LITMIR.BIZ

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letter signed by their secretary Henry Joy, jun. of Belfast.”19 At this stage Tone seriously considered standing for Parliament. Something more fateful, however, than pamphlets resulted from his frequent visits to College Green, for during one of them he met, in the gallery of the House of Commons, a young officer of the British Army named Thomas Russell. From that meeting there sprang a friendship of quite unusual sincerity and affection, and there came into Tone’s life an influence that from now onwards directed the brilliance, and to some extent overcame the irresponsibility. Writing his Autobiography in Paris six years later Tone speaks of this friendship thus:

      About this time it was that I formed an acquaintance with my invaluable friend Russell, a circumstance which I look upon as one of the most fortunate of my life … I think the better of myself for being the object of the esteem of such a man as Russell … If I am ever inclined to murmur at the difficulties wherewith I have so long struggled, I think on the inestimable treasure I possess in the affection of my wife and the friendship of Russell, and I acknowledge that all my labors and sufferings are overpaid … When I think I have acted well, and that I am likely to succeed in the important business wherein I am engaged, I say often to myself, My dearest love and my friend Russell will be glad of this.20

      And then follows the incomparable description of the blissful summer on the shores of Dublin Bay:

      My wife’s health continuing still delicate, she was ordered by her physician to bathe in the saltwater. I hired, in consequence, a little box of a house on the sea side at Irishtown, where we spent the summer of 1790. Russell and I were inseparable, and, as our discussions were mostly political, and our sentiments agreed exactly, we extended our views, and fortified each other in the opinions, to the propagation and establishment of which we have ever since been devoted. I recall with transport the happy days we spent during that period; the delicious dinners, in the preparation of which my wife, Russell, and myself, were all engaged; the afternoon walks, the discussions we had as we lay stretched on the grass. Sometimes Russell’s venerable father, a veteran of near seventy, with the courage of a hero, the serenity of a philosopher, and the piety of a saint, used to visit our little mansion, and that day was a fete. My wife doated on the old man, and he loved her like one of his children. I will not attempt, because I am unable, to express the veneration and regard I had for him, and I am sure that, next to his own sons, and scarcely below them, he loved and esteemed me.21

      Russell’s brother John and Tone’s two brothers also visited the “little box” and added to the general gaiety or to the seriousness of the conversation.

      These were delicious days [he continues]. The rich and great, who sit down every day to the monotony of a splendid entertainment, can form no idea of the happiness of our frugal meal, nor of the infinite pleasure we found in taking each his part in the preparation and attendance. My wife was the centre and the soul of all. I scarcely know which of us loved her best; her courteous manners, her goodness of heart, her incomparable humor, her never failing cheerfulness, her affection for me and for our children, rendered her the object of our common admiration and delight.22

      The “delicious” summer sped past, Mrs. Tone’s health was restored, but before she and Theobald returned to Dublin, where their eldest son was shortly born, Russell got word of his appointment to “the 64th Regiment of Foot quartered in the town of Belfast.” He came to say good-bye arrayed in a splendid suit of regimentals – “all clinquant, all in gold”, but in spite of his lace and his finery he was set to cook part of the dinner, and eventually amidst laughter and tears the last farewells were said.

      Thomas Russell, several years younger than Wolfe Tone, was born in County Cork in November 1767.23 His father, Captain John Russell, was a distinguished soldier, having been personally commended by George II at the Battle of Dettingen, and, after further notable service, was appointed to the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin, where he died. Thomas, like his father before him, was originally intended for the church, but at the age of 15 he went to India in the regiment of his elder brother, Captain Ambrose Russell, an officer who in his turn earned the gratitude of George III for gallantry in the war with America. After five years’ service in India Thomas returned home, still intent on entering the church, but again he took a military appointment, and it was while staying with his father at Kilmainham, an ensign on half-pay, that he met Tone.

      This was the gay, yet withal serious, young man who arrived in Belfast in 1790 to take up his military duties. His interest in politics would insure a welcome in this home of liberal thought, and he “found the people so much to his taste and in return rendered himself so agreeable to them …” that he was speedily admitted to their confidence, and became a member of several of their clubs.24 The Whig Club received him enthusi-astically as the friend of Mr. Tone, author of that admirable pamphlet, and, no doubt, the best port being produced, there was much convivial entertainment. Russell was passionately fond of music, and very soon he met Edward Bunting, now a fashionable young man, much sought after as an accomplished musician. Bunting brought him to the McCrackens, thus initiating a friendship that was to become historic; they, in turn, took him to the home of their friends the Templetons, now living at Orange Grove, where John Templeton was already occupied with his studies of the natural sciences. In the following years Russell and the McCrackens must many times have walked the few miles from Belfast to the lovely house at Malone, hidden in the trees of its extensive grounds where, in days gone by, William of Orange had halted on his march to the Boyne, and letters survive which show the wide range of interests held in common by Russell and Templeton:

      Every walk I take [wrote Templeton to Russell in prison] in the pursuit of the beauties of nature, brings to my recollection similar excursions in your company – every rare fossil that I meet with, and curious plant that I observe, causes me to find the want of my friend. Often does my imagination dwell with pleasure on the picturesque scenery of Glenave [Templeton and Russell had been on a walking tour of the Antrim Coast], and the still more sublime rocks of Rathlin, neither can I go into my garden and view the little heathy bank you so often admired, without remembering the pleasure I received from your praises of my ingenuity in forming it.25

      The following description of Russell’s personal appearance is of particular interest, it is said to have been written many years later from the treasured recollections of Mary Ann McCracken:

      A model of manly beauty, he was one of those favoured individuals whom one cannot pass in the street without being guilty of the rudeness of staring in the face while passing, and turning round to look at the receding figure. Though more than six feet high, his majestic stature was scarcely observed owing to the exquisite symmetry of his form. Martial in his gait and demeanour, his appearance was not altogether that of a soldier. His dark and steady eye, compressed lip, and somewhat haughty bearing, were occasionally strongly indicative of the camp; but in general, the classic contour of his finely formed head, the expression of almost infantine sweetness which characterized his smile, and the benevolence that beamed in his fine countenance, seemd to mark him out as one, who was destined to be the ornament, grace and blessing of private life. His voice was deep-toned and melodious … His manners were those of the finished gentleman, combined with that native grace, which nothing but superiority of intellect can give. There was a reserved, and somewhat haughty, stateliness in his mein, which, to those who did not know him, had, at first, the appearance of pride; but as it gave way before the warmth and benevolence of his disposition, it soon became evident that the defect, if it were one, was caused by the too sensitive delicacy of a noble soul; and those who knew him, loved him the more for his reserve, and thought they saw something attractive in the very repulsiveness of his manner.26

      So reflected Mary Ann, recapturing, no doubt, the sight of Harry and Thomas as they sauntered about the town, or set out for Orange Grove, or for long tramps into the country; full of high spirits; tall, well built and devastatingly handsome; the raven black hair of the one a perfect foil for the golden locks of the other, – it not yet being fashionable to crop one’s hair as evidence of one’s revolutionary sympathies. But, lest Mary be accused of partiality, we turn to Mrs. McTier. Describing one of the innumerable scuffles in the streets with drunken soldiers she writes to her brother that, on hearing the to-do, “Russell went up close to them, did not speak one word, but it seems, surveyed them with such a countenance that [they] demanded the reason for the look of insolence.” Words were bandied,

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