A. E, Verrill— The Bermuda Islands. 440 
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owner, at that time, was very hospitable, but there is no evidence that 
he ever remained there even over night. The room that is called 
“Tom Moore’s room” was really the dining room, as I was assured 
by persons who had resided in the house before it was altered.* 
On this estate, farther back from the shore, in a grassy glade near | 
the caves, is the famous old Calabash tree under which Moore is said 
to have composed some of his Bermuda poems, and to which he cer- 
tainly refers in his notes and diary. 
In his notes to his poems he makes the following allusion to this 
tree :— 
“How truly politic it is in a poet to connect his verse with well- 
known and interesting localities,—to wed his song to scenes already 
invested with fame, and thus lend it a chance of sharing a charm 
which encircles them,—I have myself, in more than one instance, 
very agreeably experienced. Among the memorials of this descrip- 
tion, which, as I learn with pleasure and pride, still keep me remem- 
bered in some of those beautiful regions of the West which I visited, 
I shall mention but one slight instance, as showing how potently the 
Genius of the Place may lend to song a life and imperishableness to 
which, in itself, it boasts no claim or pretension. The following 
lines in one of my Bermuda poems: 
“Twas thus by the side of the Calabash tree, 
With a few who could feel and remember like me’ 
still live in memory, I am told, on those fairy shores, connecting my 
name with the noble old tree, which, I believe, still adorns it. One 
of the few treasures (of any kind) I possess is a goblet formed of 
one of the fruit-shells of this remarkable tree, which was brought 
from Bermuda a few years since by Mr. Dudley Costello, and which — 
that gentleman very kindly presented to me.”t 
* An old lady, only recently living in Bermuda, used to say that she could well 
remember that when she was a young girl, living nearby, she used to see Tom 
Moore rowing in his skiff, and coming to Walsingham, and that he was a hand- 
some young fellow with curly, golden hair, ‘‘just the color of a sovereign.’’ 
This agrees well with contemporary descriptions of him. 
+In his published diary the following occurs :—‘‘ 20th (March, 1834). <A 
beautiful present from Mr. Costello of a cup formed out of the calabash nut, 
which he brought some years ago for me from Bermuda. The cup very hand- 
somely and tastefully mounted, and Bessie all delight with it.” 
The verses referring particularly to the Calabash tree are as follows, in the 
later editions of his poems :— 
‘¢°Twas thus in the shade of the Calabash-tree, 
With a few who could feel and remember like me, 
