"Well, have it your own way.--It may be Tom, Dick, or Harry for all I care," said the youth, stretching himself preparatory to a visit to his kennels; and such was his indifference to this literary treasure that he readily gave it to his tutor.In those days, few lords were literary.
Mr.Lumley's delight at this discovery, was very much increased by the fact that he was at that moment anxious to bring out an edition of the English Tragedians of the seventeenth century.The lives of several ofthese authors had been already written by him, and he was at that moment engaged on that of Otway.A noted publisher had taken the matter into consideration, and if the undertaking gave promise of being both palatable to the public, and profitable to himself, a prospectus was to be issued.Now here was a little tit-bit which the public would doubtless relish; for it was beginning to feel some interest in Otway's starvation, the poet having been dead half a century.It is true that the signature of the poor starving author, whoever he may have been, was so illegible that it required some imagination to see in it, the name of Otway, but Mr.Lumley had enough of the true antiquarian spirit, to settle the point to his own entire satisfaction.The note was accordingly introduced into the life of Otway, with which the learned tutor was then engaged.The work itself, however, was not destined to see the light; its publication was delayed, while Mr.Lumley accompanied his pupil on the usual continental tour, and from this journey the learned gentleman never returned, dying at Rome, of a cold caught in the library of the Vatican.By his will, the MS.life of Otway with all his papers, passed into the hands of his brother, an officer in the army.Unfortunately, however, Captain Lumley, who was by no means a literary character, proved extremely indifferent to this portion of his brother's inheritance, which he treated with contemptuous neglect.
After this first stage on the road to fame, twenty more years passed away and the letter of the starving poet was again forgotten.At length the papers of the Rev.Mr.Lumley, fell into the hands of a nephew, who inherited his uncle's antiquarian tastes, and clerical profession.In looking over the MSS., he came to the life of Otway, and was struck with the letter given there, never having met with it in print; there was also a note appended to it with an account of the manner in which it had been discovered by the editor, in the library of Lord G--, and affirming that it was still in his own possession.The younger Lumley immediately set to work to discover the original letter, but his search was fruitless; it was not to be found either among the papers of his uncle, or those of his father.It was gone.He was himself a tutor at Cambridge at the time, and returning to the university, he carried with him his uncle's life of Otway, in MS.Some little curiosity was at first excited among his immediate companionsby these facts, but it soon settled down into an opinion unfavorable to the veracity of the late Mr.Lumley.--This nettled the nephew; and as Lord G--, was still living, a gouty bloated roue, he at length wrote to inquire if his lordship knew any thing of the matter.His lordship was too busy, or too idle, to answer the inquiry.Some time later, however, the younger Lumley, then a chaplain in the family of a relative of Lord G--'s, accidentally met his uncle's former pupil, and being of a persevering disposition, he ventured to make a personal application on the subject.
"Now you recall the matter to me, Mr.Lumley, I do recollect something of the kind.I remember one day, giving my tutor some musty old letter he found in the library at G--; and by the bye he came near cracking my skull on the same occasion!"Mr.Lumley was not a little pleased by this confirmation of the story, though he found that Lord G-- had not even read the letter, nor did he know any thing of its subsequent fate; he only remembered looking at the signature.Not long after the meeting at which this explanation had taken place, Mr.Lumley received a visit from a stranger, requesting to see the MS.Life of Otway in his possession.It was handed to him; he examined it, and was very particular in his inquiries on the subject, giving the chaplain to understand that he was the agent of a third person who wished to purchase either the original letter if possible, or if that could not be found, the MS.containing the copy.Mr.Lumley always believed that the employer of this applicant was no other than that arch-gatherer, Horace Walpole, who gave such an impulse to the collecting mania; he declined selling the work, however, for he had thoughts of printing it himself.The application was mentioned by him, and, of course, the manuscript gained notoriety, while the original letter became a greater desideratum than ever.The library at G-- was searched most carefully by a couple of brother book-worms, who crept over it from cornice to carpeting; but to no purpose.
{Horace Walpole = Horace Walpole (1717-1797), a prolific writer, connoisseur, and collector, best known for his extensive correspondence; he established a taste for literary collecting by would-be cultured gentlemen in England}
Some ten years later still--about the time, by the bye, when Chatterton's career came to such a miserable close in London, and when Gilbert was dying in a hospital at Paris--it happened that a worthy physician, well known in the town of Southampton for his benevolence and eccentricity, was on a professional visit to the child of a poor journeyman trunk-maker, in the same place.A supply of old paper had just been brought in for the purpose of lining trunks, according to the practice of the day.A workman was busy sorting these, rejecting some as refuse, and preserving others, when the doctor stopped to answer an inquiry about the sick child.
