A GRAVE IN HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY, RICHMOND

(J. R. T.)

I read the marble-lettered name,
And half in bitterness I said:
"As Dante from Ravenna came,

Our poet came from exile--dead."
And yet, had it been asked of him
Where he would rather lay his head,
This spot he would have chosen. Dim
The city's hum drifts o'er his grave,
And green above the hollies wave
Their jagged leaves, as when a boy,
On blissful summer afternoons,
He came to sing the birds his runes,
And tell the river of his joy.

Who dreams that in his wanderings wide,
By stern misfortune tossed and driven,
His soul's electric strands were riven
From home and country? Let betide
What might, what would, his boast his pride,
Was in his stricken mother-land,

That could but bless and bid him go,
Because no crust was in her hand
To stay her children's need. We know
The mystic cable sank too deep
For surface storm or stress to strain,

Or from his answering heart to keep
The spark from flashing back again!
Think of the thousand mellow rhymes
The pure idyllic passion-flowers,
Wherewith, in far gone, happier times,
He garlanded this South of ours.
Provençal-like, he wandered long,

And sang at many a stranger's board
Yet 'twas Virginia's name that poured
The tenderest pathos through his song.

We owe the poet praise and tears,

Whose ringing ballad sends the brave, Bold Stuart riding down the years

What have we given him? Just a grave!

THERE'LL COME A DAY

There'll come a day when the supremest splendor
Of earth, or sky, or sea,

Whate'er their miracles, sublime or tender,
Will wake no joy in me.

There'll come a day when all the aspiration,
Now with such fervor fraught

As lifts to heights of breathless exaltation,
Will seem a thing of naught.

There'll come a day when riches, honor, glory,
Music and song and art,

Will look like puppets in a worn-out story,
Where each has played his part.

There'll come a day when human love, the sweetest Gift that includes the whole

Of God's grand giving-sovereignest, completest— Shall fail to fill my soul.

There'll come a day-I shall not care how passes
The cloud across my sight,

If only lark-like, from earth's nested grasses,
I spring to meet its light.

WILLIAM CAMPBELL PRESTON

[1794-1860]

W

FRANCIS PRESTON VENABLE

ILLIAM CAMPBELL PRESTON was born in Philadelphia, December 27, 1794. His father was at that time a member of Congress from Virginia. His paternal grandfather was Lieutenantcommandant of Augusta County, Virginia, during the Revolution, and of the militia of western Virginia from the Blue Ridge to the Ohio. His mother was Sarah Buchanan Campbell, daughter of General William Campbell, of King's Mountain fame, and a niece of Patrick Henry. His father, General Francis Preston, was in command of a regiment of Virginia troops during the War of 1812, and after that war was for several years in command of the Virginia militia. General Preston was regarded as one of the ablest speakers of the Virginia delegation and was one of its leaders during his two terms in Congress. His ability and attractive qualities won for him the lasting friendship of such men as Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and others. He possessed large estates in Botetourt and Washington counties, Virginia, his wife also inheriting large properties.

The Prestons were all large men, over six feet in height, of fine presence, great courtesy, and pleasing address. They had many connections and friends, so that young William grew up in the midst of refined surroundings, tenderly reared by his gracious and beautiful mother. His early education was at the hands of tutors who lived with the family. His first teacher was an Irishman named Byrnes, who for forty-four years taught successive generations of the children of the family the rudiments of reading and ciphering. He was followed by a strange genius, of whose past little was known except that he had been educated for the ministry, but had become an actor, and later a soldier in the army of General Wayne.

The association with this teacher was close and intimate and must have had great influence in molding the tastes and developing the mind of young Preston, of whose training he took entire charge. They rode, walked, and sat together, and slept in the same room. They read together most of the Latin classics and many of the English, his father having a fine library. And so, at fourteen years of age, he was prepared to enter college. He first entered Washington College, but remained there only a few months, as, on account of some slight hemorrhage, his parents decided to send him for a while

to the far South. Mounted on horseback, and with a negro servant to wait on and care for him, this mere boy began his long and lonely ride. In passing through Columbia, South Carolina, he met several young men who had come up from Charleston to enter South Carolina College, and was persuaded to end his journey and enter college with them. This he did, entering as a sophomore in December, 1809, a few days under fifteen years of age. He was graduated with distinction in 1812. While in college he won much reputation as a speaker, the college life and training of the day offering little other opportunity for attaining distinction. His graduating speech on "The Life and Character of Jefferson" made a fine impression and promised much for the future.

After leaving college, he visited Richmond, making the acquaintance of some of the leading public men of the day. Going then to Washington, he became for a time an inmate of the home of President Madison. Becoming wearied of the social life of the capital, he withdrew after the winter to his home in Virginia, entering the law office of William Wirt in Richmond the following winter. The time seems to have been spent to little profit. The young set with which Preston was thrown was fast and not much to his liking, and his mere presence in a famous and busy lawyer's office did not mean much systematic study.

According to the educational system of the day for those who could afford it, the next step was travel, and for Preston this meant first a trip which would give him a better knowledge of his own country, and then travel in Europe. The mode of travel in those days afforded an excellent opportunity for becoming well acquainted with the country. Provided with a couple of horses and a servant, he rode some four thousand miles through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. As he writes of it himself: "The ride was solitary, through forests and prairies. It gave occasion for much musing and reveries-not unimportant circumstances in the education of a youth-while the body was hardened by the exercise and exposure, and the mind habituated to self-dependence." This was the West of that time (1816), thinly settled and with much of the social characteristics of pioneer days. St. Louis he found overflowing with the emigrants then flocking toward the ever-receding frontier.

As a guest of Governor Clark at St. Louis, he had ample opportunity not only to study the local conditions, but to observe the Indians who came to consult with the Governor, whose jurisdiction covered many tribes and extended to the Rocky Mountains. The Indians were encamped about the town in every direction, but were well-behaved, as they held the "White Chief" in great awe. During

Preston's stay a council of pacification was held, which impressed the traveler so greatly that his account of it written some forty years afterward was full to the minutest details. After a stay of several weeks in St. Louis, he began his return journey, passing through Vincennes, Cincinnati, and Chillicothe, and reached home after an absence of five months.

When the spring of 1817 came, letters of introduction were secured from Jefferson, Monroe, and others, and after a short stay in New York young Preston sailed for England. In Liverpool he made the acquaintance of Washington Irving, who had met with serious financial reverses and now found it necessary to turn to literature for a profession and means of support. With Irving he journed through Wales and Scotland and they formed a strong and lasting friendship. Irving gave him a note of introduction to Thomas Campbell, whom he visited in London, and with whom he had a most pleasant intercourse. Through Campbell, he made the acquaintance of Sir Walter Scott-an acquaintance which he regarded as constituting an era in his life.

In France he spent much time in a close study of Talma, the most noted actor then upon the French stage. This was a part of his preparation in voice and action for his purposed career as a lawyer. His study of the languages, countries, and peoples, in France, Switzerland, and Italy, was also a part of this training. After a number of months spent upon the Continent, he returned to Edinburgh and attended in the University there courses of lectures upon law. In 1819 he came back to the United States, and was admitted to the Bar in Virginia in 1820. But as both he and his wife, formerly Miss Maria Coalter, preferred living in Columbia, South Carolina, where they had first met, he moved there in 1822 for the practice of his profession. In the fall of that year he was appointed a trustee of the college from which he had been graduated only ten years before, and for many years he served as president of this board. He formed a partnership with David J. McCord, and was at once introduced into a large practice, in which he bore himself with great distinction. He was employed in several cases of contested elections before the State Legislature. He made an able plea, which won many encomiums, in the case of Asa Deloisier, and in the case of Geddes and Crafts before the Senate, he bore himself with spirit and ability. In 1828 he defended Judge James in his impeachment trial before the Senate with touching appeal and rare eloquence. One of the judges of the Court of Appeals declared. his plea to be "unrivaled in argument and eloquence." As a criminal lawyer his pleadings and defences were spoken of as unsurpassed for tact and eloquence.