Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 6, June 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XL, No. 6, June 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Moore was of small stature. “He is a little, very little man,” says Sir
Walter Scott, speaking of him in 1825. Hunt said of him in 1820: “His
forehead is long and full of character, with bumps of wit large and
radiant enough to transport a phrenologist: his eyes are as dark and
fine as you would wish to see under a set of vine-leaves.” The poet’s
face was, in fact, very plain, and only redeemed by the brightness of
his eyes. Irish festivity and enjoyment formed the prevailing expression
of his aspect, in his better days when he was the delight and pride of
every society he appeared in—the gayest, happiest, most appreciated wit
of his time. Poor Tom Moore! He was always called _Tom_ Moore; except in
cotemporary criticisms of his poems or polemics, nobody thought of
calling him _Mr._ Moore. We cannot fancy him a man of seventy-two! There
is an incongruity in the idea which we cannot get over. Old and insane.
Alas for the brightest vaunt of human intellect and glory! But Tom Moore
will be ever freshly remembered with the undying melodies of his native
land.
* * * * *
A LIFE OF VICISSITUDES.
BY G. P. R. JAMES.
[Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1852, by
George Payne Rainsford James, in the Clerk’s Office of the
District Court of the United States for the District of
Massachusetts.]
(_Continued from page 494._)
LONDON, FIFTY YEARS AGO.
There was a night coach to London, and I was very anxious to arrive in
the great city; but Father Bonneville was now feeling strongly the
effects of age, and I would not expose him to the fatigue of a long
night journey. We set off therefore on the following morning, and I can
hardly express the effect produced upon my mind by the first sight of
the vehicle which was to convey us. It was the stage-coach in its utmost
perfection, light, small, and compact, beautifully painted, newly
washed, with leather harness, and four bay horses, which seemed, to my
eyes, fitted for the race-course. It was so unlike any thing I had ever
seen in Germany, in France, or in America, so light, so neat, so jaunty,
so rapid, so perfect in all its parts and appointments, that it stood
out at once from every thing else in my mind, as a pure and
unadulterated bit of England—an exponent, as it were, of the habits of
the country and the mind of the people. When we came to get in, indeed,
and take our seats, we found ourselves a little cramped for room. The
back, too, was stiff and rigid, and our legs had but little space to
stretch themselves out, intertwined with those of our fellow passengers.
“This, too, is a bit of England,” I thought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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