Show WAKEMANS wanderings LONDON dec 27 1892 an eminent german author and myself visited farr engford house isle of wight the home of the late lord tennyson a few months before the poets death in his later years the laureate forgivably enough received this sort of tribute rather charily as he had somehow become possessed of the odd suspicion that literary pilgrims sought his cellar famous for the oldest and choicest port wine in england rather than for opportunity for worshipping wor shipping at the shrine of his personality we found him among the shub bery which luxuriously hides the quaint old place elace wandering in the verdure and blossoms like an unseasonable st nicholas masquerading beneath a frowsy drowsy slouch hat he received us kindly enough but with brusque familiarity li as though we had been importunate tenants coming to insist upon rent reductions and led us directly to his study the one man servant of the place instantly appeared with the air of a country inn servitor awaiting a dubious order from questionable guests the great poet simply said two with a deprecating gesture motioned us to a seat upon an ancient leather covered settle tossed hi slouch hat into a corner of the study and sank wearily into his capacious easy chair at the study table as it about to undergo an unpleasant ordeal tennyson eyed eved my german friend with evident mistrust until the man ser ant ret returned ed with two bottles 0 port avd glasses for his visitors ind and a huge 0 dock OC glass holding at least a cehi p pint linsel then the great man deliberately ib e af ialy put an end to conversation by abruptly declaring declan i that he felt unable to discuss german ali philosophy Il or american politics pushed one bottge andi the glasses toward us and held the other bottle battle by the neck as if fearful it might somehow disappear impatiently motioning us to partake he at once helped himself to a good half pint of wine to which was added half as much odd cold water this was repeated until 1 in wf half an hours time his own bottle had been entirely emptied we said some plessant pleasant things and came away my german friend was furious more furious over the quality of the wine that had been served to us than the poets poet s ortis a apparent a antipathy to the philosophies of his countrymen the same evening in london while we were still in company together with a few literary friends at a garden resort the german amt aishor indignantly related th the e incident the entire party laughed merrily at our and one a well known actor finally slid said 0 henry irving is the only person person who ever really got the best of urd lord tenny so te regarding garding his fa lamous motis port withe wine was wait visiting him about two years since when the dessert came on the poet left the table and retired to his ady arith irving here a bottle of his a V ass for living irving and the afta broge aak glas s with L a pitcher of fer was set before him in a few adm moments hw lord TenY tennyson lyson fell asleep irvi irvine g antl disengaged his bis hand froth from ehg e bof of t the le bottle took it to his 0 own wn sw s of f the study table and leisurely drank its et entire ye contents before the poet ad awoke loo the th remainder of irvings visit wits ip distinguished by extreme hilarity oi als part and a well defined coolness on the part of th the e laureate but irving hai always been ecstatic over his aMe ement and possesses the ext extraordinary ra distinction of being the only ajl mao living aside from the laureate himself who ever really drank an entire battle of lord Tenny sons rare old port wine tn in foreign travel as in in some other tags we are often th the e victims of our own opaqueness or prejudice in london and other british cities the american will notice little ittle signs at street cor nets in m crowded narrow thoroughfares i id aramays parkways park ways and at all sudden turnings traversed by vehicles reading aeed keep to th 0 left F some years ago when I 1 first noticed this thip it worried me I 1 wanted to understand s d it and like i e a true rue american perhaps protest ab about it a little I 1 approached pro ached a london policeman with the earnest inquiry idelet beg pardon officer but might I 1 as ask k why tn in london everything goes to the left like one of mrs carleys Jar leys figures hi his Is head moved stately he regarded me one awful official moment with contemptuous pity his head moved back again then with withering scorn he answered an wy aly in ell it I had never thought of that after obder observing ving and thinking a little I 1 saw that the english n lish are right in keeping to th the eleft eft ai drivers vers being seated at the n right hit there is absolutely no other way in M which ich to io utilize every inch of crowded street 1 to the abe right as with us no driver can safely judge distance whew when thee meeting ati 0 or r passing inq other vehicles here wh where ame the drivers rs heads i ally come together over their wheel hubs when meeting or passing fat greater speed is secured while whale danger and loss from clashing wheels are almost wholly avoided there is wisdom in discarding a had bad custom for a good one wherever we may find th latter there is one custom of the british gentry and nobility as old as the anglish english railway system which can never save in a modified way have its counterpart even with the most offensively recent accessions to our american aristocrat aristo aristocracy crac PP that T hat is for a gentleman and his wiz wife to opy occupy a first class compartment part ment of a railway carriage apparently for the better accommodation of their lap dog while their children and servants are crowded and banged about in a second or third class blass compartment of the same train perhaps this custom was never quite so unpleasantly impressed upon me as when hen ret returning u min f from ra m london to york over over the gre great af northern railway I 1 happened for a time to be the sole occupant of a first class compartment and had fallen asleep parties had entered unknown to me and I 1 was awakened just as the london andon suburbs were reached by an unusual commotion A plump english lady past forty with wild eyes and a long smooth shaven upper lip was struggling 99 ii in w with ith the rear portion of a tiny waite white porto rico E tap ap dog opposite her on the same seat a burly englishman was pleading with the same animal which had set its teeth with much persistent firmness in the kenderest ten derest portion of its masters nose it was a young lady dog its ringlets had been so sheared as to give it the appearance of a fierce ai lion ion it was exceedingly nervous and excitable and its master had nagged the creature derby 11 pronounced darby it was called antii until it had retorted b by grabbing the pursy gents nose as t though haugk it had been a rat god bless me soul darby dye know me nose quite set between yer er pretty little teeth A quiet tweak ty by darby darby dear I 1 say darby darby theres a darling god bless me but its a brave girl another emphatic tweak precious child there now mind ye darby dear ive no notion of tearing away from ye darby god blass bless me darby I 1 lavent avent such a thought oh no pretty creature but god bless me wife cahnt ye ve ye know entice the beast away iway ive been very cool ah ab darby theres a dear but apon pon the me word im fast exhausting hau sting wifel wife woman show dary darby the creams eaven elp belp me but this is is a go though ave a cream darby d do or theres a dear thought though go god bless me but the creams did d it though they really had done it darby had been shown some french creams of which she was very fond and evidently preferred them to her masters nose the pursy gent seemed fit for an apoplectic stroke on accod account nt of that t or organ a w which aich had suffered not more agn than a good pinch but the ladys joani meanings i at the ithe possibility of dalbys nervous system having received too severe a shock were ere something piteous indeed As we alighted at kings cross station after milord milady and darby had been tenderly bestowed iha in a hard handsome some brougham it transpired that the man and cifes five children two maids and the other miscellaneous luggage all of whom and which had shared a third claas compartment with as many uncouth yorkshire yokels were left behind to reach home as best they could by way of a raging london I 1 ahn penny bus there is a quaint little inn of edinburgh hard by st andrews square in which I 1 love to make my home when in auld reekie Re ekre for a while it is but a few steps from the cites peerless princess street it is still within the precincts of a fine old residence cesi dence district made famous by the haunts of a score of the great literary Scotch men of other days much going and coming between this annand inn and central city places brought to my notice the fact that nearly every pleasant summer night when the bush of evening had fallen u upon on the town a marvelous singer of of the kenderest ten derest ballads of scotland came that way stood for a quarter of an hour orao or so la in the quiet entrance to st andrews street and at intervals to the accompaniment of an accordion sang sweetly for those who tarried at chance glimpses of the singer and his regular evening audience I 1 noticed too that the man never solicited alms he stood quite still in the middle of the street and now and then some one of the crowd in the pauses of his singing would step quietly up to tb him and place a coin within within his bis hand these were copper coins always and they nearly always came from the pockets of poor people finally th the e songs and the scene touching my own heart I 1 went and placed a coin in his hand as others had done before me then for the first time I 1 saw that the than man was blind I 1 saw besides such a face as will haunt me all my lifetime I 1 cannot tell you what painter has put most a of f hopeful patience exalted resignation s n aaion and sublime faith into any aby one ue face upon canvas but here was a face that instantly revealed them all I 1 went back to him I 1 told him I 1 would like to know him asked him if I 1 could come to his home or if he could find his way to my lodgings and in a moment more we had arranged for a meeting at the little st andrews street inn for the morrow when he came his first words put us both as warmly in touch as though our hearts had been open to each other for fora a lifetime 1 I knew by your voice he said sadly you saw through my sightlessness anae an we blind folk are mair mair canny at scein seem than ye think you make rh rhymes mes so do V I 1 this deprecatingly god god knows my heart is katr t V sing wi a pen too so I 1 knew he had alread already Y sung wi his pen and made him there ther and an ng then the en repeat his rhymes here was another burns in in rags and obscurity surely this is so then I 1 went with this blind poet bet and singer john connell to his bome home no 12 gibbs entry second flat nicholson street edinburgh awa away up among the densely inhabited wyn and closes of old town what was there just so many children one could scarcely count them or remember their names a kindly faced w wife ife loyal and true a hearthside hearth side as barren of the comforts of this life as the face of a storm beaten crag but with faith hope and unfaltering love enough within it to seed for saving an entire race the story of the man and his bitter struggle is a short one because of his vocation his poverty his silent suffering he was a mechanic once with boundless hopes for education and advancement perhaps with dreams of fame the blindness E lind ness came that the wife and baarns might not starve he must sing upon the street then a passing grand lady heard him sing she sent for him and gave him an audience the old hopes flamed anew to make her husband presentable the softhearted soft hearted wife gave all their savings and clotead pledged pled all their little belongings for clothing g and a brave new ac coridon the cuir bod body may find favora the fond wife prayed pr aye he did until he told the grand n lady proudly of his good wife and aarns then hen she gid bid him good day and her servant showed him the door john connell has been singing for alms now for more than four years for this mishap that those dear to him may barely live to relieve himself from the wolf fangs of the usurer and to retrieve himself from the favor of this cn edinburg h silent dreadful are the tragedies of this life from the heedlessness and the heartlessness of the rich and great I 1 I 1 added to his little store of books helped a little in other ways from my own slender purse but my heart aches and my eyes mist in the longing for some good and powerful man is there not such a scotchman in scotland or america to place this blind singer where the songs of his tender heart may be made known to all men wherever my wanderings may lead me I 1 cannot but hear his thrilling voice in auld reedies Re ekies pleasant beasant thoroughfares or see him in the bittle little gibbs entry home hom e cell ell sitting in the silences of his sightless life his faithful wife reading over and over to him the songs of other men or taking down the lines that crowd upon his trembling tongue a transcendent transcend ant picture of some modern prometheus bound bound when tramping upon the grand scottish highways and drawn from the road to the fields by some vagarious fancy a thrilling sense of exultation comes in the accidental discovery of some old roman road you have perhaps leaped a wall and come upon a ragged hollow this can be clearly traced straight as an arrow for a long distarce distance there is a wondrous fascination in this bramble covered swail you pother about for a ittle and find it paved with huge stones more digging discloses solid walls set beneath the rubbish of its sides the sea itself hardly broko brok the line of this stout old artery along which once surged the iron blood of rome stern agricola rode at the head of his legions past the very spot on which you are standing almost ceaseless tides of warriors swept over the road to mont grampus that ten thousand slain and stark caledonians Caledonia ns might form an impassible wall before the mist wreathed mountains beyond eighteen hundred years hi have avO passed assed since jealous Domi recalled to rome this invincible leader of steel mailed blau slaughterers slaughter ers and the glowing pen of tacitus told the surpassing bravery of the skin clad North men who fell beneath his onslaughts but as you linger upon this old roman way way dreaming until the sun is almost level with the far mountain tops flaming their purple heather marvelously countless wraiths pass and repass 0 s in olaen olden battle array then e n that it is the nineteenth and tibt n ot the first century upon which the sun is shining is recalled to you by the face of a keenly observant but solemn collie dof dog breaking between some clumps of golden 0 den broom above you head he gas has been minding a flock of she sheep grazing yonder on the brae side and ea he has stepped aside for a moment to to interrupt your valarous arous fancies about A agricola aicola and au all the other grim old fellows fellows of his bloodletting blood letting time and to study your intentions and possibly examine credentials you beg his pardon for the trespass leap the wall to the highway again gaze back down the valley upon a score of hamlets push forward to the wayside inn where you are to tarry and between the walls of its huge chamber you 0 u alls march in dreams from the seven hills to the grampians Gramp ians with mailed hosts and forests of spears along that old roman road throughout the livelong night EDGAR L WAKEMAN |