writer a few days ago: In looking over a
book in my library, published about ninety years ago, there is an
article on Newstead Abbey, Nottinghamshire, England, with a steel
engraving of the front of the Abbey, which is almost identical with the
design of the original screen in Christ Church. Who was responsible for
transplanting the same to this country appears to be unknown, but the
fact is interesting in that Newstead Abbey was the home of the Byron
family and that of Lord Byron."

In a letter of April 22, 1840, to H. Bleeker, Esq., Cooper wrote of this
screen: "I have just been revolutionizing Christ's Church, Cooperstown,
not turning out a vestry but converting its pine interior into
oak--_bona fide_ oak, and erecting a screen that I trust, though it may
have no influence on my soul, will carry my name down to posterity. It
is really a pretty thing--pure Gothic, and is the wonder of the country
round."

Of Cooper himself was said: "Thus step by step his feet were guided into
the ways of peace." It was of the Protestant Episcopal church that his
wife's brother, William Heathcote de Lancey--a genius of goodness--was
bishop.

[Illustration: BISHOP WILLIAM HEATHCOTE DE LANCEY.]

A beautiful, tender, and touching tribute to the love of his life was
Fenimore Cooper's will. In part it reads: "I, James Fenimore Cooper,
give and bequeath to my wife, Susan Augusta, all my property, whether
personal or mixed, to be enjoyed by her and her heirs forever. I make my
said wife the executrix of my will."

In a little over four months his wife followed him to the far country.
Of his children, Elizabeth, the first-born, died in infancy; Susan
Augusta, the author, was the second; the third, Caroline Martha, became
Mrs. Henry Frederick Phinney; next came Anne Charlotte, then Maria
Frances, who married Richard Cooper; Fenimore, the first son, they lost
in babyhood, and Paul Fenimore, the youngest, became a member of the bar
in Albany, New York.

[Illustration: THE DE LANCEY ARMS.]

Cooper left his family a competency, but the Hall home soon passed into
other hands; later it was burnt. From rescued brick an attractive house
was built on the west bank of the Susquehanna for his daughters Susan
Augusta and Anne Charlotte, both now resting near father and mother in
Christ's Church yard. Their niece, Miss Susan Augusta Cooper, daughter
of their sister, Maria Frances, Mrs. Richard Cooper, now lives in this
picturesque house, and there