The Portland gazette. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1818-1824, 1823-04-01
From The London MagGsine.
WALKING STEWART.

w hlAAiAN0 d EN AM.
There are several kinds of pedestrians. all cell
ebrated and interesting in their wav.-There is
the man who does his match against Time. and
generally sacrifices that which he walks against:
there are ghosts, who are proyerbial for rcalk-
ing, when they have something on their own
minds, or are bent on having something upon the
minds Of those they choose to visit there Is the
mighty EtdourGnion lecturer, as great JYdlker
as any we have recorded and there are the
postmen, two-penny and upwards las they say of
the pencil-cases in the windows ;--insolvents -
placard-bearers IN the city Hackney coach
horses Scotch tourists - and MANY, many 9TH
ers,-all intense walkers The Walkers. indeed
like the hchens, arc vast genus, with an endless
variety of species but alas the best and most
singular of the tribe is gone We are almost sure
that the name Of our loss is already anticipated
! in the minds of our readers-for who, that ever
Weathered his way over Westminster bridge. has
not seen Walking Stewart This invariable cogno-
men) sitting i'll the recess on the brow of the
! bridge, spencercd up to lis threat and down t.,
his hips with sort Of garment, planned, it should
seem, to stand PotCder, as became the habit of a
military man /; his dingy dusty inexpressibles-
treaty nexpressbles, Ills boots. travel-stained,
black up TO his knees,-and vet not black Meth
er-but arrant walkers both of them or their
complexion belied them his, aged, but strongly
marked, manly, and, air-rpened face, steady as
truth and his large irregular dusty hat, that
seemed to be OF one mind with the boots? We
say, who does not thus remember Wdlking Stesc-
art, sitting and leaning on his stick, as though he
had never walked in his life, but had taken his
seat on the bridge at his birth, and had grown
old in his sedentary habit To be sure this
view of him is rather negatived, by as strong a
n i'm fb<o Il
accomplishments ofhair-puwder and dust, resting
on bench in the Park, with as perfectly an e.
ternal air nor will the memory let him keep a
quiet, constant seat here for ever; recalling him.
as she is wont, in his shutting slow persmbuation
OF the Strand, or Charing-cross, or Cockspur-
street. Where really was he You saw him
on Westminster bridge, acting his own monu-
ment-You went into the Park he was there
fixed, as the gentleman at Charng- cross.-You
met him, however, at Charing cross, creeping
on like the hour hand upon dial, getting rid Of
his rounds and his time at once. Indeed his ubi-
putty appeared enoTmons--and vet not 50 enor-
nous as the profuDdity of his sitting habits. He
was aprofound sitter Could the Pythacorean
system be entertained, what hen would now be
tenanted by Walking Stewart Truely. he SEEM
ed always going, like lot at an auction and
yet always at a stand, like hackney-ooach
Oh what walk was his, to chriten a man by
"a slow, lazy, scraping, creeping, gazing pace
"A shuttle "a walk in its dotage Ia walk at
stand-stll yet was he pleasant man TO meet
We remember his face distinctly, and, allowing
a little for its northern hardness, il was certainly
as wise, as kindly, and as handsome face, as ev-
er crowned the shoulders of soldier, scholar,
and gentleman.
Well wv alking Stewart is dead He will
no more beseen enniched in Westminster bridge
-or keeping his terms as one of the Benches of
ST. James Park or haunting the pavement
with moving but unified feet In vain we look
for him at the hour when he was wont to
walk" The niche in the bridge is empty of its
amiable statute-and as he is gone from this spot,
he is gone from all--for he was ever all in all
Three persons seem departed in HMM him,
there seems to have been triple death He
was Mrs. Malaprop's F" Cerberns--three gentle
men at once !"-As it was the custom in other
times to have several leaders dressed alike in a
battle -" SIX RicLrnonas in the field, $50 does