As I Remember
relative of the British General. The English nobleman who was familiar
with the Quaker poet seemed highly pleased to own the picture and
commented favorably upon the firm expression of the mouth and chin of
this celebrated woman.
Army officers were frequently stationed at Cold Spring to inspect the
guns cast at the Kemble foundry. Among these I recall with much pleasure
Major Alfred Mordecai of the Ordnance Corps. He was a highly efficient
officer and previous to the Civil War rendered conspicuous service to
his country. He was a Southerner and at the beginning of the war is said
to have requested the War Department to order him to some duty which did
not involve the killing of his kinsmen. His request was denied and his
resignation followed.
In the midst of the Civil War, after a protracted absence from the
country in China, I arrived in New York, and one of the first items of
news that was told me was that the West Point foundry was casting guns
for the Confederacy. I speedily learned that this rumor was altogether
unfounded. It seems that some time before the beginning of hostilities
the State of Georgia ordered some small rifled cannon from the West
Point foundry with the knowledge and consent of the Chief of the
Ordnance Department, General Alexander B. Dyer. Colonel William J.
Hardee, then Commandant-of-Cadets, was selected to inspect these guns
before delivery; but when they were finished the war-cloud had grown to
such proportions that Robert P. Parrott, the head of the foundry at the
time, Gouverneur Kemble having retired from active business eight or ten
years previously, refused to forward them. They lay at the foundry for
some time, and were afterwards bought by private parties from New York
City and presented to the government, thereby doing active service
against the Confederacy. In his interesting book recently published
entitled "Retrospections of an Active Life," Mr. John Bigelow refers to
this unfortunate rumor. He says: "On the 21st of January, 1861, I met
the venerable Professor Weir, of the West Point Military Academy, in the
cars on our way to New York, when he told me that Colonel Hardee, then
the Commandant-of-Cadets at the Academy, was buying arms for his native
state of Georgia, and that the Kembles, whose iron works were across the
river from West Point at Cold Spring, were filling a large order for
him." I knew Professor Weir very well, and Mr. Bigelow's statement, I
think, is a mistake, as all of the professors at West Point were too
loyal to Mr. Gouverneur Kemble to allow wild rumors engendered by war to
remain uncontradicted.
This seems a fitting place to recall the pleasant friendship I made with
General Robert E. Lee long before he became the Southern chieftain. I
have already stated that when I visited Cold Spring in other days he was
Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. He was a constant visitor
at the Kembles, and his imposing presence and genial manner are so well
known as to render a description of them altogether superfluous. Some
years later when I was visiting at the home of General Winfield Scott in
Washington I renewed my pleasing friendship with him. There existed
between these two eminent soldiers a life-long attachment, and when the
Civil War was raging it seemed almost impossible to realize that Scott
and Lee represented opposite political views, as hitherto they had
always seemed to be so completely in accord.
The Cold Spring colony was decidedly sociable, and a dinner party at one
of the many cottages was almost a daily occurrence. Captain and Mrs.
Robert P. Parrott entertained most gracefully, and their residence was
one of the show-places of that locality. I have heard Captain Parrott
facetiously remark that he had "made a loud noise in the world" by the
aid of his guns.
The first time I ever saw Washington Irving, with whom I enjoyed an
extended friendship, was when he was a guest of Gouverneur Kemble. The
intimate social relations existing between these two friends began in
early life, and lasted throughout their careers, having been fostered by
a frequent interchange of visits. In his earlier life Mr. Kemble
inherited from his relative, Nicholas Gouverneur, a fine old estate near
Newark, New Jersey, which bore the name of "Mount Pleasant." Washington
Irving, however, rechristened the place "Cockloft Hall," and in a vein
of mirth dubbed the bachelor-proprietor "The Patroon." Irving described
this retreat in his "Salmagundi," and the characters there depicted
which have been thought by many to be fanciful creations were in reality
Gouverneur Kemble and his many friends. His place was subsequently sold,
but the intimacy between the two men continued, and it has always seemed
to me that there was much pathos connected with their friendship. Both
of them were bachelors and owned homes of more than passing historic
interest on the Hudson. Irving called Kemble's residence at Cold Spring
"Bachelor's Elysium," while to his own he applied the name of "Wolfert's
Roost." In the spring of 1856 in writing to Kemble he said: "I am happy
to learn that your lawn is green. I hope it will long continue so, and
yourself likewise. I shall come up one of these days and have a roll on
it with you"; and Kemble, upon another occasion, in urging Irving to
visit him added as an inducement, "come and we will have a game of
leap-frog." Referring to their last meeting Irving said of Kemble: "That
is my friend of early life--always unchanged, always like a brother, one
of the noblest beings that ever was created. His heart is pure gold."
That was in the summer of 1859, and in the following November Irving
died, at the ripe old age of seventy-six. Constant in life, let us hope
that in death they are not separated, and that in the Silent Land
No morrow's mischief knocks them up.
Let the cynic who spurns the consoling influences of friendship ponder
upon the life-intimacy of these two old men who, throughout the cares
and turmoils of a long and engrossing existence, illustrated so
beautifully the charm of such a benign relationship.
Irving impressed me as having a genial but at the same time a retiring
nature. He was of about the average height and, although quite advanced
in years when I knew him, his hair had not changed color. His manner was
exceeding gentle and, strange to say, with such a remarkable vocabulary
at his command, in society he was exceedingly quiet. In his early life
Irving was engaged to be married to one of his own ethereal kind, but
she passed onward, and among his friends the subject was never broached
as it seemed too sacred to dwell upon. Her name was Matilda Hoffman and
she was a daughter of the celebrated jurist of New York, Judge Josiah
Ogden Hoffman. She died in 1809 in her eighteenth year.
My last meeting with Irving is vividly impressed upon my memory as the
occasion was quite memorable. I was passing the winter in Washington as
the guest of my elder sister, Mrs. Eames, who a few years before had
married Charles Eames, Esq., of the Washington Bar. Irving, who was then
seventy-two years old, was making a brief visit to the Capital and
called to see me. This was in 1855, when William M. Thackeray was on his
second visit to this country and delivering his celebrated lectures upon
"The Four Georges." I had scarcely welcomed Mr. Irving into my sister's
drawing-room when Thackeray was announced, and I introduced the two
famous but totally dissimilar men to each other. Thackeray was a man of
powerful build and a very direct manner, but to my mind was not an
individual to be overpowered by sentiment. I can not remember after the
flight of so many years the nature of the conversation between Irving
and Thackeray apart from the mutual interchange that ordinarily passes
between strangers when casually presented.
Later I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Thackeray quite a number of
times during his sojourn in Washington where he was much lionized in
society. One evening we were all gathered around the family tea table
when he chanced to call and join us in that cup which is said to cheer.
He entered into conversation with much enthusiasm, especially when he
referred to his children. He seemed to have a special admiration for a
young daughter of his, and related many pleasing anecdotes of her
juvenile aptitude. I think he referred to Anne Isabella Thackeray (Lady
Richie), who gave to the public a biographical edition of her father's
famous works. I remember we drifted into a conversation upon a recently
published novel, but the title of the book and its author I do not
recall. At any rate, he was discussing its heroine, who, under some
extraordinary stress of circumstances, was forced to walk many miles in
her stocking-feet to obtain succor, and the whole story was thrilling in
the extreme; whereupon the author of "Vanity Fair" exclaimed, "She was
shoeicidal." Although he was an Englishman, he was not averse to a
pun--even a poor one! I remember asking Mr. Thackeray whether during his
visit to New York he had met Mrs. De Witt Clinton. His response was
characteristic: "Yes, and she is a gay old girl!"
James K. Paulding, the distinguished author who married the sister of
Gouverneur and William Kemble and lived at Hyde Park, farther up the
Hudson, frequently formed one of the pleasant coterie that gathered
around "Uncle Gouv's" board. "The Sage of Lindenwald," as ex-President
Martin Van Buren was frequently called by both friend and foe, also
repeatedly came from his home in Kinderhook to dine with Mr. Kemble, and
these memories call to mind a dinner I attended at "Uncle Gouv's" when
Mr. Van Buren was the principal guest. Although it was many years after
his retirement from the presidential office, the impression he made upon
me was that of a quiet, deliberate old gentleman, who continued to be
well versed in the affairs of state.
A short distance from Cold Spring is Garrison's, where many wealthy New
Yorkers have their country seats. Putnam County, in which both
Garrison's and Cold Spring are located, was once a portion of Philipse
Manor. The house in the "Upper Manor," as this tract of land was called,
was The Grange, but over forty years ago it was burned to the ground. It
was originally built by Captain Frederick Philips about 1800, and was
the scene of much festivity. The Philipses were tories during the
Revolution, and it is said that this property would doubtless have been
confiscated by the government but for the fact that Mary Philips, who
was Captain Frederick Philips' only child, was a minor at the close of
the war in 1783. Mary Philips, whose descendants have spelled the name
with a final _e_, married Samuel Gouverneur, and their eldest son,
Frederick Philipse Gouverneur, dropped the name Gouverneur as a surname
and assumed that of Philipse in order to inherit a large landed estate
of which The Grange was a conspicuous part.
When I first visited Garrison's the Philipse family was living at The
Grange in great elegance. Frederick Philipse was then a bachelor and his
maiden sister, Mary Marston Gouverneur, presided over his establishment.
Another sister, Margaret Philipse Gouverneur, married William Moore, a
son of the beloved physician, Dr. William Moore of New York, a nephew of
President Benjamin Moore of Columbia College and a first cousin of
Clement C. Moore who wrote the oft quoted verses, "'Twas the Night
before Christmas," which have delighted the hearts of American children
for so many decades.
Frederick Philipse subsequently married Catharine Wadsworth Post, a
member of a prominent family of New York. It was while Mr. and Mrs.
Philipse were visiting her relatives that The Grange was destroyed by
fire. Miss Mary Marston Gouverneur had ordered the chimneys cleaned, in