to  lend  one  money.  You 
seem  never  to  have  accepted  their  ofifer.  I  have, 
for  I  hold  there  is  no  surer  way  to  make  a  friend 
of  any  one  than  to  put  yourself  imder  obliga- 
tion to  him,  and  I  have  wished  to  see  whether 
the  offers  were  genuine.  The  best  instance  of 
Romani  liberality  I  ever  met  with  was  once  in 
Norfolk,  where  walking  I  fell  in  with  three  of  the 
Gray  family,  whom  I  had  never  met  before.  I 
went  with  them  to  the  Tans^  had  some  hobben 
[food],  and  sat  a  long  time  talking  with  them. 
Something  I  said  to  the  efiect  of  not  being  over- 
burdened with  riches,  and  this  they  interpreted 
as  meaning  that  I  was  actually  short  of  wongur 
[money].  Accordingly  one  of  them  pulls  out  a 
fairly  filled  purse,  hands  it  to  me,  and  says, 
"There,  pal,  you  can  lei  as  much  as  you  koMj 
and  need  n't  pooke  mande  how  much."  [There, 
brother,  you  can  have  as  much  as  you  like,  and 
needn't  tell  me  how  much.]  Naturally,  that 
offer  I  could  hardly  accept,  for  I  had  never  seen 
him  before,  and  have  never  set  eyes  on  him  since. 
But  the  kindly  meaning  remained  the  same.  And 
I  could  give  a  good  many  such  instances.  In  all 
my  intercourse  with  Romanis  I  have  avoided 
becoming  an  object  of  tnangings  [begging]  yek 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  153 

whose  putH  [purse]  they  could  tarda  [draw  on] 
for  all  the  lava  [money]  that  was  to  Id  [have],  and 
though  in  the  long  prastrin  [run]  they  have  prob- 
ably, accurately  speakmg,  letted  [had]  more  from 
me  than  I  from  them,  yet  considering  their  pov- 
erty, I  take  it  the  balance  lies  to  their  account. 
Their  love  for  one  another,  of  which  you  give 
many  examples,  I  have  never  seen  equalled  else- 
where, and  most  writers  have  I  think  done  them, 
generally  speaking,  injustice.  I  have  never  seen 
or  heard  of  a  tract  in  Romani.  I  should  like  to 
come  across  one.  I  have  seen  a  long  advertise- 
ment of  Borrow's  forthcoming  book.  To  the 
best  of  my  knowledge,  the  Romani  of  his  Eng- 
lish Romani  books  is  not  unfrequently  some- 
what questionable.  The  Romani  verse  in  '^  Wild 
Wales"  I  cannot  make  head  or  tail  of.  You 
know  it,  I  suppose.  .  .  . 

The  "Dear  Sir"  of  these  first  letters  was 
quickly  dropped  for  the  Miro  Katnlo  Rye^  which, 
among  Gypsy  scholars,  is  the  equivalent  of  cher 
Maitre  among  artists,  and,  after  the  fifth,  the 
last  from  Gottingen,  Groome  was  inviting  the 
Rye  down  to  the  Suffolk  rectory,  where  I  wish 
he  had  gone,  not  only  for  the  Gypsies,  but  for 
the  welcome  Archdeacon  Groome  and,  surely, 


154    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

FitzGerald  would  have  given  him.  '^I  had 
such  a  droll,  nice,  handsome  young  fellow  here 
lately,"  the  Rye  wrote  to  Miss  Doering  from 
Oatlands  Park  on  the  gth  of  December,  1873  5 
"did  I  tell  you  about  him  —  the  Oxford  scholar 
in  Gottingen,  23  years  old  —  who  spoke  Rom- 
mani  so  well?  All  the  Gipsies  round  here  made 
up  their  minds  he  was  my  5an,  and  as  I  said 
NOy  they  were  sure  of  it.  I  would  like  to  have 
such  a  son,  for  he  was  very  nice,  and  as  he  was 
very  nice,  I  considered  him  like  myself."  The 
event  also  was  chronicled  in  the  note-books. 
"Mr.  Groome  came  to  the  O.  P.  Hotel"  is  the 
entry  for  Wednesday,  December  10,  1873,  and 
whoever  has  read  "The  Gypsies"  knows  how 
much  the  next  few  days  went  to  the  making  of  it. 
"Thursday  morning  we  went  out  and  met  Sam 
Smith's  wife  selling  baskets.  Walked  over  to 
Horsham,  called  on  Hamilton,  the  Hawker,  etc. 
He  was  sick  in  bed,  but  was  very  entertaining 
and  talked  Rommany,  and  went  deeply  into 
Gipsy  family  gossip  with  Mr.  Groome.  There 
was  a  picture  of  Milton  and  his  daughters  over 
the  chimney-piece  which  H.  said  was  of  Middle* 
ton — a  poet  he  believed — anyhow  he  was  a  writ- 
ing man.  ...  In  the  evening  we  went  down  to 
the  river  and  talked  with  Sam  Smith's  wife.  •  .  . 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  155 

Then  we  went  to  the  Lambs'  tent.  They  were 
civfl  and  did  not  beg,  but  spoke  very  little  Rom. 
Going  home  we  met  three  men,  one  of  whom 
knew  Groome,  and  the  two  discussed  with  glee 
some  old  Gipsy  reminiscences.  They  told  us 
there  would  be  a  fair  next  day  at  Cobham." 

The  entry  for  the  next  day,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, is  an  account  of  the  fair:  ^^Mr.  Groome 
aboimds  in  Gipsy  souvenirs  and  we  were  busy 
in  discussing  words.  At  Cobham  Sam  Smith 
appeared,  looking  very  neat  —  also  Bowers  and 
other  diddikais  [half  breeds].  Sam  invited  us  to 
drmk  —  and  I  then  invited  them  all.  As  we  all 
spoke  Rommany  pretty  freely,  the  result  was 
that  the  two  or  more  policemen  eyed  Mr.  Groome 
and  myself  very  earnestly  and  appeared  to  be 
looking  after  us  during  the  day.  .  .  .  We  walked 
along  the  road  and  met  a  Gipsy  woman  who 
knew  me,  Mrs.  Matthews,  peddling.  She  was 
much  nicer  than  most  of  diem.  She  thought 
that  Mr.  Groome  must  be  my  son.  We  asked  her 
to  come  to  an  ale-house  and  drink,  but  she  de- 
murred to  being  a  cause  of  disgrace  to  two  such 
gentlemen.  So  I  told  her  to  follow  us  in,  and  we 
went  into  a  queer  little  old  tavern.  .  .  .  An- 
other Gipsy  woman  was  seen  approaching.  We 
opened  the  door  and  Mrs.  Matthews  in  great 


156    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

glee  called  her  in,  as  did  I  and  Mr.  Groome,  all 
speaking  Rommany.  I  never  saw  astonishment 
so  vividly  portrayed  on  a  human  face.  As  she 
slowly  entered  she  stared  at  me  and  at  her  friend 

—  as  if  in  a  dream.  There  was  Mrs.  Matthews 

—  en  famUle  with  two  gentlemen  —  in  gloves 
with  lorgnons  —  but  they  were  talking  fluently 

—  especially  the  younger  —  in  the  language  of 
the  roads.  Then  there  came  yet  another  named 
Lee  —  a  black-eyed,  hawk-nosed,  fierce,  and 
rather  handsome  young  woman  —  and  she  was 
even  more  dumbfounded,  and  went  and  wedged 
herself  in  the  extreme  comer,  and  was  almost 
afraid  to  drink  her  ale.  .  .  .  Mr.  Groome  was 
very  lively,  talking  Romany  so  fluently  that  we 
all  burst  out  laughing  again  and  again.  Mrs. 
Matthews  conversed  with  more  intelligence  than 
is  usual  among  Gipsies.  Once  she  said,  'As  if 
we  weren't  all  alike  to  God — doesn't  his  sun 
shine  the  same  on  a  Rommany.as  on  my  Lord 
Duke?'  She  apologised  for  not  standing  treat 
in  turn.  So  after  much  fim  we  broke  up  the 
party." 

Groome,  back  at  Monk  Soham  Rectory,  had 
his  own  future  career  to  consider,  and  he  wrote 
less  to  tell  of  adventure  with  the  Gypsies  than 
to  ask  advice  for  himself.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  me 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  157 

to  read  the  letters  of  the  next  months,  so  much 
can  be  gathered  from  them  of  the  Rye's  kmdli- 
ness  and  unselfishness  when  he  could  be  of  use 
to  others.  "I  think  with  you,"  Groome  wrote,  in 
his  despair,  "  that  if  I  once  got  off,  I  might  come 
in  somewhere  in  the  race.  'T  is  such  a  wonder  to 
me  to  find  some  one  taking  an  interest  in  me 
beyond  the  fact  that  I  am  my  father's  son,  oder 
so  eiwaSj  that  it  cannot  but  seem  to  me  unfair 
to  be  bothering  you  with  all  my  troubles  and 
affairs."  And  again  in  another, ''  I  have  thought 
over  all  you  have  ever  said  to  me  and  am  fully 
convinced  that  your  suggestion  as  to  the  course  I 
had  better  adopt  is  as  good  as  can  be,  but  to 
begin  with,  that  suggestion  carried  great  weight 
with  me  as  coming  from  you.  For  you  are  my 
friend,  and  I  am  not  a  little  proud  of  ever  having 
found  that  friendship."  And  so  I  might  go  on 
quoting,  were  not  the  Romanies  for  the  moment 
my  special  concern. 

The  Rye's  answers,  as  I  have  said,  do  not 
exist.  But,  by  some  odd  chance,  one,  begun  and 
never  finished,  was  put  away  in  the  packet  with 
Groome's,  and  to  read  it,  fragment  as  it  is,  is  to 
know  why  advice  from  him  was  not  distasteful. 
"My  dear  chavo^^  (hoy)  is  the  friendly  opening, 
and,  after  a  preamble  in  Romany,  the  letter  goes 


158    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

on,  ''I  congratulate  you  on  having  settled  the 
last  Oxford  bills.  Poverty  may  be  a  shirt  of  fire 
—  but  debt  is  hell  fire.  And  don't  do  it  again  — 
not  if  to  live  on  a  crust."  In  these  few  lines, 
certainly,  is  no  trace  of  the  preacher.  Any- 
how, Groome's  letters  are  an  eloquent  tribute 
to  the  sympathy  of  his  older  friend. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

THE   ROMANY  RYE  (CONTINUED) 

It  was  after  Groome  was  back  at  Monk  So- 
ham,  facing  the  bitter  fact  that  life  is  not  all  a 
saunter  along  the  open  road,  that  is,  it  was  late 
in  January  of  1874,  —  the  letter,  characteristi- 
cally enough,  the  subject  being  what  it  is,  dated 
1875  —  that  Professor  Palmer  wrote  to  the  Rye. 
Palmer  was  not  only  an  extraordinary  man,  but 
must  have  been  the  best  company  in  the  world. 
I  have  been  told  that  he  was  no  great  scholar, 
really,  like  most  Orientalists  of  his  generation, 
no  scholar  at  all.  If  by  this  is  meant  that  his 
knowledge,  his  method,  was  not  academic,  there 
is  a  grain  of  truth  in  it.  For  he  learned  languages 
because  he  could  not  help  himself,  because  it  was 
in  him  to  learn  them,  because  they  meant  to  him 
something  real  and  vital,  something  that  existed 
not  merely  as  dead  symbols  in  books,  but  as  a 
means  of  expression  between  men.  He  had  no- 
thing in  common  with  the  Greek  pedant  who 
knows  so  much  that  he  would  not  know  how  to 
ask  his  way,  were  he  suddenly  to  find  himself  in 


i6o    CHARLES   GODFREY   LELAND 

modem  Greece.  Palmer  studied  languages  to 
talk  them, — he  loved  them  for  the  adventures  of 
speech,  of  human  intercourse.  "I  do  not  care 
much  for  philology  pure  et  simplCj^  he  explains 
in  one  of  his  letters  now  open  before  me;  "I  like 
to  read  and  above  all  to  talk  in  the  language  I 
know,  but  I  seldom  trouble  my  head  about  the 
comparative  philology."  Persian,  Arabic,  Hin- 
dustani, Romany  were  so  many  introductions  to 
people  who  interested  him,  so  many  clues  to  the 
mystery  of  the  East  that  fascinated  him.  When 
he  read  "The  English  Gypsies,"  he  discovered 
the  same  feeling  in  it,  the  same  personal  enthusi- 
asm. To  write  to  the  author  was  as  natural  as  to 
poimce  upon  the  stray  Oriental  whom  he  met  in 
the  streets  of  London,  and  so  from  Cambridge, 
on  the  25th  of  January,  he  sent  the  first  of  a  series 
of  letters  that  reveal  a  talent  for  good  fellowship, 
of  which  Besant's  big  biography  gives  only  a  hint. 

PROFESSOR  B.  H.  PALMBR  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CAHBRmcE,  Jan.  25th,  1875. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  just  read  with  very 
much  pleasure  your  work  upon  the  English 
Gypsies,  and  have  been  endeavouring  to  recall 
by  its  help  the  slight  knowledge  of  Rommany 
which  I  picked  up  when  a  boy.    I  thought  it 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  i6i 

might  interest  you  to  know  that  I  have  seen  and 
conversed  with  Gypsies  in  Palestine,  and  can 
vouch  for  their  speaking  pure  Romani.  I  met  a 
party  of  them  in  Jericho  on  my  return  from  a 
long  absence  in  Moab  and  the  mountains  south 
of  it,  and  on  putting  the  question  to  one  of  them 
the  whole  camp  became  at  once  communicative 
and  talked  freely  with  each  other  in  Gipsy,  using 
scarcely  a  single  Arabic  word.  I  was  only  a  short 
time  with  them,  but  I  was  told  enough  to  con- 
vince me  that  the  language  they  spoke  was  sub- 
stantially the  same  as  that  spoken  by  our  English 
chals.  .  .  . 

I  notice  with  much  pleasure  that  you  propose 
to  publish  a  Gipsy-English  dictionary  —  if  I  can 
be  of  any  service  to  you  in  revising  the  etymologi- 
cal part,  I  shall  be  most  happy  to  do  so.  .  •  . 

Yours  faithfully, 

E.  H.  Palmer. 

In  this  case  also,  I  have  not  the  Rye's  answers 
—  more  *s  the  pity  —  but  they  are  not  needed  for 
a  proof  of  his  pleasure  in  the  correspondence. 
Palmer  wrote  almost  as  frequently  as  Groome, 
though  less  diffusely,  being  already  a  man  of  so 
many  occupations  that  the  crumbs  from  his  table 
would  have  seemed  a  profession  to  Groome, 


i62    CHARLES   GODFREY   LELAND 

down  in  the  Suffolk  rectory,  chafing  agamst 
Fate  that  kept  him  idle.  But  if  Palmer's  letters 
were  short,  they  were  enthusiastic,  as  they  could 
not  have  continued  to  be,  had  they  met  with  a 
reception  a  shade  less  enthusiastic.  They  bristle 
with  propositions  and  projects  for  work  together. 
To  be  doing  something  was  essential  to  his  hap- 
piness, but  to  be  doing  it  in  genial  collaboration 
made  a  long  holiday  of  the  heaviest  task.  Before 
the  end  of  February,  the  original  idea  of  a  G3rpsy- 
English  Dictionary  suddenly  expanded  into  a 
broader  scheme,  that  would  unite  in  closer  bonds 
all  the  Romany  Ryes,  —  now  in  the  first  glow 
of  correspondence,  —  and  that  anticipated  the 
"  Gypsy-Lore  Journal."  And  Palmer  accepted 
and  furthered  it,  with  an  energy  that  helps  me 
to  understand  why  the  Rye  remembered  his 
industry  as  '^something  appalling." 

PROFESSOR  B.  H.  PALMER  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

i8  Brooksiob,  Cambrtoge,  Feb.  25th,  1874. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  delayed  answering 
your  last  because  I  have  cut  my  thumb  and  am 
only  just  able  to  write.  I  think  we  certainly 
should  ask  Borrow  to  collaborate, — if  he  does 
his  help  will  be  valuable,  if  he  snubs  us  we  shall 
have  ''done  the  civil"  and  eased  our  conscience. 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  163 

Dr.  Smart  would  be  a  great  acquisition^  too,  and 
I  should  be  very  glad  to  see  his  name  associated 
with  the  work.  I  think  that  the  tone  of  our 
periodical  should  be  certainly  "lively,"  but  our 
prospectus  must  hit  a  happy  mean  —  we  shall 
have  to  rely  on  philologues,  I  fancy,  for  a  good 
many  of  our  subscriptions,  but  then  there  are 
also  a  great  many  people  of  position  and  educa- 
tion who  are  Bohemians  in  heart  and  taste,  to 
whom  a  journal  of  the  roads  should  be  a  joy  for 
ever. 

Your  own  book  is  an  admirable  illustration  of 
the  tone  required, — the  general  public  there  lies 
down  with  the  philologue  and  the  ethnologist 
puts  his  hand  upon  the  Bohemian's  den.  Could 
not  you  draw  up  a  circular? 

And,  hereupon,  Palmer  himself  sets  forth  to 
show  how  easy  it  is  to  begin  as  Bohemian  and  end 
as  philologue.  His  next  letter,  dated  five  da3rs 
later,  is  evidence  of  the  Rye's  loyalty  to  Borrow. 

PSOFBSSOR  E.  H.  PALMSR  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

March  2d,  1874. 

My  dear  Sm,  —  I  am  surprised  at  the  un- 
courteous  treatment  you  have  received  from  Mr. 
Borrow.  I  should  not  at  all  imagine  that  your 


i64    CHARLES  GODFREY   LELAND 

book  would  be  any  the  less  welcome  for  the 
appearance  of  his,  for  you  seem  to  have  worked 
out  the  subject  in  the  spirit  of  a  scholar  and 
an  amateur  —  in  its  original  and  better  sense  — 
whereas  Mr.  Borrow,  from  what  I  have  seen  of 
his  works,  has  not  the  least  fraction  of  scholarlike 
spirit  in  him.  He  is  of  course  a  good  adopted- 
Rommany ,  and  as  such  it  is  well  that  his  store  of 
words  should  be  emptied  into  a  dictionary,  but 
that  is  not  aU  we  want.  Could  not  you  at  any 
rate  —  if  you  have  reaUy  determined  to  postpone 
your  dictionary  —  publish  all  your  phrases  and 
tales? 

By  the  8th  of  March,  the  proposed  journal 
had  somehow  been  transf onned  into  a  society  — 
'  the  forerunner  of  the  Gypsy-Lore  Society.  By 
March  22d,  the  society,  in  its  turn,  had  been 
forgotten  for  still  another  scheme,  this  time 
one  that  did  materialise:  the  "Book  of  English 
G)rpsy  Songs,"  a  collection  of  Romany  Ballads, 
with  English  translations,  written  by  the  Rye, 
Palmer,  and  Miss  Janet  Tuckey.  I  make  this 
explanation  because  I  am  afraid,  although  the  vol- 
ume was  published,  that  it  has  long  since  passed 
into  a  curiosity  of  literature  to  be  unearthed  by 
some  future  D'Israeli.   At  the  time,  it  did  not 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  165 

create  too  much  excitement.  '^Somehow,  I  did 
not  augur  well  of  the  Gipsy  Prospectus  you  sent 
me,"  FitzGerald  wrote  to  Cowell  on  February 
II,  1875,  when  the  book  was  announced;  "it 
was  rather  gushing,  I  thought;  and  some  Lady 
in  it  who  did  not  seem  to  me  likely  to  be  a  good 
Gipsy  Interpreter,"  —  this  last  as  characteris- 
tic a  FitzGerald  touch  as  you  could  have.  But 
whatever  it  was  to  the  public  then  and  is  now, 
whatever  it  may  be  in  the  future,  at  the  time  it 
was  to  the  three  collaborators  the  one  thing  of 
supreme  importance  in  all  the  wide  universe. 
That  there  was,  for  a  moment,  some  thought 
of  Mr.  Hubert  Smith  working  with  them  as  a 
fourth  collaborator  appears  from  the  following 
letter. 

CHARLES  GODFRXY  LSLANO  TO  MR.   HUBERT  SMITH 

Langham  Hotel,  April  24, 1874. 

Dear  Sir,  —  I  am  very  much  obliged  to  you 
for  the  insertion  of  the  notice  in  the  "B.  M.  N." 
I  have  never  taken  any  pains  hitherto  to  prbner 
a  book  of  my  own,  but  having  associated  my 
friends  with  me  I  feel  like  making  every  effort  to 
help  this.  And  I  do  most  honestly  believe  it  will 
be  a  very  pleasant  book-full  of  quaint  stories  in 
rhyme,  droll  songs,  and  jolly  Gypsy  fancies.    I 


i66    CHARLES  GODFREY   LELAND 

wish  I  could  show  it  to  you.  I  have  made  one  of 
my  best  out  of  the  "  Cow  Comer."  Your  descrip- 
tion of  the  party  was  to  the  life,  and  I  had  very 
little  to  do  but  rhyme  it. 

I  shall  be  very  glad  to  do  anything  to  please 
you,  or  to  set  forth  things  as  they  are  as  regards 
the  Romany  Songs  which  you  contribute.  I 
suppose  the  right  thing  to  do  is  to  say  that  all  the 
ballads  contributed  by  Mr.  H.  S.  owe  much  to 
his  correction,  and  have  generally  been  put  in 
shape  and  "  tune  "  by  him  —  that  the  reader  may 
not  be  aware  that  most  real  Gipsy  songs  are 
"without  form  and  void,"  consisting  of  strag- 
gling prose  with  an  occasional  lucky  rh)mie 
which  is  greatly  admired  as  a  triumph  of  lyric 
art.  At  the  same  time  it  will  not  do  to  say  too 
much  about  your  share  in  them,  since  they  are 
not  uniformly  rhymed  and  the  irregularities  are 
not  according  to  Horace  or  Boileau,  or  even  the 
old  English  ballad  standard.  They  are  a  little  too 
smooth  for  Romanys  and  not  quite  good  enough 
for  a  scholar.  However,  they  are  very  good  bal- 
lads and  I  am  very  much  obliged  for  them.  I 
don't  expect  the  book  to  pay  anything,  but  I  am 
well  assured  that  it  will  go  into  high  quarters  and 
be  widely  reviewed.  If  you  can  give  me  any  more 
tips  in  the  way  of  Gipsy  anecdote  I  shall  be 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  167 

very  grateful.  Please  let  me  know  exactly  how 
I  shall  "put  it"  about  your  ballads  —  without 
reserve. 

We  ought  to  have  it  well  known  as  to  the  inter- 
esting character  of  this  collection.  The  ballads 
are  many,  or  mostly,  very  droll  and  quaint,  and 
as  good  in  English  as  in  Gipsy.  Every  phase  of 
Gipsy  life  has  a  story  in  rhyme,  and  my  two  col- 
leagues really  excel  in  humorous  ballads.  And 
all  are  true  to  life  and  free  from  dillettantism  or 
affectation.  Every  study  has  been  made  from 
life.  I  shall  of  course  credit  the  incident  of 
Gourinaver(?)toyou.  Who  was  Mr.  Foote,  who 
ran  himself  into  the  ground  so  strangely?  That 
"buttons"  was  very  Gipsy.  I  send  you  the  rough 
draft  of  my  poem.  You  need  not  return  it.  The 
English  version  is  better.  I  hope  that  you  will 
be  able  to  make  it  out.  Our  RomnoiAny  here 
is  a  little  different  from  yours  —  no  better  cer- 
tainly. 

And  so  with  best  wishes  I  remain. 
Yours  very  truly, 

ChABLES  G.  LiXANB. 

Palmer's  letters,  from  now  on,  overflow  with 
die  Ballads.  He  sends  instalment  after  instal- 
ment. Of  one  poem, "  Preaching  Charlie,"  there 


i68    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

are  six  versions  before  he  is  done  with  it.  And  the 
^floating"  of  the  book  is  as  all-engrossing  as  the 
writing  of  it;  without  puUing  wires,  how  is  a  duU, 
Gorgio  public  to  awaken  to  the  importance  of 
a  Romany  enterprise  ?  The  collaborators  live  in 
an  atmosphere  of  plot,  in  a  whirl  of  conspiracy. 
By  April  28th,  Palmer  is  writing  a  letter  typical 
of  the  ensuing  months  of  correspondence. 

PROFESSOR  E.  H.  PALMER  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

My  dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  Your  letter  came 
like  rain  to  the  arid  soil  or  beer  to  the  thirsty 
throat  —  for  I  have  been  and  still  am  very  busy 
•  .  .  so  that  my  normal  condition  is  one  of  fatigue 
and  my  only  feat  of  imagination  one  gigantic 
oath.  I  have  not  under  these  circumstances  tried 
to  do  much  with  the  Potty  because  I  feel  that  one 
cannot  produce  an)rthing  worth  a  rap  without 
feeling  fresh — but  I  shall  be  able,  I  hope,  to  pay 
a  few  visits  to  old  mother  Ratimescro  (Heme) 
and  at  least  get  some  materials.  .  .  . 

I  have  had  the  same  notion  as  yourself  that  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  to  let  one  or  two  tit-bits 
get  out  in  print.  The  "Athenaeum"  likes  that 
sort  of  thing  and  would  put  them  in  at  once.  .  .  . 

is  a  humbug,  and  I  would  n't  take  my  oath 

that  he  is  n't  a  liar  too.  I  think,  though,  that  you 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  169 

have  made  him  feel  like  the  cat  in  your  ballad 
of  childhood's  days,  substituting  for  saucer  the 
T/arian/ pantaloons.  .  .  .  I  shall  try  in  the  course 
of  the  week  to  get  an  article  in  the  "Daily  News" 
through  W.  Besant,  in  which  our  forthcoming 
book  shall  be  insinuated  to  be  a  formidable  rival 
to  Shakespeare,  the  Bible,  Joe  Miller,  and  Ma- 
caulay's  "History  of  England."  I  am  so  glad 
you  do  think  it 's  going  to  be  a  success.  /  quite 
share  your  enthusiasm,  and  I  should  much  like 
to  see  it  as  far  as  it  has  gone,  and  hope  to 
do  so  by  the  beginning  of  next  week.  I  shall 
not  have  much  more  of  this  over-work,  and  then 
I  will  come  back  with  redoubled  energy  to  the 
task. 

As  I  read  these  old  letters,  I  wonder  that  the 
rest  of  the  world  could  keep  on  plodding  at 
its  accustomed  tasks, — that  everybody  was  not 
writing  Gypsy  ballads.  Between  Cambridge 
and  London,  those  that  were  written  were  sent 
backwards  and  forwards  like  a  shuttlecock,  and 
were  criticised  and  corrected  and  revised  with  a 
zeal  scarcely  short  of  fanaticism.  More  papers 
were  "nobbled,"  —  didn't  "young  Fred  Pol- 
lock" write  for  the  "Saturday,"  and  did  n't  he 
know  well  "Leslie  Stephen  of  the  'Pall  Mall'  ?*' 


I70    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

''I,  like  you,  will  do  my  damnedest  to  make  the 
book  go,"  Palmer  writes  with  one  of  his  reports 
of  tried  and  suggested  intrigue  I  ^'I  am  more  an 
for  it  than  even  for  my  Arabic  Grammar,  which 
is  just  out  and  which  has  absorbed  almost  all 
my  thought  for  these  two  years  past."  Occasion- 
ally, other  matters  call  for  a  passing  word,  but 
they  speedily  make  way  for  the  only  thing  that 
counts. 

PROFESSOR  X.  H.  PALMER  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Cambridge,  June  loth,  1874. 

Dear  Leland,  —  I  will  talk  about  your  forth- 
coming Chinaman  discoverer  to-night  at  Trinity, 
where  I  dine  with  the  Chancellor  and  Honorary 
degree  men  —  Sir  James  Wolsey  and  Co.  and  a 
distinguished  coimtryman  of  yours,  J.  R.  Lowell 
—  and  on  every  other  occasion  that  I  can.  It 
ought  to  be  a  success.  My  lectures  are  at  an  end, 
thank  my  dearie  duvel  [dear  God],  so  that  as 
soon  as  I  can  clear  ofiF  a  few  reviews  I  shall  be  free 
to  go  ahead  with  the  Rommany  Pomes.  I  am 
very  glad  Miss  Tuckey  is  also  likely  to  be  free  to 
finish  off  her  lot  As  soon  as  you  let  me  have  a 
printed  slip  of  the  Royal  poem,  I  will  get  the 
Dean  to  present  it.  In  die  meantime  please  let  us 
have  the  specimens  for  the  "Athenaeum,"  etc.  — 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  171 

and  then  we  will  follow  them  up  with  a  leader 
from  W.  Besant  in  the  "Daily  News." 

Log-rolling,  you  may  say.  Yes:  but  log-rolling 
done  with  a  gaiety,  a  disinterestedness,  a  sense 
of  the  fun  of  it,  unknown  to  the  modem  weakling 
with  no  ambition  higher  than  the  commercial 
traveller's.  The  publisher,  Triibner,  intimate 
friend  though  he  was  of  the  Rye's,  it  seems  would 
not  think  of  the  book  imtil  a  certain  number  of 
subscribers  were  assured. 

"I  don't  much  like  having  to  do  publisher's 
work  as  well  as  our  own,"  Palmer  ssys  in  one 
of  his  gayest  letters,  "nor  do  I  like  having  to 
appeal  ad  misericordiam  for  subscribers,  but  I 
suppose  we  must  submit. 

"  *  You  are  earnestly  requested  to  subscribe  to 
the  above  work;  it  is  the  composition  of  a  blind 
orphan  who  is  deaf  and  dumb  and  has  no  use  of 
his  limbs.  Unless  50,000  copies  at  a  penny  each 
are  taken  by  a  Christian  and  sympathising  pub- 
lic, the  book  will  remain  unpublished,  and  the 
writer  will  have  no  resource  but  the  workhouse 
or  dishonesty.'  However,  as  soon  as  I  have  fin- 
ished the  glossary  —  which  I  am  getting  on  with 
fast  —  I  will  draw  up  as  you  suggest  a  circular, 
and  when  you  have  approved  and  touched  it  up 


172    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

we  will  scatter  it  broadcast  and  I  will  ask  every 
one  I  know  to  subscribe.  We  will  make  it  go 
somehow.  I  think  we  had  better  come  out  with  a 
burst,  get  if  we  can  Royalty's  opinion,  then  get 
out  our  prospectus,  then  a  leader  on  it  in  the 
*  Daily  News,'  then  specimens  in  the '  Athenaeum,' 
and  say  a  sandwich  man  with  a  prospectus  on 
his  hat  up  and  down  Regent  St." 

Palmer  bubbles  over  with  "  lovely  ideas, "  —  a 
copy  must  go  to  the  Lord  High  Almoner,  who 
will  show  it  to  the  Queen,  —  and  then  "all  will 
be  gas  and  gaiters;"  an  edition  de  luxe  must  be 
subscribed  for  in  Belgravia;  circulars  scattered 
right  and  left;  her  Majesty  approached  through 
still  other  channels.  There  was  one  dreadful 
moment  of  anxiety.  Miss  Tuckey,  who  supplied 
the  sentiment,  was  responsible  for  a  long  poem 
about  the  birth  of  a  Gypsy  baby  in  Windsor 
Park  at  Christmas  time,  and  the  benevolence  of 
the  Queen,  who  lavished  royal  and  useful  gifts, 
— among  other  things,  stockings  knitted  by  her 
own  ro}ral  hands,  upon  mother  and  child.  A 
printed  copy  of  the  poem,  before  the  book  was 
out,  was  sent  to  the  Queen,  and  somewhere, 
somehow,  it  was  suggested  that  the  stockings 
were  an  indiscretion.  "First  about  stockings," 
Palmer  writes, "  I '  ve  never  heard  a  word  or  sneer 


/-V/'^_ 


/i,  tU<n.    ^Z^-^T^J'C 


FROM  PROFESSOR  £.  H.  PALMER 


A 


<i 


:;p^ 


•<€l  Jy 


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6^ 


»    ♦  •       - 


»  -'   w 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  173 

at  H.  M.  about  them.  But  I  have  got  Lady  Ely's 
bosom  friend  (Lady  E.  being  H.  M's.  bosom 
friend)  to  take  the  matter  up  and  convey  to 
the  Royal  mind  that  the  incident  is  true,  and 
the  song  loyal^  grateful^  devoted^  humble^  pious^ 
magnificent,  sublime^  so  that'll  be  all  right." 
It  may  be  owing  to  the  intervention  of  "  bosom 
friends"  that  the  trouble  was  disposed  of, 
but  on  the  31st  of  the  same  month,  he  writes, 
"  From  the  enclosed,  you  will  see  how  the '  stock- 
ing' business  may  be  got  over."  The  enclosed 
was  a  letter  from  the  Dean  of  Windsor,  explain- 
ing that  stockings  and  all  may  have  been  pre- 
sented by  some  benevolent  person  of  the  House- 
hold, without  her  Majesty's  knowing  anything 
about  it.  But  there  was  another  "lady,"  to 
whom  the  poems  were  read,  whose  criticisms 
meant  even  more  to  them,  as  an  amusing  letter 
that  Palmer  wrote  on  February  17  sets  forth. 

"Why  do  you  make  me  no  sign,  and  make 
the  world  black  m  the  face  of  your  servant,"  the 
letter  begins.  .  .  .  "While  writing  this,  Morella 
Knightley,  nie  Shaw,  came  here  —  I  made  her 
hesh  alay  [sit  down]  on  the  hearthrug  and  read 
to  her  all  the  ballads  I  had  —  she  wept  at  the 
Kairengri  [house-dwellers],  not  recognising  or 
remembering  that  she  was  the  authoress.   '  Why 


174    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

the  R,  C.  left  oflE  drinking  beer/  she  pronounced 
to  my  wife,  who  was  present,  to  be  ^our  people's 
trace  of  life  and  their  discourse  and  language  as 
true  as  ever  Ronunany  knowed  it.'  The  Rom- 
many  gilly  [song]  she  pronounced  *real  deep 
Rommany  jviwyben  [life].' " 

It  is  impossible  to  read  Pahner's  letters  without 
sharing  his  excitement,  so  that  it  is  a  regret  to 
me  when,  in  them,  I  reach  the  moment  of  the 
book's  appearance.  Not  that  the  excitement  is 
at  an  end ;  there  is  still  the  agitation  of  sending  a 
copy  to  the  Queen,  this  time  through  her  Equerry 
Colonel  Ponsonby,  and  receiving  in  due  course 
the  usual  formal  '^I  am  desired  to  acknowledge 
the  receipt  of  the  volume  on  English  Gipsy 
Songs,  forwarded  by  you  to  the  Queen,  and  to 
announce  Her  Majesty's  acceptance  of  it  with 
thanks."  Did  this  sort  of  thing  ever  do  any  good 
to  any  book?  There  is  still  the  redoubled  agita- 
tion of  intrigue,  now  for  reviews.  From  some  un- 
known channel,  news  arrives  that "  Crofton  is  to 
be  civil;"  more  encouraging,  the  "Athenaeum  '* 
really  is  amiable.  Palmer,  in  between  a  consulta- 
tion with  the  oculist  and  a  visit  to  the  Sultan  of 
Zanzibar  —  who,  it  might  be  recorded,  talked 
all  the  time  "about  Hell  and  Purgatory"  —  stops 
to  write,  "Hooray!   dardi  [behold]  the  'Athe- 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  175 

nasum'  —  have  nH  they  mukked  us  tak  mishioJ 
[done  us  well]."  Walter  Pollock  is  to  write  for 
the  "Saturday."  A  dinner  with  the  proprietor 
of  the  "Spectator"  may  lead  to  things  there,  by 
gentle  insinuation  —  who  knows  ?  I  may  as  well 
state  at  once  that  all  this  did  lead  to  results 
more  practical  than  the  mere  kudos,  with  which 
usually  the  philologist  must  be  content,  for  the 
first  edition  was  sold  out  by  August. 

One  thing  I  cannot  understand:  why  Palmer, 
keen  about  every  detail,  never  refers  to  the 
Dedication,  for  which  whatever  credit  there  is 
lies  with  him.  The  one  exception  to  the  original 
Romany  ballads  in  the  book  is  his  translation 
of  Tennyson's  "Home  they  brought  her  Warrior 
Dead."  Before  publishing  it,  Tennjrson's  per- 
mission had  to  be  asked,  and  his  grantmg  it  led 
to  the  further  request  that  the  book  might  be 
dedicated  to  him.  And  yet,  of  this  episode,- 
nothing  survives  but  Tennyson's  short  letters 
to  the  Rye.  The  first  is  the  acceptance  of  the 
Dedication. 

ALFRED  TENNYSON  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

March  2oth,  1874. 

Dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  I  thank  you  for  your 
re-translation,  and  trust  that  if  you  publish  your 


176    CHARLES   GODFREY   LELAND 

volume  of  Rommany  verse  you  will  either  adopt 
some  such  s)rstem,  or  add  a  copious  Glossary; 
otherwise  the  whole  thing  except  to  the  very  few 
fiefivrjiidvoL  will  be  but  a  dead  letter. 

As  to  the  Dedication,  why  of  course  I  should 
feel  honoured  by  it  —  only  —  since  I  am  utterly 
innocent  of  Gipsy-tongue,  would  not  such  a  pro- 
ceeding seem  as  if  an  Ornithologist  should  dedi- 
cate his  book  to  one  who  knew  nothing  of  birds, 
or  an  Ichthyologist  to  him  who  could  not  distin- 
guish between  a  trout  and  an  eel  ? 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Tennyson. 

The  second,  the  acceptance  of  a  copy  of  the 
book,  is  as  non-committal  as  such  a  letter  well 
could  be.  Appropriately,  the  subject  being  what 
it  is,  it  has  no  date. 

alfred  tenkyson  to  charles  godfrey  leland 

Aldworth,  Haslembre. 

My  dear  Sm,  —  I  am  much  obliged  to  you 
for  your  handsome  volume.  I  have  as  yet  had  no 
time  to  study  the  contents,  though,  as  you  know, 
I  feel  much  interested  in  Gipsies  and  Gipsydom. 

Yours  very  truly, 

A.  Tennyson, 


iKtAA^ 


<uaaa^ 


%m*'  ^*y^«^ 


•y 


FROM  TENNYSON,  REFERRING  TO  "ENGLISH  GYPSY  SONGS" 


'  ^   ',       *   •»   * 

'.         '  '       '       * 


V     k 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  177 

After  the  launching  of  the  book,  Pahner's  let- 
ters became  few,  partly  because  the  two  men 
were  now  more  often  together,  meeting  in  the 
summer,  and,  eventually.  Palmer  coming  to 
London  to  live ;  partly  because  the  Rye  returned 
to  Philadelphia  in  1879,  and  whatever  letters 
Palmer  wrote  to  that  place,  before  his  tragic 
death,  are  gone  no  one  knows  where.* 

But,  during  the  seventies,  it  seemed  as  if  not 
only  Groome,  and  Palmer,  and  Bath  Smart,  and 
Hubert  Smith,  but  everybody  who  sent  the  Rye 
a  letter,  could  write  of  nothing  but  Gypsies.  One 
day,  it  was  George  Boker,  then  United  States 
Minister  to  Russia,  suppl3ang  him  with  informa- 
tion as  to  the  Gypsies  in  that  country;  the  next, 
it  was  Miss  Doering  giving  him  news  of  the 
Gypsies  near  Weybridge  and  Oatlands  Park;  or 
else  it  was  Dr.  Gamett  writing  from  the  British 
Museum  to  enclose  a  song  in  the  dialect  of  the 
Transylvanian  Gypsies;  or  Miss  Janet  Tuckey, 
consulting  him  about  her  ballads,  envying  Palmer 
his  facility,  —  "Why,  he'd  soon  make  a  book 
all  by  himself;"  or  Mr.  Horace  E.  Scudder,  with 

^  Among  the  letters  entrusted  to  me  after  my  book  was 
finished,  are  a  few  more  from  Palmer.  But  they  are  the  hur- 
ried lines  of  a  man  to  whom  his  own  studies,  life  in  London, 
and  the  daily  tasks  of  the  journalist  left  small  leisure  for  let- 
ters, gay  or  otherwise. 


178     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

a  message  from  anny  officers  in  the  West,  puz- 
zled by  a  suggested  relation  between  Romany 
and  Red  Indian  —  and  it  is  curious  that  the  same 
relation,  or  rather  comparison,  should  have  sug- 
gested itself  to  "old  Frank  Cooper,"  who  one 
day  at  the  Walton  Races,  according  to  the  Note- 
books, told  the  Rye  he  "  had  been  often  puzzled 
by  Indians  in  America  and  their  great  resem- 
blance to  Gypsies;"  or  Miss  Genevieve  Ward, 
anxious  for  Gypsy  songs,  which^  for  her  coming 
r61e  of  Gypsy,  will  be  more  effective,  she  thinks, 
sung  "in  the  true  lingo;"  or  it  was  any  and 
every  one  in  a  list  far  too  long  to  quote. 

And  it  was  another  part  of  the  charm  the  Ro- 
manies had  for  the  Rye  that,  thanks  to  them,  he 
could  travel  nowhere  and  not  find  friends  waiting 
for  him.  All  his  journeys  during  these  years 
meant  so  many  chapters  for  his  Gypsy  books. 
He  went  to  Russia  for  the  winter,  and  the  record 
is  in  his  papers  on  the  Russian  Gypsies  who  sang 
to  him  in  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow.  He  at- 
tended the  Oriental  Congress  in  Paris  in  1878, 
and  he  might  have  forgotten  it  himself,  but  for 
his  meetings  with  the  Hungarian  Gypsies  who 
played  to  him  at  the  Exposition.  He  wandered 
over  England,  here,  there,  and  I,  for  one,  could 
not  say  where,  were  it  not  for  the  Gypsies,  who, 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  179 

in  each  new  place,  gave  him  fresh  material  for 
his  books.  He  spent  a  summer  in  Wales,  Palmer 
with  him,  that  would  be  a  blank  in  the  story  of  his 
life,  but  for  the  discovery  of  Shelta,  the  encoim- 
ters  with  some  of  the  deep,  wild  Welsh  Gypsies, 
and  the  strange  legend  that  grew  up  among  them 
of  his  passing.  Of  this  legend  Mr.  John  Samp- 
son, of  University  College,  Liverpool,  wrote  to 
him  more  than  twenty  years  later,  in  a  letter  that 
I  quote  now,  because  it  refers  more  especially  to 
this  period.  It  is  one  of  the  most  delightful  let- 
ters in  all  the  bimdle,  —  delightful  to  write,  de- 
lightful to  receive. 

lUL  JOmi  SAMPSON  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LSLAND 

UHivzRsrrY  College,  Liverpool, 
18  April,  189^ 

My  dear  Mr.  Lkland,  —  I  can  scarcely  tell 
you  with  what  pleasure  I  again  hear  from  you, 
one  of  the  few  remaining  tacho-biUno  Romano 
Rais.  Though  it  is  long  since  I  wrote  to  you,  you 
have  been  so  often  in  my  thoughts  that  I  feel  as  if 
I  knew  you  better  than  perhaps  I  do.  .  .  .  Well, 
Romani,  which  you  somewhere  rightly  compare 
to  the  longing  for  the  plains  (Kipling's  ''East 
a-calling"),  is  as  much  a  passion  with  me  as 
ever,  and  since  the  cessation  of  our  Journal  I 


i8o    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

have  done  more  work  at  it  than  ever,  especially 
at  the  very  perfect  Welsh  dialect.  Five  years  ago, 
travelling  through  Wales  in  Gypsy  fashion  with 
van  and  tent,  in  company  with  Kuno  Meyer, 
Walter  Raleigh,  and  two  other  friends  (one  a 
Gypsy)  I  struck  one  of  the  Woods  —  Edward 
Wood,  a  harper  —  and  began  from  him  my 
study  of  the  Welsh  dialect.  Since  then  I  have 
practically  spent  all  my  spare  time  in  Wales  with 
the  Welsh  Gypsies,  and  believe  I  now  know 
every  member  of  the  family  and  every  word  and 
inflexion.  At  times  I  have  spent  weeks  without 
hearing  English  spoken,  for  the  natives  speak 
Welsh,  and  the  Gypsies  invariably  Romani,  not, 
as  with  most  English  Gypsies,  only  on  rare 
occasions. 

Now  let  me  tell  you  something  that  I  think  will 
interest  you.  Do  you  know  that  you  have  become 
a  m3rthical  personage  among  the  Welsh  Gypsies, 
just  as  the  Arch-Duke  has  among  some  Conti- 
nental Gypsy  tribes?  (I  forget  which,  but  I 
remember  reading  about  it  in  Herrmann's  "Eth- 
nologische  Mittheilungen,"  and  I  daresay  I 
could  rake  out  the  reference  if  you  want  it.)  I 
first  heard  vague  allusions  to  it  from  several 
Gypsies  without  of  course  connecting  it  with  you. 
Then  meeting  "Taw,"  that  deepest  of  witches, 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  i8i 

at  Menai,  I  heard  the  story  more  definitely.  It 
was  told  me  as  a  great  secret.  Her  story  was  of  a 
great  kinsman  of  the  Woods  who  lived  across  the 
water,  of  great  height  and  fabulous  wealth  which 
he  held  in  trust  for  the  family  and  with  which  he 
would  eventually  endow  them,  who  spoke  deep 
Romani  as  they  did,  who  knew  everything,  who 
travelled  ever)rwhere.  "  You  met  him  at  Abe- 
rystwyth," I  said.  ^^AuauaChavoV  "In  the  year 
187-."  '^Bichadds  tut  yov  more  fdkengi  ?"  I  did 
not  deny  it,  for  it  is  a  rule  of  mine  neither  to  deny 
or  aflSrm  anything,  neither  to  promise  or  refuse 
anything  to  the  Gypsies.  Since  then  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  Wales  I  have  had  repeated  invita- 
tions to  turn  up  the  money  at  once  or  take  the 
consequences.  Only  last  year  I  received  a  letter 
from  a  Wrexham  firm  of  soUcitors  saying  that 
from  information  received,  they  now  positively 
knew  that  certain  sums  of  money  intended  for 
their  client  Mrs.  Wood  had  been  withheld  by  me, 
and  that,  the  matter  having  been  placed  in  their 
hands,  they  would  stand  no  nonsense,  or  words 
to  that  effect.  I  replied  saying  that  if  they  would 
read  the  enclosed  letter  to  their  client  she  would 
gather  something  of  my  intentions.  The  enclosed 
letter  was  in  Romani. 


i82    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

If,  when  the  Rye  came  home  in  1879,  Phila- 
delphia in  many  ways  had  been  transformed 
almost  out  of  recognition,  there  were  Gypsies  to 
keep  him  from  feeling  a  stranger  in  his  native 
land.  Most  people  in  those  dajrs  —  as  I  believe 
they  do  still  —  looked  upon  respectability  as 
Philadelphia's  only  product  Its  straight  streets 
and  regular  vistas  of  house  fronts  seemed  to  offer 
no  escape  from  the  commonplace,  no  chance  to 
stumble  upon  the  Unknown.  And  yet,  for  the 
Philadelphian,  as  for  Borrow,  "strange  things" 
may  every  day  occur,  America  being  as  full  as 
the  British  Isles  of  the  people  who  bring  adven- 
ture to  one's  very  doorstep.  I  was  young  then, 
the  convent  not  so  many  years  behind  me,  and 
I  was  carried  oflE  my  feet  by  this  new  excitement 
the  Rye  brought  into  my  life.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  older  as  I  am  now,  when  I  look  back  to 
those  days  I  still  see  in  North  Broad  Street,  not 
the  chief  thoroughfare  "up  town,"  where  no  cor- 
rect Philadelphian  would  be  "found  dead,"  but 
the  path  to  the  freedom  of  Oakdale  Park,  where 
the  Costellos  camj)ed  in  the  early  spring;  the 
dreariest  West  Philadelphia  suburb  becomes 
transfigured  into  the  highway  to  Bohemia  and  its 
Seven  Castles,  though  to  my  blind  fellow-citizens 
it  was  only  an  open  lot  where  the  Lovells  pitched 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  183 

their  dirty  little  brown  tents;  the  old  thrill  comes 
with  the  thought  of  the  ferry  where  we  embarked 
for  Camden,  the  inefiFable,  and  the  Reservoir, 
and,  under  its  shadow,  Davy  Wharton,  the 
truest  Gypsy  of  them  all,  who  slept  through  the 
short  crisp  October  days,  while  Sheva,  his  wife, 
begged  and  told  fortunes  in  the  town.  There 
was  no  going  anywhere,  on  any  matter-of-fact 
errand,  without  the  happy  risk  of  adventure.  K 
I  stepped  into  a  street  car,  might  I  not,  as  some- 
times happened,  be  greeted  with  the  mysterious 
sarishatij  from  Gypsy  women,  canying  their 
day's  plunder  home,  while  all  the  Gorgios  stared  ? 
In  my  own  back  yard — good  Philadelphian  for 
garden  —  or  at  my  own  front  door,  might  I  not 
run  into  a  tinker,  part  if  not  all  Gypsy,  sharp- 
ening the  family  knives  and  scissors?  And  on 
decorous  Chestnut  Street,  were  there  not  rare, 
but  unforgettable,  visions  of  strange,  wild  crea- 
tures, with  flashing  eyes  and  long  black  hair, 
wearing  strange  garments  decorated  with  big 
silver  buttons,  striding  along  on  a  First  Day 
morning  past  the  quiet  groups  of  Friends  in 
plain  coats  and  plain  bonnets, — beautiful  beings, 
such  as  I  had  never  seen  before,  but  have  since 
on  the  remote  roads  of  Transylvania?  "Do  you 
remember,"  the  Rye  wrote  me  from  Florence 


i84    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

(in  1892),  referring  to  these  old  days,  "do  you 
remember  Rosanna  Lovell,  and  how  we  took  her 
a  dukkerin  lil  [fortune-telling  book]  and  brought 
a  thousand  people  out  to  see  her;  and  how  Val 
Stanley  sent  out  every  ten  minutes  for  beer  which 
we  drank  out  of  a  moustache-cup  —  and  the 
great  tent  with  the  Arab  brass  lamp,  where  the 
beer  was  carried  round  in  a  watering  potl  —  and 
the  old  Rom  who  apologised  for  the  want  of  a 
view  or  scenery,  and  who  offered  a  piece  of 
tobacco  for  hospitality  ?  "  —  Why,  Philadelphia 
was  all  adventure,  a  town  of  "strange  things." 

But  I  remember,  too,  what  an  indefatigable 
student  the  Rye  was.  He  was  always  studying, 
always  learning.  Note-books  and  sketch-books 
were  alwa)^  in  the  pockets  of  his  old  velveteen 
coat,  and  though  there  was  no  sign  of  the  student 
so  long  as  he  was  with  the  Gypsies,  though  he 
was  the  gayest  of  them  all,  getting  off  a  good 
Romany  joke  or  singing  a  real  Romany  song 
with  the  best  of  them,  he  was  busy  adding  to 
the  chapters  for  his  second  Romany  book,  "The 
Gypsies"  (1882).  Groome,  when  his  "Gypsy 
Folk  Tales"  was  published  (1889),  regretted 
that  no  careful  study  of  the  Gypsies  in  America 
had  yet  been  made.  But  the  American  Gypsy  is 
simply  the  English  Gypsy,  with  a  new  touch  of 


m 


.^  *5 


^^?{1C? 


•  •• 


'•  • 


•  ••• 

•  •• 

«        • 

••• 


*  ••  • 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  185 

American  independence,  and  a  degree  of  Amen- 
can  prosperity  and  American  capacity  to  do 
without  alcohol  that  would  astound  his  brothers 
of  British  roads.  And  if  the  Rye  only  left  "stray 
jottings,"  as  Groome  says,  it  was  because  he 
found  nothing  important  to  add  to  what  he  had 
already  written  of  the  English  Gypsies;  though  I 
think  he  did  regret,  when  he  got  back  to  Eng- 
land, that  he  had  not  noted  down  changes  in 
minor  details.  "I  want  very  much,"  he  wrote 
to  Mr.  MacRitchie  in  1888,  "to  collect  what  I 
neglected  in  America — the  American-Romany 
names  for  places  —  towns  —  etc.,  and  any  Rom- 
any words  peculiar  to  the  United  States.  Thus 
lUj  which  means  one  pound  sterling  in  Eng- 
land, means  a  dollar  in  America,  and  horra  a 
cent,  etc." 

Dxuing  these  years  also  I  first  met  the  Hun- 
garian Gypsies.  They  were  brought  over  to  play 
in  an  up-town  beer  garden.  To  have  real,  live, 
Czardas-playing  Tziganes  descend  upon  Phila- 
delphia was,  in  truth,  to  have  romance  dangled 
before  one's  eyes.  But  I  write  no  more  of  them 
here,  because  the  Rye,  throughout  that  sum- 
mer, was  off  on  the  coast  of  Maine  seeking  and 
finding  new  adventures  among  the  Indians. 
This  gave  me  my  little  chance.    Had  he  been 


1 86    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

there  first,  my  Romany  would  have  been  over- 
shadowed, and  the  Gypsies  would  not  have 
played  "in  my  ear,"  as  they  did  on  those  hot, 
burning  nights  of  a  Philadelphia  July  and 
August.  As  it  was,  I  had  my  little  day,  and 
when  he  went  to  Budapest  in  1888,  he  wrote  from 
that  town  to  tell  me  of  the  Gypsy  he  had  met  in 
the  slums,  who  also  remembered  those  burning 
nights,  and  who  asked  him  if  he  had  ever  heard 
of  me.    That  was  my  hour  of  triumph. 

I  am  content  to  give  merely  one  letter  relating 
to  this  episode.  It  is  enough.  The  fact  that  the 
Rye  kept  it  as  a  record  is  all  I  need  say  of  what 
is  left  unsaid  in  its  enthusiastic  pages. 

JOSBPR  PBNN£LL  TO  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Fisher's  Lane,  Germantown,  7.  30. 1882. 

My  dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  I  received  your 
letter  with  the  page  of  the  dukkerin  lU  in  it  all 
right,  some  time  ago  —  and  never  answered  the 
letter  for  the  simple  reason  that  I  had  n't  any- 
thing to  write  about.  Though  I  believe  I  did  ask 
Miss  Robins  to  tell  you  I  got  the  lU. 

But  now  I  have  some  things  to  tell  you.  You 
know  all  about  the  Hungarian  Romanies  being 
in  town,  and  have  probably  heard  all  (?)  our 
experiences  from  Miss  Robins.  I  saw  a  notice  of 


FROM  "DUKKEBIN  LIL,"  A  FORTUNE-TELLING  BOOK 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  187 

their  concerts  while  I  was  in  Washington  and 
mstantly  skipped  out,  intending  to  inform  Miss 
Robins  about  it,  and  see  if  she  would  visit  such  a 
"den  of  iniquity"  as  the  Mannerchor  Garden  — 
and  she  probably  has  told  you  how  we  met  there 
and  she  was  received  as  a  sister  —  and  of  the 
scene  of  "  Rudy  Radish  "  and  the  "  breeks. "  But 
probably  she  did  n't  tell  you  how  I  went  the  next 
day  to  sketch  them,  having  crammed  many 
Romany  words  and  learned  to  count ;  for  she 
said  that  seemed  to  be  the  principal  test  in  the 
catechism  through  which  she  was  put.  So  having 
made  my  drawings,  one  of  which  is  the  head 
of  a  young  violinist,  who  has  the  most  glorious 
head  I  ever  saw,  and  who  could  stand  for  Young 
Italy,  St.  John,  or  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing, 
as  I  afterwards  found  out,  —  so  having  made 
my  drawings,  the  catechism  commenced.  Some 
vowing  I  was  a  shou-car  Romany^  and  others 
that  I  was  "no  Romeneskas,"  all  went  on  suc- 
cessfully, especially  my  invention  of  new  and 
more  words  in  the  unknown  tongue — alleged  to 
be  "Anglo-Romany" —  till  finally  one  brigand- 
ish individual  said  something  about  "miss,"  and 
began  to  count  on  his  fingers,  and  I  imagined, 
here  is  my  chance.  So  I  pitched  in:  "  Yek^  duty 
tfinj  stor^^ — I  got  no  further — withm^,  their 


i88    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

eyes  opened  ;  at  twOy  every  man  gasped ;  when 
I  said  trifty  they  jumped  up ;  and  with  foufj 
they  burst  into  a  frantic  yell.  I  saw,  to  say  the 
least,  that  I  was  n't  on  the  right  track,  and  as 
one  or  two  of  them  speak  French,  innocently 
asked  what  was  wrong.  Finally,  the  one  who 
counts  French  in  along  with  his  dozen  and  a  half 
of  other  languages  and  dialects  managed  to  in- 
form me  that  the  brigand  wanted  to  know  ij  Miss 
Lizzie  was  married,  and  I  had  told  him  four  times, 
and,  as  she  now  wears  mourning,  it  was  for  the 
last  poor  man.  Whether  they  imagined  her  a  sort 
of  female  Blue  Beard  I  never  found  out.  But  so 
endeth  that  experience.  All  the  rest,  saving  the 
brigand,  still  call  me  prala  [brother]  —  and  we  pi 
levinar  [drink  beer]  and  say  beng  [devil]  in  the 
greatest  harmony.  (Both  of  these  expressions 
they  understand  without  difficulty.)  I  said  to  one 
the  other  night,  ''Was  ist  beng?''  ''Beng,''  says 
he,  "bengll  O  ya-a-a-a-s,  beng — der  teufelttll" 
This  gendeman,  named  "Radish  Rudy"  also 
"spiks  Inglish,"  and,  on  being  presented  to 
an  "Imlish  madchen,"  immediately  fired  this 
wonderful  combination  at  her  :  "  I  lof  you  very 
goot  very  fine  very  nice  I  spik  Inglish  ha-de  dooo." 
The  effect  was  all  he  could  have  desired.  I  now 
manage,  by  a  judicious  combination  of  French, 


THE   ROMANY  RYE  189 

German,  Romany,  Hungarian,  and  English  to 
get  along  with  the  greatest  of  ease. 

All  you  say  of  their  music  is  true.  In  fact,  you 
can't  describe  the  feeling  they  put  into  it  —  you 
should  hear  them  play  the  Storm  in  the  Tell 
Overture,  and  some  of  their  Czardas  and  their 
National  airs.  I  can't  keep  still  while  they  play 
some  of  their  fantasies,  and  I  ask  them  what  they 
are.  "Oh  nothing,  just  a  little  bit  —  but  now 
we  will  play  you  something — play  for  one,"  and 
the  Rakoczy  starts  up,. played  with  more  life  and 
go  and  vim  than  I  have  ever  heard  put  into  music 
— and  when  it  is  finished,  the  leader  says,  "Shou 
car?"  and  smiles  —  why,  that  man  puts  his 
whole  soul  into  his  violin  — 

Uva  tu  o  begedive 

Tu  sal  mindlk  pash  mange. 

Did  Miss  Robins  tell  you  how  I  found  a  camp 
of  English  Romanies — and  that  /  am  one?  I 
went  to  see  the  Costellos  last  Sunday  and  the 
"old  mon"  sa)rs,  "I  say,  sorr,  did  ye  know  that 
there  were  a  camp  on  the  Railroad  with  more  'n 
twenty  families,  the  Lovells,  and  the  Smiths, 
and  the  Scamps.  Now  just  you  go  over  there 
and  fdkker  till  'em  and  they  '11  take  ye  fur  a 
Rye;"  and  I  went,  and  I  looked  around  in  a 
mooning  sort  of  way  and  talked  to  the  Gorgios, 


190    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

and  finally  I  goes  up  to  a  mush  [man].  I  says, 
"Pa/  sarshan^^^  and  he  says,  "What 's  that  fur- 
rin  tongue  ye  har'  a  talkin'  of,  sir?''  and  I  says, 
"Ain't ywaRominy?"  "Hi be,"  says  he.  "WeU, 
then,  /^,"  says  I,  "won't  tute  come  and  pi  some 
Levinar?^^  He  opened  his  mouth,  and  his  eyes, 
and  said,  "Not  to-day.  Rye,  but  come  into  the 
tan  —  and  see  the  foki^^ — and  I  corned  —  and 
then  he  says,  "Ah,  Rye,  but  ye  coomed  hit  ower 
me  thot  toime,  ye  did  indeed."  "I  thought  you 
did  n't  know  anything  about  Romany,"  said  I 
—  and  many,  many  things  could  I  tell  you  — 
but  will  only  inflict  one  more  upon  you,  that  the 
drawings  for  the  articles  are  all  finished  and  in 
New  York  —  and  we  must  do  the  book. 

Yours  sincerely, 

Joseph  Pennell. 
P.  S.  I  hope  you  may  not  die  in  the  endeavour 
to  wade  through  this. 

The  Rye  did  not  lose  in  America  his  extraor- 
dinary faculty  of  inspiring  others  with  his  own 
enthusiasm,  and  the  Gypsy  fever  spread,  as  in 
England,  even  to  people  he  did  not  know.  Be- 
fore long,  on  our  expeditions,  we  werc  jomed  by 
my  husband, — not  then  my  husband,  as  the 
above  letter  explains;  many  articles,  for  the 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  191 

"  Century  "  principally,  coming  of  those  days 
when  we  were  fellow  explorers,  and,  also,  I  some- 
times think,  our  life  for  the  last  twenty  years 
together.  And,  almost  as  soon,  Gypsy  bulletins 
were  despatched  from  Boston,  where  Miss  Abby 
Alger  watched  for  the  passing  Romany,  with  the 
keenness  of  Groome  in  Gottingen  or  Palmer  in 
Cambridge.  And,  as  promptly,  we  were  hearing 
from  our  Gypsy  friends  of  two  tani  ranis  (yoimg 
ladies)  down  in  Delaware,  beautiful,  rich,  and 
real  Romanies  —  one  a  Lee  —  talking  deep 
Romanis,  though  house-dwellers.  We  thought 
them  myths  for  a  while.  But  they,  at  the  right 
moment,  materialised,  at  first  in  a  voluminous 
correspondence,  eventually  in  person,  when  the 
tani  rani  who  was  a  Lee  to  the  Romanies,  and 
Katherine  Bayard  to  all  the  world  beside,  was 
crossing  the  ferry  with  us  to  that  Lotus  Land 
under  the  shadow  of  the  Reservoir.  But  what 
now  strikes  me  as  the  most  curious  evidence  of 
the  hold  the  Gypsy  had  taken  of  people's  imagi- 
nation, is  the  ease  with  which  Planchette  wrote 
Romany  for  a  girl  I  knew,  who,  without  its  help, 
could  not,  or  thought  she  could  not,  speak  a 
word  of  the  language. 

It  adds  to  the  picturesqueness  of  these  mem- 
ories that  Walt  Whitman  should  have  a  promi- 


192    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

nent  place  in  them.  We  seldom  could  get  to 
Camden  and  home  again  without  meeting  and 
talking  with  him.  Sometimes,  we  found  him  sit- 
ting in  a  big  chair  by  the  fruit  stall  at  the  foot  of 
Market  Street,  gossiping  with  the  Italian  who 
kept  it,  eating  peanuts,  shaking  hands  with 
the  horse-car  drivers,  whose  stopping-place  was 
just  in  front.  Sometimes,  he  was  leaving  the 
ferry  boat  as  we  started,  or  stepping  on  it  as  we 
landed  in  Camden.  Sometimes,  we  paid  him  a 
visit  in  his  brother's  house,  where  he  lived;  some- 
times we  rode  up  together  in  the  Market  Street 
car.  He  always  wanted  to  hear  about  the  Gyp- 
sies, though  I  fancied  he  was  not  quite  in  sym- 
pathy with  our  way  of  seeing  them.  It  would  not 
have  been  his  way.  He  would  rather  have  come 
across  them  by  chance,  not  by  design.  In  the 
'^ Memoranda"  there  are  stray  notes  of  these 
meetings,  and  I  only  wish  I  could  make  others 
realise  all  that  they  recall  and  suggest  as  I  read 
them.  "It  seems  so  strange  to  me  now  (1893)," 
the  Rye  wrote,  "  to  think  that  I  used  to  walk  with 
him  [Walt  Whitman],  and  take  drinks  with 
him  in  small  publics,  and  talk  of  poetry  and 
people,  and  visit  him  in  his  home  with  Elizabeth 
Robins — long  ago.  There  were  always  gypsies 
camped  about  a  mile  from  his  house,  and  Eliza- 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  193 

beth  and  I,  going  and  coming,  .  .  .  used  to  meet 
him  and  tell  him  all  that  we  had  seen,  which 
greatly  interested  the  old  Bohemian.  I  have  some 
recollection  of  telling  him  his  fortune  or  of  exam- 
ining his  palm.  We  had  no  idea  in  those  days 
that  we  were  making  print  for  the  future.  But 
we  were  really  all  three  very  congenial  and 
Gypsjrish.  WTiitman's  manner  was  deliberate 
and  grave,  he  always  considered  or  'took'  an 
idea  'well  in'  before  repljdng.  He  was,  I  think, 
rather  proud  of  the  portrait  of  an  ancestor  which 
hung  in  the  parlour  of  his  home.  .  .  . 

"  One  day,  when  I  found  him  seated  on  a  chair 
at  the  foot  of  Market  Street  in  Philadelphia,  by 
the  ferry,  a  favourite  haunt  of  his,  he  was  admir- 
ing a  wooden  statue  of  an  Indian,  a  tobacconist's 
sign.  He  called  my  attention  to  it  —  not  as  a 
work  of  art,  but  as  something  characteristic  and 
indicative  of  national  taste.  I  quite  understood 
and  agreed  with  him,  for  it  had,  as  he  saw  it,  an 
art  value.  It  was  a  bit  of  true  folk-lore.  .  .  . 

"Once,  when  I  had  first  made  his  acquaint- 
ance, we  met  at  the  comer  of  Sansom  and  Sev- 
enth Streets.  He  took  me  into  a  very  common 
little  bar-room  where  there  was  a  table,  and 
introduced  me  to  several  rather  shabby  common- 
looking  men,  —  not  workmen,  but  looking  like 


i^    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Bohemians  and  bummers.  I  drank  ale  and 
talked,  and  all  easily  and  naturally  enough  —  I 
had  in  my  time  been  ban  campagnan  with  Gyp- 
sies, tinkers,  and  all  kinds  of  loose  fish,  and 
thought  nothing  of  it  all.  But  when  we  came 
forth  Whitman  complimented  me  very  earnestly 
on  having  been  so  companionable  and  said  he 
had  formed  a  very  different  idea  of  me,  in  short 
he  did  not  know  the  breadth  of  my  capacity.  I 
had  evidendy  risen  greatly  in  his  opinion. 

"When  my  book  on  the  Gypsies  appeared,  I, 
knowing  that  it  would  interest  him,  gave  him  a 
copy,  in  which  I  had  written  a  short  compli- 
mentary poem,  and  mindful  of  the  great  and 
warm  gratitude  which  he  had  declared  regarding 
my  brother  Henry,  I  asked  him  if  he  would  not 
write  for  me  a  few  original  verses,  though  it  were 
only  a  couplet,  in  the  copy  of  'Leaves  of  Grass' 
which  he  had  sent  to  my  brother.  His  reply  was  a 
refusal,  at  which  I  should  not  have  felt  hurt,  had 
it  been  gently  worded  or  civilly  evasive,  but  his 
reply  was  to  the  effect  that  he  never  did  anything 
of  the  kind  except  for  money.  His  exact  words 
then  were, '  Sometimes  when  a  fellow  says  to  me, 
"Walt,  here's  ten  or  five  dollars  —  write  me  a 
poem  for  it,"  I  do  so.'  And  then  seeing  a  look  of 
disappointment  or  astonishment  in  my  face,  he 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  195 

added :  ^  But  I  will  give  you  my  photograph  and 
autograph/  which  he  did." 

After  I  came  to  England,  in  1884,  the  same 
year  the  Rye  returned,  I  went  on  some  expedi- 
tions with  him  to  see  the  English  Gypsies,  but 
not  many.  I  was  seldom  in  London  in  the  sum- 
mer during  the  few  years  he  remained  in  Eng- 
land, and  the  fog  and  wet  of  a  London  winter 
never  exactly  made  me  long  to  see  "the  road 
before  me."  But,  of  these  few  expeditions,  two 
stand  out  with  startling  vividness  in  my  memory, 
and  are  very  characteristic  of  him  as  Romany 
Rye. 

One  was  to  the  Derby.  My  only  experience  of 
the  "popular  revel "  taught  me  little  of  the  Eng- 
lish people,  most  of  my  day  being  spent  with  the 
wanderers  who  could  teach  me  more  of  the  East. 
What  horses  ran,  I  do  not  think  I  knew;  I  am 
sure*I  did  not  look  on  at  one  race;  it  is  doubtful 
if  I  had  a  glimpse  of  the  course.  My  confused 
memory  is  of  innumerable  Gypsy  tents ;  of  more 
Romanies  than  I  had  ever  seen  together  at  any 
one  moment  in  any  one  place;  of  endless  beer 
and  chaff,  of  which  I  am  afraid  I  did  not  con- 
sume or  contribute  my  share;  of  gay  bouts  in 
the  cocoanut  shies;  of  the  Rye,  for  the  rest  of 
the  afternoon,  with  a  cocoanut  under  each  arm, 


196    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

beaming  with  pride  over  his  skill  in  winning 
them;  and  of  the  dajr's  wonders  culminating  in 
what,  to  me,  was  the  great  event  of  that  year's 
Derby.  I  don't  know  quite  how  it  happened. 
We  were  passing  late  in  the  afternoon  a  tent 
which,  somehow,  we  had  missed  in  the  morning, 
and  we  stopped  to  speak  to  the  Dye  and  the  chil- 
dren playing  round  it.  Almost  at  once,  out  of  the 
tent  came  a  young  woman.  It  was  in  the  days 
of  "water-waves"  and  never  had  I  beheld  such 
an  amazing  arrangement  of  them  on  any  one 
head.  They  and  her  face  shone  with  soap  and 
water.  A  bright  new  silk  handkerchief  was  tied 
coquettishly  about  her  neck.  She  smiled,  and 
tripped  on  to  greet  a  friend.  In  less  time  than  I 
can  write  it,  with  hair  streaming,  handkerchief 
flying,  face  flowing  with  blood,  she  was  strug- 
gling in  the  arms  of  the  other  woman,  —  both 
swearing  like  troopers. 
"Hold  hard,"  cried  the  Rye,  "this  won't  do!" 
And  down  fell  the  cocoanuts,  and  he  was  be- 
tween the  two  women,  his  great  head  and  beard 
towering  above  them,  blows  and  kicks  falling 
upon  him  from  either  side  like  rain,  for  so 
quickly  was  it  done  that  it  took  them  a  good 
minute  to  realise  they  were  not  pommelling  each 
other.   That  ended  the  fight.   But  since  then 


AN  OLD  ItVE 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  197 

I  have  understood  Jasper  Petulengio  better: 
''Rum  animals.  .  .  .  Did  you  ever  feel  their 
teeth  and  nails,  brother?" 

The  other  expedition  was  to  the  Hampton 
Races,  where  I  had  my  one  memorable  meeting 
with  Matty  Cooper,  who  was  then  very  old,  and 
very  drunk,  too,  I  regret  to  say,  but  very  charm- 
ing, and  where  I  wore  the  carnations  he  pre- 
sented me,  with  a  bow  worthy  of  a  prince,  as, 
at  other  tournaments,  maidens  wore  the  colours 
of  their  knights. 

Within  four  years  of  the  Rye's  retum  to  Eng- 
land, the  Gypsy-Lore  Society  was  established. 
Again,  there  wa^  a  perpetual  interchange  of  let- 
ters, an  agitation,  a  fever,  an  absorption.  Old 
enthusiasms  were  revived,  old  disputes  forgotten, 
the  Romany  Ryes  were  imited  more  closely  than 
ever.  The  credit  for  founding  this  Society  has 
been  given  to  W.  J.  Ibbetson,  who,  in  answer 
to  Colonel  Prideaux's  question,  in  ''Notes  and 
Queries  "  (October  8,  1887),  as  to  whether  any 
systematic  attempt  had  been  made  to  collect  the 
songs  and  ballads  of  English  Gypsies,  suggested 
(November  17)  that  a  club  of  Romany  Ryes  be 
formed  to  collect  and  publish  by  subscription  as 
complete  vocabularies  and  collections  of  ballads 
in  the  Anglo-Romany  dialect  as  mi^t  be  pos- 


198    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

sible  at  that  date.  The  matter  was  taken  up  by 
Mr.  David  MacRitchie,  to  whom  fell  the  work  of 
starting  the  Society.  At  first,  the  Rye  did  not 
respond  over  cordially.  He  had  proposed  just 
such  a  society  eighteen  years  before,  and  the 
little  band  of  Gypsy  scholars  then,  instead  of 
supporting  him,  "were  very  much  annoyed  (as 
George  Borrow  also  was)  at  the  appearance  of  a 
new  intruder  in  their  field."  His  first  letter  on 
the  subject  to  Mr.  MacRitchie  from  Brighton 
— February  26, 1888  —  was,  for  him,  decidedly 
indifferent.  He  agreed  that  there  "  should  be  a 
Romany  Society  to  collect  what  is  left  of  this  fast 
vanishing  people,"  and  he  was  quite  willing  to 
join  and  pay  his  guinea  a  year,  but  there  must  be 
no  further  responsibility;  while  he  urged  for  a 
greater  exclusiveness  than  Mr.  MacRitchie,  with 
a  necessary  eye  to  the  bank  account,  thought 
possible:  "I  do  not  insist  on  anything,  but  I 
have  possibly  had  a  little  more  experience  than 
most  men  in  founding  or  watching  such  clubs, 
and  I  will  therefore  give  reasons  for  admitting 
only  men  who  speak  Romany.  If  such  men  ardy 
join,  it  will  give  the  Society  a  marked  character. 
The  members  will  be  able  to  do  something  and  to 
work.  A  man  who  don't  know  Romany  may  pay 
his  guinea,  but  of  what  use  wiU  he  be?  And  of 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  199 

what  earthly  use  will  his  j'mnea  be  ?  To  publish 
our  works !  Why,  if  our  works  are  worth  printing 
at  all  I  can  find  a  publisher  who  will  do  it  all  at 
his  own  expense.  Now  this  is  a  fact.  Half  the 
works  issued  by  societies  are  rubbish  which  the 
writers  could  not  get  printed,  except  by  influ- 
ence. ...  I  should  prefer  a  small  and  poor 
society,  but  a  real  one  even  with  Gypsies  in  it, 
to  an  amateur  theatrical  company.  Pardon  me 
for  speaking  so  earnestly,  but  I  have  been  so 
sickened  by  my  experience  of  clubs  in  which 
men  were  taken  in  for  their  money,  that  I  would 
like  to  be  in  one  which  was  real.'* 

His  indifference  was  not  quite  conquered,  even 
when  Mr.  MacRitchie,  early  in  May,  wrote  to 
offer  him  the  highest  tribute  it  was  possible  for 
the  Romany  Ryes  to  offer. 

MR.  DAVID  MACRITCHIB  TO    CHARLBS  GODFREY  LELAND 

4  Archibald  Place,  1888. 

My  dear  Mr.  Leland,  —  Your  two  letters 
have  been  duly  received  by  me,  and  I  am  glad 
to  know  that  you  will  be  an  active  member  of 
the  Society.  In  addition  to  this,  Crofton  and 
Groome  and  myself  hope  that  you  will  also 
become  our  President.  Before  we  send  a  pro- 
spectus to  others,  we  must  have  two  or  three 


200    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

oflBce-bearers  named,  and  there  is  no  one  so  well 
fitted  for  the  Presidentship  as  yourself.  So  I  hope 
soon  to  hear  that  you  have  accepted.  We  propose 
that  Mr.  Crofton  be  Vice-President,  and  that  I 
be  Secretary  and  Treasurer.  Groome  has  kindly 
agreed  to  divide  my  labours  (such  as  they  are), 
but  he  fijmly  declines  to  appear  as  Secretary  — 
or  in  any  prominent  position.  .  .  .  [Later,  how- 
ever, Groome's  name  did  appear  as  Editor  of 
the  Journal,  with  Mr.  MacRitchie*s.] 

"Unless  you  can  get  along  with  my  name 
alone,  there  will  be  very  little  use  in  proclaiming 
me  as  President,"  is  the  Rye's  answer  on 
May  4th.  "  I  am  out  of  London  and  England  — 
or  expect  to  be  —  most  of  the  time.  ...  If  my 
name  will  help  I  am  willing  to  let  it  be  used." 

Of  course  his  name  would  help,  and  so  Mr. 
MacRitchie  assured  him  promptly,  and  I  can  see 
that  his  indifference  began  to  be  shaken,  by  the 
interest  he  took  when  it  came  to  the  question  of 
Romany  spelling,  which  I  wish,  for  my  comfort 
and  my  readers',  had  been  settled  years  before. 
"Let  the  word  be  henceforward  written  Gypsies 
with  a  y,"  the  Rye  writes  to  Mr.  MacRitchie  on 
May  9th.  "You  caused  me  to  write  it  so.  If 
it  comes  from  Egypt,  Gypsies  is  right.  Seriously, 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  201 

let  us  come  to  some  agreement  as  to  orthography. 
Groome  writes  Ri  —  I  write  Rye  after  Borrow, 
because  he  made  Rye  known.  But  I  don't  like 
the  Kooshty  of  Smart,  nor  the  forcing  Romany 
words  into  strict  English  form.  So  far  as  we 
can  make  Romany  agree  with  Continental^  and 
especially  with  Indian,  pronunciation  we  really 
ought  to  do  so.  We  had  better  arrange  all  this 
en  famiUe.  We  can  *  rehabilitate'  Gypsy  without 
manufacturing,  if  we  will  only  be  imselfish  and 
harmonious." 

Just  four  days  after  the  Rye  had  written  to  this 
effect  from  Brighton,  as  indeed  Palmer  had 
written  to  him  from  Cambridge  fourteen  years 
earlier,  Sir  Richard  Burton  was  writing  to  the 
same  purpose,  from  Trieste,  where  he  was  then 
British  consul,  to  Mr.  MacRitchie.  '^I  have 
received  yours  of  May  4th  and  return  my  best 
thanks.  Very  glad  to  see  that  you  write  *  Gypsy.' 
I  would  not  subscribe  to  '  Gipsy.'  Please  put  my 
name  down  as  subscriber  for  two  copies.  .  .  . 
When  the  looi  Nights  are  finished,  say  Sep- 
tember next,  I  hope  to  attack  the  Gypsies." 

The  Rye's  next  letter  announced  that  the 
Austrian  Archduke  Josef  had  consented  to 
become  an  Honorary  Member,  ^^so  that  now 
there  are  five  of  us  —  and  a  rum  lot  they  are,  as 


202    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  Devil  said  when  he  looked  over  the  ten  Com- 
mandments.'' The  Archduke  Josef  had  made  a 
careful  study  of  the  Gypsies  of  Hungary  and 
Transylvania,  and  had  published  a  book  on  the 
subject.  This  book  he  sent  to  the  Rye,  as  a  fel- 
low-student, and,  at  the  same  time,  the  following 
letter,  written  on  paper  with  "Josef"  in  silver 
letters  intertwined  on  a  red  ground,  in  a  mono- 
gram of  a  kind  that  I  thought  had  gone  out  of 
fashion  with  the  sixties. 

>,  the  archduke  josef  to  charles  godfrey  leland 

^  Budapest  :  8. 5. 88. 

Sir,  —  From  your  amiable  letter  of  the  25th 
April  I  see  with  pleasure  that  your  collection  of 
Gypsy  words  will  now  appear  in  print,  and  I  am 
very  thankful  to  you  for  your  amiability  and 
friendliness  in  wishing  to  dedicate  this  work  to 
me.  I  should  feel  in  the  same  degree  flattered  if 
I  could  belong  to  your  most  interesting  Gypsy 
Folk-Lore  Society  as  an  honorary  member. 

At  the  same  time  I  can  inform  you  that  my 
Grammar  of  the  Romany  Language  is  now 
being  translated  into  French  and  German  for  the 
purpose  of  its  dissemination  in  wider  circles,  as 
our  own  Hungarian  tongue  is  too  little  known. 

I  have  for  some  time  past  received  many  let- 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  203 

ters  in  Romany  from  genuine  Romany  people 
which  are  very  interesting  from  the  point  of 
view  of  dialect,  the  more  so  as  it  has  seldom  hap- 
pened hitherto  that  these  nomads  could  write 
their  mother  tongue  as  well  as  speak  it. 

I  am  also  sending  my  Grammar  to  Boston  to 
Mr.  Sinclair.  Musicians  here  who  have  been 
over  there  told  me  that  he  speaks  their  language. 

I  am,  dear  Colleague, 

Yours  very  sincerely. 

Sympathy  now  coming  from  every  side,  at 
home  and  abroad  both,  the  Rye's  keenness  of 
the  English  "Gypsy  Songs"  period  at  last  re- 
turned to  him,  and  he  was  again  busy  suggest- 
ing, scheming  for  success,  striving  after  ever 
greater  perfection.  On  the  1 7th  of  May  he  was 
writing  in  his  most  characteristic  vein :  "  I  have 
sent  notices  of  our  Society  to  the  *  Saturday 
Review'  and  to  the  Xentury'  of  New  York. 
Now  get  every  member  to  do  the  same,  to  every 
weekly  or  daily  which  will  take  them,  without 
loss  of  time."  On  May  27th,  he  was  urging 
branches  everywhere,  a  great  international  social 
union  as  it  were,  a  new  freemasonry,  an  asso- 
ciation ensuring  that  its  members,  "on  their 
travels,  shall  find  friends  wherever  they  go." 


204    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

On  May  30th,  he  was  full  of  a  great  scheme, 
"to  have  the  works  of  George  Borrow,  yours, 
Groome's,  Crofton's,  and  mine,  all  uniform, 
issued,  and  sold  as  *The  Gypsy  Library.' " 

For  the  man  who  held  the  purse-strings,  this 
was  travelling  a  bit  fast.  There  are  moments 
when  I  feel  sorry  for  Mr.  MacRitchie,  and  per- 
haps he  felt  sorry  for  himself,  forced  to  face  the 
unpleasant  task  of  keeping  the  eagerness  of  his 
President,  as  well  as  his  own,  in  check.  And  he 
was  eager,  though  obliged  to  write  as  if  he  were 
not. 

mr.  david  macritchie  to  charles  godfrey  leland 

4  Archibald  Place,  1888. 

.  .  .  With  regard  to  yom:  suggested  extension 
of  our  programme,  I  at  present  do  not  feel  dis- 
posed to  go  so  far  forward.  To  some  extent  I, 
personally,  have  regarded  Romani-brotherhood 
as  constituting  a  claim  to  social  fellowship.  It 
was  with  that  feeling  that,  two  years  ago,  I 
trysted  Mr.  Crofton  at  Liverpool,  when  those 
Greek  Gypsies  were  there,  —  and  afterwards 
accepted  lus  hospitality  for  a  night.  And  the 
same  idea  induced  me  this  year  to  make  myself 
known  to  M.  Bataillard  and  yourself,  without 
having  been  invited  to  do  so  (though  I  don't 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  205 

think  I  was  regarded  as  an  intruder,  in  either 
case).  But,  as  regards  the  Society,  my  ambition 
does  not  at  present  urge  me  to  do  more  than  get 
the  Society  itself,  and  the  Journal,  once  fairly  set 
agoing,  in  a  good  healthy  fashion.  Once  that  is 
done,  I  believe  the  social  result  you  speak  of  will 
come  about  in  a  natural  manner.  .  •  . 

But  the  President  was  fairly  roused,  and,  from 
this  time  on,  was  inexhaustible  in  suggestion. 
"Why  not  a  Notes  and  Queries  Comer?"  Why 
not  an  "article  on  the  people  who  persist  in 
believing  that  common  slang  or  canting  is 
Gypsy?  .  .  .  The  conceited  rot  which  is  sent  in 
to  the  Slang  Dictionary  [which  he  was  just  then 
editing]  is  absurd  beyond  belief.  .  •  .  We  ought 
to  issue  a  proclamation  to  the  seekers  for  the 
Lost  Tribes,  assuring  them  that  Gypsies  are  not 
Jews  any  more  than  Fleas  are  Lobsters."  Why 
not  an  American  corresponding  Society  of 
G3rpsies,  started  with  the  help  of  Miss  Alger  ? 
"The  whole  success  of  the  Romany  Society 
depends  on  pushing."  Why  not  an  exchange  of 
advertisements  with  a  London  publisher  "who 
does  a  large  business  in  occult,  magic,  and  curious 
literature?"  Why  not  —  but  a  stream  of  sug- 
g^ions  flowed  from  him,  many  adopted,  many 


2o6    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

allowed  to  drop  by  his  more  cautious  fellow- 
workers. 

The  "Journal"  appeared  on  the  first  of  July 
(1888).  "  I  think  the  first  number  looks  remark- 
ably well,"  the  President  assured  the  Secretary. 
With  the  second,  which  reached  him  in  Vienna 
on  his  way  to  Budapest,  he  expressed  himself  de- 
lighted. Of  this  visit  to  Budapest,  he  wrote  to 
Mr.  MacRitchie,  from  Florence,  November  17, 
that  it  had  been  "a  very  good  thing  for  us  all," 
and  that  Gypsy  lore  there  was  "all  the  rage." 
Then  Mr.  MacRitchie,  a  month  later  (Decem- 
ber 26),  could  answer  with  the  equally  consoling 
assurance  that  "we  have  made  friends  with  the 
Real  Academia  de  la  Historiaj  Madrid,  and  with 
the  Folk-Lore  Society.  We  are  booming." 

The  Society,  it  is  true,  lasted  only  a  short 
time,  but  while  it  did  last  it  kept  on,  to  use  Mr. 
MacRitchie^s  phrase,  "booming."  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1889  came  the  Folk-Lore  Congress  in 
Paris,  and  the  Oriental  Congress  in  Stockholm, 
and,  with  them,  the  occasion  to  flaunt  the  schol- 
arship of  the  Romany  Ryes  in  the  face  of  the 
world.  To  the  general  public,  learned  congresses 
of  learned  men  may  seem  dull  things,  but  never 
in  the  letters  of  the  Romany  Ryes.  In  Paris,  the 
President  figured  as  ^^Directeur  de  la  Gypsy-lore^ 


n 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  207 

Society  ;^^  he  read  a  paper  to  prove  that  the 
Gypsies  have  been  "the  great  colporteurs"  of 
folk-lore,  —  a  phrase  Groome  later  applauded, 
expandmg  the  theory;  and  he  reported  to  Mr. 
MacRitchie :  — 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LSLAND  TO  MR.  DAVID  HACRFrCHIX 

50  Rue  Boissi&rb,  Paris,  Attg.  i,  188^ 

.  .  .  Yesterday  was  a  grand  day  for  us.  As 
I  said,  it  has  fallen  on  the  Gypsy-Lore  Society 
to  come  to  the  front,  and  take  all  the  honour  of 
representing  England,  as  the  English  Folk-Lore 
Society  has  not  appeared  at  all  in  it!  ...  In 
the  evening  Prince  Roland  Bonaparte  gave  an 
awful  swell  dinner  (Roumanian  Gypsy  musi- 
cians and  pre-historic  menUj  etched  for  the  oc- 
casion) and,  as  President  of  the  G.  L.  S.,  I  was 
seated  at  the  Prince's  right  hand.  ...  At  any 
rate,  we  have  had  a  stupendous  lift,  and,  with 
energy,  may  do  much  more.  Lord  knows  that 
I  have  tried  my  little  utmost,  not  without  some 
effect. 

In  Stockholm,  he  pushed  the  Society  no  less 
vigorously  but  —  I  leave  it  to  his  letter  to  explain 
the  "but,"  and  to  throw  an  unexpected  sidelight 
on  the  ways  and  woes  of  Orientalists  assembled 
in  solemn  Congress. 


2o8    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

charles  godfrey  leland  to  mr.  david  macritchis 

Brighton,  1889. 

.  .  •  The  Swedish  Oriental  Congress  was  100 
times  fuller  of  incident  than  the  Paris  one.  It 
was  awfully  aver  done  and  turned  into  a  great 
Oriental  Circus  —  to  its  very  great  detriment  as 
a  learned  body.  We  were  rushed  about,  and 
ffeted,  and  made  a  great  show  of  —  until  I  now 
loathe  the  very  name  of  "banquet,"  "recep- 
tion," the  sight  of  banners  or  hurrahing  thou- 
sands, fireworks,  and  processions.  We  all  got 
tired  or  fell  ill  —  half  of  the  Orientalists  became 
"queer"  or  irritable,  —  and  then  they  quar- 
relled! My  God,  how  they  did  quarrel!!  I  kept 
out  of  it  all  —  but  I  am  awful  glad  to  get  home 
again. 

Despite  congresses,  despite  "booming,"  de- 
spite the  tremendous  interest  of  every  member  of 
the  Society,  despite  the  really  important  work 
done  by  the  "  Journal,"  by  February  of  i8gi  the 
impossibility  of  a  much  longer  life  was  realised. 

CHARLES    GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MR.  DAVID  BCACRTTCHIB 

Paoli*s  Hotel,  Florence,  Feb.  5tfa,  1S91. 

Dear  Mr.  MacRttchie,  —  I  was  not  very 
much  astonished  to  get  your  letter  of  the  3rd. 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  209 

I  have  long  felt  that  the  "Journal"  held  by  a 
thread  and  that  you  were  unduly  taxed  in  many 
ways  by  its  care.  Of  course  it  must  suspend,  and 
I  sincerely  hope  that  it  may  be  done  without  loss. 

I  hope,  however,  that  the  Society  will  continue 
if  only  in  name  and  pro  jorma^  for  a  very  good 
reason.  The  "Journal"  was  simply  admirable, 
and  did  a  great  work.  In  years  to  come,  and 
always  y  there  will  be  great  scholars  who  will  refer 
to  it.  But "  movements  "  of  very  great  value  often 
interest  very  few  people.  .  .  . 

I  think  that  a  society  might  be  made  on 
broader  lines  which  would  succeed  well.  You 
did  admirably  by  introducing  Shelta.  We  ought 
to  have  included  all  British  slangs  and  jargons 
on  bold  principle,  such  as  Yiddish,  Whitecb^l, 
Italian,  etc.,  all  that  is  allied  to  the  Romany, 
—  in  short  a  reflection  of  the  floating  Vagabond 
nomadic  population  of  Great  Britain.  There  is 
no  such  publication,  and  it  would  have  many 
subscribers.  Properly  edited,  a  serial  giving  all 
that  could  be  collected  as  to  the  strange,  out- 
of-the-way,  little  understood  people  —  strange 
sects  in  towns,  wizards,  and  criminals  —  would 
sell  very  well. 

What  the  trouble  is  in  all  Folk-Lore  Journals 
is  that  those  who  contribute  are,  as  a  rule,  timid 


2IO    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

and  yet  very  critical  old  gentlemen  who  generally 
write,  in  the  style  of  "a  letter  to  the  Times/* 
small  paragraphs  in  '^an  otter  seen  in  the 
Thames  "  kind  of  foozles.  It  was  such  writing 
which  kept  the  "  (Jentleman's  Magazine  "  in  a 
dead-alive  condition  for  about  a  century  —  a 
Sylvanus  Urban-pottering  scholarship.  Our 
Journal  is  above  that,  but  I  still  think  that  a 
rather  wider  range  is  necessary  to  pay.  The 
Shelta  proves  that,  and  it  is  a  pity  that,  just  as  we 
have  made  our  best  hit  by  a  departure,  we  must 
stop* 

But,  after  all,  we  all  four  of  us  were  rather  like 
architects  kept  at  sawing  boards.  You  and 
Groome  ought  to  be  at  something  more  than 
Gypsy.  I  don't  mean  to  neglect  it,  but  I  really 
think  it  takes  too  much  out  of  you  both.  Your 
"Testimony  of  Tradition"  is  far  beyond  Rom- 
any, which  is  getting  to  be  pretty  well  threshed 
out  in  Great  Britain.  .  .  . 

The  "Journal"  actually  stopped  in  1892,  and, 
with  it,  all  reasons  for  the  existence  of  the  Soci- 
ety disappeared.  "But  the  Gypsy  question  is 
not  played  out,"  Mr.  MacRitchie  wrote  during 
the  last  months.  "  It  has  no  enJ  of  things  to  say 
for  itself  yet     I  intend  pegging  away  at  the 


THE  ROMANY  RYE  211 

Gypsies  for  a  long  time  to  come,  though  of 
course  avoiding  Gypsomania."  The  Rye,  when 
he  was  enthusiastic  about  anything,  was  never  to 
be  outdone  in  enthusiasm  by  any  one.  Before  the 
work  of  the  Society  was  over,  he  had  published 
his  "Gypsy  Sorcery,"  a  book  full  of  curious  in- 
formation, but  concerned  less  with  the  Gypsy 
himself  than  with  Gypsy  superstitions.  He  now 
promptly  undertook  a  "  Gypsy  Decameron,"  and 
finished  it  too,  with  the  name  changed  to  "Ro- 
many Wit  and  Wisdom,"  but  he  never  got  so  far 
as  to  publish  it;  the  MS.  lies  with  all  his  other 
Gypsy  papers,  a  marvellous  collection.  He 
planned  a  record  of  the  Romany  Ryes  of  Great 
Britain  and  their  work,  —  "especially  to  please 
them,"  he  wrote  to  me  at  the  time.  But  they  all 
shrunk  back,  afraid  of  the  critic,  and  he  had  to 
give  up  the  idea.  In  1898,  he  wrote  the  Corona- 
tion speech  for  the  King  of  the  Gypsies,  who  was 
crowned  at  Yetholm.  And  Gypsy  affairs  still 
filled  his  letters.  He  kept  on  writing  to  Mr. 
MacRitchie,  though  at  longer  intervals.  He  re- 
newed the  long  interrupted  correspondence  with 
Groome.  He  foimd  a  new  correspondent  in  Mr. 
Sampson,  who  when  he  was  not  writing  of  his 
wanderings  with  the  Gypsies  on  Welsh  roads, 
and  his  study  of  Shelta,  was  sending  his  Romany 


CHAPTER  XV 

TINKERS   AND   RED  INDIANS 

Of  the  many  things  Romany  made  sweet  to  the 
Rye,  few  were  sweeter  than  the  whizzmg  of  the 
tinker's  wheel  and  the  tap-tap  of  the  tinker's 
hammer  in  his  ears,  and  of  his  love  for  them 
much  was  to  come.  For  it  was  in  talking  with 
tinkers  that  he  discovered  Shelta,  or  the  "tink- 
er's talk."  To  the  discovery  of  Romany  he  could 
make  no  pretence,  though,  with  Borrow,  he  added 
more  to  the  world's  pleasure  in  it  than  any  other 
G3rpsy  scholar.  But  Shelta  was  his  own  con- 
tribution to  philology;  that  is  why  I  speak  of  it 
apart.  ''  Shelta  was  a  great  discovery  and  all  the 
credit  is  Lelancfs!"  Mr.  John  Sampson  wrote 
to  me  after  the  Rye's  death.  And  from  Mr. 
MacRitchie  came  the  charge,  "I  hope  you  will 
emphasize  Mr.  Leland's  discovery  of  Shelta  to 
educated  people — a  real  and  important  dis- 
covery." 

Of  how  he  chanced  upon  it  he  has  written  in 
"The  Gypsies."  One  summer  day,  in  1876,  on 
the  road  near  Bath,  he  met  a  tramp,  but  a  tramp 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     215 

in  whom  he  read  the  "signs,"  and  who,  after 
the  first  interchange,  confided,  "We  are  givin' 
Romanes  up  very  fast  —  all  on  us  is.  It  is  a-get- 
tin'  to  be  too  blown.  Everybody  knows  some 
Romanes  now.  But  there  is  a  jib  that  ain't 
blown."  He  further  confided  that  this  jib  is 
"most  all  old  Irish,  and  they  calls  it  Shelter j*^ 
though  confidence  stopped  here.  If  "Shelter" 
too  was  ever  to  be  "blown,"  he,  anyway,  was 
not  the  man  to  blow  it. 

Another  year  (1877),  and  the  Rye  was  in 
Aberystwith  with  Professor  Palmer.  No  Rom- 
any Rye  ever  yet  went  to  Wales  who  did  not 
return  the  richer  for  many  strange  adventures, 
from  Borrow  and  Groome  to  Mr.  John  Sampson, 
the  latest  of  the  company.  And  the  Rye  and  Pal- 
mer were  not  the  men  to  prove  exceptions.  They 
could  not  go  out  together,  in  the  streets  of 
the  little  town,  or  by  the  sea,  or  in  the  beautiful 
wild  country  all  around,  and  not  meet  with  the 
Romany.  Sometimes  the  Romany  was  a  tinker 
less  troubled  by  scruples  than  the  tramp  near 
Bath,  and  ready  to  reveal  how  much  more  there 
was  in  Shelta  worth  "blowing"  than  the  name. 
All  this  is  in  "The  Gypsies."  But  the  story  in  its 
first  freshness  is  told  in  a  letter  written  at  the 
time  to  Miss  Doering.  As  the  discovery  is  of  so 


2i6    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

great  importance,  this  letter  —  the  first  record  of 
it — also  has  its  value.  It  has  besides  the  charm 
the  Rye  gave  to  everything  he  wrote  of  his 
adventures  on  the  road.  The  beginning  of  the 
letter  is  missing. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LEUIND  TO  MISS  ULY  DOERING 

•  •  .  We  have  had,  Prof.  Palmer  and  I,  some 
odd  gipsy  meetings.  There  came  along  a  very 
good-looking,  very  dark  gipsy  woman  the  other 
day,  but  she  would  n't  rakker  [talk].  By  and  by 
we  met  a  tinker.  He  said  he  could  n't,  and  he 
did  n't  know  any  gipsies  and  had  n't  seen  one 
for  a  month,  and  then,  finding  we  had  seen  a 
gipsy  woman  named  Bosville  that  morning  and 
were  a  good  lot,  remarked  it  was  his  wife,  and 
that  he  was  here  by  appointment  with  a  gipsy 
lot  of  her  folks,  and  so  on.  After  a  day  or  two 
we  drank  with  him  and  he  described  his  wife  as 
subject  to  a  disorder  which  is  evidently  soften- 
ing of  the  brain.  Palmer  bought  him  half  a 
crown's  worth  of  "  Brain  food, "  a  powerful  form 
of  phosphates,  etc.,  and  he  was  very  grateful,  in 
fact  he  demurred  at  taking  money  for  grinding 
our  knives,  scissors,  etc.  He  goes  away  but  leaves 
another  gipsy  in  his  place.  Yesterday  as  we 
were  talldng  with  him  and  a  friend  of  his  who 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     31/ 

keeps  a  tramps'  lodging-house,  there  came  along 
a  regular  bad  lot  of  a  woman  who  held  out  a 
sovereign  and  wanted  me  to  change  it,  and  of* 
fered  to  treat  if  I  would.  I  asked  her  if  she  knew 
Lord  John  Russell,  which  is  Rh3rming  Slang 
for  busUCf  which  is  thief  slang  for  gkuPtherin^ 
which  is  tinker's  jib  for  passing  bad  money  for 
good.  She  cleared  out  and  the  tinker  looked  ex- 
ceedingly disgusted  at  her.  He  evidently  thinks 
that  we  are  deep  in  all  dodges  and  iniquities, 
and  as  Palmer  is  a  most  accomplished  slang- 
faker,  or  juggler,  and  as  we  are  so  very  low  that 
we  can  talk  Italian!  there  is  small  chance  of 
doing  us.  The  lodging-house  keeper  knew  some 
Italian  —  from  hand-organ  men. 

The  other  day  we  saw  a  very  humble-looking 
wretch,  cowering  imder  a  rock  to  protect  him- 
self from  a  blast  about  to  be  fired.  Said  Palmer, 
^^Dick  adavo  mush  a  gaverin  testers  kokero.^^ 
[Look  at  that  man,  hiding  himself.]  ''I  can 
imderstand  that,"  said  the  man.  ''It 's  Rom- 
any." On  examination  he  proved  a  character. 
He  had  ''Helen's  Babies"  and  was  picking  ferns. 
He  knew  tinker* s  language.  1  had  heard  of  this 
slang  in  Bath  as  very  hard  and  as  being  Old 
Irish.  This  man  said  it  was  based  on  Gaelic. 
In  it,  picking  ferns  is  shelkin  gaUopas.     The 


2i8     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

language  is  Shelter ^  and  ^'Can  you  thare  Shelter  j 
subri?^^  is  "Cap  you  talk  tinker's  slang,  pal?" 
I  took  down  quite  a  vocabulary  of  it.  We  find 
it  is  universally  understood  on  the  "road,"  and 
amazes  the  travellers  much  more  than  Rom- 
any, To  sumni  the  bewr  is  "to  see  the  girl." 
The  poor  fellow  who  taught  it  to  me  said  to 
write  is  scriv.  "But  that  is  all  the  same  as  ecrire 
in  French."  "Do  you  know  French? "  I  asked, 
and  he  replied  that  he  could  conjugate  all  the 
verb  itre.  And  also  that  he  was  so  low  he  had 
been  turned  out  of  the  lowest  lodging  kairs 
[houses]  in  Whitechapel,  and  was  such  a  black- 
guard that  there  was  not  one  in  the  town  which 
would  take  him  in. 

Palmer  models  very  well  in  day,  and  is  doing 
my  bust  and  about  a  quart  of  it  in  size.  .  .  . 

Tmo  Pal. 

Three  years  later  the  Rye  was  in  Philadel- 
phia. One  of  the  great  changes  to  strike  him 
in  his  native  town,  after  his  ten  years'  absence, 
was  the  large  increase  in  the  number  of  vaga- 
bonds and  foreigners  of  every  kind.  "Italians 
of  the  most  Bohemian  type,  who  once  had  been 
like  angels,  —  and  truly  only  in  this,  that  their 
visits  of  old  were  few  and  far  between,  —  now 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     219 

swarmed  as  fruit  dealers  and  boot-blacks  in 
every  lane;  (jermans  were  of  course  at  home; 
Czecks  or  Slavs  —  supposed  to  be  Germans — 
gave  unlimited  facilities  for  Slavonian  practice; 
while  tinkers,  almost  unknown  in  i860,  had 
in  1880  become  marvellously  conmion,  and 
strange  to  say  were  nearly  all  Austrians  of  dif- 
ferent kinds."  I  remember  now,  with  a  retum 
of  the  old  thrill,  our  excitement  when  we  would 
meet  in  our  wanderings  a  little  Slavonian,  of 
tender  years,  with  a  great  load  of  rat-traps  on 
his  back.  But  it  was  nothing  to  the  rapture 
when  a  tinker  happened  to  come  within  sight 
or  sound.  There  was  one  among  many  who, 
fortunately,  was  not  an  Austrian  of  any  kind. 
"One  morning"  —  I  tell  it  in  the  Rye's  words 
—  "as  I  went  into  the  large  garden  which  lies 
around  the  house  wherein  I  wone,  I  heard  by 
the  honeysuckle  and  grape-vine  a  familiar  sound, 
suggestive  of  the  road  and  Roman]rs  and  Lon- 
don, and  all  that  is  most  traveler-esque.  It  was 
the  tap,  tap,  tap,  of  a  hammer  and  the  dang 
of  tin,  and  I  knew,  by  the  smoke  that  so  grace- 
fully curled  at  the  end  of  the  garden,  a  tinker 
was  near.  And  I  advanced  to  him,  and  as  he 
glanced  up  and  greeted  I  read  in  his  Irish  fact 
long  rambles  on  the  roads." 


MO     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

This  tinker,  at  work  in  the  pretty  old  Phila- 
delphia "  back-3rard,"  was  Owen,  to  whom  the 
world  owes  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  vocab- 
ulary published  in  "The  Gypsies"  (1882). 

"There  you  are,  readers!"  is  the  Rye's  sum- 
ming up,  at  the  end:  "Make  good  cheer  of  it, 
as  Panurge  said  of  what  was  beyond  him.  For 
what  this  language  really  is,  passeth  me  and 
mine."  "The  talk  of  the  ould  Picts  — thim 
that  build  the  stone  houses  like  bee-hives,"  was 
Owen's  conjecture.  To  this,  the  Rye  added 
in  comment,  "I  have  no  doubt  that  when  the 
Picts  were  suppressed  thousands  of  them  must 
have  become  wandering  outlaws  like  the  Rom- 
any, and  that  their  language  in  time  became 
a  secret  tongue  of  vagabonds  on  the  roads. 
This  is  the  history  of  many  such  lingoes;  but 
unfortunately  Owen's  opinion,  even  if  it  be 
legendary,  will  not  prove  that  the  Painted  Peo- 
ple spoke  the  Shelta  tongue." 

At  first  the  discovery,  with  his  account  of  it, 
did  not  attract  half  the  attention  it  deserved. 
"I  am  more  amazed  than  a  little  to  think  that 
I  actually  discovered  it,"  he  wrote  once  to  Mr. 
MacRitchie,  "and  that  so  very  little  attention 
has  been  drawn  to  it.  If  it  had  been  some  re- 
mote African  dialect  it  would  have  been  duly 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     221 

hunted  up  long  ago  —  but  a  curious  British 
one  at  our  own  doors — mercir^  But  there  was 
another  reason.  The  Rye's  was  never  the  way 
of  the  professional  philologist.  It  was  like  '^a 
magic  power"  in  him,  he  had  written  to  his 
sister,  Mrs.  Harrison,  when  he  first  began  to 
make  the  Gypsies  know  and  love  him.  There 
was  something  that  always  led  the  people  of 
the  road  to  take  him  into  their  confidence, 
and  to  tell  him  things  they  would  have  kept 
from  the  student  who  angled  with  a  philologi- 
cal bait.  And  he  wrote  as  the  student  never 
writes,  —  with  gaiety  and  fun,  as  if  he  cared 
for,  was  really  amused  with,  what  he  wrote: 
to  find  amusement  in  study,  apparently,  is  one 
of  the  deadly  sins  against  scholarship.  Be- 
sides, as  he  was  quick  to  confess,  being  "even 
less  of  one  of  the  Celts  than  a  Chinaman,"  he 
did  not  at  once  recognise  that  some  of  the 
words  supplied  by  Owen  were  simply  Gaelic, 
but  their  presence  in  the  vocabulary  shocked 
the  learned  critic  into  a  virtuous  suspicion  of 
all  the  others.  However,  the  Rye  knew  he  had 
made  a  valuable  discovery,  —  he  felt  sure  not 
only  that  he  had  hit  upon  the  "Mumpers' 
Talk"  of  which  he  had  heard  from  the  Ro- 
manies, and  the  Tinkers'  Talk  of  which  he 


222    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

had  read  in  Shakespeare,  but  that  he  had  un- 
earthed a  genuine  philological  curiosity,  and 
his  interest  never  slackened.  At  the  Oriental 
Congress  in  Vienna  (1886)  he  declared  it  doubt- 
ful if  he  ever  walked  in  London,  especially  in 
the  slums,  without  meeting  men  and  women 
who  spoke  Shelta,  and  he  recalled  with  joy  — 
for  the  edification  of  those  less  joyful  philolo- 
gists who  make  their  discoveries  at  their  own 
desks  —  two  promising  little  boys  he  had  found 
selling  groundsel  at  the  Marlborough  Road 
Station  and  chattering  all  the  time  in  Shelta. 

It  is  my  misfortune  that  I  never  could  mas- 
ter the  tinkers'  talk,  and,  being  less  of  one  of 
the  Celts  even  than  the  Rye,  with  his  duk  for 
languages,  I  might  as  well  explain  at  this  point 
that  my  further  information  on  the  subject  I 
owe  to  Mr.  MacRitchie,  who  wrote  an  article 
on  "Shelta:  The  Cairds'  Language,"  printed 
in  the  "Transactions  of  the  Gaelic  Society  of 
Inverness"  (volume  xxiv,  1899-1901)  and  after- 
wards in  pamphlet  form ;  and  to  Mr.  John  Samp- 
son, who  contributed  the  article  on  "Shelta" 
to  "Chambers's  Encyclopaedia"  and  who  also 
in  a  letter  to  my  uncle,  that  has  come  to  me 
with  all  the  other  papers,  sketched  the  progress 
made  in  the  knowledge  of  the  language  from  the 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     323 

day  of  the  Rye's  meeting  with  the  tramp  near 
Bath  until  December,  1893,  the  date  of  his  letter. 
The  paper  read  in  Vienna  roused  more  interest 
than  the  chapter  in  "The  Gypsies."  An  ani- 
mated discussion  followed  not  long  after  in  the 
"Academy,"  and  other  men  were  found  to  have 
collected  Shelta  for  themselves.  Then  came  the 
"Gypsy-Lore  Journal,"  in  which  it  could  not  be 
ignored,  Shelta  and  Romany  being  linked  to- 
gether in  someway  not  yet  explained,  though  that 
two  of  the  secret  languages  of  the  road  should 
be  thus  linked  seems  so  natural  it  hardly  needs 
explanation.  Mr.  Wilson  and  Mr.  Ffrench  sent 
to  the  Journal  the  only  specimens,  collected  in 
the  Scotch  Highlands,  theretofore  published. 

Mr.  Sampson  next  went  into  the  matter.  "It 
is  a  tribute  to  the  secrecy  with  which  Shelta  has 
been  kept,"  he  says  in  the  letter  which  contains 
his  abstract,  "that  though  I  knew  Romani  well, 
and  at  least  five  or  six  of  the  various  cants  of 
the  road,  I  had  never  met  with  a  word  of  Shelta 
except  in  the  printed  specimens  given  by  you 
in  'The  Gjrpsies.'  I  often  enquired  about  it 
in  vain,  and  finally  gave  it  up  in  semi-disbelief. 
Then,  incited  to  hunt  it  up  by  MacRitchie, 
who  had  taken  up  the  subject  with  his  usual 
enthusiasm,  I  collected  a  few  words  from  some 


224    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

nedhers  kyena  nldyaSj  whom  I  met  in  the  streets 
of  Liverpool.  Those  first  specimens  did  not 
raise  my  opinion  of  the  jargon.  They  were  cor- 
rupt in  the  extreme  and  mixed  with  all  sorts 
of  other  cants  which  I  already  knew,  nor  could 
I  trace  any  connection  with  Irish  in  them. 
However,  becoming  interested  in  the  thing,  I 
tracked  Shelta  from  one  squalid  model  lodging- 
house  and  thieves'  kitchen  to  another,  until 
at  last  (directed  by  a  friendly  grinder  who  is 
now  serving  tune  for  acting  as  a  fence)  I  hap- 
pened upon  old  Barlow  (Gissan  Nyikair),  a 
veritable  tinker  of  the  old  order.  From  him 
I  collected  a  complete  vocabulary,  and  from 
him,  too,  I  obtained  the  words  in  their  purest 
form  and  learned  to  distinguish  Shelta  from 
the  other  jargons  mixed  with  it  by  the  lower 
orders  of  grinders  and  hawkers.  From  him  too 
I  learned  to  believe  in  the  antiquity  of  the  lan- 
guage, and  took  down  many  little  stories.  .  .  • 
I  find  it  very  common  indeed  on  the  roads," 
Mr.  Sampson  goes  on,  ^'though  ordinarily  in 
a  corrupt  form  and  mixed  with  other  cants. 
All  knife-grinders  speak  it,  more  or  less  purely, 
but  few  of  them  know  it  by  the  name  of  Shelta. 
.  .  .  Irish  horse-dealers  speak  it  well.  Borrow 
did  not  know  it." 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     225 

Mr.  Sampson's  enthusiasm,  it  is  clear,  was 
not  less  than  the  Rye's  or  Mr.  MacRitchie's. 
The  immediate  result  of  his  studies  was  to  show 
Shelta  "to  be  a  back-slang  and  rhyming  cant 
based  on  old  or  pre-aspirated  Irish  Gaelic." 
Mr.  MacRitchie  identified  the  tinker  name 
"Creenie"  with  the  Irish  "Cruithneach"  and 
Groome's  "crink."  Dr.  Kuno  Meyer's  special 
addition  to  these  facts  was  the  detection  of  sev- 
eral Shelta  words  in  the  "D'uil  Laithne,"  that 
curious  old  glossary  dating  back  to  the  remote 
period  of  Ireland's  learned  past,  and  the  iden- 
tification of  Shelta  with  Ogham.  "Kuno  Meyer 
will  probably  be  severely  attacked  by  some- 
body," was  the  Rye's  comment  in  a  letter  to 
Mr.  MacRitchie,  "but  he  is,  I  think,  'presum- 
ably right.'  The  Irish  had  a  perfect  passion 
for  everything  eccentric,  peculiar,  grotesque,  or 
odd  in  art  and  letters,  and  such  people  are 
given  to  mysterious  languages  and  secrets.  I 
think  my  idea  as  to  the  bronze- workers  is  sound. 
They  were  the  chief  artists  of  a  very  artistic  and 
imaginative  race  and  were  supposed  to  pos- 
sess magical  arts.  Here  your  Finns  and  other 
metal-workers  come  in.  I  wish  that  you  your- 
self would  write  a  paper  on  this,  because  you 
are  best  qualified  of  any  mortal  to  do  it." 


226    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

And  so  it  came  about  that  the  jib  that  was 
not  "blown"  in  1876,  is  now  blown  to  all  the 
world  in  learned  publications  and  encyclopaedias 
of  general  information,  as  —  in  Mr.  Sampson's 
words  —  "a  secret  jargon  of  great  antiquity 
spoken  by  Irish  tinkers,  beggars,  and  pipers, 
the  descendants  of  the  ancient  ceards  and  bards." 
The  world  so  far,  I  am  afraid,  has  not  evinced 
greater  excitement  than  it  usually  does  over 
knowledge  of  the  kind.  However,  it  was  not  the 
world's  recognition  the  Rye  was  particularly 
concerned  about.  I  quote  a  letter  on  the  sub- 
ject to  Mr.  MacRitchie. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MR.  DAVm  MACRITCHIK 

Langham  Hotel,  Portland  Place, 
London,  V^.,  Oct  30th,  1S91. 

Dear  Mr.  MacRitchie,  — ...  What  a  pity 
it  was  that  J.  Sampson  or  Professor  Meyer  did 
not  read  a  paper  on  Shelta,  or  send  one  to  be 
read.  Suppose  you  suggest  to  Mr.  Sampson 
to  send  a  paper  to  the  Folk-Lore  Journal  on 
Shelta  Folk-Lore.  The  world — even  the  learned 
—  does  not  know  as  yet  that  a  quite  new  (or 
ancient)  language  has  been  discovered  in  Great 
Britain,  with  tales  and  songs.  If  it  had  been 
some  infinitesimally  trifling  and  worthless  Hi- 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     227 

maxitic  or  Himalayan  up-country  nigger  dialect, 
every  scholar  in  England  would  have  heard  of 
it  long  ago.  But  the  old  language  of  the  bards 
—  or  at  worst,  an  old  Celtic  tongue  —  is  of  no 
interest  to  anybody!  However,  it  will  bloom 
out  some  day.  I  hope  that  when  the  book  on  it 
appears  it  will  contain  all  of  Mr.  Sampson's 
collections  —  and  (modestly  be  it  spoken  efUre 
nous)  not  omit  the  admission  that  I  discov- 
ered it  and  first  announced  it  —  for  we  are  all 
human.   In  great  haste, 

Yours  sincerely, 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

There  was  talk  later  on  of  his  writing  this 
book  in  collaboration  with  Mr.  Sampson  and 
Dr.  Meyer.  A  scheme  for  it,  even  to  the  title- 
page,  was  drawn  up.  But  it  was  one  of  the  Rye's 
schemes  that  fell  through.  However,  every 
credit  for  having  discovered  Shelta  has  been 
given  to  him.  Consult  "Chambers,"  and  you 
will  learn  that  "the  earliest  specimens  of  this 
idiom"  were  "collected  (1877-80)  by  Mr.  C. 
G.  Leland  from  an  English  vagrant  in  North 
Wales  and  an  Irish  tinker  in  Philadelphia." 
Read  Mr.  MacRitchie's  pamphlet  on  "The 
Cairds'  Language,"  and  you  will  find  that  "its 


228    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

discoverer,  and  the  one  who  first  proclaimed 
his  discovery  to  the  public,  was  an  American 
man  of  letters,  Mr.  Charles  Godfrey  Leland, 
who  throughout  his  life  took  a  keen  interest  in 
all  kinds  of  out-of-the-way  forms  of  speech." 

And  this  is  the  history  of  that  discovery  of 
Shelta,  which  I  have  no  doubt  philologists  prize 
as  the  great  work  of  the  Rye's  life,  though  many 
who  are  not  philologists  will  prize  stiU  more  his 
writing  about  it.  At  all  events,  it  is  a  satisfaction 
to  me  that  he  was  honoured  as  the  discoverer 
before  it  was  too  late  for  him  to  know  it.  In  any 
case,  his  pleasure  in  the  people  who  talk  Shelta 
woxild  never  have  grown  less.  His  * '  Memoranda '  * 
are  full  of  tinkers.  I  have  space  but  for  one  of 
many  notes  of  meetings :  "  I  met  with  a  tinker 
on  the  road  (June  i6th,  1893)  by  Bagni  di  Lucca. 
And,  having  talked  with  him  some  time,  deeply 
and  sympathetically  till  I  suspect  he  half  deemed 
I  was  of  his  order,  I  offered  him  money.  He 
shook  his  head  and  said:  *No,  Signore,  not  from 
You?  But  he  yielded  to  my  request  to  drink  his 
health.  No  tinker  can  resist  diat.  And  a  few 
days  after,  at  a  little  village  on  the  top  of  an 
exceeding  high  mountain,  I  found  him  again 
blowing  away  with  the  bellows.  He  spoke 
French  well.  I  asked  him  to  show  me  the  way  to 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     229 

a  tavern.  No,  he  had  work  to  do.  But  I  led 
him  away,  and,  in  the  public,  ordered  the  best 
wine,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  assembled,  ^o 
looked  up  to  me,  a  Signore,  and  down  on  the 
tinker, — he  was  a  tinker,  for  he  worked  only  in 
tin.  The  wine  was  very  good.  I  paid  half  a 
franc  for  five  glasses  of  it." 

As  a  lover  of  Romanies  and  tinkeis,  and  as  an 
American  into  the  bargain,  it  would  have  been 
odd  if  the  Rye's  path  and  the  Indian's  had  never 
crossed.^  For,  tiiough  the  Indians  of  whom  he 
was  destined  to  see  most  have  degenerated  into 
commonplace  house-dwellers  during  the  winter, 
and  are  civilised  to  the  point  of  sending  repre- 
sentatives to  the  State  Legislature,  in  the  sum- 
mer, when  they  pitch  their  tents  under  the  pines 
along  the  coast  of  New  England,  they  grow  very 
Gypsy-like,  while  over  them  alwajrs  is  the  mys- 
tery of  their  race  and  their  legends.  He  had  met 
with  other  Indians  besides  the  peaceful  Passa- 
maquoddies.  What  to  us  might  seem  a  matter- 

^  I  have  left  the  Indian  names  spelled  as  I  found  them  in 
the  books,  mannscripts,  and  letters  quoted.  I  am  no  authority. 
Scholars  di£Fer  among  themselves,  and  often,  like  the  Rye, 
change  their  own  spelling  of  a  word  as  their  knowledge 
of  the  language  increases.  This  explains  why  AlgpnqtUn 
becomes  Algankin^  ithy  Kuidskap  is  at  times  Gl^gaieot 
Gioaskap. 


230    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

of-fact  journalist's  trip  in  the  interests  of  his 
paper  along  a  new  railroad  line,  had  been  for 
him  a  journey  into  the  heart  of  Wonderland.  He 
had  brought  back  the  copy  required  of  him  —  he 
was  extremely  conscientious  in  any  work  under- 
taken for  editors  or  publishers.  But  the  great 
event  remembered  in  his  "Memoirs"  was  not 
the  newspaper's  mission,  but  his  initiation  into 
the  tribe  of  the  Kaws,  probably  the  merest  side- 
issue  to  every  one  else.  This  was  in  the  sixties, 
and  his  description  of  it  is  written  in  the  same 
strain  of  exultation  as  that  of  so  many  encounters 
with  the  Gypsies  in  England  and  Russia  and 
Hungary.  It  took  place  at  Fort  Riley,  then  the 
extreme  far  West  and  still,  in  the  sixties,  as  sav- 
age as  could  be  wished.  The  Rye  had  bought  a 
whip  from  an  old  Kaw  —  but  it  would  spoil  the 
story  not  to  quote  it  as  he  told  it:  — 

"  I  went  to  the  camp,  and  there  the  whole  party, 
seeing  my  curious  whip,  went  at  the  Kaws  to 
buy  theirs.  Bank-bills  were  our  only  currency 
then,  and  the  Indians  knew  there  were  such 
things  as  counterfeits.  They  consulted  together, 
eyed  us  carefully,  and  then  every  man,  as  he  re- 
ceived his  dollar,  brought  it  to  me  for  approval. 
By  chance  I  knew  the  Pawnee  word  for  *good' 
QVaskUaw),  and  they  also  knew  it.  Then  came 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     231 

a  strange,  wild  scene.  I  spoke  to  the  chief,  and 
pointing  to  my  whip  said,  ^ B^meergasheCj^  and 
indicating  a  woman  and  a  pony,  repeated 
^ Shimmy'Shindyy  shoanga-hifiy^  intimating  that 
its  use  was  to  chastise  women  and  ponies  by 
hitting  them  on  the  nose.  Great  was  the  amaze- 
ment and  delight  of  the  Kaws,  who  roared  with 
laughter,  and  their  chief  curiously  inquired, 
'F^wKaw?*  To  which  I  replied,  * O  nifcAee,  me 
Elaw,  washUd  good  Injim  me.'  He  at  once 
embraced  me  with  frantic  joy,  as  did  the  others, 
to  the  great  amazement  of  my  friends.  A  wild 
circular  dance  was  at  once  improvised  to  cele- 
brate my  reception  into  the  tribe;  at  which  our 
driver  Brigham  dryly  remarked  that  he  did  n't 
wonder  they  were  glad  to  get  me,  for  I  was  the 
first  Injun  ever  seen  in  that  tribe  with  a  whole 
shirt  on  him.  This  was  the  order  of  proceedings : 
I  stood  in  the  centre  and  sang  wildly  the  fol- 
lowing song,  which  was  a  great  favourite  with 
oiu"  party,  and  all  joining  in  the  chorus:  — 

I  slew  the  chief  of  the  Muscolgee; 
I  bnrnt  his  squaw  at  the  blasted  tree  t 
By  the  hind-legs  I  tied  up  the  cur, 
He  had  do  time  to  fondle  on  her. 

CAorus.      Hool  hoo!  hoo!  the  Muscolgee! 
Wah,  wah,  wah !  the  blasted  tree  I 


232     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

A  ^tggot  from  the  blasted  tree 
Fired  the  lodge  of  the  Muscolgee ; 
His  sinews  served  to  string  my  bow 
When  bent  to  lay  his  brethren  low. 

Chorus,      Hoo  I  hoo !  hoo  1  the  Muscolgee ! 
Wah,  wah,  wah  !  the  blasted  tree  I 

I  stripped  his  skull  all  naked  and  bare, 
And  here  *s  his  skull  with  a  tuft  of  hair ! 
His  heart  is  in  the  eagle's  maw, 
His  bloody  bones  the  wolf  doth  gnaw. 

Chorus.      Hoo  1  hoo  I  hoo !  the  Muscolgee  1 
Wah,  wah,  wah !  the  blasted  tree ! 

^'The  Indians  yelled  and  drummed  at  the 
Reception  Dance.  'Now  you  good  Kaw  — 
Good  Injun  you  be  —  all  same  me/  said  the 
chief.  Hassard  and  Lambom  cracked  time  with 
their  whips,  and  in  short  we  made  a  grand  cir- 
cular row;  truly  it  was  a  wondrous  striking 
scene!  From  that  day  I  was  called  the  Kaw 
chiefy  even  by  Hassard  in  his  letters  to  the 
'Tribune,'  in  which  he  mentioned  that  in  scenes 
of  excitement  I  rode  and  whooped  like  a  sav- 
age." 

Little  came  of  the  initiation,  except  the  ro- 
mance of  it  in  memory,  though  he  met  with 
Apaches  on  that  same  trip,  and  Chippeways  on 
another  to  Diduth,  and  occasionally  a  stray 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     233 

Indian  turned  up  at  the  "Press"  office  in  Phila- 
delphia. The  chronicle  of  these  experiences  is 
in  "Three  Thousand  Miles  in  a  Railway  Car" 
(1867),  and  some  articles,  with  the  title  "Red 
Indiana,"  in  "Temple  Bar"  for  1875  and  1876. 
Europe,  and  the  ten  years  it  kept  him,  put  a 
long  stop  to  all  relationships  between  himself 
and  his  own  or  any  other  tribe.  But  Europe  gave 
him  the  Romany,  and  the  Romany  gave  him  a 
deeper  intimacy  with  the  life  of  the  roads  than 
had  ever  been  his  before,  and  when  he  got  back 
to  America  in  1879  he  was  far  worthier  to  be 
greeted  as  brother  by  the  Kaws  or  their  kindred, 
—  a  fact,  however,  that  does  not  seem  to  have 
occurred  to  him  at  first.  At  Niagara  and  New- 
port in  1880,  he  must  have  seen  Indians;  for 
long  I  could  have  shown  proofs  of  it  in  various 
odds  and  ends  of  bead  work  sent  to  me  before 
the  sununer  was  over.  At  Bar  Harbor,  in  1881, 
there  were  "Injuns,"  9s  he  wrote  to  Besant,  but 
just  how  much  he  saw  of  them,  or  just  how  much 
they  interested  him,  I  cannot  say.  In  the  preface 
to  his  "Algonquin  Legends,"  he  states  distinctly 
that  it  was  in  the  summer  of  1882,  at  Campo- 
bello,  that  he  began  to  collect  the  traditions  and 
folk-lore  of  the  Passamaquoddy  Indians  of  New 
Brunswick. 


234     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Some  of  the  Indian  villages  are  not  very  far 
from  Campobello,  and  when  that  island  was 
turned  into  a  fashionable  sunmier  place  and  a 
couple  of  big  hotels  were  built,  the  Indians,  with 
their  instinct  for  business,  saw  their  chance  for 
adding  to  the  extremely  few  distractions  it  then 
provided  for  visitors.  As  I  remember  —  it  is 
many  years  now  since  I  was  there  —  the  pine 
wood  where  Tomah  and  old  Noel  Josephs  and 
their  families  camped  was  just  off  the  road, 
about  half  way  between  the  two  hotels.  There 
the  Rye  found  them;  there  he  spent  many  a 
long  morning  or  afternoon  in  the  cool,  fragrant 
shade ;  there  the  Indians  forgot  they  were 
Catholics  and  civilised,  and  told  him,  as  their 
fathers  had  told  each  other,  the  stories  of  Kul<5- 
skap  and  Malsum  the  Wolf,  of  Lox  the  Mischief- 
maker,  of  Mahtigwess  the  Rabbit,  and  Atosis 
the  Serpent;  and  I  do  not  know  whether  to  see 
more  of  civilisation  or  "old  Indian"  in  the  "By 
Jolly"  of  Tomah,  when  the  drama  grew  too 
intense  even  for  the  traditional  stolidity  of  the 
race.  Miss  Abby  Alger  was  at  Campobello  in 
1882,  and  she  was  the  Rye's  usual  companion  on 
^hese  visits,  aiding  him  in  many  ways,  which  he 
acknowledged  by  dedicating  his  book  to  her. 
She  was  there  again  in  1883,  but  had  gone  before 


TINKERS  AND  RED   INDIANS     235 

I  arrived,  to  be  made  welcome,  in  my  turn,  to 
the  tents  in  the  littl^  wood.  With  their  dark 
faces,  their  love  of  bright  colours,  their  courteous 
manner,  their  outdoor  life,  the  Indians  were 
enough  like  the  Gypsies  for  me  quickly  to  feel 
at  home  amongst  them.  I  could  not  learn  their 
language, — my  philological  excursions  never 
did  carry  me  further  than  Romany.  But  I  was 
allowed  to  sit  there  while  Tomah  told  his 
stories,  and  the  Rye  made  his  notes,  interrupting 
every  now  and  then,  with  that  emphatic  out- 
stretched hand  of  his,  to  settle  some  dij£culty 
or  get  the  uttermost  meaning  of  the  last  "By 
Jolly!"  Beautiful  days  they  were,  so  beautiful 
that  I  still  regret  having  gone  with  Tomah,  in 
his  canoe,  to  the  nearest  Indian  village,  treeless, 
desolate,  tragic,  where  I  could  see  for  myself 
what  dreary  de^ys  were  to  come  when  he  and  his 
people  moved  from  under  the  pines. 

The  Rye  took  back  with  him  to  Philadelphia 
amazing  treasiures  of  tradition,  —  vast  stories 
of  the  myths,  legends,  and  folk-lore  of  the  Wa- 
banaki,  or  those  Algonquins  whose  home  lies 
nearest  to  the  rising  sun, — and  he  set  to  work  to 
put  them  in  order.  He  had  been  further  helped 
by  the  Rev.  Silas  T.  Rand,  missionary  among 
the  Micmacs  of  Hantsport  (Nova  Scotia),  who 


236  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

lent  him  a  large  manuscript  collection  of  Mic- 
mac  tales,  and  by  Mrs.  W.  Wallace  Brown  of 
Calais  (Maine),  whose  husband  is  agent  in 
charge  of  the  Passamaquoddies,  and  who  has 
had  therefore  unusual  opportunities  of  collect- 
ing and  verifying  Indian  lore,  as  well  as  the 
talent  to  take  advantage  of  them.  Another  col- 
laborator, or  contributor,  was  Louis  Mitchell, 
who  had  been  Indian  member  of  the  Legislature 
of  Maine,  and  who  wrote  out  for  him  many  fairy- 
tales in  Indian  and  English,  —  a  strange  substi- 
tute for  wampum,  I  cannot  but  think,  as  I  turn 
over  the  well-filled  pages  of  the  manuscript  So 
well  did  the  Rye  make  use  of  all  the  material  he 
had  got  together  from  many  sources,  that  before 
the  end  of  the  winter  of  1884  "The  Algonquin 
Legends''  was  in  the  hands  of  Messrs.  Hough- 
ton,  Mifflin  and  Co. 

Now  with  the  legends  of  the  Indians,  as  with 
the  Shelta  of  the  Tinkers,  it  was  the  duk  that  led 
him  straight  to  his  discovery.  For  it  was  a  dis- 
covery, these  legends  never  having  hitherto  been 
collected,  sifted,  and  published.  And  he  wrote 
about  them,  as  he  had  written  about  Shelta, 
with  joy  and  with  a  sense  of  literary  form  in  t^eir 
presentation  to  the  public.  He  did  not  leave  out 
a  few  legends  that  were  not  Indian,  any  more 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     237 

than  he  had  omitted  from  his  vocabulary  a  few 
words  that  were  not  Shelta.  In  addition,  he 
allowed  himself  the  luxury  of  a  theory.  He 
attributed  the  Algonkin  sagas  to  a  Norse  origin, 
—  he  compared  them  to  the  Eddas,  and  their 
heroes  to  Odin  and  Thor  and  Loki,  to  the 
Jotuns  and  Trolls.  But  unconventionality  in 
treatment  and  independence  in  theory  are 
anathema  to  the  folk-lorist  and  comparative 
mythologist.  York  Powell,  in  an  obituary  notice 
of  the  Rye,  pointed  to  the  reason  of  some  of  the 
criticism  he  received:  "He  could  and  did  make 
careful  and  exact  notes  [this  of  his  folk-lore  re- 
searches in  general],  but  when  he  put  the  results 
before  the  public,  he  liked  to  give  them  the  seal 
of  his  own  personality  and  to  allow  his  fancy  to 
play  about  the  stories  and  poems  he  was  pub- 
lishing, so  that  those  who  were  not  able  quickly 
to  distinguish  what  was  folk-lore  and  what  was 
Leland  were  shocked  and  grumbled  (much  to 
his  astonishment  and  even  disgust),  and  belittled 
his  real  achievement.  He  thought  clearly,  and 
many  of  his  *  guesses'  have  been  or  are  being 
confirmed." 

It  was  inevitable,  really,  that,  as  in  the  case 
of  Shelta,  the  importance  of  his  discovery  of  In- 
dian lore  was  for  a  while  overlooked.    Indeed, 


238    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

"The  Algonquin  Legends"  fared  worse,  for  the 
book  was  in  many  quarters  violently  criticised 
and  condemned.  And  again,  as  in  the  case  of 
Shelta,  the  Rye  knew  well  enough  what  he  had 
done,  and  his  interest  did  not  slacken.  It  was 
never  his  fortune  to  see  the  Passamaquoddies  or 
any  other  Indians  after  the  summer  of  1883.  For 
the  remainder  of  his  days  he  lived  nearer  still  to 
the  rising  sun  than  they.  But  not  even  the  witches 
of  Florence  could  make  him  forget  them,  not  even 
Etruscan  incantations  could  silence  their  voices 
in  his  memory.  One  reason  of  his  love  for  the 
Children  of  Light  of  his  own  country  was  that 
they,  with  their  m)rths,  had  given  "  a  fairy,  an  elf, 
a  naiad,  or  a  hero,  to  every  rock  and  river  and 
ancient  hill  in  New  England,"  and  that  he,  by 
collecting  these  myths,  could  repeople  his  native 
land  with  the  fairies  of  yore,  and  walk  in  spirit- 
trodden  paths,  and  find  goblins  in  the  woods, 
and  transform  every  foolish  "Diana's  Bath"  into 
the  "Home  of  the  Elves"  it  really  was.  And  as 
he  recalled  the  legends,  the  words  seemed  to  fall 
into  rhythmical  order,  as  when  the  Indians  had 
chanted  or  crooned  them  to  him.  He  regretted 
he  had  not  written  them  in  the  original  rhjrthm 
almost  without  knowing,  he  did  rewrite  them  in 
verse.  And  then,  by  one  of  those  "strange  coinci- 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     239 

dences"  with  which  his  life  abounded,  'Mt  so 
befell,"  he  writes,  "that  I,  per  fortuna^  became 
correspondent  with  Professor  J.  Dyneley  Prince, 
who  had  come  some  time  after,  but  got  far 
before  me  in  a  knowledge  of  Algonkin,  as  was 
shown  in  various  papers  containing  the  original 
text  and  translations  of  Algonkin  legends  in 
different  dialects."  The  result  of  that  corre- 
spondence was  "Kul6skap  the  Master, "  —  the 
Epic  of  Kul6skap,  —  written  in  collaboration 
with  Professor  Prince  and  published  in  1902, 
but  three  or  four  months  before  the  Rye's  death, 
and  eighteen  years  after  his  first  Indian  book. 
The  world  had  been  slower  in  honouring  him 
for  his  work  among  the  Wabanaki  than  for  his 
work  among  the  Tinkers.  "Mr.  Leland  was 
indeed  the  pioneer  in  examining  the  oral  litera- 
ture of  the  northeastern  Algonkin  tribes,  a  fact 
which  few  scholars  seem  to  recognise,"  Professor 
Prince  says  in  his  introduction  to  "Kul6skap," 
as  if  in  surprise,  for  he  admits  that  his  own  first 
inspiration  as  student  of  Indian  languages  was 
"The  Algonquin  Legends."  But  I  do  not  think 
the  day  of  recognition  is  now  far  off,  and  when 
it  comes  I  can  fancy  the  interest  one  of  his 
followers  will  have  in  gathering  together  the 
material  he  has  left,  with  whatever  letters  on  the 


240    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

subject  his  correspondents  may  have  preserved. 
For  myself,  it  would  not  be  possible  here  to 
cover  this  vast  field,  except  in  the  most  frag- 
mentary fashion.  And  so  I  am  content  to  give 
a  few  of  his  letters  to  Professor  Prince,  for  as 
"Kul6skap  "  was  the  last  and,  the  Rye  hoped, 
the  perfect  flower  of  his  Indian  studies,  so  these 
letters  are  the  last  and  fullest  expression  of  his 
interest  in  them.  He  was  a  very  old  man  when 
he  wrote  them,  but  as  young  as  ever  in  his 
love  for  the  people  and  the  legends  of  his  own 
country. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  PROF.  J.  DYNXLBY  PRINCE 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  Jan.  8, 1902. 

Dear  Mr.  Prince,  —  I  have  sent  you  by 
mail  —  and  you  will  possibly  be  astonished  at 
receiving  —  a  considerable  addition  to  the  Al- 
gonkin  Indian  Poems.  I  always  had  a  great 
desire  to  make  out  of  the  Gliisgabe  or  Glooskap 
legends,  which  are  really  songs,  a  real  Indian 
epic  —  not  a  fnece  de  manufacture  like  Hiawatha. 
So  I  have  measured  the  principal  legends  and 
really  made  a  small  epic.  To  this  I  have  added 
others  not  referring  to  him.  •  .  . 

As  there  is  a  legend  that  Glooskap  split  the 
Hill  of  Boston  into  three  (old  town,  Penobscot), 


TINKERS  AND   RED  INDIANS     241 

therefore  it  follows  that  some  Indian  can  re- 
peat it  —  and  you  translate  it,  and  I  sing  it, 
which  would  greatly  interest  Boston.  It  is  very 
curious  that  I  not  only  discovered  this  legend, 
but  also  one  to  the  effect  that  Virgil  split  the 
hill  of  Rome  into  three. 

The  more  I  think  of  it,  the  more  convinced 
am  I  that  our  illustrations  ought  to  be  often 
birch-bark  pictures.  I  can  hold  my  own  with 
any  Indian  at  the  work  (in  fact  I  am  the  author 
of  one  or  two  in  my  book),  but  for  honesty's  sake 
we  must  get  them  from  an  aborigine. 

It  is  very  queer  that  I  had  a  great  g.  grand- 
father who  was  so  far  gone  ia  Algonkin  and 
French  that  he  served  as  interpreter  during 
the  Old  French  War.  Atavism  1  I  wish  that 
I  knew  as  much  as  he  did.  I  wish  that  I  could 
trade  off  one  or  two  languages  for  Indian.  I 
made  a  great  mistake  in  not  appl3ring  myself 
resolutely  to  it,  years  ago,  when  I  had  oppor- 
timities.  .  .  . 

Pray  let  me  know  at  once  when  you  receive 
the  manuscript,  for  I  have  no  copy  of  it. 
Yours  ever  truly, 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 


242    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  PROF.  J.  DYNELEY  PRINCE 

Hotel  Victoria,  6,  Florence,  Jan.  27, 1902. 

Dear  Mr.  Prince,  —  I  congratulate  you 
on  your  appointment  as  Semitic  Professor. 
Mozdtorffl  May  you  maUschen  taver  massu- 
matten  as  haalbas  in  der  Shooll  My  own  know- 
ledge of  the  Semitic  tongues  is  confined  to  Yid- 
dish, in  others  I  am  a  gedanler  Chamorl  But 
yesterday,  meeting  an  Arab,  a  Constantinople 
Jew,  peddling  carpets,  I  asked  him  hirk&m  di  ? 
and  brought  down  such  a  flood  of  (no  doubt 
very)  vulgar  Arabic  on  my  head  that  I  was  fain 
to  shut  up  shop! 

Now  as  regards  our  book.  Since  I  have  be* 
gun  to  think  it  over  I  find  that  VappHU  vient 
en  mangeant  —  and  new  vistas  of  glory  open 
on  my  vision,  the  more  I  realise  what  a  really 
clever  colleague  I  have  had  the  luck  to  secure, 
and,  secondly,  how  much  grander  the  Subject 
is  than  we  at  first  realised. 

My  idea  is  this.  The  complete  series  of  the 
Glusgabe  or  Glooskap  legends  or  sagas  will 
combine  into  an  Epic,  the  only  real  one  from 
the  Indian  in  existence.  I  thought  of  this  20 
years  ago.  I  am  busy  completing  the  series;  it 
will  not  enlarge  the  book  too  much;  you  will 


TINKERS  AND  RED   INDIANS     243 

very  soon  receive  the  rest.  Now  what  I  hope 
for  is,  that  you  will  make  one  great  effort,  —  it 
may  involve  a  little  hard  work,  —  and  that  is 
to  satisfy  yourself  (which  can  be  easily  done) 
that  my  versions  are  fairly  accuratCj  which  they 
indeed  are^  and  assert  as  much  in  a  note  or 
Introduction  after  my  Preface.  And  I  would 
be  inmiensely  gratified  if  you  could  give  a  line, 
or  a  few  lines,  of  the  original  Indian  at  the  head 
of  every  chapter  or  tale^  e.  g.. 

When  Gldsgabe  the  Master 
Came  into  this  world  of  ours. 

This  can  be  got  from  any  Indian,  even , 


drunk  or  sober.  And  it  would  give  great  pres- 
tige to  the  book.  What  with  the  whole  "Wam- 
pum Record"  ( I  have  a  copy  of  it  in  America) 
and  your  other  contributions,  and  the  whole 
epic  of  Glooskap,  GKisgabe  or  Kuldskap  —  we 
shall  make  a  grand  work. 

...  I  think  I  had  better  do  the  birch-bark 
drawings,  having  had  much  practice  therein 
under  first-class  Injxm  teachers.  In  fact,  I 
have  helped  Tomaquah  with  his  work  when 
he  could  not  get  through  —  though  I  wish  I 
had  a  few  birch  pictures  here  to  inspire  me. 
It  requires  something  different  from  "artw/tc" 
skill  to  do  such  work. 


244     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

I  am  very  busy  in  these  days,  but  I  am  more 
interested  in  our  work,  our  big  Injun  monu- 
ment, than  an3^thing  else. 

.  .  .  This  book,  if  well  prepared,  will  be  a 
two-foot  feather  on  top  of  your  scalp-lock  and 
mine.  .  •  • 

Yours  truly, 

Chasles  Godfrey  Leland. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  PROF.  J.  DYNELEY  PRINCE 

Hotel  Victoria,  6^  Florence,  Feb.  lo,  1902. 

Dear  Mr.  Prince,  —  ...  Firstly,  you  will 
receive,  with  this  letter  or  before  long,  the  re- 
mainder of  the  GWsgabe  poems.  These  form, 
with  what  you  have,  the  complete  Epic,  and  I 
am  rather  exalted  over  it,  for  to  reaUy  publish 
the  first  and  only  real  Indian  epic  entire  is 
to  have  gone  far  beyond  Longfellow's  piice  de 
manufacture  Hiawatha  —  the  borrowing  from 
a  borrowing,  because  Schoolcraft  had  his  best 
legends  and  most  from  a  land  surveyor  named 
Wadsworth  whom  I  knew  intimately. 

Now  pray  note  that  the  Glusgabe  legends 
are  mixed  up,  and  I  beg  you,  firstly,  to  arrange 
them  in  due  order,  according  to  the  course 
followed  in  my  Algonkin  legends.  Also  to  re- 
vise and  correct^  especially  any  faults  of  metre 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     245 

as  they  strike  you,  for,  as  I  said,  I  see  that  you 
are  more  than  commonly  expert  in  verse.  This 
epic,  long  as  it  is,  will  only  help  the  rest. 

...  I  must  draw  a  title  page,  I  don't  know 
whether  I  can  do  it  now.  And  a  cover  and 
back  ?  Depends  on  publisher.  .  .  . 

Yours  sincerely, 

Chasles  G.  Leland. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  PROF.  J.  DYNELEY  PRINCE 

Hotel  Victoria,  6,  Florence,  Felx  16^  1902. 

Dear  Prof.  Prince,  — ...  I  almost  shud- 
der to  think  that  LappUatwan  €^c.  nearly  per- 
ished, and  that  we  have  been  just  in  time  to 
get  the  few  lost  fairy  gold  pieces  of  the  leaves. 
Of  course  you  know  the  story  how  a  fairy  gave 
a  branch  to  a  man  and  told  him  to  take  it 
home,  but  he,  thinking  he  was  mocked,  switched 
away  the  leaves  till  when  he  got  home  only 
three  remained  —  and  these  turned  to  gold 
pieces.  Even  so,  learned  New  England  has 
n^ected  or  switched  away  the  Algonkin  po- 
etry. We  shall  have  great  credit,  man  Prince^ 
in  years  to  come  for  this  work  of  ours.  If  it 
were  possible  at  great  exertion  (were  I  at  home), 
old  and  weak  as  I  am  —  and  at  considerable 
expense —  to  get  more  of  such  songs,  /  would  be 


246    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

glad  to  do  so.  And  I  dare  say  that  Mitchell,  if 
he  really  tried,  could  get  more.  I  pray  you  to 
think  this  over. 

Just  as  the  learned  world  is  amazed  that, 
with  the  exception  of  the  Emperor  Claudius, 
no  Roman  scholar  ever  tried  to  collect  or  pre- 
serve any  Etruscan  record  or  any  trace  of  the 
language,  though  it  was  in  full  bloom  so  late 
as  the  IV  century  —  so  will  the  world  in  days 
to  come  marvel  that  no  scholar  (save  you  and 
I)  ever  took  pains  to  preserve  the  Algonkin 
poems.  ... 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  PROF.  J.  DVNELEY  PRINCE 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  Feb.  16, 1902. 

Dear  Prof.  Prince,  —  I  had  received  your 
letter  of  Febr.  4,  and  answered  it  —  which  an- 
swer I  inclose  —  when  lo!  in  came  the  type- 
written MS!  I  am  charmed  with  it,  especially 
with  your  portion.  And  all  my  own  work  looks 
far  better  than  I  anticipated,  and  I  am  nbw 
sure  that  we  have  made  a  very  attractive,  curi- 
ous, and  deeply  interesting  work.  But  I  wish 
that  you  had  put  some  more  or  aU  of  yoiu^  into 
measure.  .  .  . 

...  I  thank  you  very  much  for  the  charm- 
ing compliment  which  you  pay  me  as  being 


s^^'jiii^ 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     247 

"indeed  the  pioneer  in  examining,"  &c.  This  is 
to  me  exlremdy  grateful,  because  I  am  proud 
to  be  a  first  pointer-out  —  just  as  I  am  of  having 
been  acknowledged  to  be  the  first  discoverer 
of  Shelta,  which  is  now  3rielding  such  a  crop 
of  songs  and  stories  —  also  of  Italian-Latin 
witch  lore  and  mjrthology,  which  latter  has  not 
as  yet  been  credited  to  me,  but  wiU  be  some 
day.  However,  as  regards  "Algonkian"  poetry, 
it  shall  and  will  be  said  that  we  unquestionably 
and  certainly 

Were  the  first  who  ever  burst 
Into  that  silent  sea. 

This  is  why  I  am  so  anxious  to  see  the  whcle 
GlUsgabe  Epic.  You  will,  by  the  way,  have  to 
arrange  the  order  of  the  chapters  .  .  . 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  PROF.  J.  DYNELEY  PRINCE 

Hotel  Victoria,  6^  Florence,  March  22d,  1902. 

Dear  Mr.  Prince,  —  Great  joy  did  fill  my 
heart  as  I  did  read  what  thou  didst  write  on  the 
eleventh  day  —  of  March,  in  answer  truly  unto 
me  I  I  am  much  cheered  by  your  liking  the  Epic, 
though  in  truth  I  think  it  would  have  been  better 
in  a  more  Edda-like  metre.  However,  it  is  better 
than  the  sing-song,  wheel-and-bucket  Kalevala- 


248    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Bulgarian  metre  of  Hiawatha.  By  all  means 
write  for  Dr.  Hayes  Ward  the  article  and  give 
him  the  Woisis  story. 

.  .  .  When  you  reflect  that  the  Father  Vetro- 
mile,  who  spoke  their  language  and  lived  among 
them,  never  could  get  one  story,  my  early  work 
in  collecting  may  be  understood,  for  when  I  went 
at  it  the  Copper-coloured,  one  and  all,  were  as 
averse  to  telling  tales  out  of  school  as  their 
ancestors  per  contra  had  been  given  to  taking 
tails,  i.  e.,  pigtails  or  scalps  from  us.  However, 
the  spirit  of  my  ancestor  who  once  lived  a  whole 
winter  as  prisoner  among  their  ancestors  (they 
were  so  fond  of  him)  helped  me  through.  This 
was  like  my  discovery  of  the  Shelta  tongue, 
which  also  took  years,  and  I  am  very  proud  that 
I  have  two  such  discoveries  credited  to  me, 
for  the  Shelta  also  has  )rielded  a  large  crop  of 
legends  and  poems,  and  is  rapidly  being  recog- 
nised as  the  comer-stone  of  British  Celtic  litera- 
ture. In  both  Shelta  and  Wabanaki  there  was 
only  a  few  years  ago  extraordinary  secrecy  and 
reticence,  just  as  there  was  20  years  ago  among 
the  Gypsies,  as  regarded  letting  anybody  learn 
Rommany.  But  as  I  had  gone  through  and 
through  the  G3rps  with  success,  I  was  to  a  degree 
qualified  for  Injuns.  I  wonder  how  many  drinks 


TINKERS  AND  RED  INDIANS     249 

I  took  first  and  last  in  the  pursuit  of  Rommany 
and  Indian  philology  and  traditions!  I  wish  I 
could  take  them  and  all  the  fun  I  had,  over 
again.  I  solemnly  believe  that  those  among  the 
learned  who  despaired  of  getting  at  Rommany 
and  Passamaquoddy  did  not  go  to  their  tents 
with  a  bottle  of  beer  in  either  pocket  and  a  half- 
pound  of  tobacco,  and  sit  over  the  fire  in  the  real 
loafer  attitude  by  the  hour! 

I  am  very  glad  that  you  like  my  pictures.  I 
could  have  done  better  had  I  taken  more  time, 
but  a  kind  of  devil  possessed  me  to  "hurry, 
hurry"  with  all  the  copy  I  sent  you.  It  is  a  fact 
that  in  all  my  "long  and  excellent  life"  I  never 
did  so  much  work  of  the  kind  in  the  same  time. 
It  was  like  the  concert  in  Philada.  at  which  a 
jug  of  beer  was  awarded  to  the  performer  who 
should  get  done  first,  .  .  . 
Yours  very  truly, 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

In  his  love  for  the  Indian,  so  strong  to  the 
very  end,  there  was  a  quality  that  could  not  en- 
ter into  his  love  for  the  Gypsy.  The  Indian 
belonged  to  his  native  land,  to  "  home."  As  can 
be  seen  in  the  preface  to  "  Kul6skap,"  these  last 
studies  carried  him  back  in  fancy  to  the  days 


250     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

when  he  was  a  boy  in  Massachusetts;  and  to 
him  the  true  value  of  the  Indian's  myitis  and 
legends  was  in  the  new  beauty  they  gave  to  the 
country  he  knew  best  and  cared  for  most,  though 
so  long  away  from  it 


CHAPTER  XVI 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN 


In  June,  1884,  the  Rye  went  badt  to  London. 
There  were  many  reasons  why  he  should.  His 
work  —  the  work  of  the  organiser  —  was  done 
in  the  Philadelphia  school;  Mrs.  Jebb  and  Sir 
Walter  Besant  were  urging  him  to  help  them  in 
the  movement  his  "Minor  Arts"  had  started  in 
England;  he  had  left  his  affairs  in  London  in 
some  disorder,  owing  to  the  suddenness  of  the 
journey  home  four  years  earlier. 

He  sailed  from  Philadelphia,  and  arrived  in 
London  on  the  26th  of  June.  I  learn  from  an 
entry  in  the  often-interrupted  Journal,  scribbled 
there  by  my  aunt,  that  within  a  week  he  had 
seen  his  old  friends  at  the  Savile,  been  welcomed 
to  the  familiar  rooms  in  the  Temple  by  Sir 
Patrick  Colquhoun,  and  was  sta)dng  at  Mrs. 
TrUbner's,  where  my  husband  and  I,  having 
sailed  a  few  weeks  later,  found  him  on  our  arri- 
val. It  was  the  house  in  Hamilton  Terrace  he 
knew  so  well,  but  Mr.  Triibner  had  died  since 
last  he  had  been  there,  and  the  return  was  full 


252     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

of  sadness.  And  there  had  been  other  changes. 
Palmer  ^  had  met  with  his  tragic  death,  and  his 
loss  loosened  one  of  the  bonds  that  held  together 
the  little  group  at  the  Savile.  The  Rye  went 
there  as  of  old,  but  I  do  not  think  it  ever  was 
quite  the  same  to  him,  and  after  a  while  he 
dropped  away  from  the  Saturday  meetings.  The 
Rabelais  Club  survived  and  was  to  survive  for  a 
few  years;  among  the  waifs  and  strays  preserved 
in  the  "Journal"  is  a  notice  to  members  of  the 
dinner  given  by  the  club  to  Lowell  and  Holmes 
one  Sunday  evening  in  May,  1886;  at  which 
Holmes  "  was  lively  from  8  to  1 1  and  never  failed 

^  In  the  Memoranda  (1894X  there  is  a  reference  to  Palmer's 
death  that  shows  not  only  how  deeply  the  Rye  felt  it,  but 
something  of  the  quality  of  his  friendship  for  Palmer: 
"  Among  the  thousands  of  subordinates  who  could  do  the 
same  quite  as  well,  the  Government  could  actually  find  no 
other  person  save  a  Cambridge  professor,  poet,  scholar  be- 
yond all  common  scholars,  artist,  and  genius  —  to  send  to 
buy  camels  I  That  Palmer  was  willing  or  anxious  to  go,  is 
absolutely  no  reason  at  all.  Every  one  of  Palmer's  frienda 
dbapproved  of  it —  especially  Triibner.  Even  the  alarming 
state  of  his  health  at  this  time  was  not  considered.  He  was 
in  some  respects  a  mere  boy,  while  in  others  he  was  a  pro- 
ficient man  of  the  world.  That  he  was  to  the  highest  degree 
courageous,  reckless,  and  adventurous,  though  small  and 
weak,  is  very  true,  as  I  have  often  observed  from  experience. 
He  was  quite  like  his  intimate  friend,  R«  Burton,  of  whom 
I  have  heard  him  narrate  many  a  strange  anecdote.  Yet  his 
death  was  strangely  befitting  his  whole  life  and  character." 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  253 

to  say  something  well  worth  hearing  every  five 
minutes."  But  tlie  club  never  rose  to  the  heights 
the  Rye  had  dreamed  for  it,  and,  though  he 
attended  the  dinners  when  in  town,  his  interest 
slowly  weakened.  He  fell  partly  back  into  his 
old  social  life,  but  having  no  home  of  his  own, 
he  gave  no  Saturday  evening  receptions.  When 
he  and  Mrs.  Leland  finished  their  visit  to  Mrs. 
Trubner's  they  went  to  the  Lan^ham  Hotel,  and 
it  was  there  they  lived  for  the  next  six  years 
whenever  they  were  in  town.  This  made  all  the 
difference.  In  London,  hold  out  something  as  a 
bait,  if  only  a  cup  of  tea  or  the  national  whisky- 
and-soda,  and  your  house  is  crowded;  offer 
nothing,  and  your  existence  is  forgotten.  His 
few  real  friends  were  as  cordial  as  ever;  but 
the  coidiality  of  the  many  once  supposed  to 
be  friends  vanished  with  the  withdrawal  of  the 
old  bait.  He  must  have  felt  it,  though  I  never 
heard  a  word  from  him  to  make  me  think  so, 
and  though  friendship  no  deeper  than  an  invi- 
tation to  Saturday  evenings  was  not  worth  a 
regret. 

But  there  was  one  disappointment  more  seri- 
ous, upon  which  he  could  not  keep  silence.  He 
had  come  prepared  to  take  up  the  work  of  the 
society  then  developing  into  the  Home  Arts 


254    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Association;  Mrs.  Jebb  had  wanted  him,  so  had 
Besant  —  both  still  did  want  him  as  urgently. 
But  there  were  others,  apparently,  who  did  not. 
He  attended  the  meetings  of  the  committees  to 
which  he  belonged,  he  gave  the  benefit  of  his 
experience  in  the  Philadelphia  school,  he  wrote 
many  of  the  leaflets  published  for  distribution 
among  the  different  branches,  he  lectured  for 
them  in  London  and  the  Provinces,  he  taught 
when  classes  for  volunteer  teachers  were  started 
in  rooms  near  the  Langham  —  that  is,  he  worked 
as  he  always  did  for  others,  without  sparing  him- 
self. But  to  venture  to  give  enthusiasm  as  well  as 
time  on  a  committee  is  apt  to  mean  friction. 
Worse  still,  people,  presumably  working  with 
him,  went  out  of  their  way  to  discredit  his  ser- 
vices in  the  public  press.  And  many  seemed 
anxious  to  ignore  the  fact  that  it  was  he  who 
originated  the  movement.  This  cut  him  to  the 
quick;  the  more  so  because  it  came  just  about 
the  time  he  was  finding  that,  in  Philadelphia,  to 
be  out  of  sight  was  to  be  out  of  mind.  At  first 
the  reports  from  home  were  pleasant  enough, 
Mr.  Liberty  Tadd  writing  that  things  were  going 
well,  that  the  school  was  known  among  princi- 
pals and  children  as  the  "Leland  Art  School," 
that  he  was  doing  his  best  to  keep  up  the  methods 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  255 

and  the  system  as  if  Mr.  Leiand  were  there  in 
person,  —  grateful  for  the  start  given  him  in  the 
Decorative  Arts, — and  so  on.  And  yet,  almost 
from  the  beginning,  there  was  the  little  rift  in 
the  dismi^al  of  Eugene,  ^^as  good  as  Ebenezer," 
the  coloured  man  the  Rye  had  appointed  teacher 
of  carpentering;  and  the  rift  widening  rapidly, 
friends  began  to  write  him  that  the  school  was 
no  longer  known  familiarly  as  the  Leiand,  — 
that  credit  was  being  given  to  others.  Then 
came  the  news  of  the  downfall  of  the  dub. 
These  bad  times,  as  I  have  written,  were  out- 
lived, but  they  were  bitter  while  they  lasted,  and 
the  bitterness  added  to  the  annoyance  the  Home 
Arts  Association  was  causing  him.  The  details 
are  too  petty  to  be  recalled.  But  that  there 
should  have  been  anno3rance  explains  why,  as 
time  went  on,  his  connection  with  the  association 
became  less  active.  Personally,  I  believe  it  was 
no  loss  to  himself,  whatever  it  may  have  been  to 
the  Home  Arts.  Others  could  do  the  work  still 
to  be  done  for  that  organisation.  But  none  could 
go  adventuring  so  gaily  along  the  new  paths 
that  opened  out  before  him.  And  despite  the 
dissensions  and  the  slights  of  a  moment,  it  is 
now  established  beyond  doubt  that  he  was  the 
chief  founder  of  the  movement,  and  that  the 


256    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

idea  came  originally  from  the  suggestion  in  the 
preface  of  his  "Minor  Arts."  Besant  acknow- 
ledges this  generously  in  his  "Autobiography:" 

"Another  form  of  practical  philanthropy 
which  was  laid  upon  me,  so  to  speak,  ]^as  caused 
not  by  an3rthing  I  had  written,  but  by  the  action 
of  a  friend.  In  the  year  1879,  my  old  friend 
Charles  G.  Leland  (Hans  Breitmann)^  who  had 
been  long  resident  in  England  and  on  the  Conti- 
nent, returned  to  Philadelphia,  his  native  town; 
and  there  proceeded  to  realise  a  much<herished 
project  of  establishing  an  evening  school  for  the 
teaching  and  practice  of  the  minor  arts.  .  .  .  The 
attempt  proved  to  be  a  very  great  success;  very 
shortly  he  found  himself  with  classes  containing 
in  the  aggregate  four  hundred  pupils.  He  then 
proposed  to  me  that  we  should  start  a  similar 
school  here  in  England.  As  he  was  coming  back, 
I  suggested  that  we  should  wait  until  his  arrival. 
We  did  so,  and  on  his  return  we  started  the 
Society  called  the  Home  Arts  Association.  .  .  . 
Let  it  be  understood  that  the  movement  is  due 
entirely  to  the  clear  foresight  of  Charles  Leland." 

Besant  omits  to  say  that  the  Home  Arts  grew 
out  of  the  Cottage  Arts  Society.  But  this  does 
not  affect  his  tribute  to  the  Rye,  for  it  was  the 
preface  to  the  "Minor  Arts"  that  suggested  the 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  257 

Cottage  Arts  to  Mrs.  Jebb,  and  the  methods  were 
based  largely  on  the  advice  and  help  he  sent  her 
by  letter  from  Philadelphia.  The  greater  part 
of  her  share  of  the  correspcmdence  remains,  — 
a  bulky  packet  that  proves  how  deeply  she  appre- 
ciated what  was  owing  to  him,  if  others  did  not. 
Indeed,  there  were  always  the  few  who  knew 
and  acknowledged  all  that  was  owing  to  him. 
"There  would  be  no  work  of  this  sort  going  on 
at  all,  if  you  had  not  waked  us  and  set  us  to 
work,"  I  read  in  one  letter,  written  to  him  at  this 
period.  And,  in  another,  that,  humanly  speaking, 
without  him  the  Home  Arts  Association  never 
would  have  existed.  In  the  report  for  1902, 
printed  in  the  spring  of  1903,  after  the  Rye's 
death,  the  association  was  willing  to  recognise 
in  him,  at  least,  "one  of  the  most  active  of 
the  original  foimders,"  and  attribute  part  of  the 
original  idea  to  "a  sentence  in  the  preface  to  his 
book,  'The  Minor  Arts';"  and  to  admit  the 
practical  value  as  a  guide  of  the  pamphlet  he 
wrote  for  the  Bureau  of  Education  in  Washing- 
ton. 

Unfortunately,  the  climate  of  London  aggra- 
vated his  gout.  For  several  years  after  his  return, 
he  struggled  to  believe  it  had  nothing  to  do  with 
his  constant  illness.   He  kept  coming  back  from 


258    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  Continent  for  a  few  months'  or  a  few  weeks* 
stay  until  1891,  when  he  gave  up  the  struggle  and 
never  got  further  north  again  than  Homburg, 
On  leaving  America  in  1884,  he  had  undertaken 
to  write  a  weekly  letter  for  the  "New  Orleans 
Times-Democrat"  and  the  "Chicago  Tribune." 
But  his  long  absences  from  London  made  any 
regular  articles  of  the  kind  impossible.  This  only 
meant,  however,  that  he  worked  harder  than 
ever  at  the  tasks  he  set  himself.  And  they  were 
such  congenial  tasks!  They  began  with  the 
editing  of  the  Slang  Dictionary  and  the  writing 
of  the  book  on  Gypsy  Sorcery.  They  led  him 
into  the  society  of  witches  and  on  the  track  of  the 
high  priests  of  Voodooism.  They  turned  him 
adrift  into  speculations  on  the  mystery  of  the 
Will  and  the  psychology  of  Sex.  His  home 
might  be  the  conventional  hotel  or  pension^  but 
it  was  always  a  background  for  extraordinary 
experiences.  His  travels  might  be  over  the  usual 
routes  and  in  the  usual  train  or  boat,  but  they 
carried  him  straight  to  adventure.  For  him  it 
was  strange  people  and  strange  coincidences 
aU  the  way,  —  Gypsies,  tinkers,  witches,  magic 
working  of  his  Voodoo  Stone.  "  Such  adventures 
as  I  shall  have  to  tell  you  when  we  meet,"  was 
the  refrain  of  his  letters  to  the  very  end. 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  259 

Much  of  the  correspondence  of  his  later  years, 
luckily,  has  been  preserved,  and,  with  the  occa- 
sional help  of  the  ^^  Memoranda,"  forms  a  more 
complete  story  of  the  final  period  of  his  life  than 
could  be  written  for  him.  I  have  given  therefore 
just  this  brief  outline  of  his  movements  and  his 
work  at  the  time,  and  now  turn  to  his  letters  to 
fill  in  the  detail.  If  I  use  many  addressed  to  my- 
self, it  is  because  he  talked  to  me  on  paper  as 
freely  as  he  had  on  oiu-  long  tramps  through  the 
streets  of  Philadelphia,  and  it  was  as  natural  to 
him  to  tell  me  what  he  was  doing  as  to  ask  me 
to  laugh  with  him  in  his  lighter  moments.  He 
was  a  boy  to  the  very  last,  not  only  in  his  enthu- 
siasms, but  in  the  love  of  a  good  story  or  a  bad 
pun  which  had  been  his  chief  reconmiendation  to 
Bamum  at  the  outset  of  his  career.  Many  pas- 
sages in  his  letters  will  help  a  puzzled  public 
to  understand  how  the  man  who  taught  in  the 
Hollingsworth  School,  and  who  published  serious 
art  manuals  and  a  book  on  Practical  Education, 
could  also  be  the  author  of  the  ^'  Breitmann  "  and 
"  Brand-New  Ballads  "  and  the  "  Egyptian  Sketch 
Book."  The  first  letter  is  from  Whitby,  where 
he  had  gone  after  leaving  Mrs.  Triibner's  in  the 
simmier  of  1884.  The  book  referred  to  is  "  The 
Algonquin  Legends." 


26o    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  B.   R*  PENNELL 

Whitby,  Aug.  1884. 

My  dear  Pen,  —  I  was  very  glad  to  get  your 
letter  and  I  thank  you  very  much  indeed  for  the 
slip  from  the  "American."  I  have  heard  from 
one  or  two  dear  friends  at  home  that  they  had 
seen  such  interesting  notices  of  me  and  of  my 
book,  but  none  of  them  sent  me  any.  I  have  had 
the  pleasure  too  of  reading  a  notice  of  my  article 
in  the  "Atlantic,"  but  have  not  seen  it  as  yet. 
Mrs.  Brown  writes  me  that  she  has  sent  me  by 
mail  $4.00  of  Indian  songs  collected  by  Lewey 
Mitchell.  I  had  written  to  her  from  the  Hotel  in 
London,  so  she  wrote  to  me  there,  although  ^tte 
had  the  Barings'  address.  I  wrote  to  the  Hotel 
and  got  the  letter,  but  not  the  songs.  She  says 
Lewey  has  a  story  how  Glooskap  talked  with  a 
dead  witch.  It  must  be  Odin's  discourse  with  the 
Vala.  This  is  a  beastly  mean  hotel.  For  break- 
fast herrings,  which  cost  here  only  id.  for  6  or  8, 
bacon,  cold  meat,  bad  butter  and  decayed  eggs  — 
nothing  more  —  the  same  every  day,  one  small 
room,  and  prices  twice  what  we  paid  at  Campo- 
bello.  Population  —  pigs!  But  it  is  very  pic- 
turesque, though  not  up  to  Scarboro'.  It  was 
very  dear  there  too.    I  bathe  every  morning  in 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  261 

the  sea  and  that  is  nice.  .  .  .  This  is  an  inex* 
haustible  country  for  queer  old  houses,  streets 
going  up,  up,  up,  curious  stairs,  sudden  comers, 
etc.  I  have  made  about  2  dozen  sketches,  but 
only  one  decent  one  —  oh!  if  I  only  could  draw. 
But  it  is  n't  in  me,  and  it  never  will  be  —  and  yet 
I  know  so  perfectly  what  I  want  and  what  ought 
to  be  done.  The  truth  is  I  was  never  really 
tau^t  anything,  and  teaching  is  necessary  in 
youth.  .  .  . 

I  wish  that  Pennell  were  here  to  sketch  the 
Luggerhead  Inn.  There  is  an  indescribable 
antiquity  about  this  inn  —  and  within  it  goes 
back  —  way  back  to  about  the  loth  century. 
And  the  company!  There  were  four  of  them  — 
one  a  radical  mason,  covered  with  lime,  who 
abused  the  Queen,  cussed  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
blasphemed  the  Bishops,  and  chaffed  the 
Church  —  I  stood  four  pints  of  ale  and  got  the 
ancient  legend  of  The  Luggerhead.  "  Ees,  sir, 
it  be  cawd  t'  Looger  Head.  Hoondreds  o'  years 
by  gone  when  t'  caught  a  smoogler,  ta'  boomed 
t*  vessel  and  t'  cargoo.  And  wan  whiles  tay 
caught  a  Logger  foo'  of  smoogled  goods,  and 
tay  boomed  it  an'  kept  ta  head^  and  tat  day 
was  t'  foorst  pooblic  opened  in  Whitby,  and  tay 
poot  t'  head  here  and  ca'ed  it  ta  Looger  hid,  and 


262    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

then  ta  Looger  Head.  For  ta  smooglers  was 
always  at  logger  heads  wit'  ta  Coostoom  Hoose 
people,  and  thot  woord  Logger  Head  coomed  fra 
tis  very  hoose." 

The  Lugger  Head  is  a  very,  very  ancient 
figure-head.  It  may  have  figured  on  a  Norse 
dragon.  It  may  represent  Rolf  or  Ulf  or  Scrym 
Helbrander  murdering  somebody.  But  it  is  very 
charming.  But  I  must  run  to  lunch.  Kindest 
regards  to  Pennell. 

Tiro  Kamlo  Koko* 

[Your  loving  Uncle.] 

I  give  another  letter  from  Whitby  for  the 
sake  of  the  gay  mood  in  which  it  left  him,  — 
the  practical  mood,  too,  for  the  paragraph  of 
prescriptions  was  due  to  the  fact  that  cholera 
was  very  bad  that  year  in  Italy,  for  which  coun- 
try my  husband  and  I  were  bound  on  our  tri^ 
cycle. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNELL 

Whtiby,  Aug.  28, 1884. 

Kamli  Petty  —  You  say  you  have  not  received 
a  letter  from  Ned,  so  I  send  you  one  at  once. 
Always  come  to  me  when  you  want  anything  in  a 
hurry.   I  went  out  on  the  beach  yesterday  with 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  263 

two  young  ladies  and  two  hammers  to  get  fossils. 
Before  we  went,  a  Gypsy  woman  said,  "Lei  trad 
&  yet  Kokero.^^  [Take  care  of  yourselves.]  This 
was  the  "Gypsy's  Warning."  And  we  were 
caught  by  the  tide  and  had  to  take  off  our  shoes 
and  stockings  and  wade  for  our  lives.  The  Gypsy 
is  a  Gray.  I  always  find  them  —  this  one  was 
in  a  regular  slum.  We  found  seven  nice  little 
street  boys  and  put  them  in  a  row  and  gave  each 
of  them  a  chocolate  drop. 

Groing  home,  we,  the  dui  tani  rOnis  [two  yoimg 
ladies]  and  I,  met  a  very  good-looking  Italian 
selling  ice  creams.  He  had  a  pink  hat  on  his 
head  just  like  his  ice  cream.  We  had  a  fluent 
conversation  and  his  rapture  was  immense  at 
finding  I  was  from  Philadelphia  and  had  been 
in  Newcastle,  Delaware.  He  was  there  as  a 
sailor  3}  years  ago.  We  may  have  seen  him!  .  .  . 
We  leave  on  Saturday  for  York,  thence  for  Lon- 
don and  Brighton.  If  you  go  on  the  Continent, 
take  with  you  some  doses  of  tannin  and  opium 
powder,  which,  it  is  generally  agreed,  is  best  for 
preliminary  s)maptoms,  and  be  sure  and  have 
Collis  Brown's  Chlorodyne  for  the  same;  very 
strong  black  coffee  and  good  brandy  are  very 
effective  —  small  doses  of  both  at  intervals.  Use 
quinine  (bark  in  wine  best)  everywhere  in  Italy, 


264    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

don't  neglect  this.  Don't  drink  much  white  wine 
—  good  red  you  can  drink  freely.  I  will  write 
anon,  to-day  I  am  busy.  If  it  be  only  a  line,  write 
to  me  of tener,  as  I  want  to  know  how  you  two 
are  getting  on.  .  .  • 

He  did  an  incredible  amount  of  work  the  fol- 
lowing winter,  —  his  two  weekly  letters;  arti- 
cles and  reviews  for  the  "Saturday;"  preparing 
a  new  edition  of  "Breitmann;"  arranging  the 
new  Indian  stories  and  songs  sent  from  Maine; 
writing,  for  relaxation,  his  serio-comic  book  of 
"Snooping"  and  various  ballads  for  "Fun"  and 
for  "Hood's  Comic  Annual,"  to  which  he  was  a 
regular  contributor  for  years.  Early  in  1885  he 
was  once  more  in  London,  where,  in  addition 
to  everything  else,  he  was  teaching  for  the  Home 
Arts  as  he  had  taught  for  the  Philadelphia 
School  Board.  The  Home  Arts  Association,  he 
wrote  me  from  the  Langham,  "  have  taken  nice 
rooms  for  a  Ladies'  Art  School  directly  opposite 
the  Langham.  .  .  .  I  was  the  only  person  in  the 
whole  blessed  crowd  who  knew  what  benches, 
chairs,  closets  for  the  girls  were  needed,  how  to 
arrange  classes,  etc.  The  situation  for  the  School 
is  admirable.  A  cab  stand,  a  lunch  room,  a  cake 
shop  with  cherry  brandy  (fancy  Sauter's  with 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  265 

cherry  brandy!)  [Sauter's  in  Philadelphia,  fa- 
mous for  its  ice  cream],  a  telegraph  office,  a 
post  office,  a  newspaper  stand,  Mudie's  Library, 
and  a  railway  station,  all  at  the  head  of  Regent 
Street,  and  within  a  few  yards!!  Also  a  church  /" 
And  he  lectured  on  the  subject  of  Industrial  Art 
in  Schools,  at  the  Society  of  Arts  in  London,  and 
in  Bradford  and  Manchester.  ''I  will  tell  you 
all  my  varied  Manchester  adventures  when  you 
come  to  London,"  he  wrote,  though  one  might 
have  thought  even  so  inveterate  an  adventurer 
as  he  would  not  have  had  the  courage  to  seek, 
much  less  the  genius  to  find,  adventure  either  in 
Manchester  or  the  lecture  hall. 

In  the  summer  he  went  for  his  sea  baths  to 
Etretat.  I  think  he  was  always  pleased  to  be 
in  France,  it  gave  him  such  a  chance  for  the 
humours  of  grumbling.  I  am  sure  he  would 
have  disliked  the  country  more,  could  he  have 
found  less  excuse  for  liking  it  so  little,  and  I 
am  as  sure  he  enjoyed  grumbling  to  me  because 
he  knew  I  cotild  not  agree  with  him! 

CHARLES  GODFRBY  LELAND  TO  B.   R.  PEKNBLL 

Etretat,  Aug.  21, 1885. 

...  I  went  the  other  morning  to  bathe. 
They  chaiged  me  30  sous  (damn  them!)  to 


266     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

begin  with.  They  gave  me  a  little  sentry  box 
to  undress  in  (cuss  'em!).  Then  they  bestowed 
on  me  a  single  small  soft  napkin  for  a  towel 
(blast  'em!),  but  this  was  made  up  for  by  a  great, 
long  linen  dressing-gown  or  shroud  (bust  'em!). 
I  asked  what  this  was  for,  and  they  told  me  to 
put  on  in  coming  out  of  the  water  to  prevent 
achill ! ! ! !— and  iorladecence  !!!!!! !  !Quite 
aghast  (I  was  clad  from  head  to  foot  already 
in  a  long  bathing  dress),  I  asked  if  it  was  de 
rigueury  and  if  the  Law  exacted  such  Tom- 
foolery. A  crowd  all  screamed  out,  "Yes,  yes, 
yes!"  A  little  brute  about  5  feet  high  declared 
that  he  was  going  to  take  me  into  the  water!  I 
told  him  he  had  better  try  it,  and  quoted  what 
Hans  Breitmann  said  to  the  assistant  bathers  at 
Ostend:  — 

Gottsdonner,  if  ve  doomple  down 

Among  de  iraters  plue, 
I  kess  you  '11  need  more  help  f roin  me, 

Dan  I  shall  need  from  you. 

He  asked  me  if  I  could  swim!    I  told  him  to  go 

to ,  etc.    He  sat  on  the  beach  waiting  to  see 

me  perish.  When  I  came  out,  I  did  not  know 
what  to  do  with  the  d — d  old  shroud.  I  pitched 
it  on  anyhow  and  ran  into  my  box,  pursued  by 
the  laughter  and  hides  of  the  attendants.  I  did 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  267 

not  go  there  again.  Since  then,  I  have  been 
to  a  place  a  mile  off,  where  I  have  to  clamber 
up  and  down  an  awful  ravine  300  feet  high  — 
Campobello  was  a  trifle  to  it.  But  the  shingle 
is  terrible,  and  I  cut  my  ankle  so  badly  with 
it  that  I  have  not  bathed  for  4  days.  I  don't 
like  breakfasting  early  on  bread  and  butter 
and  then  having  2  dinners.  English  and  Ameri- 
cans are  very  unpopular  indeed  here,  and  no- 
body speaks  to  them.  The  French  Democratic 
party  has  just  published  its  Platform  or  Tripod 
of  3  planks.  One  is  that  all  foreigners  living 
in  France  shall  be  obliged  to  pay  a  heavy  tax. 
This  little  country  hotel  is  not  had  —  prices 
just  the  same  as  at  the  Langham  —  rather  more 
than  at  the  Fifth  Avenue  or  St.  (Jeorge.  Over 
a  hundred  Americans.  With  two  American 
artist  dames,  who  are  pretty  and  just  barely 
respectable,  I  am  moderately  intimate  —  the 
rest  are  mostly  Philistine  trash.  This  is  about 
all  the  news.  A  great  many  artists,  all  doing 
the  same  thing  over  'n'  over  again. 

But  France  had  some  compensations.    From 
St.  Malo,  he  wrote  not  many  days  later 


268    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNBLL 

St.  Malo  (no  date.) 

.  .  •  We  went  to-day  to  Dinan  —  2  hours 
by  rail,  saw  Cathedral,  etc.,  and  fine  ancient 
houses.  There  was  a  fair  and  Breton  peasant 
women  in  quaint  caps  of  many  patterns.  Just 
under  the  ramparts,  on  a  grassy  bank,  I  found 
a  group  eating  on  the  grass,  4  or  5  men  and  a 
girl.  I  saw  they  were  g3^ies,  and  asked,  ^^Etes 
vaus  tziganis?^^  They  replied  politely,  "0«», 
Monsieur^^^  but  when  I  spoke  Romany,  there 
was  a  sensation,  and  they  got  up.  They  were 
every  one  singularly  handsome,  and  suck  eyes! 
We  were  immensely  delighted  with  one  another, 
which  was  increased  when  one  asked  me  if  I 
could  talk  German,  for  they  were  all  German 
Gypsies.  Every  one  was  a  subject  for  a  picture, 
and  the  whole  scene  was  remarkable  —  a  pig 
market  going  on  just  by  us!  So  I  bade  good-bye. 
They  were  the  most  real  Gypsies  I  ever  met, 
they  quite  understood  all  I  said,  their  language 
is  just  like  very  deep  old  English  Romany. 

The  autumn  months  were  passed  in  Brigh- 
ton; his  special  tasks  now,  a  new  manual  of 
design,  a  new  edition  of  "  Breitmann,"  his  "  Prac- 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  269 

tical  Education,"  and  the  endeavour  to  interest 
the  people  of  Brighton  in  the  minor  arts.  "I 
am  getting  up  a  class  in  Brighton,"  he  wrote 
on  November  nth.  "They  seem  to  be  nice 
people.  I  hold  the  first  s6ance  to-day."  He 
succeeded  so  well  that,  when  he  was  obliged 
soon  after  to  leave  his  class,  it  was  with  regret. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LBLAND  TO  S.   R.  PENNBLL 

Brighton,  Dec.  5th,  1885. 

KanUi  Pe», — We  expect  to  be  in  London  on 
Monday  and  return  to  the  Langham.  I  don't 
know  whether  to  be  glad  or  sorry.  I  have  fairly 
begun  a  Ladies'  Club  and  induced  a  wealthy 
old  cove  to  get  them  a  room  and  give  them 
j£2o.  I  lectured  yesterday  to  a  small  and  very 
select  audience.  My  class  are  heart-broken  to 
leave  me.  There  were  two  nice  girls  in  it,  but 
all  were  nice  as  regards  work  and  being  thank- 
ful. Altogether  I  have  not  lost  my  time  here, 
and  I  have,  as  usual,  earned  my  pocket  money 
by  writing.     Some  amazement  was  expressed 

that  I  got  so  much  out  of who  is  regarded 

as  being  rather  a  cantankerous  crank,  but  Lord 
bless  you  —  the  man  is  a  rich,  very  rich  brewer. 
I  did  not  know  this,  and  when  I  lunched  with 
him  and  took  no  wine,  he  asked  me  what  I 


270    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

drank.  I  replied,  "Nothing  but  ale."  "What!" 
he  exclaimed,  "Ale!  Would  you  drink  ale 
now?"  "Only  try  me,"  was  my  reply.  Never 
did  I  see  such  admiring  delight.  "Will  you 
have,"  he  said,  "mild  or  strong?  I  can  give 
you  ale  a  year  old  —  two  years  —  up  to  four- 
teen. Can  you  drink  that  ?  I  have  ale  of  which 
I  cannot  drink  more  than  half  a  glass  without 
getting  drunk."'  "I"  —  I  replied  —  "have 
drunk  a  quart  of  Trinity  Audit  and  was  all  the 
more  sober  for  it.  It  was  done  once  before  me, 
however,  by  a  man  200  years  ago."  So  he 
brought  out  his  Fourteen  year  old,  which  bums 
in  the  fire  like  rum.  And  I  drank  3  half  pints 
of  it.  When  he  introduced  me  to  his  partner, 
he  said  I  was  the  only  man  he  ever  knew  who 
could  drink  a  quart  of  14  year  old  ale.  Last 
Sunday  he  took  me  through  his  Vavdts  and  I 
drank  and  drank  till  he  said  I  must  not  drink 
any  more.  It  made  him  and  his  Brauknecht 
laugh  to  see  me  go  back  to  finish  ofiF  my  tumbler 
of  the  strongest.  Of  course,  I  got  the  ;^2o.  It 
was  awful  to  see  how,  as  soon  as  I  merely  tasted 
a  glass,  the  rest  was  thrown  away. 

Brynge  in  goode  ale,  brynge  us  in  no  wine, 

For  if  thou  do  that,  thoa  shalt  have  Crist's  curse  and  mine ! 

He  sent  me  to  the  house  3  bottles  of  his  best. 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  271 

I  wish  I  could  earn  £flo  a  day  by  drinldng 
enough  to  floor  a  navvy. 

The  rani  sends  her  love,  and  would  kam  to 
dikk  tide  [love  to  see  you]  Monday  evening,  if 
it  be  perfectly  convenient.  Packing  to-day  — 
got  through  it  very  soon  —  I  wish  I  were  going 
to  my  own  house  in  London.  Keeping  house  on 
a  very  small  scale  and  cheaply  is,  I  think,  within 
my  intellectual  capacity.  I  shall  be  awful  glad 
to  dikk  tute  apopli  [see  you  again].  Love  to 
Joseph. 

Tiro  kokOj 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

The  winter  of  1886,  spent  in  London,  brought 
him  one  illness  after  another.  But  it  brought 
him  also  duties  for  which  he  managed  to  gather 
the  strength.  There  is  only  one  page  of  entries 
in  the  "  Journal"  for  the  winter  months  of  1886. 
But  in  it  is  no  suggestion  of  feeble  health  or 
responsibilities  shirked. 

Monday^  March  8,  1886.  Went  to  Birm- 
ingham, stayed  with  Mr.  Matthews,  lectured 
before  the  Midland  Institute  on  Algonkin  Le- 
gends. 

Tuesday.    Went  to  Wolverhampton.    Guest 


272    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

of  Mr.  Mander.  Lectured  before  Art  School 
on  Lidustrial  Art  in  Schools,  etc. 

Wednesday.  Returned  to  Binnmgham.   Staid 

with    Rev. Macarthy.     Lectured    before 

Teachers'  Institute  on  Industrial  Art  in  Schools, 
etc. 

Thursday.   Returned  to  London. 

Monday  J  March  i^th.  Dikked  B.  se  sar  tacho 
[saw  B.  and  all  is  right].  Attended  meeting  of 
Society  of  Authors,  of  which  I  am  one  of  the 
many  vice-presidents.  Mr.  Mimdella  greeted 
me  very  cordially  and  quoted  from  my  "  Brand- 
New  Ballads."  Talked  with  Besant  and  Hake, 
who  is  soon  to  edit  "The  State."  Asked  me  to 
write  for  the  first  number. 

The  notes  were  fuller  when  sunmier  came,  — 
notes  of  that  dinner  to  Lowell  and  Holmes  at 
the  Rabelais  Club,  when  "Had  much  conver- 
sation with  the  Doctor  on  Paganini  and  Rachel," 
of  all  unexpected  subjects;  of  the  Hampton 
Races,  where  I  went  with  him;  of  dinners  at 
Miss  Ingelow's  and  Mrs.  Triibner's,  and  visits 
to  Sir  Patrick  Colquhoun  —  and  how  I  wish 
the  note  of  one  of  these  visits,  on  June  22,  had 
been  amplified:  "He  told  me  when  he  first  met 
TrUbner,  then  a  yoimg  clerk  in  Campe's  book- 


IN   ENGLAND  AGAIN  273 

store  in  Hamburg.  Anecdote  of  the  Syndicus 
who  called  to  inform  Campe  that  he  should  send 
the  police  half  an  hour  later  to  search  for  Heine's 
works."  Notes  there  are,  too,  of  the  Exhibi- 
tion of  the  Home  Arts  in  Bethnal  Green,  and 
of  lecturing  before  the  Royal  Literary  Society 
on  the  Algonkin  Legends,  all  in  the  course  of 
a  day;  of  visits  to  the  British  Museum  and 
talks  there  with  Mr.  Fumivall,  "the  Shelley 
man.  He  gave  me  some  good  references  as  to 
Mediaeval  Goblins;"  of  dinners  at  Pagani's, 
and  evenings  devoted  to  Boisgobey's  novels;  of 
Fourth  of  July  receptions  at  the  American 
Minister's,  —  "saw  J.  R.  Lowell,  Dan  Bixby, 
Hyde  Clarke,  the  beautiful  Miss  Chamberlain, 
Miss  Grant,  Cyrus  Field,  H.  Lamboum,  G. 
W.  Smalley,  and  a  number  of  the  *  prominent' 
citizens  of  America;"  and,  for  contrast,  notes 
of  meetings  with  Gypsies  in  Tottenham  Court 
Road:  "Met  a  Cooper  carrying  a  roll  of  split 
canes.  Took  him  into  a  bar  and  gave  him  at 
first  a  pint  of  very  good  pale  ale.  Then  I  or- 
dered him  a  pot-quart,  which  he  begged  might 
be  two-penny,  as  he  did  not  like  any  other  kind 
as  well.  I  told- him  he  might  have  wine  if  he 
preferred  it,  but  no.  Then  he  asked  leave  to 
bring  in  a  pal  to  share  his  quart,  and  returned 


274     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

with  an  appalling  rough  who  had  prize-fighter 
of  the  lowest  stamp  in  every  feature.  This 
new  acquaintance  was  named  Stanley.  Both 
Gypsies  were,  however,  well  behaved.  I  learned 
how  to  split  the  cane,  which  was  what  I  was 
after." 

All  this  was  in  June  and  July.  By  the  end  of 
July,  he  was  on  his  way  to  Budapest,  stopping 
first  at  Heidelberg  for  the  "Great  Anniversary." 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.   R.   PENNELL 

Heidelberg,  Aug.  6th,  18S6. 

I  have  almost  got  through  a  week  of  Festivi- 
ties, and  I  really  think  the  Fest  is  awful  and  the 
Ivities  are  wuss.  I  had  rather  have  one  week  of 
the  gout  in  bed.  .  .  . 

There  is  a  stupendous  time  here  in  Heidelberg, 
a  sort  of  Dutch  version  of  the  Bicentennial  [Phil- 
adelphia, 1882]  —  and  really  not  quite  so  agree- 
able. One  evening's  dinner  in  a  hall  containing 
7  or  8  thousand  people,  half  of  them  or  four 
fifths  smoking  such — oh,  such  idtra-extra^  awful, 

infernal,  d d  bad  cigars,  with  a  big  band  and 

a  great  chorus!  The  next  evening  it  was  prettier, 
but  harder  to  endure ;  it  was  the  Illumination  of 
the  Castle  —  thousands  of  people  in  the  great 
court  and  free  wine  and  cakes  for  Everybody! 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  27S 

Such  a  spree !  It  was  beautiful  to  see,  but  oh, 
how  I  suffered,  standing  in  that  crowd,  and  all  to 
see  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  and  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Baden  —  who  were  to  be  seen  every 
half-hour  driving  about  town.  I  once  in  my 
youth  had  a  talk  with  the  present  Grand  Duke. 
But  I  have  really  enjoyed  myself  taking  lonely 
walks  in  the  country.  Yesterday  I  walked  16 
miles,  and  8  of  them  going  up  and  down  an  ex- 
ceeding high  moimtain.  On  the  summit  of  it  the 
Germans  have  rebuilt,  with  great  care  and  with 
new  stone  J  a  little  old  ruin  which  stood  there 
in  my  youth.  It  is  a  great  shame,  for  the  old 
ruin  was  all  that  was  left  of  a  very  famous  ab- 
bey in  the  early  Middle  Ages.  There  is  the 
same  destructive,  snobbish,  silly  spirit  here  as 
in  Philadelphia. 

I  am  determined  to  learn  the  new  leather  work 
if  I  have  to  go  to  Vienna,  but  I  hear  that  there 
is  a  man  in  Munich  who  understands  it.  There 
was  a  Torchlight  procession  here  last  night  —  it 

was  very  fine,  equal  to  a on  fixe  (fill  in  that 

blank  with  anything  nasty  you  can  think  of!). 
As  the  darkey  preacher  said  of  hell,  "And  de 
smells,  my  brudder — you  'd  gib  yer  whole  soul, 
if  you  'd  got  one,  to  git  jis  one  sniff  of  a  rotten 
egg!"  They  are  not  up  to  American  Kerosene 


276    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

torches  or  processions.  I  do  so  wish  that  you 
and  Joe  were  here.  I  think  I  should  really  en- 
joy Everything  if  you  were.  By  the  way,  there 
is  some  superb  work  just  in  his  line  for  him  at 
Coblentz  —  2  or  3  of  the  best  street  views  I  ever 
saw.  The  best  place  in  all  Germany,  I  hear, 
is  Rothenburg,  near  Nuremberg.  I  hope  to  visit 
it  soon.  With  best  love  to  your  husband,  in 
which  Madame  joins,  I  remain. 

Tiro  Kamlo  Koko. 

It  was  a  wonderful  summer  for  Gypsies.  He 
found  them  first  in  Nuremberg,  and  then  in 
greater  numbers  in  Vienna,  where  he  took  part 
in  the  Congress  of  Orientalists  and  read  a  paper 
on  their  origin.  It  was  at  this  Congress  that,  I 
am  afraid,  he  rather  oflEended  some  of  the  dele- 
gates by  a  "word"  that  delighted  others.  A  din- 
ner was  given  by  the  Municipality  to  the  Con- 
gress, and  as  the  doors  and  windows  were  all 
closed  in  the  banqueting  hall,  it  became  naturally 
hot  and  stufiEy.  "I  believe,"  he  said  to  Captain 
Teniple  and  Major  Grierson,  the  English  dele- 
gates, "that  if  a  German  were  sent  to  Hell,  the 
first  thing  he  would  do  would  be  to  close  the 
windows."  Which  is  not  unlike  another  sa)dng 
of  his,  to  a  man  selling  what  he  called  "brim- 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  277 

stone  allumettes/'  much  about  the  same  time. 
The  Rye  had  tried  a  dozen  and  all  had  refused 
to  bum,  —  one  knows  the  species  cultivated  in 
some  parts  of  the  Continent.  '^I  hope/'  he  told 
the  man  who  had  sold  them,  ^'I  hope  for  the  sake 
of  the  poor  souls  in  hell,  that  the  sulphur  which 
they  use  there  is  as  scant  and  bad  as  it  is  on  your 
matches."  Of  other  things  that  amused  him 
more  in  Vienna,  he  wrote  to  me:  "I  need  only 
add  in  explanation  that  my  'young  Rudi'  was 
one  of  the  Hungarian  Gypsies  I  had  seen  so 
much  of  in  Philadelphia,  in  the  smnmer  of  1883.*' 

CHARUB  GODFRKY  LBLAND  TO  B.  R.  PENNSLL 

Vienna,  Oct.  25tfa,  1886. 

Dear  Pen,  —  ...  I  walked  out  to  the  Prato 
day  before  yesterday;  it  is  about  2  miles  from 
here.  Arrived  at  the  Czardas  Caf£,  it  was  empty. 
I  made  an  essay  on  the  waiter  in  Himgarian. 
—  Hungarian  must  be  the  language  of  the  dev- 
ils, being  devilish  and  scratchy,  and,  O  Lord  — 
such  a  syntax! ...  In  a  few  minutes  came  in  my 
orchestra  of  5  Gypsies,  all  very  nice,  very  shabby, 
and  poor  fellows,  and  as  polite  as  men  can  be. 
For  an  hour  I  had  them  all  to  myself,  and  in  that 
time  they  drank  30  glasses  of  beer  (my  treat). 
By  and  by  the  leader  said,  Sing  us  any  tune  and 


278     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

we  will  play  it.  So  I  warbled  several  gypsy  songs 
and  they  at  once  played  them  perfectly  on  once 
hearing, — 3  violins,  bass  violin,  and  cimbal. 

There  came  in  a  man,  very  well  dressed  — 
better  than  I  —  a  quiet  swell  of  60  with  a  bold, 
energetic,  rather  bad  face.  The  waiter  whispered 
to  me  that  he  was  a  great  Gypsy  musician  who 
had  taken  orchestras  to  every  foreign  country.  He 
talked  Hungarian  to  the  band,  told  them  what 
to  play,  played  the  bass  viol  himself,  and  then  a 
violin  (very  swell  indeed),  and  then  explained  to 
me,  like  a  snob,  that  he  only  did  it  to  amuse 
himself  —  as  if  I  could  not  see  that  he  was  not 
one  of  this  poor  humble,  thank-you-for-a-penny 
set.  He  at  first  affected  not  to  hear  me  when  I 
addressed  him!  By  and  by  he  told  me  he  had 
been  in  America  and  showed  me  the  photograph 
of  your  young  Rudi.  He  had  an  American  $20 
and  $1  gold  piece  on  his  watch  guard.  Then 
he  went  and  I  had  my  poor  boys  again.  They 
played  me  an  air  called  the  Gorgio  tune  or  the 
Song  of  Misfortune.  But  it  was  a  very  jolly 
tune.  I  went  quite  $2  on  that  spree,  but  it  was 
worth  the  money.  The  leader  is  a  jolly  little 
fellow,  and  all  of  them  when  they  drank  waved 
their  glass  at  me  and  cried  "5(Wto"  or  ^^Sastipe*^ 
[Health.] 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  279 

Budapest,  the  next  town  in  his  travels,  was 
better  still:  more  Gypsies,  more  adventures.  His 
letters  are  like  the  letters  of  a  boy  off  on  his  first 
holiday,  rather  than  those  of  a  man  of  sixty-two, 
whose  life  had  abounded  in  variety  and  move- 
ment. The  Gypsy  ^  whose  remembrance  was  a 
great  satisfaction  to  me,  was  one  of  the  same 
Gypsy  band  who  had  played  in  Philadelphia. 

CHARLBS  GODFREY  LBLAND  TO  E.   R«   PENNELL 

BuDA  Pest,  Nov.  i6th,  1886. 

Dear  Pen,  —  It  would  take  a  time  to  tell  you 
all  I  have  seen  here.  Gypsies  I!  I  have  been 
by  moonlight  amid  Roman  ruins  with  a  whole 
camp  of  wild  Gypsies,  who  danced  and  sang — 
yea,  and  begged  —  like  lunatics.  I  have  heard 
Gypsy  bands  every  other  night  in  our  hotel  for 
two  weeks,  and  I  am  known  here,  also,  as  the 
Romany  baro  rye  —  quite  a  new  idea  to  these 
Romanys.  I  visited  some  in  their  houses  the 
other  day,  and  there  I  found  one  who  had  been 
in  Philadelphia  and  who  inquired  earnestly  after 
^(w  and  Joseph !  Me,  he  did  not  remember.  .  .  . 
I  have  had  a  long  private  audience  with  the 
Arch-Duke,  who  sent  me  a  superbly  bound  book 
and  a  long  friendly  letter;  I  have  seen  and 
been  called  on  by  the  principal  literary  men,  — 


28o     CHARLES  GODFRfiY  LELAND 

V£mb6ry,  Pulszky,  Hunfalvy,  and  Budenz, — 
and  I  have  had  remarkable  adventures  to  be 
narrated  when  we  meet,  for  which  I  have  not 
time  now.  Pest  is  a  beautiful  city  —  everybody 
almost  can  talk  German.  One  fifth  of  the  pop- 
ulation are  Jews,  and  I  should  say  that  two 
fifths  were  Slavonian  —  a  very  low,  degraded  lot 
indeed.  Wine  is  very  cheap,  cheaper  than  in 
Italy, — even  superior  sorts  in  the  hotel  are  only 
from  gd.  to  a  shilling  a  large  bottle.  The  shops 
are  very  fine,  like  those  in  Vienna  —  one  can  get 
ever3rthing  one  wants,  and  the  people  all  dress 
well.  It  is  not  like  Germany  here  in  Austria; 
the  women  are  very  pretty  and  graceful  and 
dress  neatly.  One  sees  such  numbers  of  beau- 
tiful brunettes  with  American-like  faces  and 
expressions.  I  think  you  would  enjoy  being  here 
and  gyps)dng  about  with  me.  We  have  seen 
Eugene  Schuyler  several  times,  the  first  person 
with  whom  your  aunt  has  really  talked  for  two 
weeks !  She  is  picking  up  a  great  deal  of  German. 
Hungarian  is  horrible.  Szalloda  az  Angolkiraly 
nbhaz — Hotel  of  the  Queen  of  England !  EJraly, 
King,  is  like  the  Romany  Krallis.  It  has  the 
same  root  as  my  name — Kiral-Karol-Karolus. 
No  letters  received  since  two  weeks. 

Trxo  Kamlo  Koko. 


IN   ENGLAND  AGAIN  281 

Venice  came  next,  and  Venice  delighted  him 
as  if  he  had  never  been  there  before. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNELL 

Venice,  Dec.  25thy  1886. 

Dear  Pen,  —  Yestereen  I  was  two  hours 
in  San  Marco  listening  to  the  music  and  was 
charmed  every  minute.  The  guide-book  says 
that  on  Christmas  eve  the  church  looks  as  it 
did  800  years  ago.  Returning,  I  found  a  Christ- 
mas card  from  Mary  Reath,  pretty  silver  pre- 
sents from  Mrs.  Bronson,  who  has  a  casa  three 
doors  off,  a  letter  from  a  dear  friend  in  London, 
etc.,  so  that  it  was  n't  as  bad,  even  for  people 
living  on  the  Grand  Canal  over  a  traghetto  where 
the  John  Doleers  holler  all  day  long.  God  only 
knows  what  they  row  about  —  I  mean  make  a 
row  —  that  looks  a  pun  but 't  was  n't  intended. 
As  for  anybody's  learning  Venetian,  't  is  all  hum- 
bug. I  don't  believe  there  is  any  Venetian,  it  is 
only  squalling  and  howling.  The  rani  is  dress- 
u^gy  to  go  to  Lady  Layard's  Christmas  night. 

December  26th.  Went  to  the  Layards.  It  is  a 
magnificentississime  house.  He  owns  the  great 
picture  of  Sultan  Somebody  painted  by  Gian 
Bellini,  and  has  such  superb  plate  and  bric-brbrac. 
It 's  quite  like  a  royal  palace,  one  grand  room 


282     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

after  another,  flunkeys  in  livery,  etc.  We  went 
into  San  Marco  yesterday  and  were  just  in  time 
to  see  all  the  great  relic  treasures  on  the  grand 
altar,  while  the  immense  gold  screen,  which  is 
only  shown  twice  a  year,  was  still  uncovered. 
To  my  great  amazement  and  joy,  they  let  me 
in  to  examine  it  closely,  and  I  did  so.  It  is  wan- 
dander  full.  I  wish  I  could  see  it  often  and  long. 
The  sun  was  shining  in  on  the  gold  mosaics  — 
such  a  ckiarascura  I  and  the  church  full  of  peo- 
ple in  their  holiday  garb. 

There  was  a  very  nice  New  Yorker  here  the 
other  day  —  he  is  also  a  practising  lawyer  in 
Paris.  I  found  him  very  clever.  I  showed  him 
some  of  my  designs,  and  he  at  once  said  that  they 
were  exactly  in  the  style  of  some  he  had  seen  in 
the  "Art  Journal"  in  an  article  on  brass  work, 
very  singular  and  Byzantine-looking.  That  is, 
he  had  seen  some  of  mine  already.  ...  Do  you 
know  I  find  that  people  nowadays  don't  laak 
at  pictures,  as  they  used  to  do  —  i.  e.  as  chil- 
dren look  inla  them. 

Nowada)^,  they  only  see  them.  They  only 
siee  everything,  —  pictures,  books,  life  itself. 
Decorative  art  is  esteemed  for  the  general  im- 
pression or  feeling  which  it  gives,  a  man  or 
woman  for  the  collective  result  of  looks  and 


IN   ENGLAND  AGAIN  283 

character  —  the  modem  American  realists  are 
really  writing  novels  to  suit  this  heedless,  hur- 
ried, popular,  vulgar,  half-educated  taste.  It  en- 
courages correctness,  because  no  fault  must  strike 
the  eye  and  offend  it,  but  it  utterly  kills  original- 
ity and  inspiration  and  all  that  Nature  indulges 
in  as  to  caprice.  To  it,  a  tin  pan,  perfectly 
finished  by  machinery  and  giving  the  general 
impression  of  being  well  made  and  polished,  is 
far  more  attractive  than  an  Etruscan  or  neo- 
Celtic  bronze.  I  meet  very  few  people  who  are 
not  really  under  its  influence. 

We  have  nice  weather  here  —  more  than 
half  the  days  are  sunshine  —  to-day  is  so,  and 
so  was  yesterday.  I  have  been  translating  some 
Gypsy  stories  for  the  "  St.  Nicholas."  They  are 
like  the  Grinmi  tales,  but  milder,  and  some- 
times like  the  Indian.  Mrs.  Brown  is  as  piquante 
as  ever  in  her  letters. 

I  have  not  space  for  all  the  letters  from 
Venice  diuing  January  and  February.  But  I 
pick  out  a  passage  here  and  there.  "Brown" 
is  Horatio  Brown,  author  of  "Life  on  the  La- 
goons." The  "marvellous  coincidence"  refers 
to  the  fact  that  I  was  just  writing  —  or  had 
really  finished,  if  I  remember,  so  that  I  could 


284    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

not  use  his  suggestions  —  an  article  on  the 
vulgarisation  of  ''Faust"  in  London,  begun  at 
the  Lyceum,  and  carried  to  the  lowest  depths, 
just  then,  in  the  Penny  Gaffs  of  the  New  Cut 
and  the  side  shows  of  the  Country  Fair. 

Venice,  Jan.  9th,  1887:  I  am  much  obliged 
for  the  notice  in  the  "American,"  it  is  n*t  really 
the  pride  of  seeing  oneself  in  print,  or  of  con- 
ceiting that  one  is  somebody  print-worthy,  that 
pleases  me  so  much,  as  the  feeling  that  I.  am 
remembered  at  home,  that  there  will  be  a  lot 
of  people  who  will  have  me  called  to  mind  by 
the  Paragraph,  eniin  that  one  has  a  home-city. 
Your  joys  are  my  joys,  —  O  figlia  mia,  your 
successes  my  successes,  your  glories  in  type 
are  my  glories.  You  never  saw  the  time  when 
I  would  n't  esteem  it  a  pleasure  to  give  you 
my  best  ideas  —  and  I  am  glad  that  the  "  Con- 
temporary" accepts  you  as  of  course  —  so  mote 
it  be  forever.  .  .  . 

I  dined  with  the  rOnij  night  before  last,  at  Sir 
Henry  Layard's,  and  Brown  was  there.  He  is 
one  of  the  most  agreeable,  refined,  sympathetic, 
well-read,  earnest  young  men  I  ever  met,  and  I 
took  a  great  liking  to  him,  even  before  he  praised 
your  book.    I  know  that  he  is  modest  because 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  285 

he  seemed  so  unaffectedly  surprised  and  pleased 
when  I  asked  him  to  call  on  me. 

Another  marvellous  coincidence.  Last  night 
we  were  in  the  Fenice  by  the  invitation  of  the 
Duke  and  Duchess  of  Cafaro,  our  fellow  board- 
ers. The  opera  was  Mefistofele,  and  I  made 
observations  on  the  extraordinary  manner  in 
which  Faust  is  being  vulgarised.  I  thought  that 
Goimod  had  squeezed  every  drop  of  refine- 
ment, meaning,  or  sense  out  of  Faust,  but  the 
Italian  Bolto  has  shown  that  there  are  sev- 
eral rows  of  depths  below  depths  —  like  the 
prisms  in  the  Doge's  Palace  —  of  common- 
place idiocy.  When  I  say  the  rani,  who  takes 
most  things  easily,  was  scandalised  at  the  ap- 
palling flatness  and  silliness  of  the  affair,  I 
have  said  enough.  For  God's  sake  add  this 
instance  in  your  proofs.  And  the  acting  was 
so  perfectly  in  keeping  —  a  giggling,  grinning 
Margaret  in  very  high  heels  —  and  oh,  "te 
s^iuction,^^  as  the  Duchess  called  it,  in  which 
Faust  woos  like  a  brisk  young  coimtry  shop- 
man, and  Margaret  behaves  like  a  fast  shop- 
girl of  the  lowest  type.  I  don't  mean  "im- 
morality," but  vulgarity  of  conception  of  the 
part.  You  may  quote  from  my  remarks  if  you 
like.    It  would  be  well  to  say  that  the  using 


286    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

cheap  librettos  and  bad  texts  by  opera,  etc. 
managers  goes  far  to  ruin  public  taste.  ...  I 
am  vexed  to  hear  about  a  new  translation  of 
the  "Reisebilder,"  because,  if  I  had  offered  to 
revise  mine  for  Bohn,  he  would  have  taken  it. 
As  the  men  came  into  the  box  last  night,  and 
were  introduced  to  us,  it  seemed  quite  like  read- 
ing a  page  from  the  "Libro  d'Oro"  or  the 
Italian  chapter  of  the  "Almanach  de  Gotha:" 
all  titles,  except  one  artist,  and  I  daresay  he  had 
a  Countship  or  a  Marquisate  somewhere  in 
his  pockets.  The  Duchess,  as  usual,  came  out 
in  all  the  glory  of  fresh  solitaires ;  this  time  her 
ear-rings  were  diamonds  as  big  as  hickory  nuts. 
She  is  a  bride  and  appears  to  have  been  trous- 
seaued  with  about  a  peck  of  the  finest  stones  in 
Eiurope.  Anything  she  wears  would  have  bought 
a  whole  county  in  Virginia  within  my  recollection. 

VenicCj  Feb.  6th,  1887.  It  seems  to  me  that 
to  be  an  artist  in  Venice  is  to  be  as  utterly  de- 
void of  inventiveness  and  originality  as  to  sub- 
ject as  a  human  being  can  well  be.    We  went 

the  other  day  to  Mr. 's;  of  course  the  R.  A. 

had  on  his  canvas  the  old  thing,  a  young  Ve- 
netian of  the  lower  class  talking  to  two  girls, 
one  of  whom  looks  arch.  Such  a  lot  of  the  most 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  287 

commonplace  rural  Americans  as  we  have  here 
now!  What  do  they  travel  for?  What  I  most 
marvel  at  is  that  not  one  in  twenty  takes  the 
pains  to  learn  a  single  word  of  Italian  before 
coming,  and  very  few  can  so  much  as  ask  Quanto. 
They  all  go  for  the  guide-book;  pictures  — 
pictures  —  pictures.  Because  other  people  have 
established  it  as  the  thing  to  do.  The  older  I 
grow,  the  less  I  care  for  pictures  made  by  man, 
and  the  more  I  live  in  those  painted  and  formed 
by  Nature.  The  second  stage  of  this  freedom 
is  to  admire  views  which  are  like  pictures  —  the 
highest  of  all  is  to  get  all  pictures  entirely  out 
of  your  head.  Ruskin  has  not  as  yet  achieved 
the  last  —  but  there  is  an  age  coming  when  the 
best  Raphaels  will  be  only  historical  curiosities. 
Of  this  I  am  sure.  I  feel  it  in  me.  I  don*t  care 
for  endless  repetitions  of  the  Holy  Wet  Nurse 
Maternal  idea,  or  of  saints  who  represent  a  very 
disagreeable  phase  of  mere  idle  superstition, 
now  obsolete,  and  as  little  do  I  care  that  this 
or  that  man  attained  to  a  greater  or  less  degree 
of  skill  or  inspiration.  It  is  worth  something 
to  see  and  know  it,  but  it  is  not  worth  a  thou- 
sandth part  of  what  Ruskin  and  the  aesthetics 
think  it  is.  Suppose  Raphael  did  paint  a  Vir- 
gin —  very  well.    Well  —  he  did  it  and  there- 


288    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

with  basta  I  One  can  see  many  women  as  beau- 
tiful, or  rather  with  the  far  greater  beauty  of 
life  and  soul,  every  day,  and  I  had  rather  see 
one  of  them  than  all  the  pictures  in  Italy. 
Truly,  I  am  getting  tired  of  galleries.  I  see  from 
afar,  yet  coming  rapidly,  a  great  new  age  when 
Humanity  will  be,  so  to  speak,  the  subject  of  Art 
—  yea.  Art  itself ,  when  the  tuzymuzy  and  rap- 
tures and  ineflfability,  etc.,  will  be  given  to  life 
and  not  to  its  weak  imitations.  Just  imagine 
all  the  money  and  time  and  thought  now  given 
to  Art  directed  to  Education  and  Humanity! 
As  I  wrote,  we  hope  to  get  away  in  a  few  days 
to  Florence.  I  want  to  go  to  some  place  where 
there  is  more  than  one  walk  in  the  open  air. 

Venice,  Feb.  i6th,  1887.  The  want  I  feel 
here  is  company.  There  are  people  and  peo- 
ple, but  not  the  people  —  no  pals,  no  nobody 
(I  call  there  —  there  are  plenty  of  Nobodies). 
The  police  have  tried  to  find  me  Gypsies,  but 
they  cannot  discover  any  —  *t  is  n't  in  them,  I 
suspect,  to  know  how  to  do  it.  Altogether  I 
think  that  Florence  may  be  livelier.  .  •  . 

Florence,  however,  had  its  own  drawbacks, 
chiefly  tourists.    But  the  references  to  6nc-a- 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  289 

brae  shops  show  one  way  in  which  Florence  was, 
eventually,  to  make  life  there  not  only  possible, 
but  enchanting. 

charles  godprey  lrlani)  to  b.  r.  pennell 

Paoli's  Private  Hotel, 
LuNO  Arno,  Florence,  Feb.  24th,  1887. 

Dear  Pen,  —  We  have  been  here  at  this 
house  90  francs  worth,  i.  e.  four  days  at  20 
francs  a  day  for  both,  and  10  francs  extras.  That 
is,  we  have  a  large  fine  room  with  a  good-sized 
dressing-room,  very  fine  furniture,  board,  wine 
included,  and  a  very  nice  reading-room  with 
the  "Times,"  "Telegraph,"  etc.,  all  for  10 
francs  a  day  each.  The  house  is  on  the  Amo, 
rather  away  from  the  Ponte  Vecchio  centre, 
near  Santa  Croce.  Company  nearly  all  English 
ladies,  about  20  to  i  or  2  men,  very  respectful, 
indeed.  Food,  very  good  —  we  had  a  dish  yes- 
terday all  of  truffles  and  mushrooms,  and  good 
roast  beef  and  turkey.  Very  little  fish.  We  have 
an  open  wood  fire ;  it  costs  about  2  francs  a  day. 
To-day  is  sunshiny  and  lovely.  I  am  afraid 
myself  that  Italy  will  keep  me  a  great  deal  away 
from  England,  firstly,  because  another  winter 
there  would  probably  break  me  down  utterly 
for  life.   Secondly,  because  we  can  live  here  so 


290    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

much  cheaper.  But  I  miss  London  sadly.  I 
have  just  received  an  invitation  to  attend  the 
Conference  of  the  Society  of  Authors  and  hear 
Besant  speak,  and  I  have  many  things  to  do 
which  must  be  done  there. 

Wood  costs  here  2.50  (francs)  a  basket.  I 
bought  a  beautiful  carved  wood  Pietd  —  Virgin 
and  dead  Christ  —  in  Venice  last  week,  i6th 
century  —  for  12  fcs.  So  I  said,  at  the  price, 
it  would  be  about  as  cheap  to  bum  Virgins  as 
firewood.  .  .  .  Bric-h-brac  is  cheap  here,  but 
principally  because  the  great  swarm  of  tour- 
ists are  so  utterly  ignorant  of  everything  except 
photographs  (how  I  hate  the  whole  d — d  lot  of 
'em),  lavas,  corals,  brass  lamps,  and  gondola 
horses.  But  I  know  where  to  buy  a  stamped- 
leather  fifteenth-century  Virgin  for  40  francs,  for 
which  I  would  have  given  $40  in  America  —  and 
so  forth.  Oh  that  I  were  rich!  We  all  say  so  — 
but  everybody  don't  want  hric-a-braCj  and  parch- 
ment-bound books  on  palmistry,  and  old  amber, 
and  little  old  silver  crucifixes  as  badly  as  I  do. 
If  you  were  here,  you  and  Giusepe  (it  is  spelt 
with  one  p  on  a  pearl  shell  portrait  of  St.  J.  in 
my  possession),  I  would  be  quite  contented. 

I  am  greatly  tempted  to  publish  my  work  on 
Education  at  my  own  expense.    It  is  a  deep, 


IN  ENGLAND  AGAIN  291 

serious  grief  to  me  that  such  a  work,  worth  a 
thousand  times  over  all  I  ever  wrote,  camiot 
find  a  publisher.  I  am  quite  willing  to  guarantee 
a  publisher  against  loss,  but  I  cannot  find  one 
who  will  do  it  on  such  terms. 

Well,  there  are  spots  in  the  sun,  and  of  our 
spots  there  are  40  —  English  tourist  boarders. 
Heine  says  of  the  Tyrolese  that  they  are  of 
inscrutable  narrowness  of  mind  —  these  people 
are  of  fathomless  and  boundless  Anglo-Philis- 
tinism. Across  the  sandy  desert  of  their  brains, 
there  never  yet  wandered  the  ghost  of  a  joke  or 
the  camel  of  an  idea.  Oh  for  Buda  Pest  and  its 
Gypsies,  and  literati^  and  Slavonians,  and  Him- 
garian  good  fellows!  This  is  not  my  first  visit 
to  Italy;  therefore  divine  Florence  is  not  what 
it  was  once,  though  I  get  a  decent  glass  of  beer 
every  afternoon.  At  first  I  always  had  it  very 
bad  because  I  went  to  decent  places,  but  I  have 
found  an  unutterably  low  and  vulgar  slum  where 
it  is  very  good  and  costs  a  penny  less.  So  it  goes 
in  life,  advantages  and  disadvantages  counter- 
balancing and  balancing.  This  morning  I  was 
awakened  at  4  o'clock  by  a  lot  of  dirty  little 
blackbirds  and  thrushes  and  things  warbling 
in  the  trees,  and  here  I  have  been  wishing  for 


292    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Spring  to  come!  It  is  bad  enough  to  have  the 
bells  of  Santa  Croce  at  six  o'clock,  and  yet  there 
are  people  who  would  like  to  hear  them! 

In  Santa  Croce's  darned  old  towers  ring 

Bells  which  do  make  them  damder,  then  I  wake 

In  wrath  and  dam  myself  to  sleep  again. 

It  is  amusing  to  observe  how  all  these  rum- 
fustifoozles  of  tourists,  who  never  had  an  idea 
in  their  lives  about  a  picture  or  anjrthing  except 
their  clothes  and  victuals,  go  wild  about  Raphael 
and  Perugino,  and  see  every  picture  and  criti- 
cise it  —  as  if  they  had  been  fed  on  paint  all 
their  lives.  I  must  get  out  of  this  country.  I 
want  to  meet  with  some  people  to  learn  some- 
thing from  —  this  doing  all  the  preaching  and 
teaching  makes  a  prig  of  a  man.  There  is  a 
Captain  Ward  here,  a  handsome  man  of  30  who 
knows  all  about  minor  arts,  and  I  should  except 
him  from  the  others.  He  has  a  furnace  in  his 
house  to  bake  pottery.  I  wonder  that  any  man 
can  ever  become  an  artist  in  Italy  —  there  is 
such  a  want  of  thought  here.  And  nobody  does 
that  I  can  see, — it  is  the  same  old  painting  of 
models  as  two  peasants  and  a  dog,  a  gondolier 
and  two  girls,  a  "bit,"  or  some  such  rubbish 
as  N's  ghostly  green  gray  girls  and  withered 
salad  scenery,  with  green  baize  meadows. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

««IN  AN  ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT" 

The  summer  of  1887  saw  the  Rye  back  again 
in  England.  And  what  a  year  followed!  His 
"Practical  Education"  was  published,  the  book 
in  which  he  elaborated  his  method  of  develop- 
ing quickness  of  perception  and  memory.  The 
Gypsy  Lore  Society  was  launched.  His  "  Gypsy 
Sorcery"  was  written.  The  "Dictionary  of 
Sl^ng  "  was  in  full  swing,  and  no  work  could 
have  been  more  congenial.  The  untouched 
b3rways  of  language,  as  of  belief,  were  "his 
favourite  paths,"  and  he  loved  strange  words 
as  truly  as  strange  people.  What  this  last  alone 
cost  him  in  time  and  work,  the  pile  of  letters 
from  the  men  whose  collaboration  he  secured, 
or  tried  to  secure,  would  tell  me  if  I  did  not 
know.  He  was  in  active  correspondence  with 
Maudsley  and  Francis  Galton,  —  the  two  men, 
he  felt,  who  had  done  most  to  influence  him  in 
developing  his  educational  theories,  —  with  old 
friends  like  Dr.  Holmes  and  Walter  Pollock, 
with  Horace  Howard  Fumess,  Cable,  Horatio 


294     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Hale,  Colonel  Higginson,  Lowell,  Lafcaxiio 
Heaxn,  Max  Miiller,  De  Cosson,  Egerton  Castle 
—  with  every  distinguished  man,  I  might  al- 
most say,  who  was  an  authority  on  any  one 
special  subject.  The  contributors  to  "  Johnson's 
Cyclopaedia"  did  not  present  a  more  impres- 
sive or  a  longer  list  of  names.  With  Mr.  Bar- 
rfere,  his  fellow-editor,  he  was,  at  times,  in  al- 
most daily  communication.  For  months  this 
was  the  most  engrossing  subject  of  his  letters 
to  me,  from  London,  from  Brighton,  from  Hom- 
burg.  I  give  one  or  two  in  full  and  extracts 
from  others  which  —  I  think  —  follow  the  pro- 
gress of  his  various  tasks,  of  his  first  serious 
trouble  in  connection  with  the  Dictionary,  of  his 
movements,  his  recreations,  and  of  the  drift  of 
his  thoughts,  without  any  further  word  from  me. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  S.   R.   PENNELL 

Portland  Place,  London,  W., 
June  28th,  1887. 

Deak  Pen,  —  I  write  with  my  friend  the 
King,  to  my  right.  Yes  —  a  royal  personage, 
albeit  he  is  black,  and  not  a  very  great  mon- 
arch, for  he  is  the  Eang  of  Yoruba  in  Africa. 
As  we  found  we  had  a  friend  in  common  — 
King  George  of  Bonney  —  we  got  acquainted. 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    295 

There  is  another  much  more  magnificent  po- 
tentate here  —  Holkar  the  Maharajah  —  the 
many  millionaire  —  who  gives  himself  a  million 
airs  too  —  he  is  really  no  end  of  a  swell  in  his 
high  colours  and  Cashmere  shawl  and  kin- 
cobs.  H.  M.  of  Yoruba  tells  me  that  a  great 
many  of  his  people  are  Mahometans  and  know 
Arabic. 

I  am  much  obliged  for  the  "Critic."  Jubilee 
time  was  awful,  but  the  multitude  enjoyed  it. 
I  had  a  call  yesterday  from  Francis  Galton, 
and  a  note  from  Maudsley  saying  that  he  could 
not  be  able  to  attend  my  lecture  before  the 
Royal  British  Society  of  Literature.  I  am  busy 
helping  the  Whittakers  with  a  Slang  Diction- 
ary. It  is  to  be  on  a  grand  scale.  .  .  .  Lord 
Kerr  has  done  the  pictures  for  my  book,  and 
I  think  Whittakers  will  take  it.  I  have  got 
three  books  to  review  for  the  "Saturday,"  and 
I  am  finishing  up  a  collection  of  Gypsy  sto- 
ries. •  .  . 

I  have  such  a  lot  of  adventures  to  narrate  of 

my  last  year's  experiences !  I  have  not  seen 
Annie  Dymes,  she  was  done  up  with  work  and 
went  to  France  before  I  arrived.  The  Home 
Arts  has  received  £650  from  some  imknown 
benefactor.  ,  addressing  the   Duchess   of 


296    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Teck  before  my  face,  said  that  some  people  got 
together  and  started  it  among  them.  A  nice 
reward  that  for  absolutely  inaugurating  it!  I 
suppose  he  thought  I  was  magnificently  rewarded 
by  being  called  up  to  make  a  bow  to  the  Duchess. 
This  was  at  the  opening  of  the  Exhibition.  .  . 

BrightoNi  i6,  Oriental  Place, 
Dec.  12, 1887. 

Dear  Pen,  — ...  Ain't  I  busy?  The  Great 
Slang  Die.  2dly  A  Great  Die.  of  Americanisms. 
3.  A  Die.  of  Yiddish,  Gypsy,  Pidgin,  etc.  4thly, 
Proofs  of  "Practical  Education."  5.  A  new 
series  of  Art  Manuals  —  involving  an  awful  lot 
of  drawing.  6.  "  Gypsy  Tales,"  which  my  pub- 
lisher hopes  to  get  another  man  to  take.  And 
when  all  these  are  done,  I  have  promised  to 
translate  a  German  novel! 

I  met  Herman  Merivale  yesterday;  he  wants 
me  to  work  with  him  to  get  up  a  G)rpsy  play. 
I  hear  of  you  more  in  the  newspapers  all  the 
time.  Why  don't  you  write  a  velocipeding 
novel  ?  The  tips  are  all  in  that  book  by  the  fel- 
low who  went  round  the  world  and  in  your  own 
—  you  could  bring  in  all  the  sights  in  the  world. 
Pursued  by  Brigands  ;  Escaping  a  Prairie  Fire  ; 
Running  Away  from  a  Lion,  —  of  course  the 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    297 

hero  first  invents  a  marvellous  tricycle.    The 
sooner  you  make  it  up  the  better.  .  • 

Brighton,  Dec  23d,  1887. 

•  .  .  And  my  ^^  Practical  Education"  is  ^ff/ed. 
All  I  ever  wrote  in  all  my  life  is  a  grain  of 
dust  to  it.  It  may  not  be  imderstood  now  — 
but  when  I  am  no  more,  it  will  Uve  in  some 
form.  Vedretal  .  .  .  [Others  thought  so  too. 
I  quote  again  from  York  Powell's  obituary 
notice:  ''His  views  on  education  I  have  not 
to  do  with  here,  but  I  may  spend  a  line  in  re- 
cording my  belief  in  the  soundness  of  their 
tendency,  and  to  notice  that  the  opinion  of 
experts,  both  here  and  on  the  Continent^  is  in 
their  favour."] 

Brighton,  Maj  12th,  188S. 

We  are  getting  ahead  with  the  Slang  Die- 
tionary.  I  wrote  to  Dr.  Holmes,  offering  him 
)^2o  to  write  something  in  the  Yankee  dialect, 
and  hope  to  get  a  lot  of  contributions. 

If  you  can  think  of  anything  American  which 
could  go  into  the  work  pray  tell  me.  I  intend 
to  have  at  the  end  a  collection  of  American 
recipes  for  pumpkin  pie,  cranberry  sauce,  and 
a  few  other  national  dishes.    Suggest  same.    I 


298    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

want  Creole-French  contributions  —  Canadian 
ditto  —  everything  of  the  kind.  I  am  putting 
in  the  old  nigger  songs  —  the  "Star-Spangled 
Banner,"  etc. 

What  kinds  of  folk-lore  can  you  think  of? 

In  the  mainy  it  will  be  a  dictionary  like  Bart- 
lett's  —  but  there  will  be  a  wider  range,  more 
anecdotes  and  poems  —  and  a  great  deal  more 
etymology  —  Anglo-Saxon,  Norse,  and  Dutch. 
It  will  be  a  deeper  and  a  broader  book. 

Langham  Hotel,  London,  June  9th,  1888. 

Enclosed,  please  find  a  letter  to  Cable  (not 
by  wire).  I  have  ofiFered  him  $50.  Read  the 
letter.  I  think  it  fair,  but  I  would  give  him 
something  more  rather  than  lose  him.  If  you 
think  that  $50  will  fetch  him,  well  and  good. 
If  he  has  only  at  hand  any  vocabulary  of  Creole 
French,  or  any  collection  of  stories  or  poems  in 
it,  he  can  make  the  contribution  up  out  of  hand. 
Or  he  can  get  any  friend  to  do  it  all  and  revise 
it,  and  see  that  it  is  all  right.  Pray  write  to  him 
and  try  to  interest  him. 

Langham  Hotel,  London,  June  24, 1888. 

The  cycling  defs.  are  first  rate.  You  and 
J could  save  yourself  trouble  and  time 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    299 

and  make  copy  faster  by  increasing  the  size  and 
number  of  your  quotations.  .  .  .  Sling  in  a 
great  deal  of  poetry. 

I  was  at  Mrs.  TrUbner's  to  dine  yesterday. 
There  was 

Sinnett,  the  Theosophist, 

Mrs.  H.  W.  Burnett, 

Genevieve  Ward, 

Mrs.  L.  C.  Moulton, 

The  man  who  wrote  that  queer  novel  about 
Venus  [Anstey], 

Pretty  Miss  Hall, 

And  several  more  —  every  one  a  book-maker. 
And  being  all  shop,  we  got  on  very  well.  I  had 
a  long  talk  on  Theosophy  with  Sinnett,  who 
talks  very  well  and  clearly. 

Whenever  you  can  contrive  to  tell  why  a  word 
is  so-called,  do  so.  E.  g.  Bicycle,  from  6w,  notice 
as  shown  in  such  words  as  bi-normal,  bi-ennial, 
and  cycle.  Mark  all  your  quotations  1.  c.  to 
show  that  they  are  to  be  set  in  smaller  type. 

Don't  let  all  this  bother  you. 

Freybbrg's  Hotel,  Homburg  v.  d.  Hohe, 

Aug.  13th,  1888. 

I  have  just  received  your  letter,  and  an  hour 
before  it  the  awful  news  that  my  publisher. 


300    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

May,  was  probably  drowned  about  ten  days 
ago.  He  went,  with  a  friend  in  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
out  in  a  small  boat,  and  stood  5  miles  out  to 
sea.  Night  and  storm  came,  and  nothing  has 
since  been  heard  from  them.  This  is  bad  enough. 
He  had  only  just  about  a  month  since  become 
the  proprietor  and  head  of  the  Whittaker  firm. 
Now  everything  is  in  confusion,  for  nobody  knows 
who  is  his  legal  successor.  Mr.  Bell  of  Bohn's 
was  always  supposed  to  back  him,  and  he  writes 
to  me  the  news.  I  am  awfully  shocked  by  it. 
May  was  very  ambitious,  and  he  had  great  faith 
in  me.  And  we  had  such  a  nmnber  of  books 
projected.  I  do  not  know  how  long  we  may 
remain  here.  Your  Axmt  is  getting  better  but 
slowly  —  the  place  is  pleasant. 

I  can't  write  any  more.  This  news  is  too  much 
for  me.  I  received  Col.  Higginson's  articles.  They 
were  of  immense  value  and  interest  to  me.  I  at 
once  wrote,  imploring  him  to  contribute,  or 
to  touch  them  over  for  the  Dictionary. 

HoMBURG,  Sept  I,  1888. 

Deae  Pen,  —  When  I^m  in  trouble,  you 
are  always  there,  and  your  letter  was  a  great 
comfort  to  me.  However  the  clouds  are  break- 
ing and  things  look  better.  I  think  that  Mr,  Bell, 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    301 

the  publisher,  will  carry  the  Dictionary  through 

—  he  only  wants  a  few  months  to  square  ac- 
counts. I  am  glad  to  learn  that  the  Thames 
was  a  success.  .  .  .  Deutsch  is  getting  to  be 
second  nature  with  me  here.  I  can  talk  with  the 
peasants  as  easily  as  with  anybody.  I  have 
twice  walked  6|  Stunde  in  one  day  (a  Stunde  is 
4J  miles  —  vide  the  glossary  to  "  Hans  Breit- 
mann  ").  So  I  have  talked  much  with  the  Pheas- 
ants. You  would  be  amazed  to  hear  your  Aunt 
talk.  It  is  Pidgin,  but  she  has  access  to  a  shilling 
vocabulary  and  really  talks!  Dot  ist  de  most 
woondervoll  ding  as  nefer  was.  I  am  preparing 
a  new  edition  of  Breitmann  with  additions,  to 
be  dedicated  to  the  late  N.  Triibner — also  at 
work  on  a  collection  of  Gypsy  sorcery,  spells, 
charms,  and  fortime-telling.  It  will  be  full  of 
folk-lore.  Your  Aunt  is  much  better  as  regards 
walking,  but  still  suffers  a  great  deal  with  gout 

—  sometimes  her  hands  are  swelled  up.  No- 
thing the  matter  with  me  but  a  complete  loss 
of  appetite.  I  don't  care  to  eat  anything  except 
breakfast.  I  can't  understand  it.  I  have  bought 
3  oz.  of  quinine  tinct.,  with  bitter  orange  bark. 
They  keep  it  here  for  the  English.  The  Ger- 
mans use  it  so  little  that  it  is  not  in  their  phar- 
macopoeia. .  .  . 


302    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Such  a  lovely  book  just  from  America  — 
"Les  Chansons  Populaires  de  Canada,"  with 
the  airs.  Another  on  the  popular  names  of 
birds,  and  a  third  on  Indian  dialects.  I  shall 
give  several  Canadian  French  songs  in  my  Dic- 
tionary.  They  are  simply  charming. 

C'^tait  un  vieux  sauvage, 
Tout  noir,  tout  barbouill^ 

Ouich-ka ! 
Avec  sa  vielle  couverte, 
£t  son  sac  k  tabac, 

Ouich-ka ! 
Ah  ah  —  tenaouich  —  tenaga 
Tenaouich,  tenaga  ouich-ka ! 

Is  n't  that  too  sweet! 

We  see  the  Prince  of  Wales  very  often  and 
all  kind  of  swells,  and  are  getting  to  be  "so  d — d 
genteel,"  as  the  archbishop's  wife  said  to  the 
Queen,  that  I  expect  we  shall  soon  expire  alto- 
gether of  sheer  dignity. 

The  next  letter  is  from  Vienna,  where  his 
old  friends,  the  Gypsies,  need  no  new  intro- 
duction. But  the  few  words  about  "Werner" 
do  not  altogether  express  the  pleasure  the  Rye 
had  in  meeting  him,  and  the  reason  for  it.  He 
was  Dr.  Carl  Werner,  the  authority  on  edu- 
cation, who  had  taken  a  keen  interest  in  the 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT  303 

Philadelphia  school,  in  the  Washington  pam- 
phlet, in  the  lecture  on  Eye-Memory,  the  book 
on  "Practical  Education,"  and  who  was  so 
frequent  a  correspondent  —  so  welcome  a  cor- 
respondent, I  might  add  —  that  his  letters,  of 
themselves,  make  a  good-sized  packet. 

charles  godfrey  lbland  to  e.  r.  pennbll 

18  Landesgerichtstrasse,  Vienna, 
Oct.  I  St,  1888. 

Dear  Pen,  —  Here  we  are  again  in  our  old 
quarters,  quite  at  home.  Your  poor  Aunt  Belle 
still  suffers  very  much  with  gout,  especially  in 
her  hands.  Homburg  did  her  very  little  good. 
We  had  sauerkraut  and  sausages  for  lunch 
to-day,  especially  on  my  account.  My  appetite 
is  better  than  it  has  been  for  months  and  I  get 
enough  to  gratify  it.  I  wish  you  were  here  to  loaf 
with  us,  for  Vienna  is  a  city  of  cafes  and  beer 
houses  —  and  I  can  every  day  find  a  band  of 
Gypsies  who  would  worship  you.  I  went  out  to 
my  old  haunt,  the  Czardas  cafe  in  the  Prater. 
And  when  the  dark  Bohemian-faced  head  waiter 
saw  me,  he  cried  in  amazement  Pane  Leland  ! 
(which  proved  him  to  be  a  Bohemian),  and  a 
Gypsy  by  his  side  ejaculated  Baro  devlis  I  And 
in  ten  minutes  I  had  the  whole  set  round  me 


304     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

at  a  table,  every  one  with  a  double  glass  of  beer, 
talking.  By  and  by  they  began  to  play,  and  oh! 
my  Pen  —  haw  they  played  the  bird  song  for 
me !  I  never  in  my  life  was  so  charmed  with  mu- 
sic. It  was  a  regular  spree  and  cost  me  $2.  To 
be  sure,  my  friend  the  head-waiter  cheated  me 
immensely  as  usual  —  but  I  had  the  money's 
worth.  One  man,  as  soon  as  he  spoke,  hummed 
two  tunes  which  he  had  heard  me  hum  once  two 
years  ago ! 

I  have  written  a  long  article  in  German  on 
Folk-lore  for  the  "  Ethnologische  Mittheilungen  " 
and  have  just  sent  oflF  a  poem  to  the  "  Fliegende 
Blatter."  Elizabeth,  I  am  very  much  afraid  that 
your  uncle  is  coming  out  as  a  distinguished 
German  poet  and  essayist.  I  send  you  a  copy  of 
the  poem  and  beg  you  to  note  the  lines,  — 

£r  sang  wie  die  grausame  Liebe, 
Persdnlich  das  Hen  serbricht. 

I  have  half  finished  a  book  on  Gypsy  Sorcery, 
etc.,  and  am  promised  a  mine  of  material  in 
Budapest,  where  I  hope  to  be  in  a  month.  My 
friend  Prof.  Herrmann  is  overjoyed  at  expecting 
to  see  me. 

I  have  had  a  regular  stunning  2  column  almost 
article  in  the  "N.  Y.  Tribune,"  review  of  my 
"Practical  Education."  Such  out  and  out  praise 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    305 

—  and  it  was  wonderfully  well  written.  Also  the 
"School  Journal"  praised  me  as  I  never  was 
praised  before  —  I  have  given  kreutzers  to 
beggars  ever  since. 

It  is  funny  to  feel  so  much  at  home  as  I  do 
here  in  this  far  distant  town.  Vienna  seems  half 
way  to  the  East,  and  there  is  an  office  here  for 
Constantinople.  I  met  a  solenm,  stupid,  old 
Turk  going  along  a  day  or  two  ago  in  full  Orien- 
tal dress.  I  am  doing  a  little  at  the  Bohemian 
language.  Pepchra  means  "it  is  b^inning  to 
rain"  (which  it  is).  One  of  my  Gjrpsies  speaks 
six  languages,  such  as  Croat,  Slovak,  Czech, 
Bulgarian,  Serb,  Magyar.  What  an  awful  invest- 
ment of  Sprachrtalent  I  I  dare  say  you  would 
find  out  in  five  minutes  that  he  and  you  had 
friends  in  common. 

We  were  in  Salzburg,  where  I  saw  Werner. 
He  has  a  pleasant  face  and  a  good  kind  heart, 
and  a  nice  innocent  old  German  wife  —  as  naive 
and  kind  as  can  be.  You  would  like  the  family 
very  much.  The  town  is  very  picturesque  and 
has  a  fine  Museum.  There  was  also  open  a  very 
large  loan  collection  of  antiquities.  In  the  arch- 
bishop's old  palace  there  were  two  chambers 
of  torture.  We  saw  in  Munich  an  awful  collec- 
tion of  instruments  for  torture.  Also  the  Exhibi- 


306     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

tion  of  Art  work  and  of  Pictures.  In  Salzburg, 
I  saw  seven  iron  monuments  —  over  the  seven 
wives  of  one  man  —  and  he  had  tickled  them 
all  to  death.  The  peasants  all  round  Salzbuig 
wear  the  Tyrolese  dress.  There  is  no  end  to  the 
beauty  of  the  country,  which  is  very  moimtain- 
ous.  .  .  .  There  goes  a  horse  hung  all  over  with 
brass  ornaments  >like  coarse  Oriental  jewellery. 
You  could  run  a  dime  museimi  with  him  in 
Philadelphia.  .  .  . 

The  accoimt  of  the  visit  to  Budapest  came 
from  Paoli's  Hotel,  Florence,  where  he  had  set- 
tled down  for  the  winter.  He  was  far  too  deep 
in  adventure  to  write  from  Budapest  itself.  I 
doubt  if  any  people,  in  reading  this  accoimt, 
would  imagine,  from  the  zest  with  which  he 
enjoyed  everything,  that  it  was  written  by  a  man 
of  surty-four.  He  may  have  lost  his  appetite  for 
food,  but  never  for  "adventure." 

charlbs  godfre7  leland  to  b.  r.  psnkbll 

Paou's  Hotel— Florence,  1888. 

An  English  lady  told  me  a  day  or  two  ago 
that  she  believed  I  was  the  Wandering  Jew  — 
ever  going  on  —  always  in  new  adventure.  Yes 
—  't  is  even  so:  ohne  Rast^  ohne  Ruh.  And  I  have 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    307 

such  a  budget  to  unfold !  I  pass  over  the  Gypsies 
in  Vienna  and  the  meeting  of  old  friends,  etc. 
But  at  Budapest  I  had  a  grand  campaign.  On 
the  second  day,  I  was  taken  to  the  Roman  ruined 
dty  of  Acquaquintum  by  the  Danube  to  see  a 
really  wonderful  mosaic  representing  wrestlers. 
"That  thing  to  the  left,"  said  the  custos^  "repre- 
sents an  amptiUa.  But  what  that  is  to  the  right, 
neither  Pulszky,  nor  Hampel,  nor  the  devil  him- 
self can  tell."  Then  I  spoke  and  said,  "I  am  not 
the  devil  —  but  I  say  they  axe  strigiles  —  or 
implements  used  in  baths  to  scrape  the  skin." 
There  were  three  archaeologists  present,  and  the 
next  day  it  was  in  the  newspapers  that  a  great 
American  archaeologist,  "a  man  of  imposing 
stature  with  a  long  grey  waving  beard,"  had 
solved  the  great  question! 

Then  the  greatest  Folk-Lore  Society  in  the 
world,  with  14  subdivisions,  was  founded  (Hun- 
garian, Armenian,  Yiddish,  Gypsy,  Wallach, 
Croat,  Serb,  Spanish,  etc.),  and  I  was  the  first 
member  nominated. 

Then  the  Ethnological  Society  gave  me  a 
reception,  wherein  Prof.  Herrmann  delivered  an 
address  aU  about  me  and  my  works  and  glori- 
fied me  as  the  President  of  the  British  Gypsy- 
Lore  Society  —  I  did  not  (fortunately)  under- 


3o8    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

stand  a  word  of  it,  as  it  was  in  Hungarian,  but 
it  must  have  been  very  touching,  to  judge  from 
the  admiration  of  your  imde  which  was  ex- 
pressed. 

Finally,  I  found  my  S3rstem  of  the  Minor  Arts 
in  50  public  schools  in  Himgary,  and  it  is  usually 
recognised  there  now  as  mine.  And  I  succeeded 
in  inducing  a  few  very  intelligent  and  able  men 
who  had  already  read  my  "  Practical  Education  " 
to  study  it  and  form  a  body  with  a  view  of  test- 
ing the  whole  system. 

Now  there  is  a  Miss  Carruthers  in  Pisa  who 
has  an  Evangelical  School  of  175  Italian  children. 
And  she  has  made  some  efforts  to  bring  industrial 
art  into  it.  So  she  wrote  to  me  in  America  for 
hints  and  the  letter  returned  to  me  in  Vienna- 
Then  I  wrote  to  her  that  I  meant  to  be  for  a  long 
time  in  Florence  hard  by,  and  I  would  work 
myself  with  her.  There  is  an  immense  field  here. 
.  .  .  I  wonder  where  all  our  wandering  will  end. 
I  could  almost  live  in  Florence.  I  felt  that  my 
last  6  months  in  Italy  were  almost  wasted  — 
but  now  I  have  a  prospect  to  do  good  in  the 
schools.  .  .  . 

He  did  live,  not  almost,  but  altogether  in 
Florence,  as  it  turned  out,  and  he  accomplished 


ATMOSPHERE  OP  WITCHCRAFT    309 

there  much  good,  though  not  exactly  of  the  kind 
expected.  It  was  this  winter  he  was  initiated 
into  the  Witch-Lore  of  the  Romagna,  an  initi- 
ation that  was  to  bear  fruit  in  a  whole  series  of 
books, — "Etruscan  Roman  Remains"  (1892), 
published  by  Mr.  Fisher  Unwin,  "The  Legends 
of  Florence"  and  "Aradia,"  published  by  Mr. 
Nutt  (1895-1896),  "The  Legends  of  Virgil" 
(1901),  published  by  Mr.  Eliot  Stock.  In  his 
prowls  about  Florence  he  had  met,  by  chance,  a 
woman  whom  he  always  called  Maddalena  when 
he  wrote  of  her,  so  that  I  hesitate  to  give  her  real 
name,  and  Maddalena  she  will  remain.  I  say 
the  meeting  was  by  chance,  but  I  should  be  more 
exact  if  I  said  it  could  not  be  helped,  the  Rye, 
as  was  once  written  of  him,  really  having  "  some- 
thing of  Burton  in  his  delight  in  natural  human 
beings  other  than  the  ordinary  frock-coated,  tall- 
hatted,  high-heeled  European  tjrpes." 

Among  his  manuscript  notes  I  find  a  descrip- 
tion of  Maddalena  as  "a  young  woman  who 
would  have  been  taken  for  a  Gypsy  in  England, 
but  in  whose  face,  in  Italy,  I  soon  learned  to 
know  the  antique  Etruscan,  with  its  strange  mys- 
teries, to  which  was  added  the  indefinable  glance 
of  the  Witch.  She  was  from  the  Romagna  Tos- 
cana,  bom  in  the  heart  of  its  unsurpassingly 


3IO    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

wild  and  romantic  scenery,  amid  cliffs,  headlong 
torrents,  forests,  and  old  legendary  castles.  I  did 
not  gather  all  the  facts  for  a  long  time,  but  gradu- 
ally found  that  she  was  of  a  witch  family,  or 
one  whose  members  had,  from  time  immemorial, 
told  fortunes,  repeated  ancient  legends,  gathered 
incantations  and  learned  how  to  intone  them, 
prepared  enchanted  medicines,  philtres,  or  spells. 
As  a  girl,  her  witch  grandmother,  aunt,  and  espe- 
cially her  stepmother  brought  her  up  to  believe  in 
her  destiny  as  a  sorceress,  and  taught  her  in  the 
forests,  afar  from  human  ear,  to  chant  in  strange 
prescribed  tones,  incantations  or  evocations  to 
the  ancient  gods  of  Italy,  under  names  but  little 
changed,  who  are  now  known  as  foUettiy  spiriti^ 
fatey  or  lari — the  Lares  or  household  goblins  of 
the  ancient  Etruscans."  When  Maddalena  was 
in  Florence,  the  Rye  saw  her  constantly.  When 
she  left  Florence  on  her  mysterious  errands,  she 
wrote  often,  sending  him  legends  and  incanta- 
tions and  odd  news  of  the  witches  her  friends; 
her  letters  and  manuscripts  rival  in  bulk  the 
letters  and  manuscripts,  with  news  of  the  Red 
Indian,  from  Louis  Mitchell.  She  introduced  the 
Rye  to  other  witches  and  women  endowed  with 
strange  power,  —  for  one,  that  Marietta,  often 
quoted,  who  improvised  as  only  an  Italian  can. 


MADUALtNA,  A 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    311 

The  little  handbills  of  many  a  Florentine  palm- 
ist, or  fortune-teller,  make  crade  green  or  red 
splotches  on  the  pages  of  the  "Memoranda," 
where  they  are  preserved  as  documents  of  im- 
portance. Helivedin  witchcraft,  as  he  had  lived 
in  Romany  years  before.  "I  love  occulta,  with- 
out faith  in  the  supernatural,  because  they  are 
curious  or  romantic,"  he  confided  to  the  pages  of 
the  "  Memoranda ; "  and  in  another  place :  "19 
parts  of  20  of  the  pleasiure  in  the  study  of  Witch- 
craft is  the  pure  sense  of  m)^tery  and  strangeness 
— the  delight  of  listening  to  an  old  fairy-tale,  or 
of  being  in  fairy-land.  And  Humour  is  blended 
with  it  —  the  vivid  sense  of  contrast,  contradic- 
tion, and,  —  dear  delight !  —  of  being  taken  out 
of  this  neat-handed  five-o'clock  tea  Philistia  of  a 
common  comm^ondU  world."  After  the  Gypsy, 
I  do  not  think  anything  in  his  life  absorbed, 
enthralled  him  as  did  the  witches  of  Florence, 
—  a  fact  which  his  letters  from  now  onwards 
reveal  with  eloquence.  It  is  easy  to  realise, 
therefore,  his  despair  when,  on  the  eve  of  such 
strange  things  as  had  never  hitherto  befallen 
him,  he  fell  ill.  The  rest  is  best  told  in  his  own 
words. 


312     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

charles  godfrey  leland  to  e.  r.  pennell 

Paoli's  Hotel,  Florence, 
March  26tb,  1889. 

Dear  Pen,  —  I  was  taken  lU  on  Jan.  7th, 
and  since  then  I  have  only  been  able  to  go  out  for 
2  weeks.  I  had  at  first  2  weeks  in  bed  with  very 
great  pain  and  suffering,  gout  and  throat.  But 
three  weeks  ago  I  was  attacked  with  gout  in  my 
left  wrist,  and  this  time  my  sufferings  have  been 
very  great,  in  all  my  life  nothing  so  bad.  My  left 
wrist  pains  me  all  the  time  as  I  write,  but  at 
night  it  becomes  very  bad.  But  I  'm  better  than 
I  was.  It  is  just  now  not  possible  to  write  with 
ink  in  bed,  with  only  one  hand,  so  I  must  use  a 
pencil.  It  is  very  hard,  as  I  have  a  great  deal  of 
work  pressing  on  me.  When  I  am  well,  I  collect 
Witch  lore  here  in  Florence,  and  just  now  I  am 
losing  a  great  deal.  It  is  quite  an  unexplored 
field,  and  stranger  than  gypsjdng.  A  little  while 
ago,  I  had  given  me,  as  a  great  Witch  secret,  a 
paper, "  How  to  make  the  Tree  of  Diana."  It  is  a 
mixture  of  chemicals  to  make  a  kind  of  foliage 
appear  in  a  bottle.  I  had  known  it  ever  since  I 
was  a  small  boy,  and  so  asked  where  the  witch- 
craft came  in  ?  when  I  was  told  that  Diana  was 
the  grand  Magia  or  Queen  of  the  Witches!  Sure 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    313 

enough,  in  an  Italian  book  300  years  old,  she 
appears  as  the  Queen  of  the  Witches.  Hecate  is 
the  same  as  Diana,  the  Queen  of  the  Moon  and 
Night.  One  could  make  no  end  of  articles  out  of 
my  witch  friends. 

What  made  illness  harder  to  endure  in  patience 
was  that  proofs  of  the  "Slang  Dictionary"  were 
mounting  up;  promised  articles  for  the  Gypsy 
and  the  American  Folk-Lore  Journals  were  wait- 
ing to  be  written;  a  "  Manual  of  Wood-Carving" 
was  being  clamoured  for  by  the  publisher;  only 
the  last  chapters  of  the  "  Gypsy  Sorcery"  needed 
revision  and  the  book  would  be  finished.  "Three 
months  really  lost  is  hard  to  bear,"  he  wrote  to 
me  at  the  end  of  April.  But  for  one  great  gain 
these  months  were  also  responsible, — the  begin- 
ning of  a  correspondence  that  was  to  be  one  of 
the  most  voluminous  of  his  later  years.  Miss 
Mary  Alicia  Owen  of  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  then 
unknown  to  him,  but  since  known  to  everybody 
as  authoress  of  "  Old  Rabbit  the  Voodoo,"  had 
sent  him  an  Indian  tale,  impelled  thereto,  he 
must  have  thought,  by  his  "Angel  of  the  Odd."  It 
was  the  best  sort  of  introduction  to  a  man  of  his 
tastes,  and  also  the  best  sort  of  tonic.  Despite 
his  feebleness,  he  acknowledged  it  at  once. 


314     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

charles  godfrey  leland  to  miss  mary  a.  owen 

Paou's  Hotel,  Florence, 
April  21,  1889. 

Dear  Miss  Owen,  —  I  have  been  for  six 
weeks  so  ill  as  to  have  been  even  looking  in  at 
the  door  of  death,  and  can  now  only  write  with 
incredible  difficulty  in  a  forced  hand,  I  am  so 
weak.  But  I  have  been  so  pleased  with  your 
kindness  in  sending  me  that  charming  little 
Indian  story  (it  is  quite  Indian),  and  so  much 
delighted  with  it,  that  I  "exercise  my  first 
effort"  almost  in  thanking  you. 

If  you  can  get  any  more  stories,  sayings, 
peculiar  remedies,  rhymes,  etc.,  Indian  or  ne- 
gro or  even  white,  I  would  be  very  grateful  in- 
deed. I  am  writing  a  great  American  Dictionary 
(a  2  guinea  book)  and  am  trying  hard  to  collect 
queer  words,  phrases,  rh)mies,  charms,  in  short, 
folk-lore  of  all  kinds  —  country  people's  usages, 
jokes,  etc.,  and  I  beg  all  my  friends  to  help  me. 

I  have  just  received  with  your  letter  another 
asking  me  for  my  autograph.  I  replied  that  it 
was  out  of  my  power  —  I  could  only  send  a 
curious  variation  on  it.  So  I  remain,  what  there 
is  left  of  me,       Yours  truly, 

Charles  G.  Leland. 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    315 

By  June,  he  had  got  so  far  toward  recovery 
that  he  was  working  as  hard  as  ever,  or  harder, 
and  his  next  letter  to  Miss  Owen  was  written 
from  the  deepest  depths  of  witchcraft  —  though 
not  so  deep  that  he  could  forget  to  offer  the  help 
of  his  advice  and  experience,  always  ready  for 
those  in  whom  he  saw  possibilities. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.  OWEN 

Florence,  June  7th,  1889. 

Dear  Miss  Owen,  —  I  have  received  with 
very  great  pleasure  your  charming  and  valuable 
MS.  of  Indian  folk-lore,  —  I  enjoyed  it  more 
than  you  perhaps  imagine.  When  you  say  that 
you  could  reaUy  collect  hundreds  of  pages  of 
stories  —  charms,  etc.,  "my  heart  leaped  up 
with  anxious  joy."  I  have  been  living  here  in 
Florence  in  an  atmosphere  of  witchcraft  and 
sorcery,  engaged  in  collecting  songs,  spells,  and 
stories  of  sorcery,  so  that  I  was  amused  to  hear 
the  other  day  that  an  eminent  scholar  said  that 
I  could  do  well  at  folk-lore,  but  that  I  had  too 
many  other  irons  in  the  fire. 

Never  neglect  to  write  down  any  story  what- 
ever, however  feeble  or  uninteresting  or  petty 
or  repeated  it  may  i^eem.  Some  detail  which 
may  not  strike  you  may  be  the  missing  link  to 


3i6     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

a  stupendous  chain  of  discovery.  .  .  .  But  I 
must  tell  you  that  while  these  stories  which  you 
so  kindly  send  me,  delight  me  beyond  measure, 
and  will  be  used  by  me  with  gratitude  some 
time  —  you  are  doing  yourself  a  great  wrong 
by  not  sending  them  to  the  "  Folk-Lore  Journal," 
which  would  gratefully  receive  them,  or  not 
making  a  book,  which  you  are  quite  able  to  do 
very  well  indeed.  If  you  care  to  do  the  former, 
I  will  give  you  a  note  of  introduction  to  the 
editor,  if  the  latter,  I  will  write  you  an  intro- 
duction or  aid  you  in  any  way  I  can.  You  can't 
make  much  money  by  it  —  but  such  a  book 
gives  a  name  now  that  folk-lore  is  all  the  fash- 
ion. .  .  • 

I  am  more  pleased  with  these  gifts  [stories] 
than  you  imagine.  If  I  thought  less  of  them  I 
would  try  to  get  them  for  myself,  but  you  must 
not  lose  in  this  way  the  credit  which  such  a 
work  will  bring.  Make  for  yom^lf  a  list  of 
subjects  such  as  — 

Stories,  jests,  anecdotes. 

Odd  expressions. 

Superstitions. 

Charms,  including  words  uttered,  customs, 
as  spitting  on  money,  etc. 

Songs,  proverbs. 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    317 

Recipes  of  all  kinds. 

Medicine. 

There  is  a  list  published  by  Folk-Lore  So- 
cieties, and  I  dare  say  Mr.  Newell  will  send  it  to 
you.  I  shall  go  ere  long  to  the  Folk-Lore  con- 
vention to  be  held  in  Paris.  Then,  from  Sep. 
ist  to  Sep.  15th,  to  Copenhagen  and  Chris- 
tiania,  Norway,  to  the  Congress  of  Oriental 
Scholars.  .  .  . 

These  two  congresses  were  the  chief  events 
of  the  summer  of  1889,  and  they  have  had  their 
place  in  the  story  of  his  adventures  as  Romany 
Rye.  Two  letters  will  bridge  over  the  distance, 
of  place  and  time,  between  Florence  and  Paris. 

CHARLES  GODFRSV  LELAND  TO  E.   R.   PENNELL 

Aix-les-Baims,  June  28th,  1889. 

Dear  Pen,  —  Here  I  am  in  what  is  to  me 
a  bengh  [devilish]  dull  place,  and  worse  than 
dull,  as  it  is  swell,  fashionable,  silly,  and  noisy. 
However,  your  Aunt  is  being  benefited  by  mas- 
sage and  sulphurous  baths,  douching.  She 
wanted  me  to  try  it,  but  I  could  not  be  in- 
douched  to  try  it,  or  sedouched. 

While  it  is  as  dull  here  as  dish-water,  I  get 
a  letter  from  my  fortime-teller  in  Florence,  in^ 


31 8      CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

closing  several  MS.  poems  and  tales  of  witch- 
craft—  and  telling  me,  among  other  piquant 
things,  that  there  has  come  to  Florence  an  old 
Gypsy  witch,  whose  intimacy  she  has  culti- 
vated, and  promises  me  an  Italian  witch  ballad. 
I  dare  say  it  will  be  improvised  between  them, 
but  I  don't  care.  One  thing  is  very  amusing  — 
my  collector  of  folk-lore  can't  for  her  life  un- 
derstand why  there  should  be  any  difference 
between  witch  songs  and  stories,  etc.,  and  any- 
thing "literary,"  if  the  latter  contains  allusions 
to  sorcery.  Hence  the  MS.  collection  which  she 
has  made  contains  several  pages  from  Dante  — 
God  only  knows  where  she  got  them! — and  the 
entire  story  of  "Blue  Beard."  I  could  not  make 
her  understand  why  it  was  not  what  I  wanted 
—  she  had  taken  it  all  down  from  an  old  witch 
and  the  pair  probably  believed  it  implicitly — 
all  mixed  up  with  unearthly  and  precious  folk- 
lore. We  expect  to  go  to  Geneva  in  about  a 
week,  and  so  on  to  Paris,  then  to  Copenhagen, 
etc.,  etc.  Goethe  says  that  what  we  desire  in 
youth,  we  get  in  excess  when  old  —  as  far  as 
travel  goes,  I  agree  with  him. 

Perhaps  I  should  preface  the  next  letter  by 
the  information  that  "your  Voodoo"  is  King 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    319 

Alexander,  a  high-priest  of  Voodooism  who 
figures  in  much  of  the  correspondence  with 
Miss  Owen. 

CHARLES  GODrRSY  LBLAND  TO  MISS  MART  A.  OWEN 

Geneva,  July  22d,  1889. 

.  .  .  Tell  your  Voodoo  that  this  letter  is 
from  a  great  conj'ror  who  was  intimate  in 
Africa  with  the  black  Takroori  Voodoos  who 
conjure  with  Arabic  books.  Tell  him  that  I 
know  how  to  use  ivory  rod  and  cresses  and 
have  the  forty^ine  poisons  of  Obeahy  and  have 
touched  the  green  serpent,  and  know  more 
charms  than  any  man  living.  Tell  him  that 
you  can  keep  the  great  secret  of  life  and  death 
and  making  people  mad^  and  that  /  recom- 
mend you  to  him.  Tell  him  I  have  a  king's 
stool  from  Dahomey  and  get  the  root  from  Don- 
gola,  and  that  he  must  teach  you  Voodoo  and 
tie  you  a  chicken's  breast  bone  with  red  wool, 
and  I  will  send  him  a  Voodoo  stone  from  Africa 
and  the  black  book  of  Wisdom. 

If  you  read  this  solemnly  you  will  probably 
extract  some  valuable  information.  Tell  him 
that  I  am  a  Master  and  that  he  must  teach  you 
all  the  secrets,  till  I  come,  and  that  you  must  be 
given  the^  Great  Oath. 


320    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

You  are  in  a  rich  field  and  must  cultivate  it 
I  have  recently  made  acquisition  of  a  Turkish 
conjuror's  tambourine  full  of  strange  charac- 
ters, also  of  two  mystical  magical  wooden  im- 
ages of  the  14th  century,  about  14  inches  high. 
There  is  a  great  field  in  Voodoo,  if  you  don't 
stick  at  trifles  and  show  yourself  too  good  to 
poison  people  or  break  all  the  commandments 
—  for  it  is  an  extremely  illuminated  faith  and 
admits  great  freedom.  Cherish  your  old  negro 
as  you  would  a  grandfather,  and  say  I  will  send 
him  secrets  and  gifts  worth  having  if  he  obeys 
the  Master  and  teaches  you  well.  .  .  . 

What  the  Rye  got  out  of  Romany  in  his  jour- 
ney to  Sweden,  I  have  written;  what  he  got 
out  of  Voodooism,  he  wrote  to  Miss  Owen  after 
he  had  returned  to  his  old  quarters  at  Brighton, 
laden  with  early  editions  of  the  Sagas,  over 
which  he  was  hard  at  work.  "Since  I  returned 
from  Scandinavia,"  he  told  Mr.  MacRitchie, 
"I  have  rarely  missed  reading  Icelandic  Sagas 
of  an  evening.  I  have  them  in  Icelandic  with  old 
Swedish  or  Latin  versions,  and  I  find  a  great 
deal  to  make  me  take  a  great  interest  in  your 
very  remarkable  articles.  But  who  were .  the 
real  little  men?     The  Danes  and  Lowland 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    321 

Scotch,  who  are  more  Danish  than  Celtic,  are 
short,  broad-shouldered  and  very  strong."  I 
have  a  great  pile  of  these  books  brought  back 
as  spoils  from  Scandinavia.  But  the  philological 
exercises  they  offered  him  could  not  over- 
shadow the  more  powerful  claims  of  witch- 
craft. I  should  preface  the  letter  to  Miss  Owen 
by  the  explanation  that  she  was  already  en- 
riching him  with  various  Voodoo  charms,  of 
which  none  was  ever  to  be  more  prized  by  him 
than  the  famous  Black  Stone.* 

CHARLBS  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.   OWSN 

Brighton,  Oct  22d,  18891 

...  I  must  tell  you  that  King  Alexander's 
fetich  has  been  working  the  most  delightful 
miracles.  .  Firstly:  To  go  from  Stockholm  to 
Copenhagen,  we  had  400  Orientalists,  a  night's 
railway  journey,  and  only  about  30  places  in  the 
sleeping  cars.  And  I  had  hardly  ever  spoken  to 
the  Secretary,  who  was  a  hard,  grim,  dour  man. 
However,  I  invoked  the  little  spirit  and  put  him 
in  my  pocket.  Mrs.  Leland  went  with  me  and 
asked  for  our  tickets  —  only  expecting,  of  course, 
common  seats,  as  the  sleeping  cars  were  reserved 
for  the  magnates.  What  was  our  fainting  amaze- 
tnent  when  Count  Landberg  volimteered  us  a 


322    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

compartment  in  a  sleeping  car.   The  Spirit  had 
spoken  I 

From  Christiania  to  Gottenburg  —  the  same 
thing,  but  more  marvellous.  I  again  invoked 
the  spirit,  and  this  time  Count  Landberg  said  he 
had  only  one  ticket,  but  calling  a  stately  Oriental 
in  turban,  etc.,  made  him  disgorge  his  ticket! 
We  were  absolutely  awed  at  such  good  fortune. 

Und  noch  wetter ,  on  the  steamboat  to  England 
Mrs.  Leland  found  that  a  diamond  worth  per- 
haps $40  or  $50  bad  fallen  from  her  ring,  prob- 
ably while  asleep  in  her  berth.  The  whole  state- 
room was  overhauled  in  vain.  I  invoked  the 
spirit  and  I  predicted  its  recovery.  A  few  days 
after,  here  in  Brighton,  she  found  it  loose  at  the 
bottom  of  her  travelling  bag.  And  I  had  another 
invocation  to  find  a  friend  who  I  was  confiden- 
tially assured  had  left  Brighton.  One  day  I 
invoked  the  spirit,  and  he  bade  me  follow  two 
girls  on  the  other  side  of  the  way.  I  did  so  for 
some  distance,  when  I  met  my  friend,  who  had 
just  returned  to  Brighton;  I  might  have  been 
here  a  year  without  doing  so.  .  .  . 

As  for  my  little  spirit,  I  can  only  say.  Blessings 
on  him  and  on  her  who  sent  him  to  me. 

With  regards  to  King  Alexander — and  love 
to  all  aroimd.  .  .  . 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    323 

Other  wonders  the  fetich  accomplished  in  the 
course  of  the  year,  as  he  wrote  to  me  from  time 
to  time.  But  two  charms  it  could  not  work.  In 
the  autumn  of  1889  and  the  early  winter  of  1890, 
the  " Dictionary  of  Slang"  was  threatened  with  a 
greater  disaster  than  the  drowning  of  Mr.  May, 
and  an  American  who  had  proposed  to  adopt 
and  spread  the  Rye's  system  of  education  failed 
to  fulfil  his  agreement.  Both  affairs  were  the 
cause  of  real  sorrow  and  distress  to  the  Rye,  both 
were  so  regrettable  that,  wer^  it  not  for  their 
effect  upon  him  at  the  time,  I  should  try  to 
forget  them  altogether.  For  a  moment,  it  looked 
as  if  the  "Dictionary  of  Slang,"  upon  which  he 
had  expended  so  much  thought  and  care  and 
labour,  would  drag  him  into  the  law  courts. 
There  had  been  imavoidable  confusion  after 
the  death  of  Mr.  May,  and  when  the  first  vol- 
ume was  published  it  happened  that,  by  some 
misunderstanding  for  which  the  Rye  was  not 
responsible,  much  was  left  in  that  was  to  have 
been  left  out.  Timid  collaborators,  who  did  not 
know  what  might  be  the  result  if  their  names 
appeared  in  connection  with  the  publication 
under  these  conditions,  shifted  all  responsibility 
upon  him  and  Mr.  Barrfere.  It  was  the  more 
of  a  shock  to  him  because  the  first  intimation. 


324    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

made  with  no  great  friendliness,  came  from  a 
man  whom  he  had  hitherto  thought  a  good 
friend.  The  excitement  proved  unnecessary. 
There  was  no  difficulty,  no  dragging  of  anybody 
into  law  courts.  The  dictionary  was  published, 
privately,  in  1889,  and,  in  a  revised  edition,  in 
1897.  Timidity  had  exaggerated  a  harmless 
mistake  into  an  alarming  offence.  But  it  was 
terribly  unpleasant  while  it  lasted.  The  Ameri- 
can affair  hurt  him  more  acutely, — a  tragedy  it 
seems,  as  I  look  over  the  mass  of  correspondence 
on  the  subject.  That  is  why  I  say  about  it  no 
more  than  is  necessary  to  make  clear  the  allu- 
sions in  the  following  letters:  — 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  BIARY  A.  OWEN 

Brighton,  Jan.  23d,  189a 

.  .  .  I  have  just  discovered  within  a  few  hours 
the  manifest  origin  of  the  word  sockdolager.  It 
is  plainly  the  Icelandic  Sauk  dolger^  which,  while 
it  means  a  bad  business,  is  also  translated  a  duel 

or  attack — i.  e.,  a  bad  lick. would  at  once 

hem  and  haw  and  deny  it.  He  made  an  ass  in 
folio  (ist  edition)  of  himself  once.  I  had  declared 
that  the  Babylonian-Ninevite  sorcery  was  Acca- 

dian — i.  e.  Altaic.    But  Mr.  assured  me 

that  that  theory  was  all  exploded  because  he  had 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    325 

heard  that  somebody  had  said  so.  Now  Sayce 
and  Oppert  are  the  greatest  living  Assyriologists, 
and  when  I  asked  Oppert  in  his  room  at  Stock- 
hohn  if  this  was  true,  he  really  danced  with  rage 
and  said  that  only  a  mere  madman  or  fool  could 
have  imagined  such  a  thing.  Then,  converting  in 
his  mind's  eyes  the  two  panels  of  the  door  into 
two  Assyrian  tablets,  he  proceeded  to  paint  on 
one  an  Accadian  inscription  and  on  the  other  an 
Assyrian,  and  I  was  so  overwhelmed  with  his 
£lan  that  I  really  thought  I  saw  [here  follows  a 
row  of  hierogljrphics]  of  every  description.  And 
Sayce,  who  is  a  gentleman,  used  exactly  the  same 
words.   L(>gical  deduction 

=  lunatic  +  fool. 

This  is  a  little  severe,  but  a  muskito  should  n't 
buck  against  elephants.  .  .  . 

Do  you  write  your  book  just  as  you  write  to 
me.  DanH  letj  hcwevefy  your  Skepticism  be  too 
manifest  J  though  I  counsel  you  to  be  as  droll  as 
you  can.  People  can  always  do  their  own  doubt- 
ing now-a-days.  ...  I  am  inclined  to  write  my 
book  on  Italian  Sorcery  from  the  standpoint  of 
a  true  hdiever.  But  aU  magic  is  only  the  marvel- 
lous and  inexpUcable  —  and  a  growing  cabbage 
—  or  flirtation  and  its  consequences  —  or  why 
a  glass  of  wine  exhilarates  is  as  hard  to  under- 


326    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

stand  as  congerin'.  Thank  you  for  the  rabbit's 
foot  much. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MART  A.   OWEK 

Brighton,  March  iTth,  1890. 

...  I  return  very  sincere  thanks  for  the  rab- 
bit's foot.  That  you  put  your  foot  in  it  when 
you  sent  this  last  letter  is  to  me  a  great  source  of 
delight.  My  Museum  is  becoming  worthy  of  a 
professional  Voodoo.    By  the  way,  I  have  just 

received  a  letter  from ,  in  which  he  says 

he  has  a  communication  from  you  and  is  glad 

to  have  my  opinion  —  I  suppose  of  you.  

says  he  don't  believe  id  an  organised  body  of 
Voodoos!  Well,  this  is  a  fact,  anyhow,  that 
they  have  an  agent  in  Liverpool^  who  has  one  in 
Alexandria,  Egypt,  and  he  obtains  for  them 
from  the  interior  of  Africa  ivory-root,  cresses 
(a  kind  of  drug)  and  other  poisons.  .  .  . 

One  finds  on  the  seashore  —  within  100  yards 
of  where  I  sit,  a  great  many  stones  with  holes  in 
them.  "Odin  stones."  Hang  one  up  at  your 
bed's  head  and  you  can  never  have  the  night- 
mare, and  they  keep  off  evil  influences.  I  picked 
up  a  few  and  gilded  them,  and  find  they  are  very 
acceptable  presents.  They  look  just  like  gold 
nuggets. 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    327 

CHARLKS   GODFREY  LKLAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNKLL 

Brighton,  May  loth,  1890. 

Dear  Pen,  —  We  shall  be  in  London  in  a  few 
days.  I  anticipate  great  joy  and  benefit  from 
the  change.  I  have  suffered  lately,  mentally  and 
nervously,  as  I  perhaps  never  did  before  in  my 
life,  owing  to  the  conduct  of  the  man  in  America 
who  has  my  Education  Scheme  in  hand.  The 
constant  worrying  on  one  thing  produced  sleep- 
lessness, vertigo,  and  spinal  pains  —  aggra- 
vated by  last  yearns  illness.  .  .  .  But  I  feel  bet- 
ter, and  hope  that  when  we  come,  you  will,  even 
at  some  trouble,  try  to  give  me  as  much  company 
as  you  can  for  a  while,  for  this  lonely  life  here  is 
horrible. 

Fortunately  I  was  in  London  that  spring,  and 
so  able  to  be  much  with  him.  In  July,  he  went  to 
Homburg,  and  two  of  the  letters  he  wrote  from 
there  to  Miss  Owen  are  so  many  more  proofs  of 
how  he  could  forget  himself  for  others.  In  her 
trouble,  he  was  eager  to  point  the  way  to  the  one 
source  of  comfort  he  had  found  in  his  darkest 
hours ;  to  help  her  in  her  literary  ventiure,  he 
could  lay  aside  his  own. 


328    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.  OWEN 

Homburg-les-Bains,  July  23d,  1890. 

Dear  Miss  Owen,  —  It  is  truly  with  grief  I 
leaxn  that  a  great  loss  has  befallen  you.  As 
regards  terrible  bereavements  there  is  but  one 
thing  to  do  wisely  —  to  draw  nearer  to  those  who 
remain  or  whatever  is  near  and  dear  to  us  in  life, 
and  love  them  the  more,  and  become  gentler  and 
better  oiurselves,  making  more  of  what  is  left. 
There  are  people  who  wail  and  grieve  incessantly 
and  neglect  the  living  to  extravagance.  It  seems 
always  as  if  they  attracted  further  losses  and 
deeper  miseries.  Weak  and  simple  minds  grieve 
most,  —  melancholy  becomes  a  kind  of  painful 
indulgence,  and  finally  a  deadly  habit.  Work  is 
the  great  remedy.  I  think  a  great  deal  of  the  old 
Northern  belief  that  if  we  lament  too  much  for 
the  dead,  they  cannot  rest  in  then*  graves  and  are 
tormented  by  our  tears.  It  is  a  pity  that  the 
number  of  our  years  is  not  written  on  oiu-  fore- 
heads when  we  are  bom.  .  .  . 

Keep  up  your  heart,  work  hard,  live  in  hope, 
write  books,  make  a  name,  study  —  there  is  a 
great  deal  in  you.  As  in  China  —  we  ennoble  the 
dead  by  ennobling  ourselves. 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    329 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.  OWEN 

HOMBURO  V.  D.  HOHB,  Aug.  ISt,  189O. 

Dear  Miss  Owen,  —  I  have  received,  read, 
and  been  enraptured  with  the  beginning  of  your 
Missouri  Volk  (Folkj  I  mean,  but  I'm  in  Ger- 
many now)  Lore.  If  I  had  aU  the  book  and  you 
desired  it,  I  would  write  an  introduction  for  you. 
As  it  is,  I  set  down  a  few  points  to  use  in  case 
you  write  your  own. 

The  first  book  ever  written  on  its  plan  is  the 
"Evangile  des  Convilles"  (Quenouilles),  the 
Evangel  of  the  Distaffs,  a  very  rare  litde  black- 
letter  French  book  of  the  15th  century,  in  which 
a  nxunber  of  old  women  assembled,  discuss  pop- 
ular superstitions  and  tell  stories  —  all  just  as 
your  old  women  do.  Both  are  alike  in  their 
genial  humour  and  natural,  easy  style. 

Call  earnest  attention  to  the  fact  that  your 
work  differs  much  from  the  Brer  Rabbit  stories, 
in  being  a  carefully  made  collection  of  Folk-Lore, 
and  that  it  is  not  intended  to  be  merely  a  story 
book.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  your  story  in  the 
"Journal"  will  suggest  to  so  many  people  a 
simple  imitation  of  Brer  Rabbit  and  Remus. 

I  could  have  wished  that  your  old  v^men 
had  been  white  Missouri  folk,  peasants  in  fact, 


330     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

although  we  don't  call  our  people  such  even 
when  they  are  far  more  illiterate,  etc.,  than  the 
average  German  Bauer. 

Point  out  the  many  points  of  identity  between 
these  tales  and  those  of  the  Indians.  E.  ^., 
Indians  will  not  tell  stories  in  summer  because 
they  are  then  always  himting,  fishing,  or  work- 
ing and  it  either  interferes  with  employment  or 
sleep  which  is  then  so  needful.  .  .  . 

The  15th  August  will  be  my  birthday.  Do 
send  me  a  charm  for  a  present.  My  medicine 
bag  which  hangs  up  by  me  contains  a  choice 
variety  now.  .  .  .  Remember  that  your  Mis- 
souri negro-English  is  difficult  for  many  Ameri- 
cans to  understand,  and  almost  a  foreign  tongue 
to  English  readers.  Be  liberal  with  transla- 
tions. •  •  • 

I  must  give  at  least  a  paragraph  of  a  letter, 
virtually  a  postscript  to  the  above,  written  to 
Miss  Owen  a  few  days  afterwards,  so  much  in 
it  is  there  of  that  side  of  the  Rye  which  few  but 
his  friends  knew. 

"Firstly,  this  morning  I  received  and  read 
your  MSS.  concerning  a  Goose,  etc.  I  did  not 
think  you  could  do  better  than  — 

"  (I  had  got  so  far  when  Mme.  Leland  came  in 


ATMOSPHERE  OF  WITCHCRAFT    331 

with  the  news  that  there  was  a  Hungarian  Gypsy 
band  pla)dng  over  in  the  Kursaal  Gardens  oppo- 
site. So  I  went  and  listened  and  interviewed 
them,  and  return  to  say) — That  this  2nd  chap- 
ter is  better  than  the  first,  and  worthy  of  admi- 
ration in  every  bar  of  the  whole  composition. 
And  verily  I  say  unto  you,  Mary  —  that  even  if 
this  work  could  not  be  published  (Dii  avertice 
omen  I)  it  would  be  a  great  triumph  to  have 
written  it.  It  is  replete  with  shrewd  observations 
of  folk-lore,  it  is  inspired  with  real  humour,  it  is 
concise  and  strong.  So  God  bless  it  and  you,  and 
may  you  both  'GoItM" 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

IN  FLORENCE 

When  the  Rye  left  Homburg  that  autumn 
(1890),  it  was  again  to  journey  southward. 
Florence,  without  his  realising  it,  had  become 
his  home.  Something  more  than  the  climate 
drew  him  back  there  year  after  year.  He  had 
got  to  love  the  town  where  there  was  not  an  old 
street  or  an  old  house,  an  old  church  or  an  old 
tower,  without  its  legend  for  him.  His  was  not 
the  Florence  of  the  artist  or  the  historian,  much 
less  of  the  tourist.  Stories  of  the  spirits  that 
haunted  it  were  more  to  him  than  the  traditions 
of  men  who  had  made  its  fortunes  or  artists 
who  had  made  its  fame.  He  prized  the  old 
barrows  about  the  Signoria  far  above  the  gal- 
leries which  were  cheapened  for  him  by  the 
correct  raptures  of  the  tourist.  His  chief  friends 
were  among  the  witches.  His  chief  amusement 
was  bargaining  with  the  second-hand  dealers 
for  old  vellum-covered  books,  and  then  patch- 
ing and  repairing  and  decorating  them  once  he 
got  them  home;  or  in  pottering  about  the  old 


IN   FLORENCE  333 

curiosity  shops,  where,  as  he  wrote  to  Miss 
Owen,  "I  buy  14th  century  Madonnas  on  gold 
grounds  for  a  franc  —  and  then  have  such  a 
lovely  time  restoring  them;"  and,  in  the 
"Memoranda,"  "I  like  to  pick  up  battered  old 
mediaeval  relics  for  a  trifle,  because  I  enjoy 
mending  them  up,  which  is  not  strange,  for  the 
author  of  'Mending  and  Repairing.'  In  fact, 
it  is  a  passion."  The  "Memoranda,"  through- 
out the  nineties,  refer  continually  to  the  rare 
old  volumes  picked  up  for  a  song.  One  day  it 
is,  "Bought  the  'Sei  Giomate'  of  M.  Sebastian 
Frizzo  [?],  Venice,  1567,  for  4  sous;"  another, 
"  Bought  of  late  from  the  hand  cart  of  a  peram- 
bulating bookseller  many  old  works,  some  for 
2  soldi  but  most  of  them  for  4  sous.  Among 
them  is  Dante's  Xonvito,'  a  small  quarto;" 
and,  a  few  days  after,  "Found  out  all  about 
my  Dante's  'Convito.'  It  is  the  rare  first  edi- 
tion of  1490  and  was  printed  in  Florence  by 
Francesco  Bupnaccorsi,  Sep.  22.  A  good  copy 
has  sold  for  150  francs."  And  then,  it  is  a 
"beautifully  written  MS.  *  History  of  Florence,' 
of  about  1650,  parchment  boimd,  for  4  sous, 
but  found  to  belong  to  the  Liceo  Dante  and 
honestly  rettimed ; "  or  again,  "a  curious  and 
extremely  rare  book,  'La  Science  Curieuse  ou 


334    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Trait6  de  la  Chyromanie/  Paris,  1695,  Tarissifno^'^* 
and  a  Boccaccio  de-  Mulieribus  for  2  francs, 
complete;  ^^saw  the  same  work  yesterday  at 
Franchi's,  several  first  pages  and  last  page  gone, 
for  20  francs."  But  I  cannot  name  them  all. 
After  his  death,  the  most  curious  and  valuable 
were  collected  together  and  presented  by  Mrs. 
Harrison  to  the  Pennsylvania  Museum  of  In- 
dustrial Art. 

Every  book  on  his  shelves,  every  Madonna 
on  his  walls,  was  a  new  rivet  in  the  chain  that 
held  him  to  Florence.  ^'Glad  indeed  was  I  to 
see  the  old  faces,  and  our  rooms,  and  the  brie- 
d'bracP*  was  his  note,  in  the  "Memoranda" 
of  his  home-coming  one  September.  "Con- 
cerning the  comfort  and  companionability  of 
which  latter,  I  could  write  a  book.  These  old 
books,  and  bits  of  carving,  etc.,  are  unto  me 
'  of  importance  far  beyond  their  artistic  or  pecu- 
niary value.  If  I  were  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
city — and  rich  —  I  would  just  buy  out  the 
first  bric-^-brac  shop  —  omitting  the  Rococo  — 
Louis  XIV,  XV,  XVI  trash  — and  furnish 
my  sitting-room  with  it.  Then  I  would  be  at 
home.  I  get  on  very  well  with  cheap  things  — 
if  valuable  in  ideas  or  really  *  curious'  —  and 
I  hate  antiques  valued  by  money,  such  as 


IN  FLORENCE  335 

compose  the  great  Jew  pawnbroker  collection 
in  Frankfurt."  There  is  another  passage  as 
eloquent,  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Owen,  referring 
to  a  silver  cross  he  felt  he  could  not  afford: 
^'I  suffer  as  much  from^want  of  that  cross  as 
a  poor  man  suffers  from  want  of  bread.  What 
chfldren  we  all  are  with  our  to3rs !" 

The  little  room  he  loved,  with  the  Madonnas 
on  their  gold  ground  covering  the  walls,  and 
the  vellum-covered  volumes  piled  high  on  every 
shelf,  seemed  so  a  part  of  himself  that  no  one 
who  saw  him  in  it  can  easily  forget  the  pictiu^ 
he  made  as  he  sat  there.  The  years  had  only 
added  a  new  dignity  to  the  great  frame,  and 
marked  the  face  with  finer  and  more  expres- 
sive lines;  the  beard  was  almost  white;  the 
mystery  had  deepened  in  the  brooding  blue 
eyes.  I  used  to  think  he  looked  like  some 
old  prophet,  at  work  among  the  pictures  and 
books  of  long  ago. 

At  first  in  Florence,  he  went  out  a  little.  In 
the  "Memoranda,"  for  a  while,  such  notes  as 
the  following  are  frequent:  "Went  to  5  o'clock 
tea  at  the  Peruzzi's  and  Story's.  Talked  a*  long 
time  with  W.  W.  Story.  He  himself  spoke  of 
Walt  Whitman  not  admiringly.  He  did  not 
like  his  broken,  rugged  form  of  verse."  "Dined 


336    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

at  Mrs.  Grigg's  and  met  W.  W.  Story,  who,  in 
a  long  conversation,  told  me  many  interesting 
anecdotes  of  W.  Savage  Landor,  Browning, 
Pope  Pius  IX,  and  several  Boston  celebrities,  — 
Emerson,  Holmes,  Ticknor,  etc.  He  was  very 
gay,  but  I  fear  is  somewhat  broken  of  late." 
Or  else  the  entries  are  of  dinners  with  Profes- 
sor Fiske  up  at  the  Villa  Landor,  and  breakfasts 
with  Mr.  Frank  Macaulay,  an  old  Philadelphia 
friend.  He  saw  many  of  the  innumerable  Amer- 
icans and  English  who  were  always  coming 
and  going.  "Dudley  Warner,"  he  says  on  one 
page,  "is  passing  the  winter  with  Fiske.  He 
has  been  twice  to  see  me;"  on  another,  "Mr. 
White,  Ex-President  of  Cornell  University, 
then  Minister  to  Russia,  has  been  here  in  the 
Hotel  Victoria  for  several  weeks."  Mark  Twain, 
R.  W.  Gilder,  Bishop  Doane,  Harry  Wilson, 
Sir  John  Elgar,  Oscar  Browning,  G.  A.  Sala, 
are  some  of  the  other  familiar  names  figuring 
in  the  "Memoranda."  But  notes  of  the  kind 
were  fewer  as  time  went  on.  He  reserved  his 
strength  for  his  work,  and  his  work  was  his 
chief  amusement.  "Are  there  any  men  with 
average  brains  who  are  not  always  at  work?" 
he  asks  in  the  "Memoranda."  "I  really  cannot 
enter  into  or  understand  the  nature  of  a  man 


IN  FLORENCE  337 

who  can  idle  away  time.  I  know  that  there  are 
such  beings,  but  I  cannot  grasp  their  minds. 
When  I  am  not  reading  or  writing  —  and  I 
always  read  with  a  view  to  turning  it  to  literary 
—  i.  e.  mental  —  account  in  some  way,  or  work- 
ing it  up,  I  am  designing,  or  carving  wood,  or 
making  art  work,  and  in  doing  all  this  I  am 
experimenting  on  subjects  to  write  about.  There 
is  some  amusement  in  art  work,  but  I  should 
never  touch  it  if  the  amusement  were  all."  The 
only  time  he  read  for  relaxation  was  in  the  even- 
ing after  dinner,  when  he  went  through,  I  do 
believe,  every  book  published  on  scientific  sub- 
jects, which  always  fascinated  him,  as  well  as  all 
the  new  novels,  which  amazed  him,  for  he  never 
got  used  to  the  modem  novel. 

He  made  his  home  in  a  hotel  —  Paoli*s,  the 
Bellini,  and,  for  the  nine  last  years,  the  Victo- 
ria—  because  it  left  him  freer  to  move  from 
Florence  if,  and  when,  he  chose,  and  because 
it  relieved  himself  and  his  wife  from  smaller 
anxieties  and  household  cares.  But  hotel  life 
is  not  the  most  conducive  to  social  pleasures, 
and  I  can  see  in  the  "Memoranda  "  how  there 
grew  upon  him  the  feeling  that  "he  who  can- 
not give  dinners  should  not  accept  them,  and 
the  man  who  pays  with  his  presence,  his  com- 


338    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

pany  and  vdt,  for  expensive  entertainment  is 
no  better  than  a  prostitute.  Young  men,  who 
believe  there  is  real  friendship  in  the  case  —  or 
who  do  not  reason  at  all  in  their  wild  pursuit 
of  pleasure  —  are  apt  to  forget  this.  But  wiser 
and  older  men  have  no  excuse.  Is  it  any  won- 
der that  rich  cads,  prigs,  snobs,  fat-headed 
citizens,  and  the  like  think  themselves  the 
equals  of,  or  superior  to,  poets,  men  of  letters, 
or  geniuses,  when  they  see  the  latter  so  very 
willing  to  accept  treats  which  they  cannot  re- 
turn? If  there  were  more  social  reserve  and 
proper  pride  among  men  of  genius,  they  would 
not  make  themselves  so  cheap  as  they  do,  and 
the  result  would  be  more  respect  for  them  and 
a  far  higher  social  position."  This  may  be 
thought  a  morbid  view,  but  it  was  his  view, 
and  he  was  consistent.  As  the  years  went  on, 
he  paid  fewer  visits,  accepted  fewer  invitations, 
and,  as  he  could  not  stand  small  talk  or  '' chat- 
ter," saw  only  the  friends  he  cared  to  see  and 
talk  to:  friends  like  the  Rev.  J.  Wood  Brown, 
Mrs.  Arbuthnot,  Miss  Lister,  who  shared  many 
of  his  tastes  and  interests.  Mr.  Brown  was  per- 
haps the  most  sympathetic  companion  of  these 
last  years,  and  his  account  of  the  beginning  of 
the  friendship  is  characteristic:  ''I  like  to  think 


IN  FLORENCE  339 

of  the  day  when  I  first  met  Mr.  Leland,"  Mr. 
Brown  wrote  to  me.  "The  excuse  for  my  call 
—  as  a  complete  stranger — was  a  vellum  MS. 
I  had,  and  have,  of  Michael  Scot  the  Wizard. 
I  sent  in  my  card  ^to  show  a  magical  manu- 
script/ and  in  a  moment  stood  in  the  room  I 
afterwards  came  to  know  so  well.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  hearty  greeting  and  the  words  *You 
have  come  to  the  right  shop : '  it  was  the  happy 
beginning  of  so  much  to  me." 

The  Rye's  time  being  devoted  wholly  to  his 
work,  he  accomplished  in  his  last  ten  years 
an  amount  that  should  be  a  reproach  to  many 
a  youth  who  thinks  himself  industrious.  Of 
what  his  work  was,  and  of  the  joy  he  had  in  it, 
above  all  in  the  ''Etruscan  Roman  Remains," 
"a  marvellous  curiosity,"  he  calls  it,  his  letters 
continue  to  be  the  most  faithful  chronicle. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  B.   R.  PENNELL 

Paoli's  Hotel,  November,  1890. 

Kamli  Pen,  —  I  am  very  glad  to  get  your 
letter,  having  no  end  of  small  gossip  to  impart.  I 
am  very  busy.  Firstly,  I  am  translating  all  of 
Heine,  a  very  congenial  and  easiest  of  easy  tasks. 
2d,  I  have  2  reviews  to  write  for  "Nature." 
3rd,  I  have,  to  please  and  amuse  myself,  begun  a 


340    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

book  on  strange  Beings,  such  as  Nightmares, 
Stone  Men,  Headless  Men,  Tree  Men,  Smoke 
Men,  etc.,  but  a  book  with  a  purpose,  to  show 
the  world  how  little  difference  there  is  between 
all  religion  of  our  time  and  old  sorcery,  etc.  I  am 
taking  great  pains  to  combine  in  it  a  serious 
philosophy  of  Folk-Lore  with  nice  stories,  new 
to  an  readers  and  all  kinds  of  quaint  and  merry 
plays  of  my  most  peculiar  style.  The  proofs  have 
been  coming  of  my  "Gypsy  Sorcery."  —  And  I 
saw  my  fortune-teller  yesterday,  and  got  a  witch 
ballad  and  some  sorcery  charms.  I  sent  a  trans- 
lation of  a  long  witch  poem  to  the  annual  Con- 
gress of  the  American  Folk-Lore  Society  to  be 
held  on  Nov.  26th.  ...  I  am  trjdng  to  get  up  a 
Folk-Lore  society  for  Italy,  and  if  they  ever  have 
one,  don't  you  forget  that  I  was  the  first  to  set  it 
going,  as  I  was  in  Hungary,  where  I  was  in- 
scribed the  very  first  member.  ... 

CHARLBS  GODFRSY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PEKNBLL 

Paoli's  Hotel,  Florence,  Jan.,  1891. 

Casa  Pen, — Cosa  stupenda  I  I  have  made 
such  a  discovery!  It  came  all  at  once,  and  actu- 
ally for  a  quarter  of  an  hour  I  was  dazed  — 
flunmiuxed  at  it. 

For  I  have  found  all  the  principal  deities  of 


IN  FLORENCE  341 

the  Etruscans  still  existing  as  spirits  or  foUetti  in 
the  Romagna.  Thus  Fufluns,  Bacchus,  is  called 
Fa  flan.  He  is  the  spirit  who  dwells  in  vines  and 
wine  cellars.  Two  beautiful  stories  I  have  and 
an  invocation  or  hymn  to  him. 

Tinia.  Jupiter.  Exists  as  Tinia.  He  is  the 
spirit  of  lightning.  Also  a  fine  h]mQn  to  him. 

Mania.   Exists  as  the  nightmare. 

Feronia.  A  malignant  spirit. 

Lares.  In  old  Etruscan,  loses.  Spirits  of 
ancestors.   In  Romagnola,  Lasii. 

In  all  these  cases  the  informer  did  not  know 
the  Latin  name  —  only  the  Old  Etruscan.  And 
much  more,  I  have  got  spells  identical  with  those 
in  Marcellus.  4th  Century.  (Etruscan  Roman) 
almost  one  a  day. 

I  believe  I  am  the  first  to  find  out  this!  To 
think  of  finding  hymns  to  Jupiter  and  Bacchus 
—  the  last  real  ones  on  earth,  and  probably  the 
first!  —  still  sung. 

It  turns  out  that  Maddalena  was  regularly 
trained  as  a  witch.  She  said  the  other  day,  you 
can  never  gqt  to  the  end  of  all  this  Stregheria  — 
witchcraft.  Her  memory  seems  to  be  inexhaust- 
ible, and  when  an3rthing  is  wanting  she  consults 
some  other  witch  and  always  gets  it.  It  is  part 
of  the  education  of  a  witch  to  learn  endless 


342    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

incantations,  and  these  I  am  sure  were  originally 
Etruscan.  I  can't  prove  it,  but  I  believe  I  have 
more  old  Etruscan  poetry  than  is  to  be  found  in 
all  the  remains.  Maddalena  has  written  me  her- 
self about  200  pages  of  this  folk-lore  —  incanta- 
tions and  stories.  It  is  a  good  thing  that  she  likes 
to  collect  and  write. 

DonH  give  this  away.  I  wish  you  were  here 
to  help.  Finding  Shelta  was  a  trifle  to  this. 

Tiro  noko  kokOj 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

CHARLBS  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PSNNELL 

Florence,  March  5th,  1891. 

Cara  Pen,  —  I  write  with  a  milliner's  maid 
and  a  porter  sitting  by  me  awaiting  la  Signora 
(Viene).  I  have  a  great  deal  to  say.  I  have  about 
concluded  my  great  work  on  the  Etruscan 
mythology  and  witchcraft,  and  I  feel  that  I 
ought  to  offer  it  to  Unwin  first.  It  is  a  great  work, 
as  you  know.  And  I  don't  like  to  write  to  him. 
This  "  G)rpsy  Sorcery"  has  been  a  hard  pull  for 
him,  as  I  know.  I  want  you  to  find  out  from 
him  if  he  will  try  it.  It  can  be  illustrated  in  an 
entirely  different  style,  Etruscan  Roman,  but  it 
need  not  be  illustrated  at  all,  or  it  may  be  done  in 
smaller  form  for  less  money.  But  it  will  be  a  far 


IN  FLORENCE  343 

better  work  than  the  G.  S.  To  have  found  the 
whole  Etruscan  m3rthology  alive  is  startling.  .  .  . 
There  was  a  great  mob  and  riot  in  Milan  day 
before  yesterday  caused  by  the  popolo  trying  to 
kill  a  witch! 

I  never  worked  harder  in  my  life  than  now  — 
at  finishing  this  book  —  translating  Heine,  read- 
ing proofs  of  Heine,  etc.  And  the  house  is  full 
of  idle  tourists  who  canH  understand  that  a  man 
is  l^ere  who  works,  and  that  they  can't  drop  in 
and  talk  rubbish  for  half  an  hour. 

Love  to  Joseph  and  try  to  answer  soon. 

Tiro  kamlo  kokOj 

Chaeles  G.  Leland. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.   R.   PENNSLL 

Paoli's  Hotel,  Florence,  March,  1891. 

Dear  Pen,  — ...  I  have  accomplished  this 
so  far  eating  peanuts  and  a  mandarin  orange 
whose  pungent  perfume  is  like  a  pomological 
epigram.  Which  sounds  like  Heine.  Apropos  of 
whom  —  here  I  light  a  cigar  and  feel  very  con- 
versationable  —  I  am  writing  by  a  wood  fire  — 
Mr.  Heinemann,  whom  I  should  like  you  to 
know,  has  in  hand  the  "Pictures  of  Travel," 
"Book  of  Songs,"  and  another  volume  (proofs 
read),  and  I  am  working  hard  now  on  Heine's 


344    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

great  work,  "Germany,"  and  putting  into  it  a 
thoroughness  of  work  far  beyond  what  I  put  into 
the  translation  of  the  "Pictures  of  Travel."  I 
translate  every  line  from  the  German  and  com- 
pare it  with  Heine's  French  version  —  which  I 
would  have  been  ashamed  to  make.  And  it  is  a 
fact,  miri  Pen^  that  I  am  yoimger  and  better  at 
this  kind  of  work  than  I  was  30  years  ago.  It  is 
far,  far  easier  to  me,  for  I  have  insensibly  of  late 
years  been  becoming  so  familiar  with  French, 
German,  and  Italian  that  I  can  jump  at  render- 
ings of  phrases  as  I  never  could  before.  I  am 
sometimes  rather  astonished  when  I  am  running 
on  in  them  to  find  how  I  find  apt  phrases  for  my 
ideas.  Is  it  not  strange  that  Italian  is  really  the 
hardest  of  the  three  ?  But  it  is  ;  Mrs.  Peruzzi, 
daughter  of  W.  Story,  grew  up  from  a  child  in 
Italy,  yet  her  Italian  is  declared  to  be  far  from 
perteci.  •  •  • 

CHARLES  OODFRBY  LELAND  TO  MR*  MACRTTCHIE 

Paoli*s  Hotel,  Florence,  April  8, 1891. 

Dear  Mr.  MacRitchie,  —  I  never  desired 
more  to  take  a  run  than  I  now  wish  to  go  to 
Budapest  and  meet  you,  but  it  cannot  abso-  * 
lutely  be  done,  because  Heinemann  is  pushing 
on  at  a  great  pace  with  the  Heine  books,  and  I 


IN  FLORENCE  345 

get  proofs  every  day  (yesterday  twice),  and  the 
least  delay  would  cause  great  trouble  and  wait- 
ing to  the  printers,  &c.  And  as  Heinemann  has 
always  been  very  kind  and  obliging,  I  must  do 
all  I  can  to  help  him.  This  translating  all  of 
Heine's  works  is  a  tremendous  undertaking,  and 
I  thank  God  that  it  is  extremely  easy  and  con- 
genial work. 

I  hope  you  will  enjoy  Budapest  and  see  no 
end  of  Romanies,  and  Turkish  Baths,  and  visit 
Aquascutum  or  whatever  the  old  Roman  town  is 
called.  Don't  neglect  to  make  Herrmann  take 
you  to  see  my  old  friend  Pa/,  i.  e.  Paul  Sumrack 
—  pronounce  shoomrack  —  and  convey  to  him 
regards  from  my  wife  and  from  me.  He  is  a 
charming  man.  Also  a  thousand  greetings  to 
Herrmann,  Pulszky,  Hampel,  Therisch,  Hun- 
falvy,  and  all  who  remember  me. 

I  have  in  my  excessive  work  neglected  Herr- 
mann of  late.  Pray  pump  him  quietly  and  ascer- 
tain if  there  is  anything  which  he  would  like  to 
have  me  do  for  him  in  any  way. 

I  am  greatly  delighted  at  what  you  tell  me  of 
thegentleman  who  went  to  the  F.  L.  S.  on  account 
of  having  read  my  G.  Sorcery,  and  of  Mrs.  Ivor 
Herbert.  I  have  been  convinced  that  the  work, 
owing  probably  to  its  size  and  handsome  appear- 


346    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

ance,  has  attracted  more  general  attention  than 
I  anticipated.  Which  is  a  great  delight  to  me. 

But  ten  times  more  remarkable  is  my  MS. 
on  the  Tuscan  Traditions  and  Florentine  Folk 
Lore.  I  have  actually  not  only  found  all  of  the 
old  Etruscan  gods  still  known  to  the  peasantry 
of  the  Tuscan  Romagna,  but,  what  is  more,  have 
succeeded  in  proving  thoroughly  that  they  are 
stiU  known.  A  clever  young  coniadino  and  his 
father  (of  witch  family^  having  a  list  of  all  the 
Etruscan  gods,  went  on  market  da]rs  to  all  the 
old  people  from  difiFerent  parts  of  the  country, 
and  not  only  took  their  testimony,  but  made 
them  write  certificates  that  the  Etruscan  Jupi- 
ter, Bacchus,  etc.,  were  known  to  them.  With 
these  I  have  a  number  of  Roman  minor  rural 
deities,  &c. 

I  am  sorry  that  I  cannot  come.  I  hope  that  you 
will  take  Florence  in  on  your  way  round.  And 
pray  write  to  me  as  soon  as  you  can  and  tell  me 
what  you  see.  Truly  your  friend, 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNELL 

Paoli*s  Hotel,  Florence,  May  6th,  1S91. 

.  •  .  I  have  been  finishing  my  Etruscan  book, 
but  I  get  new  things  all  the  time.    Such  a  tre- 


/ 


IN  FLORENCE  347 

mendous  mass  of  stories,  incantations,  etc. ! !  But 
my  steady  work  is  on  the  translation  of  Heine. 
I  have  read  the  proof  of  his  "Shakespeare's 
Women"  and  "Fragments,"  and  have  half  fin- 
ished "  Germany,"  a  work  of  nearly  800  pages, 
every  page  of  300  words,  which  is  a  heavy  under- 
taking, for  I  have  to  compare  every  word  of  the 
German  with  the  French  which  Heine  wrote  in 
part  first.  And  on  every  page,  there  are  passages 
or  words  in  one  not  in  the  other,  and  these  are 
all  put  into  footnotes;  in  short,  it  is  double 
work.  .  .  . 

The  result  of  this  was  that  when,  toward  the 
end  of  May,  he  had  another  severe  attack  of 
gout,  he  wrote  to  me,  "  And  now  every  night, 
all  night  long,  I  dream  I  am  translating  —  but 
without  the  original.  The  passages  come  into 
my  mind  —  they  are  not  Heine,  but  perfectiy  in 
his  style  and  quite  as  good  —  at  least  I  remem- 
ber admiring  some,  but  I  don't  remember  any. 
Also  —  I  never  refer  to  a  dictionary,  nor  pause 
for  synon)rmes,  nor  do  I  ever  write  foot-notes  — 
hence  this  dream  work  wearies  me  more  than  the 
real  labour  itself.  This  has  gone  on  steadily  all 
night  ever  since  I  was  laid  up,  nearly  2  weeks  ago. 

"  I  had  the  same  trouble  2  years  ago,  much 


« 


348    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

worse.  I  had  been  very  anxious  about  the  illus- 
trations to  my  wood-carving,  and  the  result 
was  that  I  designed  all  night  long.  Though  in 
great  agony  I  dreaded  the  relief  of  sleep,  for  then 
I  should  have  nothing  but  a  succeeding  torment 
of  crotchets  and  finials.  And  what  was  worst  was 
that  the  designs  were  all  fade  and  commonplace ! " 

The  same  trouble  was  to  return  a  few  years 
later  on,  when  the  greatest  sorrow  of  his  life  had 
driven  him  to  overwork. 

He  got  well  over  the  gout  in  the  spring  and 
summer  of  1891,  as  he  travelled  by  easy  stages 
—  several  weeks  at  Via  Reggio,  Geneva,  Hom- 
burg  —  to  London  for  his  last  visit  there.  He 
went  on  with  his  Heine  wherever  he  stopped ;  he 
wrote  a  long  poem  in  blank  verse,  "Magonia," 
never  published;  he  began  the  editing  of  the 
"Life  of  Beckwourth"  for  Mr.  Unwin's  "Adven- 
ture Series."  And,  all  the  while,  letters  were 
flying  between  him  and  Miss  Owen  and  myself. 
For  the  reason  of  his  going  to  London  was,  first 
the  Oriental  Congress,  and  then  the  Folk-Lore 
Congress,  which  Miss  Owen  also  was  to  attend, 
and  he  was  eager  to  make  her  first  experience  of 
England  as  free  of  anxiety  and  bother  as  possible, 
and  to  settle  aU  question  of  lodgings,  chaperon- 
ag^i  and  so  on,  beforehand.  My  husband  and  I 


IN  FLORENCE  349 

were  in  Hungary  that  autumn,  and  I  now  regret 
our  absence  the  less,  because  the  consequence 
is  the  gay  report  of  the  Congresses  sent  to  me  by 
the  Rye.  The  Oriental  Congress,  which  Pro- 
fessor Cowell,  its  President,  who  was  not  given 
to  such  functions,  pronounced  a  great  success, 
opened  on  September  ist. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  S.   R.  PENNELL 

Lanoham  Hotel,  Sept  nth,  1891. 

...  I  read  a  paper  before  the  Oriental  on 
the  Salagrama  Stone,  worshipped  in  India,  and 
the  Salagrana  stone  of  Tuscany,  exhibiting  one 
which  Maddalena  gave  me,  and  another  which  I 
found  and  which  she  consecrated  with  incanta- 
tions and  put  in  a  red  bag.  ...  I  was  referred 
to  in  the  Congress  as  being  "beyond  question 
at  the  very  head  of  Pidgin  English  learning  and 
literature."  There 's  a  proud  position  for  a  man! 
Yes  —  I  am  the  Shakespeare  and  Milton  and 
Grimm  and  Heine  and  Everybody  Else  of  that 
language.  When  Pidgin  English  shall  become 
—  as  Sir  R.  Burton  predicted  it  would  —  the 
common  language  of  the  world,  then  I  shall  be 
a  great  man!  .  .  . 

The  Folk-Lore  Congress  followed  immedi- 


350    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

ately.  Before  it,  he  read  a  paper  on  his  Etrus- 
can discoveries;  Miss  Owen  read  one  on  Voo- 
dooism. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNELL 

Langham  Hotel,  Oct  nth,  1891. 

There  were  a  hundred  in  the  Congress,  and 
Mary  Owen,  and  Nevill,  and  Prof.  Haddon, 
and  I  were  really  all  the  people  in  it  who  knew 
anything  about  Folk-Lore  at  first  hand  among 
niggers,  Romanys,  Dutch  Uncles,  hand-organ 
men,  Injuns,  bar-maids,  tinkers,  etc.  It  was 
funny  to  see  how  naturally  we  four  understood 
one  another  and  got  together.  But  Mary  takes 
the  rag  of  all,  for  she  was  bom  to  it  in  wild 
Missouri. 

There  are  altogether  in  all  America  only  5 
or  6  conjurin'  stones,  small  black  pebbles,  which 
come  from  Africa.  Whoever  owns  one  becomes 
thereby  a  chief  Voodoo  —  all  the  years  of  fast- 
ing, ceremonies,  etc.,  can  be  dispensed  with. 
Miss  Owen  foimd  one  out  and  promised  it.  The 
one  who  had  it  would  not  sell  it,  so  she  —  stole 
it!  As  it  had  always  been,  when  owned  by 
blacks.  And  then  gave  it  to  me.  I  exhibited  it 
to  the  Congress.  MacRitchie  says  I  am  also 
King  of  the  Gypsies. 


IN  FLORENCE  351 

Day  before  yesterday  in  Congress,  there  was 
a  very  long,  very  able,  and  very  slow  paper  by 
Lady  Welby,  and  then  dull  comments.  I  felt 
that  I  must  either  bust,  vamos,  or  let  myself 
out.  Finally,  Prof.  Rhys  said  that  no  civilised 
man  could  understand  a  savage  or  superstitious 
peasant  —  that  there  was  a  line  never  to  be 
crossed  between  them,  etc.,  etc.  Also  some- 
thing by  somebody  about  souls  in  animals. 

Then  I  riz  and  said:  — 

''Mr.  Chairman  (this  was  my  foe  Lang), 
Prof.  Rhys  says  that  there  is  no  understanding 
between  superstitious  people  and  us.  Now  the 
trouble  I  always  have  is  not  to  imderstand  them 
and  be  just  like  them.  (Here  Lang  laughed). 
I  have  been  on  the  other  side  of  that  line  all  last 
winter,  and  I  had  to  come  back  to  England 
because  Mrs.  Leland  said  I  was  becoming  as 
superstitious  as  an  old  nigger.  As  for  souls  in 
animals  —  last  night  at  the  dinner  oiu:  chair- 
man, with  his  usual  sagacity  and  perception, 
observed  that  we  had  in  the  room  a  black  cat 
with  white  paws,  which  is  a  sign  of  luck.  (By 
the  way,  I  myself  saw  her  catch  a  mouse  in  be- 
hind the  curtain.)  Now  to  be  serious  and  drop 
trifling.  In  America  every  association,  be  it 
a  fire  company  or  a  Folk-Lore,  has  a  mascot. 


352    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  propose  that  that  puss 
be  elected  a  member  of  our  Society.  If  we  can- 
not have  a  Mas-cot^  at  least  we  shall  possess 
a  Tho-mdS'Cai  r^ 

Roars  of  laughter,  I  felt  better  for  24  hours 
after. 

We  all  contributed  folk-lore  articles  to  our 
Exhibition.  I  had  only  to  pick  out  of  one  tray 
in  one  trunk  to  get  31  articles,  which  filled  two 
large  glass  cases.  As  Belle  says,  she  can't  turn 
over  a  shirt  without  having  a  fetish  roll  out. 
And  I  couldn't  distinguish  between  those  of 
my  own  make  and  those  of  others.  For  I  am 
so  used  to  picking  up  stones  with  holes  in  them, 
and  driftwood,  and  tying  red  rags  round  chicken- 
bones  for  luck  etc.,  etc.,  that  I  consider  my  own 
just  as  powerful  as  anybody's. 

I  think  that  our  good  Unwin  will  take  Mary 
Owen's  book.  She  has  been  a  great  success.  .  .  • 

He  could  laugh  at  himself,  but  he  was  as 
entirely  in  earnest  in  his  folk-lore  studies  as 
in  any  of  his  other  work.  It  is  perfectly  true 
that  he  believed,  as  he  wrote  to  Miss  Owen, 
"  real  folk-lorists  like  us  live  in  a  separate 
occult,  hidden,  wonderful  fairy-land,  —  we  see 
elves  and  listen  to  music  in  dropping  water- 


IN   FLORENCE  353 

faUs,  and  hear  voices  in  the  wind."  To  the 
"good  Unwin"  —  and  this  was  at  a  period 
when  Besant  was  impressing  it  on  authors  that 
any  other  adjective  was  more  appropriate  for 
publishers — he  wrote  in  much  the  same  strain, 
and  one  of  the  letters  is  a  proof,  besides,  of  the 
trouble  he  was  ready  to  go  to  for  the  literary 
beginner. 

charles  godfrey  leland  to  mr.  t.  fisher  unwin 

Langham  Hotel,  Portland  Place, 
London,  W.,  Oct  7th,  1891. 

Dear  Mr.  Unwin,  —  I  wish  you  catdd  have 
heard  me  read  my  paper,  for  it  caused  amaze- 
ment and  admiration.  I  suppose  you  saw  what 
the  "Times"  said  of  it  in  a  leader  —  also  of 
Miss  Owen's  "Voodoo."  They  have  certainly 
been  the  two  most  sensational  papers  of  the 
Congress.  But  you  could  not  have  been  there 
—  in  fact,  I  almost  missed  hearing  myself  read, 
because  the  time  was  changed.  As  soon  as  this 
Congress  shall  be  fairly  over,  I  shall  make  my 
appearance  chez  vous  bearing  the  agreement 
and  Miss  Owen's  nigger  book.  It  is  full  of 
darkey  talk  in  such  a  rum  dialect  that  English 
readers  would  be  puzzled  with  it;  therefore, 
she  is  engaged  in  making  said  nigger  English 


354    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

into  something  more  directly  intelligible.    We 
axe  not  all  Missourians. 

Prof.  Sayce  is  very  much  interested  in  my 
Etruscan  discoveries  and  says  they  are  of  im- 
mense importance  and  of  a  most  astonishing 
nature.  He  and  Dr.  Gamett  have  referred  me 
to  scholars  who  can  aid  me  in  the  illustrations. 

Yours  truly, 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

It  may  have  been  the  reaction,  after  Oriental 
and  Folk-Lore  gaieties,  that  made  the  winter 
in  Florence  of  1891--92  seem  less  exciting,  at 
all  events  in  his  correspondence.  He  was  as 
busy  as  ever  with  Heine  and  his  Etruscan 
book,  and,  toward  spring,  he  began  to  write 
his  '' Memoirs."  But  I  fancied  an  underl3ring 
sadness  in  his  letters  to  me:  suppressed  gout, 
he  said,  when  I  spoke  of  it.  By  spring,  however, 
it  had  gone:  no  trace  of  it  now  when  he  wrote 
to  me,  or  to  anybody  else. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.   R.   PENNELL 

Paoli's  Hotel,  Florence,  April  14, 1892. 

Dear  Pen,  —  I  am  actually  amazed  to  learn 
that  it  is  so  long  since  I  wrote  to  you.  Fisher 
Unwin  and  his  wife  are  here  in  the  house,  and 


IN  FLORENCE  355 

Aunt  Belle  has  taken  a  great  liking  to  her. 
Unwin  is  a  curious  man:  what  an  interest  he 
takes  in  all  his  publications !  I  worked  the  bet- 
ter part  of  6  months  at  the  illustrations  for  my 
book  on  "Etruscan  Roman  Remains."  It  will 
be  very  handsome.  I  can  hardly  realise  that  it 
is  really  finished. 

I  am  very  glad  that  you  are  really  settled  in 
a  nice  home.  If  I  were  in  London,  I  should 
paint  you  panels  and  tambourines  to  help  fur- 
nish. I  do  hope  you  will  be  happy  in  it.  I  met 
Johnson  of  the  "Century"  night  before  last, 
at  a  very  nice  little  "recep"  which  the  Unwins 
gave. 

I  have  been  for  2  or  3  weeks  writing  remi- 
niscences of  my  life.  I  have  got  to  about  1867 
and  have  an  enormous  MS.  already.  I  read 
once  of  a  man  who  could  not  write  his  biogra- 
phy because  he  had  kept  no  diaries.  I  have 
not  referred  to  an3rthing,  having  nothing,  but 
I  find  I  remember  everything  worth  noting. 
The  trouble  will  be  after  1869,  when  I  get  to 
Eim)pe  the  second  time.  But  here  Aunt  Belle 
will  help  me.  It  will  be  a  very  curious  and 
varied  book.  It  is  a  great  pity  that  I  lost  last 
year  a  memorandum  book  full  of  data  for  3 
years  before. 


3S6  CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

I  found  a  charming  old  witch  the  other  day 
here  —  in  a  room  full  of  herbs  and  bottles.  She 
had  a  great  cat  who  sat  on  a  chair  opposite  to 
me,  and,  after  I  mewed  to  him  once,  never  took 
his  eyes  off  me.  I  said,  "Ah,  you  know  me!" 
But  the  old  lady  only  knew  the  common  sor* 
ceries,  and,  when  I  left,  said,  "You  come  to  me 
to  learn,  but  I  more  need  a  lesson  from  you." 
Then  she  asked  me  earnestly  for  the  Wizard's 
blessing,  which  I  gave.  It  was  really  a  scene  for 
an  artist,  for  she  looked  the  witch,  and  as  for 
Tom  —  he  was  actually  splendid.  If  I  had  a 
house,  I  would  give  any  money  for  him  —  I 
almost  expected  to  hear  him  talk. 

I  wrote  recently  a  little  book,  "The  Hun- 
dred Riddles  of  the  Fairy  Bellaria."  Unwin 
will  do  it.  Mrs.  Unwin  liked  it  very  much.  .  .  . 

Sad  news  from  America  1  Mary  Owen  writes 
me  that  Alexander,  the  King  of  the  Voodoos, 
died  recently. 

It  really  was,  as  far  as  he  was  concerned, 
sad  news.  He  had  delighted  in  this  King  of  the 
Voodoos,  and  afterwards  remembered  him  so 
well  that,  when  he  wrote  a  book  about  the 
cultivation  of  the  will,  he  told  Miss  Owen  in 
a  letter  that  King  Alexander  had  gone  a  long 


IN  FLORENCE  357 

way  to  making  him  write  it,  adding,  "I  wonder 
...  if  he  did  not  get  his  magnificent  idea  of 
cultivating  the  will  as  the  true  Secret  of  Sor- 
cery from  his  Red  Indian  Mother?" 

The  "Book  of  Riddles,"  when  published, 
was  dedicated  to  Mrs.  Unwin  and  a  special 
verse  written  for  her  copy.  I  quote  it  as  typical 
of  the  little  rhymes  of  the  kind  he  delighted  to 
make  for  his  friends,  to  whom  he  thought  they 
would  give  pleasure. 

This  book  was  only  made  for  you. 
The  riddles  and  the  pictures  too. 
Fidl  many  better  things  diere  be 
To  keep  your  name  in  memory: 
Yet,  if  't  is  true,  as  many  say,1 
No  book  can  e'er  quite  pass  away, 
My  pride  in  it  and  only  aim 
Is  that  it  bears  your  honoured  name. 
And  that  while  it  exists  —  as  fit  — 
Your  name  will  ever  be  in  it 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

Florence,  November  14th,  1892. 

Glimpses  of  his  occupations  and  movements 
during  the  summer  and  following  winter  are  to 
be  had  in  extracts  from  his  letters  to  Miss  Owen 
and  myself.  These  letters  are  more  of  a  diary 
than  the  diary  he  kept,  and  I  give  them  more 
or  less  in  diary  form. 


358    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.  OWEN 

May  8th,  1892.  I  see  by  the  "F.  L.  Journal" 
that  you  were  at  the  Congress,  or  rather  meeting, 
in  Philadelphia.  I  wish  you  had  met  my  sister, 
Mrs.  John  Harrison.  You  will  see  by  the  "  Jour- 
nal" that  she  made  a  fine  present  to  the  Museiun 
of  guards  against  the  evil  eye.  A  few  days  ago 
in  an  old  book  shop  here,  where  the  books  are 
stacked  up  by  thousands  and  the  only  way  is  to 
go  over  them  one  by  one,  I  found  a  very  rare  one, 
200  years  old  (1695),  on  Amulets.  It  had  800 
large  pages  and  is  the  completest  work  on  the 
subject  I  ever  heard  of.  It  takes  almost  every 
disease,  one  by  one,  and  tells  what  one  ought 
to  carry  to  cure  it. 

From  Geneva,  June  23d,  his  letters  express  a 
regret  that,  "It  is  a  pretty  but  a  prosaic  Presby- 
terian town,"  and  "there  is  no  vnich  aura  about 
it,  like  Florence." 

From  Homburg,  "Septembersomething,**  word 
comes  to  show  him  waiting  anxiously  for  proofs 
of  her  book  from  Mr.  Unwin,  in  the  meantime 
ready  to  throw  out  a  suggestion,  "Would  it  not 
be  a  good  idea  to  start  a  Nigger  Review  or 
Magazine?" 


IN  FLORENCE  359 

By  October  the  2d,  he  is  busy  with  the  proofs, 
and  writing  an  introduction  for  her. 


CHARLES  GODFREY  LBLAND  TO  E.   R.   PENNELL 

Jan.  28th,  1893.  Groome  and  I  have  got  to- 
gether a  lot  of  Gypsy  Tales  and  I  propose  to  write 
a  Gypsy  Decameron  —  that  is,  I  will  describe 
several  narrators  in  quaint,  old-fashioned  style. 
I  hope  to  get  a  few  from  Herrmann  —  won't  you 
manufacture  one  ?  —  there  will  be  no  money  in 
it,  but  I  will  bring  you  in  and  all  the  others. 

.  .  .  Just  to  think  that  I  received  a  day  or 
two  ago  £\6  18/  for  receipts  on  "Breitmann," 
^^Fusang,"  and  one  other  book  during  the  past 

year.     Ehiring 's  life  I  never  got  a  penny 

after  one  first  payment,  on  any  of  my  books.  .  . 

I  am  very  busy  with  a  book  on  Metal  Work 
i.  e.,  coldy  such  as  bent  iron,  repouss^,  etc.  .  . 

I  was  out  on  a  bust  yesterday  and  spent  money 
I  bought  a  bottle  of  port  and  one  of  brandy  for 
my  sister  (Mrs.  Thorp)  who  leaves  in  a  day  or 
two.  I  invested  twopence  halfpenny  in  5  old 
Roman  coins,  invisible  in  rust,  but  which  look 
very  nice  cleaned ;  one  is  a  marvellously  ancient 
Roman  coin  with  a  head  of  Janus.  Then  I 
bought  an  eagle's  claw  set  in  gold  for  3  francs  — 
a  great  charm  or  amulet  —  and  a  pretty  14th 


36o    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

century  Virgin  and  Child,  gold  ground,  on  an 
old  panel  in  a  good  frame,  for  7  francs.  Then  a 
franc  for  3  amulets  of  coral  and  a  stone. 

Returning  home,  I  had  a  long  and  very  jolly 
call  from  Mark  Twain.  You  know  that  your 
uncle  can  tell  stories  and  make  jokes  and  —  just 
fancy  two  such  as  we  having  a  regular  spree  and 
convivium  of  fun !  Well,  we  did  have  one  and  no 
mistake.  I  set  him  to  writing  autographs  —  his 
first  was  "None  genuine  without  this  signature 
on  the  bottle,  Mark  Twain."  Another,  "A  true 
copy  —  artist  Clemens."  Just  as  he  rose  I  said 
gravely,  "You  are  an  American,  I  believe."  He 
replied,  "I  am,  from  Missouri."  "Then,"  I 
replied,  "I  venture  to  ask  a  favour  of  you  which 
I  would  not  dare  to  ask  an  Englishman  —  wonH 
you  take  a  glass  of  whisky?"  Which  he  did  — 
you  bet. 

I  have  a  great  mind  to  write  reminiscences  of 
Humourists  I  have  seen  in  my  life.  Seba  Smith, 
Davis  the  original  Jack  Downing,  Neal,  David 
Crockett,  Yankee  Hill,  David  Locke,  John 
Saxe,  W.  Irving,  Artemus  Ward,  Mark  Twain, 
J.  R.  Lowell,  Saphir.  Don't  you  think  that 
sketches  of  them  with  portraits  by  me  and 
accounts  of  them  and  extracts  from  their  works 
would  sell  ? 


IN  FLORENCE  361 

[He  gave  a  description  of  this  visit  from 
Mark  Twain  to  Miss  Owen  also.  ^^He  was  very 
jolly,"  he  told  her,  —  "as  for  me,  I  haven't 
talked  American  since  I  saw  you  —  and  for 
an  hour,  we  had  sitch  a  gittin'  up  sta'rs  — 
swapping  Ues.  .  .  .  It  fairly  made  me  home- 
sick to  see  him  take  that  drink.  Visions  of 
days  long  gone  by  —  the  call  on  a  friend  — 
the  usual  hour  —  days  of  my  youth  —  temfd 
passatir^] 

March  i6th,  1893.  ...  I  have  begun  and 
hope  to  be  able  to  continue  a  book  of  queer  odd 
chapters,  called  "Leaves  from  the  Life  of  an 
Immortal."  The  Immortal  is  the  wise  and 
learned  Flaxius,  who  has  existed  in  all  ag^ — 
a  kind  of  hmnorous  Wandering  Jew  —  an  eter- 
nal droll  grave  observer.  I  am  awaiting  new 
inspiration  for  the  book.  .  .  . 

The  more  modem  literature  develops  itself  — 
the  more  the  New  Hiunour  or  cheap  and  feeble 
Irony  (dear  to  weak-minded,  would-be-witty 
Philistines)  comes  forth  —  the  more  Ibsenry 
and  Langry  and  Marie  Baschkirtseffery  and 
Oscar  Wildery  is  exhibited  —  the  better  do  I 
realise  that  the  more  we  refine  and  cultivate 
humanity,  the  more  does  it  degrade  into  senti- 
ment and  rot.    What  is  queer  is  that  Russiai 


362     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Scandinavia,  and  Holland  —  which  ought  to 
give  us  good  hard  vigorous  life,  the  objective 

—  are  taking  the  lead  in  nervdessness,  pessi- 
mism, weakness  —  mal-odorousness  —  refine- 
ment without  genius  —  taste  without  savour  — 
existence  without  a  sense  of  vitality.  However, 
as  the  Nibelungen  and  the  Sagas  and  the  Greek 
drama  and  Shakespeare  and  the  Kalevala  and 
witch  incantations  and  Algonkin  legends  are 
dearer  to  my  heart  than  aught  beside  in  litera- 
ture, and  as  I  feel  strong  in  me  the  Revolution- 
ary soldier  blood,  as  well  as  that  of  my  great- 
grandfather who  was  so  dear  to  the  Indians  in 
Canada  that  they  kept  him  a  prisoner  a  whole 
winter  (he  appears  in  the  colonial  history  as 
having  been  interpreter  in  French  and  Algon- 
kin!), in  fine,  with  such  blood  and  tastes,  it  is 
sadly  evident  that  I  shall  not  fall  in  with  the 
New  Sentiment  or  —  New  Humour.  A  good 
rousing  War  would  be  a  good  thing  for  England 

—  all  the  Horrors  of  War  are  less  disgusting 
than  the  Horrors  of  Namby-Pambjdsm  and 
feeble  Despair  —  So  I  run  on. 

April,  no  day  of  the  monthj  1893.  .  .  .  Now 

'  for  a  stuimer!    Heinemann  asked  me  lately  for 

my  "Memoirs" !  Now,  my  dear,  you  must  know 

that  I  wrote  more  than  a  year  ago  my  life  up  to 


^<^ 


-  *(_      ^-^^a-JC-*^  . 


KROM  CHAKLES  a  LEI.AND  TO  MISS  M.  A.  OWEN 


IN  FLORENCE  363 

1871,  and  had  the  idea  that^  in  case  I  died,  you 
might  use  the  MS.  to  write  my  life.  There  are 
8cx>  pp.  of  writing,  150  words  to  a  page  —  Heine- 
mann  wants  two  large  vols.  This  would  just  do. 
I  revised  it  and  was  much  struck  by  its  curious 
and  varied  experience,  and  resolved  to  publish  it 
just  as  it  is.  The  MS.  now  lies  before  me  done 
up  for  Heinemann.  I  don't  know  whether  it  is 
well  for  it,  or  no,  that  I  had  no  one  to  whom  to 
submit  it.  The  temptations  to  be  egotistical  in 
an  autobiography  are  tremendous,  and  reviewers 
are  unmerciful  except  to  "autobiographing"  all 
about  other  people,  especially  about  the  Ro3ral 
Family  and  all  kinds  of  great  people, — such  as 
"  Gossip  of  the  Century."  Now  I  have  tried  to 
show  in  every  way  how  my  mind  and  character 
were  formed,  and  what  influences  of  descent, 
early  association,  illness,  schools,  reading,  and 
scenes  made  me  what  I  am.  I  have  not  overdone 
this,  but  I  have  done  it  thoroughly.  As  I  say,  I 
am  not  like  a  Punch-showman  in  his  box  only 
exhibiting  and  speaking  for  other  people  — 
puppets.  I  write  an  "Autobiography"  and  show 
myself  —  not  too  much,  but  honestly.  .  .  . 
G.  W.  Childs  has  died,  aged  50!  Had  he  only 
lived  to  70,  he  would  have  been  over  a  hun- 
dred I    It  was  demonstrated  a  generation  ago 


364    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

that  he  was  an  enterprising  publisher  and 
public  character  at  the  age  of  ten^  by  his  own 
showing. 

May  2d,  1893.  Is  n't  it  funny  that,  after  so 
much  zeal  in  writing  my  '^Memoirs"  and  so 
much  joy  at  getting  them  printed,  there  has 
come  over  me,  after  reading  the  first  proof,  a 
kind  of  pudeuTj  indignation  as  of  being  exposed 
publicly  —  in  short,  an  indescribable  malaise  — 
or  regret  —  and  yet  there  is  nothing  in  this  proof 
that  is  not  creditable  —  indeed  it  is  mostly  about 
old  Philadelphia.  And  then  I  never  hesitated 
to  describe  my  personal  adventures  in  print  as  to 
travel  —  or  Gypsies.  I  am  at  work  on  a  book; 
no  great  news.  This  work  is  on  the  subject  of 
—  or  is  —  "A  Manual  of  Mending,  or  How  to 
Repair"  and  Restore  Damaged  Porcelain  and 
Crockery,  Woodwork,  Books,  MSS.,  Leather, 
Wood,  Ivaryy  clothing,  etc. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  BCARY  A.  OWEN 

Feb.  19, 1893.  I  began  lately  a  sort  of  book, 
^^Leaves  from  the  Lifepf  an  Inunortal"  —  or 
the  wise  Flaxius.  In  one  chapter  he  preaches  a 
sermon  on  Drunkenness  to  3  sparrows,  a  jay,  an 
old  Hen,  and  a  peasant  girl.  It  includes  an 
account  of  all  the  different  heresies  and  a  list  of 


IN  FLORENCE  365 

American  fancy  drinks  —  a  poem  of  20  pages ! 
in  this  style:  — 

Pink  of  Beauty  —  let  her  rip  —  Bourbon-bon  and  jolly, 
Old  Monongahelio  —  trope  with  a  maiden's  Folly, 
Rich  New  Year's  Eggnogiaphy,  with  headache  for  the  mor- 
row, 
Evening  Lullaby  and  Fifty  per  cent  oS  your  sorrow  1 

This  is  what  the  French  call  mariuaudage^  or 
ginning  a  joke  out  too  long.  But  if  you  can  get 
me  a  real  list  of  American  fancy  drinks,  I  would 
be  much  thankful  to  you.  Then  comes  a  prose 
rhapsody  of  all  that  thrills  the  soul  —  not  funny 
—  an  eagle  on  the  wing  in  a  storm  —  an  actor  in 
the  instant  of  a  first  great  unexpected  success  — 
and  many  more  —  all  drunkenness.  'T  will  be 
a  queer  book  if  it  keeps  up  to  the  4  chapters  now 
written.  The  hero  lives  in  all  ages. 

Mi  numca  VappetUo  —  I  have  no  appetite  of 
late  —  I  long  for  ham  and  eggs  and  red  herrings 
and  a  good  beefsteak  and  apple-pie.  I  hate  the 
cooking  here  and  the  red  wine.  I  dined  with 
Geoige  Sala  lately  —  he  is  good  company  — 
also  again  with  Mark  Twain  —  but  Bishop 
Doane  was  present  and  he  was  slightly  a  wet 
blanket  —  however,  Mark  Twain  and  Breit- 
mann  got  off  several  stories.  After  Clemens  had 
given  us  a  long,  strange,  serums  monologue  on 


366    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

the  changing  the  name  of  New  York  to  Man- 
hattan, I  said  that,  considering  what  Manhattan 
means  in  Indian,  it  would  not  be  inappropriate. 
For,  according  to  Irving,  it  means  The  Place  of 
the  Jolly  Topers  (another  authority  says  it  means 
"Where  we  all  got  drunk,"  the  Indians  having 
there  first  tasted  fire  water  given  by  the  Dutch). 
And  Chicago  means  the  Place  of  Skunks!  Talk- 
ing of  skunks,  Genl.  Schenck  was  the  greatest 
story-teller  I  ever  heard — 't  is  only  in  the  soimd 
of  the  name,  my  cousin,  for  there  was  nothing 
skunkly  in  him. 

Bagni  di  Lucca.  June  1 6th,  1893.  .  .  .  a  pretty, 
very  healthy  place,  with  a  nice  little  old-fash- 
ioned public  library,  where  they  take  the  "Lon- 
don Times"  and  "Standard"  and  some  week- 
lies —  and  I  hear  there  is  a  witch  2  miles  from 
here  who  divines  by  the  aid  of  the  spirits.  .  .  . 

And  now,  I  have  a  great  thing  to  relate  — 
whereof  the  glory  shall  yet  ring  all  over  the 
earth  and  New  Jersey!  The  Gypsy-Lore  Society 
has  been  transferred  to  Budapest.  Archduke 
Josef  is  the  head  —  while  I  remain  president. 
Now  I  propose  to  add  to  the  Gypsy  element,  or 
Romany  Ryes,  all  those  who  cultivate  Voodoos, 
fortune-tellers,  tinkers,  tramps,  travellers,  fakirs, 
card-slingers,  pitch  and  tossers,  in  short  all  who 


IN  FLORENCE  367 

form  the  outside  class  of  creation  —  the  mHange 
to  be  called  The  Gypsy  and  Wanderer's  So- 
ciety. .  .  . 

I  am  very  busy  on  a  truly  great  work  —  on  the 
Art  of  Mending  all  broken  things,  which  I  find 
is  Immense  —  and  —  Mrs.  Leland,  as  I  write, 
had  brought  me  a  shoe  with  a  hole  in  the  sole, 
which  I  shall  repair  with  gum  and  an  old  glove. 
If  I  only  had  some  india-rubber  I  could  make 
it  as  good  as  ever.  It  will  be  invaluable  for 
Housekeepers,  Owners  of  Furniture  or  Books, 
Toys,  Leather,  Tom  Garments,  etc. 

It  does  not  seem  from  what  I  read  that  the 
Great  Show  at  Chicago  will  be  quite  a  success. 
They  aimed  at  too  much.  —  The  entire  World 
is  not  as  yet  **  manageable  "  U  la  Bamum  —  nor 
is  Enterprise  all  Genius.  San  Francisco  and  not 
Chicago  will  be  the  Rome  of  the  Futiure.  There 
will  be  in  time  a  great  Exposition. 

Write  soon  —  write  ever  —  write  often.  Do 
study  French  and  German.  There  is  a  future  for 
you  when  you  will  need  them. 

Aug.  1893.  Four  years  ago  I  tried  hard  to  get 
the  learned  Coimt  de  Gubematis  to  establish  an 
Italian  Folk-Lore  Society.  I  have  just  received 
from  him  a  letter  in  which  he  says  that  he  has  at 
last  effected  what  originated  with  me,  and  we 


368    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

now  have  one  of  500  members  —  at  12  francs  or 
$2.40  per  annum.  In  order  that  this  immense 
sum  shall  not  fall  too  heavily  on  the  members, 
they  can  make  quarterly  payments  of  60  cents. 
For  this,  they  will  get  a  monthly  review.  There 
is  to  be  an  Italian  Folk-Lore  Congress  at  Rome 
in  November.  It  is  odd  that  in  precisely  the  same 
manner,  I  originated  the  Folk-Lore  Society  of 
Himgary,  and  was  accordingly  the  very  first 
member  entered.  And  I  may  be  said  to  have 
been,  in  fact  I  was,  the  very  first  member  and 
beginner  of  the  London  Folk-Lore. 

After  Bagni  di  Lucca  there  was  a  quiet  in- 
terval at  Vallombrosa.  "W.  W.  Story  and  family 
live  here  at  the  old  Medicean  villa,  now  Villa 
Peruzzi,"  he  wrote  me.  "He  is  very  jolly,  and 
the  yoimgest  man  for  his  years  I  ever  saw.  I 
have  persuaded  him  to  write  his  own  Life;" 
which  Story  did  not  live  to  do.  In  the  late 
autumn,  came  the  last  Folk-Lore  Congress  the 
Rye  was  strong  enough  to  take  part  in.  For 
some  time  beforehand  he  was  busy  preparing 
the  paper  he  was  to  read,  and  keeping  up  a 
most  animated  correspondence  with  Count  de 
Gubematis,  if  I  can  judge  from  the  numerous 
letters  he  had  to  answer  from  De  Gubematis, 


IN  FLORENCE  369 

who  oflFered  every  hospitality  in  Rome,  where  the 
Congress  was  to  be  held,  and  urged  him  to  per- 
suade Miss  Roma  Lifter  to  come.  What  a  great 
thing  to  have  a  lady  member !  and  a  lady  mem- 
ber with  a  paper  to  read !  You  have  to  live  in 
the  world  of  Folk-Lore  to  know  what  excitement 
there  may  be  in  it,  even  for  a  man  who,  after  an 
adventurous  life,  has  reached  his  seventieth  year. 
The  best  account  is  in  a  letter  to  Miss  Owen. 

chaklis  godfrey  lelamd  to  miss  mary  a.  owen 

Hotel  Victoria,  44,  Lung  Arno  Vespucci^ 
Florence,  Nov.  27th,  1895. 

Cara  Amiga, — 

And  did  you  think  me  still  alive. 
Or  did  you  deem  me  dead ; 
And  did  you  dream  if  here  I  thrive, 
Or  did  you  hear  I  'd  fled  ? 

However,  here  I  am,  and  just  returned  from 
4  or  5  days  in  Rome.  The  occasion  whereof 
was  that  Count  de  Gubematis,  having  (as  he 
informed  a  great  audience  in  the  Eternal  City, 
I  being  present)  —  having,  at  my  instance  and 
gentle  insistence,  founded  an  Italian  Folk-Lore 
Society,  I  went  there  and  was  made  first  fid- 
dler, De  Gubematis  being  the  leader.  Now  as 
the  Queen  of  Italy  is  an  ardent  One  of  Us  —  or 
a  Folk-Lorista  —  she  had  annoimced  that  she 


370    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

would  be  present.  But  there  came  a  great  po- 
litical crisis  and  threats  to  mob  her  —  poor 
lady !  —  so  she  did  not  come.  De  G.  read  his 
address  —  then  I  mine  in  Italian  —  you  will 
see  it  in  the  "Rivista,"  and  then  Roma  Lister, 
my  pupil,  hers.  De  G.  announced  that  her  name 
was  Roma  and  she  was  bom  in  Rome,  which 
induced  cheers — I  was  cheered  too,  immensely. 
As  the  Queen  was  expected,  we  had  a  full 
house  —  with  all  the  fashion  and  learning  of 
all  Rome  —  it  was  next  to  being  crowned  in 
the  Capital  —  and  the  next  day  I  was  ciUbre 
and  iUustrissimo  in  the  newspapers.  There 
were  only  us  three,  and  Roma  found  herself 
just  as  you  did  at  the  Congress,  the  great  fem- 
inine gun  of  the  day  —  the  Italians  being  of 
course  charmed  with  us.  .  .  . 

Rome  is  lovely,  but  it  rained  all  the  time. 
However,  we  saw  the  Vatican  and  had  sunshine 
for  the  Forum  and  Coliseum  and  Pincian  HiU, 
and  a  few  more  old  friends  —  and  I  found  a 
marvellous  old  panel  picture,  A.  d.  1300  Holy 
Family,  which  I  might  have  had,  a  tremen- 
dous bargain,  for  $20 — but  I  feared  I  could 
not  afford  it.  It  was  worth  $150.  So  I  bought 
two  Roman  lamps  for  15  cents  each,  and  one 
I  have  gilt  and  shaded  into  beauty. 


IN  FLORENCE  371 

I  bought  a  very  old  violin  lately  for  sixty 
cents,  and  have  adorned  it  so  that  it  adorns 
the  whole  room.  If  you  were  here,  I  would  over- 
stock you  with  my  fancy  work.  We  left  Roma 
in  Rome.  The  first  cake  baker  in  the  city  is 
very  badly  bewitched,  and  Roma  was  "called" 
in  to  cure  him.  She  borrowed  an  amulet  of  me 
and  took  her  own  collection.  I  have  not  yet 
heard  the  results.  I  advised  a  strong  dose  of 
Latin,  after  two  Italian  incantations.  Mrs. 
Leland  called  us  a  couple  of  infamous  hiun- 
bugs.   How  cruel  and  unjust  1 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.  OWEN 

Florence,  Feb.  25111, 1894. 

...  I  have  been  making  some  very  quaint 
book  covers.  You  have  a  mould  cut  in  wood, 
if  rudely  done,  no  matter.  Then  press  a  wet 
sheet  of  paper  into  it,  and  with  flo\ir  paste,  put 
on  the  back  six  more  sheets.  When  dry,  colour 
lightly  with  Naples  yellow  and  burnt  umber, 
and  it  looks  just  like  old  ivory  or  parchment. 
I  find  great  amusement  in  making  picture  frames 
and  restoring  old  pictures. 

Yesterday,  I  went  with  Roma  Lister  to  visit 
Maddalena,  the  witch.  .  .  . 

I  don't  dislike  my  ''Breitmann  Ballads"  — 


f 


372     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

^  indeed  I  love  many  of  them  —  but  I  am  some- 

times highly  pained  when  I  find  that  people 
know  nothing  else  about  me,  have  never  heard 

»  of  my  "Practical  Education,"  or  what  I  have 

done  in  Industrial  Art,  Language,  Tradition, 
etc.  So  that  when  anybody  begins  by  "  loading 
up"  on  the  Breitmann,  I  cannot  help  a  mild 
despise.  The  "  Memoirs  "  have  somewhat  helped 
me  as  to  this  of  late,  and  raised  me  above  merely 
Hans  Breitmann.  I  am  sorry  that  the  Voodoo 
business  is  interrupted,  but  a  strong  will,  inge- 

^  nious  trickery  and  belief  in  you,  will  set  it  all 

right.  Have  n't  you  a  famUiar  demon  who  brings 
you  news,  etc.?  Are  you  never  heard  talking 
to  him,  and  laughing,  and  do  you  never  alarm 
the  negroes  by  telling  them  their  secrets?  A 
shrewd  servant-friend  spy  can  aid.  But  you 
must  rehabilitate  yourself. 

The  Rye  was  working  now  at  "getting  up 
songs  of  the  Sea,"  and  at  "a  very  entertaining 
and  lively  book  on  Florentine  Legends  and  Folk- 
lore, far  droller  than  my  others.  Nutt  has 
promised  to  publish  it.  Maddalena  is  employed, 
on  a  regular  salary  of  5  francs  a  week,  to  collect 
and  write  out  traditions.  She  is  marvellous  at  it, 
and  as  mysterious  as  marvellous.    I  sometimes 


IN  FLORENCE  373 

think  she  must  invoke  the  ghosts  of  old  Florence 
and  Rome." 

In  the  summer  of  1894,  despite  the  gout, 
despite  ''the  thermometer  in  the  Nineties  and 
flies  in  the  Hundreds,"  the  "  Legends  "  were  fin- 
ished at  Siena,  where  I  was  able  to  spend  some 
few  weeks  with  him.  In  the  fall,  at  Innsbruck, 
despite  "beautiful  walks,"  and  ''perfect"  beer, 
and  "abundant"  peaches,  and  "occasional" 
Gypsies,  he  began  his  "  Breitmann  in  the  T)rroL" 
"I  am  working  away,  alternately  at '  Flaxius,  or 
Leaves  from  the  Life  of  an  Immortal,'  and  Hans 
Breitmann's  'Reisebilder,'"  he  reported  to  me 
late  in  October,  just  after  starting  homewards  to 
Florence.  There  —  though  Florence  was  "  lovely 
now,  such  simshiny  pleasant  da3rs,  the  leaves 
only  just  beginning  to  turn  a  little,  figs  and 
peaches  still  in"  —  he  had  to  include  in  his 
report,  almost  immediately,  another  book:  "a 
really  nice  book  of  Mottoes  for  Decoration  of 
aU  kinds  —  Libraries,  facades,  fountains,  bed- 
rooms, perfumers'  shops,  restaurants,  black- 
smiths, jeweUers,  gardens,  chairs,  music  and 
ball-rooms,  vestibules,  kitchens,  et  cetera/^  a 
book  published  in  part  in  "The  Architectural 
Review."  But  the  new  Breitmann  was  the  more 
important  tasL  He  offered  it  to  Mr.  Unwin. 


374    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 


charles  godfrey  leland  to  mr.  t.  fisher  unwin 

Hotel  Victoria,  44,  Lung  Arno  Vespucci, 
Florence,  Italy,  Oct.  aoth,  1894. 

Dear  Mr.  Unwin,  —  The  idea  of  a  new 
Breitmann  book  took  strong  hold  of  me  in  Inns- 
bruck, where  all  the  surroundings  were  favour- 
able to  its  development,  and  having  begun,  I 
f oimd  that  it  ran  oflf  the  reel  as  it  did  of  yore  — 
i.  e.,  very  rapidly  —  and  I  now  have  ready  what 
would  make  a  little  shilling  work. 

My  idea  is  that  it  should  be  called  ''Hans 
Breitmann's  Book  of  Travel  in  Song  and  Prose." 
It  is  all  about  Tyrol  and  its  Legends,  and  is 
half  prose,  half  poetry.  I  will  soon  send  you 
the  MS. 

There  is  one  thing  which  will  be  really  needed 
and  which  must  be  considered.  There  are  a  great 
many  German  words,  etc.,  in  the  work,  and  how- 
ever carefully  I  correct  here  abroad,  there  will  be 
blotching  and  blundering  m  it.  Mr.  Triibner 
himself  saw  to  all  this  in  the  "Ballads."  There 
are  no  end  of  Germans  in  London  who  would  be 
very  glad  to  revise  such  a  book  or  read  the  proof 
sheets  without  charge,  if  it  were  just  asked  as  a 
favour,  but  just  now  I  cannot  think  of  any  one, 
all  my  German  friends  having  dropped  out  of 


IN  FLORENCE  375 

sight.  If  you  can  think  of ,  or  hear  of,  anybody, 
so  much  the  better.  I  would  recommend  getting 
the  work  up  to  match  in  size  the  Lotos  form 
of  Kegan  Paul's  edition,  for  many  who  have 
the  '^Ballads"  would  like  to  have  this  book  to 
maich. 

Should  this  work  on  the  Tyrol  prove  a  success, 
I  will  follow  it  up  with  Breitmann  in  Italy,  or 
Germany,  or  Sweden,  or  Egypt. 

Pray  send  me  an  acknowledgment  as  soon  as 
you  get  the  MS. 

With  kindest  regards  to  Mrs.  Unwin,  in  which 
Mrs.  Leland  cordiaUy  joins,  I  remain 

Yours  very  truly, 

Charles  G.  Leland. 

The  winter  of  1894-95,  and  its  work,  may 
be  summed  up  in  the  two  letters  that  foUow. 

CHARLBS  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS  MART  A.  OWEN 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  Feb.  jd,  1895. 

.  .  .  Many  thanks  for  the  letter,  which  is 
indeed  a  letter  worth  reading,  which  few  are 
in  these  days  when  so  few  people  write  an3rthing 
but  notes  or  rubbish.  Be  sure  of  one  thing,  that 
yours  are  always  read  with  a  relish.    For  it  is 


376    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

marvellously  true  that  as  tools  are  never  wanting 
to  an  artist,  there  is  alwa)rs  abundance  to  make 
a  letter  with  to  those  who  know  how  to  write. 
There  is  always  something  to  "right  about"  — 
or  to  turn  round  to  and  see!  DapprimOy  I  thank 
you  for  the  jokes  from  the  newspapers.  They 
are  very  good,  but  I  observe  that  since  I  was 
in  America,  the  real  old  extravaganza,  the  wild 
eccentric  outburst,  is  disappearing  from  country 
papers.  No  editor  bursts  now  on  his  readers  all 
at  once  with  the  awful  question,  "  If  ink  stands 
why  does  n't  it  walk?"  Nor  have  I  heard  for 
years  of  the  old-fashioned  sequences,  when  one 
man  began  with  a  verse  of  poetry  and  every 
small  newspaper  reprinted  it,  adding  a  parody. 
Thus  they  began  with  Ann  Tiquity  and  then 
added  Ann  Gelic  and  Ann  O'Dyne  —  till  they 
had  finished  the  Anns.  Emerson's  "  Brahma " 
elicited  hundreds  of  parodies,  till  he  actually 
suppressed  it. 

Then  there  were  the  wild  outbursts  of  poems 
such  as  — 

I  seen  her  out  a^walking 
In  her  habit  de  la  me^ 
And  't  aint  no  use  a-talking  — 
But  she  *s  pumpkins  and  a  few. 

There  was  something  Indian-like,  aboriginal, 


IN  FLORENCE  3;/ 

and  wild  in  the  American  fun  of  40  years  ago 
(vide  Albert  Pike's  "  Arkansas  Gentleman  "  and 
the  "  Harp  of  a  Thousand  Strings ")  which  has 
no  parallel  now.  My  own  "beautiful  poem"  on 
a  girl  who  had  her  underskirt  made  out  of  a 
coffee  bag  was  republished  a  thousand  times,  — 
we  were  wilder  in  those  days,  and  more  eccen- 
tric. All  of  these  which  you  send  are  very  good, 
but  they  might  all  have  been  made  in  England. 
They  are  mild.  Ere  long,  there  will  be  no 
America. 

I  have  often  thought  of  collecting  and  publish- 
ing all  the  eccentric  poems  I  could  get  —  such  as 
"Uncle  Sam,"  "By  the  bank  of  a  murmuring 
stream,"  etc.,  but  —  nobody  would  care  for 
them  now.  Other  times,  other  tastes.  .  .  • 

My  forthcoming  "Florentine  Legends"  will 
be  nice,  but  I  have  got  far  better  ones  since  I 
made  it.  The  "Breitmann"  I  really  think  is 
fairly  good  —  perhaps  it  will  sell  well.  I  have 
not  much  hope  for  "Songs  of  the  Sea"  and 
"Lays  of  the  Land"  by  Sea  G.  Lay-Land  —  yet 
there  are  three  or  four  good  ballads  in  it.  But 
what  I  await,  with  gasping  hope,  is  "Flaxius," 
which  is  in  Watt's  hands.  I  have  not  yet  heard 
that  he  has  found  a  publisher.  It  is  my  great 
work  and  as  mad  as  a  hatter.  .  .  . 


378    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PENNELL 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  April  6th,  1895. 

Dear  Pen,  —  I  am  alwa)rs  glad  to  write  to 
you,  for  it  is  the  next  best  thing  to  talking,  and 
you  have  of  late  years  not  known  what  it  is  never 
to  have  a  talk.  But  I  pass  whole  weeks  without 
it.  I  cannot,  as  Everybody  else  does,  "chat"  and 
feel  relieved.  I  hate  chat  —  it  wearies  me.  It  is 
hard  work,  and  after  the  best  of  it  I  feel  ashamed 
and  bored. 

My  "Songs  of  the  Sea"  has  astonished  me. 
A.  Lang  in  the  "Daily  News"  praised  it  so  that 
tears  nearly  rose  to  my  eyes! 

I  learned  to-day  by  letter  that  Emily  Harri- 
son is  to  come  to  Italy  this  summer  —  which 
thing  Maddalena,  unquestioned,  predicted  with 
the  utmost  confidence  6  days  ago.  M.  does  not 
make  any  pretence,  but  she  has  thus  far  shown 
herself  as  far  ahead  of  Mme.  Blavatsky  as  Sun 
to  Moon.  She  casts  the  cards  and  then  explains 
them  carefully  in  detail.  And  it  always  comes 
true.  I  don't  reason  over  it,  but  it  is  so.  It  is  not 
like  Gypsy  or  Ruskin  inspiration  —  it  is  drawn 
from  a  kind  of  mathematical  inference  —  and 
M.  often  asks  me  to  learn  the  art  so  as  to  do  it 
for  m)^self.  This  is  limng  in  a  bygone  age.   M. 


IN  FLORENCE  379 

never  omits  the  incantations,  and  the  more  in 
earnest  she  is,  the  more  zealously  she  repeats 
them  in  full  faith.  She  has  the  deepest  belief  in 
magic  as  a  cure  for  disorders.  All  illne;^  is  a 
mal-occhiOy  a  speU  cast  by  an  enemy  or  gathered 
from  an  evil  injSuence.  There  is  a  great  differ- 
ence between  collecting  folk-lore  as  a  curiosity 
and  living  in  it  in  truth.  I  do  not  believe  that  in 
all  the  Folk-Lore  Societies  there  is  one  person 
who  lives  in  it  in  reality  as  I  do.  I  cannot  describe 
it  —  what  it  once  was  is  lost  to  the  world.  You 
cannot  understand  it  at  second  hand.  ...  I  am 
hopeful  about  the  "Florentine  Legends."  There 
was  a  great  deal  of  work  put  into  it,  and  it  is 
really  a  very  curious  book,  in  which  Maddalena 
and  Marietta  appear  to  strange  advantage. 
Marietta's  poems  are  reaUy  beautiful^  and  she 
never  had  a  gleam  of  an  idea  that  she  had  a  tal- 
ent. However,  the  more  I  know  such  people,  the 
more  bewildered  I  am,  and  the  more  lost  in  a 
kind  of  elfin-land  of  mystery.  It  is  curious  how 
I  find  such  characters  —  it  w  like  miracle  —  I 
don't  seek  them,  they  come  to  me  as  in  dreams. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

THE  END 

It  was  in  the  summer  of  1895  that  the  Rye  first 
began  to  feel  the  burden  of  years,  to  be  con- 
scious of  what  Ruskin  called  '^  the  sea  of  troubles 
that  overwhelm  old  age."  From  Innsbruck, 
on  his  birthday,  the  15th  of  August,  he  wrote  me, 
^'I  do  not  feel  different,  that  I  am  aware,  from 
what  I  was  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago."  But  most 
of  his  letters  did  not  let  me  forget  that  he  had 
reached,  and  gone  beyond,  the  limit  of  three- 
score and  ten.  "I  long  to  be  in  Florence !"  was 
the  sad  strain.  ''It  is  not  much  of  a  home,  but 
it  is  singular  that  when  one  is  in  worry  and 
uneasiness  —  especially  when  old  —  that  one 
yearns,  as  animals  do,  for  some  place  to  feel 
more  at  home  in,  just  as  a  child  wants  to  be 
with  'Mother,'  altho'  the  mother  may  be  cruel 
and  wicked." 

He  had  much,  besides  age,  to  worry  him :  his 
affairs  in  Philadelphia,  his  gout,  the  want  of  new 
literary  schemes,  the  cold  and  loneliness  of  the 


THE  END  381 

summer.  He  was  without  friends  in  Innsbruck, 
even  the  Gypsies  failed  him.  "IVe  nothing  to 
write  about,"  a  letter  dated  October  19  begins, 
"  so  I  '11  talk.  If  you  ever  write  a  memoir  of  your 
uncle,  say  that  he  could  write  more  easily  than 
he  could  talk.  G.  A.  Sala  told  the  world  in  print 
that  I  was  ponderous  and  dull  personally  — 
because  when  he  was  present,  I  let  him,  out  of 
compliment,  do  all  the  Oratory.  That  was  my 
reward." 

In  Florence,  at  his  own  writing-table,  with 
the  madonnas  looking  down  from  their  gold 
ground  upon  him,  he  was  more  himself.  And 
there  came  with  the  winter  a  request  for  work, 
always,  for  him,  the  best  stimulus.  The  request 
was  from  Mr.  Unwin,  and  the  Rye's  answer  suf- 
ficiently explains  it.  But  before  this  answer,  I 
insert  another  letter  to  Mr.  Unwin,  as  a  plea- 
sant instance  of  the  friendly  relations  between 
author  and  publisher  which,  we  have  been  asked 
to  believe,  belong  entirely  to  the  fable  of  the 
past. 

CHARLES  Gonriunr  lkland  to  mr.  t.  nsHSR  unwik 
Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  Dec  2d,  1895. 

Dear  Mr.  Unwin,  —  I  was  sincerely  grieved 
a  few  days  ago  at  hearing  that  you  had  experi- 


382    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

enced  a  great  loss  by  fire,  and  truly  it  never  once 
came  into  my  head  that  I  myself  could  have  a 
part  therein.  Then  I  heard  it  was  not  you,  but 
your  brother,  who  had  been  burnt  out,  and  that 
you  had  published  a  statement  that  you  had  not 
suflFered.  However,  a  circular  just  received  in- 
forms me  that  a  portion  of  my  books  has  been 
lost,  and  that  is  no  good  news  surely.  I  suppose 
that  you  are  terribly  busy  now,  but  hope  that 
when  things  clear  away  you  will  kindly  let  me 
know  the  extent  of  the  loss. 

I  need  not  say  that  you  have  my  sympathy, 
—  not  only  because  a  fellow  feeling  makes  us 
wondrous  kind,  but  because  I  have  always 
wished  you  well  with  all  my  heart,  and  I  shall 
never  forget  how,  when  I  was  so  grieved  that  you 
had  done  so  badly  with  my  books,  it  was  you 
who  did  the  consoling,  with  very  great  kindness, 
unlike  most  publishers  at  such  times,  but  most 
like  a  friend,  as  I  really  believe  you  to  be.  And 
so  with  kind  regards  to  Mrs.  Unwin,  in  which 
Mrs.  Leland  joins,  including  Dame  Sickert,  I 
remain,  with  sincerest  hopes  that  all  may  go  well 
with  you,  however  I  may  fare. 

Very  sincerely  your  friend, 

Chables  G.  Leland. 


THE  END  383 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MR.  T.   FISttER  UNWIN 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  Dec.  20th,  1895. 

Dear  Mr.  Unwin,  —  I  am  sincerely  gratified 
at  being  invited  to  contribute  to  "  Cosmopolis," 
and  more  than  usually  anxious  to  do  the  very 
best  I  can  for  it,  because  I  am  very  desirous  that 
you  shall  succeed.  It  is  a  great  risk,  but  it 
promises  weD.  Therefore  I  have  written  to  Mr. 
Ortmans,  stating  what  I  have  written,  begging 
him  to  give  me  some  idea  of  what  subject  I  had 
better  choose.  I  believe  that  it  is  in  me  to  con- 
tribute something  valuable,  but  I  have  had  too 
much  experience  as  an  editor  myself  not  to  know 
that  a  writer,  whatever  his  ability  may  be,  is 
alwa3rs  better  for  advice  as  regards  the  scope  of 
the  pubKcation  for  which  he  contributes.  The 
cleverest  elephant  needs  a  good  driver  —  the 
most  active  monkey  must  be  taught  how  to  pick 
cocoanuts  and  bring  them  in,  —  yea,  as  I  once 
heard  a  very  honest  gypsy  say  of  his  dog:  "He  is 
very  clever,  but  he'd  never  a-been  worth  seven 
pounds  if  I  hadn't  teached  him  how  to  steal 
rabbits,"  which  is  actually  true,  and  it  was  said 
to  me  on  the  edge  of  the  Thames  by  Moulsey  — 
and  it  was  the  most  infernally  ugly  lurcher  I  ever 
saw  in  my  life.  [Here  follows  a  drawing  of  the 


384    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

dog.]  If  you  run  short  of  contributions,  you  may 
publish  my  letters.  They  are  not  amusing, — 
but  they  are  so  edifying!  .  .  • 

Now  I  have  something  strange  to  tell  you.  I 
had  no  thought  of  "Cosmopolis"  —  had  not 
heard  of  it — when  last  night,  just  before  I  fell 
asleep,  reflecting  that  this  had  been  the  hardest 
year  for  me  I  ever  knew,  "specuniarily  speak- 
ing," I  resolved  to  write  to  you  and  ask  you,  if 
it  ever  came  in  your  way,  to  get  me  some  job  of 
work,  large  or  small,  in  the  writing  or  design- 
ing way.  And  with  this  deep  design,  I  went  to 
sleep,  and  awoke  —  meaning  to  write  to  you 
when  loandbehold  I  I  was  anticipated  by  your 
friendly  letter !  And  to  think  there  are  people 
who  do  not  believe  in  special  providences  or 
ghosts !  I  may  be  wrong,  but  it  seems  to  me  that 
you  ought,  now  and  then,  or  generally,  to  enliven 
the  bill  of  fare  a  little.  There  are  a  great  many 
genial  good  fellows,  gentlemen,  and  scholars 
in  England  and  the  Colonies  for  whom  a  refined 
and  yet  jolly  monthly  would  be  a  godsend.  And 
there  is  really  no  such  publication  in  Great 
Britain.  I  do  not  mean  a  comic  a£Fair  h  la 
Bumand.  One  sees  more  cheerful  humour  in  the 
provincial  press  than  in  the  London  prints. 
Did  you  ever  hear  of  the  old  "Knickerbocker 


THE  END  385 

Magazine"  in  New  York?  It  was  a  good-na-- 
tured,  refined,  go-as-you-please  concern,  with  a 
very  large  and  broad  editor's  table,  wherein  a 
jolly  company  of  contributors,  guided  by  the  edi- 
tor, gossiped,  jested,  and  sang,  as  they  pleased. 
The  columns  were  filled  up  anyhow,  but  it  was 
very  popular  in  its  prime. 

Well — and  good  success  to  "  Cosmopolis  " ! 

With  Christmas  greetings  from  me  and  mine 
to  thee  and  thine,  I  remain 
Ever  your  friend, 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

Through  the  winter  and  spring,  however,  he 
grew  weaker  physically,  until,  by  June,  he  could 
not  muster  strength  enough  for  the  daily  walk 
back  from  the  Signoria,  even  after  the  daily  glass 
of  beer,  now  his  one  dissipation.  And  my  aunt 
was  ill,  feebler  than  he.  And  to  make  matters 
worse,  at  Homburg,  reached  only  after  the 
effort  of  packing  had  brought  on  serious  palpita- 
tions of  the  heart,  it  rained  almost  all  through  the 
summer.  "It  is  raining  now,"  was  his  dreary 
account  of  it  early  in  September,  "it  has  rained 
all  day  —  it  rained  all  yesterday.  As  I  have 
hardly  met  a  soul  with  whom  I  could  talk, 
except  during  the  two  weeks  when  my  sister 


386    CHARLES   GODFREY  LELAND 

[Mrs.  Harrison]  was  here,  I  can  declare  that  it 
has  been  not  only  the  dullest  summer  of  my 
life,  but  the  dullest  4  months  I  ever  experienced 
Anywhere.  Great  God,  how  stupid  it  was !  I 
have  not  done  much  in  the  way  of  work  beyond 
adding  a  few  chapters  to  my  ^Memoirs'  and 
writing  a  bold  curious  article  on  Miracles  and 
Evolution.  Mrs.  Maxwell,  Miss  Braddon,  was 
here  one  day  and  I  had  a  talk  with  her,  which  I 
ought  to  have  excepted.  A  Gypsy  or  an  Italian 
witch  would  be  a  godsend." 

A  greater  pleasure  of  which  he  did  not  writCi 
though  I  know  how  much  it  meant  to  him,  was  a 
letter,  received  in  September,  from  Bume- Jones, 
in  praise  of  the  "Legends  of  Florence,"  which 
had  been  published  in  1895  and  1896.  It  is  a 
charming  letter.  But  here  it  is  to  speak  for  it- 
self. 

edward  burke-jones  to  charles  godfrey  leland 

The  Grange,  49  North  End  Road, 
West  Kensington,  W.,  September,  1896. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  This  summer  I  have  been 
reading  your  two  books  of  "Florentine  Le- 
gends," and  studying — or,  to  be  more  accurate, 
reading  twice,  which  is  a  very  poor  substitute 
for  studying —  your  book  of  "Etruscan  Roman 


J 


THE  END  387 

Remains/'  all  new  and  inexpressibly  delightful 
to  me,  and  this  must  be  my  excuse  for  so  out- 
rageously writing  to  you. 

If  you  hate  answering  letters  as  much  as  I  do, 
you  will  be  justified  in  taking  no  notice  of  this, 
but  it  ends  with  a  hxmible  sort  of  supplica- 
tion, that  if  you  are  ever  in  London,  you  will 
give  me  the  great  pleasure  of  letting  me  meet 
you. 

Besides,  you  have  attacked  so  much  that  I 
love,  especially  in  the  Etruscan  book,  that  if  I 
owe  you  gratitude,  as  I  do,  I  think  you  owe  me 
a  little  reparation. 

Believe  me 

Always  yours  truly, 

Edwakd  Bubne- Jones. 

Things  were  better  in  Florence;  they  always 
were.  But  whatever  improvement  there  may 
have  been  in  his  health  was  not  apparent  to 
my  husband  and  myself,  when  we  joined  him 
at  Baveno,  on  Lago  Maggiore,  in  the  sunmier 
of  1897.  He  had  gone  there  because  he  dreaded 
the  longer  journey  to  Homburg,  and  feared  a 
repetition  of  the  last  season's  rains.  We  had 
seen  him  only  three  years  before  at  Siena,  but 
we  were  shocked  at  the  change.    Not  in  his 


388    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

industry:  he  was  finishing  his  "Hundred  Arts," 
compiling  a  volume  on  ^^  Musical  Instruments/' 
writing  and  illustrating  his  "Legends  of  Vir- 
gil." But  the  shortest  walk  tired  him.  The  easy 
expeditions  to  the  near  towns  on  the  Lake 
exhausted  him,  though  he  would  return  laden 
with  madonnas  to  repair,  and  odds  and  ends 
of  the  bric-h-brac  indispensable  to  his  happi- 
ness. I  thought  it  extraordinary  that  he  should 
accomplish  even  this  little,  when  I  found  that, 
except  at  breakfast,  he  ate  practically  nothing. 
He  had  the  appetite  of  a  child  and  the  frame 
of  a  giant.  Nothing  but  his  interest  in  work 
kept  him  alive.  It  seemed  to  me  that  if  this 
continued,  he  could  not  live  many  more  months. 
But  when  he  could  no  longer  walk  in  search 
of  the  "strange  things,"  as  indispensable  to 
him  as  bric-h-brac,  and  was  forced  to  seek  them 
within  himself,  he  met  with  an  adventure  that 
was  to  be  as  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  that  was  in 
truth  a  "great  marvel,"  when  his  seventy-three 
years  and  his  extreme  physical  feebleness  at 
the  time  are  remembered.  But  I  leave  it  to  him 
to  describe  this  new  adventure.  Its  beginning 
dated  back  to  the  sunmier  months  in  Baveno, 
as  I  learn  from  the  pages  it  fills  in  the  "Mem- 
oranda." 


THE  END  389 

CHARLKS  GODFRSY  LELAND  TO  S.  R.  PENNSLL 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  Dec.  nth,  1897. 

...  I  never  knew  nor  heaxd  of  any  hufnan 
being  who  lives  so  secluded  as  I  do.  I  am  in 
love  with  —  absorbed  and  buried  in  work.  lam, 
if  anything,  rather  better  or  stronger  than  I 
was  a  year  ago,  and  keep  perfectly  well.  I  at- 
tribute this  to  cultivating  the  WiUy  or  main- 
tained mental  resolution^  which  has  opened  to 
me  during  the  past  year  a  new  life.  Thus  it  is 
really  true  that,  in  all  my  life,  I  never  could 
write  or  work  so  many  hours  in  succession  — 
in  fact  I  never  tire,  though  I  work  all  my  waking 
minutes —  as  now.  This  is  absolutely  due  to  the 
habit  formed  of  every  night  resolving  and  re- 
peating, with  all  my  WiU^  that  I  will  work  con 
amore  all  day  long  to-morrow.  I  have  also  found 
that  if  we  resolve  to  be  vigorous  of  body  and 
of  mind,  calm,  collected,  cheerful,  etc.,  that  we 
can  effect  marvels,  for  it  is  certainly  true  that 
after  a  while  the  Sfnrit  or  will  does  haunt  us 
unconsciously  and  marvellously.  I  have,  I  be- 
lieve, half  changed  my  nature  under  this  dis- 
cipline. I  will  continually  to  be  free  from  folly, 
envy,  irritability,  and  vanity,  to  forgive  and  for- 
get —  and  I  have  found,  by  wiUing  and  often 


390     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

recurring  to  it,  that,  while  I  am  far  from  being 
exempt  from  fault,  I  have  eliminated  a  vast 
mass  of  it  from  my  mind.  Such  things  do  not 
involuntarily  occur  now  without  prompt  cor- 
rection, —  when  they  come  and  I  think  of  old 
wrongs,  troubles,  etc.,  I  at  once  say,  "Ah,  there 
you  are  —  begone!"  If  I  had  begun  this  by 
h}rpnotising  myself  long  ago,  I  should,  to  judge 
from  recent  experience,  have  attained  to  the 
miraculous.  I  begin  to  realise  in  very  fact  that 
there  are  tremendous  powers,  quite  unknown 
to  us,  in  the  mind,  and  that  we  can  perhaps 
by  long  continued  steady  wiU  awake  abilities 
of  which  we  never  dreamed.  Thus  you  can  by 
repetition  will  yourself  to  notice  hundreds  of 
things  which  used  to  escape  you,  and  this  soon 
begins  to  appear  to  be  miraculous.  You  must 
will  and  think  the  things  over  and  over  as  if 
learning  a  lesson,  saying  or  rather  thinking  to 
yourself  intently,  "I  will  that  all  day  to-mor- 
row I  shall  notice  every  little  thing."  And 
though  you  forget  all  about  it,  it  will  not  forget 
itself,  and  it  will  haunt  you,  and  you  will  no- 
tice all  kinds  of  things.  After  doing  this  a  dozen 
times,  you  will  have  a  new  faculty  awakened. 
It  is  certainly  true  that,  as  Klant  wrote  to  Hufe- 
land,  many  diseases  can  be  cured  by  resolving 


THE  END  391 

them  away  —  he  thought  the  gout  could  be. 
But  it  cannot  be  done  all  at  once  —  it  needs 
long  and  continued  effort  to  bring  this  to  pass 
with  confident  faith.  I  certainly  think  that  I 
have  improved  my  health  by  it. 

He  was  so  in  love  with  work,  so  convinced 
of  the  efficacy  of  Will,  that  only  three  months 
later  (March  28, 1898),  he  wrote  to  me,  "I  have 
finished  a  book  of  which  I  daresay  I  have  spoken 
before.  It  is  entitled  *  Have  You  a  Strong  Will  ? ' 
and  shows  how  the  mind  may  be  trained  by 
making  a  resolve  and  thinking  it  over  as  we  go 
to  sleep,  to  feel  the  next  day,  and  all  day,  peace- 
ful, industrious,  etc."  The  book  (published  by 
Redway,  1899)  must  also  have  been  some  help 
to  others,  for  it  has  gone  into  three  editions, 
and  I  have  come  upon  letter  after  letter  on  the 
subject  from  men  and  women  who  were  stran- 
gers to  him,  but  who  wrote  in  gratitude  or  sym- 
pathy. 

It  was  too  late  for  the  new  practice,  or  pre- 
scription, to  restore  his  strength,  but  it  made 
his  next  two  or  three  years  more  peaceful. 
Certainly  new  life  animated  his  letters.  The 
few  that  follow  will  give  some  idea  of  how  wide 
and  varied  his  interests  still  were,  how  keen 


392     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

his  faculties,  and  how  ardently  the  old  patriot- 
ism was  aroused  by  the  first  appeal. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MISS   MARY  A.   OWEN 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  March  25tli,  1898. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  It  was  with  great  plea- 
siu^  that  I  read  your  last  letter.  There  are  very 
few  people  left  of  the  last  generation,  like  me, 
who  practise  the  lost  art  of  letter-writing.  Dr. 
Holmes  was  one  of  them.  He  never  wrote  a 
letter,  however  short,  into  which  he  did  not 
put  at  least  one  witty  or  clever  point.  This  was 
so  invariable  that  I  at  last  made  sure  that  it 
was  a  principle  with  him.  .  .  .  My  life  is  -now 
very  quiet  and  uneventful.  I  have  grown  phys- 
ically much  weaker,  but  preserve  good  average 
health.  .  .  . 

The  Cuban  troubles  trouble  me,  for  I  have 
all  my  life  long  pitied  the  Cubans.  Every  na- 
tion in  Europe,  except  England,  is  really  against 
America.  The  English  really  understand  our 
situation,  and  it  is  much  like  their  own.  The 
French  hate  us  worst  of  all.  They  wanted  once 
to  occupy  Mexico  and  perhaps  had  an  eye  to 
Cuba.  But  to  see  John  Bull  in  Egypt  and  us 
in  Cuba  is  maddening.  Once  the  French  had 
India,  Egypt,  Canada,  all  the  West  of  America, 


THE  END  393 

and  the  Suez  Canal.  And  they  lost  them  all  to 
England  or  to  us.  And  this  sense  of  being  a 
cat's  paw  to  the  English  (we  are  all  the  same) 
is  humiliating.  Now,  all  their  hope  is  in  Russia. 
France,  Spain  and  Germany  cannot  colonise, 
because  they  all  three  oppress  their  colonies  — 
tax  and  govern  them  too  much,  even  cruelly. 
A  German  in  a  German  colony  has  to  endure 
more  bull)dng  than  at  home.  The  French  all 
hope  to  return  to  France  some  day.  The  Eng- 
lish, even  in  India,  are  just,  even  when  severe. 
It  is  amusing  to  see  how  every  day  they  are 
buying  up  Egypt  and  getting  to  own  it  as  pro- 
prietors. If  the  French  had  Egypt,  they  could 
not  buy  out  the  English  companies  who  own 
banks,  public  works,  etc.  It  is  like  the  English 
island  of  Campobello,  which  belongs  to  Ameri- 
cans. .  .  • 

So  a  Mr.  Scespanik  (pronounce  Sh6-panik 
and  think  of  a  mob  of  fidghtened  women)  has 
invented  the  art  of  seeing  anybody  far  away! 
Next  the  flpng-machine.  Then  fuel  from  air — 
I  wonder  that  this  was  not  perfected  long  ago. 
Tlien  pure  glass,  infinite  lenses,  and  we  shall 
see  what  people  are  doing  in  Mars.  And  so 
onl  •  .  • 


394     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

The  next  letter  refers  to  the  Life  of  Franklin 
by  my  brother,  who  had  just  sent  a  copy  of  it 
to  the  Rye. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MR.   EDWARD  ROBUCS 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  May  22,  1S98. 

My  dear  Ned,  —  I  have  received  and  read 
your  "Franklin."  I  need  not  say  it  was  with 
pleasure,  for  I  very  nearly  finished  it  at  one 
sitting,  and  should  have  done  so  in  fact,  had  I 
begun  to  read  20  minutes  sooner.  And  for  its 
merits,  you  have,  evidently  enough,  read  the 
subject  up  thoroughly  and  judiciously  —  it  is 
a  great  art  to  know  how  to  read  up  an)rthing, 
requiring  a  natural  talent  of  perception  and 
selection.  Secondly,  you  have  chosen  well  what 
to  give  according  to  the  limits  of  your  book. 
There  are  a  few  small  items  which  I  would  have 
included,  however.  In  the  allusion  to  Ralph 
and  Pope,  you  might  just  as  well  have  quoted :  — 

Silence,  ye  wolves,  while 
Ralph  to  Cynthia  howls  !  etc. 

And  you  certainly  should  have  said  that  Thomas 
Godfrey  (a  collateral  relative  of  mine  by  the 
mother's  side)  invented  the  Quadrant.  I,  as  a 
boy,  subscribed  a  dollar  to  raise  a  monument  to 
him. 


THE  END  395 

Mrs.  Kinsman,  an  own  niece  of  Franklin's, 
told  me  that  of  all  the  many  portraits  of  Franklin 
which  she  had  ever  seen,  the  statue  over  the 
Library  was  the  most  perfect,  having  just  his 
expression  ;  I  forget  whether  it  was  Mrs.  Kins- 
man or  another  niece,  Mrs.  McCaw,  who  gave 
me  the  cotton  quilt  which  was  over  Franklin 
when  he  died.  I  treasured  it  for  many  years,  but 
fear  it  is  lost  now. 

Your  style  is  admirable^  clear  and  simple,  often 
delicately  humorous.  You  have  made  it  clearer 
to  me  than  any  one  else  did  before,  that  Franklin 
was  a  many-sided  and  universal  Genius,  as  the 
really  first  class  man  always  or  generaUy  is,  e. ;., 
Goethe,  Napoleon,  Peter  the  Great.  .  .  . 

There  is  a  quaint  little  old  engraving,  in  some 
juvenile  book,  of  Miss  Read  laughing  at  Frank- 
lin at  their  first  interview.  You  might  reproduce 
it  in  some  future  edition. 

There  is  a  very  good  sketch  of  Franklm  as 
a  boy,  given  in  one  of  Miss  Leslie's  stories.  It 
might  also  be  reproduced. 

Capt.  Thos.  Hutchins  was  Geographer  Gen- 
eral to  the  United  States  during  the  Rev.  War. 
He  was  some  time  in  England,  where  he  served  as 
spy.  Then  he  went  over  to  France,  and  at  Passy 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance  to  the  United  States. 


396    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Franklin  delivered  the  oath  and  gave  and  signed 
a  certificate  of  it.  This  I  have  put  away  in  Phila- 
delphia. If  you  can  find  it,  or  the  quilt,  you  may 
have  it.  Or  if  it  ever  comes  to  light,  it  is  yours. 
Hutchins  and  the  oath  are  mentioned  in  a  bio- 
graphy of  him. 

I  send  you  a  little  life  of  Franklin  translated 
into  Italian  from  the  German.  It  is  like  yours  in 
some  details,  but  far  inferior. 

I  wish  you  would  write  a  book  on  distin- 
guished Philadelphians.  John  Fitch  and  Fulton 
really  belong  to  us,  for  it  was  in  Philadelphia  that 
the  steamboat  was  imagined  and  perfected.  And 
there  is  a  great  want  in  our  national  literature  of 
works  which  really  reproduce  the  spirit  or  ro- 
mance or  picturesqueness  of  the  past,  or  of  the 
old  Colonial  time.  The  few  touches  (only  a  few 
paragraphs)  in  my  "Memoirs"  devoted  to  old 
Philadelphia  did  more  to  awake  interest  in  the 
book  than  all  the  rest  put  together.  There  must 
be  the  same  old  Swedish  and  Dutch  literature 
about  Philadelphia  extant.  —  And  there  is  a 
great  deal  which  is  curious  and  merry  in  the  old 
newspapers  in  the  Historical  Soc.  Library.  .  .  . 

He  wrote  to  me  so  constantly  through  the 
sununer  of  1898  —  except  for  the  few  days  when 


THE  END  397 

my  husband  and  I,  cycling  down  to  the  Austrian 
Tyrol,  stopped  at  Homburg  —  that  I  again  give 
extracts  from  his  letters  in  the  form  of  the 
journal  they  really  were. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  E.  R.  PBNNELL 

Homburgj  June  i6th,  1898.  I  was,  for  more 
than  a  week  before  leaving  Florence,  very  ill 
indeed  with  gout  in  the  throat;  it  came  in  an 
hour,  just  as  the  last  things  were  packed  up, 
and  my  sufferings  were  fearful.  Then  I  was 
cured  by  cocaine,  which  made  me  so  nervous 
that  I  saw  spectres,  etc.  One  day  I  was  in  my 
sick  bed,  on  the  next  we  got  into  the  train,  and 
in  30  hours  were  over  Switzerland  and  here.  I 
bore  the  journey  perfectly  well,  and  as  soon  as 
we  were  over  the  Gothard,  I  was  renewed.  We 
arrived  here  a  week  ago.  Poor  Aunt  Belle  is  very 
much  reduced  and  worn,  but  we  have  had  per- 
fect weather  —  have  our  old  rooms,  and  black- 
birds sing  near  our  windows,  while  the  Cur- 
garten  with  musik  is  over  the  way.  Everybody 
remembers  us,  —  the  maid  brought  up  several 
tools  and  a  Dalmatian  knife  which  I  had  forgot- 
ten and  left  here  two  years  ago !  Beer  is  very 
good  and  costs  about  a  third  of  what  it  does 
in  Florence,  but  sundry  other  pleasing  extrava- 


398    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

gances  peculiar  to  a  great  city  are  wanting  here 
—  old  books  and  hric^-hrac  —  it  is  something 
to  see  the  Perseus  of  Cellini  every  day,  and  the 
Duomo. 

Homburgj  June  29th,  1898.  ...  By  far  the 
best  work  I  ever  wrote  has  just  been  declined, 
"Have  you  a  Strong  Will?"  .  .  •  By  means  of 
the  very  easy  process  described,  I  have  actually 
achieved  marvellous  results,  beyond  all  belief. 
I  believe,  for  instance,  that  my  late  coming  from 
Florence  in  such  good  condition  was  due  to  it. 
.  .  .  I  take  a  great  interest  in  the  war.  Germany, 
to  get  a  foothold  in  the  Philippines,  is  risking 
tremendous  danger,  —  firstly  war  with  us,  and 
secondly  the  internal  dissension  which  would 
arise  from  exciting  7,000,000  Grermans  in  Amer- 
ica, who  are  all  pro-American  and  Socialists. 
Germany  would  lose,  I  say,  because  England 
would  back  us  up,  and  a  general  war  ensue.  If  the 
Germans  and  French  had  had  the  sense  of  idiots, 
they  could  have  got  as  much  of  the  Philippines 
as  they  wanted.  We  could  have  shared  with 
them  willingly.  But  no  —  they  must  needs  let 
all  the  Press  loose  on  us,  and  threaten  us  through 
their  diplomatists.  It  is  funny  to  see  France  and 
Grermany  about  to  unite  against  us.  So  much 
for  greed  and  envy.   "The  Dutch  are  hogs." 


THE  END  399 

Acby  mein  Hen  ist  in  Hogland,  my  Hen  is  nicht  hier, 
Mein  Herz  ist  in  Hogland  a-trinkin'  das  Bier, 
A-trinkin'  das  Bier  und  a  saofin  der  Wein ; 
Mein  Herz  ist  in  Hogland — all  unter  de  Schwein. 

I  interrupt  the  sequence  of  my  letters  to  quote 
from  one  to  Miss  Owen,  —  a  paragraph  that  is 
like  a  reecho  of  the  old  fighting  days  in  the  six- 
ties:— 

Aug.  22d.  "The  war  has  gone  to  my  very 
heart,  as  it  has  to  that  of  every  real  American, 
and  I  am  exalted  —  enraptured  —  at  the  idea 
that  we  are  going  to  take  our  place  among  the 
nations  as  one,  and  no  longer  adhere  to  the  old 
mean  Yankee-Chinese." 

The  ^^  Memoranda,"  at  this  period,  became  a 
daily  chronicle  at  immense  length  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  war,  and  each  fresh  crisis  awoke 
the  old  newspaper  man  in  him,  and  set  him  to 
writing  letters  to  the  "Times"  and  "Standard" 
in  London,  the  "New  York  Herald"  in  Paris. 

To  return  to  the  journal  in  the  letters  to 
me: — 

Hamburg^  July  19th,  1898.  ...  I  have  just 
received  with  joy  your  letter,  and  am  rejoiced 
with  your  Aunt  Belle  to  know  that  you  and 
Joseph  will  probably  be  here  for  a  short  (I  would 
it  were  long)  visit.  .  •  .  I  believe  I  told  you  that 


400    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

I  am  writing  a  book  of  short  Essays,  each  of 
about  1600  words.  Among  them  is  one  on  the 
coming  Flying  Machine,  showing  how  it  will 
change  the  whole  world  and  put  an  end  to 
TariflFs  and  War.  Also,  how  everybody  can  start 
off  and  make  visits  anywhere.  So  it  wiU  neces- 
sarily be  cheap,  light,  and  swift.  That  it  will 
come  in  a  few  years,  I  am  sure.  If  a  bow  or  a 
spring  can  propel  twice  its  own  weight  through 
the  air,  we  have  the  force  beyond  all  question. 

I  am  in  no  hurry  to  see  the  war  end.  Since  we 
must  have  foreign  colonies,  let  us  have  all  we 
can  get. 

Hamburg,  Sept.  2d,  1898.  G.  Redway  has 
accepted  the  "Strong  Will,"  but  has  not  written 
when  it  will  come  out. 

Hamburg,  Sept.  17th,  1898.  ...  It  was  with 
extreme  joy  that  I  received  your  letter  of  yester- 
day, 1 6th.  The  letter  enclosed  was  from  the 
editor  of  the  "Architectural  Review,"  asking  me 
to  do  what  of  all  things  on  earth,  literary  and 
artistic,  I  most  desire  to  do,  —  write  out  and 
illustrate  legends  of  Florence  and  articles  on 
the  Minor  Arts.  "Tears  bedewed  my  face  for 
joy."  ... 

Hamburg,  Sept.  25th,  1898.  ...  I  met  with 
a  real  Gypsy  family  in  a  beer  garden  day  before 


«^ 


.MJ 


9! 


/3Lv  ^k;  .*-<^-«^ 


^f^.^  **  < — *«;  »— —• ^  ^ 


THE  END  401 

yesterday  and  had  a  gay  time.  They  called  me 
KokOj  which  seemed  so  much  like  you! 

Homburgj  Oct.  4th,  1898.  .  .  .  Hutchinson^s 
little  tobacco  poetry  book  is,  of  course,  lovely 
unto  me.  However,  I  thought  so  before  I  came 
across  the  compliments  which  he  pays  me.  .  .  . 
I  shall  be  delighted  to  return  to  Florence.  I  have 
absolutely  no  human  being  to  speak  to  here. 
And  I  am  anxious  to  get  to  work  for  the  ^'Archi- 
tectural Review." 

Florence^  Nov.  i6th.  I  have  been  very  ill  in 
bed  —  2  weeks,  in  the  house  nearly  4.  I  had 
gout  in  the  foot,  inflammation  of  the  Itmgs,  and 
a  bad  influenza,  all  at  once.  Dr.  B.  sajrs,  and 
has  said  thrice,  it  was  a  very  bad  attack.  Now 
note  that  I  never  once  complained,  or  swore,  or 
fretted,  but  bore  it  like  a  brass  statue  and  never 
heeded  it.  I  knew  the  pain  was  there,  but  would 
not  think  of  it.  B.  says  that  this  shortened  the 
attack  and  greatly  helped  to  cure  me. 

FlorencCj  Dec.  3d,  1898.  ...  I  am  still  con- 
fined to  my  room,  the  gout  is  a  little  better  every 
day  —  no  more  pain  to  speak  of,  except  when  I 
walk.  I  have  just  now  really  nothing  literary  to 
do,  so  am  occupied  with  restoring  a  high  relief 
image  of  the  Madonna  and  child.  ...  It  took 
two  entire  days  to  restore  it.  The  Christ's  head  is 


402    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

gone.  I  only  gave  $  francs  for  it  —  it  was  so 
awfully  dilapidated,  but  it  will  look  worth  looo 
when  done.  XV.  century,  rather  late.  .  .  . 

Jan.  31st,  1899.  •  -  -  ^^ot  Stock  is  willing 
to  print  a  volume  of  my  "Virgil  Legends."  .  •  • 

I  insert  a  letter,  written  before  the  end  of  the 
year,  to  Miss  Annie  Dymes,  Secretary  of  the 
Home  Arts  Association,  as  one  of  many  exam- 
ples of  the  thought  he  ever  gave  to  old  friends 
and  old  interests. 

charles  godfrey  leland  to  miss  annie  dymes 

Hotel  Victoria,  44,  Lung  Arno  Vespucci, 
Florence,  Nov.  21, 1898. 

Dear  Annie, 

Earnestly  I  prayed  last  night 
To  my  guardian  angel  sprite, 

that  I  might  hear  good  news  this  day,  and  it  came 
in  the  form  of  a  card  from  Miss  Mabel  de  Grey, 
informing  me  that  you  have  been  reappointed  — 
from  which  I  conclude  that  there  is  some  justice 
left  in  the  world.  That  there  could  have  been 
any  opposition  to  it  is  so  monstrous  that  I, 
though  fairly  familiar  with  meanness  and  self- 
ishness and  ingratitude,  was  "choked"  at  the 
idea«  Ebbene  —  I  congratulate  you,  and  assure 


THE  END  40s 

you  that  I  shall  in  future  have  a  better  opinion 
of  human  nature. 

And  I  send  the  kindest  greeting  which  heart 
can  conceive,  with  "the  benediction  of  the  wiz- 
ard" (I  am  supposed  in  certain  humble  circles 
here  to  possess  it)  to  Miss  Mabel  de  Grey,  who 
greatly  touched  me  by  her  solicitude  in  your  be- 
half. God  bless  you  both  in  every  way* 

May  Diana  the  queen  of  the  moon. 
The  Sun  and  the  Stan, 
Earth  and  sky, 
Send  you  f or^tune  1 

I  was  reminded  of  you  yesterday.  I  have  written 
a  book  entitled  "Have  You  a  Strong  Will?"  or 
how  to  develop  it  and  other  states  of  mind  by 
an  easy  process  of  self-hypnotism. 

Yesterday,  I  sent  back  the  revise  of  the  proofs. 
In  it,  I  cited  a  remark  which  I  once  heard  you 
make,  that  there  ought  to  be  Temples  raised 
to  the  Will.  I  give  your  name,  adding  that 
I  would,  instead,  raise  school-houses  where  the 
young  should  be  taught  how  to  form  the  Will. 

When  the  book  shall  appear,  pray  send  a  note 
to  G.  Redway,  9  Hart  St.,  Bloomsbury,  and  say 
that  I  request  him  to  send  you  a  copy.  I  put  you 
to  this  trouble  because  I  may  forget  it  and  I  want 
you  to  read  it 


404    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

Just  had  a  visit  f it>m  a  very  charming  Miss 

.  She  was  attacked  by  brigands  a  short  time 

ago,  and  fought  like  a  wild-cat,  tackling  a  man 
with  a  pistol  —  finally  the  coachman  saved 
them.  A  young  Italian  gentleman  with  her  gave 
up  all  he  had  —  150  francs  —  and  then  wanted 
her  to  marry  him!  She  is  American  —  I  always 
believed  her  to  be  English. 

Write  soon  to  your  old  friend, 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

The  gout  and  influenza  left  him  very  weak  all 
through  the  winter  of  1899;  how  weak  I  knew 
when  he  wrote  me,  "I  have  two  or  three  cook 
books  for  you,  very  nice  ones,  and  absolutely 
lack  the  energy  to  hunt  up  wrapping  paper  and 
do  them  up  and  mail  them"  —  and  this,  after 
he  had  been  visiting  the  barrows  of  the  Signoria 
in  behalf  of  my  collection  for  the  last  three  or 
four  years.  He  could  not  risk  going  out  in  damp 
or  stormy  weather.  But  he  got  through  an  enor- 
mous amount  of  work.  Another  book,  "  Aradia, 
or  the  Gospel  of  the  Witches,"  was  in  the  press 
(Nutt).  He  wrote  a  novel  to  amuse  himself, 
and  finished  a  collection  of  studies  of  Vagabonds. 
He  began  a  series  of  Gypsy  stories  and  sketches, 
and  planned  a  book  in  Shelta  with  Mr.  Sampscm. 


THE  END  40s 

He  sold  his  "Hundred  Arts."  He  could  forget 
his  increasing  feebleness  in  writing  and  in  the 
practice  of  the  "little  arts,"  —  he  was  always 
restoring  madonnas,  binding  books,  carving 
panels,  making  frames  in  gesso^  or  decorating 
the  innumerable  trifles  he  loved  to  give  to  his 
friends.  But  he  was  glad  when  spring  came. 

CRARLXS  GODFREY  LKLAND  TO  MISS  MARY  A.  OWXN 

HoTBL  Victoria,  44,  Lung  Arno  Vsspuca, 
Florence,  May  nth,  1899. 

...  I  am  beginning  to  feel  like  a  bear  at  the 
end  of  winter,  as  if  I  had  lived  long  enough  by 
sucking  my  own  paws.  I  am  drawing  on  my  old 
experiences  and  not  making  or  gathering  new 
ones.  That  is  a  bad  sign  when  an  old  man  goes 
on  ever  telling  the  same  old  stories.  However, 
the  Strong  Will  was  a  new  idea,  and  I  may  get 
another  1  I  do  so  love  new  work,  — 

To  change  our  occupadon 
Is  ever  recreation. 

I  am  astonished  that  there  is  so  little  in  the 
American  newspapers  about  our  doings  in  Cuba 
and  Porto  Rico.  I  suppose  that  we  are  pushing 
on  there  all  the  time,  but  I  see  no  signs  of  it.  As 
for  Manfla,  I  am  too  disgusted  with  Boston 
Babyishness  to  express  myself.    We  must  and 


406    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

ought  to  be  like  England  in  the  world  and  doing 
our  work  everywhere,  and  not  subside  into  a 
Yankee  China,  as  we  were  doing  before  the  war. 
However,  your  West  will  take  care  of  all  that, 
and,  since  I  have  felt  it,  my  heart  has  gone 
Westward. 

What  I  would  like  to  see,  albeit  it  is  impossible, 
would  be  a  joint  protectorate  of  all  the  West 
Indies  and  Philippines  equally  shared  between 
England  and  America.  ...  I  fear  a  time  may 
come  when  it  will  require  England,  America, 
and  Russia  to  keep  John  Chinaman  from  over- 
running the  whole  world,  our  share  of  it  in- 
cluded. When  he  gets  ships,  we  shall  see  trouble; 
perhaps  we  had  all  better  subdue  him  now,  and 
divide  his  land !  A  coalition  between  Chinese  and 
Hindoos  is  possible,  and  an  Exodus  of  20,000,000 
or  more  would  not  be  missed.  Even  50  millions 
could  be  spared  from  600,000,000,  and  50  mil- 
lions armed  could  conquer  Europe  and  trouble 
Us  I  All  of  which  becomes  possible  if  China 
shoidd  take  to  steam-engines  and  science  — 
which  it  is  beginning  to  do. 

A  paragraph  in  another  letter  to  Miss  Owen, 
written  from  Homburg  a  few  months  later,  I 
quote  to  show  how  his  thoughts  were  ever  carry- 


THE  END  407 

ing  him  back,  in  every,  even  the  smallest,  way  to 
his  own  country.  ^'Homburg  is  supposed  to  be 
the  gaiest  summer  resort  in  Europe  —  but  oh, 
how  flat  and  fade  it  is  compared  to  what  Cape 
May  used  to  be  in  the  old  times,  with  the  bathing 
in  the  surf,  the  tenpin  alleys,  the  walks  on  the 
beach,  the  sea  breezes!  How  flat  and  poor  is 
German  wine  and  the  best  amber  Pilsener  beer 
compared  to  a  mint- julep  or  a  sherry-cobbler!" 

In  the  autumn,  the  Oriental  Congress  was 
held  in  Rome.  He  could  not  go,  but  he  sent  a 
paper.  "I  received  two  telegrams  yesterday 
from  Rome,"  he  wrote  me  on  October  12th 
(1899),  and  I  have  found  the  two  telegrams 
among  his  papers.  "The  Oriental  Congress  is 
being  held  Uiere,  and  I  sent  a  very  curious  paper 
in  Italian,  on  the  identity  of  Virgil  with  Buddha 
as  a  magician.  Thus  the  mother  of  both  was 
named  Maia,  they  were  both  identified  with  a 
mysterious  tree  of  life.  Buddha  in  his  first  in- 
carnation was  a  physician,  Virgil  was  identical 
with  Esculapius,  etc.,  etc.  The  telegrams  an- 
nounce it  was  applauditissima  or  applaudest  — 
and  the  Countess  Evelyn  di  Martinengo,  that  it 
was  stupendamente  gran  successo  —  which  means 
at  least  that  it  was  not  a  failure." 

The  book  on  the  Will  introduced  new  friends 


4o8     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

and  reclaimed  old  ones,  and  he  saw  something, 
now,  of  Dr.  Franz  Hartmann,  Colonel  Olcott, 
and  a  little  group  of  Theosophists  living  at 
Bellosguardo.  Perhaps  it  was  thanks  to  them 
that  he  set  out  on  a  new  adventure,  adapted  to 
rainy  weather,  —  crystal  gazing.  The  interest  he 
took  in  it  is  revealed  in  a  series  of  letters  he  wrote 
to  Mr,  Harry  Wilson,  then  editor  of  the  "Archi- 
tectural Review,"  for  whom  he  prepared  an 
article  on  the  subject. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  MR.  HARRY  WHJSOK 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  March  16, 190a 

Dear  Mr.  Wilson, — As  I  have  the  "  article," 
a  monograph  on  Magic  Mirrors,  all  ready,  I  send 
it  to  you.  As  it  lay  before  me,  in  came  Olcott 
the  Theosophist,  who  gave  me  the  bit  of  informa- 
tion on  the  subject  which  I  have  added. 

There  was  once  published  somewhere,  I  now 
forget  in  what,  a  picture  of  Earl  Stanhope's 
famous  crystal  ball.  If  you  can  find  it  and  add 
it  to  the  Chinese  and  Etruscan  mirrors  it  would 
be  an  improvement. 

It  lately  occurred  to  me  to  make  casts  with 
tin-foil.  Instead  of  oiling  the  relief  to  be  cast,  lay 
tin-foil  on  it  and  squeeze  it  well  in,  —  oil  would 
spoil  many  objects.   After  I  had  invented  this  I 


THE  END  409 

found  it  in  Cennini,  1490.  I  have  made  a  paper 
on  it.  •  •  • 
In  haste, 

Yours  truly, 

Chables  G.  Leland. 
P.  S.  Perhaps  by  a  little  inquiry  you  may  add 
to  the  illustrations  of  magic  mirrors,  etc. 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  March  18, 1900. 

Dear  Mr.  Wilson,  —  I  send  4  designs  which 
should  have  accompanied  the  article  on  Magic 
Mirrors.  It  may  be  that  some  ingenious  folk 
will  like  to  make  frames.  I  ought  to  be  inspired 
for  occult  work  since  both  Olcott  —  per  ana- 
gramma  Ocoltt  —  and  Franz  Hartmann  are 
among  my  visitors.  In  haste, 
Yours  truly, 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  March  25, 1900. 

Dear  Mr.  Wilson,  —  I  send  herewith  a 
small  MS.  not  containing,  as  you  suggested, 
folk-lore  on  the  subject  of  occult  crystals  and 
mirrors  (of  which,  however,  I  could  give  a  great 
deal),  but  what  will  be,  I  think,  far  more  interest- 
ing, viz.,  an  account  of  the  things  which  I  my- 
self have  seen  in  conjuring  stones,  with  careful 


4IO     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

copies,  showing  how  any  person  may  master  the 
art  even  to  seeing  pictures  as  accurate  as  coloured 
miniatures.  It  will  make  altogether  a  long  article, 
but  most  assuredly  a  very  generally  interesting 
one. 

I  have  never  read  anything  which  explained 
the  phenomena  and  showed  what  a  practical  and 
useful  art  it  might  be  to  designers  and  suggestive 
of  Quick  Perception  to  children. 
Yours  truly, 

Chakies  Godfrey  Lelakd. 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florencb,  March  27, 190a 

Dear  Mr.  Wilson,  —  Ecce  Ueruml  —  you 
will  think  that  the  magic  mirrors  will  never  come 
to  an  end.  But  since  I  sent  you  the  second  sup- 
plement I  discovered  in  an  old  book,  three  addi- 
tional kinds  of  magic  mirrors,  so  curious  and 
easily  made  that 't  would  be  a  pity  to  leave  them 
out,  so  I  send  them.  I  think  that  the  whole  will 
be  interesting  to  most  readers. 
Yours  very  truly, 

Charles  Godfrey  Leland. 

Hotel  Victoria,  Florence,  March  31,  ipcx). 

Dear  Mr.  Wilson,  —  This  is  becoming  pre- 
posterous, but  a  picture  of  an  Egyptian  magic 


THE  END  4U 

mirror  which  I  found  in  an  Italian  work, "  U  Arte 
del  Vetro,"  and  a  very  curious  passage  in  Pliny 
on  mirrors  of  black  stone  which  gave  shadows 
instead  of  reflections,  will  cause  you  to  reflect 
that  this  is  a  marvellous  support  to  what  I  have 
written. 

Yours  truly, 

Ch^j^les  Godfrey  Leland. 

Save  for  this  new  pastime,  and  the  writing  and 
researches  it  involved,  the  winter  of  1900  was 
largely  a  repetition  of  the  winter  of  1899.  And 
the  summer  was  rainy,  and  in  Homburg  he  was  a 
prisoner,  as  in  Florence.  But  when  the  sun  did 
shine,  there  was  the  chance  of  meeting  strange 
people,  and  one  adventure  of  the  kind  I  like  to 
think  he  had,  for  it  was  to  be  his  last,  could 
he  have  known  it,  in  Homburg  or  anywhere 
else  on  this  earth.  The  story  is  in  a  letter  to 
Miss  Owen. 

CHARLES  OODFRSY  LELAND  TO  MISS  If  ARV  A.  OWEN 

Homburg,  June  27tht  1900. 

I  have  not  had  a  talk  with  more  than  one 
person  since  we  have  been  here,  for  I  don't  count 
a  few  wearisome  exchanges  of  commonplace 
with  two  or  three  matrons  as  conversation.  That 


412     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

talk  was  a  few  days  ago  in  an  old-fashioned  shop, 
where  I  found  a  Ruthenian  Slovak  from  the 
Turkish  border,  a  pedlar  stuck  all  round  with 
pipe-stems,  arms,  —  yea,  bristling  with  real  or 
sham  Orientalisms,  with  a  fez  or  tarboosh  on  his 
head,  and  in  general  array  Slavonian  theatrical, 
a  good-looking,  youngish  man,  who  coidd  not 
speak  Grerman.  So  we  plunged,  to  his  ineffable 
amazement  and  joy,  into  a  conversation  com- 
posed of  Bohemian-Czech,  with  bits  of  Russian, 
Gypsy,  and  Italian,  —  in  fact,  anything  at  all. 
He  had  a  dagger  which  I  fancied  ('twas  for 
75  cents),  and  when  I  asked  him  Sholko  han- 
jari  ?  (How  much  the  dagger  ?)  he  cried  aloud 
with  admiration,  for  hanjar  is  the  regular  Turk 
word  and  not  yataghan.  So  I  bought  it  and 
had  great  fun,  to  the  immense  amusement  of 
the  shopman  and  his  family,  etc.,  who  are  old 
acquaintances  of  mine.  The  man  could  not  talk 
Romany,  but  he  greatly  admired  me  for  having 
it.  He  thought  I  was  a  Pole  —  then  it  occurred 
to  me  that  most  Poles  talk  Bohemian,  which, 
next  to  English,  will  take  a  man  further  in  the 
world,  perhaps,  than  any  other  language,  for  it 
is  intelligible  to  all  Russians,  Poles,  etc.  .  .  . 
Though  I  eat  and  sleep  well  here,  I  get  no 
stronger.    We  have  a  very  good,  yes,  a  famous 


THE  END  413 

doctor,  but  I  feel  inclined  to  say  to  him  what 
Abraham  Lincobi  did  to  the  blacksmith,  "I 
admire  your  honesty,  but  damn  your  manners!" 
When  I  asked  him  if  I  could  grow  stronger,  he 
said  no;  that  I  was  too  old;  that  you  could  n't 
renew  a  worn-out  locomotive  by  oiling  it.  Very 

true,  but  I  thought  of in  Florence,  who 

always  left  me  feeling  better;  he  could  cure  ill- 
ness by  talk.  And  we  exchanged  American  sto- 
ries, no  matter  how  HI  I  was.  General  Schenck, 
our  Minister  to  London,  was  about  the  most 
unconquerable  story-teller  I  ever  knew.  I  be- 
lieve he  and  I  could  have  "swapped  lies"  for  48 
hours  without  stopping.  Judge  Fisher  of  Dela- 
ware, who  knew  Lincoln  intimately,  said  that 
he  and  I  beat  anybody  he  ever  met  at  capping 
stories,  and  Judge  Shea  of  New  York  gave  me 
the  palm.  I  don't  say  this  to  boast,  but  to  make 
a  record. 


... 


Back  with  his  madonnas,  in  the  little  room  at 
Florence,  he  wrote  to  me  of  an  essay  on  "The 
Alternate  Sex,"  which  "shall  be  the  develop- 
ment of  my  work  on  the  *Will;'"  of  a  book  to 
be  called  "The  Gothic  Mother  Goose,"  the  old 
nursery  rhymes  illustrated  by  Gothic  grotesques; 
of  a  "Mysterious  Geography"  to  be  compiled  in 


414    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

collaboration  with  the  Rev.  Wood  Brown.  And 
then  the  blow  fell,  from  which  he  never  entirely 
rallied.  On  the  29th  of  December  (1900),  Mrs. 
Leland  had  a  severe  paralytic  stroke,  the  third, 
though  the  first  two  had  been  so  slight  that  I  do 
not  think  she,  or  he  either,  knew  their  gravity  at 
the  time.  Now,  her  left  side  was  paralysed,  her 
speech  for  a  while  was  affected,  for  weeks  she 
hung  between  life  and  death. 

No  year  brought  me  a  packet  of  letters  from 
the  Rye  so  large  as  1901,  though  I  was  with  him 
in  Florence  for  a  short  time  in  the  winter,  and 
again  during  August  at  the  Villa  Margherita, 
near  San  Marcello,  in  the  mountains  above 
Pistoia;  and  my  husband  was  in  Italy,  and  saw 
him  constantly  throughout  that  spring  and  sum- 
mer. The  letters  are  too  intimate  to  print.  All  the 
tragedy  of  his  wife's  illness  is  in  them.  He  had 
been  married  over  forty  years  and  had  rarely  been 
separated  from  her.  His  affection  was  a  part  of 
his  life ;  she  had  always  relieved  him  from  every 
petty  care  and  discomfort;  and  now  he  had  to 
watch  her  suffer  from  one  of  the  most  cruel  of  all 
diseases.  And  he  had  to  face  new  duties,  trifling 
in  themselves,  but  of  a  kind  he  had  never  faced 
before,  and  his  own  age  and  feebleness  magni- 
fied them  in  his  eyes.  I  can  still  see  him  strug- 


THE  END  41 5 

gling  with  his  accounts,  as  hopelessly  as  he  had 
struggled  with  the  multiplication  table  in  the 
old  Philadelphia  school-days  long  years  before. 
Friends  came  to  his  aid.  Mrs.  Boker,  the  daugh- 
ter-in-law of  the  man  who  had  been  as  a  bro- 
ther to  him,  journeyed  up  from  Rome  at  once 
when  news  of  Mrs.  Leland's  illness  reached  her, 
and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harrison,  as  fast  as  steamer 
and  train  could  bring  them,  hurried  to  Florence 
from  Philadelphia.  The  days  and  weeks  dragged 
on.  My  aunt  got  better,  but  was  too  weak  for  the 
journey  home  that  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Harrison  had 
hoped  possible.  In  the  spring  the  Rye  was  alone 
with  her  again.  And  news  reached  him  of  the 
death  of  his  sister,  Mrs.  Thorp.  I  hardly  know 
how  he  lived  through  the  weary  months. 

And  yet,  he  made  the  arrangements  for  the 
surmner  at  the  Villa  Margherita,  and  he  was  no 
sooner  up  there  than  he  started  to  teach  the 
minor  arts  to  the  young  people  in  the  hotel. 
When  I  joined  him  in  August,  the  peace  of  the 
mountains  seemed  to  have  fallen  upon  him.  He 
was  doing  little  writing,  though  stirred  out  of  his 
apathy  by  letters  both  from  Bombay  and  Phila- 
delphia, asking  his  advice  for  classes  in  the  minor 
arts  according  to  his  method.  His  talk  was  more 
extraordinary  than  ever,  as  if  all  the  old  energy 


4i6    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

for  work  had  gone  into  it.  I  can  never  forget  him, 
as  he  sat  at  the  head  of  the  long  table,  telling  one 
American  story  after  another  with  a  joy  that 
made  me  understand  all  the  more  the  reputation 
Judge  Fisher  had  given  him.  But  I  remember 
him  better  on  the  afternoon  walk,  now  no  fur- 
ther than  across  the  stream  behind  the  house, 
and  up  the  little  hillside  to  the  clearing  under  the 
chestnuts.  He  was  mdstly  silent  there.  When  he 
did  talk,  it  was  of  the  past,  as  if  he  looked  to  no 
future  in  this  world.  I  carried  away  with  me  a 
picture  of  him, — his  life  work  completed,  at  rest 
inthe  cool  of  the  late  afternoon,  under  the  chest- 
nuts. 

I  might  have  known  the  fires  had  not  burnt 
out,  but  only  smouldered.  He  had  hardly 
returned  to  Florence  in  October  before  he  was 
arranging  for  a  second  edition  of  "Have  You  a 
Strong  Will  ?  "  for  the  publication  of  "Flaxius," 
and  for  a  new  and  abridged  edition  of  "Breit- 
mann."  By  January  (1902),  he  was  carrying 
on  the  vigorous  correspondence  I  have  quoted, 
with  Prof.  Dyneley  Prince,  and  writing  to  me 
about  it  in  the  old  jubilant  vein.  "I  have  been 
having  a  regular  spree  of  work  ;  few  enjoy  it  as  I 
do,"  was  the  way  he  put  it  in  a  letter  written  on 
Jan.  loth,  1902.  On  April  6th,  he  reported,  "My 


THE  END  417 

book  on  ^The  Alternate  Sex'  is  now  ready  for 
Wellby  if  he  wants  it."  And  he  was  prepar- 
ing still  another  work,  ^'Mind  in  Nature,  or 
Materialism  the  Only  Basis  for  a  Belief  in  God 
and  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul."  But  he  also 
reported:  ^'I  had  indeed  an  attack  a  few  days 
ago  which  I  feared  would  be  a  paralysis.  I  saw 
things  double  and  felt  my  brain  and  sight  af- 
fected, and  could  hardly  walk  at  all."  The  last 
real  "spree  of  work"  was  over.  Though  my 
husband,  again  in  Italy,  sent  me  reassuring 
news,  in  June  for  a  week  the  Rye  was  so  ill  he 
thought  death  a  question  of  hours.  Nor  was  Mrs. 
Leland  any  better.  They  went  to  the  Villa 
Margherita  in  July.  It  seemed  the  only  chance 
for  both.  But  the  journey  was  more  than  my 
aunt  could  stand.  The  end  —  the  release  — 
came  almost  immediately.  She  died  on  the  9th 
of  July.  "  It  is  a  rest  after  such  long  suffering," 
his  letter  said,  "but,  oh!  how  I  miss  the  wife 
of  more  than  forty  years!  I  miss  even  the  cares 
and  anxiety  and  troubles.  I  must  be  alone  for  a 
long  time."  "I  have  wept  very  little,"  he  wrote 
again,  "and  my  grief  is  promptly  met  by  the 
memory  of  the  immediate  relief  from  suffering 
which  your  poor  aunt  found  in  death." 
He  was  stunned.    He  tried  turning  to  work. 


4i8    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

with  a  sudden  flaring  up  of  the  old  fire  of  energy. 
But  I  had  no  more  hope  after  the  next  letter  — 
the  last  —  he  wrote  to  me. 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND  TO  B.  R.  PBKNELL 

Villa  MARGUERTTAy  Limestre  Pistoibse, 

Sept  22, 1902. 

Dear  Pen,  —  I  have  not  been  inclined  to 
write,  and  am  in  arrears  to  many  people.  Of 
late,  I  have  been  ill,  though  not  confined  to  bed. 
When  Belle  died,  I  took  to  drawing  all  day  and 
often  in  the  evening,  so  that,  by  excess  of  labour, 
I  lately  brought  on  frightful  nervous  suffering. 
The  doctor  here  did  me  a  little  good  and  I  am 
mending.  When  I  go  to  bed,  I  fall  asleep  and 
am  tormented  with  images  of  designs,  or  a  state 
like  delirium  of  confused  ideas  sets  in.  This  is 
getting  better.  To-morrow  I  shall  return  to 
Florence.  I  am  perfectly  well  and  very  sound  of 
mind  when  awake,  but  sadly  weak.  .  .  . 

I  should  be  doing  scant  justice  to  my  uncle's 
memory,  if  I  did  not  leave  a  record  not  only  of 
his  growing  weakness,  but  of  his  unfailing  inter- 
est in  others  that  old  age  and  illness  could  not 
destroy.  One  incident  of  it  I  have  from  Mr. 
Brown.  Others  are  in  letters  to  Miss  Owen.  In 


THE  END  419 

writing  to  me,  Mr.  Brown  has  recalled  the  time, 
near  the  last  days,  '^when  hearing  of  Mrs. 
Leland's  death  I  drove  in  a  July  morning  up  the 
thirty  miles  of  the  Lima  Valley  and  found  him 
at  San  Marcello.  Some  memories  of  that  day  are 
too  sacred  for  words,  but,  passing  these,  there 
was  the  moment  after  lunch  when  he  introduced 
*me  to  an  Irish  friend,  with  whom  we  both  took 
coffee  in  the  garden.  As  we  drew  up  chairs  to 
our  particular  table,  Mr.  Leland  said,  'Now 
we  shall  shut  out  all  the  Sassenachy  and  there 
followed  half  an  hour  of  the  old  delightful,  in- 
comparable talk  in  which  he  led,  as  always, 
sinking  his  own  deep  sorrow  under  the  inimitable 
tact  which  the  moment  called  for,  and  which 
developed  all  that  was  best  and  raciest  in  his 
companions,  to  crown  it  at  last  with  the  inevit- 
able touch  which  he  knew  so  well  how  to  supply. 
It  was  the  last  time  I  saw  him  in  what  could  be 
called  his  health  and  strength." 

CHARLIS  GODPRXV  LELAND  TO   MISS  MARY  A.   OWEN 

Villa  MAROHERrrA,  Limestrb  Pistoibse, 
Italy,  Aug.  13, 1902. 

My  dear  tsiend,  —  I  was  glad  to  get  your 
letter  of  July  30th.  I  am  all  alone,  but  not  suffer- 
ing from  it,  except  that  I  miss  her  who  was  my 


420    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

only  company  for  so  many  years  and  entered  so 
into  every  little  consultation  and  deed  of  life  that 
to  have  nobody  and  be  responsible  to  no  one 
(we  are  all  so  to  somebody,  if  it  is  only  a  valet 
or  housekeeper)  is  as  bewildering  and  new  to 
me,  as  if  I  myself  had  died!  •  •  . 

I  have  had  a  great  part  of  the  proofs  of  the 
Epic  of  Kul<5skap,  Gltisgabe  —  Glooskap.  Do 
keep  an  eye  on  the  book  —  it  will  be  out  soon. 
And  try  —  try  to  collect  Indian  poems.  It  is  a 
new  field)  and  I  recommend  you  to  collect  them 
and  correspond  with  Prof.  Prince.  Go  at  it 
earnestly,  be  among  the  first.  For  I  foresee  that 
sooner  or  later  every  scrap,  good  or  bad,  will  be 
studied  and  admired  to  a  degree  of  which  no  one 
now  living  has  any  idea  whatever,  and  men  will 
wonder  that  among  all  the  scholars  of  our  age 
so  few  cared  for  such  a  marveUous  record  of  the 
vanished  race.  .  .  .  Don't  lose  time.  Come  in 
with  us.  Collect  anything  —  folk-lore  is  nothing 
to  this.  Just  suppose  that  some  Roman  scholar 
had  collected  Etruscan  poems!  Charlemagne 
did  collect  the  old  German  songs,  but  they  are 
now  lost!  The  monks  did  not  care  to  preserve 
them. 

Day  after  to-morrow,  on  the  15th  of  August, 
I  shall  be  78  years  of  age.  •  •  • 


THE  END  421 

CHARLES  GODFREY  LKLAND  TO  MISS  MARY   A.   OWEN 

Hotel  Victoria^  Florence,  October,  1902. 

My  dear  Friend,  —  To  read  a  letter  like 
yours  makes  me  realise  how  charming  it  would 
be  to  be  able  to  talk  to  you.  I  am  suffering  more 
than  I  ever  supposed  it  would  be  possible  from 
the  want  of  some  one  in  my  life  to  turn  to,  to 
consult,  to  talk  with.  Almost  every  human  being 
has  somebody;  even  a  prisoner  knows  that  his 
jailor  is  a  kind  of  a  guardian,  but  I  am  brought 
up  standing  again  and  again  by  the  reflection 
that  I  have  no  one  to  condition  or  modify  my 
life.  .  .  •  My  health  has  been  getting  worse  of 
late,  so  that  all  I  am  hoping  for  now  is  that  my 
sister,  Mrs.  Harrison,  will  come  out  ere  long  and 
take  me  home,  where,  in  truth,  I  do  not  expect 
to  live  long,  inasmuch  as  the  doctor  does  not 
think  I  could  endure  the  voyage.  But  I  can  no 
longer  endure  this  life  of  utter  loneliness.  ...  I 
sympathise  with  your  niece.  I  never  could  learn 
the  multiplication  table,  nor  anything  like 
mathematics,  and  suffered  accordingly.  Now 
that  I  look  back  oh  it  all,  I  can  understand  that 
it  was  my  teacher's  fault  as  much  as  mine.  They 
were  paid  to  teach  me  —  not  merely  to  make  me 
teach  myself.  If  a  capable  person  had  taken  me 


422     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

(or  your  niece)  —  and  by  a  judicious  and  grad- 
ual system  of  easy  steps,  rewards,  etc.,  induced 
the  mind  to  go  step  by  step  (very  gradually  at 
first)  into  easy  mental  arithmetic  (many  chil- 
dren's games  are  equivalent  to  this),  I,  or  she, 
could  most  certainly  have  been  made  '^good  at 
figures.''  Every  child  can  be  made,  as  I  know, 
proficient  at  drawing,  etc.  Yet  how  many  scores 
of  people  I  have  met  who,  knowing  nothing  at  all 
about  it,  deny  this  because  they  cannot  draw ! 
I  pity  your  niece,  who  has  never  been  shown  the 
right  way  —  nor  was  I.  I  used  to  pass  in  my 
childhood  as  a  half  fool  in  all  regular  studies, 
and  was  the  last  in  my  class  at  college  in  mathe- 
matics. However,  I  got  the  poem  which  was 
the  second  honour.  But  I  believe  that  the  vast 
majority  of  all  my  American  friends  died  under 
the  impression  that  I  have  been  a  failure  in  life, 
not  having  made  a  fortune  or  gained  any  public 
office,  notwithstanding  my  ''magnificent  edu- 
cation." 

I  am  very  glad  to  know  that  you  have  begun 
to  collect  songs  from  the  Sacs.  Pray  take  all  the 
pains  you  can  to  get  all  you  can,  for  it  is  a  far 
more  important  thing  than  anybody  now  deems. 
.  .  .  Do  try  and  learn  as  much  of  the  Sac  lan- 
guages as  to  authorise  you  to  claim  some  posi- 


THE  END  423 

don  as  a  translator.  Never  mind  the  work  —  it 
will  well  repay  you.  Get  all  and  any  kinds  of 
songs,  and  remember  that  in  Indian  all  the  most 
ordinary  narratives  are  songs ^  i.  e.,  can  be  or  are 
narrated  in  a  sing-song  manner.  If  you  go  to 
work  with  a  will,  you  will  surely  collect  a  great 
many  songs  or  poems  of  son^e  kind.  If  I  can 
help  you  in  any  way,  I  will  with  all  my  heart. 
The  time  will  come  when  those  who  collected 
Indian  songs  will  have  undying  names. 

Instead  of  getting  used  to  my  bereavement,  I 
suffer  more  and  more  from  it.  For,  indeed,  after 
living  for  half  a  century  with  any  one,  separation 
is  half  a  loss  of  life.  I  do  not  care  for  Anything 
now  in  reality,  light  seems  to  be  dying  out  of  the 
sun  —  all  things  which  tasted  once  have  lost 
their  savour.  And  all  kind  of  work  has  lost  its 
zest  for  me. 

This  is  a  sad  letter,  but  I  am  in  peculiar  condi- 
tions of  sadness.    Hoping  that  sJl  is  going  for 
better  with  you,  and  that  you  may  never  know 
what  it  is  to  be  alone  in  life,  I  remain 
Ever  truly  your  friend, 

Chables  G.  Leland. 

So  far  as  friends  were  concerned,  he  was  not 
alone.   The  Rev.  Wood  Brown  was  with  him 


424     CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

almost  every  day.  Mrs.  Tassinari,  the  daugh- 
ter of  his  old  friend  Mrs.  Bronson,  and  Mrs. 
Arbuthnot  came  often  to  spend  an  hour  with  him. 
The  visits  of  Dr.  Paggi  were  those  of  a  welcome 
friend  as  well  as  a  devoted  physician.  And  the 
sister  he  so  dearly  loved  rejoined  him  as  quickly 
as  she  could,  and  she  and  her  husband,  the  friend 
of  years,  were  with  him  for  the  few  months  that 
remained.  He  grew  better  after  their  return;  it 
seemed  almost  as  if,  with  the  spring,  he  would  be 
able  to  make  the  journey  home.  And  there  were 
still  some  pleasures  not  without  zest.  His  last 
manuscript,  ''The  Alternate  Sex,''  was  in  the 
hands  of  a  publisher.  He  lived  to  see  his  ''Flax- 
ius"  in  book  form,  and  the  ''Kuldskap,"  too. 
And  there  was  a  winter  day  when  as  marvellous 
a  thing  happened  in  that  little  working-room  as 
the  madonnas,  looking  down  from  their  gold 
ground,  had  ever  yet  beheld.  In  October,  a  box 
containing  money  had  been  stolen  from  him.  He 
could  have  borne  the  loss  with  equanimity,  had 
not  a  greater  treasure  still  been  locked  up  with 
the  money,  —  the  Black  Stone  of  the  Voodoos. 
In  February,  the  Italian  police,  somehow,  found 
it.  "He  had  a  great  joy  the  other  day  of  which 
I  must  tell  you,"  the  Rev.  Wood  Brown  wrote 
me.  "When  I  went  in  on  Saturday,  I  foynd  a 


: 


THE  END  425 

detective  in  the  room,  and  in  Mr.  Leiand's  hands 
was  the  lost  Voodoo  stone,  over  which  he  was 
laughing  and  crying  with  pleasure.  It  had  been 
found  on  an  old  woman  here,  probably  a  witch, 
and  presently  the  detective  turned  out  from  a 
bag  the  whole  crude  contents  of  the  woman's 
pocket  on  a  paper,  which  Mr.  Leland  held,  to  see 
if  anything  else  of  his  was  there.  There  was  such 
a  quantity  of  loose  snuff  that  we  all  laughed 
and  sneezed  by  turns,  and  then  saw,  to  our 
astonishment,  that  beside  the  Voodoo  stone,  the 
woman  had  been  carrying  no  less  than  six  small 
toy-magnets  —  no  doubt  a  part  of  the  stock-in- 
trade  of  her  witchcraft." 

The  Black  Stone  had  worked  its  last  spell  for 
him,  completing  with  a  marvel  the  career  that 
had  begun  with  one,  almost  eighty  years  before. 

The  end  was  a  few  weeks  afterwards.  He  had 
been  seriously  ill  more  than  once  during  the 
autumn  and  winter,  each  illness  bringing  him 
face  to  face  with  death,  each  leaving  him  with  his 
heart  weaker.  And  so  he  had  no  strength  to 
struggle  when  he  fell  ill  again  late  in  March,  his 
heart  and  other  troubles  made  the  more  grave 
by  pneumonia.  Dr.  Paggi,  who  had  already 
done  much  to  lighten  the  sufferings  of  the  last 
year,  could  not  now  save  him.  On  the  20th  of  the 


426    CHARLES  GODFREY  LELAND 

month  (1903),  with  a  prayer  on  his  lips,  his  sister 
and  her  husband  and  the  Rev.  Wood  Brown  at 
his  side,  he  passed  on  to  the  greatest  adventure 
of  all  —  the  Adventure  into  the  Unknown. 

His  ashes  made  the  journey  ^^home,"  for 
which  he  longed  at  the  last,  and  they  lie  at 
Laurel  Hill  with  those  of  the  wife  he  missed  so 
sorely  that  he  could  live  without  her  but  a  few 
short  months. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

None — I  have  not  attempted  a  list  of  the  magazine 
articles  by  Charles  Godfrey  Leland.  It  would  be  almost 
impossible,  for,  from  the  days  of  his  connection  with  the 
"  Knickerbocker  "  and  **  Graham's  "  down  to  those  of 
his  last  work  for  **  Cosmopolis  "  and  the  "  Architectural 
Review,"  there  is  hardly  a  periodical  of  note  to  which 
he  did  not  contribute.  I  mention  *'  Red  Indiana  "  and 
"  Ebenezer "  because  they  are  the  only  series  of  im- 
portance that,  for  some  reason,  never  were  republished. 
It  would  be  no  easier  to  make  a  record  of  his  pam- 
phlets and  leaflets  on  politics  and  art, — he  had  not  a 
complete  collection,  and  in  many  cases  they  could  not 
be  traced,  —  or  of  all  the  volumes  in  which  he  collabo- 
rated :  for  instance,  at  the  time  of  his  death,  his  papers 
on  the  "  Hundred  Arts,"  to  which  he  had  devoted  so 
much  care,  and  which,  in  return,  had  brought  him  such 
anxiety,  were  appearing  in  a  publication  of  Messrs. 
Dawbam  &  Ward's.  As  he  said  of  himself,  he  wrote 
more  easily  than  he  talked,  and  he  did  an  incredible 
amount  of  writing.  But  it  was  presumably  for  the  work 
he  valued  most  that  he  chose  the  more  permanent  book 
form.  In  this  Bibliography  the  dates  given  are  of  the 
first  editions.  I  might  add  that  he  left  several  unpub- 
lished manuscripts. 

The  Poetry  and  Mystery  of  Dreams.   Philadelphia: 
K  H.  Butler  &  Co.,  1856.^ 

1  I  give  the  date  of  the  only  ▼oIuum  I  ba?e  eein.  Bot  I  think 


430  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Meister  Karl's  Sketch-Book  Philadelphia:  Parry  & 
MacMillan,  1855. 

Pictures  of  Travel  and  Book  of  Songs,  from  the  Ger- 
man of  Heine.  Philadelphia.  First  published 
by  Weik,  1855 ;  afterwards  by  several  different 
publishers. 

Sunshine  in  Thought  New  York :  Greorge  P.  Putnam, 
1863. 

Centralization  versiis  State  Rights.  A  Pamphlet  1863. 

The  Book  of  Copperheads.  In  collaboration  with  his 
brother,  Henry  Perry  Leland.  A  Pamphlet  1863. 

Legends  of  the  Birds.  Philadelphia:  Frederick  Ley- 
poldt,  1863.  (New  York :  Leypoldt  &  Holt.) 

The  Art  of  Conversation.   New  York :  Carleton,  1864. 

Mother  Pitcher's  Poems.  Philadelphia :  Frederick  Ley- 
poldt, 1864.   (New  York:  Leypoldt  &  Holt) 

The  German  Mother  Goose,  from  the  German.  Phila- 
delphia :  Frederick  Leypoldt,  1864.  (New  York : 
Leypoldt  &  Holt) 

Memoirs  of  a  Good-for-Nothing,  from  the  German  of 
Baron  J.  von  Eichendorff.  Philadelphia:  Fred- 
erick Leypoldt,  1866.  (New  York :  Leypoldt  & 
Holt) 

The  Union  Pacific  Railway,  or  Three  Thousand  Miles 
in  a  Railway  Car.  A  Pamphlet.  Philadelphia : 
Ringwalt  &  Brown,  1867. 

Hans  Breitmann's  Ballads.  Philadelphia :  Peterson  & 
Brothers.    In  five  parts,  1869.    In  one  volume, 

there  must  have  been  an  earfier  edition.  Air.  Leland  always  re- 
ferred to  it  as  hiB  first  published  book,  and  I  have  letters  written 
to  him  in  1855,  hrom  George  Ripley  and  others,  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  copies.  The  book  has  now  virtually  disappeared.  My  copy 
I  owe  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Norcross,  his  old  friend. 


•' 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  431 

1S71.  London:  Triibner  &  Co.,  1869^71.  (A 
previous  edition  had  been  printed  by  King- 
wait.) 

France,  Alsace,  and  Lorraine.  A  Pamphlet  London : 
Triibner  &  Co.,  1870. 

The  Music  Lesson  of  Confucius.  London :  Triibner  & 
Co.,  1872. 

Gaudeamus,  from  the  German  of  Scheffel.  Boston: 
James  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  1873. 

The  English  Gypsies.  London :  Triibner  &  Co.,  1873. 

The  Egyptian  Sketch-Book.  London :  Triibner  &  Co., 

»873- 

Fusang,  or  the  Discovery  of  America  by  Chinese  Bud- 
dhist Priests  in  the  Fifth  Century.  London: 
Triibner  &  Co.,  1875. 

English  Gipsy  Songs.  In  collaboration  with  Professor 
£.  H.  Palmer  and  Miss  Janet  Tuckey.  London : 
Triibner  &  Co.,  1875.  Philadelphia:  J.  B.  Lip- 
pincott  &  Co.,  1875. 

Pidgin-EngUsh  Sing-Song.  London:  Trttbner  &  Co., 
1876. 

Red  Indiana.  Published  in  Temple  Bar.  London: 
1875  ^^'^  1876. 

Abraham  Lincoln.  New  Plutarch  Series.  London: 
Marcus  Ward  &  Co.,  1879. 

Johnnykin.  London:  Macmillan  &  Co.,  1879. 

The  Minor  Arts.  Arts  at  Home  Series.  London :  Mao- 
millan  &  Co.,  1879. 

Ebenezer;  a  Novel.  Published  in  Temple  Bar,  Lon- 
don: 1879. 

The  Gypsies.  Boston :  Houghton,  Mifflin  &  Co.,  1882. 

Industrial  Art  in  Schools.    Circular  No.  4,  published 


432  BIBLIOGRAPHY 

by  the  Bureau  of  Education  in  Washington^ 

1882. 
Art-Work  Manuals.    A  series  of  twelve,  edited,  and 

most  of  the  numbers  written,  by  C  G.  Leland. 

New  York:  The  Art  Interchange  Co.,  1881-83. 
The  Algonquin  Legends.  Boston :  Houghton,  Mifflin  & 

Co.,  1884. 
Brand-New  Ballads.  London :  Fun  Office,  1885. 
Snooping.  London :  Fun  Office,  1885. 
Ftactical    Education.      London:   Whittaker  &  Coi^ 

1888. 
A  Dictionary  of  Slang.  In  collaboration  with  Professor 

F.  Barr^e.    a  vols.    London :  George  Bell  & 

Sons.  Privately  printed,  1889.  Revised  edition, 

1897. 
Drawing  and  Designing.    Chicago :  Rand,  McNally  & 

Co.,  1889. 
Manual  of  Wood  Carving.   London :  Whittaker  &  Co., 

1890. 
Gypsy  Sorcery   and    Fortune-Telling.     London:   T. 

Fisher  Unwin,  1891. 
The  Works  of  Heinrich  Heine.    Translated  from  the 

German.  London :  William  Heinemann,  1891-93. 
The  life  and  Adventures  of  James  P.  Beckwourth. 

New  Edition.    Edited,  with  Preface,  by  Charles 

Godfrey  Leland.  London :  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1892. 
The  Hundred  Riddles  of  the  Fairy  Bellaria.    London : 

T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1892. 
Leather  Wort  London :  Whittaker  &  Co.,  1892. 
The  Family  life  of  Heinrich  Heine.    Tlranslated  from 

the  German  of  Baron  von  Emboden.    London : 

William  Heinemann,  1893. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  433 

Memoirs,  3  vols.  London :  William  Heinemann,  1893. 

Etruscan-Roman  Remains  in  Popular  Tradition.  Lon- 
don :  T.  Fisher  Unwin,  1893. 

Hans  Breitmann  in  Germany,  Tyrol.  London :  T.  Fisher 
Unwin,  1894. 

Elementary  Metad  Work.  London :  Whittaker  &  Co., 
1894. 

Songs  of  the  Sea  and  Lays  of  the  Land.  London :  Adam 
and  Charles  BladL,  1895. 

Legends  of  Florence.  2  vols.  London:  David  Nutt, 
X895--96. 

A  Manual  of  Mending  and  Repairing.  London :  Chatto 
&  Windus,  1896. 

Aradia,  or  the  Gospel  of  the  Witches.  London  :  David 
Nutt,  1899. 

Have  You  a  Strong  Will  7  London :  George  Redway, 
1899. 

Legends  of  Virgil.  London :  Eliot  Stock,  1901. 

Flazius.  Leaves  from  the  Life  of  an  Immortal.  Lon- 
don :  Philip  Wellby,  1903. 

Kuldskap  the  Master.  In  collaboration  with  Profes- 
sor J.  Dyneley  Prince.  New  York  and  London : 
Funk  &  Wagnalls  Co.,  1902. 

The  Alternate  Sex.  London:  Philip  Wellby,  1902. 


INDEX 


About,  Edmond,  II:  58. 
Abraham  a  Santa  Clara,  1 :  198. 
Acquaquintum,   Hungary,   11: 

345;  mosaic  at,  II:  307. 
Adeler,     Max,     pseud.     See 

Clark,  Charles  Heber. 
^Ssthetics,  Leland's  study  of, 

I:  9St  lyOf  174. 
Agaasiz,  Jean  Louis  Rodolphe, 

I:  348,  299,  311,  407. 
Albert     Edward,     Prince     of 

Wales,    afterward    Edward 

VII,  11:30a. 
Albertus  Magnus,  Legend  of, 

I:S6. 

Alcott,  A.  Bronaon,  I:  a8,  29, 
33;  II:  119. 

Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey,  1 :  345, 
405. 

Alexander,  King  of  the  Voo- 
doos, 11: 319,  330,  33z;  death 

ot  356,  357. 
Alexander,  James,  I:  61. 

Alexander,  John  White,  II:  33. 

Alger,  Abby,  II:  191,  305,  334. 

Algonkxn  Indians,  Leland's 
great  -  grandfather  prisoner 
among  the,  1 :  30,  31 ;  II :  34r, 
348,  363;  poetry  of  the,  11: 
345,  346,  347;  lectures  on 
legends  of  the,  371,  373. 

Allingham,  William,  11:  30. 

Almanach  des  Griaettes,  I :  z68. 


America,    feeling    toward    in 

Eiirope,  11:  393. 
American  Cyclopedia,  I:  345, 

ass- 
American  Party,  I:  53. 

Americans,  character  of  many 
travelling  in  Europe,  I:  93, 
Z05, 153;  n:  387;  meeting  of 
those  in  Paris,  in  regard  to 
the  Revolution  (1848),  I: 
Z96. 

Americanisms,  Leland's  plan 
for  a  dictionary  of,  11:  314. 

Amulets,  an  old  book  on,  II: 

3S8- 
Angel  of  the  Odd,  Leland's,  I: 

78,  r3r;  n:  313. 
Anstey,  F.,  pseud.  5«e  Guthrie. 
Arago,  Etienne,  I:  311. 
Arbuthnot,  Mrs.,  II :  338,  434. 
Arnold,  Sir  Edwin,  II:  31,  33. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  II:  zz3,  1x3, 

136. 
Art,   effort  to  create   general 

taste  for,  in  America,  II:  74. 

Babylonian-Ninevite     soroery, 

II:  334. 
Baedeker,  Kari,  I:  339. 
Bagni  di  Lucca,  Piedmonteae 

Gypsies  at,  II:  313. 
Baker,  Florence,  Lady,  wife  of 

Sir  Samuel,  II:  is. 


436 


INDEX 


Baker,  Sir  Samuel,  II:  i  a. 

Baltimore,  Md.,  interest  in 
decorative  arts  in,  II :  74,  75. 

Bancroft,  Geoige,  I:  933,  a6a; 
II:  90. 

Bamum,  Phineaa  Taylor,  I: 
ai6;  II:  no;  engages  Leland 
on  his  paper,  I:  aag,  330; 
Leland's  liking  for,  331,  334, 
335;  his  paper  dies,  336. 

Barnard,  Frederick  Augustus 
Porter,  II:  39. 

Barr^re,  Albert,  11:  394,  333. 

Bartlett,  John  Russell,  II:  398. 

Bashkirtsefif,  Marie,  II:  361. 

Bataillard,  Paul,  II:  304. 

Bateman's  French  Dramatic 
Company,  I:  313. 

Bayard,  Katherine,  II:  191. 

Beck,  Charles,  I:  xz3. 
'  Beckers,  Hubert,  1: 95f  96,  314. 

Beckwourth,  James  P.,  Ice- 
land's life  of,  II:  34S, 

Beech  Brothers,  I:  33a 

Beecher,  Henzy  Ward,  I:  333. 

Beer-drinking  in  Germany,  I: 

78,  80,  86,  87,  99,  100,  183, 

133. 

Belcher,  Joseph,  I:  Z30. 

Belief,  freedom  of,  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, I:  z6. 

Bellini,  Giovanni,  II:  38z. 

Benson,  Carl,  pseudL  Su 
Bzjsted,  Charles  Astor. 

Bentzon,Th.,  pseud.  5e«  Blanc, 
Th^rfese. 

Berlin,  Geimany,  I:  Z46,  Z57. 

Berne,  Switzerland,  1 :  73, 74-76. 


Bernhardt,  Sarah,  Lehmd's 
criticism  of,  I:  Z33,  Z34. 

Bemhert,  Felix,  I:  304. 

Besant,  Walter,  II:  9,  38,  63, 
69,  89,  z6o>  Z69,  Z7Z,  35Z, 

954*  390,  353;  ^  comments 
on  the  Savile  Club»  53,  53; 
his  correspondence  with  Le- 
land about  the  Rabelais 
Club^  53-6o>  lus  account  ol 
this  dub  in  his  Autobio- 
gzaphy,  60,  6z;  kttezs  from 
Leland    to^    65-67,    7z-76^ 

90.  9X-^3.  94-97i  99-«oi ; 
his  tribute  to  Leland's  woric 

for  the  minor  arts,  356. 

Bethlehem,  Pennsylvania*  Mo- 
ravian colonies  at,  I:  z6. 

Bicycle,  first  poem  on,  I:  363, 
365;  new  verses  added  to^ 

364. 
Biddle,  Chapman,  I:  365. 

Biddle,  James,  I:  365, 374,  387. 

Birmingham,  £ng.,II:  37z,a73. 

Biziell,  Augustine,  II:  Z3. 

Bixby,  Daniel,  hotel-keeper,  I: 

333;  11:  373. 
Black  Chariey,  I:  304. 
Blackwell's  Island,  New  York 

Harbour,  prisoners,  1: 37, 38. 
Blake,  Williazn,  I:  40Z. 
Blanc,  Louis,  I:  3XZ. 
Blanc,    Th^rte,    her   French 

translations    of    the    Brdt- 

mann  Ballads,  1: 36Z,  36a. 
Blavatsky,  Helena,  II:  378. 
Blitz,  Antonio,  I:  30Z,  304. 
Bock  hieri  I:  zi6,  zz7y  zz8. 


INDEX 


437 


BAbme,  Jaoob»  I:  xxo;  II:  94. 

Bohn,  Henry  George,  his  villa 
at  Twickenham,  Eng.,  1 :  399. 

Bono,  Arrigo,  his  vulgarisa- 
tion of  the  Faust  legend  in 
his  Mefistofele,  II:  285. 

Boker,  George,  son  of  George 
Henry,  I:  97a;  II:  X09. 

Boker,  Mrs.  George,  II:  415. 

Boker,  George  Henry,  I:  30, 
40,  49,  Z04,  176,  S07,  ai4, 

921,  259,  260,  262,  272,  276^ 
277,  285,  299,  306,  310,  315, 

3i7»  318,  32o»  353,  404;  U: 
^  33»  S9»  98»  108,  109,  177; 
his  Calaynos  pioduced  in 
London,  I:  227;  offers  posi- 
tion to  Leland,  238;  letters 
to  Leland  from,  256-258, 
4x1,  4x2,  4x7,  418;  his 
poetry,  305,  306;  nature  of 
his  hiend^p  with  Leland, 
409;  his  personal  appear- 
ance, 4x0;  Minister  to  Tur- 
key, 41 X,  4x2;  the  difficulties 
of  his  mission,  4x3,  4x4,  4x7, 
4x8;  his  journey  up  the 
Nile,  416;  made  Minister  to 
Russia,  4x9. 

Boker,  Julia,  wife  of  George 
Henry,  I:  272,  3x5,  3x7,  4x6. 

Bonaparte,  Jerome,  Prince,  I: 
2x2. 

Bonaparte,  Roland,  Prince,  II: 
207. 

Book-covers,  Leland's  recipe 
for  making,  11:  371. 

Borrow*  Geoige,  1: 35,  79,  209, 


a77»  3«S;  II-  3i»  ^^3>  ^^^ 
X29,  X36,  X38,  X39,  X40,  X49, 

X62,  X63,  X98»  20X,  2x3,  2x4, 

2x5 ;   study   of   Gypsy    life 

inspired  by,   126,  127;    his 

influence  over  Leland,  X40; 

his  Lavo-lil,  X44;  criticisms 

of  his  work,  X4X,  X48,  X55, 

X64;  Leland's  meeting  with, 

X42,    X43,    X44;   Shelta   not 

known  to^  224. 

Boston,  legend  concerning,  II: 
240;  Papyrus  Qub,  dinner 
given  to  Leland  by,  72;  Sat- 
urday Club,  I:  233,  248,  249, 
aSi.  «93.  407;  11:  sx. 

Boudcault,  Agnes  (Robert- 
son), II:  20. 

Boudcault,  DioD,  II:  20. 

Bowie,  Betty,  I:  260,  261,  262, 
263. 

Bowdoin,  James  Temple,  1: 69. 

Bracquemond,  Ffliz  Joseph 
Auguste,  n:  22,  23,  23  n. 

Braddon,  Miss.  See  Maz- 
welL 

Breakfast,  the  Eng^sh,  II:  2. 

Bremer,  Fredrika,  I:  xx. 

Breslau,  Germany,  I:  X43. 

Brest,  France,  I:  375. 

Bric4i-brac,  Leland's  love  for, 
U:  X14,  290,  332,  334,  359» 
3<5o,  370,  37X,  388. 

Bridge,  Horace,  I:  2x0. 

Briggs,  Charles  Frederick,  I: 

Bri^t,  Richard,  Bonow's  in- 
debtedness to,  II:  X4X. 


438 


INDEX 


Brighton,  Eng.,  11:  50;  G3rp- 
sies  of,  X31,  134 ;  Leland 
arouses  interest  for  minor 
arts  in,  269. 

Bristed,  Charies  Astor,  I:  287, 

a9o»  397.  345»  35S»  368,  369- 
British  Quarterly  Review,  11: 

37;  influence  of,  28. 
Broadhead,  John,  I:  970. 
Bionson,  Mrs.  Arthur,  II:  981, 

424. 
Brook  Farm,  I:  33. 
Brookfieki,  Charks,  11:  52. 
Blown,  Horatio,  II:  283,  284. 
Brown,  Rev.  J.  Wood,  11: 338, 

339,  414,  423,  425,  4«6;  an 

incident  of  Leland's  last  days 

related  by,  419. 
Brown,  Mrs.  W.  Wallace,  II: 

236,  260,  283. 
Browne,    Charles    Farrar,    I: 

Bxownell,  Heniy  Howard,  his 

war-Ijrrics,  1:306. 
Browning,   Elizabeth   Barrett, 

her  Casa  Guidi  Windows,  I: 

X3I- 
Browning,  Oscar,  11:  336. 

Browning,  Robert,  H:  8,  336; 

letter  to  Leland  from,  15,  x6; 

declines     joining    Rabelais 

Club,  58,  59. 
Bryant,  William CuUen,  I:  232, 

233»  262,  263. 
Buckley,  Ed.,  I:  302. 
Budapest,  Hungary,  Gypsies  at, 

II:    279;    beauty    of,    280; 

honors   to  Leland  in,  307, 


308;  Gypsy-Lore  Sodety 
transferred  to,  3^- 

Buddha,  I:  5;  Leland's  paper 
on  the  identity  of  Vir- 
gil with,  U:  407. 

Budenz,  Josef,  II :  280. 

Bull,  Ole,  I:  244,  299;  his 
method  of  playing  the  violin, 

314,  315- 
Bulwer,  Sir  Heniy,   11:    15, 

29. 

Bulwer-Lytton,  Edward  Geoige 

Eazle  Lytton,  first  Baron  Lyt- 

ton,  I:  398,  399,  401,  402; 

11:  12;  letter  to  Leland  from, 

13-15- 

Bulwer-Lytton,  Edward  Rob- 
ert Lytton,  first  Eari  of  Lyt- 
ton, H:  15. 

Buonarroti,  Michelangelo,   I : 

307- 
Burnett,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  II:  299. 

Bums,  Mrs.,  Hi  83. 

Burton,  Sir  Richard,  II:  aoz, 

252  n,  309,  349- 
Burroughs,  Mrs.,  I:  50. 
Business,   the  only  career  in 

America,  I:  223. 
Butler,  Mrs.,  I:  272. 
Butler,  Frances  Anne  (Kem- 

ble).    See  Kemble. 
Byron,  George  Gordon  Noel, 

I:  81,  Z31. 

Cable,  George  Washington,  11: 
293;  asked  to  assist  in  Slang 
Dictionary,  298. 

Cadwalader,  Dr.,  II:  98. 


INDEX 


439 


Cadwalader,  John,  Leland  in 

the  office  of,  I:  207. 
Cafaro,  Duchess  of,  II:  285, 

986. 
Caf^      chaiactezisdcs  of      a 

French,  1: 153,  154. 
Calaynos,  play  by  G.  H.  Boker, 

I:  937. 
Callender,   Mias.    Se$  Fisher, 

Mis.  Rodney. 
Calmann-L6vy,  letter  of  Heine 

tOf  I-  333- 
Calveriey,  Charles  Stuart,  II: 

19. 
Campe,  Julius,  11:  37a,  273. 
Campobello,  Maine,  II:  Z15, 

lao,  121,  122,  233,  234. 
Cape  May,  11:407. 
Carey,  Henxy  Charles,  I:  214, 

3ZZ* 
Carey,  Mathew,  1 :  3x9. 

Carleton,  George  W.,  I:  273, 

336. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  I:  34,  6z, 
249;  II:  13;  his  opinion  of 
Lord  Houghton,  3;  Leland's 
meeting  with,  10,  xx. 

Cainahan,  James,  1: 43. 

Carroll,  Chailes,  I:  X3. 

Carruthezs,  Miss,  her  efforts 
to  introduce  industrial  train- 
ing into  Pisa,  II:  308. 

Carson,  Dave,  1 :  387. 

Caiy,  Alice,  I:  23a;  Griswold's 
comment  on  her  poems,  256. 

Cary,  Phoebe,  I:  232,  256. 

Cashel,  Rock  of,  Ireland,  II: 

33-35- 


Castle,  Egerton,  II:  294. 
Casts,  made  with  tin-foil,  11: 

408. 
Catholic  Church,  a  protector  of 

the  fine  arts,  I :  X02. 

Cauldwell, ,  11:  X45. 

Caulfield,  Richard,  11:  35. 
Cavendish,  Ada,  II:  69. 
Cellini,    Benvenuto,    I:    305, 

306;     the    Perseus   of,    II: 

398. 
Cennini,  Cennino,  II:  409. 

Century  Club.    See  New  York 

City,    Century    Association. 

Cerito,  dancer,  I:  xx4,  XX5. 

Chamberlain,  Miss,  II:  273. 

Chailemagne,  II:  420. 

Chandler,    Joseph   Ripley,   I: 

Z20. 

Changamier,     Nicolas     Aim^ 

Th6odule,  I:  X35. 
Channing,  Rev.  William  Henry, 

1: 33;  his  plan  for  a  universal 

Church,  5x. 
Chasles,  Philarke,  I:  X30. 
Chemistry,  Leland's  study  of, 

I:  92,  94,  XX5. 
Chevalier,  nam  de  plume  of 

Leland,  I:  xo8,  X7x,  228. 
Ch^,  Wflhelmine  Chrisdane 

von,  I:  80,  92. 
Chicago,  meaning  of  the  name, 

II:  366;  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion at,  367. 
Child,  Francis  James,  I:  252, 

29^*  a95»  ^f  «97- 
Childs,  George  William,  1 :  275, 

«99.  309;II-363- 


440 


INDEX 


Qiina,  posfliUe  dangera  from, 
II:  406. 

Chisel,  one  of  Leland's  nick- 
names, I:  26a. 

Chladni,  Ernst  Floiens  Fried- 
rich,  I:  315. 

Cholera,  I:  148,  xyS. 

Christ,  legend  of  the  storks  and, 
I:  183. 

Christie,  Richard  Copley,  his 
]£tienne  Dolet,  II:  95. 

Civil  war,  I:  240;  braking  out 
of,  246,  253;  Leland's  ex- 
periences in,  265,  266,  273; 
Leland's  literary  contribu- 
tions to,  335;  Germans  in  the, 

3<^i. 
Clark,  Charles  Heber,  his  Out 

of  the  Hurly-Buriy,  11:  sr. 
Clark,  Lewis  Gaylord,  I:  2x8, 

220,  264,  344. 
Clarke,  Hyde,  11:  273. 
Qaudius,  Roman  Emperor,  II: 

246. 
Clemens,  Samuel  Langhome, 

H:  336,  360,  36r,  365,  366. 
Clubs,  fancy  of  literary  men 

for,  n:  51;  H.  James's  opin- 
ion of,  52. 
CoMentz,  Germany,  11:  276. 
Cochrane,  Major,  I:  386,  388. 
Cochrane,  Mis.,  I:  386,  387. 

Cole, ,  I:  220. 

Colgate,    James  Boorman,   I: 

272. 
Collier,  John  Payne,  II:  55, 56. 
Cologne,  Germany,  I:  383. 
Colonies,    oppression    of,    by 


France,  Spain,  and  Germany, 

n:393- 
Colquhoun,  Ewing  Pye,  I:  81, 

203;  letter  from  Lehmd  to^ 

221-428. 

Cdquhoun,    Sir   Patrick,    11: 

Colton,  Miss,  I:  303,  3x8. 
Cdton,  Baldwin,  I:  277. 
Colton,  Miss  D.  L.,  I:  345. 
Colton,  Julia,  I:  312. 
Colton,  ^^Uiam,  I:  277. 
Colton  family,  1: 3x7,  3x8,  320. 
Comte,  Isidore  Auguste  Marie 

FYanpois  Xavier,  11:  47. 
Conjuring  stones,  II:  350^  409, 

4x0. 
Constantinople,     Turkey,     I: 

4X4»  415- 

Continental  lifie  and  litera- 
ture, pubticatioQ  of  sketches 
of,  contemplated  by  Leland, 
I:  222,  224. 

Continental  Monthly,  The,  I: 

247»  a53»  2S4»  ^55. 
Conway,  Moncure  Daniel,  11: 

xo. 
Cook,  Joel,  1:287. 
Cooper,  Joshua,  II:  136. 
Cooper,  Matty,  11:  132,  X35, 

X47,  X48,  X97;  teaches  Leland 

Romany,  133,  134,  136,  137. 
Copyright,     International,     I: 

409, 
Cornwall,  Bany,  pseud.    See 

Procter. 
Cosmopolis,  Lelaikd  asked  to 

contribute  to,  II:  383. 


INDEX 


441 


Cost  of  Hving,  In  Mtmicli,  I: 
laz;  in  Vienna,  141,  143;  in 
Paris,  147;  in^London,  II:  a6. 

Cottage  Alts  Association,  11: 
106,  356. 

Cousin,  Victor,  I:  no. 

Cowell,  Edwaxd  Byles,  II:  165, 

349- 
Orayen,  Elijah  Richardson,  I: 

49,  44- 

Crelinger, ,  1: 318. 

Creuzer,  Geoig  FHedrich,  I: 

315- 
Crofton,  Henry  Thomas,  11: 

145,  174,  199,  aoo,  904. 
Cruikshank,   George,   I:  400; 

11:9. 
Cuxnmings,  Alexander,  I:  238. 
Curtin,  Andrew  Gregg,  I:  314. 
Curtis,  George  William,  I:  25. 
Gushing,  Frank  Hamilton,  I: 

277. 
Custer,    Elizabeth   Bacon,    I: 

288. 
Custer,  George  Armstrong,  I: 

288. 

Dana,    Charles   Anderson,    I: 

217,  245,  «^»  ^3*  «78f  319- 
Dana,     Eunice     (Macdaniel), 

wife  of  Charies  AnderKm,  I: 

260,  262,  263. 
Darrell,  Lady,  II:  39. 
Darrell,  Sir  Lionel,  11:  32. 
Davenport,  Seth,  I:  21. 
David,  Jacques  Louis,  I:  182. 
Dawson,  Sir  John  William,  II: 

zza 


Dead,  None  belief  regsiding 

the,  II:  328. 
Declaration  of  Independenoey 

I:  13- 

De  Cosson,  EmiUus  Albert,  II: 
294. 

Dedham,  Massachusetts,  I:  22. 

D6ja«t,  Pauline  >^rginie,  I: 
199. 

Delaware  River,  first  success- 
ful steamboat  on,  I:  zi. 

Delapierre,  Octave,  1: 346, 40s. 

Derby  races,  a  day  at  the,  II: 

195-197- 
Design,    Leland's   theory   le- 

gaxding^  H:  105. 
Devil's  Dyke,  near  Bri^itao, 

Eng.,  II:  132. 
Diana,  Queen  of  the  Witches, 

H:  3r2,  3r3. 
Diana,  Tree  of,  II:  312. 
Dickens,  Charles,  I:  299;  his 

American  readings,  300,  303, 

308,  309*  3«>- 
Dieskau,  Baron,  I:  379. 

Dilke,  Sir  Charles  Wentwoith, 
I:  401;  II:  29. 

Dinan,  France,  German  Gyp- 
sies at,  n:  268. 

Diplomats,  difficulties  of  Amer- 
ican, I:  4x3. 

Disraeli,  Isaac,  II:  164. 

Dixon,  William  Hepworth,  I: 

399- 

Doane,  Rev.  George  Washing- 
ton, Bishop,  I:  5Z. 

Doane,  Rev.  William  Cros- 
wcU,  Bishop^  H:  336,  365. 


442 


INDEX 


Docfaierty,  Daniel,  I:  300. 

Dodd,  Albert,  1: 40,  44,  46,  47, 
48,  61;  n:  84. 

Doering,  Lily,  II:  4a,  154,  177; 
letters  from  Leland  to,  11: 
43-46,  47-50»  2i6-ai8. 

Bolet,  £tienne,  II:  95. 

Don  Quixote,  influence  of,  on 
Leland,  I:  30;  an  early  New 
England  edition  of,  11:95, 
96. 

Donaldson,  the  Misses,  their 
school  in  Philadelphia,  I:  25. 

Dor6,  Paul  Gustave,  I:  401. 

Dorr,  Mrs.,  her  school  in  Phila- 
delphia, I:  36. 

Drawing^  Leland's  theory  re- 
garding, II:  105,  43a. 

Dresden,  Gennany, 1: 143,  384- 
390;  the  Sistine  Madonna 
at,  183. 

Drinking,  prevalence  of,  in 
London,  II:  37. 

Duelling,  I:  no. 

Duffield,  Alexander  James,  I: 
S3;  n  :9s. 

Dumas,  Alexandre,  fUs,  I : 
134,  311;  his  responsibility 
for  the  Revolution  of  1848, 
135;  Punch's  account  of  his 
letters  from  Spain,  196. 

Du  Maurier,  Geoige,  II:  67. 

Dunker  monasteries  at  Eph- 
rata,  Pennsylvania,  1: 16. 

Dunlap,  Mrs.,  I:  361. 

Diirer,  Albert,  engravings  by, 
1: 133. 

Duret,  Tb6od(»e,  II:  33. 


Dutch,  Ldand's  comment  on 

the,  I:  383. 
Dymes,  Annie,  II:  395;  fetter 

to^  403-404. 


-,  I:  38. 


Eastbum, 

Edinburgh,  Scotland,  II:  36. 

Education,  public,  a  problem 
of,  II:  86;  the  minor  arts  and, 
87*  93f  94)  Leland's  views 
on,  397;  disappointment  re- 
gaiding  development  of  his 
scheme  of,  in  America,  333, 

say- 
Edwards,  Edwin,  II:  33,  33; 

letters  from  Leland  to^  33. 
Egypt,  Leland's  experiences  in, 

I:   4x7;    English   property, 

owners  in,  11:  393. 
Egypt,  Khedive  of.  See  Isma'O. 
Eichendorff,    Joseph,  Fieiherr 

von,  Leland's  translation  of 

his  Memoirs  of  a  Good-for- 

Nothing,  I:  336. 
Elbe  river,  I:  178. 
Elgar,  Sir  J(^,  II:  336. 
EUiot,  Frances,  II:  3x. 
EUsler,  Fanny,  I:  114,  X15. 
Ely,  Lady,  11: 173. 
Emancipation      Proclamation, 

duplicate  copies  of,  I:  376. 
Emerson,    Ralph    Waldo,    I: 

348,  396;  II:  336;  Leland's 

impressions  of,  I:  349,  350; 

his  opinion  of  Heine,  350; 

his  opinion  of  one  of  EL  H. 

Brownell's  poems,  306;  hia 

Brahma,  II:  376. 


INDEX 


443 


Eng^d,  bospitality  in,  1: 403; 
beginning  of  Home  Arts  in, 
II:  100,  106;  understanding 
of  Ameiica  in,  392. 

English,  some  characteristics  of 
the,  II:  a8,  39,  30. 

English  tourists,  I:  93;  II: 
391,  393. 

Ephrata,  Pa.,  Dunker  monas- 
teries at,  1: 16. 

Erra  Pater,  I:  63. 

Etching,  Leland's  efforts  in,  I: 
386. 

EtreCat,  France,  II:  265-367. 

Etruscans,  deities  of,  in  the 
Romagna,  II:  340,  341,  343, 

346. 
Euxxipe,  general  feeling  toward 

America  in,  393. 
Evangile  des  Convilles,  II :  339. 
Evolution,  1:96. 
Eye-memory,   Leland  lectures 

on,  11:  88;  Sir  F.  Galton  lec- 

tmes  on,  90. 

Fanatics,  influence  of  freedom 

on,  1: 17. 
Fantin-Latour,  Henri,  II:  33. 
Fassitt,  Theodore,  I:  365,  374. 
Fasting,  Lenten,  in  Germany, 

I:  98,  99,  I03. 
Faudt,  Helen,  Lady  Martin,  I: 

400. 
Faust,  ideas  for  a  travesty  of, 

I:  307;  vulgarisation  of  the 

legend  of,  II:  384,  385. 
F^brige,  II:  136, 137. 
Ferrmra,  Italy,  1: 184. 


Ffrench,  Rev.  J.  F.  M.,  H: 
333. 

Field,  Cyrus,  II:  373. 

Field,  Kate,  II:  zo. 

Field,  Leonard,  I:  zoi,  146^ 
147,  rso,  r53,  rs4,  158,  159^ 
163,  163,  171, 173, 178, 179, 
189,  197,  300,  303. 

Fisher,  Judge,  father  of  Rod- 
ney, I:  315;  H:  4Z3,  416. 

Fisher,  Isabel,  1 : 3  r  5,  3  r  6.  See 
also  Leland,  Isabel  (Fisher). 

Fisher,  Frank,  I:  139,  164; 
letter  from  Leland  to,  r98. 

Fisher,  Mary  Elizabeth,  I:  201. 

Fisher,  M.  R.,  I:  301. 

Fisher,  Rodney,  I:  3x4,  3x5, 

316,  343»  a53»  a?'- 

Fisher,  Mrs.  Rodney,  I:  3x5; 
death  of,  II:  64,  65,  67. 

Fisher,  Sidney,  I:  339. 

Fishing,  G.  H.  Baker's  fond- 
ness for,  I:  358. 

Fiske,  Wxllard,  II:  336. 

Fitch,  John,  II:  396. 

FltzGerald,  Edward,  II:  7,  33, 
34,  146,  X54,  165. 

Fitzherbert,  Maria  Anne 
Smythe,  I:  399. 

Jlorence,  Italy,  I:  8,  184,  396; 
II:  389-393;   witch-lore  of, 

309*  3io»  3"»  312,  3141  318- 
Flying  machine,  Leland's  essay 

on,  II:  400. 
Folk-Lore  Congress.   5!00  Inter- 
national Folk-Lore  Congress. 
Folk-Lore  Sodety  (Eaf^\  II : 
3o6»  307. 


444 


INDEX 


Hungarian,  11:  540,  366. 
Italian,    II:    340,    367, 


368,369. 
Fonte, 


^,I:49tSo>6o. 

Foiney,  John,  I:  285,  387,  300, 

31a,    315;  Leland'a   artides 

for  his  Progress,  II:  38^  68. 
Forney,  Mis.   John,  1 :   300^ 

30X. 
Faroey,  John,  Jr.,  I:  345. 
Forney,  Mary,  I:  301. 
Fort  Riley,  Kansas,  II:  230. 
Fiance,  love  of  dxess  in,  1: 180, 

x8i ;  hatred  of  America  in,  II : 

39a»39*- 
FYanklin,    Benjamin,   I:   151; 

nieces  of,  xa;  legend  regard- 
ing statue  of,  13,  14;  Life  of, 
by  E.  Robins,  II:  394-396. 

Franklin,  Jane  Griffin,  Lady, 
11:  19. 

Freedom  of  belief,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, I:  16. 

Frelinghuysen,  Theodore,  1 :  5a. 

Fremont,  John  Chariea,  I:  26g. 

French,  some  characteristics 
of  the,  1: 148,  166,  180. 

Epench  Revolutions  of  1789 
and  1848  compared,  I:  194, 

195- 
Frizso,  Sebastian,  his  Sei  Gior- 

nate,  11:333. 
Fulton,  Robert,  II:  396. 
Fumess,   Qorace  Howard,   I: 

275;  II:  293. 
Fumess,  Rev.  William  Henry, 

I:  33f  6x,  9a,  az4;  II:  46, 

108^  109. 


FumivaU,  Ftedezick  Jame%  II: 

373. 
Fusan^  Neumann's   work  on 

the  visit  of  Oiin^y  monks 

to,  translated  by  Leland,  I: 

95,  lao. 

Gahon,   Sir  Frauds,   II:  90^ 

393.  295- 
Garibaldi,  Giuseppe,  dagger  of, 

I:  376. 

Gamett,  Richard,  II:  177,  354. 

Gautier,  Th^ophik,  I:  307. 

Gazcaniga, ,  1: 399,  300, 

303f  316. 
Geneva,  Switzerland,  U:  axa. 
Genius,  lack  of  sodal  reserve 

among  men  of,  II:  338. 
George  IV,  King  of  En^and, 

1:399- 
German    language,    Leland's 

difficulty  in  learning,  I:  79; 

his  later  familiarity  with,  33a. 

Simplon  patois,  I:  77. 
Gennan    literature,    Leland's 

reading  of,  I:  79* 
Gennan  universities,  students 

of,  1 :  93,   103 ;  departure 

testimonial  required  by,  Z07; 

prindple  of  equality  in,  xxa; 

professors  of,  xxa,  xa3.    Se§ 

also  Student  life. 
''Gerxnanicus,"  Leland's  nick- 
name, I:  71. 
Germanism,  I:  154,  163,  ao8, 

ao9. 
Germantown,  Pa.,  Pastoriua  jn, 

I:  x6. 


INDEX 


445 


Gennany,  1: 146;  beer-drinking 
in,  78,  80,  86,  87,  99,  100, 
Z33,  133;  philosophers  of, 
104;  fines  in,  125;  faiis  in, 
i43»  144;  familiarity  with 
foreign  languages  in,  149; 
love  of  cleanliness  in,  166; 
cities  of,  superior  to  Paris, 
174;  fascination  of,  for  for- 
eigners, 178;  masked  balls 
in,  179;  indifference  to  dress 
in,  z8i;  indignation  in,  over 
Brdtmann  Ballads,  360,  361; 
desire  of,  for  foot-hold  in  the 
Philippines,  II:  398. 

Gervinus,  Georg  Gottfried,  I : 
99. 

Gervinus,  Mrs.,  I:  99. 

Gibraltar,  I:  66. 

Gilbert,  John,  I:  304. 

Gilbert,  Mrs.  John,  I:  304. 

Gilder,  Richard  Watson,  I: 
a65;  II:  336. 

Gillespie,  Mrs.,  I:  375. 

Gilmore,  James  Roberts,  I: 
346;  establishes  Continental 
Monthly,  347,  354,  355. 

Girondins,  songs  from  the  play 
of  the,  1: 174,  186. 

Gladstone,  William  Ewart,  I: 

330. 
Glanville,  Joseph,  11:  136. 
Glooskap    legends,    11:    360; 

Leland's  epic  from,  11:  340, 

24a,  a43»  244,  247- 
Gmelin,  Leopold,  I:  79. 
Godey's  Ladyti  Book,  I:  73, 

137- 


Godfrey,  Cd.,  I:  19. 
Godfrey,   Miss.     See  Leland« 

Mrs.  Charles. 
Godfrey,  Samuel,  I:  65,  91. 
Godfrey,    Thomas,    quadrant 

invented  by,  II:  394. 
Godfrey  family,  I:  19,  30. 
Godkin,  Edwin  Lawrence,  I: 

397. 
Goethe,  Johann  Wolfgang  von, 

1 :  349- 
Goncourt,  Edmond  and  Jules 

de,  II:  53. 
Goodrich,  Frank,  35. 
Goodrich,    Samuel    Griswold, 

Hawthorne's  description  of, 

I:  35,  36. 
Gosse,  Edmund,  11 :  3Z,  53. 
Gossip  of  the  Century,  by  Julia 

C.  Byrne,  11:  18,  30,  333. 
Graham's   Magazine,  I:    3439 

342,  343- 
Gramont,  Philibert,  Comte  de, 

I:  198. 
Grant,  Miss,  II:  373. 
Grant,  Ulysses  Simpson,  1: 376, 

304. 
Gratitude,  English  method  of 

expressing,  II:  30. 

Greeley,  Horace,  I:  318,  319. 

Green's  restaurant,  Philadel- 
phia, I:  300,  304. 

Greene,  Charles  W.,  his  Acad- 
emy at  Jamaica  Plain,  I:  35, 

27- 
Greene  and  Co.,  bankers,  Paris, 

I:  90,  106. 

Gtey,  Mabel  de,  II:  403,  403. 


446 


INDEX 


Grierson,  G.  A.,  II:  376. 

Giigg,  Mrs.  John,  II:  336. 

Grisi,  Carlotta,  I:  115. 

Giisi,  Giulia,  I:  158,  203. 

Griswold,  Rufua  Wilmot,  I: 
218,  219,  221,  229,  234,  236, 
238,  323;  II:  ao;  his  friend- 
ship for  Leland,  I:  230,  232; 
H.  James's  impressions  of, 
^31;  his  opinion  of  Alice 
Caxy's  poems,  256. 

Groome,  Francis  Hindes,  11: 
126,  140,  i4Si  146,  161,  177, 
185,  199,  200,  201,  207,  210, 
an,  215,  358;  his  criticism 
of  Borrow,  141,  148;  letters 
to    Leland    from,    147-149, 

151-153;  ▼*«**  Leland,  154- 
156;  Leland's  friendship  for, 
157,  158;  his  Gypsy  Folk 
Tales,  184. 

Groome,  Robert  Hindes,  Arch- 
deacon of  Suffolk,  II:  153. 

Gubematis,  Alessandro  de,  II: 

367*  3^  3^  37«>- 
Guilds,  I:  74. 

Gulagher,  William,  II:  102. 

Guixot,  Francois  Pierre  Guil- 
laume,  I:  187,  188,  191. 

Guthrie,  Thomas  Anstey,  II: 
299. 

Gypsies,  I;  371,  372;  H:  31, 
zoo,  X13;  Leland's  serious 
study  of,  II:  125;  enthusi- 
asm for,  stimulated  by  Bor- 
xow,  126,  127;  the  nature  of 
lieland's  interest  in,  128- 
130;   their   method   of   ex- 


pressing gratitude,  138;  their 
liberality,  152;  their  love  for 
one  another,  153;  speech  of 
those  in  Palestine,  161;  their 
songs,  x66;  their  resemblance 
to  the  American  Indians, 
178;  in  Philadelphia,  182- 
190;  their  music,  189;  Amer- 
ican interest  in,  stimulated 
by  Leland,  190;  spelling  of 
Gypsy  words,  soo  ;  miscon- 
ceptions concerning,  205  ; 
Leland  writes  corcmatioa 
speech  for  the  king  of  the, 
21Z. 

American,  11: 184,  185. 

Egypdan,  1: 416. 

Fjiglifth,  n:  195-197;  in 

Philadelphia,  189,  19a 

German,  at  Dinan,  11: 

268. 

Hungarian,  II:  178^  185- 

188;  in  Vienna,  277,  278, 302, 
303»  304;  in  Budapest,  279. 

Piedmontese,  II:  212. 

Russian,  I:  420;  11:  178. 

Turkish,  I:  415. 

Welsh,  II:  179,  180. 

Gypsy-Lore  Journal,  II:  162, 
163,  206,  208-2x0,  223;  ces- 
sation of,  210. 

Gypsy-Lore  Society,  II:  164, 
197-203,  206-^10,  293;  Le- 
land's plan  for  enlarging  the 
scope  of,  203,  205,  206,  366; 
scheme  for  a  "Gypsy  li- 
brary," 904;  transferred  to 
Budapest,  366. 


INDEX 


447 


Haarlem,  Holland,  1: 38a,  383. 
Haddon,  Alfred  Cort,  II :  350. 
Haggerty,  John,  I:  37. 
Hague,    The,    Houae   in    the 

Wood  at,  I:  381. 
Hake,  Alfred  Egmont,  H:  272. 
Hale,  Mrs.,  1:9a. 
Hale,  Horatio,  II:  294. 
Hale,  Sarah  Joaepha  Buell,  I: 

i37»  178. 
Hall,  Miss,  II:  299. 

Halleck,  Fitz-Gieene,  I:  256. 

Halsted,  Anna,  I:  303. 

Hammond,  William  Alexan- 
der, II:  71,  73. 

Hampel,  Jdssef,  H:  307,  345. 

Hans  Wiint,  I:  X44,  145. 

Hardy,  Thomas,  II:  60. 

Haxdy,  Sir  Thomas  Duffus,  I: 
399;  H:  19. 

Hariey,  Ethel  B.    ^wTwcedie. 

Harrington,  Sir  John,  II:  32. 

Harrington,  Lady,  II:  32. 

Harrison,  Betty,  I:  377,  390, 

39«. 
Harrison,  Emily  (Leland),  wife 

of  John,  I:  320,  336,  372, 

373;  H:  6,  8,  65,  93,  221, 

358»  378,  385.  4iS»  42i»  4341 
426;  letters  from  Leland  to, 

!••  374-377»  379-390.  395" 
402;  II:  29-37,  13a,  143; 
memorial  scholarship  found- 
ed by,  109  ;  her  gifts  to  the 
Pennsylvania  Museum,  114, 

334,  358- 
Harrison,  Emily,  daughter  of 

John,  I:  377,  390b  39a. 


Haniaon,  G.,  U:  98. 
Harrison,  Mrs.  G.,  II:  98. 
Harrison,  John,  I:   272,   3x4, 

37»>  374,  37<5i  3^.  39^,  H: 
4x5,  426;  letters  from  Le- 
land to,  I:  377-:379>  390- 
394;  II:  2^-29. 

Harrison,  Leland,  1 :  377,  390. 

Harte,  Fhrnds  Biet,  1: 323;  II: 
55i  59;  confusion  in  England, 
between  Hans  Breitmann 
and,  II:  it,  ly ;  letter  to 
Leland  from,  17,  x8. 

Hartmann,  Franz,  II:  408^  409. 

Harvard  College,  gives  degree 
of  A.  M.  to  Leland  and 
Howells,  I:  297;  Leland's 
Phi  Beta  Kappa  poem  at,  H: 
XX 5,  xx6-xi8. 

Hassard,  John  Rose  Gieene» 
II:  232. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  I:  2x0, 
2x4,  232,  323,  339;  his  Uni- 
versal History,  336. 

Hawthorne,  Sophia  Peabody, 
I:  22. 

Hauck,  Minnie,  I:  299,  300, 

302i  317- 
Hay,  John,  H:  60. 

Heam,   Lafcadio,   H:   294. 

Hecate,  the  same  as  Diana,  U: 

313- 
Heidelberg,  Germany,  I:  226; 

Black  Ea^e  Inn,  80;  Court 

of  Holland   Inn,  80;    Bre- 

mer-Eck,  8x ;  holiday  tramps 

in,  8x,  82,  87;  duelling  in, 

X03,   X04;   student   dancing 


aaR 


INDEX 


in,  122;  fines  in,  125;  g;reat 
annivexBaiy  at,  II:  274, 
275. 
Heine,  Heinrich,  1: 80,  95,  303; 
his  criticism  of  Rachel,  133; 
Leland's  translations  of,  242, 

250*  aS<5»  2S7»  as**  aS9i  331- 
333;  H:  339,  343>  344>  345> 
354;  R.  W.  Emenon's  opin- 
ion of,  I:  250;  his  comment 
on  the  Tyroleae,  II:  291. 
Hdnemann,  William,  I:  333, 

333  «•;   H:  343*  344»  345> 

36a. 
Henley,  William  Ernest,  1: 341. 
Henry,    Caleb    Sprague,    his 

History  of  Philosophy,  I:  54, 

xzo. 
Henry,  Joseph,  I:  60,  92,  170, 

315- 
Herbert,    Henry    T^lliam,    I: 

Herbert,  Mrs.  Ivor,  II:  345. 

Hermes  Trismegistus,  Le- 
land's  transcription  of  the 
Pemander  of,  I:  33. 

Hermits,  in  the  forests  of  Penn- 
sylvania, I:  16. 

Heradon,  William  Henry,  I: 
297. 

Herrmann,  Anton,  H:  128, 304, 

307.  345i  359;  W»  Ethnolo- 

gische  Mittheilungen,  II :  180. 
Hewes,  George  Robert  Twelves, 

I:  12. 
Hicks,  Mrs.,  I:  263. 
Higginson,     Thomas     Went- 

irorth,  H:  294;  asked  to  con- 


tribute to  SUng  Dlctioiiaf7» 
300. 

Higham, ^  I:  51. 

Hrnimelaitftn,  Frau,  I:  104. 

Hirsch, ,  Munich  banker, 

I:  127. 

Hohenhausen,  Baron,  I:  92. 

Holland,  modem  literature  of, 
H:  362. 

Hohnes,  Oliver  Wendell  (1800- 
1894),  J:  248,  249>  2SO,  338, 
3^,  402,  4^;  U:  51,  58,  59, 
III',  293,  ^6;  ktteis  of,  to 
Leland,  I :  .2^,  293,  406- 
409;  H:  ZZ6-X18;  his  opin- 
ion of  Boker's  Dixge,  I:  306; 
Leland's  admiration  for,  405; 
his  Poet  at  the  Breakfast 
Table,  408;  his  verses  to  Le- 
land, II:  118;  Leland's  visit 
to,  1 19;  dinner  to^  by  Rabelais 
Club»  252,  272;  asked  to  as- 
sist in  Slang  Dictionary,  297; 
as  a  letter-writer,  392. 

Homburg,  Gennany,  H:  213, 

30if  3oa»  397»  407. 
Home  Arts,  beginning  of,  in 

England,  H:  100,  106. 
Home   Arts   Association,   Le- 
land's work  for,  H:  254,  255, 
256,  aS7f  a64.  296;  gift  to^ 

«9S- 
Hooper,  Mrs.,  I:  309. 

Hooper,  Laura,  1 :  3x8, 377. 

Hooper,    Lucy    Hamilton,    I: 

275- 
Hoppin,  Augustus,  U:  ziz. 

Homer, ^  I:  48. 


INDEX 


449 


Botleii^  John  Camden,  I:  370. 

Houghton,  Lord.    See  Mifaies. 

Howe,  Jtttia  Ward,  11: 10. 

Howe,  Maud,  afterward  Mrs. 
Elliott,  H:  73. 

Howells,  WiUiam  Dean,  1: 393, 
329;  H:  59;  given  degree  of 
A.  M.  by  Harvard  College,  I: 

«95»  297- 
Howitt,  William,  his  Student 

Life  in  Germany,  I:  77,  8a, 

99- 
Hufeland,  Chiistoph  Wilhefan, 

H:  390. 

Hughes,  Thomas,  1 :  413;  H :  20. 

Hugo,  Victor,  H:  58. 

Humanity,  Leland's  religion  of, 

U:  47-So»  51;  ^^  proper 
subject  of  art,  988. 

Humour,  quality  of  early  Amer- 
ican, H 1376,  377. 

Humourists,  Leland's  plan  to 
write  reminiscences  of,  H: 
360. 

Hunfalvy,  P^  H:  980,  345. 

Hungary,  Leland's  system  of 
the  minor  arts  introduced 
into  schools  of,  H :  308;  Folk- 
Lore  Society  of,  started  by 
Leland,  340,  368. 

Hunt,  Benjamin  Peter,  I:  98^ 

«9»  3o«»  309- 
Hunt,  Robert,  I:  984,  985. 

Huntings  Leland's  experience 
in,  11:  30,  31,  39. 

Huilbut,    ^  his  school, 

known  ss  "Hurlbut's  Pur- 
gatory," I:  i8. 


HuHbat,  \<^]Ham  Heniy,  I: 
945,  S46. 

Hutdiins,  Capt  Thomas,  cer- 
tificate of  his  oath  of  alle- 
gianbe  to  the  United  States, 

H:  395.  39<^. 

Hutchinson,  Gov.  Thomas,  let- 
ter of,  I:  38. 

Hutchinson,  WUiam  G^  H: 
401. 

Ibbetson,   TK^IUam   John,   11: 

i33»  197- 
Ibsen,  Efenrik,  H:  361. 

Icelandic  Sagas,  H:  390. 

inuminati(m,  Leland'to  eflPorts 
at,  I:  3x4,  317. 

Illustrated  News,  Leland  made 
associate  editor  of,  I:  930; 
the  paper  dies,  936. 

Indiana,  Leland  prospects  for 
oil  in,  I:  989,  983. 

Indians,  legend  regaxdxng,  in 
Philadelphia,  I:  14;  as  la- 
bourers, at  Mendon,  Mass., 
91 ;  their  resemblance  to  Gyp- 
sies, H:  178;  Leland's  study 
of,  999»  S33-950;  Leland's 
advice  to  Miss  Owen  con- 
cerning language  and  litera- 
tuxe  of,  490,  499,  493.  See 
also  Algonkin,  Kaw,  Mic- 
mac,  Passamaquoddy,  Sac, 
WabanakL 

Industrial  arts,  Leland's  lec- 
tures on,  II:  74,  88;  a  society 
devoted  to,  in  BaMmore,  75; 
Leland's  theory   regarding, 


450 


INDEX 


8i,  S4>  87.  88.  9a.  93.  ^0$; 
his  efforts  for  their  introduo 
tioD  into  the  public  schools, 
365,  373;  his  pnurtioe  in, 
405;  his  classes  in,  415. 

Ingelow,  Jean,  I:  376,  400;  II: 
7,  373;  her  shyness,  8. 

Innslxuck,  Austria,  II:  sis. 

•Intenaatioiial  Congress  of  Ori- 
entalists, Vienna,  1886,  Le- 
land's  paper  on  Shelta  at, 
11:  333,  333,  376. 

Stockholm,  1889,  II:  306, 

307,   308,   3x7;  journey  to^ 

3*1.  3aa- 

London,   1891,  11:  348; 

Leland's  paper  before,  349. 

Rome,  1899,  II:  407. 

International  Folk-Lore  Con- 
gress, Paris,  1889, 11 :  307, 31 7. 

London,   1891,  11:  348, 

350-352.  353- 
Rome,  1893,  U:  368,  369, 

370- 
Irish,  Mrs.,  I:  387. 

Irring,  Sir  Heniy,  II:  no,  113. 

Irrin^    Washington,    I:    330, 

a33.  329.  330.  3^;  ^'  366; 
his  "Hi|^  Gennan  doctor," 
I:  19;  his  deacripdon  of  the 
Hdtel  du  Luaembourj^  130; 
burial  of,  345,  346;  his  le- 
gendaxy  stories,  394. 

IsmE'il  Pacha,  Khedive  of 
Egypt,  I:  415;  Leland  and 
Boker  make  a  trip  up  the 
Nile  with,  416. 

Italian-Latin    witch4cne,    Lc- 


land's  disooveiy  of,  11:  347, 

309- 
Italy,  Leland's  visit  to^  I:  68* 

71;  his  attempt  to  start  a 

Folk-Lore    Society   in,    11: 

340,  367.  3^  3^- 

Jamaica  Plain,  Mass.,  Greene's 
Academy  at,  I:  35. 

James,  Henry,  I:  339;  II:  53, 
55,  59;  his  impressions  of 
R.  W.  Griswold,  I:  331. 

Janauschek,    Fanny,    I:    134, 

317.  3i8»  393.  394;  H:  3X. 

Jeoffreson,  John  Cordy,  I:  399. 

Jebb,  Mrs.,  11:  100,  xo6,  107, 
351,  354,  357. 

Jerome,  Lawrence,  I:  303. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  President  of 
the  United  States,  I:  3x3; 
impeachment  proceedings 
against,  3x5. 

Johnson,  Robert  Underwood, 
H:  3SS. 

J<^ui8on,  Samuel,  1: 13;  11: 51. 

Johnson's  Cyck>p»lia,  II:  394; 
Leland  becomes  ig»igK*ii 
editor  of,  39. 

Jones,  Mrs.,  I:  397. 

Jones,  Chzistopher,  II:  138. 

Jones,  Edward  Buine,  letter  to 
Leland  from,  I:  386,  387. 

Jones,  Ida,  I:  397. 

Jones,  Josephine,  I:  397. 

Josef,  Archduke  of  Austxia, 
II:  3ox,  379;  his  book  on 
Gypsies,  303;  letter  to  Le- 
land from,  303, 303;  becomes 


INDEX 


451 


bead  of  Gypsy-heat  Society, 
366. 
Journalism,      pecuniaxy     ze- 
wtadM  of,  I:  323. 

Kant,  Immanuel,  II:  390. 

Kaw  Indians,  Leland's  initia- 
tion into  the  tribe  of,  I: 
ai,  a88;  11:  230-332. 

Keene,  Charies  Samuel,  II:  8, 
22,  24. 

Kellogg,  Clara  Louise,  I:  373. 

Kemble,  Frances  Anne,  I:  65, 
66,  147,  ao4,  a39»  3^5 5  bcr 
readings,  316. 

Kentucky  Giant,  tomb  of  the, 
I:  282. 

Kemer,  Justinus,  I:  82. 

Kerr,  Lord,  II :  295. 

Killamey,  Ireland,  11:  35. 

Kimball,  Richard  B.,  I:  2x0, 
2x8, 219, 22r,  230,  297;  urges 
Leland  to  settle  in  New  York, 
228,  229. 

Kinsman,  Mrs.,  II:  395. 

Kipling,  Rudyard,  11: 179. 

Kirchweihe,  I:  88,  122. 

Kissel,  Gus,  II:  71. 

Knapp,  William  Ireland,  II: 

142. 
Knickerbocker  Magaiane,   I; 

57,  2IO,  222,  232,  242,  327; 

11:    384,  385;    changes   in 

policy  of,  I:  246,  247. 
Knightley,    Moiella    (Shaw), 

H:  173. 
Know -Nothing    Party.     5m 

Amencan  Faxty* 


Koch,  Miss,  1: 387. 
Kock,  Paul  de,  1: 165. 
Slossuth,  Lajos,  I:  2x3,  2x4. 

Lablache,  Luigi,  I:  X58,  203. 

Lafayette,  in  Philadelphia,  I: 
12. 

Lager  beer,  Leland's  introduc- 
tion of,  into  Philadelphia, 
I:  208. 

Lamb,  Chaxks,  I:  31. 

Lambom,  Robert,  II:  232. 

Lamboum,  H.,  I:  273. 

Lancaster,  Sir  Charles,  I:  40a 

Landbezg,  Count,  II:  32X,  322. 

Landis,  Capt.,  I:  265. 

Landor,    Walter   Savage,  II: 

336. 
Lang,  Andrew,  II:  351,  36X, 

378- 
La  Rochefoucauld,  Ftan^ois, 

I:  x6i,  166. 
Laurence,  Mary,  I:  92. 
Layazd,  Lady,  II:  28x. 
Layaxd,  Sir  Henry,  II:  284. 
Lea,  Joseph,  1: 282. 
Lea,  Axma  M.     See  Merritt, 

Anna  M.  (Lea). 
Lea,   Nanny.      See   Merritt, 

Anna  M.  (Lea). 
Leather-work,  Leland's  desire 

to  learn,  11:  295. 
Leconte,  John  Lawxence,    I: 

3X1- 
Lee,  Robert  Edward,  I:  265, 

«74. 
Legends,     importation     and 

adaptation  oi,n:  294* 


4Sa 


INDEX 


Legros,  Alphonse,  II:  23,  2311. 

Leipzig,  Germany,  1: 143. 

Leland,  Charies,  Secretazy  of 
the  Sodety  of  Antiqiiaries  in 
Charies  I's  rdgn,  1: 18. 

Lekind,  Charies,  father  of 
Charles  Godfrey,  1: 242,  243; 
letters  from  Leland  to,  41, 
83,  185;  death  of,  298. 

Leland,  Mrs.  Charles,  I:  19, 
32,  56;  letters  from  Leland 
to,  26,  53,  90,  97,  XIX,  X39, 
X77;  death  of,  237. 

Leland,  Charles  Godfrey,  his 
Memoirs,  I:  x-3;  his  Mem- 
onmda,  3,  4;  as  a  letter- 
writer,  3;  U:  40-42;  known 
as  the  Rye,  I:  5;  his  birth, 
5-7;  influence  of  Phila- 
delphia on,  8-x8;  love  of  the 
mysterious,  X4-17;  his  love  of 
natxxre^  18,  23;  11:  128^  X29; 
his  ancestry,  I:  x8-4i;  his 
summers  in  New  England, 
19,  2x,  22;  has  eariy  school- 
ing, 25-29;  his  difficuhies 
with  mathematics,  s8, 41,  52, 
62,  79 ;  II:  42X,  422 ;  his 
reading  as  a  boy,  I:  29-33; 
effect  of  this  reading,  34,  63; 
his  notes  of  an  ezcuxsian  to 
Stonington  (1840),  35-39; 
his  rustication  from  Prince- 
ton, 41-44;  his  coUege  faon- 
on,  45»  48,  63;  his  inter- 
est in  the  Tractarian  move- 
ment, 51;  his  eariy  maga- 
ainc  articles,  56,  57,  59,  72, 


137,  209»  axo;  liis  coD^ge 
friends,  59,  60;  his  vektioos 
with  his  professors,  60,  6x; 
his  voyage  to  Marseilles,  65, 
66;  his  adventures  in  Pro- 
vence, 67,  68;  in  Italy,  68- 
71;  in  Berne,  73-77;  his 
amusements  in  Heidelberg, 
78-82,  87,  88;  his  choice  of  a 
profession,  83,  xo8, 124, 207- 
212;  his  improved  heakh,  83, 
84,  97,  xoo,  lox;  his  study  of 
chemistry,  92,  94;  some  Ger- 
man acquaintances  of,  92, 93, 
96;  his  interest  in  esthetics 
and  philosophy,  95,  96,  xo8, 
no,  X70,  X74;  his  matricula- 
tion at  Munich,  107;  as  a 
student  in  Paris,  130,  197; 
as  a  student  of  the  diama, 
132-134;  his  part  in  the 
RevK^ution  of  1848,  X35- 
137,  X86-Z95, 199;  in  Vienna, 
X40-X43;  his  return  to  Phila- 
delphia, 205-207;  his  per- 
sonal appearance,  2x2;  11: 
7^t  77>  335;  his  social  life  in 
Philadelphia,  1 :  2x2-214 ; 
his  engagement,  sx6,  225; 
accepts  offer  of  P.  T.  Bar- 
num  in  New  Yo^  2x6,  229; 
journalistic  work  (X849- 
X852),  217,  2x9,  220,  222; 
his  life  in  New  York,  229- 
236;  his  return  to  Philadel- 
phia, 236;  his  liking  for  jour- 
nalism, 236,  237;  becomes 
assistant  editor  of  tbe  Even- 


INDEX 


453 


ing  Bulktiiit  358;  his  work  on 
this  paper,  239-242;  his  mar- 
riage, 24J,  244;  his  second 
sojourn  in  New  York,  245- 
247;  goes  to  Boston,  247- 
254;  returns  to  Philadelphia, 
254;  Harvard  College  gives 
degree  of  A.  M.  to,  255,  289, 
290, 295, 296;  his  experiences 
in  the  CivU  War,  265,  266, 
973;  goes  prospecting  for  oil, 
277--282;  visits  coal  regions 
of  West  Virginia,  282--285; 
his  work  on  the  Philadelphia 
Press,  285-288,  320,  321;  his 
journalistic  journeys,  288, 
289;  his  initiation  into  the 
tribe  of  Kaw  Indians,  288; 
II:  230-232;  his  second  jour- 
ney to  Europe,  I:  321;  his  ca- 
pacity for  work,  322 ;  11 :  336, 
337>  339>  389;  devotes  him- 
self to  literature,  I:  325;  his 
individuality  as  a  writer,  326; 
his  ambition,  340;  his  dual 
nature,  371,  372;  his  visit  to 
Paris  (1869),  373,  376^  377; 
settles  in  London,  398;  his 
friendship  with  Boker,  409; 
his  trip  up  the  Nile,  4x6, 
417;  visits  Boker  in  Russia, 
420;  his  hunting  experiences, 
D:  30,  31,  32;  becomes  Eng- 
lish  editor  of  Johnson's  Cy- 
doposdia,  39;  his  religious 
belief,  46,  47-50;  his  part  in 
founding  the  Rabelais  Qub, 
5X9  53-61;  letums  to  Phila- 


delphia, 62;  his  lectures,  70, 

73i  74.  75»  ^.  ^a.  93»  «>7» 
265,  269,  271,  272,  273;  his 

conversation,  78,  82,  83;  his 
theozy  regarding  the  minor 
arts,  8x,  84;  his  kindliness, 
82;  his  mysticism,  84;  his 
love  for  antiques  and  bric4k- 
brac,  X14.  9901  33a-334»  359. 
360,  370.  37i»  388;  his  Phi 
Beta  Kappa  poem  at  Har- 
vard, X15,  xx6-xx8;  the  na- 
ture of  his  interest  in  Gyp- 
sies, X  28^x30;  his  stody  of 
Romany,  X33,  134, 136,  X37, 
^A  ^39i  ^  meeting  with 
Borrow,  X42,  X43,  X44;  his 
friendship  with  Gioome, 
X54-X58;  his  discovery  of 
Shelta,  X79,  2x4-2x8,  330- 
222,  227,  228,  236,  237,  247, 
248;  legend  concerning, 
among  Welsh  Gypsies,  179, 
x8o,  x8x;  his  connection 
with  the  Gypsy-Lore  Soci- 
ety, 197-3x0;  his  Indian 
studies,  233-250;  his  work 
for  the  minor  arts  in  Eng- 
land, 253-357;  his  efiForts  to 
introduce  these  arts  into  the 
public  schools,  365,  272;  his 
writings  in  German,  305;  his 
study  of  Florentine  witch- 
fere,  309-313,  315,  318;  his 
su£Ferings  from  gout,  3x2, 
347.  348,  397.  40Z,  404;  his 
practice  in  the  minor  arts, 
405;  his  last  adventuxe^  4x2; 


454 


INDEX 


his  classes  in  the  minor  aits» 

415;  his  death,  425,  436. 

His  wHiings : 

Algonquin  Legends,  11:  64, 
120,  233,  236,  239,  244, 
260,  432;  his  theozy  re- 
gu^A&  337>  criticisms  of, 
238. 

Alternate  Sez,  The,  II:  4x3, 

417,  424,  433- 
Aiadia,  H:  309,  404,  433. 

Art  of  Con'vecsation,  I:  336; 

11:  430- 
Art  Work  Manuals,  II:  106, 

2S9»  43«- 
Book  of   Copperheads,     I: 

254.335.  336;  H:  430. 

Brand-New  Ballads,  II:  259, 

272,  43a- 
Centraiisatioii   versus   State 
Rights,   I:  254,   33s;  U: 

430- 
Curiosities  for  the  Ingenious, 

I:  234, 

Dictionazy,  A,  of  Slang,  II: 
«S8.  293.  294.  295.  296, 
3oi»  302,  313.  43a;  off«« 
to  some  contributois,  297, 
298,  299;  difiSculties  re- 
garding, 323;  publication 
of,  324. 

Ebeneser,  II:  38,  432. 

Egyptian  Sketch  Book,  I: 
416,  4x7,  420;  n:  38,  259, 

431- 
En^ish  Gypsies,  II:  38,  X44, 

147.  2x3, 431;  reception  of, 
n:  Z45»  Z47-'i49;  ^-  H. 


Palmer's    comments    on, 
n:  160. 
Eng^  Gypsy  Songs,  II:  38, 
164,  165,   166,  167,  168, 
169,  170,   17X,  X72,  174, 

175.  176.  431- 
Etruscan  Roman  Remains, 

11:309.339.342,354,355. 
432;  letter  of  E.  Buxne- 

Jones  regarding,  386,  387. 

Flaxius,  I:  367;  II:  361,  364, 

365.  373.  377.  416^  424. 

433- 

France,  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine, II:  43X. 

Freischatz,  Der,  buxlesque 
opera  libretto,  1: 34X,  342. 

Gypsies,  The,  U:  62,  64, 
X84,  213,  2x4,  215,  2x8, 

223,  431- 
Gypsy    Decameron    (never 

published),  11:  359. 
G3rpsy-En^ish    Dictiooaiy, 

(proposed),  II:  i6x. 
Gypsy  Sorcery,  11:  sxx,  258, 

293*  301.  304.  313.  340^ 
342,  345.  4$2. 
Hans  Bidtmaim's  Ballads, 
I:  312,  3x9,  320,  322;  n: 
28,  32,  X48,  37X,  372,  430; 
un-American  character  of, 
I:  338,  339.  349-353;  Ws- 
t»iy  of,  337.  341,  343-345; 
language  of,  346,  347; 
reasons  for  popularity  of, 

347.  354;  significance  of, 

348,  349;  autobiographic 
ttMiches  in,  354;  fizst  piint- 


INDEX 


455 


ing  of,  355,  35<5i  3^^370; 
English  editions  of,  357, 

358,  377;  imitations  of, 
3S9»3^J  H:  a8;  veisesof, 
written  for  bicycle  meet  at 
Philadelphia  Bicentennial^ 
I:  364;  popularity  of,  at 
Oxford,  400;  new  editions 
of,  268,  301,  4x6;  receipts 
from,  359. 
Hans  Brdtmann  in  Ger- 
many, Tyrol,  H:  373,  374, 

37S»  377.  43a- 
Have  YouaStiong  Will?  H 

356,  391,  398,  400,  403 

433;  second  edition  of,  416 

Hundred  Arts,  H:  388,  405 

Hundred  Riddles,  The,  of 

the    Fairy    Bellaria,    H 

356»  357.  432- 
Industrial  Art  in  Schools,  H 

106,  257,  431. 

Johnnykin,  H:  38,  431. 

Kuldskap  the  Master,  I:  22, 

»3;  H;  239,  420,  424,  433; 
correspondence    concern- 
ing, 240-249. 
Legends  of  Florence,  II :  309, 

346,  372i  373.  377.  379. 

433;  letter  of  E.  Bume- 

Jones  regarding  386,  387. 
Legends  of  the  Birds,  1: 337; 

II:  430. 
Legends  of  Virgil,  II:  309, 

388,  402,  433. 
Lifie  and  Adventures  of  James 

P.  Beckwourth,  H:  348, 

432- 


Abraham  Lincoln,  Hi   38, 

43'- 
Magonia  (never  published), 

n:348. 

Manual,  A,  of  Mending  and 

Repairing,  U:  333,  364, 

367.  433- 
Manual  of  Wood  Carving 

n :  348,  432- 
Meister  Kari's  Sketch-Book, 

1:309.310.  312,  3*8,  319, 
327-331.  411,  412;  U:  13, 
14.  15.  32,  33.  430;  firat 
English    edition    of,    H: 

37. 
Memoirs,  I:  x-3;  II:  354, 

355.  362-364,  372.  432. 

Metal  Work,  U:  359. 

Mind  in  Nature  (never  pub- 
lished), H:  417. 

Wnar  Arts,  II :  38, 74, 86, 9^ 
107,  251,  256,  257,  431. 

Mother  Pitcher's  Poems,  I: 

336,  337;  H:  430. 
Music  Lesson  of  Confucius, 

I:337;n:i5,  37,  431- 
Musical  Instruments  (never 

published),  11:388. 

Pidgin-English      Sing-Song, 

II:  3*.  431- 

Poetry  and  Mystery  of 
Dreams, 1: 327, 327 it;  U: 
429. 

Practical  Education,  H:  xox, 
259.  «68.  290,  29X,  296, 
297.  308,  372.  432;  recep- 
tion of,  304,  305. 

Red  Indiana,  TL:  431. 


45* 


INDEX 


Romany     Rambles     (neTer 

published),  II:  72,  xoi. 
Romany  Wit  and  Wisdom 

(never  published),  II:  2x1. 
Russian  Gypsies,  I:  420;  11: 

72.   500  di39  Gypsies,  The. 
Snooping,  11:432. 
Sonnambula,  La,  buiksque 

opera  libretto,  I:  342. 
Songs  of  the  Sea  and  Lays 

of  the  Land,  11:  372,  377, 

378.  433- 
Sunshine  in  Thought,  1: 334, 

33S;  H:  430. 

Union  Pacific  Railway,  The, 

or  Three  Thousand  Miles 

in  a  Railroad  Car,  I:  288; 

II:  233,  430- 
TVanslaHons: 
Eichendorff's  Memoiis  of  a 

Good-for-Nothing,  I:  336; 

n:  430. 
Gennan  Mother  Goose,  The, 

11:430. 
Heine,  I:  242,  250,  256,  257, 

258,  259;  n:  286, 339,  343, 

344.  345>  347>  354>  430f 

43«- 
Neumann's  Fusang,  I:  95, 

x2o;  n:  38,  43X;  receipts 

fr****»  359* 
Scheffel's    Gaudeamus,    I : 

8x;  11:  37,  431- 
Leland,  Charlotte,  I:  X79. 
Leland,   Emily,   I:   1x3,   X85. 

See  aho  Hanison. 
Leland,  Henry  Perry,  brother 

of  Charies  Godfrey,  I:  x8^  25, 


36>  44f  47>  5o>  53f  53>  54*  55* 
56.  5«»  7*.  73»  82,  83,  9x,  94, 
X04,  X37,  X38,  X39,  X5S,  xsd, 
X79,  X85,  X94,  2x4,  229,  253, 
27X,  272,  273;  II:  XXX ;  letters 
from  lieland  to,  I:  xo6,  xx3y 
X17,  X26,  X56,  x68,  X72,  X96; 
goes  to  the  war,  265,  267; 
is  wounded,  267;  his  camp 
ezpeiienoes,  267-270 ;  his 
death,  298,  320;  his  collabo- 
ration on  the  Book  of  Copper- 
heads, 335. 

Leland,  Hopestill,  fixst  white 
settler  in  New  England,  1: 18. 

Leland,  Isabel  (Fisher),  wife  ol 
Charies  Godfrey,  I:  308, 309, 

3'3.  3»4,  3i5»  3i7»  3'^  327. 
375»  376,  377.  379i  380.  2fi^f 
383.  384.  385.  386.  387.  388, 

389.  391.  393.  394.  395»  X^ 
397.398.  399.400,404.4x6; 

II:  4.  S»  «^a7.  36.  37.  aS3» 
273,  276,  280,  28X,  284,  300, 

301.  303.  317.  3".  333.  330, 

338.  34a.  351.  3Sa.  ZSS*  3^» 

371.  375.  38a.  385.  397.  399; 
letters  from  her  husband  to, 

I:  260-264,  271,  272,  273, 

274;  illness  and  death  of,  II: 

4x4.  415.  4x7.  418,  4x9- 
Inland,  John,  I:  x8. 
Leland,  Maiy,  I:  55,  xxx,  389, 

390.  Su  also  Thorp. 
Leland,  Oliver,  I:  19,  20^  249, 

253- 
Leland,  Manor  of,  I:  x8. 

Lemaltre,  Fr6d6ric,  I:  135. 


INDEX 


457 


Leslie,  Mn.,  11: 98. 
Leslie,  Elixa,  I:  15,  57,  138; 
sketch  of  Franklin  by,  11: 

395- 
Leslie,  Frank,  I:  336,  245,  946. 

Letter-writing,  Leland's  stan- 
dard of,  II:  40-43,  39a. 

Levi, ,  agent  for  Mme. 

Janauschek,  I:  3x7. 

Lewes,  George  Henry,  11:  19, 
so. 

Lewes,  Mary  Ann  Evans,  11: 
18,  19,  30. 

Lewis,  Estelle,  II:  143. 

Leypoldt,  Frederick,  I:  336. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  I:  335,  346, 
354,  364,  376;  II:  413; 
stories  of,  cdlected  by  Le- 
land,  397;  his  interest  in  lie- 
land's  Book  of  Copperheads, 
335>  336;  Leland's  Life  of, 
II:  38. 

lind,  Jenny,  I:  8x,  335. 

Linton,  EHza  Ljmn,  II:  6. 

Lister,   Roma,   11:  338,   369, 

37o»  371- 
Literature,  pecuniary  rewards 

off  I:  393;  Leland's  com- 
ment on  modem,  11:  361, 
363. 

Littk  men,  11: 330,  331. 

Locke,  David  Ross,  his  Let- 
ters of  Petroleum  V.  Nasby, 

I:  335- 
Locker,  Lady  Chariotte,  1 :  400. 

Locker,  Frederick,  II:  11. 

Lockyer,  Sir  Joseph  Noiman, 

11:  19. 


Lolde,  William  John,  II:  38. 

London,  cost  of  living  in,  II: 
36;  prevalence  of  drinking  in, 
37;  social  requirements  in, 

aS3- 
Athenaeum  Qub,  I:  401; 

n:  57. 

British  Museum,  II:  143. 

T«angham  Hotel,  11:  353. 

Rabelais  Club,  11:  51,  53, 

61,  66,  353,  353,  373;  corre- 
spondence between  Leland 
and  Besant  concerning,  53- 
60. 

Savile  Club,  I:  403;  H: 

9»  Si»  Sa»  6i»  66,  353,  353, 
373;  some  members  of,  53, 

53. 

Society  of  Authoin,  II: 

373,  390.  • 

South  Kensingtoo  Mu- 
seum, 11:85. 

Longevity,  American  condi- 
tions iniminil  to,  I:  336. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wada- 
worth,  I:  310,  311,  313,  348^ 
333;  II:  58;  his  Hyperion,  I: 
104;  his  Poets  of  Europe, 
Z09;  his  opinion  of  lieland's 
translations  of  Heine,  356, 
357;  his  Hiawatha,  11:  340, 

344,  348- 
Lovell,  Angelina,  a  G3rp6y,  11: 

149. 
Lovell,  Rosanna,  a  Gypsy,  11: 

184. 
Lowell,  James  Russell,  I:  905, 

aio,  ai6,  397,  339,  406;  II: 


458 


INDEX 


ao»  53»  581  S9»  ii8>  »7o»  273, 
294 ;  his  new  Biglow  Pa- 
pers, I:  348,  249;  Lelond's 
admiration  for,  250;  letters  to 
Leland  from,  251,  252,  289- 
292,    295-296;    his    Biglow 

Papers,  347,  349»  354i  3571 
his  statement  regarding  the 
difficulties  of  American  dip- 
lomats abroad,  413;  dinner 
to,  by  Rabelais  Club,  II: 
252»  372. 

Ludlow,  Fitz-Hugh,  1 :  955, 
264. 

Ludwig,  King  of  Bavaria,  I: 

lOI. 

Luther,  Martin,  Leland's  dis- 
covery of  an  edidon  of  his 
Catechism,  II:  96. 

^y^Yt  John,  Leland  finds  a 
black-letter  copy  of  his  £u- 
phues,  I:  62. 

Macalester,  Charles,  I:  30. 
MacAlister,  James,  II:  loi. 
Idacaronic  poetry,  Delapierre's 

definition  of,  I:  346. 
Macaulay,  Frank,  II :  336. 
McCaw,  Mrs.,  II:  395. 
McClellan,  George  Brinton,  I: 

14. 

Mcllvaine, ,  I:  91. 

Maclean,  John,  I:  52. 

MacRitchie,  David,  II:  185, 
198,  211,  214,  220,  320,  350; 
his  letters  to  Leland  regard- 
ing the  Gypsy-Lore  Society, 
X99,  900,  aoz,  304,  205,  ao6; 


letters  from  Leland  to,  207, 
208-210,  226,  227,  344*346; 
his  contributions  to  the  study 
of  Shelta,  222,  223,  225. 

MacVeagh,  Wayne,  II:  113. 

Maddalena,    a    sorceress,    II: 

3091  3io»  341,  34a,  349i  37»» 
372,  378.  379- 
Magic,  nature  of,  II:  325.    See 

also  Sorcery,  Witchcraft 
Magic  mirrors,  II:  408,  409, 

410. 
Manhattan,    meaning   of   the 

name,  II:  366. 
Maitland,  Edward,  II:  32. 
Manual  training,  in  the  public 

schools,  II:  86,  92,  93,  94; 

introduced  into  Philadelphia 

schools,  96,  98;  introduced 

into  schools  of  Himgaiy,  308. 
Margiherita,  Queen  of  Italy,  11 : 

369.  370- 
Marietta,  a  sorceress,  II:  379, 

Martin,  Benjamin  EUis,  1: 298. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  II:  4. 

Martinengo,  Countess  Evelyn 
di,  II:  407. 

Masefield,  John,  1 :  353. 

Mason,  Lydia,  I:  311. 

Mathematics,  Leland 's  inap- 
titude for,  I:  28,  41,  52,  63, 
79;  II:  421,  422. 

Mather,  Rev.  Increase,  I:  38. 

Matthews,  Mrs.,  a  Gyjisy,  II: 

15s.  156- 
Maudsley,  Henry,  II:  293.  295. 

Maxwell,      Mary      Elizabeth 

(Braddon),  11:386. 


INDEX 


459 


^iaxwell.  Sir  WlUiam  Stilling, 

11:4. 

May, f  II:  300,  323. 

Medwin,  Captain,  1: 80. 
Mehemet  All,  his  son  in  the 

Revolution  of  1848, 1: 192. 
Mendon,    Massachusetts,    In- 
dian labottieis  in,  I:  ai. 
Men  vale,  Hennan,  11:  21,  296. 
Merritt,   Anna  M.   (Lea),   I: 

27S»  376;  II:  8,  23,  30. 
Meyer,  Kuno^  II:  180,  226,227; 

his  contributian  to  the  study 

of  Shelta,  225. 
Meyer,  Leopold  de,  1 :  303, 318. 
Michael    Angela    See    Buo- 

narzod. 
Mirmac  Indians,  I:  235,  236. 
Milan,  Italy,  riot  over  a  witch 

in,  H:  343. 
Milnes,    Richard    Monckton, 

first  Lord  Houghton,  I:  403; 

11:    55,    58;    his    Saturday 

breakfasts,   2,   3;    Carlyle's 

opinion  of,  3. 
Milton'   John,  portrait  of,  in 

Gypsy  house,  II:  154. 
Minor    arts.    See    Industrial 

arts. 
Sfissouri,  Miss  Owen's  book  on 

the  folk-kxre  of,  II:  329-331. 
Mitchell,  Louis,  II:  236,  246, 

260,  310. 
Mittennaier,  Karl  Joseph  An-. 

ton,  I:  79. 
Monasteries,  Dunker,  in  Penn- 
sylvania, I:  16. 
Montalant, ^  I:  397. 


Montez,  Lola,  1: 96,  226. 
Moravian    colonies  in   Penn* 

sylvania,  I:  z6. 
Morfe,  Cullen,  his  Ramequins, 

I-  359- 
Morley,  John,  I:  411;  II:  6. 

Mosely,  Alexander,  1 :  70. 

Moss,  Lucy,  II:  102,  104. 

Mother  Goose,  German,  1: 336. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  I:  25, 

406,  407,  408. 

Mottoes,  Leland's  book  on,  11: 

373- 
Moulton,  Louise  Chandler,  II: 

299. 

Mount  Desert,  II:  X15. 

MttUer,  Friedrich  Max,  II:  19^ 
294. 

Muirhead, ,  1: 389. 

Mumpeis'  talk.    See  Shelta. 

Mundella,  Anthony  John,  II : 
93.  372. 

Munich,  Germany,  I:  X53y  176, 
390;  the  source  of  German 
art,  zox ;  Leland's  matric- 
ulation at,  107;  student  cos- 
tumes of,  1 16;  a  festa  at,  1x7, 
xz8;  cheap  living  in,  Z2x; 
police  customs  in,  X24,  X25; 
a  ghost  in,  X26. 

Four  Seasons  Hotel,1 :  391. 

Gallery,  1: 392,  393. 

Prater,  I:  X22. 

Volkstheater,  1: 1x8, 1x9. 

Murger,  Henri,  I:  X32,   X38, 

MjTstidsm,  in  Pennsylvania,  I: 
17- 


460 


INDEX 


Napier,  Col.  Elezs,  II:  140. 
Napier,  Robert  Cornelia,  Ix>rd 

Napier  of  Magdala,  1: 409. 
Naprstak,  Wojtech,  1: 394. 
Nasby,    Petroleum    V.      See 

Locke. 
Nature,  Leland's  love  for,  I: 

z8>  33;  II:  13^  i39t  Sor- 
row's feeling  for,  129. 

Navone,  Giuseppe,  I:  70,  334. 

Nazareth,  Pennsylvania,  Mo- 
ravian colonies  at,  I:  16. 

Neumann,  Karl  Friedrich,  Ice- 
land's translation  of  his  Fu- 

>^8»I:95f  i3o;II:38. 

Nevill,  Hugh,  II:  350. 

New  England,  Hopesdll  Le- 
land  said  to  have  been  first 
white  settler  in,  I:  18;  Ice- 
land's memories  of  home 
life  in,  ai. 

New  York  City,  Century  Asso- 
ciation, I:  atS,  919. 

Lotos  Club,  dinner  given 

to  Leland  by,  II:  67,  68,  69, 
70. 

Pfaff's  Tavern,  I:  945. 

New  York  Times,  Leland's 
connection  with,  I:  945,  946. 

Newberry, ,  his  toy  books, 

I:  3«- 
Newell,   miliam    Wells,   II: 

317- 
Newman,  Mrs.,  I:  99. 

Newport,  R.  I.,  II:  90,  zr5. 

Nile,  Leland  and  Boker  visit, 

I:  416,  417. 

Nock,  Major,  I:  37. 


Norcross,  John  £.,  1 :  986^ 
397  n.,  367,  369;  II:  430  «. 

Norton,  Caroline  Elizabeth  Si^ 
rah  (Sheridan),  I:  399;  II:  3, 
9;  note  to  Leland  from,  4,  5. 

Norton,  Charles  Eliot,  1 :  949. 

Nubar  Pacha,  1: 4x5. 

Nuremberg,    Germany,   the 
Jammerthal  at,  1: 146. 

Occupation,  Leland's  theory  o( 

II*.  44. 
Odin  stones,  II :  396. 

Offenbach,  Jacques,  1: 999. 

Ogham,  identificatioa  of  Sbelta 

with,  II:  995. 
Oil,  Leland  goes  prospecting 

for,  1:977-989. 
Okenites,  I:  96. 
Olcott,  Henry  Steel,  I:  278 ; 

II:  408,  409. 
O'Leary,  Arthur,  I:  z68. 
Opera,  in  Paris,  I:  158,  163; 

in   Philadelphia,    300,  301, 

30a,  303,  304,  3X9,  3x3,  3x4, 

317-  318- 
Oppert,  Jules,  II:  395. 

Oriental  Congress.  See  Inter* 
national  Congress  of  Ori- 
entalists. 

Ortmans,  F.,  II:  383. 

Ostend,  Belgium,  1: 380. 

Our  Daily  Fare,  paper  pub* 
lished  by  Sanitary  Fair, 
Philadelphia,  X864,  I:  975. 

Owen,  ^  tinker,  II:  990, 

99X. 

Owen,  Mary  Alicia,  I:  8x;  II: 


INDEX 


461 


79»  34«»  3S«t  35^;  her  Old 
Babbit,  the  Vcwdoo,  313, 
$2$;  letters  from  LeUnd  to, 
314,  315-317.  318.  394-326, 
328-33i»  333.  358, 361,  369- 
37a.  37S-377.  39^f  393.  399. 
405-407,  4"-4i3»  419-423; 
ber  work  in  MisBouri  folk- 
lore, 329-331.  353.  354;  her 
paper  before  the  Folk-Lore 
Congress  (xSgx),  350,  353. 

Paine,  Thomas,  I:  6x. 
Paley,  Rev.  l^^lUam,  1: 308. 
Palfrey,  John  Goiham,  I:  250. 
Palmer,  Edward  Henxy,  1: 331; 

H:  9. 5a.  55. 56, 97.  ^45. 146, 
Z79,  3x5;  his  criticism  of 
Bonpw,  X41;  his  love  of  lan- 
guages, X59,  x6o;  letters  to 
Leland  from,  X60-X64,  177; 
his  part  in  the  Book  of 
Eoi^  Gypsy  SongB,  164, 
16^x74;  his  advcfituies  in 
Wales,  with  Leland,  X79, 
sx5-sx8;  his  death,  353, 
353  fk 
Pahner,  Capt  Nathaniel  B^  I: 

3«. 
Pantheism,  phases  of,  I:  76;  its 

influence  upon  Leland,  108. 

Parepa-Rosa,  Euphrosyne,  I: 
503. 

Paxis,  France,  I:  397,  398;  the 
stage  in  (1848),  X33,  X33,  X34, 
X35;  stotm-bells  of,  X35,  x88; 
Mi  Souls'  Day  in,  X46;  cost 
of  living  in,  147;  fogs  of,  148, 


x66;  the  cholera  in,  X48, 178; 
shop  girls  in,  x5x ;  students  of, 
X38,  x6i,  X63;  Paul  de  Kock's 
description  of  life  of,  X65; 
loxettes  in,  171;  masked  balls 
in,  173,  174,  X79;  method  of 
forming  barricades  in,  190; 
distribution  of  provisions  in, 
193;  Leland's  account  of  a 
day  in,  197;  Leland's  visit  to^ 
in  1869,  373,  374-377- 

—  Bobino,    theatre    o&    I: 
X33,  300,  3x3. 

—  Cal6  de  U  Rotonde^  I: 

174.  175- 

Hotel  Cluny,  1: 136^  163, 


189;  Roman  ruins  discovered 
in,  163,  X69. 

H6tel  du  Luxembourg^ 

Washington  Irving's  descrip- 
tion of,  I:  X30^  X3x;  Leland 

•ti  i30f  132.  »^.  «70. 
Latin  Quarter,  I:  i^^  X50, 

x6x,  168^  X69;  women  of,x75. 

Louvxe,  I:  x8i,  x83. 

Municipal  Guards,  1 :  186^ 

Z9X. 
National  Guaxds,  I:  iS6, 

X87,  X9X. 

Pte  la  Chaise,  I:  146. 

Rood     Point,     Champs 

Elyste,  I:  376. 

• Rue  de  la  Harpe,  I:  x68. 

Trois  Flares,  I:  376. 

Tuikries,  taUngof  (X848), 

1: 136,  X93,  X93,  X94. 
Parley,    Peter,     pseud.      Se$ 

Goodrich,  Samuel  G. 


463 


INDEX 


Passage,  Mis.,  I:  49,  51,  59. 
Paasamaquoddy    Indians,     I: 

ax;  II:  1x9,  xao;  Leland's 

study  of,  234,  235. 
Pastorius,  Franz  Danid,  1: 16. 
Patterson,  Stewart,  I:  365. 
Patti,  Adelina,  I:  s6x. 
Pazton,  Josei^  Rupert,  I:  9x4, 

a8o^  98X. 
Payii,  James,  11: 6x. 
Payne,  John,  11:  x. 
Pazd,  Dr.,  II:  424,  495. 
Peabody,    Sophia,    afterwaxd 

Mis.  Hawthorne,  I:  99. 
Peacock,  Gibson  Bannister,  I: 

2$S,  979. 
Pease,  Rufus,  I:  9x. 
Pendleton,  Miss,  H:  98. 
Penington,  Edward,  I:  965.  • 
P^niiigton,  John,  I:  999,  509, 

303.  3P9f  314.  3»7- 
Penn,  WiUiam,  legend  xegaid- 

ing  statue  of,  1: 14. 

PenneU,  Elizabeth  Robins,  11: 

XIO,     XXX,     X9X,     x86,     X87, 

x88»  X89,  X99;  letters  from 
Lelandto^  960-971,  977-999, 
994-308,  319,  3x3,  317,  3x8, 

397.  339-344,  346-348^  349- 
3S2»  354-356,  359-368,  378, 
379.  389-391.  39a.  39r-4oa. 

Pennell,  Joseph,  letter  from  Le- 
landto,II:  xai;  letter  to  Le- 
land  from,  regarding  Hunga- 
rian and  En^^ish  Gjrpsies  in 
Philadelphia,   X86-190. 

Pennsylvania,  mystidam  in,  I: 
17. 


—  Grey  Reserves,  1: 970U 

—  Historical  Society  of,  I: 
7;  H:  396. 

—  Home  Guard,  1: 968. 

—  University  of ,  1 :  40. 
Fanny  Ti 


I:  X58. 
Peruzzi,    Edith    (Stoiy),     II: 

XAAm 

Peruzzi,  Simone,  H:  335. 

Pessimism,  Leland's  protest 
against,  1: 334,  335- 

Peter  Parley,  pseud.  Sw  Good- 
rich, Samuel  G. 

Peterson,  Theophilus  B.,  I: 
3x9;  H:  39. 

Peterson  Brothers,  publishers, 

I:  331.  355.  356.  368- 
PetUt,  Sally,  1: 303,  3x4. 

Petulengro,  Jasper,  H:  X38, 197. 

Phelps,  Elizabeth  Stuart.  5m 
Waid. 

Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  its 
active  part  in  our  early  his- 
tory, I:  7;  its  influence  upon 
Leland,  8-x8;  desciiplioiis 
of,  in  Leland's  Memoirs,'  9» 
905;  II:  396;  first  railroad 
out  of,  I:  X9;  old  legends  of, 
X4-17;  outdoor  amusements, 
17;  freedom  of  belief  in,  x6; 
riots,  59,  53;  business  the 
only  career  in,  993;  beauty 
of  women  of,  994;  rdigious 
intokranoe  in,  939,  940;  atti- 
tude toward  slavery  in,  940^ 
941;  manual  training  intro- 
duced into  schools  of,  H:  96, 


INDEX 


463 


98;  Gypsies  in,  X82-Z90; 
Lowell's  descripdon  of,  305; 
periodical  literature  in,  axz  ; 
social  life  in,  213;  zeoogni- 
tion  of  Leland's  work  for 
industrial  art  in,  355,  356; 
Breitmann  Ballad  written  for 
bicjrde  meet  at  Bicentennial 

off  364. 
—  Alt  Union,  I:  3x7,  335. 

— ^AsBodadon  for  Public  Ed- 


ucation, n:  98. 

—  Centennial  Exposition, 
1876^  n:  6a. 

—  Decorative  Art  Qub,  II: 
X07. 

—  Dolly  Madison  house,  I: 

— Franklin  Institute,  I:  7. 
— Giraid   College,    II:   93, 
xoo. 

—  La  Pierre  House,  I:  341, 
344. 

—  Free  Library,  Leland's 
share  in,  1:33. 

—  Peale  Museum,  I:  9. 

—  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  I: 
14. 

—  Pennsylvania  Museum 
of  Industrial  Art,  gifts  to, 
H:  1x4,  334,  358. 

—  Public  Industrial  Art 
School,  II:  X07. 

Race  Street,  legend  re- 


gaiding  marble  dogs  in,  I: 

14. 
—  Sanitary  Fair,   i86x,  I: 

275*  «76»  377- 


Sodal  Reionn  Associa- 
tion, H:  93. 

Philadelphia  Evening  Bulletin, 
Leland  assistant  editor  ol, 
I:  338-340»  357,  358;  he  re- 
tires from,  345;  fizst  Breit- 
mann Ballad  appeared  in, 

34a. 
Philadelphia    Press,    I:    355; 

Leland's  work  on,  385. 
Philippine   Islands,  desire  of 

Germany  for  foothold  in,  II: 

398. 
Philister,  a,  I:  136. 

Philfips, ,  I:  47,  49,  50. 

Phillips,  Mrs.,  I:  54. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  H:  xx7,  xx8. 

Picts,  conjecture  regarding 
language  of,  II:  aso. 

Pictures,  Leland'k  feeling 
about,  U:  387,  393. 

Pidgin-English,  Leland's  pro- 
ficiency in,  II:  349. 

Pike,  Albert,  II:  377. 

Pius  IX,  Pope,  I:   X55;  II : 

336. 
Planchette,  II:  X9X. 
Pliny,  II:  4x1. 
Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  I:  X33,  az6^ 

336,  343,  335,  339;  chaige  of 

Germanism      against,    308; 

Leland's  service  to,  333, 334; 

his  Mamuil  of  Conchology, 

336. 
Poetry,  popular  appredatioo  of, 

I:  305- 
Poland,  I:  X40,  X56,  X57. 

PoUock,  Sir  Frederick,  U:  X69. 


464 


INDEX 


Pollock,  Walter  Henies,   II: 

S2»  54,  55.  71.  73.  97.  '75. 

a93- 
Poltimoie,  Lady,  II:  6. 

Ponaonby-Fane,  Hon.  Sir  Spen- 
cer Cedl  Biabazon,  II:  174. 
Pooley,  William  I.,  1: 3x3,  3x91 

330. 
Foicelain    painting,    Leland's 

efforts  at,  1:386. 

Porter, ,  I:  225. 

Portsmouth,  N.  H«,  H:  xax. 

Posselt, ,  1: 79. 

Pottinger,    Henxy  Allison,    I: 

147,  158,  17a,  X73,  176,  183. 
PouiUet,  Claude  Servais  Ma- 

thias,  I:  X70. 
Powell,  York,  II:  337,  997. 
Powers,  Hiram,  I:  71. 
Praed,  Winthtop  Mackworth, 

n:  19. 
Prague,  Bohemia,  I:  143,  391, 

393.  394. 
Prang,  Louis,  II:  74. 

Prevost,  Charies  M.,  I:  269. 

Prideaux,  William  Francis,  II: 
X97. 

Piinoe,  John  Dyneky,  11:  4x6, 
430;  his  collaboration  with 
Leland,  239;  letteni  from  Le- 
land  to,  240-249. 

Piinceton  College,  Leland  at, 
I:  34,  40,  4X-64;  conflict 
between  Freshman  class  of, 
and  railxoad  men,  46;  Presi- 
dent Tyler's  visit  to,  47, 
48;  friends  at,  59,  60;  rela- 
tions with  professoGB,  60;  his 


rating  at,  62;  effect  upon 
his  development,  63,  64,  96. 

Theological    Seminary, 

treasures  discovered  in  li- 
brary of,  1 :  6x. 

Prisons,  need  of  manual  train- 
ing in,  II :  99. 

Procter,  Anne  Benson,  H:  8. 

Procter,  Bryan  Waller,  H:  8. 

Professions,  overstocked  in 
America,  I:  223. 

Provence,  Leland V  visit  to^  I: 
67,  68. 

Pulszky,  Ferencs  Aurel,  II: 
380,  307,  345. 

Punch,  or  Punchinello,  cosmo- 
politan character  of,  I:  145. 

Puseyites  at  Princeton  College, 
I:5x. 

Quadrant,    invention    of,    11: 

394. 
Quain,  Jones,  II :  xa. 

Quaker    City.    5(M   Philadal- 

phia. 
Quakerdelphia,  I:  221. 
Quietian,  in  Philadelphia,  I: 

16. 

Rabelais,  Francois,  I:  33,  109^ 
3X0,  335;  Leland's  admira- 
tion for,  II:  53,  S7' 

Rabelais  Cub.  Se$  under 
London. 

Rachel,  Elisa,  Heine's  criticism 
of,  I:  133;  Leland's  criticism* 
of,  X33,  X34, 13s,  147. 

Raleigh,  Walter,  II:  x8o. 


INDEX 


465 


Ralston,  William  Rabton  Shed- 
den,  his  Rufltian  Folk-Tftks, 
11:9. 

Ramsey,   Mn.   Alexander,   I: 

387. 
Rand,  Rev.  Silas  T.,  11:  935. 

Raphael,  1: 183,  184;  II:  987. 

Ravel  lamily,.  xescued,  1 :  904. 

Read,  Buchanan,  I:  975. 

Read,  Deborah,  afterward  Mrs. 

Franklin,  II:  595. 
Realism,  results  of,  II:  983. 
Reath,  Mary,  II:  981. 
Refonnatorics,  need  of  manual 

training  in,  II:  99,  99. 
Regner  Lodbiog,  Death  S(»g 

of,  I:  33. 
Reillca,  Mile.,  actress,  1: 3x3. 
Religion,  aim  of,  II:  48;  lela- 

tion   between  sorcery   and, 

340. 
Rembrandt,  Hermanszoon  van 

Rijn,  engravings  by,  I:  193. 
Rhys,  John,  11:  351. 
Richter,  Jean  Paul,  1: 109. 
Ringwalt,  John  Luther,  1: 319, 

35S»  368. 
Ri|dey,  Geoige,  I:  945,   955; 

II:  430  f». 

Roberts  Brothers,  publishers, 
I:  976. 

Robins,  Edward,  I:  309,  3x3; 
his  Twelve  Great  Actresses, 
133;  letters  from  Leland  to, 
legsxding  his  Life  of  Frank- 
lin, H:  394-396- 

Robins,  Mrs.  Edward,  I:  3x3. 

Rodenstrin,  -—  von,  I:  78. 


Rodney,  Oesar,  I:  9x4. 

Roelin,  Miss,  1: 385. 

Roelin,  Frau,  I:  386,  388. 

Roelin,  Herr,  I:  386. 

Rogers,  Samuel,  II:  9. 

Romagna,  Etruscan  deities  still 
existing  in,  II:  341,  346. 

Romany  Ryes  of  Great  Brit- 
ain, record  of,  planned  by 
Leland,  II;  sxx. 

Rome,  Italy,  I:  X84;  the  Car- 
nival of  X846  at,  70;  legend 
concerning,  II:  94X;  Folk- 
Lore  Congress  at,  368,  369, 
370;  Oriental  Congress  at, 
407. 

RoDconi,  Giorgio,  I:  300,  309, 

317- 
Roscoe,  Thomas,  1: 99. 

Rossetti,  Christina,  11:  X9. 

Rossetti,  Dante  Gabriel,  II:  19, 

91. 

Rothenburg,  Germany,  11: 976. 

Royal  British  Society  of  liter- 
ature, Leland's  lecture  be- 
fore, 11:  995. 

Rush,  Mrs.  James,  1: 9X9,  9x3. 

Ruskin,  John,  II:  987,  380. 

Russia,  modem  literature  of, 
11:369. 

Sac  Indians,  11: 499. 

Sade,  Jacques  Alphonse  Fran* 

9ois,  Comte  de,  I:  307,  308. 
Saintsbuxy,    George    Edward 

Bateman,  II:  59. 
Sala,  George  Augustus,  11:  7, 

33<^38x« 


466 


INDEX 


Salagrama  stone,   worshipped 

in  India,  II:  349. 
Salagnina  stone,  of   Tuscany, 

n:349- 
Salzburg,  Germany,  II:  305, 

306. 

Samuel,  John,  his  description 
of  John  Cadwalader's  office, 
I:  207,  ao8. 

Sampson,  John,  11:  an,  214, 
915;  letter  to  Leland  from, 
Z79-181;  his  translations  of 
Heine  and  Omar  Khayyim, 
912;  his  contributions  to  the 
study  of  Shelta,  222, 223, 224, 
925,  226,  227;  book  in  Shelta 
planned  by  Leland  and,  404. 

Sandgren,  Mrs.,  I:  344. 

Sartain,  John,  I*  21  r,  214;  low 
terms  offered  by,  220. 

Sartain 's  Magazine,  I:  219. 

Sayoir  faire,  conditions  of  ac- 
quiring, I:  160. 

Saze,  John  Godfrey,  I:    233, 

Sayoe,   Archibald  Henry,   II: 

3aS.  354. 

Scandinavia,  modem  litera- 
ture of,  II:  362. 

Scattergood,  David,  engraver, 
I:  342. 

Scespanik, ,  U:  393. 

Schaumberg,  Emily,  1 :  299,  $x  i. 

Scheffel,  Joseph  Victor  von,  I : 
80,  81;  Leland's  translation 
of  his  Gaudeamus,  U:  37; 
J.  Sampson's  translation  of 
the  same,  2x2. 


Schenck,  Robert  Gumming,  I: 

345;  U:  366,  4x3- 
Schiller,     Johann     Christofdi 

Friedrich  von,  I:  xo8. 
Schmitz,  M.,  I:  X19,  127,  128. 
Schmussen,  Low-German  He* 

brew  dialect,  H:  97,  1x4. 
Schoolcraft,  Henry  Rowe,  II: 

244. 
Schott,   Arnold,  I:  300,  303, 

304,  3»i»  3ia« 
Schubert,     Gotthilf    Heimidi 

von,  1: 104. 
Schuyler,  Eugene,  U:  980. 
Scot,  Michael,  the  Wizard,  U: 

339. 
Scott,  Sir  Walter,  1: 173. 

Scudder,   Horace  Elisha,  II: 

177. 
Seabuxy,  Rev.  Samud  (x8oi» 

1872),  1:51. 
Senakerim,    an    Armenian   at 

Princeton,  I:  53. 
Seward,  "^^lliam  Heruy,  1: 976. 
Shea,  Judge,  of  New  York,  H: 

413- 
Shelley,  Percy  Bysshe,  1: 8x. 

Shelta,  H:  909,  910,  211,  225; 

Leland's  discovery  of,  179^ 

214--218,   220-922,   297,   998^ 

2$6,  237,  947,  248;  contri- 
butions to  the  study  of:  by 
MacRitchie,  222,  223,  225; 
by  Sampson,  222,  223,  224, 
225,  226,  227;  identified  by 
Meyer  with  O^iam,  225; 
book  in,  planned  by  Leland 
and  Sampson,  404. 


INDEX 


467 


Sheridan,  Richard  Brinsley  (d. 
1888),  n:  5. 

Shennan,  Roger,  autograph 
tetter  of,  1:38. 

Sherwood,  Maiy  Elizabeth  Wil- 
son, I:  276. 

Shinn,  Mrs.,  1: 13. 

Sinclair, ,  II:  203. 

Sinnett,  Alfred  Percy,  II:  299. 

SmaUey,  Geoige  Washington, 
II:  273. 

Smart,  Bath,  H:  141, 145, 163, 
177,  201. 

Smith,  Hairy,  I:  177. 

Smith,  Horace,  daughters  of, 

i9»  3i«  3a- 
Smith,  Hubert,  H:  145,  146, 

177;  letter  from  Leland  to> 

165-167. 
Smith,  Lloyd,  1: 309,  3x1. 
Smith,  Sydney,  H:  2. 
Smugglers,  Leland  in  a  den  of, 

1:67. 
Social  debts,  Leland's  theory 

of,  II:  337,  338. 
Sockdolager,    origin    of    the 

word,  H:  324. 
Sontag,  Henriette,  I:  2x2. 
Sorcery,    Babylonian-Ninevite, 

U:  324;  relation  between  re- 
ligion and,  340. 
Souvestre,    Emile,    his   Foyer 

Breton,  I:  294. 
Spa,  Belgium,  1: 377,  378,  379, 

380. 
Spanish-American    War,    Le- 

land's  interest  in,  U:  398, 

399,  400,  405,  406. 


StaSl,  Madame  de,  1: 92. 
Stanhope,    Eail,    his    famous 

crystal  ball,  U:  408. 
Stanley,  Valentine,  a  Gypsy, 

H:  184. 
Stanton,    Edwin    McMastexs^ 

I'  263,  304,  313. 
States,  Agatha,  I:  3x7. 
Steel,  Edward  T.,  U:  xo2. 
Stephen,  Sir  Leslie,  U:  169. 
Sterne,  Laurence,  I:  X09. 
Stevens,  Sunon,  I:  209,  237^ 

963. 
Stevenson,  Robert  Louis^  11: 

S3.  58. 
Stewart,  Mrs.,  1: 92. 

Stiles,  William  Henry,  I:  X42. 

Stills,  Chartes  Janeway,  1: 309. 

Stockton,  Capt.,  1: 48. 

Stoddard,  Richard  Henry,  I: 

2x8^  24Sf  ass,  aS6>  a<^a»  ^3» 

264,  297. 
Stonington,    Connecticut,  Le- 

land's  Notes  of  an  excur- 
sion to,  I:  35-39. 
Storks,  in  Germany,  I:  X83. 
Story,  Edith,  I:  345.    See  also 

Peruzzi,  Edith  (Story). 
Story,  William  Wetmore,  I:  77; 

H:  9,  24,  335,  336,  344,  368. 
Strakosch,  Maurice,  1: 373. 
Strakosch,  Max,  I:  373. 
Strasburg  cathedral,  1: 183. 
Strauss,  David,  I:  82. 
Strauss,  Johann  (X804-X849), 

I:  X29,  X40. 
Strigiles,  II:  307. 
Student  life,  in  Geimany,  I: 


468 


INDEX 


8<Hk>i   93.   9^1   97»   98;  ^ 
Paris,  138,  z6i,  163,  x8i. 

Sumner,  Charles,  I:  406,  407, 
408. 

Sumrack,  P£l,  II:  345. 

Supernatural,  Leland's  interest 
in  the,  stimulated  in  Phila- 
delphia, 1: 16,  17. 

Swinburne,  Algernon  Charles, 
I:  3x4;  II:  47;  his  Songs 
before  Sunrise,  I:  13Z;  his 
Dolores,  307,  308;  his  poem 
to  Baudelaire,  310. 

Switzerland,  Sazon,  1: 391. 

Sylvester,  J.,  I:  37. 

Tadd,  J.  Liberty,  11:  Z02, 104, 

254. 
TagUoni,  Maria,  I:  96,   X14, 

XX5,  304. 
Taillandier,  Saint-Rend,  I:  68. 
TaUeyrand-Pdrigord,     Charles 

Maurice  de,  I:  13. 
Talmage,   Thomas   De   Wtt, 

U:  1X3. 
Tappan,  Arthur,  I:  37. 
Tassinari,  Mre.,  11:  434. 
Taylor,  Bayard,  I:  33 x,  356, 

263,  333. 
Taylor,  Marie  Hansen,  wife  of 

Bayard,  I:  36x. 
Taylor,  Tom,  II:  7. 
Teck,  Duchess  of,  11:  396. 
Temple,  R.  C,  II:  376. 
Tennessee,    Leland    prospects 

for  oil  in,  I:  377-38X. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  Baron  Ten- 
nyson, I:  X31,  310,  400,  401; 


II:  13,  58;  Leland's  meeting 
with,  n:  xx;  Book  of  Eng- 
lish Gypsy  Songs  dedicated 
to,  X75,  X76. 
Tennyson,  Emily  (SeQwood), 
Lady,  wife  of  Sir  Alfred,  II: 

X3. 

Testa,  NataH,  I:  303,  303. 

Thackeray,  William  Make- 
peace, I:  3X5,  344,  336,  333. 

Thalberg,  Sigismund,  I:  344. 

Theology,  Leland  proposes  to 
study,  I:  X34. 

Thdrapia,  Turkey,  I:  4x5. 

Theiisch, ,  II:  345. 

Thiezsch,  Friedrich,  I:  959 
3x4;  II:  84. 

Thomson, ,  1 :  393. 

Thorp,  Maiy  (Leland),  II: 
359;  death  of,  415. 

Ticknor,  George,  I:  330;  11: 

336. 

Ti£fany,  WilHam,  I:  73, 91;  let- 
ters from  Lehmd  to,  73,  85. 

Tin-fdl,  casts  made  with,  II: 
408. 

Tinkers'  talk.    See  Shelta. 

Tips,  custom  regarding,  in 
some  Ftench  cafes,  I:  153, 

154. 
Tomah   (Tomaquah),  a  Pas- 
aamaquoddy  Indian,  11:  334, 

a35i  243- 
Transcendentalism,     I:     xxo; 

Leland's  study  of,  33,  34. 
Travel,  advantage  of,  I:  x8o. 
Trelawney,  Edward  John,  I: 

8x. 


INDEX 


469 


Ttiibner,  Nidiolas  I:  357,  359, 
331;  II:  9,  171,  251,  25a  n., 
373,  50Z,  374;  his  puUicar 
tion  of  Leland's  woiks,  II: 

37- 
Traboer,  Mn.,  II:  351,  353, 

359,  373,  399. 

Tuckey,  Janet,  II:  164,  170, 
173,  177. 

Turkey,  1: 133. 

Turks,  linguistic  accomplish- 
ments of,  I:  4X4»  4x5- 

Twain,    Mark,    paeud.      S€$ 


Tweedie,  Ethd  (Hailey),  Ice- 
land's ballad  to^  1: 3^. 

lyfer,  Zachary,  his  visit  to 
Princeton,  1S43, 1: 47,  4S. 

lyiol,  I:  366. 

Uhle,  Albfecht  Bexnhard,  11: 

104. 
United    States,    onsatisfactoiy 

country  to  travel  in,  I:  335. 
Bureau    of    Education, 

pamphlet  prepared  fay  Le- 

land  for,  II:  xo6^  357. 
Unwin,  T.  Fisher,  I:  358,  359, 

366;  II:  343,  353,  355,  356; 

letters  from  Leland  to^  353, 

354,  374,  375.  3^^-3^5' 
Unwin,  Mrs.,  II:  354,  3SS»  3S^ 
375,  383;  Leland's  Hundred 
Riddles  dedicated  to,  357. 

Vagabonds,    Leland's     collec- 
tion of  studies  of,  11: 404. 
\^b6ry,  Arminius,  II:  380. 


Vanderbilt,  Captain,  I:  39. 

Vanity  Fair,  I:  345,  346^  355. 

Vauz,  Richard,  I:  340. 

Venice,  Italy,  I:  183,  184,  396^ 
397;  11:  381,  383;  lack  of 
originality  among  artists  in, 
386. 

Verona,  Italy,  I:  396. 

Vetramile,  Father,  II:  348. 

Victoria,  Queen  of  Enf^and, 
H:  173,  173. 

Vienna,  Austria,  I:  139,  240- 
14a,  143.  178;  gafcty  o4 
141,  157;  cheapness  of  Uving 
in,  141,  143;  Gypsies  at,  11: 

277.  a78,  30a,  303*  304. 

Villon,  Francois,  I:  33. 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  1: 306, 307. 

Viigil,  legend  concerning,  II: 
341;  Leland's  paper  on  the 
identity  of  Buddha  with,  407. 

Voil, de,  I:  53. 

Voltaire,  Francois  Marie  Arouet 
de,  n:  57. 

Voodooiamy  II:  319,  330,  350. 

Voodoos,  Black  stone  of  the, 
I:  6;  11:  358,434;  organised 
body  of,  n :  336;  charms, 
331;  chazms  worked  by  the 
stone,  331,  333. 

Waagen,  Gustav  Friedrich,  I: 

166,  167. 
Wabanaki    Indians,    Leland's 

study  of,  H:  335,  339,  348. 

Wadsworth, ,  U:  344. 

Wainwright,    Rev.     Jonathan 

Mayhew,  I:  52. 


470 


INDEX 


Walker,  Robert  John,  I:  354. 
Walker,  Sears  C,  I:  28. 
Wallace,    Sir    WilUam,    15th 

known  copy  of  Blind  Harry's 

Metrical  History  of,  U:  96. 
War  poems,  I:  306. 
Ward,  Captain,  II:  392. 
Ward,  Artemus.    See  Browne, 

Charles  Farrar. 
Ward,  EUzabeth  Stuart  Phelps, 

I:  276. 
Ward,  Genevieve,  II:  31,  178^ 

899. 
Ward,   George,  I:    153,    167, 

217. 
Ward,  Hayes,  II:  248. 
Ward,  Marcus,  II:  74. 
Warner,   Charles  Dudley,  11: 

336. 
Warner,  Susan,  I:  232. 

Watts,  Henry  Edward,  11:  53. 
Weapons,  for  the  Revdution  of 

1848,  in  Paris,  1: 189. 
Webb,  Col.,  1:37. 
Wdk,  Jesse  William,  I:  257. 
Welby,  Lady,  H:  351. 
Welcker,  Friedrich  Gottlieb,  I: 

99- 
Werner,  Carl,  U:  302,  305. 

West   Virginia,  Leland   visits 

coal  regions  of,  I:  282-285. 
Wharton,    Davy    and    Sheva, 

Gypsies,  II:  183. 
Whipple,  Gen.  Amiel  Weeks, 

I:  280. 
Whipple,  Jerry,  I:  408. 
Whistler,        James       Abbott 

McNeill,  U:  3,  33,  88. 


Whitby,  Eng.,  II:  360;  Log- 
gerhead Inn  at,  361,  363. 
White,   Andrew  Dickson,  11: 

336. 
White,  Bishop  William,  1: 13. 
Whitefield,  Geoige,  1: 151. 
Whitman,   Walt,   I:   410;   II: 

109,  no,  III,  1X3,  191-195, 

335- 
Whittier,   John  Greenleaf,   I: 

340. 

Wgan,  Gordon,  II:  53. 

Wilbur,  Bishop,  I:  343. 

Wilde,  Jane  Franceaca  Spe- 
xanza,  Lady,  II:  8,  9. 

Wilde,  Oscar,  H:  9,  113,  361. 

Will,  Leland's  theory  of  the 
cultivation  of  the,  II:  389- 
391,  400,  403. 

William  I,  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, II:  38. 

Williams,  Talcott,  11: 109. 

Willis,  Nathaniel  Parker,  I: 
XI,  177,  303,  333,  333,  361, 
363,  333;  death  of,  393. 

Willis,  Richard  Storrs,  I:  363. 

Wilson,  G.  Alick,  II:  333. 

Wilson,  Harry,  II:  336;  letteis 
from  Leland  to,  408-4x1. 

Wnckelmann,  Johann  Joa- 
chim, 1: 198. 

Windsor,  Dean  of,  H:  173. 

Witchcraft,  Leland 's  interest  in, 
I:  6,  15;  II:  311,  331;  Flor- 
entine, 309,  310,  311,  313, 

3i4f  318,  34I1  356. 
Wlislocki,   Heinricfa   von,  11: 

138.