The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-07-24

belittlement of that one little lad who
alone has given them eli something OF the
radiated effulgence Of his deathless name.
But at lest l stood alone within what
seems to me to be the most tenderly inter
esting relic in Bristol IL is entered
through two massive narrow doors from
the stairway. The room is hexagonal in
form, low, perhaps 25 feet in diameter, and
lighted by forty narrow, unglazed windows.
The stone floor rests on the groined arches
OF the exquisite porch below and huge beams
of well preserved oak form and support the
ceiling.
1t did not seem dismal spot to me. On
the contrary, one could imagine no more
reposetul and retired place for his own day.
dreams or these of such a genius as Chat
terton.s Pleasantly came the sounds of the
street through the open windows; sweeter
still were now aud then waited
the organ notes and voices of the
singers engaged below in YES
per service. Tho open, roCEing and dis
carded imminent Golfers, or "oofres," are
! still here. No one knows their age. 1t
| must be very great. But these veritable
| ancient chests were the ones whose contents,
first largely pilfered aud scattered by the
parish authorities themselves, furnished
Chatterton with the impulse and means of
| attracting public attention TO his own COM
| positions, to appear in the gui5e of antique
manuscripts from the pen Of the fictitious
monk Rowley. the whole the creation Of his
| own fertile brain.
One must confess to strange sense OF
nearness to this poor ambitious boy when
| standing among these empty old Golfers.
| The picture of his pale, eager face half
hidden among the musty pRrchments,
flashes upon one almost as il with certain
| recognition. Hero he came times without
| number, and delved and toilad aud dreamed.
| As stood there held and fascinated by the
| food OF associations of the place, a vagrant
bird Of gray plumags few into one
Of the narrow splayed windows,
| wheeled round and round beneath
the oaken ceiling, and suddenly alighted
npon one of the rotten old boxes. Turning
its head to the right and left and settling its
| plumage, it picked a few times upon the
Golfer with a sharp, echoinG sound. AS sud
| denly 1t rose, perched upon one Of the oaken
| braces, uttered few notes Of saddening
melody, and in an instant, like a dart of
| light piercing the outer light, had swept
away-fitting type of him who had come
for that brief time, pecked for moment at
| the dark, dead age behind him. and sung
and flashed into the outer light OF i'm
| mortality.
There are few other CRatterton memo
rails in Bristol. The Colston hospital or
| school, where he had secured nomination as
charity scholar, was removed to the old
| episcopal palace at S5apleton over quarter
| of a century ago. The building in which
we're located the Office of John Lambert.
attorney, to whom Chatterton was articled
| as apprentice, is still standing in Corn
street. The place where the boy-pCet was
| born, in Pile street near its conjunction
with Thomas street, is Immediately opposite
the north side Of Radcliffe church. 1t is a
dreary, widowed spot to-day, though the
old buildings are supplanted by others A
free school is still conducted at the place by
| a weakened spinster. The yard is narrow
damp and dank; the Structure is damp, and
danS and narrow; and the little tots whom
| saw leaving the place are ragged, pinched
and squalid.
Between this place and the church OPP
| posite, upon the hill, within the church.
| yard, though not within ''conseoreted"
ground-for though churches sing the boy
poets hymns and this church received the
Colston boy into its saving embrace through
confirmation, ecclesiastic intolerance insists
upon his dsnoaioa on the ground that he
died by his own hand and an ''infidel"-
stands the monument TO his memory. Red
oliffe church more dishonor to it, forbade
its erection within the edifice, where lie in
| pompous state the remaius OF libertines and
| traders in their fellow men.
After the bitterest of struggles on the
part of the poets friends this csnotaph was
finally put in place outside the church, be-
| tween the tower and the imminent room, 50
intimately associated with his youthful
dreams and struggles. But repairs upon
tho north porch soon gave an excuse for it's
removal, for it was discovered that the
monument impinged on "copsecratedn
ground. Then 1t was taken to pieces and
bundled away.
After years Of further struggles with big
oted consistories it was finally regretted
where 1t nowsUands near the northeast en-
trance, just within the churchyard green.
But even then these fine folk OF the cloth
turned the face of the statue surmounting
the oenotaph away from Redcliffe church 4.
And that was we'll Chatterton, with his
back to Radcliffe church, his tiny face half
in smiles, gazing affectionately down upon
his birthplace across the way, is fitting
enough satire, while stone may last, upon
the intolerance and Yindicti veness thus so
Gptly recalled and emphasized.
The figure is represented in the habils-
ments OF a Colston school boy a muffin
cap with band and ball; a coat with long
plated skirt; a leathern belt, corduroy
kneebreeches, and rough ribbed stockings
The left hand holds an open scroll upon
which 10 written, ELLA, a Tragedy" III
one of the monuments inches is q torn or
severed scroll, with the legead. THE Poems
Of RowlIe.' While the chief panel bears
the words from the poets own pen, written
half i'll jest. half in earnest, but incoIn-
parable in their aptitude: "To the Memory
of Thomas Chatterton. Reader, judge not,
if thou art q Christian. Believe that he
snail be judged by a superior power. To
that power alone is he now answerable."
AS stood regarding the cenotaph, the
afternoon sun swept around the lofty spire
OF Radcliffe church Its rays filtered be-
tween the slender spires and pinoaoles at its
base, and fell upon the cenotaph, lighting 1t
up wondrouslY. Then a huge cloud, flap
ping its sable wings up from the Bristol
channel, darkened the scene and the griny
city for a moment. 1t was for u moment
only for the sun burst through again aud
held its place gioriously. So, thought as
| turned away, will it be with the name
and fame of this little lad to whom the godly
of Bristol have been so pitilessiy ungen-
erous
II something like a resentfulness and
heartache did not come at every turn when
seeking for kindly Chatterton shrines, one
would be deeply charmed and interested 10
the antiq uarian, historic and literary remin-
iscences OF this fine old Bristol town.
Cabotawho should be equally honored
with Columbus, sailed on his voyage OF
American discovery from this port. The
Great W estern. the first steam craft TO
successfully demonstrate the praoticability
of steam navigation between the two con-