Charles Eliot Norton

“ To Charles Eliot Norton. Lamb House, Rye, May 4, 1902.
Dear Norton,—I hear with grief and concern that you have had a bad fall. In a letter received this morning you are described as better, so I hope it will have had no untoward consequences beyond the immediate shock. We need you long to abide with us in undiminished vigor and health. Our voyage was smooth, though cloudy, and we found Miss Ward a very honest and lovable girl. Henry D. Lloyd, whose name you know as that of a state-socialist writer, sat opposite to us, and proved one of the most "winning" men it was ever my fortune to know. ”

“ In the Charles Eliot Norton number of the “Harvard Graduates’ Magazine” commemorating his eightieth birthday, Professor Palmer, with that singular felicity which characterizes him, says of Norton: “He has been an epitome of the world’s best thought brought to our own doors and opened for our daily use.” Edith [134] Wharton with equal felicity writes from Norton’s well-known dwelling at Ashfield, whose very name, “High Pasture,” gives a signal for what follows:—
“Come up—come up ”

“ There's gray in your beard, the years turn foes,
While you must in your arm-char, and toast your toes."
I sit and dream that I hear, as of yore,
My Elmwood chimneys' deep-throated roar;
If much be gone, there is much remains ”

“ Beside her nearly always hovered a big young fellow, dark and handsome, but who did not seem very happy.
One evening she rose abruptly, and before Charles-Norton could guess her intention, she had opened the door, and was out upon the veranda, gazing toward him with eyes yet blind with the darkness. Charles-Norton did not move. They two remained thus long, she looking straight out into the void, divining perhaps—who knows?—a vague palpitant whiteness, like a soul, out there in the night; he, moving his great wings slowly and softly, while his heart within him thumped loud. ”

“ Charles-Norton sat here long, his elbow on his knees, his chin in his hand, his wings drooping behind, along the perpendicular smoothness of the rock, and pondered his happiness. A profound satisfaction was within him; it was as if his blood, at last, were flowing submissively along a great cosmic stream, to some eternal behest. After a time, he rose a-tip-toe, like a diver above a gleaming sheet, extended his wings, and sprang. ”

“ But the youth refused to be mollified. Though [Pg 15] he said nothing more, he kept upon Charles-Norton the snarl of his pale face and at regular intervals rubbed his ribs as though they pained him exceedingly. Charles-Norton was glad to reach his station.
That morning, in his glass cage, he muddled his columns several times. He was far from an admirable accountant at his best; but this day he was what he termed "the limit." Totals fled him like birds, with a whir of wings. A sun-gleam hypnotized him once, for he did not know how long ”

“ Charles-Norton followed it with his eyes as it went winging, winging up in a series of lines, each of which ended in a droop, toward the high sky-scraper. And when his eyes reached, with the bird, the top of the building, they lit upon a cloud, a great white galleon of a cloud which, with all sails set, flanks opulently agleam with the swell of impalpable freights, went sliding by with streaming pennons, toward the West.
And Charles-Norton felt as though he were going to die. A great, sad yearning seemed to split his breast. He rose to his feet, his eyes upon the [Pg 79] cloud. ”

“ Charles-Norton liked this man; a current of comradeship always ran from him to the little figure silhouetted up against the blue. He should have liked to eat his lunch up there, side by side with this man, his legs swinging next to his, with the void beneath. And then, he thought, after lunching, he would like to stand erect, away up there, at the tip edge of one of the projecting beams; to stand there a bit, and then spring off; spring off lightly, and whiz down; down, down, down with outspread arms. ”

“ A WELSH INVITATION.
Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys' compliments to Mr. Charles Morgan, Mrs. Charles Morgan, Miss Charles Morgan, and the governess whose name Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys do not recollect, and Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys request the favour of the company of Mr. Charles Morgan, Mrs. Charles Morgan, and Miss Charles Morgan, and the governess whose name Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. Walter Norton, and Miss Sandys do not recollect, to dinner on Monday week next. Mr. Walter Norton, Mrs. ”

“ Already the man hunters were showing signs of restlessness.
“That settles it,” declared one. “The feller we're after either kept up on the high places, or else he dropped over the divide the other way. I think some of us better keep on down the road, and the others go back up to the Deacon's Trail, cross the ridge, and take down the other cañon.”
“Good! That's right!” came a chorus of approval, as the party remounted.
“See you up at Shingle,” Specimen Jones bawled over his shoulder. “If you fellers get there before I do, Josh, make yourselves at home in my cabin. ”

“ One is enough; and I cannot help that; and I must."
"Must what?" said Norton. "Help them? You cannot, Pink. It is no use for you to try to lift all New York on your shoulders. It's no use to think about it."
"I am not going to try to lift all New York," said the little girl, making an effort to dry her eyes.
"And it is no good crying about it, you know."
"No, no good," said Matilda. "But I don't know, Norton; perhaps it is. If other people cried about it, the thing would get mended."
"Not so easy as lace work," said Norton, looking at the cobweb tracery tissue before him. ”

“ Of course,” he added, seeing a knowing grin on Norton’s face, “I expected you would be suspicious–married folks have a habit of adopting a supercilious and all-wise attitude toward those of us who have been unfortunate enough to remain in a state of single blessedness.”
“Meanin’ that you’re some sore because you ain’t got hooked up yet?” grinned Norton.
“Perhaps,” laughed Hollis. “But I have been thinking seriously of trying to reach your altitude.”
“Girl willin’?” queried Norton, as they rode down through a little gully, then up to a stretch of plain that brought them to the Coyote trail. ”

“ He seized the pick and drove it heavily into the bottom of the pit. Then instantly all else was forgotten, for it did not yield. He twisted it backward and forward until it was released, seized his shovel and forced it through the disturbed earth, while the girl leaned forward on hands and knees. He threw the earth away rapidly, exposing a log, earth-rotted, then by its side another and yet another. He threw the shovel down and looked up at her, exulting.
“Well, Edith,” he said, suppressing his excitement and gratification, “it looks to me as if you had found the old Bonanza shaft.” ”

“ Norton laughed indulgently. “I reckon I won’t consider that you’re trying to slight me,” he returned. “I know exactly how you feel; that sort of thing comes over everybody who comes to this country–sooner or later. Generally it’s later, when a man has got used to the silence an’ the bigness an’ so on. But in your 69 case it’s sooner. You’ll have to have it out with yourself.”
His voice grew serious. “But don’t go ridin’ too far. An’ keep away from the river trail.”
In spite of his ready acquiescence he sat for some time on his pony, watching Hollis as the latter urged his pony along the ridge. ”

“ According to Samuel Norton [q. v.] , Thomas Norton was a member of Edward IV's privy chamber, was employed by the king on several embassies, and shared his troubles with him when he fled to Burgundy. The old house in Bristol remained in the possession of the family till 1580, when Sir George Norton, grandson of Thomas the alchemist, sold it to the Newton family. The Nortons afterwards resided at Abbots Leigh in Somerset.
Norton probably studied alchemy under Sir George Ripley [q. v.] At the age of twenty-eight he visited Ripley, and entreated to be taught the art. ”

“ Norton had marvellously beautiful and expressive eyes, such as one seldom meets thrice in a life. As a harp well played inspires tears or the impulse to dance, so her glances conveyed, almost in the same instant, deep emotion and exquisite merriment. I remember that she was much amused with some of my American jests and reminiscences, and was always prompt to respond, eodem genere. ”

“ You go back and tell the fellers that sent you that all I ask is to be left alone ter gyard what’s my own. It’s mine, and they ain’t nobody at all can take it away from me without a fight.’
“Well, I didn’t quite know what to do. I was so surprised like. I didn’t even have a shootin’ iron on me, and I saw he meant business. I tried to argue with him. No good! Uncle Bill is gone loco! And the hell of it is that I ain’t got no use for that old scoundrel Newport, and that I wouldn’t hurt Old Harmless for all California, because I like him, and—yet—I’m sheriff. ”

“ The C.M.S. Children's Home at Limpsfield, the Royal Normal College for the Blind at Norwood, the County Courts at Williton, Dunster, and Long Ashton in Somerset, and the High Cross at Bristol were also Norton's work.
Norton died on 10 Nov. 1904, and was buried at Bournemouth. He married in 1857 Helen Mary, only daughter of Peter Le Neve Aldous Arnold, by whom he had eight daughters and two sons. The younger son, Mr. C. Harrold Norton, succeeded to his father's practice.
[The Builder, lxxxvii. 526; R.I.B.A. Journal, vol. xii. 3rd series, p. 63; information by Mr. C. Harrold Norton.] ”

“ To the end of his life Norton wrote long letters to ‘The Times’ on his favourite themes of social reform, education, and colonial affairs. He was no brilliant writer nor speaker, and was reckoned by political colleagues to be tenacious and outspoken to the verge of obstinacy and bluntness, but his views were enlightened, generous, and far-seeing, and they influenced the progress of public opinion. A skilled musician and a competent art critic, Norton died at Hams Hall on 28 March 1905, and was buried in the family vault in Lea Marston Church. ”

“ O Norton, I have found something else that wants money."
"Money! I dare say," said Norton. "Everything wants money. What is it, Pink? It isn't Lilac lane, anyhow."
"No, Norton; but worse."
"Go on," said Norton. "You needn't stop and look so.I can stand it. What is it?"
Matilda dropped her lace for the minute, and told her walk and visit of Sunday afternoon. As she told it, the tears gathered; and at the end she dropped her face upon her knees and sobbed. Norton did not know what to do.
"There's lots of such places," he said at last. "You needn't fret so. This isn't the only one." ”

“ The prospector rode with his head down, like one disgraced, declining to converse. Neither Barnes, his daughter, nor Tom ventured questions after the first rebuff. Behind them, gloating to himself, came Specimen Jones. The strain and anxiety were over for some of them; for others merely in abeyance. It was not until they came to the turn of the Lady Edith Trail that the prospector pulled his horse to a halt and handed Barnes the folded paper he took from his pocket. ”

“ Norton's reputation for truth is very good; that he is a man of high character for truth, and entitled to be believed whether he speaks under the obligation of an oath or not. The late Postmaster General, Hon. Horatio King, not only sustains Mr. Norton as a man of good reputation for truth, but expressly corroborates his testimony, by stating that in March last, about the 4th of March, Mr. Norton told him the same fact to which he swears here: that a man came into his room under excitement, alarmed his sister, was followed out by himself, and went down stairs instead of going up ”

“ Norton landed about 12 Aug. 1657 at Rhode Island, and at once proceeded to the colony of Plymouth. He was arrested on a vague charge of being an extravagant person, ‘guilty of divers horred errors,’ and detained some time without examination. Upon presenting a paper setting forth his purpose in coming, and requiring that he be ‘quickly punished or cleared,’ he was brought before the magistrates, and the governor, Thomas Prince, commenced an attack on what he alleged to be quaker doctrines, which Norton answered. ”

“ He wished to talk with his partner alone, and confide to him his hesitancy. He was glad when the ordeal was over, and they walked, Barnes, the prospector, and Specimen Jones leading the horses, up to the place where the trail debouched into the road, while Edith traveled by his side. He was absorbed in his problem, and bewildered by all that had so rapidly arrived at culmination. His partner's voice with its quiet drawl, the occasional interjections of Specimen Jones, and the steady comments of Frank Barnes, all walking ahead, did no more than deflect him from his train of thought. ”

“ And the question is, what ought we to do for them?"
"You can't do much," said Norton. "You can make yourself poor, easy enough. Then you'll expect Judy and me to take care of you."
"Are you afraid of that, Norton?" said Matilda laughingly.
"No, Pink, I am not," said Norton; "but you and Davy are just in the way to get into trouble. There's no bottom to New York mud."
"Norton," said David, "will you grant that we ought to do in this matter as the word of God says?"
"It don't say we are to make fools of ourselves," Norton responded.
"Yes it does," said Matilda quickly. ”

“ And tell me—is this the gentleman who took the contract for making Mrs. Norton happy?"
"I—I can't come in," she said, blushing. She seemed to wish to avoid him. "Yes, that is Mr. Norton." She came nearer the easel, and smiled at the late lamented's tonsorial crown. ”