time. Her excellent Lord removed sometime ago, first selling his land, to Richmond. "You tell me you are under some expectation of purchasing a Virginia estate. But some more agreeable ideas will I fear call you off and deprive us of you. Miss Dandridge is no more! (i. e.) she a few months since gave herself into the arms of Gov. Henry. "Should you remain long enough upon the coast of Europe, I flatter myself we shall yet see some happy moments. You have ere this seen my Uncle : to see him will give me infinite pleasure. "Mrs. Read was well when I left home, and desires her regards to you. "Your letter was brought to me from court by Col. Fleming. He received your letter & requested me, when I wrote, to assure you he remembered you with pleasing remembrance. Adieu! May you enjoy every happiness this transitory world can afford is the wish of, My Dear Jones, Your Aff. Friend & Servt. 8th Feb. 1778." J. K. READ. We have here a glimpse of the inner man, “a nice sentiment of honour"; "the many sentimental hours which passed between us at the Grove (solitary enough)." "You tell me you are under some expectation of purchasing a Virginia estate. But some more agreeable ideas I fear will call you off and deprive us of you. Miss Dandridge is no more-She a few months since gave herself into the arms of Gov. Henry." Those dreams of 1774 and 1775-when Jones was sighing like a furnace when he was passing those sentimental hours-held in leash by a nice sentiment of honour-now faded away. It was in May, 1778, perhaps quickly after the receipt of this unhappy intelligence, that in his absence Governor Henry had supplanted him-that Jones wrote to Lady Selkirk: "Before this war began I had at an early time of life, withdrawn from the sea service in favor of 'calm contemplation and Poetic case.' I have not only sacrificed my favorite scheme of life, but the softer affections of the heart and my prospects of Domestic Happiness." The loss of Miss Dorothea Dandridge must have been severely felt. The chevalier never bought an estate in Virginia-nor did he ever seek a wife. Winning high honors in the world, he never returned to Tobago to stand his trial, but remained Jones to the end of his great career. As the wanderer under an alias confided his secret to the son, he possibly unbosomed himself also to the father; and probably it was through James Read that he became acquainted with Joseph Hewes. To Hewes he wrote in October, 1776: "I unbosom myself to you with the utmost confidence; for you have laid me under the most singular obligations, and you are indeed the angel of my happiness, since to your friendship I owe my present enjoyment as well as my future prospects." And, again, a few months later, he wrote to him: "Yet every word is dictated from a heart that esteems you with perfect gratitude." To Hewes he early confided the details of what he called the "misfortune" of his life-his killing the seaman at Tobago, his change of name, and flight. And he expected Hewes to tell them to Robert Morris. But it is to be observed that while there was this full expression of gratitude to Hewes, there is no reference, in any letter or paper, to any obligation to any other person for friendly aid or service. In 1789 Robert Burton, a delegate in Congress from North Carolina, tendered a bust of Chevalier Jones to the State of North Carolina, reciting that Jones had derived his appointment in the naval service from that State. Hewes, basing his support of Jones on superior merit alone, secured his appointment, and so the appointment was held to have been derived from North Carolina. It is further to be observed that Jones never revealed to his family the circumstances that led to his change of name and to his seeking an asylum in Virginia. Indeed in his letter to Franklin he said: "I have endeavored to watch over the happiness of my poor relations unseen. For that purpose I sent several little remittances (bills) from America in trust to a very worthy friend of mine, Captain Plaince of Cork, to be applied for their use without their having the pain of knowing from whence." Apparently for a period he effaced himself and sought to pass from the knowledge of his family as well as of the world, except perhaps of a few trusted friends in whom he chose to confide. And he did this so successfully that the author of his "Memoirs" says "Tradition is silent on the subject" of his change of name. Many years later, in the absence of knowledge of the facts, various surmises were made to account for the change of name to Jones. It was conjectured that it was out of gratitude to some member of the extensive Jones family; and in course of time these surmises came to be regarded as traditions among those who felt an interest in them. But the man himself, who was so profuse in expressions of gratitude to Hewes, left no sign of obligation to any member of the Jones family. The earliest of these surmises was to the effect that William Paul had taken the name of Jones because a planter of that name had given him a plantation in Virginia; and that John Paul succeeded to the estate and in gratitude likewise assumed the name. But William Paul never received such an estate, never assumed the name of Jones, died as he lived, William Paul, and left his entire estate to a sister in Scotland. A later conjecture was that John Paul derived the name Jones from a wealthy and influential resident of Halifax in North Carolina,-Willie Jones. It has long been a legend, cherished in the vicinity, that Willie Jones entertained John Paul at his residence, "The Grove," near Halifax, North Carolina, and that there in the society of the attractive and elegant Mrs. Jones, the rough sea captain received the fine polish that distinguished him in his subsequent career. But the land on which the "Grove" mansion stood belonged to Joseph Montfort who owned it at his death in 1776. About the time of Colonel Montfort's death, Willie Jones married his daughter, Mary, and he became possessed of this tract of Montfort land after his marriage; and subsequently he erected the "Grove" mansion on it. The deed from Henry Montfort, son and devisee of Joseph Montfort, conveying this tract to Willie Jones, was executed in 1785, and is recorded in Book 15, in the records of Halifax County. So there was neither the "Grove" mansion nor a Mrs. Jones, at Halifax, at the time of John Paul Jones' arrival on the continent-nor indeed until some years afterwards. In his letter to Franklin, Captain Jones says that he left Tobago "incog." and that when he took service in the Navy his friends "advised him to remain incog." The conclusion is irresistible that on his flight he assumed an alias to conceal his identity, and that he maintained that alias up to the time of his appointment, and then on the advice of friends he still maintained it. As at that period he was Jones, so at the beginning of the "incog," he had the same alias. And if there was about this period any change in his disposition and manner, any revelling in sentiment, possibly it was through the softening influence of his new-born affection for the lovely Miss Dorothea, for it is an old saying that sometimes love works wonders. The Poetry of Louis Untermeyer H. HOUSTON PECKHAM Five years ago, in a brief review in a Southern journal, I ventured the prediction that Louis Untermeyer might one day stand as the most considerable American poet since the passing of the famous mid-nineteenth-century New England group. I now feel rather proud of that prediction; for among our younger bards none has grown more brilliantly or fulfilled early promise more fully than has Mr. Untermeyer. Today, although Louis Untermeyer is still a very young man-just thirty-two-and although his work has been appearing in the magazines for considerably less than a decade, he already enjoys a secure position in the front rank of American singers. This means that we need not hesitate to mention his name in the same category with such names as Edwin Markham, Robert Frost, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and George E. Woodberry. In my previous review, when I had to judge Mr. Untermeyer's work solely upon the merits of his earliest slender collection, "First Love," and a few scattered magazine pieces, I remarked three salient Untermeyer qualities: spontaneity, melody, and clear-cut philosophy. And three greater essentials of first-rate poetry it would be difficult to find. Note the delightful verve and tunefulness with which he begins "First Love": The linnet is tuning her flute, The bees are beginning to swarm, I am part of the lyrical strife, I am one with the voices that sing- While even the stones feel a hunger for life An equally winsome bit of lyrical rapture is the following piece from the same volume. No wonder Jessie B. Rittenhouse gave this a place in her "Little Book of Modern Verse": |