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of Banquo's Ghost. This was just about the time that Dr. Crawford W. Long was experimenting with etherwaves at Jefferson; but the quietus in this particular case came from Mr. Barclay himself, who wrote an apologetic letter to Mr. Wilde, explaining the whole innocent affair out of which the critics had made so much vicious capital.

In 1871 Mr. Barclay, who was then quite an old man, published under the auspices of the Georgia Historical Society an exhaustive review of the whole episode; and no one can accuse him of an unwillingness to render poetic justice. There are not many volumes of the work in existence; but the writer is fortunate enough to have one of these volumes, given him by Judge Richard H. Clark. It is an incident of rather singular interest that he received it on the evening before Judge Clark died; and the particular but kind-hearted old jurist went so far as to inscribe with his feeble hand upon the title-page not only the date of this generous transfer, but also the specific indications of the clock.

But the story of the poem will not be complete without an interview with Mr. Wilde himself concerning the authorship of the poem and the attitude which he assumed toward his critics when controversial tempests were ruffling the petals of his poetic rosebud.

"The lines in question," says Mr. Wilde, writing to an intimate friend, "were originally intended as part of a longer poem. My brother, the late James Wilde, was an officer of the United States army, and held a subaltern rank in the expedition of Colonel John Wil

liams against the Seminole Indians of Florida, which destroyed their towns and stopped their atrocities. When James returned he amused my mother, then alive, my sister and myself with descriptions of the orange-groves and transparent lakes, the beauty of the St. Johns river and of the woods and swamps of Florida. I used to laugh and tell him I'd immortalize his exploits in an epic.

"Some stanzas were accordingly written for the amusement of the family, and read in the home circle. But, alas! poor James was killed in a duel. His violent and melancholy death put an end to my poem; the third stanza of the first fragment being all that was written afterwards. The verses, particularly "The Lament of the Captive,' which formed an incidental feature of the unfinished poem, were read also by some intimate acquaintances, among the rest, the present Secretary of State (Mr. Forsyth), and a gentleman then a student of medicine, now an eminent physician of Philadelphia. The latter, after much importunity, procured from me for a lady in that city a copy of 'My Life is Like the Summer Rose,' with an instruction against publicity which the lady herself did not violate, but a musical composer, to whom she gave the words for the purpose of having them set, did; and they appeared over my name, with lengthy addition, much to my dismay.

"Still I never avowed them; and though continually republished in the newspapers with my name, I maintained that newspapers were no authority and refused to answer further."

This letter was written when the critics had commenced to dispute the authorship of the poem, which had come from his pen year's before. On examining the fragments with which "The Lament of the Captive" readily incorporates in the unfinished manuscript of Mr. Wilde, the poetic lineaments are found to be sufficiently distinct to leave no doubt as to the unity of the composition.

Mr. Wilde died of yellow fever in New Orleans several years prior to the outbreak of the war, having taken up his residence in the Crescent City after leaving Georgia some time in the forties. During his residence in this State, to which he came immediately on landing in New York from Ireland, his home was in Augusta. He was an eminent advocate, full of the fire of Irish eloquence, but his claims to enduring distinction rest entirely upon his "Summer Rose." Georgia has never built him a monument. Perhaps she has thought it unnecessary; for wherever the wild rose blooms, from garden hedge or woodland solitude, it floods the air with his fragrant epitaph. The summers may come and go on the landscape, but the wild rose lingers in the heart. And, with all due respect to the shades of Alcæus, there is no leaf among all his laurels which can bloom beside this sweet wild flower of the Georgia wilderness.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Lamars.

T

HE Lamar family of Georgia is of French Huguenot origin, and, according to traditions which have been preserved in some of the lines of descent, the family escutcheon was first planted in the colony of Maryland by three brothers, John, Peter and Thomas, who fled to this country from France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. But the Maryland records show that Lamars were living in the colony long before the date of this exodus, and the probabilities are that the original immigrants, if driven out of France by religious intolerance, fled to escape the oppressions which began under Cardinal Richelieu.

As early as 1649 Lord Baltimore, an English Catholic, whose colony in the new world had been planted upon the principles of religious liberty, issued a circular to the victims of persecution on both sides of the Rhine, inviting them to join the colony of Maryland and insuring them all the rights and privileges which belonged to English subjects. Thomas and Peter Lamar first appear on the records in 1663. They must have spent some time in Virginia before crossing over into Maryland. For the certificate of nationality which they received from Lord

Baltimore recited that "Whereas Thomas and Peter 'Lamore,' late of Virginia and subjects of the crown of France," had asked leave "to inhabit this province as free denizens, therefore be it known that such leave was duly granted."

From what district in France they came does not appear from the document in question; but some ten years later John Lamar took out naturalization papers in which the official entries stated that he came from Anjou. This was probably the old ancestral home of the Lamar family.

Peter and Thomas located in what was then Calvert county, on the banks of the Patuxent river; while John, who seems to have practiced medicine in connection with his farming operations, settled at Port Tobacco, in Charles county, some miles distant.

Orthography was not an exact science in those days, and the name was variously spelled or misspelled even by the bearers themselves. It will be observed that in the certificate of nationality issued to Peter and Thomas, it was spelled "Lamore." At least ten variations have been discovered among the old files, showing the very great divergence of taste or opinion among the family members as to how the name should be lettered.

Most of the Lamars who have figured in the public life of the country are descendants of Thomas, whose will, dated October 4, 1712, shows that he left an extensive property, which was inherited by his two sons, Thomas and John. Thomas, the younger, also appears to have left an estate of considerable size, which was divided between six sons and two sons-in-law; and soon after his death three of his sons, Robert, Thomas and John, selling what lands they possessed to an old uncle on the ma

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