Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

summer bowers, save when the western sun turns their dim lurking windows into sparkling gold, which like the red Indian's eye, betrays their ambuscade. Deep, solemn, and reposing green, alone fills the eye, and when a chimney, a door, or even a whole front is revealed through the trees, you might almost fancy that vegetation had taken that fantastic shape to cheat your eye.

Far different from either of these last are the thick-coming fancies produced by the appearance of

HADDON HALL,

Ancient as the most venerable pile that ever strewed the earth with its architectural ruins,-yet untouched and entire as the structure of yesterday-the grand old fabric shows its pale battlements, its square towers, and its wide windows, amidst rooky woods and corners, broad old meadows, laved by the blue Wye, quaintly fashioned gardens, ivy-muffled sun-dials, dismantled fountains, discoloured statues, and ponderous terraces, rising tier and tier, with wide stone step, and balustrades of open work. Its interior is precisely in the same sacred state of inviolate antiquity; yon really expect

to see

Forth from their gloomy mansions creeping The Lady Janes and Joans repair,

And from the gallery stand peeping. Such as in silence of the night,

Come sweep along some winding entry, (Many have often seen the sight,)

Or at the chapel door stand sentry.

In peaked hoods and mantles tarnish'd
Sour visages enough to scare ye,
High Dames of Honour once, that garnish'd
The drawing room of fierce Queen Mary.

We will stop, however, in that chamber between the grand gallery and the state bed-room.

ing a massive Venetian mirror, the bor-
ders of whose enormous glass are carved
in a thousand quaint devices, and whose
flowered frame is mother of pearl and
gold;-there is a vast porcelain vase, with
China's gayest colours dyed, diffusing
odours from its griffin womb Lo ye here
-a huge cabinet! India's golden mon-
sters emboss its polished pannels; yon-
der is the gilded cage and its green and
red Macaw, and hark to its " pretty
Mistress Dorothy," oft repeated; a host
of canaries, flattered prisoners, echo their
untaught notes. Rich settees of brocade
are covered with the glittering articles of
a superb gala dress; and on a fillagree
table in the centre, there leans such a
white arm, and on that arm such a cheek
such a flood of golden tresses!
of beaming beauty, and on that cheek
But why
is that gray jerkin, puffed and slashed with
black, hung over her other arm?-what
does that page's cap, with its pert eagle
plume, at her feet?-and why does the
lady listen, with ill-suppressed terror, to
the lordly step of old Sir George, as he
paces up and down the adjacent gallery,
the last of the festal throng that lately
made its oaken panels and pilasters ring
again with music and dancing?-and
why, sweet Mistress Dorothy, doth thy
lamp cast its pallid gleam, when the full
moon, flooding through the diamond lat-
tice and the pear-tree leaves, flings a
mingled glory of silver and shadework
over thy lovely person?

Hush! the great door of the gallery hath clanged, and the old knight's step is no longer heard, and for a moment the lady's heart throbs, as though 'twould burst her silken robe of white, and then you may hear the hurried gushings of her fragrant breath: a moment more, and all is decided; those tiny feet glide with a stealthy pace across the room, and the "What!" I hear you exclaim, "are pallid lamp is placed on the lattice in the we to be detained in this ordinary looking full moon glare, but it shoots up bravely, lobby, when tower and dungeon, park for the lady hath just nourished it with and garden, await our inspection? A odorous oil; she opens the casement, mere lumber-room, with a shambling and a stream of fragrance floats into the half glass door, that evidently leads out room from the mignionette beds belowupon the grounds, a few broken relics of but the lamp trembles not, for there is not trumpery old furniture, and masses of dust a breath to stir the lady's brightest curl and cobwebs, that sufficiently obscure this midsummer night. And that lamp its gaudy frieze of Boar heads and Pea- will be seen from the hills of Chatsworth! cocks!" Now, look again-there is no damsel in the room, but the very prettiest page that ever gave flippant answer to his betters stands in her stead, the redundant curls break from the green velvet cap, and the form-but take Sir Walter's words. His was no rugged horseboy's hand, To flourish shield, or sharpen brand, Or saddle battle-steed; But meeter seemed for Lady fair, To fan her cheeks, or coil her hair,

Stop, and let me wave my wand, and no magic-lanthorn ever exhibited a more sudden change,-no drama ever boasted a more absorbing scene. Look again! The old walls are arranged in silk and silver hangings, there are the largest and greenest of summer bushes, strewn in glossy freshness on the floor: here stands a toilette of ebony and ivory, and support

'As man was first framed & made out of clay, So must he at length depart hence away.

'A man without mercy, of mercy shall misse;
And he shall have mercy, that mercifull is.
"In Cheapside.

Life is a drop, a sparkle, a span,
A bubble: yet how proude is man.
'Life is a debt, which at that day
The poorest hath enough to pay.

'This world's a stage, whereon to-day
Kings & meane men parts do play.
To-morrow others take their roomes,
While they do fill vp graues & toomes.
'Learning liues, & Vertue shines,
When Follie bege, & Ignorance pines,
To liue well, is happinesse :
To die well, is blessednesse.'"

Notices of New Books.

Good Thoughts in Bad Times: Good Thoughts in Worse Times: Mixt Contemplations in Better Times.

BY THOMAS FULLER, D.D.* POSSESSING the excellence that all the writings of this learned divine and witty historian do, it has always been a matter of surprise to us, that they should have suffered the neglect they have, when their great merit has never been questioned. With the exception of our author's Worthies of England,' we believe not another of his many works, saving the one under notice, has been honoured with a reprint. It is greatly to be regretted, that the sterling productions of such eminent men as Verstegan, Fuller, Camden, and Selden, each an honour to his country and the times he lived in, should not in a reading age like the present, when money is abundantly found to produce trash of the most ephemeral nature, find a publisher of sufficient spirit to hazard the production of books that are so high in price and so much valued, as are many pieces of the authors above-named. We have always had a high opinion of the taste and enterprizing spirit of the publisher, who has favoured us with the neat and reasonable reprint of the curious tracts comprised in this volume; and we hope

that his success will be commensurate

with his praiseworthy undertaking, and that at no very far distant period we may find the hint we have given acted upon, and see the Church History of old Fuller on his shelves, in four goodly octavos, jostling against Verstegan's Decayed Intelligencer, saved by him from the destructive hand of Time.

We have been so prolix in our introductory matter, that we can spare but

* W. Pickering, 365 p. 1 vol. 18mo,

The

little room for further comment. judgment formed of the work in the Preface, and of the amiable author's powers, accord so well with our own, that we cannot do better than copy the writer's language. "The tracts," now printed together, he says, "abound in original thoughts, and beautiful similes, displaying in almost every line the genius for which their author was distinguished. But this is far from being their only merits. Fuller was a divine of the strictest sincerity, and most fervent piety; and this work bears the strongest evidence that his mind rarely wandered from the sacred purpose of his ministry. From

every event of his life, and many passages in history, he drew conclusions illustrative, either of the holy writings, or of the duties which they inculcate; and if it be the characteristic feature of wit to find things apparently dissimilar, there is hardly a passage of these "Thoughts" which is not as remarkable for that quality as for the devout object to which it is applied."

By way of illustrating the preceding remarks, we select a few of the 'Thoughts, that our readers may judge of the rare quality of our author.

[ocr errors]

LORD,

I saw one, whom I knew to be notoriously bad, in great extremity. It was hard to say whether his former wickedness or present want were the greater; if I could have made the distinction, I could willing have fed his person, and starved his profaneness. This being impossible, I adventured to relieve him. For I know that amongst many objects, all of them being in extreme miseries, charity, though shooting at random, cannot miss a right mark. Since, Lord, the party, being recovered, is become worse than ever before (thus they are always impaired with affliction, who thereby are not improved): Lord, count me not accessary to his badness, because I relieved him. Let me not suffer harm in myself, for my desire to do good to him. Yea, Lord, be pleased to clear my credit amongst them, that they may understand my hands according to the simplicity of my heart. I gave to him only in hope, to keep the stock alive, that so afterwards it might be better grafted. Now, finding myself deceived, my alms shall return into my own bosom." LORD,

66

I trust thou hast pardoned the bad examples I have set before others, be pleased also to pardon me the sins which they have committed by my bad examples. (It is the best manners in thy court, to heap requests upon requests.)

If thou

hast forgiven my sins, the children of my corrupt nature, forgive me my grandchildren also. Let not the transcripts remain, since thou hast blotted out the original. And for the time to come, bless me with barrenness in bad actions, and my bad actions with barrenness in procreation, that they may never beget others according to their likeness."

[ocr errors]

Our next specimens from the "Mixt Contemplations, we think, possess charms of no ordinary kind.

"I have sometimes considered in what troublesome case is that chamberlain in an inn, who, being but one, is to give attendance to many guests. For suppose them all in one chamber, yet if one shall command him to come to the window, and the other to the table, and another to the bed, and another to the chimney, and another to come up stairs, and another to go down stairs, and all in the same instant, how would he be distracted to please them all. And yet such is the sad condition of my soul by nature, not only a servant, but a slave unto sin. Pride calls me to the window, gluttony to the table, wantonness to the bed, laziness to the chimney, ambition commands me to go up stairs, and covetousness to come down. Vices, I see, are as well contrary to themselves as to virtue. Free me, Lord, from this distracted case; fetch me from being sin's servant to be thine, whose service is perfect freedom; for thou art but one and ever the same, and always enjoinest commands agreeable to themselves, thy glory, and my good.

"I perceive there is in the world a good-nature, falsely so called, as being nothing else but a facile and flexible disposition, wax for every impression. What others are so bold to beg, they are so bashful as not to deny. Such osiers can never make beams to bear stress in church and state. If this be good-nature, let me always be a clown; if this be good fellowship, let me always be a churl. Give me to set a sturdy porter before my soul, who may not equally open to every comer. I cannot conceive how he can be a friend to any, who is a friend to all, and the worst foe to himself."

The following Meditation strikes us as very beautiful.

"Green when Gray.-In September I saw a tree bearing roses, whilst others of the same kind, round about it, were barren; demanding the cause of the gardener, why that tree was an exception from the rule of the rest, this reason was rendered; because that alone being clipped close in May, was then hindered to spring and sprout, and therefore took

this advantage by itself, to bud in au tumn.

"Lord, if I were curbed and snipped in my younger years by fear of my parents, from those vicious excrescences to which that age was subject, give me to have a godly jealousy over my heart, suspecting an autumn-spring, lest corrupt nature (which, without thy restraining grace, will have a vent) break forth in my reduced years into youthful vanities."

There appears to have been as much grumbling in the "olden time" for want of business as at present, if we judge from the tenour of the subjoined.

"Cry without cause and be whipt.I have known the city of London almost forty years, their shops did ever sing the same tune, that TRADING Even in the reign of king James (when they wanted nothing but thankfulness) this was their complaint.

WAS DEAD.

"It is just with God, that they who complained without cause should have just cause to complain. Trading, which then was quick, and in health, hath since been sick, yea in a swoon, yea dead, yea buried. There is a vacation in the shops in the midst of high term: and if shops be in a consumption, ships will not be long in good health.

"Yet I know not whether to call this decay of trade in London a mishap or a happy miss. Probably the city, if not pinched with poverty, had regained her wealth."

Trusting that the taste we have given from the variety of subjects contained in this curious little book will be relished, we conclude, earnestly recommending it to the notice of our readers, as a work breathing the purest spirit of virtue and morality, and eminently calculated to benefit every heart disposed to profit by wise instruction. An exquisitely engraved portrait of the pious churchman embellishes the volume.

Cumberland's British Theatre.

WR are obliged to the spirited proprietor of this neat and well-printed collection of dramatic pieces, for adding to his already extensive list, Planche's Brigand, which now forms a link in the chain of copyrights. This drama is skillfully contrived, and possesses much literary merit; it is not, like most melodrainas, a mere vehicle for scenic display, but is a faithful picture of the manners and habits of the reckless and lawless race that inhabit the mountain districts of

the south of Europe, and live by predatory attacks upon the unwary traveller, who not unfrequently expires in their fell gripe by the stroke of their stillettos. Some very judicious critical remarks appended to the piece allows us to introduce here the following account of the notorious personage who figures as the hero of the drama.

"Alessandro Massaroni, the Italian Robin Hood, was one of those daring spirits that seem to have been created to correct the unequal distribution of good and evil. Chief of a lawless band infesting the mountains near Rome, his name spread terror throughout Italy. No place was secure from his emissaries; and so skilful were his arts of disguise, that he was often made the confidant of plots laid by his enemies to entrap him. He was a strict dispenser of moral justice; if he made free with the rich, he was the almoner of the poor; and never did he resort to violence, but when a tempting booty and stout resistance stood in his way. Like the famous freeboooter of merry England, he mingled mirth with his malefactions; and those who paid the dear est for his pranks, were often the first to laugh at his humour. He was a very gentlemanly brigand, full of chivalry and romance; and his mode of detention and abstraction, particularly towards the ladies, was in such good taste, that they were fain to admire his gallantry, and celebrate his exploits in their songs. A mystery hung over his birth. His mother was a young Florentine, who, having been seduced and deserted by some puppy unknown,' had died of a broken heart; and the only family record he possessed, was her miniature, which, even in the wildest moments of disorder and rapine, produced in him certain compunctious visitings of nature, that showed he was deserving of a better fate. Such was Massaroni; nurtured by banditti-once their comrade-now their chief."

2

The Nate Book.

I will make a prief of it in my Note-book. M. W. of Windsor.

SWISS CHARACTERISTICS, &c. The Charms of Litigation. -The Bernese, but more especially the inhabitants of Biberstein, whose activity and industry are proverbial, have a singular predilection for litigation; nor is there any canton in Switzerland which can pretend to compete with it in the number of law suits or attorneys. A countryman's wife, who was blessed with a whole train

of brats, being asked whether they had enough to live upon? "Thank God!" she replied, "we have quite enough; and by the end of the summer we have a little to spare, which enables us to push a pleasant little law-suit, and find amusement in winter!"

A Paul Pry-A foreigner was travelling through Switzerland in his own carriage, drawn by six horses, when he was stopped by the warder at the gate of a paltry town in the canton of Bern. Such an obstruction as this, in a land of liberty, naturally excited his astonishment, and he angrily asked the warder how he could dare to offer him such an insult? "Go on, sir," returned the saucy fellow; "I thought I might as well just see what lumber there was in the carriage to require six horses to draw it."

The Bushaw.-Three natives of Freiburg went upon an expedition to the Holy Land; but upon entering the sultan's dominions, they were placed under arrest, and carried before the bashaw, into whose presence they would about as willingly have ushered themselves as into that of Beelzebub himself. Whilst the bashaw was inspecting their passes, one of them observed to his neighbour, "I say, Uli, just look at that goat's tremendous beard!" But what was their astonishment when the bashaw himself burst forth in their own mother's tongue. "Put your fears in your pocket, Uli; that goat's head has no teeth." And he then questioned them in every direction about Switzerland, and Freiburg, and particularly about one of the villages in that canton, and the families residing in it. They of course gave him all the information in their power; and, after having set them at liberty, he feasted them handsomely, and acknowledged that he was a fellow-countryman of theirs, whom a freak of Dame Fortune had thrown among the infidels, and raised to the station he then filled. After this he gave them permission to continue their journey, furnished with money and fresh passes, and made them promise to pay him a second visit on their return from Jerusalem. They were as good as their word, and on that occasion he gave them a letter and a purse of gold for his parents. On reaching their native home, they punctually discharged the commission intrusted to them; but the old people flung the money from them, and could not be comforted under the afflicting news, that a child of their's should have abjured the faith of his forefathers. The magistrates of the canton, therefore, took possession of the money, and ordered it to be applied in ornamenting the church of the village in which the bashaw was born.

There was accordingly purchased with his gift six handsome gilt candlesticks, which have been preserved there to this day.

The Two Shoes.-When Basle was thronged with foreign troops, in the year 1743, the Swiss cantons sent a force to protect the neutrality of their frontiers. A soldier from the valley of Entlibuch was one day posted as a sentry on the bridge across the Rhine: his singular dress, but particularly his enormous shoes, which were cased with iron, and had long peaks curved backwards, attracted the attention of a knot of officers, who were strolling about the spot. Cne of them, a young dandy of the first water, after staring at him a considerable time, burst out into a hoarse laugh, which was well met by the sturdy warrior. "You are pleased to make merry with my shoes, sir?-do you know the difference between your's and mine? If not, I'll help you-your's are made for running, but mine for standing firm."

For. Lit. Gaz. PRESENT POPULATION OF SICILY-1830. The population of the island of Sicily

consists of

[blocks in formation]

Post-chaises and post-travelling were introduced into England by Mr. John Tull, son of the celebrated writer on husbandry, for the former of which he obtained a patent, in 1734. Mr. Birch, coachmaker, of Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, gave, in Nov. 1825, what he termed a jubilee dinner, to celebrate the circumstance of a workman having passed fifty years in the employ of himself and his predecessor. On this occasion, he mentioned several curious particulars connected with the history of coach-building, and, amongst other circumstances, stated that the first postchaise used in England, was built at his

[blocks in formation]

GRIEF AND INTEREST

Appear in Holland to walk arm in arm together. We extract the following public notice from a Dutch journal: After a short illness, my wife died yesterday morning, leaving me with three infant children. In the hope that her pure soul is with God, I beg leave to inform my customers, that my stores will continue to be as well furished and attended to as formerly, having confided them to the direction of my principal clerk, a man extremely intelligent, and as well versed in business as the deceased herself."

Customs of Warious Countries.

RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES AT LIMA.

A recent traveller in Lima and Peru, who resided for a long time in the former state, thus describes the religious practices of the Limenos.

"They are extremely fond of gaudy shows, and the ceremonies of the Catholic religion tend very much to encourage this taste. On particular saints' days, those in the greatest esteem among them, the images are taken down from their niches, and carried in procession (attended by the principal inhabitants and clergy) to the different churches, to visit their neighbour saints. On these occasions, which occur very frequently, the streets through which the procession passes are filled with crowds of people, and the windows and balconies lined with company, dressed in their best attire. As the image passes along, baskets full of flowers are emptied from the windows to regale the saint, and these are generally scrambled and fought for by the mob, and preserved as valuable relics.

"All religious ceremonies are conducted with the utmost parade and ostentation. When a person of consequence

« AnteriorContinuar »