The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1891-09-19
WAKEMAN'STRAYEL
Nathaniel Hawthorne. the Ameri-
can Novelist, in England.
THE SIMPLE LIFE He FOLLOWED
While United States Consul ut Liver
pooI.-.sIemories of Him.--An Aged
Mans RecoIlcctions---A NIusty But
Fascinating Old Record Book.


copyright 1891.
Special Correspondence Of the IntCIigeHcT.
LONDON, ENGLAND, Sept. Z, 1901
"Thank heaven, l am q sovereign again,
and no longer servantl"
So wrote Nathaniel Hawthorne in
this city, under date OF January 8, 1858,
after having called at the American
Embassy to arrange for his passport to
Italy.
His unfaltering loyalty to his college
! and lifelong friend, Franklin Pierce,
had been rewarded by appointment to
the Liverpool Consulate, then the most
valuable, in point Of ices, and most
onerous and unpleasant to a man OF
Hawthorne's fibre, in point Of resi-
dence, within the gift of our govern
ment. He had passed through the
four years ordeal with credit; had
saved considerable money; but had nc.
eomplished no more than batch OF
vagarous English notes OF travel, and
possibly skctched few misty outlines
Of romances; and was now, after his
long and irksome slavery at Liverpool,
full OF the elation OF deliverance and
the joyful enthusiasm growing out OF
preparations for the long vacation in
dreamful Italy-Italy the eternal in
spircr OF dreams until Italy is known.
/ CHANGED upon these oxuItant words
OF Hawthorne, the other day, In TWEEN
tv.year old volume, owned by an eighty
year old man, in his hundred-year
old home, beneath the shadows OF II
four hundred-year old church, in the
thousand-year old town OF Ormskirk,
Lancashire.
While the moldy burgh is interesting
enough on its own account, the old
man in the old home by the old church
became positively lovable to me, be-
cause he loved with sort OF idolatry
the romancist whose memory we all
treasure SO previously. The old church
looming above the red tiles OF his cot
tage roof is curiously sltrmounted by a
detached tower and steeple; the pile so
gray, mellow and ivy-massed as to ln-
voluntarily suggest gigantic tree
Topped Off in its lower trunk, where the
huge battlemented tower slows, ont OF
whose edge, where the stceple rises,
has sprouted a second slender tree.
The tradition goes that two capricious
maiden sisters, DESTROYS OF raising some
sacred memorial, agreed upon erecting
upon 0rms.kirk tower and steeple,
yet, disagreeing as to uniting and con-
Meeting their work, the finally eXpend-
ed all their wealth and energies upon
both, each independent Of each other.
TREASURED GOLD PIECE.
had come to 0rmskirk attracted by
the antiquity OF the town and the
unique character of this most venerable
church; and, curiously enough, while
wandering about the antique pile en-
countered the same man whom Haw-
thorne had encountered nearly forty
years before.
The old man had in former times
been simply waiter in the little 0rms-
kirk tavern where Hawthorne had once
supped. 1t was fair day, he remember
ed, when he came. Tho latter could
readily understand scarcely word OF
the broad l.ancanshire dialect OF the
'portly and rudy women" and "yeo-
men with small clothes and broad
brimmed hats" and could secure no.
body's attention on account of the
crowds. He was about to leave Orms-
kirk in a sort of despair at the fruitless
outcome OF a long foot journey, when
the attendant, who had felt drawn to
him by his kindly and superior per-
sonality, contrived to escape his duties
long enough to, secure Hawthorne adj
mission to the ancient church, and to
chow him other antiquities in the
quaint old town.
On departing the novelist had CRATE
fully given his guido half sovereign,
and had also said to him in his kind,
quiet way: "savc your earnings, my
good man, and become independent for
your old days." The old man still
treasures that gold piece with tender
delight. He has all Of Hawthorne's
works. Thoy are as moldy and mussy
as the old town itself. But the man
who wrote them, the books themselves,
the tiny bit of gold, which is ono Of
the most priced things in England, and
the hours companionship, which l
could not but envy him, had made this
one humble EnglishmM conscious OF a
new world about him in which to live.
A halo OF glory always lit up that old
church when he looked uponit.
Tho magic of all Of it came to me
something us it had come to this old
man, My purpose was at once changed.
felt glowing desire to follow in his
footsteps; to loiter in the places he had
known; to hunt for his haunts hero
and to recover what might still be gath
cred, II lneager that should be, Of the
incident, locale, flavor and personality
from those years he pissed in official
life in England, 80 little Of which had
ever been revealed, and so much OF
which was rapidly and irrevoeably
passing into the sealed silonces OF for
gcttulness.
A PLEASANT WALK.
So l took the road over which Haw-
tlorne had come from Southport. Four
teen miles he walked, but the pleasure
OF it all made the distance seem but nm
hours tramp to me. There was first the
pleasant billy country. and then the
low lying lands by tho sea; ancient
Scarisbricll Hall, with its fine gateway
aud lodge; the old bridge where he
lounged on the parapet; the aged stone
houses, "built merely for respectable
occupants;" the canal with its lazy
boats; the little girls, now as then, still