29 May–15 June? 1873 • London, England (Paraphrase: Watterson 1910, 70:373, UCCL 11801)
Once in London I was living with my family at 103 Mount Street.1explanatory note Between 103 and 102 there was the parochial workhouse—quite a long and imposing building.2explanatory note One evening, upon coming in from an outing, I found a letter he3explanatory note had written on the sitting-room table and left with his card. He spoke of the shock he had received upon finding that next to 102—presumably 103—was the workhouse. He had loved me, but had always feared that I would end by disgracing the family—being hanged, or something—but the “work’us,” that was beyond him; he had not thought it would come to that. And so on through pages of horse-play: his relief on ascertaining the truth and learning his mistake—his regret at not finding me at home—closing with a dinner invitation.4explanatory note
Henry Watterson (1840–1921) was the well-known and influential editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal. He was also Clemens’s second cousin, by marriage: Clemens’s uncle James J. Lampton (the prototype of Colonel Sellers) was the son of Lewis Lampton and Jennie Morrison, whose sister Mary Morrison was Watterson’s maternal grandmother (Lampton 1990, 148). Watterson described the relationship in a 1910 reminiscence, which is also the source of his paraphrase of the present letter (the original is now lost):
Although Mark Twain and I called each other “cousin” and claimed to be blood-relatives, the connection between us was by marriage: a great uncle of his married a great aunt of mine; his mother was named after and reared by this great aunt; and the children of the marriage were, of course, his cousins and mine; and a large, varied and picturesque assortment they were. We were lifelong and very dear friends, however; passed much time together at home and abroad; and had many common ties and memories. (Watterson 1910, 372)
Watterson was born in Washington, D.C., while his father was a congressman from Tennessee. In 1858 he took a job reporting for the New York Times, but soon moved to the Washington States. During the Civil War he served in the Confederate army and edited the Chattanooga Rebel, and afterwards worked briefly on the Cincinnati Evening Times and the Nashville Republican Banner. In 1868 he became the editor of the Louisville Journal, soon to be the Courier-Journal, where he had a long and distinguished career, both as editor and owner. Watterson was known for his conviviality and conversational gifts as well as for his industry as a working journalist, and he spent much of his time traveling, both in this country and abroad, often writing political commentary for his newspaper. Although he may seem to imply that he and Clemens had known each other since childhood (“lifelong and very dear friends”), it is not certain when they first met. Their earliest known meeting was in New York, when Watterson attended the Lotos Club dinner in Clemens’s honor, early in February 1873, but Clemens’s remarks on that occasion suggest that he already knew Watterson (1 Feb 73 to Reid, n. 2click to open link). Watterson himself indicated in 1919 that “it was in the early seventies that Mark Twain dropped into New York, where there was already gathered a congenial group to meet and greet him.” This group included John Hay, Thomas Nast, William A. Seaver, John Russell Young, Whitelaw Reid, Samuel Bowles, and Murat Halstead (Watterson 1919, 1:128–29). The occasion could have occurred in December 1870, when Clemens spent a week in New York and visited John Hay and other Tribune staff members. In 1865 Watterson married Rebecca Ewing of Nashville, and by mid-1873 they had a son and a daughter: Ewing (b. 1868) and Milbrey (b. 1871) (Wall, 6–7, 23–25, 35, 38, 51, 58–59, 64–65, 70–71, 84, 116; Lampton 1990, 149; L4 , 269–70).
St. George’s Hanover Square Workhouse stood between 104 and 105 Mount Street, near the east end of Hyde Park (London Directory, 450; Weinreb and Hibbert, 529).
Clemens.
The Wattersons (with both children and a nurse) sailed from New York on the Oceanic on 10 May and arrived in London as early as 23 May, about a week before the Clemenses. Clemens left his card and this letter “not long after” the Wattersons’ arrival (Wall, 116–17)—that is, as early as 29 May (presumably his first full day in London) and probably no later than mid-June (“Passengers Sailed,” New York Tribune, 12 May 73, 2; “Ship News, London Morning Post, 23 May 73, 7).
Paraphrase, Watterson 1910, 70:373.
L5 , 372–373; Watterson: 1911, 26; 1919, 1:126–27; 1927, 612.