The morning call., 1893-01-08
Tord H0lfnhfon.

Lord Houghfon.
ear. was told that his income was
100000 year; but as his English estate
was mostly in Yorkshire lands which his
ancestors had earned as WeaYers and cloth
merchants, | do not see how he could have
had any such income as that He was GER
tainly rich, as rich as he was democratic,
but Of all his riches bis wealth Of inter-
course and association with the great men
of his century were the most precious.
0ace when be took ME 20 see Proctor
Barry Cornwall il seemed as though the
dear old poet would never let him go. He
held on to him, followed him to the door
aud still held on to him till Mrs. Proctor
looking so much like the pictures Of her
dead AdeliHe-t0Ok him hard by the hand
and led him away upstairs. on see, Barry
Cornwall and Houghton had not only
been poets together IN their youth. but had
sailed many seas aud tracked many strange
lands together, and the now mute and
palsied Proctor wanted 10 hear all about
the llnstrious dead and the illustri0us liy-
ing whom they had known together. And .
although Proctor could not speak. his
tongue having long been parslyzed, he could
laugh right heartily; and Houghton kept
him in A roar. telling over 70 him and his
gentle " IA the old times they had had To-
gether when young
l wish he could have made Carlyle laugh
al any one OF the many visits when he
see the Sage Of Chelsea. l would like TO
remember bin as pleasantly as ! do dear,
mute old Barry Cornwall. But CARLYLE was
sick or sour every time. His face was ike
iron, and bis voice and words toe. He
leaned over all the time, with something
more than a literary stOop," looking down
as If he had lost something on the floor.
He loved H0aghtoD, l think; he was
certainly very deferentlal, but unlike
Cornwall, who laughed at everything,
be grOwled and growled at all things. /
could not understand him very well, partly
because he did not speak or pronounce
plainly. and partly because be and H0ugh-
ton continually talked politics and person
alities; names and acts mostly new, or Of
no i'm por; 10 me. Houghton always had a
big, heavy, old-faShioned, American, hiek-
CRY stiek K, with q crook on II, in his hand,
and he would continually thump this on the
floor, and war at the bitter invectFes Of
Carlyle; but never the ghost of a smile
fickered on the sour. savage face of the old
Scot.
Once, and it may be MANY times, for I
shall never be able to think of him without
thinking Of that also, he got hold of the big
iron poker, used to poke up the Goals With,
and whacked and banged and slsshed about
with il so heavily that it seemed as il he
would break out the CRATE, Hought0n all
the time humping with his cane, hiSshead
thrown back now and then and roaring.
Once as We were driving away after this
poker circus, HOnghtOn peered through the
window at q house a few doors away. and
jerking his thumb back in that direction.
said:
''Cariyle saw that man in there carving
home a rooster one day and he didn't 20 to
sleep all night for fear the cock would
crow and wake him." Here the old lord
laid his chin ON his hands doubled over the
head of his hickory and quietly chuckled
as he went en-, And Jane says he didn't
sleep for a week, and finally went there TO
the mans door, and with tears 10 his eyes,
begged him not TO keep that chicken any
longer
"'And why?
" Because I'm afraid he'll crow
T" But he went crow
But he will crow
" But he won't crow
"'And how do you know he won't crow?'
because / ate him that first night'''
Anybody would naturally believe that
the way to get into the heart of this great
race of seamen would be to sail into it, And
there NAV be something in it. Bennett,
Gould, Vanderbilt and other rich men have
had their boats and cruised about IN state
deal. and for aught know have entered the
harbor Of the British heart, but the surer
way is to mount a horse and ride In
Strange, tool for of all absurd sights the
most absurd is an English gentleman on a
horse. But the English think they can ride,
and they think they can break and train
horses, too, and they certainly have tried
hard and long and of course not without
success; but one would say that the horse
should be left TO Russia, Arabia and the
Americas. W here there is room for him 10
stretch his legs.
The late Colonel Evans Of California. who
had been of the Governors staff and equip
ped saddle with more silver than he could
we'll afford, insisted on my taking il off his
hands when he was about to sail on the
voyage in which ne persisted. This saddle
delighted HOughton's eye. He provided
the best Of horseS-they serenely call tn EN-
cattle there - and / must prance
up aud down and round about
Berkeley square with gentle Houghton
and his family looking down from their
balcony. Then be must take me day after
day to ride with him In Rotten Row, with
all the world to see." At such times he was
the happiest man and the heartiest Laughter
ever saw, q child in his delight at the Won
dermeDt and curiosity OF the food Of new
Tieh," which, as in New York, fairly del
uges the public drives and bride paths in
the London season"
On one of these occasions, being light of
heart (and how could / be otherwise with
this great good man to guide me through all
Jolly y l began hummibg to myself:
= wandered by the brookside,
wandered by the mill:
could not hear the brook flow,
The busy wheel STILL
Now, where did you get that?" he
asked.
Don't know. picked it up from some
poor American poet in the West, l guess.
1t don't amount to much. anyhow"
1t don't? Well, II does; and IT is mine"
Then he repeated the whole of the sweet
song, too well known TO need repetition
here.
After ! had revised and brought out a
complete English edition of my poems, aed
icated to Lord Houghton. was quite worn
out and wanted to 90 away 10 Iceland with
Ross Browne and rest; but he insisted on
my coming to him at Fryston Hall, York
Great times In the saddle we were to have
his son. The present Lord Houghton. Lord
.Crewe or Crewe, his brother-in-law, and
Others ana all the hounds TO be there
SO / went TO Fryst0n Hall; and there [
found the boy in bed with broken leg and
Lord CreEe ditto with three broken ribs
went straight on to Iceland. But stick a
pin here. Ii you think these English fell