1814-1884
[Sidenote: Coleman’s _Personal Reminiscences_.]
“On arriving at Bolton Row I was shown into a large room littered over
with books, MSS. agenda, newspapers of every description from the
_Times_ and the _New York Herald_ down to the _Police News_. Before me
stood a stately and imposing man of fifty or fifty-one, over six feet
high, a massive chest, herculean limbs, a bearded and leonine face,
giving traces of a manly beauty which ripened into majesty as he grew
older. Large brown eyes which could at times become exceedingly fierce,
a fine head, quite bald on the top but covered at the sides with soft
brown hair, a head strangely disproportioned to the bulk of the body;
in fact I could never understand how so large a brain could be confined
in so small a skull. On the desk before him lay a huge sheet of drab
paper on which he had been writing--it was about the size of two sheets
of ordinary foolscap; in his hand one of Gillott’s double-barrelled
pens. (Before I left the room he told me he sent Gillott his books, and
Gillott sent him his pens.)
“His voice, though very pleasant, was very penetrating. He was rather
deaf, but I don’t think quite so deaf as he pretended to be. This
deafness gave him an advantage in conversation; it afforded him time to
take stock of the situation, and either to seek refuge in silence or to
request his interlocutor to propound his proposal afresh. At first he
was very cold, but at last, carried away by the ardour of my admiration
for his works, he thawed, and in half an hour he was eager, excited,
delighted and delightful.”--1856.
[Sidenote: _The Contemporary Review_, 1884.]
“The man in truth justified Lavater, for his physiognomy was noble,
and his body the perfection of symmetry and grace. Nature gave him
a forehead as high as Shakespeare’s, but broader; the mild, pensive
ox-eye so dear to the old Greek æsthetes; a marble skin, a mouth that
was sarcasm itself. His personal attractiveness was phenomenal. In any
roomful of people, however illustrious, he became involuntarily--for
he was as little self-asserting off his paper as he was dogmatic on
it--the centre. Living immersed in Bohemianism, and in the society of
a large-hearted, yet not very cultured woman, he never parted company
with his Ipsden breeding, and his natural bearing was that of one born
to command.”
[Sidenote: _Eclectic Magazine_, 1880.]
“In personal appearance Mr. Reade is tall, erect, of a commanding
presence, with a full, expressive brown eye and a noble brow. His
manner is singularly dignified without being arrogant, and in society
he sustains an enviable reputation as a conversationalist.”