Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

LECTURES.
him, when he rose, and cocking his hat defiantly, held up
his clenched fist, and looking very fiercely, stalked out of
the room with a great noise; and I think I was not out
of order when I said: “ If the doctrine of the transmi¬
gration of souls should be true—that when one man died,
his soul passed into the body of another man just born—
my opinion would be, that when that man was born,
nobody died.”
On the 25th of July a farewell “fete” was given at
Hartwell House, the seat of John Lee, Esq., LL.D. Hon.
Horace Greeley was present as an invited guest. The
Friday before I had attended a concert at Surrey Gardens,
concluding with a display of fire-works. After the concert
I was accosted, to my surprise, with “Gough, are you
going up there to see the fizz-bangs?” I turned, and saw
Mr. Greeley. He called on us, and was invited by the
“ League” Committee to attend the fete.
“Hartwell House” has its historical associations. It
was erected by Sir Thomas Lee in 1570, and was one of
the old baronial mansions celebrated for hospitality and
good fare. It is a fine specimen of an English mansion of
the olden time. Paintings by the best masters, statuary
by the first artists, cabinets of minerals of almost priceless
value, Egyptian antiquities, an immense library, with the
most rare and costly curiosities,—are full of interest to the
visitor. The family chapel contains, over the communion
table, the Lee bearings and crest, with the shields of
Lee, Hampden (the great John), and Harcourt. It was
at Hartwell House that Louis XVIII. of France, with
two hundred followers, lived when an exile, allowed by
the British Government £20,000 per year. The then
owner, Sir George Lee, being a bachelor, and not caring
to live there, rented it to the ex-king and his court for
£500 per year. Here he was visited by princes and