hand, a better authority,—John Gibson Lockhart,—speaks of the widow of his friend as "a most respectable gentlewoman;" nor did he, it is well to add, relax his exertions on her behalf, till he had secured for her "comfortable quarters in Bath," where she survived till 1859.[1] Of the children so loved, the only son received a cadetship in the East Indies from Sir Robert Peel's last government; one daughter died young; and a second married Mr. P. Scott, H.E.I.C.S,, who is, I think, known as a writer of verses.
It may be pretty safely assumed that "Charlie Shandon," of Pendennis, was intended as a portraiture of Maginn,—correct, doubtless, in many respects, but cruel, cynical, Thackerayish!
An adequate life of Maginn would be an interesting work, and could not fail to throw much light upon the journalistic and serial literature of his brief period. What has become of the materials, which, it was understood, the late Thornton Hunt, a man in every way fitted for the performance of this desiderated task, had been long employed in bringing together? As to republication of the works themselves, the booksellers seem to have in view the failure which attended Maginn's own attempt to bring into collected form his scattered contributions to periodical literature. The Magazine Miscellenies, to which I have referred as a last link in the author's chain of misfortunes, are so rare that twenty years' search among the London bouquinistes will hardly result in the recovery of an odd number or two. Mr. W. Carpenter is fortunate in possessing nine,—probably all published,—the contents of which he gave in Notes and Queries (First Series, vol. ii. p. 13, 1850). Almost equally difficult of procuration is the Transatlantic collection of Maginn's writings, published in New York, under the editorship of J. Shelton Mackenzie, LL.D., a review of which will be found in the Gentleman's Magazine, for June, 1859. What have become of the collectanea of Mr. Tucker Hunt (the brother of F. Knight Hunt, author of the Fourth Estate, etc.), which we were led to believe would some day see the light? Surely the time has arrived when some enterprising publisher would find his account in collecting and giving forth, if not a complete,—this I am afraid is impossible, not only from the vast mass of material, but the death of those who possessed knowledge to discriminate,—at least a partial gathering of Maginn's fugitive and scattered pieces. Surely a selection would sell; and if judiciously made would still serve to hand down to later ages a portraiture of the man,—the extent and profundity of his learning, the brilliancy of his wit, the richness of his humour, the versatility of his genius,—and vindicate his claim to a proximate niche in the temple of fame with the great foregone masters in his own peculiar line of writing,—with Lucian, with Aristophanes, with Rabelais, and with Swift.
IX.-CROFTON CROKER.
It has been suggested that "Crofty" was an "original nursling of the Fairies"; but whether Cluricaune, Phooka, or Lepricaune is left to conjecture. This from his exiguity of bulk,—Maginn gives him 4 feet o inches of height, and 7¾ stone of weight,—but what matters bulk or
- ↑ Illustrated News, June 11th, 1859.
