Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1879-01-18
Authors Homes.

the lecture upon Dickens, delivered Nv
Edmund Yates on the occasion siA
visit to this country, and the icturs
OF the house and grounds which he ex.
hibited on the stage. 1t was very char
acteristic. The house, a plain, SUBJ
stantial brick structure, fron.ed on a
lawn on which merry party of ladies
and gentlemen were enjoying the ex.
element Of Irritation and croduet:
against an angle of the house leaned its
master, enjoying the evident enjoyment
of his guests and slipping u glass Of
wine. The picture wa extremely
characteristic, and familiarized those
who saw it with Dickens and his work
completely.
This property was left to his eldest
son and namesake, whose recent bust
ness failures have necessitated sale OF
the house and grounds which will thus
pass from the Dickens family within
nine years of the owners death. How
ever, such "A fate seems to be the usual
one SO far as great literary men are con-
cerned. The house where Shakespeare
lived at Stafford -on-Avon is now owned
by the corporation, but it ceased to be-
long to the family very soon after his
death. Newstead Abby, the home of
Lord Byron's domestic life, still ex.
lists, but is owned by none Of his blood.
At Twickenham still stands. and such
cockney excursionists as know any,
thing about the author of the "Dunci-
ad' continue to steal wands from the
willows which overhang the bank Of the
Thames, but none of his family have
had q title to it for many long year;
Burns house with all its historic tradi.
tions remains standing, but it is tav-
ern, not the nursery of some of the
warmest and purest sentiments tbak
ever found expression in verse; Smoi$
let's house in Dumbartonshire is still
in possession of his family, and
forms an exception to the general rule.
Thackeray's house in Chelsea, is still oc.
cupied by his family, if we mistake not,
but the habits of the genial author of
"Pendennis," were scarcely of that
domestic type which would throw much
sentiment around his dwelling. He
was essentially q club man, which
Dickens was not. Indeed, Dickens
was luxurious in his domestic habits to
O remarkable degree, extravagant in his
sumptious style of living, in his furni-
ture, his personal adornments. and in
the additions and improvements made
at Gadshill, while Thackeray was ex-
tremely simple. Grassmere wheer
the "Lakers." as Southy, Wordsworth
and their friends were called by Byron,
will ever be identified in thought with
these two poets, whose simple, tran
quill ives..are pictured in their verse,
but De Quincy and Wilson, who en-
tered largely into the associations of
the place, went their respective ways,
the ono to frequent the country at large
and be the welcome guest of the other,
and Wilson to Edinburgh to fill the
chair of professor of moral philosopy
at the University. The house in which
Paradise Lost was written has vanished
long ago, and all we know of it is that Mil.
ton sat at its door SIN oking, with his favor.
lite daughter and amanuensis beside him.
Rousseau, Jeffery, Hood, Charles Lamb
had no homes in which their great
works were written, in the same sefAss
that Dickens and Scott had. and the
rooms in attic stories or tenement hous-
es have been profaned over and over
the residence of Scott, was turned over
to strangers when financial difficulties
pinched its owner. Contrasted with
these is the home of Washington Irv.
ing. at Irvington, still held by his fam
lily; Tennyson's modest cottage in the
Isle of Wight, Longfellow's house in
Cambridge, the residence of Emerson,
and the lovely villa at Roslyn in which
William Cullen Bryant spent the long
warm evening Of his days.
AS matter of fact, genius leaves
few material monuments behind it, ex-
cept where it is breathed into marble
or on canvas. True. that Athenodorus
and his father live in the LAGOON, and
Phidias, Michael Angelo. Da Vinci,
Rubens and Christopher Wren are
still before us in their works. But of
their active lives, apart from their la
bors like most of the geniuses of the
world they have left no trace. 1t is to
be regretted that literary men, either
because of their Indifference to materi-
oil possessions or their inability in most
instances to accquile them, should, ex-
cept in their writings, leave so few
monuments, for who, as "Satan" Mont
gomery expressed it
Gan tread the ground by genius often trod
Nor feel nature more akin TO God2
To say that they leave no monument
would be untrue, for works like Hor-
aces are monuments more durable
than BRASS" but their material traces
are speedily obliterated. Hence the
regret one feels at learning that a land
mark so famous as Gadshill in the his
tory of English literature is to be re-.
moved, for Gadshill without the nancy
of Dickens and the famous sortie by y
Falstaff and his companion cutpurse
of the blood, is nothing. In q minor
way it was something german to Hol-
land House. where literary genius
made it's headquarters; where Greville
tells us of his meeting with Macaulay;
and where poets, novelists and states
men met ON equal ground. Its master
on his death bed contributed at least
one epigram, illustrative of the aspira-
tions of the house:
Nephew of Fox and friend of Gray.
Enough my need Of fame;
II those who knew me best can say