Chess History and ReminiscencesBird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
History
Chess History and Reminiscences
Bird, H. E. (Henry Edward)
Chess
elsewhere that he instructed the French President to fetch a cab
for him on a busy fete day at the Champs de Elysees, in 1878, is
not just, that genial and courteous gentleman having volunteered
to do so under exceptional circumstances, and as all act of
sympathy, and perhaps on account of Bird's play, who though
suffering acutely from gout on that particular day won one of his
two best games of Anderssen. If Bird had a carriage and pair to
the barbers to get a shave (quite recently asserted) it was because
he could not find a conveyance with one horse in time to reach
his destination. When he made a late dinner solely off Pate
de Foie Grass at the Marquis d'Andigny's banquet at St. Germains,
Paris, in 1878, when there were any number of courses, he did so
because be liked the flavour (certainly did not find it savourless)
not comprehending the waiter's surprise or aware of its bilious
tendency till afterwards. Even a king once dined off goose livers
or something of the sort, and we have heard somewhere of a
"feast of snails."
Even assuming glasses of Lager, 20 Schnaps, and 30 plates
of bread and cheese were consumed at the village with the
unpronounceable name 70 miles this side of Nuremberg, one intensely
hot afternoon in July, 1883, on the eve of the International
Tournament in that city when the train unpolitely went on, leaving
him behind, Bird was not the only consumer nor responsible for
the food famine, which the Field and the Illustrated Sporting
and Dramatic say prevailed afterwards for the whole of the
inhabitants of the place (fifty souls) including the old lady ill in
bed, and her attendant who deserted her for the afternoon partook
thereof.
Neither Steinitz nor Bird are funny men; the latter most
reserved among his superiors, yet looks good humored. At the
Anglo-American Hotel, Hamilton, in 1860, he was honored by a
recognition each morning for a week from the Prince of Wales.
At the second Universities chess match, Perrott's, Milk Street,
1874, a young gentleman introduced himself to Bird, and a
pleasant chat was commenced, interrupted only by unreasonable
intrusion. This gentleman to Bird's surprise who thus honoured
him by interest in chess was H.R.H. Prince Leopold.
Professor Ruskin, Lord Randolph Churchill and many eminent
men have supported Bird's chess efforts with much approval; in
the far past J. P. Benjamin Esq., Q.C., and Sir Charles Russell
enjoyed an occasional game. Chief Justice Cockburn, and Sir
George Jessel seem to have liked chess. The list of highly
distinguished men reported to admire the game is varied and
significant.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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