The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey - Vol. 1 | Page 3

points in question.
I was puzzled by some papers in The London Magazine set down as DE QUINCEY'S contributions in a memorandum said to have been furnished by MESSRS. TAYLOR and HESSEY, its Publishers. The Blackwood blunders made me very sceptical. There was one story in particular--the long droll one of Mr. Schnackenberger; or, Two Masters to one Dog, about which I remained in doubt.
I had a faint recollection that one day DE QUINCEY dwelt on the merits of 'JUNO,' and owned the story when he was discussing 'bull-dogs.'
By the way, he was rather fond of 'bull-dogs,' and had some good anecdotes about them. It was a kind of pet-admiration-horror which he shared with SOUTHEY, on account of the difficulty in making a well-bred bull-dog relax his grip. Some member of the canine 'fancy' down at the Lakes had given them a so-called infallible 'tip' for making a bull-dog let go. I am sorry to say I have quite forgotten this admirable receipt. To be sure, one ought never to forget such valuable pieces of information. So I thought one day lately before the muzzling order came into force, when a bloodthirsty monster,--a big, white bull-dog, sprang suddenly at me in Cleveland Gardens. Instantly there flashed the thought--what was it that DE QUINCEY recommended? A lucky lunge which drove the ferule of my umbrella down the brute's throat fortunately created a diversion, and allowed a little more time for the study of the problem. Perhaps I will be pardoned this digression, as it affords an opportunity of recording the fact that DE QUINCEY and SOUTHEY both looked up to the bull-dog as an animal of very decided 'character.'
I was loth to abandon Mr. Schnackenberger, but unwilling to lean too much on my somewhat hazy remembrance. It seemed almost hopeless to obtain the necessary evidence. MESSRS. TAYLOR and HESSEY were long dead, and after groping about like a detective, no one could tell me what had become of the records of The London Magazine. Suddenly there came light in October last. I ascertained that a son of one of the Publishers is the ARCHDEACON of MIDDLESEX, the Venerable J. A. HESSEY, D.C.L.
I stated the case, and the worthy ARCHDEACON came most kindly and promptly to my assistance. As a boy he remembered DE QUINCEY at his father's house, and recollected very well reading Mr. Schnackenberger. He informed me, 'I was greatly interested in the [London] Magazine generally, so much so, that, at my father's request, I copied from his private list, and attached to the head of each paper the name of the Author.... This interesting set came to me at my father's death.'
DR. HESSEY had subsequently presented the series to his old pupil, MR. WILLIAM CAREW HAZLITT (by whose courtesy I have been able to examine it)--'the grandson of WILLIAM HAZLITT, who was a frequent writer in the Magazine, and an old friend of my father. I thought he would like to possess it, and that it would thus be in fitting hands. I should not have parted with it in favour of any but a man like MR. HAZLITT, who was sure to value it.'
As these valuable annotations of the ARCHDEACON ramify in various directions--touching as they do the contributions of many brilliant men of that period--it may not be amiss (as a possible help to others in the future) to add a few more decisive words by DR. HESSEY:--
'If any papers are not marked (he refers only to those volumes actually published by MESSRS. TAYLOR and HESSEY) it was because they were anonymous, or because, from some inadvertency, they were not assigned in my father's list. So far as the record goes, it may be depended upon.'
By its help I was able to fix the authorship by DE QUINCEY of (1) The Dog Story--translated from the German, (2) Moral Effects of Revolutions, (3) Prefigurations of Remote Events, (4) Abstract of Swedenborgianism by Immanuel Kant.
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Another perplexing element was the letter written by DE QUINCEY to his uncle, COLONEL PENSON, in 1819 (PAGE'S Life, vol. i. p. 207), wherein reference is made to certain contributions to Blackwood's Magazine and The Quarterly Review.
The archives of Maga I find go back only as far as 1825. As to The Quarterly Review, I have MR. MURRAY'S authority for stating that DE QUINCEY never wrote a line in it. Whether any contributions were ever commissioned, paid for, and afterwards suppressed, I have been unable to ascertain. As a matter of fact, the Schiller Series referred to in the letter to COLONEL PENSON was never reviewed in The Quarterly at all.
DE QUINCEY as a Newspaper Editor forms the subject of a Chapter in PAGE'S Life. Some extracts are there given from cuttings out of The Westmorland Gazette found amongst the Author's Papers.