The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1892-07-23

But at last l stood n!ono with what
seems 10 me to DO tho most tendcrly in
tcre.ting relic in Bristol. It's entered
through two massive narrow doors
from tho stairway. Tho room IL hez-
asonalin form, low, perhaps twcnLy-
five feet in diameter, and lighted by
forty narrow, unglazcd Windows. The
stono floor rosts on the groihed arches
OF tho exquisite porch below; the hugo
beams OF we'll preserved pak form aud
support tho ceiling
il did not scem adiBmal spcttome. On
the contrary. one could lmuginc a no
more renoscful and retired place for his
own day drcatna or tllcse Ok such a 90.
MUS as Chatterton. Pleasantly came
the sounds OF the street through the
open windows; sweoter still were now
and then waited tho organ notes and
voices Of the singcra engaged below in
yesper scYyicc. Tho open, rotting and
discarded imminent cotfers, or; "cof'es,"
are still here, 40 one knows their age.
It must be veryigreat@ But these vcr-
itable aneiertl chests 3wero tho ones
whose contents, first largely piifered
and scattered by the parish authorities
themselves, furnished Chatterton with
thu impulse and means OF attracting
public attention to his own compost
lions, to appear in the guise OF antique
,nanusctipts from the pen Of the ticil'
tious monk Rowley, the whole the crca-
ton Of Ills own fertile brain.
One must confess to strange sense OF
nearness to this poor ambitious boy
when standing among those empty old
Golfers. The picture OF his pale, eager
face alfhidden amongthe musty parth-
ment 9, flashes upon one almost as with
certain recognition. Here he came
times without number, aud delved and
toi!ed and dreamed. As ! stood there
held aud fascinated by the food OF asso.
Citations OF tho place, vagrant bird OF
gray plumaee flew into ono OF the mar
row splayed Windows, wheeled round
and round beneath tho oaken ceiling
and suddenly alighted upon one OF the
rotten old boxes. Turning its head to
the right and left and settling its plum
age, it pecked o few times upon the cof-
fer with q sharp, echoing sound. AS
suddenly II rose, perched upon one Of
the oaken braces, uttered few notes OF
sadtcning melody, and imam instant,
like dart OF light piercing the outer
light, had swept away fitting type of
him who had come for that briet time,
pecked for moment at the dark, dead
age behind him, and sung and flashed
into tho outer light Of Immortality.
There are few other Chatterton
memorials in Bristol. The Colston-I
Hospital, or school. where he had se-
cured nomination as charity scholar,
was removed to the old Episcopal pal
ace at Stapleton over a quarter Of CEN
fury ago. The Building in which were
located the offices Of John Lambert, at
torney, to whom Chatterton was arti-
cled as apprentice, Is still standing in
Corn street. The place where the boy
poet was born, in Pile street near its
conjunction with Thomas street, Is i'm.
mediately opposite the north side oil
Radcliffe church. II is a dreary, mil
dewed spot to-day, though the old
buildings are supplanted by Others. A
free school is still conducted at the
place by weakened spinster. The
yard is narrow, damp and danki the
structure Is damp and dank and mar
row and the little tots whom l saw
leaving the place are ragged, pinched
and soualid.