75
An Old Peasant.
at our beddes hedde hung a decently-drawn
lithograph of the head of a boy-cricketter.
24. Wednesday. Up betimes. A talk with
an old man, named Arnold, who has lived with
Arthur Tew for the past two years. He was enga-
ged in weeding a carrot-patch and informed me
that he once lived with an English Israelite who
ate such weeds, as perslam, burridge, churval,
bugfloose and tarragon (I took down the na-
mes) the last of which he described as a sort of
wild parsley. He proved to be an interesting old
boy; had been a gardner; a game keeper; a crick-
etter, and a walker of matches. In the second
capacity he had been left for dead, twice, by poach-
ers. His was all Wiltshire and Hauts expe-
rience; he had received many a guinea from
Assheton Smith, the sporting squire, for earth-
stopping and fox-purveying. The Duke of Wel-
lington used to be a guest of his master. To listen
to his rustic speech was as good as an hour with
Chaucer, while his health and contentment (he
was over seventy; had his board and $100 a year)
conveyed its moral. In Arthur Tew, as in all
the countryfolk, I notice a softness and delibera-
teness of utterance suggestive of how our English
language was spoken long ago, and of Chau-
cers open-spelling. I like these Tews, all of
| Page |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen: page eighty-four |
| Description: | Describes a talk with an elderly man named Arnold. |
| Date: | 1861-07-23 |
| Subject: | Arnold; Books and reading; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Smith, Assheton; Tew, Arthur |
| Coverage (City/State): | [Bleinheim Township, Ontario, Canada] |
| Scan Date: | 2010-06-09 |
| Volume |
| Title: | Thomas Butler Gunn Diaries, Volume Seventeen |
| Description: | Includes Gunn's descriptions of the scene in New York at the commencement of the Civil War; his visits to military camps in and around New York City as a reporter for ""The New York Evening Post;"" boarding house living; a bridal reception at the Edwards family's residence in honor of the marriage of Sally Edwards and Thomas Nast; a visit to the Heylyn and Rogers families in Rochester; and his trip to Paris, Ontario, to visit George Bolton and the Conworths. |
| Subject: | Boardinghouses; Bohemians; Civil War; Gunn, Thomas Butler; Journalism; Marriage; Military; Publishers and publishing; Travel; Women |
| Coverage (City/State): | New York, New York; Paris, Ontario, Canada ; Rochester, New York |
| Note: | Thomas Butler Gunn was born February 15, 1826, in Banbury, England, and came to New York in 1849. During the Civil War he worked as a correspondent for the New York Tribune and the New York Evening Post. He returned to England in 1863, and died in Birmingham in April 1903. The collection includes twenty-one volumes of his diaries, including newspaper clippings, letters, photographs, sketches, and various other items inserted by Gunn. Diary entries date from July 7, 1849, to April 7, 1863, and include his experiences with the New York publishing and literary world, his descriptions of boarding houses, his travels throughout the United States, and his experiences traveling with the Federal army as a Civil War correspondent. |
| Publisher: | Missouri History Museum |
| Rights: | Copyright 2010 Missouri History Museum. |
| Source: | Page images, transcriptions, and metadata of the Thomas Butler Gunn diaries have been provided by the Missouri History Museum. |
