San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-05-25
A New England Miranda.

Celia Thaxter is well known as poet
to the readers of the atlantic. She is so
thoroughly New Highlander that she
revolves around Boston and seldom ap-
pears in this city. Her life has been
peculiar and romantic. Her father was
local politician at Portsmouth, N. H.,
and having failed to get an appointment
which he had every reason to expect, he
became disguised with mankind in gen.
eral and politicians in particular, and
resolved, like Yankee Timon, to re-
nounce society. Consequently he
bought one of the islands known as the
Isles of the Shoals, and retired there
with his family, determined never to re-
turn to the main land. He adhered to
his resolution; no built a rude dwelling
and remained there until death, some
16 or 10 years. On the island (Apple-
dore, formerly called Hog Island) Celia
Leighton was born, and there she grew
up, never visiting the shore, her father
having forbidden her to do so on pain
of his eternal displeasure. When about
16, a lovely and natural girl, a lawyer,
much older than she, went to Appledore
for his health, having heard much of the
restorative influence of the open-sea air
upon the lungs, his own having troubled
him greatly. Her father refused to
have him under his roof; but finding the
lawyer bent on remaining in any event,
and that he had erected cabin of his
own, he finally agreed to accept him as
boarder.
The result may be anticipated. The
New Hampshire Miranda could not be
thrown day after day into the society OF
the invalid Ferdinand without inspiring
and being inspired by the tender passion.
She had never seen any man except her
father and two brothers, and she would
therefore have fallen in love with Thax-
ter had he been humpback, his name
Spriggins, and his trade undertaking.
He would not have been quite human
had he been able to pass days and even
ings on the rocks girt by the ocean, un-
der the sunshine, starlight, moon-beams,
in the delightful companionship of that
child of nature. What happened was
inevitable. Father Leighton was amazed
and enraged when the lover asked his
consent, and vowed he should never,
never, never have his daughter. Thax-
ter swore then by Blackstone, Coke and
Littleton that he would have Celia with
out the paternal sanction, and was SO
sure to keep his oath that the recluse
yielded reluctantly. The two were
Joined in wedlock, and as the lawyer
had greatly improved in health, he took
his bride to the main land, and they
went to Boston on their nuptial tour
Since, she has divided her time
between Portsmouth, Boston and the
Shoals, spending the warm months on
Appledore, where she has cottage
Her brothers, Cedric and Oscar, have
the inn on the island, and have made
money by the annual influx of summer
visitors. Celia ThaXter is the CHIEF
lion or lioness of the place, and enter
tains many of her admirers and friends
She is enamored of the Shoals, thinking
them unsurpassed for pleasantness, pic
turesqueness and health. They con.
stantly figure in her verse. She has
written a little book in prose about
them, and she never wearies of chant
ing their praises. Her husband is not
seen very often, his wife appearing tc
enjoy herself despite his invisibility. She
is buxom, of liberal avoirdupois, OF ex.
cellent health and digestion, talks flu
emily and eloquently, and if she owns
any secret sorrow she does not parade
it for the qualification of the curious
She is not longer young in years-sht
must be 45-but she is as young in feel
ing as she was in early womanhood
She has son grown to mans estate
Letter TO San Francisco Chronicle.