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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11267-0.txt b/11267-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb1f446 --- /dev/null +++ b/11267-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1541 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11267 *** + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. XII. NO. 328.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + +ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE. + + +[Illustration: Oxford Castle] + + By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r + Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves + Intire; or, when they would elude her watch, + Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste + Of dark oblivion. + + AKENSIDE + +Gentle, courteous, and _patient_ 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 _every man's house was his castle_, though not in +the metaphorical sense we have since been accustomed to apply these +words, viz. to the protection and security of British subjects. + +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. + +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 a popular and +interesting illustration of the warlike character of the age in which +the castle was erected. + +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." + +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 _round_ tower, that was rebuilt in the 19th of Henry +III.[1] 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.[2] + +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, _a barbican_; which seems to have not merely been a single tower, +but (according to an ancient deed) _a place_, or outwork, containing +several habitations; and from other accounts it further appears, that +there were more barbicans than one. + +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. + +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.[3] + +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. + +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 _Black Assize_, 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. + +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 + + Dull and crabbed as some fools suppose, + +but a treasury or depository of useful knowledge, by enabling the +inquirer 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. + +We have to acknowledge the loan of the original of the engraving, from a +lineal descendant of D'OILEY[4], the founder or repairer of the Castle +at Oxford--a name not altogether unknown to our readers. + + [1] The sum of 144_l_. 5_s_. was expended in the rebuilding. + + [2] 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 _royal residence_, for the words + are, _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_. + + [3] 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 _fortification_ + as _two twenty fications_, would call this a _Grose_ blunder. + + [4] 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. + + * * * * * + + + +THE "INTELLECTUAL CAT." + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +The _cat mania_ 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. + +Our present portrait is, however, of more recent date, being a free +translation from _Le Furet de Londres_, a French paper published in +London, whose columns are an agreeable accompaniment for a cup of +coffee. It is a mere _bagatelle_, and as an amusive trifle may not be +unacceptable. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +You understand the _physical laws of good and evil_. 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! + +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 _materialist_! + +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 _politician_! + +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 _moralist_! + +When you promenade your graceful 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 _laws of gravity_! + +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 _natural +philosopher_! + +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 +_optician_! + +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 _geometrician_! + +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 _botanist_! + +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 _dramatic musician_! + +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 _delightful dancer_! + +Lastly, my dear Puss, show me a man who possesses as many kinds of +knowledge as you do, and I will proclaim him a _living cyclopædia_, or +concentration of human wisdom. But, what do I see? I am praising you, +and you are fast asleep! This is still greater philosophy. + + * * * * * + + +STANZAS FOR MUSIC. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + + Yes, radiant spirit, thou hast pass'd + Unto thy latest home, + And o'er our widow'd hearts is cast + A deep and with'ring gloom! + For when on earth thou wert as bright + As angel form might be: + And mem'ry shall exist in night, + If we think not of thee. + + For, oh, thy beauty o'er us came + Like a fair sunset beam, + And the sweet music of thy name + Was pure as aught might deem. + With silent lips we gaz'd on thee, + And awe-suspended breath-- + But thine entrancing witchery + Abideth not in death. + + And all that we suppos'd most fair + Is but a mockery now; + No beam illumes the silken hair + That traced thy smiling brow. + The cheerless dust upon thee lies, + Death's seal is on thee set, + But the bright spirit of thine eyes + Shines o'er our mem'ry yet! + + As in some dark and hidden shell + Lies ocean's richest gem, + So in our hearts shall ever dwell + The spells thou'st breath'd in them! + Why should we weep o'er the young flow'rs + That cluster on thy sod? + Stars like them glow in heav'n's bright bow'rs + To light thee up to God! + +R.A. + + * * * * * + + +"TROUT BINNING" IN WEST-MORELAND.</h3< + +(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.) + + + --"Now is the time, + While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile, + To tempt the trout." + THOMSON. + +I have not yet done with this subject; and as it strikes me you are an +angler, I think the article a seasonable _bait_ for you. + +I was certainly much entertained with your extracts from Sir Humphry +Davy's _Salmonia_; 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, 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 "_back end_" 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. + +But to the subject. _Trout binning_ 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. + +_Night-Fishing._--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. + +Should you notice this, I may be led to recur to the subject in a future +paper. + +W.H.H. + + * * * * * + + A proud man is a fool in fermentation, + that swells and boils over like a porridge-pot. + He sets out his feathers like an owl, + to swell and seem bigger than he is. + + * * * * * + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + +AN EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF RIEVAULX AND BYLAND ABBEYS; AND TO THE +RESIDENCE OF LAURENCE STERNE, COXWOLD, YORKSHIRE. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + + "The air around was breathing balm, + The aspen scarcely seem'd to sway; + And, as a sleeping infant calm, + The river stream'd away-- + Devious as error--deep as love, + And blue and bright as heaven above." + + _Alaric A. Watts_. + +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. + +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-- + + "Like laurel on the bald first Caesar's head." + +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 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 _trio_ 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. + +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:[5] + + Oh! many an hour of ecstasy + I past within its fading towers; + When life, and love, and poesy, + Hung on my harp their sweetest flowers. + +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-- + + "Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings," + +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 + + "Should canopy his bones till doomsday; + But all things have their end." + +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 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.[6] 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." + +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-- + + "Which now lies naked to the injuries + Of stormy weather." + +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. + +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 +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. + + [5] For an interesting account of the founding and a view of + this abbey, see the MIRROR for Sept. 30, 1826. + + [6] Eastmead's "Historia Rievallensis." + + * * * * * + + +ON VIEWING THE RUINS OF BYLAND ABBEY THROUGH THE DETACHED GATEWAY ON THE +WEST. + + + Oh! beauteous picture! thou art ruin's theme, + And envious time the Gothic canvass sears. + Thy soft decay now almost wakes my tears, + And art thou mutable? or do I dream? + The transept moulders to its mound again; + The fluted window buries in its fall + The rainbow flooring of the fretted hall; + And long the altar on that earth has lain. + Now could I weep to see each mourning weed + So deeply dark around thy wasting brow; + If life and art are then so brief--I bow + With less of sorrow to what is decreed: + Ye faded cloisters--ye departing aisles! + Your day is past, and dim your glory smiles! + +Four miles from Byland is Coxwold, once the residence of the celebrated +Laurence Sterne, author of _Tristram Shandy_, &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-- + + "------that fresh features + Have such a charm for us poor human creatures." + +Perhaps in this edifice, Eugenius, (the witty Duke of Wharton,[7]) 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. + +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: + + "And fortress, fane and wealthy peer + Along the tide of time are borne. + And feudal strife, with noble tears + Forgotten in the lapse of years." + + [7] Of Skelton Castle, author of "Crazy Tales," and of the + "Continuation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey." + +H. + + * * * * * + + +CROMLEH IN ANGLESEA. + + +[Illustration: Cromleh in Anglesea.] + +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 _cromleac_, or +_cromleh_, from the Irish _crom_, to adore, and _leac_, 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 _Bothal_, from the Irish word _Both_, a house, and _al_, +or _Allah_, God; this is evidently the same with _Bethel_, or house of +God, of the Hebrews. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + +WOMAN AND SONG. + +(_From a graceful little volume, entitled, "Poetical Recreations," by +C.A. Hulbert._) + + + Oh, who shall say that woman's ear + Thrills to the minstrel's voice in vain? + She hath a balm diffusing tear, + She hath a softer, holier strain-- + A cheering smile of hope to give, + A voice to bid the mourner live. + + She hath a milder beam of praise, + Her heart a soil where Truth may bloom, + And while her drooping flowers we raise, + They yield us back a rich perfume. + Her influence bids our talents rise + 'Neath Love and Fancy's native skies! + + I heard an infant's lisping tongue + Address his mother's smiling eye, + And fondly ask his favourite song-- + His soul seemed wrapt in harmony; + She sung--and gave the cheering kiss, + Which made the poet's fortune his. + + His mother saw his fancies stray + To fragrant poesy, and leave + The dull pursuit of fortune's way, + 'Till some would chide and others grieve; + But she had marked the rising flame, + And led and nourish'd it to fame! + + When verse his mind to writing bore, + And genius shed its lustre there, + How proudly did she con it o'er, + Unconscious fell the blissful tear: + 'Twas her's to lighten care's control, + And raise the drooping, pensive soul. + + Her labour past, another breast, + Still lovely woman's, urged his pen-- + Pure love was sent to make him blest, + And bid his fancies flow again: + She yielded to his minstrel pride + The heart, the hand to lips denied! + + Quick roll'd the years in tranquil peace, + The peace by harmony begun. + And numbers charm'd each day of bliss, + That flowing verse and concord won: + His Mary's music soothed his woe, + And chased the tear that chanced to flow. + + Death came--and Poetry was o'er, + The chords of song had ceas'd to thrill, + The Minstrel's name was heard no more, + But one true heart was heaving still-- + His Mary's voice would nightly weave + Its lone, deep notes around his grave! + + * * * * * + + +CLAUDE LORRAINE. + + +Lanzi, in his _History of Italian Painting_, gives the following +exquisite encomium on this prince of landscape painters: + +"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." + + * * * * * + +"TINTORETTO," says his biographer, "produced works in which the most +captious of critics could not find a shade of defect." + + * * * * * + + +KISSING THE FOOT. + + +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. + + * * * * * + + +BOHEMIAN BLESSING. + + + Now sleep in blessedness--till morn + Brings its sweet light; + And hear the awful voice of God + Bid ye--Good Night! + Yet ere the hand of slumber close + The eye of care, + For the poor huntsman's soul's repose + Pour out one prayer. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWING. + + +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.--_Blackwood's Mag_. + + * * * * * + + +MOTTOES FOR SUN DIALS. + +_By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles_. + + + MORNING SUN.--_Tempus volat_. + OH! early passenger, look up--be wise, + And think how, night and day, TIME ONWARD + FLIES. + + NOON.--_Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum_. + Life steals away--this hour, oh man, is lent thee, + Patient to "WORK THE WORK OF HIM WHO SENT + THEE." + + SETTING SUN.--_Redibo, tu nunquam_. + Haste, traveller, the sun is sinking now-- + He shall return again--but never thou. + + * * * * * + + +THE PINE-APPLE. + + +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 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." + + * * * * * + + +STONE-MASON'S CRITICISM + + +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:-- + + "My father--my poor mother--both are gone, + And o'er your cold remains I place this stone, + In memory of your virtues. May it tell + How _long one_ parent lived, and _both_ how well," + &c. + +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 _might_ do with a _little_ alteration--thus:-- + + "My father, and my mother too, are dead, + And here I _put_ this grave-stone at their head; + My father lived to eighty-seven, my mother + No quite _so long_--and _one_ died after _t'other_." + + * * * * * + + +PLEASURES OF HISTORY. + + +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.--_Edin. Rev._ + + * * * * * + + +CHARMS OF SAVAGE LIFE. + + +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.--_Mem. Gen. Miller_. + + * * * * * + + +PATRONS OF ASTRONOMY. + + +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 _Royal Observatory of +George IV._; and it has received from government £2,000. to purchase +instruments.--_Quarterly Rev_. + + * * * * * + + + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS + +DINNERS. + + +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. + +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, + + "All silent, and all damn'd!" + +Still the roof does not fall, although the chandelier burns dim in +sympathy, + + "And all the air a solemn stillness holds." + +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. + +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 an anniversary GAUDEAMUS of the +Deaf and Dumb.--_Blackwood's Mag._ + + * * * * * + + +THE SCOLD. + +IMITATED FROM BERNI. + + + To dine on devils without drinking, + To want a seat when almost sinking, + To pay to-day--receive to-morrow, + To sit at feasts in silent sorrow, + To sweat in winter--in the boot + To feel the gravel cut one's foot, + Or a cursed flea within the stocking + Chase up and down--are very shocking: + With one hand dirty, one hand clean, + Or with one slipper to be seen: + To be detain'd when most in hurry, + Might put Griselda in a flurry;-- + But these, and every other bore, + If to the list you add a score, + Are not so bad, upon my life, + As that one scourge--a scolding wife! + +_New Monthly Magazine_. + + * * * * * + + + +SELECT BIOGRAPHY + +LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER. + +_Concluded from page 113_. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 months, is as much an +uncertainty as it was fourteen months ago, and not more so." + +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:-- + +"Permit me to relate to you an incident. About a fortnight ago, Sir +James Hall,[8] 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 _robe de chambre_, +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 _opinion_ 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." + +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." + +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, _pro bono publico_, 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +While thus detained for the winter at Yakutsk, he drew up some very just +observations on the Tartars, which were afterwards published. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.--_Quarterly Review--Article "Ledyard's +Travels."_ + + [8] Sir James Hall of Douglass, Bart., the father of Captain + Basil Hall, R.N., and, till lately, President of the Royal + Society of Edinburgh. + + * * * * * + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + "A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + * * * * * + + +LARGE BONNETS. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +The immense large bonnets which decorate the ladies of the present day +are truly "_over the borders_," and seem to keep pace with the "_march +of intellect_." 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 + + "Extremes produce extremes, extremes avoid, + Extremes without extremes are not enjoyed." + +Some years ago, when straw bonnets were all the rage, the following +_pithy_ lines were composed by M. P. Andrewes, Esq.:-- + + "Some ladies' heads appear like stubble fields; + Who now of threaten'd famine dare complain, + When every female forehead teems with grain? + See how the _wheat-sheaves_ nod amid the plumes! + Our barns are now transferr'd to drawing-rooms, + And husbands who indulge in active lives, + To fill their _granaries_ may _thrash their wives_." + +P.T.W. + +Our facetious correspondent does not notice the _golden oats_; 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. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London; sold by +ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and by all Newsmen and +booksellers._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11267 *** 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 diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fc9a0e --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11267 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11267) diff --git a/old/11267-8.txt b/old/11267-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d84c2d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11267-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1965 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, + Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11267] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. XII. NO. 328.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + +ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE. + + +[Illustration: Oxford Castle] + + By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r + Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves + Intire; or, when they would elude her watch, + Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste + Of dark oblivion. + + AKENSIDE + +Gentle, courteous, and _patient_ 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 _every man's house was his castle_, though not in +the metaphorical sense we have since been accustomed to apply these +words, viz. to the protection and security of British subjects. + +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. + +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 a popular and +interesting illustration of the warlike character of the age in which +the castle was erected. + +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." + +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 _round_ tower, that was rebuilt in the 19th of Henry +III.[1] 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.[2] + +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, _a barbican_; which seems to have not merely been a single tower, +but (according to an ancient deed) _a place_, or outwork, containing +several habitations; and from other accounts it further appears, that +there were more barbicans than one. + +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. + +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.[3] + +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. + +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 _Black Assize_, 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. + +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 + + Dull and crabbed as some fools suppose, + +but a treasury or depository of useful knowledge, by enabling the +inquirer 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. + +We have to acknowledge the loan of the original of the engraving, from a +lineal descendant of D'OILEY[4], the founder or repairer of the Castle +at Oxford--a name not altogether unknown to our readers. + + [1] The sum of 144_l_. 5_s_. was expended in the rebuilding. + + [2] 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 _royal residence_, for the words + are, _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_. + + [3] 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 _fortification_ + as _two twenty fications_, would call this a _Grose_ blunder. + + [4] 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. + + * * * * * + + + +THE "INTELLECTUAL CAT." + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +The _cat mania_ 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. + +Our present portrait is, however, of more recent date, being a free +translation from _Le Furet de Londres_, a French paper published in +London, whose columns are an agreeable accompaniment for a cup of +coffee. It is a mere _bagatelle_, and as an amusive trifle may not be +unacceptable. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +You understand the _physical laws of good and evil_. 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! + +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 _materialist_! + +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 _politician_! + +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 _moralist_! + +When you promenade your graceful 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 _laws of gravity_! + +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 _natural +philosopher_! + +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 +_optician_! + +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 _geometrician_! + +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 _botanist_! + +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 _dramatic musician_! + +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 _delightful dancer_! + +Lastly, my dear Puss, show me a man who possesses as many kinds of +knowledge as you do, and I will proclaim him a _living cyclopædia_, or +concentration of human wisdom. But, what do I see? I am praising you, +and you are fast asleep! This is still greater philosophy. + + * * * * * + + +STANZAS FOR MUSIC. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + + Yes, radiant spirit, thou hast pass'd + Unto thy latest home, + And o'er our widow'd hearts is cast + A deep and with'ring gloom! + For when on earth thou wert as bright + As angel form might be: + And mem'ry shall exist in night, + If we think not of thee. + + For, oh, thy beauty o'er us came + Like a fair sunset beam, + And the sweet music of thy name + Was pure as aught might deem. + With silent lips we gaz'd on thee, + And awe-suspended breath-- + But thine entrancing witchery + Abideth not in death. + + And all that we suppos'd most fair + Is but a mockery now; + No beam illumes the silken hair + That traced thy smiling brow. + The cheerless dust upon thee lies, + Death's seal is on thee set, + But the bright spirit of thine eyes + Shines o'er our mem'ry yet! + + As in some dark and hidden shell + Lies ocean's richest gem, + So in our hearts shall ever dwell + The spells thou'st breath'd in them! + Why should we weep o'er the young flow'rs + That cluster on thy sod? + Stars like them glow in heav'n's bright bow'rs + To light thee up to God! + +R.A. + + * * * * * + + +"TROUT BINNING" IN WEST-MORELAND.</h3< + +(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.) + + + --"Now is the time, + While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile, + To tempt the trout." + THOMSON. + +I have not yet done with this subject; and as it strikes me you are an +angler, I think the article a seasonable _bait_ for you. + +I was certainly much entertained with your extracts from Sir Humphry +Davy's _Salmonia_; 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, 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 "_back end_" 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. + +But to the subject. _Trout binning_ 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. + +_Night-Fishing._--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. + +Should you notice this, I may be led to recur to the subject in a future +paper. + +W.H.H. + + * * * * * + + A proud man is a fool in fermentation, + that swells and boils over like a porridge-pot. + He sets out his feathers like an owl, + to swell and seem bigger than he is. + + * * * * * + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + +AN EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF RIEVAULX AND BYLAND ABBEYS; AND TO THE +RESIDENCE OF LAURENCE STERNE, COXWOLD, YORKSHIRE. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + + "The air around was breathing balm, + The aspen scarcely seem'd to sway; + And, as a sleeping infant calm, + The river stream'd away-- + Devious as error--deep as love, + And blue and bright as heaven above." + + _Alaric A. Watts_. + +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. + +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-- + + "Like laurel on the bald first Caesar's head." + +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 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 _trio_ 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. + +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:[5] + + Oh! many an hour of ecstasy + I past within its fading towers; + When life, and love, and poesy, + Hung on my harp their sweetest flowers. + +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-- + + "Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings," + +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 + + "Should canopy his bones till doomsday; + But all things have their end." + +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 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.[6] 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." + +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-- + + "Which now lies naked to the injuries + Of stormy weather." + +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. + +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 +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. + + [5] For an interesting account of the founding and a view of + this abbey, see the MIRROR for Sept. 30, 1826. + + [6] Eastmead's "Historia Rievallensis." + + * * * * * + + +ON VIEWING THE RUINS OF BYLAND ABBEY THROUGH THE DETACHED GATEWAY ON THE +WEST. + + + Oh! beauteous picture! thou art ruin's theme, + And envious time the Gothic canvass sears. + Thy soft decay now almost wakes my tears, + And art thou mutable? or do I dream? + The transept moulders to its mound again; + The fluted window buries in its fall + The rainbow flooring of the fretted hall; + And long the altar on that earth has lain. + Now could I weep to see each mourning weed + So deeply dark around thy wasting brow; + If life and art are then so brief--I bow + With less of sorrow to what is decreed: + Ye faded cloisters--ye departing aisles! + Your day is past, and dim your glory smiles! + +Four miles from Byland is Coxwold, once the residence of the celebrated +Laurence Sterne, author of _Tristram Shandy_, &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-- + + "------that fresh features + Have such a charm for us poor human creatures." + +Perhaps in this edifice, Eugenius, (the witty Duke of Wharton,[7]) 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. + +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: + + "And fortress, fane and wealthy peer + Along the tide of time are borne. + And feudal strife, with noble tears + Forgotten in the lapse of years." + + [7] Of Skelton Castle, author of "Crazy Tales," and of the + "Continuation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey." + +H. + + * * * * * + + +CROMLEH IN ANGLESEA. + + +[Illustration: Cromleh in Anglesea.] + +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 _cromleac_, or +_cromleh_, from the Irish _crom_, to adore, and _leac_, 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 _Bothal_, from the Irish word _Both_, a house, and _al_, +or _Allah_, God; this is evidently the same with _Bethel_, or house of +God, of the Hebrews. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + +WOMAN AND SONG. + +(_From a graceful little volume, entitled, "Poetical Recreations," by +C.A. Hulbert._) + + + Oh, who shall say that woman's ear + Thrills to the minstrel's voice in vain? + She hath a balm diffusing tear, + She hath a softer, holier strain-- + A cheering smile of hope to give, + A voice to bid the mourner live. + + She hath a milder beam of praise, + Her heart a soil where Truth may bloom, + And while her drooping flowers we raise, + They yield us back a rich perfume. + Her influence bids our talents rise + 'Neath Love and Fancy's native skies! + + I heard an infant's lisping tongue + Address his mother's smiling eye, + And fondly ask his favourite song-- + His soul seemed wrapt in harmony; + She sung--and gave the cheering kiss, + Which made the poet's fortune his. + + His mother saw his fancies stray + To fragrant poesy, and leave + The dull pursuit of fortune's way, + 'Till some would chide and others grieve; + But she had marked the rising flame, + And led and nourish'd it to fame! + + When verse his mind to writing bore, + And genius shed its lustre there, + How proudly did she con it o'er, + Unconscious fell the blissful tear: + 'Twas her's to lighten care's control, + And raise the drooping, pensive soul. + + Her labour past, another breast, + Still lovely woman's, urged his pen-- + Pure love was sent to make him blest, + And bid his fancies flow again: + She yielded to his minstrel pride + The heart, the hand to lips denied! + + Quick roll'd the years in tranquil peace, + The peace by harmony begun. + And numbers charm'd each day of bliss, + That flowing verse and concord won: + His Mary's music soothed his woe, + And chased the tear that chanced to flow. + + Death came--and Poetry was o'er, + The chords of song had ceas'd to thrill, + The Minstrel's name was heard no more, + But one true heart was heaving still-- + His Mary's voice would nightly weave + Its lone, deep notes around his grave! + + * * * * * + + +CLAUDE LORRAINE. + + +Lanzi, in his _History of Italian Painting_, gives the following +exquisite encomium on this prince of landscape painters: + +"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." + + * * * * * + +"TINTORETTO," says his biographer, "produced works in which the most +captious of critics could not find a shade of defect." + + * * * * * + + +KISSING THE FOOT. + + +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. + + * * * * * + + +BOHEMIAN BLESSING. + + + Now sleep in blessedness--till morn + Brings its sweet light; + And hear the awful voice of God + Bid ye--Good Night! + Yet ere the hand of slumber close + The eye of care, + For the poor huntsman's soul's repose + Pour out one prayer. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWING. + + +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.--_Blackwood's Mag_. + + * * * * * + + +MOTTOES FOR SUN DIALS. + +_By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles_. + + + MORNING SUN.--_Tempus volat_. + OH! early passenger, look up--be wise, + And think how, night and day, TIME ONWARD + FLIES. + + NOON.--_Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum_. + Life steals away--this hour, oh man, is lent thee, + Patient to "WORK THE WORK OF HIM WHO SENT + THEE." + + SETTING SUN.--_Redibo, tu nunquam_. + Haste, traveller, the sun is sinking now-- + He shall return again--but never thou. + + * * * * * + + +THE PINE-APPLE. + + +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 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." + + * * * * * + + +STONE-MASON'S CRITICISM + + +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:-- + + "My father--my poor mother--both are gone, + And o'er your cold remains I place this stone, + In memory of your virtues. May it tell + How _long one_ parent lived, and _both_ how well," + &c. + +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 _might_ do with a _little_ alteration--thus:-- + + "My father, and my mother too, are dead, + And here I _put_ this grave-stone at their head; + My father lived to eighty-seven, my mother + No quite _so long_--and _one_ died after _t'other_." + + * * * * * + + +PLEASURES OF HISTORY. + + +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.--_Edin. Rev._ + + * * * * * + + +CHARMS OF SAVAGE LIFE. + + +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.--_Mem. Gen. Miller_. + + * * * * * + + +PATRONS OF ASTRONOMY. + + +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 _Royal Observatory of +George IV._; and it has received from government £2,000. to purchase +instruments.--_Quarterly Rev_. + + * * * * * + + + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS + +DINNERS. + + +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. + +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, + + "All silent, and all damn'd!" + +Still the roof does not fall, although the chandelier burns dim in +sympathy, + + "And all the air a solemn stillness holds." + +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. + +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 an anniversary GAUDEAMUS of the +Deaf and Dumb.--_Blackwood's Mag._ + + * * * * * + + +THE SCOLD. + +IMITATED FROM BERNI. + + + To dine on devils without drinking, + To want a seat when almost sinking, + To pay to-day--receive to-morrow, + To sit at feasts in silent sorrow, + To sweat in winter--in the boot + To feel the gravel cut one's foot, + Or a cursed flea within the stocking + Chase up and down--are very shocking: + With one hand dirty, one hand clean, + Or with one slipper to be seen: + To be detain'd when most in hurry, + Might put Griselda in a flurry;-- + But these, and every other bore, + If to the list you add a score, + Are not so bad, upon my life, + As that one scourge--a scolding wife! + +_New Monthly Magazine_. + + * * * * * + + + +SELECT BIOGRAPHY + +LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER. + +_Concluded from page 113_. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 months, is as much an +uncertainty as it was fourteen months ago, and not more so." + +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:-- + +"Permit me to relate to you an incident. About a fortnight ago, Sir +James Hall,[8] 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 _robe de chambre_, +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 _opinion_ 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." + +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." + +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, _pro bono publico_, 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +While thus detained for the winter at Yakutsk, he drew up some very just +observations on the Tartars, which were afterwards published. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.--_Quarterly Review--Article "Ledyard's +Travels."_ + + [8] Sir James Hall of Douglass, Bart., the father of Captain + Basil Hall, R.N., and, till lately, President of the Royal + Society of Edinburgh. + + * * * * * + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + "A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + * * * * * + + +LARGE BONNETS. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +The immense large bonnets which decorate the ladies of the present day +are truly "_over the borders_," and seem to keep pace with the "_march +of intellect_." 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 + + "Extremes produce extremes, extremes avoid, + Extremes without extremes are not enjoyed." + +Some years ago, when straw bonnets were all the rage, the following +_pithy_ lines were composed by M. P. Andrewes, Esq.:-- + + "Some ladies' heads appear like stubble fields; + Who now of threaten'd famine dare complain, + When every female forehead teems with grain? + See how the _wheat-sheaves_ nod amid the plumes! + Our barns are now transferr'd to drawing-rooms, + And husbands who indulge in active lives, + To fill their _granaries_ may _thrash their wives_." + +P.T.W. + +Our facetious correspondent does not notice the _golden oats_; 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. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London; sold by +ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and by all Newsmen and +booksellers._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 *** + +***** This file should be named 11267-8.txt or 11267-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/6/11267/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, + Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11267] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + +</pre> + +<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" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 *** + +***** This file should be named 11267-h.htm or 11267-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/6/11267/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/old/11267-h/images/328-1.png b/old/11267-h/images/328-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8ab4831 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11267-h/images/328-1.png diff --git a/old/11267-h/images/328-2.png b/old/11267-h/images/328-2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c269bd7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11267-h/images/328-2.png diff --git a/old/11267.txt b/old/11267.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c340d97 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11267.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1965 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, + Vol. 12, Issue 328, August 23, 1828 + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 24, 2004 [EBook #11267] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. XII. NO. 328.] SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1828. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + +ANCIENT PLAN OF OXFORD CASTLE. + + +[Illustration: Oxford Castle] + + By these mysterious ties the busy pow'r + Of mem'ry her ideal train preserves + Intire; or, when they would elude her watch, + Reclaims their fleeting footsteps from the waste + Of dark oblivion. + + AKENSIDE + +Gentle, courteous, and _patient_ 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 _every man's house was his castle_, though not in +the metaphorical sense we have since been accustomed to apply these +words, viz. to the protection and security of British subjects. + +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. + +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 a popular and +interesting illustration of the warlike character of the age in which +the castle was erected. + +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." + +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 _round_ tower, that was rebuilt in the 19th of Henry +III.[1] 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.[2] + +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, _a barbican_; which seems to have not merely been a single tower, +but (according to an ancient deed) _a place_, or outwork, containing +several habitations; and from other accounts it further appears, that +there were more barbicans than one. + +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. + +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.[3] + +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. + +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 _Black Assize_, 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. + +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 + + Dull and crabbed as some fools suppose, + +but a treasury or depository of useful knowledge, by enabling the +inquirer 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. + +We have to acknowledge the loan of the original of the engraving, from a +lineal descendant of D'OILEY[4], the founder or repairer of the Castle +at Oxford--a name not altogether unknown to our readers. + + [1] The sum of 144_l_. 5_s_. was expended in the rebuilding. + + [2] 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 _royal residence_, for the words + are, _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_. + + [3] 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 _fortification_ + as _two twenty fications_, would call this a _Grose_ blunder. + + [4] 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. + + * * * * * + + + +THE "INTELLECTUAL CAT." + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +The _cat mania_ 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. + +Our present portrait is, however, of more recent date, being a free +translation from _Le Furet de Londres_, a French paper published in +London, whose columns are an agreeable accompaniment for a cup of +coffee. It is a mere _bagatelle_, and as an amusive trifle may not be +unacceptable. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +You understand the _physical laws of good and evil_. 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! + +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 _materialist_! + +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 _politician_! + +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 _moralist_! + +When you promenade your graceful 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 _laws of gravity_! + +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 _natural +philosopher_! + +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 +_optician_! + +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 _geometrician_! + +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 _botanist_! + +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 _dramatic musician_! + +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 _delightful dancer_! + +Lastly, my dear Puss, show me a man who possesses as many kinds of +knowledge as you do, and I will proclaim him a _living cyclopaedia_, or +concentration of human wisdom. But, what do I see? I am praising you, +and you are fast asleep! This is still greater philosophy. + + * * * * * + + +STANZAS FOR MUSIC. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + + Yes, radiant spirit, thou hast pass'd + Unto thy latest home, + And o'er our widow'd hearts is cast + A deep and with'ring gloom! + For when on earth thou wert as bright + As angel form might be: + And mem'ry shall exist in night, + If we think not of thee. + + For, oh, thy beauty o'er us came + Like a fair sunset beam, + And the sweet music of thy name + Was pure as aught might deem. + With silent lips we gaz'd on thee, + And awe-suspended breath-- + But thine entrancing witchery + Abideth not in death. + + And all that we suppos'd most fair + Is but a mockery now; + No beam illumes the silken hair + That traced thy smiling brow. + The cheerless dust upon thee lies, + Death's seal is on thee set, + But the bright spirit of thine eyes + Shines o'er our mem'ry yet! + + As in some dark and hidden shell + Lies ocean's richest gem, + So in our hearts shall ever dwell + The spells thou'st breath'd in them! + Why should we weep o'er the young flow'rs + That cluster on thy sod? + Stars like them glow in heav'n's bright bow'rs + To light thee up to God! + +R.A. + + * * * * * + + +"TROUT BINNING" IN WEST-MORELAND.</h3< + +(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.) + + + --"Now is the time, + While yet the dark-brown water aids the guile, + To tempt the trout." + THOMSON. + +I have not yet done with this subject; and as it strikes me you are an +angler, I think the article a seasonable _bait_ for you. + +I was certainly much entertained with your extracts from Sir Humphry +Davy's _Salmonia_; 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, 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 "_back end_" 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. + +But to the subject. _Trout binning_ 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. + +_Night-Fishing._--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. + +Should you notice this, I may be led to recur to the subject in a future +paper. + +W.H.H. + + * * * * * + + A proud man is a fool in fermentation, + that swells and boils over like a porridge-pot. + He sets out his feathers like an owl, + to swell and seem bigger than he is. + + * * * * * + + + +THE TOPOGRAPHER. + +AN EXCURSION TO THE RUINS OF RIEVAULX AND BYLAND ABBEYS; AND TO THE +RESIDENCE OF LAURENCE STERNE, COXWOLD, YORKSHIRE. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + + "The air around was breathing balm, + The aspen scarcely seem'd to sway; + And, as a sleeping infant calm, + The river stream'd away-- + Devious as error--deep as love, + And blue and bright as heaven above." + + _Alaric A. Watts_. + +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. + +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-- + + "Like laurel on the bald first Caesar's head." + +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 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 _trio_ 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. + +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:[5] + + Oh! many an hour of ecstasy + I past within its fading towers; + When life, and love, and poesy, + Hung on my harp their sweetest flowers. + +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-- + + "Shorn of its glass of thousand colourings," + +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 + + "Should canopy his bones till doomsday; + But all things have their end." + +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 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.[6] 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." + +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-- + + "Which now lies naked to the injuries + Of stormy weather." + +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. + +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 +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. + + [5] For an interesting account of the founding and a view of + this abbey, see the MIRROR for Sept. 30, 1826. + + [6] Eastmead's "Historia Rievallensis." + + * * * * * + + +ON VIEWING THE RUINS OF BYLAND ABBEY THROUGH THE DETACHED GATEWAY ON THE +WEST. + + + Oh! beauteous picture! thou art ruin's theme, + And envious time the Gothic canvass sears. + Thy soft decay now almost wakes my tears, + And art thou mutable? or do I dream? + The transept moulders to its mound again; + The fluted window buries in its fall + The rainbow flooring of the fretted hall; + And long the altar on that earth has lain. + Now could I weep to see each mourning weed + So deeply dark around thy wasting brow; + If life and art are then so brief--I bow + With less of sorrow to what is decreed: + Ye faded cloisters--ye departing aisles! + Your day is past, and dim your glory smiles! + +Four miles from Byland is Coxwold, once the residence of the celebrated +Laurence Sterne, author of _Tristram Shandy_, &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-- + + "------that fresh features + Have such a charm for us poor human creatures." + +Perhaps in this edifice, Eugenius, (the witty Duke of Wharton,[7]) 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. + +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: + + "And fortress, fane and wealthy peer + Along the tide of time are borne. + And feudal strife, with noble tears + Forgotten in the lapse of years." + + [7] Of Skelton Castle, author of "Crazy Tales," and of the + "Continuation of Sterne's Sentimental Journey." + +H. + + * * * * * + + +CROMLEH IN ANGLESEA. + + +[Illustration: Cromleh in Anglesea.] + +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 _cromleac_, or +_cromleh_, from the Irish _crom_, to adore, and _leac_, 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 _Bothal_, from the Irish word _Both_, a house, and _al_, +or _Allah_, God; this is evidently the same with _Bethel_, or house of +God, of the Hebrews. + +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. + +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. + + * * * * * + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + +WOMAN AND SONG. + +(_From a graceful little volume, entitled, "Poetical Recreations," by +C.A. Hulbert._) + + + Oh, who shall say that woman's ear + Thrills to the minstrel's voice in vain? + She hath a balm diffusing tear, + She hath a softer, holier strain-- + A cheering smile of hope to give, + A voice to bid the mourner live. + + She hath a milder beam of praise, + Her heart a soil where Truth may bloom, + And while her drooping flowers we raise, + They yield us back a rich perfume. + Her influence bids our talents rise + 'Neath Love and Fancy's native skies! + + I heard an infant's lisping tongue + Address his mother's smiling eye, + And fondly ask his favourite song-- + His soul seemed wrapt in harmony; + She sung--and gave the cheering kiss, + Which made the poet's fortune his. + + His mother saw his fancies stray + To fragrant poesy, and leave + The dull pursuit of fortune's way, + 'Till some would chide and others grieve; + But she had marked the rising flame, + And led and nourish'd it to fame! + + When verse his mind to writing bore, + And genius shed its lustre there, + How proudly did she con it o'er, + Unconscious fell the blissful tear: + 'Twas her's to lighten care's control, + And raise the drooping, pensive soul. + + Her labour past, another breast, + Still lovely woman's, urged his pen-- + Pure love was sent to make him blest, + And bid his fancies flow again: + She yielded to his minstrel pride + The heart, the hand to lips denied! + + Quick roll'd the years in tranquil peace, + The peace by harmony begun. + And numbers charm'd each day of bliss, + That flowing verse and concord won: + His Mary's music soothed his woe, + And chased the tear that chanced to flow. + + Death came--and Poetry was o'er, + The chords of song had ceas'd to thrill, + The Minstrel's name was heard no more, + But one true heart was heaving still-- + His Mary's voice would nightly weave + Its lone, deep notes around his grave! + + * * * * * + + +CLAUDE LORRAINE. + + +Lanzi, in his _History of Italian Painting_, gives the following +exquisite encomium on this prince of landscape painters: + +"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." + + * * * * * + +"TINTORETTO," says his biographer, "produced works in which the most +captious of critics could not find a shade of defect." + + * * * * * + + +KISSING THE FOOT. + + +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. + + * * * * * + + +BOHEMIAN BLESSING. + + + Now sleep in blessedness--till morn + Brings its sweet light; + And hear the awful voice of God + Bid ye--Good Night! + Yet ere the hand of slumber close + The eye of care, + For the poor huntsman's soul's repose + Pour out one prayer. + + * * * * * + + +REVIEWING. + + +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.--_Blackwood's Mag_. + + * * * * * + + +MOTTOES FOR SUN DIALS. + +_By the Rev. W. Lisle Bowles_. + + + MORNING SUN.--_Tempus volat_. + OH! early passenger, look up--be wise, + And think how, night and day, TIME ONWARD + FLIES. + + NOON.--_Dum tempus habemus, operemur bonum_. + Life steals away--this hour, oh man, is lent thee, + Patient to "WORK THE WORK OF HIM WHO SENT + THEE." + + SETTING SUN.--_Redibo, tu nunquam_. + Haste, traveller, the sun is sinking now-- + He shall return again--but never thou. + + * * * * * + + +THE PINE-APPLE. + + +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 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." + + * * * * * + + +STONE-MASON'S CRITICISM + + +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:-- + + "My father--my poor mother--both are gone, + And o'er your cold remains I place this stone, + In memory of your virtues. May it tell + How _long one_ parent lived, and _both_ how well," + &c. + +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 _might_ do with a _little_ alteration--thus:-- + + "My father, and my mother too, are dead, + And here I _put_ this grave-stone at their head; + My father lived to eighty-seven, my mother + No quite _so long_--and _one_ died after _t'other_." + + * * * * * + + +PLEASURES OF HISTORY. + + +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.--_Edin. Rev._ + + * * * * * + + +CHARMS OF SAVAGE LIFE. + + +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.--_Mem. Gen. Miller_. + + * * * * * + + +PATRONS OF ASTRONOMY. + + +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 L1,300. 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 _Royal Observatory of +George IV._; and it has received from government L2,000. to purchase +instruments.--_Quarterly Rev_. + + * * * * * + + + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS + +DINNERS. + + +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. + +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, + + "All silent, and all damn'd!" + +Still the roof does not fall, although the chandelier burns dim in +sympathy, + + "And all the air a solemn stillness holds." + +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. + +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 an anniversary GAUDEAMUS of the +Deaf and Dumb.--_Blackwood's Mag._ + + * * * * * + + +THE SCOLD. + +IMITATED FROM BERNI. + + + To dine on devils without drinking, + To want a seat when almost sinking, + To pay to-day--receive to-morrow, + To sit at feasts in silent sorrow, + To sweat in winter--in the boot + To feel the gravel cut one's foot, + Or a cursed flea within the stocking + Chase up and down--are very shocking: + With one hand dirty, one hand clean, + Or with one slipper to be seen: + To be detain'd when most in hurry, + Might put Griselda in a flurry;-- + But these, and every other bore, + If to the list you add a score, + Are not so bad, upon my life, + As that one scourge--a scolding wife! + +_New Monthly Magazine_. + + * * * * * + + + +SELECT BIOGRAPHY + +LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER. + +_Concluded from page 113_. + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 months, is as much an +uncertainty as it was fourteen months ago, and not more so." + +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:-- + +"Permit me to relate to you an incident. About a fortnight ago, Sir +James Hall,[8] 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 _robe de chambre_, +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 _opinion_ 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." + +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." + +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, _pro bono publico_, 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +While thus detained for the winter at Yakutsk, he drew up some very just +observations on the Tartars, which were afterwards published. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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.--_Quarterly Review--Article "Ledyard's +Travels."_ + + [8] Sir James Hall of Douglass, Bart., the father of Captain + Basil Hall, R.N., and, till lately, President of the Royal + Society of Edinburgh. + + * * * * * + + + +THE GATHERER. + + + "A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + * * * * * + + +LARGE BONNETS. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +The immense large bonnets which decorate the ladies of the present day +are truly "_over the borders_," and seem to keep pace with the "_march +of intellect_." 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 + + "Extremes produce extremes, extremes avoid, + Extremes without extremes are not enjoyed." + +Some years ago, when straw bonnets were all the rage, the following +_pithy_ lines were composed by M. P. Andrewes, Esq.:-- + + "Some ladies' heads appear like stubble fields; + Who now of threaten'd famine dare complain, + When every female forehead teems with grain? + See how the _wheat-sheaves_ nod amid the plumes! + Our barns are now transferr'd to drawing-rooms, + And husbands who indulge in active lives, + To fill their _granaries_ may _thrash their wives_." + +P.T.W. + +Our facetious correspondent does not notice the _golden oats_; 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. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London; sold by +ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and by all Newsmen and +booksellers._ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, +and Instruction, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MIRROR OF LITERATURE, NO. 328 *** + +***** This file should be named 11267.txt or 11267.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/6/11267/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Allen Siddle, David King, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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