CHAPTER III.

Recollections of Lever by his Amanuensis, Mr. Stephen Pearce-"St. Patrick's Eve"-"The O'Donoghue "-He again threatens to tear up the roots which his life had sown in the soil of Ireland.

It was about this time that Mr. Stephen Pearce, now a distinguished portrait painter in London, acted as amanuensis for Lever, just as George Huntly Gordon did for Scott; and following the example of Mr. Gordon, who communicated to Mr. Lockhart what he knew, Mr. Pearce has furnished us with some recollections of his Chief. These extend from October, 1844, to September, 1846, and also embrace some reminiscences of the years 1848-9.

"In the autumn of 1844 I went to Ireland, and stopped with some friends of the Right Hon. J. W. Croker, to whom he had given me a letter of introduction, and for whom I had just previously in England copied the portrait of Miss Croker, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. To my surprise, I found that their grounds adjoined those of Charles Lever, and being one of his most enthusiastic admirers, Mrs. Ellis soon introduced me at Templeogue House. A mutual regard and affection at once sprang up between Lever and myself, and a long visit only augmented this friendship. I there painted his portrait,

MR. PEARCE'S RECOLLECTIONS.

79

given afterwards to his brother; I also painted a picture of his study, with its ancient oak, with a back view of Lever himself sitting over the fire; also another small picture of the quaint old Dutch waterfall in front of the house, falling over a series of wide steps, with some fine old elm trees, the remains in years past of an ambitious avenue. Templeogue House, at the time I speak of, belonged to the Domville family, and had, I think long previously, been the residence of Lord Santry: in size, no doubt, it had been considerably reduced, but its walls of great thickness, the ghost room within, and faint remains of old terraced walks without, still attested its former importance and the startling stories of Irish life Lever used to speak of.*

"Lever at this time was about thirty-five years of age, most powerful in form, and full of energy in anything he really took up. On fine afternoons, we often rode at a rattling pace to his publisher's in Sackville Street, Dublin-some five English miles. [A party of boys were usually to be found awaiting us on Portobello Bridge, popularly known as 'Lever's Pack.' These

* Lever was under the impression, and often interested his guests by expressing it, that Templeogue House had been the scene of a horrible cruelty, said to have been performed by Lord Santry to O'Loughlin Murphy, but reference to the report of the trial fails to confirm this idea. This peer has been frequently accused, even in print, of having compelled a man to swallow whiskey till his mouth filled to overflow, and to have then applied a lighted match with fatal effect. He was certainly tried for his murder but Lord Santry's cousin, Mr. Domville, who supplied Dublin with water from the Dodder, at Templeogue, having threatened to cut it off unless the noble convict's life were spared, the Viceroy yielded to the pressure.

followed us, sometimes yelping like hounds, and arrived at much the same time as ourselves before the door of Curry the publisher in Sackville Street, where a goodhumoured struggle took place amongst them, to see whose lucky lot it was to hold Lever's horse. These boys he always paid so liberally, that the Rev. John Lever, whose tastes were economic rather than extravagant, remonstrated privately with Charles on the point.]*

"If the weather happened to be wet or doubtful, we did not generally venture to Dublin at all, but invariably rode with the three children, Julia, Charley and Pussy in the large fields at the rear of the house, 'Where many a garden flower grew wild.' Here I remember some old trees had fallen, and it was Lever's great delight for us to gallop round in line, and jump the trees-he generally giving a wild "hurroo" as we all five took the jump together.

"Sometimes we made the circuit of several of these fields, and it was on one of these occasions that Lever had a very smart hand-to-hand fight with a thick-set powerful countryman. We had noticed two men prowling about in the distance, and at last one jumped a ditch, and scrambled over a gap into the field in which we were riding. Lever ordered him out of it, and meeting with an impudent reply, he pressed a hot-tempered chestnut mare he was riding with his heels, and her shoulder caused the intruder to go with considerable impetus towards the gap. In a great rage, the man

The supplemental passages in brackets were told to us viva voce by Mr. Pearce, and are introduced with his leave.

TUSSLE WITH A TRESPASSER.

81

seized a huge stone with both his hands, and hurled it towards the spot where Lever rode. It passed over the children-just missing one of their heads. Rapid as lightning, Lever was off his horse, and seizing the trespasser behind by the collar of his coat, he sent him flying on to the top of the gap, where overbalancing, he tumbled into the ditch. Lever was very muscular, and he awaited without fear the inevitable retaliation. The man regained his feet and the bank, more furious than ever! and a regular pugilistic fight ensued, in which Lever received two or three severe blows, and the man got most severely handled, if one could judge by his appearance. Lever then jumped into the saddle, the children were left at home, and off we rode to the nearest police station, 'just to have first talk' as Lever said, in case the man should also make an appearance there. We never, however, heard another word about it.

"The sudden transition from the hard work I had been going daily through in London at the early morning lectures of Professor Partridge at King's College-my close application at the Life Schools of The Royal Academy, and long night toil at Albinus and other anatomical work, to the joyous life at Templeogue, and the delightful companionship of Lever, whom, as the brilliant author of 'Harry Lorrequer'' Charles O'Malley,' &c., I looked upon with all the hero-worship of which I was then so brimful— all these things united, flung a halo of poetry and romance over everything connected with him, and my long visit ended in my becoming his secretary or amanuensis.

VOL. II.

G

"At this time "The O'Donoghue' was being writtenits first numbers having just appeared. Lever was somewhat uncertain in regular application, often not being up to the mark sufficiently to please himself, and I have known him to be so dissatisfied with his morning's or evening's writing, or dictation, that he has destroyed it. At other times, on the contrary, his flashing and brilliant thoughts have carried him on and on for a great length of time, pacing up and down the room quite in excitement, while his delivery of words has been so rapid that it was impossible to keep pace with them without my writing being nearly all abbreviations, which I afterwards copied out clear for the

press.

["But he never allowed the too slow absorption on paper of his thick-coming fancies rapidly dictated to elicit an exclamation of impatience. He was always genial, gentle and good-humoured;* and at times as playful as a

* All sorts of things were written down from dictation, including squibs for "Punch." A remarkable Rebel Poem, "The Memory of the Dead," written at this time, the paternity of which, though known, was never acknowledged by its author, led Lever to improvise some opposition stanzas beginning:

"Who fears to speak of ninety-eight?'

You ask in forty-four:

Methinks the question put so late

Had better been before;

When crime and guilt, and blood fresh spilt

Were rife on every hand,

When true men like you men

Ran riot through the land.”

Wilde said that the authorship of the original reminded him of the boy

who chalked up "No Popery" and then ran away.