intimate friend of Lafayette, who, during his last visit to the United
States, called personally upon the General's widow, and tendered her
acknowledgments for the services rendered to him by her husband. His
great-grandfather, John Poe, married in England, Jane, a daughter of
Admiral James McBride, noted in British naval history, and claiming
Kindred with some of the most illustrious English families. His father,
David Poe, jr., the fourth son of the Quartermaster-General, was several
years a law student in Baltimore, but becoming enamored of an English
actress, named Elizabeth Arnold, whose prettiness and vivacity more than
her genius for the stage made her a favorite, he eloped with her, and
after a short period, having married her, became himself an actor. They
continued six or seven years in the theaters of the principal cities, and
finally died, within a few weeks of each other, in Richmond, leaving
three children, Henry, Edgar, and Rosalie, in utter destitution.

Edgar Poe, who was born in Baltimore, in January, 1811, was at this
period of remarkable beauty, and precocious wit. Mr. John Allan, a
merchant of large fortune and liberal disposition, who had been intimate
with his parents, having no children of his own, adopted him, and it was
generally understood among his acquaintances that he intended to make him
the heir of his estate. The proud, nervous irritability of the boy's
nature was fostered by his guardian's well-meant but ill-judged
indulgence. Nothing was permitted which could "break his spirit." He must
be the master of his masters, or not have any. An eminent and most
estimable gentleman of Richmond has written to me, that when Poe was only
six or seven years of age, he went to a school kept by a widow of
excellent character, to whom was committed the instruction of the
children of some of the principal families in the city. A portion of
the grounds was used for the cultivation of vegetables, and its invasion
by her pupils strictly forbidden. A trespasser, if discovered, was
commonly made to wear, during school hours, a turnip or carrot, or
something, of this sort, attached to his neck as a sign of disgrace. On
one occasion Poe, having violated the rules, was decorated with the
promised badge, which he wore in sullenness until the dismissal of the
boys, when, that the full extent of his wrong might be understood by his
patron, of whose sympathy he was confident, he eluded the notice of the
schoolmistr