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diff --git a/11540-0.txt b/11540-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b60b28 --- /dev/null +++ b/11540-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1472 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11540 *** + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. XIX, NO. 536.] SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1832. [PRICE 2d. + + * * * * * + + + + + +ENTRANCE TO THE BOTANIC GARDEN, MANCHESTER. + + +[Illustration: Entrance to the Botanic Garden, Manchester.] + + +Manchester is distinguished among the large towns of the kingdom for +its majority of enlightened individuals. "The whole population," it +has been pertinently observed by a native, "seems to be imbued with a +general thirst for knowledge and improvement." Even amidst the hum of +its hundreds of thousand spindles, and its busy haunts of industry, +the people have learned to cultivate the pleasures of natural +and experimental science, and the delights of literature. The +Philosophical Society of Manchester is universally known by its +excellent published Memoirs: it has its Royal Institution; its +Philological Society, and public libraries; so that incentives to this +improvement have grown with its growth. Among these is the Botanical +and Horticultural Society, formed in the autumn of 1827, whose primary +object was "a Garden for Manchester and its neighbourhood." Previously +to its establishment, Manchester had a Floral Society, with six +hundred subscribers, which was a gratifying evidence of public taste, +as well as encouragement for the Garden design. + +We find the promised advantages of the plan thus strikingly +illustrated in an Address of the preceding date, "The study of Botany +has not been pursued in any part of the country with greater assiduity +and success than in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Far from being +confined to the higher orders of society, it has found its most +disinterested admirers in the lowest walks of life. Though to the +skill and perseverance of the cottager we are confessedly indebted +for the improved cultivation of many plants and fruits, an extensive +acquaintance with the choicest productions of nature, and a +philosophical investigation of their properties, are very frequently +to be met with in the Lancashire Mechanic. But whilst some knowledge +of the principles of Horticulture is almost universal; and the +inferior objects of attention are readily procured, it is obvious that +the difficulty and expense which attend the possession of plants of +rare, and more particularly of foreign growth, form a natural and +insurmountable obstruction to the researches of many lovers of the +science...." "Whatever regard is due to the rational gratifications +of which the most laborious life is not incapable, there is a moral +influence attendant on horticultural pursuits, which may be supposed +to render every friend of humanity desirous to promote them. The most +indifferent observer cannot fail to remark that the cottager who +devotes his hours of leisure to the improvement of his garden, is +rarely subject to the extreme privations of poverty, and commonly +enjoys a character superior to the circumstances of his condition. His +taste is a motive to employment, and employment secures him from the +temptations to extravagance and the natural consequences of dissipated +habits."[1] Further, we learn, one great object of the society is to +educate a certain number of young men as gardeners. As "an inviting +scene of public recreation," it is observed, "those who are little +interested in the cultivation of Botany, and who may regard the +employments of Horticulture with disdain, may still be induced to +frequent the Botanical garden, for the beauty of the objects, the +pleasures of the society, and the animating gaiety of the scene." + + [1] How pleasingly is the substance of these observations embodied + in one of our "Snatches from _Eugene Aram_:"--"It has been + observed, and there is a world of homely, ay, of legislative + wisdom in the observation, that wherever you see a flower in a + cottage garden, or a bird at the window, you may feel sure that + the cottagers are better and wiser than their neighbours." Vol. i. + p. 4. Yet with what wretched taste is this morality sought to be + perverted in an abusive notice of Mr. Bulwer's _Eugene Aram_, in + a Magazine of the past month, by a reference to Clark and Aram's + stealing flower-roots from gentlemen's gardens to add to the + ornaments of their own. The writer might as well have said that + Clark and Aram were fair specimens of the whole human race, or + that every gay flower in a cottage garden has been so stolen. + +The Manchester Garden, we should think, must, by this time, have an +Eden-like appearance. The Committee began fortunately. Mr. Loudon, in +one of his valuable Gardening Tours,[2] refers to "a few traits of +liberality in the parties connected with it; the noble result, as we +think, of the influence of commercial prosperity in liberalizing the +mind. Mr. Trafford, the owner of the ground, offered it for whatever +price the Committee chose to give for it. The Committee took it at its +value to a common farmer, and obtained a lease of the 16 acres (10 +Lancashire) for 99 years, renewable for ever at 120l a year." He +describes the donations of trees, plants, and books, by surrounding +gentlemen, as very liberal. Mr. Loudon does not altogether approve of +the plan, and certainly by no means of the manner in which the Garden +has been planted, yet he has no doubt it will contribute materially to +the spread of improved varieties of culinary vegetables and fruits, +and to the education of a superior description of gardeners. He +commends the hothouses, which have been executed at Birmingham; +especially "the manner in which Mr. Jones has heated the houses by hot +water; though a number of the garden committee were at first very much +against this mode of heating. Mr. Mowbray (who planned the Garden) +informed us that last winter the man could make up the fires for the +night at five o'clock, without needing to look at them again till the +following morning at eight or nine. The houses were always kept as +hot as could be wished, and might have been kept at 100° if thought +necessary. A young gardener, who had been accustomed to sit up half +the night during winter, to keep up the fires to the smoke flues +(elsewhere) was overcome with delight when he came here, and found how +easy the task of foreman of the houses was likely to prove to him, as +far as concerned the fires and nightwork." + + [2] Gardeners' Magazine, No. XXXIII. August, 1831. + +As a means of social improvement, (a feature of public interest, we +hope, always to be identified with _The Mirror_,) we need scarcely add +our commendation of the design of the Botanic Garden at Manchester, +and similar establishments in other large towns of Britain. What can +be a more delightful relaxation to a Lancashire Mechanic than an hour +or two in a _Garden_: what an escape from the pestiferous politics of +the times. At Birmingham too, there is a Public Garden, similar to +that at Manchester, where we hope the Artisan may enjoy a sight at +least of nature's gladdening beauties. + +In the suburbs of our great metropolis, matters are not so well +managed; though Mr. Loudon, we think, proposes to unite a Botanic with +the Zoological Gardens. Folks in London must study botany on their +window-sills. The wealthy do not encourage it. Their love of the +country is confined to the forced luxuries of kitchen-gardens, +conveyed to them in wicker-baskets; and a few hundred exotics hired +from a florist, to furnish a mimic conservatory for an evening rout. +They shun her gardens and fields; but, as Allan Cunningham pleasantly +remarks in his Life of Bonington: "Her loveliness and varieties are +not to be learned elsewhere than in her lap. He will know little of +birds who studies them stuffed in the museum, and less of the rose and +the lily who never saw anything but artificial nose-gays."[3] + + [3] Family Library, No. XXVII. + + * * * * * + + +TO A SNOWDROP. + +_A Translation._ + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +First and fairest of flowery visiter--through the dark winter I +have dreamed of thy paleness and thy purity--youngest sister of the +lily--likelier, thou art to be loved for thine own sake. Can so +delicate a thing spring from an Earthly bed? or art thou, indeed, +fallen from the heavens as a Snowdrop? Thus I pluck thee from thy +clayey abode, in which, like some of us mortals, thou wouldst find an +early grave. I place thee in my bosom, (oh! that it were half so pure +as thou), and there shalt thou die. Thou comest like a pure spirit, +rising from thy earthly home unsullied and unknown. No longer a child +of the dust, thou steppest forth almost too delicately attired at +such a season as this. Ye winds of heaven: "breathe on it gently." +Ye showers descend on my Snowdrop with the tenderness of dew. Little +flower, I love thy look of unpretending innocence: thou art the child +of simplicity. Thou art a _flower_, even though colourless. Wert thou +never gay as others? Where are the hues thou once didst wear? Hast +thou lent them to the rainbow, or to gay and gaudy flowers, or why +so pale? Dost thou fear the winter's wind? Canst thou survive the +snow-storm? Tell me: dost thou sleep by starlight, or revel with +midnight fairies? My Snowdrop, I pity thee, for thou art a lonely +flower. Why camest thou out so early, and wouldst not tarry for thy +more cautious spring-time companions? Yet thou knowest not fear, "fair +maiden of February." Thou art bold to come out on such a morning, and +friendless too. It must be true as they tell me, that thou wert once +an icicle, and the breath of some fairy's lips warmed thee into a +flower. Indeed thou lookest a frail and fairy thing, and thou wilt not +sojourn with us long; therefore it is I make much of thee. Too soon, +ah! too soon, will thy graceful form droop and die; yet shall the +memory of my Snowdrop be sweet, while memory lasts. I know not that I +shall live to see thy drooping head another year. A thousand flowers +with a thousand hues will follow after thee, but I will not, I will +not forget thee my Snowdrop. + +MAJOR CONVOLVULUS. + + * * * * * + + + +OUR LADY'S CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK. + + +It may not plainly appear to some readers that our Engraving of this +fine vestige of ancient art, is from a View taken in the year 1818. +The Bishop's Chapel, which is there shown, was demolished about twelve +months since, at whose bidding we know not; perhaps of the same party +who now contend for the destruction of the Lady Chapel. + +By the way we referred to the Altar Screen, of which we now find the +following memorandum in a _History of St. Saviour's Church_, published +in 1795:[4] + + "Anno 1618. 15 Jac. I. + "The screen at the entrance to the chapel of the Virgin Mary was + this year set up." + +In the same work occur the particulars of the repairs of the Lady +Chapel in 1624: + + "Anno 1624. 21 Jac. I. + "The chapel of the Virgin Mary was restored to the parishioners, + being let out to bakers for above sixty years before, and 200_l_. + laid out in the repair. Of which we preserve the following extract + from Stowe: + + "But passing all these, some what now of that part of this church + above the chancell, that in former times was called Our Ladies + Chappell. + + "It is now called the New Chappell; and indeed, though very old, + it now may be called a new one, because newly redeemed from such + use and imployment, as in respect of that it was built to, divine + and religious duties, may very well be branded, with the style of + wretched, base, and unworthy, for that, that before this abuse, + was (and is now) a faire and beautifull chappell, by those that + were then the corporation (which is a body consisting of thirty + vestry-men, six of those thirty, churchwardens) was leased and let + out, and the house of God made a bake-house. + + "Two very faire doores, that from the two side iles of the + chancell of this church, and two that thorow the head of the + chancell (as at this day they doe againe) went into it, were + lath't, daub'd, and dam'd up: the faire pillars were ordinary + posts against which they piled billets and bavens: in this place + they had their ovens, in that a bolting place, in that their + kneading trough, in another (I have heard) a hogs-trough; for the + words that were given mee were these, this place have I knowne + a hog-stie, in another a store house, to store up their hoorded + meal; and in all of it something of this sordid kind and + condition. It was first let by the corporation afore named, to + one _Wyat_, after him, to one _Peacocke_, after him, to one + _Cleybrooke_, and last, to one _Wilson_, all bakers, and this + chappell still imployed in the way of their trade, a bake-house, + though some part of this bake-house was some time turned into a + starch-house. + + "The time of the continuance of it in this kind, from the first + letting of it to Wyat, to the restoring of it again to the church, + was threescore and some odde yeeres, in the yeere of our Lord God + 1624, for in this yeere the ruines and blasted estate, that the + old corporation sold it to, were by the corporation of this time, + repaired, renewed, well, and very worthily beautified: the charge + of it for that yeere, with many things done to it since, arising + to two hundred pounds. + + "This, as all the former repairs, being the sole cost and charge + of the parishioners." + + [4] By M.M. Concanen, jun. and A. Morgan. + +A correspondent, E.E. inquires how it happens that the Chapel of St. +Mary Magdalen, shown in all old plans of the Church, has likewise +disappeared within the present century? This Chapel adjoined the +South transept, and was removed during the repairs, under the able +superintendence of Mr. Gwilt. It was thus described by Mr. Nightingale +in 1818: + + "The chapel itself is a very plain erection. It is entered on the + south, through a large pair of folding doors, leading down a + small flight of steps. The ceiling has nothing peculiar in its + character; nor are the four pillars supporting the roof, and + the unequal arches leading into the south aisle, in the least + calculated to convey any idea of grandeur, or feeling of + veneration. These arches have been cut through in a very clumsy + manner, so that scarcely any vestige of the ancient church of St. + Mary Magdalen now remains. A small doorway and windows, however, + are still visible at the east end of this chapel; the west end + formerly opened into the south transept; but that also is now + walled up, except a part, which leads to the gallery there. There + are in different parts niches which once held the holy water, by + which the pious devotees of former ages sprinkled their foreheads + on their entrance before the altar, I am not aware that any other + remains of the old church are now visible in this chapel. Passing + through the eastern end of the south aisle, a pair of gates leads + into the Virgin Mary's Chapel." + +From what we remember of the character of this Chapel, the lovers of +architecture have little to lament in its removal. Our Correspondent, +E.E., adds--"This, and not the Lady Chapel, it was, (No. 456 of _The +Mirror_,) that contained the gravestone of one Bishop Wickham, who, +however, was not the famous builder of Windsor Castle, in the time +of Edward III., but died in 1595, the same year in which he was +translated from the see of Lincoln to that of Winchester. His +gravestone, now lying exposed in the churchyard, marks the south-east +corner of the site of the aforesaid Magdalen Chapel." + + * * * * * + + + +SCOTTISH ECONOMY. + + +SHAVINGS _V._ COAL AND PEAT. + +(_To the Editor_.) + + +Without intending to be angry, permit me to inform your well-meaning +correspondent, _M.L.B_. that his observations on the inhabitants of +"Auld Reekie," are something like the subject of his communication +"Shavings," _rather_ superficial. + +Improvidence forms no feature in the Scottish character; but your +flying tourist charges "the gude folk o' Embro'" with monstrous +extravagance in making bonfires of their carpenters' chips; and +proceeds to reflect in the true spirit of civilization how much better +it would have been if the builders' chips had been used in lighting +household fires, to the obviously great saving of bundle-wood, than to +have thus wantonly forced them to waste their gases on the desert air. +But your traveller forgot that in countries which abound in wheat, rye +is seldom eaten; and that on the same principle, in Scotland, where +coal and peat are abundant, the "natives," like the ancient Vestals, +never allow their fires to go out, but keep them burning through the +whole night. The business of the "gude man" is, immediately before +going to bed, to load the fire with coals, and crown the supply with +a "canny passack o' turf," which keeps the whole in a state of gentle +combustion; when, in the morning a sturdy thrust from the poker, +produces an instantaneous blaze. But, unfortunately, should any +untoward "o'er-night clishmaclaver" occasion the neglect of this duty, +and the fire be left, like envy, to feed upon its own vitals, a remedy +is at hand in the shape of a pan "o' live coals" from some more +provident neighbour, resident in an upper or lower "flat;" and thus +without bundle-wood or "shavings," is the mischief cured. + +I hope that this explanation will sufficiently vindicate my Scottish +friends from _M.L.B_.'s aspersion. Scotchmen improvident! never: for +workhouses are as scarce among them as bundle-wood, or intelligent +travellers. Recollect that I am not in a passion; but this I will say, +though the gorge choke me, that _M.L.B._ strongly reminds me of the +French princess, who when she heard of some manufacturers dying in the +provinces of starvation, said, "Poor fools! die of starvation--if I +were them I would eat bread and cheese first." + +The next time _M.L.B._ visits Scotland, let him ask the first peasant +he meets how to keep eggs fresh for years; and he will answer _rub a +little oil or butter over them, within a day or two after laying, and +they will keep any length of time, perfectly fresh_. This discovery, +which was made in France by the great Reamur, depends for its success +upon the oil filling up the pores of the egg-shell, and thereby +cutting off the perspiration between the fluids of the egg and +the atmosphere, which is a necessary agent in putrefaction. The +preservation of eggs in this manner, has long been practised in all +"braid Scotland;" but it is not so much as known in our own boasted +land of stale eggs and bundle-wood. + +In Edinburgh, I mean the Scottish and not the Irish capital, _M.L.B._ +may actually eat _new laid_ eggs a _year old!_ How is it that this +great comfort is not practised in the navy? The Scotch have also a +hundred other domestic practices for the saving of the hard earned +"siller;" and are far from the commission of any such idle waste as +_M.L.B._'s story exhibits. S.S. + +P.S. Tinder-boxes are unknown in Scotland, and I am sure _M.L.B._ if +he wants a business would as readily make his fortune by selling them, +as the Yorkshireman who went to the West Indies with a cargo of great +coats. + + * * * * * + + +LINES + +ON MY FORTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + + On the slope of Life's decline, + The landmark reached of _forty-nine_, + Thoughtful on this heart of mine + Strikes the sound of forty-nine. + Greyish hairs with brown combine + To note Time's hand--and forty-nine. + Sunny hours that used to shine, + Shadow o'er at forty-nine. + Of youthful sports the joys decline, + Symptoms strong of forty-nine. + The dance I willingly resign, + To lighter heels than forty-nine. + + * * * * * + + Yet, why anxiously repine? + Pleasures wait on forty-nine. + + Social pleasures--joys benign-- + Still are found at forty-nine. + With a friend to go and dine, + What better age than forty-nine? + Ladies with me sip their wine, + Though they know I'm forty-nine. + Tea and chat, and wit combine, + To enliven musing forty-nine. + Let harmony its chords untwine, + Music charms at forty nine. + O'er wasting care let croakers whine, + Care we'll defy at forty-nine. + Fifty shall not make me pine-- + Why lament o'er forty-nine. + Joys let's trace of "Auld Lang Syne," + Memory's fresh at forty-nine. + Then fill a cup of rosy wine, + And drink a health to FORTY-NINE. + +W. W. + + * * * * * + + + + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. + + * * * * * + +PHILOSOPHY OF LONDON. + + +_The Quadrant_ + +The principle of _suum cuique_ is felicitously enforced in that +ostentatious but rather heavy piece of architecture, the Regent +Quadrant, the pillars of which exhibit from time to time different +colours, according to the fancy of the shop-owners to whose premises +respectively they happen to belong. Thus, Mr. Figgins chooses to see +his side of a pillar painted a pale chocolate, while his neighbour +Mrs. Hopkins insists on disguising the other half with a coat of light +cream colour, or haply a delicate shade of Dutch pink; so that the +identity of material which made it so hard for Transfer, in Zeluco, +to distinguish between his metal Venus and Vulcan, is often the only +incident that the two moieties have in common. + + +_Squares_. + +The few squares that existed in London antecedent to 1770, were rather +sheep-walks, paddocks, and kitchen gardens, than any thing else. +Grosvenor Square in particular, fenced round with a rude wooden +railing, which was interrupted by lumpish brick piers at intervals of +every half-dozen yards, partook more of the character of a pond than +a parterre; and as for Hanover Square, it had very much the air of a +sorry cow-yard, where blackguards were to be seen assembled daily, +playing at husselcap up to their ankles in mire. Cavendish Square was +then for the first time dignified with a statue, in the modern uniform +of the Guards, mounted on a charger, _à l'antique_, richly gilt and +burnished; and Red Lion Square, elegantly so called from the sign of +an ale-shop at the corner, presented the anomalous appendages of two +ill-constructed watch-houses at either end, with an ungainly, naked +obelisk in the centre, which, by the by, was understood to be the +site of Oliver Cromwell's re-interment. St. James's Park abounded in +apple-trees, which Pepys mentions having laid under contribution by +stealth, while Charles and his queen were actually walking within +sight of him. The quaint style of this old writer is sometimes not a +little entertaining. He mentions having seen Major-General Harrison +"hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing-Cross, he (Harrison) looking +as cheerful as any man could in that condition." He also gravely +informs us that Sir Henry Vane, when about to be beheaded on Tower +Hill, urgently requested the executioner to take off his head so as +not to hurt a seton which happened to be uncicatrized in his neck! + + +_Modern Building_. + +We are the contemporaries of a street-building generation, but the +grand maxim of the nineteenth century, in their management of masonry, +as in almost every thing else, as far as we can discover, appears to +lie in that troublesome line of Macbeth's soliloquy, ending with, +"'twere well it were done quickly." It is notorious that many of the +leases of new dwelling-houses contain a clause against dancing, lest +the premises should suffer from a mazurka, tremble at a gallopade, or +fall prostrate under the inflictions of "the parson's farewell," or +"the wind that shakes the barley." The system of building, or rather +"running up" a house first, and afterwards providing it with a false +exterior, meant to deceive the eye with the semblance of curved stone, +is in itself an absolute abomination. Besides, Greek architecture, so +magnificent when on a large scale, becomes perfectly ridiculous when +applied to a private street-mansion, or a haberdasher's warehouse. St. +Paul's Church, Covent-Garden, is an instance of the unhappy effect +produced by a combination of a similar kind; great in all its parts, +with its original littleness, it very nearly approximates to the +character of a barn. Inigo Jones doubtless desired to erect an edifice +of stately Roman aspect, but he was cramped in his design, +and, therefore, only aspired to make a first-rate barn; so far +unquestionably the great architect has succeeded. Then looking to +those details of London architecture, which appear more peculiarly +connected with the dignity of the nation, what can we say of it, +but that the King of Great Britain is worse lodged than the chief +magistrate of Claris or Zug, while the debates of the most powerful +assembly in the world are carried on in a building, (or, a return to +Westminster Hall,) which will bear no comparison with the Stadthouse +at Amsterdam! The city, however, as a whole, presents a combination of +magnitude and grandeur, which we should in vain look for elsewhere, +although with all its immensity it has not yet realized the quaint +prediction of James the First,--that London would shortly be England, +and England would be London. + + +_Morning_. + +The metropolis presents certain features of peculiar interest just at +that unpopular dreamy hour when stars "begin to pale their ineffectual +fires," and the drowsy twilight of the doubtful day brightens apace +into the fulness of morning, "blushing like an Eastern bride." Then it +is that the extremes of society first meet under circumstances +well calculated to indicate the moral width between their several +conditions. The gilded chariot bowls along from square to square with +its delicate patrimonial possessor, bearing him homeward in celerity +and silence, worn with lassitude, and heated with wine quaffed at his +third rout, after having deserted the oft-seen ballet, or withdrawn in +pettish disgust at the utterance of a false harmony in the opera. A +cabriolet hurries past him still more rapidly, bearing a fashionable +physician, on the fret at having been summoned prematurely from the +comforts of a second sleep in a voluptuous chamber, on an experimental +visit to + + "Raise the weak head, and stay the parting sigh, + Or with new life relume the swimming eye." + +At the corners of streets of traffic, and more especially + + "Where fam'd St. Giles's ancient limits spread," + +the matutinal huckster may be seen administering to costermongers, +hackney-coachmen, and "fair women without discretion," a fluid "all +hot, all hot," ycleped by the initiated elder wine, which, we should +think, might give the partakers a tolerable notion of the fermenting +beverage extracted by Tartars from mare's milk not particularly fresh. +Hard by we find a decent matron super-intending her tea-table at the +lamp-post, and tendering to a remarkably select company little, blue, +delft cups of bohea, filled from time to time from a prodigious +kettle, that simmers unceasingly on its charcoal tripod, though the +refractory cad often protests that the fuel fails before the boiling +stage is consummated by an ebullition. Hither approaches perhaps +an interesting youth from Magherastaphena, who, ere night-fall, is +destined to figure in some police-office as a "juvenile delinquent." +The shivering sweep, who has just travelled through half a dozen +stacks of chimneys, also quickens every motion of his weary little +limbs, when he comes within sight of the destined breakfast, and +beholds the reversionary heel of a loaf and roll of butter awaiting +his arrival. Another unfailing visiter is the market-gardener, on +his way to deposit before the Covent Garden piazza such a pyramid +of cabbages as might well have been manured in the soil with Master +Jack's justly celebrated bean-stalk. Surely Solomon in all his +glory was not arrayed like one of these. The female portion of +such assemblages, for the most part, consists of poor Salopian +strawberry-carriers, many of whom have walked already at least +four miles, with a troublesome burden, and for a miserable +pittance--egg-women, with sundry still-born chickens, goslings, and +turkey-pouts--and passing milk-maidens, peripatetic under the yoke of +their double pail. Their professional cry is singular and sufficiently +unintelligible, although perhaps not so much so as that of the Dublin +milk-venders in the days of Swift; it used to run thus,-- + + "Mugs, jugs, and porringers, + Up in the garret and down in the cellar." + +They are in general a hale, comely, well-favoured race, +notwithstanding the assertion of the author of Trivia to the +contrary.[5] + + [5] "On doors the sallow milk maid chalks her gains. + Oh! how unlike the milk-maid of the plains!" + +The most revolting spectacle to any one of sensibility which usually +presents itself about this hour, is the painful progress of the jaded, +foundered, and terrified droves of cattle that one necessarily must +see not unfrequently struggling on to the appointed slaughter-house, +perhaps after three days during which they have been running + + "Their course of suffering in the public way." + +On such occasions we have often wished ourselves "far from the sight of +city, spire, or sound of minster clock." One feels most for the sheep +and lambs, when the softened fancy recurs to the streams and hedgerows, +and pleasant pastures, from whence the woolly exiles have been ejected; +and yet the emotion of pity isnot wholly unaccompanied by admiration at +the sagacity of the canine disciplinarians that bay them remorselessly +forward, and sternly refuse the stragglers permission to make a +reconnoissance on the road. They are highly respectable members of +society these same sheep-dogs, and we wish we could say as much for "the +curs of low degree," that just at the same hour begin to prowl up and +down St. Giles's, and to and fro in it, seeking what they may devour, +with the fear of the Alderman of Cripplegate Within before their eyes. +The feline kind, however, have reason to think themselves in more danger +at the first round of the watering cart, for we have often rescued an +unsuspicious tortoise-shell from the felonious designs of a skin-dealer, +who was about to lay violent hands on unoffending puss, while she was +watching the process of making bread through the crevices of a Scotch +grating.[6] + + [6] They say that no town in Europe is without a Scotchman for an + inhabitant. This trade in London is generally professed by North + Britons, and it is always a cause of alarm to a stranger if he + notices the enormous column of black smoke which is emitted from + their premises at the dawn, of the morning. + +Another animal _sui generis_, occasionally visible about the same +cock-crowing season, is the parliamentary reporter, shuffling to +roost, and a more slovenly-looking operative from sunrise to sunset +is rarely to be seen. There has probably been a double debate, and +between three and five o'clock he has written "a column _bould_." +No one can well mistake him. The features are often Irish, the +gait jaunty or resolutely brisk, but neither "buxom, blithe, nor +debonnair," complexion wan, expression pensive, and the entire +propriety of the toilette disarranged and _degagée_. The stuff that +he has perpetrated is happily no longer present to his memory, and +neither placeman's sophistry nor patriot's rant will be likely in +any way to interfere with his repose. Intense fatigue, whether +intellectual or manual, however, is not the best security for sound +slumber at any hour, more particularly in the morning. + +Even at this hour the swart Savoyard (_filius nullius_) issues forth +on his diurnal pilgrimage, "remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow," to +excruciate on his superannuated hurdy-gurdy that sublime melody, "the +hundred and seventh psalm," or the plaintive sweetness of "Isabel," +perhaps speculating on a breakfast for himself and Pug, somewhere +between Knightsbridge and Old Brentford. Poor fellow! Could he +procure a few bones of mutton, how hard would it be for his hungry +comprehension to understand the displeasure which similar objects +occasioned to Attila on the plains of Champagne! + +Then the too frequent preparations for a Newgate execution--but enough +of such details; it is the muse of Mr. Crabbe that alone could do them +justice. We would say to the great city, in the benedictory spirit of +the patriot of Venice,--_esto perpetua!_ Notwithstanding thy manifold +"honest knaveries," peace be within thy walls, and plenty pervade thy +palaces, that thou mayest ever approve thyself, oh queen of capitals, + + "Like Samson's riddle in the sacred song, + A springing sweet still flowing from the strong!" + +_Blackwood's Magazine_. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE SKETCH-BOOK. + + * * * * * + +SCOTTISH SPORTING. + +_From the letters of two sportsmen; with recollections of the Ettrick +Shepherd._ + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +After visiting Thoms, the sculptor, "Burns's cottage," "Halloway +Kirk," Monument, &c., in Ayrshire, we toddled on over to Dumfries, +and had a _crack_ with poor "Rabbie Burns's" widow, not forgetting +McDiarmid the author; thence to Moffat, and up that dismal glen, the +pass of Moffat, to the grey mare's tail, a waterfall, so called from +its resembling the silvery tail of a grey mare; and truly, if the +simile were extended into infinitude, which from its sublimity it +would admit of, we might compare its waving, silky stream swinging +over the broad face of its lofty grey rock, to the tail of the pale +horse of Revelation, over the chaos of time. It was a sombre, solemn +sort of a day, and the dense clouds hung curtaining down the mountain +sides, like our living pall as it were--I scarcely know how--but we +felt dismally until we took a dram and got into a perspiration, with +tugging up the sinuosities of the cliff's, to the summit of the +waterfall. Loch Skein, where we were galvanized, electrified, +magnetized, and petrified, all at once, by the quackery, clackery, +flappery, quatter, splatter, clatter, scatter, and dash-de-blash, and +squash, of a flock of wild ducks, on its reedy, flaggy surface; O, +what a _scutter_ was there! Our hearts, too full, leapt into our +mouths, but our guns were turned into tons of lead, and ere we could +heave them up to our shoulders of clay, the thousand had fled into the +eternal grey mist of the mountain, like the dispersion of a confused +dream. There we stood like two sumphs, (as Hogg calls those who are +ganging a bit aglee in their wits) gaping and staring at each other +with a look which said, why did not _you_ shoot? Our dogs too stood +as stiff as two pumps, with tails standing out like the handles! +_Apropos_--talking of Hogg, the poet, we called to see him in his +half-acre island in Eltrive Lake, and truly we met with that burning +hot reception which we had anticipated from _Blackwood's Magazine_ +description of him. We had no _notes of introduction_ except the notes +which our guns pricked upon the echoes of Ettric Forest, and which +James Hogg heard and answered with a view-hallo, for us to "come awa +doon the brae an' tak' a dram o'speerits," and so we did, and in true +Highland style; he met us at the door and gave us a drain from the +bottle, first gulping a glass himself of that double-strong like & +fire-eater, without a twink of the eye or a wince of the mouth; and +then with a grip o' the daddle, which made the fingers crack, he +pulled us into his bonnie wee bit shooting box of a house, with a +"Come awa ben ye'll be the better o' a bite o' venison pasty;" so in +we went, and were introduced to his bonnie wife and sousy barnes, +which latter, Jammie Hogg nursed as though he lov'd 'em frae the +uttermost ends o' his sowl. + +Campbell has it against Byron, that "the poetic temperament is +incompatible with matrimonial felicity." Fudge, fudge, Mr. Campbell, +did you ever visit James Hogg? + +Well, we sat down to take a snack with James and an extraordinary +monkey of his, which he has dressed in the garb of a Highland soldier, +and which too, sat down at table, and played his knife and fork like +a true epicure. "An extrornry crater is that wee Heelan-man o' mine, +gentlemen, he can conduc himsel' as weel's ony Christan man at table, +and aft when I'm pennin' a bit rhyme 'thegither, the crater'll lowp up +'ith chair anent me and tak' up a pen, in exac emeetation o' me, and +keck into my 'een in his cunnin way, as if he was speering me what to +write aboot; he surely maun ha' a feck o' thocht in his heed if are +could gar him spak it; but ye ken his horsemanship beats a'. I had a +spire-haired collie, a breed atween a Heelan lurcher, a grew, and a +wolf, dog, a meety, muckle collie he is for sure--weel, gentlemen, do +ye ken, he a' rides on him when we hoont the tod (fox), an' to see him +girt a screep o' red flannin on for a saddle, that the neer-do-weel +toor fra a beggar-wife's tattered duds ane day; an' then to see him +lowp on like a mountebank, and sit skreighin an' chatrin, an' cronkin +like a paddock on a clud o'yearth. O, its a lachin teeklesome sicht +for sure--an' then hee'l thud, thud, thud his wee bit neive 'ith +shouther 'oth collie, an' steek his toes in his side, just for a' +the world like a Newmarket jockey, an' then hee'l turn him roon +behint-afore an' play treeks, till collie gerns at him; an' then beway +o' makin friens again, hee'l streek an' pat him, an' peek the ferlie +oot o' his hurdles; an' then when we're a' ready for gannin awa, to be +sure what a dirdum an' stramash do they twa keek up; an' then aff they +flee like the deevil in a gale o' wind, an' are oot o' sicht before ye +can say owr the border an' far awa. But I ha' just been speerin the +forester aboot the tod (fox), an' he gars me gang owr the muir to +Ettric Forest, an' leuk in a cleuch in a rock there is there, an' +I shall find the half-peckit banes o' a joop o' mine that stray'd +yestreen. So, gentlemen, if yer fond o' oor kin o' sportin, ye shall +hae such a sicht o' rinnin an' ridin as ye ne'er saw heretofore we +your twa een." + +We readily accepted the invite, and off we set in company with the +"Ettric Shepherd" and his monkey, and certainly it was a "_teeklesome +sicht_" to see him mounted on the long, lank, wire-haired, shaggy +wolf-dog-grew-lurcher, while he in play was scouring round and round +the wild and barren moor; away and away as swift as the wind, over +brae and bourn and bog they went, like a red petticoated witch on a +besom, flying in the storm. + +On our way we fell in with the foresters, who were going a +deer-stalking; they had a buck to kill for the duke, so we joined +company, and gave that satisfactory shrug of the shoulders, with the +expectation of sport, that a spider would feel while sitting in the +corner of a hollow nut-shell, and seeing his victim already entangled +in his web, while he was whetting his appetite with suspended hope, in +dream of anticipated fattenings. + +We made the best of our way to the watering-place haunt of the deer. +Silence was the word, and we crept on tip-toe and tip-toe, scarce +breathing, keeping ever out of the wind's course; for they have an +ear of silk, and an eye of light, and a scent so exquisite that they +could, if it were possible, hear the tread, see the essence, and scent +the breath, of a spirit. This watering haunt was in a lonely glen, +which was commanded, within pistol-shot, by a small clump of trees, +which were under-grown by brushwood and brambles, and wherein we +ambushed ourselves. Ay, there it was, the "gory bed," where "this day +a stag must die," just one hundred yards from that said clump. Hush, +hush, silence, silence, "Swallow your brith," says Jammie Hogg, hush, +"Heck, cack, a," says the monkey, "the deevil tak' the monkey," says +Jammie, "whist, whist, hush!" + +(_To be concluded in our next_.) + + * * * * * + + + +THE SELECTOR; AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS_. + + * * * * * + +THE GEORGIAN ERA. + +(_Concluded from page 124_.) + +_Sheridan_. + + +"In early life, Sheridan had been generally accounted handsome: he was +rather above the middle size, and well proportioned. He excelled in +several manly exercises: he was a proficient in horsemanship, and +danced with great elegance. His eyes were black, brilliant, and +always particularly expressive. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted his +portrait, is said to have affirmed, that their pupils were larger than +those of any human being he had ever met with. They retained their +beauty to the last; but the lower parts of his face exhibited, in his +latter years, the usual effects of intemperance. His arms were strong, +although by no means large; and his hands small and delicate. On a +cast of one of them, the following appropriate couplet is stated, by +Moore, to have been written:-- + + Good at a fight, but better at a play; + Godlike in giving; but the devil to pay! + +"No man of his day possessed so much tact in appropriating and +adorning the wit of others. He pillaged his predecessors of their +ideas, with as much skill and effrontery as he did his contemporaries +of their money. It was his ambition to appear indolent; but he was, in +fact, particularly, though not regularly laborious. The most striking +parts of his best speeches were written and rewritten, on separate +slips of paper, and, in many cases, laid by for years, before they +were spoken. He not only elaborately polished his good ideas, but, +when they were finished, waited patiently, until an opportunity +occurred of uttering them with the best effect. Moore states, that +the only time he could have had for the pre-arrangement of his +conceptions, must have been during the many hours of the day which he +passed in bed; when, frequently, while the world gave him credit for +being asleep, he was employed in laying the frame-work of his wit and +eloquence for the evening. + +"Like that of his great political rival, Pitt, his eloquence required +the stimulus of the bottle. Port was his favourite wine; it quickened, +he said, the circulation and the fancy together; adding, that he +seldom spoke to his satisfaction until after he had taken a couple of +bottles. Arthur O'Leary used to remark, that, like a porter, he never +was steady unless he had a load on his head. + +"He also needed the excitement of wine when engaged in composition. +'If an idea be reluctant,' he would sometimes say, 'a glass of port +ripens it, and it bursts forth; if it come freely, a glass of port is +a glorious reward for it.' He usually wrote at night, with several +candles burning around him. + +"The most serious appointments were, to him, matters of no importance. +After promising to attend the funeral of his friend Richardson, he +arrived at the church after the conclusion of the burial service; +which, however, to their mutual disgrace, he prevailed on the +clergyman to repeat. But, notwithstanding his liability to the charge +of desecration, even in more than one instance, he professed, and it +is but charitable to presume that he felt, in his better moments, a +deep sense of the worth of piety. He had ever considered, he said, +a deliberate disposition to make proselytes in infidelity, as an +unaccountable depravity, a brutal outrage, the motive for which he had +never been able to trace or conceive. + +"Sheridan enjoyed a distinguished reputation for colloquial wit. From +among the best of the occasional dicta, &c. attributed to him, the +following are selected:-- + +"An elderly maiden lady, an inmate of a country house, at which +Sheridan was passing a few days, expressed an inclination to take a +stroll with him, but he excused himself, on account of the badness of +the weather. Shortly afterwards, she met him sneaking out alone. + +'So, Mr. Sheridan,' said she, 'it has cleared up.' 'Yes, madam,' was +the reply; 'it certainly has cleared up enough for one, but not enough +for two;' and off he went. + +"He jocularly observed, on one occasion, to a creditor, who +peremptorily required payment of the interest due on a long-standing +debt,' My dear sir, you know it is not my _interest_ to pay the +_principal_; nor is it my _principle_ to pay the _interest_.' + +"One day, the prince of Wales having expatiated on the beauty of Dr. +Darwin's opinion, that the reason why the bosom of a beautiful woman +possesses such a fascinating effect on man is, because he derived from +that source the first pleasurable sensations of his infancy. Sheridan +ridiculed the idea very happily. 'Such children, then,' said he, 'as +are brought up by hand, must needs be indebted for similar sensations +to a very different object; and yet, I believe, no man has ever felt +any intense emotions of amatory delight at beholding a pap-spoon.' + +"Boaden, the author of several theatrical pieces, having given Drury +lane theatre the title of a wilderness, Sheridan, when requested, +shortly afterwards, to produce a tragedy, written by Boaden, replied, +'The wise and discreet author calls our house a wilderness:--now, I +don't mind allowing the oracle to have his opinion; but it is really +too much for him to expect, that I will suffer him to prove his +words.' + +"Kelly having to perform an Irish character, Johnstone took great +pains to instruct him in the brogue, but with so little success, that +Sheridan said, on entering the green-room, at the conclusion of the +piece, 'Bravo, Kelly! I never heard you speak such good English in all +my life!' + +"He delighted in practical jokes, and seems to have enjoyed a sheer +piece of mischief, with all the gusto of a school-boy. At this kind of +sport, Tickell and Sheridan were often play-fellows: and the tricks +which they inflicted on each other, were frequently attended with +rather unpleasant consequences. One night, he induced Tickell to +follow him down a dark passage, on the floor of which he had placed +all the plates and dishes he could muster, in such a manner, that +while a clear path was left open for his own escape, it would have +been a miracle if Tickell did not smash two-thirds of them. The result +was as Sheridan had anticipated: Tickell fell among the crockery, +which so severely cut him in many places, that Lord John Townshend +found him, the next day, in bed, and covered with patches. 'Sheridan +has behaved atrociously towards me,' said he, 'and I am resolved to be +revenged on him. But,' added he, his admiration at the trick entirely +subduing his indignation, 'how amazingly well it was managed!' + +"He once took advantage of the singular appetite of Richardson for +argument, to evade payment of a heavy coach-fare. Sheridan had +occupied a hackney-chariot for several hours, and had not a penny in +his pocket to pay the coachman. While in this dilemma, Richardson +passed, and he immediately proposed to take the disputant up, as they +appeared to be going in the same direction. The offer was accepted, +and Sheridan adroitly started a subject on which his companion was +usually very vehement and obstinate. The argument was maintained with +great warmth on both sides, until at length Sheridan affected to lose +his temper, and pulling the check-string, commanded the coachman to +let him out instantly, protesting that he would not ride another +yard with a man who held such opinions, and supported them in such a +manner. So saying, he descended and walked off, leaving Richardson to +enjoy his fancied triumph, and to pay the whole fare. Richardson, it +is said, in a paroxysm of delight at Sheridan's apparent defeat, put +his head out of the window and vociferated his arguments until he was +out of sight." + +The minor or appendix biographies are not so neatly executed as the +more lengthy sketches. It is rather oddly said, "that Alderman Wood +shortly before the demise of George the Fourth, obtained leave to +bring in a bill for the purpose of preventing the spread of canine +madness." Again, as the Alderman is a hop-factor, why observe "he +is said to have realized a considerable fortune by his fortunate +speculations in hops." This describes him as a mere speculator, and +not as an established trader in hops. + +The present volume of the Georgian Era is handsomely printed, and is, +without exception, the _cheapest book of the day_, considered either +as to its merit or size--quality or quantity: what can transcend +nearly 600 pages of such condensed reading as we have proved this work +to contain--for half-a-guinea! Were it re-written and printed in the +style of a fashionable novel, it would reach round the world, and in +that case, it should disappear at _Terra del Fuego_. + +The embellishments of the Georgian Era are not its most successful +portion; but a fine head of George I. fronts the title-page. The +anecdotes, by the way, will furnish us two or three agreeable pages +anon. + + * * * * * + + + + +FINE ARTS. + + * * * * * + +PATRICK NASMYTH. + +(_For the Mirror_.) + + +This distinguished landscape-painter was the son of Mr. Alexander +Nasmyth, an artist who is still living and well known in Edinburgh, at +which city Patrick was born about the year 1785. His education appears +to have been good, and he was early initiated in the art of painting +by his father, who constantly represented to him the many great +advantages to be derived from the study of nature rather than from the +old masters' productions, the greater portion of which have lost their +original purity by time and the unskilful management of those persons +who term themselves _picture restorers_. Far from confining himself to +the usual method adopted by most young artists of servilely imitating +old paintings, young Nasmyth very soon began to copy nature in all +her varied freshness and beauty. Scotland contains much of the +picturesque, and from this circumstance he seized every opportunity +to cultivate his genius for landscape-painting. With incessant +application he studied the accidental formation of clouds and the +shadows thrown by them on the earth; by which practice he acquired the +art of delineating with precision the most pleasing effects. His style +appears very agreeable and unaffected; he excelled however, only in +rural scenery, in which his skies, distant hills, and the barks of the +trees, are truly admirable. His foregrounds are always beautifully +diversified, and every blade of grass is true to nature. He is not +equal in every respect to Hobbima, yet certainly approximates nearer +to that celebrated master than any English artist. + +In 1830, Mr. Nasmyth sold his valuable collection of original sketches +and drawings for thirty pounds to George Pennell, Esq., who also +purchased several of his exquisitely finished pictures, one of +which--a View in Lee Wood, near, Bristol--is now in the possession of +Lord Northwick. Nasmyth was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy, +the British Institution, &c., and his performances delighted the +uninstructed spectator as well as the connoisseur. + +In person, he was of the middle stature, and possessed a manly +countenance with an agreeable figure. In conversation he was vivacious +and witty, especially when in company with a convivial party. His +character, in some respects, was similar to that of George Morland; +he was rather too much addicted to convivial pleasures, yet was ever +solicitous to mix with the best company, and his polite manners always +rendered him an acceptable guest; in this respect he was _unlike_ +Morland, who, it is well known, loved to select his companions from +the lowest class of society. Although Nasmyth obtained considerable +sums for his pictures, he was never sufficiently economical to save +money; on the contrary his private affairs were in a very deranged +state. He was never married, and during the last ten years of his life +resided at Lambeth. + +Towards the end of July, 1831, Mr. Nasmyth, accompanied by two of his +intimate acquaintances, made an excursion to Norwood for the purpose +of sketching. Much rain had fallen the day before, and the air was +still chilly; the artist, however, commenced his drawing, and remained +stationary for about two hours, when, the sketch being finished, he +rejoined the friends whom he had left at an inn. He then complained of +being excessively cold, but on taking something warm his usual spirits +returned, and the party passed the rest of the day pleasantly. On the +following morning, however, Nasmyth felt considerably indisposed, +and it appeared evident he had taken a violent cold. Notwithstanding +medical assistance, his indisposition daily increased; and on the 18th +of August he breathed his last, in the 46th year of his age. + +He died in extreme poverty, and a subscription to defray the expenses +of the funeral was raised among his friends. Wilson, Stanfield, and +Roberts subscribed, and followed the remains of their late talented +friend to the grave in St. Mary's churchyard, Lambeth. + +G.W.N. + + * * * * * + + +PORTRAIT OF CHRIST. + + +(_To the Editor_.) + +The document giving an account of Jesus Christ, which is referred to +by _Veritas_, in No. 533 of _The Mirror_, has been long since known +to be a glaring forgery. It is one of many stories invented in the +second, third, and fourth centuries, by the early Christians; for +a full account of whose forgeries in such matters, you may consult +Mosheim, Lardner, Casaubon, and other ecclesiastical writers. The +latter says, "It mightily affects me to see how many there were in the +earliest times of the church, who considered it as a capital exploit +to lend to heavenly truth the help of their own inventions, in order +that the new doctrine might be more readily allowed by the wise among +the Gentiles. These officious lies, they were wont to say, were +devised for a good end. From which source, beyond question, sprung +_nearly innumerable_ books, which that and the following ages saw +published by those who were far from being bad men, under the name +of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Apostles, and of other +Saints."--_Lardner_, vol. iv. p. 524. + +Dr. Mosheim, among his excellent works, has published a dissertation, +showing the _reasons_ and _causes_ of these supposed letters and +writings respecting Christ, the Apostles, &c., to which I would beg to +recommend your correspondent _Veritas_. JUSTUS. + + * * * * * + + + + +NOTES OF A READER. + + * * * * * + +DEATH OF JOHN HAMPDEN. + + +The last days of the patriot Hampden are thus graphically told in the +_Edinburgh Review_ of Lord Nugent's recently published "Memorials." We +need scarcely observe, by way of introduction, that Hampden fell in +the great contest between Charles and his parliament; and that when +the appeal was to the sword, Hampden accepted the command of a +regiment in the parliamentary army, under the Earl of Essex; the Royal +forces being headed by Prince Rupert. + +"In the early part of 1643, the shires lying in the neighbourhood +of London, which were devoted to the cause of the Parliament, were +incessantly annoyed by Rupert and his cavalry. Essex had extended +his lines so far, that almost every point was vulnerable. The +young prince, who, though not a great general, was an active and +enterprising partisan, frequently surprised posts, burned villages, +swept away cattle, and was again at Oxford, before a force sufficient +to encounter him could be assembled. + +"The languid proceedings of Essex were loudly condemned by the troops. +All the ardent and daring spirits in the parliamentary party were +eager to have Hampden at their head. Had his life been prolonged, +there is every reason to believe that the supreme command would have +been entrusted to him. But it was decreed that, at this conjuncture, +England should lose the only man who united perfect disinterestedness +to eminent talents--the only man who, being capable of gaining the +victory for her, was incapable of abusing that victory when gained. + +"In the evening of the 17th of June, Rupert darted out of Oxford with +his cavalry on a predatory expedition. At three in the morning of the +following day, he attacked and dispersed a few parliamentary soldiers +who were quartered at Postcombe. He then flew to Chinnor, burned the +village, killed or took all the troops who were posted there, and +prepared to hurry back with his booty and his prisoners to Oxford. + +"Hampden had, on the preceding day, strongly represented to Essex +the danger to which this part of the line was exposed. As soon as he +received intelligence of Rupert's incursion, he sent off a horseman +with a message to the General. The cavaliers, he said, could return +only by Chiselhampton Bridge. A force ought to be instantly dispatched +in that direction, for the purpose of intercepting them. In the +meantime, he resolved to set out with all the cavalry that he could +muster, for the purpose of impeding the march of the enemy till Essex +could take measures for cutting off their retreat. A considerable body +of horse and dragoons volunteered to follow him. He was not their +commander. He did not even belong to their branch of the service. But +'he was,' says Lord Clarendon, 'second to none but the General himself +in the observance and application of all men.' On the field of +Chalgrove he came up with Rupert. A fierce skirmish ensued. In the +first charge, Hampden was struck in the shoulder by two bullets, which +broke the bone, and lodged in his body. The troops of the Parliament +lost heart and gave way. Rupert, after pursuing them for a short time, +hastened to cross the bridge, and made his retreat unmolested to +Oxford. + +"Hampden, with his head drooping, and his hands leaning on his horse's +neck, moved feebly out of the battle. The mansion which had been +inhabited by his father-in-law, and from which in his youth he had +carried home his bride, Elizabeth, was in sight. There still remains +an affecting tradition, that he looked for a moment towards that +beloved house, and made an effort to go thither to die. But the enemy +lay in that direction. He turned his horse towards Thame, where he +arrived almost fainting with agony. The surgeons dressed his +wounds. But there was no hope. The pain which he suffered was +most excruciating. But he endured it with admirable firmness and +resignation. His first care was for his country. He wrote from his bed +several letters to London concerning public affairs, and sent a last +pressing message to the head-quarters, recommending that the dispersed +forces should be concentrated. When his last public duties were +performed, he calmly prepared himself to die. He was attended by a +clergyman of the Church of England, with whom he had lived in habits +of intimacy, and by the chaplain of the Buckinghamshire Green-coats, +Dr. Spurton, whom Baxter describes as a famous and excellent divine. + +"A short time before his death, the sacrament was administered to him. +He declared that, though he disliked the government of the Church of +England, he yet agreed with that Church as to all essential matters of +doctrine. His intellect remained unclouded. When all was nearly over, +he lay murmuring faint prayers for himself, and for the cause in which +he died. 'Lord Jesus,' he exclaimed, in the moment of the last agony, +'receive my soul--O Lord, save my country--O Lord, be merciful to--,' +In that broken ejaculation passed away his noble and fearless spirit. + +"He was buried in the parish church of Hampden. His soldiers, +bareheaded with reversed arms, and muffled drums, and colours, +escorted his body to the grave, singing, as they marched, that +lofty and melancholy psalm, in which the fragility of human life is +contrasted with the immutability of Him, in whose sight a thousand +years are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the +night. + +"The news of Hampden's death produced as great a consternation in his +party, according to Clarendon, as if their whole army had been cut +off. The journals of the time amply prove that the Parliament and all +its friends were filled with grief and dismay. Lord Nugent has quoted +a remarkable passage from the next _Weekly Intelligencer_. 'The loss +of Colonel Hampden goeth near the heart of every man that loves the +good of his king and country, and makes some conceive little content +to be at the army now that he is gone. The memory of this deceased +colonel is such, that in no age to come but it will more and more be +had in honour and esteem;--a man so religious, and of that prudence, +judgment, temper, valour, and integrity, that he hath left few his +like behind him,' + +"He had indeed left none his like behind him. There still remained, +indeed, in his party, many acute intellects, many eloquent tongues, +many brave and honest hearts. There still remained a rugged and +clownish soldier,--half-fanatic, half-buffoon,--whose talents +discerned as yet only by one penetrating eye, were equal to all the +highest duties of the soldier and the prince. But in Hampden, and in +Hampden alone, were united all the qualities which, at such a crisis, +were necessary to save the state,--the valour and energy of Cromwell, +the discernment and eloquence of Vane, the humanity and moderation of +Manchester, the stern integrity of Hale, the ardent public spirit of +Sidney. Others might possess the qualities which were necessary to +save the popular party in the crisis of danger; he alone had both the +power and the inclination to restrain its excesses in the hour of +triumph. Others could conquer; he alone could reconcile." + + * * * * * + + +SNATCHES FROM EUGENE ARAM. + + +_Love_.--What a beautiful fabric would be human nature--what a divine +guide would be human reason--if Love were indeed the stratum of the +one, and the inspiration of the other. + +_The Pathetic and Sublime_.--What a world of reasonings, not +immediately obvious, did the sage of old open to our inquiry, when he +said that the pathetic was the truest source of the sublime. + +_Fortune-telling by Gipsies_.--Very few men under thirty ever +sincerely refuse an offer of this sort. Nobody believes in these +predictions, yet every one likes hearing them. + +_Gardening_.--'Tis a winning thing, a garden! It brings us an object +every day; and that's what I think a man ought to have if he wishes to +lead a happy life. + +_Knaresbro' Castle_.--You would be at some loss to recognise now the +truth of old Leland's description of that once stout and gallant +bulwark of the north, when "he numbrid 11 or 12 toures in the walles +of the Castel, and one very fayre beside in the second area." In that +castle, the four knightly murderers of the haughty Becket (the Wolsey +of his age) remained for a whole year, defying the weak justice of the +times. There, too, the unfortunate Richard the Second,--the Stuart of +the Plantagenets--passed some portion of his bitter imprisonment. +And there, after the battle of Marston Moor, waved the banner of +the loyalists against the soldiers of Lilburn. It was made yet more +touchingly memorable at that time, as you may have heard, by an +instance of filial piety. The town was straitened for want of +provisions; a youth, whose father was in the garrison, was accustomed +nightly to get into the deep, dry moat, climb up the glacis, and put +provisions through a hole, where the father stood ready to receive +them. He was perceived at length; the soldiers fired on him. He was +taken prisoner, and sentenced to be hanged in sight of the besieged, +in order to strike terror into those who might be similarly disposed +to render assistance to the garrison. Fortunately, however, this +disgrace was spared the memory of Lilburne and the republican arms. +With great difficulty, a certain lady obtained his respite; and after +the conquest of the place, and the departure of the troops, the +adventurous son was released.... The castle then, once the residence +of Pierce Gaveston,--of Hubert III,--and of John of Gaunt, was +dismantled and destroyed. It is singular, by the way, that it was +twice captured by men of the name of Lilburn, or Lilleburne, once +in the reign of Edward II., once as I have related. On looking over +historical records, we are surprised to find how often certain great +names have been fatal to certain spots; and this reminds me that we +boast (at Knaresbro',) the origin of the English Sibyl, the venerable +Mother Shipton. The wild rock, at whose foot she is said to have been +born, is worthy of the tradition. + +_Consolation for the Loss of Children._--Better that the light cloud +should fade away into Heaven with the morning breath, than travail +through the weary day to gather in darkness, and end in storm! + +_Bells before a Wedding._--The bells were already ringing loud and +blithely; and the near vicinity of the church to the house brought +that sound, so inexpressibly buoyant and cheering, to the ears of the +bride, with a noisy merriment, that seemed like the hearty voice of +an old-fashioned friend who seeks, in his greeting, rather cordiality +than discretion. + +_The Murderer's Unction._--Ay, all is safe! He will not again return; +the dead sleeps without a witness.--I may lay this working brain upon +the bosom that loves me, and not start at night and think that the +soft hand around my neck is the hangman's gripe. + +_Hogarth._--Nothing makes a picture of distress more sad than the +portrait of some individual sitting indifferently looking on in the +back-ground. This was a secret Hogarth knew well. Mark his death-bed +scenes:--Poverty and Vice worked up into Horror--and the physicians +in the corner wrangling for the fee!--or the child playing with the +coffin--or the nurse filching what fortune, harsh, yet less harsh than +humanity, might have left. + +_Change of Circumstance._--In our estimate of the ills of life, we +never sufficiently take into consideration the wonderful elasticity of +our moral frame, the unlooked for, the startling facility with which +the human mind accommodates itself to all change of circumstance, +making an object and even a joy from the hardest and seemingly the +least redeemed conditions of fate. The man who watched the spider in +his cell, may have taken, at least, as much interest in the watch, as +when engaged in the most ardent and ambitious objects of his +former life; and he was but a type of his brethren; all in similar +circumstances would have found similar occupation. + +_Eternal Punishment._--So wonderful in equalizing all states and all +times in the varying tide of life, are the two rulers yet levellers of +mankind, Hope and Custom, that the very idea of an eternal punishment +includes that of an utter alteration of the whole mechanism of the +soul in its human state, and no effort of an imagination, assisted by +past experience, can conceive a state of torture, which custom can +_never_ blunt, and from which the chainless and immaterial spirit can +_never_ be beguiled into even a momentary escape. + +_Prison Solitude._--I have been now so condemned to feed upon myself, +that I have become surfeited with the diet.--_Aram_. + +_Sensibility._--We may triumph over all weaknesses but that of the +affections. + +_Silence of Cities._--The stillness of a city is far more impressive +than that of Nature; for the mind instantly compares the present +silence with the wonted uproar. + +_Suspense._--Of all the conditions to which the heart is subject, +suspense is the one that most gnaws, and cankers into the frame. One +little month of that suspense, when it involves death, we are told, +in a very remarkable work lately published by an eye-witness,[7] +is sufficient to plough fixed lines and furrows in a convict of +five-and-twenty--sufficient to dash the brown hair with grey, and to +bleach the grey to white. + + [7] Wakefield on "The Punishment of Death." + +_Consolation._--Her high and starry nature could comprehend those +sublime inspirations of comfort, which lift us from the lowest abyss +of this world to the contemplation of all that the yearning visions of +mankind have painted in another. + +It is a fearful thing to see _men_ weep. + +We are seldom sadder without being also wiser men. + +What is more appalling than to find the signs of gaiety accompanying +the reality of anguish. + +_Consolation._--If we go at noon day to the bottom of a deep pit,[8] +we shall be able to see the stars which on the level ground are +invisible. Even so, from the depths of grief--worn, wretched, +seared, and dying--the blessed apparitions and tokens of heaven make +themselves visible to our eyes. + + [8] The remark is in Aristotle. Buffon quotes it in, I think, the + first volume of his great work. + +_Progress of Crime._--Mankind are not instantly corrupted. Villany +is always progressive. We decline from right--not suddenly, but step +after step.--_Aram's Defence_. + + * * * * * + + + +SKETCHES FROM THE TOUR OF A GERMAN PRINCE, VOL. III. + + +_Mrs. Fitzherbert._ + +"A very worthy and amiable woman, formerly, they say, married to the +King, but at present wholly without influence in that quarter, but no +less beloved and respected, _d'un excellent ton et sans pretension_." + + +_Her Majesty._ + +"The Duchess of Clarence honoured the feast with her presence; and all +pressed forward to see her, for she is one of those rare princesses +whose personal qualities obtain for them much more respect than their +rank, and whose unceasing benevolence and highly amiable character, +have obtained for her a popularity in England, of which we Germans may +well be proud--the more so, since in all probability she is destined +to be one day the Queen of that country." + + +_The King._ + +"I had the honour of dining with the Duke of Clarence, where I also +met the Princess Augusta, the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, and +the Duchess of Gloucester. The Duke makes a most friendly host, and is +kind enough to retain a recollection of the different times and places +where he has before seen me. He has much of the English national +character, in the best sense of the word, and also the English love of +domestic arrangement. The daughters of the Duke are _d'un beau sang_, +all extraordinarily handsome, though in different styles of beauty. +Among the sons Colonel Fitzclarence is, in many respects, the most +distinguished. Rarely, indeed, do we meet with a young officer of such +various accomplishments." + + +_The Duchess Of St. A----._ + +"According to the earliest recollections or her Grace, she found +herself a forsaken, starving, frozen child, in an outshed of an +English village. She was taken thence by a gipsy-crew, whom she +afterwards left for a company of strolling players. In this +profession, she obtained some reputation by a pleasing exterior, a +constant flow of spirits, and a certain originality--till by degrees +she gained several friends, who magnanimously provided for her wants. +She long lived in undisturbed connexion with the rich banker C----, +who, at length, married her, and, at his death, left her a fortune of +70,000l. a year. By this colossal inheritance, she afterwards became +the wife of the Duke of St. A----, the third English Duke in point of +rank, and, what is a somewhat singular coincident, the descendant +of the well-known actress Nell Gwynn, to whose charms the Duke is +indebted for his title, in much the same way (though a hundred years +earlier) as his wife is now for hers. + +"She is a very good sort of woman, who has no hesitation in speaking +of the past--on the contrary, is rather too frequent in her +reminiscences. Thus she entertained us the whole evening, with various +representations of her former dramatic characters. The drollest part +of the affair was, that she had taught her husband, a very young man, +thirty years under her own age--to play the lover's part, which he did +badly enough. Malicious tongues were naturally very busy, and the more +so, as many of the recited passages gave room for the most piquant +applications." + + +_Fortune-Telling._ + +"I Dined to-day with Lady F. Her husband was formerly Governor in +the Isle of France, and she had there purchased from a negress, the +pretended prophesying book of the Empress Josephine, who is said to +have read therein her future greatness and fall, before she sailed +for France. Lady F. produced it at tea, and invited the company to +question fate, according to the prescribed forms. Now, listen to the +answers, which are really remarkable enough. Mrs. Rothschild was the +first--and she asked if her wishes would be fulfilled. Answer: 'Weary +not fate with wishes--one who has obtained so much, may well be +satisfied.' Next came Mr. Spring Rice, a celebrated parliamentary +speaker, and one of the most zealous champions of the Catholic +Question. He asked, whether on the following day when the question was +to be brought forward in the upper house, it would pass. I should here +remark, that it is well known here that it will not pass--but that in +all probability in the next session it will. The laconic answer of the +book ran thus:--'You will have no success _this time_.' They then made +a young American lady ask if she should soon be married. 'Not in this +part of the world,' was the answer." + + * * * * * + + + + +THE GATHERER. + + * * * * * + +_Shakspeare and Garrick._--At the opening dinner of the Garrick Club, +the company forgot to drink the Memory of Shakspeare; and the health +of our living dramatists was only proposed when the party had dwindled +from 200 to 20! Where would be the fame of Garrick but for Shakspeare. + +Talent has lately been liberally marked by royal favour. Among the +last batch of knights are Mr. Smirke, the architect; Dr. Meyrick, the +celebrated antiquarian scholar; and Col. Trench. + +"_Passing Strange_."--The _Court Journal_, speaking of the deputation +of boys from Christ's Hospital at the Drawing-room, says, "The number +of boys appointed to attend on this occasion is 40; but, owing to the +indisposition of one of them, there were _no more than 39 present_." + +_Millinery Authorship._--"We must acknowledge our prejudice in +favour of an opportunity for the display of that most courtly of all +materials, the train of Genoa velvet; where (as Lord Francis Levison +expresses it) + + Finger-deep the rich embroidery stiffens. +_Court Journal._ + +In a puff precipitate of a play, we are told that M---- "is pleased +_with his character_." + + * * * * * + + Two cats were placed within a cage, + And resolving to quarrel, got into a rage, + They fought so clean, and fought so clever, + The devil a bit was left of either. + + * * * * * + +_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; +G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; 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 11540 *** |