next door to that in which Ellis & Allan had their tobacco store in
Poe's school days in Richmond. The old Broad Street Theatre, on the
site of which now stands Monumental Church, was the scene of his
beautiful mother's last appearance before the public. Near Nineteenth
and Main she died in a damp cellar in the "Bird in Hand" district,
through which ran Shockoe Creek. Eighteen days later the old theatre
was burned, and all Richmond was in mourning for the dead.

At the northwest corner of Fifth and Main Streets, opposite the Allan
mansion, was the MacKenzie school for girls, which Rosalie Poe
attended in Edgar's school days. He was the only young man who enjoyed
the much-desired privilege of being received in that hall of learning,
and some of the bright girls of the institution beguiled him into
revealing the authorship of the satiric verses, "Don Pompioso," which
caused their victim, a wealthy and popular young gentleman of
Richmond, to quit the city with undue haste. The verses were the boy's
revenge upon "Don Pompioso" for insulting remarks about the position
of Poe as the son of stage people.

On Franklin Street, between First and Second, was the Ellis home,
where Poe, with Mr. and Mrs. Allan, lived for a time after their
return from England. On North Fifth Street, near Clay, still stood the
cottage that was the next home of the Allans. At the southeast corner
of Eleventh and Broad Streets was the school which Poe had attended,
afterward the site of the Powhatan Hotel. Near it was the home of Mrs.
Stanard, whose memory comes radiantly down to us in the lines "To
Helen."

Ever since the tragedy of the Hellespont, it has been the ambition of
poets to perform a noteworthy swimming feat, and one of Poe's