Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

fusion; for, Lord William had expired a few minutes before he reached the portico. The sad event being, with all speed, announced to the Marquess of Lansdowne, in London, orders were soon received at Bowood, for the interment of the corpse, and the arrangement of the funeral pro cession. The former was directed to take place at High Wickham, in the vault which contained Lord Williant's mother: the latter was appointed to halt at two specified places, during the two nights on which it would be on the road. Mr. Jarvis and Dr. Priestley attended the body. On the first day of the melancholy journey, the latter gentleman, who had hitherto said little on the subject of the appearance to Mr. Alsop, suddenly addressed his com panion, with considerable emotion, in nearly these words "There are some very singular circumstances connected with this event, Mr. Jarvis; and a most remarkable coincidence between a dream of the late Lord William, and our present mournful engagement. A few weeks ago, as I was passing by his room door one morning, he called me to his bedside: Doctor, (said he) what is your Christian name? Surely (said I) you know it is Joseph.-Well, then, replied he in a lively manner, if you are a Joseph, you can interpret a dream for me, which I had last night, I dreamed Doctor that I set out upon a long journey; that I stopped the first night at Hungerford; whither I went without touching the ground: that I flew from thence to Salt Hill, where I remained the next night; and arrived at High Wickham, on the third day where my dear mamma, beautiful as an angel, stretched out her arms, and caught me with them. Now, continued the Doctor, "these are precisely the places where the dear child's corpse will remain on this and the succeeding night, before we reach his mother's vault which is finally to receive

it."

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

its most westerly thickets stood a wide dreary building, which had once been the abode of a wealthy Franklin; he had been slain or dispossessed in these illgoverned times, and the house was now ostensibly a hostel, with the sign of the Brazen Helmet. It was a huge straggling structure of rough stone, a perfect jumble of gables and chimnies climbing one over another, miserably out of repair, situated in a deep glade from whence the trees retired, except eight or nine old elms that flung their ample shade over the clambering roof.

It was about nine o'clock in the evening of the day after the Bishop's enthronement, when mine host of the Helmet, a powerful but ill-looking fellow, came forth and fixed a blazing pine-torch over the porch, above which an old rusty morion claimed the proud title of this wretched inn. In none of his best humours, (for company had been slack, and the robbers, his regular guests, absent an unusual time,) he felt little soothed when, looking into the forest illumed by the red flame, he descried a miserable looking man, with hurried but staggering steps advancing to the door; his dress was torn and stained, his eye blood-shot, his whole appearance distracted; one hand clutched together his dishevelled garments, while the other grasped a sealed packet and a signet ring.

[ocr errors]

"How now ?" exclaimed the savage, are we to whistle to the wind for lack of company till it sends us a dying man for a guest?"-for now the figure reeled and fell across the threshold. But save us!" he continued, as he surveyed more closely the pallid, distorted countenance, till his own seemed to catch its reflected hue," it cannot be !"

"Wine, Gotta! wine, or I die!" faltered Warner, for it was he, "raise meso-never stare and gasp, man; if I have suffered, I have done also, and there is comfort yet," (smiling ghastfully on the packet in his hand,) but bring me wine -or rather, bear me in--take down your brand-bolt and bar thy doors,"-he attempted to rise, but would have fallen, had not Gotta caught him in his arms, and, carrying him like a child into the house, placed him in its principal apartment. It was a large room extending over half the building. A plentiful heap of turf and brushwood blazed in a vast looked like some temple of the penates. vaulted fire-place, whose gaping orifice Venison and boar hams, mingled with flitches, bunches of dried herbs, and great ropes of golden onions swung from the lofty roof; wooden and iron utensils of cookery, interspersed with less peaceful

[ocr errors]

instruments, hung round the room, which by day was lighted only from the top.

A melancholy looking, middle-aged woman rose from the long settle by the fire with a scream, as Warner was placed on it; a sturdy lad was roused from his half-sleep at the apparition; and a large wolf-dog, whose deep hoarse bark had never ceased since the stranger's approach, now dropped his tail and ears, -whimpered,-laid his monstrous head on Warner's knee, and seemned fully to enter into the melancholy state of his old acquaintance.

Meat and wine were now brought forth, in attacking which the Captain seemed the personification of famine and thirst; and the lustre returned to his blue eye and the colour to his cheek. But ere he detailed his adventures, he requested to be led into the Chamber of Dais, (for such there had been when the house had better owners,) and thither the hostess conducted him. There stripping himself with a groan of rage, shame, and pain, he submitted his lashed shoulders to the eye and hand of his hostess, who, with a skill and tenderness ill suited to her situation and appearance, washed his stripes, fomented them with healing herbs, and, by the various medicaments she employ. ed, showed herself at least as much mistress of pharmacy as a proficient in cook ery. Then having reconducted him to the larger room, she left him to prepare the tattered remnants of bygone splendour in the old bed-room for the reception of his wearied frame. When she returned, Warner, now greatly recruited, was dis. coursing vehemently with her husband.

"The fools!" he said, " and yet faithful and brave fools, forgot when their chief was in danger, that, in rushing to his rescue, they were abandoning the pledge of his safety; and now she is fled my men slain,-and myself reduced to the level of a lashed hound!" He paused, and then wringing the host's hand bitterly, he pursued, "Yet I have motives to live-hopes of triumph! Vengeance I have already tasted, but I will be glut ted with it-glutted, Gotta," and fling. ing away his hand, he rose and strode up and down the room. "The haughty, Dominican I will strike through his niece; Courtnaye I will destroy by seconding his evil views; his wife I will make my thrall; Sybil Burghill his paramour; and the pangs of all this mischief shall concentrate in the bosom of the plausible Lionel of Helmhurst ! This once atchieved, I will think the base scars now burning on my skin, glorious badges charms that gave me all I wanted before, a reason and a spur to cruelty !"

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

"By all that's mischievous, how fell these missives into thine hands?" said Gotta.

"I was roaming over the wild Cannock like a mad wolf; my entrails were consuming away with fury, when I saw a man- sprung upon him-I had done so were it my own father! He took the death stroke as calmly as I would a salute from my mistress-staggered on his knees-and, as he clasped his handsbut not to me-my dagger smote him again, for he had the shaven crown, and I was smarting from the spite of shaven crowns; he was dead, but I spurned, beat, mangled his carcase, till in my mad rage I tore his vest, and this packet and this signet became mine!"

"And know ye whom ye slew ?"

"Know him?" said the robber, with a horrid change of countenance, "I ought to know him: he was by my side all the way hither, rising from the bloody turf the moment I turned from him-and there he stands still! there he stands yet!" (and he pointed to the far and gloomy end of the apartment)" dost thou not see him ?-the spare form clad in gray, the rope girdle, the silver tonsure, the spare foreheadDost not see him, Gotta?"

* Words cannot describe the emotions of the host, as he gazed towards the quarter to which Warner's finger pointed; his eye-balls seemed starting from his head, his knees shook, his teeth clattered, his hair bristled, a perfect epilepsy seemed to have seized him. Such is the power of guilty memory! There was nothing: visible but a long stream of moonlight. stealing pallidly through a crevice-yet: this little circumstance, at a future period, decided the issue of this story. ner applied deeply to the wine flaggon.

War

"Weariness and suffering have dazzled mine eyes and wrecked my mind. Sleep will restore all to-morrow-ay, to-morrow the fool Biddulf will be leading his vassals against the robber's hold-ha!

ha! old Edial will slack the sleuth hound! while this, cunningly used," he held up the ring exultingly," shall make the whipped Warner able to place his foot on prelates and on peers!"

We willingly close the scene on this dreadful man, and proceed with the tale. To be continued.

Snatches from Oblivion.

Out of the old fields cometh the new corn. SIR E. COKE.

Curious Letter of the Duchess of Buckingham to King James the First.

May it pleas your Majestie,

L have received the two boxes of dried ploms and graps, and the box of violatt, cáks, and chickens; for all which I most humbly thank your Majestie.

I hope my Lord Anan has tould your Majestie, that I did mene to wene Mall very shortly. I wood not by any mens a don it, till I had first made your Majestie acquainted with it; and by reason my cusen Bret's boy has been ill of latt, for fere shee should greeve and spyle her milke, maks me very desiorous to wene her; and I think she is ould enufe, and I hope will endure her wening very well; for I thinke there was never child card less for the brest than shee dos; so I do entend to make trial this night how shee will endure it. This day praying for your Majestie's health and long life, I humbly take my leve.

Your Majestie's

Most humble Servant,
R. BUCKINGHAM.

Fine Arts.

SOCIETY OF BRITISH ARTISTS. (Continued from p. 298.)

For the Olio.

No. 11. Portrait of the Rev. J. M. Turner, D.D. Lord Bishop of Calcutta. J. Howell.-Mr. Howell bids fair to be come one of our most eminent portraitpainters; he has a purity, freedom of handling, and chasteness of colouring, that reminds us of the works of Lawrence; witness his two portraits No. 22, and No. 108. From the number of portrait painters, we mean the younger artists who are aspiring to fortune and fame, only three can at all compete with him, viz. Partridge, Faulkner, and Rothwell.

No. 75. From the Grounds of Lord

The person intrusted with this important commission concerning the weaning of Mall, was Sir John Murray of the Bedchamber, created Viscount Annan by King James.

1

Yarborough, Isle of Wight W. R. Earl.-Mr. Earl has rapidly improved, and promises to be great in landscapepainting. There is a clearness and Cuyplike warmth and effect in his present production, that shows he has studied both nature and cotemporary painting with attention and success; the sky is particularly clear, and the foreground rich and purely handled. No. 323. Landscape, with Children fishing, near Eltham, Kent, is equally good in every respect, excepting that the sky is rather commonplace, and raw in effect. No. 205. Sketch of the seat of Lord Farnborough, Bromley Hill, Kent, is also good.

No. 125. Part of Craddock's Chapel and Gateway to the precincts of the Monastery, at Monmouth, as it remained in the year 1706. G. Maddox.There cannot be anything in civilized life more agreeable than that there are means of preserving to our sight the resemblance of objects which otherwise would be obliterated by time, whether it is the human face, or remains of architectural structures, when in their glory, distinguished for beauty and grandeur; and we are sure the antiquarian and admirer of such scenes as the one now preserved by Mr. Maddox, will feel indebted to him; it is a very creditable performance, and he cannot do better than continue in this line of painting, for such subjects are inexhaustible in the romantic country of Wales, where nature adds her attractions to the remains of art. This picture was sold on the first day.

No. 86. Exterior of the Chapel of the Virgin Church of St. Pierre, at Caen. D. Roberts.-This is one of the most splendid productions which we have seen from Roberts; the light and shade are judiciously managed, the colouring rich, and the picturesque costume of the figures gives it an air of gaiety and bustle.

No. 97. Debutante. J. Holmes.-Re

presenting Miss Kemble in her room, dressing for Juliet. The likeness is too flattering, and there is no meaning in the picture, while its execution and style dees not make it of sufficient value as a painting.

The

No. 139. Naples. W. Linton.-The artist has given a truly classical and antique air to this city, with great clearness of colouring and breadth of effect. figures in the foreground are characteristic and richly painted, and what is better, more correctly drawn and neatly executed than was the habit of this artist before he

visited Italy. If there is any fault to find with this clever picture, it is the harshness of the outline against the sky.

Nos. 151 and 324. The Castle of Gandolfs, and Lake of Albano, Rome in the distance, and Gonoa, by the same, are alike excellent.

No. 131. The Pifferari at Christmas, in Via St. Isidoro, at Rome. A. Aglio. -Much in the new style of Wilkie, and being very much of the same subject as the latter's Pilgrims of Calabria at the shrine of the Virgin, exhibited at the Academy last year. Mr. Aglio is a promising artist.

No. 143. Interior of a Polish Synagogue at the moment when the Manuscript of the Law is elevated after the portion for the Day has been read to the Congregation. S. A. Hart.-Rembrandtish in effect of light and shade, but wanting his rich and magical colouring, Although Mr. Hart's performance is excellent, yet the paintings of Rembrandt will rise in our imagination, for the style is so similar, and the subject one which that painter delighted to portray, viz. interiors, with figures of Jews, with turbans and rich dresses, that the comparison cannot but be drawn. No. 337. Study of a Rabbi, by the same.-A small head: there is greater richness of colour here, and it is quite a gem.

No. 175. Stage-struck Hero. W. Kidd.-Master Snip, instead of attending to his broad-cloth and needle, has taken to reading Shakspeare, which has given him a great itching for acting, so he has mounted the shop-board, the sleeve-board for a sword, thrust through his side-pocket; book in hand, he is declaiming to his fellow workmen, to the astonishment of one, who rests the red-hot goose and is burning his work, and the delight of the other, who is applauding him to the echo, while the frenzy of the poor hero is likely to be disturbed in no very enviable manner by the master, who is slyly creeping in, with a most choleric countenance, ready to thrash the poor presumptuous actor. It is scarce necessary to say that it is a very laughable production.

As a companion to the above we notice No. 448. Studying Tragedy. R. Farrier. This is not so pleasing as Mr. Kidd's; a female is studying tragedy, and so deeply is she inspired with the feelings of her part, that she is unconscious of the destruction she is committing in the shape of looking glasses, bottles, smashing a bonnet-box, &c. while the woman dressing her hair is so alarmed, that she is burning the heroine's hair. It is too highly wrought, and borders upon the burlesque.

No. 450. Scene from Rob Roy. W. Kidd. Representing that part where the Baillie is on the defensive with the red

hot poker, and in truth the assailants have need to be shy of it, for Mr. Kidd has made it of gigantic dimensions, and of such terrific redness, that we think it would alarm even the Fire King.

No. 181. Tarring a Vessel, Dartmouth. C. R. Stanley.-A very able and excellent painting. C. I. H.

The Note Book.

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

laughable little incident occurred on the
Crispin, a Day after the Fair.-A
arrival at Oudenarde, in the tribulation
occasion of the Duke of Wellington's
of a shoemaker, "who recounted to us,
thos, the misfortunes which had attended
with deep chagrin, and considerable pa-
his laborious endeavours to get a sight
first place he had made a holiday, and
of the great English General. In the
dressed himself in his Sunday clothes, in
honour of the occasion, and had left home
at a very early hour, in order to be at
the place where he had been informed
that his grace had staid all night, ere
the Duke could possibly leave it in the
and arrived just in time to learn the mor-
morning. Thither he trudged hastily,
tifying intelligence that the Duke was
gone to inspect some fortified place a few
miles off. His courage was yet fresh,
and he followed. Gone again! Which
way? To Oudenarde-O, all is now
right, that is where the troops are to
assemble, and it is near home. Arrived
there-but the soldiers were within a few
at Oudenarde just too late to catch a view
yards of the town, and the general was
on his way to them. "Sure of him at
last-need not hurry now-don't care
about the troops-can see them any day
at home and a review is a capital occa-
sion; the general having to stand still
all the time." But poor Crispin was not
aware that we were merely to be looked
at, as we were drawn up by the road-
side, while the general passed along the
line. So that when he arrived, he had
the misery to find the soldiers filing off
to their quarters, and to hear that the
magnet of his attraction had betaken him-
self again to his travelling carriage, in
which he was making the best of his
way to dine with Louis XVIII. at
Ghent." The English Army in France.

MAHOMEDAN FABLES.
(For the Olio.)

God's Two Thrones.. Mahomedan writers say, that God has two thrones; the first of his majesty and glory; the

second his judgment-seat. That his throne is supported by 8000 columns, whose substance and value is unknown, and the ascent to it contains 300,000 steps; that between each step there is a distance of 300,000, years' journey, and each space fuli of angels drawn up in squadrons.

[ocr errors]

The black and white Crow. It is affirmed by Mahomedan scribes, that crows were originally white till Noah replaced his confidence on the pigeon. But the more general bpinion is, that the Prophet, desirous of propagating his views, called the very white crow, and delivered to him the blessing of riches' under his right wing, and the curse of 1-e' under his left, with a strict injunction to cast the first on the believers, and the other on the Christian unbelievers, but the unlucky crow making a mistake, cast the faithful the curse instead of the blessing. Hence the Arabs, in caution, say, not the trust of the black crow.' And the English, in derision,' He shot at a pigeon and killed

[blocks in formation]

will of our own, if we are not thwarted and thrust aside from our innocent desires by the caprice of persons older than ourselves, is, in many respects, the happiest epoch of human existence. Then is the sunshine of the bosom, the first vintage and harvest of our newly-acquired senses of perception and imagination, before dear-bought experience has convinced us of their fatility and hollowness. It is the epoch, in which, by the omnipotent character of nature, we have no care what we shall eat, or wherewithal we shall be clothed. But all is provided for us by a superintendence that asks no aid from ourselves, and in which we have no parGODWIN. ticular of consciousness.

DERIVATION OF JARGON.

Jargon is derived from Jergone Chiereco, a clergyman. He being accustomed to the Latin by reason of his occupation, spoke in an unknown tongue to the illiterate as a confused gibberish, or jargon, high-flown, and smattering. B. D.

Customs of Various Countries.

MARRIAGE CEREMONY OF THE ARMENIANS IN TURKEY AND PERSIA.

It is well known to all enlightened nations of Europe, that in those barbarous countries women of all classes and denominations are debarred from the sight of men; so it is evident this rigorous habit was introduced among the female population of the Armenian inhabitants of those countries soon after their transplantation from their native soil.

In cases of marriage, the parents of the intended bride and bridegroom meet together, and confer on the subject; when, if they chance to agree, the mother of the intended bridegroom proceeds to visit the intended bride, on the part of her son, and should she approve of her, they then repair to their respective abodes, where they go through the ridiculous ceremony of tinging the hands and feet of the intended pair with myrtle; after the execution of which, they entertain their friends and relations with a cup of warm sherbet, chiefly composed of sugar, water and cardamons, which is followed by an interchange of rings, performed with some devotion by the clergy. When the appointed day of their union comes, the friends and relatives of the intended match enrobe them in clothes of magnificent splendour, and after doing so, they extol the merits of the intended pair in terms of most exaggerated praise with loud vociferation. After the encomiums, they convey the intended bridegroom, in a large circle, to the mansion of his intend

« AnteriorContinuar »