Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1911-04-26
Novel Froude Didn't Write

scholastic title, although he preferred
the simpler title of Mr., met the popu-
lar idea respecting the personal char
acteristics of a cultivated Englishman.
His complexion was of pink tint,
almost like that of lad, indicating
perfect health. He wore the conven-
tional muttonchop side-whiskers. He
was about six feet tall, although a lit
tie stopped at the shoulders. His
clothes fitted him perfectly. When he
took any one of the long walks Of
which he was so fond when in the
United States, he was accustomed to
wear suit of rough gray Scotch mix
ture, and it became him exceedingly
we'll
Upon his return to New York after
his visit to New Haven, Conn, where
he spent several days Mr.. Froude
spoke of the inspiration which he had
received there for a romance which, he
thought, could be made as interesting
and as powerful as any of the histor-
ical romances written in the English
tongue, excepting those Of Scott.
IT went to New Haven partly to visit
Yale college, with some of whose pro-
fessors I have had a pleasant acquain-
tance," said Mr. Froude to his Ameri-
can friend, the late Parke Goodwin,
who, as editor OF Putnam's Magazine
in the ffties, had become well &C
quainted with Froude, but I also
wanted to look At the burial places Of
the three regic des, Dixwell, COTE and
WhalIey, who [ knew were buried at
New Haven, and / was especially anx-
ious to visit the cave in which COTE
and Whalley were secreted at the time
the agents of King Charles H. were
searching for them in order to appre-
bend them, take them to England, and
put them to death. l was taken to the
little plot of ground within a stones
throw of Yale where there still remain
the mutflated headstones which mark
the graves OF COTE and his son-in-law,
Whalley; a modern monument has
been erected there to the memory of
Dixwell Then l took walk of some
five or six miles to a mountain beyond
the confines of the city, and was shown
the cave in which COTE and Whalley
were secreted. I learned enough to
assure me that the tradition is no
myth; those two regicides, or judges
of Charles l., who pronounced the pen
atty of death upon him, were actually
secreted there. I became interested,
The story of their wanderings, their
hiding places, and the miraculous ap-
pearance of COTE at time of great
danger because of the advance of In
dams. seemed to me to furnish the
basis of an exceedingly interesting ro-
nance, of which, of course, the back
ground would be the Long Parliament,
the sentence of death upon Charles L,
the restoration, by which Charles IL
became king, and the flight of the
regicides to save their lives. There Is,
also, the possibility Of portraying the
life in Connecticut of those who first
made settlement and afterwards Gre
ated a government there. l have now
another romance in mind, the scene of
which is laid In Ireland, and when |
have finished it / hope l shall be able
to take up the romance of the regi-
cides who escaped to America"
Professor Froude departed for Eng
land still enthusiastic over this pro-
ject. He did complete and publish his
Irish romance years later, but whether
he ever mapped out the romance of
the regicides none of his American
friends was able to tell
Copyright, 1910, by e. j. Edwards. AZ
Rights Reserved1