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.
II. THE LOG-BOOK* OF A RAMBLER 1828
In the early part of last year I was awaiting in Rotterdam the arrival of a friend from England;** and as some untoward circumstances had occurred to detain him beyond the appointed time, I had abundant opportunity to domesticate in the family of mine host of the Boar’s Head. Do not suppose from the fact of my being thus enfoncé that I shall gratify either your gossiping disposition or your love of personalities by any little detail of family failings from which the houses of the great are not always free. No: though the literary world does not want for instances of this practice, I shall abstain, and confine myself merely to such a delineation of the outward man as may serve to make you acquainted with him.
* This account of his wanderings in Germany was written by
Lever in 1829-30. The original MS. of ‘The Log-Book’ was
recently presented to the Royal Irish Academy by Mr C.
Litton Falkner. The principal portion of the Log was printed
at intervals in ‘The Dublin Literary Gazette’ during the
year 1830.—E. D.
** John Maxwell, a companion of Lever, to whom many
references are made in the course of his correspondence with
Alexander Spencer.—E. D.