pinch punch first of the month (a capharnaum of miscellany)

on june 30th 1925 professor tinker and a former yale classmate of his, the US consul general to the newly founded republic of ireland charles hathaway, were invited to tea at malahide castle just outside dublin, with james boswell talbot and his wife, the heirs of the biographer james boswell.

professor talbot's book - the letters of james boswell (1924) had been published and a letter of his in the times in search of more of boswell's papers had yielded an anonymous tip off indicating the talbots and malahide castle. 

professor talbot was rebuffed in his attempts to buy the papers by a suspicious family (boswell was something of a rake and the papers revealed that). one colonel isham eventually succeeds and in 1937 while making a personal search of the castle finds more papers. in 1940 while the castle is being cleared out to create room for wartime food storage yet more papers are discovered. later, on the death of lord talbot, still more papers were discovered. 

as christopher morley puts it in his preface,

'to a relic-destroying and apartment-living generation these repeated discoveries may seem beyond belief. yet they happened. malahide is an ancient moated castle with stone turrets and battlements; and in such a sprawling structure there are always innumerable garrets, cellars, cupboards, ancient chests, and similar depositories for any plunder that one wants to put out of sight.'

further papers of boswell's were found in further castles - professor claude colleer abbot finds 1600 letters manuscripts and documents from johnson, boswell and their friends in fettercairn house near aberdeen. a capharnaum of miscellany as christopher morley puts it. 

one snowy and silent night professor abbot is working alone on boswell's papers at fettercairn house when a strange stately tune (like rameau) begins to be heard. a french musical box has chosen to come alive once more. it sings and then is silent. 

and thus we know (from boswell's london journal 1762 to 1763) that on 1st july 1763 johnson, boswell and goldsmith ate and drank at the mitre pub on fleet street. 

and thus it is saved from annihilation's waste. 

horsemouth's dad claims the horsemouth himself gave him the book. (horsemouth discovered it while he was doing some re-shelving). horsemouth has no memory of this. he did however use a quotation from the 16th july 1793 once ('he advised me to keep a journal...'). horsemouth has been tempted to read it by diana athill's praise for boswell.

yesterday horsemouth opened up the abbey. he was not needed to close it up as there was some kind of musical event going on. he does not know if he is required to open it up again this morning but he will go down anyway (it is a pleasant walk). yesterday his dad was out picking fruit and indeed used the exercise bike. horsemouth had a plan to go out and do some scything but instead stayed in and re-arranged the conservatory (including doing the re-shelving).