The record-union., 1892-07-23
WAKEMAN'S WANDERINGS.
The Birthplace of Chatterton Wis
ited---A Saddening Shrine.
Redcliffe Church, It's Famous Muni-
ment Room and the Chatterton
Cenotaph-Historic Hints and Noble
Names.
Especial Correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. CopYright 1927

Especial correspondence of the RECORD
UNION. Copyright, 1927
BRISTOL, England, July Il, 1892.
The name, the birthspot and the shrine
of Chatterton are all that will ordinarily
impel the traveller to turn aside from
pleasanter English sights and scenes to
Ioiter in the matter Of fact old city Of
Bristol
Above its hard, dark streets, its griny
smokestacks and harbor spars, at the
whim of the Severn tides overtopping its
tallest warehouses, or again disappear
ing below its messy, crumbling quays,
the one name, more sad and clear and
luminous than ali other acts or facts in
its history, seems to conjure all else Of
civic, commercial, ecclesiastic or literary
interest in the ancient seaport's moldy
past.
And what marvellous proof is here of
the oveshadowing quality of literary
fame. 1t seems to me to furnish one of
the most impressive illustrations known
to men.
Chatterton died August "a, 177O before
he was Is years OF age. let this strip
ling, starved in Bristol and bounded to
death by Indifference and desperation in
London, in what had been done by his
pen from the time he was 10 years old TO
the morning they found him dead IN the
London garret and pitched his poor body
into the Shoe Lane Workhouse Potter s.
field, cut higher and deeper inches in
the adamantlne walls OF fame than all
other of the millions who have lived and
died in Bristol. More has been felt, said
and written about this one delicate lad,
his misfortunes and achievements, than
altogether has ever been produced or
compiled by or concerning Bristol or Bris-
tol folk
This Bristol and these Bristol folk, save
in few shining exceptions, have never
been pleased with this. The old town
has always seemed to wish the glamor of
immortality on its own account, for its
wlgged pudges of rulers, its wicked old
slave-traderS, it's old-time pedantic and
hypocrltlcal merchant princes, ,itschurches
and docks and warehouses, and resent to
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 infamy and contempt.
Something like the canny and almost
brutal suspicion and watchfulness of
Chatterton's attorney master of infamous
memory, John Lambert, has always per-
vaded the town in its attitude to the
memory of Chatterton, and to those
strangers who come to Bristol with sad
and tender thoughts of the boy poet.
the currish Walpole's defamation of the
dead boy, in his own defense, to almost
the latest Bristol publications on Chat
terton, the effort has been ceaseless to be-
foul his character and disparage his
achievements.
Ecclesiastical consistories, animated by
1nconcelVabIe venom, hunted the very
memory Of the lad to probationary final
lty, as TAR as their little power could CO.
lighting bitterly to the last the erection
of a monument TO his name in the
churchyard Of Redcliffe Church, until
nearly 100 years had elapsed from the
time of the poets death before this pal
try requital was forced upon Bristol,
while ten thousand travellers every year
come here, and especially TO the beauti-
ful church of ST. Mary Of Redcliffe, be-
cause of Chatterton's association with the
latter, to one who comes to see Bristol or
Redclitfe on their own account, and still
the hard old civic and ecclesiastic heads
are blind to the worlds judgment of
themselves and Chatterton.
Mournfully ludicrous does this feeling
display itself, to strangers, even TO this
day. If you are in charge of guide or
friend he viii insist on your visiting the
pOtteries, the Downs, the docks, the
Avon bridge, the place where Sir Hum
phrey Davey had charge of the Pneu-
matte Institution in Dowry Square, the
Council house, rich in ancient parchment
lore, unique old charters and somber
.oictures by Kneller and Nandye, the
museum and peep at the famous minia-
ture likeness on ivory Of Oliver Crom-
well, the ancient stone images of Bren-
nus and Belinus, BristoPs tutelar deitieS,
removed 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
Green, and to scores more places and OBJ
jects of modern and antiquarian interest.
But he Will never have a word or mo-
ment to devote to your 1ongings regard
ing the personality OF and objects aSSocia-
tive with Chatterton.
If, at last, you humbly beg to know of
these, his interest in your interest is at
an end. Even your landlord will regard
you with contempt if you mention the
name of Chatterton. If you attempt to
penetrate the dust-mounds of the local
antiquarians everything is at your dis
posal until that unfortunate name is
heard. They are then all as instantly
dead, voiceless and mummied as the
moldy old stuff upon which their lives
are passed. Happening into several old
bookstores with the hope of finding odds
and ends regarding the poet and his birth
spot, after the inevitably unsuccessful
search was made, timid inquiry after
what ] wished invariably put to flight the
weazened habitues OF the place, as though
Bestilence came with the breath that
formed thename.
But most curious of all was the conduct
of the Nerger of the hedcIiffe Church,
which owes its chief notoriety and its
richest offerings TO its hateful hostility 10
Chatterton, his tTihIng association with
its old muniment-rOom and the miserly
Cbatterton cenotaph within its church,
ward close. He labored three mortal
hours to impress the wonders OF Red
cliffe Church upon me. Inconceiyable
ejoouence flowed from his feryent lips
I would occasionally pleasantly intimate
that [ believed it all, was willing TO credit
more. but most wished to visit the old
Tnuniment-room, whereupon the storms
of descriptive eIoquence would break
farfb anew. Something in the hushed
.oI1iet of the place, the hopelessness of
ever coming To see what Ionged for
most and the sustained notes OF his chant
about the worthless whose dust was be-
,7aatb ms and their wondrouS deeds and
oiffs m St. Mary's, furnished an uncon-
froIIahIe sonnolence. finally sank into
a new i'm an attitude of deterentlaI inter-
esf bulped my eyes to the limit OF hu-
man endurance. and with this wonderful
bnnnan talking machine in regular pulsa-
tions growing to giants size ana dimln-
ishing to the stature OF plguiY uecIalIn-
ing before me, refreshing sIuinpeT caule.
[ awoke with start as the eIgeI ger
shook me and upbraided me WIN the
CHARGE that he could not interest me IN
this 'sprince of English churches.' l
nressed a half crown upon him ana agaIh gal
fimorously limited something ABOUT the
Cbattarton rnunIment-room." As II Ia q
franIv of despair at the perverslty OF All
humankind, he flung me Key, nlotIolied
frapically toward the inner stalfWag
1aadino to above the north porch, covered
caoAN5 y - s.ao With his hands and actu-