Judging from the success of this the youngest
player who was certainly not superior if equal to Buckle or Boden,
it is not unreasonable to conclude that Staunton with his greater
experience and skill, had he possessed the same temperament as
Bird, and at the slow time limit which suited him as well as it
has Steinitz (his exact counterpart in force and style) would
have regained his ascendancy for Great Britain. It is undoubtedly
owing to the opportunities at Simpson's that Boden and Bird so
rapidly acquired first rank and the partial withdrawal of the
former, and the entire relinquishment of chess by the latter from
1852 to 1858 was unfortunate for English chess renown, for on
the appearance of the phenomenon, Paul Morphy, and Staunton's
default in meeting him, there was no English player in practise
able to do honor to Morphy over the board, except a new comer,
Barnes; and Boden and Bird, but acquiesced in a general wish,
(albeit an equal pleasure to themselves) in revisiting Simpson's to
play with the subsequently found to be invincible Morphy.
Simpson's Divan was naturally the first resort of the
incomparable Paul Morphy, and he greatly preferred it to any other
chess room he ever saw, he even went so far as to say it was
"very nice," which was a great deal from him, the most
undemonstrative young man we ever met with.
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