My Life as an Author

My Life as an Author

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Title: My Life as an Author
Author: Martin Farquhar Tupper
Release Date: January 20, 2006 [EBook #17558]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: Martin F. Tupper. Elliott & Fry, Photographers.]

Martin Tupper's Autobiography

MY LIFE
AS AN AUTHOR
BY
MARTIN FARQUHAR TUPPER D.C.L. F.R.S.
Viri, vivo, vivam.
LONDON: SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET, E.C. 1886
[All rights reserved]

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Page Preliminary--Sonnet--Public Life, not Private--Benjamin Franklin--Samples from Books--Self-judgment 1-6
CHAPTER II.
Infancy and Schooldays--Parentage--Germany and Guernsey, America and Canada--Winsor's Patent Gaslights--King George III.'s Blessing--My Father's Dream--Second Sight--Heredity--First School at Brentford--Next at Brook Green--Third Charterhouse--Dr. Russell--Parson Schoolmasters--Coins and Hoops--Andrew Irvine--Cockshies--Harpies at the Feast--Dr. Stocker--Holt's--M'Neile--Harold Browne 7-25
CHAPTER III.
Young Authorship in Verse and Prose--Melite--Rough Rhymes--Carthage--Umbrella Sapphics--Height of Honesty--Holkar Hall--Melrose Abbey--Heidelberg--Pterodactyles--The Buckstone--Scotch Journal--Vitrified Forts--Ireland--Kingston Caverns--Cornish Letter and Sketches--Penzance--The Logan--Land's End--St. Michael's Mount--Rapid Travel 26-51
CHAPTER IV.
College Days--Voice from the Cloister--Gladstone--Aristotle Class--Giants in those Days--Studentship--A Reading-Man--College Larks--D.C.L.--Dr. Bliss 52-61
CHAPTER V.
Failure as to Orders--Stammering--Blewbury Vicarage--Lincoln's Inn--Lewin's Critique--Brodie's Cacography--Inkpen's Entomology--Duke of Wellington--Walters'--Letter as to India--Barrister and Benedict--A Hoax--Theodore Hook--Old Lady Cork 62-71
CHAPTER VI.
Stammering--Man's Privilege of Speech--Chess Playing--Anecdotes--Angling--Fishing Sonnets 72-78
CHAPTER VII.
Oxford Prize Poems--Verses in the Schools--Parodies--Rhyme and Rhythm--Scriptural Science--Classic Parallels 79-85
CHAPTER VIII.
Sundry Providences--The Small Semisuicide--A Concussion--Horse Accidents--Perils by Land and Sea--Lydstep Cavern 86-89
CHAPTER IX.
Yet more Escapes--White Cross Guild--Evils and Temptations--Potipheras--Heresies--Creeds 90-94
CHAPTER X.
Fads and Fancies--Vegetarian--Teetotalism--The Anglo-Saxon--Opera Colonnade--Moderation--America Revisited--Poem on Temperance and Total Abstinence--Gough--Dr. Hodgkin--A Martyr--Clerical Letter on Pharisaism 95-104
CHAPTER XI.
Sacra Poesis--Geraldine--Critiques--John and Tom Hughes--Donnington Priory--Little Providences 105-110
CHAPTER XII.
Origin of "Proverbial Philosophy"--M'Neile and Stebbing--N.P. Willis--Harrison Ainsworth--Hatchard's--Moxon's--Cassell's--A Prophecy--My Father's Letter and Gift--Sixty Times--Politeuphuia--Parallels--Mr. Orton's Volume--American Laudations, and English--As to per contra--Copyright Question--Wedding Gifts--An Elizabethan Author--Seldom Seen, and Few Adventures 111-133
CHAPTER XIII.
A Modern Pyramid--The Vision--A Fearful Flight--Imagination--The Crystal Cubes and Mud Bricks--Sonnets and Sonneteering--Mackay and Shakespeare's 134-144
CHAPTER XIV.
An Author's Mind--Prefatory Ramble--Addled Eggs--The Mental Cathedral--Probabilities--Job's Trials 145-152
CHAPTER XV.
The Crock of Gold--Dramatised in Boston and London--Origin of the Story--The Twins--Heart: drawn from Living Models--Critiques from Ollier and St. John 153-158
CHAPTER XVI.
?sop Smith--Mudie's--Rabelaisian Hints--The Early Gallop--Alfred, or Albert Order--Fables 159-162
CHAPTER XVII.
Stephan Langton--King Alfred's Poems--The Silent Pool--Hard Reading for the History--The Book still in Print--Curious Metrical Translation of Anglo-Saxon Poetry--The Jubilee at Wantage and at Liverpool 163-169
CHAPTER XVIII.
Shakespeare Commemoration--Lord Carlisle--Lord Houghton, Leigh Court--Stratford Church--The Baptismal Font--An American Autograph Hunter--Sonnet 170-172
CHAPTER XIX.
Translations and Pamphlets--Homer, lib. A.--Tennyson's Vivien--Classical Versions--Hymn for All Nations--Protestant Ballads--Fifteen Pamphlets 173-179
CHAPTER XX.
Paterfamilias's Diary--Courier Pierre--Devil's Bridge--Major Hely--Guernsey--The Haro that saved Castle Cornet--Night-Sail in the Race of Alderney--Durham's Statue of Prince Albert--Isle of Man--King Orry--Walter Montgomery--Bishop Powys 180-189
CHAPTER XXI.
Never Give Up, at Dr. Kirkland's--Harvest Hymns--Gordon Ballads--The Good Earl--John Brown--My Brother--Memory--Evil not Endless 190-199
CHAPTER XXII.
Protestant Ballads--"So help me, God!"--Nun's Appeal, &c. 200-203
CHAPTER XXIII.
Plays--Alfred--Raleigh--Washington--Twelve Scenes--Family Records 204-207
CHAPTER XXIV.
Antiquariana--Lockhart and my Coin Article in the Quarterly--Farley Finds--Mummy Wheat and Faraday 208-212
CHAPTER XXV.
Honours--Times' Letter--A Peerage and Baronetcy--Prussian Medal and Chevalier Bunsen's Letter--Authorship a Rank by Itself--Many Inventions and Literary Discoveries, as Punch, Humpty Dumpty, 666, &c. 213-220
CHAPTER XXVI.
Courtly: Prophetic Sonnet on our Empress--Many Royal Poems--Modern Court Suit v. Queen Anne's--A Greeting to Prince Albert Victor 221-228
CHAPTER XXVII.
F.R.S.--Lord Melbourne's Carelessness--Spectrum Analysis--Spiritualism--Vivisection--Painted Windows--Parabolic Teaching 229-233
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Personation--Bignor--The Greyhound--Alibis--A Rescue on Snowdon--Fraudulent Collections--Forged Authorials--Boston Unitarianism--Pictures Falsely Signed 234-237
CHAPTER XXIX.
Hospitalities--Farnham Castle--Orchids and Pines--Bishop Sumner--Garibaldi at Gladstone's--Parham and Curzon--Ghosts--Purple Parchments--Uncut Elzevirs--Shenstone's Leasowes--"Little Testy"--Sonnet--Isle of Wight--Sojourns--City Feasts--Ostentatious Hospitality 238-244
CHAPTER XXX.
Social and Rural--No Scandals--Hawthorne's Visit--Alexander Smith's--Jerdan's Haycock--Otto Goldschmidt and Macdougall--Dark Visitors--Liberian Gold Medal--Noviomagians--Lucky Angling--Albury Waltz--Rustic Stupidity--Redmen--The Drinking Fountain--Our House a Hive of Bees--Foxhunt in Drawing-room--The Donkey Burglar--Anthony Devis--Irvingism 245-256
CHAPTER XXXI.
American Ballads: "Ho, Brother! I'm a Britisher"--The Quasi-Inspiration--"Thirty Noble Nations," and Thirty-three--Many Others--Ground-baiting the Transatlantic 257-259
CHAPTER XXXII.
First American Visit--Too Temperate for 1851; not Temperate enough for 1876--Grand Dinner at Baltimore, and Great Speech--The Astor Dinner--"Amice Davis"--Mayor Kingsland and the Mile-long Procession--Willis, at Golden Square--The Fillmore Dinner at the White House--Jenny Lind's Concert--Gordon Bennet--Squier--Barnum 260-270
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Second American Visit--Extreme Gold--Talmage--Bryant--Cooper--"Immortality" at the Tabernacle--Lotus Club--Lord Rosebery--Dr. Levis--Mr. Pettit's Portrait--The Listers at Hamilton--Toronto--Sir Charles Tupper--Elgin--Dufferin--Mackay and Sleighing--Dawson and Eozoa--Vaughan-Tuppers--The Grand John Hopkins' Banquet--Charleston Tuppers--My Palinode to the South--Visit to Williams Middleton--Parting Stanzas--Ruined Mansion--Valete 271-280
CHAPTER XXXIV.
English and Scotch Readings, very rapid, from Isle of Wight to Peterhead--My Entrepreneur D.: his Experiences: I Failed with Him, but Succeeded Alone--Specimen of Readings--Local Critiques--Many Friends Unrecorded--Miscellaneous Poems--Mr. Gall's Primeval Man--Arbroath--Mill the Atheist--Mr. Boyd's Piety--Hamilton Mausoleum--Wild Cattle--Burns's Country--James Baird the Millionaire and the Hodman 281-288
CHAPTER XXXV.
Electrics--Sir Culling Eardley at Erith--Atlantic Telegraph--The First Message--Meddlesome Revisers--Antique Telegraphy--Addison and Strada--Professor Morse--A Telegram-Sonnet 289-295
CHAPTER XXXVI.
The Rifle, a Patriotic Prophecy in 1845--Early Pamphlet--Defence not Defiance--Albury Club--Blackheath Review--Lord Lovelace--Alarums--Drummond's Scare--A Lucky Shot 296-303
CHAPTER