Stanley Muttlebury - British and American Literature and North American Place Names

British and American Literature and North American Place Names

Stanley Muttlebury was an inspiration to many people. His wide circle of friends included Rudolph Lehmann (Founder of The Granta Magazine (Cambridge University) comic writer, rower, barrister, and Liberal MP) and Douglas Jardine, Captain of the England Cricket team. Lehmann paid a warm tribute to his good friend in his book, In Cambridge Courts, describing him as The Mighty Muttle, and that brawny king of men.

Yet, it is understood this inspiration was covertly used by Mark Twain for his famous book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Family knowledge revealed that when Mark Twain was on one of his many tours of Europe, his study of English life led him to meet Stanley Muttlebury, and it is believed they rowed together on several occasions. Mark Twain spoke with a southern drawl which softened the crisp English Received Pronunciation of Muttlebury. As a result, he started to call Stanley, Hucklebury, as it was easier to say, and Mark Twain enjoyed word-play with friends' names. Waxing intimate, he told Stanley that one day he would write a book about his English friend, and it is believed that the character of Hucklebury Finn was the result - with Finn being a reference to the blade or oar which Stanley used to achieve his greatest real-life successes. Interestingly, Mark Twain was, for a time, a mining prospector in Nevada, U.S.A., where, in Pershing county in that state, exist areas called Muttlebury Mines, Muttlebury Well and Muttlebury Springs.

These areas are likely to have been named after one or other of Stanley's seven paternal uncles who, settling originally in what is now southern Ontario, Canada, later travelled across North America mostly as military doctors and lawyers. The likeliest candidate, however, is Stanley's uncle Henry Muttlebury (born in England in September 1827, who went to US from Canada in 1850, and became a miner first in California (by 1860), Nevada (by 1875), and Oregon (by 1900), at which latter date he was a naturalised American citizen, and still single at age 72. Without blood offspring, it may be that the names of these few, remote localities are his only legacy.