Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-09-27
HAWTHORNE.
The Famous American During
His Visit to England.
THE OLD HOMEOF THE CONSUL.
Edgar L. Wakeman Discovers an Ameri-
can Eagle Wall in Haw-
thornes Former Abode-The
Consuls Surroundings.
LONDON, Eng, Sept. Is. 1891.


It always thrills the heart of an Ameri
can traveller to see the blazon of soaring
eagle with our national motto, >'E pluri-
bus unum." streaming from its regal beak,
whether it be well or lily painted, upon the
escutcheons adjoining the office doors or
inner apartments of our consular repreSen-
tatiyeS in foreign lands.
The one discovered in the old Washington
buildings, Liverpool, and which disclosed
the very apartment where Nathaniel Haw-
thorne had been our consul from August,
1858, to September. 1S57-of which | was at
once able to make proof-was the most
welcome one my own eyes had ever beheld.
IT had been painted upon tin or zinc, and
nailed securely TO the long. narrow panel,
which il had been made to exactly cover,
between the old fashioned fireplace and the
tiny projection of mantel above. Succeed
ing coats of paint upon the WOODWORK OF the
room had blended its edges with the fire
place frame, and half century of English
coal smoke had ali but obscured its rich
Nandyke tiDts.
With the weather-beaten Englishman's
CHEEKY permission, my handkerchief and
some petroleum, readily secured in one Of
the ship supply stores on the Goree piazza
below, / soon had the fine escutcheon glow
ing in its original beauty and significance
Then it was Il delight to sit there, or wan
der back and forth between this room and
the adjoining one, which 1 found had been
the outer and business Office of the con-
sulate, and, with loving fancy, bring back
into their accustomed places the surround
ingS, occupants and belongings OF these Two
little old rooms.
In Hawthorne's time Washington build
ings-which is single huge building 'front.'
ing the river to the south, Brunswick street
on the west and the Back Goree on the
north-was one of the structural lions of
Liverpool Beneath its great Moorish riv
-ot.l,Nt If m pc n Il
mighty business in ship chandlery. The
offices above belonged to the cotton kings
and the great ship owners and shipping
merchants of Liverpool Every room in
the vast hive swarmed with head men and
clerks, and roared with blatant and protita-
bic rivalry. Opposite the piazza were for
estS of masts, busy wharyes and thor
oughfare packed night and day. under
faring cressets in fogs and by night, with
s'lorrieS'' drawn by immense Welsh and
Lancashire horses, tandem, with their won
derful loads of the worlds produce
Around Brunswick street and the Back
Goree swept and crowded the tremendous
activities of the then greatest port of the
world. Here and there and all about were
quaint old inns, famous coffee houses and
wondrous snuggeries, where. in still ear
lier time the old slave traders met; and
where later the shipmasters came, the
..charter parties for cargoeS were exc
BILE affairs of sea and land. representing al
most incalculabe values. were settled.
Facing all this on Brunswick street, and
extending around the length of the two
rooms on Back Goree. and on what the
English called the first floor that one
first above the shop or basement floor,
reached by unique, almost perpendicular,
staircase of mahogany steps, balustrades
and wainscoting. from Brunswick street,
was located the American consulate of
Hawthorne's time, then the finest suite of
offices in the great seaport city
Following the slender, twisted balus-
trades, you come to the outer Office. Its
door Is at the street end of the narrow hall
This Is No. l, Washington Buildings 1t
was where Wilding, vice-consul, with his
one clerk and office messenger. enacted the
part of a sort of inyincible breakwatsr to
all tho tides Of wandering and unfortunate