One hundred years ago
MR. HEALY contributes to Thursday's Westminster Gazette the beginning of a study of Mr. Parnell, which represents him as full of supersititions derived from an old nurse, Mrs Tuppenny, at whom he had, as a child, thrown a can- dlestick, though he declared that he had been greatly afraid of her. He would commence no new undertaking on a Friday; he regarded thirteen as a thor- oughly unlucky number, and even added clauses he did not like to a Bill he was drafting, rather than leave them thirteen in number; and he thought green so unlucky a colour that he attributed all Ireland's misfortunes to her green flag. Mr Healy never loved Mr. Parnell, and may perhaps be exaggerating the super- stitious vein in him, but he, no doubt, describes qualities which all the Parnel- Ines must have had under their observa- tion,and would not dare to paint his superstition up too obviously. To some men superstition is a sort of stimulus and tonic. It was to Dr. Johnson, and perhaps also to Mr. Parnell.
The Spectator 4 November 1893
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