4pQonT

44 THIS DIFFICULT INDIVIDUAL
known simply as "Vera F.," and who had shot at Stolypin and
missed, also was a frequent visitor. The neighborhood drunkard,
Geordie McKnite, was often sprawled across the threshold oblivious
to the dripping blood, but one merely stepped over him. 22
Despite his gory hands, the landlord, Mr. Chandler, seems to
have been a perfect type of the English butler. In response to
the urging of his wife, he periodically gave Hueffer notice to move,
but he never enforced the order. The neighborhood was a dangerous
one, and a man was sandbagged and robbed in broad daylight
outside the shop. Mr. Chandler lived in fear of being knifed in the
back when he made his daily trip to the bank, but Hueffer came
and went without noticing the risks that were peculiar to that area.
His only recorded complaint was made on the day that a finicky
burglar made off with his supply of spare tall hats. This was no
slight inconvenience, for he was a fixture at fashionable garden
parties, and these accoutrements formed an indispensable portion
of his wardrobe.
Among the regular evening visitors to the office was R. B.
Cunninghame-Graham, who in his youth had greatly resembled
Pound. He also had been a very controversial figure. He was a
former member of Parliament who had been jailed for participating
in a riot in Trafalgar Square. He had been hit over the head and
sentenced to six weeks in prison. Other habitués included W. H.
Hudson, Wyndham Lewis, Stephen Reynolds, Edward Garnett,
Percival Gibbons, Edgar Jepson, May Sinclair, and Ethel Colburt
Mayne. Pound was usually present for he had taken rooms just
down the street.
Hueffer has given us some interesting accounts of Pound's first
years in London. In reading these paragraphs, one can almost hear
the voice that H. G. Wells has described as Hueffer's "languid,
plangent tenor."
In his reminiscences, Hueffer, who later changed his name to
Ford Madox Ford to escape the charge of being a German spy
during the First World War, and who shall hereafter be known as
Ford in these pages, makes several amusing references to Pound.
In discussing a creature whom he terms the "Typical Academic
Critic", Ford says, ". . . in the drawing rooms of lady leaders of,
let us say the Fabian Society, he (the Typical Academic Critic)