With that heroic heedlessness which distinguished him throughout his
career, Charles Lever allowed ‘Men of the Time’ to state that he was
born in 1809. The late W. J. Fitzpatrick, when he was engaged (thirty
years ago) upon his biography of Lever, found it difficult to obtain
accurate information concerning the birth-date of the Irish novelist.
The records of his parish church--St Thomas’s, Dublin--were searched
unavailingly. Finally Dr Fitzpatrick decided to pin his faith to a
mortgage-deed (preserved in the Registry Office, Dublin), in which it is
set forth that certain “premises”--a dwelling-house, outhouses, yard,
and garden--situated at North Strand* are leased of 1802 to James Lever
for the term of his life and the lives of his sons, John, aged thirteen
years, and Charles James, aged three years.
* Dr Fitzpatrick, in his ‘Life of Lever,’ declares that the
name “North Strand” was changed to “Amiens Street” after the
treaty.
A correspondent points out to me that, according to maps of
Dublin published in 1800, the street was then called Amiens
Street, and that it derived its name from Viscount Amiens,
minor title of the Earl of Aldborough, who built Aldborough
House in the neighbourhood.--E. D.
This is dated 1809. Apart from this deed, however, there are in
existence letters written by James Lever which fix the year 1806 as
being the birth-date of his younger son. The day and the month are of
comparatively little importance, but it is interesting to note that here
also is there cloudiness. Dr Fitzpatrick was satisfied that the 31st of
August was the day. For this he had the authority of Charles Lever
himself: in one of his moments of depression he expressed a wish that
August had only thirty days; he would then have been saved from the wear
and tear of an anxious life. But James Lever speaks of September as
being the month in which his famous son was born; and in 1864 the
novelist, writing on the 2nd of September, says that his
birthday--presumably the previous day--“passed over without any fresh
disaster.” Possibly there may have been a dispute in the family circle
as to the exact hour,--the birth may have occurred “upon the midnight.”
The year of Charles Lever’s birth is unquestionably 1806; the place, No.
35 Amiens Street (formerly North Strand), Dublin.* The house in which he
was born was subsequently converted into a shop. At the suggestion of Dr
Fitzpatrick, a tablet was inserted in the front wall of this building,
bearing the name and the dates of the birth and death of Charles James
Lever.* Recently, in making railway extensions in the neighbourhood, the
house was demolished. A railway bridge spans Amiens Street at the place
where No. 35 was situated.
* ‘The Irish Builder’ published in 1891 a long letter from a
correspondent who professed to have been a companion of
Charles Lever. It is mentioned here only to point to the
peculiar mistiness which obscures many important facts in
the early life of a man whose father was a popular and
prosperous citizen of Dublin, and who was himself one of the
best known of the men who nourished in the Irish capital
about half a century ago.--E. D.
In this letter it is asserted that the author of ‘Harry Lorrequer’ was
born in Mulberry Lodge, Philipsburgh Lane, but the communication, while
chronicling some undoubted facts, is so full of obvious and absurd
blunders that it cannot be considered seriously.
* It has been suggested that Lever was named after Charles
James Fox, who died in September 1806, but it is more likely
that his Christian names were those of his uncle and his
father.--E. D.
In addition to the perplexity about the birth-date of the author of
‘Harry Lorrequer,’ and to the absence of any official record, it is not
easy to arrive at satisfactory conclusions concerning his ancestry. A
pedigree furnished by a relative of Charles Lever traces the family to
one Livingus de Leaver, who flourished in the twelfth century, but some
difficulties seem to arise when the eighteenth century is reached. In
the Leaver (or Lever) line there are many men of distinction. In 1535
Adam de Leaver’s only daughter married Ralph Ashton (or Assheton),
second son of Sir Ralph Ashton of Middleton, Kent, endowing her husband
with an agnomen as well as with an estate, the Ashtons thenceforward
styling themselves Ashton-Levers. Another member of the Lever
family--the name was altered to Lever in the reign of Henry VI.--was
Robert, who was an Adventurer in Ireland during the Cromwellian era.
Perhaps the most interesting personage in the line was Sir Assheton (or
Ashton) Lever, who flourished in the eighteenth century. This worthy
knight was born in 1729. He was the eldest son of Sir James Darcy Lever,
and when he succeeded to his estate he achieved notoriety as a collector
of “curios.” He founded the Leverian Museum, an institution devoted
chiefly to exhibits o£ shells, fossils, and birds, to which at a later
period was added a collection of savage costumes and weapons. In 1774
Sir Ashton brought his famous collection to London, and housed it in
a mansion in Leicester Square. He styled it the Holophusikon, and
advertised that his museum was open to the public daily, the fee for
admission being five shillings and threepence. In a short time Sir
Ashton discovered that his exhibition was not a financial success, and
that he himself had outrun the constable. He offered the contents of
Holophusikon to the British Museum in 1783, valuing his collection at
£53,000. The British Museum authorities declined the offer, and some
five years later the Holophusikon was advertised for sale by lottery.
Out of 36,000 tickets, price one guinea each, offered to the public,
only 8000 were sold. Eventually the museum--or what remained of it--was
bought by a Mr James Parkinson, who placed the curiosities in a building
called the Rotunda, situated at the south side of Blackfriars Bridge,
and in 1806--the year of Charles Lever’s birth--the collection was sold
by public auction, the sale lasting for sixty-five days, and the lots
numbering 7879.
Charles Lever claimed Sir Ashton* as a grand-uncle, and described him
as an “old hermit who squandered a fortune in stuffed birds, founded a
museum, and beggared his family.”
* Sir Ashton died in Manchester, eighteen years before the
final disposal of his old cariosity shop.--E. D.
The Levers seem to have fallen into narrow ways in the latter half of
the eighteenth century. The novelist’s father, James Lever, came to
Ireland in 1787. He was then about twenty-seven years of age. In his
youth he had been apprenticed to the joinery business, and he had
drifted from his native Lancashire to London. Judging him by some
letters of his which are now in the possession of Mr James Lever of
Swinton,* he was a shrewd steady young man, possessed of an affectionate
disposition and of a sub-acid humour. In Dublin he entered the
business of a Mr Lowe, a Staffordshire man, who was engaged in building
operations, and in the course of seven or eight years he was in business
on his own account, styling himself “architect and builder.” In 1795 he
married Miss Julia Candler, a member of an Irish Protestant family
who dwelt in the Co. Kilkenny, where they held land granted to their
ancestors for services rendered during the Cromwellian wars. John, the
eldest son of this marriage, was born in 1796.
* These letters were written to his brother Charles, who
resided at Clifton, near Manchester.--E. D.
In the same year James Lever was occupied in a very considerable
undertaking--the building of the Roman Catholic College at Maynooth.
His Dublin address was now Marlborough Green. The “green” was a piece
of waste ground: the existing railway terminus at Amiens Street is built
upon its site. Lever’s house faced the Green, and hard by was the famous
“riding-school” of John Claudius Beresford. Here it was that Beresford
used to exercise his yeomanry, and also, as Sir John Barrington tells
us, where he used to whip persons suspected of disloyalty in order “to
make them discover what in all probability they never knew.”
James Lever was soon in a fair way to success. He made money and saved
some of it; and, better still, prosperity did not spoil him. A few years
before the birth of his son Charles he speaks of “building two churches,
besides a vast quantity of barrack-work.” In addition to the building of
churches, colleges, and barracks, he was engaged in making alterations
in the Custom-House and in the old Parliament House when it was handed
over to the Bank of Ireland. These operations brought him into close
relationship with a variety of interesting people. He had a clear head,
a ready tongue, and a pleasant manner. The first of these gifts enriched
him; the last conduced to popularity. It is told of him that his
reputation as a clever and upright man of business and as a genial
companion caused him to be selected as an arbitrator in commercial
disputes. He held his court usually in a tavern in Capel Street, and
here after supper he heard the evidence and delivered the verdict. He
demanded no fee for his services, and his method of apportioning costs
was truly Leverian. The victor was mulcted for the price of the supper.
The man who lost his cause could eat and drink himself into contentment
at the cost of his successful adversary.
James Lever sent his second son to school when the youth was only four
years of age. Charles’s first preceptor was one Ford, who had a habit
of flogging his pupils with almost as much ferocity as John Claudius
Beresford flogged the children of the larger growth at his Marlborough
Green Academy. Ford’s school was broken up suddenly. The father of a
child who had been subjected to a severe handling paid a surprise visit
to the school, and, seizing the offending birch-rod, he flogged the
pedagogue with such violence that Mr Ford “rushed into the street,
yelling.” After this _débâcle_young Lever was introduced to Florence
McCarthy, whose school was situated at 56 William Street. McCarthy is
said to have been “an accomplished man with a fine presence.” He had
been a student at Trinity College, but as he belonged to the proscribed
faith he was debarred from taking a scholarship. It speaks volumes for
James Lever’s liberal-minded-ness that he should have sent his son to
a school presided over by a Roman Catholic. The future author of ‘Harry
Lorrequer’ is described at this period as being a handsome fair-haired
boy, noted for his tendency to indulge in practical joking.
Writing to his brother in Lancashire during the year 1812, James Lever
says: “Charles is at school, and is full of mischief as ever you were,
and resembles you much in his tricks.” A couple of years later Mr Lever
reports Charles as “a very fine boy now--eight years old last September.
I think to make him an architect.” Possibly with a view to this, the
father took his son from Florence McCarthy’s school and sent him to the
academy of “a noted mathematician.” William O’Callaghan, of 113 Abbey
Street. Here Charles Lever met John Ottiwell, who was later to be one
of his models for Frank Webber. Ottiwell, who was some years older
than Lever, was the boyish beau-ideal of a hero: he rode, swam, fenced,
composed songs and sang them, was a clever ventriloquist, and played the
wildest of pranks.
When Lever was eleven years of age he paid a visit to his cousins the
Inneses, who lived at Inistiogue in the Co. Kilkenny. He attended
the classes of the tutor who was instructing his cousins, a Mr James
Cotterall, “schoolmaster and land-surveyor.” Cotterall was the son of
a well-to-do farmer, and had received an excellent training in Catholic
colleges in Ireland and on the Continent.
On his return to Dublin he was sent to “The Proprietary School,” Great
Denmark Street. The head of this establishment was the Rev. George
Newenham Wright, a gentleman who was almost as free with the birch as Mr
Ford had been. His suffering pupils eventually discovered a weak point
in his armour--namely, that he had broken down sadly in his examination
in the Greek Testament when seeking for holy orders. When Wright was
made aware that his pupils had heard of his deficiency in classical
knowledge he grew tamer. But though he was a bad Greek scholar and a
tyrant, the Rev. Mr Wright was by no means a bad teacher. He appears
to have had a great liking for Lever, and the youth seems to have
entertained a liking and a respect for his master. At Great Denmark
Street the pupils were coached in other matters beside classics and
mathematics. After the ordinary curriculum of the school had been
gone through, young Lever took lessons in fencing and dancing, and
won distinction in those arts. His father, writing at this period to
Lancashire, says: “Charles is still at school. I don’t know what to make
of him;... he is a very smart fellow.”
As his business grew, James Lever found himself advancing in social
paths. He was fond of good company, and of this there was a plenitude
in Dublin. The commercial depression which followed the union of the
parliaments, though it had undermined many of the city’s sources of
wealth, tarnished its brilliancy, and destroyed its life as a political
capital, had not succeeded in crushing the high spirits of the citizens.
Many of the guests who enjoyed the hospitality of James Lever had
suffered sadly from the political and other changes which had occurred
in the early years of the nineteenth century, but they could still enjoy
a good dinner and a good story, and could appreciate a good host. Much
of the conversation which took place at Lever’s supper or dinner-parties
was of the brilliant era immediately preceding the Union. Tales of
the Parliament House, of its orators, its wits, its eccentrics;
reminiscences of the clubs, anecdotes of duelling and drinking and hard
riding, went the round of the table; and as a mere child the future
author of ‘Charles O’Malley’ listened now and again to hilarious gossip
which he moulded later into hilarious fiction.
Mrs Lever was an excellent housewife,--very tidy, very orderly, and
deeply devoted to her husband and to her two children. She is described
as a pleasant coquettish little woman, whose sole desire was to make
every one in her circle happy. Charles Lever’s early days were spent in
a bright and cheerful home--an inestimable blessing to any youth, but
especially to an imaginative boy. He did not stand much in awe of his
good-humoured parents: he was by no means shy of playing upon them mild
practical jokes. One of these--it was frequently repeated, yet it never
seemed to miss fire--was to read aloud the details of some wonderful
event supposed to be recorded in a newspaper, leaving his father and
mother to discover at their leisure that the wonderful event was a
coinage of Charlie’s brain.
During his schooldays he had a theatre of his own at the back of the
house: he produced stock pieces--“Bombastes Furioso” was one of his
favourites--and improvised dramas. He painted the necessary scenery,
designed the costumes, was the leading actor, and occasionally his
own orchestra. As much of his pocket-money as he could spare, after
satisfying the demands upon it for theatrical pursuits, was expended on
books--chiefly novels. In addition to this love of literature and the
drama, young Lever evinced at a very early age a fondness for military
heroes and military affairs. Occasionally military men were to be
encountered under his father’s roof, and at times the youth was to be
found haunting some convenient barrack. James Lever had expressed a
desire that his second son should become an architect, but he was not
infrequently fearful that the lad might one fine morning take it into
his wild head to seek the bubble reputation even in the cannon’s mouth.
Charles, however, decided, in his sixteenth year, that he would not
become an architect or a soldier. He was desirous of qualifying for the
medical or the legal profession; and his father, although he was anxious
that his son should take up his own business, made no protest against
the selection of a more learned avocation. On October 14, 1822, Charles
Lever entered Trinity College, Dublin,* as a pensioner, taking up his
quarters at No. 2 Botany Bay Square. His college chum was Robert Torrens
Boyle.
* Lever’s writing-table and study-chair are kept in the
librarian’s room at Trinity College. They were presented to
the University in 1874 by Lever’s eldest daughter, Mrs
Nevill--E. D.
They played almost as many pranks in Trinity as Charles O’Malley and
Webber* played there; but though he was the leading spirit in all
the mischief that was afoot, young Lever was never guilty of any
discreditable conduct or of any personal excesses. One might be led to
think, in reading his early novels, that their author had been a wild
liver; but it is stated on trustworthy authority that at no period was
he otherwise than moderate in the use of stimulants. He is described
as being, during his college era, tall, athletic, and mercurial,
with wonderfully expressive eyes, sometimes flashing fire, sometimes
twinkling with mirth. Notwithstanding his love of fun and frolic he
found time for reading--light reading as well as heavy reading. In
later years he speaks of the days when he was a freshman: “We talked of
‘Ivan-hoe’ or ‘Kenilworth,’ and I can remember too, when the glorious
spirit of these novels had so possessed us, that we were elevated and
warmed to an unconscious imitation of the noble thoughts and deeds of
which we had been reading.” This boyish enthusiasm, he goes on to
say, was better than the spirit of mockery engendered by the insensate
craving for stimulus which was produced by the reading of sensation
stories. “The glorious heroism of Scott’s novels was a fine stream to
turn into the turbid waters of our worldliness. It was of incalculable
benefit to give men even a passing glance of noble devotion, of
high-hearted courage, and unsullied purity.” His admiration of Sir
Walter Scott’s romances, and his contempt for “sensational novels,”
remained with him to the end.
* Frank Webber was an amalgam of Boyle and of John Ottiwell
(who had been the Trinity chum of Charles Lever’s brother,
John).--E. D.
Notwithstanding his tendency to play “O’Malley” pranks, young Lever was
held in as high favour by the dons as by his fellow-students. Though he
was not a hard worker yet he was by no means an idler: when he was not
absorbed in his studies he was astonishingly busy with his amusements.
His leisure hours were amply occupied--“training horses for a race in
the Phoenix, arranging a rowing match, getting up a mock duel between
two white-feathered friends, or organising the Association for
Discountenancing Watchmen.”
Even at the early period of his career--though so far he evinced no
powers of story-weaving and was not burdened with a desire “to commence
author”--he had a great love for ballads and ballad-writing. On one
occasion he attired himself as a mendicant ballad-monger, singing in
the streets snatches of political verses composed by himself.. He was
accompanied by some college friends, who luckily were at hand when
certain unpopular sentiments in his doggerels provoked a street row. It
is stated that he returned from this expedition with thirty shillings in
coppers, collected from admirers of his minstrelsy.
Charles’s brother, John, had been ordained about the time that Charles
entered Trinity, and had been sent into Connaught as a curate. Charles
paid his first visit to the West of Ireland in 1823.
He was then entering into his eighteenth year, and, according to his
brother, he was ready of speech and possessed the laughing though
deferential manner which he carried with him throughout his life. John
resided at Portumna, and he could offer his brother facilities for
fishing and shooting; moreover, he was able to give him a glimpse of the
life of the Connaught squire. Amongst the houses to which John had the
_entrée_ was Portumna Castle, then the residence of the widowed Countess
of Clanricarde, a daughter of Sir Thomas Burke, Bart., of Marble Hall.
The Countess was famed for her hospitality--famed even amongst a people
noted for their easy-going habits, for their sprightliness, and for
their unfailing courtesy to strangers. The brothers Lever were favoured
guests at Portumna Castle, and here Charles encountered people who
told him good stories of hunting, of steeple-chasing, of duelling, of
love-making, of dare-devilry, which at the time impressed him vividly:
subsequently some of this homespun was woven into his novels of the
West.
After his first few visits to the County Galway, Lever began to develop
a taste for improvising romances,--not committing them to paper, but
relating them to his college chums. “He would tell stories by the hour,”
declares one of his fellow-students, “and would so identify himself
with the events as to impart to them all the vitality and interest of
personal adventure.”
The elder Levers had now moved from the city of Dublin. On the road to
Malahide, about four miles from the city, James Lever built himself a
handsome dwelling-house which he called Moat-field. He expected that his
second son would graduate in 1826, but Charles did not obtain his B.A.
degree until the autumn of 1827. After he had “walked the hospitals” for
some time, Charles made up his mind to visit Germany and to continue
there his university career. He set out from Dublin in 1828, and under
the title of ‘The Log-Book of a Rambler’ he recorded his first
impressions of Continental life.