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you ail ess and prosperity and recommend you to his protection my lords your thrice land affectionate servant and r st thus having resolutely thrown his the brave peter a pair of horse ih belt ah immense powder horn m his side sound u hi t ey of into a boot and bis fierce bat on the top of his bead op and down m front of bis determined to defend bis te be all struggles and dis prevailing in the unhappy city of new and while its worthy but ill governor was the above quoted letter the english did not remain idle they had agents secretly employed to the fears and of the and moreover and wide through the adjacent country a repeating the terms they had held out in their summons to surrender and the simple with the most and professions they promised that every man who voluntarily submitted to the authority of his british majesty should retain possession of his house his and his garden that he should be to smoke his pipe speak dutch wear as breeches as be pleased and import bricks and stone fit m holland instead of them on the spot that he should on no account be compelled to learn the english language or keep accounts in any other way than by casting them his fingers and down upon the crown of his hat as is observed am ig the dutch at the present y eveiy man should be allowed quietly to inherit his s hat coat shoe pipe and every other personal and that no man should be obliged to form to any improvements inventions or any other but on the contrary should be to build his house follow his trade manage his rear his and his children precisely i as his ancestors did before him since time finally that he should have all the benefits office trade and should mat be required to acknowledge any other new iti than who should as before be considered the saint these terms as may be supposed appeared very i tory to the people who had a great disposition to enjoy their property and a most singular ta engage in a contest where they could gain little more than honour and ken the first of which they held in philosophic indifference the latter in utter by these means therefore did the succeed in the confidence and affections of the their gallant old governor whom they considered as bent upon running them into hideous and did not hesitate to speak their minds freely and abuse him most heartily behind his back like as a mighty who though assailed and by roaring waves and still keeps on an course and though overwhelmed by boisterous still s from the troubled deep and blowing with so did the peter pursue his determined career and rise contemptuous above the of the but when the british warriors found by the tenor of his reply that he set their power at defiance they forth with despatched officers to and and and and and all those towns on long island which had been subdued of the immortal j stirring up the of preserved fish and determined cock and those other illustrious to the city of new am by land in the mean while the hostile ships made preparation to commence an assault by r the streets of new now presented a scene of wild dismay and consternation in vain did this order the to aim and ia history of ii public square or market place the of pipes in the course of a single night had into old women a only to be by the recorded by as having to rome at the approach of in pure were into and turning into ran about the streets the harassed peter thus am without and tormented from within by the at by the and growled and raged like a furious bear tied and worried by a of scoundrel finding however that all attempts to defend the city were vain and hearing that an of and moss was ready to him from the east he at length compelled in spite of his proud heart which swelled in his throat until it had nearly choked him to consent to a treaty of words cannot express the of the people on receiving this agreeable had th y obtained a conquest over their enemies they could not have indulged greater delight the streets with they their governor as the father and of his country they crowded to his house to testify their gratitude and were ten times noisy in their than when he returned with perched upon his from the glorious capture of but the indignant peter his and windows and took in the of that he might hear oi the in consequence of this consent of the a was demanded of the forces to of ihe terms of surrender accordingly a of six w appointed on bo sides and m th a august a highly to the pro new york and honourable to peter was agreed to by the enemy who had conceived a high opinion of the of the men of the and the and discretion of their governor one thing alone remained which was that the articles of surrender should be and signed by the governor when the respectfully waited upon him for this purpose they were received by the hardy old warrior with the most grim and bitter courtesy his warlike were laid aside an old india gown was wrapped around his rugged limbs a red night cap his frowning brow and an iron gray beard of three days growth gave additional to his thrice did he seize a little om out stump of a pen and essay to sign the paper thrice did he his teeth and make a most horrible countenance as though a dose of and had been o to	48
showed itself with equal vigour though in limits he with around the boundaries of his little territory every with punished every upon his orchard or his farm yard with severity and conducted every stray or cow in triumph to the pound but to the neighbour the stranger or the weary wanderer his spacious door was ever open and his fire place tliat emblem of his own warm and generous heart had always a corner to receive and cherish them there was an exception to this i must confess in case the ill was an englishman or a yankee to whom though he might extend the hand of assistance he could never be brought to yield the rites of hospitality nay if some straggling merchant of the east should stop at his door with his cart load of tin ware or wooden the fiery peter would issue forth like a giant from his castle and make such a among his pots and that the of was fain to himself to instant flight his ancient suit of worn by the brush were hung up in the state bed chamber regularly the first fair day of every month and his cocked hat and sword were suspended in grim repose over the parlour mantel piece forming to a full length portrait of the renowned admiral von in his domestic empire he maintained strict dis s of and a veil organized but though his own will as the supreme law yet the good ci his subjects his ck object he watched their comforts bnt their bind their ultimate for h gave them of excellent nor could any of them ill that when occasion required he was by any means t ill wholesome the old dutch those of an overflowing heart and it spirit which into sad among my fellow citizens were faithfully in mansion of governor stay new y r was truly a day of pen handed i of and warm hearted wh the seemed to swell with genial good fellowship the table was attended with an freedom and honest broad mouthed merriment unknown in these days of and refinement and were observed throughout his nor was the day of st to pass by without making presents hanging the iti the chimney and with all its other ceremonies a year the first day of april he to array himself in full being the of his entry into new the of new this was always a kind of among the when they considered themselves at liberty in some measure to say and do what they pleased for on this day their master was always observed to and become exceeding pleasant and sending the old gray headed on april fools errands for pigeon s milk not one of whom but allowed himself to be taken in and humoured his old master s jokes as became a faithful and well thus did he reign happily and on his own i no man by no outward by no s and the mighty of the earth who were vainly to peace and promote the welfare of by war and desolation would have done well to have made a age to the little of and learned a lesson in from the domestic economy of peter in process of time however the old governor like all other children of began to exhibit evident tokens of decay like an aged oak which though it long has the of the elements and still its gigantic proportions yet be ns to shake and groan with every so the gallant peter though he still bore the port and semblance of what he was in the days of his and chivalry yet did age and infirmity begin to sap the vigour of his frame but his heart that most still with would he listen to every article of intelligence concerning the battles between the english and dutch still would his pulse beat high whenever he heard of the of de and his countenance lower and his eyebrows knit when fortune turned in of the english at length as on a certain day he had just smoked his fifth pipe and was after dinner in his arm chair conquering the whole british nation in his dreams he was suddenly aroused by a ringing of bells rattling of drums and roaring of cannon that put all his blood in a but when he learnt that these were in honour of a great victory obtained by the combined english and french over the brave de and the younger von it went so much to his heart that he took to his bed and in less than three days was brought to death s door by a violent but even in this extremity he still displayed the spirit of peter the holding history of out to the last with the most against a whole of old who were bent upon the enemy out of his after a true mode of defence by the seat of war with and while he thus lay lingering on the verge of news was brought him that the brave suffered but little loss had made good his and meant once more to meet the enemy in battle the eye of the old warrior kindled at the he raised himself in a flash of martial fire beamed his he his withered hand as if be within us that sword which waved in triumph before the walls of fort and giving a grim smile of exultation sunk back upon his pillow and expired thus died peter a soldier a loyal subject an upright governor and an honest who wanted only a few to desolate to have been as a hero i funeral were celebrated with the utmost grandeur and solemnity tlie town was emptied of its inhabitants who crowded in to pay the last sad to their good old governor all his sterling rushed in tide upon their recollections while the	48
contents of volume i i the author s account of himself the voyage the wife van english writers on america rural life in england the broken heart the art of book making a royal poet the country church the widow and her son the head tavern r the of literature rural the inn kitchen the bridegroom westminster abbey the author s account himself i am of this mind with that as the that crept out of her was turned into a and thereby was forced to make a to sit on so the traveller that from his country is in a short time transformed into so monstrous a shape that he is to alter his mansion with his manners and to live where he can not where he would lily s i was always fond of visiting new scenes and observing strange characters and manners even when a mere child i began my travels and made many of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city to the frequent alarm of my parents and the of the town as i grew into boyhood i extended the range of my observations my holiday were spent in about the surrounding country i made myself familiar with all its places the at th b s v famous in history or fable i knew every spot where a murder or robbery had been committed or a ghost seen i visited the neighbouring villages and added greatly to my stock of knowledge by noting their habits and customs and conversing with their and great men i even one long summer s day to the summit of the most distant bill from whence i stretched my eye over many a mile of and was astonished to find how vast a globe i inhabited this rambling strengthened with my years books of voyages and travels became my passion and in devouring their contents i neglected the regular exercises of the school how wistfully would i wander about the pier heads in fine weather and watch the parting ships bound to distant with what longing eyes would i gaze after their sails and myself in imagination to the ends of the earth farther reading and thinking though they brought this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds only served to make it more decided i visited various parts of my own country and had i been merely influenced by a love of fine scenery i should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification for on no country have the charms of nature been more her mighty lakes like of liquid silver her mountains with account of himself their bright tints her valleys with wild her tremendous thundering in their her boundless plains waving with spontaneous her broad deep rivers rolling in solemn silence to the ocean forests where vegetation puts forth all its her skies with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine no never need an american look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery but europe held forth all the charms of and poetical association there were to be seen the of art the of highly cultivated society the quaint peculiarities of ancient and local custom my native country was full of youthful promise europe was rich in the accumulated treasures of age her very ruins told the history of times gone by and every stone was a chronicle i longed to wander over the scenes of renowned achievement to tread as it were in the footsteps of antiquity to about the ruined castle to on the falling tower to escape in short from the common place realities of the present and lose myself among the shadowy of the past i had besides all this an earnest desire to see the great men of the earth we have it is true our great men in america not a city but has an ample b the author share of them i have mingled among then in my time and been almost withered by the shade into which they cast me for there is nothing so to a small man as the shade of a great one particularly the great man of a city but i was anxious to see the great men of europe for i had read in the works of various philosophers that all animals in america and man among the number a great man of europe thought i must therefore be as superior to a great man of america as a peak of the to a of the and in this idea i was confirmed by observing the comparative importance and swelling magnitude of many english travellers among us who i was assured were very little people in their own country i will visit this land of wonders thought i and see the gigantic race from which i am it has been either my good or evil lot to have my passion gratified i have wandered through different countries and witnessed many of the shifting scenes of life i cannot say that i have studied them with the eye of a philosopher but rather with the gaze with which humble lovers of the picturesque stroll from the window of one print shop to another caught sometimes by the of beauty sometimes by the of and sometimes by the loveliness of landscape as it is the fashion for modern account of himself to travel pencil in hand and bring home their port filled with sketches i am disposed to get up a few for the entertainment of my friends when however i look over the hints and i have taken down for the purpose my heart almost fails me at finding how my idle humour has led me aside from the great objects studied by every regular traveller who would make a book i fear i shall give equal disappointment with an unlucky landscape painter who had	48
travelled on the continent but following the bent of his inclination had in and corners and his sketch book was accordingly crowded with cottages and and obscure ruins but he had neglected to paint st peter s or the the of or the bay of and had not a single or in his whole collection the voyage ships ships i will you amidst the main i will come and try you what you are protecting and projecting what s your end and aim one goes abroad for and trading another stays to keep country from a third is coming home with rich and wealthy my whither wilt thou go old to an american visiting europe the long voyage he has to make is an excellent the temporary absence of worldly scenes and produces a state of mind peculiarly fitted to receive new and vivid impressions the vast space of waters that the is like a blank page in existence there is no gradual transition by which as in europe the features and population of one country almost with those of another from the moment you lose sight of the land you have left all is the voyage until yon step on the opposite shore and are launched at once into the bustle and of another world in travelling by land there is a of scene and a connected succession of persons and incidents that carry on the story of life and lessen the effect of absence and separation we drag it is true a chain at each remove of our pilgrimage but the chain is unbroken we can trace it back link by link and we feel that the fast of them still us to home but a wide sea voyage us at once it makes us conscious of being cast loose from the secure of settled life and sent adrift upon a doubtful world it a gulf not merely imaginary but real between us and our homes a gulf subject to tempest and fear and uncertainty that makes distance palpable and return precarious such at least was the case with myself as i saw the last blue line of my native land fade away like a cloud in the horizon it seemed as if i had closed one volume of the world and its concerns and had time for meditation before opened another that land too now vanishing from my view which contained all that was most dear to me in life what might occur in it what changes might take place in me before i should visit it again who can tell when he sets forth to the voyage wander whither he may be driven by the uncertain currents of existence or when he may return or whether it may ever be his lot to the scenes of his childhood i said that at sea all is i should correct the expression to one given to day dreaming and fond of losing himself in a sea voyage is full of subjects for meditation but then they are the wonders of the deep and of the air and rather tend to abstract the mind from worldly i delighted to over the quarter railing or climb to the main top of a calm day and muse for hours together on the tranquil bosom of a summer s sea to gaze upon the piles of golden clouds just peering above the horizon fancy them some fairy and people them with a creation of my own to watch the gentle rolling their silver volumes as if to die away on those happy shores there was a delicious sensation of mingled security and awe with which i looked down from my giddy height on the monsters of the deep at their uncouth of tumbling about the bow of the ship the slowly heaving his huge form above the surface or the darting like a through the blue waters my imagination would up all that i had heard or read of the watery world the voyage beneath me of the herds that its valleys of the monsters that among the very foundations of the earth and of those wild that swell the tales of and sailors sometimes a distant sail gliding along the edge of the ocean would be another theme of idle speculation how interesting this fragment of a world hastening to the great mass of existence what a glorious monument of human invention that has thus over wind and wave has brought the ends of the world into communion has established an of blessings pouring into the regions of the north all the luxuries of the south has diffused the light of knowledge and the of cultivated life and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race between which nature seemed to have thrown an barrier we one day some object drifting at a distance at sea every thing that breaks the monotony of the surrounding expanse attention it proved to be the mast of a ship that must have been completely wrecked for there were the remains of handkerchiefs by which some of the crew had fastened themselves to this to prevent their being washed off by the waves there was no trace by which the name of the ship the voyage could be ascertained the wreck had evidently drifted about for many months clusters of shell fish had fastened about it and long sea weeds at its sides but where thought i is the crew their struggle has long been over they have gone down amidst the roar of the their lie among the of the deep silence oblivion like the waves have closed over them and no one can tell the story of their end what sighs have been after thai ship what prayers offered up at the deserted fireside of home how often has the mistress the wife the mother over the daily news t catch some casual intelligence	48
of this of the deep how has expectation darkened into anxiety anxiety into dread and dread into despair alas not one shall ever return for love to cherish all that shall ever be known is that she sailed from her port and was never heard of more the sight of this wreck as usual gave rise to many dismal anecdotes this was particularly the case in the evening when the weather which had hitherto been fair began to look wild and threaten ing and gave indications of one of those sudden storms that will sometimes break in upon the se i of a summer voyage as we sat round die dull light of a lamp in the cabin that made the gloom more ghastly every one had his tale of ship the voyage wreck and disaster i was particularly struck with a short one related by the captain as i was once sailing said he in a fine stout ship across the banks of one of those heavy that prevail in those parts rendered it impossible for us to see far a head even in the day time but at night the weather was so thick that we could not distinguish any object at twice the length of the ship i kept lights at the mast head and a constant watch forward to look out for fishing which are accustomed to lie at anchor on the banks the wind was blowing a breeze and we were going at a great rate through the water suddenly the watch gave the alarm of a sail a head it was scarcely uttered before we were upon her she was a small at anchor with her towards us the crew were all asleep and had neglected to a light we struck her just a mid ships the force the and weight of our vessel bore her down below the waves we passed over her and were hurried on our course as the crashing wreck was sinking beneath us i had a glimpse of two or three half naked wretches rushing from her cabin they just started from their beds to be swallowed shrieking by the waves i heard their drowning cry mingling with the wind the blast that bore it to our ears swept us out of all farther hearing i shall the voyage never forget that cry it some time before we could put the ship about she was under such we returned as nearly as we could guess to the place where the had we about for several hours in the dense fog we fired signal guns and listened if we might hear the of any but all was silent we never saw or heard any thing of them more i confess these stories for a time put an end p all my fine fancies the storm increased with the night the sea was lashed into tremendous confusion there was a fearful sullen sound of rushing waves and broken deep called unto deep at times the black volume of clouds oyer head seemed rent asunder by flashes of lightning that quivered along the foaming and made the succeeding darkness doubly terrible the over the wild waste of waters and were echoed and prolonged by the mountain waves as i saw the ship staggering and plunging among these roaring it seemed miraculous that she regained her balance or preserved her her yards would dip into the water her bow was almost buried beneath the waves sometimes an impending appeared ready to her and nothing but a movement of the preserved her from the shock when i retired to my cabin the awful scene still the voyage followed me the whistling of the wind through the sounded like the creaking of the the straining and groaning of bulk heads as the ship in the sea were frightful as i heard the waves rushing along the side of the ship and roaring in my very ear it seemed as if death were raging round this floating prison seeking for his prey the mere starting of a nail the yawning of a might give him entrance a fine day however with a tranquil sea and breeze soon put all these dismal reflections to flight it is impossible to resist the influence of fine weather and fair wind at sea when the ship is out in all her canvas every sail swelled and gaily over the curling waves how lofty how gallant she appears how she seems to lord it over the deep i might fill a volume with the of a sea voyage for with me it is almost a continual reverie but it is time to get to shore it was a fine sunny morning when the thrilling cry of land was given from the mast head none but those who have experienced it can form an idea of the delicious throng of sensations which rush into an american s bosom when he first comes in sight of europe there is a volume of associations with the very name it is the land of promise with every thing of which his child the voyage hood has heard or on which his years have pondered from that time until the moment of arrival it was all feverish excitement the ships of war that like guardian giants along the coast the of ireland stretching out into the channel the mountains towering into the clouds all were objects of intense interest as we sailed up the i the shores with a my eye dwelt with delight on neat cottages with their trim and green grass plots i saw the ruin of an abbey with ivy and the spire of a village church rising from the brow of a neighbouring all were characteristic of england the tide and wind were so favourable that the ship was enabled to come at once to the pier it was thronged with people some idle on	48
others eager of friends or relatives i could distinguish the merchant to whom the ship was consigned i knew him by his calculating brow and restless air his hands were thrust into his pockets he was whistling thoughtfully and walking to and fro a small space having been accorded him by the crowd in deference to his temporary importance there were repeated and between the shore and the ship as friends happened to recognize each the voyage other i particularly noticed one young woman of humble dress but interesting she was leaning forward from among the crowd her eye hurried over the ship as it the shore to catch some wished for countenance she seemed disappointed and agitated w en i heard a faint voice call her name it was from a poor sailor who had been ill all the voyage and had excited the sympathy of every one on board when the weather was fine his had spread a for him on deck in the shade but of late his illness had so increased that he had taken to his and only breathed a wish that he might see his wife before he died he had been helped on deck as we came up the river and was now leaning against the with a countenance so wasted so pale so ghastly that it was no wonder even the eye of affection did not recognize him but at the sound of his voice her eye darted on his features it read at once a whole volume of sorrow she clasped her hands uttered a faint shriek and stood wringing them in silent agony all now was hurry and bustle the meetings of acquaintances the greetings of friends the of men of business i alone was solitary and idle i had no friend to meet no cheering to receive i stepped upon the land of my forefathers but felt that i was a stranger in the land the of mankind to be a guardian god below still to employ the mind s brave in heroic aims such as may raise us o er the herd and make as shine for that is life one of the first places to which a stranger is taken in liverpool is the it is established on a liberal and judicious plan contains a good library and spacious reading room and is the great resort of the place go there at you may you are sure to find it filled with grave looking personages deeply absorbed in the study of newspapers as i was once visiting this haunt of the learned my attention was attracted to a person just entering the room he was advanced in life tall and of a form that might once have been commanding but it was a little bowed by time perhaps by care he had a noble roman style of countenance a head that would have pleased a painter and though vol i c slight on brow showed that wasting thought had been busy there yet his eye still beamed with the fire of a poetic soul there was something in his whole appearance that indicated a being of a different order from the bustling race around him i inquired his name and was informed that it was i drew back with an involuntary feeling of veneration this then was an author of this was one of those men whose voices have gone forth to the ends of the earth with whose minds i have even in the of america accustomed as we are in our country to know european writers only by their we cannot conceive of them s of men engrossed by trivial or sordid pursuit and with the crowd of common minds in the dusty paths of life they pass before our nations like superior beings radiant with the nations of their own genius and surrounded by of literary glory to find therefore the elegant historian of the mi n g li ng among the busy sons of ic m first shocked my poetical ideas but it is from tht circumstances and situation m which he has be n placed that mr bis to admiration it i interesting to n h w some minds almost to create t springing under every disadvantage and their solitary but irresistible way through a obstacle nature seems to delight in the of art with whidi it would rear legitimate to maturity and to glory in the vigour and of her chance production she the seed of genius to the winds and though some may perish among the places of the world and some be choked by the thorns and of early yet other now and then strike root even the of the rock struggle bravely up into sunshine and spread their birth place all the beauties vegetation such hat been the case with mr bom in place apparently to die growth of talent m the very market f with fortune family connections or self prompted self sustained and almost self taught has conquered every obstacle achieved his way td eminence and having become one of the df the nation has turned the whole force of ms talents and influence to advance and his town indeed it is this last trait in his character which has given him the greatest interest in my and h particularly to point him to my countrymen eminent as are literary merits c r ie ia distinguished e this nations they however for their or their own pie private history presents no the world or perhaps a humiliating one of and at best they are to steal away from the bustle and common busy existence to indulge in the selfishness of and to in scenes of mental exclusive enjoyment i j mr on the contrary has claimed none of the privileges of talent he has shot himself up in no garden of thought fancy	48
but has gone forth into the and of life he has planted by the way side for the refreshment of the pilgrim and the and has opened pure fountains the man may turn aside from the heat of the day and drink of the living streams of knowledge there is a daily beauty in his life on which mankind may and grow better u no lofty and almost useless because example of excellence but presents a picture of active yet simple and which are within every man s reach but which not many exercise or this world would he a paradise but his private life is peculiarly worthy the attention of the citizens of our young and busy country literature and up side side with the plants of daily and must depend far their culture not m the devotion of and wealth nor the of patronage but on hours and seasons snatched rom the pursuit of worldly and public spirited f he shown bow much may be done for a place in hours of leisure by one master spirit and bow l it can give its impress to like his own de whom to have fixed has eye as on a model t of antiquity he has the history of his life with the history of hi native made the foundations of its fame the m of his j virtues wherever you go in you perceive traces of footsteps in all that is elegant mid liberal he found the tide of wealth flowing merely in the channels of traffic he has diverted from k to refresh the gardens of literature by his own example and constant exertions he has effected that union of commerce and the intellectual pursuits so recommended in one of latest writings aad proved how beautifully f dress o ti e opening of the j v o c to and to benefit each the noble institutions for literary and purposes which reflect such credit on liverpool add giving an to the mind hare mostly been originated and have all been promoted by mr and when we consider the rapidly increasing and magnitude of that town which promises to in com importance with the metropolis it wilt be perceived that in awakening an ambition f mantel improvement among its inhabitants be has effected great benefit to the cause of british literature in america we know mr only in he is of as the banker and i was told of his having been m in business i could not pity him as i heart rich men do i considered him far above the reach my pity those who only far the world and in the world may be cast down by the frown of but a man like is not to be overcome by the of fortune they do bat drive him in upon the resources of his own mind to the superior society of his own thoughts which the i best of men are apt sometimes to neglect aad to abroad in search of less worthy associates he is independent of the world around him he lives with antiquity and with posterity with antiquity in the sweet communion of meat and with posterity in the ou after future renown the solitude of a in its state of highest enjoyment it is then visited by those elevated me d ns which we the proper t of noble and are like sent in the wilderness of this world while my feelings were jet alive on the subject fortune to h ton farther traces of mr i was riding out with a gentleman to view the of liverpool when he turned off through a gate into some ornamented grounds after riding a distance we came to a spacious mansion built in ike style it was not in the taste yet an air of elegance and the situation was delightful a fine lawn away from it studded with of so as to break a soft fertile country into variety of the seen winding a quiet sheet of water through an expanse of green meadow land while the mountains with clouds and melting into distance bordered the horizon this was s favourite residence during the days f his prosperity it had been the seat of elegant hospitality and literary retirement the house was now silent and deserted i saw the windows of the study which looked out upon the soft scenery i have mentioned the windows were c e or il v favoured beings about tb whom my fancy pictured of the l w l was life e c fountain that had once its pure water in a sacred shade b t finding it dry and wi oyer the battered i inquired after the fate of mr s library which bad consisted of scarce and foreign many of which he had drawn the materials s histories it bad the hammer of the f and was dispersed about tha country the good people of the vicinity thronged like to get some part of the bad been driven on shore did such a scene associations we might f something in this strange into th regions of learning the a of a giant and for tbe r s o of weapons which they not wo might some knot of with calculating brow over t the quaint b illuminated margin of an author of h air of intense but sagacity with w h some successful er attempted in ih black bad secured jt in beautiful incident in the of mr tunes and one which cannot foil o in r ob s the parting wi r i seems to hare touched upon his and to have been die only circumstance that could provoke the notice of his muse the scholar knows how dear these silent yet eh companions of thoughts and hours become in the season of that is worldly turns to around us	48
these only retain their steady value when friends grow and die of into and these only continue the countenance of happier days and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope nor deserted sorrow i i do not wish to censure but surely if the people of liverpool had been properly sensible of what was due to mr and to themselves his library would never have been sold good worldly reasons may be given for the which it would be difficult to combat with others that might seem merely fanciful but it certainly appears to me such an opportunity as seldom occurs of cheering a noble mind struggling under misfortunes by one of the most delicate but most expressive tokens of public sympathy it is however to estimate a man of genius properly who is daily before our eyes he mingled and confounded with other men his great ties lose r aa e too common ra the ma of the character some f m v s may him merely as a man of business others as all find ham engaged like themselves in occupations and surpassed perhaps by on some points of worldly wisdom even amiable and simplicity of character which gives the nameless grace to real may cause him to fee by some coarse minds who do not that true worth is always void of glare and but the man of letters who speaks of liverpool speaks of it as the residence of the intelligent traveller who visits it where is to be seen he is die literary of the place indicating its existence to the distant scholar he is like s column at towering alone in classic dignity the following addressed by mr to his books on parting with them is alluded to in the preceding article if any thing can add effect to the pure feeling and elevated thought here dis played it is the that the whole is no of fancy but a faithful from the writer v heart to my books as one who destined from his friends to part ms loss bat hopes again shoe their and enjoy and as he may affliction s thus loved associates chiefs of elder art teachers of wisdom who could once my tedious hours and every toil i now resign you nor with fainting heart for pass a few short years or days or hours and happier seasons may their dawn and all your sacred fellowship restore when freed from earth unlimited its powers mind shall with mind direct hold and kindred spirits meet to part no more i i i the wife the treasures of the deep are not so precious as are the concealed comforts of a man lock d up in woman s love i scent the air of blessings when i come but near the house what a delicious breath marriage sends forth the violet bed s not sweeter have often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which women sustain the most overwhelming of fortune those which break down the spirit of a man and prostrate him in the dust seem to call forth all the energies of the softer sex and give such and elevation to their character that at times it approaches to nothing can be more touching than to d a j soft and tender female who had been all weakness and dependence and alive to every trivial j while treading the prosperous paths of life suddenly rising in mental force to be the and of her husband under mis the wife fortune and abiding with firmness the bitterest of as the vine which has long its grace foliage about the oak and been lifted by it into sunshine win when the hardy plant is by the bolt cling round it with its caressing and bind up its shattered boughs so ib it ordered by providence that woman who is the mere and ornament of man in his happier should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature tenderly supporting the drooping head and binding up the broken heart i was once a friend who had around him a blooming family knit together in tb strongest affection i can wish you no better let said fee with enthusiasm than to have a wife and children if you are prosperous are to share your prosperity if otherwise there they ore to comfort you and indeed i observed that a married man into is more apt to his situation in the world than a single one partly because he is more to exertion by the necessities of the helpless md beloved depend upon him but chiefly because his ar soothed d relieved by domestic his self respect kept alive by finding that though win au d k es ther it still a little world of fare a f which be s the monarch whereas a single is apt to waste self neglect to himself lonely and abandoned and us heart to to some deserted for want of ail inhabitants those observations call to story of which i was once a witness my had married girl who had been brought up u th of fashionable life she bad it is true m ta tha oi ample aad be delighted i the anticipation of indulging her pursuit and to those aad fancies that spread a kind of about the sex her life said he shall b like a the very difference im their r pro he of w romantic aad somewhat she and gladness i hare rapture with which be would gaze bet a of which bar powers the delight and bow in that midst of applause still t w to a if thai h and ee leaning m his arm slender form contrasted hi tall pe go the fond m m	48
the wipe which she looked up to him seemed to c h forth a flush of triumphant pride and tenderness as if he on his lovely for its very helplessness never did a couple set forward on the path of early and well suited marriage with a fairer prospect of felicity it was the of my friend however to have embarked his fortune in large speculation and he had not been married many months n by a succession of sudden it was swept from him and he found himself reduced almost to for a time he kept his situation to himself and went about with a haggard countenance and breaking heart his life was but a protracted agony and what rendered it more was the necessity of keeping up a smile in the presence of his wife for he could not bring himself to her with the news she saw however with the quick eyes of affection that all was not well with him she marked his altered looks and stifled sighs and was not to be deceived by sickly and attempts at cheerfulness she all her powers and tender to win him back to happiness but she only drove the arrow deeper into his soul the more he saw cause to love her the more was the thought that he was soon to make her wretched a little while thought be and the the wipe smile will vanish from that he will die away from those the of those eyes be with sorrow and the h heart which now beats lightly in that bosom will foe weighed down like mine by the cares and miseries of the world at length he came to me one day arid his whole situation in a tone of the deepest despair when i had heard him through i inquired does your wife know all this at the question he into an agony of tears f r god s sake cried he if you have any pity on me don t mention my wife it is the thought of her that drives me almost to madness and why not said i she must know it sooner or later you cannot keep it long from her and the intelligence may break upon her in a more startling manner than if imparted by yourself for th accents of those we love soften the tidings besides you are yourself of the comforts of her sympathy and not merely that but also the only bond that can keep hearts together an community of thought and feeling she will soon perceive that something is secretly upon your mind and true love will not brook reserve it feels and outraged when even the sorrows of those it loves are concealed from it vol i d the wife oh but my friend to think what a blow i am to give to all her future prospects how i am to strike her very soul to the earth by telling her that her husband is a beggar that she is to forego all the of life all the pleasures of society to shrink with me into and obscurity to tell her that i have dragged her down from the sphere in which she might have continued to move in constant brightness the light of every eye the admiration of every heart how can she bear poverty she has been brought up in all the of how can she bear neglect she has been the idol of society oh it will break her heart it will break her heart i saw his grief was eloquent and i let it have its flow for sorrow itself by words when his had subsided and he had into moody silence i resumed the subject gently and urged him to break his situation at once to his wife he shook his head mournfully but positively but how are you to keep it from her it is necessary she should know it that you may take the steps proper to the alteration of your circumstances you must change your style of living nay observing a pang to pass across his countenance don t let that you i am sure you have never placed your happiness in outward the wife show you have yet friends warm friends who will not think the worse of you for being less splendidly lodged and surely it does not require a palace to be happy with mary i could be happy with her cried he in a i could go down with her into poverty and the dust i could i god bless her god bless her cried he bursting into a transport of grief and tenderness and believe me my friend said i stepping up and grasping him warmly by the hand believe me she can be the same with you aye more it will be a source of pride and triumph to her it will call forth all the latent energies and fervent sympathies of her nature for she will rejoice to prove that she loves you for yourself there is in every true woman s heart a spark of heavenly fire which lies in the broad daylight of prosperity but which up and beams and in the dark hour of no man knows what the wife of his bosom is no man knows what a angel she is until he has gone with her through the fiery trials of this world there was something in the earnestness of my manner and the style of my language that caught the excited imagination of i knew the i had to deal with and following top the impression i had made i finished by the wife him to go home and his sad heart to his wife i must confess notwithstanding all i had said i felt some little solicitude for	48
the result who can calculate on the fortitude of one whose whole life has been a round of pleasures her gay spirits might revolt at the dark downward path of low humility suddenly pointed out before her and might cling to the sunny regions in which they had hitherto besides ruin in fashionable life is accompanied by so many to which in other ranks it is a stranger in short i could not meet the next morning without he had made the disclosure and how did she bear it like an angel it seemed rather to be a relief to her mind for she threw her arms round my neck and asked if this was all that had lately made me unhappy poor girl added he she cannot realize the change we must undergo she has no idea of poverty but in the abstract she has only read of it in poetry where it is allied to love she feels as yet no she suffers no loss of accustomed nor when we come practically to experience its sordid cares its paltry wants its petty then will be the real trial but said i now that you have got over the the wife task that of breaking it to her the sooner you let the world into the secret the better the disclosure may be but then it is a single misery and soon over whereas you otherwise suffer it in anticipation every hour in the day it is not poverty so much as pretence that a ruined the struggle between a proud mind and an empty the keeping up a hollow show that must soon come to an end have the courage to appear poor and you poverty of its sting on this point i found perfectly prepared he had no false pride himself and as to his wife she was only anxious to to their altered fortunes some days afterwards he called upon me in the evening he had disposed of his dwelling house and taken a small cottage in the country a few miles from town he had been busied all day in sending out furniture the new establishment required few articles and those of the simplest kind all the splendid furniture of his late residence had been sold excepting his wife s harp that he said was too closely associated with the idea of herself it belonged to the little story of their loves for some of the sweetest moments of their courtship were those when he had leaned over that instrument and listened to the melting tones of her voice i could not but smile at this instance of romantic gallantry in a husband d the he was now going out to the cottage where his wife had been all day its arrangement my feelings had become strongly interested in the progress of this family story and as it was a fine evening i offered to accompany him he was wearied with the of the day and as we walked out fell into a fit of gloomy musing poor mary at length broke with a heavy sigh from his lips and what of her asked i has any thing happened to her i what said he darting an impatient glance is it nothing to be reduced to this paltry situation to be in a miserable cottage to be obliged to toil almost in the concerns of her wretched habitation has she then at the change she has been nothing but sweetness and good humour indeed she seems in better spirits than i have ever known her she has been to me all love and tenderness and comfort admirable girl exclaimed i you call yourself poor my friend you never were so rich you never knew the boundless treasures of you possessed in that woman oh but my friend if this first meeting at the cottage were over i think i could then be comfortable but this is her first day of real experience the wife she has been introduced into a humble dwelling she has been employed all day in arranging its miserable she has for the first time known the of domestic employment she has for the first time looked around her on a home destitute of every thing elegant almost of every thing convenient and may now be sitting down exhausted and brooding over a prospect of future poverty there was a degree of probability in this picture that i could not so we walked on in silence after turning from the main road up a narrow lane so thickly shaded by forest trees as to give it a complete air of seclusion we came in sight of the cottage it was humble enough appearance for the most pastoral poet and yet it had a pleasing rural look a wild vine had one end with a profusion of foliage a few trees threw their branches gracefully over it and i observed several pots of flowers disposed about the door and on the grass plot in front a small gate opened upon a that wound through some to the door just as we approached we heard the sound of music grasped my arm we paused and listened it was mary s voice singing in a style of the most touching simplicity a little air of which her husband was fond d the wife i felt s hand tremble on my arm he stepped forward to hear more distinctly his step made a noise on the gravel walk a bright beau face glanced out at the window and vanished a light footstep was heard and mary came forth to meet us she was in a pretty rural dress of white a few wild flowers were twisted in her fine hair a fresh bloom was on her cheek her whole countenance beamed with smiles i had never seen her look so lovely	48
my dear george cried she i am so glad you are come i have been watching and watching for you and running down the lane and looking out you i ve set out a table under a beautiful tree behind the cottage and i ve been gathering some of the most delicious for i know you are fond of them and we have such excellent cream and every thing is so sweet and still here r oh said she putting her arm within his and looking up brightly in his face oh we shall be so happy poor was overcome he caught her to his bosom he folded his arms round her he kissed her again and again he could not speak but the tears into his eyes and he has often assured me that though the world has since gone with him and his life has indeed been a happy one yet never has he experienced a moment of such unutterable felicity van the following tale was found among the papers of the late an old gentleman of new york who was very curious in the dutch history of the province and the manners of the descendants from its primitive his historical however did not lie so much among books as among men for the former are scanty on his favourite topics whereas he found the old and still more their wives rich in that lore so invaluable to true history whenever therefore he happened upon a genuine dutch family shut up in its low farm house under a spreading he looked upon it as a little clasped volume of black letter and studied it with the zeal of a book worm the result of all these was a history of the province during the reign of the dutch which he published some years since there have been various opinions as to the literary character of his work and to tell the truth it is not a whit better than it should be its chief merit is its scrupulous accuracy which indeed was a little questioned on its first appearance but has since been completely established and it is now admitted into all historical as a book of authority the old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his work and now that he is dead and gone it cannot do much harm to his memory to say that bis time might have been much better employed in labours he however was apt to ride his his own way and though it did now and then kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbours and grieve the spirit of some friends for whom he felt the truest deference and affection yet his errors and follies are remembered r more in sorrow than in anger and it begins to be suspected that he never intended to injure or offend but however his memory may be appreciated by critics it is still held dear among many folk whose good opinion is well worth having particularly certain who have gone so far as to his likeness on their new year cakes and have thus given him a chance for immortality almost equal to the being stamped on a or a queen anne s van a writing of by god of from whence comes that is truth is a that ever i will keep unto day in which i creep into my e right whoever has made a voyage up the must remember the mountains they are a branch of the great family and are seen away to the west of the river swelling up to a noble height and it over the surrounding country every change of season every change of weather indeed every hour of the day produces some change in the hues and shapes of these mountains and they are regarded by all the good wives far and near as perfect when the weather is fair and settled they are clothed in blue and purple and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky van but sometimes when the rest of the landscape is they will gather a hood of grey about their which in the last rays of the setting sun will glow and light up like a crown of glory at the foot of these fairy mountains the may have the light smoke curling up from a village whose roofs gleam among the trees just where the blue tints of the melt away into the fresh green of the nearer landscape it is a little village of great antiquity having been founded by some of the dutch in the early times of the province just about the beginning of the government of the good peter may he rest in peace and there were some of the houses of the original standing within a few years built of small yellow bricks brought from holland having windows and fronts surmounted with in that same village and in one of these very houses which to tell the precise truth was sadly time worn and weather beaten there lived many years since while the country was yet a province of great britain a simple good natured fellow of the name of van he was a of the van who figured so gallantly in the days of peter and accompanied him to the siege of fort he van inherited however but little of the martial character of his ancestors i have observed that he was a simple good natured man he was moreover a kind neighbour and an obedient hen husband indeed to the latter circumstance might be owing that of spirit which gained him such universal popularity for those men are most apt to be and abroad who are under the discipline of at home their doubtless are rendered and in the fiery furnace of domestic and a curtain lecture is worth all the sermons in the world for teaching the	48
virtues of patience and long suffering a wife may therefore in some respects be considered a tolerable blessing and if so van was thrice blessed certain it is that he was a great favourite among all the good wives of the village who as usual with the amiable sex took his part in all family and never failed whenever they talked those matters over in their evening to lay all the blame on dame van the children of the village too would shout with joy whenever he approached he assisted at their sports made their taught them to fly and shoot and told them long stories of ghosts and indians whenever he went about the village he was surrounded by a troop of hip van them hanging on his skirts on his back and playing a thousand tricks on him with not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighbourhood the great error in s composition was an aversion to all kinds of profitable labour it could not be from the want of or perseverance for he would sit on a wet rock with a rod as long and heavy as a s lance fish all day without a murmur even though he should not be encouraged by a single he would carry a piece on his shoulder for hours to through woods and and up hill and down to shoot a few or wild he would never refuse to assist a neighbour even in the toil and was a foremost man at all country for indian com or building stone fences the women of the village too used to employ him to run their errands and to do such little odd as their less obliging husbands would not do for them in a word was ready to attend to any body s business but his own but as to doing family duty and keeping his farm in order he found it impossible in fact he declared it was of no use to work on his farm it was the most little piece of ground in the whole country every thing about it went wrong and would go wrong in spite of him hip van his fences were continually falling to pieces his cow would either go astray or get among the weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than any where else the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some out door work to do so that though his estate had away under his management acre by acre until there was little more left than a mere patch of indian corn and potatoes yet it was the worst farm in the neighbourhood his children too were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody his son an in his own likeness promised to inherit habits with the old clothes of his father he was generally seen like a at his mother s heels equipped in a pair of his father s cast ff which he had much to hold up with one hand as a lady does her train in bad weather van however was one of those happy mortals of foolish well dispositions who take the world easy eat white bread or brown which ever can be got with least thought or trouble and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound if left to himself he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment but his wife kept continually in his ears about his idleness his carelessness and the ruin he was bringing on vol i e van his family morning noon and night her tongue was incessantly going and every thing he said or did waa sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind and that by frequent use had grown into a habit he shrugged his shoulders shook his head cast up his eyes but said nothing this however always provoked a fresh from his wife so that he was fain to draw off his forces and take to the outside of the house the only side which in truth belongs to a s sole domestic w s hia dog wolf who was much as his master for dame van regarded them as companions in idleness and even looked upon wolf with an evil eye as the cause of his master s going so often astray true it is in all points of spirit an honourable dog he was as courageous an animal s ever the woods but what courage can withstand the ever during and all terrors of a woman s tongue the moment wolf entered the house his crest fell his tail drooped to the ground or curled between his legs he about with a gallows air casting many a glance at dame van and at the least flourish of or he would fly to the door with felt van times grew worse and with van as years of matrimony rolled on a temper never with age and a sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows with constant use l or a long white he used to console himself when driven from home by a kind of perpetual club of the philosophers and other idle personages of the which held its on a bench before a small inn by a portrait of his majesty george the third here they used to sit in the shade of a long lazy summer s day talking over village gossip or tell endless sleepy stories about nothing but it would hive been worth any s money to have heard the profound discussion s took place when by chance an old newspaper fell into their hands from passing traveller how solemnly they would listen to the contents as out by van the a learned little man who was not to be by the most gigantic word	48
and incomprehensible about the unknown that inspired awe and checked on entering the new objects of wonder presented themselves on a level spot in the centre was a company of odd looking per playing at nine pins they were dressed in a quaint fashion some wore short others with long knives in their and most of them had enormous breeches of similar style with that of the guide s their too were peculiar one had a large head d face and small eyes the face of another seemed to consist entirely of nose and was surmounted by a white hat set off with a little red cock s tail they all had of van shapes and colours there was one seemed to be the commander he was a stout old gentleman with a weather beaten countenance he wore a broad belt and high crowned hat and feather red stockings and high shoes with roses in them the whole group reminded of the figures in an old painting in the parlour of van van the village parson and which had been brought over from holland at the time of the settlement what seemed particularly odd to was that though these folks were evidently amusing themselves yet they maintained the faces the most mysterious silence and were withal the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of the balls which whenever they were rolled echoed along the mountains like of thunder as and his companion approached them they suddenly from their play and stared at him with such fixed statue like gaze and such strange uncouth lack lustre countenances that his heart turned within him and his knees smote ther his companion now emptied the contents of the into large and made signs to him to wait upon the company he obeyed with fear and trembling they the liquor in profound silence and then returned to their game by degrees s awe and apprehension sub sided he even ventured when no eye was fixed upon him to taste the which he found had much of the of excellent he was naturally a thirsty soul and was soon tempted to repeat the draught one taste provoked another and he his visits to the so van often that at length his senses were overpowered his eyes swam in his head his head gradually declined and he felt into a deep sleep on waking he found himself on the green from whence he had first seen the old man of the he rubbed his eyes it was a bright sunny morning the birds were and among the bushes and the eagle was aloft and the pure mountain breeze surely thought i have not slept here all night he recalled the before he fell asleep the strange man with a of liquor the the wild retreat among the the party at nine the oh that that wicked v thought what excuse shall i make to dame van he looked round fer his gun but in place clean well piece he found an old lying by him the barrel with the lock falling off and the stock worm eaten he now that the grave of the mountain had ut a trick upon him and having him with liquor had robbed him of his gun wolf too had disappeared but he might have strayed away after a or he whistled after him and shouted his name but all in vain the echoes repeated his whistle and shout but no dog was to be seen van q he determined to the scene of the last evening s and if he met with any of the party to demand his dog and gun as he rose to walk he found himself stiff in the joints and wanting in his usual activity these mountain beds do not agree with me thought and if this should lay me up with a fit of the i shall have a blessed time with dame van with some difficulty he got down into the he found the up which he and companion had ascended the preceding evening but to his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it leaping from rock to rock and filling the with murmurs he however made shift to up its sides i ing his way th of and witch and sometimes tripped entangled by the wild that twisted their and from tree to tree and spread a kind of net work in his path at length he reached to where the had opened through the cliffs to the but no traces of such opening remained the rocks presented a high impenetrable wall over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of foam and fell into a broad deep basin black from the shadows of the surrounding forest he ey poor was brought td a stand he again called van and whistled after his dog he was only answered by the of a flock of idle sporting high in air about a dry tree that a sunny precipice and who secure in their elevation seemed to look down and at the poor man s what was to be done the morning was passing away and felt for want of his breakfast he grieved to give up his dog and gun her dreaded to meet his wife but it would not do to starve among the mountains he shook his head shouldered the rusty and with a heart full of trouble and anxiety turned his steps homeward as he approached the village he met a number of people but none whom he knew which some what surprised him for he had thought himself acquainted with every one in the country round their dress too was of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed they all stared at him with equal marks of surprise and whenever they cast	48
he was killed at the of others say he was drowned in a at the foot of s nose i don t know he never came back again where s van the he went off to the wars too was a great general and is now in s heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his home and friends and finding himself thus alone in the world every answer puzzled him too by treating of such enormous of time and of matters which he could not understand war point he had no courage to ask after any more friends but cried out in despair does nobody here know van oh van exclaimed two or three oh to be sure that s van yonder leaning against the tree looked and beheld a precise of himself as he went up the mountain apparently vol i f j van as lazy and certainly as ragged the fellow was now completely confounded he doubted bis own identity and whether he was or another man in the midst of his bewilderment the man in the cocked bat demanded who he was and what was his name god knows exclaimed he at his wit s end i m not i m somebody that s me no that s somebody else got into my shoes r i was myself last night but i fell asleep on the mountain and they ve changed my gun and every thing s changed and l ra changed and i can t tell what s my name or who i am the began now to look at each other nod wink significantly and tap their fingers against their there was a whisper also about securing the gun and keeping the old fellow from doing mischief at the very suggestion of which the self important man in die cocked hat retired with some at this critical moment a fresh comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the grey bearded man she had a child in her arms which frightened at his looks began to cry hush cried she hush you little fool the old man wont hurt you the name of the child the air of the mother the tone of her voice all awakened a train of recollections in his mind what is your name my good woman i asked he v and your father s name ah poor man his name was van it s twenty years since he went away from home with his gun and never has been heard of since his dog came home without him but whether he shot himself or was carried away by the indians nobody can tell i was then but a little girl had but one question more to ask hfe put it with a faltering voice where s your mother ob she too had died bat a short time since she broke a blood vessel in a fit of p at a there was a drop of comfort at least in this intelligence the honest man could contain him self no he caught his daughter and her child in his arms i am your father cried he young van once old van now does nobody know poor van all stood amazed until an old woman tottering out from among die crowd put her hand to her brow and peering under it in his face for a moment exclaimed sure enough it is van it is himself welcome home again old neighbour why where have you been these twenty long years f hip van s story was soon told for the whole twenty years had been to him but as one night the neighbours stared when they heard it some were seen to wink at each other and put their tongues in their cheeks and the self important man in the cocked hat who when the alarm was over had returned to the field down the corners of his mouth and shook his head upon which there was a general shaking of the head throughout the assemblage it was determined however to take the opinion of old peter who was seen slowly advancing up the road he was a of the historian of that name who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the province peter was the most ancient of the village and well in all the wonderful events and traditions of the neighbourhood he recollected at once and his story in the most satisfactory manner he assured the company that it was a fact handed down from his the historian that the mountains had always been haunted by strange beings that it was affirmed that the great the first of the river and country kept a kind of there every twenty years with his crew of the half moon being permitted in this way to the scenes of his enterprise and keep a guardian van eye upon the river and the great city called by his name that his father had once seen them in dutch dresses playing at nine pins in a hollow of the mountain and that lie himself had heard one summer afternoon the sound of their balls like distant of thunder to make a long story short the company broke up and returned to the more important concerns of the election s daughter took him home to live with her she had a snug well furnished house and a stout cheery farmer for a husband whom recollected for one of the that used to climb upon his back as to s son and heir who was the of himself seen leaning against the tree he was employed to work on the farm but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to any thing else but his business now resumed his old walks and habits he soon found many of his former though all	48
rather the worse for the wear and tear of time and preferred making friends among the rising generation with whom he soon grew into great favour having nothing to do at home and being arrived at that happy age when a man can do nothing with he took his place once more on the bench at the inn door and was as one of the of the village and a chronicle of the old f van times before the war it was some time before he could get into the regular track of gossip or could be made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during his how that there had been a war that the country had thrown off the yoke of old england and that instead of being a subject of his majesty george the third he was now a free citizen of the united states in fact was no the changes of states and made but little impression on him but there was one species of under which he had long groaned and that was government happily that was at an end he had got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony and could go in and out whenever he pleased without the tyranny of dame van whenever her name was mentioned however he shook his head shrugged his shoulders and cast up his eyes which might pass either for an expression of resignation to his fate or joy at his he used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at mr s hotel he was observed at first to vary on some points every time he told it which was doubtless owing to his having so recently it at last settled down precisely to the tale i have related and not a man woman or child in the neighbourhood but knew it by heart some always pretended to doubt the reality of it van and insisted that had been out of his head and that this was one point on which he always remained the old dutch inhabitants however almost universally gave it full credit even to this day they never hear a thunder storm of a summer afternoon about the but they say and his crew are at their game of nine pins and it is a common wish of all husbands in the neighbourhood when life hangs heavy on their hands that they might have a draught out of van s f n note the foregoing tale one would suspect had been suggested to mr by a little german superstition about the emperor and the mountain the note however which he had to the tale shows that it is an absolute fact with his usual fidelity the story of van may seem incredible to many but nevertheless i give it my full belief for i know the vicinity of our old dutch to have been very subject to marvellous events and appearances indeed i have heard many stranger stories than this in the villages along the all of which were too well to admit of a doubt i have even talked with van myself who when last i saw him was a very venerable old man and so perfectly rational and consistent on every other point that i think no conscientious person could refuse to take this into the bargain nay i have seen a on the subject taken before a country justice and signed with a cross in the justice s own hand writing the story therefore is beyond the possibility of doubt d k english writers on america english writers on america i see in my mind a noble and nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep and shaking her invincible locks see her as an eagle her mighty youth and her eyes at the full mid day beam j milton on thb liberty of the press it is with feelings of deep regret that i observe the literary daily growing up between england and america great curiosity has been awakened of late with respect to the united states and the london press has with volumes of travels through the republic but they seem intended to error rather than knowledge and successful they been that notwithstanding the constant intercourse between the nations there is no people concerning whom the great mass of the british public have less pure information or entertain more numerous prejudices english writers english travellers are the best and the worst in the world where no motives of pride or interest none can equal them for profound and philosophical views of society or faithful and descriptions of external objects but when either the interest or reputation of their own country comes in collision with that of another they go to the opposite extreme and forget their usual and in the indulgence of and an spirit of ridicule hence their travels are more honest and accurate the more remote the country described i would place confidence in an englishman s description of the regions beyond the of the of unknown islands in the yellow sea of the interior of india or of any other tract which other travellers might be apt to picture out with the illusions of their fancies but i would cautiously receive his account of his immediate neighbours and of those nations with which he is in habits of most frequent intercourse however i might be disposed to trust his i dare not trust his prejudices it has also been the peculiar lot of our country to be visited by the worst kind of english travellers while men of philosophical spirit and cultivated minds have been from england to the poles to penetrate the deserts and to study the on manners and customs of barbarous nations with which she can have no permanent intercourse profit or pleasure it has been left to the the adventurer the wandering the and agent to be her respecting america from such	48
sources she is content to receive her information respecting a country in a singular state of moral and physical development a country in which one of the greatest political experiments in the history of the world is now performing and which presents the most profound and momentous studies to the and the philosopher that such men should give prejudiced accounts of america is not a matter of surprise the it for contemplation are too vast and elevated for their the national character is yet in a state of it may have its and but its are sound and wholesome it has already given proofs of powerful and generous qualities and the whole promises to settle down into something excellent but the causes which are to strengthen and it and its daily indications of admirable properties are all lost upon these who are only affected by the little incident to its present situation they are capable of judging only of the surface of t of matters which in with their private interests and personal they miss some of the snug and petty comforts which belong to an old and over state of society where the ranks of useful labour are crowded and many earn a painful and by studying die very of appetite and self indulgence these minor comforts however are in the estimation of narrow minds which either not perceive or will not acknowledge that they are more than among us by great and generally diffused blessings they may perhaps have been disappointed in some unreasonable expectation of sudden gain they may have pictured america to themselves an el where gold and silver and the natives were lacking in sagacity and where they were to become strangely and suddenly rich in some but easy manner the same weakness of mind that absurd expect produces in disappointment such persons become against the country on finding that there as every where else a man must sow before he can reap must wealth by in and talent and must contend with the common difficulties of nature and the of an and people on perhaps through mistake or ill directed or the prompt disposition to cheer and the stranger among my country men they may have been treated with unwonted respect in america and having been accustomed all their lives to consider themselves below the surface of good society and brought up in a feeling of inferiority they become on the common boon of civility they attribute to the of others their own elevation and under rate a society where there are no artificial tions and where by any chance such individuals as themselves can rise to consequence one would suppose however that information coming from such sources on a subject where the tr is so desirable would be received with caution by the of the press r that the motives of these men their their opportunities of in and observation and their correctly would be before their evidence was admitted in such sweeping extent against a kindred nation the very reverse however is the case and it a striking in of human nothing can sun pass the vigilance with which english critics will examine the of the traveller who an account of some distant and comparatively unimportant country how wilt they com english the of a or the descriptions of a ruin and how sternly they censure any in these of merely curious knowledge while they will receive with eagerness and faith the gross of coarse and obscure writers concerning a country with which their own is placed m the most important and delicate relations nay they will even make these volumes text books on which to with a zeal and an ability worthy of a generous cause i shall not however dwell on this irksome and topic nor should i have to it but for the undue interest apparently taken in my countrymen and certain injurious effects which i apprehended it produce upon the national feeling we attach too much consequence to these attacks they cannot do us any essential injury the of attempted w be woven round us are like woven round the limbs of an infant giant our country continually them one falsehood after another falls ff of itself we have but to live on and every day we live a whole volume of am the writers of england united if we could for a moment suppose their great minds stooping to so unworthy a combination could not conceal our rapidly growing importance and prosperity they could these are owing not merely to physical and local bat also to moral to the political liberty the general of know ledge the of sound moral and religion principles which give force and sustained energy to the character of a people and in fact have been the acknowledged and wonderful of their own national power and glory but why are we so exquisitely alive to the of england why do we suffer ourselves to be so affected by the she has to cast upon us i it is not in the opinion of england alone that honour lives and reputation has its being the world at large is the of a nation s fame with its thousand eyes it witnesses a nation s deeds and from their testimony is national glory or national disgrace established for ourselves therefore it is comparatively of but little importance whether england does us justice or not it is perhaps of far e importance to herself she is anger and resentment into the bosom of a youthful nation to grow with its growth and strengthen with its strength if in america as some of her writers are to convince her she is hereafter to find an rival and a gigantic foe she may thank those very writers for having provoked and irritated every one knows the all m vol i g english writers of literature at the present day and how much	48
the opinions and passions of mankind are under its control the mere of the sword are temporary their wounds are but in the flesh and it is the pride of the generous to forgive and forget them but the of the pen pierce to the heart they longest in the noblest spirits they dwell ever present in the mind and render it sensitive to the most trifling collision it is but seldom that any one act produces between two nations there exists most commonly a previous jealousy and ill will a jo take offence trace these to their cause and how often will they be found to in the mischievous of writers who secure in their and for bread and the that is to the generous and the brave i am not laying too much stress upon this point for it applies most emphatically to our particular case over no nation does the press hold a more absolute control than over the people of america for the universal education of the poorest classes makes every individual a reader there is nothing published in england on the subject of our country that does not through every part of it there is not a from an english pen nor an unworthy sarcasm uttered by an english on america that does not go to and add to the mass of latent resentment possessing then as england does the fountain head from whence the literature of the language flows how completely is it in her power and how truly is it her duty to make it the medium of amiable and a stream where the two nations might meet together and drink in peace and kindness should she however persist in turning it to waters of bitterness the time may come when she may repent her folly the present friendship of america may be of but little moment to her but the future of that country do not admit of a doubt over those of england there some shadows of uncertainty should then a day of gloom arrive should those overtake he from which the have not been she may look back with regret at her in from her side a nation she might have to her bosom and thus de her only chance for real friendship beyond the boundaries of her own there is n general impression in england that the people of the united states are to the parent country it is one of the errors which have been diligently by writers there is considerable political hostility and a general at the of the english writers press but speaking the of the people are strongly in favour of england indeed at one time they amounted in many parts of the union to an absurd degree of the bare name of englishman was a to the confidence and hospitality of every family and too often gave a transient to the worthless and the ungrateful throughout the country there was something of enthusiasm connected with the idea of england we looked to it with a feeling of tenderness and veneration as the land of our the august of the monuments and of race the birth place and of the and heroes of our paternal history after our own country there was none in whose glory we more delighted none whose good opinion we were anxious to none toward which our hearts with such of warm even during the late war whenever there was the least opportunity for kind feelings to spring forth it was the delight of the generous spirits of our country to show that in the midst of still kept alive the sparks of future friendship is all this to be at an end f is this golden band of kindred sympathies so rare between nations to be broken for ever perhaps it is for the best may an illusion which might have kept us on america in mental interfered with out true interests and prevented the growth of proper national pride but it is hard tb give up the kindred tie and there are feelings dearer than interest closer to the heart than pride that will still make us cast back a look of regret aa we wander farther and farther from the paternal roof and lament the of the parent that would the affections of the child short sighted and however as the conduct of england may be in this system of on our part would be equally i speak not of a prompt and spirited of our country or the keenest of her but i allude to a disposition to in kind to retort sarcasm and inspire prejudice which seems to be spreading widely among our writers let us guard particularly against such a temper for it would double the evil instead of the wrong nothing is so easy and inviting as the retort of abuse and sarcasm but it is a paltry and contest it is the alternative of a morbid fretted into rather than warmed into indignation if england is willing to permit the mean of or the of politics to the integrity of her press and poison the fountain of public opinion let us beware of her ex g english writers ample she may deem it her interest to error and for the purpose of we have no purpose of the kind to serve neither have we any spirit of national jealousy to gratify for as yet in all our with england we are the rising and the gaining party there can be no end to answer there fore but the gratification of a mere spirit of and even that is our are never in england they fall short therefore of their aim but they foster a q e and temper among our writers they the sweet flow of our early literature and sow thorns and among its blossoms what is still worse they through our own country and	48
as far as they have effect excite prejudices this last is the evil most especially to be governed as we are entirely by public opinion the utmost care should be taken to preserve the purity of the public mind know ledge is power and truth is knowledge therefore a prejudice the of his country s strength the members of a republic above all other men should be candid and they are portions of the sovereign mind and sovereign will and should be enabled to crime to aft questions of national concern with and un on america judgments from the peculiar nature of our relations with england we must have more frequent questions of a difficult and delicate character with her than with any other nation questions that affect the most acute and feelings and as in the of these our national must ultimately be determined by popular sentiment we cannot be too anxiously attentive to it from all latent passion or opening too as we do an asylum for strangers from every portion of the earth we should receive all with it should be our pride to exhibit an example of one nation at least destitute of national and not merely the acts of hospitality but those more rare and noble spring from liberality of opinion what have we to do with national prejudices they are the diseases of old countries contracted in rude and ignorant ages when nations knew but little of each other and looked beyond their own boundaries with distrust and hostility we on the contrary have sprung into national existence in an enlightened and philosophic when tiie different parts of the world and the various branches of the human family have been studied and made known to each other and we forego the advantages of our birth if we do g q en not off th as we the local of the old world but above all let us not be influenced by angry feelings so far as to our eyes to tie perception of what is really excellent and amiable in the english character we are a young people necessarily an one end must take our ex and models in a great degree from the nations of europe there is no country more worthy of our study than england the spirit of her constitution is most to ours tb manners of her intellectual activity their freedom of their habits pf thinking on those subjects which concern the dearest interests and most sacred of private life are all con genial to the american character and in fact are all excellent for it is in the moral feel of the people that the deep foundations of british prosperity are laid and however the may be or by there must be something solid in the basis admirable in the materials and stable in the structure of an edifice that so long has amidst the of the world let it be the pride of our writers therefore all feelings of irritation and to the of british authors to speak of the english nation without prejudice and with on determined while they rebuke the with which some of our country men admire and imitate every thing english merely because it is english let them frankly point out what is really worthy of approbation we may thus place england before us as a perpetual volume of reference wherein are recorded sound from ages of experience and while we avoid the errors and which may have crept into the page we may draw thence golden of practical wisdom wherewith to strengthen and to our national character rural life in england r ii fi n i i ill life in england t h friendly to the best pursuits of man friendly to thought to virtue and to peace domestic life in rural pleasure pass d the stranger who would form a correct opinion of the english character must not confine his observations to the metropolis he must go forth into the country he must in villages and ham l lets he must visit castles farm houses cottages he must wander through and gardens along hedges and green lanes he must about country churches attend wakes and and other rural and cope with the people in all their conditions and all their habits and in some countries the large cities wealth and fashion of the nation they are the only of elegant and intelligent society and the country is inhabited almost entirely by in england on the contrary the metropolis is a mere gathering place or general tended rural life of the polite classes where they devote a small portion of the year to a hurry of gaiety and and having indulged this kind of return again to the apparently more congenial habits of rural life the various orders of society are therefore diffused over the whole surface of the kingdom and the most retired afford specimens of the different ranks the english in fact are strongly gifted with the rural feeling they possess a quick sensibility to the beauties of nature and a keen relish for the pleasures and of the country this passion seems inherent in them even the inhabitants of cities born and brought up among brick walls and bustling streets enter with facility into habits and a tact for rural occupation the merchant has his snug retreat in the vicinity of the metropolis where he often as much pride and zeal in the cultivation of his flower garden and the of his fruits as he does in the conduct of his business and the success of a commercial even those less fortunate individuals who are doomed to pass their lives in the midst of din and traffic contrive to have something that shall remind them of the green aspect of nature jn the most dark and dingy quarters of the city the drawing room window frequently a of flowers every spot	48
capable of vegetation its grass plot and flower bed and every square hi park laid out with picturesque taste ami gleaming with refreshing those who see the englishman only m town are apt to form an opinion of his social character he is either absorbed in business ov distracted by the thousand engagements that time thought and feeling in this huge he has therefore too commonly a look of hurry and abstraction wherever he happens to be he is on the point of going some where else at the moment he is talking on one subject his mind is wandering to another and while paying a friendly visit he is calculating how he shall time so as to pay the other visits allotted to the morning an immense metropolis like london is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting in their casual and transient meetings they can but deal briefly in common places they present but the cold of its rich and genial qualities have no time to be warmed into a flow it is in the country that the englishman gives scope to his natural feelings he breaks loose gladly from the cold and negative of town throws off his habits of shy reserve and becomes joyous and free hearted he ma to collect round him all the and of polite life and to banish its life his country sea very requisite either for ous retirement gratification or rural exercise books paintings music horses dogs and sporting implements of all kinds are at band he puts no either upon his guests or himself but in the true spirit of hospitality the means of enjoyment and leaves every one to partake according to his inclination the taste of the english in the cultivation of land and in what is called landscape is they have studied nature intently and discover an exquisite sense of her beautiful forms and those charms which in other countries she in wild are here assembled round the haunts of domestic life they seem to have caught her and graces and spread them like bout their rural nothing can be more imposing than the of english park scenery vast that extend like sheets of vivid green with here and there of gigantic trees up rich piles of foliage the solemn pomp of groves and wood land with the deer in silent herds across them the hare bounding away to the or the suddenly bursting upon the wing the brook taught to wind in the most natural or into a lake r in pool reflecting the quivering trees with the yellow leaf sleeping oh and the about its waters some rustic temple or statue grown green and f age gives an air of classic to the seclusion these are but a few of the features of park scenery but what most delights me is the talent with which the english the of middle life the the most and scanty portion of in the hands of an englishman of taste becomes a little paradise with a nicely e e he at once upon its and pictures in his mind the future landscape the spot grows into loveliness under his hand and yet the operations of art which produce the effect are scarcely to be perceived the and training of some trees the cautious of others the nice distribution of flowers and plants of tender and graceful foliage die introduction f a green slope of velvet turf the partial opening to a peep of blue distance or silver gleam of water all these are managed with a delicate a yet quiet like the magic touching with which a painter up a favourite picture the residence of people of fortune and refinement in the country has diffused a of taste vol i h os rural life and elegance in rural economy that to the lowest class the very with his cottage and narrow slip of ground to their the trim hedge the grass plot before the door the flower bed bordered with snug box the trained up against the wall and hanging its blossoms about the the pot of flowers in the window the planted about the house to cheat winter of its and throw in a semblance of green to cheer the fire side all these the influence of taste flowing down from high sources and the lowest of fee public mind if ever love as poets sing delights to visit a cottage it must be the cottage of peasant for rural life higher classes of the english has had a great and effect upon the national character i do not know a finer race of men than the english gentlemen instead of the softness and which the men of rank in most countries they exhibit a union of and strength a of frame and freshness of complexion which i am inclined to attribute to their living so much in the open air and pursuing so eagerly the of the country these hardy exercises produce also a tone of mind and spirits in england and a and simplicity of manners which even the follies and of the town easily can never entirely destroy jn the too the different of society seem to approach more freely to be more disposed o and operate upon each other the distinctions between them do not appear to so marked and as in the cities the manner in which property has been distributed small and farms has established a regular from the nobleman through the classes of gentry small landed and substantial farmers down to the while it has thus the extremes of together has into each rank a spirit of independence this it must be confessed is not so universally the case at present as it was formerly the larger estates having in late years of distress absorbed the smaller and in some parts of the country almost the sturdy race of small farmers these however i believe are	48
but casual breaks in the general system i have mentioned in occupation there is nothing mean and it leads a man forth among scenes of natural grandeur and beauty it leaves him to the workings of his own mind by the purest and most of external influences h q such a man may be simple and rough but he cannot be vulgar the man of refinement therefore finds nothing in an intercourse with the lower orders in rural life as he does when he casually with the lower orders of cities he lays aside his distance and reserve and is glad to wave the distinctions of rank and to enter into the honest of common life indeed the very amusements of the country bring men more and more together and the sound of hound and horn all feelings into harmony i believe this is one great reason why the nobility and gentry are more popular among the inferior orders in england than they are in any other country and why the latter have endured so many excessive and without more generally at the unequal distribution of fortune and privilege to this mingling of cultivated and rustic society may also be attributed the rural feeling that runs through british literature the frequent use of illustrations from rural life those descriptions of nature that abound in the british poets that have continued down from the and the leaf of and have brought into our all the freshness and fragrance of the landscape the pastoral writers of other countries appear as if they had paid nature in england an occasional visit and acquainted with her general charms but the british poets have lived and with her they have her in her most secret haunts they have watched her a spray could not tremble in the breeze a leaf could not rustle to the ground a diamond drop could not in the stream a fragrance could not from the violet nor a its crimson tints to the morning but it has been noticed by these and delicate and wrought up into some beautiful morality the effect of this devotion of elegant minds to rural occupations has been wonderful on the face f the country a great part of the island is level and would be monotonous were it not for the charms of culture but it is studded and as it were with castles and palaces and embroidered with and gardens it does not abound in grand and sublime prospects but rather in little home scenes of rural repose and sheltered quiet every antique farm house and moss cottage is a picture and as the roads are continually winding and the view is shut in by and hedges the eye is delighted by a continual succession of small of loveliness j the great charm however of scenery h rural life is the moral feeling that seems to it it is associated in the mind with ideas of order of quiet of sober well established principles of usage and reverend custom every thing seems to be the growth of ages of regular and peaceful existence the old church of remote architecture with its low massive its tower its windows rich with and painted glass its scrupulous preservation its stately monuments of warriors and of the time ancestors of the present lords of the soil its successive generations of sturdy whose still plough the same fields and kneel at the same altar the a quaint irregular pile partly but repaired and altered in the tastes of various ages and occupants the and leading from the churchyard across pleasant fields and along shady according to ah right df way the neighbouring village with its venerable cottages its public green sheltered by trees under which the forefathers of the present race have the antique family mansion standing apart in some little rural domain but looking down with a protecting air on the surrounding scene all these common features of english landscape a calm and settled security an hereditary of home bred virtues and local in that speak deeply and for the moral character of the nation it is a pleasing sight of a sunday morning when the bell is sending its sober melody across the quiet fields to behold the in their best finery with ruddy faces and modest cheerfulness along the green lanes to church but it is still more pleasing to see them in the evenings gathering about their cottage doors and appearing to in the humble comforts and which their own hands have spread around them it is this sweet home feeling this settled repose of affection in the domestic scene that is after all the parent of the virtues and purest and i cannot close these remarks better than by quoting the words of a modern english poet who has depicted it with remarkable felicity through each from the hall the city dome the villa crown d with shade but chief from modest in town or hamlet middle life down to the d and straw roof d shed this western isle hath long been for scenes where bliss domestic finds a dwelling place domestic bliss that like a harmless dove honour and sweet keeping guard can centre in a little quiet nest ah that desire would fly for through the earth h rural life in england that can the world be itself a world enjoyed that wants no witnesses but its own and heaven that like a flower deep hid in rocky smiles though tis looking only at the sky from a poem on the death of the princess by the reverend a m the broken heart the broken heart i never heard of any true affection but twas with care that like the eats the leaves of the spring s sweetest book the rose it is a c practice with those who have the of early feeling or have been brought up in the gay of	48
won the affections of a beautiful and interesting girl the daughter of a late celebrated irish she loved him with the t ue disinterested of woman s first and lore when every worldly arrayed itself against him when in fortune and disgrace and danger darkened around his name she loved him the more for his very sufferings if then his fate could awaken the sympathy even of his foes what must have been the agony of her whose whole soul was occupied by his image let those tell who have had the of the tomb suddenly closed between them and the being they most loved on earth who have sat at its threshold as one shut out in a cold and lonely world from whence all that was most lovely and loving had departed but then the horrors of such a grave so frightful so there was nothing for memory to dwell on that could soothe the pang of separation none of those tender though melancholy circumstances that the parting scene nothing to melt sorrow into those blessed tears sent like the of heaven to revive the heart in the hour of anguish to render her situation more desolate she had incurred her father s displeasure by her unfortunate attachment and was an exile from the paternal roof but could the sympathy and kind offices of friends have reached a spirit so shocked and driven in by horror she would have experienced broken heart no want of consolation for the are a people of quick and generous the most delicate and attentions were paid her by families of wealth and distinction she was led into society and they tried by all kinds of occupation and amusement to her grief and her from the story of her loves but it was all in vain there are some strokes of calamity that and the that penetrate to the vital seat of and blast it never again to put forth bud or blossom she never objected to frequent the haunts of pleasure but she was as much alone there as in the depths of solitude she walked about in a sad reverie apparently unconscious of the world around her she carried with her an inward woe that at am the of friendship and not the song of the charm he never so wisely the person who told me her story had seen her at a there can be no exhibition of far gone wretchedness more striking and painful than to meet it in such a scene to find it wandering like a lonely and where at around is gay to see it dressed out in the of mirth and looking so wan and wo as if it had tried in vain to cheat die poor heart into a momentary forgetfulness of sorrow after strolling vol i i the broken heart through the splendid rooms and giddy crowd with an air of utter abstraction she sat herself down on the steps of an and looking about for some time with a vacant air that her to the scene she began with the of a sickly heart to a little plaintive air she had an exquisite voice but on this occasion it was so simple so touching it breathed forth such a soul of wretchedness that she drew a crowd mute and silent around her and melted every one into tears the story of one so true and tender could not but excite great interest in a country remarkable for enthusiasm it completely won the heart of a brave officer who paid his addresses to her and thought that one so true to the dead could not but prove affectionate to the living she declined his attentions for her thoughts were engrossed by the memory of her former lover he however persisted in his suit he not her tenderness but her esteem he was assisted by her conviction of his worth and her sense of her own destitute and dependent situation for she was existing on the kindness of friends in a word he at length succeeded in gaining her hand though with the solemn assurance that her heart was another s he took her with him to hoping that a the broken heart change of scene might wear out the remembrance of early woes she was an amiable and wife and made an effort to be a happy one but nothing could cure the silent and devouring melancholy that had entered into her very soul she wasted away in a slow but hopeless decline and at length sunk into the grave the victim of a broken heart it was on her that the distinguished irish poet composed the following lines she is far from the land where her young sleep and lovers around her are sighing but coldly she turns from their gaze and for her heart in his grave is lying she sings the wild songs of her dear native plains every note which he ah little they think who delight in her strains how the heart of the is breaking he had lived for his love for his country he died they were all that to life had him nor soon shall the tears of his country be dried nor long will his love stay behind him oh make her a grave where the sun beams rest when they promise a glorious morrow j they ll shine o er her sleep like a smile from the west from her own island of sorrow i the art of book making i the of great of the british museum with that with which one is apt to about a museum in warm weather sometimes over the glass cases of sometimes studying the on an egyptian and sometimes trying with nearly equal success to comprehend the paintings on the lofty whilst i was gazing about in this idle way my attention was attracted to a distant	48
their place and we never see the prostrate trunk of a tree into soil but it gives birth to a whole tribe of let us not then lament over the decay and ob into which ancient writers descend they do but submit to the great law of nature which de book making that all shapes of matter shall be limited in their duration but which also that their elements shall never perish generation after generation both in animal and vegetable life passes away but the vital principle is to posterity and the species continue to flourish thus also do authors authors and having produced a numerous in a good old age they sleep with their fathers that is to say with the authors who preceded and from whom they had stolen whilst i was indulging in these rambling fancies i had leaned my head against a pile of reverend whether it was owing to the from these works or to the profound quiet of the room or to the arising from much wandering or to an unlucky habit of at improper times and places with which i am afflicted so it was that i fell into a still however my imagination continued busy and indeed the same scene remained before my mind s eye only a little changed in some of the details i that the chamber was still decorated with the portraits of ancient authors but the number was increased the long tables had disappeared and in place of the sage i beheld a ragged thread bare throng such as may be seen about that great of cast off clothes mob j the art of mouth street whenever they upon a book by one of those common to dreams it turned into a garment of foreign or antique fashion with which they proceeded to themselves i noticed however that no one pretended to clothe himself from any particular suit but took a sleeve from one a cape from another a skirt from a third thus himself out while some of his original rags would peep out from among his borrowed finery there was a rosy well fed parson whom observed several writers through an eye glass he soon contrived to slip on the mantle of one of the old fathers and having the gray heard of another endeavoured to look exceedingly wise but common place of his countenance set at all the of wisdom one sickly looking gentleman was busied a very garment with gold thread drawn out of several old court dresses of the reign of queen elizabeth another had trimmed himself from an illuminated manuscript had stuck a in his bosom from the paradise of dainty devices and having put sir philip s on one side of his head off with an exquisite air of vulgar elegance a third who but of dimensions had himself out book making j bravely with the spoils from several obscure tracts of philosophy so that he had a very imposing front but he was tattered in rear and i perceived that he had patched his small clothes with scraps of from a latin author there were some well dressed gentlemen it is true who only helped themselves to a or so which sparkled among their own ornaments without them some too seemed to contemplate the of the old writers merely to their principles of taste and to catch their air and spirit but i grieve to say that too were apt to array themselves from top to toe in the patch work manner i have mentioned i should not omit to speak of one genius in breeches and and an hat who had a violent to the pastoral but whose wanderings had been confined to the classic haunts of hill and the of the s park he had himself in wreaths and from all the old pastoral poets and his head on one side went about with a lack a air about green fields but the personage that most struck my attention was a old gentleman in robes with a remarkably large and square but bald head he entered the room and puffing his way through the throng with the art of a look of sturdy self confidence and having laid hands upon a thick greek clapped it upon his head and swept away in a formidable wig in the height of this literary a cry suddenly from every side of thieves thieves i looked and lo the portraits about the walls became animated the old authors thrust out first a head then a shoulder from the canvas looked down curiously for an instant upon the throng and then descended with fury in their eyes to claim their property the scene of and that ensued all description the unhappy endeavoured in vain to escape with the plunder on one side might be seen half a dozen old a modern professor on another there was sad carried into the ranks of modern dramatic writers and side by side raged round the field like and and sturdy ben more wonders than when a with the army in as to the little of mentioned some time since he had arrayed himself in as many patches and colours as and there was as fierce a of about him as about the dead body of i was grieved to see many men to whom i had been ac book making to look up with awe and reverence fain to steal off with scarce a rag to cover their just then my eye was caught hy the old gentleman in the greek who was away in sore with half a score of authors in full cry after him they were close upon his in a twinkling off went his wig at every turn some strip of was away until in a few moments from his pomp he shrunk into a little d bald shot and made his exit with only a few and rags fluttering at	48
his back there was something so ludicrous in the catastrophe of this learned that i burst into an fit of laughter which broke the whole illusion the tumult aiid the were at an end the chamber resumed its usual appearance the old authors shrunk back into their picture frames and hung in shadowy solemnity along the walls in short i found myself wide awake in my corner with the whole assemblage of book worms gazing at me with astonishment nothing of the dream had been real but my burst of laughter a sound never before heard in that grave and so to the ears of wisdom as to the the now stepped up to me and demanded whether i had ft card of admission at vol i k the of book making first i did not comprehend him but i soon found that the library was a kind of literary preserve subject to game laws and that no one must presume to hunt there without special license and permission in a word i stood convicted of being an and was glad to make a retreat lest i should have a whole pack of authors let loose upon me a royal poet k a royal poet though body be d and soft love a prisoner bound yet the beauty of your mind neither check nor chain hath look out nobly then and dare even the that you wear on a soft sunny morning in the genial month of may i made an excursion to castle it is a place full of and poetical associations the very external aspect of the proud old pile is enough to inspire high thought it its irregular walls and massive towers like a crown round the brow of a lofty ridge waves its royal banner in the clouds and looks down with a air upon the surrounding world on this morning the weather was of that kind which calls forth all the latent romance of a man s temperament filling his mind with music and him to quote poetry and dream of beauty in wandering through the magnificent and long echoing galleries of the k a royal poet castle i passed with indifference by whole rows of portraits of warriors and but lingered in the chamber where hang the of the beauties that the gay court of charles the second and as i gazed upon them depicted with half and the sleepy eye of love i blessed the pencil of sir peter which had thus enabled me to in the reflected rays of beauty in also the large green courts with sunshine beaming on the gray walls and glancing along the velvet turf my mind was engrossed with the image of the tender the gallant but and his account of his about them in his days when of the lady with eyes cast up unto the maiden s tower with sighs such as men draw in love in this mood of mere poetical i visited the ancient keep of the castle where james the first of scotland the pride and theme of poets and was for many years of his youth detained a prisoner of state it is a huge gray tower that has stood the of ages and is still in good preservation it stands on a mound which it above the other parts of the castle and a great flight of steps leads to the a royal poet interior in the which is a hall furnished with weapons of various kinds and ages i was a coat of hanging against the wall which i was told had once belonged to james from hence i was conducted up a staircase to a of apartments of faded magnificence hung with which formed his prison and the scene of that passionate and fanciful which has woven into the web of his story the hues of poetry and fiction the whole history of this amiable but unfortunate prince is highly romantic at the tender age of eleven he was sent from home by his father robert iii and destined for the french court to be reared under the eye of the french monarch secure from the treachery and danger that surrounded the royal house of scotland it was his in the course of his voyage to fall into the hands of the english and he was detained prisoner by henry iv notwithstanding that a existed between the two countries the intelligence of his capture coming in the train of many sorrows and fatal to his unhappy father the news we are told was brought to while at supper and did so him with grief that he was almost ready to give up the ghost into the hands of the servants that attended him but being carried to his bed k a royal poet chamber he from all food and in three days died of hunger and grief at james was detained in above eighteen years but though deprived of personal liberty he was treated with the respect due to his rank care was taken to instruct him in all the branches of useful knowledge cultivated at that period and to give him those mental and personal accomplish ments deemed proper for a prince perhaps in this respect his imprisonment was an advantage as it enabled him to apply himself the more exclusively to his improvement and quietly to that rich fund of knowledge and to cherish those elegant tastes which have given such a lustre to his memory the picture drawn of him in early life by the is highly and seems rather the description of a hero of romance than of a character in real history he was well learnt we are told to fight with the sword to to to to sing and dance he was an expert right in playing both of and harp and sundry other instruments of music and was expert in grammar and poetry f with this combination of manly and	48
delicate ac t s translation of a royal poet i fr fitting him to shine both in active and elegant life and calculated to give him an intense relish for joyous it must have been a severe trial in an age of bustle and chivalry to pass the spring time of his years in monotonous it was the good fortune of james however to be gifted with a powerful poetic fancy and to be visited in his prison by the of the muse some minds and grow under the loss of personal liberty others morbid and irritable but it is the nature of the poet to become tender and imaginative in the loneliness of confinement he upon the honey of his own thoughts and like the captive bird forth his soul in melody have you not seen the a pilgrim d into a cage how doth she chant her tale in that her lonely even there her charming melody doth prove that all her boughs are trees her cage a grove indeed it is the divine attribute of the imagination that it is irrepressible that when the real world is shut out it can create a world for itself and with a power can up glorious shapes and forms and l j a royal brilliant visions to make solitude and the gloom of the such was the world of pomp and that lived round in his dismal at when he con r the splendid scenes of his and we may consider the king s composed by james during his at as another of those beautiful forth of the soul from the restraint and gloom of the prison house the subject the poem is his love for the lady jane daughter of the earl of and a princess of the blood royal of of whom he became in the course of his what gives it peculiar value is that it may be considered a of the royal bard s true feelings and the story of his real loves and fortunes it is not often that sovereigns write poetry or that poets deal in fact it is gratifying to the pride of a common man to find a monarch thus as it were for admission into his closet and seeking to win his favour by to his pleasures it is a proof of the honest equality of intellectual competition which off all the of dignity brings the candidate down to a level with his fellow men and him to depend on his own native powers for distinction it is curious too to get at the history of a monarch s heart and to a find the simple affections of nature throbbing under the but james had learnt to be a poet before he was a king hfe was in and reared in the company of his thoughts have seldom to with their hearts or their minds into try and had james been brought up amidst die and gaiety of a court we should never in all probability have had such a poem as the i have been particularly interested by those parts of the poem which breathe his immediate thoughts concerning his situation or which are connected with the apartment in the tower they have thus a personal and local charm and are given with such truth as to make the reader present with the captive in his prison and the companion of his meditations such is the account which he gives of his weariness of spirit and of the incident that first suggested the idea of writing the poem it was the still of a clear moonlight night the stars he says were twinkling as the fire in the high vault of heaven and her golden locks in he lay in bed and restless and took a book to the tedious hours the book he chose was of a work popular among the writers of that a royal poet day and which had been translated by his great from the high in which he it is evident this was one of his favourite volumes while in prison and indeed it is an admirable text book for meditation under it is the of a noble and enduring spirit by sorrow and suffering to its in calamity the of sweet morality and the trains of eloquent but simple reasoning by which it was enabled to bear up against the various ills of life it is a which the unfortunate may e up in his bosom or like the good king james lay upon his nightly pillow after closing the volume he turns its contents over in his mind and gradually falls into a fit of musing on the of fortune the of his own life and the evils that had overtaken him even in his tender youth suddenly he hears the bell ringing to but its sound in with his melancholy fancies seems to him like a voice him to write his story in the spirit of poetic he to with this intimation he therefore takes pen in hand makes with it a sign of the cross to a and forth into the fairy land of poetry there is something extremely fanciful in all this and it is interesting as furnishing a a royal ing and beautiful instance of the simple manner in which whole trains of poetical thought are sometimes awakened and literary suggested to the mind in the course of his poem he more than once the peculiar hardness of his fate thus doomed to lonely and life and shut up from the freedom and pleasure of the world in which the meanest animal there is a sweetness however in his very complaints they are the of an amiable and social spirit at being denied the indulgence of its kind and generous there is nothing in them harsh or exaggerated they flow with a natural and touching pathos and are perhaps rendered more touching by their simple they contrast	48
finely with those elaborate and which we sometimes meet with in poetry the of morbid minds sickening under miseries of their own creating and their bitterness upon an world james speaks of his with acute sensibility but having mentioned them passes on as if his manly mind to brood over when such a spirit breaks forth into complaint however brief we are aware how great must be the suffering that the murmur we with james a romantic active and a accomplished prince cut off in the of youth from all the enterprise the noble uses and vigorous delights of life as we do with milton alive to all the beauties of nature and glories of art when he breathes forth brief but deep toned over his perpetual blindness had not james evinced a deficiency of poetic we might almost have suspected that these of gloomy reflection were meant as to the brightest scene of his story and to contrast with that of light and loveliness that accompaniment of bird and song and foliage and flower and all the of the year with which he in the lady of his heart it is this scene in particular which throws all the magic of romance about the old castle keep he had risen he says at day break according to custom to escape from the dreary meditations of a sleepless pillow in his chamber thus alone despairing of all joy and remedy of thought and wo he had wandered to the window to indulge the captive s miserable solace of gazing wistfully upon the world from which he is excluded the window looked forth upon a small garden which lay at the foot of the tower it was a quiet sheltered spot adorned with and green and protected from the passing gaze by trees and hedges a now was there made fast by the tower s a garden cure and in the comers set an green with long and small hailed about and so with leaves beset was all the place and hedges that waa none walking there that might within scarce any so thick the branches and the all the that there were and midst of every might be seen the sweet growing so fair with branches here and there that as it seemed to a without the boughs did spread the all about and on the small set the and sung so loud and clear the of use now soft now loud among that all the garden and the rung right of their son g it was the month of may when every thing was in bloom and he the song of the into the language of his feeling worship all ye that lovers be this hay for of your bliss the are begun and sing with us away winter away come summer come the sweet season and sun person t small boughs or twigs note the language of the is generally a post as he on tbe scene and to the notes of die birds he gradually into one of those tender and which fill die youthful bosom in his delicious season he wonders what this love may be of which he has so often read and which thus seems breathed forth in die breath of may and melting all nature into and song if it really be so great a felicity and if it be a boon thus generally to die most insignificant of beings why is he alone cut off from its oft would i o lord what may be that lore is of such noble his and such is it of him as we in books do find maybe and he upon our or is all this bat for be be of so excellence that he of every hath care and charge what hare i gilt t to or done that i am and go at urge in the midst of his musing as he casts his eyes downward he die fairest and die young that ever he had seen it is die lovely lady jane walking in die garden to enjoy incline what injury have i done c a royal poet the beauty of that fresh may break ing thus suddenly upon his sight in the moment of loneliness and excited she at once the fancy of the romantic prince and becomes the object of his wandering wishes the sovereign of his ideal world there is in this charming scene an evident re semblance to the early part of s knight s tale where and fall in love with whom they see walking in the garden of their prison perhaps the of the actual fact to the incident which he had read in may have induced james to dwell on it in his poem his description of the lady jane is given in the picturesque and minute manner of his master and being doubtless taken from the life is a perfect portrait of a beauty of that day he dwells with the fondness of a lover on every article of her apparel from the net of pearl with and that confined her golden hair even to the u goodly of small about her neck whereby there hung a in shape of a heart that seemed he says like a spark of fire burning upon her white bosom her dress of white was up to enable her to walk with more freedom she wrought gold vol i l die becomes ne sovereign of there k semblance to tbe fort r jn tale an ant whom tbe tee their prison fact to die i may hare m c e a t i x i poem x t l r s ter and aw a i an t vm w i perfect it a v t in a i tide ic me tar m am u pf ber m em	48
a u r ji j ale m c un her sm r w to enable r ii ol i a royal poet was accompanied by two female attendants and about her a little hound decorated with bells probably the small italian hound of ite which was a parlour favourite and pet among the fashionable of ancient times james his description by a burst of general in her youth beauty with humble port and womanly feature god better knows than my pen can report wisdom estate l and cunning x sure in every point so guided her in word in deed in shape in countenance that nature might no more her child advance the departure of the lady jane from the garden puts an end to this transient riot of the heart with her the illusion that had shed a temporary charm over the scene of his and he into loneliness now rendered more intolerable by this passing beam of beauty through the long and weary day he at his unhappy lot and when evening approaches and as he beautifully expresses it had bad farewell to every f state dignity t cunning discretion a e leaf l he still at the and laying hid head upon the cold stone gives tb a mingled flow of love sorrow until gradually by the mute melancholy of the twilight he half sleeping half into a vision which the remainder of the poem and in which is out the history of his passion when he wakes from his he rises from his stony pillow and pacing his apartment fall of dreary reflections questions his spirit whither it has been wandering whether indeed all that has passed before his dreaming fancy has been up by preceding circumstances or whether it is a vision intended to comfort and assure him in his despondency if the latter he that some token may be sent to confirm the precise of hap given him in his suddenly a dove of the purest whiteness in at the window and upon his hand bearing in her bill a branch of ted n the leaves of which ate written in letters of gold the following sentence f awake i bring lover i bring glad that is and sure of comfort now laugh and play and sing for in the heaven is thy cure me the branch with mingled hope a royal poet dread reads it with rapture and this he says was the first token of his succeeding happiness whether this is a mere poetic fiction or whether the lady jane did actually send him a token of her favour in this romantic way remains to be determined according to the faith or fancy of the reader he his poem by that the promise conveyed in the vision and by the flower is fulfilled by his being restored to liberty and made happy in the possession of the sovereign of his heart such is the poetical account given by james of his love adventures in castle how much of it is absolute fact and how much the of fancy it is fruitless to conjecture do not however let us always consider whatever is romantic as with real life but let us sometimes take a poet at his word i have noticed merely such parts of the poem as were immediately connected with the tower and have passed over a large part which was in the vein so much cultivated at that day the language pf course is quaint and so that the beauty of many of its golden phrases will scarcely be perceived at the present day but it is impossible not to be charmed with the genuine sentiment the delightful and which prevail throughout it the descriptions of nature too a royal poet with which it is are given with a truth a and a freshness worthy of the most cultivated periods of the art as an poem it is in these days of thinking to notice the nature ment and exquisite delicacy which it every gross thought or expression and presenting female loveliness clothed in all its attributes of almost supernatural purity and grace james flourished nearly about the time of and and was evidently an admirer and of their writings indeed in one of his he them as his masters and in some parts of his poem we find traces of to their productions more especially to those of there are always however general features of resemblance in the works of contemporary authors which are not so much borrowed from each other as from the times writers like toll their sweets in the wide world they with their own the anecdote and thoughts which are current in society and thus each generation has some features in common characteristic of the age in which it lived james in fact belongs to one of the most brilliant of our literary history and the claims of his country to a in its a boy at poet honours whilst small cluster of english writers are constantly as the fathers of our verse the name of their great is apt to be passed over in silence but he is evidently worthy of being in that little of remote but never failing who shine in the highest of literature and who like morning stars sang together at the bright dawning of british such of my readers as may not be familiar with history though the manner in which it has of late been woven with fiction has made it a universal study may be curious to learn something of the subsequent history of james and die fortunes of his love his passion for the lady jane as it was the solace of his so it his release it being imagined by the court that a connection with the blood royal of england would attach him to its own interests he was ultimately restored to	48
his liberty and crown previously the lady jane who accompanied him to scotland and made him a most tender and devoted wife he found his kingdom in great confusion the having taken advantage of the troubles and of a long to strengthen themselves in their possessions and place themselves above the power of the laws a royal poet james sought to found the basis of his power in the affections of his people he attached the lower orders to him by the of the temperate and administration of justice the encouragement of the arts of peace and the promotion of every thing that could comfort and innocent enjoyment through the of society he mingled occasionally among the common people in disguise visited their entered into their cares their pursuits and their amusements informed himself of the mechanical arts and how they could best be and improved and was thus an all spirit watching with a benevolent eye over the meanest of his subjects having in this generous manner made himself strong in the hearts of the common people he turned himself to the power of the nobility to strip them of those dangerous which they had to punish such as had been guilty of and to bring the whole into proper obedience to the crown for some time they bore this with outward sub mission but secret impatience and brooding resentment a conspiracy was at length formed against his life at the head of which was his own uncle robert earl of who being too old himself for the of the deed of a royal poet f blood his sir robert sir robert and others of less note to commit the deed they broke into his bed chamber at the near where he was and murdered him by oft repeated wounds his faithful queen rushing to throw her tender body between him and the sword was twice wounded in the ineffectual attempt to shield him from the and it was not until she had been forcibly torn from his person that the murder was accomplished it was the recollection of this romantic tale of former times and of the golden little poem which had its birth place in this tower that made me visit the old pile with more than common interest the suit of hanging up in the hall richly gilt and as if to figure in the brought the image of the gallant and romantic prince vividly before my imagination i paced the deserted chambers where he had composed his poem i leaned upon the window and endeavoured to persuade myself it was the very one where he had been visited by his vision i looked out upon the spot where he had first seen the lady jane it was the same genial and joyous month the birds were again with each other in strains of liquid melody every thing was bursting into vegetation and forth the tender promise a royal poet of the year time which delights to the of human pride seems to have passed lightly over this little scene of poetry and love and to have withheld his hand several centuries have gone by yet the garden still at the foot of the tower it what was once the moat of the keep and though some parts have been separated by dividing walls yet others have still their and shaded walks as in the days of james and the whole is sheltered blooming and retired there is a charm about a spot that has been printed by the footsteps of departed beauty and consecrated by the of the poet which is heightened rather than by the lapse of ages it is indeed the gift of poetry to every place in which it moves to breathe round nature an more exquisite than the perfume of the rose and to shed over it a tint more than the blush of morning others may dwell on the illustrious deeds of james as a warrior and a but i have delighted to view him merely as the companion of his fellow men the benefactor of the human heart stooping from his high estate to sow the sweet flowers of poetry and song in the paths of common life he was the first to cultivate the vigorous and hardy plant of genius which has since become so of the most wholesome and a royal poet highly fruit he carried with him into the regions of the north all the arts of southern refinement he did every thing in his power to win his countrymen to the gay the elegant and gentle arts which soften and the character of a people and a grace round the of a proud and warlike spirit he wrote many poems which unfortunately for the of his fame are now lost to the world one which is still preserved called christ s of the green shows how diligently he had made himself acquainted with the rustic sports and which constitute such a source of kind and social feeling among the and with what simple and happy humour he could enter into their he contributed greatly to improve the national music and traces of his tender sentiment and elegant taste are said to exist in those airs still among the wild mountains and lonely of scotland he has thus connected his image with whatever is most gracious and in the national character he has his memory in song and floated his name to after ages in the rich streams of melody the recollection of these things was at my heart as i paced the silent scene of his imprisonment i have visited with as much enthusiasm as a pilgrim a poet would visit the shrine at but i have never felt more poetical devotion than when contemplating the old tower and the little garden at and musing over the romantic loves of the lady jane and the royal poet of scotland the country church the country church	48
a gentleman what o the or the sugar chest or lists of velvet which is t pound or yard you your gentry by s bum there are few places more favourable to the study of character than an english country church i was once passing a few weeks at the seat of a friend who resided in the vicinity of one the appearance of which particularly struck my fancy it was one of those rich of quaint antiquity which give such a peculiar charm to english landscape it stood in the midst of a country filled with ancient families and contained within its cold and silent the dust of many noble generations the interior walls were with monuments of every age and style the light the country church streamed through windows with bearings richly in stained glass in various parts of the church were of knights and high born of gorgeous with their in coloured marble on every side the eye was struck with some instance of some haughty memorial which human pride had erected over its kindred dust in this temple of the most humble of all the congregation was composed of the neighbouring people of rank who sat in lined and furnished with prayer books and decorated with their arms upon the doors of the villagers and who filled the back seats and a small gallery beside the organ and of the poor of the parish who were ranged on benches in the the service was performed by a who had a snug dwelling near the church he was a privileged guest at all the tables of the neighbourhood and had been the keenest fox hunter in the county until age and good living had him from doing any thing more than ride to see the hounds throw off and make one at the hunting dinner under the of such a i found it impossible to get into the train of thought suitable to the time and place so having like many other this country church l l feeble christians with my conscience by laying the sin of my own at another person s threshold i occupied myself in making observations on my neighbours i was as yet a stranger in england and curious to notice the manners of its fashionable classes i found as usual that there was the least where there was the most acknowledged title to respect i was particularly struck for instance with the family of a nobleman of high rank consisting of several sons and daughters nothing could be more simple and than their appearance they generally came to church in the and often on foot the young ladies would stop and converse in the kindest manner with the caress the children and listen to the stories of the humble their countenances were open and beautifully fair with an expression of high refinement but at the same time a frank cheerfulness and an engaging their brothers were tall and formed they were dressed but simply with strict neatness and propriety but without any or their whole was easy and natural with that lofty grace and noble frankness which souls that have never been checked in their growth by feelings of inferiority there is a vol i m l te the about real dignity that never contact and communion with others however humble it is pride that is morbid and sensitive and from every touch i was pleased to see the manner in which they would converse with the about concerns and field sports in which the gentlemen of this country so much delight in these conversations there was neither on the one part nor on the other and you were only of the difference of rank by the habitual respect of the peasant in contrast to these was the family of a wealthy citizen who had vast fortune having purchased the estate and mansion of a ruined nobleman the neighbourhood was endeavouring to assume style and dignity of an hereditary lord of the soil the family always came td church en prince they were rolled along in a carriage with arms the crest glittered in silver radiance from every part of the harness where a crest could possibly be placed a fat coachman in a three hat and a wig curling close round his rosy face was seated on the box with a sleek dog beside him two in gorgeous with huge and gold headed behind the carriage rose and sunk the country church l i oil its long springs with peculiar ss of the very horses their bite their necks and glanced their eyes more proudly than horses either because they had got a little of the family feeling or were up more tightly than ordinary i could not but admire the style with which this splendid was brought up to the of th church yard there was a vast effect produced a the turning of an angle of e wall a great of tb whip and of th horses glistening of harness an flashing of wheels gravel this moment of and vain glory to the coachman the horses were urged and checked until they were fretted into a foam they threw out their feet in a trot dashing about pebbles at every step the crowd of villagers quietly to church opened to the right and left in vacant admiration reaching the gate the horses were pulled up with a suddenness that produced an immediate stop and almost threw them on they there was an extraordinary hurry of the footman to alight open the door pull down the steps and prepare every thing for the descent on earth of this august family the old citizen first emerged his round red face from out the door looking about m the country church him with the air of a man accustomed to rule on change and shake the stock market with a nod his a fine comfortable dame followed him there seemed	48
i must confess but little pride in her composition she was the picture of broad honest vulgar enjoyment the world went well with her and she liked the world she had fine clothes a fine house a fine carriage fine children every thing was fine about her it was nothing but driving about and visiting and life was to her a perpetual it was one long lord mayor s day two daughters succeeded to this goodly couple they certainly were handsome but had a air that chilled admiration and disposed the spectator to be critical they were in dress and though no one could deny the richness of their yet their might be questioned amidst the simplicity of a country church they descended from the carriage and moved up the line of with a step that seemed dainty of the soil it trod on they cast an glance around that passed coldly over the faces of the until they met the eyes of the nobleman s family when their countenances immediately brightened into smiles and they made the most profound and elegant which were returned in a manner that showed they were but slight acquaintances the country church i must not forget the two sons of this citizen who came to church in a dashing with they were arrayed in the extremity of the mode with all that of dress which marks the man of questionable pretensions to style they kept entirely by themselves every one that came near them as if measuring his claims to respectability yet they were without conversation except the exchange of an occasional cant phrase they even moved for their bodies in compliance with the caprice of the day had been into the absence of all ease and freedom art had done every thing to them as men of fashion but nature had denied them the nameless grace they were shaped like men formed for the common purposes of life and had that air of assumption which is never seen in the true gentleman i have been rather minute in drawing the pictures of these two families because i considered them specimens of what is often to be met with in this country the great and the j little i have no respect for rank unless it be accompanied with true nobility of soul but i have remarked in all countries where artificial distinctions exist the very highest classes are always the most courteous and those who are well assured of their own standing are m country church least apt to on that of others whereas nothing is so offensive as the of vulgarity thinks to itself by humiliating its neighbour as i have brought these families into contrast i must notice their behaviour in church that of the nobleman s family was quiet serious and attentive not that they appeared to have any of devotion but rather a respect for sacred things and ed places inseparable from good breeding the others on the contrary were in a perpetual flutter and whisper they betrayed a continual consciousness of finery and a sorry ambition of being the wonders of a rural congregation the old gentleman was the only one really attentive to th service he took the whole burden of family devotion upon himself standing bolt upright and uttering the with a loud voice that might be heard all over the church it was evident that he was one of those thorough church and king men who idea of devotion and loyalty who consider the deity somehow or other of the government party and religion a very excellent sort of thing that ought to be and kept up when lie joined so loudly in the service it seemed more by way of example to the lower orders to show them that though so great and the country church wealthy he was not above being religious as i have seen a fed swallow publicly a basin of charity soup his lips at every and it excellent food for the poor when the service was at an end i was curious to witness the several of my groups the young and their sisters as the day was fine preferred strolling home across the fields with the country people as they went the others departed as they came in grand parade again were the wheeled up to the gate there was again the of the of hoofs and the glittering of harness the horses started off almost at a bound the villagers again hurried to right and left the wheels threw up a cloud of dust and the family was out of sight in a m the widow and her son the widow and her son old age within whose and reverence have d s during my residence in the country i used frequently to attend at the old village church its shadowy its monuments its dark all reverend with the gloom of departed years seemed to fit it for the haunt of solemn meditation a sunday too in the country is so holy in its repose such a pensive quiet over the face of nature that every restless passion is charmed down and we feel all the natural religion of the soul gently springing up within us sweet day so pure so calm so bright the of the earth and sky the widow i do not pretend to be what is called a devout man but there are feelings that visit me in a country church amid the beautiful serenity of nature which i experience no where else and if not a more religious i think i am a better man on sunday than on any other day of the seven but in this church i felt myself continually thrown back upon the world by the and pomp of the poor worms around me the only being that seemed thoroughly to feel the humble and prostrate piety of a true christian was a poor old woman bending	48
under the weight of years and she bore the traces of something better than abject poverty the of decent pride were visible in her appearance her dress though humble in the extreme was clean some trivial respect too had been her for she did not take her seat among the village poor but sat alone on the steps of the altar she seemed to have survived all love all friendship all society and to have nothing left her but the hopes of heaven when i saw her feebly rising and bending her aged form in prayer habitually her prayer book which her hand and failing eyes would not permit her to read but which she evidently knew by heart i felt persuaded that the faltering voice of that poor woman arose to heaven far before the of the and son clerk the swell of the organ or the of the choir i am fond of about country churches and this was so delightfully situated that it fire attracted me it stood on a round which a small stream made a beautiful bend and then wound its way through a long reach of soft meadow scenery the church was surrounded by trees which seemed almost with itself its tall spire shot up lightly from among them with and generally about it i was seated there one still sunny morning watching two who were digging a grave they had chosen one of the most remote and neglected corners of the church yard where from the number of nameless graves around it would appear that the and were huddled into the earth i was told that the new made grave was for the only son of a poor widow while i was meditating on the distinctions of worldly rank which extend thus down into the very dust the toll of the bell announced the approach of the funeral they were the of poverty with which pride had nothing to do a coffin of the materials without pall or other covering was borne by some of the villagers the walked before with an air of cold indifference there were no mock in the trap the widow of affected woe bat there was one real who feebly after the corpse it was the aged mother of the deceased poor old woman whom i had seen seated on the steps of the altar she was supported by a humble friend who was endeavouring to comfort her a few of the neighbouring poor had joined the train and some children of the village were running hand in hand now shouting with mirth and now pausing to gaze with childish curiosity on the grief of the as die funeral train approached the grave the parson issued from the church porch arrayed in the prayer book in hand and attended by the clerk the service however was a mere act of charity the deceased had been destitute and the was it was through therefore in form but coldly and the well fed priest moved but a few steps from the church door his voice could scarcely be heard at the grave and never did i hear the funeral service that sublime and touching ceremony turned into such a of words i approached the grave the coffin was placed on the ground on it were inscribed the name and age of the deceased george aged years the poor mother had been assisted to kneel down at the head of it her withered hands clasped as if in prayer but i could by a feeble rocking of the body and a motion of the lips that she was gazing on the last of her sen with of a mother heart the service being ended were made to deposit the coffin in the earth there was that bustling stir which breaks so ta the feelings of grief and affection directions given in the cold tones of business the striking of into sand and gravel which at the grave of love is of all sounds the most withering the bustle around seemed to the mother from a wretched reverie raised her glazed i eyes i did looked about with a faint as the men approached with to lower the coffin into the grave she wrung her hands and broke into an agony of grief the poor woman who attended her took i her by the arm endeavouring to raise her from the earth and to whisper something like consolation nay nay don t take it so sorely to heart she could only shake head and her hands as one not to be as they lowered the body into the earth the creaking of the seemed to her but when on some accidental there was a of the coffin all the tenderness of the mo ther burst forth as if any harm could come to the widow him who was far beyond the reach of suffering i could see no my heart swelled in to my my eyes filled with i felt as if i were acting a barbarous part in standing by and gazing idly on this scene of maternal anguish i wandered to another part of the church yard where i remained until the funeral train had dispersed when i saw the mother slowly and painfully the grave leaving behind her the remains of all that was dear to her on earth and returning to silence and my heart for her what thought i are the of the rich they have friends to soothe pleasures to a world to divert and their what are the sorrows of the young their growing minds soon close above the their elastic spirits soon rise beneath the their green and affections soon round new objects but the sorrows of the poor who have no outward to soothe the sorrows of the aged with whom life at best is but a wintry day and who can look for no	48
his bosom and fall asleep with the tranquillity of a child in this way he died and her son my first impulse on hearing this humble tale of affliction was to visit the cottage of the and administer pecuniary assistance and if possible comfort i found however on that the good feelings of the villagers had prompted them to do every thing that the case admitted and as the poor know best how to console each other s sorrows i did not venture to intrude the next sunday i was at the village church when to my surprise i saw the poor old woman tottering down the aisle to her accustomed seat on the steps of the altar she had made an effort to put on something like mourning for her son and nothing could be more touching than this struggle between pious affection and utter poverty a black or so a faded black handkerchief and one or two more such humble attempts to express by outward signs that grief which passes show when i looked round upon the monuments the stately the cold marble pomp with which grandeur mourned over departed pride and turned to this poor widow bowed down by age and sorrow at the altar of her god and offering up the prayers and praises of a pious though a broken heart i felt that this living monument of real grief was worth them all i related her story to some of the wealthy the widow and son of the congregation and they were moved by it they exerted themselves to render her situation more comfortable and to her it was however but a few steps to the grave in the course of a sunday or two after she was missed from her usual seat at church and before i left the neighbourhood i heard with a feeling of satisfaction that she had quietly breathed her last and had gone to those she in that world where sorrow is never known and friends are never patted the head tavern n the head tavern a a tavern is the the exchange the of good fellows i have heard my great grandfather tell how his great grandfather should say that it was an old proverb when his great grandfather was a child that it was a good wind that blew a man to the wine mother it is a pious custom in some catholic countries to honour the memory of saints by lights burnt before their pictures the popularity of a saint therefore may be known by the number of these one perhaps is left to in the darkness of his little chapel another may have a solitary lamp to throw its rays his while the whole blaze of the s head tion is at the shrine of some beautiful father of renown the wealthy brings his huge of wax the eager his seven and even the pilgrim is by no means satisfied that sufficient light is thrown upon the deceased unless he hangs up his little lamp of smoking oil the consequence is that in the eagerness to they are often apt to obscure and i have occasionally seen an unlucky saint almost smoked out of countenance by the of his followers in like manner has it with the immortal every writer considers it his duty to light up some portion of his character or works and to rescue some merit from oblivion the in words produces vast of the common herd of send up mists of obscurity from their notes at the bottom of each page and every casual brings his of or to swell the cloud of incense and of smoke as i honour all established of my brethren of the i thought it but proper to contribute my of homage to the memory of the illustrious bard i was for some time however sorely puzzled in what way i should discharge this duty i found myself anticipated in every attempt at a new reading every doubtful line had been explained a dozen different ways and perplexed beyond the reach of and as to fine passages they had all been amply praised by admirers nay so completely had the bard of late been with by a great german critic that it was difficult now to find even a that had not been argued into a beauty in this perplexity i was one morning turning over his pages when i casually opened upon th comic scenes of henry iv and was in a moment completely lost in the of the s head tavern so vividly and naturally are these scenes of humour depicted and with force and are the characters sustained that thej become mingled up in die mind with the facts and personages of real life to few readers does it occur that these are all ideal of a poet s brain and that in sober truth no such knot of merry ever the dull neighbourhood of for my part i love to give myself up to the illusions of poetry a hero of fiction that never existed is just as valuable to me as a hero of history that existed a thousand years since and if i may be excused such an to the common ties of human nature i would not give up fat jack for half the great men of ancient chronicle what have the heroes of done for me or men like me they the s head have conquered countries of which i do not enjoy an acre or they have gained of which i do not inherit a leaf or they have furnished example of hair which i have neither the opportunity nor the inclination to follow but old jack kind jack sweet jack has enlarged the boundaries of human enjoyment he has added vast regions of wit and good humour in which the poorest man may and has a never failing inheritance oi jolly laughter to	48
make mankind and better to the latest posterity a thought suddenly struck me i will make a pilgrimage to said i closing the book and see if the old s head tavern still exists who knows but i may light upon some traces of dame quickly and her guests at any rate there will be a kindred pleasure in treading the halls once with their mirth to that the in smelling to the empty once filled with generous wine the resolution was no sooner formed than put in execution i forbear to treat of the various adventures and wonders i encountered in my travels of the haunted regions of cock lane of the faded glories of little britain and the parts adjacent what perils i ran in street and old of the renowned and its two tavern tbe pride and wonder of the city and th terror of all unlucky and how i visited london stone and struck my staff up n it in imitation of that arch rebel jack let it suffice to say that i at length arrived in merry that ancient region of wit and where the very names of the streets of good cheer as lane bears testimony even at the present day for says old was always famous for its doing the cried hot of beef well baked and other there was of pots pipe and alas how sadly is the scene changed since the roaring days of and old the has given place to the the of pots and the sound of and to the din of carts and the accursed of the s bell and no song is heard save the strain of some from the of deceased i sought in vain for the ancient abode of dame quickly the only of it is a s head carved in relief in stone which formerly served as the sign but at present is built into the parting line of two houses which stand on the site of the renowned old tavern for the history of this little empire of good the s head i was referred to a s widow opposite who had been born and brought up on the spot and was looked up to as the of the neighbourhood i found her seated in a little back parlour the window of which looked oat upon a yard about eight feet square out as a flower garden while a glass door opposite afforded a distant peep of the street through a vista of soap and candles the two views which in all probability her prospects in life and the little world in which she had lived and moved and had her being for the better part of a century to be in the history of great and little from london stone even unto the monument was doubtless in her opinion to be acquainted with the history of the universe yet with all this she possessed the simplicity of true wisdom and that liberal disposition which i have generally remarked in intelligent old ladies knowing in the concerns of their neighbourhood her information however did not extend far back into antiquity she could throw no light history of the s head from the time that dame quickly the pistol until the great fire of london when it was unfortunately burnt down it was soon and continued to flourish tavern under the old name and sign until a dying landlord struck with remorse for double scores bad measures and other which are incident to the sinful race of endeavoured to make his peace with heaven by die tavern to st michael s church crooked lane toward the supporting of a for some time the meetings were regularly held there but it was observed that the old never held up his head under church government he gradually declined and finally gave his last gasp about thirty years since the tavern was then turned into shops but she informed me that a picture of it was still preserved in st michael s church which stood just m the rear to get a sight of this picture was now my determination so having informed myself of the abode of the i took my leave of the venerable of my visit doubtless raised greatly her opinion of her lore furnished an important incident in the history of her life it cost me some difficulty and much curious inquiry to out the humble on to the church i had to explore crooked lane and divers little and elbows and dark passages with which this old city is like an ancient cheese or a worm eaten chest of drawers at length i traced him to a corner of a small court the s head surrounded by lofty houses where the inhabitants enjoy about as much of the face of heaven as a community of at the bottom of a well the was a meek little man of a bowing lowly habit yet he had a pleasant twinkle in his eye and if encouraged would now and then a small such as a man of his low estate might venture to make in the company of high and other mighty men of the earth i found him in company with the seated apart like milton s angels no doubt on high points and settling the affairs of the church over a friendly pot of ale for the lower classes of english seldom deliberate on any matter without the assistance of a cool to clear their i arrived at the moment when they had finished their ale and their argument and were about to repair to the church to put it in order so having made known my wishes i received their gracious permission to accompany them the church of st michael s crooked lane standing at a short distance from is enriched with the of many of renown and as every profession has its of glory and its of great men	48
i presume the monument of a mighty of the time is regarded with as much reverence by succeed tavern ing generations of the craft as poets feel on contemplating the tomb of or soldiers the monument of a or a i cannot but turn aside while thus speaking of illustrious men to observe that st michael s crooked lane contains also the ashes of that champion william knight who so down the sturdy in a hero worthy of honourable as almost the only lord mayor on record famous for deeds of arms the sovereigns of being generally renowned as the most pacific of all the following was the ancient inscription on the monument of this worthy which unhappily was destroyed in the great a man of fame william by name he was in here and lord as in books who with courage stout and manly jack straw in richard s sight for which act done and the king made him and gave him as here you see to declare his fact and he left this the of our god thirteen and three odd an error in the foregoing inscription has been corrected by the whereas he it hath been far spread abroad by vulgar opinion that the rebel smitten down so vol i o the s head adjoining the church in a small immediately under the back windows of what was once the s head stands the tomb of robert drawer at the tavern it is now nearly a century since this drawer of good liquor closed his bustling career and was thus quietly deposited within call of his customers as i was clearing away the weeds from his the little drew me on one side with a mysterious air and informed me in a low voice that once upon a time on a dark wintry night when the wind was howling and whistling about doors and windows and so that the living were frightened out of their beds and even the dead could not sleep quietly in their graves the ghost of honest which happened to be itself in the church yard was attracted by the well known call of waiter from the s head and made its sudden appearance in the midst of a roaring club just as the parish clerk was singing a from the of captain death to the by sir william the then worthy lord was named jack straw and not i thought good to reconcile this rash conceived doubt by such testimony as i find in ancient and good records the principal leaders or captains of the were as the first man the second was john or jack straw c c s london tavern discomfiture of sundry train captains and die of an attorney who became a christian on the spot and was never known to twist the truth afterwards except in the way of business i beg it may be remembered that i do net pledge myself for the of this anecdote though it is well known that the church yards and bye corners of this old metropolis are very h with spirits arid every one have heard of the cock ghost and the apparition that guards the in j the tower which h frightened so many bold almost out of their wits a be all this as it may this robert seems to have been a worthy successor to the francis who attended upon df prince to have been equally prompt with his anon anon and to have his in honesty for the of whose taste no man will venture to francis of putting lime jn hi sack whereas honest s lands him for the of his conduct the of his and the of his measure the worthy as mi im x l it for the of it h no doubt the o the s head of the church however did not appear much by the sober virtues of the the who had a moist look out of the eye made some shrewd remark on the of a man brought up among full and the little his opinion by a significant wink and a shake of the head thus far my though they threw much light on the history of and lord yet disappointed me in the great object of my quest the picture of the s head tavern no such painting was to be found in the church of st michael marry and amen said i here my i so i was giving the matter up with the air of a baffled when my friend the perceiving me to be curious in every thing relative to the old tavern of some choice spirit who once frequented the s head to give the world surprise produced one sober son and here he lies though rear d among full he defy d the charms of wine and every one beside o reader if to justice thou rt inclined keep honest daily in thy mind he drew good wine took care to fill his pots had sundry virtues that d his faults you that on have the like dependence pray copy bob in measure and attendance tavern show me the choice vessels of the which had been handed down from remote times when the parish meetings were held at the s head these were deposited in the parish club room which had been transferred on the decline of the ancient establishment to a tavern in the neighbourhood a few steps brought us to the house which stands no mile lane bearing the title of the s arms and is kept by master edward the bully rock of the establishment it is one of those little which abound in the heart of the city and form the centre of gossip and intelligence of the neighbourhood we entered the bar room which was narrow and for in these close lanes but few rays of reflected	48
light are enabled to struggle down to the inhabitants whose broad day is at best but a tolerable twilight the room was into boxes each containing a table spread with a clean white cloth ready for dinner this showed that the guests were of the good old stamp and divided their day equally for it was but just one o clock at the lower end of the room was a clear coal fire before which a breast of lamb was a row of bright brass and along the mantle piece and an old fashioned clock in one corner o the s head there was something primitive in this of kitchen parlour and hall that carried me to earlier times and pleased me the place indeed was humble but every thing had that look of order and neatness which the of a notable english a group of looking beings who might be either or sailors were themselves in one of the boxes as i was a visitor of rather higher pretensions i was ushered into a little miss n back room having at least nine corners it was lights by a sky light furnished with chairs and ornamented with the portrait of a fa it was evidently appropriated to particular customers and i found a shabby gentleman in a red nose and oil cloth hat seated in one corner meditating on a half empty pot of porter the old had taken the landlady aside and with an air of profound importance imparted to her my errand dame was a likely plump bustling little woman and no bad substitute for that of dame quickly she seemed delighted with an opportunity to oblige and hurrying up stairs to the of her house where the precious vessels of the parish club were deposited she returned smiling and with them in her hands the first she presented me was a iron tavern q tobacco box of gigantic size out of which i the had smoked at their stated meetings since time and which was never suffered to be by vulgar hands or used oil occasions i received it with becoming reverence but what was my delight at beholding on its cover the identical painting of which j was in quest there was displayed the outside of the s head tavern and before the door was to be seen the whole group at table hi full pictured with that fidelity and force with which the portraits of renowned and are illustrated on boxes for the benefit of posterity lest how ever there should be any mistake the cunning had inscribed the names of prince and on the of their the inside of the cover was an inscription nearly that this box was the gift of sir richard for the use of the meetings at the s head tavern and that it was repaired and by his successor mr john such is a faithful description of this august and venerable and i question whether the learned contemplated his roman shield or the knights of the round table the long sought san with more exultation while i was meditating on it with o tut s head gaze dame who was highly gratified by the interest it excited put in my hands a drinking cup or which also belonged to the and was descended from the old s head it bore the inscription of having been the gift of francis knight and was held she told me in exceeding great value being considered very this last opinion was strengthened by the shabby gentleman in the red nose and hat and whom i strongly suspect to be a from the he suddenly aroused from his meditation on the pot of porter and casting a knowing look at the exclaimed aye aye the head don t ache now that made that there article the great importance attached to this of ancient by modern at first puzzled me but there is nothing the apprehension so much as for i immediately perceived that this could be no other than the identical parcel gilt on which made his loving but vow to dame quickly and which would of course be up with care among the of her as a testimony of that solemn contract thou swear to me upon a parcel gilt sitting in my chamber at the round table by a sea coal fire on wednesday in week when the prince broke thy head for his to a singing man of thou swear to me then f mine hostess indeed gave me a long history how the had been handed down from generation to generation she also entertained me with many particulars concerning the worthy who have seated themselves thus quietly on the of the ancient of and like so many utter clouds of smoke in honour of these i forbear to relate lest my readers should not be as curious in these matters as myself suffice it to say the neighbours one and all about believe that and his merry crew actually lived and there nay there are several anecdotes concerning him still among the oldest of the s arms which they give as down from their forefathers and mr m an irish hair whose shop stands on the site of the old s head has several dry jokes of fat jack s not laid down in the books with which he makes his customers ready to die of laughter i now turned to my friend the to make some farther inquiries but i found him sunk in pensive meditation his head had declined a little on one side a deep sigh heaved from the very bottom of his stomach and though i could not as i was washing thy wound to marry me and make me my lady thy wife thou deny it henry iv part the s mad a tear trembling in his eye yet a was evidently stealing from corner of bis mouth i followed this direction of	48
his eye through the door which stood open and found it fixed wistfully on the breast of lamb in g richness before the fire i now called to mind that in the eagerness of my investigation i was keeping the poor man from his dinner my with sympathy and putting in his band a small token of my gratitude and good will i departed with a hearty on him dame and the parish of lane not forgetting my shabby but friend in the oil cloth hat and copper nose thus have i given a tedious brief account of this interesting for which if it prove too short an l k unsatisfactory i can only plead my in this branch of literature so popular at the present i am aware that a more skilful of the immortal bard would s d the materials j have upon to a good bulk of jack straw ami robert some notice of the eminent of michael s the history of great and little private anecdotes of dame and her pretty daughter whom i have not even mentioned to say nothing of a tending the breast of lamb and whom by the way i remarked to be a comely with a neat foot and the whole by the of and illuminated by the great fire of london all this i leave as a rich mine to be worked by future nor do i despair of seeing the tobacco box and the parcel gilt which i have thus brought to light the subjects of future and almost as fruitful of and as the shield of or the far the of literature a in westminster abbey the of literature a in westminster abbey i know that all beneath the moon and what by mortals in this world is brought in time s great periods shall return to i know that all the muse s heavenly with toil of are so dearly bought as idle sounds of few or none are sought that there is nothing lighter than mere praise there are certain half moods of mind in which we naturally steal away noise and glare and seek some quiet haunt where we may indulge our and build our air castles disturbed in such a mood x waa the old gray of westminster abbey ear that of wandering thought one is apt to the name f reflection when suddenly an of mad cap boys from west the school playing at foot ball broke in upon the stillness of the place making the passages and echo with their merriment i sought to take refuge from their noise by penetrating still deeper into the of the pile and applied to one of the for admission to the library he conducted me through a rich with the crumbling of former ages which opened upon a gloomy passage leading to the chapter house and the chamber in which book is deposited just within the passage is a small door on the left to this the applied a key it was double locked and opened with some difficulty as if seldom used we now ascended a dark narrow staircase and passing through a second door entered the library i found myself in a lofty antique hall the roof supported by massive of old english oak it was lighted by a row of windows at a considerable height from the floor and which apparently opened upon the roofs of the an ancient picture of some reverend of the church in his robes hung over the fire place around the hall and in a small gallery were the books arranged in carved cases they consisted principally of old writers and were much more worn by time than use in the centre of the library was a solitary table with two or three o literature books on it an without ink and a few pens by long the place seemed fitted for quiet study and profound meditation it was buried deep among the massive walls of the abbey and shut up from the tumult of the world i could only hear now and then the shouts of the school boys faintly swelling from the and the sound of a bell for prayers that echoed along the roofs of the abbey by degrees the shouts of merriment grew fainter and fainter and at length died away the bell ceased to toll and a profound silence reigned through the dusky hall i had taken down a little thick curiously bound in with brass and seated myself at the table in a venerable elbow chair instead of reading however i was by the solemn air and lifeless quiet of the place into a train of musing as i looked around upon the old volumes in their covers thus ranged on the shelves and apparently never disturbed in their repose i could not but consider the library a kind of literary where authors like are and left to and in dusty oblivion how much thought i has each of these volumes now thrust aside with such indifference cost some aching head how many weary days how many vol i p the sleepless nights how have their authors buried themselves in the solitude of and shut themselves up from the face of man and the still more blessed face of nature and devoted themselves to painful and intense reflection and all for what to occupy an inch of dusty shelf to have the title of their works read now and then in a future age by some drowsy or casual like myself and in another age to be lost even to remembrance such is the amount of this boasted immortality a mere temporary rumour a local sound like the tone of that bell which has just among these towers filling the ear for a moment lingering in echo and then passing away like a thing that was not while i sat half murmuring half meditating these	48
speculations with my head resting on my hand i was with the other hand upon the until i accidentally loosened the when to my utter astonishment the little book gave two or three like one from a deep sleep then a hem and at length began to talk at first its voice was very hoarse and broken being much troubled by a which some spider had woven across it and having probably contracted a cold from long exposure to the and of the abbey in a short time however it became more distinct of literature and i soon found it an exceedingly little its language to be sure was rather quaint and and its what in the present day would be deemed bar but i shall endeavour as far as i am able to render it in modern it began with about the neglect of the world about merit being suffered to m obscurity and other such common place topics of literary and complained bitterly that it had not been opened for more than two centuries that the dean only looked now and then into the library sometimes took down a volume or two with them for a few moments and then returned them to their shelves what a plague do they mean said the little which i began to perceive was somewhat what a plague do they mean by keeping several thousand volumes of us shut up here and watched by a set of old like so many beauties in a merely to be looked at now and then by the dean books were written to give pleasure and to be enjoyed and i would have a rule passed that the dean should pay each of us a visit at least once a year or if he is not equal to the task let them once in a while turn loose the whole school of westminster among us that at any rate we may now and then have an p the softly my worthy friend replied i you are not aware how much better you are off than most books of your generation by being stored away in this ancient library you are like the remains of those saints and which lie in the adjoining while the remains of their contemporary mortals left to the ordinary course of nature have long since returned sir said the little his leaves and looking big i was written for all the world not for the of an abbey i was intended to from hand to hand like other great contemporary works but here have i been clasped up for more than two centuries and might have silently fallen a prey to these worms that are playing the very vengeance with my if you had riot by chance given me an opportunity of uttering a few last words before i go to pieces my good friend rejoined i had you been left to the circulation of which you speak you would long ere this have been no more to judge from your you are now well stricken in years very few of your can be at present in existence and those few owe their to being like yourself in old which suffer me to add instead of to you might more properly and of gratefully have compared to those attached to religious for the benefit of the old and and where by quiet and no employment they often endure to an good for nothing old age you talk of your as if in circulation where do you meet with their works what do we hear of robert of no one could have toiled harder than he for immortality he is said to have written nearly two hundred volumes he built as it were a of books to his name but alas the has long since fallen and only a few fragments are scattered in various where they are scarcely disturbed even by the what do we hear of the historian philosopher and poet he declined two that he might shut himself up and write for posterity but posterity never after his labours what of henry of who beside a learned history of england wrote a on the contempt of the world which the world has by forgetting him what is quoted of joseph of the miracle of his age m classical composition of his three great heroic poems one is lost for ever excepting a mere fragment the others are known only to a few of the curious in literature and as to p the hi love verses and they have entirely disappeared what is in current use of john the who acquired the name of the tree of life of william of of of of of of john of st of friend cried the in a tone how old do you think me i you are talking of authors that lived long before my time and wrote either in latin or french so that they in a manner themselves and deserved to be forgotten but i sir was ushered into the world from the press of the renowned de i was written in my own native tongue at a time when the language had become fixed and indeed i was considered a model of pure and elegant english i should observe that these remarks were in such terms that i have had infinite difficulty in rendering them into modern i cry your mercy said i for your age but it matters little almost all the writers of in latin and french hath had great to and have many noble bat there ben some that their in french of which the have as good a as we have in of s s testament of love of your time have likewise passed into and de s are mere literal among book the purity and of language too on which you found your claims to have	48
of authors at the same time busy and the press going on with fearfully increasing activity to double and the number unless some should break out among the of the muse now that she has become so i tremble for posterity i fear the mere of language will not be sufficient criticism may do much it with the increase of literature and one of hb those on population spoken of by all possible encouragement therefore should be given to the growth of critics good or bad but i fear all will be in vain let criticism do what it may writers will write will print and the world will inevitably be with good books it will soon be the employment of a life time merely to learn their names many a man of information at the present day reads scarcely any thing but and before long a man of will be little better than mere walking catalogue my very good sir said the little ing most in my face excuse my interrupting you but i perceive you are rather given to prose i would ask the fate of an author who was making some noise just as i left the world his reputation however was considered quite temporary the learned shook their heads at him for he was a poor half educated that knew little of latin and nothing of greek and had been obliged to run the country for deer stealing i think his name was i presume he soon sunk into oblivion ou the contrary said i u it is owing to that very man that the literature of his period has experienced a duration beyond the ordinary term of english literature there rise authors now and ov literature then who seem proof against the of language because they have rooted themselves in the principles of human nature they are like gigantic trees that we sometimes see on the banks of a stream which by their vast and deep roots penetrating through the mere surface and laying hold on the very foundations of the earth preserve the soil around them from being swept away by the overflowing current and hold up many ft neighbouring plant and perhaps worthless weed to such is the case with whom we behold the of time retaining in modern use the language and literature of his day and giving duration to many an indifferent author merely from having flourished in his vicinity but even he i grieve to say is gradually assuming the tint of age and his whole form is by a profusion of who like vines and almost bury the noble plant that them here the little began to heave his sides and chuckle until at length he broke out in a fit of laughter that had well nigh choked him by reason of his excessive mighty well cried he as soon as he could recover breath mighty well and so you would persuade me that the literature of an age is to be by a vagabond deer by a man without learning q l the by a poet a poet v and here he forth another fit of laughter i confess that i felt somewhat at this which i ascribed to his having flourished in a less polished age i determined nevertheless not to give up my point yes i positively u a poet for of all writers he has the best chance for immortality others may write from the head but he writes from the heart and the heart will always understand him he is the faithful of nature whose features are always the same and always interesting prose writers are and then pages crowded with common places and thoughts expanded into but with the true poet every thing is touching of brilliant he gives the thoughts in the language he them by every thing that he sees most striking in nature and art he them by pictures of human life such as it is passing before him his writings therefore contain the spirit the if i may use the phrase of the age in which he lives they are which within a small compass the wealth of the language its family jewels which are thus in a form to posterity the setting may occasionally be and require now and then to be renewed as in the case of of literature but the brilliancy and value of the gems continue cast a look back over the long reach of literary history what vast valleys of filled with legends and what of speculations what dreary of here and there only do we behold the heaven elevated like on their widely separated heights to the pure light of poetical intelligence from age to age i was just about to forth into upon the poets of the day when the sudden opening of the door caused me to turn my head it was the who came to inform me that it was time to close the library i sought to have a parting word with the but the worthy little earth and waters the pen by skill doth and the abuse and shoes us in a the and the vice of every the honey comb that bee doth make is not so in as are the golden that drops from poets head which doth our common as as doth lead churchyard the of literature was silent the were closed and it looked perfectly unconscious of all that had passed i have been to the library two or three times since and endeavoured to draw it into farther conversation but in vain whether all this rambling actually took place or whether it was another of those odd day dreams to which i am subject i have never to this moment been able to discover rural vol i rural here s a few flowers but about more the that have on them cold dew o the night are for graves	48
you were as flowers now withered so these lets shall which we upon you among the beautiful and simple hearted customs of rural life which still linger in some parts of england are those of flowers before the and planting them at the graves of departed friends these it is said are the remains of some of the rites of the primitive church but they are of still higher antiquity having been observed among the and and frequently mentioned by their writers and were no doubt the spontaneous of affection long before art had itself to sorrow into song or story it on the monument they are now only to be met with in the most distant and retired places of the kingdom where q fashion and hate not been able to in and out all the curious and interesting traces of the time in we are told the bed whereon the corpse lies is covered with flowers a custom alluded to in one of the wild and plaintive white his as the mountain snow all with sweet flowers which be wept to the grave did go with true love showers there is also a most delicate and beautiful observed in some of the remote villages of the south at the funeral of a female who has died young and unmarried a of white flowers is borne before the corpse by a young girl nearest age resemblance and is afterwards up m the church over the accustomed seat of the deceased these are sometimes made of white paper in imitation of flowers and inside pf them is generally a pair of white gloves they are intended as of the purity of the deceased and the crown of glory which she has received in in some parts of the country also the dead are carried to the grave with the singing of and hymns a kind of triumph to show says that they hate be their h joy and are become this te formed is observed in some of the northern ties particularly in and it has a pleasing though melancholy effect to hear of a still evening in some lonely country scene the mournful melody of a funeral swelling from a distance and to see the train slowly moving along the landscape thus thus and tl us a we compass round thy and ground and as we sing thy we will the and other flowers upon the altar of our love stone there is also a solemn respect paid by the traveller to the passing funeral in these places for such spectacles among the quiet of nature sink deep into the soul as the mourning train approaches he pauses uncovered to let it go by he then follows silently in the rear sometimes quite to the grave at other times for a few hundred yards and having paid mis tribute of respect to the deceased turns and his journey the rich vein of melancholy runs through the english character and gives it of its most touching and graces is finely in these pathetic customs and in the solicitude shown by the common people for an honoured and a peaceful grave the pe whatever may be his lowly lot while living is that some little respect may be paid to his remains sir thomas describing the and happy thus lives she and all her care is that she may die in the spring time to have store of flowers upon her winding sheet the poets too who always breathe the feeling of a nation continually to this fond solicitude about the grave in the maid s tragedy by arid there is a beautiful instance of the kind describing the capricious melancholy of a broken hearted girl when the a bank stuck full of flower s she with a sigh will tell her servants what a pretty place it were to bury lovers in and make her maids em and her over like a the custom of graves was once universally were carefully bent over to keep the turf and about them were planted and flowers we adorn their graves says in his with flowers and plants just of the l life c man which been compared in holy to those fading beauties whose roots being busied in rise again in glory this usage has now become extremely rare in england but it may still be met with in the church yards of retired villages among the mountains and i recollect an instance of it at the small town of which lies at the head of the beautiful of i have been told also by a friend who was present at the funeral of a young girl in that the female attendants had their full of flowers which as soon as the body was they stuck about the grave he noticed several graves which had been decorated in the same manner as the flowers had been merely stuck in the ground and not planted they had soon withered and might be seen in various states of decay some drooping others quite perished they were afterwards to be by and other which on some graves had grown to great and the tomb stones there was formerly a melancholy in the arrangement of these rustic th t something in it truly poetical the rose was some times blended with the lily to form a general emblem of frail this sweet flower says borne on a branch set with thorns q rural and accompanied with the lily are natural hi m of our fugitive anxious and life which making so fair a for a time is not yet without its thorns and crosses the nature and colour of the flowers and of the with which they were tied had often a particular reference to the qualities or story of deceased or were expressive of the feelings of the in an old poem entitled f s a lover the he	48
was the companion of our most retired walks and gave animation to every lonely scene his idea is associated with every charm of nature we hear his voice in the echo which he once delighted to awaken bis spirit rural haunts every grove which he once we think of him in the wild solitude or amidst the pensive beauty of the valley in the freshness of joyous morning we remember his smiles end bounding and when sober evening returns with its gathering shadows and quiet call to mind many a twilight hour of gentle talk and sweet melancholy each lonely place shall him restore for him the tear be duly shed beloved till life can charm no more and d till pity s self be dead another cause that the memory of the deceased in the country is that the grave is more immediately in sight of the they pass it on their way to prayer it meets their eyes when their hearts are softened by the exercises of devotion they linger about it on the sabbath when the mind is disengaged from worldly cares and most disposed to turn aside from present pleasures and present loves and to sit down among the solemn of the past in north wales the kneel and pray over the graves of their deceased friends for several sundays after the and where the tender of and planting flowers is still practised it is always renewed on and other when the season brings the companion of former more vividly to mind it is also invariably performed by the nearest relatives and friends no nor are employed and if a neighbour assistance it would be deemed an insult to offer compensation i have dwelt upon this beautiful rural custom because as it is one of the last so is it one of the offices of love the grave is the ordeal of true affection it is there that the divine passion of the soul its superiority to the instinctive impulse of mere animal attachment the latter must be continually refreshed and kept alive by the presence of its object but the love that is seated in the soul can live on long remembrance the mere inclinations of sense and decline with the charms which excited them and turn with shuddering disgust from the dismal of the tomb but it is thence that truly spiritual affection rises from every desire and returns like a holy flame to and the heart of the the sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we refuse to be every other wound we seek to heal every other affliction to forget but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open this affliction we cherish and brood over in solitude where is the mother who would willingly forget the infant that perished like a blossom from her arms though every recollection is a pang where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of parents though to remember be but to lament i who even in the hour of agony would forget the friend over whom he who even when the tomb is closing upon the remains of her he most loved when he feels his heart as it were crushed in the closing of its would accept of consolation that must be bought by forgetfulness f no the love which the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul if it has its woes it has likewise its delights and when the overwhelming burst of grief is into the gentle tear of recollection when the sudden an and the agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness who would root out such a sorrow from the heart though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom yet who would exchange it even for the song of pleasure or the burst of no there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song there is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn even from the charms of the living oh the grave the grave it every error covers rural every defect every resentment from its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections who can look down upon the grave even of an enemy and not feel a throb that he should ever have with the poor handful of earth that lies before him but the grave of those we loved what a place for meditation there it is that we call up in long review the whole history of virtue and gentleness and the thousand upon us almost in the daily intercourse of intimacy there it is that we dwell upon the tenderness the solemn awful tenderness of the parting scene the bed of death with all its stifled its noiseless attendance its mute watchful the last of love the feeble fluttering thrilling oh how thrilling pressure of the hand the last fond look of the eye turning upon us even from the threshold of existence the faint faltering accents struggling in death to give one more assurance of affection aye go to the grave of buried love and there settle the account with thy conscience for every past benefit every past of that departed being who vol i r rural can never never never return to be soothed by thy if thou art a child and hast ever added a sorrow to the soul or a to the brow of an affectionate parent if thou art a husband and hast ever caused the fond bosom that ventured its whole happiness in thy arms to doubt one moment of thy kindness or thy truth	48
if thou art a friend and hast ever wronged in thought or word or deed the spirit that generously confided in thee if thou art a lover and hast ever given one pang to that true heart which now lies cold and still beneath thy feet then be sure that every unkind look every word every action will come back upon thy memory and knock ing at thy soul then be sure that thou wilt lie down and on the grave and utter the unheard groan and pour the tear more deep more bitter because unheard and then thy of flowers and the beauties of nature about the grave console thy broken spirit if thou with these tender yet futile of regret but take warning by the bitterness of this thy affliction over the dead and henceforth be more faithful and affectionate in the discharge of thy duties to the living in writing the preceding article it was not intended to give a full detail of the funeral customs of the english but merely to furnish a few hints and of particular rites to be by way of note to another paper which has been withheld the article swelled into its present form and this is mentioned as an apology for so brief and casual a notice of these after they have been amply and in other works i must observe also that i am well aware that this custom of graves with flowers in other countries besides england indeed in some it is much more general and is observed even by the rich and fashionable but it is then apt to lose its simplicity and to into affectation bright in his travels in lower tells of monuments of marble and recesses formed for retirement with seats placed among of plants and that the graves generally are covered with the flowers of the season he gives a casual picture of filial piety which i cannot but describe for i trust it is as useful as it is delightful to illustrate the amiable virtues of the sex when i was at says he i followed the celebrated to the grave mingled with some pomp you might trace much r g real feeling in the midst of the ceremony my attention was attracted by a young woman who stood on a mound of earth newly covered with turf which she anxiously protected from the feet of the passing crowd it was the tomb of her parent and the figure of this affectionate daughter presented a monument more striking than the most costly work of art i will barely add an instance of that i once met with among the mountains of it was at the village of which stands on the borders of the lake of at the foot of mount it was once the capital of a miniature republic shut up between the and the lake and accessible on the land side only by foot paths the whole force of the republic did not exceed six hundred fighting men and a few miles of out as it were from the bosom of the mountains its territory the village of seemed separated from the rest of the world and retained the golden simplicity of a purer age it had a small church with a burying ground adjoining at the heads of the graves were placed crosses of wood or iron on some were rudely executed but evidently attempts at of the deceased on the crosses were hung of flowers some withering others fresh as if renewed i paused with interest at this scene i felt that i was at the source of poetical description for these were the beautiful but unaffected of the heart which poets are fain to record in a and more place i should have suspected them to have been suggested by sentiment derived from books but the good people of knew little of books there was not a novel nor a love poem in the village and i question whether any peasant of the place while he was a fresh for the grave of his mistress that he was one of the most fanciful rites of poetical devotion and that he was practically a poet r the inn kitchen r the inn kitchen shall i take mine ease iu mine inn during a journey that i once made through the i had arrived one evening at the d or the principal inn of a small village it was after the hour of the table te so that i was obliged to make a solitary supper from the of its board the weather was chilly i was seated alone in one end of a great gloomy dining room and my being over i had the prospect before me of a long dull evening without any visible means of it i summoned mine host and requested something to read he brought me the whole literary stock of the inn kitchen his household a dutch family bible an in the same language and a number of old paris newspapers as i sat over one of the latter reading old news and stale my ear was now and then struck with bursts of laughter which seemed to proceed from the kitchen every one that has travelled on the continent must know how favourite a resort the kitchen of a country inn is to the middle and inferior order of travellers particularly in that kind of weather when a fire becomes agreeable toward evening i threw aside the newspaper and my way to the kitchen to take a peep at the group that appeared to be so merry it was composed partly of travellers who had arrived some hours before in a diligence and partly of the usual attendants and on of they were seated round a great stove that might have been mistaken for an altar at which they were it was covered with various kitchen vessels of	48
brightness among which and a huge copper tea kettle a large lamp threw a strong mass of light upon the group bringing out many odd features in strong relief its yellow rays partially the spacious kitchen dying away into remote corners except where they settled in mellow radiance on the broad side of a of bacon or were the inn kitchen reflected back from well that gleamed from the midst of obscurity a with long golden in her ears and a with a golden heart suspended to it was the of the temple many of the company were furnished with pipes and most of them with some kind of evening i found their mirth was occasioned by which a little frenchman with a dry face and large whiskers was giving of his love adventures at the end of each of which there was one of those bursts of honest laughter in which a man indulged in that temple of true liberty an as i bad no better mode of getting through a tedious evening i took my seat near the stove and listened to a variety of travellers tales some very extravagant and most very dull all of them however have faded from my treacherous memory except one which endeavour to relate i fear however it derived its chief zest from the manner in which it was told and the peculiar air and appearance of the he was a old who had the look of a traveller he was dressed in a green travelling jacket with a broad belt round his waist and a pair of with buttons from the to the ankles he was of a full the inn kitchen with a double chin nose and a pleasant twinkling eye his hair was light and curled from under an old green velvet travelling cap stuck on one side of his head he was interrupted more than once by the arrival of guests or the remarks of his and paused now and then to his pipe at which times he had generally a and a sly joke for the kitchen maid i wish my reader could imagine the old fellow in a huge arm chair one arm a the other holding a curiously twisted tobacco pipe formed of genuine de decorated with silver chain and silken his head cocked on one side and a cut of the eye occasionally as he related the following story the bridegroom a traveller s tale he that supper for is he full cold i this to chamber i him led this gray steel has made his bed sir sir and sir gray steel on the summit of one of the heights of the a wild and romantic tract of upper germany that lies not far from the of the and the there stood many many years since the castle of the baron von it is now quite fallen to decay and almost buried among trees and dark above which the reader well in good for nothing lore will perceive that the above tale must have been suggested to the old by a little french anecdote of a circumstance said to have taken place at paris the bridegroom however its old watch tower may still be seen struggling like the former possessor i have mentioned to carry a high head and look down upon the neighbouring country the baron was a dry branch of the great family of and inherited the of the property and all the pride of his ancestors though the warlike disposition of his had much the family possessions yet the baron still endeavoured to keep up some show of former state the times were and the german in general had abandoned their inconvenient old castles perched like nests among the mountains and had built more convenient in the valleys still the baron remained proudly drawn up in his little fortress with hereditary all the old family so that he was on ill terms with some of his nearest neighbours on account of that had happened between their great great the baron had but one child a daughter but nature when she but one child always by making it a and so it was i c cats elbow the name of a family of those parts very powerful in former times the we are told was given in compliment to a dame of the family celebrated for a fine arm the bridegroom with the daughter of the baron all the nurses and country cousins assured her father that she had not her equal for beauty in all germany and who should know better than they she had moreover been brought up with great care under the of two maiden who had spent some years of their early life at one of the little german courts and were skilled in all the branches of knowledge necessary to the education of a fine lady under their instructions she became a miracle of accomplishments by the time she was eighteen she could to admiration and had worked whole histories of the saints in with such strength of expression in their countenances that they looked like so many souls in she could read without great difficulty and had her way through several church legends and almost all the wonders of the she had even made considerable in writing could sign her own name without missing a letter and so that her could read it without spectacles she in making little elegant good lady like nick of all kinds was in the most dancing of the day played a number of airs on the harp and and knew all the tender of the by heart the bridegroom her too having been great and in their younger days were admirably calculated to be and strict of the conduct of their niece for there is no so rigidly prudent and as a she was rarely out of their sight never went beyond the of the castle unless well	48
attended or rather well watched had continual lectures read to her about strict decorum and obedience and as to the men she was taught to hold them at such distance and in such absolute distrust that unless properly she would not have cast a glance upon the in the world no not if he were even dying at her feet the good effects of this system were wonderfully apparent the young lady was a pattern of and others were wasting their sweetness in the glare of the world and liable to be plucked and thrown aside by every hand she was blooming into fresh and lovely womanhood under the protection of those like a rose bud blushing forth among guardian thorns her looked upon her with pride and exultation and that though all the other young ladies in the world might go astray yet thank heaven nothing of the kind could happen to the of the bridegroom but however the baron von land short might be provided with children his household was by no means a small one for providence had enriched him with abundance of poor relations they one and all possessed the affectionate disposition common to humble relatives were wonderfully attached to the baron and took every possible occasion to come in and the castle all family were by these good people at the baron s expense and when they were filled with good cheer they would declare that there was nothing on earth so delightful as these family meetings these of the heart the baron though a small man had a large soul and it swelled with satisfaction at the consciousness of being the greatest man in the little world about him he loved to tell long stories about the old warriors whose portraits looked grimly down from the walls around and he found no listeners equal to those who fed at his expense he was much given to the marvellous and a firm in all those supernatural tales with which every mountain and valley in germany the faith of his guests exceeded even his own they listened to every tale of wonder with open eyes and mouth and never failed to be astonished even though repeated for the time vol i s m b k thus lived the baron von la the of his table the absolute monarch of fair territory and happy above all in the that he was the wisest man of the age at the time of which my story treats there was great family at the on of the utmost importance it was to receive the destined bridegroom of the s daughter a had been carried on between father and an old nobleman of to unite the dignity of their by the marriage of their children the had been conducted with proper the young people without seeing each other and the time w s appointed for d e marriage ceremony the young count von had been recalled from the army for the purpose and was actually on his way to the baron s to receive his bride had even been received from him from where he was accidentally detained mentioning the day and hour when he might be expected to arrive the castle was in a tumult of give him a suitable welcome the fair bride had been out with uncommon care the two had her toilet and quarrelled the whole morning about every article of her dress the young lady had taken advantage of their con the test to follow the bent of her own taste and it was a good one she looked as lovely as youthful bridegroom could desire and the flutter of expectation heightened the lustre of her charm the that her face and the gentle heaving of the bosom the eye now and then lost in reverie all betrayed the soft tumult that was going on in her little heart the were continually hovering around her for maiden are apt to take great interest in affairs of this nature they were giving her a world of staid counsel how to herself what to ay and in what manner to receive the expected later the baron was no less busied in preparations he had in truth nothing exactly to do but he was naturally a bustling little man and could not remain passive when all the world was in a hurry he worried from top to bottom tf the castle with an air of infinite anxiety he called the servants from their work to e them to be and about hall and chamber as idly restless and as a blue bottle fly on a warm summer s day in the mean time the calf had been killed the forests had rung with the of the the kitchen was crowded with good cheer she had yielded up whole of the and and even the great had been laid under contribution every thing was ready to receive the distinguished guest with und in the true spirit of german hospitality but the guest delayed to make his appearance hour rolled after hour the sun that had poured his downward rays upon the rich forests of the now just gleamed along the of the mountains the baron mounted the highest tower and strained his eyes in hopes of catching a distant sight of the count and his attendants once he thought he beheld them the sound of horns came floating from the valley prolonged by the mountain echoes a number of were seen far below slowly advancing along the road but when they had nearly reached the foot of the mountain they suddenly struck off in a different direction the last ray of sunshine departed the began to by in the twilight the road grew and to the view and nothing appeared stirring in it but now and then a peasant homeward from his labour while the old castle of was in	48
this state of perplexity a very interesting scene was in a different part of the the young count von was pursuing his route in that sober trot way ia the which a man travels toward matrimony when his friends have taken all the trouble and uncertainty of courtship off his hands and a bride is waiting for him as certainly as a dinner at the end of his journey he had encountered at a youthful companion in arms with whom he had seen some service on the von one of the hands and hearts of german chivalry who was now returning from the army his father s castle was not far distant from the old fortress of although an hereditary rendered the families hostile and strangers to each other in the warm hearted moment of recognition the young friends related all their past adventures and fortunes and the count gave the whole his intended with a young lady whom he had never seen but of whose charms he had received the most descriptions as the route of the friends lay in the same direction they agreed to perform the rest of their together and that they might do it the more leisurely set off from at an early hour the count having given directions for his to follow and overtake him they their with recollections of their military scenes and adventures but the count was apt to be a little tedious now and then s the about the charms of his bride and pity that awaited him in this way they had entered among the moon of die and were one of its most lonely and thickly wooded passes it ii well known that the forests of germany have al ways been as much by robbers as its castles by and at this time the former were particularly numerous from the of soldiers wandering about the country it will not appear y therefore that the were attacked by a gang of these in the depth of the forest they defended themselves with bravery but were nearly overpowered when the count s arrived to their assistance at sight of them the robbers fled but not until the count had received a mortal wound he was slowly and carefully conveyed back to the city of and a summoned from a neighbouring who was famous for his skill in to both soul and body but half of his skill was superfluous the moments of the unfortunate count were numbered with his dying breath he entreated his friend to repair instantly to the castle of add explain the fatal of his not keeping his appointment with his bride though not the most ardent of he was one of the most of the n p and appeared earnestly that mission should be speedily and courteously executed unless this is done said he i shall not sleep quietly in my grave he repeated these last words with peculiar solemnity a request at a moment so impressive admitted no hesitation endeavoured to soothe him to calmness promised faithfully to execute his wish ana gave him hi band in solemn pledge the dying man pressed it in acknowledgment but soon into about his engagement bis word ordered his horse that he might ride to the castle of and expired in the fancied act of into the saddle bestowed a sigh and a soldier s tear ok the fate of his comrade j and then pondered on the awkward mission he had undertaken his heart was heavy and his head perplexed for he was to present himself an among hostile people and to damp their with tidings fatal to their hopes still there were certain of curiosity in his to see this far beauty of so cautiously shut up from the world for he was a passionate admirer of the sex and there was a dash of and enterprise in his character that made him fond of all singular adventure previous to his departure he made all due with the holy of the for the funeral of his friend who was to be buried in the cathedral of near some of his illustrious relatives and the mourning of the count took charge of his remains it is now high time that we should return to the ancient family of who were impatient for their guest and still more for their near and to the worthy little baron whom we left himself on the watch tower night closed in but still no guest arrived the baron descended from the tower in despair the banquet which had been delayed from hour to hour could no longer be postponed the were already the cook in an agony and the whole household had the look of a that had been reduced by famine the was obliged reluctantly to give orders for the without the presence of the guest all were seated at table and just on the point of when the sound of a horn from without the gate gave notice of the approach of a stranger another g blast filled the old courts of the castle with its echoes and was answered by the from the walls the baron hastened to receive his future son in law the had been let down and the was before the gate he was a tall gallant the bridegroom mounted on a black his was pale but he had a beaming romantic eye and an air of stately melancholy the baron was a little that he should have come in this simple solitary style his dignity for a mo ment was ruffled and he felt disposed to consider it a want of proper respect for the important occasion and the important family with which he was to be connected he however himself with the conclusion that it must have been youthful impatience which had induced him thus to spur on sooner man his attendants lam sorry said the stranger to break in upon yon thus	48
j here the baron interrupted him with a world of compliments and greetings for to tell the truth he himself upon his courtesy and his eloquence the stranger attempted once or twice to stem the torrent of words but in vain so he bowed his head and suffered it to flow on by the time the baron had come to a pause they had reached the inner court of the castle and the stranger was again about to speak when he was once more interrupted by the appearance of the female part of the family leading forth the shrinking and blushing bride he gazed on her for a moment as one it seemed as if his whole soul beamed forth in the gaze and rested the bridegroom upon that lovely form one of die maiden whispered something in her ear she made on effort to speak her moist blue eye was timidly raised gave a shy glance of inquiry on the stranger and was cast again to the ground the words died away but there was a sweet smile playing about her lips and a soft of the cheek that showed her glance had not been unsatisfactory it was impossible for a girl of die fond age of eighteen highly for love and not to be pleased with so gallant a the late hour at which the guest had arrived left no time for the baron was and deferred all particular conversation i until the morning and led the way to the banquet it was served up in the great ball of the castle around the walls hung the hard favoured portraits of the heroes of the house of and the which they had gained in the field and in the chase and tattered were mingled with the spoils of warfare the jaw f the wolf and the of the grinned horribly among cross bows and battle and a huge pair of accidentally over the head of the youthful bridegroom the took but little notice of the com tire b bo m or the entertainment he scarcely tasted the banquet bat seemed absorbed in admiration df his bride he converted in a low tone that could not be overheard for the language of tore loud but where is the female ear so that it cannot catch the whisper of the lover there was a mingled tenderness and gravity a his manner that appeared to hate a powerful effect the young lady her colour came and went as she listened with deep attention now and then she made some blushing reply and when has eye was turned away she would steal a side long glance at his romantic countenance and heave a gentle sigh of tender happiness it was evident that the young couple were completely the who were deeply in the ms of the heart declared that they had fallen in with each other at first sight the feast went on merrily or at least the guests were all blessed with those keen that attend upon light and mountain air the baron told his best ami longest and never had he told them so or with such great effect if there was any thing marvellous his were lost in astonishment and if any thing they were sure to laugh exactly in the right place the baron it is most great men was too dignified to utter any joke but the bridegroom a dull one it was always enforced however by a of excellent and even a dull joke at one s own table served up with jolly old wine is irresistible many good things were said by poorer and wits that would not bear repeating except on similar occasions many sly speeches whispered in ladies ears that almost them with suppressed laughter and a song or two roared out by a poor but merry and broad faced cousin of the baron that absolutely made the maiden hold up their amidst all this the stranger guest maintained a most singular and gravity his countenance assumed a deeper cast of as the evening advanced and strange as it may appear even the baron s jokes seemed only to render him the more melancholy at times he was lost in thought and at times there was a and restless wandering of the eye that a mind but ill at ease his conversations with the bride became more and more earnest and mysterious clouds began to steal over the fair serenity of her brow and to run through her tender frame all this could not escape the notice of the company their was chilled by the unaccountable gloom of the bridegroom their spirits were whispers and glances were the bridegroom q accompanied by and shakes of the head the song and the laugh grew less and frequent there were dreary pauses in the tion which were at length succeeded by wild tales and supernatural legends one dismal story produced another still more dismal and the baron nearly frightened some of the ladies into hy stories with the history of the that car away the fair a dreadful but true story which has since been put into excellent verse and is read and believed by all the world the bridegroom listened to this tale with profound attention he kept his eyes steadily on the baron and as the story drew to a close began gradually to rise from his seat growing taller and taller until in the baron s eye he seemed almost to tower into a giant the moment the tale was finished he heaved a deep sigh and took a solemn farewell of the company were all amazement the baron was perfectly what going to leave the castle at midnight f why everything was prepared for his reception a chamber was ready for him if he wished to retire the stranger shook his head mournfully and mysteriously i must lay my head in a different chamber d tm	48
was something in this reply ht which it was uttered that made the heart him but he his his hospitable entreaties the strange shook his head silently but positively at y and waving his farewell to the company stalked slowly out of the the maiden the bride hung her head and a tear stole to her eye the baron followed die stranger to the great court of the castle where the stood the earth and with when they had the whose deep was dimly lighted by a he strange paused and addressed die baron in a of voice which the roof rendered still now that we are alone said he i will impart to you the reason of my going t hare a solemn an indispensable engagement why the baron you send some one in your place i it admits of no i must attend it must away to cathedral aye said the baron up spirit not until to morrow to morrow you shall bride there no not replied the stronger with solemnity my engagement is with d t ft the worms expect me i am a dead mm jl have been slain by robbers my body lies at at midnight i am to be buried the grave is waiting for i must my appointment he sprang on his black dashed over the and the of his horse s were lost in the whistling of the night blast the baron returned to the hall in the utmost consternation and related what had passed two ladies fainted outright others at the idea of having with a it was the of some that this might be the wild famous in german legend some talked of mountain of wood and of other beings with which the good people of germany have been so harassed since time one of the poor relations ventured to suggest that it might be some of the young and that the very of the caprice seemed to accord with so melancholy a personage this however drew on him the indignation of the whole company and especially of the baron who looked upon him as little better than an so that he was fain to his as speedily as possible and come into die faith of the true but whatever may have been the doubts enter hb re tamed they were completely put to an end by the arrival next day of regular the intelligence of the young count s murder and his in cathedral the dismay at the castle may well be imagined the baron shut himself up in his chamber the guests who had come to rejoice with him could not think of him in his distress they wandered about the courts or collected in in the hall shaking their heads and their shoulders at the troubles of so good a man and sat longer than ever at table and ate and drank more stoutly than ever by way of keeping up their spirits but the situation of the bride was the most pitiable to have lost husband before she had even embraced and a husband if the very could be so gracious and noble what must have been the living she filled the house with on the might of the second day of her hood she had retired to her chamber accompanied by one of her who insisted on sleeping with hen the aunt who was one of the best of ghost stories in all germany had just been r one of her longest and had fallen asleep in the very midst of it the chamber was remote and overlooked a small garden the niece gazing at the of the rising the s they trembled on the leaves of sin tree before the the castle clock had just midnight when a soft strain of music stole up from the garden she rose hastily from her bed f and stepped lightly to the window a tall figure stood among the shadows of the trees as it raised its head a beam of moonlight fell upon the countenance heaven and earth she beheld the bridegroom a loud shriek at that mo ment burst upon her ear and her aunt who been awakened by the music and had followed her silently to the window fell into her arms when he looked again the had disappeared of the two females the aunt now required the most soothing for she was perfectly beside herself with terror as to the young lady there something even in the of her lover that seemed there was still the semblance of manly beauty and though the shadow of a man is but little calculated to satisfy the affections of h love sick girl yet where the substance is not to be had even that is the aunt de she would never sleep in that chamber again the niece for once was and declared as strongly that she would sleep in no other in the castle the consequence was that she had to sleep in it alone but she drew a promise from her aunt not to relate the story of the lest vol i t the bridegroom should he denied the only melancholy pleasure left her on earth that of the chamber over which the guardian shade of her lover kept its nightly how long the good old lady would have observed this promise is uncertain for she dearly loved to talk of the marvellous and there is a in being the first to tell a frightful story it is however still quoted in the neighbourhood as a memorable instance of female secrecy that she kept it to herself for a whole week when she was suddenly from all further restraint by in brought to the breakfast table one ing that the young lady was not to be found her room was empty the bed had not been slept iii the	48
window was open and the bird had flown the astonishment and concern with which the intelligence was received can only be imagined by those who have witnessed the agitation which the of a great man cause among his friends even the poor relations paused for a moment from the labours of the when the aunt who had at first been struck speechless wrung her hands and shrieked out the the she s carried away by the in a few words she related the fearful scene of the garden and concluded that the must have carried off his bride v two of the the bridegroom the opinion for they had heard the of a horse s hoofs down the mountain about midnight and had no doubt that it was the on his black bearing her away to the tomb all present were struck with the probability for events of the kind are extremely common in germany as many well histories bear witness what a lamentable situation was that of the poor baron what a heart for a fond father and a member of the great family of k his only daughter had either been away to the grave or he was to have some for a son in law and perchance a troop of grand children as usual he was completely bewildered and all the castle in an uproar the men were ordered to take horse and every road and path and of the the baron himself had just drawn on his on his sword and was about to mount his to sally forth on the doubtful t when he was brought to a pause by a new apparition a lady was seen approaching the mounted on a attended by a on horseback she galloped up to the gate sprang from her horse and falling at the baron s fee embraced bis knees it was his lost daughter and her companion the bridegroom the t the was astounded he looked at us daughter then at the and almost doubted the ev of his senses the latter too was wonder improved in his appearance since his visit w the world of spirits his dress was splendid and set off a noble figure of manly hie ho longer pale and melancholy his fine counter was flushed with the glow of youth in his large dark eye the mystery was soon cleared up in truth as you must have known all th white be was no announced s si von he related his r a venture with the young count he told had hastened to the castle to deliver the unwelcome tidings but that the eloquence of the baron bad interrupted him in every attempt to tell his how the of the bride had completely him and that to pass a few s a ar her he had suffered the mistake to how he had been sorely perplexed in what wa to make a decent retreat until the baron stories had suggested his eccentric exit v fearing the hostility of the he had repeated his visits by had haunted th garden beneath the young lady s window d had had borne a aj jo and in a word had wedded the fair any other circumstances the baron would have been for he was of authority and devoutly obstinate in all but he loved his daughter he had lamented her as lost he rejoiced to find her still alive and though her husband was of a hostile house yet thank heaven he was not a there was something it must be acknowledged that did not exactly accord with his notions of strict in the joke the knight had passed upon him of his being a dead man but several old friends present who had served in the wars assured him that every was in love and that the wa entitled to especial privilege having lately served as a matters therefore were happily arranged the baron the young couple on the spot the at the castle were resumed the poor relations overwhelmed this new member of the family with loving kindness he was so gallant so generous and so rich the it is true somewhat that their system of strict seclusion and passive obedience should be so badly but attributed it all to their in not having the windows one of them was particularly at having her marvellous story and that the only t thb bridegroom she had ever seen should turn out a but the niece seemed perfectly happy at having found him substantial flesh and blood and so the story ends westminster abbey t u westminster abbey when i behold with deep astonishment to famous westminster how there living in or the princes and the of all not i see without contempt or pride or and upon majesty naked of or earthly and how a play game of a painted stone contents the quiet now and silent all the world which late they stood upon could not content nor their life is a frost of cold and death the of all our s by t b on one of those sober and rather melancholy days in the latter part of autumn when the shadows of morning and evening almost mingle together and throw a gloom over the decline of the year i passed several hours in rambling about westminster abbey there was something congenial to the season in the mournful magnificence of the old pile and as i passed its threshold it seemed stepping back into the regions of antiquity westminster abbey and losing myself among the shades of farmer ages i entered from the inner court of westminster school through a long low passage that had an almost look being dimly lighted in one part by circular in the walls through this dark avenue i had a distant view of the rs with the of an old in his black	48
gown moving along their shadowy and seeming like a from one of the neighbouring the approach to the abbey through these gloomy remains the mind for its solemn contemplation the still retain something of the quiet and seclusion of former days the grey walls are by and crumbling with age a coat of moss has gathered over the of the monuments and obscured the death s heads and other the harp touches of the are gone from the rich of the arches the roses which adorned the key stones have lost their leafy beauty every thing bears marks of the gradual of time which yet has something touching and pleasing in its very decay the sun was pouring down a yellow ray into the square of the beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in the and lighting westminster abbey fi up an angle of the passage with a kind of dusty splendour from between the the eye glanced up to a bit of blue sky or a passing cloud and beheld the sun gilt of the abbey towering into the heaven as i paced the sometimes contemplating this mingled picture of glory and decay and sometimes endeavouring to the on the which formed t ie pavement beneath my feet my eye was attracted to three figures rudely carved in relief but nearly worn away by the footsteps of many generations they were the of three of the early the were entirely the names alone remained having no doubt been renewed in times and and i remained some little while musing over these casual of antiquity thus left like upon this distant shore of time telling no tale but that such beings had been and had perished teaching no moral but the of that pride which hopes still to exact homage in its ashes and to live in an inscription a little longer and even these faint will be and the monument will cease to be a memorial whilst i was yet looking down upon these i was roused by the sound of the abbey abbey dock from to ad echoing among the it is almost ling to hear this warning of departed time ing the and telling the lapse of the hour which like a has rolled us onward towards the grave i pursued my walk to an arched door opening to the interior of die abbey on entering here the magnitude of the building breaks fully upon the mind contrasted with the of the the eye with wonder at clustered column of gigantic dimensions with arches springing from hem to such an amazing height and man wandering about their basis shrunk into in comparison with his own the and gloom of this vast edifice pro a profound and mysterious awe we step cautiously and softly about as if fearful of disturbing the silence of the tomb while every whispers along the walls and among the making us more sensible of the quiet we have interrupted it seems as if the awful nature of the place presses down upon the soul and the b e into noiseless reverence we feel that we are surrounded by the bones of the great men of past times who have filled history their deeds and the earth with their w r ft abbey a a it almost a smile at the vanity of hu n ambition to see how they are crowded together and in he dust what in out a scanty nook a gloomy a little portion of earth to those whom when alive could not satisfy and how shapes j and forms had ace catch the casual notice of the and w from forgetfulness for a few years ft h once to occupy ages of the world s thought and admiration v some time in poet s which an end one of the or of the abbey the monuments are simple for the lives of literary men no striking theme a for the and have statues erected to their ri s but the greater part have sometimes mere inscription notwithstanding simplicity of these have always observed that the visitors to the abbey longest about them a kinder and feeling takes place of that cold curiosity or n with which they gaze on the splendid of the great and the heroic they linger about these as about the of friends and c for indeed there is ng of ip between the author and the westminster abbey other men are known to posterity only tbe medium of history which is continually growing faint and obscure but the intercourse between the author and his fellow men is ever new active and immediate he has lived for them than for himself he has sacrificed surrounding and shut himself up from the delights of social life that he might the more intimately with distant minds and distant ages well may the world cherish his renown for it has been purchased not by deeds of violence and blood but by the of pleasure well may posterity be grateful to his memory for hfe has left it an inheritance not of empty names and sounding actions but whole treasures of bright gems of thought and golden veins of language from poet s corner i continued my stroll towards that part of the abbey which contains of the kings i wandered among what once were but which are now occupied by the and monuments of the great at every turn i met with some illustrious name or the of some powerful house renowned in history as the eye into these dusky chambers of death it catches glimpses of quaint some kneeling in as if in devotion others stretched upon the with hands westminster s pressed together warriors in as if after battle with and and in robes and lying as it were in state in glancing over this scene so strangely pen yet where every form is so still and silent it seems almost as if	48
we were treading a mansion of that city where every being had been into stone i paused to contemplate a tomb on which lay the of a knight in complete a large was on one arm the hands were pressed together in upon the breast the face was almost covered by the the legs were crossed in token of the warrior s having been engaged in the holy war it was the tomb of a era of one of those military who so strangely mingled religion and romance and exploits form the connecting link between fact and fiction between the history and the fairy tale there is something extremely picturesque in the of these decorated as they are with rude bearings and they with the in which they are generally found and in considering them the imagination is apt to with the associations the romantic the pomp and which poetry has spread over the wars for the of christ they are ths of times utterly gone by of beings from recollection of customs and with out s have no they are like from some strange and distant land of which have no certain knowledge and about which ah our are vague and visionary there is something extremely solemn and awful in those on extended as if in the sleep of death or in the of the dying hour they have an effect infinitely more impressive on lay feelings than the fanciful attitudes the over wrought and groups which abound on modern monuments i have been struck also with the superiority of many of the old there was a noble way in former times of saying things simply and yet saying them proudly and i do not know an that breathes a consciousness of family worth and honourable than one which of a noble house that all the brothers were brave and all the sisters virtuous in the opposite to poet s corner stands a monument which is among the most renowned achievements of modern art but which to me appears horrible rather than sublime it is the tomb of mrs by the bottom of the monument is represented as throwing open its marble doors and a skeleton is starting westminster abbey forth the is falling from his frame as he his dart at his victim she is sinking into her husband s arms who with vain and frantic effort to the blow the whole is executed with terrible truth and spirit we almost fancy we hear the yell of triumph bursting from the jaws of the but why should we thus seek to clothe death with unnecessary terrors and to spread horrors round the tomb of those we love the grave should be surrounded by every thing that might inspire tenderness and veneration for the dead or that might win the living to virtue it is the place not of disgust and dismay but of row and meditation while wandering about these gloomy and silent studying the records of the dead the sound of busy existence from without occasionally reaches the ear the of the passing the murmur of the multitude or perhaps the light laugh of pleasure the contrast is striking with the repose around and it has a strange effect upon the feelings thus to hear the of active life hurrying along and beating against the very walls of the i continued in this way to move from tomb to tomb and from chapel to chapel the day was gradually wearing away the distant tread of u westminster abbey about the abbey grew less and less frequent the sun had poured his last ray through the lofty windows the sweet bell was to evening prayers and i saw at a distance the in their white crossing the aisle and entering the choir i stood before the entrance to henry the seventh s chapel a flight of steps leads up to it through a deep and gloomy but magnificent arch great gates of brass richly and delicately wrought turn heavily upon their hinges as if proudly reluctant to admit the feet of common mortals into this most gorgeous of on entering the eye is astonished by the pomp of architecture and the elaborate beauty of detail the very walls are wrought into universal ornament with and into crowded with the statues of saints and stone seems by the cunning labour of the to have been robbed of its weight and suspended aloft as if by magic and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful and airy security of a along the sides of the chapel are the lofty of the knights of the bath richly carved of oak though with the grotesque of architecture on the of the are the and of the knights with westminster abbey m their and swords and above them ate suspended their with bearings and the splendour of gold and purple and crimson with the cold grey of the roof in the midst of this grand stands the of its founder his with that of his queen extended on a tomb and the whole surrounded by a lofty and wrought there is a sad in this magnificence this strange mixture of and these of living and ambition close beside which show the dust and oblivion in which all must sooner or later nothing the mind with a deeper feeling of loneliness than to tread the silent and deserted scene of former throng and on looking round on the vacant of the knights and their and on the rows of dusty but gorgeous that were once borne before them my imagination up the scene when this hall was bright with the and beauty of the land glittering with the splendour of rank and military array alive with the tread of many feet and the hum of an admiring multitude all had passed away the silence of death had settled again upon the place interrupted only by the casual of birds which	48
had found their way into u westminster the chapel and built their nests among its and sure signs of and desertion when i read the names inscribed on the they were those of men scattered far and wide about the world some tossing upon distant seas some under arms in distant lands some mingling in the busy of courts and all seeking to deserve one more distinction in this mansion of shadowy honours the melancholy reward of a monument two small on each side of this chapel present a touching instance of the equality of the grave which brings down the to a level with the oppressed and the dust of the bitterest enemies together in one is the of the haughty elizabeth in the other is that of her victim the lovely and unfortunate mary not an hour in the day but some of pity is uttered over the fate of the latter mingled with indignation at her the walls of elizabeth s continually echo with the sighs of sympathy heaved at the grave of her rival a peculiar melancholy over the aisle where mary lies buried the light struggles dimly through windows darkened by dust the greater part of the place is in deep shadow and the walls are stained and tinted by time and weather a marble figure of mary is stretched upon the tomb westminster abbey round which is an iron railing much bearing her national emblem the i was weary with wandering and sat down to rest myself by the monument revolving in my mind the and disastrous story of poor mary the sound of casual footsteps had ceased from the abbey i only hear now and then the distant voice of the priest repeating the evening service and the faint of the choir these paused for a time and all was hushed the stillness the desertion and obscurity that were gradually prevailing around gave a deeper and more solemn interest to the place for in the silent grave no conversation no joyful tread of friends no voice no careful father s counsel nothing s heard for nothing is but all oblivion dust and an endless darkness suddenly the notes of the deep organ burst upon the ear falling with doubled and intensity and rolling as it were huge of sound how well do their volume and grandeur accord with this mighty building what pomp do they swell through its vast and breathe their awful harmony through these of death and make the silent and now they rise in triumphant heaving higher and higher their notes westminster abbey and sound on sound and now they and the soft voices of the choir break out into sweet of melody they aloft and along the roof and seem to play about these lofty like the pure airs of heaven again the organ its thrilling air into music and rolling it forth upon the what long drawn what solemn sweeping it grows more and more dense and powerful it fills die vast pile and seems to jar the very walls the ear is stunned the senses are overwhelmed and now it is winding up in full it is rising from the earth to heaven the very soul seems away and floated upwards on this swelling tide of harmony i sat for some time lost in that kind of reverie which a strain of music is apt sometimes to inspire the shadows of evening were gradually around me the monuments began to cast deeper and deeper gloom and the distant clock again gave token of the slowly day i rose and prepared to leave the abbey as i descended the flight of steps which lead into the body of the building my eye was caught by the shrine of edward the and i ascended the small staircase that to it to take from thence a general survey of this wilderness of the shrine is elevated upon a kind of platform westminster y q and close around it are the of various kings and queens from this eminence the eye looks down between pillars and funeral to the and chambers below crowded with where warriors and lie in their beds of darkness close by me stood the great chair of rudely carved of oak in the barbarous taste of a remote and age the scene seemed almost as if contrived with theatrical to produce an effect upon the here was a type of the b and the end of human pomp and power here it was literally but a step i from throne to the would not one think that these had been gathered together as a lesson to living greatness to it even in the moment of its exaltation the neglect and to which it must soon arrive how soon that crown which its brow must pass away and it must lie down in the dust and of the tomb and be trampled upon by the feet of the meanest of the multitude for strange to tell even the grave is here no longer a there is a shocking levity in some natures which leads them to sport with awful and things and here are base minds which delight to revenge on the illustrious dead the abject homage and which they pay to the living the coffin of abbey edward the has been broken open and his remains of their funeral ornaments the has been stolen from the hand of the imperious elizabeth and the of henry the fifth lies not a royal monument but bears some proof how false and fugitive is the homage of mankind some are some some covered with and insult all more or less outraged and the last beams of day were now faintly streaming through the painted windows in the high above me the lower parts of the abbey were already wrapped in the obscurity of twilight the and grew darker and	48
nd of course the feeling of indulgence which it produced i must now expect to bear the scrutiny of criticism and to be measured by the same standard with contemporary writers and the very favour which has been shown to my previous writings will cause these to be treated with the greater as there is nothing for which the world is apt to punish a man more severely than for having been over praised on this head therefore i wish to the of the reader and i entreat he will not think the worse of me for the many things that may have been said in my i am aware that i often travel over beaten ground and treat of subjects that have already been discussed by pens indeed various authors have been mentioned as my models to whom i should feel flattered if i thought i bore the slightest resemblance but in truth the author i write after no model that i am conscious of and i write with no idea of imitation or competition in venturing occasionally on topics that have already been almost exhausted by english authors i do it not with the presumption of a comparison but with the hope that some new interest may be given to such topics when discussed by the pen of a stranger if therefore i should sometimes be found dwelling with fondness on subjects that are and common placed with the reader i beg the circumstances under which i write may be kept in recollection having been born and brought up in a new country yet educated from infancy in the literature of an old one my mind was early filled with historical and poetical associations connected with places and manners and customs of europe but which could rarely be applied to those of my own country to a mind thus peculiarly prepared the most ordinary objects and scenes on arriving in europe are full of strange the author matter and novelty england is as classic ground to an american as italy is to an englishman and old london with as much historical association as mighty rome indeed it is difficult to describe the of ideas that throng upon his mind on landing among english scenes he for the first time sees a world about which he has been reading and thinking in every stage of his existence the recollected ideas of youth and manhood of the nursery the school and the study come at once upon him and his attention is distracted between great and little objects each of which perhaps an equally delightful train of but what more especially his notice are those peculiarities which distinguish an old country and an old state of society from a new one i have never yet grown familiar enough with the crumbling monuments of past ages to blunt the intense interest with the author which i at first beheld accustomed always to scenes where history was in a manner in anticipation where every thing in art was new and and pointed to the future rather than to the past where in short the works of man gave no ideas but those of young existence and improvement there was something touching in the sight of enormous piles of architecture gray with antiquity and sinking to decay i cannot describe the mute but deep felt enthusiasm with which i have contemplated a vast ruin like abbey buried in the bosom of a quiet valley and shut up from the world as though it had existed merely for itself or a warrior pile like castle standing in stern loneliness on its rocky height a mere hollow yet threatening phantom of departed power they spread a grand and melancholy and to me an unusual charm over the landscape i for the first time beheld signs of national old age and empire s decay and proofs of the transient and glories the author of art amidst the ever springing and of nature but in fact to me every thing was full of matter the footsteps of history were every where to be traced and poetry had breathed over and the land i experienced the delightful freshness of feeling of a child to whom every thing is new i pictured to myself a set of inhabitants and a mode of life for every habitation that i saw from the mansion amidst the repose of stately groves and solitary to the straw cottage with its scanty garden and its cherished i thought i never could be with the sweetness and freshness of a country so completely with where every air breathed of the pasture and the hedge i was continually coming upon some little document of poetry in the the the the or some other simple object that has received a supernatural value from the muse the first time the author that i heard the song of the i was more by the delicious crowd of remembered associations than by the melody of its notes and i shall never forget the thrill of with which i first saw the lark rise almost from beneath my feet and wing its musical flight up into the morning sky in this way i traversed england a child delighted by every object great and small and betraying a wondering ignorance and simple enjoyment that provoked many a stare and a smile from my wiser and more ex fellow travellers such too was th v odd confusion of associations that kept break ing upon me as i first approached london one of my earliest wishes had been to see this great metropolis i had read so much about it in the earliest books that had been put into my infant hands and i had heard so much about it from those around me who had come from the old countries i was familiar with the names of its streets and squares and public places before i knew those of my native city the	48
author it was to me the great centre of the world round which every thing seemed to i recollect contemplating so wistfully when a boy a paltry little print of the thames and london bridge and st paul s that was in front of an old magazine and a picture of gardens with gentlemen in hats and broad skirts and ladies in and that hung up in my bedroom even the venerable cut of st john s gate that has stood time out of mind in front of the gentleman s magazine was not without its charms to me and i envied the odd looking little men that appeared to be about its arches how then did my heart warm when the towers of westminster abbey were pointed out to me rising above the rich groves of st james s park with a thin blue haze about their gray i could not behold this great of what is most illustrious in our paternal history without feeling my enthusiasm in a glow with what eagerness did i explore every the author part of the metropolis i was not content with those matters which occupy the re search of the learned traveller i delighted to call up all the feelings of childhood and to seek after those objects which had been the wonders of my infancy london bridge so famous in nursery song the far monument and and the lions in the tower all brought back many a recollection of delight and of good old beings now no more who had about them to my wondering ear nor was it without a of childish interest that i first peeped into mr s shop in st paul s churchyard that fountain head of literature mr was the first that ever filled my infant mind with the idea of a great and good man he published all the picture books of the day and out of his abundant love for children he charged nothing for either paper or print and only a penny for the binding i have mentioned these circumstances worthy the author reader to show you the crowd of associations that are apt to beset my mind on mingling among english scenes i hope they may in some measure plead my apology should i be found upon stale and trivial or indulging an over fondness for any thing antique and i know it is the humour not to say cant of the day to run riot about old times old books old customs and old buildings with myself however as far as i have caught the the feeling is genuine to a man from a young country all old things are in a manner new and he may surely be excused in being a little curious about whose native land unfortunately cannot boast of a single ruin having been brought up also in the comparative simplicity of a republic i am apt to be struck with even the ordinary circumstances incident to an state of society if however i should at any time amuse myself by pointing out some of the and some of the poetical characteristics of the y the latter i would not be understood as pretending to decide upon its political merits my only aim is to paint characters and manners i am no the more i have considered the study of politics the more i have found it full of perplexity and i have contented myself as i have in my religion with the faith in which i was brought up my own conduct by its but leaving to heads the task of making i shall continue on therefore in the course i have hitherto pursued looking at things rather than describing them as they are rather than pretending to point out how they should be and endeavouring to see the world in as pleasant a light as circumstances will permit i have always had an opinion that much good might be done by keeping mankind in good humour with one another i may be wrong in my philosophy but i shall continue to practise it until convinced of its when i discover the world to be all that it the author has heen represented by and poets i will turn to and abuse it also in the mean while worthy reader i hope you will not think lightly of me because i cannot believe this to be so very bad a world as it is represented thine truly the house and the for housekeeping in this county or the next and though the master of it write hut i know no lord like him merry beggars the reader if he has the volumes of the sketch book will probably recollect something of the family with which i once passed a christmas i am now on another visit at the hall having been invited to a wedding which is shortly to take place the squire s second son a fine spirited young captain in the army is about to be married to his father s ward the fair a gathering of relations and friends has already commenced to the joyful occasion for the old gentleman is an enemy to quiet private there the hall is nothing he says like a young couple gaily and cheering them from the shore a good outset is half the voyage before proceeding any further i would beg that the squire might not be confounded with that class of hard riding fox hunting gentlemen so often described and in fact so nearly extinct in england i use this rural title partly because it is his universal throughout the neighbourhood and partly because it me the frequent repetition of his name which is one of those rough old english names at which exclaim in despair the squire is in fact a lingering specimen of the old english country gentleman a little by living almost entirely on his estate and something of	48
a as englishmen are apt to become when they have an opportunity of living in their own way i like his passing well however which is a devotion to old english manners and customs it a little with my own humour having as yet a lively and the hall curiosity about the ancient and genuine characteristics of my father land there are some traits about the squire s family also which appear to me to be national it is one of those old families which i believe are peculiar to england and scarcely understood in other countries that is to say families of the ancient gentry who though destitute of rank maintain a high pride who look down upon all of recent creation and would consider it a sacrifice of dignity to the venerable name of their house in a modern title this feeling is very much by the importance which they enjoy on their hereditary the family mansion is an old house standing in a retired and beautiful part of its inhabitants have been always regarded through the surrounding country as the great ones of the earth and the little village near the hall looks up to the squire with almost homage an old house and an old family of this vol i c the hall kind are rarely to be met with at the present day and it is probably the peculiar humour of the squire that has retained this secluded specimen of english housekeeping in something like the genuine old style i am again in the in the antique wing of the house the prospect from my window however has quite a aspect from that which it wore on my winter visit though early in the month of april yet a few warm days drawn forth the beauties of the spring which i think are always most on their first opening the of the old fashioned garden are gay with flowers and the gardener has brought out his and placed them along the stone the trees are clothed with green and tender leaves when i throw open my i smell the of and hear the hum of the bees from the flowers against the sunny wall with the varied song of the and the cheerful notes of the little the hall while in this strong hold of old fashions it is my intention to make occasional sketches of the scenes and characters before me i would have it understood however that i am not writing a novel and have nothing of intricate plot or marvellous adventure to promise the reader the hall of which i treat for ought i know neither trap door nor sliding nor keep and indeed appears to have no mystery about it the family is u w well meaning family that in ah pr will eat and drink and go to bed aiid get up regularly from to the other and the squire is so kind hearted an old that i see of his throwing any kind of distress in the way of the approaching in a word i cannot foresee a single extraordinary event that is likely to occur in the whole term of my at the hall i tell this honestly to the reader lest when he finds me along through every day english scenes he may hurry ahead in hopes of c so the hall meeting with some marvellous adventure further on i invite him on the contrary to gently on with me as he would out into the fields stopping occasionally to gather a flower or listen to a bird or admire a prospect without any anxiety to arrive at the end of his career should i however in the course of my about this old mansion see or hear any thing curious that might serve to vary the monotony of this every day life i shall not fail to report it for the reader s ent for wits i know will soon be of any book how grave so e er it be except it have odd matter strange and well d with lies and glared all with glee mirror for the busy man a decayed gentleman who most upon his own mirth and my master s means and much good do him with it he does hold my master up with his stories and songs and catches and such tricks and you would admire he is with him now jovial bt no one has my return to the hall been more heartily greeted than by mr or master as the squire most commonly calls him i encountered him just as i entered the park where he was breaking a and he received me with all the hospitable cordiality with which a man a friend to another one s house i have already introduced him to the reader as a brisk old bachelor looking little man the wit and beau of a large family and the squire s i found the busy man him as usual full of bustle with a thousand petty things to do and persons to attend to and in good humour for there are few happier beings than a busy that is to say a man who is busy about nothing i visited wm the after my arrival in his chamber which i in a remote corner of the mansion as he says he likes to be to himself and out of the way he has fitted it up in his own taste so that it is a perfect aa i bachelor s notions of convenience and e lt the furniture is up of odd pieces from all parts of the house chosen on account of ir his or fitting some corner of his and he is very eloquent in praise of an ancient elbow ch r from which he takes to into a censure on modern chairs as having from the dignity and comfort of high backed antiquity adjoining to his room	48
is a small cabinet which he calls his study here are some the busy man hanging shelves of his own construction on which are several old works on hunting and and a collection or two of poems and songs of the reign of elizabeth which he studies out of compliment to the squire together with the magazine the sporting magazine the racing a volume or two of the a book of and another of his sporting dresses hang on in a small closet and about the walls of his apartment are hooks to hold his fishing tackle spurs and a favourite piece curiously and which he from his grandfather he has also a couple of old single and a fiddle which he has repeatedly patched and mended himself it to be a veritable though i have never heard him extract a single note from it hat was not enough to make one s blood run cold from this little nest his fiddle will often be heard ia the stillness of midday saw s the busy man ing some long forgotten tune for he himself on having a choice collection of good old english music and will scarcely have any thing to do with modern the time however at which his musical powers are of most use is now and then of an evening when he plays for the children to dance in the hall and he passes among them and the servants for a perfect his chamber also bears evidence of his various there are half copied sheets of music designs for sketches of very indifferently executed a a magic lantern for which he is endeavouring to paint glasses in a word it is the cabinet of a man of many accomplishments who knows a little of every thing and does nothing after i had spent some time in his apartment admiring the ingenuity of his small inventions he took me about the establishment to visit the stables dog and other in which he appeared like a ge the busy man visiting the quarters of his camp as the squire leaves the control of all these matters to him when he is at the hall he inquired into the state of the horses examined their feet prescribed a for one and bleeding for another and then took me to look at his own horse on the merits of which he dwelt with great and which i noticed had the best stall in the stable after this i was taken to a new toy of his and the squire s which he termed the where there were several unhappy birds in their education among the number was a fine which master had in especial training and he told me that he would show me in a few days some rare sport of the good old fashioned kind in the course of our round i noticed that the game keeper in and other seemed all to be on somewhat of a familiar footing with master and fond of having a joke with him though s the busy man it was evident they had great deference for his opinion in matters relating to their functions there was one exception however in a old as hot as a corn a meagre old fellow in a thread hare velvet cap and a pair of leather breeches that from much wear shone as though they had been he was very contradictory and and apt as i thought to differ from master now and then out of mere this was particularly the case with respect to the treatment of the hawk which the old man seemed to have under his peculiar care and according to master was in a fair way to ruin the latter had a vast deal to say about casting and and gleaming and and giving the hawk the which i saw was all heathen greek to old but he maintained his point notwithstanding and seemed to hold all this lore in utter the busy m n i was surprised at the good with which master bore his till he explained the matter to me afterwards old is the most ancient servant in the place having lived among dogs and horses the greater part of a century and been in the service of mr s ff ther he know the of i very horse on the and l as the t great pf most of he can a l l of every fox hunt for the last sixty or seventy year and has a history for s head bo it tha and h g tp the door of the dog el present race have grown p un er l s and hu him i i his old g le q iq ed the squire to oxford he a student there and enlightened h i his e u hi e o make the old man v h q all th s r of first ra he knows than the re t pf the world indeed master had b en his the busy man pupil and that he derived his first knowledge in hunting from the instructions of and i much question whether the old man does not still look upon him as rather a on our return as we were crossing the lawn in front of the house we heard the porter s bell ring at the lodge and shortly afterwards a kind of advanced slowly up the avenue at sight of it my companion paused considered it for a moment and then making a sudden exclamation hurried away to meet it as it approached i discovered a fair fresh looking elderly lady dressed in an old fashioned riding habit with a broad white hat such as may be seen in sir paintings she rode a sleek white pony and was followed by a footman in rich livery mounted on an over fed hunter at a little distance in the rear came an ancient chariot	48
drawn by two very horses driven by as a coachman beside whom sat a page dressed the busy man in a fanciful green livery inside of the chariot was a personage with a look somewhat between a lady s companion and a lady s maid and two that showed their ugly faces and out of each window there was a general turning out of the garrison to receive this new comer the squire assisted her to alight and saluted her affectionately the fair flew into her arms and they embraced with the romantic of boarding school friends she was escorted into the house by s lover towards whom she showed distinguished favour and a line of the old servants who had collected in the hall bowed most profoundly as she passed i observed that master was most and devout in his attentions upon this old lady he walked by the side of her pony up the avenue and while she was receiving the of the rest of the family he took occasion to notice the fat coachman to pat the sleek carriage horses and above all the busy man to say a civil word to my lady s the sour looking in the chariot i had no more of his company for the rest of the morning he was swept off in the that followed in the wake of this lady once indeed he paused for a moment as he was hurrying on some errand of the good lady s to let me know that this was lady a sister of the squire s of large fortune which the captain would inherit and that her estate lay in one of the best sporting countries in all england family servants verily old are the of worthy housekeeping they are like rats in a mansion or in a cheese the antiquity and of their abode in my casual anecdotes of the hall i may often be tempted to dwell on circumstances of a and ordinary nature from their appearing to me of genuine national character it seems to be the study of the squire to as much as possible to what he considers the old of english manners his servants all understand his ways and for the most part have been accustomed to them from infancy so that upon the whole his household presents one of the few tolerable specimens that can now be met with of the establishment of an english country gentleman of the old school family servants by the by the servants are not the least characteristic part of the household the housekeeper for instance has been born and brought up at the hall and has never been twenty miles from it yet she has a stately air that would not disgrace a lady that had figured at the court of queen elizabeth i am half inclined to think that she has caught it from living so much among the old family pictures it may however be owing to a consciousness of her importance in the sphere in which she has always moved for she is greatly respected in the neighbouring village and among the farmers wives and has high authority in the household ruling over the servants with quiet but sway she is a thin old lady with blue eyes and pointed nose and chin her dress is always the same as to fashion she wears a small well a full and a gown and open in front which on particular occasions is of ancient silk the of some former dame of family s the family or an inheritance from her mother who was housekeeper before her i have a reverence for these old garments as i make no doubt they have figured about these apart ments in days long past when they have set off the charms of some family beauty and i have sometimes looked from the old housekeeper to the neighbouring portraits to see whether i could not recognize her in the dress of some one of those long that smile on me from the walls her hair which is quite white is out in front and she wears over it a small cap nicely and brought down under the chin her manners are simple and primitive heightened a little by a proper dignity of station the is her world and the history of the family the only history she knows except that which she has read in the bible she can give a biography of every portrait in the vol i d family servants picture gallery and is a complete family chronicle she is treated with great consideration by the squire indeed master tells me that there is a anecdote current among the f the squire s having been seen kissing her in i he picture gallery when they were both young as however nothing further was ever noticed between them the circumstance caused no great scandal only she was observed to take to reading shortly afterwards and refused the hand of the village whom she had previously smiled on the old butler who was formerly footman and a rejected admirer of hers used to tell the anecdote now and then at those little that will occasionally take place among the most orderly servants arising from the common of the governed to talk against administration but he has left it off of late years since he has risen into place and family servants shakes his head when it is mentioned it is certain that the old lady will to this day dwell on the looks of the squire when he was a young man at college and she that none of his sons compare with their when he wa s of their age and was dressed out in his full suit of scarlet with hair and powdered and his three hat she has an orphan niece a pretty baggage named who been to the hall within a year or two and been nearly spoiled	48
aged having lived years in the same family the other was taken from a in churchyard here lie the remains of mr james who departed this life on the th of september aged after a faithful service of family servants years in one family by each individual of which he lived respected and died lamented by the sole few monuments even of the illustrious ven me the glow about the heart that i felt while this honest in the churchyard of i with this sole of a family mourning over the grave of the faithful of his race who had been no doubt a living of times and friends that had passed away and in considering this record of long and devoted service i called to mind the touching speech of old adam in as you like it when tottering after the youthful son of his ancient master master go oa and i will follow the to the last gasp with love and loyalty note i cannot hut mention a which i have seen somewhere in ihe of castle put up hy the late to the a family servant who attendant of his daughter the princess george iii possessed much of the domestic feeling of die old y and it is an incident in history and creditable to the human heart a monarch a monument in honour of the virtues of a the widow she i and she would weep if that she saw a caught in a trap if it were dead or of small hounds had she thai she fed with flesh and bread but sore wept she if any of them were dead or if man smote them with a yard smart the parade in by lady on her she has none of the petty that i had but oh the contrary she has a degree of nature and simple if i may use the phrase that well with her fashioned and she dresses in rich with long waist she considerably and her hair which is nearly white is out and put the widow up with pins her face is with the small but the delicacy of her features shows that she may once have been beautiful and she has a very fair and well shaped ham and arm of which if i mistake not the good lady is still a little vain i have had the curiosity to gather a few particulars concerning her she was a great in town between thirty and forty years since and reigned for two seasons with all the insolence of beauty refusing several excellent offers when unfortunately she was robbed of her charms and her lovers by an attack of the small she retired immediately into the country where she after inherited an estate and married a a former admirer whose passion had suddenly revived having as he said always loved her mind rather than her person the did not enjoy her mind and fortune above six months and had scarcely grown very tired of her when he broke his neck in a fox chase and left her free rich and the widow she has remained on her estate in the country ever since and has never shown any desire to return to town and the i ne of her early triumphs and fatal malady all her favourite recollections however to that short period of her youthful beauty she has no idea of town but as it was at that time and continually forgets that the place and people must have changed materially in the course of nearly half a century she will often speak of the of those days as if stiu and until very recently used to talk with delight of the royal family and the of the young princes and she cannot be brought to think of the present king otherwise than as an elegant young man rather wild but who danced a and before he came to the crown would often mention him as the sweet young prince she talks also of the walks in garden where the gentlemen appeared in coats and cocked hats and the ladies in and swept so proudly along the grassy avenues and she thinks the ladies let them the widow selves sadly down in their dignity when they gave up head dresses and high shoes she has much to say too of the officers who were in the train of her admirers am speaks familiarly of many wild young blades that are now perhaps about watering places with and shoes whether the taste the good lady had of matrimony discouraged her or not i cannot say but though her merits and her riches attracted many she has never been tempted to venture again into the happy state this is singular too for she seems of a most soft and susceptible heart is always talking of love and felicity and is a great for old fashioned devoted attentions and eternal constancy on the part of the gentlemen she lives however after her own taste her house i am told must have been built and furnished about the time of sir charles every thing about it is somewhat formal and stately but has been softened down into a degree of characteristic of old lady very tender k the widow hearted and romantic and that loves her ease the cushions of the great arm chairs and wide almost bury you when you sit down on flowers of the most rare and delicate kind are placed about the rooms and on little stands and sweet bags lie about the and the house is full of pet dogs cats and singing birds who are as carefully waited upon as she is herself she is dainty in her living and a little of an living on white and little dishes though her servants have substantial old english fare as their looks bear witness indeed they are so indulged that they are all spoiled and when	48
they lose their present place they be fit for no other her is one of those easy tempered beings that are always doomed to be much liked but ill served by their and cheated by all the world much of her time is past in reading novels of which she has a most extensive library and has a constant supply from the in the widow town her in this line of literature i n h h kept p e with the for half century her mind b m with love tales of all kinds from the stately of the old books of down to the last blue covered romance from the press though she evidently gives the preference to those that came out in the days of her youths and when she was first in love she that there are no novels written equal to and sir charles on and she places the castle of at the head of all she does a vast deal of good in her neighbourhood and is imposed upon by every beggar in the county she is the of a village adjoining to her estate and takes an especial interest in all its love affairs she knows of every courtship that is going on every love is sure to find a patient listener and a sage adviser in her she takes great pains to reconcile all and should any persist in his he is sure to draw on himself the good lady s violent indignation i have learned these particulars partly from frank and partly from master i am now able to account for the attention of the latter to her her house is one of his favourite where he is a very important personage he makes her a visit of business once a year when he looks into all her affairs which as she is no manager are apt to get into confusion he the books of the over and shoots about the estate which he says i well with game notwithstanding that it is by all the in the neighbourhood it is thought as i before hinted that the captain will inherit the greater part of her property having always been her chief favourite for in fact she is partial to a red coat she has now come to the hall to b present at his having a great to interest herself in all matters of and matrimony vol e the lovers rise up my lore my ur one and come away for lo ihe winter is past the rain is over and gone the flowers appear on the the time of the singing of birds is and e voice of the is heard in the land ck ko or to a man who is a little of a philosopher and a bachelor to boot and who by dint of some experience in the follies of life begins to look with a learned eye upon the ways of man and of woman to such a man i say there is something very entertaining in noticing the conduct of a pair of young lovers it may hot be as grave and scientific a study as the loves of the plants but it is certainly as in i have therefore derived much pleasure since my arrival at the hall from observing the fair and her lover she has all the the lovers blushing consciousness of an girl inexperienced in who has made her first conquest while the captain regards her with that mixture of fondness and exultation with which a youthful lover is apt to contemplate so a prize i observed them yesterday in the garden advancing along one of the retired walks the sun was shining with warmth making great masses of bright and deep blue shade the that of spring was faintly heard from a distance the from the and the yellow and and in the air the fair was leaning on her lover s arm listening to his conversation with her eyes cast down a soft blush on her cheek and a quiet smile on her lips while in the hand that hung by her side was a bunch of flowers in this way they were slowly along and when i considered them and the scene in which they were moving i m e the lovers not but think it a thousand the season should ever change or that young people should ever grow older or that should give way to or that lovers should ever get married from what i have gathered of family i understand that the fair is the of a favourite college friend of the squire who after leaving oxford had entered the army and served for many years in india where he was wounded in a the natives in his last he had with a faltering pen recommended his wife nd daughter to the kindness of his early friend the widow and her child returned to england helpless and almost hopeless when mr received accounts of their tion he hastened to their relief he just in time to soothe the last of the mother who was dying of a to make her happy in the assurance that her child should never want a protector the lovers id the good squire returned with his charge to his strong hold where he had her up with a tenderness truly as he has taken some pains to education and form her taste she has grown up with many of his notions and considers him the wisest as well as the best of men much of her time too has been passed with lady who has instructed her in the manners of the old school and enriched her with all kinds of novels and indeed her has had a great hand in the match between and th captain having had them together at her country seat the moment she found there was in attachment growing up	48
between them the good lady being never so happy as when she has a pair of about her i have been pleased to see the fondness with which the fair is regarded by the old servants at the hall she has been a pet with them from childhood and every one seems to some claim to her education so that it is the lovers do wonder that she should be extremely accomplished the gardener taught her to rear flowers of which she is extremely fond old the when she approaches and as she sits lightly and gracefully in her saddle claims the merit of taught her to ride while the house keeper who almost looks upon her as a ter that she first gave her an insight into the mysteries of the toilet having been dressing maid in her young days to the late mrs i am inclined to credit thia last claim as i have noticed that the dress of the young lady had an air of the old school though managed with native taste and that her hair was put up very much in the style of sir peter s portraits in the her very musical partake of this old fashioned character and most of her songs are such as are not at the present day to be found on the piano of a modern i have however seen so much of modern fashions the lot r ss modem accomplishments and modem fine ladies that i relish this tinge of style in so young and lovely a girl and i have had as much pleasure in hearing one of the old songs of or or adapted to some simple old melody as i have had from listening to a lady amateur sky lark it up and down through the finest of or we have very pretty music in the evenings occasionally between her and the captain assisted sometimes by master who on his being very apt to get out and to halt a note or two in the rear sometimes he even a little on the piano and takes a part in a in which his voice can generally be distinguished by a certain tone and an occasional false note i was the fair s performance to him after one of her songs when i found he took to himself the whole credit of having the s formed her musical taste assuring me tbat ihe was very apt and indeed up her whole character in his knowing way by adding that she was a very nice girl and had no nonsense about her family my s face her brow her eye the on her cheek and such sweet skill hath from the cunning workman s pencil flown these lips look fresh and lively as her own false colours last after the true be dead of all the roses on her cheeks of all the graces dancing in her eyes of all the music set upon her tongue of all that was past woman s excellence in her white bosom look a painted board all i an old english family mansion is a fertile subject for study it with illustrations of former times and traces of the tastes and and manners of successive generations the alterations and additions in different of architecture the furniture plate pictures the warlike and sporting implements of different ages and family fancies all furnish food for curious and amusing as the squire is very careful in collecting and preserving all family th hall is full of of the kind in looking about the establishment i can picture to myself the characters and habits that have prevailed at different of the family i have mentioned on a former occasion the of the which hangs up if the hall there are also several with thick and high that belonged to a set of who filled the hall with the din and stir of arms during the time of the a number of enormous drinking vessels of antique fashion with huge glasses and green glasses with the in relief on th m remain as monuments of a generation or two of hard that led a life of roaring and first introduced the into the family i shall pass over several more such indications of temporary tastes of the squire s pre family but i cannot forbear to notice a pair of in the great hall which is one of a hard riding squire of former times who was the of these parts there are many traditions of his wonderful in hunting still existing which are related by old the who gets exceed if they are in the least doubted indeed there is a chasm a few miles from the hall which goes by the name of the squire s leap from his having cleared it in the of the chase there can be no doubt of tiie fact for old shows the very of the horse s hoofs on the rocks on each side of the chasm master holds the memory of this squire in great veneration and has a number of extraordinary stories to tell concerning him which he at all hunting dinners and i am told that they wax more and more marvellous the older they grow he has also a pair of spurs which belonged to this hunter of and which he only wears on particular occasions family the which with of past times is the picture and there is something strangely pleasing though melancholy in considering the long rows of portraits which compose the greater part of the collection they furnish a kind of narrative of the lives of the family which i am enabled to read with the assistance of the venerable housekeeper who is the family prompted occasionally by master there is the progress of a fine lady for instance through a variety of portraits one represents her as a little girl with a long waist and holding a in her	48
arms and the spectator out of the corners of her eyes as if she could not turn her head in another we find her in the freshness of youthful beauty when she was a celebrated and so hard hearted as to cause several unfortunate gentlemen to run desperate and write bad poetry in another she is depicted as a stately dame in the maturity of her charms next to the portrait of her husband a gallant colonel in fuu wig and who was abroad arid finally her monument is in the church the of which may be seen from the window where her i carved in marble and represents her as a venerable dame of seventy six in like manner i have followed some of the family great men through a series of pictures from early boyhood to the robe of dignity or of command and so on by degrees until they were up in the common the neighbouring church there is one group that particularly rested me it consisted of four sisters of nearly the same age who flourished about a century since and if i may judge from their portraits were extremely i can imagine what a scene of gaiety and romance this old ion must have been when they were in the hey day of their charms when they passed like beau visions through its halls or stepped to music in the and dances of th v gallery or printed with delicate feet th velvet of these how lust they family have been looked up to with mingled love and pride and reverence by the old family and followed with almost painful admiration by the aching eyes of rival admirers how must melody and song and tender have breathed about these courts and their echoes whispered to the tread of lovers how must these very have made the hearts of the young thrill as they first discerned them from afar rising from among the trees and pictured to themselves the beauties like gems within these walls indeed i have discovered about the place several faint records of this reign of love and romance when the hall was a kind of court of beauty several of the old in the library have notes expressing and approbation where there are long speeches ladies charms or protesting or the cruelty of some fair one the and and parting scenes of tender lovers also bear the marks of having been frequently and and marked with notes of n and have written on the most of which have the day of the month and year to them several of the windows too have scraps of poetry engraved on them with diamonds taken firom the writings of the fair mrs the once celebrated some of these seem to have been inscribed by lovers and others in a delicate and unsteady hand and a little in the have evidently been written by the young ladies themselves or by female friends who have been on visits to the hall mrs seems to have been their author and they have distributed the names of her heroes and among their of intimacy sometimes in a male hand the verse the cruelty of beauty and the sufferings of constant love while in a female hand it itself to the parting of female friends the bow window of my bed room which has doubtless been inhabited by one of these beauties has several of family these i have one at this before my eyes called parting with how d ig the joy that s p st the present how unsteady what comfort can he great and last when this is gone already and close by it is another written perhaps by some adventurous lover who had stolen into the lady s chamber during her absence to i d rather in your favour than in a lasting name and much a greater rate would give for happiness than fame when look at these faint records of gallantry and tenderness when i contemplate the fading portraits of these beautiful girls and think too that they have long since grown old died and passed away and with them all their graces their triumphs their their admirers the whole empire of love and pleasure in which they all dead all buried all forgotten i find a family of melancholy stealing over the present around me i was gazing in a musing mood this very morning at the portrait of the lady whose husband was killed abroad when the fair entered the gallery leaning on the arm of the captain the sun shone through the row of windows on her as she passed along and she seemed to beam out each time into brightness and into shade until the door at the bottom of the gallery closed after her i felt a sadness of heart at the idea that this was an emblem of her lot a few more years of sunshine and shade and all this life and loveliness and enjoyment will have ceased and nothing be left to this beautiful being but one more portrait to awaken perhaps the speculations of some future like myself when i and my shall have lived through our brief existence and been forgotten vol i an old soldier i ve worn some leather out abroad let out a heathen soul or two fed this good sword with the black blood of pagan christians converted a few with it but let that pass the the hall was thrown into some little agitation a few days since by the arrival of general he had been expected for several days and had been looked for rather impatiently by several of the family master assured me that i would like the general for he was a blade of the old school and an excellent table companion lady also appeared to be somewhat fluttered on the morning of the general s arrival for he had been one of her	48
ample board they talk of public distress but where do we find it sir i see none i see no reason any one has to complain take my word for it sir this talk about public distress is all the widow s little dogs and all in giving an account of the arrival of lady at the hall i ought to have mentioned the entertainment which i derived from witnessing the of her carriage and the of her there is something extremely amusing to me in the number of wants the loads of imaginary but real with which the luxurious are apt to themselves i like to watch the stir and display about one of these petty the number of and of all kinds bustling about with looks of infinite gravity and importance to do almost nothing the widow s the number of heavy trunks and and belonging to my lady and the solicitude exhibited about some humble box by my lady s maid the cushions piled in the carriage to make a soft seat still softer and to prevent the dreaded possibility of a the smelling bottles the the baskets of and fruit the new all provided to guard against hunger fatigue or the led horses to vary the mode of travelling and all this preparation and parade to move perhaps some very nothing personage about a little space of earth i do not mean to apply the latter part of these observations to lady craft for whose simple i have a very great respect and who is really a most amiable and worthy being i cannot refrain however from mentioning some of the she has brought with her and which indeed the overflowing kindness of her nature which requires her to be surrounded with objects on which to lavish it the widow s in the first place her has a coachman with a red face and cheeks that hang down like dew he evidently over her a little with respect to the fat horses and only drives out when he thinks proper and when he thinks it will be good for the cattle she has a favourite page to attend upon her person a handsome boy of about twelve years of age but a mischievous very much spoiled and in a fair way to be good for nothing he is dressed in green with a profusion of gold cord and gilt buttons about his clothes she always has one or two attendants of the kind who are replaced by others as soon as they grow to fourteen years of age she has brought two dogs with her also out of a number of which she at home one is a fat called though heaven defend me from such a he is fed out of all shape and comfort his eyes are nearly strained out of his head he with and cannot walk without great difficulty the i the widow s other is a little old gray with an unhappy eye that like a c if you only look at him his nose turns i his mouth is drawn into wrinkles so as to sh his teeth in short he has altogether the ic of a dog far gone in and sick of the world when he walks he has tail curled up so tight that it seems to lift feet from the ground and he seldom ma j use of more than three legs at a time the other drawn up as a reserve this wretch is called beauty these dogs are full of elegant i known to vulgar dogs and are a i nursed by lady craft with the tender js kindness they are and fed w by their fellow the page i l i their are often weak and out of so that they cannot eat though i have n j and then seen the page give them a pinch or over the head when his ir i i was not by they have cushions for th express use on which they lie before the fi the widow s and yet are apt to shiver and moan if there is the least draught of air when any one enters the room they make a most barking that is absolutely they are insolent to all the other dogs of the establishment there is a noble hound a great favourite of the squire s who is a privileged visitor to the parlour but the moment he makes his appearance these fly at him with furious rage and i have admired the sovereign indifference and contempt with which he seems to look down upon his when her drives out these dogs are generally carried with her to take the air when they look out of each window of the carriage and bark at all vulgar dogs these dogs are a continual source of misery to the household as they are always in the way they every now and then get their toes trod on and then there is a on their part and a loud on the part of their mistress that fills the room with and confusion lastly there is her s waiting gentle the widow s woman mrs a old maid one of the most intolerable and that ever lived she has kept her virtue by her until it has turned sour and now every word and look of she is the very opposite to her mistress for one hates and the other loves all mankind how they first came together i cannot imagine but they have lived together for many years and the s temper being and and her s easy and yielding the former has got the complete upper hand and over the good lady in secret lady now and then of it in great confidence to her friends but up the subject immediately if mrs makes her appearance indeed she has been so accustomed to be attended by her that she	48
thinks she could not do without her though one great study of her life is to keep mrs in good humour by little presents and master has a most devout the widow s mingled with awe for this ancient he told me the other day in a whisper that she was a cursed in fact he added another epithet which i would not repeat for the world i have remarked however that he is always extremely civil to her when they meet ready money jack my purse it is my this song i dare both and say it men from grievous when every man for shall pay as i in array for gold and men me by matter i dare well ever own purse book of hunting on the skirts of the neighbouring village there lives a kind of small who for aught i know is a representative of one of the most ancient legitimate lines of the present day for the empire over which he has belonged to his family time out of mind his a considerable number of good fat acres and his seat of power is in an old farm house where he ready money the stout chair of his ancestors the personage to whom i allude is a sturdy old of the name of john or rather ready money jack as he is called throughout the neighbourhood the first place where he attracted my tion was in the churchyard on sunday where he sat on a after the service with his hat a little on one side holding forth to a small circle of and as i presumed the law and the until on drawing a little nearer i found he waa only on the merits of a brown horse he presented so faithful a picture of a substantial english such as he is often described in books heightened indeed by some little finery peculiar to himself that i could not but take note of his whole appearance he was between fifty and sixty of a strong muscular frame and at least six feet high with a as grave as a lion s and set off with short curling iron gray locks his shirt was turned down and dis vol i g money jack played a neck covered with the same hair and he wore a coloured silk tied very loosely and tucked in at the bosom with a green on the knot his coat was of dark green cloth with silver buttons on each of which was engraved a with his own name john underneath he had an inner waistcoat of figured between which and his coat another of scarlet cloth his breeches were also left at the knees not from any but to show a broad pair of scarlet his stockings were blue with white he wore large silver shoe a broad in his his sleeve buttons were gold seven shilling pieces and he had two or three guineas hanging as ornaments to his on making some inquiries about him i gathered that he was descended from a line of farmers that had always lived on the same spot and owned the same property and that ready money jack half of the churchyard was taken up with the of his race he has all his life been an important character in the place when a he was one of the most roaring blades of the neighbourhood no one could match him at the bar play and r exercises like the renowned of he was the village champion carried prize at all the and threw his at the country round even to this day the old people talk of his and in comparison all heroes of the green that have succeeded him nay they say that if ready money jack were to take the field even now there is no one could stand before him when jack s father died the neighbours shook their heads and predicted that young would soon make way with the old but jack all their the moment he succeeded to the paternal farm he assumed a new character took a wife attended resolutely to his affairs g s money jack became an industrious farmer with the family property he inherited a set of old family to which he steadily he saw to every thing himself put his own hand to the plough worked hard heartily slept soundly paid for every thing in cash down and never danced except he could do it to the music of his own money in both pockets he has never been without a hundred or two pounds in gold by him and never allows a debt to stand this has gained him his name of which by the by he is a little proud and has caused him to be looked upon as a very wealthy man by all the village notwithstanding his however h has never denied himself the amusements of life but has taken a share in every passing pleasure it is his that he that works hard can afford to play he is there fore an attendant at all the country and wakes and has himself by of strength and on every village green money jack n the he often makes his appearance at horse races and sports his half guinea and even his guinea at a time keeps a good horse for his own riding and to this day is fond of following the hounds and is generally in at the death he keeps up the rustic and too for which his paternal has always been noted has plenty of good cheer and dancing at harvest home and above all keeps the merry night as it i termed at christmas with all his love of amusement however jack is by no means a boisterous jovial companion he is seldom known to laugh even in the midst pf his gaiety but the same grave lion like he is very slow at	48
a joke and is apt to sit at it with a perplexed look while the rest of i merry night a rustic merry making in a about christmas common in some parts of there is abundance of homely fare tea cakes fruit and ale various of amusing games dancing kissing withal they commonly break up at midnight ready money jack the company is in a roar this gravity has perhaps grown on him with the growing weight of his character for he is gradually rising into dignity in his native place though he no longer takes an active part in sports yet he always at them and is appealed to on all occasions as he the peace on the village green at games and all and by the parties and shaking them heartily if no one ever to raise a hand against him or to contend against his the young men having grown up in habitual awe of his and in deference to him as the champion and lord of the green he is a regular of the village inn the landlady having been a sweetheart of his in early life and he having always continued on kind terms with her he seldom however drinks any thing but a draught of ale his pipe and pays his reckoning before leaving the tap room here he gives his little money jack laws which are very generally to him upon the characters and qualities of horses and indeed plays now and then the part of a judge in settling petty between neighbours which otherwise might have been nursed by into tolerable law suits jack is very candid and impartial in his but he has not a head to carry a long argument and is very apt to get perplexed and out of patience if there is much pleading he generally breaks through the argument with a strong voice and matters to a summary conclusion by pro what he calls the of the business or in other words the long and the short of the matter jack once made a journey to london a great many years since which has furnished him with topics of conversation ever since he saw the old king on the terrace at who stopped and pointed him out to one of the being probably struck with jack s truly like appearance this is a favourite d ready money jack anecdote with him and has no doubt liad a great effect in making him a most loyal subject ever since in spite of taxes and he was also at fair where he had half the buttons cut off his coat and a g ng of attracted by his external show of gold and silver made a regular attempt to him as he was gazing at a show but for once they found that they had caught a for jack as great wonders among the gang as did among the one of his neighbours who had accompanied him to town and was with him at the fair brought back an account of his exploits which raised the pride of the whole village who considered their champion ad having subdued all london and the achievements of or even the renowned robin hood himself of late years the old fellow has begun to take the world easily he works less and in in greater leisure his son having grown up and succeeded to him both in the labours f ready money jack f the farm and the exploits of the green like u sons of distinguished men his father s renown is a disadvantage to him for he can never come up to public expectation though a fine active fellow of three and twenty and quite the cock of the walk yet the old people declare he is nothing like what ready money jack was at his time of life the himself his inferiority nd has a wonderful opinion of the old man who indeed taught him all his accomplishments and holds such a sway over him that i am told even to this day he would have no to take him in hands if he against paternal government the squire holds jack in very high esteem and shows him to all his visitors as a specimen of old english heart of oak he frequently calls at his house and tastes some of his which is excellent he made jack a present of old s hundred points of good which has furnished him with reading ever since and is his text book ready money jack and manual in all agricultural and domestic concerns he has made dog s ears at the most favourite passages and knows many of the poetical by heart though not a man to be or fluttered by high acquaintances and though he a sturdy independence of mind and manner yet is evidently gratified by the attentions of the squire whom he has known from boyhood and a true gentleman every inch of him he is also on excellent terms with master who is a kind of to the family but his great favourite is the whom he taught to and play at quarter staff when a boy and considers the most promising young gentleman in the whole county the bachelor most joyfully in pleasant plight doth pass his and he doth maintain and s old there is no character in the comedy of human life that is more difficult to play well than that of an old bachelor when a single gentleman therefore arrives at that critical period when he begins to consider it an impertinent question to be asked his age i would advise him to look well to his ways this period it is true is much later with some men than with others i have witnessed more than once the meeting of two wrinkled old lads of this kind who had not seen each other for several years and have been amused by the	48
exchange of compliments on each others appearance that takes place on occasions there is always one invariable observation why bless my soul you look younger than when last i saw you whenever a man s friends begin to compliment him about looking young he may be sure that they think he is growing old i am led to make these remarks by the conduct of master and the general who have become great as the former is the youngest by many years he is regarded as quite a youthful blade by the general who moreover looks upon him as a man of great wit and prodigious i have already hinted that master is a family beau and considered rather a young fellow by all the elderly ladies of the for an old bachelor in an old family is something like an actor in a regular dramatic corps who seems to flourish in immortal youth and will continue to play the for half a century together master too is a little of the takes a different hue with every different he is very attentive and nd somewhat sentimental with lady copies out little love songs for her and draws and and and to be worked oil the corners of her pocket handkerchiefs he however in very considerable latitude with the other married ladies of the family has many sly to whisper to them that provoke an laugh and tap of the fan but when he gets among young company such as frank the and the general he is apt to put on the mad wag and to talk in a very strain about the sex in this he has been encouraged by the ex ample of the general whom he looks up to as a man that has seen the world the general in fact tells shocking stories after dinner when the ladies have retired which he gives as of the choice things that are served up at th club of i in london he also the fat jokes old major the wit of the arm which though the general can them for laughing always make mr bridge look grave he having a great to an jest in a word the general is a complete instance of the in gay life by which a young man of pleasure is apt to cool down into an old gentleman i saw him and master an evening or two since conversing with a in a meadow and from their each now and then and the general s shaking his shoulders blowing up his cheeks and breaking out into a short fit of irrepressible laughter i had no doubt they were playing the mischief with the girl as i looked at them through a hedge i could not but think they would have made a tolerable group for a modern picture of and the two elders it is true the girl seemed in no wise alarmed at the force of the enemy and i question had either of them m en alone whether she would not have been ore than they would have ventured to en such are daring when together and will put any female the blush with their jokes but they are as as when they fall singly into the of a fine woman in spite of the general s years he evidently is a little vain of his person and ambitious of i have observed him on sunday in church the country girls most suspiciously and have seen him upon them with a downright look even when he has been lady craft with great ceremony through the churchyard the general in fact is a in the service of rather than of having himself in all the garrison towns and country quarters and seen service in every ball room of england not a celebrated beauty but he has laid siege to and if his word may be taken in a matter wherein no man is apt to be over it is incredible the success he has had with the fair at present he is like a worn out warrior retired from service hut who still his with a military air and talks stoutly of fighting whenever he comes within the smell of i have heard him speak his mind very freely over his bottle about the folly of the captain in taking a wife as he thinks a young soldier should care for nothing but his bottle and kind landlady but in fact he says the service on the continent has had a sad effect upon the young men they have been ruined by light and french they ve nothing he says of the spirit of the old service there are none of your six bottle men left that were the souls of a mess dinner and used to play the very deuce among the women as to a bachelor the general that he is a free and easy man with no baggage to take care of but his but a married man with his wife hanging on his arm always puts him in mind of a chamber with its to it i should not mind all this if it were merely confined to the general but i fear he will be the ruin of my friend master who already begins to echo his and to talk in the style of a gentleman that has seen life and lived upon the town indeed the general seems to have taken master in hand and talks of showing him the lions when he comes to town and of introducing him to a knot of choice spirits at the club which i understand is composed of old officers in tlie company s employ and other men of ind that have seen service in the east and returned home burnt out with and touched with the liver complaint they have their regular club where they eat soup smoke the talk about and tiger hunting and are	48
agreeable in each other s company vol i ii wives believe me man there is no greater is the quiet joy of loving wife which wants half of friend without change play fellow without strife food without without pride it this sweet of our single life p th r is so much talk about matrimony going on round me in consequence of the approaching event for which we are assembled at the hall that i confess i find my thoughts singularly exercised on the subject indeed all the of the establishment seem to be passing through a kind of fiery ordeal for lady craft is one of those tender of the old school whose mind is filled with flames and and who breathe nothing but constancy and she is for ever in the concerns of the heart and to use a poetical phrase is perfectly surrounded by the purple light of love the very general seems to feel the influence of this sentimental atmosphere to melt as he approaches her and for the time to forget all his about matrimony and the sex the good lady is generally surrounded by little documents of her taste novels of a tender nature richly bound little books of poetry that are filled with and love tales and with rose leaves and she has always ah at hand for which she claims the of all her friends on looking over this last the other day i found a series of poetical in the squire s handwriting which might have been intended as matrimonial hints to his ward i was so much struck with several of them that i took the liberty of them out they are from the old play of thomas published in i i the city night cap in which is drawn out and h loo wives in the part of the character of a patient and faithful wife which i think might with that of the renowned i have often thought it a pity that plays and novels should always end at the wedding and should not give us another act and another volume to let us know how the hero and heroine conducted themselves when married their main object seems to be merely to instruct young ladies how to get husbands but not how to keep them now this last i speak it with all due appears to me to be a in modern married life it is appalling to those who have not yet into the holy state to see how soon the flame of romantic love burns out or rather is in matrimony and how the passionate poetic lover into the husband i am inclined to attribute this very much to the defect mentioned in the plays and novels which form so important a branch of study of our young wives ladies and which teach them how to be but leave them totally at a loss when they come to be wives the play from which the before me were made however is an exception to this remark and i cannot refuse myself the pleasure of of them for the benefit of the reader and for the honour of an old writer who has bravely attempted to awaken dramatic interest in favour a woman even after she was married the following is a of to her husband she s modest but not sullen and loves silence not that she wants apt words for when she speaks she love with wonder but because she calls wise silence the soul s harmony she s truly yet such a foe to the poorest call her courteous and which is excellent though fair and young she to expose herself to the opinion of strange eyes she either seldom or never walks abroad but in your company and then with such sweet as if she were venturing on crack d ice and takes delight to step into the print your foot hath made and will follow you whole fields so she will drive out of time with her t character wives notwithstanding all this excellence ab has the misfortune to the jealousy of her husband instead however of his harsh treatment with and with the stormy violence of high windy virtue by which the sparks of anger are so often blown into a flame she it with the of conscious but patient virtue and makes the following beautiful appeal to a friend who has witnessed her long suffering hast thou not seen me bear all his injuries as the ocean the angry bark to plough her bosom and yet is presently so smooth the eye cannot perceive the wide wound was made being wrought on by false representations at length her to the last however she her patient sweetness and her love for him in spite of his cruelty she his error even more than his and the delusion which has turned his very affection into a source of wives bitterness there is a moving pathos in her parting address to after their divorce farewell whom my doth lore if you e er may you meet a good so good that yea may not suspect her nor may she be worthy of your suspicion and if you hear hereafter that i am dead inquire but my words and you shall know that to the last i loved you and when you walk forth with your second choice into the pleasant fields and by chance talk of me imagine that you see me lean and pale your path with flowers but may she never live to pay my debts if but in thought she wrong you may she die in the conception of the injury pray make me wealthy with one kiss farewell sir let it not grieve you when you shall remember that i was innocent nor this forget though innocence here sigh and groan she walks but thorns to find a me in a short time his error and the innocence	48
of his injured wife in the of his repentance he calls mind all her feminine excellence her gentle womanly fortitude under wrongs and sorrows wives oh how lovely thou look st now now thou than is the morning s modesty that rises with a blush over whose bosom the western wind softly now i remember how wh she sat at table her obedient eye would on mine as if it were not well unless it look d where i look d oh how proud she was when she could cross herself to please me but where now is this fair soul like a silver she hath wept herself i fear into the dead sea and will be found no more it is but doing right by the reader if interested in the fate of by the preceding to say that she was restored to the arms and affections of her husband rendered than ever by that disposition in every good heart to for past injustice by an overflowing measure of returning kindness thou w th worth more than i am now confirm d past all thou art far sweeter in sincere truth than a sacrifice deck d up for death with the indian that blow from off the coast and cheer the sailor with the sweet of their want the delight flows in thee wives i have been more affected and interested by this little dramatic picture than by many a popular love tale though as i said before i do not think it likely either or patient stand much chance of being taken for a model still i like to see poetry now and then extending its views beyond the wedding day and teaching a lady how to make herself attractive even after marriage there is no great need of on an un married lady the necessity of being agreeable nor is there any great art requisite in a youth ful beauty to enable her to please nature has multiplied attractions round her you il is in itself attractive the freshness of beauty needs no foreign aid to set it off it pleases merely because it is fresh and and beautiful but it is for the married state that a woman needs the most instruction and in whidi she should be most on her guard to her powers of no woman can expect to be to her all he fancied her when he a men are s always doomed to be not so much by the arts of the sex as by their own they are always and marrying mere mortals a woman should therefore ascertain what was the charm that rendered her so fascinating when a girl and endeavour to keep it up when she has become a wife one great thing undoubtedly was the of herself and her conduct which an unmarried female always she should maintain the same and reserve in her person and habits and endeavour still to pre serve a freshness and virgin delicacy in the eye of her husband she should remember that the province of woman is to be not to to be not to caress man is an ungrateful being in love loses instead of winning him the secret of a woman s power does not consist so much in giving as in a woman may give up too much even to her husband it is to a thousand little of conduct that she must trust to keep alive passion and to protect wives herself from that dangerous that thorough acquaintance with every weakness and incident to matrimony by these means she may still maintain her power though she has surrendered her person may continue the romance of love even beyond the honey she that hath a wise husband says must him to an eternal by the veil of modesty and the grave robes of the ornament of and the jewels of faith and charity she must have no painting but her brightness must be purity and she must shine round about with and friendship and she shall be pleasant while she lives and when she dies i have wandered into a rambling series of remarks on a subject and a dangerous one for a bachelor to with that i may not however appear to confine my observations entirely to the wife i will with another quotation from wives in which the duties of both parties are mentioned while i would recommend his sermon on the marriage ring to all those who wiser than myself are about entering the happy state of there is scarce any matter of duty but it concerns them both alike and is only by names and hath its variety by circumstances and little accidents and what in one is called love in the other is called reverence and what in the wife is obedience the same in the man is duty he and she he gives and she rules by them he rules her by authority and she rules him by love she ought by all means to please him and he must by no means her story telling a at the hall and one which the worthy squire is fond of is story telling a good old fashioned fire side amusement as he terms it indeed i he it chiefly because it was one of the choice in those days of when ladies and gentlemen were not much in the habit of reading be this as it may he will often at supper table when conversation flags call on some one or other of the company for a story as it was formerly the custom to call for a song and it is to see the patience and even satisfaction with which the good old gentleman will sit and listen to some tale that he has heard for at least a hundred times in this way one evening the current of story telling and stories ran upon mysterious personages that have figured at different	48
may be one of the royal family for aught i know for they are all stout gentlemen the weather continued the mysterious unknown kept his room and as far as i could judge his chair for i did not hear him move in the mean time as the day advanced the travellers room began to be frequented some who had just arrived came in up in box coats others came home who had been dispersed about the town some took their dinners and some their tea had i been in a different mood i should have found entertainment in studying this peculiar class of men there were two especially who were regular of the road and up to all the standing jokes of travellers they had a thousand sly things to say to the waiting maid whom they r the stout gentleman called and and a dozen other fine names changing the name every time and at their own my mind however had become completely engrossed by the stout gentleman he had kept my fancy in chase during a long day and it was not now to be diverted from the scent the evening gradually wore away the travellers read the papers two or three time over some drew round the fire and told long stories about their horses about their their and down they discussed the of different merchants and different and the two told several choice anecdotes of pretty and kind all this passed as they were quietly taking what they called their that is to say strong glasses of brandy and water and sugar or some other mixture of the kind after which they one after another rang for boots and the and vol i k iso the stout gentleman walked off to bed in old shoes cut down into uncomfortable slippers there was only one man left a short legged long fellow with a very large sandy head he sat by himself with a glass of port wine and a spoon and stirring and meditating and until nothing was left but the spoon he gradually fell asleep bolt upright in his chair with the empty glass standing before him and the candle seemed to fall asleep too for the grew long and black and at the end and the little light that remained in the chamber gloom that now prevailed was around hung the and almost box coats of departed travellers long since buried in deep sleep i only heard the of the clock with the deep drawn of the sleeping and the of the rain drop drop from the of the house the church bells midnight all at once the stout gentleman the stout gentleman began to walk over head pacing slowly backwards and forwards there was something extremely awful in all this especially to one in my state of nerves these ghastly great coats these and the creaking footsteps of this mysterious being his steps grew fainter and fainter and at length died away i could bear it no longer i was wound up to the desperation of a hero of romance be he who or what he may said i to myself have a sight of him r i seized sl chamber candle and hurried up to number door stood i hesitated i entered the room was there stood a large broad a on which was an empty and a times newspaper and the room powerfully of cheese the mysterious stranger had evidently but just retired x turned off sorely disappointed to my which ha been changed to the front of as i went corridor i lai of boots with dirty k s the stout gentleman tops standing at the door of a bed chamber they doubtless belonged to the unknown but it would not do to disturb so a personage in his den he might discharge a pistol or something worse at my head i went to bed therefore and lay awake half the night in a terribly nervous state and even when i fell asleep i was still haunted in my dreams by the idea of the stout gentleman his wax boots i slept rather late the next morning and was awakened by some stir and bustle in the house which i could not at first comprehend until getting more awake i found there was a mail coach starting from the door suddenly there was a cry from below the gentleman has forgot his umbrella look for the gentleman s umbrella in no i heard an immediate of a along the passage and a shrill reply as she ran here it is here s the gentleman s umbrella i the mysterious stranger then was on the point of off this was the only the stout gentleman i should ever have of knowing him i sprang out of bed scrambled to the window snatched aside the curtains and just caught a glimpse of the rear of a person getting in at the the skirts of a brown coat parted behind and gave me a full view of the broad of a pair of breeches the door closed all right was the word the coach whirled and that was all i ever saw of the stout gentleman forest trees a living gallery of aged trees one of the favourite of with the squire is the noble trees on his estate which in truth has some of the finest that i have seen in england there is something august and solemn in the great avenues of stately oaks that gather their branches together high in air and seem to reduce the beneath them to mere an avenue of oaks or elms the squire is the true that should lead to a gentleman s house as to stone and marble any one can rear them at once they are the work of the day but commend me to the that have grown old and great with the family and forest	48
trees tell by their grandeur how long the family has endured the squire has great reverence for certain venerable trees gray with moss which he con as the ancient nobility of his domain there is the ruin of an enormous oak which has been so much battered by time and tempest that scarce any thing is left though he says when in his boyhood it was healthy and flourishing until it was struck by lightning it is now a mere trunk with one twisted bough stretching up into the air leaving a green branch at the end of it this sturdy wreck is much valued by the squire he calls it his standard bearer and it to a warrior beaten down in battle but bearing up his banner to the last he has actually had a fence built round it to protect it as much as possible from further injury it is with great difficulty that the squire can ever be brought to have any tree cut down on his estate to some he looks with reverence as having been planted by his ancestors to forest trees others with a kind of paternal affection a having been planted by himself and he feels a degree of awe in bringing down with a few of the axe what it has cost centuries to build up i confess i cannot but in some degree with the good squire on the subject though brought up in a country with forests where trees are apt to be considered mere and to be laid low without hesitation or remorse yet i could never see a fine tree down without concern the poets who are naturally lovers of trees as they are of every thing that is beautiful have awakened great interest in their favour by representing them as the of that great tree had its genius or a whose existence was limited to duration in his makes several pleasing and fanciful allusions to this superstition as the fall says he of a very aged oak giving a crack like thunder has often been heard at many miles distance constrained forest trees though i often am to fell them with i do not at any time remember to have heard the groans of those to be of their ancient without some emotion and pity and again in alluding to a violent storm that had the he says i still hear sure i am that i still feel the dismal groans of our forests the late dreadful having so many thousands of goodly oaks the trees laying in ghastly like whole in battle by the sword of the conqueror and crushing all that grew beneath them the public accounts he adds reckon no less than three thousand brave oaks in one part only of the forest of dean blown down i have paused more than once in the wilderness of america to contemplate the traces of ome blast of wind which seemed to have rushed down from the clouds and its way through the bosom of the up shivering and the forest trees trees and leaving a long track of desolation there was something awful in the made among these gigantic plants and in considering their magnificent remains rudely torn and and hurled down to perish on their native soil i was conscious of a strong movement of the sympathy so expressed by i recollect also hearing a traveller of poetical temperament expressing the kind of horror which he felt on beholding on the banks of the an oak of prodigious size which had been in a manner overpowered by an enormous wild vine the vine had clasped its huge folds round the trunk and from thence had wound about every branch and until the mighty tree had withered in its embrace it seemed like struggling in the hideous of the monster it was the lion of trees in the embraces of a vegetable i am fond of listening to the conversation of gentlemen on rural concerns and of i trees noticing with what taste and and what strong unaffected interest they will discuss topics which in other countries are to mere or rustic i have heard a noble earl on park and forest scenery with the science and feeling of a painter he dwelt on the shape and beauty of particular trees on his estate with as much pride and precision as he had been discussing the merits of statues in his collection i found that he had even gone considerable distances to examine trees which were celebrated among rural for it seems that trees like horses their established points of excellence a id that there are some in england which enjoy very among tree from being perfect in their kind there is something nobly simple and pure in such a taste it i think a sweet and generous nature to have this strong for the beauties of vegetation and this friendship for the hardy and glorious sons of the forest trees there is a grandeur of thought connected with this part of rural economy it is if i may be allowed the figure the heroic line of it is worthy of liberal and and men he who plants an oak looks forward to future ages and plants for posterity nothing can be less selfish than this he cannot expect to sit in its shade nor enjoy its shelter but he in the idea that the which he has buried in the earth shall grow up into a lofty pile and shall keep on flourishing and increasing and mankind long after he shall have ceased to tread his paternal fields indeed it is the nature of such occupations to lift the thoughts above mere as the leaves of trees are said to all qualities of the air and to breathe forth a purer atmosphere so it seems to me as if they drew from us all sordid and angry passions and breathed forth peace and	48
there is a serene and settled majesty in scenery that enters into the soul and and forest tr s it and fills it with noble inclinations the ancient an d hereditary groves too that this island are most of them full of story they are haunted by the recollections of great spirits of past ages who have sought for among them from the tumult of arms or the toils of state or have the muse beneath their shade who can walk with soul unmoved among the stately groves of where the gallant the amiable the elegant sir philip passed his boyhood or can look without fondness upon the tree that is said to have been planted on his birthday or can among the classic of or can pause among the of forest and look at the oaks around huge gray and time worn like the old castle towers and not feel as if he were surrounded by so many monuments of glory it is when viewed in this light that planted groves and stately avenues and cultivated have an advantage over the more luxuriant beauties of na trees tore it is that they with moral associations and keep up the ever interesting story of human existence it is incumbent then on the high and generous spirits of an ancient nation to cherish these sacred groves that their and to them to their descendants republican as i am by birth and brought up as i have been in republican principles and habits i can feel nothing of the reverence for rank merely because it is but i trust that j am neither nor in my creed i can both see and feel how hereditary distinction when it falls to the lot of a generous mind may that mind into true nobility it is one of the effects of hereditary rank when it falls thus happily that it the duties and as it were extends the existence of the possessor he does not feel himself a mere individual link in creation responsible only for his own brief term of being he carries back bis existence in proud recollection and he ex forest s it forward in honourable anticipation he lives with his and he lives with his posterity to both does he consider himself involved in deep as he has received much from those that have gone before so he feels bound to much to those who are to come after him his domestic seem to imply a longer existence than those of ordinary men none are so apt to build and plant for future centuries as men who have received their from ages i cannot but therefore the fondness and pride with which i have noticed english gentlemen of generous and high aristocratic feelings contemplating those magnificent trees which rise like towers and from the midst of their paternal lands there is an between au nature mate and the oak in the pride and of its growth seems to me to take its range with the lion and the eagle and to in the grandeur of its attributes to forest trees heroic and intellectual man with its mighty pillar rising straight and direct towards heaven hearing up its leafy honours from the of and supporting them aloft in free air and glorious sunshine it is an of what a true should be a refuge for the weak a shelter for the oppressed a defence for the off from them the of the storm or the rays of arbitrary power he who is is an ment and a blessing to his native land he who is otherwise his eminent advantages the grandeur and prosperity which he has drawn from the bosom of his country should arise and he be laid prostrate by the storm who would mourn over his fall should he be borne down by the oppressive hand of power who would murmur at his fate why he the ground printed he as a novelty of this latter age but a manuscript he on especially if the cover be all eaten and the dust make a every syllable c sm s the squire receives great sympathy and support in his from the parson of whom i made some mention on my former visit to the hall and who acts as a kind of family he has been cherished by the squire almost constantly since the time that they were fellow students at oxford for it is one of the peculiar advantages of these great that they often link the poor scholar to the rich patron by early and heart felt ties that last through life without the usual of dependence and vol i l a literary patronage under the protection of the squire therefore the little parson has pursued his studies in peace having lived almost entirely among books and those too old he is quite ignorant of the world and his mind is as as the garden at the hall where the flowers are all arranged in formal beds and the trees into and his taste for literary was first in the library at oxford where when a student he past many an hour among the old he has since at different times visited most of the curious in england and has many of the with all his quaint and curious learning he has nothing of or but that unaffected earnestness and simplicity which seem to belong to the literary he is a dark little man and rather dry in his manner yet on his favourite theme he up and at times is even eloquent a no fox hunter his last day s sport could be more animated than i have seen the worthy parson when relating his search after a curious document which he had traced from library to library until he fairly it in the dusty chapter house of a cathedral when too he describes some venerable manuscript with its rich thick its glossy ink and the	48
of the that seemed to from it he rivals the enthusiasm of a on the merits of a pie or a pat de his brain seems absolutely haunted with love sick dreams about gorgeous old works in silk triple gold bands and tinted leather locked up in wire cases and secured from the vulgar hands of the mere reader and to continue the happy expressions of an ingenious writer dazzling one s eyes like eastern beauties peering through their d of literature l a a literary he has a great desire however to read such works in the old and chapter houses to which they belong for he thinks a volume reads best in one of those venerable chambers where the light struggles through dusty windows and painted glass and that it loses half its zest if taken away from the neighbourhood of the book case and at his suggestion the squire has had the library furnished in this antique taste and several of the windows glazed with painted glass that they may throw a properly tempered light upon the pages of their favourite old authors the parson i am told has been for time meditating a on brand and in which he means to detect them in sundry dangerous errors in respect to popular games and a work to which the squire looks forward with great interest he is also a casual to that long established of national a literary customs and the gentleman s magazine and is one of those that every now and then make an inquiry concerning some custom or rare legend nay it is said that several of his communications have been at least six inches in length he frequently receives by coach from different parts of the kingdom containing volumes and almost for it is singular what an active correspondence is kept up among literary and how soon the fame of any rare volume or unique copy just discovered among the rubbish of a library is among them the parson is more busy than common just now being a little by an advertisement of a work said to be preparing for the press on the of the middle ages the little man has long been gathering together all the tales he could collect of the of former times and he is in a complete fever lest this formidable rival should take the field before him a literary shortly after my arrival at the hall i called at the in company with mr and the general the parson had not been seen for several days which was a matter of some surprise as he was an almost daily visitor at the hall we found him in his study a small dusky chamber lighted by a window that looked into the churchyard and was by a tree his chair was surrounded by and piled upon the floor and his table was covered with books and the cause of his seclusion was a work which he had recently received and with which he had retired in rapture from the world and shut himself up to enjoy a literary undisturbed never did boarding school girl the pages of a sentimental novel or don a romance with more intense delight than did the little banquet on the pages of t is delicious work it was s bi tour a work calculated to an effect on the of a a literary as the adventures of the heroes of the round table on all true knights or the tales of the early american on the ardent spirits of the age filling them with dreams of and mines and f the golden realm of el the good parson had looked forward to this expedition as of far greater importance than those to africa or the north pole with what eagerness had he seized upon the history of the enterprise with what interest had he followed the and his squire in their adventurous among castles and and french and german and penetrating into the prison houses of and exquisitely illuminated and revealing their beauties to the world when the parson had finished a on this most curious and entertaining work he drew forth from a little drawer a manuscript lately received from a correspond a literary ent which had perplexed him sadly it was written in french in very ancient characters and so faded and away as to be almost it was apparently an old drinking song that might have been brought over by one of william the conqueror s followers the writing was just enough to keep a keen antiquity hunter on a doubtful chase here and there he would be completely thrown out and then there would be a few words so plainly written as to put him on the scent again in this way he had been led on for a whole day until he had found himself completely at fault the squire endeavoured to assist him but was equally baffled the old general listened for some time to the discussion and then asked the parson if he had read captain s or george or s songs on the other replying in the negative oh then said the general with a sagacious nod if you want a drinking song i can furnish you with the latest a literary tion i did not know you had a turn for those kind of things and i can lend you the of wit into the bargain i never travel without them they re excellent reading at an inn it would not be easy to describe the odd look of surprise and perplexity of the parson at this proposal or the difficulty the squire had in making the general comprehend that though a jovial song of the present day was but a foolish sound in the ears of wisdom and beneath the notice of a learned man yet a written by a several hundred years since was a matter worthy of the and	48
enough to set whole by the ears i have since pondered much on this matter and have figured to myself what may be the fate of our current literature when by future from among the rubbish of ages what a for instance will become among sober and dusty even his and a songs which are now the mere s of our social moments or the delights of our drawing rooms will then become matters of and painful how many a grave professor will then waste his midnight oil or worry his brain through a long morning endeavouring to restore the pure text or illustrate the hints of come tell me says as kissing and kiss d f and how many an arid old book worm like the worthy little parson will give up in despair after vainly striving to fill up some fatal in of nor is it merely such exquisite authors as that are doomed to the oil of future many a poor who is now apparently sent to oblivion by and will then rise again in fragments and flourish in learned after au thought i time is not such an invariable as he is represented if h do n he likewise up if ha a literary one he another his very furnish matter for new works of and his is more precious than the most costly under his hand trifles rise into importance the nonsense of one age becomes the wisdom of another the levity of the wit into the learning of the and an ancient into infinitely more value than a modern guinea the farm house jt love and hay are thick sown hut come up full of and i was so much pleased with the anecdotes which were told me of ready money jack that i got master a day or two since to take me to his house it was an old fashioned farm house built of brick with curiously twisted chimneys it stood at a little distance from the road with a southern exposure looking upon a soft green slope of meadow there was a small garden in front with a row of humming among beds of sweet and flowers well with bright copper hung on the garden fruit trees were trained up against the cottage and pots of flowers the farm house stood in the windows a fat lay in the sunshine at the door with a sleek cat sleeping peacefully across him mr was from home at the time of our calling but we were received with hearty and homely welcome by his wife a notable woman and a complete pattern for wives since according to master s account she never honest jack and yet to have her own way and to control him in every thing she received us in the main room of the house a kind of parlour and hall with great brown beams of timber across it which mr is apt to point out with some exultation observing that they don t put such timber in houses now a days the furniture was strong and highly polished the walls were hung with coloured prints of the story of the prodigal son who was represented in a red coat and leather breeches over the fire place was a and a hard favoured likeness of ready money jack taken when he was the farm house a young man by the same artist that painted the tavern sign his mother having taken a notion that the had as much right to have a gallery of family portraits as the folks at the hall the good dame pressed us very much to take some refreshment and tempted us with a variety of household so that we were glad to compound by some of her home made while we were there the son and heir apparent came home a young fellow and something of a rustic beau he took us over the premises and showed us the whole establishment an air of homely but substantial plenty prevailed throughout every thing was of the best materials and in the best condition nothing was out of place or ill made and saw every where the signs of a man that took care to have the worth of his money and that paid as he went the farm yard was well under a shed was a cart in trim order in which the farm ready money jack took his wife about the country his well fed horse from the stable and when led out into the yard to use the words of young jack he shone like a bottle for he said the old man made it a rule that every thing about him should fare as well as he did himself i was pleased to see the pride which the young fellow seemed to have of his father he gave us several particulars concerning his habits which were pretty much to the effect of those i have already mentioned he had never suffered an account to stand in his life always providing the money before he purchased any thing and if possible paying in gold and silver he had a great dislike to paper money and seldom went without a considerable sum in gold about him on my observing that it was a wonder he had never been and robbed the young fellow smiled at the idea of any one venturing upon such an for i believe he thinks the old man the farm house would be a match for robin hood and all his w gang i have noticed that master seldom goes into any house without having a world of private talk with some one or other of the family being a kind of universal and we had not been long at the farm before the old dame got him into a corner of her parlour where they had a long whispering conference together in which i saw by	48
his that there were some matters discussed and by bis that he agreed with every thing she said after we had come out the young man accompanied us a little distance and then drawing master aside into a green lane they walked and talked together for nearly half an hour master who has the usual of to every thing to the next friend they meet with let me know that there was a jove in question the young fellow having been smitten with the the house l l charms of the pretty niece of the housekeeper at the hall like most other concerns it had brought its troubles and dame had long been on intimate terms with the housekeeper who often visited the farm house but when the neighbours spoke to her of the like of a match between her son and marry come up she the yery idea the girl had acted as lady s maid and it was beneath the blood of the who had lived on their own lands time out of mind and owed reverence and thanks to nobody to have the heir apparent marry a servant these had faithfully been carried to the housekeeper s ear by one of their mutual go between friends the old housekeeper s blood if not as ancient was as quick as that of dame she had been accustomed to carry a high head at the hall and among the villagers and her faded indignation at the slight cast upon her vol i m l the farm house alliance by the wife of a petty she that her niece had been a rather than a waiting maid to the young ladies thank heavens she was not obliged to work for her and was as idle as any young lady in the land and when somebody died would receive something that would be worth the notice of some folks with all their ready money a bitter had thus taken place between the two worthy and the young people were forbidden to think of one another as to young jack he was too much in love to reason upon the matter and being a little and not standing in much awe of his mother was ready to sacrifice the whole dignity of the to his passion he had lately however had a violent quarrel with his mistress in consequence of some on her part and at present stood aloof the was all her ingenuity to this accidental breach but as is most the case the more she with this the farm house perverse inclination of her son the stronger it grew in the mean time old ready money was kept completely in the dark both parties were in awe and uncertainty as to what might be his way of taking the matter and dreaded to awaken the sleeping lion between father and son therefore the worthy mrs s was full of business and at her wits end it is true there was no great danger of honest ready money s finding the thing out if left to himself for he was of a most temper and by no means quick of apprehension but there was daily risk of his attention being aroused by those which his wife was continually spinning about his nose such is the distracted state of politics in the domestic empire of ready money jack which only shows the and internal dangers to which the best regulated are liable in this perplexed situation of their affairs both mother and son have applied to master for counsel and with all his m i the farm house experience in with other people ij concerns he finds it an exceedingly difficult part to play to agree with both parties seeing that their opinions and wishes are so opposite a coach was a strange monster in those days and the sight of one put horse and man into amazement some said it was a great out of china and some imagined it to he one of the pagan temples in which the adored tlie the water poet i have made casual mention more than once of one of the squire s old the i find that his humour is a source of much entertainment among the young men of the family the particularly takes a mischievous pleasure now and then in rubbing the old man against the grain and then him down again for the old fellow is as ready to up his back as a he rides a venerable hunter called which is a of himself a cross animal that the flesh off its bones and plays all manner of tricks he is as tough and nearly as old as his rider who has ridden him time out of mind and is indeed the only one that can do any thing with him sometimes however they have a complete quarrel and a dispute for mastery and then i am told it is as good as a farce to see the heat they both get into and the contest that for they are quite knowing in each other s ways and in the art of and each other notwithstanding these however there is nothing that old sooner than to question the merits of his horse which he as as a faithful husband will the virtues of the that gives him a curtain lecture every night of his life the young men call old their professor of and in for the they let me into some particulars of the squire s mode of bringing up his children is an odd mixture of and good sense in all the opinions of my worthy host his mind is like modern where plain brick work is set off with pointed arches and quaint though the main ground work of his opinions is correct yet he has a thousand little notions picked up from old books which stand out on the surface of his mind thus	48
in his boys he chose and such like old english writers for bis at an early age he took the lads out of their mother s hands who was disposed as mothers are apt to be to make fine orderly children of them that should keep out of sun and rain and never soil their hands nor tear their clothes in place of this the squire turned them loose to run free and wild about the park without wind or weather he was also particularly attentive in making them bold and expert and these were the days old the enjoyed great importance as the lads were put under his care to practise them at the leaping bars and to keep an eye upon them in the chase the squire always objected to their riding in carriages of any kind and is still a little on this point he often rails against the universal use of carriages and the words of honest to that it was thought says in his a kind of and to of for a young gentleman in the flourishing time of his age to creep into a coach and to from wind and weather our great delight was to out brave the upon a great horse to arm and prepare ourselves to go with and into the field was our sport and and we left unto them for whom they were first invented for ladies and gentlemen and age and impotent people the squire that the english gentle f men have lost much of their and manhood since the introduction of carriages l d compare he will say the fine gentleman of former times ever on horseback and and travel stained but open frank manly and with the fine gentleman of the present day full of and rolling along a in his vehicle the young men of those days were rendered brave and lofty and generous in their notions by almost living in their and having their foaming like proud seas under them there is some thing he adds in a fine horse that makes a man feel more than mortal he seems to have doubled his nature and to have added to his own courage and sagacity the power the speed and of the superb animal on which he is mounted it is a great delight says old to see a young gentleman with his skill and cunning by his voice rod and spur better to manage and to command the great than the strongest with all his strength one while to see him make him tread trot and gallop the ring and one after to see him make him gather up to hear his head steadily to run a full career swiftly to stop a sudden lightly anon after to see him make him advance to to go back and side long to turn on either hand to gallop the gallop to do the the and dance the in to these ideas the squire bad them all on horseback at an early age and them ride slap dash about the country without at hedge or ditch or stone wall to the imminent danger of their necks even the fair was partially included ia this system and under the instructions of old has become one of the best in the county the squire says it is better than all the and pf the breath that ever were invented he the of the ladies in former times when queen elizabeth would scarcely suffer the rain to stop her accustomed ride and then think he will say what nobler i i and sweeter beings it made them what a difference must there be both in mind body between a joyous high spirited dame of those days glowing with health and exercise by every breeze that blows seated and gracefully on her saddle with on head and hawk on hand and her of the present day the pale of and ball rooms sunk languidly in one comer of an carriage the squire s system has been attended with great success for his sons having passed through the whole course of instruction without breaking neck or limb are now spirited and active and have the true englishman s love for a horse if their and frankness are praised in their father s hearing he the old and says they have been taught to ride to shoot and to speak the truth it is true the has now and then practised the old gentleman s doctrines a little in the extreme he is a gay rather s of his horse than his book with a little dash of the though the ladies all declare that he is the flower of the flock the first year that he was sent to oxford he had a appointed to overlook him a dry of the university when he returned home in the the squire made many inquiries about how he liked his college his studies and liis oh as to my sir i ve parted with him some time since you have and pray why so v oh sir hunting was all the go at our college and i was a little short of funds so i discharged my and took a horse you ah i was not aware of that tom said the squire mildly v when tom returned to college his allowance doubled that he might be enabled to keep both horse and love symptoms t i will now begin to sigh read look pale go neatly and be most apparently in love i should not ye surprised if we should have another pair of at the hall for master has informed me in great confidence that he the general of some design upon the susceptible heart of lady i have indeed noticed a growing attentions and courtesy in the towards her lady ship he very much in tier company by her at table and her with long stories about and	48
in those times you might know a gentleman by his hawk horse and gray hound indeed a was seldom seen abroad without his hawk on his fist and even a lady of rank did not think herself completely equipped in riding forth unless she had her held by on her delicate hand it was thought in those excellent days according to an old writer quite sufficient for to their horn and to carry their fair and leave study and learning to the children of mean people knowing the good squire s therefore i have not been surprised at finding that among the various of former times which he has endeavoured to revive in the little world in which he rules he has bestowed great attention on the noble art of in this he of course has been by his master and even the parson has thrown considerable light on their labours by various hints on the subject which he has met with in old english works as to the precious work of that fa dame the gentleman s by and the other well known that were the of ancient they have them at their fingers ends but they have more especially studied some old in the house whereon is represented a party of and stately with caps and feathers mounted on horse with attendants on foot all in animated pursuit of the game the squire has the killing of any in his neighbourhood but gives a liberal for all that are brought him alive so that the hall is well with all kinds of birds of prey on these he and master have exhausted their patience and ingenuity endeavouring to them as it is termed and to train them up for the sport but they have met with continual cheeks and disappointments their school has turned out the most and scholars nor is it the least of their trouble to the who were to act as under them and to take immediate charge of these birds old and the both for a time set their faces against the whole plan of education having been at hearing what he terms a wild goose chase put on a par with a and the having always been accustomed to look upon as which it was his duty to shoot down and nail in against the out houses has at length taken the matter in hand but has done still more mischief by his he is as positive and about this as he is about hunting master has continual with him as to feeding and training the he reads to him long passages from the old authors i have mentioned but who cannot read has a sovereign contempt for all and in treating the according to his own notions which are drawn from his experience in younger days in the of game the consequence is that between these systems the poor birds have had a most trying and unhappy time of it many have fallen victims to s feeding and master s for the latter has gone to work and has given them all the and laid down in the books never were poor so fed and before others have been lost by being but half or tamed for being taken into the field they have after the game quite out of hearing of the call and never returned to school all these disappointments had been petty yet sore to the squire and had made him to about success he has lately however been made happy by the receipt of a fine which master terms a stately it is a present from the squire s friend sir and is no doubt a some ancient line of princes of the air that have long it over their kingdom of from to the very summit of or the brow of ever since the squire received this invaluable present he has been as impatient to sally forth and make proof of it as was don to his suit of there have been some as to whether the bird was in proper health and training but these have been by the vehement desire to play with a new toy and it has been determined right or wrong in season or out of season to have a day s sport in to morrow the hall as usual whenever the squire is about to make some new sally on his is all with the thing miss who is brought up in reverence for all her guardian s has proposed to be of the party and lady has talked also of riding out to the scene of action and looking on this has gratified the old gentleman extremely he it as a omen of the revival of and does not despair but the time will come when it will be again the pride of a fine lady to carry about a noble in preference to a or a lap dog i have amused myself with the bustling preparations of that busy spirit master and the continual he receives from that genuine son of a box old they have had half a dozen about how the hawk is to be prepared for the morning s sport old as usual has always got in a pet upon which master has invariably given up the point observing in a good humoured tone well well have it your own way only don t put yourself in a passion a reply which always the old man ten times more than ever the soaring hawk from fist that flies her doth sometimes to range the about to find her out again and if by sights or sound of bell his he may see wo ho he cries with the man is he of pleasant at an early hour this morning the hall wai in a bustle preparing for the sport of the day i heard master whistling and singing under my window at sunrise as he	48
was pre the for the hawk s legs and could distinguish now and then a of one of his favourite old in time when hound to note that buck be kill d and little boy with pipe of com is tending sheep a field c a hearty breakfast well by cold was served up in the great hall the whole garrison of and on were in motion by from the village the horses were led up and down before the door every body had something to say and something to do and hurried hither and thither there was a of dogs some that were to accompany us being eager to set off and others that were to stay at home being whipped back to their in short for once the good squire s mansion might have been taken as a good specimen of one of the of the good old times breakfast being finished the chivalry of the hall prepared to take the field the fair was of the party in a hunting dress with a light of feathers in her as she mounted her favourite i remarked with pleasure that old forgot his usual and hastened to her saddle and bridle he touched liis cap as she smiled on him and thanked him and then looking round at the other attendants gave a knowing nod of his head in which i read pride and exultation at the charming appearance of his pupil lady had likewise determined to witness the sport she was dressed in her white tied under the chin and a riding habit of the last century she rode her sleek pony whose motion was as easy as a rocking chair and was gallantly escorted by the general who looked not unlike one of the heroes in the old prints of the battle of the parson likewise accompanied her on the other side for this was a learned amusement in which he took great interest and indeed had given much council from his knowledge of old customs at length every thing was arranged and off we set from the hall the exercise on horseback puts one in fine spirits and the scene was gay and the young men of the family accompanied miss she sat lightly and gracefully in her saddle her dancing and waving in the air and the group had a charming effect as they appeared and disappeared among the trees along with the bounding animation of youth the squire and master rode together accompanied by old mounted on the latter bore the hawk on his fist as he insisted the bird was most accustomed to him there was a on foot composed of from the hall and some from the village with two or three for the purpose of starting the game a kind of corps de reserve came on quietly in the rear composed of lady general the parson and a fat footman her gently along on her pony while the general mounted on a tall hunter looked down upon her with an air of the most protecting gallantry for my part being no i kept with this last party or rather behind that i might take in the whole picture and the parson occasionally his pace and on in company with me the sport led us at some distance from the hall in a soft meadow with the moist of spring a little river ran through it bordered by which had put forth their tender early foliage the were in quest of which were said to keep about this stream there was some already among leaders of the sport the squire master and old came every now and then to a pause to consult together like the field officers in an army and i saw by certain motions of the head that was as positive as any old wrong headed german commander as we were up this quiet meadow every sound we made was answered by a distinct echo from the sunny wall of an old building that lay on the opposite margin of the stream and i paused to listen to this spirit of a sound which seems to love such quiet and beautiful places the parson informed me that this was the ruin of an ancient and was supposed by the country people to be haunted by a a kind of rural something like robin good fellow they often fancied the echo to be the voice of the answering them and were rather shy of disturbing it after dark he added that the squire was very careful of this ruin on account of the superstition connected with it as i considered this local habitation of an airy nothing i called to mind the fine description of an echo in s of side o th river lies a wall piece of a which in my opinion gives the best echo that you ever heard so plain in the distinction of our words that many have supposed it a spirit that answers the parson went on to comment on a pleasing and fanciful which the jews of old gave to the echo which they called bath that is to say the daughter of the voice they considered it an supplying in the second temple the want of the and with which the first was honoured the little man was just entering very largely and upon the subject when we were startled by a prodigious shouting and a flight of alarmed by the approach of our forces had suddenly rose from a meadow a cry was put up by the on foot now now is your time the squire and master who were beating up the river banks in quest of a called out eagerly to to keep quiet the old man vexed and bewildered by the confusion of voices completely lost his head in his he slipped off the hood cast off the and away flew the and away the hawk i had	48
person it was like a death warrant and she had nearly caused the death of a sick person by looking in at the window there was also an old man not many years since of a sullen melancholy temperament who had kept two and began to excite talk in the village when fortunately for the public comfort he died shortly after his third watching very probably from a cold that he had taken as the night was it was reported about the village however st mark s eve that he had seen his own phantom pass by him into the church this led to the mention of another superstition of an equally strange and melancholy kind which however is chiefly confined to wales it is respecting what are called corpse candles little wandering fires of a pale light that move about like in the open air and are supposed to the way some corpse is to go one was seen at late at night hovering up and down along the bank of the and was watched by the neighbours until they w ere tired and went to bed not long afterwards there came a comely country from to see her friends who dwelt on the opposite side of the river she thought to ford the stream at the very place where the light had been first seen but was on account of the height of the flood she walked to and fro along the bank just where the candle had moved waiting for the of the water st mark s eve she at length endeavoured to cross but the poor girl was drowned in the attempt there was something mournful in this little anecdote of rural superstition that seemed to affect all the listeners indeed it is curious to remark how completely a conversation of the kind will the attention of a circle and sober down its gaiety however boisterous by degrees i noticed that every one was leaning forward over the table with eyes earnestly fixed upon the parson and at the mention of corpse candles which had been seen about the chamber of a young lady who died on the eve of her wedding day lady turned pale i have witnessed the introduction of stories of the kind into various evening circles they were often commenced in jest and listened to with smiles but i never knew the most gay or the most enlightened of that were not if the conversation continued for any s st mark s eve length of time completely and solemnly interested in it there is i believe a degree of superstition lurking in every mind and i doubt if any one can thoroughly examine all his secret notions and impulses without it hidden perhaps even from himself it seems indeed to be a part of our nature like instinct in animals and to act of our reason it is often found existing in lofty natures especially those that are poetical and a great and extraordinary poet of our day whose life and writings a mind subject to powerful exaltation is said to believe in and secret caesar it is well known was greatly under the influence of such belief and napoleon had his good and evil days and his star as to the worthy parson i have no doubt that he is strongly inclined to superstition he is naturally and passes so much of his time searching out popular traditions and supernatural tales that his mind has probably become by them he has lately st marks eve been in the of concerning supernatural in and the writings of called by the of germany and he the ladies with stories from them that make them almost afraid to go to bed at night i have been charmed myself with some of the wild little which he has from and others such as those of the about the domestic spirits which wake them at night and summon them to go and fish of the deity of thunder who has power of life and death health and sickness and who armed with the rainbow shoots his arrows at those evil that live on the tops of rocks and mountains and the lakes of the or troops of spirits which the air and wander up and down by forests and mountains and the moonlight sides of hills the parson never openly his belief in ghosts but i have remarked that he has a st mark s suspicious way of pressing great names into the defence of supernatural doctrines and making philosophers and saints fight for him he at large on the opinions of the ancient philosophers about or the spirits of the wicked which wandered like about the earth and about those spiritual beings which abode in the air but descended occasionally to earth and mingled among mortals acting as agents between them and the gods he also from the the contemporary of the and according to some the friend of st paul who says that the air is full of spirits of different ranks some destined to exist for a time in mortal bodies from which being they pass and between heaven and earth as agents or messengers in the service of the deity but the worthy little man a bolder tone when he from the fathers of the church such as st who gives it as the opinion of all the doctors that the air is st mark s ev e filled with powers opposed to each other and who says that corrupt and dangerous spirits wander over the earth and seek to console themselves for their own fall by the ruin of the human race and who is of opinion that the souls of the blessed have knowledge of what passes among men the same as angels have i am now alone in my chamber but these have taken such hold of my imagination that i cannot sleep the room in which	48
i sit is just fitted to foster such a state of the walls are hung with the figures of which are faded and look like shapes melting away from sight over the fireplace is the portrait of a lady who according to the housekeeper s tradition to death for the loss of her lover in the battle of she has a most pale and plaintive countenance and seems to fix her eyes mournfully upon me the family have long since retired i have heard their steps die away r st mark s eve and the distant doors clap to after them the murmur of voices and the peal of remote laughter no longer reach the ear the clock from the church in which so many of the former inhabitants of this house lie buried has the awful hour of midnight i have sat by the window and mused upon the dusky landscape watching the lights disappearing one by one from the distant village and the moon rising in her silent majesty and leading up all the silver pomp of heaven as i have gazed upon these quiet groves and shadowy over and imperfectly lighted by streaks of my mind has been crowded by thick coming fancies concerning those spiritual beings which walk the earth unseen when we wake and when we sleep are there indeed such beings is this space between us and the deity filled up by innumerable orders of spiritual beings forming the same between the human soul and st mark s eve divine perfection that we see prevailing from humanity downwards to the meanest insect it is a sublime and beautiful doctrine by the early fathers that there are guardian angels appointed to watch over cities and nations to take care of the welfare of good men and to guard and guide the steps of helpless infancy nothing says st gives us a greater idea of the dignity of our soul than that god has given each of us at the moment of our birth an angel to have care of it even the doctrine of departed spirits returning to visit the scenes and beings which were dear to them during the body s existence though it has been by the absurd of the vulgar in itself is awfully solemn and sublime however lightly it may be yet the attention involuntarily to it whenever it is made the subject of serious discussion its in all ages and countries and even among newly discovered nations that have had no previous st mark s eve of thought with other parts of the world prove it to he one of those mysterious and almost instinctive to which if left to ourselves we should naturally incline in spite of all the pride of reason and philosophy a vague will still in the mind and perhaps will never be perfectly as it is concerning a matter that does not admit of positive demonstration every thing connected with our spiritual nature is full of doubt and difficulty we are fearfully and wonderfully made we are surrounded by mysteries and we are mysteries even to ourselves who yet has been able to comprehend and describe the nature of the soul its with the body or in what part of the frame it is situated we know merely that it does exist but whence it came and when it entered into us and how it is retained and where it is seated and how it are all matters of mere speculation and contradictory theories if then we are thus ignorant of this spiritual essence even while it forms vol i p st mask s ve a part of ourselves and is continually it to our consciousness how can we pretend to ascertain or to deny its powers and operations when released from its prison house it is more the therefore in which this superstition has been degraded than its absurdity that has brought it into contempt raise it above the frivolous purposes to which it has been applied strip it of the gloom and horror with which it has been surrounded and there is none of the whole circle of visionary that could more delightfully the imagination or more tenderly affect the it would become a sovereign comfort at the bed of death soothing the bitter tear wrung from us by the agony of our mortal separation what could be more than the idea that the souls of those whom we once loved were permitted to return and watch over our welfare that affectionate and guardian spirits sat by our pillows when we slept keeping a over our most helpless hours that beauty and innocence which had into the st ma s eve tomb jet smiled unseen u us themselves in those dreams wherein we live over again the of past a belief of this kind would i should think be a new to virtue rendering us even in our most secret from the idea that those we once loved und honoured were invisible witnesses of all our actions it would take away too from that loneliness and which we are apt to f l more and more as we get on in our pilgrimage through the wilderness of this world and find that those who set forward with us lovingly and cheerily on the journey have one by one dropped away from our side place the superstition in this light and i confess i should like to be a in it i see nothing in it that is with the tender and nature of our religion to the wishes and affections of the heart there are departed beings that i have loved as i never again shall love in this world that p st mark s eve have loved me as i never again shall be loved if such beings do ever retain in their blessed the which they felt on earth if they take an interest in the poor	48
concerns of transient and are permitted to hold communion with those whom they have loved on earth i feel as if now at this deep hour of night in this silence and solitude i could receive their with the most solemn but delight in truth such would be too happy for this world they would be with the nature of this imperfect state of being we are here placed in a mere scene of spiritual and restraint our souls are shut in and limited by bounds and by mortal and subject to all the gross of matter in vain would they seek to act of the body and to mingle together in spiritual intercourse they can only act here through their organs their earthly loves are made up of transient embraces and long the st mark s v s intimate friendship of what brief and scattered portions of time does it consist we take each other by the hand and we exchange a few words and looks of kindness and we rejoice together for a few short moments and then days months years and we see and know nothing of each other or that we dwell together for the full season of this our mortal life the grave soon its gates between us and then our spirits are doomed to remain in separation and until they meet again in that more perfect state of being where soul will dwell with soul in communion and there will be neither death nor absence nor any thing else to interrupt our felicity in the foregoing paper i have alluded to the writings of some of the old they abound with wild theories but among them are many truly poetical flights and their ideas are often very beautifully expressed t s eye their speculations on the nature of are curious and fanciful though much resembling the doctrines of the ancient philosophers in the writings of the is an account of the temptation of our first parents and the fall of the angels which the parson pointed out to me as having probably furnished some of the ground work for paradise lost according to the angels said to the deity what is there in man that thou him of such importance is he any thing else than vanity for he can scarcely reason a little on things to which ood replied do you imagine that i will be exalted and only by you here above i am the same below that i am here who is there among you that can call all the creatures by their names there was none found among them that could do so at that moment adam arose and called all the creatures by their name seeing which the angels said among themselves let us consult to how we may cause adam to sin against st mark s v the creator otherwise he will not fail to become our master who was a great prince in the heavens was present at this council with the saints of the first order and the of six bands chose several out of the twelve orders to accompany him and descended below for the purpose of visiting all the creatures which god had created he found none more cunning and more fit to do evil than the serpent the then treats of the and the fall of man of the consequent fall of the demon and the punishment which god inflicted on adam eve and the serpent he made them all come before him pronounced nine on adam and eve and condemned them to death and he and all his band from heaven he cut off the feet of the serpent which had before the figure of a having been mounted on him and he cursed him among all beasts and animals true in the trade of life not in the line for is knit but is i have mentioned some peculiarities of the squire in the education of his sons but i would not have it thought that his instructions were directed chiefly to their personal accomplishments he took great pains also to form their minds and to what he calls good old english principles such as are laid down in the writings of and his there is one author of whom he cannot speak without indignation which is he that he did much for a time to injure the true national character and to introduce instead of open manly sincerity a hollow his he were calculated to chill the delightful enthusiasm of youth to make them ashamed of that romance which is the dawn of generous manhood and to impart to them a cold polish and a premature many of lord s would make a young man a mere man of pleasure but an english gentleman should not be a mere man of pleasure he has no right to such selfish indulgence his ease his leisure his are debts due to his country which he must ever stand ready to discharge he should be a man at all points simple frank courteous intelligent accomplished and informed upright and disinterested one that can mingle among that can cope with that can champion his country and its rights either at home or abroad in a country like england where there is such free and unbounded scope for the exertion of intellect and where opinion and example have such weight with the people every gentleman of fortune and leisure should feel himself bound to employ himself in some way towards the prosperity or glory of the nation in a country where intellect and action are and restrained men of rank and fortune may become and with but an english is and this perhaps is the reason why he is the most offensive and in the world the squire as frank me would often hold forth in this manner to his sons when they were about leaving the paternal roof one to	48
was hanging by a crooked piece of iron over a fire made from dry sticks and leaves and two old in red sat crouched on the grass over their evening cup of tea for these creatures though they live in the open air have their ideas of fireside comforts there were two or three children sleeping on the straw with which the tents were a couple of in the lane and a looking dog was lying before the fire some of the younger vol i q fortune telling were dancing to the music of a fiddle j by a tall slender in an old frock coat with a s feather stuck in his as we approached a girl with a pair of fine eyes came up and as usual to tell our fortunes i could not but admire a certain degree of elegance about the baggage her long black silken hair was curiously in numerous small and put up in a picturesque style that a painter might have been proud to have devised her dress was of figured rather ragged and not over clean but of a variety of most harmonious and agreeable colours for these beings have a singularly fine eye for colours her straw hat was in her hand and a red cloak thrown over one arm the offered at once to have his fortune told and the girl began with the usual of her race but he drew her on one side near the hedge as he said he had no idea of having his secrets overheard i saw he was fortune telling talking to her instead of she to him and by his glancing towards us now and then that he was giving the baggage some private hints when they returned to us he assumed a very serious air said he it s very astonishing how these creatures come by their knowledge this girl has told me some things that i one knew but myself the girl now assailed the general come your honour said she i see by your face you re a lucky man but you re not happy your mind you re not indeed sir but have a good heart and give me a good piece of silver and i ll tell you a nice fortune the general had received all her with a and had suffered her to get hold of his hand but at the mention of the piece of silver he hemmed looked grave and turning to us asked if we had not better continue our walk come my master said the girl you d not be in such a hurry if knew all that i could tell you about a fair lady that has a notion for you come sir old love q fortune telling strong there s many a one comes to see that go away themselves here the girl whispered something in a low voice at which the general coloured up was a little fluttered and suffered to be drawn aside under the hedge where he appeared to listen to her with great earnestness and at the end paid her half a crown with the air of a man that has got the worth of his money the girl next made her attack upon master who however was too old a bird to be caught knowing that it would end in an attack upon his purse about which he is a little sensitive as he has a great notion however of being considered a he her under the chin played her off with rather broad jokes and put on something of the air that we see now and then assumed on the stage by the sad boy gentlemen of the old school ah your honour said the girl with a malicious you were not in such a last year when i told you about the widow you know who but if you had taken a fortune telling friend s advice you d never come away from races with a in your ear l there was a secret sting in this speech that seemed quite to master he jerked away his hand in a pet his whip whistled to his dogs and intimated that it was high time to go home the girl however was determined not to lose her harvest she now turned upon me and as i have a weakness of spirit where there is a pretty face concerned she soon me out of my money and in return read me a fortune which if it prove true and i am determined to believe it wiu make me one of the men in the of i saw that the was at the bottom of all this mystery and was disposed to amuse himself with the general whose tender approaches to the widow have attracted the notice of the wag i was a little curious however to know the meaning of the dark hints which had so suddenly disconcerted master and took occasion to fall in the rear fortune telling with the on our way home when he laughed heartily at my questions and gave me ample information on the subject the truth of the matter is that master has met with a sad since my christmas visit to the hall he used at that time to be about a widow a fine dashing woman as he privately informed me i had supposed the pleasure he betrayed on these occasions resulted from the usual fondness of old for being about getting married and about and being and false hearted i am assured however that master had really persuaded himself the widow had a kindness for him in consequence of which he had been at some extraordinary expense in new clothes and had actually got frank to order him a coat from he began to throw out hints about the importance of a man s settling himself in life before he grew old he would look	48
of dame but what is worse having a of in her disposition showed it on one or two occasions to her lover which produced a downright quarrel and jack being very proud and fiery has absolutely turned his back upon her for several successive sundays the poor girl is full of sorrow and repentance and would fain make up with her lover but he feels his security and stands aloof in this he is doubtless encouraged by his mother who is continually reminding him what he owes to his family for this same family pride seems doomed to be the eternal of lovers as i hate to see a pretty face in trouble i have felt quite concerned for the ever since i heard her story it is a sad thing to be in love at any time but particularly so at this tender season of the love charms year when every living thing even to the very butterfly is sporting with its mate and the green fields and the groves and the singing of the birds and the sweet smell of the flowers are enough to turn the head of a love sick girl i am told that the coolness of young ready money lies very heavy at poor s heart instead of singing about the house as formerly she goes about pale and sighing and is apt to break into tears when her companions are full of merriment mrs the of my lady has had long talks and walks with up and down the avenue of an evening and has endeavoured to squeeze some of her own into the other s nature she speaks with contempt and of the whole sex and to despise all the men as heartily as she does but s loving temper is not to be she has no such thing as hatred or contempt for mankind in her whole composition she has all the simple fondness of heart of poor love charms weak loving woman and her only thoughts at present are how to and her the and love charms which are of sport to the other are serious concerns with this love stricken she is continually trying her fortune in a variety of ways i am told that she has absolutely for six and three having understood that it was a sovereign charm to being married to one s liking within the year she carries about also a lock of her sweetheart s hair and a he once gave her being a mode of producing constancy in a lover she even went so far as to try her fortune by the moon which has always had much to do with lovers dreams and fancies for this purpose she went out in the night of the full moon knelt on a stone in the meadow and repeated the old rhyme au hail to thee moon all hail to thee i pray thee good moon now show to me the youth who my future husband shall be s love charms when she came back to the house she was faint and pale and went immediately to bed the next morning she told the porter s wife that she had seen some one close by the hedge jn the meadow which she was sure was young at any rate she had of him all both of which the old dame assured her were most happy signs it has since turned out that the person in the meadow was old the who was walking his nightly rounds with the great hound so that s faith in the charm is completely shaken the library yesterday the fair made her first appearance down stairs since her accident and the sight of her spread an universal cheerfulness through the household she was extremely pale however and could not walk without pain and difficulty she was assisted therefore to a sofa in the library which is pleasant and retired looking out among trees and so quiet that the little birds come upon the windows and peering curiously into the apartment here several of the family gathered round and devised means to amuse her and make the day pass pleasantly lady lamented the want of some new novel to while away the time and was almost in a pet because the author of vol i r the library had not produced a work for the last three months there was a motion made to call on the parson for some of his old legends or ghost stories but to this lady craft objected as they were apt to give her the general gave a minute account for the sixth time of the disaster of a friend in india who had his leg bitten off by a whilst he was hunting and was proceeding to menace the company with a chapter or two about at length the captain himself and said he believed he had a manuscript tale lying in one corner of his trunk which if he could find and the company were desirous he would read to them the offer was eagerly accepted he retired and soon returned with a roll of blotted manuscript in a very but nearly h nd and a great part written on paper it is one of the said he of my poor friend charles lightly of the the library he was a curious romantic fanciful fellow the favourite and often the unconscious of his fellow officers who entertained themselves with his he was in some of the hardest service in the and distinguished himself hy his gallantry when the intervals of duty permitted he was fond of about the country visiting noted places and was extremely fond of ruins when at his quarters he was a great and passed much of his leisure with his pen in his hand as i was a much younger officer and a very young man he took me in a manner under his care and we became	48
thoughts he blushed at his own intrusion his mind soon became occupied by other objects he passed several days wandering among the piles of architecture those melancholy monuments of an elegant and people he paced the deserted halls of the the paradise of the kings he visited the great court of the lions famous for the of the gallant he gazed with admiration at its painted in gold and its of marble its the student of supported by lions and with his imagination kindled as he wandered among these scenes they were calculated to awaken all the enthusiasm of a youthful mind most of the halls have been by fountains the fine taste of the delighted in the sparkling purity and freshness of water and they erected as it were on every side to that delicate element poetry with architecture in the it breathes along the very walls turned his eye he beheld in wherein the of power and splendour within these walls was confidently predicted alas how has the prophecy been many of the where the fountains had once thrown up their sparkling showers were dry and dusty some of the palaces were turned into gloomy and the bare foot paced through those courts which had once glittered with the array and echoed to the music of chivalry the student of in the course of his the student more than once encountered the old man of the library he was always alone and so full of thought as not to notice any one about him he appeared to be intent upon studying those half buried which are found here and there among the ruins and seem to murmur from the earth the tale of former greatness the greater part of these have since been translated but they were supposed by many at the time to contain revelations and golden of the and as saw the stranger apparently these he felt an eager longing to make his acquaintance and to in his curious but the he had met with at the library him from making any further advances he had directed his steps one evening to the sacred mount which the beautiful valley watered by the the fertile plain of the and all that rich of and mountain that the student of with an earthly paradise it was twilight when he found himself at the place where at the present day are situated the known by the name of the sacred they are so called from in which some of the primitive saints are said to have been burnt at the time of s visit the place was an object of much curiosity in an of these several had recently been discovered engraved on plates of lead they were written in the language excepting one which was in unknown characters the pope had issued a bull forbidding any one under pain of to speak of these the had only excited the greater curiosity and many reports were whispered about that these contained treasures of dark and forbidden knowledge as was examining the place from whence these mysterious had been he again observed the old man of the library wandering among the ruins his curiosity s the student of was now fully awakened the time and place served to it he resolved to watch this after secret and forgotten lore and to trace him to his habitation there was something like adventure in the thing that charmed his romantic disposition he followed the stranger therefore at a little distance at first cautiously but he soon observed him to be so wrapped in his own thoughts as to take little heed of external objects they passed along the skirts of the mountain and then by the shady banks of the they pursued their way for some distance from along a lonely road that led among the hills the gloom of evening was gathering and it was quite dark when the stranger stopped at the of a solitary mansion it appeared to be a mere wing or ruined fragment of what had once been a pile of some consequence the walls were of great thickness the windows narrow and generally secured by iron bars the door was of the student of studded with iron and had been of great strength though at present it was much decayed at one end of the mansion was a tower in the style of architecture the edifice had probably been a country retreat or castle of pleasure during the occupation of by the and rendered sufficiently strong to withstand any casual assault in those warlike times the old man knocked at the a light appeared at a small window just above it and a female head looked out it might have served as a model for one of s saints the hair was beautifully and gathered in a silken net and the complexion as well as could be judged from the light was that soft rich so becoming in southern beauty it is i my child said the old man the face instantly disappeared and soon after a door in the large opened who had ventured near to the caught a transient sight of a delicate female form a pair of fine black eyes darted a look the student of of surprise at seeing a stranger hovering near and the door was closed there was something in this sudden gleam of beauty that wonderfully struck the imagination of the student it was like a brilliant flashing from its dark he sauntered about regarding the gloomy pile with increasing interest a few simple wild notes from among some rocks and trees at a little distance attracted his attention he found there a group of a vagabond race which at that time in spain and lived in and of the hills about the neighbourhood of some were busy about a fire and others were listening to the uncouth music which one of their companions seated on a ledge of	48
the to was now feelings f f a more i ki d his s were t abandoned a of of the he would take a with him and great part of the day under the trees vicinity keeping a eye upon il the i n r of s endeavouring to ascertain what were the walks of his mysterious he found however that she never went out except to mass when she was accompanied by her father he waited at the door of the church and offered her the holy water in the hopes of touching her hand a little office of gallantry common in catholic countries she however modestly declined without raising her eyes to see who made the offer and always took it herself from the she was attentive in her devotion her eyes were never taken from the altar or the priest and on returning home her countenance was almost entirely concealed by her had now carried on the pursuit for several days and was getting more and more interested in the chase but never a step nearer to the game his lurking about the house had probably been noticed for he no longer saw the fair face at the window nor the white arm put forth to water the flowers his only consolation was to repair nightly to the student of his post of observation and listen to her and if by chance he could catch a sight of her shadow passing and before the window he thought himself most fortunate as he was indulging in one of these evening which were complete of the imagination the sound of approaching footsteps made him withdraw into the deep shadow of the ruined opposite to the tower a approached wrapped in a large spanish cloak he paused under the window of the tower and after a little while began a accompanied by his in the usual style of spanish gallantry his voice was rich and manly he touched the instrument with skill and sang with and impassioned eloquence the of his hat was by jewels that sparkled in the moon beams and as he played on the his cloak falling o p from one shoulder showed him to be richly dressed it was evident that he was a person of rank the idea now flashed across s mind the student of that the affections of his unknown beauty might be engaged she was young and doubtless susceptible and it was not in the nature of spanish females to be deaf and insensible to music and admiration the brought with it a feeling of there was a pleasant dream of several days suddenly he had never before experienced any thing of the tender passion and as its morning dreams are always delightful he would fain have continued in the delusion but what have i to do with her thought he i have no claim on her heart nor even on her acquaintance how do i know that she is worthy of affection or if she is must not so gallant a lover as this with his jewels his rank and his detestable music have completely her what idle humour is this that i have fallen into i must again to my books study study will soon chase away all these idle fancies the more he thought however the more he became entangled in the spell which his lively the student op had round him and now that a rival had appeared in addition to the other obstacles that this enchanted beauty she appeared ten times more lovely and desirable it was some slight consolation to him to perceive that the gallantry of the unknown met with no apparent return the tower the light at the window was extinguished the curtain remained and none of the customary were given to intimate that the was accepted the lingered for some time about the place and sang several other tender airs with a taste and feeling that made s heart ache at length he slowly retired the student remained with folded arms leaning against the ruined arch endeavouring to up r enough to depart but there was a romantic fascination that still him to the f it is the last time said he willing to compromise between his feelings and his judgment it is the last time then let me enjoy the dream a few moments longer th of as his eye ranged about the old building to take a farewell look he observed the strange light in the tower which he had noticed on a former occasion it kept beaming up and as before a pillar of smoke rose in the air and hung in volumes it was evident the old man was busied in some of those operations that had gained him the reputation of a throughout suddenly an intense and brilliant glare shone through the followed by a loud report land then a fierce and ruddy glow a figure appeared at the window uttering cries of agony or alarm but immediately dis aj and a body of smoke and flame whirled out of the narrow rushed to the and knocked at it with vehemence he was only answered by loud shrieks and found that the females were already in helpless consternation with an exertion of desperate strength he forced the from its hinges and rushed into the house i the student of he found himself in a small hall and by the light of the moon which entered at the door he saw a staircase to the left he hurried up it to a narrow corridor through which was rolling a volume of smoke he found here the two females in a frantic state of alarm one of them clasped her hands and implored him to save her father the corridor terminated in a flight of steps leading up to the tower he sprang up it to a small door through the of which came a glow of light	48
and smoke was out he burst it open and found himself in an antique chamber furnished with and various apparatus a shattered retort lay on the stone floor a quantity of nearly consumed with various half burnt books and papers were sending up an flame and filling the chamber with stifling smoke just within the threshold lay the he was bleeding his were and he appeared lifeless caught him the student of up and bore him down the stairs to a chamber in which there was a lights and laid him on a bed the female domestic was despatched for such as the house afforded but the daughter threw herself beside her parent and could not be reasoned out of her alarm her dress was all in disorder her hair hung in rich confusion about her neck and bosom and never was there beheld a picture of terror and affliction the skilful of the scholar soon produced signs of returning animation in his patient the old man s wounds though severe were not dangerous they had evidently been produced by the bursting of the retort in his bewilderment he had been enveloped in the stifling which had overpowered his feeble frame and had not arrived to his assistance it is possible he might never have recovered slow degrees he came to his senses he looked about with a bewildered air at the the student of chamber the agitated around and the student who was leaning over him where am i t said he wildly at the sound of his his daughter uttered a exclamation of delight my poor said he embracing her then putting hb hand to his head and taking it away stained with blood he seemed suddenly to recollect himself and to be overcome with ay i cried he all is over with me all gone t all vanished gone in a moment the labour of a lifetime lost t his daughter to soothe him but he became slightly and about malignant and about the habitation of the green lion being destroyed his being dressed and such other administered as his situation required he sunk into a st te of quiet now turned his attention to the daughter whose had been inferior to the student of those of her father having with great difficulty succeeded in her fears he endeavoured to prevail upon her to retire and seek the repose so necessary to her frame to remain by her father until morning i am a stranger said he it is true and my offer may appear but i ee you are lonely and helpless and i cannot help venturing over the limits of mere ceremony should you feel any scruple or doubt however say but a word and i will instantly retire there was a frankness a kindness and a mingled in s that inspired instant confidence and his simple scholar s garb was a recommendation in the house of poverty the females consented to resign the sufferer to his care as they would be the better able to attend to him on the morrow on retiring the old domestic was in her the daughter only looked her thanks but as they shone through the tears that filled her fine black eyes the student thought them a thousand times the most eloquent s the student of here then he was by a singular turn of chance completely within this mysterious mansion when left to himself and the bustle of the scene was over his heart as he looked round the chamber in which he was sitting it was the daughter s room the promised land towards which he had cast so many a longing gaze the furniture was old and had probably belonged to the building in its prosperous days but every thing was arranged with propriety the flowers that he had seen her attend stood in the window a leaned against a table on which stood a and before it lay a and a there reigned an air of purity and serenity about this little place of innocence it was the emblem of a and quiet mind some few articles of female dress lay on the chairs and there was the very bed on which she had slept the pillow on which her soft cheek had the poor scholar was treading enchanted ground for what fairy land has more of magic in it than the of innocence and beauty the student of from various expressions of the old man in his and from what he had noticed on a subsequent to the tower to see that the fire was extinguished had gathered that his patient was an the s stone was an object eagerly sought after by in those days but in consequence of the superstitious prejudices of the times and the frequent of its they were apt to pursue their experiments in secret in lonely houses in and ruins or in the privacy of in the course of the night the old man had several fits of restlessness and delirium he would call out upon and and and other of his art and anon would murmur about and until towards daylight he once more sunk into a sleep when the morning sun darted his rays into the the fair attended by the female domestic came blushing into the chamber the vol t the student of student now took his leave having himself need of repose but obtained ready permission to return and inquire after the sufferer when he called again he found the languid and in pain but apparently suffering more in mind than in body his delirium had left him and he had been informed of the particulars of his and of the subsequent attentions of the scholar he could do little more than look his thanks but did not require them his own heart repaid him for all that he had done and he almost rejoiced in the disaster that had	48
gained him an entrance into this habitation the was so helpless as to need much assistance remained with him therefore the greater part of the day he repeated his visit the next day and the next every day his company seemed more pleasing to the invalid and every day he felt his interest in the latter increasing perhaps the presence of the daughter might have been at the bottom of this solicitude the student of he had frequent and long conversations with the he found him as men of his pursuits were apt to be a mixture of enthusiasm and simplicity of curious and extensive reading on points of little utility with great to the every day of life and profound ignorance of the world he was deeply in singular and obscure branches of knowledge and much given to visionary speculations whose mind was of a romantic cast had himself given some attention to the and he entered upon those with an that delighted the philosopher their conversations frequently turned upon and the great secret the old man would forget his and wounds rise up like a in his bed and into eloquence on his favourite topics when gently of his situation it would but prompt him to another sally of thought alas toy son he would say is not this very and suffering another proof t h student of of the importance of those secrets with which we are surrounded why are we by disease withered by old age and our spirits as it were within us but because we have lost those secrets of life and youth which were known to our parents before their fall to regain these have philosophers been ever since but just s they are on the point of securing the precious secrets for ever the brief period of life is at an end they die and with them all their wisdom and experience nothing as de nothing i wanting for man s perfection but a longer life less crossed with sorrows and to the of the full and perfect knowledge of things at length so far gained on the heart of his patient as to draw from him the outlines of his story de the was a native of and of an ancient and honourable line e in life he had married a beautiful female a one of the the student of families the marriage displeased his father who considered the pure spanish blood by this foreign mixture it is true the lady traced her descent from one of the the most gallant of who had embraced the christian n being from the walls of the injured pride of the father however was not to be appeased he never saw his son afterwards and on dying left him but a scanty portion of his estate the in the piety and bitterness of his heart to the of and the of masses for souls in don resided for a long time in the neighbourhood of in a state of embarrassment and obscurity he devoted himself to intense study having while at the university of a taste for the secret he was enthusiastic and he went on from on branch of knowledge to another until he became zealous in the search after the grand the student of he had at first engaged in the pursuit with the hopes of raising himself firom his present obscurity and the rank and dignity to which his birth entitled him but as usual it ended in absorbing every thought and becoming the business of his existence he was at length aroused from this mental abstraction by the of his household a malignant fever swept off his wife and all his children excepting an infant daughter these losses for a time overwhelmed and him his home had in a manner died away from around him and he felt lonely and forlorn when his spirit revived within him he determined to abandon the scene of his humiliation and disaster to bear away the child that was still left him beyond the scene of and never to return to until he should be enabled to the honours of his line he had ever since been wandering and un settled in his abode sometimes the resident of cities at other times of absolute the student of he had searched meditated on visited of different countries and sought to gather and the rays which had been thrown by various minds upon the secrets of he had at one time travelled quite to to search for the of d and to inspect an urn which had been dug up near supposed to have been buried by and to have contained the grand v while at he had met with an in lore who talked of the in this urn was found in it contained a lesser one in which was a burning lamp two small the one of gold the other of silver both of them full of a very dear liquor on the largest was an inscription stating that shut up in this small vessel elements which he had prepared with great toil there were many among the learned on the subject it was the most received opinion that this was an of that he had discovered the great secret and that these vessels contained liquor one to to gold the other to silver the who found the imagining this precious liquor to be common water every drop so that the art of remains as much a secret ae the student of valuable that must remain in the spanish preserved from the spoils of the and of the probability of meeting with precious writings of and and the great of the schools who it was well known had treated much of but above all he spoke of the of lead which had recently been dug up in the neighbourhood of and which it was confidently believed among contained the lost secrets of the art	48
the once more bent his steps for spain full of hope he had made his way to he had wearied himself in the study of in in and exploring every possible trace left by the in all his wanderings he had been accompanied by through the rough and the smooth the pleasant and the adverse never complain the student of ing but rather seeking to soothe hid cares by her innocent and playful heir instruction had been the employment nd the delight of his hours of she had grown up while they were and had scarcely ever known any home but by his side he was family home every thing to her he had carried her in his arms they first began their had her as an eagle does its young among rocky heights of the m she had about him in childhood in the of the had followed him as a lamb does the over the rugged and into the fair plains of and now she was grown up to support his feeble steps among the ruined of her maternal ancestors his property had gradually wasted away in the course of his travels and his experiments still hope the constant attendant of the had led him on ever on the point of the reward o his labours and ever dis the student of appointed with the that often attended his art he attributed many of his disappointments to the of the malignant spirits that beset the path of the and torment him in his solitary labours it is their constant endeavour he observed to close up every avenue to those sublime truths which would enable man to rise above the abject state into which he has fallen and to return to his original perfection to the evil offices of these he attributed late disaster he had been on the very verge of the glorious discovery never were the indications more completely all was going on when at the critical moment which should have crowned his labours with success and have placed him at the very summit of human power and felicity the bursting of a retort had reduced his and himself to ruins i must now said he give up at the very threshold of success my books and papers are burnt my apparatus is broken i the student of am too old to bear up against these the that once inspired me is gone my poor frame is exhausted by study and and this last misfortune has hurried me towards the grave he concluded in a tone of deep endeavoured to comfort and him but the poor had for once awakened to a consciousness of the worldly ills that were gathering around him and had sunk into despondency after a pause and some and perplexity of brow ventured to make a proposal i have long said he been filled with a love for the secret but have felt too ignorant and to give myself up to them you have acquired experience you have the knowledge of a lifetime it were a pity it should be thrown away you say you are too old to renew the toils of the suffer me to undertake them add your knowledge to my youth and activity and what shall we not accomplish as a pro s the student of fee and a fund on which to proceed i will bring into the common stock a sum ot gold the of a which has enabled me to complete my education a poor scholar cannot boast much but i trust we shall soon put ourselves beyond the reach of want and if we should fail why i must depend like other scholars upon my brains to carry me through the world the philosopher s spirits however were more depressed than the student had imagined this last shock following in the rear of so many disappointments had almost destroyed the reaction of his mind the fire of an however is never so low but that it may be blown again into a flame by degrees the old man was cheered and by the and of his sanguine companion he at length agreed to accept of the services of the student and once more to renew his experiments he objected however to using the student s gold notwithstanding that his own was nearly exhausted but this objection the student op was soon overcome the student insisted on making it common stock and common cause and then how absurd was any delicacy bout such a trifle with m n who looked forward to discovering the philosopher s stone while therefore the was slowly recovering the student busied in getting the once in order it was with the of and with old boxes and of and and half burnt books and as soon as the old man was sufficiently recovered the studies and experiments were renewed the student became a privileged and frequent visitor and was in his toils in the the philosopher daily derived new zeal and spirits from the animation of his he was now enabled to the enterprise with continued exertion having so active a to divide the toil while he was over the writings of and and the student op de and endeavouring to comprehend the language in which thej have locked up their mysteries would occupy himself among the and and keep the furnace in a perpetual glow with all his zeal however for the discovery of the golden art the feelings of the student had not cooled as to the object that first drew him to this mansion during the old man s illness he had frequent opportunities of being near the daughter and every day made him more sensible to her charms there was a pure simplicity and an almost passive gentleness in her manners yet with all this was mingled something whether mere maiden shyness or a consciousness of high descent or a dash of pride or perhaps all	48
united that prevented undue familiarity and made her difficult of approach the danger of her father and the measures to be taken for his relief had at first overcome this and reserve but as he recovered and her alarm the student of subsided she seemed to shrink from the she had indulged with the youthful stranger and to become every day more shy and silent had read many books but this was the first volume of that he had ever studied he had been with the very title page but the further he read the more he was delighted she seemed formed to love her soft black eye rolled languidly under its long silken lashes and wherever it turned it would linger and repose there was tenderness in every beam to him alone she was reserved and distant now that the common cares of the sick room were at an end he saw little more of her than before his admission to the house sometimes he met her on his way to and from the and at such times there was ever a smile and a blush but after a simple salutation she glided ou and disappeared tis plain thought my presence is indifferent if not irksome to her she has s the student of noticed my i and is determined to it nothing but a feeling of gratitude prevents her treating me with marked and then has she not another lover rich gallant splendid musical how i suppose she would turn her eyes from so brilliant a to a poor obscure student among the of her father s r indeed the idea of the continually haunted his mind he felt convinced that he was a favoured ar yet if so why did he not frequent the tower why did he not make his approaches by noon day there was mystery in this dropping and musical courtship surely could not be encouraging a secret oh no she was too too pure too but then the spanish females were so prone to love and and music and moonlight were so and had such a tender soul in every look oh would the poor scholar exclaim clasping his hands the student of oh that i could but once behold those loving eyes beaming on me with a it is incredible to those who have not experienced it on what scanty human life and human love may be supported a dry crust thrown now and then to a starving man will give him a new lease of existence and a faint smile or a kind look bestowed at casual intervals will keep a lover loving on when a man in his sober senses would despair when found himself alone in the his mind would be haunted by one of these looks or smiles which he had received in passing he would set it in every possible light and argue on it with all the self pleasing self logic of a lover the country around him was enough to awaken that of so favourable to the growth of passion the window of the tower rose above the trees of the romantic valley of the and looked down upon some of the loveliest scenery of the where groves of and orange were re vol l v the student of by cool springs and of the purest water the and the wound their shining streams along the plain and gleamed from among its the surrounding hills were covered with and the mountains crowned with snow seemed to melt into the blue sky the delicate airs that played about the tower were by the fragrance of and orange blossoms and the ear was charmed with the fond of the which in these happy regions sings the whole day long sometimes too there was the idle song of the along the solitary road or the notes of the from some group of dancing in the shade all these were enough to fill the head of a young lover with poetic fancies and would picture to himself how he could among those happy groves and wander by those gentle rivers and love away his life with he felt at times impatient at his own weak ness and would endeavour to brush away the student of of the mind he would turn his thought with sudden to his studies or occupy himself in some process but often when he had partially succeeded in fixing his attention the sound of or the soft notes of her voice would come stealing upon the stillness of the chamber and as it were floating round the tower there was no great art in her performance but thought he had never heard music to this it was perfect to hear her forth some of her national those little spanish and that transport the idea to the banks of the or the walls of the and make him dream of beauties and and moonlight never was poor student more sadly beset than love is a troublesome companion in a study at the best of times in the of an his intrusion is terribly disastrous instead of attending u the student of to the and and watching the process of some experiment to his charge the student would get in one of these love dreams from which he would often be aroused by some fatal catastrophe the philosopher on returning from his in the would find every thing gone wrong and in despair over the ruins of the whole day s work the old man however took all quietly for his had been a life of experiment and failure we must have patience my son would he say as all the great masters that have gone before us have had errors and accidents and are what we have to contend with did not two hundred times be fore he could obtain even the matter on which to found his experiments the great too did he not labour	48
four and twenty years before he ascertained the first agent what and hardships did not encounter at the very threshold of his discoveries and de even after he the student of s had attained a knowledge of all the was he not delayed full three years what you consider accidents my son are the nations of our invisible enemies the and golden secrets of nature are surrounded by spirits hostile to man the air about us with them they in the fire of the furnace in the bottom of the and the and are ever on the alert to take advantage of those moments when our minds are wandering from intense meditation on the great truth that we are seeking we must only strive the more to our selves from those gross and earthly feelings which the soul and prevent her from piercing into nature s alas thought if to be from all earthly feeling requires that i should cease to love i fear i shall never discover the philosophers stone in this way matters went on for some time at the s day after day was sending the student s gold in up the chimney the student of every blast of the furnace made him a the poorer without apparently helping him a nearer to the golden secret still the young man stood by and saw piece after piece disappearing without a murmur he had daily an opportunity of seeing and felt as if her favour would be better than silver or gold and that every smile was worth a sometimes in the cool of the evening when the toils of the happened to be suspended he would walk with the in what had once been a garden belonging to the mansion there were still the remains of and and here and there a marble urn or statue and buried among weeds and flowers run wild it was the favourite resort of the in his hours of where he would give fall scope to his visionary flights his mind was with the doctrines he believed in beings some favourable others adverse to his pursuits and in the exaltation of his fancy had often imagined the student of that he held communion with them in his solitary walks about the whispering groves and echoing walls of this old garden when accompanied by he would these evening indeed he sometimes did it out of consideration for his for he feared lest his too close application and his incessant seclusion in the tower should be injurious to his health he was delighted and surprised by this extraordinary zeal and perseverance in so young a and looked upon him as destined to be one of the great of the art lest the student should at the time lost in these the good would fill them up with wholesome knowledge in matters connected with their pursuits and would walk up and down the with his instruction like an ancient philosopher in all his visionary schemes there breathed a spirit of lofty though that won the admiration of the scholar nothing sordid nor nothing petty nor selfish s the student of seemed to enter into his views in respect to the grand discoveries he was on the contrary his imagination kindled with of widely happiness he looked forward to the time when he should be able to go about the earth the comforting the distressed and by his unlimited means and plans for the complete of poverty and all its attendant sufferings and crimes never were schemes for general good for the distribution of boundless wealth and universal devised than by this poor in his ruined tower would attend these lectures with all the of a but there was another circumstance which may have given a secret charm to them the garden was the resort also of where she took her walks of the only exercise that her secluded life permitted as was pacing by the side of his he would often catch a glimpse of the daughter the student of walking about the in the soft twilight sometimes they would meet her unexpectedly and the heart of the student would throb with agitation a blush too would crimson the cheek of but still she passed on and never joined them he had remained one evening until rather a late hour with the in this favourite resort it was a delightful night after a day and the air of the garden was peculiarly the old man was seated on a fragment of a looking like a part of the ruin on which he sat he was his pupil by long lessons of wisdom from the stars as they shone out with brilliant lustre in the dark blue vault of a southern sky for he was deeply in and other of the and talked much of the signature of earthly things and passing events which may be discerned in the heavens of the power of the stars over beings and their influence on the fortunes of the sons of men by degrees the moon rose and shed her the student of gleaming light among the groves apparently listened with fixed attention to the sage but his ear was drinking in the melody of voice who was singing to her in one of the moonlight of the garden the old man having exhausted his theme sat gazing in silent reverie at the heavens could not resist an inclination to steal a look at this beauty who was thus playing the part of the so and musical leaving the in his celestial reverie he stole gently along one of the the music had ceased and he thought he heard the sound of voices he came to an angle of a that had a kind of green recess ornamented by a marble fountain the moon shone full upon the place and by its light he beheld his unknown rival at the feet of he was de her by the	48
within his weapon he rushed furiously upon him and gave him a severe blow with the but received a wound in return the sword at the same moment a blow was inflicted from behind by the who had ascended the ladder it him to the floor and his made their escape the student of by this time the cries of had brought her father and the domestic to the room was found in his bloody and senseless he was conveyed to the chamber of the who now repaid in kind the attentions which the student had once bestowed upon him among his varied knowledge he possessed some skill in which at this moment was of more value than his lore he and dressed the wounds of his which on examination proved less desperate than he had at first apprehended for a few days however his case was anxious and attended with danger the old man watched over him with the affection of a parent he felt a double debt of gratitude towards him on account of his daughter and himself he loved him too as a faithful and zealous and he dreaded lest the world should be deprived of the promising talents of so an an excellent constitution soon his wounds and there was a in the vol i x the student of looks and words of that had a healing on still wounds which he carried ib his heart she displayed the strongest interest in his safety she called him her her it as if her grateful disposition sought in the warmth of its to repay him for past coldness but what most contributed to s recovery was her explanation concerning hb supposed rival it was some time since he had first beheld her at church and he had ever since persecuted her with his attentions he had beset her in her walks until she had been obliged to confine herself to the house except when accompanied by her father he had her with letters and every art by which he could urge a vehement but and suit the scene in the garden was as much of a surprise to her as to her had attracted by her voice and had his way over a ruined part of the wall he had come upon her unawares was her by the student of force and pleading his insulting passion when the appearance of the student interrupted him and enabled her to make her escape she had to mention to her father the persecution which she suffered she wished to spare him anxiety and distress and had determined to confine herself more to the house though it appeared that even here she had not been safe from his daring enterprise inquired whether she knew the of this impetuous admirer she replied that he had made his advances under a name but that she had heard him once called by the name of don de knew him by report for one of the most determined and dangerous in all artful accomplished and if he chose to be so but daring and headlong in the pursuit of his pleasures violent and in his he rejoiced to find that had been proof against his and had been inspired x the student of with by bis splendid but he trembled to think of the dangers she hi run and he felt solicitude the dangers that must yet her at present however it was probable the enemy had a temporary the traces of blood had been found for some distance from the ladder until they were lost among and as nothing had been heard or seen of him since it was concluded that he had been seriously wounded as the student recovered from his wounds he was enabled to join and her father in their domestic intercourse the chamber in which they usually met had probably been a saloon of state in former times the floor was of marble the walls partially covered with remains of the chairs richly carved and gilt were with age and covered with and tattered against the wall hung a long rusty the only that the old man retained of the chivalry of his ancestors there might have been the student of thing to provoke a smile in the contrast between the mansion and its inhabitants between present poverty and the traces of departed grandeur but the fancy of the student had thrown so much romance about the edifice and its inmates that every thing was clothed with charms the philosopher with his pride and his strange pursuits to with the ruin he and there was a native elegance of spirit about the daughter th t showed she would have the mansion in its happier days what delicious moments were these to the was no longer and reserved she was naturally and confiding though the kind of persecution she had experienced from one admirer had rendered her for a time suspicious and towards the other she now felt an entire confidence in the sin and worth of mingled with an overflowing gratitude when her eyes met his they beamed with sympathy and kindness and the student of no longer haunted by the idea of a favoured rival once more to success at these domestic meetings however he had little opportunity of paying his court except by looks the supposing him like himself absorbed in the study of endeavoured to cheer the of his recovery by long conversations on the art he even brought several of his half burnt volumes which the student had once rescued from the flames and rewarded him for their preservation by reading copious passages he would enter tain him with the great and good acts of which he effected through means of the philosopher s stone and building churches and what not or with the of king and the answers of the roman of or the profound questions which a of the province of put to the	48
devil touching the secrets of and the devil s replies the student of all these were in language almost to the ear of the indeed the old man delighted in the mystic phrases and in which the writers that have treated of have wrapped their communications rendering them incomprehensible except to the with what rapture would he his voice at a triumphant passage announcing the grand cry thou shalt see would he exclaim in the words of henry the stone of the philosophers our king go forth of the of his into the theatre of this world that is to say and made perfect a shining a most temperate splendour whose most subtle and parts are inseparable united into one with a mixture exceeding equal transparent as crystal shining red like a permanently colouring or ringing in all temptations or yea in the of the burning itself and the of the eternal wisdom the student of devouring and in the most vehement persecution of the fire always and permanent as a the student had a high veneration for the fathers of and a profound respect for his but what was henry or even himself compared to the countenance of which presented such a page of beauty to his perusal while therefore the good was out knowledge by the hour his would forget books every thing but the lovely object before him too in the science of the heart was gradually becoming fascinated by the silent attentions of her lover day by day she seemed more and more perplexed by the and strangely pleasing emotions of her bosom her eye was often cast down in thought stole to her cheek without any apparent cause and light half suppressed sighs would follow these short fits of musing her little though the same that she had the student of always sung yet breathed a more tender spirit either the tones of her voice were more soft and touching or some passages were delivered with a feeling which she had never before given them besides his love for the had a pretty turn for music and never did philosopher touch the more as by degrees he conquered the mutual embarrassment that kept them asunder he ventured to accompany in some of her songs he had a voice full of fire and tender ness as he sang one would have thought from the of his companion that he had been pleading his own passion in her ear let those who would keep two u hearts asunder beware of music oh this leaning over chairs and the same music book and of voices and melting away in the german is nothing to it the worthy saw nothing of all this his mind could admit of no idea that was not connected with the discovery of thi the of grand and he supposed his youthful equally devoted he was a mere child as to human nature and as to the passion of love whatever he might once have felt of h he had long since i that there was such an idle passion in existence but while he dreamed the silent went on the very quiet and seclusion of the place were favourable to the growth of romantic passion the opening bud of love was able to put forth leaf by leaf without an adverse wind to check its growth there was neither friendship to chill by its advice nor envy to by its nor an observing world to look on and stare it out of countenance there was neither declaration nor vow nor any other form of s school their hearts mingled together and understood each other without the aid of language they into the current of affection unconscious of its depth and thoughtless of the rocks that might beneath its e happy lovers who the student of wanted nothing to make their felicity complete but the discovery of the philosophers stone at length s health was sufficiently restored to enable him to to his in he felt uneasy however at leaving the tower while lurking danger might surround its almost inmates he dreaded lest don recovered from his wounds might plot some new attempt by secret art or open violence from all that he had heard he knew him to be too to suffer his defeat to pass and too rash and fearless when his arts were to stop at any daring deed in the of his purposes he urged his apprehensions to the and his daughter and proposed that they should abandon the dangerous vicinity of i have relations said he in poor indeed worthy and affectionate among them you will find and quiet and we may there pursue our labours sl the student of he went on to paint the beauties and delights of with all the fondness of a native and all the eloquence with which a lover the fields and groves which he is as the scenes of his happiness his eloquence backed by the apprehensions of was successful with the who indeed had led too unsettled a life to be particular about the place of his residence and it was determined that as soon as s health was perfectly restored they should abandon the tower and seek the delicious neighbourhood of here are the strongest the sweetest the excellent st the best and st females of all spain the animals make themselves beds of and other fragrant flowers and one is at sea if the blow rom the shore he may smell this l he come in sight of it many ofi by the strong scent it casts as it is the most pleasant so it is also the st of all spain and they commonly call it the second italy which made the whereof many thou sands were d and banish d hence to to think that paradise was in that part of the heavens which hung over this s letters the student of to	48
the music he had the student of remarked a group of men in the shadows of the trees whispering together they were enveloped in the broad hats and great so much worn by the spanish and while they were regarding himself and attentively seemed anxious to avoid observation not knowing what might be their character or intention he hastened to quit a place where the gathering shadows of evening might expose them to intrusion and insult on their way down the hill as they passed through the wood of elms mingled with and that skirts the road leading from the he again saw these men apparently following at a distance and he afterwards caught sight of them among the trees on the banks of the he said nothing on the subject to nor her father for he would not awaken unnecessary alarm but he felt at a loss how to ascertain or to any that might be against the inhabitants of the tower he took his u ve of them late at night full ol y the student of this perplexity as he left the dreary old pile he saw some one lurking in the shadow of the wall apparently watching his movements he hastened after the figure but it glided away and disappeared among some ruins shortly after he heard a low whistle which was answered from a little distance he had no longer a doubt but that some mischief was on foot and turned to hasten back to the tower and put its inmates on their guard he had scarcely turned however before he found himself suddenly seized from behind by some one of strength his struggles were in vain he was surrounded by armed men one threw a mantle over him that stifled his cries and enveloped him in its folds and he was hurried off with irresistible rapidity the next day passed without the appearance of at the mist s another and another day succeeded and yet he did not come nor had any thing been heard of him at his lodgings his absence caused at first surprise and conjecture and at length alarm the student of recollected the singular of the ballad singer upon the mountain which seemed to warn her of impending danger and her mind was full of vague she sat listening to every sound at the gate or footstep on the stairs she would take up her and strike a few notes but it would not do her heart was sickening with suspense and anxiety she had never before felt what it was to be really lonely she now was conscious of the force of that attachment which had taken possession of her breast for never do we know how much we love never do we know how necessary the object of our love is to our happiness until we experience the weary void of separation the philosopher too felt the absence of his almost as sensibly as did his daughter the of the youth had inspired him with new and had given to his labours the charm of full companionship however he had resources and of which his daughter was destitute his pursuits were of a nature to occupy every thought thi student of and keep the spirits in a state of continual excitement certain indications too had lately manifested themselves of the most favourable nature forty days and forty nights had the process gone on successfully the old man s hopes were constantly and he now considered the glorious moment once more at hand when he should obtain not merely the major but likewise the the means of gold and of existence he remained therefore continually shut up in his watching his furnace for a moment s might once more defeat all his expectations he was sitting one evening at one of his solitary wrapped up in meditation the hour was late and his neighbour the owl was from the of the tower when he heard the door open behind him supposing it to be his daughter coming to take her leave of him for the night as was her frequent practice he called her by name but a harsh voice met his ear in reply he was grasped by the arms and looking up perceived three strange men the student of in the chamber he attempted to shake them off but in vain he called for help but they at his cries peace cried one think st thou the servants of the most holy are to be by thy comrades away with him without his and entreaties they seized upon his books and papers took some note of the apartment and the and then bore him off a prisoner left to herself had passed a sad and lonely evening seated by a which looked into the garden she had watched star after star sparkle out of the blue depths of the sky and was indulging a crowd of anxious thoughts about her lover until the rising tears began to flow she was suddenly alarmed by the sound of voices that seemed to come from a distant part of the mansion there was not long after a noise of several persons descending the stairs surprised at these unusual sounds in their lonely habitation she the student of remained for a few moments in a state of trembling yet indistinct apprehension when the servant rushed into the room with terror in her countenance and informed her that her father was carried off by armed men did not stop to hear but flew down stairs to overtake them she had scarcely passed the threshold when she found herself in the grasp of strangers away away cried she wildly do not stop me let me follow my father we come to conduct you to him said one of the men respectfully where is he then v he is gone to replied the man an unexpected circumstance requires his presence	48
there immediately but he is among friends we have no friends in said drawing back but then the idea of rushed into her mind something relating to him might have called her father thither is de with him demanded she with agitation the student of i know not replied the man it is very possible i only know that your father is among friends and is anxious for you to follow him let us go then cried she eagerly the men led her a little distance to where a mule was waiting and assisting her to mount they conducted her slowly towards the city was on that evening a scene of fanciful it was one of the of the an association of the nobility to keep up some of the gallant customs of ancient chivalry there had been a representation of a in one of the squares the streets would still occasionally with the beat of a solitary drum or the of a trumpet from some straggling party of sometimes they were met by richly dressed in ancient attended by their and at one time they passed in sight of a palace brilliantly illuminated from whence came the mingled sounds of music and the dance shortly after they came to the square where the mock had been held it s the student of was thronged by the themselves among and where were sold and the glare of showed the temporary galleries and gay coloured and and other of the show the of endeavoured to keep out of observation and to a gloomy part of the square but they were detained at one place by the pressure of a crowd surrounding a party of wandering singing one of those of which the spanish are so passionately fond the which were held by some of the crowd threw a strong mass of light upon and the sight of so beautiful a being without or veil looking so bewildered and conducted by men who seemed to take no gratification in the surrounding gaiety occasioned expressions of curiosity one of the ballad singers approached and striking her with peculiar earnestness began to sing a air full of sinister started with surprise it was the same ballad singer that had addressed the student of her in the garden of it was the same air that she had then sung it spoke of impending dangers they seemed indeed to be around her she was anxious to speak with the girl and to ascertain whether she really had a knowledge of any definite evil that was threatening her but as she attempted to address her the mule on which she rode was suddenly seized and led forcibly through the throng by one of her while she saw another addressing menacing words to the ballad singer the latter raised her hand with a warning gesture as lost sight of her while she was yet lost in perplexity caused by this singular occurrence they stopped at the gate of a large mansion one of her attendants knocked the door was opened and they entered a paved court where are we t demanded with anxiety at the house of a friend replied the man ascend this staircase with me and in a moment you will meet your father they ascended a staircase that led to a the student of of splendid apartments they passed through several until they came to an inner chamber the door opened some one approached but what was her terror at not her father but don the men who had seized upon the had at least been more honest in their professions they were indeed of the he was conducted in silence to the gloomy prison of that horrible it was a mansion whose very aspect withered joy and almost shut out hope it was one of those hideous which the bad passions of men up in this fair world to rival the fancied of and the accursed day after day went heavily by without any thing to mark the lapse of time but the decline and re appearance of the light that feebly through the narrow window of the in which the unfortunate was buried rather than confined his mind was harassed with and fears about his daughter so helpless and inexperienced he endeavoured to gather tidings of her from the student of the man who brought his daily portion of food the fellow stared as if astonished at being asked a question in that mansion of silence and mystery but departed without saying a word every succeeding attempt was equally fruitless the poor was oppressed by many and it was not the least that he had been again interrupted in his labours on the very point of success never was so near the golden secret a little longer and all his hopes would have been realized the thoughts of these disappointments afflicted him more even than the fear of all that he might suffer from the merciless his waking thoughts would follow him into his dreams he would be transported in fancy to his busied again among and and surrounded by by d by and the other masters of the sublime art the moment of would arrive a form would rise out of the furnace holding forth a vessel containing the precious but before he could the student of grasp the prize he would awake and find himself in a all the devices of ingenuity were employed to the old man and to draw from him evidence that might be brought against himself and might certain secret information that had been given against him he had been accused of and and a cloud of evidence had been secretly brought forward to the charge it would be tedious to all the circumstances apparently which had been by the secret the silence which prevailed about the tower its the very quiet of its inhabitants had been as proofs that something sinister was within the	48
s conversations and in the garden had been overheard and the lights and strange appearances at night in the tower were given with violent shrieks and were said to have been heard from thence at midnight when it was confidently the student of asserted the old man raised familiar spirits by his and even compelled the dead to rise from their graves and answer to his the according to the custom of the was kept in complete ignorance of his of the witnesses produced against him even of the crimes of which he was accused he was examined generally whether he knew why he was arrested was of any guilt that might deserve the notice of the holy office he was examined as to his country his life his habits his pursuits his actions and opinions the old man was frank and simple in his replies he was conscious of no guilt capable of no art practised in no after receiving a general to himself whether he had not committed any act deserving of punishment and to prepare by confession to secure the well known mercy of the he was to his cell he was now visited in his by of the who under the student of of sympathy and kindness came to the of his imprisonment with friendly conversation they casually introduced the subject of on which they touched with great caution and pretended indifference there was no need of such the honest had no suspicion in his nature the moment they touched upon his favourite theme he forgot his misfortunes and imprisonment and broke forth into about the divine science the conversation was turned to the discussion of beings the readily his belief in them and that there had been instances of their attending upon philosophers and to their wishes he related many miracles said to have been performed by through the aid of spirits or that he was set up by the in opposition to the and was even regarded with reverence by many christians the eagerly demanded whether he believed to be a true and worthy the student of the piety of the protected him even in the midst of his simplicity for he condemned as a and an no art could draw from him an admission that he had ever employed or spiritual in the of his pursuits though he believed himself to have been frequently by their invisible interference the were sorely vexed at not being able to him into a confession of a criminal nature they attributed their failure to craft to obstinacy to every cause but the right one namely that the harmless visionary had nothing guilty to confess they had abundant proof of a secret nature against him but it was the practice of the to endeavour to procure confession from the prisoners an da f was at hand the worthy fathers were eager for his conviction for they were always anxious to have a good number of condemned to the stake to grace these solemn triumphs he was at length brought to a final examination vol i ths student of the chamber of trial was spacious and gloomy at one end was a huge the standard of the a long table ex tended through the centre of the room at which sat the and their secretary at the other end a stool was placed for the prisoner he was brought in according to custom bare headed and bare legged he was by confinement and affliction by constantly brooding over the unknown fate of his child and the disastrous interruption of his experiments he sat bowed down and his head sunk upon his breast his whole appearance that of one past hope abandoned and by himself given over the accusation alleged against him was now brought forward in a specific form he was called upon by name de formerly of to answer to the charges of and he was told that the charges were amply and was asked whether he was ready by full m to throw himself upon the mercy of the holy the student of the philosopher some slight surprise at the nature of the accusation but i am innocent what proof have you to give of your innocence v it rather remains for you to prove your charges said the old man i am a stranger and a in the land and know no one out of the doors of my dwelling i can give nothing in my but the word of a nobleman and a the shook his head and went on to the various inquiries that had before been made as to his mode of life and pursuit the poor was too feeble and too weary at heart to make any but brief replies he requested that some man of science might examine his and all his books and papers by which it would be made abundantly evident that he was merely engaged in the study of to this the observed that had become a mere covert for secret and deadly sins that the of it were apt to z the student of scruple at no means to satisfy their of gold some had been known to use and ceremonies to the aid of evil spirits nay even to sell their souls to the enemy of mankind so that they might riot in boundless wealth while living the poor had heard all patiently or at least he had to his name otherwise than by his word he had smiled at the of when applied merely to himself but when the sublime art which had been the study and passion of his life was assailed he could no longer listen in silence his head gradually rose from his bosom a colour came in faint streaks to his cheek played about disappeared returned and at length kindled into a burning glow the dried from his forehead his eyes which had been nearly extinguished lighted up again and	48
about have you nothing better than this to offer in your defence the old man slowly resumed his seat but did not a reply the fire that had beamed in his eye gradually expired his the student of cheek resumed its but he did not into he sat with a serene patient look like one prepared not to contend but to su r his trial continued for a long time with cruel mockery of justice for no witnesses were ever in this court confronted with the accused and the latter had continually to defend him self in the dark some unknown and powerful enemy had alleged charges against the unfortunate but who he could not imagine stranger and as he was in the land and harmless in his pursuits how could he have provoked such hostility the tide of secret testimony however was too strong against him he was convicted of the crime of magic and condemned to his sins at the stake at approaching da while the unhappy was under going his trial at the his daughter was exposed to trials no less severe don into whose hands she had fallen was as has before been intimated the most daring and lawless in all he was the student of a man of hot blood and fiery passions who stopped at nothing in the gratification of his de yet with all this he possessed manners address and accomplishments that had made him eminently successful among the sex from the palace to the cottage he had extended his his harassed the of half the husbands in no balcony was too high for his adventurous attempts nor any cottage too lowly for his yet he was as as he was ardent success had made him vain and capricious he had no sentiment to attach him to the victim of his arts and many a pale cheek and fading ey e amidst the sparkling of jewels and many a breaking hearty throbbing under the rustic bore testimony to his triumphs and his he was however by easy and wearied of a life of continual and prompt gratification there had been a degree of and enterprise in the pursuit of that he had never before experienced it had aroused him from the monotony of mere the student of life and stimulated him with the of adventure he had become an in pleasure and now that he had this beauty in his power he was determined to his enjoyment by the gradual conquest of her scruples and of her virtue he was vain of his person and address which he thought no woman could long withstand and it was a kind of trial of skill to endeavour to gain by art and fascination what he was secure of obtaining at any time by violence when therefore was brought into his presence by his he affected not to notice her terror and surprise but received her with formal and stately courtesy he was too wary a to flutter the bird when just entangled in the net to her eager and wild inquiries about her father he begged her not to be alarmed that he was safe and had been there but was engaged elsewhere in an affair of moment from which he would soon return in the mean time he had left word that she should await his return in patience after some the student of stately expressions of general civility don made a bow and retired the mind of was full of trouble and perplexity the stately formality of don was so unexpected as to check the and reproaches that were springing to her lips had he had evil designs would he have treated her with such ceremony when he had her in his power but why then was she brought to his house was not the mysterious disappearance of connected with this a thought suddenly darted into her mind had again met with don they had fought was wounded perhaps dying i it was him to whom her father had gone it was at his re quest that don had sent for them to soothe his dying moments these and a than sand such horrible suggestions harassed her mind but she tried in vain to get tion from the they knew nothing but that her father had been there had gone and would soon return the student of thus passed a night of tumultuous thought and vague yet cruel apprehensions she knew not what to do or what to believe whether she ought to fly or to remain but if to fly how was she to herself and where was she to seek her father as the day dawned without any intelligence of him her alarm increased at length a message was brought from him saying that circumstances prevented hi return to her but begging her to hasten to him without delay with an eager and throbbing heart did she set forth with the men that were to conduct her she little thought however that she was merely changing her prison house don had feared lest she should be traced to his residence in or that he might be interrupted there before he could accomplish his plan of he had her now conveyed therefore to a mansion which he possessed in one of the in the neighbourhood of a lonely but beautiful retreat in vain on her arrival did she look around for her f ther or the student of none but strange faces met her eye profoundly respectful but who knew nor saw any thing but what their master pleased she had scarcely arrived before don made his appearance less stately in his manner but still treating her with the utmost delicacy and deference was too much agitated and alarmed to be baffled by his courtesy and became vehement in her demand to be conducted to her father don now put on an appearance of the greatest embarrassment	48
and emotion after some delay and much pretended confusion he at length confessed that the of her father was all a a mere false alarm to procure him the present opportunity of having access to her and endeavouring to that and conquer that which he declared had almost driven him to distraction he assured her that her father was again at home in safety and occupied in his usual pursuits having been fully satisfied that his daughter was in honourable hands and would the student of soon be restored to him it was in vain that she threw herself at his feet and implored to be set at liberty he only replied by gentle entreaties that she would pardon the seeming violence he had to use and that she would trust a little while to his honour you are here said he absolute mistress of every thing nothing shall be said or done to offend you i will not even intrude upon your ear the unhappy passion that is devouring my heart should you require it i will even absent myself from your presence but to part with you entirely at present with your mind full of doubts and would be worse than death to me no beautiful you must first know me a little better and know by my conduct that my passion for you is as delicate and respectful as it is vehement the assurance of her father s safety had relieved from one cause of anxiety only to render her fears the more violent on her own account don however continued to treat her with artful deference vol i a a s the student of that her apprehensions it is true she found herself a captive but no advantage appeared to be taken of her helplessness she soothed herself with the idea that a uttle while would suffice to convince don of the of his hopes and that he would be induced to restore her to her home her of terror and affliction therefore subsided in a few days into a passive yet anxious melancholy with which she awaited the hoped for event in the mean while all those were employed that are calculated to charm the senses the feelings and the heart into tenderness don was a master of the arts of his very mansion breathed an atmosphere of languor and delight it was here amidst twilight and dreamy chambers buried among groves of orange and that he shut himself up at times from the world and gave free scope to the gratification of his pleasures the student of the apartments were furnished in the most and manner the silken swelled to the touch and sunk in softness beneath the slightest pressure the paintings and statues all told some classic tale of love managed however with an in delicacy which while it banished the that might disgust was the more calculated to excite the imagination there the blooming was seen not breaking away to pursue the boisterous chase but crowned with flowers and in the embraces of celestial beauty there his in the shade with the sea spreading in serenity before them there were depicted groups of and fondly in summer and listening to the liquid of the reed or the wanton surprising some during her slumber there too on the might be seen the stealing in the mystery of moonlight to kiss the sleeping while a a the student of and in immortal marble breathed on each other s lips the early kiss of love the ardent rays of the sun were excluded from these halls soft and tender music from unseen floated around seeming to mingle with the that were from a thousand flowers at night when the moon shed a fairy light over the scene the tender would rise from among the of the garden in which the fine voice of don might often be distinguished or the would be heard along the mountain breathing in its pensive the very soul of a lover s melancholy various were also devised to her loneliness and to charm away the idea of confinement groups of dancers performed in the splendid the various picturesque dances of their country or represented little which turned upon some pleasing scene of pastoral and courtship sometimes there were the student of bands of singers who to the romantic forth full of passion and tenderness thus all about her to pleasure and but the heart of turned with from this idle mockery the tears would rush into her eyes as her thoughts from this scene of splendor to the humble but virtuous home from whence she had been betrayed or if the power of music ever soothed her into a tender reverie it was to dwell with fondness on the image of but if don deceived by this transient calm should attempt at such time to whisper his passion she would start as from a dream and from him with involuntary shuddering she had passed one long day of more than ordinary sadness and in the evening a band of these hired were all the powers of song and dance to amuse her but while the lofty saloon with their and the light sound of feet upon its pavement kept time to the student of the of the song poor with her face buried in the silken couch on which she r was only rendered more wretched by the sound of gaiety at length her attention was caught by the voice of one of the singers that brought with it some indefinite recollections she raised her head and cast an anxious look at the who as usual were at the lower end of the saloon one of them advanced a little before the others it was a female dressed in a fanciful pastoral garb suited to the character she was but her countenance was not to be mistaken it was the same ballad singer that had twice crossed her path and	48
given her mysterious of the lurking mischief that surrounded her when the rest of the performances were concluded she seized a and tossing it aloft danced alone to the melody of her own voice in the course of her dancing she approached to where and as she struck the contrived to throw a folded paper on the couch seized it with the student of s d and concealed it in her bosom the singing and dancing were at an end the crew retired and left alone hastened with anxiety to the paper thus mysteriously conveyed it was written in an agitated and almost hand writing be on your guard you are surrounded by treachery trust not to the forbearance of don you are marked out for his prey an humble victim to his gives you this warning she is by too many dangers to be more explicit your father is in the of the the brain of as she read this dreadful she w as less filled with alarm at her own danger than horror at her father s situation the moment don appeared she rushed and threw herself at his feet imploring him to save her father don started with astonishment but immediately his self possession endeavoured to soothe her by his and by assurances that her father was in safety she was not to be her fears were too the student of much aroused to be with she declared her knowledge of her father s being a prisoner of the and her frantic that he would save him don paused for a moment in perplexity but was too to be easily confounded that your father is a prisoner replied he i have long known i have it from you to save you from fruitless anxiety you now know the real reason of the restraint i have put upon your liberty i have been protecting instead of you every exertion has been made in your father s favour but i regret to say the proofs of the of which he stands charged have been too strong to be still added he i have it in my power to save him i have influence i have means at my it may involve me it is true in difficulties perhaps in disgrace but what would i not do in the hopes of being rewarded by your favour speak beautiful said he his eyes with sudden eagerness it is with you to say the word that your father s fate one kind the student of l word say but you will be mine and you will behold me at your feet your father at liberty and in and we shall all be happy drew back from him with scorn and my father exclaimed she is too innocent and to be convicted of crime this is some base some cruel don repeated his and with them also his proposals but his eagerness its mark her indignation and her incredulity were alike awakened by his base suggestions and he retired from her presence checked and awed by the sudden pride and dignity of her the unfortunate now became a prey to the most anxieties don saw that the mask had fallen from his face and that the nature of his was revealed he had gone too far to his steps and assume the affectation of tenderness and respect indeed he was and at her to his attractions and now only sought to subdue her through c the student of her fears he daily represented to her the dangers that threatened her father and that it was in his power alone to them was still incredulous she was too ignorant of the nature of the to know that even innocence was not always a protection from its and she confided too surely in the virtue of her father to believe that any accusation could prevail against him at length don to give an blow to her confidence brought her the of the approaching da f in which the prisoners were she glanced her eye over it and beheld her father s name condemned to the stake for for a moment she stood with horror don seized upon the transient calm think now beautiful said he with a tone of tenderness his life is still in your hands one word from you one kind word and i can yet save him monster wretch cried she coming to herself and from him with tis you that are the the student of s s cause of this tis you that are his murderer then wringing her hands she broke forth into exclamations of the most frantic agony the saw the torture of her soul and anticipated from it a triumph he saw that she was in no mood during her present to listen to his words but he trusted that the horrors of lonely nation would break down her spirit and subdue her to his will in this however he was disappointed many were the of mind of the wretched one time she would embrace his knees with piercing at another she would shrink with nervous horror at his very approach but any intimation of his passion only excited the same emotion of and at length the fatal day drew nigh tomorrow said don as he left her one evening to morrow is the da f to morrow you will hear the sound of the bell that your father to his death you will almost see the smoke that rises from his funeral pile i leave you to yourself it is yet the student of in my power to save him think whether you can stand to morrow s horrors without shrinking think whether you can endure the that you were the cause of his death and that merely through a in refusing proffered happiness what a night was it to her heart already harassed and almost broken by repeated and protracted anxieties her strength wasted	48
and on every side horrors awaited her her father s death her there seemed no escape from misery or is there no relief from man no pity in heaven exclaimed she what what have we done that we should be thus wretched as the dawn approached the fever of her mind arose to agony a thousand times did she try the doors and windows of her apartment in the desperate hope of escaping alas with all the splendor of her prison it was too faithfully secured for her weak hands to work like a poor bird that beats its wings against its gilded cage until it sinks the student of panting in despair so she threw herself on the floor in hopeless anguish her blood grew hot in her veins her tongue was her temples with violence she gasped rather than breathed it seemed as if her brain was on fire blessed virgin exclaimed she clasping her hands and turning up her strained eyes look down with pity support me in this dreadful hour just as the day began to dawn she heard a key turn softly in the door of her apartment she dreaded lest it should be don and the very thought of him gave her a sickening pang it was a female clad in a rustic dress with her face concealed by her she stepped silently into the room looked cautiously round and then her face revealed the well known features of the ballad singer uttered an exclamation of surprise almost of joy the unknown started back pressed her finger on her lips silence and beckoned her to follow she hastily wrapped herself in her veil and obeyed they passed with quick but the student of noiseless steps through an across a spacious hall and along a corridor all was silent the household was yet locked in sleep they came to a door to which the unknown applied a key heart her she knew not but some new treachery was menacing her she laid her cold hand on the stranger s arm whither are you leading met said she to liberty replied the other in a whisper do you know the passages about this mansion but too well replied the girl with a melancholy shake of the head there was an expression of sad in her countenance that was not to be the door opened on a small terrace which was overlooked by several windows of the mansion we must move across this quickly said the girl or we may be observed they glided over it as if scarce touching the ground a flight of steps led down into the garden a at the bottom was readily they passed with breathless the student of along one of the still in sight of the mansion in which however no person appeared to be stirring at length they came to a low private door in the wall partly hidden by a fig tree it was secured by rusty that refused to yield to their feeble holy virgin exclaimed the stranger what is to be done one moment more and we may be discovered she seized a stone that lay near by a few blows and the flew back the door harshly as they opened it and the next moment they found themselves in a narrow road now said the stranger for as quickly as possible the nearer we approach it the safer we shall be for the road will be frequented the imminent risk they ran of being pursued and taken gave supernatural strength to their limbs they flew rather than ran the day had dawned the crimson streaks on the edge of the horizon gave tokens of the approaching sunrise already the light clouds the student of that floated in the western sky were tinged with gold and purple though the broad plain of the which now began to open upon their view was covered with the dark haze of morning as yet they only passed a few straggling on the road who could have yielded them no assistance in case of their being overtaken they continued to hurry forward and had gained a considerable distance when the strength of which had only been sustained by the fever of her mind began to yield to fatigue she her pace and faltered alas said she my limbs fail me i can go no further bear up bear up replied her companion a little further and we shall be safe look yonder is just showing itself in the valley below a little further and we shall come to the main road and then we shall find plenty of passengers to protect us encouraged made fresh efforts to get forward but her weary limbs were unequal to the eagerness of her mind her mouth and the student of throat were by agony and terror she gasped for breath and leaned for support against a rock it is all in vain exclaimed she i feel as though i should faint lean on me said the other let us get into the shelter of yon thicket that will conceal us from the view i hear the sound of water which will refresh you with much difficulty they reached the thicket which a small mountain stream just where its sparkling waters leaped over the rock and fell into a natural basin here sank upon the ground exhausted her companion brought water in the palms of her hands and bathed her pallid temples the drops revived her she was enabled to get to the margin of the stream and drink of its crystal current then her head on the bosom of her she was first enabled to murmur forth her gratitude alas said the other i deserve no thanks i deserve not the good opinion you express in me you behold a victim of don vol i b b the student of s arts in early years he me from the cottage of	48
me from these men i have no protector on earth but my father and him they are v the shook their heads her the of don and his apparent rank commanded respect and belief they their charge to him and he was the struggling to his creatures let go your hold villain cried a voice from among the crowd and was seen eagerly tearing his way through the press of people seize him seize him cried don to the tis an of the s liar retorted as he thrust the mob to the right and left and forced himself to the spot the sword of don flashed in an the student of instant from the the student was armed and equally alert there was a fierce clash of weapons the crowd made way for them as they fought and closed again so as to hide them from the view of all was tumult and confusion for a moment when there was a kind of shout from the spectators and the mob again opening she beheld as she thought in his blood this new shock was too great for her already a seized upon her every thing seemed to whirl before her eyes she gasped some words and sunk senseless upon the ground days weeks elapsed before returned to consciousness at length she opened her eyes as if out of a troubled sleep she was lying upon a magnificent bed in a chamber richly with pier glasses and massive tables with silver of exquisite the walls were covered with the richly gilded through the door which stood open she perceived a superb saloon with statues and crystal ai d a the student of magnificent of apartments beyond of the room were open to admit the soft breath of summer which stole in laden with from a neighbouring garden from whence also the refreshing sound of fountains and the sweet notes of birds came in mingled music to her ear female attendants were moving with noiseless step about the chamber but she feared to address them she doubted whether this were not all delusion or whether she was not still in the palace of don and that her escape and all its circumstances had not been but a feverish dream she closed her eyes again endeavouring to recall the past and to separate real from the imaginary the last scenes of consciousness however rushed too forcibly with all their horrors to her mind to be doubted and she turned shuddering from the recollection to gaze once more on the quiet and serene magnificence around her she again opened her eyes they rested on an object that at once every alarm at the head of her bed sat a venerable form the student of watching over her with a look of fond anxiety it was her father i will not attempt to describe the scene that ensued nor the moments of rapture which more than repaid all the sufferings that her affectionate heart had undergone as soon as their feelings had become more calm the stepped out of the room to introduce a stranger to whom he was indebted for his life and liberty he returned leading in no longer in his poor scholar s garb but in the rich dress of a nobleman the feelings of were almost overpowered by these sudden and it was some time before she was sufficiently composed to comprehend the explanation of this seeming romance it appeared that the lover who had sought her affections in the lowly guise of a student was only son and heir of a powerful of he had been placed at the university of but a lively curiosity and an eagerness for adventure had induced him vol i co the student of to abandon the university without his father s consent and to visit various parts of spain his rambling inclination satisfied he had for a time at until by further study and self he could prepare himself to return home with credit and for his against paternal authority how hard he had studied does not remain on record all that we know is his romantic adventure of the tower it was at first a mere youthful caprice excited by a glimpse of a beautiful face in becoming a of the he probably thought of nothing more than pursuing a light love further acquaintance however had completely fixed his affections and he had determined to conduct and her father to and to to her merits to secure his father s consent to their union in the mean time he had been traced to his concealment his father had received intelligence of his being entangled in the of a the student of mysterious adventurer and his daughter and likely to become the of the of the latter had been despatched to seize upon him by main force and convey him without delay to the paternal home what eloquence he had used with his father to convince him of the the honour and the high descent of the and of the exalted worth of his daughter does not appear all that we know is that the father though a very passionate was a very reasonable man as appears by his that his son should return to and conduct as his bride to away then don hurried back full of joyous he still to throw off his disguise fondly to himself what would be the surprise of when having won her heart and hand as a poor wandering scholar he should raise her and her father at once to and splendor on his arrival he had been shocked at c the student of ing the tower deserted by its inhabitants in tain he sought for intelligence concerning them a mystery hung oyer their disappearance which he could not penetrate until he was on accidentally reading a list of the prisoners at the impending da f to find the name of his venerable	48
f in the course of one of these i have known the squire to point out some important alteration which he was contemplating in the disposition or cultivation of the grounds this of course would be opposed by the steward and a long argument would over a or on a rising piece of ground until the squire who has a high opinion of the other s ability and integrity would be fain to give up the point this concession i observed would immediately the old man and after walking over a field or two in silence with his hands behind his back the of reflection he would suddenly turn to the squire and observe that he had been turning the matter over in his mind and upon the whole he believed he would take his honor s advice the is another of the english c u try gentlemen squire s occasional attendants to whom he continually in all matters of local history as to a chronicle of the estate having in a manner been acquainted with many of the trees from the very time that they were old as has been shown is rather in those points of knowledge on which he himself but the squire rarely him and is in fact one of the most indulgent that ever was hen by his he often laughs about it himself and evidently to these old men more from the bent of his own humour than from any want of proper authority he likes this honest independence of old age and is well aware that these followers love and honour him in their hearts he is perfectly at ease about his own dignity and the respect of those around him nothing him sooner than any i of or i really have seen no display of royal state that could compare with one of the squire s b english country gentlemen about his paternal fields and through his hereditary with several of these faithful about him and followed by a body guard of dogs he a frankness and of among his and is the personal friend of his tenants inquiring into their concerns and assisting them in times of difficulty and hardship this has rendered him one of the most popular and of course one of the happiest of indeed i do not know a more condition of life than that of an english gentleman of sound judgment and good feelings who passes the greater part of his time on an hereditary estate in the country from the excellence of the roads and the rapidity and of the public he is enabled to command all the comforts and all the intelligence and of the capital while he is removed from its hurry and distraction he has ample means of occupation and amusement within his own he may his english country gentlemen time by rural occupations by rural sports by study and by the delights of friendly society collected within his own hospitable halls or if his views and feelings are of a more extensive and liberal nature he has it greatly in his power to do good and to have that good immediately reflected back upon himself he can render essential service to his country by assisting in the disinterested administration of the laws by watching over the opinions and principles of the lower orders around him by among them those lights which may be important to their welfare by mingling frankly among them gaining their confidence becoming the immediate of their complaints informing himself of their wants making himself a channel through which their may be quietly communicated to the proper sources of and relief or by becoming if need be the and guardian of their liberties the enlightened champion of their rights all this it appears to me can be done with english country gentlemen out any sacrifice of personal dignity without any degrading arts of popularity without any to vulgar prejudices or in vulgar but by the steady influence of sincere and friendly counsel of fair upright and generous whatever may be said of english and english i have never met with a people more open to reason more considerate in their more by argument in the times than the english they are remarkably quick at and is manly and honourable they are by nature and habit and orderly and they feel the value of all that is regular and respectable they may occasionally be deceived by and excited into by public and the of men but open their eyes and they will eventually rally round the land marks of steady truth and deliberate good sense they are fond of established customs they are fond of long established names and that love of english country gentlemen order and quiet which the nation gives a vast influence to the descendants of the old families whose have been lords of the soil from time it is when the rich and well educated and highly privileged classes neglect their duties when they neglect to study the interests and the affections and instruct the opinions and champion the rights of the people that the latter become discontented and turbulent and fall into the hands of the always steps in where the is wanting there is a common cant among the high feeding and as they fancy themselves high minded men about putting down the mob but all true know that it is better to the blood than attack the to apply the rather than the it is absurd in a country like england where there is so much freedom and such a jealousy of right for any man to assume an tone and to talk of the common people english country gentlemen there is no rank that makes him independent of the opinions and affections of his there is no rank nor distinction that him from his fellow subject and if by any gradual	48
neglect or assumption on the one side and discontent and jealousy on the other the orders of society should really separate let those who stand on the eminence beware that the chasm is not at their feet the orders of society in all well constituted are bound together and important to each other there can be no such thing in a free government as a and whenever one is likely to take place by the drawing off of the rich and intelligent from the poor the bad passions of society will rush in to fill up the space and the whole asunder though born and brought up in a republic and more and more confirmed in republican principles by every year s observation and experience yet i am not insensible to the excellence that may exist in other forms of govern english country gentlemen ment nor to the fact that they may be more suitable to the situation and circumstances of the countries in which they exist i have endeavoured rather to look at them as they are and to observe how they are calculated to effect the end which they propose considering therefore the mixed nature of the government of this country and its representative form i have looked with admiration at the manner in which the wealth and influence and intelligence were spread over its whole surface not as in drained from the country and collected in towns and cities i have considered the great rural of the nobility and the lesser of the gentry as so many of wealth and intelligence distributed about the kingdom apart from the towns to and the surrounding country i have looked upon them too as the august of and where in the enjoyment of honourable independence and elegant leisure they might train up their minds to appear in english country gentlemen those whose and form the study and of other nations and involve the interests of the world i have been both surprised and disappointed therefore at finding that on this subject i was often indulging in an dream rather than a well founded opinion i have been concerned at finding that these fine estates were too often involved and or placed in the hands of and the owners from their paternal lands there is an extravagance i am told that runs parallel with wealth a lavish expenditure among the great a senseless competition among the a heedless among all the upper ranks that often beggars even these splendid breaks down the pride and principles of their and makes too many of them mere place hunters or shifting it is thus that so many are thrown into the hands of government and a court which ought to be the most pure and honourable in europe is so often degraded by noble english country gentlemen but time it is thus too that so many become from their native land crowding the hotels of foreign countries and upon strangers the wealth so hardly drained from their laborious i have looked upon these latter with a mixture of censure and concern knowing the almost fondness of an englishman for his native home i can conceive what must be their and regret when amidst the plains of france they call to mind the green fields of england the hereditary groves which they have abandoned and the hospitable roof of their fathers which they have left desolate or to be inhabited by strangers but is no plea for an of country they have risen with the prosperity of the land let them abide its and to its fortunes it is not for the rich to fly because the country is suffering let them share in their relative proportion the common lot they owe it to the land that has elevated them to honour and english country gentlemen when the poor have to their scanty morsel of bread when they have to compound with the of nature and study with how little they can do and not be starved it is not then for the rich to fly and still further the resources of the poor that they themselves may live in splendor in a cheaper country let them rather retire to their estates and there practise let them return to that noble simplicity that practical good sense that honest pride which form the foundation of true english character and from them they may again rear the edifice of fair and honourable prosperity on the rural habits of the english nobility and gentry on the manner in which they discharge their duties on their possessions depend greatly the virtue and welfare of the nation so long as they pass the greater part of their time in the quiet and purity of the country surrounded by the monuments of their illustrious ancestors surrounded by every thing that can inspire generous pride noble v english country gentlemen and amiable and sentiment so long they are safe and in them the nation may repose its interests and its honour but the moment that they become the of court avenues and give themselves up to the political and heartless of the metropolis that moment they lose the real nobility of their natures and become the mere of the country that the great majority of nobility and gentry in england are endowed with high notions of honour and independence i thoroughly believe they have it lately on very important questions and have given an example of to principle in preference to party and power that must have many of the and courts of europe such are the glorious effects of freedom when into a lion but it seems to me that they are apt to forget the positive nature of their duties and to fancy that their eminent privileges are only so many means of self indulgence they should i english country gentlemen recollect that in a constitution like that of england the orders are intended to be as useful as	48
they are ornamental and it is their virtues alone that can render them both their duties are divided between the sovereign and the subject surrounding and giving lustre and dignity to the throne and at the same time and its rays until they are in mild and genial radiance to the people born to leisure and they owe the exercise of their talents and the expenditure of their wealth to their native country they may be compared to the clouds which being drawn up by the sun and elevated in the heavens reflect and his splendor while they repay the earth from which they derive their by returning their treasures to its bosom in showers a bachelor s t live a pensive single life the of i was sitting in my room a morning or two since reading when some one tapped at the door and master entered he had an unusually fresh appearance he had put on a bright green riding coat with a bunch of in the button hole and had the air of an old bachelor trying to himself he had not however his usual and vivacity but about the room with somewhat of absence of manner humming the old song go lovely rose tell her that her time and me f and then leaning against the window and looking upon the landscape he uttered a very audible sigh as i had not been accustomed to see master in a vol ik c a bachelor s pensive mood i thought there might be some vexation on and i endeavoured to introduce a cheerful strain of conversation but he was not in the vein to follow it up and proposed that we should take a walk it was a beautiful morning of that soft temperature that seems to all the frost out of one s blood and to set all nature in a the very fishes felt its influence the cautious ventured out of his dark hole to seek his mate the and the rose up to the surface of the brook to in the sunshine and the from among the rushes if ever an can really fall in love as has been said or sung it must be on such a morning the weather certainly had its effect even upon master for he seemed bent upon the pensive mood instead of stepping briskly along his dog whip whistling quaint or telling sporting anecdotes he leaned on my arm and talked about the approaching from whence he several upon the a of touched a little upon the tender passion and made sundry very excellent though rather observations upon disappointments in love it was evident that he had something on his mind which he wished to impart but felt awkward in approaching it i was curious to see to what this strain would lead but i was determined not to assist him indeed i pretended to turn the conversation and talked of his usual topics dogs horses and hunting but he was very brief in his replies and invariably got back by hook or by into the sentimental vein at length we came to a of trees that a whispering brook with a rustic bench at their feet the trees were with letters and devices which had grown out of all shape and size by the growth of the bark and it appeared that this grove had served as a kind of register of the family loves from time here master made a pause pulled up a of flowers threw them one by one into the c a bachelor s and at length turning somewhat abruptly upon me asked me if i had ever been in love i confess the question startled me a little as i am not over fond of making of my follies and above all should never dream of choosing my friend master for a he did not wait however for a reply the inquiry was merely a to a confession on his own part and after several and he fairly himself of a very tolerable story of his having been crossed in love the reader will very probably suppose that it related to the gay widow who him not long since at races no such thing it was about a sentimental passion that he once had for a most beautiful young lady who wrote poetry and played on the harp he used to her and indeed he described several tender and gallant scenes in which he was evidently himself in his mind s eye as some elegant hero of romance t unfortunately for the tale i only saw a s him as he stood before me a little old bachelor with a face like an apple that has dried with the bloom on it what were the particulars of this tender tale i have already forgotten indeed i listened to it with a heart like a very stone having hard work to repress a smile while master was putting on the uttering every now and then a sigh and endeavouring to look sentimental and melancholy all that i recollect is that the lady according to his account was certainly a little touched for she used to accept all the music that he copied for her harp and all the patterns that he drew for her dresses and he began to flatter himself after a long course of delicate attentions that he was gradually up a gentle flame in her heart when she suddenly accepted the hand of a rich boisterous without either music or sentiment who carried her by storm after a fortnight s courtship a bachelor s master could not help concluding by some observation about modest merit and the power of gold over the sex as a remembrance of his passion he pointed out a heart carved on the bark of one of the trees but which in the process of time had grown out into a large and he	48
showed me a lock of her hair which he wore in a true lover s knot in a large gold i have seldom met with an old bachelor that had not at some time or other his moment when he would become tender and sentimental talk about the concerns of the heart and have some confession of a delicate nature to make every man has some little trait of romance in his life which he looks back to with fondness and about which he is apt to grow occasionally he himself as he was at the time young and and forgets that his hearers have no other idea of the hero of the tale but such as he may appear at the time of telling it a withered spin a bachelor s die old with married men it is true this is not so frequently the case their romance is apt to decline after marriage why i cannot for the life of me imagine but with a bachelor though it may slumber it never dies it is always liable to break out again in transient flashes and never so much as on a spring morning in the country or on a winter evening when seated in his solitary chamber stirring up the fire and talking of matrimony the moment that master had gone through his confession and to use the common phrase had made a clean breast of it he became quite himself again he had settled the point which had been worrying his mind and doubtless considered himself established as a man of sentiment in my opinion before we had finished our morning s stroll he was singing as as a whistling to his dogs and telling droll stories and i recollect that he was particularly that day at dinner on the subject of s a bachelor s and uttered several excellent jokes not to be found in joe miller that made the bride elect blush and look down but set all the old gentlemen at the table in a roar and absolutely brought tears into the general s eyes english gravity england ancient phrase there is nothing so rare as for a man to ride his without i find the squire has not so undisturbed an indulgence in his as i had imagined but has been repeatedly of late and has suffered a kind of well meaning persecution from a mr an old gentleman of some weight at least of purse who has recently moved into the neighbourhood he is a worthy and substantial who having accumulated a large fortune by dint of and spinning has retired from business and set up for a country gentleman he has taken an old country seat and it and painted and it until it looks english not unlike his own he has been particularly careful in mending the walls and hedges and putting up notices of spring guns and man traps in every part of his premises indeed he shows great jealousy about his rights stopped up a foot path that led across his fields and given warning in staring letters that whoever was found on those grounds would be with the utmost of the law he has brought into the country with him all the practical of town and the bustling habits of business and is one of those sensible useful troublesome intolerable old gentlemen that go about and worrying society with excellent plans for public utility he is very much disposed to be on intimate terms with the squire and calls on him every now and then with some project for the good of the neighbourhood which happens to run opposite to some one or other of the squire s peculiar notions but which is too sensible a measure to be openly opposed english gravity he has annoyed him excessively by the laws the and endeavouring to suppress country wakes and holiday games which he considers great and as causes of the deadly sin of idleness there is evidently in all this a little of the of newly acquired consequence the is gradually swelling into the and he begins to grow excessively of every thing that is not genteel he has a great deal to say about the common people talks much of his park his preserves and the necessity of the game laws more strictly and makes frequent use of the phrase the gentry of the neighbourhood he came to the hall lately with a face full of business that he and the squire to use his own words might lay their heads together to hit upon some mode of putting a stop to the at the village on the approaching may day it drew he said idle people together from all parts of the neighbourhood who spent the day dancing and ca english gravity rousing instead of staying at home to work for their families now as the squire is at the bottom of these may day it may be supposed that the suggestions of the sagacious mr were not received with the best grace in the world it is true the old gentleman is too courteous to show any temper to a guest in his own house but no sooner was he gone than the indignation of the squire found vent at having his poetical invaded by this blue bottle fly of traffic in his warmth he against the whole race of who i found were sore of his comfort sir said he with emotion it makes my heart to see all our fine streams up and by cotton mills our valleys smoking with and the din of the hammer and the loom away all our rural delights what s to become of merry old england when its houses are all turned into and its sturdy into pin makers and i have looked in vain for english gravity merry and all the haunts of robin hood the whole country is covered with towns i have stood	48
late years the national character has essentially changed never did the french enjoy such a degree of freedom as they do at this moment and at this moment the french are comparatively a grave people d what s that to absolute freedom such as the very beggars have to feast and here to day and yonder to morrow next day where they please and so on the whole country or kingdom over there s liberty the birds of the air can take no more jovial since the meeting with the which i have related in a former paper i have observed several of them haunting the of the hall in spite of a positive of the squire they are part of a gang that has long kept about this neighbourhood to the great annoyance of the farmers whose poultry yards often suffer from their they are however in some measure by the squire who considers the race as belonging to the good old times which to confess the private truth seem to have with good for nothing characters this crew is called star light tom s gang from the name of its a notorious i have heard repeatedly of the of this of the moon for every midnight that takes place in park or fold or farm yard is laid to his star light tom in fact answers to his name he seems to walk in darkness and like a fox to be traced in the morning by the mischief he has done he reminds me of that fearful personage in the nursery rhyme who goes round the house at night none but bloody tom who all the sheep at night none but one by one in short star light tom is the goat of the neighbourhood but so cunning and that there is no him old and the game keeper have watched many a night in hopes of him and often the park with his dogs for the purpose but all in vain it is said that the squire hard at his an indulgent feeling towards the because of his being very expert at all kinds of games a great shot with the cross bow and the best in the country the squire also suffers the gang to about the skirts of his estate on condition that they do not come about the house the approaching wedding however has made a kind of at the hall and has caused a of all sober rule it has produced a great sensation throughout the female part of the household not a but dreams of wedding and has a husband running in her head such a time is a harvest for the there is a public leading across one part of the park by which they have free and they are continually hovering about the grounds telling the servant girls fortunes or getting in to the young ladies i believe the himself very much by furnishing them with hints in and bewildering all the weak brains in s the house their wonderful revelations the general certainly was very much astonished by the communications made to him the other evening by the girl he kept a wary silence towards us on the subject and affected to treat it lightly but i have noticed that he has since his attentions to lady and her dogs i have een also the housekeeper s pretty and love sick niece holding a long conference with one of these old behind a large tree in the avenue and often looking round to see that she was not ol served i make no doubt that she was to get some favourable about the result of her love quarrel with young ready money as have always been consulted on love affairs than upon any thing else i fear however that in thi instance the response was not so favourable usual for perceived poor towards the house her head hanging down her hat in and the trailing along the ground at another time as i turned the corner of a terrace at the bottom of the garden just by a of trees and a large stone urn i came upon a of the young girls of the family attended by this same i was at a loss to comprehend the meaning of their blushing and and their apparent agitation until i saw the red cloak of a vanishing among the a few moments after i caught sight of master and the stealing along one of the walks of the garden and laughing at their successful having evidently put the up to the thing and her wh t to s y after all there is something strangely pleasing in these with the future even where we are of the of the it is singular how willingly the mind will half deceive itself and with what a degree of awe we will listen even to these about for my part i can not feel with these poor that seek to deceive us into bright hopes and ex f f i have always been something of a castle and have found my pleasures to arise from the illusions which fancy has cast over common place realities as i get on in life i find it more difficult to deceive myself in this delightful manner and i should be thankful to any prophet however false that would the clouds which hang over into palaces and all its doubtful regions into fairy land the squire who as i have observed has a private good will towards has suffered considerable annoyance on their account not that they his indulgence with for they do not very on his estate but because their and occasion loud murmurs in the village i can readily understand the old gentleman s humour on this point i have a great for all kinds of existence and must confess i take a pleasure in observing the ways of the english who are accustomed	48

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