English literature -- 18th century -- History and criticism; Great Britain -- Intellectual life -- 18th century
Where did they go, these books and household goods of 'Dr. Goldsmith,
deceased'? It is to be presumed that he did not boast a book-plate,
for none, to our knowledge, has ever been advertised, nor is there any
record of one in the late Lord de Tabley's well-known 'Handbook,' so
that the existing possessors of those precious volumes, in the absence
of any autograph inscription, must entertain their treasures unawares.
Of his miscellaneous belongings, the only specimens now well-known do
not seem to have passed under the hammer of the Fleet Street auctioneer.
His favourite chair, a dark, hollow-seated, and somewhat penitential
looking piece of furniture, is preserved at South Kensington, where, not
many years since, it was sketched, in company with his cane--perhaps
the very cane that once crossed the back of Evans the bookseller--by Mr.
Hugh Thomson, the clever young Irish artist to whom we are indebted for
the most successful of recent illustrated editions of the | Vicar of
Wakefield.' *
* Published by Macmillan in 1890. The sketch forms the tail-
piece to the Preface, p. xxi.
Neither chair nor cane is in the Good Catalogue, nor does it make any
mention of the worn old wooden writing-desk which was presented to Sir
Henry Cole's museum by Lady Hawes. Her husband, Sir Benjamin Hawes, once
Under Secretary at War, was the grandson of William Hawes, the 'surgeon
apothecary' in the Strand, who was called in, late on that Friday night
in March, when the poor Doctor was first stricken down with the illness
which a few days later terminated fatally. William Hawes, a worthy and
an able man, who subsequently obtained a physician's degree, and helped
to found the Humane Society, was the author of the little pamphlet, now
daily growing rarer, entitled 'An Account of the late Dr. Goldsmith's
Illness, so far as relates to the Exhibition of Dr. James's Powders,
etc., 1774' [April]. He dedicated it to Burke and Reynolds; and
he published it (he says) partly to satisfy curiosity as to the
circumstances of Goldsmith's death, partly to vindicate his own
professional conduct in the matter. His narrative, in which discussion
of the popular nostrum upon which Goldsmith so obstinately relied
not unnaturally occupies a considerable part, is too familiar for
repetition; and his remarks on Goldsmith as a writer are of the
sign-post order. But his personal testimony to the character of 'his
late respected and ingenious friend' may fitly close this paper: 'His
[Goldsmith's] humanity and generosity greatly exceeded the narrow limits
of his fortune; and those who were no judges of the literary merit of
the Author, could not but love the Man for that benevolence by which he
was so strongly characterized.'
XVI. IN COWPER'S ARBOUR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account