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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:36:25 -0700 |
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diff --git a/11267-h/11267-h.htm b/11267-h/11267-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45eadef --- /dev/null +++ b/11267-h/11267-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1649 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Solaris (vers 1st October 2003), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Mirror of Literature, Issue 328.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + + .note, .footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + + .figure + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; margin: auto;} + .figure img + {border: none;} + .figure p + + .side { float:right; + font-size: 75%; + width: 25%; + padding-left:10px; + border-left: dashed thin; + margin-left: 10px; + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; + font-weight: bold; + font-style: italic;} + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11267 ***</div> + +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page113" name="page113"></a>[pg +113]</span> +<h1>THE MIRROR<br /> +OF<br /> +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<table width="100%" summary="Volume, Number, and Date"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b>Vol. XII. No. 328.</b></td> +<td align="center"><b>SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828</b></td> +<td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE.</h2> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/328-1.png"><img width="100%" src="images/328-1.png" alt= +"Plan of Oxford Castle" /></a></div> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r</p> +<p>Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves</p> +<p>Intire; or, when they would elude her watch,</p> +<p>Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste</p> +<p>Of dark oblivion.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>AKENSIDE</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Gentle, courteous, and <i>patient</i> reader—to understand +the above plan, it is requisite that you carry your mind's eye back +to those troublous times when men enjoyed no protection, but in +opposing force to force; and to a period when <i>every man's house +was his castle</i>, though not in the metaphorical sense we have +since been accustomed to apply these words, viz. to the protection +and security of British subjects.</p> +<p>Few portions of our island have been more amply illustrated, by +antiquarians, than OXFORD; and from one of these we learn that a +Keep Tower, or Castle, existed here a considerable time before the +conquest; for Alfred lived here; and Harold Harefoot was crowned +and resided here; and one of Alfred's sons struck money here. +Hearne has likewise identified this fact by the very ancient and +original arms of Oxford, which have a castle represented, with a +large ditch and bridge. Upon the same authority we learn that Offa +"built walls at Oxford," and by him, therefore, a Saxon castle was +originally built at Oxford.</p> +<p>Leland, Dugdale, and Camden, on the other hand, affirm that the +castle at Oxford was built by Robert D'Oiley, who came into England +with William the Conqueror; and the Chronicles of Osney Abbey, +preserved in the Cottonian library, even ascertain the precise date +of this great baron's undertaking, viz. A.D. 1071. No question, +therefore, can remain, but that this illustrious chieftain either +repaired or rebuilt the castle; but as we have shown, upon equal +authority, there was a Saxon castle, fit for a royal residence at +Oxford, long previous to D'Oiley's time. About the year 1794, +several Saxon remains were discovered here; but our engraving +represents the castle in Norman times, with Robert D'Oiley's +magnificent additions, and is a facsimile of a plan by Ralph Agas, +in 1538, which, allowing a little for bad or unskilful drawing, may +be taken as a perfect specimen of Norman military architecture, and +will, we are persuaded, be received by our readers as <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page114" name="page114"></a>[pg 114]</span> a +popular and interesting illustration of the warlike character of +the age in which the castle was erected.</p> +<p>For the description we are indebted to a MS. account of Anthony +Wood, in the Bodleian library, who informs us that at one of its +entrances was "a large bridge, which led into a long and broad +entry, and so to the chief gate of the castle, the entry itself +being fortified, on each side, with a large embattled wall; and +having several passages above, from one side to the other, with +open spaces between them, through which, in times of storm, +whenever any enemy had broken through the first gates of the +bridge, and was gotten into the entry, scalding water or stones +might be cast down to annoy them."</p> +<p>On passing through the gate, at the end of this long entry, the +fortification stretched itself, on the left hand, in a straight +line, till it came to a <i>round</i> tower, that was rebuilt in the +19th of Henry III.<a id="footnotetag1" name= +"footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> And from +thence went a fair embattled wall, guarded for the most part with +the mill-stream underneath, till it came to the high tower joining +to St. George's church.<a id="footnotetag2" name= +"footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a></p> +<p>From hence, says the manuscript, the wall went to another gate, +now quite down, opposite to the abovementioned; and leading to +Osney, over another bridge; close to which joined that lofty and +eminent mount, sometime crowned with an embattled tower. The +manuscript adds, that for the greater defence of this castle, there +was, on one of the sides of it, <i>a barbican</i>; which seems to +have not merely been a single tower, but (according to an ancient +deed) <i>a place</i>, or outwork, containing several habitations; +and from other accounts it further appears, that there were more +barbicans than one.</p> +<p>The ruins of certain other towers of the castle, besides the +barbicans, and those already described, are also said to have been +standing till 1649; when they were pulled down to erect new +bulwarks for the parliamentary garrison.</p> +<p>This is an abstract of Anthony Wood's manuscript, which agrees +with Agas's drawing, except that in his sketch, the tower between +the gate-tower and St. George's, is represented square instead of +being round. Antiquarians also infer that in the drawing it was +intended to represent the great keep-tower as standing upon the top +of the mount, and not by the side of it.<a id="footnotetag3" name= +"footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a></p> +<p>Some discoveries made in 1794, throw much light on the history +of the castle, and warrant a conclusion that in its area were +several buildings. Wells were then cleared out, and among the +rubbish were found horses' bones, dogs' bones, horse-shoes, and +human skeletons; the appearance of the latter is not easily +accounted for, unless they were the bodies of malefactors, who had +been executed on the gallows placed near the castle, in later ages, +that might have been flung in here, instead of being buried under +the gibbet. We must however pass over many interesting facts, and +content ourselves with a mere reference to the empress Maud being +besieged here in 1141, and her miraculous flight with three +knights, all escaping the eyes of the besiegers by the brightness +of their raiment; Maud having just previously escaped from the +castle of the Devizes, as a dead corpse, in a funeral hearse or +bier. The reader will not be surprised at the decay of the castle, +when he is informed that it was in a dilapidated state in the reign +of Edward III.</p> +<p>The castle was situate on the west side of the city of Oxford, +on the site of the present county gaol. In 1788 little remained +except the tower, which was for some time used as the county +prison, and part of the old wall could then be traced 10 feet in +thickness. In the castle-yard were the remains of the ancient +sessions-house, in which, at the <i>Black Assize</i>, in 1577, the +lieutenant of the county, two knights, eighty esquires and +justices, and almost all the grand jury, died of a distemper, +brought thither and communicated by the prisoners; and nearly one +hundred scholars and townsmen fell victims to the same +disorder.</p> +<p>We have been somewhat minute in the preceding description, but +we hope not more so than the exhaustless curiosity of the public on +such subjects appears to warrant. Indeed, these interesting details +are only a tithe portion of what we might have abridged. The +warlike habits of our ancestors are always attractive topics for +inquirers into the history of mankind, and their study is not</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Dull and crabbed as some fools suppose,</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>but a treasury or depository of useful knowledge, by enabling +the inquirer <span class="pagenum"><a id="page115" name= +"page115"></a>[pg 115]</span> to draw many valuable inferences from +the comparative states of men in the several ages he seeks to +illustrate. The enthusiasm of such pursuits is, likewise, an +everlasting source of delight; for who can visit such shrines as +Netley, St. Albans, or Melrose, without feeling that he is on holy +ground; and although we are equally active in our notice of the +architectural triumphs of our own times, we must not entirely leave +the proud labours of by-gone ages to be clasped in the ponderous +folio, or to moulder and lie neglected on the upper shelves of our +libraries.</p> +<p>We have to acknowledge the loan of the original of the +engraving, from a lineal descendant of D'OILEY<a id="footnotetag4" +name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a>, the +founder or repairer of the Castle at Oxford—a name not +altogether unknown to our readers.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE "INTELLECTUAL CAT."</h2> +<h3>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</h3> +<p>The <i>cat mania</i> has hitherto been more popular in France +than in England. To be sure, we have the threadbare story of +Whittington and his cat; Mrs. Griggs and her 86 living and 28 dead +cats; Peter King and his two cats in rich liveries; Foote's concert +of cats; and the newspaper story of tortoiseshell male +cats—but in France, cats keep better company, or at least are +associated with better names. Thus, MOLIERE had his favourite cat; +Madame de Puis, the celebrated harpplayer, settled a pension on her +feline friend, which caused a law-suit, and brought into action all +the most celebrated lawyers of France; and M. L'Abbe de Fontenu was +in the habit of experimenting on these animals, one of which he +found could exist twenty-six months without drinking! which fact is +recorded in the History of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, +1753.</p> +<p>Our present portrait is, however, of more recent date, being a +free translation from <i>Le Furet de Londres</i>, a French paper +published in London, whose columns are an agreeable accompaniment +for a cup of coffee. It is a mere <i>bagatelle</i>, and as an +amusive trifle may not be unacceptable.</p> +<p>My pretty little Puss, it is high time that I should pay a just +tribute to your merits. We often talk of people who do not esteem +you; therefore, why should I blush to give publicity to your +perfection?</p> +<p>You are exceedingly well made; your fur boasts of the delicate +varieties of the tiger; your eyes are lively and pleasing; your +velvet coat and tail are of enviable beauty; and your agility, +gracefulness, and docility are, indeed, the admiration of all who +behold you! Your moral qualities are not less estimable; and we +will attempt to recapitulate them.</p> +<p>In the first place, you love me dearly, or at least you load me +with caresses; unless, like the rest of the world, you love me for +yourself's sake. I know well that you like me less than a slice of +mutton, or the leg of a fowl, but that is very simple; I am your +master, and a leg of mutton is as good again as one master, twice +as good as two masters, &c.</p> +<p>You possess great sense, and good sense too, for you have +precisely such as is most useful to you; for every other kind of +knowledge will make you appear foolish.</p> +<p>Nature has given you nails, which men unpolitely call claws; +they are admirably constructed, and well jointed in a membrane, +which is extended or drawn up like the fingers of a glove; and at +pleasure it becomes a terrific claw, or a paw of velvet.</p> +<p>You understand the <i>physical laws of good and evil</i>. A cat +who strangles another will not be more culpable than a man who +kills his fellow men. My dear Cat, the great Hobbes never reasoned +more clearly than you do!</p> +<p>You forget the past—you dream not of the future; but you +turn the present to account. Time flies not with you, but stands +still, and all your moments appear but as one. You know that your +muscles will give action to your limbs, and you know no other cause +of your existence, than existence itself. My dear Cat, you are a +profound <i>materialist</i>!</p> +<p>You flatter the master who caresses you, you lick the hand that +feeds you, you fly from a larger animal than yourself, whilst you +unsparingly prey on the smaller ones. My dear Cat, you are a +profound <i>politician</i>!</p> +<p>You live peaceably with the dog, who is your messmate; in +gratitude to me, you regulate your reception, good or bad, of all +the animals under my roof; thus, you raise your claw against such +as you imagine mine enemies, while you prick up your tail at the +sight of my friends. My dear Cat, you are a profound +<i>moralist</i>!</p> +<p>When you promenade your graceful <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page116" name="page116"></a>[pg 116]</span> limbs upon a roof, on +the edge of a casement, or in some situation equally perilous, you +show your dexterity in opposing the bulk of your body to the +danger. Your muscles extend or relax themselves with judgment, and +you enjoy security where other animals would be petrified with +fear. My dear Cat, you perfectly understand the <i>laws of +gravity</i>!</p> +<p>If through inadvertence, blundering, or haste, you lose your +support or hold, then you are admirable; you bend yourself in +raising your back, and carry the centre of gravity towards the +umbilical region, by which means you fall on your feet. My dear +Cat, you are an excellent <i>natural philosopher</i>!</p> +<p>If you travel in darkness, you expand the pupil of your eye, +which, in forming a perfect circle, describes a larger surface, and +collects the greater part of the luminous rays which are scattered +in the atmosphere. When you appear in daylight, your pupil takes an +elliptic form, diminishes, and receives only a portion of these +rays, an excess of which would injure your retina. My dear Cat, you +are a perfect <i>optician</i>!</p> +<p>When you wish to descend a precipice, you calculate the distance +of the solid points with astonishing accuracy. In the first place, +you dangle your legs as if to measure the space, which you divide +in your judgment, by the motions of your feet; then you throw +yourself exactly upon the wished-for spot, the distance to which +you have compared with the effect on your muscles. My dear Cat, you +are a skilful <i>geometrician</i>!</p> +<p>When you wander in the country, you examine plants with +judicious nicety; you soon select that kind which pleases you, when +you roll yourself on it, and testify your joy by a thousand other +gambols; you know also the several grasses, and their medicinal +effects on your frame. My dear Cat, you are an excellent +<i>botanist</i>!</p> +<p>Your voice merits no less eulogium; for few animals have one so +modulated. The rhyming pur of satisfaction, the fawning accents of +appeal, the vigorous bursts of passion, and innumerable diatonic +varieties, proceed from your larynx, according to the order of +nature. My dear Cat, you are a <i>dramatic musician</i>!</p> +<p>In your amusements, you prefer pantomime to dialogue; and you +neglect the pen to study the picture. But then what agility! what +dancing! what cross-capers! The difficulty never impairs the grace +of the feat. Oh, my dear Cat! you are a <i>delightful +dancer</i>!</p> +<p>Lastly, my dear Puss, show me a man who possesses as many kinds +of knowledge as you do, and I will proclaim him a <i>living +cyclopædia</i>, or concentration of human wisdom. But, what +do I see? I am praising you, and you are fast asleep! This is still +greater philosophy.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>STANZAS FOR MUSIC.</h3> +<h4>(<i>For the Mirror.</i>)</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Yes, radiant spirit, thou hast pass'd</p> +<p class="i2">Unto thy latest home,</p> +<p>And o'er our widow'd hearts is cast</p> +<p class="i2">A deep and with'ring gloom!</p> +<p>For when on earth thou wert as bright</p> +<p class="i2">As angel form might be:</p> +<p>And mem'ry shall exist in night,</p> +<p class="i2">If we think not of thee.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>For, oh, thy beauty o'er us came</p> +<p class="i2">Like a fair sunset beam,</p> +<p>And the sweet music of thy name</p> +<p class="i2">Was pure as aught might deem.</p> +<p>With silent lips we gaz'd on thee,</p> +<p class="i2">And awe-suspended breath—</p> +<p>But thine entrancing witchery</p> +<p class="i2">Abideth not in death.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>And all that we suppos'd most fair</p> +<p class="i2">Is but a mockery now;</p> +<p>No beam illumes the silken hair</p> +<p class="i2">That traced thy smiling brow.</p> +<p>The cheerless dust upon thee lies,</p> +<p class="i2">Death's seal is on thee set,</p> +<p>But the bright spirit of thine eyes</p> +<p class="i2">Shines o'er our mem'ry yet!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>As in some dark and hidden shell</p> +<p class="i2">Lies ocean's richest gem,</p> +<p>So in our hearts shall ever dwell</p> +<p class="i2">The spells thou'st breath'd in them!</p> +<p>Why should we weep o'er the young flow'rs</p> +<p class="i2">That cluster on thy sod?</p> +<p>Stars like them glow in heav'n's bright bow'rs</p> +<p class="i2">To light thee up to God!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>R.A.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>"TROUT BINNING" IN WEST-MORELAND.</h3> +<h4>(<i>To the Editor of the Mirror</i>.)</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>—"Now is the time,</p> +<p>While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile,</p> +<p>To tempt the trout."</p> +<p>THOMSON.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>I have not yet done with this subject; and as it strikes me you +are an angler, I think the article a seasonable <i>bait</i> for +you.</p> +<p>I was certainly much entertained with your extracts from Sir +Humphry Davy's <i>Salmonia</i>; and from your being pleased to +mention my name in commenting on its merits, I took the hint, and +resolved to send you another leaf from my journal. You will easily +imagine the abundance of fish in Westmoreland when I inform you, +that they seldom use the line there, except in rivers, since they +can take them much easier with their hands as before mentioned. I +will now account for the trout frequenting such small brooks. There +are frequent floods in that county, at certain periods of the year, +which sweep the fish in shoals from the mountain rivulets, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page117" name="page117"></a>[pg +117]</span> or perhaps the fish always go down with the flood, for +the rivers and rivulets are all well stocked afterwards; and in my +opinion it is on account of the rivers being so full, that great +quantities are obliged to inhabit the neighbouring brooks, all +which empty themselves in the rivers. At the latter end of the +year, that is, the spawning season, the large trouts (which are +become very loose and flabby) take to the small brooks to deposit +their spawn; after which they return to the rivers. At this time +there are, in consequence, many young trouts, which remain, I +should imagine, till next year, when I believe they go to the +rivers; for during that time I have seldom caught trouts weighing +more than from half a pound to a pound, though in such a "beck" as +"Cannon's," which runs directly into the Eden, I have taken them at +all times very large—and this is how I account for the +difference. I should observe, that at the "<i>back end</i>" of the +year, immensely large trouts may be caught, which come up to spawn; +but they are generally, when caught, immediately thrown into their +element again, as they are worth nothing, on account of the +looseness of their flesh.</p> +<p>But to the subject. <i>Trout binning</i> is a name given to a +peculiar method of taking trout. A man wades any rocky stream +(Pot-beck for instance) with a sledge-hammer, with which he strikes +every stone likely to contain fish. The force of the blow stuns the +fish, and they roll from under the rock half dead, when the +"binner" throws them out with his hand.</p> +<p><i>Night-Fishing.</i>—I have frequently gone out with a +fishing party at about ten o'clock at night to spear trout. We +supplied ourselves with an eel spear and a lantern, and visited +Cannon's "beck." We drew the light gently over the water near the +brink. Immediately the light appeared, both trouts and eels were +splashing about the lantern in great quantities. We then took the +spear, and as they approached, thrust it down upon them, sometimes +bringing up with it three or four together. One night we took +nearly twenty pounds of trout and eels, which, for the short time +we were out, may be considered very fair sport, and some of those +were of a very large size.</p> +<p>Should you notice this, I may be led to recur to the subject in +a future paper.</p> +<p>W.H.H.</p> +<hr /> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>A proud man is a fool in fermentation,</p> +<p>that swells and boils over like a porridge-pot.</p> +<p>He sets out his feathers like an owl,</p> +<p>to swell and seem bigger than he is.</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE TOPOGRAPHER.</h2> +<h3>AN EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF RIEVAULX AND BYLAND ABBEYS; AND TO +THE RESIDENCE OF LAURENCE STERNE, COXWOLD, YORKSHIRE.</h3> +<h4>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"The air around was breathing balm,</p> +<p class="i2">The aspen scarcely seem'd to sway;</p> +<p>And, as a sleeping infant calm,</p> +<p class="i2">The river stream'd away—</p> +<p>Devious as error—deep as love,</p> +<p>And blue and bright as heaven above."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><i>Alaric A. Watts</i>.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Though I am as romantic a being as ever breathed on the face of +this beautiful earth; yet, I will promise the reader, that in +detailing the events of an interesting day, I will not tinge them +with that colouring; yet, such a glorious bard as Wordsworth could, +alone, do justice to our excursion. Leave him to wander alone in +that woody dell, with the thrilling picture spread around +him—the sinking walls of elaborate Gothic, clouded by the +hanging woods—the rural dwellings of the illiterate peasantry +scattered below the templed mount—and the mourning stream and +its rustic bridge—thus entranced, his fairy spirit would pour +forth a flood of pensive and philosophic song.</p> +<p>It was on the dawning of a fine morning in August, that I left +the brick-and-mortar purlieus of home, and in company with two +young friends, commenced this excursion. The diversified chain of +the Hambleton Hills, bounding the fruitful valley of Mowbray, rose +at the distance of six miles before us; and whose summit we +intended reaching before breakfast. The varying aspect of these +rocky eminences requires the descriptive charms of Sir Walter +Scott, or the pencil of Salvator Rosa, to do them justice. Within +two miles of them, you might imagine yourself in the ruins of the +Roman amphitheatre, whose circular walls reared their dark-gray +forms to the heaven; and the inimitable description which Byron has +given us of that edifice, occurs to the recollection; though no +waving weeds and dew-nurtured trees crown the apparent +ruin—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Like laurel on the bald first Caesar's head."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>On a nearer view, they change their appearance, and you might +suppose that the remains of some fortified castle, typical of the +feudal system, looked over the heather which clothes their rocky +sides; whilst the detached pieces of rock, which rolled from the +summit eighty years ago, appear amongst the furze, like the tombs +of Jewish patriarchs in the valley of <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page118" name="page118"></a>[pg 118]</span> Jehosaphat at +Jerusalem, darkened by the lapse of ages. To the right of our path +lay the solitary and frail memorials of the monastery of Hode, +founded by Roger de Mowbray, and afterwards attached to the abbey +of Byland. Shortly after passing Hode, we arrived at the base of +Hambleton, and began to ascend its rocky front; we had climbed half +the ascent, when, on cautiously turning ourselves, an indescribable +picture presented itself in the vale and its objects below; the +solemn silence of the early hour—the first greeting of the +morning sun—the glittering and distant lake of Gormire, +guarded by towering hills to the right—and, to the left, +rocks which have stood whilst generations of heroes and kings have +passed away; and, beyond this vivid scene, in dim perspective, +arose the western hills, tinged with delicate blue, and scarcely +discernible from the clouds which floated over them. Even the +enraptured travellers, who stood gazing from the summit of Mont +Blanc, were not more delighted than the enthusiastic <i>trio</i> +who looked from the brow of Hambleton on that memorable morning. +But our object was not attained, and we set forward with +replenished vigour, to cross the heather-heath, whose bleak aspect +prepared us for the paradise which smiled below the other side of +the hills. The first prominent object which met our view, was the +terrace, with its classical temples at each of its terminations; +and next, the wood encircled hamlet of Scawton, at whose little +alehouse we enjoyed a hearty breakfast; and then set forward to +explore our beloved region of Rievaulx; our path being through a +mountainous wood, which nearly kissed the sky, and obscured the +rustic road which divided it: after several windings through this +leafy labyrinth, we arrived at a point where the wood was more +open, and the dell considerably wider. It was after passing a +picturesque cottage and bridge, that the first view of Rievaulx +Abbey broke upon us. It was then that the first outline of its +"Gothic grandeur" was displayed to us. Crossing the little bridge +of Rieval, we proceeded along the banks of the Rye, which morosely +rolled along, scarcely deigning to murmur its complaints to the +woody hills which skirted it, as if in pique for the ruin of its +sublime temple, and the disappearance of its monastic lords. The +village of Rieval, constructed out of the wreck of the spacious +abbey, displays some reverence for the preservation of inscriptions +dug out of the building; and the little windows which lit the cells +of studious monks five hundred years ago, now grace the cottages of +illiterate peasants. We took a facsimile of one inscription, in +Saxon letters, merely denoting the name of the monastery.</p> +<p>The rustic beauty of the hamlet has been copiously eulogized by +antiquarians and provincial historians. The beautiful foliage of +its trees, varying in colour, appears like fleecy clouds of +verdure, rising one above the other, over which a still deeper +shadow is cast by the towering woods on each side of the valley; +and in the midst of this fairy region, as if conscious of its proud +pre-eminence, rises the sacred edifice, clothed in mourning of +nature's deepest shade:<a id="footnotetag5" name= +"footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh! many an hour of ecstasy</p> +<p class="i2">I past within its fading towers;</p> +<p>When life, and love, and poesy,</p> +<p class="i2">Hung on my harp their sweetest flowers.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>To indulge a little in reverie—"how are the mighty +fallen!"—Here was once worshipped the virgin amidst the +glittering pomp of monkish solemnity; when burst the beams of +morning through the tracery of yon mighty window—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings,"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>and threw the glowing emblazonry of the tinted pane upon the +Mosaic pavement of the choir; while the loud and slowly-pealing +matin reverberated through the sumptuous church. Here was interred +with ceremony of waxen taper and mid-night requiem, the noble +founder of this dilapidated fane, Sir Walter L'Espec, beneath that +wreck of pillar and architrave and those carved remains of the +chisel's achievement—he who deemed that the sepulchre</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Should canopy his bones till doomsday;</p> +<p>But all things have their end."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The ruins of this religious house are more entire and superb +than any other in the kingdom. The nave of the church is wholly +gone; but the choir, one of its aisles, great part of the tower, +and both the transepts, still remain. The church, instead of being +east and west, approaches more to the direction of north and south; +so that the choir is at the south end, and the aisle which should +have been north, is on the east. Some have supposed this anomaly to +be produced at the rebuilding of the church; but Drake in his +"Evenings in Autumn," thinks it was in consequence of the +disposition of the ground, which forms a lofty mount on the east. +Adjoining the ruins of the nave on the west, are the remains of the +cloisters, measuring one hundred feet each way. On the opposite +side stands a splendid building, extending in length towards the +west one hundred feet, and in breadth <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page119" name="page119"></a>[pg 119]</span> thirty; this structure +appears to have been the refectory, accompanied by a music gallery. +Parallel to this, and in a line with the transept, is another +extensive ruin, several feet longer than the refectory, and about +the same breadth, which was the dormitory; at the west end of which +the walls are ancient, and seem to be coeval with the original +abbey.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href= +"#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> The form and ground plan of this +building are the same with the abbey of Whitby; though the latter +is not so copious in its dimensions. Several members of the noble +families of Ross, Scroop, Maltbys, and Oryby, were interred in the +chapter-house and choir here. Aelred, the third abbot of Rievaulx, +was a man of great literary qualifications, and this abbey +possessed an extensive library, which was destroyed by the Scots, +in one of their lawless incursions—when the studious produce +of the holy brotherhood, assembled by years of incessant study was +committed to the reckless flames—and doubtless amongst the +collection were many works of the learned abbot Aelred; a character +from whom we might suppose the "northern magician" had sketched the +striking portraiture of the enthusiastic father Eustace, in his +"Monastery."</p> +<p>After inspecting this interesting edifice, we left its hallowed +precincts, and took the hilly path leading to a beautiful terrace, +which overlooks the vale; each end of which is decorated with two +modern temples, one in the Grecian and the other in the Roman style +of architecture. Here are some gaudy copies of the old masters, +with some originals, which adorn the centre and side compartments +of the ceiling—Guido's Aurora, (copy); Hero and Leander; +Diana and Endymion; Hercules and Omphale, &c,—the whole +by the pencil of Bernini, an Italian artist. From this terrace the +view is enchanting; the distant hills of barren Hambleton subsiding +into the fruitful vale; and nearer, fertile fields intersected with +wood and mossy rocks; and immediately beneath the eye, the pale and +ivied ruin, mouldering over the dust of heroes who fought at +Cressy, and of noble pilgrims who died in the Holy Land, and were +conveyed to this far-famed sanctuary for interment—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Which now lies naked to the injuries</p> +<p>Of stormy weather."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Not far from this Elysium is the seat of Lord Feversham, (late +Charles S. Duncombe, Esq.) the owner of the estate, called Duncombe +Park, where is a piece of fine sculpture, called the Dog of +Alcibiades, said to be the work of Myron, and ranked among the five +dogs of antiquity. Here is also the famous Discobolus, which is +esteemed the first statue in England. Among the splendid collection +of paintings is a candle-light scene (woman and child) by Rubens, +which cost 1,500 guineas. The mansion was designed by Sir J. +Vanbrugh. Leaving this bewitching retreat, we proceeded down the +sides of the woody mount; and after some tedious inquiries +respecting our road through this wild region, we were directed to +take a path through a sloping wood; but useless are all attempts to +describe our route through this wilderness. Sometimes our weary +feet were relieved from the rough stones and briars by an +intervening lawn; and at others we were entirely shrouded from +"day's garish eye" by entwining trees. Our rugged pilgrimage was +rendered more endurable by the anticipation of shortly seeing +Byland abbey; but still my romantic spirit was loitering in the +pillared aisles of Rievaulx. By and by we quitted the wood, and +having descended a deep ravine, we climbed a barren moor, over +which we had proceeded half way, when to my unutterable joy, we +discovered the far-off fane of Rievaulx, whose wan towers just +peered from out of the hanging woods. Pursuing our way we soon +exchanged the trackless moor for a much more grateful domain. A +sloping wood on each side of us opened into a wider expanse, and +the turrets of Byland abbey appeared in the distance. At this +moment we forgot the toil of threading harassing woods and crossing +wide heaths. After refreshing ourselves we proceeded to view the +ruin.</p> +<p>Byland abbey was founded in 1177, by the famous Roger de +Mowbray, who amply endowed it, and was buried here. He retired +hither after being perplexed and fatigued with useless crusades, +and suffering the deprivation of nearly all his property by Henry +II. Martin Stapylton, Esq. the present proprietor of Byland, +discovered from some ancient manuscripts the precise situation in +the ruin, where were deposited the bones of the illustrious +chieftain; and after removing these relics of mortality which had +been hid for six hundred years, he conveyed them in his carriage to +Myton, and interred them in the church-yard. The abbey of Byland is +memorable for having given concealment, (though not a sanctuary!) +to Edward II. who, when flying from his enemies in the north, in +1322, took shelter here, and was surprised by them when at dinner, +narrowly escaping, by the swiftness of his horse, to York; and +leaving his money, plate, and privy seal, a booty to the savage and +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page120" name="page120"></a>[pg +120]</span> exterminating Scots. Byland abbey has nearly +disappeared; the only perfect remains are the west end, a fine +specimen of Saxon and Gothic, and a small portion of the choir. The +church, its transepts, north and south aisles, and chancel, are +gone; and the dormitory, refectory, cloisters, &c. have +scarcely left any trace of their gorgeous existence. The lonely ash +and sturdy briar vegetate over the ashes of barons and prelates; +and the unfeeling peasants intrude their rustic games on the holy +place, ignorant of its former importance, and unconscious of the +poetical feeling which its remains inspire. We quitted its interior +to inspect a gateway situated at a considerable distance from the +principal ruin, through which the abbey appears to great advantage +about four hundred yards beyond this arch.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>ON VIEWING THE RUINS OF BYLAND ABBEY THROUGH THE DETACHED +GATEWAY ON THE WEST.</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh! beauteous picture! thou art ruin's theme,</p> +<p class="i2">And envious time the Gothic canvass sears.</p> +<p class="i2">Thy soft decay now almost wakes my tears,</p> +<p>And art thou mutable? or do I dream?</p> +<p>The transept moulders to its mound again;</p> +<p class="i2">The fluted window buries in its fall</p> +<p class="i2">The rainbow flooring of the fretted hall;</p> +<p>And long the altar on that earth has lain.</p> +<p>Now could I weep to see each mourning weed</p> +<p class="i2">So deeply dark around thy wasting brow;</p> +<p class="i2">If life and art are then so brief—I bow</p> +<p>With less of sorrow to what is decreed:</p> +<p class="i2">Ye faded cloisters—ye departing aisles!</p> +<p class="i2">Your day is past, and dim your glory smiles!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Four miles from Byland is Coxwold, once the residence of the +celebrated Laurence Sterne, author of <i>Tristram Shandy</i>, +&c. It is a beautiful and romantic retreat, excelling the +"laughing vine-clad hills of France," which attracted the spirit of +our English Rabelais to luxuriate amidst them. Here we gained +admittance to the little church, an interesting edifice, noted for +its sumptuous monuments to commemorate the Fauconbridge and +Belasyse families, and for its being the scene of Sterne's curacy. +A small barrel organ now graces its gallery, which responded to the +morning and evening service in Yorick's day. On prying about the +belfry we discovered an old helmet, with the gilding on it still +discernible, which we at first supposed to be intended as a +decoration to some tomb; but its weight and size precluded that +supposition. In the church of Coxwold, the moralist might amass +tomes of knowledge, and acquire the most forcible conviction of the +fleeting nature of earth and its possessors. On glancing around he +would perceive the heraldic honours of a most noble and ancient +family now extinct—the paltry remains of the splendid helmet, +which had decked, perhaps, the proud hero of feudal power, thrown +into a degrading hole with the sexton's spade, and the sacred +rostrum where the eloquence of the second Rabelais has astonished +the village auditors, and perhaps led them to doubt that such +intellect was mutable, now filled by another! Our curiosity was +attracted, on leaving the church, to Shandy Hall, once the +residence of Sterne, situated at the termination of the village. +Two females, elegantly attired in mourning, were parading the +garden; immediately I saw them I thought of the beautiful Eliza; +she to whom the fickle Yorick swore eternal attachment, and then +"lit up his heart at the shrine of another," leaving Eliza to +wonder—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"———that fresh features</p> +<p>Have such a charm for us poor human creatures."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Perhaps in this edifice, Eugenius, (the witty Duke of +Wharton,<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href= +"#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>) and his boon companion, have sported +their puns and repartees over the glass; whilst the laughter-moving +Sterne, pursuing the dictates of his heart, has wet the dimpling +cheek of Eugenius by some random effusion of imagination and +sensibility. What two noble spirits have there displayed their +intellectual brilliance; and what a gratification to have heard the +author of "The Monk at Calais," and "My uncle Toby," eliciting +smiles and tears by turns, till the delighted heart could scarcely +determine whether joy or sorrow caused the most exquisite +feeling.</p> +<p>But to conclude our peregrination—the glory of Hode, +Rievaulx, and Byland abbeys has departed—their founders, +ecclesiastics and patrons, have become dust—the crumbling +arch and tottering pillar alone record "the whereabouts" of the +rendezvous of heroes and kings—and rooks construct their +dwellings where the silver crucifix once reared its massy form, +before crowds of adoring monks—the hoarse croak of the raven +is now heard through that valley where pealed the vesper bell; and +the melancholy music of the lonely river succeeds the solemn chant +of mass;—laugh and jest resound where monkish praise quivered +through the Gothic space—the helmet and coronet of blood and +birth are fallen from their wearers—and the genius and +eccentricity of Sterne, and the wit of Wharton, are for ever +extinct:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"And fortress, fane and wealthy peer</p> +<p>Along the tide of time are borne.</p> +<p>And feudal strife, with noble tears</p> +<p>Forgotten in the lapse of years."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>H.</p> +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page121" name="page121"></a>[pg +121]</span> +<h3>CROMLEH IN ANGLESEA.</h3> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/328-2.png"><img width="100%" src="images/328-2.png" alt= +"Comleh" /></a> Cromleh in Anglesea.</div> +<p>Cromlehs are among the most interesting of all monumental relics +of our ancestors; but the question of their original purposes has +excited much controversy among the lovers of antiquarian lore. They +are immense stones, by some believed to have been the altars, by +others, the tombs, of the Druids; but Mr. Toland explains the word +<i>cromleac</i>, or <i>cromleh</i>, from the Irish <i>crom</i>, to +adore, and <i>leac</i>, a stone—stone of adoration. Crom was +also one of the Irish names of God; hence cromleac may mean the +stone of Crom, or of the Supreme God. The cromleac is also called +<i>Bothal</i>, from the Irish word <i>Both</i>, a house, and +<i>al</i>, or <i>Allah</i>, God; this is evidently the same with +<i>Bethel</i>, or house of God, of the Hebrews.</p> +<p>The above vignette represents a Cromleh at Plas Newydd, the seat +of the Marquess of Anglesea, in the Isle of Anglesea. This part of +the island is finely wooded, and forcibly recalls to the mind its +ancient state, when it was the celebrated seat of the Druids, the +terrific rites of whose religion were performed in the gloom of the +thickest groves.</p> +<p>The Cromleh at Plas Newydd is 12 feet 9 inches long, and 13 feet +2 inches broad, in the broadest part. Its greatest depth or +thickness is 5 feet. Its contents cannot be less in cubic feet and +decimal parts than 392,878,125. It follows, therefore, from +calculating according to the specific gravity of stone of its kind, +that it cannot weigh less than 30 tons 7 hundreds. The engraving is +copied from "The Celtic Druids," by Godfrey Higgins, Esq. F.S.A. +4to, 1827, one of the most valuable antiquarian volumes it has ever +been our good fortune to secure; and by the aid of an esteemed +correspondent, we hope shortly to introduce a few of its +curiosities more in detail than we are enabled to do at +present.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>NOTES OF A READER.</h2> +<h3>WOMAN AND SONG.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From a graceful little volume, entitled, "Poetical +Recreations," by C.A. Hulbert.</i>)</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Oh, who shall say that woman's ear</p> +<p class="i2">Thrills to the minstrel's voice in vain?</p> +<p>She hath a balm diffusing tear,</p> +<p class="i2">She hath a softer, holier strain—</p> +<p>A cheering smile of hope to give,</p> +<p>A voice to bid the mourner live.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>She hath a milder beam of praise,</p> +<p class="i2">Her heart a soil where Truth may bloom,</p> +<p>And while her drooping flowers we raise,</p> +<p class="i2">They yield us back a rich perfume.</p> +<p>Her influence bids our talents rise</p> +<p>'Neath Love and Fancy's native skies!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>I heard an infant's lisping tongue</p> +<p class="i2">Address his mother's smiling eye,</p> +<p>And fondly ask his favourite song—</p> +<p class="i2">His soul seemed wrapt in harmony;</p> +<p>She sung—and gave the cheering kiss,</p> +<p>Which made the poet's fortune his.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>His mother saw his fancies stray</p> +<p class="i2">To fragrant poesy, and leave</p> +<p>The dull pursuit of fortune's way,</p> +<p class="i2">'Till some would chide and others grieve;</p> +<p>But she had marked the rising flame,</p> +<p>And led and nourish'd it to fame!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>When verse his mind to writing bore,</p> +<p class="i2">And genius shed its lustre there,</p> +<p>How proudly did she con it o'er,</p> +<p class="i2">Unconscious fell the blissful tear:</p> +<p>'Twas her's to lighten care's control,</p> +<p>And raise the drooping, pensive soul.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Her labour past, another breast,</p> +<p class="i2">Still lovely woman's, urged his pen—</p> +<p>Pure love was sent to make him blest,</p> +<p class="i2">And bid his fancies flow again:</p> +<p>She yielded to his minstrel pride</p> +<p>The heart, the hand to lips denied!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Quick roll'd the years in tranquil peace,</p> +<p class="i2">The peace by harmony begun.</p> +<p>And numbers charm'd each day of bliss,</p> +<p class="i2">That flowing verse and concord won:</p> +<p>His Mary's music soothed his woe,</p> +<p>And chased the tear that chanced to flow.</p> +</div> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page122" name="page122"></a>[pg +122]</span> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Death came—and Poetry was o'er,</p> +<p class="i2">The chords of song had ceas'd to thrill,</p> +<p>The Minstrel's name was heard no more,</p> +<p class="i2">But one true heart was heaving still—</p> +<p>His Mary's voice would nightly weave</p> +<p>Its lone, deep notes around his grave!</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr /> +<h3>CLAUDE LORRAINE.</h3> +<p>Lanzi, in his <i>History of Italian Painting</i>, gives the +following exquisite encomium on this prince of landscape +painters:</p> +<p>"His landscapes present to the spectator an endless variety; so +many views of land and water, so many interesting objects, that, +like an astonished traveller, the eye is obliged to pause and +measure the extent of the prospect, and his distances of mountain +and of sea, are so illusive, that the spectator feels, as it were, +fatigued by gazing. The edifices and temples which so finely round +off his compositions, the lakes peopled with aquatic birds, the +foliage diversified in conformity to the different kinds of trees, +all is nature in him; every object arrests the attention of an +amateur, every thing furnishes instruction to a professor. There is +not an effect of light, or a reflection in water which he has not +imitated; and the various changes of the day are nowhere better +represented than in Claude. In a word, he is truly the painter who, +in depicting the three regions of air, earth, and water, has +combined the whole universe. His atmosphere almost always bears the +impress of the sky at Rome, whose horizon is, from its situation, +rosy, dewy, and warm. He did not possess any peculiar merit in his +figures, which are insipid, and generally too much attenuated; +hence he was accustomed to remark to the purchasers of his +pictures, that he sold them the landscape, and presented them with +the figures gratis."</p> +<hr /> +<p>"TINTORETTO," says his biographer, "produced works in which the +most captious of critics could not find a shade of defect."</p> +<hr /> +<h3>KISSING THE FOOT.</h3> +<p>Rollo, the celebrated Danish hero, (whose stature is said to +have been so gigantic, that no horse could carry him) on becoming a +feudatory of the French crown, was required, in conformity with +general usage, to kiss the foot of his superior lord; but he +refused to stoop to what he considered so great a degradation; yet +as the homage could not be dispensed with, he ordered one of his +warriors to perform it for him. The latter, as proud as his chief, +instead of stooping to the royal foot, raised it so high, that the +poor monarch fell to the ground, amid the laughter of the +assembly.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>BOHEMIAN BLESSING.</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Now sleep in blessedness—till morn</p> +<p class="i2">Brings its sweet light;</p> +<p>And hear the awful voice of God</p> +<p class="i2">Bid ye—Good Night!</p> +<p>Yet ere the hand of slumber close</p> +<p class="i2">The eye of care,</p> +<p>For the poor huntsman's soul's repose</p> +<p class="i2">Pour out one prayer.</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr /> +<h3>REVIEWING.</h3> +<p>There are three ways of reviewing a book. First, to take no more +notice of it, or of its author, than if neither the one nor the +other had ever been produced—cautiously to avoid the most +distant allusions to their names, characters, or professions, +thereby avoiding all personality, in their case at least, all +intrusion, either into public or private life. Secondly, to select +all the good passages, and to comment upon them with such power and +vivacity, that beside your pearls they seem paste. Thirdly, to +select all the best passages, and to string them all together on a +very slight thread—like dew-drops on gossamer—and +boldly palm it upon the public as an original +article.—<i>Blackwood's Mag</i>.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>MOTTOES FOR SUN DIALS.</h3> +<h4><i>By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles</i>.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">MORNING SUN.—<i>Tempus volat</i>.</p> +<p>OH! early passenger, look up—be wise,</p> +<p>And think how, night and day, TIME ONWARD</p> +<p class="i4">FLIES.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>NOON.—<i>Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum</i>.</p> +<p>Life steals away—this hour, oh man, is lent thee,</p> +<p>Patient to "WORK THE WORK OF HIM WHO SENT</p> +<p class="i4">THEE."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4">SETTING SUN.—<i>Redibo, tu nunquam</i>.</p> +<p>Haste, traveller, the sun is sinking now—</p> +<p>He shall return again—but never thou.</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr /> +<h3>THE PINE-APPLE.</h3> +<p>Oviedo extols the pine-apple above all the fruits which grew in +the famous gardens of his time, and above all that he had tasted in +his travels in Spain, France, England, Germany, the whole of Italy, +Sicily, the Tyrol, and the whole of the Low Countries. "No fruit," +says he, "have I known or seen in all these parts, nor do I think +that in the world there is one better than it, or equal to it, in +all those points which I shall now mention, and which are, beauty +of appearance, sweetness of smell, taste of excellent savour; so +that there being three senses out of the five which can be +gratified by fruit, such is its excellence above all other fruits +or dainties in the world, that it gratifies those three, and even +the fourth also; to wit the touch. As for the fifth, that is to +say, the hearing, fruit, indeed, can neither hear nor listen, but +in its place the reader may hear and attend to what is said of this +fruit, and he will perceive that I do not deceive <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page123" name="page123"></a>[pg 123]</span> myself +in what I shall say of it. For albeit fruit can as little be said +to possess any of the other four senses, in relation to the which I +have, as above, spoken, of these I am to be understood in the +exercise and person of him who eats, not of the fruit itself, which +hath no life, save the vegetative one, and wants both the sensitive +and rational, all three of which exist in man. And he, looking at +these pines, and smelling to them, and tasting them, and feeling +them, will justly, considering these four parts or particularities, +attribute to it the principality above all other fruits."</p> +<hr /> +<h3>STONE-MASON'S CRITICISM</h3> +<p>Mr. Bowles, the vicar of Bremhill, Wilts, is accustomed +occasionally to write epitaphs for the young and aged dead among +his own parishioners. An epitaph of his, on an aged father and +mother, written in the character of a most exemplary son—the +father living to eighty-seven years—ran thus:—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"My father—my poor mother—both are gone,</p> +<p>And o'er your cold remains I place this stone,</p> +<p>In memory of your virtues. May it tell</p> +<p>How <i>long one</i> parent lived, and <i>both</i> how well,"</p> +<p class="i2">&c.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>When this was shown to the stone-mason critic, (and Mr. Bowles +acknowledges he has heard worse public critics in his time,) he +observed, that the lines <i>might</i> do with a <i>little</i> +alteration—thus:—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"My father, and my mother too, are dead,</p> +<p>And here I <i>put</i> this grave-stone at their head;</p> +<p>My father lived to eighty-seven, my mother</p> +<p>No quite <i>so long</i>—and <i>one</i> died after +<i>t'other</i>."</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr /> +<h3>PLEASURES OF HISTORY.</h3> +<p>The effect of historical reading is analogous, in many respects +to that produced by foreign travel. The student, like the tourist, +is transported into a new state of society. He sees new fashions. +He hears new modes of expression. His mind enlarged by +contemplating the wide diversities of laws, of morals, of manners. +But men may travel far, and return with minds as contracted as if +they had never retired from their own market-towns. In the same +manner, men may know the dates of many battles, and the genealogies +of many noble houses, and yet be no wiser. Most people look at past +times, as princes look at foreign countries. More than one +illustrious stranger has landed on our island amidst the shouts of +a mob, has dined with the king, has hunted with the master of the +stag-hounds, has seen the guards reviewed, and a Knight of the +Garter installed; has cantered along Regent-street; has visited St. +Paul's, and noted down its dimensions, and has then departed, +thinking that he has seen England. He has, in fact, seen a few +public buildings, public men, and public ceremonies. But of the +vast and complex system of society, of the fine shades of national +character, of the practical operation of government and laws, he +knows nothing.—<i>Edin. Rev.</i></p> +<hr /> +<h3>CHARMS OF SAVAGE LIFE.</h3> +<p>It is remarkable that whites or creoles do not always avail +themselves of opportunities to return to civilized society. There +seem to be pleasures in savage life, which those who have once +tasted, seldom wish to exchange for the charms of more polished +intercourse. For example, a creole boy was carried off at the age +of 13; at 26 he returned to Buenos Ayres, on some speculation of +barter. He said that whoever had lived upon horse-flesh would never +eat beef, unless driven by necessity or hunger; he described the +flesh of a colt to be the most deliciously flavoured of all viands. +This man, having transacted the business which led him to Buenos +Ayres, returned voluntarily to his native haunts, and is probably +living amongst the Indians to this day.—<i>Mem. Gen. +Miller</i>.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>PATRONS OF ASTRONOMY.</h3> +<p>The Emperor of Russia has presented to the Observatory of +Dorpat, a magnificent telescope by Franenhofer, with a focal length +of 13 feet, and an aperture of 9 inches; the cost was £1,300. +The king of Bavaria followed his example by ordering a still finer +instrument for the same purpose; and the king of France, with a +liberality still more patriotic, has had executed in his own +capital, an achromatic telescope, surpassing them all in magnitude +and power. What a misfortune it is to English science, that the +name of the most accomplished prince who has as yet occupied the +throne of Charles I. does not appear in the list of sovereigns, who +have been thus rivalling each other in the patronage of astronomy! +What a mortification to English feeling, that the subject of +sidereal astronomy created by the munificence of George III. should +thus be transferred to the patronage of foreign monarchs. A slight +exception must be made in the case of Edinburgh. During the King's +visit, the observatory had permission to take the name of the +<i>Royal Observatory of George IV.</i>; and it has received from +government £2,000. to purchase +instruments.—<i>Quarterly Rev</i>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page124" name="page124"></a>[pg +124]</span> +<h2>SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS</h2> +<h3>DINNERS.</h3> +<p>A Family Dinner! Pot-luck, as it is called, in +Scotland—when the man's wife is in the sulks, the wife's man +proportionably savage, the children blear-eyed from the recent +blubber in the nursery—the governess afraid to lift her eyes +from her plate—the aunt sourer than the vinegar +cruet—and we—alas! the stranger, stepping in to take +pot-luck—we, poor old Christopher North, thanklessly +volunteering to help the cock-y-leekie, that otherwise would +continue to smoke and steam unstirred in its truly classical +utensil! What looking of inutterable things! As impossible to break +the silence with your tongue, as to break pond-ice ten inches thick +with your knuckle. In comes the cock that made the cock-y-leekie, +boiled down in his tough antiquity to a tatter. He disappears among +the progeny, and you are now tied to the steak. You find there +employment sufficient to justify any silence; and hope during +mastication that you have not committed any crime since Christmas, +of an enormity too great to be expiated by condemnation to the +sulks.</p> +<p>A Literary Dinner! apparently the remains of the Seven Young Men +sprinkled along both sides of the table—with here and there +"a three-times skimmed sky-blue" interposed; on each side of the +Lord of the Mansion, a philosopher—on each hand of the lady, +a poet—somewhere or other about the board, a Theatrical +Star—a Strange Fiddler—an Outlandish +Traveller—and a Spanish Refugee. As Mr. Wordsworth rather +naughtily sayeth,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"All silent, and all damn'd!"</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Still the roof does not fall, although the chandelier burns dim +in sympathy,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"And all the air a solemn stillness holds."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Will not a single soul in all this wide world, as he hopes to be +saved, utter so much as one solitary syllable? Oh! what would not +the lady and the gentleman of the house give even for a remark on +the weather from the mouth of poet, philosopher, sage, or hero! +Hermetically sealed! Lo! the author of the very five-guinea quarto, +that lay open, in complimentary exposure, at a plate, up stairs on +the drawing-room table—with his round unmeaning face +"breathing tranquillity"—sound asleep! With eyes fixed on the +ceiling, sits at his side the profound Parent of a Treatise on the +Sinking Fund. The absent gentleman, who has kept stroking his chin +for the last half hour, as if considering how he is off for +soap,—would you believe it,—has just returned from +abroad, and has long been justly celebrated for his conversational +talents in all the coteries and courts of Europe. If that +lank-and-leather-jawed gentleman, with complexion bespeaking a +temperament dry and adust, and who has long been sedulously +occupied in feeling the edge of his fruit-knife with the ball of +his thumb—do not commit suicide before +September,—Lavater must have been as great a goose as Gall. +You might not only hear a mouse stirring—a pin +dropping—but either event would rouse the whole company like +a peal of thunder. You may have seen Madame Toussaud's +images,—Napoleon, Wellington, Scott, Canning, all sitting +together, in full fig, with faces and figures in opposite +directions, each looking as like himself as possible, so that you +could almost believe you heard them speak. You get rather +angry—you wonder that they don't speak. Even so with those +living images. But the exhibition is over—the ladies leave +the room—and after another hour of silence, more profound +than that of the grave, all the images simultaneously rise up +and—no wonder people believe in ghosts—disappear.</p> +<p>A Return Dinner! Thirty people of all sorts and sizes, +jammed—glued together—shoulder to shoulder—knee +to knee—all with their elbows in each other's +stomachs—most faces as red as fire, in spite of all those +floods of perspiration—two landed gentlemen from the +Highlands—a professor—four officers, naval and +military, in his Majesty's and in the Company's service—some +advocates—two persons like ministers—abundance of +W.S.'s of course—an accoucheur—old ladies with +extraordinary things upon their heads, and grey hair dressed in a +mode fashionable before the flood—a few fat mothers of +promising families—some eldest daughters now nubile—a +female of no particular age, with a beard—two widows, the one +buxom and blooming, with man-fond eyes, the other pale and pensive, +with long, dark eye-lashes, and lids closed as if to hide a +tear—there they all sit steaming through three +courses—well does the right hand of the one know what the +left hand of the other is doing—there is much suffering, +mingled with much enjoyment—for though hot, they are +hungry—while all idea of speaking having been, from the +commencement of the feast, unanimously abandoned—you might +imagine yourself at <span class="pagenum"><a id="page125" name= +"page125"></a>[pg 125]</span> an anniversary GAUDEAMUS of the Deaf +and Dumb.—<i>Blackwood's Mag.</i></p> +<hr /> +<h3>THE SCOLD.</h3> +<h4>IMITATED FROM BERNI.</h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>To dine on devils without drinking,</p> +<p>To want a seat when almost sinking,</p> +<p>To pay to-day—receive to-morrow,</p> +<p>To sit at feasts in silent sorrow,</p> +<p>To sweat in winter—in the boot</p> +<p>To feel the gravel cut one's foot,</p> +<p>Or a cursed flea within the stocking</p> +<p>Chase up and down—are very shocking:</p> +<p>With one hand dirty, one hand clean,</p> +<p>Or with one slipper to be seen:</p> +<p>To be detain'd when most in hurry,</p> +<p>Might put Griselda in a flurry;—</p> +<p>But these, and every other bore,</p> +<p>If to the list you add a score,</p> +<p>Are not so bad, upon my life,</p> +<p>As that one scourge—a scolding wife!</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>New Monthly Magazine</i>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>SELECT BIOGRAPHY</h2> +<h3>LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER.</h3> +<h4><i>Concluded from page 113</i>.</h4> +<p>Ledyard was one of the marines who were present at Cook's death, +of which he gives an account (as appears from extracts of his +journal already mentioned,) somewhat different from that in the +authentic narrative of the voyage—and different, also, we +must add, from his own private journal, which, at least the portion +of it relating to that event, is still in the Admiralty. It must be +mentioned in favour of Ledyard's sagacity, that the visit to Nootka +Sound suggested to him the commercial advantages to be derived from +a trade between the north-west coast of America and China; and the +views which he took of this subject very much influenced the +succeeding events of his life.</p> +<p>Towards the end of December, 1782, we find Ledyard serving on +board a king's ship in Long Island Sound, from which he obtained +leave of absence to visit his mother; but, either from a sense of +duty and honour, which obliged him not to act with the enemies of +his country, or from a dislike of the service, he never returned. +He had conceived, and now began to endeavour to execute, the grand +project of a trading voyage to Nootka; for this purpose he went to +New York and Philadelphia, and, after addressing himself to various +individuals, he prevailed at last on the Honourable Robert Morris +to promise him a ship. The projected voyage, however, was +ultimately abandoned.</p> +<p>Finding, nevertheless, that they all failed him, and heartily +sick of the want of enterprise among his own countrymen, he +resolved to try his fortune in Europe. He visited Cadiz, from +thence took a passage to Brest, and from Brest to L'Orient, where +he was successful in prevailing on some merchants to fit out a ship +for his north-west adventure; but this project also failed, and +Ledyard became once more the sport of accident.</p> +<p>He now proceeded to Paris, where he was received with great +kindness by Mr. Jefferson, the American minister, who so highly +approved of his favourite scheme of an expedition to the north-west +coast, that, we are told by his biographer, the journey of Lewis +and Clarke, twenty years afterwards, had its origin in the views +which Jefferson received from Ledyard. Here, also, he met with the +notorious Paul Jones, who was looking after the proceeds of the +prizes which he had taken and carried into the ports of France. +This adventurer entered warmly into his views, and undertook to fit +out two vessels for the expedition. It was settled that Jones was +to command the vessels, and carry the furs to the China market, +while Ledyard was to remain behind and collect a fresh cargo ready +for their return, after which he meant to perambulate the continent +of America, and show his countrymen the path to unbounded wealth. +Jones, it seems, was so much taken with the plausibility of a +scheme, which presented at once the prospect of adventure, fame, +and profit, that he advanced money to Ledyard to purchase a part of +the cargo for the outfit; but, being suddenly called away to +L'Orient, to look after his prize concerns, his zeal for this grand +scheme began to cool, and, in a few months, the whole fabric fell +to the ground.</p> +<p>Ledyard now felt himself a sort of wandering vagabond, without +employment, motive, or means of support; the supplies he had +received from Jones had ceased, and he was compelled to become a +pensioner on the bounty of the American minister and a few friends. +It would appear, however, from some lively letters written by him +at Paris, that his flow of spirits did not forsake him.</p> +<p>"The two Fitzhughs," he says, "dine with me to-day in my +chamber, together with our worthy consul, Barclay, and that lump of +universality, colonel Franks. But such a set of moneyless rascals +have never appeared, since the epoch of the happy villain Falstaff. +I have but five French crowns in the world; Franks has not a sol; +and the Fitzhughs cannot get their tobacco money. Every day of my +life," he continues, "is a day of expectation, and, consequently, a +day of disappointment; whether I shall have a morsel of bread to +eat at the end of two <span class="pagenum"><a id="page126" name= +"page126"></a>[pg 126]</span> months, is as much an uncertainty as +it was fourteen months ago, and not more so."</p> +<p>While in this state of penury he received a visit, the object of +which was so creditable to a gentleman still living, and not +unknown in the annals of science, that it gives us pleasure to +print the story in Ledyard's own words:—</p> +<p>"Permit me to relate to you an incident. About a fortnight ago, +Sir James Hall,<a id="footnotetag8" name= +"footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> an English +gentleman, on his way from Paris to Cherbourg, stopped his coach at +our door, and came up to my chamber. I was in bed at six o'clock in +the morning, but having flung on my <i>robe de chambre</i>, I met +him at the door of the ante-chamber. I was glad to see him, but +surprised. He observed, that he had endeavoured to make up his +opinion of me, with as much exactness as possible, and concluded +that no kind of visit whatever would surprise me. I could do no +otherwise than remark, that his <i>opinion</i> surprised me at +least, and the conversation took another turn. In walking across +the chamber, he laughingly put his hand on a six livre piece, and a +louis d'or that lay on my table, and with a half stifled blush, +asked me how I was in the money way. Blushes commonly beget +blushes, and I blushed partly because he did, and partly on other +accounts. 'If fifteen guineas,' said he, interrupting the answer he +had demanded, 'will be of any service to you, there they are,' and +he put them on the table. 'I am a traveller myself, and though I +have some fortune to support my travels, yet I have been so +situated as to want money, which you ought not to do. You have my +address in London.' He then wished me a good morning and left me. +This gentleman was a total stranger to the situation of my +finances, and one that I had, by mere accident, met at an ordinary +in Paris."</p> +<p>Ledyard observes, that he had no more idea of receiving money +from this gentleman than from Tippoo Saib. "However," he says, "I +took it without any hesitation, and told him, I would be as +complaisant to him if ever occasion offered."</p> +<p>His schemes for a north-west voyage, either for trade or +discovery, being now wholly abandoned, he set about planning, as +the only remaining expedient, a journey by land through the +northern regions of Europe and Asia, then to cross Behring's +Straits to the continent of America, to proceed down the coast to a +more southern latitude, and to cross the whole of that continent +from the western to the eastern shore. The empress of Russia was +applied to for her permission and protection, but while waiting for +her answer Ledyard received an invitation to London from his +eccentric friend, Sir James Hall. He found, on his arrival there, +that an English ship was in complete readiness to sail for the +Pacific Ocean, in which Sir James had procured him a free passage, +and to be put on shore at any spot he might choose on the +north-west coast. The amiable baronet, moreover, presented him with +twenty guineas, as Ledyard says, <i>pro bono publico</i>, and with +which he tells us, "he bought two great dogs, an Indian pipe, and a +hatchet." In a few days the vessel went down the Thames from +Deptford, and Ledyard thought it the happiest moment of his life; +but such is the uncertainty of human expectations, while he was +indulging in day-dreams of the fame and honour which awaited him, +he was once more doomed to suffer the agonies of a disappointment +to his hopes, the more severe, as being so near their +consummation—the vessel was seized by a custom-house officer, +brought back, and exchequered.</p> +<p>This was undoubtedly the most severe blow he had yet received; +but Ledyard never desponded—no sooner was one of his castles +demolished, than he set about building another. "I shall make the +tour of the globe," he says, "from London eastward, on foot." To +aid him in this object, a subscription was raised by Sir Joseph +Banks, Sir James Hall, and some others. By this means he arrived at +Hamburgh; whence he writes to colonel Smith:—"Here I am with +ten guineas exactly, and in perfect health. One of my dogs is no +more: I lost him in my passage up the river Elbe, in a snow storm: +I was out in it forty hours in an open boat."</p> +<p>At the tavern he went to, he learnt that a Major Langhorn, an +American officer, "a very good kind of a man," as his host +described him, "and an odd kind of a man, one who had travelled +much, and fond of travelling in his own way," had left his baggage +behind, which was sent after him to Copenhagen, but that, by some +accident, it had never reached him. He had left Hamburgh, the host +told him, with one spare shirt, and very few other articles of +clothing, and added, that he must necessarily be in distress. This +man, thought Ledyard to himself, is just suited to be the companion +of my travels. The sympathy was irresistible; besides, he might be +in want of money; this was an appeal to his generosity, which was +equally <span class="pagenum"><a id="page127" name= +"page127"></a>[pg 127]</span> irresistible to one who, like +Ledyard, had ten guineas in his pocket. "I will fly to him and lay +my little all at his feet: he is my countryman, a gentleman, and a +traveller, and Copenhagen is not much out of my way to +Petersburgh," and, accordingly, in the month of January, 1787, +after a long and tedious journey, in the middle of winter, through +Sweden and Finland, we find him in Copenhagen, having discovered +Langhorn shut up in his room, without being able to stir abroad for +want of money and decent clothing. After remaining a fortnight, he +made a proposal to the Major to accompany him to St. Petersburgh. +"No: I esteem you, but no man on earth shall travel with me the way +I do," was the abrupt refusal to the man who had gone out of the +way several hundred miles to relieve his wants, and given him his +last shilling.</p> +<p>The visit being ended, and the amicable partnership dissolved, +it became necessary for our traveller to think of raising the +supplies for a journey round the Gulf of Bothnia, which was now +rendered impassable, the distance being not less than twelve +hundred miles, chiefly over trackless snows, in regions thinly +peopled, the nights long, and the cold intense; and, after all, +gaining only, in the direct route, about fifty miles. A Mr. +Thompson accepted his bill on Colonel Smith, for a sum which, he +says, "has saved me from perdition, and will enable me to reach +Petersburgh." This journey he accomplished within seven weeks; but +he writes to Mr. Jefferson, "I cannot tell you by what means I +came, and hardly know by what means I shall quit it." Through the +influence of Professor Pallas, but more especially by the +assistance of a Russian officer, he obtained the passport of the +empress, then on her route to the Crimea, in fifteen days. His long +and dreary journey having exhausted his money, and worn out his +clothes, he drew on Sir Joseph Banks for twenty guineas, which that +munificent patron of science and enterprise did not hesitate to +pay.</p> +<p>Fortunately, a Scotch physician, of the name of Brown, was +proceeding in the service of the empress as far as the province of +Kolyvan, who offered him a seat in his kabitka, and thus assisted +him on his journey for more than three thousand miles. Having +reached Irkutsk, he remained there about ten days, and left it in +company with lieutenant Laxman, a Swedish officer, to embark on the +Lena, at a point one hundred and fifty miles distant from Irkutsk, +with the intention of floating down its current to Yakutsk. On his +arrival at this place, he waited on the commandant, told him he +wished to press forward, with all expedition, to Okotsk before the +winter should shut in, that he might secure an early passage in the +spring to the American continent. The commandant assured him that +such a journey was already impossible; that the governor-general, +from whom he had brought letters, ordered him to show all possible +kindness and service, "and the first and best service," said he, +"is to beseech you not to attempt to reach Okotsk this winter." +Ledyard still persisting to proceed, a trader was brought in, who, +in like manner, declared the journey utterly impracticable.</p> +<p>While thus detained for the winter at Yakutsk, he drew up some +very just observations on the Tartars, which were afterwards +published.</p> +<p>He had not remained long at Yakutsk, when Captain Billings +returned from the Kolyma. This officer had attended the astronomer +Bayley, as his assistant, on the last voyage of Cook, and was, of +course, well known to Ledyard. Being on his journey to Irkutsk, he +invited Ledyard to accompany him thither. They travelled in sledges +up the Lena, and reached Irkutsk in seventeen days, being a +distance of fifteen hundred miles. Scarcely, however, had he +arrived at this place when he was put under arrest, by an order +from the empress. He now experienced no more of that concern for +his welfare on the part of the commandant, and even Billings kept +away from him. All he could learn was, that he was considered as a +French spy, which Billings could at once have contradicted. His +state of suspense was very short, as, on the same day, he was sent +off in a kabitka, with two guards, one on each side.</p> +<p>In this manner was our traveller conveyed to the frontiers of +Poland, a distance of six thousand versts, in six weeks. "Thank +heaven," says he, as he approached Poland, "petticoats appear, and +the glimmerings of other features. Women are the sure harbingers of +an alteration in manners, in approaching a country where their +influence is felt." He has bestowed, indeed, a beautiful and +touching tribute to the excellence of the female character, not +more beautiful than just, which cannot be too often recorded in +print.</p> +<p>On setting our traveller down in Poland, the soldiers who had +guarded him, gave him to understand that he might then go where he +pleased; but that, if he again returned to the dominions of the +empress, he would certainly be hanged. It did not appear for some +time what the <span class="pagenum"><a id="page128" name= +"page128"></a>[pg 128]</span> real cause was of this proceeding; +but there is every reason to believe it arose out of the jealousy +of the North-west Russian Fur Company, whose head-quarters were at +Irkutsk, and that their influence at Petersburgh had procured from +the empress the annulment of her previous order, together with the +present inhuman mandate. Ledyard, however, knew nothing of this; +and, having neither relish nor motive for making the experiment a +second time, he took the shortest route to Konigsberg, where he +found himself destitute, without friends or means, his hopes +blasted, and his health enfeebled. In this forlorn condition, he +bethought himself once more of the benevolence of Sir Joseph Banks, +and had the good luck to raise five guineas, by a draft on his old +benefactor, with which he reached London. Here he was kindly +received by Sir Joseph Banks, who gave him an introduction to Mr. +Beaufoy, the secretary of a newly-formed association for promoting +discoveries in Africa.</p> +<p>"Before," says Mr. Beaufoy, "I had learnt from the note the name +and business of my visitor, I was struck with the manliness of his +person, the breadth of his chest, the openness of his countenance +and the inquietude of his eye. I spread the map of Africa before +him, and tracing a line from Cairo to Sennaar, and from thence +westward in the latitude and supposed direction of the Niger, I +told him, that was the route, by which I was anxious that Africa +might, if possible, be explored. He said, he should think himself +singularly fortunate to be trusted with the adventure. I asked him +when he would set out. 'To-morrow morning,' was his answer. I told +him I was afraid that we should not be able, in so short a time, to +prepare his instructions, and to procure for him the letters that +were requisite; but that if the committee should approve of his +proposal, all expedition should be used."</p> +<p>In a few weeks all was ready for his departure. The plan was, to +proceed up the Nile as far as Sennaar or the Babr-el-Abiad, and +from thence to strike across the African continent to the coast of +the Atlantic.</p> +<p>His letters from Cairo are full of interest. Of the Nile itself +he speaks contemptuously, says it resembles the Connecticut in +size, or may be compared with the Thames.</p> +<p>After some delay, the day is fixed on which the caravan is to +leave Cairo. He writes to his friends and to the African +Association in great spirits; talks of cutting the continent +across, and raises the expectations of his employers to a high +pitch;—the very next letters from Cairo brought the +melancholy intelligence of his death. It seems he was seized with a +bilious complaint, for which he administered a strong solution of +vitriolic acid, so powerful as to produce violent and burning +pains, that threatened to be fatal unless immediate relief could be +procured, which was attempted to be got by a powerful dose of +tartar emetic. His death happened about the end of December, 1788, +in the thirty-eighth year of his age.</p> +<p>Thus perished, in the vigour of manhood, the first victim, in +modern times, to African discovery. Too many, alas! have since +shared the same fate in pursuit of the same object; which, so far +from deterring, seems only to stimulate others, and produce fresh +candidates for fame to tread the same perilous +path.—<i>Quarterly Review—Article "Ledyard's +Travels."</i></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE GATHERER.</h2> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>SHAKSPEARE.</p> +</div> +</div> +<hr /> +<h3>LARGE BONNETS.</h3> +<h4>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</h4> +<p>The immense large bonnets which decorate the ladies of the +present day are truly "<i>over the borders</i>," and seem to keep +pace with the "<i>march of intellect</i>." A garden seems to bloom +on their exterior, and roses and lilies vie with each other above +and below, for underneath the living roses flourish on the cheeks +of the fair. Perhaps in a few years small bonnets will usurp the +day, for</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Extremes produce extremes, extremes avoid,</p> +<p>Extremes without extremes are not enjoyed."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Some years ago, when straw bonnets were all the rage, the +following <i>pithy</i> lines were composed by M. P. Andrewes, +Esq.:—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"Some ladies' heads appear like stubble fields;</p> +<p>Who now of threaten'd famine dare complain,</p> +<p>When every female forehead teems with grain?</p> +<p>See how the <i>wheat-sheaves</i> nod amid the plumes!</p> +<p>Our barns are now transferr'd to drawing-rooms,</p> +<p>And husbands who indulge in active lives,</p> +<p>To fill their <i>granaries</i> may <i>thrash their +wives</i>."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>P.T.W.</p> +<p>Our facetious correspondent does not notice the <i>golden +oats</i>; but doubtless he recollects the anecdote of the horse +mistaking a lady's hat with a tuft of oats for a moving manger +stocked with his natural provender.—ED.</p> +<hr /> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>The sum of 144<i>l</i>. 5<i>s</i>. was expended in the +rebuilding.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>By an odd mode of expression in the MS., it should seem as if +this tower itself, or at least some building adjoining it, was +formerly made use of as a <i>royal residence</i>, for the words +are, <i>from hence went a fair embattled wall, guarded for the most +part with the mill-stream underneath, till it came in the high +tower, going under St. George's College, and the king's house +employed formerly as a campanile belonging to that church</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>Grose fell into an error on this point, in his 3rd volume of +Antiquitica, for in his copy of Aga's plan, he placed a large keep +tower just at the foot of an artificial mount—an anomaly in +fortification. The same punster who described <i>fortification</i> +as <i>two twenty fications</i>, would call this a <i>Grose</i> +blunder.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>When Robert D'Oiley, in the reign of Henry V. built the abbey at +Osney, for monks and regulars, and gave them the revenues, &c. +of the church of St. George, in the Castle, it is said in the Osney +chronicle, that there "Robert Pulen began to read at Oxford the +Holy Scriptures, which had fallen into neglect in England. And +after both the church of England and that of France had profited +greatly by his doctrine, he was called away by Pope Lucius II., who +made him chancellor of the holy Roman church." This short effort, +to which the Pope's preferment put a stop, seems to have been the +true origin of the DIVINITY LECTURE, and of the DIVINITY SCHOOLS at +Oxford; and of the studies of the SORBONNE at Paris.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name= +"footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag5">(return)</a> +<p>For an interesting account of the founding and a view of this +abbey, see the MIRROR for Sept. 30, 1826.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote6" name= +"footnote6"></a> <b>Footnote 6</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag6">(return)</a> +<p>Eastmead's "Historia Rievallensis."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote7" name= +"footnote7"></a> <b>Footnote 7</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag7">(return)</a> +<p>Of Skelton Castle, author of "Crazy Tales," and of the +"Continuation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey."</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote8" name= +"footnote8"></a> <b>Footnote 8</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag8">(return)</a> +<p>Sir James Hall of Douglass, Bart., the father of Captain Basil +Hall, R.N., and, till lately, President of the Royal Society of +Edinburgh.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class="full" /> +<p><i>Printed and published by J LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near +Somerset ***USE ACTUAL MATERIAL HERE!*** House,) and sold by all +Newsmen and Booksellers.</i></p> +<hr class="full" /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11267 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11267-h/images/328-1.png b/11267-h/images/328-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ab4831 --- /dev/null +++ b/11267-h/images/328-1.png diff --git a/11267-h/images/328-2.png b/11267-h/images/328-2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c269bd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/11267-h/images/328-2.png |
