More to come

James Whitcomb Riley

At this Inn is where he got the nickname Greenfield Wizard

At one time this was the Le Clerc's House

The tribute to James Whitcomb Riley from his friend William Henry Venable

Both were in Vevay Indiana at the  “Le Clerc’s House” where they passed  many memorable hours away together

THE GREENFIELD WIZARD

An angle with mysterious eyes

Appareled in a Hoosier guise

(I entertained him unawares

At Vevay, in  a room upstairs

Of the old inn, yelept LeClerc’s)

A wizard with a wand of song

How doth he sway the charmed throng!

Is he celestial or magician

Greenfield’s unannounced musician,

Playing with a heavenly art

One the lute-strings of the heart?

Two thing sthere are in heaven above

And earth below-the greater, Love

The lesser, Death-and therefore grew

Heart’-east and Rosemary and rue

And myrrh and moly, magic plants:

Besprent with Indiana dew-

These Riley gathers from their haunts:

Distills the balmy subtle juice

To make a spell of use:

Fillers a seeming simple wine

Nectared with some drops most rare-

(How he finds the tinct or where

Not the critics can divine!)

Whoso gives the wine his lips’

Sipping smiles and laughing sips:

But before he drinks it up,

Tears have trickled in his cup.

-William Henry Venable-

Picture of the past

Look two Floors ????

"The Swiss Inn of Vevay An Old Landmark"     

                Indiana Magazine of History September, 1945

Look three floors again

More to Come soon