The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1893-04-18
A FIT OF INSPIRATION.
The Way It Supplied Wished
For Poem.

You could not very we'll conceive q
less sentimental name than John
Thomas Augustus Brownrigg. But
names, like appearances, are deceptive,
and the young man who bore the one
quoted was among the most senti-
mental of creatures. His wealkness-if
weakness 1t unsurpassed itself in
the particular form OF poetic effusion.
From the early age Of six he had dab
bled in verses, and by the time he was
twenty-one he must have invoked the
muse to the extent of several reams OF
foolscap. But hitherto the inappre-
ciative obduracy of editors and pub
fishers had prevented his efforts from
seeing the light of print; indeed, the
farthest he had ever got on the road to
publication was to pay the Authors
Alliance Cimited) twenty guineas for
bringing out-or, as it proved, not
bringing out-a volume of his poems.
The worthy Brownrigg, however,
was not SO easily daunted or put out
of conceit with himself. He remem-
bered Wordsworth and Keats, and how
the literary fraternity of their day had
snubbed them at the outset. True
genius, he modestly consoled himself,
though often secuted In It's initial
stage, was sure to find recognition In
the end, and he, Augustus Brownrigg,
only had to wait for ultimate success.
Once give him an opening and be
would rush through 1t irresistible as
the ocean through breach in a dam.
This opening, the one thing needful
for him, he tried for long, long time
In vain to get; but at length favor
able opportunity presented itself By
the kindness of a friend he was given
an introduction to the editor of popu-
lar monthly magazine; and this editor.
good-natured man, In an unusually
good-natured moment, commissioned
him to write some verses on the death
of leading minister of the crown,
which had just then occurred. The
editor did, indeed, reserve to himself
the right of rejecting the verses if they
were not up to the mark; but this
caused Brownrigg no uneasiness what
ever. up to the mark, forsoothi"
He was granted week in which to
write the verses. One day in this week,
viz, the Saturday preceding the Tues
day on which the verses were to be
sent in, the poet took as hoHAy, hav.
ing some time back made an engage
ment with an old school-fe1Iow, who
was then in town for few days, to
lunch with him at the ''Cri" and then
go on to a matinee of "Henry VIII. y
He came up, therefore, from Ealing,
where he lived, to keep his engage
ment, and, after a copious and e1ab-
crate lunch, repaired with his friend
to the Lyceum, finding himself almost
too drowsy to enjoy the piece.
When 1t was over, nothing would sat
isfy his friend but that they should go
and split another bottle of champagne
at neighboring restaurant which
they accordingly did. And it was get
ting quite late in the evening when
Brownrigg hurried off to catch the
train for Ealing, which should get
him home in time for dinner and thus
save him the outpourings of paternal
displeasure, which always greeted him
when he was late for that meal.
1t was the dead season in London
just then. Hence very few passengers
were about. The platforms of the I'm
derground railway were almost de-
serted And the smoking compart-
ment. into which our friend betook him
self at Gloucester road, presented the
unusual spectacle, at that time Of day,
of being entirely empty.
Brownrigg was glad of this. For the
effect of the champagne and of good
cigar had been to put him into dream
lily poetical frame of mind, in which he
relished the idea of lying drowsily back
in the corner of the carriage and
brooding over the verses in self-ab-
sorbed solitude. So, as the train moved
out, he surrendered himself to the
dreamy languor, half closing his eyes,
and waiting for poetical thoughts to
fall and entrance him.
He had not been long In this 1ethar-
gic state, feeding his mind with high
inspiring thoughts on the great sub
ject which engrossed him. when actual
selves in his brain, and gradually to fix
themselves there in the tangible form
of articulate words.
They seemed to come to him with no
effort-at least, no conscious effort
on his part, but, as 1t were, spontan-
eouslyt until five completed verses
verses, too, such as he had never hoped
to write-had riveted themselves in his
memory. This, then, was
poetic inspiration. No racking of the
brain for ideas; no beating about for
rhymes; no paltry drudgery with pen
and ink; but a simple surrendering of
ones self to dreamy meditativeness and
leaving of all the rest to the heaven
ly musel
If Ealing Broadway" had not been
terminus Brownrigg would infallibly
have been carried beyond his destina-
ton. For, as 1t was, he had to be
reused by a porter before he could
awake from the dreams Of poetry to
the facts of practical life. He rubbed
his eyes, shook himself and stepped
out of the train. Those verses-dread-
full thoughtl-had they vanished with
his dream? y Mol Thank
Heaven! They were still clear and
fresh in his memory. He would com
NIT them to paper at once in case they
might escape him. So, taking out his
pocketbook he wrote them down hasti-
ly then and there, being more than
ever struck with the beauties of his
own m use as he saw them in black and
white. What a hit they would makel
Why, they were worthy of
Tennyson himself
He said nothing to anyone about this
wonderful phase of inspiration which
had overta ken him amid the prosaic
surroundings of the District railway.
But next day he posted the verses,
which pleased him more every time he
read them, to the editor of Mayfair,
expressing hope that they might be
considered ''up to the mark. " :
When they had been published and
made their hit he could tell them the
story of their creation. thus rendering
them as interesting to psychologists as
Coleridge's famous fragment of "Kubls
Khan"
A few days later he received proof
(his first proof of the verses, together
with highly complimentary letter
from the editor, in which that gentle
man bestowed great praise on
Brownrigg's effort and expressed his
conviction that it would be favorably
received by the public. The young poet,
elated thereby beyond all description,
read the proof through with loving
eyes at least hundred times. ! don't
think he altered anything except one
printers error; In the first place, be-
cause the verses seemed to him perfect
as they stood; in the next, because this
first proof had sort of sanctity in his
eyes, which would made 1t appear next
door to sacrilegious to cut 1t about with
pen and ink.
1t is needless to say that he secured
copy of Mayfair at the earliest posi-
BILE moment after its publication and
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