Evening star., 1924-02-24

stone mansion that Nils the space De-
tween the Veterans Bureau and st.
Johns Church, which, for time, was
the home of the British legation,
WHARF many events occurred that
loom@d large upon the diplomatic
hosizan OF our nation. But for years
the Freeman House." as it is best
kncwn now, has been tagged for the
touring public with a purely fictional
fame es "tle house where Owen
Meredith wrote Lucille" and it's
really sreat record of history making
has bc-n overlooked and forgotten.
From the time the first owner
leased one-half of it's spaciousness to
the editor OF the National Intelli-
gencer. where the lovely Mrs. Gales
started her weekly ''crushes," to
which all society foundered through
mud smothered in dust, it has
continually occupied a leading place
in the social and official life of the
Capital City.
It's great distinction covered the
period of ten years when the British
flag f1oated above it and when the
courtly Lord Ashburton and Daniel
t"eDSteT prayed Ddltl6QOTe ana
shuttlecock with the snarls in the
northeastern boundary question, and,
reaching an. amicable agreement on
that score, were forthwith submerged
in deeper diplomatic chess playing
by the political tempest that hurled
its slogan, "54-40, or fight" at their
heads. This prediction agitation
forced the Oregon boundary matter
at least to a temporary solution.
Close upon Ashburton's departure
came the elegant Sir Henry Bulwer
to probe the depths of American
craftsmanship in connection with the
many disputes and tangles that
eventuated in the Clayton-Bulwer
treaty.
With Sir Henry Bulwer came a
slim delicate boy of seventeen, his
nephew, Robert Edward Bulwer-
Lytton, first Earl of Lytton, only son
of Baron Lytton, the famous English
novelist. This young lad, who joined
his uncle's family and his official staff
as an unpaid attache of the legation,
inherited some of the gifts of his
talented father.
The unhappy home life of young
Bulwer-Lytton, who took the nom de
plume of owen Meredith, was common
knowledge, as was the scandal and
separation of his erratic but distin-
guished parents, and it was to es-
cape this atmosphere of domestic
strife and to find solace for his in
tense grief over the death of his only
sister that he came to America
Early chronicles describe him as
a handsome boy. of medium height, of
delicate build and features. with very
blue eyes and curling hair. He at
once, became highly popular with the
society girls and equally unpopular
with their brothers, because of his
snowy and somewhat eccentric style
of dress, since he appeared to be
supplied with an overabundance of
velvet cuffs, collars, shiny boots and
fancy waistcoats.
His charming manners and anus
ing, original wit soon won many
friends, but there is no reason for
the statement that he wrote his most
popular poem while in Washington.
in fact, a study of his biography
shows that this poem was not inspired
by anything that befeIl him in Amer
ica, but was written about ten years
later. All doubts on the matter are
set at rest by an entry in his own
diary.
A CCORDING to his personal let
ters, by Lady Betty Balfour, he
wrote Lucille" in 1858 and completed
the poem in 1859, during the four or
five months spent in company with
his mother at Luchon, in the Pyr-
ennes, to which he had persuaded her
to go with him after the stormy time
when his father attempted to place
her in an insane asylum, following
the violent public denunciation which
she made of him.
Referring to this sojourn later in
his diary, Meredith writes:
while I was there 1 passed as
much of my time as I could in the
mountains, on horseback, with a
guide whose glories have sung in a
trashy poem-'Lucile"-th seems to
have become very popular in Amer
tca."
The poem, which he called trashy"
in later and more serene years, was
ut the time of writing a great soIace
and his chief diversion. He COM
pleted it under the criticism and with
many suggestions from his father,
which he valued so highly that he
dedicated the book to him.
This was published in 1860, eight
ho OF Uoc
the United States, for in 1852 Sir
Henry Bulwer was transferred to
Florence and shortly afterward the
young poet and embryo diplomat was
ordered to follow him to that city.
Owen Meredith's stay In America
was a period of straitened circum-
stances that never seemed to smooth
out. Having no salary, and only a
small yearly allowance of eighty
pounds, he was always in distress
and anxiety over his finances, for
try as he might. his expenses would
not go below $50 pounds and his let
ter to his father was replete with
apologies and explanations over extra
purchases of gloves, boots and waist
coats, SO essential to a young man of
title and fashion.
To add to his worries, he fell in
love with a girl who did not recipro-
cate his affection. His uncle, UNDER
stnding. was sympathetic toward him
over the unkind turn of fate, but
consoled him with the statement that
In all of his own experiences he had
never known a man to regret not