James Fenimore Cooper
by Mary Elizabeth Phillips · English · Gutenberg #13155 · 336,964 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of James Fenimore Cooper
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: James Fenimore Cooper
Author: Mary Elizabeth Phillips
Release date: August 10, 2004 [eBook #13155]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13155
Credits: Produced by The Million Book Project and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JAMES FENIMORE COOPER ***
[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]
JAMES
FENIMORE COOPER
by
MARY E. PHILLIPS
[Illustration: LEATHERSTOCKING.]
New York: John Lane Company
London: John Lane: The Bodley Head
Toronto: Bell and Cockburn
MCMXIII
Copyright, 1912
By Mary E. Phillips
The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.
Dedicated To The Young Of
All Ages From The Years Of Ten
To Ten Times Ten
PREFACE
The intention of this simply told _personal_ life of James Fenimore
Cooper, the creator of American romance, is to have all material
_authentic_. The pictures of men, women, places and things are, as
nearly as possible, of Cooper's association with them to reproduce a
background of his time and to make the _man_--not the author--its
central foreground figure. From every available source since the
earliest mention of the author's name, both in print and out, material
for these pages has been collected. In this wide gleaning in the field
of letters--a rich harvest from able and brilliant pens--the gleaner
hereby expresses grateful appreciation of these transplanted values.
Much, precious in worth and attractive in interest, comes into these
pages from the generous and good among the relatives, friends, and
admirers of Fenimore Cooper. And more than all others, the author's
grand-nephew, the late Mr. George Pomeroy Keese, of Cooperstown, New
York, has paid rich and rare tribute to the memory of his uncle, with
whom when a boy he came in living touch. Appeals to Cooper's grandson,
James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., of Albany, New York, and also to his
publishers have been met in a spirit so gracious and their giving has
been so generous as to command the grateful service of the writer.
For rare values, in service and material, special credits are due to Mr.
George Pomeroy Keese, Cooperstown, N.Y.; James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.,
Albany, N.Y.; Mr. Francis Whiting Halsey, New York City; Mr. Edwin
Tenney Stiger, Watertown, Mass.; General James Grant Wilson, New York
City; Mr. Horace G. Wadlin, Librarian, Messrs. Otto Fleischner,
Assistant Librarian, O.A. Bierstadt, F.C. Blaisdell, and others, of the
Boston Public Library; Miss Alice Bailey Keese, Cooperstown, N.Y.; Mrs.
T. Henry Dewey, Paris, France; Mrs. Edward Emerson Waters, New York
City; and Miss Mary C. Sheridan, Boston, Mass.
Mary E. Phillips.
INTRODUCTION
A life of Cooper, written with some particular reference to the
picturesque village among the Otsego hills, where he so long lived and
in whose soil he, for some sixty years or more, has slept, has long been
needed. That such a book should have become a labor of love in the hands
of Miss Phillips is not more interesting than it is fortunate that the
task should have been accomplished so conspicuously well. Miss Phillips
has borne testimony to the resourcefulness and rare devotion with which
the late Mr. Keese assisted her in researches extending over many years.
None knew so well as he the personal side of Cooper's whole life story;
none so assiduously and so lovingly, during a long life spent in
Cooperstown, gathered and tried to preserve in their integrity every
significant and interesting detail of it.
The turning point in Cooper's life was reached when he went to
Cooperstown, although he was little more than a child in arms. Most
curious is it that his going should have resulted from the foreclosure
of a mortgage. This mortgage had been given in the late Colonial period
by George Croghan, and covered a vast tract of native forest lands in
Otsego. In these lands, through the foreclosure, Cooper's father, soon
after the Revolution, acquired a large interest, which led him to
abandon his home of ease and refinement in Burlington, New Jersey, and
found a new, and, as it proved to be, a permanent one in the unpeopled
wilderness at the foot of Otsego Lake. Except for this accident of
fortune, Leatherstocking and his companions of the forest never could
have been created by the pen of Cooper.
[Illustration: signature 'Francis W. Italsey']
ILLUSTRATIONS
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From Appleton portrait. By permission of owner,
James Fenimore Cooper, Esq., of Albany, N.Y. _Frontispiece_
THE ENGLISH FYNAMORE COUNTRY AND FAMILY ARMS.
COOPER'S BIRTHPLACE. Burlington, N.J. From a photograph by George W.
Tichnor
THE FENIMORE BOX. (Of light and dark woods, size 12-1/2 X 6-3/4 inches.)
From photograph by permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.,
Albany, N.Y.
THE SUSQUEHANNA. By W.H. Bartlett
CHINGACHGOOK ON COUNCIL ROCK. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
COUNCIL ROCK. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
THE MANOR. From outline on _first_ map of Cooperstown, 1788-1790. By
permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
ORIGINAL OTSEGO HALL. From outline on 1800-1808 map of Cooperstown. By
permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
JUDGE WILLIAM COOPER. By Gilbert Stuart. By permission of owner, James
Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON. From a portrait by Woods, 1812
WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1800. From "St. Memim's Gallery of Portraits"
TALLEYRAND. From a portrait by F. Gérard
POINT JUDITH. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
"EDGEWATER." By courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
MR. AND MRS. GEORGE POMEROY. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
THE OLD STONE HOUSE. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
COOPERSTOWN PRIOR TO 1835. From _The Family Magazine_, 1836-1837
DR. THOMAS ELLISON. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
ST. PETER'S CHURCH, ALBANY, N.Y. By the courtesy of Dr. Joseph Hooper,
Durham, Conn.
STATE STREET, ALBANY, N.Y., 1802. By the courtesy of Dr. Joseph Hooper
"NEAR SHORES" OF NEW HAVEN. From an old print
DR. TIMOTHY DWIGHT. From an old print
YALE COLLEGE, 1806. By the courtesy of Professor John C. Schwab, Ph.D.,
Librarian, Yale University
WILLIAM JAY IN YOUTH. By Vanderlyn. From Bayard Tuckerman's "William
Jay," etc. By courtesy of author and publishers, Dodd, Mead & Co., N.Y.
JUDGE WILLIAM JAY. From a crayon by Martin. Dodd, Mead & Co., N.Y.
SILHOUETTE OF JAMES COOPER WHEN A STUDENT AT YALE. By the courtesy of
Professor John C. Schwab, Ph.D.
OUTWARD BOUND.
GIBRALTAR. From "_Le Monde Illustré_"
SAILOR'S SNUG HARBOR. From _Frank Leslie's Weekly_, Vol. I
OTSEGO HALL GATES. By courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
BUFFALO BURNT. From an old woodcut in Spear's "United States Navy"
THE "VESUVIUS." From "Life of Fulton," by J.F. Reigart, 1856
ONTARIO FORESTS. By W.H. Bartlett
THE THOUSAND ISLANDS. By W.H. Bartlett
THE PORT OF BUFFALO. From an old print
CAPTAIN M.T. WOOLSEY. From Spear's "United States Navy"
THE PATHFINDER. By F.O.C. Darley
A BUBBLE OF A BOAT. By F.O.C. Darley
CAPTAIN LAWRENCE. From a portrait by Chappel
THE "WASP." From an old print
FRAUNCES TAVERN. By the courtesy of Dr. Joseph Hooper, Durham, Conn.
LIEUT. GOV. JAMES DE LANCEY'S SEAL. From Vol. I, M.J. Lamb's "History of
New York City"
HEATHCOTE ARMS. From an old print
HON. CALEB HEATHCOTE. From print by V. Belch
FRAUNCES TAVERN LONG-ROOM. From "History of New York," by Mary L. Booth,
1857 BURN'S COFFEE HOUSE. From an old print
HEATHCOTE HILL. By the courtesy of J.W. Clapp, editor _Richbell Press_,
Mamaroneck, N.Y.
TANDEM. From a rare old color-print. By the courtesy of George Samuel
Tucker, Peterboro, N.H.
COOPER'S FENIMORE FARM HOUSE. By the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy
Keese
ELIZABETH FENIMORE COOPER IN THE OLD HALL HOME. By the courtesy of
Elizabeth Cooper Keese
COOPER'S ANGEVINE FARM HOME. From "Homes of American Authors." G.L.
Putnam Sons, 1853
MAMARONECK CREEK SLOOPS. From Bryant's "History of the United States"
JUDGE JOHN JAY. From print of Trumbull portrait
BEDFORD HOUSE. From an old print
BEDFORD HOUSE LIBRARY. From Vol. II, Lamb's "History of New York City"
HARVEY BIRCH'S CAVE. By courtesy of Arthur B. Maurice, author of "New
York in Fiction"
THE LOCUSTS OF COOPER'S TIME. From Lossing's "Field-Book of the War of
1812"
THE LOCUSTS OF TO-DAY. By courtesy of the owner, Lawrence Durham, Esq.
TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF "THE SPY."
ENOCH CROSBY. From "History of Westchester County, N.Y." By Spooner and
Shenard
LAFAYETTE THEATRE. From _New York Mirror_, Vol. V.
COOPER'S HEROINES. By courtesy of Rev. Ralph Birdsall and Miss Catherine
N. Duyckinck
WINDHURST'S NOOK, UNDER THE PARK THEATRE. From "History of New York
City," by Mary L. Booth, 1859
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, 1822. From a photograph of the J.W. Jarvis
portrait. By permission of the owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.,
Albany, N.Y.
FITZ-GREENE HALLECK. From print of Inman portrait. By permission of
owner, Gen. James Grant Wilson
JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE, From "Poems"
CRO' NEST. From "Poems," by Joseph Rodman Drake
SAMUEL WOODWORTH. From a rare lithograph
THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET. By F.S. Agate
CITY HOTEL AND WASHINGTON HALL. From Vol. II, "History of New York
City," by M.J. Lamb, and from "Valentine's Manual"
EARLY BROADWAY. Old prints
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. By B. Whitechurch
COOPER'S NEW YORK CITY HOME IN BEACH STREET. By the courtesy of General
James Grant Wilson
ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL. From _The York Mirror_
OLD LEATHERSTOCKING. From "The Pioneers"
NATTY'S CAVE. From an old print
GENERAL JAMES CLINTON. From an old print
CLINTON DAM. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
"TALES FOR FIFTEEN, OR IMAGINATION AND HEART." By permission of the
owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
CHARLES WILKES. From portrait by Thos. Sully
JOHN PAUL JONES. From portrait by C.W. Peale
LONG TOM COFFIN. F.O.C. Darley
BRYANT, WEBSTER AND IRVING. From sketch by Daniel Huntington by the
courtesy of owner, Mr. Day, Boston
THE LANDING OF LAFAYETTE, 1824. From "Complete History of Lafayette,"
1825 edition
LAFAYETTE. Portrait by Sully
LAFAYETTE'S BRANDYWINE VASE. From an old print
JOB PRAY. By F.O.C. Darley
THE BURNING OF CHARLESTOWN. From an old print
WHIPPLE HOUSE, AT PROVIDENCE, R.I. From an old print
MRS. JAMES MONROE. By the courtesy of General James Grant Wilson
PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1825. From an old print
SUNRISE AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN. Drawn by Harry Fenn for D. Appleton and Co.,
N.Y.
GLENS FALL'S CAVERNS. From "The Hudson," by Lossing
HONORABLE MR. STANLEY. Portrait by G. Harlow, 1833
GLENS FALL. By W.H. Bartlett
LAKE GEORGE, OR "THE HORICAN." By W.H. Bartlett
THE WAGER SEAL (1 X 1-1/8 inches). By permission of the owner, James
Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
BRYANT. Portrait by Barrett
"NATTY, THE TRAPPER." By F.O.C. Darley
HENRY CLAY. From a daguerreotype, engraved by Buttre
CHANCELLOR KENT. Portrait by Chappel
THE U.S.S. "HUDSON." By W.J. Bennett
WHITEHALL WHARF, 1826. From "Valentine's Manual"
KEEP OF CARISBROOK. By J. and F. Harwood, London, 1841
HAVRE, BY NIGHT. From "Meyer's Universum"
WINDMILLS OF MONTMARTRE. From an old French print
THE CONVENT ST. MAUR.
HOTEL DE JUMIÈGES. Found, verified and photographed for this Life of
Cooper by kindness of Mrs. T. Henry Dewey of Paris, France
SIR WALTER SCOTT. Portrait by G.S. Newton, 1824
MISS ANNE SCOTT. Portrait by W. Nicholson
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. After portrait by Madame de Mirbel, 1830
PIERRE JEAN DAVID D'ANGERS. Portrait by D'Aubrey. By courtesy of General
George T. Cruft
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From a photograph of the bust by David d'Angers,
Paris, 1828. By permission of the owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From a photograph of a drawing made at
Paris, 1890. By permission of James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From a photograph of a drawing made at Paris,
1827. By permission of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
PROF. GEORGE WASHINGTON GREEN. By special permission of Mr. William Dean
Howells and Harper & Brothers
P.T. DE BÉRANGER. From a rare old print
TALLEYRAND. From an old engraving
DUCHESSE DE BERRI. From Soule photograph
CHARLES X of FRANCE. From Soule photograph
COOPER'S SUMMER HOME, ST. OUEN, 1827. Found, verified and photographed
by the kindness of Mrs. T. Henry Dewey, Paris, France
COOPER'S ST. OUEN TERRACE STUDY. Found, verified and photographed by the
kindness of Mrs. T. Henry Dewey, Paris, France
OLD MILL AT NEWPORT. From an old print
THE STRUGGLE. By F.O.C. Darley
THE NEWPORT BOX. By permission of the owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART. By Pickersgill
NATTY'S LAST CALL. From an old print
THE PRINCESS BARBARA VASSILIEWNA GALITZIN From print of portrait by Hein
Friedr. Füger
LA GRANGE, COUNTRY HOME OF LAFAYETTE. From an old print
LA GRANGE ARCHWAY ENTRANCE. From "Complete History of Lafayette"
HÔTEL DESSEIN, CALAIS, FRANCE. From a rare old print
CLIFFS OF DOVER. By C. Stanfield
CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL CHOIR. From Soule photograph
GREEN GATE, CANTERBURY. From _Port Folio_, 1814
ST. JAMES PLACE, LONDON. From Thornbury's "Old and New London"
SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY. From _European Magazine_, 1822
SAMUEL ROGERS. Portrait by Thomas Lawrence
ROGERS' LONDON HOME. From "Bohn's Handbook of London"
ROGERS' BREAKFAST-ROOM. From _Illustrated London News_, 1857
CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE. From an old print
SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH. Portrait by Thomas Lawrence
HOLLAND HOUSE. By Stockdale
LIBRARY OF HOLLAND HOUSE. By Charles R. Leslie. Used by permission of
the British Museum. From left to right, portrait of Addison, Lord
Holland, Lady Holland, Dr. John Allen, Librarian Doggett
GILT CHAMBER OF HOLLAND HOUSE. From lithograph by Richardson
ROGERS' SEAT. From Leichenstein's "Holland House"
LORD GREY. From a portrait by Thomas Lawrence
MRS. JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART. From a portrait by W. Nicholson
JOANNA BAILLIE. From "Life and Works of J. Baillie"
SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE. From the Academy sketch, 1829
HOUSE OF THE GILLMAN'S, HIGHGATE, LONDON. From Hall's "Book of Memories"
BOOM KEY AT ROTTERDAM. From an old etching
MT. BLANC. By J.M.W. Turner
LA LORRAINE VIEW OF BERNESE ALPS. From Swiss print
NAHL'S MEMORIAL TO MADAME LANGHAN. From _European Magazine_, 1786
NARRA-MATTAH. By F.O.C. Darley
CONNECTICUT EMIGRANTS. From an old print
FALL OF THE STAUBBACH. From an old water color
THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE. By W.H. Bartlett, 1836
FERNEY, VOLTAIRE'S LAKE LEMAN HOME. From _European Magazine_, 1786
THE SIMPLON PASS. By Lory
FLORENCE, ITALY. From an old print
PALAZZO RICASOLI, FLORENCE, ITALY. From special drawing by G. Amightti.
By courtesy of Signor Agusto Ticci, Florence
HORATIO GREENOUGH. From portrait in Boston Athenaeum. By courtesy of Mr.
Charles K. Bolton, Librarian
BUST OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. By Horatio Greenough, in Boston Public
Library. By courtesy of the Librarian, Mr. Horace G. Wadlin, and
photographed by Arthur Pierce Truette
CHANTING CHERUBS. Detail from Raphael's Madonna del Trono
LEOPOLD II, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY. From Ballou's "Pictorial," Vol. XVII
PITTI PALACE, FLORENCE, 1828. From water color, 1830
COUNT ST. LEU. From "_La Jeunesse de Napoleon III_" by Stefane-Pol
LETIZIA BOUNAPARTE. From color print by de Delpech
MADAME MÈRE. From print of drawing by Princess Charlotte, in Vol. XX,
_L'lllustration_
CHURCH OF ST. ILLARIO AND NARROW LANE. From photograph obtained by Sig.
Agusto Ticci, Florence, Italy
VILLA, ST. ILLARIO. From special photograph obtained by Mrs. T. Henry
Dewey, Paris, France
CHARIOT RACES, FLORENCE. From an old print
GENOA. By Vocher
LEGHORN. From an old etching
NAPLES. From an old water color
CASA TASSO AT SORRENTO. From _"Vita di Torquato Tasso_" by Angelo
Solerti
CASA TASSO TERRACE-STUDY. From _"Vita di Torquato Tasso_," by Angelo
Solerti
ST. PETER'S, EXTERIOR, ROME. From an old print
ST. PETER'S, INTERIOR. From an old print
ADAM MICKIEOWICZ. From the "Life of the Poet"
PORTA RIPETTA. From an old etching
ROMAN FORUM. By Sargent
PORTA DEL POPOLO. From an old print
FALLS OF MARMORA AT TERNI. From an old print
ANCONA. By S. Prout
LORETO. From an old print
SCALLA MINELLI, VENICE. From an old print
VENICE. By J.B. Pyne
PIAZZA SAN MARCO. By Chilone
PALACE OF THE DOGE. From an old print
TASSO'S WELL. Special photograph by Marjorie Elizabeth Parks
THE BRAVO. By F.O.C. Darley
GLORY OF THE ASSUMPTION. By Titian
ABSOLUTION OF ANTONIO. By F.O.C. Darley
ALT MARKET, DRESDEN. From 1830 print by permission of owner, Mayor of
Dresden, and courtesy of Herr Rudolf Drescher, Hanau-on-Main, Germany
LAFAYETTE'S PARIS HOME, RUE D'ANJOU. From special photograph obtained by
Mrs. T. Henry Dewey, Paris, France
LAFAYETTE'S BED-ROOM. From "Complete History of Lafayette"
LOUIS PHILIPPE. From "_Galerie Napoléon_"
GENERAL LAFAYETTE. From lithograph by Delpech
QUEEN MARIE AMÉLIE. From an old print
S.F.B. MORSE. From _L'Illustration,_ Vols. XXXI and XXXII
N.P. WILLIS. By S. Lawrence
TUILERIES GARDENS. From an old print
TENIER'S WIFE. Portrait by Tenier. From photograph of original by
permission of the owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER AND HER SON PAUL. From a photograph of a
painting done at Paris, 1831. By permission of owner, James Fenimore
Cooper, Esq.
THE CHILDREN OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From a photograph
(given by Mr. George Pomeroy Keese) of a drawing made in Paris by Miss
Susan Cooper. By permission of owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq. From
left to right, Caroline Martha (Mrs. H.F. Phinney), Susan [unreadable]
Fenimore, Anne Charlotte, Maria Frances [unreadable] Cooper
THE ANGELUS. By J.F. Millet
EUGÈNE-JOSEPH VERBOECKHOVEN. From a print
PETER PAUL RUBENS. Portrait by the artist
RUBENS' COLOGNE HOME. From Fairholt's "Homes and Haunts of Artists"
CONVENT OF NUNNENWORTH. By Tombleson
WATCH TOWER ON THE RHINE. From _The Art Journal_, 1880
HEIDELBERG AND CASTLE. From 1840 print
VEVAY SHORES OF LAKE LEMAN. From _New England Magazine_
FÉTE DES VIGNERONS. By courtesy of Mrs. Rufus A. Kingman
NOAH'S ARK VEVAY. 1833 By courtesy of Mrs. Rufus A. Kingman
HOSPICE ST. BERNARD. By Major Cockburn
BAY OF NAPLES. By James Hakywill
NEW YORK HARBOR. By W.H. Bartlett
COOPER'S OTSEGO HALL HOME. By courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
COPY OF COOPER'S GARDEN SEAT. From photograph by A.J. Telfer
COOPER'S LIBRARY AT OTSEGO HALL. From drawing by Mr. George Pomeroy
Keese
JUDGE NELSON. From photograph by A.J. Telfer
WILD ROSE POINT OR THREE MILE POINT. From a photograph by the courtesy
of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
COOPER'S NEW YORK CITY HOME, ST. MARK'S PLACE. From a print by the
courtesy of owner, General James Grant Wilson
HORACE GREELEY. From a portrait by J.C. Buttre
PARK BENJAMIN. From a portrait by J.C. Buttre
THURLOW WEED. From a portrait by C.B. Hall
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From a daguerreotype by Brady. By permission of
owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
COLONEL JOHN TRUMBULL. From portrait by Waldo and Jewett.
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. From a Paris print
COLUMBUS' FLEET. From an old print
THE GLIMMERGLASS. From photograph by courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
OTSEGO LAKE. Inset, Leatherstocking Falls and Natty Bumppo's Cave, from
photographs by A.J. Telfer, Cooperstown, N.Y.
JESSE D. ELLIOTT'S LAKE ERIE MEDAL. From Spear's "History of the United
States Navy"
MEDAL GIVEN TO JAMES FENIMORE COOPER BY JESSE D. ELLIOTT. From
photograph by the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
ISLAND OF ELBA. From an old print
ELBA HOME OF NAPOLEON. From Abbott's "Napoleon"
BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE. From painting by W.H. Powell
COOPER'S DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.
COOPER'S DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF "BON HOMME RICHARD" AND THE "SERAPIS."
BATTLE OF THE "BON HOMME RICHARD" AND THE "SERAPIS" By J. Rogers
STUMP EXTRACTOR. From "The Hudson," by B.J. Lossing
THE CHÂLET FARM. From photograph by the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy
Keese
THE ESCAPE. From "Wyandotte." By F.O.C. Darley
MISS CAROLINE ADRIANCE FOOTE, AGE 13. From a daguerreotype by the
courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
MISS ALICE TRUMBULL WORTHINGTON. From a daguerreotype by the courtesy of
owner, Mrs. Alice Worthington Synnott
LIEUT. ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE. From Duyckwick's "Cyclopedia of
American Literature"
HELL GATE. From "Pages and Pictures," by Susan Augusta Cooper
NIAGARA FALLS. By W.H. Bartlett
JUDGE BAZIL HARRISON OF KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN. From _Hearth and Home_,
1870
HON. GERRIT SMITH. From an old print
WILLIAM BRANDFORD SHUBRICK. From Lossing's "Field-Book of the War of
1812"
CHARLES MATHEWS. From "Memorials of Charles Mathew" by Mrs. Mathews
JAMES H. HACKETT. From "Modern Standard Drama"
STEWART'S MARBLE PALACE. From an old print
MISS SUSAN AUGUSTA COOPER, ABOUT 1850. From a daguerreotype. By
permission of the owner, James Fenimore Cooper, Esq.
OTSEGO LAKE PARTY IN 1840. By J.L. Pease
JOE TOM. From a photograph by the courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
NATTY'S CAVE. From an old print
OTSEGO HALL--BACK VIEW. From "Pages and Pictures," by Susan Augusta
Cooper
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. From a daguerrotype by Brady. By permission of
the owner, [unreadable] Cooper, Esq., Albany, N.Y.
THE SWEDISH NIGHTINGALE (JENNY LIND). Portrait by J.W. Orr From Soule
photograph
JENNY LIND AT CASTLE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY, 1850. From an old print
DR. JOHN WAKEFIELD FRANCIS. From portrait by J. Goldbruam
DR. FRANCIS' HOME IN NEW YORK CITY. By Richardson
CHRIST'S CHURCH, COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
FENIMORE COOPER'S SCREEN GIFT. From a print by courtesy of Miss Alice
Bailey Keese
BISHOP WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY. From Scharf's "History of
Westchester County, NY"
DE LANCEY COAT OF ARMS. From "A God-Child of Washington," by Katherine
Schuyler Baxter
THE NEW HOME AND THE OLD HOME.
INDIAN HUNTER. By J.Q.A. Ward
COOPER GROUNDS. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
THE CHILDREN'S TRIBUTE. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
LAKE OTSEGO. From a photograph by A.J. Telfer
LEATHERSTOCKING FIGURE OF COOPER MEMORIAL. From a photograph by A.J.
Telfer
LEATHERSTOCKING MONUMENT. By R.E. Launitz, N.A. From a photograph by
A.J. Telfer
GEORGE POMEROY KEESE. From a photograph by permission of Mrs. George
Pomeroy Keese
BERRY POMEROY CASTLE. By courtesy of Mr. George Pomeroy Keese
Acknowledgment is due The F.A. Ringler Company of New York City and
Messrs. John Andrew and Son of Boston, Mass., for the care and interest
they have shown in making the cuts used in this volume.
[Illustration: THE ENGLISH FYNAMORE COUNTRY AND FAMILY ARMS.]
JAMES FENIMORE COOPER
[Illustration: COOPER'S BIRTHPLACE, Burlington, N.J.]
The light of this world fell on James Fenimore Cooper September 15,
1789. The founder of American romance was born in a quaint, two-storied
house of stuccoed brick which now numbers 457 Main St., Burlington, New
Jersey. It was then "the last house but one as you go into the country"
and among the best of the town. In a like house next door lived the
father of the naval hero, Capt. James Lawrence. These two houses opened
directly on the street and their slanting roofs were shaded by tall
trees rooted at the curbstones. This outline of Fenimore Cooper's
birthplace is from the text-picture in "Literary Rambles," by Theodore
F. Wolfe, M.D., Ph.D. The first of his father's family in this new
country was James Cooper, who came from Stratford-on-Avon, England, in
1679. He and his wife were Quakers, and with Quaker thrift bought wide
tracts of land in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Seventy-five years after
James Cooper stepped on American soil his great-grandson William was
born, December 2, 1754, in Byberry township, Pennsylvania.
On December 12, 1775, at Burlington, New Jersey, William Cooper married
Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Fenimore, whose family came from
Oxfordshire of Old England, and, at intervals, held office in her
provinces. James, the future author and named for his grandfather
Cooper, was the eleventh of twelve children. About 1807 Cooper, by
request of his mother, said he would adopt the name of Fenimore as there
were no men of her family to continue it. The change was delayed by the
untimely death of Judge Cooper, and also to make less difficult the
settlement of his large estate. But in 1826 James Cooper applied to the
legislature for his change of name to James Cooper _Fenimore_. This
request was not granted, but the change to "James Fenimore Cooper" was
made. Cooper's comment on this outcome is a graphic record and
"suggests," says an authority, that "the legislature would do well to
assume that a petitioner, in such a case, knew better than they did what
he wanted." The hyphen, at first used, was soon dropped. And so it was
for his mother's sake that he made world-wide his fame by the name of
James _Fenimore_ Cooper.
[Illustration: THE FENIMORE BOX.]
"The Fenimore Box" is an "English measure box, curious, and centuries
old, brought over by the first of the name." It descended to Cooper from
his mother, Elizabeth Fenimore, and is now treasured as a family
heirloom by his grandson, James Fenimore Cooper of Albany, New York.
[Illustration: THE SUSQUEHANNA.]
As the first James Cooper and his wife were Quakers, perchance the same
Quaker thrift influenced William Cooper to follow the lead of George
Washington, who, two years before, in order to find out the inland
waterways of our country, came from the Mohawk Valley to the headwaters
of the Susquehanna--this stream which Fenimore Cooper called "the
crooked river to which the Atlantic herself extended an arm of welcome."
Lake Otsego--the "Glimmerglass"--William Cooper saw first in the autumn
of 1785. "Mt. Vision" was covered with a forest growth so dense that he
had to "climb a tree in order to get a view of the lake, and while up
the tree" he saw a deer come down "from the thickets and quietly drink
of its waters near Otsego Rock." "Just where the Susquehanna leaves the
Lake on its long journey to the sea" this famous Council Rock "still
shows its chin above the water and marks the spot where Deerslayer met
Chingachgook the Great Serpent of the Delawares." Now "its lake margin
belongs to a grandson of the author, who also bears his name," is a
record found in Dr. Wolfe's "Literary Haunts and Homes." In the red
man's tongue Otsego means "a place of friendly meeting" of Indian
warriors. The author of "Deerslayer" has immortalized that
lake-country in the opening chapter of this book.
[Illustration: CHINGACHGOOK ON THE COUNCIL ROCK.]
Of this visit to his future home and lands William Cooper has written:
"In 1785 I visited the rough and hilly country of Otsego. I was alone,
three hundred miles from home, without food of any kind. I caught trout
in the brook and roasted them in the ashes. My horse fed on the grass
that grew by the edge of the waters. I laid me down to sleep in my
watch-coat, nothing but the wilderness about me. In this way I explored
the country and formed my plans of future settlement. May, 1786, I
opened a sale of forty thousand acres of land, which in sixteen days
were all taken up by the poorest order of men." Here William Cooper laid
out the site of Cooperstown, which, until 1791, when it became the
county-town, was at times also called "Foot-of-the-Lake." He built a
store for his sturdy pioneers, giving credit for their simple needs of
life, and traded settlement products for them. His tenants put up log
houses, and paid rent in butter, wheat, corn, oats, maple-sugar, and
finally in pork;--so much that rentals known as "pork leases" were sold
like farms. Money was scarce in those days,--when one John Miller, and
his father, coming to the Lakeland's point of the river, felled a pine,
over which they crossed to the Cooperstown site. Its stump was marked
with white paint and called the "bridge-tree" by Fenimore Cooper. His
sister Nancy's grandson, Mr. George Pomeroy Keese, from whom much will
appear in these pages, has all there is left of that stump.
[Illustration: COUNCIL ROCK.]
In a few years the town's growth gave such promise that William Cooper
began to build his own home. It was generally known as "The Manor," but
the patent of Cooperstown was not according to law a manor. It was
finished in 1788, when a few streets were laid out and the town's first
map was made. And October 10, 1790, he brought his family and servants,
some fifteen persons, and their belongings, from Burlington New Jersey,
to this early pioneer home. Mr. Keese says that "The Manor" was of wood
with outside boarding, unplaned; that it was two stories high, had two
wings and a back building added in 1791. It first stood facing Main St.
and Otsego Lake and directly in front of the later Otsego Hall, now
marked by the Indian Hunter. In 1799 it was moved down the street, and
was burned down in 1812. In its time it was the most stately private
house for miles around. The second home, Otsego Hall, built in 1798, was
of bricks which were made at the outlet of the lake. It had seventy feet
of frontage by fifty-six of depth, and had two stories with attic and
basement. The main hall measured twenty-four by forty-eight feet and the
rooms on either side were twenty feet wide. Otsego Hall is said to have
been of the exact, generous proportions of the Van Rensselaer Manor
House at Albany, New York, where Judge Cooper was a frequent visitor.
His own Hall home on Otsego's southern shore ever had "the air and
capacity of a mansion and a history of hospitality well deserved."
[Illustration: THE MANOR.]
[Illustration: ORIGINAL OTSEGO HALL.]
[Illustration: JUDGE WILLIAM COOPER.]
To a friend William Cooper wrote: "I began life with a small capital
and a large family, and yet I have already settled more acres than any
man in America; and I trust no one can justly impute to me any act of
oppression. Your good sense and knowledge will excuse this seeming
boast." He elsewhere said that he owed his success to "a steady mind, a
sober judgment, fortitude, perseverance, and above all, common sense."
And here he lived as a wise and kind landlord among his people. For nine
years he was First Judge of the County Court of Common Pleas, and he
served two terms in Congress. Of Judge William Cooper there are three
portraits,--Gilbert Stuart's of 1797-98, Trumbull's of 1806, and one by
an unknown artist. His kindly gray eye, robust figure, and firm
expression bear out the story of his life as told by these portraits.
James Fenimore Cooper, in a letter to his wife, dated Canajoharie, 1834,
wrote of his father: "I have been up to the ravine to the old Frey
house. It recalled my noble-looking, warmhearted, witty father, with his
deep laugh, sweet voice, and fine, rich eye, as he used to light the way
with his anecdotes and fun. Old Frey, with his little black peepers,
pipe, hearty laugh, broken English, and warm welcome, was in the
background. I went to the very spot where one of the old man's slaves
amused Sam and myself with an imitation of a turkey that no artist has
ever yet been able to supplant in my memory." This Heindrick Frey was a
noted character of the Mohawk Valley over one hundred years ago.
It was, however, to the first home on Otsego's shore that the future
creator of American romance was brought when a babe some thirteen months
old. Here, in the heart of the wilderness, his infancy was passed.
Otsego Hall sheltered his budding boyhood and young manhood. Grace and
refinement dwelt within the household; without, voices of the forest
awakened and nurtured his naturally active mind, which later on was not
less influenced by the mysteries of the sea. The Six Nations were yet a
power in the Mohawk Valley, then the highway to the land of the setting
sun beyond. And they are now remembered in the names of the principal
lakes and streams of the country that once was theirs. The boy was
face-to-face with the "grim warriors, braves, and chieftains that the
man, Fenimore Cooper, translated into his pages, with a touch true to
the red man's life," his instinct in trading, his friendly and hostile
intent. Here Nature was his first and unforgettable teacher. From "Pages
and Pictures," by his daughter, Susan Fenimore Cooper, much will be
given in this book. Miss Cooper has drawn some pretty pen-pictures of
her father's child-life. She writes: "From the first bow and arrow, kite
and ball, to later feats in fishing, riding, shooting, and skating, all
were connected with his highland home." He was "healthy and active; a
brave, blithe-hearted, impetuous, most generous and upright boy." Of his
childhood another record is: "A gray-eyed, light-haired, ruddy boy,
nimble as a deer and gay as a bird; on the lake, plying his oar lustily
or trimming his sail to the mountain breeze; and whenever he found a
wave high enough to lift his little boat, his veins would thrill with a
strange delight, and he would ask himself whether this was like those
ocean waves of which he had heard such wonders." The little lad's next
step in learning was taken under the gentle rule of his elder sister,
Hannah, who had her schooling in New York City, and afterwards improved
her leisure by extensive reading. She was a model of domestic virtues
and was greatly beloved, especially by the poor, to whom she was ever an
angel of mercy. She often went with her father on his official visits to
the seat of government, and when, in 1800, at the age of twenty-three
years, she lost her life by a fall from her horse, her early death was
widely and deeply mourned. Her memory was always cherished with peculiar
tenderness by her brother James, the special charge of her loving care.
[Illustration: GENERAL WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON.]
A letter, written by him in 1841 to his old "messmate," Commodore
Shubrick, reveals no wane of Cooper's love for and pride in this sister,
and his letter's "political discovery" reveals that Miss Cooper's
attractions were as fully appreciated by the eminent of her own country
as by those of foreign shores. So comes into these pages a youthful,
slender romance of the later hero of Tippecanoe and still later
President of the United States.
[Illustration: WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 1800.]
OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, February, 28, 1841.
I have made a great political discovery lately, which must not go
any further than Mrs. Shubrick and Mary. In 1799, when Congress sat
in Philadelphia, my father was a member, as was also General
Harrison. You know I had a sister killed by a fall from a horse in
1800. This sister passed the Winter in Philadelphia with my
father. Miss Anne Cooper [the author's daughter] was lately in
Philadelphia, where she met Mr. Thomas Biddle, who asked if our
family were not Harrison men. The reason of so singular a question
was asked, and Mr. Biddle answered that in 1799 Mr. Harrison was
dying with love for Miss Cooper, that he (Mr. Biddle) was his
confidant, and that he _thinks_ but does not _know_ that he was
refused. If not refused it was because he was not encouraged to
propose, so you see I stand on high grounds and am ready to serve
you on occasion. Don't let this go any further, however. I confess
to think all the better of the General for this discovery, for it
shows that he had forty years ago both taste and judgment in a
matter in which men so often fail. Mary will open her eyes at this
somewhat wider than ever, but she must not open her mouth until she
gives her allegiance to him who will know all her thoughts. With
best regards
_Yours as ever_,
J. FENIMORE COOPER.
NOTE.--Later light on the subject reveals Mr. Harrison's "dying of
love" as a hearty admiration and esteem for the rare grace and
charm of character, mind, and person possessed by Judge Cooper's
young daughter.
[Illustration: TALLEYRAND.]
During 1795 many distinguished exiles came to this new-country home, and
among those who found their way to Otsego Hall was the Marquis de
Talleyrand, who was pleased to write an acrostic on Miss Cooper, then
seventeen. The famous Frenchman's record, in part, of this visit was
"_Otsego n'est pas gai_." Compared to the France of Talleyrand's day
this record was true. The _Otsego Herald's_ motto of that time was
Historic truth our _Herald_ shall proclaim, The Law our guide, the
public good our aim.
In its issue of October 2, 1795, appeared the celebrated diplomat's
Acrostic.
Aimable philosophe au printemps de son âge,
Ni les temps, ni les lieus n'altèrent son esprit;
Ne cèdent qu' à ses goûts simples et son étalage,
Au milieu des deserts, elle lit, pense, écrit.
Cultivez, belle Anna, votre goût pour l'étude;
On ne saurait ici mieux employer son temps;
Otsego n'est pas gai--mais, tout est habitude;
Paris vous déplairait fort au premier moment;
Et qui jouit de soi dans une solitude,
Rentrant au monde, est sur d'en faire I'ornement.
In affectionate remembrance of Miss Cooper the hill just northwest of
Cooperstown was named for her, and "Hannah's Hill" commands one of the
town's finest views. In the quiet shades of Christ's Church yard "belle
Anna" rests beneath a slab bearing some lines by her father, but not her
name.
The August before this sad event Judge Cooper gave the first of the many
"lake parties" that floated over Otsego--"which no waters can rival." In
the fairness of her youth Miss Hannah was there with her little sister,
later Mrs. Pomeroy; and also, among the gay "five and twenty friends
from Philadelphia," were their brothers. Indian canoes and flat-bottomed
skiffs conveyed them to the eastern shore, where, at Two-Mile Point, a
frightened fawn, startled from its forest home by the dogs of Shipman
the hunter,--who later outlined "Leatherstocking,"--darted from the
leafy thicket and plunged into the lake. At once all were in motion to
rescue the little creature now swimming for life. It was successfully
brought to land and became a great pet with Judge Cooper's children; but
one day, frightened by strange, fierce dogs, it bounded into the forest
depths for refuge, and never returned.
The centennial anniversary of this first picnic was celebrated by the
third and fourth generation of Judge Cooper's descendants, who met at
Point Judith to honor the occasion. Of the verses written by Mr. George
Pomeroy Keese concerning this event two are:
[Illustration: POINT JUDITH.]
And one hundred years have come and gone
Since our country then was new,
And now we keep in memory dear
Our love for the good and true.
To one who came to his forest home
And gave to our village its name;
To the son, the touch of whose magic pen
Has lifted to world-wide fame.
In this summer of 1800 Richard, Judge Cooper's eldest son, built his
house of frame on "Apple Hill." It was the second villa-like home in the
village. Its site, now known as "Fernleigh," is the country-seat of
Stephen Clark, Esq. "Edgewater," overlooking Lake Otsego, is the land
that, after Judge Cooper's death in 1809, fell to his son Isaac. Here,
the following year, Isaac Cooper built his home of brick. Later, it
changed in form, use, and ownership, but again became a family
possession through the marriage of Mr. Theodore Keese with the daughter
of George Pomeroy and Ann Cooper. Renewing in all ways the charm and
grace of its early days, "Edgewater," as the home of Mr. George Pomeroy
Keese, the grandson of Fenimore Cooper's youngest sister Ann, commands
at the foot of the lake its length, breadth, beauty, and inspiration.
[Illustration: "EDGEWATER."]
The old stone house, known as the "Deacon Pomeroy's place," that stood
at the corner of Main and River streets, gives--in a quaint gable--an
enduring record of romance in this sister Ann's young-life. It was
built of stone in the peculiar herring-bone style by Judge William
Cooper for a wedding gift to his only living daughter, Ann, when she
married George Pomeroy, grandson of Gen. Seth Pomeroy and lineal
descendant of that Sir Ralph de Pomeroy who came to England with William
the Conqueror. In this quaint gable appear the intertwined letters
G.A.P.C.--the initials of the bridegroom and bride,--with the date 1804
beneath.
[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. GEORGE POMEROY.]
The Cooper room of this old stone house, now the home of Mrs. Benedict,
a granddaughter, shelters family portraits from William Cooper's time
down to the present day--five generations. What stories might it not
tell of the attractive originals? Many were the letters that Fenimore
Cooper wrote from Europe to this sister, Mrs. George Pomeroy, of the
old stone house.
Mrs. Benedict has also placed there many souvenirs of her sister,
Constance Fenimore Woolson, gathered during-her long residence in
Europe, including the author's writing-table and her chair.
[Illustration: THE OLD STONE HOUSE.]
"Master Oliver Cory kept the village school" in those child-days of
Fenimore Cooper, and long after. "He was well qualified for that post;
laborious, upright, firm, yet patient and kindly by nature. His
training of the boys was excellent. Saturdays were given to religious
lessons, and he paid careful but quiet attention to their morals and
manners." From his sister Hannah's teaching Judge Cooper's youngest son
went to Master Cory's school. It was kept in "one of those tasteless
buildings that afflict all new countries," and here was called the
"Academy." It served Cooperstown in timely ways for religious and
political meetings; public courts were held here, and a ball was given
now and then under its roof. As to the school, time and incident brought
out a taste for music in the pupils of Master Cory. It seems that Judge
Cooper had brought from Philadelphia a large upright organ of imposing
appearance and power, which he placed in his manor-house hall. Its
arrival in the village made a summer's sensation. When put up and
adjusted, a rehearsal of country dances, reels, and more serious music
came floating through the broad door and ample windows of Otsego Hall
into Master Cory's domain, the Academy, which stood in the adjoining
street. As, with magic effect the strains of "Hail Columbia" poured into
the schoolroom, Master Cory skilfully met a moment of open rebellion
with these words: "Boys, that organ is a remarkable instrument. You
never heard the like of it before. I give you half an hour's
intermission. Go into the street and listen to the music!"
[Illustration: COOPERSTOWN PRIOR TO 1835.]
These "Academy boys" were ambitious; each annual exhibition was crowded,
to listen to the speeches "of Coriolanus, Iago, Brutus, and Cassius" by
"raw lads from the village and adjoining farms," in all the bravery of
local militia uniform--blue coats "faced with red, matross swords, and
hats of '76." On such an occasion James Cooper, then a child of eight
years, became the pride and admiration of Master Cory for his moving
recitation of the "Beggar's Petition"--acting the part of an old man
wrapped in a faded cloak and leaning over his staff. It is recorded that
James had the fine, healthy pie-appetite usual to his age, for, says the
record, when his eldest brother "was showing the sights of New York to
the youngest, he took him to a pasty-shop, and, after watching the boy
eat pasty after pasty, said to him: 'Jim, eat all you want, but remember
that each one costs the old man a lot.'" Pasty then outbalanced property
for "Jim."
In due time the lad outgrew the Academy's instruction, but from boy
to-man he never outgrew Master Cory's affection, nor his own for the
dear home scenes on the shores of the "Haunted Lake," which he was so
soon to leave for his first important schooling. The books he wrote
later tell how he never forgot the howl of the wolf across the icy field
of Otsego on cold winter nights, the peculiar wail of the sharp-toothed
panther in the quiet wood roads, nor the familiar springs where the deer
lingered latest. One autumn day, while still a pupil under Master Cory's
charge, the future author of "The Pioneers" was at play in his father's
garden, when suddenly he was surprised by a deer which came leaping over
the fence from the street, almost brushing his face as it bounded away
into the pine woods at the back of the house. This incident he often
related to his children.
It was not long before this youngest son was sent from home. The
eventful journey to Albany was made in the care of a near and worthy
farmer, "who was carrying toward the Hudson a load of wheat from the
fields of Otsego." They went over the fine turnpike,--the great highway
of that day,--"just finished from the Hudson to Cherry Valley." The
child had heard much of this wonder of roads from the gentlemen at his
father's table who were interested in it, and he was eager to see its
toll-gates and stone bridges. After leaving "the corduroy tracks"
leading to it from Cooperstown, the famous turnpike burst upon the
gratified schoolboy's vision. As they trotted slowly along the farmer
pointed out, among-other marvels of the way, "a tavern for every mile"
of the sixty between Albany and Lake Otsego. A long-train of farmers'
wagons, filled with the precious wheat, was slowly rolling eastward,
passing-emigrant wagons of "growing families" and household gear moving
westward to the great lake countries. All this delighted the boy of
nine, who was finally set down at the door of St. Peter's Rectory at
Albany, New York. Here for four years he became one of the four young
pupils of the Rev. Thomas Ellison, rector of the church. Dr. Ellison was
an Englishman and a graduate of Oxford--a rare scholar and a king's man.
From him came Cooper's strong preference for English church government
and equally strong feeling against the Puritans of Old and New England.
While the Puritan's character was not pleasing to Cooper, he himself
was called a "Puritan of Puritans," and it was to them he referred in
the following: "Whatever else I may think of the Yankees,--a calmer,
firmer, braver people do not walk this earth." Of this sentiment "The
Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," published in 1829, gives ample proof.
[Illustration: DR. THOMAS ELLISON.]
The Rev. Joseph Hooper, author of the "History of St. Peter's Church,
Albany, N.Y.," related an incident of Cooper's old Rectory school days
there. The story came to Dr. Hooper from Mr. Edward Floyd de Lancy, son
of Bishop de Lancy of Western New York, and is as follows:
It was the custom of the Rev. Thomas Ellison when he became too feeble
to personally direct his workmen, to sit upon the stoop of the Rectory
and watch the removal of the sandbank which covered the chosen site for
the new church, corner of State and Lodge streets. Hundreds of loads had
to be carted away before the foundation could be laid, and some of the
carter's pay tickets on quartered playing-cards are preserved in St.
Peter's archives. But the great hole in the ground had a great
attraction for the boys of Albany, and they would leap into it to play
tag and leap-frog until the stern voice of the Dominie called them to
order, when they would scamper away or hide in some corner out of sight
of the piercing eyes of Dr. Ellison. Sometimes they would answer him
mockingly, to his great annoyance. He could not pursue them, but he
could, when his own pupils joined with the other boys, as they often
did, give them stern and severe lectures upon their conduct, for they
were playing on ground to be used for a sacred purpose. Even the rod of
correction was used without curing them of this habit. Young Cooper was
often a ringleader, and their pranks would often continue until darkness
concealed them from the watchful and angry Rector, to whom,
nevertheless, they gave due honor and respect.
[Illustration: ST. PETER'S CHURCH, ALBANY, N.Y.]
[Illustration: STATE STREET, ALBANY, N.Y., 1802.]
From one of his "Sketches of England," written to William, Judge John
Jay's second son, comes, in part, Cooper's graphic description of Dr.
Ellison: "Thirty-six years ago you and I were school fellows and
classmates in the home of a clergyman of the true English school. This
man entertained a most profound reverence for the King and the nobility;
was not backward in expressing his contempt for all classes of
dissenters and all ungentlemanly sects; was particularly severe on the
immoralities of the French Revolution, and, though eating our bread, was
not especially lenient to our own; compelled you and me to begin Virgil
with the eclogues, and Cicero with the knotty phrases that open the
oration in favor of the poet Archias, because these writers would not
have placed them first in the books if they did not intend people to
read them first; spent his money freely and sometimes that of other
people; was particularly tenacious of the ritual and of all decencies of
the Church; detested a democrat as he did the devil; cracked his jokes
daily about Mr. Jefferson, never failing to place his libertinism in
strong relief against the approved morals of George III., of several
passages in whose history it is charitable to suppose he was ignorant;
prayed fervently on Sunday; decried all morals, institutions, churches,
manners but those of England from Monday to Saturday."
The lad from Otsego soon became a prime favorite with his tutor, who
took pleasure in teaching him. The old-fashioned, heroic romances were a
rare delight to him,--a taste which was thought to come from his mother,
who was very fond of such reading. One vacation, at about the age of
eleven, he and a playmate lost themselves in the exciting interest of
such a tale; "Don Belianus of Greece" made so deep an impression on
Cooper that after reading it he said seriously to his playfellow that he
would write a book himself, and would "begin it at once." And, like "Don
Belianus of Greece," this story was to have "knights, and squires, and
horses, and ladies, and castles and banners." With the glory of his
story in mind, the boy had utterly forgotten his hearty dislike of
pen-work at school. But his active brain soon put to flight this
hobgoblin; he thought of the bit of a blue newspaper--the _Otsego
Herald_--printed in Cooperstown by the father of his comrade. So they
planned to use the resting-time of the press for the printing of this
new book, of which, however, only a few chapters were put in type. The
new author soon wearied of his work; but none the less it was the first
step in his future literary career.
During 1801 a man near fifty, cleanly clad in sailor's gear but without
stockings or neckcloth, appeared before Judge Cooper and asked if the
lot between Fenimore and the village was for sale. The answer was, "Yes,
but the price is high," and naming it, the stranger requested that a
deed be made out at once; he counted down the amount in gold, and gave
his name as Esaias Hausman. He had built for himself a small rude house
on this lot and lived alone in it for years. The secrets of his former
life, his wide learning (once found teaching a college president
Hebrew), and disappearance at times, were never solved. Only his death
revealed a purse of gold worn between his shoulder-blades. There was no
will, so to public sale went the little hut and its lake-shore lot. This
man of mystery made a deep impression on Cooper's boy-mind, and later,
in 1838, was the subject of several pages of the author's "Chronicles of
Cooperstown." Then there was James Allen,--a Scotch master-mason,--who
came his way from the "Land o' Cakes" in 1801, and found, as an
employee of Judge Cooper, an opening for his trade, and soon became a
great favorite with the Cooper boys. This master-mason took great pride
in exact work, with which no trifling was permitted. No stone could be
moved but his true eye would detect it in a flash, and wild was the fury
with which his fiery trowel flew for the culprit, and with such
convincing force that it was wise to avoid further meddling with the
"gude mon's" work. Of "Jamie Allen," master-mason and staunch _auld
kirke mon_, many an amusing story is told in Fenimore Cooper's
"Wyandotté, or the Hutted Knoll," written in 1843. These men among
others marked the unusual in Cooper's vacations from Dr. Ellison's
school-rule at Albany. Later in life he wrote a lively memory-sketch of
his tutor, the rector of St. Peter's Church. But the death in 1802 of
this accomplished gentleman sent his pupil--then a stripling of
thirteen--to Yale. He entered the freshman 1802-3 January-term class,
and, "excepting the poet Hillhouse, two weeks his junior, James Cooper
was the youngest student in college." There "his progress in his studies
is said to have been honorable to his talents." And "in the ancient
languages he had no superior in his class."
[Illustration: "NEAR SHORES" OF NEW HAVEN.]
Cooper owned to having learned little at college. When left to his own
bent, his early love for out-of-door life drew him to roam the hills and
explore near shores, and to his first view of the grand old ocean, which
later claimed his tribute of service. For a boyish frolic in his junior
year the lad left Yale, and this incident ended his college career. It
is of record that Judge Cooper took the boy's part against the faculty
version and brought his son home. Yet something from his books James
Cooper must have gleaned, for there is a story of a young sailor who, in
some public place in the streets of an English port, attracted the
curiosity of the crowd by explaining to his companions the meaning of a
Latin motto.
[Illustration: DR. TIMOTHY DWIGHT.]
[Illustration: YALE COLLEGE, 1806.]
[Illustration: WILLIAM JAY IN YOUTH.]
The Albany, school-boy days of William Jay and James Cooper were renewed
at Yale where was welded their strong life-friendship. On the college
roll of their time appear amongst other names that of John C. Calhoun of
South Carolina, and the scholarly poet Hillhouse of New Haven. In the
Dodd, Mead & Company's 1892 issue of "William Jay and the Constitutional
Movement for the Abolition of Slavery," by Bayard Tuckerman, with a
preface, by John Jay, appears a letter dating 1852, written by Judge
William Jay to his grandson. This letter gives graphic glimpses of
Yale College life during the student days there of its writer and James
Cooper: "The resident graduates were denominated 'Sirs'; their place in
Chapel was called 'the Sirs pew'; and when spoken of in college 'Sir'
was always placed before their names. At that time the freshmen
occupied, in part, the place of sizers in the English universities, and
they were required to run errands for the seniors. My room-mate was Sir
Holly (Dr. Horace Holly). As a mere freshman, I looked up to my
room-mate with great respect, and treated him accordingly. About half
past five in winter, the bell summoned us from our beds,--I rose,
generally, before six,--made the fire, and then went, pitcher in hand,
often wading through snow, for water for Sir Holly and myself. Of the
college bell," the letter continues: "at six it called us to prayers in
the chapel. We next repaired to the recitation-rooms and recited, by
candlelight, the lessons we had studied the preceding evening. At eight
we had breakfast,--our meals were taken in a large hall with a kitchen
opening into it. The students were arranged at tables according to their
classes. All sat on wooden benches, not excepting the tutors; the
latter had a table to themselves on an elevated platform whence they
had a view of the whole company. But it was rather difficult for them to
attend to their plates and to watch two hundred boys at the same time.
Salt beef once a day, and dry cod were perhaps the most usual dishes. On
Sunday mornings, during the winter, our breakfast-tables were graced
with large tin milk-cans filled with stewed oysters; at the proper
season we were occasionally treated with green peas. As you may suppose,
a goodly number of waiters were needed in the hall. These were all
students, and many of them among the best and most esteemed scholars. At
nine the bell warned us to our rooms. At twelve it called us to a
recitation or a lecture. After dinner we recommenced our studies for the
third time, at four o'clock. During study hours the tutors would
frequently go the rounds, looking into our rooms to see that we were not
playing truant. Before supper, we all attended prayers in the chapel."
[Illustration: SILHOUETTE OF JAMES COOPER WHEN A STUDENT AT YALE.]
Although, from the necessity of his times, Chief-Justice John Jay was a
slave owner, his son, William--refined, benevolent, pleasing in manner,
but with a temper easily aroused by injustice--became an early, alert,
and strong advocate of the anti-slavery cause. This eminent jurist who
built his life upon the plan of his words, "Duties are ours and
consequences are God's" (as did also Cooper), was graphically addressed
and described by Cooper as "Thou most pugnacious man of peace."
[Illustration: OUTWARD BOUND.]
Leaving Yale to the more studious, no doubt the young man enjoyed this
brief period of home-life and the distinguished guests drawn by its
hospitality to Otsego Hall. Yet even this could not for long hold him
there. Perhaps he was influenced by what he heard from them of the great
outside world, and he, too, wished to see what it was like. As a
stepping-stone to a commission in the navy, Judge Cooper secured a berth
for his son, who shipped as a sailor before-the-mast in the _Stirling_,
of Wiscasset, Maine, John Johnston master and part owner. In the care of
a merchant, young Cooper went down to the docks to look about the ship
and sign the articles, and the next day he returned in his sailor's
garb. The _Stirling_ was taken into the stream, and his new comrades, a
mixture of nations,--four Americans, a Portuguese, a Spaniard, a
Prussian, a Dane, an Englishman, a Scotch boy, and a Canadian,--tumbled
aboard, not quite themselves; but by night they were in working trim.
The young commander was described as "kind and considerate of all
hands," and the ship as "carrying a motley crew." When "all hands" were
called to get the _Stirling_ under way, Cooper, with another boy, was
sent aloft to loose the foretopsail. With eager will he tugged stoutly
at "the robbins," when the second mate appeared just in time to prevent
him from dropping his part of the sail into the top. The good-hearted
mate had a kindly mind for the "new hand," and the men were too busy to
notice small failures aloft. Young Cooper soon found an old salt who
taught him to knot and splice with the best of them, and old Barnstable
was repaid for these lessons by the merry times they had together when
they got ashore. However, with her cargo of flour, the _Stirling_ sailed
from New York in the autumn of 1806 for the English market at Cowes, and
therefore when Cooper should have been taking his class degree at Yale,
he was outward bound on the sea's highway. Being to the manor born did
not admit the sailor before-the-mast to the captain's cabin, but no
doubt the long, rough voyage of forty stormy days did make of the young
man a jolly tar. Through her usual veil of fog came Cooper's first view
of Old England when threatened with Napoleon's invasion. Forty-odd sail
of warships were sighted by the night-watch when the _Stirling_ passed
the straits of Dover at daybreak. They gave the young man an
object-lesson that he never forgot, in the watchfulness and naval power
of Great Britain. The _Stirling_ had but dropped anchor in English
waters when she was boarded by a British man-of-war's boat-crew, and one
of her best hands was forced into the English navy service, and another
sailor barely escaped, he having satisfactory papers. At London a third
hand was lost, and Captain Johnston himself was seized by a press-gang.
[Illustration: GIBRALTAR.]
Finally, in round-jacket and tarpaulin, the future guest of Samuel
Rogers and Holland House, planted his feet on British soil. At London he
saw about everything a gay young fellow of seventeen in sailor's gear
could, of that wonderful city,--or so thought Ned Myers, one of his
shipmates, who was with him most of the time. Concerning these jaunts
Myers says: "I had one or two cruises of a Sunday in the tow of Cooper,
who soon became a branch pilot in those waters about the parks and the
West End, the Monument, St. Paul's and the lions; Cooper took a look at
the arsenal, jewels, and armory [Tower of London]. He had a rum time of
it in his sailor's rig; hoisted in a wonderful lot of gibberish." And
with his fine stories of each day's sights in old London town, the young
sailor would make merry evenings for his forecastle comrades, of whom
it is recorded his strength could lay flat on their backs in two
minutes.
In January the _Stirling_ spread her sails for another stormy
passage,--to the straits of Gibraltar. On running out, the ship was
boarded by a gun-boat officer, who tried to press a Swede; whereupon,
young Cooper thinking it an insult to our flag, began high words with
the Englishman, but was soon silenced by Captain Johnston. The
_Stirling_ met with various stirring adventures, being chased by a
Bay-of-Biscay pirate and rescued by the timely appearance of a British
cruiser. It was thick westerly weather when they ran into the straits,
and as the English fleet was off Cape Trafalgar, Captain Johnston
realized the danger of being run down in the night, and came on deck
during the middle watch for a sharp lookout on the forecastle. Night
orders were given when came the warning, "Sail ho!" and through the
mists and shadows was seen dimly a two-decker bearing directly clown
upon them. The Captain ordered the helm "hard up!" and called Cooper to
"bring a light." With a leap he rushed to the cabin, seized the light,
and in half a minute it was swinging from the mizzen rigging, his
promptness saving the ship. So near were the two vessels that the deck
officer's voice was distinctly heard calling his quarter-master to "port
the helm." As the great mass swept by them she seemed about to crush
their railing with the muzzle of her guns.
While the _Stirling_ was lying off the old Moorish town of Almaria,
Cooper and others were sent ashore in a jolly-boat to boil pitch. To
return to the ship they put off in a heavy sea, knowing it would be
difficult to work through the surf; but orders were orders, and delay
would not help. So off they plunged, when suddenly a breaker "took the
bow of the boat, and lifting her almost on end, turned her keel
uppermost." All hands got safely ashore--how, none could tell. A second
launching resulted as the first, but with a third they succeeded in
forging their way out, and boarded the ship. Later they ran short of
provisions. But the _Stirling's_ return cargo was brought back safely to
London, where the ship lay at anchor for two months or more, and then
sailed in July for America. After a voyage of fifty-two days she dropped
anchor at Philadelphia, September 18, 1807. So much for this good ship
named for Stirling Castle of Bonnie Scotland.
Such were the lessons young Cooper learned in this rough but manly
school. A brother officer who knew him well said, "He was active,
prompt, and efficient, a pleasant shipmate, always ready to do his duty,
and rigorous too in exacting it of others." Of Cooper's "Naval History"
was added, "It is the noblest tribute ever paid to a noble profession."
Aboard the _Stirling_ on these several cruises Cooper learned much that
afterwards appeared in his sea tales. It was of this sea-service that he
wrote, "I have been myself one of eleven hands, officers included, to
navigate a ship of three hundred tons across the Atlantic Ocean; and,
what is more, we often reefed topsails with the watch." Of the
_Stirling_ he wrote, "The ship was on a bow-line most of the time"; and
he thought her "one of the wettest ships that ever floated when heading
tip against the sea." A lively account of this eleven months' service is
found in Cooper's story of "Ned Myers." This life of his shipmate aboard
the _Stirling_ was written in 1843. The old salt was a battered hulk in
the "Sailor's Snug Harbor" when Cooper was on the crest of the wave of
his literary fame, and the old sailor, wondering if this Cooper could be
the comrade of his youth in the _Stirling_ days of yore, wrote, after
the twenty-five years of separation, to inquire. The answer was, "I am
your old shipmate, Ned." Later, "Ned" was invited to visit the Hall.
Many remember the interesting two in 1843. "Hardly a day passed that
they were not seen, as the heavy Hall gates swung open at eleven
o'clock, coming out for a morning walk or a sail on the lake;--Cooper's
portly form, and by his side a shriveled figure with halting step,
leaning heavily on a crooked stick which served for a cane. They were as
strong in contrast as it was possible for men to be." It was during this
visit that the old sailor spun his life-yarn in his own way and Cooper
wove it into his book, "Ned Myers."
[Illustration: SAILOR'S SNUG HARBOR.]
Perhaps the following interesting Cooperstown story of Cooper's youth
is of the time of his return from his _Stirling_ voyage. One day a merry
group of young men proposed a footrace, the course to be around the
square--a distance of about one hundred yards. James Cooper was named as
one of the runners, and his rival was soon chosen. According to custom,
the village boys, girls, men, and women were spectators. Like a
mettlesome steed in curb young Cooper looked at the wager,--a basket of
fruit,--then at his race-mate, and accepted the challenge, but not on
even terms. It was not enough for a sailor simply to outrun a landsman;
he could do more. A little girl stood near, her bright face eager with
watching for the fray. Cooper turned quickly and caught her up in his
arms, and with the pride and muscle of an athlete exclaimed, "I'll carry
her with me and beat you!" Away they flew, Cooper with his laughing
burden upon his shoulders; one corner was turned, and the excited crowd
saw with surprise James Cooper with his small rider keeping pace with
the other flying youth. Another, and the other corners were soon passed;
both sprang like race-horses near the end of the course, but Cooper,
with his little black-eyed girl aloft and the perspiration pouring down
his manly brow and cheeks, was the first to reach the mark, and amidst
such cheers and hurrahs as only pioneers can freely give, and as freely
enjoy. The fruit he had won, but soon it was shared by all around. That
little girl, later the wife of Captain William Wilson, often told the
story of her ride on pleasant James Cooper's shoulders.
[Illustration: OTSEGO HALL GATES.]
While never a rhymester, Cooper, in his early manhood and at rare times
after, did write occasional sentimental and comic verses that betokened
both clever imagination and other merit. Into the _Otsego Herald_
printing-office a poor epileptic ballad-singer came one day to ask help
from a group of gentlemen A purse was made up for him, but he, looking
among them, said if one of them would write for him "a few
verses--something new"--they would be worth more than the silver given
him. Young Cooper offered to try, and asked on what subject he should
write "There's nothing sells like ballads," was the reply. So the ballad
was promised; and some thirty or more pathetic verses were written at
once, about the small frontier village recently burnt by troops under
Colonel Murray during the close of the last war with England. This
ballad bore the high-sounding title of "Buffalo Burnt, or the Dreadful
Conflagration." It won such success among the farm-house gentry that
the singer returned for another ballad and obtained it. Some years later
Mr. Cooper was invited to a tea-party in a near village, when a young
lady, led to the piano for music, began to sing, much to the author's
disturbing amazement, "Buffalo Burnt, or the Dreadful Conflagration."
[Illustration: BUFFALO BURNT.]
So passed the pleasant vacation days of our young sailor, whose training
before-the-mast enabled his father to obtain for him a midshipman's
commission in the United States Navy, for which James Cooper reported
for duty at New York City, January 12, 1808. At the age of nineteen he
first served aboard the _Vesuvius._ Thence he was ordered to Oswego, New
York, to build the brig _Oneida_ for Lake Ontario service, and which the
spring of 1809 saw launched.
[Illustration: THE "VESUVIUS."]
[Illustration: ONTARIO FORESTS.]
While the war flurries which called for the building of the vessel were
tethered, Cooper had learned his lesson in ship-building, ship-yard
duties, and water-border life; and these served him more than thirty
years later in his matchless Indian story, "The Pathfinder." Miss Susan
Cooper has left some interesting pages of this period of her father's
naval service; in part they read: "In 1808 several young officers under
Lieutenant Woolsey were ordered to the shores of Lake Ontario for
building a small vessel of war. Among them was Mr. Cooper, then a
midshipman in the service. Their road lay for many a mile through the
forest to the mouth of the Oswego River,--their destination,--where the
_Oneida_, a brig mounting sixteen guns, was built and launched. They
enjoyed the wild coloring of frontier life They roamed the forests and
explored the shores in leisure hours. Cruises among the Thousand Islands
were frequent; many were the fine fish caught and good chowders eaten.
The picturesque beauties of the region, the countless islands, were
greatly enjoyed and never forgotten by the young midshipman." The
youthful officers were ordered to Buffalo, and stopping for the night at
a rude frontier inn, it was Cooper's duty to inquire what they might
have for supper. "Mine host shook his head ruefully; he could promise
very little. 'Give us what you eat yourself; you must have food of some
kind,' said Cooper. Mine host looked melancholy; on his honor he assured
the young officers he had absolutely nothing to set before them but
game, steak, and brook-trout; and, maybe his wife could find cranberries
for a tart! A month earlier they should have had a dish of fried pork
fit for the President, with a pumpkin pie after it. 'Game's plenty, but
nothin' else!' added the publican with a sigh. Mine host was pining for
pork! On this expedition Mr. Cooper saw Niagara for the first time. He
was struck with the grandeur of the cataract, but felt its sublime
character far more deeply on a later visit--after his return from
Europe."
[Illustration: THE THOUSAND ISLANDS.]
[Illustration: THE PORT OF BUFFALO.]
When the _Oneida_ was launched the gallant young officers resolved to
celebrate the event by giving a ball. "This was an enterprise of a
desperate character;--building a brig hundreds of miles from a ship-yard
was a trifle to giving a ball in the wilderness. True, one fiddle and
half a dozen officers were something; refreshments and a military
ball-room might be hoped for; but where, pray, were the ladies to come
from?" They would not think of dancing with each other, and ladies must
be found. Vigorous efforts were made by sending boats in some directions
and carts miles in others, to invite the ladies; and they accepted. As
the hour drew near a very delicate point came up for decision--the
honors due different fair claimants. After a council of war, Lieutenant
Woolsey gave to his master-of-ceremonies these orders: "All ladies, sir,
provided with shoes and stockings are to be led to the head of the
Virginia reel; ladies with shoes, and without stockings, are considered
in the second rank; ladies without shoes or stockings you will lead,
gentlemen, to the foot of the country dance!" Such was a grand military
ball in Oswego County in 1808-9.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN M.T. WOOLSEY.]
About this time occurred an amusing incident of their raw young
mess-servant, fresh from Ireland: "A table-cloth had taken fire and was
in full blaze; Paddy was at the moment filling a teapot from an ample
kettle in his hand. 'Pour the water on the table!' called out one of the
officers. 'Sure, the wather is _hot_, your honor!' exclaimed Paddy, in
great dismay, holding the kettle at a very safe distance from the
blazing cloth, and his face such a picture of helpless despair as to
make Mr. Cooper heartily laugh at every after-thought of it."
The passing of thirty or more years made of this light-hearted young
midshipman a well-known writer, with the purpose that his next book
should tell of this unforgettable region of the great lakes. He wished
to-bring into it the sailors and Indians as, by coming in close contact
with them, "he knew their personalities and characteristics." Then,
forest scenes without "Natty Bumppo" could scarce come from his pen
after the drawings of old "Leatherstocking" of "The Pioneers," "Hawkeye"
of "The Mohicans," and the "aged trapper" of "The Prairie." So it came
about that "Natty, the lover," stepped into these pages--Natty, "so
simple, so tender, so noble and true--what shall be said of him? We must
all needs love him; it is not with words but with tears that we wring
his hand and part from him on the lake shore" as "The Pathfinder."
Glowing and brave proved his Mabel, as "the bubble of a boat floated on
the very crest of a foaming breaker,"--yet not for him. But the ripple
of the lake's waves and rustling of forest leaves are as unforgettable
as the low, sweet tones of "Dew-of-June." Of "The Pathfinder" and Cooper
Balzac wrote: "Its interest is tremendous. He surely owed us this
masterpiece after the last two or three raphsodies he has given us."
[Illustration: THE PATHFINDER.]
[Illustration: A BUBBLE OF A BOAT.]
In the year 1809 Cooper was attached to a gun-boat serving on Lake
Champlain, and on November 13 following, he was ordered to the _Wasp_,
under Capt. James Lawrence, of Burlington--a personal friend, and also
the heroic commander of the _Chesapeake_ in her action with the
_Shannon_, in which his last words were, "Don't give up the ship!" It
was aboard the _Wasp_ that Cooper's lifelong friendship with Commodore
Shubrick of South Carolina began, who, like himself, and a year younger,
was a midshipman. To this friend the author dedicated "The Pilot," "Red
Rover," and other stories.
[Illustration: CAPTAIN LAWRENCE.]
[Illustration: THE "WASP."]
Political feeling ran high in those early days of 1809, and prominent
persons did not escape from their opponents with hitter feeling only. So
it came about that in December of that year, Judge Cooper, on leaving a
hot convention, met his death,--the result of a blow on the head, as he
was coming down the steps of the State capitol at Albany, New York. No
one of his day who was engaged in the work of large buying and selling
of land made so deep an impression as did Judge Cooper on his times, and
on his author son, whose land books disclose to posterity with historic
exactness the hardships and values of the pioneers of our country.
After Judge Cooper's death Richard Fenimore, his eldest son, became the
head of the family, and it was to him that James wrote from
New York, May 18th, 1810
I wrote you yesterday, a letter in a great hurry, as its contents
are of some importance. I employ the leisure time offered today, to
inform you more fully of my views.
When you were in the City, I hinted to you, my intention of
resigning at the end of this session of Congress, should nothing be
done for the Navy--my only reason at that time was the blasted
prospects of the service. I accordingly wrote my resignation and as
usual offer'd it to Capt. Lawrence, for his inspection--he very
warmly recommended to me to give the service the trial of another
year or two--at the same time offering to procure me a furlough
which would leave me perfect master of my actions in the
interval--I thought it wisest to accept this proposition--at the
end of this year I have it in my power to resign, should the
situation of the Country warrant it.
Like all the rest of the sons of Adam, I have bowed to the
influence of the claims of a fair damsel of eighteen. I loved her
like a man and told her of it like a sailor. The peculiarity of my
situation occasion'd me to act with something like precipitancy. I
am perfectly confident, however, I shall never have cause to repent
of it--. As you are _cooly_ to decide, I will as _cooly_ give you
the qualities of my mistress. Susan De Lancey is the daughter of a
man of very respectable connections and a handsome
fortune--amiable, sweet-tempered and happy in her disposition.--She
has been educated in the country, occasionally trying the
temperature of the City--to rub off the rust--but hold a moment, it
is enough she pleases _me_ in the qualities of her _person_ and
_mind_--. Like a true quixotic lover, I made proposals to her
father--he has answered them in the most gentlemanly manner--. You
have my consent to address my daughter if you will gain the
approbation of your mother--He also informs me that his daughter
has an estate in the County of Westchester in reversion, secured to
her by a deed in trust to him--. I write all this for _you_--you
know _I_ am indifferent to anything of this nature. Now I have to
request--you will take your hat and go to mother, the boys, girls,
and say to them have you any objection that James Cooper shall
marry at a future day, Susan De Lancey. If any of them forbid the
bans may the Lord have forgiven them--for I never will--. Then take
your pen and write to Mr. De Lancey stating the _happiness_ and
_pleasure_ it will give all the family to have this connection
completed--all this I wish you to do immediately, as I am deprived
of the pleasure of visiting my flame until this is done, by that
confounded _bore_, delicacy--be so good as to inclose the letter in
one to me, at the same time don't forget to inclose a handsome sum
to square the yards here and bring me to Cooperstown.
I wish not to interrupt you in your attempt to clear the estate--my
expenditure shall be as small as possible.
_Your brother,_ James Cooper.
The de Lanceys were Huguenots and their loyalty to England during the
Revolution made several of them British officers. Although Cooper was
ever a staunch American, this incident, with several others in his
later life, seemed unfavorable to some few who were only too willing to
question his loyalty.
[Illustration: FRAUNCES TAVERN.]
[Illustration: GOV. JAMES DE LANCEY'S SEAL.]
[Illustration: HEATHCOTE ARMS.]
Miss de Lancey's great grandfather, Stephen, was the first of this
aristocratic Westchester-County family on American soil. He fled
from Normandy on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and in
1686 came to New York. Here his son James became chief-justice and
lieutenant-governor, and married Ann, eldest daughter of the Hon. Caleb
Heathcote, lord of the manor of Scarsdale, Westchester, and whose manor
house was Heathcote Hill, which their fourth son, John Peter de Lancey,
Cooper's father-in-law, inherited from his mother. One of a number of
services the old-world Derbyshire Heathcote-Hill family rendered to its
country was giving to the Bank of England its first president. The de
Lancey name still clings to the new-world history in Fraunces Tavern,
built by Stephen de Lancey in 1700, for his home. Sixty-two years later
it became the tavern of Samuel Fraunces. In 1776 and 1783 it was the
headquarters of General Washington, and in its famous _Long Room_ "The
Father of his Country" made his farewell address, and bid adieu to his
generals. Number 130 Broadway was the de Lancey home of 1730, and here
was given the first inauguration ball of our nation. On this site was
built "Burn's Coffee House," which teemed with interesting events. The
City Hotel took its place in 1806. John Peter de Lancey married
Elizabeth, daughter of Col. Richard Floyd, and in 1789 came to
Heathcote Hill, Westchester County, which he rebuilt on the site of the
old manor house, burned down. In this home he lived out his days. Here
his son, William Heathcote, Bishop of Western New York, was born; and
also his lovely daughter, Susan Augusta; here she was wooed and won by
the handsome young naval officer, and on New Year's day, 1811, became
Mrs. James Cooper. In 1899 Dr. Theodore F. Wolfe writes of Cooper and
Heathcote Hill--that some of the great trees which waved their green
leafage above him lingering here with sweetheart or bride yet shade the
grounds, but the household that welcomed him and gave him a beloved
daughter lie in a little grass-grown cemetery near to this old home.
Mrs. Cooper had a sweet, gracious way of guiding by affection her
husband, and he gave her his heart's devotion through the forty years
of their happily mated life. Cooper and his young bride began life by
playing a game of chess between the ceremony and supper. Then, he
driving two horses tandem, they made their wedding journey to
Cooperstown in a gig. His furlough ended a few months later, and to
please his wife, he resigned in May from the navy. Long afterwards he
wrote, "She confesses she would never have done for Lady Collingwood."
For a year or more Cooper and his wife lived with her father at
Heathcote Hill, Mamaroneck, New York, and afterwards in a near-by
cottage on the "Neck," which Cooper named "Closet Hall" because it was
so small, and he described it as the home of the Littlepage family in
"Satanstoe." Only two old willows remain of the group that almost
concealed Cooper's wee house, now entirely rebuilt, and they named the
place as the home of Alice B. Havens, who wrote here some of her poems
and stories--so Dr. Wolfe writes of Closet Hall. After some brief
housekeeping in this "wee home," the young people again made a part of
the family at Heathcote Hill, where they lived until 1814. Then, with
the two little girls born to them, they went for a short time to
Cooperstown, and thence to their Fenimore farm of some one hundred and
fifty acres along Otsego's southwestern shores. "On a rising knoll
overlooking lake and village a handsome stone house was begun for their
life home." The near-by hill, called Mount Ovis, pastured the Merino
sheep which he brought into the country. He loved his gardening, and
was active for the public good, serving as secretary of the county
Agricultural Society, and also of the Otsego County Bible Society. In
the full flush of youth and its pleasures there were the pleasant
diversions of driving, riding, and rowing. So lived flute-playing
Cooper, brave and handsome, at twenty-five.
[Illustration: HON. CALEB HEATHCOTE.]
[Illustration: FRAUNCES TAVERN.]
[Illustration: BURN'S COFFEE HOUSE.]
[Illustration: HEATHCOTE HILL.]
[Illustration: TANDEM.]
[Illustration: COOPER'S FENIMORE FARM HOUSE.]
Cooper's mother was then living with her older sons at Otsego Hall, and
it is recorded that "she took great delight in flowers, and the end of
the long hall was like a green-house, in her time"; that "she was a
great reader of romances; a marvelous housekeeper, and beautifully nice
and neat in her arrangements: her flower-garden at the south of the
house was considered something wonderful in variety of flowers." Between
her Old-Hall home and the families of her children,--Richard's on "Apple
Hill," Isaac's at "Edgewater," Nancy's at the "Old Stone House," and
James's at "Fenimore,"--these years were full of charm and interest for
them all, which later became sweet and enduring memories. Sadness crept
in, through the loss of James's daughter Elizabeth; but two more came to
lift this shadow in the Fenimore home.
In 1817 Cooper and his young family started for a few month's visit to
Heathcote Hill, and later in this year he lost his mother. As the stone
house, then building at Fenimore, burned down in 1823, the land was sold
later, and the few months' expected absence grew into seventeen years.
Perhaps it was this thread of loss added to his wife's wishes that led
Cooper to build a country home on the Scarsdale farm,--a portion of the
de Lancey estate, which came to Mrs. Cooper after her marriage. Here he
built the picturesque home in which his literary career began. "Nothing
that Cooper knew remains excepting the superb land and water view,"
which drew him to place this home of his there, and he has pictured
mile upon mile of the shimmering, sail-dotted Sound in scenes of his
"Water Witch." It is of record that the windows of the room in which he
wrote "Precaution," "The Spy," and "The Pioneers" overlooked this
enchanting vista which then and later claimed place in his books. It was
four miles from Mamaroneck and some twenty-five from New York City. The
height on which the new house stood was called Angevine, from a former
Huguenot tenant. It gave a glorious view over miles of fine wooded
country, with a broad reach of Long Island Sound beyond, over which were
moving white, glittering sails "a sailor's eye loves to follow." Of
active habits and vigorous health, Cooper threw himself with almost
boyish eagerness into the improvement and beautifying of this
homestead,--planning the barn, building the then new zigzag, ha-ha
fence, watching the growth of shrubs and trees that he had transplanted,
and with cheering talk lightening the labors of his workmen.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH FENIMORE COOPER IN THE OLD HALL HOME.]
[Illustration: COOPER'S ANGEVINE FARM HOME.]
[Illustration: MAMARONECK CREEK SLOOPS.]
"In 1818 Cooper was made paymaster, and in the next year quartermaster
in the Fourth Division of Infantry, New York State Militia. As Governor
Clinton's aid, in blue and buff uniform, cocked hat, and sword, and
title of colonel, he would go to reviews on his favorite horse,
'Bull-head.'"
At that time each village on the Sound had its sloop which carried the
farmer's produce thrice a week through the perils of Hell Gate to Fulton
market, and brought back tea, sugar, cloth, calicoes, and silks, and,
perchance, some volume fresh from the London press,--a bit of Byron's
brilliance, a romance from the unknown author of "Waverley," one of Miss
Edgeworth's charming tales, or the more serious religious work of
Wilberforce--which had "arrived by packet-ship from England"--the next
day's papers would announce. Lucky was thought the household that could
first cut the pages of the new print.
Reading, which always enters so naturally into country life, made
pleasant their evening hours and rainy days at Angevine. Mr. Cooper was
a fine reader. His voice was deep, clear, and expressive, and during
those quiet country evenings he often read aloud to one "who listened
with affectionate interest through a long life," and he read to her with
special pleasure. For Shakespeare he was always ready. Pope, Thompson,
and Gray were also in favor, but not more than a page or two at a time
of Milton. He thought that Shakespeare should have written "Paradise
Lost." "He took the greatest delight in the 'Waverley' novels, and never
doubted they were written by Walter Scott, the poet. On one occasion a
new novel chanced to lie on the table and he was asked to read it. The
title and look of the book were not to his taste; he opened it, however,
and began. Suddenly, after reading through a few pages, it was thrown
aside in disgust: 'I can write a better book than that myself!' was his
exclamation." Mrs. Cooper laughed at the absurd idea that he, who
disliked writing even a letter, should write a book, and playfully
challenged him to make good his word; and when urged to begin, he at
once outlined a tale of English high-life. As the story grew, the writer
became interested, and before long the first pages of Cooper's first
book, "Precaution, or Prevention is Better than Cure," were written.
When finished, much to his amazement, Mrs. Cooper further urged him to
publish it; so, with the manuscript, they set out in their gig to seek
counsel of the Jays at Bedford, and other friends, who approved. "One
lady, not in the secret, felt sure she had read it before." It was
published, without the author's name, August 25, 1820, and was credited
to an English woman. A.T. Goodrich, the publisher, surprised the public
by declaring it the work of an American gentleman of New York. It was
soon republished in England, and claimed the attention usually accorded
that style of book in its day. Whatever of its worth, the work had
awakened Cooper's powers; and its modest success in a field new to him
led his friends to urge him to write on subjects that were in near touch
with his daily life. None knew better than he the frontier and
sea-faring life of his own and earlier times. So, then, for
home-country subjects, and thinking it would be his last attempt, he
exclaimed, "I will write another book!" and soon decided on patriotism
as its _motif_. At this period many were the visits to Judge Jay's
Westchester home at Bedford. The house, part of wood and part of stone,
had a spacious, comfortable piazza along its front. The interior had
more of cheerfulness than of elegance, but a great air of abundance, and
was a peaceful shelter for the waning days of that eminent statesman and
patriot. Of this household Cooper wrote later: "I scarcely remember to
have mingled with any family where there was a more happy union of quiet
decorum and high courtesy than I met with beneath the roof of Mr. Jay."
To no place more fitting than his wistaria-covered library could Cooper
have gone for patriotic inspiration. The venerable Judge, as he smoked
his long clay pipe, used to delight in telling anecdotes of the
Revolution, "the truth of which," he said, "never had been and never
would be written."
[Illustration: JUDGE JOHN JAY.]
[Illustration: BEDFORD HOUSE.]
[Illustration: BEDFORD HOUSE LIBRARY.]
One summer afternoon, while sitting on his broad piazza under the
lindens, Cooper, with others, listened to the Judge's recital of the
story of a spy's great struggles and unselfish loyalty while serving his
country in the American Revolution, and the story gave Cooper an idea
for his "Harvey Birch." The fact that strolling peddlers, staff in hand
and pack on back, were common visitors then at country houses, became
another aid. "It was after such a visit of a Yankee peddler of the old
sort, to the cottage at Angevine, that Harvey's lot in life was
decided--he was to be a spy and a peddler." It was something to the
author's after regret that he drew the dignity of George Washington into
the "Harper" of this story.
[Illustration: HARVEY BIRCH'S CAVE.]
"The entire country between the Americans on the skirts of the Highlands
and the British on Manhattan--or 'the Neutral Ground'--suffered more in
harried skirmishes, pillage, violence, fire, and the taking of life
itself, than any of its extent during this strife." Scarsdale and
Mamaroneck were in this region, with White Plains close by. Fort
Washington was on a near height, and Dobb's Ferry a few miles off. "The
Coopers' daily drive from Angevine discovered a pretty thicket, some
swampy land, and a cave in which to hide the loyal, to be fed by
friendly hands at night until escape was possible. There were also at
hand the gloomy horrors of a haunted wood where gliding ghosts fought
midnight battles"--all of this the farmers _knew_ and could tell of,
too. One of them, "Uncle John," lived just below the home hill in a wee
cot of four walls, each of a different color--red, yellow, brown, and
white. He frequently came up the Angevine-home hill to tell, between his
apples, nuts, and glasses of cider, tales of what he, too, _knew_, to a
good listener,--the master of the house. Then there was "Major Brom B.,
a hero of the great war, with his twenty-seven martial spirits, all
uniformed in silver gray, his negro Bonny and his gun, 'the Bucanneer,'
had not its fellow on the continent." These were all aids, and sources
of unfailing interest about the many Westchester chimney firesides of
that day. In his "Literary Haunts and Homes," Dr. Theodore F. Wolfe
tells of a fine, old-time home, beyond the valley below Cooper's
Angevine farm, where he placed many an exciting scene of this coming
tale. In 1899 Dr. Wolfe notes the house as changed, only by a piazza
across its front, from the days when Cooper knew it well, and that it
was pleasantly shaded by many of the fine, tall trees that gave it the
name of "The Locusts," which it kept in his story as the home of the
Whartons. The descendants of the family he used to visit still live
there, and one of them showed Dr. Wolfe all that was left of "The Four
Corners," Betty Flanigan's hotel, whence Harvey Birch, Cooper's hero,
escaped in Betty's petticoats. Cooper made these familiar scenes of
southern New York the background of his second book, "The Spy, a Tale of
the Neutral Ground," which also was published, without the author's
name, December 22, 1821. Its success called for a new edition the
following March, and its translation into many foreign tongues. Of
Cooper's "Betty Flanigan" Miss Edgeworth declared, "An Irish pen could
not have drawn her better." Except Irving's "Sketch Book," his
"Knickerbocker's History of New York," and Bryant's thin volume of eight
poems, there were few books by native writers when "The Spy" appeared;
and "then it was that the new world awakened to the surprising discovery
of her first _American_ novelist. The glory that Cooper justly won was
reflected on his country, of whose literary independence he was the
pioneer. 'The Spy' had the charm of reality; it tasted of the soil."
While the American press was slow to admit the merit of "The Spy," a
cordial welcome was given the book in "The Port Folio." It was written
by Mrs. Sarah Hall, mother of the editor, and author of "Conversations
on the Bible." This act of timely kindness Cooper never forgot. June 30,
1822, Washington Irving, from London, wrote Mr. John E. Hall, the
editor: "'The Spy' is extremely well spoken of by the best circles,--not
a bit better than it deserves, for it does the author great credit."
[Illustration: THE LOCUSTS OF COOPER'S TIME.]
[Illustration: TITLE-PAGE OF THE FIRST EDITION OF "THE SPY."]
[Illustration: ENOCH CROSBY.]
In 1826, when "The Spy" was before the footlights in Lafayette Theatre,
on Broadway, near Canal Street, Enoch Crosby, the supposed original spy,
appeared in a box with friends, and "was given thunders of applause."
From "Portraits of Cooper's Heroines," by the Rev. Ralph Birdsall of
Cooperstown, is gleaned: On the walls of the Newport home of the Rev.
John Cornell hang two old portraits that have close connection with the
inner history of "The Spy." To their present owner they came from the
New York home of his mother, the late Mrs. Isaac Cornell, and to her
they came from the Somerville, New Jersey, home of her father, Mr.
Richard Bancker Duyckinck, who in his turn received them from his aunt,
Mrs. Peter Jay,--the subject of one of these portraits and at one time
mistress of the Jay mansion at Rye. Over one hundred years ago it was
that, from the walls of this rare old home at Rye, Westchester County,
the grace of these ladies on canvas caught James Cooper's thought to use
them, by description, in his coming book, "The Spy." Chapter XIII
describes closely the personal appearance and style of dress of these
portraits. "Jeanette Peyton," the maiden aunt of Cooper's story, owes
her mature charm to the portrait of Mary Duyckinck, wife of Peter Jay.
From the "cap of exquisite lawn and lace," her gown of rich silk, short
sleeves and "large ruffles" of lace which with "the experience of forty
years," also veiled her shoulders, to the triple row of large pearls
about her throat,--all these details are found in Cooper's text-picture
of Jeanette Peyton. His "Sarah Wharton" no less closely follows the
portrait of Mrs. Jay's older sister, Sarah Duyckinck, who became Mrs.
Richard Bancker. Her name Sarah may have been given purposely to Sarah
Wharton of Cooper's story. Cooper was thirty-two when it was written,
and it is not unlikely that Mrs. Jay, then eighty-five years of age, was
pleased with this delicate tribute the young novelist paid to the beauty
of her own and her sister's youth.
[Illustration: LAFAYETTE THEATRE.]
[Illustration: COOPER'S HEROINES.]
Four daughters and a son now shared the author's home life, and in order
to place his little girls in a school and be near his publishers, Cooper
rented a modest brick house on Broadway, across the street from Niblo's
Garden, near No. 585, Astor's home, which was a grand resort of
Halleck and Irving, who wrote there a part of his "Life of Washington."
Cooper's house was just above Prince Street--then almost out of town.
[Illustration: WINDHURST'S NOOK, UNDER THE PARK THEATRE.]
The modern club being then unknown, the brilliant men of the day met in
taverns, and there talked of "everything under the starry scope of
heaven." In the 1820's there was Edward Windhurst's famous nook under
the sidewalk below Park Theatre, where Edmund Kean, Junius Brutus Booth,
Cooper, Morris, Willis, and Halleck made gay and brilliant talk.
In the "Life and Letters of Fitz-greene Halleck," by General James Grant
Wilson, it appears that Cooper was warmly attached to Halleck since
1815, when they first met. Fitz-greene Halleck is credited with taking
Cooper's earliest books to Europe in 1822 and finding a London publisher
for them. The novelist called his friend "The Admirable Croaker," on
account of a series of amusing and satirical verses written by Halleck
and Drake and published over the signature of "Croaker and Co.," in the
public press of that day. Into this atmosphere of charm came delightful
and delighting Joseph Rodman Drake, with his "six feet two" of splendid
youth; he was thought by some "the handsomest man in New York." From out
this brilliant group comes the record that "'Culprit Fay,' written in
August, 1816," says Halleck, "came from Cooper, Drake, DeKay, and
Halleck, speaking of Scottish streams and their inspiration for poetry.
Cooper and Halleck thought our American rivers could claim no such
tribute of expression. Drake differed from his friends and made good his
stand by producing in three days 'The Culprit Fay' from the Highlands of
the Hudson; but," is added, "the Sound from Hunt's Point, his familiar
haunt of _salt_ water, made his inspiration."
[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, 1822.]
[Illustration: FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.]
[Illustration: JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE.]
[Illustration: CRO' NEST.]
To the City Hotel came Morris again with Dana, Cooper, and his friend,
Samuel Woodworth, author of "The Old Oaken Bucket"--to plan "The
Mirror," in 1823.
[Illustration: SAMUEL WOODWORTH.]
[Illustration: THE OLD OAKEN BUCKET.]
The story of the old song's writing is: At noon on a summer's day in
1817 Woodworth, whose pen-name was "Selim," walked home to dinner from
his office at the foot of Wall Street. Being very warm, he drank a glass
of water from his pump, and after drinking it said, "How much more
refreshing would be a draught from the old bucket that hung in my
father's well!" Then his wife--whom the poet called his
inspiration--exclaimed, "Why, Selim, wouldn't that be a pretty subject
for a poem?" Thus urged, he began writing at once, and in an hour's time
finished the heart-stirring song so well known as "The Old Oaken
Bucket."
At this City Hotel Cooper himself in 1824 founded "The Bread and Cheese
Club"--so named because membership was voted _for_ with bits of bread,
and _against_ with bits of cheese. He called it the "Lunch." Later on,
the "Lunch, or Cooper's Club," met in Washington Hall, corner of
Broadway and Chambers Street. Among its distinguished members were
Chancellor Kent, DeKay, naturalist, King, later president of Columbia
College, the authors Verplanck, Bryant, and Halleck, Morse the inventor,
the artists Durand and Jarvis, and Wiley the publisher. They met
Thursday evenings, each member in turn caring for the supper, always
cooked to perfection by Abigail Jones--an artist of color, in that line.
It was at one of these repasts that Bryant "was struck with Cooper's
rapid, lively talk, keen observation, knowledge, and accurate memory of
details." Said he: "I remember, too, being somewhat startled, coming as
I did from the seclusion of a country life, with a certain emphatic
frankness of manner, which, however, I came at last to like and admire."
Many an attractive page might be written of these talks with Mathews,
rambles with DeKay, and daily chats with his old messmates of the sea,
and this "Bread and Cheese Club." Cooper was scarcely in France before
he sent frequent missives to his friends at the club to be read at their
weekly meetings; but it "missed its founder, went into a decline, and
not long afterward quietly expired." General Wilson says that it was at
Wiley's, corner of Wall and New Streets, in a small back room christened
by Cooper "The Den"--which appeared over the door--that he first met
"The Idle Man," R.H. Dana. Here Cooper was in the habit of holding
forth to an admiring audience, much as did Christopher North about the
same time in "Blackwood's" back parlor in George Street, Edinburgh.
John Bartlett's Bookshop, too,--"a veritable treasury of literary
secrets,"--in the new Astor House, became a haunt for the bookmen of its
times. Cooper was fond of the society of literary men when he could meet
them as _men_, and not as lions. He once said: "You learn nothing about
a man when you meet him at a show dinner and he sits up to talk _for_
you instead of talking _with_ you. When I was in London Wordsworth came
to town, and I was asked to meet him at one of those displays; but I
would not go." Then Mrs. Cooper said: "But you met him afterwards, my
dear, and was very much pleased with him." To this Cooper replied: "Yes,
at Rogers', and _was_ very much pleased with him; but it was because I
met him in a place where he felt at home, and he let himself out
freely."
[Illustration: CITY HOTEL AND WASHINGTON HALL.]
[Illustration: EARLY BROADWAY.]
[Illustration: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH.]
[Illustration: COOPER'S NEW YORK CITY HOME IN BEACH STREET.]
[Illustration: ST. JOHN'S CHAPEL.]
After some stay on Broadway, Cooper moved his family to their Beach
Street abode. Some twenty paces from Hudson it stood,--a brick house of
many attractions in the wrought iron railings, marble steps, arched
doorway, high ceilings, with heavy, ornate mouldings, massive oaken
doors, and Venetian blinds of the deep windows. Spacious and inviting
was this city home during the 1820's, in the fashionable district of
St. John's. In April, 1823, while living here, Cooper was made a member
of the Philadelphia Philosophical Society. August of this year he lost
his first son,--the youngest child,--Fenimore; and he himself went
through a serious illness, brought on by an accident: "On returning
from a New Bedford visit his carriage broke down, and always glad to be
afloat, he took passage in a sloop for New York. Being anxious to reach
home, when the wind began to fail, and to make the most of the tide, he
took the helm and steered the little craft himself through Hell Gate.
The day was very stormy, and the trying heat brought on a sudden
sun-stroke-like fever." February 3, 1824, his second son, Paul, was
born.
"The Spy" finished and the glow of success upon its author, he again
resolved "to try one more book." For this work his thoughts turned in
love to the home of his childhood, so closely associated with the little
"Lake of the Fields." "Green-belted with great forest trees was this
'smile of God'--from Mount Vision dreaming at its feet, to the densely
wooded 'sleeping lion' guarding its head, nine miles to the north." Of
the new book Cooper frankly said: "'The Pioneers' is written exclusively
to please myself." Herein Leatherstocking makes his first appearance,
and for all time, as Natty Bumppo, "with his silent footfall stepped
from beneath the shadows of the old pines into the winter sunlight."
[Illustration: OLD LEATHERSTOCKING.]
An old hunter--Shipman by name--often came with his rifle and dogs
during the early years of the new colony, to offer his game at William
Cooper's door, and was a great attraction for the lads of Otsego Hall. A
dim memory of Shipman served as an outline only for Cooper's creation,
"Natty," as in strength and beauty of character he came from the
writer's pen, to live through the five "Leatherstocking Tales," as "the
ever familiar friend of boys." While Cooper placed no real character
from life in this book, Judge Temple is accepted as a sketch of his
father. The aim was to create a character from the class to which each
belonged. Thus served brave old Indian John as "Chingachgook"; Mr.
Grant, the missionary; and "Monsieur Le Quoi," the Frenchman. In
"Chronicles of Cooperstown" it appears that a real "Mr. Le Quoy excited
much interest in the place, in being superior to his occupation as a
country grocer." One day a Mr. Renouard, a seaman, entered his shop for
some tobacco, and returned in a few minutes agitated and pale, excitedly
asking, "Who is the man that sold me this tobacco?" At the answer, "Mr.
Le Quoy," he replied, "Yes, Mr. Le Quoy de Mesereau. When I went to
Martinique to be port-captain of St. Pierre, this man was civil governor
of the island, and refused to confirm my appointment." It was learned
later that the French Revolution drove Mr. Le Quoy with little money to
a New York friend,--a Mr. Murray,--who also knew well Judge Cooper, and
they both advised this country store until peaceful France could and
did invite its owner to return to his island home.
[Illustration: NATTY'S CAVE.]
An Indian alarm of the early-village period of 1794 formed the opening
chapter of the new book, but the incidents were mainly creations of
Cooper's fancy. Yet the pigeon-flights, Natty's cave, which sheltered
Elizabeth Temple from the forest fire, and each charming picture of the
Glimmerglass country, are true to life. The academy, court-house, jail,
inn; the "'Cricket'--that famous old cannon which sent its thunders
thousands of times over the Otsego hills on days of rejoicing--are
fairly given." The old gun was found when digging the cellar of Judge
Cooper's first house, and was said to have been buried by troops under
Gen. James Clinton, who marched from Albany against the Indians in 1779.
They cut their way through forests, brought their boats to Lake Otsego,
and their headquarters were in a log house built on the future site of
the first Hall. The place where was the old Clinton Dam is now marked by
the Daughters of the American Revolution as the _one_ Cooperstown,
connecting link with the War of Independence.
[Illustration: GENERAL JAMES CLINTON.]
[Illustration: CLINTON DAM.]
The outward appearance of the old Hall is fairly given by Cooper's pen,
but once within, all is a faithful record, "even to the severed nose of
Wolfe, and the urn that held the ashes of Queen Dido." The tale was of a
great landlord living among his settlers on property bearing his name.
The book was "The Pioneers, or, Sources of the Susquehanna," and
"thirty-five hundred copies sold before noon of the day it was
published."
It was of "The Pioneers" that Bryant wrote: "It dazzled the world by the
splendor of its novelty."
An interesting incident of Cooper's kindness of heart is of this date
and some ten years later came to light as follows: After his return from
Europe in 1833 he one day gave to his eldest daughter "a small book
bound in boards." It was entitled "Tales for Fifteen, or, Imagination
and Heart" by Jane Morgan. He said to her: "Dearie, here is a little
book that I wrote for Wiley," adding that he had bought it at a news
stand on his way home. It appears "when Wiley failed a number of his
patrons wrote stories and gave them to him." These two--one called
"Heart" and the other "Imagination" were written by Cooper, but
"curiously enough,"--were published under the pen-name of "Jane Morgan."
The book is very rare; only two copies are known to be in existence.
The thought of writing a romance of the sea first came to Mr. Cooper
while dining at Mr. Charles Wilkes', where the table-talk turned on "The
Pirate," just issued by the author of "Waverley." When his marine
touches were highly praised for their accuracy, Cooper held they were
not satisfactory to the nautical reader. His friends thought more
accuracy might better please seamen but would prove dull reading for the
general public. With his usual spirit, Cooper refused to be convinced,
and on his way home that evening "the outlines of a nautical romance
were vaguely sketched in his mind"; but he never dreamed it would
become one of a series of sea-stories. "I must write one more book--a
sea tale--" he said, "to show what can be done in this way by a sailor!"
The stirring struggles of the American Revolution again enlisted the
author's loyal pen-service in the character of that bold adventurer,
John Paul Jones, and his cruise in _The Ranger_, when he made his daring
descent upon Whitehaven and St. Mary's Isle, which suggested to Cooper
his plot for "The Pilot." Two ships, a frigate and the schooner _Ariel_,
were drawn for the tale. During its writing the author had many doubts
of its success. Friends thought the sea tame when calm, and unpleasant
in storms; and as to ladies--the reading of storms would surely make
them seasick. His first encouragement came from an Englishman of taste,
though a doubter of American talent. To Cooper's surprise, this
authority pronounced his sea tale good. Then came the favorable opinion
of Commodore Shubrick, of which the author wrote: "Anxious to know what
the effect would be on the public, I read a chapter to S----, now
captain, which contained an account of a ship working off-shore in a
gale. My listener betrayed interest as we proceeded, until he could no
longer keep his seat. He paced the room furiously until I got through,
and just as I laid down the paper he exclaimed: 'It is all very well,
but you have let your jib stand too long, my fine fellow!' I blew it out
of the bolt-rope in pure spite!" And thus it was that when the author
"came beating out of the 'Devil's Grip,'" this old messmate jumped from
his seat and paced the floor with strides, not letting a detail escape
him. Cooper was fully satisfied and accepted the criticism, and the
tale, alive with spirited description of sea-action, won the day. It was
written with all the author's power and accuracy of detail. In "Mr.
Gray" appeared John Paul Jones, while "Long Tom Coffin" was said to be
Mr. Irish, the mate of the _Stirling_, in which the lad "Cooper made his
voyage before-the-mast." Of this mate and the Yankees the author wrote:
"He too was from Nantucket, and was a prime fellow, and fit to command a
ship." Prof. Brander Matthews calls this simple-hearted cockswain and
Natty Bumppo "co-heirs of time." The famous fifth chapter of "The Pilot"
was the first fiction to show that "a master of the sea tale had come
into the world, and it has never been surpassed in literature of the
sea." This, the third of Cooper's novels, won for him his greatest
popularity. It was dedicated to William Branford Shubrick, United States
Navy--the author's loyal friend since their days together on the _Wasp_,
in 1809. Its inscription reads in part: "My Dear Shubrick--by your old
Messmate, the Author." A few days after "The Pilot" was issued, January,
1824, Cooper wrote this friend: "I found Wiley had the book in the hands
of his five printers--on my return--for reprint. So much for our joint
efforts." Concerning "The Pilot" and its author, this appeared in the
_Edinburgh Review_: "The empire of the sea is conceded to him by
acclamation."
[Illustration: "TALES FOR FIFTEEN, OR IMAGINATION AND HEART."]
[Illustration: CHARLES WILKES.]
[Illustration: JOHN PAUL JONES.]
Meeting Cooper at dinner three months later, Bryant wrote his wife that
"he seemed a little giddy with the great success his works have met."
Another said: "What wonder that the hearty, breezy author of 'The Spy,'
'The Pioneers,' and 'The Pilot,' should, by a certain 'emphatic
frankness of manner,' have somewhat startled the shy, retiring, country
poet who had not yet found his place on _The Evening Post!"_ Later, in
1824, to Richard Henry Dana's newsy letter about Cooper's foreign
standing, Bryant replies: "What you tell me of the success of our
countryman, Cooper, in England, is an omen of good things. I hope it is
the breaking of a bright day for American literature." Bryant's memorial
address after Cooper's death remains a splendid record of their
unclouded friendship, based on mutual respect. It was delivered at
Metropolitan Hall, in New York City, February 25, 1852. The occasion was
honored by the presence of the most brilliant men of the time. Daniel
Webster presided, assisted by William Cullen Bryant, and Washington
Irving. At that time these three men were made the subjects of a pencil
sketch by Daniel Huntington.
[Illustration: LONG TOM COFFIN.]
Mr. George Palmer Putnam thus describes a meeting between Irving and
Cooper, after the latter's return from Europe: "One day Mr. Irving was
sitting at my desk, with his back to the door, when Mr. Cooper came in
(a little bustling as usual) and stood at the office entrance, talking.
Mr. Irving did not turn (for obvious reasons), and Cooper did not see
him. I had acquired caution as to introductions without mutual consent,
but with brief thought--sort of instinct--I stoutly obeyed the impulse
of the moment, and simply said, 'Mr. Cooper, here is Mr. Irving.' The
latter turned, Cooper held out his hand cordially, dashed at once into
an animated conversation, took a chair, and, to my surprise and delight,
the two authors sat for an hour, chatting in their best manner about
almost every topic of the day and former days; and Mr. Irving
afterwards frequently alluded to the incident as being a very great
gratification to him. Not many months afterwards, he sat on the platform
and joined in Bryant's tribute to the genius of the departed novelist."
[Illustration: BRYANT, WEBSTER AND IRVING.]
September 18, 1851, Irving wrote: "The death of Fenimore Cooper is an
event of deep and public concern. To me it comes with a shock; for it
seems but the other day that I saw him at Putnam's, in the full vigor of
mind and body, 'a very castle of a man.' He left a space in our
literature which will not be easily supplied. I shall not fail to
attend the proposed meeting."
It is recorded that "Yale never, in later years, saw fit to honor
herself by giving Cooper his degree, but Columbia, in this instance more
intelligent than either Harvard or Yale, in 1824, conferred on the
author the honorary degree of A.M."
When, in 1824, General Lafayette, as the Nation's guest, landed from the
_Cadmus_ at Castle Garden, Mr. Cooper made one of the active committee
of welcome and entertainment. Of his part in the Castle-Garden ball, and
his enthusiasm, a friend wrote: "After working hard all day in
preparations and all night in carrying them out, towards dawn he went to
the office of his friend Charles King and wrote out a full and accurate
report, which appeared in Mr. King's paper the next day." Concerning
this famous Castle-Garden ball, Cooper himself wrote: "A tall spar was
raised in the center, a vast awning of sail-cloth covered the whole,
which was concealed by flags that gave a soft, airy finish--all flooded
by lights. Music of the national air hailed Lafayette's arrival. The
brilliant throngs and gay dancers over the floor fell into line like a
charm, forming a lane, through which the old man passed, giving and
receiving warm and affectionate salutations at every step to the small
marquee in the midst, prepared for the 'Guest of the Nation.' He was
like a father among his children." In various other ways Cooper paid
tributes of courtesy to General Lafayette during this visit to America.
[Illustration: THE LANDING OF LAFAYETTE, 1824.]
As the three successful books which the author had now written dealt
with the strength and struggles of liberty-loving Americans for their
new country, his wide sense of justice suggested writing on loyalty from
the other point of view--the Mother Country's--as held by men of birth
and honor. This loyalty to England Cooper made the subject of his next
book. It was a dangerous venture, and a time too near the dearly-bought
laurels of our young republic in its separation from England. But the
author made every effort for accuracy on all points; he was tireless in
his study of history, state papers, official reports, almanacs, and
weather-records. A journey "to Yankee Land" familiarized him with every
locality he so faithfully described in the pages of "Lionel Lincoln." "A
Legend of the Thirteen Republics" was an added title to the first
edition only (1825) of "Lionel Lincoln," for Cooper's intention to write
a story of each of the thirteen states was given up later, and the title
"A Narrative of 1775" took its place. The author himself was not
satisfied with this work, nor with the character of "Lionel Lincoln,"
whose lack of commanding interest makes "Job," his poor half-witted
brother and son of "Abigail,"--a tenant of the old warehouse,--the
_real_ hero of the book. Of its author, Bancroft the historian wrote:
"He has described the battle of Bunker's Hill better than it has ever
been described in any other work." Another high authority says:
"'Lionel Lincoln' certainly gives spirited battlepieces--notably the
battle of Bunker's Hill, which is a masterpiece." Rhode Island people
may care to know that a part of this book was written in Providence, in
the home of Mr. John Whipple, which stands on the verge of the old elm
trees of College Street. Here, too, Cooper may have studied on the
opening scenes of "The Red Rover."
[Illustration: LAFAYETTE.]
[Illustration: LAFAYETTE'S BRANDYWINE VASE.]
[Illustration: JOB PRAY.]
[Illustration: THE BURNING OF CHARLESTOWN.]
Early spring of 1825 found Fenimore Cooper in Washington, whence he
wrote: "I have just witnessed one of the most imposing ceremonies of
this government; I allude to the inauguration of the President of the
United States." It was that of John Quincy Adams, who succeeded James
Monroe. Elsewhere one learns that Cooper had dined at the White House;
he gave a description of Mrs. Monroe as first lady of the land.
[Illustration: WHIPPLE HOUSE, AT PROVIDENCE, R.I.]
[Illustration: MRS. JAMES MONROE.]
[Illustration: PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, WASHINGTON, D.C., 1825.]
Up to this year the author had signed his name "James Cooper"; then, in
remembrance of his mother's wish, he changed it, and by the April,
1826, act of Legislature the family name became Fenimore Cooper.
During the summer of 1825 Mr. Cooper made one of a party of young
men,--which included also the Hon. Mr. Stanley, afterwards Lord Derby,
Prime Minister of England, and the Hon. Wortley Montagu, later Lord
Wharncliffe, in an excursion to Saratoga and the Lake George country.
They went slowly up the Hudson, paid a brief visit to West Point, thence
to Catskill, where, like Leatherstocking, they saw "Creation!"--as Natty
said, dropping the end of his rod into the water, and sweeping one hand
around him in a circle--"all creation, lad." In the hills they saw the
two small ponds, and the merry stream crooking and winding through the
valley to the rocks; and the "Leap" in its first plunge of two hundred
feet: "It's a drop for the old Hudson," added Natty. The Shakers were
called upon in their beautiful valley and neat village at Lebanon; good
dinners were eaten at friendly tables in Albany; and gay were the times
they had in Ballston and Saratoga. Thence to the Lake George region, its
wooded heights, islands, crystal lakes, silent shores. For a while they
lingered with delight, then turned back for the dark, still caverns in
the heart of Glens Fall. These caverns were, Natty said, "Two little
holes for us to hide in." He added, "Falls on two sides of us, and the
river above and below!--it would be worth the trouble to step up on the
height of this rock and look at the pervarcity of the water. It falls by
no rule at all." Within the shadows and silence of these caverns Mr.
Stanley suggested to Cooper that "here was the very scene for a
romance," and the author promised his friend that a book should be
written in which these caves would play an important part. A story of
strong Indian make-up first came then to the author's mind. Before
leaving, these caverns and the surrounding country were closely examined
for future use.
[Illustration: SUNRISE AT SOUTH MOUNTAIN.]
[Illustration: GLEN'S FALL'S CAVERNS.]
[Illustration: HONORABLE MR. STANLEY.]
Besides his youthful and Lake Ontario experiences with Indians, Cooper
followed parties of them from Albany to New York, and several times to
Washington, for the purpose of closely studying their natures and
habits; all authorities in print were consulted. On his return home the
book was begun and rapidly written. "Planned beneath the summer leaves,
on the far shore of picturesque Hell Gate, above smiling fields and
bowering orchards of his Angevine home, those leaves had scarcely fallen
when the story was told--'the most uniformly exciting and powerful of
his fictions'--'The Last of the Mohicans,' and Natty and Chingachgook
were left in the wilderness beside the rude grave of Uncas." Again they
came into the shadow of the unbroken forest, as called for by the _one_
friend he now constantly consulted,--his faithful, loving life-mate. At
the time of its writing Cooper had a serious illness, during which his
mind was filled with ideas for this book. Suddenly rousing himself one
of these autumn afternoons, he called for pen and paper, but too ill to
use them, asked Mrs. Cooper, watching anxiously by his side, to write
for him. Fearing delirium, she wrote, thinking it would relieve him. A
page of notes was rapidly dictated, which seemed to his alarmed nurse
but the wild fancies of a fevered brain. It proved to be a clear account
of a lively struggle between "Magua" and "Chingachgook," and made the
twelfth chapter of the book. Why the author called Lake George by
another name is thus explained: "Looking over an ancient map, he found
that a tribe of Indians the French called _Les Honcans_ lived by this
beautiful sheet of water, and thinking the English name too commonplace
and the Indian name too hard to pronounce, he chose the 'Horican' as
better suiting simple Natty." This book, "The Last of the Mohicans,"
proved, perhaps, to be the most popular of all his works up to 1826.
[Illustration: GLENS FALL.]
[Illustration: LAKE GEORGE, OR "THE HORICAN."]
A present-day man-of-letters writes of Cooper: "He paints Indians and
Indian scenes with a glow of our sunset skies and the crimson of our
autumn maples, and makes them alive with brilliant color. Rifles crack,
tomahawks gleam, and arrows dart like sunbeams through the air. Indians
fleet of foot and full of graceful movement are these dusky Apollo's
Uncas. Cooper's readers never yawn over these tales of the forest or the
sea. He is the swan on the lake, the eagle in the air, the deer in the
wood, and the wind on the sea." So writes Prof. Brander Matthews. That
life-student of the American Indian, Francis Parkman, wrote: "It is easy
to find fault with 'The Last of the Mohicans,' but it is far from easy
to rival or even approach its excellence." It is said that "Magua," of
this book, "is the best-drawn Indian in fiction; from scalp-lock to
moccasin tingling with life" and the tension of the canoe-chase on the
Horican.
During this Lake George excursion a question came up between the Hon.
Mr. Stanley, the Hon. Wortley Montagu, and Mr. Cooper as to who was the
"Premier Baron of England." Cooper named Lord Henry William Fitzgerald
(3rd son of James, 1st Duke of Leinster) 22nd Baron de Ros [b. 1761--d.
1829] as his man; whose title came from Henry I., to Peter, Lord of
Holderness called Ros. Each of his two friends claimed another as the
"Premier Baron of England." All were so confident that a wager was
laid, and later inquiry proved Cooper right. In due time the debt
was paid with a large gold, silver-filled seal. On its stone--a
chrysoprase--appeared a baron's coronet and the old Scottish proverb:
"He that will to Cupar maun to Cupar!" The incident serves to affirm
Cooper's wide information and accurate memory.
[Illustration: THE WAGER SEAL.]
This winter of 1825-26 Cooper and his family made their home at 345
Greenwich Street, not many steps from 92 Hudson Street, where lived the
poet William Cullen Bryant, who often went around the corner for a walk
with his friend.
[Illustration: BRYANT.]
General Wilson wrote: "Soon after Bryant went to New York he met Cooper,
who, a few days later, said: 'Come and dine with me tomorrow; I live at
No. 345 Greenwich Street.' 'Please put that down for me,' said Bryant,
'or I shall forget the place.' 'Can't you remember three-four-five?'
replied Cooper bluntly. Bryant did remember 'three-four-five,' not only
for that day, but ever afterward."
During this spring Cooper followed a deputation of Pawnee and Sioux
Indians from New York to Washington, in order to make a close study of
them for future use. He was much interested in the chiefs' stories of
their wild powers, dignity, endurance, grace, cunning wiles, and fierce
passions. The great buffalo hunts across the prairies he had never seen;
the fights of mounted tribes and the sweeping fires over those boundless
plains all claimed his eager interest and sympathy, with the resulting
desire to place "these mounted tribes" and their desert plains beyond
the Mississippi in another Indian story. One of the chiefs of this
party--a very fine specimen of a warrior, a remarkable man in every
way--is credited with being the original of "Hard-Heart" of "The
Prairie," which an authority gives as Cooper's favorite book. On a
knoll, and within the glory of a western sunset, stood Natty, born of
the author's mind and heart, as he first appeared in this book. "The
aged trapper--a nobly pathetic figure contrasted with the
squatter"--looms up, colossal, against the gleaming radiance of
departing day; and full well he knows his own leaving for the long-home
is not far off--for the remarkable life of wondrous Leatherstocking
closes within these pages. Of other characters and the author Prof.
Matthews says: "He was above all things a creator of character.--He can
draw women.--The wife of Ishmael Bush, the squatter, mother of seven
stalwart sons and sister of a murderous rascal, is an unforgotten
portrait, solidly painted by a master." "The Prairie" was begun in the
winter of 1826, in the New York, Greenwich-Street home, while Cooper was
under the weather from the old fever effects. The closing of his
father's estate, and debts contracted against him by those whom he had
helped, emptied his purse and left him a poor man. To meet these calls
of honor and his own needs, he wrote when not able to do so, and for a
short and only time in his life called in the aid of coffee for his
work. Wine he drank daily at dinner only, and he never smoked.
[Illustration: "NATTY, THE TRAPPER."]
[Illustration: HENRY CLAY.]
[Illustration: CHANCELLOR KENT.]
When Cooper followed the Sioux and Pawnee Indians to Washington, in
1826, Henry Clay, Secretary of State, offered him the appointment of
United States Minister to Sweden. It was declined in favor of the
consulship to Lyons, France, which latter would allow him more freedom
and protect his family in case of foreign troubles. With this trip to
Europe in view his family busily studied French and Spanish. Returning
to New York, Cooper's club gave him a farewell dinner, at which the
author said he intended to write a history of the United States Navy. At
this dinner he was toasted by Chancellor Kent as "the genius which has
rendered our native soil classic ground, and given to our early history
the enchantment of fiction."
[Illustration: THE U.S.S. "HUDSON."]
May 1 the town house was given up for a month of hotel life, and on June
1, at eleven o'clock, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper and their children boarded the
_Hudson_ at Whitehall Wharf for Europe. They left a land-squall--their
maid Abigail--ashore and found some rough weather ahead before June 30.
"A fine clear day brought in plain sight ninety-seven sail, which had
come into the Channel, like ourselves, during the thick weather. The
blue waters were glittering with canvas." A little later Cooper wrote:
"There is a cry of 'Land!' and I must hasten on deck to revel in the
cheerful sight." The _Hudson_ brought up at Cowes, Isle of Wight, July
2, 1826; "after a passage of thirty-one days we first put foot in
Europe," wrote Cooper. In this "toy-town" they found rooms at the
"Fountain," where the windows gave them pretty vistas, and evening
brought the first old-country meal, also the first taste of the famous
Isle-of-Wight butter, which, however, without salt they thought
"tasteless." As eager newcomers to strange lands, they made several
sight-seeing ventures, among which was enjoyed the ivy-clad ruin of
Carisbrook, the one-time prison of Charles I. A few days later they
landed on the pier at Southampton, which town is recorded as being
"noted for long passages, bow-windows, and old maids." Here they found
pleasant lodgings, friends, and a sister of Mrs. Cooper's whereby time
was pleasantly passed by the family while Cooper went up to London to
see his publishers. On his return they were soon aboard the _Camilla_,
"shorn of one wing" (one of her two boilers was out of order), and on
their way to France. At midnight they were on deck for their first sight
of France; "Land!--of ghostly hue in the bright moonlight, and other
lights glittering from the two towers on the headlands near by." Landing
at the small port of Havre, they had some weary hours of search before
finding shelter in _Hotel d'Angleterre_. By a "skirted wonder" of the
port their luggage soon passed the customs next morning and they were
started for Paris. They were charmed with the dark old sombre,
mysterious towers and fantastic roofs of Rouen, where Cooper bought a
large traveling carriage, in which they safely passed the "ugly dragons"
that "thrust out their grinning heads from the Normandy towns" on the
way to the heart of France. From the windmills of Montmartre they took
in the whole vast capital at a glance. A short stay was made at a small
hotel, where soon after their arrival they engaged "a governess for the
girls." She proved to be "a furious royalist," teaching the children
that "Washington was a rebel, Lafayette a monster, and Louis XVI a
martyr." Under the rule of returned royalists was attempted the
exclusion of even the _name_ of Bonaparte from French history. "My
girls," Cooper wrote, "have shown me the history of France--officially
prepared for schools, in which there is no sort of allusion to him."
Their next venture was Hotel de Jumièges in a small garden, far from
the Faubourg St. Germain, where they had an apartment of six rooms.
Cooper wrote: "The two lower floors were occupied as a girls'
boarding-school;--the reason for dwelling in it, our own daughters were
in the school; on the second floor there was nothing but our own
apartment." And here, next door to their nun-neighbors of the convent
St. Maur, Cooper wrote the last pages of "The Prairie." It was published
in the autumn of 1826, by Lea and Carey, of Philadelphia.
[Illustration: WHITEWALL WHARF, 1826.]
[Illustration: KEEP OF CARISBROOK.]
[Illustration: HAVRE, BY NIGHT.]
[Illustration: WINDMILLS OF MONTMARTRE.]
[Illustration: THE CONVENT ST. MAUR.]
[Illustration: HOTEL DE JUMIÈGES.]
Cooper was very fond of walking, and to get a general idea of Paris he
and Captain Chauncey--an old messmate and officer in the navy--made the
circuit of the city walls, a distance of nineteen miles, in four hours.
For two hours the captain had Cooper "a little on his quarter." "By this
time," Cooper wrote, "I ranged up abeam,"--to find a pinching boot on
his friend's foot. Near the finish the mate of this "pinching boot"
became "too large," and the captain "fell fairly astern." But without
stopping, eating, or drinking, they made the distance in four hours to a
minute.
Washington Irving wrote from Madrid the following spring: "I left Paris
before the arrival of Cooper, and regret extremely that I missed him. I
have a great desire to make his acquaintance, for I am delighted with
his novels. His naval scenes and characters in 'The Pilot' are
admirable." Cooper soon became known in France by his presence at a
dinner given by the U.S. Minister to Canning then in Paris.
In "Bryant and His Friends" General James Grant Wilson says: "Scott and
Cooper met at the Princess Galitzin's, in Paris, November, 1826; and,
says Scott's diary, 'so the Scotch and American Lions took the field
together.'" In Miss Cooper's "Pages and Pictures" appears her father's
first interview with the author of "Waverley," of which Cooper wrote in
part: "Ten days after the arrival of Sir Walter Scott I ordered a
carriage one morning. I had got as far as the lower flight to the door
when another carriage-steps rattled, and presently a large, heavy man
appeared in the door of the hotel. He was gray, limped a little, walking
with a cane. We passed on the stairs, bowing. I was about to enter the
carriage when I fancied the face and form were known to me, and it
flashed on my mind that the visit might be to myself. The stranger went
up the large stone steps, with one hand on the railing and the other on
his cane. He was on the first landing as I stopped, and, turning, our
eyes met. He asked in French, 'Is it Mr. Cooper that I have the honor to
see?' 'I am, sir.' 'Oh, well then, I am Walter Scott.' I ran up, shook
the hand he stood holding out to me cordially, and expressed my sense of
the honor he was conferring. He told me the Princess Galitzin had been
as good as her word and given him my address,--and cutting short
ceremony he had driven from his hotel to my lodgings." Realizing all at
once that he was speaking French to Cooper's English, he said: "Well, I
have been _parlez-vousing_ in a way to surprise you. These Frenchmen
have my tongue so set to their lingo I have half forgotten my own
language,' he continued in English, and accepted my arm up the next
flight of stairs." They had some copyright and other talk, and Sir
Walter "spoke of his works with frankness and simplicity"; and as to
proof-reading, he said he "would as soon see his dinner after a hearty
meal" as to read one of his own tales--"when fairly rid of it." When he
rose to go Cooper begged he might have the gratification of presenting
his wife. Sir Walter good-naturedly assented. When Mrs. Cooper and their
nephew William Cooper were introduced, he sat some little time relating
in Scotch dialect some anecdotes. Then his hostess remarked that the
chair he sat in had been twice honored that day, as General Lafayette
had not left it more than an hour before. Sir Walter was surprised,
thinking Lafayette had gone to America to live, and observed, "He is a
great man." Two days later Sir Walter had Cooper to breakfast, where the
Scotch bard appeared in a newly-bought silk gown, trying "as hard as he
could to make a Frenchman of himself." Among others present was Miss
Anne Scott, who was her father's traveling companion. "She was in half
mourning, and with her black eyes and jet-black hair might very well
have passed for a French woman." Of Scott Cooper wrote: "During the time
the conversation was not led down to business, he manifested a strong
propensity to humor." In naming their common publisher in Paris "he
quaintly termed him, with a sort of malicious fun, 'our gosling' (his
name was Goselin), adding that he hoped at least he 'laid golden eggs.'"
Mr. Cooper was warmly interested in aiding Sir Walter's "Waverley"
copyrights in America, and concerning their author he later wrote: "In
Auld Reekie, and among the right set, warmed, perhaps, by a glass of
'mountain dew,' Sir Walter Scott, in his peculiar way, is one of the
pleasantest companions the world holds." About 1830, when Cooper was
sitting for his portrait by Madame de Mirbel, that artist--for its
pose--asked him to look at the picture of a distinguished statesman.
Cooper said: "No, if I must look at any, it shall be at my master," and
lifting his eyes higher they rested on a portrait of Sir Walter Scott.
[Illustration: SIR WALTER SCOTT.]
[Illustration: MISS ANNE SCOTT.]
[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]
[Illustration: PIERRE JEAN DAVID D'ANGERS.]
One of Cooper's steadfast friends exclaimed of him:--"What a love he
cherished for superior talents in every ennobling pursuit in life!" This
characteristic no doubt led him into that day life of Pierre Jean David
d'Angers, whose brave soul had battled its way to artistic recognition.
In M. Henry Jouin's "David d'Angers et ses Relations Littéraires,"
Paris, 1890, appear two letter records of this master-sculptor as to
Cooper. In that of David to Victor Pavie, November, 1826, is: "Next week
I am to dine with Cooper; I shall make his bust. If you have not yet
read his works, read them, you will find the characters vigorously
traced." A note adds that the sculptor kept his word, and this bust of
Cooper appeared in the "Salon of 1827." Paris, March 30, 1828, David
again writes of Cooper to Victor Pavie:--"Dear friend, in speaking of
the sea, I think of 'The Red Rover' of my good friend Cooper. Have you
read it? It interests me much." A note adds: "Without doubt the author
had presented his new book to the sculptor," who gave to Cooper this
bust, modeled in 1826. Mrs. Cooper thought the bust and the Jarvis
portrait of her husband were "perfect likenesses." Later on David's
genius again found expression in a bronze medallion of his "good friend
Cooper." David has given the striking intellectual of Cooper's head of
which an authority of that time wrote: "Nature moulded it in majesty,
yet denied it not the gentler graces that should ever adorn greatness."
[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]
[Illustration: MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]
[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]
"In Paris Cooper's style of living gave his ideas of the duties and
position of an American gentleman. In a part of the handsome Hotel de
Jumièges he lived, keeping his carriage and service required by a modest
establishment; and his doors were always open to every American who had
claims on his society. Meanwhile nothing was allowed to break in upon
his literary duties, for which a part of each day was set aside." So
wrote one who became a friend staunch and true at this time in Paris. Of
their meeting he wrote: "I shall never forget the first day I saw
Cooper. He was at good old General Lafayette's, in the little apartment
of the rue d'Anjou,--the scene of many hallowed memories." Lafayette's
kind heart had granted an interview to some Indians by whom a reckless
white man was filling his purse in parading through Europe. With winning
smile the great, good man told these visitors to return to their home
while yet they could. Mr. G. continued: "As I was gazing at this scene I
saw a gentleman enter whose appearance called off the General's
attention. He was in the prime of life (thirty-five), and of that vigor
which air and manly exercise give. I had seen the heads of great men,
and there were some close to me, but none with such a full, expansive
forehead, such strong features, a mouth firm without harshness, and an
eye whose clear gray seemed to read you at a glance while it fears not
to let you read him in turn. 'Who is he?' I whispered to a
grand-daughter of the General near me. 'Mr. Cooper; do you not know Mr.
Cooper? Let me introduce you to him.' 'Cooper,' said I to myself; 'can
it be that I am within five paces, and that there, too, are the feeble
of the race around which his genius has shed a halo like that of Homer's
own heros?' I was fresh from 'The Mohicans,' and my hand trembled as it
met the cordial grasp of the man to whom I owed so many pleasing hours.
I asked about the Indians. 'They are poor specimens,' said he;
'fourth-rate at best in their own woods, and ten-times worse for the
lives they are leading here.'" Later, Mr. G. met the author in
Lafayette's bed-room, and saw how warmly he was welcomed by the great
poet Béranger. Still later Mr. G. and Cooper met in Florence, where they
had much fine talking and walking "on calm summer evenings." Of the
Bard-of-Avon it is noted that Cooper said: "Shakespeare is my traveling
library. To a novel-writer he is invaluable. Publishers will have
mottoes for every chapter; I never yet turned over Shakespeare without
hitting upon just what I wanted I like to take them, whenever I can,
from our own poets. It is a compliment they have a right to, and I am
glad when I can pay it." Concerning the author's habits, this friend
concludes: "When Cooper left his desk he left his pen on it. He came out
into the world to hear and see what other men were doing. If they wanted
to hear him, there he was, perfectly ready to express opinions of men or
things. It was delightful to hear him talk about his own works, he did
it with such a frank, fresh, manly feeling."
[Illustration: PROF. GEORGE WASHINGTON GREEN ("MR. G.")]
[Illustration: P.T. DE BÉRANGER.]
[Illustration: TALLEYRAND.]
[Illustration: DUCHESSE DE BERRI.]
[Illustration: CHARLES X of FRANCE.]
Among the great again was seen the ever-favored yet not "gai"
Talleyrand. Of the incident Cooper noted: "It is etiquette for the kings
of France to dine in public on January 14 and on the monarch's
fête-day." Wishing to see this ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper were sent
the better of the two permissions granted for the occasion. Cooper
describes the ceremony--the _entrée_ of Charles X: _"Le Roi_, tall,
decidedly graceful; the Dauphin to his right, the Dauphine to his left,
and to her right the Duchess of Berri." Passing Cooper, he continues:
"Near a little gate was an old man in strictly court-dress. The long
white hair that hung down his face, the _cordon bleu_, the lame foot,
and the unearthly aspect made me suspect the truth, it was M. de
Talleyrand as grand chamberlin, to officiate at the dinner of his
master"; whereby proving his own words: "It is not enough to be some
one,--it is needful to do something." A near Abbé whispered of
Talleyrand to Cooper: "But, sir, he is a cat, that always falls on its
feet." Yet of Talleyrand another's record is: "But if Charles Maurice
was lame of leg--his wit was keener and more nimble than that of any man
in Europe." Brushing past the gorgeous state-table to Mrs. Cooper, the
author adds: "She laughed, and said 'it was all very magnificent and
amusing,' but some one had stolen her shawl!"
[Illustration: COOPER'S SUMMER HOME, ST. OUEN, 1827.]
Cooper was ever a home-lover. Wherever he might be in foreign lands, he
contrived to have his own roof-tree when possible. Therefore, the summer
of 1827 sent them from rue St. Maur to the village of St. Ouen, on the
banks of the Seine and a league from the gates of Paris. The village
itself was not attractive, but pleasant was the home, next to a small
château where Madame de Staël lived when her father, M. Necker, was in
power. Some twenty-two spacious, well-furnished rooms this summer home
had, in which once lived the Prince de Soubise when _grand veneur_ of
Louis XV, who went there at times to eat his dinner--"in what served us
for a drawing-room," Cooper wrote. The beautiful garden of shade-trees,
shrubbery, and flowers, within gray walls fourteen feet high, was a
blooming paradise; and for it all--horses, cabriolet, grand
associations--was paid two hundred dollars per month for the season of
five.
"The Red Rover" was written in these three or four summer months in St.
Ouen on the Seine, whence the author's letters tell of watching the
moving life on the river, the merry washerwomen as they chatter, joke,
and splash beneath his terrace; how he tried punting, and left it to
"honest Pierre," who never failed to charge him double fare, and of whom
he tells a pretty story; how they all enjoyed the village _fêtes_, with
whirligigs and flying-horses, whereby the French contrive to make and
spend a few _sous_ pleasantly. "I enjoy all this greatly," wrote Cooper.
Excursions were made,--one to Montmorenci, in plain view of Paris; and
the author explains that the Montmorenci claim to being "the first
Christian baron" is of the Crusade War-Cry date and origin. His wife
and he took all the pretty drives in their cabriolet, but later he took
to the saddle for the out-of-field paths, where pleasant salutations
were exchanged with kindly-hearted peasants. Of these rambles Cooper
wrote: "One of my rides is ascending Montmartre by its rear, to the
windmills that night and day are whirling their rugged arms over the
capital of France." Montmartre, he said, gave him a view "like a glimpse
into the pages of history." He often met royalty dashing to and from
Paris. The king with his carriage-and-eight, attended by a dozen mounted
men, made a royal progress truly magnificent.
[Illustration: COOPER'S TERRACE STUDY, ST. OUEN.]
[Illustration: OLD MILL AT NEWPORT.]
[Illustration: THE STRUGGLE.]
Overhanging the river at the garden side was a broad terrace which ended
in a pleasant summer-house, and here many pages of the author's next
book--"The Red Rover"--were written. After he left the navy, and while
he was living in Angevine, Cooper became part owner in a
whaling-ship,--_The Union_, of Sag Harbor. She made trips to different
parts of the coast, and several times, for the pleasure of it, Cooper
played skipper. Under his direction she once carried him to Newport,
with which he was greatly pleased. He explored the old ruin there, but
no fancy could ever persuade him to see more than a windmill in it; but
the charm of Newport's situation, harbor, and shore lines lingered in
his mind and served him for the opening and closing scenes of this work.
After its publication he received from some Newport gentlemen the gift
of a little box made from the keel of the _Endeavor_, Cook's famous
exploring ship, which wound up its world-circling voyage in Newport
harbor. On the lid of the box was a silver-plate engraving. In Cooper's
story the "Red Rover" appears on this Newport scene in the height of his
career,--an outlaw in spirit, a corsair in deed. In early life he was of
quick mind, strong will, with culture and social position, but wildly
passionate and wayward; and smarting under official injustice, in an
evil hour he casts his lawlessness loose on the storm-tide of life. The
voice of an elder sister, who had given something of a mother's deep
love and tenderness to the wayward youth, falls upon his ear. Old
memories are awakened; home feeling revives; conscience is aroused, and
in the very hour of its greatest triumph the proud spirit bows in
penitence,--the Rover surrenders his captives. A like change of heart
came, through a mutual love of the birds of heaven, to a real pirate who
chanced upon a cabin in the forest's solitude and here confessed his
life to its inmate, Audubon, who left this "striking incident" a record
in his works. However, "Dick Fid, that arrant old foretop man, and his
comrade, Negro Sip, are the true lovers of the narrative;--the last,
indeed, is a noble creature, a hero under the skin of Congo." "The Red
Rover" is all a book of the sea. In Sir Walter Scott's journal, January,
1828, appears: "I have read Cooper's new novel, 'The Red Rover.' The
current of it rolls entirely on the ocean. Something too much of
nautical language. It is very clever, though." Its author "has often
been idly compared to the author of 'Waverley,' but to no such heritage
as Scott's was ever Cooper born. Alone he penetrated the literary
wilderness, blazing paths for those who should come after him
there";--and a Columbus of letters for others to follow on the sea's
highway was he.
[Illustration: THE NEWPORT BOX.]
[Illustration: JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART.]
A misprint in Lockhart's "Life of Scott" made his comment on Cooper most
unfortunate by an "s" added to the word manner. Sir Walter's journal
reads: "This man who has shown so much genius has a good deal of manner,
or want of manner, peculiar to his countrymen." Cooper, hurt to the
quick for himself and his country at being rated "a rude boor from the
bookless wilds," by one he had called his "sovereign" in past cordial
relations, resented this expression in his review of Lockhart's work
for the _Knickerbocker Magazine_, 1838, and for so doing he was harshly
criticised in England. October, 1864, the literary editor of _The
Illustrated London News_ wrote: "I am almost inclined to agree with
Thackeray in liking Hawkeye 'better than any of Scott's lot.' What noble
stories those five are in which the hero is described from youth to
age!" From "Thackeray in the United States," by General James Grant
Wilson, comes: "At an American dinner table" (the talk was of Cooper and
his writings) "Thackeray pronounced Leatherstocking the greatest
character created in fiction since the Don Quixote of Cervantes"; and he
thought the death scene in "The Prairie," where the old trapper said
"Here!" surpassing anything he had "met in English literature."
[Illustration: NATTY'S LAST CALL.]
Of Natty's answer to the Spirit Land call Cooper's own words are: "The
trapper was placed on a rude seat, which had been made, with studied
care, to support his frame in an upright and easy attitude--so as to let
the light of the setting sun fall full upon the solemn features. His
head was bare, the long, thin locks of gray fluttering lightly in the
evening breeze. The first glance of the eye told his former friends
that the old man was at length called upon to pay the last tribute of
nature. The trapper had remained nearly motionless for an hour. His eyes
alone had occasionally opened and shut. When opened, his gaze seemed
fastened on the clouds which hung around the western horizon, reflecting
the bright colors, and giving form and loveliness to the glorious tints
of an American sunset. The hour--the calm beauty of the season--the
occasion, all conspired to fill the spectators with solemn awe.
Suddenly, while musing on the remarkable position in which he was
placed, Middleton felt the hand which he held grasp his own with
incredible power, and the old man, supported on either side by his
friends, rose upright to his feet. For a moment he looked about him, as
if to invite all in presence to listen (the lingering remnant of human
frailty), and then, with a fine military elevation of the head, and with
a voice that might be heard in every part of that numerous assembly, he
pronounced the word--'Here!'
"When Middleton and Hard Heart, each of whom had involuntarily extended
a hand to support the form of the old man, turned to him again, they
found that the subject of their interest was removed forever beyond the
necessity of their care."
Concerning social life Cooper wrote: "Taking into consideration our
tastes and my health, the question has been, not how to get into, but
how to keep out of, the great world." But for the happy chance of
inquiry at the gate of a friend, the author would "have dined with the
French Lord-High-Chancellor, without the smallest suspicion of who he
was!" Of French women Cooper adds: "The highest style of French beauty
is classical. I cannot recall a more lovely picture than the Duchess
de----[this title and blank are said to veil the identity of the
Princess Galitzin] in full dress at a carnival ball, where she shone
peerless among hundreds of the _élite_ of Europe. And yet this woman was
a grandmother!"
[Illustration: THE PRINCESS BARBARA VASSILIEWNA GALITZIN.]
In a letter dated Paris, November 28, 1826, written by Mrs. Cooper to
her sister, appears of Mr. Cooper:--"They make quite a Lion of him and
Princesses write to him and he has invitations from Lords and Ladies. He
has so many notes from the Princess Galitzin I should be absolutely
jealous were it not that she is a Grandmother. We were at a Soirée there
the other evening among Dutchesses, Princesses, Countesses, etc."
[Illustration: LA GRANGE, COUNTRY HOME OF LAFAYETTE.]
[Illustration: LA GRANGE ARCHWAY ENTRANCE.]
Once with and twice without Mrs. Cooper, the author visited La Grange,
the country home of General Lafayette, some twenty-seven miles from
Paris and near Rosay. He tells us that La Grange means barn, granary, or
farm, and that the château came to Lafayette through his wife; that it
had some five hundred acres of wood, pasture, meadow, and cultivated
land; that the house is of hewn stone, good grayish color, with its five
plain, round towers and their high, pyramidal slate roofs making a part
of the walls; that the end towers are buried in ivy planted by Charles
Fox. He tells how small, irregular windows open beautifully through the
thick foliage for the blooming faces of children, in their home-part of
La Grange. He gives rare pictures of the great stairway, the General's
bed-room, cabinet, and library in the tower-angle overlooking the
willow-shaded moat. Beneath this library was the author's own bed-room.
Then came the array of drawing-rooms and innumerable other rooms, where
hospitality seemed to know no limit. Lafayette's cabinet contained
many portraits,--one of Madame de Staël, and one of his own father. Of
this room, and the library, and his grand old host Cooper wrote: "I
passed much of our visit alone with him in these two rooms. No one can
be pleasanter in private, and he is full of historical anecdotes that he
tells with great simplicity and frequently with great humor." The
château stands on three sides of an irregular square, and is one of the
most picturesque structures in the country. The winding road enters a
thicket of evergreens, crosses a bridge, and passes beneath an arch to
the paved court. Together, Cooper and his host had many walks and drives
thereabouts, and, all in all, the author fell under the spell of
Lafayette's personal charm and his simple integrity of character.
Between Lafayette's richness of years and Talleyrand's old age there was
a gulf,--one had attained nearly everything worth striving for; the
other had lost the same.
[Illustration: HÔTEL DESSEIN, CALAIS, FRANCE.]
Cooper and his family entered France July, 1826, and February, 1828,
they thought the time had come to change the scene, and proceeded to
England. "I drove around to the rue d'Anjou to take my leave of General
Lafayette," wrote Cooper. To Calais they had rain and chill and darkness
most of the way. Passing through the gate, they drove to the inn
immortalized by Lawrence Sterne and Beau Brummel, where they found
English comfort with French cooking and French taste. One of February's
fine days they left the Hotel Dessein to embark for England. After a
two-hours' run the cliffs of Dover appeared on each side of that
port,--the nearest to the continent,--making these chalk cliffs seem,
Cooper says, "a magnificent gateway to a great nation." Leaving the
fishing-boats of the French coast, "the lofty canvas of countless ships
and several Indiamen rose from the sea," as they shot towards the
English shore, many "bound to that focus of coal-smoke, London." Quietly
landing at Dover-haven, they went to Wright's tavern, where they missed
the French manner, mirrors, and table-service, but "got in their place a
good deal of solid, unpretending comfort." In due time Mr. Wright put
them and their luggage into a comfortable post-coach, and on the road he
called "quite rotten, sir," to London. To Americans, at that date, the
road proved good, and also the horses that made the sixteen miles to
Canterbury in an hour and a half, where they drove to another Mr.
Wright's; going to four of the name between Dover and London, Cooper
concluded with an apology that "it was literally all Wright on this
road." The visit to Canterbury cathedral was made during "morning
vespers in the choir. It sounded odd to hear our own beautiful service
in our own tongue, in such a place, after the _Latin_ chants of canons;
and we stood listening with reverence without the screen." London met
them "several miles in the suburbs down the river," but they suddenly
burst out onto Waterloo bridge, over which they were whirled into the
Strand and set down at Wright's hotel, Adam Street, Adelphi; "and,"
wrote Cooper, "we were soon refreshing ourselves with some of worthy
Mrs. Wright's excellent tea."
[Illustration: CLIFFS OF DOVER.]
[Illustration: CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL CHOIR.]
[Illustration: GREEN GATE, CANTERBURY.]
The second night in London Cooper, stretched out on a sofa, was reading,
when some street musicians began to play beneath his window several
tunes without success; "finally," he wrote, "the rogues contrived, after
all, to abstract half a crown from my pocket by suddenly striking up
'Yankee Doodle!'" After some hunting they took a small house in St.
James Place, which gave them "a tiny drawing-room, a dining-room, three
bed-rooms, offices, and house-service for a guinea per day." A guinea
more weekly was added for their three fires, and their own maid and man
gave personal service during this London season. Of his man-servant
Cooper wrote: "The English footman I engaged is a steady, little, old
man, with a red face and a powdered poll, who appears in black breeches
and coat, but who says himself that his size has marred his fortune. He
is cockney born, about fifty; quality and splendor act forcibly on his
imagination, and he is much condemned in the houses where I visit on
account of his dwarfish stature"; and we are told that the English favor
pretty faces for their maids and fine figures for their footmen.
[Illustration: ST. JAMES PLACE, LONDON.]
To a Mr. Spencer whom Cooper met in France was due the visit soon paid
him by his near neighbor, the author of the "Pleasures of Memory." Of
Samuel Rogers Cooper wrote: "He very kindly sought me out"; and, "few
men have a more pleasant way of saying pleasant things." His visit was
followed by an invitation to breakfast the next morning. Cooper
continues: "It was but a step from my door, and you may be certain I was
punctual." He found the poet's home perfection for a bachelor's needs;
only eighteen feet front, but the drawing-room and dining-room were
lined with old masters. And in the bow-window stood the "Chantrey Vase,"
placed by its maker when artist workman in the room where he later
dined as Chantrey the sculptor and Rogers' honored guest. The library
was filled with valuable books and curiosities in history, literature,
and art. Of this poet's dream-home Cooper wrote: "Neither he nor any one
else has a right to live in so exquisite a house and expect everybody to
hold their tongues about it. Taking the house, the host, the mental
treats he dispenses, the company, and the tone, it is not easy to
conceive of anything better in their way. Commend me in every respect to
the delicious breakfasts of St. James Place!" On one occasion, "Rogers,
talking of Washington Irving's 'Columbus,' said, 'in his airy,
significant way,' as Moore called it, 'It's rather long.' Cooper turned
round on him and said sharply, 'That's a short criticism.'" This
banker-poet could be severe on his English friends too, as it appears
"Lady Holland was always lamenting that she had nothing to do. One day,
complaining worse than ever that she did not know 'what to be at,'" said
Rogers, "I could not resist recommending her to try a novelty--try and
do a little good."
[Illustration: SIR FRANCIS CHANTREY.]
[Illustration: SAMUEL ROGERS.]
[Illustration: ROGERS' LONDON HOME.]
[Illustration: ROGERS' BREAKFAST ROOM.]
Through Samuel Rogers Cooper was soon dining at Holland House, in the
much-carved and gilded room where Sully and embassy supped in 1603. By a
word to the porter, Sir James Mackintosh had planned a pleasant
half-hour for his American friend in the gardens, where was Rogers'
seat, and then in the library on the second floor, where he saw its
each-end tables. The generous space between is said to have been paced
by "Addison when composing," and his inspiration quickened by kindly
"bottles placed on them for that purpose." The artist Charles Robert
Leslie caught a rare glimpse on canvas of this library, in which appear
his friends Lord and Lady Holland, who were also the host and hostess of
Fenimore Cooper. We are told by him that the dining-table was square;
that the host had one corner and the hostess the centre; and the
American author, "as the stranger, had the honor of a seat next to Lady
Holland." When talking, he was offered by her a plate of herring, of
which he frankly avowed he "ought to have eaten one, even to the fins
and tail"; but little dreaming of their international worth just then,
the herring were declined. With good humor his hostess said: "You do not
know what you say; they are _Dutch_." With some vigor of look and tone
Cooper repeated--"Dutch!" The reply was: "Yes, Dutch; we can only get
them _through an ambassador_." Then Cooper rose to the occasion by
replying: "There are too many good things of native production to
require a voyage to Holland on my account." Of their host Rogers' record
was: "Lord Holland always comes down to breakfast like a man upon whom
sudden good fortune had just fallen--his was the smile that spoke the
mind at ease." And after his death were found on Lord Holland's
dressing-table, and in his handwriting, these lines on himself:
Nephew of Fox and friend of Gay,
Enough my meed of fame
If those who deighn'd to observe me say
I injured neither name.
[Illustration: ROGERS' SEAT.]
"Here Rogers sat, and here forever dwell
With me, those Pleasures that he sang so well."
After dining at Lord Grey's Cooper wrote of him: "He on all occasions
acted as if he never thought of national differences"; and the author
thought him "the man of most character in his set." We are told that
England is the country of the wealthy, and that the king is seldom seen,
although the royal start from St. James for Windsor was seen and
described as going off "at a slapping pace."
[Illustration: CHARLES ROBERT LESLIE.]
[Illustration: SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH.]
[Illustration: HOLLAND HOUSE.]
[Illustration: LIBRARY OF HOLLAND HOUSE.]
[Illustration: GILT CHAMBER OF HOLLAND HOUSE.]
[Illustration: LORD GREY.]
[Illustration: MRS. JOHN GIBSON LOCKHART.]
But it was in that dreamland of Rogers' that Cooper's heart found its
greatest joy. There he met the artists,--Sir Thomas Lawrence, handsome
and well-mannered; Leslie, mild, caring little for aught save his tastes
and affections; and Newton, who "thinks himself" English. Here, dining,
he meets again Sir Walter Scott, his son-in-law and later biographer,
Mr. Lockhart, Sir Walter's daughters, Mrs. Lockhart and Miss Anne Scott.
He says Mrs. Lockhart "is just the woman to have success in Paris, by
her sweet, simple manners." He had a stately chat with Mrs. Siddons, and
Sir James Mackintosh he called "the best talker I have ever seen; the
only man I have yet met in England who appears to have any clear or
definite notions of us." Rare indeed were these flash-lights of genius
that Samuel Rogers charmed to his "feasts of reason and flow of soul."
[Illustration: JOANNA BAILLIE.]
[Illustration: SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE.]
With Mr. Southby Cooper went to see Coleridge at Highgate, where, he
says, "our reception was frank and friendly, the poet coming out to meet
us in his morning-gown. I rose to take a nearer view of a little
picture, when Mr. Coleridge told me it was by his friend Allston." From
the bard of Highgate they went to see Miss Joanna Baillie at Hampstead,
and found her "a little, quiet woman, a deeply-seated earnestness about
her that bespoke the higher impulses within; no one would have thought
her little person contained the elements of a tragedy."
[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE GILLMAN'S, HIGHGATE, LONDON.]
An Amsterdam engagement for early June called Cooper and his family from
London before the end of the season, and prompted him to say, "The
force of things has moved heavier bodies." Quitting England was by no
means easy, but "the weather was fine and the North Sea smooth as a
dish." They paddled the whole night long in their "solid good vessel,
but slow of foot." With morning "a low spit of land hove in sight, and a
tree or a church tower" rose out of the water,--this was Holland. At
Rotterdam "the boat was soon alongside the Boom Key." With some
fluttering about the dykes and windmills of Dutchland, a flight through
Belgium soon brought them once more to Paris.
[Illustration: BOOM KEY AT ROTTERDAM.]
Cooper was a keen observer and a calm critic of both home and foreign
folk. That he was stirred to strong words by unpleasing comments on his
country appears in his "Notions of Americans: Picked up by a Traveling
Bachelor." This book of facts, showing wide and accurate knowledge, was
intended to enlighten and clear away mistakes. Instead of this, it drew
upon its writer critical fire both at home and abroad, and was the first
of the many shadows of his after life. His stories of our new country
taught Europe more about America than Europe had ever learned before.
His love for, and faith in, his own country were strong. Abroad he was a
staunch defender of her free institutions, and foreigners deemed him
more proud of his American birth than of his literary birthright of
genius; and yet, at home he was voted "an enemy of all that the fathers
of the Republic fought for." However, the opinion of those who knew
Cooper best was given by his Bread and Cheese Club friend, Dr. John
Wakefield Francis, as,--"He was an American inside and out--a thorough
patriot." It was said that as an aristocratic American he never
presented letters of introduction. Yet in foreign lands his society was
sought by the most distinguished men of his time. However of this, the
rare pleasure of these London days he ever held in warm remembrance.
Flying from the summer heat of Paris, the family soon left for
Switzerland with a team of sturdy Norman horses, a postilion riding the
near beast. It slipped and fell, rolled over and caught its rider's leg
beneath, but was saved its breaking by the make of his old-fashioned
boot, "so with a wry face and a few _sacr-r-r-es,_ he limped back to his
saddle."
In their salon of the inn at Avallon were curious emblem pictures of
different nationalities: one a _belle_ of fair hair; another a _belle_
of raven locks; a third a _belle_ of brown ringlets;--all these for
Europe; but for the United States was "a _wench_ as black as coal!" So
thought Switzerland of us in the days of 1828. One lovely day Cooper
"persuaded A. to share" his seat on the carriage-box. Rounding a ruin
height "she exclaimed, 'What a beautiful cloud!' In the direction of her
finger I saw," wrote Cooper, "a mass that resembled the highest wreath
of a cloud; its whiteness greatly surpassed the brilliancy of vapor. I
called to the postilion and pointed out the object. '_Mont Blanc,_
Monsieur!' It was an inspiration when seventy miles by an air line from
it. This first view of the hoary Alps always makes a thrilling moment."
[Illustration: MONT BLANC.]
Later came morning rides and evening strolls. The modest stone
country-house which they took for economy and the author's love of quiet
home-life was _La Lorraine_, and belonged to the Count de Portales of
Neufchâtel. There was a high field near, where, one day, when Mr. Cooper
was teaching his little son Paul the "mysteries of flying a kite," they
caught the rare fleeting glimpse of a glittering glacier. _La Lorraine,_
only half a mile from Berne, is noted as "one of the pretty little
retired villas that dot the landscape," with "the sinuous Aar glancing
between" it and the town. The trim little garden and half-ruined
fountain were well shaded by trees, and the adjoining farmhouse and
barn-yard, all Swiss, made a fine playground for the children's summer
holiday. The house and its furniture they found "faultlessly neat."
There was a near-by common where hoops, rope-jumping, and kites could be
enjoyed. From this point and the cottage windows "was a very beautiful
view of the Alps--an unfailing source of delight, especially during the
evening hours." Cooper has given some fine descriptions of their life in
the glow of this Alpine country; of harvest-time and mountain gleaners.
He tells of a visit to Hindelbank to see the sculptor Nahl's wondrous
idealism in stone, which represents a young mother, the pastor's wife,
and her babe. The infant lies in passive innocence on its mother's
bosom, while her face is radiant with the light of a holy joy on the
resurrection morn. Her hand is slightly raised in reverent greeting of
her Redeemer. Of this work Cooper writes: "I take it to be the most
sublime production of its kind in the world." And they found it in "one
of the very smallest, humblest churches in Europe."
[Illustration: LA LORRAINE VIEW OF BERNESE ALPS.]
[Illustration: NAHL'S MEMORIAL TO MADAME LANGHAN.]
In the small, uncarpeted study of _La Lorraine_ a new book was planned
and begun. For the story's setting the author's mind turned to the
far-away, new home-country, and early frontier life in Connecticut.
There he brought the transatlantic Puritan and the North American Indian
together--the strong, stern Puritan family affection in close contact
with the red-man's savage cruelty, dignity, and his adoption of a white
child. A fair-haired little girl is torn from her mother and cared for
by a young Indian chief, once a captive in the white settlement. Years
pass over the bereaved family, when an Indian outbreak restores the lost
child to her parents' roof as "Narra-Mattah," the devoted wife of a
Narraganset warrior-chief, and the young mother of his little son. This
book draws a strong picture of pure family devotion; even the old
grandfather's heart, beneath his stiff Puritan garb, beats an
unforgettable part. Sorrow for the lost child gave the story its
name--"The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish" (then thought to mean in the Indian
language, "Place of the Whip-poor-will")and it has been said to
describe the settlement of the Fenimore family in America.
[Illustration: NARRA-MATTAH.]
Many and interesting were their excursions. One was to Interlachen, with
its glimpse of the Jungfrau, and the Lauterbrunnen valleys "full of
wonder and delight." At Lauterbrunnen they walked to the famous Falls of
_Staubbach_, which Cooper describes and explains as meaning "Torrents of
Dust."
[Illustration: CONNECTICUT EMIGRANTS.]
As the summer had fled autumn winds began to whistle through the lindens
of _La Lorraine_, and the snow began to fall upon its pretty garden,
warning the author to fly south with his fledglings and their mother
before the Alpine passes were closed by real winter. Cooper resigned
the consulate at Lyons, which was given him solely "to avoid the
appearance of going over to the enemy" while abroad. A carriage and two
servitors were engaged. One of these, Caspar, had his soldiering under
the first Napoleon, and many were the camp tales he had to tell in a way
to please his employers. At the old town of Alstetten, with painted
wooden houses at the foot of the Am Stoss, they arrived, more than ready
for breakfast, which was somewhat delayed because, said Cooper, "our
German was by no means classical; and English, Italian, and French were
all Hebrew to the good people of the inn." It was "easy to make the
hostess understand that we _wished_ to eat,--but _what_ would we eat? In
this crisis I bethought me of a long-neglected art, and crowed like a
cock. The shrill strain hardly reached the ear of the good woman before
it was answered by such laughter as none but village lungs could raise.
William--an admirable mimic--began to cackle like a hen. In due time we
had a broiled fowl, an _omelette_, and boiled eggs." At another place
where they stopped for mid-day luncheon Cooper writes: "We asked for a
fruit-tart, and--odors and nosegays!--they gave us one made of onions,
which they thought very good fruit in its way, and we ate exactly as
much as we wished."
[Illustration: FALL OF THE STAUBBACH.]
"The baths of Pfäffer," he wrote "in my own unworthy person have wrought
a sudden and wondrous cure"; and of his visit to the Devil's Bridge over
the Reuss: "We entered a gorge between frightful rocks, where the river
was fretting and struggling to get in before us." From the yawning mouth
of a gloomy cave came the tinkling bells of pack-horses to Italy by the
St. Gothard. To the roar of the river and the rushing of winds without
they plunged through this dark "Hole of Uri," which brought them to a
rugged rock-rift pass with but a thread of heaven's blue far above them;
and here "a slight, narrow bridge of a single arch spanned the gorge
with a hardihood that caused one to shudder." Its slender, unrailed,
fifteen feet of width was eighty of span, and one hundred above the
boiling torrent that fell on broken rocks below, and over it; wrote
Cooper: "The wind blew so furiously that I really wished for a rope to
hold on by. This was the far-famed Devil's Bridge; other bridges may
have been built by imps, but Beëlzebub himself had a hand in this."
[Illustration: THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE.]
[Illustration: FERNEY, VOLTAIRE'S LAZE LEMAN HOME.]
They enjoyed the beauty of Lake Geneva, and were charmed by the
attractions of "Ferney," Voltaire's home on Leman's shore, and enjoyed
the solemn gorge-valley of the Rhone, and through the Simplon passed
into fair Italy. As they "drew near a small chapel in a rock Casper
flourished his whip, calling out the word 'Italia!' I pulled off my hat
in reverence," wrote the author. Down the steep mountains, over bridged
torrents, past the hill-towns and valley-lands, they came to the City of
the Lily,--fair Florence of the Arno. "As early as 1829," Cooper
thought, "the unification of Italy was irresistible."
[Illustration: THE SIMPLON PASS.]
[Illustration: FLORENCE, ITALY.]
[Illustration: PALAZZO RICASOLI, FLORENCE, ITALY.]
In Florence a home was soon found in the Palazzo Ricasoli, Via del
Cocomero. Lofty of ceiling--twenty feet--was their apartment, in which
they enjoyed "two noble bed-rooms, several smaller ones, a large
drawing-room, dining-room, baths, a small court and garden within the
iron gates, and all for the modest sum of sixty dollars per month." The
oil burned in their lamps the home-folk "would be happy to use on their
salads." Here, around the cheering glow of great wood-fires, the
American author would gather his friends, old and new. From Otsego days
a blazing hearth-stone ever rejoiced his cheery nature, and his way of
laying the wood and nursing the flames horrified his Italian servants as
waste of fuel. The chill of the _tra montana_ brought into this circle
of warmth and light many eminent foreigners; and of home-country folk,
that true American, Horatio Greenough, often basked in the bright glow
of the author's wood-fires at Florence.
Later Greenough wrote: "Fenimore Cooper saved me from despair after my
return to Italy. He employed me as I wish to be employed; and up to this
moment has been a father to me." Greenough's last work was a bust of his
illustrious friend, the American novelist, which he proposed to cast in
bronze, at his own expense, and place in the field where stands the Old
Mill in Newport, and where the opening scene of "The Red Rover" is laid.
He took counsel with Cooper's friends as to a monument to the author,
and among his papers was found an elaborate design for the work.
[Illustration: HORATIO GREENOUGH.]
Cooper loved to encourage rising talent in young artists. He gave them
orders, and also his cheering sympathy. One of these wrote that Cooper
gave him a free letter-of-credit on his banker in Paris, and added: "I
had occasion to use it more than once, and my drafts were always
cheerfully accepted. Since then I have paid him, though he never would
have asked for the money; nobody but he and I ever knew of the
transaction." A Boston man writes of his visit to the Florence studio of
Greenough: "My eye fell upon a bust which awakened sea and forest
pictures,--the spars of an elegant craft, the lofty figure of a hunter,
the dignified bearing of a mysterious pilot." It was the bust of
Fenimore Cooper. Of the sculptor it was noted that "he always referred
with emotion to the gleam of sunshine which encouraged him at this
crisis, in the friendship of our late renowned novelist, Cooper."
[Illustration: BUST OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.]
In the Pitti one day they passed before Raphael's _Madonna del Trono_,
and the sculptor pointed out to his companion the fine drawing in the
two little angel figures of the foreground, in the act of singing.
Cooper asked if the subject would not lend itself to sculpture;
afterwards one of his daughters copied the figures, and the result of
the mutual interest in the design was an order from Cooper for a group
which in a few months Greenough executed in marble. It was exhibited in
America under the title of "The Chanting Cherubs." It was Cooper's
"Chanting Cherubs"--the first group of its kind from an American chisel
--that led to Greenough's order for the statue of Washington, and
inspired the pen of Richard Henry Dana to write:
Whence came ye, cherubs? from the moon?
Or from some shining star?
Ye, sure, are sent a blessed boon,
From kinder worlds afar;
For while I look my heart is all delight:
Earth hath no creatures half so pure and bright.
[Illustration: CHANTING CHERUBS.]
Later on Greenough came to them "all booted and bearded beyond
recognition" save in "his walk and his talk."
During Cooper's later American press troubles his close friend,
Greenough, wrote him: "You lose your hold on the American public with
rubbing down their skins with brick-bats." And yet, during Greenough's
dark days, he said: "What is the use of blowing up bladders for
posterity to jump upon for the mere pleasure of hearing them crack?" The
author's keen delight in architecture, sculpture, and painting then gave
him daily pleasure in the churches, palaces, and art-galleries of _Bella
Firenzi_. Familiar from youth with his father's engravings of antique
sculpture subjects, he writes of his first glimpses of the originals in
the Pitti: "I stood, hat in hand, involuntarily bowing to the circle of
marble figures that surrounded me."
[Illustration: LEOPOLD II, GRAND DUKE OF TUSCANY.]
[Illustration: PITTI PALACE, FLORENCE, ITALY, 1828.]
Attired in "a black coat, breeches, and vest with steel buttons, lace
frills and ruff, a sword and a dress-hat," our author was presented at
the brilliant Tuscan Court. Grand Duke Leopold II left on Cooper's mind
a strong impression of integrity of character; his simplicity and
justice were borne out in his greeting: "They tell me you are the
author of many books, but as it has never been my good fortune to meet
with them, I can say no more on this subject than that I have heard them
well spoken of by those who have." Cooper was asked "a hundred questions
as to America," and assured of the prince's pleasure in seeing him at
court and his being in Tuscany. When leaving Florence Cooper paid his
parting respects at the Pitti in an hour's pleasant converse, and then
presented the Grand Duke with a copy of "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish,"
printed in his city of the Arno. Here Cooper and his family had some gay
carnival days with their various friends. Among them was the Count St.
Leu, son of Queen Hortense and King Louis of Holland, and the author's
sometimes host, and "one of the handsomest men of his age" that Cooper
ever met. We are told of the Count: "He lived in good style, having a
fine villa where I dined lately, and a palace in town." By those nearest
him he was addressed "your Majesty," and held some "little show" of
royalty. Princess Charlotte, his wife, and daughter of Joseph Bonaparte,
the author also knew. He met Madame Mère, who is described as "a slight
old lady, with little remains of beauty except fine black eyes." She was
quiet, simple; in short, motherly, when seen by Cooper the winter of
1828-29.
[Illustration: COUNT ST. LEU.]
[Illustration: LETIZIA BOUNAPARTE.]
[Illustration: MADAME MÈRE.]
Longing for the open country came with the early Italian spring, and a
hillside villa just outside the walls of Florence was secured. A narrow
lane ran between this villa _St. Illario_ and its rustic church of the
same name. The villa had two projecting wings with belvederes and roofed
terraces, one of which connected with the author's study. Herein he
wrote of "the witchery of Italy"--the land he loved next to his own. His
letters give glorious glimpses of the Arno, their strolls to
Bellosguardo's heights, the churches, monasteries, costumes, and songs
of the peasants--all attuned to poesy. Frequent were the exchanges of
civility between the author's study and the good old _curato_ across the
lane. Cooper wrote of him: "The man has some excellent figs, and our
cook, having discovered it, lays his trees under contribution." He
continues: "One small, green-coated, fresh fig is the precise point of
felicity. But the good _curato_, besides his figs, has a pair of uneasy
bells in his church-tower that are exactly forty-three feet from my
ears, which ring in pairs six or eight times daily. There are matins,
noontide, vespers, to say nothing of christenings, weddings, and
funerals."
Then follows a rare account of a night funeral service ending beneath
his study walls.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF ST. ILLARIO AND NARROW LANE.]
[Illustration: VILLA, ST. ILLARIO.]
During the great Florentine _fête_ of St. John, the patron saint of the
city,--from the Count St. Leu's windows on the Arno,--the author and his
family saw the display of gala-boats decked with thousands of
colored-paper lanterns.
[Illustration: CHARIOT RACES, FLORENCE.]
They enjoyed the chariot races in the wide Piazza Santa Maria Novella,
where the small obelisks point the start and finish of the races. These
were followed by the _corso dei barberi_--barbed horse-races without
riders--down the longest street of the town. Then followed the French
Minister's masked ball, amusing as well as splendid, readers of Cooper's
"Italy" will find. But more than all, on their return to Villa St.
Illario, were they charmed with the brilliant illumination of the noble
cathedral dome, which against the dark skies "looked like a line
engraving of fire." So closed this festa of Florence in the grand-ducal
days, bright in gay gear and alive with everybody, from prince to
_contadini_. Then he came in happy touch with the impulsive, laughing,
singing, dark-haired Italians, and to the finer aspects of their nature
he was partial. They were in sharp contrast to the Puritan band in the
valley of the Connecticut, which his pen pictured in the finishing
touches of "The Wept of Wish-ton-Wish," when in his study at _Casa
Ricasoli._
[Illustration: GENOA.]
Press censorship and no English printing-house in Florence forced Cooper
to leave his family and go to Marseilles. His letters give some pretty
pictures which passed his carriage windows on the way. Of Genoa: "The
seaward prospect was glorious." The islands "were borrowed by Leonardo,"
and a circuit of the city walls was made on horseback. Full of charm
and interest was the road "on the margin of the sea"--from Genoa to
Nice. In his "Excursions in Italy" appears of Genoa: "I looked back with
longing-eyes at _Genoa la Superba_ and thought it well deserved the
title." "The whole of this coast," he wrote, "is as picturesque and
glorious as the imagination can picture it." He tells of feluccas and
other water-craft that claimed a sailor's eye; and the landward views of
Mentone, Santa Monica, the heights, arches, and passes, and the
wasp-like Villa Franca, perched on its ledge up two hundred feet--for
fear of "the bears" said the guide. In Marseilles an English printer was
secured and brought back to Florence. Besides being deaf and dumb his
name--Richard Heavysides--bore out the burden of an unfortunate temper
to the necessity of sending this printer back to Marseilles. Finally, by
the kindness of the grand duke's librarian, a small edition of "The Wept
of Wish-ton-Wish" was printed, and early sheets sent to publishers in
Paris, London, and Philadelphia. In England the book was called "The
Borderers," being based on the story of Eunice Williams of Deerfield,
Mass., but it was more highly valued in England and France than in
America.
[Illustration: LEGHORN.]
The Mediterranean blue on Cooper's journey to Marseilles allured him
into conceiving another sea tale. Its writing, however, was delayed by a
mild return of the old fever that was induced by the summer sun of
Italy. Longing, therefore, for the water breezes, mid-summer found him
within "sight and sound" of the sea waves. He writes "July 29 the whole
family went to Leghorn, where the salt air was grateful, and I snuffed
the odor of this delightful sea with a feeling that was 'redolent of joy
and youth.' We feasted our eyes on the picturesque rigs and barks of
those poetical waters, and met several men from the Levant,--an
Algerian Rais calmly smoking his chibouque on the deck of his poleacre,
many Sardinians, Tuscans, Jews, and three Russians. Rowing under the
bows of a Yankee, I found one seated on the windlass playing on the
flute,--as cool a piece of impudence as can well be imagined for a
Massachusetts man to practice in Italy! The delicious odors of the
seaport were inhaled with a delight no language can describe."
[Illustration: NAPLES.]
At Leghorn Cooper engaged a Genovese felucca, "_La Bella Genovese_,--a
craft of thirty tons, beautiful mould, lateen-rigged, carrying two of
that sail and a jib, and ten men for her crew." Aboard this small vessel
the author and his family spent six days of pure pleasure, yet "somewhat
bitten by fleas." They touched at Elba and other islands, and skirted
the coasts of Tuscany, the Roman States, and so on to Naples, of which
Cooper wrote: "Oh Napoli! glorious, sunny, balmy Napoli!" This cruising
along the western coast of Italy in the _Bella Genovese_ suggested to
the author one of his favorite stories, "Wing-and-Wing," which was
published twelve years later. In Naples several weeks were passed at a
hotel; thence to a short-time home of their own on the cliffs of
Sorrento. The very air of Italy was a delight to this sunny-hearted
sailor, who so deeply felt the charm of all Italian nature. "The house
we have taken," he wrote, "is said to be the one in which Tasso was
born. It stands on the brow of the cliffs, within the walls of the town,
and in plain sight of every object of interest on the bay. We occupy the
principal floor only, though I have taken the entire house. There is a
chapel beneath the grand _sala_, and kitchens and offices somewhere in
those lower regions. We enter by a porte-cochère into a court which has
a well with a handsome marble curb and a flight of broad, marble steps
fit for a palace." Seaward several rooms led to the _sala_, fifty feet
long, and facing the water. Cooper tells of its tiled floor, gilded
couches, chairs, and marble busts. The great charm of the house was its
terrace, fifty feet long by twenty-five wide, and protected by a stone
balustrade, massive and carved, hanging over the blue Mediterranean, and
giving to view Vesuvius, Ischia, and all the coast of glorious sea.
Hearing an outcry from his son Paul one day, his father found the boy
with his head fast between two of these great spindles--"in a way that
frightened me as well as the youngster himself. It was like being
imbedded in a rock. Below the terrace runs a narrow beach, where our
children delight to play, picking up shells and more than
shells,--ancient mosaics. There is a little room off from the terrace I
use for writing," and where he could watch the beauty of the sea. Much
of "The Water Witch" was rapidly written in this study on the inspiring
terrace of _Casa Tasso_, Vesuvius in sight. Daily excursions were made.
When four-of-the-clock threw the rock shadows far over the water, they
went a-boating. On land they made "donkey" and "non-donkey" jaunts.
_Capo di Monti_, overlooking the town landing-place, was also a favorite
resting-place, and gave some bright pictures of native life. By an
amusing practice of giving their king--a fine old mendicant with a lame
leg--and his daily-growing train a _grano_ a day at the gate, Cooper and
his family on their excursions were freed from an army of beggars. All
were grateful, and wished the American _admiral_ "a thousand
years,"--save one poor creature, who blundered into "a hundred," upon
which his angered fellows cudgeled him with blows and words into
shouting, "A thousand years, and long ones." Donkeys and boats were
taken for Amalfi with her convent-crowned cliffs above the sea. Not
until the chill _tra montana_ and the snow-powdered mountain-tops
reminded them that but one fire could be kindled in their vast Sorrento
home did they leave it one morning, with ninety-six of their well-wisher
beggars in the court to bid them good-speed on their way to the Eternal
City.
[Illustration: CASA TASSO AT SORRENTO.]
[Illustration: CASA TASSO TERRACE-STUDY.]
In the autumn of 1830 Cooper and his family entered Rome through the
gate of St. John, and drove across the city to the Hotel de Paris, just
below the Pincio and near the _Porta del Popolo_. After dinner, with
still an hour of daylight, and eager to see what Rome was like, Cooper
called a guide, and, holding Paul by the hand, sallied forth through the
narrow, crooking streets over the bridge of the angels to St. Peters.
"Pushing aside the door, I found myself in the nave of the noblest
temple in which any religious rites were ever celebrated. To me there
was no disappointment, and as I stood gazing at the glorious pile, the
tears forced themselves from my eyes. Even little Paul was oppressed
with the vastness of the place, for he clung close to my side and kept
murmuring, 'What is this? What is this? Is this a church?' I turned away
impressed with the truth that if ever the hand of man had raised a
structure to the Deity in the least worthy of His Majesty, it was this!"
[Illustration: ST. PETER'S, EXTERIOR, ROME.]
[Illustration: ST. PETERS, INTERIOR.]
[Illustration: ADAM MICKIEOWICZ.]
The usual roof-tree was soon found in the via Ripetta, where their back
windows overlooked the tawny Tiber and gave them views of Castle St.
Angelo and St. Peter's dome glorified by each day's setting sun, and
here was passed their winter in old Rome. The Eternal City's ruins were
most interesting to Cooper; it was his special delight to ride for hours
with some friend over the Campagna, lingering among fragments of
structures or statues of ancient days. Perhaps none who rode with him
gave him more pleasure than the famous Polish poet, Adam Mickieowicz,--a
man full of originality, genius, and sadness for the fate of his lost
country. All of this won Cooper's sympathy and help in zealous writing
and speaking for the suffering Poles; and one, Count Truskalaskie
Wuskalaskia, later on found a welcome at Otsego Hall.
[Illustration: PORTA RIPETTA, WHERE COOPER LIVED IN ROME.]
Our author also saw something of social Rome, as is noted: He "was at a
grand ball--faultless as to taste and style"--given by a prince to a
prince near to the royal family of England. Of compatriots he writes:
"_We_ have had a dinner, too, in honor of Washington, at which _I_ had
the honor to preside. You will be surprised to hear that we sat down
near seventy Yankees in the Eternal City!"
[Illustration: ROMAN FORUM.]
"The Water Witch," now nearly finished, required printing, which some
kind Italian friends nearly brought about in Rome; but the book
contained this sentence: "Rome itself is only to be traced by fallen
temples and buried columns," which gave offense where none was intended
and barred the work's issue there. The story was finished and laid aside
until spring, when, after five delightful months in Rome and a few days
at Tivoli, Cooper and his family reluctantly drove through the _Porto
del Popolo_. In their own carriage, with four white horses, and their
servitors in another with four brown ones, they passed up the Adriatic
coast to Venice.
[Illustration: PORTA DEL POPOLO.]
Miss Cooper's "Pages and Pictures" gives her father's graphic account of
this interesting journey,--how, in a wild mountain-road they fell in
with pilgrims neither way-worn nor solemn, but most willing to talk.
They seemed moving pictures with their staffs, scrip, and scallop-shell
capes, returning from Rome. Then came Terni and its famous waterfall--a
mile away, they knew, for they walked there. Man-made were those falls,
by the turning of a pretty stream many hundred years ago.
[Illustration: FALLS OF MARMORA AT TERNI.]
High bridges and hermit nooks were passed, and then a long aqueduct with
_Gothic_ arches, called _Roman_ in the guide-books; an old temple turned
into a church, and but a trifle larger than a Yankee corn-crib. Then
over the fine road beyond Foligno, and the hill Fiorito, and they rolled
easily down into the Ancona country, where they found the shrine of
Loreto.
[Illustration: ANCONA.]
[Illustration: LORETO.]
Ancona gave them their first sight of the Adriatic--less beautiful in
hue than the Mediterranean blue, it seemed to our travelers. But with a
sailor's joy in rope, pitch, and tar, Cooper hurried with his usual
boyish eagerness to the port, and with a lively interest examined its
several rusty-looking craft. The next day found them again on the way,
of which he writes: "Walking ahead of the carriage this morning, we
amused ourselves on the beach, the children gathering shells on the
shores of the Adriatic." Short stops were made in Bologna and Ferrara,
then northward to the coast. Afloat and a pull for an hour brought them
to Venice. Through the Grand Canal and under the Rialto they glided to
the opening port beyond. They left their craft at the _Leone Bianco_, or
white lion. Entering, they found "a large paved hall" a few steps above
the water. From their windows they could see the gliding gondolas;
beyond the splashing of an oar no sound came from their movement.
"Everything was strange," wrote Cooper. "Though a sailor and accustomed
to water, I had never seen a city a-float. It was now evening; but a
fine moon shedding its light on the scene rendered it fairy-like." That
night a friend showed him the other ways than the water-ways of Venice.
Through lane-like, shop-lined ways, over bridges, and through the
Giant's Clock-tower he passed into the great square of St. Mark, with
"much surprise and pleasure." By its glittering lamps, and over it all
the moonlight, he felt as if "transported to a scene in the Arabian
Nights."
[Illustration: SCALLA MINELLA, VENICE.]
[Illustration: VENICE.]
Later he writes: "I have set up my own gondola and we have been looking
at the sights." For weeks their easy gondola--which in form and
lightness reminded him so much of the Indian bark-canoe--"went gliding
along the noiseless canals," and Cooper studied his Venice for a
purpose. He became interested in the details of its singular government
and read many books about it. The heartless trifling with sacred
personal rights in order to glorify the ruling powers of _San Marco_, as
shown by the life of crime in its secret councils, seemed terrible to
him. And so came about the thought of writing a book in which both views
of the subject, as clear and just as his pen could draw them, should be
given. And whoever has read "The Bravo" will know that it faithfully
pictures Venetian life. The great Piazza, the splendid church, the
towering belfry,--rebuilt,--the small Piazza and its columns; the Palace
of the Doge, with its court, well, giant's stairway, lions' mouths,
dungeons and roof prisons, and the Bridge-of-Sighs, leading to its
neighbor, the Prison Building--all are here, with beautiful _Venetia_
in the pride of her most glorious days near their waning. These and much
more make up the fearful picture of Venice's cold cruelty, as revealed
to the author of "The Bravo" in authentic historical records. Gelsomina,
the jailer's daughter, a sweet and delicately-drawn character, got her
name and general character from real life. Miss Cooper writes that when
their "family was living on the cliffs of Sorrento a young peasant girl
became one of the household,--half nurse, half playfellow to the
children. She bore the sweet name of Gelsomina. Simple, innocent, and
childlike, yet faithful to duty, Gelsomina was soon in high favor with
great and small, and, in charge of the young flock, made one of every
family party about the bay." At such times "she was always in gay
costume,--light-blue silk jacket with gold lace; a flowing skirt; her
dark hair well garnished with long golden pins and bodkins; a gold chain
of manifold strands encircled her throat, and drops long and heavy hung
from her ears. One afternoon, after playing with her young charges,
Gelsomina went for water to that picturesque marble well in the court.
While bending over the curbstone and drawing up the bucket, like
Zara-of-Moriah fame, she dropped one of her long, heavy ear-rings into
the water. Great was the lamentation of the simple creature! Warm was
the sympathy of the household." But the old well was far too deep to
give up this heirloom and family treasure, which was gone beyond
Gelsomina's tears to recover. Gelsomina would have followed her American
friends north, but a portly, stately, dignified aunt "would not trust
her so far from the orange-groves of Sorrento." When the hour of parting
came, pretty Gelsomina received from her mistress a fine pair of new
ear-rings, and tears of gratitude fell upon the trinkets as she kissed
the hand of the giver. Her name and something of her sweet innocence and
fidelity were given to the jailer's daughter of "The Bravo."
"The well is deep--far down they lie,
beneath the cold, blue water!
My ear-rings! my ear-rings!"
[Illustration: PIAZZA SAN MARCO.]
[Illustration: PALACE OF THE DOGE.]
[Illustration: TASSO'S WELL.]
This book, one of Cooper's favorite works, was an artist's picture of
Venice, and was written to martial music in Paris, in 1830, where Cooper
arrived on the eve of a revolution, for a stay of three years. It was
published by Lea and Carey, Philadelphia, in 1834, and did not find
favor in America, but was much liked in Germany and France. Prof.
Brander Matthews writes:--"The scene in which Antonio, the old
fisherman, is shrived by the Carmelite monk, in his boat, under the
midnight moon upon the lagoon, is one of the finest in the whole range
of literature in fiction."
[Illustration: THE BRAVO.]
Concerning the carrying o
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/13155