The Portland daily press., 1868-06-03
Miscellany.

A Strange Character.
Not long since we published the brief an
nouncement, taken from Philadelphia paper,
of the death of "Harriet Livermore, a niece
of the late Judge Livermore of New Hamp-
shire, aged ST." This woman was the oriei-
nal of that mysterious character in Whittier's
"Snow Bound,
"Who that winter night
Flashed back from lustrous eyes the light
Unmarked by time and yet not young,
The honeyed music of her tongue,
And words of meekness scarcely told
A nature passionate and bold,
Strong, se-concentred spurning guide
Its milder features dwarfed beside
Her unbent willis majestic PRIDE"
A writer in the New York Evening Post
gives the following account of her.
Harriet Livermore was placed when quite
young under her uncle, Judge Liyermore.
whom elderly persons in NewtHampshire and
Massachusetts will still remember The girl
early displayed great originality and independ-
ence of character. As her uncle was also a
man of original ways of thinking, two such
people under one roof were sometimes too
many. 1t is said that being thwarted in an
early love attachment (perbaps it was her un-
Gle who thwarted her), she began to display
eccentricities which attracted much attention.
Several who remember her at their firesides.
have told me that she was generally of grave
countenance, but that her wonderful CONVEX
sation, and her flashing eyes would command
the silence, and rivet the closest attention of
every one. Those who knew her think that
Whittier has been most happy in catching
the leading features of her portrait, and has
presented the vagaries of her demeanor and
her power most faithfully in the world, when
he says:
'The warm, dark languish of her eyes,
Was never safe from wrath's surprise,
Brows sanity calm and lips devout
knew every change of scowl and pOut;
And the sweet voice had notes more high
And shrill for social battle cry"
Atone time she adopted the garb of her
sex in the Society of Friends, and often ad-
dressed them at their quarterly meetings: or
in various towns and cities of New England
she spoke on the second coming of Christ.
There was nothing vulgar about her, and
she must not be contounded with those wo-
men whose names and voices in social bat
tie cry" have often been made known to the
public by penny-a-lner clap-trap and literary
quackery. Her whole bearing was that of a
high-born lady who had no trifling themes,
She was in deep, solemn earnest.
AT length her friends missed her, and after
many months they heard of her in Europe,
and Asia and Africa.
Since then what old cathedral town
has missed her pilgrim staff and gown?
What convent door has held its lock
Against the challenge Of her knock?
At one time we find her in Egypt, giving
our late Consul, Mr.. Thayer a world of
trouble arising from her peculiar notions AT
another time we see her amid the gray olive
slopes of Jerusalem, demanding-not beg
ging--money for the "Great King" and once
when an American, fresh from home during
the late rebellion, offered her in Palestine a
handful of greenbacks, saying, "The Great
KING will haVQ On1u uo1dBt A
Years ago, she climbed the sides of Mount Ii
6anus and visited Lady Hester Stanhope,
that eccentric sister of the younger Pitt.
One day they went to the stables where
Lady Hester had a magnificent collection of
Arabian horses, for it is well known that La
dy Hester, amongst her other oddities, mar
ried a Scheik OF the mountains, and thus
had fine opportunity for securing the choic-
est steeds OF the Orient. Lady Hester point |
ed to Harriet Livermore two yery fine horses
with pecullr marks, but differing from each |
other I'D color. "That one," said Lady Hes |
ter, "the Great King, when he comes, will |
ride, and the other l will ride in company. |
with him." Thereupon, Harriet Livermore |
gave most emphatic "No," and declared, |
with fore-knowledge and aplon.b, that "the |
Great King will ride this horse, and it is |
ride the other horse F"
1t is said that she carried her point with
Lady Hester, overpowering her with superior
huency and assertion. No wonder Whittier
speaks of her as
-startling on ber desert throne
The crazy Queen of Lebanon
With claims fantastic as her own''
Between two and three years ago she re-
turned to America, and since that time has
resided in Philadelphia. To the end of her
life, though more impatient than when
younger, she exhibited those qualities which |
Whittier has so well described. The poet |
throws the mantle of pity over her, and we |
all can join in the conclusion of his admiral lie |
sketch OF Harriet Livermore:
SIT is not ours to separate
The tangled skein of will and fate
10 snow what metes and bounds should stand
Upon the SOULS debatabe land 0'N'
And between choice and Providence
Divide the circle of events.
But he who knows our frame is just,
Merclful and compassionate,
And full of sweet assurances
And hope for all the language is
That He remembereth we are dust