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I waited for the train at Coventry;

I hung with grooms and porters on the bridge
To watch the three tall spires; and there I shaped
The city's legend into this.

"Lord Brougham would not have waited so. He would have rushed up into the town; he would have suggested an improvement, talked the science of the bridge, explained its history to the natives.

"His merit is that he was never idle in his life. He must not complain if he has the disadvantage of it also.

"His power of sarcasm, his amazing readiness, his energetic vigor of language, made him, if not a very persuasive, at least a most formidable orator. He has shattered his contem

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poraries, but he will not charm posterity."

Bagehot's unconventional literary criticism is clean and refreshing. Here, for instance, is his outline picture of Milton's "Adam":

"Adam is far less successful. He has good hair-'hyacinthine locks' that 'from his parted forelock manly hung, a 'fair large front,' and 'eyes sublime,' but he has little else that we care for. He is very tedious; he indulges in sermons which are good, but so delightful a being as Eve must have found him tiresome. She steps away, however, and goes to sleep at some of the worst points."

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XV

EDWARD NOYES WESTCOTT

1846-1898

HE author of "David Harum," whose life went out, pathetically, almost on the eve of his novel's phenomenal success, was a banker "from the ground up." After quitting the high school in Homer, N. Y., he became a junior clerk in the Mechanics' Bank of Syracuse. After two years spent in the service of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, in New York city, he returned to Syracuse and resumed his clerkship in the bank. He rapidly rose from clerk to teller and finally was made cashier. He then organized the firm of Westcott & Abbott, bankers and brokers. Not as successful in this venture as he had hoped, he accepted the position of registrar and financial expert on the Syracuse Water Commission. Failing health finally compelled him to retire from business, and, in 1895, then living at Lake Meacham, in the Adirondacks, he began his "David Harum." Freedom from the routine of the banking office, at first a relief, soon became irksome; but he found some measure of relief in writing. His story grew on his hands. He began with what constitutes chap

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ters nineteen to twenty-four, including the scene between David and the Widow Calhoun and the story of the Christmas dinner. Around these were successively grouped the other chapters. His picture of David and the Homeville banking office were run together from recollections of his early life in Homer, N. Y., one David Hannum, a locally famous horse-trader, affording the basis for the horsey side of his hero's character.

The book, so full of exuberant humor, was mainly written with great effort because of the physical weakness of the author. In January, 1896, Westcott sailed for Italy. In the following spring he returned to his unfinished task. By sheer will-power he pushed on to the finish. Not satisfied with the first draft, he rewrote it entirely. "David Harum" was submitted to one house after another, until six publishers in turn had rejected it. By this time the discouraged author had taken to his bed, weak and disheartened. Not until December, 1897, did he succeed in placing the manuscript. The fortunate firm of D. Appleton and Company imposed but one condition, namely, that he "cut it down." This he refused to do at first; but, like the apothecary in "Romeo and Juliet," his poverty and not his will consented. He died six months before "David Harum"

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