204 CHAPTER VIII. B. SIMMONS, ESQ. This gentleman possessed talents of a higher order than are frequently found belonging to those who are known only in literature as contributors to Annuals. He was a man of considerable talent, refined taste, and cultivated mind; one of Lady Blessington's contributors, for some years, to the periodicals edited by her, and the author of several tales and sketches, and short poetical pieces, of a great deal of merit. Somp of his stories, illustrative of Irish character, are extremely clever, and his descriptions graphic. Mr. Simmons never pursued literature as a career. He held a lucrative appointment in the Inland Revenue department in London. In society, his quiet and reserved manners gave the impression of a man fond of retirement—peu demonstratif. But when he felt at ease in company, and found himself in the midst of those he knew and esteemed, and was drawn out by his friends, he was highly agreeable and effective in conversation, and exhibited talent and intelligence of a high order. Mr. Simmons was certainly a man of more than ordinary ability, and deserving of being better known in the literary world than it was his fortune to have been hitherto. A writer in the " Notes and Queries" (for April, 1854, page 397), thus refers to the subject of this notice:—" Will you allow mc to ask for a little information respecting B. Simmons? I believe he was born in the county of Cork, for he has sung in most bewitching strains his return to his native home, on the banks of the Funcheon. He was the writer of that great poem on the ' Disinterment of Napoleon,' which appeared in ' Blackwood' some years ago." The writer adds, " I believe he died in London, in July, 1852." But he is mistaken in the date. The public will be indebted to the inquiry, for a search after information on the subject of it that has not been fruitless. The following details are the result of extensive inquiries made of the early associates and towns-people of Bartholomew Simmons :—He was a native of the small town of Kilworth, iu the county of Cork. His grandfather, Bartholomew Simmons, had been in the employment of the Earl of MountcasheL whose seat of Moore Park lies near the town of Kilworth (which place gave the title to the eldest son of Lord Mountcashel). After Bartholomew Simmons had retired from the service of the Earl, he became proprietor of an inn in the town, which was the theatre of a frightful tragedy some thirty years ago—the death of Captain Fitzgerald by the hand of the late Earl of Kingston. His Lordship's sister had been the victim of an unhappy passion, and the person who was supposed to have wronged her was Colonel Fitzgerald, a cousin of the lady. He had gone down to Kilworth with the expectation of seeing her, and the Earl of Kingston, then staying at Moore Park, hearing of his arrival, proceeded immediately to Simmons' hotel, where the Colonel lodged. He rushed to the bed-room of Colonel Fitzgerald with a loaded pistol in his hand, burst into the room, and took deliberate aim at the Colonel, who was in bed reading. Fitzgerald had only time to exclaim, "Fair play, at all events," and was in the act of springing on his feet, when Lord Kingston fired, and the unfortunate man fell dead on the floor. The inn of Simmons was patronized by the Kingston and Mountcashel families, and prospered accordingly. Old Bartholomew Simmons left two sons; one succeeded his father in the business, the other was made a gauger. The latter married a Miss Cuddy, sister of a Doctor Stephen Cuddy, of the Royal Artillery. From that union there were three children—two sons and a daughter; the elder son, Bartholomew Bootle Simmons, the subject of this notice. His father died while he was young, but his widow and children were not lost sight of by the Earl of Mountcashel. They were located in a small but comfortable house, near the entrance to the Moore Park demesne. The boys, Bartholomew and Stephen, were sent to a school kept in Kilworth by a Mr. Birmingham, an excellent English teacher. The Simmons' were delicate boys. Bartholomew was a quiet, studious lad, who devoted to books and pictures all the leisure time which his class-fellows gave to play. He was not fond of the society of his schoolmates; few of them were, however, of a respectable station in life. Young Simmons' taste for poetry was then forming, and manifesting indications of the passion which it proved a few years later. From Birmingham's school he was sent to a classical one, kept by a gentleman of the name of Quigley, where he acquired a knowledge of Greek and Latin, a general proficiency in learning, and a love of literature, that made him ambitious of a wider sphere for the exercise of his talents than Kilworth afforded. Simmons' family, in the parlance of Kilworth people of the old faith, "ought to be Catholic;" but Irish innkeepers have more confidence in the patronage of lords on earth than in that of saints in heaven. The Lords Mountcashel carried the day against the whole calendar, including the martyr whose name was given to the young Simmons. So Bartholomew was brought up in the way a child should go in Kilworth, who might possibly one day or other become a gauger, like his uncle. Some of the Kilworthians of ancient days are sceptical on this point, but there is evidence of the fact in his poems. In one of them, entitled " Columbus," a stanza thus begins, apostrophizing the great discoverer; "Thou Luther of the darkened deep! Through the interest of the old patrons of his family, the Mountcashel family, he obtained an appointment in London, in the correspondence office of the Excise department. He had become a contributor to " Blackwood" before he quitted his native place; and it does great credit to the editors of that ably-conducted magazine, that they encouraged the very earliest productions of this unknown young contributor of theirs, writing from a small provincial town in Ireland, appreciated his talent, and never paused to inquire whether he was an aristocrat or a plebeian, a Tory or a Whig, an Orangeman or a Roman Catholic—leaving those considerations for the miserable provincial politics that creep into the control of the periodical literature of his own land. It was sufficient for the large-hearted Christopher North that his young Irish contributor was a man of talent and of worth, and we find him introducing one of the early poems of Simmons to his readers with these words: "Here are verses by one who writes after our own heart." Mr. Windele, of Cork, a celebrated antiquary and litterateur, informs me that "Simmons and himself, many years ago, were contributors to 'Bolster's Magazine,' which was published in Cork; and that Simmons, at that period, resided at Kilworth. Simmons' first effusions were published in that magazine (one of considerable literary merit), which made its appearance in February, 1826." In the introductory observations to this periodical, which, for an Irish magazine, had rather a long existence of six years, and reached its fourth and final volume in the year 1832, the following passages occur, the sentiments of which are very analogous to thoughts expressed in several of his poems, and which would apply to the early separation of Simmons from his native land, and from those literary pursuits in it which find so little encouragement :— "While political economists contend that the system of absenteeism produces no ill effects on the prosperity of a country, it will not, we think, be denied by the most desperate theorist that the expatriation of native talent causes a positive decrease in the great fund of national intellect." . . . "The ills attendant on the emigration of a lackland man of genius are balanced by no such comfortable compensations (as those attendant on the absenteeism of a lord of the land); his wealth lies in a small compass, but it is invisible, and must accompany the possesor. He leaves no representative behind to cherish the blossoms of literature, or cultivate the plants of science, which would have sprung up at his bidding. ... In truth, it is a melancholy fact, that the talent for which this country is confessedly remarkable, seems to droop till it is transplanted, and has become, as it were, an exotic in the land that produced it." Simmons was a constant contributor to "Blackwood's Magazine," in which his name appears (always at the head of his articles) for the years 1834, 1836, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, and 1848. In "Blackwood," June, 1834, there is one of the longest of Simmons' poetical compositions, extending to 370 lines —" The Vision of Caligula, a Fragment." There are some beautiful lines in this poem, but the whole piece is dull, unim passioned, and wearisome. In " Blackwood," December, 1836, there are lines of Simmons, on a visit of Lady E. S. Wortley to Madame Letitia, |