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diff --git a/12645-0.txt b/12645-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac0714e --- /dev/null +++ b/12645-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1508 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12645 *** + +THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION. + +VOL. 17, No. 483.] SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 1831. [PRICE 2d. + + + + * * * * * + + + +[Illustration: GROTTO AT ASCOT PLACE.] + + +Here is a picturesque contrivance of Art to embellish Nature. We have +seen many such labours, but none with more satisfaction than the Grotto +at Ascot Place. + +This estate is in the county of Surrey, five miles south-east from +Windsor, on the side of Ascot Heath, near Winkfield. The residence was +erected by Andrew Lindergreen, Esq.; at whose death it was sold to +Daniel Agace, Esq., who has evinced considerable taste in the +arrangement of the grounds. The house is of brick, with wings. On the +adjoining lawn, a circular Corinthian temple produces a very pleasing +effect. The gem of the estate is, however, the above Grotto, which is +situate at the end of a canal running through the grounds. Upon this +labour of leisure much expense and good taste have been bestowed. It +consists of four rooms, but one only, for the refreshing pastime of tea +drinking, appears to be completed. It is almost entirely covered with a +white spar, intermixed with curious and unique specimens of polished +pebbles and petrifactions. The ceiling is ornamented with pendants of +the same material; and the whole, when under the influence of a +strong sun, has an almost magical effect. These and other decorations of +the same grounds were executed by a person named Turnbull, who was +employed here for several years by Mr. Agace. Our View is copied from +one of a series of engravings by Mr. Hakewill, the ingenious architect; +these illustrations being supplementary to that gentleman's quarto +_History of Windsor_. + +We request the reader to enjoy with us the delightful repose--the cool +and calm retreat--of the Engraving. Be he never so indifferent a lover +of Nature, he must admire its picturesque beauty; or be he never so +enthusiastic, he must regard with pleasure the ingenuity of the artist. +To an amateur, the pursuit of decorating grounds is one of the most +interesting and intellectual amusements of retirement. We have +worshipped from dewy morn till dusky eve in rustic temples and "cool +grots," and have sometimes aided in their construction. The roots, +limbs, and trunks of trees, and straw or reeds, are all the materials +required to build these hallowed and hallowing shrines. We call them +hallowing, because they are either built, or directed to be built, in +adoration of the beauties of Nature; who, in turn, mantles them with +endless varieties of lichens and mosses. In the Rookery adjoining John +Evelyn's "Wotton" were many such temples dedicated to sylvan deities: +one of them, to Pan, consists of a pediment supported by four rough +trunks of trees, the walls being of moss and laths, and enclosed with +tortuous limbs. Beneath the pediment is the following apposite line from +Virgil: + + Pan curat oves oviumque magistros. + Pan, guardian of the sheep and shepherds too. + +Yet the building is not merely ornamental, for the back serves as a +cow-house! + +Pope's love of grotto-building has made it a poetical amusement. Who +does not remember his grotto at Twickenham-- + + The EGERIAN GROT, + Where, nobly pensive, ST. JOHN sat and thought; + Where British sighs from dying _Wyndham_ stole, + And the bright flame was shot through Marchmont's soul. + Let such, such only, tread this sacred floor, + Who dare to love their COUNTRY, and be poor. + +--The Grotto, has, however, crumbled to the dilapidations of time, and +the pious thefts of visiters; but, proud are we to reflect that the +poetry of the great genius who dictated its erection--LIVES; and his +fame is untarnished by the canting reproach of the critics of our time. +True it is that the best, or ripest fruit, is always most pecked at. + + * * * * * + + +FAIRY SONG. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + + Slowly o'er the mountain's brow + Rosy light is dawning; + See! the stars are fading now + In the beam of morning. + Yonder soft approaching ray + Bids us, Fairies, haste away. + + Fairy guardians, watching o'er + Flowers of tender blossom, + Chilling damps descend no more, + And the flow'ret's bosom, + Opening to th' approaching day, + Bids ye, Fairies, haste away. + + Hark! the lonely bird of night + Stays its notes of sadness; + Early birds, that hail the light, + Soon shall wake to gladness. + Philomel's concluding lay + Bids us follow night away. + + Ye that guard the infant's rest, + Or watch the maiden's pillow;-- + Demons seek their home unblest + 'Neath Ocean's deepest billow: + Harmless now the dreams that play + O'er slumbering eyes, then haste away. + + Farewell lovely scenes, that here + Wait the day god's shining; + We must follow Dian's sphere + O'er the hills declining. + Brighter comes the beam of day-- + Haste ye, Fairies, haste away. + +G.J. + + * * * * * + + +DREAMS PRODUCED BY WHISPERING IN THE SLEEPER'S EAR. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes; + When monarch Reason sleeps, this mimic wakes. + + DRYDEN. + + +Dr. Abercrombie, in his work on the Intellectual Powers, has recorded +several instances of remarkable dreams.--Among them is the following +extraordinary instance of the power which may be exercised over some +persons while asleep, of creating dreams by whispering in their ears. An +officer in the expedition to Lanisburg, in 1758, had this peculiarity in +so remarkable a degree, that his companions in the transport were in the +constant habit of amusing themselves at his expense. It had more effect +when the voice was that of a friend familiar to him. At one time they +conducted him through the whole progress of a quarrel, which ended in a +duel, and when the parties were supposed to be met, a pistol was put +into his hand, which he fired, and was awakened by the report. On +another occasion they found him asleep on the top of a locker, or +bunker, in the cabin, when they made him believe he had fallen +overboard, and exhorted him to save himself by swimming. They then told +him a shark was pursuing him, and entreated him to dive for his life; +this he instantly did, but with such force as to throw himself from the +locker to the cabin floor, by which he was much bruised, and awakened of +course. After the landing of the army at Lanisburg, his companions found +him one day asleep in the tent, and evidently much annoyed by the +cannonading. They then made him believe he was engaged, when he +expressed great fear, and an evident disposition to run away. Against +this they remonstrated, but at the same time increased his fears by +imitating the groans of the wounded and the dying; and when he asked, as +he sometimes did, who were down, they named his particular friends. At +last they told him that the man next him in the line had fallen, when he +instantly sprang from his bed, rushed out of the tent, and was roused +from his danger and his dream together, by falling over the tent ropes. + +By the by, all this is quite contrary to Dryden's theory, who says-- + + "As one who in a frightful dream would shun + His pressing foe, _labours in vain_ to run; + And his own slowness in his sleep bemoans, + With thick short sighs, weak cries, and tender groans." + +And again, in his Virgil-- + + "When heavy sleep has closed the sight, + And sickly fancy labours in the night, + We seem to run, and, destitute of force, + Our sinking limbs forsake us in the course; + In vain we heave for breath--_in vain we cry_-- + _The nerves unbraced, their usual strength deny, + And on the tongue the flattering accents die_." + +Now this man seems to have had the use not only of his limbs, but of his +faculty of speech, while dreaming; and it was not till after he awoke +that he felt the oppression Dryden describes; for it is stated, that +when he awoke he had no distinct recollection of his dream, but only a +confused feeling of oppression and fatigue, and used to tell his +companions that he was sure they had been playing some trick upon him. + +W.A.R. + +P.S. This is a sleepy article; and I would warn its reader to endeavour +not to fall asleep over it, and thus endanger his falling over his +chair; and lest some familiar friend or _chere amie_ should, finding +his instructions in his hand, take the opportunity of making the +experiment, and may be create a little jealous quarrel or so. + + * * * * * + + +SONNET TO THE RIVER ARUN. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + + Pure Stream! whose waters gently glide along, + In murmuring cadence to the Poet's ear, + Who, stretch'd at ease your flowery banks among, + Views with delight your glassy surface clear, + Roll pleasing on through Otways sainted wood; + Where "musing Pity" still delights to mourn, + And kiss the spot where oft her votary stood, + Or hang fresh cypress o'er his weeping urn;-- + Here, too, retir'd from Folly's scenes afar, + His powerful shell first studious Collins strung; + Whilst Fancy, seated in her rainbow car, + Round him her flowers Parnassian wildly flung. + Stream of the Bards! oft Hayley linger'd here; + And Charlotte Smith[1] hath grac'd thy current with a tear. + +_The Author of "A Tradesman's Lays." No. 85, Leather Lane._ + + + [1] This charming, accomplished poetess has addressed one of her + most beautiful "Elegiac Sonnets" to this inspiring River. + Her tender image of the "infant Otway" is, however, borrowed + from a stanza in Collins's inimitable "Ode to Pity:"-- + + "Wild Arun, too, has heard thy strains + And echo 'midst my native plains + Been sooth'd by Pity's lute; + There first the wren thy myrtles shed + On gentlest Otway's _infant head_-- + To him thy cell was shown," &c. + + * * * * * + + + +RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS. + + * * * * * + + +ANCIENT BLACK BOOKS, &c. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + +The Black Book of the Exchequer is said to have been composed in the +year 1175, by Gervase of Tilbury, nephew of King Henry the Second. It +contains a description of the court of England, as it then stood, its +officers, their ranks, privileges, wages, perquisites, powers, and +jurisdictions; and the revenues of the crown, both in money, grain, and +cattle. Here we find, that for one shilling, as much bread might be +bought as would serve a hundred men a whole day; and the price for a fat +bullock was only twelve shillings, and a sheep four, &c. At the end of +this book are the Annals of William of Worcester, which contain notes on +the affairs of his own times. + +The Black Book of the English Monasteries was a detail of the scandalous +enormities practised in religious houses: compiled by order of the +visiters, under King Henry the Eighth, to blacken them, and thus hasten +their dissolution. + +Books which relate to necromancy are called Black Books. + +Black-rent, or Black-mail, was a certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or +other consideration, paid (says Cowell) to men allied with robbers, to +be by them protected from the danger of such as usually rob or steal. + + P.T.W. + + * * * * * + + +ANCIENT STATE OF PANCRAS. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + +Brewer, in his "London and Middlesex," says--"When a visitation of the +church of Pancras was made, in the year 1251, there were only forty +houses in the parish." The desolate situation of the village, in the +latter part of the 16th century, is emphatically described by Norden, in +his "Speculum Britanniæ." After noticing the solitary condition of the +church, he says--"Yet about the structure have bin manie buildings, now +decaied, leaving poore Pancrast without companie or comfort." In some +manuscript additions to his work, the same writer has the following +observations:--"Although this place be, as it were, forsaken of all, and +true men seldom frequent the same, but upon deveyne occasions, yet it is +visayed by thieves, who assemble not there to pray, but to waite for +prayer; and many fall into their handes, clothed, that are glad when +they are escaped naked. Walk not there too late." + +Pancras is said to have been a parish before the Conquest, and is +mentioned in Domesday Book. It derived its name from the saint to whom +the church is dedicated--a youthful Phrygian nobleman, who suffered +death under the Emperor Dioclesian, for his adherence to the Christian +faith. + +P.T.W. + + * * * * * + + +SALT AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS. + +(_For the Mirror._) + + +Potter, in his "Antiquities of Greece," says--"Salt was commonly set +before strangers, before they tasted the victuals provided for them; +whereby was intimated, that as salt does consist of aqueous and terrene +particles, mixed and united together, or as it is a concrete of several +aqueous parts, so the stranger and the person by whom he was entertained +should, from the time of their tasting salt together, maintain a +constant union of love and friendship." + +Others tell us, that salt being apt to preserve flesh from corruption, +signified, that the friendship which was then begun should be firm and +lasting; and some, to mention no more different opinions concerning this +matter, think, that a regard was had to the purifying quality of salt, +which was commonly used in lustrations, and that it intimated that +friendship ought to be free from all design and artifice, jealousy and +suspicion. + +It may be, the ground of this custom was only this, that salt was +constantly used at all entertainments, both of the gods and men, whence +a particular sanctity was believed to be lodged in it: it is hence +called divine salt by Homer, and holy salt by others; and by placing of +salt on the table, a sort of blessing was thought to be conveyed to +them. To have eaten at the same table was esteemed an inviolable +obligation to friendship; and to transgress the salt at the table--that +is, to break the laws of hospitality, and to injure one by whom any +person had been entertained--was accounted one of the blackest crimes: +hence that exaggerating interrogation of Demosthenes, "Where is the +salt? where the hospital tables?" for in despite of these, he had been +the author of these troubles. And the crime of Paris in stealing Helena +is aggravated by Cassandra, upon this consideration, that he had +contemned the salt, and overturned the hospital table. + +P.T.W. + + * * * * * + + + +THE NOVELIST. + + * * * * * + + +THE GAMESTER'S DAUGHTER. + +_From the Confessions of an Ambitious Student._ + + +A fit, one bright spring morning, came over me--a fit of poetry. From +that time the disorder increased, for I indulged it; and though such of +my performances as have been seen by friendly eyes have been looked upon +as mediocre enough, I still believe, that if ever I could win a lasting +reputation, it would be through that channel. Love usually accompanies +poetry, and, in my case, there was no exception to the rule. + +"There was a slender, but pleasant brook, about two miles from our +house, to which one or two of us were accustomed, in the summer days, to +repair to bathe and saunter away our leisure hours. To this favourite +spot I one day went alone, and crossing a field which led to the brook, +I encountered two ladies, with one of whom, having met her at some house +in the neighbourhood, I had a slight acquaintance. We stopped to speak +to each other, and I saw the face of her companion. Alas! were I to live +ten thousand lives, there would never be a moment in which I could be +alone--nor sleeping, and that face not with me! + +"My acquaintance introduced us to each other. I walked home with them to +the house of Miss D----(so was the strange, who was also the younger +lady named.) The next day I called upon her; the acquaintance thus +commenced did not droop; and, notwithstanding our youth--for Lucy D---- +was only seventeen, and I nearly a year younger--we soon loved, and with +a love, which, full of poesy and dreaming, as from our age it +necessarily must have been, was not less durable, nor less heart-felt, +than if it had arisen from the deeper and more earthly sources in which +later life only hoards its affections. + +"Oh, God! how little did I think of what our young folly entailed upon +us! We delivered ourselves up to the dictates of our hearts, and forgot +that there was a future. Neither of us had any ulterior design; we did +not think--poor children that we were--of marriage, and settlements, and +consent of relations. We touched each other's hands, and were happy; we +read poetry together--and when we lifted up our eyes from the page, +those eyes met, and we did not know why our hearts beat so violently; +and at length, when we spake of love, and when we called each other Lucy +and ----; when we described all that we had thought in absence--and all +we had felt when present--when we sat with our hands locked each in +each--and at last, growing bolder, when in the still and quiet +loneliness of a summer twilight we exchanged our first kiss, we did not +dream that the world forbade what seemed to us so natural; nor--feeling +in our own hearts the impossibility of change--did we ever ask whether +this sweet and mystic state of existence was to last for ever! + +"Lucy was an only child; her father was a man of wretched character. A +profligate, a gambler--ruined alike in fortune, hope, and reputation, he +was yet her only guardian and protector. The village in which we both +resided was near London; there Mr. D---- had a small cottage, where he +left his daughter and his slender establishment for days, and +sometimes for weeks together, while he was engaged in equivocal +speculations--giving no address, and engaged in no professional mode of +life. Lucy's mother had died long since, of a broken heart--(that fate, +too, was afterwards her daughter's)--so that this poor girl was +literally without a monitor or a friend, save her own innocence--and, +alas! innocence is but a poor substitute for experience. The lady with +whom I had met her had known her mother, and she felt compassion for the +child. She saw her constantly, and sometimes took her to her own house, +whenever she was in the neighbourhood; but that was not often, and only +for a few days at a time. Her excepted, Lucy had no female friend. + +"One evening we were to meet at a sequestered and lonely part of the +brook's course, a spot which was our usual rendezvous. I waited +considerably beyond the time appointed, and was just going sorrowfully +away when she appeared. As she approached, I saw that she was in +tears--and she could not for several moments speak for weeping. At +length I learned that her father had just returned home, after a long +absence--that he had announced his intention of immediately quitting +their present home and going to a distant part of the country, +or--perhaps even abroad. + + * * * * * + +"It is an odd thing in the history of the human heart, that the times +most sad to experience are often the most grateful to recall; and of all +the passages in our brief and checkered love, none have I clung to so +fondly or cherished so tenderly, as the remembrance of that desolate and +tearful hour. We walked slowly home, speaking very little, and lingering +on the way--and my arm was round her waist all the time. There was a +little stile at the entrance of the garden round Lucy's home, and +sheltered as it was by trees and bushes, it was there, whenever we met, +we took our last adieu--and there that evening we stopped, and lingered +over our parting words and our parting kiss--and at length, when I tore +myself away, I looked back and saw her in the sad and grey light of the +evening still there, still watching, still weeping! What, what hours of +anguish and gnawing of heart must one, who loved so kindly and so +entirely as she did, have afterwards endured. + +"As I lay awake that night, a project, natural enough, darted across me. +I would seek Lucy's father, communicate our attachment, and sue for his +approbation. We might, indeed, be too young for marriage--but we could +wait, and love each other in the meanwhile. I lost no time in following +up this resolution. The next day, before noon, I was at the door of +Lucy's cottage--I was in the little chamber that faced the garden, alone +with her father. + +"A boy forms strange notions of a man who is considered a scoundrel. I +was prepared to see one of fierce and sullen appearance, and to meet +with a rude and coarse reception. I found in Mr. D---- a person who +early accustomed--(for he was of high birth)--to polished society, still +preserved, in his manner and appearance, its best characteristics. His +voice was soft and bland; his face, though haggard and worn, retained +the traces of early beauty; and a courteous and attentive ease of +deportment had been probably improved by the habits of deceiving others, +rather than impaired. I told our story to this man, frankly and fully. +When I had done, he rose; he took me by the hand; he expressed some +regret, yet some satisfaction, at what he had heard. He was sensible how +much peculiar circumstances had obliged him to leave his daughter +unprotected; he was sensible, also, that from my birth and future +fortunes, my affection did honour to the object of my choice. Nothing +would have made him so happy, so proud, had I been older--had I been my +own master. But I and he, alas! must be aware that my friends and +guardians would never consent to my forming any engagement at so +premature an age, and they and the world would impute the blame to him; +for calumny (he added in a melancholy tone) had been busy with his name, +and any story, however false or idle, would be believed of one who was +out of the world's affections. + +"All this, and much more, did he say; and I pitied him while he spoke. +Our conference then ended in nothing fixed;--but--he asked me to dine +with him the next day. In a word, while he forbade me at present to +recur to the subject, he allowed me to see his daughter as often as I +pleased: this lasted for about ten days. At the end of that time, when I +made my usual morning visit, I saw D---- alone; he appeared much +agitated. He was about, he said, to be arrested. He was undone for +ever--and his poor daughter!--he could say no more--his manly heart was +overcome--and he hid his face with his hands. I attempted to console +him, and inquired the sum necessary to relieve him. It was considerable; +and on hearing it named, my power of consolation I deemed over at once. +I was mistaken. But why dwell on so hacknied a topic as that of a +sharper on the one hand, and a dupe on the other? I saw a gentleman of +the tribe of Israel--I raised a sum of money, to be repaid when I came +of age, and that sum was placed in D----'s hands. My intercourse with +Lucy continued; but not long. This matter came to the ears of one who +had succeeded my poor aunt, now no more, as my guardian. He saw D----, +and threatened him with penalties, which the sharper did not dare to +brave. My guardian was a man of the world; he said nothing to me on the +subject, but he begged me to accompany him on a short tour through a +neighbouring county. I took leave of Lucy only for a few days as I +imagined. I accompanied my guardian--was a week absent--returned--and +hastened to the cottage; it was shut up--an old woman opened the +door--they were gone, father and daughter, none knew whither! + +"It was now that my guardian disclosed his share in this event, so +terribly unexpected by me. He unfolded the arts of D----; he held up his +character in its true light. I listened to him patiently, while he +proceeded thus far; but when, encouraged by my silence, he attempted to +insinuate that Lucy was implicated in her father's artifices--that she +had lent herself to decoy, to the mutual advantage of sire and daughter, +the inexperienced heir of considerable fortunes,--my rage and +indignation exploded at once. High words ensued. I defied his +authority--I laughed at his menaces--I openly declared my resolution of +tracing Lucy to the end of the world, and marrying her the instant she +was found. Whether or not that my guardian had penetrated sufficiently +into my character to see that force was not the means by which I was to +be guided, I cannot say; but he softened from his tone at +last--apologized for his warmth--condescended to soothe and +remonstrate--and our dispute ended in a compromise. I consented to leave +Mr. S----, and to spend the next year, preparatory to my going to the +university, with my guardian: he promised, on the other hand, that if, +at the end of that year, I still wished to discover Lucy, he would throw +no obstacles in the way of my search. I was ill-contented with this +compact; but I was induced to it by my firm persuasion that Lucy would +write to me, and that we should console each other, at least, by a +knowledge of our mutual situation and our mutual constancy. In this +persuasion, I insisted on remaining six weeks longer with S----, and +gained my point; and that any letter Lucy might write, might not be +exposed to any officious intervention from S----, or my guardian's +satellites, I walked every day to meet the postman who was accustomed to +bring our letters. None came from Lucy. Afterwards, I learned that +D----, whom my guardian had wisely bought, as well as intimidated, had +intercepted three letters which she had addressed to me, in her +unsuspecting confidence--and that she only ceased to write when she +ceased to believe in me. + +"I went to reside with my guardian. A man of a hospitable and liberal +turn, his house was always full of guests, who were culled from the most +agreeable circles in London. We lived in a perpetual round of amusement; +and my uncle, who thought I should be rich enough to afford to be +ignorant, was more anxious that I should divert my mind, than instruct +it. Well, this year passed slowly and sadly away, despite of the gaiety +around me; and, at the end of that time, I left my uncle to go to the +university; but I first lingered in London to make inquiries after +D----. I could learn no certain tidings of him, but heard that the most +probable place to find him was a certain gaming-house in K---- Street. +Thither I repaired forthwith. It was a haunt of no delicate and +luxurious order of vice; the chain attached to the threshold indicated +suspicion of the spies of justice; and a grim and sullen face peered +jealously upon me before I was suffered to ascend the filthy and noisome +staircase. But my search was destined to a brief end. At the head of the +_Rouge et Noir_ table, facing my eyes the moment I entered the evil +chamber, was the marked and working countenance of D----. + +"He did not look up--no, not once, all the time he played; he won +largely--rose with a flushed face and trembling hand--descended the +stairs--stopped in a room below, where a table was spread with meats and +wine--took a large tumbler of Madeira, and left the house. I had waited +patiently--I had followed him with a noiseless step--I now drew my +breath hard, clenched my hands, as if to nerve myself for a contest--and +as he paused a moment under one of the lamps, seemingly in doubt whither +to go--I laid my hand on his shoulder, and uttered his name. His eyes +wandered with a leaden and dull gaze over my face before he remembered +me. _Then_ he recovered his usual bland smile and soft tone. He +grasped my unwilling hand, and inquired with the tenderness of a parent +after my health. I did not heed his words. 'Your daughter,' said I, +convulsively. + +"'Ah! you were old friends,' quoth he, smiling; 'you have recovered that +folly, I hope. Poor thing! she will be happy to see an old friend. You +know of course-- + +"'What?' for he hesitated. + +"'That Lucy is married!' + +"'Married!' and as that word left my lips, it seemed as if my very life, +my very soul, had gushed forth also in the sound. When--oh! when, in the +night-watch and the daily yearning, when, whatever might have been my +grief or wretchedness, or despondency, when had I dreamt, when imaged +forth even the outline of a doom like this? Married! my Lucy, my fond, +my constant, my pure-hearted, and tender Lucy! Suddenly, all the chilled +and revolted energies of my passions seemed to re-act, and rush back +upon me. I seized that smiling and hollow wretch with a fierce grasp. +'You have done this--you have broken her heart--you have crushed mine! I +curse you in her name and my own!--I curse you from the bottom and with +all the venom of my soul!--Wretch! wretch! and he was as a reed in my +hands.' + +"'Madman,' said he, as at last he extricated himself from my gripe, 'my +daughter married with her free consent, and to one far better fitted to +make her happy than you. Go, go--I forgive you--I also was once in love, +and with _her_ mother!' + +"I did not answer--I let him depart. + +"It was a little while after this interview--but I mention it now, for +there is no importance in the quarter from which I heard it--that I +learned some few particulars of Lucy's marriage. There was, and still +is, in the world's gossip, a strange story of a rich, foolish man, awed +as well as gulled by a sharper, and of a girl torn to a church with a +violence so evident that the priest refused the ceremony. But the rite +was afterwards solemnized by special license, in private, and at night. +The pith of that story has truth, and Lucy was at once the heroine and +victim of the romance. Now, then, I turn to somewhat a different strain +in my narrative. + +"You, A----, who know so well the habits of a university _life_, +need not be told how singularly monotonous and contemplative it may be +made to a lonely man. The first year I was there, I mixed, as you may +remember, in none of the many circles into which that curious and motley +society is split. My only recreation was in long and companionless +rides; and in the flat and dreary country around our university, the +cheerless aspect of nature fed the idle melancholy at my heart. In the +second year of my college life, I roused myself a little from my +seclusion, and rather by accident than design--you will remember that my +acquaintance was formed among the men considered most able and promising +of our time. In the summer of that year, I resolved to make a bold +effort to harden my mind and conquer its fastidious reserve; and I set +out to travel over the North of England, and the greater part of +Scotland, in the humble character of a pedestrian tourist. Nothing ever +did my character more solid good than that experiment. I was thrown +among a thousand varieties of character; I was continually forced into +bustle and action, and into _providing for myself_--that great and +indelible lesson towards permanent independence of character. + +"One evening, in an obscure part of Cumberland, I was seeking a short +cut to a neighbouring village through a gentleman's grounds, in which +there was a public path. Just within sight of the house (which was an +old, desolate building, in the architecture of James the First, with +gable-ends and dingy walls, and deep-sunk, gloomy windows,) I perceived +two ladies at a little distance before me; one seemed in weak and +delicate health, for she walked slowly and with pain, and stopped often +as she leaned on her companion. I lingered behind, in order not to pass +them abruptly; presently, they turned away towards the house, and I saw +them no more. Yet that frail and bending form, as I too soon afterwards +learned--that form, which I did not recognise--which, by a sort of +fatality, I saw only in a glimpse, and yet for the last time on +earth,--that form--was the wreck of Lucy D----! + +"Unconscious of this event in my destiny, I left that neighbourhood, and +settled for some weeks on the borders of the Lake Keswick. There, one +evening, a letter, re-directed to me from London, reached me. The +hand-writing was that of Lucy; but the trembling and slurred characters, +so different from that graceful ease which was wont to characterize all +she did, filled me, even at the first glance, with alarm. This is the +letter--read it--you will know, then, what I have lost:-- + +"'I write to you, my dear, my unforgotten ----, the last letter this +hand will ever trace. Till now, it would have been a crime to write to +you; perhaps it is so still--but dying as I am, and divorced from all +earthly thoughts and remembrances, save yours, I feel that I cannot +quite collect my mind for the last hour until I have given you the +blessing of one whom you loved once; and when that blessing is given, I +think I can turn away from your image, and sever willingly the last tie +that binds me to earth. I will not afflict you by saying what I have +suffered since we parted--with what anguish I thought of what _you_ +would feel when you found me gone--and with what cruel, what fearful +violence, I was forced into becoming the wretch I now am. I was hurried, +I was driven, into a dreadful and bitter duty--but I thank God that I +have fulfilled it. What, what have I done, to have been made so +miserable throughout life as I have been! I ask my heart, and tax my +conscience--and every night I think over the sins of the day; they do +not seem to me heavy, yet my penance has been very great. For the last +two years, I do sincerely think that there has not been one day which I +have not marked with tears. But enough of this, and of myself. You, +dear, dear L----, let me turn to you! Something at my heart tells me +that you have not forgotten that once we were the world to each other, +and even through the changes and the glories of a man's life, I think +you will not forget it. True, L----, that I was a poor and friendless, +and not too-well educated girl, and altogether unworthy of your destiny; +but you did not think so then--and when you have lost me, it is a sad, +but it is a real comfort, to feel that that thought will never occur to +you. Your memory will invest me with a thousand attractions and graces I +did not possess, and all that you recall of me will be linked with the +freshest and happiest thoughts of that period of life in which you first +beheld me. And this thought, dearest L----, sweetens death to me--and +sometimes it comforts me for what has been. Had our lot been +otherwise--had we been united, and had you survived your love for me +(and what more probable!) my lot would have been darker even than it has +been. I know not how it is--perhaps from my approaching death--but I +seem to have grown old, and to have obtained the right to be your +monitor and warner. Forgive me, then, if I implore you to think +earnestly and deeply of the great ends of life; think of them as one +might think who is anxious to gain a distant home, and who will not be +diverted from his way. Oh! could you know how solemn and thrilling a joy +comes over me as I nurse the belief, the certainty, that we shall meet +at length, and for ever! Will not that hope also animate you, and guide +you unerring through the danger and the evil of this entangled life? + +"May God bless you, and watch over you--may He comfort and cheer, and +elevate your heart to him! Before you receive this, _I_ shall be no +more--and my love, my care for you will, I trust and feel, have become +eternal.--Farewell: + +'L.M.' + +"The letter," continued L----, struggling with his emotions, "was dated +from that village through which I had so lately passed; thither I +repaired that very night--Lucy had been buried the day before! I stood +upon a green mound, and a few, few feet below, separated from me by a +scanty portion of earth, mouldered that heart which had loved me so +faithfully and so well!" + +_New Monthly Magazine._ + + * * * * * + + +A Jew said to the venerable Ali, in argument on the truth of their +religion, "You had not even deposited your prophet's body in the earth, +when you quarrelled among yourselves." Ali replied, "Our divisions +proceeded from the loss of him, not concerning our faith; but your feet +were not yet dry from the mud of the Red Sea, when you cried unto Moses, +saying, 'Make us gods like unto those of the idolaters, that we may +worship them.'" The Jew was confounded. + +W.G.C. + + * * * * * + + +[Illustration: KILCOLMAN CASTLE, THE RESIDENCE OF THE POET SPENCER.] + + +Few of the original houses of Genius[2] will excite more interest than +the above relic of SPENCER. It is copied from a lithographic drawing in +Mr. T. Crofton Croker's "Researches in the South of Ireland," where it +is so well described, that we can spare but few lines in our abridgement +of the passage:-- + +Kilcolman Castle is distant three English miles from Doneraile, and is +seated in as unpicturesque a spot as at present could have been +selected. Many of the delightful and visionary anticipations I had +indulged, from the pleasure of visiting the place where the Fairy Queen +had been composed, were at an end on beholding the monotonous reality of +the country. Corn fields, divided from pasturage by numerous +intersecting hedges, constituted almost the only variety of feature for +a considerable extent around; and the mountains bounding the prospect +partook even in a greater degree of the same want of variety in their +forms. The ruin itself stands on a little rocky eminence. Spreading +before it lies a tract of flat and swampy ground, through which, we were +informed, the "River Bregog hight" had its course; and though in winter, +when swollen by mountain torrents, a deep and rapid stream, its channel +at present was completely dried up. + + [2] We have the pleasure of informing our esteemed + correspondent, H.H. of Twickenham, that the very interesting + memorial of GRAY, to which he alluded in his last letter, + will illustrate an early number of the _Mirror_. + + "Sometimes, misguided by the tuneful throng, + I look for streams immortalized in song, + That lost in silence and oblivion lie; + Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry." + +Judging from what remains, the original form of Kilcolman was an oblong +square, flanked by a tower at the south-east corner. The apartment in +the basement story has still its stone arched roof entire, and is used +as a shelter for cattle; the narrow, screw-like stairs of the tower are +nearly perfect, and lead to an extremely small chamber, which we found +in a state of complete desolation. + +Kilcolman was granted by Queen Elizabeth, on the 27th June, 1586, to +Spencer (who went into Ireland as secretary to Lord Grey), with 3,028 +acres of land, at the rent of 17l. 3s. 6d.; on the same conditions with +the other undertakers (as they were termed) between whom the forfeited +Desmond estate was divided. These conditions implied a residence on the +ground, and their chief object seems to have been the peopling Munster +with English families: a favourite project of Elizabeth's for +strengthening the English influence in Ireland, by creating the tie of +consanguinity between the two countries. + +It is supposed that this castle was the principal residence of Spencer +for about ten years, during which time he composed the works that have +chiefly contributed to his fame. But the turbulent and indignant spirit +of the Irish regarded not the haunts of the muse as sacred, and wrapped +the poet's dwelling in flames. An infant child of Spencer's, together +with his most valuable property, were consumed, and he returned into +England;--where, dejected, and broken-hearted, he died soon after, at an +inn in King-street, Westminster. + +"It does not appear what became of Spencer's wife and children. Two sons +are said to have survived him, Sylvanus and Peregrine; Sylvanus married +Ellen Nangle or Nagle, eldest daughter of David Nangle of Moneanymy, in +the county of Cork, by whom he had two sons, Edmund and William Spencer. +His other son, Peregrine, also married, and had a son Hugolin, who, +after the restoration of Charles II. was replaced by the Court of Claims +in as much of the lands as could be found to have been his ancestor's. +Hugolin attached himself to the cause of James II. and after the +revolution, was outlawed for treason and rebellion. Some time after his +cousin William, son of Sylvanus, became a suitor for the forfeited +property, and recovered it by the interest of Mr. Montague, afterwards +Earl of Halifax, who was then at the head of the treasury. He had been +introduced to Mr. Montague by Congreve, who with others was desirous of +honouring the descendant of so great a poet. Dr. Birch describes him as +a man somewhat advanced in years, but unable to give any account of the +works of his ancestor which are wanting. The family has been since very +imperfectly traced."--_Chalmers's Biog. Dic._ + +The visits of Sir Walter Raleigh to Spencer at Kilcolman increase the +interest attached to the place, and are not in the slightest degree +questionable.[3] To the advice of Raleigh the publication of the first +books of the Fairy Queen has been ascribed; and the existence of a +poetical intercourse between such minds, and in such distracting scenes, +is a delightful recollection that almost warms the heart into romance. + + [3] Raleigh, it will be recollected, became Spencer's patron, + upon the death of Sir Philip Sidney, whom he celebrates + under the title of "The Shepherd of the Ocean." Raleigh also + ensured Spencer the favour of Elizabeth, a pension of 50l. + per annum, and the distinction of her laureate.--ED. + +Amongst the literary pilgrims whose veneration for Spencer has +prompted them to examine Kilcolman was the celebrated Edmund Burke; +nor should the imprudent and enthusiastic Trotter be forgotten; the +account given by him of his visits, in 1817, are very pleasing, +though highly tinged with that fanaticism to which he ultimately +became a victim. + + * * * * * + + + +THE SELECTOR; AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS. + + * * * * * + + +CROTCHET CASTLE. + + +The author of _Headlong Hall_ has, under the above title, +produced as lively a little volume of humour and pleasantry as it +has lately been our good fortune to meet with. Every page, nay, +every line is a satire upon the extravagance and precocity of what +Vivian Grey calls our "artificial state;" and all the weak sides of +our age are mercilessly dealt with by the _coterie_ at Crotchet +Castle. The book is altogether _Shandean_, and the satire +_shandied_ to and fro with great vivacity. We need not tell the +reader what period or event of the last seven years is pointed to in +the following extract. Mr. Touchandgo, it appears, was a great +banker, who was "suddenly reported absent one foggy morning, with +the contents of his till;" his daughter was to have been married to +Mr. Crotchet but for this untoward event. Here are two of the +father's letters from his new settlement, and a reply:-- + +Dotandcarryonetown. State of Apodidraskiana, April 1, 18--. + +My dear Child,--I am anxious to learn what are your present position, +intention, and prospects. The fairies who dropped gold in your shoe, on +the morning when I ceased to be a respectable man in London, will soon +find a talismanic channel for transmitting you a stocking full of +dollars, which will fit the shoe, as well as the foot of Cinderella +fitted her slipper. I am happy to say, I am again become a respectable +man. It was always my ambition to be a respectable man, and I am a very +respectable man here, in this new township of a new state, where I have +purchased five thousand acres of land, at two dollars an acre, hard +cash, and established a very flourishing bank. The notes of Touchandgo +and Company, soft cash, are now the exclusive currency of all this +vicinity. This is the land, in which all men flourish; but there are +three classes of men who flourish especially, methodist preachers, +slave-drivers, and paper-money manufacturers; and as one of the latter, +I have just painted the word BANK, on a fine slab of maple, which was +green and growing when I arrived, and have discounted for the settlers, +in my own currency, sundry bills, which are to be paid when the proceeds +of the crop they have just sown shall return from New Orleans; so that +my notes are the representatives of vegetation that is to be, and I am +accordingly a capitalist of the first magnitude. The people here know +very well that I ran away from London; but the most of them have run +away from some place or other; and they have a great respect for me, +because they think I ran away with something worth taking, which few of +them had the luck or the wit to do. This gives them confidence in my +resources, at the same time that, as there is nothing portable in the +settlement except my own notes, they have no fear that I shall run away +with them. They know I am thoroughly conversant with the principles of +banking; and as they have plenty of industry, no lack of sharpness, and +abundance of land, they wanted nothing but capital to organize a +flourishing settlement; and this capital I have manufactured to the +extent required, at the expense of a small importation of pens, ink, and +paper, and two or three inimitable copperplates. I have abundance here +of all good things, a good conscience included; for I really cannot see +that I have done any wrong. This was my position: I owed half a million +of money; and I had a trifle in my pocket. It was clear that this trifle +could never find its way to the right owner. The question was, whether I +should keep it, and live like a gentleman; or hand it over to lawyers +and commissioners of bankruptcy, and die like a dog on a dunghill. If I +could have thought that the said lawyers, &c. had a better title to it +than myself, I might have hesitated; but, as such title was not apparent +to my satisfaction, I decided the question in my own favour; the right +owners, as I have already said, being out of the question altogether. I +have always taken scientific views of morals and politics, a habit from +which I derive much comfort under existing circumstances. + +I hope you adhere to your music, though I cannot hope again to accompany +your harp with my flute. My last _andante_ movement was too +_forte_ for those whom it took by surprise. Let not your _allegro +vivace_ be damped by young Crotchet's desertion, which, though I have +not heard it, I take for granted. He is, like myself, a scientific +politician, and has an eye as keen as a needle, to his own interest. He +has had good luck so far, and is gorgeous in the spoils of many gulls; +but I think the Polar Basin and Walrus Company will be too much for him +yet. There has been a splendid outlay on credit, and he is the only man, +of the original parties concerned, of whom his Majesty's sheriffs could +give any account. + +I will not ask you to come here. There is no husband for you. The men +smoke, drink, and fight, and break more of their own heads than of +girls' hearts. Those among them who are musical sing nothing but psalms. +They are excellent fellows in their way, but you would not like them. + +_Au reste_, here are no rents, no taxes, no poor-rates, no tithes, +no church establishment, no routs, no clubs, no rotten boroughs, no +operas, no concerts, no theatres, no beggars, no thieves, no kings, no +lords, no ladies, and only one gentleman, videlicit your loving father, + +TIMOTHY TOUCHANDGO. + +P.S. I send you one of my notes; I can afford to part with it. If you +are accused of receiving money from me, you may pay it over to my +assignees. Robthetill continues to be my factotum; I say no more of him +in this place; he will give you an account of himself. + +Dotandcarryonetown, &c. + +Dear Miss,--Mr. Touchandgo will have told you of our arrival here, of +our setting up a bank, and so forth. We came here in a tilted wagon, +which served us for parlour, kitchen, and all. We soon got up a +log-house; and, unluckily, we as soon got it down again, for the first +fire we made in it burned down house and all. However, our second +experiment was more fortunate; and we are pretty well lodged in a house +of three rooms on a floor--I should say the floor, for there is but one. + +This new state is free to hold slaves; all the new states have not this +privilege. Mr. Touchandgo has bought some, and they are building him a +villa. Mr. Touchandgo is in a thriving way, but he is not happy here: he +longs for parties and concerts, and a seat in Congress. He thinks it +very hard that he cannot buy one with his own coinage, as he used to do +in England. Besides, he is afraid of the Regulators, who, if they do not +like a man's character, wait upon him and flog him, doubling the dose at +stated intervals, till he takes himself off. He does not like this +system of administering justice: though I think he has nothing to fear +from it. He has the character of having money, which is the best of all +characters here, as at home. He lets his old English prejudices +influence his opinions of his new neighbours; but I assure you they have +many virtues. Though they do keep slaves, they are all ready to fight +for their own liberty; and I should not like to be an enemy within reach +of one of their rifles. When I say enemy, I include bailiff in the term. +One was shot not long ago. There was a trial; the jury gave two dollars +damages; the judge said they must find guilty or not guilty, but the +counsel for the defendant (they would not call him prisoner) offered to +fight the judge upon the point; and as this was said literally, not +metaphorically, and the counsel was a stout fellow, the judge gave in. +The two dollars damages were not paid after all; for the defendant +challenged the foreman to box for double or quits, and the foreman was +beaten. The folks in New York made a great outcry about it, but here it +was considered all as it should be. So you see, Miss, justice, liberty, +and every thing else of that kind, are different in different places, +just as suits the convenience of those who have the sword in their own +hands. Hoping to hear of your health and happiness, I remain, + +Dear Miss, your dutiful servant, + +RODERICK ROBTHETILL. + +Miss Touchandgo replied as follows, to the first of these letters:-- + +My dear Father,--I am sure you have the best of hearts, and I have no +doubt you have acted with the best intentions. My lover, or I should +rather say, my fortune's lover, has indeed forsaken me. I cannot say I +did not feel it; indeed, I cried very much; and the altered looks of +people who used to be so delighted to see me, really annoyed me so, that +I determined to change the scene altogether. I have come into Wales, and +am boarding with a farmer and his wife. Their stock of English is very +small; but I managed to agree with them; and they have four of the +sweetest children I ever saw, to whom I teach all I know, and I manage +to pick up some Welsh. I have puzzled out a little song, which I think +very pretty; I have translated it into English, and I send it to you, +with the original air. You shall play it on your flute at eight o'clock +every Saturday evening, and I will play and sing it at the same time, +and I will fancy that I hear my dear papa accompanying me. + +The people in London said very unkind things of you: they hurt me very +much at the time; but now I am out of their way, I do not seem to think +their opinion of much consequence. I am sure, when I recollect, at +leisure, everything I have seen and heard among them, I cannot make out +what they do that is so virtuous, as to set them up for judges of +morals. And I am sure they never speak the truth about any thing, and +there is no sincerity in either their love or their friendship. An old +Welsh bard here, who wears a waistcoat embroidered with leeks, and is +called the Green Bard of Cadair Idris, says the Scotch would be the best +people in the world, if there was nobody but themselves to give them a +character: and so I think would the Londoners. I hate the very thought +of them, for I do believe they would have broken my heart, if I had not +gone out of their way. Now I shall write you another letter very soon, +and describe to you the country, and the people, and the children, and +how I amuse myself, and every thing that I think you will like to hear +about; and when I seal this letter, I shall drop a kiss on the cover. + +Your loving daughter, + +SUSANNAH TOUCHANDGO. + +P.S. Tell Mr. Robthetill I will write to him in a day or two. This is +the little song I spoke of: + + Beyond the sea, beyond the sea, + My heart is gone, far, far from me; + And ever on its track will flee, + My thoughts, my dreams, beyond the sea. + + Beyond the sea, beyond the sea, + The swallow wanders fast and free: + Oh! happy bird, were I like thee, + I, too, would fly beyond the sea. + + Beyond the sea, beyond the sea, + Are kindly hearts and social glee; + But here for me they may not be: + My heart is gone beyond the sea. + + * * * * * + + + +SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. + + * * * * * + + +THE AUTOCRAT'S PRAYER. + + Europe! hear the voice that rose + From the chief of Freedom's foes-- + When he bade war's thunders roll + O'er the country of the Pole-- + To his Cossacks on parade + Thus the Calmuck robber said: + + "Mine the might, and mine the right, + Stir ye, spur ye to the fight-- + Bare the blade, and strike the blow + To the heart's core of the foe-- + Slaughter all the rebel bands + Found with weapons in their hands; + On! the holy work of fate + Russia's God will consecrate. + + "'Tis decreed that they shall bleed + For their dark and trait'rous deed. + Poles! to us by conquest given, + Ye provoke the wrath of Heaven: + Therefore, purging sword and shot + Use we must, and spare you not. + Guardian of our northern faith, + Guide us to the field of death! + + "Ere we've done, many a one + Shall weep they ever saw the sun. + Rouse the noble in his hall + To a fiery festival; + Dash the stubborn peasant's mirth-- + Drown in blood his alien hearth; + Babe or mother, never falter-- + Spear the priest before the altar. + Onward, and avenge our wrong! + God is good, and Russia strong!" + + +_Englishman's Magazine, No 1._ + + * * * * * + + +QUEEN ELIZABETH. + +_From a paper on the Fine Arts of old in England, in Blackwood's +Magazine._ + + +The sex and character of Elizabeth herself was no weak ingredient in the +poetic spirit of the time. Loyalty and gallantry blended in the +adoration paid her; and the supremacy which she claimed and exercised +over the church, invested her regality with a sacred unction that +pertained not to feudal sovereigns. It is scarce too much to say, that +the virgin-queen appropriated the Catholic honours of the Virgin Mary. +She was as great as Diana of the Ephesians. The moon shone but to +furnish a type of her bright and stainless maidenhood. To magnify her +greatness, the humility of courtly adulation merged in the ecstasies of +Platonic love. She was charming by indefeasible right;--a _jure +divino_ beauty. Her fascinations multiplied with her wrinkles, and +her admirers might have anticipated the conceit of Cowley, + + "The antipevistoisis of age + More inflamed their amorous rage." + +It is easy for a Whig, or a Puritan, or any other unimaginative +blockhead, to cry out against all this as nauseous flattery, and assert +that after all she was rather an unpoetical personage than otherwise--a +coarse-minded old maid, half prude, half coquette, whose better part was +mannish, and all that belonged to her sex a ludicrous exaggeration of +its weaknesses. But meanwhile, they overlook the fact, that not the +woman Elizabeth, but the Virgin-queen, the royal heroine, is the theme +of admiration. Not the petty virtues, the pretty sensibilities, the +cheap charity, the prim decorum, which modern flatterers dwell upon, +degrading royalty, while they palaver its possessor, but Britannia's +sacred majesty, enshrined in chaste and lofty womanhood. Our ancestors +paid their compliments to sex or rank--ours are addressed to the person. +There is no flattery where there is no falsehood--no falsehood where +there is no deception. Loyalty of old was a passion, and passion has a +truth of its own--and as language does not always furnish expressions +exactly adapted, or native to the feeling, what can the loyal poet do, +but take the most precious portion of the currency, and impress it with +the mint-mark of his own devoted fancy? Perhaps there never was a more +panegyrical rhymer than Spenser, and yet, so fine and ethereal is his +incense, that the breath of morning is not more cool and salutary:-- + + "It falls me here to write of Chastity + That fayrest virtue, far above the rest. + For which what needs me fetch from Faery, + Forreine ensamples it to have exprest, + Sith it is shrined in my soveraine's brest, + And form'd so lively on each perfect part, + That to all ladies, who have it protest, + Needs but behold the pourtraict of her part, + If pourtray'd it might be by any living art; + But living art may not least part expresse, + Nor life-resembling pencil it can paint, + All it were Zeuxis or Praxiteles-- + His dædale hand would faile and greatly faynt, + And her perfections with his error taynt; + Ne poet's wit that passeth painter farre-- + In picturing the parts of beauty daynt," &c. + +But neither Zeuxis nor Praxiteles was called from the dead to mar her +perfections, nor record her negative charms. Poetry was the only art +that flourished in the Virgin reign. The pure Gothic, after attaining +its full efflorescence under Henry VII., departed, never to return. The +Grecian orders were not only absurdly jumbled together, but yet more +outrageously conglomerated with the Gothic and Arabesque. "To gild +refined gold--to paint the lily," was all the humour of it. A similar +inconsistency infected literature. The classic and the romantic (to use +those terms, which, though popular, are not logically exact) were +interwoven. The Arcadia and the Fairy Queen are glorious offences, which +"make defect perfection." Perhaps, Shakspeare's "small Latin and less +Greek," preserved him from worse anachronisms than any that he has +committed. Queen Bess's patronage was of the national breed: she loved +no pictures so well as portraits of herself. As, however, her painters +have not flattered her, it may not uncharitably be concluded that they +were no great deacons in their craft. It is a much easier thing to +assure a homely female, in prose or rhyme, that she is beautiful, than +to represent her so upon canvass. Her effigies are, I believe, pretty +numerous, varying in ugliness, but none that I have seen even +handsome--prettiness, of course, is out of the question. She was fond of +finery, but had no taste in dress. Her ruff is downright odious; and the +liberal exposure of her neck and bosom anything but alluring. With all +her pearls about her, she looks like a pawnbroker's lady bedizened for +an Easter ball, with all the unredeemed pledges from her husband's shop. +She seems to have patronized that chimera in the ideal or allegorical +portrait, at which Reubens and Sir Joshua were so often doomed to toil. +She would not allow a shadow in her picture, arguing, like a Chinese, or +a chop-logic, that shade is only an accident, and no true property of +body. Like Alexander, who forbade all sculptors but Lysippus to carve +his image, she prohibited all but special cunning limners from drawing +her effigy. This was in 1563, anno regni 5, while, though no chicken, +she still was not clean past her youth. This order was probably intended +to prevent caricatures. At last she quarrelled with her looking-glass as +well as her painters, and her maids of honour removed all mirrors from +her apartments, as carefully as Ministers exclude opposition papers (we +hope not Maga) from the presence of our most gracious sovereign. It is +even said, that those fair nettles of India took advantage of her +weakness, to dress her head awry, and to apply the rouge to her nose, +instead of her cheeks. So may the superannuated eagle be pecked at by +daws. But the tale is not probable. After all, it is but the captious +inference of witlings and scoffers, that attributes to mere sexual +vanity that superstitious horror of encroaching age, from which the +wisest are not always free. It may be, that they shrink from the +reflection of their wrinkles, not as from the despoilers of beauty, but +as from the vaunt-couriers of dissolution. In rosy youth, while yet the +brow is alabaster-veined with Heaven's own tint, and the dark tresses +turn golden in the sun, the lapse of time is imperceptible as the +throbbing of a heart at ease. "So like, so very like, is day to +day,"--one primrose scarce more like another. Whoever saw their first +grey hairs, or marked the crow-feet at the angle of their eyes, without +a sigh or a tear, a momentous self-abasement, a sudden sinking of the +soul, a thought that youth is flown for ever? None but the blessed few +that, having dedicated their spring of life to Heaven, behold in the +shedding of their vernal blossoms, a promise that the season of immortal +fruit is near. It is a frailty, almost an instance of humanity, to aim +at concealing that from others, of which ourselves are painfully +conscious. The herculean Johnson keenly resented the least allusion to +the shortness of his sight. So entirely is man a social animal, so +dependent are all his feelings for their very existence upon +communication and sympathy, that the "fee griefs," which none but +ourselves are privy to, are forgotten as soon as they are removed from +the senses. The artifices to which so many have recourse to conceal +their declining years, are often intended more to soothe themselves, +than to impose on others. This aversion to growing old is specially +natural and excusable in the celibate and the childless. The borrowed +curls, the pencilled eyebrows, + + "The steely-prison'd shape, + So oft made taper, by constraint of tape," + +the various cosmetic secrets, well-known to the middle ages, not only of +the softer sex, are not unseemly in a spinster, so long as they succeed +in making her look young. They are intolerable in a mother of any age. +But we, my dear Christopher, resigned and benevolent old bachelors as we +are, can well appreciate the vanity of the aged heart, that sees not its +youth renewed in any growing dearer self. Nothing denotes the advances +of life, at once so surely and so pleasantly as children springing up +around a good man's table. Perhaps our famous Queen, in her latter days, +though full of honours as of years, would gladly have changed places +with the wife of any yeoman that had a child to receive her last +blessing, whose few acres were not to pass away to the hungry expecting +son of a hated rival. Her virginity was not like that of Jephthah's +daughter, a free-will offering to the Lord. Pride, and policy, and +disappointment, and, it may be, hopeless, self-condemned affection, +conspired to perpetuate it. Probably it was well for England that no +offspring of hers inherited her throne. By some strange ordinance of +nature, it generally happens that these wonderful clever women produce +idiots or madmen.--Witness Semiramis, Agrippina, Catherine de Medicis, +Mary de Medicis, Catherine of Russia, and Lady Wortley Montague. One +miniature of Elizabeth I have seen, which, though not beautiful, is +profoundly interesting: it presents her as she was in the days of her +danger and captivity, when the same wily policy, keeping its path, even +while it seemed to swerve, was needful to preserve her life, that +afterwards kept her firm on a throne. Who was the artist that produced +it? I know not; but it bears the strongest marks of authenticity, if to +be exactly what a learned spirit would fancy Elizabeth--young, a +prisoner, and in peril--be evidence of true portraiture. There is pride, +not aping humility, but wearing it as a well-beseeming habit;--there is +passion, strongly controlled by the will, but not extinct, neither dead +nor sleeping, but watchful and silent; brows sternly sustaining a weight +of care, after which a crown could be but light; a manly intellect, +allied with female craft;--but nonsense! it will be said; no colours +whatever could represent all this, and that, too, in little, for the +picture was among Bone's enamels. Well, then, it suggested it all. +Perhaps the finest Madonna ever painted would be no more than a meek, +pious, pretty woman, and an innocent child, if we knew not whom it was +meant for. + + * * * * * + + +THE HAUNTED HOUSE. + +(_By Mrs. Hemans._) + + + I seem like one + Who treads alone + Some banquet-hall deserted, + Whose lights are fled, + Whose garlands dead, + And all but he, departed. + + MOORE. + + + Seest thou yon grey gleaming hall, + Where the deep elm shadows fall? + Voices that have left the earth + Long ago, + Still are murmuring round its hearth, + Soft and low: + Ever there:--yet one alone + Hath the gift to hear their tone. + Guests come thither, and depart, + Free of step, and light of heart; + Children, with sweet visions bless'd, + In the haunted chambers rest; + One alone unslumbering lies + When the night hath seal'd all eyes, + One quick heart and watchful ear, + Listening for those whispers clear. + + Seest thou where the woodbine-flowers + O'er yon low porch hang in showers? + Startling faces of the dead, + Pale, yet sweet, + One lone woman's entering tread + There still meet! + Some with young smooth foreheads fair, + Faintly shining through bright hair; + Some with reverend locks of snow-- + All, all buried long ago! + All, from under deep sea-waves, + Or the flowers of foreign graves, + Or the old and banner'd aisle, + Where their high tombs gleam the while, + Rising, wandering, floating by, + Suddenly and silently, + Through their earthly home and place, + But amidst another race. + + Wherefore, unto one alone, + Are those sounds and visions known? + Wherefore hath that spell of power + Dark and dread, + On _her_ soul, a baleful dower, + Thus been shed? + Oh! in those deep-seeing eyes, + No strange gift of mystery lies! + She is lone where once she moved + Fair, and happy, and beloved! + Sunny smiles were glancing round her, + Tendrils of kind hearts had bound her; + Now those silver cords are broken, + Those bright looks have left no token, + Not one trace on all the earth, + Save her memory of her mirth. + She is lone and lingering now, + Dreams have gather'd o'er her brow, + Midst gay song and children's play, + She is dwelling far away; + Seeing what none else may see-- + Haunted still her place must be! + +_New Monthly Magazine_. + + * * * * * + + + +THE GATHERER. + + A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. + +SHAKSPEARE + + * * * * * + + +OCTOGENARIAN REMINISCENCES. + + +In 1760, a Mr. Cross was prompter at Drury Lane Theatre, and a Mr. +Saunders the principal machinist. Saunders laboured under an idea that +he was qualified for a turf-man, and, like most who are afflicted with +that disorder, suffered severely. The animals he kept, instead of being +safe running horses for him, generally made him a safe stalking-horse +for others. Upon one occasion he came to the theatre in great +ill-humour, having just received the account of a race which he had +lost. Cross was busily engaged in writing, and cross at the interruption +he met with from Saunders's repeated exclamations against his jockey; he +at length looked up, and said impatiently, "His fault--his fault--how +was it his fault?" "Why," said Saunders, "the d--d rascal ran my horse +against a wagon." "Umph!" replied Cross, "I never knew a horse of yours +that was fit to _run against any thing else_!" + +A musician of the name of Goodall, who belonged to the orchestra of the +Theatre Royal, Richmond, in 1767, was fonder of his, or any other man's, +bottle than his own bassoon. The natural consequence was, that he +frequently failed in his attendances at the theatre. Upon one occasion, +after an absence of a week, he returned in the middle of the +performances for the evening. A piece was being acted called the +"Intriguing Chambermaid," in which there is a character of an old +gentleman called _Mr. Goodall_, who comes on as from a journey, +followed by a servant carrying his portmanteau. To him there enters a +lady, _Mrs. Highman_, whose first exclamation is, "Bless my eyes, +what do I see? _Mr. Goodall_ returned?" At that precise moment Old +Goodall happened to put his head into the orchestra, and fancying +himself addressed, called out, "Lord bless you, ma'am, I've been here +this half hour." + +Old Storace (the father of the celebrated composer) had lost nearly all +his teeth at rather an early period of his life. This, to one who was +decidedly a _bon vivant_, was a great annoyance. A dentist of +eminence undertook to supply the defect: he drew the few teeth which, +remained, and fitted the patient with an entire new set, which acted by +means of springs, and were removable at pleasure. The operation was so +skilfully performed, and the resemblance so good, that Storace flattered +himself that no one could discover the deception. Being one day in +company with Foster (a performer in the Drury Lane orchestra, and one +celebrated among his companions for quaintness and humour), he said, +"Now, Foster, I'll surprise you--I'll show you something you never +could have guessed." So saying, he took out the ivory teeth, and +exclaimed with an air of triumph, "There, what do you think of that?" +"Poh! nonsense! surprise me," replied Foster, "I knew perfectly well +they were false." "How the devil could you know that?" said Storace. +"Why," rejoined Foster, "_I never knew anything true come out of your +mouth!_"--_Athenæum_. + + * * * * * + + +The King of Prussia, in his correspondence with Voltaire, relates the +following anecdote of the Czar Peter, as illustrative of Russian +despotism:--"I knew Printz, the great marshal of the court of Prussia, +who had been ambassador to the Czar Peter, in the reign of the late +king. The commission with which he was charged proving very acceptable, +the prince was desirous of giving him conspicuous marks of his +satisfaction, and for this purpose a sumptuous banquet was prepared, and +to which Printz was invited. They drank brandy, as is customary with the +Russians, and they drank it to a brutal excess. The Czar, who wished to +give a particular grace to the entertainment, sent for twenty of the +Strelitz Guards, who were confined in the prisons of Petersburgh, and +for every large bumper which they drank, this hideous monster struck-off +the head of one of these wretches. As a particular mark of respect, this +unnatural prince was desirous of procuring the ambassador the pleasure +(as he called it) of trying his skill upon these miserable creatures. +The Czar was disposed to be angry at his refusal, and could not help +betraying signs of his displeasure." + +W.G.C. + + * * * * * + + +POSTHUMOUS HONOURS. + + +Poliarchus, the Athenian, according to Ælian, when any of the dogs or +cocks that he particularly loved, happened to die, was so foolish as to +honour them with a public funeral, and buried them with great pomp, +accompanied by his friends, whom he invited on the _solemn_ +occasion. Afterwards he caused monumental pillars to be erected, on +which were engraven their epitaphs.[4] + +JOHN ESLAH. + + [4] The late Duchess of York paid the latter honours to her + little canine friends, at Oatlands. + + * * * * * + + +THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. + +Ascham, in the Epistle prefixed to his "Toxophilus," 1571, observes that + +"Manye Englishe writers usinge straunge wordes as Lattine, Frenche, and +Italian, do make al thinges darke and harde. Ones," says he, "I communed +with a man which reasoned the Englishe tongue to be enriched and +encreased thereby, sayinge, Who will not prayse that feast, where a man +shall drincke at a dinner both wyne, ale, and beere? Truly (quoth I) +they be al good every one taken by itself alone; but if you put malmesye +and sack, redde wyne and white, ale and beere, and al in one pot, you +shall make a drinke neither easye to be knowen, nor holsom for the +bodye." + +A.V. + + * * * * * + + +ROYAL WISH. + +When King James I. first saw the public library at Oxford, and perceived +the little chains by which the books were fastened, he expressed his +wish that if ever it should be his fate to be a prisoner, this library +might be his prison, those books his fellow prisoners, and the chains +his fetters. + +J.E.H. + + * * * * * + + +EPITAPH + +_On a Marine Officer, in the churchyard of Burwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire._ + + Here lies, retired from busy scenes, + A first lieutenant of Marines, + Who lately lived in gay content, + On board the brave ship Diligent. + + Now stripp'd of all his warlike show, + And laid in box of elm below, + Confin'd in earth in narrow borders, + He rises not till further orders. + + * * * * * + + +ANNUAL OF SCIENCE. + +This Day is published, price 5s. + +ARCANA of SCIENCE, and ANNUAL REGISTER of the USEFUL ARTS for 1831. + +Comprising POPULAR INVENTIONS, IMPROVEMENTS, and DISCOVERIES Abridged +from the Transactions of Public Societies and Scientific Journals of the +past year. With several Engravings. + +"One of the best and cheapest books of the day."--_Mag. Nat. Hist._ + +"An annual register of new inventions and improvements in a popular form +like this, cannot fail to be useful."--_Lit. Gaz._ + +Printed for JOHN LIMBIRD, 143. Strand;--of whom may be had the Volumes +for the three preceding years. + + * * * * * + + +_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 12645 *** |