Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-05-01
PETER WILKINS
An Old-Time Novel with Well
Known Features.

Among the Flying Folks-Devices which
Have Been Freely Used by Writers
OF the Haggard School OF
Fiction.
How many of the novel readers Of
to-day know any thing about 'sPeter
WiIkins? Yet 1t is in all probability
fact that ninety per cent. of these
same novel readers has enjoyed many
of the very devices of fiction which
were original in 'sPeter Wilkins" and
which have been used by Rider Hag-
gard, Edgar Allen Poe, the anonymous
authors of ssUnder the Auroras'' and
''The Strange Manuscript Found in a
Copper Cylinder" and some half dozen
other less known writer's and books
s'Peter Wilkins" was written some
where about the year 1850, says the San
Francisco Chronicle, and was published
almost anonymously, the only clew tc
the identity of the writer being the
signature ssR. P" to the dedication.
This dedication, by the way, was tc
Elizabeth, Countess of Northumber.
land, that same patron to whom Percy
dedicated his sReliques" and Gold.
smith the first printed copy of his ED.
win and Angelina"
The title-page' of the book set forth
that it contained the life and adventures
of Peter Wilkins, COrnishman, ssRe-
lating particularly His Shipwreck near
the South Pole, his wonderful Passage
thro' q subterraneous Cavern into
kind of New World; his there meeting
with 'Gawry or flying woman, whose
Life he preserved and afterwards mar
ried her; his extraordinary conveyance
to the country of Glums and Gawrys OF
Men and Women that fly. Likewise
Description of this strange Country,
with the Laws, Customs and Manners of
It's Inhabitants, and the Authors re-
markab1e Transactions among them"
The book was published in two small
volumes and was illustrated with several
quaint "Cuts, clearly and distinctly
representing the structure and Mechan-
ism of the Wings of the Glums and
Gawrys, and the Manner in which they
use them, either to swim or fly"
1t was not until 1885 that the name
of the author was found out, and then
it was by accident and not as the result
of any inquiry. In the year men,
toned London printer named Nicol
sold a number of books and manuscripts
in his possession which had once be-
longed to Dodsley, the publisher, and
when these were being catalogued the
original agreement for the sale of the
manuscript was brought to light.
{ From this document it appeared that
the author was called Robert Paltock,
or Pollock, and that he received for the
copyright twenty pounds sterling,
twelve copies of the Dock and proof i'm
pressions of the illustrations This, the
probability (from his name) that the
writer, like his hero, was of Cornish
origin, and the supposition that the
Robert Paltock buried at Rhyme Church,
DorsetShire, in 1867, was the same man
is absolutely all that is known of the
author of this ingenious romance.
With the literary men of his day he
seems to have had no Intercourse, and
not single mention of him is to be
found among his contemporaries. As
the result of diligent inquiry, A. 81.
Bullen states that, so far as he could
find, the Monthly Review was the only
journal in which the book was noticed,
and in that it was dismissed as ga very
strange performance indeed That
Paltock should have chosen Clements
Inn as place of residence,
says Mr. Bullen, is not sur
prising. 1t still keeps some
thing of its pristine repose; the sun
dial is still supported by the negro
spoken of by Charles Lamb; the grass
has not lost it's verdure, and on August
evenings the p1ane-trees' leaves CLINT
golden in the sun as they did at the
time of Coleridge.
One may still hear the chimes at mid
night as Falstaff and Justice Shallow
heard them of old. Here, where only a
muff1ed murmur comes from the work-a-
day world, man in the last century
might have drea med away his life,
lonely as Peter Wilkins himself. One
can imagine the amiable rec1use COM
posing his homely romance amid such
surroundings. Perhaps it was the one
labor of his life. He may have come to
the inn originally with the aspiration of
making fame and money; and then the
spirit of clustered calm turned him
from such vulgar paths, and instead of
losing his fine feelings and swelling the
ranks of the plutocrats, he gave US a
charming romance for our fireside.
Sighted though the book was at the
time of its appearance it found lovers
here and there and was not forgotten.
A new edition appeared in 1888 and
again in the following year. It was in
cluded in the edition of Popular Ro-
mances" in 1919 and published sepa-