MR C. K. TUCKERMAN'S REMINISCENCES.

Evening Star, Issue 9910, 23 January 1896, Page 3

MR C. K. TUCKERMAN'S REMINISCENCES.

Mr C. K. Tuokermau, first Minister Resident of the United States to Greece, records in two substantial volumes his 'Personal Recollections of Nobble People at Home and Abroad.' "At Homp," with Mr Tuckerman, is, of course, America, to which he devotes his opening chapters. I<\ the section he devotes to English literary men we have some pleasant memoranda about Mill, Lyell, and Darwin. Hero is an uuecdoto of Robert Browning:—" I remember an nmusing incident he related connected with his friend and fellow-poet Algernon Swinburne. He asked me if I had heard tha report that Swinburne had keen discovered one day sitting at his (Browning's) feet in the attitude of adoration. This report, greatly embellished, was current in literary circles, and originated in this way: Swinburne, during a morning's visit in Browning's library, had been striding up and down, during some argument between the two, and seeing a footstool in front of his companion's chair, sat down upon it, continuing his argument as he turned his face upward addressing Browning. At that moment a mutual friend dropped in, who, knowing Swinburne's intense admiration for Browning, drew the conclusion, from the attitude of the former, that he was worshipping at the feet of his great master. It was too good a joke to be kept quiet, and the friend lost no time in giving it the widest circulation. Browning enjoyed the report immensely, and was rather over-anxious to explain that it was ' all sheer nonsense, of course.'"

Of Tennyson Mr Tuckerman writes at second-hand. "A friend" is responsible for the following tale of a visit paid by the poet to a certain nobleman's castle: — " The poet had been invited for a specified day to meet other guests, but—presumably from the fact that he abhorred such assemblages—he failed-to put in an appearance. When, some weeks after, he did turn up, he was not expected, and no guests were present; even her ladyship was absent on a distant visit. Under these circumstances the only thing his host could do was to request his private chaplain and my friend to assist him iu entertaining the poet. The latter was well satisfied with this arrangement, and vastly preferred his independence to the bore of a circle of fashionable and inquisitive people. He made himself quite at home in the spacious castle, and went about smoking his pipe in the halls and rooms wherever he chanced to find himself. This habit greatly annoyed the noble proprietor, to whom, as well as his wife, tobacco smoke was so detestable that smoking in any form was forbidden within the walls. When Tennyson learned this he was greatly discomfited, and would have left the castle rather than part from his beloved pipe. To accommodate matters a room was prepared for the poet at the very top of one of the towers, and there Tennyson and his two companions passed the evenings, if not, indeed, the entire nights, enveloped in clouds of tobacco smoke, he telling good stories, interspersed with recitations of poetry." Mr Tuckerman met Matthew Arnold when the latter was on a lecturing tour in America. He says of him:—" He never touched upon philosophy or letters, seemingly reserving those subjects for the lecture room, his 'sweetness and light' on this occasion consisting in extracting pleasurable sensations from surrounding objects or the topics of the day. He criticised with some asperity certain English statesmen, leaving upon my mind the impression that he had personal grievances to complain of at their hands. With a satirical smile and a tone of commiseration he could make a thrust, keen as a steel rapier, at the vulnerable point in the character of one" whom he disliked, and then heal the wound by expatiating upon his good qualities." Again : " Arnold was at home in the pursuit of the pleasures of Nature, and his delight was the cultivation of flowers. Even during his busy tour in the United States, writing and delivering lectures, and making notes of men and things, he found time to scour the hills and valleys for indigenous plants and shrubs. In a letter to me from Berkshire County, New England, he mentioned that he was botanising with a relative of mine, and he carried Home with him to Eugland specimens of American flora which he transplanted to his garden in Surrey." One of Mr Tuckerman's good stories—and he has many to tell—has reference to the lace Mr Spurgeon. A lady whom the famous preacher was visiting had allotted to him a bedroom which was thought to be haunted. "On the following morning she expressed great anxiety to hear how he had parsed the night. The guest assured her that he had seldom slept better. 'lam so glad,' remarked the lady. ' Then you had no disturbances? You received no—or—visitations ? The truth is, I had to put you in the " haunted chamber," and I have been very nervous about it all night.' 'Well, madam, now you speak of it, I did have a visitation,' he replied. ' About midnight I awoke and discovered a veiled female standing motionless by my bedside. As she seemed to have nothing particular to communicate, I availed myself of the opportunity to appeal to her benevolence—a habit I have when in the presence of ladies—so, reaching under my pillow for a little book which I always carry about with me, I asked her to do me the favor to subscribe to my orphanage. Upon this she disappeared like a shot, and I never saw anything more oS her !'"