Yet, on September 4, 1794, he wrote to Lady
Ossory: "I have read some of the descriptive verbose tales, of which your
Ladyship says I was the patriarch by several mothers" (Miss Reeve and
Mrs. Radcliffe?). "All I can say for myself is that I do not think my
concubines have produced issue more natural for excluding the aid of
anything marvellous."
CHAPTER VII: A SCOTTISH ROMANTICIST OF 1830
The finding of a rare book that you have wanted long is one of the
happier moments in life. Whatever we may think of life when we
contemplate it as a whole, it is a delight to discover what one has
sought for years, especially if the book be a book which you really want
to read, and not a thing whose value is given by the fashion of
collecting. Perhaps nobody ever collected before
THE
DEATH-WAKE, OR LUNACY
A NECROMAUNT
In Three Chimeras
BY THOMAS T. STODDART.
"Is't like that lead contains her?--
It were too gross
To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave."--
_Shakespeare_.
EDINBURGH:
Printed for HENRY CONSTABLE, Edinburgh,
And HURST, CHANCE, & CO., London.
MDCCCXXXI.
This is my rare book, and it is rare for an excellent good reason, as
will be shown. But first of the author. Mr. Thomas Tod Stoddart was
born in 1810. He died in 1880. Through all his pilgrimage of
three-score years and ten, his "rod and staff did comfort him," as the
Scottish version of the Psalms has it; nay, his staff was his rod.
Pages:
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145