Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Becollections of Lever by his Amanuensis, Mr. Stephen Pearce—"St. Patrick's Eve "—" The O'Donoghue "—He again threatens to tear up the roots which his life had sown in the soil of Ireland. It was about this time that Mr. Stephen Pearce, now a distinguished portrait painter in London, acted as amanuensis for Lever, just as George Huntly Gordon did for Scott; and following the example of Mr. Gordon, who communicated to Mr. Lockhart what he knew, Mr. Pearce has furnished us with some recollections qf his Chief. These extend from October, 1844, to September, 1846, and also embrace some reminiscences of the years 1848—9. " In the autumn of 1844 I went to Ireland, and stopped with some friends of the Right Hon. J. W. Croker, to whom he had given me a letter of introduction, and for whom I had just previously in England copied the portrait of Miss Croker, by Sir Thomas Lawrence. To my surprise, I found that their grounds adjoined those of Charles Lever, and being one of his most enthusiastic admirers, Mrs. Ellis soon introduced me at Templeogue House. A mutual regard and affection at once sprang up between Lever and myself, and a long visit only augmented this friendship. I there painted his portrait,MR. PEARCE'S RECOLLECTIONS. 79 given afterwards to his brother ; I also painted a picture of his study, with its ancient oak, with a back view of Lever himself sitting over the fire; also another small picture of the quaint old Dutch waterfall in front of the house, falling over a series of wide steps, with some fine old elm trees, the remains in years past of an ambitious avenue. Templeogue House, at the time I speak of, belonged to the Domville family, and had, I think long previously, been the residence of Lord Santry: in size, no doubt, it had been considerably r...