Chapter 6

The only pleasant memories of America that Thomas Moore carried back with him to England were of the "nights of mirth and mind" spent "where Schuylkill winds his way through banks of flowers." He was in Philadelphia in the autumn of 1804, and was lionized by the _Port Folio_; the eighth epistle in the "Poems Relating to America," from which the lines above are quoted, was written at Buffalo, and it was from Buffalo also that Moore sent to Dennie the manuscript of the beautiful "Lines on Leaving Philadelphia," which was published in the _Port Folio_ of August 31, 1805 (Vol. V, p. 271), and reprinted in Brockden Brown's _Literary Magazine_, January, 1806 (Vol. III, p. 27).

LINES WRITTEN ON LEAVING PHILADELPHIA.

Alone by the Schuylkill a wanderer rov'd, And bright were its flowery banks to his eye; But far, very far were the friends that he lov'd, And he gazed on its flowery banks with a sigh.

O Nature, though blessed and bright are thy rays, O'er the brow of creation enchantingly thrown, Yet faint are they all to the lustre that plays In a smile from the heart that is fondly our own!

Nor long did the soul of the stranger remain Unblest by the smile that he languished to meet; Though scarce did he hope it would soothe him again, Till the threshold of home had been prest by his feet.

But the lays of his boyhood had stol'n to their ear, And they lov'd what they knew of so humble a name; And they told him, with flattery welcome and dear, That they found in his heart something better than fame.

Nor did woman--O woman! whose form and whose soul Are the spell and the light of each path we pursue; Whether sunn'd in the tropics or chill'd at the pole, If a woman be there, there is happiness too.

Nor did she her enamouring magic deny,-- That magic his heart had relinquished so long,-- Like eyes he had loved was _her_ eloquent eye, Like them did it soften and weep at his song.

Oh, blest be the tear, and in memory oft May its sparkle be shed o'er the wanderer's dream; Thrice blest be that eye, and may passion as soft, As free from a pang, ever mellow its beam!

The stranger is gone--but he will not forget, When at home he shall talk of the toils he has known, To tell with a sigh what endearments he met, As he stray'd by the wave of the Schuylkill alone.

It is interesting to remember that the woman in the poem,

Like eyes he had loved was her eloquent eye,

was the wife of Joseph Hopkinson, the author of "Hail Columbia," whose house at Fourth and Chestnut Streets was the resort of Dennie and the wits.

Moore also contributed to the _Port Folio_ "When Time who steals our Hearts Away," "Dear, in Pity do not Speak," "Good-night, Good-night, and is it so?" "When the Heart's Feeling," "Loud sung the Wind," and "The Sorrow long has worn my Heart."

Among the _Port Folio_ gentlemen who may have met "Anacreon" Moore, and who were Dennie's faithful coadjutors, were John Blair Linn, John Shaw, Francis Cope, Robert H. Rose, Thomas I. Wharton, Charles J. Ingersoll and his brother Edward, Condy Raguet, Robert Walsh, John Sanderson, John Syng Dorsey, Royall Tyler, Robert Hare, Dr. Nathaniel Chapman, Alexander Graydon, Josiah Quincy, John Leeds Bozman, William B. Wood, General Thomas Cadwalader, Philip Hamilton, Richard Rush, Richard Peters, Gouverneur Morris, Joseph Hopkinson, Horace Binney, Alexander Wilson, Charles Brockden Brown and Samuel Ewing. To this list must be added the bright names of Sarah Hall, Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson and Harriet Fenno.

The editors and editorial helpers of the _Port Folio_ from the death of Dennie until 1827, when the magazine finally ceased, were Paul Allen, Nicholas Biddle, Dr. Charles Caldwell, Thomas Cooper, Judge Workman, John Elihu Hall, and his three brothers James, Thomas Mifflin, and Harrison.

JOHN BLAIR LINN (1777-1804), the author of the "Powers of Genius" (1801), a popular work which was splendidly reprinted in London,[13] was the son of Dr. William Linn, of Shippensburg, who presided successively over the destinies of three colleges--Washington, Rutgers and Union--and was for many years a regent of a fourth--the University of the State of New York. John Blair was graduated from Columbia, read law with Alexander Hamilton, wrote an unsuccessful drama, "Bourville Castle," and on June 13, 1799, was installed as joint-pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia. He engaged in controversy with Joseph Priestley, but his best achievements were "Valerian," a narrative poem, and "The Death of Washington" (1800). John Blair Linn was a brother-in-law of Charles Brockden Brown. A biographical sketch of him was written for the _Port Folio_ in 1809 (page 21), and again in 1811 (89-97). Brown also published a review of his life and work in the _Literary Magazine_, Vol. II, page 554.

[13] The Powers of Genius, a poem in three parts, by John Blair Linn, A.M. Albion Press. Printed by J. Cundee, Ivy Lane, for F. Williams, Stationers' Court, and T. Hurst, Paternoster Row, 1804.

JOHN SHAW (1778-1809) was born in Annapolis, May 4, 1778, and lost at sea January 10, 1809. He studied medicine in the University of Pennsylvania, and visited Algiers as a ship-surgeon in 1798. He died on a voyage to the Bahama Islands.

The best poem that he contributed to the _Port Folio_ was:

Who has robbed the ocean cave, To tinge thy lips with coral hue? Who from India's distant wave For thee those pearly treasures drew? Who, from yonder Orient sky, Stole the morning of thine eye?

Thousand charms thy form to deck, From sea, and earth, and air are born; Roses bloom upon thy cheek, On thy breath their fragrance borne. Guard thy bosom from the day, Lest thy snows should melt away.

But one charm remains behind, Which mute earth can ne'er impart; Nor in ocean wilt thou find, Nor in the circling air, a heart. Fairest! wouldst thou perfect be, Take, oh take that heart from me.

All his offerings to the _Port Folio_ were signed "Ithacus." His poems were collected and published in 1810, together with a memoir and extracts from his foreign correspondence.

FRANCIS COPE contributed essays to the _Port Folio_ in 1812. He was an occasional writer for several years, signing his papers with the initials "C. F."

ROBERT H. ROSE is the author of the "Sketches in Verse," published in 1810, nearly all of which had previously appeared in the _Port Folio_, where the "Sketches" were termed "a kind of chalk drawings." One of them, "To a Market Street Gutter," was a parody of the "Ode to the Raritan," and was the cause of John Davis writing the "Pursuits of Philadelphia Literature".[14]

[14] There is no mention of Robert Rose in Duyckinck, or Allibone, in Appleton's Encyclopædia of American Biography, or in the admirable Stedman-Hutchinson Library of American Literature.

The _Port Folio_ of May, 1816 (page 361), has a frontispiece engraving of "Silver Lake," the seat of Robert Rose, in Susquehanna County, on the New York line.

ODE TO A MARKET STREET GUTTER.

_A Specimen of Local Description._

O sweetest Gutter! though a clown, I love to see thee running down; Or mark thee stop awhile, then free From ice, jog on again, like me; Or like the lasses whom I meet, Who, sauntering, stray along the street, As if they had nowhere to go! At times, so rapid is thy flow, That did the cits not wish in vain Thou wouldst be in the pumps again, But like a pig, whose fates deny To find again his wonted sty, You turn, and stop, and run, and turn, Yet ne'er shall find your "native urn." How oft has rolled down thy stream Things which in song not well would seem, Ere scavengers their scrapers plied To drag manure from out thy tide, Or hydrants bade thy scanty rill Desert its banks and cellars fill. Last Thursday morn, so very cold, A morn _not_ better felt than told, Then first in all its bright array, Did I thy "frozen form" survey; And, goodness! what a great big steeple! What sights of houses! and such people!! And then I thought, did I not stutter, But verse could, like _some poets_, utter, How much I'd praise thee, sweetest Gutter!

After the publication of this parody John Davis printed "The Philadelphia Pursuits of Literature. By Juvenal Junius of New Jersey. Phila.: John Davis, 1805."

"Then Muses aid me! and I'll fain review The Philadelphia lounging scribbling crew."

Davis had met the gentlemen of the _Port Folio_ and had all the information necessary for stinging satire of the Mutual Admiration Society that met at Meredith's and Hopkinson's or at Dennie's office. In his "Travels" (p. 203), he writes: "At Philadelphia I found Mr. Brown (C. B.), who felt no remission of his literary diligence by a change of abode (from New York). He was ingratiating himself into the favor of the ladies by writing a new novel, and rivalling Lopez de Vega by the multitude of his works. Mr. Brown introduced me to Mr. (Asbury) Dickins, and Mr. Dickins to Mr. Dennie; Mr. Dennie presented me to Mr. Wilkins, and Mr. Wilkins to the Rev. Mr. Abercrombie; a constellation of American geniuses, in whose blaze I was almost consumed.... Rev. Mr. Abercrombie was impatient of every conversation that did not relate to Dr. Johnson, of whom he could detail every anecdote from the time he trod on a duck till he purchased an oak-stick to repulse Macpherson."[15]

[15] Abercrombie's prospectus for a new edition of Johnson's Works--"to be comprised in fourteen octavo volumes, with new designs and plates. Phila.: 1811"--is contained in the _Port Folio_, Vol. VI, p. 98.

In the "Philadelphia Pursuits" Davis wrote of Dennie:

"There's no clown from Walpole to Hell-Gate, But ribaldry from him has learned to prate."

And again:

"Such is our Dennie! high exalted name, Eager alike for dollars and for fame."

Two Philadelphians only escaped the sting of the adder:

"With Clifton, Nature's poet, who shall vie? Though low he lies, his works shall never die. And Linn, distinguish'd for his moral lays, Shall, by his strain, Columbia's triumph raise."

"The Sketches in Verse" was magnificently printed for C. and A. Conrad by Smith and Maxwell in 1810.

To "a pastoral love-ditty" that began--

"Where Schuylkill o'er his rocky bed Roars, like a bull in battle"--

Rose appended the note:

"Our American names, although some of them are truly savage, are not much worse than many of those with which we might be furnished by other nations in abundance; and Schuylkill would not have offended the ears of Boileau more than the Whal and the Leck, the Issel and the Zuiderzee."

THOMAS I. WHARTON (1791-1856), a distinguished Philadelphia lawyer, was a frequent contributor, and for a time was editor of the _Analectic Magazine_.

CHARLES J. INGERSOLL, the author of "Inchiquin the Jesuit's Letters on American Literature and Politics," was born in Philadelphia, October 3, 1782, and died there May 14, 1862. His first boyish composition is in the _Port Folio_ of October 24, 1801. It is entitled "Chiomara," and is introduced by the editor as the work of a "youth ambitious of the fame of Chatterton." Chiomara is a Gaul, who kills a Roman in defence of her honor.

EDWARD INGERSOLL, a younger brother of Charles, wrote poems for the _Port Folio_ on the events of the times, and named them "Horace in Philadelphia." All his poems, of whatever nature, were signed "Horace."

CONDY RAGUET (1784-1842) published in the _Port Folio_ some interesting letters on the "Massacre of St. Domingo." He had gone as supercargo to Hayti, and lived there during the exciting scenes of the Revolution. He also contributed numerous papers to the _Port Folio_ upon "Free Trade."

JOHN SANDERSON (1783-1844) was professor of Greek and Latin in the Philadelphia Central High School. He wrote, at the suggestion of Theodore Hook, a capital volume of Parisian sketches, called the "American in Paris," which Jules Janin translated into French. Portions of his "American in London" appeared in the _Knickerbocker Magazine_. He successfully opposed, in a pamphlet signed "Riberjot," the plan of excluding the classical languages from Girard College. He was an intimate friend of John E. Hall, and contributed to the _Port Folio_.

JOHN SYNG DORSEY (1783-1818) succeeded Dr. Wistar as professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania. He published an edition of Cooper's "Surgery," and "Elements of Surgery," the latter of which was adopted as the text-book in Edinburgh.

ROYALL TYLER was born in Boston, near Faneuil Hall, July 18, 1757. He studied law under John Adams, was made a judge of the Supreme Court in 1794, and, in 1800, became chief justice. He was one of the closest friends of Joseph Dennie, and when the latter became editor of the _Farmer's Weekly Museum_ he wrote for him a medley of verse and social and political skits under the general title "From the Shop of Messrs. Colon and Spondee."

These papers he continued to write for the _Port Folio_. They "are divided between Federal politics, attacks on French democracy, the Della Cruscan literature, and the fashionable frivolities of the day." He also wrote for the _Port Folio_, in 1801, a series of similarly varied articles, richly reminiscent, entitled "An Author's Evenings."

ROBERT HARE (1781-1858), father of Judge J. I. C. Hare, who was professor of chemistry and natural philosophy in William and Mary College, and, later, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, published a number of moral essays in the _Port Folio_ under the pen-name of "Eldred Grayson."

DR. NATHANIEL CHAPMAN (1783-1850) used the pen-name of "Falkland."

ALEXANDER GRAYDON (1752-1818), a man of elegant manners and author of a useful and entertaining volume of "Memoirs of a Life chiefly passed in Pennsylvania within the last Sixty Years," published, in the _Port Folio_, in 1813-14, a series of chatty paragraphs styled "Notes of a Desultory Reader." He lived in the "Slate-Roof House," at Second Street and Norris' Alley, where he had an opportunity of meeting men of rank and fame.

JOSIAH QUINCY (1772-1864), whose opinion of the _Port Folio_ has been already quoted, contributed to it a series of articles, beginning January 28, 1804, in the style of Swift, and signed "Climenole".[16]

[16] The name of the flappers, employed by the inhabitants of Laputa to arouse them from their scientific reveries.

JOHN LEEDS BOZMAN (1757-1823) studied at the University of Pennsylvania, and read law in the Middle Temple, London. He contributed both prose and verse to the _Port Folio_.

GENERAL THOMAS CADWALADER (1779-1841) furnished the magazine with translations of Horace.

RICHARD RUSH (1780-1859) was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1800, and successfully defended William Duane, of the _Aurora_, on a charge of libelling Gov. Thomas McKean. He occasionally contributed official and personal anecdotes to the _Port Folio_.

RICHARD PETERS (1744-1828), the witty judge of Belmont, extended princely hospitality at his country seat. His association with the most distinguished men of Europe and America stored his memory with the choicest bits of political and personal history. These odd old ends, stolen out of the secret chronicles of the time, and decked with his rare wit, were given upon irregular occasions to the _Port Folio_.

GOUVERNEUR MORRIS (1752-1816) contributed political satires in both prose and verse to Dennie and his confrères.

JOSEPH HOPKINSON (1770-1842), whose authorship of "Hail Columbia" has been already referred to, wrote the articles upon Shakespeare that appeared in the _Port Folio_ between 1801 and 1806. His house at Fourth and Chestnut Streets was a favorite meeting-place for Dennie and the wits.

HORACE BINNEY (1780-1875), one of the most distinguished lawyers at a time when a Philadelphia lawyer was a synonym for skill and cleverness, wrote in moments, snatched from a busy and almost breathless profession, some of the clearest and most careful sketches of classical literature, as well as the shrewdest of political satires to be found in the early volumes of the _Port Folio_.

HARRIET FENNO, daughter of John Ward Fenno, founder and editor of the _United States Gazette_, signed her verses "Violetta."

MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON was the woman who carried to Washington the letter written by Dr. Duché urging concessions to the British as the only means of saving the country from spoliation and ruin. She was a daughter of Dr. Thomas Graeme, a Scottish physician, and granddaughter of Sir William Keith. Father and daughter lived for a time in the Slate-Roof House, then in the Carpenter mansion at Sixth and Chestnut, and finally at Graeme Hall in Montgomery County. Her life was written in the _Port Folio_ of 1809 (Page 524). Letters from her appear in various numbers of that magazine, always signed "Laura." Nathaniel Evans wooed Miss Graeme as "Laura" in true Petrarchan fashion. The Philadelphia Library possesses the MS. of a translation of Fénelon by Mrs. Ferguson.

She visited Europe in company with Dr. Richard Peters, of Philadelphia, and everywhere her brilliant conversation and refined manners won her recognition and applause in literary society. Laurence Sterne was fascinated by her. "She took a seat upon the same stage with him at the York races. While bets were making upon different horses, she selected a small horse that was in the rear of the coursers as the subject of a trifling wager. Upon being asked the reason for doing so, she said 'the race was not always to the swift nor the battle to the strong.' Mr. Sterne, who stood near to her, was struck with this reply, and turning hastily toward her begged for the honor of her acquaintance. They soon became sociable, and a good deal of pleasant conversation took place between them to the great entertainment of the surrounding company" (Knapp, "Female Biography," page 217).

She wrote a parody upon Pope which was printed with Nathaniel Evans' poems (1772):

How happy is the country parson's lot! Forgetting bishops, as by them forgot; Tranquil of spirit, with an easy mind, To all his vestry's votes he sits resigned. Of manners gentle and of temper even, He jogs his flocks, with easy pace, to heaven. In Greek and Latin pious books he keeps, And, while his clerk sings psalms, he--soundly sleeps. His garden fronts the sun's sweet orient beams, And fat church-wardens prompt his golden dreams. The earliest fruit in his fair orchard blooms, And cleanly pipes pour out tobacco fumes. From rustic bridegroom oft he takes the ring, And hears the milkmaid plaintive ballads sing. Back-gammon cheats whole winter nights away, And Pilgrim's Progress helps a rainy day.

ALEXANDER WILSON was born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died in Philadelphia, August 23, 1813. "The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson" was edited by A. B. Grosart, and published at Paisley in 1876. "With the exception of Allen Ramsay, Ferguson and Burns, none of our Scottish vernacular poets have been so continuously kept in print as Alexander Wilson" (Grosart). Seven biographies of him attest the lively interest felt in his personality and his work. In Scotland he was apprenticed to a weaver, and, after serving his time, he continued to work at the loom for four years more. He published "Watty and Meg" in 1792, an anonymous poem, the authorship of which was commonly ascribed to Robert Burns. He came to America in 1794, worked for a year at his trade, and subsequently taught at various schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 1802 he settled at Kingsessing, now in the city of Philadelphia, close by the home of Bartram, the botanist. Here he taught the "Union" School. It was in a picturesque spot. Before its doors were cedars and "stripling poplars planted in a row, and old gray white oaks."

But birds were more attractive to him than boys. They commanded him, as the nightingale did the gypsy steward, and he followed them into untrodden wildernesses. Thomas Bradford undertook to publish Wilson's colossal "Ornithology." It was to be distinctly an "American" work. It was to be printed on American paper; and Amies, the paper-maker, even declared that he would use only "American" rags in making it. Seven volumes appeared during the author's life, or between 1808 and 1813.

Wilson published the "Rural Walk" in Brown's _Literary Magazine_ of August, 1804, and the "Solitary Tutor" in the same publication, October, 1804. The former poem was reprinted in the _Port Folio_ of April 27, 1805. Dennie was charmed with the poem, and explained that he reprinted it because the author "delights in pictures of American scenery and landscape, and wisely therefore leaves to European poets their nightingales and skylarks, and their _dingles_ and _dells_. He makes no mention of yews and myrtles, nor echoes a single note of either bullfinch or chaffinch, but faithfully describes American objects, though not entirely in the American idiom." The following four stanzas from the "Rural Walk" may give a conception of Wilson's close observation and nice fidelity to nature.

"Down to the left was seen afar The whitened spire of sacred name,[17] And ars'nal, where the god of war Has hung his spears of bloody fame.

"There upward where it (Schuylkill) gently bends, And Say's red fortress tow'rs in view,[18] The floating bridge its length extends-- A lively scene forever new.

"There market-maids in lively rows, With wallets white, were riding home, And thundering gigs, with powdered beaux, Through Gray's green festive shades to roam.

"Sweet flows the Schuylkill's winding tide By Bartram's green emblossom'd bowers, Where nature sports in all her pride Of choicest plants and fruits and flowers."

[17] Christ Church.

[18] Dr. Benjamin Say's house at Gray's Ferry.

Wilson, in 1804, undertook a journey to Niagara. The adventures by the way and the sight of the stupendous cataract supply the theme of his longest and most ambitious poem, "The Foresters." It was published with illustrations in successive numbers of the _Port Folio_ of 1809, Volumes I, II and III. The entire poem contained 2,000 lines. The _Literary Magazine_ contains a part of the poem. This appearance, I believe, has never been noted. It is to be found in Volume IV, page 155. The lines were written August 12, 1805, and were published in the same month. In the literary intelligence of the same month the future publication of "The Foresters" is glanced at.

A prose letter and a poem, "The Pilgrim," by Wilson, are in the _Port Folio_, June, 1809, page 499. Alexander Wilson and John James Audubon met in Louisville, Ky., whither the latter had gone after disposing of his farm upon the Perkiomen Creek, near Philadelphia. Wilson conceived a dislike for Audubon, and wrote to the _Port Folio_ concerning Louisville, "Science or literature has not one friend in this place." Audubon, into whose mind no thought of publishing his own fine drawings had yet come, refused out of jealousy to add his name to the subscription list for Wilson's "American Ornithology." Robert Buchanan wrote, "If Audubon had one marked fault it was vanity; he was a queer compound of Actæon and Narcissus--having a gun in one hand and flourishing a looking-glass in the other." Grosart is much too severe when he styles Audubon "a great dilettante impostor."

After Wilson's death three supplementary volumes to his "Ornithology" were added by Charles Lucien Bonaparte, and it was Lucien Bonaparte's son, Prince Canino, who first suggested to Audubon the publication of his collections.