The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-24
WlKEMAN'SW ANDERINGS
oo,vrs OF INTEREST ABOUT CHAT
TrRToN's BIRTHPLACE.

,.saa,,ne shrIne-Bristors Churls
Consistories-Redcliffe Church,
FAMOUS Imminent Room and
ava Chatterton Cenotaph-H'ssorlc
T1,nts and Noble Names.
(Coppiaht)
po1sro1, ENGLAND, July 1.-THE name
DI 10Th spot and the shrine OF Chatterton
' ~ chat will ordinarily impel the trav-
o., 70 turn aside from pleasanter English
& 0.O, .,,5 scenes TO Ioiter in the matter OF
Cot old city OF Bristol.
a 10 its hard. dark streets. its grimy
.-aoEs stacks and hsrbor spars, at the whim
Il :, .bo severn tides overlapping the tallest
B S-.-obouses or again disappearing below Its
& .,,..v crumbling quays, the one name,
- 80 sad and clear and luminous than all
u ..ba- acts and facts in its history, seems to
s. ..,irra all else Of civic, commercial, eccle-
q Ito or literary interest in the ancient
saaport's moldy past.
s0O I'd whrt a marvellous proof is here of the
8 .rarobadowing quality of literary fame. It
h sa.mg 10 me TO furnish one OF the most i'm
,prss,ive illustrations known to men.
81 ChsttersOn died Aug. "A, l770, before he
q -,,os Is vears OF age. Yet this stripping,
eta
jndjFerenee and desperation in London. in
4 ,gbat had he done by his pen from the time
4 bo was 10 wears old to the morning they
Found him dead in the London garrett and
ritched his poor body into the Shoe Lane
8 Tork house potters field, cut higher and
feeper inches in the adamantine walls of
fsms than all other of the millions who
S have lived and died in Bristol. More has
bean felt. said and written about this one
" jaicate lad his misfortunes and achieve
ynents than altogether has ever been pro-
duced or compiled by or concerning Bristol
# or Bristol folk.
This Bristol and these Bristol folk save in
a few shining exceptions, have never been
pleased with this. The old town has always
scanned to wish the glamor OF Immortality
u on its own account; for its wigged pudges
Of rulers, its wicked old slave traders, its
4 old-time pedantic and hypocritical mer-
chant princes its churches, docks and ware
houses; and resent 70 this day the pilgrims
coming to the one shrine which the whole
world has forced upon the place IN spite OF
itself, as if to retrieve it from infany and
contempt
Something Ike the canny aud almost
brutal suspicion and watchfulness of Chat
81 tsrtons attorney master of infamous mem
ory, John Lambert, has always pervRded
the town, in its attitude 10 the memory of
Chetterton, and to those strangers who
come 70 Bristol with sad and tender thoughts
OF the boy poet. From the first vindictive
efforts to uphold the currish Walpole's defa-
nation Of the dead boy, In his own defense,
to almost the latest Bristol publications on
Cbatterton, the effort has bean oeassless to
betoul his character and disparage his
q achievements.
Ecclesiastical coHsistories, animated by
inconceivable venom, hunted the very
81 memory OF the lad to probationary fnality,
as far as their little power could go, fight
ing bitterly to the last the erection OF 3
NJ monument to his name in tho churchyard
Of Redclife church, until nearly 100 years
q had elapsed from the time of the poets
death before this pSltry requital was forced
n upon Bristol: while 10000 travellers every
year come here, and especially TO the beau
tiful church Of ST. Mary of Radcliffe. be-
cause Of Chatterton's association with tue
latter to one who comes to see Bristol or
Radcliffe on their own account; and still
the hard old civic aud ecclesiastio heads are
blind to the worlds Judgment of themselves
and ChattertOn.
Mournfully ludicrous does this feeling dis
play itself to strangers, even to this day. II
you are in charge of guide or friend he will
insist on your visiting the potteries, the
Downs, the docks, the Avon bridge. the
q place where Sir Humphrey Davy had
charge of the Pneumatic institution in
DoWry square, the council house, rioh
IN ancient parchment lors, unique
old charters and somber pictures
n by kueler and Vandyke; the
museum and peep at the famous minia-
ture likeness on ivory of Oliver Cromwell /;
the enclent stone images of Brennus and
Bellnus, BrIstoPs tutelar deities removed
n from an ancient church to their present
place In the old city gateway arch in the
fourteenth century, to that wonderful old
Norman archway in the gateway leading
into lower College GreeH; and Go scores
X more places and objects of modern and
antiquarian interest. But he will never
nave word or a moment to devote to your
M I0nglngs regarding the personality OF and
objects associative With Chattertou.
~, II at last you humbly beg to know of
'neSe his interest in your interest is at an
# euu; Even your landlord will regard you
WI WIN contempt IL you mention the name of
Chatterton. II you attempt to penetrate
X Tue dust-mounds Of the local antiquarians,
everything is at your disposal until that I'M
IUrtunate name is heard. They are then
all sslnstantly dead, voioeless aud mummied
a. the moldy old stuff upon which
suer lives are passed. Happening
lI ~ Sc eraI old book stores with the hope
VI nhdlng Odds and ends regarding the poet
anu Ms olrth-spot, after the inevitably
unsuccessful search was made, timid inquiry
atyer what wished invariably put TO flight
MI A. 0"ASueI udDlbues Oh the places. "a
t.Sougn pestlence came with the breath
81 'uaV formed the name
DuI most curious of all was the conduct
Vi the vergor Of the Radcliffe church, which
- It's chief nOtorieJy aud its richest
tAeFI9gs to its hateful hostility to Chatter
YOU, hs triflng association with its old
CsuulIheut room and the misery
81 0uas'er.ou cenot8ph within its church.
!aru close. He lRbored three
Pos I "a hours to impress the wonders OF
aifouch1e church upon me. Inconcetvable
v.oqHsnce flowed from his fervent lips. ]
I b oil occasionally pleasantly intimate thar
' h., Ueueved 1t all; was willing to credit more
ro 80 most wished to visit the old muuimen,
an "hereupon the storms OF descriptive
Stotuence would break forth anew.
tS ~ in the hushed quiet of
S VIC place, the hopelessness Of ever
E ~ 10 see what l lopged for
oL and the sustained notes of bis
s9 Ian about the worthless whose dust wa.
et 1S.eatA US and their Rondrous deeds and
~ 70 81. Mary's, furnished an uncontroll-
~ soinholence. finally sank into psw
nv 90 at1ltude OF deferential interest, bulged
a., eyes to the limit of human endurance,
81 49, Win this wonderful human talking ma
pis ,e Ia regular pulsations growing 60
of O. sNe and diminishing to the stature
slp1,Pb is.Iy deolaiming before me- refreshing
mo Evoke evoke with start as the verger shooE
# h. 4G upOralded me with the charge that