As I Remember
An amusing anecdote is told of Brown's financial _protege_ whose name I
have withheld. When he was still somewhat uncertain of his social status
he received an invitation to a fancy ball given by a fashionable matron.
This recognition he regarded as a conspicuous social triumph, and in his
desire to do the proper thing he sought William R. Travers--"Bill
Travers," as he was generally called--to ask his advice in regard to the
proper costume for him to wear. The inquiring social aspirant had a head
well-denuded of hair, and Mr. Travers, after a moment's hesitation,
wittingly replied: "Sugarcoat your head and go as a pill!"
Though not a professional wit, Brown was at least capable of making a
pun quite equal to those inflicted upon society by some of his
superiors. As sexton of Grace Church, he officiated at the wedding of
Miss Phoebe Lord, a daughter of Daniel Lord, whose marriage to Henry
Day, a rising young lawyer, was solemnized in this edifice. At the close
of the reception following the marriage ceremony someone laughingly
called upon Brown for a toast. He was equal to the occasion as he
quickly replied: "This is the Lord's Day!"
CHAPTER VII
FASHION AND LETTERS
One of the show places of New York State, many years ago, was the
residence of John Greig, a polished Scotch gentleman who presided with
dignity over his princely estate in Canandaigua in central New York, and
there dispensed a generous hospitality. Mr. Greig was the agent for some
of the English nobility, many of whom owned extensive tracts of land in
America. The village of Canandaigua was also the home of the Honorable
Francis Granger, a son of Gideon Granger, Postmaster General under
Jefferson and Madison. Francis Granger was the Postmaster General for a
brief period under President William Henry Harrison, but the latter died
soon after his inauguration and his successor did not retain him in his
cabinet. It is said of Francis Granger that he was a firm believer in
the words of ex-Governor William L. Marcy in the United States Senate in
1832 that "to the victors belong the spoils of the enemy," and that
during his month of cabinet service eighteen hundred employees in his
department were dismissed. The Democrats evidently thought that "turn
about was fair play," as a few years later, under President Polk, the
work of decapitation was equally active. Ransom H. Gillett, Register of
the Treasury at that time, became so famous at head-chopping, that he
was soon nicknamed "Guillotine."
Mr. Granger, with his fine physique and engaging manner (he was often
called "the handsome Frank Granger"), was well adapted to the
requirements of social life and especially to those of the National
Capital, where the _beaux esprits_ usually congregated. His only
daughter, Adele Granger, often called "the witty Miss Granger," was at
school at Madame Chegaray's with my elder sister Fanny, and in my
earlier life was frequently a guest in our Houston Street home, prior to
her sojourn in Washington, where her father for many years represented
his district in Congress. We looked forward to her visits as one
anticipates with delight a ray of sunshine. She was always assured of
the heartiest of welcomes in Washington, where she was the center of a
bright and intellectual circle. She finally married Mr. John E. Thayer,
a Boston capitalist, and after his death became the wife of the Hon.
Robert C. Winthrop of the same city. She presided with grace over a
summer home in Brookline and a winter residence in Boston, at both of
which she received hosts of distinguished guests. To illustrate the
importance with which she was regarded, one of her guests remarked to
me, during one of my visits at the Brookline home, that Mrs. Winthrop
was more than one woman--that in that locality she was considered an
"institution." In the latter part of Mr. Winthrop's life I received a
very graceful note from him enclosing the following ode written by him
in honor of the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria:
BOSTON, MASS.
90 Marlborough Street, 20 Feb'y 1888.
Dear Mrs. Gouverneur:
Your kind note and the pamphlet reached me this morning. I
thank you for them both.
I have lost no time in hunting up a spare copy of my little
Ode on the Queen's Jubilee.
I threw it into a newspaper with not a little misgiving. I
certainly did not dream that it would be asked for by a lady
seven or eight months after its date. I appreciate the
compliment.
Yours truly,
ROBT. C. WINTHROP.
Mrs. M. Gouverneur.
ODE.
Not as our Empress do we come to greet thee,
Augusta Victoria,
On this auspicious Jubilee:
Wide as old England's realms extend,
O'er earth and sea,--
Her flag in every clime unfurled,
Her morning drum-beat compassing the world,--
Yet here her sway Imperial finds an end,
In our loved land of Liberty!
Nor is it as our Queen for us to hail thee,
Excellent Majesty,
On this auspicious Jubilee:
Long, long ago our patriot fathers broke
The tie which bound us to a foreign yoke,
And made us free;
Subjects thenceforward of ourselves alone,
We pay no homage to an earthly throne,--
Only to God we bend the knee!
Still, still, to-day and here, thou hast a part,
Illustrious Lady,
In every honest Anglo-Saxon heart,
Albeit untrained to notes of loyalty:
As lovers of our old ancestral race,--
In reverence for the goodness and the grace
Which lends thy fifty years of Royalty
A monumental glory on the Historic page,
Emblazoning them forever as the Victorian Age;
For all the virtue, faith and fortitude,
The piety and truth
Which mark thy noble womanhood,
As erst thy golden youth,--
We also would do honor to thy name,
Joining our distant voices to the loud acclaim
Which rings o'er earth and sea,
In attestation of the just renown
Thy reign has added to the British Crown!
Meanwhile no swelling sounds of exultation
Can banish from our memory,
On this auspicious Jubilee,
A saintly figure standing at thy side,
The cherished consort of thy power and pride,
Through weary years the subject of thy tears,
And mourned in every nation,--
Whose latest words a wrong to us withstood,
The friend of peace,--Albert, the Wise and Good!
Boston, June, 1887. ROBERT C. WINTHROP.
At Geneseo, in the beautiful Genesee Valley, and a few miles from
Canandaigua, in one of the most fertile portions of the State of New
York, resided a contemporary and friend of Mrs. Robert C. Winthrop, Miss
Elizabeth Wadsworth, a daughter of James Wadsworth, a well-known
philanthropist and one of the wealthiest landed proprietors in the
state. He was also the father of Major General James S. Wadsworth, a
defeated candidate for Governor of New York, who was killed in 1864 at
the battle of the Wilderness. Miss Wadsworth was celebrated for her
grace of manner. I had the pleasure of knowing her quite well in New
York, where she generally passed her winters. Quite early in life and
before the period when the fair daughters of America had discovered, to
any great extent, the advantages of matrimonial alliances with foreign
_partis_, she married the Honorable Charles Augustus Murray, a member of
the English Parliament and of a Scotch family, the head of which was the
Earl of Dunmore. She lived but a few years, and died in Egypt, where her
husband was Consul General, leaving a young son. Her husband's ancestor,
John Murray, Lord Dunmore, was the last Colonial Governor of Virginia.
It has been asserted that but few, if any, Colonial Governors, not even
the sportive Lord Cornbury of New York who, upon state occasions,
dressed himself up in female attire in compliment to his royal cousin,
Queen Anne, had quite as eventful a career. Lord Dunmore originally came
to America as Governor of the Province of New York, but was subsequently
transferred to Virginia. While in New York he was made President of the
St. Andrew's Society, a Scotch organization which had been in existence
about twenty years and whose first President was Philip Livingston, the
Signer. In an old New York directory of 1798 I find the following names
of officers of this society for the preceding year: Walter Ruturfurde
(sic), President; Peter M'Dougall and George Turnbull, Vice Presidents;
George Douglass, Treasurer; George Johnson, Secretary; John Munro,
Assistant Secretary; the Rev. John M. Mason and the Rev. John Bisset,
Chaplains; Dr. James Tillary, Physician; and William Renwick, James
Stuart, John Knox, Alexander Thomson, Andrew D. Barclay, and John
M'Gregor, Managers.
It was not at all flattering to the pride of Virginia that Lord Dunmore
lingered so long in New York after his order of transfer to the Old
Dominion. He also greatly incurred the displeasure of the Virginians by
occasionally dissolving their Assembly, and they found him generally
inimical to their interests. Finally matters were brought to an issue,
and Dunmore, in defense of his conduct, issued a proclamation against "a
certain Patrick Henry and his deluded followers." His final act was the
burning of Norfolk in 1776, which at that time was the most flourishing
city in Virginia. During Lord Dunmore's life in Colonial Virginia, a
daughter was born to him and at the request of the Assembly was named
"Virginia." It is said that subsequently a provision was made by the
Provincial Legislature, by virtue of which she was to receive a very
large sum of money when she became of age. Meanwhile, the War of the
Revolution severed the yoke of Great Britain, and Lord Dunmore returned
to England with his family. Time passed and the little girl born in the
Virginia colony grew into womanhood. Her father had died and as her
circumstances became contracted she addressed a letter to Thomas
Jefferson, then President of the United States, under the impression
that he was Governor of Virginia. Jefferson sent the letter to James
Monroe, who was then Governor of Virginia, and he in turn referred it
to the Legislature of that State. This letter is now in my possession
and is as follows:
Sir:
I am at a loss how to begin a letter in which I am desirous
of stating claims that many long years have been forgotten,
but which I think no time can really annihilate until
fulfilment has followed the promise. I imagine that you must
have heard that during my father Dunmore's residence in
America I was born and that the Assembly, then sitting at
Williamsburg, requested that I might be their God-daughter
and christened by the name of Virginia; which request being
complied with, they purposed providing for me in a manner
suitable to the honor they conferred upon me and to the
responsibility they had taken on themselves. I was
accordingly christened as the God-daughter of that Assembly
and named after the State. Events have since occurred which
in some measure may have altered the intentions then
expressed in my favor. These were (so I have understood)
that a sum of money should be settled upon me which,
accumulating during my minority, would make up the sum of
one hundred thousand pounds when I became of age. It is true
many changes may have taken place in America, but that fact