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diff --git a/13155-0.txt b/13155-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ef45f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/13155-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6283 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13155 *** + +[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 off of the art treasures of Venice by the +French, Cooper wrote: "One great picture escaped them; it stood in a +dark chapel completely covered with dust and smoke. Within a few years +some artist had the curiosity to examine this then unknown altarpiece. +The picture was taken down, and being thoroughly cleaned, proved to be +'The Assumption'"--Titian's masterpiece, some think. It is now in the +Academy of Fine Arts in Venice. Cooper tells of a monument Canova had +"designed for Titian, beautifully chiseled out of spotless marble." The +author found it "beneath the gloomy arches of the church," and thought +it "singularly dramatic and startling"; but it had been erected to the +honor of Canova himself instead of to the painter! + +[Illustration: GLORY OF THE ASSUMPTION.] + +[Illustration: ABSOLUTION OF ANTONIO.] + +[Illustration: ALT MARKET, DRESDEN.] + +From Venice Cooper and family went by way of Tyrol to Munich, where he +much admired the king of Bavaria's art collections. After this brief +visit they moved on to Dresden, passing here some pleasant months in a +cheerful apartment overlooking the Alt Market. The quaint and busy show +of homely German life, the town, gardens, river, bridge, and fine +gallery "worthy of Italy," were enjoyed. _The Water Witch_, "wrecked on +the Tiber, was now safely launched on the broader waters of the Elbe." +It was issued by Lea and Carey, Philadelphia, in 1830. + +Comparing national traits became at times an unfortunate habit with +Cooper. He was provoked by a Dresden schoolmaster's surprise that his +children were not black; and, again, because he could not convince an +English scholar that in Boston "to gouge" did not mean the cruel +practice "to squeeze out a man's eyes with the thumb." This English +scholar was Sir James Mackintosh. + +On the return to Paris from Germany several places were tried before +finding a short distance across the Seine, No. 59 rue St. Dominique,--an +off-and-on home for three years. Here the salon was thirty feet long and +lofty--to a sailor's delight, seventeen feet; above the doors were +paintings in gilded frames; and there were four large mirrors, and vast +windows reaching to the floor. The dining-room, even larger, opened on +the garden. After this manner the doctor of the Duke of Orleans built +his home for himself--and this American tenant. The turmoil in this +city of light at once attracted him in the near view of the Revolution +of July. Having known General Lafayette since 1824, these two fine men +were brought in close touch on Cooper's second visit to Paris. In 1831 +the Marquis Lafayette was the center of American life here, and +consequently he and our author were constantly and intimately thrown +together. + +[Illustration: LAFAYETTE'S PARIS HOME, RUE D'ANJOU.] + +Lafayette's neat, simple apartment in a hotel of some pretension was in +the rue d'Anjou. There were a large antechamber, two salons, and an +inner room, where he wrote, and finally had his bed. His town servants +were his German valet, Bastien, who served during the last visit to +America, a footman, and a coachman. Cooper wrote: "When I show myself at +the door Bastien makes a signal of assent, intimates that the general +is at dinner; but I am at once ushered into the bed-room. Here I find +Lafayette at table--so small as to be covered with a napkin, his little +white dog his only companion." It was understood that the guest had +dined, so he takes a seat in the chimney-corner, and as they talk the +dinner goes on to its finish of dates, which are shared by the visitor. +The last of these pleasant visits grew from the usual half hour to +almost two, as they chatted of the great and small and all in their fine +way. Lafayette thought Louis Philippe "the falsest man" he ever met. Of +Charles X he "spoke kindly," giving him "an exactly opposite character," +and Marie Antoinette he believed "an injured woman." + +[Illustration: GENERAL LAFAYETTE'S BED-ROOM.] + +[Illustration: LOUIS PHILIPPE.] + +[Illustration: GENERAL LAFAYETTE.] + +When Mr. McLane, our minister to England, made a flight to Paris in +1830, Lafayette strongly urged Cooper to give him the pleasure of +presenting him with Mr. McLane to Louis Philippe at a Palais Royal +"evening." Concerning the event Cooper noted: "Though such a visit was +contrary to my quiet habits, I could do nothing but comply." His book on +France relates the event and concludes with: "We all got invitations to +dine at the palace in a day or two." But Cooper "never had any faith in +the republican king," and thought "General Lafayette had been the dupe +of his own good faith and kind feelings." Queen Marie Amélie, who was +the daughter of Ferdinand I of the two Sicilies, asked Cooper which he +most preferred of all the lands he had visited. His quick and strictly +truthful reply was: "That in which your majesty was born for its nature, +and that in which your majesty reigns for its society." As the "evening" +was for men Cooper noticed that "the queen and her ladies wore +bonnets." + +[Illustration: QUEEN MARIE AMÉLIE.] + +December 8, 1830 the Americans in Paris gave General Lafayette a dinner +over which Cooper presided. And, says Professor Lounsbury, "in a speech +of marked fervor and ability, he had dwelt upon the debt due from the +United States to the gallant Frenchman, who had ventured fortune and +life to aid a nation struggling against great odds to be free." As "It +was not in his [Cooper's] nature to have his deeds give lie to his +words," he was fairly caught in a public controversy that brought upon +him the following unpleasant results. + +During this period a public dispute arose on the comparative expenses of +American and French government, which Lafayette was called upon to +settle, and he appealed to Cooper as an American authority. In his +spirited defense of the gallant Marquis, our author was caught in a +maelstrom of harsh criticism. It ended in his victory abroad, but +brought upon him uncalled-for comment from the American press for +"attacking the authorities of a friendly country"--as that press +unjustly termed it. + +At Paris in 1831, by the request of an English friend, Cooper wrote of +"The Great Eclipse" which he saw June 16, 1806, at his Cooperstown home. +This account was found after his death and appeared in _Putnam's +Magazine_ of 1869. It included a thrilling tragedy and closed as +follows: "I have passed a varied and eventful life--but never have I +beheld any spectacle which so plainly manifested the majesty of the +Creator, or so forcibly taught the lesson of humility to man as the +total eclipse of the sun." + +From Paris, in 1832, Cooper wrote: "I care nothing for criticism, but I +am not indifferent to slander. If these attacks on my character should +be kept up five years after my return to America, I shall resort to the +New York courts for protection." Cooper gave the press the full period, +then, said Bryant,--himself an editor,--"he put a hook in the nose of +this huge monster of the inky pool, dragged him to land, and made him +tractable." After these five years had passed Cooper noted, February, +1843: "I have, beaten every man I have sued who has not retracted his +libels." + +[Illustration: N.P. WILLIS.] + +In Paris, in 1832, our author was meeting many foreigners of note, and +among the Americans was N.P. Willis, then sketching his "Pencillings by +the Way," and breakfasting with Cooper, and strolling with him through +the Tuileries gardens. + +[Illustration: S.F.B. MORSE.] + +Samuel F.B. Morse, who was later to chain electricity for future use, +was then a young artist painting in the Louvre, and helping Cooper to +buy pictures. Of one purchase is noted: "Shortly after the revolution +of 1830, passing through the Carousel, he bought a portrait, covered +with dust but of apparent rare beauty, from a dealer in antiques, who +said it was a Teniers. This painting was shown to Morse and to +Archbishop Luscomb of Paris, also an art critic of his day, both of whom +verified the dealer's statement. Catalogues and prints of originals of +Tenier's wife later proved the picture to be her portrait painted round +in form by that artist and afterwards cut to the square." + +[Illustration: TUILERIES GARDENS.] + +[Illustration: TENIER'S WIFE.] + +Some twenty years later Morse wrote: "We were in daily, almost hourly, +intercourse during the years 1832-33. I never met a more sincere, +warm-hearted, constant friend." Their relations were ever warm and +close. Cooper himself was winning, in the heart of France, a welcome for +"the beloved _Bas-de-cuir_ with _la longe carabine,_--that magic rifle +of his that so seldom missed its mark and never got out of repair." +Surely his life and pursuits conformed to his motto: "Loyalty to truth +at any price." Those who best knew him best loved him. The charm of his +family life during these pleasant days has found attractive expression +in the portraits of his children drawn about this time by his daughter +Susan, as shown on the opposite page. + +[Illustration: MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER AND HER SON PAUL.] + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN OF MR. AND MRS. JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.] + +During the dreadful siege of cholera in Paris, Cooper and his family +remained in the stricken city, fearing to fare worse with country +discomforts. In contrast to many instances of heroic devotion were +artists' funny pictures of the scourge. The Tuileries gardens were +deserted, and Paul missed his apple-women friends of the corners between +rue St. Dominique and Pont Royal; and the flight through the city of Mr. +Van Buren and other friends were a few personal incidents of this +awesome time. + +July 18 Cooper and his family left Paris for the Rhine country. They +enjoyed Brussels, and old Antwerp's Dutch art and its beautiful +cathedral-tower that Napoleon thought should be kept under glass. They +found Liège "alive with people" to greet their arrival at the _Golden +Sun_, where they were mistaken for the expected and almost new king, +Leopold, and his fine-looking brother. Sad truth brought cold looks and +back views among other shadows of neglect. Cooper noted: The "_Golden +Sun_ veiled its face from us; we quit the great square to seek more +humble lodgings at the _Black Eagle_, a clean, good house." In Liège +were seen the venerable, interesting churches, which caused Cooper to +think, "I sometimes wish I had been educated a Catholic in order to +unite the poetry of religion with its higher principles." He called _The +Angelus_ "the open prayer of the fields," and wrote of it: "I remember +with pleasure the effect produced by the bell of the village church as +it sent its warning voice on such occasions across the plains and over +the hills, while we were dwellers in French or Italian hamlets." + +[Illustration: THE ANGELUS.] + +In the "Life of Samuel F.B. Morse" by Samuel Irenaeus Prime appears +Cooper's letter from "Spa, July 31, 1832," to + + My Dear Morse: I have had a great compliment paid me, Master + Samuel,--You must know there is a great painter in Bruxelles of the + name of Verboeckhoven, (which means a _bull and a book baked in an + oven!_) who is another Paul Potter. He out does all other men in + drawing cattle,--Well, sir, this artist did me the favor to call at + Bruxelles with the request that I would let him sketch my face. He + came after the horses were ordered, and knowing the difficulty of + the task, I thanked him, but was compelled to refuse. On our + arrival at Liège, we were told that a messenger from the governor + had been to inquire for us, and I began to bethink me of my + sins,--however,--it proved Mr. Bull-and-book-baked had come [by + dilligence] to Liège (sixty-three miles) and got the governor to + give him notice, by means of my passport, when we came. Of course I + sat,--the likeness--like all other pictures you have seen of my + chameleon face--has a vastly live-like look,--the compliment is + none the less, and, provided the artist does not mean to serve me + up as a specimen of American wild beasts, I shall thank him for it. + To be followed twelve posts by a first-rate artist, who is in favor + with the King, is so unusual, that I probed him a little. I found + him well skilled in his art,--his gusto for natural subjects, + strong,--and his favorite among all my books is "The Prairie," + which you know is filled with wild beasts. Here the secret is + out.--He sent me a beautiful pencil sketch of a Belgian hind as a + memorial of our achievement. + +[Illustration: EUGÈNE-JOSEPH VERBOECKHOVEN.] + +Cooper and his family spent some days drinking the waters at Spa, with +best effects for Mrs. Cooper--not over-strong since the Paris days. They +left its grass of "ghostly green" when the "dog-star raged with all its +fury," and "came on old Aix-la-Chapelle, well-cloaked and carriage +windows closed." In compliment to the republic of letters the postman +called on Cooper here, and like tribute was also paid two posts farther +on, where he was asked if he "was the man who wrote books!" That day was +well spent when they reached the terrace above the Rhine and got their +first view of the towers of Cologne. In "fine, lofty rooms" overlooking +a garden, they here enjoyed a night's rest, a breakfast, and then a +pilgrimage to "the unfinished cathedral, that wonder of Gothic +architecture." A visit was paid to the house in which Rubens was born, +it is said, and the very room which sheltered the last moments of Mary +of Medicis, wife of Henry IV and mother of Louis XIII of France. Cooper +thought it "a better sort of burgher home," and saw it as "a public +house." + +[Illustration: RUBENS' COLOGNE HOME.] + +Again on the wing, they passed the student-town of Bonn, Rhine ruins of +charming legend on the near and far banks of the river, until on an +island in the Rhine they found rest and refreshment at a convent-inn. +The host, wife, child, cook, and soldiers three, quartered there, gave +them welcome and good cheer. Their parlor was that of the lady abbess, +and her bedchamber fell to Mrs. Cooper. "The girls were put into cells, +where girls ought never to be put," wrote their father. _He_ "sallied +forth alone, in quest of sensation," and got it in the muttering of +thunder, and the flashing of lightning over the "pitchy darkness of the +seven mountains." And he and the fiercely howling winds from the trees +had a chase through the gloomy cloisters, whence he saw, in the vast, +cavern-like kitchen, the honest islanders eating with relish his surplus +supper. + +[Illustration: CONVENT OF NUNNENWORTH.] + +As the storm grew in strength Cooper went to the corridor above, leading +past their rooms To-and-fro he paced until a bright flash revealed the +far, end door to which he went, opened, and entered into utter darkness. +Taking a few steps he paused--"for the whole seemed filled by a clatter, +as of ten thousand bat-wings against glass." His hand rested on +something--he knew not what--when by another vivid flash he saw that he +was in an open gallery of the convent chapel. The bat-wings were small, +broken panes of the high arched windows, rattling in the gale. Yet by +the chasing flashes of angry light he saw beneath him grim figures in +the shadowy motions of troubled spirits. They wore upon his nerves, +until he caught himself shouting: "'Ship ahoy; ship ahoy! What cheer, +what cheer?' in a voice as loud as the winds." He was about to speak +when his gallery door opened and the withered face of an old crone +appeared by a flash; then came thunder, and the face vanished. After a +pause the door opened again, and on the same uncomely face, when, +without thought, our author gave a loud, deep groan. The door slammed on +the time-stricken form, and he was again alone with the storm-demons who +now soon grew drowsy and went to sleep, and he himself went to +bed,--and, wrote he, "slept like a postillion in a cock-loft, or a +midshipman in the middle-watch." But regret came in the morning when +Mrs. Cooper told her husband how a poor old soul, frightened by the +storm, had stolen into the chapel to pray, where, on hearing strange +groans, she dropped her candle and fled in fear to Madam's maid, who +gave her bed-shelter for the night. An after-breakfast look at the +storm-ridden chapel disclosed other good reasons than the groans for the +poor creature's flight. A peace offering made sweet her next night's +sleep, when the travelers had gone on their way, diving here and there +into lore and legend of the mighty Rhine-stream. + +[Illustration: WATCH TOWER ON THE RHINE.] + +Near the Prussian frontier was "a castle that stood beetling on a crag +above the road," where smoke actually arose from a beacon-grate that +thrust itself out "from a far-front tower." Such attractions were not +to be passed, and up the winding way over two hundred feet they went, +and over the small drawbridge, guarded by one groom and the Dutch growl +of a ferocious mastiff. In walls, towers, queer gap terraces,--giving +lovely glimpses of the Rhine,--court, outside stairways of iron, fine +old Knights' Hall--its huge fire-place, and its center droplights of +lamps fitted into buckhorns--and curious armor, Cooper found additional +material for his prolific pen. + +During the year 1832 Cooper gave "The Heidenmauer, a Rhine Legend," to +the world. While the book itself is full of mediaeval, Rhine-country +charm, of brilliant charge and countercharge, of church and state power, +unfortunately for its author in its "Introduction" was this sentence: +"Each hour, as life advances, am I made to see how capricious and vulgar +is the immortality conferred by a newspaper." This brought upon its +writer a whirlwind of caustic criticism in the American papers, and soon +became a challenge of battle by one who was to prove himself brave, +able, fearless, and _right_ through coming years of hot and bitter +strife. By one of the leading editors the glove was taken up in these +words: "The press has built him up; the press shall pull him down." +Posterity has forgotten the stirring conflict, but Cooper's books will +never fail to fire the heart and brain of every mother's son for all +time. + +In a skiff, spreading a sprit sail, they crossed the Rhine at Bingen by +that postmaster's assurance of "Certainly, as good a ferry as there is +in Germany.--_Ja_--_Ja_--we do it often." Through the Duchy of Nassau +they tested its wines from Johannesberg to Wiesbaden. Then up the Main +to Frankfort, on to Darmstadt, and thence to Heidelberg. It was quite +dark when they "crossed the bridge of the Neckar," but "Notwithstanding +the obscurity" wrote Cooper, "we got a glimpse of the proud old ruin +overhanging the place, looking grand and sombre in the gloom of night." +He thought the ruins by daylight "vast, rather than fine" though parts +had "the charm of quaintness." The "picturesque tower" was noted, adding +"but the finest thing certainly is the view from the garden-terrace +above." Below it, unrolls miles of the beautiful Neckar valley country, +through which they drove to Ludwigsburg and on to Stuttgart. Beyond, +appeared a distant view of "a noble ruin" crowning a conical eminence. +This was the Castle of Hohenzollern, "the cradle of the House of +Brandenburg" to which a thunderstorm prevented their intended visit. + +[Illustration: HEIDELBERG AND CASTLE.] + +Returning to a vale of Wurtemberg they saw "a little rivulet" which +began the mighty Danube stream on its way to the Black Sea, and drove up +to the inn at Tuttlingen, of which point Cooper wrote: "This is the +Black Forest,--The wood was chiefly of larches, whence I presume its +name." Warned by their host-postmaster of a long climb of mountain +separating the Rhine and Danube rivers, in a coach and six they left +him for Schaffhausen and the Rhine Falls. The mountain crest gave them a +sweeping view of Lake Constance when its waters looked "dark and wild" +wrote Cooper, adding, "we suddenly plunged down to the banks of the +Rhine and found ourselves once more before an inn-door, in Switzerland." +So in the late summer of this year their second visit was made to the +land of Lake Leman, whose waters are overshadowed by noble mountains; +and its surface broad, tranquil, and blue. Enchanting distance made a +fairy air-castle of a tiny château on a little grassy knoll washed by +the lake, but a near view decided the family "to take refuge in a +furnished house, _Mon Repose_," in a retired corner quite near the +shore at Vevay. + +[Illustration: VEVAY SHORES OF LAKE LEMAN.] + +A boat, with honest John Descloux and his two crooked oars, was soon +secured, and many an hour was spent listening to his lore of Leman, as +they floated their several hours a day over its waters, under fair skies +and foul. + +[Illustration: FÉTE DES VIGNERONS, 1833.] + +During this Switzerland vacation Cooper's fancy was strongly attracted +by Vevay's celebration of an old-time festival, _abbaye des Vignerons_, +or great holiday of the vine-dressers. It was "a gay and motley scene, +blending the harvest-home with a dash of the carnival spirit." Shepherds +and shepherdesses in holiday attire and garlands, tripping the measures +of rustic song and dance. Aproned gardeners with rake and spade, their +sweethearts with bread-baskets of fruit and flowers, uniting in the +dance _à la ronde_, as they came to a certain point in the procession; +and so went the reapers, mowers, gleaners, herdsmen, and dairy-maids in +Alpine costume, timing their steps to horn and cow-bell, and singing the +heart-stirring chorus _Ranz des Vachs_, or the "Cowherds of the Alps," +the wild notes coming back in many an Alpine echo. The festival +concluded with a rustic wedding, the bride being dowered down to the +broom and spindle by the lady of the manor. + +[Illustration: NOAH'S ARK, VEVAY, 1833.] + +Such a holiday on the shores of Lake Leman, and the Pass of St. Bernard, +Cooper placed as a background for his plot based on the hard old +feudal-times law--that (in the canton of Berne) the odious office of +executioner or headsman was made a family inheritance. The efforts of +the unhappy father and mother to save their son from such a fate make up +the pathetic interest of "The Headsman," issued in 1833. The Hospice of +St. Bernard so well described in this book was visited by the author +the previous year. + +[Illustration: HOSPICE ST. BERNARD.] + +When the power to write first dawned on Cooper's mind there came also +and grew with it the desire to serve his native land in the field of +letters. Love of country and countrymen guided his ardent, generous pen +in "The Spy," "The Pioneers," "The Last of the Mohicans," and "The +Prairie," written before he went to Europe. European society he entered, +and was courted as literary men of reputation are courted there, but +always with the honest pride of being an American. Under these pleasant +conditions "The Red Rover," "The Traveling Bachelor," "The Wept of +Wish-ton-Wish," and "The Water Witch" were written. But "The Bravo" was +followed by such "a series of abuse in the public press" at home that +when Cooper returned, November 5, 1833, these onsets greatly surprised +him. His nature was roused by attack; but "never was he known to quail," +wrote a famous English critic of him, and added: "Cooper writes like a +hero!" He believed the public press to be a power for life or death to a +nation, and held _personal_ rights as sacred; and challenged on these +lines he became a lion at bay. Excepting from his fine old personal +friends, staunch and true, he had a chilling reception. For saying, at +an evening party a few days after landing, that he had been sadly jolted +by the bad pavement and was surprised that the town was so poorly +lighted, he was seriously warned by these warm friends: "By the shade of +Washington! and the memory of Jay! to be more prudent; not a syllable of +pavements or a word of lamps could be uttered." Because he thought the +bay of Naples of more classic interest than the bay of New York, he was +voted "devoid of taste and patriotism." So hurt was he by public +distrust that he thought seriously of writing no more; its injustice led +him to criticise harshly many changes which had occurred during his +absence. The Indian trail had made way for canal-boats, connecting the +ocean with the inland seas; the railroads had come, with other active +commercial interests, to stay. + +[Illustration: THE BAY OF NAPLES.] + +[Illustration: NEW YORK HARBOR.] + +After their return from Europe Cooper and his family passed some winters +in New York City--those of 1833-34 and 1835-36 in Bleecker Street near +Thompson. There he "first erected his household gods, French gods these, +for the house throughout was equipped with furniture from France, and +ministered solely by French servitors," writes Doctor Wolfe. But love +for the old Hall on the shores of Otsego grew strong beyond resistance. +It was vacant and of forlorn appearance when the author returned to it +in 1834. From a simple, roomy, comfortable house it was made over into a +picturesque country-seat, from designs, English in style, drawn by +Professor Morse, who was at Cooperstown during alterations. Some of +these, without thought of the cold Otsego winters--ice and snow on the +battlemented roof--made leaks frequent and disturbing. + +[Illustration: OTSEGO HALL AFTER THE RECONSTRUCTION OF 1834.] + +In 1835 Cooper wrote of this home: "The Hall is composite enough, Heaven +knows, being a mongrel of the Grecian and Gothic orders; my hall, +however, is the admiration of all the mountaineers--nearly fifty feet +long, twenty-four wide, and fifteen feet high. I have raised the ceiling +three feet, and regret it had not been ten. I have aversion to a room +under jurymasts." + +[Illustration: COOPER'S LIBRARY AT OTSEGO HALL.] + +The library was a well-shaped room of twenty by twenty-four feet, the +ceiling twelve feet above. Its deep, dark oak windows opened on the +thick shade-trees of the quiet southwest; the walls, well-lined with +books of value, could show no complete set of his own. In one corner of +this room was a large folding screen on which were pasted print-pictures +of places they had visited during their seven years' tour of Europe; a +like screen was in the hall. In this library was the author's plain, +shining, English walnut writing-table and chair, whose first owner was +Richard Fenimore, Cooper's maternal grandfather, of Rancocus, New +Jersey; many of Cooper's works were written upon it. On the opposite +side of the hall was the author's bedchamber. It is interesting to learn +from Mr. Keese that the large north bed-rooms, so cold in winter, were +known as "Siberia" and "Greenland," while those on the south, and warm +in summer, were called "Florida" and "Italy." We are told the grounds +were changed by winding walks and the setting out of trees--not a few +with Cooper's own hands. And under these fine trees, in their southwest +favored corner, shadows and sunlight play hide and seek about a copy of +Mr. and Mrs. Cooper's favorite garden seat. Great gates were made for +the garden entrance, as heavy and hard to move as those of "The Hutted +Knoll" in the author's story of "Wyandotté." It was indeed an attractive +home, made more so by its attractive inmates. Concerning these Mr. Keese +writes: "Noting Cooper's fondness for animals, the family brought from +Paris a magnificent 'tiger' cat weighing fifteen pounds--'Coquelicot' by +name. He lived at the Hall until the day of his death, and occupied the +most comfortable chair in the parlor and was rarely disturbed." Finally +the old Hall became their only home, and here, in his stronghold at the +foot of the Glimmerglass, Cooper kept open house for his friends. + +[Illustration: COPY OF COOPER'S GARDEN SEAT.] + +During the summer months he took a lively interest in his garden. From +his daughter we learn: "It was his delight to watch the growth of +different plants day by day. His hot-beds were of the earliest, and he +was the first to grow egg-plant, Brussels sprouts, and other unusual +vegetables and fruits." The first and choicest of fruit or vegetable was +gathered by himself as a little offering to Mrs. Cooper, and placed by +him at her plate at table. And he took great pleasure in carrying with +his own hands baskets of choice fruit and vegetables to different +friends and neighbors. Many were these that the author and his old +shipmate Ned Myers carried about the village to different homes. + +[Illustration: JUDGE NELSON.] + +Many also were the talks that Cooper and his friend and constant +companion, Judge Nelson, of the Supreme Court, had on garden affairs, as +well as on legal and political questions of the day; many were their +visits to the hot-beds and melon hills. "Ah, those muskmelons! Carefully +were they watched." This penman was frankly proud of his melons, their +early growth and flavor. But for all his care this melon-pride met its +Waterloo one spring in a special box of superior seed, started in a +favored place for light and warmth, and to be early transplanted. Soon +the tiny green blades appeared, duly became leaflets, to the joy of the +Judge and the planter. "Those two venerable heads bending together in +close scrutiny over the young plants was a pleasant sight, in the +author's eager interest and genial sympathy of the Judge." But alas! +neither jurist nor novelist was a botanist, and the triumphantly +expected melon vines basely proved after a few more days of tender +nursing to be the leaves of "that vagabond weed, the wild-cucumber +vine." Here too he gathered material for future books, and did much +writing. Evening twilight often found him pacing the large hall, his +hands behind him, his head doing active duty in decisive nods of _yea_ +and _nay_, and words spoken aloud for putting on paper in his library +next morning. Some of this writing was to his profit and pleasure, and +some, alas! to his sad disturbance--as was "A Letter to his Countrymen," +published in 1834. + +A picture of this Otsego-Hall home life would prove a sorry failure with +"Pumpkin" left out. Therefore appears Pumpkin, the family horse, who +earned his name by drawing a load of pumpkins for Seraphina, the cow, to +eat. It is of note that his horseship carried "a very light whisp of a +tail, and had a gait all his own in going at times on three legs and, at +times, kicking up both hind ones in a way more amusing than alarming, by +leaving an interesting doubt as to fore or aft movement, in the mind of +his driver." + +Of Cooper's daily active life Mr. Keese notes: "He rose early, did much +writing before breakfasting at nine, and afterwards until eleven +o'clock. Then Pumpkin, hitched to his yellow buggy, was brought to the +door"; and when her health would allow, Mrs. Cooper often went with her +husband to their _châlet_ farm. Sometimes it was his author-daughter who +went with her father; and again, some friend was hailed from the street +for the trip. These several active hours would give him a fine appetite +for their three o'clock dinner, on his return. "The late afternoon and +evening were given to friends at home, or to visiting, and often to his +favorite game of chess with Mrs. Cooper." + +Some two years after Cooper's return from abroad, a friend about to sail +for Europe met him walking leisurely along Broadway with his coat open +and a great string of onions in his hand. Seeing several persons turn to +look at him, then speak to each other, the friend too turned--"and +behold, it was Cooper!" After greetings he raised his bunch of onions +and said: "I have turned farmer, but am obliged to come to town now and +then, as you see." Kind remembrances were sent to Greenough; and of +Italy he added: "There is no place where mere living is such a luxury." + +Fenimore Cooper had a keen sense of the ridiculous. His table-talk by +his own fireside was full of cheery life, fun, and glowing merriment. +"Severe and stern his fine face could be when touching on serious +subjects," but his relish of the ludicrous and comical was very strongly +marked, and when such came his way in reading, it was carried at once to +the family circle and read by him with zest, and a laugh so hearty it +brought the tears rolling down his cheeks. While in Europe he outlined a +satirical tale in which the men's parts should be seriously assumed by +monkeys. An English baronet, Sir John Goldencalf, and a Yankee skipper, +Captain Noah Poke, were made to travel together through the different +parts of Monkeyland, called Leaphigh, Leaplow, and Leapthrough, +representing England, America, and France. This tale was hastily written +in his New York home on Bleecker Street near Thompson. Of these +countries, their people, and that time, the story was a strong, clever, +and ludicrous picture, which in this day would be accepted as such, and +be equally helpful and amusing to writers and readers. It was called +"The Monikins," and was published in 1835. + +Delight in the scenery of Switzerland led Cooper to put in book form his +notes on his visits to that small country of many interests and +magnificent views. Under the name of "Sketches in Switzerland," it was +published in 1836. The France and England part of his "Gleanings in +Europe" went to print the next year. Concerning his book on old England, +Cooper, in the autumn of 1837, writes: "They tell me it has made a stir +in London, where I get abused and read _à la Trollope_. It ought to do +them good, but whether it does or not depends upon Divine grace." This +effort has been called keen, clever, but untimely, tending rather to set +people by their ears than to save them from their sins. + +In the summer of 1837 Cooper found himself facing the disputed ownership +of "Three-Mile Point" of Lake Otsego. On his return from Europe he found +that his townspeople regarded this point--Myrtle Grove--as belonging to +them. But Judge Cooper's will left it to all his heirs until 1850, when +it was to go to the youngest bearing his name. While willing to allow +the villagers picnic privileges, Cooper insisted on his clear title to +this pretty shore point; but Cooperstown Solons hotly fought what they +called "the arrogant claims of one J. Fenimore Cooper," who, however, +finally proved his title by winning the case at law. But he lost much +of the good-will of his townsmen, whom he thought "progressive in +killing the red-man and chopping down trees." + +[Illustration: WILD-ROSE POINT OR THREE-MILE POINT.] + +The beauty of this Wild-Rose Point claimed Cooper's earliest love. He +made it the scene where Deerslayer and Chingachgook rescued Wah-ta-Wah. +Its flatiron-shaped pebble-beach jutted out from the lake's west shore +and was covered with fine old forest trees garlanded with vines; and +from their graveled rootage there gurgled a limpid spring of sweet +waters. Then a wild brook came brawling down the hills to find its +gentle outlet on the beach. Azalias and wild roses made its shrubbery, +while pitcher-plant, moccasin-flower, gentians blue and white, with +brilliant lobelias, were among the native blossoms that charmed the +author's childhood and made this Three-Mile Point especially dear to +him. + +[Illustration: COOPER'S NEW YORK CITY HOME, ST. MARK'S PLACE.] + +The Italian part of Cooper's "Gleanings in Europe" was brought to print +in 1838, and later in this year appeared "The American Democrat." Then +"Homeward Bound," its sequel, "Home as Found," and the "Chronicles of +Cooperstown"--all came in hot haste from the author's modest three-story +brick home in St. Mark's Place near Third Avenue in New York City. In +these books Cooper told his side of foreign and town troubles, and it +was said that not ten places or persons could complain in truth that +they had been overlooked. Thereby New York society and the American +press became greatly excited. Cooper was ever a frank friend or an open +enemy. A critic wrote of him and this time: "He had the courage to defy +the majority and confound the press, from a heavy sense of duty, with +ungrateful truths. With his manly, strong sense of right and wrong he +had a high regard for courage in men and purity in women, but, with his +keen sense of justice, he was not always judicious. Abroad he defended +his country with vigor, and was fearless in warning and advising her, +when needful, at home. While he never mistook 'her geese for swans,' he +was a patriot to the very core of his heart." However, this +over-critical writing soon became newspaper gossip, and began for Cooper +six long years of tedious lawsuits, finally settled in his favor in +1843. With such able men as Horace Greeley, Park Benjamin, and Thurlow +Weed among others in battle-array against him, Cooper closed this strife +himself by making a clear, brilliant, and convincing six-hour address +before the court during a profound silence. Well may it be said: "It was +a good fight he fought and an honorable victory he won" when he silenced +the press as to publishing private or personal affairs. His speech was +received with bursts of applause, and of his closing argument an eminent +lawyer said: "I have heard nothing like it since the days of Emmet." "It +was clear, skilful, persuasive, and splendidly eloquent," is another's +record. At the Globe Hotel the author wrote his wife the outcome, and +added: "I tell you this, my love, because I know it will give you +pleasure." In "American Bookmen," by M.A. De Wolfe Howe, it appears that +when going to one of his Cooper trials Mr. Weed picked up a new book to +shorten the journey. It proved to be "The Two Admirals," and says Weed: +"I commenced reading it in the cars, and became so charmed that I took +it into the court-room and occupied every interval that my attention +could be withdrawn from the trial with its perusal." Mr. Howe adds: +"Plaintiff and defendant have rarely faced each other under stranger +conditions." + +[Illustration: HORACE GREELEY.] + +[Illustration: PARK BENJAMIN.] + +[Illustration: THURLOW WEED.] + +While in the St. Mark's-Place home the family found Frisk, described by +Mr. Keese as "a little black mongrel of no breed whatever, rescued from +under a butcher's cart in St. Mark's Place, with a fractured leg, and +tenderly cared for until recovery. He was taken to Cooperstown, where +he died of old age after the author himself. Mr. Cooper was rarely seen +on the street without Frisk." + +The shores of Otsego, "the Susquehanna's utmost spring," Cooper made the +scenic part of "Home as Found," but high authority asserts the +characters to be creatures of the author's fancy, all save one,--"a +venerable figure, tall and upright, to be seen for some three-score +years moving to and fro over its waters; still ready to give, still +ready to serve; still gladly noting all of good; but it was with the +feeling that no longer looked for sympathy." It was of "Home as Found" +that Morse wrote to Cooper: "I will use the frankness to say I wish you +had not written it. But whenever am I to see you?" + +The effect of this conflict with the press so cut the sale of Cooper's +books that in 1843 he wrote: "I know many of the New York booksellers +are afraid to touch my works on account of the press of that righteous +and enlightened city." Of these disturbing conditions Balzac's opinion +was: "Undoubtedly Cooper's renown is not due to his countrymen nor to +the English: he owes it mainly to the ardent appreciation of France." + +Cooper's income, from England, suffered on account of an act of +Parliament change, in 18381 of the copy-right law. But his London +publisher, Bentley, was credited with usually giving the author about +$1500 each for his later stories. Report gave him about $5000 each for +his prior works. + +May 10, 1839, Cooper published his "History of the United States Navy." +It was first favored and then, severely criticised at home and abroad; +but the author was fourteen years in gathering his material, and his +close contact with navy officers and familiarity with sea life made him +well qualified for the work. He had not yet convinced the press that an +author's and editor's right to criticise was mutual; that each might +handle the other's public work as roughly as he pleased, but neither +might touch on the other's private affairs. However, the "Naval History" +sold well and has borne the test of time, and still remains an authority +on subjects treated. There are many officers who well remember their +delight on first reading those accounts of the battles of long-ago, of +which Admiral Du Pont said that any lieutenant "should be ashamed not to +know by heart." One well qualified to judge called Cooper's "Naval +History" "one of the noblest tributes ever paid to a noble profession." + +When "The Pathfinder" came later from the author's pen critics were +startled from the press-estimate of his character by "the novel beauty +of that glorious work--I must so call it," said Bryant. Natty's goodness +a dangerous gift might prove for popular success, but its appeal to +Washington Irving won this record: "They may say what they will of +Cooper; the man who wrote this book is not only a great man, but a good +man." Balzac held it to be "_un beau livre_" and thought Cooper owed his +high place in modern literature to painting of the sea and seamen, and +idealizing the magnificent landscapes of America. It was of Cooper and +his works that Balzac wrote: "With what amazing power has he painted +nature! How all his pages glow with creative fire!" + +[Illustration: J.W. TRUMBULL.] + +Concerning Cooper's innate love for his home-country scenery, Dr. +Francis gives this incident: "It was a gratifying spectacle to see +Cooper with old Colonel Trumbull, the historical painter, discanting on +Cole's pencil in delineating American forest-scenery--a theme richest in +the world for Cooper. The venerable Colonel with his patrician +dignity, and Cooper with his aristocratic bearing, yet democratic +sentiment. Trumbull was one of the many old men I knew who delighted in +Cooper's writings, and in conversation dwelt upon his captivating +genius." + +[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.] + +Personally, Mr. Cooper was a noble type of our race. He was of massive, +compact form, a face of strong intelligence and glowing with masculine +beauty, in his prime. His portraits, though imposing, by no means do +justice to the impressive and vivacious presence of the man. This pen +picture is by one who knew the author well. + +[Illustration: CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.] + +[Illustration: COLUMBUS' FLEET.] + +On July 8, of this year, Cooper was made a member of the Georgia +Historical Society, and the following autumn "Mercedes of Castile" came +from his pen. It relates the first voyage of Columbus, and "with +special knowledge of a seaman, the accuracy of an historian, and with +something of the fervor of a poet." + +Gleaning Miss Cooper's "Pages and Pictures," one reads, as to "The +Deerslayer": "One pleasant summer evening the author of 'The +Pathfinder,' driving along the shady lake shore, was, as usual, singing; +not, however, a burst of Burns's 'Scots wha ha' wi' Wallace bled!' or +Moore's 'Love's Young Dream,'--his favorites,--but this time a political +song of the party opposing his own. Suddenly he paused as a woods' +opening revealed to his spirited gray eye an inspiring view of Otsego's +poetical waters." When the spell was broken he turned to his beloved +daughter and exclaimed: "I must write one more book, dearie, about our +little lake!" Another far-seeing look was taken, to people this +beautiful scene with the creatures of his fancy, followed by a moment of +silence, then cracking his whip, he resumed his song with some careless +chat, and drove home. A few days later the first pages of the new book +were written. When the touch of Time was frosting his own head, he leads +Natty, as a youth, over the first warpath of his hero. And so the +"Glimmerglass" and its "Mt. Vision" country grew into the story of "The +Deerslayer"; it is "the very soul of the little lake overflowing with +youthful freshness and vivid with stirring adventure." + +[Illustration: THE GLIMMERGLASS.] + +On the bosom of its waters is anchored "Muskrat Castle," and over it, to +and fro, move the "Ark of Floating Tom" and the Indian canoes, which +gave a strange, wild interest to the story. Afloat and ashore come those +unlike sisters,--proud Judith, handsome but designing, and +simple-hearted Hetty, gentle, innocent, and artless; both so real and +feminine, and yet so far removed from their supposed father, the +buccaneer. Then comes this Uncas of the eagle air, swooping with lithe +movement to his rocky trysting-place. And Uncas is in strong contrast +with "The Pathfinder's" "Arrowhead," who was a wonder-sketch of the +red-man's treachery and vengeance, while his sweet girl-wife, +"Dew-of-June," shows, true to life, an Indian woman's unfaltering +devotion to her savage lord. Over all its pages broods the commanding +spirit of "The Deerslayer,"--the forest's young Bayard who has yet to +learn what the taking of human life is like. So, in "The Deerslayer," +printed in 1841, the "Little Lake" (Otsego), with its picturesque +shores, capes, and forest-crowned heights, was made classic soil. Just +back of "The Five-Mile Point."--where Deerslayer gave himself up to +merciless Indian justice at the Huron Camp, and later was rescued by +British regulars--is the rocky gorge, Mohican Glen, through which a +purling brook ripples by its stone-rift banks thatched with great clumps +of rose and fern. From the gravel-strewn shore of Hutter's Point beyond, +the eyes of Leatherstocking first fell upon the Glimmerglass, and +impressed by its wonder and beauty he exclaimed: "This is grand! 't is +solemn! 't is an edication of itself." Leaning on his rifle and gazing +in every direction, he added: "Not a tree disturbed, but everything left +to the ordering of the Lord, to live and die, to His designs and laws! +This is a sight to warm the heart." + +[Illustration: OTSEGO LAKE.] + +The tribes, hunters, and trappers had their "own way of calling +things," and "seeing the whole basin, often fringed with pines, would +throw back the hills that hung over it," they "got to calling the place +the 'Glimmerglass.'" At Gravelly Point opposite, Deerslayer killed his +first Indian, and above are the tree-tops where rose the star that timed +Hist's meeting with her lover. Some distance to the north is the +spot--now known as the "Sunken Islands"--which marks the site of Muskrat +Castle, and is near the last resting-place of Hetty Hutter and her +mother. And far to the southwest lies a long, low, curving beach jutting +sickle-shape into the lake. As a favored haunt of muskrats, it was once +called Muskrat Cove, and now Blackbird Bay. Just beyond lies Fenimore, +the home of Cooper's early married life. + +In the author's pages on England, published in 1837, was expressed a +wish to write a story on "the teeming and glorious naval history of that +land." Our own country at that time had no fleet, but Cooper's interest +in his youthful profession made quite fitting to himself the words of +his old shipmate, Ned Myers: "I can say conscientiously that if my life +were to be passed over again it would he passed in the navy--God bless +the flag!" Out of England's long naval records Cooper made "The Two +Admirals," an old-time, attractive story of the evolution of fleets, and +the warm friendship between two strong-hearted men in a navy full of +such, and at a time before the days of steam. "Cooper's ships live," so +says Captain Mahan; and continues: "They are handled as ships then were, +and act as ships still would act under the circumstances." This naval +historian thought "the water a noble field for the story-teller." "The +Two Admirals" first appeared in _Graham's Magazine,_ for which Cooper +was regularly engaged to write in 1842. On June 16 of this year a +decision was rendered in the "Naval History" dispute. One of the +questions was whether Cooper's account of the battle of Lake Erie was +accurate and fair and did justice to the officers in command, and +whether he was right in asserting that Elliott, second in command, whom +Perry at first warmly commended and later preferred charges against, did +his duty in that action. Cooper maintained that while Perry's victory in +1813 had won for himself, "as all the world knows, deathless glory," +injustice had been done to Elliott. Three arbitrators chosen by the +parties to the dispute decided that Cooper had fulfilled his duty as an +historian; that "the narrative of his battle of Lake Erie was true; that +it was impartial"; and that his critics' "review was untrue, not +impartial"; and that they "should publish this decision in New York, +Washington, and Albany papers." Later Commodore Elliott presented Cooper +with a bronze medal for this able and disinterested "defense of his +brother-sailor." + +[Illustration: JESSE D. ELLIOTT'S LAKE ERIE MEDAL.] + +[Illustration: MEDAL GIVEN TO JAMES FENIMORE COOPER BY JESSE D. +ELLIOTT.] + +Professor Lounsbury's summary of Cooper's "Naval History" is: "It is +safe to say, that for the period which it covers it is little likely to +be superseded as the standard history of the American navy. Later +investigation may show some of the author's assertions to be erroneous. +Some of his conclusions may turn out as mistaken as have his prophecies +about the use of steam in war vessels. But such defects, assuming that +they exist, are more than counterbalanced by advantages which make it a +final authority on points that can never again be so fully considered. +Many sources of information which were then accessible no longer exist. +The men who shared in the scenes described, and who communicated +information directly to Cooper, have all passed away. These are losses +that can never be replaced, even were it reasonable to expect that the +same practical knowledge, the same judicial spirit and the same power of +graphic description could be found united again in the same person." +Most amusing was Cooper's own story of a disputing man who being told: +"Why, that is as plain as two and two make four," replied: "But I +dispute that too, for two and two make twenty-two." + +Cooper called the Mediterranean, its shores and countries, "a sort of a +world apart, that is replete with charms which not only fascinate the +beholder, but linger in the memories of the absent like visions of a +glorious past." And so his cruise in 1830, in the _Bella Genovese_, +entered into the pages of "Wing-and-Wing." The idea was to bring +together sailors of all nations--English, French, Italian, and +Yankee--on the Mediterranean and aboard a French water-craft of peculiar +Italian rig--the lateen sail. These sails spread like the great white +wings of birds, and the craft glides among the islands and hovers about +every gulf and bay and rocky coast of that beautiful sea. Under her +dashing young French captain, Raoul Yvard, _Le Fen Follet_ +(Jack-o'-Lantern or fire-fly, as you will) glides like a water-sprite +here, there, and everywhere, guided by Cooper's sea phrases,--for which +he had an unfailing instinct,--that meant something "even to the +land-lubber who does not know the lingo." It is said many down-east +fishermen never tire of Cooper, but despise many of his followers +because of their misuse of sea terms. But more of "Wing-and-Wing": there +was lovely Ghita, so sweet and brave, and anxious for her daring young +lover Raoul, and stricken by the tragedies that befell her in the wake +of Lord Nelson's fleet. The brown mountains of Porta Farrajo, "a small, +crowded town with little forts and a wall," Cooper had seen. + +[Illustration: ISLAND OF ELBA.] + +He had tested its best inn, _The Four Nations_, by a good dinner in its +dining-room of seven mirrors and a broken tile floor, and had some talk +with its host as to their late ruler,--he said Napoleon came that +evening, sent at once for Elba's oldest flag, which was run up on the +forts as a sign of independence. + +[Illustration: ELBA HOME OF NAPOLEON.] + +Cooper saw Napoleon's Elba home,--"a low, small house and two wings, +with ten windows in its ninety feet of front." He also saw the more +comfortable one-story home of Napoleon's mother. Other isles and shores +seen then--during his cruise in the _Bella Genovese_--found place in +"Wing-and-Wing," published in 1842. The knowledge thus obtained of +localities and the Italians led Cooper to say: "Sooner or later Italy +will, inevitably, become a single state; this is a result that I hold to +be certain, though the means by which it is to be effected are still +hidden." + +[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.] + +[Illustration: COOPER'S DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF LAKE ERIE.] + +During 1843 appeared in _Graham's Magazine_ Cooper's "Life-Sketch of +Perry," "The Battle of Lake Erie," and "The Autobiography of a +Pocket-handkerchief," or "Social Life in New York." This volume of +_Graham's Magazine_ also included the life of "John Paul Jones," wherein +appeared Cooper's masterful description of the celebrated battle of the +_Bon Homme Richard_--one of the most remarkable in the brief annals of +that time of American naval warfare. + +[Illustration: THE BATTLE OF BON HOMME RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS.] + +[Illustration: COOPER'S DIAGRAM OF THE BATTLE OF "BON HOMME RICHARD" AND +THE "SERAPIS."] + +Of John Paul Jones himself Cooper wrote: + +"In battle, Paul Jones was brave; in enterprise, hardy and original; in +victory, mild and generous; in motives, much disposed to +disinterestedness, though ambitious of renown and covetous of +distinction; in pecuniary relations, liberal; in his affections, natural +and sincere; and in his temper, except in those cases which assailed his +reputation, just and forgiving." + +Fenimore Cooper was a veritable pioneer in spirit. He delighted in the +details of American "clearing,"--from the first opening of the forest to +sunlight, by the felling of trees and stump-extractor, to the neat drain +and finished stonewall. On the mountain slope of Otsego's shore, and +less than two miles from Cooperstown, lay his small farm belted with +woodland, from which he had filched it in true pioneer fashion. +Concerning Cooper's "costly contest with the soil," Mr. Keese tells us: +"The inspiring beauty of its commanding views caught Cooper's fancy for +buying it far more than any meager money returns its two hundred acres +could promise." + +[Illustration: STUMP EXTRACTOR.] + +After ten years of devoted care the author is on record as saying with +some humor: "for this year the farm would actually pay expenses." But +full returns came in charming views over field, wood, and lake, where +his fancy built "Muskrat Castle" and the "Ark of Floating Tom." Besides, +its pork and butter were the sweetest, its eggs the whitest and +freshest; its new peas and green corn "fit for the pot" were the first +in the country. When the morning writing hours were over at the Hall, it +was to the Châlet, as he called this farm, that he drove, to look after +his horses, cows, pigs, and chickens. + +[Illustration: THE CHÂLET FARM.] + +The dumb creatures soon learned to know and love him. They would gather +about him and frequently follow him "in a mixed procession often not a +little comical. He had a most kindly feeling for all domestic animals," +and "was partial to cats as well as dogs; the pet half-breed Angora +often perched on his shoulders while he sat writing in the library." +Then there were the workmen to direct, for whom he always had a kindly +word. One of these said: "We never had to call on him a second time for +a bill; he brought us the check. When I knocked at his library door it +was surprising how quickly I heard the energetic 'Come in.' When I met +him in the street in winter he often said: 'Well, Thomas, what are you +driving at?' If work was dull he would try to think of something to set +me about." Of Cooper's activity was added: "When the masons were +repairing his home, in 1839, he, at fifty, and then quite stout, went up +their steep, narrow ladder to the topmost scaffold on the gable end and +walked the ridge of the house when the chimney was on fire." The Châlet +brought to the author's mind "Wyandotté," or "The Hutted Knoll," a tale +of border-life during the colonial period. A family of that time forces +from the wilderness an affluent frontier home and settlement for its +successors. In "Sassy Dick" the idle and fallen Indian is pathetically +portrayed: Dick's return to the dignity of Wyandotté, the Indian chief, +by reason of the red-man's fierce instincts, is a pen-picture strong in +contrasts, illustrating how "he never forgot a favor nor forgave an +injury." This story and that of Ned Myers were published in 1843. + +[Illustration: THE ESCAPE--FROM "WYANDOTTE"] + +Of these years there are records of Cooper's kindly love for little +folk. Miss Caroline A. Foot, a schoolgirl of thirteen and a frequent +visitor at Otsego Hall, had always a warm welcome from Mr. Cooper and +his family. When she was about to leave her Cooperstown home for another +elsewhere, "she made bold to enter his sanctum, carrying her album in +her hand and asking him to write a verse or two in the same." Those +verses have been treasured many years by that little girl, who became +Mrs. George Pomeroy Keese. Two of her treasured verses are: + + TO CAROLINE A. FOOT + + But now, dear Cally, comes the hour + When triumph crowns thy will, + Submissive to thy winning power + I seize the recreant quill: + Indite these lines to bless thy days + And sing my peans in thy praise. + + In after life when thou shalt grow + To womanhood, and learn to feel + The tenderness the aged know + To guide their children's weal, + Then wilt thou bless with bended knee + Some smiling child as I bless thee. + + J. FENIMORE COOPER. +Otsego Hall, August, 1843. + +[Illustration: Miss CAROLINE ADRIANCE FOOT, AGE 13.] + +The delight of the winsome little lady was great, not only for the +loving sentiment but also for the autograph, which is now both rare and +valuable. Not long after the capture of her verses a copy of them was +sent to her friend Julia Bryant, daughter of Mr. Cooper's friend, the +poet. Miss Julia wrote at once in reply that she never would be happy +until she too had some lines over the same autograph. An immediate +request was made of Mr. Cooper at his desk in the old Hall library, and +with "dear Cally" by his side, he wrote: + +Charming young lady, Miss Julia by name, +Your friend, little Cally, your wishes proclaim; +Read this and you'll soon learn to know it, +I'm not your papa the great lyric poet. + + J. FENIMORE COOPER. + +On page 155 of "The Cooperstown Centennial" there appears "A new +glimpse of Cooper"--caught and kept by yet another little girl who +firmly believed the author to be "a genuine lover of children." She +writes that to meet him on the street "was always a pleasure. His eye +twinkled, his face beamed, and his cane pointed at you with a smile and +a greeting of some forthcoming humor. When I happened to be passing the +gates of the old Hall, and he and Mrs. Cooper were driving home from his +farm, I often ran to open the gate for him, which trifling act he always +acknowledged with old-time courtesy. His fine garden joined my father's, +and once, being in the vicinity of the fence, he tossed me several +muskmelons to catch, which at that time were quite rare." In 1844 Mr. +Cooper sent this youthful miss a picture-book, "The Young American's +Library." "The Primer" came with a note "written on large paper, with a +large seal." It was a reprint from an English copy, and kept for sixty +years, it is still thought "delightful reading." In part the +accompanying note reads: "Hall, Cooperstown, April 22, 1844. Mr. +Fenimore Cooper begs Miss Alice Worthington will do him the favor to +accept the accompanying book (which was written expressly for Princess +Alice of Great Britain). + +"Mr. Cooper felt quite distressed for Miss Worthington's muff during the +late hot weather, and begs to offer her the use of his new ice-house +should the muff complain." Miss Alice and her cousin were out walking a +very warm April day, with their "precious muffs, which gave him the +merry thought about the ice-house." + +[Illustration: Miss ALICE TRUMBULL WORTHINGTON.] + +Four years later Miss Worthington received another letter from Mr. +Cooper, in acknowledgment of her sending to him a newspaper clipping +about one of his books. Of this letter is noted: "His handwriting was +fine, beautifully clear, and very distinguished." The note reads: + + OTSEGO HALL, COOPERSTOWN, Feb. 12, 1848. + + MY DEAR MISS ALICE WORTHINGTON,--I have received your letter with + the most profound sentiments of gratitude. The compliments from the + newspapers did not make half the impression that was made by your + letter; but the attentions of a young lady of your tender years, to + an old man, who is old enough to be her grandfather, are not so + easily overlooked. Nor must you mistake the value I attach to the + passage cut from the paper, for, even that coming through your + little hands is far sweeter than would have been two candy-horns + filled with sugar-plums. + + I hope that you and I and John will have an opportunity of visiting + the blackberry bushes next summer. I now invite you to select your + party--of as many little girls, and boys, too, if you can find + those you like, to go to my farm. It shall be your party, and the + invitations must go out in your name. You can have your school if + you like. I shall ask only one guest myself, and that will be John, + who knows the road. + + With highest consideration, + + Your most obliged and humble servant, + + J. FENIMORE COOPER. + +During 1844 Cooper brought to print "Afloat and Ashore" and "Miles +Wallingford"--"which two are one," he wrote, "with a good deal of love +in part second for the delight of the ladies." Adventure is plenty, +however, and the water-craft very much alive. In England "Miles +Wallingford" appeared under the name of its heroine, Lucy Harding; and, +says one: "It is a hard task not to fancy he was drawing, in slight +particulars at least, the picture of his own wife, and telling the story +of his early love." The tale is of the good old times in New York, and +land scenes of her river counties. + +Those interested in Cooper's review of the naval court-martial of +Lieutenant Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, for the execution of Spencer, +will find the whole subject and its lesson of fearful retribution in +_Graham's Magazine_ of 1843-44. Alleged "mutiny on the high seas" was +charged to young Spencer. He was the son of Secretary of State John C. +Spencer who, as superintendent of public instruction, rejected with +harsh, short comment Cooper's "Naval History" offered (unknown to the +author) for school use and directed the purchase of Mackenzie's "Life of +Perry." Just as Cooper was putting through the press his severe +criticism of Mackenzie's version of the Battle of Lake Erie, the +_Somers_ returned from her unfortunate cruise. Cooper instantly stopped +his paper at the expense of a round sum to the printer, saying: "The +poor fellow will have enough to do to escape the consequences of his own +weakness. It is no time to be hard on him now." + +[Illustration: LIEUT. ALEXANDER SLIDELL MACKENZIE.] + +The year 1845 brought from Cooper's pen "Satanstoe"--quaint, +old-fashioned, and the first of his three anti-rent books. Its hero, a +member of the Littlepage family, writes his own life-story. From his +home on one of the necks of Long-Island Sound, in Westchester County, he +visits New York City, catches a glimpse of the pleasant Dutch life in +Albany, and with comrades plunges into the wilderness to examine, work, +and settle his new, large grant of land at Mooseridge. Professor +Lounsbury's able life of Cooper affirms of "Satanstoe": "It is a picture +of colonial life and manners in New York during the eighteenth century, +such as can be found drawn nowhere else so truthfully and vividly." The +title "Satanstoe" was given in a moment of Cooper's "intense disgust" at +the "canting" attempt then made to change the name of the dangerous +passage of Hell Gate, East River, to Hurl Gate. + +[Illustration: HELL GATE.] + +"The Chainbearer," second of the anti-rent series, was published early +in 1846, and continues the story of "Satanstoe" in the person of the +hero's son, who finds in the squatters on his wilderness inheritance +the first working of the disorderly spirit of anti-rent--the burning +question of New York at that time. Honest Andries Coejemans and his +pretty niece Ursula, the wily Newcome and rude Thousandacres of this +story are each strong types of character. + +The key to Cooper's own character is expressed in his words: "The most +expedient thing in existence is to do right." In the hour of danger to +aid in protecting the rights of the people from abuse of these rights by +the evil minded among themselves, he held to be the high duty of every +honest, generous, and wise citizen. With such sentiments in mind, he +wrote "The Redskins"--the third and last of the anti-rent series. +Distinguished jurists of our country have declared "remarkable," the +legal knowledge and skill in this series of books. + +Eighteen hundred and forty-six saw also in book form Cooper's "Lives of +Distinguished American Naval Officers," which had already appeared in +_Graham's Magazine_. Many of these eminent men had been the author's +friends and messmates in early life. In 1847 "The Crater, or Vulcan's +Peak--A Tale of the Pacific," came from Cooper's pen. The Introduction +states that the book was written from the journal of a distinguished +member of the Woolston family of Pennsylvania, who "struggled hard to +live more in favor with God than in favor with man," and quotes that +warning text of Scripture: "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed +lest he fall!" and adds, "we have endeavored to imitate the simplicity +of Captain Woolston in writing this book." The story of "a ship-wrecked +mariner, cast away on a reef not laid down on any chart." This barren +spot the castaway makes to bloom as a rose, then brings immigrants to +his Pacific Eden, which finally vanishes like a dream. The work is said +to be an excellent study of the author's own character. + +Full of spirit and vigor at fifty-eight, Mr. Cooper in June, 1847, made +a pleasant few weeks' visit to the middle west, going as far as Detroit. +The country beyond Seneca Lake--the prairies and fine open groves of +Michigan--was new to him. Affluent towns with well-tilled lands between, +full of mid-summer promise, where forty years before he had crossed a +wilderness, gave added interest to the entire way. He was far more +deeply impressed with sublime Niagara than in his earlier years and +before he had seen all the falls of Europe. The idea of weaving its +majesty into an Indian story came to him, but, alas! was never written. + +[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS.] + +He was pleased with the growth and promise of Buffalo and Detroit, was +charmed with "the beautiful flowery prairies and natural groves of +Michigan," and wrote of them: "To get an idea of Prairie Round,--imagine +an oval plain of some thirty-thousand acres, of surprising fertility, +without an eminence; a few small cavities, however, are springs of water +the cattle will drink." In the prairie's center was a forest island of +some six hundred acres "of the noblest native trees," and in the heart +of this wood was a small round lake a quarter of a mile across. Into +this scene Cooper called some creatures of his fancy; among them a +bee-hunter, suggested by the following incident. + +One morning not long after his return from Europe he was passing, as +usual, his leisure hours at the mountain farm. While overlooking his +workmen he espied a small skiff leaving an opposite shore-point of the +lake and making directly for his own landing. Mr. Cooper thought the +boatman was on an errand to himself. Presently the stranger, tin pail in +hand, made his appearance and inquired of Cooper and his men whether a +large swarm of bees had been seen "somewhere there-abouts." He had lost +a fine swarm early in the morning several days before, and had since +looked in vain for them; but "a near-by farmer's wife had seen them +cross the lake that way." No bees had been seen by the men of Châlet. +One of them said, however, "bees had been very plenty about the blossoms +for a day or two." The farmer began to look about closely, and from the +unusual number of bees coming and going among the flowers on the hill, +he felt sure his honeybees were lodged somewhere near. So, with Mr. +Cooper, much interested, the search for the lost swarm began. A young +grove skirted the cliffs; above were scattered some full, tall, forest +trees,--here and there one charred and lifeless. The farmer seemed very +knowing as to bees, and boasted of having one of the largest bee-sheds +in the county. Rustic jokes at his expense were made by the workmen. +They asked him which of the great tall trees his bees had chosen; they +wished to know, for they would like to see him climb it, as Mr. Cooper +had said that no axe should fell his forest favorites. The farmer nodded +his head and replied that there was no climbing nor chopping for him +that day--the weather was too warm; that he intended to call his bees +down--that was his fashion. Taking up his pail he began moving among the +flowers, and soon found a honey-bee sipping from the cup of a +rose-raspberry. He said he knew at once the face of his own bee, "to say +nothin' of the critter's talk"--meaning its buzzing of wings. A glass +with honey from the tin pail soon captured the bee: uneasy at first, it +was soon sipping the sweets. When quite satisfied it was set free, and +its flight closely followed by the farmer's eye. Another bee was found +on a head of golden-rod; it was served the same way but set free at an +opposite point from the first's release; this second flight was also +closely noted. Some twelve of the tiny creatures from the clover and +daisies were likewise treated, until the general direction of the flight +of all was sure. This "hiving the bees" by the air-line they naturally +took to their new home proved the farmer to be right, for an old, +half-charred oak-stub, some forty feet high and "one limb aloft was +their lighting-place, and there they were buzzing about the old blighted +bough." The farmer then went to his boat and brought back a new hive and +placed it not far from the old oak; he put honey about its tiny doorway +and strewed many flowers around it. With the sunset his bees had taken +possession of their new home, and by moonlight they were rowed across +the lake and placed beside the mother-swarm in the farmer's garden. + +[Illustration: JUDGE BAZIL HARRISON OF KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN.] + +The author placed this incident in the "Prairie Round" of "The Oak +Openings." Its Indian Peter shows how Christian influences in time +triumph over revenge--the deadliest passion of the red-man's heart. On +New Year's Day, 1848, "The Oak Openings" was begun, and the following +spring saw it finished. This note appears in the author's diary: +"Saturday, January 1, 1848. Read St. John. No church. Weather very mild, +though snow fell in the night. Walking very bad, and I paid no visits +outside of the family. Had ---- at dinner. A merry evening with the +young people. Played chess with my wife. Wrote a little in 'Oak +Openings' to begin the year with." + +Cooper was a born story-teller, and with a born sailor's love of salt +water could not for long keep from spinning tales of the sea. All of +which accounts for spirited and original "Jack Tier," which came from +his pen in 1848. The story was called at first "Rose Budd"--the name of +the young creature who is one of its important characters. But plain, +homely, hard-working "Jack," under a sailor's garb, following her +commonplace, grasping husband the world over, and finding herself in +woman's gear and grief by his side when he made his last voyage of all +without her--it is she who had _earned_ the real heroine's right to the +name "Jack Tier." It is a story of the treacherous reefs off Florida and +the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. + +All those quiet years in Cooperstown the author kept pace in mind and +interest with the times, and often gave expression to his opinion on +current events. Of General Scott in Mexico he wrote, February 1, 1848: +"Has not Scott achieved marvels! The gun-thunders in the valley of the +Aztecs were heard in echoes across the Atlantic." Years before this the +last chapter of "The Spy" paid tribute to the "bravery of Scott's +gallant brigade" in 1814, at Lundy's Lane, not far from Niagara. That +Cooper strongly condemned Scott's "General Order" is another record of +later years. + +Reform--along all lines of service--was Cooper's watchword; his +home-cry, first and last, was to "build up our navy!" And, with his +knowledge of naval affairs and accurate estimate of seamen of all +grades, what an admirable secretary of our navy these qualifications +would have made him! His political instincts seemed clear and unerring. +April 13, 1850, he thought "Congress a prodigious humbug; Calhoun's +attitude another," as was also Webster's answer, which, however, had +"capital faults." From almost a seer and a prophet came in 1850 these +words: "We are on the eve of great events. Every week knocks a link out +of the chain of the Union." This was written to a dear and valued friend +of South Carolina, to whom a few months later he further wrote: "The +Southerns talk of fighting Uncle Sam,--that long-armed, well-knuckled, +hard-fisted old scamp, Uncle Sam." And among the dearest of his +life-long friends stood this "Southern" Commodore, William Branford +Shubrick. Yet in close quarters, "he would rather have died than lied to +him." His standards of honesty were as rock-hewn; and his words on his +friend Lawrence perhaps apply as aptly to himself: "There was no more +dodge in him than there was in the mainmast." + +[Illustration: HON. GERRIT SMITH.] + +During some years prior to 1850, political party issues on +"Anti-slavery," grew from mild to violent. And famous in the annals of +Cooperstown was the spirited debate, between Mr. Cooper, for +colonization, and his friend, the Hon. Gerrit Smith, for immediate +abolition. This vital question of national interest was given able and +exhaustive treatment by both debaters who spoke several hours while "The +audience listened with riveted attention." At its close the two +gentlemen walked arm in arm to the "Hall," Cooper's home, where they +dined together. + +From Mr. Keese comes an anecdote of Commodore Shubrick's visit to his +old shipmate at Cooperstown: "Mr. Cooper had a raw Irishman in his +employ, as a man of all work. Sending him to the post-office one day for +the mail, he told him to ask if there were any letters for Commodore +Shubrick. Pat came to the window and with great confidence called out, +'Is there any letter for Commodore Brickbat?' 'Who?' said the astonished +postmaster. The name was repeated. A villager coming in at that time, +the postmaster asked him if he knew who was visiting Mr. Cooper. +'Commodore Shubrick,' was the reply. 'All, that's the name!' said Pat; +'and sure, didn't I come near it, though!'" + +[Illustration: WILLIAM BRANDFORD SHUBRICK.] + +Possibly the sailing of Sir John Franklin in 1845 for the frozen country +of the North Star led Fenimore Cooper to write "The Sea Lions," in the +winter of 1849. When the Highlands were white, and its tree-life hoary +with frost, the author could pen best his picture of a voyage to the +ice-bergs, rifts, and snow-drifts, for which his two schooners, both +called _The Sea Lion,_ were launched. + +In the early years of his married life Cooper made many visits to the +island home of a relative, by marriage, who, off the eastern shore of +Long Island, led a half-sea life that was full of attraction for the +young sailor. This gentleman only, his family and dependents, lived on +Shelter Island, between which and the mainland all coming and going was +by boat. Here they had shooting, fishing, and cruising a-plenty. The +author's thorough knowledge of these waters was the probable reason for +starting his two sealers from this port in search of valuable +sealing-grounds in the polar seas. The schooners and their captains were +American. One of the sealers was owned by an old, hard-fisted miser of +Puritanic pattern, whose sweet niece Mary, pretty and simply good, makes +the very lovable heroine of this book. Beneath the low porch and within +the thrifty garden and great orchard of her island home, Mary's heart +had been captured by Roswell Gardner, the daring young captain of her +uncle's schooner _The Sea Lion_. In the faith of the Star and the Cross +the young girl worshipped with strong and childlike piety, while her +lover "stood coldly by and erect with covered head,"--a doubter, but +honestly striving to find his balance. Mary prays and hopes while the +young man sails to the far-away ice land, where, shipwrecked and alone +with his Maker, he finds the light of Truth shining for him on the +far-away shores of his frozen hold. Of this sea tale Professor Lounsbury +writes: "'The Sea Lions' is certainly one of the most remarkable +conceptions that it ever entered into the mind of a novelist to create." +And he adds: "It is a powerful story." + +"Ways of the Hour" came from Cooper's pen in 1850. The purpose of this +story was to attack trial by jury. + +From the time of Cooper's friendship with Charles Mathews in the early +1820's, he had been in touch with the stage, and in June, 1850, he +mentions writing a three-act play in "ridicule of new notions." The +title was "Upside Down; or, Philosophy in Petticoats"--a comedy. Of this +play Cooper's friend Hackett, the American Falstaff of that day, wrote +him: "I was at Burton's its first night and saw the whole of the play. +The first act told well; the second, pretty well, but grew heavy; the +third dragged until the conclusion surprised the attention into _warm +applause_." + +[Illustration: JAMES H. HACKETT.] + +This clever but not over-successful farce closed the literary career of +James Fenimore Cooper. + +[Illustration: CHARLES MATHEWS.] + +Of Charles Mathews, the peerless comedy artist of England, and Fenimore +Cooper, his old-time friend, Dr. John Wakefield Francis, wrote: + +"During a memorable excursion made to Albany with [the actor] Dunlap, +Mathews, and Mr. Cooper in the spring of 1823, I found him abounding in +dramatic anecdotes as well as associations the striking scenery of the +Hudson brought to mind. 'The Spy' was, however, the leading subject of +Mathews' conversation. Cooper unfolded his intention of writing a series +of works illustrative of his country, revolutionary occurrences, and the +red man of the western world. Mathews expressed in strong terms the +patriotic benefits of such an undertaking, and complimented Cooper on +the specimen already furnished in Harvey Birch. The approbation of +Mathews could never be slightly appreciated. There was little of +flattery in him at any time. He was a sort of 'My Lord Lofty,' who +valued himself in pride of opinion. Such an individual could not but +enlist the feelings of Mr. Cooper. I hardly know whether I have ever +seen Mr. Cooper manifest as much enthusiasm with any other person when +occasion was felicitous, the subject of interest, and the comedian in +his happy vein. Dunlap, were he speaking, might tell you of his +[Cooper's] gratuities to the unfortunate playwright and the dramatic +performer." In 1832 William Dunlap's "History of the American Theatre" +was "Dedicated to James Fenimore Cooper Esq., by his Friend, the +Author." + +It was in this year of 1850 that the author's daughter, Susan Augusta, +had her "Rural Hours" about ready to print. And of this book her father +wrote: "It will be out in July. There is elegance, purity, knowledge, +and grace about it. It will make her _the_ Cooper at once. Quite puts +her papa's nose out of joint." More, concerning this book and New York +City of that day, appears in her father's letter to her mother, written +in that city at the Broadway Hotel, September 19, 1850. + + BROADWAY HOTEL, September 19, 1850. + + MY BELOVED S,--The post office is sadly out of joint. I wrote you + the day I arrived.... Right and left I hear of "Rural Hours." I am + stopped in the street a dozen times a day to congratulate me. The + price of the fine edition is $7.00. It will be the presentation + volume of the season. I can see that Putnam expects to sell some + eight hundred or a thousand of them.... The improvements here are + wonderful. They build chiefly of brown freestone and noble edifices + of five and six stories with a good deal of architectural + pretension.... I sat three times for lithographs yesterday and with + vastly better success than before. The pictures are all very like + and very pleasing. I am to have one which will fall to your lot as + a matter of course. Your letter of Tuesday reached me this morning. + You ought to have had three letters from me by Tuesday evening. + F.'s [the author's daughter Frances] shawl went by "A." I suppose + it is a courting shawl. It is almost the only one of the kind + Stewart had--a little too grave perhaps but scarcely so for the + country. Stewart is making a palace of a store. He takes the whole + front of the block on Broadway with fifteen windows in front--and + all of marble. With the tenderest regards to all, I remain yours + Most affectionately, J.F.C. + +[Illustration: STEWART'S MARBLE PALACE.] + +[Illustration: MISS SUSAN AUGUSTA COOPER ABOUT 1850.] + +Miss Cooper makes alive each season's charms, as they pass over the +Glimmerglass and wane beyond Hannah's Hill. From gentry to +humble-folk, real Cooperstown types appear and disappear among these +pages; and even the "half-a-dozen stores" have place, where "at the same +counter you may buy kid gloves and a spade; a lace veil and a jug of +molasses; a satin dress and a broom," among other things of even greater +variety. She tells how St. Valentine's Day was celebrated in a very +original way as _Vrouwen-Daghe_, or women's day of the old Dutch +colonists. + +[Illustration: OTSEGO LAKE PARTY IN 1840.] + +She also records that first lake party to Point Judith, given by her +grandfather, Judge Cooper, in August, 1799, but leaves the description +of her father's lake parties to Mr. Keese: "He was fond of picnic +excursions on the lake, generally to the _Three Mile Point_, and often +with a party of gentlemen to Gravelly, where the main treat was a +chowder, which their host made up with great gusto. He could also brew a +bowl of punch for festive occasions, though he himself rarely indulged +beyond a glass of wine for dinner." Concerning these festivities Mr. +Keese adds: "Lake excursions until 1840 were made by a few private boats +or the heavy, flat-bottomed skiff which worthy Dick Case kept moored at +the foot of Fair Street. But Dick's joints were too stiff to row more +than an easy reach from the village; to the Fairy Spring was the usual +measure of his strength. The Three Mile Point was the goal of the best +oarsmen. Dick's successor in the thirties was an ugly horse-boat that in +1840 gave place to the famous scow of Joe Tom and his men, which for +twenty years took picnic parties to the Point. A president of our +country, several governors of the State, and Supreme Court judges were +among these distinguished passengers. Doing such duty the scow is seen +in the 1840 pictures of Cooperstown. No picnic of his day was complete +without famous 'Joe Tom,' who had men to row the scow, clean the fish, +stew potatoes, make coffee, and announce the meal. Rowing back in the +gloaming of a summer's night, he would awake the echoes of Natty +Bumppo's Cave for the pleasure of the company." At times a second echo +would return from Hannah's Hill, and a third from Mt. Vision. + +[Illustration: JOE TOM.] + +[Illustration: NATTY'S CAVE.] + +Between the lines can be read the hearty and cheery author's pleasure in +all this merriment, yet, none the less, life's shadows exacted full +attention, as the following shows: "Cooper took a generous and active +part in sending relief to the starving people of Ireland; for, March 8, +1847, James Fenimore Cooper heads his town committee, and, 'in the name +of charity and in obedience to the commands of God,' he urges an appeal +'from house to house, for _Food_ is wanting that we possess in +abundance.'" + +"Cooper would admit of no denial of principle but could be lenient to +offenders. One day he caught a man stealing fruit from his garden. +Instead of flying into a passion, he told him how wrong it was to make +the neighbors think there was no way of getting his fruit but by +stealing it, and bid him the next time to come in at the gate and ask +for it like a true man. Cooper then helped him to fill his basket and +let him go." The author's fine fruit trees must have been tempting! + +One day while walking in the garden with some ladies, Mr. Cooper led the +way to a tree well laden with fine apples. Unable to reach them, he +called to a boy in the street, and presenting him to his friends as one +of the best boys in the village,--one who never disturbed his fruit,--he +lifted the little fellow up to the branches to pick apples for the +guests, and then filled his pockets as a reward for his honesty, and +promised him more when he came again. The delighted boy waited for a few +days and then repeated his visit to the tree, but forgetting to ask +permission. Not knowing him from frequent intruders, Mr. Cooper's high +voice from a distance, added to the savage barking of his watch-dog, +frightened the well-meaning forager into a resolve that he would not +forget the easier way next time of first asking before picking. + +[Illustration: OTSEGO HALL--BACK VIEW.] + +The author's genuine interest in his hometown folk never waned. Among +the many and sincere expressions of his good-will were the free lectures +he gave to the villagers. His descriptions of naval actions were full +of vigor. On the blackboard he presented fleets, changing their +positions, moving ship after ship as the contest went on, at the same +time stating the facts in history and using his cane as a pointer. + +[Illustration: JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.] + +It is of note that Mr. Cooper's personal appearance in 1850 was +remarkable. He seemed in perfect health and highest energy and activity +of faculties, but the autumn of this year found him in New York City +under mild ailments. His friend, Mr. George Washington Green, regretted +not noting better his last talk with the author about this time, of +which he says: "He excused himself that morning at Putnam's for not +rising to shake hands. 'My feet,' said he, 'are so tender that I do not +like to stand longer than I can help.' Yet when we walked together into +Broadway, I could not help turning now and then to admire his commanding +figure and firm bearing. Sixty years seemed to sit lightly on him. After +a short stroll we went to his room at the _Globe_ and sat down to talk. +I never found him so free upon his own works and literary habits. He +confessed his partiality for Leather stocking. Said he: 'I meant to have +added one more scene and introduced him in the Revolution, but I +thought the public had had enough of him, and never ventured it.'" + +[Illustration: THE SWEDISH NIGHTINGALE (JENNY LIND).] + +Cooper's enjoyment of the marvelous voice of "The Swedish Nightingale," +as Jenny Lind was called, the publication of his daughter's "Rural +Hours," and the active progress of his own book sales are noted in his +letter to his beloved wife. + + BROADWAY HOTEL, Friday, Nov. 15, 1850. + + MY DEAREST W.,--Julia and Miss Thomas came down with me to hear + Jenny Lind. "Have you heard Jenny Lind?" "How do you like Jenny + Lind?" are the questions which supplant "Fine weather to-day" and + other similar comprehensive remarks. I am patiently waiting for the + "Lake Gun" [a magazine article]. I am well and shall commence in + earnest next week. Tell Sue [his daughter] I have seen Putnam, who + will be delighted to publish her new book. "Naval History" is a + little slack for the moment. There are less than a hundred copies + of second edition on hand and the third must be shortly prepared. + The fine edition will be published to-morrow. About two hundred + copies have been sent to the trade and with that issue he will + start. He has had five and twenty copies done up in papier machia + at $9.00. N---- is well. D.Z. is still here. Old Peter is not yet + married, but the affair is postponed until Spring, when the bride + and groom will return to America. They wish to prolong the + delightful delusion of courtship. I hope they may be as happy as we + have been and love each other as much forty--days after their union + as we do forty years.... Yours J.F.C. + +[Illustration: JENNY LIND AT CASTLE GARDEN, NEW YORK CITY, 1850.] + +At No. 1 Bond Street stood the old-time mansion of Dr. John W. Francis, +where were welcomed many eminent in arts and letters at home and abroad, +and where their host wrote his "Reminiscences of Sixty Years." Here it +was that Cooper, on his last visit to New York, came seeking aid for his +failing health. But with December the author returned to Cooperstown, +whence he wrote a friend: "I have gone into dock with my old hulk, to be +overhauled. Francis says I have congestion, and I must live low, +deplete, and take pills. While I am frozen, my wife tells me my hands, +feet, and body are absolutely warm. The treatment is doing good. You +cannot imagine the old lady's delight at getting me under, in the way of +food. I get no meat, or next to none, and no great matter in +substitutes. This morning being Christmas, I had a blow-out of oysters, +and at dinner it will go hard if I do not get a cut into the turkey. I +have lost pounds, yet I feel strong and clearheaded. I have had a narrow +escape, if I have escaped." + +[Illustration: DR JOHN WAKEFIELD FRANCIS.] + +[Illustration: DR. FRANCIS'S HOME IN NEW YORK CITY.] + +The following spring Cooper again went to New York City, whence he dates +a letter to his wife: + + Saturday, March 29, 1851 + + COLLEGE HOTEL, NEW YORK + + Your letter of Thursday has just reached me. I am decidedly + better.--Last night I was actually dissipated. L.---- came for me + in a carriage and carried me off almost by force to Doctor + Bellows, where I met the Sketch Club, some forty people, many of + whom I knew. I stayed until past ten, ate a water ice, talked a + great deal, returned, went to bed fatigued and slept it off.--My + friends are very attentive to me, they all seem glad to see me and + think I am improving, as I certainly am.... I shall come home + shortly--I want to be in my garden and I wish to be in your dear + hands, love, for though you know nothing you do a great deal that + is right. Last evening I passed with Charlotte M.--who wanted to + take me home to nurse me. There is no chance of seeing S.----. + + Adieu, my love.... My blessing on the girls--all four of them. + + J.F.C. + +In April, 1851, the poet Bryant wrote of him "Cooper is in town, in ill +health. When I saw him last he was in high health and excellent +spirits." These spirits were not dashed by the progressing malady that +took him home to Cooperstown. Not realizing what illness meant, he +bravely accepted what it brought,--the need to dictate the later parts +of his "History of the United States Navy," and the "Towns of +Manhattan," when he himself could no longer write. The latter was +planned, partly written, and in press at the time of his death. That +which was printed was burnt, the manuscript in part rescued, and +finished by the pen of one of the family. + +It was Fenimore Cooper's happiness to be blessed with a family whose +greatest pleasure was to supply his every needed comfort; and one of his +daughters was ever a companion in his pursuits, the wise and willing +writer of his letters and dictations, and the most loving, never-tiring +nurse of his latter days. Of these last months there is a pretty +child-record by a friend who, "entering without notice," one day saw Mr. +Cooper "lying at full length on the parlor floor, with a basket of +cherries by his side. Upon his chest, vainly trying to bestride the +portly form, sat his little grandson, to whom he passed cherries, and +who, in turn, with childish glee, was dropping them, one by one, into +his grandfather's mouth. The smiles that played over the features of +child and man during this sweet and gentle dalliance were something not +easily forgotten. A few months after this both child and man had passed +beyond 'the smiling'; aye, and 'the weeping,' too." + +Letters from Cooperstown led Dr. Francis to go there August 27, 1851, to +see his esteemed friend in his own home. And of Cooper the Doctor +wrote: "I explained to him the nature of his malady--frankly assured him +that within the limits of a week a change was indispensable to lessen +our forebodings of its ungovernable nature. He listened with fixed +attention.--Not a murmur escaped his lips. Never was information of so +grave a cast received by any individual in a calmer spirit." + +So passed the summer days of 1851 with the author, near his little lake, +the Glimmerglass, and its Mt. Vision, when one mid-September Sunday +afternoon, with his soul's high standard of right and truth undimmed, +James Fenimore Cooper crossed the bar. + +While from youth Cooper was a reverent follower of the Christian faith, +his religious nature deepened with added years. Eternal truth grew in +his heart and mind as he, in time, learned to look above and beyond this +world's sorrows and failures. In July, 1851, he was confirmed in +Christ's Church,--the little parish church just over the way from the +old-Hall home, whose interests he had faithfully and generously served +as sometime warden and as vestryman since 1834. + +[Illustration: CHRIST'S CHURCH, COOPERSTOWN, N.Y.] + +Of one such service Mr. Keese writes that in 1840 the original Christ's +Church of Cooperstown underwent important alterations. Its entire +interior was removed and replaced by native oak. As vestryman Mr. Cooper +was prime mover and chairman of the committee of change, and hearing of +the chancel screen in the old Johnstown church, first built by Sir +William Johnson, he took a carpenter and went there to have drawings +made of this white-painted pine screen, which at his own expense he had +reproduced with fine, ornamental effect in oak, and made it a gift to +Christ's Church. It was removed from Christ's Church about 1891, badly +broken and abandoned. This so disturbed Cooper's daughters that his +grandson, James Fenimore Cooper of Albany, New York, had the pieces +collected, and stored them for using in his Cooperstown home; but he--by +request of the Reverend Mr. Birdsall--had them made into two screens for +the aisles of the church, where they were erected as a memorial to his +father, Paul Fenimore, and his great-grandfather, Judge William Cooper. + +[Illustration: FENIMORE COOPER'S SCREEN GIFT.] + +Mr. Keese's words, dating January, 1910, are: "And now comes in a rather +singular discovery made by the writer a few days ago: In looking over a +book in my library, published about ninety years ago, there is an +article on Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, England, with a steel +engraving of the front of the Abbey, which is almost identical with the +design of the original screen in Christ Church. Who was responsible for +transplanting the same to this country appears to be unknown, but the +fact is interesting in that Newstead Abbey was the home of the Byron +family and that of Lord Byron." + +In a letter of April 22, 1840, to H. Bleeker, Esq., Cooper wrote of this +screen: "I have just been revolutionizing Christ's Church, Cooperstown, +not turning out a vestry but converting its pine interior into +oak--_bona fide_ oak, and erecting a screen that I trust, though it may +have no influence on my soul, will carry my name down to posterity. It +is really a pretty thing--pure Gothic, and is the wonder of the country +round." + +Of Cooper himself was said: "Thus step by step his feet were guided into +the ways of peace." It was of the Protestant Episcopal church that his +wife's brother, William Heathcote de Lancey--a genius of goodness--was +bishop. + +[Illustration: BISHOP WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY.] + +A beautiful, tender, and touching tribute to the love of his life was +Fenimore Cooper's will. In part it reads: "I, James Fenimore Cooper, +give and bequeath to my wife, Susan Augusta, all my property, whether +personal or mixed, to be enjoyed by her and her heirs forever. I make my +said wife the executrix of my will." + +In a little over four months his wife followed him to the far country. +Of his children, Elizabeth, the first-born, died in infancy; Susan +Augusta, the author, was the second; the third, Caroline Martha, became +Mrs. Henry Frederick Phinney; next came Anne Charlotte, then Maria +Frances, who married Richard Cooper; Fenimore, the first son, they lost +in babyhood, and Paul Fenimore, the youngest, became a member of the bar +in Albany, New York. + +[Illustration: THE DE LANCEY ARMS.] + +Cooper left his family a competency, but the Hall home soon passed into +other hands; later it was burnt. From rescued brick an attractive house +was built on the west bank of the Susquehanna for his daughters Susan +Augusta and Anne Charlotte, both now resting near father and mother in +Christ's Church yard. Their niece, Miss Susan Augusta Cooper, daughter +of their sister, Maria Frances, Mrs. Richard Cooper, now lives in this +picturesque house, and there she reverently treasures many personal +belongings of her famous grandfather, and also those of her +author-aunt, Susan Augusta Cooper, whose best memorial, however, is the +noble orphanage on the river-bank some ways below. The oaken doors saved +from the flames of the burning Hall served for this new home, which +overlooked the grounds of their old home. The site of the latter is +marked by Ward's "Indian Hunter." Aptly placed, peering through mists of +green toward the author's church-yard grave, he is a most fitting +guardian of the one-time garden of Fenimore Cooper. + +[Illustration: THE NEW HOME AND THE OLD HOME.] + +[Illustration: INDIAN HUNTER.] + +By the generosity of the late Mrs. Henry Codman Potter, this hunter's +domain has been transformed into beautiful "Cooper Grounds"; and here +the red-man of bronze keeps ward and watch over memories that enshrine +the genius of a noble soul whose records of this vanishing race are for +all time. + +[Illustration: COOPER GROUNDS.] + +A gentleman just from continental Europe in 1851 said of people there: +"They are all reading Cooper." A traveler, returned from Italy about +that time, wrote: "I found all they knew of America--and that was not a +little--they had learned from Cooper's novels." When an eminent +physician who was called to attend some German immigrants asked how they +knew so much of their new-home country, they replied: "We learned it all +from Cooper. We have four translations of his works in German, and we +all read them." February 22, 1852, Charles G. Leland of Philadelphia +wrote of Cooper's works: "There were several translations issued at +Frankfort, Germany, in 1824, in two hundred and fifty parts, a second +large edition in 1834, and a third in 1851. All his works, more than +Scott and Shakespeare, are household words to the German people." +Library records of to-day show no waning of this early popularity of +the "Leatherstocking Tales" and "Sea Stories" of Fenimore Cooper. In +1883 Victor Hugo told General Wilson that excepting the authors of +France, "Cooper was the greatest novelist of the century." It was Balzac +who said: "If Cooper had succeeded in the painting of character to the +same extent that he did in the painting the phenomena of nature, he +would have uttered the last word of our art." + +From Hanau-on-Main, Germany, January, 1912, Herr Rudolf Drescher writes: +"Within two years two new translations of Cooper's complete works have +been issued. One at Berlin, the other at Leipsic. 180 pictures by the +artist Max Slevogt held one edition at $192, the other with less +pictures was $60, and both were sold. Cheaper editions without pictures +also met with large sales. I possess an 1826, German copy of 'The +Pioneers.'" Another record is, Cooper's works have been seen "in thirty +different countries, in the languages of Finland, Turkey and Persia, in +Constantinople, in Egypt, at Jerusalem, at Ispahan." + +The author's literary cruise, dating back three years before the +launching of "The Pilot" in 1823, was a long one. And no admiral of +mortal fame ever led so sturdy and motley a fleet--from the proud +man-of-war to the light felucca, gondola, and bark-canoe--over ocean and +inland waters. With visions of forests, its moving spirit and skilful +pilot still stands at the helm, the full light of the ages upon "eye, +arm, sail, spar, and flag." Thus is Fenimore Cooper firmly anchored in +the mind and heart of posterity as the creator of American romance. + +August, 1907, "Historic Cooperstown" held her Memorial Celebration. Her +founder, Judge William Cooper, his hardy pioneers, and the "memory of +one whose genius had given her Glimmerglass country world-wide fame," +were honored with world-wide tributes. Among these were addresses, +heartfelt, and able, from the late Bishop Henry Codman Potter, on "The +Religious Future"; Francis Whiting Halsey, on "The Headwaters of the +Susquehanna"; George Pomeroy Keese, on "Early Days of Cooperstown," and +James Fenimore Cooper of Albany, New York, on his great-grandfather +"William Cooper." + +From "The Cooperstown Centennial" one learns that at five o'clock on +Wednesday afternoon of August 7 many people were reverently taking part +in solemn services around the grave of James Fenimore Cooper and beneath +the glinting tree-shadows of Christ's Church yard. The service began +with a procession of young girls in white surrounding the author's last +resting-place, where verses on Cooper were recited by Miss Wilkinson; +then the little folk sang the lyric tribute of Mr. Saxton: + + 0, great magician, may the life + We lead be such a one as thine-- + A simple life, transcending art, + A spirit close to Nature's heart, + A soul as strong and clear, and fine. + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S TRIBUTE.] + +After singing, the children, gathering around, covered the marble slab +with their tributes--the flowers of the season. Some poetic pictures in +blank verse were given of Cooper's works, by the Reverend Dr. W.W. +Battershall of St. Peter's Church in Albany, New York, the present +rector, and successor of Doctor Ellison, Cooper's boyhood instructor. +Then the Rev. Ralph Birdsall, rector of the author's "little parish +church," spoke of Fenimore Cooper's church-yard home: "A marble slab +that bears no praise for fame or virtue; only a simple cross, symbol of +the faith in which he lived and died, and upon which he based his hopes +of immortality." The soldier lying near, brought from the field of +honor; the author's old neighbors, who exchanged with him in life the +friendly nod; hands that were calloused with the axe and shovel, and +Judge Temple's aged slave in narrow home--all sleeping beneath the same +sward and glancing shadows are not less honored now than is the plain, +unpolished slab of stone, bearing two dates,--of birth and entrance into +the life eternal of James Fenimore Cooper. + +On his airy height of the "Cooper Memorial," gleaming white through the +lakewood slope of Mt. Vision, wondrous Leatherstocking stands, a rare +tribute to simple, uplifting goodness. Clad in his hunting-shirt, +deerskin cap, and leggings, his powder-horn and bullet-pouch swung over +his shoulder, his dog Hector at his feet, looking up with speaking +expression into the fine, wise, honest face of his master, stands Natty, +gazing over all the lake he loved so well. + +[Illustration: LAKE OTSEGO.] + + ---- o'er no sweeter lake + Shall morning break or noon-cloud sail; + No fairer face than thine shall take + The sunset's golden veil. + + J.G. WHITTIER. + +"Cooper had no predecessor and no successor in his own field of +fiction; he stood alone,--he was a creator, and his 'Natty' will stand +forever as the most original of pioneer characters," wrote Henry M. +Alden. + +[Illustration: LEATHERSTOCKING.] + +With Rev. Mr. Birdsall, many think the time has come when the fame of +Fenimore Cooper demands a world-given memorial in Cooperstown. A +lifelike statue from an _artist's_ chisel should show the "'prose poet +of the silent woods and stormy seas' seated, pen in hand, gazing +dreamily for inspiration over the Glimmerglass, where the phantom +creatures of his genius brood." Let it stand, a new-world literary +shrine, in the square fronting the Old-Hall home site, which northward +commands a sweeping view of his "little lake" and a side glimpse of +lofty Leatherstocking of the tree-tops--not far away. + +[Illustration: LEATHERSTOCKING MONUMENT.] + + And strewn the flowers of memory here. + For one whose fingers, years ago, + Their work well finished, dropped the pen; + Whose master mind from land to sea + Drew forms heroic, long to be + The living types of vanished men. + A.B. SAXTON. + +[Illustration: GEORGE POMEROY KEESE.] + +IN MEMORIAM + +GEORGE POMEROY KEESE + +On April 22, 1910, and at the home of his son, Theodore Keese, in New +York City, came the Spirit-Land call to the late George Pomeroy Keese. +It was also in New York City that he was born, on January 14, 1828. His +parents were Theodore Keese and Georgiann Pomeroy, niece of James +Fenimore Cooper. This grand-nephew of the author enjoyed four score and +more of full, active years, mostly spent in Cooperstown, N.Y., and he +gave of them generously in serving the welfare and interests of that +village. There Edgewater, Mr. Keese's attractive home, overlooks, from +the south, the entire length and beauty of Lake Otsego, whose waters and +banks are haunted by Cooper's creations. + +From Mr. Keese is quoted: + +"George Pomeroy of Northampton, Mass., came to Cooperstown among the +early settlers in 1801. He married the only living sister of Fenimore +Cooper in 1803. + +"His ancestry dates back to the coming of William the Conqueror from +Normandy in 1066. At this time Ralph de Pomeroy accompanied the Norman +duke to England and rendered him such valuable assistance that he +received from him no fewer than fifty-eight lordships in Devonshire as a +reward for his services. Selecting a favorable site, not far from the +banks of the river Dart, Ralph de Pomeroy erected thereon the celebrated +stronghold that now bears the family name of Berry-Pomeroy Castle, the +stately ruins of which are still visited as one of the most picturesque +objects of interest in the county of Devon. + +"The descendants of the founder of Berry-Pomeroy retained the lands +belonging to their ancestral home until the time of Edward VI, when at +the period of the rebellion of that date they were seized by the crown +and bestowed upon the haughty Lord Protector Somerset in whose family +they still remain." + +October 10, 1849, Mr. Keese married Caroline Adriance Foote, daughter of +Surgeon Lyman Foote, U.S.A., who, with seven of their children, survives +her husband. From childhood Mrs. Keese well knew Fenimore Cooper. + +From his tender years to the age of twenty-four Mr. Keese lived in close +touch with the author until his death in 1851. Afterwards such near +association, affection and ability made Mr. Keese a veritable stronghold +of authentic values concerning this grand-uncle. After his five years +of patient, careful direction given to the preparation of this +_personal_ life of James Fenimore Cooper, the spirit of George Pomeroy +Keese passed to the Land of Everlasting Light. + +As a traveled, scholarly, wise, and gentle man, Mr. Keese kept in live +pace with current events, and he possessed that strong, rare quality of +character which "says little and does much," and compels esteem and +devotion from all human kind. + +Amongst Mr. Keese's various writings is "The Historic Records of +Christ's Church, Cooperstown, N.Y." The rector, Reverend Ralph Birdsall, +has written of its author: "At the altar of Christ's Church abides the +secret that made Mr. Keese a man so widely honored and beloved." + +MARY E. PHILLIPS. + +[Illustration: RUINS OF BERRY-POMEROY CASTLE, 1825.] + + + + +INDEX + +"Afloat and Ashore," 305 + +Albany, N.Y., 4, 8, 27-31, 38, 62, 104, 120, 123, 345 + +Alden, Henry M, 355 + +Allen, James, 34-35 + +"American Democrat, The," 272 + +d'Angers, Pierre Jean David, 144-146 + +"Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief, The," 293 + +Baillie, Joanna, 183 + +Balzac, 60, 276, 278, 350 + +Bancker, Richard, Mrs. (Sarah Duyckinck), 88-89 + +Bancroft, George, 117 + +Barnstable, 43 + +Battershall, W.W., 353 + +Belgium, 184, 244-247 + +Bella Genovese, the, 290-293 + +Benedict, Mrs. Clare, 22-23 + +Benjamin, Park, 273, 275 + +Béranger, 151 + +de Berri, Duchesse, 153 + +Birdsall, Rev. Ralph, 86, 342, 353-355 + +Bleeker, H., 343 + +Bonaparte, Princess Charlotte, 205 + +Bonaparte, Madame Letizia, 205, 293 + +Bonaparte, Napoleon I, 44, 137, 192, 244, 292 + +Bonaparte, Napoleon Louis, Count St Leu, 204-205, 207 + +Booth, Junius Brutus, 90 + +Box, Newport, 159 + +"Bravo, The," 225-229, 259 + +Bread and Cheese Club, 95-9, 185 + +Bryant, Julia, 301-302 + +Bryant, W.C., 84, 105, 110-113, 128, 238, 278, 338 + +Buffalo, N.Y., 52-56 + +Burlington, N.J., xii, 1, 2, 8, 60 + +Canning, George, 139 + +Case, Dick, 327-328 + +Cave, Harvey Birch's, 81 + +"Chainbearer, The," 307-308 + +Champlain, Lake, 60 + +Charles X of France, 153, 234 + +Chauncey, Capt. Isaac, 138 + +Chauntry, Sir Francis, 174-176 + +Clay Henry, 131 + +Clinton, De Witt, 75 + +Clinton, Gen. James, 104 + +Cole, Thomas, 278 + +Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 183 + +Columbus, 281-282 + +Cooper, Ann, Cooper's sister _See Mrs. Geo. Pomeroy._ + +Cooper, Anne Charlotte, daughter, 16, 344-345 + +Cooper, Caroline Martha, 344 + +Cooper, Elizabeth, daughter, 71-72, 344 + +Cooper, Elizabeth Fenimore, mother, 2, 3, 64, 71-73 + +Cooper, Fenimore, son, 88, 100, 345 + +Cooper, Hannah, sister, 13-19 + +Cooper, Isaac, brother, 20, 72 + +Cooper, James, great-great-grandfather, 2. + +Cooper, James Fenimore. + Accuracy, 106, 109, 115-118, 123, 127, 277, 282, 288-290; + ancestry, 2-4; + birth, 1; + boyhood, 12, 13, 19, 23-35, 39; + courage, 259, 273, 308; + death, 340; + honors, public, 99, 111-112, 114, 131, 192, 281; + prices of works, 276-277, 350; + industry, 43, 114; + generosity, 57, 105-106, 219, 329, 332; + screen gift, 340-343; + love of art, 198, 203, 239-240; + marriage, 68; + name, change of, 2, 119-120; + naval officer, 53-70; + patriotism, 64, 79, 185, 232, 243, 258-260, 273; + personality, 12, 49, 111-112, 149-152, 259, 267, 269, 280-281. + Portraits: + bust by d'Angers, 145; + bust by Greenough, 198-200; + daguerreotype by Brady, 279, 333; + in oil by Jarvis, 91, 146; + in oil by Madame de Mirbel, 143; + Paris drawing (1827), 148; + Yale silhouette, 39; + sailor, the, 42-48; + translations of works, 350. + +Cooper, James Fenimore, grandson, x, 3-5, 342, 351. + +Cooper, Maria Frances, daughter, 324, 342-345. + +Cooper, Paul Fenimore, son, 100, 214, 216-217, 243, 342, 345. + +Cooper, Richard Fenimore, brother, 20, 26, 62, 72. + +Cooper, Richard Fenimore, nephew, 344, 345. + +Cooper, Susan Augusta, wife, 63-65, 68, 71-72, 77, 98, 124-125, 132, +146-147, 154, 165-166, 247, 250, 264, 268, 314, 323-324, 334-338, +343-344. + +Cooper, Susan Augusta, daughter, 13, 54, 71, 139, 142, 220, 243, 265, +268, 282, 314, 323-327, 334-335, 344-345, 347. + +Cooper, Susan Augusta, granddaughter, 345, 347. + +Cooper, William, father, 2, 4-11, 16, 34, 36, 42, 53, 62, 101, 103, 112, +342, 351. + +Cooper, William, nephew, 142, 193. + +Cooperstown, N.Y., xi, 15, 33, 69, 71, 274, 296-299, 315, 317, 328, 336, +338-348, 351-354. + Châlet Farm, 296-299, 311-314, 327. + "Chronicles of," 34, 102. + Fenimore Farm home, 71-72. + Manor, The, 8, 9, 103. + Otsego Hall, 8, 9, 16, 100, 261-265, 300, 317, 340, 345-347. + Otsego Lake, 4, 5, 6, 18-21, 27-28, 71, 104, 261, 265, 276, 282-286, + 296, 324-328, 340, 356. + Three-Mile Point, 270-272, 327-328. + +Cory, Master Oliver, 23-25. + +"Crater, The," 308-309. + +Croghan, Geo., xii. + +Crosby, Enoch, 80, 86. + +Dana, Richard Henry, 96, 111, 201. + +"Deerslayer, The," 5, 282-286. + +DeKay, James E., 93, 95. + +Drake, Joseph Rodman, 92-93. + +Drescher, Rudolf, 350. + +Dunlap, William, 322-323. + +Dwight, Timothy, 36, 37. + +_Edinburgh Review, The_, 110. + +Elba, 291-293. + +Elliott, Jesse D., 287-289. + +Ellison, Dr. Thomas, 28-33, 35, 353. + +England, 2, 44, 111, 115-118, 169-172, 277, 305. + +Erie, Lake, Battle of, 293-294, 306. + +"Excursions in Italy," 210. + +Fenimore, Elizabeth. _See Mrs. Wm. Cooper_. + +Fenimore, Richard, 2, 262. + +Fenimore box, 3. + +Florence, Palazzo Ricasoli, 197-198. + +Florence, Villa St. Illario, 206-208. + +Floyd, Elizabeth, 67. + +Floyd, Col. Richard, 67. + +France, 135, 157, 168-169, 228, 237, 243. + +Francis, Dr. J.W., 186, 278, 322, 336-337, 339-340. + +Frey, Heindrick, 11, 12. + +Galitzin, Princess, 139-140, 164-166. + +Gelsomina, 226-228. + +George, Lake, 120, 125-126. + +Germany, 228, 247, 251, 253-255, 349-350. + +Gibraltar, 46. + +"Gleanings in Europe," 236, 270. + +Glens Fall, 122-124. + +Goodrich, A.T., 78. + +_Graham's Magazine_, 287, 293, 305, 308. + +Greeley, Horace, 273, 275. + +Green, Geo. Washington, 149-152, 332. + +Greenough, Horatio, 198-203, 268. + +Grey, Charles, Earl, 181. + +Hackett, James H., 321. + +Hall, J.E., 84. + +Hall, Mrs. Sarah, 84. + +Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 90, 92-93, 95. + +Halsey, Francis Whiting, 351. + +Harrison, Judge Bazil, 313. + +Harrison, William Henry, 14-16. + +"Headsman, The," 257. + +Heathcote, Hon. Caleb, 66. + +Heidelberg and Castle, 253-254. + +"Heidenmauer, The," 252. + +Hell Gate, 100, 124, 176, 307. + +Holland, 180, 183-184. + +Holland House, 45, 177-180. + +Holland, Lady, 176, 180. + +Holland, Lord, 178-180. + +"Home as Found," 272, 276. + +"Homeward Bound," 272. + +Hooper, Dr. Joseph, 29. + +Howe, M.A. DeWolfe, 274. + +Hudson River, The, 93, 120-121. + +_Hudson_, The, 132-133. + +Hugo, Victor, 350. + +Huntington, Daniel, 112-113. + +Irish, Mr., 109-110. + +Irving, Washington, 84, 90, 112-113, 138-139, 176, 278. + +Isle of Wight, 44, 133-134. + +Italy, 197-268. + +Jarvis, John Wesley, 91-95. + +Jay, John, Chief Justice, 32, 41, 77-78, 80, 259. + +Jay (Mary Duyckinck), Mrs. Peter, 88-89. + +Jay, William, 32, 34, 41. + +Johnston, Capt. John, 43-44, 46. + +Jones, John Paul, 108-109, 294-295. + +Kean, Edmund, 90. + +Keese, George Pomeroy Keese, ix, x, xi, 7, 19, 21, 264, 267, 274, 296, +317, 327-328, 340, 342-343, 351, 357. + +Keese, Mrs. Geo. Pomeroy Keese, 300-301, 357. + +Kent, Chancellor James, 95, 131-132. + +King, Charles, 95, 114. + +_Knickerbocker Magazine_, 162. + +Lafayette, General, 114-116, 137, 142, 149-157, 166-169, 233-237. + +de Lancey, Edward Floyd, 29. + +de Lancey and his seal, Lieut. Gov. James, 65-66. + +de Lancey, John Peter, 63-64, 66-67. + +de Lancey, Stephen, 65, 67. + +de Lancey, Susan Augusta. _See Mrs. J.F. Cooper_. + +de Lancey, Bishop Wm. Heathcote, 68, 343-344. + +Lawrence, Capt. James, 1, 60-61, 63, 316. + +Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 182. + +Leatherstocking, 5, 19, 59, 100-101, 120, 123-130, 162-164, 189-190, +243, 278, 282, 322, 332-384. + +Leghorn, 211-212. + +Leland, Charles G., 349. + +Leopold II of Tuscany, 202-204. + +Leslie, Charles Robt., 177-178, 182. + +"Letter to his Countrymen, A," 267. + +Lind, Jenny, 334-335. + +"Lionel Lincoln," 115-118. + +Lockhart, John Gibson, 161-162, 182. + +Lockhart, Mrs. Sophia Scott, 181-182. + +London, 44-45, 47, 134, 170-184, 186, 210. + +Louis Philippe, 234-236. + +Lounsbury, Thomas R., 237, 288-290, 307, 320. + +Luscomb, Archbishop, 240. + +McLane, Mr. Louis, 235-236. + +Mackenzie, Lieut. Alex. Slidell, 305-306. + +Mackintosh, Sir James, 177, 182, 232. + +Mahan, Capt. A.T., 287. + +Marie Amélie, 236-237. + +Mathews, Charles, 320-322. + +Matthews, Brander, 110, 126, 130, 229. + +"Mercedes of Castile," 281-282. + +Mickieowicz, Adam, 218-219. + +"Mohicans, The Last of the," 269. + +Monroe, Mrs. Elizabeth, 119. + +Montague, Wortley, 120, 126. + +Morris, Geo. P., 90, 93. + +Morse, Samuel F.B., 95, 239, 243, 262. + +Myers, Ned, 45, 49, 265, 286, 299. + +"Myers, Ned," 48-49. + +Naples and Bay, 212-213, 259-260. + +"Naval History Dispute," 287-288. + +"Naval Officers, Lives of Distinguished," 308. + +"Navy, History of the United States," 48, 277-278, 288-290, 305, 338. + +Nelson, Judge Samuel, 265, 266. + +Newport, R.I., 158-159, 198. + +_News, Illustrated London_, 162. + +New York City, 67-128, 131-132, 259-269, 323-324. + Burn's Coffee House, 67-68. + Castle Garden, 114-115, 335. + City Hotel, 67, 93, 95. + Fraunces Tavern, 67. + Homes, Cooper's: + Beech St., 98-99. + Bleeker St., 260, 269. + Broadway, 88, 90, 98. + Greenwich St., 128, 130. + St. Mark's Place, 272-276. + Theatres: + Burton's, 321. + Lafayette, 87. + Park, 90. + Washington Hall, 95. + +Niagara Falls, 56, 309-310, 315. + +North, Christopher, 96, 259. + +"Notions of Americans," 185. + +"Oak Openings, The," 314. + +Oaken Bucket, The Old, 93-95. + +_Oneida, The_, 53-54, 56. + +Ontario, 54, 123. + +Oswego, N.Y., 53. + +_Otsego Herald_, 17, 18, 33, 51, 101. + +Paris, 136, 137-138, 184, 210, 228, 232-243, 248. + +Parkman, Francis, 126. + +"Pathfinder, The," 59-60, 278, 282, 283-284. + +Perry, Oliver Hazard, 287, 293, 305. + +"Pilot, The," 62, 106-111, 351. + +"Pioneers, The," 54, 74, 105, 111, 258. + +Pomeroy, Mr. and Mrs. George, 18, 21-23. + +_Post, The Evening_, 111. + +"Prairie, The," 59, 129-130, 138, 162-164, 258. + +"Precaution," 74, 77-78. + +Putnam, George P., 112-113, 335. + +_Putnam's Magazine_, 238. + +Quoi de Mesereau, Mon. Le, 102. + +"Recollections of Europe," 135, 157, 168. + +"Red Rover, The," 62, 98, 118, 146, 156, 158, 160, 198, 238. + +"Red Skins, The," 308. + +"Rhine, Excursions up the," and Rhine Country, 244, 247-255. + +Rogers, Samuel, 45, 174-176, 178, 180-183. + +Rome, 216-220. + Home in, 218. + Ruins, 218-220. + St. Peter's, 216-218. + +Sailor's Snug Harbor, 48-49. + +"Satanstoe," 306-307. + +Saxton, A.B., 352-356. + +Scott, Miss Anne, 141-142, 182. + +Scott, Sir Walter, 76-77, 139-143, 160-162, 182. + +Scott, Gen. Winfield, 315. + +"Sea Lions, The," 318-320. + +Shubrick, Wm. B., 62, 109-110, 316-319. + +"Sketches of England," 32, 270, 286. + +Smith, Gerrit, 317. + +_Somers_, The, 305-306. + +Sorrento, 213-215, 227-228. + +Southby, William, 183. + +Spencer, John C., 305. + +"Spy, The," 74, 83-87, 100, 111, 258, 315. + +Stanley, Hon. E.G. (Lord Derby), 120, 123, 126, 127. + +_Stirling_, The, 43-44, 46-48. + +Switzerland, 186-196. + St. Bernard, Hospice and Pass of, 257-258. + Bridge, Devil's, 193-195. + Homes, Cooper's: + _La Lorraine_, Berne, 187, 189, 191. + _Mon Repose_, Vevay, 255. + Cooper's book: "Sketches in Switzerland." + +"Switzerland, Sketches in," 269-270. + +"Tales for Fifteen," 105-107. + +Talleyrand, Charles Maurice de, 16-18, 108, 153-154. + +Thackeray, Wm. M., 162. + +"Tier Jack," 314-315. + +Tom, Joe, 328-329. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's James Fenimore Cooper, by Mary E. Phillips + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13155 *** |