The San Francisco call., 1905-01-13
CAME SUFFERS
FROM INSOMNIA
English Author Compelled
to Go to Switzerland to
Rest His Overtaxed Brain
RENOWN is INCREASING
House That Coleridge Spent
His Last Years In to Make
Way for Modern Building
Special Dispatch to Tn. Call.

Special Dispatch to The Call.
LONDON, Jan. 12.-Hall Gaines
state of health has been causing his
friends a good deal of uneasiness of
late He has not been himself for a
year or more, and 1t may be remem-
bered that when THE Prodigal Son"
was only half written its author broke
down and had to go to ST. Moritz to
finish the work. He stayed there sew
eral months, and when he returned to
the Isle of Man recently it was hoped
that he could keep going for quite a
while, but evidently the task Of seeing
his latest novel through the press and
the part he took in the discussion that
followed its publication were too much
for Hall Caine. For several weeks he
has suffered from acute insomnia, and
on Saturday last left for Switzerland,
where his physician has ordered him to
make lengthy stay.
Meanwhile his renown Is increasing
on this side of the water, at least-at a
rate which must make his keen rival,
Miss Corelli, rather jealous. The other
day the Rev. r. J. Campbell, the
brainy young successor of DR.. Joseph
Parker at the City Temple, declared in
a public address that he preferred the
Manxman's best work to that of George
Meredith, and during Christmas week
another incident was recorded which
testified, in a way, to the potency of
the name Of Caine. This was the sale,
to fashionable butcher, of a bullock
brad he 20 AZ,
the Isle of Man for $242 30, or 81 80
more than was paid recently for a SIM
liar beast reared by the King.
After several years of literary work
in London Morley Roberts, who wrote
Rachel MARI" has followed the ex-
ample of so many of his confreres and
taken a country house where he means
to do most of his writing in future.
Tappington Grange, as 1t is called, is
near Wadsworth and may be said, in a
way, to have literary associations al
ready. having belonged up to now to
Sir George Barham, one of the family
of which the author of "The Ingolsby
Legends was member.
LITERARY LANDMARK.
One of the most interesting of Lon
uOIl , ltlSId lS IlOW Unreal
ened with destruction-this being the
house in Highgate, Hampstead, where
Samuel Taylor Coleridge spent his last
years and where he was visited, at diff
ferent times, by Carlyle, Leigh Hunt,
Wordsworth, Charles Lamb and Robert
Southey. The house, which it is now
intended to replace with a modern
building, is No. 3 in the Grove, Hamp-
stead, and formerly belonged to DR..
James Gilman. This physician was the
devoted friend of Coleridge. He threw
open his doors to the author of '"The
Ancient Mariner when he was suffer-
ing most horribly from the effects of
his prolonged indulgence in opium, and
for eighteen years safeguarded him
from his dangerous habit. OF his con-
dition at that time Coleridge wrote:
THE degradation, the blighted utility,
almost overwhelm me- However,
while in Hampstead he got back much
of his power and produced some of his
finest prose-the Aids to Reflection, =
the two Lay Sermons" and the essay
ION the Constitution of Church and
State"
The visits of his great literary con-
freres to his home in THE Grove" were
especially delightful to Coleridge.
He sat-" wrote Carlyle, ''lookins
down on London and it's smoke -tumult
like a sage escaped from the inanity of
life's battle, attracting toward him the
thoughts of innumerable brave souls
still engaged there-heavy-laden, high
aspiring and surely understanding
man."
lf~I lx~ Txxl~
1884, and he lies in the yard OF the old
chapel at Highgate. now the crypt OF
the new Grammar School Chapel.
The governing body Of that square
mile Of London known as the city
is chiefly devoted to keeping alive an
cient traditions and customs, and main
tanning intact at it's civic functions
that most sacred Of things, the order
of precedence. This fact lends particu-
lar appropriateness to the subject Of
the new fresco by Edwin A. Abbey in
the courtyard of the Royal Exchange
which was unveiled the other day with
much ceremony. 1t represents a
memorable incident in the history of
the Merchant Taylors' and Skinners'
companies.
Between these two ancient guilds
there was much jealousy and rivalry.
which often threatened to develop into
riot and bloodshed as to which of them
was entitled to march before the other
in professions within the City of Lon
don. Titled folk whose inherited re-
nown constitutes their sole claim to
distinction occasionally still quarrel Bit
terly even nowadays over the same
question of precedence.
AN ENGLISH SOLOMON.
The two companies in 14S4 submitted
i their quarrel to the decision of the
Lord Mayor of that year, Sir Robert
/ Billesden. and he for the "norishing
of peas (peace) and love betweene the
Masters, Wardeyns and Feolashipps
, aforesaid" rendered this judgment:
THAT the Masters and Wardens
should dine each year together at their
respective halls, the Taylors with the
Skinners on the Vigil of Corpus
Christi, and the Skinners with the Tay-
| lors on the Feast of the Nativity of ST.
John Baptist; and as to precedency.
each company was to have that on each
alternate year, save that Mayor of
either should give that company pre-
cedence in his year of office"
| The decree has been faithfully OBJ
!, served ever since and unbroken peas
-