ROCKS, STORMS, AND PERIL -1868 -1874 419 



you are pressing us all into the service. Jenny came home 

 yesterday, and said very earnestly, I wish that I could 

 do something to help on the university ; to which I re 

 plied, Very well. Do anything you like ; I shall be glad 

 to see you join in the work. &quot; The result was the gift 

 from her of the chime of bells which was rung at the 

 opening of the university, and which, with the additions 

 afterward made to it, have done beautiful service. On the 

 bells she thus gave were inscribed the verses of the ninety- 

 fifth chant of Tennyson s &quot;In Memoriam&quot;; and some 

 weeks afterward I had the pleasure of placing in her 

 hands what she considered an ample return for her gift 

 a friendly letter from Tennyson himself, containing some 

 of the stanzas written out in his own hand. So began her 

 interest in the university an interest which never fal 

 tered. 



A few years later she married one of our professors, an 

 old friend of mine, and her marriage proved exceedingly 

 happy; but, alas, its happiness was destined to be brief! 

 Less than two years after her wedding day she was 

 brought home from Europe to breathe her last in her 

 husband s cottage on the university grounds, and was 

 buried from the beautiful residence which she had built 

 hard by, and had stored with works of art in every field. 



At the opening of her will it was found that, while she 

 had made ample provision for all who were near and dear 

 to her, and for a multitude of charities, she had left to the 

 university very nearly two millions of dollars, a portion 

 of which was to be used for a student hospital, and the 

 bulk of the remainder, amounting to more than a mil 

 lion and a half, for the university library. Her husband 

 joined most heartily in her purpose, and all seemed ready 

 for carrying it out in a way which would have made 

 Cornell University, in that respect, unquestionably the 

 foremost on the American continent. As soon as this mu 

 nificent bequest was announced, I asked our leading law 

 yer, Judge Douglas Boardman, whether our charter al 

 lowed the university to take it, calling his attention to the 



