The Sun.
London, England, 1829-02-17 00:00:00

ANECDOTES OF MOORE, THE POET.

At Mayfield, near Ashbourne, is a cottage where
Moore, it is stated, composed Lalla Rookh. For
some years this distinguished poet lived at the neigh-
bouring village of Mayfield; and there was no end
to the pleasantries and anecdotes that were floating
about its coteries respecting him ; no limit to the
recollections which existed of the peculiarities of the
poet, of the wit and drollery of the man. Our de-
sire to go over the cottage which he had inhabited
was irresistible. It is neat, but. very small, and re-
markable for nothing except combining a most shel-
tered situation with the most extensive prospect.
Still one had pleasure in going over it, and peeping
into the little book-room, yclept the " Poet's Den,"
from which so much true poetry had issued to de-
light and amuse mankind. But our satisfaction was
not without its portion of alloy. As we approached
the cottage, a figure scarcely human appeared at
one of the windows. Unaware that it was again
inhabited, we hesitated about entering; when a
livid, half-starved visage presented itself through
the lattice, and a thin, shrill voice discord-
antly ejaculated—" Come in, gentlemen, come
in. Don't be afeard ! I'm only a tailor at work on
the premises." The villanous salutation damped
sadly the illusion of the scene, and it was some time
before we rallied sufficiently rom this horrible dese-
cration to descend to the poet's walk in the shrub-
bery, where pacing up and down the live-long morns
ing, he composed his " Lalla Rookh." kis a little
confined gravel-walk, in length about twenty paces;
so narrow, that there is barely room on it for two
persons to walk abreast; bounded on one side by a
struggling row of stinted laurels, on the other by
some old decayed wooden paling; at the end of it
was a huge haystack. Here, without prospect,
space, fields, flowers, or natural beauties of any de-
scription, was that most imaginative poem con-
ceived, planned, anti executed. It was at Mayfield,
too, that those bitter stanzas were written on the
death of Sheridan. There is a curious circumstance
connected with them : they were sent to Perry, the
well-known editor of the Morning Chronicle. Perry,
though no stickler in a general way, was staggered at
the venom of two stanzas, to which I need not more
particularly allude, and wrote to inquire whether he
might be permitted to omit them. The reply which
he received was shortly this :—" You may insert
the lines in the Chronicle or not, as you please :
am perfectly indifferent about it : but if you do in-
sert them, it must be verbatim." Some of his hap-
piest efforts are connected with the localities of Ash-
bourne. The beautiful lines, beginning •
" Those evening bells, those evening bells,"
were suggested, it is said, by hearing the Ashbourue
peal, and sweetly indeed do they sound at that dis-
tance, " both mournfully and slow ;" while those
exquisitely touching stanzas,
" Weep not far those whom the veil of the tomb
In life's happy morning bath hid from our eyes."
were avowedly written on the _sister of an Ash-
bourne gentleman, Mr. P— B—. But to his drol-
leries. He avowed on all occasions an utter horror
of ugly women. He was heard, one evening, to ob-
serve to a' lady, whose person was pre-eminently
plain, but who nevertheless had been anxiously do-
ing her little endeavours to attract his attention,
" I cannot endure an ugly woman. I'm sure I
could never live with one. A man that mar-
ries an ugly woman cannot be happy." The lady
observed, that " such an observation she could not
permit to pass without remark. She knew many
plain couples who lived most•happily." " Don't
talk of it," said the wit; " don't talk of it. It can-
not be." - " But I tell you," said the lady, who
became all at once both piqued and positive,
"it can be, and it is. I will name individuals
so circumstanced. You have" heard of Colonel
and Mrs. —. She speaks in a deep, gruff bass
voice; he in a thin, shrill treble. She looks like
John Doree ;he like a dried alligator. They are
called Bubble and Squeak by some of their neigh-
bours : Venus and Adonis by others. But what of
that ? They are not handsome, to be sure; and
there is neither mirror nor pier-glass to be found,
search their house from one end to the other. But
what of that ? No unhandsome reflections can, in
such a case, be cast by either party ! I know 'them
well,' and a more harmonious couple I never met
with. Now Mr. Moore, in reply, what have you
to urge ? I flatter myself I have overthrown
your theory completely." C 4 Not a whit. Colonel
has got into a scrape, and like a _soldier
puts the best face he can upon it." Those still
exist who were witnesses to his exultation when
one morning lie entered Mrs. --'s drawing-room,
with an open letter in his hand, and' in his peculiarly
joyous and animated manner exclaimed,'" Don't be
surprised if I play all sorts of antics r I am like
child with a new rattle ! Here is a letter from nay
friend Lord Byron, telling me he has dedicated to
me his poem of the Corsair. Ah, Mrs.. ,--.., it is
nothing new for a poor poet to dedicate his poem
to a great Lord ; but it is something passing
strange for a great Lord to dedicate his book to
poor poet." Those who know him most intimately
feel no sort of hesitation in 'declaring, that he has
again and again been heard to express regret at 'the
earlier efforts of his muse; or reluctance in stating,
at the same time, as a fact, that Mr. M., oil
two different occasions, endeavoured to re-pur-
chase the copyright of certain poems; but, in
each instance, the sum demanded was so ex-
orbitant, as of itself to. put an end to the iiego-
ciation. The attempt, however, dees him honour.
And, affectionate father as he is well known
to be when be looks at his beautiful little daughter,
and those fears, and hopes, and cares, and anxieties,
come over him which almost choke a parent's utter-
ance as he gazes on a promising and idolized child,
lie will own the censures passed on those poems to
be just, nay, more—every year will find him more
and more sensible of the para Mount importance of
the union of female purity with female loveliness--
more alive to the imperative duty on a father's part
to guard the maiden bosom from the slightest taint
of licentiousness. It is a fact not generally suspected, though his last work, " The Epicurean,"
affords strong internal evidence of the truth of the
observation, that few are more thoroughly conver-
sant with Scripture than himself, Many of Alethe's
most beautiful remarks are simple paraphrases of
die sacred volume, He has been heard to quote
from it with the happiest effect; to' say there was
no book like it, no book, regarding it assa mere
human composition, which could on any subject
even "approach it in poetry, beauty, pathos, and
sublimity." Long may these sentiments abide •io
him !—Literary Gazette,

It is rumoured that Mr. Poodle ilyng is to be
placed at the head of the new system of Police.

On Wednesday last Viscount - Holmesdale,
the eldest son of the Earl Amherst, was returned to Parlia-
ment for the Borough of East Grinstead, on the vacancy
occasioned by the Earl of Liverpool.

The new prison is about to be erected in lieu
of Tothill-fields Bridewell is to be capable of contain-
ing 600 prisoners, with the means of adding to it.besides.
A- Company has been formed 'at- Berlin for
the supply of that city with gas, from . the impurities
which are now taken to the environs, and used as manure.

The further consideration of the proposed
Middlesex Lunatic Asylum stands adjourned to the next
Quarter Sessions, in April.

In the course of clearing away the rubbish out
Of the Minster choir, it has been found that the hollow
under the stalls has been filled up with a composition of
sand and oak ssw-dust, and amongst this between 61) and
70 coins of different reigns and countries have been found,
some of them very curious and of remote dates. A large
silver thimble, and several smaller thimbles, some round
pieces of coloured glass, &e. hare also been taken out.—.
The coins are most ta them in the possession of Mr. Arch..
deacon Markham.•.-- York Herald.

A seal was caught a few days ago at Queens-
ferry, in one of the herring nets‘. and brought to Falkirk,
where it was exhibited as a show. All the efforts, how-
ever, of the person who brought it, to overcome its wild-
ness, were unsuccessful, as it was rather too old, and it had
to be killed.—Fife Herald.

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