University of Virginia Library

XIX. The English Professors Arrive

When the report ran over the United States that numerous
English professors were to be brought in by Jefferson
to fill the different chairs in his recently finished
university, it was received in some quarters with acrid and
satiric comments. The Boston Courier had been catholic
enough in sentiment and sufficiently independent in spirit
to say that the whole country would be profited by the
addition to its citizenship of this group of foreign scholars
and scientists. Not so the Journal, of Connecticut.
The favorable remarks of its contemporary in the neighboring
State seemed to churn up all its provincial bile.
"What American," it exclaimed with unrepressed bitterness,
"can read the above notice without indignation?
Mr. Jefferson might as well have said that his taverns
and dormitories should not be built with American brick,
and sent to Europe for them, as to import a group of professors.
... Mr. Gilmer could have fully discharged
his mission, with half the trouble and expense, by a short
trip to New England." The Journal, it would seem, was
not aware that definite offers of chairs had been made to
Ticknor, of Boston, and Bowditch, of Salem, by the

Board of Visitors, at Jefferson's suggestion, and that both
had declined to accept them. The Gazette, a newspaper
published in Philadelphia, also averred that its own community
had been as much slighted as New England by this
patronage of Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Why
did not Mr. Gilmer come to the Quaker City before going
to London? Why did he not seek among its cultured
people for what he put himself to such irksome and costly
inconvenience to find among the Englishmen? "There
could be but one explanation: as Pennsylvania was barren
in stump orators and Presidents, the Virginians must have
inferred that nothing of value was brought forth on its
soil. And yet all men must know that the first physicians,
philosophers, historians, and astronomers, and
printers in American annals, had been citizens of this
State." The Gazette, in conclusion, gave further vent
to its ruffled feelings by summarily asserting that the
University of Virginia, in sending an agent to England
to obtain professors, had been guilty of one of the "greatest
insults which the American people had ever received."

As a matter of fact, the Gazette was running upon as
false a scent as the Journal, for the second professor contracted
with by the University was Dr. Cooper, who had
resided so many years in Pennsylvania that he had become
as much a congenial and loyal son of that Commonwealth
as the mayor of Philadelphia himself. It is interesting,
in further contravention, to point out that the
man invited by the Board of Visitors, at a later date,
to fill the first vacancy that occurred in the Faculty was
Dr. R. M. Patterson of that city. It is as clear as noonday
that political hostility tinged these unreasonably
adverse comments on Jefferson's choice, with its own jaundice;
but it is, however, creditable to contemporary journalism
to find that the Boston Courier was not the only

newspaper to discard party feeling. "We have heard
with pleasure," reported the New York American, "of
the arrival of Messrs. Long and Blaettermann, the professors
of ancient and modern languages in the University
of Virginia. They are well-known and highly esteemed
in England. Their talents and acquirements will, doubtless,
be highly advantageous to the cause of public instruction
in the country."

Anticipating the early arrival of the English professors,
Jefferson had, with characteristic consciousness of
small details, been uneasy on account of the very meagre
arrangements which had been made for their comfort.
He was apprehensive lest they should, in the beginning,
be forced to look for food and shelter to the coarse local
taverns, and he, therefore, endeavored to persuade one of
the persons who had rented a University hotel to move
into it at once, so as to be ready to supply the strangers
with their daily meals until they could hire cooks for
service under their own roofs. The pavilions were now
fully completed; but they were still bare of all furniture
—a deficiency that would seem to demonstrate neglect
on the part of the committee of superintendence itself,
for how could a half dozen professors, just from Europe,
be expected to acquire such indispensable articles
with any approach to the necessary dispatch? Jefferson
himself acknowledged that they could not, on the instant,
obtain "in a place of so little resource as Charlottesville
even those things that they could not a day do without,
to wit, a bed, table, and chairs." Why had not such
necessary furniture been purchased by the proctor several
weeks before their arrival? Jefferson had more
than once dwelt with complacency upon the exhilarating
influence which the University's classical architecture
would quickly throw over the minds of the foreigners;

but it might easily have been anticipated that the impressions
of beauty and nobility which that architecture was
so well calculated to produce, would be driven from their
heads as they inspected the naked walls and vacant floors
of their pavilions. It is even possible that, for the moment
at least, they would have preferred those barns
which he had deprecated so earnestly, had they but contained
a few comfortable chairs, tables, and beds. While
the pavilions and dormitories were in a finished state at
the beginning of the winter of 1824, the Rotunda was not;
and there must have been perceptible in the general aspect
of Lawn and buildings, at that time, the repelling bareness
of excessive newness, accentuated by the presence of
so few inhabitants in such extensive and imposing precincts.

Long, who was accompanied by Blaettermann, seems
to have been detained in New York, after his arrival,
by the fatigue of his voyage, although it does not appear
to have been exceptionally protracted or tempestuous.
Having brought with him letters of introduction to persons
of distinction residing in that city, he beguiled his
time very pleasantly in the society of his new acquaintances.
From that place, he dispatched his numerous
packages of books by water to Richmond, and engaged a
seat for himself in the stage for Washington. Passing
through the Capital without stopping, he halted for a
night in Fredericksburg, and while seated in the public
room of the tavern there, was spoken to by a gentleman
who resided in the town, who hospitably invited him to
his house. There, Long made his first acquaintance with
two products of Old Virginia which appear, by his own
subsequent actions, to have left a permanent impression
on his tastes,—young ladies and corn-bread. He found
the indigenous corn-cake so good that,—as he wrote his

friend and pupil, Professor Tutwiler, half a century afterwards,
—he continued to use it regularly until his return
to England, thus exhibiting a difference in palate from
his fellow aliens, who could never become sufficiently accustomed
to its flavor to eat it. The young ladies were
described by him as charming. As he carried back to
his English home a Virginian wife, the quality of the
womanhood of Fredericksburg, like that of its corn-bread,
must have been found by him, in his later observations,
to be thoroughly representative.

His journey southward over the rude, neglected roads
of the country districts caused him many painful and
jarring sensations. They were, at this season, at the
zenith of their imperfection; and the jolts which he had
to endure were recalled by him after an interval of fifty
years. He described the inns as mean in their accommodations,
and the company as congenial in quality with such
crude surroundings. The dirt, drinking, and tobacco-spitting
that degraded so many of these roadside taverns,
during that period, naturally enough were revolting to
the tastes of a refined and sensitive foreigner like the
scholarly Long.

On his arrival at the University, he drew pavilion v by
lot; and having no family, was soon able to adjust himself
to the numerous inconveniences of the place, which, at
that time, as he said, "was without inhabitants, and
looked like a deserted city." He described himself as a
man "who had a capacity to make himself happy" in any
situation,—a Virginian tavern obviously excepted,—and
it was now again searchingly tested, for he was the only
professor who was present continuously within the precincts
during the months of December, 1824, and January,
1825, and a part of the following February. With
justifiable complacency, not devoid of humor, he mentions

the fact that, when his English colleagues arrived, they
found him "eating corn-bread, and a Virginian in tastes
and habits." The subtlest proof of the truth of this
complacent assertion was that, within a few months, he
had come to be known about the University as "The
Colonel." His dependence for daily companionship
seems to have been confined at first to the families of Mr.
Brockenbrough, the proctor, and Mr. Gray, who had
rented one of the hotels. Among the members of the
latter circle was Harriet, the sister of Mrs. Brockenbrough,
and the widow of Judge Selden, of Arkansas, who
had been shot in one of the bloody duels then so common
in the social life of the South. Mrs. Selden was a
comely woman of many charming qualities, and as Long
breakfasted, dined, and supped under the Grays' roof,
he was early brought under the spell of her fascinations,
fell in love with her, and ultimately married her. The
interest which the two felt for each other was well known
to the students in attendance during the first session.
Long was light in weight and short in stature, and this
gave additional point to the couplet which the youthful
wags filched from Goldsmith to repeat in the hearing of
the embarrassed couple:

In the beginning, pavilion v, where Long found shelter,
must have offered a very slim prospect of accommodating
more than one. So extravagantly high, according to his
own description, did he discover the prices of Charlottesville
to be, that he refused to diminish the amount of his
already slender purse by purchasing many articles of furniture
there. Fortunately, he was able to procure beds,
dressing tables, and screens, by an order which he sent
to Richmond to be filled under the supervision of Colonel
Peyton. When winter had fully set in, there came on
a heavy fall of snow, which, during several weeks, cut
him off from all associations, except with his "black
friend," his faithful servant Jacob, and the family of the
Grays at his hotel. So soon as his books arrived, they
gave him occupation in the way of study and recreation
alike, during the repeated intervals of his detention within
doors by the rigorous weather. He had been hoping that
Gilmer, who was then residing in Richmond, would be
able to spend the holidays in Albemarle. The two
young men, so congenial in their natural and cultivated
tastes, seemed to have been frequently exchanging letters.
"Coming into a new country," Long wrote in January,
"and being, in some measure, unacquainted with
the customs of the place, I experienced at first some difficulties,
which you will be glad to hear are now removed.
I have been busily employed in arranging my pavilion and
making preparations for my professional duties. I am
sorry that the effects of your illness have prevented you
from coming amongst us this Christmas. Your company
would have been a valuable addition to our limited society."

Long had not been settled at the University many days
before he visited Monticello to make Jefferson's acquaintance
in person. Shown into the drawing-room by one
of the servants of the household,—no doubt with all
the elaborate politeness that distinguished the highly
trained negro butler of those times,—he had only a few
minutes to himself to examine the interesting portraits
and furniture in the apartment, before a "tall, dignified
old gentleman" entered, who, pausing an instant, looked
at the small and youthful Englishman with unconcealed
surprise. "Are you," he said, "the new professor of
ancient languages?" "I am, sir," was the reply.
"You are very young." "I shall grow older, sir."
This quiet answer caused Jefferson to say with a smile,
"That is true." They at once fell into a brisk talk on
a variety of topics, and Long was cordially invited to
dinner. Throughout the visit, Jefferson did not relax
from his habitual gravity, not to say coldness of manner,
but he treated his guest with the most friendly politeness.
"I was pleased with his simple Virginia dress," says
Long, "and with his conversation free from affectation."
This first call was several times repeated, and in the end,
as Long himself has recorded with pleasant brevity, "he
became, I thought, better satisfied with his boy professor."
And this impression was correct, for, within a few
weeks, Jefferson wrote of him to Cabell, "He appears
to be a most amiable man, of fine understanding, well
qualified for his department, and acquiring esteem as fast
as he is known."

There is no reference in Long's written recollections of
these early months to the presence of Professor Blaettermann
at the University. He seems, however, to have
been within its precincts during January,—for a few days,
perhaps; but no association between him and the young

Englishman has been traced. This may have been due
to the prejudice against Continental foreigners, or, more
probable still, to those personal qualities of this instructor,
which, throughout his sojourn in Virginia, deprived
him of even a moderate degree of influence and popularity.

As the winter of 1824–5 drew towards February without
information of the whereabouts of Key, Dunglison,
and Bonnycastle, who had sailed from London on October
26, a sharp alarm began to be felt in Virginia for
their safety. Long alone failed to share this sense of
uneasiness, although he regretted, on account of the University
and his own comfort alike, that they should have
consented to set out on their voyage in what he contemptuously
described as an "old log." This old log was the
ship Competitor. He complained that the people of
Charlottesville, "having nothing better to concern themselves
with, invented stories on this unfortunate subject."
The delay in the arrival of the Competitor was really due
to the headwinds and gales which had prevented her from
dropping from the English coast and sailing straight out
into the ocean. As late as December 5, forty days after
she had swung loose from the wharf in London, she was
still tied up in the harbour of Plymouth. This information
found its way into a newspaper published in Norfolk,
and was brought to Jefferson's attention by Cabell, who
had happened to read the item. "That they (the professors)
are safe," he replied, "raises me from the dead."
He was not only solicitous for the personal well-being of
the voyagers, but he was chafing with disappointment over
the prospect of serious delay in the inauguration of the
lectures. The enemies of the institution had already begun
to whisper in public places that this dilatoriness would
be certain to damage its hope of permanent success; and

Jefferson himself feared the same result. "We apprehend,"
he wrote Cabell in January (1825), "that the
idea of our opening on February 1 prevails so much
abroad,—although we have always mentioned it doubtfully,
—that students will assemble on that day without
the further notice promised. To send them back will be
discouraging, and to open the University without mathematics
and natural philosophy would bring on us ridicule
and disgrace."

Eight weeks had passed since December 5, the date on
which the presence of the Competitor in Plymouth harbour
was reported, and unless the voyage had been disastrous,
the ship should soon arrive in American waters.
Jefferson, aware of this, was, in consequence, kept in a
state of daily suspense. During the protracted interval
of silence, the vessel had really gone through many perils
of the seas. After it left the mouth of the Thames, a
cyclone had blown its sails to ribbons, and had they not
been rotten from long exposure to wind and water, the
terrific impact would have turned the ship over, and no
human hands could have prevented it from sinking, with
every person on board. The captain, Godby by name,
seems to have been worthy of so untrustworthy a vessel.
"Let every soul of you come on deck instantly,"
he called down to the wretched passengers, "we are all
going to the bottom." A feud soon arose between this
man and the professors. "It is a lucky thing for you,"
remarked Key to him, "that you are not in the Royal
Navy. You would have been shot long ago." Mrs.
Key, being desperately seasick, begged Godby to send the
doctor to her at once. "He can't come," was the false
reply. "He is setting Mr. Key's leg, which he has
broken by a fall."

Key and Bonnycastle, who were both deeply versed in

every branch of mathematics, were dubious about the
captain's capacity as a seaman, and in an interval of quiet
sailing, amused themselves with a trick that demonstrated
his ignorance as well as their own idleness. One day,
they asked the mate to let them know the degrees of latitude
and longitude which the ship had reached. "The
captain has ordered me not to tell you," was the reply,
"but I have not been forbidden to chalk them up." Having
thus obtained the information wanted, the two practical
jokers took a long syringe, which they had picked up
in the ship, and held it up mysteriously towards the sun,
aware all the time that the captain was intently observing
them from a distance. Lowering the syringe after a few
minutes of apparent observation, they went to the cabin
and on a table that stood directly under the skylight,
they spread out a large sheet of paper, which they began
at once to cover with columns of meaningless figures.
They noted on the sheet, as the result of their pretended
calculations, that the vessel, on that date, had arrived
at such and such latitude and longitude, a mere repetition
of what the mate had told them; and they followed this
up with the memorandum that the conclusions were
reached "in accord with Dr. Barlow's new method."
While this solemn farce was in progress, the two conspirators
were conscious that Godby had been looking
down on them suspiciously through the skylight. The
paper was left on the table, and a short time afterwards,
the captain was seen examining the figures with the closest
scrutiny. When Key and Bonnycastle inspected the log
for that day they found, to their merriment, that the
longitude and latitude of the ship's location was entered
as the mate had stated them, but with the addendum,
"calculated by me by Dr. Barlow's new method."

Beguiling the tedium of the protracted voyage with

such boyish pranks as these, which would probably have
jarred upon Jefferson's conception of professorial dignity
as much as Long's youthful appearance had done,
the three young men finally arrived at Norfolk on Thursday,
February 10 (1825), three months and a half after
the "old log" in which they sailed had dropped down the
Thames. Dunglison and Key were accompanied by their
brides; and both couples must have passed through very
tumultuous honeymoons in so rough and perilous a voyage
as the one which had just closed. The packet for Richmond
left Norfolk the next day, but the travellers, perhaps
in consequence of their recent tossings on the sea,
were unable to continue the journey so soon; and it was
not until the ensuing Tuesday that they were ready to
depart. They were met at the wharf in Richmond by
Thomas Mann Randolph, and his son, Thomas J. Randolph,
the son-in-law and grandson of Jefferson, and by
them were carried off to the home of Chapman Johnson,
a member of the Board of Visitors.

Before the party left for the University, a large number
of the principal citizens of the town were invited to
meet them at a formal reception. Though Richmond, at
that time, was a small community, it possessed, as the
capital of the State, a society of unusual culture and refinement,
which embraced the families of the most distinguished
public officials, lawyers, physicians, and merchants
in the Commonwealth. There were persons present
who had not attended such an occasion in the memory
of the younger generation. "The grave," remarked
Maria Randolph, in her lively description of the packed
assemblage, "seemed to have given up the dead, for
there came ladies whom I have never heard of being
out before for years to see the English people." Having
met Long and Blaettermann, she said that they were

inferior in attractiveness to Key, Bonnycastle and Dunglison.
Her astonishment, not to say disgust, was without
bounds when Mrs. Key and Mrs. Dunglison,—whom she
found "genteel, sensible, and quite pretty,"—confessed
that they had never heard of Byron or Scott, a statement
so incredible that it may have been intended as a gentle
British snub to the Virginian girl's enthusiasm for those
two writers of universal fame. It was a period, however,
in which the average English woman was more remarkable
for her ignorance than for her knowledge. Among
the guests at the reception was Jarvis, a painter of distinction
in those times, and he appears to have furnished
the chief amusement for the company, and in a form so
characteristic of English social entertainments, that the
English couples present must have felt very much at
home. A whisper ran through the room that Jarvis
would dance a hornpipe on the top of the piano, and the
ladies at once drew together in a crowd about the instrument.
With his brush, he had made a sailor boy
of one of his hands,—the fingers were painted to represent
a pair of loose white pantaloons, and the back, the
body of the figure; and "really," says Miss Randolph,
"the most elegant hornpipe and jig I ever saw he danced.
... to the boisterous mirth of the whole company; and
these scientific, philosophical strangers were more amused
than any one else. You see we are nothing more at last
than full-grown children."

Cabell visited the professors and their wives the second
day after their arrival in Richmond, and wrote to Cocke
of the pleasant impression which he had received of their
personalities. Colonel Peyton, in a letter to the proctor,
mentioned that this favorable impression was shared by
everybody. He promptly sent their luggage on to the
University by wagon; and as it comprised numerous boxes

as well as trunks, it is probable that they had brought
over at least a part of their libraries. Bonnycastle, the
only member of the party who was unmarried, consigned
as many as ten boxes to his care, and the others in a
smaller proportion. The reputation for good breeding
and high attainments which the three men had won in
Richmond was confirmed after their arrival at the University
and their assumption of the duties of their several
chairs. "Your professors," wrote Brockenbrough to
Gilmer,—and he included Long in the compliment,—
"do you much honor as well as themselves. I apprehend
that those solicited by the Board of Visitors will hardly
give the same eclat." Jefferson, who was always cautious
in expressing an opinion unless confident that he had
arrived at a just conclusion, also wrote that the University
had been most fortunate in enlisting the services of
the foreigners. "A finer selection," he said in a letter
to W. B. Giles, December 26, 1825, "could not have
been made. Besides their being of a grade of science
that has left little superior behind, the correctness of
their moral character, their accommodating disposition,
and zeal for the prosperity of the institution, leaves
nothing more to ask."