Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 November 1875 — A Short Romance of a Smuggler’s Daughter. [ARTICLE]

A Short Romance of a Smuggler’s Daughter.

Around the whole rock-bound coast of England there is no more romantic spot than Marsden Rock. It is a marine resort that attracts thousands of picnickers during the summer, while in winter it is the scene of the wildest storms. There is no house at the place—when the word “house” is used in the ordinary human acceptation. But there is a mansion caverned out of the solid limestone cliff, with its drawing-rooms, ball-rooms, retiringrooms and sleeping-rooms, which for half a century has won the admiration of all beholders. Peter Allen, a bold and daring smuggler, sought sanctuary here in the early part of the century. With the assistance of some of his human tools he caverned his mansion in the rocks, and when the work was half completed he brought home a bride. No one knew whence she came or who she was. But everybody saw that she was a singularly handsome woman. When the smuggling business ceased to be safe or profitable Peter Allen devoted his energies to the establishment of his sea-cavern as a summer hotel. Everything he touched became gold. He educated a pig and two ravens, and when he went to market the pig followed him through the streets, and the ravens perched on his shoulders at his back or went thieving at the fruiterers’ stalls. The man knew the secret of advertising, and liis summer hotel became renowned all over the land.

In the process of time he had two daughters. Lizzie was a renowned rifle-shot, and at 100 yards could knock the bottom out of a bottle through the neck. A gunmanufacturer of Manchester saw her perform the feat, and he presented her with a gold-mounted rifle, which she retains up to the present hour. Lizzie w*as a brunette of the magnificent order, and in some respects resembled her father. From the time she was sixteen she had scores of lovers, and more than one aristocrat offered liis hand and fortune. Like many women with dazzling opportunities, she married beneath her and has since figured in the London Divorce Courts. Polly was a beautiful blonde, proud and pretty as a picture. Local poets of Newcastle, Sunderland and Shields drifted into doggerel over her, and SirHedworth Williamson, Baron of Cleadon Hall, felt it impossible to keep his son at Cambridge University on account of the magnetism of Polly’s beauty. The young nobleman spent days and nights at Marsden unknown to his parents; and in the summer of 1865 Polly and he were missing six weeks. Soon after his father died, and the young man inherited the baronetage and became a Member of Parliament for North Durham. He married a daughter of the Duke of Newcastle, and at the present time has two daughters. Miss Polly Ann was never known to have married, but she and two daughters have lived in comparative luxury until a month since, when Lady Williamson met them at Marsden. There was an instantaneous recognition by the two women of each other’s children. Words and explanations'followed; with the seffuel that Pollyclaims to be Sir Hepworth’s wife, and now there promises to be a scandalous case of bigamy in high life.—s<. Louis Republican.