IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 k 
 
 /. 
 
 {./ 
 
 
 
 / 
 
 v.. 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 If i^ IIIIIM 
 •^ i^ mil 2.2 
 
 
 liS 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 1.4 
 
 1'-* 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 6" — 
 
 
 ► 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 
 
 (716) S72-4503 
 

 CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Instivuta for Historical IVIicroreproductions / Inetitut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 The Institute has attempted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features of this 
 copy which may be bibliographicaMy unique, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may significantly change 
 the usuci method of filming, are checked below. 
 
 n 
 
 D 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couverture de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 Couverture endOi<imag6e 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur^e et/ou peilicuide 
 
 I I Cover title missing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes geographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relid avec d'autres documents 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along interior margin/ 
 
 La re liure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intirieure 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajoutdes 
 lors d'une restauration appar>.ssent dans le texte, 
 mais, lorsque cela itait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6t6 fiim^es. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires suppldmentaires; 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a 6t6 possible df se procurer. Les details 
 de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-6tre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger une 
 modification dans la mdthode normale de filmage 
 sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. 
 
 Thee 
 toth( 
 
 I I Coloured pages/ 
 
 Pages de coLleur 
 
 Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommag6es 
 
 Pages restored and/oi 
 
 Pages restaur6es et/ou pellicul6es 
 
 Pages discoloured, stained or foxe< 
 Pages d6color6es. tachetdes ou piqu^es 
 
 I I Pages damaged/ 
 
 I I Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 
 I I Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 □ Pages detached/ 
 Pages d^tachdes 
 
 rT~U Showthrough/ 
 LJ^ Tr 
 
 Thai 
 possi 
 of thi 
 filmii 
 
 Origii 
 begir 
 the li 
 sion, 
 othei 
 first I 
 sion, 
 or illi 
 
 I ransparence 
 
 r~pi Quality of print varies/ 
 
 Quality in6gale de I'impression 
 
 Includes suppiemen^cary material/ 
 Comprend du materiel suppldmentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule 6dit'ion disponible 
 
 B" 
 
 Pages wholly cr partially obscured by errata 
 slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possible image/ 
 Les pages totalement ou partiellement 
 obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont 6t6 fiim^es d nouveau de fapon d 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 The I 
 shall 
 TINU 
 whici 
 
 Mapa 
 
 differ 
 
 entire 
 
 begir 
 
 right 
 
 requi 
 
 meth 
 
 This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqui ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 
 
 
 
 
 14X 
 
 
 
 
 18X 
 
 
 
 
 22X 
 
 
 
 
 26X 
 
 
 
 
 30X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 
 
 
 16X 
 
 
 
 
 20X 
 
 
 
 
 24X 
 
 
 
 
 28X 
 
 
 
 
 32X 
 
 
The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Metropolitan Toronto Library 
 Litesature Department 
 
 The Images appearing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and In keeping with the 
 filming contract specifications. 
 
 L'exemplaire fiimA fut rep dduit grAce A la 
 gAnArosIti de: 
 
 IMetropolitan Toronto Library 
 Literature Department 
 
 Les Images suivantes ont Atd reprodultes avec le 
 plus grand soln, compte tenu de la condition at 
 de la nettetA de Texempialre film*, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 filmage. 
 
 Original copies In printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or Illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or Illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or Illustrated impression. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverturs en 
 papier est imprlmte sont fllmte en commengant 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'Impression ou d'lllustratlon, solt par le second 
 plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont fllmte en commenpant par la 
 premlAre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'Impression ou d'lllustratlon et en terminant par 
 la dernidre page qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — ^^ (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 Un des symboles sulvants apparaftra sur la 
 dernlAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 cas: le symbols — ^ signifle "A SUiVRE", le 
 symbols V signifle "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one exposure are filmed 
 beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following diagrams Illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre 
 filmAs A des taux de reduction diffArents. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre 
 reproduit en un seul clichA, II est fllmA A psrtir 
 de I'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite, 
 et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre 
 d'images nAcessalre. Les diagrammes sulvants 
 illustrent la mAthode. 
 
 1 2 3 
 
 32X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
i*%^ Mf • 
 
 W 
 
 r*'^ 
 
 1 A A 
 
 y* 
 
 *..»j 
 
 '^. 
 
 ^:-^ < 
 
 
 i i A 
 
 ii \i ;i 
 
 •i - ! : i f 
 
 '*-L 
 
^ 
 
 Mfc 
 
 % 
 
 I % 
 
 ^^vW 
 
 
 ■™- .vii*- 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 iCIl \i'.f m TRWK- 
 
 tjem^yt^i 
 
 ii..t..L-r;i . 1: 
 
 • 111 :i >li n\ hiu hv 
 
 I l; \ s K I . \n K'l;ll I 
 
W'ASHINCM ON 
 
 IK\'IN(; 
 
 fsrUrtdi ttlank 
 (Traiunt IJaprni 
 lllnlfrrt'r, fiuunit 
 
METROPCLiTAN 
 
 TORONTO 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Literature 
 
 6^/^.c^ 
 
 r^^.'/^ 
 /^f/ 
 
 LIFl 
 
 Wash 
 1783. h 
 midway 1 
 New Yoi 
 the eleve 
 He was 1 
 of St. G 
 Washing 
 ington's 
 shall be i 
 
 Washii 
 when the 
 New Yor] 
 and a Sec 
 lowed hi I 
 was nanu 
 ington is 
 future bi< 
 
 Washii 
 from Wil 
 Robert B 
 Presbytei 
 tures at s 
 armed pa 
 
 PEB - 5 W79 
 
THE 
 LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 i 
 
 
 Washington Irving first saw the light on April 3, 
 1783. His birthplace was a house on William Street, 
 niiflway between Fulton and John Streets, in the city of 
 New York. He was the eighth son and the youngest of 
 the eleven children of William and Sarah Sanders Irving. 
 He was baptized by a Presbyterian minister in the chapel 
 of St. George, in Beekraan Street, soon after General 
 Washington and his array had entered the city. " Wash- 
 ington's work is ended," said Mrs. Irving, " and the child 
 shall be named after him." 
 
 Washington himself gave the infant his blessing ; for 
 when the seat of the new government was established in 
 New York the first President happened to step into a shop, 
 and a Scotch servant-maid of the family saw him and fol- 
 lowed him in, saying, "Please, your honor, here is a bairn 
 was named after you." And the grave and stately Wash- 
 ington is said to have placed his hands on the head of his 
 future biographer with a paternal benediction. 
 
 Washington Irving's fatlier was a Scotchman, descended 
 from William De Irwyn, the secretary and armor-bearer of 
 Robert Bruce. He was a man of high character, a strict 
 Presbyterian, stern and sedate, in spite of his early adven- 
 tures at sea. During the French war, while serving in an 
 armed packet plying between Falmouth and New York, he 
 
j THF LIFE OF WASHINGTON I It VINO. 
 
 met the b^a :tiful Sarah Sanders, the gnin(hlaujrl,ter of 
 an English curate, and married lier. Two years later lie 
 settled in New York. The mother of Washington Irving 
 was of a more ardent nature, and sympathized moie with 
 her children in their youthful pletisures. She had been 
 brought up an Episcopalian; and though she attended 
 church with her husband, she was never in full sympathy 
 with his rigid views. Washington, at a very early age, 
 was confirmed stealthily in Trinity Church ; and all the 
 children, with one exception, left their father's communion 
 and became Episcopalians. This might have been expected 
 when we read that William Irving compelled them regu- 
 larly every week to devote one of their two half-holidays 
 to the study of the catechism ; and the only diversion that 
 he permitted on Sunday, aside from attendance at church 
 morning and afternoon, with a lecture in the evening, was 
 the reading of " Pilgrim's Progress." 
 
 In 1784 the Irvings moved into a quaint old house with 
 the gable end and attic window facing the stie(;t. New 
 York at that time was a small town, the northernmost 
 limit of which was below the present City Hall. The 
 Dutch element still predominated, and the Dutch pictur- 
 esqueness was to be seen in the old-fashioned brick houses 
 and the water-pumps in the middle of the streets. But the 
 inhabitants were gay and hospitable, and there were amuse- 
 ments for lively boys. The child is father of the man, and 
 the town is mother of the city. Even then the mercurial, 
 pleasure-loving, worldly, extravagant metropolis was shad- 
 owed forth in the half-burnt Dutch-English seaport clus- 
 tering around the lower end of Manhattan ! A theatre had 
 been established a third of a century before in John Street, 
 and here Washington Irving first acquired his liking for 
 dramatic performances. He was full of vivacity, fun, and 
 innocent mischief. His love of drollery and disinclination 
 
 to religi( 
 mother > 
 and excl 
 
 The ft 
 the even 
 Paulding 
 away to 
 in time t 
 his room, 
 back alle 
 the " af L( 
 
 lie nu 
 schools, 1 
 I)erfunct( 
 in Addis( 
 tion. W 
 books of 
 bad, the 
 publishct 
 his specii 
 time, to s 
 was dete 
 praised 1 
 liking fo 
 with his I 
 while the 
 
TUE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 3, 
 
 to religion must have been a great trial to his father: his 
 mother would look at him with a half-mournful admiration 
 and exclaim, " O Washington, if you were only good ! " 
 
 The father conducted family prayers at nine o'clock in 
 the evening ; and Washington, in company with James K. 
 Paulding, whose sister was his sister-in-law, used to steal 
 away to the John-street Theatre, conveniently near, return 
 in time to be present at the devotions, and then, retiring to 
 liis room, climb out through the window, down a roof to a 
 back alley, and thus regain his place in the theatre before 
 the " after-piece " was played. 
 
 He made slow progress in the regular studies at the 
 schools, where the teaching seems to have been dull and 
 perfunctory. At the age of ten he took the part of Juba 
 in Addison's tragedy of " Cato," given at a school exhibi- 
 tion. When eleven he showed an absorbing passion for 
 books of travel and voyages. " Robinson Crusoe," " Sind- 
 bad, the Sailor," and the collection of twenty volumes 
 published under the title of "The World Displayed," were 
 his special delight ; and he used to carry them, one at a 
 time, to school, and read them under his desk. When he 
 was detected he was re;>rimanded, though his teacher 
 praised him for his good taste in selection. He had no 
 liking for mathematics, and frequently exchanged tasks 
 with his schoolmates. He would write their compositions 
 while they performed his problems. He had a great long- 
 ing to see tiie world. He himself says: 
 
 " I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observ- 
 ing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere 
 child, 1 began my travels, and made many tours of discov- 
 ery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native 
 city, to the frequent alarm of my parents and the emolu- 
 ment of the town-crier. As I grew into boyhood, I extended 
 the range of my observations. My holiday afternoons were 
 
THE LIFE OF WASUINQTON IRVJNQ. 
 
 spent in rarcbles about the surrounding country. I made 
 myself familiar with all its places famous in history or 
 fable. I knew every spot where a murder or a robbery 
 had been committed, or a ghost seen. I visited the neigh- 
 boring villages, and added greatly to my stock of knowl- 
 edge, by noting their habits and customs, and conversing 
 with their sages and great men. I even journeyed one long 
 summer's day to the sunmiit of the most distant hill, whence 
 I stretched my eye over many a mile of terra incognita, and 
 was astonished to find how vast a globe I inhabitated." 
 
 " This travelling propensity 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 AvistfuUy would I wander about the 
 pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the parting ships, 
 bound to distant climes — with what longing eyes would I 
 gaze after their lessening sails .ind waft myself in imagi- 
 nation to the ends of the earth." 
 
 At one time he entertained the idea of running away 
 from home and engaging as a sailor, but finally gave it up 
 on account of an unconquerable dislike to salt pork. 
 
 He began to show a literary tendency as early as the age 
 of thirteen by writing a play, which was given at a friend's 
 house, before a well-known actress of the day. Irving's 
 talent for writing, however, did not develop along dramatic 
 lines. The evolution of " Rip Van Winkle " as a play 
 from Irving's sketch was a slow development. Two of his 
 brothei-s — Peter and John — were sent to Columbia Col- 
 lege ; but he was not given this advantage, a fact which 
 he never ceased to regret. At the age of sixteen his 
 school-days were over, and he entered the law-oifice of 
 Henry Masterton, where he spent two years, but made 
 httle advancement in the study of law. It was at this 
 period that he made his voyage up the Hudson, the recol- 
 
 lections 
 for " T 
 thrown 
 tains." 
 Josiah ( 
 formed 
 health b 
 dency w 
 a series 
 })aper, o 
 ters wen 
 style." 
 much tir 
 the Mob 
 Springs, 
 On ac 
 came of 
 at their 
 Bordeau: 
 deaux, lu 
 young Fi 
 amusing 
 They 
 quilting, 
 made no 
 them p 
 work. 
 English 
 Their ki 
 he is m 
 do with 
 "Oh, 
 " perhapl 
 They 
 
Ti/J7 LIFE OF WAHUIJSQTON IHVINO. 
 
 lections of wliich form part of an article begun in 1851 
 for " The Home Book of the Picturesque," afterwards 
 thrown aside to give place to " The Kaatskill Moun- 
 tains." In 1802 he became a law-clerk in the office of 
 Josiah Ogdeu HofTman, with whose delightful family he 
 formed a lasting intimacy. Soon after this Mr. Irving's 
 healtli became impaired, and he showed a consumptive ten- 
 dency which alarmed his friends. In spite of this he began 
 a series of contributions to The Morning Chronicle^ a daily 
 paper, owned and edited by his brother Peter. These let- 
 ters were in a humorous vein, and signed "■ Jonathan Old- 
 style." During the following two or three years he spent 
 much time in excursions up the valleys of the Hudson and 
 the Mohawk, and journeys to Montreal, Quebec, Saratoga 
 Springs, and Ogdensburg. 
 
 On account of Mr. Irving's delicate health, when he 
 came of age liis brothers resolved to send him to Europe 
 at their expense. Accordingly he engaged passage for 
 Bordeaux in May, 1804. After spending six weeks in Bor- 
 deaux, he stjirted for the Mediterranean, in company with a 
 young French officer and an eccentric American doctor. An 
 amusing story is told of his stop at Tonneins on the Garonne. 
 
 They entered a house where a number of girls were 
 quilting. He could not underatand their dialect, but that 
 made no difference. They laughed and joked, and one of 
 them put a needle into liis hands and made him go to 
 work. The doctor informed them that Irving was an 
 English prisoner whom the French officer had in charge. 
 Their kind liearts melted: " Poor fellow," said they, " yet 
 he is merry in spite of his troubles." " What will they 
 do with him? " asked one of them. 
 
 " Oh, nothing of consequence," replied the doctor ; 
 " perhaps shoot him or cut off his head." 
 
 The young French girls were really distressed at such a 
 
6 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 prospect for the handsome foreigner. They resolved to 
 make his last hours as happy as possible, and brought liim 
 wine and fruit, and when he went away gave him their 
 heartiest benedictions. 
 
 Forty yeais later Irving went out of his way to revisit 
 Tonneins, with the hope that he might atone for the cruel 
 deception. "It was a shame," said he, "to leave them 
 with such a painful impression. ... I believe I recog- 
 nized the house," he went on to say, " and I saw two or 
 tliree old women who might once have formed part of the 
 merry group of girls ; but I doubt whether they recognized 
 in the stout elderly gentleman, thus rattling in his car- 
 riage through the street, the pale young English prisoner 
 of forty years since." 
 
 At Avignon he paused with the hope of paying his 
 devotions at Laui-a's Shrine. «' Judge of my surprise, my 
 disappointment, and my indignation," he wrote, " when I 
 was told the church — tomb and all — were utterly de- 
 molished at the time of the Revolution. Never did the 
 Revolution, its authors, and its consequences, receive a 
 more hearty and sincere execration than at that moment. 
 Throughout the whole of my journey I had found reason 
 to exclaim against it for depriving me of some valuable 
 curiosity or celebrated monument, but this was the severest 
 disappointment it had yet occasioned," 
 
 At that time foreigners were closely watched and scru- 
 tinized in France. The police suspected Irving of being 
 an English spy, and dogged him at every step. He was 
 detained at Marseilles, and kept fivd weeks at Nice on 
 various frivolous pretex'.^ ; and the journey was rendered 
 particularly disagreeable by dirty cars, by the noise and 
 insolence of the i^opulace. But Irving said : " When I 
 cannot get a dinner to suit my taste, I endeavor to get a 
 taste to suit my dinner; " and he declared that he tried to 
 
 4 
 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 be pleased with everything about hira, with the masters, 
 mistresses, and servants, especially when he thought they 
 were doing their best to serve him. 
 
 He reached Genoa in October. TIere ho found the 
 society delightful ; his he.alth was restored and his spirits 
 returned, and he enjoyed the gayety of tlie city life. Late 
 in December he sailed in a Gc^ioese packet for Sicily. 
 Here he had an experience with pirates. Off the island 
 of Planoca a pickaroon with l«teen sails and armed witli 
 guns overhauled them ; and they were boarded by a pictur- 
 esquely villanous crew in ragged garb, and with cutlasses 
 in hand and stilettos and pistols in belt, like genuine 
 stage villains. The packet was thorouglily ransacked ; all 
 the trunks and portmanteaus were opened by them, but 
 they carried off little besides brandy and provisions. On 
 their departure they gave the captain a " receipt " for 
 what they took and an order on the British Consul at 
 Messina to pay for it. 
 
 Irving spent two months in Sicily, and made several 
 inland journeys in which he ran great risk of being cap- 
 tured by the banditti which were then overrunning +he 
 island. He was painfully struck by the poverty and 
 wretchedness of the natives. He wrote that his mind 
 never suffered so much as on a jouiney which he took 
 from Syracuse through the centre of the island — the half- 
 starved peasants living in wretched cabins anr* often in 
 filthy caverns infested with vermin. 
 
 But in the ports he found American ships, and he was 
 everywhere received as a comrade. " Every ship was a 
 home and every officer a friend." At Messina he saw 
 Lord Nelson's fleet passing through the straits in search 
 of the French fleet. 
 
 From there he went to Naples in a fruitrboat which 
 safely dodged the cruisers, and he readied Rome in March. 
 
1 1 
 
 M 
 
 8 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Here lie met Washington Allston, the painter, and was so 
 captivated b; him and by the ideal life tliat he led that he 
 was half inclined to abandon law and become an artist 
 himself. He also made the acquaintance of Madame de 
 Stael, the gifted authoress, and saw considerable of Roman 
 society. The head of the great banking-house of Torlonia 
 paid him special attention, supposing he was a relative of 
 General Washington- 
 He hurried th.-ough to Italy ;n order to get to Paris 
 where, he wrote his brother Wilxlam, he wished " to pay 
 attention to yeveral branches of art and science." He 
 spent four months in Paris, and went to London by way of 
 the Netherlands in October. He kept no journal, eithor 
 in Paris or London ; but the chief attraction in the latter 
 city seems to have been the theatre, where he saw Mrs. 
 Siddons, George Frederick Cooke and John Kemble. 
 
 Later on, soon after the publication of ''The Sketch- 
 Book," Mr. Irving met Mrs. Siddons at some fashionable 
 assembly, and was brought up to be presented. Slie looked 
 at him for a moment, and then in her cleai voice said slowl}-. 
 "You've made me weep." The modest author was so en- 
 tirely taken by surprise and disconcerted that he had not 
 a word to say, ana very soon retreated. After " Brace- 
 bridge Hall " appeared, he met her again in company, and 
 was met with a similar address : " You've made me we^p 
 again." This t'n e he was prepared, and replied with some 
 complimentary allusion to the pffect of hor own pathos. 
 
 In Februaiy, 1806, Irving retf^-ned to New York with 
 renewed health and vigor. He was admitted to the bar, 
 but he devoted his time more than ever to society. He was 
 one of a group of young men of convivial habits known 
 as "the nine worthies," or as "tbo lads of Kilkenny," 
 as Irving frequently alludes to them in his letters. Their 
 favorite resort was an old mansion called Cockloft Hall, 
 
 about a 
 
 do'ied, h( 
 
 attained 
 
 is thus d 
 
 "He : 
 
 which m 
 
 forehead 
 
 height, a" 
 
 inclined 
 
 geni.-'l, li, 
 
 attractive 
 
 ous, it w 
 
 words we 
 
 ceedingly 
 
 dark hair 
 
 wore neit 
 
 \v jg, whicl 
 
 beat oifull 
 
 a social fa| 
 
 It was 
 dence of 
 Paulaing 
 tion of 
 duouc^cim 
 own am; 
 It ran thi 
 a " spirit 
 ch^is were 
 tributed 
 the poetiv 
 loft." M 
 " Salmagi 
 or.iy of 
 the inter] 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 9 
 
 about a mile above Newark. They were not so aban- 
 doned, however, as they pretended to be, and many of them 
 attained distinction in later life. His personal appearance 
 is thus described by a relative : 
 
 " He had dark gray eyes ; a handsome straight nose, 
 which might perhaps be called large ; a broad, high, full 
 forehead ; and a small mouth. I should call him of riedium 
 height, about five feet eight and a half to nine inches, and 
 inclined to be a trifle stout. His smile v/as exceedingly 
 geni.''!, lighting up his whole face and rendering it very 
 attractive ; while, if he were about to say anything humor- 
 ous, it would beam forth from his eyes even before the 
 words were spoken. As a young man his face was ex- 
 ceedingly handsome, and his head was well covered with 
 dark hair; but from my earliest recollection of him he 
 ' wore neither whiskers nor moustache, but a dark brown 
 w>g, which, although it made him look younger, concealed a 
 beai oifully shaped head." So it was no wonder that he was 
 a social favorite, not only in New York but in other cities. 
 
 It was at this time that Irving gave the lii-st real evi- 
 dence of his choice of a career. Together with James K. 
 Paulaing and his brother William, he planned the produc- 
 tion of Salmagundi, a semi-monthly periodical, in small 
 duodv-^cimo sheets. The work was undertaken for their 
 own amusement, and with no hope of. pecuniary profit. 
 It ran through twenty numbers, and was characterized by 
 a " spirit of fun and sarcastic drollery. ' Some of the arti- 
 cles were written entirely by Paulding, others were con- 
 tributed by Washington, while his brother William wrote 
 the poetical pieces under the signature of " Pindar Cock- 
 loft." Mr. Duyckinck, in his preface to the volume of 
 "Salmagundi," says, '•''Salmagundi is the literary parent not 
 oniy of ' The Sketch-Hook ' and ' The AUiambra,' but of al) 
 the intermediate and subsequent productions of Irving." 
 
10 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Not long after Salmagundi was discontinued Mr. Irving 
 with his brother Peter began the " History of New York." 
 At first only a burlesque on Dr. Samuel Mitchell's " Pic- 
 ture of New York," was intended ; but later on Peter was 
 called to Liverpool on urgent business, and Washington 
 was left to go on with the work. He had great difficulty 
 in condensing the enormous mass of notes accumulated, 
 into five introductory chapters, and the r* st of tlie book 
 was entirely his own. While engaged on this work the 
 author received the crushing blow from which he never 
 wholly recovered. He had conceived an ardent passion 
 for Mr. Hoffman's second daughter, Matilda, and his affec- 
 tion was reciprocated. He was struggling to better his 
 condition, in order to be able to marry her, v/hen the lovely 
 girl, in the eighteenth year of her age, died, after a short 
 illness. The fact that Mr. Irving never alluded to this 
 chapter of his life, nor ever mentioned her name to his 
 most intimate friends, shows how deeply he was affecteJ. 
 After his deatli, in a repository which he always kept 
 locked, was found a package containing some memoranda 
 concerning her, a beautiful miniature in a case, with a 
 braid of hair, and a slip of paper on which lie had written 
 "Matilda Hoffman." He kept her Bible and Prayer-book 
 by him all through his life, and for some time after her 
 death put them under his pillow every night. Thirt^' 
 years afterwards her father, in taking some music from 
 a drawer, found a piece of embroidery and handed it to 
 Irving, saying,— 
 
 " Washington, this is a piece of poor Matilda's handi- 
 work." Irving, who had been particularly gay, suddenly 
 relapsed into silence and left tlie house. 
 
 Long after his death a part of a letter to Mrs. Foster of 
 Berlin was published. He said in it : — 
 "We saw each other every day, and I became excessively 
 
 attached 
 more I s 
 Her min 
 to discov 
 I, for she 
 ner studi 
 intuitive 
 quisite p: 
 young cr( 
 acknowle 
 idolized li 
 cacy and ] 
 comparisc 
 ills that 1 
 to me drc 
 I saw her 
 and more 
 she looke( 
 mind I wj 
 ing; the 
 thoughts 
 not beur 
 was a dis 
 me fear t( 
 and seek 
 hunian be 
 gloom of 
 " I was 
 tachmentfi 
 tinually r 
 was a pa 
 would sin 
 
 Irving 
 niece: "'' 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 11 
 
 1 
 
 attached to her. Her shyness wore off by degrees. The 
 more I saw of her, the more I had reason to admire her. 
 Her mind seemed to unfold leaf by leaf, and every time 
 to discover new sweetness. Nobody knew her so well as 
 I, for slie was generally timid and silent ; but I in a man- 
 ner studied her excellence. Never did I meet with more 
 intuitive rectitude of mind, more native delicacy, more ex- 
 quisite propriety in word, thought, and action, than in this 
 young creature. I am not exaggerating; what I say was 
 acknowledged by all who knew her. . . . For my part I 
 idolized her. I felt at times rebuked by her superior deli- 
 cacy and purity, and as if I was a coarse, unworthy being in 
 comparison. I cannot tell you what I have suffered. The 
 ills that I have undergone in this life have been dealt out 
 to me drop by drop, and I have tasted all their bitterness. 
 I saw her fade rapidly away ; beautiful and more beautiful 
 and more angelic to the last. ... I was the last one 
 she looked upon. I cannot tell you what a horrid state of 
 mind I was in for a long time. I seemed to care for noth- 
 ing; the world was a blank to me. I abandoned all 
 thoughts of the law. I went into the country, but could 
 not beur solitude, yet could not endure society. There 
 was a dismal horror continually in my mind, which made 
 me fear to be alone. I had often to get up in the night, 
 and seek the bedroom of my brother, as if the having a 
 human being by me would relieve me from the frightful 
 gloom of my own thoughts. . . . 
 
 " I was naturally susceptible, and tried to form other at- 
 tachments, but my heart would not hold on ; it would con- 
 tinually recur to what it had lost; and whenever there 
 was a pause in the hurry of novelty and excitement, I 
 would sink into dismal dejection." 
 
 Irving never married ; he used to say playfully to a 
 niece : " You know I was never intended for a bachelor." 
 
N 
 
 n 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 
 '( 
 
 fi^ :i 
 
 The two months following Matilda's death were spent 
 in the country at the house of his friend, Judge William 
 Van Ness. In order to combat grief he applied himself 
 vigorously to working on his " History of New York by 
 Diedrich Knickerbocker." In his memoranda, he writes : 
 " When I became more calm and collected I applied my- 
 self, by way of occupation, to the finishing of my work. 
 I brought it to a close, as well as I could, and published 
 it; but the time and circumstances in which it was pro- 
 duced rendered me always unable to look upon it with 
 satisfaction." 
 
 The work was printed in Philadelphia in order to keep 
 its real character from being known in advance of its ap- 
 pearance. At the same time it was very cleverly advertised. 
 A notice appeared in the Evening .Post, to the effect that 
 *'a small elderly gentleman by the name of Knickerbocker 
 had disappeared from his lodgings. He was dressed in 
 an old black coat and cocked hat." Soon after another 
 paragraph appeared in the papers to the effect that a per- 
 son answering the description had been seen by the pas- 
 pongers of the Albany stage, that he was resting by the 
 roadside with a small bundle tied in a red bandana hand- 
 kerchief; and then another stating that Mr. Diedrich 
 Knickerbocker had gone from his hotel without paying 
 his board, and if he did not return a very curious book 
 which he had left would have to be sold to satisfy the 
 landlord. ' ' 
 
 The volume appeared Dec. 6, 1809, and was advertised 
 then as a grave, matter-of-fact history, even being dedi- 
 cated "To the New York Historical Society." So it is 
 not difficult to imagine the surprise that many felt on 
 perusing the work, to find that the author had used " the 
 events which compose the history of the three Dutch gov- 
 ernors of New York, merely as a vehicle to convey a world 
 
 of sati 
 descen 
 of thei 
 beyond 
 first ed 
 In sj 
 sion wi 
 precarii 
 was an 
 regular 
 ings, he 
 were er 
 this req 
 ciently 
 ence, a 
 Yet he i 
 and the 
 fruit, w 
 tory of 
 still he 
 leisure. 
 Thei 
 to mere 
 certain 
 turned 
 the edit 
 of fiftee 
 biograp 
 azine p 
 ment ol 
 he wish 
 In 1^ 
 ernor 
 1816, 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 13 
 
 of satire, whim, and ludicrous description " Many of the 
 descendants of the rolonists were indignant at the ridicule 
 of their Dutch ancestors, but the work had a success far 
 beyond the author's expectation. The returns from the 
 first edition amounted to about three thousand dollars. 
 
 In spite of this success, however, literature as a profes- 
 sion was not attractive to him. He felt that it was too 
 precarious, and too liable to trials and tribulations. He 
 was anxious to find some employment to assure him a 
 regular income. Finally, after many doubts and misgiv- 
 ings, he entered i»ito a partnership with his brothers, who 
 were engaged in the hardware business. By arrangement 
 this required little work from him, and brought him a sufQ- 
 ciently large share in the profits to provide for his subsist- 
 ence, and give him time to devote himself to literature. 
 Yet he seems to have devoted his time mostly to society .; 
 and the two yeai-s that followed were without literary 
 fruit, with the exception of a revised edition of the " His- 
 tory of New York." His conscience often smote him, but 
 still he settled down into the easy life of a gentleman of 
 leisure. 
 
 The war which broke out in 1812 brought great anxiety 
 to merchants, and caused Washington Irving to feel un- 
 certain about his commercial interests. This probably 
 turned his thoughts once more to literature. He assumed 
 the editorial charge of the Analectic Magazine^ at a salary 
 of fifteen hundred dollars a year, and wrote reviews and 
 biographical sketches for it. The management of the mag- 
 azine proved very irksome to him, especially the depart- 
 ment of criticism, for he could not bear to inflict pain, and 
 he wished to be just. 
 
 In 1814 Irving enlisted in the war, and was made Gov- 
 ernor Tompkins's aid and military secretary. In May, 
 1816, he sailed for England to visit his brother, and little 
 
1 
 
 u 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 dreamed that seventeen years would elapse before his 
 return. It had been nearly seven years since his parting 
 with Peter, but he found hira so much like old times that 
 it soon seemed as if he had only left him the day before. 
 Peter was at this time suffering from an indisposition, 
 which finally resulted in a long illness, which kept him an 
 invalid until the following May. Washington spent a 
 week witli Peter, and then went to visit his brother-in-law 
 in Birmingham, and from there to Sydenham, to visit 
 the poet Campbell. From London he returned to Bir- 
 mingham, and after a few days started on a tour by way 
 of Bath ann Bristol, through South and North Wales, to 
 Liverpool. Peter's illness made it necessary for Washing- 
 ton to take charge of the business in Liverpool ; and he 
 applied himself assiduously to it, in spite of his aversion 
 to everything of the sort. The two years following were 
 full of care and worry. He writes in January, 1816, " I 
 would not again experience the anxious days and sleepless 
 nights which have been my lot since I have taken hold of 
 business, to possess the wealth of Croesus." 
 
 Liverpool, where he was obliged to spend most of his 
 time, was unattractive to him ; and he was too low-spirited 
 to make the most of the society offered him. In the win- 
 ter of 1815 he made a visit to London, and was completely 
 carried away by Miss O'Neil's acting, but refused to be 
 introduced to her for fear of being disenchanted. The 
 following summer Peter recovered his health sufficiently 
 to return to Liverpool ; and Washington was enabled to 
 get away from the tread-mill, and visit his sister's family 
 in Birmingham. He made a little excursion into Derby- 
 shire, which was the one bright spot in the year, and then ' 
 returned to his sister's house, where he tried to devote 
 himself to literary work ; but his uneasimess about business 
 affairs made it impossible for him to use his pen. His 
 
TUE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 15 
 
 anxiety, however, was always for his relatives, rather than 
 for himself. 
 
 In the spring of 1817 Irving was getting ready a new 
 edition of the "History of New York," with designs by 
 Allston and Leslie. He was intending to return to 
 America, when the death of his mother, at the age of 
 seventy-nine, occurred, and caused him to change his 
 plans. When he had left her in New York, it was liis 
 intention to return in a short time to remain with her the 
 rest of her life. Business did not improve ; and Irving 
 formed a plan with the Philadelphia publisher, Moses 
 Thomas, which would give him means of support, and 
 at the same time enable him to use his pen. It was an 
 arrangement for the republication in America of choice 
 English works. About this time Irving' made the ac- 
 quaintance of the elder D'Israeli at a dinner at Murray's 
 in London, and spent some time with Sir Walter Scott, a 
 visit afterwards commemorated in his immortal " Abbots- 
 ford." > • 
 
 In a most interesting letter written to his brother Peter 
 he tells he took chaise for Melrose, and on the w«ay stopped 
 at the gate of Abbotsford, and sent in his letter of intro- 
 duction, with a request to know whether it would be 
 agreeable for Scott to receive a visit from him in the 
 course of the day. 
 
 The " glorious old minstrel " himself came limping to 
 the gate, took him by the hand in a way that made him 
 feel as if they were old friends, seated him at his hospit- 
 able board among his charming little family, and kept him 
 there as long as he would stjiy. Irving enjoyed the hours 
 he passed there ; he said they flew by too quick, yet each 
 was loaded with story, incident, or song; and when he 
 considered the world of ideas, images, and impressions that 
 had been crowded upon his mind during his visit, it seemed 
 
 I 
 
! 
 
 16 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 to him incredible that he should have been only two days 
 
 at Abbotsford. 
 
 He rambled about the hills with Scott; visited the 
 haunts of Thomas the Rhymer, and other spots rendered 
 classic by border tale and witching song, and he declared 
 that he had been in a kind of dream or delirium. 
 
 Irving found himself unable to express his delight at 
 Scott's character and manners. He called him " a sterling, 
 golden-hearted old worthy, full of the joyousness of youth, 
 with an imagination continually furnishing forth pictures, 
 and a charming simplicity of manner that puts you at ease 
 with him in a moment." He found it a constant source 
 of pleasure to remark his deportment toward his family, 
 his neighboi-s, his domestics, his very dogs and cats ; every- 
 thing that came within his influence seemed to catch a 
 beam of that sunshine that played round his heart. 
 
 Early in 1818, after vain endeavors to compromise with 
 their creditors, the two brothers made up their minds to 
 go through the humiliating ordeal of taking the bankrupt 
 act. Washington felt little anxiety for himself, but he 
 was torn with anguish for his brothers. He was to receive 
 one thousand dollars a year compensation from Moses 
 Thomas; but the arrangement only continued a twelve- 
 month, and in August Imng went to London, determined 
 to rely on his pen for a support. He had been in London 
 but two weeks when he was obliged to part with his friend 
 AUston, who returned to America. Soon after this he 
 received word from his brother William to the effect that 
 his old friend Decatur was keeping a clerkship open in 
 the Navy for him with a salary of twenty-four hundred 
 dollars a year, and that he was waiting for a reply. 
 To the great disappointment of his brothei-s, he refused 
 the offer. He was determined to let nothing interfere 
 with his literary career. "This resolution," says Mr. 
 
THE LIFE OF WAHUINOTON IRVUfO, 
 
 17 
 
 days 
 
 d the 
 
 dered 
 
 clared 
 
 ■$ 
 
 Charles Dudley Warner, " which exhibited a modest con- 
 fidence in his own powers, and the energy with which he 
 threw himself into his career, showed the fibre of the man. 
 Suddenly, by the reverse of fortune, he who had been 
 regarded as merely the ornamental genius of the family 
 became its stay and support. If he had accepted the aid 
 of his brothers during the experimental period of his life, 
 in the loving spirit of confidence in which it was given, 
 he was not less ready to reverse the relations when the 
 time came ; the delicacy with which his assistance was 
 rendered, the scrupulous care taken to convey the feeling 
 that his brothers were doing him a continual favor in 
 shr.ring his good fortune, and their own unjealous accept- 
 ance of what they would as freely have given if circum- 
 stances had been different, form one of the pleasantest 
 instances of brotherly concord and self-abnegation. I 
 know nothing more admirable than the life-long relations 
 of this talented and sincere family." 
 
 Early in the year 1819 Irving began preparing the 
 first number of " The Sketch-Book," which was published 
 in America the foUov/ing May. The title of the series, 
 which was not completed until September, 1820, was 
 "The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent." The 
 first number contained the Prospectus, the author's ac- 
 count of himself, the Voyage, Roscoe, the Wife, and Rip 
 Van Winkle. It was published simultaneously in New 
 York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The first 
 edition consisted of two thousand copies. The style of 
 the publication was ^jeautiful for those days, and the price 
 of the first number was seventy-five cents. Its appearance 
 created a sensation in America, and this soon spread to Eng- 
 land. Chambers's " Cyclopaedia of English Literature " 
 declared the stories of " Rip Van Winkle " and " Sleepy 
 Hollow " to be " the finest pieces of original fictitious 
 
u 
 
 TEX LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 
 .1 
 
 writing that this ceutury has produced, next to the works 
 
 of Scott." 
 
 Lord Byron, speaking of " The Broken Heart," the hero- 
 ine of which was the daughter of John Philpot Curran, the 
 Irish leader, said : " That is one of the finest things ever 
 written on earth. Irving is a genius ; and he has some- 
 thing better than genius — a heart. He never wrote that 
 without weeping ; nor can I hear it without tears. I have 
 not wept much in this world, for trouble never brings 
 tears to my eyes; but I always have tears for *The 
 Broken Heart.' " 
 
 Irving was completely overwhelmed — " appalled " was 
 the term he used — by the success of " The Sketch-Book ; " 
 but he was not in the least puffed up. He writes to his 
 friend Brevoort, hoping that he would not attribute to an 
 author's vanity all that sensibility to the kind reception he 
 had met with. He declared vanity could not bring the 
 tears into his eyes, as they had been brought by the kind- 
 ness of his countrymen. " I have felt cast down, blighted, 
 and broken-spirited," he wrote; "and these sudden rays 
 of sunshine agitate even more than they revive me." And 
 he expressed the hope that he might yet do something 
 more worthy of the approbation lavished on him. 
 
 Several of the papers in " The Sketch-Book " were 
 copied into English periodicals ; and a writer in Black- 
 wood, expressing surprise that the work had been printed 
 in America earlier than in Britain, predicted that there 
 would be a large and eager demand for it. 
 
 Irving had already met John Murray, " the Prince of 
 Booksellers;" and he took to him the first three num- 
 bei-s of " The Sketch-Book," with a proposition tliat he 
 should issue them. Murray did not see "that scope in 
 the nature of it which would enable him to make those 
 satisfactory accounts between them without which he 
 
TUE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 .19 
 
 felt no real satisfaction in undertaking to publish for 
 another." 
 
 So Irving sought the advice of Scott, telling him frankly 
 that he " was in the mire." Scott at once wrote, asking 
 him if he would become the editor of a magazine at a 
 yearly salary of five hundred pounds. But Irving refused 
 this offer, stating that he was " unfitted for any periodi- 
 cally recurring task, or any stipulated labor of body or 
 mind," and was fis useless for regular service as one of his 
 own country Indians or a Don-Cossack. 
 
 Scott advised him to apply to Constable ; but Irving 
 resolved to let the work go on its own merits, and entered 
 into an arrangement with a man named Miller, who pub- 
 lished the first four numbers in a volume in 1820. But 
 within a month Miller failed. Again Scott came to 
 Irving's aid, and induced John Murray «o undertake the 
 work. Murray paid him two hundred pounds for it, and 
 afterwards voluntarily more than doubled the honorarium. 
 From that time forth Murray was his regular publisher, 
 and treated him with exemplary generosity. 
 
 In August, 1820, Irving went to Paris with his brother 
 Peter. There he made the acquaintance of Thomas 
 Moore, with whom he formed a firm and lasting friend- 
 ship ; Talma, the great French tragedian ; John Howard 
 Payne, Canning, Sydney Smith, and George Bancroft. 
 The following year Irving returned to England, taking 
 with him several plan's by the author of " Home, Sweet 
 Home," with the hope of disposing of them for the benefit 
 of Payne, whose finances were in bad shape. He spent 
 some time in London, and visited his sister in Birmingham, 
 where he was detained four months by illness. He re- 
 turned to London in December; but he continued to suffer 
 from the trouble in his ankles, so that he was unable to 
 walk without pain and difficulty. Here he wrote " Brace- 
 
8f. THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 bridge Hall," which appeared in America in 1822. He 
 arranged that it should be brought out by a publisher who 
 had failed in business ; but Irving says, " he had shown a 
 disposition to serve me, and did serve me in the time of 
 my necessity, and J should despise myself could I for a 
 moment forget it." Irving sold the work to Murray for 
 a thousand guineas. 
 
 In July he left London, to travel in Germany for his 
 health. He spent six months most delightfully in Dresden, 
 where he met an English family by the name of Foster, 
 with whom he became very intimate, and whose house be- 
 came a home to him. With the daughter Emily he formed 
 a warm friendship, which the family seem to have believed 
 would have ended in marriage, if the lady's affections had 
 not already been turned in another direction. After 
 Irving's death this same daughter wrote of him in these 
 glowing terms: "He was thorouglily a gentleman, not 
 merely externally, in manners and look, but io the inmost 
 fibres and core of his heart. Sweet-tempered, gentle, fas- 
 tidious, sensitive, and gifted with the warmest affections, 
 the most delightful and invariably interesting companion, 
 gay, and full of humor, even in spite of occasional fits of 
 melancholy, whicl: he was, however, seldom subject to 
 when with those he liked — a gift of conversation that 
 flowed like a full river in sunshine, bright, easy, and 
 abundant." 
 
 In July, 1823, he returned to Paris and to literary work. 
 In 1821 the " Tales of a Traveller " appeared. In New 
 York it was published in four parts. It did not excite so 
 much surprise, nor was it so popular, as his previous publi- 
 cations; but it sustained the author's reputation, and is 
 thought to contain some of his best writing. Murray paiil 
 him fifteen hundred pounds for the copyright. After this 
 he worked on some American essays, and contemplated 
 
THE LIFE OF [VASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 21 
 
 writing a " Life of Washington j " but this was abandoned 
 to undertake tlie " Life of Columbus," for which purpose 
 he started for Madrid, reaching there in Feburary, 1826. 
 His first intention was to make a translation of M. Navar- 
 rete's "Voyage of Columbus;" but he soon discovered 
 that this work was "rather a mass of rich materials for 
 history than a history itself," so he abandoned the idea, 
 and began making researches for an original " Life of 
 Columbus." Ho was unceasing in his labors, sometimes 
 working all day and until midnight. At one time he 
 wrote from five in the morning until eight at night, only 
 stopping for meals. His studies for this " Life of Colum- 
 bus " brought him into contact with the old chronicles and 
 legends of Spain, from which arose those fascinating books 
 which are the fruits of his sojourn in Spain. During 
 Irving's stay in Madrid, the house of the Russian minis- 
 ter, M. D'Oubril, became a favorite resort. Prince Dol- 
 goruki, and Mademoiselle Bolville, a niece of Madame 
 D'Oubril, were inmates of his household ; and his lettera 
 to them give charming glimpses of the author's life in 
 Spain. 
 
 Through Irving's desire for historical accuracy in every 
 respect, the " Life of Columb is " was not ready for pub- 
 lication until February, 1828. Mr. Murray paid him three 
 thousand guineas for the English copyright. This large 
 honorarium was paid not without protests from some of 
 Murray's friends. Robert Southey thought the work " to 
 have been compiled with great industry and to be well 
 conceived and likely to succeed because it was interesting 
 and useful ; " but he criticized it, saying : " There is neither 
 much power of mind nor much knowledge indicated in 
 it." Mr. Sharon Turner wrote : " What has it of that su- 
 perb degree as to make it fully safe for you to give the 
 price you intend for it? I see no novelty of fact, and 
 
 ■J 
 
22 
 
 'iHE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 though much ability, yet not that overwhelming talent 
 whicli will give a very gr-^'t circulation to so trite a sub- 
 ject." 
 
 These prognostications were realized. It was pub- 
 lished in February, 1828, in four large octavo volumes ; 
 three yeara later Murray wrote to Irving : " The publica- 
 tion of 'Cclumbus' cost me, paper, printing, .vivertisiiig 
 and author, .£5,700; and it has produced but .£4,700." 
 
 From a literary standpoint its success was greater than 
 the 'author anticipated; and he wrote an abridgment of 
 it which Mr. Charles Dudley Warner avers he presented 
 to John Murray and was very successful, the fii-st edition 
 of ten thousand copies selling immediately. 
 
 In March, 1828, Mr. Irving started with two intimate 
 friends to make a tour through the most beautiful part of 
 Andalusia. They visited Cordova, Granada, Malaga, and 
 Seville. In Seville Mr. Irving remained over a year, and 
 here he wrote the " Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada." 
 This work, although considered by the autlior as the best 
 of all his works, and regarded by critical authorities as a 
 "masterpiece of romantic narrative," did not receive the 
 popularity necessary to encourage him to continue in the 
 same direction. The manuscript was sent by Irving to 
 his friend an^. representative Colonel A spin wall, who seems 
 to have sounded various Lor don publishers in order to 
 secure the most favorable terms. The Reverend Sanuiel 
 Smiles, D.D., says : " Murray, not liking to see the works 
 of the famous author go into the hands of other j)nb- 
 lishers, offered a large sum for the ' Conquest of Granada ' 
 — not less than two thousand guineas, though it as well 
 as the 'Columbus ' had been published in America before 
 they appeared in England, and were tlierefon; devoid of all 
 loyal protection." liOckhart wrote Murray concerning the 
 manuscript of it: "My impression is that with much ele- 
 
 4 
 
 gance, tho 
 add, of fee 
 war, in thi 
 he added : 
 ligible his 
 in Europe 
 standard \ 
 
 Mu:ray 
 gun to pal 
 bility of 1( 
 your forel 
 have the s 
 you not tl 
 the public 
 mi:"d his 
 he ended 
 might be 
 publicatioi 
 
 In two 
 the "Gra 
 guineas. 
 
 In May 
 bra, takinj 
 tors. Hei 
 Spain," bi 
 During hii 
 tion cf hit 
 don. A t 
 urgency o 
 ingly, he 
 night on 
 again cont 
 years elap 
 1830, on h 
 
TB^ LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 23 
 
 gance, tlio'e is mixed a good deal of affectation — I must 
 add, of feebleness. He is not the man to paint tumultuous 
 war, in the lifetime of Scott, when Byron is fresh." But 
 he added: "This, however, will be the only complete intel- 
 ligible history of the downfall of the last Moorish power 
 in P^urope, and tiierefore a valuable, and I doubt not, a 
 staiidaid work." 
 
 Murray v/rcte to Irving, hinting that his works had be- 
 gun to pail on the public taste and that there was a proba- 
 bility of loss. Irving replied : *' I have been annoyed by 
 your forebodings of ill success to this work ; when you 
 have the spirit to give a large price for a work, wliy have 
 you not the spirit to go manfully through with it until 
 the public voice determines its fate ? " And he called to 
 mi;>d liis first doubts regarding " The Sketch-Book ; " but 
 he ended with an expression of his wish that Murray 
 might be relieved of such apprehensions of loss in the 
 publication of his works. 
 
 In two years Murray reported to Irving that his loss on 
 the " Granada " had amounted to about twelve hundred 
 guineas. 
 
 In May, 1829, Irving left Seville and visited the Alham- 
 bra, taking up his residence there in the governor's quar- 
 ters. Here he wrote the " Legends of the Conquest of 
 Spain," but they were not published until six years later. 
 During his stay at the Alhambra he received the informa- 
 tion cf liis appointment as Secretary of Legation to Lon- 
 don. At first he hesitated about accepting it, but on the 
 urgency of liis friends finally decided to do so. Accord- 
 ingly, he left Spain for London, stopping in Paris a fort- 
 night on the way. Toward the close of this year he 
 again contemplated writing a " Life of Washington," but 
 years elapsed before the idea was carried out. In April, 
 1830, on his biithday, the author received the news tliat 
 
 !l 
 
m 
 
 24 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 the Royal Society of Literature had awarded him one of 
 their fifty guinea gold medals. In less than a month after 
 this he found himself committed for the degree of LL.D. 
 from the Univereity of Oxford. His modesty prevented 
 him from ever using the title, hov^ever. 
 
 Mr. Irving retired from the legation in September, 1831, 
 and shortly after had the sad pleasure of dining with Sir 
 WaJter Scott for the last time, in London. Scott's powers 
 had sadly failed, but during the dinner his mind would 
 occasionally brighten, and he would begin some story in 
 his old manner; but soon his head would sink and his 
 countenance fall, as he saw that he had failed in his at- 
 tempt. After dinner, as Scott took Irving's arm and 
 grasped his cane with the ether hand, he said, '• Ah I the 
 times are changed, my good fellow, since we went over 
 the Eildon hills together. It is all nonsense to cell a man 
 that his mind is not affected, when his body is in this 
 state." 
 
 In January, 1832, Mr. Irving revisited Newstead Abbey, 
 and was lodged in Lord Byron's room. In April he sailed 
 for New York, and reached hor>e after a voyage of forty 
 days. 
 
 A cordial reception awaited him. In a letter to his 
 brother Peter, he :.ells how he was absolutely over- 
 whelmed with the welcome and felicitations of his friends. 
 It seemed to him as i^ all the old standers of the city had 
 called on him; and he was continually thrown among old 
 associates, who, he thanked God, had borne the wear and 
 tear of seventeen years surprising!} and were all in good 
 health, good looks, and good circumstances. He was de- 
 lighted with the increased beauty and multiplied conve- 
 niences and delights of the city, and his return home 
 seemed to him wonderfully exciting. He immediately 
 entered into "a tumult of enjoyment;" and was pleased 
 
*«? 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINQTON IRVING. 
 
 25 
 
 forty 
 
 with everything and everybody, and as happy as mortal 
 I being could be. ; .. , . \J 
 
 f His early friends and townsmen gave him a public din- 
 
 || ner, which was pronounced the most successful public 
 ' : banquet ever given in the United States, and it was long 
 I remembered for its brilliancy. Nearly tliree hundred 
 I guests were present. The fact that a speech would be 
 I expected of him made Irving very nervous, as he was 
 wholly unpractised in public speaking; but he not only 
 " got on well, but with real eloquence." 
 
 Three weeks after his arrival in his own country, " The 
 Alhambra" was published by Messrs. Carey & Lea; but 
 it seems that it appeared in England, and possibly a trans- 
 lation in France, previous to this date. He had not suc- 
 ceeded, however, in making a bargain with any London 
 bookseller at the beginning of the year. He wrote in 
 February, that the book-trade was in such a de})lorable 
 state that he hardly knew where to turn. "Some," lie 
 said, " are disabled, and all disheartened." " The Alham- 
 bra " wd'-z dedicated to David Wilkie, the painter, who had 
 cften been his companion in Spain. His first returns from 
 it were about nine thousand dollars. 
 
 Soon atter this Mr. Irving contemplated a tour in the 
 western part of the State of New York, and through Ohio, 
 Kentucky, and Tennessee ; but his plans were changed, and 
 he finally undertook an extensive journey to the far West 
 with one of the three commissioners appointed by the 
 Government to trade with the Indians. The fruit of his 
 visit to the Pawnee country was, " A Tour on the Prai- 
 ries," the first of a series of volumes under the general title 
 of " Miscellanies," and some other sketches of the West. 
 On liis way home he spent three months in Washington. 
 Tlie following July, after spending some time in Tarry- 
 town and Saratoga Springs, he passed a day in visiting 
 
26 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IJtVlNO. 
 
 
 r T! 
 
 the old Dutch villages in the region of the Catskill 
 Mountains, where the scenes of Rip Van Winkle had been 
 laid and which he now explored for the first time. It is 
 an amusing fact in this connection that many years after- 
 wards Irving received a letter from a boy at Catskill tell- 
 ing him that he had lately been engaged in arguing vvitli 
 a very old gentleman " whether, in the beautiful tale of 
 ' Rip Van Winkle,' he referred to the village of Catskill, 
 or Kingston," and requesting him to settle the vexed 
 question. " He little dreamt," said Irving, as he exhibited 
 the letter, " when I wrote the story, I had never been on 
 the Catskills." 
 
 The second number of the "Crayon Miscellany" con- 
 tained "Abbotsford" and " Newstead Abbey," and came 
 out in May, 1835. The third number, called " Legends 
 of the Conquest of Spain," was published in October. 
 About this time Irving was also preparing, with the 
 aid of his nephew Pierre Irving, a work for John Jacob 
 Astor, called "Astoria." It was on the subject of Mr. 
 Astor's settlement called by that name, at the mouth 
 of the Columbia River. While at work upon this, Irving 
 spent much of his time at the Astor country-seat, opposite 
 Hellgate. The volume was published in October, 1836. 
 Irving received four thousand dollars from Carey & Lea 
 for the right of printing five thousand copies, and five 
 hundred pounds from Bentley in London. 
 
 The author had not only himself to support, but also liis 
 two brothers, Peter and Ebenezer ; so although he had re- 
 ceived large sums for his works, he was obliged to be in- 
 dustrious. Moreover, he longed to make a home for him- 
 self and his brother Peter, who crossed the ocean to join 
 him in April. He bought a small farm on the bank of the 
 river at Tarrytown, near his old Sleepy Hollow haunt, 
 and one of the most beautiful situations on the Hudson. 
 
 ' ^,o,«'-r- 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 27 
 
 There was a small stone Dutch cottage on the place ; and 
 this he enlarged, still retaining the quaint Dutch charac- 
 teristics. He added a tower, and a weathercock brought 
 from Holland ; and it became one of the most picturesque 
 residences on the river. At first his intention was to have 
 merely a summer retreat, and he called the place the 
 " Roost," but afterwards it was named "Sunnyside ; " and it 
 proved to be the dearest spot on earth to hi-n, and one 
 where he passed nearly all of the remainder c his years. 
 
 In January, 1837, we find Irving alone with his brother 
 Peter, in the cottage dressed in Christmas greens, and 
 completely settled in it. Here he was exercising his pen, 
 and working on "The Adventures of Captain Bonneville, 
 U.S.A., in the Rocky Mountains of the Far West," a 
 supplementary work to "Astoria." Irving first met this 
 gentleman at Mr. As tor's country-seat, in 1835. He 
 met him again later on in Washington, and found him 
 rewriting and extending the notes he had made in trav- 
 elling, uiid making maps of the regions he had visited. He 
 paid him one thousand dollars for the manuscripts, and 
 undertook to prepare them for puMication. These manu- 
 scripts formed the basis of the work, though other facts 
 and details were interwoven ; and to the whole he gave a 
 tone and color drawn from his own experiences during his 
 tour on the prairies. For this work he received three 
 thousand dollars from Carey, Lea, & Co., and nine hun- 
 dred pounds from Bentley in London. 
 
 While this work was going through the press, Irving 
 attended a complimentary entertainment, given by the 
 booksellei's of New York to authors jvnd other literary 
 and distinguished men. William Cullen Bryant, Fitz- 
 Green Halleck, the Rev. Orville Dewey, Judge Irving, 
 and others were present. 
 
 One of the memorable events of 1837 at the cottage 
 
28 
 
 THE LIFS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 ii* 
 
 was a visit from Louis Napoleon. After being a prisoner 
 of state for several months on board a French man-of-war, 
 he was released and set on shore at Norfolk, early in the 
 spring. From Norfolk he went to New York, where he 
 spent two months, during which he visited the '' Roost," 
 accompanied by a young French count, and escorted by 
 M. Anthony Constant. 
 
 A large proportion of Mr. Irving's funds was at this 
 time locked up in unfruitful land-purchases, so that it was 
 an anxious problem to him to know how to derive an in- 
 come sufficient to meet the expenses of the cottage, which 
 from being a bachelor-nest had assumed the character of a 
 mansion. Ebenezer decided to give up his town-house, and 
 both he and Peter were to become permanent inmates of 
 the "Roost." On the twenty-seventh of June, however, 
 Mr. Irving received one of the severest blows of his life 
 by the death of his brother Peter, whicli came close upon 
 that of his brother John. How deeply he felt this loss is 
 shown in a letter to Mrs. Van Wart, his sister : 
 
 Every day, every hour, he said, he felt how completely 
 Peter and he had been intertwined together in the whole 
 course of their existence. The very circumstance of their 
 both having never been married bound them more closely 
 together. While Peter was living he had not been con- 
 scious how much this was the case ; but now that his brother 
 was gone, he felt how all-important he had been to him. 
 Though he was surrounded by affectionate relatives, a 
 dreary feeling of loneliness kept coming over him whicli lie 
 reasoned against in vain ; for he felt that no one could ever 
 be what he was ; no one could take so thorough an interest 
 in his concerns ; to no one could he so confidingly lay open 
 his every thought and feeling, and expose every fault and 
 foible, certain of perfect toleration and indulgence. He 
 declared that since dear mother's death, he had had no one 
 
J^, 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 29 
 
 who could so patiently and tenderly bear with all his 
 weaknesses and infirmities, and throw over every error the 
 mantle of affection. " I cannot open a book or take up a 
 paper," he said, " or recall a past vein of thought, without 
 having him instantly before me and finding myself com- 
 pletely overcome." 
 
 To quote Mr. Charles Dudley Warner, Mr. Irving " was 
 now past middle life, having returned to New York in his 
 fiftieth year ; but he was in the full flow of literary pro- 
 ductiveness. The first crop of his mind was of course the 
 most original ; time and experience had toned down his 
 exuberant humor, but the spring of his fancy was as free, 
 his vigor was not aoated, and his art was more refined. 
 Some of his best work was yet to be done. And it is 
 worthy of passing mention, in regard to his later produc- 
 tions, that his admirable sense of literary proportion, which 
 is wanting in many goo 1 writers, characterized his work to 
 the end. High as his position was as a man of letters at 
 this time, the consideration in which he was held was much 
 broader than that — it was that of one of the first citizens 
 of the Republic. His friends, readers, and admirers were 
 not merely the literary class and the general public, but 
 included nearly all the prominent statesmen of the time. 
 Almost any career in public life would have been open to 
 him if he had lent an ear to their solicitations. But politi- 
 cal life was not to his taste, and it would have been fatal 
 to liis sensitive spirit." 
 
 He was asked to be mayor of New York ; to accept a 
 seat in Congress, and to become Secretary of the Navy in 
 Mr. Van Buren's cabinet ; but he declined all such over- 
 tures. 
 
 In 1838 Irving was working on the "History of the Con- 
 quest of Mexico." He had already made a rough outline 
 of the first volume when he went to New York to con- 
 
 u 
 
30 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 fl 
 
 h 
 
 1' 
 
 1- 
 
 ^ i 
 
 suit the libraries on the subject. While tiiere he learned 
 that Mr. Prescott, who had been winning a great reputar 
 tion by his "History of Ferdinand and Isabella," was 
 contemplating the work which he had actually begun ; and 
 he at once abandoned the subject, saying, " I am happy 
 to have this opportunity of testifying my high esteem for 
 his talents, and my sense of the very courteous manner in 
 which he has spoken of myself and my writings in his 
 'Ferdinand and Isabella,' though they interfered with a 
 part of the subject of his history." 
 
 But he did not surrender this glorious theme without a 
 pang. In a letter to hk nephew, five years later, he wrote 
 that he doubted whether Prescott was aware of the extent 
 of the sacrifice he had made ; for it had been a favorite sub- 
 ject, which had delighted his imagination ever since he 
 was a boy. He had brought home books from Spain to aid 
 him in it, and looked on it as the pendant to his " Colum- 
 bus." He declared that when he gave it uj) to him, he, in 
 a manner, gave up his bread; for he had depended on the 
 profit of it to recruit his waning finances, and that if ho 
 had accomplished it, his whole pecuniary situation would 
 have been altered. He had no other subject at hand to 
 supply its place, but was dismounted from his cheval Je 
 bataille, and he complained that he had never been com- 
 pletely mounted since. But he was not sorry to have 
 made the sacrifice, for it was not with a view to compli- 
 ments or thanks, but from a warm and sudden inii)uhse ; 
 and he felt that Prescott had justified the opinion that Ir- 
 ving expressed at the time ; that he would treat ' '^ subject 
 with closer and ampler research than he wouiu ^ . ably 
 have done. 
 
 After surrendering the subject of the "Conquest of 
 Mexico" to Prescott, Irving was persuaded to contribute 
 monthly to the Knickerbocker, ?■ magazine published in 
 
 New Yori 
 lars a yea: 
 his fancy 
 arrangeme 
 contnbuti< 
 in Spring, 
 Bobolink,' 
 the Union 
 a "Biogra 
 " Biograph 
 can girl " < 
 liad died i 
 Irving h 
 well undei 
 expected a 
 seemed less 
 pa.n of bei 
 down the r* 
 — very hai 
 wind to the 
 The apj 
 Tylei''s Seel 
 apj)ointed q 
 made his 
 received hi 
 dinner was 
 sided. Mr| 
 twenty-thn 
 describes tl 
 
 "I was 
 given in h| 
 of New Yol 
 but were 
 through ar 
 
THE LIFE OF WASIlINGTOy IRVING. 
 
 SI 
 
 learned 
 
 reputa- 
 
 fi," was 
 
 un ; and 
 
 happy 
 
 eeni for 
 
 inner in 
 
 I in his 
 
 with a 
 
 ithout a 
 lie wrote 
 e extent 
 rite sub- 
 since he 
 in to aid 
 "Colum- 
 in, he, in 
 d on the 
 lat if lie 
 in would 
 , hand to 
 cheval de 
 een coni- 
 to have 
 3 com pi i- 
 impulse ; 
 1 that Ii- 
 .? subject 
 l-<\, ably 
 
 iquest of 
 !ontribute 
 )lished in 
 
 New York. For this he was to receive two thousand dol- 
 lars a year. Irksome as it was to be obliged to draw ou 
 his fancy once a month for an article, he continued the 
 arrangement for two years. The most happy of all his 
 contributions to the periodical was probably ''The Birds 
 ill Spring," containing the charming sketch called "The 
 Bobolink," which was copied into almost every paper in 
 the Union. During this period Mr. Irving also wrote 
 a "Biography of Goldsmith," his favorite author, and a 
 " Biography of Margaret Davidson," a lovely young Amer- 
 can girl " of surprising precocity of poetical talent," who 
 had died in the very flower of her promise. 
 
 Irving had begun his "Life of Washington," and was 
 well under way with it, when he received the wholly un- 
 expected appointment of minister to Spain. At first he 
 seemed less impressed by the honor conferred than by the 
 pa.n of being exiled from home ; and as he paced up and 
 down the room, he murmured to his nephew, " It is hard, 
 — very hard, yet I must try to bear it. God tempers the 
 wind to the shorn lamb" 
 
 The appointment was suggested by Daniel Webster, 
 Tyler's Secretary of State. Alexander Hamilton, Jr., was 
 appointed as his Secretary of Legation. Charles Diukens 
 made his appearance in New York just as Mr. Irving 
 received his appointment of minister to Spain. A great 
 dinner was given to Dickens, and Washington Irving pre- 
 sided. Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, then a young woman of 
 twenty-three, was present, and in her reminiscences thus 
 describes the occasion: — 
 
 " I was present, with other ladies, at a public dinner 
 given in honor of Charles Dickens by prominent citizens 
 of New York. The ladies were not bidden to the feast, 
 but were allowed to occupy a small ante-room wliicli, 
 through an open door, commanded a view of the tables. 
 
 %:'. 
 
32 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IttVlNa. 
 
 ,1 
 
 •I 
 
 When the speaking was about to begin, a message canu; 
 suggesting that we should take possession of some vacant 
 seats at the great table. This wo wore glad to do. 
 Washington Irving was president of the evening, and 
 upon him devolved the duty of inaugurating the pro- 
 ceedings by an address of welcome to the distinguished 
 guest. People who sat near me whispered, 'He'll break 
 
 down, he always does.' Mr. Irving rose and uttered 
 
 a sentence or two. His friends interrupted him by ap- 
 plause, which was intended to encourage liim, but whicl; 
 entirely overthrew his self-possession. He hesitated, 
 stammered, and sat down, saying, 'I cannot go on.' It 
 was an embarrassing and painful moment; but Mr. John 
 Duer, an eminent lawyer, came to his fritjnd's assistance, 
 and with suitable remarks proposed the health of Charkv. 
 Dickens, to which Mr. Dickens promptly responded. 
 This he did in his happiest manner, covering Mr. Irving'.s 
 defeat by a glowing eulogy of his literary merits. 
 
 "'Whose books do I take to bed with me, night after 
 night? Washington Irving's, as one who is present can 
 testify.' This one was evidently Mrs. Dickens, who was 
 seated beside me." ' 
 
 Irving declined a public dinner in New York on the 
 eve of his departure, and aLo the same hospitality offered 
 in Liverpool and Glasgow. After visiting his sister 
 in Birmingham, and spending some time in Paris, he 
 finally reached Madrid, July 25, 1842. The affairs of 
 Spain at this time had become intensely dramatic, a con- 
 dition that continued as long as Mr. Irving remained in 
 the country, and gave intense interest to his diplomatic 
 life. The duties which he had to j)erform were un- 
 usual and difficult, but he acquitted himself with rare 
 skill and judgment. He was at one time called to Lon- 
 don to consult in regard to the Oregon boundary dis- 
 
 ,«f 
 
 a 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 33 
 
 pute, and rendered valuable assistance in settling the 
 question. 
 
 The following is a portion of Mr. Irving 's description 
 of his first audience with the queen : — 
 
 " It being signified to us that the queen would receive us 
 at the royal palace, we drove thither, but had to wait some 
 time in the apartment of Count Almodovar. After a while 
 we had notice that the queen was prepared to receive us. 
 We accordingly passed through the spacious court, up the 
 noble staircase, and through the long suites of apartments 
 of this splendid edifice, most of them silent and vacant, 
 the casements closed to keep out the heat, so that a twi- 
 light reigned throughout the mighty pile, not a little 
 emblematical of the dubious fortunes of its inmates. It 
 seemed more like traversing a convent than a palace. I 
 ought to have mentioned, that on ascending the grand 
 staircase, we found the portal at the head of it, opening 
 into the royal suite of apartments, still bearing the marks 
 of the midnight attack upon the palace in October last, 
 when an attempt was made to get possession of the per- 
 sons of the little queen and her sister, to carry them off. 
 The marble casements of the doors had been shattered in 
 several places, and the double doors themselves pierced all 
 over with bullet holes, from the musketry that played upon 
 them from the staircase during that eventful night. What 
 must have been the feelings of those poor children, on lis- 
 tening, from their apartment, to the horrid tumult, — the 
 outcries of a furious multitude, and the reports of fire- 
 arms echoing and reverberating through the vaulted halls 
 and spacious courts of this immense edifice, — and dubi- 
 ous whether their own lives were not the object of the 
 assault ! 
 
 " After passing through various chambers of the palace, 
 now silent and sombre, but which I had traversed in former 
 
 m 
 
 11 
 
 i 
 
34 
 
 TEE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 Il 
 
 dayd, on grand court occasions in the time of Ferdinand 
 VII.v when they were glittering with all the splendor of 
 a court, we paused in a great saloon, with high-vaulted 
 ceiling incrusted with florid devices in porcelain, and hung 
 with silken tapestry, but all in dim twilight, like the rest of 
 the palace ; at one end of the saloon the door opened to 
 an almost interminable range of other chambers, through 
 which, at a distance, we had a glimpse of some indistinct 
 figures in black. They glided into the saloon slowly, and 
 with noiseless steps. Ifc was the little queen, with her 
 governess, Madame Mina, widow of the general of that 
 name, and her guardian, the excellent Arguelles, all in 
 deep mourning for the Duke of Orleans. The little queen 
 advanced some steps within the saloon and then paused. 
 Madame Mina took her station a little distance behind her. 
 The Count Almodovar then introduced me to the queen 
 in my official capacity ; and she received me with a grave 
 and quiet welcome, expressed in a very low voice. She 
 is nearly twelve years of age, and is sufficiently well-grown 
 for her years. She had a somewhat fair complexion, quite 
 pale, with bluish and light-gray eyes ; a grave demeanor, 
 but a graceful deportment. I could not but regard her 
 with deep interest, knowing what important concerns de- 
 pended upon the life of this fragile little being, and to 
 what a stormy and precarious career she might be des- 
 tined." 
 
 While in Madrid, Irving was attacked by the inflamma- 
 tory disease of thg skin from which he had suffered twenty 
 years before, but this time it was much more severe. It 
 was the result of overwork, with too little exercise. Jle 
 was compelled to give up working on his " Life of Wash- 
 ington," as the least mental excitement aggravated the 
 symptoms and he was unable to resume the task until his 
 return to America. Being urged by his physician to try 
 
 li 
 
TBE LIFE OF WA8HINQT0N IBVINO. 
 
 S5 
 
 a change of air for the trouble in his ankles, he made an 
 excursion to France. He was absent nearly three months ; 
 but he brought the malady back with him again, and con- 
 tinued to suffer for some time longer. 
 
 In December, 1845, Irving sent home his resignation 
 from the court of Madrid ; and the following July General 
 Romulus M. Saunders, of North Carolina, arrived in Spain 
 as his successor. In April, 1845, on the day before his 
 sixty -second birthday, he wrote, expressing his longing to 
 be once more back at " dear little Sunnyside," while he yet 
 liad strength and good spirits to enjoy the simple pleasures 
 of the country, and to rally a happy family group once more 
 about him. He declared that he grudged every year of 
 absence that rolled by. " The evening of life," he said, " is 
 fast drawing over me ; still I hope to get back among my 
 friends while there is yet a little sunshine left." 
 
 On the eighteenth of August, 1846, he bade farewell 
 forever to European shores, and sailed for Boston on the 
 Cambria. He reached his home on the nineteenth of Sep- 
 tember ; and his first concern was to build an addition to 
 liis cottage, which was quite too cramped for the number 
 of its inmates. While occupied with this new building, 
 Irving spent all his leisure in preparing a complete edition 
 of his works, with corrections, alterations, and additions, 
 with a view to getting liis literary property into a condi- 
 tion to yield him a yearly income. In a letter to Mr. 
 Kenible, he says that the new pagoda was one of the most 
 useful additions that ever was made to a house, besides 
 being so ornamental ; for it gave him a laundry, store- 
 rooms, pantries, servants' rooms, coal-cellar, and other 
 rooms, converting what was once "rather a make-shift 
 little mansion," into one of the most complete snuggeries 
 in the country He jestingly remarked that the only 
 part of it that was not adapted to some valuable purpose 
 
 ml 
 
86 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING, 
 
 I 
 
 ll 
 
 
 was the cupola, which had no bell in it, and was about as 
 serviceable as the feather in one's cap. 
 
 In the autumn of 1847 we find Irving hard at work on 
 his " History of Washington ; " and early in the following 
 year he went for a prolonged visit to New York, to be 
 within reach of the libraries. A portion of this time was 
 spent as the guest of John Jacob Astor, then eighty-four 
 years of age. Irving had often urged him to begin his 
 noble project of the Astor library, but it was left to be 
 carried out after his death. 
 
 At this time the author was very much disturbed by a 
 plan which was proposed, to run a railroad along the east- 
 ern bank of the Hudson River. Besides desecrating the 
 beautiful shore, it threatened his little cottage, by coming 
 to its very door, and would forever mar its charm of quiet 
 and retirement. He was in despair when it was decided 
 to carry out this scheme, but when he found that it was 
 inevitable he tried to make the best of it. As it was car- 
 ried some distance out into the river, he was spared the 
 pain of having the railroad cross his grounds ; and the trees 
 on the bank formed a screen, which he hoped would soon 
 hide it from view. In adjustment of the damages, the rail- 
 road company paid him thirty-five hundred dollars. On 
 receiving the first payment, he observed: "Why, I am 
 harder on them than the wagoner was on Giles Ginger- 
 bread ; for he let him walk all the way to London along- 
 side of his wagon without charging him anything, while I 
 make them pay for only passing my door." 
 
 In 1848 Irving made arrangements for a collected edition 
 of his works, and was for the rest of his life assured a hand- 
 some income. On the eighteenth of August he brought 
 home to the cottage a copy of the revised edition of 
 " Knickerbocker's History of New York," and on the same 
 day he brought home a picture which had strongly im- 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 37 
 
 pressed him. It was Ary Scheffer's " Christus Consolator," 
 engraved by Dupont. It first attracted his attention in 
 the window of a German shop in Broadway, and the tears 
 filled his eyes as lie looked at it without knowing whose it 
 was. Finding that it was by Scheffer, he immediately 
 went in and bought it. In the autumn of this year he 
 united with the Episcopal Church. 
 
 The following yeai Irving dropped his " Life of Wash- 
 ington " to take up the " Life of Goldsmith," which he fin- 
 ished within sixty days. " Everything combines to make 
 this one of the most fascinating pieces of biography in the 
 English i.inguage," said the New York Tribune. "Mr. 
 Irving was in possession of abundant materials to do jus- 
 tice to tlie subject. He had only to insert his exquisite 
 magnetic needle into the mass, to give a choice and 
 shapely form to all that was valuabl in the labore of pre- 
 vious biographers. He lias done this in a manner which 
 leaves nothing to be desired. With a genial admiration of 
 Goldsmith, with a cordial appreciation of the spirit of his 
 writings, and with many similar intellectual tendencies, 
 lie has portrayed the varied picture ot his life with a grace 
 and elegance that make his narrative as charming a piece 
 of composition as can be found in the whole range of his 
 foimer works. He hf-s added a new enchantment to the 
 potent spell with which he always binds the hearts of his 
 readers." 
 
 The first volume of " Mahomet and his Successors," ap- 
 peared in December, although it had been advertised to 
 come out at the beginning of the year. The second 
 volume was published the following April. Irving was 
 most desirous to continue his " Life of Washington," 
 which had been interrupted. " All I fear," he said to his 
 nephew, "is to fail in health, and fail in completing this 
 work at the same time. If I can only live to finish it, I 
 
I 
 
 i-il 
 
 ^! : 
 
 would be willing to die the next moment. I think I can 
 make it a most interesting book --can give interest and 
 strength to many points without any prostration of historic 
 dignity. If I had only ten years more of life I I never 
 felt more able to write. I might not conceive as I did in 
 earlier days, when 1 had more romance of feeling, but I 
 could execute with more rapidity and freedom." 
 
 One day in July, 1850, Irving was taken with chills 
 while in the cars on his way to New York, and this proved 
 to be the warning of a serious illness. The fever made 
 such progress that Dr. Delafield, a celebrated physician 
 from New York, who happened to be on the opposite side 
 of the river, was called in, and Mr. Irving made his will, 
 prepared for the worst. The skilful treatment he received, 
 however, soon brought about a change for the better ; and 
 in a few days the patient was out of danger, although very 
 weak. The following autumn he had the pleasure of hear- 
 in » Jenny Lind, and wrote to Miss Hamilton that he 
 had seen and heard her, the "Priestess of Nature," but 
 once, but at once enroUed himself among her admirers. 
 He did not feel able to say, however, how much of his ad- 
 miration went to her singing, how much to herself. As a 
 singer, she appeared to him of the very first order ; as a 
 specimen of womankind, a little more. He declared that 
 she was enough of herself to counterbalance all the evil 
 that the world was threatened with by the great conven- 
 tion of women. "So God save Jenny Lind ! " 
 
 In May, 1852, Irving wrote to Mrs. Storrow complaining 
 because his " Life of Washington," lagged and dragged on 
 account of interruptions caused by bilious attacks. He 
 was disinclined to tear himself away from the quiet and 
 retirement of home ; but he felt that such a tendency to 
 settle aown ought to be resisted, lest he should grow rusty 
 or fusty or crusty. But he could not help justifying h s 
 
THE LIFE OF WASUINO.TON IRVING. 
 
 89 
 
 delight in lolling in the shade of the trees he had planted, 
 feeling the sweet southern breeze stealing up tlie green 
 banks, and looking out with half-dreamy eye on the beauti- 
 ful scenery of the Hudson, building castles in the clouls 
 as he had built them in his boyhood. 
 
 " Blessed retirement ! " he exclaimed ; " friend to life's 
 decline ! " and he went off into a deeply -felt rhapsody o^^ 
 his good fortune in being able so completely to realize 
 what had been the mere picturing of his fancy. 
 
 In 1855 Irving brought out the collection of sketches 
 entitled " Wolfert's Roost," which elicited the warmest 
 commendation from the press on both sides of the Atlantic. 
 The title was derived from the first name given to Sunny- 
 side, the "Roost " or " Rest of Wolfert Acker," one of Peter 
 Stuyvesant's privy councillors, who had retreated to tliat 
 point on the Hudson after the subjugation of New Am- 
 sterdam. The first volume of the " Life of Washington " 
 soon followed. He had finished correcting the proofs when 
 his horse Dick, on which he was riding, became unmanage- 
 able, and threw him violently to the ground. No bones 
 were broken, but he was bruised and wrenched. He wrote 
 a friend that, thanks to his hard head and strong chest, he 
 had withstood a shock that would have staved in a sensi- 
 tively constructed man. He said his head came nigh being 
 forced down into his chest, " like the end of a telescope." 
 But on the third day he got up, and dressed and shaved 
 himself. 
 
 The year 1857 was disastrous to trade, and Irving bought 
 back the stereotype plates of his collected works, which 
 had brought him in about $80,000 in nine years. At this 
 time he was troubled with an obstiiiate catarrh, which in- 
 duced serious deafness and i shortness of breath. He was 
 also afflicted with a peculiar form of drowsiness. Often 
 at dinner — even at public dinners — his head would droop 
 
if 
 
 f 
 
 
 »l 
 
 40 
 
 THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 and he would have a nap which would last several min- 
 utes, and then rousing proceed with conversation seeming 
 perfectly unaware that he had thus relapsed into uncon- 
 sciousness. 
 
 By January, 1859, he had succeeded in completing and 
 revising the fifth and last volume of his "Washington; " 
 but his nervous system was greatly shattered, and he was 
 troubled by insomnia and strange feelings of dismay and 
 dread, which enough medicine " to put a whole congrega- 
 tion to sleep " could not overcome. On Monday, the 
 twenty-eighth of November, as he was retiring for the 
 night, his niece Sarah, who went into his room to place 
 his medicines within easy reach, hoard him exclaim : — 
 
 "Well, I must arrange my pillows for another weary 
 night," and then a half-stifled exclamation, " When will 
 this end?" 
 
 At the same instant he pressed his hand to his side, and 
 fell backward to the floor. He had passed away instan- 
 taneously from enlargement of the heart. 
 
 When the news of his death was announced in New 
 York flags were hung at half-mast, and many public bodies 
 made allusion to the event, or passed resolutions of re- 
 spect. He was buried in the beautiful graveyard over- 
 looking the scenes he had loved and made immortal ; 
 the ugh so late in the year, it was a lovely Indian sum- 
 mer day, typical of the close of a long and blameless 
 life. 
 
 His works can hardly be said to have suffered any 
 eclipse in popularity. Though his style was formed on 
 the smooth and somewhat artificial example of Goldsmith 
 and Addison, his humor was thoroughly modern and vital. 
 When one thinks of the dreary productions that passed 
 for literature in America previous to the appearance of 
 "Knickerbocker," poems like Wiggles worth's "Day of 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 41 
 
 Doom," with its ghastly pictures of a future state, long- 
 winded controversial sermons, biographies unenlivened by 
 a touch of nature ; when one thinks of the grave solemnity 
 superinduced by the theological tendencies of Puritanism, 
 and how few flowers of humor or wit can be gathered in 
 all the years since Plymouth was settled, it is not strange 
 that types so individual, so comical, so natural, so human 
 in spite of their good-natured exaggerations, as the " Myn- 
 heers of Manhattan," or " Rip Van Winkle," should have 
 taken the literary world by storm. One can readily see 
 the influence of " Don Quixote " on Irving's imagination. 
 But, nevertheless, the humor is original and fresh. 
 
 He did more than create types. He peopled the Hud- 
 son with legends. The Highlands along the noble river 
 were as bare of Fancy as they were of castles until Irving 
 came to raise them into the realm of Faerie. Such an act 
 of creation alone would make a man immortal. Legends 
 are generally the growth of ages. No one knows when 
 they start. But here a young Scotchman like an enchanter 
 waves his wand, as it were, and the whole region forgets to 
 be merely a picturesque landscape and becomes a sort of 
 classic ground. 
 
 Having done this much for America, for his own ho*ne, 
 he goes abroad and naturally and without affectation be- 
 comes the link between England and America. His pic- 
 tures of life in New York were a revelation to the some- 
 what supercilious, yet not blameworthy Englishmen who 
 asked, " Who reads an American book ? " He woke them 
 to a realization of the possibility of an American litera- 
 ture which should be as much to the pride and honor of 
 England as Shakespeare, Milton, and Scott were by Amer- 
 icans regarded as their pride and lienor. 
 
 He also depicted English and Spanish life, customs, and 
 history for the benefit of his own countrymen. Such a 
 
 u 
 
THE LIFE OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 
 
 life-work was a step toward international amity and under- 
 standing. Such men bind nations closer together. , , , 
 
 Thus Irving is claimed by both England and America as 
 an English Classic ; and as time goes on the masterpieces 
 which he left seem to rise higher in their proportions, as 
 the peaks of a mountain-range impress the traveller with 
 their altitude, according as he reaches the right perspective 
 of distance. Literature claims Washington Irving as one 
 of her immortals. 
 
 »i 
 
 ^ti 
 
 
 ¥. ' 
 
 ! .i 
 
THE SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 (»K 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENTK.i 
 
 

 h ' 
 I 
 
 [1, ) 
 
 m 
 
 'i «• 
 
 /: 
 
 : •■. t 
 
 Preface t 
 auvertisei 
 Advektisei 
 The Autik 
 The Voyac 
 R03COE . . 
 The Wife . 
 Rip Van W 
 English VV 
 
 llUKAL LiFI 
 
 The Bkoke 
 The Art o 
 A Royal P 
 The Count 
 The Wiuo^ 
 The Boar' 
 The MuTAi 
 Rural Fui 
 The Inn kI 
 The SpectI 
 WestminstI 
 Christmas 
 The Stag] 
 Christmas 
 Christmas 
 The Chrisi 
 
.f\i \\ ■ yi i 
 
 I • I i • • 1.1 
 
 #• ' '< <> 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 1 1 
 
 Preface to the RsviaED Edition v 
 
 Advertisement to the first American Edition . . . . xi 
 Advertisement to the first English Edition ..... xii 
 
 The Author's Account of Himself 6 
 
 The Voyage 9 
 
 R03COE « 14 
 
 The Wife 20 
 
 Rip Van Winkle 27 
 
 English Writers on America 41 
 
 iluRAL Life in England 49 
 
 The Bi{oken Heart 56 
 
 The Art of Book-^Iaking 59 
 
 A Royal Poet . . 65 
 
 The Country Church 77 
 
 The Widow and her Son 81 
 
 The Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap 87 
 
 The Mutability of Literature 96 
 
 Rural Funerals 105 
 
 The Inn Kitchen 115 
 
 The Spectre Bridegroom 117 
 
 Westminster Abbey 130 
 
 Christmas 139 
 
 The Stage-Coach 144 
 
 Christmas Eve 149 
 
 Christmas Day 159 
 
 The Christmas Dinnbb 170 
 
 iU 
 
 m 
 
IV 
 
 CONTSNTa, 
 
 I 
 
 FAsa 
 
 Little Britaik 182 
 
 STRATrORD-ON-AYOK • 194 
 
 Traits of Indian Charaotkr . . 210 
 
 Philip of Pokanoket 219 
 
 John Bull 2S3 
 
 The Pride of the Viixagb 242 
 
 The Angler 260 
 
 The Legend of Slsept Hollow 258 
 
 L'Envot 285 
 
 A Sunday in London 287 
 
 London Antiques 280 
 
 Appendix 296 
 
 ? \ fi' 
 
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 The following p&pers, with two exceptions, were written in 
 England, and formed but part of an intended Beries for which 
 I bad made notes and memorandums. Before I could mature 
 a plan, howeve**, circumstances compelled me to send them 
 piecemeal to tl i United States, where they were published 
 from time to time in portions or numbers. It was not my in- 
 tention to publish them in England, being conscious that 
 much of their contents could be interesting only to American 
 readers, and, in truth, being deterred by the severity with 
 which American productions had been treated by the British 
 press. 
 
 By the time the contents of the first volume had appeared 
 in this occasional manner, they began to find their way across 
 the Atlantic, and to be inserted, with many kind encomiums, in 
 the London Literary Oazette. It was said, also, tliat a London 
 bookseller intended to publish them in a collective form. I 
 determined, therefore, to bring them forward myself, that they 
 might at least have the benefit of my superintendence and 
 revision. I accordingly took the printed numbers which 1 
 had received from the United States, to Mr. John Murray, 
 the eminent publisher, from whom I had already received 
 friendly attentions, and left them with hin? for examination, 
 informing him that should he be inclined to bring them before 
 the public, I had materials enough on hand for a second vol- 
 ume. Several days having elapsed without any communica- 
 tion from Mr. Murray, I addressed a note to him in which I 
 construed his silence into a tacit rejection of my work, and 
 begged that the numbers I had left with him might be returned 
 to me. The following was his reply : 
 
 My dear Sib: I entreat you to believe that I feel truly 
 obliged by your kind intentions towards me, and that I enter- 
 tain the most unfeigned respect for your most tasteful talents. 
 My house is completely filled with work-people at this time, 
 and I have only an office to transact business iu ; and jester* 
 
▼i 
 
 PREFACE TO THE BBVISED EDITION. 
 
 • 
 
 
 day I was wholly occupied, or I should have done myself the 
 pleasure of seeing you. ,,. ^. o 
 
 If it would not suit me to engage in the publication of your 
 present work, it is only because I do not see that scope in the 
 nature of it which would enable me to make those satisfactory 
 accounts between us, without which I really feel no satisfaction 
 in engaging — but I will do all I can to promote their circu- 
 lation, and shall be most ready to attenl to any future plan 
 
 of yours. 
 
 With much regard, I remain, dear sir. 
 
 Your faithful servant, 
 
 John Murray. 
 
 This was disheartening, and might have deterred me from 
 any further prosecution of the matter, had the question of 
 republication in Great Britain rested entirely with me ; but 
 I apprehended the appearance of a spurious edition. 1 now 
 thought of Mr. Archibald Constable as publisher, having been 
 treated by him with much hospitality during a visit to Edin- 
 burgh ; but firsu I determined to submit my work to Sir 
 Walter (then Mr.) Scott, being encouraged to do so by the 
 cordial reception I had experienced from him at Abbotsford 
 a few y-ears previously, and by the favorable opinion he had 
 expressed to others of my earlier writings. I accordingly 
 sent him the printed numbers of the Sketch Book in a parcel 
 by coach, and at the same time wrote to him, hinting that 
 since I had had the pleasure of partaking of his hospitality, a 
 reverse had taken place in my affairs which made the success- 
 ful exercise of my pen all-important to me ; I begged him, 
 therefore, to look over the literary articles I had forwHrded 
 to him, and, if he thought they would bear European republi- 
 cation, to ascertain whether Mr. Constable would be inclined 
 to be the publisher. 
 
 The parcel containing my work went by coach to Scott's 
 address in Edinburgh ; the letter went by mail to Ins resi- 
 dence in the country. By the very first post I received a 
 reply, before he had seen my work. 
 
 " I was down at Kelso," said he, " when your letter reached 
 Abbotsford. I am now on my way to town, and will con- 
 verse with Constable, and do all in my power to forward your 
 views — I assure you nothing will give me more pleasure." 
 
 The hint, however, about a reverse of fortune haol struck 
 the quick apprehension of Scott, and, with that practical and 
 efficient good will which belonged to his nature, he had already 
 
PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 ▼U 
 
 devised a way of aiding me. A weekly periodical, he went on 
 to inform me, was about to be set up in Edinburgh, supported 
 by the most respectable talents, and amply furnished with all 
 the necessary information. The appointment of the editor, 
 for which ample funds were provided, would be five hundred 
 pounds sterling a year, with the reasonable prospect of further 
 advantages. This situation, being apparently at his disposal, 
 he frankly offered to me. The work, however, he intimated, 
 was to have somewhat of a political bearing, and he expressed 
 an apprehension tha*^ the tone it was desired to adopt might 
 not suit me. " Yet x risk the question," added he, " because I 
 know no man so well qualified for this important task, and 
 perhaps because it will necessarily bring you to Edinburgh. 
 If my proposal does not suit, you need only keep the matter 
 secret and there is no harm done. ' And for my love I pray 
 you wrong me not.' If on the contrary you think it could be 
 made to suit you, let me know as soon as possible, addressing 
 Castle street, Edinburgh." 
 
 In a postscript, written from Edinburgh, he adds, " I am 
 just come here, and have glanced over the Sketch Book. It 
 is positively beautiful, and increases my desire to crimp you, 
 if it be possible. Some difficulties there always are in man- 
 aging such a matter, especially at the outset ; but we will 
 obviate them as much as we possibly can." 
 
 The following is from an imperfect draught of my reply, 
 which underwent some modifications in the copy sent : 
 
 " I cannot express how much I am gratified by your letter. 
 I had begun to feel as if I had taken an unwarrantable liberty; 
 but, somehow or other, there is a genial sunshine about you 
 that warms every creeping thing into heart and confidence. 
 Your literary proposal both surprises and flatters me, as 
 it evinces a much higher opinion of my talents than I have 
 myself." 
 
 I then went on to explain that I found myself peculiarly 
 unfitted for the situation offered to me, not merely by my 
 political opinions, but by the very constitution and habits of 
 my mind. " My whole course of life," I observed, " has been 
 desultory, and I am unfitted for any periodically recurring 
 task, or any stipulated labor of body or mind. 1 have no com- 
 mand of my talents, such as they are, and have to watch the 
 varyings of my mind as I would those of a weathercock. 
 Practice and training may bring me more into rule ; but at 
 present I am as useless for regular service as one of my own 
 country Indians or a Don Cossack. 
 
 '? 
 
tr 
 
 » V! 
 
 I: '* 
 
 ^ PREFACE TO THE BEVISXD EDITION. 
 
 « I must, therefore, keep on pretty much as I have begun-, 
 writing when I can, not when I would. I shall occasionally 
 shift my residence and write whatever is suggested by objects 
 before me, or whatever rises in my imagination ; a- ^ope to 
 write better and more copiously by and by. 
 
 " I am playing the egotist, but I know no better way of 
 answering your proposal than by showing what a very good- 
 forSVkSid^of ^being I am." Should Mr. Constable feel 
 inclined to make a bargain for the wares I have on hand, he 
 will encourage me to further enterprise ; and it will be some- 
 thing like trading with a gypsy for the fruits of his prowlmgs, 
 who may at one time have nothing but a wooden bowl to offer, 
 and at another time a silver tankard," 
 
 In reply, Scott expressed regret, but not surprise, at my 
 declining what might have proved a troublesome duty. He 
 then recurred to the original subject of our correspondence ; 
 entered into a detail of the various terms upon which arrange- 
 ments were made between authors and booksellers, that I 
 might take my choice ; expressing the most encouraging con- 
 fidence of the success of my work, and of previous works 
 which I had produced in America. " I did no more," added 
 he^ " than open the trenches with Constable ; but I am sure 
 if you will take the trouble to write to him, you will find him 
 disposed to treat your overtures with every degree of atten- 
 tion. Or, if you think it of consequence in the first place to 
 lee me, I shall be in London in the course of a month, and 
 whatever ray experience can command is most heartily at 
 your command. But I can add little to what I have said 
 above, except my earnest recommendation to Constable to 
 enter into the negotiation." ^ 
 
 1 I cannot avoid subjoining in a note a succeeding paragraph of Scott's 
 letter, which, though it does not relate to the main subject of our corre- 
 spondence, was too characteristic to be omitted. Some time previously 
 I had sent Miss Sophia ScoU small duodecimo Amerioiin editions of her 
 father's poems published in Edinburgh in quarto volumes; showing the 
 " nigromancv " of the American press, by which a quart of wine is con^ 
 jured into a pint bottle. Scott observes : " In my hurry, I have not 
 thanked you in Sophia's name for the kind attention which furnished her 
 with the American vc'.umes. I am not quite sure I can add my own, 
 since you have made her acquainted with much more of papa's folly than 
 ■he would ever otherwise have learned ; for I had taken special care they 
 should never see any of those things during their earlier years. I think 
 I told you that Walter is sweeping the firmament with a feather like a 
 maypole and indenting the pavement with a sword like a scythe — in 
 other words, he has become a whiskered hussar in the 18th Dr^oona." 
 
 on one's owi 
 
PSEFACB TO THB RBVI8SD EDITION. 
 
 IX 
 
 Before the receipt of this most obliging letter, howerer, I 
 had determined to look to no leading bookseller for a launch, 
 but to throw my work before the public at my own risk, and 
 let it sink or swim according to its merits. I wrote to that 
 effect to Scott, and soon received a reply : 
 
 " I observe with pleasure that you are going to come forth 
 in Britain. It is certainly not the very best way to publish 
 on one's own accompt; for the booksellers set their face 
 against the circulation of such works as do not pay an amaz- 
 ing toll to themselves. But they have lost the art of alto- 
 gether damming up the road in such cases between the author 
 and the public, which they were once able to do as effectually 
 as Diabolus in John Bunyan's Holy War closed up the win- 
 dows of my Lord Understanding's mansion. I am sure of 
 one thing, that you have only to be known to the British pub- 
 lic to be admired by them, and I would not say so unless I 
 really was of that opinion. 
 
 " If you ever see a witty but rather local publication called 
 Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, you will find some notice 
 of your works in the last number : the author is a friend of 
 mine, to whom I have introduced you in your literary capacity. 
 His name is I ockhart, a young man of very considerable talent, 
 and who will soon be intimately connected with my family. 
 My faithful friend Knickerbocker is to be next examined and 
 illustrated. Constable was extremely willing to enter into 
 consideration of a treaty for your works, but I foresee will be 
 still more so when 
 
 Your name is up, and may go 
 From Toledo to Madrid. 
 
 i ! 
 
 i I'l 
 
 And that will soon be the case. I trust to be in 
 
 London about the middle of the month, and promise myseli 
 great pleasure in once again shaking you by the hand." 
 
 The first volume of the Sketch Book was put to press in 
 London, as I had resolved, at my own risk, by a bookseller 
 unknown to fame, and without any of the usual arts by which 
 a work is trumpeted into notice. Still some attention had 
 been called to it by the extracts which had previously appeared 
 in the Literary Gazette, and by the kind word spoken by the 
 editor of that periodical, and it was getting into fair circu- 
 lation, when my worthy bookseller failed before the first 
 month was over, and the sale was interrupted. 
 
 At this juncture Scott arrived in London. I called to him 
 for Lelp, as I was clicking in the mire, and, more propitious 
 
*• 
 
 PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION. 
 
 than Hercules, he put his own shoulder to the wheel. Through 
 his favorable representations, Murray was quickly induced to 
 undertake the future publication of the work which he had 
 previously declined. A further edition of the first volume 
 was struck off and the second volume was put to press, and 
 from that time Murray became my publisher, conducting him- 
 self in all his dealings with that fair, open, and liberal spirit 
 which had obtained for him the well-merited appellation of 
 the Prince of Booksellers. 
 
 Thus, under the kind and cordial auspices of Sir Walter 
 Scott, I began my literary career ia Europe , and I feel that 
 I am but discharg.'ng, in a trifling degree, my debt of gratitude 
 to the memory of that golden-hearted man in acknowledging 
 ray obligations to him. But who of his literary contempo- 
 raries ever applied to him for aid or counsel that did not ex- 
 perience the most prompt, generous, and effectual assistance ? 
 
 W. I. 
 
 SUNNTSIDB, 1848. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO THK 
 
 FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. 
 
 The following writings are published on experiment ; should 
 they please, they may be followed by others. The writer will 
 have to contend with some disadvantages. He is unsettled in 
 his abode, subject to interruptions, and has his share of cares 
 and vicissitudes. He cannot, therefore, promise a regular plan, 
 nor regular periods of publication. Should he be encouraged 
 to proceed, much time may elapse between the appearance of 
 his numbers; and their size will depend on the materials he 
 may have on hand. His writings will partake of the fluctua- 
 tions of his own thoughts and feelings ; sometimes treating of 
 scenes before him, sometimes of others purely imaginary, and 
 sometimes wandering back with his recollections to his native 
 country. He will not be able to give them that tranquil atten- 
 tion necessary to finished composition; and as they must he 
 transmitted across the Atlantic for publication, he will have 
 to trust to others to correct the frequent errors of the press. 
 Should his writings, however, with all their imperfections, be 
 well received, he cannot conceal that it would be a source of the 
 purest gratification ; for though he does not aspire to those high 
 honors which are the rewards of loftier intellects ; yet it is the 
 dearest wish of his heart to have a secure and cherished, though 
 bumble corner in the good opinions and kind feelings of his 
 countrymen. 
 
 London, 1819. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 TO TBI 
 
 FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 The following desultory papers are part of a series written in 
 this country, but published in America. The author is aware 
 of the austerity with which the writings of his countrymen have 
 hitherto been treated by British critics ; he is conscious, too, 
 that much of the contents of his papers can be interesting only 
 in the eyes of American readers. It was not his intention, 
 therefore, to have them reprinted in this country. He has, 
 however, observed several of them from time to time inserted 
 in periodical works of merit, and has understood, that it was 
 probable they would be republished in a collective form. He 
 has been induced, therefore, to revise and bring them forward 
 himself, that they may at least come correctly before the public. 
 Should they be deemed of sufficient importance to attract the 
 attention of critics, he solicits for them that courtesy and can- 
 dor which a stranger has some right to claim who presents 
 himself at the threshold of a hospitable nation. 
 
 February, WBi, 
 
 xU 
 
 '■'l- \: 
 
THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 
 
 i ] 
 
 I am of this mind with Homer, that sb the analle that crept out of her shel wan 
 tnrned eftsooDB into a toad, and thereby wag forced to make a Btoole to Bit gn; bo the 
 traveller that atragleth from hie owne country is in a short time trauBformed into bo 
 monatroug a ghape, that be tg faine to alter his manalon with his manneni, and to live 
 where be can, not where he would. — Lyly's Euphuet, 
 
 I WAS alwaye fond of visiting new scenes, and observing 
 strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I 
 began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into 
 foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the 
 frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town 
 crier. As I grew into boyhood, I extended the range of my 
 observations. My holiday afternoons were spent in rambles 
 about the surrounding country. I made myself familiar with 
 all its places famous in history or fable. I knew every spot 
 where a murder or robbery had been committed, or a ghost 
 seen. I visited the neighboring villages, and added greatly 
 to my stock of knowledge, by noting their habits and customs, 
 and conversing with their sages and great men. I even 
 journeyed one long summer's day to the summit of the most 
 distant hill, whence I stretched my eye over many a mile of 
 terra incognita, and was astonished to find ho^jr vast a globe I 
 inhabited. 
 
 This rambling propensity 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 cl'mes — 
 with what lodging eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, 
 and waft myself m imagination to the ends of the earth I 
 
 Further reading and thinking, though they brought this vagae 
 inclination into more reasonable bounds, only served to mftko 
 it more decided. I visited various parts of my own country ; 
 and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have 
 
« 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 
 
 . *■ 
 
 I f 
 
 felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification : for on 
 no country have the charms of nature been more prodigaii.v 
 lavished. Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her 
 mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teaming 
 with wild fertility ; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their 
 solitudes ; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous ver- 
 dure; her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to tiie 
 ocean ; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its 
 magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summir 
 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 the charms of storied and poetical 
 association. There were to be seen the masterpieces of art, the 
 refinements 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 mouldering stone was a chronicle. I longed to wandei 
 over the scenes of renowned achievement — to tread, as it were, 
 in the footsteps of antiquitj - - to loiter about the ruined castU 
 — to meditate on the falling tower — to escape, in short, from 
 the commonplace realities of the present, and lose myself among 
 the shadowy grandeurs of the past. 
 
 I had, beside 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 share of them. I have mingled 
 among them in my time, and been almost withered by the shade 
 into which they cast me ; for there is nothing so baleful 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' degenerated 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 Alps to 
 a highland of the Hudson ; 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 
 degenerated. 
 
 It has been either my good or evil lot to have my roving 
 passion gratified. I have wandered through different countries, 
 and witnessed many of the shifting scenes of life. I cannot 
 
 ' »» w i. ♦-** *<» «.y « 
 
THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 7 
 
 gay that I have studied them with the eye of a philosopher, but 
 rather with the sauntering gaze with which humble lovers of 
 the 4)icturesque stroll from the window of one print-shop to an- 
 other ; caught sometimes by the delineations of beauty, some- 
 times by tlie distortions of caricatnrei and sometimes by the 
 loveliness of landscape. As it is the fashion for modern tour- 
 ists to travel pencil in hand, and bring home their portfolios 
 filled with sketches, I am disposed to get up a few for the en- 
 tertainment of my friends. When, however, I look over the 
 hints and memorandums I have taken down for the purpose, 
 my heart almost fails me, at finding how my idle humor has led 
 me aside from the great objects studied by every regular travel- 
 ler who would make a book. I fear I shall give equal disap- 
 pointment with an unluck}- landscape-painter, who had travelled 
 on the Continent, but following the bent of his vagrant inclina- 
 tion, had sketched in nooks, and corners, and by-places. His 
 sketch-book was accordingly crowded with cottages, and land- 
 scapes, and obscure ruins ; but he had neglected to paint St. 
 Peter's, or the Coliseum ; the Cascade of Terni, or the Bay of 
 Naples ; and bad not a single glacier or volcano in his whole 
 coUectioa. 
 
 i i h' 
 
 1 
 
 Hif 
 
 m 
 
 pi^i 
 
 *i 
 
 
 m M 
 
 1 . 
 
 1 ',i^\ 
 
 i 
 
 1 H 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 11 
 
 ' 'm 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 ; 
 
• V, 
 
 GEO 
 
 " I have no wife n< 
 mcn'» fortunei and 
 diversely presented i 
 
 To an Amer 
 make is an ex 
 worldly scenes 
 culiarly fitted t 
 space of water 
 page in existec 
 in Europe, th< 
 almost impercc 
 you lose sight 
 you step on th 
 the bustle and 
 
 In travellinj 
 conpp.oted su© 
 the story of 1 
 
THE SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 ov 
 
 GEOFFEEY CRAYON, GENT. 
 
 " I have no wife nor children, good or bad, to provide for. A mere ipeotetor of other 
 men's fortunes and adventurei, and how they play their parte; whioh, methinkt, are 
 dlTersely presented nnto mei aa from a common theater or acene." — BCBTOid 
 
 THE VOYAGE. 
 
 Bhipa, ahipa, I will deaorie yoo 
 Amidst the main, 
 
 I will come and try yon. 
 
 What you are protecting, 
 
 And projecting, 
 What's your end and aim. 
 One goea abroad for merchandise and trading, 
 Another stays to keep his country from invading, 
 A third la coming homo with rich and wealthy lading. 
 Hallo I my fancie, whither wilt thou go? — Old Poik. 
 
 To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to 
 make is an excellent preparative. The temporary absence of 
 worldly scenes and employments produces a state of mind pe- 
 culiarly fitted to receive new and vivid impressions. The vast 
 space of waters that separates the hemispheres is like a blank 
 page in existence. There is no gradual transition by which, as 
 in Europe, the features and population of one country blend 
 almost imperceptibly with those of another. From the moment 
 you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vacancy, until 
 you step on the opposite shore, and are launched at once into 
 the bustle and novelties of another world. 
 
 In travelling by land there is a continuity of scene, and a 
 conrected succession of persons and incidents, that carry on 
 the story of Ufe, and lessen the effect of absence and sepa- 
 
 *j 
 
 I 
 
10 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 
 If 
 
 ration. We drag, it is true, " a lengthening 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 last 
 still grapples us to home. But a wide sea voyage severs ua 
 at once. It makes us conscious of being cast loose from the 
 secure anchorage of settled life, and sent adrift upon a doubtful 
 world. It interposes a gulf, not merely imaginary, but real, 
 between us and our homes — a gulf, subject to tempest, and 
 fear, and uncertainty, rendering 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 hori- 
 zon, it seemed as if I had closed one volume of the world and 
 its concerns, and had time for meditation, before I opened 
 another. That land, too, now vanishing from my view, which 
 contained all most dear to me in life ; what vicissitudes 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 
 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 revisit the scenes of his childhood ? 
 
 I said, that ut sea all is vacancy : I should correct the expres- 
 sion. To one given to day dreaming, and fond of losing him- 
 self in reveries, 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 'o abstract the mind from worldly themes. I de- 
 lighted to loll 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 sea; — to gaze upou the piles of golden 
 clouds just peering above the horizon ; fancy them some fairy 
 realms, and people them with a creation of my own ; — to watch 
 the gentle undulating billows, 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 mon- 
 sters of the deep at their uncouth gambols : shoals of porpoises 
 tumbling about the bow of the ship ; the grampus slowly heav- 
 ing his huge form above the surface ; or the ravenous shark, 
 darting like a spectre, through the blue waters. Mv imagina- 
 tion would conjure up all that I had heard or read of the watery 
 world beneath me : of the finny herds that roam its fathomless 
 •valleys; -^f the shapeless monsters that lurk among the very 
 foundations of the earth, and of those wild phantasms that 
 swell the tales of fishermen and sailors. 
 
THE VOYAOB. 
 
 11 
 
 Sometimes a distant sail, gliding along the edge of ttie ocean, 
 would be another theme of idle speculation. How interesting 
 this fragment of a world, hastening to rejoin the great mass of 
 existence! What a glorious monument of human invention; 
 which has in a manner triumphed over wind and wave ; has 
 brought the ends of the world into communion ; has established 
 an interchange of blessings, pouring into the sterile regions of 
 the north all the luxuries of the south ; has diffused the light of 
 knowledge, and the charities of cultivated life ; and has thus 
 bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between 
 which nature seemed to have thrown an insurmountable barrier. 
 
 We one day deseried some shapeless object drifting at a dis- 
 tance. At sea, every thing that breaks the monotony of the 
 surrounding expanse attracts 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 spar, to prevent their 
 being washed off by the waves. There was no trace by which 
 the name of the ship could be ascertained. The wreck had 
 evidently drifted about for many months ; clusters of shell-fish 
 had fastened about it, and long sea-weeds flaunted 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 tem« 
 pest — their bones lie whitening among the caverns 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 
 wafted after that ship ; what prayers offered up at the deserted 
 fireside of home ! How often has the mistress, the wife, th« 
 mother, pored over the daily news, to catch some casual intelli« 
 gence of this rover of the deep ! How has expectation darkened 
 into anxiety — anxiety into dread — and dread into despair! 
 Alas! not one memento may ever return for love to cherish. 
 All that may 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 wildj 
 and threatening, and ga^e indications of one of those sudden 
 storms which will somet raes break in upon the serenity of a 
 summer voyage. As we sat round the dull light of a lamp, in 
 the cabin, that made the gloom more ghastly, every one had 
 his tale of shipwreck and disaster. I was particularly str ick 
 with a short one related by the captain. 
 
 " As I was once sailing," said he, " ia a fine, stout ship, across 
 
12 
 
 I'HE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 II: 
 
 _■; 1 
 
 \ '^-ik it '• 
 I? ' a • '.! ' - 
 
 the banks of Newfoundland, one of those heavy fogs which pre^ 
 vail in those parts rendered it impossible for us to see far ahead, 
 even in the daytime; 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 smacks, which are accustomed 
 to lie at anchor on the banks. The wind was blowing a smack- 
 ing breeze, and we were going at a great rate through the 
 water. Suddenly the watch gave the alarm of ' a sail ahead ! ' 
 — it was scarcely uttered before we were upon her. She was a 
 small schooner, at anchor, with her broadside toward us. The 
 crew were all asleep, and had neglected to hoist a light. Wo 
 struck her just amid-ships. The force, the size, 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 cabui ; 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 never 
 forget that cry ! It was some t'rae before ve could put the ship 
 about, she was under such headwa} . We returned as nearly 
 as we could guess, to the place where the smack had anchored. 
 We cruised about for several hours in the dense fog. We fired 
 signal-guns, and listened if we might hear the halloo of any 
 survivors ; but all was silent — we never saw or heard any thing 
 of them more." 
 
 I confess these stories, for a time, put an end to 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 surges. Deep called unto 
 deep. At times the black volume of clouds overhead seemed 
 rent asiinder by flashes of liglituing which quivered along tho 
 foamiug billows, and made the succeeding darkness doubly 
 terrible. The thunders bellowed over the wild waste of waters, 
 and were echoed and prolonged by tho mountain waves. As I 
 saw the ship staggering and plunging among these roaring 
 caverns, it seemed miraculous tluit she regained her balance, or 
 preserved her buoyancy. Her ynrds would dip into the water; 
 her bow wj»s almost buried IxMU'tUli tho waves. Sometimes an 
 impending surge appeared ready to overwhelm her, and nothing 
 but a dexterous movement of the helm preserved her from the 
 shock. 
 
 When I retired to my cabiu, the awful scene still followed 
 
Wfc 
 
 )l ■: 
 
 Hi 
 
me. The whi 
 like funereal 
 ing and i;voa 
 weltering sea 
 along the sid 
 seemed as if 
 seeking for hi 
 of a seam, mij 
 A fine day 
 breeze, soon 
 impossible to 
 and fair wind 
 canvas, every 
 ing waves, h 
 seems to lord 
 the reveries o 
 tinual reverie 
 It was a : 
 "land!" was 
 have experien 
 of sensations 
 iirst comes in 
 tions with the 
 with every t 
 which his stii 
 From that 
 feverish exci 
 giiardion giar 
 stretching out 
 ing into the c 
 we sailed up ■ 
 escope. My 
 their trim si 
 mouldering ri 
 spire of a vill 
 hill — all wer 
 The tide a 
 enabled to C( 
 people ; some 
 or relatives, 
 ship was con! 
 restless air. 
 wliistling the 
 having been 
 
THE VOYAGE. 
 
 13 
 
 me. The whistling of the wind through the rigging sounded 
 like funereal wailings. The creaking of the masts ; the strain- 
 ing and groaning of bulkheads, as the ship labored in the 
 weltering sea, were frightful. As I heard the waves rushing 
 along the sides of the ship, and roaring in my very ear, it 
 seemed as if Death were r^rging round this floating prison, 
 seeking for his prey : the meri- starting of a nail, the yawning 
 of a seam, might give him entr.uice. 
 
 A fine day, however, with a tranquil sea and favoring 
 breeze, soon put all these dismal reflections to flight. It is 
 impossible to resist the gladdening influence of fine weather 
 and fair wind at sea. When the ship is decked out in all her 
 canvas, every sail swelled, and careering gayly over the curl- 
 ing waves, how lofty, how gallant, she appears — how she 
 seems to lord it over the deep ! I might fill a volume with 
 the reveries of a sea voyage ; for with me it is almost a con- 
 tinual 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 iie 
 first comes in sight of Europe. There is a volume of associa- 
 tions with the very name. It is the land of promise, teeming 
 with every thing of which his ''hildhood has heard, or on 
 wliich his studious years have pondered. 
 
 From that time, until the moment of arrival, it was all 
 feverish exciteraent. The ships of war, that prowled like 
 guardian giants along the coast; the headlands of Ireland, 
 stretching out into the channel ; the Welsh mountains, tower- 
 ing into the clouds ; all were objects of intense interest. As 
 we sailed up the Mersey, I reconnoitred the shores with a tel- 
 escope. My eye dwelt with delight on neat cottages, with 
 their trim shrubberies and green grass-plots. I saw the 
 mouldering ruin of an abbey overrun with ivy, and the taper 
 spire of a village church rising from the brow of a neighboring 
 hill — all were characteristic of England. 
 
 The tide and wind were so favorable, th,',t the ship was 
 enabled to come at once to the pier. It was thronged with 
 people ; some idle lookers-on, others eager expectants 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 bj the crowd, in deference tjn liia 
 
Ij 
 
 14 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 tercporary importance. There were repeated cheerings and 
 salutations interchanged between the shore and the ship, as 
 friends happened to recognize each other. I particularly 
 noticed one young woman of humble dress, but interesting de- 
 meanor. She was leaning forward from among the crowd; 
 her eye hurried over the ship as it neared the shore, to catch 
 some wished-for couutenance. She seemed disappointed and 
 agitated; when I heard a faint voice call her name. — It was 
 from a poor sailor who had been ill all the vo3'age, and had ex- 
 cited the sympathy of every one on board. AVhcn tho weather 
 was fine, his messmates had spread a mattress for him on deck 
 in the shade, but of late his illness had so increased that he had 
 taken to his hammock, 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 rivf r, and was now leaning ngainst the shrouds, 
 with a countenance so wasted, so pale, so ghastly, that it was 
 no wonder even t'le eye of affection did not recognize him. 
 But at the sound cf his voice, her eye darted on his features; 
 it read, at once, i whole volume of sorrow ; she clasped her 
 hands, uttered a f liut shriek, and stood wringing them in silent 
 agony. 
 
 All now was hurry and bustle. The meetings of acquaint- 
 ances — the greetings of friends — the consultations 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. 
 
 ROSCOE. 
 
 — In the iervlce of mankind to be 
 
 A guardian god below ; gtili to employ 
 
 The mind's brave ardor in horoic alms, 
 
 Such as may raise us o'er the grovelling herd, 
 
 And make us shine for ever — that is life. — Thomson. 
 
 One of the first places to which a stranger is taken in Liver- 
 pool, is the Athenaeum. It is establislied on a liberal and 
 judicious plan ; it contains a good library, and spacious read- 
 ing-room, and is the great literary resort of the place. Go 
 there at what hour you may, you are sure to find it filled witli 
 grave-looking personages, deeply absorbed in the study of 
 newspapers. 
 
 As T was o 
 
 was attracted 
 vanced in life 
 commanding, 
 care. He ha 
 that would h 
 furrows on h 
 busy there, y« 
 soul. There 
 cated a being 
 him. 
 
 I inquired 1 
 I drew back m 
 then, was an 
 wliose voices 
 whose minds 1 
 ica. Accusto 
 writers only b; 
 other men, en< 
 with the crow 
 Tiiey pass bef( 
 with thj eman 
 of literary gloi 
 To find, the 
 gUng among tj 
 cal ideas ; but 
 in which he ha 
 est claims to a 
 minds seem a 
 every disadvai 
 way through a 
 disappointing 
 legitimate dul 
 luxuriance of 
 of genius to tl 
 stony places 
 and brambles 
 strike root eve 
 into sunshine, 
 beauties of ve 
 Such has be 
 apparently unj 
 raarket-plac 
 patronage ; sel 
 
ROSCOE^ 
 
 15 
 
 As T was once visiting this haunt of the learned, my attention 
 was attracted to a person just entering the room. He was ad- 
 vanced 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 some slight 
 furrows on his 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 indi- 
 cated a being of a diflferent order from the bustling race around 
 him. 
 
 I inquired his name, and was informed that it was Roscoe. 
 I drew back with an involuntary feeling of veneration. This, 
 then, was an author of celebrity ; this was one of those men 
 whose voices have gone forth to the ends of the earth ; with 
 whose minds I have communed even in the solitudes of Amer- 
 ica. Accustomed, as we are in our country, to know European 
 writers only by their works, we cannot conceive of them, as of 
 other men, engrossed by trivial or sordid pursuits, and jostling 
 witli the crowd of common minds in the dusty paths of life. 
 Tiiey pass before our imaginations like superior beings, radiant 
 with thj emanations of their genius, and surrounded by a halo 
 of literary glory. 
 
 To find, therefore, the elegant historian of the Medici min- 
 gling among the busy sous of tralHc, at first shocked my poeti- 
 cal ideas ; but it is from the very ciicumstances and situation 
 in which he has been placed, that, Mr. Roscoe derives his high- 
 est claims to admiration. It is interesting to notice how some 
 minds seem almost to create themselves ; springing up under 
 every disadvantage, and working their solitary but irresistible 
 way through a thousand obstacles. Nature seems to delight in 
 disappointing the assiduities of art, with which it would rear 
 legitimate dulness to maturity ; and to glory in the vigor and 
 luxuriance of her chance productions. She scatters the seeds 
 of genius to the winds, and thougli some may perish among the 
 stony places of the world, and some be choked by the thorns 
 and brambles of early adversity, yet others will now and then 
 strike root even in the clefts of the rock, struggle bravely up 
 into sunshine, and spread over their sterile birthplace all the 
 beauties of vegetation. 
 
 Such has been the case with Mr. Roscoe. Born in a place 
 apparently ungenial to the growth of literary talent ; in the very 
 Tnarket-plac"^ '-f trade ; without fortune, family connections, or 
 patronage ; self-prompted, self -sustained, and almost self-taught, 
 
 i'' 
 
 : n 
 
Ir 
 
 H li 
 
 11 
 
 It 
 
 THE 8KETCW-B00K. 
 
 he has conquered every cbstaclc, achieved his way to eminence, 
 and having become one of tlie ornaments of the nation, haa 
 turned the whole force of his talents and influence to advance 
 and embellish his native town. 
 
 Indeed, it is this last trait in his character which has given 
 him the greatest interest in my eyes, and induced rae particu- 
 larly to point him out to my countrymen. Eminent as are his 
 literary merits, he is but one among the many distinguished 
 authors of this intellectual nation. They, however, in general, 
 live but for their own fame, or their own pleasures. Their 
 private history presents no lesson to the world, or, perhaps, a 
 humiliating one of human frailty and inconsistency. At beat, 
 they are prone to steal away from the bust!e and commonplace 
 of busy existence ; to indulge in the selfishness of lettered ease •, 
 and to revel in scenes of mental, but exclusive enjoyment. 
 
 Mr. Roscoe, on the contrarj-, has claimed none of the accorded 
 privileges of talent. He has shut himself up in no garden of 
 thought, nor elysium of fancy ; but has gone fortli into the high- 
 ways and thoroughfares of life, he has planted bovvers by the 
 way-side, for the refreshment of the pilgrim and the sojourn-^r, 
 and has opened pure fountains, where the laboring man may 
 turn aside from the dust and iickt of the day, and drink of the 
 living streams of knowledge. There is a " dtiily beauty in his 
 life," on which mankind may meditate, and grow better. It 
 exhibits no lofty and almost useless, because iiiimitable, ex- 
 ample of excellence ; but presents a picture of active, yet sim- 
 ple andimitable virtnes, which are within every man's reach, Itiit 
 which, unfortunately, are not exercised by many, or this world 
 would be a paradise. 
 
 But his private life is peculiarl}- worthy the attention of the 
 citizens of our young and busy country, wliere literature and 
 the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser 
 plants of daily necessity ; and must depend for their culture, 
 not on the exclusive devotion of time and wealth; nor the 
 quickening rays of titled patronage ; but on hours and seasons 
 snatched from the pursuit of worldly interests, by intelligent 
 and public-spirited individuals. 
 
 He has shown how mucii may be done for a place in hours of 
 leisure by one master spirit, and how completely it can give its 
 own impress to surrounding objects. Like his own Lorenzo de 
 Medici, on whom he seems to have fixed his eye, as on a pure 
 model of antiquity, he has interwoven the history of his life 
 with the history of his native town, and has made the I'ounda- 
 tions of its fame the moauuients of his virtues. Whenever you 
 
 mind : to the 
 
 l^ 
 
ROSCOB. 
 
 17 
 
 go, in Liverpool, you perceive traces of his footst ;p8 in all that 
 is elegant and liberal. He found the tide of wealth flowing 
 merely in the channela of traffic ; he has diverted from it invig- 
 orating rills to refresh tlie gardens of literature. By his own 
 example and constant exertions, he has effected that union of 
 coraraerce and the intellectual pursuits, so eloquently recom- 
 mended in one of his latest writings ; ' and has practically 
 proved how beautifully they may be brought to harmonize, and 
 to benefit each other. The noble institutions for literary and 
 scientilic purposes, which reflect such credit on Liverpool, and 
 are giving such an impulse to the public mind, have mostly 
 been originated, and b:ive all been effectively promoted by Mr. 
 Roscoe : and when we consider the rapidly increasing opulence 
 and magnitude of that town, which promises to vie in commer- 
 cial importance with tlie metropolis, it will be perceived that in 
 avakening an ambition of mental improvement among its in- 
 liabitaiits, he has effected a great beaefit to the cause of British 
 literature. 
 
 In America, we know Mr. Roscoe only as the author — in 
 Liverpool he is spoken of as tlie banker ; and I was told of his 
 having been unfortunate in business. 1 could not pity him, as 
 I heard some rich men do. I considered him far above the 
 reach of pity. Those who live only for the world, and in 
 the world, may be cast down by the frowns Oi adversity ; but 
 H man like Roscoe is not to be overcome by the reverses of for- 
 tune. They do but drive him in upon the resources of his own 
 mind ; to the superior society of his own thoughts ; which the 
 uest of men are a[)t sometimes to neglect, and to roam abroad 
 in search of less worthy associates. He is independent of the 
 world around him. He lives with antiquity and posterity : with 
 antiquity, in the sweet communion of studious retirement ; and 
 with posterity in the generous aspirings after future renown. 
 IMie solitude of such a mind is its state of higliest enjoyment. 
 It is then visited by those elevated meditations which are the 
 proper aliment of noble souls, and are, like manna, sent from 
 lieaveii, in the wilderness of this world. 
 
 While my feelings were yet alive on the subject, it was my 
 fortune to light ou further traces of Mr. Roscoe. I was riding 
 out with a gentleman, to view tiie environs of Liverpool, when 
 he turned off, through a gate, into some ornamented grounds. 
 After riding a short distance, we came to a spacious mansion 
 of freestone, built in the Grecian style. It was not in the purest 
 
 * Address ou the opening of the Liverpool Institution. 
 
 
 S' 
 
u 
 
 I 
 
 fit 
 
 I . 
 
 I II 
 
 ! If 
 
 ^\ 
 
 IB 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 taste, yet it had an air of elegance, and the fittaftt< a was de. 
 lightful. A fine lawn sloped away from it, 8tu<>'ca ^nb clumps 
 of trees, so disposed as to break a soft fertile ..vaj i"to a 
 variety of landscapes. The Mersey was seen wiiuling a ad 
 quiet sheet of water through an expanse of green meadow land ; 
 iv^hile the Welsh mountains, blended with clouds, and melting 
 uto distance, bordered the horizon. 
 
 I This was Roscoe's favorite residence during the da^j of hia 
 ; nrosperity. It had been the seat of elegant hospitp.llty and lit- 
 erary retirement. The house was now silent au'l deserted. I 
 saw the windows of the study, which looked out upon the soft 
 scenery I have mentioned. The windows were closed — the 
 library was gone. Two or three ill-favored beings were lower- 
 ing about the place, whom my fancy pictured into retainers of 
 the law. It was like visiting some classic fountain that had 
 once welled its pure waters in a sacred shade, but finding it dry 
 and dusty, with the lizard and the toad brooding over the shat- 
 tered marbles. 
 
 I inquired after the fate of Mr. Roscoe's library, which had 
 consisted of scarce and foreign books, from many of wliich he 
 had drawn the materials for his Italian histories. It had passed 
 under the hammer of the auctioneer, and was dispersed about 
 the country. 
 
 The good people of the vicinity thronged like wreckers to 
 get some part of the noble vessel that had been driven on shore. 
 Did such a scene admit of ludicrous associations, we might 
 Imagine something whimsica' in this strange irruption in the 
 regions of learning. Pigmies rummaging the armory of a giant, 
 and contendinsi for the possession of weapons which they cou!! 
 not wield. We might picture to ourselves some knot of spt'cu 
 lators, debating with calculating brow over the quaint bindin • 
 and illuminated margin of an obsolete author ; of the air of in- 
 tense, but baffled sagacity, with which some successful purchase 
 attempted to dive into the bhick-letter l)argain he had sociircd. 
 
 It is a beautiful incident in the story of Mr. liusi'oc's niisfoi 
 tunes, and one which cannot fail to interest the studious mind.- 
 that the parting with his books seems to have touched ui)on hit; 
 tenderest feelings, and to have been the only circumstance that 
 sould provoke the notice of his muse. The scholar only knows 
 dow dear these silent, yet eloquent, companions of pure thoughts 
 Ind innocent hours become in the seasons of adversity. When 
 all that is worldly turns to dross around us, these only retain 
 their steady value. When friends grow cold, and the converse 
 Vf intimates languishes iuto vapid civility and commonplace, 
 
BOSCOS. 
 
 Id 
 
 these only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, 
 and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived 
 hope, nor deserted sorrow. 
 
 I do not wish to censure ; but, surely, if the people of Liver- 
 pool had been properly sensible of what was due to Mr. Boscoe 
 and themselves, his library would never have been sold. Good 
 worldly reasons may, doubtless, be given for the circumstance, 
 which it would be diflicult to combat with others that might 
 seem merely fancifid ; but it certainly appears to me such an 
 opportunity as seldom occurs, of cheering a noble mind strug- 
 gling under misfortunes by one of the most delicate, but most 
 expressive tokens of public sympathy. It is dillicult, however, 
 to estimate a man of genius properly who is daily before our 
 eyes. He becomes miugled and confuunded with other men. 
 His great qualities lose their novelty, we become too familiar 
 witii the common materials which form the basis even of the 
 loftiest cluuaeter. Some of Mr. Roscoe's townsmen may regard 
 liini merely as a man of business ; others as a politician ; all 
 find him engaged like themselves in ordinary occupations, and 
 surpassed, perhaps, by themselves on some points of worldly 
 wisdom. Even that amiable and unostentatious simplicity of 
 character, which gives the nameless grace to real excellence, 
 may cause him to be undervalued by some coarse minds, who 
 do not know that true worth is always void of glare and preten- 
 sion. But the man of letters who speaks of Liverpool, speaks 
 of it as the residence of Roscoe. — The intelligent traveller who 
 visits it, inquires where Roscoe is to be seen. — He is the liter- 
 ary landmark of the place, indicating its existence to the distant 
 scholar. — He is like Pompey's column at Alexandria, towering 
 alone in classic dignity. 
 
 The following sonnet, addressed by Mr. Roscoe 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 displayed, it is the conviction, that the whole is no effusion 
 of fancy, but a faithful transcript from the writer's heart : 
 
 TO MY BOOKS. 
 
 Ab one, who, dnatined from his friends to part, 
 Regrets h^B loss, but hopes again erewhlle 
 To share their converse, and enjoy their smile, 
 
 And tempers, as he may, affliction's dart; 
 
 Thus, loved assoclateR, chiefs of elder art. 
 
 Teachers of wisdom, who could once beguile 
 My tedious hours, and lighten every toil, 
 
 I now ruHigu you; uor with fuiutlng hearty 
 
 li' 
 
20 
 
 '>,-..( 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOR. 
 
 For pans a few ehort yeara, or days, or boon, 
 Aud happier seasooa may their dawn anfold* 
 And all your iacred feilowahip restore; 
 
 When freed from eaHb, unlimited Iti powera, 
 Mind shall wl'.h mind direct communion hold. 
 
 And kindred aplrita meet to part no more. 
 
 A I 
 
 THE WIFE. 
 
 The treasures of the deep are not so preeioop 
 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— 
 Tho violet bed's not sweeter I 
 
 MiDDLBTOH. 
 
 ■ i 
 
 ■ I 
 
 I HAVE often had occasion to remark the fortitude with which 
 women sustain the most overwhelming reverses of fortune. 
 Those disasters which breal{ 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 intrepidity and elevation to their 
 character, that at times it approaches to sublimity. Nothing 
 can be more touching, than to behold a soft and tender female, 
 who had been all weakness and dependence, and alive to every 
 trivial roughness, while treading the prosperous paths of life, 
 suddenly rising in mental force to be the comforter and sup- 
 porter of her husband under misfortune, and abiding, with un- 
 shrinking flrnmess, the bitterest blasts of adversity. 
 
 As the vine, which has long twined its graceful foliage about 
 th» oak, and been lifted by it into sunshine, will, when the 
 hardy plant is rifted by the thunderbolt, cling round it with its 
 caressing tendrils, and bind up its shattered boughs ; so is it 
 beautifully ordered by Providence, that woman, who is the 
 mere dependent and ornament of man in his happier hours, 
 should be his stay and solace when smitten with sudden calam- 
 ity ; winding herself into the rugged recesses of his nature, 
 tenderly supporting the drooping head, and binding up the 
 broken heart. 
 
 I was once congratulating a friend, who had around him a 
 blooming family, knit together in the strongest affection. " I 
 can wish you no better lot," said he, with enthusiasm, " than 
 to have a wife and children. If you are prosperous, there they 
 are to share your prosperity ; if otherwise, there they are to 
 
THE WIFE. 
 
 21 
 
 comfort you." And, indeed, I have observed that a married 
 man falling into misfortune, is more apt to retrieve bis situation 
 in tlie world than a single one ; partly, because be is more stim> 
 ulatcd to exertion by the necessities of the helpless and be- 
 loved beings who depend upon him for subsistence ; but chiefly, 
 because bis spirits are soothed and relieved by domestic endear- 
 ments, and his self-respect kept alive by finding, that though 
 all abroad is darkness and humiliation, yet there is still a little 
 world of love at home, of which he is tlie monarch. Whereas, 
 a single man is apt to run to waste and self-neglect ; to fancy 
 himself lonely and abandoned, and his heart to fall to ruin, like 
 some deserted mansion, for want of an inhabitant. 
 
 These observations call to mind a little domestic story, of 
 which I was once a witness. My intimate friend, Leslie, had 
 married a beautiful and accomplished girl, who had been 
 brought up in the midst of fashionable life. She bad, it is 
 true, no fortune, but that of my friend was ample; and he 
 delighted in the anticipation of indulging her in every elegant 
 pursuit, and administering to those delicate tastes and fancies 
 that spread a kind of witchery about the sex. — ♦' Her life," 
 said be, " shall be like a fairy tale." 
 
 The very difference in their characters produced a harmonious 
 combination ; he was of a romantic, and somewhat serious cast ; 
 she was all life and gladness. I have often noticed the mute 
 rapture with which he would gaze upon her in company, of 
 which her sprightly powers made her the delight ; and how, in 
 the midst of applause, her eye would still turn to him, as if 
 there alone she sought favor and acceptance. When leaning 
 on bis arm, her slender form contrasted finely with his tall, 
 manly person. The fond confiding air with which she looked 
 up to him seemed to call forth a flush of triumphant pride and 
 cherishing tenderness, as if he doted on his lovely burden for 
 its very helplessness. Never did a couple set forward on the 
 flowery path of early and well-suited marriage with a fairer 
 prospect of felicity. 
 
 It was the misfortune of my friend, however, to have em- 
 barked his property in large speculations ; and he had not been 
 married many months, when, by a succession of sudden disas- 
 ters, it was swept from him, and he found himself reduced al- 
 most to penury. For a time he kept his situation to himself, 
 nud went about with a haggard countenance, and a breaking 
 heart. His life was but a protracted agony ; and what ren- 
 dered it more insupportable was the necessity of keeping up a 
 smile in the presence of bis wife ; for he could not bring him- 
 
22 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 i 
 
 IV' 
 
 ■f 
 
 1 m I 
 
 self to overwhelm her with the news. She snw, however, with 
 the quick eyes of affection, that all was not well with him. blio 
 marked his altered looks and stifled sighs, and was not to be 
 deceived by his sickly and vapid attempts at cheerfulness. She 
 tasked all her sprightly powers and tender blandishments 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 torturing was the thought that he was soon to make her 
 wretched. A little while, thought he, and the smile will vanish 
 from that cheek — the song will die away from those lips — the 
 luster of those eyes will be quenched with sorrow — and the 
 happy heart which now beats lightly in that bosom, will be 
 weighed down, like mine, by the cares and miseries of the 
 
 world. 
 
 At length he came to me one day, and related his whole 
 situation in a tone of the deepest despair. AVhen I had heard 
 him through, I inquired, «♦ Does your wife know all this?" At 
 the question he burst into an agony of tears. ♦ ' For 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 
 Bs&y break upon her in a more startling manner than if imparted 
 by yourself, for the accents of those we love soften the harshest 
 tidings. Besides, you are depriving yourself of the comforts of 
 her sympathy ; and not merely that, but also endangering the 
 only bond that can keep hearts together — an unreserved com- 
 munity of thought and feeling. She will soon perceive that 
 something is secretly preying upon your nind ; and true love 
 will not brook reserve: it feels undervalued and outraged, 
 when even the sorrows of those it loves are concealed from it." 
 
 " 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 begger ! — that 
 she is to forego all the elegancies of life — all the pleasures of 
 society — to shrink with m^ into indigence 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 refine- 
 ments of opulence. How can she bear neglect? She has been 
 the idol of society. Oh, it will break her heart — it will break 
 her heart 1 " 
 
THE WIFE. 
 
 28 
 
 I flaw his grief was eloquent, and I !et it have its flow ; fof 
 sorrow relieves itself by words. Wlien bis paroxysm had sub- 
 sided, and he had relapsed into moody silence, J resumed the 
 subject gently, and urged him to break his .utuation at ouce to 
 bis 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 coun- 
 tenance, "don't let that afflict you. I am sure you have 
 never placed your happiness in outward 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--" "1 could be happy with 
 her," cried he, convulsively, " in a hovel ! — I could go down 
 with her into poverty and the dust ! — I could — I could — God 
 bless her ! — God bless her ! " cried he, bursting into a trans- 
 port 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. Ay, 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 dormant in 
 the broad daylight of prosperity; but which kindles up, and 
 beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity. No man 
 knows what the wife of his bosom is — no maii knov ^ what a 
 ministering 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 figurative style of my language that caught the excited 
 imagination of Leslie. I knew the auditor I had to deal with ; 
 and following up the impression I had made, I finished by per- 
 suading him to go home and unburden his sad heart to his 
 wife. 
 
 I must confess, notwithstanding all I had said, I felt some 
 little solicitude for tl.e result. Who can calculate on the forti- 
 tude of one whose 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 revelled. 
 Besides, ruin in fashionable life is accompanied by so many 
 galling mortifications, to which, in other ranks, it is a stranger. 
 
u 
 
 I. 
 
 24 
 
 THE SEETCU-BOOK. 
 
 <" In short, I could not meet Leslie, the next rooming, without 
 trepiaation. He liad 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 amis round my neck, and asked if 
 this was all that had lately made me unhappy. — But, poor 
 girl," added he, " she cannot realize the change we must 
 undergo. She has no idea of poverty but in the abstract : shrj 
 has only read of it in poetry, where it is allied to love. She 
 feels as yet no privation : she suffers no loss of aoonstoined 
 conveniences nor elegancies. When we come pnicticaily to 
 exi -'rience its sordid cares, its paltry wants, its petty humilia- 
 tions — then will be the real trial." 
 
 "But," said I, "now that j-ou have got over the severest 
 task, that of breaking it to her, the sooner you let the world 
 into the secret the better. The disclosure may be mortifying ; 
 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 harasses a ruined man 
 — "! struggle between a proud mind and an cin[)ty purse — 
 the keeping up a hollow show that must soon come to an end. 
 Have the courage Ixj appear poor, and you disarm poverty of 
 its sharpest sting." On this point I found Leslie perfectly 
 prepared. He had no false pride himself, and as to his wife, 
 she was only anxious to conform to their altered fortunes. 
 
 Some days afterwards, he called upon me in tlie evening. 
 He had disposed of his dwelling-house, and taken a small cot- 
 tage in the country, a few miles from town. lie had been 
 busied all day in «»nding out furniture. The new establish- 
 ment required few articles, and those of the simplest kind. 
 All the splendid furniture of his lato residence had lu-en sold, 
 excepting his wife's harp. That, ho said, was too closely asso- 
 '•iated with the idea of herself; it belonged to ihc little story 
 >f their loves; for some of the sweetest nionicnts of their 
 L'ourtship were those when he iiad leaned over that iustrumeui. 
 !iud listened to the melting tones of her voice. I could notj 
 but smile at this instance of romantic jiallantry in a doting 
 Imshnnd 
 
 He was now going out to the cottage, where his wife had 
 been all lay, superintending its arraiigeiiuMit. My feelinirs 
 had become strongly interested in the jirogress of this familv 
 story, and as it was a fine evening, I offered to accompany him. 
 
 He was wearied with the fatigues of the day, and as we 
 walked out, fell into a lit of gloomy musing. 
 
 \ 
 
THE WIFE. 
 
 25 
 
 " Poor Mary ! " at length broke, with a heavy sigh, from his 
 
 lips. 
 ♦' And what of her," asked I, " has any thing happened to 
 
 her?" 
 
 " What," said he, darting an impatient glance, " is it noth- 
 ing to be reduced to this paltry situation — to be caged in a 
 raiaerable cottage — to be obliged to toil almost in the menial 
 concerns of her wretched habitation?" 
 
 " Has she then repined at the change ?" 
 
 '^ Repined! she has been nothing but sweetness and good 
 humor. 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 bound- 
 less treasures of excellence you possess 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 : she has been introduced into 
 a urable dwelling — she has been employed all day in arrang- 
 ing its miserable eqtnpments — she has for the first time known 
 the fatigues of domestic employment — she has for the first 
 time looked round her on a home destitute of every thing ele- 
 gant — almost of every thing convenient; and may now be 
 sitting down, exhausted and spiritless, brooding over a prospect 
 of future poverty." 
 
 Tiiere was a degree of probability in this picture that I could 
 not gainsay, so we walked on in silence. 
 
 After turning from the main road, up a narrow lane, so 
 thickly shaded with forest trees as to give it a complete air of 
 seclusion, we came in sight of the cottage. It was humble 
 eiiougli in its appearance for the most pastoral poet; and yet 
 it JKul a pleasing rural look. A wild vine had overrun one end 
 with a profusion of foliage ; a few trees threw their branches 
 gracefully over it ; and I observed several pots of flowers taste- 
 fully disposed about the door, and on the grass-plot in front. 
 A small wicket-gate opened upon a footpath that wound through 
 some shrubbery to the door. Just as we approached, we heard 
 the sound of music — Leslie 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 
 peculiarly fond. 
 
 I felt Leslie's hand tremble on my arm. He stepped forward, 
 to hear more distinctly. His step made a noise ou the gravel 
 
 ^I'r 
 
 AV\ 
 
 '111 
 
 ,i»- 
 
26 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 walk. A bright beautiful face glanced out at the window, and 
 vanished — a light footstep was heard — and Mary came trip- 
 ping 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 chetk ; her whole countenance beamed with 
 smiles — I had never seon her look so lovely. 
 
 " My dear George," cried she, ' I am so glad you are come ; 
 I have been watching and wat'Aing for jou ; and running 
 down the lane, and looking out for you. I've set out a table 
 under a beautiful tree behind the cottage ; and I've been gath- 
 ering some of the most delicious strawberries, for I know you 
 are fond of them — and we have such excellent cream — and 
 every thing is so sweet and still here. — Oh ! " said she, putting 
 her arm within his, and looking up brightly in his face, "Oh, 
 we shall be so happy! " 
 
 Poor Leslie was overcome. — He caught her to his bosom — 
 he folded his arms round her — he kissed her again and again 
 — he coukl not speak, but the tears gushed into his eyes; and 
 he has often assured me that thougli the world has since gone 
 prosperously with liim, and his life has indeed been a happy 
 one, yet never has he experienced a moment of more exquisite 
 felicity. 
 
 [The following Tale was found among the papers of the late 
 Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New- York, who 
 was very curious in tlie Dutch History of the province, and the 
 manners of the descendants from its primitive settlers. His 
 historical researches, however, did not lie so much among books 
 as among men ; for the former are lamentably scanty on his 
 favorite topics ; whereas he found the old burghers, and still 
 more, their wives, rich in that legendary lore, so invaluable to 
 true history. Whenever, tlierefore, he happened upon a genu- 
 ine Dutch family, snugly shut up in its low-roofed farmhouse, 
 under a spreading sycamore, he looked upon it as a little 
 clasped volume of black-letter, and studied it with the zeal of 
 a bookworm. 
 
 The result of all these researches was a history of the prov- 
 ince, during the reign of the Dutch governors, which he pub- 
 lished some years since. There have becL various opinions as 
 to the literary character of his work, and, to tell the truth, it 
 18 not a whit better than it should be. Its cliief merit is its 
 8crUi»ulous accuracy, which, indeed, was a little questioned, on 
 
 A POSTKUl 
 
 ■1 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 27 
 
 its flrst appearauce, but has since been completely established; 
 tiud it is now admitted into all historical collections, as a book 
 of unquestionable authority. 
 
 The old gentleman died shortly after the publication of his 
 work, and now, that he is dead and gone, it cannot do much 
 barm to his memory, to say, that his time might have been 
 much better employed in weightiei labors. He, however, was 
 apt to ride his hobby his own way ; and though it did now and 
 then kick up the dust a little in the eyes of his neighbors, and 
 grieve the sp lit of some friends for whom he felt the truest 
 deference and affection, yet his error nd follies are remem- 
 bered "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 bj' many folk, whose good op.iiiou is well worth 
 having : particularly by certain biscuit-bakers, who have gone 
 so far as to imprint his likeness on tluMr new-year cakes, and 
 have thus given iiini a chance for iininortality, almost equal to 
 the being stamped on a Waterloo medal, or a Queen Anne's 
 farthing.] 
 
 1)1^^ 
 
 I' '■ 
 
 Rir VAN WINKLE. 
 
 A POSTKUMOUS WRITING OF DIEDRICH KNICKERBOCKER. 
 
 By Woden, Qod of SaxouH, 
 
 From whoiice comes Weiisday, thai in Wodeusday, 
 
 Truth m u thiiiK that ever I wll! keep 
 
 I to thylke day in which I croep luto 
 
 My sepulchre. — Cartwbioht. 
 
 Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson, must remem- 
 ber the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch 
 of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west 
 of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over 
 the suri'ounding country. Every change of season, every change 
 of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces some change 
 in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains ; and they 
 are regartled by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect 
 barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, they are 
 clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold outlines on the 
 clear evening sky ; but sometimes, when the rest of the land- 
 scape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors 
 
 < Vide the ezoell«ut discourae of U. C Verplaack, Knq., Ujforo the New-Yuik 
 
 Ulstorioitl Society. 
 
 l!,lrt: 
 
 i I' I. 
 
 1 ■ ' ■ 
 
 ^ -^ if r' 
 
 .iiv 
 
28 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 .' \\ 
 
 r ( 
 
 1 # ^' 
 
 about thoir summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, 
 will glow aud light up like a crown of glory. 
 
 At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have 
 descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose shin- 
 gle roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tints of 
 the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer land- 
 scape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been 
 founded by some of the Dutch colonists, in the early times of 
 the province, just about the beginning of the government of the 
 good Peter IStuyvesant (may he rest in peace !) and there were 
 some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a 
 few years, built of small yellow l)ricks brought from Holland, 
 having latticed windows and gable fronts, surmounted with 
 weathercocks. 
 
 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 Groat Britain, a simple, good-natui-ed fellow, 
 of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a descendant of the 
 Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the chivalrous days 
 of Peter Stuj'vesant, and accompanied him to the siege of fort 
 Christina. He inherited, however, but little of the martial 
 character of his ancestors. I have observed that he ,vas a 
 simple good-natured man ; he was moreover a kind neighbor, 
 and an obedient henpecked husband. Indeed, to the latter 
 circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit which 
 gained him such universal popularity ; for those men are most 
 apt to be obsequious aud conciliating abroad, who are under the 
 discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, doubtless, are 
 rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery furnace of domestic 
 tribulation, and a curtain lecture is wortii all the sermons in 
 the world for teaching the virtues of patience and long-suffering. 
 A termagant wife may. tl»erefore, in some respects, be consid- 
 ered a tolerable blessiiv • md if so, Kip Van Winkle was thrice 
 blessed. 
 
 Certain it is, that be was a ,.^ieat favo.ite among all the good 
 wives of the village, who, r.s usuf' ^.ith the amiable .s^'x, took 
 his part in all family iiquabli'e. iv.X never failed, 'whenever 
 they talked those matters • vr- in tl 
 lay all the blame on Dar ; '• uu W 
 village, too, would shoui. ..ii:i jov 
 He assisted at their sports, midc f'.i' 
 to rty kites aud shoot marli! > , ",;>d 
 
 VVl. 
 
 ghosts, witches, and Indians. 
 
 Mr eveai'ig gossipmgs, to 
 Jde. The ohi'.lren of the 
 
 wl;enever he ;t.pproached. 
 ;>• pi ay tilings, taught them 
 
 •■ »ld them long stories of 
 
 ;uever he went 
 
 dodging 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 29 
 
 ftbout the village, he was stirroiinded bj' a troop of them hang- 
 ing on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thou- 
 sand tricks on him with imi)uiiity ; and not a dog would bark 
 at him throughout the neighborliood. 
 
 The great error in Ivip's composition was an insuperable 
 aversion to all kinds of jtrolltable labor. It could not be from 
 the want of assiduity or i)erseveranee ; for he would sit on a 
 wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and 
 fish all day without a uiurmur, even tliough he should not be 
 encouraged by a single uibl)le. He would carry a fowling-piece 
 on his shoulder for hcur-i together, trudging through woods and 
 swamps, and up hill anJ down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or 
 wild pigeons. He wouiiil never refuse to assist a neighbor, 
 even in tlie roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all rjountry 
 frolics for husking iiidian corn or building stone fences. The 
 women of the vilhiLxs too, used to employ him to run their 
 errands, and to do such little odd jobs as tht'ir less obliging 
 husbands would not do iov thmi ; — in a word, Kip was ready to 
 attend to anybody's bui^liiess 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 uo use to work on liis farm ; it 
 
 as the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole coun- 
 try ; every thing about it went wrong, and would go wrong in 
 spite of him. His fences were continually falling to pieces; 
 his cow would eitlier go astray, or get among the cabbages ; 
 weeds were sure to grow (juicker in his (ields than anywhere 
 else ; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had 
 some out-door work to do ; so that though his patrimonial 
 estate li..d dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, 
 until tiiere was little more left than a mere patch of Indian 
 corn and potatoes, yet it wat* the worst conditioned farm in the 
 neigiiitorliood. 
 
 His ciiildren, too, were as ragged and wild as if they be- 
 longed to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own 
 likeness, promised to inherit the habits, with the old clothes of 
 his fatlier. He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his 
 mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-off galli- 
 gaskins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as 
 a fine lady does her train in bad weather. 
 
 Itip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, 
 of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat 
 white broad or brown, whichever 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 
 
 , 
 
 i 
 
 >i I i 
 
 
I I 
 
 8d 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 if 
 
 '<: i 
 
 perfect contentment ; but his wife kept continually dinning io 
 his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he 
 was bringing on his family. 
 
 Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, 
 and every thing he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of 
 household eloquence. Rip had but one way of replying to al! 
 lectures of the kind, and that, by frequent use, had grovn into 
 a habit. He shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up 
 his eyes, but said nothing. This, however, always provoked a 
 fresh volley 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 henpecked husband. 
 
 Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as 
 much henpecked as his master ; for Dame Van Winkle 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 befitting an honorable 
 dog, he was as ■ u irageous an animal as ever scoured the woods 
 — but what courage can withstand the ever-during and all-be- 
 BPt^ing terrors of a woman's tongue? The moment Wolf 
 ent^^red the house, his crest fell, his tail droope('. ^o the ground, 
 '^r curled between his legs, he sneaked about with a gallows air, 
 •^sting many a sidelong glance at Dame Van Winkle, and at 
 ' ae least flourish of a broomstick or ladle, he would fly to the 
 door with yelpin ^ precipitation. 
 
 Times grew worse and worse with Rip V^n Winkle, as years 
 of matrimony rcJ! id on : a tart temper n'iver lueilows with age, 
 and a sharp tongue is the only edge 'oo! fhrtt j^'u ws keener with 
 constant use. For a long while he iisod to co;>sole himself, 
 when driven from home, by frequer rin;^ ti kind i.'f perpetual 
 club of the sages, philosophers, and olli":- iulc ut^-onages ol 
 the village, wliich held its sessions on a boiich before a ssnaH 
 (dd, designued by a rubicund portrait of ii aajtsi;/ George 
 the Third. Here they used to sit ii; the slia , of a long lazy 
 summer's day, talking listlessly on- villngc \ )ssip, o»- telling 
 endless sleepy stories a,„out notbiiig. But it ^ »uic' hav« been 
 •Yorth any stiitcsOian's money to h ve heard the profound discus- 
 dious that sometimes took place, vfhen by chanco an old nevv.s 
 paper fell into their hands, from aome passing tcaveller. How 
 solemnly th<;y would listen m the contents, as drawled out h; 
 Derrick Van liiiimuel, the schoolmaster, a dapper hiarued little 
 inaD, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in 
 the dictionary ; and how sagely they woul(> delil)eiate upon 
 public events some uiuiUis after Ihey uvui taken placet. 
 
of 
 all 
 
 into 
 
 up 
 
 i a 
 
 his 
 
 side 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by 
 Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the 
 inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till 
 night, just moving sufficientlj to avoid the sun, and keep in 
 the siiade of a huge tree ; so that the neighbors could tell the 
 hour by his movements as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is 
 true, he was rurely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe inces- 
 santly. His adherents, however (for every great man has his 
 adherents), perfectly understood him, and knew how to gathef 
 his opinions. When any thing that was read or related dis- 
 pleased him, he was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, 
 and to send forth short, h\ \ . :nt, and angry puffs ; but when 
 pleased, he would inliale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and 
 emit it in light and placid clouds, and sometimes taking the 
 pipe f»'oni his mouth, and letting the fragrant vapor curl about 
 his nose, would gravely nod his head in token of perfect appro- 
 bation. 
 
 From even this strong hold the unlucky Rip was at length 
 routed by his ternmgant wife, who would suddenly break in 
 upon the tranquillity of the assemblage, and call the members 
 all to nought ; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder 
 iiiinself, sacred fioin the daring tongiic of this terrible virago, 
 who clKUiicd hiui outright with encouraging her husband in 
 
 liiihils of idleness. 
 
 Toor Kip was at last reduced almost to despair, and his only 
 altcnii'.tiv'c to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor 
 of Ills wife, was to take gnu in liand, and stroll away into 
 tlio woods. Ilt'ic he would sometimes seat himself at the 
 foot ^,f a tree, and shaie the contents of his wallet with Wolf, 
 with wliom he sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. 
 " I'uor Wolf," he would say, " thy mistress leads thee a dog's 
 life of it ; but never n)ind, my lad, whilst 1 live thou shalt 
 never want a frietid to stand by thee ! " Wolf would wag his 
 tail, look wistfull;y in his master's face, and if dogs can feel 
 pity, I verily believe he reciprocated the sentiment with all his 
 heart. 
 
 In a long ramf/J*' of the kind, on a fine autumnal day. Rip 
 had unconsciously s<Tambled U> one of the highest parts of the 
 Kaalskill mountains. He was after his favorite sfK>rt of 
 squirrel-shooting, and tlie still solitudes had o<'hoed and re- 
 echoed with the reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, be 
 threw himself. lo.te in tlu' aCU-rnoon, on a green knoll covered 
 with mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. 
 From an opening between the treex, he could overlook all the 
 
■'I * 
 
 32 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 N 
 
 lower country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a 
 distance the lordly Hudson , far, far below him, moving on its 
 silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple cloiul, 
 or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping on its 
 glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue highlands. 
 
 On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, 
 wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments 
 from tlie impending clifls, and scarcely lighted by the reflected 
 rays of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on this 
 scene ; evening was gradually advancing ; the mountains began 
 to throw th • long blue shadows over the valleys ; he saw that 
 it would be dark long before he could reach the village ; and 
 he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encountering the 
 terrors of Dame Van Winkle. 
 
 As he was aliout to descend he heard a voice from a distance 
 hallooing, '• Rip Van Winkle ! Rij) Van Winkle ! " He looked 
 round, but could see nothing but a crow winging its solitary 
 flight across the mountain. He tho-:ght liis fancy must have 
 deceived him, and turned again to dL.-i.7eud, when he heard the 
 same cry ring through the still eveiiing air, " Rip Van Winkle! 
 Rip Van Winkle!" — at the same time Wolf bristled up his 
 back, and giving a low grcwl, skulked to his master's side, 
 looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now felt a vague 
 apprehension stealing over him : he looked anxiously in tiie 
 same direction, and perceived a Strang figure slowly toiliiii; 
 up the rocks, and bending under the w.'ight of something he- 
 carried on his back. He was surprised to see any human being 
 in this lonely and unfrequented place, but supposing it to be 
 some one of the neighborhood in need of his assistance, he 
 hastened down to yield it. 
 
 On nearer approach, he was still more surprised at the singu- 
 larity of the stranger's appearance. He was a short square- 
 built old fellow, with tliick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. 
 His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion — a cloth jerkin 
 strapped round the waist — several pair of breeches, the outer 
 one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down the 
 sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulder a 
 stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip 
 to approach and assist him with tlie load. Though ratiier shy 
 and distrustful of this new awiuaintance. Rip complied with 
 his usual alacrity, au'l mutually relieving one another, they 
 clambered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a 
 mountain torrent. As they ascended. Rip every now and tlien 
 heard long rolling peals, like uiatuut thunder, that seemed to 
 
BIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 33 
 
 issue out of a deep ravine or rather cleft between lofty rocks, 
 towHfd which their rugged path couducted. He paused for an 
 instant, but supposiug it to be the muttering of one of those 
 tnuisieut thunder-showers which often take place in mountain 
 heights, he proceeded. Tassing through the ravine, they came 
 to a iiollow, like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpen- 
 dicular precipices, over the brinks of which, impending trees 
 shot their branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the 
 azure sky, and the bright evening cloud. During the whole 
 tiiiKs Kip and his companion had labored on in silence; for 
 though the former marvelled greatly what could be the object 
 of carvylng a keg of liquor up tliis wihl mountain, yet there was 
 sometliing strange and incomprehensible about the unknown, 
 that inspired awe, and checked familiarity. 
 
 On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder pre- 
 sented themselves. On a level spot in the centre was a com- 
 pany of odd-looking personages playing at nine-pins. They 
 were dressed in a quaint outlandish fashion : some wore short 
 doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and 
 most of them had enormous breeches, of similar style with that 
 of tiie guide's. Their visages, too, were peculiar; one had a 
 large beard, broad face, and small piggish eyes ; the face of an- 
 other seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted 
 hy a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock's tail. 
 They all had beards, of various shapes and colors. There 
 was one who seemed to be the commander. He was a stout 
 old gentleman, with a weatlier-beateu countenance; he wore a 
 laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high-crowned hat and 
 feather, red stockings, and high-heeled slioes, with roses in 
 them. Tlie whole gr()U[k reminded Rip of the figures in an old 
 Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie Van Shaick, the vil- 
 lage parson, and wnich had been brought over from Holland at 
 the time of the settlement. 
 
 Wliat seemed particularly odd to Rip, was, that though tliese 
 folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained 
 the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, 
 the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. 
 Notliing interrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of 
 the balls, which, wlienever they were rolled, echoed along the 
 mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. 
 
 As Rip and his companion approached them, they suddenly 
 desisted from their play, and stared at him with such fixed 
 Btatu'^-like gaze, and such Btrange, uncouth, lack-lustre coun- 
 tenances, that his heart turned within him, and bis kuees smote 
 
 :;iiiJ 
 
 li 
 
 V>\ 
 
 I \ 
 
 ■i'li^v 
 
 ?!> 
 
! 
 
 I 
 
 34 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 together. His companion now emptied the contents of the keg 
 into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the com- 
 pany. He obeyed with fear and trembling ; they quaffed the 
 liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their game. 
 
 By degrees, Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even 
 ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the bev- 
 erage, which he found had much of the flavor of excellent 
 Hollands. He was naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon 
 tempted to repeat the draught. One taste provoked another, 
 and he reiterated his visits to the flagon so often, that at length 
 his senses were overpowered, his eyes swam in his head, bis 
 head gradually declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. 
 
 On waking, he found himself ou the green knoll whence 
 he had first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes 
 
 — it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and 
 twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, 
 and breasting the pure mountain breeze. " Surely," thought 
 Kip, " I have not slept here all night." He recalled the occur- 
 rences before he fell asleep. The strange man with the keg of 
 liquor — the mountain ravine — the wild retreat among the rocks 
 
 — the wo-begone party at nine-pins — the flagon — " Oh ! that 
 flagon ! that wicked flagon ! " thought Rip — " what excuse shall 
 I make to Dame Van Winkle ? " 
 
 He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well- 
 oiled fowling-piece, he found an old fire-lock lying by him, the 
 barrel encrusted with rust, the lock falling off, and the stock 
 worm-eaten. He now suspected that the grave roysters of the 
 mountain had put a trick upon him, and haviug dosed him with 
 liquor, had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had disappeared, 
 but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or partridge. 
 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. 
 
 He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's 
 gambol, 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 Rip, " and if this frolic 
 should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a 
 blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty 
 he got down into the glen ; he found the gully up which he and 
 his 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 glen with babbling 
 
 \\ 
 
RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 35 
 
 murmorB. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, 
 working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, 
 and witch-hazel ; and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the 
 wild grape vines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to 
 tree, and spread a kind of network in his path. 
 
 At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through 
 the cliffs to the amphitheatre ; but no traces of such opening 
 remained. The rocks presented a high impenetrable wall, over 
 which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of feathery foam, 
 and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the shadows of 
 the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was brought to 
 a stand. He again called and whistled after his dog ; he was 
 only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle crows, sporting 
 high in air about a dry tree that overhung a sunny precipice ; 
 and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to look down and 
 scoff at the poor man's perplexities. What was to be done? 
 The morning was passing away, and Rip felt famished for want 
 of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his dog and gun ; he 
 dreaded to meet his wife ; but it would not do to starve among 
 the mountains. He shook his head, shouldered the rusty fire- 
 lock, 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 somewhat surprised him, for he 
 had thought himself acquainted with every one in the country 
 round. Their dress, too, was of a dififerent fashion from that 
 to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with equal 
 marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon him, 
 invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence of this 
 gesture, induced Rip, involuntarily, to do the same, when, to 
 his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot long 1 
 
 He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of 
 strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and point- 
 ing at his gray beard. The dogs, too, not one of which he 
 recognized for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. 
 The very village was altered : it was larger and more populous. 
 There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, 
 and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. 
 Strange names were over the doors — strange faces at the win- 
 dows — every thing was strange. His mind now misgave him ; 
 he began to doubt whether both he and the world around him 
 were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, which 
 he had left but the day before. There stood the Kaatskill moun- 
 tains — there ran the silver Hudson at a distance — there was 
 
 I' 
 
 M^ i 
 
 
 I' til ''J ,^ 
 
 (3! 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 t^ 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 1.25 
 
 f 1^ IS 
 
 20 
 
 £ Ui 
 
 1.4 
 
 m 
 
 1.6 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 33 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WIBSTIR.N.Y. 14980 
 
 (716)872-4503 
 

 V 
 
 ^ 
 
66 
 
 I 
 
 if' 
 
 n 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 jely as it had always l>cen — Rip was 
 
 every hill and dale precise 
 
 sorely perplexed — '' That flagon last night," thought he, " has 
 
 addled my poor head sadly ! " 
 
 It was with some difficulty that he found the way to his own 
 house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every 
 moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. Ho 
 found the house gone to decay — the roof fallen in, the windows 
 shattered, and the dcors off the hinges. A lialf-starved dojr. 
 that looked like 'Wolf, was skulking about it. Hip called him 
 by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed ou. 
 This was an unkind cut indeed. — "My very dog," sighed poor 
 Rip, " has forgotten me ! " 
 
 He entered the house, which, to tell the truth. Dame Van 
 Winkle had always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, 
 and apparently abandoned. This desolateness overcame all hia 
 connubial fears — he called loudly for his wife and children — 
 the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and then 
 all again was silence. 
 
 He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the vil- 
 lage inn — but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden builds 
 ing stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some of them 
 broken, and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the 
 door was painted, " The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle." 
 Instead of tlie great tree that used to shelter the quiet little 
 Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall naked pole, with 
 something on the top that looked like a red night-cap, and from 
 it was fluttering a flag, on which was a singular assemblage of 
 stars and stripes — all this was strange and incomprehensible. 
 He recognized on the sign, however, the ruby face of King 
 George, under which he had smokec' so many a peaceful pipe, 
 but even this was singularly metamorphosed. Tiie red coat 
 was changed for one of blue and buff, k sword was held in the 
 hand instead of a sceptre, the head was decorated witli a cocked 
 hat, and underneath was painted in large characters. General 
 Washington. 
 
 There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but 
 none that Rip recollected. The very character of the people 
 seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious 
 tone about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy 
 tranquillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Veddei, 
 with his broad face, double chin, aiid fair long pipe, uttering 
 clouds of tobacco smoke, iiistoMd of hUe speeches ; or Van 
 Bummel, the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an 
 ancient uewsoaner. In ulace of these, a lean bilious-looking 
 
 tellow, wilh "i 
 nieutly about 
 gross — liluTt 
 other words m 
 wildered Van 
 
 Tlie appea 
 rusty fowling 
 ;ui(l children 
 t.ivern politic 
 lu'iul to foot. 
 him, and dra 
 bo voted?" 
 but bury littl 
 tiptoe, inquin 
 onit." Kip V 
 whon a kiio 
 cocked hat, i 
 tx) the right a 
 mg himself 1 
 other resting 
 iiig, as it wer 
 " what brong 
 and a mob at 
 Lhe village?" 
 
 "Alas! g( 
 a poor, quiet 
 the King, Go 
 
 Here a gen 
 a tory ! a spj 
 
 It was wit 
 the cocked hs 
 austerity of 
 what he cauK 
 mail humbly 
 came tliere ir 
 about the tav 
 
 "Well — V 
 
 Rip bethoi 
 Nicholas Ved 
 
 There was 
 plied, in a tl 
 dead and g( 
 tomb-stone ii 
 but that's rol 
 
 / 
 
RIP VAN WTNKLt!. 
 
 87 
 
 tellow, v/illi iris pockets full of hamlltills, wns haranuninj; volio- 
 ineutly uboiit ligiits of citizens — election — members of Con- 
 gress — liberty — Hunker's hill — heroes of seventy-six — juul 
 other words which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the be- 
 wildered Van Winkle. 
 
 The appearance of Rip, with his long, grizzled beard, his 
 rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women 
 and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the 
 (Mvern politicians. They crowded round him, eying him from 
 lii'iid to foot, with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to 
 him, and drawing him partly aside, inquired, "on which side 
 he voted?" Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short 
 but bury little fellow pulled him by the arm, and rising on 
 tiptoe, inquired in his ear, " whether he was Federal or Demo- 
 crit." Kip was eipially at a loss to coniprehend the question; 
 when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp 
 cocked hat, made his way through tlie crowd, jjutting them 
 to the right and left with bis elljows :i;i lie passed, and i)lant- 
 mg himself before Van Winkle, with one arm a-kimbo, the 
 other resting on bis cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrat- 
 ing, as it wen\ into bis v(>rv soul, demandi'd in an austere tone, 
 " what brought him to the election with a gun on bis shoulder, 
 and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in 
 Ihe village?" 
 
 '' Alas ! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, " I am 
 a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of 
 the King, Got! bless him ! " 
 
 Here a general shout burst from the bystanders — " a tory ! 
 a tory ! a spy ! a refugee ! hustle him ! away with him ! " 
 
 It was witli great dilliculty that the self-important man in 
 tlie cociked hat restored order ; and having assumed a tenfold 
 austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, 
 wliat he came there for, and whom he was seeking. The })oor 
 man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but merely 
 '•anie there in search of some of his neighbors, who used to keep 
 about the tavern. 
 
 " Well — who are they? — name them." 
 
 Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, " Where's 
 Nicholas Vedder?" 
 
 There was a silence for a little while, when an old man re- 
 plied, in a thin, piping voice, " Nicholas Vedder? why, he is 
 dead and gone these eighteen years ! There was a wooden 
 tombstone in the church-yard that used to tell all about him, 
 but that's rotten and gone too." 
 
 i 
 
 : 
 
 \ 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 |i 
 
 ■, 1 
 
 'If 
 
 1 . f 1 
 
 ■■■ il 
 
 • I '■ 
 
 \-:-% 
 
filllllib 
 
 ir 
 
 i 
 
 ^r- 
 
 m 
 
 88 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 " Where's Brom Dutcher? " 
 
 " Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war; 
 some say he was killed at the storming of Stony-Point — others 
 say he was drowned in the squall, at the foot of Antony's 
 Nose. I don't know — he never came back again, ' ' 
 "Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster?" 
 " He went off to the wars, too ; was a great militia general, 
 and is now in Congress.' 
 
 Rip's heart died away, at hearing if these sad changes in his 
 home and friends, and finding himseif thus alone in the world. 
 Every answer puzzled him, too, by treating of such enormous 
 lapses of time, and of matters which he could not understand : 
 war — Congress — Stony-Point ! — he had no courage to ask 
 after any more friends, but cried out in despair, " Does nobody 
 here know Rip Van Winkle? " 
 
 " Oh, Rip Van Winkle ! " exclaimed two or three. " Oh to 
 be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the 
 tree." 
 
 Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself as he 
 »vent up the mountain ; apparently as lazy and certainly as 
 ragged. The poor fellow was now completely confounded. 
 He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or 
 another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in 
 the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his name? 
 
 "God knows," exclaimed he at his wit's end; "I'm not 
 myself — I'm somebody else — that's me yonder — no — that's 
 tomebody else, got into ray shoes — I was myself last night, 
 but I fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, 
 and every thing's changed, and I'm changed, and I can't tell 
 tvhat's my name, or who I am ! " 
 
 The by-standers began now to look at each other, nod, wink 
 significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. 
 There was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keep- 
 ing the old fellow from doing mischief; at the very suggestioi; 
 of which, the self-important man with the cocked hat retired 
 with some precipitation. At tliis critical moment a fresK 
 comely woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at tlu 
 gray-bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, 
 which, frightened at his looks, licgan to cry, " Hush, Rii)," 
 cried she, " hush, you little fool ; tlie old man won't 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 ' " disked be. 
 
 "Judith Gardenier." 
 
 «' And your 
 
 "Ah, poor ti 
 years since he 
 has been heart 
 wliclhcr he sh 
 iioliody can tel 
 
 Uip'had i)ut 
 faltering voice 
 
 " W lure's } 
 
 Oh. she toe 
 blood-vessel ir 
 
 Tliere was j 
 Tlic honest mi 
 his (laughter a 
 died he — " 
 Winkle now ! - 
 
 All stood a 
 among the cro 
 it ill his face 
 Hij) Van Win 
 neighbor — W 
 years?" 
 
 Kip's story 
 been to him 
 Uiey heard it ; 
 their tongues 
 the cocked lir 
 liie field, sen 
 liis head — up 
 throughout th 
 
 It was detc; 
 V'auderdonk, 
 was a descent 
 of the f'arlies 
 ancient inhali 
 wonderful ev 
 '•eeoUccted Ri 
 Batistaetory i 
 fact, handed 
 Kaatskill moi 
 jugs. That 
 the lirst disc' 
 vigil there ev 
 heiug peniiitt 
 
BIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 39 
 
 ^« And your father's name? " 
 
 " All, poor man, Rip Van Winkle was his name ; but 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 
 wlictlier he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, 
 iioliody <'a" toll. I was then but a little girl." 
 
 Hip had but one question more to ask; but he put it with a 
 faltering voice : 
 
 '• Whi're's your mother? " 
 
 Oh. shv. too had died but a short time since : she broke a 
 blood-vessel in a lit of passion at a New-Kngland pedler. 
 
 Tliere was a drop of comfort, at least, iu this intelligence. 
 The honest man could contain himself no longer. He caught 
 his daughter and her child in his arms. " I am your father ! " 
 cried he — "Young Rip Van Winkle once — old Rip Van 
 Winivle now ! — Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle?" 
 
 All stooil amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from 
 among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under 
 it in his f.ace for a moment, exclaimed, "Sure enough! it is 
 Hip Van Winkle — it is himself. Welcome home again, old 
 neighbor — Why, where have you been these twenty long 
 years?" 
 
 Hip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had 
 Ir'ou to him but as one nigiit. The neighbors 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 lirt, who, when the alarm was over, had returned to 
 the field, screwed 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 
 Vauderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. He 
 was a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one 
 of tiie "arliest accounts of the province. Peter was the most 
 aiu'iinl inhabitant of tiie village, and well versed in all the 
 wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. He 
 '•c'coUectcd Rip at once, and corroborated his story in the most 
 isatistactory manner. He assured the company that it was a 
 fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the 
 Kaatskill mountains liad always been haunted by strange be- 
 ings. That it was anirnied that tlie great Hendrick Hudson, 
 the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of 
 vigil there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half-moon, 
 being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enteX" 
 
 i I 
 
 IM 
 
miV 
 
 s 
 
 m 
 
 40 
 
 THE SKETC IT-BOOK. 
 
 I .* 
 
 prise, aud keep a guardian eye upon tlie river and the great 
 city called by his name. That his father had once seen them 
 in their old Dutch dresses playing at nine-pins in a hollow of 
 the mountain; and tuat he himself had heard, one summer 
 afternoon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of 
 thunder. 
 
 To make a long story short, the company broke up, and 
 returned to the more important concerns of the election. Rip's 
 daughter took him home to live with her; she had a snug, well- 
 furnished house, and a stout cheery fanner for a husband, 
 whom Rip recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb 
 upon his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of 
 himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to 
 work on the farm, but evinced an hereditary disposition to at- 
 tend to any thing else but his business. 
 
 Rip now resumed his old walks and habits ; he soon found 
 many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the 
 wear aud tear of time; and preferred making friends among 
 the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor. 
 Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that 
 happy age when a man can be idle with impunity, he took 
 his place once more on the bench, at the inn door, aud was 
 reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the village, and a chron- 
 icle of the (1 times "before the war." It was some limo 
 before he coaid get into the regular track of gossip, or could 
 be made to comprehend the strange events that had taken place 
 during his torpor. How that tliere had been a revolutionary 
 war — that the country had thrown off the yoke of old England 
 — and that, instead of being a subject of his majesty George 
 the TL'rd, he was now a free citizen of tlie United States. Rip, 
 in fact, was no politician ; the changes of states and empires 
 made but little impression on him ; but there wns one species 
 of despotism under which he had long groaned, aud that was — 
 petticoat government. Happily, that was at an end ; he had 
 got his neck out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in aud 
 out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame 
 Van Winkle. Whenever her name was mentioned, however, ho 
 shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes ; 
 which might pass eitlier for an expression of resignation to his 
 fate, or joy at his deliverance. 
 
 He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at IMr. 
 Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some 
 pr' its every time he told it, which was doubtless owing to his 
 having so recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely 
 
 
ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA. 
 
 41 
 
 to the tnic I have related, and not a man, woman, or child in 
 the n('itrlil)orliood, but knew \t by heart. Some always pre- 
 tciuled to (loiibt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been 
 out of his Ik'juI, and that this was one point on which he always 
 remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost 
 universally gave it full credit. Even to this day, they never 
 hear a thuMdcr-storni of a summer afternoon about the Kaats- 
 kill, but they say Ilendriek Hudson and his crew are at their 
 game of nine-pins : and it is a common wish of all henpecked 
 liiishands in tiie neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their 
 hiuidrf, that they might have a quieting draught out of Rip Van 
 Winkle's llagou. 
 
 Not K. — The foregoing talc, one wonlrt sunpect, had been anggCRted to Mr. Knlcker* 
 bockor by a little Oermaii fniporstition about the Emperor Frederick der Rothbart and 
 tlie Kypphallscr mountain; the giibjoiiicd note, however, which he had appended to the 
 talc, eliowH thnt it is an abHolutc fact, nai riitod with hlH uhubI fldciity. 
 
 "The Hiory of Ki|> Van Winkle may Houin incredible to many, but nevertheless I 
 give ii my full belief, for I know the vicinity of our old Dutch setllements to have been 
 very Kulijccl to nukrvcllouH events and appearances. Indeed, I have heard many stranger 
 RliirirH than this, In the villages along the Hudson, all of which were too well authenti- 
 cated to iidnilt of a doubt. I have even talked with Kip Van Winkle myself, who, wbea 
 jaxt 1 xaw him, was a very venerable old man, and so perfectly rational and consistent on 
 every nth t point, that I think no coiiMciontious |)erson could refuse to take th's into the 
 liiiriraiii; nay, 1 have seen a certificate on the subject taken before a country juRtlce, and 
 t{<.'iM il with a cruHs, in the Justice's own handwriting. The story, therefore, is beyond 
 the puHtiibiiity of doubt. ^ 
 
 ExNuU.-Mi Uiaii-.ite O.S AMEUIUA. 
 
 ' *Methlnk8l8eeln my mind aiuililo nnd pulsnnnt nation, ronnlnghermlf liko n etforiR 
 man after sleep, and shaUing her invincible locks; mcthinks I see her as an eagle, mew- 
 
 v.>: her mi(,'lily youth, mul kindling (i. r cndazzlud cyin ul tlii; full mid-day btain.' — 
 Ul'LTOfi ON TIIE l-iniilirv «V TIIK I'UKSS. 
 
 Ir is Willi fiH'rni«is (if deep regret that T observe the literary 
 miinosity daily liiowing u}) between England and America, 
 (irt'ut curiosity lias lu'i-n awakened of late with respect to the 
 I'liilfil States'. :iii(l the London press has teemed with volumes 
 of travels tliro'inli the Repultlic ; but they seem intended to 
 dilTuse error rutlier than knowledge ; and so successful have 
 lliev been, that, noLwillistaiidiiig the constant intercourse be- 
 tween the natiims, then; is no people concerning whom the 
 !j;reat mass of the British pulilii; have less pure information, oi 
 
 entertain more uumcioub prejudices. 
 
 .^ . — ^ II ■ 
 
 1 AuPeudix. Nota < 
 
 t 
 

 r 
 
 '1 
 
 1 
 
 • 1 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 If 
 
 i 
 
 t i 
 
 42 
 
 TffJ SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 English travellers are the beat and the worst in the world. 
 Where no motives of pride or interest intervene, none can equal 
 them for profound and philosophical views of society, or faith- 
 ful and graphical 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 probity and candor, in the indulgence of 
 splenetic remark, and an illiberal spirit of ridicule. 
 
 Hence, their travels are more honest and accurate, the more 
 remote the country described. I would place implicit confi- 
 dence in an Englishman's description of the regions beyond the 
 cataracts of the Nile ; of unknown islands in the Yellow Sea ; 
 of th^ interior of India ; or of any other tract which other trav- 
 elle' < ight be apt to picture out with the illusions of their 
 fa^K'io'-. But I would cautiously receive his account of his 
 immediate neighbors, and of those nations with which he is 
 in habits of most frequent intercourse. However I might be 
 disposed to trust his probity, 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 philo- 
 sophical spirit and cultivated minds have been sent from Eng- 
 land to ransack the poles, to penetrate the deserts, and to study 
 the manners and customs of barbarous nations, with which she 
 can have no permanent intercourse of profit or pleasure ; it has 
 been left to the broken-down tradesman, the scheming adven- 
 turer, the wandering mechanic, the Manchester and Birming- 
 ham agent, to be her oracles respecting America. From such 
 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 statesman 
 and the ph^'osopher. 
 
 That such men should give prejudicial accounts of America is 
 not a matter of surprise. The themes it offers for contempla- 
 tion are too vast and elevated for their capacities. The national 
 character is yet in a state of fermentation : it may have its froth- 
 inesB and sediment, but its ingredients are sound and whole- 
 some : it has already given proofs of powerful and generous 
 qualities ; and the whole promises to settle down into something 
 substantially excellent. But the causes which a'-e operating to 
 strengthen and ennoble it, and its daily indications of admirable 
 properties, are all lost upon these purblind observers ; who are 
 only affected by the little asperities incident to its present sit- 
 
 nation. Thej 
 things; of th 
 vate interests 
 the snug con^ 
 old, highly-fin 
 the ranks of u 
 and servile su 
 tite and self-i 
 all-important 
 do not percei 
 than counterb 
 hlessingr. 
 
 They may, 
 sonable expcc 
 America to tl 
 abounded, an 
 they were to 1 
 foreseen but 
 indulges absu 
 ment. Such 
 finding that i 
 he can reap ; 
 contend with 
 ncss of an in 
 Perhaps, tl 
 the prompt d 
 prevalent am 
 with unwonfc 
 tomed all th( 
 of good soci( 
 ity, they becc 
 attribute to 
 underrate a 
 and where 1: 
 rise to consc( 
 One would 
 such sources 
 be received \ 
 motives of 
 quiry and obi 
 would be rij 
 mitted, in su 
 very reverse 
 instance of 
 
ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA. 
 
 48 
 
 nation. They are capable of judging only of the surface of 
 things ; of those matters which come in contact with their pri- 
 vate interests and personal gratifications. They miss some of 
 the snug conveniences and petty comforts which belong to an 
 old, highly-finished, and over-populous state of society ; where 
 the ranks of useful labor are crowded, and many earn a painful 
 and servile subsistence, by studying the very caprices of appe- 
 tite and self-indulgenco. Those minor comforts, however, are 
 all-important in the estimation of narrow minds ; which either 
 do not perceive, or will not acknowledge, that they are more 
 than counterbalanced among us, by great and generally diffused 
 hlessingr. 
 
 They may, perhaps, have been disappointed in some unrea- 
 sonable expectation of sudden gain. They may have pictured 
 America to themselves an El Dorado, where gold and silver 
 abounded, and the natives were lacking in sagacity ; and where 
 they were to become strangely and suddenly rich, in some un- 
 foreseen but easy manner. The same weakness of mind that 
 indulges absurd expectations, produces petulance in disappoint- 
 ment. Such persons become embittered against the country on 
 finding that there, as everywhere else, a man must sow before 
 he can reap ; must win wealth by industry and talent ; and must 
 contend with the common difficulties of nature, and the shrewd- 
 ness of an intelligent and enterprising people. 
 
 Perhaps, through mistaken or ill-directed hospitality, or from 
 the prompt disposition to cheer and countenance the stranger, 
 prevalent among my countrymen, they may have been treated 
 with unwonted respect in America; and, having been accus- 
 tomed all their lives to consider themselves below the surface 
 of good society, and brought up in a servile feeling of inferior- 
 ity, they become arrogant on the common boon of civility ; they 
 attribute to the lowliness of others their own elevation ; and 
 underrate a society where there are no artificial distinctions, 
 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 truth is so desirable, would 
 be received with caution by the censors of the press ; that the 
 motives of these men, their veracity, their opportunities of in- 
 quiry and observation, and their capacities for judging correctl}', 
 would be rigorously scrutinized, before their evidence was ad- 
 mitted, in such sweeping extent against a kindred nation. The 
 very reverse, however, is the case, and it furnishes a striking 
 instance of human inconsistency. Nothing can surpass the 
 
 iii. 
 
 ) I. 
 
 I'H 
 
44 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK, 
 
 ''> 
 
 i it ^!- 
 
 vigilance with which English critics will examine the credibility 
 of the traveller who publishes an account of some distant, and 
 comparatively unimportant, country. How warily will they 
 compare the measurements of a pyramid, or the description of 
 a ruin ; and how sternly will they censure any inaccuracy in 
 these contributions of merely curious knowledge ; while they 
 will receive, with eagerness and unhesitating faith, the gross 
 misrepresentations of coarse and obscure writers, concerning a 
 country with which their own is placed In the most important 
 and delicate relations. Nay, they will even make these ajwcry. 
 phal volumes text-books, on which to enlarge, with a zeal and 
 an ability worthy of a more generous cause. 
 
 I shall not, however, dwell on this irksome and hackneyed 
 topic ; nor should I have adverted to it, but for the undue in- 
 terest apparently taken in it by my countrymen, and certain 
 injurious effects which I apprehend it might produce upon the 
 national feeling. We attach too much consequence to these 
 attacks. They cannot do us any essential injury. The tissue 
 of misrepresentations attempted to be woven round us, are like 
 cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant. Our coun- 
 try continually outgrows them. One falsehood after another 
 falls off of itself. We have but to live on, and every day we 
 live a whole volume of refutation. All 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 matchless prosperity. They 
 could not conceal that these are owing, not merely to physical 
 and local, but also to moral causes ; — to the political liberty, 
 the general diffusion of knowledge, the prevalence of sound, 
 moral, and religious principles, which give force and sustained 
 energy to the character of a people ; and which, in fact, have 
 been the acknowledged and wonderful supporters of their own 
 national power and glory. 
 
 But why are we so exquisitely alive to the aspersions of 
 England ? Why do we suffer ourselves to be so affected by the 
 contumely she has endeavored to cast upon us? It is not in 
 the opinion of England alone that honor lives, and reputation 
 has its being. The world at huge is the arbiter of a nation's 
 fame : with its thousand eyes it witnesses a nation's deeds, and 
 from their collective 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, pei- 
 baps, of far more importance to herself. She is instilling anger 
 
 originate in tl 
 
iNQLISE WRITERS ON AMERICA. 
 
 45 
 
 >ility 
 and 
 they 
 n of 
 
 ■y in 
 hey 
 
 ?r088 
 
 ng a 
 
 our 
 
 
 4 
 
 and resentment into the bosom of a youthful nation, to grow 
 with its growtli, and strengthen with its strength. If in Amer- 
 ica, as some of her writers are laboring to oonvince hgr, she is 
 hcrctvfter to find an invidious rival and a gigantic foe, she may 
 tliank those very writers for having provoked rivalship, and irri- 
 tated hostility. Every one knows the all-pervading influence 
 of literature at the present day, and how much the opinions and 
 passions of mankind are under its control. The mere contests 
 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 slanders of the pen pierce to the heart; they rankle 
 longest in the noblest spirits ; they dwell ever present in the 
 mind, and render it morbidly sensitive to the most trifling collis- 
 ion. It is but seldom that any one overt act produces hos- 
 tilities between two nations ; there exists, most commonly, a 
 previous jealousy and ill-will, a predisposition to take ofifence. 
 Trace these to their cause, and how often will they be found to 
 originate in the mischievous effusions of mercenary writers ; 
 who, secure in their closets, and for ignominious bread, concoct 
 and circulate the venom that is to inflame 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 docs 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 
 iiotliing i)ublished in England on the subject of our country, 
 tliMt does not circulate through every part of it. There is not 
 .! ''iiliiinny dropt from an fjiglish pen, nor an unworthy sarcasm 
 ulU'ioiI by an English statesman, that does not go to l)li<;ht 
 yood-will, and add to the mass of latent resentment. Possess- 
 Injr then, as England does, the fountain-head whence the litera- 
 \\trr of tlu' language flov/w, how coinplotely is it in her power, 
 rrv' }'o\v truly is it her duty, to nia!c(> it the medium of 
 r:,iiil;l'? and magnanimous feeling — a stream where the twc 
 r Uions 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 pres- 
 ont friendship of America may be of but little moment to her ; 
 hilt the future destinies of that country do not admit of a doubt : 
 over those of England, there lower some shadows of nncer- 
 tJiiiity. Should, then, a day of gloom arrive — should these 
 lovorsps overtake her from which the proudest empires have 
 not been exempt — she may look back with regret at her infatu- 
 
 • i 
 
i 
 
 4G 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 bcr side a nation she 
 
 ! I 
 
 iii 
 
 r 
 
 ii 
 
 k 
 
 ation, in repulsing from bcr side a nation sue might have 
 grappled to her bosom, and thus destroying her only cliaiite 
 for real friendship beyond the bouudariis of her own dominious, 
 
 There is a general impression in P^nglaud, that the people of 
 the United States are inimical to the parent country. It ia one 
 of the errors which have been diligently propagated by desiguiii" 
 writers. There is, doubtless, considerable political hostility, and 
 a general soreness at the illiberalily of the P:ngli8h press ; but, 
 <'cnerally speaking, the preposscosions of the people are 
 strongly in favor of England. Indeed, at one time they 
 amounted, in many parts of the Union, to an absurd degree of 
 bigotry. The bare name of Engiishuian was a passport to the 
 confidence and liospitality of every f.imily, and too often gave 
 a transient currency to the worthless and the ungrateful. 
 Throughout the country, there was sonuithing of enthusijism 
 connected with the idea of England. We looked to it with a 
 hallowed feeling of tenderness and veneration, as the land of 
 our forefathers — the august repository of the numiimcnts and 
 antiquities of our race — the birth-place and mausoleum of the 
 sages and heroes of our paternal history. After our own coun- 
 try, there was none in whose glory we more delighted — none 
 whose good opinion we were more anxious to possess — none 
 toward which our hearts yearned with siudi thio))l)ings of warm 
 consanguinity. Even during the late war, whenever there was 
 the least opportunity for kind feelings to si)riiig forth, it was 
 the delight of the generous spirits of our country to show, that 
 in the midst of hostilities, they still kept alive the sparks of 
 future friendship. 
 
 Is all this to be at an end ? Is this golden band of kindred 
 sympathies, so rare between nations, to be broken forever? — 
 Perhaps it is for the best — it may dispel an illusion which 
 might have kept us in mental vassalage ; which might have in- 
 terfered occasionally with our true interests, an(l prevented 
 the growth of proper national pride. But it is hard to 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 as we wander farther and farther from tlie 
 paternal roof, and lament the waywardness of the parent that 
 would repel the afifections of the child. 
 
 Short-sighted and injudicious, however, as the conduct of 
 England may be in this system of aspersion, recrimination on 
 our part would be equally ill-judged. I speak not of a prompt 
 and spirited vindication of our country, nor the keenest castiga- 
 tion of her slanderers — but I allude to a disposition to retaliate 
 
have 
 
 nious. 
 pid of 
 
 \h (1110 
 
 ij^iiiii- 
 y, and 
 
 l>iit, 
 are 
 
 they 
 reo of 
 to the 
 save 
 itoful. 
 8i;isin 
 with a 
 lul of 
 8 iind 
 if the 
 coun- 
 -none 
 • none 
 warm 
 e was 
 it was 
 , that 
 •ks of 
 
 ndred 
 ?r? — 
 which 
 vc in- 
 euled 
 vc up 
 
 28t — 
 
 back 
 Q tiie 
 t that 
 
 ct of 
 n on 
 onipt 
 itiga- 
 iliatc 
 
 ?:^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 Ul 
 
 (5 
 
 < 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 u 
 
 X 
 
 o 
 
 I- 
 < 
 X 
 
 !i.. 
 
 ■■:i(«1 
 
 
 i •• 
 
XNi 
 
 ill 
 
 I I 
 
 it 
 
 i i\> 
 
 y 
 
 f 
 
 in kind, to retoi 
 to be spreading 
 ticuiarly against 
 instead of redn 
 viting as the rei 
 and unprofitabl 
 mind, fretied ini 
 tion. If Englu 
 trade, or the rai 
 integrity of her 
 ion, let us bewa 
 est to diffuse en 
 checking emigra 
 Neitlier have we 
 as yet, in ell oui 
 the gaiuiL'5 part 
 but the gratiliea 
 tion ; and even 
 lished iu Englin 
 they foster a qu 
 they sour the sv\ 
 and brambles a 
 circulate throui 
 effect, excite vii 
 most especially t 
 by public opiuic 
 the purity of tb 
 is knowledge ; 
 prejudice, wilful 
 
 The members 
 candid and disf 
 the sovereign ra 
 to come to all qi 
 biassed judgmei 
 with England, w 
 and delicate cha 
 tions that affect 
 in the adjusting 
 be determined I 
 attentive to puri 
 
 Opening too, 
 portion of tlie 
 It sliouhl be oi 
 least, destitute 
 
ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA. 
 
 41 
 
 in kind, to retort sarcasm and inspire prejudice, which seems 
 to be spreading widely among our writers. Let us guard par- 
 ticularly against such a temper ; for it would double the evil, 
 instead of redressing the wrong. Nothing is so easy and in- 
 viting as the retort of abuse and sarcasm , but it is a paltry 
 and unprofitable contest. It is the alternative of a morbid 
 mind, fretved into petulance, rather than warmed into indigna- 
 tion. If P^ugluud is willing to permit the mean jealousies of 
 trade, or the rancorous animosities of poliiic-, to deprave the 
 integrity of her press, and poison the fountain of public opin- 
 ion, let us beware of her example. She may deem it her inter- 
 est to diffuse error, and engender antijiathj, for the purpose of 
 checking emigration ; we have no puri)ose of the kind to serve. 
 Neither have we any spirit of national jealousy to gratif}' ; for 
 as yet, in cU our rivalships with England, we are the rising and 
 the gainiL-T party. There can be no end to answer, therefore, 
 but the gratification of resentment — a mere spirit of retalia- 
 tion ; and even that is impotent. Our retorts are never repub- 
 lished in England ; they fall short, therefore, of their aim ; but 
 they foster a querulous and peevish temj)cr among our writers ; 
 they sour the sweet flow of our early literature, and sow thorns 
 and brambles among its blossoms. What is still worse, they 
 circulate through our own country, a" :^, as far as they Lave 
 efifect, excite virulent national prejudices. This last is the evil 
 most especially to be deprecated. Governed, as we are, entirely 
 by public opinion, the utmost care should be taken to preserve 
 the purity of the public mind. Knowledge is power, and truth 
 is knowledge ; whoever, therefore, knowingly proi)agates a 
 prejudice, wilfully saps the foundation of his country's strength. 
 
 The members of a republic, above all other men, should be 
 candid and dispassionate. They are, individually, i)ortions of 
 the sovereign mind and sovereign will, and should be enabled 
 to come to all questions of national concern with calm and un- 
 biassed judgments. From the peculiar nature of our relatiouj 
 with England, we must have more frequent (juestions of a difficult 
 and delicate character with her, than with any other nation; ques- 
 tions that affect the most acute and excitable feelings : and as, 
 in the adjusting of these, our national measures must ultimatoly 
 be determined by popuhir seiitiment. we cannot be too anxiously 
 attentive to purify it from all latent passion or pre[)os.sessiou. 
 
 Opening too, as we do, an asylum for strangi-rs from every 
 portion of the earth, we should receive all with impartiality. 
 It sliould be our pride to exhibit an example of one nation, at 
 least, destitute of uational autipathies, and exerciaing, not 
 
48 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 i 
 
 !i il 
 
 merely the overt acts of hospitality, bi.t those more rare and 
 noble courtesies which spring from liberality of opinion. 
 
 What have we to Oo with national prejudices? They are the 
 inveterate 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 natioaal existence in an 
 enlightened and philosophic pge, when the different parts of the 
 habitable world, and the various branches of the human family. 
 have been indef atigably studied and made known to each other ; 
 and we forego the advantages of oor birth, if we do not shake 
 off the national prejudices, as we would the local superstitions, 
 of the old world. 
 
 But above all, let us not be influenced by any angry feelings, 
 so far as to shut our eyes to the perception of what is really 
 excellent and amiable in thr; English character. We are a 
 young people, necessarily an imitative one, and must take our 
 examples and models. In a great degree, from tl'.c existing na- 
 tions 6f Europe. There is no country more worthy of our 
 study than England. The spirit of her constitution is must 
 analogous to ours. The manners of her people — their intellec- 
 tual activity — their freedom of opinion — their habits of tliiiik- 
 mg on those subjects which concorn the dearest interests and 
 most sacred charities of private life, are all congenial to the 
 American character; and, in fact, are all inliinsicall}^ exi'ol- 
 lent : for it is in the moral feeling of the people that the doop 
 foundations of British prosperity rre laid ; and howcvor tlio 
 superstructure may be time-worn, or overrun by abuses, there 
 must be something solid in the basis, admirable in the materials, 
 und stable in the structure of an edifice that so long has tow- 
 ered unshaken f midst the tempests of the world. 
 
 Let it be the pride of our writers, therefore, discarding i<,ll 
 feelings of irritation and disdaining to retaliate the illihcral- 
 ity of British authors, to speak of the f^nglish nation without 
 prejudice, and with determined candor. While they rebuke the 
 indiscriminating bigotry wit'.i which Sv^me of our countrynion 
 admire and imitate every thing English, merely because it is 
 English, let them frankly point out wliat is really worthy of 
 approbation. We may thus place England before us as a per- 
 petual volume of reference, wliereiii are recorded sound deduc- 
 tions from ages of experience; and wh'n we avoid the errors 
 and absurdities which may have crei)t into the page, we may 
 draw thence golden maxims of practical wisdom, wherewitli to 
 strengthen and to embelliah our national character. 
 
 i 
 
 
 » 
 
 The strange 
 lish character, 
 olis. He musi 
 villages and ha 
 cottages ; he n 
 bedgi'S and gre 
 attend wakes 
 with the peopl 
 humors. 
 
 In some coi 
 fashion of the 
 and iutelligent 
 entirely by boc 
 th-i meti opolis 
 of the pol'te ( 
 year to a iiUrr 
 this kind of c 
 genial habits > 
 therefore ditYu 
 the mo.st retire 
 rarks. 
 
 The Eiiglisl 
 ing. Th.'v po 
 tare, anc^ a k( 
 the country, 
 inhabitants of 
 and l)ustling 5 
 2vinee .i tact 1 
 retreat iU tlie 
 plays as niueli 
 garden, and tl 
 of his businei 
 Even those le 
 their lives in t 
 thing thut sha 
 tlie most chir 
 room window 
 
RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 49 
 
 RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 Oh! fricDdly to the best pursuUs of man, 
 Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace, 
 Domestic life iu rural pleasuruH past! — Cowper. 
 
 The stranger who would form a correct opinion of the Eng- 
 lish cbtiiacter, must not confine his observations to the metrop- 
 olis. He must go forth into the country ; he must sojourn ia 
 villtiges and hamlets ; lio must visit castles, villas, fa^m-houses, 
 cotlagt's ; he must wuiider thri)ugh parks and gardens ; along 
 hedgi's and green lanes ; he must loiter about country churches ; 
 attoiul Wilkes and fairs, and other rural festivals ; and cope 
 with the people iu all their conditions, and all their habits and 
 humors. 
 
 In some countries the large cities absorb the wealth and 
 fashion of the nation ; they are the only fixed abodes of elegant 
 and intelligent society, and the country is inhabited almost 
 entirely by boorish peasantry. In England, on the contrary, 
 th'j luetiopolis is a mere gathering place, or genera' rendezvoua, 
 of the pobte classes, where they devote a small portion of the 
 year to a i.uri'y of gayety and dissipation, and having indulged 
 this kind of carnival, I'eturn again to the apparently more con- 
 genial hn'oits of rural life. The various orders of society are 
 theiet'oifi ditYused ovi" the whole surface of the kingdom, and 
 the most retired neig'.borhoods afford specimens of the different 
 rarks. 
 
 The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with the rural feel- 
 hig. Tli jy possess a quick seiisibility to the beauties of na- 
 ture, ant^ a keen relish for the pleasures r.nd employments of 
 the counti'y. This passion seems inherent in them. Even the 
 inhal)ilants of cities, born and brought up among brick walls 
 and hustling streets, enter with facility into rural habits, and 
 3viiK'e .1 tact for rural occupation. The merchant has his snug 
 retreat lU the vicinity of the metropolis, where he often dis- 
 plays as much {)ride and zeal in the cultivation of his flower- 
 garden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he does in the conduct 
 ()f his business, and the success of a commercial entei'prise. 
 Even those less fortunate individuals, who are doomed to pass 
 their lives in the midst of din and tiaffic, contrive to have some- 
 thing thut shall remind them of the green aspect of nature. In 
 tlie most dark and dingy quarters of the city, the drawing- 
 room window icseiubles frequently a bank of flowers; every 
 
so 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 If 
 
 Bpot capable of vegetation lias its grass-plot and flower-bed; 
 and every square its mimic park, laid out with picturesque taste, 
 and gleaming with refreshing verdure. 
 
 Those who see the Englishman only in town, are apt to form 
 an unfavorable opinion of his social character. He is either 
 absorbed in business, or distracted by the thousand engage- 
 ments that dissipate time, thought, and feeling, in this huge 
 metropolis. Ho Las, therefore, too commonly, a look of hurry 
 and abstraction. Wlicrever he happens to be, he is on the 
 point of going somewhere else ; at the moment he ir talking on 
 one subject, his mind is wandering to another; and while pay. 
 ing a friendly visit, he is calculating how he shall economize 
 time so as to pay tlie other visits allotted in the morning. An 
 immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men 
 selfish and uninteresting. In their casual and transient meet- 
 ings, they can but deal briclly in commonplaces. They present 
 but the cold superficies of character — its rich and genial qual- 
 ities have no time to be warmed into a flow. 
 
 It is in the country that the Englishman gives scope to his 
 natural feelings. He hreaiis loose gladly from the cold formal- 
 ities and negative civilities of town, throws off his habits of shy 
 reserve, and becomes joyous and free-hearted. He manages to 
 collect round him all tlie conveniences and elegancies of polite 
 life, and to banish its restraints. His country-seat abounds 
 with every requisite, either for studious retirement, tasteful 
 gratifit-ation, or rural exercise. Books, paintings, music, horses, 
 dogs, and sporting implements of all kinds, are at hand. He 
 puts no constraint, either upon his guests or himself, but, in the 
 true spirit of hospitality, provides the means of enjoyment, and 
 leaves every oue to partake according to his inclination. 
 
 The taste of the English in the cultivation of land, and in 
 what is called landscape gardening, is unrivalled. They havo 
 studied Nature intently, and discover an exquisite sense of 
 her beautiful forms and harmonious combinations. Thos 
 charms which, in other countries, she lavishes in wild soli- 
 tudes, are here assembled round t'^e haunts of domestic life. 
 They seem lo have caught her coy and furtive graces, an<i 
 spread them, like witchery, about their rural abodes. 
 
 Notliing can be more imposing than the magnificence of Eng- 
 lish park scenery. Vast lawns that extend like sheets of vivid 
 green, with here and there chimps of gigantic trees, heaping up 
 rich piles of foliage. The solemn pomp of groves and wood- 
 land glades, with the deer trooping in silent herds across them; 
 the hare, bounding away to the covert ; or the pheasant, sud 
 
 denly bursting 
 natural meandc 
 tered pool, rett( 
 sleeping on its 
 its limpid wate 
 grown green ai 
 to the scclusioi 
 These are b 
 what most del 
 Englisli decor; 
 The rudest ha 
 tion of land, ii 
 a little paradifc 
 at once upon i1 
 landscape, '1 
 hand ; and yet 
 are scarcely to 
 some trees ; tlv 
 of flowers and 
 (liiction of a gi 
 peep of blue ti 
 managed with 
 like the mngii 
 favorite pictur 
 
 The resiilei 
 country, has ^ 
 economy, tli;<t 
 with his thate 
 their embellisl 
 door, the littU 
 trained up ag; 
 lattice ; the pc 
 planted about 
 to throw in a 
 — all these In 
 high sources, 
 mind. If ev( 
 it must be tilt 
 
 The fondue 
 Englisli, has 
 character, I 
 gentlemen, 
 eliuractcirizt! 
 a union of 
 
 . it i 
 
BUBAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 61 
 
 denly bursting upon the wing. The brook, taught to wind in 
 natural raeanderings, or expand into a glassy lake — the seques- 
 tered pool, reflecting the quivering trees, with the yellow leaf 
 sleeping on its bosom, and the trout roaming fearlessly about 
 its limpid waters : while some rustic temple, or sylvan statue, 
 grown green and dank with age, gives an air of classic sanctity 
 to the seclusion. 
 
 These are but a few of the features of park scenery ; but 
 what most delights me, is the creative talent with which the 
 Knglish decorate the unostentatious abodes of middle life. 
 The rudest habitation, the most unpromising and scanty por- 
 tion of land, in the hands of an Englishman of taste, becomes 
 a little paradise. With a nicely discriminating eye, he seizes 
 at once upon its capabilities, and pictures in his mind the future 
 landscape. The sterile spot gn ws into loveliness under his 
 hand ; and yet the operations of art which produce the effect 
 are scarcely to be perceived. The cherishing and training of 
 some trees ; the cautious pruning of others ; the nice distribution 
 of flowers and plants of tender and gracefid foliage ; the intro- 
 duction of 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 tact, a i)ervading yet quiet assiduity, 
 like the inngic touchings with which a painter finishes up a 
 favorite picture. 
 
 The residence of people of fortune and refinement in the 
 country, has ditfused a degree of taste and elegance in rural 
 economy, thi't descends to the lowest class. The very laborer, 
 with his thatched cottage and narrow slip of ground, attends to 
 their embellishment. The trim hedge, the grass-plot before the 
 door, the little flower- bed bordered '..ith snug box, the woodbine 
 trained up against the wall, and hanging its blossoms about the 
 lattice ; the i)ot of floweis in the window ; the holly, providently 
 planted about the house, to cheat winter of its dreariness, and 
 to throw in a semblance of green summer to cheer the fireside: 
 ^all these bespeak the influence of taste, flowing down from 
 lji<2;h sources, and pervading the lowest levels of the public 
 mind. If ever Love, as poets sing, delights to visit a cottage, 
 it must be the cott.-tge of an English i)e!isHnt. 
 
 The fondness for rni'id life among the higher classes of the 
 Euglisli, has had a great and salutary effect upon the national 
 character. I do not know a finer race of men than the English 
 goiitU'inen. Instead ot the softness and effeminacy which 
 diaracterize the men of rank in most countries, they exhibit 
 a union of elegance and strenHth, a robustness of frame acd 
 
 . , ) .11 
 
»f 
 
 ■ (■ 
 
 : J: 
 
 lU 
 
 f .' 
 
 (' r 
 
 111 
 
 1 1 
 
 ii . 
 
 i 
 
 ( j 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 , I' 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
 52 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 freshness of complexion, which I am inclined to attribute to 
 their living so much in the open air, and pursuing so eagerly 
 the invigorating recreations of the country. These hardy exci, 
 cises produce also a healthful tone of mmd and spirits, and a 
 manliness and simplicity of manners, which even the follies and 
 dissipations of the town cannot easily pervert, and can never 
 entirely destroy. In the country, too, the different orders of 
 society seem to approach more freely, to be more disposed to 
 blend and operate favorably upon each other. The distinctions 
 between them do not appear to be so marked and impassable, 
 as in the cities. The manner in which property has been dia- 
 tributcd into small estates and farms, has established a regular 
 gradation from the nobleman, through the classes of gentry, 
 small landed proprietors, and substantial farmers, down to the 
 laboring peasantry ; and while it has thus banded the extremes 
 of society together, has infused into each ibcermediate 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 annihilated the sturdy 
 race of small farmers. These, however, I believe, are but cas- 
 ual breaks in the general system I have mentioned. 
 
 In rural occupation, there is nothing mean and debasing. It 
 leads a man forth among scenes of natural grandeur and beau- 
 ty ; it leaves him to the workings of his own mind, operated 
 upon by the purest and most elevating of external influences. 
 Such a man may be simple and rough, but he cannot be vulgar. 
 The I ^n of refinement, therefore, finds nothing revolting io 
 an intercourse mih the lower orders in rural life, as he does 
 when he casually mingles with the lower orders of cities. He 
 lays aside his distance an(^ reserve, and is glad to waive the 
 distinctions of rank, and to enter into the honest, heart-felt 
 enjoyments of common life. Indeed, the very amusements of 
 the country bring men more and more together ; and the sound 
 of hound and horn blend 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 pressures and extremities, without repining 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 litera' 
 ture ; the frequent use of illustrations from mral life ; those 
 incomparable descriptions of Nature, that abound in the British 
 
RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 53 
 
 poets — that have continued down from '-the Florer and the 
 Loaf" of Chaucer, and have brought into our closets all the 
 freshness and fragrance of the dewy landscape. The pastoral 
 writers of other countries appear as if they had paid Nature 
 an occasional visit, and become acquainted with her general 
 charms ; but tlie British poets have lived and revelled with her 
 — they have wooed her in her most secret haunts — they have 
 watched her minutest caprices. A spray could not tremble in 
 the breeze — a leaf could not rustle to the ground — a diamond 
 drop could not patter in the stream — a fragrance could not ex- 
 hale from the humble violet, nor a daisy unfold its crimson tints 
 to the morning, but it has been noticed by these impassioned 
 and delicate observers, and wrought up into some beautiffil 
 morality. 
 
 The effect of this devotion of elegant minds to rural occupa- 
 tions, has been wonderful on the face of the country. A great 
 part of the island is rather level, and would be monotonous, 
 were it not for the charms of culture ; but it is studded and 
 gemmed, as it were, with castles and palaces, and embroidered 
 with parks 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-grown cottage is a picture ; and as the roads are continu- 
 ally winding, and the view is shut in by groves and hedges, the 
 eye is delighted by a continual succession of small landscapes 
 of captivating loveliness. 
 
 The great charm, however, of English scenery, is the moral 
 feeling that seems to pervade it. It is associated in the mind 
 with ideas of order, of quiet, of sober well-established princi- 
 ples, of hoary 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 
 portal ; its Gothic tower ; its windows, rich with tracery and 
 painted glass, in scrupulous preservation — its stately monu- 
 ments of warriors and worthies of the olden time, ancestors of 
 the present lords of the soil — its tombstones, recording suc- 
 cessive generations of sturdy yeomainy, whose progeny still 
 plough the same fields, and kneel at the same altar — the par- 
 Honage, a quaint irregular pile, partly antiquated, but repaired 
 an<' altered in the tastes of various ages and occupants — the 
 Ktile and footpath leading from the church-yard, across pleasant 
 fields, and along shady hedge-rows, according to an immemora- 
 ble right of way — the neighboring village, with its venerable 
 cottages, its public green, sheltered by trees, under which th9 
 
1 -I 
 
 54 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 forefathers of the present race have sported — the autiqiie 
 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 evince a culm 
 and settled security, an hereditary transmission of home-hrt'd 
 virtues and local attachments, tliat speak deeply and touchingly 
 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 
 peasantry in their best finery, with ruddj' faces, and modest 
 cheerfulness, thronging tranquilly along the green lanes to 
 church ; but it is still more pleasing to see them in the even' 
 ings, gathering about their cottage doors, and appearing to 
 exult in the humble comforts and embellishments 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 
 steadiest virtues and purest enjoyments ; and I cannot close 
 these desultory remarks better than by quoting the words of a 
 modern English poet, who has depicted it with remarkable 
 felicity. 
 
 Through each gradation, from the castled hall, 
 The city dome, the villa crown'd with Hhade, 
 But chief from modcat maiiKlons nimibcrlesB, 
 In town or hamlet, sholt'ririg middle life, 
 Down to the cottaged rale, and Htraw-roof'd nhed; 
 This western Isle hath lone licuii famed for scenes 
 Where bliss domestic finds a dwelling-place; 
 Domestic bliss, that, like a harmless duve, 
 (Honor and sweet endearment keeping guard) 
 Can centre in a little quiet nest 
 All that desire would fly for through the earth; 
 That can, the world eluding, he itself 
 A world enjoy'd ; that wants no witnesses 
 But Its own sharers, and approving Heaven; 
 That, like a flower deep hid in rocky cleft. 
 Smiles, though 'tis looking only at the sky.* 
 
 ' From • poem on the death of the Princess Charlotte, by the Reverend Bano 
 Kannwly, A.M. 
 
 H' 
 
THE liliOKh'X IIKAHT. 
 
 AA 
 
 THE BROKEN HEART. 
 
 I never heard 
 Of any true affeotlon, but 'twiiH nipt 
 Wllh care, tliiit, like the ciiter|illlur, eatn 
 The leaves of llie upriiig's Hwuetent txiok, the rose. — ^f idd'.f.Ti-n. 
 
 It is a common practice with tliosc wlio liavc ouUiNcd Ha-, 
 yusccptibility of early feeliiifj, or have been bronchi up iii the 
 gay lieartlessness of dissipated life, to laugh at all love stories, 
 and to treat the tales of roiDantic passion as mere lietions ot 
 novelists and poets. My observations on human nature have 
 induced me to think otherwise. They have convinced me, tiint 
 however the surface of the character may be chilled and frozen 
 by the cares of the world, or cultivated into mere smiles by the 
 arts of society, still there are dormant (ires Iurkii:<j in the dei)ths 
 of the coldest bosom, which, when once enkindled, l»ecome im- 
 petuous, and are sometimes desolating in their effects. Indeed, 
 I am a true believer in ihe blind deity, and go to the full extent 
 of his doctrines. Shall I confess it? — I believe in broken 
 hearts, and the possibility of dying of disappointed love ! 1 do 
 not, however, consider it a malady often fatal to my own sex ; 
 but I firmly believe that it withers down many a lovely woman 
 into an early grave. 
 
 Man is tlie creature of interest and ambition. His nature 
 leads him forth into the struggle and bustle of the world. Love 
 is but the embellishment of his early life, or a song piped in 
 the intervals of the acts. He seeks for fame, for fortune, for 
 space in the world's thought, and dominion over his fellow-men. 
 Hut a woman's whole life is a history of the afTectious. The 
 heart is her world ; it is there her ambition strives for empire 
 — it is there her avarice seeks for hidden treasures. She sends 
 forth her sympathies on adventure ; she embarks her whole 
 soul in the tratlic of alTection ; and if shipwrecked, her case is 
 hopeless — for it is a bankruptcy of the henrt. 
 
 To a man, the disappointment of love may occasion some 
 bitter pangs: it wounds some feelings of tenderness — it blasts 
 some prospects of felicity ; but he is an active being ; he may 
 dissipate his thoughts in the whirl of varied occupation, or may 
 plunge into the tide of pleasure ; or, if the scene of disappoint- 
 ment be too full of painful associations, he can shift his abode 
 at will, and taking, as it were, the wiiig-> of the morning, cao 
 " fly to the uttermost parts of the earth, and be at rest." 
 
 > y 
 
 
 1*1 J 
 
69 
 
 rnic sKKTcn-iiooK. 
 
 \\ 
 
 ;.:■! 
 
 
 w 
 
 But woman's is comparatively a fixed, a secluded, and modi- 
 tative life. She is more the companion of her own thoughts 
 and feelings ; and if they are turned to ministers of sorrow, 
 where shall .she look for consolation ? Ilcr lot in to be woood 
 •md won; and ': unhapi)y in her love, her heart is like sonio 
 fortress that has been captured, and sacked, and abandoned, 
 and left desolate. 
 
 How many bright eyes grow dim — how many soft cheeks 
 grow pale — how many lovely forms fade away into the tomli, 
 and none can tell the cause that blighted their loveliness ! As 
 the dove will clasp its wings to its side, and cover and conceal 
 the arrow that is preying on its vitals — so is it the nature of 
 woman, to^hide from the world the pangs of wounded affection. 
 The love of a delicate female is always shy and silent. Even 
 when fortunate, she scarcely breathes it to herself ; but when 
 otherwise, she buries it in the recesses of her bosom, and there 
 lets it cower and brood among the ruins of her peace. Wild 
 her, the desire of the heart has failed — the great charm ol 
 existence is at au cud. She neglects all the cheerful exercises 
 which gladden the spirits, quicken the pulses, and send the tide 
 of life in healthful currents through the veins. Her rest is 
 i)roken — the sweet refreshment of sleep is poisoned by nielun- 
 choly dreams — " dry sorrow drinks her blo<xl," until her en- 
 feebled frame sinks under the slightest external injury. Look 
 for her, after a little while, and you find friendship weeplnn 
 ever her untimely grave, and wondering that one, who but 
 lately glowed with all the radiance of health and beauty, should 
 so speedily be brought down to "darkness and the worm." 
 You will be told of some wintry chill, some casual indisposi- 
 tion, that laid her low — but no one knows of the mental malaily 
 which previously sapped her strength, and made her so easy a 
 prey to the spoiler. 
 
 She is like some tender tree, the pride and beauty of the 
 grove : graceful in its form, brigiit in its foliage, but with tin 
 worm preying at its heart. We find it suddenly witherin<;, 
 when it should be most fresh and luxuriant. We see it droop- 
 ing its branches to the earth, and shedding leaf by leaf ; uutil, 
 wasted and perished away, it falls even in the stillness of the 
 forest; and as we muse over the beautiful ruin, we strive in 
 vain to recollect the blast or thunderbolt that could have smit- 
 ten it with decay. 
 
 I have seen many instances of women running to waste and 
 self-neglect, and disappearing gradually from the earth, jdinost 
 as if they had been exhaled to heaven ; and have repeatedly 
 
THE BROKEN HEART. 
 
 67 
 
 fancied that I could trace their deaths tlirough the various de* 
 clensions of consumption cold, debility, languor, melancholy, 
 until 1 reached the first symptom of disappointed love. But 
 ail instance of the kind was lately told to me ; the circum- 
 stunces are well known in the country where they happened, 
 and I shall but give them in the manner in which they were 
 re luted. 
 
 Every one must recollect the tragical story of young E ^ 
 
 the Irish patriot : it was too touching to be soon forgotten. 
 During the troubles in Ireland he was tried, condemned, and 
 executed, on a charge of treason. His fate made a deep im- 
 pression on public sympathy. He was so young — so intelli- 
 gent — so generous — so brave — so every thing that we are apt 
 to like in a young man. His conduct under trial, too, was so 
 lofty and intrepicl. The noble indignation with which he re- 
 pelled the charge of treason against liis country — the eloquent 
 vindication of his name — and his pathetic appeal to posterity, 
 in the hopeless hour of condemnation — all these entered deeply 
 into every generous bosom, and even his enemies lamented the 
 stern policy that dictated his execution. 
 
 But there was one heart, whose anguish it would be impossi- 
 ble to describe. In happier days and fairer fortunes he had 
 won the affections of a beautiful and interesting gu-l, the daugh- 
 ter of a late celebrated Irish barrister. She loved him with the 
 disinterested fervor of a woman's first and early love. When 
 every worldly maxim arrayed itself against him ; when blasted 
 in fortune, and disgrace and danger darkened around his name, 
 she loved him the more ardently 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 
 uccupied by his image ? Let those tell who have had the portals 
 of the tomb suddenly closed between them and the being they 
 liiost loved on earth — who have sat at its threshold, as one 
 shut out in a cold and lonely world, whence all "ihat was most 
 lively and loving had departed. 
 
 But then the horrors of such a grave ! — so frightful, so dis- 
 honored ! There was nothing for memory to dwell on that 
 could soothe the pang of separation — none of those tender* 
 though melancholy circumstances, which endear the parting scent 
 — nothing to melt son-ow into those blessed tears, sent, like 
 the dews of heaven, to revive the heait in the parting hour of 
 anguish. 
 
 To render her widowed situation more desolate, she had 
 incurred her fiitlier'tj disi)leasure by her unfortunate attach- 
 
 \*'' 
 
 I/' 
 
 ,Hf 
 
 11? i 
 
 t1 
 
fi8 
 
 TUK SKETCU-liOOK. 
 
 ment, and was an pxllc from the paternal roof. Hut could tht 
 synipatliy ajid kiii'l ollicos of friends have reached a spirit so 
 shocked and (hiver. in by horror, she wouhl have experienced 
 no want of consohiiion, for the Irish are a people of quick and 
 irenerons 8ensil)ilities. Tiie most delicate and cherishiufj atten- 
 tions wc'^ i)aid lier, liy families of wealth and distinction. 
 She was led into soeifly. and they triid hy all kinds of occiipn 
 tion and amusement to dissipate her grief, and wean her fmn 
 the tragical story of her loves. But it was all in vuiu. Then 
 are some strokes of calamity which scathe and scorch the sonl — 
 which penetrate to the vitnl seal of iiap|)niess — and lilast !;, 
 never again to pill I'ortii luid oi- Mossom. She neviT oltjtchd 
 to frequent the haunts of pleasure, hut was si • much alone tluic, 
 as in the depths of solitiidi"; walking aboui in a s;ul ri'Verif, 
 apparently unconscious of the world around her. She carried 
 with her an inward woe that mocked at all the blandishments 
 of friendship, and "heeded not the song of the charmer, charm 
 he never so wiaely." 
 
 The person who told me her story had seen her at a mas- 
 querade. 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 si)ectre, lonely and joyless, where all 
 around is gaj' — to see it dressed out in the trappings of mirth, 
 and looking so wan and wo-begone, as if it had tried in vain to 
 cheat the poor heart into a momentary forgetfulness of sorrow. 
 .Alter strolling through the splendid rooms and giddy crowd 
 with an air of utter abstraction, she sat herself down on the 
 steps of an orchestra, and looking about for some time with a 
 vacant air, that showed her insensibility to the garish scene, 
 she began, with the cajjriciousness of a sickly heart, to warble 
 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 oflicer, who paid his 
 addresses to her, and thought that one so true to the deail, 
 could not but prove affectionate to the living. She declined his 
 attentions, for her thoughts were irrevocably engrossed by the 
 memory of her former lover. He, however, persisted in his 
 suit lie solicited not her tnidcrness, but her esteem. He 
 was assislea ny her conviction of his worth, and her sense of 
 her own destitute and dependent situation, foi- she was existing 
 
 on the kindnc 
 in gaining Ik 
 lior heart was 
 
 He took h 
 scene might 
 was an amiai.) 
 happy one ; 
 melancholy tl 
 away in a sh 
 the grave, tin 
 
 It was on I 
 posed the foil 
 
 Sh 
 Al 
 
 n( 
 
 N. 
 
 O 
 T 
 
 " If thai BPVPi 
 itien'H laboi-H thii 
 Anatomy of Mela 
 
 I HAVK of 
 
 and how it c 
 seemed to h; 
 voluminous 
 the journey 
 he is contiu 
 
TUE ART OF liOOK-MAKlNO. 
 
 69 
 
 on the kindness of friends. In u word, lie at length succeeded 
 in guining her hand, thongli with the suleuin usHurance, tlmt 
 her heart was unalterably another's. 
 
 He took her with him to Sicily, hoping that a change of 
 scene might wear out thi' remembrance of early woes. She 
 was an amiaole and exemplary 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 Moore, the distinguished Irish poet, com- 
 posed the following lines : 
 
 Blie irt far from (ho IntuI where hnr ^'oung hero aleepa, 
 
 And loviiM iirouml her art' niyhjitf; 
 Dtit roMly Hhi> tiiriiH fruiii tlicir ^aze, mid weeps, 
 For hor hi'urt in hin ijrave i« lying. 
 
 She glnifH the wild nnnf^it of her iloar native plalna. 
 
 Every note which he loved awaking — 
 Ah! little they thiiik, who delight in lier Htraina, 
 
 IIow the heart of the ni.iiHtrel Ih breaking! 
 
 He had lived for hio love — for hlH country he diedi 
 
 They were all that to life had entwined hlin — 
 Nor soon nliall the learH of hln country be dried. 
 
 Nor long will hlx love utiiy behiud hiiu I 
 
 Oht make her a grave where the sunbcainB rest, 
 
 When they proniiHe a glorious morrow ; 
 They'll Hbiuu o'er her sleep, like a tiinilc from the west, 
 
 From her own loved island of sorrow I 
 
 THE ART OF BOOK-MAKING. 
 
 "Tf that severe doom of Synenius be true — 'it is a greater offence to steaJ dead 
 men's labors than their clothes,' — what shall become of most writers? " — BuBTOM'S 
 Anatomy of Meluncholy. 
 
 I HAVK often wondered at the extreme fecundit}' of the press, 
 and how it comes to pass that so many heads, on which Nature 
 seemed to have iiillicti!d the curse of barrenness, should teem with 
 voluininous piodiictions. As a man tiavels on, however, in 
 the journey of life, his objects of wonder daily diminish, and 
 he is continually finding out some very simple cause for some 
 
60 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 great matter of marvel. Thus have I chanced, m my peregri- 
 nations about this great metropolis, to blunder upon a scene 
 which unfolded to me some of the mysteries of the book-making 
 craft, and at once put an end to my astonishment. 
 
 I was one summer's day loitering through the great saloons 
 of the British Museum, with that listlessness with which one ia 
 apt to saunter about a museum in warm weather; sometimes loll- 
 ing over the glass cases of minerals, sometimes studying the 
 hieroglyphics on an Egyptian mummy, and sometimes trying, 
 with nearly equal success, to comprehend the allegorical paint- 
 ings on the lofty ceilings. Whilst I was gazing about in this 
 idle way, my attention was attracted to a distant door, at the 
 end of a suite of apartments. It was closed, but every now 
 and then it would open, and some strange-favored being, gen- 
 erally clothed in black, would steal forth, and glide through 
 the rooms, without noticing any of the surrounding objects. 
 There was an air of mystery about this that piqued my languid 
 curiosity, and I determined to attempt the passage of that 
 strait, and to explore the unknown regions beyond. The door 
 yielded to my hand, with that facility with which the por- 
 tals of enchanted castles yield to the adventurous knigbt- 
 errant. I found myself in a spacious chamber, surrounded with 
 great cases of venerable books. Above the cases, and just 
 under the cornice, were arranged a great number of black- 
 looking portraits of ancient authors. About the room were 
 placed long tables, with stands for reading and writing, at 
 which sat many pale, studious personages, poring intently 
 over dusty volumes, rummaging among mouldy manuscripts, 
 and taking copious noics of their content^a. A hushed still- 
 ness reigned through this mysterious apartment, excepthig 
 that you might hear the racing of pens over sheets of paper, or, 
 occasionally, the deep sigh of one of these sages, as he shifted 
 Ills position to turn over the page of an old folio; doubtless 
 arising from that hollowness and flatulency incident to learned 
 research. 
 
 Now and then one of these personages would write something 
 on a small slip of paper, and ring a bell, whereupon a familiar 
 would appear, take the paper in profound silence, glide out of 
 the room, and return shortly loaded with ponderous tomes, 
 upon which the other would fall, tooth and nail, with famished 
 voracity. I had no longer a doubt that I had happened upon a 
 body of magi, deeply engaged in the study of occult sciences. 
 The scene reminded me of an old Arabian tale, of a philoso- 
 pher, shut up in au enchanted library, in the bosom of a 
 
 mountain, whi 
 spirits of the 
 knowledge, s 
 magic portal ' 
 forth so vere 
 above the'hea 
 Nature. 
 
 Uy curiosit 
 
 the familiars, 
 
 an interpretat 
 
 were sutticient 
 
 personages, v 
 
 authors, and i 
 
 in fact, in t 
 
 an immense ( 
 
 many of whic 
 
 read; one ol 
 
 to whieli nic 
 
 classic lore, < 
 
 their own bcj 
 
 Being now 
 
 and watched 
 
 one lean, bill 
 
 worm-eaten > 
 
 constructing 
 
 purchased b^ 
 
 placed upon 
 
 upon his tti 
 
 then, draw a 
 
 gnaw ; whet 
 
 ing to keep 
 
 nnicli pond( 
 
 than myself 
 
 Thbre wa 
 
 clothes, witl 
 
 who had all 
 
 his bookselh 
 
 in him a dili 
 
 tied off well 
 
 ufactured hi 
 
 than any of 
 
 over the Uni 
 
 morsel out » 
 
 iiere a lilLlt 
 
THE AHT OF BOOK-MAnlNG. 
 
 61 
 
 egri. 
 cene 
 king 
 
 )0U8 
 
 e in 
 
 loll- 
 
 the 
 
 aiut- 
 
 mountain, which opened only once a year ; where he made the 
 spirits of the place bring him books of all kinds of dark 
 knowledge, so that at the end of the year, when the 
 magic portal once more swung open on its hinges, he issued 
 forth so versed in forbidden lore, as to be able to soar 
 above the heads of tht multitude, and to control the powers of 
 Nature. 
 
 My curiosity being now fully aroused, I whispered to one of 
 the familiars, as he was about to leave the room, and begged 
 an interpretation of the strange scene before me. A few words 
 were sutticient for the purpose : — I found that these mysterious 
 personages, whom I had mistaken for magi, were principally 
 authors, and in the very act of manufacturing books. I was, 
 in fact, in the reading-room of the great British Library, 
 an immense collection of volumes of all ages and languages, 
 many of which are now forgotten, and most of which are seldom 
 read ; one of these sequestered pools of obsolete literature, 
 to which modern authors repair, and draw buckets full of 
 classic lore, or "pure English, uiuletiled," vt'herewith to swell 
 their own scanty rills of thought. 
 
 Being now in possession of the secret, I sat down in a corner, 
 and watched the process of this book manufactory. I noticed 
 one lean, bilious-looking wight, wiio sought none but the most 
 worm-eaten volumes, printed in black-letter. He was evidently 
 constructing some work of profound erudition, that would be 
 purchased by every man who wished to be thought learned, 
 placed upon a conspicuous slielf of his library, or laid open 
 upon Ills taldo — but never read. I observed him, now and 
 tlieii, draw a large fragment of bisciit out of his pocket, and 
 gnaw ; whether it was his dinner, or whether he was endeavor- 
 ing to keep off tluit exhaustion of the stomacii, produced by 
 much pondering over dry works, I leave to harder students 
 than myself to determine. 
 
 Thbre was one dapper little gentleman in bright colored 
 clothes, vrith a chirping gossiping expression of countenance 
 who had all the appearance of an author on good terms with 
 his bookseller. After considering him attentively, I recognized 
 in him a diligent gettci-up of miscelhineous works, which bus- 
 tled off well with the trade. 1 was curious to see how he man- 
 ufactured his wares. He made more stir and show of business 
 than any of the others ; dipping into various books, flutteriog 
 over the leaves of nuuuiscripts, taking a morsel out of one, a 
 morsel out of another, " line upon line, precept upon precept, 
 iiere a litUu and there a litlie." The cuuleuts of his book 
 
 M 
 
 i >l 
 
 ! ' 
 
62 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Mf 
 
 i: 
 
 aeemed to bo as heterogeneous as those of the witches' caldron 
 in Macbeth. It was here a finder and there a thumb, toe oi 
 frog and blind worm's sting, with his own gossip poured in like 
 " baboon's blood," to make the medley " slab and good." 
 
 After all, thought I, may not this pilfering disposition be im ■ 
 planted in authors for wise pur[)0ses ? may it not be the way in 
 which Providence has taken care that the seeds of knowledge 
 and wisdom shall be preserved fiom age to age, in spiic of the 
 inevitable decay of the works in which they were first produced? 
 We see that Natuio has wisely, though whimsically provided 
 for the conveyaiice of seedr from clime to clime, in the maws 
 of certain birds ; so that animals, which, in themselves, are 
 l;:tle blotter lluui carrion, and apparently the lawless plunderers 
 of the orchard and the eorn-licUl, are, in fact, Nature's cariiers 
 to disperse and perpetuate her blessings. In like manner, the 
 beauties and fine thoughts of ancient and obsolete authors -ire 
 caught up by theso flights of predatory writers, and cast form, 
 again to flourish p.nd bear fruit in a remote and distant tract of 
 time. Many of ilieir works, also, undergo a kind of metempsy- 
 chosis, and spring up under new forms. What was formerly a 
 pontlerous history, revives in the shai)e of a romance — an old 
 le;:fend chanircs into a modern {>lay — and a sober philosophical 
 treatise fiu'nishcs the body fv>r a whole series of bouncing and 
 sparkling essays. Thus it is in tlie clearing of our American 
 woodlands; where we burn down a forest of statel}' pines, a 
 progeny of dwarf oaks start ui) in their place ; and we nevei 
 see tlie prostrate trunk of a iree, mouldering into soil, but it 
 gives birth to a wh'^le tribe of fungi. 
 
 Let us not, tlien, lament over the decay and oblivion into 
 which ancient writ'^-s descend ; they do but submit to the great 
 law of Nature, which declares that all sublunary shapes of mat- 
 ter shall be limited in their duration, but which decrees, also, 
 that their elements shall never perish. Generation after gen- 
 eration, both in animal and vegetable life, passes away, but the 
 vital principle is transmitted to posterity, and the species con- 
 tinue to flourish. Thus, also, do authors beget authors, and 
 having produced a numerous progeny, in a good old age they 
 sleep with their fathers ; that is to say, with the authors who 
 preceded them — and from whom they had stolen. 
 
 Whilst I was indulging in these rambling fancies I had leaned 
 my head against a pile of reverend folios. Whether it was 
 owing to the soporific emanations from these works ; or to the 
 pi ofound quiet of the room; or to the lassitude arising from 
 much wandering; or to an unluekv habit of napping at im- 
 
THE ART OF BOOK-MAKING. 
 
 68 
 
 proper times ami placos, witli which I am grievously afflicted, so 
 it was, that 1 fell into a do/e. 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. 
 1 dreamt that the chamber was still decorated with the por- 
 traits of ancient authors, but that the number was increased. The 
 (ong tables had disappeared, and in jilace of the sage magi, I 
 beheld a ragged, threadbare throng, such as may be seen plying 
 about the great repository of cast-oif clothes, Moninouth-street. 
 Whenever they seized upon a book, by one of those incongru- 
 ities common to dreams, raethought it turned into a garment of 
 foreign or antique fashion, with which they proceeded to equip 
 themselves. 1 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 decking 
 himself out piecemeal, while some of his original rags would 
 peep out from among his borrowed tinery. 
 
 '''licie was a portly, rosy, well-fed parson, whom I observed 
 ogling several mouldy ])olemical writers through an eye-glass. 
 He soon contrived to slip on the voluminous mantle of one of 
 the old fathers, and having purloined the gray beard of another, 
 endeavored to look exceedingly wise ; but the smirking common- 
 place of his countenance set at naught all the trappings of wis- 
 dom. One sickly-looking gentleman was busied embroidering 
 a very flimsy garment with gold thread drawn out of several old 
 court-dresses of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Another had 
 trimmed himself magnificently from an illuminated manuscript, 
 had stuck a nosegay in his bosom, culled from '' The Paradise 
 of Daintie Devices," and having put Sir Philip Sidney's hat on 
 one side of his head, strutted olf with an exquisite air of vulgar 
 elegance. A third, who was but of puny dimensions, had bol- 
 stered himself out lu-avely with the spoils from several obscure 
 tracts of philosophy, so that he had a V(!ry imposing front, hut 
 lie was lamentably tattered in rear, and I perceived that he had 
 patched iiis small-clothes with scraps of parchment from a Latin 
 author. 
 
 There were some well-dressed gentlemen, it is true, who only 
 helped themselves to a gem or so, which sparkled among their 
 own ornaments, without eclipsing them. Some, too, seemed 
 to contemplate the costunuis of the old writers, merely to im- 
 I)ih(* tlieir principles of taste, and to catch their air and spirit; 
 hut 1 txrieve to say, that too many were apt to array themselves, 
 from top to toe, in the })atch-work manner I have mentioned. 
 I sliall not omit to speak of one genius, in drab breeches and 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 j 
 
 1 \\ 
 
 U' 
 
 I I 
 
 J 
 
 ■r 
 
 ^f!^ 
 
 14= 
 
!i:;y 
 
 t 
 
 ii'lIP 
 
 64 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 gaiters, and an Arcadian hat, who had a violent propensity to 
 the pastoral, but whose rural wanderings had been confined to 
 the classic haunts of Primrose Hill, and the solitudes of the 
 Regent's Park. He had decked himself in wreaths and ribbons 
 from all the old pastoral poets, and hanging his head on one 
 Bide, went about with a fantastical, Uick-a-daisical air, "• bab- 
 bling about green fields." But the personage that most struck 
 my attention, was a pragmatical old gentleman, in clerical 
 robes, with a remarkably large and square, but bald head. 
 He entered the room wheezing and puffing, elbowed his way 
 through the throng, with a look of sturdy self-confidence, and 
 having laid hands upon a thick Greek quarto, clapped it 
 upon his head, and swept majestically away in a formidable 
 frizzled wig. 
 
 In the height of this literary masquerade, a cry suddenly 
 resounded from every side, of " thieves ! thieves ! " I looked, 
 and lo ! the portraits about the walls became animated ! The 
 old autliors thrust out first a houd, then a shoulder, from the 
 canvas, looked down curiously, for an instant, upon the motley 
 throng, and then descended, with fury in their eyes, to claim 
 their rifled property. The scene of scampering and hubbub 
 that ensued baffles all description. The unhappy culprits 
 endeavored in vain to escape with their plunder. On one 
 side might be seen half-a-dozen old monks, stripping a modern 
 professor ; on another, there was sad devastation carried into the 
 ranks of modern dramatic writers. Beaumont and Fletcher, 
 side by side, raged round the field lik; Castor and Pollux, and 
 sturdy Ben Jonson enacted more wonders than when a volun- 
 teer with the army in Flanders. As to the dapper little com- 
 piler of farragos, mentioned some time since, he had arrayed 
 himself in as many patelies and colors as Harlcfpiin, and 
 there was as fierce a contention of dahnants rJ)out him, as 
 about the dead body of T^troclus. I was grieved to see many 
 men, to whom I had been accustomed to look up with awe and 
 reverence, fain to steal off with scarce a rag to cover thoir 
 nakedness. Just then mj' eye was caught by the pragmatical 
 old gentleman in the Greek grizzled wig, vho was scrambling 
 away in sore affright with half a score of autliors in full cry 
 after him. They were close upon his haunches ; in a twinkling 
 off went his wig ; at every turn some strip of raiment was 
 peeled away ; until in a few moments, from liis domineering 
 pomp, he shrunk into a little pursy, " chopped bald shot," and 
 made his exit with only u few tags and rags fluttering at his 
 back. 
 
ity to 
 ed to 
 3f the 
 bbons 
 n one 
 bab- 
 struck 
 erical 
 head, 
 way 
 aud 
 )od it 
 dable 
 
 u 
 _l 
 1- 
 (/) 
 < 
 o 
 
 cr 
 o 
 in 
 
 Q 
 
 
 i;Sl^l 
 
 I'M 
 
 i, 
 
 I { 
 
 I,, p 
 
 I . 
 
There was 
 learned Thebi 
 which broke 
 were at an en 
 The old autli 
 hung in shad( 
 myself wide 
 of bookworn 
 the dream hi 
 never before 
 to the ears of 
 
 The librarii 
 I had a card < 
 but I soon fo 
 serve," subje 
 to hunt tlier( 
 word, I stooc 
 glad to make 
 pack of authi 
 
 On a soft 
 an excursior 
 and poetiea 
 proud old p 
 irregular wa 
 the brow of 
 and looks d( 
 
 On this n 
 kind M'hich 
 peranient, fi 
 quote poetr 
 luaguKicent 
 I passed wi 
 
A ROYAL rOET. 
 
 65 
 
 Thoro was something so ludicrous in the catastrophe of this 
 leivniod Theban, that I burst into an immoderate fit of laughter, 
 which broke the whole illusion. The tumult and the scuffle 
 were at an end. Tlie 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 bookworms 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 sanctuary, and so abhorrent 
 to the ears of wisdom, as to electrify the fraternity. 
 
 The librarian now stepped up to me, and demandec whether 
 I had a card of admission. At first I did not comprehend him, 
 but I soon found that the library was a kind of literarj' " pre- 
 serve," 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 arrant poacher, and was 
 jrlad to make a precipitate retreat, lest I should have a whole 
 pack of authors let loose upon me. 
 
 A ROYAL POET. 
 
 Though your body be confined 
 
 And Hoft love a jirlHOuer boupr', 
 Yet the beauty of your mind 
 Neither check nor chain hath found. 
 hoo\t. out nobly, then, and dure 
 Even the fetters that you wear. — Fletchbb. 
 
 On a soft sunny morning in the genial month of INIaj', I made 
 an excursion to Windsor Castle. It is a place full of storied 
 and poetical associations. The very external aspect of the 
 proud old pile is enough to inspire high thought. It rears its 
 irregular walls and massive towers, like a mural crown round 
 the brow of a lofty ridge, waves its royal banner in the clouds, 
 and looks down with a lordly air upon the surrounding world. 
 
 On this morning, the weather was of that voluptuous vernal 
 kind which calls forth all the latent romance of a man's tem- 
 perament, filling his mind with music, and disposing him to 
 quote poetry and dream of beauty. In wandering through the 
 niagiiiriccnt saloons and long echoing galleries of the castle, 
 i passed with indifi'ereuce by whole rows of portraits of war 
 
 If : it 
 
66 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 riors and statesmen, bin lingered in tlie chamber where hang 
 the likenesses of the beauties which graced the gay court of 
 Charles the Second ; and as I gazed upon them, depicted with 
 amorous half-dishevelled tresses, and llie sleepy eye of love, I 
 blessed the pencil of Sir Peter Lely, which had thus enabled me 
 to bask in the redectcd rays of beauty. In traversing 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 tlic tender, the gallant, but hapless Surrey, 
 and his account of his loiterings about them iu his stripling days, 
 when enamoured of the Lady Geraldine — 
 
 "With eyes cast up unto the maiden's tower, 
 With easie sighs, such as rueu draw iu love." 
 
 r ,t. 
 
 ! ■. 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 In this mood of mere poetical susceptibility, I visited the 
 ancient keep of the castle, where James the First of Scotland, 
 the pride and theme of Scottish poets and historians, was for 
 many years of his youth detained a prisoner of state. It is a 
 large gray tower, that has stood the brunt of ages, and is still 
 in good preservation. It stands on a mound which elevates it 
 above the other parts of the castle, ami ii great Uight of steps 
 leads to the interior. In the armory, a Gothic hall, furnished 
 with weapons of various kinds and agi's, I was shown a coat 
 of armor hanging against the wall, which had once belonged to 
 James. Hence I was conducted up a staircase to a suite of 
 apartments of faded magnificence, hung with storied tapestry, 
 which formed his prison, and the scene of that passionate and 
 fanciful amour, which has woven into the web of his story the 
 magical hues of poetry and fiction. 
 
 The whole history of this amiable but inifortunate prince is 
 highly romantic. At the tender age of elu-vcn, he was sent' 
 from home by his father, Kobert III., and destined for the 
 French court, to be reared under the eye of the French mon- 
 arch, secure from the treachery and danger that surrouuilfd 
 the royal house of Scotland, JL was liis mishap, in the couim. 
 of his voyage, to fall into the hands of the English, and he wjuj 
 detained prisoner by Henry IV., notwithstanding that a truce ex- 
 isted between the two countries. 
 
 The intelligence of his capture, coming in the train of many 
 sori'ows and disasters, proved fatal to Iiis iinhap|)y father. 
 
 ''The news," we are tohl, "was brought to^ him while at 
 supper, and did so overwhelm him with grief, that he was almost 
 veady to give up the ghost into the hands of the servantji that, 
 
 ■ liucbaiiHii. 
 
 1 " 
 
A TiOYAL POET. 
 
 67 
 
 attended him. But being carried to his lied-chamber, he ab- 
 stained from all food, and in tliree days died of hunger and 
 grief, at Rothesay." ' 
 
 .James was detained in captivity a])ove eighteen years ; but 
 though deprived of personal liberty, ho was treated with the 
 respect due to his rank. Care was taken to instruct him in all 
 the l)ranche8 of useful knowledge cultivated at that period, and 
 to give him those mental and personal accomplishments deemed 
 proper for a prince. Perhaps in this resi)ect, his imprisonment 
 was an advantage, as it enabled him to apply himself the more 
 exclusively to his improvement, and quietly to imbibe that rich 
 fund of knowledge, and to ciierish those elegant tastes, which 
 have given such a lustre to his memoi-y. The picture drawn 
 of him in early life, by the Scottish historians, is highly capti- 
 vating, and seems rather the deseription of a hero of romance, 
 than of a character in real history. lie was well li'arnt, we are 
 told, '' to light with the s;ord, to joust, to tournuy, to wrestle, 
 to sing and dance ; he was an expert mediciner, right crafty in 
 playing both of lute and harp, and sundry otluir instruments of 
 music, and was expert in grauunar, oratory, and poetry." * 
 
 With this combination of manly and delicate accomplish- 
 ments, fitting him to shine both in active and elegant life, and 
 calculated to give him an i'll'iisc relish for joyous existence, it 
 must have l)een a severe tiial. in an age of bustle and chivalry, 
 to pass the sitring-lime of his years in monotonous captivity. 
 It was the good fortune of .James, however, to be gifted with a 
 powerful poetic fancy, and to be visited in his i)rison by the 
 choicest inspirations of the muse. Some minds corrode, and 
 grow inactive, under tlie loss of [)ersonal lilierty ; others grow 
 morbid and irritable ; but it is the nature of the poet to become 
 tender and imaginative in tiie loneliness of conlinemcnt. He 
 banqu'ts upon the honey of ills own thoughts, and, like the 
 captivt bird, pours forth his soul in melody. 
 
 ■ lil 
 
 Have you not neeii the nightingale, 
 
 A pilcrini codpM into a cuac. 
 How doth Kill' ohiint her wonlod tale, 
 
 In that her loiii'ly lieiniitaijo! 
 
 Even thcio hor cliarniiiiLr inclmly doth prove 
 That all licr biniL'lirt art; Ui'ch, la-r raj,'o a i^rove.' 
 
 Indeed, it is the divine attribute of the imagination, that it 
 Is inepressii>le, unconfinable ; that when the real world is shut 
 
 ■ liuubaiiHU. > liiiUuudtiD'a traualatlon of lieclor Uuyce. > Uogur L.'Ebtrungc. 
 
in ! 
 
 Ill 
 
 68 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 out, it can create a world for itself, and, wfth necromantic 
 power, can conjure up glorious shapes and forms, and bri\liaiit 
 visions, to make solitude populous, and irradiate the gloom of 
 the dungeon. Such was the world of pomp and pageant that 
 lived round Tasso in his dismal cell at Ferrara, whon he con- 
 ceived the splendid scenes of his Jerusalem ; and we may con- 
 sider the "King's Quair," » composed by James during his 
 captivity at Windsor, as another of those beautiful breaicings 
 forth of the soul from the restraint and gloom of the prison- 
 house. 
 
 The subject of the poem is his love for the lady Jane Beau- 
 fort, daughter of the Earl of Somerset, and a princess of tlic 
 blood-royal of England, of whom he became enamoured in the 
 course of his captivity. What gives it a peculiar value, is. Hint 
 It may be considered a transcript of the royal hard's true fool 
 ino-s, and the story of his real loves and fortunes. It is not 
 often tliat sovcrei'|ns write poetry, or that poets deal in fact. 
 It is gratifying to the pride of a common man, to find a mon- 
 arch thus suing, as it were, for admission into his closet, and 
 seelcing to win his favor by administering to his pleasures. It 
 is a proof of the honest equality of intellectual competition, 
 which strips ofif all the trappings of factitious dignity, brings 
 the candidate down to a level with his fellow-men, and obliges 
 him to depend on his own native powers for distinction. It is 
 curious, too, to get at the history of a monarch's lieart, and to 
 find the simple affections of human nature tlirobbing under the 
 ermine. But James had learnt to be a poet l)efore he was a 
 king ; he was schooled in adversity, and roared in tiie company 
 of his own thoughts. Monarchs have seldom time to parley 
 with their hearts, or to meditate their minds into poetry ; and 
 had James been brought up amidst the adulation and gayety of 
 a court, we should never, in all probability, have had such a 
 poem as t^3 Quair. 
 
 I have been particularly intorosted by those parts of the poem 
 which breathe his immediate thoughts concerning his situation, 
 or which are connected with tlie ai)artnient in the Tower. They 
 have thus a personal and local charm, and are given with such 
 circumstantial truth, as to maki; the reader present with the . p 
 live 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 whicli (irst sugixested the idea of writing the 
 poem. It was the still niid-watcli ot a clear moonlight night; 
 
 > C^uab- i«n ota term for DooV. 
 
A ItOYAt POET. 
 
 dd 
 
 tha stars, he says, were twinkling as fire in tlie high vault 
 of heaven, and "Cynthia rinsing her golden locks in Aqua- 
 rius " — he lay in bed wakeful and restless, and took a book to 
 bc<iiiile the tedious hours. The book he chose was Boetius' 
 Consolations of Philosophy, a work popular among the writers 
 of tlwt (lay, and which had been translated by his great proto- 
 type Chaucer. From the high eulogium in which he indulges, 
 it ifl evident this was one of his favorite volumes while in 
 prison ; and indeed, it is an admirable text-book for meditation 
 under adversity. It is the legacy of a noble and enduring 
 spirit, purified by sorrow and suffering, bequeathing to its suc- 
 cessors in calamity the maxims 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 talisman which 
 (be unfortunate may treasure up in his bosom, or, like the good 
 l^ing James, lay upon nis nightly pillow. 
 
 After closing tlie volume, he turns its contents over in his 
 mind, and gradually falls into a fit of musing on the fickleness 
 of fortune, the vicissitudes of his own life, and the evils that 
 bad overtaken him even in his tender youth. Suddenly he 
 bears the bell ringing to mati;is, but its sound chiming in with 
 bis melancholy fancies, seems to him like a voice exhorting him 
 to wriie his story. In the spirit of poetic errantry, ho ileter- 
 mines to comply witii this intimation ; he therefore takes pen 
 ill band, makes with it a sign of the cross, to implore a bene- 
 tliction, and sallies forth into tlie fairy land of poetry. There 
 iri sonu'tliing extremely fanciful in all this, and it is interesting 
 jis furnisliing a striking and beautiful instance of the simple 
 BKiuiier in which whole trains of poetical thought are sometimes 
 awakened, and literary enterprises suggested to the mind. 
 
 In the course of his poem, he more than once bewails the 
 jiL'Culiar hardness of his fate, thus doomed to lonely and inac- 
 live life, and shut up from the freedom and pleasure of the 
 '.v<jrl(l, in which the meanest animal indulges unrestrained. 
 There is a sweetness, however, in his very complaints ; they 
 are the lamentations of an amiable and social spirit, at being 
 denied the indulgence of its kind and generous propensities ; 
 there is nothing in them harsh or exaggerated ; the3' flow with 
 a natural and touching pathos, and are perhaps rendered more 
 touching by their simple brevity. They contrast finely with 
 those elaborate and iterated repinings which we sometimes meet 
 with in poetry, the effusions of morbid minds, sickening under 
 miseries of their own creating, and venting their bitterness upon 
 tui unoffending world. James speaks of his privations with 
 
 S',, 
 
 !i 
 
 if 'h 
 
 
 :! 
 
 I 
 
70 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 I ^i 
 
 acute sensibility ; but having mentioned them, passes on, as if 
 his minly mind disdained to brood over unavoidable calaraitiee. 
 When such a spirit breaks forth into complaint, however brief, 
 we are aware how great must be the suffering that extorts the 
 murmur. We sympathize with James, a romantic, active, and 
 accomplished prince, cut off in the iustihood 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 gloritfs 
 of art, when he breatlies forth brief but deep-toned lameuta- 
 tions over his perpetual blindness. 
 
 Had not James evinced a deficiency of poetic artifice, we 
 might almost have suspected that these lowerings of gloomy 
 reflection were meant as preparative to the brightest scene of 
 his story, and to contrast with that refulgence of light and love- 
 liness, that exhilarating accompaniment of bird, and song, und 
 foliage, and flower, and all the revel of the year, with which lie 
 ushers 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 cus- 
 tom, to escape from the dreary meditations of a sleepless pillow. 
 " Bewailing in his chamber thus alone," despairing of all joy 
 and remedy, *' for, tired of thought, and wo-begone," he had 
 wandered to the window, to indulge the captive's miserable 
 solace of gazing wistfully upon the worhl from which he is ex- 
 cluded. The window looked forth upon a small garden which 
 lay at the foot of the tower. It was a quiet, sheltered spot, 
 adorned with arbors and green alleys, and protected from tb« 
 passing gaze by trees and hawthorn hedges. 
 
 Now wua there made, fast by the tower's wall 
 A gurdcD faire, and in the coroera set, 
 
 Ad arbour green with wandia long and small 
 Railed about, and so with leaves beset 
 
 Was all the place, and hawthorn hedges knet. 
 That lyf ' was none, walkyug there forbye, 
 That might within scarce any wight espye. 
 
 Bo thick the branches and the leves grene, 
 Beehaded all the alleys that there were, 
 
 And midst of every arbour might bo sene 
 The Blmrpe, grune, swete juniper. 
 
 Growing so fairo with brunchcB here and there, 
 That !irt It seerat'd to a lyf without, 
 The boughs did spruud the arbour all about. 
 
 ' f'i//t person. 
 
A ^OYAL POET. 
 
 n 
 
 And on tho amnll groen twiatli ' let 
 
 Tho lytel Hwoto nyKhtingaIca, and lung, 
 Bo loudiiiid clvro, tho hyiiinlit coDHOcrato 
 
 Of IovIh uho, nuw Hoft, now loud nmong, 
 Thiit nil tliL> gnrdun and tho wallis rung 
 
 ItyKbt of tholr song — 
 
 NoTK.— The language of ihu qnotationn U generally modernized. 
 
 It was llie uiontli of May, when every thing was in bloom, 
 and he interprets the song of the nightingale into the language 
 of his cuamoured feeling : — 
 
 Worship nil ye that lovers bo this May ; 
 
 For of your bliss tho knionds nro begun, 
 And sing with us, nwuy, winter, away, 
 
 Comp, summer, come, the sweet season and sun. 
 
 As he gazes on the scene, and listens to ♦he notes of the 
 birds, he gradually relapses into one of those tender and undefiu- 
 able reveries, which fill the youthful bosom in this delicious 
 season. He wonders what this love may be, of which he has 
 so often read, and which thus seems breathed forth in the 
 quickening breath of May, and melting all nature into ecstasy 
 and song. If it really be so great a felicity, and if it be a boon 
 thus generally dispensed to the most insignificant beings, why 
 is he alone cut off from its enjoyments? 
 
 Oft would I think, O Lord, what may this be, 
 
 Thnt love is of nuch noble myght and kynde? 
 Loving his folkc, and such prosptritee, 
 
 Is it of him, as we iu books do tlnd ; 
 Mny ho ouro hortfs fictten 2 and unbynd: 
 Hath he (ii)oii cure hertea such maistrye? 
 Or is nil thU but fcyuit fniitaHyu? 
 For glff 111' he of so grete excellence 
 
 That he of every wijjht hath care and charge, 
 What have I gllt^ to him, or done offence, 
 
 That I am thral'd and blrdia go nt large? 
 
 i.N! 
 
 In the midst of his musing, as he casts his eye downward, 
 he beholds " the fairest and freshest young floure" that ever he 
 had seen. It is the lovely Lady Jane, walking in the garden to 
 enjoy the beauty of that "fresh May morrowe." Breaking 
 thus' suddenly upon his sight in the moment of loneliness and 
 excited susceptibility, she at once captivates the fancy of the 
 
 ' Twittis, small boughs or twij^a. * Setten, Incline. 
 
 * (Jilt, what injury have I done, etc. 
 
 I Kl 
 
n 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 romantic prince, and becomes the object of his wandering 
 wishes, the sovereign of his ideal worid. 
 
 There is in this charming scene an evident resemblance to 
 the early part of Chaucer's Kniglit's Tale, where Palamon aud 
 Arcite fall in love with Emilia, whom they see walking in the 
 garden of their prison. Perhaps the similarity of the actual 
 fact to the incident which he had read in Chaucer, may have 
 induced James to dwell on it in his poem. His description of 
 the Lady Jane is given in the picturesqu;j and minute manner 
 r^ his master, and being, doubtless, taken from the life, is a 
 fjerfect portrait of a beauty of that day. lie dwells with the 
 fondness of a lover on every article of her apparel, from the net 
 of pearl, splendent with emeralds and sai)phires, that confined 
 her golden hair, even to the " goodly chaine of small orfev- 
 erye " * about her neck, whereby there hung a ruby in shape of 
 a heart, that seemed, he says, like a spark of lire burning upon 
 her white bosom. Her dress of white tissue was looped up, to 
 enable her to walk with more freedom. She was accompanied 
 by two female attendants, and about her sported a little hound 
 decorated with bells, probably the small Italian hound, of 
 exquisite symmetry, which was a parlor favorite and pet among 
 the fashionable dames or ancient times. James closes his 
 description by a burst of general eulogium : 
 
 In her wae youth, beauty with humble port, 
 
 Bounty, rlcheBHe, and womanly feature, 
 Ood better knows than ray pun can report, 
 
 Wisdom, largesse,' estate,' and cunning* sure. 
 In every point so guided her measure, 
 
 In word, iu deed, in shape, in countenance, 
 
 That nature might no more her child advance. 
 
 The departure of the Lady Jano from the garden puts an 
 end to this trau^^rnt riot of the heart. With her departs the 
 amorous illusion t^'at had shed a tempoi-ai'y charm over the 
 scene of his captivity, and he relapses into loneliness, now ren- 
 det'otl tenfold more intolerable by this passing beam of unat- 
 Lajuable beauty. Thi'ough the long and weaiy day he repines 
 at his unhappy lot, and when evening approaches and Phd'bus, 
 as he beautifully expi-esses it, had " bade farewell to every leaf 
 and flower," he still lingei-s at the window, and, laying his head 
 upon the cold stone, gives vent to a mingled flow of love and 
 sorrow, until, gradually lulled by the mute melancholy of the 
 
 * WruuglUKold. s Z<My«M«, Iwttnty. * iMa^«, dlguity. * Cunkiuy, liimii^ao.i 
 
A ROYAL POET. 
 
 78 
 
 twilight hour, he lapses, "half-sleeping, half-swoon," into a 
 vision, which occupies the remainder of the poem, and in which 
 is allegorically shadowed out the history of his passion. 
 
 When ho wakt from his trance, he rises from his stony pil- 
 low, and pacing his apartment full of dreary reflections, ques- 
 tions his spirit whither it has been wandering ; whether, indeed, 
 all that has passed before his dreaming fancy has been conjured 
 up by preceding circumstances, or whether it is a vision intended 
 to comfort and assure him in his despondency. If the latter, 
 he prays that some token may be sent to confirm the promise 
 of happier days, given him in his slumbers. 
 
 Snddonly a turtle-dove of the purest whiteness comes flying 
 in at the window, and alights upon his hand, bearing in her bill 
 a l)ranch of red gilliflower, on the leaves of which is written in 
 letters of gold, the following sentence : 
 
 Awake! awake! I bring, lover, I bring 
 
 The newiH glad, that bllHHful is and sure, 
 Of thy comfort; now langh, and play, ard sing, 
 
 For in the heaven dccretit is thy cure. 
 
 IIo receives the binnch with mingled hope and dread ; reads 
 it with lapturc, and this he says was the first token of his suc- 
 ccodiii}; happiness. Whether this is a mere poetic fiction, or 
 wliotlur the Lady Jane did actually send him a token of her 
 t'avor ill this romantic way, remains to be determined according 
 to tiio faith or fancy of tiic reader. Ho concludes his poem by 
 intimating that the promise conve3'ed in the vision, and by the 
 tlowo!', is fulfilled by his being restored to lihci'ty, and made 
 li!ip[)y in the iKxssession of the sovereign of his heart. 
 
 Sucii is the poetical account given by James of his love ad« 
 VL'iituies in Windsor Castle. How much of it is absolute fact, 
 and how much the embellishment of fancy, it is fruitless to con- 
 jecture; let us not, however, reject any romantic incident 
 lis incompatible with real life, but let us sometimes take 
 a poet at his word. I have noticed merely those parts of 
 t!ic poem immediately connected with the tower, and have 
 piissinl over a large part written in the allegorical vein, so 
 luuch cultivated at that day. The language of course is 
 (Hiiiint and antiquated, so that the beauty of many of its golden 
 phrases will scaivelv I " |)eireived at the present day ; but if is 
 impossible not to in cliarmed with the genuine sontimeia the 
 il.'li<ihtful artlessness and urbanity, which prevail throujjliout it. 
 Tiie'^descriptions of Natun?, too, witli which it is embellished, 
 
 ii'U 
 
 I 
 
 'Hiii 
 
 ill 
 
u 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 w 
 
 
 are given with a truth, a discrimination, and a fresluicss, wortliy 
 of the most cultivated periods of tlio arts. 
 
 As an amatory poem, it is edifying, in these days of coarser 
 thinkiu'T, to notice the nature, refinement, and exquisite delicacy 
 which *)ervade it, banishing every gross thought, or immoih-st 
 expression, and presenting female loveliness clothed in all its 
 chivalrous attributes of almost supernatural purity and grace 
 
 James flourished nearly about the time of Chaucer and Gower, 
 and was evidently an a-'niirer and studier of their writiiii;s. 
 Indeed, in one of his stanzas he acknowledges them as liis 
 masters, and in some parts of his poem we find trafces of simi- 
 larity to their productions, more especially to those of Chaucer. 
 There are always, however, general features of resemblance in 
 the works of contemporary authors, which are not so mucii Ixn-- 
 rowed from each other as from the times. Writers, like bees, 
 toll their sweets in the wide world ; they incorporate with tlieir 
 own conceptions the anecdotes and thoughts current in socic^ty, 
 and thus eacli generation has some features in common, 
 characteristic of the age in which it lived. James belongs 
 to one of the most brilliant eras of our literary history, 
 and establishes the claims of his country to a participation in 
 its primitive honors. Whilst a small cluster of Englisli writers 
 are constantly cited as the fathers of our verse, the name of 
 their great Scottish compeer is apt to be passed over in silence; 
 but he is evidently worthy of being enrolled in that little con- 
 stellation of remote, but never-failing luminaries, who shine in 
 the highest firmament of literature, and who, like morning stars, 
 sang together at the bright dawning of British poesy. 
 
 Such of my readers as may not be familiar with Scottish his- 
 tory, (though the manner in which it has of late been woven 
 with captivating fiction has made it a universal study,) may be 
 curious to learn something of the subsequent history of James, 
 and the fortunes of his love. His passion for the Lady Jane, 
 as it was the solace of his captivity, so it facilitated 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 his liberty and crown, liavin" 
 previously espoused 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 feudal chief- 
 tains having taken advanta^'c of (he troul)IeH and irrejrularities 
 of a long niterregnura to strengtiien themselves in their pos- 
 sessions, and place themselves above the power of tin; laws. 
 James sought to found the basis of his power in the aifections 
 
A ROYAL POET. 
 
 76 
 
 of his people. He attached the lower orders to him by the 
 reformation of abuses, the temperate and equable administra- 
 tion of justice, the encouragement of the arts of peace, and the 
 promotion of every thing that could diffuse comfort, competency, 
 and innocent enjoyment, through the humblest ranks of society. 
 He mingled occasionally among the common people in disguise ; 
 visited their firesides ; entered into their cares, their pursuits, 
 and tlieir amusements ; informed himself of the mechanical arts, 
 and how they could best be patronized and improved ; and was 
 thus an all-pervading 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, 
 ho turned himself to curb the power of the factious nobility ; 
 to strip them of those dangerous immunities which they had 
 usurped ; to punish such as had been guilty of flagrant offences ; 
 and to bring the whole into proper obedience to the crown. For 
 some time tliey bore this vvitli outward submission, but with 
 secret impatience and brooding resentment. A conspiracy was 
 at length formed against his life, at the head of which was his 
 own uncle, Robert Stewart, Earl of Athol, who, being too old 
 himself for the perpetration of the deed o blood, instigated his 
 grandson. Sir Robert Stewart, together with Sir Roliert Graham, 
 and otliers of less note, to commit the deed. They broke into 
 his bed-chamber at the Dominican convent near Perth, where 
 he was residing, and barbarously nuirdored him by oft-repeated 
 wounds. His faithful queen, rushing to throw her tender body 
 between him and the sword, was twice wounded in the ineffec- 
 tual attempt to shield him from tlie assassin ; 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, wiiich had its birth-place in this 
 tower, that made me visit the old pile with more than common 
 interest. The suit of armor hanging up in the hall, richly gilt 
 and embellished, as if to tigure in the tournay, brought the 
 image of tlie gallant and romantic prince vividly before my 
 imagination. 1 paced the deserted chambers where he had 
 coini)osed his i)oem ; I leaned upon the window, and endeav- 
 ored 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 vying with each other in 
 strains of liquid melody : every thing was bursting into vegeta- 
 tion, and budding forth the tender promise of the year. Time, 
 
 l+! (5 
 
 ! i.1: 
 
 
 ,!| 
 
76 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 f : 
 
 which delights to ohliterato the sterner memorials of human 
 pride, seems to have passed lightly over this little scene of 
 poetry and love, and to have withheld his desolating hand. 
 Several centuries have gone by, yet the garden still flourishes 
 at the foot of the tower. It occupies what was once the nioal 
 of tlie keep, and though some pnrts have been separated oy 
 dividing walls, yet others have still their arbors and shaded 
 wallis, as in the days of James ; and the whole is sheltered, 
 blooming, and retired. There is a charm about a spot th;it 
 has been printed by the footsteps of departed beauty, and eon, 
 secrated by the inspirations of the poet, which is heighteiud, 
 rather than impairocJ, by the lapse of ages. It is, indeed, ilio 
 gift of poetry, to hallow every place in which it moves; lo 
 breathe round nature an odor more exquisite than the peifume 
 of the rose, and to shed over it a tint more magical than the 
 blush of morning. 
 
 Others may dwell on the illustrious deeds of James as a war- 
 rior and a legislator ; 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 Scottish genitis, 
 which has since been so prolific of the most wholesome any 
 highly flavored fruit. He carried with him into the sterner re- 
 gions of the north, all the fertilizing arts of southern refinemenf , 
 He did every thing in his power to win his countrymen to the 
 gay, the elegant, and gefttle arts which soften and refine tlic 
 character of a people, and wreathe a grace round Uie loftines'i 
 of a proud and warlike spirit. He wrote many poems, which, 
 unfortunately for the fulness of his fame, are now lost to tht 
 world; one, which is still preserved, called "Christ's Kirk of 
 the Green," shows how diligently he had made himself ac- 
 quainted with the rustic sports and pastimes, which constitute 
 such a source of kind and social feeling among the Scottish peas- 
 antry ; and with what simple and happy humor he could enter 
 into their enjoyments. He contributed greatly to improve tlio 
 national music ; and traces of his tender sentiment and elegant 
 taste are said to exist in those witching airs, still piped amoiioj 
 the wild mountains and lonely glens of Scotland. Ho has tluis 
 coimected his image with wliatever is most gracious and ondear- 
 mg in the national character ; he has embalmed his memory in 
 Bong, and floated his name down to after-ages in the rich streams 
 of Scottish melody. 'V\w recollection of these things was kin- 
 dling at my heart, as I paced the silent scene of his imprison- 
 
 ment. I have 
 nilorim would 
 iiioie pootical ( 
 and thi' little g 
 loves of the L 
 
 TuKiiK are 
 actor than an 
 few wi-eks at 
 of ono, the a; 
 It was one of 
 fiucli a i)i'eii]i: 
 inidst of a c 
 M-iUiin its coh 
 nohle jiciierai 
 nioiiunuiiits ol 
 windows dinii 
 stained glass, 
 kninlits, and 
 tlioir elRuies 
 struck with s 
 nil niorial wli 
 in tliia temple 
 The congr 
 of rank win 
 furnished wi 
 their arms u 
 wlio filled th 
 and of the p 
 the aisles. 
 
 Tiie servic 
 had a snug 
 ij;utst at all 
 keenest fox- 
 hud disabled 
 *hii hounds t 
 
THE COUNTRY CHUTiCU. 
 
 77 
 
 oat 
 
 ■n- 
 
 ed 
 
 ed, 
 
 i;it 
 
 
 mont. I have visited Vaucluse with as nuicli enthusiasm as a 
 |)il'j,rim wonirl visit the shrine at Loretto ; but I have never felt 
 iiioie poetical devotion than when contemplating the old towei 
 and the liltlo garden at Windsor, and musing over the romantic 
 loves ol the Lady Jane, and the lloyal Poet of Scotland. 
 
 THE COUNTRY CIIUnCH. 
 
 A gcnllcmnn! 
 WhHl, o' tho woolpack? or llio HUKiir-cheHt? 
 Or liblM of volvi'l? which ih'l, puuiiJ, or yard, 
 You vend your gentry by ;•*— Heuuar'm Bush. 
 
 Tfieiik are few places more favorable to the study of char- 
 acter than an English country church. I was once passing a 
 few weeks at the seat of a fiiend, who resided in the vicinity 
 of one, the appearance of which particularly struck my fancy. 
 It was one of tliose rich morsels of quaint anti(]uity, which give 
 such a peculiar diarni to English hmdscitpe. It stood in the 
 midst of a county filled with ancient families, and contained, 
 williiu its cold and silent aisles, the congregated dust of many 
 noble generations. The interior walla were encrusted with 
 nioiiumeuts of every age and style. The light streamed through 
 windows dimmed with ariUDrial l)earings, richly emblazoned in 
 stained glass. In various parts of the church vvere tombs oi 
 ktiiiihts, and high-born daiues, of gorgeous workmanship, with 
 their einjiies in colored marble. On every siile, the eye was 
 struck with some instance of aspiring mort.dity; some liaughty 
 nu nioriul which human pride had erected ow r its kindred dust, 
 in this temple of the most liund)le of all religions. 
 
 The congregation was comnosed of the neighboring people 
 of rank who sat in pews sumptuously lined and cushioned, 
 furnished with riehly-gihled prayer-books, and decorated willi 
 their arms upon the pew doors; of the villagers and peasantry, 
 who filled the back seats, and a small gallery beside the organ ; 
 and of the poor of tlje iiarish, who were ranged on benches in 
 the aisles. 
 
 The service was performed by a snuflling, well-ftid vicar, who 
 had a snug dwelling near the church, lie was a )>rivileged 
 must at all the tables of the neighborhood, and bad been the 
 keenest fox-hunter in the country, until age and good living 
 hud disabled him from doing any thing more than ri<le to see 
 *liQ hounds throw oil, and maku one at the hunting; diuner> 
 
 i '' ' I 
 
 ii .♦ 
 
 
■ ^' { 
 
 78 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 M 
 
 Under the ministry of such a pastor, I found it impossible to 
 get into the train of thought suitable to the time and place ; so 
 having, like many other feeble Christians, compromised with 
 my conscience, by laying the sin of ray own delinquency at 
 another person's threshold, I occupied myself by making obser- 
 vations on ray neighbors. 
 
 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 pretension where there was the most ac- 
 knowledged title to respect. I was particularly struck, for 
 instance, with the family of a nobleraan of high rank, consist- 
 ing of several sons and daughters. Nothing could be moi-e 
 simple and unassuraing than their appearance. They generally 
 carae to church in the i)lainest equipage, and often on foot. 
 The young ladies would stop and converse in the kindest man- 
 ner with the peasantry, caress the children, and listen to the 
 stories of the humble cottagers. Their countenances were open 
 and beautifully fair, with an expression of high refinement, but 
 at the same time, a frank cheerfulness, and engaging affability. 
 Their brothers were tall, and elegantly formed. They were 
 dressed fashionably, but simply ; with strict neatness and pro- 
 priety, but without any mannerism or foppishness. Their whole 
 demeanor was easy and natural, with that lofty grace, and 
 noble frankness, which bespeak free-born souls that have never 
 been checked in their growth by feelings of inferiority. There 
 is a healthful hardiness about real dignity, that never dreads 
 contact and comraunion with others, however humble. It is 
 only spurious pride that is morbid and sensitive^ and shrinks 
 from every touch. I was pleased to see the manner in which 
 they would converse with the peasantry about those rural con- 
 cerns iiiid field sports, in which the gentlemen of this country 
 so much delight. In these conversations, there was neither 
 haughtiness on the one part, nor servility on the other ; and you 
 were only reminded of the difference of rank by the habitual 
 respect of the peasant. 
 
 In contrast to th'^" % was the family of a wealthy citizen, 
 who had amassed a vast fortune, and, having purchased the 
 estate and mansion of a ruined nobleman in the neighborhood, 
 was endeavoring to assume all the style and dignity of an heredi- 
 tary lord of the soil. The family always came to church en 
 prince. They were rolled majestically along in a carriage embla- 
 zoned with arms. The crest glittered in silver radiance from 
 every part of the harness where a crest could possibly hv i)la('C'(l. 
 A fat coachman in a three-cornered hat. richly laced, and a Iluxen 
 
THE COUNTRY CIIURCU. 
 
 79 
 
 ^g, curling close round his rosy face, was seated on the box, 
 with a sleek Danish dog beside liim. Two footmen in gorgeous 
 liveries, with huge bouquets, and gold-headed canes, lolled be- 
 hind. The carriage lose and sunk on its long springs with a 
 peculiar stateliness of motion. The very horses champed their 
 bits, arched their necks, and glanced their eyes more proudly 
 than common horses ; either because they had caught a little of 
 the family feeling, or were reined up more tightly than ordi- 
 nary. 
 
 1 could not but admire the style with which this splendid 
 pageant was brought up to the gate of the churchyard. There 
 was a vast effect produced at the turning of an angle of the 
 wall; — a great smacking of the whip; straining and scram- 
 bling of horses; glistening of harness, and flashing of wheek 
 through gravel. This was the moment of triumph 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 prancing trot, dashing about pebbles at every step. Tho 
 crowd of villagers sauntering quietly to church, opened precipi- 
 tately to the right and left, gaping »n vacant admiration. Or. 
 reaching the g'\te, the horses were pulled up with a suddenness 
 that produced an immediate stop, and almost threw them on 
 their haunches. 
 
 There was an extraordinary hurry of the footmen to alight, 
 pull down the steps, and prepare every thing for the de- 
 scent on earth of this august family. The old citizen 
 first emerged his round red face from out the door, looking 
 about him with the pompous air of a man accustomed to rule 
 on 'change, and shake the stock-market with a nod. His con- 
 sort, a fine, fleshy, comfortable dame, followed him. There 
 seemed, I must confess, l»ut little pride in her composition. She 
 was the picture of broad, lioncst, 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 visit- 
 ing and feasting. Life was to lier a perpetual revel ; it was 
 one long Lord Mayor's day. 
 
 Two daughters succeeded to this goodly couple. They cer- 
 tainly were handsome ; but had a supercilious air that cliilled 
 admiration, and disposed the spectator to be critical. They 
 were ultra-fashionable in dress, tuid, though no one could deny 
 the richness of their decorations, yet their appropriateness 
 might be questioned amidst the simplicity of a country church. 
 They descended loftily from the carriage, and moved up the 
 
 i;i! 
 
 US 
 
 • ' ; 
 
 :- !, 
 
 ■ V. 
 
 .. Itll I 
 
80 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 f 
 
 1*1 
 
 I I U 
 
 line of peasantry with a step that seemed dainty of the soil \\ 
 trod on. They cast an excursive glance annuid, that passed 
 coldly over the burly faces of the peasantry, until they nat the 
 eyes of the nobleman's family, when their countenances imme- 
 diately brightened into smiles, and they made the most prof(>uud 
 and elegant courtesies, which were returned in a manner that 
 showed they were but slight acquaintances. 
 
 I must not forget the two sons of this aspiring citizen, who 
 came to church in a dashing curricle, with outriders. They wore 
 arrayed in the extremity of the mode, with all that pedantry of 
 dress which marks the man of questionable pretensions to style. 
 They kept entirely by themselves, eying every one askance 
 that came near them, as if measuring his claims lo respecta- 
 bility ; yet they were without conversation, except the exchange 
 of an occasional cant phrase. They even moved artidcially, 
 for their bodies, in compliance with the caprice of the day, hail 
 been discii)lined into the absence of all ease and freedom. Art 
 had done every thing to accomplish them as men of fusliion, 
 but Nature had denied them the nameless grace. Tliey wore 
 vulgarly shaped, like men formed for the common purposes of 
 life, and had that air of supercilious 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 unpretending ;;re:it, 
 and the arrogant little. I have no respect for titled rank, 
 unless it be accompanied with true nobility of sold; but I luive 
 remarked, in all countries where artificial distinctions exist, 
 that the very highest classes aic always the most courteous 
 and unassuming. Those who are well assured of their own 
 standing, are least apt to trespass on that of others : whereas 
 nothing is so offensive as the aspirings of vulgarity, which 
 thinks to elevate itself by humiliating its neighbor. 
 
 As I have brought these families into contrast, I must notice 
 their behavior in church. That of the nobleman's family was 
 quiet, serious, and attentive. Not that they appeared to have 
 any fei-vor of devotion, but rather a respect for sacred things, 
 and sacred places, inseparable from good-breeding. The others, 
 on the contrary, were in a perpetual flutter and whisper ; tliey 
 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 the 
 service. He took the whole burden of family devotion u;ii);i 
 himself I standing bolt upright, and uttering tiae responses W\\''X 
 
THE WIDOW AND HER SON. 
 
 81 
 
 a lond voice that migljt be heard all over the clmrch. It was 
 eviilent that he was one of those thorough church and king 
 men, who coiim'Ct tlie idea of devotion and loyalty ; who con- 
 sider the Deity, sonieliow or otiier, of tlie government party, 
 ami rclijj:ion " a very excellent sort of thing, that ought to 1)0 
 couiiteiuinced and kept up." 
 
 Wlit'U he joined so loudly in the service, it seemed more by 
 (vav of example to the lower orders, to show them, that though 
 go "Tt-at and wealthy, he was not above being religious; as I 
 liave seen a turtle-fed alderman swallow publicly a basin of 
 charity soup, smacking his lips at every mouthful, and pro- 
 nouiuiuii; it " excellent food for the poor." 
 
 When the service was at an end, 1 was curious to witness the 
 several exits of jny groups. The young noblemen and their 
 sisters, as the day was line, preferred strolling home across the 
 fields, chatting with the country peo[)le as they went. The 
 others departed as they came in grand parade. Again were 
 the equipages wheeled up to the gate. There was again the 
 smackinu; of whips, the clattering of hoofs, and the glittering 
 of harness. The horses started otT almost at a bound ; the 
 villagers again hurried to right and left ; the wheels threw up a 
 cloud of dust, and the aspiring family was rapt out of sight in 
 a whirlwind. 
 
 THE WIDOW AND HER SON.» 
 
 Pittle old ai;e, within whoHo BUver halroa 
 Honour and reverence evermore liiive r;ui;n'd. 
 
 Marlowe's Tambcrlaine. 
 
 DuKixcr my residence in the country, I used frequently to at- 
 tend at the old village church. Its shadowy aisles, its moulder- 
 mr monuments, its dark oaken panelling, all reverend with the 
 illooni of departed years, seemed to fit it for the haunt of solemn 
 niediration. A Sunday, too, in the country, is so holy in its 
 repose ; such a pensive quiet reigns over the face of nature, that 
 every restless i)assion is charmed down, and we feel all the 
 natural religion of the soul gently si)ringing up within us. 
 
 ' 'Tn 
 
 I, ' '< : 
 
 " Sweet day, bo pure, so ealm, so bright, 
 The bridal of tiie earth and sky." 
 
 I do not pretend to claim the character of a devout man ; but 
 there are feelings that visit me in a country church, amid the 
 
 > See Appendix for text of revUed edition. 
 
 
82 
 
 TBE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 H? 
 
 •d 
 
 beautiful serenity of nature, which I experience nowhere else; 
 and if not a more religious, I think I am a better man on Sun. 
 day, than on any other day of the seven. 
 
 But in this church I felt myself continually thrown back upon 
 the world by the frigidity and pomp of the poor worms around 
 The only being that seemed thoroughly to feel the humble 
 
 me. 
 
 and prostrate piety of a true Christian was a poor decrepit oUl 
 woman, bending under the weight of years and infirmities. She 
 boie the traces of something better than abject poverty. The 
 lingeriugs of decent pride were visible in her appearance. Her 
 dress, though humble in the extreme, was scrupulously clean. 
 Some trivitil respect, too, had been awarded 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 friend- 
 ship, 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 conning her prayer-book, which her 
 palsied 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 responses of the clerk, the swell of the organ, or the chant 
 ing of the choir. 
 
 I am fond of loitering about country churches ; and this was 
 ao delightfully situatedy that it frequently attracted me. It 
 stood on a knoll, 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 yew trees, 
 which seemed almost coeval with itself. Its tall Gothic spire 
 shot up lightly from among them, with rooks and crows gener- 
 ally wheeling about it. 1 was seated there one still sunny 
 morning, watching two laborers who were digging a grave. 
 They had chosen one of the most remote and neglected corners 
 of the churchyard, where, from the number of nameless graves 
 around, it would appear that the indigent and friendless vveru 
 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 tae distinctions of worldly rank, which extend thus down 
 into *he very dust, the toll of the bell announced the approach 
 of the funeral. They were the obsequies of poverty, with which 
 pride had nothing to do. A coffin of the plainest materials, 
 without pall or other covering, was borne by some of the vil- 
 lagers. The sexton walked before with an air of cold indiffer- 
 ence. There were no mock mourners in the trappings of affected 
 woe, but there was one real mourner who feebly tottered after 
 
THE WIDOW AND HER SON. 
 
 the corpse. It was the aged mother of the deceased — tne poor 
 old woman v/hom I had seen seated on the steps of the altar. 
 She was supported by an humble friend, who was endeavoring 
 to comfort her. A few of the neighboring poor had joined the 
 train, and some children of the village were running hand in 
 hand, now sliouting with unthinking mirth, and now pausing to 
 gaze, with childisli curiosity, on the grief of the mourner. 
 
 As the funeral train approached the grave, the parson issued 
 from the church porch, arrayed in the surplice, with prayer- 
 book in hand, and attended by the clerk. The service, how- 
 ever, was a mere act of charity. The deceased had been desti- 
 tute, aud tlie survivor was penniless. It was shuffled through, 
 therefore, in form, but coldly and unfeelingly. The well-fed 
 priest moved but a few steps from the church door ; his voice 
 could scarcely be heard at tlie grave ; and never did I hear the 
 funeral service, tiiat sublime and touching ceremony, turned 
 into such a frigid mummer}- 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 Somers, aged 26 years." The poor 
 mother had been assisted to kneel down at the head of it. Her 
 withered hands were clasped, as if in pra3'er ; but I could per- 
 ceive, by a feeble rocking of the body, and a convulsive motion 
 of the lips, that she was gazing on the last relics of her son 
 with the yearnings of a mother's heart. 
 
 Preparations were made to deposit the coffin in the earth. 
 There was that bustling stir, which breaks so harshly on the 
 feelings of grief and affection : directions given in the cold 
 tones of business ; the striking of spades into sand and gravel ; 
 which, at the grave of those we love, is of all sounds the most 
 withering. The bustle around seemed to waken the mother from 
 a wretched reverie. She raised her glazed eyes, and looked 
 about with a faint wilduess. As the men approached with cords 
 to lower the coHln into the grave, she wrung her hands, and 
 broke into an agony of grief. The poor woman who attended 
 her, took her by the arm, endeavoring to raise her from the earth, 
 and to whisper something like consolation — " Nay, now — nay, 
 now — don't take it so sorely to heart." She could only shake 
 her head, and wring her hands, as one not to be comforted. 
 
 As they lowered the body into the earth, the creaking of the 
 cords seemed to agonize her ; but when, on some accidental 
 obstruction, there was a jostling of the coffin, all the tenderness 
 of the mother burst forth ; as if .iny harm could come to him 
 who was far beyond the reacli of worldly suffering. 
 
 I ( 
 
 \(\ 
 
 ;l 
 
g4 
 
 rnti sKi'ytcn-iiooK. 
 
 r ■■ 
 
 ! 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 I could see no nioiv — my lioiirt swollcul into my throat — my 
 eyes lillecl with tears — 1 felt as if 1 were acting a barbarous 
 part in standing by and gazing idly on this scene of materual 
 anguish. 1 wandered to another part of the churchyard, where 
 I remained until the funeral train had dispersed. 
 
 When I saw the mother slowly and painfully quitting the 
 grave, leaving behind her the remains of all that was dear to 
 her on earth, and returning to silence and destitution, my heart 
 ached for her. What, thought I, are the distresses of the ricli? 
 Tliey iiave friends to soothe — pleasures to beguile — a world 
 to divert and dissipate their griefs. What are the sorrows of 
 the young? Their growing minds soon close above the womul 
 
 — tlieir ♦'histie Hi)irits soon rise beneath the pressure — tlicir 
 green and ductile affections soon twine around new objects. 
 But the sorrows of the i>oor, who have no outward appliances 
 to soothe — the sorrows of the aged, with whom life at best iu 
 Init a wintry day, and who can look for no aftergrowth of joy 
 
 — the sorrows of a widow, aged, solitjiry, destitute, mourning 
 over an only son the last solace of her years; — these are 
 indeed sorrows whicli make us feel the impotency of consolation. 
 
 It was some time before I left the churchyard. On ray way 
 homeward, I met with the woman who had acted as comforter: 
 she *as jnst returning from accompanying the mother to her 
 lonely habitation, and I drew from her some particulars con- 
 nected with the affecting sceae I had witnessed. 
 
 The parents of the (1 'ceased had resided in the village from 
 childhood. They had inhabited one of the neatest cottages, 
 and by various rural occupations, and the assistance of a small 
 garden, had supported themselves creditably and comfortably, 
 and led a happy and a blameless life. They had one son, who 
 bad grown up to be the staff and pride of their age. — "Oh, 
 siirl" said tiic good woman, "he was such a comely lad, so 
 aweet- tempered, so kind to every one around him, so dutiful to 
 \am parents ! It did one's heart good to see him of a Sunday, 
 OP' in his best, so tall, so straight, so cheery, supporting 
 ►Id mother to church — for she was always fonder of leaning 
 iorg"'s arm than on her good man's ; and, poor soul, she 
 well be proud of him, for a tiner lad there was not in the 
 ry roAXud." 
 fcrfortuamtely, the s«n wa.^ tempted, during a ^-earof scarcity 
 i j^ricultural hardsship. to enter into the service of one of 
 small craft tliuit phietl on a neJLi'iboring river. He had not 
 long in tlii.s emft»i«jv. wben In was ent-:ipr>«'d by :i press- 
 and carried off u> liea. His parents e^ ivetl Ldiugs of 
 
 f 
 
 his seizure, bu 
 the loss of tl 
 infirm, grew h 
 The widow, 1 
 longer support 
 was a kind of 
 certain rcspec 
 one applied 
 happy days, s 
 solitary and i 
 chiefly supplit 
 den, which th 
 It was but a 
 gtances were 
 for her repast 
 garden sudde 
 be looking eu 
 men's clothci 
 air of one brc 
 hastened tow 
 Bank on his 
 poor woman 
 — "Oh my c 
 poor boy Gc 
 noble lad ; w 
 imprisounien 
 ward, to rep< 
 I will not 1 
 where joy ai 
 alive : — he 
 and cherish 
 hira ; and if 
 fate, the des 
 ficient. He 
 owed mothe 
 rose from it 
 The villa: 
 turned, cro^ 
 ance that t 
 howevei, to 
 was his coi 
 helped by a 
 There is 
 manhood ; 1 
 
 |(t 
 
 <.*Jt^m* n mi •>!*■<*■.■ 
 
THE WIDOW AND HER SON. 
 
 85 
 
 bis seizure, but beyond that they could learn nothing. It was 
 the loss of their main prop. The father, who was already 
 infirm, grew heartless and melancholy, and sunk into his grave. 
 The widow, left lonely in her age and feebleness, could no 
 longer support herself, and came upon the parish. Still there 
 was a kind of feeling toward her throughout the village, and a 
 certain respect as being one of the oldest inhabitants. As no 
 one applied for the cottage in which she had passed so many 
 happy days, she was permitted to remain in it, where she lived 
 solitary and almost helpless. The few wants of nature were 
 chiefly supplied from the scanty productions of her little gar- 
 den, which the neighbors would now and then cultivate for her. 
 It was but a few cays before the time at whicli these circum- 
 stances were toU' me, that she was gathering some vegetables 
 for her repast, v len she heard the cottage-door which faced the 
 garden sudtlenly opened. A stranger came out, and seemed to 
 be looking eagerly and wildly around. lie was dressed in sea- 
 men's clothes, was emaciated and ghastly pale, and bore the 
 air of one broken by sickness and hardships. He saw her, and 
 liasti'ued toward her, but his steps were faint and faltering ; he 
 sank on his knees before her, and sobbed like a child. The 
 poor woman gazed upon him with a vacant and wandering eye 
 — " Oh my dear, dear mother ! don't you know your son? your 
 poor boy George?" It was, indeed, the wreck of her once 
 noble lad ; who, shattered by wounds, by sickness, and foreign 
 imprisonment, had, at length, dragged his wasted limbs home- 
 ward, to repose among the scenes of his childhood. 
 
 I will not attempt to detail the particulars of such a meeting, 
 where joy and sorrow were so completely blended : still he was 
 alive I — he was come home! — he might yet live to comfort 
 and cherish her old age ! Nature, however, was exhausted in 
 him ; and if anything had been wanting to finish the work of 
 fate, the desolation of his native cottage would have been suf- 
 ficient. He stretched himself on the pallet on which his wid- 
 owed mother had passed many a sleepless night, and he never 
 rose from it again. 
 
 The villagers, when they heard that George Somers had re- 
 turned, crowded to see him, offering every comfort and assist- 
 ance that their humble means afforded. He was too weak, 
 howevei , to talk — he could only look his thanks. His mother 
 was his constant attendant ; and he seemed unwilling to be 
 helped by any other hand. 
 
 There is something in sickness that breaks down the pride of 
 manhood ; that softens the heart and brings it back to the feel 
 
»b' 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ings of infancy. Who that has languished, even in advanced 
 life, in sickness and despondency ; who that has pined on a 
 weary bed in the neglect uud loneliness of a foreign land ; but 
 has thought on the mother " that looked on his childhood," that 
 smoothed his pillow, and administered to his helplessness? Oh! 
 there is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a 
 son, that transcends all other affections of the heart. It is 
 neither to be chilled by selfishness, nor daunted by danger, nor 
 weakened by worthlessnees, nor stifled by 'jgratitude. She 
 will sacrifice every comfort to his convenience ; she will surrren- 
 der every pleasure to his enjoyment ; she will glory in his fame, 
 and exult in his prosperity ; — and, if misfortune overtake him, 
 he will be the dearer to her from misfortune ; ond if disgrace 
 settle upon his name, she will still love and cherish him in spite 
 of his disgrace ; and if all the world beside cast him off, she 
 will he all the world to him. 
 
 Poor George Somers had known what it was to be in sick- 
 ness, and nono to soothe — lonely and in prison, and none to 
 visit him. He could not endure his mother from his sight ; if 
 she moved away, L'.s eye would follow her. She would sit for 
 hours by his bed, watching him as he slept. Sometimes he 
 would start from a feverish dream, and look anxious'iy up until 
 he saw her bending over him, when he would take her hand, lay 
 it on his bosom, and fall asleep with the tranquillity of a child. 
 In this way he died. 
 
 My first impulse, on hearing this humble tale of affliction, was 
 to visit the cottage of the mourner, and administer pecuniary 
 assistance, and, if possible, comfort. I found, however, on 
 inquiry, that the good feelings of the villagers had prompted 
 them to do every thing that the ease admitted ; and as the poor 
 know best how to console each other's sorrows, I did not ven- 
 ture to intrude. 
 
 The next Sunday I was at the village church ; when, to my 
 surprise, I saw the poor old woman tottering down the aisie 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 
 ribbon 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 
 storied monuments, the stately hatchments, the cold marble 
 pomp, with which grandeur mourned magnificently over do- 
 parted pride, und turned to this poor widow, bowed down b}' 
 
THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN, EASTCHEAP. 87 
 
 nge and sorrow at the altar of her God, and offering up tha 
 prayers and praises of a pious, though a broken heart, 1 felt 
 that this living monument of real grief was worth them all. 
 
 I related her story to some of the wealthy members of the 
 congregation, and they were moved by it. They exerted them- 
 selves to render her situation more comfortable, and to lighten 
 her afflictions. It was, however, but smootliing a few steps to 
 the grave. In the course of a Sunday or two after, she was 
 missed from her usual seat at ehurch, aud before I left the 
 neighborhood, I heard with a feeling of satisfaction, that she 
 had quietly breathed her last, aud had gone to rejoin those she 
 loved, in that world where sorrow is uever known, and friends 
 are never parted. 
 
 '1 : ii Y 
 
 I- .1 ( 
 
 THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN, EASTCHEAP. 
 
 A SHAKSPEARIAN RESEARCH. 
 
 ''A tavern is the rendezvous, the exchange, the staple of good fellows. I have heard 
 rriy great-graudfather tell, how his grcatgicat-graiulfnlhcr should say, that it was an old 
 proverb when his great-grandfather was a child, that ■ it was a good wiod that blew a 
 man to the wine.'" — Mother BoMBiB. 
 
 It is a pious custom, in some Catiiolic countries, to honor the 
 memory of saints by votive lights burnt before their pictures. 
 The popularity of a saint, theiefore, may be known by the 
 number of these offerings. One, perhaps, is left to moulder in 
 the darkness of his little chapel ; another may have a solitary 
 lamp to throw its blinking rays atliwart his effigy ; while the 
 whole blaze of adoration is lavished at the slirine of some beati- 
 fied father of renown. The wealthy devotee biiiign his huge 
 luminary of wax ; the eager zealot, his seven-biTiiiched oandlc" 
 stick ; and even the mendicant pilgrim is by no means satisfied 
 that sufficient light is tiii'own upon the deceased, unless he hangs 
 nn his little lamp of smoking oil. The consequence is, that in the 
 eagerness to enlighten, they are often apt to obscure ; and I 
 have occasionally seen an unlucky saint almost smoked out of 
 countenance by the oHlciousness of liis followers. 
 
 In like manner has it fai'od with the immortal Shakspeare. 
 Every writer considers it his bounden duty, to ligiit up some 
 portion of his character or works, and to rescue some merit 
 fiorn oblivion. The commentator, opulent in words, produces 
 Tast tom«8 of dissertations ; Hie common herd of editoi-s send 
 
 ' ): 
 
 ' ?i 
 
 H^: 
 
 ! ' f . 
 
88 
 
 THE SEETCU-BOOK. 
 
 li 
 
 '• !' 
 
 M .d la 
 
 up mists of obscurity from tlieir notes at the bottom of each 
 page ; and every casual scribbler brings his farthing rush-light 
 of eulogy or research, to swell the cloud of incense an<i of 
 
 smoke. 
 
 As I honor all established usages of my brethren of the quill, 
 I thought it but proper to contribute my mite 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 ftvery attempt at a new reading ; 
 every doubtful line had been explained a dozen different ways, 
 and perplexed beyond the reach of elucidation ; and as to tine 
 passages they had all been amply praised by previous admirers : 
 nay, so completely had the bard, of late, been overlarded with 
 panegyric by a great German critic, that it was diflicult now to 
 find even a fault that had not been argued into a beauty. 
 
 In this perplexity, I was one morning turning over his pages, 
 when I casually opened upon the comic scenes of Henry IV., 
 and was, in a moment, completely lost in the madcap revelry 
 of the Boar's Head Tavern. So vividly and naturally are those 
 ocenes of humor depicted, and with such force and consistency 
 are the characters sustained, that they become mingled up in 
 ihe mind with the facts and personages of real life. To few 
 readers does it occur, that these are all ideal creations of a 
 poet's brain, and that, in sober truth, no such knot of merry 
 roysters ever enlivened the dull neighborhood of Eastcheap. 
 
 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 tlionsand years since ; 
 And, if I may be excused such an insensil)ility to the common 
 ties of human nature, I would not give up fat .lack for half the 
 great men of ancient chronicle. What have the lieroes of yore 
 done for me, or men like me? The}' have concpiered countries 
 of which I do not enjoy an acre ; or they have gained laurels of 
 which I do not inherit a leaf; or they have furnished examples 
 of hare-brained prowess, which I have neither the opportunity 
 nor the inclination to follow. But old Jack Falstaff ! — kind 
 Jack Falstaff! — sweet .Jack Falstaff! has enlarged the bound- 
 aries of human enjo^'ment ; he has added vast regions of wit 
 and good-humor, in which the poorest man may ri>\ el ; and has 
 bequeathed a never-failing inheritance of jolly laughter, to make 
 mankind merrier and better to the latest posterity. 
 
 A thought suddenly struck me: "I will make a pilgrimage 
 to P^astcheap," said I, closing the book, " and see if the old 
 Boar's Head Tavern still exists. Who knows but I may lighl 
 
 THE B 
 
 upon some leg* 
 at any rate, tl 
 halls once voc 
 qmelling the ei: 
 The respluti* 
 I forbear to tr 
 ooiuiteied in r 
 of tlie faded g 
 wluit perils 1 
 reuowued Guil 
 wonder of the 
 how I visited 
 iiniLatiou of th 
 Let it sutlic* 
 cheap, that an 
 aamos of the 
 bears testimot 
 old Stowe, *' ^ 
 cookes cried 1 
 other victuals 
 and sawtrie." 
 roaring days 
 has given pla 
 pots and the t 
 and the aecur 
 beard, save, 
 chanting the 
 I sought, 
 The only leli 
 which former 
 the parting 
 renowned ol 
 Kor the h 
 'efoned to 
 Iiorn and brc 
 indisputable 
 in a little ba 
 yard about c 
 a glass dooi 
 through a > 
 which conii: 
 the little wo 
 be'Mg, for ll 
 To be ve 
 
 1 
 
THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN, EA8TCHEAP. 
 
 89 
 
 upon some legendary traces of Dame Quickly and her guests ; 
 at any rate, there will be a kindred pleasure, in treading the 
 balls once vocal with their mirth, to that the toper enjoys in 
 qiuelling the empty cask, 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 en- 
 ooimtered in my travels, of the haunted regions of Cock-lane ; 
 of tlie faded glories of Little liritain, and the parts adjacent ; 
 wluit perils 1 ran in Cateaton-street and Old Jewry; of the 
 renowned Guildhall and its two stunted giants, the pride and 
 wonder of the city, and the terror of all unlucky urchins ; and 
 how I visited Loudon Stone, and struck my staff upon it, in 
 iinitiition of that urch-rebel, Jack Cade. 
 
 Let it sutiice to say, that I at length arrived in merry East- 
 cheap, that ancient region of wit and wassail, where the very 
 QaniL'3 of the streets relished of good cheer, as Pudding-lane 
 bears testimony even at the present day. For Eastcheap, says 
 old Stowe, " was always famous for its convivial doings. The 
 cookes cried hot ribbes of beef roasted, pies well baked, and 
 other victuals ; there was clatterhig of pewter pots, harpe, pipe, 
 and sawtric." Alas ! how sadlv is the scene changed since the 
 rotuiiiif days of Falstuff and old Stowe ! The madcap royster 
 has given place to the plodding tradesman ; the clattering of 
 pots and tlio sound of " harpe and sawtrie," to the din of carts 
 and the accursed dinging oC the dustman's bell ; and no song is 
 heard, save, haply, the strain of some siren from Billingsgate, 
 chanting the eulogy of deceased mackerel. 
 
 I sought, in vain, for the ancient abode of Dame Quickly. 
 The only relic of it is a boar's head, carved in relief in stone, 
 which formerly served as the sign, but, at present, is built into 
 the parting hue of two houses which stand on the site of the 
 renowned old tavern. 
 
 For the history of this little abode of good fellowship, I was 
 referred to a tallow-chandler's widow, opposite, who had been 
 l)orn and brought up on the spot, ar.'i was looked up to, as the 
 indisputable chronicler of the neighborhood. I found her seated 
 in a little back parlor, the window of which looked out upon a 
 yard about eight feet square, laid out as a flower-garden ; while 
 a glass doi>r opposite afforded a distant peep of the street, 
 through a vista of soap and tallow candles ; the two views, 
 which comprised, in all probability, her prospects in life, and 
 the little world in which she had lived, and moved, and had her 
 be'ng, for the better part of a century. 
 
 To be versed in the history of Eastcheap, great and little, 
 
 If : M 
 
 r ■• . I 
 
 1 ; '.i. 
 
 b n 
 
 r m 
 
! ! 
 
 I 1 
 
 90 
 
 TBS SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 from London Stone even unto the Monument, was, doubtless, 
 in her opinion, to be acquainted with the history of the uni- 
 verse. Yet, with till this, she possessed the simplicity of true 
 wisdom, and that liberal, communicative disposition, which I 
 have generally remarked in intelligent old ladies, knowing in 
 the concerns of their neighborhood. 
 
 Her information, however, did not extend far back into 
 antiquity. She could throw no light upon the history of the 
 Boar's Head, fron' the time that Dame Quickly espoused the 
 valiant Pis,tol, antil the great fire of London, whoi it was un- 
 fortuuatel} burnt ,l( \vu. It was soon rebuilt, and continued to 
 flourish under the old name and sign, until a dying landlord, 
 struck with remorse for double scores, bad measures, and other 
 iniquities which are incident to the sinful race of publicans, 
 endeavored to make his peace with Heaven, by bequeathing the 
 tavern to St. Michael's church, Crooked-lane, toward the sup- 
 porting of a chaplain. F'or some time the vestry meetings were 
 regularly held there ; but it was observed that the old Boar 
 never held up his head under church government. He gradu- 
 alb- declined, and finally gave his last gasp about thirty years 
 since. The tavern was then turned into shops ; but she in- 
 formed me that a picture of it was still i)reserved in St. Michael's 
 church, which stood just in the rear. To get a sight of this 
 picture was now my determination ; so, having informed myself 
 of the abode of the sexton, I took my leave of the venerable 
 chronicler of Eustohcap, my visit having doubtless raised greatly 
 her opinion of her legendary lore, and furnished an important 
 incident in the history of her life. 
 
 It cost me some difficulty and much curious inquiry, to 
 ferret out the huml)le hanger-on to the church. 1 had to 
 explore Crooked-lane, and divers little alleys, and elbows, and 
 dark passages, witli which this old citj' is perforated, like au 
 ancient ciioese, or a worm-eaten chest of drawers. At length 
 I traced iiun to a corner of a small court, surrounded by lofty 
 houses, wiiere the inhabitants enjoy about as much of the face 
 of heaven as a commuuity of frogs at the bottom of a well. 
 The sexton was a meek, acquiesoing little man, of a bowing, 
 lowly habit ; yet he had a pleasant twinkling in his eye, and if 
 encouraged, would now and then hazard a small pleasantry; 
 such as a man of his low estate might venture to makt in the 
 company of high church wardens, and other mighty men of 
 the earth. I found him in company with the deputy organist, 
 seated apart, like Milton's angels; discoursing, no doubt, on 
 high doctrinal points, and settling the affairs of the church 
 
 THE Bl 
 
 over a friendb 
 eeldom delibei 
 ance of a cool 
 at the moment 
 nient, and wen 
 80, having ma 
 permission to i 
 
 The church > 
 distance from 
 fishmongers of 
 of glory, and 
 monument of 
 garded with a 
 the craft, as i 
 or soldiers the 
 
 I cannot bi 
 men, to obse 
 also the ashes 
 Knight, who i 
 Tyler, in Smi 
 almost the or 
 arms ; the sov 
 tho most paciti 
 
 Adjoining 
 under tlie ba 
 stands the ton 
 tavern. It 
 of good liquc 
 deposited witl 
 
 ' The followiii] 
 which, unhappily, 
 
 Afe error In th 
 - WhoreaH," sniili 
 rebel HiiiiiUMi tlo' 
 Miiior, wiiH iinmo 
 rash c'oiieeivtid di 
 j)rim'ip;il IciuIoih 
 we wcoud w(M J( 
 
THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN, EASTCHEAP. 91 
 
 over a friendly pot of ale ; for the lower classes of English 
 seldom deliberate on anj' weighty matter without the assist- 
 ance of a cool tankard to clear their understandings. I arrived 
 at the moment when they had finished their ale and their argu- 
 ment, and were about to repair to the church to put it in order ; 
 80, having made known my wishes, I received their gracious 
 permission to accompany th"m. 
 
 The church of St. Michael's, Crooked-lane, standing a short 
 distance from Billingsgate, is enriched with the tombs of many 
 fishmongers of renown ; and as every profession has its galaxy 
 of glory, and its constellation of great men, I presume the 
 monument of a mighty fishmonger of the olden time is re- 
 garded with as much reverence by succeeding generations of 
 ihe craft, as poets feel on contemplating the tomb of Virgil, 
 or soldiers the monument of a Marlborough or Turenne. 
 
 I cannot but turn aside, \^hile thus speaking of illustrious 
 men, to observe that St. Michael's, Crooked-lane, contains 
 also the ashes of that doughty champion, William Walworth, 
 Knight, who so manfully clove down the sturdy wight, Wat 
 Tyler, in Smithfield ; a hero worthy of honorable blazon, as 
 almost the only Lord Mayor on record famous for deeds of 
 arms ; the sovereigns of Cockney being generally renowned as 
 the most pacific of all potentates.^ 
 
 Adjoining the church, in a small cemetery, immediately 
 under the bucik window of what was once the Boar's Head, 
 stands the tombstone of Robert Preston, whilom drawer at the 
 tavern. It is now nearly a century since this trusty drawer 
 of good liquor closed his bustling career, and was thus quietly 
 deposited within call of his customers. As I was clearing away 
 
 > The following v/am the ancient inscription on the monument of this worthy 
 which, unhappily, was deHtroyed in tho great conflagration. 
 
 llcrpundor lylh a man of fame, 
 Wllllani Walwoith callyd by name; 
 KlHlniiontiiT lie wan In lyt'ftiinc Iicmc, 
 And twln<> Lord Maior, an in liookH appeare; 
 Who, with L'ouiage xluut and manly myght, 
 Slew .lack Straw In Kyni; Klohard'H bight. 
 For which act done, and trcw entent. 
 The Kyng made him Ivnyght incontinent; 
 And gnvo hi in armes, as hero yon b««, 
 To declare liiB fact and chlvaldrie : 
 lie left tliiH lyff 'he yero of our (lod 
 Tiilrteon hundri^i foiirncore and three odd. 
 
 Ak error In the foregoing inscription nas been correcti'd hy the venerable Stow», 
 •- Whereas," sftith he, " it hath been far Hiiread abroad by vnlgar opinion, that tta« 
 wbcl Hniitlon down »o manfully by Sir William Walworth, the then \yorlhy Loi-«S 
 Maior, wan named .Tack Straw, and not Wat Tyler, I thought good to reconcile thia 
 rasli conceived doubt by such testimony an I find in Hiicicnl and good record*. 'Vh» 
 principal liMuleiH, or capUlns of the coinmoii", were Wat I'yler, ax the flrM IBMIi 
 we lecoud v/m John, or Jucli, tilruw, elc., ttlc." — Urowa'a Loitdom. 
 
 >■ \lh 
 
 ll^^i'li 
 
 3 I 
 
 II' >\ 1 
 
 M 
 
i 
 
 :i- 
 
 92 
 
 THE SKErCII-liOOK. 
 
 the weeds from his epitaph, the little sexton drew me on one 
 side with a mysterious uir, and informed me, in a low voice, 
 that ouce upon a tinio, (Mi a dark wintry nioht. when llu; wimi 
 was unruly, howling and whistling, banging about doors ami 
 windows, and twirling weatliereoeks, so that the living were 
 frightened out ol'tiieir l)eds, and even the dead eould not slwp 
 qufetly in tlieir graves, the gliost of honest Preston, whieh luip- 
 peued to be airing itself in the eliurehyaid, was attraeted hy 
 the well-known eall of " waiter," from the Boar's Head, uiui 
 made its sridik'u appearanee in the midst of a roaring dub, 
 just as the parish clerk was singing a stave from the "mirre 
 garland of Caiitain Death ; " to the iliseonitlture of sundry train- 
 band captains, anil the conversion of an infidel attorney, wlio 
 became a zealous Christian on the spot, and was never known 
 to twist the truth afterwards, except in tlie way of l)usincsrs. 
 
 I beg it may b(; I'emembered, that I do not pledge niysclt for 
 the autiienticity of this anecdote ; though it is well known that 
 the churchyards and by-corners of this old metropolis aiv very 
 much infested with perturbed spirits; and every one nuist have 
 heard of the Cock-lane ghost, and the apparition that guards 
 the regalia in the Tower, which has frightened so many bold 
 sentinels almost out of their wits. 
 
 Be all this as it may, this Robert Preston seems to have 
 been a worthy successor to the nimble-tongued Francis, who 
 attended upon the revels of Prince Hal ; to have been equally 
 prompt with his "anon, anon, sir," and to have transcended 
 his predecessor in honesty ; for Falstaff, the veracity of whose 
 taste no man will venture to impeach, flatly accuses Francis 
 of putting lime in his sack; whereas, honest Preston's epitaph 
 lauds him for the sobriety of his conduct, the .soundness of his 
 wine, and the fairness of his ) measure. ^ The wo'thy dignitaries 
 of the church, however, did not appear much captivated by 
 the sober virtues of the tapster: the deputy organist, who had 
 a moist look out of the eye, made some shiewd remark on the 
 
 • Ab this inHciiplion in rife with excellent morality, I tranHeritie it fur the ;j,dino- 
 nition of cieliii(|ueiit tap»ters. It is, no doubt, the (iiodiuaioii of oome choice spirit 
 wbu oucf frequented the lioar'sHead. 
 
 Bacchn», to give the toping world Hiirprise, 
 Produced one hoIut son, and here he lies. 
 Thoiiifh reiir'd iinioni; fnll hi)i,'«hi'ii(l?', he dcQcd 
 The charms of wiiie, timl every one hiMide. 
 O reader, if to justice thou 'rl inclined, 
 Keep hoiU'st Preston daily in thy miud. 
 He (iiew t,'ood wine, tool* -jare to till his pots, 
 Had sundry virtues i' m excused Ills faults. 
 You tliHl on Hm' wUs have the lii<e dependence, 
 i'ruy copy '\,u, il lueajiure dud attuuduuce. 
 
THE BOAR'S HEAD TAVERN, EASTCHEAP. 98 
 
 abstemiousness of a man brought up among full hogsheads ; 
 and the little sexton corroborated his opinion by a significant 
 wink, and a dubious shake of the head. 
 
 Thus far my researcnes, though they threw much light on 
 the liistoiy of tapsters, lishmongers, and Lord Mayors, yet dis- 
 appomted me in the great object of ray quest, the picture of the 
 Boar s Head Tavern. 2s'<j such painting was to be found in the 
 church of St. Michael's. "Marry and amen! " said I, "here 
 endeth my research!" So I was giving the matter up, with 
 the air of a battled antiquary, when my friend the sexton, per- 
 ceiving me to be curious ui every thing relative to the old tav- 
 ern, offered to show me the choice vessels of the vestry, which 
 had been handed down from remote times, when tlie parish 
 meetings were held at the Boar'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 neigh- 
 borhood. 
 
 A few steps brought us to the house, which stands No. 12, 
 Miles-lane, bearing the title of Tint Mason's Arms, and is kept by 
 Master Edward Iloneyball, the "bully-rook" of the establish- 
 meut. It is one of those little taverns, which abound in the 
 heart of the city, and form the centre of gossip and intelligence 
 of the neighborlujod. We entered the bar-room, which was 
 narrow and darkling ; for in these close lanes but few rays of 
 retlected light arc euabled to struggle down to the inhabitants, 
 whose broad day is at best l)ut a tolerable twilight. The room 
 was partitioned into boxes, each containing a table spread with 
 a cleau 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 roasting. A row o' bright brass candlesticks and pewter 
 mugs glistetied ..long the mantelpiece, and an old-fashioned clock 
 ticked in one corner. There was something primitive in this 
 medley of kitchen, parlor, and hall, that carried me back to 
 earlier times, and pleased me. The place, indeed, was humble, 
 but every thing had that look of order and neatness which be- 
 speaks the superintendence of a notable English housewife. A 
 group of amphibious-looking beings, who might be either fish- 
 ermen or sailors, were regaling themselves in one of the boxes. 
 As I was a visitor of rather higher pretensions, I was ushered 
 into a little misshapen back room, having at least nine corner.'. 
 It was ligiited by a skylight, furnished with antiquated leathern 
 chairs, and ornamented with the poitrait of a fat pig. It was 
 
 : «T ■ ■ 
 
 I } 
 
 lUi: 
 
 '*'|i 
 
 ''i;- 
 
 :ii.,: 
 
94 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 \ If 
 
 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 sexton had taken the landlady aside, and with an air 
 of profound importance imparted to her my errand. Dame 
 Honeyball was a likely, plump, bustling little woman, and no 
 bad substitute for that paragon of hostesses. Dame Quickly. 
 She seemed delighted with an opportunity to oblige ; and hurry. 
 ing up stairs to the archives of her house, where the precious 
 vessels of the parish club were deposited, she returned, smiling 
 and courtesying with them in her hands. 
 
 The first she presented me was a japanned iron tobacco-bo?:, 
 of gigantic size, out of which, I was told, the vestry had smoked 
 at their stated meetings, since time immemorial ; and which 
 was never suffered to be profaned by vulgar hands, or used on 
 common occasions. I received it with becoming reverence; 
 but what was my delight, at beholding on its cover the identical 
 painting of which I was in quest ! There was displayed the 
 outside of the Boar's Head Tavern, and before the door was to 
 be seen the whole convivial fjroup, at table, in full revel, pic- 
 tured with that wonderful Aiaelity and force, with which the 
 portraits of renowned generals and commodores are illustrated 
 on tobacco boxes, for the benefit of posterity. Lest, however, 
 there should be any mistake, the cunning limner had warily 
 inscribed the names of Prince Hal and Falstaff on the bottoms 
 of their chairs. 
 
 On the inside of the cover was an inscription, nearly obliter- 
 ated, recording that this box was the gift of Sir Richard Gore, 
 for the use of the vestry meetings at the Boar's Head Tavern, 
 and that it was " repaired and beautified by his successor, Mr. 
 John Packard, 1767." Such is a faithful description of tliis 
 august and venerable relic, and I question whether the learned 
 Scriblerius contemplated his Roman shield, or the Knights of 
 the Round Table the long-sought sangreal with more exultation. 
 
 While I was meditating on it with enraptured gaze, Dame 
 Honeyball, who was highly gratified by the interest it excited, 
 put in my hands a drinking cup or goblet, which also belonged 
 to the vestry, and was descended from the old Boar's Head. It 
 bore the inscription of having been the gift of Francis Wythers, 
 Knight, and was held, she told me, in exceeding great value, 
 being considered very "antyke." This last opinion was 
 strengthened by the shabby gentleman with the red r>ose, and 
 oil-cloth hat, and whom I strongly suspected of being a lineal 
 descendant from the valiant Bftrdolph. He suddenly roused 
 
TBE BOAR'S BEAD TAVBRIf, EASTCBEAP. »5 
 
 from his meditation on the pot of porter, and casting a knowing 
 look at the goblet, exclaimed, "Ay, ay, the head don't ache 
 now that made that there article." 
 
 The great importance attached to this memento of ancient 
 revelry by modern churchwardens, at first puzzled me ; but 
 there is nothing sharpens the apprehensions so much as anti< 
 quarian research ; for I immediately perceived that this could 
 be no other than the identical "parcel-gilt goblet" on which 
 Falstaff made his loving, but faithless vow to Dame Quickly ; 
 and which would, of course, be treasured up with care among 
 the regalia of her domains, as a testimony of that solemn con- 
 tract.^ 
 
 Mine hostess, indeed, gave me a long history how the goblet 
 had been handed down from generation to generation. She also 
 entertained me with many particulars concerning the worthy 
 vestrymen who have seated themselves thus quietly on the 
 stools of the ancient roysters of Eastcheap, and, like so many 
 commentators, utter clouds of smoke in honor of Shakspearc. 
 These I forbear to relate, lest my readers should not be as 
 curious in these matters as myself. Suffice it to say, the neigh- 
 bors, one and all, about Eastcheap, believe that Falstaff and 
 his merry crew actually lived and revelled there. Nay, there 
 are several legendary anecdotes concerning him still extant 
 among the oldest frequenters of the Mason's Arms, which they 
 give as transmitted down from their forefathers ; and Mr. 
 M'Kash, an Irish hair-dresser, whose shop stands on the site 
 of the old Boar'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 sexton to make some further 
 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 see a 
 tear trembling in his eye, yet a moisture was evidently steal- 
 ing from a corner of his mouth. I followed the direction of 
 his eye through the door which stood open, and found it fixed 
 wistfully on the savory breast of lamb, roasting in dripping 
 richness before the fire. 
 
 I now called to mind, that in the eagerness of my recondite 
 investigation, I was keeping the poor man from his dinner. 
 
 ■ Thou didst swMr to rae upon » parctlgilt goblet, ■itling in my Dolphin-chamber, at 
 
 the round table, by a gca-coal tire, on WedncHday in Whitsun-wack, when the Prince 
 brolie thy head for lilienlnfi; his father to a itjui;ing-inan at Windsor; thou didsi awear to 
 me then, as 1 was washini; thy wuuuu, lu lumry ue, aod make mo my lady Mm miip- 
 CauBt thou deny it? — Mtnry IV part H. 
 
 • 1 
 
 1 
 
96 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 f 5 
 
 i I '^ i 
 
 My bowels yearned with sympathy, and putting in his hand 
 a small token of my gratitiule and good-will, I departed with a 
 hearty benediction on him, Dame Honeyball, and the parisli 
 club of Croo]<ed-lane — not forgetting my shabby, but senten- 
 tious friend, in the oil-eloth hat and copper nose. 
 
 Thus liave I given a " tedious brief " account of this interest- 
 ing researeli ; for which, if it prove too short and unsatisfactory, 
 I can only plead my inexperience in this branch of literature, 
 eo deservedly popular at tlie present day. I am aware tliat a 
 more skilful illustrator of the immortal bard would have swelled 
 the materials 1 have touched upon, to a good merchantable hulk, 
 comprising the biographies of William Walworth, Jack Straw, 
 and Robert Preston ; some notice of the eminent fishmongers 
 of St. Michael's; the history of Eastcheap, great and little; 
 private anecdotes of Dame Honeyball and her pretty daughtor, 
 whom I have not even mentioned : to say nothing of a damsel 
 tending the breast of lamb, (and whom, by the way, I remarked 
 to be a comely lass, with a neat foot and ankle;) the whole 
 enlivened by the riots of Wat Tyler, and illuminated l)y the 
 great fire of London. 
 
 All this I leave as a rich mint;, to be worked by future com- 
 raentators ; nor do 1 despair of seeing the tobacco-box, and 
 the " parcel-gilt goblet," which I have thus brought to liirht, 
 the subjects of future engravings, and almost as fruitful of 
 voluminous dissertations and disputes as the shield of Achilles, 
 or the far-famed Portland vase. 
 
 THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE. 
 
 A COLLOQUY IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 I know that all beneath the mnon clecayE, 
 And what hy niortalH in thin woild ia brought, 
 Id time's great period Bhall return to nought. 
 
 I know that all the muecs' heavenly lays, 
 With toil of Hprite which are bo dearly bought, 
 Ab idle Bounds, of few or none are sought, 
 
 That there is nothing lighter than mere praise. 
 
 DnUMMOND OP IlAWTliORNDEN. 
 
 There are certain half dreaming moods of mind, in which 
 we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek bonie 
 quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries, and build our 
 
 i 'IV 
 
THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE. 
 
 97 
 
 air castles undisturbed. In such a mood, I was loitering about 
 the old gray cloisters of Westminster Abbey, enjoying that 
 liixuiy of wandering thought which one is ajit to dignify with 
 the iiiuiic of reHection ; when suddenly an irruption of niad- 
 (^iip liitys froiu Westminster school, playing at foot-ball, broke 
 in upon the monastic stiiliiess of the ])hun', making the vaulted 
 iKUSiiigcs and mouldering touiLs echo with their n)erriment. T 
 MHiglit to take refuge from their noise by penetrating still 
 (IcLjier into the solitudes of the pile, and applied to one of 
 the vergers for admission to the library. He coiubicoed me 
 through a portal, rich with the crumbling sculpture of former 
 ages, which opened upon a gloomy passage leading to the 
 Chapter-house, and the chamber in which Doomsday Book 
 is di'i)Osited. Just within the passage is a small door on the 
 left. To this the verger a[)plied 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 sec- 
 ond door, entered the library. 
 
 1 found myself in a lofty antique hall, the roof supported 
 by massive joists of old English oak. It was soberly lighted by 
 a row of Gothic windows at a considerable height from the 
 floor, and which apparently opened upon the roofs of the clois- 
 ters. An ancient i)icture of some reverend dignitary of the 
 church in his robes hung over the fireplace. Around the hall 
 and in a small gallery were the books, arranged in carved 
 oaken cases. They consisted principally of old polemical 
 writers, and were much more worn by time than use. In the 
 centic of the library was a solitary table, with two or three 
 books on it, an inkstand without ink, and a few ])ens parched 
 by long disuse. The place seemed fitted for quiet study and 
 profound meditation. It was buried deej) 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 schoolboys 
 faintly swelling from the cloisters, and the sound of a'bell toll- 
 ing f'oi prayers, echoing soberly along the roofs of the abbey. 
 Wy degrees the shouts of merriment grew fainter and fainter, 
 and at length died away. The bell ceased to toll, and a pro- 
 found silence reigned through the dusky hall. 
 
 I hail taken (lown a little thick quarto, curiously bound in 
 parchment, with brass clasps, and seated myself at the table in 
 a venerable elbow chair. Instead of reading, however, I was 
 beguiled by the solemn monastic air and lifeless quiet of the 
 lil;'(!f', into a train of musing. As I looked around upon the old 
 volumes in their mouldering covers, thus ranged on the shelves, 
 
 : !B;S 
 
 m 
 
 ii i 
 
98 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 and apparently never disturbed in their repose, I could not but 
 consider the library a kind of literary catacomb, where authors, 
 like mummies, are piously entombed, and left to blacken and 
 moulder in dusty oblivion. 
 
 How much, thought 1, has each of these volumes, now thrust 
 aside with such indifference, cost some aching head — how 
 many weary days ! how many sleepless nights ! How have 
 their authors buried themselves in the solitude of cells and 
 cloisters; shut themselves up from the face of man, and tin 
 still more blessed face of nature ; and devoted themselves to 
 painful research 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 
 churchman, or casual straggler like myself ; and in another iige 
 to be lost even to remembrance. Such is the amount of this 
 boasted immortality. A mere temporary rumor, a local sound ; 
 like the tone of that bell which has just tolled among these 
 towers, filling the ear for a moment — lingering transiently in 
 echo — and then passing away, like a thing that was not I 
 
 While I sat half-murmuring, half-meditating these unprofit.i- 
 ble speculations, with my head resting on my hand, I was 
 thrumming with the other hand upon the quarto, until I acei 
 dentally loosened the ciasps ; when, to my utter astonishment, 
 the little book gave two or three yawns, like one awaking from 
 a deep sleep ; then a husky hem, and at length began to talk. 
 At first its voice was very hoarse and broken, being much trou- 
 bled by a cobweb which some studious spider had woven across 
 it ; and having probably contracted a cold from long exposure 
 to the chills and damps of the abbey. In a short time, how- 
 ever, it became more distinct, and I soon found it an exceed- 
 ingly fluent conversable little tome. Its language, to be sure, 
 was raiher quaint and obsolete, and its pronunciation what in 
 the present day would be deemed barbarous ; but I shall en- 
 deavor, as far as I am able, to render it in modern parlance. 
 
 It began with railings about the neglect of the world — about 
 merit being suffered to languish in obscurity, and other such 
 commonplace topics of literary repining, 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, trifled with them for a few moments, 
 and then returned them to their shelves. 
 
 " What a plague do they mean," said the little quarto, which 
 I began to pe;v:»eive was somewhat choleric, '' what a plague do 
 they mean by keeping several thousand vohmies of us shut up 
 
 THE 
 
 bere, and watchc 
 in a harem, mer 
 Books were writ 
 would have a ru 
 a visit at least o 
 let them once in 
 minster among i 
 an airing. 
 
 " Softly, my 
 how much bettei 
 tion. By being 
 the treasured n 
 enshrined in the 
 contemporary n 
 have long since 
 ''Sir," said 
 big, " I was wr 
 of" an abbey, 
 like other grea 
 clasped up for i 
 fallen a prey t 
 geance with my 
 an opportunity 
 pieces." 
 
 " My good f 
 
 circulation of i 
 
 been no more. 
 
 well stricken in 
 
 at present in ( 
 
 being immured 
 
 io add, instead 
 
 and gratefully 
 
 religious establ 
 
 and where, by 
 
 endure to an a: 
 
 your ontempc 
 
 with their wor 
 
 Lincoln ? No 
 
 taUty. He is 
 
 He built, as 
 
 name : but, al 
 
 few fragments 
 
 scarcely distui 
 
 of Giraldus C 
 
 
THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE. 
 
 Iiere, and watched by a set of old vergers, like so many beauties 
 in a harem, merely to be looked at now and then by the Dean? 
 Books were written to give pleasure and to be enjoyed ; and 1 
 would have a rule passed that the Dean should pay each of us 
 g 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 West 
 minster among us, that at any rpte we may now and then have 
 an airing. 
 
 "Softly, my worthy friend," replied I, "you are not aware 
 how much bettor you are off than most books of your genera- 
 tion. By boiug stored away in this .ancient library, you are like 
 the treasured remains of those snints and mouarchs which lie 
 enshrined in the adjoining ch.apels ; while the remains of your 
 contemporary mortals, left to the ordinary course of nature, 
 have long since returned to dust." 
 
 "Sir," said the little tome, rufllling his leaves and looking 
 big, " I was written for all the world, not for the bookworms 
 of an abbey. I was intended to circulate 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 ven- 
 geance with my intestines, if you had not 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 physiognomy, you are now 
 well stricken in years ; very few of your contemporaries can be 
 at present in existence ; and those few owe their longevity to 
 being immured like yourself In old libraries ; which, suffer me 
 io add, instead of likening to harems, you might more properly 
 and gratefully have compared to those infirmaries attached to 
 religious establishments, for the benefit of the old and decrepit, 
 and where, by quiet fostering and no employment, they often 
 endure to an amazingly good-for-nothing old age. You talk of 
 your ontemporaries as if in circulation — where do we meet 
 with their works? — what do we hear of Robert Groteste of 
 Lincoln ? No one could h ive toiled harder than he for immor- 
 tality. He is said to have written nearly two hundred volumes. 
 He built, as it were, a j yramid of books to perpetuate his 
 name : but, alas ! the pyramid has long since fallen, and only a 
 few fragments are scattered in various libraries, where they are 
 scarcely disturbed even by the antiquarian. What do we her.r 
 of Giraldus Cambrensis, the historian, antiquary, philosopher. 
 
 •'r 
 
 
 i:!i^ 
 
 11 cJ 
 
 I 1 in , 
 
 ! ■; 
 
100 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 .; 
 
 ii 
 
 theologian, and poet? He declined two bishoprics, that he 
 might shut himself up and write for posterity ; liut posterity 
 never inquires after his labors. What of Henry of Hunting. 
 don, who, besides a learned history of England, wrote a treatise 
 on the contempt of the world, which the world has revenged by 
 forgetting him ? What is quoted of Joseph of Exeter, styled 
 the miracle of his age in classical composition ? Of his IhrcG 
 great heroic poems, one is lost forever, excepting a mere frag- 
 ment; the others are known only to a few of the curious in 
 literature ; and as to his love verses and epigrams, tliey have 
 entirely disappeared. What is in current use of John \Vallis, 
 the Franciscan, who acquired the name of the tree of life? — 
 of William of Malmsbury ; of Simeon of Durham ; of Ik'nedict 
 of Peterborough; of John Hauvill of St. Albans; of " 
 
 "Prithee, friend," cried the quarto in a testy tone, "how 
 old do 3'ou think me? You are talking of authors that lived 
 long before my time, and wrote either in Latin or P'rencli, so 
 that they in a manner expatriated themselves, and deserved to 
 be forgotten ; * but I, sir, was ushered into the world from the 
 press of the renowned AVynkyn de Worde. I was written in 
 my own native tongue, at a time when the l:Miguage had become 
 fixed ; and, indeed, 1 was considered a tnoclel of pure and elegaut 
 English." 
 
 [I should observe that these remarks were conclied in such 
 intolerably anti(iuated terms, tliat I have h:ul uilliiite dillieulty 
 in rendering them into modern phraseology.] 
 
 " I cry your mercy, ' said I, " for mistaking your age ; but it 
 matters little ; almost all the writes of your time have likewise 
 passed into forgetfulness ; and I)e Worde's jiublications are 
 mere literary rarities among book-collectors. Tiie i)urity and 
 stability of language, too, on which you found your claims to 
 perpetuity, have been the fallacious dependence of authors of 
 every age, even back to the times of the wortliy Hubert of 
 Gloucester, who wrote his history in rhymes of mongrel Saxon." 
 Even now, many talk of Spenser's ' well of pure English unde- 
 filed,' as if the language ever sprang from a well or foiuitain- 
 
 ' III LaUti and French hath many fioucruine wltlCH hud j;rcat dolyte to eudlt*', and 
 have many noble tbin^H fulflldc, liiil cortCH there ben come that Hpeaken their poiityii In 
 French, of which Kpeehe the Krenclimon have ar< good a fanlaoye as we have In hearing 
 of Frenchmen's EugllBho. — Ciiaucek's TinUiincnt of Low. 
 
 » llolinahed, li. his Chronicle, ol)serv('H, "afterwards, also, by diliqont travell of 
 Oeffry Chaucer and Jolin (iowro, In the time of Richard the Second, and after them of 
 John Scogan and John Lydgate, monke of Henii;. our saiil toong wan l)ro\ight to an 
 excellent pagso, notwithBtanding that it never came niilo the type of perfection until the 
 lime of Queen Elizabeth, wherein .lohn Jewell, HlHhoii of Sarmn, John Kox, and Hundrle 
 learned and excellent wrIterH, hitve fully accnmpllHhed the uriitttur« of the name, to their 
 gTMt praiae mud itnutortal commuadaliuu." 
 
THE MUTABILITY OF LITSttATVttS. 
 
 101 
 
 head, and was not rather a mere confluence of various tongues, 
 nerpotually subject to changes and intermixtures. It is this 
 which has made English literature so extremely mutable, and 
 the reputation built upon it so fleeting. Unless thought can 
 be committed to something more permanent and unchangeable 
 than such a medium, even thought must share the fate of every 
 thing else, and fall into decay. This should serve as a check 
 iijx)!! the vanity and exultation of the most popular writer. He 
 finds the language in which he has embarked his fame gradually 
 altering:, and sul^joct to the dilai)idations of time and the caprice 
 of fashion. He looks back, and beholds the early authors of 
 his country, once the favorites of their day, supplanted by 
 inodt'in writers : a few short ages have covered them with ob- 
 scurity, and their merits can only be relished by the quaint 
 tasle of the bookworm. And such, he anticipates, will be the 
 fate of his own work, which, however it may be admired in its 
 day, and held up as a model of purity, will, in the course of 
 years, grow antiquated and obsolete, until it shall become al- 
 most as unintelligible in its native land as an Egyptian obelisk, 
 crone of those ilunic inscri|)tions, said to exist in the deserts 
 of Tartary. I declare," added I, with some emotion, "• when 
 1 contemplate a modern library, filled with new works in all the 
 bravery of rich gilding and binding, I feel disposed to sit down 
 and weep ; like the good Xerxes, when he surveyed his army, 
 pranked out in all the splendor of military array, and reflected 
 tliat in one hundred years not one of them would be in exist- 
 ence ! ' ' 
 
 "Ah," said the little quarto, with a heavy sigh, " I see how 
 it is; these modern scril)l)lers have superseded all the good old 
 authors. I sup[)ose nothing is read now-a-days but Sir Philip 
 Sidney's Arcadia, Sackville's stately plays and Mirror for 
 Magistrates, or the line-spun euphuisms of the ' unparalleled 
 Jol • Lyly.' " 
 
 '''iiiere you are again mistaken," said I ; " the writers whom 
 y-ou suppose in vogue, because; they happened to be so when 
 you were last in circulation, have long since had their day. 
 Sir I'hilip Sidney's Arcadia, the innnortality of which was so 
 fondly predicted by his admirers,' and which, in truth, was full 
 of noble thougiiLs, delicate images, and graceful turns of lan- 
 
 ' " Mve ever sweete Iwoke ; the Hiniplc iiimKu of hia gentle witt, and the f;oldeii piUar 
 of hJH noble coiiiaue; and ever notify unlo tlie world that thy writer waH the Heeretary 
 of elo({uenee, tlie breath of the nuiHCH, the honey bee of the dalntyeut tlowern of wilt and 
 nrle, tlio iiiili of morale and the intelleetuiil viitueM, the aniic of Hellona in the tield, the 
 tuiiKue ot Siiada iu the cbaiuUer, the Hpirite of I'ractioo iu «mum), oud U>«) para^ou of ezcelr 
 iuuuy iu prlul," — IIauvby J'i<rcr'» «iu>(t/'e»**«»«w»». 
 
 '< i i \ ■■ ■ 
 
 I I 
 
 i;* 
 
, ;.■ 
 
 J 
 
 ^^^ii 
 
 i 1!| 
 
 102 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 guage, is now scarcely ever mentioned. 8ackville has strutted 
 into obscurity ; and even Lyly, though his writings were once 
 the delight of a court, and apparently perpetuatef'. by a proverb, 
 is now scarcely known even by name. A whole c.owd of authors 
 who wrote and wrangled at the time, have likewise gone down 
 with all their writings and their controversies. Wave after wave 
 of succeeding literature has rolled over them, until they are 
 buried so deep, tliat it is only now and then that some industri- 
 ous diver after fragments of antiquity brings up a specimen for 
 the gratification of the curious. 
 
 " For my part," I continued, " I consider this mutability of 
 language a wise precaution of Providence for the benefit of the 
 world at large, and of authors in particular. To reason from 
 analogy : we daily behold the varied and beautiful tribes of vege- 
 tables springing up, flourishing, odorning the fields for a short 
 time, and then fading into dust, to make way for their success- 
 ors. Were not this the case, the fecundity of nature would be 
 a grievance instead of a blessing : the earth would groan with 
 rank and excessive vegetation, and its surface become a tangled 
 wilderness. In like manner, the works of genius and learning 
 decline and make way for subsequent productions. Language 
 gradually varies, and with it fade away the writings of authors 
 who have flourished their allotted time ; otherwise the creative 
 powers of genius would overstock the world, and the mind 
 would be completely bewildered in the endless mazes of litera- 
 ture. Formerly there were some restraints on this excessive 
 multiplication : works had to be transcribed by hand, which 
 was a slow and laborious operation ; they were written either 
 on parchment, which was expensive, so that one work was 
 often erased to make way for another ; or on papyrus, which 
 was fragile and extremely perishable. Authorship was a lim- 
 ited and unprofitable craft, pursued chiefly by monks in the 
 leisure and solitude of their cloisters. The accumulation of 
 manuscripts was slow and costly, and confined almost entirely 
 to monasteries. To these circumstances it may, in some meas- 
 ure, be owing that we have not been inundated by the intellect 
 of antiquity ; that the fountains of thoughts have not been 
 broken up, and modern genius drowned in the deluge. But the 
 inventions of paper and the press have put an end to all these 
 restraints : they have made every one a writer, and enabled 
 every mind to pour itself into print, and diffuse itself over the 
 whole intellectual world. The consequences are alarminij. 
 The stream of literature has swolUm into a torrent — augraeutcd 
 into a river — expanded into a sea. A few centuries since, tiv« 
 
m 
 
 >nce 
 erb, 
 liors 
 own 
 vave 
 
 THE MUTABILITY OF LITERATURE. 
 
 lua 
 
 or six hundred manuscripts constituted a great library ; but 
 what would you say to libraries, such as actually exist, contain- 
 ing three or four hundred thousand volumes ; legions of authors 
 at the same time busy ; and a press going on with fearfully in- 
 creasing activity, to uoubic and quadruple the number? Unless 
 some unforeseen mortality sLould break out among the progeny 
 of the Muse, now that she haii become so prolific, I tremble for 
 posterity. 1 fear the mere flue nation of language will not be 
 sufiicient. Criticism may do much ; it increases with the in- 
 crease of literature, and resembles one of those salutary checks 
 ou population spoken of by economists. All possible encour- 
 agement, 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, printers will print, and the 
 world will inevitably be overstocked with good books. It will 
 soon be tlie employment of a lifetime merely to learn their 
 names. Many a man of pa'^sable information at the present 
 (lay reads scarcely any thing but reviews, and before long a 
 man of erudition will be little better than a mere walking cata- 
 
 logue. 
 
 "My very good sir," said the little quarto, yawning most 
 drearily in my face, " excuse my interrupting you, but I per- 
 ceive you are rather given to prose. I would ask the fate of 
 an author who was making some '»oise 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-edu- 
 cated varlet, 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 Shakspcare. I presume he soon sunk into 
 oblivion." 
 
 "On the contrary," said I, "it is owing to that very man 
 that tlie literature of his period has experienced a duration 
 beyond the ordinary term of English literature. There rise 
 authors now and then, who seem proof against the mutability 
 of language, because they have rooted themselves in the un- 
 changing 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 sur- 
 face, and laying hold on the very foundations of the earth, pre- 
 serve the soil around them from being swept away by the over- 
 flowing current, and hold up many a neighboring plant, and, 
 perhaps, worthless weed, to perpetuity. Such is the case with 
 Shakspcare, whom we behold defying the encroachments of 
 time, retaining in modern use the language and literature of bis 
 
 ' 1 
 
 ■' 1 
 
 1 ' 
 
 4 1 
 
 If 
 
 4 
 
 w 
 
 
 ; 
 
 I 
 
 1 t'\i \ 
 
 i 
 
 vn 
 
 
 ' 
 
 . 1 
 
 I'll 
 
 '1, ; '■ 
 
 ; 1 
 
 I'-' 111 
 
 if ■,•'..■ 
 
 r • 'I 
 
 ^ .;■' 
 
. (■ 
 
 104 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 day, and giving duration to many an indifferent author merely 
 from Laving flourished in his vicinity. But even he, I grieve to 
 say, is gradually assuming the tint of age, and his whole form 
 is overrun oy a profusion of commentators, who, like clamDor- 
 ing vines and creepers, almost bury the noble plant that upholds 
 tbem." 
 
 Here the little quarto began to heave his sides and chuckle, 
 until at length he broke out into a plethoric fit of laughter that 
 had well nigh choked him, by reason of his excessive corpu- 
 lency. " Migbty well ! " cried he, as soon as he could recover 
 breath, "mighty well! and so you would persuade mo that 
 the literature of an age is to be perpetuated by a vagabond 
 deer-stealer ! by a man without learning ! by a poet ! for- 
 sooth—a poet!" And here he whcozed forth another fit of 
 laughter. 
 
 I confess that I felt somewhat nettled at this rudeness, which, 
 ho'rever, I pardoned on account of his having flourished in a 
 less polished age. J determined; nevertheless, not to give up 
 my point. 
 
 " Yes," resumed I positively, " 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 I'aitliful portraycr of Nature, whose 
 features are always the same, and always interesting. Prose 
 writers are voluminous and unwieldy; their pages nre crowded 
 with common))l:uH>s, and their thoughts expanded into IcmUous- 
 ness. P>ut with the true poet every thing is terse, (ouchiiip.-, 
 or brilliant. He gives the choicest thoughts in the choicest lan- 
 guage. He illustrates them by every thing that he sees most 
 striking in nature and art. He enriches them by pictures of 
 human life, such as it is passing before him. His writings, 
 therefore, contain the spirit, the aroma, . if I may use the 
 phrase, of the age in which he lives. They are caskets wiiich 
 enclose within a small compass the wealth of the language — 
 its family jewels, which are thus transmitted in a portable 
 form to posterity. Tlie setting may occasionally be antiquated. 
 and require now and then to be renewed, as in the case of 
 Chaucer; but the brilliancy and intrinsic value of the gems 
 continue unaltered. Cast a look back over the long reach of 
 literary history. What vast valleys of dulness, idled with 
 monkish legends and academical controversies ! What bogs of 
 theological speculations ! What dreary wastes of metaphysics ! 
 Here and there only do we behold the heaven-illuminali'd 
 bards, elevated like beacons on their widely-separate heights, to 
 
 transmit the 
 
 age- 
 1 wi'.s just 
 
 poets of the di 
 
 ,110 to turn my 
 
 uic that it was 
 
 partini: word 
 
 sikMil ; the ehis 
 
 of all tluvt had 
 
 tiiiH's since, a 
 
 versation, but 
 
 actually took 
 
 dreams 1o whi 
 
 been able to (. 
 
 A MONO the 
 
 flhieh still lii 
 
 iii;^ llowers b^ 
 
 of departed t 
 
 of the rites e 
 
 anlitiuity, hiv 
 
 and frequent 
 
 the spontan 
 
 lon<: before 
 
 or story it < 
 
 with in the 
 
 where fashu 
 
RURAL FUNERALS. 
 
 105 
 
 transmit tlie pure light of poetical intelligence from age to 
 
 dgv 
 
 " 1 
 
 1 \v;)s just about to launch forth into eulogiums upon the 
 poots of tin; day, when the sudden opening of tlie door caused 
 nie to turn my head. It was the verger, who came to inform 
 uu! that it was time to close the library. I sought to have a 
 paitiiiir word with the quarto, but tlie worthy little tome was 
 sik'iit ; the clasps were closed ; and it looked perfectly unconscious 
 of all that ha^l passed. 1 have been to the library two or three 
 tiims since, and have endeavored to draw it into furtlier con- 
 versation, but in vain : and whether all tais rambling colloquy 
 actually took i)laco, or whether it was another of those odd day- 
 dreams 1o which I am subject, I have never, to this moment, 
 beeu able to discover. 
 
 
 RURAL FUNERALS. 
 
 Hero'« :i few flowora! but about midnight more: 
 T!n^ lR'rl)j< tliiit liiivi! on lliein cold dew o' the night 
 
 Are Hlri'wiiigM tilt'sl for graves 
 
 You were as llowers now withered: even so 
 
 Thc'Hu lierblets shall, which we upon you strow. — Ctmbelikb. 
 
 Amon(i the beautiful and siinplc-liearted customs of rural life 
 wiiic'li still liii<ier in some parts of Kngland, are those of strew- 
 ing llowers before the fuiieralo and planting them at the gi'aves 
 of departed friends. These, it is said, are tiie remains of some 
 of llie rites of the primitive church ; but they are of still higher 
 anti(niity, having been observed among the Greeks and Romans, 
 and iVequently mentioned by their writers, and were, no doubt, 
 the spontaneous tributes of unlettered affection, originating 
 lonjr before art had tasked itself to modulate 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, 
 wlii're fashion and innovation have not been able to throng in, 
 
 ' Thorow earth, and waters decpe, 
 
 'riie pen by «klll doth pusse : 
 And featly nyps the worlds abuse, 
 
 Am<I shoeK us in a glasse, 
 The verlu and llie vice 
 
 Of every wiuht alyve; 
 The lioney combe tliat bee doth make, 
 
 Is not so sweet in hyve, 
 As are the golden leves 
 
 'I'hal <irops from jioet's head; 
 Whioli doth Hiiiinount our common taike, 
 
 An iarro im druiw dulh Itiitd. — CHUBOUTAap. 
 
lOb* 
 
 TBE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ' ' \ 
 
 and trample oat all the curious and interesting traces of the 
 olden time. 
 
 In Glamorganshire, we are told, the bed whereon the corpsfi 
 lies is covered with flowers, a cu&tom alluded to in one of the 
 wild and plaintive ditties of Ophelia : 
 
 White hta Bbroud as the mountain snow, 
 
 Larded all with sweet dowers; 
 Which be-wept to the i^rave did go, 
 
 With true love showers. 
 
 There is also a most delicate and beautiful rite observed in 
 some of the remote villages of the south, at the funeral of a 
 female who has died young and unmarried. A chaplet of 
 white flowers is borne before the corpse by a young girl, neaiest 
 in age, size, and resemblance, and is afterwards hung up in 
 the church over the accustomed ser.t of the deceased. These 
 chaplets are sometimes made of white paper, in imitation of 
 flowers, and inside of them is generally a pair of white gloves. 
 They are intended as emblems of the purity of the deceased, 
 and the crown of glory which she has received in heaven. 
 
 In some parts of the country, also, the dead are carried to 
 the grave with the singing of psalms and hymns ; a kind of 
 triumph, "to show," says Bourne, "that they have finished 
 their course with joy, and are become conquerors." This, I am 
 informed, is observed in some of the northern counties, par- 
 ticularly in Northumberland, 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 dirge swelling 
 from a distance, and to see the train slowly moving along the 
 landscape. 
 
 Thus, thus, and thus, we comparw round 
 Thy harmlesse and iinhuuntcd ground, 
 And as we siog thy dirge, wc will 
 
 The Daffodlll 
 And other flowers lay upon 
 The altar of our love, thy 8U>ne. — HXRRICK. 
 
 There is also a solemn respect paid by the traveller to the 
 passing funeral in these sequestered places ; for such spectacles, 
 occurring among the quiet abodes of nature, sink deep into the 
 soul. As the mourning train approaches, he pauses, uncov- 
 ered, to let it go by ; he then follows silently in the rear ; some- 
 times quite to the grave, at other times for a few hundred 
 yards, and having paid this tribute of respect to the deceased, 
 tarns and resmnes his journej. 
 
 The rich vein 
 character, and 
 graces, is finely 
 solicitude showi 
 peaceful grave, 
 lowly lot while 
 be paid to his 
 "faire and hai 
 all her oare is, t 
 of flowers stuc 
 who always br 
 to this fond a 
 Tragedy," by I| 
 stance of the 
 broken-hearted 
 
 The custom 
 
 lent ; osiers w( 
 
 iniuicd, and al 
 
 k We adorn tl 
 
 'lowers and re^ 
 
 tvhich has bee: 
 
 beauties, whos 
 
 glory." This 
 
 land; but it i 
 
 tired villages, 
 
 instance of it : 
 
 head of the b 
 
 by a friend, w 
 
 Glainorganshi 
 
 full of flowers 
 
 stuck about tl 
 
 He noticed 
 
 same manner 
 
 ground, and i 
 
 be seen in vai 
 
 perished. Tl 
 
 rosemary, an 
 
 grown to grei 
 
 ' ! f : 
 
 '11 
 
 ji ■ < ,.) ■*—' ■ 
 
RURAL FUNERALS. 
 
 iOi 
 
 Tlie rich vein of melancholy which runs throtigh Me English 
 character, and gives it some of its most touching and ennobling 
 mces, is finely evidenced in these pathetic customs, and in the 
 solicitude shown by the common people for an honored and a 
 peaceful gmve. The humblest peasant, whatever may be his 
 lowly lot while living, is anxious that some little respect may 
 be paid to his remains. Sir Thomas Overbury, describing the 
 "faire and happy milkmaid," observes, "thus lives she, and 
 all her care is, that she may die in the spring-time, to have store 
 of flowers stucke upon her winding-bheet." The poets, too, 
 who always breathe the feeling of a nation, continually advert 
 to this fond solicitude about the grave. In "The Maid's 
 Tragedy," by Beaumont and Fletcher, there is a beautiful in- 
 stance of the kind, describing the capricious melancholy of a 
 broken-hearted girl. 
 
 When ehe Bees a bank 
 Stuck full of flowerg, she, witli a Bigb, will tell 
 Her aervantB, what a pretty place it were 
 To bury lovers in ; and make her maids 
 Pluck 'em, and strew her over like a cone. 
 
 The custom of decorating graves was once universally preva- 
 lent ; osiers were carefully bent over them to keep the turf un- 
 iniured, and about them were planted evergreens and flowers. 
 'We adorn their graves," says Evelyn, in his Sylva, " with 
 'lowers and redolent plants, just emblems of the life of man, 
 which has been compared in Holy Scriptures to those fading 
 beauties, whose roots being buried in dishonor, rise again in 
 glory." This usage has now become extremely rare in Eng- 
 land ; but it may still be met with in the churchyards of re- 
 tired villages, among the Welsh mountains ; and I recollect an 
 instance of it at the small town of Ruthen, which lies at the 
 head of the beautiful vale of Clewyd. I have been told also 
 by a friend, who was present at the funeral of a young girl in 
 Glamorganshire, that the female attendants had their aprons 
 full of flowers, which, as soon as the body was interred, they 
 stuck about the grave. 
 
 Ho 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 supplanted by holly, 
 rosemary, and other evergreens ; which on some graves had 
 grown to great luxuriance, and oyershadowed the tombstones. 
 
 I 
 
 ?■■' 
 
 ;'■ 1 1 
 
 I )■-.. 
 
108 
 
 TBE SKETCH-BOOS 
 
 There was formerly a melancholy fancifuia«Q;iH Sn tJ!"> arrange- 
 
 ment of these rustic ofiferinj^s that had son. 
 
 It, 
 
 truly 
 
 poetical. The rose was sometimes blended vs^th th« ; ", to 
 form a general emblem of frail mortality. " This sweut tluwer," 
 said Evelyn, *' borne on a branch set with thorns, and accom- 
 panied with the lily, are natural hieroglyphics of our fugitive, 
 umbratile, anxious, and transitory life, which, niaki«'.g so fair 
 a show for a time, is not yet without its thorns :inii crosses."' 
 The nature and color of the flowers, and the ribbois with 
 wliich they were tied, hnd often a particular reference to the 
 qualities or story of the deceased, or were expressive jf the 
 feelings of the mourner. In an old poem, entitled "Corydon's 
 Doleful Knell," a lover specifies the decorations he intends to 
 use : 
 
 A garland shall be framed 
 
 By Art aud Xatare's skill, 
 Of sundry -colored flowers, 
 
 In token of good will. 
 
 And sundry-colored ribands 
 
 On it I will bestow ; 
 But chietly blacke and yellowe 
 
 With bcr to grave shall go. 
 
 I'll deck her tomb with flowers 
 
 The rarest ever scon ; 
 And with my tears as showers 
 
 I'll keep them fresh and green. 
 
 The white rose, we are told, was planted at the grave of a 
 virgin ; lier chaplet was tied with white ribbons, in token of 
 her spotless innocence ; though sometimes black ribi>on8 were 
 intermingled, to bespeak the grief of the survivors. The red 
 rose was occasionally used, in remembrance of such as had 
 been remarkable for benevolence; but roses in general were 
 appropriated to the graves of lovers. Evelyn toils us that tlie 
 custom was not altogether extinct in his time, near bis dweUiii^ 
 in the county of Surrey, *' where the maidens yearly planted 
 and decked the graves of their defunct sweethearts with loso- 
 bushes." And Camden likewise remarks, in hi-i Britannia: 
 "Here is also a certain custom observed time out (jf mind, of 
 planting rose-trees upon the graves, especially by the young 
 men and maids who have lost their loves ; so that this church- 
 yard is now full of them." 
 
 When the deceased had been unhappy iu their loves, emblems 
 of a more gloomy character were used, such as the yew and 
 
SURAL FUNERALS. 
 
 109 
 
 mge. 
 truly 
 to 
 ver," 
 com- 
 live, 
 fair 
 
 HCS.'' 
 
 with 
 the 
 tiic 
 
 Oti'8 
 
 to 
 
 cypress; and if flowers were strewn, they were of the most 
 melancholy colors. Thus, in poems by Thomas Stanley, Esq., 
 (published in 1651,) is the following stanza: 
 
 Yet itrew 
 Upon my dismall grave 
 Such offerings as you have, 
 
 Forsaken cypresse and «nd yewe; 
 For kinder flowers can take no birth 
 Or growth from such unhappy earth. 
 
 In " The Maid's Tragedy," a pathetic little air is introduced, 
 lustrative of this mode of decoratic 
 who have been disappointed in love. 
 
 illustrative of this mode of decorating the funerals of females 
 
 Lay a garland on my hearse 
 
 Of the dismal yew, 
 Maidens willow branches wear, 
 
 Say I died true. 
 My love was false, but I was firm. 
 
 From my hour of birth, 
 Upon my buried body lie 
 
 Lightly, gentle earth. 
 
 The natural efl^ect of sorrow over the dead is to refine and 
 elevate the mind ; and we have a proof of it in the purity of 
 sentiment, and the unaflFected elegance of thought, which per- 
 vaded the whole of these funeral observances. Thus, it was 
 an especial precaution, that none but sweet-scented evergreens 
 and flowers should be employed. The intention seems to have 
 been to soften the horrors of the tomb, to beguile the mind 
 from brooding over the disgraces of perishing mortality, and 
 to associate the memory of the deceased with the most delicate 
 and beautiful objects in Nature. There is a dismal process 
 going on in the grave, ere dust can return to its kindred dust, 
 which the imagination shrinks from contemplating ; and we 
 seek still to think of the form we have loved, with those refined 
 associations which it awakened when blooming before us in 
 youth and beauty. "Lay her i' the earth," says Laertes of 
 bis virgin sister, 
 
 And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 
 May violets apring. 
 
 Heirick, also, in his " Dirge of Jephtha," pours forth a fra- 
 grant flow of poetical thought and image, which in a manner 
 embalms the dead in the recollections of the living. 
 
 i 
 
 : *il. 
 
■A 
 
 110 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Sleep In thy peace, thy bed of eplce, 
 
 And make thie place all I'aradlse. 
 
 May iweets grow here : and BinoUe from henoa 
 
 Kat frankinceimo. 
 Let balme and cassia seiul tholr Kcent a; 
 
 From out thy maiden-monument! 
 
 May all shie maids at wonted hours 
 
 Come forth to strew thy tomlic with (lowers! 
 
 May virgins, when they come to mourn, 
 
 Malc-inccnse burn 
 Upon thine altnr, then return. 
 And leave thee sleeping in thine "im I 
 
 I might crowd my pages with extracts from the older British 
 poets, who wrote when tliese rites were more prevalent, and de- 
 lighted frequently to allude to them ; but I have already quoted 
 more than is necessary. I cannot, however, refrain from giving 
 a passage from Shakspeare, even though it should appear trite, 
 which illustrates the emblematical meaning often conveyed in 
 these floral tributes, and at the same time possesses that magic 
 of language and appositeness of imagery for which he stands 
 pre-eminent. 
 
 With fairest flowers, 
 Whilst Bumraer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, 
 I'll sweeten thy sad grave ; thou shall not lack 
 The flower that's like thy face, pale primrose; nor 
 The azured harebell like thy veins; no, nor 
 The leaf of eglantine; whom not to slander. 
 Outaweetened not thy breath. 
 
 There is certainly something more aflfecting in these prompt 
 and spontaneous offerings of nature, than in the most costly 
 monuments of art ; the hand strews the flower while the heart 
 is warm, and the tear falls on the grave as affection is binding 
 the osier round the sod ; but pathos expires under the slow 
 labor of the chisel, and is chilled among the cold conceits of 
 sculptured marble. 
 
 It is greatly to be regretted, that a custom so truly elegant 
 and touching has disappeared from general use, and exists only 
 in the most remote and insignificant villages. But it seems as 
 if poetical custom always shuns the walks of cultivated society. 
 In proportion as people grow polite, they cease to be poetical. 
 They talk of poetry, but they have learnt to check its free im- 
 pulses, to distrust its sallying emotions, and to supply its most 
 affecting and picturesque usages, by studied form and pompous 
 ceremonial. Few pageants can be more cutely and frigid than 
 
 |p' 
 
RURAL FUNERALS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 an English funeral in town. It is made up of show and pjloomy 
 parade : mourning carriages, mourning horses, mourning plumes, 
 and hireling mourners, who make a mockery of grief. " There 
 is a grave digged," says Jeremy Taylor, " and a solemn mourn- 
 ing, and a great talk in the neighbourhood, and when tlie dales 
 are finished, they shall be, and they shall be remembered no 
 more." The associate in the gay and crowded city is soon for- 
 gotten ; the hurrying succession of new intimates and new 
 pleasures effaces him from our minds, and the very scenes and 
 circles in which he moved are incessantly fluctuating. But 
 funerals in the country are solemnly impressive. The stroke of 
 death makes a wider space in the village circle, and is an awful 
 event in the tranquil uniformity of rural life. The passing bell 
 tolls its knell in every ear ; it steals with its pervading melan- 
 choly over hill and vale, and saddens all the landscape. 
 
 The fixed and unchanging features of the country, also, per- 
 petuate the memory of the friend with whom we once enjoyed 
 them ; who 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 ; his spirit haunts the grove 
 which he once frequented ; we think of him in the wild upland 
 solitude, or amidst the pensive beauty of the valley. In the 
 freshness of joyous morning, we remember his beaming smiles 
 and bounding gayety ; and when sober evening returns, with its 
 gathering shadows and subduing quiet, we call to mind many 
 a twilight hour of gentle talk and swect-souled melancholy. 
 
 
 ^:il: 
 
 Bach lonely place shall him restore, 
 For him the tear be duly shed, 
 
 Beloved, till life can charm no more. 
 And mouru'd till pity's self be dead. 
 
 li: 
 
 Another cause that perpetuates the memory of the deceased 
 in the country, is that the grave is more immediately in sight 
 of the survivors. They pass it on their way to i)rayer ; 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 mementos of the past. In North Wales, 
 the peasantry kneel and pray over the f;raves of their deceased 
 friends for several Sundays after the interment ; and where 
 ^hp tender rite of strewing and plautiug flowers is still practised, 
 
112 
 
 THE SKETCn-IiOOK. 
 
 '; i 
 
 it is always renewpcl on Kastor, Whitsuntide, and othor festj 
 vals, when the sc{isf)n hrinjis the {'oinpaiiion of former festivity 
 more vividly to mind. It is also inv.'inal)ly performed Ity the 
 nearest relatives and friends ; no menials nor iiireliniis nre em- 
 ployed, and if a neijjhbor yields assistance, it wo»dd be decnica 
 an insult to offer compensation. 
 
 I have dwelt wpon this beautiful rural custom, because, as it 
 is one of the last, so is it one of the holiest ofTiccs of love. The 
 grave is the ordeal of true affection. It is there tiiat tlie divine 
 passion of the soul manifests its superiority to the instinetive 
 impulse of mere animal attachment. The latter must be con- 
 tinually refreshed and kept alive by the presence of its object; 
 but the love that is seated in the soul can live on long remem- 
 brance. The mere inclinations of sense languish and deeliiio 
 with the charms which excited them, and turn with shuddering 
 disgust from the dismal precincts of tlie toml) ; but it is tlienep 
 that truly spiritual aiTection rises purified from every sensnnl 
 desire, and returns, like a holy flame, to illumine and sanctify 
 the heart of the survivor. 
 
 The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from which we 
 refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to iieal — 
 every other afltliction to forget ; but tiiis wound we consider it 
 ft duty to keep open — this affliction we cherish and brood over 
 in solitude. Where is the mother who would willingly forgot 
 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? Who, even in the hour of agony, would for- 
 get the friend over whom he mourns? W Vo, 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 por- 
 tal ; would accept of consolation that must be bought by forget- 
 fulness? — No, the love which survives 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 calmed 
 into the gentle tear of recoil action — when the sudden anguish 
 and the convulsive agony over the present ruins of all tliat 
 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 gayety, or spread 
 a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom ; yet who would ex- 
 change it even for the song of pleasure, or the burst of revelry? 
 No, there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. There 
 
BURAL FVNERALB. 
 
 113 
 
 is a remembrance of the dead, to which we turn even from the 
 charms of the living. Oh, the grave ! — the grave I — It buries 
 every error — covers every defect — extinguishes every resent- 
 ment ! From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets 
 and tender recollections. Who can look down upon the grave 
 tjven of an enemy and not feel a compunctious throb, that 
 he should ever have warred with the poor handful of earth that 
 lies mouldering before him ? 
 
 But the grave of those we loved — what a place for medita- 
 tion ! Tliere it is that we call up in long review the whole 
 history of virtue and gentleness, and the thousand endearments 
 lavished upon us almost unheeded in the daily intercourse of 
 iiitiiiuicy ; — there it is ihat we dwell upon the tenderness, the 
 soli'Min, awful tenderness of the psiitinjr scene. The bed of 
 ilcuth, with all its stiUc'd t;i'ic'fs — its noiseh'ss atti'udauce — its 
 iiiiite, wtitcliful assiduities. Tlie last test! nion it's of expiring 
 love! The feeble, fluttering, thrilling, oh ! how thrilling ! |)r('sfl- 
 nre of the hand. The faint, faltering accents, struggling in death 
 to give one more assurance of siffection ! The hist fund look of 
 the ghizing eye, turned upon us even from the threshold of 
 existence. 
 
 Ay, go to the grave of buried love, and meditate ! There 
 settle the account with thy conscience for every past benefit 
 unrequited, every past endearment unregarded, of that departed 
 being, who can never — never — never return to be soothed by 
 thy contrition ! 
 
 If thou art a child, and hast ever added a sorrow to i le soul, 
 or a furrow to the silvered brow of an affectionate parent — if 
 thou art a luisband, «nd hast ever caused the fond bosom that 
 ventured its whole happiness in th}' arms, to doubt one moment 
 of thy kindness or thy truth — 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 unmerited pang to that true heart which now lies cold 
 aud still beneath thy feet; then be sure that every unkind look, 
 every ungracious word, every ungentle action, will come throng- 
 ing back upon thy memory, and knocking dolefully at thy soul 
 — theu be sure that thou wilt lie down sorrowing and repent- 
 ant on the grave, and utter the unheard groan, aud pour the 
 unavailing tear — more deep, more bitter, because unheard and 
 unavailing. 
 
 Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, and strew the beauties of 
 nature about the grave ; console thy broken spirit, if thou canst, 
 with these tender, yet f utiis tiibutes of regret ; — but take 
 
 lii 
 
 1 . I 
 
 ■\ , I 
 
 ii\ 
 
 ' 
 
' !il 
 
 . r i 
 
 114 
 
 THE SKETCU-BOOK. 
 
 warning by the bittern-ss of this thy contrite 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 funeriil customs of the English peasantry, 
 but merely to furnish a few hints and quotations illustrative 
 of particular rites, to i)e appended, by way of note, to another 
 pap ■, which has been witliheld. The article swelled insensi- 
 bly into its present form, and this is mentioned as an apology 
 for so brief and casual a notice of these usages, after they have 
 been amply and learnedly investigated in other works. 
 
 I n)ust observe, also, that 1 am well aware that this custom 
 of adorning graves with (lowers prevails in other countries be- 
 6ides England. Indeed, in some it is much more genera!, and 
 is ob-erved even by the rich and fashionable ; but it is then 
 api o lose its simplicity, and to degenerate into affectatioi:. 
 Bright, in his travels in Lower Hungary, tells of vnonuments 
 of marble, and recesses formed for retirement, with seats 
 placed among l)owers of greon-house plants ; and that the 
 graves generally are covered with the gayest flowers of the 
 season, lie gives m casual picture of filial piety, which I can- 
 not but descril)e, for 1 trust it is as useful as it is delightful to 
 illustrate the amiable virtues of the sex. " When I was at Ber- 
 lin," says he, "■ I followed tlie celeluated IfPhind to the grave. 
 Mingled vvitli some pomp, you migiit trace much real feeling. 
 In the midst of tijc ceremony, my attention was attracted by a 
 young woman who Ltood on a mound of earth, newly covered 
 v^ith turf, which she anxiously protected from the feet of the 
 passing crowd. It was the tomb of her parent ; and the ligiuc 
 of this affectionate daughter presented a monument more strik- 
 ing than the most costly work of art." 
 
 I will barely add an instance of sepulchral decoration that I 
 once met with among the mountains of Switzerland. It was 
 at the village of (iersau, wiiich stands on the borders of the 
 lake of Luzerne, at the foot of Mount liigi. It was once the 
 capital o!' a miuiature republic, shut up between the Alps and 
 the lake, and accessible on the land side (^nly by footpaths. 
 The wh )le force of the republic did not exceed six hundred 
 fighting men ; and a few miles of circumference, scooped out, 
 as it wei'e, from the bosom of the mountains, comprised its 
 ticrritory. The village of Gersau seemed separated from the 
 
 ; / 
 
 ' \ 
 
 ri '• if- 
 
 ! i! ; ii 
 
THE INN KITCHEN. 
 
 115 
 
 rest of the world, and retained the golden simplicity of a purer 
 acre. It had a small church, with a burying-ground adjoiniug. 
 At the heads of the graves were placed crosses of wood or iron. 
 On some were affixed miniatures, rudely executed, but evidently 
 attempts at likenesses of the deceased. On the crosses were 
 hung chaplots of flowers, some witliering, others fresh, as if 
 occasionally renewed. 1 paused with interest at this scene ; 
 I felt that 1 was at the source of poetical description, for these 
 were the beautiful, but unaffected offerings of the heart, which 
 poets are fain to record. In a gayer and more populous place, 
 I should have suspected tiicm to have been suggested by 
 factitious sentiment, derived from books ; but the good people 
 of Gcrsau knew little of books ; there was not a novel nov 
 a love poem in the village ; and I question whether any peas- 
 ant of the place dreamt, while he was twining a fresh chap- 
 let for the grave of his mistress, that he was fulfilling one o'' 
 the most fanciful rites of poetical devotion, and that he wa* 
 pr L'tically a poet. 
 
 n 
 
 THE INN KITCHEN. 
 
 ShaU 1 not take mine cuae in mine inn? — Fahtaff^ 
 
 Dl'uino a journey that I once made through the NetherlandSf 
 I had arrived one evening at the Pomvie d'Or, the principal 
 inn of a small Klemish village. It was after the hour of the 
 table d'hote, so that 1 was obliged to make a solitary supper 
 from the relics of its ampler board. The weather was chilly; 
 I was seated alone in one end of a great gloomy dining-room, 
 and my repast being over, 1 iuid the prospect before me of a 
 long dull evening, without any visible means of enlivening it. 
 I sununoned mini; host, and requested something to read ; he 
 brought me the whole literar}' stock of his household, a Dutch 
 family Bible, an almanac in the same language, and a number 
 of old Paris uewspai)ers. As I sat dozing over one of the lat- 
 ter, reading old news and stale criticisms, my ear was now 
 and then struck with bursts of laughter which seemed to pro- 
 ceed from the kitchen. ICvery one tluit has travelled on the 
 Continent must know how favorite a resort tlie kitchen of a 
 coniilry inn is to the middle and inferior order of travellers ; 
 parti(!ularly in that e(piivocal kind of weather when a fire be- 
 eouiea agreeable toward evaumg. I threw aside the uewf 
 
 f ,' i| ait 
 
 li '' ( 
 
 lilt ! 
 
 it 
 
'i 'il 1 
 
 116 
 
 TBS SKETCB-BOOK. 
 
 paper, and explored 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 hangers-on of 
 inns. They were seatid round a great burnished atove, that 
 might have been mistaken for an altar, at which they were wor- 
 shipping. It was covered with various kitchen vessels of re- 
 splendent brightness ; among which steamed and hissed 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 illumined the spacious kitchen, 
 dying duskily away into remote corners except where they 
 settled in mellow radiance on the broad side of a flitch of bacon, 
 or were reflected back from well-scoured utensils that gleamed 
 from the midst of obscurity. A strapping Flemish lass, with 
 long golden pendants in hei ears, and a necklace with a golden 
 heart suspended to it, was the presiding priestess of the temple. 
 
 Many of the company were furnished with pipes, and most 
 of them with some kind of evening potation. I found their 
 mirth was occasioned by anecdotes which a little swarthy 
 Frenchmp.n, with a dry weazen 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 unceremonious laugh- 
 ter, in which a man indulges in that temple of true liberty, an 
 inn. 
 
 As I had no better mode of getting through a tedious blus- 
 tering evening, I took my seat near the stove, and listened to 
 a variety of traveller's tales, some very extravagant, and most 
 very dull. All of them, however, have faded from my treach- 
 erous memory, except one, which I will endeavor 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 
 narrator. He was a corpulent old Swiss, who had the look of 
 a veteran traveller. He was dressed in a tarnished green trav- 
 elling-jacket, with a broad belt round his waist, and a pair of 
 overalls with buttons from the hips to the ankles. He was of 
 a full, rubicund countenance, with a double chin, aquiline 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 pcuests, or the remarks of his auditors ; and paused, 
 now and then, to replenish his pipe ; at which times he had 
 generally a roguish leer, and a sly joke, for the buxom kitchen 
 maid. 
 
 If 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 117 
 
 I wish my reader could imagine the old fellow lolling in a 
 huge arm-chair, one arm a-kimbo, the other holding a curiously 
 twisted tobacco-pipe, formed of genuine 4cume de mer, deco- 
 rated with silver chain and silken tassel — his head cocked on 
 one side, and a whimsical cut of the eye occasionally, as he 
 related the following story. 
 
 THE SPECTRE BRIDl .ROOM. 
 A traveller's tale.' 
 
 He that supper for is dight, 
 
 He lyes full cold, I trow, thin night! 
 
 Yestreen to chamber 1 him U-d, 
 
 This uight U ray-steel has made his bed I 
 
 Sir Eger, Sir Orahahe, and Sir Orat-strkl. 
 
 On the summit of one of the heights of the Odenwald, a wild 
 and romantic tract of Upper Germany, that lies not far from 
 the confluence of the Main and the Rhine, there stood, many, 
 many years since, the Castle of the Baron Von Landshort. It 
 is now quite fallen to decay, and almost Iniried among beech 
 trees and dark firs ; above which, 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 a neigh- 
 boring country 
 
 The Baron was a dry brancu of the great family of Katzen- 
 ellenbogen,'' and inherited the relics of the property, and all 
 the pride of his aucestcro. 1 hough the warlike disposition of 
 his predecessors had m\ich impaired the family possessions, yet 
 the Baron still end'^avored to keep up some show of former 
 state. The times were peaceable, and the German nobles, in 
 general, had abandoned their inconvenient old castles, perched 
 like eagle's nests among the mountains, and had built more 
 convenient residences in the valleys ; still the Baron remained 
 proudly drawn up in his little fortress, cherishing with heredi- 
 tary inveteracy all the old family feuds ; so that he was on ill 
 
 ' The cmdile reader, well versed In good-for-nothing lore, will perceive that the 
 above Tale mutt have been suggested to the old Swiss by a little French anecdote, 
 uclrcuni^tniK'o ruid to hnw t:il;cii phu'c :\* I'nrlH. 
 
 ' i.e., (^!at'b Elhow — the name of u luinily of those parts, very powerful In former 
 tlmtMi. The appellation, we are told, wan ^ivou iu compUmeut to a p««rl«M daoM 
 of ih« fatnily, celobrtMed fur a &m Mrm. 
 
 M 
 
 ■ P 
 
 m 
 
 ii 
 
!■ '< 
 
 118 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 terras with some of his nearest neighbors, on account of disputes 
 that had happened between their great-great-grandfathers. 
 
 The Baron had but one child, a daughter ; but Nature, when 
 she grants but one child, always compensates by making it a 
 prodigy ; and so it was with the daughter of the Baron. All 
 the nurses, gossips, and country cousins, assured her father 
 that she had not iier equal for beauty in all Germany ; and who 
 should know better than thoy? She had, moreover, been 
 brought up with great care, under the superintendence of two 
 maiden aunts, 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 ac- 
 complishments. By the time she was eighteen she could em- 
 broider to admiration, and had worked whole histories of the 
 saints in tapestry, with such strength of expression in their 
 countenances, that they looked like so many souls in purga- 
 tory. She could read without great diflicully, and had spelled 
 her way through sever&l church legends, and almost all the 
 chivalric wonders of the Heldeuuuch. She had even ma'le 
 considerable proficiency in writing, could sign her own name 
 without missing a letter, and so legibly, that her aunts could 
 read it without spectacles. She excelled in making little elegant 
 good-fcr-nothing lady-like knicknacks of all kinds ; was versed 
 in the most abstruse dancing of the day ; played a number of 
 airs on the harp and guitar ; and knew all the tender ballaila of 
 the Minnie-lieders by heart. 
 
 Her aunts, too, having been great flirts and coquettes in their 
 younger days, were admirably calculated to be vigilant guard- 
 ians and strict censors of the conduct of their niece ; for there 
 is no duenna so rigidly prudent, and inexorably decorous, as a 
 superannuated coquette. She was rarely suffered out of their 
 sight; never went beyoiv^ the domains of the castle, unless well 
 attended, or rather y,A! tvatched; iiad continual lectures read 
 to her about strict decoriiUi /.li i niplict obedience; and, as to 
 the men — pah! she was taui S^t to hoUl them at such a distance 
 and in such absolute dist.ast, V^xf, unless properly anthorized, 
 she would not have casi a ghmw i pon the handsoiiK -.it cavalier 
 in the world — no, not if '.c jjc ea; i dy:"j; at her feet. 
 
 The good effects of t' -v systeu; were wonderfully apparent. 
 The young lady was a jjutioru of 'locility and correctness. 
 
 While others were wasting l'?eir 
 world, and liable to be pi i(Jf 
 hand, she was coyly blooming 
 
 s.vvpihesb HI 
 il •' 1 thrown 
 intc fresh and 
 
 the glare of 
 aside 
 
 the 
 by every 
 lovely wonian- 
 
 U 
 
 llll 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 119 
 
 hood under the protection of those immaculate spinsters, like 
 a rose-bud blushing forth amouiv "uardian thorns. Her aunts 
 looked upon her with pride and exultation, and vaunted that 
 though all the other young ladies in the world might go astray, 
 yet, thank Heaven, nothing of the kind could happen to the 
 heiress of Katzenellenbogen. 
 
 But however scantily the Baron Von Landshort might be 
 provided with children, his houseiiold was by no means a small 
 one, for Providence had enriched him with abundance of poor 
 relations. They, one nud all, possessed the affectionate dispo- 
 sition common to hiin'b!i( relatives; were wonderfully attached 
 to the Baron, and took every i)ossible occasion to come in 
 snanns and eidiven the castle. All fnmily festivals were com- 
 memorated by these good people at the Baron's expense; and 
 when they were fille<l with good ciieer, they would declare that 
 there was nothing on earth so delightlul as these family meet- 
 ings, these jubilees of the heart. 
 
 The Baron, though a small man, had a large soul, and it 
 swelled with satisfaction at tiie consciousness of being the 
 greatest man in the little world about him. He loved to tell 
 long stories about the stark oUl warriors whose portraits looked 
 grimly down from the walls aiounil, and he found no listeners 
 equal to those who fed at his expense. He was much given to 
 the marvellous, and a tirm beli(!ver in all those supernatural 
 tales with which every mountain and valley in Geiniany 
 abounds. The faith of his guests even exceeded his own : they 
 listened to every tale of wonder with open eyes and mouth, 
 and never failed to be astonished, even though rei)eated for 
 the hundredth time. Thus lived the Barcn \'on I>;uidshort, 
 the oracle of his table, the absolute monarch of his little terri- 
 tory, and happy, above all things, in the persuasion that he 
 was the wisest man of the agi". 
 
 At the tiint! of which my stoi'y treats, there was a great 
 family-gathering at the castle, on an affair of the utmost im- 
 portance : — it was to receive the destined bridegroom of the 
 Baron's daughter. A negotiation had been carried on bi'tweeu 
 the father and an old nobh'inan of Bavaria, to unite the dignity 
 of their houses by the marriage of their children The [jrelimi- 
 naries had been conducted with proper i)unctilio. The young 
 peo[)le were betrothed without seeing eacli other, and the time 
 was appointed for the marriage cercnioiiy. The young Count 
 Von Altenburg had ))een rec:iil(Hl fron» the army lor the pur- 
 pose, and was actually on his way to the l>aron's to receive 
 his bride. Missives iiad even been received from him, Irom 
 
 f . ,^ >i 
 
 'lii'Mi 
 
 V(' 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 i ■ 
 
 ' 1 
 
 - 
 
 '■' -i 
 
 j 
 
 
 ,1 
 
 m 
 
 1 
 
120 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ! • I 
 
 i I 
 
 Wurtzburg, where he was accidentally detained, mentioning the 
 day and hour when he might be expected to arrive. 
 
 The castle was in a tumult of preparation to give him a 
 suitable welcome. The fair bride had been decked out with 
 uncommon care. The two aunts had superintended her toilet, 
 and quarrelled the whole worning about every article of lier 
 dress. The young lady liad taken advantage of tlieir contest 
 to follow the bent of her own taste ; and fortunately 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 suffusions that mantled her face and neck, 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 aunts were continually hovering around her ; for maiden 
 aunts are apt to take great interest in affairs of this nature; 
 they were giving her a world of staid counsel how to deport 
 herself, what to say, and in what manner to receive the ex- 
 pected lover. 
 
 T\. 9 Baron was no less busied in preparations. He had, in 
 truth, nothing exactly to do ; but he was natu "illy a fumin;,', 
 V stling little man, and could not remain passive when all tli?, 
 v/ 'jld was in a hurry. He worried from top to bottom ol the 
 t dtle, with an air of infinite anxiety ; he continually called the 
 servants from thiir work to exhort them to be diligent, and 
 buzzed about evr ry hall and chamber, as idly restless and im- 
 portunate as a blao-bottle fly of a warm i-ummcr^s day. 
 
 In the mean time, the fatted calf h jd -/Otni l.ilk-i ; the forests 
 had rung with the clamor of the huntsr'i^n; the kitchen was 
 crowded with good cheer; the cells i'?. nad yielded up whole 
 oceans of Rhein-wein and Ferne-weiii, au.' tvpu he yreat Hei- 
 delberg tun had been laid under contribu\';n"i. Ev<iry tluDg 
 was ready tu receive the distinguished gue ;. *vitii iS'ins nitn 
 Braus in the true spirit of German hcripitalit) —but "^hc 
 delayed to make his appearance. YIaiy rolled 
 sun that had poured his downward rays upon 
 of the Odenwaid, now just glearr id along the summits o^' the 
 mountains. The Baron mouuted tne highest tower, and s^^ained 
 his eyes in hope of catchinT a di;^tant sight of the Count and 
 his attendants. Once he thought he beheld them ; the sound 
 of horns came floating from the valley, prolonged by tiie moun- 
 tain echoes : a number of horsemen were seen far below, slowiy 
 advancing along the ro»,d; but when they had nearly reached 
 the foot of the mountai»i, they suddenly struck off in a different 
 
 guest 
 Her hour. The 
 v.ie rich forests 
 
 direction. The 
 to Hit by in th 
 to the view : ai 
 then a peasant 
 WhUe the ol 
 plexity, a very 
 part of the O-.h 
 Tho young C 
 route in that s( 
 matrimony wh( 
 certainty of co 
 him, as cevtaii 
 had encounter( 
 with whom he 
 Von Starke uf 
 hearts of Ger 
 araiy. His f 
 fortress of Lai 
 families hostil 
 In the wai 
 friends relatet 
 Count gave t 
 youii;j; lady wl 
 'had ieO(!ived 1 
 As tlic rou 
 a<rri'0(( to per 
 they might do 
 an i-arly hour 
 to follow and 
 They beo;r 
 military seen* 
 tittle tedious 
 ai'le. and lli 
 In this w 
 ilenwahl, a 
 thickly wood 
 e.eraiany ba- 
 its castles l)V 
 tieularly iiuii 
 deriirg al)on1 
 therefore, tli 
 stragglers, i 
 selves with 
 Count's retii 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 121 
 
 direction. The last ray of sunshine departed — the bats began 
 to Hit by in the twilight — the road grew dimmer and dimmer 
 to the view : and nothing appeareu stirring in it, but now and 
 tiien a jieasant lagging homeward from his labor. 
 
 While the old eastle of Laudshort was in this state of per* 
 ploxity, a very interesting scene was transacting in a different 
 part of the Odenwald. 
 
 The young Count Von Altenburg was tranquilly pursuing his 
 route in that sober jog-trot way in which a man travels toward 
 ;n:itrimony when his friends have taken all the trouble and un- 
 cortainty of courtship off his hands, and a bride is waiting for 
 liim, as certainly as a dii . ", at the end of his journey. He 
 jiad encountered at Wurtzburg a youthful companion in arms, 
 with whom he had seen some service on the frontiers ; Herman 
 Von Starkeufaust, one of the stoutest hands and worthiest 
 iicaits of German chivalry, who was now returning from the 
 anuy. His father's castle was not far distant from the old 
 fortress of Landshort, although an hereditary feud rendered the 
 families hostile, and strangers to each other. 
 
 Ill the warm-hearted moment of recognition, the young 
 friends related all their past adventures and fortunes, and the 
 Coiiiit gave the whole history of lii^ intended nuptials with a 
 voiiiig lady whom he had never seen, but of whose charms he 
 iiad received the most enrapturing descriptions. 
 
 As tlie route of the friends lay in tiie same direction, they 
 a<ircL'(( to perform the rest of their journey together; and that 
 tlu'y might do it the more leisurely, set off from Wuitzburg at 
 an i-arly hour, tlae Count having given directions for his retinui^ 
 to t()lk)vv and overtake him. 
 
 Thoy beguiled their wayfaring with recollections of their 
 military scenes and adventures ; but the Count was apt to be a 
 littie ti'dions, now and then, about tlie reputed charms of hij 
 iilc. and th(,' filicity tliat awaited him. 
 
 Ill tills way tiiey had entered among the mountains of the 
 /k'liwald, and were traversing one of its most .onely and 
 thickly wooded jmsses. It is well known tiiat tlie forests of 
 (jt'iiiiany have always been M rnudi infested by robbers as 
 its castles by spectrcH ; and. at this time, the former were par- 
 ticularly idiinorous, fioni tin liordes of disbanded soldiers wan- 
 dering about tlu! country, it will nut appear extraordinary, 
 therefore, that the cavaliers were attacked l)y a gang of these 
 stragglers, in the midst of the fore>«t. They defended them- 
 selves with bravcuy, but were ne:irly overpowered when tlie 
 touut's retinue arrived to their ;w«»»i!ita»jce. At sight of them 
 
 \ \ 
 
 • fl 
 
 JHl 
 
122 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 [f ■■. 
 
 ;jv t 
 
 III 
 
 \ If 
 
 iti' 
 
 the robbers fled, but not unt" the Count had received a mortal 
 wound. He was slowly and c. efully conveyed back to the city 
 of Wurtzburg, and a friar summoned from a neighboring con- 
 vent, who was famous for his skill in administering 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 in^ 
 stantly to the castle of Landshort, and explain the fatal cause 
 of his not keeping his appointment with his bride. Though not 
 the most ardent of lovers, he was one of the most punctilious 
 of men, and 4 ^ eared earnestly solicitous that his mission 
 should be speedily and courteously executed. " Unless this is 
 done," said he, " I sliall not sleep quietly in my grave ! " lie 
 repeated these last words with peculiar solemnity. A request, 
 at a moment so impressive, admitted no hesitation. Starkeu- 
 faust endeavored to sooth him to calmness; promised faith- 
 fully to execute his wish, and gave him his hand in solemn 
 pledge. The dying man pressed it 'v\ acknowledgment, but 
 soon lapsed into delirium — raved about 'is bride — his engage- 
 ments — his plighted word; ordered his horse, that he might 
 ride to the castle of L;indshort, and expired in the fancied act 
 of vaulting into the saddle. 
 
 Starkenfaust bestowed a sigh, and a soldier'^ tear on the un- 
 timely fate of bis comrade; 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 unbidden guest 
 among hostile people, and to dump their festivity with tidings 
 fatal to their hopes. Still there were certain whisperiugs of 
 curiosity in his bosom to see this far-famed beauty of Katzen- 
 ellenbogen, so cautiously shut up from the world ; for he was a 
 passionate admirer of the sex, and there was a dash of eccen- 
 tricity and enterprise in his character, that made him fond of nil 
 singular adventure. 
 
 Previous to his departure, he made all due arrangements willi 
 the holy fraternity of the convent for the funeral solemnities of 
 his friend, wlio was to lie buried in the cathedral of Wurtzburg, 
 near some of his illustrious relatives ; and the mourning retinue 
 of the Count took charge of his remains. 
 
 It is now high time that we should return to the ancient fam- 
 ily of Katzcnellenbogen, who were impatient for their guest, 
 and still more for their dinner ; and to the worthy little Baron, 
 whom we left airing himst^lf on the watch-tower. 
 
 Night closed in, but still no guest arrived. The Baron de- 
 scended from the tower in despair. The banquet, which had 
 
 ; i 
 
 i! 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 rid 
 
 been delayed from hour to hour, could no longer be postponed. 
 The meats were alretuly overdone ; the cook in an agony ; and 
 the whole hous(!hold had tlie look of a garrison that had been 
 reduced by famine. The Baron was ol)liged reluctantly to give 
 orders for the feast without the i)resence of the guest. All 
 wore seated at table, and just on the point of commencing^ 
 wheu tlie sound of a horn from without the gate gave notice 
 of file approach of a strniiger. Another long blast filled the 
 old coiuts of the castle with it:3 echoes, and was answered by 
 the warder from the walls. The Baron hastened to receive his 
 future son-in-hiw. 
 
 The drawbridge had been let down, and the stranger ^ras 
 before the gate. He was a tall, gallant cavalier, mounted on a 
 black steed. His countenance was |)ale,but he had a beaming, 
 romantic eye, and an air of stately melancholy. The Baron 
 was u little moitified tliat he should have come in this simple, 
 solitary style. His dignity for a moment was ruffled, and he 
 felt disposed to consider it a want of proper respect for the im- 
 portant occasion, and the important family with which he waa 
 to be connected. He pacilieil himself, however, with the con- 
 clusion that it must have been youthful impatience which had 
 IikIucihI him thus to spur on sooner than his attendants. 
 
 '' I am sorry," said the stranger, '' to break iu upon you thus 
 iiiiseiisonably — " 
 
 Here the Baron interrupted him with a world of compliments 
 and greetings ; for, to tell the truth, he prided himself upon his 
 courtesy and eK^cjuence. Tiie stranger attempted, once or 
 twice, to stem the torrent of nords, ])ut in vain ; so he bowed 
 his iiead and suffered it to flow on. By the time the Baron had 
 come to a pause, tiiey had reached tlu; inner court of the castle ; 
 aud the stranger was again al)out to speak, when he was once 
 more interrui)ted liy the a[>pearance of the female part of the 
 family, leading forth the shrinking and blushing bride. He 
 (jazed on her for a moment as one entranced ; it seemed as if 
 his whole soul beamed forth in the gaze, and rested upon that 
 lovely form. One of the maiden aunts whispered something in 
 her ear ; she made an etTort to si)eak ; her moist blue eye was 
 timidly raised, gave a shy glance of inquiry on the stranger^ 
 aud was cast again to the ground. The words died away ; bui 
 there was a sweet smile playing about her lips, and a soft dim 
 pliug of the cheek, tln'^ showed her glance had not been un- 
 satisfactory. It was impo'sihle for a girl of the fond age of 
 eighteo:), highly predispose-i for love aud matrimony, not to bo 
 pleased with so gallant a cavalier. 
 
 I: 
 
 i',r 
 
 ■ ( 
 
 ;■ 
 
 i, ' 
 
 / :.i^' 
 
n 
 
 i:lir 
 
 124 
 
 TBE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 The late hour at which the guest had arrived, left no time 
 for parley. The Baron was peremptory, and deferred all par- 
 ticular conversation until the morning, and led the way to the 
 untasted banquet. 
 
 It was served up in the great hall of the castle. Around the 
 walls hung the hard-favored portraits of the heroes of the house 
 of Katzeuellenbogen, and the trophies which they had gaiued 
 in the field and in the chase. Hacked corselets, splintered 
 jousting spears, and tattered banners, were mingled with the 
 spoils of sylvan warfare : the jaws of the wolf, and the tusks 
 of the boar, grinned horribly among cross-bows and battle- 
 axes, and a liuge pair of antlers branched immediately over the 
 head of the youthful bridegroom. 
 
 The cavalier took but little notice of the company or the 
 entertainment. He scarcely tasted the banquet, but Heeiiied 
 absorbed in admiration of his bride. He conversed in a low 
 tone, that could not be overheard — for the language of love is 
 never loud ; but where is the female ear so dull that it cannot 
 catch the softest whisper of the lover? There was a mingled 
 tenderness and gravity in his manner, that appeared to have a 
 powerful effect upon the young lady. Her color came and 
 went, as she listened with deep attention. Now and then she 
 made some blushing reply, and when his eye was turned away, 
 she would steal a sidelong glance at his romantic counteuauce, 
 and heave a gentle sigh of tender happiness. It was evideut 
 that the young couple were completely enamoured. The aunts, 
 who were deeply versed in the mysteries of the heart, de- 
 clared that they had fallen in love with each other at first 
 sight. 
 
 The feast went on merrily, or at least noisily, for the guests 
 were all blessed with tliose keen appetites that attend upon 
 light pui-ses and mountain air. The Baron told his best and 
 longest stories, and never had he told them so well, or with 
 such great effect. If there was any thing marvellous, bis 
 auditors were lost in astonisiuneut ; and if any thing facetious, 
 they were sure to laugli exactly in the right place. The Baron, 
 it is true, like most great meu, was too dignified to utter any 
 joke, but a dull one ; it was always enforced, however, by a 
 bumper of excellent Hockheimer; and even a dull joke, at 
 one's own table, served up with jolly old wine, is iiresistible. 
 Many good things were said by poorer and keener wits, that 
 would not bear repeatin<>;, except on similar occasions ; many 
 sly speedies wliispered in ladies' ears, that almost convulsed 
 them with suppressed laughter ; and a aoug or two roared out 
 
TBB SPBCTRX BRIDKOROOM. 
 
 125 
 
 I 
 
 by a pool', but raerry and broad-fiiced cousin of the Baron, that 
 absolutely made the maiden aunts hold up their fans. 
 
 Amidst all this revelry, the strtiiiger guest maintained a most 
 singular and unseasonable gravity. His countenance assumed 
 a deeper cast of dejection as the evening advanced, and, 
 strange as it may appear, even the Baron's jokes seemed only 
 to render him the more melancholy. At timea he was lost in 
 thought, and at times there was a perturbed and restless wan- 
 dering of the eye that bespoke a mind but ill at ease. His 
 conversations with the bride became more and more earnest 
 and mysterious. Ix)wering clouds began to steal over the fair 
 serenity of her brow, and tremors to run through her tender 
 frame. 
 
 All this could not escape the notice of the company. Their 
 gayety was chilled by the unaccountable gloom of the bride- 
 groom ; their sjjirits were infected ; whispers and glances were 
 interchanged, accompanied by shrugs antl dubious shakes of the 
 head. The song and the laugh grew less and less frecpient ; 
 there were dreary pauses in the conversation, 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 hysterics 
 with the history of the goblin horseman that carried away 
 the fair Leonora — a dreadful 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 fixed on the Baron, and as the story 
 drew to a close, began gradually to rise from his scat, growing 
 taller and taller, until, in the Baron's entranced eye, he seemed 
 almosst to tower into a giant. The moment the tale was fin- 
 ished, he heaved a deep sigh, and took a solemn farewell of the 
 company. They were all amazement. The Baron was per- 
 fectly thunderstruck. 
 
 "What! going to leave the castle at midnight? why, every 
 thing 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 to-night ! " 
 
 There was something in this reply, and the tone in which it 
 was uttered, that made the Baron's heart misgive him ; but he 
 rallied his forces, and repeated his hospitable entreaties. The 
 stranger shook his head silently, but positively, at every offer ; 
 and, waving his farewell to the comi)auy, stalked slowly out of 
 
 'm a . 
 
 } ). 
 
 'i^' 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 /v 
 
 
 €^^% 
 
 yj 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 
 £ m 
 
 £ l£ 1110 
 
 >- .. 
 
 1.8 
 
 11-25 ■ 1.4 mil 1.6 
 
 V 
 
 M 
 
 
 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sdences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WSST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 

 Vj 
 
126 
 
 THE EK.ETCH-BOOK. 
 
 m 
 
 the hall. The maiden aunts were absolutely petrified— thb 
 oride hung her head, and a tear stole to her eye. 
 
 The Baron followed the stranger to the great court of the 
 castle, where the black charger stood pawing the earth, and 
 snorting with impatience. When they had reached tho portal, 
 whose deep archway was dimly lighted by a cresset, the stran- 
 ger paused, and addressed the Baron in a hollow tone of voice, 
 which t ie vaulted roof rendered still more sepulchral. '^ Now 
 that we are alone," said he, "I will impart to you the reason of 
 iny going. I have a solemn, an indispensable engagement — " 
 
 "''why," said the Baron, " cannot you send some one in your 
 
 place?" 
 
 " It admits of no substitute — I must attend it in person — I 
 must away to Wurtzburg cathedral — " 
 
 "Ay," said the B-uon, plucking up spirit, "but not until 
 to-morrow — to-morrow you sliall take your bride there." 
 
 "No! no!" replied the stranger, with ten-fold solemnity, 
 ^'' my engagement is with no bride — the worms! the worms 
 expect me ! I am a dead man — I have been slain by robbers — 
 my body lies at Wurtzburg — at midnight I am to be buried — 
 the grave is waiting for me — I must keep my appointment ! " 
 
 He sprang on liis black charger, daslied over the drawbridge, 
 and the clattering of his horse's hoofs was lost in the whistling 
 of the night-l>last. 
 
 The Baron returned to the hall in the utmost consternation, 
 and related what hud passed. Two ladies fainted outright; 
 otiit.:;: sickened at tlie idea of having banqueted with a spectre. 
 It was the opinion of some, tliat this might be the wild hunts- 
 man famous in Germin legend. Some talked of mountain 
 sprites, of wood-demons, and of other supernatural beings, 
 with which the good people of (lermau}' have been so griev- 
 ously harassed since time immemorial. One of the poor rela- 
 tions ventured to suggest that it might be some sportive evasion 
 of the young cavalier, and that the very gloominess of the ca- 
 price 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 infidel ; so that lie was fain to abjure his heresy as speedily 
 as possible, and come into the faitli of the true believers. 
 
 But. whatever may have been the doubts entertained, they 
 were completely put to an end by ti»o arrival, next day, of reg- 
 ular missives, confirming the intelligence of the youug Count's 
 purder, and his interment in Wurtzburg cathedral. 
 
 The dismay at the castle mav well be imagined. The Barou 
 
 ghut himself ui 
 rejoice with bin 
 tress. Theyw 
 iu the liall, sha 
 at tlic troubles 
 table, and ate 
 keeping up the 
 bride was the 
 she had even e 
 spectre could ' 
 living man ? ^• 
 Oil the night 
 retired to her c 
 insisted on sle 
 best tellers of 
 counting one o 
 midst of it. 
 garden. The 
 rising moon, a 
 before Hie lat 
 when a soft s 
 rose hastily fi 
 A tall ligurc i 
 raised its head 
 Heaven and d 
 loud shriek at 
 wIk) had been 
 silently to the 
 again, the spc 
 Of the two 
 for she was i 
 young lady, t 
 lover, that se^ 
 of manly bcai 
 calenlated to i 
 the substance 
 aunt declared 
 niece, for on* 
 she woukl sle 
 that she had 
 her aunt not 
 be denied tht 
 of inhabiting 
 lover kept iit 
 
THE SPECTRE liRIDEGBOOM. 
 
 V21 
 
 shut himself up in his chamber. The guests who had oome to 
 rejoice witii him could not think of abandoning him in his dis- 
 tress. They wandered about the courts, or collected in groups 
 ii) tlic hall, shaiving tlioir lieads and shrugging their shoulders, 
 at tlie 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 widowed 
 briclc was the most pitiable. To have lost a husband before 
 she had even embraced him — and such a husband ! if the very 
 spectre could be so gracious and noble what must have been the 
 living man ? She filled the house with lamentations. 
 
 On tiie night of the second day of her widowhood, slie had 
 retired to her chamber, accompanied by one of her aunts, who 
 insisted on sleeping witli her. The aunt, who was one of the 
 best tellers of ghost stories in all Germany, had just been re- 
 counting one of her longest, and had fallen asleep in the very 
 midst of it. The chamijcr was remote, and overlooked a small 
 garden. The niece lay pensively gazing at the beams of the 
 rising moon, as they trembled on the leaves of an aspen tree 
 before tlie lattice. The castle clock iiad just told midnight, 
 when a soft strain of music stole up from the garden. She 
 rose hastily from her bed, 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 belield the Spectre Bridegroom ! A 
 loud sinlek at that moment burst upon her ear, and her aunt, 
 will) had been awakened by the nuisic, and had followed her 
 silently to the window, fell into her arms. When she looked 
 again, the spectre had disappeared. 
 
 Of the two lemak's, tlie aunt now required the most soothing, 
 for she was perfectly beside lierself with terror. As to the 
 young lady, there was some thing, even in the spectre of her 
 lover, that seemed endearing. There was still the semblance 
 of manly beauty ; and though the shadow of a man is but little 
 calculated to satisfy the affections of a love-sick girl, yet, where 
 the substance is not to be had, even that is cousoling. The 
 aunt declared she would never sleep in that chamber again ; the 
 niece, for once, was refractory, and declared as strongly that 
 she woukl 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 spectre, lest she should 
 be denied the only melancholy pleasmv left her on earth — that 
 of inhabiting the chainlier over which the guardian shade of her 
 lover kept its nightly vigils. 
 
 I i 
 
 id 
 
 ^; ■ ^ 
 
 i: 
 
128 
 
 THE SKETCB-BOOK. 
 
 i ■: 
 
 !:1 
 
 How long the good old lady would have observed tliis prcm- 
 ise is uncertain, for she dearly loved to talk of the m:ir villous, 
 and there is a triumph in being the first to tell a frightful story j 
 it is, however, still quoted in the neighborhood, as a niemora- 
 ble instance of female secrecy, that she kept it to herself for a 
 whole week ; when she was suddenly absolved from all further 
 restraint, by intelligence brought to the breakfast-table one 
 morning that the young lady was not to be found. Her room 
 was empty — the bed had not been slept in — the 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 wit- 
 nessed the agitation which the mishaps of a great man cause 
 among his friends. Even the poor relations paused for a 
 moment from the indefatigable lalwrs of the trencher; when 
 the aunt, who had at first been struck speecliless, wrung her 
 hands and shrieked out, " The goblin! the goblin! she's car- 
 ried away by the goblin ! " 
 
 In a few words she related the fearful scene of the garden, 
 and concluded that the spectre must have carried off his bride. 
 Two of the domestics corroborated the opinion, for they luul 
 heard the clattering of a horse's hoofs down the mountain about 
 midnight, and had no doubt that it was the spectre on his black- 
 charger, bearing her away to the tomb. All present were 
 struck with the direful probability ; for events of the kind are 
 extremely common in Germany, as many well-authenticated his- 
 tories bear witness. 
 
 What a lamentable situation was that of the poor Baron! 
 "What a heart-rending dilemma for a fond father, and a mem- 
 ber of the great family of Katzenellenbogen ! Ilis only daugli- 
 ter had either been rapt away to the grave, or he was to huve 
 some wood-demon for a son-in-law, and, perchance, a troop of 
 goblin grand-children. As usual, he was completely bewil- 
 dered, and all the castle in an uproar. The men were ordered 
 to take horse, and scour every road and path and glen of the 
 Odenwald. The Baron himself had just drawn on his jack- 
 boots, girded on his sword, and was about to mount his steed 
 to sally forth on the doubtful quest, when he was brouglit to a 
 pause by a new apparition. A lady was seen approaching the 
 castle, mounted on a palfrey attended by a cavalier on horse- 
 back. She galloped up to the gate, sprang from her horse, and 
 falling at the Baron's feet embraced his knees. It was his lost 
 daughter, and her companion — the Spectre Bridegroom ! Tlie 
 Baron was astounded. lie looked at his daughter, then at tU 
 
 Spectre, and 
 latter, too, wa 
 liis visit to th 
 set off a nob 
 pale and mel 
 the glow of yt 
 The myste 
 truth, as you 
 announced hi 
 latcd liis a(lv 
 had hastened 
 that the eloq 
 attempt to te 
 pletely captiv 
 he ha(' tacitl: 
 been sorely i 
 until the Ba 
 exit. How, 
 repeated his 
 neath the yc 
 had borne a^ 
 
 fair. 
 
 Under any 
 
 inflexible, fo 
 
 voutly ol)stiu 
 
 he luul hunei 
 
 and, though 
 
 Heaven, he 
 
 he acknowlc 
 
 of strict ver 
 
 of his being 
 
 had served 
 
 ?xo\isai)le ii 
 
 privilege, hi 
 
 Matters, 
 
 donod the y 
 
 were lesunK 
 
 her of the 
 
 generous — 
 
 scandalized 
 
 obedience i 
 
 to their ne^ 
 
 them was ] 
 
 marred, an 
 
 i .1 
 
THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM. 
 
 129 
 
 Spectre, and almost donbted the evidence of his senses. The 
 latter, too, was wonderfully improved in his appearance, since 
 his visit to the world of spirits. His dress was splendid, and 
 set off a noble figure of manly symmetry. He was no longer 
 pale and melancholy. His fine countenance was flushed with 
 the glow of youth, and joy rioted in his large dark eye. 
 
 The mystery was soon cleared up. The cavalier (for in 
 truth, as you must have known all the while, he was no goblin) 
 announced himself as Sir Herman Von Starkenfaust. He re- 
 lated his adventure with the young Count. He told how he 
 had hastened to the castle to deliver the unwelcome tidings, but 
 that the eloquence of the Baron had interrupted him in every 
 attempt to tell his tale. How the sight of the bride had com- 
 pletely captivated him, and that to pass a few hours near her, 
 ho ha(i tacitly suffered the mistake to continue. How he had 
 been sorely perplexed in what way to make a decent retreat, 
 until the liaron's goblin stories had suggested his eccentric 
 exit. How, fearing the feudal hostility of the family, he had 
 repeated his visits by stealth — had haunted the garden be- 
 ncatii the young lady's window — had wooed — had won — 
 had borne away in triumph — and, in a word, had wedded the 
 fair. 
 
 Under an}' other circumstances, the Baron would have been 
 inflexible, for he was tenacious of i)aternal authority, and de- 
 voutly ol)stinato in all family feuds ; but he loved his daughter; 
 he iiad lamented her as lost ; he rejoiced to find her still alive ; 
 anil, though her husband was of a hostile house, j'et, thank 
 Heaven, he was not a goblin. There was something, it must 
 be acknowledged, that did not exactly accord with his notions 
 of strict veracity, 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 stratagem was 
 ?xousal)le in love, and that the cavalier was entitled to especia? 
 privilege, having lately served as a trooper. 
 
 Matters, therefore, were happily arranged. The Baron par- 
 doned the young couple on the spot. The revels at the castle 
 were resumed. The poor relations overwhelmed tliis new mem- 
 ber of the famil}' with loving kindness ; he was so gallant, so 
 generous — and so rich. Tiie aunts, it is true, were somewhat 
 scandalized that their system of strict seclusion and passive 
 obediinice should be so badly exemplified, but attributed it all 
 to their negligence in not having the windows grated. One of 
 tlieni was particularly mortified at having her marvellous story 
 marred, and that tiie only spectre she had ever seen should turu 
 
 I h 
 
 \ 1 ' I 
 
 I : ' : I 
 
 %■'.. 
 
 H, 1" 
 
 I :i 
 
 I an. I 
 
 1 \ 
 
 hir 
 
 'i 
 
 I |i 
 
 :.i 
 
130 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 out a oonnterfcit ; but tho niece seemerl perfectly liajipy at Imv. 
 ing found him substantial Hesli and blood — and fo t'le storj 
 ends. 
 
 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 When I bohold, willi depp astoniBhment, 
 To fiirnoim WoKtmineli'i- how Ihert' ri'sorte, 
 Living in tirnsHO or stony monuincnt, 
 Tho piinci'n .111(1 the worthie« of ill! sorto; 
 Doe not I see reforindo nobilitio, 
 Without contempt, or pride, or onlentntion, 
 And ioolje iii)on offonHi'lefse luajoHty, 
 Naliod of pomp or eurllily doniinalion? 
 And how a play-iifarne of ii piuntcii ntono 
 Contents the quiet now and hileiit sprites, 
 Whome all the world which late they stood upon, 
 Could not content or quench taoir appetites. 
 
 Life is a frost of cold felicitic, 
 
 And death the thaw of all our vanitio. 
 
 C/irUlulero's Epigrams, by T. B., 1508, 
 
 On one of those sober and I'ather melancholy days, in the 
 latter part of autumn, when tlie sliadows of moniiii;:; and ovtMi- 
 ing almost mingle together, and throw a gloom over the decline 
 of the year, I passed several hours in raml)ling about Westmin- 
 ster Abbey. There was something congenitil to tlie season in 
 the mournful magnificence of the old pile ; and as I passed its 
 threshold, it seemed like stepping back into the regions of antiq- 
 uity, and losing myself among the sliades of former ages. 
 
 I entered from the inner court of Westminster school, through 
 a long, low, vaulted passage, that had an almost subterranean 
 look, being dimly lighted in one part l)y circular perfoiations in 
 the massive walls. Through this dark avenue I had a distant 
 view of the cloisters, with the figure of an old verger, in his 
 black gown, moving along their sliadowy vaults, and seemiug 
 like a spectre from one of the neigiil)oring tombs. 
 
 The approach to the abbe}' through these gloomy monastic 
 remains, prepares the mind for its solemn contemplation. The 
 cloister still retains something of the quiet and seclusion of 
 former da3's. The gray walls are discolored by damps, and 
 crumbling with age ; a coat of hoary moss has gathered over 
 the inscriptions of the nmral monuments, and obscm-ed the 
 death's heads, and other funeral emblems. The sharp (ouches 
 of the chisel are gone from the rich tracery of the arches ; tho 
 
 roses which 
 every thing 
 which yet h 
 decay. 
 
 The sun 
 square of th* 
 the centre, 
 with a kind 
 the eye glan< 
 beheld the £ 
 azure heavei 
 As 1 pace 
 gled picture 
 decipher the 
 pavement b( 
 figures, rude 
 footsteps of 
 of the early 
 names alont 
 times; (Vit 
 has. IIU, 
 little while, 
 left like wre 
 but that sue 
 moral but t 
 homage in 
 longer, and 
 monument y 
 iio ,.o\\n n[ 
 Ihe :'ltbeY ( 
 4'1'hoiiig aiiK 
 wall' ing of 
 uvj: the lap 
 CMiward tow 
 I pursuec 
 of the abVie; 
 breaks fulh 
 cloisters, 
 gigantic di' 
 an amazin 
 shrunk int< 
 work. Thi 
 a profound 
 about, as i 
 
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 131 
 
 roses which adorned the key-stones have lost their leafy beauty ; 
 every thing bears marks of the gradual dilapidations of time, 
 which yet has something touching and i)lea8ing in its very 
 decay. 
 
 The sun was pouring down a yellow autumnal ray into the 
 square of the cloisters ; beaming upon a scanty plot of grass in 
 the centre, and lighting up an angle of the vaulted passage 
 with a kind of dusky splendor. From between the arcades, 
 the eye glanced up to a bit of blue sky, or a passhig cloud ; and 
 beheld the sun-gilt pinnacles of the abbey towering into the 
 azure heaven. 
 
 As 1 paced the cloisters, sometimes contemplating this min- 
 gled picture of glory and decay, and sometimes endeavoring to 
 decipher the inscriptions on the tombstones, which formed the 
 pavement beneath my feet, my eye was attracted to three 
 figures, rudely cai*ved in relief, but nearly worn away by the 
 footsteps of many generations. They were the effigies of three 
 of the early abbots ; the epitaphs were entirely effaced ; the 
 names alone remained, having no doubt been renewed in later 
 times; (Vitalis Abbas. 1082, and Gislebertus Crispinus. Ab- 
 l)as. 1114, and Laurentius, Abbas. 11 70.) I remained some 
 little while, musing over these casual relics of antiquity, thus 
 left like wrecks upon this di itant shore of time, telling no tale 
 but that such beings had been and had perished ; teaching no 
 moral but the futility of that pride which hoi)es still to exact 
 liouiage in its ashes, and to live in an inscrii)ti«)n. A little 
 loii«;vr, and even these faint records will be obliterated, and the 
 monument will cease to be a memorial. Whilst I was yet look- 
 iig I own upon these gravestones, 1 was roused by the sound of 
 Uu' :ili!)ey clock, reverberating from buttress to buttress, and 
 I'clioiiiu; aiiion;^- the doi.sters. It is almost startling to hear this 
 waipiiig of dei)aited time sounding among the tombs, and tell- 
 ing the lapse of the hour, which, like a l)illow, has rolled us 
 iwiward towards the grave. 
 
 I pursued my walk to an arched door opening to the interior 
 of the abbey. On entering here, tiie magnitude of the building 
 breaks fully upon the mind, contrasted with the vaults of vhe 
 cloisters. The eyes gaze with wonder at clustered columns of 
 gigantic dimensions, with arches springing from them to such 
 au amazing height ; and man wandering about their bases, 
 shruidv into insignilicance in comparison with his own handi- 
 work. The spaciousness and gloom of this vast edifice produce 
 a profound and mysterious awe. We step cautiously and softly 
 about, as if fearful of disturbing the hallowed silence of the 
 
 t ! t 
 
 I ■ I ! 
 
 M 
 
 4 
 
 " Ih l\' 
 
 ^1 .:. 
 
 '<v: 
 
>, ' 
 
 1 4 
 
 s. i ; 
 
 it 
 
 1 . 
 
 ' H 
 
 1 '' 
 
 . || 
 
 ■ ' ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 'ii 
 
 • ' 
 
 1 
 
 t 
 
 i' '■ 
 
 E ' 
 
 i '^ i 
 
 1 ' 
 
 1 "5 
 
 ' 
 
 i . .u, 
 
 ' 
 
 ; 1 
 
 I 
 
 : .■ . ^. 
 
 '^ .^ . 
 
 : ,. . r 
 
 ■ ; ■ 
 
 : ;;i: 
 
 . 
 
 )■■ 
 
 ; 1: f i 
 
 1 1 t 
 
 i , 
 
 , |l: 
 
 1 
 
 ' 1 ' 
 
 • ' i ' 
 
 i f 
 
 \ 
 
 \ ' 
 
 
 } 
 
 : %■ 
 
 WM 
 
 I ^y 
 
 132 
 
 THE .^KETCn-BOOlC. 
 
 tomb ; while every footfall whispers along the walls, and 'hat 
 
 ters among the sepiil 
 
 more sensible of the 
 
 euros, maiving us more sfiisiuiu oi uie qmei 
 we have interrupted. 
 
 It seems as if tlie nwfiil tintiire of the place presses down 
 upon the soul, and luishes the beholder into noiseless roveroncp. 
 We feel that we are surrounded by the congregated bones of 
 the great men of past times, who have filled history with their 
 deeds, and the earth with their renown. And yet it almost pro- 
 vokes a smile at the vanity of human ambition, to see iiow thoy 
 are crowded togetiier, and jostled in the dust; Avhat parsimony 
 is observed in doling out a scanty nook — a gloomy corner — a 
 little portion of earth to those whom, when alive, kingdoms 
 could not satisfy ; and how many shapes, and forms, and arti- 
 fices, are devised to catch the casual notice of the passenger, 
 and save from forgetfulncss, for a few short years, a name 
 which once aspired to occupy ages of the world's thought and 
 admiration. 
 
 I passed some time in Poet's Corner, which occupies an end 
 of one of the transepts or cross aisles of the abbey. The monn- 
 ments are generally simple ; for the lives of literary men alTonl 
 no striking themes for the sculptor. Shakspeare and Addison 
 have statues erected to their memories ; but the greater part 
 have busts, medallions, and sometimes mere inscriptions. Not- 
 withstanding the simplicity of these memorials, I have always 
 observed that the visitors to the abbey remain longest about 
 them. A kinder and fonder feeling takes place of that cold 
 curiosity or vague admiration with which the}' gaze on the 
 splendid monuments of the great and the heroic. They linger 
 about these as about the tombs of friends and companions ; for 
 indeed there is something of companionship lietween tiie author 
 and the reader. Other men are known to posterity only 
 through the medium of historj', which is continualh' growinii 
 faint and obsctire ; but the intercourse between the author and 
 his fellow-men is ever new, active, and immediate. He has 
 lived for them more than for himself; he has sacrificed sur- 
 rounding enjoyments, and shut himself up from the <lelights of 
 social life, that he might the more intimatel}- commune with 
 distant minds and distant ages. Well may the world cherish 
 his renown ; for it has l)een purchased, not by deeds of violence 
 and blood, but by tiie diligent dispensation of pleasure. AVoU 
 may posterity be grateful to his memory ; for he has loft it an 
 inheritance, not of empty names and sounding actions, but 
 whole treasures of wisdom, bright gems of thought, and golden 
 veins of language. 
 
 1 
 
 From Poet' 
 of the abbey 
 wandered am 
 occupied by tl 
 turn, I met 
 some powerfu 
 into these di 
 quaint etfigie 
 others stretcli 
 together; wa 
 ates, with cro 
 nets, lyiug as 
 strangely pop 
 it seems ahno 
 city, where 
 stone. 
 
 1 paused tc 
 
 knight in con 
 
 the hands vn 
 
 hreast; the 
 
 were crossed 
 
 the holy war 
 
 military enth 
 
 raance, and ' 
 
 fact and (i<'ti( 
 
 is somethinjj 
 
 adventurers, 
 
 ings and Go 
 
 ehai)els in wl 
 
 them, the ii 
 
 associations, 
 
 pageanti-y, v 
 
 ulchre of Ch 
 
 of beings pj 
 
 with which t 
 
 some Strang 
 
 knowledge, 
 
 visionary. 
 
 those elHgieJ 
 
 death, or in 
 
 effect iufinit 
 
 ful attitudes 
 
 which abou 
 
 also, wilU tl 
 
WBSTMlNSTEn ABB ST. 
 
 133 
 
 From Poet's Corner I continued ray stroll towards that part 
 of the abbey which contains the sepulchres of the kings. I 
 wandered among what once were chapels, but which are now 
 occupied by the tombs and monuments of the great. At every 
 turn, I met with some illustrious name, or the cognizance of 
 801110 powerful house renowned in history. As the eye darts 
 into these dusky chambers of deatli, it catches glimpses of 
 quaint effigies: some kneeling in niches, as if in devotion; 
 otiieis stretched upon the tombs, with hands piously pressed 
 together ; warriors in armor, as if reposing after battle ; prel- 
 ates, with crosiers and mitres ; and nobles in robes and coro- 
 nets, lying as it were in state. In glancing over this scene, so 
 stiaugely populous, yet where every form is so still and silent, 
 it seems almost as if we were treading a mansion of that fabled 
 city, where every being had been suddenly transmuted into 
 stone. 
 
 1 paused to contemplate a tomb on which lay the effigy of a 
 knight in complete armor. A large buckler was on one arm ; 
 the hands were pressed together in supplication upon the 
 breast ; the face was almost covered by the morion ; the legs 
 were crossed in token of the warrior's having been engaged in 
 the hoi}' war. It was the tomb of a crusader ; of one of those 
 military enthusiasts, who so strangely mingled religion and ro- 
 mance, and whose exploits form the connecting link between 
 fact and fiction — between the history and the fairy tale. There 
 is something extremely picturesque in the tombs of these 
 adventurers, decorated as tiiey are with rude armorial bear- 
 ings and Gothic sculpture. They comport with the antiquated 
 chapels in which they are generally found ; and in considering 
 them, the imagination is apt to kindle with the legendary 
 associations, the romantic fiction, the chivalrous pomp and 
 pageantiy, which poetry has spread over the wars for the Sep- 
 ulchre of Christ. They are the relics of times utterly gone by ; 
 of beings passed from recollection ; of customs and manners 
 with which ours have no aflhiity. They are like objects from 
 some strange and distant land, of which we have no certain 
 knowledge, and about which all our conceptions are vague and 
 visionary. There is something extremely solemn and awful in 
 those efligies on Gothic tombs, extended as if in the sleep of 
 death, or in the supplication of the dying hour. They have an 
 effect infinitely more impressive on my feelings than the fanci- 
 ful attitudes, the overwrought conceits, and allegorical groups, 
 which abound on modern monuments. I have been struck, 
 also, with the superiority of many of the old sepulchral inscrip* 
 
 '' il 
 
 I i 
 
 4J 
 
 . * ^j» ♦.^-. 
 
194 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOS, 
 
 i I 
 
 tions. There was a noble way, in former times, of saying 
 things simply, and yet saying them proudly : and I do not know 
 an epitaph that breathes a loftier consciousness of family worth 
 and honorable lineage, than one which alHrms, of a noble 
 house, that '' all the brothers were brave, and aQ the sisters 
 virtuous." 
 
 In the opposite transept to Poet's Corner, stands a monument 
 which is among the most renowned achievements of modern 
 art; but which, to me, appears horrible ratlier than sublime. 
 It is the tomb of Mrs. Nightingale, by Roubillac. The bottom 
 of the monument is represented as throwing open its marlilc 
 doors, and a sb.eeted skeleton is starting forth. The shroud k 
 falling from his fleshless frame as he launches his dart at liis 
 victim. She is sinking into her affrighted husband's anus, 
 who strives, with vain and frantic effort, to avert the blow. 
 The whole is executed with terrible truth and spirit ; we almost 
 fancy we hear the gil)bcring yell of triumph, bursting from the 
 distended jaws of the spectre. — But why should we thus seek 
 to clothe death with unnecessary terrors, and to spread horrois 
 round the tomb of those we love ? The grave should be sur- 
 rounded by every thing that might inspire tenderness and ven- 
 eration for the dead ; or that might win the living to virtue. It 
 is the place, not of disgust and dismay, but of sorrow and 
 meditation. 
 
 While wandering about these gloomy vaults and silent ais'es, 
 studying the records of tiie dead, the sound of busy eAistenoe 
 from without occasionally reaches the ear : — the rumbling of 
 the passing equipage ; the murmur of the multitude ; or perhaps 
 the light laugh of pleasure. The contrast is striking with the 
 deathlike repose around ; and it has a strange effect upon the 
 feelings, tluis to hear the surges of active life hurrying along 
 and beating against the very walls of the sepulchre. 
 
 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 loiterers about the abbey grew less and less 
 frequent; the sweet-tongued bell was summoning to eveninjj; 
 prayers ; and I saw at a distance the choristers, in their white 
 surplices, 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 magnifi- 
 cent arch. Creat 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 
 sepulchres. 
 
 On entering, 
 ture, and the e 
 walls arc wro 
 tracery, and s( 
 saints and imir 
 chisel, to have 
 aloft, as >f by 
 wonderful niiii 
 
 Along tlie 
 
 Xniiilits of the 
 
 tystiue deeorat 
 
 the stalls are i 
 
 their scarfs an 
 
 banners, embl 
 
 the splendor o 
 
 fretwork of tl 
 
 stands the s( 
 
 of liis queen, 
 
 surrounded by 
 
 There is a s 
 
 mixture of to 
 
 asi>iring ambi 
 
 and oblivion 
 
 Nothing iujpr 
 
 than to tread 
 
 and pageant. 
 
 knights and t' 
 
 ireons banner: 
 
 lion conjured 
 
 valor and be 
 
 jewelled rank 
 
 feet, and the 
 
 away ; the si 
 
 interrupted c 
 
 found their ' 
 
 its friezes an 
 
 tion. When 
 
 were those o1 
 
 tossing upon 
 
 some minglii 
 
 seeking to c: 
 
 shadowy hoi 
 
 Two small 
 
 ing instance 
 
WEf^TMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 135 
 
 On entering, the e^c is astonished by the pomp of architec- 
 ture, and tiio chihoratc beauty of sculptured detail. The very 
 walls .arc wnnigiit into universal ornament, encrusted with 
 tracery, and scooped into niches, crowded with the statues of 
 saints and iruirtyrs. Stone seems, by th" cunning labor of the 
 oliist'l. to have been robbed of its weight and density', suspended 
 aloft, as if l>y magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the 
 wonderful niinufcncss and airy security of a cobweb. 
 
 Along the sides of the chapel are the lofty stalls ^ ' the 
 Kniglits of the Hath, richly carved of oak, though with the gro- 
 tesiiue decorations of Gothic architecture. On the pinnacles of 
 the stalls arc aliixcd the helmets and crests of the knights, with 
 their scarfs and swords ; and above them are suspended their 
 banners, emblazoned with armorial bearings, and contrasting 
 the splendor of gold and purple and crimson, with the cold gray 
 fretwork of the roof. In the midst of this gr."ud mausoleum 
 stands the .sepulchre of its founder, — his edigy, with that 
 of Ills queen, extended on a sumptuous tomb, and the whole 
 surrounded by a superbly wrought brazen railing. 
 
 riiere is a sad dreariness in this magnilicence ; this strange 
 mixture of toukbs and trophies; these emblems of living and 
 aspiring ambition, close beside mementos which show the dust 
 and ol)livion in which all nnist sooner or later terminate. 
 Nothing impresses the mind with a deeper feeling of loneliness, 
 liian to tread tin; silent and deserted scene of former throng 
 and |)ageant. On looking round on the v.acant stalls of the 
 kniglits and their es(juires, and on the rows of dusty but gor- 
 •leons banners tli;i were once borne before them, my imagina- 
 tion conjured up the seene when this hall w.as bright with the 
 valor and beauty of tlu- land ; glittering with the splendor of 
 jewelled 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 chirping of birds, which had 
 found their way into the chapel, and built their nests among 
 its friezes and pendants — sure signs of solitariness and deser- 
 tion. When 1 read the names inscribed on the baimers, they 
 were those of men scattered far and wide about the world ; some 
 tossing upon distant seas ; some under arms in distant lauds ; 
 some mingling in the busy intrigues of courts and cabinets : all 
 seeking to deserve one more distinction in this mansion of 
 sliadowy honors — the melancholy reward of a monument. 
 
 Two small aisles on each side of this chapel present a touch- 
 ing instance of the equality of the grave, which brings down 
 
 ■ % 
 
136 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 I I 
 
 n'< .' i 
 
 the oppressor to a level with the oppressed, and minglos the 
 dust of the bitterest enemies together. In one is thi' Hcpulohre 
 of the haughty Klizuheth ; in the other is that of her victim, 
 the lovely and unfortunate Mary. Not an liour in tlu> day, but 
 some ejaculation of pity is uttered over the fate of the latter, 
 mingled witli indignation at her oppressor. The walls of Kllza- 
 beth's sepulchre continually echo with the sighs of syui[)iitliy 
 heaved at the grave of her rival. 
 
 A peculiar melancholy reigns over the aisle where Mtiry lies 
 buried. The light struggles dimly through windows darkoued 
 by dust. Tiie greater part of the place is in deep shadow, and 
 the walls are stained and tinted by time and weatlier. A 
 marble figure of Mary is stretched ui)on tlie tomb, round which 
 is an iron railing, mucii corroded, bearing her national eniltk'ni 
 — the thistle. I was weary with wandering, and sat ilowii 
 to rest myself by the monument, revolving in my mind the 
 chequered and disastious story of poor JNIary. 
 
 The sound of casual footsteps had ceased from the abl)oy. I 
 could only hear, now and then, the distant voice of the priest 
 repeating the evening service, and the faint responses of tiie 
 choir; these paused for a time, and all was huslicd. Tlie still- 
 ness, the desertion and obscurity tliat were gradually prevail- 
 ing around, gave a deeper and more solemn interest to the 
 place : 
 
 For in the Hllent grave no converHnUon, 
 No joyful trend of friendii, no voice of lovers, 
 No careful fnthcr's couuiel — noltiltiu'V licard, 
 For iiotliiiii; iH, Ijut all oblivion, 
 Dual, and an endless Uarl<ueiiH. 
 
 Suddenly the notes of the deep-laboring organ burst upon the 
 ear, falling with doubled and redoubled intensity, and lolliiig 
 as it were, huge billows of sound. How well do their voliiine 
 and giaudeur accord with this mighty building! Witii wiiat 
 pomp do they swell througli its vast vaults, and Ineatiie their 
 awful harmony through these caves of death, and make the 
 silent sepulchi'e vocal ! — And now they rise in triumph and ac- 
 clamation, heaving higher and higher their accordant notes, 
 and piling sound on sound. — Anil now they pause, and tlie soft 
 voices of the choir break out into sweet gushes of melotly ; they 
 soar aloft, and warble along the roof, and seem to play about 
 these lofty vaults like the pure airs of heaven. Again the peal- 
 ing organ heaves its thrilling thunders, ccmpiessing air into 
 music, and rolling it foilli upon the soul. What long-ihawu 
 catleiices ! What solemn sweeping coucurds ! ll grows more 
 
 ; i 
 
^;u''i 
 
 I I 
 
 ' 5- 
 
 CORONATION CHAIR. 
 
 m! . 
 
 HI 
 
511(1 more dcnsi 
 •0 jai the very 
 (vhelnicd. Aik 
 from the earth 
 rioated upward 
 
 I sat for son 
 )f miitiic is ap 
 <scvc gradually 
 to cast deeper 
 (rave token of 
 
 I rose, and 
 
 the flight of st 
 
 ,.yc was caugh 
 
 ascended the s 
 
 tlioiicc a gen 
 
 shrine is cleva 
 
 are the sepulc 
 
 eminence the « 
 
 phies to the cl 
 
 whore warriori 
 
 ing in their " 
 
 chair of coro 
 
 aste of a rem 
 
 as if contrive 
 
 upon the beiu: 
 
 end of human 
 
 from the thro 
 
 these incongr 
 
 lesson to livir 
 
 its proudest 
 
 must soon i 
 
 brow must pa 
 
 ;lisgraces of 
 
 meanest of tl 
 
 is here no io 
 
 some natures 
 
 lowed things 
 
 vcnge on the 
 
 servility whic 
 
 the Confesso 
 
 of their fiini 
 
 tiie hand of 
 
 the Fifth lio^ 
 
 proof liow f; 
 
WESTMiySTER ABBEY. 
 
 137 
 
 5nd more dense and powerful — it fills the vast pile, anrt seems 
 ;o jai the very walls — the ear is stunned — the sen&es are over- 
 whelmed. And now it is winding up in full jubilee — it is rising 
 from the earth to heaven — the very soul seems rapt away, and 
 lioated upwards on this swelling tide of harmony ! 
 
 I sat for some time lost in that kind of reverie which a strain 
 )f music is apt sometin^.^s to inspire : the shadows of evening 
 ^cre gradually thickening romd me ; the monuments began 
 to cast deeper and deeper gloom ; and the distant clock again 
 (rave token of the slowly waning 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 Confessor, and I 
 ascended the small staircase that conducts to it, to take from 
 tlieiice a general survey of this wilderness of tombs. The 
 sliiine is elevated upon a kind of platform, and close around it 
 are the sepulchres of various kings and queens. From this 
 ernineiice the eye loi^ks down between pillars and funeral tro- 
 pliios to the chapels and chambers below, crowded with tombs ; 
 where warriors, prelates, courtiers, and statesmen lie moulder- 
 ing in their " beds of darkness." Close by me stood the great 
 chair of coronation, rudely carved of oak, in the barbarous 
 .asto of a remote and Gothic age. The scene seemed almost 
 as if contrived, with theatrical artifice, to produce an effect 
 upon the beholder. Here was a type of the beginning and the 
 end of human pomp and power ; here it was literally but a step 
 from the throne to the sepulchre. Would not one t'^ink that 
 these incongruous mciuentos had been gathered togetner as a 
 lesson to living greatness? — to show it, even in the moment of 
 its proudest exaltation, the neglect and dishonor to which it 
 must soon arrive? how soon that crown which encircles its 
 brow must pass away ; and it must lie down in the dust and 
 disgraces of the tomb, and be trampled upon by the feet of the 
 meanest of the multitude ? For, Strang-:; to tell, even the grave 
 is here no longer a sanctuary. There is a shocking levity in 
 some natures, which leads them to spoit with awful and hal- 
 lowed things ; and there are base minds, which delight to re- 
 venge on the illustrious dead the abject homage and grovelling 
 servility which they pay to the living. The coflSn of Edward 
 tile Confessor has beon broken open, and his remains despoiled 
 of tlu'ir fimeral ornaments; the scci)trc lins been stolen from 
 tlic liand of the imperious p^lizabeth, and the effigy of Henry 
 llie Fifth lies headless. Not a royal monument but bears some 
 proof how false and fugitive ia the homage of mankind. Some 
 
 '. ■ I* 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 l' 
 
 1 , 
 
 
 \ 
 
 i(: 
 
 
 \ 
 
 ll^; 
 
 
 1 
 
 m[ 
 
 
133 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 f| ,'ii 
 
 are plundered ; some mutilated ; some covered with ribaldry 
 and insult — all more or less outraged and dishonored ! 
 
 Th'j last beams of day were now faintly streaming tiu-oijgh 
 the painted windows in the high vaults above me ; the lower 
 parts of the abbey were already wrapped in the obscurity of 
 twilight. The chapels and aisles grew darker and darker. The 
 efligies of the kings faded into shadows ; the marble figures of 
 the monuments assumed strange sliapes in the uncertain light; 
 the evening bree.re crept through the aisles like the cold l)reath 
 of the gravo ; and even the distant footfall of a verger, travers- 
 ing the Poet's Cori)er, had something strange and dreary in 
 its sound. I slowly retraced my morning's walk, and as I 
 passed out at the portal of the cloisters, the door, closing 
 with a jarring noise behind me, filled the whole building with 
 echoes. 
 
 I endeavored to form some arrangement in my mind of the 
 objects I hfi'l l;een contemplating, but found they were already 
 falling into indistinctness and confusion. Names, inscriptions, 
 trophies, iuvd all become confounded in my recollection, though 
 I had scarcely taken my foot from off the threshold. What, 
 thought I, is this vast assemblage of sepulchres but a treasury 
 of humiliation ; a huge pih; of reiterated homil es on the empti- 
 ness of renown, and the certainty of oblivior .'' It is, indeed, 
 the empire of Deaili ; his great shadowy palr.ce ; where he sits 
 in state, mocking at the relics of human gldry, and spreading,' 
 dust and forgetfulness on the monuments of princes. IIow idle 
 a boast, after all, is the immortality of a name ! Time is evxr 
 silently turning over his pages ; we are too much engross-^d bj 
 the story of the present, to think of the characters and anec- 
 dotes that gave interest to the past ; and each age is a volinnc 
 thrown aside to be speeilily forgotten. The idol of to-day 
 pushes the hero of yesterday out of our recoUecMon ; and will, 
 in turn, be supplanted by his successor of to-morrow. "Our 
 fath'^-b," says Sir Thomas Brov'n, " find their graves in our 
 short memories, and oadly tell r.s how we may })e buried in our 
 survivors." History fpdes into fable; fact becomes clouded 
 with doubt and controversy ; the inscription moulders from the 
 tablet; the statue falls from the pedestal. Columns, ar<!ies, 
 pyramids, what are they but heaps of sand — and their epitai)lis, 
 but characters written in the dust? What is the security of 
 the tomb, or the i)eri)etuitv of an enibaluuucnt? The remauis 
 of Alexander the Great il^a•e been scattered to the wind, and 
 his empty sarcophagus is now the mere curiosity of a museum. 
 " The Egyptian mummies which Cambyses or time hath spared, 
 
CHRISTMAS. 
 
 139 
 
 avarice now consumeth ; Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh 
 is sold for balsams." ^ 
 
 What then is to insure this pile, which now towers above 
 me, from sharing the fate of mightier mausoleums? The time 
 must come when its gilded vaults, which now spring so loftily, 
 shall lie in rubbish beneath the feet ; when, instead of the sound 
 of melody and praise, the wind shall whistle through the 
 broken arches, and the owl hoot from the shattered tower — 
 wlicii the garish sunbeam shall break into ti.ese gloomy man- 
 sions of death ; and the ivy twine round the fallen column ; and 
 tlic fox-glove hang its blossoms about the nameless urn, as if in 
 mockery of the dead. Thus man passes away ; his name per- 
 iblics from record and recollection ; his history is as a tale that 
 is told, and his very mouumeut becomes a ruin. 2 
 
 CHRISTMAS. 
 
 But Is old, old, good old Christraaa gone? Nothing but the hair of his good, gray 
 old head and beard left? Well, I will have thai, seeing I cannot have more of him. 
 
 Hue AMU CitY aftek Christuas. 
 
 A man might then behold 
 
 At Christmas, in each halt, 
 Qood fires to cui°b the cold. 
 
 And meat for great and small. 
 The neighbors were friendly bidden, 
 
 And all had welcome true, 
 The poor from the gates were not chidden, 
 
 When this old cap was new. — Old Sono. 
 
 Nothing in England exercises a more delightful spell over 
 riiV imagination than the lingerings of the holichiy cusioius 
 iiiid iiiral games of former times. They recall the pictures 
 aiy faucy used to draw in the May morning of life, wheu 
 ns yet 1 only knew the world through books, and believed it to 
 i:i' all that poets had painted it; aiul they luring wiih them tlie 
 flavor of tiioso honest days of yoiv, in which, perhaps wiLli 
 *'(liia[ fallacy. I am apt lo Uiink the world was more iioiiu'- 
 hrcd, social, and joyous than at present. I regret to say that 
 tliey are daily growing more and more faint, being gradually 
 worn away by time, but stiil more obliterated by modern 
 fashion. They resemble those picturesque morsels of Gothic 
 
 > 8ir ThomM Brown. 
 * AppeuUiXt Note 3. 
 
 1 1 
 
 P 
 
 ( 
 
 fill • 
 
 
 v'lii 
 
 i!'l 
 
I ■* 
 
 140 
 
 THE SKETCD-BOOK. 
 
 architecture, which wc sec crumbling in various parts of tha 
 country, partly dilapidated by the waste of ages, and partly 
 lost in the additions and alterations of later days. Poetry, 
 however, clings witii cherishing fondness about the rural game 
 and holiday revel, from which it has derived so many of its 
 themes — as the ivy winds its rich foliage about the (lotiiic arch 
 and mouldering tower, gratefully repaying their sui)port, by 
 clasping together their tottering remains, and, as it were, em- 
 balming them in veidure. 
 
 Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens 
 the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone 
 of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, 
 and lifts the spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoy- 
 ment. The services of the church about this season are ex- 
 tremely tender and inspiring : they dwell on the beautiful story 
 of the origin of our faith, and the pastoral scenes that accom'- 
 panied its announcement : the}' gradually increase in fervor and 
 pathos during the season of Advent, until the}' break fortli in 
 full jubilee on the moining that brought peace and good-will 
 to men. I do not know a grander effect of music on tlie moral 
 feelings than to hear the full choir and the pealing organ per- 
 forming a Christmas anthem in a cathedral, and filling every 
 part of the vast pile with triumphant harmony. 
 
 It is a beautiful arrangement, also, derived from days of 
 yore, that this festival, which commemorates the announcenunit 
 of the religion of peace and love, has been made the season 
 for gathering together of family connections, and drawing closer 
 again those bands of kindred hearts, which the cares and pleas- 
 ures and sorrows of the world are continually operating to 
 cast loose ; of calling back the children of a family, who iiave 
 launched forth in life, and wandered widely asunder, once more 
 to assemble about the paternal hearth, that rallying-plaoe of 
 the affections, there to grow young and loving again among the 
 endearing mementos of childhood. 
 
 There is something in the very season of the year, that gives 
 a charm to the festivity of Christmas. At other times, we de- 
 rive a great portion of our pleasures from the mere beauties of 
 Nature. Our feelings s.ally forth and dissipate themselves over 
 the sunny landscape, and we " live abroad and everywhere." 
 The song of the bird, the murmur of the stream, the breathing 
 
 frajirance of 
 
 spring, the soft voluptuousness of summer, the 
 
 golden pomp of autumn ; eai Ji with its mantle of refreshing 
 green, and heaven with its deep delicious blue and its cloudy 
 magnificence, — all fill us with mute but exquisite delight, and 
 
CHRISTMAS. 
 
 141 
 
 we revel in the luxury of mere sensation. But in the depth of 
 winter, when Nature lies despoiled of every charm, and wrapped 
 in her shroud of sheeted snow, we turn for our gratifications to 
 moral sources. The dreariness and desolation of the landscape, 
 the sliort gloomy days and darksome nights, while they circum- 
 scribe our wanderings, shut in our feelings also from rambling 
 abroad, and make us more keenly disposed for the pleasures 
 of the social circle. Our thoughts are more concentrated ; our 
 friendly sympathies more aroused. We feel more sensibly the 
 charm of each other's society, and are brought more closely 
 togetlier by dependence on each other for enjoyment. Heart 
 calletli unto heart, and we draw our pleasures from the deep 
 wells of loving-kindness which lie in the quiet recesses of our 
 bosoms ; and which, when resorted to, furnish forth the pure 
 element of domestic felicity. 
 
 Tlic pitchy gloom without makes the heart dilate on entering 
 the room filled with the glow and warmth of the evening fire. 
 The ruddy blaze diffuses an artificial summer and sunshine 
 through the room, and lights up each countenance into a kind- 
 lier welcome. Where does the honest face of hospitality ex- 
 pand into a broader and more cordial smile — where is the shy 
 glance of love more sweetly eloquent — than by the winter fire- 
 side? and as the hollow blast of wintry wind rushes through 
 the hall, claps the distant door, whistles about the casement, 
 and rumbles down the chimney, what can be more grateful 
 than that feeling of sober and sheltered security, with which 
 we look round upon the comfortable chamber, and the sceuo of 
 domestic hilarity? 
 
 The English, from the great prevalence of rural habits 
 throughout every class of society, have always been fond of 
 those festivals and holidays which agreeably interrupt the 
 stillness of country life ; and they were in former days particu- 
 larly observant of the religious and social rights of Christmas. 
 It is inspiring to read even the dry details which some anti- 
 quaries have given of the quaint humors, the burlesque pageants, 
 the comi)lete abandonment to nnrtli and good-fellowship, with 
 which this festival was celebrated. It seemed to throw open 
 every door, and unlock every heart. It brought the peasant 
 and the peer together, and l)lended all ranks in one warm gen- 
 erous flow of joy and kindness. The old halls of castles and 
 manor-houses resounded with the harp and the Christmas carol, 
 and their ample boards groaned under the weight of hospitality. 
 Even the |)oorest cottage welcomed the festive season with 
 green decorations of bay and Lolly — the cheerful iiie glanced 
 
 ! 
 
 < 
 
 \.\>' 
 
 ■ < ! 
 
142 
 
 THE SKETCn-nOOK. 
 
 n ':i 
 
 i' 
 
 i\ 
 
 its rays through the lattice, inviting the passengers to raise tlie 
 latch, and join the gossip knot huddled round the hearth, be- 
 gulling the long evening with legendary jokes, and oft-told 
 Christmas tales. 
 
 One of the least pleasing effects of modern refinement is the 
 havoc it has made among the hearty old holiday customs. It 
 has completely taken off the sliarp touchings and spirited reliefs 
 of these embellishments of life, and has worn down society into 
 a morft smooth and polished, but certainly a less characteristic 
 surface. Many of the games and ceremonials of Christmas 
 have entirely disappeared, and, like the sherris sack of old Fal- 
 staflf, are become matters of speculation and dispute among 
 commentators. They flourished in times full of spirit and lusti- 
 hood, when men enjoyed life roughly, but heartily and vigor- 
 ously : times wild and picturesque, which iiave furnished poetry 
 with its richest materials, r.:id the drama with its most attrac- 
 tive variety of characters and manners. The world has become 
 more worldly. There is more of dissipation and loss of enjoy- 
 ment. Pleasure has expanded into a broader, but a shallower 
 stream, and has forsaken many of those deep and quiet chan- 
 nels, where it flowed sweetly through the calm bosom of domes- 
 tic life. Society has acquired a more enlightened and elegant 
 tone ; but it has lost many of its strong local peculiarities, its 
 homebred feelings, its honest fireside delights. The tradition- 
 ary customs of golden-hearted antiquity, its feudal hospitalities, 
 and lordly wassailings, have passed away with the baronial 
 castles and stately manor-houses in which they were celebrated. 
 They comported with the shadowy hall, the great oaken gallery, 
 and the tapestried parlor, but are unfitted to the light showy 
 saloons and gay drawing-rooms of the modern villa. 
 
 Shorn, however, as it is, of its ancient and festive honors, 
 Christmas is still a period of delightful excitement in England. 
 It is gratifying to see that home feeling completely aroused 
 which holds so powerful a place in every English bosom. The 
 preparations making on every side for the social b( ard that is 
 again to unite friends and kindred — the presents of good cheer 
 passing and repassing, those tokens of regard and quickeners 
 of kind feelings — the evergreens distributed about houses and 
 churches, emblems of peace and gladness — all these have the 
 most pleasing effect in producing fond associations, and kin- 
 dling benevolent sympathies. Even the sound of the waits, rude 
 as may be their minstrelsy, breaks upon the uiidwatehes of a 
 winter night with the effect of perfect harmony. As I have 
 been awaJtened by them in that still and solemn hour ''wheo 
 
 •;f i 
 
CBRI8TMA8. 
 
 143 
 
 deep sleep falleth upon man," I have listened with a hushed 
 delight, and connecting them with the sacred and joyous occa- 
 sion, have almost fancied them into another celestial choir, 
 announcing peace and good-will to mankind. How delightfully 
 the imagination, when wrought upon by these moral influences, 
 turns everything to melody and beauty ! The very crowing of 
 the cock, heard sometimes in the profound repose of the coun- 
 try, "telling the nightwatches to his feathery dames," was 
 thought by the common people to announce the approach of this 
 sacred festival : ■ 
 
 •• Soliae say that eTer 'gminat that aeason comM 
 Wherein our Savionr's birth is celebrated. 
 This bird of dawning slngeth all night long: 
 And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad; 
 The nights are wholesome — then no planets strike. 
 No fairy takes, no witch hath power to charm, 
 Bo hallowed and so gracious is the time." 
 
 1 I 
 
 iH 
 
 Amidst the general call to happiness, the bustle of the spirits, 
 and stir of the affections, which prevail at this period, what 
 bosom can remain insensible ? It is, indeed, the season of 
 regenerated feeling — the season for kindling not merely the 
 fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in 
 the heart. The scene of early love again rises green to mem- 
 ory beyond the sterile waste of years, and the idea of home, 
 fraught with the fragrance of home-dwelling joys, reanimates 
 the drooping spirit — as the Arabian breeze will sometimes 
 waft the freshness of the distant fields to the weary pilgrim of 
 the desart. 
 
 Stranger and sojourner as I am in the land — though for me 
 no social hearth may blaze, no hospitable roof throw open its 
 doors, nor the warm grasp of friendship welcome me at the 
 threshold — yet I feel the influence of the season beaming into 
 my soul from the happy looks of those around me. Surely 
 happiness is reflective, like the light of heaven; and every 
 countenance bright with smiles, and glowing with innocent 
 enjoyment, is a mirror transmitting to others the rays of a 
 supreme and ever-shining benevolence. He who can turn 
 churlishly away from contemplating the felicity of his fellow- 
 beings, and can sit down darkling and repining in his lone- 
 liness when all around is joyful, may have his moments of 
 Strong excitement and selfish gratification, but he wants the 
 genial and social sympathies which constitute the charm of a 
 merry Christioait 
 
 ;'r 
 
 :ii 
 
144 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 
 THE STAGE-COACH. 
 
 Omne henh 
 
 Bine p(i!D& 
 Tempus est ludendl 
 
 Vonlt hora 
 
 Absque inor& 
 LibroB deponendi. 
 
 Old Holiday School Bono. 
 
 In the preceding paper, I have made some general observa^ 
 tions on the Christmas festivities of P^ngland, and am tempted 
 to illustrate them by some anecdotes of a Christmas passed 
 in the country ; in perusing which, I would most courteously 
 invite my reader to lay aside the austerity of wisdom, and to 
 put on that genuine holiday spirit, which is tolerant of folly 
 and anxious only for amusement. 
 
 In the course of a December tour in Yorkshire, I rode for a 
 long distance in one of the public coaches, on the day preced- 
 ing Christmas. The coach was crowded, both inside aiul out, 
 with passengers, who, by their talk, seemed principally bouud 
 to the mansions of relations or friends, to eat the Christmas 
 dinner. It was loaded also with hampers of game, and baskets 
 and boxes of delicacies ; and hares hung dangling their long 
 ears about the coachman's box, presents from distant friends 
 for the impending feast. I had three fine rosy-cheeked boys 
 for my fellow-passengers inside, full of the buxom health and 
 manly spirit which I have observed in the children of this 
 country. They were returning home for the holidays, in 
 high glee, and promising themselves a world of enjoyment. 
 It was deliglitful to hear the gigantic plans of the little 
 rogues, and the impracticable feats they were to perform dur- 
 ing their six weeks' emancipation from the abhorred tliraklora 
 of book, birch, and pedagogue. They were full of antici- 
 pations of the meeting with the family and household, down to 
 the very cat and dog ; and of the joy they were to give their 
 little sisters, by the presents with which their pockets were 
 crammed ; but the meeting to which they seemed to look for- 
 ward with the greatest impatience was with Bant'Mi, which I 
 found to be a pony, and, according to their talk, possessed of 
 more virtues than any steed since the days of Bucoi)hahis. 
 How he could trot I how he could run ! and then such leaps as 
 
 he would take 
 that he could n 
 
 They were i 
 man, to whom, 
 dressed a host 
 best fellows ii 
 the more thac 
 coachman, who 
 bunch of Chris 
 He is always 
 but he is part 
 commissions tc 
 of presents, 
 to my un travel 
 general rcprest 
 of funotionari( 
 air, peculiar t( 
 ternity; so ths 
 seen, he cannot 
 
 He has eon: 
 red, as if the t 
 vessel of the 
 quent potatior 
 increased by a 
 a caiilitlower, 1 
 broad-briminec 
 kerchief aboul 
 the bosom ; an 
 bis button- hoh 
 country lass, 
 striped, and hi! 
 a pair of jocke 
 
 All this cos 
 a pride in hu^ 
 withstanding t 
 still discernab 
 is almost inhei 
 quence and c 
 ferences with 1 
 man of great 
 good understa 
 moment he ai 
 throws down t 
 the cattle to t 
 
THE STAGE-COACH. 
 
 145 
 
 he would take — there was not a hedge in the whole country 
 that he could not clear. 
 
 They were under the particular guardianship of tue coach- 
 man, to whom, whenever an opportunity presented, they ad- 
 dressed a host of questions, and pronounced him one of tiie 
 best fellows in the world. Indeed, I could not but notice 
 the more tlian ordinary ai," of bustle and importance of the 
 coachman, who wore his hat a little on one side, and had a large 
 bnncli of Christmas greens stuck in the button-bole of his coat. 
 He is always a personage full of mighty care and business; 
 but he is particularly so during this season, having so many 
 commissions to execute in consequence of the great interchange 
 of presents. And hero, perhaps, it may not be unacceptable 
 to my untravelled readers, to have a sketch that may serve as a 
 (Tencral representation of this very numerous and important class 
 of functionaries, who have a dress, a manner, a language, an 
 air, peculiar to themselves, and prevalent throughout the fra- 
 ternity ; so that, wherever an English stage-coachman may be 
 seen, he cannot be mistaken for one of any other craft or mystery. 
 
 He lias commonly a broad full face, curiously mottled with 
 red, as if the blood had been forced by hard feeding into every 
 vessel of the skin ; he is swelled into jolly dimensions by fre- 
 quent potations of malt liquors, and his bulk is still further 
 increased by a multiplicity of coats, in which he is buried like 
 a caulitlower, the upper one reaching to his heels. He wears a 
 broad-brimmed low-crowned hat, a huge roll of colored hand- 
 kerchief about his neck, knowingly knotted and tucked in at 
 the bosom ; and has in summer-time a large bouquet of flowers in 
 his button-hole, the present, most probably, of some enamoured 
 country lass. His waistcoat is commonly of some bright color, 
 .stri|)cd, and his small-clothes extend far below the knees, to meet 
 a pair of jockey boots which reach about half-way up his legs. 
 
 All this costume is maintained with much precision ; he has 
 a pride in having his clothes of excellent materials, and, not- 
 withstanding the seeming grossness of his appearance, there is 
 still discernable that neatness and propriety of person, which 
 is almost inherent in an Englishman. He enjoys great conse- 
 quence and consideration along the road ; has frequent con- 
 ferences with the village housewives, who look upon him as a 
 man of great trust and dependence ; and he seems to have a 
 good understanding with every bright-eyed country lass. The 
 moment he arrives where the horses are to be changed, he 
 throws down the reins with something of an air, and abandons 
 the cattle to the care of the hostler, his duty being merely to 
 
 [ ! 
 
 , ..1, 
 
 Ml 
 
 ■!• ' 
 
 ■{ 
 
 \:' 
 
 l> 
 
 ■i ¥■ 
 
140 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 fti 
 
 f 
 
 ill ^^ 
 
 t 
 
 drive from one stage to another. When off the box, his handi 
 are thrust into the i)ocket8 of his great-coat, and he roUa about 
 the inn-yurd with an air of the most absolute lordline 
 Here he is gonerally surrounded by an admiring throng of hos- 
 tlers, st!ibU'-l)oys, shoeblacks, and those uanit'lcss hangors-on, 
 that iiifost inns and taverns, and run errands, and do all kind 
 of odd jobs, for the privilege of battening on the drippings of 
 the kitchen and the leakage of the tap- room. These all look 
 up to him as to an oracle ; treasure up his cant phrases ; echo 
 his opinions about horses and other topics of jockey lore ; and, 
 above all, cMideavor to imitate his air and carriage. Every rag. 
 amullin tiiat has a coat to his back, thrusts his hands in the 
 pockets, rolls in his gait, talks slang, and is an embryo Coachey. 
 
 Perhaps it might be owhig to the pleasing serenity that 
 reigned in my own mind, that I fancied I saw cheerfulness in 
 every countenance throughout the journey. A Stage-Coach, 
 however, carries animation always with it, and puts the world 
 in motion as it whirls along. The horn, sounded at the en- 
 trance of a village, produces a general bustle. Some hasten 
 forth to meet friends ; some with bundles and band-boxes to 
 secure places, and in the hurry of the moment can hardly take 
 leave of the group that accompanies them. In the mean time, 
 the coachman has a world of small commissions to execute. 
 Sometimes he delivers a hare or pheasant ; sometimes jerks a 
 small parcel or newspaper to the door of a public house ; and 
 sometimes, with knowing leer and words of sly import, hands 
 to some half-blushing, half-laughing housemaid, an odd-shaped 
 billet-doux from some rustic admirer. As the coach rattles 
 through the village, every one runs to the window, and you 
 have glances on every side of fresh country faces, and bloom- 
 ing giggling girls. At the corners are assembled juntos of vil- 
 lage idlers and wise men, who take their stations there for the 
 important purpose of seeing company pass : but the sagest 
 knot is generally at the blacksmith's, to whom the passing of 
 tile coach is an event fruitful of much speculation. The smith, 
 with tile horse's heel in his lap, pauses as the vehicle whirls 
 by ; the cyclops round the anvil suspend their ringing hammers, 
 and suffer the iron to grow cool ; and the sooty spectre in brown 
 paper cap, laboring at the bellows, leans on the handle for a 
 moment, and permits the asthmatic engine to heave a long- 
 drawn sigh, while he glares through the murky smoke and sul- 
 phureous gleams of the smithy. 
 
 Perhaps the impending holiday might have given a more 
 than usual animation to the couutry, for it seemed to me as if 
 
 ».^««-^ -♦-•(■ 
 
TUE STAOE-COACn. 
 
 147 
 
 everybody was in good looks and good spirits. Game, poul- 
 try, and other luxuries of the table, were in brisk circulation in 
 the villages ; the grocers', butchers', and fruiterers' shops were 
 thronged with customers. The housewives were stirring briskly 
 about, putting their dwellings in order ; and the glossy branches 
 of holly, with their bright-red berries, began to appear at the 
 windows. The scene brought to mind an old writer's account 
 of Christmas preparations. *' Now capons and hens, besides 
 turkeys, geese, aud ducks, with beef and mutton — must all 
 die — for in twelve days a multitude of people will not be fed 
 with a little. Now plums and spice, sugar aud hone)', square 
 it among pies and broth. Now or never must music be in tune, 
 for the youth must dance and sing to get them a heat, while 
 the aged sit by the tire. The country maid leaves half her 
 market, and must be sent again, if she forgets a pack of cards 
 ou Christmas eve. Great is the conteution of Holly and Ivy, 
 whether master or dame wears the breeches. Dice and cards 
 benefit the butler ; and if the cook do not lack wit, he will 
 sweetiy lick his fingers." 
 
 I was roused from this fit of luxurious meditation, by a 
 shout from my little travelling companions. They had been 
 looking out of the coach-windows for the last few miles, recog- 
 nizing every tree and cottage as they approached home, and 
 now there was a general burst of joy — " There's John ! and 
 there's old Carlo ! and there's Bantam ! " cried the happy little 
 rogues, clapping their hands. 
 
 At the end of a lane, there was an old sober-looking servant 
 in livery, waiting for them ; he was accompanied by a super- 
 annuated pointer, and by the redoubtable Bantam, a little old 
 rat of a pony, with a shaggy mane and long rusty tail, who 
 stood dozing quietly by the road-side, little dreaming of the 
 bustling times that awaited him. 
 
 I was pleased to see the fondness with which the little fel- 
 lows leaped about the steady old footman, aud hugged the 
 pointer, who wriggled his whole body for joy. But Bantam 
 was the great object of interest ; all wanted to mount at once, 
 and it was with some difficulty that John arranged that they 
 should ride by turns, and the eldest should ride first. 
 
 Off they set at last ; one on the pony, with the dog bounding 
 and barking before him, and the others holding John's hands; 
 both talking at once, and overpowering him with questions 
 about home, and with school auecdotes. I looked after them 
 with a feeling in which I do not know whether pleasure or 
 melancholy predominated; for I was reminded of those days 
 
 'I ; ! 
 
 I"? 
 
 tit 
 
 Jf 
 
 i :; I 
 
 •*i'-,: 
 

 ill 
 
 f 
 
 h 
 
 '\ I 
 
 148 
 
 TttE SKETCn-tiOOK, 
 
 when, like them, I had lU'ither known care nor sorrow, and a 
 holuhiy was the summit of earthly felicity. We stopped a few 
 moments afterwards, to water the horses ; and on resuminjr our 
 route, a turn of the road brought us in sight of a neat country. 
 seat. I could just distinguish the forms of a lady and two 
 young girls in the portico, and I saw my little comrades, with 
 Bantam, Carlo, and old John, trooping along the carriage road. 
 I leaned out of the coach-window, in hopes of witnessing the 
 happy meeting, but a grove of trees shut it from my sight. 
 
 In the evening we reached a village where 1 had determined 
 to pass the nigiit. As we drove into the great gateway of the 
 Inu, I saw, on one side, the light of a rousing kitchen fire 
 beaming through a window. 1 entered, and admired, for the 
 hundredth time, that picLire of convenience, neatness, and 
 broad honest enjoyment, the kitchen of an English inn. It 
 was of spacious dimensions, hung round with copper and tin 
 vessels highly polished, and decorated here and there with a 
 Christmas green. Hams, tongues, and tlitches of bacon wore 
 suspended from the ceiling ; a smoke-jack made its ceaseless 
 clanking beside the fire-place, and a clock ticked in one corner 
 
 A well-scoured deal table extended along one side of the kit« 
 chen, with a cold round of beef, and other hearty viands, upon 
 it, over which two foaming tankards of ale seemed mounting 
 guard. Travellers of inferior order were preparing to attack 
 this stout repast, whilst others sat smoking and gossiping over 
 their ale on two high -backed oaken settles beside the lire. 
 Trim housemaids were hurrying backwards and forwards, 
 under the directions of a fresh bustling landlady ; but still 
 seizing an occasional moment to exchange a flippant word, and 
 have a rallying laugh, with the group round the fire. The 
 scene completely realized Poor Robin's humble idea of the 
 comforts of mid-winter : 
 
 Now trees their leafy hatB do bare 
 To reverence Winter's silver liair; 
 . ' ' A liaiidHoine bualeaB, merry boat, 
 
 A pot of ule now and a toaat, 
 Tobacco and a good coal Are, • 
 
 Are things this season doth require.* 
 
 I had not been long at the inn, when a post-chaise drove up 
 to the door. A young gentleman stepped out, and by the light 
 of the lamps I caught a glimpse of a countenance which 1 
 I moved forward to get a nearer view, when 
 
 thought 1 knew 
 
 I'oor KoblB's Alnunacli, \6M. 
 
 < 
 
 )<:---riM- 
 
:i few 
 
 •J,' our 
 iiitry. 
 1 two 
 I with 
 road, 
 the 
 
 \\ 
 
 THE INN KITCHEN. 
 
 % 
 
 i 
 
 ■ 
 
 ^i',' 
 y / ' 
 
m 
 
 his eye caugl 
 
 bridge, a spi 
 liad once tri 
 ticniely cordi 
 always bring 
 odd f dventu! 
 transient int< 
 I was not p 
 observation, 
 his father's 
 holidays, am 
 than eating 
 " and I can 
 the old-fash 
 must confess 
 and social e 
 my lonelincs 
 the chaise dr 
 on my way t 
 
 It was a 
 
 chaise whirl 
 smacked his 
 were on a gi 
 companion, 
 of the merr 
 father, you 
 and prides 1 
 hospitality, 
 meet with U' 
 jivutleman ; 
 n\ town, am 
 
 >r .; 
 
 . *'■•» W^ ,y ^♦■'^ #;-» %i» J 
 
CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 149 
 
 his eye caught mine. I was not mistaken ; it was Frank Brace- 
 bridge, a sprightly good-humored young fellow, with whom I 
 had once travelled on the continent. Our meeting was ex- 
 tremely cordial, for the countenance of an old fellow-traveller 
 always brings up the recollection of a thousand pleasant scenes, 
 odd adventures, and excellent jokes. To discuss all these in a 
 transient interview at an inn, was impossible; and liuding that 
 I was not pressed for time, and was merely making a tour of 
 observation, he insisted that 1 should give him a day or two at 
 his father's country-seat, to which he was going to [)ass the 
 holidays, and which lay at a few miles' distance. " It is better 
 than eating a solitary Christmas dinner at an inn," said he, 
 "and I can assure you of a hearty welcome, in something of 
 the old-fashioned style." His reasoning was cogent, and I 
 must confess the preparation I had seen for universal festivity 
 and social enjoyment, had made me feel a little impatient of 
 my loneliness. I closed, therefore, at once, with his invitation ; 
 the chaise drove up to the door, and in a few moments I was 
 on my way to the family mansion of the Bracebridges. 
 
 I ! 
 
 CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 Saint Francis and Saint Bencdight 
 Blesec this hounc from wicked wight; 
 From the night-marc and the goblin, 
 That is hight good fellow Kobin; 
 Keep it from all evil spiritR, 
 Fairio, wcezclM, rats, and ferrets: 
 
 Fi om curfew-tirae 
 
 To the next prime. — Cartwrioht. 
 
 It was a -jriliiant moonlight night, but extremely cold ; our 
 chaise whirled rapidly over the frozen ground ; the post-boy 
 smacked his whip incessantly, and a part of the time his horses 
 were on a gallop. "'He knows where he is going," said my 
 companion, laughing, " and is eager to arrive in time for some 
 of the merriment and good cheer of the servants' hall. My 
 father, you must know, is a bigoted devotee of the old school, 
 and prides himself upon keeping up something of old English 
 hos|)itality. He is a tolerable specimen of what you will rarely 
 meet with now-a-days in its purity, — the old English country 
 •icntleman ; for our men of fortune spend so much of their time 
 iu town, and fushiou is carried so much iulo ihe country, that 
 
 Id 
 
 !.-!, 
 
 Mi 1 
 
 CV^pIEX?* 
 
160 
 
 TEE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 m 
 
 I f 
 
 the strong rich peculiarities of ancient rur.il life are a'lmoiit 
 polished away. Mv father, however, from early years, took 
 honest Peachan: * lor his text-book, instead of Chesterfield ; he 
 determined in his own mind, that there was no condition more 
 truly honorable and enviable than that of a cou\itry gentle- 
 man on his paternal lands, and, therefore, passes the whole 
 of his time on his estate. He is a strenuous advocate for the 
 revival oi the old rural games and holiday observances, and is 
 deeply read in the writers, ancient and modern, who have 
 treated on the subject. Indeed, his favorite range of reading 
 is among the authors who flourished at least two centuries 
 since ; who, he insists, wrote and thought more like true Eng. 
 lishmen thua any of their successors. He even regrets some- 
 times that he had not been born a few centuries earlier, when 
 England was itself, and had its peculiar manners and customs. 
 As he lives at some distance from the main road, in rathei a 
 lonely part of the country, without any rival gentry near him, 
 he has that most enviable of all blessings to an Englishm.an, an 
 (opportunity of indulging the bent of his own humor w:t!'oiit 
 molestation. Being representative of the oldest family in tlio 
 nci.'jhborhood, and a great part of the peasantry being his ten- 
 ants, he is much looked up to, and, in gener.al, is known simplv 
 by the appellation of ' The 'Squire ; ' a title which has boon 
 accorded 'to the head of the family since time immemorial. I 
 think it best to give you these hints about my worthy old 
 father, to prepare you for any eccentricities that might other- 
 wise appear absurd." 
 
 We had passed for some time along the •wall of a park, and 
 at length the chaise stopped at the gate. It was in a heavy 
 nuigniflcent old style, of iron bars, fancifully wrought at top 
 into flourishes and flowers. The huge squarp columns th:U 
 supported the gate were surmounted by the t'amil}' crest. Clone 
 adjoining was the porter's lodge, sheltered under dark fir trees, 
 and almost buried in shrubbery. 
 
 The post-boy rang a large porter's bell, which resoundeil 
 through the still frosty air, and was answered by the distnnt 
 barking of dogs, with which the mansion-house seemed garri- 
 soned. An old woman immediately ap|)eared at the gate. yVs 
 the moonlight fell strongly upon her, I had a full view of a lit- 
 tle primitive dame, dressed very much in the antique taste, with a 
 neat kerchief and stomacher, and her silver hair peeping fri'm 
 under a cap of snowy whiteness. She came courtesying forth 
 
 * Paacbam'sCsuplelK Gtutleman, IWit. 
 
 ^U\ 
 
CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 161 
 
 with many expressions of simple joy at seeing her young mas- 
 ter. Her husband, it seemed, was up at the house, keeping 
 Cliristraas eve in the sei'vants' hall ; they could not do without 
 him, as he was the best hand at a song and story in the house- 
 hold. 
 
 My friend proposed that we should alight, and walk through 
 the park to the Hall, which was at no great distance, while the 
 chaiso should follow on. Our road wound through a noble 
 avenue of trees, among the naked branches of which the moon 
 glittered as she rolled through the deep vault of a cloudless 
 s<y. The lawn beyond was sheeted with a slight covering of 
 snow, which here and there sparkled as the moonbeams caught 
 a frosty crystal ; and at a distance might be seen a thin trans- 
 parent vapor, stealing up from the low grounds, and threatening 
 gradually to shroud the landscape. 
 
 My companion looked round him with transport: — "How 
 often," said he, " have I scampered up this avenue, on return- 
 ing home on school vacations ! How often have I play(;d under 
 these trees when a boy ! I feel a degree of filial reverence for 
 them, as v^e look up to those who have cherished us in child- 
 hood. My father was always scrupulous in exac;-.! ig our holi- 
 days, and having us around him on family festivals. He used 
 to dii'cct and superintend our games with the strictness that 
 Bome parents do the studies ot iiieu' children. He was very 
 particular that we should play the old English games according 
 to their original form ; and consulted old books for precedent 
 and authority for every ' merric disport;' yet, I assure you, 
 there never was pedantry so delightful. It was the policy of 
 the good old gentleman to make his children feel that home was 
 the hapinest place in the world, and I value tiiis delicious home- 
 feeling as one of the choicest gifts a parent could bestow-" 
 
 We were interrupted by the climor of a troop of dogs of all 
 sorts and sizes, " mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound, and curs 
 of low degree," that, disturbed by the ring of the porter's bell 
 !in<l the rattling of the chaise, came bounding open-moutlje<) 
 jieross the lawn. 
 
 " The little dogs and all, 
 
 Tray, Blanche, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me! " 
 
 cried Bracebridge, laughing. At the sound of his voice, the 
 bark was changed into a yelp of delight, and in a moment he 
 was surrounded and almost overpowered bj' t,he caresses of the 
 faithful animals. 
 We had now come in full view of the old family iiiansion, 
 
 ! I 
 
 f 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 M'l 
 

 m 
 
 
 Su ( 
 
 
 1 'M :♦ ! 
 
 Il 
 
 ISt 
 
 li 
 
 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 
 i [ 
 
 '1 
 
 ■f 
 
 :'! ^i< 
 
 152 
 
 TJT^ SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 partly thrown in deep shadow, and partly lit up by the cold 
 moonshine. It was an irreguhu building of some m;ignitiule, 
 and seemed to be of the architecture of different periods. One 
 wino- was evidently very ancient, with heavy stoiie-shafted liow 
 windows jutting out and overrun with ivy, from ainoug the 
 foliage of which the small diamond-shaped panes of glass glii- 
 tered with the raoon-bef.ms. The rest of the house was in Uic 
 French taste of Charles che Second's time, having been rcpaiud 
 and altered, as my friend told me, by one of his ancestors, \\li,, 
 returned with that monarch at the Restoration. The grounds 
 about the house were laid out in the old formal manner of arti- 
 ficial flower-beds, clipped shrubberies, raised terraces, and heavy 
 stone balustrades, ornamented with urns, a leaden statiili; or 
 two, and a jet of water. The old gentleman, I was told, was 
 extremely careful to preserve this obsolete finery in all its orig- 
 inal state. He admired this fashion in gardening ; it had au 
 air of magnificence, was courtly and noble, and befitting good 
 old family style. The boasted imitation of nature in modem 
 gardening Lad sprung up with modern republican notions, but 
 did not suit a monarchial government — it smacked of the lev- 
 elling system. I could not help smiling at this introduction of 
 politics into gardening, though I expressed some apprei.riusioii 
 that I should find the old gentleman rather intolerant in 'il,, 
 creed. Frank assured mc, however, that it was almost the only 
 instance in which he had ever heard his father meddle with pol- 
 itics ; and he believed he had got this notion from a member 
 of Parliament, who once passed a few weeks with him. The 
 'Squire was glad of any argument to defend his clipped yew 
 trees and formal terraces, which had been occasionally attacked 
 by modern landscape gardeners. 
 
 As we ppproached the house, we heard the sound of ni-.;sie, 
 and now and then a burst of laughter, from one end of the 
 building. This, Bracebridge said, nuist proceed from the ser- 
 vants' hall, where a great deal of revelry was porniitted, and 
 even encouraged, by the 'Squire, througiiout tlic twelve days of 
 Christmas, provided every thing was done comfortably to ,.ii- 
 cient usage. Here were kept up the old games of hocdman 
 blind, shoe the wild mare, i<ot cockles, steal the white loaf, bob- 
 apple, and snap-dragon; the Yule clog, and Christmas candle, 
 were regularly burnt, and the mistletoe, with its white berries, 
 hung up, to the imminent peril of all the pretty housemaids.' 
 
 'The mtBUetoR i8 gtlil hunK up in fiirrn Iiouhoh iind kitchens, iit (^hriHtmiiB; nnd tha 
 youne men have the privilege of Isisninij tlio girls iiiider ii, |)iucliiiig each time u beri^ 
 from the bUHh. When the berries are mU plucked, the privilege ceaiiuii. 
 
 ■*»r»-**^^f' 
 
 ..«.-. «>„^ ^., . .^ ,4 A % , 
 
 .■.x» J. ^ 
 
CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 153 
 
 So intent were the servants upon their sports, that we had 
 to ring repeatedly before we could make ourselves heard. On 
 our tirrivjil being announced, the 'Squire came out to receive 
 us, accompanied by his two other sons ; one a young officer in 
 the army, home on leave of absence ; the other an Oxonian, 
 just from the university. The 'Squire was a fine healthy-look- 
 ing old gentleman, with silver hair curling lightly round ar 
 o|)('n llorid countenance ; in which the physiognomist, with the 
 advantage, like myself, of a previous hint or two, might dis- 
 cov(>r a singular mixture of whim and benevolence. 
 
 The family meeting was warm and affectionate ; as the even- 
 ing was far advanced, the 'Squire would not permit us to 
 change our travelling dresses, but ushered us at once to the 
 coin[)any, which was assembled in a large old-fashioned hall. 
 It was composed of different branches of a numerous family 
 connection, where there were the usual proportion of old 
 uncles and aunts, comfortable married dames, superannuated 
 spinsters, blooming country cousins, half-fledged striplings, and 
 briglit-eyed boarding-school hoydens. They were variously 
 occupied ; some at a round game of cards ; others conversing 
 ror.nd the fireplace ; ai, one end of the hall was a group of the 
 young folks, some nearly grown up, others of a more tender 
 and budding age, fully engrossed by a merry game ; and a pro- 
 fusion of wooden horses, penny trumpets, and tattered dolls 
 about the floor, showed traces of a troop of little fairy beings, 
 who, having frolicked through a happy day, had been carried 
 off to slumber through a peaceful night. 
 
 While the mutual greetings were going on between young 
 Bracebridge and his relatives, I had time to scan the apart- 
 ment. 1 have called it u hall, for so it had certainly been in 
 old times, and the 'Squire had evidently endeavored to restore 
 it to something of its primitive state. Over the heavy project- 
 ing liiiplace was suspended a picture of a warrior in armor, 
 slaiiding !>y a white horse, and on the opposite wall hung a 
 hchuet, buckler, and lance. At one end an enormous pair of 
 antlers were inserted in the wall, the branches serving as hooks 
 on wiiich to suspend hats, whips, and spurs ; and in the corners 
 of the apartment were fowling-pieces, fishing-rods, and other 
 s|)orting implements. The furniture was of the cumbrou3 
 workmanship of former days, though some articles of modern 
 convenience had been added, and the oaken floor had been car- 
 peted ; so that the whole presented an odd mixture of parlor 
 and hall. 
 
 The grate had been removed from the wide overwhelmii g 
 
 \ : 
 
 - 
 
 ; 51 
 
154 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 I '' I 
 
 fire-place, lo make way for a fire of wood, in the midst of whicu 
 was an enormous log, glowing and blazing, and sending forth 
 a vast volume of light and heat ; this I understood was the yule 
 clog, which the 'Squire was particular in having brought in and 
 illumined on a Christmas eve, according to ancient custom.* 
 
 It was really delightful to see the old 'Squire, seated in his 
 hereditary elbow-chair, by the hospitable fireside of his ances- 
 tors, and looking around him like the sun of a system, beaming 
 warmth and gladness to every heart. Even the very dog that 
 lay stretched at his feet, as he lazily shifted his position and 
 yawned, would look fondly up in his master's face, wag his 
 tail against the floor, and stretch himself again to sleep, con- 
 fident of kindness and jirotection. There is an emanation from 
 the heart in geiniiue hospitality, which cannot be described, 
 but is immediately felt, and puts the stranger at once at his 
 ease. I had not been seated many minutes by the comfortable 
 hearth of the worthy old cavalier, before I found myself as 
 much at home as if I had been one of the family. 
 
 Supper was announced shortly after our arrival. It was 
 served up in a spacious oaken chamber, the panels of which 
 shone with wax, and around which were several family por- 
 traits decorated with holly and ivy. Beside the accustomed 
 lights, two great wax tapers, called Christmas candles, wreathed 
 with greens, were placed on a highly polished beaufet among 
 the family plate. The table was abundantly spread with sub- 
 stantial fare ; but the 'Squire made his supper of frumenty, a 
 dish made of wheat cakes boiled in milk with rich spices, being 
 a standing dish in old times for Christmas eve. I was happy 
 to find my old friend, minced pie, in the retinue of the feast ; 
 and finding him to be perfectly orthodox, and that I need not 
 be ashamed of my predilection, I greeted him with all the 
 
 ' The yule clog is a great log of wood, BOinetlmes the root of a tree, brought into the 
 house with great ceremony, on CbriHtmaa eve, laid in the fireplace, and lighted with Ihu 
 brand of last year's clo^-. While it laiited, there was great drinking, Hinging, and telliiii; 
 of tales. Soinetimen it was accompanied by ChristmaM candles; but in the cottages, the 
 ODlv light was from tlie ruddy blaze of the great wood ttre. The yule clog waa to buru all 
 night: if it went out, it was considered a sign of ill luck. 
 
 Herrick mentions it in one of his songs : 
 
 Come bring with a noVie, 
 My merrie, merrie boys, 
 The Christmas Log to the flrinf ; 
 
 While my good dame she 
 
 Bids ye all be free, 
 And drink to your hearts desiring. 
 
 The yule clo|t Is still burnt In many farm-houses and kltchevii In Kngland, p«rtle- 
 nlarly in the north; and there are several superstitions connected with it among the 
 peaBniitry. If a squintinti; i)erson como to the houxe while it Is burning, or a person 
 barefooted, it is considered an ill omen. The brand remaining from the yule clog is 
 carefully put uwuy to lij;bt the next year's Christiuas tire. 
 
CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 165 
 
 warmth wherewith we usually greet an old and very genteel 
 acquaintance. 
 
 The mirth of the company was greatly promoted by the 
 humors of an eccentric personage, whom Mr. Bracebrid^e al- 
 ways addressed with the quaint appellation of Master Simon. 
 He was a tight brisk little man, with the air of an arrant old 
 bachelor. His nose was shaped like the bill of a parrot, his 
 face slightly pitted with the small-pox, with a dry perpetual 
 bloom on it, like a frost-bitten leaf in autumn. He had an eye 
 of great quickness and vivacity, with a drollery and lurking 
 waggery of expression that was irrei; "tible. He was evidently 
 the wit of the family, dealing very n^oh in sly jokes and innu- 
 endoes with the ladies, and making infinite merriment by harp- 
 ing upon^"old themes ; whicii, unfortunately, my ignorance of 
 the family chronicles did not permit me to enjoy. It seemed 
 to be his great delight, during supper, to keep a young girl next 
 to him in a continual agony of stifled laughter, in spite of her 
 awe of the reproving looks of her mother, who sat opposite. 
 Indeed, he was the idol of the younger part of the company, 
 who laughed at every thing he said or did, and at every turn 
 of his countenance. I could not wonder at it ; for he must have 
 been a miracle of accomplishments in their eyes. He could 
 imitate Punch and Judy ; make an old woman of his hand, 
 witli the assistance of a burnt cork and pocket handkerchief ; 
 and cut an orange into such a ludicrous caricature, that the 
 young folks were ready to die with laughing. 
 
 I was let briefly'' into his history by Frank Bracebridge. He 
 was an old bachelor, of a small independent income, which, by 
 careful management, was sufficient for all his wants. He re- 
 volved through the family system like a vagrant comet in its 
 orbit ; sometimes visiting one branch, and sometimes another 
 quite remote, as is often the case with gentlemen of extensive 
 connections and small fortunes in England. He had a chirping, 
 buoyant disposition, always enjoying the present moment ; and 
 his freqiient change of scene and company prevented his ac- 
 quiring those rusty, unaccommodating habits, with which old 
 bachelors are so^uncharitably charged. He was a complete 
 family chronicle, being versed in the genealogy, history, and 
 inteimarriages of the whole house of Bracebridge, which made 
 him a great favorite with the old folks ; he was a beau of all 
 the elder ladies and superannuated spinsters, among whom he 
 was liabitually considered rather a young fellow, and he was 
 master of the revels among the children ; so that there was not 
 a more popular being iu the sphere in which he moved; than 
 
 1 ^ 
 
 
 i(ij'ii 
 
 :i i 
 
 if) 
 
156 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 V: 
 
 ■pi f I. 
 
 vr 
 
 Mr. Simon Bracebridge. Of late years, lie had resided almost 
 entirely with the 'Squire, to whom he had become a factotum, 
 and whom he particularly delighted by jumping with his hu- 
 mor in respect to old times, and by having a scrap of an old 
 song to suit every occasion. We had presently a speciuien of 
 his last-mentioned talent ; for no sooner was supper removed, 
 and spiced wines and other beverages peculiar to the season 
 introduced, than Master Simon was called on for a good old 
 Christmas song. He bethought himself for a moment, and 
 then, with a sparkle of the eye, and a voice that was by no 
 means bad, excepting that it ran occasionally into a falsetto, 
 like the notes of a split reed, he quavered forth a quaint old 
 ditty : 
 
 Kow ChrlRtraas is come, 
 
 Let U8 beiit up the drum, 
 And call all our neighbors together; 
 
 And when they appear, 
 
 Let U8 make tlii'tn mieh clieer, 
 Ab wilt keep out the wind and the weather, etc 
 
 The supper had disposed every one to gayety, and an old 
 harper was summoned from the servants' hall, where he had 
 been strumming all the evening, and to all appearance comfort- 
 ing himself with some of the 'Squire's home-brewed. He was 
 a kind of hanger-on, I was told, of the establishment, and 
 though ostensibly a resident of the village, was oftener to be 
 found in the 'Squires kitchen than his own home ; the old gen- 
 tleman being fond of the sound of " Harp in hall." 
 
 The dance, like most dances after supper, was a merry one ; 
 some of the older folks joined in it, and the 'Squire himself 
 figured down several couple with a partner with whom he 
 adirmed he had danced at every Christmas for nearly half a 
 century. Master Simon, who seemed to be a kind of connect- 
 ing link between the old times and the new, and to be withal a 
 little antiquated in the taste of his accomplishments, evidently 
 piqued himself on his dancing, and was endeavoring to gain 
 credit by the heel and toe, rigadoon, and other graces of the 
 ancient school ; but he had unluckily assorted himself with a 
 little romping girl from boarding-school, who, by her wild 
 vivacity, kept him continually on the stretch, and defeated all 
 his sober attempts at elegance : — such are the ill-assortetl 
 matches to which antique gentlemen are unfortunately prone ! 
 
 The young Oxonian, on the contrary, had led out one of his 
 maiden aunts, on whom tht .ogue played a thousand little 
 knaveries with impunity ; he was full of practical jokes, and hie 
 
 delight was t( 
 youngsters, h 
 niost interest 
 a ward of th( 
 From several 
 the evening, 
 between then 
 to captivate : 
 some ; and, 1 
 picked up va 
 could talk F 
 tolerably — d 
 at Waterloo : 
 romance, con 
 The mome 
 lolling aTaim 
 am half incli 
 air of the 
 against havin 
 upon which t 
 as if in an 
 with a chariij 
 to Julia: " 
 
 The song 
 meut to the 
 
CHRISTMAS EVE. 
 
 151 
 
 deliglit was to teasn his aunts and cousins ; yet, like all madcap 
 youngsters, he was a universal favorite among the women. Tiie 
 most interesting couple in the dance was the young o'ficer, and 
 a ward of the 'Squire's, a beautiful blushing girl of seventeen. 
 From several shy glances which I had noticed in the course of 
 the evening, I suspected there was a little kindness growing up 
 between them ; and, indeed, the young soldier was just the hero 
 to captivate a romantic girl. He was tall, slender, and hand- 
 some ; and, like most young British oflicers of late years, had 
 picked uj) various small accomplishments on the continent — he 
 could talk French and Italian — draw landscapes — sing very 
 tolerably — dance divinely ; but, above all, he had been wounded 
 at Waterloo : — what girl of seventeen, well read in poetry and 
 romance, could resist such a mirror of chivalry and perfection? 
 The moment the dance was over, lie caught up a guitar, and 
 lolling a'^ainst the old marble fireplace, in an attitude which I 
 am half inclined to suspect was studied, began the little French 
 air of the Troubadour. The 'Squire, however, exclaimed 
 against having any thing on Christmas eve but good old English ; 
 upon which the young minstrel, casting up his eye for a moment, 
 as if in an efifort of memory, struck into another strain, and 
 with a charm ng air of gallantry, gave Herrick's " Night- Piece 
 to Julia: " 
 
 Iler eyes the glow-worm lend the«i, 
 The Bhooliiig stars attend thee, 
 
 And the elves also, 
 
 Whose little eyes glow 
 Like the sparks of tire, befriend thee. ' 
 
 No W'illo'-the-Wisp mlsllghtthee; 
 Nor snitke nor slow-wonu bite thee; 
 
 But on, on thy way, 
 
 Not making a stay, 
 Since ghost there is none to affright thee. ; 
 
 Tht'ii let not the dark thee cumber; 
 What though the moon does slumber, > 
 
 I The stars of the night 
 
 Will lend thee their light, 
 Like tapers clear without number. 
 
 Then, Julia, let me woo thee. 
 Thus, thus to come unto me: 
 
 And when I 4hall mc'Jt 
 
 Thy silvery Tjet, 
 My soul I'll pour into thee. 
 
 I ! 
 
 :i'\ 
 
 \ . 
 
 I ^ 
 
 M 
 
 .> 
 
 The song might oi- might not have been intended in compli- 
 meut to the fair Julia, for so I found his partner was called ; 
 
 >-i: h ,1 
 
158 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Bhe, however, was certainly unconscious of any aa^V applica- 
 tion ; for she never loolted at the singer, but kept her eyes cast 
 upon the floor ; lier face was sulTiised, it is true, with a beauti- 
 ful blush, and there was a gentle heaving of the bosom, but all 
 that was doubtless caused by the exercise of the dance : indeed, 
 pr> great was her indifference, that she amused herself with 
 plucking to pieces a choice bouquet of hot-house flowers, and 
 i)y the time the song was concluded the nosegay lay .1 ruius ou 
 the floor. 
 
 The party now broke np for the right, with the kind hearteil 
 old custom of shaking hands. As I passed through the hall on 
 my way to my chamber, the dying embers of the yule clog stiil 
 sent forth a dusky glow ; and had it not been the season when 
 " no spirit dares stir abroad," I should have been half tempted 
 to steal from my room at midnight, and peep whether the fairies 
 might not be ut their revels about the hearth. 
 
 .My chamber was in the old part of the mansion, the ponder- 
 ous furniture of which might have been fabricated in the days 
 of the giants. The room was panelled, with cornices of heavy 
 carved work, in which flowers and grotesque faces were 
 strangely intermingled, and a row of black-looking poitraits 
 stared mournfully at me from the walls. The bed was of rich, 
 though faded damask, with a lofty tester, and stood in a niche 
 opposite a bow-window. I had scarcely got into bed when a 
 strain of music seemed to break forth in the air just below the 
 window : I listened, and found it proceeded from a band, which 
 I concluded to be the waits from some neighboring village. 
 They went round the house, playing uuder the windows. I 
 drew aside the curtains, to hear them more distinctly. The 
 luoonbeams fell through the upper part of the casement, par- 
 tially lighting up the antiquated apartment. The sounds, as 
 they receded, became more soft and aerial, and seemed to accord 
 with quiet and moonlight. I listened and listened — they be- 
 came more and more tender and remote, and, as they gradually 
 died away, my head sunk upon the pillow, and I fell asleep. 
 
 n 
 
 . .i j 
 
CHSISTMAa DAT, 
 
 159 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAY. 
 
 Dark and dull night flie hence away, 
 
 And give the honour to this day 
 
 That Bees December tura'd to May. . 
 
 • ••••• 
 
 Why doBR the chilling winter's mome 
 
 Smile like a fleld beset with corn? 
 
 Or smell like to a meade new shorne, 
 
 Thus on the sudden?— come and see 
 
 The cause, why things thus fragrant be. — HirriOS. 
 
 When I woke the next morning, it seemed as if all the events 
 of the preceding evening had been a dream, and nothing but 
 the identity of the ancient chamber convinced me of their 
 reality. While I lay musing on my pillow, I heard the sound 
 of little feet pattering outside of the door, and a whispering 
 consultation. Presently a choir of small voices chanted forth 
 go old Christmas carol, the burden of which was — 
 
 Rejoice, our Saviour he was born 
 On Christmas day In the morning. 
 
 I rose softly, slipt on my clothes, opened the door suddenly. 
 and beheld one of the most beautiful little fairy groups that a 
 painter could imagine. It consisted of a boy and two girls, the 
 eldest not more than six, and lovely as seraphs. They were 
 going the rounds of the house, and singing at every chamber door. 
 but my sudden appearance frightened them into mute bashful- 
 ness. They remained for a moment playing on their lips with 
 their fingers, and now and then stealing a shy glance from 
 under their eyebrows, until, as if by one impulse, they scam- 
 pered away, and as they turned an angle of the gallery. I beard 
 them laughing in triumph at their escape. 
 
 Every thing conspired to produce kind and happy feelings, 
 in this stronghold of old-fashioned hospitality. The window 
 of my chamber looked out upon what in summer would have 
 been a beautiful landscape. There was a sloping lawn, a fine 
 stream winding at the foot of it, and a tract of park beyond, 
 with noble clumps of trees, and herds of deer. At a distance 
 Was a neat hamlet, with the smoke from the cottage chimneys 
 hanging over it ; and a church, with its dark spire in strong 
 relief against the clear cold sky. The house was surrounded 
 with evergreens, according to the English custom, which would 
 
 i;P! 
 
160 
 
 THE SKETCB-nOOK. 
 
 '■'■\ 
 
 '; tf 
 
 
 have given almost an appearance of summer ; but the morniug 
 was extionu'ly frosty ; the light vapor of the preceding cvoiiin<r 
 had been pr('cli)itati^d l)y the cold, and covered all the trees ainl 
 evt!ry l)lade of grass with its line crystallizations. The rays of 
 a bright morning sun had a dazzling effect among the glitlcring 
 foliage. A robin i)erched upon the top of a mountain ash, that 
 hung its clusters of red berries just before my window, wus 
 basking iiimself in the sunshine, and piping a few querulous 
 notes ; and a peacock was displaying all the glorii's of iiis traiu, 
 and strutting with the pride and gravity of a Spanish grandee 
 on the terrace-walk below. 
 
 1 had scarcely dressed myself, when a servant appeared to 
 invite me to family prayers. He showed me the wny to a siniil! 
 chapel in the old wing of the house, where I found the priiici- 
 pal part of the family already assembled in a kind of gaikrv, 
 furnished with cushions, hassocks, and huge prayer-books; ,hc 
 servants were seated on benches below. The ohl gentleman 
 read prayers from a desk in front of the gallery, and M.istet 
 Simon acted as clerk and made the responses ; and I must do 
 him the justice to say, that he acquitted himself vith great 
 gravity and decorum. 
 
 The service was followed by a Christmas carol, v.hicii Mr. 
 Bracebridge himself had constructed from a poem of his favor- 
 ite author Hen'ick; and it had been adapted to an old cluirch 
 melody by Master Simon. As there weie severtd good voices 
 among the household, the effect was extremely pleasing; but I wns 
 particularly gratified by the exaltation of heart, and sudden 
 sally of grateful feeling, with which the worthy 'Scpiire delivered 
 one stanza; his eye glistening, and his voice rambling out of 
 all the bounds of time and tune : 
 
 " Tls thuu that crown'st ray glittering hearth 
 ■ ■ With guilUeasc mirth, 
 
 Ami giveot mc M'aBHaile bowles to driulc 
 I , , , Spiced to the brinlv : 
 
 Lord, 'tJB thy plenty-dropping hand 
 • ' Tliut KoilcD my land : 
 
 r;' And giv'Ht mu for my bUHhell Howne, 
 
 i ._ Twiee leu for one." 
 
 I afterwards understood that early morning service was read 
 on every Sunday and saint's day throughout the year, either by 
 Mr. Bracebridge or by some member of the family. It was once 
 almost universally the case at the seats of the nobility and geu 
 
 trv rf Kngh 
 is' falling iiit 
 of the order 
 the occasion 
 nioniitiil P;''^' 
 day, :uid alt 
 Our break 
 old Knglish 
 over 1111 )den 
 among the ( 
 the tlecline 
 them to his 
 a brave dis 
 After bn 
 r.raeeltritlgt 
 hv everyboc 
 of gentlenv 
 lisliinent ; f 
 — the last I 
 time out o 
 which hnnp 
 their ganil)' 
 hwitcii he c 
 The old 
 sunsliine tli 
 force of tl 
 moulded b 
 an air of p 
 There a] 
 the place, 
 a Hock of 
 was gentb 
 told me th 
 tisc on hi 
 same way 
 a flight of 
 of wrens, 
 He went < 
 herbert, v 
 and glory 
 ehiefly ag 
 the beaul 
 falleth, h 
 again as 
 
 'hi 
 
CHRISTMAS DAT. 
 
 161 
 
 >rnmg 
 
 C'llilKr 
 
 '« and 
 3s of 
 Ifririir 
 I, lliat 
 was 
 "iiloiis 
 train, 
 aiuiee 
 
 «1 to 
 Miall 
 iiici- 
 I'lciT, 
 i : .lie 
 cinaii 
 astot 
 ■*t do 
 
 trv cf KneilaiKl, and it is much to be rogrotted that the custom 
 is falling into iicgU'ct; for the (hiUest observer niust be sensible 
 of the ohUt and serenity prevahMit in those househoUls, where 
 the oceaHional exercise of a ix-autil'iil form of worsiiip in the 
 nioniing gives, as it were, tlu; I<ey-note to every temper for the 
 (lay, !ind attunes every spirit to liannony. 
 
 Otir lirealvfast consisted of wliat tlic 'Squire denominated true 
 old Knglish fare. lie iniUdged in some bitter lamentations 
 over modern breakfasts of tea and toast, which lie censured as 
 among the causes of inodern elTeininaey and weak nerves, and 
 the ilci^liiie of old Knglish lii'ai tiness : and though he admitted 
 tlu'iii to his table t(j suit the palates of his guests, yet there was 
 a brave display of cohl meats, wine, and ale, on the sideboard. 
 AfliT I)reakfast, I walked about the grounds with Frank 
 Hraceliriilge and Master Simon, or Mr. Simon, as he was called 
 by everybody but tiie 'Squire. We were escorted by a number 
 of gentlemen-like dogs, that s( ^Mned loungers about the estab- 
 lisiiinent ; from the frisking spaniel to the steady old stag-hound 
 — the last of which was of a race that li.ad been in the family 
 time out of mind — they were all obedient to a dog-whistle 
 which hung to Master Simon's button-hole, and in the midst of 
 their gambols would glance an eye occasionally upon a small 
 switch he carried in his hand. 
 
 'I'iie old mansion had a still more venerable look in the yellow 
 sunsliinc than by pale moonlight; and I could not but feel the 
 force of the 'Scpiire's idea, that the formal terraces, heavily 
 moulded balustrades, and clipped yew trees, carried with them 
 an air of proud aristocracy- 
 There appeared to be an unusual number of peacocks about 
 the place, and I was making some remarks upon what I termed 
 a Hock of them that were basking under a sunny wall, when I 
 was gently corrected in my phraseology by Master Simon, who 
 told me that according to the most ancient and approved trea- 
 tise on hunting, I must say a muster of peacocks. " In the 
 same way," added he, with a slight air of pedantry, "we say 
 a flight of doves or swallows, a bevy of quails, a herd of deer, 
 of wrens, or cranes, a skulk of foxes, or a building of rooks." 
 He went on to inform me that, according to Sir Anthony Fitz- 
 Iierbert, we ought to ascribe to this bird "both understanding 
 ■uul glory ; for, being i)raised, he will jiresently set up his tail, 
 I'hielly against the sun, lO the intent you may the better behold 
 the ])eauty thereof. Hut at the fall of the leaf, when his tail 
 fuUeth, he will mouru and hide himself in corners, till his tail come 
 again as it was." 
 
 I I 
 
vty 
 
 162 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 I conld not help smiling at this display of small erudition on 
 80 whimsical a subject; but I found that the peacocks were 
 birds of some consequence at the Hall ; for Frank Bracebridge 
 informed me that they were great favorites with his father, who 
 was extremely carefuf to keep up the breed, partly because they 
 belonged to chivalry, and were in great request at the stately 
 banquets of the olden time ; and partly because they hud a 
 pomp and magnificence about them highly becoming an old 
 family mansion. Nothing, he was accustomed to say, had an 
 air of greater state and dignity, than a peacock perched upon 
 an antique stone balustrade. 
 
 Master Simon had now to hurry off, having an appointment 
 at the parish church with the village choristers, who were to 
 perform some music of his selection. There was something 
 extremely agreeable in the cheerful flow of animal spirits of the 
 little man ; and 1 confess I had been somewhat surprised at his 
 apt quotations from authors who certainly were not in the range 
 of e very-day reading. I mentioned this last circumstance to 
 Frank Bracebridge, who told me with a smile that Master 
 Simon's whole stock of erudition was confined to some half-a- 
 dozen old authors, which the 'Squire had put into his hands, 
 and which he read over and over, whenever he had a studious 
 fit ; as he sometimes had on a rainy day, or a long winter even- 
 ing. Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry ; Mark- 
 ham's Country Contentments ; the Tretyse of Hunting, by Sir 
 Thomas Cockayne, Knight; Izaak Walton's Angler, and two 
 or three more such ancient worthies of the pen, were his stand- 
 ard authorities ; and, like all men who know but a few books, 
 he looked up to them with a kind of idolatry, and quoted them 
 on all occasions. As to his songs, they were chieflj' picked out 
 of old books in the 'Squire's library, and adai)ted to tunes that 
 were popular among the choice si)irits of the last century. His 
 practical application of scraps of literature, however, had caused 
 him to be looked upon as a prodigy of book-knowledge by aU 
 k<"oe grooms, huntsmen, and small sportsmen of the neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 While we were talking, we heard the distant toll of the village 
 bell, and I was told that the 'Squire was a little particular in 
 having his household at church on a Christmas morning ; con- 
 sidering it a day of pouring out of thanks and rejoicing ; for, 
 as old Tusser observed, — 
 
 " At ChiiBtiDBR be raerry, and thankful uHthal, 
 And (eMt ttay poor neigbbori, the gre»t with the aomU." 
 
 I ' 
 
 ! 
 
tion on 
 
 *s Were 
 
 •ebridge 
 
 'er, who 
 
 ise they 
 
 stately 
 
 liad a 
 
 an old 
 
 lad an 
 
 uix)n 
 
 CHRISTMAS DAT. 
 
 163 
 
 (( 
 
 If you are disposed to go to church," said Frank Brace- 
 bridge, " I can promise you a specimen of my cousin Simon's 
 musical achievements. As the church is destitute of an organ, 
 has formed a band from the village amateurs, and estab- 
 lished a musical club for their improvement ; he has also sorted 
 a choir, as he sorted my father's pack of hounds, according to 
 the directions of Jervaise Markham, in his Country Content- 
 ments ; for the bass he has sought out all the ' deep, solemn 
 mouths,' and for the tenor the ' loud ringing mouths,' among 
 the country bumpkins ; and for ' sweet mouths,' he has culled 
 with curious taste among the prettiest lasses in the neighbor- 
 hood ; though these last, he affirms, are the most difficult to 
 keep in tune ; your pretty female singer being exceedingly 
 wayward and capricious, and very liable to accident." 
 
 As the morning, though frosty, was remarkably fine and 
 clear, the most of the family walked to the church, which was a 
 very old building of gray stone, and stood near a village, about 
 half a mile from the park gate. Adjoining it was a low snug 
 parsonage, which seemed coeval with the church. The front 
 of it was perfectly matted with a yew tree, that had been trained 
 against its walls, through the dense foliage of which, apertures 
 had been formed to admit light into the small antique lattices. 
 As we passed this sheltered nest, the parson issued forth and 
 preceded us. 
 
 I had expected to see a sleek well-conditioned pastor, such 
 as is often found in a snug living in the vicinity of a rich pa- 
 tron's table, but I was disappointed. The parson was a little, 
 meagre, black-looking man, with a grizzled wig that was too 
 wide, and stood off from each ear ; so that his head seemed to 
 have shrunk away within it, like a dried filbert in its shell. He 
 wore a rusty coat, with great skirts, and pockets that would 
 have held the church Bible and prayer-book : and his small legs 
 seemed still smaller, from being planted in large shoes, deco- 
 rated with enormous buckles. 
 
 I was informed by Frank Bracebridge that the parson had 
 been a chum of his father's at Oxford, and had received this 
 living shortly after the latter had come to his estate. He was 
 a complete black-letter hunter, and would scarcely read a work 
 printed in the Roman character. The editions of Caxton and 
 VVyiikiii de Worde were his delight ; and he was indefatigable 
 In his researches after such old English writers as have fallen 
 into oblivion from their worthlessness. In deference, perhaps, 
 to the notions of Mr. Hracebridge, he had made diligent inves- 
 tigations into the festive rites aad holiday customs of former 
 
 . ' 
 
 / 4 t 
 
 mmimmm 
 
 1i! 
 
I ! 
 
 164 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 i 
 
 m 
 
 times ; and had been as zealous in the inquiry, as if he had been 
 a boon companion ; but it was merely with that plodding spirit 
 with which men of adust temperament follow up any track of 
 study, merely booausc it is denominated learning ; indifferent 
 to it's intrinsic nature, whether it be the illustration of the wis- 
 dom, or of the ribaldry and obscenity of antiquity. He had 
 pored over these old volumes so intensely, that they seemed to 
 have been reflected in his countenance; which, if the face he 
 iudefid an index of the mind, might be compared to a title-page 
 of black-Iettor, , 
 
 On reachiuii the church-porch, we found the i)arson rebiikinir 
 the gray-headed sexton for having used mistletoe among the 
 greens with which the church was decorated. It was, ho ob- 
 served, an unholy plant, profaned by having been used by the 
 Druids in their mystic ceremonies ; and though it might be in- 
 nocently employed in the festive ornamenting of halls and 
 kitchens, yet it had been deemed by the Fathers of the Church 
 as unhallowed, and totally unfit for sacred purposes. So tena- 
 cious was he on this point, that the poor sexton was obliged to 
 strip down a great part of the humble trophies of his taste, 
 before the parson would consent to enter upon the service of the 
 day. 
 
 The interior of the church was venerable, but simple ; on the 
 walls were several mural monuments of the Bracebridges, and 
 just beside the altar, was a tomb of ancient workmanship, on 
 which lay the effigy of a warrior in armor, with his logs 
 crossed, a sign of his having been a crusader. I was told it 
 was one of the family who had signalized himself in the Holy 
 Land, and the same whose picture hung over the fireplace in 
 the hall. 
 
 During service. Master Simon stood up in the pew, an(i re- 
 peated the responses very audibly ; evincing that kind of cere- 
 monious devotion punctually observed by a gentleman of the 
 old school, aud a man of old family connections. I observed, 
 too, that he turned over the leaves of a folio prayer-book with 
 something of a flourish, possibly to show off an enormous soal- 
 ring which enriched one of his fingers, and which had the look 
 of a family relic. But he was evidently most solicitous about 
 the musical part of the service, keeping his eye fixed intently 
 on the choir, and beating time with much gesticulation and 
 emphasis. 
 
 The orchestra was in a small gallery, and presented a most 
 whimsical groupuig of heads, piled one above the other, among 
 which I particularly noticed that of the village tailor, a pale 
 
 ■f I 
 
had been 
 i"g spirit 
 
 track of 
 Klifferent 
 
 tlie wis- 
 
 He Imd 
 ecnied to 
 fuce 1,0 
 tille-paire 
 
 a pale 
 
 THE VILLAGE CHOIR. 
 
 rm 
 
 ■J £! 
 
 ;i '^•■ 
 
 w in mimw—'^-^ 
 
fellow with a 
 clarionet, and 
 there was an 
 at a bass viol, 
 head, like the 
 faces among 
 frosty mornir 
 choristers ha( 
 more for tone 
 same book, 1 
 unlike those 
 tombstones. 
 
 The usual 
 the vocal pai 
 tal, and som( 
 time by travi 
 clearing mon 
 death. But 
 pared and a 
 founded grea 
 the very outs 
 was in a fo 
 until they cj 
 one accord," 
 all became d; 
 got to the en 
 ing one old 
 and pinchint 
 little apart, 
 a quavering 
 winding all \ 
 
 The parso 
 ceremonies c 
 merely as a 
 the oorrectn 
 church, and 
 Cesarea, 8t 
 cloud more < 
 quotations, 
 such a migh 
 present seer 
 good man I 
 having, in tl 
 mas, got CO] 
 
CtVdlSTMAS DAT. 
 
 165 
 
 fellow with a retreating forehead and chin, who played on the 
 clarionet, and seemed to have blown his face to a point : and 
 there was another, a short pursy man, stooping and laboring 
 at a bass viol, so as to show nothing but the top f a round bald 
 head, like the egg of an ostrich. There were two or three pretty 
 faces among the female singers, to w^hich the keen air of a 
 frosty morning had given a bright rosy tint : but the gentlemen 
 choristers had evidently been chosen, like old Cremona fiddles, 
 more for tone than looks ; and as several had to sing from the 
 same book, there were clusterings of odd physiognomies, not 
 unlike those groups of cherubs we sometimes see on country 
 tombstones. 
 
 The usual services of the choir were managed tolerabl}' well, 
 the vocal parts generally lagging a little behind the instrumen- 
 tal, and some loitering fiddler now and then making up for lost 
 time by travelling over a passage with prodigious celerity, and 
 clearing more bars than the keenest fox-hunter, to be in at the 
 death. But the great trial was an anthem that had been pre- 
 pared and ai ranged by Master Simon, and on which he had 
 founded great expectation. Unluckily there was a blunder at 
 the very outset — the nuisiciaus became flurried ; Master Simon 
 was in a fever ; every thing went on lamely and irregularly, 
 until they came to a chorus beginning, " Now let us sing with 
 one accord," which seemed to be a signal for parting company : 
 all became discord and confusion ; each shifted for himself, and 
 got to the end as well, or, rather, as soon as he could ; except- 
 ing one old chorister, in a pair of horn spectacles, bestriding 
 and pinching a long sonorous nose ; who, happening to staud a 
 little apart, and being wrapped up in his own melody, kept on 
 a quavering course, wriggling his head, ogling his book, and 
 winding all up by a nasal solo of at least three bars' duration. 
 
 The parson p^ave us a most erudite sermon on the rites and 
 ceremonies of Christmas, and the propriety of observing it, not 
 merely as a day of thanksgiving, but of rejoicing ; supix)rting 
 the correctness of his opinions by the earliest usages of the 
 church, and enforcing them by the authorities of Theophilus of 
 Cesarea, St. Cyprian, Si. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and a 
 cloud more of Saints and Fathers, from whom he made copious 
 quotations. I was a little at a loss to perceive the necessity of 
 such a mighty array of forces to maintain a point which no one 
 present seemed inclined to dispute ; but I soon found that the 
 good man had a legion of ideal adversaries to contend with ; 
 having, in the course of his researches on the subject of Christ- 
 mas, got completely embroiled in the sectarian controversies of 
 
 I , 
 
 lU! 
 
 
 \ i-V 
 
 fl^ \'' 
 
 t'^XaUfNht.l' 
 
 mm 
 
 wm 
 
166 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Iv^'i 
 
 n m 
 
 the Revolution, when the Puritans mad-s such a fierce assault 
 upon the ceremonies of the church aud poor old Christmas was 
 driven out of the land by proclamation of Parliament.* The 
 worthy parson lived but with times past, and knew but little 
 of the present. 
 
 Shut up among worm-eaten tomes in the retirement of his 
 antiquated little study, the pages of old times were to him as 
 the gazettes of the day ; wliiic the era of the Revolutiou was 
 mere modern history. He forgot that nearly two centuries had 
 elapsed since the fiery persecution of poor mince-pie through- 
 out the laud; when plum porridge was denounced as "mere 
 popery," and roast beef .is anti-christian ; aud that Christmas 
 had been brought in again triumphantly with the merry court 
 of King Charles at the Restoration. He ivindlcd into warmth 
 with the ardor of his contest, and the host of imaginary foes 
 with whom he had to combat ; he had a stubborn conflict with 
 old Prynne and two or three other forgotten champions of the 
 Round Heads, on the subject of Christmas festivity ; aud con- 
 cluded by urgiug his hearers, in the most solemn and affectiug 
 manner, to stand to the traditional customs of their fathers, 
 and feast and make merry ou this joyful anniversary of the 
 church. 
 
 I have seldom known a sermon attended apparently with 
 more immediate effects ; for on leaving the church, the congre- 
 gation seemed one aud all possessed with the gayety of spirit 
 so earnestly enjoined by their pastor. The elder folks gathered 
 in knots in the churchyard, greeting and shaking hands ; and 
 the children ran aii>out crying, Ule ! Lie 1 and repeating some 
 uncouth rhymes,* which the parson, who had joined us, in- 
 formed me had been handed down from days of yore. The 
 villagers doffed their hats to the 'Squire as he passed, giving 
 him the good wishes of the season with every appearance of 
 heartfelt sincerity, and were invited by him to the hall, to take 
 something to keep out the cold of the weather ; and I heard 
 blessings uttered by several of the poor, which convinced me 
 
 1 F-'. I the "Flying Eagle," a Binall Gazette, pubHshed December 24th, 1652 — 
 " The liouee spent much time this day about the ouslnesa of the Navy, for settling 
 the affairs at sea, and before they rose, were presented with a terrible remonstrance 
 against Christmas day, grounded upon divine Scriptures, 2 Cor. v. 16. 1 Cor. xv. 14, 
 17; and in honour of the Lord's Day, grounded upon these Scriptures, John xx. 1. 
 UeT. 1. 10. IValras, c.wlll. 21. Lev. .\xiii. 7, 11. Mark, xv. 8. Psalm-i, Ixxxlv. 10; h 
 which Christmas U called Anti chrlst'rt masse, and those Masse-mongers and Papists 
 who observe it, etc. In cousequeiice of which I'urllarnunt spent some time in consul 
 tation about llie abolition of ('hrinlm:is day, passed ordiM's to that effect, anc* re- 
 solved to nit uu the following day wiiich was commoniy called OhrUliBaa day." 
 » "Ulel Ule! 
 
 Three puddings in a pule; 
 
 Vritak un\M and ury uln 1 " < 
 
 ihtt, in the 
 had not forg 
 On our w 
 generous an 
 ground whic 
 of rustic me 
 paused for i 
 inexpressibl 
 sufficient to 
 ness of the 
 quired suftic 
 from every i 
 which adorn 
 tracts of sm 
 of the shad 
 which the bi 
 limpid wate 
 up slight ex 
 just above t 
 cheering in 
 thraldom of 
 of Christra£ 
 mony and s 
 pointed witl 
 from the cl 
 thatched cc 
 kept by ricl 
 the year, at 
 you go, anc 
 you ; and I 
 malediction 
 
 The 'Sqi 
 games and 
 among the 
 the old hal 
 at daylight 
 aud humm 
 day long, 
 
 f -^ 
 
 il Tf 
 
CHRISTMAS DAT. 
 
 167 
 
 (fiat, in the midst of his enjoyraents, the worthy old cavalier 
 had not forgotten the true Christmas virtue of charity. 
 
 On our way liomeward, his heart seemei'i overflowing with 
 generous and happy feelings. As we passed over a rismg 
 ground which commanded something of a prospect, the sounds 
 of rustic merriment now and then reached our ears ; the 'Squire 
 paused for a few moments, and looked around with an air of 
 inexpressible benignity. The beauty of the day was of itself 
 sufficient to inspire philanthropy. Notwithstanding the frosti- 
 ness of the morning, the sun in his cloudless journey had ac- 
 quired sufficient power to melt away the thin covering of snow 
 from every southern declivity, and to bring out the living green 
 which adorns an English landscape even in mid-winter. Large 
 tracts of smiling verdure contrasted with the dazzling whiteness 
 of the shaded slopes and hollows. Every sheltered bank, on 
 which the broad rays rested, yielded its silver rill of cold and 
 limpid water, glittering through the dripping grass ; and sent 
 up slight exhalations to contribute to the thin haze that hung 
 just above the surface of tlie earth. There was something truly 
 cheering in this triumph of warmth and verdure over the frosty 
 thraldom of winter ; it was, as the 'Squire observed, an emblem 
 of Christmas hospitality, breaking through the chills of cere- 
 mony and selfishness, and thawing every heart into a flow. He 
 pointed with pleasure to the indications of good cheer reeking 
 from the chimneys of the comfortable farm-houses, and low 
 thatched cottages. "I love," said he, "to see this day well 
 kept by rich and poor ; it is a great thing to have one day in 
 the year, at least, when you are sure of being welcome wherever 
 you go, and of having, as it were, the world all thrown open to 
 you ; and I am almost disposed to join with poor Robin, in his 
 malediction on every churlish enemy to this honest festival : 
 
 " Those who at ChristmaB do repine, 
 And would fiiiii hence deapatch him, 
 May Uiey with old I3uke Humphry diue, 
 Or else may 'Squire Ketch catch him." 
 
 The 'Squire went on to lament the deplorable decay of the 
 games and amusements which were once prevalent at this season 
 among the lower orders, and countenanced by the higher ; when 
 the old halls of the castles and manor-houses were thrown open 
 at daylight ; when the tables were covered with brawn, and beef, 
 and humming ale ; when the harp and the carol resounded all 
 day long, and when rich and poor were alike welcome tc eutec 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ' liii' 
 
 J'l'H 
 
 1 : 1 'I^H 
 
 m ' 
 
 i-! 
 
 i '! 
 
 iOMiiiil 
 
 iMHMm 
 
168^ 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 and make merry.' "Our old games and local customs," said 
 he, " had a great effect in making the peasant fond of his homo, 
 and tlie promotion of tiiem l>y tlie gentry made liim fond of his 
 lord. They made the times merrier, and kinder, and better, 
 aud I can truly say with one of our old poets, 
 
 • I like them well — the ci:riou-B prcciseneiiB 
 And nll-pretendeil g/avity of those 
 That Heek to banish hence these harmlesn sporta, 
 Have thrust away much ancient honesty.' 
 
 H;l 
 
 "The nation," continued he, "is altered; we have almost 
 lost our simple true-hearted peasantry. They have hroUen 
 asunder from the higiier classes, and seem to think their intor- 
 ests are separate. Tliey have become too knowing, and begin 
 to read newspapers, listen to alehouse politicians, and talk of 
 reform. I think one mode to keep them in good-humor in tliese 
 hard times, would be for the nobility and gentry to pass more 
 time on their estates, mingle more among the country people, 
 and set the merry old English games going again." 
 
 Such was the good 'Squire's project for mitigating public dis- 
 content : and, indeed, he had once attempted to put his doctrine 
 in practice, and a few years before he had kept open house 
 during the holidays in the old style. The country peoi)le, how- 
 ever, did not understand how to play their parts in the sceiu; of 
 hospitality ; many uncouth circumstances occurred ; the manor 
 was overrun by all the vagrants of the country, and more beg- 
 gars drawn into the neighl)orhood in one week than the parish 
 oflicers could get rid of in a year. Since then he had contented 
 himself with uiviting the decent part of the neighboring i)oas- 
 antry to call at the Uall on Christmas day, and with distributing 
 beef, and bread, and ale, among the poor, that they might make 
 merry m their own dwellings. 
 
 We had not been long home, when the sound of nuisic was 
 iieard from a distance. A oand of country lads, without coats, 
 their shirt sleeves fancifully tied with ribbons, their hats deco- 
 rated with greens, and clubs in their hands, were seen advan- 
 cing up the avenue, followed by a large number of villagers and 
 peasantry. They stopped before the hall door, where tlie music 
 
 ' "An English gentleman at the opening of the great day, i.e. on ChristniiiH day in 
 the morning, had all his tenants and i.t'lixhliors enter his hall liy day liieak. The i<lniim 
 beer was broached, and the black jacks went pleiilil'ully about with toast, Kuirar, and 
 nutmeg, and good Cheshire checHc. 'I'he llackiii (the ijifat Haiiwmc) iuhhI I)u Iji.ileil by 
 Uay-bieak, or else two young men must take the maiden (/.<. tlic cuoU) by tlie arms uuij 
 run her round the market place till sbu is tihamed of her lazinuMi. " — /^(>u»<i a6<.*v< our 
 Uta-Coal I'irt. 
 
CHRISTMAS DAT. 
 
 169 
 
 said 
 nno, 
 his 
 tier, 
 
 struck up a peculiar air, and the lads performed a curious and 
 iiitriciite dance, advancing, retreating, and striking their clubs 
 tojiL'ther, keeping exact time to the music ; while one, whimsi- 
 cally crowned with a fox's skin, the tail of which flaunted down 
 his liat'k, kept capering round the skirts of the dance, and 
 rattling a Christmas-box with many antic gesticulations. 
 
 The 'Squin> eyed this fanciful exhibition with great interest 
 and delight, and gave me a full account of its origin, which he 
 traced to tiic times when the Romans held possession of the 
 island ; plainly proving that this was a lineal descendant of the 
 sword-dance of the ancients. '' It was now," he said, " nearly 
 extinct, but he had accidentally met with traces of it in the 
 neiirliborhood, and had encouraged its revival; though, to tell 
 the truth, it was too apt to be followed up by rough cudgel-play, 
 and broken heads, in the evening." 
 
 After the dance was concluded, the whole party was enter- 
 tained with JM'awn and beef, and stout home-brewed. The 
 'Squire himself mingled among the rustics, and was received 
 with awkward demonstrations of deference and regard. It is 
 true, I perceived two or three of the younger peasants, as they 
 were raising their tankards to their mouths, when the 'Squire's 
 back was turned, making something of a grimace, and g^iving 
 each other the wink ; but the moment they caught my eye they 
 pulled grave faces, and were exceedingly demure. With Master 
 Simon, however, they all seemed more at their ease. His varied 
 occupations and amusements had made him well known through- 
 out tlic neighborhood. He was a visitor at every farm-house 
 and cottage ; gossiped with the farmers and their wives ; romped 
 with their daughters ; and, like that type of a vagrant bachelor 
 the humble-bee, tolled the sweets from all the rosy lips of the 
 country round. 
 
 The bashfulness of the guests soon gave way before good 
 cheer and affability. There is something genuine and affection- 
 ate in tlie gayety of the lower orders, when it is excited by the 
 bounty and familiarity of those above them ; the warm glow of 
 gratitude enters into their mirth, and a kind word or a small 
 pleasantry frankly uttered by a patron, gladdens the heart of 
 the dependant more than oil and wine. When the 'Squire had 
 retired, the merriment increased, and there was much joking 
 and laughtor, particularly between Master Simon and a hale, 
 ruddy-faced, white-headed farmer, who appeared to be the wit 
 of tlie village ; for I observed all his companions to wait with 
 open mouths for his rotoi'ts, anil burst into a gratuitous laugli 
 before they could well understand them. 
 
 ,' t 
 
 I M 
 
 II iJ 
 
 Vfti 
 
 m 
 
 IHMi 
 
170 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 The whole house Indeed seemed abandoned to merrimenv 
 as I passed to my room to dress for dinner, I heard the sound 
 of music in a small court, and looking through a window that 
 commanded it, I perceived a band of wandering musicians, with 
 pandean pipes and tambourine ; a pretty coquettish housemaid 
 was dancing a jig with a smart country lad, while several of 
 the other servants were looking on. In the midst of her sport, 
 the girl caught a glimpse of my face at the window, and color- 
 j'lg up, ran off with an air of roguish affected confusion. 
 
 f i^sll 
 
 THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 Lo, now is come our joyful'st feast! 
 
 Let every man be Jolly, 
 Eauberoome with yvie leaves ia dresti 
 
 And every post with holly. 
 Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke, 
 
 And Christmas blocks are burning; 
 Their ovens they with bak't meats choke, 
 And all their spits are turning. 
 Without the door let sorrow lie. 
 And if, for cold, It hap to die. 
 Wee 'le bury 't In a Christmas pye, 
 And evermore be merry. — Withbbs' Juvenilia. 
 
 I HAD finished my toilet, and was loitering with Frank Brace- 
 bridge in the library, when we heard a distant thwacking sound, 
 which he informed me was a signal for tiie serving up of the 
 dinner. The 'Squire kept up old customs in kitchen as well as 
 hall ; and the rolling-pin struck upon the dresser by the cook, 
 summoned the servants to carry in the meats. 
 
 Just in this nick the cook knock'd thric«, 
 And all the waiters in a trice 
 
 His summons did obey ; 
 Bach serving man, with dish in hand. 
 Marched boldly up, like our train band, 
 
 Presented, and away.i 
 
 The dinner was served up \n the great hall, where the 'Squire 
 Always held his Christmas banquet. A blazing crackling fire 
 of logs had been heaped on to warm the spacious apartment, 
 And the flame went sparkling and wreathing up the wide- 
 ■ ■ . 
 
 1 Sir John Buckling. 
 
THE CBBISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 in 
 
 mouthed chimney. The great picture oi the cnisader and his 
 white horse had been profusely decorated with greens for the 
 occasion ; and holly and ivy had likewise been wreathed round 
 the helmet and weapons on the opposite wall, which I under- 
 stood were the arms of the same wamor. I must own, by-the- 
 by, I had strong doubts about the authenticity of the painting 
 and armor as having belonged to the crusader, they certainly 
 having the stamp of more recent days ; but I was told that thfr 
 painting had been so considered time out of mind ; and that, 
 as to the armor, it had been found in a lumber-room, and ele« 
 vated to its present situation by the 'Squire, who at once deter- 
 mined it to be the armor of the family hero ; and as he was 
 absolute authority on all such subjects in his own household, 
 the matter had passed into current acceptation. A sideboard 
 was set out just under this chivalric trophy, on which was a 
 display of plate that might have vied (at least in variety) with 
 Belshazzar's parade of the vessels of the temple ; " flagons., 
 cans, cups, beakers, goblets, basins, and ewers ; " the gorgeous 
 utensils of good companionship that had gradually accumulated 
 through many generations of jovial housekeepers. Before these 
 stood the two yule candles, beaming like two stars of the first 
 magnit'ide ; other lights were distributed in branches, and the 
 whole array glittered like a firmament of silver. 
 
 "We were ushered into this banqueting scene with the sound 
 of minstrelsy ; the old harper being seated on a stool beside 
 the fireplace, and twanging his instrument with a vast deal 
 more power than melody. Never did Christmas board display 
 a more goodly and gracious assemblage of countenances ; those 
 who were not handsome, were, at least, happy ; and happiness 
 is a rare improver of your hard-favored visage. I always con- 
 sider an old English family as well worth studying as a collec- 
 tion cf Holbein's portraits, or Albert Durer's prints. There 
 is much antiquarian lore to be acquired ; much knowledge of 
 the physiognomies of former times. Perhaps it may be from 
 having continually before their eyes those rows of old family 
 portraits, with which the mansions of this country are stocked ; 
 certain it is, that the quaint features of antiquity are often 
 most faithfully perpetuated in these ancient lines ; and I have 
 traced an old family nose through a whole picture-gallery, 
 legitimately handed down from generation to generation, almost 
 from the time of the Conquest. Something of the kind was to 
 be observed in the worthy company around me. Many of their 
 faces had evidently originated in a Gothic age, and been merely 
 copied by succeeding generations ; and there was one little girif 
 
 M'^' 
 
 i I ' 
 
 
 
 i-..e:j»s**««ia**.-*n ji»*ff'.'n- 
 

 h''. 
 
 172 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 In particular, of staid dcraoanor, with » high Roman nose, and 
 an anti(iue vinegar aspect, wlio was a great favoriU' of tho 
 'Squire's, being, as lie said, a liracebridge all over, niul tlio very 
 counterpart of one of liis ancestors who figured in the court 
 of Henry VIII. 
 
 The parson said grace, wliich was not a short familiar one, 
 such as is c«minonly addressed to the Deity in these uncercmo* 
 nious days ; but a long, courtly, well-worded one of the ancient 
 school. There was now a i)anse, as if souielliing was expt-t'tcd; 
 when suddenly the butler entered the hall with some demct' of 
 bustle ; he was attended by a servant on each side with a larjre 
 wax-light, and bore a silver dish, on which was an cnonnoiis 
 pig's head, decorated with rosemary, with a lemon in its mouth, 
 which was placed with great formality at the head of the table. 
 The moment this pageant made its appearance, the harper 
 struck up a flourish ; at the conclusion of which the young 
 Oxonian, on receiving a hint from the 'Squire, gave, with an 
 air of the most comic gravity, an old carol, the first verse of 
 which was as follows : 
 
 j , . • Caput aprl defero i . . 
 
 RcddiMiK InudoH Daraino. 
 The boar'K head in hand bring I, 
 With garlandH gny and roseinary. 
 I pray you all 8ynge naerrlly 
 
 Qui cslis in convlvio. 
 
 Though prepared to witness many of these little eccentrici- 
 ties, from being apprised of the peculiar hobby of mine host; 
 yet, I confess, the parade with which so odd a dish was intro- 
 duced somewhat perplexed me, until I gathered from the con- 
 versation of the 'Squire and the parson, that it was meant to 
 represent the bringing in of the boar's head — a dish formerly 
 served up with much ceremony, and the sound of miustrelsv 
 and song, at great tables on Christmas day. " I like the old 
 custom," said the 'Squire, " not merel}' because it is stately 
 and pleasing in itself, but l)ecause it was observed at the col- 
 lege at Oxford, at which I was educated. When I hear the 
 old song chanted, it brings to mind the time when I was young 
 and g;unesome — and tlu; noble old college hall — and my fel- 
 low— ■:= loitering about in their l)lack gowns; many of 
 whoiii. jioi . iadr, are now in their graves ! " 
 
 *iiui parson, however, wliose mind was not haunted by such 
 ass<«ei£kCiiou^. anu who was always more taken up with the text 
 tham the aeotimeut, objecu^d ^ thf Oxonian's version of the 
 
THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 178 
 
 carol ; which he afBnnod was different from that sung at coU 
 lege. He went on, with the dry perseverance of a ommenta- 
 tor, to give the college reading, accompanied by sundry annota* 
 tions ; addressing himself at first to the company at large ; but 
 finding their attention gradually diverted to other talk, and 
 other objects, he lowered his tone as his number of auditors 
 diminished, until he concluded his remarks in an under voice, 
 to a fat-headed old gentleman next him, who was silently en- 
 gaged in the discussion of a huge plate-full of turkey.* 
 
 The table was literally loaded with good cheer, and presented 
 an epitome of country abundance, in this season of overflowing 
 larders. A distinguished post was allotted to • ancient sir- 
 loin," as mine host termed it; being, as he added, " the stand- 
 ard of old English hospitality, and a joint of goodly presence, 
 and full of expectation." There were several dishes quaintly 
 decorated, and which had evidently something traditional in 
 their embellishments ; but about which, as I did not like to 
 appear over-curious, I asked no questions. 
 
 I could not, however, but notice a pie, magnificently deco- 
 rated with peacocks' feathers, in imitation of the tail of that 
 bird, which overshadowed a considerable tract of the table 
 This, the 'Squire confessed, with some little hesitation, was a 
 pheasant pie, though a peacock pie was certainly the most 
 aulhentical; but there had been such a mortality among the 
 peacocks this season, that he could not prevail upon himself to 
 have one killed.' 
 
 ' The old ceremony of nerving up the boar*R head on Christmafi day, is rUH cbgerved 
 In the hall of Queen's College, Oxford. I was favored by the parBon with a copy of the 
 oarol n« now euiig, and as it may be acceptable to such of roy readers as are curious iB 
 these grave and learned matters, I give it entire : 
 
 The boar's head in hand bear I, 
 Bedeck'd with bays and rosemary; 
 And I pray you, ray musters, be merry, 
 Quot cstls in lonvlvio. 
 
 Caput apri defero. 
 
 Reddens laudes Domino. 
 
 The boar's head, as I understand, 
 l8 the rnroRt dish in all thiH land, 
 Which thus bedeck'd with a gay garland 
 Let us serviro caiitico. 
 Caput apri defero, etc. 
 
 Our steward hath provided this 
 Ir honour of the King of Bliss, 
 Which on this day to be served U 
 lu Reginensi Atrio. 
 Caput apri defero, 
 etc., etc., etc 
 
 » The peacock was anciently in great demand for stately entertainments. Bometimes 
 It was made Into a pie, at one end of which the head appeared above the crust in all Ita 
 
 ! i 
 
 :<..ii, 
 
 I } 
 
174 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Ul 
 
 It would be tedious, perhaps, to my wiser readers, who maj 
 not have that foolish fondness for odd and obsolete things to 
 which I am a little given, were I to mention the other make- 
 shifts of this worthy old humorist, by which he was endeavor- 
 ing to follow up, though at humble distance, the quaint cus- 
 toms of antiquity. I was {)leased, however, to see the respect 
 shown to his whims by his children and relatives ; who, in- 
 deed, entered readily into the full spirit of them, and seemed 
 all well versed in then- pu'.t?; having doubtless been present at 
 many a rehearsal. 1 was amused, too, at the air of profound 
 gratuity with which the butler and other servants executed the 
 duties assigned them, however eccentric. They had an old- 
 fashioned look ; having, i(K the most part, been brought up in 
 the household, and grown into keeping with the antiquated man- 
 sion, and the humors of its lord ; aud most probably looked 
 upon all his whimsical regulations as the established laws of 
 honorable housekeeping. 
 
 When the cloth was removed, the butler brought in a hufje 
 silver vessel, of rare and curious workmanship, which he 
 placed before the 'Squire. Its appearance was hailed with 
 acclamation ; being thi3 Wassail IJowl, so renowned in Christ- 
 mas festivity. The contents had been ])repared by the 'S(juire 
 himself ; for it was a beverage, in the skilful mixture of wliicli 
 he particularly prided himself : alleging tliat it was too ab- 
 struse and complex for the comprehension of an ordinary ser- 
 vant. It was a potation, ludeed. that might well make the 
 heart of a toper leap within him ; being composed of tin' rich- 
 est and raciest wines, highly spiced aud sweetened, with rousted 
 apples bobbing about the surface.^ 
 
 plumage, with the beak richly ^It; at the other end the tail was displayed. Htich piet 
 were served up at the Rolemti banqiietH of chivalry, when KnlghtH-orrant pledjicJ them- 
 selves to undertake any perilouH enterprise, whence came the ancient oath, uwed liy Jus- 
 ',ice Shallow, " by cock and pie." 
 
 The peacock was also an important dish for the Christmas feast, and Massingcr, in 
 Ills City Madam, gives some idea of the extra'ixcance w'.h which tliis, as well as other 
 iisties, WHS prepared for the gorgeous revels of the cidej times : 
 Men iniiy talk of ('oiiiitry ChristniaHses. 
 
 Their ihiity i)onn<l bulter'd eggs, llivii' pies of carps' tongues : 
 Their pheasants drench'd witli ambergris; t/ie ii.riiinen o/ three fat >rel/ifr.i Imiinfd 
 
 ,fiir rjrnnii to iiinke miitce for it sinytr jieiiim k ! 
 ' The Wassail Howl was sometimes componi'd of ale instead of wiiur, %vith niit. 
 meg, sugar, toast, iriiii.'cr, iiiid i-oiiFted cnili": In itii,' way the tint -bitiv.'ii bi'veni;;',' i.x htil' 
 i'l'opnred In some old families, and round the hearths of nubstantial farmers nt 
 I'biistmaH. It 16 also callud l>amb'ii Wool, aud is celebrated by Ilerrick in liii i ui.'!:Vi 
 iSii-lbt: 
 
 Next crowne the bowlc lull 
 With gentle l.amii's Wool, 
 Add nuuar, nutmeg, and dinger, 
 With store of ale too ; 
 And thus ye ranst doe 
 Tu loake Ut« WaMaiie • swlogMT. 
 
THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 175 
 
 The old gentleman's whole countenance beamed with a serene 
 look of indwelling delight, as he stirred this mighty bowl. 
 Having raised it to his lips, with a hearty wish of a merry 
 Christmas to all present, he sent it brimming round tlie board, 
 for every one to follow his example according to the primitive 
 style; pronouncing it "the ancient fountain of good feehng, 
 where all hearts met together." ^ 
 
 There was much laughing and rallying, as the honest emblem 
 of Christmas joviality circulated, and was kissed rather toyly 
 l)y the ladies. When it reached Master Simon, he raised it 
 in 1 til hands, and with the air of a boon compauioa, struck up 
 an old Wassail Chanson : 
 
 The brown bowle, 
 
 The merry brown bowle, 
 
 Ab it goc'8 round about-a, 
 
 Kill 
 
 Still, 
 Let the world say what it will, 
 And drink yuur till all out-a. 
 
 The deep canne, 
 
 The merry deep canne, 
 
 Ah thou doHt freely quaff -a, 
 
 Sing 
 
 Fling, 
 Be as raorry as a king. 
 And sound a lusty laugb-a.* 
 
 M 
 
 Much of the conversation during dinner turned upon family 
 topics, to which I was a stranger. There was, liowever, a great 
 deal of rallying of Master Simon about some gay widov, with 
 whom he was accused of having a flirtation. Tliis attack 7,'i.s 
 commenced by the ladies ; but it was continued tliroughout the 
 dinner l)y tlie fat-headed oUl gentleman next the parson, with 
 the porsevering assiduity of a flow hound ; being one of those 
 loni^-winded jokers, who, though latlier dull at starting game, 
 are unrivalled for their talents in hunting it down. At every 
 pause in the general conversation, he renewed his bantering in 
 pretty much the same terms ; winking Imrd at me with both 
 eyes, whenever he gave IMasior Simon what he eonsidcred a 
 home thrust. The latter, indeed, seemed fond of being teased 
 
 ' "The cuHlom of drinking out of the Mnnic cup irave place to earli having hi.i cup. 
 When the Htowurd came to the dooie v/ith the NVuHnel, he was tu cry three limes, 
 Wa.ini'l, W'dssrI, WdnHil, and then the ehuppeil (chupluin) wan tc answer with a 
 »0n({."— AriliiTnlnpiii. 
 
 > Froiu I'uur Uubia's AUuunuck. 
 
 'y.\ 
 
 mmef. 
 
176 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ' 
 
 m 
 
 on the subject, as old bachelors are apt to be ; and he took 
 occasion to inform rae, in an under-tone, that the buly in 
 question was a prodigiously fine woman and drove hor own 
 curricle. 
 
 The dinner-time passed away in this tiow of innocent hilarity, 
 and though the old hall may have resounded in its time with 
 many a scene of broader rout and revel, yet I doubt whether it 
 ever witnessed more honest and genuine enjoyment. How easy 
 it is for one benevolent being to diffuse pleasure arouiul liim; 
 and how truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making 
 every thing in its vicinity to freshen into smiles ! The joyous 
 disposition of the worthy 'Squu-e was perfectly contagious ; he 
 was happy himself, and disposed to make all the world haitpy; 
 and the little eccentricities of his humor did but season, in a 
 manner, the sweetness of his philanthropy. 
 
 When the ladies had retired, the conversation, as usual, be- 
 came still more animated : many good things were broached 
 which had been thought of during dinner, but which would not 
 exactly do for a lady's ear ; and though I cannot positively 
 affirm that there was much wit uttered, yet I have cortaiiily 
 heard many contests of rare wit produce much less lauLihtcr. 
 Wit, after all, is a mighty tart, pungent ingredient, and much 
 too acid for some stomachs ; but honest good-humor is tlie oil 
 and wine of a meiry meeting, and there is no jovial companion- 
 ship equal to that, where the jokes are rather small and the 
 laughter abundant. 
 
 The 'Squire told several long stories of early college pranks 
 and adventures, in some of which the parson had been a sharer; 
 though in looking at the latter, it required some effort of imajri- 
 nation tc figure such a little dark anatomy of a man, into the 
 perpetrator of a madcap gambol. Indeed, the two college 
 chums presented pictures of what men may be made by their 
 different lots in life : the 'Squire had left the university to live 
 lustily on his paternal domains, in the vigorous enjoyment of 
 prosperity and sunshine, and had flourished on to a hearty and 
 florid old age ; whilst the poor parson, on the contrary, lunl 
 dried and withered away, among dusty tomes, in the silence 
 and shadows of his study. Still there seemed to be a spark of 
 almost extinguished 'fire, feebly glimmering in the bottom of 
 his soul ; and, as the 'Squire hinted at a sly story of the parson 
 and a pretty milk-maid whom they once met on the hanks of 
 the Isis, the old gentleman made an " alphabet of faces." which, 
 as far as T could decipher his physiognomy, I verily bclii'vi' was 
 indicative of laughter; — indeed. I have rarely met with an old 
 
 gentler 
 
 ._ Braan th 
 of his youth. 
 I found th 
 land of sob 
 louder, as tl 
 chirping a h 
 songs grew 
 maudlin abo 
 the wooing c 
 from an exc 
 for Love ; ' ' 
 vThich he pre 
 
 n 
 
 This song 
 
 several attei 
 
 was pat to 
 
 everybody r 
 
 parson, too, 
 
 gradually sc 
 
 suspiciously 
 
 moned to th 
 
 gation of 
 
 with a prop 
 
 After the 
 
 the youngci 
 
 of noisy inii 
 
 walls ring 
 
 games. I 
 
 particularly 
 
 stealing oul 
 
 of lauglitei 
 
 Master Sin 
 
 on all occai 
 
 Lord of M 
 
 little being! 
 
 Falstaff; \ 
 
 tickling hir 
 
 > At ChriHtl 
 
 lordeof mixru 
 wery I'.oblumu 
 
THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 177 
 
 ilarity, 
 le with 
 >tlier it 
 w easy 
 
 liim; 
 
 living 
 Joyous 
 is; lie 
 lappy; 
 
 in a 
 
 gentleman that took absolute offence at the imputed gallantries 
 of bis youth. 
 
 I found the tide of wine and wassail fast gaining on the dry 
 land of sober judgment. The company grew merrier and 
 louder, as tlieir jokes grew duller. Master Simon was in as 
 chirping a humor as a grasshopper filled with dew ; his old 
 3on,i];s grew of a warmer complexion, and he began to talk 
 maudlin about the widow. He even gave a long song about 
 the wooing of a widow, which he informed me he had gathered 
 from an excellent black-letter work entitled " Cupid's Solicitor 
 for Love ; " containing store of good advice for bachelors, and 
 vTbich he promised to lend me ; the first verse was to this effect : 
 
 He tbiU vriU woo a -widow must not dally, 
 lie luiiHt mikke hay while the eun doth 8hiue ; 
 
 lie inuHi uot stikiid with ber, shall I, shall I, 
 But boldly Huy, Widow, thuu inu8t be mine. 
 
 This song inspired the fat-headed old gentleman, who made 
 several attempts to tell a rather broad story of Joe Miller, that 
 was pat to the purpose ; but he always stuck in the middle, 
 everybody recollecting the latter part excepting himself. The 
 parson, too, began to show the effects of good cheer, having 
 gradually settled down into a doze, and his wig sitting most 
 suspiciously on one side. Just at this juncture we were sum- 
 moned to the drawing-room, and I suspect, at the private insti- 
 gation of mine host, whose joviality seemed always tempered 
 with a proper love of decorum. 
 
 After the dinner-table was removed, the hall was given up to 
 the younger members of the family, who, prompted to all kind 
 of noisy mirth by the Oxonian and Master Simon, made its old 
 walls ring with their merriment, as they played at romping 
 games. I delight in witnessing the gambols of children, and 
 partieiilarly at this liappy holiday season, and could not help 
 stealing out of the drawing-room on hearing one of their peals 
 of laughter. I foi:nd them at the game of blind-man's-buff. 
 Master Simon, who was the leader of their revels, and seemed 
 on all occasions to fuUil the office of that ancient potentate, the 
 Lord of Misrule,^ was blinded in the midst of the hall. The 
 little beings were as bus} about him as the mock fairies about 
 Falstaff ; pinching him, plucking at the sKirts of his coat, and 
 tickling him with straws. One fine blue-eyed girl of about thir- 
 
 • At ChriRtmasBe there was In the Kinges house, wheresoever hee was !idged, a 
 lordeof minrule, or raaystur of merle dlsportes, and the like had ye in the house of 
 wery I'.oblumuu uf houour; or good worabippVi were he spirituall or tvmporall. — ciTuwi. 
 
 J!,.' 
 
 i 
 
178 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ■} 
 
 teen, with her flaxen hair all in beautiful confusion, her frolic 
 face m a glow, her frock half torn off her shoulders, a complete 
 picture ofa romp, was the chief tormentor ; and from the shy- 
 ness with which Master Simon avoided the smaller game, and 
 hemmed this wild little nymph in corners, and obliged her to 
 jump slirieking over chairs, I suspected the rogue of being not 
 a whit more blinded than was convenient. 
 
 When I returned to the drawing-room. I found the company 
 seated round the tire, listening to the parson, who was deeply 
 ensconced in a high-backed oaken chair, tiie woi-k of soiiii. 
 cr.nning Mviificer ol" yore, wliicli had buen brought from {\w 
 liluary lor his particular acconnnotlation. From this veiioi- 
 able piece of furniture, with which his shadowy llgure niul 
 dark weazen face so admirably accorded, he was dealing out 
 stiiinge accounts of the popular superstitions and legends of the 
 i5urrounding country, with which he had become accpiaintod in 
 the course of his anticpiarian researches. 1 am iialf incHned 
 to think that the old gentleman was himself somewhat liiic- 
 tnred with superstition, as men are very apt to be, wiio live a 
 recluse and studious life in a secpiesU'red part of the country, 
 and pore over black-letter tracts, so often tilled with the mar- 
 vellous and supernatural. He gave us several anecdotes of the 
 fancies of the neighboring peasantry, concerning the elligy of 
 the crusader, which lay on the tomb by the church altar. As 
 it was the only monument of the kind in that part of the coun- 
 try, it had always been regarded with feelings of superstition 
 by the good wives of the village. It was said to get up from 
 the tomb and walk the rounds of the churchyard in stormy 
 nights, particularly when it thundered : and one old woman 
 whose cottage bordered on the churchyard, had seen it through 
 the windows of the church, when the moon shone, slowly pa- 
 cing up and down the aisles. It was the belief that sonic wrong 
 had been left unredressed by the deceased, or some treasure 
 bidden, which kept the spirit in a state of trouble and rcsstloss- 
 ness. Some talked of gold and jewels buried in the tomb, ovei' 
 which the spectre kept watch ; and there was a story current 
 of a sexton, in old times, who endeavored to break his way to 
 the coflin at night ; but just as he reached it, received a violent 
 blow from the marble hand of the elllgy, which stretched him 
 senseless on the pavement. These tales were often lauglied 
 at by some of the sturdier among the rustics ; yet when night 
 came on, there were many of the stoutest unbelievers that 
 were shy of venturing alone ia the footpath that led across the 
 churchyard. 
 
 i1 
 
THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 179 
 
 From these and other anecdotes that followed, the crusader 
 appeared to be the favorite hero of ghost stories throughout 
 the vicinity. His picture, which hung U}) in the hall, was 
 thought by the servants to have something supernatural about 
 it: for they remarked that, in wliatever i)art of the hall you 
 went, the eyes of the warrior were still fixed on you. The old 
 porter's wi.e, too, at the lodge, who had been born and brought 
 up in the family, and was a great gossip among the maid-ser- 
 vants, affirmed, that in her young days she had often heard say, 
 that on Midsummer eve, when it was well known all kinds of 
 ghosts, goblins, and fairies become visible and walk abroad, 
 the crusader used to mount his horse, come down from his 
 picture, ride about the house, down the avenue, and so to the 
 church to visit the tomb ; on which occasion tlie church door 
 most civilly swung open of itself; not that he needed it — for 
 he rotle through closed gates and even stone ".'iills, and had 
 been seen by one of the dairy-maids to jiass bdtween two bars of 
 the great park gate, making himself as tliin as a sheet of paper. 
 
 All these superstitions I found had been very nmch coun- 
 tcnauccd by the 'Squire, who, though not superstitious him- 
 self, was very fond of seeing others so. He listened to every 
 goblin tale of the neighboring gossips with infinite gravity, 
 and held tlie porter's wife in high favor on account of her 
 talent for the marvellous. He was himself a great reader of 
 old legends and romances, and often lamented that he could 
 not l)elieve in them ; for a superstitious person, he thought, 
 must live in a kind of fairy land. 
 
 Whilst we were all attention to the parson's stories, our ears 
 were suddenly assailed by a burst of heterogeneous sounds 
 from the hall, in which were mingled something like the clang 
 of rude minstrels}', with the ui)roar of many small voices and 
 girlisli laughter. The door suddenly flew open, and a train 
 came trooping into the room, that might almost have been 
 mistaken for tlie breaking up of the court of Kairy. That in- 
 defatigable spirit. Master Simon, in the faithful discharge of 
 his duties as lord of misrule, had conceived the idea of a 
 Christmas munnnery, or masking ; and having called in to 
 his assistance the Oxonian and the young oflicer, who were 
 equally rpe for any thing that should occasion romiiing and 
 merriment, they had carried it into instant etfect. The old 
 housekeeper had been consulted ; the antique clothes-presses 
 and wardrobes rummaged, and made to yield up the relics of 
 finery that had not seen the light for several generations ; the 
 younger part of the company had been privately convened 
 
 , 1 
 
 i^mm 
 
180 
 
 TBH SKSTCM-BOOE. 
 
 n 
 
 PC t 
 
 from parlor and hall, and the whole had been bedizened out, 
 into a burlesque imitation of an antique mask.^ 
 
 Master Simon led the van as " Ancient Christmas," iniaintlj 
 apparelled in a ruff, a short cloak, which had very much the 
 aspect of one of the old housekeeper's petticoats, and u hat 
 that might have served for a village steeple, and must indubi- 
 taDly have figured in the days of the Covenanters. From under 
 this, his nose curved boldly forth, Hushed with a fro&t-bitteu 
 bloom that seemed the very trophy of a December blast, llu 
 was accompanied by tlie blue-eyed romp, dished up as -■ Duiuu 
 Mince Pie," in the veueral»le uiaguifioeuce of a faded brucuUo. 
 long stomacher, peaked hat, and high-heeled shoes. 
 
 The young ollicer appeared as Itobiu Hood, in v. s()Oitii,- 
 dress of Kendal green, aud a foraging cap with a gold tassel. 
 
 The costume, to be sure, did not bear testimony to dec[i 
 research, aud there was an evident eye to the picturesque, 
 natural to a young gallant in the i)reseuce of his mistress. The 
 fair Julia hung on his arm in a pretty rustic dress, as " Muid 
 Marian." The rest of the train had been metamorphosed in 
 various ways. Tlie girls trussed up in the finery of tlie ancient 
 belles of the Bracebridge line, and the striplings bewhiskered 
 with burnt cork, and gravely clad in broad skirts, haugiiii,' 
 sleeves, aud full-bottomed wigs, to represent the characters oi 
 Roast Beef, Plum Pudding, and other worthies celebrated in 
 ancient maskiugs. The whole was under the control of the 
 Oxonian, in the appropriate character of Misrule ; aud I ob- 
 served that he exercised rather a mischievous sway with his 
 wand over the smaller personages of the pageant. 
 
 The irruption of this motley crew, with beat of drum, ac- 
 cording to ancient custom, was the consummation of u[)roai 
 and merriment. Master Simon covered himself with glory by 
 the statoliness with which, as Ancient Christmas, he walked u 
 minuet with the peerless, though giggling. Dame Mince i'ie. 
 It was followed by a dance of all the characters, which, from 
 its medley of costumes, seemed as though the old family* por- 
 traits had skipped down from their frames to join in the sport. 
 Different centuries were figuring at cross-hands and right and 
 left ; the dark ages were cutting pirouettes and rigadoons ; and 
 the days of Queen Bess, jigging merrily down the m'ddlc, 
 through a line of succeeding generations. 
 
 The worthy 'Squire contemplated theee fantastic sports, and 
 
 ' Masklnes or muraraertes, were favorite eportf at Cbrlgtinas, in old limed; and 
 the uardrolies :'. iiulld uud manor-bouBei) were ufteii '^id under cootributlou to furui«b 
 diespori ao' iaiita»>tic disuuiHtiiKH. I BtroiiKlv nuBpect .^Mter Simou U> b«ve loksu tke 
 Ulea I}' lud t'rum Hau Juuaou'g MuHUUtt ut' C^lntouu, 
 
THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 181 
 
 d out, 
 
 iiaintly 
 ch the 
 
 u hat 
 imlubi- 
 
 uadi'i' 
 -bitteu 
 
 Ho 
 
 UCUtlf. 
 
 this resurrection of his old wardrobe, with the simple relish of 
 fhildish delight. He stood chuckling and rubbing his hands, 
 mul sicarceiy hearing a word the parson said, notwithstanding 
 th;it the latter was discoursing most authentically on the an- 
 cienT and stately dance of the Pavon, or peacock, from which 
 he conceived the minuet to be derived.* For m}- part I was in 
 a continual excitement from the varied scenes of whim and in- 
 nocent gayety passing before me. It was inspiring to see wild- 
 eyed frolic and warm-hearted hospitality breaking out from 
 amons: the chills and glooms of winter, and old age throwing off 
 his apathy, and catching once more the freshness of youthful 
 enjoyment. I felt also an interest in the scene, from the con- 
 sideration that these fleeting customs were posting fast into 
 oblivion, and that this was, perhaps, the only family in England 
 in which the whole of them were still punctiliously observed. 
 There was a quaintness, too, mingled with all this revelry, that 
 gave it a peculiar zest : it was suited to the time and place ; and 
 as the old Manor-house almost reeled with mirth and wassail, it 
 Bcemed echoing back the joviality of long-departed years. 
 
 But enough of Christmas and its gambols : it is time for me 
 It) pause in this garrulity. Methinks I hear the qnostions askcl 
 hy my craver readers, "To what purpose is all this — how is 
 th.c woiid to he made wiser by this talk? " Alas ! is there not 
 wisdom enough extant for the instruction of the world? And 
 if not, are there not thousands of abler pens laboring for its 
 improvement? — It is so much pleasanter to please than to 
 instruct — to play the companion rather than the preceptor. 
 
 What, after all, is the mite of wisdom that I could throw into 
 the mass of knowledge ; or how am I sure that my sagest de- 
 ductions may be safe guides for the opinions of others ? But in 
 writing to amuse, if I Fail, the only evil is in my own disappoint^ 
 ment. If, however, I can by any lucky chance, in these days 
 f)f p"il, rub out one wrinkle from the brow of care, or beguile 
 the heavy heart of one moment of sorrow — if I can now and 
 then penetrate through the gathering film of misanthropy, 
 prompt a be. evolent view of human nature, and make my 
 reader more in good humor with his fellow-beings and himself, 
 surely, surely, I shall not then have written entirely in vain.' 
 
 ' Hir John Ilawklug, speaking of the dance cai'ed the Pavon, from pavo, a pea- 
 cock, Rayg, "It i8 a grave and raajcRtic dance; the irtetbod of dancing it anciently 
 wan liy Kentlenirn dresBed with caps and swordR, by those of the long robe in tlieii 
 fTuwijH. liy the peers in their mantles, aud by the Ibdlcs in gowns with long trains 
 tb« uiuiion whereof, in dancing, resembled that of » peaco.'k." - ■ JJUtery qfJturta 
 
 * Appendix, Note X 
 
 m 
 
 ' ^i 
 
 (■ ' 
 
 1^ 
 
 m: 
 
 ■i 
 
1W 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 . ' 
 
 [The following modicum of local history was lately put inm 
 my hands by an odd-looidng old gontlcmau in a small brown 
 wig and snuff-colorcd coat, with whom I became acijuaiuted in 
 tlie course of one of my tours of observation tiirough the centre 
 of that gr(!at wilderness, the City. I confess that 1 was a little 
 dubious at first, whether it was not one of those apocryphal 
 tales often passed off upon in(iuiring travellers like myself; 
 and which have brought our general character for veracity into 
 such unmerited reproach. On making i)roper inquiries, how 
 e\er, I have received the most satisfactory assurances of the 
 author's probity; and, indeed, have been told that he is actually 
 engaged in a full and particular account of the very iuLerobtiii<> 
 region in which he resides, of which the following may b« 
 considered merely as a foretaste.^ 
 
 [lo the author's rerlscd edition the article entiticd " London Antiques " baa buua Ub 
 wned here, and the above note has bccu replaced by tliut uti page 2Ua.J 
 
 :i 
 
 LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 What 1 write i« moBt true ... I Iiave a wliole boolie of ca«e« lying by me, whicli H 
 I should sette foortb, some grave ouutieuts (witbiii the bearing of Bow bell) would bo 
 ont of charity with me. — NASUii. 
 
 In the centre of the great City of London lies a small neigh- 
 borhood, consisting of a cluster of nariow streets and courts, 
 of very venerable and debilitntod houses, which goes r)y the 
 name of Little IJiutain. Christ Church school and St. Bar- 
 tholomew's hospital bound it on the west ; Smithfield and Long 
 lane on the north ; Aldersgate-street, like an arm of the sea, 
 divides it from the eastern part of the city ; whilst the yawning 
 gulf of Bull-and-Mouth-street sepaiates it from Butcher lane, 
 and the regions of New-Gate. Over this little territory, thus 
 bounded and designated, the great dome of St. Paul's, swelling 
 above the intervening houses of Paternoster Row, Amen Cor- 
 ner, and Ave-Maria lane, looks down with an air of motherly 
 protection. 
 
 This quarter derives its appellation fi'om having been, in 
 ancient times, the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. As Lon- 
 don increased, however, rank and fashion rolled off to tin; west, 
 and trade creeping on at their heels, took possession of their 
 deserted abodes. For some time. Little Britain became the 
 great mart of learning, and was peopled by the busy and pro- 
 lific race of booksellers : these also gradually deserted it, 
 and, emigrating beyond the great strait of New-(late-street, 
 nettled down in Paternoster Row and St. Paul's Church. yard 
 
 if 
 
LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 IHS 
 
 where they continue to increase and multiply.. 'U'en at the pres- 
 ent day. 
 
 But though thus fallen into decline, Little Hiitain still bears 
 traces of its former si)lendor. There are several houses, ready 
 to tumble down, the fronts of which are mngnifieenlly emlched 
 with old oaken carvings of hideous faces, unknown birds, beasta 
 and fishes ; and fruits and flowers, whicli it would perplex a 
 naturalist to classify. There are also, in Aldersgate-street, 
 certain remains of what were once spacious nud lordly family 
 mansions, but which have in latter days been subdivided into 
 several tenements. Here may often be found the family of a 
 petty tradesman, with its trumpery furniture, burrowing among 
 the relics of antiquated finery, in great rambling time-stained 
 apartments, with fretted ceilings, gilded cornices, and enormous 
 marble fire-places. The lanes and courts also contain many 
 smaller houses, not on so grand a scale; but, like your small 
 ancient gentry, sturdily maintaining Iheir claims to equal an- 
 tiquity. These have their gable-ends to the street; great bow- 
 windows, with diamond panes set in lead; grotesque carvings; 
 and low-arched doorways.' 
 
 In this most venerable and sheltered little nest have I passed 
 several quiet years of existence, comfortably lodged in the 
 second floor of one of the smallest, but oldest edifices. My 
 sitting-room is an old wainscoted chamber, with small panels, 
 and set off with a miscellaneous array of furniture. I have a 
 particular respect for three or four high-backed, claw-footed 
 chairs, covered with tarnished brocade, which bear the marks 
 of having seen better days, and have doubtless figured in some 
 of the old palaces of Little Britain. They seem to me to keep 
 together, and to look down with sovereign contempt upon their 
 leathern-bottomed neighbors ; as I have si-t-n decayed gentry 
 carry a higli head among the plebeian society with which they 
 were reduced to associate. The whole frojit of my sittmg-room 
 is taken up with a bow-window ; on the panes of which are 
 recorded the names of previous occupants for many genera- 
 tions ; mingled with scraps of very iiidiiTerent gentleman-like 
 poetry, written in ciiaracters which I can scarcely decipher; 
 and which extol the charms of many a beauty of Little Britain, 
 who has long, long since bloomed, faded, and passed away. 
 As I am an idle personage, with no apparent occupation, and 
 pay my bill regnli'irly every week, T v.m hooked upon as the 
 
 A ■) 
 
 -t-iil 
 
 ' , 
 
 ' It is evident that thr niithor of lh'« iiilcruHtiiiK oomniuniciUion has included in his 
 general title of Little Ki it^iln, iiiiuiy of lilOHti little luues and courtd thai, belnrii^ iiumo<U> 
 "Ucly to Cloth Fair 
 
184 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 \\] 1 
 
 .;-'i J 
 
 I ••it 
 
 only independent frontloman of the neighborhood ; and Ving 
 curious to le!vrn tlio internal state of a ooinmunitj^'so apparently 
 shut up within itself, I have managed to work uiy way into all 
 the concerns and secrets of the place. 
 
 Little Britain may truly be called the heart's-core of the city; 
 the strong-hold of true John Bullism. It is a fragment of Lon- 
 don as it was in its better days, with its antiquated folks and 
 fashions. Here flourish in great preservation many of the 
 holiday games and customs of yore. The inhabitants most 
 religiously eat pancakes on Shrove-Tucsday ; hot-cross-buns on 
 Good-Friday, and roast goose at Michaelmas ; they send lovo- 
 letters on Valentine's Day ; t)urn the Pope on the Fifth of No- 
 vember, and kiss all the girls under the mistletoe at Christmas. 
 Roast b.^of and plum-pudding are also held in superstitious 
 veneration, and port and clierry maintain their grounds as the 
 only true Eni^lish wines — all others being considered vile out- 
 landish beverages. 
 
 Little Britain hns its long catalogue of city wonders, which 
 its inhabitants consider the wonders of the world : such as the 
 great bell of St. Paul's, which sours all the beer when it tolls; 
 the figures thut strike the hours at St. Dunstan's clock ; the 
 Mouumeut ; the lions in the Tower ; and the wooden giants in 
 Guildhall. The}' still believe in dreams and fortune-telling; 
 and an old woman that lives in Bull-and-Mouth-street makes a 
 tolerable subsistence by detecting stolen goods, and promising 
 the girls good husbands. They are apt to be rendered uncom- 
 fortable by comets and eclipses ; and if a dog howls dolefully 
 at night, it is looked upon as a sure sign of a death in the 
 place. There are even many ghost stories current, particr.iarly 
 concerning the old mansion-houses : m several of which it is 
 said strange sights are sometimes seen. Lords and ladies, the 
 former in full-bottomed wigs, hanging sleeves, and swords, the 
 latter in lappets, stays, hoops, and brocade, have been seen 
 walking up and down the great waste chambers, on moonlight 
 nights ; and are supposed to be the shades of the ancient pro- 
 prietors in their court-dresses. 
 
 Little Britain has likewise its sages and great men. One of 
 the most important of the former is a tall dry old gentleman, 
 of the name of Skryme, who keeps a small apothecary's shop. 
 He has a cadaverous countenance, full of cavities and projec- 
 tions ; with a brown circle round each eye, like a pair of horn 
 spectacles. He is much thought of by the old women, who 
 consider him as a kind of conjurer, because he has two or three 
 stuffed alligators hanging up in his shop, and several sua!:"s iu 
 
 - .t^^fr^t V*-^* 
 
 
LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 186 
 
 bottles. He is a great reader of almanacs and newspapers, 
 aiul is much given to pore over alarming accounts of plots, con- 
 spiracies, fires, eartliqualtes, and volcanic eruptions ; which last 
 phenomena he considers as sigrd of the times. He has always 
 sonic dismal tale uf the kind to deal out to his customers, with 
 their doses, and thus at th.e same time puts both soul and body 
 into an uproar. He is a great believer in omens and predic- 
 tions, and has the prophecies of Robert Nixon and Mother 
 Shipton by heart. No man can nia!:e io much out of an eclipse, 
 or even an unusually dark day; ari he shook the tail of the 
 last comet over the heads of his customers and disciples until 
 they were nearly frightened out of their wits. He has lately 
 got hold of a popular legend or prophecy, on which he has been 
 unusually eloquent. There has been a saying current among 
 the ancient Sibyls, who treasure up these things, that when 
 the grasshopper on the top of the Exchange shook hands with 
 the dragon on the top of Bow Church steeple fearful events 
 would take place. This strange conjunction, it seems, has as 
 strangely come to pass. The same architect has been engaged 
 lately on the repairs of the cupola of the Exchange, and the 
 steeple of Bow Chuich ; and, fearful to relate, the dragon and 
 the grasshopper actually lie, cheek by jole, in the yard of his 
 workshop. 
 
 "Others," as Mr. Skryme is accustomed to say, "may go 
 star-gazing, and look for conjunctions in the heavens, but here 
 is a conjunction on the earth, near at home, and under our own 
 eyes, wliich surpasses all the signs and calculations of astrolo- 
 gers." Since these portentous weathercocks have thus laid 
 their heads together, wonderful events had already occurred. 
 The good old king, notwithstanding that he had lived eighty-two 
 years, had all at once given up the ghost ; another king had 
 mounted the tinonc ; a royal duke had died suddenly — another, 
 in Frauee, had been murdered ; there had been radical meetings 
 In all parts of the kingdom ; the bloody scenes at Manchester 
 — the great plot in Cato-street; — and, above all, the Queen 
 had returned to England ! All these sinister events are re- 
 counted by Mr. Skryme with a mysterious look, and a dismal 
 shake of the head ; and being taken with his drugs, and asso- 
 ciated in the minds of his auditors with stuffed sea-mon'^ters, 
 bottled serpents, and his own visage, which is a title-page of 
 tribulation, they have spread great gloom through the minds 
 of the people in Little Britain. They shake their heads when- 
 ever they go by Bow Church, and observe, that they never 
 expected any good to conie of taking down that steeple. wbich» 
 
 I ■: 
 
 M- 
 
 •msm 
 
188 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 >-■> 
 
 '•■i 
 
 in old timps, told nothino; but glad tidings, as the history of 
 Wliittingtoii and his cat boars witness. 
 
 Tlie rival oraelc of Little Hritain is a substantial cheesemon' 
 ger, wlio lives in a fragnicut of one of the old family mansions, 
 and is as magniliceutiy lodged as a round-bellied mite in the 
 midst of one of his own Cheshires. Indeed, he is a man of no 
 little standing and importance ; and his renown extends tiirough 
 Huggin lane, and Lad lane, and even unto Aldermanluny. 
 His opinion is vciy nuich taken in atfairs of state, having read 
 the Sunday papers for the last half century, together with Iho 
 Gentleman's iMagazine, Hapin's History of Kngland, and the 
 Naval Chronicle. His head is stored with invaluable niaxims 
 which have borne the test of time and use for centuries. It is 
 his lirm opinion tliat -*it is a moral impossible," so long as 
 England is true to herself, that any thing can shake her : and 
 he has much to say on the subject of the national debt ; which, 
 somehow or other, he proves to bo a great natiomvl bulwark 
 and blessing. He passed the greater part of his life in the 
 purlieus of Little Hritain, until of late years, when, having be- 
 come rich, and grown into the dignity of a Sunday cane, he 
 begins to take his pleasure and see the world. He lias there- 
 fore made several excursions to Hampstead, Highgate, and 
 othei neighboring towns, where he has passed whole afternoons 
 in looking back upon the metropolis througli a telescope, and 
 endeavoring to descry the steeple of St. liarthohjuiew's. Not 
 a stage-coachman of Uull-aiid-Mouth-street but touches his hat 
 as he i)asses ; and he is considered quite a patron at the coach- 
 office of the Goose and (iridiron, St. Paul's Churchyard. His 
 family iiave been very urgent for him to make an expedition to 
 Margate, but he has great 'loubts of those new gimcracks the 
 steamboats, and indeed thinks himself too advanced in life to 
 undertake sea-voyages. 
 
 Little Britain has occasionalh* its factions and divisions, anil 
 party spirit ran very high at one time, in consequence of two 
 rival " Burial Societies" being set up in the place. One held 
 Its meeting at the Swan and Horse-Shoe, and was patronize J by 
 the cheesemonger ; tl.e other at the Cock and Crown, under the 
 auspices of the apothecary : it is needless to say, that the latter 
 was the most flourishing. I have passed an evening or two at 
 each, and have acquired much valual)le information as to the 
 best mode of being buried ; the comparative merits of church- 
 yards ; together with divers hints on tlie subject of patent iron 
 cotlins. I have heard the question discussed in all its bearings, 
 as to the legality of prohibiting the latter on account of their 
 
 durability, 
 pily died ol 
 themes of < 
 treniely 8oli( 
 in their gra\ 
 Besides t 
 a different 
 humor over 
 ■i little old- 
 of Wagstat 
 with a mof 
 covered wil 
 rarer; sucl 
 Kum, and 
 etc." Thi 
 from time 
 the Wagst! 
 present laii 
 cavalieros 
 and then b 
 Wa;4staff ] 
 Eij^hth, in 
 of his anc( 
 is consider 
 landlord. 
 
 The clu 
 the name 
 abound in 
 tional in t 
 the nietroj 
 table at a 
 prime wit 
 ancestors 
 the inn a 
 generatioi 
 fellow, wi 
 merry ey< 
 open ng 
 fession o 
 Gam ner 
 varialionf 
 been a st; 
 ever sinct 
 have ofte 
 
 u 
 
LITTLE liRITAlN. 
 
 187 
 
 durability. The feuds occasioned by these societies have hap- 
 pily (lied of late; but thoy wore for a long time prcvaillnj.'; 
 themes of controversy, tlic people of Little Hritain beinj^ ex- 
 tromely solicitous of funereal honors, and of lying comfortably 
 in their graves. 
 
 Besides these two funeral societies, there is a third of quite 
 a different cast, which tends to tlu'ow the sunshine of godd 
 iiumor over tlie wliole ncighl)orhood. It meets once a weeli al 
 •A little old-fashioned house, kept l)y a jolly pul)lican of the uauu' 
 of Wagstaff, and bearing for insignia a resplendent half-moon, 
 with a most seductive bunch of gra])eH. The old edifice is 
 covered with Inscriptions to catch the eye of the thirsty way- 
 farer; such as "Truman, Ilanbury & Co.'s Entire," "Wine, 
 Kuril, and lirandy Vaults," " OUl Tom, Hum, and Compounds, 
 etc." This, indeed, lia.s been a temple of Hacchus and Moraus, 
 from time immemorial. It has always lieen in the family of 
 the Wagstaffs, so that its history is tolerably preserved by the 
 present landlord. It was much frequented by the gallants and 
 eavalieros of the reign of Elizabeth, and was looked into now 
 and then by the wits of Charles the Second's day. But what 
 Wagstaff principally prides himself upon, is, that Henry the 
 Piiizhth, in one of his nocturnal rambles, broke the head of one 
 of liis ancestors with his famous walking-staff. This, however, 
 is coiisidered as rather a dubious anil vainglorious boast of the 
 huidlonl. 
 
 The club which now holds its weekly sessions here, goes by 
 the name of "the Roaring Lads of Little Britain." They 
 abound in old catches, glees, and choice stones, that are tradi- 
 tional in the i)lace, and not to be met with in any other part of 
 the metropolis. There is a madcap undertaker, who is inimi- 
 table at a merry song ; but the life of the club, and indeed the 
 prime wit of Little Britain, is bully Wagstaff himself. His 
 ancestors were all wags before him, and he has inherited with 
 the inn a large stock of songs and jokes, which go with it from 
 generation to generation as heir-looms. He is a dapper little 
 follow, with bandy legs and pot belly, a red face with a moist 
 merry eye, and a little shock of gray hair behind. At the 
 open iig of every club night, he is called in to sing his "Con- 
 fession of Faith," which is the famous old drinking trowl from 
 Gam ner Gurton's needle. He sings it, to be sure, wit" many 
 variations, as he received it from his father's lips ; for it has 
 been a standing favorite at the Half-Moon and Bunch of Grapes 
 ever since it was written ; nay, he aflirras that his predecessors 
 have often bad the honor of singing it uefore the nobility aod 
 
 I 
 
183 
 
 TBE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 m 
 
 gentry at Christmas mummeries, when Little Britain was in all 
 its glory. ^ 
 
 It would do one's heart good to hear on a club-night the 
 shouts of merriment, the snatches of song, and now and then 
 the choral bursts of half a dozen discordant voices, which issue 
 from this jovial mansion. At such times the street is lined 
 with listeners, who enjo}' a delight equal to that of gazing into 
 a confectioner's window, or snuffing up the steams of a cook- 
 shop. 
 
 There are two annual events which produce great stir and 
 sensation in Little Britain ; these are St. Bariholomew's Fair, 
 and the Lord Mayor's day. During the time of the Fair, which 
 
 > As mine boHt of the Ualf-Moon'e Confession of Faith may not be familiar to tfae 
 majority of rpaders, and as it is a specimen of tile current songs of Little Britain, I sub- 
 join H in its original orthography. I would observe, that the whole club always jola iu 
 '.he cboruii with a fearful thumping on the table and clattering of pewter pots. 
 
 I cannot eate but lytle racate, 
 
 My storaacke is not good, 
 But sure 1 thinke that I can drinke 
 
 With him that wpares a hood. 
 Though I go bare take ye no care, 
 
 1 nothing am a culde, 
 I stuff my skyn so full within, 
 
 Of Joly good ale and oide. 
 
 Chorut. Bucire and syde go bare, go bare, 
 Bo h footc and liaud (?o colde, 
 But belly, Uod send thee good ale ynoughe, 
 Whether it be new or olde. 
 
 I have no rost, but t. nut brawne toatu 
 
 And a ciab laid iu the fyre; 
 A little breade shall do me ateade, 
 
 Much breadu 1 not desyre. 
 Ko frost nor snow, nor wlnde I trowe, 
 
 Can hurte mee if I wolde, 
 I am so wrapt and throwiy lapt 
 
 Of Joly good ale and oldie. 
 
 CKoru*. Backe and syde go bare, go bare, eto. 
 
 And tyb my wife, that, as her lyfe, 
 
 Loveth well good ale to seeke, 
 Full oft drynkes shee, tyll ye may Me 
 
 The teares run downe her cheeke. 
 Then doth shee trowle to me the buwla, 
 
 Even as a mault-worroe sholde, 
 And sayth, sweete harte, I took my part* 
 
 Of this joly good ale and olde. 
 Vtarui- Backe and syde go bare, go bare, etc. 
 
 Kow let them drynke, tyll they nod and wlaktt, 
 
 Even as goode feliowus sholde doe, 
 They shall not mysse to have the blisae. 
 
 Good ale doth bring men to. 
 And all pooro soulcs that have acowred bowl««, 
 
 Or have them lustily trolde, 
 God save the lyvea of them and their wires. 
 
 Whether they be yonge or olde. 
 (Home. Baoko and ayde go bare, go bare. ate. 
 
 7. : - 
 
LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 189 
 
 is held in the adjoining regions of Smithfield, there is nothing 
 going on but gossiping and gadding about. The late quiet 
 streets of Little Britain are overrun with an irruption of strange 
 figures and faces ; — every tavern is a scene of rout and revel. 
 The fiddle and the song are heard from the tap-room, morning, 
 noon, and night ; and at each window may be seen some group 
 of boon companions, with half-shut eyes, hats on one side, pipe 
 in mouth, and tankard in hand, fondling and prosing, and sing- 
 ing maudlin songs over their liquor. Even the sober decorum 
 of private families, which I must say is rigidly kept up at other 
 times among my neighbors, is no proof against this Saturnalia. 
 There is no such thing as keeping maid servants within doors. 
 Their brains are absolutely set madding with Punch and the 
 Puppet Show ; the Flying Horses ; Signior I'olito ; the Fire- 
 Eater; the celebrated Mr. Paap; and the Irish Giant. The 
 children, too, lavish all their holiday money in toys and gilt 
 gingerbi'ead, and fill the house with the Liliputian din of drum.s, 
 trumpets, and penny whistles. 
 
 But the Lord Mayor's day is the great anniversary. The 
 Lord Mayor is looked up to by the inhabitants of Little Britain, 
 as the greatest potentate upon earth ; his gilt coach with six 
 horses, as the summit of human splendor ; and his procession, 
 with all the Sheriffs and Aldermen in his train, as the grandest 
 of earthly pageants. How they exult in the idea, that the King 
 himself dare not enter the city without first knocking at the gate 
 of Temple Bar, and asking permission of the Lord Mayor ; for 
 if he did, heaven and earth ! there is no knowing what might 
 be the consequence. The man in armor who rides before the 
 Lord Mayor, and is the city champion, has orders to cut down 
 everybody that offends against the dignity of the city ; and then 
 there is the little man with a velvet porringer on his head, who 
 sits at the window of the state coach and holds the city sword, 
 as long as a pike-staff — Od's blood I if he once draws that 
 sword. Majesty itself is not safe ! 
 
 Under the protection of this mighty potentate, therefore, the 
 good people of Little Britain sleep in peace Temple Bar is an 
 effectual barrier against all internal foes ; and as to foreign in- 
 vasion, the Lord Mayor has but to throw himself into the 
 Tower, call in the train bands, and put the standing army of 
 Beef-eaters under arms, and he may bid defiance to the world ! 
 
 Thus wrapped up in its own concerns, its own habits, and 
 Its own opinions, Little Britain has long flourished as a sound 
 heart to this great fungous metropolis. I have pleased myself 
 with considering it as a choseu spot, where the principles of 
 
 h'l. 
 
190 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 \ 
 
 sturdy John Bullism were garnered uj), like seed-corn, to renew 
 the national chtiracter, when it had run to waste and degeneracy. 
 1 have rejoiced also in the genial spirit of harmony that pre- 
 vailed throughout it ; for thoi gh there might now and then be 
 a few clashes of opinion between the adherents of the cheese- 
 monger and the apothecary, and an occasional feud between 
 the burial societies, yet these were bu^ transient clouds, and 
 soon passed away. The neighbors met with good-will, parted 
 with a shake of the hand, and never abused each other except 
 behind their backs. 
 
 I could give rare descriptions of snug junketing parties at 
 which 1 have been present; where we played at All-Fours, 
 Pope-Joan, Tom-come-tickle-me, and other choice old games: 
 and where we sometimes had a good old English country dance, 
 to the tune of Sir Roger de Coverley. Once a year also the 
 neighbors wouui gather together, and go on a gypsy party to 
 Epping Forest. It would have done any man's heart good 
 to see the merriment that took place here, as we banqueted on 
 the grass under the tiees. How we made the woods ring with 
 bursts of laughter at the songs of little Wagstaff and the merry 
 undertaker ! Aftei- dinner, too, the young folks would play at 
 blindman's-buff and hide-and-seek ; and it was amusing to see 
 them tangled among the briers, and to hear a fine romping girl 
 now and then squeak from among the bushes. The elder folka 
 would gather round the cheesemonger and the apothecary, to 
 hear them talk politics ; for they generally brought out a news- 
 paper in their pockets, to pass away time in the country. They 
 would now and then, to be sure, get a little warm in argument ; 
 but their disputes wei'e always a(ljusted by reference to a wor- 
 thy old umbrella-maker in a double chin, who, never exactly 
 comprehending the subject, managed, somehow or other, to 
 decide in favor of both parties. 
 
 All empires, however, says some philosopher or historian,, 
 are doomed to changes and revolutions. Luxury and innova- 
 tion creep in ; factions arise ; and families now and then spring 
 up, whose ambition and intrigues throw the whole system into 
 confusion. Thus in latter days has the tranquillity of Little 
 Britain been grievously disturbed, and its golden sunplicity of 
 manners threatened with total subversion, by the aspiring fam- 
 ily of a retired butcher. 
 
 The family of the liambs 
 thrivino; and popidar in the 
 
 had long been 
 neighboriiood : 
 
 among the most 
 the Miss Lam lis 
 
 were the belles of Little Britain, and everybody was pleased 
 when old Lamb had made money enough to shut up shop, and 
 
 put his nam 
 however, oi 
 in uttendan< 
 on which o( 
 her head, 
 ately smitte 
 carriage, pi 
 have been t 
 ever since. 
 Joun or bl 
 (juadrilles, 
 and they to 
 ing upon t 
 to an attoi 
 hitherto un 
 folks excel 
 Edinburgh 
 AVhat wt 
 Ihoy negle( 
 luul a gre 
 Ked-lion S 
 several be 
 lane and I 
 ladies witl 
 forgiven, 
 ing of whi 
 and jiugli 
 bovhooti 11 
 window, w 
 a knot of 
 just oppoi 
 every one 
 This da 
 ncighborl 
 to the I^s 
 engagenu 
 humdrum 
 as she w( 
 that her 
 vious vo 
 and be d 
 eondcsci' 
 and the; 
 anecdott 
 
LtTTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 191 
 
 Jenew 
 
 Iracy. 
 
 pre- 
 
 |n be 
 
 |eese- 
 
 and 
 irted 
 pcept 
 
 put his name on a brass plate on his door. In an evii hour, 
 however, or 3 of the Miss Ijanibs had the honor of being a lady 
 in attendance on the Lady Mayoress, at her grand annual ball, 
 on which occasion slie wore three towering ostrich feathers oa 
 her hciid. The family never got over it ; they were immedi- 
 ately smitte.i with a passion for high life ; set up a one-horse 
 carriage, put .^ bit of gold lace round the errand-boy's hat, and 
 have been the iall<: and detestation of the whole neighborhood 
 ever since. Tlicy could uo longer be induced to play at Pope- 
 Joau or blindnian's-buff : they could endure no dances but 
 quadrilles, which nobody had ever heard of in Little Britain ; 
 and tliey took to reading novels, talking bad French, and play- 
 ing upon the piano. Their brother, too, who had been articled 
 to an attorney, set up for a dandy and a critic, characters 
 hitherto unknown in these parts ; and he confounded the worthy 
 folks exceedingly by talking about Kean, the Opera, and the 
 Edinburgii Keviev . 
 
 What was still woi-se, the Lambs gave a grand ball, to which 
 thoy neglected to invite any of their old neighbors ; but they 
 iiad a great deal of genteel company from Theobald's Road, 
 Ked-lion Sipiure, and other jiarts toward the west. There were 
 several beaux of their brother's acquaintance from Gray's-Inn 
 lane and II atton Garden ; and not less than three Aldermen's 
 ladies with tlieir daughters. This was not to be forgotten or 
 forgiven. Ali Little Britain was in an uproar with the smack- 
 ing of whips, tiie lashing of miserable horses, and the rattling 
 and jingling of luickney-coaches. The gossips of the neigh- 
 borhooil might be seen popping their night-caps out at every 
 window, watdiing the crazy vehicles rumble by ; and there was 
 a knot of virulent ohl cronies, that kept a look-out from a house 
 jnst opposite the retired butcher's, and scanned and criticised 
 every one that knocked at the door. 
 
 This dance was the cause of almost open war, and the «rhole 
 neighborhood declared they would have nothing more to say 
 to the Lambs. It is true that Mrs. Lamb, when she had no 
 engagements with lier (inality acquaintance, would give little 
 humdrum tea junketings to some of her old cronies, "<iuite," 
 as she would say, '' in a friendly way ; " and it is equally true 
 that her invitations were always accepted, in spite of all pre- 
 vious vows to the contrary. Nay, the good ladies would sit 
 and be delighted with the music of the Miss Lambs, who would 
 ('on<l('scend to thrum an Irish melody for them on the piano ; 
 and Ihey would listen with wonderful interest to Mrs. Lamb's 
 anecdotes of Alderman riuuket's family of Foi tsokenward, 
 
 
 til J! 
 
 ■ . ' 
 
 % 
 
 U 
 
 mmmmm 
 
132 
 
 TUB SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 and the Miss Timberlakcs, the rich heiresses of Crutched-Frjars ; 
 but then they relieved their consciences, and averted tlie re- 
 proaches of their confederates, by canvassing at the noxt gos. 
 siping convocation every thing that had passed, and piilUng the 
 Lambs and their rout all to pieces. 
 
 The only one of the family that could not be made fashion- 
 able, was the retired butcher himself. Honest Lamb, in spite 
 of the meekness of his name, was a rough heaily old fellow, 
 with the voice of a lion, a head of black hair like a shoe-brnsh, 
 and a broad face mottled like his own beef. It was in vain 
 that the daughters always spoke of him as the " old gentle- 
 man," addressed him as " papa," in tones of infinite softness, 
 and endeavored to coax him into a dressing-gown and slippers, 
 and other gentlemanly habits. Do what they might, tluue was 
 no keeping down i,he batcher. His sturdy nature would Itioak 
 througli all their glozings. He had a hearty vulgar good-hu- 
 mor, that was irrepressible. His very jokes made his sensitive 
 diughters shudder; and he persisted in wearing his blue cotton 
 CJat of a morning, dining at two o'clock, and having a " hit of 
 suisage with his tea." 
 
 He was doomed, however, to share the unpopularity of iiis 
 lamily. He found his old comrades gradually growing c^>kl 
 and civil to him ; no longer laughing at his jokes ; and now 
 and then throwing out a fling at " some people," and a iiint 
 about "■quality binding." This botii nettled and perplexed 
 tlie honest butcher ; and his wife and daughters, witii the con- 
 summate policy of the shrewder sex, taking advantage of the 
 pircumstance, at length prevailed upon him to give u}) his 
 afternoon's pipe and tankard at Wagstaff's ; to sit after dinner 
 by himself, and take his pint of port — a liquor he detested — 
 and to nod in iiis cliair. in solitary and dismal sientiiilv. 
 
 The Miss Lambs migiit now 1)0 seen flaunting along the 
 streets in French l)onnets, with unknown beaux ; and tulkini; 
 and laughing so loud, that it distressed the nerves of every good 
 lady within hearing. They even went so far as to aUenipt 
 patronage, and actually induced a French dancing-master to 
 set up in the neighborhood ; but the worthy folks of Little 
 Britain took fire at it, and did so persecute the poor Gaul, that 
 he was fain to pack up fiddle and dancing-pumps, and decamp 
 with such precipitation, that he absolutely forgot to pay for his 
 lodgings. 
 
 I had flattered myself, at first, with the idea that all this 
 fiery indignation on the part of the community was merely the 
 averflowing of their zeal for good old English manners, ami 
 
 their horroi 
 tempt they 
 French fasl 
 that I soon 
 neighbors, 
 
 ample. I 
 let their dai 
 that they ni 
 the course < 
 precisely Ul 
 Britain. 
 
 1 still hr 
 away; tha 
 might die, 
 that quiet 
 mnnity. 
 man died, 
 of buxom 
 in secret a 
 all their el 
 restrained 
 against th( 
 having ha( 
 in tlie fast 
 play the p 
 ances, but 
 Lambs ap 
 ters moun 
 wave a da 
 though til 
 double til 
 The wl 
 ion able f 
 old game 
 discardec 
 country-' 
 under th 
 the Misi 
 Bitter ri 
 part of 
 of Cross 
 Uarthoh 
 Thus 
 sension 
 
LITTLE BRITAIN. 
 
 193 
 
 their horror of innovation ; and I applauded the silent con- 
 tempt they were so vociferous in expressing for upstart pride, 
 French fashions, and the Miss Lambs. But I grieve to say, 
 that I soon perceived the infection had taken hold ; and that ray 
 neighbors, after condemning, were beginning to follow their ex- 
 ample. I overheard my landlady importuning her husband to 
 let their daughters have one quarter at French and music, and 
 that they might take a few lessons in quadrille ; I even saw, In 
 the course of a few Sundays, no loss than five French bonnets, 
 precisely like those of the Miss Lambs, parading about Little 
 Britain. 
 
 I still had my hopes that all this folly would gradually die 
 away ; that the Lambs might move out of the neighborhood ; 
 migiit die, or might run away with attorneys' apprentices ; and 
 that quiet and simplicity might be again restored to the com- 
 n.unity. But unluckily a rival power arose. An opulent oil- 
 man died, and left a widow with a large jointure, and a family 
 of buxom daughters. The young ladies had long been repining 
 in secret at the parsimony of a prudent father, which kept down 
 all their elegant aspirings. Their ambition being now no longer 
 restrained broke out into a blaze, and they openly took the field 
 against the family of the butcher. It is true that the Lambs, 
 having had the first start, had naturally an advantage of them 
 in the fashionable career. They could speak a little bad French, 
 play the piano, dance quadrilles, and had formed high acquaint- 
 ances, but the Trotters were not to be distanced. When the 
 Lambs appeared with two feathers in their hats, the Miss Trot- 
 ters mounted four, and of twice as fine colors. If the Lambs 
 <rave a dance, the Trotters were sure not to be behindhand ; and 
 though they might not boast of as good comi)any, yet they had 
 double the number, and were twice as merry. 
 
 The whole community has at length divided itself into fash- 
 ionable factions, under the banners of these two families. The 
 old gnnies of Pope- Joan and Tom-come-tickle-me are entirely 
 :liscardod ; there is no such thing as getting up an honest 
 country-dance ; and on my attempting to kiss a young lady 
 under the mistletoe last Christmas, I was indignantly repulsed ; 
 the Miss Lambs having pronounced it " shocking vulgar." 
 Bitter rivalry has also broken out as to the most fashionable 
 part of Little Britain ; the Lambs standing up for the dignity 
 of Cross-Keys Stjuare, and the Trotters for the vicinity of St. 
 Bartholomew's. 
 
 Thus is this little territory torn by factions and internal dis- 
 sensions, lilci- (li!> gieaf empire whose name it bears; and what 
 
 .! ! 
 
 *'^^-^'^*M^»t•*<^.*,A>*^A»*im0^t MJ-J Lm^^am'm^•|>t:SJv>^■^:^.:M^^.M^ .l^.\ 
 
194 
 
 THE SKETVtI-IWOK. 
 
 will be the result would puzzle the apothecary himself, wiin all 
 his talent at prognostics, to determine ; thongli I apprcliciid 
 that it will terminate in the total downfall of genuine Jolin 
 Bullism. 
 
 The immediate effects are extremely unpleasant to me. He- 
 ing a single man, .'aid, a;j I observed hefoie. rather an idle 
 good-for-nothing pcM'sonage, I have been considered the only 
 gentleman by profession in tiie place. I stand therefore in lii<rh 
 favor with both parties, and have to hear all their cabinet coun- 
 cils and mutual backl)itings. As I am loo civil not to ngroo 
 with the ladies on all occasions, I have connnitted myself aiost 
 horribly with both parties, by abusing their opponents. 1 might 
 manage to reconcile this to my conscience, which is a truly ac- 
 commodating one, but I cauuot to my apprehension — if tlie 
 Lambs and Trotters ever come to a reconciliation, and com- 
 pare notes, I am ruined ! 
 
 I have determined, therefore, to beat a retreat in time, and 
 am actually looking out for some other nest in tliis great city, 
 where old English manners are still kept up; where French is 
 neither eaten, drunk, danced, nor spoken ; and where there are 
 no fashionable families of retired tradesmen. This found, I 
 will, like a veteran rat, hasten away before I have an old house 
 about my ears — bid a long, though a sorrowful adi(>u to my 
 present abode — and leave the rival fictions of the Lambs and 
 the Trotters, to divide the distracted empire of Lmtle Bhuain. 
 
 STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 
 
 Thou soft flowing Avon, by thy silver Htrciira 
 
 Of thiiigH more thuii mortal swi'ot ShaUHpeare would dream; 
 
 The fairies by moonliijht diiuce round liis 1,'roun lied, 
 
 For hallowed the turf is which pillowed his head. — Gaurick. 
 
 To a homeless man, who has no spot on this wide wrnld which 
 he can truly call his own, there is a momentary feeling of sonie- 
 thing like independence aiid territorial conseciuence, when, after 
 a weary day's travel, he kicks off his boots, thrusts his feet into 
 slippers, and stretches himself l>eff)re an inn (ire. Let the world 
 without go as it may ; let kingdoms rise or fall, so long as ho 
 has the wherewithal to pay his bill, he is, for the time being, 
 the very monarch of all he surveys. The arm-chair is his 
 thi'one, the poker his sceptre, auU the little purinr, bome twelve 
 
 feet square, 
 tainty, snat 
 it is a sum 
 aud he who 
 istence, kno 
 moments of 
 
 inn?" tli^i 
 elliow-ehair 
 
 of tlic Ucd 
 The wore 
 niy mind as 
 clmrch in w 
 cl^or, and 
 inquired, w 
 stood it as 
 of alisolutt 
 like f^ pi'inl 
 (he Stratfo 
 I went to 1 
 aud David 
 The nex 
 which we s 
 tniddle of 
 given way ; 
 air caine st 
 rature, am 
 jrrauce auc 
 I had cc 
 visit was t 
 according 
 of wool-C( 
 and plastc 
 li^vht in hi 
 squalid cl 
 every Ian 
 tions, fro; 
 striking i 
 mankind 
 The ho 
 face, ligl 
 artiticial 
 ingly dir' 
 relics wi1 
 There wi 
 
8TRA TFORD-ON-A VOIf. 
 
 195 
 
 feet square, his undisputed etr'\re. It is a morsel of cer- 
 tainty, snatched from the mifat of the uui^ertainties of life; 
 it is a sunny moment gleaming out kindly on a cloudy day ; 
 aud he who has advanced some way on the pilgrimage of ex- 
 istence, l<nows the importance of husl)unding even morsels and 
 moments of enjoyment. "■ Shall I not take mine case in mine 
 inn?" ihoughL 1, as I gave the (he a stir, lolled back in my 
 elliow-chair, and cast a comi^hieent look about the little parlor 
 of the Red Horse, at 8tratford-on-Avon. 
 
 Tlic words of sweet .Siiakspearc were just passing through 
 my mind as the clock struck midnight from the tower of the 
 church in which he lies buried. There was a gentle tap at the 
 (Lor, and a pretty chambermaid, putting in her smiling face, 
 inquired, with a hesitating air, whether 1 had rung. I under- 
 stood it as a modest hint that it was time to retire. My dream 
 of :il)solute dominion was at an eud ; so abdicating my throne, 
 like r. prudent i)otentate, to avoid being deitosed, and putting 
 die Stratford Guidc-lJook under my arm, as a pillow companion, 
 1 went to bed, and dreamt all night of Shakspeare, the Jubilee, 
 aud David Garrick. 
 
 Tlie next morning was one of those quickening mornings 
 which we sometimes have in early sprmg, for it was about the 
 middle of March. The chills of a long winter had suddenly 
 uiven way; the north wind had spent its last gasp; and a mild 
 air came stealing from the vest, breathing the breath of life into 
 lature, and wooing every bud and llower to burst forth into fra- 
 grance and beauty. 
 
 I had come to Stratford on a poetical pilgrimage. My first 
 visit was to the house where Shakspeare was born, and where, 
 according to tradition, he was brought up to his father's craft 
 of wool-combing. It is a small, mean-looking edifice of wood 
 and plaster, a true nestling-place of genius, which seems to de- 
 light in hatching its offspring in by-corners. The walls of its 
 squalid chambers are covered with names and inscriptions in 
 every language, by pilgrims of all nations, ranks, and condi- 
 tions, from the prince to the peasant ; and i)resent a simi)le, but 
 striking instance of the spontaneous and universal homage of 
 mankind to the great poet cf nature. 
 
 The house is shown by a garrulous old lady, in a frosty red 
 face, lighted up by a cold blue anxious eye. and garnished with 
 artificial locks of fiaxen hair, curling from under an exceed- 
 ingiy dirty caj). She was peculiarlv assiduous in cxhihitiug the 
 relics with which this, like all other celebrated shrines, abounds. 
 There was the shattered slock of the very matchlock with which 
 
 m 
 
196 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Shakspeare shot the dec, or s poaching exploits. Thoro, 
 too, was his tobacco-bo^; whic': proves that he was a rival 
 smoker of Sir Walter Rale ! ■: sword also with which he 
 played Hamlet ; and the identijal laLo , ^ with whicli Friar Law- 
 rence discovered Romeo and Juliet at iul tomb ! There was an 
 ample supply also of Shakspeare's mulberry-tree, which seems 
 to have as extraordinary powers of self-multiplication as the 
 wood of the true cross ; ol which there; is enough extant to build 
 a ship of the line. 
 
 The most favorite object of curiosity, however, is Shak- 
 speare's chan-. It stands in the chimney-nook of a small 
 gloomy chamber, just behind what was his father's shop. 
 Here he may many a time have sat whon a boy, watching the 
 slowly-revolving spit, with all the longing of an urchin ; or of 
 an evening, listening to the cronies and gossips of Stratford, 
 dealing forth churchyard tales and legendary anecdotes of the 
 troublesome times of England. In this chair it is the custom 
 of every one that visits the house to sit : whether this be done 
 with the hope of imbibing any of the inspiration of the bard, I 
 am at a loss to say ; I merely mention the fact ; and my hostess 
 privately assured me, that, though built of solid oak, such was 
 the fervent zeal of devotees, that the chair had to be new-bot- 
 tomed at least once in three years. It is worthy of notice also, 
 in the history of this extraordinary chair, that it partakes some- 
 thing of the volatile nature of the Santa Casa of Loretto, or 
 the flying chair of the Arabian enclianter ; for though sold 
 some few years since to a northern princess, yet, strange to 
 tell, it has found its way back again to the old chimney-corner. 
 
 I am always of easy faith in such matters, and am ever will- 
 ing to be deceived, where the deceit is pleasant and costs notli- 
 ing. I am therefore a ready believer in relics, legends, antl 
 local anecdotes of goblins and great men •, and would advise all 
 travellers who travel for their giatification to be the samp. 
 "What is it to us whether these stories be true or false so long 
 as we can persuade ourselves into the belief of tiiem, and enjoy 
 all the charm of the reality? There is nothing like rcsoluto 
 good-humored credulity in these matters ; and on this occiisioii 
 1 went even so far as willingly to believe the claims of mine 
 hostess to a lineal descent from the poet, when, luckily for 
 my faith, she put into my hands a play of her own composition, 
 which set all belief in her consanguinity at defiance. 
 
 From the birthplace of Shakspeare a few paces brought rac 
 to his grave. He lies buried in the chancel of the parish church, 
 a large and venerable pile, mouldering with age, but richly oroa" 
 
 tnented. It 
 point, and 
 (jf the towi 
 murmuring 
 grow upon 
 An avenue 
 laced, so ai 
 up from th 
 aieovergn 
 nearly sunl 
 has likewis 
 built their 
 tviul keep 
 sailinp; and 
 In tlie c( 
 ton Edmoi 
 church, t 
 years, and 
 the trivial < 
 n few year 
 ihe Avon 
 neatness, 
 dwellings 
 stone rtoo 
 hall. Ro' 
 dresser, 
 the family 
 family lib 
 volumes, 
 furniture, 
 warming- 
 handled 1 
 was wide 
 jambs. 
 a pretty 
 Buperaun 
 Ange, ar 
 hood. 1 
 together 
 siping a^ 
 probablj 
 is not ol 
 evenly £ 
 
STRA TFORD-ON-A VON. 
 
 197 
 
 fhoro, 
 nval 
 ch he 
 Law- 
 i^as an 
 seems 
 ■as the 
 build 
 
 *nented. It stands on the banks of the Avon, on an embowered 
 point, and separated by adjoining gardens from the suburbs 
 of the town. . Its situation is quiet and retired : the river runs 
 murmuring at the foot of the churchyard, and the elms which 
 grow upon its banks droop their branches into its clear bosom. 
 An avenue of limes, the boughs of which are curiously inter- 
 laced, so as to form in summer an arched way of foliage, leads 
 up from the gate of the yard to the church porch. The graves 
 aie overgrown with grass; the gray tombstones, some of them 
 nearly sunk into the earth, are half-covered with moss, which 
 has likewise tinted the reverend old building. Small birds have 
 hiiilt their nests among the cornices and fissures of the walls, 
 and keep up a continual flutter and chirping ; and rooks are 
 sailinp; and cawing about its lofty gray spire. 
 
 In the course of my rambles 1 met with the gray-headed sex- 
 ton Edmonds, and accompanied him home to get the key of the 
 church. He had lived in Stratford, man and boy, for eighty 
 years, and seemed still to consider himself a vigorous man, with 
 the trivial exception that he had nearly lost the use of his legs for 
 :\ few years past. His dwelling was a cottage, looking out upon 
 (he Avon and its bordering meadows; and was a picture of that 
 neatness, order, and comfort, which pervade the humblest 
 dwellings in this country. A low white-washed room, with a 
 stone floor, carefully scru!)bed, served for parlor, kitchen, and 
 hall. Rows of pewter and earthen dishes glittered along the 
 dresser. On an old oaken table, well rubbed and polished, lay 
 the family Bible and prayer-book, and the drawer contained the 
 family library, composed of about half a score of well-thumbed 
 volumes. An ancient clock, that important article of cottage 
 furniture, ticked on the opposite side of the room ; with a bright 
 warming-pan hanging on one side of it, and the old man's horn- 
 handled Sunday cane on the other. The fireplace, as usual, 
 was wide and deep enough to admit a gossip knot within its 
 jambs. In one corner sat the old man's grand-daughter sewing, 
 a pretty blue-eyed girl, — and in the opposite corner was a 
 superannuated crony, whom he addressed by the name of John 
 Ange, and who, I found, had been his companion from child- 
 hood. They had played together in infancy ; they had worked 
 together in manhood ; they were now tottering about and gos- 
 siping away the evening of life ; and in a short time they will 
 probably be buried together in the neighboring churchyard. It 
 is not often that we see two streams of existence running thus 
 evenly and tranquilly side by side ; it is only in such quiet 
 *'■ Ujsom scenes " of life that they are to be met with. 
 
 P 
 
 \l 
 
 m 
 
 ■J:'-^ 
 
198 
 
 THE RKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 I i 
 
 I had hoped to gather some traditionary anecdotes of the 
 hard from these ancient chroniclers ; but tliey had nothing new 
 to impart. The long interval, during which Shakspeare's writ- 
 ings lay in comparative neglect, has spread its shadow over his- 
 tory ; and it is his good or evil lot, that scarcely any thing 
 remains to his biographers but a scanty handful of conjectures. 
 
 The sexton and liis companion had been employed as carpen- 
 ters, on the preparations for the celebrated Stratford jubilee 
 and they remembered Garrick, the prime mover of the fete, who 
 superintended the arrangements, and who, according to the sex- 
 ton, was " a short punch man, very lively and bustling." .lolm 
 Ange had assisted also in cutting down Shakspeare's nuilbcnv- 
 tree, of which he had a morsel in his pocket for sale ; no doiihi 
 a sovereign quickener of literary conception. 
 
 1 was grieved to hear these two worthy wights speak very 
 dubiously of the eloquent dame who shows the Shakspeaiv 
 house. John Ange shook his head when I mentioned her val- 
 uable collection of relics, particularly her remains of the mul' 
 berry-tree; and the old sexton even expressed a doubt as to 
 ShaUspeare having been born in her house. I soon discov- 
 ered that he looked upon her mansion with an evil eye, 
 !is a rival to the poet's tomb; the latter having compara- 
 tively but few visitors. Thus it is that historians differ at the 
 very outset, and mere i)ebbli's make the stream of truth diverge 
 into dift'erent clianiiels, even at the fountain-head. 
 
 We approached the church through the avenue of limes, and 
 entered by a Gothic porch, highly ornamented with carved doors 
 of massive oak. The interior is spacious, and the architecture 
 and embellishments superior to those of most country churches. 
 There are several ancient monuments of nobility and gentry, 
 over some of which hang funeral escutcheons, and banners 
 dropping piecemeal from the walls. The tomb of Shakspeare is 
 in the chancel. The place is solemn and sepulchral. Tall elms 
 wave before the pointed windows, and the Avon, which runs at 
 a short distance from the walls, keeps up a low perpetual murmur. 
 A tiat stone marks the spot where the bard is buried. There are 
 four lines inscribed on it, said to have been written by himself, 
 and which have in them something extremely awful. If they 
 are indeed his own, they show that solicitude about the quiet of 
 the grave, which seems natural to fine sensibilities and thouglit- 
 ful uiiuds : 
 
 Good friend, for JeMis' siike, forbeare 
 To dig ihc dual inclOBfd here. 
 RICRBcd be be thnt gpares thrie xtonM, 
 And Gursl b« h« Uutt moTeti my bones. 
 
! 
 
 h\ 
 
 l: ^' 
 
 THE CHANCEL, STRATFORD CHURCH. 
 
 ^■Ji| 
 
 I 1 
 
m 
 
 Just ovor 
 Bpcaro, put 
 gouihlaiu'O. 
 arclu'il fovel 
 cations of 
 jis much cl 
 vasiness of 
 tlio time of 
 for tlio woi 
 iroiii the p;« 
 fioin tlu' 8t( 
 shine of po| 
 The inHC 
 effect. It 
 bosom of 1 
 at one tiiu' 
 lal)orei3 w* 
 cavi'tl ill, f 
 thi'ouiili wl 
 oms iiowev 
 giianleil hy 
 ()ii9, or an 
 deprediitio: 
 days, uutil 
 Ih> tohl n 
 couhl SCO 
 8omothin<>; 
 Next to 
 ter Mi's. 1 
 also, is a 
 usurious 1 
 crous epit 
 mind refu 
 Shalvspea 
 uecins but 
 and thwa 
 otiicr true 
 ble evidei 
 pavenieiii 
 idea, thr 
 mouUlerii 
 coidd pre 
 through 
 yew-tree: 
 
S Tli AT FOR T)-0 N-A VON. 
 
 199 
 
 Just ovor the i^^rav^, in a nioho of tho wall, is a bust of Shak- 
 gpcaro, put lip sliortly after his tleatli, and considered as a re- 
 soiiililance. The asix'ct is ph-aaaiit and serene, wit I: a finely 
 nn'lu'd forehead; and I Miouiiht I could read in it clear indi- 
 cations of that cheerful, social disi»<wition, liy vvliich he was 
 as much characterized among his contemporaries as by the 
 vasincss of his genius. Tiie inscrii)lion mentions liis age at 
 tho time of his dcceaae — fifty-three years ; an untimely death 
 for tlie world: for what fruit might not liave been ex})eeted 
 tiom the golden autumn of such a mind, sheltered as it was 
 from the stormy vicissitudes of life, and flourishing in the sua- 
 sliine of popular and royal favor ! 
 
 Tlie inscription on the tombstone has not been without its 
 effect. It liaH prevented the removal of his remains from the 
 bosom of ills native; place to Westminster Abbey, which v/as 
 iit one time contemplated. A few years since also, as some 
 lalMticis were digging to make an a<ijoiiiiiig vault, the earth 
 caved in, so as to leave a vacant space almost like an arch, 
 tliroiigli vvhich one might have reached into his grave. No 
 one, iiowever, presumed lo meddle witli the remains so awfully 
 giianled by a malediction, and lest any of the idle or the curi- 
 ous, or any collector of relics, should be t<'mpted to commit 
 depredations, the old sexton kept watch over the place ior two 
 days, Uiitil the vault was finished, and the aperture closed again. 
 He told UK! that he had made bold to look in at tho hole, but 
 could see neither collln nor bones ; nothing but dust. It was 
 something, I thought, to have seen the dust of Shakspeare. 
 
 Next to this grave are lh(,se of 'is wife, his favorite daugh- 
 ter Mrs. Ilall, a'ld oIIkms of his fi-.-jiily. On a tomb close by, 
 also, is a full-length I'fligy of his old friend John Combe, of 
 usurious memoiy ; on whom he is said to have written a ludi- 
 crous epitaph. There are other monuments around, but the 
 mind refuses to dwell on any thing that is not connected with 
 Shakspeare. His idea pervades Llie place — the whole pile 
 seems i)ut as his mausoleum. The feelings, no longer checked 
 and thwarted by doubt, here indulge in perfect confidence: 
 otlii r traces of him may be false or dubious, but here is palpa- 
 ble evidence and absolute certainty. As I trod the sounding 
 pavement, there was something intense and thrilling in the 
 idea, that, in very truth, the remains of Shakspeare were 
 mouldering beneath niy feet. It was a long time before I 
 could prevail upon myself to leave the place ; and as I passed 
 tbrough the churchyard, I plucked a branch from one of the 
 yew-trees, the only relic that 1 have brought from Stratford. 
 
 n 
 
 Ji.'M 
 
 '**-J^-%\ t^M — 
 
200 
 
 TBB SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ft 
 
 \yn 
 
 *! Ill' 
 
 '■i 
 
 t ■' 
 
 I had now visited the usual objects of a pilgrim's devotion, 
 but I had a desire to see the old family seat of the Lucys at 
 Charlecot, and to ramble through the park where Shakspcare, 
 in company with some of tlie roysters of Stratford, committed 
 his youthful offence of deer-stealing. In this b irelirainod ex- 
 ploit we are told that he was taken prisoner, and carried to 
 the keeper's lodge, where he remained all night in doleful cap- 
 tivity. When brought into the presence of Sir Thomas Lucy, 
 his treatment must have been galling .",nd humiliating ; for it 
 so wrought upon his spirit as to produce a rough pasquinade, 
 which was affixed to \,he parlc gate at Charlecot.^ 
 
 This flagitious attack upon the dignity of the Knight so in- 
 censed him, that he applied to a lawyer at Warwick to put the 
 severity of the laws in force against the rhyming doer-stalker. 
 Shakspeare did not wait to brave the united puissance of a 
 Knight of the Shire and a country attorney. He forthwith 
 abandoned the pleasant banks of the Avon, and his paternal 
 trade; wandered r.way to London ; became a hanger-on to the 
 thefitres ; then an actor ; and, finally, wrote for the stage ; and 
 thus, through the persecution of Sir Thomas Lucy, iratfoid 
 lost an indifferent wool-r-ombcr. and tiu; world gained an im- 
 mortal poet. He rctaiiu'd, however, for a long time, a sense of 
 the luirsh treatment of the Lord of Charlecot, and revenged 
 himself in his writings ; but in the sportive way of a good- 
 natured mind. Sir Thomas is said to be the original Justice 
 Shallow, and the satire is slyly fixed upon him by the .Tnstico's 
 armorial bearings, whicli, like those of the Kniglit, had wliilo 
 luces'^ in the quarterings. 
 
 Various attempts have been made by his biographers to 
 "Often and explain away this early transgression of the poet; 
 but I look upon it as one of those tlioughtless exploits natural 
 to his situation and turn of mind. Shakspeare, when young, 
 had doubtless all the wildness and irregularity of an ardent, 
 undisciplined, and undirected genius. The poetic temperament 
 has naturally something in it of the vaga])ond. When left to 
 
 * The foUowiug is the only stanza extant of this lampooa : 
 
 A parllaraont member, a juHtlcc of iioace, 
 At home a poor Bcaretrow, at London an assa, 
 If lowsie is Lncy, an some vollte miHcallo it, 
 Then Lucy is loweie, whatever befall It, 
 
 He thinks himself great; 
 
 Yet, an asse in his sUite, 
 We allow by his ears but with asses to mnf«. 
 If Lucy is lowsie, as some voilie iniBcalle it, 
 Then sing lowsie Lucy, whatever befall it. 
 
 * The luce U a pike or jack, and iibuundu in the Avou, about Charlecot. 
 
 itself, it rn 
 eccentric ai 
 ganililing f 
 out a groat 
 niind fortu 
 iiijTly trans 
 
 \ have 
 ynbroken ( 
 bo found 
 characterf 
 place, and 
 whom old 
 one day c 
 Thomas L 
 Knij^ht, ai 
 as somcth 
 The old 
 remain in 
 interesting 
 fill circun 
 house st(){ 
 ford, I vci 
 leisurely t 
 must hav^ 
 The coi 
 is always 
 
 1 A proo: 
 be found in 
 nieiiUonod li 
 
 Ai)OUt BC 
 
 famnuH for 
 aiiprlliUion 
 ni'itihlioring 
 ford were 
 of lite chai 
 drink beer 
 chivalry of 
 they hail J 
 when, their 
 they passci 
 tree. 
 
 In the 
 Bedford, b' 
 
 "The ' 
 'horn : the 
 
 lliUboroui 
 IHiverly ol 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
STRATFOBD-ON-A VOK. 
 
 201 
 
 iO 111. 
 
 t the 
 tilker. 
 
 of a 
 
 Invith 
 
 ernal 
 
 o the 
 
 find 
 tford 
 
 Itself, it runs loosely and wildly, and delights in every thing 
 eccentric Jiud licentious. It is often a turn-up of a die, in the 
 gambling freaks of fate, whether a natural genius shall turn 
 out a great rogue or a great poet ; and had not Shakspeare's 
 mind fortunately taken a literary' bias, he might have as dar- 
 ingly transcended all civil, as he has all dramatic laws. 
 
 I have little doubt, that, in early life, when running, like an 
 unbroken colt, about the neighborhood of Stratford, he was to 
 be found in the company of all kinds of odd and anomalous 
 characters ; that he associated with all the madcaps of the 
 place, and was one of those unlucky urchins, at mention of 
 whom old men shake their heads, and predict that they will 
 one day come to the gallows. To him the poaching in Sir 
 Thomas Lucy's park was doubtless like a foray to a Scottish 
 Knight, and struck his eager, and as yet untamed, imagination, 
 as something delightfully adventurous.* 
 
 The old mansion of Charlecot and its surrounding park still 
 remain in the possession of the Lucy family, and are peculiarly 
 interesting from being connected with this whimsical but event- 
 fill circumstance in the scanty historj^ of the bard. As the 
 house stood but little more than three miles' distance from Strat- 
 ford, I resolved to pay it a pedestrian visit, that I might jtroll 
 leisurely through some of those scenes from which Sliak&peare 
 must have derived his earliest ideas of rural imagery. 
 
 The country was yet naked and leafless ; but English scenery 
 is always verdant, and the sudden change in the temperature 
 
 ' A proof of SliakspcarcV random habits and aFsociatos in his youthful days may 
 be found in a traditionary anecdote, picked up'at (Stratford by the eider Jrelaud, atid 
 mtntiotied in his " I'iulurcgque Views on the Avou," 
 
 Al)()ut sevc'ii miles from .Stratford lies the thirsty little market town of Bedford, 
 famnuH for its ale. Two sociotieH of the village yeomanry used to meet, under the 
 appcllalion of the Bedford topers, and to oiiaileuKe the lovers of good ale of the 
 iioinhlioring villages, to a contest of drinking. Among others, the people of Strat- 
 foul wore called out to prove the strength of their heads; and in the number 
 of the champions wa.i Shaknpeare, who, in spite of the proverb, that "they who 
 diink beer will think beer," was as true to his ale as Kalstaff to his sack. The 
 chivalry of tilralfoid was staegereil at the first onset, and sounded a retreat while 
 they had yet legs lo carry them off the field. They had scarcely marched a mile, 
 when, their legs failing them, ihey were forced to lie down under a crab-tree, where 
 thoy passt^d the night. It is still standing, and goes by the name of Shakspeare's 
 irce. 
 
 In the morning his companions awaked the bard, and proposed returning to 
 Dedturd, but he declineil, saying he had had enough, having drunk with 
 
 Piping I'ebworth, Dancing Marston, 
 Haunted Ililbro', Ilunirry Orafton, 
 Dudgiiig Kxliali, Tapist Wiuksford, 
 Beggarly Broom, and drunken Bedford. 
 
 "The villngos here alluded to," says Ireland, " still bear the epithets thus given 
 (hem- the people of I'ehworth are still famed for their skill on the pipe and tabor; 
 IlilllHiioiigh is now utUud Uauuled ilillborough ; and Uiafton is famous for tha 
 poverty of itrt soil." 
 
 1/ 
 
 ;> 
 
 l<. 
 
202 
 
 TEE SKETCn-BOOK, 
 
 \ ,. 
 
 \ .m 
 
 of the weather was surprising in its quickening effects upon 
 the landscape. It was inspiring and animating to witness tliia 
 first awakening of spring; to feel its warm breath stealina 
 over tlie senses ; to see the moist mellow earth beginning to 
 put forth the green sprout and the tender blade ; and the trees 
 and shrubs, and their reviving tints and bursting buds, giving 
 the promise of returning foliage and flower. The cold snow. 
 drop, ^hixx little borderer on the skirts of winter, was to be 
 seen with its chaste white blossoms in the small gardens before 
 the cottages The bleating of the new-dropt lambs was faintly 
 beard from the fields. The sparrow twittered about the 
 thatched eaves and budding hedges ; tiie robin threw a livelier 
 note into his late querulous wintry strain ; and the lark, spring. 
 ing up from the reeking bosom of the meadow, towered away 
 into the bright fleecy cloud, pouring forth torrents of melody. 
 As I watched the little songster, mounting up higlier and 
 higher, until his body was a mere si)cck on the white bosom 
 of the cioud, while the ear was still filled with his music, it 
 called to mind Shakspeare's exquisite little song in Cymbeline: 
 
 Hark ! hark I the lark at heaven's gate singSt 
 
 And Phtel)U8 'gins aribo, 
 His steeds to water ot those springs, 
 
 Ou cballced flowci^s that lies. 
 
 And winking marybuds begin 
 
 To ope their golden eyes; 
 With every thlnp (hat pretty bin, 
 
 My lady swec I, arise! 
 
 Indeed, the whole country about here is poetic ground : every 
 thing is associated with the idea of Shakspeare. Every old 
 cottage tliat I saw, 1 fancied into some resoit of his boyhootl, 
 where he had acquired liis intimate knowledge of vustic life aiKl 
 manners, and heard those legendary tales and wild superstitiond 
 which he has woven like witchcraft into his di'amas. For io 
 his time, we are tol<l, it was a jjopuhir amuseintMit in wiiitei 
 evenings " to sit round the fire, jind tell merry tnles of errant 
 knights, queens, lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, 
 cheaters, witches, fairies, goi)lins, and friars." * 
 
 ' Scot, in hi? " DiHcoverie of Witchcraft," eiinrnorates a IiokI of thiMo (ircMido 
 fancies. "And they have so fruid iih «ltli liiilll)ci;L;!ii'H, K|)irilrt, wiicli"", iji-liim, 
 elves, hagB, fairiuM, mityrs, pan , fiuincH, MyreiiM, kit with the car Hliclic, liilniiH, rcn- 
 laurs, dwarfes, giunles, imps, uulcars, conjurcrti, iiyinphes, cliuii»!eliii|{H, iiicuijiin, 
 Kobingood-fcllow, the spoorno, the mare, the tnan in the uku, the hultwaiiic, tlie lU^f 
 drake, the r>»(=l<lpi 'Yova Thomoe, hobKobllus, Tom Tumbler, boueleM, and such utlioi 
 bugs, that we weru ufrold of our own shudowos." 
 
 My route 
 ^vhich mad( 
 iugg throu: 
 fiom anion 
 •ippeariug 
 tiiiit'S vamb 
 louud a slo 
 is called th 
 ing blue hil 
 vening Ian 
 of tlie Avo 
 After pu 
 into a foot 
 lu'dge-rowt 
 however, f 
 rip;ht of w; 
 estates, in 
 far as the 
 ciles a po« 
 of his neig 
 open for 1 
 aiuUoils a 
 and it ho 
 own, he h: 
 and keepii 
 I now f 
 whose va 
 sounded £ 
 flora then 
 llirough 1 
 view V)i'<- 
 shallow ai 
 There i 
 the ol't'ect 
 siiniUirit;y 
 (Uiralion, 
 with whi 
 lii'loken I 
 independ 
 hut arist 
 luoiis pa 
 with stoi 
 tiling; as 
 It wa£ 
 
BTRA TFORD-ON~A VON, 
 
 203 
 
 "pon 
 
 5 this 
 ealiiig 
 'I'g to 
 
 trees 
 giving 
 snow- 
 to be 
 X'fore 
 .lintly 
 the 
 velier 
 
 My route for a part of the way luy iu sight of the Avon, 
 svhich made a variety of the most fanciful doublings and wind- 
 iu<'3 through a wide and fertile valley : sometimes glittering 
 fioni among willows, which fringed its borders ; sometimes dis- 
 •ippeariug among groves, or beneath green banks ; and some- 
 tiint'S rambling out into full view, and making an azure 8wee[v 
 iouud a slope of meadow land. This beautiful bosom of country 
 is called the Vale o' the Red Horse. A distant line of undiilai- 
 ing blue hills seems to be its boundary, whilst all the soft inter- 
 vening landscape lies in a manner enchained in the silver links 
 of tlie Avon. 
 
 After pursuing the road for about three miles, I turned off 
 into a foot-i)ath, which led along the borders of fields and under 
 judge-rows to a private gate of the park ; there was a stile, 
 however, for the benelit of the pedestrian; there being a publio 
 ri^ht of way tiirough the grounds. 1 delight in these hospitable 
 estates, in which every one has a kind of property — at least as 
 far fiS the foot-path is concerned. It in some measure n-con- 
 ciles a poor man to his lot, and what is more, to the better lot, 
 of his neighbor, thus to have parks and pleasure-grounds thrown 
 open for his recreation. He breatlies the pure air as freely, 
 and loils as luxuriously under the shade, as the lord of the soil ; 
 and if he lias not the privilege of calling all that he sees his 
 own, he has not, at the same tiuie, the trouble of paying for it, 
 and keeping it in order. 
 
 1 now found myself among noble avenues of oaks and elms, 
 whose vast size bespoke tlie gnjwth of centuries. The wind 
 sounded solennily among their branches, and the rooks cawed 
 from the'r hereditary nests in the tree-tops. The eye ranged 
 through a long lessening vista, with nothing to interrupt the 
 view V)i'<" a distant statue ; and a vagrant deer stalking like a 
 shallow across the opening. 
 
 There is something about these stately old avenues that has 
 the effect of (iothic architecture, not merely from the pretended 
 similarity of form, but from tlu-ir bearing tlie evidence of long 
 (hnalion, and of having hud their origin in a period of time 
 with which we associate ideas of romantic grandeur. They 
 iK'token also the long-settled dignity, and proudly concentrated 
 in(le|)endence of an ancient family; and I have heard a worthy 
 but aristocratic old friend oI)serve, when speaking of the snnip- 
 tnous palactis of modern gentry, that " money could do nmch 
 with stone and mortar, but, thank Heaven, there vv'as no suclj 
 tiling as suddenly bniUling up an avenue of oaks." 
 
 It was from wandering "a early life among this rich scencryi 
 
 1^ 1)! 
 
 !T 
 
 IH 
 
204 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ¥m ^ 
 
 I ; ' 
 
 and about the romantic solitudes of the adjoining park of Full 
 broke, which then formed a part of the Lucy estate, that sorro 
 of Shakspeare's commentators have supposed he derived his 
 noble forest meditations of Jaques, and the enchanting wood- 
 land pictures in "As you like it." It is in lonely vvauderintra 
 through such scenes, that the mind drinks deep but quiet 
 draughts of inspiration, and becomes intensely sensible of the 
 beauty and majesty of nature. The imagination kindles into 
 reverie and rapture ; vague but exquisite images and ideas keep 
 breaking upon it ; and we revel in a mute and almost incom- 
 municable luxury of thought. It was in some such mood, and 
 perhaps under one of those very trees before me, which threw 
 their broad shades over the grassy banks and quivering waters 
 of the Avon, that the poet's fancy ma}' have sallied forth into 
 that little song which breathes the very soul of a rural volup- 
 tuary: 
 
 Under the green-wood tree. 
 
 Who loves to lie with me. 
 
 And tune hie raerry throat 
 
 Unto the sweet bird's note, 
 
 Come hither, come hither, come k!lher. 
 
 Here tihall he see 
 
 No enemy 
 But winter Aud rough wea'Uer. 
 
 I had now come in sight of the house. It is a large building 
 of brick, with stone quoins, and is iu the Gothic style of Queen 
 Elizabeth's day, having been built in the first year of her reign. 
 The exterior remains very nearly in its original state, and may 
 be considered a fair specimen of the residence of a wealthy 
 country gentleman of those days. A great gateway opens from 
 the park into a kind of court-yard in front of the house, oriia- 
 raented with a grass-plot, shrubs, and flower-beds. The gate- 
 way is in imitation of the ancient barbican ; being a kind of 
 iii2*r o?t, and flanked by towers ; though evidently for mere or- 
 nameLt, Ir^re .d of defence. The front of the house is conv 
 pletely in the old style ; with stone shafted casements, a groat 
 bow-w'.'idow of heavy stonework, and a portal with armorial 
 bearings ovc i^ carved in stone. At each corner of the build- 
 ing is .0 i oL'ig. u x)wcr, suriiiounled by a gilt ball and v/eather- 
 cock, 
 
 Thi.* -V.-».in, which winds through the park, makes a bend just 
 at the foo*^^ of .* .re • h' sloping bank, which sweeps down from 
 the rear iJ. the i" jusc. Large herds of deer were feeding or 
 reposing upon itr uorders ; aud swous were sailing majestica.'lv 
 
 upon its be 
 I called t 
 abode, anc 
 latter : 
 
 " ,'JUalloio, 
 ftir." 
 
 Whatev 
 in the daj 
 
 :,oliludc. 
 
 v<ir,1 was 
 
 tiio place 
 
 longer ha; 
 
 sign of d( 
 
 with wary 
 
 3ome ncfi 
 
 carcass o 
 
 t'lo baru v 
 
 ftDhorrenc 
 
 territorial 
 
 case of tl 
 
 After 1 
 
 way to a 
 
 the mail! 
 
 housekee] 
 
 her order 
 
 part has 
 
 tastes an( 
 
 and the 
 
 house, st 
 
 in the da 
 
 and at o: 
 
 weapons 
 
 the hall 
 
 portraits 
 
 an a in pi 
 
 of wintei 
 
 Gothic 1 
 
 the com 
 
 nnnorial 
 
 some be 
 
 qiiarteri 
 
 Thomas 
 
 1 
 
STRA TFORD-ON-A VON. 
 
 205 
 
 Full 
 sorro 
 |fccl his 
 
 wood- 
 leringa 
 quiet 
 |of the 
 is into 
 |s Ivcep 
 inoora- 
 |f^ and 
 threw 
 Iwatera 
 Jli into 
 vol up. 
 
 upon its bosom. As I contemplated the venerable old mansion, 
 I called to mind Falstaff's encomium on Justice Shallow's 
 abode, and the affected indifference and real vanity of the 
 
 latter : 
 
 " Fnlxtaf. You have a goodly dwelling and a rich. 
 
 " ,'SUaUnw. Barreu, barren, barren ; beggars all, beggars all. Sir John : — aai ry, good 
 
 Whatever may have been the joviality of the old mansion 
 in the days of Shakspeare, it had now an air of stillness and 
 Aolilude. The great iron gatewaj' that o[)cncd into the court- 
 \-n,n] was locked ; there was no show of servants bustling about 
 tiic place ; the deer gazed quietly at me as I passed, being no 
 longer harried by tlie moss-troopers of Stratford. The only 
 sign of domestic life that I met with was a white cat, stealing 
 with wary look and stealthy pace towards the stables, as if on 
 gome nefarious expedition. I must not omit to mention the 
 (•aicass of a scoundrel crow which 1 saw suspended against 
 t'lo barii wall, as it shows that the Lucys still inherit that lordly 
 abhorrence of poachers, and maintain that rigorous exercise of 
 territorial i)ower which was so strenuously manifested in the 
 case of the bard. 
 
 After prowling about for some time, I at length found my 
 way to a lateral portal, which was the evcry-day entrance to 
 the mansion. I was courteously received by a worthy old 
 hotisokeej)er, who, with the civility' and communicativeness of 
 her order, showed me the interior of the house. The greater 
 part has undergone alterations, and been adapted to modern 
 tastes and modes of living : there is a fine old oaken staircase ; 
 and the great hall, that noble feature in an ancient manor- 
 house, still retains mucii of the jiiipearance it must have had 
 in the days of Shakspeare. The ceiling is arched and lofty ; 
 and at one end is a gallery', in which stands an organ. The 
 weapons and trophies of the chase, which formerly adorned 
 the hall of a country gentleman, have made way for family 
 poriraits. There is a wide hospitable fireplace, calculated for 
 an ample old-fashioned wood fire, formerly the rallying place 
 of winter festivity. On the opposite side of the hall is tlie huge 
 Gotiiic bow-window, with stone shafts, which looks out upon 
 the court-yard. Here are emblazoned in stained glass the 
 annorial bearings of the Lucy family for many generations, 
 some l)eing dated in 1.558. I was delighted to observe in the 
 qii!uterings the three white luces by which the character of Sir 
 Thomas was first ideutilied with tiiut of Justice Shallow. They 
 
 :M' 
 
 i; ■ 
 
 n } IM 
 
 i'i I 
 
 ! il 
 
 ^SSSXVfVfi^^^VtBVMWvaiMnacrimwMXfitfi ji«ji«HHm^ '>«'-. 
 
206 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 are mentioned in the first scent of the Merry Wives of Wind- 
 sor, where the Justice is in a rage with Falstaff for having 
 "beaten his men, killed his deer, and broken into his lodge." 
 The poet had no doubt the offences of himself and his comrades 
 in mind at the time, and we may suppose the family prido and 
 vindictive threats of the puissant Shallow to be a caricature of 
 the pompous indignation of Sir Thomas. 
 
 •• Shallow. Sir Hugh, persnade me not : I will mako a SUr-Chamber matter of it; fc 
 Ue wcra twenty Johu Falstaffo, bo shall not abiiHO Sir Robert Shallow, E«q. 
 
 " ^Slender. lu iho county of Glostci. justice of peace, and coram. 
 
 " Shallow. Ay, cousin Slcmler, and cuntalonim. 
 
 "Slender. Ay, and rataloruni too, and a gonllcman born, master parnon; who 
 ^ rites blmaelf Armigero ia any bill, warrant, quittance, or obllsjation, Armigero. 
 
 " Shallow, Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three hundred years. 
 
 " Slender. All his gucccaBora gone before him have done 't, aud al! Lis ancesiori iliai 
 come after him may : they May give the dozen white luces in their coa' 
 
 " Shallow. The council ahal' hear it; it is a riot. 
 
 " EvanB. It is not meet the council hear of a riot; there is no fear of Oot in a riot: 
 the council, hear you, shall deaire to hear the fear of Oot, and not to hear a riot; talie 
 your vizameuta in that. 
 
 " Shallow. Hal o' my life, if I were young again, the sword should end it! " 
 
 Near the window tlius emblazoned hung a portrait by Sir 
 Peter Lely of one of the iuey family, a great beauty of tlic 
 time of Charles the Second : the old housekeeper shook hc-r 
 head as she pointed to the picture, and informed me that this 
 lady had been sadly addicted to cards, and iiad gambled away 
 a great portion ot tlio. family estate, among whicli was that 
 part of the park where ohakspeare and his comrades had killed 
 the deer. The land.s ♦^hus iost had not been entirely regained 
 by the family, e/on .it the viesent day. It is but justice to 
 this recreant dame to coofesh Ihai she had a surjiassingly line 
 hand and arm. 
 
 The picture which iroi.t attracted my attention was a great 
 painting over the fire.)!.Me, containing likenesses of Sir 
 Thomas Luc}' and his f: n.ly, wIm inhabited Mic hall in the 
 latter part of Sb.akspeare lifetime. I at first thought that ii 
 ivas ^he vindicti'C knight 1 :'npelf. but the housekeep<>r assured 
 me tuat it way bis son ; the only likeness extam, of the former 
 being an effi'. y upon his tomb in th*' 'iiurc^h of the neighbor- 
 ing hamiet of Charlecot.* Th. [>i(tu)> gives a lively idva of tin' 
 costume and manners of the timt;. Sir Tiiomas is dressed in 
 ruff and doublet; white shoes with roses m tlieui ; and has a 
 peaked yellow, or. as Master Siender would say. ''a cano- 
 colored beard." His li.dy is seated on the opposite dide of the 
 
 Appendix, Note 4. 
 
STRA TFORD-ON-A VON. 
 
 20T 
 
 picture in wide ruff and long stomacher, and the children have 
 a most venerable stiffness and formality of dress. Hounds 
 and spaniels are mingled in the family group ; a hawk is seated 
 on his perch in the foreground, and one of the children holds a 
 bow; — all intimating the kniglit's skill in hunting, hawking, 
 and archery — so indispensable to an accomplished gentleman 
 in those days.* 
 
 I regretted to find that the ancient furniture of the hall had 
 disappeared ; for I had hoped to meet with the stately elbow- 
 chair of carved oak, in which the country 'Squire of former 
 dayf? was wont to sway the sceptre of empire over his rural 
 donii.h.o ; and in which it might be presumed tiio redoubted 
 Sir Thomas sat enthroned in awful state, when the recreant 
 Shakspeare was brought before him. As I like to deck out 
 pictures for ray own entertainment, 1 pleased myself with the 
 idea that this very hall liad been the scene of the unlucky 
 bard's examination on the morning after his captivity in the 
 lodge. I fancied to myself the rural potentate, surrounded by 
 his body-guard of butler, pages, and blue-coated serving-men 
 with their badges ; while the luckless culi)nt was brought in, 
 forlorn and chopfallen, in the custody of game-keepers, liunts- 
 men, and whippers-in, and followed ))y a rabble rout of country 
 clowns. I fancied bright faces of curious house-maids peeping 
 from the half-opened doors ; wliile from the gallery the fair 
 daughters of the Knight leaned gnieefuU}' forward, eying 
 the youthful prisoner with that i)ity '' that dwells in woman- 
 hood." — Who would have thought tliat this poor varlet, thus 
 trembling before the brief autliorily of a country 'Squire, and 
 the sport of rustic boors, was soon to become the dt'light of 
 princes ; tiie theme of all tongues and ages ; the dictator to the 
 litiinan mind ; and was to confer immortality on his oppressor 
 1)} a caricature and a lampoon ! 
 
 I was now invited by the butler to walk into the .enrden, and 
 r fch inclined to visit the orcliaid and arbor where the .Justice 
 'r^iitcd Sir John Falstaff and Cousin Silence " to a last year's 
 ;)ii'piu of his own grafting, with a dish of caraways;" but I 
 
 ' I!inho(, K»rl*>, upeukiiiK of lti« pouiilry ir'-iitlcmim of his time, obdprves, "liis house- 
 keeping in »i'«-m (iiiich in tlie dilfi ri'iil fiiinilicx of iIosT", it'iil r.,'i viiiirincii attiMidaiil on 
 their kennels, and the <I"T|iiu'hr of t)i<'li itiioiit-< Iri the fli |>lh of Inn (Usconrsf. A hawk 
 bo eatoenm the true liurUen of noliility, iiml in cxecediiitfly aiiiliiiiDiiH to Heein deliKliteil 
 v'llh the (port, and have hin (Int (jiovrd with hJH j<ksi'i<." And <iil|iin, in his description 
 ef a Mr. llaMtDKs, remark*, " he kept all uorts of hounds that run, buck, fox, hare, otter, 
 and badger, and had hawk« of all kind* both long and short winged. Ills great hull wax 
 'commonly strew*'! with marrow bonen, and full of hawk perches, hounds, spaniels, and 
 terriers. On a broiw) hearth, paved with brick, lay some of the choicest terriers, hounds, 
 aud spaniels." 
 
 mi 
 
 I ^i 
 
 ' i 
 
 :^,l 
 
 vn-: 
 
208 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 had alrp.ady spent so much of the day in my rainbriri;j;s, that 
 I was jliged to give u\) any further investigations. Wlicn 
 about to take my leave, I was gratified by the civil entreaties 
 of the housekeeper and butler, that I v\oul<l take sonio rofrosii. 
 ment — an instance of good old hospitality, which J griovo to 
 say we castle-hunters seldom meet with in niodern days. I 
 make no doubt it is a virttie which the present rcprest'iitalive 
 of the Lucys inherits from his ancestors ; for Sliakspcarc, ovoc 
 in his caricaiure, makes JiMtice Sludlow Importunuto in [\xk 
 respect, as witness his pres-siug instances to FalstalT. 
 
 1 now bade a reluctant farewell to the old hnll. i\Iy mind 
 had become so completely possessed by tiie imaginary seonos 
 and characters connected witii it. that I seemed to bo afln.illv 
 living among the v,. Every thing I)roiiglit them as it wore be- 
 fore my eyes; ana as the door of the dining-room opened, I 
 almost expected to hear the feeble voice of JMaster .Silence 
 quavering forth his favorite ditty : 
 
 " 'TiH morry in hall, whTi brnnlR wag all, 
 And welcome merry Shiove-tide! " 
 
 On return hig lo my inn, I could not but reflect on the siiirju- 
 lar gift of the poet; to be able thus to spread tlie magic of his 
 mind over the very face of nature ; to give to things and piaotis 
 a charm and character not their own, and to turn this '■' work- 
 ing-day world " into a perfect fairy land. He is indeed the triu; 
 enchanter, whose spell operates, not upon the senses, but u[)oii 
 the imaginati(m and the heart. Under tlie wizard inlluenee of 
 Shakspeare I had been walking all day in a complete delusion. 
 I had surveyed the landscape throiigli the prism of poetry, 
 which tinged every object with the hues of the rainbow. 1 hud 
 been surrounded with fancied beings; with mere airy notiiings, 
 conjured up by poetic power; yet wliieli, to me, had all the 
 charm of reality. I had heard Jaqiics soliloquize beneath liis 
 oak ; had beheld the fair llosalind and lier Cf)mpanion adventur- 
 ing through the woodlands : and, above all, had been once inon; 
 present in spirit witli fat Jack Falstal'f. and his contempornries, 
 from the august Justice Shallow, down to the gentle Abistcr 
 Slender, and the sweet Anne Page. Ten thousand honors aiiJ 
 
 olessing^ on 
 
 life with inn 
 
 bought pleat 
 
 in many a h 
 
 tbics of soci 
 
 As I cros 
 
 ♦o contompl 
 
 and could n 
 
 ashes niidis 
 
 hon.^r could 
 
 companions 
 
 eulogiams c 
 
 in Westinin 
 
 pile, which 
 
 mausoleum 
 
 otTspriiig o1 
 
 made up of 
 
 atToetions ii 
 
 has sought 
 
 vest of woi 
 
 no ad mi rat 
 
 springs up 
 
 gathered ii: 
 
 friends, j 
 
 warn him 
 
 fondly as < 
 
 in the l)os( 
 
 How w 
 
 when, war 
 
 cast back 
 
 foreseen t 
 
 vvitli reiun 
 
 of ills nati 
 
 as its mos 
 
 whicli his 
 
 day becun 
 
 U) guide tl 
 
 o 
 
 If . 
 
 )ii..' 
 
Wlicn 
 reaties 
 I'/rosh- 
 
 'vo to 
 
 htiitive 
 
 '0 you; 
 Hcrvp; 
 
 STRA TFOBT)' O^-A VON. 
 
 209 
 
 ,)lc9sin,aj^ on tlio bnrd who has tiins gildnd tlio dull realities o! 
 life Avitli innocent illusions ; who has spread exquisite and un- 
 bouglit pleasures in my cheoquerod path ; and l)ot!;uiled my npirit 
 in many a lonely hour, with all the cordial and cheerful sympa- 
 thies of social life ! 
 
 As 1 crossed the l)ridge over the Avon on my return, I paused 
 ♦o coutomplate the distant church in wliioli the poet lies buried, 
 and could not but exult in tlie malediction which has kept his 
 ashes uiidistuibed in its quiet and hallowed vaults. What 
 lioiur could his name liave derived from being mingled in dusty 
 compaiiionsliip with the epitaphs and escutcheons and venal 
 eulotiiiinis of a titled multitude? What would a crowded corner 
 in Westminster Abbey have been, compared with this reverend 
 pile, wliich seems to stand in beautifiU loneliness as his sole 
 mausoleum ! The solicitude about the grave may be but the 
 otTispring of an overwrought sensibility ; but human nature is 
 made up of foibles and prejudices ; and its best and tenderest 
 iiffections are mingled with tliese factitious feelings. He who 
 has sought renown about the world, and has reaped a full har- 
 vest of worldly favor, will find, after all, that there is no love, 
 no admiration, no applause, so sweet to the soul as that which 
 springs u\) in his native place. It is there that he seeks to be 
 gathered in peace and honor, among his kindred and his early 
 friends. And when the weary heart and failing head l)egin to 
 warn liiin that the evening of life is drawing on, he turns as 
 loudly as does ilie infant to the mother's arms, to sink to sleep 
 in the bosom of the scene of his childhood. 
 
 How would it have cheered the spirit of the youthful bard, 
 when, wandering forth in disgrace upon a doubtful world, he 
 east back a heavy look upon his paternal home, could he liave 
 foreseen that, before many years, lie should return to it covered 
 with renown ; that his name sliould become the boast and glory 
 of Ills native place ,' that his ashes should be religiously guarded 
 as its most precious treasure ; and that its lessening spire, on 
 which liis eyes were fixed in tearful contemplation, should one 
 day become the beacon, towering amidst the gentle landscape, 
 U) guide the literary pilgrim of every nation to his tomb ! 
 
 ^'1 
 III 
 
 >'. *t 
 
210 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 , t'; 
 
 li| 
 
 n 
 
 TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 " I appeal to any white man if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry, and be gave 
 bim not to tat ; If ever hu cunie cold and uakad, uud he clothed him not." — Sptech 0/ 
 un Indian Chief. 
 
 There is somotliinp: in tlie character and habits of the North 
 American savage, taken in connection with the scenery over 
 which lie is acciistoined to range, its vast lakes, boundless 
 forests, majestic rivers, and trackless plains, that is, to my 
 mind, wonderfully striking and sublime. He is formed for the 
 wilderness, as the Aral) is for the desert. His nature is stern, 
 Bimple, and cudiuiiig ; fitted to grai)i)le with ditliculties, and to 
 support i)rivati<)iis. There seems but little soil in his heart for 
 the support of the kindly virtues ; and yet, if we would but take 
 the trouble to penetrate through that proud stoicism and habit- 
 ual taciturnity, which lock up his character from casiuvl obser- 
 vation, we should find biin linked to his fellow-man of civilized 
 life by more of those symi)athies and affections than are usually 
 ascribed to him. 
 
 It has been the lot of the unfortunate aborigines of America, 
 in the early periods of colonization, to be doubly wronged by 
 the white men. They have been disp*)ssesscd of their heivdi- 
 tary possessions, by mercenary and frequently wanton warfare ; 
 and their characters have been traduced by bigoted and inter- 
 ested writers. Tiie colonists often treated them like boasts 
 of the forest; and the author has endeavored to justify him in 
 his outi-ages. The former found it easier to cxteruiinate than 
 to civilize — the latter to vilify than to discriminate. The ap 
 pellations of savage and pagan were deemed sufficient to sanc- 
 tion the hostilities of both ; and thus the poor wanderers of tla- 
 forest were persecuted and defamed, not because they weru 
 guilty, but because they were ignorant. 
 
 The rights of the savage have seldom been properly appre- 
 ciated or respected by the white man. In peace, he has too 
 often been the dupe of artful traffic ; in war, he has been re- 
 garded as a ferocious animal, whose life or death was a question 
 of mere precaution and convenience. Man is cruell}' wasteful 
 of life when his own safety is endangered, and he is sheltered 
 by impunity ; and littl" mercy is to be expected from him when 
 he feels the sting of the reptile, and is conscious of the power t** 
 destroy. 
 
 The 8am( 
 In common 
 Bocietics ha 
 investigate 
 Indian trib( 
 humanely c 
 spirit towar 
 tice.» The 
 too apt to I 
 frontiers, a 
 too com mo 
 enfeebled h 
 civilization 
 pillar of sa 
 moral fabri 
 based by a 
 gnd daunt 
 enlightene* 
 one of tho 
 tion over i 
 strength, n 
 original ba 
 them a thi 
 their mean 
 luals of th 
 smoke of 
 remoter fo 
 find the 1 
 renmants 
 vicinity of 
 bond exit 
 canker of 
 and blighi 
 become d 
 They loit( 
 dwellings 
 them sen 
 condition 
 but they 
 
 t The An 
 ■ituation of 
 «nd relixiou 
 purchaai! uf 
 receive lant 
 TheBc l>rewi 
 
 I, 
 
TRAITS OF INDIAN CUARACTER. 
 
 211 
 
 gave 
 
 orth 
 over 
 less 
 my 
 the 
 torn, 
 
 The same prejiulioos which were indulged thus earlr, exist 
 in common ciicuhition at the present day. Certain learned 
 societies have, it is true, with laudable diligence, endeavored to 
 investigate and record the real characters and manners of the 
 Indian tribes ; the American government, too, has wisely and 
 humanely exerted itself to inculcate a friendly and forbearing 
 spirit towarils tlictn, and to protect them from fraud and injus- 
 tice.' The current opinion of the Indian character, however, is 
 too apt to be formed from the miserable hordes which infest the 
 frontiers, and iumg on tlie skirts of the settlements. These are 
 too commonly composed of degenerate beings, corrupted and 
 enfeebled l)y tiie vices of society, without being benefited by its 
 civilization. That proud independence, which formed the main 
 pillar of savage virtue, has been shaken down, and the whole 
 moral fabric lies in ruins. Their spirits are humiliated and de- 
 based by a sense of inferiority, and their native courage cowed 
 gnd daunted by the superior knowledge and power of their 
 enlightened neighbors. Society has advanced upon them like 
 one of those withering airs that will sometimes breathe desola- 
 tion over a whole region of fertility. It has enervated their 
 strength, multiplied their diseases, and superinduced upon their 
 original barbarity the low vices of artificial life. It has given 
 them a thousand superfluous wants, whilst it has diminished 
 their means of mere existence. It has driven before it the ani- 
 mals of the chase, who fly from the sound of the axe and the 
 smoke of the settlement, and seek refuge in the depths of 
 remoter forests and yet untrodden wilds. Thus do we too often 
 find the Indians on our frontiers to be the mere wrecks and 
 renmants of once powerful tribes, who have lingered in the 
 vicinity of the settlements, and sunk into precarious and vaga- 
 bond existence. Poverty, repining and hopeless poverty, a 
 canker of the mind unknown in savage life, corrodes their spirits 
 and blights every free and noble quality of their natures. They 
 become drunken, indolent, feeble, thievish, and pusillanimous. 
 They loiter like vagrants about the settlements, among spacious 
 dwellings, replete with elaborate comforts, which only render 
 them sensible of the comparative wretchedness of their own 
 condition. Luxury spreads its ample board before their eyes ; 
 but they are excluded from the banquet. Plenty revels over 
 
 • The American government han boon indefatigable in its exertions to ameliorate thu 
 iituation of the TndianB, and to iiitrndiici' among thi-m the arts of ciyilization, and civil 
 tnd religious knowledge. 'Vo protect them from the frauds of the white traders, no 
 purchaae of land from them by individuals is permitted; nor is any pereon allowed to 
 receive lands from them an a present, wiUiout the expreM sanction of govcrnmaatt 
 Theue precauUouit are strictly enloncdi 
 
 iii 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-S) 
 
 ^O 
 
 ^ .5^. 
 
 
 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 t 1^ 12.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 1.4 
 
 1.6 
 
 
 •« 6" — 
 
 
 *• 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 Corporation 
 
 s. 
 
 ■^ 
 
 #^ 
 
 V 
 
 
 \\ 
 
 ^<b 
 
 v 
 
 
 C^ 
 
 '^J^ '^U^ 
 ^^<^ 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 

a 
 
 II 
 
 212 
 
 TffS SKETOn-BOOK. 
 
 the fields ; but they are starving in the midst of its abundance ; 
 the whole wilderness has blossomed into a garden ; but they 
 feel as reptiles that infest it. 
 
 How different was their state while yet the undisputed lords 
 of the soil ! Their wants were few, and the means of gratifi- 
 cation within their reach. They saw every one around them 
 sharing the same lot, eaduring the same hardships, feeding on 
 the same aliments, arrayed in the same rude garments. No 
 roof then rose, but was open to the homeless stranger ; no 
 smoke curltd among the trees, but he was welcome to sit down 
 by its fire and join the hunter in his ropast. " For," says an 
 old historian of New England, " their life is so void of care, 
 and they are so loving also, that they make use of those things 
 tJiey enjoy as common goods, and are therein so compassionate, 
 that rather than one should starve through want, they would 
 starve all; thus they pass tlioir time merrily, not rej^anling 
 our pomp, but are better content with their own, which some 
 men esteem so meanly of." Such were the Indians, whilst in 
 the pride and energy of their primitive natures ; they resemble 
 those wild plants which thrive best in the shades of the forest, 
 but shrink from the hand of cultivation, and perish beneath Die 
 influence of the sun. 
 
 In discussing the savage character, writers have been too 
 prone to indulge in vulgar prejudice and passionate exaggera- 
 tion, instead of the candid temper of true philosophy. They 
 have not suflSciently considered the peculiar circumstances in 
 which the Indians have been placed, and the peculiar principles 
 under which they have been educated. No being acts more 
 rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regu- 
 lated according to some general maxims early implanted in his 
 iniud. The moral laws that govern him are, to be sure, but 
 few ; but then he conforms to them all ; — the white man 
 abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners, but how 
 many does he violate ! 
 
 A frequent ground of accusation against the Indians is their 
 disregard of treaties, and the treachery and wantonness with 
 which, in time of apparent peace, they will suddenly fly to 
 hostilities. The intercourse of the white men with the Indians, 
 however, is too apt to be cold, distrustful, oppressive, and in- 
 sulting. They seldom treat them with that confidence and 
 frankness which are indispensable to real friendship; nor ia 
 sufTieient caution observed not to offend against those feelings 
 of pride or superstition, which often prompt the Indian to hos- 
 tility quicker than mere considerations of interest. The solitar;« 
 
TRAITS OF LVD IAN CHARACTER. 
 
 213 
 
 (bey 
 
 savnge feels silently, but acutely. His sensibilities are not 
 diffused over so wide a surface as those of the white man ; but 
 tliev run in steadier and deeju-r channels. His pride, his affec- 
 tions, his superstitions, are all directeil towards fewer objects ; 
 but the wounds inllicted on them are proportionably severe, 
 and furnish motives of hostility wiiich we cannot sufficiently 
 appreciate. Wliere a conmuniity is .il.-,o limited in nuuiber, and 
 forms one great patriarclud family, as in aa Indian tribe, the 
 injury of an individual is the injury of the whole, and the senti- 
 ment of vengeance is 'dniost instantaneously diffused. On;! 
 council-fire is sutlicient for the discussion and arranirernent of 
 a plan of hostilities. Here all the fighting men and sages 
 assetnl)le. EUxjuence and superstition combine to inllamc the 
 minds of the warriors. The onitor awakens their martial ardor, 
 and they are wrought up lo a kind of religious desperation, by 
 the visions of the projjhet antl the dreamer. 
 
 An instance of one of tiiose sudden exasperations, arising 
 from a motive peculiar to the Indian character, is extant in an 
 old record of the early settlement of Massachusetts. The 
 planters of Plymouth had defaced the monuments of the dead 
 at Passonagessit, and had plundered the grave of the Sachem's 
 mother of some skins with which it had been decorated. The 
 Indians are remarkable for the reverence which they entertain 
 U)V the sepulchres of their kindred. Tribes ihat have passed 
 generations exiled from the abodes of their ancestors, when by 
 chance they liave been travelling in tiic vicinity, have been 
 known to turn aside from the highway, and, guided by wonder- 
 fidly accurate tradition, have crossed the country for miles to 
 some tumulus, buried perhaps in woods, where the bones of 
 their tribe were anciently deposited ; and there have passed 
 hours in silent meditation. Inlluenced by this sublime and 
 holy feeling, the Sachem, whose mother's tomb had been vio- 
 lated, gathered his men together, and addressed them in tho 
 following beautifully simple and pathetic harangue ; a curious 
 specimen of Indian eloquence, and an affecting instance of filial 
 piety in a savage : 
 
 " When last the glorious light of all the sky was underneath 
 this globe, and birds grew silent, I began to settle, as my cus- 
 tom is, to take re|)ose. Before mine eyes were fast closed, 
 methought I saw a vision, at which my spirit was much 
 troubleil ; and trembling at that doleful sight, a spirit cried 
 aloud, ' Behold, my son, whom I have cherished, see the breasts 
 that gave thee suck, the hands that lapped thee warm, and fed 
 tliee oft. Canst thou forget to tuko revenge of those wild 
 
 l^i 
 
214 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 %'; ■• ',. 
 
 :m 
 
 people, who have defaced my monument in a despiteful manner, 
 disdaining our antiquities and honorable customs? See, now^ 
 the Sachem's grave lies like the common people, defaced by an 
 ignoble race. Thy mother doth complain, and implores tliy aid 
 against this thievish people, who have newly intruded on our 
 land. If this be suffered, I sliall not rest quiet in my cverhist- 
 ing habitation.' This said, tiie spirit vanished, and I, all in a 
 sweat, not able scarce to speak, began to get some strength 
 and recollect my spirits that were fled, and determined to demand 
 yoiir counsel and assistance." 
 
 I have adduced this anecdote at some lonprth, as it tends to 
 show how these sudden acts of hostility, wliich have been at- 
 tributed to caprice and perfidy, may often arise from deep and 
 generous motives, which our inattention to Indian character 
 and customs prevents our properly appreciating. 
 
 Another ground of violent outcry against the Indians, is their 
 barbarity to the vanquished. This had its origin partly in policy 
 and partly in superstition. The tribes, though sometimes called 
 nations, were never so formidable in their numbers, but that 
 the loss of several warriors was sensibly felt ; this was particu- 
 larly the case when they had been frequently engaged in war- 
 fare ; and many an instance occurs in Indian history, where a 
 tribe, that had long been formidable tc its neighbors, has been 
 broken up and driven away, by the capture and massacre of its 
 principal fighting men. There was a strong temptation, there- 
 fore, to the victor, to be merciless ; not so m'"nh to gratify any 
 cruel revenge, as to provide for future security. The Indians 
 had also the superstitious belief, frequent among barbarous 
 nations, and prevalent also among the ancients, that the manes 
 oi their friends who had fallen in battle were soothed by the 
 blood of the captives. The prisoners, however, who are not 
 thus sacrificed, are adopted into their families in the place of 
 the slain, and are treated with the confidence and affection of 
 relatives and friends ; nay, so hospitable and tender is their 
 entertainment, that when the alternative is offered them, they 
 will often prefer to remain with their adopted brethicn, rather 
 than return to the home and the friends of their youth. 
 
 The cruelty of the Indians towards their prisoners has been 
 heightened since the colonization of the whites. AVhat was 
 formerly a compliance with policy and superstition, has been 
 exasperated into a gratification of vengeance. They cannot but 
 be sensible that the white men are the usurpers of their ancient 
 dominion, the cause of their degradation, and the gradual de. 
 Btroyers oi their race. They go forth to battle, smarting with 
 
TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 215 
 
 [tjoer, 
 
 now, 
 
 py an 
 
 jy aid 
 
 |i our 
 
 |ll;i.st. 
 
 in a 
 
 I'lgt!, 
 
 land 
 
 their 
 
 injuries and indignities which tlioy have individually sufiferod, 
 and they are driven to madness and despair by the widu-spread- 
 ing desolation, and the overwhelming ruin of European warfare. 
 The whites have too frequently set them an example of violence, 
 by burning their villages and laying waste their- slender means 
 of subsistence ; and yet they wonder that savages do not show 
 moderation and magnanimity towards those who have left them 
 nothing but mere existence and wretchedness. 
 
 We stigmatize the Indians, also, as cowardly and treacherous, 
 because they use stratagem in warfare, in preference to open 
 force ; but in this they are fully justified by their rude code of 
 honor. They are early taught that stratagem is praiseworthy : 
 the bravest warrior thinks it no disgrace to lurk in silence, and 
 take every advantage of his toe : lie triumphs in the superior 
 craft and sagacity by which he has been enal)lcd to surprise and 
 destroy an enemy. Indeed, man is naturally more prone to 
 subtilty than open valor, owing to his physical weakness in 
 comparison with other animals. They are endowed with natu- 
 ral weapons of defence : with horns, with tusks, with hoofs, 
 and talons : but man has to depend on his superior sagacity. 
 In all his encounters with these, his proper enemies, he resortsr 
 to stratagem ; and when he perversely turns his hostility against 
 his fellow-man, he at first continues the same subtle mode of 
 warfare. 
 
 The natural principle of war is to do the most harm to out 
 enemy, with the least harm to ourselves ; and this of course is 
 to be effected by stratagem. That chivalrous courage which 
 induces us to despise the suggestions of prudence, and to rush 
 in the face of certain danger, is the offsnring of society, and 
 produced by education. It is honorable, because it is in fact 
 the triumph of lofty sentiment over an instinctive repugnance 
 to pain, and over tiiose yearnings after personal ease and 
 security, which society has condemned as ignoble. It is kept 
 alive by pride and the fear of shame ; and thus the dread of 
 real evil is overcome by the superior dread of an evil which 
 exists but in the imagination. It has been cherished and stimu- 
 lated also by various means. It has been the theme of spirit- 
 stirring song and chivalrous story. The poet and minstrel have 
 delighted to shed round it the splendors of fiction ; and even 
 the historian has forgotten the sober gravity of narration, and 
 broken forth into enthusiasm and rhapsody in its praise. Tri- 
 umphs and gorgeous pageants have been its reward : monu- 
 ments, on which art has exhausted its skill, and opulence its 
 treasures, have been erected to perpetuate a nation's gratitudi> 
 
 ; ) 
 
 -*..,>*»»» '> \ 
 
216 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 i;.! 
 
 and admiration. Thus artilicially excited, courage has risen to 
 au extraordinary and factitious di'gree of lieroism ; and, arrayed 
 iu ail the glorious " pomp and circumstance of war," tliis tiirbu- 
 lent quality has even been able to eclipse many of those (|uiet, 
 but invaluable virtues, which silently ennoble tlie human char- 
 acter, and swell the tide of human happiness. 
 
 But if courage intrinsically consists in the defiance of danger 
 and pain, tiie life of the Indian is a continual exiiibition uf it. 
 He lives iu a state of perpetual hostility and risk. IVril and 
 adventure are congenial to his nature ; or rather seem neces- 
 sary to arouse his faculties and to give an interest to his exist- 
 ence. Surrounded i)y hostile tribes whose mode of warfare is 
 by ambush and surprisal, he is always prepared for light, and 
 lives with his weapons in his hands. As the ship careers in 
 fearful singleness through the solitudes of ocean, — as the l)ir(l 
 mingles among clouds and storms, and wings its way, a mere 
 speclv, across the pathless fields of air; so tlie Indian holds his 
 course, silent, solitary, but undaunted, through the boundless 
 bosom of the wilderness. His expeditions may vie in distance 
 and danger with the pilgrimage of the devotee, or the crusade 
 of the knight-errant. lie traverses vast forests, exposed to the 
 liazards of lonely sickness, of lurking enemies, and pining 
 famine. Stormy lakes, tliose great inland seas, are no obsta- 
 cles to his wanderings: in his light canoe of l)ark, he sports 
 like a feather on their waves, and darts with tiie swiftness of 
 an arrow down the roaring lapids of the rivers. His very sul)- 
 sistence is snatched from the midst of toil and peril. He gaina 
 his food by the hardshii)s and dangers of the chase ; he wraiis 
 liimself in the si)oils of the bear, the panther, and Ihti biitTalo ; 
 and sleeps among the tliunders of the cataract. 
 
 No hero of ancient or modern days can surpass the Indian in 
 his lofty contempt of death, and the fortitude with which In 
 ^justaius its crudest infliction. Indeed, we here behold hiir 
 rising superior to the wliite man, in consequence of his peculiar 
 education. The latter rushes to glorious death at the cann(;n's 
 mouth ; the former calmly contmiithitcs iLs appioach, and tri- 
 umphantly endures it, amidst the varied tornuiit s of surroiiiul 
 ing foes, and the protracted agonies of fire. lie even takes a 
 pride in taunting his persecutors, and provoking th( ir ingenuity 
 of torture; and as the devouring fiaines prey on his vciv vitals. 
 and the flesh shrinks from the sinews, he raises lli^^ hisl song of 
 triumph, breathing the deliiun-e of an uneoncpieriMl licart, :ind 
 invoking the spi^-its of his fatliers to wituess that he dies with- 
 out a groan. 
 
TRAITS OF INDIAN CHARACTER. 
 
 217 
 
 to 
 
 kved 
 
 1)11- 
 
 liic't, 
 
 liar- 
 
 it. 
 and 
 cos- 
 
 Lst- 
 
 e iis 
 
 ami 
 
 .s in 
 
 )ir(i 
 
 11 1! re 
 
 his 
 
 t'SS 
 
 nice 
 
 sade 
 
 llie 
 
 Notwitlistaiuling the obloquj' with which the early historians 
 have overshadowed the diameters of the uufortunate natives, 
 some blight <j,l(aiiis ofcasiuiially break through, which throw a 
 degree of iiielaneholy histre ou their memories. Facts are occa> 
 sionally to be met witli in tlie rude annals of the eastern prov- 
 inces, which, though recorded with the coloring of prejudice 
 and bigotry, yA speak for themselves ; and will be dwelt on 
 witli applause and sympathy, when prejudice shall have passed 
 ■AW ay. 
 
 Ill one of the homely narratives of the Indian wars in New 
 England, tiiere is a touching account of the desolation carried 
 into the tribe of the reipiod Indians. Humanity shrinks from 
 the cold-blooded detail of indiscriminate butchery. In one 
 place we read of the surprisal of an Indian fort in the night, 
 when the wigwams were wrapped in flames, and the miserable 
 iiilial)itauls shot down and slain in attempting to escape, " all 
 being despalehed and ended in the course of an hour." After 
 a series of similar transactions, "our soldiers," as the histo- 
 rian piously observes, " ))eing resolved by God's assistance to 
 make a Imal destruction of them," the unhappy savages being 
 limited from their homes and fortresses, and pursued with fire 
 and sword, a scanty but gallant band, the sad remnant of the 
 IVMpKxl warriors, with their wives and children, took refuge Id 
 a swamp. 
 
 Burning with indignation, and rendered sullen by despair; 
 with hearts bursting with grief at the destruction of their tribe, 
 and spirits galled and sore at the fancied ignominy of theii 
 defeat, they refused to ask their lives at the hands of an insult- 
 ing foe, and preferred death to submission. 
 
 As the night drew on, they were surrounded in their dismal 
 ri'lreat, so as to render escape impracticable. Thus situated, 
 tlieir enemy "■ plied them with shot all the time, by which 
 means many were killed and buried in the mire." In the 
 darkness and fog that preceded the dawn of day, some few 
 broke thiough the besiegers and escaped into the woods : '■ the 
 rest were left to the conquerors, of which many were killed in 
 the swamp, like sullen dogs who would rather, in their self- 
 willedness and madness, sit still and be shot through, or cut to 
 pieces," than implore for mercy. When the day broke upon 
 this handful of forlorn but dauntless spirits, the soldiers, we 
 are told, entering the swamp, " saw several heaps of tliem sit- 
 ting close together, upon whom they discharged their pieces, 
 laden with ten or twelve pistol-bullets at a time ; putting the 
 muzzles of the pieces under the boughs, within a few yards of 
 
218 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 them ; so as, besides those that were found dead, many mora 
 were killed and sunk into the mire, and never were minded 
 more by friend or foe." 
 
 Can any one read this plain unvarnished tale, without ad- 
 miring the stern i*esolutiou, the unbending pride, the loftiness 
 of spirit, that seemed to nerve the hearts of these self-taught 
 heroes, and to raise them above the instinctive feelings of 
 human nature? When the Gauls laid waste the city of Rome, 
 they found the senators clothed in their robes and seated with 
 stern tranquillity in their curule chairs ; in this manner tliev 
 suffered death without resistance or even supplication. Such 
 conduct was, iu them, applauded as noble and magnanimous — 
 in the hapless Indians, it was reviled as obstinate and sullen. 
 How truly are we the dupes of show and circumstance 1 How 
 different is virtue, clothed in purple and enthroned in state, 
 from virtue naked and destitute, and perishing obscurely in a 
 wilderness ! 
 
 But I forbear to dwell on these gloomy pictures. The east- 
 ern tribes have long since disappeared ; the forests that shel- 
 tered them have been laid low, and scarce any traces remain of 
 them in the thickly-settled states of New-England, excepting 
 here and there the Indian name of a village or a stream. And 
 such must sooner or later be the fate of those other tribes 
 which skirt the frontiers, and have occasionally been inveigled 
 from their forests to mingle in the wars of white men. In a 
 little while, and they will go the way that their brethren have 
 gone before. The few hordes which still linger about the 
 shores of Huron and Superior, and the tributary streams of 
 the Mississippi, will share the fate of those tribes that once 
 spread over Massaeiiusetts and Connecticut, and lorded it 
 along the proud banks of the Hudson ; of that gigantic race 
 said to have existed on the borders of the Susquehanna ; aud 
 of those various nations that flourished about the Potoinnc 
 and the Rappahannock, and that peopled the forests of the vast 
 valley of Shenandoah. Thoy will vanish like a vapor from 
 the face of the earth ; their very history will be lost in forget- 
 fulness; and " the places that now know them will know them 
 no more forever." Or if, perchance, some dubious memorial 
 of them should survive, it may be in the romantic dreams of 
 the poet, to people in imagination his glades and groves, like 
 the fauns and satyrs aud sylvan deities of antiquity. But 
 should he venture upon the dark story of their wrongs and 
 wretchedness ; should he tell how they were invaded, cor- 
 rupted, despoiled ; diiven from their native abodes and the 
 
FUILIP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 219 
 
 lore 
 
 led 
 
 lad- 
 less 
 
 of 
 
 fne, 
 
 •ith 
 
 I ley 
 
 lut'ii 
 
 seoiilchrcs of their fathers ; huuted like wild beasts about the 
 earth ; and sent down with violence aud butchery to the grave 
 — jtosterity will either turn with horror and incredulity from 
 the tale, or blush with indij^nation at the inhumanity of their 
 forefathers. "We are driven back," said an old warrior, 
 "until we can retreat no farther — our hatchets are broken, 
 ©ur bows are snappetl, our llres are nearly extinguished — a 
 little longer and the white man will cease to persecute us — for 
 we shall cease to exist." 
 
 PHILIP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 AN INDIAN MEMOIU. 
 
 An munumcntul bronze unchauged his look: 
 
 A Boul Ihul pity toiich'd, but iiover sbook; 
 
 Traln'd, from hlB tree-rock'd cradle to hia bier, 
 
 The fierce extreines of good and ill to brook 
 
 ImpuiiHive — fearinn; but tlie shume of fear — 
 
 A stoic uf the woods — u inau without a tear. — Campbiu.. 
 
 It is to be regretted that those early writers who treated of 
 the discovery aud settlement of America have not given us 
 more particular and candid accounts of the remarkable charac- 
 ters tliat flourished in savage life. The scanty anecdotes whicb 
 have reached us aie full of peculiarity and interest ; they fur- 
 nish u& with nearer glimpses of human nature, and show what 
 man is in a comparatively primitive state, aud what he owes to 
 civilization. There is something of the charm of discovery 
 in lighting upon these wild and unexplored tracts of human 
 nature ; in witnessing, as it were, the native growth of moral 
 sentiment ; and perceiving those generous and romantic quali- 
 ties which have been aitilicially cultivated by society, vegetating 
 in spontaneous hardihood and rude magnificence. 
 
 In civilized life, wheie the happiness, and indeed almost the 
 existence, of man depends so much upon the opinion of his 
 fellow-men, he is constantly acting a studied part. The bold 
 aud peculiar ti-aits of native character are refined away, or 
 softened down by the levelling influence of what is termed 
 good breeding ; and he practises so many petty deceptions, and 
 affects so many generous sentiments, for the purposes of popu- 
 larity, tliat it is ditlicult to distinguish his real from his arti- 
 
 '! rj 
 
 
 1 
 
 . V B«H' 
 
 , 1 
 
 
 H> ll^B 
 
 -i 
 
 lilll 
 
 i 
 
 
 yu 
 
220 
 
 THE SKETCir-noOK. 
 
 flcial character. The Indian, on the contrarj', free from tlio 
 restraints and refinements of polished life, and, in a f^reiit 
 degree, a solitary and independent being, obeys the impulses 
 of his inclination or the dictates of his judgment ; and thus tho 
 attributes of his nature, being freely indulged, grow singly 
 great and striking. Society is like a lawn, where every rougli- 
 ness is smoothed, every bramble eradicated, and where tlu; eye 
 is delighted by the smiling verdure of a velvet surface ; he. 
 however, who would study Nature in its wildness and varii'ty, 
 must plunge into the forest, must explore the glen, must tstcni 
 the torrent, and dare the precipice. 
 
 These reflections arose on casually looking through a volume 
 of early colonial history, wherein are reconUd, with grout bit- 
 terness, the outrages of the Indians, and their wars with tlie 
 settlers of New-Kiiglaud. It is painful to perceive, evi'u from 
 these partial narratives, how the footsteps of civilization in;i\ 
 be traced in the l»Io()d of the al)oiigines ; liow easily tlie eulo- 
 uisls were iiuyvod to hostility by tiie lust of coiijiU'st ; lio.v 
 uiereiiess and exterminating was their warfare. Tlje iui:igin;i- 
 tion shrinks at the idea, how niany iutellectUMl l)eiiigs w-vn) 
 Iinntrd from the earth — how in my br-ive and noble lu'.-irts, oi" 
 Nnlure's sterling coinage, were l)rokeu down and tiumiilcd in 
 the dust! 
 
 .'■iich was the fate of rmup of Pokanoket, an Indian war- 
 rior, whose name was once a terror throughout JMassticiuisetts 
 and Connecticut. He was the most distinguished of a nuinl)"r 
 of contemporary Sachems, who reigned over the Tequods, tbe 
 JN'arr.igansets, the Wampanoags, and the other eastern trib 
 nt, the time of the first settlement of New-England : a band o 
 native untaught heroes; who made the most generous struggle 
 of wliich human nature is capable ; fighting to the last gasp in 
 !ho cause of their country, without a hope of victory or a 
 tliought of renown. Worthy of an age of poetry, and fit sub- 
 jects for local story and romantic fiction, they have left scarcely 
 any authentic traces on the page of history, but stalk, like gi- 
 gantic shadows, in the dim twilight of tradition.^ 
 
 When the Pilgrims, as the Plymouth settlers are called by 
 their descendants, first took refuge on the shores of the New 
 World, from the religions peraecutions of the Old, their situa- 
 tion was to the last degree gloomy and disheartening. Few in 
 number, and that number rapidly perishing away through sick* 
 
 < While correcting the pruof-HhectB of tbU article, the author ia iDforraed, that • 
 celebrated Kngliiib puet ban nearly tinliheil Ml heroio poem on the alury of I'hilip ol 
 Pokaiiuket. 
 
PniLfP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 001 
 
 Iho 
 
 rroat 
 
 ilscs 
 
 s tlio 
 
 iiigly 
 
 >iigli. 
 
 eyo 
 
 he, 
 
 stciil 
 
 III 
 
 ncsR and Imrdshipf ; anrromuled by a howling wiUlcincss and 
 savage tiil)es ; exposed to tlie rigors of an almost arctic win- 
 ter, and tlie vioissilndes of an ever-shifting climate ; their mind? 
 were filled with doleful forebodings, and nothing preserve(\ 
 them fro(n sinking into despondency but the strong excitement 
 of religious enthusiasm. In this forlorn situation they were 
 visited by Massasoit, chief Sagamore of the Wampauoags, B 
 powerful chief, who reigned over a great extent of coiuitry. 
 Instead of taking advant ge of the scanty number of the stran- 
 gers, and expelling them from his territories into which they had 
 intruded, he seemed at once to conceive for them a generous 
 friendship, and extended towards them the rights of primitive 
 hospitality. He came early in the spring to their settlement 
 of New-Plymouth, attended by a mere handful of followers; 
 entered into a solemn league of peace and amity ; sold them a 
 l)ortion of the soil, and i)romlsed to secure for them the good- 
 will of his savage allies. Whatever may be said of Indian 
 perfidy, it is certain that the integrit}' and good faith of Mas- 
 sasoit have never been impeached. He contmued a firm and 
 magnanimous friend of the white men ; suffering them to ex- 
 tend their possessions, and to strengthen themselves in the 
 land ; and betraying no jealousy of their increasing power and 
 prosperity. Shortly before his death, he came once more to 
 New-Plymouth, with his son Alexander, for the purpose of 
 renewing the covenant of peace, and of securing it to his pos- 
 terity. 
 
 At this conference, he endeavored to protect the religion of 
 his forefathers from the encroaching zeal of the missionaries ; 
 and stipulated that no further attempt should be made to draw 
 off his people from their ancient faith ; but, finding the English 
 obstinately opposed to any such condition, he mildl}' relin- 
 quished the demand. Almost the last act of his life was to 
 bring his two sons, Alexander and Philip (as they had been 
 named by the English) to the residence of a principal settler, 
 reconnnending mutual kindness and confidence ; and entreating 
 that the same love and amity which had existed between the 
 white men and himself, might be continued afterwards with his 
 children. The gootl old Sachem died in peace, and was happily 
 gathered to his fathers before sorrow came upon his tribe ; his 
 children remained behind to experience the ingratitude of white 
 men. 
 
 His eldest son, Alexander, succeeded him. He was of a quick 
 and iiupi'tuous temper, and proudly tenacious of his hereditary 
 rights and dignity. The intrusive policy and dictatorial con- 
 
•222 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 i 
 
 duct of the strangers excited his indignation ; and he beheld 
 • with uneasiness their exterminating wars with the neighboring 
 tribes. He was doomed soon to incur their hostility, being 
 accused of plotting with the Narragansetts to rise against tlie 
 English and drive them from the land. It is impossible to suy 
 whether this accusation was warranted by facts, or was grouuiUd 
 on mere suspicions It is evident, liowever, by the violent and 
 overbearing meaaures of the settlers, that they had by this time 
 begun to feel conscious of the rapid increase of their power, 
 and to grow harsh and inconsiderate in their treatment of the 
 natives. They despatched an armed force to seize upon Alex- 
 ander, and to bring him before theii courts. He was traced to 
 his woodland haunts, and surprised at a hunting house, where 
 he was reposing with a band of his followers, unarmed, after the 
 toils of the chase. The suddenness of his arrest, and the out- 
 rage offered to his sovereign dignity, so preyed upon the irasci- 
 ble feelings of this proud savage, as to throw him into a raging 
 fever ; he was permitted to return home on condition of sending 
 his son as a pledge for his reappearance ; but the blow he had 
 received was fatal, and before he had reached his home he fell 
 a victim to the agonies of a wounded spirit. 
 
 The successor of Alexander was Metacomet, or King Philip, 
 as he was called by the settlers, on account of his lofty spirit 
 and ambitious temper. These, together with his well-known 
 energy and enterprise, had rendered him an object of great 
 jealousy and apprehension, and he was accused of having always 
 cherished a secret and implacable hostility towards the whites. 
 Such may very probably, and very naturally, have been the 
 case. He considered them as originally but mere intruders into 
 the country, who had presumed ujion indulgence, and were ex- 
 tending an influence baneful to savage life. He saw the wliole 
 race of his countrymen melting before them from the face of 
 the earth ; their territories slipping from their hands, and their 
 tribes becoming feeble, scattered, and dependent. It may be 
 said that the soil was originally purchased by the settlers ; but 
 who does not know the nature of Indian purchases, in the early 
 periods of colonization ? The Europeans always made thrifty 
 bargains, through their superior adroitness in traffic ; and they 
 gained vast accessions of territory, by easily-provoked hostili- 
 ties. An uncultivated savage is never a nice inquirer into the 
 refinements of law, by which an injury may be gradually and 
 icgally inflicted. Leading facts are all by which he judges ; 
 and it was enough for Philip to know, that before the intrusion 
 of the Europeans his countrymen were lords of the soil, and 
 
PHILIP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 229 
 
 leltl 
 
 that now they were becoming vagalx>nds in the land of their 
 fathers. 
 
 But whatever may have been liis feelings of general hostility, 
 aucl his particular indignation at the treatment of his brother, 
 he suppressed them for the present ; renewed the contract with 
 the settlers, and resided peaceably for many years at Pokano- 
 ket, or, as it was called by the English, Mount Hope,* the an- 
 cient seat of dominion of his tribe. Suspicions, however, 
 which were at first but vague and indefinite, began to acquire 
 form and substance ; and lie was at length charged with at- 
 tempting to instigate the various eastern tribes to rise at once, 
 and, by a simultanoous effort, to throw off the yoke of their 
 oppressors. It is diflicnlt at this distant period to assign the 
 proper credit due to these early accusations against the Indians. 
 Tliere was a proneness to suspicion, and an aptness to acta 
 of violence on the part of tlie whites, that gave weight and 
 importance to every idle tale. Informers abounded, where tale- 
 bearing met with countenance and reward ; and the sword was 
 readily unsheathed, when its success was certain, and it carved 
 out empire. 
 
 The only |X)sitive evidence on record against Philip is the 
 accusation of one Sausaman, a renegado Indian, whose natural 
 cunning had \yeen quickened by a partial education which he 
 had received among tiie settlers. He changed his faith and his 
 allegiance two or three times, with a facility that evinced the 
 looseness of his principles. He had acted for some time as 
 Philip's confidential sc^'etary and counsellor, and had enjo3'ed 
 his bounty and protection. Finding, however, that the clouds 
 of adversity were gathering round his patron, he abandoned 
 his service and went over to the whites ; and, in order to gain 
 their favor, charged his former benefactor with plotting against 
 their safety. A rigorous investigation took place. Philip and 
 several of his subjects submitted to be examined, but nothing 
 was proved aguinst them. The settlere, however, had now 
 gone too far to retract ; they had previously determined that 
 Pliilip was a dangerous neighbor ; they had publicly evinced 
 their distrust ; and had done enough to insure his hostility ; 
 according, therefore, to the usual mode of reasoning in these 
 cases, his destruction had become necessary to their security. 
 Sausaman, the treacherous informer, was shortly afterwards 
 found dead in a pond, having fallen a victim to the vengeance of 
 his tribe. Three Indians, one of whom was a f* jd and counsel* 
 
 > Horn Bri:«ttil, Rhode Ulaud. 
 
 ! t 
 
 i '» 
 
 Ih; 
 
 < 
 
224 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 lor of Philip, were apprehended and tried, and, on the testimony 
 of one very questionable witness, were condemned and executed 
 as murderers. 
 
 This treatment of his subjects and ignominious punishment 
 of his friend, outraged the pride and exasperated the passions 
 of Philip. The bolt which had fallen thus at his very foot, 
 awakened him to the gathering storm, and he determined to 
 trust himself no longer in the power of the white men. The 
 fate of his insulted and broken-hearted brother still rankled in 
 his mind ; and he had a further warning in the tragical story of 
 Miantonimo, a great sachem of the Narragansets, who, al'toi 
 manfully lacing his accusers before a tribunal of the colonists, 
 exculpating himself from a charge of conspiracy, and receiving 
 assurances of amity, had been pertidioiisiy dof^patched at their in- 
 stigation. Philip, therefore, gathc-red hi = lighting men about him ; 
 persuaded all strangers that lie could, to join his cause ; sent the 
 women and children to the Narragansets for safety ; and wlier- 
 ever lie appeared, was continually surrounded by armed warriors. 
 
 AVhen tiie two parties were thus in a state of distrust and 
 irritation, the le.ist spark was sufJicieiit to set them in a tlame. 
 Tlio Indians, having weapons in their hands, grew misciiievons, 
 and committed various petty depredations. In one of tiuir 
 maraudings, a ■v'.'firrinr w:is fired on and killed by a feclLkr, 
 This was the signal for ©iien hostilities ; the Indians pressed i > 
 revenge the deatli of their comrade, and the alarm of w.w 
 resounded thiough the riyniouth colony. 
 
 In the early chronicles of these daik and molanciioly tin<es, 
 we meet with many indications of the diseased state of tlie 
 public mind. The gloom of religious abstraction, and tlie wild- 
 ness of their situation, among trackless forests and savage 
 tribes, had disposed the colonists to superstitious fancies, and 
 had filled their imaginations with the frightful chimeras of 
 witchcraft and speetrology. They were much given also to » 
 belief in omens. The troubles with Philip and his Indians 
 were preceded, we are toid, by a variety of those awful warn- 
 ings which forerun great and public calamities. The peifoct 
 form of an Indian bow appeared in the air at New-Plymouth, 
 which was looked upon by the inhabitants as a " prodigious 
 apparition." At Hadley, Northampton, and other towns in 
 their neighborhood, " was heard the report of a great piece of 
 ordnance, with tlie shaking of the earth and a considerable 
 echo."* Others were alarmed on a still sunshiny morning, by 
 
 
 > Tlie Uev. lucrewM Mathei'o Uiatory. 
 
PHILIP OF POEANOKET. 
 
 225 
 
 tl 
 
 nony 
 nited 
 
 nent 
 sions 
 feet, 
 to 
 The 
 (1 in 
 yof 
 sifter 
 ists, 
 ving 
 r in- 
 iiii ; 
 It tin; 
 ivlier- 
 rlors. 
 : and 
 anio. 
 voiis, 
 their 
 tuer. 
 e>! i J 
 war 
 
 the discharge of guns and rauskets ; bullets seemed to whistle 
 past them, and tho noise of drums resounded in the air, seem 
 ing to pass away to the westward ; others fancied that they 
 licard the galloiiing of horses over .their heads; and certain 
 monstrous l)irths wiiieh tock place about the time, tilled the 
 superstitious in some towns with doleful forebodings. Many 
 of these portentous sights and sounds may be ascribed to 
 natural phenomena ; to tiie northern lights which occur vividly 
 in tliose latitudes ; the meteors which explode in the air ; the 
 casual rushing of a blast through the top branches of the forest ; 
 the ei'ash of falling trees or disrupted rocks ; and to those other 
 uncouth sounds and echoes, which will sometimes strike the 
 car so strangely amidst the profound stillness of woodland soli- 
 tudes. Tliese may have startled some melanciiol^' imaginations, 
 may have been exaggerated by the love for the marvellous, and 
 listened to with that avidity with which we devour whatever 
 is fearful and mysterious. The universal currency of these 
 siii)erstitious fancies, and the grave record made of them by one 
 of tlie learned men of the lay, are strongly characteristic of the 
 times. 
 
 The nature of tiie contest that ensued was such as too often 
 distinguisiies the warfare between civilized men and savages. 
 On the part of the whites, it was conducted with superior skill 
 and success ,• but with a wastefulness of the blood, and a disre- 
 gard of the natural rights of their antagonists : on the part of 
 the Indians it was wiged with the desperation of men fearless 
 of deatli, and who haii nothing to expect from peace, but hu- 
 miliation, dependence, and decay. 
 
 The events of the war are transmitted to us by a worthy 
 clergyman of the time, who dwells with horror and indignation 
 on every iiostilc act of tlie Indians, however justifiable, whilst 
 he mentions with api)lause the most sanguinary atrocities of 
 tli(! wiiiies. Piiilip is reviled as a murderer and a traitor; 
 without considering that he was a truc-Ijorn prince, gallantly 
 fighting at tiie head of his subjects to avenge the wrongs of his 
 family ; to retrieve the tottering power of his line ; and to de- 
 liver Ills native lai d from the oppression of usurj)ing strangers. 
 
 The project of a wide and sinmltaneous revolt, if such had 
 really been formed, was worthy of a capacious mind, and, had 
 it not been prematurely discoveretl, might have been over- 
 whelming in its consecpiences. Tlie war that actually broke 
 out was hut a war of detail ; a mere succession of casual ex- 
 ploits and unconnected enterprises. Still it sets forth the 
 military genius and daring prowess of Philip ; and wherever, io 
 
 * ^ 
 
 ? 'i 
 
 Amimt^nmt i r ' ■ i^TilMir t» -. 
 
 
226 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 the prejudiced and passionate narrations that have been giveu 
 of it, we can arrive at simple facts, we find him displaying a 
 vigorous mind ; a fertility of expedients ; a contempt of suflfer- 
 ing and hardsliip ; and an unconcjuerable resolution, that com- 
 mand our sympathy and applause. 
 
 Driven from his paternal domains at Mount Hope, he threw 
 himself into the depths of those vast and trackless forests that 
 skirted the settlements, and were almost impervious to any 
 thing but a wild beast or an Indian. Here he gathered to- 
 gether his forces, like the storm accumulating its stores of mis- 
 chief in the bosom of the thunder-cloud, and would suddenly 
 emerge at a time and place least expected, carrying havoc and 
 dismay into the villages. There were now and then indications} 
 of these impending ravages, that filled the minds of the colo- 
 nists with awe and apprehension. The report of a distant gun 
 would perhaps be heard from the solitary woodland, where 
 there was known to be no white man ; the cattle which had 
 been wandering in the woods would sometimes return home 
 wounded ; or an Indian or two would be seen lurking about 
 the skirts of the forest, and suddenly disappearing ; as the 
 lightning will sometimes be seen playing silently about the edge 
 of the cloud that is b' ewing up the tcmpost. 
 
 Though sometimes pursued, and evon surrounded by tho 
 settlers, 3'et Philip as often escaped almost miraculously from 
 their foils ; and plunging into the wilderness, would be lost to 
 all search or inquiry until he again emerged at some fa." dis- 
 tant quarte'", laying the country desolite. Among his f trong 
 holds were the great swamps or mon;3ses, which excC^d in 
 some parts of New-Kngland ; compose .1 of loose bogs of deep 
 black mud ; perplexed witli thickets, brumbies, rank weeds, 
 the shattered and moi'l'UMing trunks of fallen trees, over- 
 shadowed by lugiil)rious hemlocks. The uncm'tain footing and 
 the tangled mazes of these shaggy wilds, rendered them almost 
 mpraeticable to the white man, though the Indian could 
 thrid their labyrinths with the agility of a deer. Into one ( \' 
 theoe, the great swamp of Pocasset Neck, was Philip ouco 
 .riven with a band of his followers. The En;j;lish did not daro 
 to pursue him, fearing to ventiuii into tliese dark and frightful 
 iccesses, where they might peri!>h in fens and miry pits, or bo 
 r.hot down by lurking foes. They therefore invested the en- 
 ti ance to the neck, and began to build a tcrt, with the thought 
 of starving out the foe ; but Philip and his warriors wafted 
 themselves on a raft over an arm of the sea, in the dead of 
 night, leavins the women and children behind ; and escaped 
 
PHILIP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 22T 
 
 away to the westward, kindling the flames of war among the 
 tribes of Massachusetts and the Nipmuck count-ry, and threat- 
 ening the colony of Connecticut. 
 
 In this way Philip became a theme of universal apprehen- 
 sion. The mystery in which he was enveloped exaggerated 
 his real terrors. He was an evil that walked in darkness ; whose 
 coming none could foresee, and against which none knew 
 when to be on the alert. The whole country abounded with 
 rumors and alarms. Philip seemed almost possessed of ubiq- 
 uity : for, in whatever part of the widely extended frontier 
 an irruption from thp forest took place, Philip was said to be 
 its leader. Many superstitious notions also were circulated 
 concerning him. He was said to deal in necromanc}', and to 
 he attended by an old Indian witch or prophetess, whom he 
 consulted, and who assisted him by her charms and incanta- 
 tions. This indeed was frequently the case with Indian clr.efs ; 
 either through their own credulity, or to act upon that of their 
 followers : and the influence of the prophet and the dreamer 
 over Indian superstition has been fully evidenced in recent 
 instances of savage warfare. 
 
 At the time that Philip effected his escape from Pocasset, 
 his fortunes were in a desperate condition. His forces had 
 l)eon thinned by repeated fights, and he had lost almost the 
 wliole of his resources. In this time of adversity he found a 
 faitliful friend in Cauouchet, Chief Sachem of all the Narra- 
 gansets. He was the son and heir of Miautonimo, the great 
 Sacliem, who, as already mentioned, after an honorable ac- 
 quital of the charge of conspiracy, had been privately put to 
 death at the perfidious instigations of the settlers. *" He was 
 the heir," says the old chronicler, " of all his father's pride and 
 insolence, as well as of hiti malice towards the English;" he 
 certainly was the heir of his insults and injuries, and the 
 legitimate avenger of his murder. Though he had forborne to 
 take an active part in this hopeless war, yet he received Philip 
 and his broken forces with open arms ; and gave them the 
 most generous countenance and support. This at once drew 
 upon him the hostility of the English ; and it was determined 
 to strike a signal blow, that should involve both the Sachems 
 in one common ruin. A great force was, therefore, gathered 
 together from Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, and 
 was sent into the Jsarraganset country in the depth of winter, 
 when the swamps, being frozen and leafless, could be traversed 
 with comparative facility, luid would no longer afford dar*- and 
 impenetrable 1 astuesses to the Indians. 
 
 : iM! 
 
 \\ 
 
 = . . i / », t_:^-' 
 
228 
 
 THE SKETCII-nOOK. 
 
 ?! 
 
 Apprehensive of attack, Canonchet had conveyed the ^rcatei 
 pait of his stores, tofjether witli the old, the iiifinn, the women 
 and cliil(hen of his tribe, to a strong fortress ; where he and 
 Philip had likewise drawn up the flower of their forces. This 
 fortress, deemed by the Indians impregnable, was situated 
 upon a rising mound o'* kind of island, of five or six acres, in 
 the midst of a swamp ; it was constructed with a degree of 
 judgment and skill vastly superior to what is usually displayed 
 in Indian f<'rti(ication, and indicative of the martial genius ot 
 these two chieftains. 
 
 Guided by a renegado Indian, the English penetrated, through 
 December snows, to this stronghold, and came ui)on the garri- 
 son b}- surprise. The light was lierce and tumultuous. The 
 assailants were repulsed in their first attack, and several of 
 their bravest officers were shot down in the act of storming the 
 fortress, sword in hand. The assault was renewed with greater 
 success. A lodgement was effected. The Indians were driven 
 from one post to another. They disputed their groinul inch by 
 inch, fighting with the fury of despair. Most of their veterans 
 were cut to i)icces ; and after a long and bloody battle, Philip 
 and Canonchet, with a handful of surviving warriors, retreated 
 from the fort, and took i\ aige in the thickets of the surround- 
 ing forest. 
 
 The victors set fire to the wigwams and the fort ; the whole 
 was soon in a blaze ; many of the old men, the women and the 
 children, perished in the flames. This last outrage overcame 
 even the stoicism of the savage. The neijrhboring woods re- 
 sounded with the yells of rage and despair, uttered by the fugi- 
 tive warriors as they beheld the destruction of their dwellings, 
 and heard the agonizing cries of their wives and offspring. 
 "The burning of the wigwams," says a contemi)orary writer, 
 " the shrieks and cries of the women and children, and the yell- 
 ing of the warriors, ' xliiljited a most horrible and affecting 
 scene, so that it greatly moved some of the soldiers." The 
 same writer cautiously adds, "• they were in much doubt then, 
 and afterwards seriously intpiired, whether burning their ene- 
 niies alive could be consistent with humanity, and the benevo- 
 lent principles of the gospel." * 
 
 The fate of the brave and generous Canonchet is worthy of 
 particular mention : the last scene of his life is one of the 
 nobl ,st instances on record of Indian niagnanimity- 
 
 Broken down in his p«)wrr nud resources by this signal de« 
 
 I US. of the Rev. W. Ruggles. 
 
PHILIP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 229 
 
 !atei 
 )mea 
 and 
 This 
 atod 
 s, in 
 e of 
 ayod 
 ot 
 
 feat, yet faithful to his ally and to the hapless cause which he 
 bad espoused, he rejected all overtures of peace, offered on con- 
 dition of betraying Philip and his followers, and declared that 
 " he would light it out to the last man, rather than become a 
 servant to the English." His home being destroyed ; his coun- 
 try harassed and laid waste by the incursions of the conquerors ; 
 he was obliged to wander away to the banks of the Connecti- 
 cut ; where he formed a rallying point to the whole body of 
 western Indians, and laid waste several of the English settle- 
 ments. 
 
 Early in the spring, he departed on a hazardous expedition, 
 with only thirty chosen men, to penetrate to Seaconck, in the 
 vicinity of Mount Hope, and to procure seed-corn to plant for 
 the Hustouance of his troops. This little band of adventurers 
 had passed safely through the Pequod country, and were in the 
 centre of the Narraganset, resting at some wigwams near Paw- 
 tucket river, when an alarm was given of an approaching 
 enemy. Having but seven men by him at the time, Canonchct 
 despatched two of them to the top of a neighboring hill, to 
 bring intelligence of the foe. 
 
 Panic-struck b}' the appearance of a troop of English and 
 Indians rapidly advancing, they fled in breathless terror past 
 their chieftain, without stopping to inform him of the danger. 
 Cauonchet sent another scout, who did the same. He then 
 sent two more, one of whom, hurrying back in confusion and 
 affright, told him that the whole British army was at hand. 
 Cauonchet saw there was no choice but immediate flight. He 
 attempted to escape round the hill, but was perceived and hotly 
 pursued by the hostile Indians, and a few of the fleetest of the 
 English. Finding the swiftest pursuer close upon his heels, he 
 ilirew off, first his blanket, then his silver-laced coat and belt 
 of peag, by which his enemies knew him to be Cauonchet, and 
 redoubled the eagerness of pursuit. 
 
 At length, in dashing through the river, his foot slipped upon 
 a stone, and he fell so deep as to wet liis gun. This accident 
 so struck him with despair, that, as he afterwards confessed, 
 " liis heart and his bov^els turned within him, and he became 
 like a rotten stick, void of strength." 
 
 To such a degree was he unnerved, that, being seized by a 
 Pequod Indian within a short distance of the river, he made no 
 resistance, though a man of great vigor of body and boldness 
 of heart. But on being made prisoner, the whole pride of his 
 spirit arose within him ; and from that moment, we find, in the 
 anecdotes given by his enemies, nothing but repeated flashes 
 
 'I ii 
 
 mH/m »r,'-* <50»'*' •*- 
 
230 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 f 1 
 
 of elevated and prince-like heroism. Being questioned by one 
 of the English who first came up with him, and who had not 
 attained his twenty-second year, the proud-hearted warrior, 
 looking with lofty contempt upon his youthful countenance, re- 
 plied, " You are a child — you cannot understand matters of 
 war — let your brother or your chief come — him will I answer." 
 
 Though repeated offers were made to him of his life, on con- 
 dition of submitting with his nation to the English, yet he 
 rejected them with disdain, and refused to send any proposals 
 of the kind to the great body of his subjects ; saying, that he 
 knew none of them would comply. Being reproached with his 
 breach of faith towards the whites ; his boast that he woi:ld not 
 deliver up a Wampanoag, nor the parings of a Wampanoag's 
 nail ; and his threat that he would burn the English alive in 
 their houses, he disdained to justify himself, haughtily answer- 
 ing that others were as forward for the war as himself, *' and 
 he desired to hear no more thereof." 
 
 So noble and unshaken a spirit, so true a fidelity to his cause 
 and his friend, might have touched the feelings of the generous 
 and the brave ; but Canonchet was an Indian ; a being towards 
 whom war had no courtesy, humanity no law, religion no com- 
 passion — he was condemned to die. The last words of his that 
 are recorded, are worthy the greatness of his soul. When sen- 
 tence of death was passed upon him, he observed, '■'' that he 
 liked it well, for he should die before his heart was soft, or he 
 had spoken any thing unworthy of himself." His enemies gave 
 him the death of a soldier, for he was shot at Stoningham, by 
 three young Sachems of his own rank. 
 
 The defeat of the Narraganset fortress, and the death of 
 Canonchet, were fatal blows to the fortunes of King Philip. 
 He made an ineffectual attempt to raise a head of war, by stir- 
 ring up the Mohawks to take arms ; but thongh possessed of 
 the native talents of a statesman, his arts were counteracted by 
 the superior arts of his enlightened enemies, and the terror of 
 their warlike skill began to subdue the resolution of the neigh- 
 boring tribes. The unfortunate chieftain saw himself daily 
 stripped of power, and his ranks rapidly thinning around him. 
 Some were suborned by the whites ; others fell victims to hun- 
 ger and fatigue, and to the frequent attacks by which they were 
 harassed. His stores were all captured; his chosen friends 
 were swept away from before his eyes ; his uncle was shot down 
 by his side ; his sister was carried into captivity ; and in one of 
 his narrow escapes he was compelled to leave his beloved wife 
 and only sou to the mercy of the enemy. '* His ruin," says 
 
 the 
 
PaiLIP OF POKANOKET. 
 
 281 
 
 ioe historian, " being thus gradually carried on, his misery was 
 not prevented, but augmented thereby ; being himself made ac- 
 quainted with the sense and experimental feeling of the cap- 
 tivity of his children, loss of friends, slaughter of his subjects, 
 bereavement of all family relations, and being stripped of all 
 outward comforts, before his own life should be taken away." 
 
 To fill up the measure of his misfortunes, his own followers 
 began to plot against his life, that by sacrificing him they might 
 purchase dislionorable safety. Through treachery, a number 
 of his faitliful adlierents, the subjects of Wetamoe, an Indian 
 princess of Poeusset, a near kinswoman and confederate of 
 Philip, were betrayed into the hands of the enemy. Wetamoe 
 was among them at the time, and attempted to make her escape 
 by crossing a neighboring river : eitlier exhaust-ed by swimming, 
 or starved by cold and hunger, slie was f(»und dead and naked 
 near the water side. Bu : persecution ceased not at the grave : 
 even death, the refuge ol tlie wretched, where the wicked com- 
 monly cease from troubling, was \o protection to this outcast 
 feuuile, whose great crime was affectionate fidelity to her kins- 
 man and her friend. Her corpse was the object of unmanly 
 vuul dastardly vengeance ; the head was severed from the body 
 and set upon a pole, and was thus exposed, at Taunton, to the 
 view of her captive subjects. They immediately recognized 
 tlie features of their unfortunate queen, and were so affected at 
 tliis barbarous spectacle, tliat we are told they broke forth into 
 the " most horrid and diabolical lamentations." 
 
 However Pliilii) had borne up against the complicated mis- 
 eries and misfortunes lliat surrounded him, the treachery of hia 
 followers seemed to wring liis heart and reduce him to despond- 
 ency. It is said that '' lie never rejoiced afterwards, nor had 
 success in any of his designs." The spring of hope was broken 
 — the ardor of enterprise was extinguished : he looked around, 
 and all was danger and darkness ; there was no eye to pity, nor 
 any arm that could bring deliverance. With a scanty band of 
 followers, who still remained true to his desperate fortunes, the 
 unhappy Philii) wandered back to the vicinity of Mount Hope, 
 the ancient dwelling of his fathers. Here he lurked about, like 
 a spectre, among the scenes of former power and prosperity, 
 now bereft of home, of family, and friend. There needs no 
 better picture of his destitute and piteous situation, than that 
 furnished by the homely pen of the chronicler, who is unwarily 
 eulisting the feelings of the reader in favor of the hapless war- 
 rior whom he reviles. " Philip," he says, " like a savage wild 
 beast, having been hunted by the English forces through the 
 
 ^1 
 
 L«*>.*> vi*--^H 
 
232 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 wojf's above a hundred miles backward and forward, at last 
 was driven to his own den upon Mount Hope, where he retired. 
 with a few of his best friends, into a swamp, which proved but 
 a prison to keep him fast till the messengers of death came by 
 divine permission to execute vengeance upon him." 
 
 Even in this last refuge of desperation and despair, a sullen 
 grandeur gathers roun(l his memory. Wc picture him to our- 
 selves seated among bis care-worn followers, brooding in silence 
 over his blasted fortunes, and acquiring a savage sublimity 
 from the wilduess and di'eariuess of his lurking-place. De- 
 feated, but not disma3'ed — crushed to the earth, but not 
 humiliated — lie seemed to grow more haughty beneath disTs- 
 ter, and to experience a fierce satisfaction in draining the last 
 dregs of bitterness. Little minds are tamed and sulxbied l)y 
 misfortune ; but great minds rise above it. The very idea of 
 submission awakened the fury of Philij), and he smote to dcatli 
 one of his followers, who proposed an expedient of peace. TIn' 
 brother of the victim made his escape, and in revenge betrayed 
 the retreat of his chieftain. A body of wliite men and Ii;di:iii» 
 were immediately despatched to the swamp where Philip l;iy 
 crouched, glaring with fury and despair. Before he was awan. 
 of their approach, they had begun to surround him. In a litUo 
 while he saw five of his trustiest followers laid dead at his feet ; 
 all resistance was vain ; he rushed forth from his covert, and 
 made a headlong attempt at escape, but was shot thiougli tlus 
 heart by a renegado Indian of his own nation. 
 
 Such is the scanty story of the brave, but unfortunate King 
 Philip ; persecuted while living, slandered and dishonored wlieu 
 dead. If, however, we consider even the prejudiced anecdote*) 
 furnished us by his enemies, we may perceive in them traces of 
 amiable and lofty character, suflicient to awaken sympathy foi 
 his fate and respect for his memory. We find, that amidst all 
 the harassing cares and ferocious passions of constant warfare. 
 he was alive to the softer feelings of coniujbial love and 
 paternal tenderness, and to the generous sentiment of friend- 
 ship. The captivity of his " beloved wife and only son" is 
 mentioned with exultation, as causing him i)oignant misery : 
 the death of any near friend is triumphantly recorded as a new 
 blow on his sensibilities; br'. the treachery and desertion of 
 many of his followers, in v. nose affections he had confided, is 
 said to have desolated his heart, and to have bereaved him of 
 all further comfort. He was a patriot, attached to his native 
 soil — a prince true to his subjects, and indignant of their 
 wrongs — a soldier, daring in battle, firm iu adversity, patient 
 
JOHN BULL. 
 
 t last 
 
 ullen 
 our-. 
 Icucc 
 imity 
 De- 
 iiot 
 
 ast 
 
 a l.y 
 
 -lea of 
 
 death 
 
 Tli(. 
 
 of fatigue, of hunger, of every variety of bodily suffering, ana 
 ready to perish in tLv^ cause he had espoused. Proud of heart, 
 and with an untamable love of natural liberty, he preferred to 
 enjoy it among the beasts of tlie forests, or in the dismal and 
 famished recesses of swamps and morasses, rather than bow 
 his haughty spirit to submission, and live dependent and de- 
 spised in the ease and luxury of the settlements. With heroic 
 qualities and bold achievements that would have graced a 
 civilized warrior, and have rendered him the theme of tlie poet 
 and the historian, he lived a wanderer and a fugitive in his 
 native laud, and went down, like a lonely bark, foundering 
 amid darkness and tempest — without a pitying eye to weep his 
 fall, or a friendly hand to record his struggle. 
 
 JOHN BULL. 
 
 An old song, made hy an aged old pate, 
 Of ill) old worshipful gentleman who had a great estate, 
 That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate, 
 And an old porter to relievo the poor at his gate. 
 
 With an old study filled full of learned old books, 
 
 With an old reverend chaplain, you mi^'.. know him by his lookM, 
 
 With an old l-uttery-hatch worn quite off the books, 
 
 And an old kitchen that maintained half-a-dozen old cooks. 
 
 Like au old courtier, etc.— Old Song. 
 
 There is no species of humor in which the English more 
 excel, than that which consists in caricaturing and giving 
 ludicrous appellations or nicknames. In this way they have 
 wliimsically designated, not merely individuals, but n.-tions; 
 and in their fondness for pushing a joke, they have not spared 
 even tliemselves. One would think that, in per.sonifying itself, 
 a nation would be apt to picture something grand, heroic, and 
 imposing ; but it is characteristic of the peculiar humor of the 
 Kii<>lish, and of their love for what is blunt, comic, and 
 familiar, that they have embodied their national oddities in 
 the figure of a sturdy, corpulent old fellow, with a three- 
 cornered hat, red waistcoat, leather breeclu^s, and stout oaken 
 cadgel. Thus thoy have taken a singular delight in exhibiting 
 their most private foibles in a laughable point of view ; and 
 have been so successful in their delineations, that there is 
 
 ;|I 
 
 «*--<u,„.^-„ 
 
il 
 
 iM 
 
 ii:! i' 
 
 4 i 
 
 284 
 
 TFJF SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 scarcely a being in actual existence more absolutely present 
 to the public mind, than th.'it eccentric persona^^o, John Hull. 
 
 Perhaps the continual contemplation of the cliaracter thus 
 drawn of them, has contributed to fix it upon the nation ; uud 
 thus to give reality to what at first may have been painted in a 
 great measure from the imagination. Men are apt to acquire 
 peculiarities that are continually ascribed to them. The com- 
 mon orders of English seem wonderfully captivated with the 
 bemc ideal which they have formed of John Bull, and endeavor 
 to act up to the broad caricature that is perpetually before their 
 eyes. Unluckily, they sometimes nuike their boasted Hull-ism 
 an apology for their prejudice or grossness ; and this 1 have 
 especially noticed among those truly homebred and genuine 
 sons of the soil who have never migrated beyond the sound of 
 Bow-bells. If one of these should be a little uncouth in speech, 
 and apt to utter impertinent truths, he confesses that he is a 
 real .lohn Bull, and always speaks his mind. !f he now and 
 then flies into an unreasonal)le burst of passion about trilk's, 
 he observes that John Bull is a choleric old blade, but then his 
 passion is over in a moment, and he bears no malice. If he 
 betrays a coarseness of taste, and an insensibility to foreign 
 refinements, he thanks Jleaven for his ignorance — lie is a plain 
 John Bull, and has no relish for frippery and knick-knacks. His 
 very proneness to be gulled by strangers, and to pay extrava- 
 gantly for absurdities, is excused under the plea of munificence 
 ^- for John is always more generous than wise. 
 
 Thus, under the name of John Bull, he will contrive to argue 
 every fault into a merit, and will frankly convict liimself of 
 being the honestest fellow in existence. 
 
 However little, therefore, the character may have suited in 
 the first instance, it has gradually adapted itself to the nation, 
 or rather they have adapted themselves to each other ; and a 
 stranger who wishes to study English peculiarities, may gather 
 much valuable information from the innumerable portraits of 
 John Bull, as exhibited in the windows of the caricature-shops. 
 Still, however, he is one of those fertile humorists, that are 
 continually throwing out new portraits, and presenting differ- 
 ent aspects from different points of view ; and, often as he has 
 been described, I cannot resist the temi)tation to give a slight 
 sketch of him, such as he has met my eye. 
 
 John Bull, to all appearance, is a plain downright matter-of- 
 fact fellow, with much less of poetry about him than rich prose. 
 There is little of romance in his nature, but a vast deal of 
 strong natural feeling. lie excels iq humor more than in wit ; 
 
JOHN BULL. 
 
 236 
 
 IB Jolly rather than gay ; melancholy rather than morose ; can 
 easily be moved to a sudden tear, or surprisei" "nto a broad 
 laugh ; but he loathes sentiment, and has no turn for light pleas- 
 antry. He is a boon companion, if you allow him to have his 
 humor, and to talk about himself ; and he will stand by a friend 
 ^n a quarrel, with life and purse, however soundly he may be 
 cudgelled. 
 
 In this last respect, to tell the truth, he has a propensity to 
 be somewhat too ready. He is a busy-minded personage, who 
 thinks not merely for himself and family, but for all the country 
 round, and is most generously disposed to be everybody's cham- 
 pion. He is continually volunteering his services to settle his 
 neighbors' affairs, and takes it in great dudgeon if they engage 
 in any matter of consequence without asking his advice ; though 
 he seldom engages in any friendly ofllce of the kind without fin- 
 ishing by getting into a squabble with all parties and then railing 
 I)itterly at their ingratitude. He unluckily took lessons in his 
 youth in the noble science of defence, and having accomplished 
 himself in the use of his limbs and his weapons, and become a 
 perfect master at boxing and cudgel-play, he has had a trouble- 
 some life of it ever since. He cannot hear of a quarrel between 
 the most distant of his neighbors, but he begins incontinently to 
 f limbic with the head of his cudgel, and consider whether his 
 interest or honor does not require that he should meddle in the 
 broil. Indeed, he has extended his relations of pride and policy 
 BO completel}' over the whole country, that no event can take 
 place, without infringing some of his finely-spun rights and 
 dignities. Couched in his little domain, with these filaments 
 Btretching forth in every direction, he is like some choleric, 
 bottle-bellied old spider, who has woven his web over a whole 
 chamber, so that a fly cannot buzz, nor a breeze blow, without 
 startling his repose, and causing him to sally forth wrathfuUy 
 from his den. 
 
 Though really a good-hearted, good-tempered old fellow at 
 bottom, yet he is singularly fond of being in the midst of con- 
 tention. It is one of his peculiarities, however, that he onl}' 
 relishes the beginning of an affray ; he always goes into a fight 
 with alacrity, but comes out of it grumbling even when victo- 
 rious ; and though no one fights with more obstinacy to carry 
 a contested point, yet, when the battle is over, and he comes 
 to the reconciliation, he is so much taken up with the mere 
 shaking of hands, that he is apt to let his antagonist pocket 
 all that they have been quarrelling about. It is not, therefore, 
 fighting that he ought so much to be on his guard against, as 
 
 J 
 
236 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 \U 
 
 /", 
 
 making friends. It is difllciilt to cudgel him out of a f.irthing , 
 but put him in a good iuiinor, and you may haifjain him out 
 of all the money in liis pocket. He is like a stout shi|), whieii 
 will weather the rougliest storm uninjured, hut roll its niasta 
 overboard in the succeeding calm. 
 
 He is a little fond of playing the magnifico abroad ; of pulling 
 out a long purse ; Hinging his money brav»'ly altoiit jit boxing- 
 matches, horse-races, coek-tighls, and carrying a high head 
 among " gentlemen of tlie fancy;" but immediately after one 
 of these fits of extravagance, he will be taken with violent 
 qualms of economy ; stop short at the most trivial expenditure ; 
 
 Ik desperately of being ruined and brought upon the parisii ; 
 and in such moods will not pay the smallest tr.idesmau's bill 
 without violent altercation. lie is, in fact, the most punctual 
 and discontented paymaster in the world ; drawing his coin out 
 of his breeches pocket with infinite reluctance ; paying to the 
 uttermost farthing, but accompanying every guinea with a 
 growl. 
 
 With all his talk of economy, however, he is a bountiful 
 provider, and a hospitable housekeeper. His economy is o." a 
 whimsical kind, its chief oltject being to devise how he may 
 afford to be extravagant; for he will i)egrudge himself a lieef- 
 steak and pint of port one day, that he may roast an ox wliolo, 
 broach a hogshead of ale, and treat all his neighbors on the 
 next 
 
 His domestic establishment is enormously expensive : not so 
 much from any great outward |)aradc, as from the grciit con- 
 sumption of solid beef and pudding ; the vast numl)er of fol- 
 lowers he feeds and clothes ; and his singular disposition to pay 
 hugely for small services. He is a most kind and indulgent 
 master, and, provided his servants humor his peculiarities, llat- 
 ter his vanity a little now and then, and do not peculate grossly 
 on him before his face, they may manage him to perfection. 
 Every** thing that lives on him seems to thrive and grow fat. 
 His house servants are well paid, and pampered, and have little 
 to do. His horses are sleek and lazy, and prance slowly licforc 
 his state carriage ; and his house-dogs sleep quietly aiiouL the 
 door, and will hardly bark at a housebreaker. 
 
 His family mansion is an old castellated manor-house, gray 
 with age, and of a most venerable, though weather-beaten, ap- 
 pearance. It has been built upon no regular plan, but is a vast 
 accumulation of parts, erected in various tastes and ages. Tlie 
 centre bears evident traces of Saxon architecture, and is as 
 solid as ponderous stone and old English oak can make it. 
 
 I 
 
JOHN BULL. 
 
 237 
 
 illing 
 xiiig- 
 K'ud 
 r one 
 ok'iit 
 tiire; 
 irisli ; 
 hill 
 ictual 
 n oul 
 to Ihc 
 vith a 
 
 Like all the relics of that style, it is full of obscure passaj^eH, 
 intricate mazes, and dusicy chambers; and though these have 
 been partially lighted up in modern days, yet there arc many 
 places where you must still grope in the dark. Additions have 
 been made to the original edifice from time to time, and great 
 alterations have taken place ; towers and battlements have 
 been erected during wars and tumults ; wings built in time of 
 peace ; and out-houses, lodges, and offices, run up according to 
 the whim or convenience of different generations, until it has 
 become one of the most spacious, rambling tenemeuts imagi- 
 nable. An entire wing is taken up with the family chapel ; a 
 reverend pile, that must have been exceedingly sumptuous, 
 and, indeed, in spite of having been altered and simplified 
 at various periods, has still a look of solemn religious pomp. 
 Its walls within are storied with the monuments of John's 
 ancestors ; and it is snugly fitted up with soft cushions and 
 well-lined chairs, where such of his family as are inclined to 
 chu^'ch services, may doze comfortably in the discharge of their 
 di^viCS. 
 
 To keep up this chapel, has cost John much money ; but he 
 is staunch in his religion, and piqued in his zeal, from the cir- 
 cumstance that many dissenting chapels have been erected in 
 bis vicinity, and several of his neighbors, with whom he has 
 bad quarrels, are strong Papists. 
 
 To do the duties of the chapel, he maintains, at a large 
 expense, a pious and portly family chaplain. lie is a most 
 learned and decorous personage, and a truly well-bred Christian, 
 who always backs the old gentleman in his opinions, winks 
 discreetly at his little peccadilloes, rebukes the children when 
 refractory, and is of great use in exhorting the tenants to read 
 their Bibles, say their prayers, and, above all, to pay their rents 
 punctually, and without grumbling. 
 
 The family apartments are in a vcy antiquated taste, some- 
 what heavy, and often inconvenient, but full of the solemn 
 magnificence of former times ; fitted up with rich, though faded 
 tapestry, unwieldy furniture, and loads of massy, gorgeous old 
 plate. The vast fireplaces, ample kitchens, extensive cellars, 
 and sumptuous banqueting halls, — all speak of the roaring hos- 
 pitality of days of yore, of which the modern festivity at the 
 manor-house is but a shadow. There are, however, complete 
 suites of rooms apparently deserted and time-worn ; and towers 
 and turrets that are tottering to decay ; so that in high winds 
 there is danger or their tumbling about the ears of the house- 
 hold. 
 
 II 
 
 
 ':. 
 
238 
 
 THE SKETCH-nOOK. 
 
 ? 
 
 ■ii 'r 
 
 m 
 
 ;l 
 
 ;. m 
 
 ■I I 
 
 John has frequently been advised to have the old edifice 
 thoroughly overhauled, and to have some of tlie useless pnrts 
 pulled down, and the others strengthened with their materials; 
 but the old gentleman always grows testy on this subject. He 
 swears the house is an excellent house — ihat it is tight and 
 weather-proof, and not to be shalven I)}- tempests — that it has 
 stood for several hundred years, and therefore, is not likely to 
 tumble down now — that as to its being inconvenient, his family 
 is accustomed to tlie inconveniences, and would not be comfort- 
 able without them — that as to its unwieldy size and irregular 
 construction, these result from its being tlie growtli of centuries, 
 and being improved by the wisdom of every generation — that 
 an Old family, like his, requires a large house to dwell in ; new, 
 upstart families may live in modern cottages and snug boxes, 
 but an old English family should inhal)it an old Knglisli manor- 
 house. If you point out any part of the building as superlluous, 
 he insists that it is material to the strength or decoration of the 
 rest, and the harmony of the whole ; and swears that the parts 
 are so built into each other ; that, if you pull down one you run 
 the risk of having the whole about your ears. 
 
 The secret of the matter is, that John has a great disposition 
 to protect and patronize. He thinks it indif^pensable to the 
 dignity of an ancient and honorable family, to be bounteous in 
 its appointments, and to l)e eaten i;p by dependants ; and so, 
 partly from pride, and partly from kind-heartedness, he makes 
 it a rule always to give shelter and maintenance to his sui)er- 
 annuated servants. 
 
 The consequence is, that, like many other venerable family 
 establishments, his manor is encumbered by old retainers wlioni 
 he cannot turn off, and an old style whieli lie cannot lay down. 
 His mansion is like a great hospital of invalids, and, wilii all its 
 magnitude, is not a whit too large for its inhabitants. Not a 
 nook or corner but is of use in houshig some useless personage. 
 Groups of veteran beef-eaters, gouty pensioners, and retired 
 heroes of the buttery and the larder, are seen lolling about its 
 walls, crawling over its lawns, dozing under its trees, or sunning 
 themselves upon the benches at its doors. Every oflice and 
 out-house is garrisoned by these supernumeraries and their 
 families; for they are amazingly prolific, and when they die off, 
 are sure to leave John a legacy of hungry mouths to be provided 
 for. A mattock cannot be struck against the most mouldering 
 tumble-down tower, but out pops, from some cranny, or loop- 
 hole, the gray pate of some superannuated hanger-on, who has 
 lived at John's expense all his Ufe, and makes the most gricvouy 
 
JOHN BULL. 
 
 239 
 
 outcry, at their pulling down the roof from over the head of a 
 worn-out servant of the family. This is an appeal that John's 
 honest heart never can withstand ; so that a man who has faith- 
 fully eaten his beef and pudding all his life, is sure to be 
 rewarded with a pipe and tankard in his old days. 
 
 A great part of his park, also, is turned into paddocks, where 
 his broken-down chargers are turned loose to graze undisturbed 
 for the remainder of their existence — a worthy example of 
 grateful recollection, which if some of his neighbors were to 
 imitate, would not be to their discredit. Indeed, it is one of his 
 great pleasures to point out these old steeds to his visitors, to 
 dwell on their good qualities, extol their past services, and 
 boast, with some little vainglory, of the perilous adventures 
 and hardy exploits through which they have carried him. 
 
 He is given, however, to indulge his veneration for family 
 usages, and family encumbrances, to a whimsical extent. His 
 manor is infested by gangs of gypsies ; yet he will not suffer 
 ihem to be driven off, because they have infested the place time 
 out of mind, and been regular poachers upon ever}' generation 
 of the family. He will scarcely permit a dry branch to be 
 loppecT from the great trees that surround the house, lest it 
 should molest the rooks, that have bred there for centuries. 
 Owls have taken possession of the dove-cote, but they are hered- 
 itary owls, and must not be disturbed. Swallows have nearly 
 choked up every chimney with their nests ; martins build in 
 every frieze and cornice ; crows flutter about the towers, and 
 perch on every weathercock ; and old gray-headed rats may be 
 seen in every quarter of the house, running in and out of their 
 holes undauntedly in broad daylight. In short, John has such 
 a revereuce for every thing that has been long in the family, 
 that he will not hear oven of abuses being reformed, because 
 they are good old family abuses. 
 
 All these whims and habits have concurred wofuUy to drain 
 the old gentleman's purse ; and as he prides himself on punctu- 
 ality in money matters, and wisbes to maintain his credit in 
 the neighborhood, they have caused him great perplexity in 
 meeting his engagements. This, too, has been increased by 
 the altercations and heartburnings which are continually taking 
 place in his family. His children have been brought up to dif- 
 ferent callings, and are of different ways of thinking ; and as 
 they have always been allowed to speak their minds freely, they 
 do not fail to exercise the privilege most clamorously in the 
 present posture of his affairs. Some stand up for the honor 
 of the race, and are clear that the old establishment should be 
 
 ufL 
 
 :ii 
 
 |i 
 
 tti 
 
240 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 P! 
 
 
 kept up in all its state, whatever may be the cost ; others, who 
 are more prudent and considerate, entreat the old gentleman 
 to retrench his expenses, and to put his whole system of house- 
 keeping on a more moderate footing. He has, indeed, at times, 
 seemed inclined to listen to their opinions, but their wholesome 
 advice has b?en completely defeated by the obstreperous c(m- 
 duct of one tf liis sons. This is a noisy rattle-pated fellow, 
 of rather low habits, who neglects his business to frequent ale- 
 houses — is the orator of village clubs, and a complete oracle 
 among the poorest of his father's tenants. No sooner does he 
 hear any of his brothers mention reform or retrenchment, tluin 
 up he jumps, takes the words out of their mouths, and roars 
 out for an overturn. When his tongue is once going, nothing 
 can stop it. He rants about the room ; hectors the old man 
 about his spendthrift practices ; ridicules his tastes and pnr- 
 suits ; insists that he shall turn the old servants out of doors ; 
 give the broken-down horses to i^"- hounds ; send the fat chap- 
 lain packing and take a field-preachei in his place — nay, that 
 the whole family mansion shall be levelled with the ground, 
 and a plain one of brick and mortar built in its place. He rails 
 at every social entertainment and family festivity, rnd skulks 
 away growling to the ale-house whenever an equipages drives up 
 to the door. Though constantly complaining of the emptiness 
 of his purse, yet he scruples not to spend all his pocket-money 
 in these tavern convocations, and even runs up scores for the 
 liquor over which he preaches about his father's extravagance. 
 
 It may readily be imagined how little such thwarting agrees 
 with the old cavalier's fiery temperament. He has become so 
 irritable, from repeated crossings, that the mere mention of 
 retrenchment or reform is a signal for a brawl between him and 
 the tavern oracle. As the latter is too sturdy and refractory 
 for paternal discipline, having .grown out of all fear of the 
 cudgel, they have frequent scenes of wordy warfare, which at 
 times run so high, that John is fain to <;all in the aid of his son 
 Tom, an oflScerwhohas served abroad, but is at present living 
 at home, on half-pay. This last is sure to stand by the old 
 gentleman, right or wrong; likes nothing so much as a racket- 
 ing roystering life ; and is ready, at a wink or nod, to out sabre, 
 and flourish it over the orator's head, if he dares to array him- 
 self against paternal authority. 
 
 These family dissensions, as usual, have got abroad, and are 
 rare food for scandal in .John's neighborhood, People begi" 
 to look wise, and shake their heads, whenever his affairs arc 
 mentioned. They all " hope that matters are not so bad with 
 
JOHN BULL. 
 
 241 
 
 bim as represented ; but when a man's own children begin to 
 rail at his extravagance, things must be badly managed. They 
 understand he is mortgaged over bead and ear«, and is contin- 
 ually dabbling with money-lenders. He is certainly an open- 
 handed old gentleman, but they fear he has lived too fast; 
 indeed, they never knew any good oome of this fondness for 
 liunting, racing, revelling, and prize-fighting. In short, Mr. 
 Hull's estate is a very fine one, and has beeu in the family a 
 long while ; but for all that, they have known many finer es- 
 tates come to the hammer." 
 
 What is worst of all, is the effect which these pecuniary em- 
 barrassments and domestic feuds have had on the poor man 
 himself. Instead of that jolly round corporation, and smug 
 rosy face, which he used to present, he has of late become as 
 shrivelled and shrunk as a frostbitten apple. His scarlet gold- 
 laced waistcoat, which bellied out so bravely in those prosper- 
 ous days when he sailed before the wind, now hangs loosely 
 about him like a mainsail in a calm. His leather breeches are 
 all in folds and wrinkles ; and apparently have much ado i^ 
 hold up the 'iOo!i that yawn on both sides of his once sturdy 
 legs. 
 
 Instead of strutting about, as formerly, with his three-cor- 
 nered hat on one side ; flourishing his cudgel, and bringing it 
 down every moment with a hearty thump upon the ground ; 
 looking every one sturdily in the face, and trolling out a stave 
 of a catch or a drinking song; he now goes about whistling 
 thoughtfully to himself, with his head drooping down, his cud- 
 gel tucked under his arm, and his hands thrust to the bottom 
 of Ills breeches pockets, which are evidently empty. 
 
 Such is the plight of honest John Bull at present ; yet for all 
 this, the old fellow's spirit is as tall and as gallant as ever. If 
 you drop the least expression of sympathy or concern, he takes 
 fire in an instant; swears that he is the richest and stoutest 
 fellow in the country ; talks of laying out large sums to adorn 
 his house or buy another estate ; and, with a valiant swagger 
 and grasping of his cudgel, longs exceedingly to have another 
 bout at quarterstaflf. 
 
 Though there may be something rather whimsical in all this, 
 yet I confess I cannot look upon John's situation without strong 
 feelings of interest. With all his odd humors and obstinate 
 prejudices he is a sterling-hearted old blade. He may not be 
 so wonderfully fine a fellow as he thinks himself, but he is at 
 least twice as good as his neighbors represent him. His virtues 
 are all his own ; all plain, homebred, and unaffected. His very 
 
 ! '» 
 
242 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 faults smack of the raciness of his good qualities. His extrava< 
 gance savors of his generosity ; his quarrelsomeness, of hia 
 courage ; his creduhty, of liis open faith ; his vanity, of his 
 pride ; and his bluntness, of his sincerity. They are all the 
 redundancies of a rich and liberal cliaraeter. He is lii<e his own 
 oak ; rough without, but sound and solid within ; whose bark 
 abounds witli excrescences in proportion to the growth and 
 grandeur of tlie timber ; and wliose branches make a fearful 
 groaning and murnuiring in the least storm, from their very 
 magnitude and luxuriance. Tliere is soniething, too, in the ap 
 pearaiicc of iiis old fauiily mansion, that is extremel}' poetican 
 and i)icturesque ; and, as long as it can be rendered comforta- 
 bly habitable, I should almost tremble to see it meddled with 
 during the present conliict of tastes and opinions. Some of 
 his advisers are no doubt gooil arciiitec-ts, that might l)e of 
 service; l)ut m;iny, I fear, are mere levellers, who, when they 
 had once got to work with their mattocks ou this venerable 
 edifice, would never stop until they had brought it to the ground, 
 and perhaps buried themselves among the ruins. All that I 
 wish, is, that John's present troubles may teach him more pru- 
 dence in future ; that he may cease to distress his mind about 
 other people's affairs ; that he may give up the fruitless attempt 
 to promote the good of his neighbors, and the peace and happi- 
 ness of the world, by dint of the cudgel ; thji< he may remain 
 quietly :it lionic ; gradually get his house into repair; cultivate 
 his rich estate according to his fanc} ; husband his income — if 
 he thinks proper; bring his unruly children into order — if he 
 can ; renew tiie jovial scenes of ancient prosperity ; and long 
 enjoy, on his paternal lands, a green, an honorable, and a merry 
 old age. 
 
 THE riUDE OF TIIE VILLAGE. 
 
 M.iy no wolt'o howle : no Bcreech-owie Btlr 
 
 A wiiiij ubout thy Mcpulchre! 
 
 No boydlerous winds or HtormeB come hither, 
 
 To ntarve or wither 
 Thy soft Bwcet eartli! Inii, lllic a tmring, 
 Love iieep it ever (lourinhiiig. — IIkkkick. 
 
 Tn the course of an excursion tlirough one of the remote 
 counties of Englaud, I had struck into one of those cross-roads 
 that lead thiough the more secluded parts of the country, and 
 
TUHJ PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE. 
 
 243 
 
 Jva* 
 
 bia 
 
 his 
 
 I the 
 
 )wn 
 
 fark 
 land 
 Irfui 
 
 Btopped one afternoon at a village, the situation of which waa 
 heautifully rural and retired. There was an air of primitive 
 einiplicity about its inhabitants, not to be found in the villages 
 wliich lie on the great coaeh-:oads. I determined to pass the 
 night there, and having taken an early dinner, strolled out to 
 enjoy the neighboring scenery. 
 
 My ramble, as is usually the case with travellers, soon led 
 me to the church, which stood at a little distance from the vil- 
 lage. Indeed, it was an cbject of some curiosity, its old tower 
 being completely overrun with ivy, so that only here and there 
 a jutting buttress, an angle of gray wall, or a fantastically 
 carved oitiament, peered tlu'ough tiie verdant covering. It was 
 a lovely evening. Tlie early part of the day had been dark and 
 but in the afternoon it had cleared up : and though 
 
 sliowery, 
 
 sullen clouds still hung overhead, yet there was a broad tract of 
 golden sky in the west, from which the setting sun gleamed 
 through the dripping leaves, and lit up all naturt with a melan- 
 choly smile. It seemed like tlie parting hour of a good Chris- 
 tian, smiling on the sins and sorrows of the world, and giving, 
 in the serenity of his decline, an assurance that he will rise 
 again in glory. 
 
 I had seated myself on a half-sunken tombstone, and was 
 musing, as one is apt to do at tliis sober-thoughted hour, on 
 past scenes, and early friends — on those who were distant, and 
 those who were dead — and indulgino; in that kind of melan- 
 choly fancying, whicli has in it sometliing sweeter even than 
 pleasure. Every now and then, the stroke of a bell from the 
 neighboring tower fell on my ear ; its tones were in unison 
 witli the scene, and instead of jarring, chimed in with my feel- 
 ings ; and it was some time before I recollected, that it must be 
 tolling the knell of some new tenant of the tomb. 
 
 Presently' I saw a funeral train moving across the village 
 >,Tcen ; it wound slowly along a lane ; was lost, and reappeared 
 ihrough the breaks of the hedges, until it passed the place 
 where 1 was sitting. The pall was supported by young girls, 
 dressed in white ; and another, about the age of seventeen, 
 walked before, bearing a chaplet of white flowers : a token that 
 tlie deceased was a young and unmarried female. The corpse 
 was followed by the parents. They were a venerable couple, of 
 the better order of peasantry. The father seemed to repress 
 his feelings ; but his fixed eye, contracted brow, and deeply- 
 TuiTowed face, showed the struggle that was passing witliin. 
 Ills wile hung on his arm, and wept aloud with the convulsivQ 
 bursts of a mother's sorrow. 
 
 I'i 
 
 Ji' 
 
244 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 
 M ': 
 
 I followed the funeral into the church. The bier was placed 
 in the centre aisle, and the chaplet of white flowers, with a pair 
 of white gloves, were hung over the seat which the deceased 
 had occupied. 
 
 Every one knows the soul-subduing pathos of the funeral 
 service ; for who is so fortunate as never to have followed some 
 one he has loved to the tomb? but when performed over the 
 remains of innocence and beauty, thus laid low in the bloom of 
 existence — what can be more affecting? At that simple, but 
 Liost solemn consignment of the body to the grave — " Earth to 
 earth — ashes to ashes — dust to dust ! " the tears of the youth- 
 ful companions of the deceased flowed unrestrained. The 
 father still seemed to struggle with his feelings, and to comfort 
 himself with the assurance, that the dead are blessed which die 
 in the Lord : but the mother only thought of her child as a 
 flower of the field, cut down and withered in the midst of its 
 sweetness: she was like Rachel, 'mourning over her children, 
 and would not be comforted." 
 
 On returning to the inn, I learnt the whole story of the 
 deceased. It was a simple one, and such as has often been 
 told. She had been the beauty and pride of the village. Her 
 father had once been an opulent farmer, but was reduced in 
 circumstances. This was an only child, and brought up en- 
 tirely at home, in the simplicity of rural life. She had been 
 the pupil of the village pastor, the favorite lamb of his little 
 flock. The good man watched over her education with pater- 
 nal care ; it was limited, and suitable to the sphere in wliich 
 she was to move ; for he only sought to make her an ornament 
 to her station in life, not to raise her above it. The tender- 
 ness and indulgence of her parents, and the exemption from 
 all ordinary occupations, had fostered a natural grace and deli- 
 cacy of character tliat accorded with the fragile loveliness of 
 her form. She appeared like some tender plant of the gar- 
 den, blooming accidentally amid the hardier natives of the 
 liekls. 
 
 The superiority of her charms was felt and acknowledged by 
 her companions, but without envy ; for it was surpassed by the 
 unassuming gentleness and winning kindness of her manners. 
 It might be truly said of her, — 
 
 ' This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever 
 Ran on the greeiiBwurd : nothini» Hhe doei or Beemii, 
 But emacki ot Hoiuulhiufr greater than herself; 
 Too noble for Uiu place." 
 
THE PRIDE OF TUE VILLAGE. 
 
 245 
 
 The village was one of those sequestered spots, which still 
 retain some vestiges of old English customs. It had its rural 
 festivals and holyday pastimes, and still kept up some faint 
 observance of the once popular rites of May. These, indeed, 
 had been promoted by its present pastor ; who was a lover of 
 old customs, and one of thosf simple Christians that think their 
 mission fulfilled by promoting joy on earth and good-will among 
 mankind. Under his auspices the May-pole stood from year 
 to year in the centre of the village green ; on May-day it was 
 de crated with garlands and streamers ; and a queen or lady of 
 th . May was appointed, as in former times, to preside at the 
 sports, and distribute the prizes and rewards. The picturesque 
 situation of the village, and the fancifulness of its rustic fetes, 
 would often attract the notice of casual visitors. Among tliese, 
 on one May-day, was a young officer, whose regiment had been 
 recently quartered in the neighborhood. He was charmed with 
 the native taste that pervaded this village pageant ; but, above 
 all, with the dawning loveliness of the queen of May. It was 
 the village favorite, who was crowned with flowers, and blush- 
 ing and smiling in all the beautiful confusion of girlish diffi- 
 dence and delight. The artlessness of rural habits enabled 
 him readily to make her acquaintance ; he gradually won his 
 way into her intimacy ; and paid his court to her in that unthink- 
 ing way in which young officers are too apt to trifle with rustic 
 simplicity. 
 
 There was nothing in his advances to startle or alarm. He 
 never even talked of love ; but there are modes of making it, 
 more eloquent than language, and which convey it subtilely and 
 irresistibly to the heart. The beam of the eye, the tone of 
 voice, the thousand tendernesses which emanate from every 
 word, and look, and action — these form the true eloquence of 
 love, and can always be felt and understood, but never de- 
 scribed. Can we wonder that they should readily win a heart, 
 young, guileless, and susceptible ? As to her, she loved almost 
 unconsciously ; she scarcely inquired what was the growing pas- 
 sion that was absorbing every thought and feeling, or what were 
 to be its consequences. She, indeed, looked not to the future. 
 When present, his looks and words occupied her whole atten- 
 tion ; when absent, she thought but of what had passed at their 
 recent interview. She would wander with him through the 
 green lanes and rural scenes of the vicinity. He taught her 
 to see new beauties in nature ; he talked in the language of 
 polite and cultivated life, and breathed into her ear the witch- 
 eries of romance and poetrr. 
 
246 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK^ 
 
 Perhaps there could not have been a passion, between the 
 sexes, more pure than this innocent girl's. The gallant figure 
 of her youthful admirer, and the splendor of his military attue, 
 might at first have charmed her eye ; but it was not these that 
 had captivated her heart. Her attachment liad something in it 
 of idolatry ; she looked up to him as to a being of a superior 
 order. She felt in his society the enthusiasm of a mind natu- 
 rally delicate and poetical, and now first awakened to a keen 
 perception of the beautiful and grand. Of the sordid distinc- 
 tions of rank and fortune, she thought nothing ; it was the 
 difference of intellect, of demeanor, of manners, from those 
 of the rustic society to which she had been accustomed, tliat 
 elevated hira in her opinion. She would listen to him with 
 charmed ear and downcast look of mute delight, and her check 
 would mantle with enthusiasm : or if ever she ventured a shy 
 glance of timid admiration, it was as quickly withdrawn, anti 
 she would sigh and blush at the idea of her comparative un- 
 worthiness. 
 
 Her lover was equally impassioned ; but his passion was 
 mingled with feelings of a coarser nature. He had begun the 
 connection in levity ; for he had often heard his brother ofti :;ers 
 boast of their village conquests, and thought some triunpl of 
 the kind necessary to his reputation a.-i a man of spirit, iiut 
 he was too full of youthful fervor. His iicart had not yet been 
 rendered sufficiently cold and selfisli by a wandering and a dis- 
 sipated life : it caught fire from the very flame it souglit to 
 kindle ; and before he was aware of the nature of his situation, 
 he became really in love. 
 
 What was he to do? Tiiere were the old obstacles which so 
 incessantly occur in these heedlrss attachments. His rank in 
 life — the prejudices of tilled connections — his (Impendence 
 upon a proud and unyielding father — all forbade him to think 
 of matrimony: — but when he looked down upon this innocent 
 being, so tender and confiding, there was a purity in her man- 
 ners, a blamelessness in her life, ancl a beseeching modesty in 
 her looks, that awed down every licentious feeling. In vain 
 did he try to fortify liimself, by a thousand heartless examples 
 of men of fashion, and to chill the glow of generous sentiment, 
 with that cold derisive levity with which he iiad heard them talk 
 of female virtue ; whenever he came into her presence, she was 
 still surrounded by that mysterious, but impassive charm of 
 virgin purity, in whose hallowed sphere no guilty tliought can 
 live. 
 
 The sudden an-ival of orders for the regiment to repair to 
 
THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE. 
 
 24) 
 
 the 
 
 ohe continent, completed the confusion of his mind. He re- 
 mained for a short time in a state of tiie most painful irresolu- 
 tion ; he hesitated to connnunicate the tidings, until the day 
 for marching was at hand ; when he gave her the intelligence 
 in the course of an evening ramble. 
 
 The idea of parting hud never before occurred to her. It 
 broke in at once upon her dioam of felicity ; she looked upon 
 it as a sudden and insurmountable evil, and wopt with the guile- 
 less simplicity of a child. He drew her to his bosom and kissed 
 the tears from her soft check, nor did he meet with a repulse, 
 for there are moments of mingled sorrow and tenderness, which 
 (iallow the caresses of affection. He was naturally impetuous, 
 and the sight of beauty apparently yielding in his arms, the 
 confidence of his power over her, and the dread of losing her 
 forever, all conspired to overwhelm his better feelings — he 
 ventured to propose that she should leave her home, and be the 
 companion of his fortunes. 
 
 He was quite a novice in seduction, and blushed and faltered 
 at his own baseness ; but, so innocent of mind was his intended 
 victim, that she was at first at a loss to comprehend his mean- 
 ing ; — and why she should leave her native village, and th«/ 
 humble roof of her parents. When at last the nature of lii.> 
 proposals flashed upon her pure mind, the effect was withet 
 ing. She did not weep — she did not break forth into re 
 proaches — she said not a word — but she shrunk back aghasi* 
 as from a viper, gave him a look of anguish that pierced to hia 
 very soul, and clasping her hands in agony, fled, as if for refuge, 
 to her father's cottage. 
 
 The officer retired, confounded, humiliated, and repentant. 
 It is uncertain what might have been the result of the conflict 
 of his feelings, had not his thoughts been diverted by tha 
 bustle of departure. New scenes, new pleasures, and nev.r 
 companions, soon dissipated his self-reproach, and stilled his 
 tenderness. Yet, amidst the stir of camps, the revelries of 
 garrisons, the array of armies, and even the din of battles, his 
 thoughts would sometimes steal back to the scenes of rural 
 quiet and village simplicity — the white cottage — the fcjotpath 
 ttlong the silver brook and up the hawthorn hedge, and the 
 little village maid loitering along it, leaning on his arm and 
 listening to him with eyes beaming with unconscious affection. 
 
 The shock which the poor girl had received, in the destruc- 
 tion of all her ideal world, had indeed been cruel. Paintings 
 and hysterics had at first shaken her tender frame, and were 
 succeeded by a settled and pining melancholy. She had beheld 
 
248 
 
 THE SKKTCri HOOK. 
 
 from her window the march of tlie departing troops. She h.-id 
 eeen her faithless lovor liorne off, as if in triumph, amidst tho 
 sound of drum and trumpet, and the [)omp of arms. SIk, 
 strained a last aching gaze after him, as tiio nioiiiing sun glit- 
 tered about his figure, and his plume waved in the I>reo'',e; ho 
 passed away like a bright "iaiou from her sight, and left her all 
 in darkness. 
 
 It would be trite to dwell on the particulars of her after- 
 story. It was like other tales of love, mclanchol}-. She avoided 
 society, and wandered out alone in the walks she iiad most, 
 frequented with her lover. .She sought, like the stricken doer, 
 to weep in silence and loneliness, and brood over the barbed 
 sorrow that rankled in her soul. Sometimes she would be seen 
 late of an evening sitting in the porch of a village church; 
 and the milk-maids, returning from the fields, would now iuul 
 then overhear her, singing some plaintive ditty in the haw- 
 thorn walk. She became fervent in her devotions at church ; 
 and as the old people saw her approach, so wasted away, yet 
 with a hectic bloom, and that hallowed air wliich melancholy 
 diffuses round the form, they would make way for her, as for 
 something spiritual, and, looking after her, would shake tlitir 
 heads in gloomy foreboding. 
 
 She felt a conviction that she was hastening to the tomb, but 
 looked forward to it as a place of rest. The silver cord that 
 had bound her to existence was loosed, and there seemed to I)i! 
 no more pleasure under the sun. If ever her gentle bosom had 
 entertained resentment against her lover, it was extinguished. 
 She was incapable of angry passions, and in a momciit of sad- 
 dened tenderness she penned him a farewell letter. It vras 
 couched in the simplest language, but touching from its very 
 simplicity. She told him that she was dying, and did not 
 conceal from him that his conduct was the cause. She even 
 depicted the sufferings which she had cx[)erienced ; but con- 
 cluded with saying, that she could not die in peace, until she 
 bad sent him her forgiveness and her blessing. 
 
 By degrees he- strength declined, and she could no longer 
 leave the cottagf • : could only totter to the window, where, 
 propped up in her v,.ia.r, it was her enjoyment to sit all day 
 and look out upon the landscape. Still she uttered no com- 
 plaint, nor imparted to any one the malady that was preying 
 on her heart. She ".'.ever even mentioned her hover's name ; 
 but would lay her head on her mother's bosom and weep iu 
 silence. Her poor parents hung, in mute anxiety, over tlii^ 
 fa ting blossom of their hopes, still llattering themselves thut it 
 
 ■t.--^f- p , .»i>a> n »i4 n gi^<i>.»i.i» iiiii im iM 
 
THE PRIDE OF THE VILLAGE. 
 
 249 
 
 might again revive to fieshness, and that the bright unearthly 
 blouin wliieh Hoinetinieu tlubhed her ehcci^, might be the promise 
 of returning he:ilth. 
 
 In lliis way .she was seated between them one Sunday after- 
 noon ; her iiancls were clasped in theirs, the lattice was thrown 
 open, and tiic soft air that stole in, brought with it the fra- 
 <irance of the clustering honeysuckle, which her own hands 
 had trained round the window. 
 
 Her father had just been reading a chapter in the Bible ; it 
 spoke of the vanity of worldly things, and of the joys of heaven ;' 
 it seemed to liave diffused comfort and serenity through hei' 
 bosom. Her eye was (ixed on the distant village church — the 
 bi'il had tolled for the evening service — the last villager was 
 lagging into the porch — and every thing had sunk into that 
 hallowed stillness peculiar to the day of rest. Her parents 
 were gazing on her with yearning hearts. Sickness and sor- 
 row, which pass so roughly over some faces, had given to hers 
 the expression of a seraph's. A tear trembled in her soft 
 blue eye. — Was she thinking of her faithless lover? — or were 
 her thoughts wandering to that distant churchyard, into whose 
 bosom she might soon be gathered ? 
 
 Suddenly the clang of hoofs was heard — a horseman galloped 
 to the cottage — he dismounted before the window — the poor 
 gill gave a faint exclamation, and sunk back in her chair: — it 
 was her repentant lover! He rushed into the house, and flew 
 to clasp her to his bosom ; but her wasted form — her death-like 
 countenance — so wan, yet so lovely in its desolation — smote 
 l>lm to the soul, and he threw himself in agony at her feet. 
 She was too faint to rise — she attempted to extend her trem- 
 bling hand — her lii)s moved as if she spoke, but no word was 
 aitit'ulated — she looked down upon him with a smile of unut- 
 terable tenderness, and closed her eyes forever. 
 
 Such are the particulars which I gathered of this village 
 jtory. They :ue but scanty, and I am conscious have little^ 
 novelty to recommend them. In the present rage also for 
 strange ineitlent and high-seasoned narrative, they may appear 
 trite and insignificant, but they interested me strongly at the 
 time ; and, taken in connection with the affecting ceremony 
 which I had just witnessed, left a deeper impression on my 
 mind than many circumstances of a more striking nature. I 
 have passed through the place since, and visited the church 
 again from a better motive than mere curiosity It was a 
 wintry evening ; the trees were stripped of their foliage ; the 
 churchyard looked naked and mournful, and the wind rustled 
 
 ! 
 
250 
 
 TUE SKETCU-BOOK. 
 
 coldly through the dry grass. Evergreens, however, had been 
 planted ul)out the grave of the village favorite, and osiers were 
 bent over it to keep the turf uninjured. The church-door was 
 open, and 1 stepped m. — There hung the chaplet of flowers 
 and the gloves, as on the day of the funeral : the flowers were 
 withered, it is true, but care seemed to have been taken that no 
 dust should soil their whiteness. I have seen many monunieiils, 
 where art has exhausted its powers to awaken the synipiiHiv 
 of the spectator; but I have met with none that spoke uu>\\'. 
 touchingly to my heart, than this simple, but delicate nienu'utc 
 of departed innocence. 
 
 THE ANGLER. 
 
 This day (Isimc Nature §eeraed In love, 
 
 The lUKty . -xp begun to inovu, 
 
 Fresh juice I'l stir th* embrucliis vhies, 
 
 And birdx hua drawn their viileiitinvH. 
 
 The jealoui* trout tliut low did lie, 
 
 KoBC at a well dlHHetnbled lly. 
 
 There stood my friend, with puticnt rIvIII, 
 
 Attending of hix treniblin« quill.— Siu H. WoTTOK. 
 
 It is said that many an unlucky urchin is induced to run 
 away from his family, and betake himself to a seafaring life, 
 from reading the liistory of Robinson Crusoe ; and I suspect 
 that, in like manner, many of those worthy gentlemen, who 
 are given to haunt the sides of pastoral streams with angle- 
 rods in hand, may trace the origin of their passion to the seduc- 
 tive pages of honest Izatik Walton. I recollect studying his 
 "Complete Angler" several years since, in compau}' with a 
 knot of friends in America, and, moreover, that we were all 
 completely bitten with the angling mania. It was early in tlie 
 year ; but as soon as the weather was auspicious, and that 
 the spring began to melt into the verge of summer, we took rod 
 in hand, and sallied into the country, as stark mad as was ever 
 Don Quixote from reading books of chivalry. 
 
 One of our party had equalled the Don in the fulness of his 
 equipments ; being attired cap-a-pie for the enterprise. He 
 wore a broad-skirted fustian coat, perplexed with half a hun- 
 dred pockets ; a pair oi stout shoes, and leathern gaiters ; a 
 basket slung on one side for lish ; a patent rod ; a landing net, 
 and a score of other incouveaiences only to be found in the 
 
THE ANGLER. 
 
I 
 
 
THE ANGLER. 
 
 251 
 
 true angler's armory. Thus liarnesscd for the field, he was as 
 great a matter of stare and wonderment among the country 
 folk, who had never seen a regular angler, as was the steel-clad 
 hero of La Maneha among the goat-herds of the Sierra Morena. 
 
 Our first essay was along a mountain brook, among the 
 highlands of the Hudson — a most unfortunate place for the 
 execution of those piscatory tactics which had been invented 
 along the velvet margins of quiet English rivulets. It was one 
 of tiiose wild streams that lavish, among our romantic soli- 
 tudes, unheeded beauties, euougli to fill the sketch-book of a 
 hunter of the picturesque. Sometimes it would leap down 
 rocky shelves, making small cascades, over which the trees 
 threw their broad balancing sprays ; and long nameless weeda 
 hung in fringes from the impending banks, dripping with dia- 
 mond drops. Sometimes it would brawl and fret along a ravine 
 in the matted shade of a forest, filling it with murmurs ; and 
 after this termagant career, would steal forth into open day 
 with the most pUieid demure face imaginable ; as I have seen 
 some pestilent shrew of a housewife, after filling her home with 
 uproar and ill-humor, come dimpling out of doors, swimming, 
 and courtesying, and smiling upon all the world. 
 
 How smoothl}' would this vagrant brook glide, at such times, 
 througii some bosom of green meadow land, among the moun- 
 tains ; where the quiet was only interrupted by the occasional 
 tinkling of a bell from the lazy cattle among the clover, or the 
 sound of a wood-cutter's axe from the neighboring forest ! 
 
 For my part, I was always a bungler, at all kinds of sport 
 that required either patience or adroitness, and had not angled 
 above half an hour, before I had completely " satisfied the sen- 
 timent," and convinced myself of the truth of Izaak Walton's 
 opinion, that angling is something like poetry — a man must be 
 born to it. I hooked myself instead of the fish ; tangled my 
 line in every tree ; lost my bait ; bri«ke my rod ; until I gave up 
 the attempt in despair, and passed the day under the trees, 
 reading old Izaak : satisfied that it was his fascinating vein of 
 honest simi)licity and rural feeling that had bewitched me, and 
 not the passion for angling. My companions, however, were 
 more persevering in their (lehision. I have them at this mo- 
 ment before my eyes, stealing along the border of the brook, 
 where it lay open to the day, or was merely fringed b}' shrubs 
 and bushes. 1 see the bittern rising with hollow scream, as 
 they bri'uk in upon his rarely-invaded haunt; the kingfisher 
 watc'liing tlieni suspiciously from his dry tree that overhangs 
 the deep black mill-pond, iu the gorge of the hills; the tortoise 
 
 il 
 
 r, '■ 
 
 i irji 
 
252 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ■ -vj 
 
 letting himself slip sideways from off the stone or log on which 
 he is sunning himself; and the pauie-struek frog plumping 
 in headlong as they approach, and spreading an alarm througli- 
 out the watery world around. 
 
 I recollect, also, that, after toiling and watching and creep- 
 ing about for tlie greater part of a day, witli scarcely any suc- 
 cess, in spite of all our admirable apparatus, a lubberly couutry 
 urchin came down from the hills, with a rod made from a 
 branch of a tree ; a few yards of twine ; and, as heaveu shall 
 help me ! I believe a crooked pin for a hook, baited with a vile 
 earth-worm — and in half an hour caught more fish tliau we had 
 nibbles throughout the day. 
 
 But above ail, I recollect the " good, honest, wholesome, 
 hungry" repast, which we made under r beecli-tree just by a 
 spring of pure sweet water, that stole out of tlie side of a hill ; 
 and how, wheu it was over, one of the party read old Izaak 
 Walton's scene with the milkmaid, while 1 lay on the grass 
 and built castles in a bright pile of clouds, until I fell asleep. 
 All this may appear like mere egotism : yet 1 cannot refrain 
 from uttering these recollections which are passing like a strain 
 of music over my mind, and have been called up by an agree- 
 able scene whicli I witnessed not long since. 
 
 In a morning's stroll along the banks of the Alun, a beauti- 
 ful little stream which flows down from the Welsh hills and 
 throws itself into the Dee, my attention was attracted to a 
 group seated on the margin. On approaching, I found it to 
 consist of a veteran angler and two rustic disciples. Tiio 
 former was an old fellow with a wooden leg, with clothes very 
 much, but very carefully patched, betokening poverty, honestly 
 come by, and decently maintained. His face bore tiu marks 
 of former storms, but present fair weatlier ; its furrows had 
 been worn into an habitual smile ; his iron-gray locks hung 
 about his ears, and he had altogether the good-humored air of 
 a constitutional philosopher, who was disposed to take the 
 world as it went. One of his companions was a ragged wight, 
 with the skulking look of an arrant i)oacher, and I'll warrant 
 could find his way to any gentleman's fish-pond in the neigh- 
 lurliood in the darkest night. The other was a tall, awkward, 
 couutry lad, with a lounging gait, and apparently somewhat of 
 a rustic beau. The old man was busy examining the maw of 
 a trout which he had just killed, to discover by its contents 
 what insects were seasonable for bait ; and was lecturing on the 
 subject to his companions, who appeared to listen with infinite 
 deference. I have a kiui' feeling toward all '• brothers of 
 
 muig 
 
TUE ANGLER. 
 
 253 
 
 the angle," evei since I read Izaak Walton. They are men, 
 he affirms, of a " mild, sweet, and peaceable spirit; " and my 
 esteem for them has been increased since 1 met witli an old 
 " Tretyse of fishing with tlie Angle," in which are set forth 
 uiany of the maxims of their inoffensive fraternity. "Take 
 ;.;oode hede," sayeth this honest little tretyse, " that in going 
 ::bout your disportes ye open no man's gates, but that ye siiet 
 tlu'in again. Also ye shall not use this forsayd crafti disport to.- 
 1,0 cuviitousness to the increasing and sparing of your money 
 only, but principally lor your solace and to cause the helth of 
 your body and specyaliy of youi' soule." ^ 
 
 I thought that I could perceive in the veteran angler before 
 me an exemplitication of what I had read ; and there was a 
 clieerful contentedness in his looks, that quite drew me towards 
 him. I could not but remark the gallant manner in which he 
 stumped from one part of the brook to anotlier ; waving iiis 
 rod in the air, to keep the line from dragging on the ground, or 
 catching among the bushes ; and the adroitness witli which he 
 would throw liis tly to any particular place ; sometimes skim- 
 ming it lightly along a little rapid ; sometimes casting it into 
 one of those dark holes made by a twisted root or overhanging 
 bank, in which the large trout are apt to lurk. In the mean- 
 while, he was giving instructions to his two disciples ; showing 
 them the manner in which they should handle their rods, fix 
 their flies, and play them along the surface of the stream. 'J'l.e 
 scene brought to my mind the instructions of the sage Piscator 
 to his scholar. The country around was of that pastoral kind 
 which Walton is fond of describing. It was a part of the great 
 plain of Cheshire, close by the beautiful vale of Gessford, and 
 just where the inferior Welsh hills begin to swell up from 
 among fresh-smelling meadows. The day, too, like that re- 
 corded in his work, was mild and sunshiny ; with now and then 
 a soft dropping shower, that sowed the whole earth with dia- 
 jnonds. 
 
 I soon fell into conversation with the old r.ngler, and was so 
 much entertained, that, under pretext of receiving instructions 
 in his art, I kept company with him almost the whole day ; 
 wandering along the banks of the stream, and listening to his 
 
 > From this samo treatise, it would appear that angling in a more InduHtrloua nnH 
 devout employiuuut thun It is geiieraliy consld'.'red. '' l<\)r wlien ye iJurjiOBe to go on 
 your dIpixirtcM tn (ifliytigc, yo will not dcHyro gn-iitlyn many luTsiiiis with you, \vliit:li 
 miulu let you of ytiur tji""*-'- And tl)rtt ye may serve (fod devoutly in nayinu'p 
 effectually your euxlouialilo prayers. And ihiiH doylug, yo ahull eschew and also 
 nvoyde many vices, ax ydleness, which is principuU cause to Induce man to manv othci 
 ^'ices, M it is rijfbt well kuowu." 
 
254 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 n 
 
 n 
 
 talk. He was very communicative, having all the easy garni- 
 lity of cheerful old age ; and I fancy v/as a little tlaltered by 
 having an opportunity of displayin-j; his piscatory lore ; for wliu 
 does not like now and then to play the sage ? 
 
 He had been much of a rambler in his day ; and had passed 
 some years of his youth in America, particularly in Savannuli, 
 where he had entered into trade, and had been ruined by tlu; 
 indiscretion of a partner. He had afterward experienced many 
 ups and downs in life, until he got into the navy, where his lo 
 was carried away by a cannon-ball, at the battle of Camper 
 down. This was the only stroke of i*eal good fortune he had 
 ever experienced, for it got him a pension, which, together with 
 some small paternal property, brought him in a revenue of 
 nearly forty pounds. On this he retired to his native village, 
 where he lived quietly and independently, and devoted the 
 remainder of his life to the " noble art of angling." 
 
 I found that he had read Izaak AValton attentively, and he 
 seemed to have imbibed all his simple frankness and prevalent 
 good-humor. Though he had been sorely buffeted about the 
 world, he was satisfied that the world, in itself, was good and 
 beautiful. Though he had been as roughly used in different 
 countries as a poor sheep that is fleeced by every hedge and 
 thicket, yet he spoke of every nation with candor and kindness, 
 appearing to look only on the good side of things : and above 
 all, he was almost the only man I had ever met with, who had 
 been an unfortunate adventurer in America, and had honesty 
 and magnanimity enough to take the fault to his own door, and 
 not to curse the country. 
 
 The lad that was receiving his instructions I learnt was the 
 son and heir apparent of a fat old widow, who kei)t the village 
 inn, and of course a youth of some expectation, anc^ ';nich 
 courted by the idle, gentleman-like personages of the place. In 
 taking him under his care, therefore, the old man had probably 
 an eye to a privileged corner in the tap-room, and an occasional 
 cup of cheerful ale free of expense. 
 
 There is certainly something in angling, if we could forget, 
 which anglers are apt to do, the cruelties and tortures inflicted 
 on worms and insects, that tends to produce a gentleness of 
 spirit, and a pure serenity of mind. As the English are me- 
 thodical even in their recreations, and are the most scientific of 
 sportsmen, it has been reduced among them to perfect rule and 
 system. Indeed, "t is an amusement peculiarly adapted to the 
 mild and highly cultivated scenery of England, where every 
 roughness has beea softened awny from tJbe landscape. It is de- 
 
THE ANGLER. 
 
 255 
 
 lightf 111 to saunter along those limpid streams which wander, like 
 veins of silver, through the bosom of this beautiful country ; lead- 
 ing one thrc '»h a diversity of small home scenery; sometimes 
 winding through ornamented grounds ; sometimes brimming along 
 through rich pasturage, where the fresh green is mingled with 
 sweet-smelling flowers, sometimes venturing 'u sight of villages 
 and hamlets ; and then running capriciously away into shady 
 retirements. The sweetness a»id serenity of nature, and the 
 quiet watchfulness of the sport, gradually bring on pleasant fits 
 of musing ; which are now and then agreeably interrupted by 
 the song of a bird ; the distant whistle of the peasant ; or per- 
 haps the vagary of some fish, leaping out of the still water, 
 and skimming transiently about its glassy surface. " When I 
 would beget content," says Izaak Walton, " and increase con- 
 fidence in the power and wisdom and providence of Almighty 
 God, I will walk the meadows by some gliding stream, and 
 there contemplate the lilies that take no care, and those very 
 many other little living creatures that are not only created, but 
 fed, (man knows not how) by the goodness of the God of 
 nature, and therefore trust in him." 
 
 I cannot forbear to give another quotation from one of those 
 ancient champions of angling, which breathes the same innocent 
 and happy spirit : 
 
 !i:i' 
 
 ( 
 
 Let rae live harmleBsly, and near the brink 
 
 Of Trent or Avon have a dwelling-place: 
 Where I may see my quill, or cork down sink, 
 
 With eager bite of Pike, or Bleak, or Dace; 
 And on the world and ray Creator think ; 
 
 While some men etrivc ill-gotten goods t' embrace; 
 And others 8;>end their time in base excess 
 
 Of wine, or worse, in war or wa'itonuess. 
 
 Let them that will, these pastimes still pursue 
 
 And on such pleasing fancies feed their fill, 
 8u I the fields and meadows green may view, 
 
 And daily by fresh rivers walk at will 
 Among the daisies and the violets blue, 
 
 Red hyacinth and yellow daffodil.* 
 
 On parting with the old angler, I inquired after his place of 
 abode, and happening to be in the neighborhood of the village 
 a few evenings afterwards, I had the curiosity to seek him out. 
 I found him living in a small cottage, containing only one 
 
 *■ J. Davora. 
 
 ,1 
 
256 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 f\ 
 
 M 
 
 room, but a perfect curiosity in its method and arrangement. 
 It was on the skirts of the village, on a green bank, a little 
 back from the road, with a small garden in front, stocked with 
 kitchen-herbs, and adorned with a few flowers. The whole 
 front of the cottage was overrun with a honeysuckle. On the 
 top was a ship for a weathercock. The interior was fitted up 
 in a truly nautical style, his ideas of comfort and convenience 
 having been acquired on the berth-deck of a man-of-war. A 
 hammock was slung from the ceiling, which in the day-time was 
 lashed up so as to take but little room. From the centre of the 
 chamber hung a model of a ship, of his own workmanship. Two 
 or three chairs, a table, and a large sea-chest, formed the prin- 
 cipal movables. About the wall were stuck up naval ballads, 
 such as Admiral Hosier's Ghost, All in the Downs, and Tom 
 Bowling, intermingled with pictures of sea-fights, among which 
 the battle of Camperdown held a distinguished place. The 
 mantelpiece was decoi'ated with seashells ; over which hung a 
 quadrant, flanked by two wood-cuts of most bitter-looking 
 naval commanders. His implements for angling were carefully 
 disposed on nails and hooks about the room. On a slit'lf wtis 
 arranged his library, containing a work on jui^iling. nuieh worn : 
 a Bible covered with canvas ; an odd volume or two of voyugos ; 
 a nautical almanac; and a book of songs. 
 
 His family consisted ol" a largo l)hick ( :it. with one eye, juk! ;i 
 parrot which he had caught and tanu'd. and c'(hK'iite(l hinisi'U', 
 ;,i tile course of one of his voyages ; and wiiidi ulter>.d :i v;ii id v 
 of jca ])hrase8, with th ; hoarse orattlingtonoof :i vrV.iTui be..!.. 
 swain. The establishment reminded nio of that of the roiiowncfi 
 Robinson Crusoe; it was kept in neat order, every thing liein ; 
 "stowed away" with the regularity of a shi|) of war; and I;" 
 informed me that he "scoured the deck eveiy morning, antl 
 swept it between meals." 
 
 I found him seated on a bench before the door, smoking liis 
 pipe in the soft evening sunshine. . His cat was purring soberly 
 on the threshold, and his parrot describing some strange evolu- 
 tions in an iron ring, that swung in the centre of his cage. He 
 had been angling all day, and gave me a historj' of his sport 
 with as much minuteness as a general would talk over a cam- 
 paign ; being particularly animated in relating the manner in 
 which he had taken a large trout, which had completely tasked 
 all his skill and wariness, and which he had sent as a trophy to 
 mine hostess of the inn. 
 
 How comforting it is to see a cheerful and contented old ago ; 
 and to behold a poor fellow, like this after being tem[)est-tost 
 
THE ANGLER. 
 
 257 
 
 through life, safely moored in a snug and quiet harbor in the 
 evening of his days ! , His happiness, however, sprung from 
 within himself, and was independent of external circumstances ; 
 for he had that inexhaustible good-nature, which is the most 
 precious gift of Heaven ; spreading itself like oil over the trou- 
 bled sea of thought, and keeping the mind smooth and equable 
 in the rougliest weather. 
 
 On inquiring further about him, I learnt that he was a uni- 
 versal favorite in the village, and the oracle of the tap-room ; 
 where he delighted the rustics with his songs, and, like Sindbad, 
 astonished them with his stories of strange lands, and ship* 
 wrecks, and sea-fights. He was much noticed too by gentlemen 
 sportsmen of the neighborhood ; had taught several of them the 
 art of angling ; and was a privileged visitor to their kitchens. 
 The whole tenor of his life was quiet and inoffensive, being 
 principally passed about the neighboring streams, when the 
 weather and season were favorable ; and at other times he 
 employed himself at horns, preparing his fishing tackle for the 
 next campaign, or manufacturing rods, nets, and flies, for his 
 patrons and pupils among the gentry. 
 
 He was a regular attendant at church on Sundays, though he 
 generally fell asleep during the sermon. He had made it his 
 particular request tliat when he died he should be buried in a 
 green spot, which he could see from his seat in church, and 
 which he had marked out ever since he was a boy, and had 
 thought of when far from home on the raging sea, in danger of 
 being food for the fishes — it was the spot where his father and 
 mother hac' been buried. 
 
 I have done, for I fear that my reader is growing weary ; but 
 I could not refrain from drawing the i)icture of this worthy 
 " brother of the angle ; " who has made me more than ever in 
 love with the theory, though I fear I shall never be adroit in 
 the practice of his art ; and T will conclude this rambling sketch 
 in the words of honest Izaak AValton, by craving tlie blessing 
 of St. Peter's Master upon m}' reader, " and upon all that are 
 true lovers of virtue ; and dare trust in his providence ; and be 
 quiet ; and go a angling." 
 
258 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 (found among the papkrs of the late DIEDRICH 
 
 knickerbocker.) 
 
 A pleaning land of drowgy head it was, 
 
 Of dreamg that wave before the half-»hnt eye; 
 
 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
 
 Forever Hushing round a suramcr sky. — Castle of IndoUnif 
 
 In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which inaent 
 the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of 
 the river denominated by tiie ancient Dutcli navigators the 
 Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail, 
 and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they crossed, 
 there lies a small market town or ruial port, which by some is 
 called Greensburgh, but which is more generally and properly 
 known by the name of Tarry Town. This name was giveu 
 we are told, in former days, by the good housewives of the 
 adjacent country, fioni the inveterate propensity of their hus- 
 bands to linger about the village tavern on market days. lie 
 that as it may„ I do not vouch for the fact, but merely advert 
 to it, for the sake of being precise and authentic. Not far 
 from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little 
 valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of 
 the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides 
 through it, with just muimur enough to lull one to repose ; and 
 the occasional whistle of a quail, or tapping of a woodpecker, 
 is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform 
 tranquillity. 
 
 I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel- 
 shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one 
 side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noon-time when 
 all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of 
 my own gun, as it broke the sabbath stillness around, and was 
 prolonged and reverberated b}' the angry echoes. If ever 1 
 should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world 
 and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a 
 troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little 
 valley. 
 
 From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar char- 
 acter of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original 
 Dutch settlers, this sequeste ed glen has long been known by 
 
 the gt 
 
 being 
 befon 
 Sue 
 which 
 region 
 
 '■J(*-VH..r 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 259 
 
 the name of Sleept Hollow, and its rustic lads are called tha 
 Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. 
 A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and 
 to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was 
 bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of 
 the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prop'iet 
 or wizard of liis tribe, hold his powwows there before the co in 
 try was discovered by jMaster Ilendrick Hudson. Certain ii, is, 
 the place still continues under the 'jway of some witching 
 power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, 
 ciuising them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given 
 to all kinds of marvellous beliefs ; are subject t«o trances and 
 visions, and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and 
 voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local 
 tales, haunted spots, and twilight fuii)erstitions ; stars shoot 
 and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other 
 part of the country', and the night-mare, with her whole nine 
 fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 
 
 The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted 
 region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers 
 of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a 
 head. It is said l)y some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, 
 whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some 
 nameless battle during the revolutionary war, and who is ever 
 and anon seen by the country folk, hurrying along in the gloom 
 of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are 
 not confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adja- 
 cent roads and especially to the vicinity of a church at n'^ 
 great distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic histori- 
 ans of those parts, who have been careful in collecting and 
 collating the floating facts conoerning this spectre, allege, that 
 the body of the trooper having been buried in the churchyard, 
 the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of 
 his head, and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes 
 passes along the hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his 
 being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the churchyard 
 before dajbreak. 
 
 Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, 
 which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that 
 region of shadows ; and the spectre is known at all the country 
 firesides, by the name of The Headless Horseman of Sleepy 
 Hollow. 
 
 It is rennarkable, that the visionary propensity I have men- 
 tioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, 
 
 
 I ■■ '■ 
 
 • '-^ V.^M.^'..i»HU^ . »w * i. 
 
 ^^^^^■•»'^'*-''»--»— ft-* ^' II* »fci» i i^> ►-^■'V*^,*-* - 
 
260 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 ■i 
 
 i)r 
 
 
 but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there 
 for a time. However wide awake they may have been before 
 they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, 
 to inhale the witching influence of the air, and begin to grow 
 imaginative — to dream dreams, and see apparitions. 
 
 I mention this peaceful spot with all possible laud ; for it 
 is in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there 
 embosomed in the great State of New- York, that population, 
 manners, and customs remain fixed, while tiie great torrent of 
 migration and improvement, which is making such incessant 
 changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them 
 unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water, 
 which border a rapid stream, where we may see the straw an(l 
 bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their 
 mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. 
 Though many years have elapsed since I trod the drowsy shades 
 of Sleepy Hollow, yet I question whether I should not still find 
 the same trees and the same families vegetating in its sheltered 
 bosom. ^ 
 
 In this by-plaoe of nature there abode, in a remote period of 
 American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a 
 worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, 
 or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the 
 purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a 
 native of Connecticut, a State which supplies the Union with 
 pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth 
 yearly its legions of frontier woodsmen and country schuol- 
 masters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to 
 his person. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow 
 shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out 
 of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and hia 
 whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, 
 and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and n 
 long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock perched 
 upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To 
 see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day. 
 with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might 
 hare mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon 
 the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield. 
 
 His school-house was a low building of one large room, 
 rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, and 
 partly patched with leaves of old copy-books. It was most in- 
 geniously secured at vacant hours by a wythe twisted in the 
 handle of the door, and stakes set against the window-shutters : 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY BOLLOW. 
 
 set 
 
 might 
 
 go that though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he would 
 lind some embairassment in getting out : — an idea most proba- 
 bly borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten, from the 
 mystery of an eelpot. The school-house stood in a rather 
 lonely but pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, 
 with a brook running close by, and a formidable birch-tree 
 growing at one end of it. From hence the low murmur of his 
 pupil's voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard iu 
 a drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a beehive ; interrupted 
 now and then by the authoiitative voice of the master, in the 
 tone of menace or command ; or, peradventure, by the appall- 
 ing sound of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along 
 the flowery path of knowledge. Truth to say, lie was a con- 
 scientious man, that and bore in mind the golden maxim, 
 "spare the rod and spoil the child." — Ichabod Crane's scholars 
 certainly were not spoiled. 
 
 I would not have it imagined, however, that he was one of 
 those cruel potentates of the school, who joy in the smart of 
 tlieir subjects ; on the contrary, he administered justice with 
 discrimination rather than severity ; taking the burthen off the 
 backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your 
 mere puny stripling that winced at the least flourish of the rod, 
 was passed by with indulgence ; but the claims of justice were 
 satistied by inflicting a double portion on some little, tough, 
 wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who sulked and 
 swelled and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. All 
 this he called '' doing his duty by their parents ; " and he never 
 inflicted a chastisement without following it by the assurance, 
 so consolatory to the smarting urchin, that " he would remem- 
 ber it and thank him for it the longest day he had to live." 
 
 AVhon school hours were over, he was even the companion 
 and playmate of the larger boys ; and on holiday afternoons 
 would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened 
 to have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted 
 for the comforts of the cupboard, indeed, it behooved him to 
 keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising from 
 his school was small, and would have been scarcely sufficient 
 to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge feeder, and 
 though lank, had the dilating powers of an anaconda ; but to 
 help out his maintenance, he was, according to country custom 
 in those parts, boarded and lodged at the houses of the farmers, 
 whose children he instructed With these he lived successively, 
 a week at a time, thus going the rounds of the neighborhoodi 
 with all his worldlv effects? tied up in a cotton handkerchief. 
 
 i-*'.*^* 
 
?62 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 ■:W 
 
 That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his 
 rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a 
 grievous burthen, and sclioolmasters as mere drones, he Imd 
 various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. 
 He assisted the farmers occasionally in tlie lighter labors of 
 their farms ; helped to make hay ; mended tl»e fences ; toolt 
 the horses to water ; drove the cows from pasture ; and cut 
 wood for the winter fire. He laid tiside, too, all the dominiint 
 dignity and absolute sway, with which he lorded it in his little 
 eUipire, the school, and became wonderfully gentle and ingrati- 
 ating. He found favor in the eyes of the mothers, by petting 
 the children, particularly the youngest; and Hkc the lion boUi, 
 which whilom so magnanimously the lamb lid hold, ho would 
 sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with his foot for 
 whole hours together. 
 
 In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing-master 
 of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings by 
 instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of 
 no little vanity to him on Sundays, to take his station in front 
 of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers ; where, in 
 his own mind, he comipletely carried away the palm from the 
 parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the rest 
 of the congregation, and there are peculiar quavers still to be 
 heard in that church, and which may even be heard half a mile 
 off, quite to the opposite side of tlie mill-pond, on a still Sunday 
 morning, which are said to be legitimately descended from the 
 nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers little makeshifts, in 
 that ingenious way which is commonly denominated " by hook 
 and by crook," the worthy pedagogue got on tolerably enough, 
 and was thought, by all who understood nothing of the labor of 
 head-work, to have uiWonderfuUy easy life of it. 
 
 The schoolmaster is generally a man of some importance In 
 the female circle of a rural neighborhood ; being coiisidorcd :i 
 kind of idle gentleman-like personage, of vaslly supeiior taste 
 and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, in- 
 deed, inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearance, 
 therefore, is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a 
 farm-house, and the addition of a s ipernumerary dish of cakes 
 or sweetmeats, or, peradventure, tlm parade of a silver teapot. 
 Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the smiles 
 of all the country damsels. How he would figure among them 
 in the ciiurchyard, between services on Sundays ! gathering 
 grapes for them from the wiltl vines that overrun the surround- 
 ing trees ; reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the 
 
 ' Th( 
 from iu 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 263 
 
 tombstones ; or sauntering with a whole bevy of them, along 
 the banks of tbo adjacont inill-poud : while the more bashful 
 country bumpkins hung sheepishly back, envying his superior 
 elegance and address. 
 
 From his lialf itinerant life, also, he was a kind of travelling 
 jrazette, ciirrying the whole budget of local gossip from house 
 to house ; so thM his appearance was always greeted with satis- 
 taction. He vvas, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man 
 of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, 
 and was a perfect mastter of Cotton Mather's History of New- 
 Eiij^land Witchciaft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and 
 potently believed. 
 
 He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and 
 simple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his 
 powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary ; and both 
 had been increased by his residence in th»s spell-bound region. 
 No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. 
 It vvas often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the 
 afternoon, to stretch himself on the rich bed of clover, border- 
 ing the little brook that whimpered by his school-house, and 
 there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering 
 dusk of evening made the printed page a mere mist before his 
 eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream 
 aud awful woodland, to the farm-house where he happened to 
 be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, 
 fluttered his excited imagination ; the moan of the whip-poor- 
 will ' from the hill-side ; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that 
 harbinger of storm ; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl ; or 
 the sudden rustling in the thicket, of birds frightened from 
 their roost. The tire-Hies, too, which sparkled most vividly in 
 the darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of un- 
 common brightness would stream across his path ; and if, by 
 chance, a huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blunder- 
 ing flight against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the 
 ghost, with the idea that he was struck with a witch's token. 
 His only resource on such occasions, either to drown thought, 
 or drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes ; — and the 
 good people of Sleepy Hollow, as the\' sat by their doors of 
 an evening, were often filled with awe, at hearing his nasal 
 melody, "in linked sweetness long drawn out," floating from 
 the distant hill, or along the dusky road. 
 
 I 
 
 ' The whip-poor-will Is a bird which in only heard at night, 
 from ita note, which ia thought to reMmbia thoM wordH. 
 
 It receivM its t»nie. 
 
264 
 
 THE SKErCB-BOOK. 
 
 Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was, to pass lonf; 
 winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spiunnK- 
 l\y the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along 
 the hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts, and 
 goblins, and haunted fields and haunted brooks, and haunted 
 bridges and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless 
 horseman, or galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they some- 
 times called him. He would delight them equally by his anec- 
 dotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and portentous 
 sights and sounds in the air, which prevailect in the earlier 
 times of Connecticut ; and would frighten them wofully witli 
 speculations upon comets and shooting stars, and with tlio 
 alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and 
 that they were half the time topsy-turvy ! 
 
 But if there was a pleasure in all this, while snugly cuddling 
 in the chimney corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy 
 glow from the crackling wood fire, and where, of course, no 
 spectre dared to show his face, it was dearly purchased by llio 
 terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful 
 shapes and shadows beset his path, amidst the dim and ghastly 
 [,Hre of a snowy night! — With what wistful look did lie eye 
 every trembling ray of light streaming across the waste (iclds 
 from some distant window ! — How often was he appalled by 
 some shrub covered with snow, which like a sheeted spectre 
 beset his very path . — How often did he shrink with curdling 
 awe at the sound of his own steps on the frosty crust beneath 
 his feet ; and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he sliould 
 behold some uncouth being tramping close behind him! — and 
 how often was he thrown into complete dismay ])y some rush- 
 ing blast, howling among the trees, in the idea tiuit it was the 
 galloping Hessian on one of his nightly seourings ! 
 
 All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms 
 of the raind, that walk in darkness : and tiunigh he had seen 
 many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by 
 Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely perambulations, yet day- 
 light put an end to all these evils ; and he would have passed 
 a pleasant life of it, in despite of the Devil and all his works, 
 if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more 
 perplexity tv> mortal man, than ghosts, goblins, and tiie whole 
 race of witches put together; and that was — a woman. 
 
 Among the musical disciples who assembled, one evening 
 in each week to receive his instructions in psalmody, wa* 
 Katrina Van Tassel, lue daughter and only child of a siilislaii- 
 tiul Dutch farmer. She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen; 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 265 
 
 plump as a partridge ; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as 
 one of her father's peaches, and universall}' famed, not merely 
 for her beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a 
 little of a coquette, as might be perceived even in her dress, 
 which was a mixture of ancient and modern fashions, as most 
 suited to set off her charms. She wore the ornaments of pure 
 yellow gold, which her great-great-grandmother had brought 
 over from Saardam ; the tempting stomacher of the olden time, 
 and withal a prove iiingly short petticoat, to display the prettiest 
 foot and ankle in the country round. 
 
 Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart toward the sex ; 
 and it is not to be wondered at that so tempting a morsel soon 
 found favor in his eyes, more especially after he had visited her 
 in iier paternal mansion. Old Baltus Van Tassel was a perfect 
 picture of a thriving, contented, liberal-hearted farmer. He 
 seldom, it is true, sent either his eyes or his thoughts beyond 
 the boundaries of his own farm ; but within those, every thing 
 was snug, happy, and well-conditioned. He was satisfied with 
 his wealth, but not proud of it; and piqued himself upon the 
 hearty abundance, rather than the style in which he lived. His 
 stronghold was situated on the banks of the Hudson, in one of 
 those green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in which the Dutch farm- 
 ers are so fond of nestling. A great elm-tree spread its broad 
 branches over it ; at the foot of which bubbled up a spring of 
 the softest and sweetest water, in a little well, formed of a 
 barrel ; and then stole sparkling away through the grass, to a 
 neighboring brook, that babbled along among alders and dwarf 
 willows. Hard by the f.-rm-house was a vast barn, that might 
 have sei-ved for a church; CNci-y window and crevice of which 
 seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm ; the flail 
 was busily resounding within it from morning to night ; swal- 
 lows and martens skimmed twittering about the eaves ; and rows 
 of pigeons, some with one eye turned up, as if watching the 
 wonther, some with their heads under their wings, or buried in 
 their bosoms, and others, swelling, and cooing, and bowing 
 about their dames, were enjoying the sunshine on the "oof. 
 Sleek, unwieldy poikers were grunting in the repose and 
 abundance of their pens, whence sallied forth, now and then, 
 troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff the air. A stately squad- 
 ron of snowy geese were riding in an adjoining pond, convoy- 
 ing whole fleets r^f ducks ; regiments of turkeys were gobbling 
 through the farm-yard, and guinea-fowls fretting about it like 
 ill-tempered housewives, with their peevish, discontented cry. 
 Before the barn door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of 
 
 '\ ■■ 
 
 ^TqV'^^fr'A^'V* 
 
266 
 
 THE SKETCH -BOOK. 
 
 i I 
 
 a husband, a warrior, and a fine gentleman ; clapping his bur- 
 nished wirag and crowing in the pride and gladness of his 
 heart- c^ otimes tearing up the earth with his feet, and then 
 generously calling his ever-hungry family of wives and chil- 
 dren to enjoy the rich morsel which he had discovered. 
 
 The pedagogue's mouth watered, as he looked upon tliis 
 sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In his dcvoiiriiii>; 
 mind's eye, he pictured to himself every roasting pig runuing 
 about, with a pudding in his belly, and an apple in his mouth ; 
 the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie, and 
 1 ucked in with a coverlet of crust ; the ge-se were swimming 
 In their own gravy ; and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like 
 snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion sauce. 
 In the porkers he saw carved out the future sleek side of bacon, 
 and juicy relishing ham ; not a turkey, but he beheld dalutily 
 trussed up, with its gizzard under its wing, and, i)eradvcnturo, 
 a necklace of savory' sausages ; and even bright chantkleor 
 himself lay sprawling on his back, in a side dish, with uplifted 
 claws, as if craving that quarter which his chivalrous spirit dis- 
 dained to ask while living. 
 
 As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he rolled 
 his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands, the rich fields 
 of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the or- 
 chards burthened with rudd}' fruit, which surrounded the warm 
 tenement of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel 
 who was to inherit these domains, and his imagination ex- 
 panded with the idea, how they might be readily turned into 
 cash, and the money invested in immense tracts of wild land, 
 and shingle palaces in the wilderness. Nay, his busy fancy 
 already realized his hopes, and presented to him the blooming 
 Katrina, with a whole family of children, mounted on the top 
 of a wagon loaded with household trumpery, with pots and 
 kettles dangling beneath ; and he beheld himself bestriding a 
 pacing mare, with a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, 
 Tennessee — or the Lord knows where ! 
 
 When he entered the house, the conquest of his heart was 
 complete. It was one of those spacious farm-houses, with high' 
 ridged, but lowly-sloping roofs, built in the style handed down 
 from the first Dutch settlers. The low projecting caves form- 
 ing a piazza along the front, capable of being closed up in bad 
 weather. Under this were hung flails, harness, various utensils 
 of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring river. 
 Bpnehes were built along the sides for summer use ; and a great 
 •pinning-wbeel at one end, and a churn at the other, showed 
 
THE LEG EN B OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 267 
 
 ^j-< 
 
 the various uses to which this important porch niiglit be de- 
 voted. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered the 
 hall, which formed tlie centre of the mansion, and the place of 
 usual residence. Here rows of resplendent pewter, ranged on a 
 long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In one corner stood a huge bag 
 of wool, ready to be spun ; in another, a qujiutity of linsej- 
 woolsey, just from the loom ; ears of Indian corn, and strings of 
 dried apples and peaches, hung in <;ay festoons along the walls, 
 mingled with the gaud of red pei)peis ; and a door left ajar, 
 gave him a peep into the best parlor, whore the claw-footed 
 chairs, and dark mahogany tables, shone like mirrors ; and- 
 irons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened 
 from their covert of asparagus tops ; mock-oranges and conch 
 shells decorated the mantelpiece ; strings of various colored 
 birds' eggs were suspended above it ; a great ostrich egg was 
 hung from the centre of the room, and a corner cupboard, 
 knowingly left open, displayed immense treasures of old silver 
 and well-mended china. 
 
 From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these regions 
 of delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, and his 
 only study was how to gain the affections of the peerless 
 daughter of Van Tassel. In this enterprise, however, he had 
 more real difficulties than generally fell to the lot of a knight- 
 errant of yore, who seldom had any thing but giants, enchant- 
 ers, fiery dragons, and such like easily conquered adversaries, 
 to contend with ; and had to make his way merely through 
 gates of iron and brass, and walls of adamant to the castle- 
 keep where the lady of his heart was confined ; all which he 
 achieved as easily as a man would carve his way to the centre 
 of a Christmas pie, and then the lady gave him her hand as a 
 matter of course. Ichabod, on the contrary, had to win his 
 way to the heart of a country coquette beset with a labyrinth 
 of whims and caprices, which were forever presenting new 
 difTlculties and impediments, and he had to encounter a host of 
 fearful adversaries of real flesh and blood, the numerous rustic 
 admirers, who beset every poi tal to her heart ; keeping a watch- 
 lul and angry eye upon each other, but ready to fly out in the 
 conini>.n cause against any new competitor. 
 
 Among these the most formidable was a burly, roaring, 
 roystermg blade of the name of Abraham, or according to 
 the Dutch abbreviation, Brom Van Brunt, the hero of the 
 country round, which rang with his feats of strength and har- 
 dihood. He was broad-shouldered and double-jointed, with 
 6hort curly black hair, and a bluff but not unpleasant coun* 
 
 ¥■ 
 
268 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 n; 
 
 tenance, having a minglecl air of fun and arrogance. From 
 his Herculean frame and great powers of limb, he had received 
 the nickname of Brom Bones, by which he was universally 
 known. He was famed for great knowledge and skill in 
 horsemanship, being as dexterous on horseback as a Tartar. 
 He was foremost at all races and cock-fights, and with the 
 ascendency which bodily strength acquires in rustic life, 
 was the umpire in all disputes, setting his hat on one side, 
 aixd giving his decisions with an air and tone n'^lmitting of 
 no gainsay or appeal. He was always ready for either a 
 fight or a frolic; but had more mischief than ill-will in 
 his composition ; and with all his overbearing roughness there 
 i^as a strong dash of waggish good-humor at bottom. He 
 had three or four boon companiono who regarded him as their 
 model, and at the head of whom he scoured the country, 
 attending every scene of feud or merriment for miles round. 
 In cold weather he was <listiiiguished by a fur cap, surmounted 
 with a flaunting fox's tail ; and when the folks at a country 
 gatheruig descried this well-known crest at a distance, whisking 
 about among a squad of hard riders, they always stood by for 
 a squall. Sometimes his crew would be heard dashing along 
 past tlie farm-houses at midnight, with wlioop and h.illoo, like 
 a troop of Don Cossacks, and the old danios, startled out of 
 their sleep, would listen for a moment till the hurry-scurry had 
 clattered by, and then exclaim, " Ay, there goes Brom Bonos 
 and his gang! " The neighbors looked upon him with a mix- 
 ture of awe, admiration, and good-will ; and when any madcap 
 prank or rustic brawl occurred in the vicinity, always shook 
 their heads, and warranted Brom Bones was at the bottom of it. 
 
 This rantipole hero had for some time singled out the bloom- 
 ing Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and 
 though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle 
 caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that 
 she did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, his 
 advances were signals for rival candidates to retire, who felt 
 no inclination to cross a lion in his amours ; insomuch, that 
 when his horse was seen tied to Van Tassel's paling, on a 
 Sunday night, a sure sign that his master was courf ng. or, as 
 it is tein.ed, " sparking," within, all other suitors passed by in 
 despair, and carried the war into other quarters. 
 
 Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod Crane had 
 to contend, and considering all things, a stouter man than he 
 would have shrunk from the competition, and a wiser man would 
 have despaired. He had, however, a happy mixtuie of plia- 
 
 nor. 
 
THE LEGEM) OF SLEEPY BOLLOW. 
 
 269 
 
 bility and perseverance in his nature ; he was in form and spirit 
 hke a supple-jack — yielding, but tough; thougli lie bent, he 
 never broke ; and though he bowed beneath the slightest pressure, 
 yet the moment it was away — jerk! — he was as erect, and 
 carried his head as high as ever. 
 
 To have taken the field openly against his rival, would have 
 been madness ; for he was not a man to be thwarted in his 
 amours, an}' more than that stormy lover, Achilles. Ichabod, 
 therefore, made his advances in a quiet and gently-insiuualing 
 manner. Under cover of his character of singing-master, he 
 made frequent visits at the farm-house ; not that he had any 
 thing to apprehend from the meddlesome interference of parents, 
 which is so often a stumbling-block in the path of lovers. Bait 
 Van Tassel was an easy indulgent soul ; he loved his daughter 
 better even than his pipe, and, like a reasonable man, and an ex- 
 cellent father, let her have her way in ever}- thing. His notable 
 little wife, too, had enough to do to attend to her housekeepiug: 
 and manage her poultry; for, as she sagely observed, ducks 
 and geese are foolish things, and must be looked after, but 
 girls can take care of themselves. Thus, while the busy dame 
 bustled about the house, or plied her spinning-wheel at one end 
 of the piazza, honest Bait would sit smoking his evening pipe 
 at the other, watching the achievements of a little wooden war- 
 rior, who, armed with a sword in each hand, was most valiantly 
 lighting tlie vvind on the pinnacle of the barn. In the mean 
 time, Ichabod would carry on his suit with the daughter by the 
 side of the sp'-ing under the great elm, or sauntering along iu 
 tlie twilight, that hour so favorable to the lover's eloquence. 
 
 I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and 
 won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and ad- 
 miration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door 
 of access ; while others have a tliousand avenues, and may be 
 captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph 
 of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of general- 
 ship to maintain possession of the latter, for a man must battlo 
 for his fortress at every door anil window. He who wins ;i 
 thousand common hearts, is therefore entitled to some renown ; 
 but he who keeps undisputed swav orer tlie heart of a ccquetlc, 
 is indeed a hero. Certain it is, this was :>ot liie case with Vae 
 redoubtable Brom Bones ; and from the moment Ichal)od Crane 
 nuule his advances, the interests of the former evidently de- 
 cliued : his horse was uo longer seen tied at the i)alings on 
 Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually arose betweeu him 
 and the preceptor of ISleepy Hollow. 
 
 i! 
 
 ■=>|6mss»*.»^*; 
 
270 
 
 THE SKETCn-BOOK. 
 
 1 1 
 
 Brom, who bad a degree of rough chivalry in his nature, 
 would fain have carried matters to open warfare, and have settled 
 tlieir pretensions to the lady, according to the mcde of those 
 most concise and sim[)le reaaoners, the knights-errant of yore 
 — by single conib;it ; but Ichabod was too conscious of the su- 
 perior might of his adversary to entor the lists against him ; 
 he had overheard a boast of Bones, that he wouiii " double the 
 schoolmaster up, and lay him on a shelf of his own scU' ol-housi ; " 
 and he was too wary to give him an oi)portunit3'. There was sunn - 
 thing extremely provokingin this obstinately pacific system ; itkft 
 Brom no alternative but to draw upon the funds of rustic wag- 
 gery in his disposition, and to play off boorish practical jokes 
 upon his rival. Ichabod became the object of whimsical perse- 
 cution to Bones, and bin gang of rough riders. Thoy hurried 
 his hitherto peaceful domains ; smoked out his singing-school, 
 by stopping up the chimney ; broke into the school-house at 
 night, in spite of his formidable fastening of withe and win- 
 dow stakes, and turned every thing topsy-turvy ; so that the 
 poor schoolmaster began to think all the witches in the country 
 held their meetings there. But what was slill more annoying, 
 Brom took all opportunities of turning him into ridicule in pres- 
 ence of his mistress, and had a scoundrel dog whom he taught 
 to whine in the most ludicrous manner, and introduced as a 
 rival of Ichabod's, to instruct her in psalmody. 
 
 In this way, matters went on for some time, without pro- 
 ducing any material effect on the relative situations of the con- 
 tanding powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon, ichabod, in 
 pansive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool whence he usu- 
 ally watched all the coucerns of his little literary ie;ilm. In 
 bis hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of det-potic power; 
 the birch of justice reposed on three nails, behiuii the throne, a 
 constant terror to evil doers; while on the desk befoie him 
 might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weap- 
 ons, detected upon the persons of idle urchins ; such as half- 
 munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-ca^es, and v, hole 
 legio is of rampant little paper game-cocks. Apparently there 
 had been some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for 
 his scholars were all busily intent upon their books, or slyly 
 whispering behind them with one eye kept upon the master ; and 
 a kind of buzzing stillness reigned throughout the school -I'ooni. 
 It was sr.ildenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro in 
 tow-cloth iacket and trowsers, a round-crowned fragment of 
 a hat, like i\ic. cap of Mercury, and mounted on the back of a 
 ragged, wild, Lilf-broken coU, whic^i he managed with a ropo 
 
 that 
 
 some ' 
 down 
 than i 
 Icha 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY BOLLOW, 
 
 271 
 
 by way of halter. He came clattering up to the school-door 
 with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a merry-making, oi 
 "quilting frolic," to be held that evening at Mynheer Van Tas- 
 sel's ; and having delivered his measnge witi^ that air of impor- 
 tance, and effort at fine language, which a negro is apt to 
 display on petty embassies of the kind, he dashed over the 
 brook, and was seen scampering away up the liollow, full of 
 the importance and hurry of his mission. 
 
 Ail was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet school-room. 
 The scholars were humed through their lessons, without stop- 
 ping at trifles ; those who were nimble, skipped over half with 
 impunity, and those who were tardy, had a smart application 
 now and then in the rear, to quicken their speed, or help them 
 over a tall word. Books were flung aside, without being put 
 away on the shelves ; inkstands were o\erturned, benches 
 thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose an hour 
 before the usual time ; bursting forth like a legion of young 
 imps, yelping and racketing about the green, in joy at their 
 early emancipation. 
 
 The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half-hour at 
 h:s toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed only 
 suit of rusty black, and arranging his locks by a bit of broken 
 looking-glass, that hung up in the school-house. That he 
 might make his appearance before his mistress in the true 
 style of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the farmer with 
 whom he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman, of the 
 name of Hans Van Ripper, and thus gallantly mounted, issued 
 forth like a knight-errant in quest of adventures. But it is 
 meet I should, in the true spirit of romantic story, give some 
 account of the looks and equipments of m}' hero and his steed. 
 
 The animal he bestrode was a broken-down plough-horse, 
 that had outlived almost every thing but his viciousness. He 
 was gaunt and shagged, with a ewe neck and a head like a 
 hammer; his rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted 
 with burrs ; one eye had lost its pupil, and was glaring and 
 spectral, but the other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. 
 Still he must have had fire and mettle in his day, if we may 
 judge from his name, which was Gunpowder. He had, in fact, 
 been a favorite steed of his master's, the choleric Van Ripper, 
 who was a ^urious rider, and had infused, very probably, 
 some of his own spirit into the animal ; for, old and broken- 
 down as he looked, there was more of the lurking devil in him 
 than in an}' young filly in the country. 
 
 Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He rode with 
 
 - r "T T w ii r ■■ ■ ■ 
 
 ii.»i m \immimi»m 
 
272 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 
 short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pom- 
 mel of the saddle ; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshop- 
 pers' ; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand, like a 
 sceptre, and as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms 
 was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool 
 hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of 
 forehead might be called, and the skirts of his black coat flut- 
 tered out almost to the horse's tail. Such was the appearance 
 of Ichabod and his steed as they shambled out of the gate of 
 Hans Van Ripper, and it was altogether such an apparition as 
 is seldom to be met with in broad daylight. 
 
 It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day ; the sky was 
 clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery 
 which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The 
 forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some 
 trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into 
 brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files 
 of wild ducks began to make theii appearance high in the air ; 
 the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of 
 beech and hickory-nuts, and the pensive whistle of the (^uail 
 at intervals from the neighboring stubble field. 
 
 The small birds were taking tlieir farewell banquets. Tn the 
 fulness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking, 
 from bush to bush, and tree to tiee, capricious from the very 
 profusion and variety around them. There was the honest cock- 
 robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its loud 
 querulous note, and the twittering blackbirds flying in sable 
 clouds ; and the golden winged woodpecker, with his crimson 
 crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage ; and the 
 cedar-bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail, and its 
 little monteiro cap of feathers ; and the blue jay, that noisy 
 coxcomb, in his gay light blue coat and white undcirciothes, 
 screaming and chattering, nodding, and bo])bing, and bowiug, 
 and pretending to be on good terms with every songster of tht 
 grove. 
 
 As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to 
 every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight 
 over the treasures of jolly autumn. On all sides he beheld 
 vast store of apples, some hanging in oppressive opulence on 
 the trees ; some gathered into baskets and barrels for the 
 market ; others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. 
 Fartner on he beheld great fields of Indian corn, with its 
 golden ears peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out 
 the promise of cakes and hasty-pudding ; and the yellow 
 
 «* -*^ r. jik-ri 
 
le pom. 
 :asshop- 
 l, like a 
 lis arms 
 lall wool 
 strip of 
 oat flut- 
 learauce 
 gate of 
 ritiou as 
 
 sky was 
 in livery 
 !c. The 
 ilc some 
 3sts into 
 ling files 
 the air; 
 roves of 
 .be cjuail 
 
 In the 
 
 olicking, 
 
 tlie very 
 
 est coek- 
 
 its loud 
 
 in sable 
 
 criiusou 
 
 and the 
 
 , and its 
 
 lat noisy 
 
 ireiothes, 
 
 bowing, 
 
 er of thft 
 
 ■ open to 
 1 delight 
 le beheld 
 ilencc on 
 1 for the 
 Icr-press. 
 with its 
 Idlng out 
 le yellow 
 
 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 273 
 
 pumpkins lying beneath them, turning up their fair round 
 bellies to the sun, and giving ample prospects of the most 
 luxurious of pies ; and anon he passed the fragrant buckwheat 
 fields, breathing the odor of the bee-hive, and as he beheld 
 them, soft anticipations stole over his mind of dainty slap- 
 jacks, well buttered, and garnished with honey or treacle, by 
 the delicate little dimi)led hand of Katrina Van Tassel. 
 
 Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and 
 "sugared sui)positions," he journeyed along the sides of a 
 iiuigo of hills whicli look out upon some of the goodliest 
 scones of the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled 
 his broad disk down into the west. The wide bosom of the 
 Tappan Zee lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here 
 Rud there a gentle undulation waved and prolonged the blue 
 shadow of the distant mountain. A few amber clouds floated 
 in tlie sky, without a breath of air to move them. The horizon 
 was of a Ihie golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple 
 green, and from that into the deep blue of tlie mid-heaven. A 
 slanting ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that 
 overhuug some parts of the river, giving greater depth to the 
 dark gray and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was 
 loitering in the distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, 
 her sail hanging uselessly against the mast ; and as the reflec- 
 tion of the sky gleamed .ilong the still water, it seemed as if 
 the vessel was suspended in the air. < 
 
 It was towaid eveniug tliat Ichabod arrived at the castle of 
 the Ileer Van Tassel, wliich he found thronged with the pride 
 and flower of the adjacent country. Old farmers, a spare 
 loMthcni-faf'od raqp, in homespun coats and breeches, blue 
 stDckiiigs, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles. Their 
 brisk, withered little dames, in close crimped caps, long- 
 wfiistcd short gowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and 
 pill-cushions, and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside. 
 Buxom lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, except- 
 ing where a straw hat, a fine ribbon, or perhaps a white frock, 
 gave symptoms of city innovation. The sons, in short square- 
 skirted coats, with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and their 
 hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially 
 if they could procure an eelskiu for the purpose, it being 
 esteemed throughout the country, as a potent nourisher and 
 strengthener of the hair. 
 
 Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having 
 come to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil, a 
 creature, like himself, full of mettle and mischief, and which 
 
 J 
 
 I 
 
274 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 no one but hiniself could manage. He was, in fact, noted fo? 
 preferring vicious animals, given to aU kinds of tricks which 
 kept the rider in constant risk of his neck, for he held a tract- 
 able well-broken iiorse as unworthy of a lad of spirit. 
 
 Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that 
 burst upon tiie enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the 
 state parlor of Van Tassel's mansion. Not those of the bevy 
 of buxom lassos, witli their luxurious display of red and white ; 
 but the ample elianns of a genuine Dutch countrj' tea-table, in 
 the sumptuous time of autunni. Such heaped-up platters of 
 cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only 
 to experienced Dutdi housewives ! There was the doughty 
 dough-nut, the tenderer oly-koek, and the crisp and crumbling 
 cruller ; sweet cakes and short cakes, ginger cakes and honey 
 cakes, and tlie whole family of cakes. And then there were 
 apple pies, and peach i)ies, and pumpkin pies ; besides slices 
 of ham and smoked beef • and moreover delectable dishes of 
 preserved plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces ; not to 
 mention broil(!d shad and roasted chickens ; together with bowls 
 of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty much 
 as 1 have enumerated them, with the motherly tea-pot sending 
 up its clouds of vapor from the midst — Heaven bless the 
 mark ! I want breath and time to discuss this banquet as it 
 deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. Happily, 
 Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry as his historian, but 
 did ample justice to ever^' dainty. 
 
 He was a kind and thankfid creature, whose heart dilated 
 in propoition as his skin was filled with good cheer, and whose 
 spirits rose with eating, ass some men's do with drink. He 
 could not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, 
 and chuckling with the possibility that he might one day he 
 lord of all this scene of almost unimaginable luxury and siileii- 
 dor. Then, he thought, how soon he'd turn his back upon tiie 
 old school-house ; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van 
 Ripper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itin- 
 erant pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him 
 comrade ! 
 
 Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests with a 
 face dilated with content and good-humor, round and jolly as 
 the harvest moon. His hospitable attentions were brief, but 
 expressive, being confined to a shake of the hand, a slap on 
 the shoulder, a loud laugh, and a pressing invitation to " fall 
 to, and help themselves." 
 
 And now the sound of the music from the common room, or 
 
 ■<»«««WfH 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY UOLLOW. 
 
 275 
 
 hall, summoned to the dance T. a musician was an old gray 
 headed negro, ^ho had been the itinerant orchestra of the 
 neighborhood for more than half a century. Ills instrument 
 was as old and battered as himself. The greater part of tlw 
 time he scraped on two or three strings, accompanying every 
 movement of the bow with a motion of the head ; bowing almost 
 to the ground, and stamping with Lis foot whenever a fresh 
 eoupU were to start. 
 
 Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon 
 his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre aljout him was idle ; 
 and to have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, and 
 clattering al)out the room, you would have thought St. Vitus 
 himself, that blessed pation of the dance, was figuring before 
 you ill person. He was the admiration of all the negroes ; who, 
 having gathered, of all ages and sizes, from the farm and the 
 neighl)orhood, stood forming a pyramid of shining black faces 
 at every door and window ; gazing with delight at the scene ; 
 rolling their white eye-balls, and showing grinning rows of 
 ivory from ear to ear. How could the flogger of urchins be 
 otherwise than animated and joyous? the lady of his heart 
 was his partner in the dance, and smiling graciously in reply 
 lo all his amorous oglings ; while Brom Bones, sorely smitten 
 with love and jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one corner, 
 
 "When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was attracted to a 
 knot of the sager folks, who, with Old Van Tassel, sat smoking 
 at one end of the piazza, gossiping over former times, and 
 drawling out long stoiies about the war. 
 
 This neighboriiood, at the time of which I am speaking, was 
 one of those highly favored places which abound with chroni- 
 cle and great men. The British and American line had run 
 near it during the war ; it had, therefore, been the scene of 
 marauding, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds 
 of border chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable 
 each story-teller to dress up his taie with a little becoming fiC" 
 tion, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make him« 
 self the hero of every exploit. 
 
 There was the story of Doffue Martling, a large blue-bearded 
 Dutchman, who had neaiiy taken a British frigate with an old 
 iron nine-pounder from a mud breastwork, only that his gun 
 hurst at the sixth discharge. And there was an old gentleman 
 who shall be nameless, being too rich a mynheer to be lightly 
 mentioned, who, in the battle of Whiteplains, being an excel, 
 lent master of defence, parried a musket-ball with a small* 
 tword, insomuch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the I Indei 
 
 . : i »;—>»-<•«>««»'• '^ 
 
 •liK/.-''" 
 
276 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 and glance off at the hilt ; in proof of which he was ready at 
 any time to show the sword, with the hilt a little bent. There 
 were several more that had been equally great in the field, not 
 one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable 
 hand in bringing the war to a happy termination. 
 
 But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and appari- 
 tions that succeeded. The neighborhood is rich in legentlary 
 troasiiros of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive 
 best in these slieltered, long-settled retreats ; but are trampled 
 undi'r foot, by Lhe shifting throng that forms the population 
 of most of our country places. Besides, there is no encourage- 
 ment for ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely 
 had time to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their 
 graves, before their surviving friends have travelled away from 
 the neighl)orhood : so that when they turn out at night to walk 
 their rounds, tliey have no acquaintance left to call upon. This 
 is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except 
 in our long-established Dutch communities. 
 
 The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of super- 
 natural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the 
 vicinity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a contagion in the very 
 air that blew from that haunted region ; it breathed forth an 
 atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land. Sev- 
 eral of the Sleepy Hollow people were present at Van Tassel's, 
 and, as usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. 
 Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains, and mourn- 
 ing cries and wailings heard and seen about the great tree 
 where the unfortunate Major Andr(5 was taken, and which 
 stood in the neighborhood. Some mention was made also of 
 the woman in white, that haunted the dark glen at Raven Rock, 
 and was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm, 
 having perished there in the snow. Tlie chief part of the 
 stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of Sleepy 
 iloUow, the lieadless horsenan, who had been heard several 
 Mines of late, patrolling the country; and it was said, tethered 
 ills horse nightly among the graves in the church ;/ard. 
 
 The sequestered situation of this church seitras always to 
 have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spir ts. It stands 
 on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and loUy elms, from 
 among wiiich its decent, whitewashed walls shine modestly 
 forth, like Christian purity, beaming through the shades of 
 retirement. A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet 
 of water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps may 
 be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon ita 
 
 :;<rjc^»r:ti-aara.. 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEP T HOLLO W. 
 
 f77 
 
 grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to K'.^ep so quietly, 
 one would think that there at least the dead might rest in 
 peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, 
 along which raves a large brook among broken rocks and 
 trunks of fallen trees. Oy^x a deep black part of the stream, 
 not far from the church, was formerly thrown a wooden bridge ; 
 the road that led to it, and the bridge itself, were thickly 
 shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a gloom about it: 
 even in the daytime ; but occasioned a fearful darkness at 
 night. This was one of the favointe haunts of the headless 
 horseman, and the place where he was most frequently encoun- 
 tered. The tale was told of old Hrouwer, a most heretical 
 disbeliever in ghosts, how he met the horseman returning from 
 his foray into Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to get up behind 
 him ; how they galloped over bush and brake, over hill and 
 swamp, until they reached the bridge ; when the horseman 
 suddenly turned into a skeleton, threw old Brouwer into the 
 brook, and sprang away over the tree-tops with a clap ol 
 thunder. 
 
 This story was immediately matched by a thrice marvellous 
 adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the galloping 
 Hessian as an arrant jockey. He aflirnied, that on returning 
 one night from the neighboring village of Sing-Sing, he had 
 been overtaken by this midnight trooper ; that he had offered to 
 race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it 
 too, for Daredevil ))eat the goblin iiorsc all hollow, but just as 
 they came to the church bridge, the Hessian bolted, and van- 
 ished in a flash of fire. 
 
 All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which 
 men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only 
 now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a 
 pipe, sank deep in the mind of Ichabod. He repaid them in 
 kind with large extracts from his invaluable author. Cotton 
 Mather, and added many marvellous events that had taken 
 place in his native State of Connecticut, and fearful sights 
 which he had seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 The revel now gradually broke up. The old farmers gathered 
 together their famil js in their wagons, and were heard for 
 some time rattling along the hollow roads, and over the distant 
 hills. Some of the damsels mounted on pillions behind their 
 favorite swains, and their light-hearted laughter, mingling with 
 the clatter of hoofs, echoed along the silent woodlands, sound- 
 ing fainter and fainter, until they gradually died awav — and 
 the late scene of noise sldI frolic was all silent and desertect 
 
278 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 I 
 
 Ichabod only lingered behind, according to the custom of coun' 
 try lovers, to have a tete-k-tete with the heiress; fully con- 
 vinced that he was now en the high road io success. What 
 passed at this interview I will not pretend to say, for in fact I 
 do not know. Something, liowever, 1 fear me, must liave gone 
 wrong, for he certainly sallied forth, after no very great inter- 
 val, with an air quite desolate and chopfuUen — Oh, these 
 women ! these women ! Coiikl that giii have been playing off 
 any of her coquettish tricks? — Was her encouragement of the 
 poor pedagogue all a mere sham to secure lier conquest of his 
 rival? — Heaven only knows, not I! — let it suffice to say, 
 Ichabod stole forth with the air of one who had been sacking a 
 hen-roost, rather than a fair lady's heart. Without looking to 
 the right or left to notice the scene of rural wealth, on which he 
 had so often gloated, he went straight to the stable, and with 
 several hearty cuffs and kicks, roused his steed most uucour- 
 teously from the comfortable quarters in which he was soundly 
 sleeping, dreaming of mountains of corn and oats, and wbole 
 valleys of timothy and clover. 
 
 It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy- 
 hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel homewards, along 
 the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and 
 which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The hour 
 W3S as dismal as himself. Far below him the Tappan Zee 
 spread its dusky and iiidistinct waste of waters, with here antl 
 there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor under 
 the laud. In the dead hush of midnight, he could even hear the 
 barking of the watch-dog from the opposite shore of the Hud- 
 son ; but it was so vague and faint as only to give an idea of 
 his distance from this faithful companion of man. Now and 
 then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, accidentally 
 awakened, would sound far, far off, from some farm-house, 
 away among the hills — but it was like a dreaming sound in his 
 ear. No signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the 
 melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of 
 a bull-frog from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncomfort- 
 ably, and turning suddenly in his bed. 
 
 All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the 
 afternoon, now came crowding upon his recollection. The 
 night grew darker and darker ; the stars seemed to sink deeper 
 in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from 
 his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, 
 moreover, approaching the very place where njany of the 
 (scenes of the ghost stones bad been laid. In the centre of the 
 
 mg 
 
 . ^«>^ AWIBCS V.Y-.*,L*;.l«tXHW VUl, VHtMi > 
 
 . >J«'.^:i»£'jLA*tf^*».ALii.*-.Lk.-.---jr'*.tf frr***^-***' 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 279 
 
 road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant 
 above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a 
 kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large 
 enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost 
 to the earth, and rising again into the air= It was connected 
 with the tragical story of the unfortunate Aiidr6, who had been 
 taken prisoner hard by ; and was universally known by the 
 name of Major Andre's tree. The common people regarded 
 it witli a mixture of respect and superstition, partly out of 
 sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, and partly 
 from the tales of strange sights, and doleful lamentations, told 
 concernin'5 it. 
 
 As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to whistle ; 
 he thought his whistle was answered : it was but a blast sweep- 
 ing sharply through the dry branches. As he approached a 
 little nearer, he thought he saw something white, hanging in 
 the midst of the tree ; he paused, and ceased whistling ; but 
 on looking more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where 
 the tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood 
 laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan — his teeth chattered, 
 and his knees smote against the saddle : it was but the rubbing 
 of one hug'* bough upon another, as they were swayed about 
 by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils 
 lay before him. 
 
 About two hundred yards from the tree, a small brook 
 crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly- wooded 
 glen, known by the name of Wiley's Swamp. A few rough 
 logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. 
 On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a 
 group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape- 
 vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge, 
 was the severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the 
 unfortunate Andr6 was captured, and under the covert of 
 those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed 
 who surprised him. This has ever since been considered a 
 haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of a schoolboy 
 who has to ^jass it alone after dark. 
 
 As he approached the stream, his heart began to thump ; he 
 summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half 
 a score of kicks in the .lbs and attempted to dash briskly 
 across the bridge ; but instead of starting forward, the perverse 
 old animal made a lateral movement and ran broadside against 
 tlie fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, 
 Jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with 
 
 ■ n , 
 
 r 
 
280 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 h 
 
 the contrary foot : it was all in vain ; his steed started, it is 
 'rue, but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road 
 into a thicket of brambles and alder-bushes. The school- 
 master now bestowed both whip and heel upon the rt.irveling 
 ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed forwards, snuffling and 
 snorting, but came to a stand just by the bridge, with t. sud- 
 denness that had nearly sent his rider spipwling over his Lead. 
 Just at this moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge 
 caught the sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of 
 the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something 
 huge, misshapen, black and towering. It stirred not, but 
 seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster 
 ready to spring upon the traveller. 
 
 Tlie hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with 
 terror. What was to be done ? To turn and fly was now too 
 late ; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or 
 goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of 
 the wind? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he 
 
 demanded in stammering accents — "Who are you?" Ho 
 received no reply. He repeated his demand in a still more 
 agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he 
 cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and shutting 
 his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fervor into a psalm tune. 
 Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, 
 and with a scramble and a bound, stood at once in the middle 
 of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the 
 form of the unknown might uow in some degree be ascertained. 
 He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and 
 mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no 
 offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side of 
 the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, 
 who had now got over his fright and waywardness. 
 
 Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight com 
 panion, and bethought himself of the adventure of Broin Hones 
 with the galloping Hessian, now quickened his steed, in hopes 
 of leaving him behind. The stranger, however, quickened his 
 horse to an equal pace. Ichabod pulled up, and fell ii;to n 
 walk, thinking to lag behind — the other did the same. His 
 heart began to sink within him ; he endeavored to resume his 
 psalm tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of liis 
 mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was soinetliing 
 in the moody and dogged silence of this pertinacious com pun- 
 ion, that was mysterious and appalling. It was soon fearfully 
 acCv^unted for. On mounting a risiug ^luuud, which broughl 
 
 ;*iar: 'ife i«r>i r > ' 
 
THE LEOWND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 JJ81 
 
 the figure of his fellow-traveller in relief against the sky, 
 gigantic in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was horror- 
 struck, on perceiving that he was headless ! but his horror was 
 still more increased, on observing that the head, which should 
 have rested on his shoulders, was carried before him on the 
 pommel of his saddle ! His terror rose to desperation ; ha 
 rained a showeif of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, hoping, 
 by a sudden movement, to give his companion the slip — but 
 the spectre started full jump with him. Away, then, they 
 dashed through thick and thin ; stones flying and sparks flash- 
 ing at every bound. Ichabod's flimsy garments fluttered in the 
 air, as he stretched his long lank body away over his horse's 
 head, in the eagerness of his flight. 
 
 They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy 
 Hollow ; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, 
 instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn, and plunged 
 headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a 
 sandy hollow, shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, 
 where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story ; and just 
 beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the white- 
 washed church. 
 
 As yet the panic of the steed had given his unskilful rider 
 an apparent advantage in the chase ; but just as he had got 
 half-way through the hollow, the girths of the saddle gave 
 way, and he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by 
 the poinmjel, and endeavored to hold it firm, bu*^^ in vniri ; and 
 had just time to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder 
 round the neck, when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard 
 it trampled under foot by his pursuer. For a moment the 
 terror of Hans Van Ripper's wrath passed across his mind — for 
 it was his Sunday sadr^e ; but this was no time for petty 
 fears : the goblin was hard on his haunches ; and (unskilful rider 
 bliat he was !) he had much ado to maintain his seat ; sometimes 
 slipping on one side, sometimes on another, and sometimes 
 jolted on the high ridge of his horse's back-bone, with a vio- 
 lence that lie verily feared would cleave him asunder. 
 
 An opening in tlie trees now cheered him with the hopes that 
 the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a 
 silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not 
 mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring 
 under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom 
 Bones' ghostly competitor had disappeared. " If I can but reach 
 that bridge," thought Ichalwd. "I am safe." Just then he 
 heard the black steed panting aud blowing close behind him ; 
 
£32 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 lit 
 
 he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another convui- 
 Bive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon the 
 bridge ; he thundered over the resounding planks ; he gained 
 the opposite side, and now Ichaboc cast a look behind to 
 see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash 
 of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in 
 his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. 
 Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too 
 late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash 
 — he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, 
 the black steed, and the goblin rider, passed by like a whirl- 
 wind. 
 
 The next morning the old horse was found without his 
 saddle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly cropping the 
 grass at his master's gate. Ichabod did noi make his appear- 
 ance at breakfast — dinner-hour came, but no Ichabod. Tlie 
 boys assembled at the school-house, and strolled idly about the 
 banks of the brook ; but no schoolmaster. Hans Van Ripper 
 now began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor Icha- 
 bod, and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, and after 
 diligent investigation they cane upon his traces. In one part 
 of the road leading to the church, was found the saddle 
 trampled in the dirt ; the tracks of horses' hoofs deeply dented 
 in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced to the 
 bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the 
 brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat 
 of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered 
 pumpkin. 
 
 The brook was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster 
 was not to be discovered. Hans Van Ripper, as executor of 
 his estate, examined the bundle which contained all his worldly 
 effects. They consisted of two shirts and a half ; two stocks 
 for the neck : a pair or two of worsted stockings ; an old pair 
 of corduroy smallclothes; a rusty razor; a book of psalm 
 tunes full of dog's ears ; and a broken pitch-pipe. As to tiie 
 books and furniture of the school-house, they belonged to the 
 community, excepting Cotton Mather's History of Witchcraft, 
 a New-England Almanac, and a book of dreams and fortune- 
 telling ; in which last was a sheet of foolscap much scribbled 
 and blotted, in several fruitless attempts to make a copy of 
 verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel. These magic 
 books au'l the poetic scrawl vyero forthwith consigned to the 
 flames b}' Hans Van Ripper; who, from that time forward, 
 determined to send his children no more to school ; observing 
 
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 283 
 
 that he never knew any good come of this same reading and 
 writing. Whatever money the sclioolmaster possessed, and 
 he had received his quarter's pay but a day or two before, he 
 must have had about his person at the time of his disappear- 
 ance. 
 
 The mysterious event caused much speculation at the church 
 on the following Sunday. Knots of gazers and gossips were 
 collected in the churchyard, at the bridge, and at the spot 
 where the hat and pumpkin had been found. The stories of 
 Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget of others, were called 
 to mind, and when they had diligently considered them all, and 
 compared them with the symptoms of the present case, they 
 shook their heads, and came to the conclusion, that Ichabod 
 had been carried off by the galloping Hessian. As he was a 
 bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled his head 
 any more about him ; the school was removed to a different 
 quarter of the HoUow, and another pedagogue reigned in his 
 stead. 
 
 It is true, an old farmer who had been down to New- York 
 on a visit several years after, and from whom this account of 
 the ghostly adventure was received, brought home the intelli- 
 gence that Ichabod Crane was still alive ; that he had left the 
 neighborhood partly through fear of the goblin and Hans Van 
 Ripper, and partly in mortification at having been suddenly 
 dismissed by the heiress ; that he had changed his quarters to 
 a distant part of the country ; had kept school and studied law 
 at the same time ; had been admitted to the bar ; turned politi- 
 cian; electioneered; written for the newspapers; and finally, 
 had been made a Justice of the Ten Pound Court. Brom 
 Bones, too, who, shortly after his rival's disappearance, con- 
 ducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was 
 observed to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of 
 Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laugh at 
 the mention of the pumpkin ; which led some to suspect that 
 he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell. 
 
 The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of 
 these matters, maintain to this day, that Ichabod was spirited 
 away by supernatural means ; and it is a favorite story often 
 told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire. 
 The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious 
 awe ; and that may be the reason why the road has been altered 
 of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of 
 the mill-pond. The school-house, being deserted, soon fell to 
 decay, aud was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the 
 
284 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 unfortunate pedagogue ; and the plough-boy, loitering home- 
 ward of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at 
 a distance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tran- 
 quil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT, 
 
 FOUND IN THE IIANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKKn. 
 
 The preceding Tale is given, almost in tho precise words in 
 which I heard it related at a Corporation meeting of the an- 
 cient city of Manhattoes,' at which were present many of its 
 sagest and most illustrious burghers. The narrator was a 
 pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow in pepper-and-salt 
 clothes, with a sadly humorous face ; and one whom I strongly 
 suspected of being poor — he made such efforts to be entertam- 
 ing. When his story was concluded there was much laughter 
 and approbation, particularly from two or three deputy alder- 
 men, who had been asleep the greater part of the time. There 
 was, however, one tall, dry-looking old gentleman, with beetling 
 eyebrows, who maintained a grave and rather severe face 
 throughout ; now and then folding his arms, inclining his head, 
 and looking down upon the floor, as if turning a doubt over in 
 his mind. He was one of your wary men, who never laugh but 
 upon good grounds — v?heu they have reason and the law on 
 their side. When the mirth of the rest of the company had 
 subsided, and silence was restored, he leaned one arm on the 
 elbow of his chair, and sticking the other a-kimbo, demanded, 
 witli a slight but exceedingly sage motion of the head, and 
 contraction of the brow, what was the moral of the story, 
 and what it went to prove. 
 
 The story-teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his 
 lips, as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment, 
 looked at his inquirer with an air of infinite deference, and 
 lowering the glass slowly to the table, observed that the story 
 was intended most logically to prove : — 
 
 "■ That there is no situation in life but has its advantages 
 and jil'jasures — provided we will but take a joke as we find it : 
 
 " That, therefore, he that runs races with goblin troopers, is 
 likely to have rough riding of it : 
 
 " Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand of 
 
 > New- York. 
 
 I 
 
V ENVOY. 
 
 285 
 
 a Dutch heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in the 
 state." 
 
 The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer after 
 this explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination of 
 the syllogism ; while, methought, the one in pepper-and-salt 
 eyed him with something of a triumphant leer. At length he 
 observed, that all this was very well, but still he thought the 
 story a little on the extravagant — there were one or two points 
 on which he had his doubts : 
 
 " Faith, sir," replied the story-teller, " as to that matter, I 
 don't believe one-half of it myself." 
 
 Hi 
 
 L' ENVOY.' 
 
 Oo, little booke, God send thcc good passage, 
 Aud specially lut Ibis be thy prayeru, 
 Unto them all that thee will read or hear, 
 Where thou art wrong, after their help to call, 
 Thee to correct, in any part or all. 
 
 — CiiAucKB'8 Belle Dame aana Mercle. 
 
 In concluding a second volume of the Sketch-Book, the 
 Author cannot but express his deep sense of the indulgence 
 with which his first has been received, and of the liberal dis- 
 position that has been evinced to treat him with kindness as a 
 stranger. Even the critics, whatever ma}' be said of them by 
 others, he has found to be a singularly gentle and good-natured 
 race ; it is true that each has in turn objected to some one or 
 two articles, and tliat these individual exceptions, taken in the 
 aggregate, would amount almost to a total condemnation of 
 liis work ; but then he has been consoled by observing, that 
 what one has particularly censured, another has as particu- 
 larly praised : and thus, the encomiums being set off against 
 tlie objections, he finds his work, upon the whole, commended 
 far beyond its deserts. 
 
 He is aware that he runs a risk of forfeiting much of this 
 kind favor by not following the counsel that has been liberally 
 bestowed upon him ; for where abundance of valuable advice 
 is given gratis, it may seem a man's own fault if he should go 
 astray. He can only say, in his vindication, tliat he faithfully 
 determined, for a time, to govern himself in his second volume 
 
 > Closing the second volume of the London edition. 
 

 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 •S 
 
 {>y ' ' : opinions passed upon his first ; but he was soon brought 
 to a 81' V 1 by the contrariety of excellent counsel. One kindly 
 advised u, u to avoid the ludicrous ; another, to shun tlie 
 pathetic ; a third assured him that he was tolerable at descrip- 
 tion, but cautioned him to leave narrative alone ; while a fourth 
 declared that he had a very pretty knack at turning a story, 
 and was really euteitaining when in a pensive mood, but was 
 g,rievously mistaken if he imagined himself to possess a spuit 
 of humor. 
 
 Thus 1 erplexed by the advice of his friends, who each in turn 
 closed so-ne particular path, but left him all the world beside 
 to range in, he found that to follow all their counsels would, iu 
 fact, be to stand still. He remained for a time sadly embar- 
 rassed ; when, all at once, the thought struck him to ramble on 
 as he had begun ; that his work being miscellaneous, and writ- 
 ten for different humors, it could not be expected that any one 
 would be pleased with the whole ; but that if it should contain 
 something to suit each reader, his end would be completely 
 answered. Few guests sit down to a varied table with an 
 equal appetite for every dish. One has an elegant horror of a 
 roasted pig ; another holds a curry or a devil iu utter abomina- 
 tion ; a third cannot tolerate the ancient flavor of venison and 
 wild fowl ; and a fourth, of truly masculine stomach, looks 
 with sovereign contempt on those knickknacks, here and there 
 dished up for the ladies. Thus each article is condemned in 
 its turn ; and yet, amidst this variety of appetites, seldom does 
 a dish go away from the table without being tasted and relished 
 by some one or other of the guests. 
 
 With these considerations he ventures to serve up this second 
 volume in the same heterogeneous way witli his first ; simply 
 requesting the reader, if he should find here and there some- 
 thing to please him, to rest assured that it was written expressly 
 for intelligent readers like himself, but entreating him, should 
 he find any thing to dislike, to tolerate it, as one of those 
 articles which the Author has been obliged to write for readers 
 of a less refined taste. 
 
 To be serious. — The Author is conscious of the numerous 
 faults and imperfections of his work ; and well aware iiow little 
 he iti disciplined and accomplished in the arts of authorship. 
 His deficiencies are also increased by a diflidence arising from 
 his peculiar situation. He finds himself writing in a strange 
 land, and appearing before a public wliifli he has been accus- 
 tomed, from childhood, to regard with the highest feelings of 
 awe and reverence. He is full of solicitude to deserve their 
 
 
r ENVOY. 
 
 287 
 
 approbation, yet finds that very solicitude continually embar- 
 rassing his powers, and depriving him of that ease and confl- 
 denec whicli are necessary to successful exertion. Still the 
 kindness witli which he is treated encourage" him to go on, 
 boping that in time he may acquire a stea r " oting ; and 
 thus he proceeds, half-venturing, half-shrirkiiig urprised at 
 his cvr'( y;'x)(l t'ortuue, aud wouderiug at hie ^ix i ■ erity. 
 
 A SUNDAY IN LOIs .CK.> 
 
 In a preceding paper I have spoken of an English Sunday in 
 the country and its tranquillizing effect upon the landscape ; 
 but where is its sacred influence more strikingly apparent 
 than in the very heart of that great Babel, London ? On this 
 sacred day the gigantic monster is charmed into repose. The 
 intolerable din and struggle of the week are at an end. 
 The shops are shut. The fires of forges and manufactories 
 are extinguished, and the sun, no longer obscured by murky 
 clouds of smoke, pours down a sober yellow radiance into the 
 quiet streets. The few pedestrians we meet, instead of hurry- 
 ing forward with anxious countenances, move leisurely along ; 
 their brows are smoothed from the wrinkles of business and 
 care ; they have put on their Sunday looks and Sunday man- 
 ners with their Sunday clothes, and are cleansed in mind as 
 well as in person. 
 
 And now the melodious clangor of bells from church-towers 
 summons their several flocks to the fold. Forth issues from 
 his mansion the family of the decent tradesman, the small 
 children in the advance ; then the citizen and his comely 
 spouse, followed by the grown-up daughters, with small 
 morocco-bound prayer-books laid in the folds of their pocket- 
 handkerchiefs. The house-maid looks after them from the 
 window, admiring the finery of the family, and receiving, 
 perhaps, a nod and smile from her young mistresses, at whose 
 toilet she has assisted. 
 
 Now rumbles along the carriage of some magnate of the 
 city, peradventure an alderman or a sheriff, and now the patter 
 of many feet announces a procession of charity scholars in 
 uniforms of antique cut, and each with a prayer-book under 
 his arm. 
 
 > i'ort of u, dketcU oonitted lu ttie preceding editioiu. 
 
 !^' 
 
 'If. 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 li 
 
288 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 The ringing of bells is at an end ; the rumbling of carriages 
 has ceased; the pattering of feet is heard no more; the flocks 
 are folded in ancient churches, cramped up in by-lanes and 
 corners of the crowded city, where the vigilant beadle keeps 
 watch, like the shepherd's dog, round the threshold of the 
 sanctuary. For a time everything is hushed, but soon is heard 
 the deep, pervading sound of the organ, rolling and vibrating 
 through the empty lanes and courts, and the sweet chanting of 
 the choir, making them resound with melody and praise. 
 Never have I been more sensible of the sanctifying effect of 
 church music than when I have heard it thus poured forth, 
 like a river of joy, through the inmost recesses of this great 
 metropolis, elevating it, as it were, from all the sordid pollutions 
 of the week, and bearing the poor world-worn soul on a tide 
 of triumphant harmony to heaven. 
 
 The morning service is at an end. The streets are again 
 alive with the congregations returning to their homes, but 
 soon again relapse into silence. Now comes on the Sunday 
 dinner, which to the city tradesman is a meal of some impor- 
 tance. There is more leisure for social enjoyment at the 
 board. Members of the family can now gather together who 
 are separated by the laborious occupations of the week. A 
 schoolboy may be permitted on that day to come to the 
 paternal home ; an old friend of the family takes his accus- 
 tomed Sunday seat at the board, tells over his well-known 
 stories, and rejoices young and old with his well-known jokes. 
 
 On Sunday afternoon the city pours forth its legions to 
 breathe the fresh air and enjoy the sunshine of the parks and 
 rural environs. Satirists may say what they please about the 
 rural enjoyments of a London citizen on Sunday, but to me 
 there is something delightful in beholding the poor prisoner 
 of the crowded and dusty city enabled thus to come fortli 
 once a week and throw himself upon the green bosom of 
 Nature. He is like a child restored to the mother's breast, 
 and they who first spread out these noble parks and magnifi- 
 cent pleasure-grounds which surround this huge metropolis 
 have done at least as much for its health and morality as if 
 they had expended the amount of cost in hospitals, prisons, 
 and penitentiaries. 
 
 ; 
 
 ■ 
 
LONDON ANTIQUES. 
 
 283 
 
 LONDON ANTIQUES. 
 
 I do walk 
 
 Methinks like Ouido Vaux, with my dark lantliorn, 
 Stealing to set the town o' fire; i' tii' country 
 I should be taken for William o' the Wisp, 
 Or Kobin Goodtellow. 
 
 Fletcher. 
 
 I AM somewhat of an antiquity-hunter, and am fond of ex 
 ploring London in quest of the relics of old times. These 
 arc principally to be found in the depths of the city, swal- 
 lowed up and almost lost in a wilderness of brick and mortar, 
 but deriving poetical and romantic interest from the common- 
 place, prosaic world around them. I was struck with an in- 
 stance of the kind in the course of a recent summer ramble 
 into the city ; for the city is only to be explored to advantage 
 in summer-time, when free from the smoke and fog and min 
 and mud of winter. I had been buffeting for some time 
 against the current of population setting through Fleet Street. 
 Tlie warm weather had unstrung my nerves and made me 
 sensitive to every jar and jostle and discordant sound. The 
 flesh was weary, the spirit faint, and I was getting out of 
 humor with the bustling busy throng through which I had to 
 struggle, when in a fit of des})eration I tore my way through 
 the crowd, plunged into a by-lane, and, after passing through 
 several obscure nooks and angles, emerged into a quaint and 
 quiet court with a grassplot in the centre overhung by elms, 
 and kept perpetually fresh and green by a fountain with its 
 sparkling jet of water. A student with book in hand was 
 seated on a stone bench, partly reading, partly meditating on 
 the movements of two or three trim nursery-maids with their 
 infant charges. 
 
 I was like an Arab who had suddenly come upon an oasis 
 amid the panting sterility of the desert. By degrees the 
 quiet and coolness of the place soothed my nerves and re- 
 freshed my spirit. I pursued my walk, and came, hard by, to 
 a very ancient chapel with a low-browed Saxon portal of 
 massive and rich architecture. The interior was circular and 
 lofty and lighted from above. Around were monumental 
 tombs of ancient date on which were extended the marble 
 effigies of warriors in armor. Some had the hands devoutly 
 crossed upon the breast ; others grasped the pommel of the 
 Bword, menacing hostility even in the tomb, while the crossed 
 
 ; ( 
 
290 
 
 THE SKETCn-liOOK. 
 
 legs of sever..! indicated soldiers of the Faith who had been 
 on crusades to the Holy Land. 
 
 I was, in fact, in the chapel of the Knights Templars, 
 strangely situated in the very centre of sordid traffic ; and I 
 do not know a more impressive lesson for the man of the 
 world than thus suddenly to turn aside from the highway ot 
 busy money-seeking life, and sit down among these shadowy 
 sepulchres, where all is twilight, dust, and forgetfulness. 
 
 In a subsequent tour of observation I encountored anothei- 
 of these relics of a "foregone world " locked up in the lieart 
 of the city. I had been wandering for some time through 
 dull monotonous streets, destitute of anything to strike the 
 eye or excite the imagination, when I beheld before me a 
 Gothic gateway of mouldering antiquity. It opened into a 
 spacious quadrangle forming the courtyard of a stately Gothic 
 pile, the portal of which stood invitingly open. 
 
 It was apparently a public edifice, and, as I was antiquity- 
 hunting, I ventured in, though with dubious steps. Meeting 
 no one either to oppose or rebuke my intrusion, I continued 
 on until I found myself in a great hall with a lofty arched 
 roof and oaken gallery, all of Gothic architecture. At one 
 end of the hall was an enormous fireplace, with wooden settles 
 on each side; at the other end was a raised platform, or dais, 
 the seat of state, above which was the portrait of a man in 
 antique garb with a long robe, a ruff, aud a venerable gray 
 beard. 
 
 The whole establishment had an air of monastic quiet and 
 seclusion, and what gave it a mysterious charm was, that I 
 had not met with a human being since I had passed the 
 threshold. 
 
 Encouraged by this loneliness, I seated myself in a recess 
 of a large bow window, which admitted a broad flood of yel- 
 low sunshine, checkered here and there by tints from panes 
 of colored glass, while an open casement let in the soft sum- 
 mer air. Here, leaning my head on my hand and my arm on 
 an old oaken table, I indulged in a sort of reverie about what 
 might have been the ancient uses of this edifice. It had evi- 
 dently been of monastic origin ; perhaps one of those colle- 
 giate establishments built of yore for the promotion of 
 learning, where the patient monk, in the ample solitude of the 
 cloister, added page to page and volume to volume, emulating 
 in the productions of his brain the magnitude of the pile he 
 inhabited. 
 
 As I was seated in this musing mood a small panelled ck^o? 
 
LONDON ANTIQUES. 
 
 291 
 
 In an arch at the upper end of the hall was opened, and a 
 number of gray-h^^ded old men, clad in long black cloaks, 
 came forth one by one, proceeding in that manner through the 
 hall, without uttering a word, each turning a pale face on me 
 as ho passed, and disappearing through a door at the lower 
 end. 
 
 I was singularly struck with their appearance ; their black 
 cloaks and antiquated air comported with the style of this 
 most venerable and mysterious pile. It was as if the ghosts 
 of the departed years, about which I had been musing, were 
 passing in review before me. Pleasing myself with such 
 fancies, I set out, in the spirit of romance, to explore what I 
 pictured to myself a realm of shadows existing in the very 
 centre of substantial realities. 
 
 My ramble led me through a labyrinth of interior courts 
 and corridors and dilapidated cloisters, for the main edifice 
 had many additions and dependencies, built at various times 
 and in various styles. In one open space a number of boys, 
 who evidently belonged to the establishment, were at their 
 sports, but everywhere I observed those mysterious old gray 
 men in black mantles, sometimes sauntering alone, sometimes 
 conversing in groups; they appeared to be the pervading 
 genii of the place. I now called to mind what I had read of 
 certain colleges in old times, where judicial astrology, geo- 
 mancy, necromancy, and other forbidden and magical sciences 
 were taught. Was this an establishment of the kind, and 
 vere these black-cloaked old men really professors of the 
 >i. ack art ? 
 
 These surmises were passing through my mind as my eye 
 glanced into a chamber hung round with all kinds of strange 
 and uncouth objects — implements of savage warfare, strange 
 idols, and stuffed alligators ; bottled serpents and monsters 
 decorated the mantelpiece ; while on the high tester of au oid- 
 fashioned bedstead grinned a human skull, flanked on each 
 side by a dried cat. 
 
 I approached to regard more narrowly this myst\c chamber, 
 which seemed a fitting laboratory for a necromancer, when I 
 was startled at beholding a human countenance staring at me 
 from a dusky corner. It was that of a small, shrivelled old 
 man with thin cheeks, bright eyes, and gray, wiry, projecting 
 eyebrows. I at first doubted whether it were not a mummy 
 curiously preserved, but it moved, and 1 saw that it was alive. 
 It was another of these black-cloaked old men, and, as I re- 
 garded his quaint physiognomy, his obsolete garb, and the 
 
 II 
 
 '!.:> 
 
 'f 
 
292 
 
 TEE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 1 I 
 
 hideous and sinister objects by which he was surrounded, I 
 began to persuade myself that I had come upon the arch-mago 
 who ruled over this magical fraternity. 
 
 Seeing me pausirg before the door, he rose and invited me to 
 enter. I obeyed with singular hardihood, for how did I know 
 whether a wave of his wand might not metamorphose me into 
 some strange monster, or conjure me into one of the bottles 
 on his mantelpiece ? He proved, however, to be anything but 
 a conjurer, and his simple garrulity soon dispelled all the 
 magic" and mystery with which I had enveloped this anti- 
 quated pile and its no less antiquated inhabitants. 
 
 It appeared that I had made my way into the centre of an 
 ancient asylum for superannuated tradesmen and decayed 
 householders, with which was connected a school for a limited 
 number of boys. It was founded upwards of two centuries 
 since on an old monastic establishment, and retained somewJiat 
 of the conventual air and character. The shadowy line of old 
 men in black mantles who had passed before me in the hall, 
 and whom I had eleva^ 'd into magi, turned out to be the pen- 
 sioners returning from morning service in the chapel. 
 
 John Hallum, the little collector of curiosities whom I had 
 made the arch-magician, had been for six years a resident of 
 the place, and had decorated this final nestling-place of his old 
 age with relics and rarities picked up in the course of his life. 
 According to his own account, he had been somewhat of a 
 traveller, having been once in France, and very near making a 
 visit to Holland. He regretted not having visited the latter 
 country, " as then he might have said he had been there." 
 He was evidently a traveller of the simple kind. 
 
 He was aristocratical too in his notions, keeping aloof, as I 
 found from the ordinary run of pensioners. His chief asso(!iatos 
 were a blind man who spoke Latin and Greek, of both whieli 
 languages Hallum was profoundly ignorant, and a broken- 
 down gentleman who had run through a fortune of forty thou- 
 sand pounds left him by his father, and ten thousand pounds, 
 the marriage portion of his wife. Little Hallum seemed to 
 consider it an indubitable sign of gentle blood as well as of 
 lofty spirit to be able to squander such enormous sums. 
 
 P. S. The picturesque remnant of old times into which I 
 have thus beguiled the reader is what is called the Charter 
 House, originally the Chartreuse. It was founded in 101 1, on 
 the remains of an ancient convent, by Sir Thomas Sutton, boiiig 
 oup of those noble charities set on foot by individual munili- 
 eence, and kept up with the quaintuess and sanctity of 
 
LONDON ANTIQUES. 
 
 293 
 
 ancient times amidst the modern changes and innovations of 
 London. Here eighty broken-down men, who have seen better 
 days, are provided in their old age with food, clothing, fuel, 
 and a yearly allowance for private expenses. They dine to- 
 gether, as did the monks of old, in the hall which had been 
 the refectory of the original convent. Attached to the estab- 
 lishment is a school for forty-four boys. 
 
 Stow, whose work I have consulted on the subject, speaking 
 of the obligations of the gray -headed pensioners, says, "They 
 are not to intermeddle with any business touching the affairs 
 of the hospital, but to attend only to the service of God, and 
 take thankfully what is provided for them, without muttering, 
 murmuring, or grudging. None to wear weapon, long hair, 
 colored boots, spurs, or colored shoes, feathers in their hats, 
 or any ruffian-like or unseemly apparel, but such as becomes 
 hospital-men to wear." "And in truth," adds Stow, "happy 
 are they that are so taken from the caros and sorrows of the 
 world, and fixed in so good a place as these old men are ; 
 having nothing to care for but the good of their souls, to serve 
 God, and to live in broth irly love." 
 
 f 
 
 » ■ 
 
 For the amusement of such as have been interested by the 
 preceding sketch, taken down from my own observation, and 
 who may wish to know a little more about the mysteries of 
 London, I subjoin a modicum of local history put into my 
 hands by an odd-looking old gentleman, in a small brown wig 
 and a snuff-colored coat, with whom I became acquainted 
 shortly after my visit to the Charter House. I confess I was 
 a little dubious at first whether it was not one of those apoc- 
 ry])lial tales often passed off upon inquiring travellers like 
 myself, and which have brought our general character for 
 veracity into such unmerited reproach. On making proper 
 inquiries, however, I have received the most satisfactory 
 assurances of the author's probity, and indeed have been told 
 tliat he is actually engaged in a full and particular account of 
 the very interesting region in which he resides, of which the 
 following may be considered merely as a foretaste. ^ 
 
 > Thli refers to the article entitled " Little Britain." See page 182. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 
 NoTB l.— POSTSCRIPT TO RIP VAX WINKLE. 
 
 1:1 
 
 ».. 
 
 The following are travelling notes from a memorandum-book of M.. 
 Knickerbocker. 
 
 The Kaatsberg, or Catskill Mountains, have always been a region full 
 of fable. The Indians considered tlu-m the abode of spirits, who in- 
 fluenced the weather, spreading sunshine ot clouds over the landscape 
 and sending good or bad hunting seasons. They were ruled by an old 
 squaw spirit, said to be their mother. She dwelt on the highest peak of 
 the Catskills, and had charge of the doors of day and night to open and 
 shut them at the proper hour. She hung up the new moons in the skies, 
 and cut up the old ones into stars. In times of drought, if properly pro- 
 pitiated, she would spin light summer cl.iuds out of cobwebs and morning 
 dew, and send them off from the crest of the mountain, flake after flake, 
 like flak^^s of carded cotton, to fluat in the air ; until, dissolved by the 
 heat of the sun, they would fall in gnntle showers, causing the grass to 
 spring, the fruits to ripen, and the corn to grow an inch an hour. If dis- 
 pleased, however, she would brew up ck .ds black as ink, sitting in the 
 midst of them like a bottle-bellied spider in the midst of its web ; and 
 when these clouds broke, woe betide tlie valleys ! 
 
 In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of Manitou or 
 spirit, who kept about the wildest recesses of the Cati"HiIl Triouutains, and 
 took a mischievous pleasure in wreaking all kinds of evils and vexations 
 upon the red men. Sometimes he would assume the form of a bear, a 
 panther, or a deer, lead the bewildered hunter a weary chase through 
 tangled forests and among ragged rocks, and then Lpring off with a loud 
 ho I ho I leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling precipice or raging 
 torrent. 
 
 The favorite abode of thia Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock or 
 cliff on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, from the flowering vines 
 which clamber about it and the wild flowers which abound in its neigh- 
 borhood, is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot of 
 it is a fmall lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water-snakes 
 basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies, which lie ou the sur- 
 face. This place was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that 
 the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its precincts. Once 
 upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his way penetrated to the 
 Garden liock, where be beheld a number of gourds placed in the crutches 
 
 294 
 
THE SKETCH-BOOK, 
 
 296 
 
 of trees. One of these he seized and made off with it, but in the hurry 
 of his retreat he let it fall among the rocks, when a great stream gashed 
 forth, which washed him away and swept him down precipices, where he 
 was dashed to pieces, an(^. the stream made its way to the Hudson, and 
 continues to flow to the present day, being the identical stream known 
 by the name of Kaaterskill. 
 
 NoT« 2, Page 81. — TffE WIDOW AND HER SON. 
 
 In the revi' edition the first part of this sketch reads as follows : 
 Those who are in the habit of remarking such mattere must hare 
 noticed the passive quiet of an English landscape on Sunday. The 
 clacking of the mill, the regularly recurring stroke of the flail, the din 
 of the blacksmith's hammer, the whistling of the ploughman, the rattling 
 of the cart, and all other sounds of rural labor are suspended. The very 
 farmdogs bark less frequently, being less disturbed by passing travellers. 
 At such times I have almost fancied the winds aunk into quiet, and that 
 the sunny landscape, with its fresh green tints melting into blue haze, 
 enjoyed the hallowed calm. Well was it ordained that the day of devo- 
 
 Bweet day, so pure, so calm, bo bright. 
 The bridal uf the earth and sky. 
 
 tion should be a day of rest. The holy repose which reigns over the face 
 of Nature has its moral influence ; every restless passion is charmed down, 
 and we feel the natural religion of the soul gently springing up within us. 
 VoT my part, there are feelings that visit me in a country church, amid 
 the beautiful serenity of Nature, which I experience nowhere else; and 
 if not a more religious, I think I am a better, man on Sunday than on any 
 other day of tlie seven. 
 
 During my recent residence in the country I used frequently to attend 
 at the old village church, its shadowy aisles, its mouldering monuments, 
 its dark oaken panelling, all reverend with the gloom of departed years, 
 seemed to fit it for the haunt of solemn meditation ; but, being in a 
 wealthy, aristocratic neighborhood, the glitter of fashion penetrated even 
 into the sanctuary, and I felt myself continually thrown back upon the 
 world by the frigidity and pomp of the poor worms around me. The only 
 being in the whole congregation who appeared thoroughly to feel the 
 humble and prostrate piety of a true Christian was a poor decrepit old 
 woman bending under the weight of ye!) rs and infirmities. She bore the 
 traces of something better than abject poverty. The lingerings of decent 
 pride were visible in her appearance. Her dress, though humble in the 
 extreme, was scrupulously clean. Some trivial respect, tc had been 
 awarded hor, for she did not take her seat among the village poor, but sat 
 alone on the stops of the altar. She seemed to have survived all love, all 
 friendship, all society, and to have nothing left her but the hopes of 
 hiaven. When I saw her feebly rising and bending her aged form in 
 prayer, habitually conning her prayer-book, which her palsies hand and 
 tailing eyes would not permit her to read, but which she evidently knew 
 t>y hoart, 1 lelt persuaded that the faltering voice of that poor woman 
 arose to heaven far before the responses of the clerk, the sweiJ. ot U»a 
 organ, or the chanting of the choir. 
 
 II r. 
 
296 
 
 THE SKETCE-BOOK. 
 
 'V 
 
 ¥.m 
 
 'Smti. — NOTES CONCERNING WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
 Toward the end of the sixth century, when Britain, under the domin. 
 ion of the Saxons, was in a state of barbarism and idolatry, I'ope Gregory 
 the Great, struck witli the beauty of some Anglo-Saxon youths exposed 
 for sale in the market-place at Rome, conceived a fancy for the race, and 
 deteunined to send missionaries to preach the goipel among these comely 
 but benighted islanders. He was encouraged to this by learning that 
 Ethelbert, king of Kent and the most potent of the Anglo-Saxon princes, 
 had married Bertha, a Christian princess, only daughter of the king of 
 Paris, and that she was allowed by stipulation the fuH exercise of her 
 religion. 
 
 The shrewd pontiff knew the influence of the sex in tiatters of religious 
 faith. He forthwith despatched Augustine, a Komaii monk, with forty 
 associates, to the court of Ethelbert at Canterbury, to effect the conver- 
 sion of the king and to obtain through him a foothold in the island. 
 
 Ethelbert received them warily, and held a conference in the open air, 
 being distrustful of foreign priestcraft and fearf il of spells and magic. 
 They ultimately succeeded in making him as good a Christian as his wife; 
 the conversion of the king of course produced the conversion of his loyal 
 subjects. The zeal and success of Auguaiint; were rewarded by his being 
 made archbishop of Canterbury, and being endowed with authority over 
 all the British churches. 
 
 Oneof the most proTr.' •-nt converts was Segebert or Sebert, king of the 
 East Saxons, a neph- •>, i't "thelbert. He reigned at London, of which 
 Mellitus, jae of thn iiomui monks who had come over with Augustine, 
 was made bishop. 
 
 Sebert in 606, in his religious zeal, founded a monastery by the river- 
 side to the west of the city, on the ruins of a temple of Apollo, being, in 
 fact, the origin of the present pile of Westminster Abbey. Great prepa- 
 rations were made for the consecration of the church, which was to be 
 dedicated to St. Peter. On the morning of the appointed day Mellitus, 
 the bishop, proceeded with great pomp and solemnity to perform the 
 ceremony. On approaching the edifice he was met by a fisherman, who 
 informed him that it was needless to proceed, as the ceremony was over. 
 The bishop stared with surprise, when the fisherman went on to relate 
 that the night before, as he was in his boat on the Thames, St. Peter 
 appeared to him, and told him that he intended to consecrate the church 
 himself that very night. The apostle accordingly went into the church, 
 which suddenly became illuminated. The ceremony was performed in 
 sumptuous style, accompanied by strains of heavenly music and clouds 
 of fragrant incense. After this the apostle came into the boat and 
 ordered the fisherman to cast his net. He did so, and had a miraculous 
 draught of fishes, one of which he was commanded to present to the 
 bishoT;, and to signify to him that the apostle had relieved him from the 
 iiisce.^dty of consecrating the church. 
 
 Mellitus was a wary man, slow of belief, and required confirmation of 
 the fisherman's tale. He opened the church doors, and beheld wax 
 candles, crosses, holy water, oil sprinkled in various places, aiiii various 
 other traces of a grand ceremonial. If he had still any lingering doubts, 
 they were completely removed on the fisherman's producing the identical 
 fish which he had been ordered by the apostle to present to him. To 
 resist this would have been to resist ocular demonstration. The good 
 bishop accordingly was convinced that the church had actually been con^ 
 
 
 ! I 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 297 
 
 secrated by St. Peter in person; so lie reverently abstained from proceed- 
 ing further in the business. 
 
 The foregoing tradition is said to be the reason why King Edward the 
 Confessor cliose tliis place as the site of a religious house which he 
 meant to endow. He pulled down the old church and built another in 
 its place in 1045. In this his remains were deposited in a magniticeut 
 shrine. 
 
 The sacred edifice again underwent modific.iions, if not a recon- 
 struction, by Henry ill. in 1220, and began to assume its present 
 appearance. 
 
 Under Henry VIII. it lost its conventual character, that monarch 
 turning the monks away and seizing upon the revenues. 
 
 RELICS OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 
 
 A curious narrative was printed in 1688 by on*» of the choristers of the 
 cathedral, who appears to have been the Paul Pry of the sacred edifice, 
 giving an account of his rummaging among the bones of Edward tl e 
 Confessor, after they had (|iiietly reposed in their sepulchre upward* < C 
 six hundred years, and of his drawing forth the crucifix and golden Viaiu 
 of the deceased monarch. During eighteen years that he had officii'. t.ed 
 in the choir it had been a common tradition, he says, among his broth- • 
 choristers and the gray-headed servants of the abbey that the bod\ . 
 King Edward was deposited in a kind of chest or coffin which was in'dis- 
 tiiu'lly seen in the upper part of the shrine erected to his memory. None 
 of the abbey gossips, however, had ventured upon nearer inspection 
 until the worthy narrator, to gratify his curiosity, anted to the coHin 
 by the aid of a ladder, and found it to be made of jod, apparently very 
 strong and firm, being secured by bands of iron. 
 
 Subsequently, in 108o, on taking down the scaffolding used in the coro- 
 nation of James II., the coffin was found to be I ;uken, a hole appearing 
 in the lid, probably made through accident by the workmen. No one 
 ventured, however, to meddle with the sacrei' depository of royal dust 
 until, several weeks afterwards, the circumsta e came to the knowledge 
 of the aforesaid chorister. He forthwith repaired to the abbey in com- 
 l>any with two friends of congenial tastes, who were desirous of inspect- 
 ing the tombs. Procuring a ladder, he again moimtcd to the coffin, and 
 found, as had been represented, a hole in the lid about six inches long 
 and four inches broad, just in front of the left breast. Thrusting in his 
 hand and groping among the bones, he drew from underneath the 
 shoulder a crucifix, richly adorned and enamelled, affixed to a gold chain 
 twenty-four inches long. These he showed to his inquisitive friends, 
 who were equally surprised with himself. 
 
 " At the lime," says he, " when I took the cr ^^ and chain out of the 
 coffin 7 drew the head to the hole and viewed ti, being very sound and 
 firm, with the upper and nether jaws whole and full of teeth, and a list 
 of gold above an inch broad, in the nature of a coronet, surrounding the 
 temples. There was also in the coffin white linen and gold-colored 
 flowered silk, that looked indifferent fresh; but the least stress put there- 
 to showed it was wellnigh perished. There were all his bones, and much 
 dust likewise, which I left aa I found." 
 
298 
 
 THE SKETCH-BOOK 
 
 ^ 
 
 It is difficult to conceive % more grotesque lesson to human pride than 
 the skull of Edward the Confessor thus irreverently pulled about in its 
 coffin by a prying chorister, and brought to grin face to face with him 
 through a hole in the lid. 
 
 Having satisfied his curiosity, the chorister put the crucifix and chain 
 back again into the co^n, and sought tiie dean to apprise him of his dia- 
 covery? The dean not being accessible at, the time, and fearing that the 
 " holy treasure " might be taken away by other hands, he got a brother- 
 chorister to accompany him to the shrine about two or three hours after- 
 wards, and in his presence again drew forth the relics. These he after- 
 wards delivered on his knees to King James. The king subsequently had 
 the old coffin enclosed in a new one of great strength, *' each plank being 
 two inches thick and cramped together with large iron v^^dges, where it 
 now remains (168S) as a testimony of his pious care, thai u^ abuse might 
 be offered to the sacred ashes therein reposited." 
 
 As the history of this shrine is full of moral, I subjoin a description of 
 it in modern times. "The solitary and forlorn shrine," says a British 
 writer, " now stands a uiere skeleton of what it was. A few faint traces 
 of its sparkling decorations inlaid on solid mortar catches the rays of the 
 sun, forever set on its splendor. . . . Only two of the spiral pillars remain. 
 The wooden Ionic top is much broken and covered with dust. The mosaic 
 is picked away in every part within reach ; only the lozenges of about a foot 
 square and five circular pieces of the rich marble remain." — Malcolm, 
 Land, r^div- 
 
 |f 1 1 
 
 INSCRIPTION ON A MONUMENT ALLUDED 
 TIIE SKETCH. 
 
 TO IN 
 
 Here lyes the Loyal Duke of Newcastle, and his Dutchess his second 
 ■▼ife, by whom he had no issue. Her name was Margaret Lucas, youngest 
 t'ster to the Lord Lucas of Colchester, a noble family; for all the brothers 
 Tf ■« valiant, and all the sisters virtuous. This Dutchess was a wise, 
 wit;\ and learned lady, which her many Hookes do well testify; she was 
 " va^iA virtuous and loving and careful wife, and was with her lord all 
 ihn time of his banishment and miseries, and when he came home, never 
 i,v„ntu from him in his solitary retirements. 
 
 
 ii' I'l 
 
 h^ 
 
 Tr the winter-time, when the days arc short, the service in the after- 
 noon is performed by the lignt of tapirs. Th*- Hfpct is fine of (he choir 
 partially I'.o^hted up, while the main body of th« 'r»thedri.i and the tran- 
 septs arf in profound and cavernous darkness. 'I'lie white drcsHes of the 
 chorister.' gleam amidst the deep brown of the oaken slats ar..| canopies; 
 the partial illumination makes enormous sha<iows from columns and 
 screens, and, da. ting into the surrounding gloom, catches here and there 
 up-jn a sepulchral decoration or monumental effigy. The swelling notes 
 of the organ accord well with the scene. 
 
 When the service is over the dean is lighted to his dwelling, in the old 
 conventual part of the pile, by the boys of the choir, in their white dri^sites, 
 bearing t«pers, and the procession passes through the abbey and along 
 
 m 
 
shadowy cloisters, lighting up angles and arches and grim sepulchral mon 
 un'^nts, and leaving all behind in darkness. 
 
 On entering the cloisters at night from what is called the Dean's Yard, 
 the eye, ranging through a dark vaulted passage, catches a distant view 
 <if a white marble figure reclining on a tomb, on which a strong glare 
 ihrown by a gas-light has quite a spectral effect. It is a mural monument 
 of one of the Pultneys. 
 
 'i'he cloisters are well worth visiting by moonlight when the moon is in 
 1 lie full. 
 
 Note i, Page 181. — THE CHRISTMAS DINNER. 
 
 At the time of the first publication of this paper the picture of an old- 
 fasliioned Christmas in the country was pronounced by some as out of 
 (late. The author had afterwards an opportunity of witnessing aJniost 
 ail llie customs above described, existing in unexpected vigor in tiie skirts 
 of Dorbysliire and Yorkshire, where he passed the Christmas holidays. 
 'I'lie leader will find some notice of them in the author's account of his 
 sojourn at Newstead Abbey. 
 
 ^OTBo. Vkovi 206. — STRATFORD ON J VON. 
 
 This efflffy is in white marble, anil represents the Knight in complete 
 jirniur. Near liim lies tlie etilgy of his w ife, and on iier tomb is tiie fol- 
 lowing inscription ; wliicli, if really composed l)y her husband, places 
 iiini (juite above tlie intellectual level of Master Slmllow : 
 
 Here lyeth the Lady .Joyce Lucy wife of Sr Thomas Lucy of Charle- 
 cot in ye county of Warwick, Knight, Daughter and heir of Thomas 
 Acton of Sutton in ye county of Worcester Esiiuire who departed out 
 of tills wretched world to her heavenly kingdom ye 10 day of February 
 ill ye yeareof our Lord God loOo and of her agefiO and tliree. All the time 
 of lier lyfe a true and faythful servant of her good God, never detected 
 of any cryme or vi'-j. In religion most sounde, in love to her husband 
 most faytliful and true. In friendship most constant; to what in trust 
 M as committed unto her most secret. In wisdom excelling. In goveru- 
 iiig of lier house, l)riuging up of youth in ye fear of God that did con- 
 verse with her inoste rare and singular. A great maintayner of hospi- 
 tality. Greatly esteemed of her betters; misliked of none unless of the 
 etivyoiiH. Wlien all is P|)oken that can tie saide a woman so garnished 
 witli virtue as not to be bettered and hardly to l)e equalled by any. 
 As sliee lived most virtuously so sliee died most Godly. Set downe by 
 him yt best did kuowe what hath byn written to be true. 
 
 Thomas Lucye. 
 
I i 
 
 !l 
 
 \i\ $■ 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 \'\ i 
 
 I.I 
 
 i' 
 
THE CRAYON PAPERS 
 
 » u 
 
 U\ 
 
 M 
 
9i 
 
 Vr 
 
 ■| i* 
 
CO]SrTE:N^TS. 
 
 fAOB 
 
 MOUNTJOT 3 
 
 The Gueat Mississiri-i Bubule 38 
 
 Don Juan 25 
 
 Broek 73 
 
 Sketches in Paris in 1825 78 
 
 Amekican Ueseakcues in Italy 96 
 
 TuE Taking of the Veil jqq 
 
 The P]auly Expehiknces ok Ralph Ringwood no 
 
 The Seminoles 237 
 
 The Conspikacy of Neamatiila 142 
 
 Lettek fuom Granada 148 
 
 Abuerahman , 153 
 
 The Widow's Ordeal 171 
 
 The Creole \illage • jgi 
 
 A Contented Man 188 
 
 m 
 

 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 ■tills 12.5 
 
 |jo "'^~ M^H 
 
 m 
 
 us 
 
 2.2 
 
 1^ il|^ 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 1.4 lA 
 
 
 < 6" — 
 
 ». 
 
 -^ 
 
 / 
 
 ^V-' 
 
 
 V 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 m 
 
 V 
 
 <^ 
 
 <X 
 
 % 
 
 
 
 6^ 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 
 
 (716)872-4303 
 
 '%'• 
 

, I 
 
THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 BT 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYOK, GENT. 
 
 I It 
 
 MOUNTJOY : 
 
 OR SOME PASSAGES OUT OF THE LIFE OP A CASTLE-BUILDER. 
 
 ;i 
 
 I WAS horn among romantic scenery, in one of tlie wildest 
 parts of the Hudson, wliich at tliat time was not so thickly set- 
 tled as at present. My father was descended from one of the 
 old Huguenot families, that came over to this country on the 
 revoo.ation of the edict of Nantz. He lived in a style of easy, 
 rural independence, on a patrimonial estate that had been for 
 two or three generations in the family. He was an indolent, 
 good-natured man, who took the world as it went, and had a 
 kind of laughing philosophy, that parried all rubs and mishaps, 
 and served him in the place of wisdom. This was the part of 
 his character least to my taste ; for I was of an enthusiastic, 
 excitable temperament, prone to kindle up with new schemes 
 and projects, and he was apt to dash my sallying enthusiasm by 
 some unlucky joke ; so that whenever I was in a glow with any 
 •iudden exi'itement, I stood in mortal dread of his good-humor. 
 
 Yet he indulged me in every vagary ; for I was an only son, 
 and of course a personage of importance in the household. I 
 had two sisters older than myself, and one younger. The former 
 were educated at New York, under the eye of a maiden aunt ; 
 the latter remained at home, and was my cherished playmate, 
 the companion of my thoughts. We were two imaginative little 
 beings, of quick susceptibility, and prone to see wonders and 
 mysteries in everything around us. Scarce had we learned to 
 read, when our mother made us holiday presents of all the 
 nursery literature of the day ; which at tlipt, time consisted of 
 
 ^ !/■ 
 
i I 
 
 1 
 
 ' I 
 
 1 
 
 f 
 
 ll 
 
 1 
 
 h 
 
 i U 
 
 4 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 little books covered with gilt paper, adorned with •' cuts," and 
 tilled with tales of fairies, giants, and enchanters. What 
 draughts of delightful fiction did we then inhale ! My sister 
 Sophy was of a soft and tender nature. She would weep over 
 the woes of the Children in the Wood, or quake at the dark 
 romance of Blue-Beard, and the terrible mysteries of the blue 
 chambe . But I was all for enterprise and adventure. I burned 
 to emulate the deeds of tliat heroic priuce who delivered the 
 white cat from her enchantment ; or he of no less royal blood, 
 and doughty emprise, who broke the charmed slumber of the 
 Beauty in the Wood ! 
 
 The house in which we lived was just the kind of place to 
 foster such propensities. It was a venerable mansion, half villa, 
 half farmhouse. The oldest part was of stone, with loop-holes 
 for musketry, having served as a family fortress in the time of 
 the Indians. To this there had been made various additions, 
 some of brick, some of wood, according to the exigencies of 
 the moment ; so that it was full of nooks and crooks, and cham- 
 bers of all sorts and sizes. It was buried among willows, elms, 
 and cherry trees, and surrounded with roses and hollyhocks with 
 honeysuckle and sweet-brier clambering about every window. A 
 brood of hereditary pigeons sunned themselves upon the roof ; 
 hereditary swallows and martins built about the eaves and chim- 
 neys; and lieredilarv bees hummed about the flower-beds. 
 
 Under the influence of our story-books every object •'round 
 us now assumed a new character, and a charmed interest. The 
 wild flowers were no longer the mere ornaments of the fields, or 
 the resorts of the toilful bee ; they were the lurking places of 
 fairies. We would watch the humming-bird, as it hovered 
 around the trumpet creeper at oar porcii, and the butterfly as it 
 flitted up into the blue air, above the sunny tree tops, and fancy 
 them some of the tiny beings from fairyland. 1 would call to 
 mind all that I had read of Robin Goodfellow and his power of 
 transformation. Oh, how I envied him that power! IIow 1 
 longed to be able to compress my form into utter littleness; to 
 ride the bold dragon-fly; swing on the tall bearded grass ; fol- 
 low the ant into his subterraneous habitation, or dive into the 
 cavernous depths of the honeysuckle ! 
 
 While I was yet a mere child I was sent to a daily school, 
 about two miles distant. The schoolhouse was on the edge of 
 a wood, close by a brook overhung with birches, alders, and 
 dwarf willows. We of the school who lived at some distance 
 came with our dinners put up in little baskets. In the intervals 
 of school hours we would gather round a spring, under a tuft 
 
MOUNT JOT. 
 
 ^" and 
 What 
 y sister 
 ep over 
 le dark 
 he blue 
 burned 
 red the 
 
 1 blood, 
 of the 
 
 )lace to 
 ilf villa, 
 op-holes 
 
 time of 
 Iditions, 
 ncies of 
 id cham- 
 78, elms, 
 cks with 
 dow. A 
 ,he roof ; 
 nd ehim- 
 ds. 
 
 !t "round 
 St. The 
 fields, or 
 places of 
 
 hovered 
 jrfly UH it 
 lud fiiiiey 
 
 ,d C!\ll to 
 
 power of 
 How 1 
 cuess ; to 
 •ass ; fol- 
 e into the 
 
 ly school, 
 le edge of 
 ders, and 
 
 2 distance 
 1 intervals 
 ier a tuft 
 
 agam, 
 
 of hazcl-busbes, and have a kind of picnic ; interchanging the 
 rustic dainties with which our provident mothers had fitted us 
 out. Then when our joyous repast was over, and my compan- 
 ions were disposed for play, I would draw forth one of my cher- 
 ished storj'-books, stretch myself on the greensward, and soon 
 lose myself in its bewitching contents. 
 
 I became an oracle among my schoolmates on account of my 
 superior erudition, and soon imparted to them the contagion of 
 my infected fancy. Often in the evening, after school hours, 
 we would sit on the trunk of some fallen tree in the woods, and 
 vie with each other in telling extravagant stories, until the whip- 
 poor-will began his nightly moaning, and the fire- flies sparkled 
 ia the gloom. Then came the perilous journey homeward. 
 What delight we would take in getting up wanton panics in some 
 dusky part of the wood ; scampering like frightened deer ; paus- 
 ing to take breath ; renewing the panic, and scampering off 
 wild with fictitious terror ! 
 
 Our greatest trial was to pass a dark, lonely pool, covered 
 with pond-lilies, peopled with bull-frogs and water snakes, and 
 haunted by two white cranes. Oh ! the terrors of that pond ! 
 How our little hearts would beat as we approached it ; what 
 fearful glances we would throw around ! And if by chance a 
 plash of a wild duck, or the guttural twang of a bull-frog, 
 struck our ears, as we stole quietly by — away we sped, nor 
 paused until completely out of the woods. Then, when I reached 
 home, what a world of adventures and imaginary terrors would 
 I have to relate to my sister Sophy ! 
 
 As I advanced in years, this turn of mind increased upon me, 
 and became more confirmed. I abandoned myself to the im- 
 pulses of a romantic imagination, which controlled my studies, 
 and gave a bias to all my habits. My father observed me con- 
 tinually with a book in my hand, and satisfied himself that I 
 was a profound student ; but what were my studies ? Works of 
 fiction ; tales of chivalry ; voyages of discovery ; travels in the 
 East; everything, in short, that partook of adventure and 
 romance. I well remember with what zest I entered upon that 
 part of my studies which treated of the heathen mythology, and 
 particularly of the sylvan deities. Then indeed my school books 
 became dear to me. The neighborhood was well calculated to 
 foster the reveries of a mind like mine. It abounded with soli- 
 tary retreats, wild streams, solemn forests, and silent valleys. 
 I would ramble about for a whole day with a volume of Ovid's 
 Metamorphoses in my pocket, and work myself into a kind of 
 self-delusion, so as to identify the surrounding scenes with those 
 
 -I 
 
6 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 j» ■ 
 
 
 of which I had just been reading. I would loiter about a brook 
 that glided through the shadowy depths of the forest, picturing 
 it to myself the haunt of Naiads. I would steal round somu 
 bushy copse that opened upon a glade, as if I expected to come 
 suddenly upon Diana and her nymphs, or to behold Pan and his 
 satyrs bounding, with whoop and halloo, through the woodland. 
 I would throw myself, during the panting heats of a summer 
 noon, under the shade of some wide-spreading tree, and muse 
 and dream away the hours, in a state of mental intoxication. I 
 drank in tlie very light of day, as nectar, and my soul seemed 
 to bathe with ecstasy in the deep blue of a summer sky. 
 
 In these wanderings, nothing occurred to jar my feelings, or 
 bring me back to the realities of life. There is a repose in our 
 miglity forests that gives full scope to the imagination. Now 
 and then I would hear the distant sound of the wood-cutter's 
 or the crash of some tree which he had laid low ; but these 
 
 axe 
 
 noises, echoing along the quiet landscape, could easily be wrought 
 by fancy into harmony with its illusions. In general, however, 
 tlie woody recesses of the neighborhood were peculiarly wild and 
 unfrequented. I could ramble for a whole day, without coming 
 upon any traces of cultivation. The partridge of the wood 
 scarcely seemed to shun my path, and the squirrel, from his nut- 
 tree, would gaze at me for an instant, with sparkling eye, as if 
 wondering at the unwonted intrusion. 
 
 1 cannot help dwelling on tliis delicious period of my life ; 
 when as yet I had known no sorrow, nor experienced any world- 
 ly care. I have since studied much, both of books and men, 
 and of course have grown too wise to be so easily pleased ; yet 
 with all my wisdom, I must confess I look back with a secret 
 feeling of regret to the days of happy ignorance, before 1 had 
 begun to be a philosopher. 
 
 ! 1 I 
 
 I 
 
 It must be evident that I was in a hopeful training for one 
 who was to descend into the arena of life, and wrestle with tlie 
 world. The tutor, also, who superintended my studies in the 
 more advanced stage of my education was just fitted to complete 
 the fata morgana which was forming in my mind. His name 
 was Glencoe. He was a pale, melancholy-looking man, about 
 forty years of age ; a native of Scotland, liberally educated, 
 and who had devoted himself to the instruction of youth from 
 taste rather than necessity ; for, as he said, he loved the human 
 heart, and delighted to study it in its earlier impulses. My two 
 eider sisters, having returned home from a city boarding-school. 
 
MOUNTJOT. 
 
 were likewise placed under his care, to direct their reading in 
 history and belles-lettres. 
 
 We all soon Ix'came attached to Glencoe. It is true, we were 
 at first somewhat prepossessed against him. His meagre, pallid 
 countenance, his broad pronunciation, his inattention to the little 
 forms of society, and an awkward and embarrassed manner, on 
 first acquaintance, were much against him ; but we soon discov- 
 ered that under this unpromising exterior existed the kindest 
 urbanity of temper ; the warmest sympathies ; the most enthu- 
 siastic benevolence. His mind was ingenious and acute. His 
 reading had been various, but more abstruse than profound ; liis 
 memory was stored, on all subjects, with facts, theories, and 
 quotations, and crowded witli crude materials for thinking. 
 These, in a moment of excitement, would be, as it were, melted 
 down, and poured forth in the lava of a heated imagination. At 
 such moments, the change in the whole man was wonderful. His 
 meagre form would acquire a dignity and grace ; his long, pale 
 visage would flasli with a hectic glow ; his eyes would beam with 
 intense speculation ; and there would be patiietic tones and deep 
 modulations in his voice, that delighted the ear, and spoke mov- 
 ingly to the heart. 
 
 liut what most endeared him to us was the kindness and sym- 
 pathy with which he entered into all our interests and wishes. 
 Instead of curbing and checking our young imaginations with 
 the reins of sober reason, he was a littK; too apt to catch the 
 impulse and be hurried away with us. He could not withstand 
 the excitement of any sally of feeling or fancy, and was prone 
 to lend heightening tints to the illusive coloring of youthful 
 anticipations. 
 
 Under his guidance my sisters and myself soon entered upon 
 a more extended range of studies ; but while they wandered, 
 with delighted minds, through the wide field of history and 
 belles-lettres, a nobler walk was opened to my superior intel- 
 lect. 
 
 The mind of Glencoe presented a singular mixture of philoso- 
 phy and poetry. He was fond of metaphysics and prone to 
 indulge in abstract speculations, though his metaphysics were 
 somewhat fine spun and fanciful, and his speculations were apt 
 to partake of what my father most irreverently termed " hum- 
 bug." For my part, I delighted in tliera, and the more espe- 
 cially because they set my father to sleep and completely con- 
 founded my sisters. I entered with my accustomed eagerness 
 into this new branch of study. Metaphysics were now my 
 I'assion. My sisters attempted to accompany me, but they soon 
 
 ! (■ 
 
THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 i "< 
 
 faltered, and gave out before they had got half way through 
 Smith's Theory of the Moral Sentiments. I, however, went on, 
 exulting in my strength. Glencoe supplied me with books, an(l 
 I devoured them with appetite, if not digestion. We walked 
 and talked together under the trees before the house, or sat 
 apart, like Milton's angels, and held high converse upon themes 
 beyond the grasp of ordinary intellects. Glencoe possessed a 
 kind of philosophic chivalry, in imitation of the old peripatetic 
 sages, and was continually dreaming of romantic enterprises iu 
 morals, and splendid systems for the improvement of society. 
 He had a fanciful mode of illustrating abstract subjects, pecul- 
 iarly to my taste ; clothing them with the language of poetry, 
 and throwing round them almost the magic hues of fiction. 
 "How charming," thought I, "is divine philosophy;" not 
 harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
 
 " But a perpetual feast of ncctar'd sweeta, 
 Where do crude surfeit reigua." 
 
 in 
 
 ■( ^t 
 
 I felt a wonderful self-complacency at being on such excel- 
 lent terms with a man whom I considered on a parallel with the 
 sages of antiquity, and looked down with a sentiment of pity on 
 the feebler intellects of ray sisters, who could comprehend noth- 
 ing of metaphysics. It is true, when I attempted to study them 
 by myself, I was apt to get iu a fog ; but when Glencoe came 
 to my aid, every thing was soon as clear to me as day. My ear 
 drank in the beauty of his words ; my imagination was dazzled 
 with the splendor of his illustrations. It caught up the spar- 
 kling sands of poetry that glittered through his speculations, and 
 mistook them for the golden ore of wisdom. Struck with the 
 facility with which I seemed to imbibe and relish the most 
 abstract doctrines, I conceived a still higher opinion of my 
 mental powers, and was convinced that I also w.ts a pliilosopher. 
 
 I was now verging toward man's estiito, :ind tiiougii my edu- 
 cation had been extremely irregular — following the caprices of 
 my humor, which I mistook for the impulses of my genius — 
 yet I was regarded with wonder and delight by my mother and 
 sisters, who considered me almost as wise and infallible as I 
 consider myself. This high opinion of me was strengthened 
 by a declamatory habit, which made me an oracle and orator at 
 the domestic board. The time was now at hand, however, that 
 was to put my philosophy to the test. 
 
 We bad passed through a long winter, and the spring at length 
 opened upon us with unusual sweetness. The soft serenity of 
 
MOUNT JOY. 
 
 9 
 
 that 
 
 the weather; the beauty of the surrounding country ; the joyous 
 notos of the birds ; the babny broatli of flower and blossom, all 
 coiubiued to fill my bosom witli indistinct sensations, ami name- 
 less wishes. Amid the soft sediictioub of the season, 1 lapsed 
 into a state of utter indolence, both of body and mind. 
 
 Philosophy had lost its charms for me. Metaphysics — faugh ! 
 I tried to study ; took down volume after volume, ran my eye 
 vacantly over a few pages, and throw them by with distaste. I 
 loitered about the house, with my hands in ray pockets, and an 
 air of complete vacancy. Something was necessary to make me 
 happy ; but what was that something? I sauntered to the apart- 
 ments of my sisters, hoi)ing tluir conversation might anmse me. 
 They had walked out, and the room was vacant. On the table 
 luy a volume which they had been reading. It was a novel. I had 
 never read a novel, having conceived a conleuipt for works of 
 the kind, from hearing them universally coudenmed. It is true, 
 I had remarked they wt-re universally read; but 1 considered 
 them beneath the attention of a pliilosophi-r, and never would 
 venture to read them, lest 1 should lessen my iiKiital superi- 
 ority in the eyes of my sisters. Nay, I had taken up a work 
 of the kind now and then, when I knew my sisters were observ- 
 ing me, looked into it for a moment, and then laid it down, 
 with a slight supercilious smile. On tiie i)resent occasion, out 
 of mere listlessncss, I took up the volume and turned over a few 
 of the first pages. I thought 1 heard some one coming, and 
 
 and wiiat I 
 further. I 
 
 laid it down. I was mistaken; no one was 
 had read, tempted ray curiosity to read a 
 
 near, 
 little 
 
 leaned against a window-frame, and in a few minutes was com- 
 
 pletely lost in the story. IIow long I stood there reading I 
 know not, but I believe for nearly two hours. Sndileuly I 
 heard my sisters on the stairs, when 1 thrust the hook into uiy 
 bosom, and the two other volumes which lay near into my pock- 
 ets, and hurried out of the house to ray beloved woods, lleie 
 I remained all day beneath the trees, bewildered, i»ewitehed, 
 devouring the contents of these delicious volumes, and only re- 
 turned to the house when it was too dark to peruse their pages. 
 This novel finished, I replaced it in my sistenj' apartment, and 
 iOdked for others. Their stock was ample, for they had brought 
 home all that were current in the city ; but my appetite demand- 
 ed an immense supply. All this course of reading was carried 
 on clandestinely, for I was a little ashamed of it, and fearful 
 that my wisdom might be called in question ; but this very pri- 
 vacy gave it additional zest. It was " bread eaten in secret; " 
 it had the charm of a private amour. 
 
 \M. 
 
10 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 '\ I 
 
 But think what must have been the effect of such a course of 
 reading on a youth of my temperament and turn of mind ; in- 
 dulged, too, amid romantic scenery and in the romantic season 
 of the year. It seemed as if I had entered upon a new scene 
 of existence. A train of combustible feelings were lighted up 
 in me, and my soul was all tenderness and passion. Never was 
 youth more completely love-sick, though as yet it was a mere 
 general sentiment, and wanted a definite object. Unfortunately, 
 our neighborhood was particularly deficient in female society, 
 and I languished in vain for some divinity to whom I might offer 
 up this most uneasy burden of affections. I was at one time 
 seriously enamoured of a lady whom I saw occasionally in my 
 rides, reading at the window of a country-scut; and actually 
 serenaded her with my flute ; when, to my confusion, I discov- 
 ered that she was old enough to be my mother. It was a sad 
 damper to my romance ; especially as my father heard of it, and 
 made it the subject of one of those household jokes which he 
 was apt to serve up at every meal-time. 
 
 I soon recovered from this check, however, but it was only to 
 relapse into a state of amorous excitement. I passed whole 
 days in the fields, and along the brooks ; for there is something 
 in the tender passion that makes us alive to the beauties of 
 nature. A soft sunshiny morning infused a sort of rapture into 
 my breast. I flung open my arms, like the (Jrecian youth in 
 Ovid, as if I would take in and embrace the balmy atmosphere.' 
 The song of the birds melted me to tenderness. I would lie by 
 the side of some rivulet for hours, and lorm garlands of the 
 flowers on its banks, and muse on ideal beauties, and sigli from 
 the crowd of undefined emotions that swelled my bosom. 
 
 In this state of amorous delirium, I was strolling one morn- 
 ing along a beautiful wild brook, which I had discovered in a 
 glen. There was one place where a small waterfall, leaping 
 from among rocks into a natural basin, made a scene such as a 
 poet might have chosen as the haunt of some shy Naiad. It 
 was here I usually retired to banquet on my novels. In visiting 
 the place this morning I traced distinctly, on the margin of the 
 basin, which was of fine clear sand, the prints of a female foot 
 of the most slender and delicate proportions. This was sulfi- 
 cient for an imagination like mine. Robinson Crusoe himself, 
 when he discovered the print of a savage foot on the beach of 
 his lonely island, could not have been more suddenly assailed 
 with thick-coming fancies. 
 
 > Ovid'i MeUmorphoies, Book VII. 
 
MOUNT JOT. 
 
 11 
 
 I endeavored to track the steps, but they only passed for a 
 few paces along the flue sand, and then were lost among the 
 hi'rl)age. I remained gazing in revery upon this passing trace 
 of loveliness. It evidently was not made by any of my sisters, 
 for they knew nothing of this Imunt ; beside, the foot was 
 smaller than theirs ; it was remarkable for its beautiful deli- 
 cacy. 
 
 My eye accidentally caught two or three half-withered wild 
 I flowers lying on the ground. T' e unknown nymph had 
 
 (loubiless dropped them from her bosom ! Here was a new 
 document of taste and sentiment. I treasured them up as 
 invaluable relics. The place, too, where I found them, was 
 remarkably picturesque, and the most l)eautiful part of the 
 brook. It was overhung with a fine elm, intwined with grape- 
 vines. She who could select such a spot, who could delight in 
 wild brooks, and wild flowers, and silent solitudes, must have 
 fancy, and feeling, and tenderness ; and with all these qualities, 
 she must be beautiful ! 
 
 But who could be this Unknown, that had thus passed by, as 
 in a morning dream, leaving merely flowers and fairy footsteps 
 to toll of her loveliness? There was a mystery in it that be- 
 wildered me. It was so vague and disembodied, like those 
 '' airy tongues that syllable men's names " in solitude. Every 
 attempt to solve the mystery was vain. I could hear of no 
 being in the neighborhood to whom this trace could be ascribed. 
 I haunted the spot, and became daily more and more enamoured. 
 Never, surely, was passion more pure and spiritual, and never 
 lover in more dubious situation. My case could be compared 
 only to that of the amorous prince in the fairy tale of Cinder- 
 ella ; but he had a glass slipper on which to lavish his tender- 
 ness. I, alas ! was in love with a footstep ! 
 
 ig 
 
 " airy 
 " and 
 
 The imagination is alternately a cheat and a dupe ; nay, 
 more, it is the most subtle of cheats, for it cheats itself and 
 becomes tlie dupe of its own delusions. It conjures up 
 nothings," gives to them a " local habitation and a name, 
 then bows to their control as implicitly as though they were 
 realities. Such was now my case. The good Numa could not 
 more thoroughly have persuaded himself that the nymph 
 Egeria hovered about her sacred fountain and communed with 
 him in spirit, than I had deceived myself into a kind of vision- 
 ary intercourse with the airy phantom fal)ricated in my brain. 
 
12 
 
 TUK CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 M 
 
 \<r : fl 
 
 I constructed a rustic sosit iit the foot of the tree where I had 
 discovered the footsteps. I made a kind of bower there, where 
 I used to pass my morninjrs reading poetry and romances. I 
 carved hearts and darts on tiie tree, an<l hun<^ it with garlands. 
 My heart was full to overllowing, and wanted some faithful 
 bosom into which it mi<i;ht relieve itself. What is a lover 
 without a confidante? I tli()U<i;ht at once of my sister Sopliy, 
 my early playmate, the sister of my affections. She was so 
 reasonable, too, and of such correct feelin«is, always listeniiii; 
 to my words as oracular sayin<^s, and admirinj; my scraps t>l' 
 poetry as the very inspirations of the muse. From such a de- 
 voted, such a rational lieiiij^, what secrets could I have? 
 
 I accordingly took her one morning to my favorite retreiit. 
 She looked around, witli delighted surprise, ui)on the rustic 
 seat, the bower, the trec^ carved with emblems of the tender 
 passion. She turned her eyes u\yon me to inquire the mean- 
 ing. 
 
 "Oh, Sophy," exclaimed I, clasping both her hands in mine, 
 and looking earnestly in her face, '• I am in love." 
 
 She started with surprise. 
 
 " Sit down," said 1, '' and I will tell you all." 
 
 She seated herself upon tiie rustic bench, and I went into a 
 full history of the footstep, with all the associations of idea 
 that iiad been conjured uj) Ity my imagination. 
 
 Sophy was enchanted ; it was like a fairy tale ; she had read 
 of such mysterious visitations in books, and the loves thus con- 
 ceived were always for Iteiiigs of superior order, and were 
 always happy. She caught the illusion in all its force ; her 
 cheek gloweil; her eye brigiitened. 
 
 "I dare say she's pretty," said Sophy. 
 
 " Pretty I " echoed I, "she is beautiful I " I went through 
 all the reasoning by which I had logically proved the fact to my 
 own satisfaction. I dwelt u\)o\\ the evidences of her taste, her 
 sensibility to the beauties of nature ; her soft meditative habit, 
 that delighted in solitude. "Oh." said I. clasping my hands, 
 "to have such a conij)anion to wander through these scenes; 
 to sit with her by this nuu-umring stream ; to wreathe garlands 
 round her brows ; to hear the nmsic of her voice mingling with 
 the whisperings of these groves ; — " 
 
 "Delightful! delightful!" cried Sophy; "what a sweet 
 creature she must be ! She is just the friend I want. How 
 I shall dote upon her ! Oh, my dear brother ! you must not 
 keep her all to yourself. You must let me have some share of 
 her!" 
 
MOUNTJOY. 13 
 
 I caught licr to my hosorn : '• You sliall — you shall ! " cried 
 I, " my clear Sophy ; we will all live for each other I" 
 
 The conversation with So])hy lu'ifi;htoned the illusions of ray 
 mind ; and the niauner in wliieh she had treated my day-dream 
 identified it with facts and persons and gave it still more the 
 (Stamp of reality. I walkcvl about as one in a trance, heedless 
 of the world around, and lapped in an elysium of the fancy. 
 
 In this mood I met one morning with (ilencoe. He accosted 
 me with his usual smile, and was proceeding with some general 
 observations, but paused and (ixed on me an inquiring eye. 
 
 "What is tilt! matter with you?" said he, "you seem agi- 
 tated; has anything in particular happened?" 
 
 " Nothing," said I, hesitating ; '* at least nothing worth com- 
 municating to you." 
 
 "Nay, my dear young friend," said he, "whatever is of 
 sufflcient importance to agitate you is worthy of being com- 
 njunicated to me." 
 
 " Well ; but my thoughts are running on what you would 
 think a frivolous subject." 
 
 " No subject is frivolous that has the power to awaken strong 
 feelings." 
 
 "What think you," said I, hesitating, "what think you of 
 love?" 
 
 Glencoe almost started at the qmstion. "Do you call that 
 a frivolous subject?" replied he. "Believe me, there is none 
 fraught witli such deep, such vital interest. If you talk, 
 indeed, of the capricious inciination awakened by the mere 
 charm of perishable beauty, I grant it to be idle in the extreme ; 
 but that love which springs from the concordant sympathies of 
 virtuous hearts ; that love which is awakened by the perception 
 of moral excellence, and fed by meditation on intellectual as 
 well as personal beauty ; that is a passion which refines and en^ 
 nobles the human heart. Oh, where is there a sight more nearly 
 approaching to the intercourse of angels, than that of two 
 young beings, free from the sins and follies of the world, min- 
 gling pure thoughts, and looks, and feelings, and becoming as it 
 were soul of one soul and heart of one heart ! How exquisite 
 the silent converse that they hold ; the soft devotion of the eve, 
 that needs no words to make it eloquent! Yes, my frie. , if 
 there be any thing in this weary world worthy of heaven, it is 
 the pure bliss of such a mutual affection ! " 
 
14 
 
 THE CRArON PAPERS. 
 
 
 The words of my worthy tutor overcame al! further reserve. 
 " Mr. Glencoe," cried I, blushing still deeper, " I am in love. ' 
 
 " Aiid is that what you were ashamed to tell me? Oh, never 
 seek to conceal from your friend so important a secret. If your 
 passion be unworthy, it is for the steady hand of friendship 
 to pluck it forth ; if honorable, none but an enemy would seek to 
 stifle it. On nothing does the character and happiness so much 
 depend as on the first affection of the heart. Were you caught 
 by some fleeting and superficial charm — a bright eye, a bloom- 
 ing cheek, a soft voice, or a voluptuous form — I would wurn 
 you to beware ; I would tell you that beauty is but a passing 
 gleam of the morning, a perishable flower ; that accident may 
 becloud and blight it, and that at best it must soon pass away. 
 But were you in love with such a one as I could dencribe ; young 
 in years, hut still younger in feelings ; lovely in p uson, but us 
 a type of the mind's beauty ; soft in voice, in token of gentle- 
 ness of spirit ; blooming in countenance, like the rosy tints of 
 morning kindling with the promise of a genial day , an eye 
 beaming with the benignity of a happy heart ; a cheerful temper, 
 alive to all kind impulses, and frankly diffusing its own felicity ; 
 a self-ix)ised mind, that needs not lean on others for support ; 
 an elegant taste, that can embellish solitude, and furnish out its 
 own enjoyments — " 
 
 " My dear sir," cried I, for I could contain myself no 
 longer, " you have described the very person ! '* 
 
 "Why, then, my dear young friend," said he, affectionately 
 pressing my hand, " in Gotl's name, love on ! " 
 
 • 
 
 i '- 
 
 \-\ 
 
 For the remainder of the day I was in some such state of 
 dreamy beatitude as a Turk is said to enjoy when under the 
 influence of opium. It must be already manifest how prone I 
 was to bewilder myself with picturiugs of the fancy, so as to 
 confound them with existing realities. In the present instance, 
 Sophy and Glencoe had contributed to promote the transient 
 ■'.'lusion. Sophy, dear girl, had as usual joined with me in my 
 ,astle-building, and indulged in the same train of imaginings, 
 while Glencoe, duped by my enthusiasm, firmly believed that I 
 spoke of a being I had seen and known. By their sympathy 
 with my feelings they in a manner became associated with the 
 Unknown in my mind, and thus linked her with the circle of my 
 intimacy. 
 
 In the evening, our family i)arty was assembled in the hall, to 
 
MOUNTJOT. 
 
 15 
 
 er resen'e. 
 
 1 in love. ' 
 
 Oh, uever 
 
 .. If your 
 
 frieudship 
 
 lid seek to 
 
 iis so much 
 
 you caught 
 
 a V)loom- 
 
 ould wurn 
 
 I a passing 
 
 ident may 
 
 [)ass away. 
 
 be ; young 
 
 son, but as 
 
 of gentle- 
 
 sy tints of 
 
 y, au eye 
 
 ul temper, 
 
 ni felicity ; 
 
 )!• support ; 
 
 lish out its 
 
 myself no 
 
 fectionatcly 
 
 eh state of 
 under the 
 low prone I 
 y, so as to 
 It instance, 
 le transient 
 i me iu uiy 
 [maginiugs, 
 ?ved that I 
 !• sympathy 
 gd with the 
 jircle of my 
 
 the hall, to 
 
 enjoy the refreshing breeze. Sophy was playing some favorite 
 Scotch airs on the piano, while Glencoe, seated apart, with his 
 forehead resting on his hand, was buried in one of those ptiidive 
 reveriea that made hira so interesting to me. 
 
 "What a fortunate being I am ! " thought I, " blessed with 
 such a sister and such a friend ! I have only to find out this 
 aisi'able Unknown, to wed her, aid be happy ! What a paradise 
 will bt mj' iiome, graced with a partner of such exquisite refine- 
 ment ! It will be a perfect fairy bower, buried among sweets 
 and roses. Sophy shall live with us, and be the companion of 
 all our enjoyments. Glencoe, too, shall no more be the solitary 
 being that he now appears. He shall have a home with us. He 
 shall have his study, where, when he pleases, he may shut him- 
 self up from tha world, and bury himself in his own reflections. 
 His retreat shall be sacred ; no one shaU intrude there ; no one 
 but myself, who will visit him now and then, in his seclusion, 
 where we will devise grand schemes together for the improve- 
 ment of mankind. How delightfully our days will pass, in a 
 lound of rational pleasures and elegant employments ! Some- 
 times we will have music; sometimes we will read; sometimes 
 we will wander through the flower garden, when I will smile with 
 complacency on every flower my wife has planted ; while in the 
 long winter evenings the ladies will sit at their work, and listen 
 with hushed attention to Glencoe and myself, as we discuss the 
 abstruse doctrin(?s of metaphysics." 
 
 From this delectable revory, I was startled by my father's 
 slapping me on the shoulder : *' W^at poissesses the lad? " cried 
 be ; '^ here have I been speaking to you half a dozen times, with- 
 out receiving an answer." 
 
 " Pardon me, sir," replied I ; " I was so completely lost in 
 thought, that I did not hear you." 
 
 " Lost in thought ! And pray what were you thinking of? 
 Some of your philosophy; I suppose." 
 
 "Upon my word," said my sister Charlotte, with an arch 
 laugh, " I suspect Harry's in love again." 
 
 "And if I were in love, Charlotte," said I, somewhat net- 
 tled, and recollecting Glencoe'g enthusiastic eulogy of the pas- 
 sion, " if I were in love, is that a matter of jest and laughter? 
 Is the tenderest and most fervid affection that can animate the 
 human breast, to be made a matter of cold-hearted ridicule?" 
 
 My sister colored. "Certainly not, brother ! — nor did I mean 
 to make it so, nor to say anything that should wound your feel- 
 ings. Had I really suspected you had formed some genuine 
 attachment, it would have been sacred in my eyes; but — but," 
 
 1 
 
 ! 1 I 
 
16 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS 
 
 ' |\r 
 
 h 
 
 \ Mi 
 
 said she, smiling, as if atsoine whimsical recollection, " I thoughv 
 that yon — you might be indulging in another little freak of the 
 imagination." 
 
 '' I'll wager any money," cried my father, " he has fallen in 
 love again with some old lady at a window ! " 
 
 ♦' Oh no ! " cried my dear sister Sophy, with the most gracious 
 warmth ; " she is young and beautiful." 
 
 "From what I understand," said Glencoe, rousing himself, 
 *'8he must be lovely in mind as m person." 
 
 I found my friends were getting me into a fine scrape. I began 
 to perspiV'j at every jwre, and felt my ears tingle. 
 
 " Well, but," cried my fattier, " who is she? — what is she? 
 Let us hear something about her." 
 
 This was no time to explain so delicate a matter. I caught 
 up my hat, and vanished out of the house. 
 
 The moment I was in the open air, and alone, my heart up- 
 braided me. Was this respectful treatment to my father — to 
 such a father, too — .vho had always regarded me as tiie pride 
 of his age — the staff of his hopes? It is true, he was apt some- 
 times to laugh at my enthusiastic flights, and did not treat my 
 philosophy with due respect ; but when had he ever thwarted a 
 wish of my heart? Was I then tj act with reserve oward him, 
 in a iiialter which might affect tiie whole current of my future 
 life? " I have done wrong," thought I ; " but it is not too late 
 to remedy it. I will hasten back and open my whole heart to 
 my father! " 
 
 I returned accordingly, and was just on the poiat f entering 
 the house, w ith my heavt full of filial piety, v id a contrite speech 
 upon my lips, when I heard a burst of obstreperous laughter 
 from my father, and a loud titter from my two eldei sisters. 
 
 " A footstep ! " shouted lie, as soon as he could recover him- 
 self ; "in love with a footstep! Why, this Ijeats the old lady 
 at the window ! " And then there was another appalling burst 
 of laugliter. Had it been a clap of thunder, it could hardly have 
 astounded me more completely. Sophy, in the simplicity of her 
 neart, had told all, and had set my father's risible propensities 
 in full action. 
 
 Never was poor mortal so thoroughly crestfallen as myself. 
 The whole delusion was at an end. I drew off silently from the 
 house, shrinking smaller and smaller at every fresh peal of 
 laughter; ii J wandering about until the family ^"xd retired, 
 stole quietly to my bed. Scarce any sleep, however, visited my 
 eyes that night ! I lay overwhelmed with mortification, and 
 meditating how I might meet the family in the morning. The 
 
MOUNT JOY. 
 
 IT 
 
 of the 
 
 Idea of ridicule was always intolerable to me ; but to endure it 
 on a subject by which my feelings had been so much excited, 
 seemed worse than death. I almost determined, at one time, to 
 get up, saddle my horse, and ride off, I knew not whither. 
 
 At length 1 came to a res olution. Before going down to break- 
 fast, I sent for Sophy, and employed her as ambassador to treat 
 formally in the matter. I insisted that the subject should be 
 buried in oblivion ; other^'ise I would not show my face at table. 
 It was readily agreed to ; for not one of the family would have 
 given me pain for the world. They faithfully kept their promise. 
 Not a word was .?aid of the matter ; but there were wry faces, 
 and suppressed titters, that went to my soul ; and whenever my 
 father looked me in the face, it was with such a tragic-comical 
 leor — such an attempt to pull down a serious brow upon a 
 whimsical mouth — that I had a thousand times rather he had 
 laughed outright. 
 
 For a day or two after the mortifying occurrence just related, 
 I kept as much as possible out of the way of the family, and 
 wandered about the fields and woods by myself. I was sadly 
 out of tune ; my feelings were all jarred and unstrung. The 
 birds sang from every grove, but 1 took no pleasure in their 
 melody ; and the flowers of the field bloomed unheeded around 
 me. To be crossed in love, is bad enough ; but then one can 
 fly to poetry for relief, and turn one's woes to account in soul- 
 siibduing stanzas. But to have one's whole passion, object and 
 all, auniiiilated, dispelled, proved to be such stuff as dreams are 
 made of — or, worse than all, to be turned into a proverb and a 
 jest — what consolation is tliere in such a case? 
 
 1 avoided the fatal brook where I had seen the footstep. My 
 favorite resort was now the banks of the Hudson, where I sat 
 upon the roci:s and mused ujwn the current that dimpled by, or 
 the waves that laved the shore ; or watched the bright mutations 
 of the clouds, and the shifting lights and shadows of the distant 
 mountain. By degrees a returning serenity stole over my feel- 
 ings ; and a sigh now and then, gentle and easy, and unattended 
 by pain, showed that my heart was recovering its susceptibility. 
 
 As I was sitting in this musing mood my eye became gradually 
 fixed upon an object that was borne along by the tide. It proved 
 to be a little pinnace, beautifully modelled, and gayly painted 
 and decorated. It was an unusual sight in this neighborhood, 
 which was rather lonely ; indeed, it was rare to see any pleas- 
 ure-barks in this part of t'ae river. As it drew nearer, I per* 
 
 ; !^ 
 
18 
 
 TnE CnAYON PAPERS. 
 
 1 1 r' 
 
 ceived that thero was no one on board ; it had apparently drifted 
 from its anchorasre. There was not a breath of air ; the little 
 bark came floating along on the glassy stream, wheeling about 
 with the eddies. At length it ran aground, almost at the foot 
 of the rock on whieh I was seated. I descended to the margin 
 of the river, and drawing the bark to shore, admired its light 
 and elegant proportions and the taste with wliieli it was fitted 
 ap. The benches were covered with cushions, and its long 
 streamer was of silk. On one of the cushions lay a lady's glove, 
 of delicate size and shape, with beautifully tapered fingers. I 
 instantly seized it and thrust it in my bosom ; it seemed a match 
 for the fairy footstep that had so fascinated me. 
 
 In a moment all the romance of my bosom was again in a 
 glow. Here was one of the very incidents of fairy tale ; a bark 
 sent by some invisible power, some gootl genius, or benevolent 
 fairy, to waft me to some delectable adventure. I recollected 
 something of an enchanted bark, drawn by white swans, that 
 convej'ed a knight down the current of the Uliine, on some 
 enterprise connected with love and beauty. Tlie glove, too, 
 showed that there was a lady fair concerned in the present 
 adventure. It might be a gauntlet of defiance, to dare me to 
 the enterprise. 
 
 In the spirit of romance and the whim of the moment, I 
 sprang on board, hoisted the light sail, and pushed from shore. 
 As if breathed by some presiding power, a light breeze at that 
 moment sprang u)i, swelled out the sail, and dallied with the 
 silken streamer. For a time I glided along under steop umbra- 
 geous banks, or across deep sequestered bays ; and then stocxl 
 out over a wide expansion of the river toward a high rocky 
 promontory. It was a lovely evening ; the sun was setting in 
 a congregation of clouds that threw the whole heavens in a glow, 
 and were reflected in the river. I delighted myself with all 
 kinds of fantastic fancies, as to what enchanted island, or mystic 
 bower, or necromantic palace, 1 was to be conveyed by the 
 fairy bark. 
 
 In tlie revel of my fancy I had not noticed that the gorgeous 
 congregation of clouds which had so much delighted me was in 
 fact a gathering thunder-gust. I perceived the truth too late. 
 The clouds came hurrying on, darkening as they advanced. 
 The whole face of nature was suddenly changed, and assumed 
 that baleful ari livid tint predictive of a storm. I tried to 
 gain the shore, but before I could reach it a blast of wind struck 
 the water and lashed it at once into foam. The next moment it 
 
 overtook the boat. Alas ! I was 
 
 nothing of 
 
 a sailor ; and my 
 
MOUNT JOY 
 
 19 
 
 protecting fairy forsook me ia the uiomont of peril. I endeav- 
 ored lu lower the sail ; but !n so doing I had to quit the helm ; 
 lliL' bark was overturned in a instant, and I was thrown into the 
 water. I endeavored to cling to tiie wreck, hut missed my hold ; 
 iK'ing a poorswunmer, 1 soon found myself sinking, but grasped 
 a liglit oar that was floating by UiC. It was not sufficient for 
 my sui)port ; I again sank beneath the surface ; tliere was r. 
 rushing and bubbling sound in my ears, and all sense forsook 
 Qje. 
 
 How long I remained insensible, I know not. 1 had a eon- 
 fused notion of being moved and tossed about, and of hearing 
 strange beings and strange voices around me ; but all was like 
 a hideous dream. Wlien I at length recovered full conscious- 
 ness and perception, J found myself in bed in a spacious chani- 
 l)er, furnished with more taste than I had been accustomed to. 
 The briglit rays of a morning sun were intercepted by curtains of 
 a delicate rose color, that gavf* a soft, voluptuous tinge to every 
 object. Not far from my bed, on a classic tripod, was a baskei 
 of beautiful exotic flowers, l)reathing the sweetest fragrance. 
 
 '• Where am I? How came 1 here?" 
 
 I tasked my mind to catch at some i)revious event, from 
 which I migiit trace u\) the thread of existence to the present 
 iiionient. I>y degrees 1 called to mind the fairy pinnace, my 
 during embarkation, my adventurous voyage, anil my disas- 
 trous shipwreck. lieyond that, all was chaos. How came I 
 here? What unknown region had 1 landed upon? The people 
 that inhabited it must be gentle and amiable, and of elegant 
 tastes, for they loved downy beds, fragrant flowers, and rose- 
 colored curtains. 
 
 While I lay thus nnising, the tones of a harp reached my ear. 
 I'resently they were accompanied by a female voice. It came 
 from the room below ; but in the profound stillness of my 
 chamber not a modulation was lost. My sister; were all con- 
 sidered good musicians, and sang very tolerably ; but I had 
 never heard a voice like this. There was no attempt at difli- 
 cult execution, or striking effect ; but there were exquisite 
 inflections, and tender turns, which art could not reach. 
 Nothing but feeling and sentiment could produce them. It 
 was soul breathed forth in sound. I was always alive to the 
 iiilhience of music ; indeed, I was susceptible of voluptuous 
 influences of every kind — sounds, colors, shapes, and fragrant 
 udors. I was the very slave of seusatiuu. 
 
 s ■ 
 
 
 
 t ■ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 II 
 
 
 Hi 
 
 ill 
 
 ■ 
 
 Pi 
 
 
 
 il 
 
 
i 
 
 L 
 
 1 
 
 i\' 
 
 ■» - 
 
 bHI 
 
 ( 
 
 lIlP 
 
 - 
 
 \ 
 
 |MH| 1 '; 
 
 ;' ; 
 
 Hilr^ 
 
 \ 
 
 iHlffl 
 
 ii ' 
 
 \\ 
 
 : 
 
 ^ I 
 
 20 
 
 TEE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 I lay mute and lnvathless, ami drank in every note of this 
 siren strain. It tlinllod tliroiigli my whole frame, and filled 
 my soul with melody and love. 1 i)ietured to myself, with 
 curious logic, the form of the unseen musician. Such melodi- 
 ous sounds and exquisite inflections could only be produced hy 
 organs of the most delicate Hexihility. Such organs do not 
 belong to coarse, vulgar forms ; they are the harmonious results 
 of fair proportions and admirable symmetry. A being so 
 organized must be lovely. 
 
 Again my busy imagination was at work. I called to nnnd 
 the Arabian story of a prince, borne away during sleep by a 
 good genius, to the distant abode of a princess of ravishing 
 beauty. J do not pretend to say that I believed in having 
 experienced a similar transportation ; but it was my inveterate 
 habit to cheat myself with fancies of the kind, and to give the 
 tinge of illusioa to surrounding realities. 
 
 The witching sound had ceased, but its vibrations still played 
 round my heart, and filled it with a tumult of soft emotions. 
 At this moment, a self-upbraiding pang shot through my bosom. 
 "Ah, recreant!" a voice seemed to exclaim, 'Ms this the 
 stability of thine alfections? What! hast thou so soon forgot- 
 ten the nymph of the fountain? Has one song, idly piped iu 
 thine ear, been suflicient to charm away the cherished tenderness 
 of a whole summer? " 
 
 The wise may smile — but I am in a confiding mood, and 
 must confess my weakness. I felt a degree of compunction at 
 this sudden infidelity, yet I could not resist the power of present 
 fascination. My peace of mind was destroyed by conflicting 
 claims. The nymph of the fountain came over my memory, 
 with all the associations of fairy footsteps, shady groves, soft 
 echoes, and wild streamlets ; but this new passion was produced 
 by a strain of soul-subduing melody, still lingering in my ear, 
 aided by a downy bed, fragrant flowers, and rose-colored cur- 
 tains. "Unhappy youth!" sighed I to myself, "distracted 
 by such rival passions, and the empire of thy heart thus vio- 
 lently contested by the sound of a voice, and the print of a 
 footstep! " 
 
 1 had not remained long in this mood, when I heard the door 
 of the room gently opened. I turned my head to see what 
 inhabitant of this enchanted palace should ai)pear ; whether 
 I)age in green, hideous dwarf, or haggard fairy. It was my 
 own man Scipio. He advanced with cautious step, and was 
 
MOUNT JOT. 
 
 21 
 
 having 
 
 delighted, as he said, to find me so much myself again. My 
 first questions were as to where I was and how I came there? 
 Scipio told me a long story of his having been fishing in a 
 canoe at the time of my hare-brained cruise ; of his noticing 
 the gathering squall, and my impending danger ; of his has- 
 tening to join me, but arriving just in time to snatch me from 
 a watery grave ; of the great difficulty in restoring me to ani- 
 mation ; and of my being subsequently conveyed, in a state of 
 insensibility, to this mansion. 
 
 " But where am I?" was the reiterated demand. 
 
 " In the house of Mr. Somerville." 
 
 " Somerville — JSomerville ! " I recollected to have heard 
 that a gentleman of that name had recently taken up his resi- 
 dence at some distance from my father's abode, on the opposite 
 side of the Hudson. He was commonly known by the name 
 of " French Somerville," from havi i^^ passed part of his early 
 life in France, and from his exhibitiug traces of French taste in 
 his mode of living, and the arrangements of his house. In 
 fact, it was in his pleasure-boat, which had got adrift, that I 
 had made my fanciful and disastrous cruise. All this was sim- 
 ple, straightforward matter of fact, and threatened to demolish 
 all the cobweb romance I had been spinning, when fortunately 
 I again heard the tinkling of a harp. I raised myself in bed, 
 and listened. 
 
 " Scipio," said I, with some little hesitation, " I heard some 
 one singing just now. Who was it? " 
 
 " Oh, that was Miss Julia." 
 
 "Julia! Julia! Delightful ! what a name ! And, Scipio — 
 is she — is she pretty? " 
 
 Scipio grinned from ear to ear. " Except Miss Sophy, she 
 was the most beautiful young lady he had ever seen." 
 
 I should observe, that my sister Sophia was considered by 
 all the servants a paragon of perfection. 
 
 Scipio now bffered to remove the basket of flowers ; he was 
 afraid their odor might be too powerful ; but Miss Julia had 
 given them that morning to be placed in my room. 
 
 These flowers, then, had been gathered by the fairy fingers 
 of my unseen beauty ; that sweet breath which had filled my 
 ear with melody had passed over them. I mudt; Scipio hand 
 thein to nie, culled several of tiie most dclieaU', and laid them 
 on my bosom. 
 
 Mr. Somerville paid me a visit not long- afterw.'ird. He was 
 an interesting study for me, for he was the lutln'r of my unsei'u 
 beauty, anil iKobubly resembled her. 1 scauued hiiu closely. 
 
 hi. 
 
22 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \ •! 
 
 He was a tall and elegant man, with an open, affable manner, 
 and an erect and graceful carriage. His eyes were bluish-gray, 
 and though not dark, yet at times were sparlvling and expres- 
 sive. His hair was dressed and powdered, and being lightly 
 combed up fi'om his forehead, added to the loftiness of his 
 aspect. He was fluent in discourse, but his conversation had 
 the quiet tone of polished society, witiiout any of those bold 
 flights of thought, and picturings of fancy, which 1 so much 
 admired. 
 
 My imagination was a little puzzled, at first, to make out of 
 this assemblS,ge of personal and mental qualities, a picture tliut 
 should harmonize with my previous idea of the fair unseen. 
 By dint, however, of selecting what it liked, and giving a touch 
 here and a touch there, it soon finished out a satisfactory 
 portrait. 
 
 " Julia must be tall," thought I, " and of exquisite grace and 
 dignity. She is not quite so courtly as her father, for she has 
 been brought up in the retirement of the country. Neither is 
 she of such vivacious deportment ; for the tones of her voice 
 are soft and plaintive, and she loves pathetic music. She is 
 rather pensive — yet not too pensive ; just what is called inter- 
 esting. Her eyes are like her father's, except that they are of 
 a purer blue, and more tender and languishing. .She has light 
 hair — not exactly flaxen, for I do not like flaxen hair, liut 
 between that and auburn. In a word, she is a tall, elegant, 
 imposing, languishing, blue-eyed, romantic-looking beauty." 
 And having thus finished hei- picture, 1 felt ten times more in 
 love with her than ever. 
 
 I felt so much recovered that I would at once have left my 
 room, but Mr. Somerville objected to it. He had sent early 
 word to my family of my safety ; and my father arrived in the 
 course of the morning. He was shocked at learning the risk 
 1 had run, but rejoiced to find me so much restored, and was 
 warm in his thanks to Mr. Somerville for his kindness. The 
 other only required, in return, that I might remain two or three 
 days as his guest, to give time for i.iy recovery, and for oiu' 
 forming a closer acquaintance ; a request which my father 
 readily granted. Scipio accordingly r:^"()nipanied my father 
 home, and returned with a supply ' i clothes, and witli affec- 
 tionate letters from my mother and sisters. 
 
 The next morning, aided by Scipio, I made my toilet with 
 rather more care than usual, and descended tlie st;iirs with some 
 
 i> I 
 
HOUNTJOY. 
 
 2S 
 
 crcpidatlon, eager to see the original of the portrait which had 
 been so completely pictured in i y imagination. 
 
 On entering the parlor, I found it deserted. Like the rest of 
 the house, it was furnished in a foreign style. The curtains 
 were of French silk ; there were Grecian couches, marble tables, 
 pier-glasses, and chandeliers. What chiefly attracted my eye, 
 were documents of female taste that I saw around me ; a piano, 
 with an ample stock of Italian music ; a book of poetry lying 
 on the sofa ; a vase of fresh flo.vers on a table, and a portfolio 
 open with a skilful and half-finished sketch of them. In the 
 window was a canary bird, in a gilt cage, and near by, the harp 
 tliat had been in Julia's arms. Happy harp I Hut where was 
 the being that reigned in this little empire of delicacies? — that 
 breathed poetry and song, and dwelt among birds and flowers, 
 and rose-colored curtains? 
 
 Suddenly I heard the hall door fly open, the quick pattering 
 of light steps, a wild, capricious strain of music, and the shrill 
 l)arking of a dog. A light, frolic nymph of fifteen came trip- 
 ping into the room, playing on a flageolet, with a little spaniel 
 romping after her. Her gypsy hat had fallen back upon her 
 shoulders ; a profusion of glossy brown hair was blown in rich 
 ringlets about her face, which beamed through them with the 
 brightness of smiles and dimples. 
 
 At sight of me she stopped short, in the most beautiful con- 
 fusion, stammered out a word or two about looking for her 
 father, glided out of the door, and I heard hei bounding no 
 the staircase, like a frigiitened fawn, with the little dog barking 
 after her. 
 
 When Miss Somerville returned to the parlor, she was quite 
 r. different being. IShe entered, stealing along by her mother's 
 side with noiseless step, and sweet timidity : her hair was 
 prettily adjusted, and a soft blush mantled on her damask 
 cheek. Mr. Somerville accompanied the ladies, and introduced 
 me regularly to them. There were many kind in(iuiries and 
 much sympathy expressed, on tl.o subject of my nautical acci- 
 dent, and some remarks upon the wild scenery of the neighbor- 
 hood, with which the ladies seemed perfectly acquainted. 
 
 " You must know," said Mr. Somerville, "that we are great 
 navigators, and delight in exploring every nook and corner of 
 llie river. My daugliter, too, is a great hunter of the pictur- 
 esque, and transfers every rock and glen to her portfolio. By 
 tlie way, my dear, show Mr. Mountjoy that pretty scene you 
 have lately sketched." Julia complied, blushing, and drew 
 from her portfolio a colored sketch. I almost started i»t the 
 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 
 flf 
 
 I 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 
 ; 
 
 ^^ i ■ 
 
 ^^B 
 
 
 i '.j 
 
 - H 
 
 
 P tti-BI 
 
 
 y ji-Bi 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 
 
24 
 
 THE CltATON PAPERS, 
 
 I V . 
 
 [l 
 
 i 
 
 11 
 
 
 ; 
 
 I. ■ 
 
 4 
 
 t 
 i 
 
 
 I 
 
 - 
 
 
 sight. It was my favorite brook. A sudden thoii2;lit darted 
 across my mind. I jfiancecl down my eye, and l)iilR'ld tlie 
 divini'st littU' foot in the world. Oh, blissful conviction! The 
 strujij^le of my affections was at an end. The voice and 
 tlie footstep were no lonj^er at variance. Julia .Somcrville was 
 the nymph of the fountain ! 
 
 What conversation passed during breakfast I do not recollect, 
 and hardly was conscious of at the time, for my thoughts v/cre 
 in complete confusion. I wished to gaze on Miss Somervillc, 
 but did not dare. Once, indeed, I ventured a glance. She was 
 at that moment (Uirting a similar one from under a covert of 
 ringlets. Our eyes seemed shocked by the rencontre, and fell ; 
 hers through tiie natural modesty of her sex, mine through a 
 bashfulness produced by the previous workings of tny imagina- 
 tion. That glance, however, went like a sunbeam to my heart. 
 
 A convenient mirror favored my dillidence, and gave me t'lc 
 reflection of Miss Somerville's form. It is true it only presented 
 the back of her head, but she had the merit of an ancient 
 statue ; contemplate her from any point of view, she was beauti- 
 ful. And yet she was totally different from every thing I had 
 before conceived of beauty. She was not the serene, medita- 
 tive maid that I had pictured the nymph of the fountain ; nor 
 the tall, soft, languishing, blue-eyed, dignilietl being that I had 
 fancied the minstrel of the harp. There was nothing of dignity 
 about her : she was girlish in her appearance, and scarcely of 
 the middle size ; but then there was the temlerness of budding 
 youth ; the sweetness of the half-blown rose, when not a tint 
 or perfume has been withered or exhaled ; there were smiles 
 and dimples, and all the soft witcheries of ever-varying expres- 
 sion. 1 wondered that I could ever have admired any other 
 style of beauty. 
 
 After breakfast, Mr. Somerville departed to attend to the 
 concerns of his estate, and gave me in charge of the ladies. 
 Mrs. Somerville also was called away by household cares, and 
 I was left alone with Julia! Here, then, was the situation 
 which of all others I had most coveted. I was in the presence 
 of the lovely being that had so long been the desire of my 
 heart. We were alone; pro|)ilious opportunity for a lover! 
 Did I seize upon it? Did I break out in one of my accustomed 
 rliapsodies? No such thing ! Never was being more awkwardly 
 embarrassed. 
 
 " What can be the cause of this? " thought I. " Surely, I 
 
MOUNT JOT. 
 
 S5 
 
 darted 
 
 cannot stand in awe of this younpf girl. I am of course her 
 superior in intellect, and am never embarrassed in company '*h 
 niy tutor, notwithstanding all liis wisdom." 
 
 It was passing stiMugc. 1 felt that if she were an old woman, 
 I should he quilt' at luy ease ; if she were even an ugly woman, 
 I should maive out very well : it was her beauty that overpowered 
 me. IIow little do lovely women know what awful beings they 
 are, in the eyes of inexperienced youth ! Young men i)rought 
 up in the fashionable circles of our cities will smile at all this. 
 Accustomed to mingle incessantly in female society, and to have 
 the romance of the heart (leadened by a thousand frivolous flirta- 
 tions, women are nothing but women in their eyes ; but to a 
 susceptible youth like myself, brought up in the country, they 
 are perfect divinities. 
 
 Miss Somerville was at firet a little embarrassed herself ; but, 
 somehow or other, women have a natural adroitness in recov- 
 ering their self-possession ; they are more alert in their minds, 
 and graceful in their manners. Beside, I was but an ordinary 
 personage in Miss Somerville's eyes ; she was not under the 
 intluenee of such a singular course of imaginings as had sur- 
 rounded her, in my eyes, with the illusions of romance. Per- 
 haps, too, she saw the confusion in the opposite camp and 
 gained courage from the discovery. At any rate she was the 
 first to take the field. 
 
 Her conversation, however, was only on common-place topics, 
 and in an easy, well-bred style. I endeavored to respond in 
 the same manner; i)ut I was strangely incompetent to the task. 
 My ideas were frozen up ; even words seemed to fail me. I 
 was excessively vexed at myself, for I wished to be uncommonly 
 elegant. I tried two or three times to turn a pretty thought, 
 or to utter a fine sentiment ; but it would come forth so trite, 
 so forced, so mawkish, that I was ashamed of it. My very 
 voice sounded discordantly, though I sought to modulate it into 
 the softest tones. " Tlie truth is," thought I to myself, 
 " I cannot bring my mind down to the small talk necessary 
 for young girls ; it is too masculine and robust for the mincing 
 measure of parlor gossip. I am a philosopher — and that 
 accounts for it." 
 
 The entrance of Mrs. Somerville at length gave me relief. I 
 at ouce breathed freely, and felt a vast deal of confidence come 
 over me. "This is strange," thought I, "that the appearance 
 of another woman should revive my courage ; that I should be 
 a hotter match for two women than one. However, since it is 
 so, I will take advantage of the circumstance, and let this young 
 
i' 
 
 111 
 
 II Si 
 
 I 
 
 I' :; 
 
 ri 
 
 [, 
 
 Sd the crayon PAPERfi. 
 
 lady see that T am not so jrreat a simpleton m she proliably 
 thinks me." 
 
 I accordingly took np the liook of poetry which lay npon the 
 sofa. It was Milton*s " Paradise Lost." Nothing could have 
 been more fortunate ; it afforded a fitu* scope for my favorite 
 vein of grandiloquence. I went largely into a discussion of its 
 merits, or rather an enthusiastic eulogy of them. My observa- 
 tions were addressed to Mrs. Somerville, for 1 found I could 
 talk to her with more ease than to her daughter. She appeared 
 alive to the In^auties of the poet, and disposed to meet me in tlie 
 discussion ; but it was not my object to hear her talk ; it w;is 
 to talk myself. I anticipated all she had to say, overpowered 
 her with the copiousness of my ideas, and supi)orted and illus- 
 trated them by long citations from the author. 
 
 While thus holding forth, I eiust a side glance to see how Miss 
 Somerville was affected. She had some embroidery stretched 
 ou a frame before her, but had paused in her labor, and was 
 looking down as if lost in unite atU'iition. I felt a glow of self- 
 satisfaction, but I recollected, at the same time, with a kind of 
 pique, the advantage she had enjoyed over me in our tete-u-tote. 
 I determined to push my triumph, and accordingly kept ou with 
 redoubled ardor, until I had fairly exhausted my subject, or 
 rather my thoughts. 
 
 1 had scare*! come to a full stoj), when Miss Somerville raised 
 her eyes from the work on which they had l)een fixed, and turn- 
 ing to her mother, observed : " I have been considering, mamma, 
 whether to work these flowers [)lain, or in colors." 
 
 Had an ice-bolt shot to my heart, it could not have chilled ine 
 more effectually. "What a fool," thought I, "have I been 
 making myself — squandering away fine thoughts, and fine lan- 
 guage, ui)on a light mind, and an ignorant ear ! This girl knows 
 nothing of poetry. She has no soul, 1 fear, for its beauties. 
 Can any one have rea' sensibility of heart, and not be alive to 
 poetry? However, she is young ; this part of her education has 
 been neglected : there is time enough to remedy it. I will be 
 her preceptor. I will kindle in her mind the sacred flame, and 
 lead her through the fairy land of song. But after all, it is 
 rather unfortunate that I should have fallen in love with a woman 
 who knows nothing of poetry." 
 
 I passed a day not altogether satisfactory. I was a little dis- 
 appointed that Miss Somerville did not show any poetical fael- 
 
MOV NT JOY. 
 
 «r 
 
 Ins. " T am afraid, aftor all," said I to myself, " she is light 
 ami pirlish, and more fitted to pluck wild flowers, play on the 
 flimeoli't, and romp with little dogs, than to converse with a man 
 of my Mirn." 
 
 I l)elieve, however, to tell the truth, I was more out of humor 
 with myself. I thought I had made the worst first appearance 
 tliiit ever hero made, either in novel or fairy tale. I was out of 
 all patience, when 1 called to mind my awkward attempts at 
 ease and elegance in the tete-d-tete. Antl then my intolerable 
 long lecture about poetry to catch the applause of a heedless 
 auciitor ! But thert; 1 was not to blame. I had certainly been 
 i'!(»(iuent: it was her fault that the eloquence was wasted. To 
 nu'ditate upon the embroidery of a flower, when I was expatiat- 
 ing on the beauties of Milton ! She might at least have admired 
 tlie poetry, if she did not relish the manner in which it was de- 
 livered : though that was not despicable, for I had recited pas- 
 sages in my best style, which my mother and sisters had always 
 considered equal to a play. '-Oh, it is evident," thought I, 
 " Miss Somerville has, very little soul ! " 
 
 Such were my fancies and cogitations during the day, the 
 greater part of which was spent in my chamber, for I was still 
 languid. My evening was passed in the drawing-room, where I 
 overlooked Miss Somerville's portfolio of sketches. 
 
 They were executed with great taste, and showed a nice ob- 
 servation of the peculiarities of nature. They were all her own, 
 :\iid free from those cunning tints and touches of the drawing- 
 iiiMsler, by which young ladies' drawings, like their heads, an; 
 dressed up for company. There was no garish and vulgar trick 
 of colors, either ; all was executed with singular truth and sim- 
 l)lieity. 
 
 " And yet," thought I, " this little being, who has so pure an 
 eye to take in, as in a limpid brook, all the graceful forms and 
 magic tints of nature, has no soul for poetry ! " 
 
 I\Ir. Somerville, toward the latter part of the evening, observ- 
 ing my eye to wander occasionally to the harp, interpreted and 
 met my wishes with his accustomed civility. 
 
 " Julia, my dear," said he, " Mr. Monntjoy would like to hear 
 a little music from your harp ; let us hear, too, the sound of 
 your voice." 
 
 -lulia immediately complied, without any of that hesitation 
 :ind difTiculty, by which young ladies are apt to make company 
 pay dear for bad music. She sang a sprightly strain, in a bril- 
 liant style, that came trilling playfully over the ear; and the 
 bright eye and dimpling smile showed that her little heart danced 
 
 1 i 
 
 '■i'- 
 
 !| 
 
 III 
 
 .1 
 
 1 ,■ 
 
 lur. 
 
 i, 
 
. fj , 
 
 I 
 
 n!i 
 
 11 
 ! 
 
 it.^. 
 
 28 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 with the song. Her pet canary bird, who hung close by, was 
 wakened by the music, and burst forth into an emulating strain. 
 Julia smiled with a pretty air of defiance, and played louder. 
 
 After some time, the music changed, and ran into a plaintive 
 strain, in a minor key. Then it was, that all the former wltc'^- 
 ery of her voice came over me ; then it was that she seemed to 
 sing from the heart and to the heart. Her fingers moved about 
 the chords as if iliey scarcely touched them. Her whole manner 
 and appearance changed ; her eyes beamed with the softest 
 expression ; her countenance, her frame, all seemed subdued 
 into tenderness. She rose from the harp, leaving it still vibrat- 
 ing with sweet sounds, and moved toward her father to bid him 
 good night. 
 
 His eyes had been fixed on her intently, during her perform- 
 ance. As she came before him he parted her shining ringlets 
 with both his hands, and looked down with the fondness of a 
 father on her innocent face. The music seemed still lingering 
 in its lineaments, and the action of her father brought a moist 
 gleam in her eye. He kissed her fair forehead, after the French 
 mode of parental caressing : '' Good night, and God bless you," 
 said he, " my good little girl ! " 
 
 Julia tripped away, with a tear in her eye, a dimple in her 
 cheek, and a light heart in her bosom. I thought it the prettiest 
 picture of paternal and filial affection I had ever seen. 
 
 When I retired to bed, a new train of thoughts crowded into 
 my brain. "After all," said I to myself, " it is clear this girl 
 has a soul, though she was not moved by my eloquence. Sue 
 has all the outward signs and evidences of poetic feeling. She 
 paints well, and has an eye for nature. She is a line musician, 
 and enters into the very soul of song. What a pity that she 
 knows nothing of poetry ! But we will see what is to be done. 
 I am irretrievably in love with her; what then am I to do? 
 Come down to the level of her mind, or endeavor to raise her 
 to some kind of intellectual equality with myself? That is the 
 most generous course. She will look up to me as a benefactor. 
 I shall become associated in her uiuid with the lofty thoughts 
 and harmonious graces ol pc^^try. She is apparently docile : 
 beside, the difference of our agv's will give me au ascendency 
 over her. She cannot be above sixteen ycurs of age, and I am 
 full turned of twenty." So, having built this iuooL ucicctable of 
 air-castles, I fell asleep. 
 
 The next morning I was quite a different being. I no longer 
 felt fearful of stealing a glance at Julia; ou the contrary, I 
 
MOUNT JOY. 
 
 29 
 
 ! by, was 
 ig strain, 
 louder. 
 
 plaintive 
 ler wite'^- 
 eemcd to 
 ed about 
 e manner 
 e softest 
 
 subdued 
 ill vibrat- 
 » bid him 
 
 perform- 
 
 1 ringlets 
 ness of a 
 
 lingering 
 t a moist 
 le Freneh 
 ess you," 
 
 )le in her 
 
 2 prettiest 
 
 wded into 
 r this girl 
 Qce. Sue 
 ing. She 
 musician, 
 ^ that she 
 
 be done. 
 
 I to do? 
 
 raise her 
 hat is the 
 enefactor. 
 ^ thoughts 
 ly docile: 
 scendency 
 
 and I am 
 cc tabic of 
 
 no longer 
 )ntrary, I 
 
 contemplated her steadily, with the benignant eye of a benefac- 
 tor. Shortly after breakfast I found myself alone with her, as 
 I had on the preceding morning ; but I felt nothing of the awk- 
 wardness of our previous tete-a-tete. I was elevated by the 
 consciousness of my intellectual superiority, and should almost 
 have felt a sentiment of pity for the ignorance of the lovely little 
 being, if I had not felt also the assurance that I should be able 
 to dispel it. " But it is time," thought I, "to open school." 
 
 Julia was occupied in arranging some music on her piano. 
 I looked over two or three songs ; they were Moore's Irish 
 melodies. 
 
 " These are pretty things ! " said I, flirting the leaves over 
 lightly, and giving a slight shrug, by way of qualifying the 
 opinion. 
 
 "Oh, I love them of all things," said Julia, "they're so 
 touching! " 
 
 "Then you like them for the poetry," said I with an encour- 
 aging smile. 
 
 "Oh yes ; she thought them charmingly written." 
 
 Now was my time. "Poetry," said I, assuming a didactic 
 attitude and air, "poetry is one of the most pleasing studies 
 that can occupy a youthful mind. It renders us susceptible of 
 the gentle impulses of humanity, and cherishes a delicate per- 
 cefttion of all that is virtuous aud elevated in morals, and grace- 
 ful and beautiful in physics. It " — 
 
 I was going on in a style that would have graced a professor 
 of rhetoric, when I saw a light smile playing about Miss Somer- 
 ville's mouth, and that she began to turn over the leaves of a 
 i.^usic-book. I recollected her inattention to my discourse of 
 the preceding morning. "There is no fixing her light mind," 
 thought I, "by abstract theory; we will proceed practically." 
 As it happened, the identical volume of Milton's Paradise Lost 
 was lying at hand. 
 
 "Let me recommend to you, ny young friend," said I, in 
 one of those tones of persuasive admonition, which I had so 
 often loved in Glencoe, " let me recommend to you this admir- 
 able poem ; you will find in it sources of intellectual enjoyment 
 far superior to those songs which have delighted you." Julia 
 looked at the book, and then at me, with a whimsically dubious 
 air. "Milton's Paradise Lost ? " said she; "oh, I know the 
 greater part of that by heart. ' ' 
 
 I had not expected to find my pupil so far advanced ; how- 
 over, the Paradise Lost is a kind of school-book, and its finest 
 passages are given to young ladies as tasks. 
 
 W'A 
 
 ' » 
 
 iH 
 
 
 if 
 
 If 
 
 
 
 
 ^L 
 
 
 
 
 Kj 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 K 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 It 
 
 
 
 lilliilil 
 
 
 SIUkb 
 
 L 
 
 fflj 
 
 m 
 
 t 
 
30 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 " I find," said I to myself, " I must not treat her as so com- 
 plete a novice ; lier inattention yesterday could not have pro- 
 ceeded from absolute ignorance, but merely from a want of 
 poetic feeling. I'll try her again." 
 
 I now determined to dazzle her with my own erudition, and 
 launched into a harangue that would have done honor to an 
 institute. Pope, 8pen >or, Chaucer, and the old dramatic writ- 
 ers were all dipped into, .vith the excursive flight of a swallow. 
 I did not confine myself to English ix)ets, but gave a glance at 
 the French and Italian schools ; I passed over Arios^o in full 
 wing, but paused on Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. I dwelt 
 on the character of Clorinda: "There's a character," said I, 
 " that you will find well worthy a woman's study. It shows to 
 what exalted heights of heroism the sex can rise, how glori- 
 ously thry ma}' share even in the stern concerns of men." 
 
 " For my part," said Julia, gently taking advantage of a 
 pause, " for my part, I prefer the character of Soi)hronia." 
 
 I was thunderstruck. She then had read Tasso I This jjirl 
 that I had been treating as an ignoramus in pott'-y I She i)ro- 
 ceeded with a slight glow of the cheek, summoned up perhaps 
 by a casual glow of feeling : 
 
 '^ I do not admire those masculine heroines," said she, " win 
 aim at the bold qualities of the opposite sex. Now Sophro- 
 nia only exhibits the real qualities of a woman, wrought up to 
 their highest excitement. She is modest, gentle, and retiring, 
 as it becomes a woman to be ; but she has all the strength of 
 affection proper to a woman. She cannot fight for her people 
 as Clorinda does, but she can offer herself up, and die to serve 
 them. You may admire Clorinda, but you surely would l)c 
 more apt to love Sophronia ; at least," added she, suddenly 
 appearing to recollect herself, and blushing at having launched 
 into such a discussion, " at least that is what papa observe<l 
 when we read the jwem together. ' ' 
 
 " Indeed," said I, dryly, for I felt disconcerted and nettled at 
 being unexpectedly lectured by my pupil; " inteed, I do not 
 exactly recollect the passage. ' ' 
 
 *'0h," said Julia, " I can repeat it to you;" and she im- 
 mediately gave it in Italian. 
 
 Heavens and earth ! — here was a situation ! I knew no more 
 of Italian than I did of the language of Psalmanazar. What a 
 dilenuna for a would-!)o-wise man to be placed in ! I saw 
 Julia waited for my opinion. 
 
 " In fact," said I, hesitating, "I — I do not exactly under- 
 stand Italian." 
 
 
MOUNT JOY. 
 
 31 
 
 80 coin- 
 pve pro- 
 want of 
 
 tion, and 
 )r to an 
 itic writ- 
 swallow, 
 lunce at 
 
 in full 
 I dwelt 
 ' said I, 
 
 shows to 
 :)w glori- 
 
 age of a 
 lia." 
 This girl 
 She pro- 
 ) perhapa 
 
 le, " win 
 
 Sophro- 
 
 ^ht up to 
 
 retiring, 
 
 rcngth of 
 
 er peo))le 
 
 D to servo 
 
 would ho 
 
 suddenly 
 
 lauiiehed 
 
 observxHl 
 
 nettled at 
 
 1 do not 
 
 i she im- 
 
 r no more 
 
 What a 
 
 ! I saw 
 
 tly under- 
 
 «' Oh," said Julia, with tho utmost naivete, " I have no doubt 
 it is very beautiful in the translation." 
 
 I was glad to break up school, and get back to my chamber, 
 full of the mortification which a wise man in love experiences 
 on finding his mistress wiser than himself. "Translation! 
 translation ! ' ' muttered I to myself, as I jerked the door shut 
 behind me: " I am surprised my father has never had me 
 instructed in the modern languages. They are all-impor^^ant. 
 What is the use of Latin and Greek ? No one speaks them ; 
 but here, the moment I make my appearance in the world, a 
 little girl slaps Italian in my face. However, thank heaven, 
 a language is easily learned. The moment I return home, I'll 
 set about studying Italian ; and to prevent future surprise, I 
 will study Spanish and German at the same time ; and if any 
 young lady attempts to quote Italian upon me again, I'll bury 
 her under a heap of High Dutch poetry ! " 
 
 I felt now like some mig^tv chieftain, who has carried the 
 war into a weak country, with full confidence of success, and 
 been repulsed and obliged to draw off his forces from before 
 some inconsiderable fortress. 
 
 "However," thought I, "I have as yet brought only my 
 light artillery into action ; we shall see what is to be done with 
 my heavy ordnance. Julia is evidently well versed in poetry ; 
 but it is natural she should be so ; it is allied to painting and 
 music, and is congenial to the light graces of the female char- 
 acter. We will try her on graver themes." 
 
 I felt all my pride awakened ; it even for a time swelled 
 higher than my love. I was determined completely to establish 
 my mental superiority^ and subdue the intellect of this little 
 being ; it would then be time to sway the sceptre of gentle 
 empire, and win the affections of her heart. 
 
 Accordingly, at dinner I again took the field, en potence. I 
 now addressed myself to Mr. Somerville, for I was about to 
 enter upon topics in which a young girl like her could not be 
 well versed. I led, or rather forced, the conversation into a 
 vein of historical erudition, discussing several of the most 
 prominent facts of ancient history, and accompanying them 
 with sound, indisputable apothegms. 
 
 Mr. Somerville listened to me with the air of a man receiv- 
 information. I was encourajred, and went on gloriously 
 
 '■I 
 
 mg 
 
 'rom theme to theme of school declamation. I sat with jMarius 
 
 ! ■ 
 
32 
 
 THE chayon papers. 
 
 1 'ir 
 
 ps 
 
 i '1 
 
 .« !,. 
 
 on the ruins of Carthage ; I defender! the bridge with Horatius 
 Codes ; thrust my hand iuto the flame with Martins Scaevola, 
 and plunged with Curtius into the yawning gulf ; I fought 
 side by side with Leonidas, at the straits of Thermopyloe ; 
 and was going full drive into the battle of Platrea, when my 
 memory., which is the worst in the world, failed nie, just as 
 I wanted the name of the Lacedaemonian commander. 
 
 "Julia, my dear," said Mr. Somerville, " perhaps you may 
 recollect the name of which Mr. Mountjoy is in quest? " 
 
 Julia colored slightly. " I believe," said she, in a low voice, 
 *' I believe it was Pausanias." 
 
 This unexpected sally, instead of re-enforcing me, threw my 
 whole scheme of battle into confusion, and the Athenians re- 
 mained unmolested in the field. 
 
 I am half inclined, since, to think Mr. Somerville meant this 
 as a ply hit at my school l)Oy pedantry ; but he was too well bred 
 not to seek to relieve me from my mortification. '' Oh ! " said 
 he, " Julia is our family lx)ok of reference for names, dates, 
 and distances, and has an excellent memory for history and 
 geography." 
 
 I now became desperate ; as a last resource I turned to meta- 
 physics. "If she is a philosopher in petticoats," tliougiit I. 
 "it is all over with me." Here, however, I had tlie field to 
 myself. I gave chapter and verse of my tutor's 'octurcs. 
 heightened by all his poetical illustrations; I even wont furtlicr 
 than .le had ever ventured, and plunged irto such deptiis of 
 metaphysics, that I was in danger of sticking in the mire at tlic 
 bottom. Fortunately, I had auditors who apparently could not 
 detect my flounderings. Neither Mr. Somerville nor his 
 daughter offered the least interru})tion. 
 
 When the ladies had retired, Mr. Somerville sat some time 
 with me ; and as I was no longer anxious to astonish, I per- 
 mitted myself to listen, and found that he was really agreeable. 
 He was quite communicative', and from his conversation I was 
 enabled to form a juster idea of his daughter's character, and 
 the mode a which she had been brought up. Mr. Somerville 
 had mingled much with the world, and with what is torinod 
 fashionable society. He had experienced its cold elegancii'S 
 and gay insinr'crities ; its dissipation of tlie spirits and squander- 
 ings of the heait. Like many men of the world, though he had 
 wandered too far from nature ever to return to it, yet he had 
 the good taste and good feeling to look back fondly to its simple 
 delights, and to determine that his child, if possible, should 
 never leave them. He had superintended her education with 
 
"!T 
 
 MOUNT JOY. 
 
 33 
 
 Horatius 
 Sc£evohi, 
 I fought 
 rmopyliie ; 
 when my 
 }, just as 
 
 you may 
 » » 
 
 low voice, 
 
 throw my 
 enians ve- 
 
 neant this 
 » well bred 
 :)h!" said 
 fies, dates, 
 istory and 
 
 d to mota- 
 thought 1. 
 he field to 
 
 3 I'X'tUl'CS. 
 
 ent furllior 
 dei)tiis of 
 
 nire at the 
 could not 
 
 e nor his 
 
 some time 
 
 lish, I per- 
 
 agreeal)le. 
 
 ution I was 
 
 racter, and 
 
 Sonierville 
 
 is termed 
 
 elegancies 
 
 1 squander- 
 
 ugh he had 
 
 yet he had 
 
 its simple 
 
 l)le, should 
 
 cation with 
 
 scrupulous care, storing her mind with the graces of polite 
 literature, and with such knowledge as would enable it to fur- 
 nish its own amusement and occupation, and giving her all the 
 accomplishments that sweeten and enliven the circle of domestic 
 life. He had been particularly sedulous to exclude all fashion- 
 able affectations ; all false sentiment, false sensibility, and false 
 romance. "Whatever advantages she may possess," said he, 
 " she is quite unconscious of them. She is a capricious little 
 being, in every thing but her affections ; she is, however, free 
 from art ; simple, ingenuous, amiable, and, I thank God ! 
 happy." 
 
 Such was the eulogy of a fond father, delivered with a tender- 
 ness that touched me. I could not help making a casual in- 
 quiry, whether, among the graces of polite literature, he had 
 included a slight tincture of metaphysics. He smiled, and told 
 me he had not. 
 
 On the whole, when, as usual, that night, I summed up the 
 day's observations on my pillow, I was not altogether dissatis- 
 fied. " Miss Somerville," said I, " loves poetry, and I like her 
 the better for it. She has the advantage of me in Italian; 
 agreed ; what is it to know a variety of languages, but merely 
 to have a variety of sounds to express the same idea? Original 
 thought is the ore of the mind ; language is but the accidental 
 stamp and coinage by which it is put into circulation. If I 
 can furnish an original idea, what care I how many languages 
 she can translate it into? She may be able also to quote 
 names, and dates, and latitudes better than I ; but that is a 
 mere effort of the memory. I admit she is more accurate in 
 history and geography than I ; but then she knows nothing of 
 metaphysics." 
 
 I had now sufficiently recovered to return home ; yet I could 
 not think of leaving Mr. Somerville's without having a little 
 further conversation with him on the subject of his daughter's 
 education. 
 
 " This Mr. Somerville," thought I, " is a vcy accomplished, 
 elegant man ; he has seen a good deal of the world, and, upon 
 the whole, has profited by what he has seen. He is not without 
 information, and, as far as he thinks, appears to think cor- 
 rectly ; but after all, he is rather sujierficial, and does not think 
 profoundly. He seems to take no delight in those; metaphysi- 
 cal abstractions that are the i)roi)er aliment of masculine 
 minds." I called to mind various occasions in which I had 
 indulged largely in metaphysical discussions, but could recollect 
 no instance where I had been able to draw him out. He had 
 
34 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ' -M 
 
 1 \ 
 
 w ■ 
 
 listened, it is tnie, with attention, and smiled as if in acquies- 
 cence, but had always appeared to avoid reply. Tx'side, I had 
 made several sad blunders in the glow of eloquent dechunution ,• 
 but he had never interrupted me, to notice and correct them, as 
 he would have done had he been versed in the theme. 
 
 " Now, it is really a great pity," resumed I, "• that he should 
 have the entire management of Miss Somerville's education. 
 What a vast advantage it would be, if she could be put for a 
 little time under the superintendence of Glencoe. He would 
 throw some deeper shades of thought into her mind, which at 
 present is all sunshine ; not but that Mr. Somerville has done 
 very well, as far as he has gone ; but then he has merely pre- 
 pared the soil for the strong plants of useful knowledge. She 
 is well versed in the leading facts of history, and the general 
 course of belles-lettres," said 1; "a little more philosophy 
 would do wonders." 
 
 I accordingly took occasion to ask Mr. Somerville for a few 
 moments' conversation in his study, the morning 1 was to 
 depart. When we were alone 1 opened the matter fully to 
 him. I commenced with the warmest eulogium of Gleucoe's 
 powers of mind, and vast acquirements, and ascribed to him 
 all my proflciency in the higher branches of knowledge. I 
 begged, therefore, to recommend him as a friend calculated to 
 direct the studies of Miss Somerville ; to lead her mind, l)y 
 degrees, to the contemplation of abstract princijjles, and to 
 produce habits of philosophical analysis; "which," added I, 
 gently smiling, " are not often cultivated by young ladies." I 
 ventured to hint, in addition, that he would tind Mr. (ilencoe 
 a most valuable and interesting acquaintance for himself; one 
 who would stimulate and evolve the powers of his mhid ; and 
 who might open to him tracts of inquiry and speculation, to 
 which perhaps he had hitherto been a stranger. 
 
 Mr. Somerville listened with grave attention. When I had 
 finished, he thanked me in the politest manner for the interest 
 I took in the welfare of his daughter and himself. He ol)- 
 served that, as regarded himself, he was afraid he was too old 
 to benefit by the instruction of Mr. Glencoe, and that as to 
 his daughter, he was afraid her mind was but little fitted for 
 the study of metaphysics. " I do not wish," continued he, 
 "to strain her intellects with sul)jects they cannot grasp, but 
 to make her familiarly acquainted with those that are within 
 the limits of her capacity. I do not pretend to prescrilic the 
 lx)undaries of female genius, and am far from indulging the vul- 
 gar opinion, that womea are unfitted by nature for the highes*. 
 
MOUNT JOT. 
 
 35 
 
 acqnies- 
 lo, 1 had 
 imation \ 
 them, as 
 
 le should 
 lucation. 
 lut for a 
 [e would 
 which at 
 lias done 
 !rely pie- 
 ge. She 
 i general 
 lilosophy 
 
 'or a few 
 [ was to 
 • fully to 
 jlencoe's 
 d to him 
 ledge. I 
 'ulated to 
 mind, l)y 
 5, and to 
 added I, 
 lies." I 
 Glencoe 
 self ; one 
 lind ; and 
 lation, to 
 
 en I had 
 p interest 
 He ol)- 
 as too old 
 hat as to 
 fitted for 
 nued he. 
 
 rasp, 
 
 but 
 
 ire witliin 
 jcrilx' the 
 g the vul- 
 le highes*. 
 
 intellectual pursuits. T speak only with reference to my 
 daughter's tastes and talents. She will never make a learned 
 woman ; nor, in truth, do I desire it ; for such is the jealousy 
 of our sex, as to mental as well as physical ascendency, 
 that a learned woman is not always the happiest. I do 
 not wish my daughter to excite envy, wc^v to battle with the 
 prejudices of the world; but to glide pcacealdy through life, 
 on the good will and kind opinion of iier friends. She has 
 ample employment for her little head, in the course I have 
 marked out for her; and is busy at present with some branches 
 of natural histo calculated to awaken her perceptions to the 
 beauties and wonders of nature, and to the inexiiaustible vol- 
 ume of 'visdom constantly spread open before her eyes. I 
 consider that woman most likely to make an agreeable com- 
 panion, who can draw topics of i)leasing remark from every 
 natural object ; and most likely to be cheerful and contented, 
 who is continually sensible of the order, the harmony, and the 
 invariable beneficence, that reign throughout the beautiful 
 world we inhabit." 
 
 '•'• But," added ho, smiling, " I am betraying myself into a 
 lecture, instead of merely giving a reply to your kind offer. 
 Permit me to take the liberty, in return, of inquiring a little 
 al)()ut your own pursuits. You speak of having finished your 
 education ; but of course you have a line of private study and 
 mental occupation marked out ; fpr you must know the impor- 
 tance, both in point of interest and hapinness, of keeping the 
 mind employed. May I ask what system you observe in your 
 intellectual exercises ?" 
 
 "Oh, as to system," I observed, " I could never bring myself 
 into any thing of the kind. I thought it best to let my genius 
 take its own course, as it always acted the most vigorously when 
 stimulated by inclination." 
 
 Mr. Soniervillo shook his head. " This same genius," said 
 he, " is a wild quality, that runs away with our most promising 
 young men. It has become so much the fashion, too, to give it 
 the reins, that it is now thought an animal of too noble and 
 generous a nature to be brought to harness. But it is all a mis- 
 take. Nature never designed these high endowments to run riot 
 through society, and throw the whole system into confusion. 
 No, my dear sir, genius, unless it acts upon system, is very apt 
 to he a useless quality to society ; sometimes an injurious, and 
 certainly a very uncomfortable one, to its possessor. I have 
 had many opportunities of seeing the progress through life of 
 young men who were accouuted geniuses, and have found it too 
 
 6- 
 
M 
 
 35 
 
 TEE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 H ' 
 
 often end in early exhaustion and bitter disappointment ; and 
 have as often noticed that these effects might be traced to a 
 total want of system. There were no habits of business, of 
 steady purpose, and regular application, superinduced upon the 
 mind ; every thing was left to chance and impulse, and native 
 luxuriance, and every tiling of course ran to waste and wild en- 
 tanglement. Excuse me if I am tedious on this noint, fori feel 
 solicitous to impress it upon you, being an error extremely prev- 
 alent in our country and o'le into which too many of our youth 
 'lave fallen. I am happy, however, to observe the zeal which 
 still appears to actuate you for the acjquisition of knowledge, 
 and augur every good from the elevated bent of your ambition. 
 May 1 ask what has been your course of study for the last six 
 months?" 
 
 Never was question more unluckily timed. For the last six 
 montlis I had l)een absolutely buried in novels and romances. 
 
 Mr. Somcrville perceived that the question was embarrass- 
 ing, and with his invariable good breeding, immediately re- 
 sumed the conversation without waiting for a reply. He took 
 care, howevei", to turn it in such a way as to draw from me an 
 account of the whole manner in which I had been educated, 
 and the various currents of reading into which my mind had 
 run. He then went on to discuss, briefly but impressively, the 
 different branches of knowledge most important to a young 
 man in my situation ; and to my surprise I found him a complete 
 master of those studies on which I had supposed him ignorant, 
 and on which I had been descanting so confidently. 
 
 He complimented me, however, very graciously, upon the 
 progress I had made, but advised me for the present to turn 
 my attention to the physical rather than the moral sciences. 
 *' These studies," said he, "store a man's mind with valuable 
 facts, and at the same time repress self-confidence, by letting 
 him know how boundless are the realms of knowledge, and how 
 little we can possibly know. Whereas metai)hysical studies, 
 though of an ingenious order of intellectual eini)loyment, are apt 
 to bewilder some minds with vague speculations. They nevei 
 know how far they have advanced, or wiiat may be the correct- 
 ness of their favorite theory. They render many of our young 
 men verbose and declamatory, and i)rone to mistake the aberra« 
 tions of their fancy for the inspirations of divine philosophy." 
 
 I could not but interrupt him, to assent to the truth of thes« 
 remarks, and to say that it had been my lot, in the course ol 
 my limited experience, to encounter young men of the kind, 
 who had overwhelmed me by their verbosity. 
 
 
 
MOV NT JOT. 
 
 t1 
 
 Mr. Romervillo smiled. "I trust," said he, kindly, "that 
 you will guard against these erroi's. Avoid the eagerness with 
 which a young man is apt to harry into conversation, and to 
 utter the crude and ill-digested notions which he has picked up 
 in liis recent studies. Be assured that extensive and accurate 
 knowledge is the slow acquisition of a studious lifetime ; that a, 
 young man, however pregnant his wit, and prompt his talent, 
 can have mastered but the rudiments of learning, and, in a 
 manner, attained the implements of study. Whatever may 
 have been your past assiduity, you must be sensible that as yet 
 you have l)ut reached the threshold of ti-ue knowledge ; but at 
 the same time, you have the advantage that you are still very 
 young, and have ample time to learn." 
 
 Here our conference ended. I walked out of the study, a very 
 different being from what 1 was on entering it. I had gone in 
 •with the air of a professor about to deliver a lecture ; I came 
 out like a student who had failed in his examination, and been 
 degraded in his class. 
 
 "Very young," and "on the threshold of knowledge"! 
 This was extremely flattering, to one who had considered him- 
 self an accomplished scholar, and profound philosopher. 
 
 "It is singular," thought I ; "there seems to have been a 
 spell upon my faculties, ever since I have \)een in this house. 
 I certainly have not been able to do myself justice. Whenever 
 I have undertaken to advise, I have had the tables turned upon 
 me. It must be that I am strange and dilRdent among people 
 1 am not accustomed to. I wish they could hear me talk at 
 home ! ' * 
 
 "After all," added' I, on further reflection, " after all, there 
 is a great deal of force in what Mr. Somerville has said. Some- 
 how or other, these men of the world do now and then hit 
 upon remarks that would do credit to a philosopher. Some of 
 his general observations came so home, that I almost thovight 
 they were meant for myself. His advice about adopting a 
 system of study is very judicious. I will immediately put it 
 in practice. 5ly mind shall opernte henceforward with the 
 regularity of clock-work." 
 
 IIow far I succeeded in adopting this plan, how I fared in 
 the furtl or pursuit of knowledge, and how I succeeded in my 
 suit to Julia Somerville, may afford matter for a further com- 
 munication to the public, if this simple record of my early life 
 is fortunate enough to excite any curiosity. 
 
88 
 
 TUE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 • ' 
 
 
 THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 "A TIME OP UNEXAMPLKD PROSPERITY." 
 
 In the course of a voyage from Ehgland, I once fell in with 
 a convoy of incrcha;it ships bound for tlie West Indies. Tlie 
 went her was uncommonly bland ; and the ships vied with each 
 other in spreading sail to catch a light, favoring breeze, until 
 their hulls were almost hidden beneath a cloud of canvas. 
 The breeze went down with the sun, and his last yellow rays 
 shone upon a thousand sails, idly flapping against the masts. 
 
 I exulted in the beauty of the scene, and augured a pros 
 perous voyage ; but the veteran master of the ship shook his 
 head, and pronounced this halcyon calm a " weather breeder." 
 And so it proved. A storm burst forth in the night ; the soa 
 roared and raged ; and when the day broke, I beheld the late 
 gallant convoy scattered in every direction ; some dismasted, 
 others scudding under bare poles, and many firing signals of 
 distress. 
 
 I have since been occasionally reminded of this scene, hy 
 those calm, sunny seasons in the commercial world, which are 
 known by the name of "times of unexampled prosperity." 
 They are the sure weatlier-breeders of traflic. Every now and 
 then the world is visited by one of these delusive seasons, when 
 "the credit system," as it is called, expands to full luxuriance, 
 everybody trusts everybody ; a bad debt is a thing unheard of ; 
 the broad way to certain and sudden wealth lies plain and 
 open ; and men are tempted to dash forward boldly, from the 
 facility of borrowing. 
 
 Promissory notes, interchanged between scheming indi- 
 viduals, are liberally discounted at the banks, which l)ecoine 
 so many mints to coin words into cash ; and as the supply of 
 words is inexhaustible, it may readily be supposed what a vast 
 amount of promissory cap' ..! "^ soon in circulation. Every one 
 now talks in thousands ; ul ' ' \ is heard but gigantic opera- 
 tions in trade ; great purchases and sales of real property, and 
 immense sums made at every transfer. All, to be sure, as yet 
 exists in promise ; but the believer in promises calculates the 
 aggregate as solid capital, and falls back in amazement at the 
 amount v^f public wealth, the "unexampled state of public 
 prosperity."' 
 
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 89 
 
 1 in with 
 
 The 
 
 ith each 
 
 ze, until 
 
 canvas. 
 
 How raya 
 
 nasts. 
 
 a pros 
 hook his 
 )reoder." 
 the sea 
 the hite 
 isniasted, 
 ignals of 
 
 scene, hy 
 vhich are 
 isperity." 
 now and 
 >ns, when 
 xuriance, 
 leard of ; 
 )lain and 
 from the 
 
 ng indi- 
 1 lieeoine 
 supply of 
 at a vast 
 livery one 
 ic opera- 
 erty, and 
 re, as yet 
 ilates the 
 nt at the 
 )f public 
 
 Now is the time for speculative and dreaminfj; or designing:; 
 men. They relate their dreams and projects to the ignorant 
 and credulous, dazzle them with golden visions, and set them 
 madding after shadows. The example of one stimulates an- 
 other ; speculation rises on speculation ; bul)l)lc rises on bubble; 
 every one helps with his breath to swell the windy superstruc- 
 ture, and admires and wonders at the magnitude of the inflation 
 he has contributed to produce. 
 
 Speculation is the romance of trade, and casts contempt upon 
 all its sober realities. It renders the stock-jobber a magician, 
 and the exchange a region of enchantment. It elevates the 
 merchant into a kind of knight-errant, or rather a connnercial 
 t^uixote. The slow but sure gains of simg percentage become 
 despicable in his eyes; no " oi)eration " is thought worthy of 
 attention, that does not double or treble the investment. No 
 ])usiness is worth following, that does not promise an ii .mediate 
 fortune. As he sits musing over his ledger, with pen behind 
 his ear, he is like La Mancha's hero in his study, dreaming 
 over his books of chivalry. His dusty counting-house fades 
 before his eyes, or changes into a Spanish mine ; he gropes 
 after diamonds, or dives after pearls. The subterranean garden 
 of Aladdin is nothing to the realms of wealth that break upon 
 liis imagination. 
 
 Could this delusion always last, the life of a merchant would 
 indeed be a golden dream ; but it is as short as it is brilliant. 
 Let but a doubt enter, and the "season of unexampled pros- 
 perity " is at end. The coinage of words is suddenly curtailed ; 
 the promissory cai)ital begins to vanish into smoke ; a panic 
 succeeds, and the whole superstructure, built upon credit, and 
 reared by speculation, crumbles to the ground, leaving scarce 
 a wreck behind : 
 
 " It la Huch stuff as dreams are made of." 
 
 When a man of business, therefore, hears on every side rumors 
 of fortunes suddenly acquired ; when he finds ]>ank3 liberal, and 
 brokers busy ; when lie sees adventurers flush of paper capital, 
 and full of scheme and enterprise ; when he perceives a greater 
 disposition to buy than to sell ; when trade overflows its accus- 
 tomed channels and deluges the country ; when he hears of new 
 regions of commercial adventure ; of distant marts and distant 
 mines, swallowing merchandise and disgorging gold ; when he 
 finds joint stock companies of all kinds forming : railroads, 
 canals, and locomotive engines, springing up on every side," 
 when idlers suddenly become men of business, and dash into the 
 
4U 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 game of commerce as they would into the hazards of the faro 
 table ; when he beholds tlie streets <i;litterin<j; with now efiuipaiics, 
 palaces conjured up by the niajijic of s[)('(>ul:iti<>n ; tradesmen 
 flushed with sudden success, anil vyin<j witii each other in osten- 
 tatious expense ; in a word, when lie iiears tiie whoU' coniinunity 
 joining in the theme of 'Mniexanipled prosperity," let hini look 
 upon the whole as a "weather-breeder," and prepare for the 
 impending storm. 
 
 The foregoing remarlis are intended merely .as a prelude to a 
 narrative 1 am about to hay before the public, of one of the 
 most memorable instances of the infatuation of gain, to be found 
 in the whole history of commerce. I allude to tiie famous Mis- 
 sissippi bubble. It is a matter that h.as p.asscd into a proverb, 
 and become a phrase in every one's mouth, yet of whicli not one 
 merchant in ten has probably a distinct idea. I have therefore 
 thought that an authentic account of it would be interestinn and 
 salutary, at the present moment, when we arc suff<'ring under 
 the cflFects of a severe access of the credit system, and just 
 recovering from one of its ruinous d- lusions. 
 
 ; i * 
 
 Before entering into the story of this f.amous chimera, it is 
 proper to give a few particulars concerning the individual who 
 engendered it. John I^aw was born in Edinburgh in 1(571. Ills 
 father, William Law, was a rich goldsmith, and left his son an 
 estate of considerable value, called Lauriston, situated about 
 four miles from Edinburgli. Goldsmiths, in those days, acted 
 occasionally as bankers, and his father's operations, under this 
 cha.acter, may have originally turned the thoughts of the youth 
 to the science of calculation, in whieii lie became an adept; so 
 that at an early age he excelled in playing at all games of com- 
 bination. 
 
 In 1G94 he appeared in London, where a handsome person, 
 and an easy and insinuating address, gained him currency in the 
 first circles, and the nick-name of " IJeau Law." The same 
 personal advantages gave him success in the world of gallantry, 
 until he became involved iu a quarrel with Beau "Wilson, his 
 rival in fashion, whom he killed in a duel, and then fled to France, 
 to avoid prosecution. 
 
 He returned to Edinburgh in 1700, and remained there sev- 
 eral years ; during which time he first broached his great credit 
 system, offering to supply the deficiency of coin by the estab- 
 lishment of a bank, which, according to his views, might emit 
 
TBE GHEAT MISSISSIPI'I nUllllLE. 
 
 41 
 
 a paper currency, eciuivalont to the whole hindecl estate of the 
 k.ngdom. 
 
 Ili.s scheme excited p;rcat astonishment in Kdinhjirfjh ; imt, 
 though the governm«Mit was not sutlU-ieiitly iidvaiu'cd in finan- 
 cial linowledge to (U'tect tiu' fallacies upon which it was founded, 
 Scottish caution and suspicion hcivcmI in tiic place of wisdom, 
 and the project was rejected. Law met with no better success 
 with the English Parliament ; and the fatal affair of the death 
 of Wilson still hanging over him, for which he had never been 
 able to procure a pardon, he again went to France. 
 
 The financial affairs of France were >>t this time in a deplor- 
 able condition. The wars, the pomp and profusion, of Louis 
 XIV., and his religious persecutions of whole classes of the most 
 industrious of his subjects, had exhausted his treasury, and over- 
 whelmed the nation with debt. Tiie old monarch clung to his 
 selfish magnificence, and could not be induced to diminish liis 
 enormous expenditure ; and his minister of finance was driven 
 to his wits* end to devise all kinds of disastrous expedients to 
 keep up the royal state, and to extricate the nation from its em- 
 barrassments. 
 
 In this state of things, Law ventured to bring forward his 
 financial project. It was founded on the plan of the Hank of 
 Kngland, which had already been in successful operation several 
 years. He met with immediate patronage, and a congenial 
 spirit, in the Duke of Orleans, who had married a natural daugh- 
 ter of the king. The duke had been astonished at the facility 
 with which England had supported the burden of a public debt, 
 created by the wars of Anne and William, and which exceeded 
 in amount that under which France was groaning. The yhole 
 matter was soon explained by Law to his satisfaction. The 
 latter maintained that England had stopped at the mere thresh- 
 old of an art capable of creating unlimited sources of national 
 wealth. The duke was dazzled with his splendid views and 
 specious reasonings, and thought he clearly comprehended his 
 system. Demarets, the Comptroller General of Finance, was 
 not so easily deceived. He pronounced the plan of Law more 
 pernicious than any of the disastrous expedients that the gov- 
 ernment had yet been driven to. The old king also, Louis XIV., 
 de^^ested all innovations, especially those which came from a 
 rival nation ; the project of a bank, therefore, was utterly re- 
 jected. 
 
 Law remained for a while in Paris, leading a gay and affluent 
 existence, owing to his handsome person, easy manners, flexi- 
 ble temper, and a faro- bank which he had set up. His agree- 
 
I 
 
 (ill. 
 
 m: 
 
 ;1 
 
 il 
 
 v 1 
 
 I.! 
 
 
 1/ 
 
 
 I' 
 
 II 
 
 
 
 
 42 
 
 r£r£ CRAYON rAPERfi. 
 
 able career was interrupted by a message from D'Argcnson, 
 Lieutenant General of I'olice, ordering him to quit Paris, alle- 
 ging that he was " rather too skilful at the game which h. had 
 lit traduced." 
 
 For several succeeding years he shifted his residence from 
 state to state of Italy and Germany ; offering his scheme of 
 finance to every court that he visited, but without success. The 
 Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus, afterward King of Sardinia, 
 was much struck with his project ; but after considering it for a 
 time, replied, " I am not sufficiently poiverful to ruin m>/si'{f." 
 
 The shifting, adventurous life of Ltiw, and the equivocal 
 means by which he appeared to live, playing high, and always 
 with great success, threw a cloud of suspicion over him. wher- 
 ever he went, and caused him to be expelled by the magistracy 
 from the semi-commercial, semi-aristocratical cities of Venice 
 and Genoa. 
 
 The events of 1715 brought Law back again to Paris. Louis 
 XIV. was dead. Louis XV. was a mere child, and during his 
 minority the Duke of Orleans held the reins of government as 
 Regent. Law had at length found his man. 
 
 The Duke of Orleans has been differently represented by 
 different contemporaries. He appears to have had excellent 
 natural qualities, perverted by a bad education. He wjvs of 
 the middle size, easy and graceful, with an agreeable counte- 
 nance, and open, affable demeanor. His mind was (piick and 
 sagacious, rather than profound ; and his quickness of intel- 
 lect, and excellence of memory, supplied the lack of studious 
 application. His wit was prompt and pungent ; he expressed 
 himself with vivacity and precision ; Iiis imagination was vivid, 
 his temperament sanguine and joyous ; his couragt; daring. 
 His mother, the Duchess of Orleans, expressed his cliaracter in 
 a jeu d'esprit. "The fairies," said she, "were invited to he 
 present at his birth, and each one conferred a talent on niv son , 
 he possesses them all. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to invite 
 an old fairy, who, arriving after all the others, exclaimed, ' lie 
 shall have all the talents, excepting that to make a good use of 
 them.' " 
 
 Under proper tuition, the Duke might have risen to real great- 
 ness ; but in his early years, he was put under the tutelage of the 
 Abbe Dubois, one of the subtlest and hasi-st spirits tliat ever 
 intrigued its way into eminent place and power. Tiie AI)ln'' was 
 of low origin, and despicable exterior, totally destitute of morals, 
 and perfidious in the extreme ; but with a supple, insinuating 
 address, aud ^n accommodating spirit, tolerant uf all kiuds of 
 
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 43 
 
 Louis 
 
 1 
 
 profligacy in others. Conscious of his own inherent baseness, 
 he sought to secin-e an influence over his pupil, by corrupting 
 his principU'-s and fostering his vices ; he debased him, to keep 
 himself from being despised. Unfortunately he succeeded. To 
 the early precepts of tliis infamous pander have been attributed 
 those excesses that disgraced the manhood of the Regent, and 
 g:ive a licentious charactiir to his whole course of government. 
 His love of pleasure, quickened and indulged by those who 
 should have restrained it, led him into all kinds of sensual indul- 
 gence. He had beesi taught to think lightly of the most serious 
 duties and sacred ties ; to turn virtue into a jest, and consider 
 religion mere hypocrisy. He was a gay misanthrope, that had a 
 sovereign but sportive contempt for mankind ; believed that his 
 most devoted servant would be his enemy, if interest prompted ; 
 and maintained that an honest man was he who had the art to 
 conceal that he was the contrary. 
 
 He surrounded himself with a set of dissolute men like him- 
 self; who, let loose from the restraint under which they had 
 been held, during the latter hypocritical days of Louis XIV., 
 now gave way to every kind of debauchery. With these men 
 the Regent used to shut himself up, after the hours of business, 
 and excluding all graver persons and graver concerns, celebrate 
 the most drunken and disgusting orgies ; where obscenity and 
 blasphemy formed the seasoning of conversation. For the prof- 
 ligate companions of these revels, he invented the appellation 
 of his rones, the literal meaning of which is men broken on the 
 wheel ; intended, no doubt, to express their broken-down charac- 
 ters and dislocated foi'tunes ; although a contemporary ass'^rts 
 that it designated the punishment that most of them merited. 
 Madame de Labran, who was present at one of the Regent's 
 suppers, was disgusted by the conduct and conversation of the 
 liost and his guests, and observed at table, that God, after he 
 had created man, took the refuse clay that was left, and made 
 of it the souls of lackeys and princes. 
 
 Sucii was the man that now ruled the destinies of France. 
 Law found him full of perplexities, from the disastrous state 
 of the finances. He had already tampered with the coinage, 
 calling in tlie coin of the nation, re-stampnig it, and issuing it 
 at a nominal increase of one fifth ; thus defrauding the nation 
 out of twenty per C(!nt of its capital. He was not likely, there- 
 fore, to be scrupulous about any means likely to relieve him 
 from financial dilliculties ; he had even been led to listen to the 
 cruel alternative of a national bankruptcy. 
 
 Under these eircunistauces, Law confidently brought forward 
 
 u 
 
 ' 
 
 Wf 
 
 I' ! 
 
44 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 i A 
 
 : I 
 
 his scheme of a hank, that was to pay off the national debt, in- 
 crease the revenue, and at the same time diminish the taxes. 
 The following is stated as the theory by which he recommended 
 his system to the Regent. The credit enjoyed by a banker or 
 a merchant, he observed, increases his capital tenfold ; that is 
 to say, he who has a capital of one hundred thousand livres, 
 may, if he possess sufficient credit, extend his operations to a 
 million, and reap profits to that amount. In like manner, a 
 state that can collect into a bank all the current coin of the 
 kingdom, would be as powerful as if its capital were increased 
 tenfold. The specie must be drawn into the bank, not by way 
 of loan, or by taxations, but in the way of deposit. This might 
 be effected in different modes, either by inspiring confidence, 
 or by exerting authority. One mode, he observed, had already 
 been in use. Each time that a state makes a re-coinage, it 
 becomes momentarily the depository of all the money called in, 
 belonging to the subjects of that state. His bank was to effect 
 the same pur})ose ; that is to say, to receive in deposit all the 
 coin of the kingdom, but to give in exchange its bills, which, 
 being of an invariable value, bearing an interest, and being pay- 
 able on demand, would not only supply the place of coin, but 
 prove a better and more profitable currency. 
 
 The Regent caught witli avidity at the scheme. It suited his 
 bold, reckless spirit, and his grasping extravagance. Not that 
 he was altogether the dupe of Law's specious projects ; still he 
 was apt, like many other men, unskilled in tlie arcana of finance, 
 to mistake the multiplication of money for the multiplication 
 of wealth ; not understanding that it was a mere agent or 
 instrumeut in the interchange of traffic, to represent the value 
 of the various prodjctions of industry ; and that an increased 
 circulation of coin or bank bills, in the shape of currency, 
 only adds a proportionably increased and fictitious value to 
 such protiUctions. Law enlisted the vanity of the Regent in 
 his cause. He persuaded him that he saw more clearly tiian 
 others into suldiine theories of finance, which were quite above 
 tlie ordinary api)rehension. He used to declare that, except- 
 ing the Regent and the Duke of Savoy, no one had thoroughly 
 comprehended his system. 
 
 It is certain that it met with strong opposition from the 
 Regent's ministers, the Duke de Noailles and the Chancellor 
 d'Anguesseau ; and it was no less strenuously opposed by the 
 Parliament of Paris. Law, however, had a potent though 
 secret coadjutor in the Abb(!! Dubois, now rising, during the 
 regency, into great political power, and who retained a baneful 
 
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 45 
 
 Influence over the mind of the Regent. This wily priest, as 
 aviiricious as he was ambitious, drew large sums from Law as 
 subsidies, and aided him greatly in many of his -^ost pernicious 
 operations. He aided him, in the present instance, to fortify 
 the mind of the Regent against all the remonstrances of his 
 ministers and the parliament. 
 
 Accordingly, on the 2d of May, 1716, letters patent were 
 granted to Law, to establish a bank of deposit, discount, and 
 circulation, under the firm of " Law and Company," to con- 
 tinue for twenty years. The capital was fixed at six millions 
 of livres, divided into shares of five hundred livres each, which 
 were to be sold for twenty-five per cent of the regent's de- 
 based coin, and seventy-five per cent of the public securities ; 
 which were then at a great reduction from their nominal value, 
 and which then amounted to nineteen hundred millions. The 
 ostensible object of the bank, as set forth in the patent, was to 
 encourage the commerce and manufactures of France. The 
 louis-d'ors and crowns of the bank were always to retain the 
 same standard of value, and its bills to be payable in them on 
 denii d. 
 
 At he outset, while the bank was limited in its operations, 
 and while its paper really represented the specie in its vaults, 
 it seemed to realize all that had been promised from it. It 
 r!ii)idly acquired public confidence, and an extended circula- 
 tion, and produced an activity in commerce, unknown under the 
 ban<»ful government of Louis XIV. As the bills of the bank 
 bore an interest, and as it was stipulated they would be of 
 invariable value, and as hints had been artfully circulated that 
 the coin would experience successive diminution, everybody 
 hastened to the bank to exchange gold and silver for paper. 
 So great became the throng of depositors, and so intense their 
 eagerness, that there was quite a press and struggle at the bank 
 door, and a ludicrous panic was awakened, as if there was dan- 
 ger of their not being admitted. An anecdote of the time re- 
 lates that one of the clerks, with an ominous smile, called out to 
 the struggling multitude, " Have a little patience, my friends; 
 we mean to take all your money; " an assertion disastrously 
 verified in the sequel. 
 
 Thus, by the simple establishment of a bank, Law and the 
 Regent obtained pledges of confidence for the consummation of 
 further and more complicated schemes, as yet hidden from the 
 l)ublic. In a little while, the bank shares rose enormously, and 
 the amount of its notes in circulation exceeded one hundred and 
 ten millions of livres. A subtle stroke of policy had rendered 
 
 ■i , 
 
 Pi ', 
 
 1 
 
49 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ' 'in 
 
 » ! *| 
 
 It popular with the aristocracy. Louis XIV. had several years 
 previously imposed an income tax of a tenth, giving his royal 
 word that it should cease in 1717. This tax had been exceed- 
 ingly irksome to the privileged orders ; and in the present dis- 
 astrous times they had dreaded an augmentation of it. In 
 consequence of the successful operation of Law's scheme, how- 
 ever, the tax was abolished, and now nothing was to be heard 
 among the nobility and clergy, but praises of the Regent and the 
 bank. 
 
 Hitherto all had gone well, and all might have continued to 
 go well, had not the paper system been further expanded. 
 But Law had yet the grandest part of his scheme to develop. 
 He had to open his ideal world of speculation, his El Dorado 
 of unbounded wealth. The English had brought the vast im- 
 aginary commerce of the South Seas in aid of their banking 
 operations. Law sought to bring, as an immense auxiliary of 
 his bank, the whole trade of the Mississippi. Under this name 
 was included not merely the river so called, but the vast region 
 known as Louisiana, extending from north latitude 29° up to 
 Canada in north latitude 40°. This country had been granted 
 by Louis XIV. to the Sieur Crozat, but he had been induced to 
 resign his patent. In conformity to the plea of Mr. Law, letters 
 patent were granted in August, 1717, for the creation of a com- 
 mercial company, which was to have the colonizing of this 
 country, and the monopoly of its trade and resources, and of 
 the beaver or fur trade with Canada. It was called the West- 
 ern, but became better known as the Mississippi Company. 
 The capital was fixed at one hundred millions of livres, divided 
 into shares, bearing an interest of four per ceiit, which were 
 subscribed for in the public securities. As the bank was to 
 co-operate with the company, the Regent ordered that its bills 
 should be received the same as coin, in all payments of the 
 public revenue. Law was appointed chief director of this com- 
 pany, which was an exact copy of the Earl of Oxford's South 
 Sea Company, set on foot in 1711, and which distracted all 
 England with the frenzy of speculation. In like manner with 
 the delusive picturings given in that memorable scheme of the 
 sources of rich trade to be opened in the South Sea countries. 
 Law held forth magnificent prospects of the fortunes to be 
 made in colonizing Louisiana, which was represented as a veri- 
 table land of promise, capable of yielding every variety of the 
 most precious produce. Reports, too, were artfully circulated, 
 with great niystery, as if to th'. " chosen few," of mines of 
 gold and silver recently discovered iu Louisiana, and which 
 
^ 
 
 THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 47 
 
 would insure instant wcaltli to the early purchasers. These 
 confidential whispers of course soon became public ; and were 
 confirraed by travellers f» ^sh from the Mississippi, and doubt- 
 less bribed, who had seen ihe mines in question, and declared 
 them superior in richness to those of Mexico and Peru. Nay, 
 more, ocular proof was furnished to public credulity, in in^^ots 
 of gold conveyed to the mint, as if just brought from the mines 
 of Louisian-.i. 
 
 ExtraorJinary measures were adopted to force a colonization. 
 An edict was issued to collect and transport settlers to the 
 Mississippi. The police lent its aid. The streets and prisons 
 of Pariri, and of the provincial cities, were swept of mendicants 
 and vagabonds of all kinds, who were conveyed to Havre de 
 Grace. About six thousand were crowded into ships, where no 
 precautions had been taken for their health or accommodation. 
 Instruments of all kinds proper for the working of mines were 
 ostentatiously paraded in public, and put on board the vessels ; 
 and the whole set sail for this fabled El Dorado, which was to 
 prove the grave of the greater part of its wn'etched colonists. 
 
 D'Anguesseau, the chancellor, a man of probity and integ- 
 rity, still lifted his voice against the paper system of Law, and 
 his project of colonization, and was eloquent and prophetic in 
 picturing the evils they were calculated to produce ; the private 
 distress and public degradation ; the corruption of morals ant\ 
 manners ; the triumph of knaves and schemers ; the ruin of for- 
 tunes, and downfall of families. He was incited more and 
 more to this opposition by the Duke de Noailles, the Minister 
 of Finance, who was jealous of the growing ascendency of Law 
 over the mind of the Regent, but was less honest than the 
 chancellor in his opi)osition. The Regent was excessively an- 
 noyed by tlie difllculties they conjured up in the way of his 
 darling schemes of finance, and the countenance they gave to 
 the opi)osition of parliament ; which body, disgusted more pnd 
 more with the abuses of the regency, and the system of Law, 
 had gone so far as to carry its remonstrances to the very foot of 
 the throne. 
 
 He determined to relieve himself from these two ministers, 
 who, either through honesty or policy, interfered with all his 
 plans. Accordingly, on the 28th of January, 1718, he dis- 
 missed the chancellor from ofHce, and exiled him to his estate 
 in the country ; and shortly afterward removed the Duke de 
 Noailles from the administration of the finances. 
 
 The opi)()sltion of parliament to the Regent and his measures 
 was carried on with incr'^asing violence. That body aspired 
 
 H 
 
48 
 
 TUE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 I 
 
 I ■■ 
 
 I i 
 
 to an equal authority with the Regent in the administration of 
 affairs, and pretended, by its decree, to suspend an edict of the 
 regency, ordering a new coinage and altering the value of the 
 currency. But its chief hostility was levelled against Lf^w, a 
 foreigner and a heretic, and one who was considered by a ma- 
 jority of the members in the light of a malefactor. In fact, so 
 far was this hostility carried, that secret measures were taken to 
 investigate his malversations, and to collect evidence against 
 him ; and it was resolved in parliament that, should the testi- 
 mony collected justify their suspicions, they would have hira 
 seized and brought before them ; would give him a brief trial, 
 and if convicted, would hang him in the courtyard of the palace, 
 and throw open the gates after the execution, that the public 
 might behold his corpse ! 
 
 Law received intimation of the danger hanging over him, and 
 was in terrible trepidation. He took refuge in the Palais Royal, 
 the residence of the Regent, and implored his protection. The 
 Regent himself was embarrassed by the sturdy opposition of 
 parliament, which contemplated nothing less than a decree re- 
 versing most of his public measures, especially those of finance. 
 His indecision kept Law for a time in an agony of terror and sus- 
 pense. Finally, by assembling a board of justice, and bringing 
 to his aid the absolute authority of the King, he triumphed over 
 parliament and relieved Law from his dread of being hanged. 
 
 The system now went on with flowing sail. The Western or 
 Mississippi Company, being identified with the bank, rapidly 
 increased u^ power and privileges. One monopoly after au- 
 other was granted to it ; the trade of the Indian seas ; the slave 
 trade with Senegal and Guinea ; the farming of tobacco ; the 
 national coinage, etc. Each new privilege was made a pretext 
 for issuing more bills, and caused an immense advance in the 
 price of stock. At length, on the 4th of December, 1718, the 
 Regent gave the establishment the imposing title of The Roval 
 Bank, and proclaimed that he had effected the purchase of all 
 the shares, the proceeds of which he had added to its capital. 
 This measure seemed to shock the public feeling more than any 
 other connected with the system, and roused the indignation of 
 parliament. The French nation had been so accustomed to 
 attach an idea of every thing noble, lofty, and magnificent, to 
 the royal name and person, especially during the stately and 
 sumptuous reign of Louis XIV., that they could not at first 
 tolerate the idea of royalty being in any degree mingled with 
 matters of trafldc and finance, and the king being in a manner a 
 banker. It was one of the downward steps, however, by which 
 
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 49 
 
 ration of 
 ct of the 
 le of the 
 t Lf w, a 
 by a ma- 
 I fact, so 
 ! takeu to 
 e against 
 tlie testi- 
 have him 
 rief trial, 
 le palace, 
 he public 
 
 him, and 
 lis Royal, 
 ion. The 
 osition of 
 lecree re- 
 )f finance, 
 ir and sus- 
 
 brini^ino; 
 phed over 
 hanged, 
 k^estern or 
 k, rapidly 
 
 after au- 
 ; the slave 
 »acco ; the 
 
 a pretext 
 ice in the 
 , 1718, the 
 ^iiE Royal 
 lase of all 
 its capital, 
 e than any 
 iornation of 
 stomed to 
 nificent, to 
 stately and 
 lot at first 
 iui>;led with 
 I manner a 
 •, by whi(.'b 
 
 royalty lost its illusive splendor in France, and became grad- 
 ually cheapened in the pjblic mind. 
 
 Arbitrary measures now began to be taken to force the bills 
 of the bank into artificial currency. On the 27th of December 
 appeared an order in council, forbidding, under severe penal- 
 ties, the payment of any sum above six hundred livres in gold 
 or silver. This decree rendered bank bills necessary in all 
 transactions of purchase and sale, and called for a new emis- 
 sion. The prohibition was occasionally evaded or opposed ; 
 confiscations were the consequence ; informers were rewarded, 
 and spies and traitors began to spring up in all the domestic 
 walks of life. 
 
 The worst effect of this illusive system was the mania for 
 gain, or rather for gambling in stocks, that now seized upon the 
 whole nation. Under the exciting effects of lying reports, and 
 the forcing effects of government decrees, the shares of the 
 company went on rising in value until they reached thirteen 
 hundred per cent. Nothing was now spoken of but the price 
 of shares, and the immense fortunes suddenly made by lucky 
 speculators. Those whom Law had deluded used every means 
 to delude others. The most extravagant dreams were indulged, 
 concerning the wealth to flow in upon the company from its 
 colonies, its trade, and its various monopolies. It is true, noth- 
 ing as yet had been realized, nor could in some '^'me be realized, 
 from these distant sources, even if productive , but the imagi- 
 nations of speculators are ever in the advance, and their con- 
 jectures are immediately converted into facts. Lying reports 
 now flew from mouth to mouth, of sure avenues to fortune 
 suddenly thrown open. The more extravagant the fable, the 
 more readily was it believed. To doubt was to awaken anger, 
 or incur ridicule. In a time of public infatuation, it requires 
 no small exercise of courage to doubt a popular fallacy. 
 
 Paris now became the centre of attraction for the adventur- 
 ous and the avaricious, who flocked to it, not merely from the 
 provinces, but from neighboring countries. A stock exchange 
 was established in a house in the Rue Quincampoix, and be- 
 came immediately the gathering place of stock-jobbers. The 
 exchange opened at seven o'clock, with the beat of drum and 
 sound of bell, and closed at night with the same signals. 
 Guards were stationed at each end of the street, to maintain 
 order, and exclude carriages and horses. The whole street 
 swarmed throughout the day like a bee-hive. Bargains of all 
 lands wen* seized upon with avidity. Shares of stock passed 
 ♦■rom hand to hand, mounting in value, one knew not why. 
 
 ■ 
 
 hi 
 
j 
 
 50 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 M\ 
 
 H 
 
 Fortunes were made in a moment, as if by magic ; and every 
 lucky bargain prompted tliose around to a more desperati' 
 throw of the die. Tlie fever went on, increasing in intensity us 
 the day declined ; and when the drum beat, and the bell rtiiii:, 
 at night, to close the exchange, there were exclamations of im- 
 patience and despair, as if the wheel of fortune had suddeul) 
 been stopped when about to make its luckiest evolution. 
 
 To ingulf all classes in this ruinous vortex. Law now split 
 the shares of fifty millions of stock each into one hundred 
 shares : thus, as in the splitting of lottery tickets, accoinino- 
 dating the venture to the humblest purse. Society was thus 
 stirred up to its very dregs, and adventurers of the lowest order 
 hurried to the stock market. All honest, industrious pursuits, 
 and modest gains, were now despised. Wealth was to be ob- 
 tained instantly, without labor, and without stint. The upper 
 classes were as base in their venality as tlie lower. Tiie hiulutit 
 and most powerful nobles, abandoning all generous pursuits tuul 
 lofty aims, engaged in the vile scuttle for gain. Tliey were even 
 baser than the lower classes ; for some of them, who were nieiii- 
 bers of the council of the regency, abused theii station and tlieir 
 influence, and promoted measures by whicli shares arose wliilo 
 in their hands, and they made immense profits. 
 
 The Duke de Bourbon, the Prince of Conti, the Dukes dc la 
 Force and D'Antin were among the foremost of these illustrious 
 stock-jobbers. They were nicknamed the Mississippi Lords, 
 and they smiled at the sneering title. In fact, the usual distinc- 
 tions of society had lost their consequence, under the rei!j;n 
 of this new passion. Rank, talent, military fame, no longer 
 inspired deference. All respect for others, all self-respect, 
 were forgotten in the mercenary struggle of the stock-n)arkot. 
 Even prelates and ecclesiastical corporations, forgetting their 
 true objects of devotion, mingled among the votaries of Mam- 
 mon. They were not behind those who wielded tne civil 
 power in fabricating ordinances suited to tlieir avaricious pur- 
 poses. Theological decisions forthwith appeared, in which tiie 
 anathema launciied by the Church against usury, was cou- 
 veniently construed as not extending to tlie trattlc in bank 
 shares ! 
 
 The Abb6 Dubois entered into the mysteries of stock-jobl)ing 
 with all the zeal of an apostle, and enriclied himself by the 
 spoils of the credulous ; and he continually drew large sums 
 from Law, as considerations for his political influence. Faith- 
 less to his country, in the course of his gambling speculations 
 he transferred to England a great aiuouul of specie, which liaii 
 
TUE GREAT MISSIf,SIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 51 
 
 iiul every 
 desperate 
 tensity as 
 bell riiiiLS 
 ns of iiii- 
 suddenly 
 
 D. 
 
 now split 
 hundred 
 acconi mo- 
 was thus 
 vest order 
 pursuits, 
 to be oh- 
 "be upper 
 le liiiiiiest 
 rsuits and 
 were even 
 vara nieni- 
 and tlieir 
 rose while 
 
 ukes de la 
 
 illustrious 
 
 )pi Lords, 
 
 al distinc- 
 
 tbe rei<i;n 
 
 no longer 
 
 If-respeet, 
 
 ?k- market. 
 
 tting their 
 
 of Main- 
 
 tue civil 
 
 cious pur- 
 
 which the 
 
 was cou- 
 
 ; in bank 
 
 ck-jobbing 
 elf by the 
 arge sums 
 ;e. Failli- 
 ieeulations 
 which had 
 
 heen paid into the royal treasury ; thus contributing to the sub- 
 .seipient dearth of the precious metals. 
 
 The female sex participated in this sordid frenzy. Princesses 
 of the blood, and ladies of the highest nobility, were among 
 the most rapacious of stock-jobbers. The Regent seemed to 
 have the riches of Crtesus at his command, and lavished money 
 by hundreds of thousands upon his female relatives and favor- 
 ites, as well as upon his roues., the dissolute companions of his 
 debauches. "My son," writes the Uegent's mother, in her 
 corresi)ondence, "gave me shares to the amount of two mil- 
 lions, which I distributed among my household. The King also 
 took several millions for his own household. Al! die royal 
 family have had them ; all the children and graudchildreu of 
 France, and the princes of the blood." 
 
 Luxury and extravagance kept pace with this sudden infla- 
 tion of fancied wealth. The hereditary palaces of nobles were 
 l)ulled down, and rebuilt on a scale of augmented splendor. 
 Entertainments were given, of incredible cost and magnilicence. 
 Never before had been such display in houses, furniture, equi- 
 pages, and amusements. This was particularly the case among 
 persons of the lower ranks, who had sudtleuly become possessed 
 of millions. Ludicrous anecdotes are related of some of these 
 upstarts. One, who had just launched a splendid carriage, 
 when about to use it for the first time, instead of getting in at 
 the door, mounted, through habitude, to his accustomed place 
 behind. Some ladies of quality, seeing a well-dressed woman 
 covered with diamonds, but whom nobody knew, alight from a 
 very handsome carriage, inquired who she was of the footman. 
 He replied, with a sneer: '* It is a lady who has recently tum- 
 bled from a garret into this carriage." Mr. Law's domestics 
 were said to become in like nuuiner suddenly enriched by the 
 crumbs that fell from his table. His coachman, having made 
 his fortune, retired from his service. Mr. Law requested him 
 to procure a coachman in his place. He appeared the next day 
 with two, whom he pronounced equally good, and told Mr. Law : 
 " Take which of them you choose, and I will take the other!" 
 
 Nor were these novi honiini treated with the distance and 
 disdain they would formerly have experienced from the haughty 
 aristocracy of France. The i)ride of the old noblesse had been 
 stilled by the stronger instinct of avarice. They rather sought 
 the intimacy and confidence of these lucky upstarts ; and it has 
 been observed that a nobleman would gladly take his seat at 
 t'lc tal)le of the fortunate lackey of yesterday, in hopes of 
 learuiug from him the seciet of growing rich ! 
 
 1 4 
 
 i i 
 
 
 i 
 
 : ' 
 
 if 
 
 .' 1 
 
 i 
 
 • , i-w-» »M«i i > n «< p< n»i 
 
52 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 Law now went about with a countenance radiant with success 
 and apparently dispensing wealth on every side. '■' He is arl- 
 mirably skilled in all that relates to tlnanee," writes tlie Duehoss 
 of Orleans, the Regent's mother, " and has put the affairs of 
 the state in such good order that all the king's debts have been 
 paid. He is so much run after that he has no repose night or 
 day. A duchess even kissed his hand publicly. If a du(!hes3 
 can do this, what will other ladies do? " 
 
 Wherever he went, his path, we are told, was beset l)y a 
 sordid throng, who waited to see him pass, and sought to oi)taiii 
 the favor of a word, a nod, or smile, as if a mere glauce from 
 him would bestow fortune. When at home, his house was ab- 
 solutely besieged by furious candidates for fortune. "They 
 forced the doors," says the Duke de St. Simon; " they scaled 
 his windows from the garden ; they made their way into hi^ 
 cabinet down the chimney ! ** 
 
 The same venal court was paid by all classes to his family. 
 The highest ladies of the court vied with each other in mean- 
 nesses to purchase the lucrative friendship of Mrs. Law and her 
 daughter. They waited ui)on them with as nmch assiduity and 
 adulation as if they had been princesses of the blood. Tlie 
 Regent one day expressed a desire that some duchess should 
 accompany his daughter to Genoa. "My Lord," said some 
 one present, "if you would have a choice from among tiie 
 duchesses, you need but send to Mrs. Law's ; you will find them 
 all assembled there." 
 
 The wealth of Law rapidly increased with the expansion of 
 the bubble. In the course of a few months he purchased four- 
 teen titled estates, paying for them in paper ; and the public 
 hailed these sudden and vast acquisitions of landed property as 
 so many proofs of the soundness of his system. In one in- 
 stance he met with a shrewd bargainer, who had not the general 
 faith in his paper money. The President de Nov ion insisted ou 
 being paid for an estate in hard coin. Law accordingly brought 
 the amount, four hundred thousand livres, in specie, saying, 
 with a sarcastic smile, that he preferred paying in money as its 
 'A'eight rendered it a mere incumbrance. As it happened, the 
 president could give no clear title to the land, and the money 
 had to be refunded. He paid it back in paper, which Law 
 dared not refuse, lest he should depreciate it in the market. 
 
 The course of illusory credit went on triumphantly for eigh- 
 teen months. Law had nearly fulfilled one of his promises, for 
 T.ne greater part of the public debt had been paid off ; but how 
 paid? In bank shares, which had been trumped up several 
 
i! 
 
 THE GREAT MISSISSIPri BUBBLE. 
 
 68 
 
 th succr-ss 
 He is iui- 
 e DiK'liess 
 affairs of 
 liave iM'on 
 e ni<:;ht or 
 a duchess 
 
 ic'set by a 
 t to obtain 
 lancj from 
 se was ab- 
 . '' Tlioy 
 ,hey scaled 
 y into \n>> 
 
 his family. 
 r in mcan- 
 nvf and her 
 siduity and 
 cod. The 
 less should 
 said some 
 among the 
 1 find them 
 
 pansion of 
 lased four- 
 the public 
 )roperty as 
 In one iu- 
 the general 
 insisted ou 
 ^ly brought 
 :ie, saying, 
 oney as its 
 )pened, the 
 the money 
 which Law 
 larket. 
 [y for eigh- 
 'oraises, for 
 r ; but how 
 up several 
 
 hundred per cent above their value, and which were to vanish 
 like smoke in the hands of the holders. 
 
 One of the most striking attributes of Law was the imper- 
 turbable assurance and self-possession with which he replied to 
 every objection, and found a solution for every problem. He 
 iiad the dexterity of a juggler in evading diflflculties ; and what 
 was peculiar, made figures themselves, which are the very ele- 
 ments of exact demonstration, the means to dazzle and be- 
 wilder. 
 
 Toward the latter end of 1719 the Mississippi scheme hod 
 reached its highest point of glory. Half a million of strangers 
 had crowded into Paris, in quest of fortune. The hotels and 
 lodging-houses were overflowing ; lodgings were procured with 
 excessive difficulty; granaries were turned into bedrooms; 
 provisions had risen enormously in price; splendid houses 
 were multiplying on every side ; the streets were crowded with 
 carriages ; above a thousand new equipages had been launched. 
 
 On the eleventh of December, Law obtained another prohibi- 
 tory decree, for the purpose of sweeping all the remaining specie 
 in circulation into the bank. By this it was forbidden to make 
 any payment fn silver above ten iivres, or in gold above three 
 hundred. 
 
 The repeated decrees of this nature, the object of which was 
 to depreciate the value of gold, and increase the illusive credit 
 of paper, began to awaken doubts of a system which required 
 such bolstering. Capitalists gradually awoke from their bewil- 
 derment. Sound and able financiers ousulted together, and 
 agreed to make common cause against ti.is continual expansion 
 of a paper system. The shares of the bank and of the company 
 began to decline in value. Wary men took the alarm, and began 
 to realize, a word now first brought into use, to express the con- 
 version of ideal property into something real. 
 
 The Prince of Conti, one of the most prominent and grasping 
 of the Mississippi lords, was the first to give a blow to the credit 
 of the bank. There was a mixture of ingratitude in his conduct 
 that characterized the venal baseness of the times. He had 
 received from time to time enormous sums from Law, as the 
 price of his influence and patronage. His avarice had increased 
 with every acquisition, until Law was compelled to refuse one 
 of his exactions. In revenge the i)rince immediately sent such 
 an amount of paper to the bank to be cashed, that it required 
 four wagons to bring away the silver, and he had the meanness 
 to loll out of the window of his hotel and jest and exult as It 
 •vas tiiiiidled into his port coch^re. 
 
 '■^i:' 
 
 
 "111 
 
 i- 
 
 ! ; 
 
 w 
 
 ! ' i 
 
 f'' 
 
 I i I 
 
 \4 
 
i 
 
 I < 
 
 i. 
 
 h 
 
 •I 
 
 , 1 
 
 ■i 
 
 IM 
 
 1 1 
 
 64 THE CRAYON PArKftS. 
 
 This was the 8i<»;n!il for other drains of like natnro. The 
 F.ii|j;liHh and Dutch merchants, wlio had pnrcliascd a f;rc;i(; 
 amount of hank paper at low prices, cashed tliem at the hank, 
 and carried tiie money out of the country. Other strangers did 
 
 tlie like, thus (lramui<>; 
 
 the kingdom uf its specie, and leavinji 
 
 le like, 
 paper in its place 
 
 The l{e<j;eni, perceiving these symptoms of (h'cay in the sys- 
 tern, sought to restore it to pultlic confidence, hy conferring 
 marks of conlidence upon its author. lie accordingly resolved 
 to make Lav; Comptroller (Jeneral of the I'Mnances of France. 
 There was a material obstacle in his way. Law was a ''roles- 
 taut, and the Regent, uuseruinilous as he was himself, did not 
 dare publicly to outrage the severe edicts which Louir XIV'., in 
 his bigot days, had fulminated against all heretics. Law soon 
 let him know that there would be no difllculty on that head. He 
 was ready at any moment to abjure his religion in the way of 
 business. For decency's sake, however, it was judged proper 
 Le should previously be convinced and converte<l. A ghostly 
 instructor was soon found, ready to accomplish his conversion 
 in the shortest possible time. This was the Abbe Tencin, a 
 profligate creature of the proflignlc Dubois, and like him work- 
 ing his way to ecclesiastical promotion and tenii)oral wealth, hy 
 the basest means. 
 
 Under the instructions of the Abbe Tencin, Law soon mas- 
 tered the mysteries and dogmtis of the Catholic doctrine ; and, 
 after a brief course of ghostly training, declared himself thor- 
 oughly convinced and converted. To avoid the sneers and jests 
 of the Parisian public, the ceremony of abjuration took place ut 
 Mclun. Law made a pious present of one hundred thousand 
 livres to the Church of St. Koque, and the Abbe Tencin was 
 rewarded for his edifying labors by sundry shares and bank 
 bills ; which he shrewdly took care to convert into cash, having 
 as little faith in the system as in the piety of his new convert. 
 A more grave and moral community might have been outraged 
 by this scandalous farce; but the Parisians laughed at it with 
 their usual levity, antl contented themselves with making it the 
 subject of a number of songs and epigrams. 
 
 Law now being orthodox in his faith, took out letters of nat- 
 uralization, and having thus surmounted the intervening o])sta- 
 cles, was elevated by the Regent to the post of Com[)troller 
 (jeneral. So accustomed had the cijuinumity become to all 
 juggles und transmutations in this hero of (inance, that no one 
 seemed -lio ked or astonished at his sudden elevation. On tlii' 
 contra; t»eing uuw considered perfectly established in place 
 
 u. 
 
f 
 
 THE a UK AT MISSIS;SIPPI liUliBLh 
 
 r>5 
 
 !•('. The 
 
 ic Iniiik, 
 iificrs ilid 
 I leaving 
 
 tlio sys- 
 oiifenin;; 
 
 rcsolvocl 
 
 Franco. 
 
 I I'roU's- 
 
 , did not. 
 
 XIV., in 
 Law soon 
 lead. lie 
 lie way of 
 L'd proper 
 \ p;liostly 
 on version 
 Tencin, a 
 liiin work- 
 health, by 
 
 soon mas- 
 rinc ; and, 
 isolf thor- 
 i and jests 
 )k i)laee at 
 1 thousand 
 LVnein was 
 and bank 
 sli, having 
 w convert, 
 n outrasicd 
 at it with 
 ving it the 
 
 2rs of nat- 
 lini:; obsta- 
 Joniptrollcr 
 ome to all 
 hat no one 
 II, On the 
 id iu place 
 
 and power, be becanu' more than over the object of veiml ;, U^-a- 
 tion. Men of rank and dij^nity thronged his antechamber, wait- 
 ing patiently their turn for an audience; and titled dames 
 donioaned themselves to take the front seats of the carriages of 
 his wife and daughter, as if they had been riding with princesses 
 of the royal blood. Law's head grew giddy with his elevation, 
 ind he began to aspire aft<'r aristoeratieal distinction. There; 
 was to be a court ball, at wh'.-li several of the young noblemen 
 were to dance in a ballet w'th the youthful King. Law requested 
 that his son might Im' admitted into the ballet, and the Regent 
 consented. The yoimg sci<jns if nobility, however, were indig- 
 nant and scouted the '' intruding ui)start." Their more worldly 
 parents, fearful of displeasing the modern Midas, reprimanded 
 them in vain. The striplings li.ad not yet ind)ibed the passion 
 for gain, and still held to their high blood. Tiie son of the 
 hanker received slights and annoyances on all sides, and th«f 
 public applauded them for their spirit. A lit of illness came 
 opportunely to relieve the youth from an honor which would 
 have cost him a world of vexations and affronts. 
 
 In February, 1720, shortly after Law's instalment in office, a 
 decree came out uniting the bank to the India Company, by 
 which last name the whole establishment was now known. The 
 decree stated that as the bank was royal, the King was bound 
 to make good the value of its bills ; that he committed to the 
 company the government of the bank for fifty years, and sold 
 to it fifty millions of stock belonging to him, for nine hundred 
 millions ; a simple advance of eighteen hundred per cent. The 
 decree farther declared, in the King's name, that he would never 
 draw on the bank, until the value of his drafts had first been 
 lodged in it by his receivers general. 
 
 The bank, it was said, had by this time issued notes to the 
 amount of one thousand millions ; being more paper than all the 
 banks of Europe were able to circulate. To aid its credit, the re- 
 ceivers of the revenue were directed to take bank notes of the 
 }ub- receivers. All payments, also, of one hundred livres and 
 upward were ordered to be made in bank notes. These com- 
 pulsory measures for a short time gave a false credit to the bank, 
 which proceeded to discount merchants' notes, to lend money 
 on jewels, plate, and other valuables, as well as on mortgages. 
 
 Still farther to force on the system an edict next appeared, 
 forbidding any individual, or any corporate body, civil or re- 
 ligious, to hold in possession more than five hundred livres in 
 
 I i: 
 
 ;■ t? 
 
 ;^ 
 
 • s 
 
 current coin ; 
 of the louis-d 
 
 that is to say, about seven louis-d'ors ; the value 
 paper being, at the time, seventy-two livres. 
 
r>6 
 
 TUB CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 * i] 
 
 i 
 
 All the gold and silver they n.ight have above this pittance was 
 to be brought to the royal bank, and exchanged either for shares 
 or bills. 
 
 As confiscation was the penalty of disobedience to this decree, 
 and informers were assured a share of the forfeitures, a bounty 
 was in a manner held out to domestic spies and traitors ; mikI 
 the most <; Hous scrutiny was awakened into the pecuniary affaim 
 of fan;ilics and individuals. The very confidence between friends 
 and relativ-s was impaired, and all the domestic ties and virtue- 
 of society were tineatened, until a general sentiment of iiwlj^ 
 nation broke forth, that compelled the Regent to rescind die 
 odious decree. Lord Stairs, the Kritisli ambassador, speaking 
 of the system of espionage encouraged l>y tliis edict, ol)servi'(l 
 that it was impossible to doubt tliat Law was a tliorough Calh(j- 
 lic, since he had thus established the iuf/i(isilif»i, after liaviii!^ 
 already proved tniiisi(bfitaii(i'a(ion, by changing s[)ecie into paper. 
 
 E(p>al al)uses had taken place under tlie colonizing project. 
 In his thousand expedients to amass capital, Law had soM 
 parcels of land in Mississii)pi, at the rate of three thousand livres 
 for a league square. Many cai)italists had purchased estates 
 large enough to constitute almost a principality ; the only evil 
 was. Law had sold a property which lie could not deliver. The 
 agents of police, who aided in recruiting the ranks of the colo- 
 nists, had been guilty of scandalous impositions, lender pretenco 
 of taking uj mendicants and vagabonds, they had scoured the 
 streets at night, seizing upon l.jnest mechanics, or their sons, 
 and hurrying them to their crimping-houses, for the sole purpose 
 of extorting money from them as a ransom. The iM)pulace was 
 roused to indignation by these abuses. The officers of police 
 were mobbed in tlie exercise of their wlious functions, and sev- 
 eral of them v/ere killed ; whicii put an end to this flagrant abuse 
 of power. 
 
 In March, a most extraordinary decree of the council fixed 
 the price of shares of the India Company at nine thousand 
 livres each. All ecclesiastical communities and hospitals were 
 now prohibited from investing money at interest, in any tiling 
 but India stock. With all these props and stays, the system 
 continued to totter. How could it be otherwise, under a des- 
 potic government, that could alter the value of property at 
 every moment? The very compulsory measures that were 
 adopted to establish the credit of tiie bank hastened its full ; 
 plainly showing there was a want of solid security. Law 
 caused pamphlets to be pul)lished, se<tii!j!,' forth, in eloquent 
 language, the vast profits that must accrue to holdei-s of the 
 
 I f 
 
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUIiBLE. 
 
 67 
 
 nee WHS 
 )r shares 
 
 i deeree, 
 a bounl y 
 )rs ; Mild 
 ry iifT:iiiii 
 n friends 
 1 vii'tiies 
 
 [)f ill'liir. 
 
 leind liic 
 
 l)e:il<iii'j; 
 
 observed 
 
 I Catlio 
 
 liaviii<^ 
 
 to paper. 
 
 project . 
 
 iiad sold 
 
 ind livres 
 
 (1 estates 
 
 only evil 
 
 er. The 
 
 the eolo- 
 
 pretenee 
 
 bnred the 
 
 iieir sons, 
 
 e purpose 
 
 ulace was 
 
 of poliei! 
 
 and sev- 
 
 ant abuse 
 
 neil fixed 
 thousand 
 itals were 
 any thiiii; 
 le system 
 er a des- 
 operty at 
 hat were 
 
 its fall; 
 y. Law 
 
 eloquent 
 1*8 of the 
 
 stock, and the impossibility of tlie King's ever doing it any 
 liarm. On the very back of these assertions came forth an 
 ediet of the King, dated tlic 22d of May, wherein, under pre- 
 tence of liaving reduced tlie value of his coin, it was declared 
 necessary to reduce the value of his bank notes one half, and 
 of the India shares from nine thousand to five thousand livres. 
 
 This decre( came like a clap of thunder upon shareholders. 
 They found one half of the pretended value of the paper in 
 their hands annihilated in an instant ; and what certainty had 
 they witii respect to the other half? The rich considered them- 
 selves ruined ; those in humbler circumstances looked forward 
 to abject beggary. 
 
 The parliament seized the occasion to stand forth as the 
 protector of the public, and refused to register the decree. It 
 gained the credit of compelling the Regent to retrace his step, 
 though it is more probable he yielded to the universal burst of 
 |uil)lic astonishment and reprobation. On the 27th of May the 
 ediet was revoked, and bank-bills were restored to their pre- 
 vious value. But the fatal blow had been struck; the delusion 
 was at an end. (Joverument itself had lost all public confi- 
 dence, equally with the bank it had engendered, and which its 
 own arbitrary acts had l)rought into discredit. " All Paris," 
 says the Regent's mother, in her letters, '' has been mourning 
 at the cursed decree which Law has i)ersuaded my son to make. 
 1 have received anonymous letters, stating that I have nothing 
 to fear on my own account, but that my son shall be pursued 
 with fire and sword." 
 
 The Regent now endeavored to avert the odium of his ruin- 
 ous schemes from himself. lie affect 'd to have suddenly lost 
 confidence in Law, and on the 29th ot ?.Tf>y, discharged him 
 from his emi)loy as Comptroller General, and stationed a Swiss 
 guard of sixteen men in his house. He even refused to see 
 him, when, on the following day, he applied at the portal of 
 the Palais Royal for adn)ission : but having played off this 
 farce before the i)ublic, he admitted him secretly the same 
 night, by a private door, and continued as before to co-operate 
 with him in his financial schemes. 
 
 On the lirst of June, the Regent issued a decree, permitting 
 persons to have as much money as they pleased in their pos- 
 oission. Few, however, were in a state to benefit by this 
 permission There was a run upon the bank, but a royal 
 ordinance immediately suspended payment, until farther orders. 
 To relieve the public mind, a city stock was created, of twenty- 
 tive millions, bearing an interest of two and a half per cent, 
 
 ^'H\ 
 
6S 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 : !■ 
 
 for which bank notes were taken in exchange. The bank notes 
 thus withdrawn from circulation, were publicly burnetl before 
 the Hotel de Villc '^he public, however, had lost confidonce 
 in everything and ^vci^iody, and suspected fraud and collusion 
 in those who pretended to burn the bills. 
 
 A general confusion now took place in the financial world. 
 Families who had lived in opulence, found themselves suddenly 
 reduced to ind'gence. Schemers who had been revelling in the 
 delusion of princely fortune, found their estates vanishing into 
 thin air. Those who had any property remaining, sought to 
 secure it against reverses. Cautious pei-sons found there was 
 no safety for property in a country where the com was continu- 
 ally shifting in value, and where a despotism was exercised 
 over pulilic securities, and even over the private purses of indi- 
 viduals. They began to send their effects into other countries ; 
 when lo ! on the 20th of June a royal edict commanded them to 
 Oring back their effects, under penalty of forfeiting twice tiieir 
 value ; and forbade them, wncler like penalty, from investin!j; 
 their money in foi-eign stocks. This was soon followed Ijy 
 another decree, foibidding any one to retain precious stones in 
 his possession, or to sell them to foreigners ; all must ho 
 deposited in the bank, in exchange for depreciating paper! 
 
 Execrations were now poured out on all sides, against Law, 
 and menaces of vengeance. What a contrast, in a short time, 
 to the venal incense that was offered up to him! "Tliis per- 
 son," writes the Regent's motiier, "who was formerly wor- 
 shipped as a god, is now not sure of his life. It is astonishing 
 how greatly territied he is. He is as a <lead man ; lie is pale as 
 a sheet, and it is said he can never get over it. My son is 
 not dismayed, though he is threatened on all sides ; and is very 
 much amused with Law's terrors." 
 
 Al)out the middle of July the last grand attempt was made 
 by Law and the Regent, to keep up the system, and provide for 
 the innnense emission of pai)er. A decret? was fabricated, giv- 
 ing the India Company- the entire mono[X)ly of connnerce, on 
 condition that it would, in the course of a year, reimburse six 
 hundred millions of livres of its bills, at the rate of fifty 
 millions per month. 
 
 On the 17th this decree was sent to parliament to be regis- 
 tered. It at once raised a storm of opjwsition in that asseml)l_v ; 
 and a vehement discussion took place. Wiiile tnat was going 
 on, a disastrous scene was [)assing out of doors. 
 
 The calamitous effects of the system had reached the limn 
 blest coucerus of human life. Provisions had risen to an enor 
 
ank notes 
 
 etl before 
 
 :onfidenoe 
 
 collusion 
 
 ial world. 
 
 s suddenly 
 
 ing in tlic' 
 
 bing into 
 
 sought to 
 
 there was 
 
 s continu- 
 
 exereised 
 
 'S of indi- 
 
 couutries ; 
 
 1 them to 
 
 wice their 
 
 investini; 
 
 lowed by 
 
 stouos in 
 
 must Ito 
 
 iper ! 
 
 iust Law, 
 
 hort lime, 
 
 'IMiis per- 
 
 lerly wor- 
 
 stonisliing 
 
 is pale as 
 
 My son is 
 
 .ikI is very 
 
 was made 
 •rovide for 
 _!ate(l, giv- 
 mieree, on 
 n burse six 
 e of lit'ty 
 
 > l)e regis- 
 assembiy ; 
 was going 
 
 . the hi'.in 
 o au eiior 
 
 THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 69 
 
 mous price ; paper money was refused at all the shops ; the 
 people had not wherewithal to buy bread. It had been found 
 absolutely indispensable to relax a little from the suspension of 
 specie payments, and to allow small sums to be scantily ex- 
 changed for paper. The doors of the bank and the neighboring 
 streets were immediately thronged with a famishing multitude, 
 seeldng cash for l)ank-notes of ten livres. So great was the 
 press and struggle that several persons were stifled and crushed 
 to death. The mob carried three of the bodies to the court- 
 yard of the Palais Koyal. Some cried for the Regent to come 
 forth and l)ehold the effect of his system ; others demanded the 
 death of Law, the impostor, who had brought this misery and 
 ruin upon the nation. 
 
 The moment was critical, the popular fury was rising to a 
 tempest, when Le Blanc, the Secretary of State, stepped forth. 
 He had previously sent for the military, and now only sought 
 to gain time. Singling out six or seven stout fellows, who 
 seem(;d to be the ringleaders of the mob : ••• My good fellows," 
 said he, calmly, " carry away these Ixxlies and place them in 
 some church, and then come back quickly to me for your pay." 
 They immediately obeyed ; a kind of funeral procession was 
 formed ; the arrival of troops disi^ersed those who lingered 
 behind ; and Paris was probably saved from an insurrection. 
 
 About ten o'clock in the morning, all being quiet. Law ven- 
 tured to go in his carriage to the Palais Royal. He was saluted 
 with cries and curses, as he passed along the streets ; and he 
 reached the Palais Royal in a terrible fright. The Regent 
 amused himself with his fears, but retained him with him, and 
 sent off his carriage, which was assailed by the mob, pelted with 
 stones, and the glasses shivered. The news of this outrage 
 was communicated to parliament in the midst of a furious dis- 
 cussion of the decree for the commercial monopoly. The flrst 
 president, who had been absent for a short time, re-entered, 
 aud communicated the tidings in a whimsical couplet : 
 
 •• Me«8ieur8, MesBieure! bonne nouvellel 
 Le carroBso de Law est reduite en carrelle! " 
 
 " Genlle. r.cn, Gentlemen! good news! 
 The carriage of Law is eliivered to atoms I " 
 
 The members sprang up with joy; "'And Law!" exclaimed 
 tliey, "has he been torn to pieces?" The president was igno- 
 rant of the result of the tumult ; whereupon the debate was cut 
 short, the deooo rejected, and the house adjourned ; the mem- 
 
 
 :l, 
 
 
 i'*! 
 
 I : 
 
 N 
 
 4 
 
eo 
 
 THX CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 U V 
 
 1 ;■' 
 
 bers hurrying to learn the particulars. Such was the levity with 
 which public affairs were treated at that dissolute and disastrous 
 period. 
 
 On the following day there was an ordinance from tlie king, 
 prohibiting all popular assemblages ; and troops were stationed 
 at various points, and in all public places. The regiment o' 
 guards was ordered to hold itself in readiness ; and the musket- 
 eers to be at their hotels, with their horses ready saddled. A 
 numljer of small offices were opened, where people might caih 
 smrll notes, though with great delay and difficulty. An edict 
 was also issued declaring that whoever should refuse to take 
 bank-notes in the course of trade should forfeit double the 
 amount ! 
 
 The continued and vehement opposition of parliament to the 
 whole delusive system of finance, had been a constant source 
 of annoyance to the Regent; but this obstinate rejection of his 
 last grand expedient of a commercial monopoly, was not to be 
 tolerated. He determined to punish that intractable body. 
 The Abb6 Dubois and Law suggested a simple mode ; it was to 
 suppress the parliament altogether, being, as they observed, so 
 far from useful, that it was a constant impediment to the march 
 of public affairs. The Regent was half inclined to listen to 
 their advice ; but upon calmer consideration, and the advice of 
 friends, he adopted a more moderate course. On the 20th 
 of July, early in the morning, all the doors of the parliamont- 
 house were taken possession of by troops. Others were sent to 
 surround the house of the first president, and others to the 
 houses of the various members ; who were all at first in great 
 alarm, until an order from the king was put into their hands, 
 to render themselves at Pontoise, in the course of two days, to 
 which place the parliament was thus suddenly and arbitrarily 
 transferred. 
 
 This despotic act, says Voltaire, would at any other time have 
 caused an insurrection ; but one half of the Parisians were oc- 
 cupied by their ruin, and the other half by their fancied riches, 
 which were soon to vanish. The president and members of 
 parliament acquiesced in the mandate without a murmur ; tliey 
 even went as if on a party of pleasure, and made every prep- 
 aration to lead p. .loyous life in their exile. The musketeers, 
 who held possession of the vacated parliament-house, a gay 
 corps of fashionable young fellows, amused themselves with 
 making songs and pasquinades, at the expense of the exiled 
 legislators ; and at length, to pass away time, formed them- 
 selves into a mock parliament ; elected their presidents, kings, 
 
 \ \ 
 
levity with 
 disastrous 
 
 1 the king, 
 e stationed 
 egiment v* 
 he musket- 
 addled. A 
 might canh 
 An edict 
 ise to take 
 double the 
 
 mcnt to tlie 
 tant source 
 ction of his 
 3 not to be 
 able body. 
 5 ; it was lo 
 bserved, so 
 3 the march 
 to listen to 
 le advice of 
 n the 20th 
 parliamcnt- 
 (vere sent to 
 hers to the 
 rst in great 
 heir hands, 
 wo days, to 
 I arbitrarily 
 
 ;r time have 
 ins were oc- 
 cied riches, 
 ucmbers of 
 ;rmur ; they 
 every prep- 
 musketeers, 
 )use, a gay 
 selves with 
 the exiled 
 mod them- 
 iots, kings, 
 
 THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BURBLE. 
 
 61 
 
 ministers, and advocates ; took their seats in due form, ar« 
 raigned a cat at their bar, in place of the Sieur Law, and after 
 giving it a "fair trial," condemned it to be hanged. In this 
 manner public affairs aud public institutions were lightly turned 
 to jest. 
 
 As to the exiled parliament, it lived gayly and luxuriously at 
 Pontoise, at the public expense ; for the Regent had furnished 
 funds, as usual, with a lavish hand. The first president had 
 the mansion of the Duke de Bouillon put at his disposal, ready 
 furnished, with a vast and delightful garden on the borders of 
 a river. There he kept open house to all the members of par- 
 liament. Several tables were spread every day, all furnished 
 luxuriously and splendidly ; the most exquisite wines and 
 liquors, the choicest fruits s>.nd refreshments, of all kinds, 
 abounded. A number of small chariots for one and two horses 
 were always at hand, for such ladies and old gentlemen as 
 wished to take an airing after dinner, and card and billiard 
 tables for such as chose to amuse themselves in that way until 
 supper. The sister and the daughter of the first president did 
 the honors of the house, and he himself presided there with an 
 air of great ease, hospitality, and magnificence. It became a 
 party of pleasure to drive from Paris to Pontoise, which was 
 six leagues distant, and partake of the amusements and festivi- 
 ties of the place. Business was openly slighted ; nothing was 
 thought of but amusement. The Regent and his government were 
 laughed at, and made the subjects of continual pleasantries ; 
 while the enormous expenses incurred by this idle and lavish 
 course of life, more than doubled the liberal sums provided. 
 This was the way in which the parliament resented their exile. 
 
 During all this time, the system was getting more and more 
 involved. The stock exchange had some time previously been 
 removed to the Place Vendome ; but the tumult and noise be- 
 coming intolerable to the residents of that polite quarter, and 
 especially to the chancellor, whose hotel was there, the Prince 
 and Princess Carignan, both deep gamblers in Mississippi stock, 
 offered the extensive garden of the Hotel de Soissons as a 
 rallyiug-placo for tiie worshippers of Mammon. The offer was 
 accepted. A number of barracks were 'n;..vJviiaLcly erected 
 in the garden, as offices for the stock-brokers, and a.i order 
 was obtained from the Regent, under pretext of police regula- 
 tions, that no bargain should be valid unless concluded in tliese 
 barracks. The rent of them immediatoiy mounted to a hundred 
 livres a month for each, and the whole yielde.l these noble pro- 
 prietors an ignoble revenue of half a n.illion of livres. 
 
 IjJ i 
 
62 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 Si' i 
 
 mill 
 
 The mania for gain, however, was now at an end. A uni- 
 versal panic succeeded. ^'- Sauve qui pent I" was the watch- 
 word, livery one was anxious to exchange falling pap«r for 
 something of intrinsic and permanent value. Since money 
 was not to be had, jewels, precious stones, plate, porcelain, 
 trinkets of gold and silver, all commajiticd any price in paper. 
 Land was bought at fifty years' purcl)ase, and he esteemed 
 himself happy who could get it even at this price. Monopolies 
 now became the rage among the noble holders of paper, rhe 
 Duke de la Force bought up nearly all tlie tallow, grease, and 
 soap ; others the coffee and spices ; others hay and oats. For- 
 eign exchanges were almost impracticable. The debts of Dutch 
 and English merchants were paid in this fictitious money, all 
 the coin of the realm having disappeared. All the relations of 
 debtor and creditor were confounaed. With one thousand 
 crowns one might pay a debt of eighteen thousand Uvres ! 
 
 The Regent's mother, who once exulted in the affluence of 
 bank paper, now wrote in a very different tone : "1 have 
 often wished," said she in her letters, "that these banknotes 
 were in the depths of the infernal regions. They have given my 
 son more trouble than relief. Nobody in France has a penny. 
 . . My son was once popular, but since the arrival of tins 
 cursed Law, he is hated more and more. Not a week pusses, 
 without my receiving letters, filled with frightful ihreats, and 
 speaking of him as a tyrant. 1 have just received one threat- 
 ening him with poison. When 1 showed it to him, he did noth- 
 ing but laugh." 
 
 In the meantime, Law was dismayed by the increasing 
 troubles, and terrified at the tempest he had raised. He was 
 not a man of real courage ; and fearing for his personal safety, 
 from popular tumult, or the despair of ruined individuals, he 
 again took refuge in the palace of the Regent. The latter, as 
 usual, amused himself with his terrors, and turned every new 
 disaster into a jest ; but he too began to think of his own 
 security. 
 
 In pursuing the schemes of Law, he had no doubt calculated, 
 to carry through his term of government with ease and splendor ; 
 and to enrich himself, his connections, and his favorites ; and 
 had hoped that the catastrophe of the system would not take 
 place until after the expiration of the regency. 
 
 He now saw his mistake ; that it was impossible much longer 
 to prevent an exposion ; and he determined at once to get Law 
 out of the way, ana ♦^hen to charge him with the whole tissue of 
 delusions of this paper alchemy. He accordingly took occasion 
 
 nigc 
 
 vena 
 
 which 
 
 of th 
 
 blarai 
 
 iects. 
 
 left 
 
 gone 
 
 it wa 
 
 it was 
 
 coul( 
 
 vault 
 
THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE. 
 
 63 
 
 A uni- 
 he watch- 
 paper for 
 CO money 
 porcelain, 
 in pajjcr. 
 esteemed 
 ilonopoiies 
 ipcr. The 
 rease, and 
 »ats. For- 
 ts of Dutch 
 money, all 
 elaLions of 
 thousand 
 vres ! 
 
 itllucuce of 
 
 " 1 have 
 
 bank notes 
 
 :e given my 
 
 18 a penny. 
 
 ival of this 
 
 ek pusses, 
 
 breats, and 
 
 (.i;e threat- 
 
 ie did noth- 
 
 increasing 
 i. lit' was 
 onal safety, 
 ividuak, he 
 le lattiir, as 
 I eveiy new 
 of his own 
 
 i calculated, 
 id splendor; 
 :orites ; and 
 lid not take 
 
 much longer 
 i to get Law 
 lole tissue of 
 jok occasion 
 
 \ 
 
 of the recall of parliament in December, 1720, to suggest to 
 IjSW the policy of his avoiding an encounter with that hostile 
 and exasperated body. Law needed no urging to the measure. 
 His only desire was to escape from Paris and its tempestuous 
 populace. Two days before the return of parliament he took 
 his sudden and secret departure. He travelled in a chaise bear- 
 ing the aims of the Regent, and was escorted by a kind of safe- 
 guard of servants, in the duke's livery. His first place of 
 refuge was an estate of the Regent's, about six leagues from 
 Paris, from whence he pushed forward to Bruxelles. 
 
 As soon as Law was fairly out of the way, the Duke of Or^ 
 leans summoned a council of the regency, and informed them 
 that they were assembled to deliberate on the state of the 
 finances, and the affairs of the India Company. Accordingly 
 La Houssaye, Comptroller General, i-endered a perfectly clear 
 statement, by which it appeared that there were bank bills in 
 circulation to the amount of two milliards, seven hundred mil- 
 lions of livves, without any evidence that this enormous sum 
 had been emitted in virtue of any ordinance from the general 
 assembly of the India Company, which alone had the right to 
 authorize such emissions. 
 
 The council was astonished at this disclosure, and looked to 
 the Regent for explanation. Pushed to the extreme, the Regent 
 avowed that Law had emitted bills to the amount of twelve 
 hundred millions beyond what had been fixed by ordinances, 
 and in contradiction to express prohibitions ; that the thing be- 
 ing done, he, the Regent, had legalized or rather covered the 
 transaction, by decrees ordering such emissions, which decrees 
 he had antedated. 
 
 A stormy scene ensued between the Regent and the Duke de 
 Bourl)on, little to the credit of either, both having been deeply 
 implicated in the cabalistic operations of the system. In facty 
 the several members o^' the council had been among the most 
 venal " beneficiaries " of the scheme, and had interests at stake) 
 which they were anxious to secure. From all the circumstances 
 of the case, I am inclined to think that others were more to 
 blame than Law, for the disastrous effects of his financial pro- 
 jects. His bank, had it been confined to its original limits, and 
 left to the control of its own internal regulations, might have 
 gone on prosi)erously, and been of great benefit to the nation. 
 It was an institution fit.ed for a free country ; but unfortunately 
 it was subjected to the control of a despotic government, that 
 could, at its i)leasuve, alter the value of the specie within its 
 vaults, and compel the most extravagant expansions of itsi 
 
 ■' 
 
 
64 
 
 TUE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 5- 
 
 Vi 
 
 
 paper circulation. The vital principle of a hank is security in 
 the regularity of its operations, and tlie imrneditite convertil)ility 
 of its paper into coin ; and what confidence could be reposed iu 
 an institution or its pai)cr promises, when the sovereign could 
 at any moment centuple those promises in the market, and seizt 
 upon all the money in the btiuk? The compulsory measure? 
 used, likewise, to force bank notes into currency, against the 
 Judgment of the public, wan fatal to the system ; for credit 
 must be free and uncontrolled as tlie common air. The Regent 
 was the evil spirit of the system, that forced Law on to an 
 expansion of his paper currency far beyond what he had ever 
 dreamed of. He it was that in a manner compelled the unluckj 
 projector to devise all kinds of collateral companies and mo- 
 nopolies, by which to raise funds to meet the constantly and enor- 
 mously increasing emissions of shares and notes. Law was hut 
 iike a poor conjurer in the hands of a potent spirit that he has 
 evoked, and that obliges him to go on, desi)erately and ruinously, 
 with his conjurations. He only thought at the outset to raise 
 the wind, but the Regent compelled him to raise the whirlwind. 
 
 The investigation of the affairs of the Company by the coun- 
 cil, resulted in nothing beneficial to the public. The princes 
 and nobles who had enriched themselves by all kinds of juggles 
 and extortions, escaped unpunished, and retained the greater 
 part of their spoils. Many of the "suddenly rich," who luul 
 risen from obscurity to a giddy height of imaginary prosperity, 
 and had indulged in all kinds of vulgar and ridiculous excesses, 
 awoke as out of a dream, iu their original poverty, now inad<i 
 more galling and humiliating by their transient elevation. 
 
 The weight of the evil, however, fell on more valuable classes 
 of society ; honest tradesmen and artisans, who had been se- 
 duced away from the safe pursuits of industry, to the si)ecious 
 chances of speculation. Thousands of meritorious families 
 also, once opulent, had been reduced to indigence, by a too 
 great confidence in government. There was a general derange- 
 ment in the finances, that long exerted a baneful infiuence over 
 the national i)rosperity ; but the most disaslrouy effects of the 
 system were upon the morals and manners of the nation. The 
 faith of engagements, the sanctity of promises in affairs of 
 business, were at an end. Every expedient to grasp present 
 profit, or to evade present difficulty, was tolerated. While such 
 deplorable laxity of principle was generated in the busy classes, 
 Jhe chivalry of T<>ance had soiled their pennons ; and honor and 
 glory, so long the idols of the Gallic nobility, had been tumbled 
 to the earth, and trampled in the dirt of the stock-market. 
 
DON JUAN. 
 
 security in 
 iivertil)ility 
 
 reposed iu 
 
 vign could 
 
 and seizt 
 
 y measures 
 
 igainst the 
 
 for credit 
 riie Regent 
 on to an 
 e had ever 
 Llie unluclij 
 ;'.s and nio- 
 y and enor- 
 law was but 
 ,liat lie has 
 1 ruinously, 
 ,set to raise 
 whirlwind. 
 ly the couu- 
 rhe princes 
 s of jugii'les 
 the greater 
 
 ' who had 
 
 prosperity, 
 as excesses, 
 , now niad«p 
 LtioQ. 
 
 lable classes 
 •id been se- 
 ,he specious 
 Ills families 
 e, by a too 
 •al derange- 
 [luence over 
 'ects of the 
 ation . The 
 1 affairs of 
 asp present 
 
 While such 
 lusy classes, 
 d honor and 
 ecn tumbled 
 lurkct. 
 
 65 
 
 h 
 
 As to Law, the originator of the system, he appears eventu- 
 ally to have profited but little by his schemes. " He was a 
 quack," says Voltaire, "to whom the state was given to be 
 cured, but who poisoned it with his drugs, and who poisoned 
 himself." The effects which he left behind in France, were 
 sold at a low price, and the proceeds dissipated. His landed 
 estates were confiscated. He carried away with him barely 
 enough to maintain himself, his wife, and daughter, with de- 
 cency. The chief relic of his immense fortune was a great 
 diamond, which he was often obliged to pawn. He was in 
 England in 1721, and was presented to George the First. He 
 returneil shortly afterwards to the continent ; shifting about 
 from place to place, and died in Venice, in 1729. His wife and 
 daughter, accustomed to live with the prodigality of princesses, 
 could not conform to their altered fortunes, but dissipated the 
 scanty means left to them, and sank into abject ix)verty. '' I 
 saw his wife," says Voltaire, "at Bruxelles, as much humili- 
 ated as she had been haughty and triumphant at Paris." An 
 elder brother of Law remained iu France, and was protected 
 by the Duchess of Bourbon. His descendants acquitted them- 
 selves honorably, in various public employments ; and one of 
 them was the Marquis Lauristou, some time Lieutenant General 
 and Peer of France. 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 A SPECTRAL RESEARCH. 
 
 "I have heard of epirltB walking; with aeriul bodies, and have beau wondered ntb^ 
 others; but I must only wonder at niyKelf, for if they be uut mad, I'lue come to my ow>. 
 buriall." — Sqirlet'8 " Witty Faibie Omb." 
 
 Everybody has heard of the fate of Don Juan, the famous 
 libertine of Seville, who for his sins against the fair sex auu 
 other minor peccadilloes was hurried away to the infernal re- 
 gions. His story has been illustrated iu play, in pantomime, 
 and farce, on every stage in Christendom ; until at length it has 
 been rendered the theme of the opera of operas, and embalmed 
 to endless duration in th(; glorious music of IMozart. I well 
 recollect the effect of this stoi-y ii[)()n my feelings in my boy- 
 ish days, though represented in giotesque pantomime ; the awe 
 with which 1 contemplated the monumental statue on horseback 
 of the murdered commander, gleaming by pale moonlight ib 
 
66 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 'f 'Ui 
 
 I' U 
 
 the convent cemetery ; how mj' heart (iiiakod as he bowed his 
 marble head, and accepted the impious invitation of Don .Iiiaii: 
 how each foot-fall of the statue smote upon my heart, as I 
 heard it approach, step by step, througii tiie echoing corridor, 
 and beheld it enter, and advance, a moving figure of stouo, to 
 the supper-table ! But then the convivial scene in tlie Jianiel- 
 house, where Don Juan returned the visit of the statue ; was 
 offered a banquet of skulls and l)ones, and on refusing to piu- 
 take, was hurled into a yawning gulf, under a trciiu'udijiis 
 shower of fire! These were accumulated horrors enough to 
 shake the nerves of the most pantomime-loving school-lioy. 
 Many have supposed the story of Don Juan a mere fal)i('. I 
 myself thought so once; but ''seeing is believing." 1 liave 
 since beheld the very scene where it took place, and now to in- 
 dulge any doubt on the subject would be preposterous. 
 
 I was one night perambulating the streets of Seville, in com- 
 pany with a Spanisli friend, a curious investigator of the popu- 
 lar traditions and other good-for-nothing lore of the city, and 
 who was kind enough to imagine he had met, in me, with a 
 congenial spirit. In the course of our rambles we were passin;^ 
 by a heavy, dark gateway, o[)ening into the court-yard of a 
 convent, when he laid his hand upon ni}' arm : " Stop! " said 
 he, " this is the convent of San Francisco ; there is a story con- 
 nected with it, which I am sure must be known to you. You 
 cannot but have heard of Don Juan and the marble statue." 
 
 "Undoubtedly," replied I, " it has been familiar to me from 
 childhood." 
 
 " Well, then, it was in the cemetery oi this very convent that 
 the events took place." 
 
 *' Why, you do not mean to say that the story is founded on 
 fact?" 
 
 " Undoubtedly it is. The circumstances of the case are said 
 to have occurred during the reign of Alfonso XI. Don -Jnan 
 was of the noble family of Tenorio, one of the most illusiiious 
 houses of Andalusia. His father, Don Diego Tenorio, was a 
 favorite of the king, and his family ranked among the vi'inte- 
 cuatron, or magistrates, of the city. Presuming on his higli de- 
 scent and powerful connections, Don Juan set no l)ounds to his 
 excesses : no female, high or low, was sacred from his pursuit: 
 and he soon became the scandal of Seville. One of his most 
 daring outrages was, to penetrate by night into the palace of 
 Don Gonzalo dc UUoa, commander of the order of Calatrava, 
 and attempt to carry off his daughu/. The household was 
 alarmed ; a scuffle in the dark took place ; Don Juan escaiiudj 
 
bowed his 
 
 Don Juan : 
 
 U'iut, as I 
 
 g corridor, 
 
 if stoiio, to 
 
 le Jiiuiit'l- 
 
 tatuc ; was 
 
 nu<i to par- 
 
 Irciiu'inloiis 
 
 (.'noiiiiii to 
 
 scliool-lioy. 
 
 ' fal)lc. I 
 
 " 1 liavo 
 
 now to in- 
 
 s. 
 
 lie, in ooni- 
 
 tlic popii- 
 
 le city, and 
 
 mc, with a 
 
 'ore passiiii;^ 
 
 t-yard of a 
 
 top! " said 
 
 I story coii- 
 
 yoii. You 
 
 itatue." 
 
 to inc from 
 
 .'onvcnt that 
 
 founded on 
 
 ase are said 
 Don .iiian 
 
 it ilUisU'ious 
 lorio, was a 
 5 the vciide- 
 his higli de- 
 >unds to liis 
 liis pursuit : 
 of liis nio.st 
 le palace of 
 f C'alatrava, 
 useliold \v:is 
 lan escapodj 
 
 DON JUAN. 
 
 67 
 
 but the unfortunate commander was found weltering in his 
 hlood, and expired without i)eing able to name .lis murderer. 
 Suspicions attached to Don Juan ; he did not stop to meet the 
 investigations of justice, and the vengeance of the powerful 
 family of Ulloa, but fled from Seville, and took refuge with his 
 uncle, Don Pedro Tenorio, at £hnt time ambassador at the court 
 of Naples. Here he remained until the agitation occasioned by 
 the murder of IV^a ( Jonzalo had time to subside ; and the scan- 
 dal which the affair might cause to both ihe families of Ulloa 
 and Teiiorio had induced them to hush it up, Don Juan, how- 
 ever, continued his libertine career at Naples, until at length 
 his excesses forfeited the protection of his uncle, the ambassa- 
 dor, and ol)ligod him again to i\Qe. He had made his way back 
 to Seville, trusting that his past misdeeds were forgotten, or 
 ratiier trusting to his dare-devil spirit and the power of his 
 family, to carry him through all difticulties. 
 
 '•It was shortly after his return, and while in the height of 
 his arrogance, that on visiting this very convent of Francisco, 
 he beheld on a monument the ('(juestrian statue of the murdered 
 coiiuiiaiuler, who had lu'eii lairied within the walls of this sacred 
 editiee, where the family of Ulloa had a chapel. It was on this 
 occasion that Don Juan, in a moment of impious levity, invited 
 the statue to the banquet, the awful catastrophe of which lias 
 given such celebrity to his story." 
 
 " And pray how much of this story," said I, " is believed in 
 Seville?" 
 
 "The whole of it by the populace; with whom it has been 
 a favorite tradition since time immemorial, and who crowd to 
 the theatres to see it represented in dramas written long since 
 by Tyrso de Molina, and another of our popular writers. Many 
 in our higher ranks also, accustomed from childhood to this 
 story, would feel somewhat indignant at hearing it treated with 
 contempt. An attempt has been made to explain the whole, 
 by asserting tliat, to put an end to the extravagances of Don 
 Juan, and to pacify the family of Ulloa, without exposing the 
 ;lelinquent to the degrading penalties of justice, he was decoyed 
 into tills convent under a false pretext, and either plunged into a 
 perpetual dungeon, or privately hurried '>ut of existence ; while 
 the story of the statue was circulated by the monks, to account 
 for his sudden disappearance. The populace, however, are not 
 to be cajoled out of a ghost story by any of these plausible 
 explanations ; and the marble statue still strides the stage, and 
 Don Juan is still plunged into the infernal regions, as an awful 
 warning to all rake-helly youngsters, in like case* offending." 
 
 
 ! V 
 
 '3' 
 
 Nl - 
 
(. 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 u 
 
 h I 
 
 I 
 
 ! I 
 
 ; 
 
 Ih 
 
 
 '. r 
 
 
 6S 
 
 T//;!: c/?/ij'OJ\r papers. 
 
 "While my ooitipnnion was rolafinj^f those anecdotes, we had 
 entered tlie ^ate-way, traversed the exterior court-yai-d of the 
 convent, and made oui' way into a <rreat interior court; partly 
 Burrounded l)y cloisters and dormitories, partly hy chapels, and 
 haviiifj; a lar<j;e fonnlain in the centre. The pile had evidently 
 once lieen I'xtensivc and mannifieent ; hut it was for the greater 
 part in ruins, liy the liiiht of the stars, and of twinkling laraps 
 placed here and there in the chapels and corridors, I could sec 
 that many of tiie eohnnns and arches were broken ; the wall.' 
 were rent and rivi-n ; wliile liurned heams and rafters showed th( 
 destructive effects of lire. The whole place had a desolate air ; 
 tlie night breeze rustled tlirough grass and weeds flaunting out 
 of tiie crevices of tiie walls, or from the shattered columns ; the 
 bat flitted about the vaulted passages, and the owl hooted from 
 the ruined belfry. Never was any scene more completely lilted 
 for a giiost story. 
 
 While I was indulging in picturings of the fancy, proper to 
 such a place, the deep chant of the monks from the convent 
 church came swelling upon tiie ear. " It is the vesper service," 
 said my companion ; " follow me." 
 
 Leading the way across the court of the cloisters, and 
 through one or two ruined passages, he reached the distant 
 l)ortal of the church, and pushing open a wicket, cut in the 
 folding-doors, we found ourselves in the deep arched vestibule 
 of the sacred edifice. To our left was the choir, forming one 
 end of the church, and having a low vaulted ceiling, which gave 
 it the look of a cavern. About this were ranged the monks, 
 seated on stools, and chanting from immense i)ooks placed on 
 inusic-st'iiids, ami having the notes scored in such gigantic 
 characters as to be legible from every part of the choir. A few 
 lights on these music-stands dimly illumined the choir, gleamed 
 on the shaven heads of the monks, and threw their shadows on 
 the walls. They were gross, blue-bearded, bullet-headed men, 
 with bass voices, of deep metallic tone, that reverberated oul 
 of the cavernous choir. 
 
 To our right extended the great body of the church. It was 
 8j)acious and lofty ; some of the side chapels had gilded grates, 
 and were decorated with images and paintings, represent ng 
 the sufferings of our Saviour. Aloft was a great painting by 
 Murillo, but too nuich in the dark to be distinguished. The 
 gloom of the whole church was but faintly relieved by the re- 
 flected light from the choir, and the glimmering here and there 
 of a votive lamp before the shrine of a saint. 
 
 As my eye roamed about the shadowy pile, it was struck 
 
DON JUAN. 
 
 69 
 
 with the dimly scpn fignro of ft man on horseback, near a dia- 
 tjint altar. I touched my companion, and pointed to it: "The 
 spectre statue ! " said I. 
 
 " No," replied he ; " it is the statue of the blessed St. lago ; 
 tlie statue of the commander was in the cemetery of the con- 
 vent, and was destroyed at tiie time of the conflajjration. 
 Hut," added he, "as I see you take a proper interest in these 
 kind of stories, come with me to the other end of the church, 
 where our whisperings will not disturb these holy fathers at 
 their devotions, and I will tell you another story, that has been 
 current for some generations in our city, by which you will find 
 that Don Juan is not tlie only libertine that has been the object 
 of supernatural c.astigation in Seville." 
 
 I accordingly followed him with noiseless tread to the fartlier 
 part of the church, where we took our seats on the steps of an 
 iiltar, opposite to the suspi(>ious-looking figure on horseback, 
 !uul there, in a low, inysteiious voice, he related to me the fol- 
 lowing narrative : 
 
 "Tlicre was once in Seville a gay young fellow, Don Manuel 
 (le Manara by name, who having come to a great estate by the 
 death of his father, gave the reins to his passions, and plunged 
 into all kinds of dissipation. Like Don .luan, whom he seemed 
 to have taken for a model, he Ijccame famous for his enterprises 
 among tlie fair sex, and was tiie cause of doors being barred 
 and windows grated with more than usual strictness. All in 
 vain. No balcony was too high for him to scale ; no bolt nor 
 bar was ;"roof against his etTorts ; and his very name was a 
 word of terror to all the jealous husl)ands and cautious fathers 
 of Seville. His exploits extended to country as well as city ; 
 and in the village dependent on his castle, scarce a rural beauty 
 was safe from his arts and enterprises. 
 
 "As he was one day ranging the streets of Seville, with sev- 
 eral of his dissolute companions, he beheld a procession about 
 to enter the gate of a convent. In the centre was a young 
 female arrayed in the dress of a bride ; it was a novice, who, 
 having accomplished her j^ear of probation, was about to take 
 the black veil, and consecrate herself to heaven. The com- 
 panions of Don INIanuel drew back, o"t of respect to the sacred 
 pageant ; but he pressed forward, with his usual impetuosity, 
 to gain a near view of the novice. He almost jostled her, in 
 passing through the portal of the church, when, on her turning 
 round, he beheld the ccuntenance of a Vieautiful village girl, who 
 had been the object of his ardent pursuit, but who had been spir- 
 ited secretly out of his reach by her relatives. She recognized 
 
 h 
 
 ' m 
 
 i 
 
 I : ■ 
 
70 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 him at the same moment, and fainted ; but was borne within 
 the grate of the chi.p?\ It was supposed the agitation of the 
 ceremony and the heat of the throng had overcome ht r. After 
 some time, the curtain which hung within the grate was drawn 
 up : there stood the novice, pale and trembling, surrounded by 
 the abbess and the nuns. The ceremony proceeded ; the crown 
 of flowers was taken from her head ; she was shorn of her silken 
 tresses, received the black veil, and went passively through the 
 remainder of the ceremony. 
 
 " Don Manuel de Manara, on the contrary, was roused to 
 fury at the sight of this sacrifice. His passion, which had al- 
 most faded away in the absence of the object, now glowed with 
 tenfold ardor, being inflamed by the difficulties placed in his 
 way, and piqued by the measures which had been taken to de- 
 feat him. Never had the object of his pursuit appeared so 
 lovely and desirable as when within the grate of the convent ; 
 and he swore to have her, in defiance of heaven and earth. By 
 dint of bribing a female seiTant of the convent he contrived to 
 convey letters to her, pleading his passion in the most eloquent 
 and seductive terms. How successful they were is only matter 
 of conjecture ; certain it is, he undertook one night to scale the 
 <;:arden wall of the convent, either to carry off the nun, or gain 
 admission to her cell. Just as he was mounting the wall he was 
 suddenly plucked back, and a stranger, muflfled in a cloak, stood 
 before him. 
 
 " ' Rash man, forbear ! ' cried he : 'is it not enough to have 
 violated all human ties? "Wouldst thou steal a bride from 
 heaven ! ' 
 
 ' ' The sword of Don Manuel had been drawn on the instant, 
 and furious at this interruption, he passed it through the body 
 of the stranger, who fell dead at his feet. Hearing approach- 
 ing footsteps, he fled the fatal spot, and mounting his horse, 
 which was at hand, retreated to his estate in the country, at no 
 great distance from Seville. Here he remained throughout the 
 next day, full of horror and remorse ; dreading lest he should 
 be known as the murderer of the deceased, and fearing each 
 moment the arrival of the oflUcers of justice. 
 
 " The day passed, however, without molestation ; and, as the 
 evening approached, unable any longer to endure this state of 
 uncertainty and apprehension, he ventured back to Seville. 
 Irresistibly his footsteps took the direction to the convent ; but 
 he paused and hovered at a distance from the scene of blood. 
 Several persons were gathered round the place, one of whom 
 was busy nailing something against the convent wall. After a 
 
BON JUAN. 
 
 71 
 
 )rne within 
 tion of the 
 i« r. After 
 was drawn 
 ■ounded by 
 the crown 
 f her silken 
 hrough the 
 
 roused to 
 icb had al- 
 ;lowed with 
 ced in his 
 ken to de- 
 ppeared so 
 e convent; 
 earth. By 
 !ontrived to 
 ►st eloquent 
 only matter 
 to scale the 
 un, or gain 
 wall he was 
 loak, stood 
 
 gh to have 
 hride from 
 
 ;he instant, 
 li the body 
 ; approach- 
 bis horse, 
 ntry, at no 
 lugbout the 
 ; be should 
 !aring each 
 
 and, as the 
 lis state of 
 to Seville, 
 nvont ; but 
 ? of blood. 
 e of whom 
 . After a 
 
 while they dispersed, and one passed near to Don Manuel. 
 The latter addressed him, with hesitating voice. 
 
 '* ^ Senor,' said he, ' may I ask the reason of yonder throng?' 
 
 '* 'A cavalier,' replied the other, ' has been murdered.' 
 
 '' ' Murdered ! ' echoed Don Manuel ; ' and can you tell ma 
 his name ? ' 
 
 " ' Don Manuel de Manara, replied the stranger, and passed on. 
 
 " Don Manuel was startled at this mention of his own name ; 
 especially when applied to the murdered man. He ventured, 
 when it was entirely deserted, to approach the fatal spot. A 
 small cross had been nailed against the wall, as is customary in 
 Spain, to mark the place where a murder has been committed ; 
 and just below it be read, by the twinkling light of a lamp : 
 ' Here was murdered Don Manuel de Manara. Pray to God 
 for his soul ! ' 
 
 " Still more confounded and perplexed by this inscription, he 
 wandered about the streets until the night was far advanced, and 
 all was still and lonely. As he entered the principal square, 
 the light of torches suddenly broke on him, and he beheld a 
 grand funeral procession moving across it. There was a great 
 train of priests, and many persons of dignified appearance, in 
 ancient Spanish dresses, attending as mourners, none of whom 
 he knew. Accosting a servant who followed in the train, be 
 demanded the name of the defunct. 
 
 " 'Don Manuel de Manara,' was the reply ; and it went cold 
 to his heart. He looked, and indeed beheld the armorial bear- 
 ings of his family emblazoned on the funeral escutcheons. Yet 
 not one of bis family was to be seen among the mourners. The 
 mystery was more and more incomprehensible. 
 
 '' He followed the procession as it moved on to the cathedral. 
 The bif^r was deposited before the high altar ; the funeral ser- 
 vice was commenced, and the grand organ began to peal through 
 the vaulted aisles. 
 
 ''Again the youth ventured to question this awful pageant. 
 'Father,' said he, with trembling voice, to one of the priests, 
 ' who is this you are about to inter? ' 
 
 " ' Don Manuel de Manara ! ' replied the priest. 
 
 " ' Father,' cried Don Manuel, impatiently, ' you are deceived. 
 This is some imposture. Know that Don Manuel de Manara is 
 alive and well, and now stands before you. /am Don Manuel 
 de Manara ! ' 
 
 " 'A vaunt, rash youth! ' cried the priest; 'know that Don 
 IManuel de Manara is dead ! — is dead ! — is dead ! — and wo 
 are all souls from purgatory, his deceased relatives and ances- 
 
 ; 
 
 ) 
 
■^1. 
 
 J • 
 
 72 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 K' H 
 
 tors, and others that have been aided by masses of his family, who 
 are permitted to come here and pray for the repose of his soul ! ' 
 
 "Don Mmucl cast round a fearful ghmoo upon the assem- 
 blage, in antiquated Spanish garbs, and recognized in their pale 
 and ghastly countenances the portraits of many an ancestor unit 
 hung in the family picture-gallery. He now lost all self-com- 
 mand, rushed up to the bier, and beheld the counterpart of him- 
 aeU, but in the fixed and livid lineaments of death Just at 
 that moment the whole choir burst forth with a ' Requiescat in 
 pace,' that shook the vaults of the cathedral. Don Manuel sank 
 senseless on the pavement. He was found there early the next 
 morning by the sacristan, and conveyed to his home. When 
 sufficiently recovered, he sent for a friar, and made a full con- 
 fession of all that nad happened. 
 
 " ' My son,' said the friar, 'all this is a miracle and a mys- 
 tery, intended for thy conversion and salvation. The corpse 
 thou hast seen was a token that thou hadst died to sin and the 
 world ; take warning by it, and henceforth live to righteous- 
 ness and heaven ! ' 
 
 " Don Manuel did take warning by it. Guided by the coun- 
 sels of the worthy friar, he disposed of all his temporal affairs ; 
 dedicated the greater part of his wealth to pious uses, espe- 
 cially to the performance of masses for souls in purgatory ; and 
 finally, entering a convent, became one of the most zealous and 
 exemplary monks in Seville." 
 
 While my companion was relating this story, my eyes wan- 
 dered, from time to time, about the dusky churcli. Methouglit 
 the burly countenances of the monks in tiieir distant choir 
 assumed a pallid, ghastly hue, and their deep metallic voices had 
 6 sepulchral sound. By the time the story was ended, they had 
 ended their chant ; and, extinguishing tiieir lights, glided one 
 by one, like shadows, through a small door in tiie side of the 
 choir. A deeper gloom prevailed over the church ; the figure 
 opposite me on horseback grew more and more spectral ; and I 
 almost expected to see it bow its head. 
 
 "It is time to be off," said my companion, "unless we 
 intend to sup with the statue." 
 
 " I have no relish for such fare or such company," replied I ; 
 and, following my companion, we groped our way througli the 
 mouldering cloisters. As we passed by the ruined cemetery, 
 keeping up a casual conversation by way of dispelling the 
 loneliness of the scene, I called to mind the words of the [)oet.- 
 
 i I. 
 
imily, who 
 his soul ! ' 
 he assem- 
 
 their pale 
 ?eslor liiat 
 
 self-com- 
 irt of him- 
 Just at 
 uiescat in 
 [inuel sank 
 the next 
 e. When 
 
 full con- 
 ad a mys- 
 Mie corpse 
 in and the 
 
 righteous- 
 
 1 the coun- 
 ral affairs ; 
 ises, espe- 
 itory ; and 
 ealous and 
 
 eyes wan- 
 Methought 
 itant choir 
 voices had 
 1, they had 
 glided one 
 5ide of the 
 the figure 
 tral ; and I 
 
 ' unless we 
 
 ' replied I ; 
 hrough the 
 cemetery, 
 pelling the 
 I the poet; 
 
 BROEK. 73 
 
 " The tombs 
 
 And monumental caves of deatb look cold, 
 And ehoot a chiUneHs to my trembling heart I 
 Give me thy hand, and let me hear thy voice; 
 Nay, »peak — and )et mc hear thy voice ; 
 Mine own affrights me with Its echoes." 
 
 There wanted nothing but the marble statue of the commander 
 striding along the echoing cloisters to complete the haunted 
 scene. 
 
 Since that time I never fail to attend the theatre whenever the 
 story of Don Juan is represented, whether in pantomime or 
 opera. In the sepulchral scene, I feel myself quite at home ; 
 and when the «tatue makes his appearance, I greet him as an 
 old acquaintance. When the audience applaud, I look round 
 upon them with a degree of compassion. " Poor souls ! " I say 
 to myself, "they think they are pleased; they think tliey 
 enjoy this piece, and yet they consider the whole as a fiction ! 
 How much more would they enjoy it, if like me they knew it to 
 be true — and had seen the very place ! " 
 
 BROEK : 
 
 OR THE DUTCH PARADISE. 
 
 It has long been a matter of discussion and controversy 
 among the pious and the learned, as to the situation of the 
 terrestrial paradise whence our first parents were exiled. This 
 question has been put to rest by certern of the faithful in Hol- 
 land, who have decided in favor of the village of Broek, about 
 six miles from Amsterdam. It may not, they observe, corre- 
 spond in all repects to the description of the garden of Eden, 
 handed down from days of yore, but it comes nearer to their 
 ideas of a perfect paradise than any other place on earth. 
 
 This eulogium induced me to make some inquiries as to this 
 favored spot in the course of a sojourn at the city of Amster- 
 dam, and the information I procured fully justified the enthu- 
 siastic praises I had heard. The village of Broek is situated in 
 Waterland, in the midst of the gnenest and richest pastures of 
 Holland, I may say, of Europe. These pastures are the source 
 of its wealth, for it is famous for its dairies, and for those oval 
 cheeses which regale and perfume the whole civilized world. 
 
74 
 
 THE ':raion papHrs. 
 
 u 
 
 The population consists of about six hundred persons, compris- 
 ing several families which have inhabited the place since time 
 immemorial, and have waxed rich on the products of their 
 meadows. They keep all their wealth among themselves, inter- 
 marrying, and keeping all strangers at a wary distance. They 
 are a "hard money" people, and remarkable for turning the 
 penny the right way. It is said to have been an old rule, estab 
 lished by one of the primitive financiers and legislators of Broek^ 
 that no one should leave the village with more than six guilder? 
 in his pocket, or return with less than ten ; a shrewd reguhition, 
 well worthy the attention of modern political economists, whc 
 are so anxious to fix the balance of trade. 
 
 What, however, renders Broek so perfect an elysium in the 
 eyes of all true Hollanders, is the matcliless height to which 
 the spirit of cleanliness is carried there. It amounts almoot ton 
 religion among the inhabitants, who pass the greater part of 
 their time rubbing and scrubbing, and painting and varnishing; 
 each housewife vies with her neighbor in her devotion to the 
 Bcrubbing-brush, as zealous Catholics do in their devotion to 
 the cross ; and it is said a notable housewife of the place in days 
 of yore is held in pious remembrance, and -Imost canonized as a 
 saint, for having died of pure exhaustion and chagrin in an 
 ineffectual attempt to scour a black man white. 
 
 These particulars awakened my ardent curiosity to see a 
 place which I pictured to myself the very fountain-head of 
 certain hereditary habits and customs prevalent among the 
 descendants of the original Dutch settlers of my native State. 
 I accordingly lost no time in performing a pilgrimage to Broek, 
 
 Before I reached the place I beheld symptoms of the tranquil 
 character of its inhabitants. A little elump-built boat was in 
 full sail along the lazy bosom of a canal, but its sail consisted 
 of the blades of two paddles stood on end, while the navigator 
 sat steering with a third paddle in the stern, crouched down 
 like a toad, with a slouched ha* drawn over his eyes. I pre- 
 •umed him to be some nautical lover on the way to his mistress. 
 After proceeding a little farther I came in sight of the harbor 
 or port of destination of this drowsy navigator. This was the 
 Broeken-Meer, an artificial basin, or s!u!et of olive-green water, 
 tranquil as a mill-pond. On this the vilhige of Broek is situ- 
 ated, and the borders are laboriously decorated with Uower- 
 beds, box-trees clipped into all kinds of ingenious shapes and 
 fancies, and little "lust" houses or pavilion':-. 
 
 I alighted outside of the vilhige, for no horse nor vehicle is 
 permitted to enter its precincts, lest it should cause delllemeul 
 
 5 
 
 ■r i 
 
BBOEK. 
 
 75 
 
 of the well-scoured pavements. Shaking the dust off my feet, 
 therefore, I prepared to enter, with due reverence and circum- 
 spection, tliis sanchim sanctorum of Dutch cleanliness. I 
 entered by a narrow street, paved with yellow bricks, laid edge- 
 wise, so clean that one might eat from them. Indeed, they 
 were actually worn deep, not by the ti'.d of feet, but by the 
 friction of the scn-ubbing-brush. 
 
 The houses were built of wood, and all appeared to have been 
 freshly painled, of green, yellow, and other bright colors. They 
 were separated from each other by gardens and orchards, and 
 stood at some little distance from the street, with wide areas or 
 courtyards, paved in mosaic, with variegated stones, polished 
 by frequent rubbing. The areas were divided from the street by 
 curiously-wrought railings, or balustrades, of iron, surmounted 
 with brass and copper balls, scoured into dazzling effulgence. 
 The very trunks of tiie trees in front of the houses were by the 
 same process made to look as if they had been varnished. The 
 porclies, doors, and window-frames of the houses were of exotic 
 woods, curiously carved, and polished like costly furniture. The 
 front doors are never opened, excepting on christenings, mar- 
 riages, or funerals ; on all ordinary occasions, visitors enter by 
 tlie back door. In former times, persons when admitted had to 
 put on slippers, but this oriental ceremony is no longer insisted 
 upon. 
 
 A poor devil Frenchman who attended upon me as cicerone, 
 boasted with some degree of exultation, of a triumph of his 
 countrymen over the stern regulations of the place. During 
 the time that Holland was overrun by the armies of the French 
 Rei)ublic, a French general, surrounded by his whole 6tat- 
 iiiajor, who had come from Amsterdam to view the wonders of 
 Broek, api)lied for admission at one of these tabooed portals. 
 The reply was, that tlie owner never received any one who did 
 not come introduced by some friend. "Very well," said the 
 general, "take my compliments to your master, and tell him I 
 ■vill return here to-morrow with a company of soldiers, '■pour 
 jiarler raison avec mon ami HoUayidais.' " Terrified at the 
 idea of having a company of soldiers billeted upon him, the 
 owner threw open his house, entertained the general and his 
 retinue with unwonted hospitality ; though it is said it cost the 
 family a month's scrubbing and scouring, to restore all things 
 to exact order, after this military invasion. My vagabond in- 
 formant seemed to consider this one of the greatest victories of 
 the republic. 
 
 I walked about the place in mute wonder and admiration^ 
 
 *U: 
 
 iJ.^ 
 
 !i 
 
 f ? 
 
 i -h 
 
'*) 
 
 !■■'■ 
 
 I 
 
 i * 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 ■ 
 
 i 
 
 \ % 
 
 ' 
 
 1 
 
 
 i' 
 
 
 1- .| 
 
 
 
 76 
 
 TH^ CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 A (lead stillness prevailed around, like that in the deserted 
 streets of Pompeii. No sign of life was to be seen, excepting 
 now and then a hand, and a long pipe, and an occasional puff 
 of smoke, out of the window of some " lust-haus " overhansiiis 
 a miniature canal ; and on approaching a little nearer, the periph- 
 ery in profile of some robustious burgher. 
 
 Among the grand houses pointed out to me were those of 
 Claes Bakker, and Cornelius Bakker, richly carved and gilded, 
 with fiower gardens and clipped shrubberies ; and that of the 
 Great Ditmus, who, my poor di^vil cicerone informed me, in u 
 whisper, was worth two millions ; all these were mansions shut 
 up from the world, and only kept to be cleaned. After having 
 been conducted from one wonder to another of the village, 1 
 was ushered by my guide into the grounds and gardens of 
 Mynheer Broekker, another might}' cJieese-manufacturer, worth 
 eighty thousand guilders a year. I had repeatedly been struck 
 with the similarity of all that I had seen in this ahiphibious little 
 village, to the buildings and landscapes on Chinese platters and 
 tea-pots ; but here I found the similarity complete ; for 1 was 
 told that these gardens were modelled upon Van Bramm's de- 
 scription of those oi' Yuen min Yuen, in China. Here were 
 serpentine walks, with trellised borders ; winding canals, with 
 fanciful Chinese bridges ; (lower-beds resembling huge baskets, 
 with the fiower of "love-lies-bleeding" falling over to the 
 ground. But mostly had the fancy af Mynheer Broekker been 
 displa3'od about a stagnant little lake, on which a corpulent 
 little pinnace lay at anchor. On the border was a cottage, 
 within which were a wooden man ai.d woman seated at table, 
 and a wooden dog beneath, all the size of life : on pressing a 
 spring, the woman commenced spinning, and the dog barked 
 furiously. On the lake were wooden swans, painted to the life ; 
 some fioating, others on the nest among the rushes ; while a 
 wooden sportsman, crouched among the bushes, was preparing 
 his gun to take deadly aim. In another part of the garden 
 was a dominie in his clerical robes, with wig, pipe, and cocked 
 hat ; and mandarins with nodiling heads, amid re<l lions, green 
 tigers, and blue hares. Last of all, the heathen deities, in wood 
 and plaster, male and female, naked and bare-faced as usual, 
 and seeming to stare with wonder at finding themselves in such 
 strange company. 
 
 My shabby French guide, while he pointed out all these 
 mechanical marvels of the garden, was anxious to let me see 
 that he liail too polite a Uuste to be i»leased with them. At 
 every new knick-knack he would screw dowu his mouth, shruy 
 
 i> ■ 4 
 
BROEK. 
 
 77 
 
 up his shoulders, take a pinch of smiff, and exclaim : ** Ma foi, 
 Monsieur, ces Uollandaia soid forts pour ces betises hi! " 
 
 To attempt to gain admission to any of these stately abodes 
 was out of the question, having no company of soldiers to en- 
 force a solicitation. I was fortunate enougii, however, through 
 the aid of my guide, to make my way into the kitchen of the 
 illustrious Ditmus, and I question whether the parlor would 
 have proved more worthy of observation. The cook, a little 
 wiry, hook-nosed woman, worn thin by incessant action and 
 friction, was bustling about among her kettles and saucepans, 
 with the scullion at her heels, both clattering in wooden shoes, 
 which were as clean and white as the milk-pails ; rows of ves- 
 sels, of brass and copper, regiments of pewter dishes, and port- 
 ly porringers, gave resplendent evidence of the intensity of 
 their cleanliness ; the very trammels and hangers in the fire- 
 place were highly scoured, and the burnished face of the good 
 Saint Nicholas shone forth from the iron plate of the chimney- 
 back. 
 
 Among the decorations of the kitchon was a printed sheet 
 of woodcuts, representing the various holiday customs of Hol- 
 land, with explanatory rhymes. Here I was delighted to recog- 
 nize the jollities of New Year's Day ; the festivities of Paas 
 and Pinkster, and all the other merry-makings handed down iu 
 iry native place from the earliest times of New Amsterdam, 
 and which had been such bright spots in the year in my child- 
 hood. I eagerly made myself master of this precious docu- 
 ment, for a trifling consideration, and bore it off as a memento 
 of the place ; though I questiou if, 'u so doing, I did not carry 
 off with me the whole current literature of Broek. 
 
 I must not omit to mention that this village is the paradise 
 of cows as well as men ; indeed you would almost suppose the 
 cow to be as much an object of worship here, as the bull was 
 among the ancient Egyptians ; and well does she merit it, for 
 she is in fact the patroness of the place. The same scrupulous 
 cleanliness, however, which pervades every thing else, is mani- 
 fested iu the treatment of this venerated animal. She is not 
 permitted to perambulate the place, but in winter, when she 
 forsakes the rich pasture, a well-built house is provided for 
 her, well painted, and maintained in the most perfect order, 
 ller stall is of ample dimensions ; the floor is scrubbed and 
 liolished ; her liide is daily curried and brushed and sponged to 
 lit'i- heart's content, and her tail is daiiitilj' tucked up to the 
 ceiling, and decorated with a ribbon ! 
 
 On my way back through the village, I passed the house ol 
 
 • 'i ; 
 
 J- ' 
 
 1,1 
 
78 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 if ■ 
 
 the pre. i;.v'i 
 led me to 
 inquiry, I >:ya8 toi 
 
 Or ireacher ; a very comfortable mansion, which 
 u V ell of the state of religion in the village. On 
 
 'iat for a long time the inhabitants lived 
 
 in a great state of indifference as to religious matters : it was 
 in vain that their i)reac'hers endeavored to arouse their thoughts 
 as to a future state : the joys of heaven, as commonly depicted, 
 were but little to their taste. At length a dominie appeared 
 among them wlio struck out in a different vein. He depicted 
 the New Jerusalem as a place all smooth and level ; with beau- 
 tiful dykes, and dirches, and canals ; and houses all shining 
 with paint and varnish, and glazed tiles ; and where tiiere 
 should never come horse, or ass, or cat, or dog, or any tiling 
 that could make noise or dirt; but there should be nothing but 
 rubbing and scrubbing, and washing and painting, and gilding 
 and varnishing, for ever and ever, amen ! Since that time, the 
 good housewives of Broek have all turned their faces Zion-ward. 
 
 fi *. 
 
 I! 1 
 
 SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 1825. 
 
 FROM THE TRAVELLING NOTE-BOOK OF GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT. 
 
 A Parisian hotel is a street set on end, the grand staircase 
 forming the highway, and every floor a separate habitation. 
 Let me describe the one in which I am lodged, which may serve 
 as a specimen of its class. It is a huge quadrangular pile of 
 stone, built round a spacious paved court. The ground floor is 
 occupied by shops, magazines, and domestic oflSces. Then 
 comes the entresol, with low ceilings, short windows, and dwarf 
 chambers ; then succeed a succession of floors, or stories, ris- 
 ing one above the other, to the number of Mahomet's heavens. 
 Each floor is like a distinct mansion, complete in itself, with 
 ante-chamber, saloons, dining and sleeping rooms, kitchen, and 
 other conveniences foi the accommodation of a family. Some 
 floors are divided into two or more suites of apartments. Each 
 apartment has its main door of entrance, opening upon the 
 staircase, or landing-places, and locked like a street door. 
 Thus several families and numerous single persons live under 
 the same roof, totally independent of each other, and may live 
 so for years without holding more intercourse than is kept ui) 
 in other cities by residents in the same street. 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN ISSS. 
 
 79 
 
 on, which 
 age. On 
 lilts lived 
 
 1 : it was 
 
 thoughts 
 depicted, 
 appeared 
 
 depicted 
 
 ith beau- 
 
 siiining 
 
 re there 
 any tiling 
 thing but 
 id gilding 
 time, the 
 iion-ward. 
 
 1 
 
 rON, GENT. 
 
 1 staircase 
 labitation. 
 may serve 
 lar pile of 
 ud floor is 
 s. Then 
 ind dwarf 
 ;ories, ris- 
 
 heavens. 
 :self, with 
 chen, and 
 y. Some 
 ts. Each 
 upon the 
 eet door, 
 ive under 
 
 may live 
 } kept \\\] 
 
 Like the great world, this little microcosm has its gradations 
 of rank and style and importance. The Premier^ or first floor, 
 with its grand saloons, lofty ceilings, and splendid furniture, 
 is decidedly the arlstocnitical part of the establishment. The 
 second floor is scarcely less aristocratical and magniflcent ; ♦ 
 other floors go on lessening in splendor as they gain in altituv. >, 
 and end with the attics, the region of petty tailors, clerks, -nd 
 sewing girls. To make the filling up of the mansion comju », 
 every odd nook and corner is fitted up as a joli j)etit a^i^rh* 
 ment iX gart^on (a pretty little bachelor's apartment), thot is ,o 
 say, some little dark inconvenient nestling-place for a poor 
 devil of a bachelor. 
 
 The whole domain is shut up from the street by a great 
 porte-cochere, or portal, calculated for the admission of car- 
 riages. This consists of two massy folding-doors, tliat swing 
 heavily open upon a spacious entrance, passing under the front 
 of the edifice into the court-yard. On one side is a spacious 
 staircase leading to the upper apartments. Immediately with- 
 out the portal is the porter's lodge, a small room with one or 
 two bedrooms adjacent, for the accommodation of the con,' 
 cierge, or porter, and his family. This is one of the most im- 
 portant functionaries of the hotel. He is, in fact, the Cerberus 
 of the establishment, and no one can pass in or out without his 
 knowledge and consent. The porte-cocMre in general is fas- 
 tened by a sliding bolt, from which a cord or wire passes into 
 the porter's lodge. Whoever wishes to go out must speak to 
 the porter, who draws the bolt. A visitor from without gives 
 a single rap with the massive knocker ; the bolt is immediately 
 drawn, as if by an invisible hand ; the door stands ajar, the 
 visitor pushes it open, and enters. A face presents itself at 
 the glass door of the porter's little chamber ; the stranger pro- 
 nounces the name of the person he comes to see. If the person 
 or family is of importance, occupying the first or second floor, 
 the porter sounds a bell once or twice, to give notice that a 
 visitor is at hand. Tlie stranger in the mean time ascends the 
 great staircase, the highway common to all, and arrives at the 
 outer door, equivalent to a street door, of the suite of rooms 
 inhabited by his friends. Beside this hangs a bell-cord, with 
 which he rings for admittance. 
 
 "When the family or person inquired for is of less importance, 
 or lives in some remote part of the mansion less easy to be 
 apprised, no signal is given. The applicant pronounces the 
 name at the porter's door, and is told, " Montez au troisihne, 
 ou quatri^me; sonnez a la porte d, droite, ou d gauche; (" As- 
 
 b 
 
 ' I 
 
 I ' 
 
 ''fli 
 
80 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 cend to tlie third or fotirth story ; ring the bell on the right or 
 left hand door,") as the ease may be. 
 
 The porter and his wife act as domestics to such of the in- 
 mates of tlie mansion as do not keep servants ; making their 
 beds, arranging tlieir rooms, ligliting tlieir fires, and doing 
 other menial oHices, for which they receive a monthly stipend. 
 They are also in confidential intercourse with the servants of 
 the other inmates, and, having an eye on all the in-comers and 
 out-goers, are tluis enabled, by hook and by crook, to learn tlio 
 secrets and domestic history of every member of the little terri- 
 tory within the porte-cochh-e. 
 
 The porter's lodge is accordingly a great scene of gossip, 
 where all the private affairs of this interior neighborhood arc 
 discussed. The court-yard, also, is an assembling place in the 
 evenings for the servants of the different families, and a sister- 
 hood of sewing girls from the entresols and the attics, to play 
 at various games, and dance to the music of their own songs, 
 ftnd the echoes of their feet, at which assemblages the porter's 
 daughter takes the lead ; a fresh, pretty, buxom girl, generally 
 called " La Felite," though almost as tall as a grenadier. These 
 little evening gatherings, so cliaracteristic of this gay country, 
 are countenanced by the various families of the matision, wlio 
 often look down from their windows and balconies, on moonliglit 
 evenings, and enjoy the simple revels of their domestics. I 
 must observe, however, that the hotel I am describing Is rather 
 a quiet, retired one, where most of the inmates are permanent 
 residents from year to year, so that there is more of the spirit 
 of neighborhood than in the bustling, fashionable hotels in the 
 gay parts of Paris, which are continually changing their inhabit- 
 ants. 
 
 MY FRENCH NEIGHBOR. 
 
 I OFTEN amuse myself by watching from my window (which, 
 by the by, is tolerably elevated), the movements of the teem- 
 ing little world below me ; and as I am on sociable terms with 
 the porter and his wife, I gather from them, as they liglit my 
 fire, or serve my breakfast, anecdotes of all my fellow lodgers. 
 I have been somewhat curious in studying a little antique French- 
 man, who occupies one of the jolie chambres d (jarQon already 
 mentioned. He is one of those superannuated veterans who 
 flourished before the revolution, and have weathered all the storms 
 of Paris, in consequence, very probably, of being fortunately 
 too insignificant to attract attention. He has a small ineonu', 
 which he manages with th^ skill of a French economist ; appro- 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS 7JV 18g5. 
 
 81 
 
 right 
 
 or 
 
 f the in- 
 ing their 
 i<l (loinjr 
 stipeiKJ. 
 vants of 
 ners iind 
 earn the 
 ttle terri- 
 
 gossip, 
 
 lood are 
 
 ?e in the 
 
 a sister- 
 
 , to play 
 
 n songs, 
 
 porter's 
 
 generally 
 
 . These 
 
 country, 
 
 sion, who 
 
 iioonlight 
 
 sties. I 
 
 Is rather 
 
 ermaneut 
 
 the sph'it 
 
 Is in the 
 
 :• inhabit- 
 
 (which, 
 lie teeni- 
 rins with 
 light my 
 lodgers. 
 French- 
 
 already 
 ans who 
 e storms 
 Innately 
 jneonie, 
 ; appro- 
 
 priating 80 much for his lodgings, so much for his meals ; so 
 much for his visits to St. Cloud and Versailles, and so much for 
 his seat at the theatre. He has resided in the hotel for years, 
 and always in the same chamber, which he furnishes at his own 
 expense. The decorations of the room mark his various ages. 
 There are some gallant pictures which he hung up in his younger 
 (lays ; with a portrait of a lady of rank, whom he speaks ten- 
 derly of, dressed in the old French taste ; and a pretty opera 
 dancer, pirouetting in a hoop petticoat, who lately died at a good 
 old age. In a corner of this picture is st'iCk a prescription for 
 rheumatism, and below it stands an easy-chair. He has a small 
 parrot at the window, to amuse him when within doors, and a 
 pug dog to accompany him in his daily peregrinations. While 
 I am writing he is crossing the court to go out. He is attired 
 in his best coat, of sky-blue, and is doubtless bound for the 
 Tuilories. His hair is dressed in the old style, with powdered 
 ear-locks and a pig-tail. His little dog trips after him, some- 
 times on four legs, sometimes on three, and looking as if his 
 leather small-clothes were too tight for him. Now the old gen- 
 tleman stops to have a word with an old crony who lives in the 
 entresol, and is just returning from his promenade. Now they 
 take a pinch of snuff together ; now they pull out huge red cotton 
 haiulkerehiefs (those "ihigs of abomination," as they have well 
 been called) and blow their noses most sonorously. Now they 
 turn to make remarks upon their two little dogs, who are ex- 
 changing the morning's salutation ; now they part, and my old 
 gentleman stoi)s to have a passing word with the porter's wife ; 
 and now he sallies forth, and is fairly launched upon the town 
 for the day. 
 
 No man is so methodical as a complete idler, and none so 
 scrupulous in measuring and portioning out his time as he whose 
 time is worth nothing. The old gentleman in question has his 
 exact hour for rising, and for shaving himself by a small mirror 
 hung against his casement. He sallies forth at a certain hour 
 every morning to take his cup of coffee and his roll at a certain 
 cafe', where he reads the papers. He has been a regular admirer 
 of the lady who presides at the bar, and always stops to have a 
 little badinage with her en jmssant. He has his regular walks 
 on the Boulevards and in the Palais Royal, where he sets his 
 watch by the petard fired off by the sun at mid-day. He has 
 his daily resort in the Garden of the Tuileries, to meet with a 
 knot of veteran idlers like himself, who talk on pretty much the 
 same subjects whenever they meet. He has been present at all 
 the sights and shows and rejoicings in Paris for the last fifty 
 
 I [ 
 
 fv •\ 
 
 i'ty 
 
 ' !i: 
 
'iL 
 
 82 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 
 years ; lias witnessed ♦li^ great events of the revolution ; the 
 guillotining of the king and queen ; the coronation of Honaparte ; 
 the capture of Paris, and the restoration of the Hourbons. All 
 these he spedvs of with the coolness of a theatrical critic ; and 
 I question whether he has not been gratified by each in its Imn ; 
 not from any inherent love of tumult, but from that insatiahle 
 appetite for spectacle which prevails among the inhabit:mls of 
 this metropolis. I have been amused with a farce, in which one 
 of these systematic old triflers is represented. He sings a soii<t 
 detailing his whole day's round of insignificant occupations, and 
 goes to bed delighted with the idea that his next day will be an 
 exact repetition of the same routine : 
 
 " Je me couchc le Boir, 
 Enchants du puiivoir 
 Recummeiicur inoii train 
 Lc leudemaiu 
 Matin." 
 
 THE ENGLISHMAN AT PARIS. 
 
 In another part of the hotel a handsome suite of rooms \s 
 occupied by an old English gentleman, of great probity, some 
 understanding, and very considerable crustiness, who has come 
 to France to live economically. He has a very fair property, 
 but his wife, being of that blessed kind compared in Scripture 
 to the fruitful vine, has overwhelmed him with a family of 
 buxom daughters, who hang clustering about him, ready to be 
 gathered by any hand. He is seldom to be seen in pul)lic with- 
 out one hanging on each arm, and smiling on all the world, 
 whi. . his own mouth is drawn down at each corner like a mas- 
 tiff 's with internal growling at every thing about him. He ad- 
 heres rigidly to English fashion in dress, and trudges about in 
 long gaiters and broad-brimmed hat ; while his daughters almost 
 overshadow him with feathers, flowers, and French bonnets. 
 
 He contrives to keep up an atmosphere of English hal)its, 
 opinions, and prejudices, and to carry a semblance of London 
 into the very heart of Paris. His mornings are spent at Gali- 
 gnaui's news-rooms, where he forms one of a knot of inveterate 
 quidnuncs, who read the same articles over a dozen times in a 
 dozen different papers. He generally dines in company with 
 some of his own countrymen, and they have what is called a 
 "comfortable sitting" after dinner, in the English fashion, 
 drinking wine, discussing the news of the London papers, uiid 
 canvassing the French character, tlie French metropolis, and 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 18g5. 
 
 83 
 
 lution ; thp 
 Honapiirti' ; 
 •boiis. All 
 d-itic; and 
 i'l its turn ; 
 t insatiahle 
 lubitaiils of 
 1 which one 
 
 incrs a SOIinr 
 
 atioiis, and 
 will be UD 
 
 )f rooms is 
 ohity. some 
 ) has come 
 ir property, 
 n Scripture 
 I family of 
 ready to he 
 ill 1)1 ic witli- 
 the world, 
 Iko a mas- 
 1. Ho ad- 
 es about in 
 iters almost 
 on nets, 
 ish iial)its, 
 of London 
 it at Cali- 
 ' inveterate 
 times in a 
 ipany with 
 is called a 
 h fashion, 
 apers, and 
 ipolis, and 
 
 the French revolution, ending with a unanimous admission ot 
 Knglish eourafje, Enc;lish nioralitv, Pinglish cookery, English 
 wea!*h, the magnitude of London, and the ingratitude of the 
 French. 
 
 His evenings are chiefly spent at a club of his countrymen, 
 whore the London papers are taken. Sometimes his daughters 
 entice him to the theatres, but not often. lie abuses French 
 tragedy, as all fustian and bom!)ast. Talma as a ranter, and 
 Dnchosnois as a mere termagant. It is true his car is not suffl- 
 ciontly familiar with the language to understand French verse, 
 and he generally goes to sleep during the performance. The 
 wit of tile French comedy is flat and pointless to him. He 
 would not give one of Miinden's wry faces, or Liston's inex- 
 pressible looks, for the whole of it. 
 
 Ho will not admit that Paris has any advantage over London. 
 The Seine is a muddy rivulet in comparison with the Thames ; 
 the West End of London surpasses the finest parts of the French 
 capital ; and on some one's observing that there was a very thick 
 fog out of doors : " Pish ! " said he, crustily, " it's nothing to 
 the fogs we have in London." 
 
 He lias infinite trouble in bringing his table into any thing like 
 conformity to English rule. With his liquors, it is true, he is 
 tolerably successful. He procures London porter, and a stock of 
 port and sherry, at considerable expense ; for he oViserves that 
 lie cannot oLand those cursed thin French wines, they dilute his 
 l)lood so much as to give him the rheumatism. As to their white 
 wines, h'> stigmatizes them as mere substitutes for cider ; and 
 as to claret, wh " it would be port if it could." He has con- 
 tinual quarrels with his French cook, whom he renders wretched 
 ]»y insisting on his conforming to Mrs. Glass ; for it is easier to 
 convert a Frencliin:iii from his religion than his cookery. The 
 poor fellow, by dint of repeated efforts, once brought himself to 
 servo up ros hif suflicientl}' raw to suit what he considered the 
 cannibal taste of his master ; but then he could not refrain, at 
 the last moment, adding some exquisite sauce, that put the old 
 gentleman in a fury. 
 
 He detests wood-fires, and has procured a quantity of coal • 
 but not having a grate, he is obliged to burn it on the hearth. 
 Here he sits poking and stirring the fire with one end of a tongs, 
 while the room is as murky as a smithy ; railing at F'rench chim- 
 neys, French masons, and French architects ; giving a poke at 
 the end of every sentence, as though he were stirring up the 
 Very bowels of the delinquents he is anathematizing. He lives 
 in a state militant with inanimate objects urouud him ; gets into 
 
 ,\ ■ 
 
 ! \ 
 
 \ i 
 
84 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 n t 
 
 high dudgeon with doors and casements, because they will not 
 come under English law, and has inii)lacable feuds with suii-iry 
 refractory pieces of furniture. Among these is one in particular 
 with which he is sure to have a high quarrel every time he tiocs 
 to dress. It is a commcde, one of those smooth, polished, plaus- 
 ible pieces of French furniture, that have the perversity of live 
 hundred devils. Each drawer has a will of its own ; will oj)cn 
 or not, just as the whim takes it, and sets lock and key at de- 
 fiance. Sometimes a drawer will refuse to yield to cither pcr- 
 s'uision or force, and will part with both handles rather than 
 yield ; another will come out in the most coy and coquettish 
 manner imaginable ; elbowing along, zigzag ; one corner retreat- 
 ing as the other advances ; making a thousand diHieulties anil 
 objections at every move ; until the old gentleman, out of all 
 patience, gives a sudden jerk, and brings drawer and contents 
 into the middle of the Hoor. Ilis hostility to this inilucky piece 
 of furniture increases every day, as if incensed that it does not 
 grow better. He is like the fretful invalid who cursed his bed, 
 that the longer he lay the harder i* grew. The only benefit he 
 has derived from the quarrel is, that it has furnished him with a 
 crusty joke, which he utters on all occasions. He swears tiiat 
 a French commode is the most iiicotnmodioHfi thing in existence, 
 and that although the nation cannot make a joint-stool that will 
 stand steady, yet they are always talking of every thing's being 
 perfect ionie. 
 
 His servants understand his humor, and avail themselves of 
 it. He was one day disturbed by a i)ertinacious rattling and 
 shaking at one of the doors, and bawled out in an angry tone 
 to know the cause of tlie disturbance. •' Sir," said the foot- 
 man, testily, "it's this confounded French lock ! " ''Ah ! " said 
 the old gentleman, pacified by this hit at the nation, " 1 thought 
 tliere was something French at the bottom of it ! " 
 
 ENGLISH AND FRENCH CHARACTER. 
 
 As I am a mere looker-on in Europe, and hold myself as 
 much as possible aloof from its quarrels and prejudices, I feel 
 something like one oveWooking a game, who, without any great 
 skill of his own, can occasionally perceive the Idunders of 
 much abler players. This neutrality of feeling enables me to 
 enjoy the contrasts of character presented in tiiis time of gen- 
 eral peace, when the various people of Europe, who have so long 
 been sundered by wars, are brought together and placeil side 
 by side iu this great gathering-place of nations. No greater 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 18S5. 
 
 86 
 
 hey will not 
 
 witli suii.iry 
 
 in purtictilur 
 
 litne ho n;oes 
 
 slied, plans- 
 
 'I'sity of five 
 
 I ; will open 
 
 key at de- 
 
 either per- 
 
 rather llian 
 
 ! eofuK'ttish 
 
 nu'r rclreat- 
 
 ieiilties and 
 
 out of all 
 
 nd contents 
 
 iiluc'ky piece 
 
 t it does not 
 
 led bis bod, 
 
 y benefit he 
 
 I him with a 
 
 swears that 
 
 n existoneo, 
 
 ^ol that will 
 
 ling's being 
 
 lemselves of 
 rattling and 
 angi-y tone 
 id the foot- 
 'Ab!"said 
 "1 thought 
 
 myself as 
 lices, J fool 
 t any great 
 •hinders of 
 ibles me to 
 uie of gen- 
 ave so lon<r 
 placed sitU) 
 No greater 
 
 contratit, however, is exhibited than that of the French and 
 EngHsh. The peace has deluged this gay capital with English 
 visitors of all ranks and conditions. They throng every place 
 of curiosity and amusement ; fill the public gardens, the gal- 
 leries, the caf(5s, saloons, theatres ; always lierding together, 
 never associating with the French, The two nations are like 
 two threads of different colors, tangled together but never 
 blended. 
 
 In fact, they present a continual antithesis, and seem to value 
 themselves upon l)eing unlike each other ; yet each have their 
 peeuliar merits, which should entitle them to each other's esteem. 
 The French intellect is quick and active. It flashes its way into 
 a subject with the rapidity of lightning ; seizes ui)on remote 
 conclusions with a sudden bound, and its deductions are almost 
 intuitive. The English intellect is less rapid, but more perse- 
 vering ; less sudden, but more sure in its deductions. The 
 quickness and mobility of the French enable them to find en- 
 joyment in the multiplicity of sensations. They speak and act 
 more from immediate impressions than from reflection and med- 
 itation. They are therefore more social and communicative ; 
 more fond of society', and of places of pul)lic resort and amuse- 
 ment. An P^^nglishman is more reflect 'v;^ in his habits. He 
 lives in the world of his own thoughts, and seems more self- 
 existent and self dependent. He loves tlie quiet of his own 
 apartment ; even when abroad, he in a manner makes a little 
 solitude around him, by his silence and reserve ; he moves about 
 shy and solitary, and as it were buttoned up, body and soul. 
 
 The French are great optimists ; they seize upon every good 
 as it flies, and revel in the passing pleasure. The Englishman 
 is too apt to neglect the present good, in preparing against the 
 possible evil. However adversities may lower, let the sun shine 
 but for a moment, and forth sallies the mercurial Frenchman, 
 in holiday dress and holiday spirits, gay as a butterfly, as though 
 his sunshine were perpetual ; but let the sun beam never so 
 brightly, so there be but a cloud in the horizon, the wary Eng- 
 lishman ventures forth distrustfully, with his umbrella m his 
 hand. 
 
 The Frenchman has a wonderful facility at turning small 
 things to advantage. No one can be gay and luxurious on 
 smaller means ; no one ictiuires less expense to i)e liMppy. He 
 praetisi s a kind of gilding in his style of living, and liuiiiniers 
 out every guinea into gold leaf. The Englishman, on the con- 
 trary, is expensive in his habits, and expensive in his enjo}'- 
 uients. lie values every thing, whether useful or ornamental, 
 
 ; 1 
 
 V' 
 
 i < 
 
 t.*|] 
 
86 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPER fi. 
 
 ! ?J ^ 
 
 hy what it costs. lie has no satisfaction in show, unless it he 
 solid and complete. Every thing goes with him by the square 
 foot. Whatever display he makes, the depth is sure to equal 
 the surface. 
 
 The Frenchman's habitation, like himself, is open, cheorful, 
 bustling, and noisy. He lives in a part of a great hotel, with 
 wide portal, paved court, a spacious dirty stone staircase, and 
 a family on every floor. All is clatter and chatter. lie is good- 
 humored and talkative with his servants, sociab'o with his neigh- 
 bors, and complaisant to all the world. Anybody has access 
 to himself and his apartments ; his very bedroom is open to 
 visitors, whatever may be its state of confusion ; and all this 
 not from any peculiarly hospitable feeling, but from that coiii- 
 municative hal)it which predominates over his character. 
 
 The Englishman, on the contrary, ensconces himself in a snug 
 brick mansion, which he has all t') himself ; locks the front 
 door; puts broken bottles along his walls, and spring-guns and 
 man-traps in his gardens ; shrouds himself with tree:^ and window- 
 curtains ; exults in iiis quiet and privacy, and seems disposed to 
 keep out noise, daylight, and company. His house, like himself, 
 has a reserved, inhospitable exterior ; yet whoever gains admit- 
 tance is apt to find a warm heart and warm fireside within. 
 
 The Fiench excel in wit, the English in humor ; the French 
 have gayer fancy, the English richer imagination. The former 
 are full of sensibility ; easily moved, and prone to sudden and 
 great excitement ; but their excitement is not durable ; the Eng- 
 lish are more phlegmatic; not so readily afTec^d, but capal)le 
 of being aroused to great enthusiasm. The faults of these 
 opposite temperaments are that the vivacity of the French is 
 apt to sparkle up and be frothy, the gravity of the English to 
 settle down and grow muddy. When t!i(? two characters can 
 be fixed in a medium, the French kept from etTerveseence and 
 the English from stagnation, both will be found exceilent. 
 
 This contrast of character may also be noticed in the great 
 concerns of the two nations. Tin; ardent Frenchman is all for 
 military renown ; he fights for glory, that is to say for success 
 in arms. For, provided the national flag is victorious, he cares 
 little about the expense, the injustice, or the inutility of tlio 
 war. It is wonderful how the poorest Frenchman will revel on 
 a triumphant bulletin ; a great victory is meat and <lrink to him ; 
 and at the sight of a military sovereign, bringing home cai)tured 
 cannon and captured standards, he throws up his greasy cup in 
 the air, and is ready to jump out of liis wooden shoes for joy. 
 
 John Bull, on the contrary, is a reasoning, considerate per 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 1825. 
 
 87 
 
 nloss it he 
 the square 
 •e to equal 
 
 1, cheerful, 
 hotel, witii 
 irease, and 
 He is good- 
 1 his neigli- 
 has a(!oess 
 is open to 
 ,nd all this 
 that coul- 
 ter. 
 
 If in a snuG; 
 the front 
 g-guns and 
 nd window- 
 disposed to 
 ike himself, 
 ains admit- 
 vvlthin. 
 the French 
 Tlie former 
 sudden and 
 e ; the Eng- 
 but capable 
 ts of these 
 ? French is 
 English to 
 raeters can 
 •see nee and 
 'ileiit. 
 
 n the great 
 m is all for 
 for success 
 us, he cares 
 ility of the 
 'ill revel on 
 "ink to him ; 
 :ne captured 
 ■easy cap in 
 •s for joy. 
 iderate po' 
 
 don. If he does wrong, it is m the most rational way imagin- 
 able. He fights because the good of the world requires it. II(! 
 is a moral person, and makes war upon his neighbor for the 
 nuiintenance of peace and good order, and sound principles. 
 He is a money-making personage, and fights for the prosperity 
 of commerce and manufactures. Thus the two nations have 
 been lighting, time out of mind, for glory and good. The 
 French, in pursuit of glory, have had their capital twice taken ; 
 and John, in pursuit of goru], has run himself over head and 
 ears in debt. 
 
 THE TUILERIES AND [VINDSOIi CASTLE. 
 
 I HAVE sometimes fancied I could discover national charac- 
 teristics in national edifices. In the Chateau of the Tuileries, 
 for instance, I perceive the same jumble of contrarieiies that 
 marks the French character : the same whimsical mixture of 
 the great and the little ; the splendid and the paltry, the sub- 
 lime and the grotesque. On visiting this famous pile, the first 
 thing that strikes both eye and ear is military display. The 
 courts glitter with steel-clad soldiery, and resound with the 
 tramp of hors(\ the roll of drum, and the bray of trumpet. 
 Dismounted guardsmen patrol its arcades, with loaded carl)ines, 
 jingling spurs, and clanking sabres. Gigantic grenadiers are 
 posted about its staircases ; young oflicers of the guards loll 
 from the balconies, or lounge in groups upon the terraces ; and 
 tlie gleam of l)ayonet from window to window, shows that sen- 
 tinels are pacing up and down the corridors and ante-chambers. 
 The first floor is brilliant with the splendors of a court. French 
 taste has tasked itself in ad'^rning the sumptuous suites of 
 apartments ; nor are the gilded chapel and the splendid theatre 
 forgotten, where piety and pleasure are next-door neighbors, 
 and harmonizes together with perfect French bienseance. 
 
 Mingled up with all this regal and military magnificence, is 
 a world of whimsical and makeshift detail. A great part of 
 the huge edifice is cut up into little chambers and nestling- 
 places for retainers of the court, dependants on retainers, and 
 liangers-on of dependants. Some are squeezed into narro\V 
 entresols, those h)W, dark, intermediate slices of apartments 
 between floors, the inhabitants of which seem shoved in edge- 
 ways, like books between narrow shelves ; others are perched 
 like swallows, under the eaves ; the high roofs, too, which are 
 as tall and steep as a French cocked-hat, have rows of little 
 dormer windows, tier above tier, just large enough to admit 
 
 ■i i' 
 
 M 
 
88 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \ I 
 
 HI 
 
 light and air for some dormitory, and to enable its occupant 
 to peep out at the sity. P>en to the very ridge of the roof, 
 may be seen here and there one of these air-lioles, with a stove- 
 pipe beside it, to carry otl' tlie smoke from the handful of fuel 
 with which its weazen-faced tenant simmers his demi-tasse of 
 cotfee. 
 
 On approaching the palace from the Pont Koyal, you take in 
 at a glance all the various strata of inhabitants ; the gurieteer 
 in the roof ; the retainer in the entresol ; the courtiers a1 the 
 casements of the royal apartments ; while on the groi^; d-iloor 
 a steam of savory odors and a score or two of cooks, ii^ white 
 caps, bobbing their heads about the windows, betray that scien- 
 tific and all-important laboratory, the Koyal Kitchen. 
 
 Go into the grand ante-chamber of the ro^'al apartinents on 
 Sunday :ind see the mixture of Old and New France .; the old 
 emigres, returned with the Bourbons ; little witheretl. spindlc- 
 ehanked old noblemen, dud in court dresses thiit lijjiured in 
 these saloons before the revolution, and have been c.'!.ri?fully 
 treasured up during their exile : with tlie solitaires and ailes dc 
 jngeon of former days ; and t?K' ' ourt swords strutting out be- 
 hind, like pins "tuck through dry ' jctles. See them liaunting 
 the scenes of their iornier s|;i(';id"', in hopes of a restitution of 
 estates, like ghosts haunting the vicinity of buried treasure ; 
 while around them you see the Young France, that have giown 
 up in the ligliting school of Napoleon ; all ecpiipped en militaire ; 
 tall, hardy, frank, vigorous, sun-burned, lierce-whiskered ; with 
 tramping boots, towering crests, and glittering breast-plates. 
 
 It is incredible the number of ancient and hereditary feeders 
 on royalty said to be housed in this establishment. Indeed ail 
 the royal palaces abound with noble families returned froui 
 exile, and who have nestling-places allotted them while they 
 await the restoration of their estates, or the much-talked-ol' 
 law indemnity. Some of them have fine quarters, but po(M' 
 living. Some families have l)ut five or six hundred francs a 
 ^-vdr, and all their retinue consists of a servant woman. With 
 all this, they maintain all their old aristocratical hauteur, look 
 down with vast ' jntempt upon the opulent families which have 
 risen f'ince the revolution ; stigmatize them all as parvenus, oi 
 upstarts, and refuse to visit them. 
 
 In regarding the exterior of the Tuileries, with all its out- 
 W'vd signs of internal populousnesa, I have often thought wlial 
 a rare sight it would be to see it suildenly unroofed, and all its 
 nooks and corners laid open to tiie day. It would bt^ like turn- 
 ujg up the stump of an old tree, and dislodging the world of 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 18X5. 
 
 89 
 
 occupant 
 the roof, 
 a stove- 
 1 of fuel 
 -tassp. of 
 
 u take in 
 
 giin-eteer 
 rs a1 the 
 Mi~i!oor 
 \v white 
 at scieu- 
 
 nonts on 
 
 tlie old 
 
 spindle- 
 
 igufoil ill 
 
 ('.') r^.' fully 
 [I ailes de 
 n; out be- 
 
 hauuting 
 itdtion of 
 treasure ; 
 ve grown 
 nilitaire ; 
 •ed ; with 
 elates. 
 y feeders 
 udeed all 
 led froui 
 hile they 
 talked-of 
 but poor 
 
 francs a 
 3. With 
 eur, look 
 lich have 
 venus, 01 
 
 , its out- 
 glit wlial 
 1(1 all its 
 ike turn- 
 world of 
 
 grubs, and ants, and beetles lodged beneath. Indeed, there is 
 .1 scandalous anecdote current, that in the time of one of the 
 petty plots, when petards were exploded under the windows 
 of the Tuileries, the police made a sudden investigation of 
 the palace at four o'clock in the morning, when a scene of the 
 jnost whimsical confusion ?nsued. Hosts of supernumerary 
 inhabitants were found foisted into the huge edifice 
 
 every 
 
 rat- 
 
 hole had its oc('Ui):uit ; and [jlaces which had ])een considered as 
 tenanted only l>y spiders, were found crowded with a surrepti- 
 tious population. It is added, that many ludicrous accidents 
 occurred ; great scampering and slamming of doors, and whisk« 
 iiig away in night-gowns and slippers ; and several persons, 
 who were found by accident in their neighbors' chambers, 
 evinced indubitable astonishment at the circumstance. 
 
 As 1 have fancied I could read the French character in the 
 national jialace of the Tuileries, so I have pictured to myself 
 some of the traits of John IJull in his royal abode of Windsor 
 Castle. The Tuileries, outwardly a peaceful palace, is in effect 
 a swaggering military hold ; while the old castle, on the con- 
 trary, in sj)ite of its bullying look, is completely under petticoat 
 goveriunent. Every corner and nook is built up into some 
 snug, cosey nestling-place, some ''procreant cradle," not ten- 
 anted i)y meagre expectants or whiskered warriors, but by sleek 
 placemen ; knowing realizers of present pay and present pu<'- 
 ding; wiio seem placed there not to kill and destroy, but o 
 breed and multiply. Nursery-maids and children shine v^.ih 
 rosv facts at the windows, and swarm al)Out the courts and ter- 
 races. Tlu' very soldiers have a pacific look, and when off luty 
 maybe seen loitering about the place with the nursery-maids; 
 not making love to them in the gay gallant style of the ''rench 
 soldiery, but with infinite bonhomie aiding them to take oare of 
 the broods of ehihlren. 
 
 Though the old castle is in decay, every thing about it thrives ; 
 the very crevices of the walls are tenanted by swallows, rooks, 
 and pigeons, all sure of (piiet lodgement ; the ivy strikes its 
 roots deep in the tissures, and nourishes about the mouldering 
 lower.i Thus it is with honest John ; according to his own 
 aiTount, he is ever going to ruhi, yet every thing that liv -^ on 
 him, thrives and waxes fat. He would fain be a soldie. and 
 swauger like his neighbors ; but his domestic, quiet-loving, 
 uxorious nature continually gets the upper hand ; and though 
 
 ■I i! 
 
 ( ■ 
 
 1 The above Kkclch wan written before the thorough repairs ind magnificent »ddltlOM 
 thai have boeii luadu of late years to Wiudnor Caiille. 
 
90 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 fr 
 
 mill 
 
 he may mount his liclmet and gird on his sword, yet he is Rpi 
 to sink into the plodding, pains-taking father of a family ; wit'i 
 a troop of children at his heels, and h^s women-kind hanging 
 on each arm. 
 
 THE FIELD OF WATERLOO. 
 
 I HAVE spoken heretofore with some levity of the contrast 
 that exists between the English and French character ; but it 
 deserves more serious consideration. They are two great 
 nations of modern times most diametrically opposed, and most 
 worthy of each other's rivalry ; essentially distinct in '! ir 
 characters, excelling in opposite qualities, and reflecting lustre 
 on each other b}^ their very opposition. In nothing is this cou- 
 tj'ast more strikingly evinced than in their military conduct, 
 tor figes have they been contending, and for ages have they 
 crowded each other's history with acts of splendid heroism. 
 Take the battle of Waterloo, for instance, the last and nio8t 
 memorable trial of their rival prowess. Notliing could surpass 
 the brilliant darinsj; on the one side, and the steadfast endiirin<j; 
 on the other. The French cavalry broke like waves on the 
 compact squares of English infantry. They were seen gallop- 
 ing round those serried walls of men, seeking in vain for :in 
 entrance ; tossing their arms in the air, in the heat of tlieir 
 enthusiasm, and braving the whole froni. of battle. The 
 British troops, on the other hand, forbidden to move or lire, 
 stood (irm and enduring. Their columns were rip'oed up by 
 C'lnnonry ; whole rows were swept down at a shot ; the sur- 
 vivors ciOfCd their ranks, and stood firm. In this way luany 
 Cfl'imns -slood through the pelting of the iron tempest without 
 filing i' .'hot , without any action to stir their blood, or (>xcile 
 thc'r spirKs. Death thinned their ranks, but eoukl not shake 
 their f-o-un. 
 
 A b> • tifui ii'stance of the quick and generous inq)ulses to 
 which e Frerch are prone, is given in tiie case of n French 
 cavalier in the hottesi of the action, charging furiously upon a 
 British o..icef, but perceivii.g in the moi'i 'lit of aH>^iiiilt that his 
 adversary had lost his sword-arm, dropping the [xAui of \\\n 
 8ii>re. and courte'^usly riding on. Peace be with that generous 
 warrior, whatever were his fate! If he went down in the 
 storm of battle, with th ; foundering fortunes of his chieftiiin, 
 may ihe turf of \Vaterloo grow green above liis grave ! an<l 
 happier far would i)e the fate of such a spirit, to sink amid the 
 tempest, unconscious of defeat, than to survive, and mouru 
 ever the blighted laurels of his country. 
 
 n 
 i& ■ 
 
 mw 
 
SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 1825. 
 
 91 
 
 jret ho is Rpt 
 ainily; witii 
 
 the contrast 
 ctor ; but it 
 ! two great 
 :cl, and most 
 ict in 'I -ir 
 acting lustro 
 is this c'on- 
 ry contliK't. 
 s liavo thoy 
 lid heroism, 
 it and most 
 )ul(l surpass 
 ist eudurin<f 
 ives on the 
 seen gallop- 
 vain for ;in 
 eat of their 
 ittle. The 
 riove or lire, 
 pped up liy 
 ot ; the sur- 
 1 way many 
 pest without 
 •d, or excite 
 1 not shake 
 
 impulses to 
 of a Krencli 
 insly u[»on a 
 itult that his 
 [x/int of \m 
 lat geneious 
 <Mvn in the 
 is chieftain, 
 grave ! ari'l 
 ik amid the 
 
 and mouru 
 
 In this way the two armies fought through a long and bloody 
 day. The French with enthusiastic valor, the English with 
 cool, inflexible courage, until Fate, as if to leave the question 
 of sui)eriority still undecided between two such adversaries, 
 brought up the Prussians to decide the fortunes of the field. 
 
 It was several years afterward that I visited the field of 
 Waterloo. The i)l()ughshare had been busy with its ol)livious 
 labors, and the frequent harvest had nearly obliterated the 
 vestiges of war. Still the blackened ruins of Hoguemont stood, 
 a monumental pile, to mark the violence of this vehement 
 struggle. Its broken walls, pierced by bullets, and shattered 
 by ex'iilosions, showed the deadly strife that had taken place 
 within ; when Gaul and Briton, hemmed in between narrow 
 walls, hand to hand and foot to foot, fought from garden to 
 court-yard, from court-yard to chamber, with intense and con- 
 centrated rivalship. Columns of smoke towered from this vor- 
 tex of battle as from a volcano: "it was," said my guide, 
 " like a little hell upon earth." Not far off, two or three broad 
 spots of rank, unwholesome green still marked the places where 
 these rival warriors, after their fierce and fitful struggle, slept 
 quietly together in the lap of their common mother earth. 
 Over all the rest of the field peace had n uiied its sway. The 
 tiiouglitless whistle of the peasant floated on the air, instead of 
 the trunqiet's clangor ; the team slowly labored up the hill-side, 
 once shaken by the hoofs of rushing squadrons ; and wide 
 fields of corn waved i)eacefully over the soldiers' graves, as 
 summer seas dimple over the place where many a tall ship lies 
 buried. 
 
 To the foregoing desultory notes on the French military 
 character, let me append a few traits which I picked up ver- 
 bally in one of the French provinces. They may have already 
 appeared in print, but I have never met with them. 
 
 At the l)r"aking out of the "'.'volution, when so many of the 
 old families emigrated, a descendant of the great Turenne, by 
 the name of I)c Latour D'Auvergne, refused to accompany his 
 relations, and entered into the Republican army. He served in 
 all tlie campaigns of the revolution, distinguished himself by 
 his valor, hin accomplishments, and his generous spirit, and 
 niighf have risen to fortune and to the highest honors. He 
 refused, however, all rank in the army, above that of captain, 
 and would receive no recompense for his achievements but a 
 ►^word of honor. Napoleon, in testimony of his merits, gave 
 iiim the title of Premier Grenadier de France (First Grenadier 
 of Franco), which was the only title l-.o would ever bear. He 
 
hi'' 
 
 92 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 » ' '; 
 
 was killed in Germany, in 1809 or '10. To honor his memory, 
 his place was always retained in -his regiment, as if lie still 
 occupied it ; and whenever the regiment was mustered, ainl tlie 
 name of De Latour D'Auvergne was called out, the reply waa, 
 " Dead on the field of honor ! " 
 
 ft, 
 
 !' ( 
 
 ^!!l I 
 
 PARIS AT TIJE RESTORATION. 
 
 Paris presented a singular asj)eot just after the downfall of 
 Napoleon, and the restoration of the HourI)()ns. It was filled 
 with a restless, roaming population ; a dark, sallow race, with 
 fierce muutaehes, black cravats, and feverish, ineuaeing looks; 
 men suddenly thrown out of employ by the return of peace ; 
 officers cut short in their career, and east loo^^e with seaiily 
 means, many of them in utter indigence, u|)on the world ; the 
 broken elements of armies. They liuuiifcd the jjlaces of ])ai> 
 lie resort, like restless, unlun)py spirits, taldng no pleasure; 
 hanging about, like lowering clouds that linger after a, stonn, 
 and giving a singular air of gloom to this otherwise gay metrop- 
 olis. 
 
 The vaunted courtesy of the old school, the smooth urbanity 
 that prevailed in former days of settlecJ government and long- 
 established aristocracy, luid disuppeared amid the savage re- 
 publicanism of the revolution jind military furor <jf the empire; 
 re'jent reverses had stung the national vanity to the cpiick ; and 
 English travellers, who crowded to Paris on the return of peace, 
 expecting to meet with a gay, good-luunored, complaisant pop- 
 ulace, such as existed in the time of the " Sentimental ,Iour- 
 ney," were surprised at finding them irrital)le and fractious, 
 quick at fancying affronts, and not unapt to offer insults. They 
 accordingly inveighed with heat and bitterness at the rudeness 
 they experienced in the French metropolis ; yet what better 
 had they to expect? Had Charles II. been reinstated in liis 
 kingdom by the valor of French troops ; had he been wheeled 
 triumphantly to London over the trampled bodies and trampled 
 standards of England's bravest sons ; had a French general 
 dictated to the English capital, and a French army l>eeu 
 quartered in IIyde-I*ark ; had I'aris poured forth its motley 
 [)opulation, and the wealthy bourgeoisie of every French trad- 
 ing town swarmed to London ; crowding its scpiares ; filling its 
 streets with their e(iui[)ages ; thronging its fashionable hotels, 
 and places of amusements ; elbowing its impoverished nobility 
 out of their palaces and opera-boxes, ai\d looking down on the 
 iiLimiliated inhabltauts aa a conquered people ; iu such a reverse 
 
SKETCUES IN PARIS IN 18S5. 
 
 ys 
 
 memory, 
 
 if lie still 
 'I, and the 
 reply was, 
 
 own fall of 
 
 was (illcd 
 
 nice, witli 
 
 iiijn looks; 
 
 of iicacr ; 
 
 itii .soanly 
 
 vorld ; the 
 
 .'S of piih- 
 
 pleasuie ; 
 
 r a storin, 
 
 ly metrop- 
 
 1 ufbanity 
 and loug- 
 <avaife re- 
 le empire ; 
 iiiick ; and 
 1 of peaee, 
 isunt pop- 
 intal .loiir- 
 fraelious, 
 Its. '11 ley 
 J rudeness 
 liat better 
 ted in his 
 !n wheeled 
 I trani|)led 
 ■li <i;eneral 
 irniy been 
 its motley 
 cncli tratl- 
 ; (illinjj; it,s 
 l)lo hotels, 
 ;d n()i)ility 
 vvn on the 
 1 a roversH 
 
 of the case, what degree of courtesy would the populace ot 
 London have been apt to exercise toward their visitors? ' 
 
 On the contrary, I have always admired the degree of mag- 
 nanimity exhibited by the French on the occupation of tiieir 
 capital by the English. When we consider the military ambi- 
 tion of this nation, its love of glory; the splendid height to 
 which its renown in arms had recently been carried, and with 
 these, the tremendous reviM'scs it had just undergone ; its 
 armies shattered, annihilated ; its capital captured, garrisoned, 
 and overrun, and that too by its ancient rival, the English, 
 toward whom it had cherished for centuries a jealous and 
 almost religious hostility ; could we have wondered if the tiger 
 spirit of this fiery people had broken out in bloody feuds and 
 deadly quarrels ; and that they had sought to rid themselves 
 in any way of their invaders? Hut it is cowardly nations only, 
 those who dare not wield the sword, that revenge themselves 
 with the lurking dagger. There were no assassinations in Paris. 
 The French had fought valiantly, desi)erately, in the field ; but, 
 when valor was no longer of avail, tliey submitted like gallant 
 men to a fate they could not withstand. Some instances of 
 insult from the populace were experienced by their English 
 visitors ; some personal rencontres, which led to duels, did take 
 place ; but these smacked of open and honorable hostility. 
 No instances of lurking and perfidious revenge occurred, and 
 the British soldier patrolled the streets of I'aris safe from 
 treacherous assault. 
 
 If 'Jic English met with harshness and rei)ulse in social inter- 
 course, it was in some degree a proof that the people are more 
 sincere than has been repiesented. Th(> emigrants who had 
 just returned, were not yet reinstated. Society was constituted 
 of those who had flourished under the late regime ; the newly en- 
 nobled, the recently enriched, who felt their prosperity and their 
 consecpience endangered by this change of things. The broken- 
 down ollicer, who saw his glory tarnished, his fortune ruined, 
 his oceupation gone, could not be expected to look with compla- 
 cency upon the authors of his downfall. The English visitor, 
 flushed with health, and wealth, and victory, could little enter 
 into the feelings of the blighted warrior, scarred with a hundred 
 battles, an exile from tlu' camp, broken in constitution by the 
 wars, im|K)ver!shed l)y the [jcace, and cast back, a needy strangei 
 in the splendid but cai>tured metropolis of his country. 
 
 ' The iibovc romai'Uf) were HURgCHtcii by a convpiRatioii with the late Mr. Caiiniiii;, 
 whom the niitho" .net n I'aris, and who expressed himHelf in the most liberal way con. 
 ocruiiiK tht) magnaniiuity of the French ouifa* qccupittiou of their capital by strauKcri. 
 
 ( 
 
 ; ; 
 
94 
 
 TUE CItAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \\ i 
 
 "Oh! who can tell what hcroei feel, 
 When nil but life and honor'* lont! " 
 
 And here let me notice the conduct of the French sohhery 
 on the dismembermeut of the army of the Loire, when two 
 hundred thousand men were suddenly thrown out of cinploy; 
 men who had been brouj^ht up to tlie eauip, and scuice knew 
 any other home. Few in civil, peaceful life, arc aware of tjii' 
 severe trial to the feelinfTs that takes place on the dissolution of 
 a regiment. There is a fraternity in arms. The community of 
 dangers, hardships, enjoyments ; the participation In battles and 
 victories ; the companionship in adventures, at a time of life 
 when men's feelings are most fresh, susceptible, and ardent, all 
 these bind the members of a regiment strongly together. To 
 them the regiment is friends, family, home. They identify 
 themselves with its fortunes, its glories, its disgraces. Imagitu! 
 this romantic tie suddenly dissolved ; the regiment broken up; 
 the occupation of its members gone ; their military pritle niorti- 
 lied ; the career of glory cilosed behiivl them ; that of obscurity, 
 dependence, want, neglect, perhaps beggary, before them. 
 Such was the case with the soldiers of the Army of the Loire. 
 They were sent off in squads, with olTiccrs, to the principal towns 
 where they were to be disarmed and discharged. In this way 
 they passed through the country with arms in their hands, often 
 exposed to slights and scoffs, to hunger and various hardships 
 and privations ; but they conducted themselves magnanimously, 
 without any of those outbreaks of violence and wrong that so 
 often attend the dismembermeut of armies. 
 
 The few years that have elapsed since the time above alluded 
 to, have already had their effect. The proud and angry spirits 
 which then roamed about Paris unemployed have cooled down 
 and found occupation. The national character begins to re- 
 cover its old channels, though worn deeper by recent torrents. 
 The natural urbanity of the French begins to find its way, like 
 oil, to the surface, though there still remains a degree of rough- 
 ness and bbmtness of manner, partly rej:l, and partly affected, 
 by such as imagine it to indicate force and friinkness. The 
 events of the last thirty years have rendered the French a more 
 reflecting people. They have acquired greater independence of 
 mind and strength of judgment, together with a portion of that 
 prudence which results from exi)eriencing the dangerous conse- 
 quences of excesses. However that period may have been 
 
 \ 
 
> soldiery 
 wlu'u two 
 
 ('llil)loy; 
 lice knew 
 lie of the 
 loliitioii of 
 imiiiity of 
 •iiltk's ami 
 lie of life 
 udent, :ill 
 llier. To 
 y identify 
 
 Iin!i<i;ine 
 roken up ; 
 ide niorti- 
 obseurity, 
 )re them, 
 the Loire, 
 ipal towns 
 \ this wjiy 
 nils, often 
 Inirdships 
 ininunisly, 
 Jg tha*, so 
 
 vc alluded 
 i<];ry sj)irits 
 oled down 
 ^ins to re- 
 t torrents. 
 3 way, like 
 I of rou<fli- 
 y affected, 
 less. The 
 K'h a more 
 eudenee of 
 on of that 
 ous conse- 
 buve been 
 
 SKETCHES IN PA HIS IN 18g5. 
 
 96 
 
 fttained by orinios, and filled with oxtnivagance.s, the Froneh 
 have certainly come out of it n greater nation than before. One 
 of their own philo.sophers observes that in one or two <i;enerations 
 the nation will prol»ably coml)ine the ease and ele<j;ance of tiie 
 old ciiaracter with force and solidity. They were li)j;ht, he says, 
 before the revolution ; then wild and sava<j;e ; they liave become 
 more thon<j;htful and rellcctive. It is only old Krenchmen, 
 now a-days, that are gay and trivial ; the young are very serious 
 personages. 
 
 I'.S. In the course of a morning's walk, about the time tho 
 above remarks were written, I observed the Duke of Wellington, 
 who was on a brief visit to Paris. He was alone, sim[)ly attired 
 ill a l»lue frock ; with an umbrella under his arm, and his hat 
 drawn over his eyes, and sauntering across the I'lace Vendoine, 
 close by the Coluniii of Napoleon. He gave a glance up at 
 the column as he i)assed, and continued his loitering way up the 
 Rue de la J'aix ; slopping occasionally to gazi' in at the shop- 
 windows ; ell)ovved now and then by other gazers, who little 
 Kiisiiected that the (piiet, lounging individual they were jostling 
 so ui'ceremoniously, was the concpieror who had twice entered 
 the capital victoriously ; lia<l controlled the destinies of the na- 
 tion, and eclipsed the glory of the military idol, at the base of 
 wliose column he was thus negligently sauntering. 
 
 Some years afterward I was at an evening's entertainment 
 liiveii by the Duke at Apsley House, to William IV. The Duke 
 had maiiifesleii his admiration of his great adversary, by having 
 jjortraits of him in ditYi'rent parts of tiie house. At the bottom 
 of the grand staircase, stood the colossal statue of the Emperor, 
 by Canova. It was of niari)le, in the anticpie style, with one 
 arm partJy extended, holding a ligure of victory. Over this 
 arm the ladies, in tripping up stairs to the ball, had thrown their 
 sliawls. It was a singular ollice for the statue of Napoleon to 
 perform iu the mansion of the Duke of Wellington ! 
 
 "imperial Capsar duad, and turuud to clay," etc., ate. 
 
^*^^ 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 /q 
 
 ^ ./^. 
 
 
 
 z 
 
 ^ 
 
 rf> 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 Jf-i^ IIM 
 
 •^ l« III 2.2 
 
 
 » 
 
 2.0 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 1.4 
 
 li£ 
 
 
 ■« 6" - 
 
 
 ► 
 
 Photographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 ^ 
 
 <v 
 
 m 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 \ 
 
 ^\ 
 
 23 WIST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. MS80 
 
 (716) 872-4S03 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^<^ 
 

 k 
 
 C/j 
 
99 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 AMERICAN RESEARCHES IN ITALY. 
 
 » t «; 
 
 i.lFE OF TASSO : ItECOVERY OF A LOST PORTRAIT OP DANTE. 
 
 li 
 
 ■iM 
 
 To the Editor of the Knickerbocker : 
 
 Sir : Permit me tlirough the pages of yoiir magazine to call 
 the attention of the public to the learned and elegant researclios 
 in Europe of one of our countrymen, j\Ir. R. H. Wilde, or 
 Georgia, formerly a member of the House of Representatives. 
 After leaving Congress, Mr. Wilde a few years since spout 
 about eighteen months in travelling through different parts of 
 Europe, until he became stationary for a time in Tuscany. Hero 
 he occupied himself with researches concerning the private life 
 of Tasso, whose mysterious and romantic love for the Princess 
 Leonora, liis madness and imprisonment, had recently become 
 the theme of a literary controvers}', not yet I'uded ; curious in 
 itself, and rendered still more curious by some alleged manu- 
 scripts of the poet's l)rought forward by Count Alberti. Mr. 
 Wilde entered into the investigation with the enthusiasiu of :i 
 poet, and the patience ond accuracy of a case-hunter; and has 
 produced a work now in the press, in which the ''vexed ques- 
 tions" concerning Tasso are most ably discussed, and liglita 
 thrown upon them by his letters, and by various of his sonnets, 
 which last are rendered into English with rare felicity. While 
 Mr. Wilde was occupied upon this work, he became acquainted 
 with Signor Carlo Liverati, an artist of considerable merit, aiul 
 especially well versed in the antiquities of Florence. This gentle- 
 man mentioned incidentally one day, in the course of conversa- 
 tion, that there once and probably still existed in the Bur(j(>Uo, 
 anciently both the prison and the palace of the republic, an 
 authentic portrait of Dante. It was believed to be in fresco, on 
 a wall which afterward, by some strange neglect or inadvertency, 
 had been covered with whitewash. Signor I.,iverati mentioned 
 the circumstance merely to deplore the loss of so precious a por- 
 trait, and to regret the almost utter hopelessness of its recovery. 
 
 As Mr. Wilde had not as yet imbibed that enthusiastic admi- 
 ration for Dante which possesses all Italians, by whom the poet 
 is almost worshipped, this conversation made but a slight im- 
 pression on him at the time. Subsequently, however, his re- 
 searches concerning Tasso being endi'd, he began to amuse his 
 leisure hours with attempts to translate some specimens of 
 
AMERICA X RESEARCHES IN ITALY. 
 
 97 
 
 Italian lyric poetry, and to compose very short biographical 
 sketches of the authors. In these specimens, which as yet exist 
 only in manuscript, he has shown the same criti<;al knowledge of 
 the Italian language, and admirable command of the English, 
 that characterize his translations of Tasso. He had not ad- 
 vanced far in these exercises, when the obscure and contradictory 
 accounts of many incidents in the life of Dante caused him 
 much embarrassment, and sorely piqued his curiosity. Al)out 
 the same time he received, through the courtesy of Don Neri dei 
 Principi Corsini, what he had long most fervently desired, a 
 permission from the Grand Duke to pursue his investigations 
 ill tlie secret archives of Florence, witli power to ol)tain copies 
 therefrom. This was a rich and almost unwrought mine of 
 literary research ; for to Italians tliemsclves, as well as to for- 
 eigners, their archives for the \uor.t part iiave been long in- 
 accessible. For two years Mr. Wilde devoted himself with 
 indefatigable ardor to explore the records of the re|)ublic during 
 the time of Dante. These being written in bMrl)arons Latin 
 and semi-Gothic characters, on parchment more or less discol- 
 ored and mutilated, with ink sometimes fadetl, were rendered 
 still more illegible by the arbitrary abl)revi:itions of the notaries. 
 Tiiey require, in fact, an especial study ; few even of the 
 officers employed in the '■^ Archin'o della liifonnagione''' can 
 read them currently and correctly. 
 
 Mr. Wilde however persevered in his laborious task with a 
 patience severely tried, but invincil)le. Being without an in- 
 dex, each file, each book, required to be examined page by 
 page, to ascertain whether any particular of the imh.ortal poet's 
 political life had escaped the untiring industry of his country- 
 men. This toil was not wholly fruitless, and several interest- 
 ing facts obscurely known, and others utterly unknown by the 
 Italians themselves, are drawn forth by Mr. Wilde from the 
 oblivion of these archives. 
 
 While thus engaged, the circumstance of the lost portrait 
 of Dante was again brought to Mr. Wilde's mind but no^ 
 excited intense interest. In perusing the notes of the late 
 learned Canonico Moreri on Filelfo's life of Dante, he found 
 it stated that a portrait of the poet by Giotto was formerly to 
 be seen in the Bargello. He learned also that Signor S(!otti, 
 who has charge of the original drawings of the old masters in 
 the imperial and royal gallery, liad made several years pre- 
 viously an ineffectual attempt to set on foot a project for the 
 recovery of the lost treasure. Here was a new vein of inquiry, 
 which Mr. Wilde followed up with his usual energy and saga- 
 
 i I 
 
 
 \ ; 
 
 p t 
 
t 
 
 p 
 
 
 '• 
 
 1 * I !■ 
 
 98 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 city. He soon satisfied himself, by reference to Vasari, and to 
 the still more ancient and decisive authority of Filippo Villari, 
 who lived shortly after the poet, that Giotto, the friend and 
 contemporary of Dante, did undoubtedly paint his likeness in 
 the place indicated. Giotto died in 1336, but as Dante was 
 banished, and was even sentenced to be burned, in 1302, it was 
 obvious the work must have been executed before that time ; 
 since the portrait of one outlawed and capitally convicted as an 
 enemy to the commonwealth would never have been ordered or 
 tolerated in the chapel of the royal palace. It was clear, then, 
 that the portrait must have been painted between 1200 and 1^02. 
 
 Mr. Wilde now revolved in his own mind the possibility tluit 
 this precious relic might remain undestroyed under its coat of 
 whitewash, and might yet be restored to the world. For a mo- 
 ment he felt an impulse to undertake the enterprise ; but feared 
 that, in a foreigner from a new world, any part of which is 
 unrepresented at the Tuscan court, it might appear like an in- 
 trusion. He soon however found a zealous coadjutor. This 
 was one Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi, a Piedinontese exile, who had 
 long been a resident in JIngland, and was familiar with its lan- 
 guage and literature. He was now on a visit to Florence, which 
 libei'al and hospitable city is always open to men of merit who 
 for political reasons have been excluded from other parts of 
 Italy. Signer Bezzi partook deeply of the enthusiasm of his 
 countrymen for the memory of Dante, and sympathized with 
 Mr. Wilde in his eagerness to ret. 'eve if possible the lost por- 
 trait. They had several consultations as to the moans to be 
 adopted to effect their purpose, without incurring the charj^e of 
 undue offlciousness. To lessen any objections tliat might occur, 
 they resolved to ask for nothing but permission to search for 
 the fresco painting at their own expense ; and should any re- 
 mains of it be found, then to propose to the nobility and gentry 
 of Florence an association for the purpose of completino; the 
 undertaking, and effectually recovering the lost portrait. 
 
 For the same reason the formal memorial addressed to the 
 Grand Duke was drawn up in the name of Florentines ; amon^ 
 whom were the celebrated Bartollni, now President of tlie 
 School of Sculpture in the Imperial and Royal Academy, Sig- 
 nor Paolo Ferroni, of the noble family of that name, wlio has 
 exhibited considerable talent for painting, and Signor Gnspa- 
 rini, also an artist. This petition was urged and supjiortod 
 with indefatigable zeal by Signor Bezzi ; and being warmly 
 countenanced by Count Nerli and other functionaries, mot 
 with more prompt success than had been anticipated. Siguor 
 
 tlio 
 fron 
 tile 
 perioi 
 oiitli 
 I'e 
 
 ■'•ore 
 .liter 
 It 
 C'oac 
 the s( 
 
 . 
 
sari, and to 
 ippo Villari, 
 friend and 
 likeness in 
 Dante was 
 1302, it was 
 B that time ; 
 victed as an 
 n ordered or 
 clear, then, 
 [)0 and ia02. 
 ssibility tliat 
 r its coat of 
 For a nio- 
 ; but feared 
 of which is 
 ar like an in- 
 jutor. Tills 
 :ile, who had 
 with its lan- 
 )rence, wliicli 
 )f merit who 
 >ther parts of 
 iisiasm of his 
 :)athized wilb 
 ! tlie lost per- 
 means to he 
 the charjic of 
 , might occur, 
 to search for 
 ihould any re- 
 ,ty and gentry 
 ompleting tlie 
 jrtrait. 
 Iressed to the 
 itines ; among 
 sident of tlic 
 Vcademy, Sig- 
 lame, wlio lias 
 jignor Gaspa- 
 ind siipportod 
 ])eing warmly 
 tionaries, met 
 )ated. Signor 
 
 AMERICAN RESEARCHES IN ITALY. 
 
 99 
 
 Marini, a skilful artist, who had succeeded in similar opera- 
 tions, was now employed to remove tlie whitewash by a process 
 of his own, by which any freseo i)ainting that might exist be- 
 neatli would be protected from injury. lie set to work patiently 
 and cautiously. In a short time he met with evidence of tlie 
 existence of the fresco. From under the coat of wiiitewash 
 the head of an angel gradually made its appearance, and was 
 pronounced to be by the pencil of (iiotto. 
 
 The enteriirise was now prosecuteil with increased ardor. 
 Several months were expended on the task, and three sides of 
 the eli:i()cd wall were uncovered ; they were all painted in fresco 
 by (i lotto, with the history of the Magdalen, exhibiting her cou- 
 versi(;n, her penance, and her beatilication. The figures, how- 
 ever, were all those of saints and angels ; no historical portraits 
 had yet been discovered, and doubts began to be entertained 
 whether there were any. Still the recovery of an indisputable 
 work of (iiott(/s was considered an amiile reward for any toil ; 
 •uid the Ministers of the Grand Duke, acting under his direc- 
 tions, assumed on his behalf the past charges and future man- 
 ageiiU'iit oi the enterprise. 
 
 At length, on the uncovering of the fourth wall, the under- 
 taking was crowned with complete success. A numlicr of 
 historical figures were brought to light, and among them the 
 und()ul)t('d likeness of Dante. He was represented in full 
 length, ill the garb of the time, with a book under his arm, 
 designed must probably to represent the '* Vita Nuova," for 
 the " Coinedia " was not yet composed, and to all appearance 
 from thirty to thirty-five years of age. The face was in pro- 
 file, and in excellent preservation, excepiing that at some former 
 period a nail had unfortunately been driven into the eye. The 
 oiilliiie of the eyelid was perfect, so uhat the injury could easily 
 I'e remedied. The countenance was extremely handsome, yet 
 loie a strong resemblance to the portraits of the poet taken 
 .titer in life. 
 
 it is not eas}' to appreciate the delight of Mr. Wilde and his 
 coadjutors at this triumphant result of their researches ; nor 
 the sensation produced, not merely in Florence but throughout 
 Italy, by this discovery of a veritable portrait of Dante, in the 
 prime of his days. It was some such sensation as would be pro- 
 duced in England by the sudden discovery of a perfectly well 
 authenticated likeness of Shakspeare ; with a difference in in- 
 tensity proportioned to the superior sensitrveness of the Italians. 
 
 The recovery of this portrait of the "• divine poet" has occa- 
 sioned fresh inquiry into the origin of the masks said to havw 
 
 ■ I 
 
 h..-i 1 
 
 ! , 
 
100 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 • ■-■ 
 
 been made from a cast of his face taken after death. One of 
 these masks, in the possession of the Marquess of Torrigiani, 
 has been pronounced as certainly the original. Several artists 
 of high talent have concurred in this opinion; among these 
 may be named Jesi, the first engraver in Florence ; Seymour 
 Kirkup, Esq. , a painter and antiquary ; and our own country- 
 man Powers, whose genius, by the way, is very highly appre- 
 ciated by the Italians. 
 
 We may expect from the accomplished pen of Carlo Torri- 
 giani, sou of the Marquess, and who is advantageously known 
 in this country, from having travelled here, an account of this 
 curious and valuable relic, which has been upward of a century 
 in the possession of his family. 
 
 Should Mr. Wilde finish his biographical work concerning 
 Dante, which promises to be a proud achievement in American 
 literature, he intends, I understand, to apply for permission to 
 have both likenesses copied, and should circumstances warrant 
 the expense, to have them engraved by eminent artists. We 
 shall then have the features of Dante while in the prime of life 
 us well as at the moment of his death. G. C. 
 
 
 if 
 
 THE TAKING OF THE VEIL. 
 
 J i 
 
 n^ i ? 
 
 I 
 
 One of the most remarkable personages in Parisian society 
 during the last century was Ren6e Charlotte Victoire de Frou- 
 lay De Tesst>, Marchioness De Cr^qui. She sprang from the 
 highest and proudest of the old French nobility, and ever main- 
 tained the most exalted notions of the purity and antiquity of 
 blood, looking upon all families that could not date back further 
 than three or four hundred years as mere upstarts. When u 
 beautiful girl, fourteen years of age, she was presented to Louis 
 XIV., at Versailles, and the ancient monarch kissed her haml 
 with great gallantry; after an interval of about eighty-five 
 years, when nearly a hundred years old, the same testimonial 
 of respect was paid her at the Tuileries by Bonaparte, then 
 First Consul, who promised her the restitution of the confiscated 
 forests formerly belonging to her family. She was one of the 
 most celebrated women of her time for intellectual grace and 
 superiority, and had the courage to remain at Paris and brave 
 all the horrors of the revolution, which laid waste the aris- 
 tocratical world around her. 
 
 i - 5 
 
h. One of 
 Torrigiani, 
 eral artists 
 nong these 
 Seymour 
 irn countrj- 
 hly appre- 
 
 arlo Torri- 
 usly known 
 ount of this 
 a century 
 
 concerning 
 n American 
 jrmission to 
 ces warrant 
 rtists. We 
 rime of life 
 G. C. 
 
 isian society 
 >ire de Frou- 
 ng from the 
 [i ever main- 
 antiquity of 
 back further 
 ts. When a 
 ited to Louis 
 led her hand 
 it eighty-five 
 e testimonial 
 aparte, then 
 e confiscated 
 i one of the 
 lal grace and 
 :i8 and brave 
 ,8te the aris- 
 
 TUE TAKING OF TUE VEIL. 
 
 101 
 
 The memoirs she has left behind abound with curious anec- 
 dotes and vivid pictures of Parisian life during the latter days 
 of Louis XIV., the regency of the Duke of Orleans, and the 
 residue of the last century ; and are highly illustrative of the 
 pride, splendor, and licentiousness of the French nobility on 
 the very eve of their tremendous downfall. 
 
 I shall draw forth a few scenes from her memoirs, taken 
 almost at random, and which, though given as actual and well' 
 known circumstances, have quite the air of romance. 
 
 All the great world of Paris were invited to be present at a 
 grand ceremonial, to take place in the church of the Abbey 
 Koyal of Panthemont. Henrietta de Lenoncour, a young girl, 
 of a noble family, of great beauty, and heiress to immense 
 estates, was to take the black veil. Invitations had been issued 
 iu grand form, by her aunt and guardian, the Countess Brigitte 
 de Hupelmonde, canoness of Mauberge. The circumstance 
 caused great talk and wonder in the fashionable circles of Paris ; 
 everybody was at a loss to imagine why a young girl, beautiful 
 and rich, in the very springtime of her charms, should renounce 
 a world which she was so eminently qualified to embellish and 
 enjoy. 
 
 A lady of high rank, who visited the beautiful novice at the 
 grate of her convent-parlor, got a clew to the mystery. She 
 found her in great agitation ; for a time she evidently repressed 
 her feelings, but they at length broke forth in passionate ex- 
 clamations. "Heaven grant me grace," said she, "some day 
 or other to pardon my cousin Gondrecourt the sorrows he has 
 caused me ! " 
 
 " What do you mean? — what sorrows, my child? " inquired 
 her visitor. " W^hat has your cousin done to afifect you? " 
 
 " He is married ! " cried she in accents of despair, but en* 
 deavoring to repress her sobs. 
 
 " Married ! I have heard nothing of the kind, my dear. Are 
 you perfectly sure of it? " 
 
 " Alas ! nothing is more certain ; my aunt de Rupelmonde in- 
 formed me of it." 
 
 The lady retired, full of surprise and commiseration. She 
 related the scene in a circle of the highest nobility, in the saloon 
 of the Marshal Prince of Beauvau, where the unaccountable self- 
 sacrifice of the beautiful novice was under discussion. 
 
 " Aluo 1 " said she, " the poor giii is crossed in love ; she la 
 
 ■ u 
 
 I ■ 
 
 I I 'A 
 
 ^n 
 
102 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPKRa. 
 
 about to renounce the workl in despair, at the marriage of her 
 cousin De Gondrecourt." 
 
 "What!" cried a gentleman present, "the Viscount de 
 Gondrecourt married ! Never was there a greater falsehood. 
 And ' her aunt told her so ! ' Oh ! I understand the plot. The 
 countess is passionately fond of Gondrecourt, and jealous of her 
 beautiful niece ; but her schemes are vain ; the Viscount holds 
 her in perfect detestation." 
 
 There was a mingled expression of ridicule, disgust, and 
 indignation at the thought of such a rivalry. The Countess 
 Kupelnionde was old enough to be the grandmother of the Vis- 
 count. She was a woman of v'iolent passions, and imperious 
 temper ; robust in person, with a masculine voice, a dusky com- 
 plexion, green eyes, and powerful eyebrows. 
 
 " It is impossible," cried one of the company, " that a woman 
 of the countess' age and appearance can be guilty of such folly. 
 No, no ; you mistake the aim of this detestable woman. She ig 
 managing to get possession of the estate of her lovely niece." 
 
 This was admitted to be the most probable ; and all concurred 
 in believing the countess to be at the bottom of the intended 
 sacrifice ; for although a canoness, a dignitary of a religious 
 order, she was pronounced little better than a devil incarnate. 
 
 The Princess de Ileauvau, a woman of generous spirit and 
 intrepid zeal, suddenly rose from the chair in which she had 
 been reclining. " My prince," said she, addressing her hus- 
 band, " if you approve of it, I will go immediately and have a 
 conversation on this subject with the archbishop. There is not 
 a moment to spare. It is now past midnight ; the ceremony is 
 to take place in the morning. A few hours and the irrevocable 
 vows will be pronounced." 
 
 The prince inclined his head in respectful assent. The 
 princess set about her generous enterprise with a woman's 
 promptness. Within a short time her carriage was at the iron 
 gate of the archiepiscopal palace, and her servants rang for 
 admission. Two "^witzers, who had charge of the gate, were 
 fast asleep in the porter's lodge, for it was half-past two in the 
 morning. It was some time before they could be awakened, 
 and longer before they could be made to come forth. 
 
 " The Princess de Beauvau is at the gate ! " 
 
 Such a personage was not to be received in deshabille. Her 
 dignity and the dignity of the archbishop demanded that the 
 gate should be served in full costume. For half an hour, there- 
 fore, iuul the princess to wait, in feverish impatience, until tlie 
 two dignitaries of the porter's lodge arrayed themselves ; and 
 
ge of her 
 
 count de 
 "alsehooil. 
 lot. The 
 Dus of her 
 UDt boUls 
 
 gust, and 
 
 Couuti'ss 
 
 ' the Vis- 
 
 iniporious 
 
 usky coin- 
 
 a woman 
 
 ucli folly. 
 
 She is 
 
 ly niece." 
 
 eonciiiTpd 
 
 3 intended 
 
 religious 
 
 earn ate. 
 
 spirit and 
 
 she had 
 
 ; her hus- 
 
 ntl have a 
 
 iiere is not 
 
 eremony is 
 
 irrevocable 
 
 jnt. The 
 I woman's 
 it the iron 
 } rang for 
 gate, were 
 two in the 
 awakened, 
 
 jille. Her 
 d that the 
 our, there- 
 S until tho 
 elves ; uuU 
 
 THE TAKING OF THE VEIL. 
 
 103 
 
 three o'clock sounded from the tower of Notre Dame before 
 they came forth. They were in grand livery, of a huff color, 
 with amaranth galloons, plaited with silver, and fringed sword- 
 belts reaching to their knees, in which were suspended long 
 rapiers. They had small three-cornered hats, surmounted with 
 plumes ; and each bore in his hand a halbert. Thus ecpiipped at 
 all points, they planted themselves before the door of the car- 
 riage ; struck the ends of their halberts on the ground with em- 
 phasis ; and stood waiting with oflieial importance, but profound 
 respect, to know the pleasure of the princess. 
 
 She demanded to speak with tiie archbishop. A most rever 
 ential bow and shrug accompanied the reply, that "His Gran- 
 deur was not at home." 
 
 Not at home! Where was he to be found? Another bow 
 and shrug ; " His Grandeur either was, or ought to be, in retire- 
 ment in the seminary of St. Magloire ; unless he had gone to 
 pass the Fete of St. Bruno with tlie reverend Carthusian Fathers 
 oi'the Rue d'Knfer ; or perhaps he might have gone to repose 
 himself in his castle of Conflans-sur-Seine. Though, on further 
 thought, it was not unlikely he might have gone to sleep at St. 
 Cyr, where the Bishop of Chartres never failed to invite him for 
 the anniversary 8oir(f>e of Madame de Maintenon. 
 
 The princess was in des[)air at this multiplicity of cross* 
 roads pointed out for the chase ; the brief interval of time wa* 
 rapidly elapsing ; day already began to dawn ; she saw there 
 was no hope of finding the archbishop before the moment ot 
 his entrance into the church for the morning's ceremony ; so 
 she returned home quite distressed. 
 
 At seven o'clock in the morning the princess was in the 
 parlor of the monastery of De Pantheiuont, and sent in an 
 urgent request for a moment's conversation with the Lady 
 Abbess. The reply brought was, that the Abbess could not 
 come to the parlor, being obliged to attend iu the choir, at the 
 canonical hours. The princess entreated permission to cuter 
 the convent, to reveal to the Lady Abbess in two words some« 
 thing of the greatest importance. The Abbess sent word ia 
 reply, that the tiling was impossible, until she had obtained 
 permission from the Archbishop of Paris. The princess retired 
 once more to her carriage, and now, as a forlorn ho[)e, took her 
 station at the door of the church, to watch for the arrival of the 
 prelate. 
 
 After a while the splendid company invited to this great 
 ceremony began to arrive. The beauty, rank, and wealth of 
 the novice had excited great attention ; and, as everybody was 
 
 
 Ih 
 
 1 
 
 
 ¥ji' 
 
 1 H» 1 
 
 M 
 
 m\. \ 
 
 • 
 
 
 I ; ' 
 
 
 li B 
 
 
 \p 
 
 
 \ J 
 
 \ " 
 
 
 
 [, 
 
 ! 
 
 <4 ii i 
 'if I i« 
 
 1 ■'. 
 
 ' ii-.; 
 
 I 
 
■'t-J 
 
 
 ! 
 
 I 1 
 
 , 11 
 
 ( I I.: 
 
 
 
 llM 
 
 ? i 
 
 104 
 
 THE CRAYOX PAPKUSt. 
 
 expected to be present on the oeraaion, ovorybody prcssrcl to 
 secure a place. The street reverl)eiatecl witli tlie continual roll 
 of gilded carriages and chariots ; coaches of princes aud dukes, 
 designated by imperials of crimson velvet, and niajiniliccnt 
 equipages of six horses, decked out with noddin;; phmic:* and 
 sumptuous harnessing. At length the e(iuii)ag"s ceased to 
 arrive , empty vehicles filled the street ; and, with a noisy and 
 parti-colored crowd of lackeys in rich liveries, obstructed all 
 the entrances to I)e I'anthemont. 
 
 Pleven o'clock had struck ; the last auditor had entered the 
 church ; the deep tones of the organ began to swell through the 
 sacred pile, yet still the archbishop came not ! The heart of 
 the princess beat quicker and quicker with vague apprehension ; 
 when a valet, dressed in cloth of silver, trinnned with crimson 
 velvet, approached her carriage precipitately. " Madame," 
 said he, "the archbishop is in the church; he entered by the 
 portal of the cloister; he is already in the sanctuary ; the cere- 
 mony is alHJut to commence ! " 
 
 What was to be done? To speak with the archbishop was 
 now impossible, and yet on the revelation she was to make 
 to him depended the fate of the lovely novice. The princess 
 drew forth her tablets of enamelled gold, wrote a few lines 
 therein with a pencil, and ordered her lackey to make way for 
 her through the crowd, and conduct her with all speed to the 
 sacristy. 
 
 The description given of the church and the assemblage on 
 this occasion presents an idea of the aristociatical state of tiie 
 times, and of the high interest awakened by the affecting 
 sacrifice about to take place. The church was hUi!g with 
 superb tapestry, above which extended a band of white damask, 
 fringed with gold, and covered with armorial escutcheons. A 
 large pennon, emblazoned with the arms and alliances of the 
 high-born damsel, was suspended, according to custom, in place 
 of the lamp of the sanctuary. 'IMie lustres, girandoles, and 
 fcandelabras of the king had been furnished in profusion, to deco- 
 rate the sacred edifice, and the pavements were all covered with 
 rich carpets. 
 
 The sanctuary presented a reverend and august assemblage of 
 bishops, canouL., and monks of various orders, Benedictines, 
 Bemadines, Raccollets, Capuchins, and others, all in their 
 approoriate robes and dresses. In the midst presided the Arch- 
 bishop of Paris, Christopher de Beaumont ; surrounded by his 
 four arch priests and his vicars-general. He was seated with 
 his back against the altar. When his eyes were cast down, his 
 
TIJE TAKING OF THE VEIL. 
 
 105 
 
 m'ssrd to 
 tiiuial roll 
 U(l (hikes, 
 i.'i^iiilicciit 
 unicM and 
 ceased to 
 noisy and 
 meted all 
 
 ntered tlio 
 ir())i;j;li tlie 
 e iieart of 
 elieiision ; 
 li crimson 
 \Iadanie," 
 ■e(l l)y the 
 ; the ccre- 
 
 ishop was 
 s to make 
 ic princess 
 
 few lines 
 ke way for 
 eed to the 
 
 miblap;e on 
 tate of the 
 3 affecting 
 hih!^ with 
 te damask, 
 'heons. A 
 ices of the 
 m, in place 
 doles, and 
 m, to deco- 
 >vored with 
 
 cmblage of 
 nedictines, 
 11 in their 
 1 the Arch- 
 ded by his 
 leated with 
 t down, his 
 
 ronnteoance, pnle nnd severe, is represented as having ])een 
 somewhat sepulchral and death-like ; but the moment he raised 
 iiis large, dark, sparkling eyes, the whole became animated; 
 beaming with ardor, and expressive of energy, penetration, and 
 firmness. 
 
 The audience that crowded the church was no less illustrious. 
 Excepting the royal family, all that was elevated in rank and 
 title was there ; never had a ceremonial of the kind attracted 
 an equal concourse of the high aristocracy of Paris. 
 
 At length the gi.ited gates of the choir creaked on their 
 hinges, and Madame de Richelieu, the high and noble Abbess 
 of Dc Panthemont, advanced to resign the novice into the hands 
 of her aunt, the Countess C'anoness de Rupelmonde. Every 
 eye was turned with intense curiosity to gain a sight of the beau- 
 tiful victim. She was sumptuously dressed, but her paleness 
 and languor accorded but little with her biilliant attire. The 
 Canoness De Rupelmonde conducted her niece to her praying- 
 desk, where, as soon as the poor girl knelt down, she sank 
 as if exhausted. Just then a sort of nunnuir was hoard at the 
 lower end of the church, where the servants in livery were 
 gathered. A young man was borne forth, struggling in con- 
 vulsions. He was in the uniform of an oHicer of the guards 
 of King Stanislaus, Duke of Lorraine. A whisper circulated 
 that it was the young Viscount de (Jondrecourt, and that he was 
 a lover of the novice. Almost all the young nobles present 
 hurried forth to proffer him sympathy and assistance. 
 
 The Archbishop of Paris remained all this time seated before 
 the altar; his eyes cast down, his pallid countenance giving no 
 signs of interest or participation in the scene around him. It 
 was noticed that in one of his hands, which was covered with 
 a violet glove, he grasped firmly a pair of tablets, of enamelled 
 gold. 
 
 The Canoness De Rupelmonde conducted her niece to the 
 prelate, to make her profession of self-devotion, and to utter 
 the irrevocable vow. As the lovely novice knelt at his feet, the 
 archbishop fixed on her his dark, beaming eyes, with a kind but 
 earnest expression. " Sister I " said he, in the softest and most 
 benevolent tone of voice, " what is your age? " 
 
 " Nineteen years, Monseigneur," eagerly interposed the Coun- 
 tess de Rupelmonde. 
 
 " You will reply to me by and by, Madame," said the arch- 
 bishop, dryly. He then repe:ited his cpiestiou to the novice' 
 who replied in a faltering voice, " Seventeen years." 
 
 *' In what diocese did you take the wuite veil'-' " 
 
 ' . i 
 
 i'l 
 
106 
 
 TIIF (fRAYny PAPERS. 
 
 \ I f 
 
 » 
 
 
 *' In the (lioooao of 'I'oiil." 
 
 " How ! " cxclMimcd tli<' ni-cliltisliop. vclicmpntly. '-In tlip 
 (Uocese of Toiil? Tlu' cliiiir of Tonl is vncMiit ! Tlif HislK.]. 
 of Toul (Ued fiftocii iiiniitlis since; and those who offleijite in 
 th(> ehapter ai'e not :iiitin)i i/id to icctive iK)vi<'es. '^'oiir novi- 
 tiate, Mademoiselle, is null and void, and we eannot leeeivi- 
 your profession." 
 
 The urehI>isliop rose from his chair, resumed his mitre, anil 
 took the cro/,ier from tiie hands of an atti-ndant. 
 
 " My dear hrethrcn," said he. ad<lrcssinu; the assemhiy, '• there 
 is no necessity for our examininjj; and interro<>;atin!i; Madciiioi- 
 aelle de LenoneoiU" on the sinciTity of her reliijious vocation. 
 There is a canonical impediment to her professing for tlic^ pres- 
 ent ; and, as to the future, we reserve to ourselves the eon- 
 Hideration of the matter; interdictini; to all other ("^'clcsiaslicMl 
 persons the power of acccptinij; her vows, under ))ciially of in- 
 terdietion, of suspension, and of imllilication ; all which is in 
 virtue of our metropolitiU) ri;j;hts, contained in the terms of tlio 
 bull c'»<»i ^>/v>a://«/.s' ; " *■' Aifjiitorimii 7i(),strinn in. noiitini' J)nm- 
 ini! " jjursueil he, chanting in a grave and solemn voice, anil 
 turning toward the altar to give the benediction of the holy sac- 
 vament. 
 
 The noble auditory had that habitude of reserve, that empire, 
 or rather tyranny, over all outward manifestations of internal 
 emotions, which Itelongs to high aristocratical breeding. The 
 declaration of the archi»ishoi), therefore, was received as one 
 of the most natural and ordinary things in the world, and all 
 knelt down and received the pontifical benediction wilii perfect 
 decorum. As soon, however, as they were released from tlic 
 self-restraint Imposed by eticpiette, they amply indemnilicd 
 themselves; and nothing was talked of foi- a month, in the 
 fashionable saloons of I'aris, but the loves of the liandsonK' 
 Viscount and the chaiining Henrietta; the wickedness of the 
 canoness ; the active benevolence and admirable address of the 
 ]'rincess de Heauvau ; :ind the great wisdom of the archbisliop, 
 who was particularly extolled for his delicacy in defc:iliiig this 
 mana'uvre without any scandal to the aristocracy, or public 
 stigma on the name of De Hupelmonde, and without any de- 
 parture from pastoral gentli'ness, l)y adroitly seizing upon an 
 informant}', and turning it to iKueficial account, with as nuuli 
 authority as charitable circumspection. 
 
 As to the Canoness de Hupclnionde, she was defeated at all 
 points in her wicked plans against her beautiful niece. In coii- 
 sequeuee of the caveat of the archbishop, her superior ecclesiua- 
 
 . . 
 
THE TAKIXn or THE VEIL. 
 
 107 
 
 '• In tlip 
 
 lie Hislmii 
 olUciiitc in 
 Viiiir iiovi- 
 lot receive 
 
 mitre, uml 
 
 l»Iy. '•tlierc 
 NiMileinoi- 
 
 >< vociitioii. 
 
 r tlio |>res- 
 tlie con- 
 "(•IcsiMslieal 
 nalty of in- 
 wliieli is ill 
 eniis of the 
 
 III i III' Dnni- 
 I voice, and 
 lie holy sac- 
 
 lat oinpiro, 
 
 of internal 
 •dint;'. 'I'lic 
 ivc<l as olio 
 )rl(l, and all 
 vvilii perfect 
 I'd from the 
 
 iiidemnilie(| 
 )ntli, in the 
 e liaiidsonu' 
 liless of the 
 iress of the 
 
 areliliishop, 
 ,'featinu this 
 y, oi' piililic 
 lout any de- 
 inij; upon an 
 itli us much 
 
 feated at all 
 ce. In con- 
 ior ecelesius- 
 
 tic, Iho Alihoss de I'iuitliemont, fonnnlly forl)ade Miidemoisclie 
 lie LciioiH'our to ivHinne tlie white veil and tlic drcsM of a novi- 
 tiate, and instead <»f a n(>viee's ch-II, CHtahlished her in a hcau- 
 lifiil apaitment as a Itoardi-r. Tlic next mornin<i; the t'unoncss 
 de Hupelmomh' called at the convent to take away her niece ; hut, 
 to her confusion, the ahltcss prochiccd a lettre-de-caehet, which 
 she had just "eeeivcfl, and which forl)ade Mademoiselle to leave 
 the convent with any otiu'r person save the I'rince de IJenuvau. 
 
 Inder the auspices and the vij^ilant attention of the prince, 
 the whole ati'air was wound up in the most technical and cir- 
 I'Uiiislantial manner. 'I'hc t'ountess de Hupelmonde, by a 
 decree of the Cirand Council, was divested of the <»;uardianship 
 of her niece. All the airears of reveiuies accumulated durins^ 
 Mademoiselle de Lenoncoin's minority were rij^orously col- 
 lected, the accounts sciiitinized and adjusted, and her noble 
 fortune place] safely and entirely in her hands. 
 
 In a little while the noldc i)ersonau;es who had been invited 
 to th" ceremony of takinu; the veil received another invitation, 
 on the part of the Countess <lowa<jer de (Jondrecourt, an«l the 
 Marslial I'rince de Heauvau, to attend the jnarria<re of Adrien 
 de (londri'court, N'iscount of .lean-sur-Moselle, and Henrietta de 
 heiioiicour, Coiuitess de Ilevouwal, etc., which duly took place 
 in the chai)el of the arehiepiscopal ludaee at Paris. 
 
 So much for the l)eautifnl Henrietta (h' Lenoncour. We will 
 now draw forth • companion picture of a handsome young 
 cavalier, who liuured in the gay world of Taris about the same 
 time, and concerning whom the ancient Marchioness writes 
 with the lingering feeling of youthful ronmuce. 
 
 THE CHARMING LETORIERES. 
 
 " A coon face is a letter of recommendation," says an old 
 proverb ; and it was never more verified than in the case of 
 the Chevalier Letorieres. He was a young gentleman of good 
 family, ])ut who, according to the Si)anish phrase, had nothing 
 hut his cloak and sword (capa y espada), that is to say, his 
 gentle blood and gallant bearing, to help him forward in the 
 world. Through the interest of an uncle, who was an abb6, he 
 received a gratuitous education at a fashi'onaljle college, hut 
 finding the terms of study too long, !., .1 the vacations too 
 short, for his gay and indolent temper, he left college without 
 
 I , 
 
108 
 
 rilE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 I I « 
 
 I r . ! 
 
 ■; I 
 
 ill ^ 
 
 saying a word, aiul launcbecl himself upon Paris, with a ligh» 
 heart, and still lighter pocket. Here he led a life to his humor. 
 It is true he had to make scanty meals, and to lodge in a garret ; 
 but what of that? He was his own master; free from all task 
 or restraint. When cold or hungry, he sallied forth, like otliers 
 of the chameleon order, and 'jauqueted on pure air and warm 
 sunshine in tne public walks and gardens ; drove off the thoughts 
 of a dinner by annising himself with the gay and grotesque 
 throngs of the metropolis ; and if one of the poorest was one 
 of the merriest gentlemen upon town. Wherever he went, 
 his good looks and frank, graceful demeanor, had an instant 
 and magical effect in securing favor. There was but one word 
 to express his fascinating powers — he vfas " charming." 
 
 Instances are given of tl.i- ofFect of his winning qualities upon 
 minds of coarse, ordinary ni^uld. He had once taken shelter 
 from a heavy slunver under :'« gateway. A hackney coachman, 
 who was passing by, pulled up, and asked him if he wished a 
 cast in his carriage. Letoridrer; declined, with a mclanchcly 
 and dubious shake of the head. The coachman regarded him 
 wistful'y, repeated his solicitations, and wished to know what 
 place he was going to. " To the Palace of Justice, to walk in 
 the galleries ; but I will wait here until the rain is over." 
 
 " And wliy so? " incjuired the coachman, pertinaciously. 
 
 " Because I've no money ; do let me be quiet." 
 
 The coaclunun jumped down, and opening the door of his 
 carriage, "It slmll never be said," cried he, "that I left so 
 charming a young gentleman to weary himself, and catch cold, 
 merely for the sal< ■ of twenty- four sous." 
 
 Arrived at the Palace of Justice, lie stopi)ed Ixjfore the saloon 
 of a famous restaurateur, opened the door of the v-arriage, 
 and taking oft' his hat very resi)ectfully, begged the youth to 
 accept of a Louis-d'or. " You will meet with some young gen- 
 tlemen within," said he, '' with whom you may wish to take a 
 hand at cards. The number of my coach is 144. You can tiud 
 me out, and repay me whenever you i)lease." 
 
 The worthy .Jehu was some years afterward made coachman 
 to the Pi'incess Sophia, of France, through the recommendation 
 of the handsome youtii he had so generously oblij^ed. 
 
 Another instance in point is giveu with respect to his tailor, to 
 whom he owed foiu- hundred livres. The tailor had repeatedly 
 dunned him, but was always put off with the l)est grace in the 
 world. The wife of the tailor urged her husband to assume :i 
 harsher tone. He replied that he could not find it in his heurl 
 to si)eak roughly to so charming a young gentleman. 
 
 tlii( 
 suit 
 ap 
 beet 
 the 
 au( 
 cou 
 thai 
 he 
 the 
 wer 
 I 
 he 
 will 
 In 
 
THE TAKING OF THE VEIL. 
 
 109 
 
 th a light 
 is liumor. 
 
 a garret ; 
 
 1 all task 
 ike others 
 and warm 
 e thoiiglits 
 grotescjue 
 t was oiiL' 
 
 he went, 
 an instant 
 
 one woril 
 
 lities upon 
 ien shelter 
 coachman, 
 le wished a 
 fnc'anchely 
 jard'.d him 
 know what 
 to walk in 
 er." 
 ously. 
 
 :loor of his 
 it I left so 
 catch cold, 
 
 e the saloon 
 e v-arriage, 
 le youth to 
 young gen- 
 1 to take a 
 !'ou can find 
 
 3 coachman 
 ninendation 
 
 liis tailor, to 
 1 repeatedly 
 Trace iu the 
 to aasumc u 
 iu his heart 
 
 
 returned home, however, she wore quite a 
 
 " I've no patience with such want of spirit ! " cried the wife ; 
 " you have not the courage to show your teeth : but I'm going 
 out to get cliange for this note of a hun'ired crowns ; before 
 1 come home, I'll seek this ' charming ' youth myself, and see 
 whether he has the power to charm me. I'll warrant he won't 
 be able to put me off >vith line looks and fine speeches." 
 
 With these and many more vaunts, tiie good dame sallied 
 forth. When she 
 different aspect. 
 
 "Well," said her husband, "how much have you received 
 from the ' charming ' young man? " 
 
 " Let me alone," replied the wife ; " I found him playing on 
 the guitar, and he looked so handsome, and was so amiable and 
 genteel, that I had not the heart to trouble him." 
 
 "And the change for the hundred-crown note?" said the 
 tailor. 
 
 The wife hesitated a moment: "Faith," cried she, "you'll 
 have to add the amount to your next bill against him. The 
 poor young gentleman had such a melancholy air, tiiat — I know 
 not how it was, but — I left the hundred crowns on his mantel- 
 piece iu spite of him ! " 
 
 The captivating looks and manners of Letori^res made his 
 way with equal facility in the great world. His high connec- 
 tions entitled him to presentation at court, but some questions 
 arose about the sufficiency of his proofs of nobility ; whereupon 
 the king, who had seen him walking in the gardens of Versailles, 
 and been chai:';cd with his appearance, put an end to all de- 
 muis of etiquette by making him a viscount. 
 
 The same kind of fascination is said to have attended him 
 throughout his career. He succeeded in various difficult family 
 suits on questions of honois and privileges ; he had merely to 
 api)ear in court to dispose the judges in ins favor. He at length 
 became so popular, that on one occasion, when he appeared at 
 tin' theatre on recovering from a wound received in a duel, the 
 audience applauded liini on his entrance. Nothing, it is said, 
 could have been in more perfect good taste and high breeding 
 than his conduct on this occasion. When he heard the applause, 
 he rose in hi.s l)ox, stepped forward, and surveyed both sides of 
 the house, as if he could not believe that it was himself they 
 were treating like a favorite actor, or a prince of the blood. 
 
 His success with the fair sex may easily be presumed ; but 
 he had too much honor and sensibility to render his intercourse 
 wilri them a series of cold gallantries and heartless triumphs. 
 In the course of his attendance upon court, where he held a post 
 
 % 
 
 
 I n 
 
 . : i 
 
110 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 tr ' ' 
 
 of honor ahout the king, he fell deeply in love with the beautiful 
 Princess Julia, of Savoy Carignan. She was young, tender, and 
 simple-hearted, and returned his love with equal fervor. Ilcr 
 family took the alarm at this attachment, and procured an order 
 that she should inhabit the Abbey of Montmartre, where she 
 was treated with all befitting delicacy and distinction, but not 
 permitted to go beyond the convent walls. The lovers found 
 means to correspond. One of their letters was intercepted, and 
 it is even hintod that a plan of eloi)emeut was discovered. A 
 duel was the consequence, with one of the fiery relations of the 
 princess. Letorieres received two sword-thrusts in his ii;>;lif 
 side. His wounds were serious, yet after two or three days' 
 confinement he could not resist his impatience to see tlie princess. 
 He succeeded in scaling the walls of the abbey, and obtainin«i; 
 an interview in an arcade leading to the cloister of the cemetery. 
 The interview of the lovers was long and tender. They ex- 
 changed vows of eternal fidelity, and flattered themselves with 
 hopes of future happiness, which they were never to realize. 
 After repeated farewells, the princess re-entered the convi'iit, 
 never again to behold the charming Letorii^res. On the follow- 
 ing morning bis corpse was found stiff and cold on the pave- 
 ment of the cloister ! 
 
 It would seem that the wounus of the unfortunate youth had 
 been reopened by his efforts to get over the wall ; that he had 
 refrained from calling assistance, lest lie should expose llu; 
 princess, and that he had bled to death, without any one to aid 
 him, or to close his dying eyt;^. 
 
 THE EAIII.Y EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RING WOOD 
 
 I n 
 
 i 1 
 
 ',' . I 
 
 hi ;:? 
 
 NOTfcU DOWN FROM HIS CONVERSATIONS BY GEOFFREI 
 
 CRAYON, GENT. 
 
 " I AM a Kentuckian by reeiidence and choice, but a Virginian 
 by birtii. The cause of my first le.iving tiie ' Ancient Domin- 
 ion,' and emigrating to Kentucky, was a jackass! You stare, 
 but have a little patience, anil I'll soon show you how it came 
 
 • Ralph RiiiKwood, though a fictilioui' m.iuo, ii« a real personage: the worthy original 
 is now livin« iiiiil tloiirinhini{ in honorul.n' station. I have given some anecilotos of hi^ 
 early and eccentric career in, as nearly as I can recollect, the very words in which lie 
 related them. They certainly a/forded strong temptations to the einbellishinentu of 
 fiction; but I thought them ho strikingly characteristic: of the individual, and of the 
 ■ceucR and society into which his peculiar huiuorb carried him, thai I prefurred giviug 
 them In their urlt{inal iiimplicitv. — Q- C 
 
beautiful 
 
 ndor, :ui(l 
 
 'cr. Uvr 
 
 an Older 
 
 tvliere she 
 
 1, but not 
 
 ers foil ml 
 
 pted, and 
 
 ered. A 
 
 )ns of the 
 
 Ins righf 
 
 iree days' 
 
 prineess. 
 
 obtaining 
 
 eenieterv. 
 
 'PI 
 
 I hey ex- 
 
 ielvt's with 
 to realize, 
 i convent, 
 ;he foUow- 
 the pave- 
 
 yonth had 
 hat he had 
 ixpose the 
 
 one to aid 
 
 GWOOD 
 
 FFREI 
 
 Viro;inian 
 nt Doniin- 
 Vou Ktare, 
 )vv it eanie 
 
 orthy original 
 ecilotos of hii 
 i in wliioh 111' 
 MlishiiitMitH of 
 ftl, and uf t!ie 
 etarted glviug 
 
 EARLY EXPEIilENCES OF RALPH RING WOOD. Ill 
 
 to pass. My father, wlio was of one of tlie old Virginian fami- 
 lies, residad iu Hichmond. He was a widower, and his domestie 
 affairs were managed by a housekeeper of the old school, such 
 as used to administer the concerns of opulent Virginian house- 
 holds. She was a dignitary that almost rivalled my father in 
 importance, and seemed to think every thing belonged to her ; 
 in fact, she was so considerate in her economy, and so careful 
 of expense, as sometimes to vex my father, who would swear 
 she was disgracing him by her meanness. She always appeared 
 with that ancient insigiiia of housekeeping trust and authority, 
 a great bunch of keys jingling at her girdle. She superintended 
 the arrangements of the table at every meal, and saw that the 
 dishes were all placed according to her primitive notions of 
 symmetry. In the evening she took her stand and served out 
 tea with a mingled respectfulness and pride of station, truly 
 exemplary. Iler great am))ition was to have every thing in 
 order, and that the establishment under her sway shoiild be cited 
 as a model of good housekeeping. If any thing went wrong, 
 poor old Barbara would take it to heart, and sit in her room 
 and cry ; until a few chapters iu the Bible would quiet her 
 spirits, and make all cabn again. The Bible, in fact, was her 
 constant resort in time of trouble. She opened it indiscrimi- 
 nately, and whcthei' she chanced among the lamentations of Jere- 
 miah, the Canticles of Solomon, or the rough emmieration of 
 the tril)es in Deuteronomy, a chapter was a chapter, and oper- 
 ated like balm to her soul. Such was our good old housekeeper 
 Barbara, who was destined, unwittingly, to have a most impor- 
 tant effect upon my destiny. 
 
 " It came to pass, during the days of my juvenility, while I 
 was yet what is termed 'an unlucky boy,' that a gentleman of 
 our neighborhood, a great advocate for ex[)eriment3 and im- 
 provements of all kinds, took it into his head that it would be 
 an immense public advantage to introduce a breed of mules, and 
 accoi-dingly imported three jacks to stock the neighborhood. 
 This in a i)art of the country where the people cared for nothing 
 hut blood horses ! Why. sir ! they would have considered their 
 mares disgraced and their whole stud dishonored by such a mis- 
 alliance. The whole matter was a town talk and a town scandal. 
 The worthy amalgamator of cpiadrupeds found himself in a 
 dismal scrape ; so he backed out in tiiue, abjured the whole 
 dojtrine of amalgamation, and turned his jacks loos'" to shift 
 for themselves upon the town common. There they used to 
 ruu about and lead an idle, good-for-nothing, holiday life, the 
 happiest 'iiumais in the country. 
 
 11 
 
112 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 "It 80 happened that my way to school lay across this com- 
 mon. The first time that I saw one of these animals it set up a 
 braying and frightened me confoundedly. However, I soon got 
 over my fright, and seeing that it had something of a horse look, 
 my Virginian love for any thing of the equestrian species pre- 
 dominated, and I determined to back it. I accordingly applied 
 at a grocer's shop, procured a cord that had been round a loaf 
 of sugar, and made a kind of halter ; then summoning some of 
 my school-fellows, we drove master Jack about tlie common 
 until we hemmed him in an angle of a 'worm fence.' After 
 some difficulty, we fixed the halter round his muzzle, and I 
 mounted. Up flew his heels, away I went over his head, and 
 off he scampered. However, I was on my legs in a twinkling, 
 gave chase, caught him, and remounted. By dint of repeated 
 tumbles I soon iearaed to stick to his back, so that he could no 
 more cast me than he could his own skin. From that time, 
 roaster Jack and his companions had a scampering life of it, for 
 we all rode them between school hours, and on holiday after- 
 noons ; and you may be sure school-boys' nags are never per- 
 mitted to suffer the grass to grow under their feet. They soon 
 became so knowing that they took to their heels at the very 
 sight of a school-boy ; and we were generally much longer in 
 chasing than we were in riding them. 
 
 " Sunday approached, on which I projected an equestrian 
 excursion on one of these long-eared steeds- As I knew the 
 jacks would be in great demand on Sundaj' morning, I secured 
 one over night, and conducted him home, to be ready for an 
 early outset. But where was I i,o quarter him for the night? 
 I could not put him in the stable ; our old black groom George 
 was as absolute in that domain as Barbara was within doora, 
 Bud would have thought his stable, his horses, and himself dis 
 graced, by the introduction of a jackass. I recollected thu 
 smoke-house ; an out-building appended to all Virginian estab- 
 lishments for the smoking of hams, and other kinds of meat. 
 So I got the key, put master Jack in, locked the door, returned 
 the key to its place, and went to bed, intending to release ray 
 prisoner at an early hour, l)efore any of the family were awake. 
 I was so tired, however, by the exertions I had made in catch- 
 ing the donkey, that I fell into a sound sleep, and the morning 
 broke without my awaking. 
 
 " Not so with dame Barbara, the housekeeper. As usual, to 
 use her own phrase, ' she was up before the crow put his shoes 
 on,' and bustled about to get things in order for breakfast. 
 Her first resort was to the smoke-house. Scarce had she opeui'd 
 
EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RINOWOOD. 113 
 
 the door, when master Jack, tired of his confinement, and glad 
 to be released from darkness, gave a loud bray, and rushed 
 forth. Down dropped old Barbara ; the animal trampled ovei 
 her, and made off for the common. Poor Barbara ! She had 
 never before seen a donkey, and having read in the Bible that the 
 devil went about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he might 
 devour, she took it for granted that this was Beelzebub himself. 
 The kitchen was soon in a hubbub ; the servants hurried to the 
 spot. There lay old Barbara in fits ; as fast as she got out of 
 one, the thoughts of the devil came over her, and she fell into 
 another, for the good soul was devoutly superstitious. 
 
 "As ill luck would have it, among those attracted by the 
 noise was a little, cursed, fidgety, crabbed uncle of mine ; one 
 of those uneasy spirits that cannot rest quietly in their beds in 
 the morning, hut must be up early, to bo'iher the household. 
 He was only a kind of half-uncle, after all, for he had married 
 my father's sister ; yet he assumed great authority on the 
 strength of his left-handed relationship, and was a universal 
 iutermeddler and family pest. This prying little busy-body 
 soon ferreted out the truth of the story, and discovered, by 
 hook and by crook, that I was at the bottom of the affair, and 
 had locked up the donkey in the smoke-house. He stopped to 
 inquire no further, for he was one of those testy curmudgeons 
 with whom unlucky boys are always in the wrong. Leaving 
 tld Barbara to wrestle in imagination with the devil, he made 
 for my bed-chamber, where 1 still lay wrapped in rosy slum- 
 bers, little dreaming of the mischief I had done, and the storm 
 about to break over me. 
 
 "In an instant I was awakened by a shower of thwacks, and 
 started up iu wild amazement. I demanded the meaning of 
 this attack, but received no other reply than that I had mur- 
 dered the housekeeper ; while my uncle continued whacking 
 away during my confusion. I seized a poker, and put myself 
 on the defensive. I was a stout boy for my years, while my 
 uncle was a little wiffet of a man ; one that in Kentucky 
 we would not call even an ' individual ; ' nothing more than 
 a ' remote circumstance.' I soon, therefore, brought him to a 
 parley, and learned the whole extent of the charge brought 
 against me. I confessed to the donkey and the smoke-house, 
 but pleaded not guilty of the murder of the housekeeper. I 
 Booi» found out that old Barbara was still alive. She continued 
 under the doctor's hands, however, for several days ; and when- 
 ever she had an ill turn my uncle would seek to give me 
 
 unolher 
 
 flojiiiing. 
 
 I appealed to my father, but got no redress. 
 
 ' It 
 
114 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 'n 
 
 
 I was considered an ' uulucky boy,' prone to nil kincis of mis. 
 chief ; so that prepossessions were against me in all cases of 
 appeal. 
 
 '' I felt stnng to the soul at all this. I had been beaten, 
 degraded, and treated with slighting when I complained. I 
 lost my usual good spirits and good humor ; and being out of 
 temper with everybody, fancied everylxxly out of temper with 
 me. A certain wild, roving spirit of freedom, which J liilicvo 
 is as inherent in me as it is in the partridge, was brought into 
 sudden activity by the checks and restraints I suffered. ' I'll 
 go from home,' thought I, 'and shift for myself.' rerliaps 
 this notion was quickened by the rage for emigrating to Ken- 
 tucky, which was at that time prevalent in Virginia. 1 had 
 heard such stories of the romantic beauties of the country ; (jf 
 the abundance of game of all kinds, and of the glorious inde- 
 pendent life of the hunters who ranged its noble forests, and 
 lived by the rifle ; that I was as much agog to get there as Iioys 
 who live in seaports are to launch themselves among the won- 
 ders and adventures of the ocean. 
 
 "After a time old Barbara got better in mind and body, and 
 matters were explained to her; and she became gradually con- 
 vinced that it was not the devil she had encountered. When she- 
 heard how harshly I had been treated on her account, the good 
 old soul was extremel}' grieved, and spoke warmly to my father 
 in my behalf. He had himself remarked the change in my 
 behavior, and thought punishment might have been carried too 
 far. He sought, therefore, to have some conversation witli 
 me, and to soothe my feelings ; but it was too late. I fra;ikly 
 told him the course of mortification that i had experieuceil, 
 and the fixed determination I had made to go from home. 
 
 "• ' And where do you mean to go? ' 
 
 " 'To Kentucky.' 
 
 " 'To Kentucky ! Why, you know nobody there.* 
 
 " ' No matter: I can soon make acquaintances.' 
 
 " ' And what will you tlo when you get there? ' 
 
 "'Hunt!' 
 
 " My father gave a long, low whistle, and looked in my faro 
 with a serio-comic expression. I was not far in my teens, and 
 to talk of setting off alone for Kentucky, to turn huutei-, 
 seemed doubtless the idle prattle of a boy. He was little nwaro 
 of the dogged resolution of my character; and his smile of in- 
 credulity but fixed me more obstinately in my purpose. I assured 
 him I was serious in what I said, and "'ould ^ortainl*^ set off for 
 Kentucky in the spring 
 
EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RING WOOD. 115 
 
 Is of iiii^. 
 1 east's of 
 
 ;n l)0!ll(Ml, 
 
 ainod. I 
 »g out of 
 'i2p^''" with 
 
 J hclicve 
 ought into 
 et}. ^rii 
 
 I'erliaps 
 iT to Kfii- 
 I had 
 iintry; of 
 ions iiide- 
 )iosts, and 
 re as hoys 
 <; tlie won- 
 
 ''otly, and 
 
 iially cou- 
 
 Wheii she 
 
 ) tlio ^ood 
 
 my father 
 
 ge in my 
 
 ■arricd. too 
 
 ation with 
 
 I frankly 
 
 perienct'd, 
 
 me. 
 
 I my faro 
 ecus, and 
 1 hunter, 
 :tlc aware 
 ile of in- 
 I assured 
 let oif fur 
 
 "Montli after month passed away. My father now and then 
 advert«'d sliglitly to what had passed lietween us ; doubtless for 
 the purpose of sounding me. I always expressed the same grave 
 and fixed determination. By degrees he spoke to me more 
 directly oil the subject, endeavoring earnestly but kindly ^- clls- 
 -iiade me. My only reply was, ' I had made up my mind.' 
 
 •• Aecordiiij^ly. as soon as the spring had fairly opened, I 
 soni;ht him one day in his study, and informed him I was about 
 to set out for Kentucky, and had come to take my leave. He 
 made no objection, for he had exhausted persuasion and remon- 
 strance, and iloubtless thought it best to give way to my humor, 
 trustinji; that a little rough experience would soon bring me 
 home again. I asked money for my journey. He went to a 
 clu'st. took out a long <);reen silk purse, well filled, and laid it on 
 the table. 1 now asked for a horse and servant. 
 
 '•'A horse I ' s I'd my father, sneeringly : 'why, you would 
 not go a mile witluut racing him, and breaking your neck ; and 
 as to a servant, you cannot take care of yourself, much less of 
 him.' 
 
 '• ' How am I to travel, then?' 
 
 '• • Why. I suppose you are man enough to travel on foot.' 
 
 " He si>oke jestingly, little thinking 1 would take him at his 
 word ; but I was thoioiighly piqued in respect to my enterprise; 
 so I pocketed the purse, went to my room, tied up three or four 
 shirts in a pocket-handkerchief, put a dirk in my bosom, girt a 
 couple of pistols round my waist, and felt like a knight-errant 
 armed eap-ii-pie, and reatly to rove the world in quest of adven- 
 tures. 
 
 '• i\Iy sister (I had but one) hung round me and wept, and 
 entreated me to stay. I felt my heart swell in my throat ; but 
 I gulped it back to its place, and straightened myself up : I 
 would not suffer myself to cry. 1 at length disengaged myself 
 from her. and i^ot to the door. 
 
 '• • When will you come back?' cried she. 
 
 '• • Mcver. by heavens I ' cried I, ' until I come back a member 
 of('on<frcss from Kentucky. 1 am determined to show that I 
 au) not tiie tail-end of the family.' 
 
 "Such was my first outset from home. You may suppose 
 what a ureenhorn I was, and how little 1 knew of the world 1 
 was launching into. 
 
 " I do not recollect any incident of importance, until I reached 
 the lH)rders of Pennsylvania. I had stopped at an inn to get 
 some refreshment; and as I was eating in the back room, I 
 overheard two men in the bar-room conjecture who and what J 
 
 i i 
 
 .,^ .f ^-.^i-,.^m .Jh...^ »^~.-ml^: •*••-*>•■ rffc,"* 
 
116 
 
 TnE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 r i 
 
 if! 
 
 ? ;. 
 
 ! i 
 
 ,' I 
 
 could bo. One detprmincd, at length, that T was a runaway ap. 
 prentice, and ought to be stopped, to which the other assented. 
 When I had finished my meal, and paid for it, I went out at llio 
 back door, lest I should be stopped by my supervisors. Scoin- 
 ing, however, to steal off like a culprit, I walked round to the 
 front of the house. One of the men advanced to the front door. 
 He wore his hat on one side, and had a conse(piential air that 
 nettled me. 
 
 " ' Where arc you going, j^oungster? ' demanded he. 
 
 " * That's none of your business ! ' replied I, rather pertly, 
 
 " ' Yes, but it is, though ! You have run away from home, 
 and must give an account of yourself.' 
 
 " He advanced to seize me, when I drew forth a pistol. ' If 
 you advance another step, I'll shoot you ! ' 
 
 " He sprang back as if he had trodden uiwn a rattlesnake, 
 and his hat fell oflf in the movement. 
 
 " ' Let him alone ! ' cried his companion : ' he's a foolish, 
 mad-headed boy, and don't know what he's about. He'll shoot 
 you, you may rely on it.' 
 
 '' He did not need any caution in the matter ; he was afraid 
 even to pick up his hat : so I pushed forward on my way, with- 
 out molestation. This incident, however, had its effect upon 
 me. I became fearful of sleeping in any house at night, lest I 
 should be stopped. I took my meals in the houses, in the 
 course of the day, but would turn aside at night into some wood 
 or ravine, make a fire, and sleep before it. This I considered 
 was true hunter's style, and I wished to inure myself to it. 
 
 " At length I arrived at Brownsville, leg- weary and way- 
 worn, and in a shabby plight, as you may suppose, having been 
 ' camping out ' for some nights past. I applied at some of the 
 inferior inns, but could gain no admission. I was regarded for 
 a moment with a dubious eye, and then informed they did not 
 receive foot-passengers. At last I went boldly to the principal 
 inn. The landlord appeared as unwilling as the rest to receive 
 a vagrant boy beneath his roof; but his wife interfered in the 
 midst of his excuses, and half elbowing him aside : 
 
 " ' Where are you going, my lad? ' said she. 
 
 "'To Kentucky.' 
 
 *' ' What are you going there for?* 
 
 " 'To hunt.' 
 
 " She looked ear-e'stly at me for a moment or two. ' Have 
 you a mother liv'.jg? ' said she at length. 
 
 '• ' No, madam . she has been dead for some time.' 
 
 " ' I thought so ! ' cried she, warmly. ' I knew if you had a 
 
naway np. 
 assented, 
 out at tho 
 *• Scoin- 
 Hid to the 
 lont door. 
 il ail' that 
 
 portly, 
 oin home, 
 
 stol. ' If 
 ittlcsnake, 
 
 a foolish, 
 le'Il slioot 
 
 vas afraid 
 way, witli- 
 ffec't upon 
 glit, lest I 
 .'s, in the 
 iome wood 
 L'onsidered 
 to it. 
 
 and way- 
 iving been 
 me of the 
 ;arded for 
 ?y did not 
 principal 
 to receive 
 ed in the 
 
 ' Have 
 
 you bad a 
 
 EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RINOWOOD. 117 
 
 mother living, you would not be here.' From that moment the 
 good woman tr*^ated me with a mother's kindness. 
 
 " I remaineci several days beneath her roof, recovering from 
 the fatigue of my journey. While here I purchased a rifle and 
 practised daily at a mark to prepare myself for a hunter's life. 
 When sufficiently recruited in strength I took leave of my kind 
 host and hostess and resumed my journey. 
 
 "At Wheeling I embarked in a flat-bottomed family boat, 
 technically called a broad-horn, a prime river conveyance in 
 those days. In this ark for two weeks I floated down the Ohio. 
 The river was as yet in all its wild beauty. Its loftiest trees 
 had not been thinned out. The forest overhung the water's 
 edge, and was occasion <T,lly skirted by immense cane-brakes. 
 Wild animals of all kinds abounded. We hoard them rushing 
 through the thickets and plashing in the water. Deer and 
 bears would frequently swim across the river ; others would 
 come down to the bank and gaze at the boat as it passed. I 
 was incessantly on the alert with my rifle ; but somehow or other 
 the game was never within shot. Sometimes I got a chance to 
 land and try my skill on shore. I shot squirrels and small birds 
 and even wild turkeys ; but though I caught glimpses of deer 
 bounding away through the woods, I never could get a fair shot 
 at them. 
 
 " In this way we glided in our broad-horn past Cincinnati, the 
 'Queen of the West,' as she is now called, then a mere group 
 of log cabins ; and the site of the bustling city of Louisville, 
 then designated by a solitary house. As T said before, the 
 Ohio was as yet a wild river ; all was forest, forest, forest ! 
 Near the confluence of Green Rivor with the Ohio, I landed, 
 bade adieu to the broad-horn, and struck for the interior of 
 Kentucky. I had no precise plan ; my only idea was to make 
 for one of the wildest parts of the country. I had relatives in 
 Lexington and other settled places, to whom I thought it prob- 
 able my father would write concerning me : so as I »vas full of 
 manhood and independence, and resolutely bent on making my 
 way in the world without assistance or control, I resolved to 
 keep clear of them all. 
 
 " In the course of my first day's trudge, I shot a wild turkey, 
 and slung it on my back for provisions. The forest was open 
 and clear from underwood. I saw doer in abundance, but 
 always running, running. It seemed to me as if these animals 
 never stood still. 
 
 "At length I came to where a gang of half-starved wolves 
 were feasting on the carcass of ^ deer which they had ran 
 
 I 
 
 41 
 
 <• 
 
 111 
 
118 
 
 rilE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \i, 
 
 down ; and snarlinj^ and snappiii}; and fijflitiiij;]; like so many 
 dogs. They were all so ravenous and intent U|)on thi-ir prey 
 tliat they diil not notiee me, and I had time to make my oltser- 
 vations. One, iarjj;er and fiercer than tiie rest, seemed to eluiin 
 the lar<jer sliare, and to kee[) tiie otiiers in awe. If any one 
 came too near him wliile catin<;, he would My off, seize and 
 sliake him, and tiien return to liis repast. 'This,' thouj^ht I, 
 ' must be the eajitain ; if I can kill him, I shall (h'feat the wliolo 
 army.' I accordingly took aim, lired, and down dropped the old 
 fellow. He miijht be only shamming dead ; so I loaded and 
 pyt a second l)all throu<2;h him. lie never budged ; all the rest 
 ran off, and my victory was complete. 
 
 " It wo;;ld not be easy to describe my triumphant feeliiig3 
 on this great achievement. I marched on with renovated spirit, 
 regarding myself as al)soIiite lord of the forest. As night drew 
 near, I prepared for camping. My first care was to collect dry 
 wood and make a roaring fire to cook and sleep by, and to 
 frighten off wolves, and bears, and panthers. I then began to 
 pluck my turkey for supper. I had camped out several times 
 in the early part of my expedition : but that was in compara- 
 tively more settled antl civilized regions, where there were no 
 wild animals of consequence in the forest. This was my first 
 camping out in the real wilderness ; and I was soon made sen- 
 sible of the loneliness and wildness of my situation. 
 
 "In a little while a concert of wolves commenced: there 
 might have been a dozen or two, but it seemed to me as if there 
 were thousands. I never heard such howling and whining. 
 Having prepared my turkey, I divided it into two parts, thrust 
 two sticks into one of the halves, and planted them on end 
 before the fire, the hunter's mode of roasting. The smell of 
 roast meat quickened tlu^ appetites of the wolves, and their 
 concert became truly infernal. They seemed to be all around 
 me, but I couhl only now and then get a glimpse of one of 
 them, as he came within the glai-e of the light. 
 
 '• I did not much care for the wolves, who I knew to be a 
 cowardly race, but I had heard terril)le stories of panthers, and 
 began to fear their stealthy prowlings in the surrounding dark- 
 ness. I was thirsty, and heard a brook l)nbbling and tinkling 
 along at no great distance, but absolutely dared not go there, 
 lest some panther might lie in wait, and spring upon me. Hy 
 and by a deer whistled. I had n<'ver heard (me before, and 
 thought it must be a panther. I now felt uneasy lest he migiil 
 climb the trees, crawl along the brandies overhead, and i)lnnip 
 down upon me ; so 1 kei)t my eyes lixed on the branches, until 
 
 , 
 
EARLY EXPEUTKNCEf^ OF RALPH RINGWOOD. 119 
 
 so many 
 
 their proy 
 
 • my oliscr- 
 
 i'<l to cluini 
 
 If any one 
 
 seize aiul 
 
 thought I, 
 
 it the whole 
 
 )\H>(\ tlu'old 
 
 oaded and 
 
 all the rest 
 
 tint feelin<2;3 
 k'ated spirit, 
 i iiinliL drew 
 ) collcH't dry 
 
 Ity, and to 
 iMi bewail to 
 n'cral times 
 
 n coinpara- 
 L're were no 
 vas my first 
 1 made son- 
 need : there 
 as if there 
 id whininf^. 
 |)arts, thrust 
 lem on end 
 'he smell of 
 i, and their 
 ; all around 
 .' of one of 
 
 new to lie a 
 [inthcrs, and 
 ndinsi' (huk- 
 :uid tinkling 
 r)t jjfo there, 
 on me. Hy 
 before, and 
 est he niiiilit 
 , and i)hmip 
 iuclies, until 
 
 my li('a<l aehed. I more than once thou<?ht I saw fiery eyes 
 glariiiij down from amon<^ the leaves. At lenj^th I thoujfht of 
 my supper and turned to see if my half vurkey was cooked. 
 In crowding so near the fire I had pressed the meat into the 
 rtanies, and it was consumed. I luul nothing to do but toast 
 the other half, and take better care of it. On that half I made 
 my supper, without salt or liread. 1 was still so possessed 
 with the dread of panthers, that I could not close my eyes all 
 nigiit, l>ut lay watching the trees until daybreak, when all my 
 foais wi're dispelled with the darkness ; anil as I saw the morn- 
 inu; sun sparkling down through the branches of the trees, I 
 smiled to think how I had suffered myself to be dismayed by 
 sounds and shadows : but I was a young woodsman, and a 
 stranger in Kentucky. 
 
 "Having breakfasted on the remainder of my turkey, and 
 ylaked my thirst at the bubbling stream, without further dread 
 of panthers, 1 resumed my wayfaring with buoyant feelings. 
 1 again saw deer, but as usual running, running ! 1 tried in 
 vain to get a shot at them, and Ix'gan to fear I never should. 
 I was gazing with vexation after a herd in full scamper, when I 
 was startled by a human voice. Turning round, I saw a man 
 at a short distance from me, in a hunting dress. 
 
 " ' What are you after, my lad? ' cried he. 
 
 " 'Those deer,' replied I, pettishly ; ■ but it seems as if they 
 never stand still.' 
 
 " Upon that he burst out laughing. ' Where are you from? ' 
 said he. 
 
 " ' From Richmond.' 
 
 " ' What ! In old Virginny ? ' 
 
 "'The same.' 
 
 " ' And how on earth did you get here? ' 
 
 " ' I landed at Green River from a l)road-hcrn. 
 
 " ' And where are your companions? * 
 
 " ' I have none.' 
 
 '" What? — all alone!' 
 
 "'Yes.' 
 
 " ' Where are you going? * 
 
 " ' Anywhere.' 
 
 " ' And what have you come here for? ' 
 
 "'To hunt.' 
 
 "'Well,' said he, laughingly, 'you'll make a real hunter; 
 there's no mistaking that ! Ilave you killed any thing? ' 
 
 " ' Nothing but a turkey ; I can't get within shot of a deer: 
 they are always running.' 
 
 m 
 
120 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERH. 
 
 t ' 
 
 i< i 
 
 |. ! 
 
 «^ 
 
 " ' Oh, I'll tell you tlio secret of tlmt. You're always pusliint; 
 forward, and startiiij"; the deer at a distanee, and fiazinj; at 
 those tiiat are seaniperinia; ; but you must step as slow, nml 
 silent, and cautious as a cat, and keep your eyes close around 
 you, and lurk from tree to tree, if you wish to jjjet a chance at 
 deer. But come, go home with :ne. My name is Mill Suiithers; 
 I live not far off : stay with me u little while, and I'll teach you 
 how to hunt.' 
 
 " I gladly accepted the invitation of honest Hill Smitiierg. 
 We soon reached his habitation ; a mere log hut, with a s(iu!uc 
 hole for a window, and a chimney made of sticks and cliiv. 
 Here he lived, with a wife and child. He had ' girdled ' the 
 trees for an acre or two around, preparatory to cleaving u 
 space for corn and potatoes. In the mean time he maintaiiicil 
 his family entirely by his rifle, and I soon found him to hi; u 
 tirst-rate huntsman. I'nder his tuti'lage I received my first 
 effective lessons in 'woodcraft.' 
 
 "The more I knew of a hunter's life, the more I relished it. 
 The country, too, wliich had been the promised land of my 
 boyhood, did not, liki; most promised lands, disappoint ine. 
 No wilderness couhl be more beautiful than this part of Ken- 
 tucky, in those times. The forests were open and spacious, 
 with noble trees, some of which looked as if they had st(X)d for 
 centuries. Then' were beautiful prairies, too, diversified with 
 groves and clumps of trees, whicij looked like vast parks, and 
 in which you could see the deer running, at a great distance. 
 In the proper season these prairies would be covered in many 
 places with wild strawberries, where your horse's hoofs would 
 be dyed to the fetlock. 1 thought there could not be aiiother 
 place in the world equal to Kentucky — and I think so still. 
 
 "After I had passed ten or twelve days with Hill Smithers, 
 I thought it time to shift my quarters, for his house was scarce 
 large enough for his own family, and I had no idea of being an 
 incumbrance to any one. I accordingly maile up my bundle, 
 shouldered my rifle, took a friendly leave of Smithers and his 
 wife, and set out in quest of a Nimrod of the wilderness, one 
 John Miller, who lived alone, nearly forty miles off, and who I 
 hoped would be well pleased to have a hunting companion. 
 
 " I soon found out that one of the most important items in 
 woodcraft in a new country was the skill to find one's way in 
 the wilderness. There were no regular roads in the forests, 
 but they were cut up and perplexed by paths leading in all 
 directions. Some of these were made by the cattle of the set- 
 tlers, and were called ' stock-tracks,' but others had been niade 
 
EAELT EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RINOWOOD. 121 
 
 by the immcnso droves of buffaloes which roamed about the 
 country, from the flood until recent times. These were caUed 
 l)uff!ilo-tracks, and traversed Kentucky from end to end, like 
 liij,'hway8. Traces of them may still be seen in uncultivated 
 parts, or deeply worn in the rocks where they crossed the 
 mountains. 1 was a young woodsman, and sorely puzzled to 
 (llritiuguish one kind of track from the other, or to make out 
 jiiy course tlirouij;li this tangled labyrinth. While thus per- 
 plexed, I heard a distant roaring and rushing sound ; a gloom 
 stole over the forest : on looking up, when I could catch a stray 
 glitiipse of the sky, I beheld the clouds rolled up like balls, the 
 lower parts as black as ink. There was now and then an ex- 
 plosion, like a burst of cannonry afar off, and the crash of a 
 falling tree. I had heard of hurricanes in the woods, and sur- 
 mised that one was at hand. It soon came crashing its way; 
 the forest writhing, and twisting, and groaning before it. The 
 hurnctine did not extend far on either side, but in a manner 
 plougiied a furrow through the woodland ; snapping off or up- 
 rooting trees that had stood for centuries, and filling the air 
 witli whirling branches. I was directly in its course, aud took 
 my stand behind an immense poplar, six feet in diameter. It 
 l)ore for a time the full fury of the blast, but at length began 
 to yield. Seeing it falling, I scrambled nimbly round the trunk 
 like a squirrel. Down it went, bearing down another tree with 
 it. I crept under the trunk as a shelter, and was protected 
 fioui other tives which fell around me, but was sore all over 
 from the twigs and branches driven against me by the blast. 
 
 " This was the only incident of consequence that occurred 
 ou my way to .John Miller's, where I arrived on the following 
 (lay, and was reeeivod by the veteran with the rough kindness 
 of a backwoodsman. He was a gray-haired man, hardy and 
 weiitlier-beatcn, with a blue wart, like a great bead, over one 
 eye, whence he was nicknamed by the hunters ' Blue-bead Mil- 
 ler.' He had been in these parts from the earliest settlements, 
 aud had signalized himself in che hard conflicts with the In- 
 dians, which gained Kentucky the appellation of ' the Bloody 
 Ground.' In one of these figlits he had had an arm broken; 
 in another he had narrowly escaped, when hotly pursued, by 
 jumping from a precipice thirty feet high into a river. 
 
 " Miller willingly received me into his house as an inmate, 
 tuul seemed pleased with the idea of making a hunter of me. 
 His dwelling was a small log house, with a loft or garret of 
 hoards, so that there was ample room for both of us. Under 
 ills instructioa I soon made a tolerable proficiency iu hunting. 
 
 II 
 
 Li 
 
 ill 
 
 i\ 
 
 i» i 
 
 h I 
 
122 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 \i i 
 
 My first exploit, of any consequence, was killins; a bear. 1 
 was liiinting in coniptiuy with two hrotliers, when we came 
 upon the track of Bruin, in a wood where there was an undci- 
 growtli of canes and grape-vines. He was scramhling up a tree, 
 when I shot him througli the hreast : lie fell to the ground and 
 lay motionless. The hrotliers sent in the! ' dog, wlio seized the 
 bear by the throat. Hruin raised one arm, and gave tiie dog a 
 hug that crushed his ribs. One yell, and all was over. I don't 
 know which was first dead, the dog or tlie bear. The two 
 brothers sat down and cried like children over tlieir unfortunate 
 dog. Yet they weie mere rough huntsmen, almost as wild and 
 untamable as Indians : but they were line fellows. 
 
 " By degrees I became known, and somewhat of a favorite 
 among the hunters of the neighborhood : that is to say, men 
 who lived within a circle of thirt}- or forty miles, and came 
 occasionally to see John Miller, who was a patriarcli among 
 them. Tliey lived widely apart, in log nuts and wigwams, 
 almost with the simplicity of Indians, and well-nigli as destitute 
 of the comforts and inventions of civilized life. Tiiey seldom 
 saw each other ; weeks, and even months would elapse, witliont 
 their visiting. When they did meet, it w;is vt-ry much after tlu' 
 manner of Indians ; loitering about all day, witliont having 
 iiiuch to say, but becoming communicative as evening advanced, 
 and sitting up half the night before the lire, telling luuituig 
 stories, and terrible tales of tlie iiglits of the Bloody (J round. 
 
 " Sometimes several would join in a distant hunting ex[)e- 
 dition, or rather camj^aign. Expeditions of this kind lasted 
 from November until April ; during which we laid up our stock 
 of summer provisions. \Ve shifted our hunting camps i'lom 
 place to place, according as we found the game. They \>','iv 
 generally pitched near a run of water, and close by a c.'ine- 
 brake, to screen us from the wind. One side of our lodge was 
 open toward the lire. Our horses were hoppled and tiirne 1 
 loose in the cane-brakes, with bells round their necks. One of 
 the party staid at home to watch the camp, i)ivp:uc the meals, 
 and keep off the wolves ; the others hunted. When a hunter 
 killed a deer at a distance from the camp, he would open it and 
 takeout the entrails; then cliinl)ing a SMpling. he would bend 
 it down, tie the deer to the top, and lei it s|)iiiig up again, m> 
 as to susi)end the carcass out of reach of tin- wohes. At night 
 he would return tc the camp, and give an account of his luck. 
 The next morning early he would get a horse out of the ( anc- 
 brake, and bring home his game. That day he would .stay ;it 
 borne to cut up the careusH, while the others hunted. 
 
 I i 
 
 |r 
 
M 
 
 I bear. 1 
 
 we came 
 
 an undcr- 
 
 ? lip fi tree, 
 
 round and 
 
 seizod the 
 
 the dorr r^ 
 
 I don't 
 Tlie two 
 m fortunate 
 s wild and 
 
 a favorite 
 Hay, men 
 
 and carnu 
 I'cli anionir 
 
 wiowanis, 
 
 i-s destitute 
 
 liey seldom 
 
 se, without 
 
 Ii after the 
 
 i>nt havin<f 
 
 : advaneeii, 
 
 iiji luuilinir 
 
 ti round. 
 
 itinii cx'pe- 
 
 ^iTi(i lusted 
 
 • our stock 
 in)|>s iVoMi 
 They \ver(.' 
 >y a cMiie- 
 
 l<)(l<>e was 
 M(i tiirne.l 
 
 • One of 
 the meals, 
 1 a lituiter 
 pen it and 
 ould hend 
 
 again, so 
 
 At niiiht 
 
 liis luck. 
 
 the ( anc- 
 
 Id .stay at 
 
 EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RINGWOOD. 123 
 
 " Our daj's were thus spent in silent and lonely occupations. 
 It was only at night that we would gather together before the 
 fire, and be sociable. 1 was a novice, and used to listen with 
 open eyes and ears to the strange and wild stories told by the 
 old hunters, and believed every thing I heard. Home of their 
 stories bordered upon the sui)ernatural. They believed that 
 tlieir rilles might l)e spell-bound, so as not to l)c able to kill a 
 jiutTalo, even at arm's length. This superstition they had de- 
 rived from the Indians, wlio often think the white hunters have 
 hiid a spell up(jn their rifles. Miller partook of this super- 
 stition, and used to tell of his riHe's having a spell upon it ; but 
 it often seemed to me to be a shulfling way of accounting for a 
 bad shot. If a hunter grossly missed his aim he would ask, 
 ' Who shot last with this ritle?' — and hint that he must have 
 eliarmed it. The sure mode to disenchant the gun was to shoot 
 a silver bullet out of it. 
 
 "■ IJy the o()ening of spring we would generally have quanti- 
 ties of l)ear's-meat and venison salted, dried, and smoked, and 
 numerous packs of skins. We would then make the best of our 
 way houit! from our distant hunting-grounds ; transporting our 
 spoils, sometimes in canoes along the rivers, sometimes on horse- 
 liack (ner land, and our return would often be celebrated by 
 feasting and dancing, in true backwoods style. 1 have given 
 you some idea of our hunting ; let me now give you a sketch of 
 our frolicking. 
 
 " It was on our return from a winter's hunting in the neigh- 
 litnliood of (ireen River, when we received notice that there 
 was to be a grand frolic at Hob Mosely's, to greet the hunters. 
 This l»()b Mosely was a prime fellow throughout the country. 
 He was an indifferent hunter, it is true, and rather lazy to boot; 
 but then h(! could play the fiddle, and that was enough to make 
 him of conscipience. There was no other man within a hundred 
 miles that could play the fiddle, so there was no having a regu- 
 lar frolic without Hob Mosely. The hunters, therefore, were 
 always reatly to g'v.' him a share of their game in exchange for 
 his music, and Bob was always ready to get up a carousal, 
 whenever theie was a iiarty returning from a hunting expedi- 
 tion. The present frolic was to take place at Bob Mosely's 
 own house, which was on the Pigeon Roost Fork of the Muddy, 
 which is a branch of Rough Creek, which is a branch of Green 
 River. 
 
 " Everybody was agog for the revel at Bob Mosely's ; and as 
 all the fashion' of the neighborhood was to be there, I thought 
 1 uiust brush up foi' the ocuusiou. My leathern hunting-dress, 
 
 
 
 I'D i 
 
 ■J ' . i 
 
 'i ^ 
 
 i 
 
 } 
 
 I' 
 
124 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \i , 
 
 VI S 
 
 I- ! 
 
 which was the only one I had, waS somewhat the worse fov 
 wear, it is true, and considerably japanned with blood and 
 grease ; but I was up to hunting expedients. Getting into a 
 periogue, I paddled oflF to a part of the Green River wliero 
 there was sand and clay, that might serve for soap ; then takiii(r 
 off my dress, I scrubbed and scoured it, until I thought it lookcii 
 vpry well. I then put it on the end of a stick, and hung it out 
 ot tiK; periogue to dry, while I stretched myself very comfort- 
 ably on the green bank of the river. Unluckily a flaw struck 
 the [)eriogue, and tipped over the stick : down went my flross 
 to the bottom of the river, and I n>?vei' saw it more. Here was 
 I, left almost in a state of nature. I managed to make a kind 
 of Robinson Crusoe garb of undressed skins, with the hair on. 
 which enabled me to get home with decency ; but my dream of 
 gayety and fashion was at an end ; for how could I think of 
 figuring in high life at the Pigeon Roost, equipped like a mere 
 Orson ? 
 
 " Old Miller, who ri'ally began to take some pride in me, was 
 confounded when he understood that I did not intend io go to 
 Bob Mosely's ; but when I told him my misfortune, and that I 
 had no dress : ' By the powers,' cried he, ' but you shall go, and 
 you shall be the oest dressed and the best mounted lad there I ' 
 
 " He immediately set to work to cut out and make up a hunt- 
 ing-shirt of dreased deer-skin, gayly fringed at the shoulders, 
 with leggings of the same, fringed from hip to heel. Ho then 
 made me a rakish raccoon-cap, with a flaunting tail to it; 
 mounted me on his best horse ; and I may say, without vanity, 
 that I was one of the smartest fellows that flgured on that occa- 
 sion, at the Pigeon Roost Fork of the Muddy. 
 
 "It was no small occasion, either, let me tell you. Boh 
 Mosely's house was a tolerably large bark shnnty, with a clap- 
 board roof ; and there were assembled all the j'oung hunters and 
 pretty girls of the country, for many a mile round. The young 
 men were in their best huntinjt-dresscs, but not one could com- 
 pare with mi }e ; and my racoon-cap, with its flowing tail, was 
 the admiration of everybody. The girls were mostly in doe-skiu 
 dresses ; for there was no spinning and weaving as yet in the 
 woods ; nor any need of it. I never saw girls that seemed to 
 me better dressed ; and I was somewhat of a judge, having seen 
 fashions at Ricinnond. We had a hearty dinner, and a merry 
 one ; for there was Jemmy Kiel, famous for raccoon-hunting, 
 and Bob Tarleton, and Wesley Pigman, and Joe Taylor, and 
 several other prime fellows for a frolic, that made all ring again, 
 and laughed, that you might have heard them a mile. 
 
EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RING WOOD. 125 
 
 e worse foi 
 ^lood and 
 tting into a 
 River where 
 then takinrr 
 2;ht it loolvi'ii 
 hung it out 
 ry comfort- 
 flaw struck 
 ;it my flress 
 Here was 
 lake a kind 
 the hair on. 
 ly dream of 
 I think of 
 like a mere 
 
 ? in me, was 
 1(1 to go to 
 
 and that I 
 •hall go, and 
 lad there ! ' 
 e up a hunt- 
 2 shoulders, 
 . He then 
 
 tail to it; 
 lout vanity, 
 >n that occa- 
 
 you. Boh 
 vith a clap- 
 hunters and 
 
 The young 
 
 could coin- 
 II g tail, was 
 
 in doe-skin 
 1 yet in the 
 ; seemed to 
 having seen 
 tid a merry 
 on-hunting, 
 raylor, and 
 
 ring again, 
 
 " After dinner we began dancing, and were hard at it, when, 
 about three o'clock in the afternoon, there was a new arrival — 
 the two daughters of old Simon Schultz ; two young ladies that 
 affected fashion and late hours. Their arrival had nearly put 
 an end to all our merriment. I must go a little roundabout in 
 mv story to explain to you how that happened. 
 
 "As old Sciiultz, the father, was one day looking in the cane- 
 brakes for his cattle, he came upon the track of horses. He knew 
 they were none of his, and that none of his neighbors had horses 
 ;il)0ut that place. They must be stray horses ; or must belong 
 to some traveller who had lost his way, as the track led nowhere. 
 He accordingly followed it up, until he came to an unlucky ped- 
 ler, with two or three pack-horses, who had been bewildered 
 anioni;; the cattle-tracks, and had wandered for two or three days 
 among woods and cane-brakes, until he was almost famished. 
 
 " Old Schultz brought him to his house ; fed him on venison, 
 bear's meat, and hominy, and at the end of a week put him in 
 prime condition. The pedler could not sufficiently express his 
 thankfulness ; and when about to depart, inquired what he had 
 to pay ? Old Schultz stepped back with surprise. ' Strang 
 said he, * you javc been welcome under my roof. I've given 
 you nothing but wild meat and hominy, because I had no better, 
 but have been glad of your company. You are welcome to stay 
 as long as you please ; but, by Zounds ! if any one offers to pay 
 Simon Schultz for food he affronts him ! ' So saying, he walked 
 out in a huff. 
 
 "The pedler admired the hospitality of his host, but could 
 not reconcile it to his conscience to go away without making 
 some recompense. There were honest Simon's two daughters, 
 two strapping, red-haired girls. He opened his packs and dis- 
 played riches before them of which they had no conception ; for 
 in those days there were no country stores in those parts, with 
 their artificial finery and trinketry ; and this was the first pedler 
 that had wandered into that part of the wilderness. The girls 
 were for a time comiiietely dazzled, and knew not what to 
 choose : but what caught their eyes most were two looking- 
 glasses, about the size of a dollar, set in gilt tin. They had 
 never seen the like before, having used no other mirror than a 
 pail of water. The pedler presented them these jewels, with- 
 out the least hesitation; nay, he gallantly hung them round 
 their necks by red ribbons, almost as fine as the glasses them- 
 selves. This done, he took his departure, leaving them as 
 much astonished as two princesses in a fairy talc, that have re- 
 ceived a magic gift from an enchanter 
 
126 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ' 
 
 . I . 
 
 "It was with those looking-glasses, hung round their necks 
 as lockets, by red ril)l)ons, that old Sclniltz's daughters made 
 their appearance at three o'clock in the afternoon, at the frolic 
 at Bob Mosely's, on the Pigeon Koost Fork of the Muddy. 
 
 ''By the powers, but it was an event! Such a thing hud 
 never before been seen in Kentuck}'. BobTarleton, a stnippintr 
 fellow, with a lieud like a chestnut-burr, and a look like a l)oar 
 in an apple orchard, stepped up, caught hold of the lookin<T. 
 glass of one of the girls, and gazing at it for a nioiiicnl, cried 
 out : ' Joe Taylor, come here ! come here ! I'll be darn'd if 
 Patty Schultz ain't got a locket that you can see your face in, 
 as clear as in a spring of water ! ' 
 
 "• In a twinkling all the young hunters gathered round old 
 Schultz's daughters. I, who knew what looking-glasses were, 
 did not budge. Some of the girls who sat near me were exces- 
 sively mortified at finding themselves thus deserted. I heard 
 Pcgg}' Pugh say to Sally Pigman, ' CJoodncss knows, it's well 
 Schultz's daugliters is got tliem things round their necks, for 
 it's tlie first time the young men crowded round them I ' 
 
 "• I saw immediately tl»e danger of the case. We were a 
 Bmall community, anil could not afford to be split up by feuds. 
 So I stei)j)ed up to the girls, and wliis[)cred to them : • Polly,' 
 said I, ' those lockets uu- powerful fine, and become j'ou aiiiaz- 
 inuly ; but you don't consider that the country is not advanced 
 enough in these parts for such thin<';s. You and I understand 
 tlicse matters, but those people ^(on't. Fine tilings like these 
 may do very well in the old settlements, but they won't an- 
 swer at the I'igeon Hoost Fork of the Muddy. You had better 
 lay thcju aside for the present, or we shall have no i)eace.' 
 
 " Polly and her sister luckily saw their error; they took off 
 the lockets, laid thein aside, and IiMvmony was restored : other- 
 wise, 1 verily believe there would have been an end of our 
 eonmnmity. Indeed, notwithstanding the great sacrifice they 
 made on this occasion, I do not think old Schultz's daughters 
 were ever much liked afterward among the young women. 
 
 "This was the first time that looking-glasses were ever seen 
 in the Green Hlver [lart of Kentucky. 
 
 "1 had now lived some time with old Miller, and had become 
 a tolerably expert hunter. (Jaine, however, began fo grow 
 fcarce. The buffalo had gathered togetiior, as if by universal 
 understanding, and had crossed the Mississip[>i, never to re- 
 turn. Strangers kept pouring into the country, clo'iring away 
 tlie forests, and building in all directions. The lumtcivs began 
 to grow restive. Jemmy Kiel, the same of whom I Ir.ivw 
 
I their necks 
 gliters made 
 at the frolic 
 Muddy. 
 
 a iU'uvr hu(J 
 
 , a strapping 
 like a hoar 
 
 the looking, 
 luiueiit, cried 
 
 »e darii'd if 
 /our face in, 
 
 d round old 
 
 >las,ses were, 
 
 were exccs- 
 
 ed. I heard 
 
 )\vs, it's well 
 
 'ir necks, for 
 
 ml ' 
 
 AVe were a 
 
 III) '^y ft-'iids. 
 
 em : • I'olly,' 
 
 le you auiaz- 
 
 lot advanced 
 
 I understand 
 
 ijs like these 
 
 cy won't an- 
 
 ju had heller 
 
 I l)eaee.' 
 
 they took off 
 
 .ored : otlier- 
 
 end of our 
 
 iaerilice they 
 
 '-'s daughters 
 
 rvomen. 
 
 .'re ever seen 
 
 1 had hecoine 
 iau to <j;ro\v 
 hy universal 
 never to re- 
 leariuij; away 
 iinlcrs he^an 
 hum 1 huvw 
 
 EARLY EAPERIEYCES OF RALPn RING WOOD. 127 
 
 raccoon catching, came to rae 
 any longer, ' said he ; 
 Schultz crowds me so 
 
 ' we re 
 that I 
 
 already spoken for his skill in 
 one day : ' I can't stand this 
 getting too thick here. Simon 
 have no comfort of my life.' 
 
 " ' Why, how you talk ! ' said I ; ' Simon Schultz lives 
 twelve miles ofiF.' 
 
 " ' No matter ; his cattle run with mine, and I've no idea of 
 hving where another man's cattle can run with mine. That's too 
 close neighborhood • I want elbow-room. This country, too, 
 is growing too poor to live in ; there's no game ; so two or 
 three of us have made up our minds to follow the buffalo to 
 the Missouri, and we should like to have you of the party,' 
 Other hunters of my acquaintance talked in the same manner. 
 This set me thinking ; but the more I thought the more I was 
 perplexed. 1 had no one to advise with ; old Miller and h.is 
 associates knew but of one mode of life, and I had had no expe- 
 rience in any other : but I had a wider scope of thought. Whej 
 out hunting alone I used to forget the sport, and sit for hours 
 together on the trunk of a tree, with rifle in hand, buried in 
 thought, and debating with myself : ' Shall I go with Jemmy 
 Kiel and his company, or shall I remain here? If I remain 
 here there will soon be nothing left to hunt ; but am I to be a 
 hunter all my life ? Have not I something more in me than to 
 he carrying a rifle on my shoulder, day after day, and dodging 
 about after bears, and deer, and other brute beasts?' My 
 vanity told me I had ; and I called to mind my boyish boast 
 to my sister, that I would never return home, until I returned 
 a member of Congress from Kentucky ; but was this the way 
 to fit myself for such a station? 
 
 "• A^arious plans passed through my mind, but they were 
 abandoned almost as soon as formed. At length I determined 
 on becoming a lawyer. True it is, I knew almost nothing. I 
 had left school before I had learned beyond the " rule of three.' 
 'Never mind,' said I to myself, resolutely; ' I am a terrible 
 fellow for hanging on to any thing when I've once made up my 
 mind ; and if a man has but ordinary capacity, and will set to 
 work with heart and soul, and stick to it, he can do almost 
 any thing.* AVith this maxim, which has been pretty much my 
 main-stay throughout life, I fortified myself in my determina- 
 tion to attempt the law. But how was I to set about it? I 
 nmsl quit this forest life, and go to one or other of the towns, 
 wlii're I might be able to study, and to attend the courts. This 
 loo re(juired funds. I examined into the state of my finances. 
 The purse given me by my father had remained untouched, in 
 
 ^1 
 
 H 
 
128 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 the bottom of an old chest up in the loft, for money was 
 scarcely needed in these parts. I had bargained away the 
 skins acquired in hunting, for a horse and various other mat- 
 ters, on which, in case of need, 1 could raise funds. I there- 
 fore thought 1 could make shift to maintain myself until 1 was 
 fitted for the bar. 
 
 " I informed my worthy host and patron, old INIiller, of my 
 plan. He shook his head at my turning my back upon the 
 woods, when I was in a fair way of making a lirst-rate hunter ; 
 but he made no effort to dissuade me. I accordingly set off 
 in September, on horseback, intending to visit Lexington, 
 Frankfort, and other of the principal towns, in searcli of a 
 favorable place to prosecute my studies. My choice was made 
 sooner than I expected. I had put up one night at Bardslown, 
 and found, on inquiry, that I could get comfortable board and 
 accommodation in a private family for a dollar and a lialf a 
 week. I liked the place, and resolved to look no farther. So 
 the next morning I prepared to turn my face homeward, and 
 take my final leave of forest life. 
 
 " I had taken my breakfast, and was waiting for my liorse, 
 when, in pacing up and down the piazza, I saw a young girl 
 seated near a window, evidently a visitor. .She was very pretty ; 
 wiiih auburn hair and blue eyes, and was dressed in white. I 
 had seen nothing of the kind since I had ipeft Richmond ; aiid 
 at that time I was too much of a boy to be nnich struck by 
 female charms. She was so delicate and dainty-looking, so 'af- 
 ferent from the hale, buxom, brown girls of the woods ; and 
 then her white dress ! — it was perfectly dazzling ! Never was 
 poor youth more taken by surprise, and suddenly bewitched. ]\ly 
 heart yearned to know her ; but how was I to accost her ? I had 
 grown wild in the woods, and had none of the habitudes of polite 
 life. Had she been like Peggy Pugh or Sally I'igman, or any 
 other of my leathern-dressed belles of the Pigeon Ixoost, 1 should 
 have approached her without dread ; nay, had she been as fair 
 as Schultz's daughters, with their looking-glass lockets, I should 
 not have hesitated ; but that white dress, and those auburn ring- 
 lets, and blue eyes, and delicate looks, quite daunted, while tliey 
 fascinated me. I don't know what put it into my head, but I 
 thought, all at once, that I would kiss her ! It woukl take a long 
 acquaintance to arrive at such a boon, but I might seize upon it 
 by sheer robbery. Nobody knew me here. I would just step 
 in, snatch a kiss, mount my horse, and ride off. She would not 
 be the worse for it, and that kiss — oh! I should die if 1 did 
 not get it 1 
 
loncy was 
 
 tiway the 
 
 )tlier mjit- 
 
 I tliore- 
 
 intil 1 was 
 
 ler, of my 
 iiI>on the 
 te liuntor; 
 sly set off 
 t'xingtou, 
 arch of a 
 was made 
 ianlstown, 
 board and 
 I a half a 
 rther. .So 
 3 ward, and 
 
 ' my horse, 
 youiijr (firl 
 ery pictty ; 
 |i white. I 
 inond ; uvA 
 struck by 
 iut^. so 'V{- 
 n)0(h ; and 
 Never was 
 tched. My 
 ler? I liad 
 es of polite 
 lan, or any 
 5t, I should 
 }en as fair 
 .s, I should 
 iiburn ring- 
 while they 
 licad, but I 
 take a lorn: 
 ize upon it 
 I just step 
 would not 
 ie if 1 did 
 
 EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPU RING WOOD. 1 2' 
 
 " I gave no time for the thought to cool, liut entered the house, 
 and stepped lightly into the; room. She was seated with her 
 back to tlie door, looking out at the window, and did not hear 
 my approach. I tapped her chair, and as she turned and looked 
 up, I snatched as sweet a kiss as ever was stolen, and vanished 
 in a twinkling. The next moment 1 was on horseback, galloping 
 homeward ; my very ears tingling at wlitit I had done. 
 
 " On my return home 1 sold luy horse, and turued every thing 
 to cash ; and found, with the remains of the paternal purse, that 
 I had nearly four hundred dollars ; a little capital which I re- 
 solved to manage with the strictest economy. 
 
 "It was hard parting with old Miller, who had been like a 
 father to me ; it cost me, too, something of a struggle to give 
 up the free, independent wild-wood life 1 had hitherto led ; but 
 I had marked out my course, and had never been one to flinch 
 or turn back. 
 
 "I footed it sturdily to Bardstown ; took possession of the 
 quarters for which I had bargained, shut myself u[), and set to 
 work with might and main to study. Hut what a task 1 had 
 bifore me ! 1 had every thing to learn ; not merely law, but all 
 the elementary branches of knowledge. 1 read and read, for 
 sixteen hours out of the four-and-twenty ; but the more I read 
 the more I became aware of my own ignorance, and shed bitter 
 tears over my deficiency. It seemed as if the wilderness of 
 knowledge expanded and grew more perplexed as 1 advanced. 
 Every height gained only revealed a wider region to be trav- 
 ersed, and nearly fdled me with despair. 1 grew moody, silent, 
 and unsocial, but studied on doggedly and incessantly. The 
 ohly person with whom I iield any conversation was the worthy 
 man in whose house I was quartered. He was honest and well- 
 meaning, but perfectly ignorant, and I believe would have liked 
 me much better if I had not been so much addicted to reading. 
 Fie considered all books filled with lies and impositions, and 
 seldom could look into one without finding something to rouse 
 bis spleen. Nothing put him into a greater passion than the 
 assertion that the world turned on its own axis every four-and 
 twenty hours. He swore it was an outrage upon common sense. 
 * Why, if it did,' said he, 'there would not hi' a drop of watet 
 in the well by morning, and all the milk and cream in the dairy 
 would be turned topsy-turvy ! And then to talk of the earth 
 going round the sun! How do they know it? I've seen the 
 Sim rise every morning, and set every evening, for more than 
 tliirty years. They must not talk to vie about the earth's going 
 round the sun ! ' 
 
 M 
 
180 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \ > 
 
 '■i ■ if 
 
 Ml 
 
 ), 
 
 •' At another time he was in a perfect fret at being told the 
 distance between the sun and moon. ' How can any one tell 
 the distance?' cried he. 'Who surveyed it? who carried the 
 chain ? By Jupiter ! they only talk this way before nic to annoy 
 me. but then there's some people of sense who give in to this 
 cursed humbug ! There's Judge Broadnax, now, one of the best 
 lawyers we have ; isn't it surprising he should believe in such 
 stuff? Why, sir, tht other day I heard him talk of the distance 
 from a star he called Mars to the sun ! He must have «fot it 
 out of one or other of those confounded books he's so fond of 
 reading; a book some impudent fellow has written, who knew 
 nobody could swear ttie distance was more or less.' 
 
 "P'or my own part, feeling my own dofieieney in scientific 
 lore, I never ventured to unsettle his conviction that the sun 
 made his daily circuit round the earth ; and for aught I said to 
 the contrary, he lived and died in that belief. 
 
 " I had been about a year at Bardstown, living thus studiously 
 and reclusely, when, as 1 was one day walking the street, I met 
 two young girls, in one of whom I immediately recalled the little 
 beauty whom I had kissed so impudently. She blushed up to 
 the eyes, and so did I ; but we both passed on 'vithout further 
 sign of recognition. This second glimpse of her, however, 
 caused an odd fluttering abjut my heart. I could not get her 
 out of my thoughts for days. She quite interfered with my 
 studies. I tried to think of her as a mere child, l)ut it would 
 not do ; she had improved in beauty, and was tending toward 
 womanhood ; and then 1 myself was but little l)etter than a 
 stripling. However, I did not attempt to seek after her, or even 
 to find out who she was, but returned doggedly to my books. 
 By degrees she faded from my thoughts, or if she did cross them 
 occasionally, it was only to increase my despondency ; for I 
 feared that with all my exertions, I should never l>e able to fit 
 myself for the bar, or ena1)le myself to support a wife. 
 
 " One cold stormy evening I was seated, in dumpish mood, 
 in the bar-room of the inn, looking into the fire, and turninf> 
 over uncomfortable thoughts, when I was accosted by some 
 one who had entered the room without my perceiving it. I 
 looked up, and saw before me a tall and, as I thought, pom- 
 pous-looking man, arrayed in small-clothes and knee-buckles, 
 with powdered head, and shoes nicely blacked and polished ; a 
 style of dress unparalleled in those days, in that rough country. 
 I took a pique against him from the very portliness of his 
 appearance, and stateliness of his manner, and biistled up as 
 he accosted me. He demanded if my name was not Hingwood. 
 
ig told the 
 ny one tell 
 ciirri(!il the 
 le to annoy 
 e in to this 
 
 of the best 
 
 ve in such 
 
 .he distance 
 
 have trot it 
 
 so fond of 
 
 who know 
 
 n scientific 
 lat the sun 
 it I said to 
 
 s studiously 
 treet, 1 mot 
 ed the little 
 ished up to 
 lOUt further 
 r, however, 
 not ofet her 
 ed with my 
 hut it would 
 V\n<X, toward 
 'tter than a 
 her, or even 
 » my hooks. 
 I cross them 
 mey ; for I 
 ! alile to fit 
 ife. 
 
 ipish mood, 
 and turnino 
 'd by some 
 ivinp; it. I 
 lught, pora- 
 lee-buekles. 
 polished ; a 
 gh country, 
 uess of his 
 stied up as 
 King wood. 
 
 EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RING WOOD. 131 
 
 " I was startled, for I suppose! myself perfectly iucog. ; but 
 I answered iu tl e afflrrnative. 
 
 " ' Your fauiily, I believe, lives in Richmond?' 
 
 " My gorge began to rise. ' Yes, sir,' replied I, sulkily, ' my 
 family does live in Ixiehniond.' 
 
 '• ' And what, may I ask, has brought you into this part of 
 the country? ' 
 
 "'Zounds, sir!' cried I, starting on my feet, 'what busi- 
 ness is it of yours? How dare you to question me in this man- 
 
 ,•>■ 
 
 tier 
 
 "Tiie entrance of some persons prevented a reply; but I 
 walked up and down the l)ar-'()oni, fuming with conscious in- 
 (k'poudenee and insulted dignity, while the pompous-looking 
 personage, who had thus trespassed upon my spleen, retired 
 without proffering another word. 
 
 "'I'lie next day, while seated in my room, some one tapped at 
 the door, and, on being bid to enter, the stranger in the pow- 
 dered Iiead, small-clothes, and shining shoes and buckles, walked 
 iu with ceremonious courtesy 
 
 '* My lioyish piide was again in arms; but he subdued me. 
 He was formal, but kind and friendly. He knew my family 
 and understood my situation, and the dogged struggle 1 was 
 making. A little conversation, when my jealous pride was 
 once put to rest, drew every thing from me. He was a lawyer 
 of experience and of extensive practice, and offered at once to 
 take me with him, and direct my studies. The otTer was too 
 advantageous and gratifying n(;t to be immediately accepted. 
 From ti'.at time I began to look up. I was put into a proper 
 track, and was enabled to study to a proper purpose. 1 made 
 ac(iuaintance, too, with some of the young men of the place, 
 who were in the same pursuit, and was encouraged at finding 
 that 1 could ' hold my own ' in argument with them. We insti- 
 tuted a debating club, in which I soon became prominent and 
 popular. jNIcm of talents, engaged in other pursuits, joined it, 
 uid tills diversilie<l our subjects, and put me on various tracks 
 of iiKjuiry. Ladies, too, attended some of our discussions, and 
 this gave them a i)olite tone, and had an influence on the man- 
 ners of the debaters. My legal patron also may have had a 
 favorable effect in correcting any roughness contracted in my 
 hunter's life. He was calculated to bend me in an opposite 
 direction, for he was of the old school ; quoted Chesterfield on 
 all occasions, and talked of Sir Charles Grandisou, who was 
 his beau ideal. It was Sir Charles Grandisou, however, Ken- 
 tuckyized. 
 
132 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 " I had always boon fond of female society. My experience, 
 however, had iiitiicrto liecn anioiij^ tlic rou<i;li daugliters of tli^ 
 haekwoodsincn ; and I felt an awe of yonn<j; hulies in 'store 
 clothes,' and delicately hron^lit np. Two or three of the mar- 
 ried ladies of Hardslown, who had heard nie at the del)atin<i; eliih, 
 determined tliat I was a j^enius, and nndertook to hrinji; me out. 
 I believe I really niproved nnder their hands ; heeame quiet whore 
 I had been shy o sulky, and easy where I had been impudent. 
 
 " I called to take tea one evenin>i' with one of these hidios, 
 when to my surprise, and somewhat to my confusion, I fouiul 
 with her the identical l)lue-eyed little l)eauty whom 1 had so 
 audaciously kissed. I was formally introduced to her, hut 
 neither of us lietrayed any si^iu of |)revious ac(iuaintanec, except 
 by blushiuiij to the eyes. While tea was <i;etting ready, the huly 
 of the house went out of the room to give some directions, aud 
 left us alone. 
 
 "Heavens and earth, what a situation ! I would have fjiven 
 all the j)ittance I w:is worth to have been in the deepest dell of 
 tlie forest. 1 felt the n''cessity of saying something in excuse 
 of my former rudeness, but I could not conjure up an idea, nor 
 utter a word. Every moment matters were growing worse. I 
 felt at one time tem|)tcd to do as 1 had done when I robbed her 
 of the kiss: bolt from the room, and take to ilight ; but 1 was 
 chaim'd to the spot, for I really longed to gain her good-will. 
 
 " At leuii'th 1 plucked up courage, on seeing that she was 
 equally confused with myself, and walking desperately up to 
 her, I exclaimed : 
 
 " ' 1 have been trying to muster up something to say to you, 
 but I cannot. I feel that I am in a horriule scrape. Do have 
 pity on me, and help me out of it.' 
 
 "■A smile dimi)led about her mouth, and played among the 
 blushes of her cheek. She looked up with a shy, but ;u('h 
 glance of the eye, that expressed a volume of comic recollec- 
 tion ; we both broke into a laugh, and from that moment all 
 went on well. 
 
 ''A few evenings afterward I met her at a dance, and pros- 
 ecuted 'o" ac(piaintance. I soon l)ecame deeply attached to 
 her; , ' cotul regularly ; and before I was nineteen years 
 
 of age, iiMi engaged myself to marry her. 1 spoke to her 
 mothei', a widow lady, to ask her consent. She seemed to 
 demur ; upon which, with my customary haste, I told her there 
 would be no use in opposing the match, for if her daughter 
 chose to have me, i would take lier, iu defiauee of her family, 
 and the whole world. 
 
 i ' 
 
experience, 
 
 iters of tlift 
 
 s in 'store 
 
 of tlio in.ir- 
 
 •atinji; oliih, 
 
 mg nic out. 
 
 <iui('t wliore 
 
 iinpiidcnt. 
 
 K'se ladies, 
 
 on. I foiiiul 
 
 n I had so 
 
 o licr, l)iit 
 
 nice, t'xcopt 
 
 ly, the lady 
 
 eetioiis, uud 
 
 have given 
 ipest ilell of 
 ig in excuse 
 iin idea, nor 
 !<f worse. I 
 J robbed her 
 t ; l)ut I was 
 j;ood-will, 
 hat she was 
 I'litely up to 
 
 ) say to you, 
 e. Do have 
 
 1 among the 
 
 y, but arch 
 
 nic recolicc- 
 
 moment all 
 
 •e, and pros- 
 
 p.ttaclicd to 
 
 leteeii years 
 
 [)oke to her 
 
 seemed to 
 
 Did her there 
 
 ler daughter 
 
 her family, 
 
 EARLY EXPEJilENCES OF RALPH RINGWOOD. 133 
 
 " She langhed, and told mo I need not give myself any un- 
 easiness ; there would bo no unreasonablo opposition. She 
 knew my family and all !il)<-)ut me. The only obstacle was, 
 that I had no means of supi)orting a wife, and she had nothing 
 to give with her daughter. 
 
 " No matter ; at that moment every thing was bright before 
 nie. I was in one of my sanguine moods. I feared nothing, 
 doubted nothing. So it was agreed that J should prosecute my 
 stu(li<'s, obtain a license, and as soon as I should be fairly 
 launched in business, we would be married. 
 
 "I now prosecuted my studies with redoubled ardor, and 
 was up to my oars in law, when I received a letter from my 
 fatiicr, who bad heard of me and my whereabouts. He ap- 
 plauded the course I had taken, but advised me to lay a foun- 
 dation of general knowledge, and oft'ered to defray my expenses, 
 if I would go to college. 1 felt the w^nt of a general education, 
 and was staggered with this offer. It militated somewhat 
 against the 8elf-dei)endent course I had so proudly, or rather 
 conceitedly, inarkc<l out for myself, but it would enable me to 
 enter more advant.'igeously upon my legal career. I talked 
 over the matter with the lovely girl to whom I was engaged. 
 She sided in opinion with my father, and talked so disinter- 
 estedly, yet tenderly, that if possil)le, I loved her rao;^ than 
 ever. I reluctantly, therefore, agreed to go to college for a 
 couple of years, though it must necessarily post})one our union. 
 
 " Scarcely had I formed this resolution, when her mother 
 was taken ill, and died, leaving her without a protector. This 
 again altered all my plans. I fdt as if 1 could protect her. I 
 gave up all idea of collegiate studies ; persuaded myself that 
 l)y dint of industry and ai)plication I might overcome the 
 deliciencies of education, and resolved to take out a license as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 " That very autumn I was admitted to the bar, and within a 
 month afterward was married. We were a young couple, she 
 not much above sixteen, I not quite twenty ; and both almost 
 without a dollar in the world. The establishment whieh we 
 set up was suited to our circumstances : a log house, with two 
 small rooms ; a bed, a table, a half dozen chairs, a half dozen 
 knives an<l forks, a half dozen spoons ; every thing by half 
 dozens ; a little delft ware ; every thing in a small way : we were 
 so poor, but then so happy ! 
 
 " We had not been married many days, when court was held 
 at a county town, about twenty-live miles distant. It was 
 necessary for me to go there, and put niyself in the way of 
 
 i i 
 
 \U Hi 
 
 li 
 
134 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 11/ ! 
 
 K. 
 
 business ; but how was I to go? I liad cxpeiulcHl all my means 
 on our establishment ; anil tlien it was hard parting with my 
 wife so soon after marriage. However, go 1 must. Money 
 must be made, or we should soon have the wolf at the door. 
 J accordingly borrowed a horse, and l)orrowed a little cash, and 
 rode off from my door, leaving my wife standing at it, and 
 waving her hand after me. Her hist look, so sweet and beam- 
 ing, went to my heart. I felt as if I could go through lire aud 
 water for her. 
 
 "• I arrived at the county town on a cool October evening. 
 The inn was crowded, for the court was to commence on tlie 
 following day. 1 knew no one, and wondered how I, a stranger, 
 and a mere youngster, was to make my way in such a erowd, 
 aud to get business. The public room was thronged witli the 
 idlers of the country, who gather together on such occasions. 
 There was sonte drinking going forward, with mucii noise, and 
 a little altercation. Just as I entered the room I saw a rouiili 
 bully of a fellow, who was partly intoxicated, strike an old man. 
 He came swag<,'M'ing l)y me and elbowed me as he passed. 
 I immediately L ' -ked him down, and kicked him into the 
 street. I needed no better introductioii. In a moment I had u 
 dozen rough shakes of the hand, and invitations to drink, aud 
 found myself (|uite a personage in this rough asseujbly. 
 
 "The next morning the court opened. I took my seat 
 among the law^'crs, but felt as a mere spectator, not having a 
 suit in progress or prospect, nor having any idea where business 
 was to come from. In the course of the morning a man was 
 put at the bar, charged with passing counterfeit money, and was 
 asked if he was reatly for trial. He answered in the negative. 
 He had been confined in a place where there were no lawyers, 
 and had not had an opportunity of consulting any. He was 
 told to choose counsel from the lawyers i)rescnt, and to be ready 
 for trial on the following day. He looketl round the court and 
 selected me. I was tinmdcr-struck. I could not tell why he 
 should make such a choice. I, a beardless youngster; unprac- 
 tised at the bar ; perfectly unknown. I felt dillldeut yet de- 
 lighted, and could have hugged the rascal. 
 
 " Before leaving the court he gave me one hundred dollars in 
 a bag as a retaining fee. I could scarcely believe my senses ; 
 it seemed like a dream. The heaviness of the fee spoke bt 
 lightly in favor of his innocence, but that was no affair of mine. 
 1 wus to be advocate, not judge nor jury. I followed him to 
 jail, aud learned from him all the particulars of his case ; from 
 thtncf 1 went to the clerk's otlice and took minutes of the 
 
EAHLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RING WOOD. 135 
 
 my means 
 with my 
 Money 
 the door, 
 cash, aud 
 itt it, and 
 and heaiii- 
 ,di lire aud 
 
 evi'iuna;. 
 ICO on the 
 A atiaiigor, 
 I a crowd, 
 d wiUi the 
 occasions, 
 noise, and 
 iw a rou«,di 
 
 I old man. 
 le passed, 
 u into the 
 ut 1 liad a 
 drink, and 
 
 y- 
 
 my seat 
 t having a 
 i"e business 
 a man was 
 y, and was 
 
 uegative. 
 
 lawyers, 
 
 He was 
 
 be ready 
 
 court and 
 
 II why he 
 ' ; unprae- 
 it yet de- 
 dollars iu 
 ly senses ; 
 ipoke bL 
 
 I' of mine. 
 L'd him to 
 ise ; from 
 is of the 
 
 intlictmcnt. I then examined the law on the subject, and pre- 
 pared my brief in my room. All this oecui)ied me until mid- 
 night, wlien I went to Ited and tried to sleep. It was all in 
 vain. Never in my life was I more wide-awake. A host of 
 thoughts and fancies kept rushing through my nund ; the shower 
 of gold that luid so unexpeetedly fallen into my lap ; the uV'u of 
 my poor little wife at home, that I was to astonish with my 
 good fortune ! Hut then the awful responsibility I had under- 
 taken ! — to speak for the first time in a strange court ; the 
 expectations the culprit had cviilently formed of my talents ; 
 all these, and u crowd of similar notions, kept whirling through 
 my mind. I tossed about all inght, fearing the morning would 
 find me exhausted and incompetent ; iu a word, the day dawned 
 on me, a miserable fellow ! 
 
 " I got up feverish and nervous. I walked out before break- 
 fast, striving to collect my thoughts, and tranquillize my feel- 
 ings. It was a bright morning ; the air was pure and frosty. 
 I bathed my forehead and my hands in a beautiful runnmg 
 streaju ; but I could not allay the fever heat that raged witi*in. 
 I returned to breakfast, but could not eat. A single cuv of 
 coffee foi'med my repast. It was time to go to court, ar**! I 
 went there with a throbbing heart. I believe if it had not been 
 for the thoughts of my little wife, in her lonely log house, I 
 should have given back to the man his hundred dollars, and 
 relincpnshed the cause. 1 took my seat, looking, I am con- 
 vinced, more like a culprit than the rogue I was to defend. 
 
 " When the time came for me to speak, my heart died within 
 me. I rose embarrassed and dismayed, and stammered in 
 opening my cause. I went on from bad to worse, and felt as 
 if I was going down hill. Just then the public prosecutor, a 
 man of talents, but somewhat rough in his practice, made a 
 sarcastic remark on something I had said. It was like an dec- 
 trie spark, and ran tingling through every vein in my body. 
 In an instant my diffidence was gone. My whole spirit was in 
 arms. I answered with promptness and bitterness, for I felt 
 the cruelty of such an attack upon a novice in my situation. 
 The public prosecutor made a kind of apology ; this, from a 
 man of his redoubted powers, was a vast concession. I re- 
 newed my argument with a fearless glow ; carried the case 
 through triumphantly, and the man was acquitted. 
 
 "This was the making of me. Everybody was curious to 
 know who this new lawyer was, that had thus suddenly risen 
 among them, and bearded the attorney-general at the very 
 outset. The story of my d6but at the inn on the preceding even- 
 
136 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 til i 
 
 ing, when I had knocked down a bully, and kicked him out of 
 doors for striking an old man, was circulated with favoraljle 
 exaggerations. Even my very beardless chin and juvenilo 
 countenance were in my favor, for >ple gave me far more 
 credit than I really deserved. The ciiancc business which oc- 
 curs in our country courts came thronging upon me. I was 
 repeatedly employed in other causes ; and by Saturday niglit, 
 when the court closed, and I had paid my bill at the inn, I found 
 myself vvitii a hundred and fifty dollars in silver, three hundred 
 dollars in notes, and a horse that 1 afterwards sold for two hun- 
 dred dollars more. 
 
 " Never did miser gloat on his money with more delight. I 
 locked the door of my room ; piled tlie money in a heap upon the 
 table ; walked round it ; sat with my elbows on the table, and 
 my chin upon my hands, and gazed upon it. Was I thinking of 
 the money? No! 1 was thinking of my little wife at home. 
 Another sleepless night ensued ; but what a night of golden fan- 
 cies, and splendid air-castles ! As soon as morning dawned, I 
 was up, mounted the borrowed horse with which I had come to 
 court, and led the other which I had received as a fee. All the 
 way I was delighting myself with the thoughts of the surprise I 
 had in store for ray little wife, for both of us had expected 
 nothing but that I should spend all the money 1 had boriowed, 
 and should return in debt. 
 
 " Our meeting was joyous, as you may suppose : but I played 
 the part of the Indian hunter, who, when he returns from tiie 
 chase, never for a time speaks of his success. She had pre- 
 pared a snug little rustic meal for me, and while it was getiiiig 
 ready I seated myself at an old-fashioned desk in one corner, 
 and began to conyA over my money, and put it away. She came 
 to me before I had finished, and asked who 1 had collecteil the 
 money for. 
 
 " 'For myself, to be sure,' replied I, with affected coolness; 
 'I made it at court.' 
 
 " She looked me for a moment in the face, incredulously. I 
 tried to keep my countenance, and to play Indian, but it would 
 not do. My muscles began to twitch ; my feelings all at once 
 gave way. 1 caught her in my arms; laughed, crii'd, and danced 
 about the room, like a crazy man. From that time forward, we 
 never wanted for money. 
 
 " I had not been long in successful practice, when I was sur- 
 prised one day by a visit from my woodland patron, old Miller. 
 The tidings of my prosperity had reached him in the wilderness, 
 and he had walked one hundred and fifty miles on fool to see 
 
THE SEMINOLES. 
 
 137 
 
 inn out of 
 
 fuvoriible 
 
 juvenile 
 
 far more 
 
 -vhieli 00- 
 
 ■e. I was 
 
 ay nio;lit, 
 
 n, I found 
 
 hundred 
 
 two huu- 
 
 c'light. I 
 upon the 
 able, and 
 linkinii; of 
 at home. 
 Dlden fun- 
 dawned, I 
 d come to 
 . All the 
 surprise I 
 expected 
 borrowed, 
 
 1 1 played 
 5 from the 
 i bad pi'e- 
 as getting 
 10 corner, 
 She came 
 lected the 
 
 coolness ; 
 
 lously. J 
 t it would 
 .11 at once 
 [id danced 
 rward, we 
 
 I was snr- 
 ild Miller, 
 ilderncss, 
 )ot to see 
 
 ine. By that time I had Improved my domestic establishment, 
 and had all things comfortable al)out me. He looked around 
 him with a wondering eye, :it wliat he considered luxuries and 
 superfluities ; but supposed they were all right in my altered 
 circumstances. He said he did not know, upon the whole, but 
 tliat I had acted for the best. It is true, if game had continued 
 plenty, it would have been a folly for mo to quit a hunter's life; 
 but hunting was pretty nigh done up in Kentucky. The buffalo 
 had gone to Missouri ; the elk were nearly gone also ; deer, too, 
 were growing scarce ; they might last out his time, as he was 
 growmg old, but they were not worth setting ui) life upon. He 
 bad once lived on the borders of Virginia. Game grew scarce 
 there ; he followed it up across Kentucky, and now it was 
 again giving him the slip ; but he w\as too old to follow it 
 farther. 
 
 "He remained with us throe days. INIy wife did every thing 
 in her power to make hir.- comfortaiile ; liut at the end of that 
 time he said he must bo off again to the woods, lie was tired 
 of the village, and of having so many people about him. Ho 
 accordingly returned to the wilderness and to liuniing life. 
 But 1 fear he did not make a good end of it ; for I understand 
 that a few years before his death he married .Sukey Thomas, 
 who lived at the White Oak Run." 
 
 THE SEMINOLES. 
 
 From the time of the chimerical cruisings of Old Ponce dft 
 Leon in search of the Fountain of Youth, the avaricious expe. 
 dition of Pamphilo dc Narvaoz in quest of gold, and the chival- 
 rous enterprise of Hernando do Soto, to iliscover and con(|uer 
 R second IMoxico, the natives of Florida have been continually 
 subjected to the invasions and encroachments of white men. 
 They have resisted them pcrseveringly but fruitlessly, and are 
 now i)attling amid swamps and morasses for the last foothold 
 of their native soil, with all the ferocity of despair. Can we 
 wonder at the bitterness of a hostility that has been handed 
 down from father to son, for upward of throe centuries, and 
 exasperated by the wrongs and niiscrirs of each succeeding 
 generation ! The very name of the savages with whom we are 
 lighting betokens their fallen and homeless condition. Formed 
 of the wrecks of once powerful tribes, and driven from their 
 
 
 I 
 
 l« ■» 
 
 i 'h 
 
138 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ilf 
 
 I. m 
 
 !» ■ J 
 
 1 ■ ^ 
 
 ancient seats of prosperity and dominion, they are known by 
 the name of the Seminoles, or " Wanderers." 
 
 Bartram, who travelled through P'lorida in the latter part of 
 the last century, speaks of passing through a great extont of 
 ancient Indian fields, now silent and deserted, overgrown with 
 forests, orange groves, and rank vegetation, the site of the 
 ancient Alachua, the capital of a famous and powerful tribe, 
 who in days of old could assemble thousands at bull-play ancl 
 other athletic exercises " over these then happy fields ami 
 green plains." "Almost every step we tuke," adds he, "over 
 these fertile heights discovers the remains and traces of 
 ancient human habitations and cultivation." 
 
 About the year 17G3, when Florida was ceded by the Span- 
 iards to the English, we are told that the Indians generally 
 retired from the towns and the neighborhood of the whites, 
 and burying themselves in the deep forests, intricate swamps 
 and hommocks, and vast savannas of the interior, devoted 
 themselves to a pastoral life, and the rearing of horses and 
 cattle. These are the people that received the name of *he 
 Seminoles, or Wanderers, which they still retain. 
 
 Bartram gives a pleasing picture of them at the time ho vis- 
 ited them in their wilderness ; where their distance from tlie 
 abodes of the white man gave them a transient quiet and 
 security. "This handful of people," says he, " possesses a 
 vast territory, all East and the greatest part of NA'est Florida, 
 which being naturally cut and divided into thousands of i.:'Hs, 
 knolls, and eminences, by the innumerable rivers, lakes, swamps, 
 vast savannas, and ponds, form so many secure retreats and 
 temporary dwelling places that effectually guard them from any 
 sudden invasions or atiucks from their enemies ; and being such 
 a swampy, hommocky country, furnishes such a plenty and 
 variety of supplies for the nourishment of varieties of animals, 
 that 1 can venture to assert that no part of the globe so 
 abounds with wild game, or creatures fit for the food of man. 
 
 "Thus they enjoy a superabundance of the necessaries and 
 conveniences of life, with th(> security of person and property, 
 the two great concerns of mankind. The hides of deer, bears, 
 tigers, and wolves, together with honey, wax, and other pro- 
 ductions of the country, pundiase their clothing, ecpiipage, and 
 domestic utensils from tlie whites. They seem to be free from 
 want or desires. No cruel enemy to dread ; nothing to give 
 them disquietude, but the (jradnal encroachments of the while 
 people. Thus contented and undisturbed, they appear as l)litlie 
 and free as the birds of the air, and like them as volatile aud 
 
 Uu 
 
THE SE^fINOLES. 
 
 139 
 
 ire known by 
 
 latter part of 
 cat extont of 
 ei-grown with 
 site of tlie 
 Dwcrful tribe, 
 liiill-play and 
 >y fields anrl 
 Ids ho, "over 
 ud traces of 
 
 >y the Span- 
 ans generally 
 f the whites, 
 cate swamps 
 rior, devoted 
 ' horses and 
 name of ♦he 
 
 e time he vis- 
 loe from th« 
 lit quiet and 
 " possesses a 
 i^'est Florida, 
 nds of i:;"Hs, 
 -kes, swamps, 
 
 retreats ancl 
 lem from any 
 id being such 
 I plenty and 
 1 of animals, 
 he globe so 
 3(1 of man. 
 .'essaries and 
 nd property, 
 
 deer, l)ears, 
 d other pro- 
 inipage, and 
 l)e free from 
 ling to give 
 of the white 
 ear as blilbe 
 volatile and 
 
 active, tuneful and vociferous. The visage, action, and deport- 
 ment of the Seininoles form the most striking picture of hap- 
 piness in this life ; joy, contciitment, love, and friendship, 
 without guile or affectation, seem inherent in thera, or predora 
 inant in their vital principle, for it leaves them with but the last 
 breath of life. . . . They are fond of games and gambling, 
 and amuse themselves like children, in relating extravagant 
 stories, to cause surprise and mirth." ^ 
 
 The same writer gives an engaging picture of his treatment 
 by these savages : 
 
 " Soon after entering the forests, we were met in the path by 
 a small company of Indians, smiling and beckoning to us long 
 ])C'fore we joined them. This was a family of Talahasochte, 
 who had been out on a hunt and were returning home loaded 
 with barbecued meat, hides, and honey. Their company con- 
 sisted of the man, his wife and children, well mounted on fine 
 horses, with a number of pack-horses. The man offered us a 
 fawn skin of honey, which I accepted, and at parting presented 
 him with some fish-hooks, sewing-needles, etc. 
 
 '' On our return to camp in the evening, we were saluted by a 
 party of young Indian warriors, who had pitched their tents on 
 a <i;reen eminence near the lake, at a small distance from our 
 camp, under a little grove of oaks and palms. This company 
 consisted of seven young Seminoles, under the conduct of a 
 young prince or chief of Talahasochte, a town southward in the 
 isthmus. They were all dressed and painted with s' igular 
 eU'<rance, and richly ornamented with silver plates, chains, etc., 
 after the Seminole mode, with waving plumes of feathers on 
 their crests. On our coming up to them, they arose and shook 
 hands ; we alighted and sat awhile with them by their cheerful 
 tire. 
 
 "The young prince informed our chief that he was in pursuit 
 of a young fellow who had fled from the town, carrying off with 
 him one of his favorite young wives. He said, mernly, he 
 would have the ears of both of them before he returned. He 
 was rather above the middle stature, and the most perfect 
 human figure I ever saw ; of an amiable, engaging countenance, 
 air, and deportment ; free and familiar in conversation, yet 
 retaining a becoming gracefulness and dignity. We arose, took 
 leave c>f them, and crossed a little vale, covered with a charm- 
 ing green turf, already illuminated by the soft light of the full 
 moon. 
 
 > BartraurM Trav(.*i« ia North America. 
 
 it ' ' 
 
140 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 flj 
 
 hi i 
 
 •' Soon after joining our companions at camp, our neighbors, 
 the prince and his associates, paid us a visit. We treated them 
 with the best fare we had, having till this time preserved our 
 spirituous liquors. They loft us with perfect cordiality and 
 cheerfulness, wishing us a good repose, and retired to their own 
 camp. Having a band of music with them, consisting of a 
 drum, flutes, arid a rattle-gourd, they entertained us during the 
 night with their music, vocal and instrumental. 
 
 There is a languishing softness and melancholy air in tlip 
 Indian convivial songs, especially of the amorous class, incslsti- 
 bly moving attention, and excjuisitely pleasing, especially in tlieir 
 solitary recesses, when all nature is silent." 
 
 Travellers who have been among them, in more recent times, 
 before they had cml)arked in their present desperate struggle, 
 represent them in nnich the same light ; as leading a pleasant, 
 indolent life, in a climate that required little shelter or clothing, 
 and where the spontaneous fruits of the tarth furnished subsist- 
 ence without toil. A cleanly race, delighting in bathing, pass- 
 ing much of th'^ir time under the shade of their trees, with heaps 
 of oranges and other fine fruits for their refreshment ; talking, 
 laughing, dancing and sleeping. Every chief had a fan hanging 
 to his side, made of feathers of the wild turkey, the beautiful 
 pink-colored crane or the scarlet flamingo. With this he would 
 sit and fan himself with great statelincis, while the young people 
 danced before him. The women joined in the dances with the 
 men, excepting the war-dances. They wore strings of tortoise- 
 shells and pebbles round their legs, which rattled in cadence to 
 the music. They were treated with more atteutJou among the 
 Seniinoles than among most Indian tribes. 
 
 1 rl 
 
 i ( 
 
 ORIGIN OF TUE WHITE, THE RED, AND THE BLACK MEN. 
 
 A SEMINOLE TUADITION. 
 
 When the Florldas were erected into a territory of the United 
 States, one of the earliest cares of the (lovernor, William V. 
 Duval, was directed to the instruction and civilization of the 
 natives. For this purpose he called a meeting of the chiefs, in 
 which he informed them of the wish of their Great Father at 
 AVashington that they should have schools and teachers among 
 them, and that their children should be instructed like the chil- 
 dren of white men. Tiie chiefs listened with their customary 
 silence and decovum to a long speech, setting forth the advan- 
 tages thi^i. would accrue to them from this measure, and when he 
 liad cone hided, begged the interval of a day to deliberate on it. 
 
THE SEMINOLES. 
 
 141 
 
 r neighbors, 
 Teated them 
 eserved our 
 rdiality ant) 
 to their own 
 sistliig of u 
 IS during the 
 
 air in tho 
 ass, irresisti- 
 sially in ti(eir 
 
 oeont times, 
 ate stnijrgle, 
 g a pU'asant, 
 ' or clothing, 
 shed siihsist- 
 athing, pass- 
 s, with iieaps 
 3nt ; talking, 
 
 fan hanging 
 the beautiful 
 ,his he would 
 young people 
 nees with the 
 s of tortoise- 
 in cadence to 
 u among the 
 
 LACK MEN. 
 
 of the United 
 , William 1'. 
 lation of the 
 ,he chiefs, in 
 'at Father at 
 Lchers among 
 like the chil- 
 ir customary 
 :h the advan- 
 and when he 
 berate on it. 
 
 On the following day a solemn convocation was held, at which 
 one of the chiefs addressed the governor in the name of all the 
 rest. "My brother," said he, ''we have l)een thinking over 
 the pi' position of our Cireat Father at Washington, to send 
 teachers and set up schools among us. We are very thankful 
 for the interest he takes in our welfare ; iiut after much deliber- 
 ation, have concluded to decline his offer. What will do very 
 well for white men, will not do for red men. I know you white 
 men say we all come from the same father and mother, but you 
 are mistaken. We have a tradition handed down from our fore- 
 fathers, and we believe it, that the Great Spirit when he under- 
 took to make men, made the black man ; it was his first at- 
 tempt, and pretty well for a beginning ; but he soon saw he had 
 bungled ; so he determined to try his hand again. He did so, 
 and made the I'cd man. He liked him much betier than the 
 black man, but still he was not ex.^ctly what he wanted. So he 
 tried once more, and made the white man ; and then he was 
 satisfied. You see, therefore, that you were made last, and that 
 is the reason I call you my youngest bi-other. 
 
 "When the Great Spirit luul made the three men, he called 
 them together and showed them three boxes. The first was 
 filled witli books, and maps, and papers ; the second with bows 
 and arrows, knives and tomahawks : the third with spades, axes, 
 hoes, and hammers. '•These, my sous,' said he, 'are the means 
 by which you are to live : choose among them according to your 
 fancy.' 
 
 " The wi)ite man, being the favorite, had the first choice. 
 He passed by the box of woi'king-tools without notice ; but when 
 he came to the weapons for war and hunting, he stopped and 
 look(!d hard at them. The red man trembled, for he had set 
 bis heart upon that box. The white man, however, after leok- 
 ing upon it for a moment, passed on, and chose the box of books 
 and papers. The red man's turn came next ; and you may be 
 sure he seized with joy upon the bows and arrows and toma- 
 hawks. As to the black man, he had no choice left but to put 
 up with the box of tools. 
 
 " From this it is clear that the Great Spirit intended the white 
 man should learn to read and write ; to understand all about 
 the moon and stars ; and to make every tlung, even rum srnd 
 whiskey. That the red man should lie a first-rate hunter, and 
 a mighty warrior, but he was not to learn any thing from books, 
 !is the ( Jicjit Spirit had not given him any : nor was he to make 
 rum and whiskey, lest he should kill himself with drinking. As 
 to the black man, as he had nothing but working-tools, it wa> 
 
 H 
 
 • ! 
 
•■Il . -^ 
 
 142 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPEBS. 
 
 clear lie was to work for the white and red man, which he has 
 continued to do. 
 
 *' We must go according to the wishes of the Great Spirit, or 
 we shall get into trouble. To know how to read and write is 
 very good for white men, but very bad for red men. It niakos 
 white men better, but red men worse. Some of the Creeks and 
 Cherokees learned to read and write, and they are the greatest 
 rascals among all the Indians. They went on to Washington, 
 and said they were going to see their Great Father, to talk 
 about the good of the nation. And when they got there, they 
 all wrote upon a little piece of paper, without the nation at home 
 knowing any thing about it. And the first thing the nation at 
 home knew of the matter, they were called together by the 
 Indian agent, w 'lo showed them a little piece of paper, which 
 he told them was a treaty, which their brethren had made in 
 their name, with their Great Father at Washington. And as 
 they knew not what a treaty was, he held up the little piece of 
 paper, and they looked under it, and lo ! it covered a great ex- 
 tent of country, and they found that their brethren, by knowing 
 how to read and write, had sold their houses and their lands an(l 
 the graves of their fatl.ers ; and that the white man. by knowing 
 how to read and write, had gaineti them. Tell our Great Father 
 at Washington, therefore, that we are very sorry we cannot 
 receive teachers among us ; for reading and writing, though very 
 good for white men, is very bad for Indians." 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY OF NEAMATHLA. 
 
 AN AUTHENTIC SKETCH. 
 
 1 ■ t 
 
 
 
 iii'i 
 
 In the autumn of 1823, Governor Duval, and other commis- 
 sioners on the part of the United States, concluded a treaty with 
 tlio chiefs and warriors of the Florida Indians, by which the 
 latter, for certain considerations, ceded all claims to the whole 
 teri'itory, excepting a district in the eastern part, to which they 
 were to remove, and within which they were to reside for twenty 
 years. Several of the chiefs signed the treaty with great reluc- 
 tance ; but none opposed it more strongly than Neamathla, prin- 
 ci[)al oliief of the Mickasookies, a fierce and warlike people, 
 many of tiicm Creeks by origin, who lived about the Mickasookie 
 lake. Neamathla had always been active in those depredatioua 
 
THE CONSPIRACY OF NEAMATHLA. 
 
 143 
 
 -h he has 
 
 Spirit, or 
 d write is 
 It makes 
 reeks and 
 2 greatest 
 shington, 
 r, to talk 
 lere, they 
 a at home 
 nation at 
 ;r by the 
 er, which 
 made in 
 And as 
 piece of 
 great ex- 
 knowing 
 ands and 
 ' knowing 
 at P'ather 
 e cannot 
 :)Ugh very 
 
 ■ commia- 
 eaty with 
 irhlch the 
 .he whole 
 hlch they 
 )r twenty 
 'at reluc- 
 lila, prin- 
 i people, 
 kasookie 
 redatiuu:^ 
 
 on the frontiers of Georgia, which had brought vengeance and 
 ruin on the Semlnoles. He was a remarkable man ; upward ot 
 mxty years of age, about six feet high, with a fine eye, and a 
 strongly marked countenance, over which he possessed great 
 command. His hatred of the white men appeared to be mixed 
 with contempt : on the common people he looked down wltl 
 infinite scorn. He seemed unwilling to acknowledge any superi 
 ority of rank or dignity in Governor Duval, claiming to associate 
 with him on terms of equality, as two great chieftains. Though 
 he had l)een prevailed upon to sign the treaty, his heart revolted 
 at it. In one of his frank conversations with Governor Duval, 
 he observed : " This country belongs to the red man ; and if I 
 had the number of warriors at my command that this nation 
 once had, I would not leave a white man on my lands. I would 
 exterminate the whole. I can say this to you, for you can 
 understand me ; you are a man ; but I would not say it to your 
 people. They'd cry out I was a savage, and would take my 
 life. They cannot appreciate the feelings of a man that loves 
 his country." 
 
 As Florida had but recently been erected into a territory, 
 every thing as yet was in rude and simple style. The governoi, 
 to make himself acquainted with the Indians, and to be near at 
 hand to keep an eye upon them, fixed his residence at Tallahas- 
 see, near the Fowel towns, inhabited by the Mickasookies. His 
 government palace for a time was a mere log house, and he 
 lived on hunters' fare. The village of Neamathla was but about 
 throe miles off, and thither the governor occasionally rode, to 
 visit the old chieftain. In one of these visits he found Nea- 
 mathla ' 'at.'d in his wigwam, in the centre of the village, sur- 
 rounded by his warriors. The governor had brought him some 
 liquor as a present, but it mounted quickly into his brain, and 
 rendered him quite boastful and belligerent. The theme ever 
 uitperniost in his mind, was the treaty with the whites. "It 
 was true," he said, " the red men had made such a treaty, but 
 llic white men had not acted up to it. The red men had re- 
 ceived none of the money and the cattle that had been promised 
 tlieni : the treaty, therefore, was at an end, aud they did not 
 mean to be bound by it." 
 
 CJovernor Duval calmly representad to bim that the time 
 tippointed in the treaty for the payment and delivery of the 
 money and the cattle had not yet arrived. This the old chief- 
 tain knew full well, but he chose, for the moment, to pretend 
 iguoranci". He kepi on drinking and talking, his voice grow- 
 ing louder aud louder, until it resounded all over the village 
 
 L* ' 
 
 r- R 
 
144 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ]Mt-« 
 
 . 
 
 He held in his hand a long knife, with which he had been rasp- 
 ing tobacco ; this he kept flourishing backward and forward, as 
 he talked, by way of giving effect to his words, brandishint; it 
 at times within an inch of the governor's throat. He conclutjed 
 his tirade by repeating, that the country belonged to the red 
 men, and that sooner than give it up. Ins bones and the bones 
 of his people should bleach upon its soil. 
 
 Duval saw that the object of all this bluster was to see 
 whether he could be intimidated. He kept his eye, therefore, 
 fixed steadily on the chief, and the moment he concluded with 
 his menace, seized him by the bosom of his hunting-shirt, and 
 clinching his other fist : 
 
 "I've heard what you have said," replied he. " You have 
 made a treaty, yet you say your bones shall l)leach before you 
 comply with it. As sure as there is a sun in heaven, your hones 
 shall bleach, if you do not fulfil every article of that treaty! 
 I'll let you know that I am Jirst here, and will see that you do 
 your duty ! " 
 
 Upon this, the old chieftain threw himself back, burst into a 
 fit of laughing, and declared that all he had said was in joiie. 
 The governor suspected, however, that there was a grave mean- 
 ing at the bottom of this jocularity. 
 
 For two months, every thing went on smoothly : the Indians 
 repaired daily to the log-cabin palace of the governor, at Talla- 
 hassee, and ai)peared perfectly contented. All at once they 
 ceased their visits, and for three or four days not one was to 
 be seen. Governor Duval began to apprehend that some mis- 
 chief was brewing. On the evening of the fourth day a chief 
 named Yellow-Hair, a resolute, intelligent fellow, who had 
 always evinced an attachment for the governor, entered his 
 cabin about twelve o'clock at night, and informed him tiiat 
 betwt^en four and five hundred warriors, painted and decorated, 
 were assembled to hold a secret war-talk at Neamathla's town. 
 He had slipped off to give intelligence, at the risk of his life, 
 and hastened back lest his absence should be discovered. 
 
 Governor Duval passed an anxious night after this inteUi- 
 gence. He knew the talent and the daring character of Nea- 
 mathla ; he recollected the threats he had thrown out ; he re- 
 flected that about eighty white families were scattered widely 
 apart, over a great extent of country, and might be swept away 
 at once, should the Indians, as he feared, determine to clear the 
 country. That he did not exaggerate the dangers of the case, 
 has been proved by the horrid scenes of Indian warfare that 
 have since desolated that devoted region. After a night of 
 
d been rasp, 
 forward, as 
 nndishing it 
 le concluded 
 d to the red 
 id the hones 
 
 was to see 
 
 e, therefore, 
 
 >neluded with 
 
 ug-shirt, and 
 
 " You liave 
 
 h before you 
 
 ti., your hones 
 
 that treaty I 
 
 that you do 
 
 , burst into a 
 was in joke. 
 I grave mean- 
 
 the Indians 
 nor, at Talla- 
 at once they 
 )t one was to 
 at some mis- 
 li day a chief 
 )w, who had 
 , entered liis 
 (led him that 
 id decorated, 
 athla's town, 
 k of his Hfe, 
 vered. 
 
 r tliis inteUi- 
 icter of Nea- 
 1 out ; he re- 
 ttered widely 
 e swept away 
 e to clear the 
 ; of the case, 
 warfare tliut 
 r a nitrht of 
 
 THE CONSPIRACY OF NEAMATHLA. 
 
 145 
 
 sleepless cogitation, Duval determined on a measure suited to 
 liis prompt and resolute character. Knowing the admiration of 
 the savages for personal courage, he determined, by a sudden 
 surprise, to endeavor to overawe and check them. It was haz- 
 arding much ; but where so many lives were in jeopardy, he feU 
 bound to incur the hazard. 
 
 Accordingly, on the next morning, he set off on hcrseback, 
 attended merely by a white man, who had been rearc :1 among 
 the Seminoles, and understood their language and mai.ners, and 
 who acted as interpreter. They struck into an Indian " trail," 
 leading to Neamathla's village. After proceeding about half 
 a mile, Governor Duval informed the interpreter of the object 
 of his expedition. The latter, though a bold man, paused and 
 remonstrated. The Indians among whom they were going wore 
 among the most desperate and discontented of the nation. Many 
 of them were veteran warriors, impoverished and exasperated 
 by defeat, and ready to set their lives at any hazard. He said 
 that if they were holding a war council, it must be with desperate 
 intent, and it would be certain death to intrude among them. 
 
 Duval made light of his apprehensions : he said he was per- 
 fectly well acquainted with the Indian character, and should 
 certainly proceed. So saying, he rode on. When within half a 
 mile of the village, the interpreter addressed him again, in such 
 a tremulous tone that Duval turned and looked him in the face. 
 He was deadly pale, and once more urged the governor to return, 
 as they would certainly be massacred if they proceeded. 
 
 Duval repeated his determination to go on, but advised the 
 other to return, lest ins pale face should betray fear to the In- 
 dians, and they might take advantage of it. The interpreter 
 replied that he would rather die a thousand deaths than have it 
 said he had deserted his leader when in peril. 
 
 Duval then told him he must translate faithfully all he should 
 say to the Indians, without softening a word. The interpreter 
 promised faithfully to do so, adding that he well knew, wLon 
 they were once in the tonn, nothing but boldness could save them. 
 
 They now rode into the village, and advanced to the council- 
 house. This was rather a group of four houses, forming a 
 square, in the centre of whitii was a great council-fire. The 
 houses were open in front, toward the fire, and closed in the 
 rear. At each corner of the square there was an interval be- 
 tween the houses, for ingress and egress. In these houses sat 
 the old men and the chiefs ; the young men were gathered round 
 the fire. Neamathla presided at the council, elevated on a 
 higher seat than the rest. 
 
 U 
 
 
 11' 
 
 i 
 
 t' 
 
 
 ',* «t 
 
 i] 
 
 111 
 
146 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 I 
 
 i M ( 
 
 Governor Duval entered by one of the corner intervals, ami 
 rode boldly into the centre of the square. The young men iniule 
 way for him ; an old man who was speaking, paused in the 
 midst of his harangue. In an instant thirty or forty rifles wore 
 cocked and levelled. Never had Duval heard so loud a click of 
 triggers : it seemed to strike to his heart. He gave one glance 
 at the Indians, and tiu-ned off with an air of contempt. He din 
 not dare, he says, to look again, lest it might affect his nerves: 
 and on the firmness of his nerves every thing depended. 
 
 The chief threw up his arm. The rifles were lowered. Duval 
 breathed more freely : he felt disposed to leap from liis horse, 
 but restrained himself, and dismounted leisurely. He then 
 walked deliberately up to Neamathla, and demanded, in an 
 authoritative tone, what were his motives for holding that coun- 
 cil. The moment he made this demand, the orator sat down. 
 The chief made no reply, but hung his head in apparent confu- 
 sion. After a moment's pause, Duval proceeded : 
 
 "I am well aware of the meaning of this war-council ; and 
 deem it my duty to warn you against prosecuting the schemes 
 you have been devising. If a siagle hair of a white man in tiiis 
 country falls to the ground, I will hang you and your chiefs on 
 the trees around your council-house ! You cannot pretend to 
 withstand the power ot the white men. You are in the [)alni of 
 the hand of your Great Father at Washington, who can cnisli 
 you like an egg-shell. You may kill me : I am but one n)an ; 
 but recollect, white men are numerous as the leaves on the trees. 
 Remember the fate of your warriors whose nones are whitening 
 in battle-fields. Remember your wives and children wlio per- 
 ished in swamps. Do you want to provoke more hostilities? 
 Another war with the white men, and there will not be a Sem- 
 inole left to tell the story of his race." 
 
 Seeing the effect of his words, he concluded by appointing a 
 day for the Indians to meet him at St. Marks, and give an ac- 
 count of their conduct. He then rode off, without giving tlicni 
 time to recover from their surprise. That night he rode forty 
 miles to Appalachicola River, to the tribe of the same name, who 
 were in feud with the Seminoles. They pronii)tly put two hun- 
 dred and fifty warriors at his disposal, whom he oixlered to be at 
 St. Marks at the appointed day. He sent out ruiuiers, also, 
 and mustered one hundred of the militia to repair to the same 
 place, together with a number of regulars from the army. All 
 his arrangements were successful. 
 
 Having taken these measures, he returned to Tallahassee, to 
 the neighborhood of the conspirators, to show them that he was 
 
THE CONSP-IRACY OF NEAMATHLA. 
 
 14T 
 
 rvals, and 
 
 men inudi' 
 
 »e(l in tlie 
 
 rifles woro 
 
 :v click of 
 
 lie glance 
 
 He (lid 
 
 is nerves: 
 
 d. 
 
 (1. Duval 
 
 liis horse, 
 
 He then 
 
 <1, in ail 
 
 that couii- 
 
 sat down. 
 
 L'llt coufu- 
 
 incil ; and 
 e schemes 
 iiiin ill this 
 
 chiefs on 
 )retcn(l to 
 ic palm of 
 ciin crush 
 one man ; 
 I the trees, 
 whiteiiiiit; 
 
 who per- 
 lostilities? 
 )e a SeiiN 
 
 )olntin<T a 
 ve an ac- 
 ting them 
 rode forty 
 lanie, who 
 two huu- 
 sd to he at 
 lers, also, 
 the sanjc 
 •my. All 
 
 liassee, to 
 at he was 
 
 not afraid. Here he ascertained, through Yellow-Hair, that 
 nine towns were disaffected, and had been concerned in the 
 conspiracy. He was careful to inform himself, from the same 
 source, of the names of the warriors in each of those towns who 
 were most popular, tluKigh poor, and destitute of rank and 
 command. 
 
 When the appointed day was at hand for the meeting at St- 
 Marks, Governor Duval set ofT with Neamathla, who was at tlie 
 head of eight or nine hundred warriors, but who feared to ven- 
 ture into the fort without him. As they entered the fort, and 
 saw troops and militia drawn up there, and a force of Appalaehi- 
 cola soldiers stationed on the opposite bauk of the river, they 
 thought they were betrayed, and were about to fly ; but Duval 
 assured them they were safe, and that when the talk was over, 
 they might go home unmolested. 
 
 A grand talk was now held, in which the late conspiracy wa3 
 discussed. As he had foreseen, Neamathla and the other old 
 chiefs threw all the blame upon the young men. . " Well," re- 
 plied Duval, "with us white men, when we find a man incom- 
 petent to govern those under him, we put him down, and appoint 
 another in his place. Now, as you all acknowledge you cannot 
 manage your young men, we must put chiefs over them who 
 can.'' 
 
 So saying, he deposed Neamathla first ; appointing another 
 in his place ; and sc on with all the rest : taking care to sub- 
 stitute the warriors who had been pointed out to him as poor 
 and popular ; putting medals round their necks, and investing 
 them with great ceremony. The Indians were surprised and 
 delighted at findin;: the appointments fall upon the very men 
 they would themselves have chosen, and hailed them with ac- 
 clamations. The warriors thus unexpectedly elevated to com- 
 mand, and clothed with dignitj', were secured to the interests 
 of the governor, and sure to keep an eye on the disaffected. 
 As to the great chief Neamathla, he left the country in dis- 
 gust, and returned to the Creek nation, who elected him a chief 
 of one of their towns. Thus by the resolute spirit and prompt 
 sagacity of one man, a dangerous conspiracy was completely 
 defeated. Governor Duval was afterward enabled to emove 
 the whole nation, through his own personal influence, without 
 the aid of the general government. 
 
 i I '. 
 
148 
 
 TUE C HA YON PAPERS. 
 
 To the Editor of the Kuiclierhocker. 
 
 Sin: The following U'ttor was .scribbled to a friend diirin*;, 
 my sojourn in the Alhambra, in 1«2H. As it presents sci-nes 
 and impressions noted down at tlie time, I venture to oiler it 
 for the consideration of your readers. Should it prove accept- 
 able, I may from time to time give other letters, written in tlio 
 course of my various ramblings, and which have been kiiidiy 
 restored to me by my friends. Yours, G. C. 
 
 Mv Dear 
 
 LETTER FROM GRENADA. 
 
 Oranada.IWS. 
 
 — : Religious festivals furnish, in all Catholic 
 
 countries, occasions of popular pageant and recreation ; but in 
 none more so than in Spain, where the great end of religion 
 seems to be to create holidays and ceremonials. For two days 
 past, Granada has been in a gay turmoil with the great annual 
 fete of Corpus Christi. This most eventful and romantic city, 
 as you well know, has c\er been the rallying point of a moim- 
 tainous region, studded with small towns and villages. Hither, 
 during the time that Granada was the splendid capital of a 
 Moorish kingdom, the IMoslem youth repaired from all points, 
 to participate in chivalrous festivities ; and hither the Spanish 
 populace at tlie present day throng from all parts of the sur- 
 rounding country to attend the festivals of the church. 
 
 As the populace like to enjoy things from the very com- 
 mencement, the stir of Corpus Christi began in Granada on 
 the preceding evening. Before dark the gates of the city were 
 thronged with the picturesque j)easantry fioin the mountain 
 villages, and the brown laborers from the Vega, or vast fertile 
 plain. As the evening advanced, the Vivarambla thickened 
 and swarmed with a motley multitude. This is the great 
 square in the centre of the city, famous for tilts and tourneys 
 during the time of ^Moorish domination, and incessantly men- 
 tioned in all the old Moorish ballads of love and chivalry. 
 For several days the hammer had resounded throughout tliis 
 square. A gallery of wood 1 ad been erected all round it, form- 
 ing a covered way for the grand procession of Corpus Christi. 
 On this eve of the ceremonial this gallery was a fashionable 
 promenade. It was brilliantly illuminated, bands of music were 
 stationed in balconies on the four sides of the scjuare, and all 
 tbe fashion and beauty of Granada, and all its population that 
 
 I 
 
nd (lurin*:, 
 
 Ills SCl'lU'S 
 
 to oiler it 
 V(! jicccpt- 
 ten in tlio 
 een kiiidiy 
 G. C. 
 
 NAnA,lS2S. 
 
 1 Catholic 
 )n ; hut in 
 of religion 
 r two (lays 
 x'at annual 
 lantic city, 
 if a nioini- 
 !. Ilitlicr, 
 ipital of a 
 all points, 
 le S[)anisli 
 )f the sur- 
 1. 
 
 very com- 
 raiiatla on 
 J city wore 
 
 mountain 
 I'ast fertile 
 
 thickened 
 the groat 
 [I tourneys 
 antly nien- 
 \ chivalry, 
 j^hout tliis 
 id it, forni- 
 )us Cliristi. 
 fashionable 
 music were 
 ro, and all 
 lation that 
 
 LETTER FROM GRANADA. 
 
 110 
 
 jould l)oa8t a little finery of apparel, together with the viajos 
 and vKipii, the l.eaux and belles of the villages, in their gay 
 Andalusian costumes, thronged this covorod walk, anxious to 
 gee and to be seen. As to tiie sturdy peasantry of the Vega, 
 and such of the mountaineers as did not i)ri'tend to display, but 
 were content with hearty enjoyment, they swarmed in the cen- 
 tre of the s(piare ; some in groups listening to the guitar and 
 the traditional ballad; some dancing their favorite bolero; 
 ^oine seated on the grounil making a merry though frugal 
 3iipi)or ; .'.nd some stretched out for their night's re|)ose. 
 
 TliP gay crovvd of the gallery dispersed gradually toward 
 midnight ; bui the centre of the square resembled the bivouac 
 of an army ; for hundreds of the peasantry, men, women, and 
 children, i)assed the night there, sleeping soundly on the bare 
 ,;arth, under the open canopy of heaven. A summer's night re- 
 quires no shelter in this genial climate ; and with a great 
 part of the hardy i)easantry of SpaiJi, a bed is a superfluity 
 which many of them never enjoy, and which they affect to 
 despise. The common Spaniard spreads out his manta, or 
 mule-cloth, or wraps himself in his cloak, and lies on the 
 ground, with his saddle for a pillow. 
 
 The next morning I revisited the square at sunrise. It was 
 still strewed with groups of sleepers ; some were reposing from 
 the dance and revel of the evening ; ethers had left their vil- 
 lages after work, on the preceding day, and having trudged on 
 foot the greater part of the night, were hiking a sound sleep to 
 freshen them for the festivities of the day. Numbers from the 
 mountains, and the remote villages of the plain, who had set 
 out in the night, continued to arrive, with their wives and 
 children. All were in high spirits ; greeting each other, and 
 exchanging jokes and pleasantries. The gay tumult thickened 
 as the day advanced. Now came pouring in at the city gates, 
 and parading through the streets, the deputations from the 
 various villages, destined to swell the grand procession. These 
 village deputations were headed by their priests, bearing their 
 respective crosses and bann(Ms, and images of the Blessed Vir- 
 gin and of patron saints ; all which were matters of great 
 rivalship and jealousy among the peasantry. It was like the 
 chivalrous gatherings of ancient days, when each town and 
 village sent its chiefs, and warriors, and sta: lards, to defend 
 the capital, or grace its festivities. 
 
 At length, all these varions detachments congregated into 
 one grand pageant, which slowly paraded round the Viva- 
 ranibla, and through the principal streets, where every window 
 
150 
 
 THE CJIAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ,.! i 
 
 ■» \ '. 
 
 I 
 
 .IN c 
 
 and balcony was liung with tapostry. In this procession Tore 
 all the religious orders, the civil and military authorities, and 
 the chief people of the parishes and villages ; every churcli and 
 convent had contributed its banners, its images, its relics, 
 and poured forth its wealth, for the occasion. In tlie centre 
 of the procession walked the archbishop, under a damask can- 
 opy, and surrounded by inferior dignitaries and their depend- 
 ants. The whole moved to the swell and cadence of numerous 
 bands of music, and, passing through the midst of a countless 
 yet silent multitude, prf)ceeded onwar'^ to the cathedral. 
 
 I could not but be struck with the changes of times and cus- 
 toms, as I saw this monkish pageant passing through tlie 
 Vivarambla, the ancient seat of modern pomp and cliivalrv. 
 The contrast was indeed forced upon the mind by the decora- 
 tions of the square. The whole front of the wooden gallcrv 
 erected for the procession, extending several hundred feet, was 
 faced with canvas, on which some humble though patriotic 
 artist had painted, by contract, a series of the principal scenes 
 and exploits of the conquest, as recorded in chronicle and 
 romance. It is thus the romantic legends of Granada mingle 
 themselves with every thing, and are kept fresh in the piiltlic 
 mind. Another great festival at (Iranada, answering in its 
 popular character to our Fourth of July, is El Did dc la Tnma; 
 " The Day of the Capture ; " that is to say, the anniversary of 
 the capture of the city by Ferdinand and Is:il)ella. On this day 
 all Granad.t is abandoned to revelry. The alarm bell on the 
 Terre de la Campana, or watch-tower of tlie /Vlhanilira, keeps 
 up a clangor from morn till night ; and linppy is the damsel 
 that can ring that bell ; it is a charm to secure a husband in 
 the course of the year. 
 
 The sound, which can be heard over the whole Vega, and to 
 the top of the mountains, summons tiic peasantry to the festivi- 
 ties. Throughout the day the Alhanibra is thrown open to the 
 public. The halls and courts of the Moorish tnonarchs re- 
 sound with the guitar and castanet, and gay groups, in the 
 fanciful dresses of Andalusia, perform those popular dances 
 which they have inherited from the Moors. 
 
 In the meati time a grand procession moves through the city. 
 The banner of Ferdinand and Isabella, that precious relic of 
 the conquest, is brought forth from its depository, and borne by 
 the Alferez Mayor, or grand standard-bearer, through the prin- 
 cipal streets. The portable camp-altar, which was carried 
 about with them l;i all their campaigns, is trrinspoitcd into tlie 
 chapel royal, and placed before theii- scjtulchre. where their 
 
 
ocossion Tcre 
 itlioritics, and 
 ry clmrcli and 
 OS, its relics, 
 Tn the centre 
 . damask pan- 
 their depcnd- 
 
 of numerous 
 of a countless 
 edral. 
 Jmos and ciis- 
 
 through the 
 and chivalry. 
 :»y the decora- 
 oodcn gallerv 
 drod feet, was 
 nigh patriotic 
 incipal scenes 
 chronicle and 
 Canada mingle 
 
 in the pulilic 
 wering in its 
 f (1e hi Tom a; 
 [inniversary of 
 . On this (lay 
 m bell on the 
 lianilira, keeps 
 is the damsel 
 a husband in 
 
 ' Voga, and to 
 to the festivi- 
 
 n open to the 
 tnonarchs re- 
 
 jroups, in the 
 
 opular (hmces 
 
 I'ough the city. 
 L'cious relic of 
 , and borne Ity 
 ough the prin- 
 I was carried 
 orted into the 
 .', where their 
 
 LETTER FROM GTiA:!TADA. 
 
 151 
 
 effigies lie in monumcnt.xl marble. The procession fills the 
 chapel. High mass is pei formed in memory of the conquest; 
 and at a certuin part of the ceremony the Alferez Mayor puts 
 on his hat, ojid waves the standard above the tomb of the con- 
 querors. 
 
 A more whimsical memorial of the conquest is exhibited on 
 the same evening at the theatre, where a popular drama is 
 performed, entitled Ave Maria. This turns on the oft-sung 
 achievement of Hernando del Pulgar, surnamed El de las 
 Huzahas, " Hi of the Exploits," the favorite hero of the popu- 
 lace of Granada. 
 
 During the time that Ferdinaiid and Isabella besieged the 
 city, the young Moorish and Spanish knights vied with each 
 other in extravagant bravados. (Jn one occasion Hernando del 
 Pulgar, at the head of a handful of youthful followers, made a 
 dash into Granada at the dead of night, nailed the inscription 
 of Ave Maria, with his dagger, to tlie gate of the principal 
 mosque, as a token of having consecrated it to the virgin, and 
 effected his retreat in safety. 
 
 While the Moorish cavaliers admired this daring exploit, they 
 felt bound to revenge it. On the following day, therefore, Tarfe, 
 one of the stoutest of the infidel warriors, paraded in front of 
 the Christian army, dragging the sacred inscription of Ave 
 Maria at his horse's tail. I'he cause of the Virgin was eagerly 
 vindicated by Garcilaso de la Vega, who slew the Moor in single 
 combat, and elevated the inscription of Ave Maria, in devotion 
 and triumph, at the end of his lance. 
 
 The drama founded on this exploit is prodigiously popular 
 with the common people. Althougli it has been acted time out 
 of mind, and the people !\ave seen it repeatedly, it never fails 
 to draw crowds, and so completely to engross the feelings of 
 the audience, as to have almost the effect on them of realit}'. 
 When their favorite Pulgar strides about with many a mouthy 
 speech, in the very midst of the Moorish capital, he is cheered 
 with enthusiastic bravos ; and when he nails the tablet of Ave 
 Maria to the door of the mosque, the theatre absolutely shakes 
 widi shouts and thunders of applause. On the other hand, the 
 actors who play tlie part of the Moors, have to bear the brunt 
 of the temporary indignation of their auditors ; and when the 
 infidel Tarfe plucks down the tablet to tie it to his horse's tail, 
 many of the people absolutely rise in fury, and are ready to 
 jump upon tlif; stage to revenge this insult to the Virgin. 
 
 Besiile this annual festival at the cajvital, almost every village 
 of the Vega and the mountains has its own auniversaiiv, wherein 
 
 
 ! » 
 
 I 
 
 I ;•« 
 
152 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 i i 
 
 ^1/ 
 
 its own deliverance from the Moorish yoke is celebrated with 
 uncouth ceremony and rustic pomp. 
 
 On these occasions a kind of resurrection takes place of 
 .^-: '.ent Spanish dresses and armor ; great two-handed swords, 
 ponderous arquebuses, witli match-locks, and other weapons and 
 accoutrements, once the equipments of the village chivalry, and 
 treasured up from generation to generation, since the time of 
 the conquest. In tliese hereditary and historical garbs some of 
 the most sturdy of the villagers array themselves as champions 
 of the faith, while its ancient opponents are represented l)v 
 another band of villagers, dressed up as IVIoorish warriors. A 
 tent is pitched in the public square of the village, within wliich 
 is an altar, and an im3,ge of the Virgin. The Spanish warriors 
 approach to perform their devotions at this shrine, but are op- 
 posed by the infidel Moslems, who surround the tent. A mock 
 fight succeeds, in the course of which the combatants sometimes 
 forget that they are merely playing a part, and exciiange dry 
 blows of grievous weiglit ; the fictitious Moors especially are 
 apt to bear away pretty evident marks of the pious zeal of their 
 antagonists. The contest, however, invariably terminates in 
 favor of the good cause. T'<.e Moors are defeated and taken 
 prisoners. The image of the Virgin, rescued from thraldom, is 
 elevated in triumph ; and a grand procession succeeds, in which 
 the Spanish conquerors figure with great vainglory and ap- 
 plause, and their captives are led in chains, to the infinite deligiit 
 and edification of the poi)uhu'e. These annual festivals are the 
 delight of the villagers, who expend considerable sums iu their 
 celebration. In some villages they are occasionally obliged to 
 suspend them for waut of funds ; but when times grow better, 
 or they have been enal)led to save money for the jjurpose, they 
 are revived with all their grotes(jiie pomp and extravagance. 
 
 To recur to the exploit of Hernando del I'ulgar. However 
 extravagant and fabulous it may seem, it is authenticated l>y 
 certain tradition.al usages, and shows the vain-glorious darini; 
 that prevailed between the youthful warriors of both nations, in 
 that romantic war. The mosque thus consecrated to the \'irgin 
 was made the cathedral of the city after the conquest ; and there 
 is a painting of the Virgin besiile the royal chapel, which was 
 put there by Hernando del I'ulgar. The lineal representative of 
 the hare-brained cavalier lias the right to this day to enter the 
 church, on certain occasions, on horseback, to sit witliin the 
 choir, and to put on his liat at the elevation of the host, thongli 
 tiiese privileges ha»e often been obstinately contested by the 
 clergy. 
 
ABDERAHMAN. 
 
 155 
 
 ebrated with 
 
 fes place of 
 ided swords, 
 weapons and 
 chivalry, and 
 the time of 
 arbs some of 
 as champions 
 presented In- 
 war riors. A 
 within which 
 nish warriors 
 but are op- 
 'iit. A mock 
 its sometimes 
 ixchansje dry 
 'specially are 
 zeal of their 
 terminates in 
 2d and taken 
 1 thraldom, is 
 eds, in wliidi 
 ;lory and ap- 
 ufinite delight 
 ^tivals are tlie 
 sums in their 
 lly obligeci to 
 I grow better, 
 l)urpose, they 
 avagance. 
 ir. However 
 lienticated l)y 
 orious darinjf 
 th nations, in 
 to the N'irgin 
 st ; and there 
 el, which was 
 resentative of 
 ; to enter the 
 lit within the 
 host, tliougli 
 .ested by the 
 
 The present lineal rejnvsentativc of Hernando del Pulgar is 
 the Marquis de Salar, whom 1 have met occasionally in society. 
 He is a young man of agreeable appearance and manners, and 
 his bright black eyes wouhl give indication of his inheriting the 
 fire of Ids ancestor. When the paintings were put up in the 
 Vivarambla, illustrating the scenes of the conquest, an old gray- 
 oeaded family servant of the Pulgars was so delighted with 
 tliose which related to the family hero, that he absolutely shed 
 tears, and hurrying home to the Marquis, urged him to hasten 
 and behold the family trophies. The sudden zeal of the old 
 man provoked the mirth of his young master ; upon which turn- 
 ing to the brother of the Marquis, with that freedom allowed to 
 faniily servants in Spain, "Come, Senor," cried he, "you are 
 more grave and considerate than your brother ; come and see 
 your ancestor in all his glory ! " 
 
 Within two or three years after the above letter was written, 
 the INIarquis de Salar was married to the beautiful daughter of 
 
 the Count , mentioned by the author in his anecdotes of the 
 
 Alhaud)ra. The match was very agreeable to all parties, and 
 the nuptials were celebrated with great festivity. 
 
 ABDERAHMAN : 
 
 FOUNDEU OF TIIS: DYNASTY OF THE OMMIADES IN SPAIN. 
 
 To the Editor of the KnickerbonJier. 
 
 SiK : In the following memoir I have conformed to the facts 
 furnished by the Arabian chroniclers, as cited by the learned 
 Conde. The story of Abdor.'dnnan has almost the charm of 
 romance ; but it derives a higher interest from the heroic yet 
 gentle virtues which it illustrates, and from recording the for- 
 tunes of the founder of that splendid dynasty, which shed such 
 a lustre, upon Spain during the; domination of the Arabs. Ab- 
 derahman may, in some resi)ects, be compared to our own 
 Washington. He achieved the independence of Moslem Spain, 
 freeing it from suojection to the caliphs ; he united its jarring 
 parts under one government ; he ruled over it with justice, 
 clemency, and moderation ; his whole course of conduct wjw 
 
 i 
 
 
 .¥ i 
 
 
154 
 
 THE CBAYOn PAPERS. 
 
 distinguished by wonderful forbearance and magnanimity ; and 
 when he died he left a legacy of good example and good coun- 
 sel to his successors. G. C. 
 
 II -i*'>:f 
 
 "Blessed be God!" exclaims an Arabian historian; "in 
 His hands alone is the destiny of princes. He overthrows tlie 
 mighty, and humbles the haughty to the dust ; and he raises up 
 the persecuted and afflicted from the very depths of despair! " 
 
 The illustrious house of Omeya had sv/ayed the sceptre at 
 Damascus for nearly a century, when a rebellion broke out, 
 headed by Al)oul Abbas Safah, who aspired to the throiu' of 
 the caliphs, as being descended from Abbas, the uncle of tlie 
 prophet. The rebellion was successful. IVIarvau, the last 
 caliph of the house of (^ineya, was defeated and slain. A <i('u- 
 eral proscription of the Omniiades took i)lace. Many of tiu'in 
 fell in battle; many were treacherously slain, in phices wluMe 
 they had taken refuge ; al)ove seventy most noble and distin- 
 guished were murdered at a bancpiet to which they had luin 
 invited, and their dead bodies covered with clotlis, and made to 
 serve as tables for tlie horrible festivity. Others were driven 
 forth, forlorn and desolate wanderers in various parts of tlio 
 earth, and pursued with relentless hatred ; for it was the de- 
 termination of the usur[)er tiiat not one of the j)ersecuted fam- 
 ily should escape. Aboul Abbas took possi'ssion of tlireo 
 stately palaces, and delicious gardens, and founded the power- 
 ful dynasty of the Abba?sides. which, for several centuries, 
 maintained dominion in the east. 
 
 ''• Hlessed be God I " again exclaims the Arabian historian; 
 " it was written in His eternal decrees that, notwithstanding tiie 
 fury of the Abbassides, the noble stock of Omeya should not lie 
 destroyed. One fruitful branch remained to (lourish with glory 
 and greatness in another land." 
 
 When the sanguinary proscription of the Omniiades took 
 place, two young princes of that line, brothers, by the names 
 of Solyman and Abderahman, were spared for a time. Tlieir 
 personal graces, noble demeanor, and winning affability, luul 
 made them many friends, while their extreme youth re!i(leie(l 
 them objects of but little dread to the usuri^'r. Theiu safety, 
 rowever, was but transient. In a little while the suspicions of 
 Aboul Abbas were aroused. The unfortunate Solyman fell 
 beneath the scimitar of the executioner. His brother Abderali 
 man was warned of his danger in time. .Several of his friends 
 hastened to him, bringing him jewels, a disguise, and a lleet 
 
ABDEBAHMAN. 
 
 155 
 
 nimity; and 
 good conn. 
 G. C. 
 
 orian ; " in 
 
 rthrows tlie 
 
 he raises up 
 
 despair ! " 
 
 sceptre at 
 
 broke out, 
 
 ' throne of 
 
 nele of tlic 
 
 11, the last 
 
 ■•"• A ucii- 
 
 iiiy of tii,.||, 
 
 )Iaees wlieic 
 
 and distill- 
 
 y liad lieeii 
 
 ind made to 
 
 were <h'ivcii 
 
 )arts of Mio 
 
 was the dc- 
 
 leeuted fain- 
 
 m of three 
 
 the jiower- 
 
 .1 centuries, 
 
 1 historian ; 
 itandino- the 
 lould not l)e 
 1 witli glory 
 
 liades took 
 the names 
 me. Their 
 !d)ility, liad 
 li rendered 
 lieJB safety, 
 ispicions of 
 )lynian fell 
 r AI)di'r;iIi 
 his fi'iends 
 aud a lleet 
 
 
 horse, " The emissaries of the caliph," said they, ** are in search 
 of thee ; thy brother lies weltering in his blood ; fly to the des- 
 ert ! There is no safety for thee in the habitations of man ! " 
 
 Abderahman took the jewels, clad himself in the disguise, 
 and mounting the steed, fled for his life. As he passed, a lone- 
 ly fugitive, by the palaces of his ancestors, in which his family 
 had long held sway, their very walls seemed disposed to betray 
 him, as they echoed the swift clattering of his steed. 
 
 Abandoning his native country, Syria, where he w£*8 liable 
 at each moment to be recognized and taken, he took refuge 
 among the Bedouin Arabs, a half-savage race of shepherds. 
 His youth, his inborn majesty and grace, and the sweetness and 
 affability that shone forth in his azure eyes, won the hearts of 
 these wandering men. He was but twenty years of age, and 
 had been reared in the soft luxury of a palace ; but he was tall 
 and vigorous, and in a little while hardened himself so com- 
 pletely to the rustic life of the fields that it seemed as tliough 
 he had passed all his days in the rude simplicity of a shepherd's 
 cabin. 
 
 His enemies, however, were upon his traces, and gave him 
 but little rest. By day he scoured the plains with the Bedouins, 
 hearing in every blast the sound of pursuit, and fancying in 
 every ilistaut cloud of dust a troop of the caliph's horsemen. 
 His night was passed in broken sleep and frequent watchings, 
 and at the earliest dawn he was the first to put the bridle to his 
 steed. 
 
 Wearied by these perpetual alarms, he bade farewell to his 
 friendly Bedouins, and leaving P^gypt behind, sought a safer 
 refuge in Western Africa. The province of Barea was at that 
 time governed by Aben Habib, who had risen to rank and for- 
 tune under the fostering favor of the Ommiades. " Surely," 
 thought the unhappy prince, *' I shall receive kindness and pro- 
 tection from this man ; he will rejoice to show his gratitude for 
 the benefits showered upon him by my kindred." 
 
 Abderahman was young, and as yet knew little of mankind. 
 None are so hostile to the victim of power as those whom he 
 has befriended. They fear being suspected of gratitude by his 
 persecutors, and involved v'. his i^isfortunes. 
 
 'I'he unfortunate Abderahman had halted for a few days to 
 repose himself among a horde of Bedouins, who had received 
 him with tlieir characteristic hospitality. They would gather 
 round him in the eveiungs, to listen to his conversation, regard- 
 ing with wonder this gently-spoken stranger from the more re- 
 fined country of Eg''pt. The old men marvelled to find oo much 
 
 ' ^:- ! 
 
 It 
 
 y 
 
% 
 
 ■■/I 
 
 
 156 
 
 THE CRAYON PAJ'ERS. 
 
 knowledge and wisdom in such early 3'^outli, nnd the young men, 
 won by his frauli and manly carriage, entreated him to renuiiu 
 among them. 
 
 One night, when all were buried iu sl<'ep, they were roused 
 by the tramp of liorsemen. The Wall Aben Ilabib, who. lik.' 
 all the governors of ilistant posts, had received orders from th,' 
 caliph to be on the watch for the fugitive prince, had heard 
 that a young man. answering the de-si-riplion, had entered the 
 province alone, from the frontiers of Egypt, on a steed worn 
 down by travel. He had immeiUately sent forth horsemen in 
 his pursuit, with orders to bring him to hiui dead or alive. Tlie 
 emissaries of the Wall had traced him to nis resting-place, and 
 demanded of the Arabs whether a young man, a stianger from 
 Syria, did not sojourn among their tribe. The Hedouins knew 
 by the description that the stranger must be their guest, and 
 feared some evil was intended him. "Such a youth." said 
 they, "■ has intleed sojourned among us : but he lias gone, with 
 some of oar young loen, to a distant valley, to hunt tli" lion." 
 The emissaries inquired the way to the i)lace, and hastened ou 
 to surprise their expected prey. 
 
 The Bedouins repaired to Abderahman, who was still sleep- 
 ing. "If thou hast aught to fear from man in power," said 
 they, " arise and Hy ; for the horsemen of the Wali are in quest 
 of thee ! We have sent them off for a time on a wrong errand, 
 but they will soon return." 
 
 " Alas ! whither shall I fly I " cried the unhappy prince ; " my 
 enemies hunt me like the ostrich of tlie desert, 'lliey folUnv 
 me like the wind, and allow me neither safety nor rei)ose I " 
 
 Six of the bravest youths of the tribe stepped forward. '• We 
 have steeds," said they, "■ that can outstrip the wind, and hands 
 that can hurl the javelin. We will accoinpany thee in tiiy Miglil, 
 and will light by thy side while life lasts, and we have wea|)onb 
 to wield." 
 
 Abderahman embraced them with tears of gratitude. They 
 mounted their steeds, and made for the most lonely parts of 
 the desert. By the faint light of the stars, they })assed through 
 dreary wastes, and over hills of sand. The lion roared, and 
 the hyena howled unheeded, for they lied from man, more cruel 
 and relentless, when in pursuit of blood, than the savage beasts 
 of the desert. 
 
 At sunrise they paused to refresh themselves beside a scanty 
 veil, surrounded by a few palm-trees. One of the young vVrahs 
 ctitibed a tree, and looked iu every direction, but not a horse- 
 man ,vas to be seen. 
 
young men, 
 11 to rt'iTiaiu 
 
 wore roused 
 
 >. who, iik,. 
 
 t'l'S fioui tllo 
 
 liiul he; 
 
 on torn! the 
 
 .stei'd vvoiii 
 
 lorsenu'u in 
 
 nlivo. The 
 
 ji-ph'icc, and 
 
 trjinjiiM- from 
 
 (hjuiiis knew 
 
 r i,nie.st, and 
 
 ,-oulli," said 
 
 s 'j^onv. with 
 
 i th« lion." 
 
 hiistcnod on 
 
 is still slt'cp- 
 
 lovvor," said 
 
 I are in <jut'st 
 
 rong (.'rraud, 
 
 )riiu'C' ; " my 
 They follow 
 cposo I " 
 ward. "Wo 
 (I, and hands 
 in thy liigiit, 
 avc weapons 
 
 tudo. They 
 lely parts of 
 ssc'd through 
 roared, and 
 , more cruel 
 iviige beasts 
 
 ide a scanty 
 young Arahs 
 Qot a horse- 
 
 ABDERAUMAN. 
 
 157 
 
 •' We have outstripped pursuit," said the Bedouins ; " whither 
 shall we conduct thee ? Where is thy home and the land of thy 
 people? " 
 
 "Home have I none!" replied Abderahman, mournfully, 
 "nor family, nor kindred ! ^ly native land is to me a land of 
 destruction, and my people seek my life ! " 
 
 The hearts of the youthful Bedouins were touched with com- 
 passion at these words, and they marvelled that one so young and 
 gentle should have sufifered such great sorrow and persecution. 
 
 Abderahman sat by the well, and nnised for a time. At 
 length, breaking silence, "In the midst of Mauritania," said 
 lie, ''dwells the tribe of Zoneta. My mother was of that tril)e ; 
 and perhaps when her son presents himself, a persecuted wan- 
 derer, at their door, they will not turn him from the threshold." 
 
 " The Zenetes," replied the Bedouins, " are among the bravest 
 and most hospitable of the people of Africa. Never did the 
 unfortunate seek refuge among them in vain, nor was the 
 stranger repulsed from their door." So they mounted their 
 steeds with renewed spirits, and journeyed with all speed to 
 Tuhart, the cai)ital of the Zenetes. 
 
 When AlKlerahmau entered the place, followed by his six 
 rustic Arabs, all wayworn and travel-stained, his noble and 
 majestic demeanor shone through the simple garb of a Bedouin. 
 A crowd gathercid around him, as he alighted from his weary 
 steed. Conliding in the well-known character of the tribe, he 
 no longer attempted concealment. 
 
 "You bchohl before you," said ho, " one of the proscribed 
 house of Onieya. I am that Abderahman upon whose head a 
 l)rice has boon set, and who has l)een driven from land to land. 
 1 conic to y(iu as my kindred. My mother was of your tribe, 
 and she told me with her dying breath that in all time of need 
 I would (in^l a home and friends among the Zenetes." 
 
 Tin words of Abderahman went straight to the hearts of his 
 hearers. They pitied his youth and his groat misfortunes, while 
 ihey were charnied by his frankness, and by the manly graces 
 of his person. The tribe was of a bold and generous spirit, 
 and not to be awed by the frown of power. " Kvil be upon us 
 ii.id upon our children," said they, "if we deceive the trust 
 thou hast placed in us ! " 
 
 Then one of the noblest Xeques took Abderahman to his 
 house- ^ud treated him aa his own child ; and the principal peo- 
 ple of the tribe strove who most should cherish him, and do iiiin 
 honor ; endeavoring to obliterate by their kindness the recoUec' 
 tiou of his past misfortunes. 
 
 U 
 
158 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 r 
 
 !l ' 
 
 AMerahma" had resided some time among the hospitable 
 Zenetes, when one day two strangers, of venerable appearance 
 attended by a small retinue, arrived at Tahart. Tliey f^avc 
 themselves out as merchants, and from the simple style in which 
 they travelled, excited no attention. In a little while they 
 sought out Abderahman, and, taking him apart: ''Hearken," 
 Haid they, "Abderahman, of the royal line of Omeya; we are 
 ambassadors sent on the part of the principal Moslems of Spain, 
 to offer thee, not merely an asylum, for that thou hast already 
 among these brave Zenetes, but an empire ! Spain is a prey to 
 distracting factions, and can no longer exist as a dependence 
 u{)on a throne too remote to watch over its welfare. It nocrls 
 to 1)0 independent of Asia and Africa, and to be under the gov- 
 ernment of a good prince, who shall reside within it, and devote 
 himself entirely to its prosperity ; a prince with sufficient title to 
 silence all rival claims, and bring the warring parties into unity 
 and peace ; and at the same time with sufficient ability and vir- 
 tue to insure the welfare of his dominions. For this purpose 
 the eyes of all the honorable leaders in Spain have been turned 
 to thee, as a descendant of the royal line of Omeya, and an off- 
 set from the same stock as our holy prophet. They have hoard 
 of thy virtues, and of thy adniiralile constancy under misfor- 
 tunes ; and invite thee to accept the sovereignty of one of tlie 
 noblest countries in the world. Thou wilt have some diinculties 
 to encounter from hostile men ; but thou wilt have on tliy side 
 the bravest captains that have signalized themselves in the con- 
 quest of the unbelievers." 
 
 The ambassadors ceased, and Abderahman remained for a 
 time lost in wonder and admiration. "God is great!" ox- 
 claimed he, at length ; " there is but one God, who is God, and 
 Mahomet is his prophet! Illustrious ambassadors, you have put 
 new life into my soul, for you have shown me something to live 
 for. In the few years that I have lived, troubles and sorrows 
 have been heaped upon my head, and I have become inured to 
 hardships and alarms. Since it is the wish of the valiant Mos- 
 lems of Spain, I am willing to become their leader and defender, 
 and devote myself to their cause, be it happy or disastrous." 
 
 The ambassadors now cautioned him to be silent as to their 
 errand, and to depart secretly for Spain. "The sea-hoard of 
 Africa," said they, "swarms with your enemies, and a power- 
 ful faction in Spain would intercept you on landing, did they 
 know your name and rank, and the object of your coming." 
 
 But Abderahman replied : " I have been cherished in adversity 
 by these brave Zenetes ; I have been protected and honored 
 
 ■ I 
 
le hospitable 
 
 ! appearance, 
 
 They r;avc 
 
 tyle in which 
 e while they 
 Hearken," 
 neya; we are 
 iMTis of Spain, 
 
 h:ist already 
 n is a prey to 
 [I dependence 
 re. It needs 
 nder tlie frov- 
 it, and devote 
 fflcient title to 
 ;ios into unity 
 bility and vir- 
 
 this purpose 
 e been turned 
 'a, and an off- 
 ?y have heard 
 under niisfor- 
 of one of tiie 
 •me difFiculties 
 >'e on thy side 
 'es in the eon- 
 
 MTiained for a 
 great ! ' ' ex- 
 10 is God, and 
 , yon have put 
 iiething to live 
 > and sorrows 
 ome iniued to 
 ! valiant Mos- 
 und defender, 
 lisastrous." 
 !nt as to their 
 se:i-l)oard of 
 and a power- 
 ling, did they 
 r coming." 
 ?d in adversity 
 and honored 
 
 ABDERAHMAV. 
 
 169 
 
 by them, when a price was set upon my head, and to harbor me 
 was great peril. How can I keep ray good fortune from my 
 benefactors, and desert their hospitable roofs in silence? He 
 is unworthy of friendship, who withholds confidence from his 
 friend." 
 
 Ciiarmed with the generosity of his feelings, the ambassadors 
 tnade no opposition to his wishes. The Zenetcs proved them- 
 selves worthy of his confidence. They hailed with joy the 
 great change in his fortunes. The warriqrs and the young 
 men pressed forward to follow, and aid them with horse and 
 weapon; "for the honor of a noble house and family," said 
 they, " can be maintained only by lances and horsemen." In 
 a few days he set forth, with the ambassadors, at the head of 
 nearly a thousand horsemen, skilled in war, and exercised in 
 the desert, and a large body of infantry, armed with lances. 
 The venerable Xeque, with whom he had resided, blessed him, 
 and shed tears over him at parting, as though he liad been his 
 own child ; and when the youth passed over the threshold, the 
 house was filled with lamentations. 
 
 Abderahman reached Spain in safety, and landed at Almane- 
 with his little band of warlike Zenetes. Spain was at that 
 
 car 
 
 time in a state of great confusion. Upward of forty years 
 had elapsed since the conquest. The civil wars in Syria and 
 Egypt had prevented the main government at Damascus from 
 exercising control over this distant and recently acquired ter- 
 ritoiy. Kvery Moslem commander considered the town or 
 province committed to his charge, an alisolute property ; and 
 accordingly exercised the most arbitrary extortions. These 
 excesses at length l)ecame insupportable, and, at a convocation 
 of many of the principal leaders, it was determined, as a means 
 to end these dissensions, to unite all the Moslem provinces of 
 Spain under one Emir, or General Governor. Yusuf el Fehri, 
 an ancient man, of honorable lineage, was chosen for this 
 station. He began his reign with policy, and endeavored to 
 conciliate all parties ; but the distribution of offices soon 
 created powerful enemies among the disappointed leaders. A 
 civil war was the consequence, and Spain was deluged with 
 blood. The troops of both parties burned and ravaged and 
 laid every thing waste, to distress their antagonists ; the vil- 
 lages were abandoned by their inhabitants, who fled to the 
 cities for refuge ; and flourishing towns disappeared from the 
 face of the earth, or remained mere heaps of rubbisli an(i 
 asiies. At the time of the landing of Abderahman in Spain, the 
 old Emir Yusuf had obtained a signal victory. He bad cap- 
 
 .' (- 
 
160 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 •t- 1 ! 
 
 i: ! 
 
 1 •: 
 
 tured Baragossa, in which was Amer hen Amru, his piinc'm' 
 enemy, together with iiis son and secretary. Loading his piis. 
 oners with cliains, and putting them on camels, he sot out in 
 triumpli for Cordova, considering liimself secure in tlie abso- 
 lute domination of Spain. 
 
 He had halted one day in a valley called Wadaranihla. and 
 was reposing with his family in his pavilion, while his people 
 and the prisoners made a repast in the open air. In the midst 
 of his repose, his confidential adherent and general, the Wali 
 Samael, galloped into the camp covered with dust, and ex- 
 hausted with fatigue. lie 1 nought tidings of the arrival of 
 Abderahman, and that the whole sea-board was flocking to his 
 standard. Messenger after messenger came hurrying into the 
 camp, confirming the fearful tidings, and adding that this 
 descendant of the Onieyas had secretly been invited to Spain 
 by Amru and his followers. Ynsuf waited not to ascertain the 
 truth of this accusation. Giving way to a transport of fury, 
 he ordered that Amru, his son and secretary, should be cut to 
 pieces. His commands were instantly executed. " And this 
 cruelty," says the Arabian chronicler, "lost him the favor of 
 Allah ; for from that time, success deserted his standard." 
 
 Abderahman had indewl been hailed with joy on his landing 
 in Spain. The old people hoped to find tranquillity under the 
 sway of one supreme chieftain, descended from their ancient 
 caliphs ; the young men were rejoiced to have a youthful warrior 
 to lead them on to victories ; and the populace, charmed with 
 his freshness and manly beauty, his majestic yet gracious and 
 affable demeanor, shouted : " Long live Abderahman hen 
 Moavia Meramamolir of Spain ! " 
 
 In a few days the youthful sovereign saw himself at the head 
 of more than twenty thousand men, from the neighborhood of 
 Elvira, Alraeria, Malaga, Xeres, and Sidonia. Fair Seville 
 threw open its gates at his approach, and celebrated his arrival 
 with public rejoicings. He continued his march into the coun- 
 try, vanquished one of the sons of Yusuf before the gates of 
 Cordova, and obliged him to take refuge within its walls, where 
 he held him in close siege. Hearing, however, of the approach 
 of Yusuf, the father, with a powerful army, he divided his 
 forces, and leaving ten thousand men to press the siege, he 
 hastened with the other ten to meet the coming foe. 
 
 Yusuf had indeed mustered a formidal)le force, from the east 
 and south of Spain, and accompanied by his veteran general, 
 Samael, came with confident boasting to drive this intruder 
 from the land. His confidence increased on beholding the small 
 
liis priiic'!-!;-' 
 ling his pii:<. 
 le sot out ill 
 in tiio ahso- 
 
 !iranil)la, and 
 «' his people 
 In the niidat 
 lal, tlie Wali 
 list, and ex- 
 ile arrival of 
 (okinj^ to hia 
 
 ig into the 
 ng that this 
 ited to Spain 
 ascertain the 
 )ort of fury, 
 lid he out to 
 
 " And this 
 the favor of 
 ndard." 
 1 his landing 
 ity under the 
 their ancient 
 ithful warrior 
 charmed with 
 gracious and 
 ralunan hen 
 
 f at the head 
 
 ghborhood of 
 
 Fair Seville 
 
 id his arrival 
 
 nto the coun- 
 
 the gates of 
 
 walls, where 
 
 the approach 
 
 I divided his 
 
 the 
 
 siege, 
 
 he 
 
 from the east 
 ?ran general, 
 ;his intruder 
 liug the small 
 
 AUDERAIIMAN. 
 
 161 
 
 army of Abderahman. Turning to Samael, he repeated, with 
 a scornful sneer, a verse front m Arabian poetess, which says : 
 
 "How hard is our lot! We come, a thirsty multitude, and 
 lo ! but this cup of water to share among us ! " 
 
 There was indeed a fearful odds. On the one side were two 
 veteran generals, grown gray in victory, with a mighty host of 
 warriors, seasoned in the wars of Spain. On the other side was 
 a more youth, scarce attained to iiiiiuhood, with a hasty levy of 
 half-disciplined troops ; but the youth was a i)rincc, flushed with 
 hope, and aspiring after fame and empire ; and surrounded by a 
 devoted band of warriors from Africa, whose example infused 
 desperate zeal into the little army. 
 
 The encounter took place at daybreak. The impetuous valor 
 of the Zenetes carried every thing before it. The cavalry of 
 Yusuf was broken, and driven back upon the infantry, and be- 
 fore noon the whole host was put to headlong flight. Yusuf and 
 Samael were borne along in the torrent of the fugitives, raging 
 nnd storming, and making ineffectual efforts to rally them. 
 Tlioy were separated widely in the confusion of the llight, one 
 taking refuge in the Algarves, the other in the kingdom of 
 Murcia. They afterward rallied, reunited their forces, and made 
 another desperate stand near to Aimunecar. The liattle was ob- 
 stinate and bloody, but they were again defeated, and driven, 
 with a handful of followers, to take refuge in the rugged moun- 
 tains adjacent to Elvira. 
 
 Tlie spirit of the veteran Samael gave way before these fear- 
 ful reverses. " In vain, O Yusuf! " said he. " do we contend 
 with the prosperous star of this youthful conqueror : the will of 
 Allah be done ! Let us submit to our fate, and sue for favor- 
 able terms, while we have yet the means of capitulation." 
 
 It was a hard trial for the proud spirit of Y'usuf, that had 
 once aspired to uncontrolled sway ; but he was compelled to 
 capitulate. Abderahman was as generous as brave. He granted 
 tlio two gray-headed general? the most honorable conditions, 
 and even took the veteran Samael into favor, employing him, as 
 a mark of confidence, to visit the eastern provinces of Spain, 
 and restore them to tranquillity. Ynsuf, having delivered up 
 Elvira and Granada and complied with other articles of his 
 capitulation, was permitted to retire to Murcia, and rejoin his 
 sou Muhamad. A general amnesty to all chiefs and soldiers 
 who should yield up their strongholds, and lay down their arms, 
 completed the triumph of Abderahman, and brought all hearts 
 into obedience. 
 
 Thus terminated this severe struggle for the domination of 
 
 P 
 
 i, 
 
) 
 
 I ! 
 
 I 
 
 -■ 
 
 i*^ 
 
 ! Ill '1 ; • 
 
 i. 1 I 
 
 >: ii . ij 
 
 162 
 
 THE CRAYON rAPERfi. 
 
 Spain; and thus the illustrious family of Omoya, after haviti'r 
 been cast down and almost extorminatt'd in the East, took lu^w 
 root, and sprang forth prosperously in tlic West. 
 
 Wherever Ahderahman appeared, he wjh received with nip- 
 turous acclamations. As he rode through tlie cities, the popn- 
 lace rent the air with shouts of joy ; the stately palaces were 
 crowded with spectators, eager to gain a sight of his graceful 
 form and beaming countenance ; and when they beheld the 
 mingled majesty and benignity of their new monarch, and tlio 
 sweetness and gentleness of his whole conduct, they extolled 
 him as yomething more than mortal ; as a beneficent genius, went 
 for the happiness of Spain. 
 
 In the interval of [)eacc which now succeeded, Abderulinian 
 occupied himself in promoting the useful and elegant arts, and 
 in introducing into Spain the refinements of the F^ast. Con- 
 sidering the building and ornamenting of cities as ainon^ llu' 
 noblest employments of the tranquil hours of princes, he lu;- 
 stowed great pains upon beautifying the city of Cordova and 
 its environs. He reconstructed banks and dykes, to keep the 
 Guadalquiver from overflowing its }K)rtlers, antl on the vast ter- 
 races thus formed, he planted delightful gardens. In the midst 
 of these, he erected a lofty tower, commanding a view of the 
 vast and fruitful valley, enlivened by the windings of tin! river. 
 In this tower would he pass hours of meditation, gazing on t!ie 
 8oft and varied landscape, and inhaling the bland and haliiiy 
 airs of that delightful region. At such times, his tlio(iii,hls 
 would recur to the past, and the misfortunes of his youth ; the 
 massacre of his family would rise to view, mingled with lender 
 recollections of his native country, from which he was exiled. 
 In these melancholy musings he would sit with his eyes (ixed 
 upon a palm-tree which he had planted in the midst of his gar- 
 den. It is said to have l)een the lirst ever planted In Spain, and 
 to have been the parent-stock of all the palm-trees which Liraee 
 the southern provinces of the peninsula. The heart of Alider- 
 ahman yearned tow;.rd this tree; it was the otTspring of his 
 native country, and like him, an exile. In one of his moods of 
 tenderness, he composed verses upon it. which have sinee he- 
 come famous throughout the world. Tl'.e following is a rude 
 but literal translation : 
 
 " Beauteous Palm ! thou also wert hithijr brought a stranger: 
 but thy roots have found a kindly soil, thy head is lifted to tiie 
 skies, and the sweet airs of Algarve fondle and kiss thy brant lies. 
 
 "Thou hast known, like me, the storms of adverse fortune 
 Bitter tears wouldst thou shed, couldst thou feel my woeii. 
 
 'ij't 
 
ABDERAHMAN. 
 
 163 
 
 iflcr having 
 t, took new 
 
 (1 Willi rap. 
 1, the popii- 
 ahifcs were 
 ills <,M'accf'iil 
 ht'iu'hl the 
 i^In iind tlie 
 iu'y extolled 
 j^enius, sent 
 
 fVlxh'nihnian 
 .lit art!>, and 
 East. Coii- 
 1 amon<i' the 
 nces, lie he- 
 Jor(h)va anil 
 to keej) the 
 Jie vast ter- 
 In tlie midst 
 view of llie 
 of tlic river, 
 iziiif;; on the 
 1 ami lialniy 
 lii.s tliotn>lils 
 5 youth ; the 
 , with tender 
 was exiled, 
 s eyes fixed 
 ; of his i^ar- 
 in Spain, and 
 which liraee 
 rt of Alider- 
 ;i)riu,<j of his 
 lis inoods of 
 ve since he- 
 ig is a nuh 
 
 ', a .stranner : 
 lifted to tlio 
 ,hy hraneiies. 
 ci'.se fortnne 
 il my wuL'si. 
 
 Repoatod griefs have overwhelmed me. "With early tea-s I be- 
 dewed the palms on the hanks of the Euphrr^i-s ; but neither 
 tree nor river heeded my sorrows, when driven by cruel fate, 
 and the ferocious Aboul Abbtis, from the scenes of my child- 
 hood and the sweet ol)jects of my affection. 
 
 ''To thee no remembrivnce remains of my beloved country ; 
 I, unlia[)py ! can never recall it without tears." 
 
 The fjcnerosity of Abderahman to his vanquished foes was 
 destined to be abused. The veteran Yusuf, in visitinj^ certain 
 of the cities which he had surrendered, found himself surrounded 
 hy zeahnis partisans, ready to peril life in his service. The love 
 of coniniaud revived in his bosom, and he repented the facility 
 with wlii(di he hud suffeied himself to be persuaded to submis- 
 sion. Flushed with new hopes of success, he caused arms to 
 he secretly collected, and deposited in various villages, most 
 zealous in their professions of devotion, and raising a considera- 
 ))le body of troo[)s, seized upon the castle of Almodovar. The 
 rash rebellion was short-lived. At the first appearance of an 
 army sent by Abderahman, and commanded by Abdelmelfc , 
 governor of Seville, the villages which had so recently professed 
 loyalty to Yusuf, hastened to declare their attachment to the 
 monarch, and to give up the concealed arms. Almodovar was 
 soon retaken, and Yusuf, driven to the environs of Lorea, was 
 surrounded by the cavalry of Abdelmelee. The veteran endeav- 
 ored to cut a passage through the enemy, but after fighting with 
 desperate fury, ainl with a force of arm incredible in one of his 
 age, he fell i)cneath blows from weapons of all kinds, so that 
 after the battle his body could scarcely be recognized, so numer- 
 ous were the wounds. His head was cut off and sent to Cor- 
 dova, where it was placed in an iron cage, over the gate of the 
 city. 
 
 The old lion was dead, but his whelps survived. Yusuf had 
 left three sons, who inherited his warlike spirit, and were eager 
 to revenge his death. Collecting a number of the scattered 
 adliereiits of their house, they surprised and seized upon Toledo, 
 dnring the absence of Temam, its Wall or commander. In this 
 old warrior city, built u[)on a rock, and almost surrounded hy 
 the Tagus, they set up a kind of robber hold, scouring the sur- 
 rounding country levying tribute, seizing upon horses, and 
 compelling the peasantry to join their standard. Every day 
 cavalcades of horses and mules, laden with spoil, with flocks of 
 sheep and droves of cattle, came pouring over the bridges on 
 eituer side of the city, and thronging in at the gates, the plunder 
 of the surrounding country. Those of the inhabitants who were 
 
r r 
 
 164 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 mi 
 
 
 i f 
 
 t J * 
 
 still loyal to Abderahman dared not lift up their voices, for men 
 of th;» sword bore sway. At length one day, when the sons of 
 Yusut', with their choicest troops, were out on a maraud, the 
 watchmen on the towers gave the alarm. A troop of scattered 
 horsemen were spurring wildly toward the gates. The banners 
 of the sons of Yusuf were descried. Two of them spurred into 
 the city, followed by a handful of warriors, covered with con- 
 fusion and dismay. They had been encountered and defcatod 
 by the Wall Temam, and one of the brothers had been skiiu. 
 
 The gatee were secured in all haste, and the walls wore 
 scarcely manned, when Temam appeared before them with his 
 troops, and summoned the city to surrender. A great internal 
 commotion ensued between the loyalists and the insurgents ; 
 the latter, however, had weapons in their hands, and prevailed ; 
 and for several days, trusting to the strength of their rock-built 
 fortress, tliey set the Wall at defiance. At length some of the 
 loyal inhabitants of Toledo, who knew all its secret and subter- 
 raneous passages, some of which, if chroniclers may be believed, 
 have existed since the days of Hercules, if not of Tubal Cain, 
 introduced Temam and a chosen baud of his warriors into the 
 very centre of the city, where they suddenly appeared as if by 
 magic. A panic seized upon the insurgents. Some sought 
 safety in submission, some in concealment, some in flight. 
 Casim, one of the sons of Yusuf, escaped in disguise ; the 
 youngest, unharmed, was taken, and was sent captive to the 
 king, accompanied by the head of his brother, who had been 
 slain in battle. 
 
 When Abderahman l)eheld the youth laden with chains, he 
 remembered his own sufferings in his early days, and had com- 
 passion on him ; but, to prevent him from doing further mis- 
 chief, he imi)risoned him in a tower of the wall of Cordova. 
 
 In the mean time Casim, who had escaped, managed to raise 
 another band of warriors. Spain, in all ages a guerilla countrv. 
 prone to partisan warfare and petty maraud, was at that tiim- 
 infested by bands of licentious troops, who had sprung up in 
 the civil contests ; their only object pillage, their only depemi- 
 ence the sword, and ready to Hock to any new and desperate 
 standard, that {)romised the greatest license. With a ruflian 
 force thus levied, Casim scoured the country, took Sidonia by 
 storm, and surprised Seville while in a state of unsuspecting 
 security. 
 
 Abderahman put himself at the head of his faith^'ul Zenetes 
 and took the field in person. By the rapidity of his movements, 
 the rebels were defeated, Sidonia and Seville speedily retaken, 
 
!8, for men 
 he sons of 
 araud, the 
 
 scattered 
 he banners 
 )urred into 
 
 with con- 
 
 d defeated 
 
 n shiiu. 
 
 walls were 
 
 m with his 
 
 !at internal 
 
 nsurgents; 
 
 prevailed ; 
 
 • roek-built 
 
 )me of the 
 
 md siibter- 
 
 >e believed, 
 
 'ubal Cain, 
 
 )rs into the 
 
 lid as if by 
 
 me sought 
 
 in flight, 
 [guise ; the 
 tive to the 
 ) had been 
 
 chains, he 
 d had coin- 
 urther niis- 
 rdova. 
 ;ed to raise 
 la countrv. 
 t that time 
 •ung up in 
 ily depend- 
 desperate 
 li a rutlian 
 Sidonia bj. 
 isuspeetiug 
 
 'ul Zenetes 
 lovemeuts, 
 ly retaken, 
 
 audehauman. 
 
 16c 
 
 and Casim was nnade prisoner. The generosity of Abderahman 
 was again exhibited toward this unfortunate son of Yusuf. He 
 spared his life, and sent him to be confined in a tower at Toledo. 
 
 The veteran Saraael had taken no part in these insurrections, 
 but had attended faithfully to the affairs intrusted to him by 
 Abderahman. The death of his old frienJ and colleague, Yusuf, 
 however, and the subsequent disasters of his family, filled him 
 with despondency. Fearing the inconstancy of fortune, and the 
 dangers incident to public employ, he entreated the king to be 
 permitted to retire to his house in Seguenza, and indulge a 
 privacy and repose suited to liis advanced age. His prayer was 
 granted. The veteran laid by his arms, battered in a thousand 
 conflicts ; hung his sword and lance against the wall, and, sur- 
 rounded by a few friends, gave himself up apparently to the 
 sweets of quiet and unambitious leisure. 
 
 Who can count, however, upon the tranquil content of a heart 
 nurtured amid the storms of war and ambition ! Under the 
 ashes of this outward humility were glowing the coals of faction. 
 In his seemingly philosophical retirement, Samael was concert- 
 ing with his friends new treason against Abderahman. His 
 plot was discovered ; his house was suddenly surrounded by 
 troops ; and he was conveyed to a tower at Toledo, where, in 
 the course of a few mouths, he died in captivity. 
 
 The magnanimity of Abderahman was again put to the proof, 
 by a new insurrection at Toledo. Hixem beu Adra, a relation 
 of Yusuf, seized upon the Alcazar, or citadel, slew several of 
 the royal adherents of the king, liberated Casim from his tower, 
 and, summoning all the banditti of the country, soon mustered 
 a force of ten thousand men. Abderahman was quickly before 
 the walls of Toledo, with the troops of Cordova and his devoted 
 Zenetes. The rebels were brought to terms, and surrendered 
 the city on promise of general pardon, which was extended 
 even to Hixem and Casim. When the chieftains saw Hixem 
 and his principal confederates in the power of Abderahman, 
 they advised him to put them all to death. " A promise given 
 to traitors and rebels," said they, "is not binding, when it is 
 to the interest of the state that it should be broken." 
 
 "No!" replied Abderahman, "if the safety of my throne 
 were at stake, 1 would not break my word." So saying, he 
 confirmed the amnesty, and granted Hixem ben Adra a worth- 
 less life, to be employed in farther treason. 
 
 Scarcely had Abderahman returned from this expedition, when 
 a powerful army, sent by the caliph, lauded from Africa on th<.' 
 coast of the Akarves. The commander, Aly beu 
 
 ■ « 3i ! 1 f 
 
 i Vi ; 
 
 '^ tf • 
 
 ij 
 
 m I 
 
 Mogueth. 
 
166 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 i. 
 
 11 1 
 
 ?i; 1 i' 
 
 1 i 
 
 Emir of Cairvan, elevated a rich banner which he had received 
 from tlie hands of the caliph. Wherever he went, he ordered 
 the caliph of the East to be proclaimed by sound of trumpet, 
 denouncing Abderahman as a usurper, the vagrant member of a 
 family proscribed and execrated in all the mosques of the East. 
 
 One of the first to join his standard was Hixen^ ben Adra, so 
 recently pardoned by Abderahiran. He seized up*. n the citadel 
 of Toledo, and repairing to the caiap of Aly, offered to deliver 
 the city into his hands. 
 
 Abderahman, us bold in war as he was gentle in peace, took 
 the field with his wonted promptness ; overthrew his enemies, 
 with great slaughter, drove some to the sea-coast to regain their 
 ships, and others to the mountains. The body of Aly was 
 iound on the field of battle. Abderahman caused the head to 
 be struck off, and conveyed to Cairvan, where it was atlixed at 
 night to a column in the public square, with this inrcription : 
 "Thus Abderahman, the descendant of tiie Omeyas, punisiies 
 the rash and arrogant." Hixom ben Adra escaped from the 
 field of battle, and excited farther troubles, but was eventually 
 captured by Alxlelmelee, who ordered his head to be struck off 
 on the spot, lest he should again be spared, through the wonted 
 clemency of Abderahman. 
 
 Notwithstanding these signal triumphs, the reign of Abderah- 
 man was disturbed by further insurrections, an«! by another 
 descent from Africa, but he was victorious over them all ; 
 striking the roots of his power deeper and deeper into the hiiid. 
 Under his sway, the government of Spain became more regular 
 and consolidated, and acquired an independence of the empire of 
 the East. The caliph continued to be considered as first pontift' 
 and chief of the religion, but he ceased to have any temporal 
 power over Spain. 
 
 Having again an interval of peace, Abderahman devoted him- 
 self to tlie education of his children. Suleiman, the eldest, he 
 ap[)ointed Wali, or governor, of Toledo ; Abdallah, the second, 
 w:v8 intrusted with the command of Merida ; but the third sou, 
 Ilixem, was the delight of his heart, the son of Howara, his 
 favorite sultana, whom he loved throughout life with the utmost 
 tenderness. With this youth, who was full of promise, he re- 
 laxed from the fatigues of government ; joining in his youthful 
 sports amid the delightful gardens of Cordova, and teachiiii; 
 him the gentle art of falconry, of which the king was so fond 
 that he received the name of the Falcon of Coraixi. 
 
 While Abderahman was thus indulging in the gentle propen- 
 sities of his nature, mischief was secretly at work. Muhamad, 
 
 f'\ I 
 
 i 
 
ABDERAHMAN. 
 
 167 
 
 ad received 
 be ordered 
 if trumpet, 
 
 lember of a 
 
 f the East. 
 
 in Adra, so 
 tbe citadel 
 
 d to deliver 
 
 peace, took 
 s euemies, 
 egain their 
 »f Aly was 
 the head to 
 s aflixed at 
 nrcri[)tiou : 
 s, punislies 
 d from tlie 
 i eventually 
 e struck off 
 the wonted 
 
 f Abderah- 
 by anotlicr 
 them all ; 
 to the laud, 
 lore re<,nilai' 
 le empire of 
 first pontiff 
 ly temporal 
 
 ;voted liirn- 
 i eldest, he 
 the second, 
 third son, 
 [ovvara, his 
 the utmost 
 lise, he rc- 
 s youthful 
 J teach iu(>; 
 IS so fond 
 
 Ic prcpen- 
 Muhamad, 
 
 the youngest son of Yusuf, had been for .~nany years a prisoner 
 in the tower of Cordova. Being passive and resigned, his 
 keepers relaxed their vigilance, and brought him forth from his 
 dungeon. He went groping about, however, in broad daylight, 
 as if still in the darkness of his tower. His guards watched 
 him narrowly, lest this should be a deception, but were at length 
 convinced that the long absence of light had rendered him blind. 
 They new permitted him to descend frequently to the lower 
 chambers of the tower, and to sleep there occasionally, during 
 the heats of summer. They even allowed him to grope his way 
 to the cistern, in quest of water for his ablutions. 
 
 A year passed in this way without any thing to excite "us- 
 picion. During all this time, however, the blindness of Muha- 
 raad was entirely a deception ; and he was concerting a plan of 
 escape, through the aid of some friends of his father, who found 
 means to visit him occasionally. One sultry evening in mid- 
 sunnner, the guards had gone to bathe in the Guadalquiver, 
 leaving Muhamad alone, in the lower chambers of the tower. 
 No sooner were they out of sight and hearing, than he hastened 
 to a window of the staircase, leading down to the cistern, low- 
 ered himself as far as his arms would reach, and dropped with- 
 out injury to the ground. Plunging into the Guadalquiver, he 
 swam across to a thick grove on the opposite side, .vhere his 
 friends were waiting to receive him. Here, mounting a horse 
 which they had provided for an event of the kind, he fled 
 across the country, by solitary roads, and made good his escape 
 to the mountains of Jaeu. 
 
 The guardians of the tower dreaded for some time to make 
 known his flight to Abderahman. When at length it was told 
 to him, he exclaimed: "All is the work of eternal wisdom; it 
 is intended to teach us that we cannot benefit the wicked with- 
 out injuring the good. The flight of that blind man will cause 
 much trouble and bloodshed." 
 
 His predictions were verified. Muhamad reared the standard 
 of rebellion on the mountains ; the seditious and discontented of 
 all kinds hastened to join it, together with soldiers of fortune, 
 or rather wandering banditti, and he had soon six thousand 
 men, well armed, hardy in habits, and desperate in character. 
 His brother Casim also reappeared about the same time in the 
 mountains of Rouda, at the head of a daring band that laid all 
 the neighboring valleys under contribution. 
 
 Abderahman summoned his alcaydes from their various mili- 
 tary posts, to assist in driving the rebels from their mountain 
 fastnesses into the plains. It was a dangerous and protracted 
 
 ji 'i 
 
li j 
 
 •i) I s 
 
 1^1 
 
 168 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 toil, for the mountains were friglitfully wild and rugged. He 
 entered them with a powerful host, driving the rebels from 
 height to height and valley to valley, and harassing them by a 
 galling fire from thousands of cross-bows. At length a decisive 
 battle tooii place near the river Guadalemar. The rebels were 
 signally defeated ; four thousand fell in action, many were 
 drowned in the river, and Muhamad, with a few horsemen, 
 escaped to the mountains of the Algarves. Here he was hunted 
 by the alcaydes from one desolate retreat to another ; his few 
 followers grew tired of sharing the disastrous fortunes of a 
 fated man ; one by one deserted him. and he himself dosertod 
 tlie remainder, fearing they might give him up, to purchase their 
 own pardon. 
 
 Lonely and disguised, he plunged into the depths of the for- 
 ests, or lurked in dens and caverns, like a famished wolf, often 
 easting back his thoughts with regret to the time of his captivity 
 in the gloomy tower of Cordova. Hunger at length drove him 
 to Alarcou, at the risk of being discovered. Famine and 
 misery, however, had so wasted and changed him, that he was 
 not recognized. He remained nearly a year in Alarcon, un- 
 noticed and unknown, yet constantly tormenting himself with 
 the dread of discover", and with groundless fears of the von- 
 geance of Abderahman. Death at leugtli put an end to hin 
 wretchedness. 
 
 A milder fate attended his brother Casim. Being defeated in 
 the mountains of Murcia, he was conducted in chains to Cor- 
 dova. On coming into the presence of Abderahman, his once 
 fierce and haughty spirit, broken by distress, gave way ; lie 
 threw himself on the earth, kissed the dust beneath tlie feet of 
 the king, and implored his clemency. Tlie benignant heart of 
 Abderahman was ^illed with melancholy, rather than exultation, 
 at beholding this wreck of the once haughty family of Yusuf a 
 euppliant at his feet, and suing for mere existence. He thought 
 upon the mutability of fortune, and felt how insecure are nil her 
 favors. He raised the unhappy Casim from the earth, ordered 
 his irons to be taken off, and, not content with mere forgiveness, 
 treated him with honor, and gave him possessions in Seville, 
 where he might live in state conformable to the ancient dignity 
 of his family. Won by this great and persevering magnanim- 
 ity, Casim ever after remained one of the most devoted of his 
 subjects. 
 
 All the enemies of Abderahman were at length subdued ; he 
 reigned undisputed sovereijin of the Moslems of Spain ; and so 
 benign was his government, that every one blessed the revival 
 
ABDERAIIMAN. 
 
 169 
 
 1 
 
 ;gcd. He 
 bels from 
 them by a 
 a decisive 
 •ebels wore 
 any were 
 horsemen, 
 vas hunted 
 his few 
 tunes of a 
 If dnsortcd 
 chase their 
 
 of the for- 
 wolf, often 
 is captivity 
 drove him 
 amine and 
 hat he was 
 arcon, un- 
 mself with 
 3f the ven- 
 end to hifi 
 
 defeated in 
 ins to Cov- 
 in, his once 
 e way ; he 
 tlie feet of 
 nt heart of 
 exultation, 
 >f Yusuf a 
 He thought 
 are all her 
 th, ordered 
 orgiveness, 
 in Seville, 
 2nt dignity 
 magnanim- 
 oted of his 
 
 ibdued ; he 
 in ; and so 
 the revival 
 
 of the illustrious line of Omeyu. He was at all times accessible 
 to the humblest of his subjects : tlie i)<K)r man ever found in 
 him a friend, and the oppressed a protector. He improved the 
 administration of justice ; established schools for pulilic instruc- 
 tion ; encouraged poets and men of letters, and cultivated the 
 sciences. He built i;i*sques in every city that he visited; in^ 
 culcated religion by example as well as by precept; and cele 
 bratod all the festivals prescribed by the Koran, with the utmost 
 magnificence. 
 
 As a monument of gratitude to God for the prosperity with 
 which he had been favored, he undertook to erect a mosque in 
 his favorite city of Cordova, that should rival in splendor the 
 great mosque of Damascus, and excel the one recently erected 
 in Bagdad by the Abbassides, the supplauters of his family. 
 
 It is said that he himself furnished the plan for this fan:ious 
 edifice, and even worked on it, with his own hands, one hour 
 in each day, to testify his zeal and humility in the service of 
 God, and to animate his workmen. He did not live to see it 
 completed, l)ut it was finished acccnding to his plans by his son 
 Hixem. When finished, it sur|)assed the most splendid mos(iuos 
 of the East. It was six hundred feet in length, and two hun- 
 dred and fifty in breadth. Within were twenty-eight aisles, 
 crossed by nineteen, supported by a thousand and ninety-three 
 columns of marble. There were nineteen portals, covered with 
 plates of bronze cf rare workmanship. The principal i)ortal 
 was covered with plates of gold. On the summit of the grand 
 cupola were three gilt balls surmounted by a golden pomegranate. 
 At night, the mosque was illuminateci with four thousand seven 
 hundred lamps, and great sums were expended in amber and 
 aloes, which were burned as perfumes. The moscpie remains 
 to this day, shorn of its ancient splendor, yet still one of the 
 grandest Moslem intMiuments in Spain. 
 
 Finding himself advancing in years, Abderahman assembled 
 in his capital of Cordova the principal governors and com- 
 manders of his kingdom, and in [)resenee of them all, with 
 great solemnity, nominated his son Ilixem as the successor to 
 tile throne. All present made an oath of fealty to Abderah- 
 man during his life, and to Ilixem after his death. The prince 
 was younger than his brotliers, Suleinnin and Abdallah ; but 
 he was the son of Ilowara, the tenderly beloved sultana of 
 Abderahman, and her intluence, ii is said, gained him this 
 preference. 
 
 Within a few months afterwaid, Abderahman fell grievously 
 vick at Mcrida. Kindinij his end :ii)proaching. he summoned 
 
170 
 
 TUE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ncvi 
 
 I : 
 
 ! 
 
 ! 1 
 
 in t 
 
 Hixem to his bedside : ''My son," siiid he, " the .angel of death 
 is hovering over ine ; treasure up, therefore, in thy heiirt this 
 dying counsel, whieh I give through the greut love I bear tlioc. 
 Remember that all empire is from Clod, who gives and takes it 
 away, aceording to his pleasure. Since (io<i, through his diviin' 
 goodness, has given us regal power and authority, let us do his 
 holy will, which is notliing else than to do good to all men, and 
 especially to those committed to our protection. Render equal 
 justice, my son, to the rich and the poor, and never suffer injus- 
 tice to be done within thy dominion, for it is the road to perdi-^ 
 tion. Be merciful and benignant to those dependent upon Ihoc. 
 Confide the government of thy cities and provinces to men of 
 worth and experience ; punish without compassion those minis- 
 ters who oppress thy people with exorbitant exactions. Pay tiiy 
 troops punctually ; teach them to feel a certainty in thy prom- 
 ises ; command them with gentleness but firmness, and mako 
 them in truth the defenders of the state, not its destroyers. 
 Cultivate unceasingly the affections of thy people, for in tlieir 
 good-will consists the security of the state, in their distrust its 
 peril, in their hatred its certain ruin. Protect the husbandmen 
 who cultivate the earth, and yield us necessary sustenance ; 
 never permit their fields, and groves, and gardens to be dis- 
 turbed. Tn a -.vord, act in such wise that thy peoi)le may Idess 
 thee, and may enjcy, under the shadow of thy wing, a secure 
 and tranquil life. In this consists good government ; if thou 
 dost practise it, thou wilt be happy among thy people, and re- 
 nowned throughout the world." 
 
 Having given tJiis excellent counsel, the good king Abderah- 
 man blessed his son Hixem, and shortly after died ; l)eing but 
 in the sixtieth year of his age. He was interred with great 
 pomp ; but the highest honors that distinguished his funeral 
 were the tears of real sorrow shed upoii his grave. He left 
 behind him a name for valor, justice, and nuignanhnity, :uiil 
 forever famous as being the founder of the glorious line of tlj- 
 Ommiades in Spain. 
 
TEE WIDOW'S ORDEAL. 
 
 171 
 
 1 of (loath 
 iK'iirt this 
 Itear tlicc. 
 tl takes it 
 liis (liviin. 
 H!^ tlo his 
 meu, and 
 kUt equal 
 ffi-'i' iiijus- 
 U) pt'i',li> 
 11)011 tliee, 
 ;o iiicii of 
 ose iiiiiiis- 
 Piiy tiiy 
 thy proiii- 
 uiid make 
 lestroycvs. 
 )!• ill thoir 
 list rust its 
 isbandmoii 
 istenauct' ; 
 to be dis- 
 may ])loSS 
 p, a secure 
 it ; if thou 
 e, a,ud re- 
 
 Abderah- 
 l)oiiig but 
 with great 
 lis funeral 
 . He left 
 :inity, and 
 iue of th' 
 
 THE WIDOW'S ORDEAL, 
 
 OR A JUDICIAL TKIAL BY COMBAT. 
 
 The world is daily growing older and wiser. Its institution^ 
 vary with its years, and mark its growing wisdom ; and none 
 more so than its modes of investigating truth, and ascertaining 
 guilt or innocence. In its nonage, when man was yet a fallible 
 being, and doubted the accuracy of his own intellect, appeals 
 were made to heaven in dark and doubtful cases of atrocious 
 accusation. 
 
 The accused was required to plunge his hand in boiling oil, 
 or to walk across red-hot ploughshares, or to maintain his inno- 
 cence in armed light and listed field, in person or by champion. 
 If he passed these ordeals unscathed, he stood acquitted, and 
 the result was regarded as a verdict from on high. 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that, in the gallant age of cbiv- 
 airy, the gentler sex oliould have been most frequently the sub- 
 jects of these rude trials and perilous ordeals ; and that, too, 
 when assailed in their most delicate and vulnerable part — their 
 honor. 
 
 In the present very old and enlightened age of the world, 
 when the human intellect is perfectly competent to the manage- 
 ment of its own concerns, and needs no special interposition of 
 heaven in its aft'airs. the tiial by jury has superseded these super- 
 human ordeals ; and the unanimity of twelve discordant minds 
 is necessary to coistitute a verdict. Such a unanimity would, 
 at first sight, appear also to require a miracle from heaven ; but 
 it is produced by a simple device of human ingenuity. The 
 twelve jurors are locked up in their box, there to fast until 
 iihstinence shall have so clarified their intellects that the whole 
 jarring panel can discern the truth, and concur in a unanimous 
 ilecision. One i)oint is certain, that truth is one, and is immut- 
 al^e — until the jurors all agree, they cannot all be right. 
 
 It is not our inbention, however, to discuss this great judicial 
 lioint, or to question the avowed superiority of the mode of 
 investigating ti'uth adopted in this antiquated and very saga- 
 cious era. It is our object merely to exhibit to the curious reader 
 one of the most memorftble cases of judicial combat we find m 
 the annals of Spain. It occurred at the bright commencement 
 of the reign, and in the youthful, and, as yet, glorious days, of 
 Koderick the Goth ; who subsequently tarnished his fame at 
 
 h N 
 
 ; J 
 
lY^ 
 
 HE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 i '. 
 
 »( 
 
 •V' -^ ' i^- 
 
 home by his misdeeds, and, finally, lost his kingdom and bis life 
 
 m the banks of the Guadalete, in that disastrous battle which 
 
 t.,ft"e up Spain a conquest to the Moors. The following is the 
 
 There was once upon a time a certain duke of Lorraine, who 
 was acknowledged throughout his domains to be one of the wisest 
 princes that ever lived. In fact, there was no one measure 
 adopted by him that did not astonisli his privy counsellors and 
 gentlemen in attendance ; and he said such witty things, and 
 made such sensible speeches, that the jaws of his high chamber- 
 lain were well-nigh dislocated from laughing with delight at one, 
 and gaping with wonder at the other. 
 
 This very witty and exceedingly wise potentate lived for half 
 a century in single-blessedness ; at length his courtiers began to 
 think it a great pity so wise and wealthy a prince should not have 
 a child after his own likeness, to inherit his talents and domains ; 
 so they urged him most respectfully to marry, for the good of 
 his estate, and the welfare of his subjects. 
 
 He turned their advice over in his mind some four or five 
 years, and then sent forth emissaries to summon to his court all 
 the beautiful maidens in the land who were ambitious of sharing 
 a ducal crown. The court was soon crowded with beauties of 
 all styles and complexions, from among whom he chose one in 
 the earliest budding of her charms, and acknowledged by all 
 the gentlemen to be unparalleled for grace and loveliness. The 
 courtiers extolled the duke to the skies for making such a choice, 
 and considered it another proof of his great wisdom. " The 
 duke," said they, *' is waxing a little too old, the damsel, on 
 the other hand, is a little too young ; if one is lacking in years, 
 the other has a superabundance ; thus a want on one side is 
 balanced by the excess on the other, and the result is a well- 
 assorted marriage." 
 
 The duke, as is often the case with wise men who marry 
 rather late, and take damsels rather youthful to their bosoms, 
 became dotingly fond of his wife, and very properly indulgccl 
 her in all things. He was, consequently, cried up by his sub- 
 jects in general, and by the ladies in particular, as a pattern for 
 husbands ; and, in the end, from the wonderful docility with 
 which he submitted to be reined and checked, acquired the 
 amiable and enviable appellation of Duke Philibert the wife- 
 ridden. 
 
 There was only one thing that disturbed the conjugal felicity 
 of this paragon of husbands — though a considerable time 
 elapsed after his marriage, there was still no prospect of an 
 
 i 1 
 
 
d his life 
 tie which 
 ng is the 
 
 line, who 
 ;he wisest 
 measure 
 lors aud 
 ings, and 
 chamber- 
 it at one, 
 
 for half 
 began to 
 not have 
 
 domains ; 
 
 i good of 
 
 ir or five 
 I court all 
 >f sharing 
 sauties of 
 )8e one in 
 ed by all 
 Us. The 
 
 a choice, 
 I. " The 
 imsel, on 
 
 in years, 
 le side is 
 is a well- 
 
 ho marry 
 bosoms, 
 indulgc(i 
 ' his sub- 
 atteru for 
 ility with 
 uired the 
 the wife- 
 
 al felicity 
 tble time 
 ict of an 
 
 THE WIDOW'S ORDEAL. 
 
 173 
 
 jeir. The good duke left no means untried to propitiate 
 Heaven. He made vows and pilgrimages, he fasted and he 
 prayed, but all to no purpose. The courtiers were all aston- 
 ished at the circumstance. They could not account for it. 
 While the meanest peasant in the country Y ^ sturdy brats by 
 dozens, without putting up a prayer, the d. vC ' re himself to 
 skin and bone with penances and fastings-, yet emed farther 
 ofif from his object than ever. 
 
 At length, the worthy prince fell danr ">u. 'y ill, and felt his 
 end approaching. He looked sorrowfully id dubiously U[x)n 
 his young and tender spouse, who hung ovei him with tears and 
 Bobbiugs. '' Alas ! " said he, " tears i lo^n dried from youth- 
 ful eyes, aud sorrow lies lightly on a yo-io.ul heart. In a little 
 while thou wilt forget in the arms of another husband him who 
 has loved thee so tenderly." 
 
 " Never ! never ! " cried the duchess. " Never will I cleave 
 to another ! Alas, that my lord should think me capable of 
 such inconstancy ! " 
 
 The worthy and wife-ridden duke was soothed by her assur- 
 ances ; for he could not brook the thought of giving her up even 
 after he should be dead. Still he wished to have some pledge 
 of her enduring constancy : 
 
 " Far be it from me, my dearest wife," said he, " to control 
 
 thee through a 
 
 long 
 
 life. A year and a day of strict fidelity 
 
 to 
 
 will appease my troubled spirit. Promise to remain faithful 
 my memory for a year and a day, and I will die in peace." 
 
 The duchess made a solemn vow to that effect, but the uxori- 
 ous feelings of the duke were not yet satisfied. " Safe bind, 
 safe find," thought he ; so he made a will, bequeathing to her all 
 his domains, on condition of her remaining true to him for a 
 year and a day after his decease ; but, should it appear that, 
 within that time, she had in any wise lapsed from her fidelity, 
 the inheritance should go to his nephew, the lord of a neighbor- 
 ing territory. 
 
 Having made his will, the good duke died and was buried. 
 Scarcely was he in his tomb, when his nephew came to take 
 possession, thinking, as his uncle had died without issue, the 
 domains would be devised to him of course. He was in a furi- 
 ous passion, when the will was produced, and the young widow 
 declared inheritor of the dukedom. As he was a violent, high- 
 handed man, aud one of the sturdiest knights in the land, fears 
 were entertained that he might attempt to seize on the terri- 
 tories by force. He had, however, two bachelor uncles for 
 bosom counsellors, swaggering, rakehelly old cavaliers, wbO| 
 
 i^i 
 
 :l :; 
 
 ) " 
 
 i 
 
 i ' 
 
 Ml' 
 
I 
 
 i!. 
 
 i : 
 
 i ) 
 
 I : i 
 
 I t 
 
 1 i'' 
 
 .! '■ 
 
 t 
 
 i' 1 
 
 174 
 
 THE CBATON PAPERS. 
 
 having led loose and riotous lives, prided themselves upon 
 knowing the world, and being deeply experienced in huiniin 
 nature. " Pritliee, man, be of good cheer," said they, " tho 
 duchess is a young and buxom widow. She has just buried our 
 brother, who, God rest his soul ! was somewhat too much given 
 to praying and fasting, and kept his pretty wife always tied to 
 his girdle. She is now like a bird from a cage. Think you she 
 will keep her vow ? Pooh, pooh — impossible ! Take our wonls 
 for it — we know mankind, and, above all, womankind. iShe 
 cannot hold out for such a length of time ; it is not in woman- 
 hood — it is not in widowhood — we know it, and that's enoutfh. 
 Keep a sharp look-out upon the widow, therefore, and witliin 
 the twelvemonth you will catch her tripping — and tlieu the 
 dukedom is your own." 
 
 The nephew was pleased with this counsel, and immediately 
 placed spies round the duchess, and bribed several of lier ser- 
 vants to keep watch upon her, so that she could not take a 
 single step, even from one apartment of her palace to another, 
 without being observed. Never was young and beautiful widow 
 exposed to so terrible an ordeal. 
 
 The duchess was aware of the watch thus kept upon lier. 
 Though confident of her own rectitude, she knew that it is not 
 enough for a woman to be virtuous — she must be above tlie 
 reach of slander. For the whole term of her probation, there- 
 fore, she proclaimed a strict non-intercourse with tlie other sex. 
 She had females for cabinet ministers and chamberlains, tlnough 
 whom she transacted all her public and private concerns ; and it 
 is said that never were the affairs of the dukedom so adroitly 
 administered. 
 
 All males were rigorously excluded from the palace ; she 
 never went out of its precincts, and whenever she moved about 
 its courts and gardens, she surrounded herself with a body-guard 
 of young maids of honor, commanded by dames renowned for 
 discretion. Slie slept in a bed witliout curtains, placed in the 
 centre of a room illuminated by innumerable wax tapers. Four 
 ancient spinsters, virtuous as Virginia, perfect dragons of watch- 
 fulness, who only slept during the daytime, kept vigils tlnough- 
 out the night, seated in the four corners of the room on stools 
 without backs or arms, and with seats cut in checkers of the 
 hardest wood, to keep them from dozing. 
 
 Thus wisely and warily did the young duchess conduct her- 
 self for twelve long months, and slander almost bit her tongue 
 otf in despair, at finding no room even for a surmise. Never 
 was ordeal more burdensome, or more enduring ly sustained. 
 
TUB WIDOW'S ORDEAL. 
 
 175 
 
 The year passed away. The last, odd day arrived, and a 
 long, long day it was. It was the twenty-first of June, the 
 longest day in the year. It seemed as if it would never come to 
 an end. A thousand times did the duchess and her ladies watch 
 the sun from the windows of the palace, as he slowly climbed 
 the vault of heaven, and seemed still more slowly to roll down. 
 They could not help expressing their wonder, now and then, why 
 tlie duke should have tagged this supernumerary day to the 
 end of the year, as if three hundred and sixty-five days were 
 not sufficient to try and task the fidelity of any woman. It is 
 the last grain that turns the scale — the last drop that overflows 
 the goblet — and the last moment of delay that exhausts the 
 patience. By the time the sun sank below the horizon, the 
 duchess was in a fidget tliat passed all bounds, and, though 
 several hours were yet to i)ass before the day regularly expired, 
 she could not have remained tliose hours in durauce to gain a 
 royal crown, much less a ducal coronet. So she gave orders, 
 and her palfrey, magnificently caparisoned, was brought into 
 the court-yard of the castle, with i)alfreys for all her ladies in 
 attendance. In this way she sallied forth, just as the sun had 
 gone down. It was a mission of piety — a pilgrim cavalcade to 
 a convent at the foot of a ueigliboring mountain — to return 
 thanks to the blessed Virgin, for having sustained her through 
 this fearful ordeal. 
 
 The orisons performed, the duchess and her ladies returned, 
 ambling gently along the border of a forest. It was about that 
 mellow hour of twilight when night and day are mingled, and 
 all objects are indistinct. Suddenly, some monstrous animal 
 sprang from out a thicket, with fearful bowlings. The female 
 body-guard was thrown into confusion, and fied different ways. 
 It was some time before they recovered from their panic, and 
 gathered once more together ; but the duchess was not to be 
 found. The greatest anxiety was felt for her safety. The 
 hazy mist of twilight had prevented their distinguishing per- 
 fectly the animal wliich liad affrighted them. Some thought it 
 a wolf, others a bear, others a wild man of the woods. For 
 upwards of au hour did they beleaguer the forest, without dar- 
 ing to venture in, and were on the point of giving up the duch- 
 ess as torn to pieces and devoured, when, to their great joy, 
 they beheld her advancing in the gloom, supported by a stately 
 cavalier. 
 
 He was a stranger knight, whom nobody knew. It was im- 
 possible to distinguisii his countenance in the dark ; but all the 
 ladies agreed that he was of noble presence and captivating 
 
 1 V. 
 
 ■I 
 
 il 
 
 !• ■'. 
 
 
 ■I i 
 
 I 
 it 
 
 r 
 
 :• H^ 
 
 S'' 
 
 ( 
 
 ■ 1 
 
 , 
 
 „,? %\i 
 
 \ 
 
 1 i 
 
 
 1 } 
 
 
 ' : 
 
 
 V 
 
 \ 
 
 ,1 
 
 ^' 
 
 ^l 
 
176 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 i/i 
 
 ^:i 
 
 fill I 
 
 i 1 * ■ 
 
 address. He had rescued the duchess from the very fangs of 
 the iri'^inster, which, he assured the ladies, was neither a wolf, 
 nor a bear, nor yet a wild man of the woods, but a veritable 
 fiery dragon, a species of monster pec\iliarly hostile to beauilful 
 females in the days of chivalry, and which all the efforts of 
 knight-errantry had not been able to extirpate. 
 
 The ladies crossed themselves when they heard of the danger 
 from which they had escaped, and could not enough admire 
 the gallantry of the cavalier. The duchess would fain have 
 prevailed on her deliverer to accompany her to her court ; l)ut 
 he had no time to spare, being a knight-errant, who had many 
 adventures on hand, and many distressed damsels and afflicted 
 widows to rescue and relieve in various parts of the country. 
 Taking a respectful leave, therefore, he pursued his wayfaring, 
 and the duchess and her train returned to the palace. Through- 
 out the whole way, the ladies were unwearied in chanting the 
 praises of the stranger knight, nay, many of them would will- 
 ingly have incurred the danger of the dragon to have enjoyed 
 the happy deliverance of the duchess. As to the latter, she 
 rode pensively along, but said nothing. 
 
 No sooner was the adventure of the wood made public, than 
 a whirlwind was raised about the ears of the beautiful duchess. 
 The blustering nephew of the deceased duke went about, armed 
 to the teeth, with a swaggering uncle at each shoulder, ready 
 to back him, and swore the duchess had forfeited her domain. 
 It was in vain that she called all the saints, and angels, and her 
 ladies in attendance into the bargain, to witness that she had 
 passed a year and a day of immaculate fidelity. One fatal hour 
 remained to ])e accounted for ; and into the space of one little 
 hour sins enough may be conjured up by evil tongues, U) blast 
 the fame of a whole life of virtue. 
 
 The two graceless uncles, who had seen the world, were ever 
 ready to bolster the matter through, and as they were brawny, 
 broad-shouldered warriors, and veterans in brawl as well as 
 debauch, they had great sway with the multitude. If any one 
 pretended to assert the innocence of the duchess, they inter- 
 rupted him with a loud ha ! ha ! of derision. " A pretty story, 
 truly," would they cry, " about a wolf and a dragon, and a 
 young widow rescued in the dark by a sturdy varlet who dares 
 not show his face in the daylight. You may tell that to those 
 who do not know human nature, for our parts we know the sex, 
 and that's enough." 
 
 If, however, the other repeated his assertion, they would sud- 
 denly knit their brows, swell, look big, and put their hands 
 
»*y fangs of 
 ■her a wolf, 
 veritable 
 to beautiful 
 efforts of 
 
 the danger 
 gh admire 
 fain have 
 court; hut 
 Imd many 
 d aftlictt'cj 
 le country, 
 wayfaring, 
 Through- 
 "anting the 
 would will- 
 ve enjoyed 
 latter, she 
 
 ublie, than 
 j1 duchess, 
 out, armed 
 Ider, ready 
 ler domain. 
 Is, and her 
 at she had 
 '■ fatal hour 
 ' one little 
 a, to blast 
 
 were ever 
 e brawny, 
 8 well as 
 f any one 
 hey inter- 
 ;tty story, 
 3n, and a 
 vho dares 
 ; to those 
 V the sex, 
 
 ould sud- 
 nr hands 
 
 THE WIDOW'S ORDEAL. 
 
 177 
 
 upon their swords. As few people like to fight in a cause that 
 does not touch their own interests, the nephew and the uncles 
 were suffered to hi. i tlieir way, and swagger uncontradicted. 
 
 The matter was at lengtli referred to a tribunal, composed of 
 all the dignitaries of the dukedom, and many and repeated con- 
 sultations were held. The character of the duchess through- 
 out the year was as bright and spotless as the moon in a cloud- 
 less night ; one fatal hour of darkness alone intervened \o 
 eclipse its brightness. Finding human sagacity incapable of 
 dispi'lling the mystery, it was determined to leave the questi(jM 
 to heaven ; or in (ither words, to decide it by the ordeal of the 
 sword — a sage tribunal in the age of chivalry. The nephew 
 iukI two bully uncles were to maintain their accusation in listed 
 com! Kit, and six months were allowed to the duchess to provide 
 herself with thrcf eluimpions, to meet them in the field. Should 
 slie fail in this, or should ber champions be vanquished, her 
 liouor would be considered as attainted, her fidelity as forfeited, 
 and her dukedom would go to the nephew, as a matter of 
 right. 
 
 With this determination the duchess was fain to comply. 
 Proclamations were accordingly made, and heralds sent to vari- 
 ous parts ; but day after day, week after week, and month 
 after month, elaps<'d, without any champion appearing to assert 
 her loyalty throughout that darksome hour. The fair widow 
 was reduced to despair, when tidings reached her of grand 
 tournaments to be held at Toledo, in celebration of the nup- 
 tials of Don Roderick, tiie last of the Gothic kings, with the 
 Morisco princess Exilona. As a last resort, the duchess re- 
 ])aired to the Spanish court, to implore ice gallantry of its 
 assembled chivalry. 
 
 rhe ancient city of Toledo was a scene of gorgeous revelry 
 on the event of the royal nuptials. The youthful king, brave, 
 ardent, and magnificent, and his lovely bride, beaming with all 
 the radiant beauty of the East, were hailed with shouts and 
 acclamations whenever they appeared. 
 
 Their nobles vied with each other in the luxury of their 
 attire, their prancing steeds, and splendid retii ues ; and the 
 haughty dames of the court appeared in a blaze of jewels. 
 
 In the midst of all this pageantry, the beautiful, but aflSicted 
 Duchess of Lorraine made her approach to the throne. SJ»e 
 was dressed in black, and closely veiled ; four duennas of the 
 most staid and severe aspect, and six beautiful demoiselles, 
 formed her female attendants. She was guarded by several 
 very ancient, withered, and gray- headed cavaliers ; and her 
 
 h 
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 ' I' 
 
 
 i; 
 
 : ,i t 
 
 ' 
 
 r 
 
 I ] 
 
178 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 train was borne by one of the most deformed and diminutive 
 dwarfs in existence. 
 
 Advancing to the foot of the throne, she knelt down, and, 
 throwing up her veil, revealed a countenance so beautiful that 
 half the cjurtiers present were ready to renounce wives and 
 mistresses, and devote themselves to her service ; l)ut when 
 she made known that she came in quest of champions to de- 
 fenc' her fame, every cavalier pressed forward to offer his arm 
 and sword, without inquiring into the merits of the case ; for it 
 seemed clear that so beauteous a lady could have done notliiiiij; but 
 what was right ; and that, at any rate, she ought to l)e championed 
 in following the bent of her humors, whether right or wroii^. 
 
 Encouraged by such gallant zeal, the duchess suffered her- 
 self to be raised from the ground, and related the wliol(\ story 
 of her distress. When she concluded, the king remained for 
 some time silent, charmed by the music of her voice. At 
 length: "As 1 hope for salvation, most beautiful duchess," 
 said he, " were I not a sovereign king, and bound in duty to 
 my kingdom, T myself would put lance in rest to viiidioute 
 your cause ; as ,l is, I here give full permission to my knights, 
 and promise lists and a fair field, and that the contest shall 
 take place before the walls of Toledo, in presence of my assem- 
 bled court." 
 
 As soon as the pleasure of the king was known, there was a 
 strife among the cavaliers present, for the honor of the contest. 
 It was decided by lot, and the successful candidates were 
 objects of great envy, for every one was ambitious of liiKlinij; 
 favor in the eyes of the beautiful widow. 
 
 Missives were sent, summoning the nephew and his two 
 uncles to Toledo, to maintain their accusation, and a day was 
 appointed for the combat. When the day arrived, all Toledo 
 was in commotion at an early hour. The lists had been pie- 
 pared in the usual place, just without the walls, at the foot of 
 the rugged rocks on which the city is built, and on that beauti- 
 ful meadow along the Tagus, known by the name of the king's 
 garden. The poi)ulace had already asseml)l(>d, each one eager 
 to secure a favorable place ; the balconies were filled with tlie 
 ladies of the court, clad in their richest attire, and l»amls of 
 youthful knights, splendidly armed and decorated with their 
 ladies' devices, were managing their superbly caparisoned steeds 
 about the field. The king at length came forth in stale, ac- 
 companied by the (pieen Kxilona. They took their scats in a 
 raised balcony, under a canopy of rich damask ; and, at sight 
 of them, the people rent the air with acclamations. 
 
 ill ! 
 
TUE WIDOW'S ORDEAL. 
 
 179 
 
 id dim 
 
 inutive 
 
 It down, and, 
 Jeautiful that 
 |ce wives and 
 '6; ''lit wlien 
 
 Pions to (le- 
 offt'r his anil 
 
 case; fo,. jt 
 le notiiiim ')iit 
 eoliainpioiii'd 
 
 |t or Wl'Ollir. 
 
 suffered hor- 
 wliole story 
 n'inaiiied for 
 !• voice. At 
 III duchess," 
 '<1 in (hity to 
 to vindicate 
 •nj Iviii^^iiLs, 
 contest sliall 
 of my assciii- 
 
 . there was a 
 f the contest, 
 didates wero 
 Js of (inthritf 
 
 and his two 
 <l a day was 
 1, all 'lujcdo 
 ul i)een pro- 
 ' the f(jot of 
 that heanti- 
 f the kiurr's 
 :h one eaycr 
 led with the 
 h1 haiuls of 
 
 I with their 
 ;oned steeds 
 
 II state, ac- 
 ' seats in a 
 h1, at si.dit 
 
 The nephew and his uncles now rode into the field, armed 
 cr/j>(V/>?>, and followed by a train of cavaliers of their own 
 roystcring cast, great swearers and earousers, arrant swash- 
 bucklers, with clanking armor and jingling spurs. When the 
 people of Toledo beheld the vaunting and diseourteons appear- 
 ance of these knights, they were more anxious than ever for 
 the success of the gentle duchess ; Init, at the same time, the 
 sturdy and stalwart frames of these wai-riors, showed that 
 whoever won the victory from them, must do it at tiie cost of 
 many a bitter blow. 
 
 As tiie nephew and his riotous crew rode in at one side of the 
 field, the fair widow appeared at the other, with her suite of 
 irrave gray-headed courtiers, her ancient duennas and dainty 
 diMii()is(dles, and the little dwarf toiling along under the weight 
 of her train. Every one made way for her as she passed, and 
 blessed her Iteautiful face, and prayed for success to her cause. 
 Slie took her seat in a lower balcony, not far from the sover- 
 {'l;:,iis ; and her pale face, set off Ijy her mourning weeds, was as 
 tlic moon shining forth from among the clouds of night. 
 
 Tlie trumpets sounded for the combat. The warriors were 
 just entering the lists, A'hen a stranger knight, armed in pano- 
 ply, and followed by tv o pages and an esquire, came galloping 
 into the Held, and, riding up to the royal balcony, claimed, the 
 C()nil)at as a matter of right. 
 
 "In me," cried he, " behold the cavalier who had the happi- 
 ness to rescue the beautiful duchess from the peril of the forest, 
 and the misfortune to bring on her this grievous calumny. It 
 was bnt recently, in the course of my errantry, that tidings of 
 her wrongs have reached my ears, and 1 have urged hither at 
 all sjieed. to stand forth in her vindication." 
 
 No sooner did the duchess hear the accents of the knight 
 than she recognized his voice, and joined her prayers with his 
 that he might enter the lists. The dilllculty was, to determine 
 which of the three champions already a[)pointed should yield 
 his place, each insisting on the honor of the coml)at. The 
 stranger knight would liave settled the j^oint, l)y taking the 
 wiiole contest upon himself ; but this the other knights would 
 not [lerniit. It was at length determined, as before, by lot, and 
 the cavalier who lost the chance retired murmuring and dis- 
 consolate. 
 
 The trumpets again sounded — the lists were opened. The 
 arrogant nephew and his two dravvcansir uncles appeared so 
 completely cased in steel, that they and their steeds were like 
 moving musses of irou. When they uuderstood the stranger 
 
 I 
 
 Jit" 
 
180 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 \ 1. 
 
 ii-i; 
 
 ■riis 
 
 .14 
 
 knight to be the same that had rescued the duchess from hor 
 peril, they greeted him with the most boisterous derision : 
 
 "Oho! sir Knight of the Dragon," said they, "you who 
 pretend to champion fair widows in the dark, come on, and 
 vindicate your deeds of darkness in the open day." 
 
 The only reply of the cavalier was to put lance in rest, and 
 brace himself for the encounter. Needless is it to relate the 
 particulars of a battle, which was like so many hundred com- 
 bats that have been said and sung in prose and verse. Who is 
 there but must have foreseen the event of a contest, where 
 Heaven had to decide on the guilt or innocence of the most 
 beautiful and immaculate of widows ? 
 
 The sagacious reader, deeply read in this kind of judicial 
 combats, can imagine the encounter of the graceless nepliew 
 and the stranger knight. He sees their concussion, man to 
 man, and horse to horse, in mid career, and sir Graceless 
 hurled to the ground, and slain. He will not wonder that the 
 assailants of the brawny uncles were less successful in tlicir 
 rude encounter ; but he will picture to himself the stout stranger 
 spurring to their rescue, in the very critical moment ; he will 
 see him transfixing one with his lance, and cleaving the other 
 to the chine with a back stroke of his sword, thus leaving the 
 trio of accusers dead upon the field, and establishing the im- 
 maculate fidelity of the cuiehess, and her title to the tlukedom. 
 beyond the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 The air rang with acclamations ; nothing was hoard liut 
 praises of the beauty and virtue of the duchess, and of the 
 prowess of the stranger k ight ; but the public joy was still 
 more increased when the champion raised liis visor, and re- 
 vealed the countenance of one of the bravest cavaliers of Spain. 
 renowned for his gallantry in the service of the sex, and who 
 had been /ound the world in quest of similar adventures. 
 
 That worthy knight, however, was severely wounded, and 
 remained for a long time ili of his 'vounds. The lovely ducli- 
 ess, grateful for haviug twice owed her protection to his arm, 
 attended him daily during his illness ; and finally rewarded his 
 gallantry with her hand. 
 
 The king would fa,in have had the knight establish his title 
 to such high advancement by farther deeds of arms ; hut his 
 courtiers declared that he already merited the lady, by thus 
 vindicating her fame and fortune in a deadly combat to (M1- 
 trauce ; and the lady herself hinted that she was perfectly sat- 
 isfied of his prowess in arms, from the proofs slie had receivei 
 in his achievement in the forest. 
 
THE CREOLE VILLAGE. 
 
 181 
 
 ui 
 
 less from hor 
 erision : 
 
 "you who 
 'pme on, and 
 
 ' in rest, and 
 
 to relate thr 
 
 lundred coin- 
 
 I'se. Who is 
 
 ontest, where 
 
 of the most 
 
 fl of judicial 
 '{'less nepliew 
 ision, man to 
 sir Graceless 
 nder that the 
 ssfiil in their 
 3tout stranger 
 nent; he will 
 ing the other 
 s leavincT the 
 ihing the ini- 
 he dukedom. 
 
 as heard but 
 , and of the 
 joy was still 
 isor, and re- 
 iers of Spain, 
 sex, and who 
 itiires. 
 
 ounded, and 
 
 lovely duch- 
 
 to his arm, 
 
 rewarded his 
 
 ilish his title 
 ms ; hut his 
 idy, by thus 
 mbat to ou- 
 )erfectly sat- 
 jad receive i 
 
 Their nuptials were celebrated witii great magnificence. The 
 present husband of the duchess did not pray and fast like his 
 predecessor, Philibert the wife-ridden ; yet he found greater 
 favor in the eyes of Heaven, for their union was blessed with 
 a numerous progen}^ — the daughters chaste and beauteous as 
 their mother ; the sons stout and valiant as their sire, and re- 
 nowned, like him, for relieving disconsolate damsels and deso- 
 lated widows. 
 
 THE CREOLE VILLAGE 
 
 A SKETCH FROJI A STEAMBOAT. 
 
 First Publlghcd in 1837. 
 
 In travelling about our motley country, I am often reminded 
 of Ariosto's account of the moon, in which the good paladin 
 Astolpho found every thing garnered up th.at had" been lost on 
 earth. iSo I am apt to imagine, that many things lost in the 
 old world, are treasured up in the new; having been handed 
 down from generation to generation, since the (»arly days of 
 the colonies. A European antiquary, therefore, curious in his 
 researches after the ancient and almost obliterated customs 
 and usages of his country, would do well to put himself upon 
 the track of some early l)and of emigrants, follow them across 
 the Atlantic, pnd rummage among theiy descendants on our 
 shores. 
 
 In the phraseology of New England might be found many an 
 old English provincial phrase, long since obsolete in the parent 
 country ; with some quaint relics of the Koundheads ; while 
 Virginia cherishes peculiarities charactistic of the days of 
 Elizabeth and Sir Walter Raleigh. 
 
 In the same way the sturdy yeomanry of New Jersey and 
 Pennsylvania keep up many usages fading away in ancient 
 Germany ; while many an honest, broad-l)ottomed custom, 
 nearly extinct in venerable Holland, may be found flourishing 
 in pristine vigor and luxuriance in Dutch villages, on the banks 
 of the Mohawk and the Hudson. 
 
 In no part of our country, however, are the customs and 
 peculiarities, imported from the old world by the earlier set- 
 tlers, kept up with more lidelity than in tlio littie. poverty- 
 stricken villages of Spanish and French origin, which border 
 
 ]'f 
 
 m. 
 
 H' 
 
 i^ 
 
182 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 !• t ' 
 
 !H' Vll 
 
 '-■ 11 
 
 i|.''l 
 
 
 Up 
 
 the rivers of ancient Louisiana. Tiieir population is pjenerally 
 made up of the deseeniUmts of tliose nations, married [ind 
 interwoven togetlier, and occasionally crossed with a slight 
 dash of the Indian. The French character, however, floats on 
 lop, as, from its huoyant qualities, it is sure to do, whenever it 
 forms a particle, however small, of an intermixture. 
 
 In these serene and dilapidated villages, art and nature stand 
 still, and the world forgets to turn round. The revolutions 
 that distract other parts of this niutihle planet, reach not lioic, 
 or pass over without leaving any trfce. The fortunate inhal)ii. 
 ants have none of that public spii.t which extends its caros 
 beyond its horizon, and imports tro!'j)|(. and i)erplexity from 
 all quarters in newspapers. In fact, nevvspapcs are almost 
 unknown in these villages, and as French is the current lan- 
 guage, the inhabitants have little community of oi)iniou with 
 their republican neighbors. They retain, therefore, their old 
 habits of passive obedience to tliC decrees of government, as 
 though they still lived und.^r the absolute sway of colonial 
 commandants, instead of being part and parcel of the sover- 
 eign people, and having a voice in public legislation. 
 
 A few "■;,■ :^ men, who have grown gray on their hereditary 
 acres, iiiv.J are of the good old colonial stock, exert a patriar- 
 chal sway ;;. all matters of public and private import ; their 
 opinions are considered oracular, and their word is law. 
 
 The inhabitants, moreover, have none of that eagerness for 
 gain and rage for improvement which keep our peoi)le continu- 
 ally on the move, and our country towns incessantly in a state 
 of transition. There the magic phrases, "town lots," "•water 
 privileges," "railroads," and other comprehensive and soul- 
 stirring words from the speculator's vocabulary, are never heard. 
 The residents dwell in the houses built by their forefatiicrs, 
 without thinking of enlarging or modernizing them, or pulling 
 them down and turning them into granite stores. The trees, 
 under which they have been born and have played in infancy, 
 flourish undisturbed ; though, by cutting them down, they might 
 open new streets, and put money in tiieir pockets. In a word, 
 the almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion 
 throughout our land, seems to have no genuine devotees in these 
 peculiar villages ; and unless some of its missio; vries i)eiietrate 
 there, and erect banking houses and other pious shrines, there is 
 no knowing how long the inhabitants may remain in their pres- 
 ent state of contented poverty. 
 
 In descending one of our great Western rivers in a steam- 
 boat, I met with two worthies from one of these villages, whu 
 
THE CREOLE VILLAGE. 
 
 183 
 
 IS senorally 
 manicd aiid 
 'itii :i sli<r|,t 
 't'l-, flouts on 
 
 whcnovcr it 
 
 nature stand 
 •■evolutions 
 leh uot here, 
 nntc iuhaliii- 
 <ls its caics 
 •l)l('xity from 
 arc almost 
 
 eurrcMit laii- 
 oi)iuiou with 
 '■t-S the if old 
 
 ernuKMit, as 
 
 of colonial 
 »t' the sovcr- 
 I. 
 
 ir hereditary 
 rt a patriar- 
 mport; their 
 law. 
 
 L'ujTcrness for 
 )l)le coutinu- 
 tly iu a state 
 •ts," ''water 
 Vii and soul- 
 ncver heard, 
 forefathers, 
 n, or i)ullin<i; 
 Tli(> ti'eos, 
 
 I in infancy, 
 , they niiiriit 
 
 Fn a word, 
 >al devotion 
 tees in these 
 es penetrate 
 nes, thei'e is 
 
 II their {»res- 
 
 in a Hteain- 
 illagcs, whu 
 
 had been on a distant excursion, the longest they had ever 
 made, as they seldom ventured far from home. One was the 
 great man, or Grand Seigneur, of the village ; not that he en- 
 joyed any legal privileges or power there, every thing of the 
 kind having been done away when tlie province was ceded by 
 France to the United States. His sway over his neighbors was 
 merely one of custom and convention, ont of deference to his 
 family. Beside, he was worth full tifty thousand dollars, an 
 amount almost equal, in the imaginations of the villagers, to 
 tiie treasures of King Solomon. 
 
 'I'his very substantial old gentleman, though of the fourth or 
 fifth generation in this country, retained the true Gallic feature 
 and deportment, and reminded me of one of those provincial 
 potentates that are to be met with in the remote parts of Franee. 
 lie was of a large frame, a ginger-bread complexion, stroitg 
 features, eyes that stood out like glass knobs, and a pronuneut 
 nose, which he frequently regaled from a gold snuff-l)ox, and 
 occasionally blew, with a colored handkerchief, until it sounded 
 like a trumpet. 
 
 He was attended by an old negro, as black as ebony, wit ii a 
 huge mouth, in a continual grin ; evidently a privileged *i.nd 
 favorite servant, who had grown up and grown old with hini. 
 He was dressed in creole style — with white jacket and trou- 
 sers, a stiff shirt collar, that threatened to "ut off his ears, a 
 bright Madras handkerchief tied round his ' id, and large gold 
 ear-rings. He was the [wlitest negro I ni with in a Western 
 tour; and that is saying a great deal, foi, excepting the In- 
 dians, the nc.'groes are the most gentlemanlike personages to be 
 met with in those parts. It is true, they differ from the In- 
 dians in lieing a little extra polite and complimentary. He was 
 also one of tiio merriest ; and here, t <. the negroes, however 
 we uuiy deplore their unhappy conditiuii, have the advantage of 
 their masters. The whites are, in general, too free and prosper- 
 ous to l)e merry. The cares of maintaining their rights and lib- 
 ;'rties, adding to their wealth, and making presidents, engross 
 !ill their thoughts, and dry up all the moisture of their souls. 
 If you hear a broad, hearty, devil-may-care laugh, l)e assured it 
 is a negro's. 
 
 Beside this African domestic, the seig;'»\ir of the village had 
 another no less cherished and privileged attendant. This was 
 a huge dog, of the mastitT breed, with a deep, hanging mouth, 
 and a look of surly gnivity. He walked about the cabin with 
 tlie air of a dog perfectly at home, and who had paid for his 
 passage. At diuuer time 1 e took his seat beside his master, 
 
 \^ 
 
 \ \ 
 
184 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 pi 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 • 
 
 MW^i 
 
 i ■ n 
 
 "'1^' 
 
 giving him a glance now and then out of a corner of his eye, 
 whicli bespoke perfect confidence that he would not be forgot- 
 ten. Nor was he — every now and then 'x huge morsel would 
 be thrown to him, pevadveuture the half-i)ieked leg of a fowl, 
 which he would receivt' with a snap like the springing of a steel- 
 trap — one gulp, and all was down ; and a glance of the eye 
 told his master that he was ready for another consignment. 
 
 The other village worthy, travelling in company with the 
 seigneur, was of a totally different stamp. Small, thin, and 
 weazen-faced, as Frenchmen are apt to be represented in cari- 
 cature, with a bright, squirrel-like eye, and a gold ring in liis 
 ear. His dress was tlimsy, and sat loose y ^n his frame, and he 
 had altogether the look of one with but little coin in his pocket. 
 Yet, though one of the poorest, I was assured he was one of ihc 
 merriest and uost popular personages in his native village. 
 
 Compere Martin, as he was commonly called, was the facto- 
 tum of the place — sportsman, schoolmaster, and land-sur- 
 veyor. He could sing, dance, and, altove all, play on the fiddle, 
 an invaluable accomi)lishmcnt in an old French creole village, 
 for the inhabitants have a liereditary love for balls and fetes ; if 
 they work but little, they dance a great deal, and a fiddle is the 
 joy of their heart. 
 
 What had sent Compere Martin travelling with the Grand 
 Seigneur I could not learn ; he eviilcntly looked up to him with 
 great deference, and was assiduous in rendering him petty at- 
 tentions ; from vvhich I concluded that he lived at home upon 
 the crumbs which fell from his table. He was gayest when out 
 of his sight; and had his song and his joke when forward, anionjj; 
 the deck passengers ; but altogether (.'om[)ere Martin was out 
 of his element on board of a stc;imlM)at. He was quite another 
 being, I am told, when ut home in his own village. 
 
 I. ike his opulent felhm'-traveller. he too had his canine fol- 
 lower and retainer — and one suited to his different fortunes — 
 Cfue of the civilest, most unoffending little dogs in the world. 
 Unlike the lordly maUiff, he weme(l to think he had no right 
 on boanl of the steamboat; if y/u did but look hard at him, he 
 would throw himself uijou his bu^k, and lift up his legH, as if 
 luiploring mercy. 
 
 At table he took his seat a little distance from his master ; 
 not wit h the bluff, confident air of the mastiff, but quietly and 
 diffidently, his head on one side, with one ear dubiously 
 slouched, the other hopefully cocked up ; his uiuh^r teetli 
 projecting beyond his black nose, and his eye wistfully fol- 
 lowing each morsel that went into his master's raouth. 
 
 \i: 
 
 ?■:? ? 
 
THE CREOLE VILLAGE. 
 
 185 
 
 of his eye, 
 
 be forgot^ 
 
 rsel would 
 
 of a fowl, 
 
 of a stoei- 
 
 of the eye 
 
 unent. 
 
 |y with the 
 
 ^1 tliin, ju)(l 
 
 |ted ill cari- 
 
 I'l'ng in his 
 
 iiH", and he 
 
 "lis po('l<et. 
 
 i OIK' of the 
 
 illuge. 
 3 the facto- 
 1 hind-sur- 
 1 the fid.Ue, 
 'ole village, 
 !i<l fetes ; if 
 fiddle is the 
 
 the (J rand 
 o him witli 
 in petty at- 
 home upon 
 st when out 
 ■JVi'd, iimong 
 Lin was out 
 lite another 
 
 canine fol- 
 
 fortimi's — 
 
 the world. 
 
 d no right 
 
 at hill), he 
 
 leg«, as if 
 
 is master ; 
 [iiietly and 
 <lul*iou.slv 
 vder teetii 
 tfully fol- 
 
 If Compere Martin now and then should venture to abstract 
 i morsel from his plate to give to his humble companion, it was 
 edifying to see with what diffidence the exemplary little animal 
 would take hold of it, with the very tip of his teeth, as if he 
 would almost rather not, or was fearful of taking too great a 
 liberty. And then with what decorum would he cat it ! How 
 many efforts would he make in swallowing it, as if it stuck in 
 his throat ; with what daintiness would he lick his lips ; and 
 then with what an air of thankfulness would he resume his 
 seat, with his teeth once more projecting beyond his nose, and 
 au eye of humble expectation fixed upon his master. 
 
 It was late in the afternoon when the steamboat stopped at 
 the village whioli was the residence of these worthies. It stood 
 on the high bunk of the river, and bore traces of having been a 
 frontier trading post. There were the remains of stockades 
 that once protected it from the Indians, and the houses were 
 in the ancient Spanish and French colonial taste, the place 
 having been successively under the domination of both those 
 nations prior to the cession of Louisiana to the United States. 
 
 The arrival of the seigneur of fifty thousand dollars, and 
 his liuml)le com[)anion. Compere Martin, had evidently been 
 looked forward to as an event in tlie village. Numbers of men, 
 women, and chihlreu, white, yellow, and black, were collected 
 on the liver bank ; most of them clad in old-fashioned French 
 garments, and their heads decorated with colored handkerchiefs, 
 or white night-caps. The moment tlie steamlxiat came within 
 sijiht and hearing, there was a waving of handkerchiefs, and a 
 screaming and bawling of salutations, and felicitations, that 
 hultle all description. 
 
 The old gentleniiin of fifty thousand dollars was received by 
 a train of relatives, and friends, and children, and grandchildren, 
 whom he kissed on each cheek, and who formed a procession in 
 hJH rear, with a legion of domestics, of all ages, following him 
 to a large, old-iashioned French house, that domineered over the 
 village. 
 
 His black valet-de-chambre, in white jacket and trousers, and 
 gold ear-rings, was met on the shore by a boon, though rustic 
 companion, a tall negro fellow, with a long, good-humored face, 
 utid the profile of a horse, which stood out from beneath a nar- 
 row rimmed straw hat, stuck on the back of his head. The 
 cx[)lo&ions of laughter of these two varlets, on meeting and 
 exchanging compliments, were enough to electrify the country 
 round. 
 
 The most hearty reception, however, was that given to Con> 
 
 ;i 
 
186 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 u 
 
 h" 
 
 r / i 
 
 pere Martin. Everybody, yonnf; and old, hailed him before lie 
 got to hind. EvorylxKly had a joke for Compere IMartin, and 
 Compere Martin had a joke for everybody. Even his littlo do" 
 appeared, to partake of his popularity, and to be earessi'd hv 
 every hand. Indeed, he was quite a ditferent animal the im"- 
 ment he touehed the land. Here he was at home ; here lu' w:h 
 of consequence. He barked, he leaped, he frisked about his olr 
 friends, and ther would skim round the place in a wide circle 
 as if mad. 
 
 I traced Compere Martin and his little dog to their home 
 It was an old ruinous Spanish house, of large dimensions 
 with verandas overshadowed by ancient elms. 'I'lie house liad 
 probably Iieeu the n'sidence, in old times, of the Spanish ('((ni- 
 mandant. In on(? wing of this crazy, l)Ut luistocratical nltodc, 
 was nestled the family of my fellow-traveller ; for poor devils 
 are apt to be magnillcently clad and lodged, in the casl-diT 
 clothes and abandonevl palaces of the great and wt-althy. 
 
 The arrival of Compere Martin was welcomed by a legion of 
 women, children, and mongrel curs ; and, as poverty and liny- 
 ety generally go hand in hand among the French and their de- 
 scendants, the crazy mansion soon resounded with loud gossip 
 and light-hearted laughter. 
 
 As the steamboat paused a short lime at the villr.ge, I took 
 oecasion to stroll alK)ut the })lace. Most of the houses were in 
 the French tast'.', with casements and rickety verandas, Inil most 
 of them in tlimsy and ruinous condition. All the wiigons, plouL^hs, 
 and other utensils about the place were of ancient and iiieo., 
 venieut Callic (ionstruction, such as had been brought t'lom 
 France in the primitive days of the colony. Tlu' very looks of 
 the people reminded me of the villages of France. 
 
 From one of the houses came the hum of a spinning wheel, 
 accompanied by a scrap of an old French (•hans(Mi, which I liavt, 
 heard many a time among the peasantry of Langnt'doe, douht- 
 less a traditional song, brought over by the lirst Frenc h eiiii 
 grants, and handed down from generation to generation. 
 
 Half a dozen young lasses emerged from the adjacent dwell- 
 ings, reminding me, by their ligiit step and gay costume, of seeiierf 
 in ancient France, where taste in dress comes natural to evoiv 
 class of females. The trim bodice antl colored petticoat, ami 
 little apron, with its pockets to receive the hands when in ;iu 
 attitude for conversation ; the colored kerchief woimd tasteliilly 
 round the head, with a coquettish knot perking al>ove one ear: 
 and the neat slipper and tight drawn stocking, with its hiaid of 
 narrow ribbon embracing the ankle where it peeps from its niys 
 
 .1 s 
 
THE CREOLE VILLAGE. 
 
 187 
 
 |ini hofoie be 
 
 Martin, ;u),| 
 
 '"« little (lo-r 
 
 ('firosscd Ii'v 
 |ni:il tlic m,;. 
 
 hero lie w.h 
 |.'il)oiit his „!,: 
 
 wide circle 
 
 tlioir lioinc 
 'iinicnsioiis, 
 Ic house li;„| 
 r*"iish C(iiii- 
 ^tncul ;il)()(l,., 
 poor devils 
 'he cusl-oir 
 ilMiy. 
 ' ;i h%noii of 
 
 ■ty .'Hid o;iy- 
 
 "d flicird',.. 
 Joud iiossip 
 
 "•••,^*', I took 
 ii«t's were m 
 Jis, hut most 
 >ii.s, ploiii-lis, 
 '•lid iiico,, 
 '"light rroii) 
 t'ly looks of 
 
 iiiin^- wheel, 
 'l»i<'h I liiivL 
 'doc, doul.t, 
 'V'licli Cllli 
 ion. 
 
 cent dwei^ 
 «', of scenes 
 :d to every 
 'ti('o;it, ,•111(1 
 V'heii ill ;iu 
 I t;isrenilly 
 '-' one ear: 
 s hi'uid of 
 in its riiys 
 
 terious curtain. It ia from this ambush that Cupid sends his 
 niost inciting arrows. 
 
 While r was musing upon tlie recollections thus accidentally 
 giiimnonod un 1 heard the sound of a fiddle from the mansion 
 of Compere ^.J.artin, the signal, no doubt, for a joyous gather- 
 ing. I was disposed to turn my steps thither, and witness the 
 festivities of one of the very few villages 1 had met with in my 
 wide tour, that was yet poor enough to be merry ; but the bell 
 of the steamboat sunnnoned me to re-embark. 
 
 As we swept away from the shore, 1 cast back a wistful eye 
 upon the moss-grown roofs and ancient elms of the village, and 
 prayed that the inhabitants might long retain their happy igno- 
 rance, their absence of all enterprise and improvement, their 
 respect for the fiddle, and their contempt for the almighty 
 dollar.' 1 fear, however, my prayer is doomed to be of no avaiL 
 In a little while the steamboat whirled me to an American town, 
 just springing into bustling and prosperous existence. 
 
 The surrounding forest had been laid out m town lots ; frames 
 of wooden buildings were rising from among stumps and burnt 
 trees. The place already boasted a court-house, a jail, and two 
 hiuiks, all built of pine boards, on the model of Grecian temples. 
 Tlure were rival hotels, rival churches, and rival newspapers ; 
 together with the usual number of judges, and generals, and 
 governors ; not to speak of dc'^^ors by the dozen, and lawyers 
 by the score. 
 
 The place, I was told, was in an astonishing career of im- 
 provement, with a canal and two railroads in embryo. Lots 
 doublcil in jirice every week ; everybody was speculating in 
 hind ; everybody was rich ; and everybody was growing richer. 
 The connnunity, however, was torn to pieces by new doctrines 
 in religion and in political economy ; there were camp meet- 
 ings, and agrarian meetings ; and an election was at hand, 
 wliicli, it was expected, would throw the whole country into a 
 paroxysm. 
 
 Alas ! with such an enterprising neighbor, what is to become 
 of the poor little Creole village ! 
 
 ' ThiH i>hriise, um-d for the llrst time in thin skotch, hr.s since iJaHscd into current 
 (■irculatioi,, ami t)y homh' Ilib Ix'on quOHtioncd an savoring of irrevori'ncp. 'i'hp author, 
 liuTcfiiri', owes it to iiis ortiiodoxy to di-ciare lliat no irreverence was intended even to 
 ilie dullar itHulf ; wliicli he in aware it daily bucomiiig more uuU more au object of wor- 
 •hij). 
 
 * ■ • 
 
 i' i 
 
188 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 A CONTENTED MAN. 
 
 IV S 
 
 In the garden of the Tuilerios there is a sunny corner iindor 
 the wall of a terrace which fronts the south. Alonji the wall is 
 a range of henches commanding a view of the walks and avcnups 
 of the garden. This genial nook is a place of great resort in 
 the latter part of autumn, and in fine days in winter, as it socms 
 to retain the flavor of departed sunnnor. On a calm, I)ri2;ht 
 morning it is quite alive with nursery-maids and their playful 
 little charges. Hither also resort a number of ancient ladies 
 and gentlemen, who, with the laudable thrift in small ploasuros 
 and small expenses for which the French are to be noted, come 
 here to enjoy sunshine and save firewood. Here may often he 
 seen some cavalier of the old school, when the sunbeams have 
 warmed his blood into something like a glow, tluttering ahoiil 
 like a frost-bitten moth before the fire, putting forth a foohle 
 show of gallantry among the antiquated dames, and now and 
 then eying the buxom nursery-maids with what might almost 
 be mistaken for an air of libertinism. 
 
 Among the habitual frequenters of this place I had often 
 remarked an old gentleman, whose dress was decidedly anli- 
 revolutional. He wore the three-cornered cocked hat of the 
 ancien regime; his hair was frizzed over each ear into ailes de 
 pigeon, a style strongly savoring of Rourbonism ; and a queue 
 stuck out behind, the loyalty of which was not to be disputed. 
 His dress, though ancient, had an air of decayed gentility, and 
 I observed that he took his snuff out of an elegant though old- 
 fashioned gold box. He appeared to be the most popular man 
 on the walk. He had a compliment for e\ery old lady, he kissed 
 every child, and he patted every little dog on the head ; for chil- 
 dren and little dogs are very important nicinbcrs of society in 
 France. I must observe, however, that ho seldom kissed a 
 child without, at the same time, pinching the nmsery-raaid's 
 cheek ; a Frenchman of the old school never forgets his devoirs 
 to the sex. 
 
 I had taken a liking to this old gentleman. There was an 
 habitual expression of benevolence in his face which I have very 
 frequently remarked in these relics .)f tiie politer days of Franc^e 
 The constant interchange of those thoiisinKl little courtesies 
 which imperceptibly sweeten life have a happy effect upon the 
 features, and spread a mellow evening charm over the wrinkles 
 of old age. 
 
 \' 
 
A CONTENTED MAN. 
 
 189 
 
 'ornor iindpr 
 ?: the wall is 
 and avciiups 
 fit resort in 
 ' :>s it socms 
 ^ahn, hrinjlit 
 •if'ir playful 
 cient I:i(|i,.,, 
 
 II pleasures 
 
 lotcd, come 
 
 '•'ly often ho 
 
 Ix-ams have 
 
 ering ahout 
 
 I'th a feohlo 
 
 11(1 now and 
 
 light almost 
 
 I had often 
 idodly anli- 
 hat of the 
 nto ailes de 
 md a queue 
 )e disputed 
 Mitility, and 
 thongh old- 
 )opnlar man 
 y, he kissed 
 fl ; for chil- 
 f society in 
 m kissed a 
 sery-maid's 
 his devoirs 
 
 TO was an 
 I have very 
 of France 
 courtesies 
 t upon the 
 le wrinkles 
 
 Where there is a favorable predisposition one soon forms a 
 kind of tacit intimacy by often meeting on the same walks. 
 Once or twice I accommodated him with a ben jh, after which 
 we touched hats on passing each other ; at length we got so far 
 as to take a pinch of snuff together out of his box, which is 
 equivalent to eating salt together in the East ; from that time 
 our acquaintance was established. 
 
 I now became his frequent companion in his morning prome- 
 nades, and derived much amusement from his good-humored 
 remarks on men and manners. One morning, as we were stroll- 
 ing through an alley of the Tuileries, with the autumnal breeze 
 whirling the yellow leaves about our path, my companion fell 
 into a peculiarly communicative vein, and gave me several 
 particulars of his history. He had once been wealthy, and 
 possessed of a fine estate in the country and a noble hotel in 
 Paris ; but the revolution, which effected so many disastrous 
 changes, stripped him of every thing. He was secretly de- 
 nounced by his own steward during a sanguinary period of the 
 revolution, and a number of the bloodhounds of the Convention 
 were sent to arrest him. He received private intelligence of 
 their approach in time to effect his escape. He landed in Eng- 
 land without money or friends, but considered himself singu- 
 larly fortunate in having his head upon his shoulders ; several 
 of his neighbors having been guillotined as a punishment for 
 being rich. 
 
 When he reached London he had but a louis in his pocket, 
 and no prospect of getting another. He ate a solitary dinner 
 of beefsteak, and was almost poisoned by port wine, which 
 from its color he had mistaken for claret. The clingy look of 
 the chop-house, and of the little mahogany-colored box in which 
 he ate his dinner, contrasted sadly with the gay saloons of 
 Paris. Every thing looked gloomy and disheartening. Poverty 
 stared him in the face ; he turned over the few shillings he had 
 of change ; did not know what was to become of him ; and — 
 went to the theatre ! 
 
 He took his seat in the pit, listened attentively to a tragedy 
 of which he did not understand a word, and which seemed made 
 up of fighting, and stabbing, and scene-shifting, and began to 
 feel his spirits sinking within him ; when, casting his eyes into 
 the orchestra, what was liis surprise to recognize en old friend 
 and neighbor in the very act of extorting music fvom a huge 
 violoncello. 
 
 As soon as the evening's performance was over he tapped his 
 friend ou the shoulder ; they kissed each other on each cheek, 
 
 I ;) 
 
 
 ' 
 

 IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-S) 
 
 Y 
 
 
 A 4^^^ 
 < ^^4^ 
 
 ^f. 
 
 fA 
 
 A 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 11.25 
 
 
 2.5 
 
 u: 
 
 40 
 
 20 
 
 1.8 
 
 1.4 11.6 
 
 Hiotographic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 

 '^.% 
 
 
190 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 < I ' 
 
 i -'4 
 
 I ' 
 
 * I 
 
 and the musician took him home, and shared his lodgings with 
 him. He had learned music as an accomplishment ; by his 
 friend's advice he now turned to it as a means of support. He 
 procured a violin, offered himself for the orchestra, was received, 
 and again considered himself one of the most fortunate men 
 upon earth. 
 
 Here tlierefore he lived for many years during the ascend- 
 erioy of the terrible Napoleon. He foimJ several emigrants 
 liviug, like himself, by tlie exercise of their talents. They 
 associated together, talked of France and of old times, and 
 endeavored to keep up a semblance of Parisian life in the cen- 
 tre of London. 
 
 They dined at a miserable cheap French restaurant in the 
 neighborhood of Leicester-square, where they were served with 
 a caricature of French cookery. They took their promenade in 
 8t. James's Park, and endeavored to fancy it the Tuileries ; in 
 short, they made shift to accommodate tiiemselves to every thing 
 but an English Sunday. Indeed the old gentleman seemed to 
 have nothing to say against the Englisli, whom he aflirmed to Ite 
 braves gens ; and he mingled so much among them that at the 
 end of twenty yoars he could speak their language almost well 
 enough to be understood. 
 
 The downfall of Napoleon was another epoch in I is Hfe. He 
 had considered himself a fortunate man to make his escape pen- 
 niless out of France, and he considered himself foitunate to bo 
 able to return penniless into it. It is true that lie found his 
 Parisian hotel had passed through several hands during the 
 vicissitudes of the times, so as to be Ixiyond the reach of re- 
 covery ; but then he had been noticed l)enignantly by govern- 
 ment, and had a pension of several hundred francs, upon which, 
 with careful management, he lived independently, and, as far 
 as I could judge, happily. 
 
 As his once splendid hotel was now occupied as a Mtel (/ami, 
 he hired a small chamber in the attic ; it was but, as he said, 
 changing his bedroom up two pair of stairs — he was still in liis 
 own house. His room was decorated with pictures of several 
 beauties of former times, Avith whom he professed to have been 
 on favorable terms : among them was a favorite opera-dancer ; 
 who had been the admiration of Paris at the breaking out of the 
 revolution. She had been a protkj^e of my friend, and one of 
 the few of his youthful favorites who had survived the lapse 
 of time and its various vicissitudes. They had renewed their 
 acquaintance, and she now and then visited him ; l)ut the beauti- 
 ful Psyche, once the fashion of the day and the idol of the itar- 
 
A CONTENTED MAN. 
 
 191 
 
 odgings with 
 lent; by his 
 upport. He 
 ivas received, 
 H'tunute men 
 
 the ascend- 
 iii emigrtmts 
 euts. They 
 1 times, and 
 i in tlie cen- 
 
 irant in the 
 served witli 
 >ronienade in 
 Tuileries ; in 
 
 every thin-,' 
 n seemed to 
 iftirmed to he 
 
 1 that at tlie 
 ; ahnost woll 
 
 I is life. He 
 5 escape pen- 
 tun ate to he 
 he found lii.s 
 
 durinji the 
 read) of re- 
 ly by oovern- 
 , upon wliich, 
 
 and, as fur 
 
 1 h6ld fjorm\ 
 , as lie said, 
 IS still in his 
 !s of several 
 
 have been 
 |)era-(hnH'er ; 
 ijj; out of the 
 , and one of 
 ed the lapse 
 .'uewed their 
 t the beauti- 
 
 1 of the par' 
 
 terre, was now a shrivelled, little old woman, warped in the back, 
 and with a hooked nose. 
 
 The old gentleman was a devout attendant upon lev6es ; he 
 was most zealous in his loyalty, and could not speak of the 
 royal family without a burst of enthusiasm, for he still felt to- 
 i^rards them as his companions in exile. As to his poverty he 
 iiiadc light of it, and indeed had a good-humored way of consoU 
 iiig himself for every cross and privation. If he had lost his, 
 chateau in the country, he had half a dozen royal palaces, as it 
 were, at his command. He had Versailles and 8t. Cloud for his 
 country resorts, and the shady alleys of the Tuileries, and the 
 Luxembourg for his town recreation. Thus all his promenades 
 and relaxations were magnificent, yet cost nothing. 
 
 When I walk through these tine gardens, said he, I have only 
 to fancy myself the owner of them, and they are mine. AJl 
 these gay crowds are my visitors, and I defy the grand seigneur 
 himself to display a greater variety of beauty. Nay, what is 
 hotter, I have not the trouble of entertaining them. My estate 
 is a perfect Sans Souci, where every one does as he pleases, and 
 no one troubles the owner. All Paris is my theatre, and pre- 
 sents me with a continual spectacle. I have a table si)read for 
 nie in every street, and thousands of waiters ready to fly at my 
 hidding. When my servants have waited upon me I pay tliem, 
 discharge them, and there's an end ; I have no fears of their 
 wronging or pilfering me when my back is turned. Upon the 
 ^vliole, said the old gentleman, with a smile of infinite good- 
 humor, when I think upon the various risks I have run, and the 
 manner in which I have escaped them ; when I recollect all that 
 I have suffered, and consider all that I at present enjoy, I can- 
 not but look upon myself as a man of singular good fortune. 
 
 Such was the brief history of this practical piiilosopher, and 
 it is a picture of many a Frenchman ruined by the revolution. 
 The French appear to have a greater facility than most men u: 
 accommodating themselves to the reverses of life, and of ex- 
 trading honey out of the bitter things of this world. The first 
 shock of calamity is apt to overwhelm them, but when it is onco 
 past, their natural buoyancy of feeling soon brings them to the 
 surface. This may be called the result of levity of character, 
 Init it answers the end of reconciling us to misfortune, and if it 
 lie not true philosophy, it is something almost as elllcacious. 
 KviT since I have heard the story of my little Frenchman, I have 
 Ireasured it up in my heari ; and I thank my stars I have at 
 length found what I had long considered as not to be found on 
 earth — a. contented man. 
 
 '< .'1. '■ ■ 
 
 ■ i' 
 
 !1 
 
 ^ ir 
 
 
192 
 
 THE CRAYON PAPERS. 
 
 ^n 
 
 If 
 
 P.S. There is no calculating on human happiness. Sinct 
 writing the foregoing, the law of indemnity has been passed, 
 and my friend restored to a great part of his fortune. I was 
 absent from Paris at the time, but on my return hastened to 
 congratulate him. I found him magnificently lodged on the first 
 floor of his hotel. I was ushered, by a servant in livery, 
 through splendid saloons, to a cabinet richly furnished, where 
 I found my little Frenchman reclining on a couch. He received 
 me with his uf^ual cordiality ; but I saw the gayety and benevo- 
 lence of his countenance had fled ; he had an eye full of care 
 and anxiety. 
 
 1 congratulated him on his good fortune. " Good fortune?" 
 echoed he ; "bah ! I have been plundered of a princel}' fortune, 
 and they give me a pittance as an indemnity." 
 
 Alas ! I found my late poor and contented friend one of the 
 richest and most miserable men in Paris. Instead of rejoicing 
 in the ample competency restored to him, he is daily repining 
 at the superfluity withheld. He no longer wanders in happy 
 idleness about Paris, but is a repining attendant in the ante- 
 chambers of ministers. His loyalty has evaporated with his 
 gayety ; he screws his mouth when the Bourbons are mentioned, 
 and even shrugs his shoulders when he hears the praises of the 
 king. In a word, he is one of the many philosophers undone 
 by the law of indemnity, and his case is desperate, for I doubt 
 whether even another reverse of fortune, which should restore 
 him to poverty, could make him again a happy man. 
 
 .;* W' 
 
 '•I 
 
 SH 
 
ness. Sincb 
 been passed, 
 tune. I was 
 
 hastened to 
 d on the first 
 it in livery, 
 lislied, where 
 
 He received 
 
 and boDovo- 
 
 j full of care 
 
 3d fortune?" 
 icely fortune, 
 
 id one of the 
 1 of rejoicing 
 laily repining 
 ers in happy 
 in the ante- 
 ited with his 
 re mentioned, 
 [)raises of tlie 
 phers undone 
 3, for I doubt 
 hould restore 
 
 Q. 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST 
 
 AND 
 
 MISCELLANIES 
 
i -• 
 
 I ' '■ 
 
 ; -ii 
 
 n' 
 
 1 
 
 :l 
 
 I'i ' 
 
 1 ■ 
 
 
 i 
 
 s j ■ 
 
 
 I 
 
 M 
 
 I.J 
 
 akl 
 
 ii"; 
 
 ACb 
 
 Sleei 
 
 BiKDl 
 
 Reco 
 Aben 
 
 TUE 
 
 The 
 Nati 
 Desi 
 SPA^ 
 Leg I 
 
 COMl 
 
 Cons 
 A Li 
 The 
 The 
 Pel) 
 The 
 The 
 Leg 
 Cod 
 
1 1 
 
 )i 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 I is 
 
 .* ■ 
 
 
 
 ' i • 1 
 
 ■ 
 
 A i 
 
 h 
 
 I 
 
 tf 
 
 1, 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 A Chronicle of Wolfert's Roost , . 11 
 
 Sleepy Hollow . 24 
 
 Birds of Spring 34 
 
 Recollections of the Alhambra 88 
 
 Abencerraoe 41 
 
 The Enchanted Island 61 
 
 The Adelantado of the Seven Cities 63 
 
 National Nomenclature 67 
 
 Desultory Thoughts on Criticism 72 
 
 Spanish Romance . 75 
 
 Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa 78 
 
 Commltjipaw 83 
 
 Conspiracy of the Cocked Hats 89 
 
 A Legend of Communipaw 95 
 
 The Bermudas 105 
 
 The Three Kings of Bermuda Ill 
 
 Pelayo and the Merchant's Daughter 115 
 
 The Knight of Malta 123 
 
 The Grand Prior of Minorca • .... 125 
 
 Legend of the Engulphed Convent 137 
 
 Count Van Hokn 142 
 
 
i !t 
 
 1 '-M ' 
 
 it: 
 
 if 
 
 ' : i 
 
 *i i ■ 
 
 a ii^ 
 
 i- 
 
 iff ^ 
 
 ■ f\ 
 
 1 u 
 
 
 tm I: 
 
 ' < i 
 
 wSiut i,' 
 
 
 fit 
 
 li 
 
WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOST. 
 
 To THE Editor op the Knickerbocker. 
 
 Sir: I have observed that as a man advances in life, he is 
 subject to a kind of plethora of the mind, doubtless occasioned 
 by the vast accumulation of wisdom and experience upon the 
 brain. Hence he is apt to become narrative and admonitory, 
 that is to say, fond of telling long stories, and of doling out 
 advice, to the small profit and great annoyance of his friends. 
 As I have a great horror of becoming the oracle, or, more 
 technically speaking, the " bore," of the domestic circle, and 
 would much rather bestow my wisdom and tediousness upon 
 the world at large, I have always sought to ease off this sur- 
 charge of the intellect by means of my pen, and hence have 
 inflicted divers gossiping volumes upon the patience of the pub- 
 lic. I am tired, however, of writing volumes ; they do not 
 atford exactly the relief I require ; there is too much prepara- 
 tion, arrangement, and parade, in this set form of coming before 
 the public. I am growing too indolent and unambitious for any 
 thing that requires labor or display. I have thought, therefore, 
 of securing to myself a snug corner in some periodical work 
 where I might, as it were, loll at my case in my elbow-chair, 
 and chat sociably with the public, as with an old friend, on 
 any chance subject that might pop into my brain. 
 
 In looking around, for this purpose, upon the various excel- 
 lent periodicals with which our country abounds, my eye was 
 struck by the title of your work — "The Knickerbocker." 
 My heart leaped at the sight. 
 
 DiEDRiCH Knickerbocker, Sir, was one of my earliest and 
 most valued friends, and the recollection of him is associated 
 with some of the pleasantest scenes of my youthful days. To 
 explain this, and to show how I came into possession of sundry 
 of his posthumous works, which I have from time to time given 
 
 n 
 
6 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 \b 
 
 ' '1' 
 
 I't' ' 
 
 to the world, permit me to relate a few particulars of our early 
 intercourse. I give them with the more coufidcnce, as I know 
 the interest you take in that departed worthy, whose name aiul 
 efflgy are stamped upon your title-page, and as they will Ik; 
 found important to the better understanding and relishing divers 
 communications I may have to make to you. 
 
 My llrst acquaintance with that great and good man, for 
 such 1 may venture to call him, now that the lapse of some 
 thirty years has shrouded his name with venerable auti(iuity, 
 and the popular voice has elevated him to the rank of the 
 classic historians of yore, my lirst acquaintance with him was 
 formed on the banks of the Hudson, not far from the wizard 
 K'gioii of hileepy Hollow. He had come there in the course of 
 his researches among the Dutch neighl)orhoods for materials 
 for his immortal history. For this purpose, he was ransacking 
 the archives of one of the most ancient and historical man- 
 sions in the country. It was a lowly edifice, built in the tiino 
 of the Dutch dynasty, and stood on a green bank, overshad- 
 owed by trees, from which it peeped forth upon the (I real 
 Tappaan Zee, so famous among early Dutch navigators. A 
 bright pure spring welled up at the foot of the green bank ; a 
 wild brook came babbling down a neighboring ravine, and 
 threw itself into a little woody cove, in front of the mansion. 
 It was indeed as quiet and sheltered a nook as the heart of man 
 could require, in whieii to take refuge fronj the cares and 
 troubles of the world ; and as such, it had been chosen in old 
 times, by Wolfert Acker, one of the privy councillcrs of the re- 
 nowned Peter Stuyvesant. 
 
 This worthy but ill-starred man had led a weary and worried 
 life, throughout the stormy reign of the chivalric Peter, being 
 one of those unlucky wights with whom the world is ever at 
 variance, and who are kept in a continual fume and fret, by 
 die wickedness of mankind. At the time of the subjugation 
 of the province by the English, he retired hither in high dud- 
 geon ; with the bitter determination to bury himself from tlic 
 world, and live here in peace and quietness for the remainder 
 of his days. In token of this fixed resolution, he inscribed 
 over his door the favorite Dutch motto, " Lust in Rust," (pleas- 
 ure in repose.) The mansion was thence called " Wolfert' s 
 Kust " — Wolfert's Rest; but in process of time, the name 
 was vitiated into Wolfert's Roost, probably from its quaint 
 cock-loft look, or from its having a weather-cock perched on 
 every gable. This name it continued to bear, long after the 
 unlucky Wolfert was driven forth ouce more upon a wrangling 
 
 < !» 1 
 
 [\ 
 
lES. 
 
 of our Parly 
 as I know 
 Je nuine and 
 HH'y will lu! 
 ishiug divers 
 
 >tl man, for 
 Jse of some 
 « auti(jiiity, 
 rank of the 
 itii liiiii was 
 tile wizard 
 ic course of 
 'or niateiial.s 
 i ran.sa('kin<'' 
 torical rnan- 
 iu the time 
 |K, oversliad- 
 tlie (Jreat 
 k'igalors. A 
 -•en bank ; a 
 ravine, and 
 lie mansion, 
 leart of man 
 * cares and 
 'iosen in old 
 IS of the re- 
 
 and worried 
 Peter, being 
 .1 is ever at 
 uid fret, by 
 sul)jugation 
 n high dtul- 
 'If from the 
 B remainder 
 le inscribed 
 St," (pleas- 
 "Wolfert's 
 , the name 
 I its quaint 
 perched on 
 g after the 
 ii wrangling 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOST. 1 
 
 world, by the tongue of a termagant wife ; for it passed into a 
 proverb through the n«ighborhood, and has been handed down 
 by tradition, that the cock of the Roost was the most ben- 
 pecked bird in the country. 
 
 This primitive and historical mansion has since passed through 
 many changes and trials, which ;^ may br my lot hereafter "to 
 notice. At the time of the sojourn of Diedrich Knickerbocker it 
 was in possession of the gallant family of the Van Tassels, who 
 have figured so conspicuously in his writings. What appears to 
 have given it peculiar value, in his eyes, was the ich treasury 
 of historical facts here secretly hoarded up, like buried gold ; 
 for it is said that "NVolfert Acker, when he retreated from New 
 Amsterdam, carried off with him many of the records and jour- 
 nals of the province, pertaining to the Dutch dynasty ; swearing 
 that they should never fall into the hands of the English. These, 
 like the lost books of Livy, had baffled the research of former 
 historians : but these did I find the indefatigable Diedrich dili- 
 gently deciphering. He was already a sage in yeais and G\\^e- 
 rience, I but an idle stripling ; yet he did not desi)isc my youth 
 and ignorance, but took me kindly by the hand, and led me 
 gently into those paths of local and traditional lore which he 
 was so fond of exploring. I sat with him in his little chamber 
 at the Roost, and watched the antiquarian patience and perse- 
 verance with which he deciphered those venera))le Dutch docu- 
 ments, worse than Herculanean manuscripts. 1 sat with him 
 l)y the spring, at the foot of the green bank, and listened to 
 his heroic tales about the worthies of the olden time, the pala- 
 dins of New Amsterdam. I accompanied him in his legendary 
 researches about Tarrytown and Sing-Sing, and explored with 
 him the spell-bound recesses of Sleepy Hollow. I was present 
 at many of his conferences with the good old Dutch burghers 
 and their wives, from whom he derived many of those marvel- 
 lous facts not laid down in books or records, and which give 
 such superior value and authenticity to his history, over all 
 others that have been written concerning the New Netherlands. 
 
 But let me check my proneness to dilate upon this favorite 
 theme ; I may recur to it hereafter. Suffice it to say, the inti- 
 macy thus formed, continued for a considerable time ; and in 
 company with the worthy Diedrich, I visited many of the places 
 celebrated by his pen. The currents of our lives at length 
 diverged. He remained at home to complete his mighty work, 
 while a vagrant fancy led me to wander about the world. Many, 
 many years elapsed, before I returned to the parent soil. In 
 the interim, the venerable historian of the New Netherlands 
 
 m 
 
 ' \ 
 
 -\\ 
 
 ■il 
 
 
 1 H 
 
 1 
 
 
WOLFERT'S ROOST AND AflSCELLANIES. 
 
 X ': 
 
 had been gathered to his fathers, hut his name hud risen to re 
 Down. His native eity, that city in whieii he so iiiueh deliiilitiMl. 
 had decreed all manner of eostly honors to his memory. I lonn,} 
 his efldgy imprinted upon new-year cakes, and dcvourcil witli 
 eager relish ))y holiday urehins ; a great oystcr-liousc lion, tlic 
 name of " Kiiiekerboeker Hall ; " and I narrowly eHe!i|)C(l tli» 
 pleasure of being run over by a Knickerbocker ouniibiis 1 
 
 Proud of having associated with a man who had aciiicvcil 
 sueh greatness, I now recalled our early intimacy with b-nfold 
 pleasure, and sought to revisit the scenes we had trodden to- 
 gether. The most important of these was the mansion of tlic 
 Van Tassels, the Roost of the unfortunate Wolfert. 'riiiic, 
 which changes all things, is but slow in its operation:, upon a 
 Dutchman's dwelling. I found the venerable and (|uaiiit litUi; 
 edifice much as I had seen it during the sojourn of Diedridi. 
 There stood his ell)ow-chair in the corner of the room lie luuj 
 occupied ; the old-fashioneil Dutch writin;;-desk at wliieli he 
 had pored over the chronicles of the IManliattoes ; there was 
 the old wooden chest, with the archives left l)y Wolfert Acker, 
 many of which, however, had been fired otf as waddinu; fnun 
 the long duck gun of the Van Tassels. The scene aiound l!ie 
 mansion was still the same; the green bank ; the spring besido 
 which I had listened to the legendary narratives of the liisto- 
 rian ; the wild brook babbling down to the woody cove, and llie 
 overshadowing locust trees, half shutting out the prospect of 
 the great Tappaan Zee. 
 
 As 1 looked round upon the scene, my heart yearned at the 
 recollection of my departed friend, and 1 wistfully eyed llie 
 mansion which he had inhabited, and which wa? fast moulder- 
 ing to decay. The thought struck me to arrest the dcsolatinj; 
 hand of Time ; to rescue the historic pile from utter ruin, and 
 to make it the closing scene of my wanderings ; a qui^^t lioiiie, 
 where 1 might enjoy "lust in rust" for the remainder of my 
 days. It is true, the fate of the unlucky Wolfert passed across 
 my mind ; but I consoled myself with the refl(!Ction that I was 
 a bachelor, and that I had no termagant wife to disi)ute the 
 sovereignty of the Roost with me. 
 
 I have become possessor of the Roost. I have r(>paired and 
 renovated it with religious care, in the genuine Dutch style, 
 and have adorned and illustrated it with sundry relics of tiie 
 glorious days of the New Netherlands. A venerable wealiier- 
 cock, of portly Dutch dimensions, which once battled with the 
 wind on the top of the Stadt-House of New Amsterdam, in tlie 
 time of Peter JStuyvesaut, now erects its crest on the gable enj 
 
 f I 
 
?«*J. 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERTS ROOST. 
 
 iscn to re-. 
 •Icliiililcl. 
 
 I loillKi 
 
 'urcil Willi 
 «' I'orc tlic 
 scapcl tliy 
 •us! 
 
 :icliic\(.,l 
 itii l<'iif,,l,| 
 I'oddcii t(). 
 ioii of III,. 
 ''•• Tinu', 
 
 li:. upon ;i 
 iiMiril, little 
 Dicilricli. 
 oiii li(> had 
 wliicli In- 
 
 tlu'ic was 
 "cil Acker, 
 hVinix, fioiii 
 iU'ouiid i||(. 
 I'iui^' iicsidt! 
 
 the liisto- 
 V*.', ai'.l llic 
 )rosi)(.'i't of 
 
 'nod at the 
 y eyed llio 
 st iiioiildcr- 
 dc'solatiiij; 
 T ruin, and 
 ui^t liomc, 
 kUt of my 
 sscd across 
 '-hal I was 
 lisputo tlio 
 
 paired and 
 iitcli stylo, 
 lies of the 
 e wcather- 
 d with the 
 lain, ill till' 
 gable end 
 
 of my edifice ; a gilded horse in full gallop, once the weather- 
 cock of the great Vander Heyden Palace of Albany, now glit- 
 ter> in the sunshine, and veers with every breeze, on the peaked 
 turret over my portal ; ray sanctum sanctorum ia the chamber 
 once honored by the illustrious Diedrich, and it is from his 
 elhow-chair, and his identical old Dutch writing-desk, that I 
 pen this rambling epistle. 
 
 Here, then, have I set up my rest, surrounded by the recol- 
 lections of early days, and the mementoes of the historian of 
 the Manhattoes, with that glorious river before me, which flows 
 with such majesty through his works, and which has ever been 
 to me a river of delight. 
 
 I thank God I was born on the banks of the Hudson! I 
 think it an invaluable advantage to be born ami brought up in 
 the neighborhood of some grand and noble object in nature ; a 
 river, a lake, or a mountain. We make a friendship with it, 
 we in a manner ally ourselves to it for life. It remains an 
 object of our pride and aCfections, a rallying point, to call us 
 home again after all our wanderings. "The things which we 
 have learned in our childhood," says an old writer, " grow up 
 with our souls, and unite themselves to it." So it is with the 
 Bcenes among which we have passed our early days ; they in- 
 fluence the whole course of our thoughts and feelings ; and I 
 fancy I can trace much of what is good and pleasant in my 
 own heterogeneous compound to my early companionship with 
 this glorious river. In the warmth of my youthful enthusiasm, 
 I used to clothe it with moral attributes, and almost to give it 
 a soul. I admired its frank, bold, honest chai^ter; its noble 
 sincerity and perfect truth. Here was no specious, smiling:, 
 surface covering the dangerous sand-bar or perfidious rock ; 
 but a stream deep as it was broad, and bearing with honorable 
 faith the bark that trusted to its waves. I gloried in its simple, 
 quiet, majestic, epic flow; ever straight forward. Once, in- 
 deed, it turns aside for a moment, forced from its course by 
 opposing mountains, but it struggles bravely through them, 
 and immediately resumes its straightforward march. Behold, 
 thought I, an emblem of a good man's course through life; 
 ever simple, open, and direct; or if, overpowered by adverse 
 circumstances, he deviate into error, it is but momentary ; he 
 soon recovers his onward and honorable career, and continues it 
 to the end of his pilgrimage. 
 
 Excuse this rhapsody, into which I have been betrayed by a 
 revival of early feelings. The Hudson is, in a manner, my first 
 and last love ; and after all my wanderings and seeming infi- 
 
 il 
 
u 
 
 WOLFERT*S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 f ■ 
 
 delities, I return to it with a heart-felt preference over all Uie 
 other rivers in the world. I seem to catch new life as I bathe 
 in its ample billows and inhale the pure breezes of its hills. \\ 
 is true, the romance of youth is past, that once spread illusions 
 over every scene. I can no longer picture an Arcadia in every 
 green valley; nor a fairy land among the distant mounta',ig; 
 nor a peerless beauty in every villa gleaming among the trees ; 
 but though the illusions of youth have faded from the land- 
 scape, the recollections of departed years and departed pleasures 
 shed over it the mellow charm of evening sunshine. 
 
 Permit me, then, Mr. Editor, through the medium of your 
 work, to hold occasional discourse from my retreat with tlie 
 busy world I have abandoned. I have much to say about wluit 
 I have seen, heard, felt, and thought through the course of a 
 varied and rambling, life, and some lucubrations that iiavt long 
 been encumbering my portfolio; together with divers ii'nii- 
 niscences of the venerable historian of the New Netherlands, 
 that may not be unacceptable to those who have taken an 
 interest in his writings, and are desirous of any thing that may 
 cast a light back upon our early history. Let your readeis rest 
 assured of one thing, that, though retired from the world, 1 am 
 not disgusted with it ; and that if in my communings with it I 
 do not prove very wise, I trust I shall at least prove very good- 
 natured. 
 
 Which is all at present, from 
 
 Yours, etc., 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
 To THE EnrroR of the Knickerbocker. 
 
 Worthy Sir: In a preceding communication, I have given you 
 some brief notice of Wolfert's Roost, the mansion where I first 
 had the good fortune to become acquainted with the venerable 
 historian of the New Netherlands. As this ancient edilice is 
 likely to be the place whence I shall date many of my lucubra- 
 tions, and as it is really a very remarkable little pile, intimately 
 «>anected with all the great epochs of our local and national 
 history, '' have thought it but right to give some farther par- 
 ticulars concerning it. Fortunately, in rummaging a ponderous 
 Dutch chest of drawers, which serves as the archives of the 
 Roost, and in which are preserved many inedited manuscripts 
 of Mr. Knickerbocker, together with the precious records of 
 New Amsterdam, brouglit hither by Wolfert Acker at the down- 
 fall of the Dutch dynasty, as has been already mentioned, 1 
 
 
TES. 
 
 over all Ui? 
 
 as I bathe 
 ts hills. U 
 ^ad illusions 
 idia in every 
 
 niounta'.ig; 
 
 ; the trees; 
 m the land- 
 ed pleasures 
 
 um of your 
 
 at witli tiie 
 
 about vvh;it 
 
 course of a 
 
 it iiav( long 
 
 livers iL'rni- 
 
 S'etherlands, 
 
 e taken an 
 
 ng that may 
 
 readers rest 
 
 world, I am 
 
 ngs with it I 
 
 e very good- 
 
 Y CRAYON. 
 
 vc given yon 
 where I first 
 be venerable 
 nt ediliee i.j 
 my Ineubra- 
 J, intimately 
 lud national 
 farther par- 
 a ponderous 
 lives of tile 
 nianuseripts 
 I records of 
 .t the doHii- 
 aeutioned, i 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOST. 
 
 n 
 
 round in one corner, among dried pumpkin-seeds, bunches ol 
 thyme, and pennyroyal, and crumbs of new-year cakes, a man- 
 uscript, carefully wrapped up in the fragments of an old parch- 
 ment deed, but much blotted, and the ink grown foxy by time, 
 which, on inspection, I discovered to be a faithful chronicle of 
 the Roost. The handwriting, and certain internal evidences, 
 leave no doubt in my mind, that it is a genuine production of 
 the venerable historian of the New Netherlands, written, very 
 probably, during h.s lesidence at the Roost, in gratitude for the 
 hospitality of its proprietor. As such, I submit it for publica- 
 tion. As the entire chronicle is too long for the pages of your 
 Magazine, and as it contains many minute particulars, which 
 might prove tedious to the general reader, I have abbreviated 
 and occasionally omitted some of its details ; but may hereafter 
 furnish them separately, should they seem to be required by the 
 curiosity of an enlightened and document-hunting public. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOST. 
 
 FOUND AMONG THK PAPERS OF THE LATE DIEDRICU KNICKER- 
 BOCKER. 
 
 About five-and-twenty miles from the anc'ent and renowned 
 eity of Manor ttan, formerly called New Ams«erdam, and vul- 
 garly called New York, on the eastern bank of that expansion 
 of the Hudson, known among Dutch mariners of yore, as the 
 Tappaan Zee, being in fact the great Mediterranean Sea of the 
 New Netherlands, stands a little old-fashioned stone mansion, 
 all made up of gable-ends, and as full of angles and corners as 
 an old cocked hat. Though but of bmall dimensions, yet, like 
 many small people, it is of mighty spirit, and values itself 
 greatly on its antiquity, being one of the oldest edifices, for its 
 size, in the whole country. It claims to be an ancient seat of 
 empire, I may rather say an empire in itsilf, and like all em- 
 pires, great and small, has had its grand historical epochs. In 
 speaking of this doughty and valorous little pile, I shall call it 
 by its usual appellation of "The Roost;" though that is a 
 name given to it in modern days, since it became the abode of 
 the white man. 
 
 Its origin, in truth, dates far back in that remote region com' 
 
 1 > 
 
 H^ 
 
 I < 
 
 I » 
 
 !l 
 
 4 
 
 • H 
 
12 
 
 WOLFBBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 r 1 
 
 m ■ 
 
 'ifit 
 
 
 filfr i 
 
 monly called the fabulous age, in which vulgar fact becomes 
 mystified, and tinted up with delectable fiction. The eastern 
 sh 3re of the Tappaan Sea was inhabited in those days by an 
 unsophisticated race, existing in all the simplicity of nature; 
 that is to say, they lived by hunting and fishing, and recreated 
 themselves occasionally with a little tomahawking and scalping. 
 Each stream that flows down from the hills into the Hudson 
 had its petty sachem, who ruled over a hand's-breadth of fore^": 
 on either sidf*, and had his seat of government at its nioutli. 
 The chieftain who ruled at the Roost, was not merely a great 
 warrior, but a wedicine-man, or prophet, or conjurer, for the}' 
 all mean the sam? thing, in Indian parlance. Of his fightino; 
 propensities, evidences still remain, in various arrow-heads of 
 flint, and stone battle-axes, occasionally digged up about the 
 Roost : of his wizard powers, we have a token in a spring which 
 wells up at the foot of the bank, on the very margin of the 
 river, which, it is said, was gifted by him with rejuvenating 
 powers, something like the renowned Fountain of Youth in tlie 
 Floridas, so anxiously but vainly sought after by the veteran 
 Ponce de Leon. This story, however, is stoutly contradicted 
 by an old Dutch matter-of-fact tradition, which declarpf. that 
 the spring in question was smuggled over from Holland in a 
 churn, by Femmetie Van Slocum, wife of Goosen Garret ^ an 
 Slocum, one of ihe first settlers, and that she took it up by 
 night, unknown to her hu*=band, from beside their farm-house 
 near Rotterdam ; being srre she should find no water eqaal to 
 it in the new country — and she was right. 
 
 The wizard sachem iiad a great passion for discupsing tern- 
 t^rirl questions, and settling boundary-lines ; this kept hin; in 
 continual feud with the neighboring sachems, each of wI.tiU 
 stood up stoutly for his hand-breadtfi of territory ; so that there 
 is not a petty stream nor ragged hill in the neighborhood, that 
 has not been the subject of long talks and hard battk's. The 
 ^aohem, however, as has been observed, was a medieine-man, 
 as well as warrioi-, and vindicated his claims by arts as will us 
 arms ; so that, by ("nt of a little hard fighting here, and hocus- 
 pocus there, he managed to extend his boundary-line from field 
 to field and stream to stream, until he found himself in legiti- 
 mate possession of that region of hills and valleys, bright foun- 
 tains and limpid brooks, locked in by the mazy windings of the 
 Neperan and the Pocnmtico.^ 
 
 * Ab rvrrt one may not recoKnIze Ibeic buundaiieg by thuir original Indian namei, 
 tt may tie well to observe, that the Neperan It that beautiful atream, vulgarly called 
 tht> ijuw Mill Uiver, which, after wladlug gra«efuny for luaay milu liirough • loveli 
 
 ml I -hi 
 
ES. 
 
 ct becomes 
 
 'he eastern 
 days by an 
 
 of nature; 
 d recreated 
 id scalpino, 
 be Hudson 
 th of forei-: 
 
 its mouth, 
 rely a groat 
 er, for' they 
 bis fightiuji; 
 )w-liea(ls of 
 ) about the 
 pring wbich 
 trgin of the 
 ejuveuating 
 'outh in the 
 tlie veteran 
 ;ontradicted 
 eclarpf. that 
 olland in a 
 Garret \ an 
 )k it up l)y 
 farm-house 
 .ter eqaal to 
 
 ipsing cerri- 
 cept him in 
 b of w!.>r,n 
 
 that there 
 rhood, tliat 
 ttlos. The 
 iicine-man. 
 
 1 as wiill us 
 and bocus- 
 i from ik'ld 
 f in It'giti- 
 right fouu- 
 ings of the 
 
 Indian nsmei, 
 vulgarly called 
 ruuKh a lur«l| 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERrS ROOST. 
 
 13 
 
 This last-mentioned stream, or rather the valley through 
 which it flows, was the most difficult of all bis acquisitions. It 
 lay half way to the stronghold of the redoubtable sachem of 
 Sing-Sing, and was claimed by him as an integral part of bis 
 domains. Many were the sharp conflicts between the rival 
 chieftains for the sovereignty of tbif, valley, and many the 
 ambuscades, surprisals, and deadly onslaughts that took place 
 amoug its fastnesses, of which it grieves me much that I can- 
 not furnish the details for the gratificr.tion of those gentle but 
 bloody-minded readers of both sexes, who delight in the romance 
 of the tomahawk and scalping-knife. Sufliice it to say that the 
 wizard chieftain was at lengtn victorious, though his victory is 
 attributed in Indian tradition to a great medicine or charm by 
 which he laid the sachem of 8ing-8ing and his warriors asleep 
 among the rocks and recesses of the valley, where they remain 
 asleep to the present day with their bows and war-clubs bv side 
 them. This was the origin of that potent and irowsy spell 
 which still prevails over the valley of the Pocantico, and wbich 
 has gained it the well-merited appellation of Sleepy Hollow. 
 Often, in secluded and quiet parts of that valley, where the 
 stream is overhung by dark woods and rocks, the ploughman, 
 on some calm and sunny day as be shouts to bis oxen, is sur- 
 prised at bearing faint shouts from the bill-sides in reply ; 
 being, it is said, the spell-bound warriors, who half start from 
 their rocky couches and grasp their weapons, but sink to sleep 
 
 agam 
 
 '1^ 
 
 J'he conquest of the Pocantico was the last triumph of the 
 wi'^ard sachem. Notwithstanding all his medicine and charms, 
 be fell in battle in attempting to extend bis boundary-line to 
 the east so as to take in the little wild valley of the Sprain, 
 and his grave is still shown near the banks of that pastoral 
 stream. He left, however, a great empire to hie successors, 
 extending along the Tappaan Zee, from Yonkers quite to Sleepy 
 Hollow ; all wbich delectable region, if every one had his right, 
 would still acknowledge allegiance to the lord of the Roost — 
 whoever be might be.^ 
 
 valley, nhrouded by grovc«, and dotted by Dutch farm-houses, empties Itself Into the 
 lIudHon, at the aiicipiit durp of Vunlsprg. The Pocantico Im that hitherto namelesa 
 brook, thut, ri»iiig among woody hillH, winds in many a wizard maze through tho 
 BcquesliTpd hauntH of MliK'pv Hollow. We owe it to the Indefatigable researches ol 
 Mr. KNiCKEunocKRK, that those beautiful streams are rescued from modern common. 
 place, and ruiiivi-sted with their ancient ludian names. The correctness of the vener- 
 able liiHtorian may tie aHCcrtainod, by reference to the records of the original Indian 
 grantii to the llorr Frederick thilipsen, preserved in the county clerk'a office, at White 
 I'lains. 
 
 ' In recording the contest for the sovereignty of Sleepy Hollow, I have called on« 
 Muhem by the uiuderu uame of hid castle or stronghold, viz. : mog-Bing. This, I would 
 
 i 
 
 f 'I 
 
 ■ « 
 
14 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 »' 
 
 ■•:! 
 
 r \ \: 
 
 The wizard sachem was succeeded by a line of chiefs, of 
 whom nothing remarkable remains on record. The last who 
 makes any figure in history is the one who ruled here sit the 
 time of the discovery of the country by the white man. This 
 sachem is said to have been a renowned trencherman, who 
 maintained almost as potent a sway by dint of good feeding us 
 his warlike predecessors had done by hard fighting. He dili- 
 gently cultivated the growth of oysters along the aquatic 
 borders of his territories, and founded those great oyster-hcds 
 which yet exist along the shoros of the Tappaan Zee. Did uny 
 dispute occur between him and a neighboring sachem, he in- 
 vited him and all his principal sages and fighting-mon to a 
 solemn banquet, and seldom failed of feeding them into ttims. 
 Enormous heaps of oyster-shells, which encumber the lofty 
 banks of the river, remain as monuments of his gastronoinical 
 victories, and have been occasionally adduced througli mistuke 
 by amateur geologists from town, as additional proofs of the 
 deluge. Modern investigators, who are making sucii iudofjiti- 
 gable researches into our early history, have even aflirmed tliat 
 this sachem was the very individual on whom Master Ilendrick 
 Hudson and his mate, Robert Juet, made that sage and 
 astounding experiment so gravely recorded by the latter in liis 
 narrative of the voyage: "Our master an.l his mate deter- 
 mined to try some of the cheefe men of the country wlietlier 
 they had any treacherie in them. So they took them down 
 into the cabin and gave them so much wine and aqua vitui 
 that they were all very merrie ; one of them had his wife with 
 him, which sate so modestly as any of our country wonitn 
 would do in a strange place. In the end one of them was 
 drunke ; and that was strange to them, for they could not tell 
 how to take it. " * 
 
 How far Master Hendrick Hudson and his worthy mate car- 
 ried their experiment with the sachem's wife is not recorded, 
 neither does the curious Robert Juet make any mention of the 
 after-consequences of this grand moral test ; tradition, how- 
 
 ever, allirms that the sachem on landing 
 
 gave 
 
 his modest 
 
 spouse a hearty rib-roasting, according to the connubial disci- 
 pline of the aboriginals ; it farther affirms that he remained a 
 hard drinker to the day of his death, trading away all his 
 
 ob«erve for the Hake of hUtorical exuctnega, is a corruption of the old Indinii iiaine, 
 O-Miii-Hing, or rather O-Biii-HunK, that is to Huy, a jihiue where uiiy thitiK luiiy be hiid 
 tor a HoiiK — a (treat recoraraendat'oii for a market town. The modern and melodiouu 
 &;u*ratlon of the name to riin^-jlng is Baid to have been made in eomplinieiit tu 
 &n eminent Methodist pingiiig-matttcr, who flrat introduced into the ucigbborhoud tbo 
 itrt of Hinging through the none. L>. K. 
 
 ' ISeeJuul'ii Juurual, i'urcbam J'ilyritn. 
 
 the 
 
 Ji'! 
 
 !.«'* 
 
(r. 
 
 lES, 
 
 chiefs, of 
 lie last who 
 here at the 
 man. 'ri,is 
 rnitvn, who 
 feeding as 
 He dill, 
 lie aquatic 
 oyster-i)0(ls 
 '• iJid any 
 leni, he in- 
 g-men to a 
 iuto terms. 
 r the lofty 
 istronoriiieal 
 iigli mistake 
 oof.s of the 
 eh indefati- 
 tlirmed tliat 
 er Ilendriek 
 sage and 
 latter in his 
 mate doter- 
 try whether 
 them down 
 aqua vita? 
 is wife with 
 mtrywonuii 
 f them was 
 uld not tell 
 
 y mate car- 
 t recorded, 
 tion of the 
 ition, how- 
 liis modest 
 ubial disci- 
 remained a 
 I'ay all his 
 
 I Indian iiaiiie, 
 IK luii.v lie had 
 and meludiouij 
 iioinplitiit-iit to 
 ^bbui'h()u<i tbo 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOST. 
 
 15 
 
 lands, acre by acre, for aqua vitae ; by which means the Roost 
 and all its domains, from Yonkers to Sleepy Hollow, came, in 
 the regular course of trade and by right of purchase, into the 
 possession of the Dutchmen. 
 
 Never has a territorial right in these new countries been 
 more legitimately and tradefuUy established ; yet, I grieve to 
 say, the worthy government of the New Netherlands was not 
 suffered to enjoy this grand acquisition unmolested ; for, in the 
 year lGo4, the losel Yankees of Connecticut — those swapping, 
 bargaining, squatting enemies of the Manhattoes — made a 
 daring inroad into this neighborhood and founded a colony 
 called Westchester, or, as the anc'.ent Dutch records term it, 
 Vest Dorp, in the right of one Thomas Pell, who pretended to 
 have purchased the whole surrounding country of the Indians, 
 and stood ready to argue their claims before any tribunal of 
 Christendom. 
 
 This happened during the chivalrous reign of Peter Stuyve- 
 sant, and it roused the ire of that gunpowder old hero ; who, 
 without waiting to discuss claims and titles, pounced at once 
 upon the nest of nefarious squatters, carried off twenty-five of 
 them in chains to the Manhattoes, nor did he stay his hand, 
 nor give rest to his wooden leg, until he had driven every 
 Yankee back into the bounds of Connecticut, or obliged him 
 to acknowledge allegiance to their High Mightinesses. He 
 then established certain out-posts, far in the Indian country, 
 to keep an eye over these debatable lauds ; one of these 
 border-holds was the Roost, being accessible from New Amster- 
 dam by water, and easily kept supplied. The Yankees, how- 
 ever, had too great a hankering after this delectable region to 
 give it up entirely. Some remained and swore allegiance to the 
 Manhattoes ; but, while they kept this open semblance of fealty, 
 they went to work secretly and vigorously to intermarry and 
 multiply, and by these nefarious means, artfully propagated 
 themselves into possession of a wide tract of those open, arable 
 parts of Westchester county, lyiug along the Sound, where 
 their descendants may be found at the present day ; while the 
 mountainous regions along the Hudson, with the valleys of the 
 Neperan and the Pocantico, are tenaciously held by the lineal 
 descendants of the Copperheads. 
 
 The chronicle of the venerable Diedrich here goes on to relate 
 iiow that, shortly after the above-mentioned events, the whole 
 province of the New Netherlands was subjugated by the 
 
 I'j y 
 
 *■ ■ . ', 
 
 t i 
 
 ' t 
 
 lit 
 
16 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 British ; how that "Wolfert Acker, one of tlie wrangling coun- 
 cillors of Peter Stuyvesant, retired in dudgeon to this fastness 
 in the wilderness, determining to enjoy " lust in rust " for the 
 remainder of his days, whence the place first received its name 
 of Wolfert's Roost. As these and sundry other matters have 
 been laid before the public in a preceding article, 1 shall pass 
 them over, and resume the chronicle where it treats of matters 
 jQot hitherto recorded : 
 
 i • 
 
 I I 
 
 Like many men who retire from a worrying world, says 
 DiEDRiCH Knickerbocker, to enjoy quiet in the country, Wol- 
 fert Acker soon found himself up to the ears in trouble. He 
 had a termagant wife at home, and there was what is profanely 
 called " the deuce to pay," abroad. The recent irruption of 
 the Yankees into the bounds of the New Netherlands, had left 
 behind it a doleful pes'.'ilence, such as is apt to follow the steps 
 of invading armies. This was the deadly plague of witchcraft, 
 which had long been prevalent to the eastward. The malady 
 broke out at Vest Dorp, and threatened to spread throughout 
 the country. The Dutch burghers along the Hudson, from 
 Yonkers to Sleepy Hollow, hastened to nail horse-shoes to their 
 doors, which have ever been found of sovereign virtue to repel 
 this awful visitation. This is the origin of the horse-shoes 
 which may still be seen nailed to the doors of barns and farm- 
 houses, in various parts of this sage and sober-thoughted region. 
 
 The evil, however, bore hard upon the Roost ; partly, per- 
 haps, from its having in old times been subject to supernatural 
 influences, during the sway of the Wizard Sachem ; but it has 
 always, in fact, been considered a fated mansion. The unlucky 
 Wolfert had no rest day or night. When the weather was quiet 
 all over the country, the wind would howl and whistle round his 
 roof ; witches would ride and whirl upon his weathercocks, 
 and scream down his chimneys. His cows gave bloody niilk, 
 and his horses broke bounds, and scampered into the woods. 
 There were not wanting evil tongues to whisper that Wolfert's 
 termagant wife had some tampering with the enemy ; and that 
 she even attended a witches' Sabbath in Sleepy Hollow ; nay, a 
 neighbor, who lived hard by, declared that he saw her harness- 
 ing a rampant broom-stick, and about to ride to the meeting; 
 though others presume it was merely flourished in the course of 
 one of her curtain lectures, to give energy and emphasis to a 
 period. Certain it is, that W^olfert Acker nailed a horse-shoo 
 to the front door, during one of her nocturnal excursions, to 
 prevent her return ; but as she re-entered the house without &uy 
 
 t-i 
 
MES. 
 
 feling coun- 
 ais fastness 
 
 ^t '• for the 
 ed its Uiinie 
 
 |atters have 
 
 shall pass 
 
 of matters 
 
 orld, says 
 intry, Wol- 
 [ouble. Ho 
 IS profanely 
 rruption of 
 Is, had left 
 w the steps 
 witchcraft, 
 'he malady 
 throughout 
 dson, from 
 oes to their 
 tue to repel 
 horse-siioes 
 5 and farm- 
 ited region, 
 partly, per- 
 uperuatural 
 but it has 
 'he unlucky 
 r was quiet 
 3 round his 
 ithercocks, 
 oody milk, 
 ihe woods. 
 VVolfeit's 
 ; and tiiat 
 w ; nay, a 
 r harness- 
 meeting ; 
 course of 
 basis to a 
 lorse-shoe 
 rsions, to 
 tbout anv 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOaT, 
 
 17 
 
 difficulty, it is probable she was not so much of a witch as she 
 was represented.* 
 
 After the time of Wolfert Acker, a long interval elapses, 
 about which but littla is known. It is hoped, however, that the 
 antiquarian researches so diligently making in every part of 
 this new country, may yet throw some light upon what may be 
 termed the Dark Ages of the Roost. 
 
 The next period at which we find this venerable and eventful 
 pile rising to importance, and resuming its old belligerent char- 
 acter, is during the revolutionary war. It was at that time 
 owned by Jacob Van Tassel, or Van Texel, as the name was 
 originally spelled, after the place in Holland which gave birth 
 to this heroic line. He was strong-built, long-limbed, and as 
 stout in soul as in body ; a fit successor to the warrior sachem 
 of yore, and, like him, delighting in extravagant; enterprises 
 and hardy deeds of arms. But, before I enter upoi. the exploits 
 of this worthy cock of the Roost, it is fitting I should throw 
 some light upon the state of the mansion, and of the surround- 
 ing country, at the time. 
 
 The situation of the Roost is in the very hea.-t of what was 
 the debatable ground between the American and British lines, 
 during the war. The British held possession of the city of 
 New York, and the island of Manhattan on which it stands. 
 The Americans drew up toward the Highlands, holding their 
 headquarters at Peekskill. The intervening country, from 
 Croton River to Spiting Devil Creek, was the debatable land, 
 subject to be harried by friend and foe, like the Scottish borders 
 of yore. It is a rugged country, with a line of rocky hills 
 extending through it, like a back bone, sending ribs on either 
 side ; but among these rude hills are beautiful winding valleys, 
 like those watered by the Pocantico and the Neperan. In the 
 fastnesses of these hills, and along these valleys, exist a race 
 of hard-headed, hard-handed, stout-hearted Dutchmen, descend- 
 ants of the primitive Nederlauders. Most of these wei'e strong 
 whigs throughout the war, and have ever remained obstinately 
 
 1 Historical Note. — The aiinuxcd exlracU from the early colonial records, relate 
 to the Irruption of witchcraft in Wustcheater county, as mentioned in the chronicie: 
 
 " Jui.Y 7, 1670. — Katbitrinu IlarryBon, accused of witchcraft on complaint of Thomas 
 Hunt and Edward Wutern, in behalf of the town, who pray that she may be driven 
 from the town of WeHtcheoter. The woman appears beforn the council. . . . She was 
 B native of Knglund, and liad lived a year in Wealhersfleld, Connecticut, where she had 
 been tried for witchcraft, found guilty by the jury, acquitted by the bench, and releaied 
 out of priHon, upon condition she would remove. Affair adjourned. 
 
 " AiiousT 24. — Affair taken up again, when, being heard at large, it was referred to 
 the general court of asgize. Woman ordered to give Hecurity for good behavior," etc. 
 
 In another place is the following entry : 
 
 " Order ^iven for Kalhariue Ilarryson, charged with witchcraft, to leave WesteliMteri 
 as the inhabitautH are uneasy ut her reaidiuK tbeie, and ahe is ordered to go ott." 
 
 ■11 
 
 ■ 
 
 1 
 
 > ' 
 
 yj 
 
 
 
 i Ml 
 
 
 I\ ^ 
 
 \ 1 
 
 1 > 
 
 II 
 
 1 ! 
 
 1 1 
 
 
 r ) 
 
 :1 
 
 r 
 
 
 ( ! 
 
 \ 'i 
 
18 
 
 WOLFERT'S R008T AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 l^ 
 
 m 
 
 .'\ 
 
 i;l 
 
 attached to the soil, and neither to l)c fought nor bought out of 
 their paternal acres. Others were tories, and adherents to tlii' 
 old kingly rule ; some of whom took refuge within the British 
 lines, joined the royal bauds of refugees, a name odious to the 
 American ear, and occasionally returned to harass their ancient 
 neighbors. 
 
 In a little while, this debatable land was overrun by preda- 
 tory bands from either side ; sacking hen-roosts, plundering 
 farm-houses, and driving off cattle. Hence arose those two 
 great orders of border chivalry, the Skinners and the Cowboys, 
 famous in the heroic annals of Westchester county. The former 
 fought, or rather marauded, under the American, the latter 
 under the British banner ; but both, in the hurry of their mili- 
 tary ardor, were apt to err on the safe side, and rob friend as 
 well as foe. Neither of them stopiKjd to ask the politics of 
 horse or cow, which they drove into captivity ; nor, when they 
 wrung the neck of a rooster, did they trouble their heads to 
 ascertain whether he were crowing for Congress or King George. 
 
 While this marauding system prevailed on shore, the (Jreat 
 Tappaan Sea, which washes this belligerent region, was domi- 
 neered over by British frigates and other vessels of war, an- 
 chored here and there, to keep an eye u^wn the river, and 
 maintain a comnmnication between the various military posts. 
 Stout galleys, also, armed with eighteeu-}K)unders, and navi- 
 gated with sails and oars, cruised about like hawks, ready to 
 pounce ui)on their prey. 
 
 All these were eyed with bitter hostility by the Dutch yeo- 
 manry along shore, who were indignant at seeing their great 
 Mediterranean ploughed by hostile prows; and would occasioually 
 throw up a mud breast-work on a point or promontory, mount 
 an old iron field-piece, and fire away at the enemy, though the 
 greatest harm was apt to happen to themselves from the burst- 
 ing of their ordnance ; nay, there was scarce a Dutchman along 
 the river that would hesitate to fire with his long duck gun at 
 any British cruiser that came within reach, as he had been accus- 
 tomed to fire at water- fowl. 
 
 I have been thus particular in ray account of the times and 
 neighborhood, that the reader might the more readily com- 
 prehend the surrounding dangers in this the Heroic Age of the 
 Roost. 
 
 It was commanded at the time, as I have ''Iready observed, 
 by the stout Jacob Van Tassel. As I wion to be extremely 
 accurate in this paii of my chronicle, I beg that this Jacob \'au 
 Tassel of the Roost may not be confouuded with another Jacob 
 
TES. 
 
 J»ugJit out of 
 [rents to tin, 
 P the British 
 Mious to tliu 
 f lieir anciont 
 
 n by preda- 
 plundering 
 those two 
 he Cowboys, 
 The former 
 the latter 
 |f tlioir inili- 
 b friend as 
 politics of 
 , when they 
 ir heads to 
 ing (ieorge. 
 , the (ireat 
 , was doiiii- 
 of war, an- 
 , I'iver, and 
 itary posts. 
 and navi- 
 :s, ready to 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFERT'S ROOST. 
 
 19 
 
 Dutch 
 
 yco- 
 
 their great 
 •ceasioually 
 ory, mount 
 though the 
 I the burst- 
 iman along 
 uck gun at 
 een aecus- 
 
 tiines and 
 idily eoni- 
 ^gii of the 
 
 observed, 
 extremely 
 acob \'au 
 her Jacob 
 
 Van Tassel, commonly known in border story by the name of 
 "Clump-footed Jake," a noted tory, and one of the refugee 
 band of Spiting Devil. On the contrary, he f the Roost was 
 a patriot of the first water, and, if we may take his own word 
 for granted, a thorn in the side of the enemy. As the Roost, 
 from its lonely situation on the water's edge, might bo liable 
 to attack, he took measures for defence. On a row of hooks 
 above his fireplace, reposed his great piece of ordnance, ready 
 charged and primed for action. This was a duck, or rather 
 goose-gun, of unparalleled longitude, with which it was said he 
 could kill a wild goose, though half-way across the Tappaon Sea. 
 Indeed, there are as many wonders told of this renowned gun, 
 as of the enchanted weapons of the heroes of classic story. 
 
 In different parts of the stone walls of his mansion, he had 
 made loop-holes, through which he might fire upon an assailant. 
 Ilis wife was stout-hearted as himself, and could load as fast as 
 he could fire ; and then he had an ancient and redoubtaole sister, 
 Nochie Van Wurmcr, a match, as he said, for the stoutest man 
 in the country. Thus garrisoned, the little Roost was fit to 
 stand a siege, and Jacob Van Tassel was the man to defend it 
 to the last charge of powder. 
 
 He was, as I have already hinted, of pugnacious propensities ; 
 and, not content with being a patriot at home, and fighting for 
 tiie security of his own fireside, he extended his thoughts 
 abroad, and entered into a confederacy with certain of the 
 bold, hard-riding lads of Tarrytown, Petticoat Lane, and Sleepy 
 Hollow, who formed a kind of Holy Brotherhood, scouring thv, 
 country to clear it of Skinner and Cowboy, and all other bor- 
 der vermin. The Roost was one of their rallying points. Did 
 a band of marauders from INIanhattan island come sweeping 
 through the neighborhood, and driving off cattle, the stout 
 Jacob and his compeers were soon clattering at their heels, and 
 fortunate did the rogues esteem themselves if they could but 
 get a part of their booty across the lines, or escape themselves 
 without a rough handling. Should the mosstroopers succeed 
 in passing witli their cavalgada, with thundering tramp and 
 dusty whirlwind, across Kingsbridge, the Holy Brotherhood of 
 the Roost would rein up at that perilous pass, and, wheeling 
 about, would indemnify themselves by foraging the refugee 
 region of Morrisania. 
 
 When at home at the Roost, the stout Jacob was not idle ; 
 but was prone to carry on a petty warfare of bis own, for his 
 private recreation and refreshment. Did he ever 'I'l'ance to 
 espy, from his look-out place, a hostile ship or galley anchored 
 
 I • 
 
20 
 
 WOLFSRT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 f I 
 
 1 t 
 
 ^ 1^' 
 
 or becalmed near shore, he would take down his long gooae-gun 
 from the hooks over the fireplace, sally out alone, and lurk alonir 
 shore, dodging behind rocks and trees, and watching for hours 
 together, like a veteran mouser intent on a rat-hole. So sure 
 as a boat put off for shore, and came within shot, bang ! went 
 the great goose-gun ; a shower of slugs and bnck-shot whisUed 
 about the ears of the enemy, and before the boat could reach 
 the shore, Jacob had scuttled up some woody ravine, and left 
 no trace behind. 
 
 About this time, the Roost experienced a vast accession of 
 warlike importance, in being made one of the stations of the 
 water-guard. This was a kind of aquatic corps of observation, 
 composed of long, sharp, canoe-shaped boats, technically called 
 whale-boats, that lay lightly on the water, and could be rowt'd 
 with great rapidity. They were manned by resolute fellows, 
 skilled at pulling an oar, or handling a musket. These lurked 
 about in nooks and bays, ami behind those long promontories 
 which run out into the Tappaan Sea, keeping a look-out, to give 
 notice of the approach or movements of hostile ships. They 
 roved about in pairs ; sometimes at night, with muffled ours, 
 gliding like spectres about frigates and guard-ships riding at 
 anchor, cutting off any boats that made for shore, and keeping 
 the enemy in constant uneasiness. These mosquito-cruisers 
 generally kept aloof by day, so that their harboring places might 
 not be discovered, but would pull quietly along, under shadow 
 of the shore, at night, to take up their (juarters at the Roost. 
 Hither, at such time, would also repair the hard-riding lads 
 of the hills, to hold secret councils of war with the " ocean 
 chivalry;" and in these nocturnal meetings were concerted 
 many of those daring forays, by land and water, that resounded 
 throughout the border. 
 
 The chronicle here goes on to recount divers wonderful 
 stories of the wars of tlie Roost, from which it would seem, 
 ■:hat this little warrior nest carried the terror of its arms into 
 3very sea, from Spiting Devil Creek to Antony's Nose ; that it 
 even bearded the stout island of Manhattan, invading it at 
 night, penetrating to its centre, and burning down the famous 
 Delancey house, the conflagration of which makes such a blaze 
 in revolutionary history. Nay more, in their extravagant dar- 
 ing, these cocks of the Roost meditated a nocturnal descent 
 upon New York itself, to swoop upon the British commanders, 
 Howe and Clinton, by surprise, bear them off captive, and per- 
 haps put a triumphaut close to the war 1 
 
lES. 
 
 g goo8o-g„n 
 <• lurk along 
 »S for hours 
 '*>o sure 
 bang! went 
 liot whistled 
 t'ould reach 
 »e, and left 
 
 iccession of 
 tions of the 
 observation, 
 iciilly called 
 I be rowed 
 •itc fellows, 
 lit'so lurked 
 >roinontories 
 •out, to give 
 lips. They 
 luffled oars, 
 IS riding at 
 md keepiiur 
 Jito-cruisers 
 )laces might 
 ider sluuiow 
 the Hoost. 
 -riding lads 
 the ' ' ocean 
 i concerted 
 t resounded 
 
 wonderful 
 ould seem, 
 I arms into 
 >se ; that it 
 ding it at 
 ;he famous 
 eh a blaze 
 agant dar- 
 lal descenJ 
 mraanders, 
 !, and per- 
 
 il CHRONICLE OF WOLFERTS ROOST. 
 
 81 
 
 All these and many similar exploits are recorded by the 
 worthy Diedrich, with his usual minuteness and enthusiasm, 
 whenever the deeds in arms of his kindred Dutchmen are in 
 question ; but though most of these warlike stories rest upon 
 the best of all authority, that of the warriors themselves, and 
 though many of them are still current among the revolutionary 
 patriarchs of this heroic neighborhood, yet I dare not expose 
 them to the incredulity of a tamer and less chivalric age. Suf- 
 fice it to say, the frequent gatherings at the Roost, and the 
 hardy projects set on foot there, at length drew on it the fiery 
 indignation of the enemy ; and this was quickened by the con- 
 duct of the stout Jacob Van Tassel ; with whose valorous 
 achievements we resume the course of the chronicle. 
 
 This doughty Dutchman, continues the sage Diedrich Knick- 
 ERBOCKEU, was not content with taking a share in all the mag- 
 nanimous enterprises concocted at the Boost, but still continued 
 his petty warfare islong shore. A series of exploits at length 
 raised his confidence in his prowess to such a height, that he 
 began to think himself and his goose-gun a match for any 
 thing. Unluckily, in the course of one of his prowlings, he 
 descried a British transport aground, not far from shore, with 
 her stern swung toward the land, witliin point-blank shot. 
 The temptation was too great to be resisted ; bang ! as usual, 
 went the great goose-gun, shivering the cabin windows, and 
 driving all hands forward. Bang ! bang ! the shots were re- 
 peated. The reports brought several sharp-shooters of the 
 neighborhood to the spot ; before the transport could bring a 
 gun to bear, or land a boat, to take revenge, she was soundly pep- 
 pered, and the coast evacuated. This was the last of Jacob's 
 triumphs. He fared like some heroic spider, that has unwit- 
 tingly ensnared a hornet, to his immortal glory, perhaps, but 
 to the utter ruin of his web. 
 
 It was not long after this, during the absence of Jacob Van 
 Tassel on one of his forays, and when no one was in garrison 
 but his stout-hearted spouse, his redoubtable sister, Nochie Van 
 Wurmer, and a strapping negro wench, called Dinah, that an 
 armed vessel came to anchor off the Roost, and a boat full of 
 men pulled to shore. The garrison flew to arms, that is to say, 
 to mops, broom-sticks, shovels, tongs, and all kinds of domestic 
 weapons ; for, unluckily, the great piece of ordnance, the goose- 
 gun, was absent with its owner. Above all, a vigorous defence 
 was made with that most potent of female weapons, the tongue. 
 
22 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Never did invaded henroost make a more vociferous outcry. 
 It was A\ in vain. The house was saciied and pluiidiTed, fuo 
 was set to eaeli corner, and in a few moments its Ithizc shed a 
 baleful light far over the Tappaan Sea. The invaders tlicn 
 pounced upon the blooming Laney Van Tassel, the Ix'uuty of 
 the Roost, and endeavored to bear her off to the boat. n„i, 
 here was the real tug of war. The mother, the aunt, and llic 
 strapping negro wench, all flew to the rescue. The strug<j;lo 
 continued down to the very water's edge ; when a voice from 
 the armed vessel at anchor, ordered the spoilers to let go llidr 
 hold; they relinquished their prize, jumped into their liouts. 
 and pulled off, and the heroine of the Roost escaped witli a 
 mere rumpling of the feathers. 
 
 M 
 
 
 * I K 
 
 U\ 
 
 t i 
 
 The fear of tiring my readers, who may not take suoh an 
 interest as myself in these heroic themes, induces me to elosc 
 here my extracts from this precious chronicle of the venerable 
 Diedrich. Suffice it briefly to say, that shortly after tlu' catas- 
 trophe of the Roost, Jacob V^an Tassel, in the course of one of 
 his forays, fell into the hands of the British ; was sent prisoner 
 to New York, and was detained in captivity for the gi'cater part 
 of the war. In the mean time, the Roost remained a melan- 
 choly ruin ; its stone walls and brick chimneys alone standing, 
 blackened by fire, and the resort of bats and owlets. It was 
 not until the return of peace, when this belligerent neigliltor- 
 hood once more resumed its quiet agricultural pursuits, that 
 the stout Jacob sought the scene of his triumphs and disas- 
 ters ; rebuilt the Roost, and reared again on high its glittering 
 weather-cocks. 
 
 Does any one want further particulars of the fortunes of 
 this eventful little pile? Let him go to the fountain-head, and 
 drink deep of historic truth. Reader ! the stout Jacob Van 
 Tassel still lives, a veneral)le, gray-headed patriarch of the 
 revolution, now in his ninety-fifth year ! lie sits by his fire- 
 side, in the ancient city of the Manhattoes, and passes the long 
 winter evenings, surrounded by his children, and grand-chil- 
 dren, and great-grand-childrcu, all listening to his tales of the 
 border wars, and the heroic days of the Roost. His great 
 goose-gun, too, is still in existence, having been preserved for 
 many years in a hollow tree, and passed from hand to Iwiiid 
 among the Dutch burghers, as a precious relic of the revohi- 
 tion. It is now actually in possession of a conteniporarv of 
 the stout Jacob, one almost his equal iu years, who treadurcs 
 
 uig 
 
ES. 
 
 A CHRONICLE OF WOLFESrs BOOST. 
 
 23 
 
 oils outcry. 
 iKU'icd, lin, 
 
 iidcrs then 
 ' I'caiitv of 
 
 bout. '|{„, 
 "t> iind t||(. 
 
 voioc from 
 I't lio (heir 
 '•'ir Itouts. 
 l>t'd with a 
 
 ke siioli an 
 
 lie to i-Iosi. 
 
 vcncnililc 
 
 tin' CiltflS- 
 
 ' of one of 
 nt prisoner 
 fi'PtitcM- part 
 1 !i inclan- 
 ? standing, 
 '^- It was 
 t iK^ighltor- 
 •siiits, that 
 Jiiid (lisas- 
 3 glittering 
 
 ortinips of 
 -head, and 
 Taool) Van 
 •ell of the 
 •y liis fire- 
 's the long 
 2;rand-eiiii. 
 lies of tlie 
 
 His great 
 served for 
 (1 to hand 
 iie rcvolii- 
 iporary of 
 
 treaciurcs 
 
 It np at his house in the Bowerie of New Amsterdam, iiurd 
 hy tlie ancient rural retreat of the chivalric Teter Stuyvesant. 
 I am not without hopes of one day seeing this formidable piece 
 of ordnanee restored to its proper station in the arsenal of the 
 Koost. 
 
 Hcfore closing this historic document, I cannot but advert 
 to certain notions and traditions concerning the venerable pile 
 ill (juestion. Old-time ediliees are apt to gather odd fancies 
 and superstitions alx>ut them, as they do moss and weather- 
 stains ; and this is in a neighlx)rhood a little given to old- 
 fashioned notions, and who look upon the Roost as somewhat 
 of a fated mansion. A lonely, rambling, down- hill lane leads 
 to it, overhung with trees, with a wild brook dashing along, 
 and crossing and re-crossing it. This lane I found some of 
 the good people of the neighborhood shy of treading at night ; 
 why, 1 could not for a long time ascertain ; until I leart\e(i 
 that one or two of the rovers of the Tappaan Sea, shot by the 
 stout Jacob during the war, had been buried hereabout, in 
 unconsecrated ground. 
 
 Another local superstition is of h less gloomy kind, and one 
 which I confess I am somewhat disposed to cherish. The 
 Tappaan Sea, in front of the Roost, is about three miles wide, 
 bordered by a lofty line of waving and rocky hills. Often, in 
 the still twilight of a sun)mer evening, when the sea is like 
 glass, with the opposite hills throwing their purple shadows 
 half across it, a low sound is heard, as of the steady, vigorous 
 pull of oars, far out in the middle of the stream, though not 
 a boat is to be descried. This I should have been apt to 
 ascribe to some boat rowed along under the shadows of the 
 western shore, for sounds are conveyed to a great distance 
 by water, at such quiet hours, and I can distinctly hear the 
 baying of the watch-dogs at night, from the farms on the sides 
 of the opposite mountains. The ancient traditiouists of the 
 neighborhood, however, religiously ascribed these sounds to a 
 judgment upon one Rumbout Van Dam, of Spiting Devil, who 
 danced and drank late one Saturday night, at a Dutch quilt- 
 ing frolic, at Kakiat, and set off alone for home in his boat, 
 on the verge of Sunday morning ; swearing he would not land 
 till he reached Spiting Devil, if it took him a month of Sun. 
 days. He was never seen afterward, but is often heard ply- 
 ing his oars across the Tappaan Sea, a Flying Dutchman on 
 a small scale, suited to the size of his cruising-ground ; being 
 tlooraed to ply between Kakiat and Spiting Devil till the daj 
 of judgment, but never to reach the land. 
 
 n ■> 
 
 Vie- 
 
 •r 
 
 ''1 ' 
 
 ;: : 
 
24 
 
 WOLFERT'S BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 There is one room in the mansion which almost overhangr 
 the river, and is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a 
 young lady who died of love and green apples. I have been 
 awakened at night by the sound of oars and the tinkling of 
 guitars beneath the window ; and seeing a boat loitering iu the 
 moonlight, have been tempted to believe it the Flying Dutch- 
 man of Spiting Devil, and to try whether a silver bullet might 
 not put an end to his unhappy cruisings ; but, happening to 
 recollect that there was a living young lady in the haunted 
 room, who might be terrified by the report of firearms, I have 
 refrained from pulling trigger. 
 
 As to the enchanted fountain, said to have been ^;ifted by the 
 wizard sachem with supernatural ix)wers, it still wells up at 
 the foot of the bank, on the margin of the river, and goes by the 
 name of the Indian spring ; but 1 have my doubts as to its reju- 
 venating powers, for though I have drank oft and copiously of 
 it, I cannot boast that 1 find myself growing younger. 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYOX. 
 
 fl 
 
 III.!- 
 
 I 
 
 SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 BY GEOFFREY CUAYON, GENT. 
 
 t ■( 
 
 i ' 
 
 ^i 
 
 1 
 
 1 ' 
 
 
 ' 
 
 ^ 
 
 Having pitched my tent, probably for the remainder of my 
 days, in the neighborhood of Sleepy Hollow, I am tempted to 
 give some few particulars eoncernitig that spell-bound region ; 
 e?neoially as it has risen to historic importance under the pen 
 of my revered friend and master, the sage historian of the New 
 Netherlands. Beside, 1 lind the very existence of the place 
 has been held in question by many ; who, judging from its odd 
 name and from the odd stories current among the vulgar con- 
 cerning it, have rashly deemed the whole to be a fancifui crea- 
 tion, like the Lubber Land of mariners. I must confess iherc 
 is some apparent cause for doubt, in consequence of the coloring.'; 
 given by the worthy Diedrich to his descriptions of the Hollow ; 
 who, in this instance, has departed a little from his usually sober 
 if not severe styla ; beguiled, very probably, by his predilection 
 for the haunts of his youth, and by a certain lurking taint of 
 romance whenever any thing coimected with the Dutch was to 
 be described. I sliall endeavor to make up for this amial)le 
 error on the j)art of my venerable and venerated friend by pre- 
 senting the reader with a more precise and statistical account of 
 
as. 
 
 loverhangp 
 ;host of a 
 [have been 
 tinkiinjr of 
 ring in the 
 Jng Dutch- 
 lillet niiglit 
 ppening to 
 le haunted 
 IS, I have 
 
 ted by the 
 lells up at 
 roes by the 
 to its rejii- 
 ipiously of 
 
 CRAYON. 
 
 SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 25 
 
 der of my 
 enipted to 
 id region ; 
 er the pen 
 f tlie New 
 the phieo 
 rn its Olid 
 ulg'ir con- 
 :?ifui crea- 
 fess there 
 e coloring 
 B Hollow ; 
 lally sober 
 edi lection 
 I taiut of 
 ;h was to 
 i auiial)le 
 d by pre- 
 ccouut of 
 
 the Hollow ; though I am not sure that I shall not be prone to 
 lapse in the end into the very error I am speaking of, so potent 
 is the witchery of the theme. 
 
 I believe it was the very peculiarity of its name and the idea 
 of something mystic and dreamy connected with it that first led 
 ne in ray boyish rambliugs into Sleepy Hollow. The character 
 of the valley seemed to answer to the name ; the slumber of 
 past ages apparently reigned over it ; it had not awakened to 
 the stir of improvement which had put all the rest of the world 
 in a bustle. Here reigned good, old long-forgotten fashions; 
 the men were in homespun garbs, evidently the product of their 
 owu farms and the manufacture of their own wives ; the women 
 were in primitive short gowns and petticoats, with the venerable 
 sun-bonnets of Holland origin. The lower part of the valley 
 was cut up into small farms, each consisting of a little meadow 
 and corn-field ; an orchard of sprawling, gnarled apple-trees, 
 and a garden, where the rose, the marigold, and the hollyhock 
 were permitted to skirt the domains of the capacious cabbage, 
 the aspiring pea, and the portly pumpkin. Each had its prolific 
 little mansion teeming with children ; with an old hat nailed 
 against the wall for the housekeeping wren ; a motherly hen, 
 under a coop on the grass-plot, clucking to keep around her a 
 brood of vagrant chickens ; a cool, stone well, with the moss- 
 covered bucket susi)ended to the long balancing-pole, according 
 to the antediluvian idea of hydraulics ; and its spinning-wheel 
 hununir.g within doors, the patriarchal music of home manufac- 
 ture. 
 
 The Hollow at that time was inhabited by families which 
 bad existed tl>"re from the earliest times, and which, by fre- 
 quent iutermarii.'ge, had become so interwoven, as to make a 
 kind of natural commonwealth. As the families had 
 larger lue farms had grown smaller; every new 
 requiring a new subdivision, and few thinking of 
 from the native hive. In this way that happy golden mean 
 had been produced, so much extolled by the poets, in which 
 there was no gold and very little silver. One thing which 
 doubtless contributed to keep up this amiable mean was a 
 general repugnance to sordid labor. The sage inhabitants of 
 Sleepy Hollow had read in their Bible, which was the only 
 l)ook they studied, that labor was originally inflicted upon man 
 as a punishment of sin ; they regarded it, therefore, with pious 
 abhorrence, and never humiliated themselves to it but in cases 
 of extremity. There seemed, in fact, to be a league and cove- 
 nant against it throughout the Hollow as against a common 
 
 grown 
 generation 
 swarming 
 
 i 
 
 I f ! 
 
26 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 *.i 
 
 I 'I 
 
 |;ii!:i 
 
 enemy. Was any one compelled by dire necessity to repair 
 his house, nv^nd his fences, build a barn, or get in a harvest, 
 he considered it a great evil that entitled him to call in the 
 assistance of his friends. He accordingly proclaimed a ' liee ' 
 or rustic gathering, whereupon all his neighbors hurried to his 
 aid like faithful allies ; attacked the task with the desperate 
 energy of lazy men eager to overcome a job ; and, when it 
 was accomplished, fell to eaiiupf and drinking, fiddling and 
 dancing for very joy that so great an amount of labor had 
 been vanquished with so little sweating of the brow. 
 
 Yet, let it. not be supposed that this worthy community was 
 with ut its periods of arduous activity. Let but a flock of wild 
 pigeons fly across the valley and all Sleepy Hollow was wide 
 awake in an instant. The pigeon season had arrived ! Every 
 gun and net was forthwith in requisition. The flail was throwu 
 down on the barn floor ; the spade rusted in the garden ; the 
 plough stootl idle in the furrow ; every one was to the liill-.side 
 and stubl)le-field at daybreak to shoot or entrap the pii^^eous iu 
 their periodical migrations. 
 
 So, likewise, let but the word be given that the shad were 
 ascending the Hudson, and the worthies of the Hollow wore to 
 be seen launched in boats uix)n the river setting great stakes, 
 and stretching their nets like gigantic spider-webs half across 
 the siream to the great annoyance of navigators. Such are the 
 wise provisions of Nature, by which she equalizes rural allairs. 
 A laggard at the plough is often extremely industrious with the 
 fowling-piece and fishing-net ; and, whenever a man is an indif- 
 ferent farmer, he is apt to be a first-rate sportsman. For catch- 
 ing shad and wild pigeons there were none throughout the 
 country to compare with the lads of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 As I have observed, it was the dreamy nature of the name 
 that first begu"'ed me in the holiday rovings of boyhood into 
 this sequestered region. I shunned, however, tl.te populous 
 parts of the Hollow, and sought its retired haunts far in ihe 
 foldings of the hills, where the I'ocauti j " winds its wizard 
 stream " sometimes silently and darkly through solemn wootl- 
 iauds ; sometimes sparkling between grassy borders in fresh, 
 green meadows ; sometimes stealing along the feet of rn-iiied 
 heights under the balancing sprays of beech and chestnut tri'es. 
 A thousand crystal springs, with which this neighborhood 
 abounds, sent down from the hill-sides their whimpering rills, 
 as if to pay tribute to the Pocantico. In this stream I first 
 essayed my unskilful hand at angling. I loved to loiter along 
 it with rod iu hand, watching my float us it wluiled amid the 
 
IBS. 
 
 SLEEP T HOLLOW. 
 
 2T 
 
 ty to repair 
 n a harvest 
 > call in the 
 nied a ' l)ee ' 
 urried to his 
 he desperate 
 n<^> wheu it 
 fiddling and 
 )f labor had 
 
 nmunity was 
 ock of wild 
 3w was wide 
 ed ! Every 
 was tin-own 
 garden; tlie 
 t'le liill-.side 
 • pii,^c'ous iu 
 
 e shad were 
 •How were to 
 ?reat stakes, 
 
 half aercss 
 Hit'h are the 
 niral affairs, 
 oils wit!i the 
 I is an indif. 
 
 For cateh- 
 Jughout the 
 
 >f the name 
 oyliood into 
 'G popnloiis 
 
 fur in the 
 ' its wizard 
 lenin wood- 
 's iu fresh, 
 
 of I'uggeii 
 itnut trees, 
 igliborliood 
 'cring rills, 
 'am I lirst 
 ^iter along 
 1 aiuid the 
 
 eddies or drifted into dark holes under twisted roots and 
 sunken logs, where the largest fish are apt to lurk. I de- 
 lighted to follow it into the brown recesses of the woods ; to 
 throw by my fishing-gear and sit upon rocks beneath towering 
 oaks and clanibering grape-vines; bathe my feet in the cool 
 current, and listen to the summer breeze playing among the 
 tiee-tops. My boyish fancy clothed all nature around me with 
 ideal charms, and peopled it with the fairy beings I had read 
 of in poetry and fable. Here it was I gave full scope to my 
 incipient habit of day-dreaming, and to a certain propensity, to 
 weave up and tint sober realities with my own whims and imagin- 
 ings, which has sometimes made life a little too much like an 
 Arabian tale to me, and this "working-day world " rather like 
 a region of romance. 
 
 The great gathering-place of Sleepy Hollow in those days 
 was the church. It stood outside of the Hollow, near the great 
 highway, on a green bank shaded by trees, with the Pocantico 
 sweeping round it and emptying itself into a spacious mill-pond. 
 At that time the Sleepy Hollow church was the only place of 
 worship for a wide neighborhood. It was a venerable edifice, 
 partly of stone and partly of brick, the l.'ter having been 
 brought from Holland in the early days of the province, before 
 the arts in the New Netherlands could aspire to such a fabrica- 
 tion. On a stone above the porch were inscribed the names of 
 the founders, Frederick Filipsen, a mighty patroon of the olden 
 time, who reigned over a wide extent of this neighborhood and 
 held his seat of power at Yonkers ; and his wife, Katrina Van 
 Courtlandt, of the no less potent line of the Van Courtlandts of 
 Croton, who lorded it over a great part of the Highlands. 
 
 The capacious pulpit, with its wide-spreading sounding-board, 
 were likewise early importations from Holland ; as also the 
 communion-table, of massive form and curious fabric. The 
 same might be said of a weather-cock perched on top of the 
 belfry, and which was considered orthodox in all windy mat- 
 ters, until a small pragmatical rival was set up on the other end 
 of the church above the chancel. This latter bore, and still 
 bears, the initials of Frederick Filipsen, and assumed great airs 
 in consequence. The usual contradiction ensued that always 
 exists among church woather-eocks, which can never be brought 
 to agree as to the point from which the wind blows, having 
 doubtless acquired, from their position, the Christian propen- 
 sity to Schism and controversy. 
 
 Behind the church, and sloping up a gentle acclivity, was its 
 capacious burying-grouud, in which slept the earliest fathers of 
 
 »-3 . 
 
 i- I 
 
 ■) < 
 
 ' ' f 
 
 i i : 
 
 ' 
 
28 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 m 
 
 I ) 
 
 f' 
 
 :■-/-, 
 
 t): 
 
 this rural neighborhood. Here were tombstones of the rudest 
 sculpture ; on which wer( inscribed, in Dutch, the names and 
 virtues of many of the first settlers, with their portraitures 
 curiously carved in similitude of cherubs. Long rows of grave- 
 stones, side by side, of similar names, but various dates, 
 showed that generation after generation of the same families 
 had followed each other and been garnered together in this last 
 gathering-place o'l kindred. 
 
 Let me speak of this quiet grave-yard with all due rever- 
 ence, for I owe it amends for the heedlessness of my boyish 
 days. I blush to acknowledge the thoughtless frolic with 
 which, in company with other whipsters, I have sported within 
 its sacred bounds during the intervals of worship ; chasing but- 
 terflies, plucking wild flowers, or vying with each other who 
 could leap over the tallest tomb-stones, until checked by t)ie 
 stern voice of the sexton. 
 
 The congregation was, in those days, of a really rural char- 
 acter. City faahions were as yei unknown, or unregarded, by 
 tht couutry people of the neighborhood. Steamboats had not 
 as yet confounded town with couutry. A weekly market-boat 
 from Tarrytown, the "Farmers' Daughter," navigated by the 
 worthy Gabriel Requa, was the only commuuicution between 
 all these parts and the metropolis. A rustic belle in *lijse days 
 considered a visit to the city in much the same light as one of 
 our modern fashionable ladies regards a visit to Europe ; an 
 event that may possibly take place once in the course of a life- 
 time, but to be hoped for, rather than expected. Hence the 
 array of the congregation was chiefly after the primitive fash- 
 ions existing in Sleepy Hollow ; or if, by chance, there was a 
 departure from the Dutch sun-bonnet, or the apparition of a 
 brig'it gown of flowered calico, it caused quite r- sensacion 
 throughout the church. As the dominie generally preached 
 by the hour, a bucket of water was providently placed on a 
 bencii near the door, in summer, with a tin cup beside it, for 
 the solace of those who might be athirst, either from the heat 
 of the weather, or the drought of the sermon. 
 
 Around the pulpit, and behind the communion-table, sat the 
 elders of the church, reverend, gray-headed, leathern-visaged 
 men, whom I regarded with awe, as so many apostles. They 
 were stern in their sanctity, kept a vigilant eye upon my gig- 
 gling companions and n\ ^elf, and shook a rebuking fingor at 
 any boyish device to relieve the tediousness of compulsory 
 devotion. Vain, however, were all their efforts at vigilance. 
 Scarcely bad the preacher held forth for half an houi*, on one 
 
 'ill 
 
TES. 
 
 SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 29 
 
 the rudest 
 
 names and 
 
 portraiturea 
 
 svs of grave- 
 ious dates, 
 
 me families 
 in this last 
 
 duo rever- 
 
 my boyish 
 
 frolic with 
 
 orted within 
 basing but- 
 other who 
 
 3ked by tlic 
 
 rural char- 
 
 egarded, by 
 
 !vts had not 
 
 market-boat 
 
 :ated by the 
 
 on between 
 
 1 *!;jse days 
 
 ^ as one of 
 
 Kurope; an 
 
 se of a lifC' 
 
 Hence the 
 initive fash- 
 there was a 
 urition of a 
 r- sensation 
 y preached 
 laced on a 
 iside it, for 
 m the heat 
 
 Jle, sat the 
 arn-visaged 
 les. They 
 3n my gig. 
 ; finger at 
 compulsory 
 vigilance. 
 lU', on one 
 
 of his interminable sermons, than it seemed as if the drowsy 
 influence of Sleepy Hollow breathed into the place ; one by one 
 the congregation sank into slumber ; the sanctified elders leaned 
 back in their pews, spreading their handkerchiefs over their 
 faces, as if to keep off the flies ; while the locusts in the neigh- 
 boring trees would spin out their sultry summer notes, as if in 
 imitation of the sleep-provoking tones of the dominie. 
 
 I have thus endeavored to give an idea of Sleepy Hollow and 
 its church, as I recollect them to have been in the days of my 
 boyhood. It was in my stripling days, when a few years had 
 passed over my head, that I revisited them, in co. ipany with 
 the venerable Diedrich. I shall never forget the antiquarian 
 reverence with which that sage and excellent man contem- 
 plated the church. It seemed as if all his pious enthusiasm for 
 the ancient Dutch dynasty swelled within his bosom at the 
 sight. The tears stood in his eyes, as he regarded the pulpit 
 and the communion-table ; even the very bricks that had come 
 from the mother country, seemed to touch a filial chord within 
 his bosom. He almost bowed in deference to the stone above 
 the porch, containing the names of Frederick Filipsen and 
 Katrina Van Courtlandt, regarding it as the linking together of 
 those patronymic names, once so famous along the banks of the 
 Hudson ; or rather as a keystone, binding that mighty Dutch 
 family connection of yore, one foot of which rested on Yonkers, 
 and the other on the Croton. Nor did he forbear to notice 
 with admiration, the windy contest which had been carried on, 
 since time immemorial, and with real Dutch perseverance, be- 
 tween the two weather-cocks ; though I could easily perceive he 
 coincided with the one which had come from Holland. 
 
 Together we paced the ample church-yard. With deep ven- 
 eration would he turn down the weeds and brambles that ob- 
 scured the modest brown grave-stones, half sunk in earth, on 
 which were recorded, in Dutch, the names of the patriarchs of 
 ancient days, the Ackers, the Van Tassels, and the Van Warts. 
 As we sat on one of the tomb-stones, he recounted to me the 
 exploits of many of these worthies ; and my heart smote me, 
 when I heard of their great doings in days of yore, to thlak 
 how heedlessly I had once sported over their graves. 
 
 From the church, the venerable Diedrich proceeded in his 
 researches up the Hollow. Tiie genius of the place seemed to 
 hail its future historian. All nature was alive with gratulation. 
 The quail whistled a greeting from the corn-field ; the robin 
 carolled a song of praise from the orchard ; the loquacious 
 catbird flew from bush to bush, with restless wing, proclaiming 
 
 J» " 
 
 i-ll' 
 
30 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 i^ li 
 
 J 
 
 '* ' i 
 
 M i 
 
 ;.)* 
 
 ( ; 
 
 his approach in every variety of note, and anon would wliisk 
 about, and perk inquisitively into his face, as if to get a knowl- 
 edge of his physiognomy ; the woodpecker, also, tapped a 
 tattoo on the hollow apple-tree, and then peered knowirif^ly 
 round the trunk, to see how the great Diedrich relished liis salu- 
 tation ; while the ground-squirrel scampered along the fence, unci 
 occasionally whisked his tail over his head, by way of !i hnzKa! 
 
 The worthy Diedrich pursued his researches in the valley 
 with characteristic devotion ; entering familiarly into the vari- 
 ous cottages, and gossiping with the simple folk, in the style 
 of their own simplicity. I confess my heart yearned with 
 admiration, to see so great a man, in his eager quest after 
 knowledge, humbly demeaning himself to curry favor with the 
 humblest ; sitting patiently on a three-legged stool, patting the 
 children, and taking a purring grimalkin on his lap, while he 
 conciliated the good-will of the old Dutch housewife, and drew 
 from her long ghost stories, spun out to the humming accom- 
 paniment of her wheel. 
 
 His greatest treasure of historic lore, however, was dis- 
 covered in an old goblin-looking mill, situated among rocks and 
 waterfalls, with clanking wheels, and rushing streams, and all 
 kinds of uncouth noises. A horse-shoe, nailed to the door to 
 keep off witches and evil spirits, showed that this mill was 
 subject to 0wful visitations. As we approached it, an old negro 
 thrust his head, all dabbled with flour, out of a hole above tlie 
 water-wheel, and grinned, and rolled his eyes, and looked like 
 the very hobgoblin of the place. The illust'-ious Diedrich fixed 
 upon him, at once, as the very one to give him that invaluable 
 kind of information never to be acquired from l)ooks. lie 
 beckoned him from his nest, sat with him by the hour on a 
 broken mill-stone, by the side of the waterfall, heedless of the 
 noise of the water, and the clatter of the mill ; and I verily 
 believe it was to his conference with this African sage, and the 
 precious revelations of the good dame of the spinning-wheel, 
 that we are indebted for the surprising though true history of 
 Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman, which has since 
 astounded and edified the world. 
 
 But I have said enough of the good old times of my youthful 
 days ; let me speak of the Hollow as I found it, after an ab- 
 sence of many years, when it was kindly given me once more 
 to revisit the haunts of my boyhood. It was a genial day, as I 
 approached that fated region. The warm sunshine was tem- 
 pered by a slight haze, so as to give a dreamy effect to the 
 landscape. Not a breath of air shook the foliage. The broad 
 
 wren 
 
 !i!> 
 
fould whisk 
 p a knowl- 
 
 knowirifrlv 
 Ins sal 11- 
 
 ffinw, and 
 |f •<• iiuzza ! 
 
 tlio vallo^/ 
 |o the vari- 
 1» the stylo 
 irnod with 
 luost after 
 '1- with the 
 xattino; the 
 h while he 
 
 and drew 
 »g accoin- 
 
 was dis- 
 rocks and 
 IS, and all 
 le (l(X)r to 
 1 niill was 
 ' old negro 
 a))ove the 
 ookcd like 
 Irich fixed 
 invaluable 
 3oks. He 
 liour on a 
 ess of the 
 I I verily 
 N and the 
 n,i^-whe('I, 
 history of 
 has since 
 
 ' youthful 
 T an ah- 
 nee more 
 day, as I 
 WHS teln- 
 et to tlie 
 he broad 
 
 SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 31 
 
 Tappaan Sea was without a ripple, and the sloops, with droop- 
 ing sails, slept on its glassy bosom. Columns of smoke, from 
 burning brushwood, rose lazily from the folds of the hills, on 
 the opposite side of the river, and slowly expanded in mid-air. 
 The distant Vowing of a cow, or the noontide crowing of a cock, 
 coming faintly to the ear, seemed to illustrate, rather than dis- 
 turb, the drowsy quiet of the scene. 
 
 I entered the hollow with a beating heart. Contrary to my 
 apprehensions, I found it but little changed. The march of 
 intellect, which had made such rapid strides along every river 
 and highway, had not yet, "nparently, turned down into this 
 favored valley. Perhaps the izard spell of ancient days still 
 reigned over the plac^, binding up the faculties of the inhab- 
 itants in happy contentment with things as they had been 
 handed down to them from yore. There were the same little 
 farms and farmhouses, with their old hats for the housekeeping 
 wren ; their stone wells, moss-covered buckets and long balan- 
 cing poles. There were the same little rills, whimpering down 
 to pay their tributes to the Pocantico ; while that wizard stream 
 still kept on its course, as of old, through solemn woodlands 
 and fresh green meadows : nor were there wanting joyous holi- 
 day boys to loiter along its banks, as I have done ; throw 
 their pinhooks in the stream, or launch their mimic barks. I 
 watched them with a kind of melancholy pleasure, wondering 
 whether they were under the same spell of the fancy that once 
 rendered this valley a fairy land to me. Alas ! alas ! to me 
 every thing now stood revealed in its simple reality. The 
 echoes no longer answered with wizard tongues ; the dream of 
 youth was at an end ; the spell of Sleepy Hollow was broken ! 
 
 I sought the ancient church on the following Sunday. There 
 it stood, on its green bank, among the trees ; the Pocantico 
 swept by it in a deep dark stream, where I had so often 
 angled ; there expanded the mill-pond, as of old, with the cows 
 under the willows on the margin, knee-deep in water, chewing 
 the cud, and lashing the flies from their sides with their tails. 
 The hand of improvement, however, had been busy with the 
 venerable pile. The pulpit, fabricated in Holland, had been 
 superseded by one of modern construction, and the front of the 
 semi-Gothic edifice was decorated by a semi-Grecian portico. 
 l"\)rtunately, the two weather-cocks remained undisturl)ed on 
 liu'ir perches at each end of the church, and still kept up a dia- 
 metrical opposition to each other on all points of windy doctrine. 
 
 On entering the church the changes of time continued to be 
 apparent The elders round the pulpit were men whom 1 had 
 
82 
 
 WOLFERT'S BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 i» t '. 
 
 A i 
 
 i 1 
 
 left in the gamesome frolic of their youth, but who had sue- 
 ceeded to the sanctity of station of which they once had stood 
 so much in awe. What most struck my eye was the change in 
 the female part of the congregation. Instead of the primitive 
 garbs of homespun manufacture and antique Dutch fashiou, I 
 beheld French sleeves, French capes, and French collars, ami a 
 fearful fluttering of French ribbons. 
 
 When the service was ended I sought the church-yard, in 
 which I had sported in my unthinking days of boyhood. Sev- 
 eral of the modest brown stones, on which were recorded in 
 Dutch the names and virtues of the patriarchs, had disappeared, 
 and had been succeeded by others of white niarlile, with urns 
 and wreaths, and scraps of English tomb-stone poetry, jnurliing 
 the intrusion of taste and literature and the English lauguago in 
 this once unsophisticated Dutch neighborhood. 
 
 As I stumbled about among these silent yet eloquent memo- 
 rials of the dead, I came upon names familiar to me ; of those 
 who had paid the debt of nature during the long interval of my 
 absence. Some, 1 remembered, my companions in boyliood, 
 who had sported with me on the very sod under which they 
 were now mouldering ; others who in those days had boiui the 
 flower of the yeomanry, figuring in Sunday finery on tiie cluirch 
 green; others, the white-haired elders of the sanctuary, onre 
 arrayed in awful sanctity around the pulpit, and ever ready to 
 rebuke the ill-timed mirtii of the wanton stripling who, now 
 a man, sobered by yeaia ;ind schooled by vicissitudes, looked 
 down pensively upon their graves. "Our fathers," thought 1, 
 *' where are they ! — and the prophets, can they live forever! " 
 
 I was disturbed in my meditations l)y the noise of a troop of 
 idle urchins, who came gambolling about the place where I had 
 80 often gambolled. They were checked, as I and my play- 
 mates had often been, by the voice of the sexton, a man staid 
 in yearfi and demeanor. I lookeil wistfully in his face ; if I had 
 met him anywhere else, I should probably have passed him 
 by without remark ; but here I was alive to the traces of for- 
 mer times, and detected in the demure features of this guardian 
 of the sanctuary the lurking lineaments of one of the very play- 
 mates I have alluded to. We renewed our acquaintance, lie 
 sat down beside me, on one of the tomb-stones over which we 
 had leaped in our juvenile sports, and we talked together al)out 
 our boyish days, and held edifying discourse on the instability 
 of all sublunary things, as instanced in the scene around us. 
 He was rich in historic lore, as to the events of the last thirty 
 years and the circumference of thirty miles, and from him I 
 
 :i 
 
SLEEPY nOLLOW. 
 
 88 
 
 had sue. 
 had stood 
 change in 
 
 primitive 
 fasliiou, I 
 ills, and a 
 
 •-yard, in 
 >od. Sev- 
 'cordt'd in 
 sappcarod, 
 with urns 
 markin" 
 uguage in 
 
 !nt mcmo- 
 ; of those 
 val of my 
 
 boyhood, 
 diic'h they 
 
 ')coi) the 
 Liie church 
 lai-y, oiu-e 
 r ready to 
 who, now 
 t's, Uxjked 
 -liought I, 
 forever I " 
 i troop of 
 icro I had 
 my play- 
 nmn staid 
 ; if I had 
 Lssed him 
 es of for- 
 1 guardian 
 VGvy phiy- 
 uce. lie 
 which we 
 her about 
 instability 
 round us. 
 ast thirty 
 )m him 1 
 
 learned the appalling revolution that was taking place through- 
 out the neighborhood. All this I clearly perceived he attributed 
 to the boasted march of intellect, or rather to the all-pervading 
 influence of steam. He bewailed the times when the only 
 communication with town was by the weekly market-l)oat, the 
 *' Farmers' Daughter," which, under the pilotage of the worthy 
 Gabriel Requa, braved the perils of the Tappaan Sea. Alas ! 
 Gabriel and the "Farmers' Daughter" slept in peace. Two 
 steamboats now splashed and paddled up daily to the little rural 
 port of Tarrytown. The spirit of speculation and improvement 
 had seized even upon that once quiet and unambitious little 
 dorp. The whole neighborhood was laid out into town lots. 
 Instead of the little tavern below the hill, where the farmers 
 used to loiter on market days and indulge in cider and ginger- 
 bread, an ambitious hotel, with cupola and verandas, now 
 v'rested the summit, among churches built in the Cirecian and 
 Gothic styles, showing the great increase of piety and polite 
 taste in the neighborhood. As to Dutch dresses and sun-bon- 
 nets, they were no longer tolerated, or even thought of ; not 
 a farmer's daughter but now went to town for the fashions ; 
 nay, a city milliner had recently set up in the village, who 
 thrf aliened to reform the heads of the whole neighborhood. 
 
 1 hud heard enough ! I thanked my old playmate for his 
 intelligence, and departed from the Sleepy Hollow church with 
 the sad conviction that I had beheld the last lingerings of the 
 good old Dutch times in this once favored region. If any thing 
 were wanting to confirm this impression, it would be the intel- 
 ligence which has just reached me, that a bank is about to be 
 established in the aspiring little port just mentioned. The fate 
 of the neighborhood is therefore sealed. I see no hope of 
 averting it. The golden mean is at an end. The country is 
 suddenly to be deluged with wealth. The late simple farmers 
 are to become bank directors and drink claret and champagne ; 
 and their wives and daughters to figure in French hats and 
 feathers ; for French wines and French fashions commonly keep 
 pace with paper money. How can I hope that even Sleepy 
 Hollow can escape the general inundation ? In a little while, I 
 fear the slumber of ages will be at an end ; the strum of the piano 
 will succeed to the hun* of the spinning-wheel ; the trill of the 
 Italian opera to the nasal quaver of Ichabod Crane ; and the 
 antiquarian visitor to the Hollow, in the petulance of his disap- 
 pointment, may pronounce all that 1 have recorded of that once 
 favored region a fable. GEOFFliEY CKAYON. 
 
 di 
 
34 
 
 WOLFEBT'S BOOST AND MlUCELLANIES. 
 
 THE BIRDS OF SPRING. 
 
 BT GEOFFUET CRAYON, GENT. 
 
 
 in 
 
 
 E I 
 
 Mt quiet resulence in tlie country, aloof lorn fasliion, poll, 
 tics, and the money market, leaves me rathei at a loss for im- 
 portant occupation, and drives me to the study of natun.'. uikI 
 other low pursuits. Having few neighbors, also, on whom to 
 keep a watch, and exercise my habits of observation, 1 tun fiUn 
 to amuse myself with prying into the domestic eonccnis and 
 peculiarities of the animals around me ; and, during i\w prL'si-iu 
 season, have derived considerable entertainment from ccrUiin 
 sociable 'ittle birds, almost the only visitors we have, during this 
 early part of the year. 
 
 Those who have passed the winter in the country, are sensihle 
 of the delightful influences that accompany the earliest iiKlica- 
 tions of spring ; and of these, none are more delightful tliiui tlu 
 first notes of the birds. There is one modest little sad-colort'd 
 bird, much resembling a wren, which came about the house just 
 on the skirts of winter, when not a blade of grass was to he' 
 seen, and when a few prematurely warm days had given a llat- 
 tering foretaste of soft weather. He sang early in tlie dawnin;!;, 
 long before sunrise, and late in the evening, just before tlie 
 closing in of night, his matin and his vesper hymns. It is tiiu.', 
 he sang occasionally throughout the day ; but at these still 
 hours, his song was more remarked. He sat on a leatlfss tree, 
 just before the window, and warbled forth his notes, free and 
 simple, but singularly sweet, with something of a [)laiutive 
 tone, that heightened their effect. 
 
 The first morning that he was heard, was a joyous one anions 
 the young folks of my household. The long, death-like slccj) 
 of winter was at an end ; nature was once more awakenin<i; 
 they now promised themselves the immediate appearance of 
 buds and blossoms. I was reminded of the tempest-tossed cti'w 
 of Columbus, when, after their h ■_ ''i])ious voyage, the Held 
 birds came singing round the siii^ ugh still far at sea, 
 
 rejoicing them with the belief of the immediate proximity of 
 land. A sharp return of winter almost silenced my littk' son^'- 
 ster, and dashed the hilarity of the household ; yet still \w 
 l)oured forth, now and then, a few plaintive notes, lictwecii llic 
 frosty pipings of the breeze, like gleams of sunshine butweeu 
 wintry clouds. 
 
ishioii, poll. 
 OSS for iui- 
 iiiituro. and 
 on whom to 
 n> I tmi t'liin 
 Jiu'cnis mill 
 tlie prcsi'iil 
 oin C'cilaiii 
 , during this 
 
 are soiiHil)h> 
 
 liost iiidica- 
 
 -ful th;ui tii( 
 
 Siul-colorcd 
 
 e house! just 
 
 IS was to he 
 
 Siven a llal- 
 
 lie (hiwuin;:, 
 
 t bi'foie tlie 
 
 It is truo, 
 
 t tlicsc still 
 
 [(.'iith'ss tree, 
 
 OS, free and 
 
 a phiiutive 
 
 s one anioii;^ 
 Lh-lii^e sU'cp 
 iiwakeninji' ; 
 [)earanco of 
 -tossed erew 
 <j;e, the lield 
 far at sea, 
 troxiniity oi 
 ' little son<4- 
 yet still iic 
 K'tweeii the 
 iue between 
 
 THE BIRDS OF SPRING. 86 
 
 I have consulted my book of ornithology in vain, to find out 
 the name of this kindly little bird, who certainly deserves lioiior 
 and favor far beyond his modest pretensions. lie comes like tht; 
 lowly violet, the most unpretendinsjf, but welcomest of flowers, 
 breathing the sweet promise of the early year. 
 
 Another of our feathered visitors, who follows close upon the 
 steps of winter, is the Pe-wit, or Pe-wee, or Pha>be-bird ; for 
 he is called by each of these names, from a fancied resemblance 
 to the sound of his monotonous note. He is a sociable little 
 being, and seeks the habitation of man. A pair of them have 
 built beneath my porch, and have reared several broods there 
 for two years past, their nest being never disturbed. They 
 arrive early in the spring, just when the crocus and the snow- 
 drop begin to peep forth. Their first chirp spreads gladness 
 through the house. "The Phoebe-birds have come!" is heard 
 on all sides ; they are welcomed back like members of the 
 family, and speculations are made upon where they have been, 
 and what countries they have seen during their long absence. 
 Their arrival is the more cheering, as it is pronounced, by the 
 old weather-wise people of the country, the sure sign that the 
 severe frosts are at an end, and that the gardener may resume 
 his labors with confidence. 
 
 About this time, too, arrives the Bluebird, so poetically yet 
 truly described by Wilson. His appearance gladdens the whole 
 landscape. You hear his soft warble in every field. He sociably 
 approaches your habitation, and takes up his residence in your 
 vicinity. But why should I attempt to describe him, when I 
 have Wilson's own graphic verses to place him before the 
 reader ? 
 
 When winter's cold tempcBts and snows are no more, 
 
 Orucn moadowH and brown furrowed flelda reappearing : 
 The litihurineii hauling their shad to the shore, 
 
 And cloud-cluaving geese to the lalies are a-steering; 
 When tirHt the lone butterfiy flits on the wing, 
 
 When red glow the maples, so fresh and so pleasing, 
 O then comes tlie Bluebird, the herald of spring, 
 
 And hails with his warblinga the charms of the seasou. 
 
 The loud-piping frogs make the raarsbes to ring; 
 
 Then warm glows the sunshine, and warm glows the weather; 
 The blue woodland llowers jiint beginning to spring. 
 
 And spice- wood and sassafras budding together; 
 O then to your gardens, ye housewives, repair. 
 
 Your wallts border up, sow and plant at your leisure; 
 The niuebird will cbaiit t'roiu his box such an air, 
 
 That allyour hard loiU will seeiu truly- a pleasurel 
 
 
 I 
 
 m 
 
 
 ^:k 
 
WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANlSa. 
 
 h\ i \ ■}. 
 
 ! I 
 
 He HitH throiiKb thn orcbkrd, he vIhIU each tree, 
 
 Thu red lluworint; peach, and the applo'i iweet bloMomi; 
 He minpH up (k'«troyiTf<, wherever they be, 
 
 And HeizeH the cultifTN that hirk in their bosoma; 
 He druKH the vile grub f rum the corn It devuura, 
 
 The wu niH frum the weba where they riot and welUr; 
 nu gong and hlH gervlceH freely are ourH, 
 
 And all thitl he ohIch la, lu aummcr a ahelter. 
 
 The plotiRhnian Is pleased when be gleam* in hU train, 
 
 Now searching the furrowH, now mounting to cheer htm; 
 The gitrd'ner delightH In hU Hweet Himpio Htraln, 
 
 And leanK on his Hpudo to survey and to hear him. 
 The Blow lingering Hchool-boyg forget they'll be chid, 
 
 While Kuzing Intent, uh he warbles before them, 
 In mantle of sky-blue, and bosom so red. 
 
 That each little loiterer seems to adore bim. 
 
 The liap[)iost bird of our spring, however, and one that rivals 
 the Kuropt'iin hirlv, in my estimation, is tiie Bobolincon, or HoIm)- 
 link, as hti is commonly called. He arrives at that choice por- 
 tion of our year, which, in this latitude, ans\,ers to the descrip- 
 tion of tlie month of May, so often given by '•" poets. With 
 us, it begins about the middle of May, and lasts until nearly 
 the middle of June. Earlier than this, winter is apt to return 
 on its traces, and to blight the opening beauties of the year; 
 and later than this, begin the parching, and panting, and dis- 
 solving heats of summer. But in this genial interval, nature is 
 iu all her fivshness and fragrance: "the rains are over and 
 gone, the flowers appear upon the earth, the time of the sing- 
 ing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the 
 land." The trees are now in tlieir fullest foliage and bright- 
 est verdure ; the woods are gay with the clustered flowers of 
 the laurel ; ti.e air is perfumed by the sweet-briar and the wiKi 
 rose ; the meadows are enamelled with clover-blossoms ; while 
 the young apple, the peach, and the plum, begin to swell, and 
 the cherry to glow, among the green leaves. 
 
 This is the chosen season of revelry of the Bobolink. He 
 comes amidst the pomp and fragrance of the season ; his life 
 seems all sensibility and enjoyment, all song and sunshine. 
 He is found in the soft bosoms of the freshest and sweetest 
 meadows ; and is most in song when the clover is in blossom. 
 He [)erches on the topmost twig of a tree, or on some long 
 flaunting weed, and as he rises and sinks with the breeze, pours 
 forth a succession of rich tinkling notes ; crowding one upon 
 another, like the outpouring melody of the skylark, and pos- 
 sessing the same rapturous character. Sometimes he pitches 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
THE BIRDS OF SPRING. 
 
 87 
 
 that rivals 
 'i or Hol)()- 
 
 lioice por- 
 le (lescrip- 
 ?ts. With 
 ntil ueariy 
 • to return 
 
 tlie year; 
 ',■, and dis- 
 , nature is 
 
 over and 
 
 the sino;- 
 'ard in the 
 nd brigiit- 
 (lowers of 
 d the \vil(i 
 ins ; while 
 swell, and 
 
 link. He 
 
 I ; his life 
 
 sunshiue, 
 
 I sweetest 
 
 blossom, 
 lome long 
 2ze, pours 
 one upon 
 
 and pos- 
 le pitcbes 
 
 i 
 
 from the summit of a tree, begins his song as soon as be gets 
 upon the wing, and tlutters tremulously down to the earth, as 
 if overcome with ecstasy at his own music. Sometimes he is 
 in pursuit of his paramour ; always in full song, as if he would 
 win her by his melody ; and always with the same appearance 
 of intoxication and delight. 
 
 Of all the birds of our groves and meadows, the Bobolink was 
 the envy of my boyhood. He crossed my path in the sweetest 
 weather, and the sweetest season of the year, when all nature 
 called to the fields, and the rural feeling throbbed in every 
 bosom ; but when I, luckless urchin ! was doomed to be mewed 
 ui), during the livelong day, in that purgatory of boyaood, a 
 school-room. It seemed as if the little varlet mocked at me, as 
 he Uew by in full song, and sought to taunt me with his happier 
 lot. Oh, how 1 envied him ! No lesson, no tasks, no Uateful 
 school ; nothing but holiday, frolic, green fields, and flue weather. 
 Had I been then more versed in poetry, 1 might have addressed 
 him in the words of Logan to the Cuckoo : 
 
 Bweel bird! thy bower la ever green, 
 
 Thy Hky Is ever clear; 
 Thou bast no Borrow iu thy note, 
 
 No winter Id thy year. 
 
 Oh! could I fly, I'd fly with thee; 
 
 We'd luaku, on joyful wing, 
 Our annual vUit round the globe, 
 
 ConipanioDH of the Hpring! 
 
 Farther observation and experience have given me a different 
 idea of this little feathered voluptuary, which I will venture to 
 impart, for the benefit of my schoolboy readers, who may 
 regard him with the same unqualified envy and admiration which 
 I once indulged. 1 have shown him only as I saw him at first, 
 in what I may call the poetical part of his career, when he in a 
 manner devoted himself to elegant pursuits and enjoyments, 
 and was a bird of music, and song, and taste, and sensibility, 
 and refinement. While this lasted, he was sacred from injury ; 
 the very schoolboy would not fling a stoue at him, and the 
 merest rustic would pause to listen to his strain. But mark the 
 differeuce. As tLj year advances, as the clover-blossoms disap- 
 pear, and the spring fades into summer, his notes cease to 
 vibrate on the ear. He gradually gives up his elegant tastes 
 and habits, doffs his poetical and professional suit of black, 
 assumes a russet or rather dusty garb, and enters into the gross 
 
 '.: 
 
 |:( 
 
 
38 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 m \i 
 
 \Mi» 
 
 |,^? 
 
 enjoyments of common, vulgar birds. He becomes a bon« 
 vivant, a mere gourmand ; thinking of nothing but good cheer, 
 and gormandizing on the seeds of the long grasses on which ! 
 lately swung and chanted so musically. He begins to tliink 
 there is nothing like "the joys of the table," if I may be 
 allowed to apply that convivial phrase to his indulgences. He 
 now grows discontented with plain, every-day fare, and sots 
 out ou a gastronomical tour, in search of foreign luxuries. He 
 is to be found in myriads among the reeds of the Delaware, 
 banqueting on their seeds ; grows corpulent with good feeding, 
 and soon acquires the unlucky renown of the Ortolan. Wliere- 
 ever he goes, pop ! pop ! pop ! the rusty firelocks of the country 
 are cracking on every side ; he sees his companions falling by 
 thousands around him ; he is the Reed-bird^ the much-souglit- 
 tor tidbit of the Pennsylvanian epicure. 
 
 Does he take warning and reform ? Not he ! He wings his 
 flight still farther south, in search of other luxuries. We hear 
 of him gorging himself in the rice swamps ; filling himself with 
 rice almost to bursting ; he can hardly fly for corpulency. 
 Last stage of his career, we hear of him spitted by dozens, and 
 served up on the table of the gourmand, the most vaunted of 
 southern dainties, the Rice-hird of the Carolinas. 
 
 Such is the story of the once musical and admired, but finally 
 sensual and persecuted Bobolink. It contains a moral, worthy 
 the attention of all little birds and little boys ; warning them to 
 keep to those refined and intellectual pursuits, which raised him 
 to so high a pitch of popularity, during the early part of his 
 career ; but to eschew all tendency to that gross and dissipated 
 indulgence, which brought this mistaken little bird to an untimely 
 end. 
 
 Which is all at present, from the well wisher of little boys 
 and little birds, 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ALHAMBRA. 
 
 i i 
 
 BY THE AUTHOB OP THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 During a summer's residence in the old Moorish palace of the 
 Alhambra, of whicli I have already given numerous anecdotes 
 to the public, I used to pass much of my time in the beautiful 
 hall of tlie Abencerrages, beside the fountain celebrated in the 
 
 T- .V ;-=,- ^ »--»- 'f ■ y~! \(..^k>.«> w , 
 
 -'♦•■-I* ^-'»ptf*>r. -i^j ' "*' * "►^ 
 
IE8. 
 
 Ties a bon. 
 
 good cheer, 
 on which ! 
 ins to think 
 I may l)e 
 fences. He 
 re, and sets 
 xuries. He 
 e Delaware, 
 )od feeding, 
 lu. Wliere- 
 
 the country 
 s falling by 
 mch-souglit- 
 
 le wings his 
 3. We hear 
 himself with 
 corpulency, 
 dozens, and 
 t vaunted of 
 
 i, but finally 
 oral, worthy 
 Ding them to 
 h raised liiin 
 r part of his 
 id dissipated 
 I an untimely 
 
 f little boys 
 Y CRAYON. 
 
 RA. 
 
 palace of the 
 us anecdotes 
 ;he beautiful 
 irated in the 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE ALHAMBRA. 
 
 39 
 
 tragic story of that devoted race. Here it was, that thirty-six 
 cavaliers of that heroic line were treacherously sacrificed, to 
 appease the jealousy or allay the fears of a tyrant. The foun- 
 tain which now throws up its sparkling jet, and sheds a dewy 
 freshness around, ran red with the noblest blood of Granada, 
 and a deep stain on the marble pavement is still pointed out, by 
 the cicerones of the pile, as a sanguinary record of the massacre. 
 1 have regarded it with the same determined faith with which I 
 have regarded the traditional stains of Rizzio's blood on the 
 floor of the chamber of the unfortunate Mary, at Holyrood. I 
 thank no one for endeavoring to enlighten my credulity, on such 
 points of popular belief. It is like breaking up the shrine of 
 the pilgrim ; it is robbing a poor traveller of half the reward 
 of his toils ; for, strip travelling of its historical illusions, and 
 what a mere fag you make of it ! 
 
 For my part, 1 gave myself up, during my sojourn in the 
 Alhambra, to all the romantic and fab<ilous traditions connected 
 \nth the pile. I lived in the midst of an Arabian tale, and shut 
 my eyes, as much as possible, to every thing that called me back 
 to every-day life ; and if there is any country in Europe where 
 one can do so, it is in poor, wild, legendary, proud-spirited, 
 romantic Spain ; where the old magnificent barbaric spirit still 
 contends against the utilitarianism of modern civilization. 
 
 In the silent and deserted halls of the Alhambra ; surrounded 
 with the insignia of regal sway, and the still vivid, though dilapi- 
 dated traces of oriental voluptuousness, I was in the stronghold 
 of Moorish story, and every thing spoke and breathed of the 
 glorious days of Granada, when under the dominion of the cres- 
 cent. When I sat in the hall of the Abencerrages, I suffered 
 my mind to conjure up all that I had read of that illustrious 
 line. In the proudest days of Moslem domination, the Aben- 
 cerrages were the soul of every thing noble and chivalrous. 
 The veterans of the family, who sat in the royal co'mcil, were 
 the foremost to devise those heroic enterprises, which carried 
 dismay into the territories of the Christians ; and what the sages 
 of the family devised, the young men of the name were the 
 foremost to execute. In all services of hazard ; in all adven- 
 turous forays, and hair-breadth hazards ; the Abencerrages were 
 sure to win the brightest laurels. In those noble recreations, 
 too, which bear so close an affinity to war ; in the tilt and tour- 
 ney, the riding at the ring, and the daring bull-fight ; still the 
 Abencerrages carried off the palm. None could equal them for 
 the splendor of their array, the gallantry of their devices ; 
 tlioir nnh\p bp.<inn(r. and srlorious horsemanship. Their o 
 
 for 
 open 
 
 .' ■}• 
 
 W 
 
 W 
 
40 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 / 
 
 m 
 
 handed munificence made them the idols of the populace, while 
 their lofty magnanimity, and perfect faith, gained them golden 
 opinions from the generous and high-minded. Never were they 
 known to decry tlie merits of a rival, or to betray the confidiims 
 
 of a friend ; and the " word of an Abencerrage 
 
 was a guar- 
 
 anty that never admitted of a doubt. 
 
 And then their devotion to the fair ! Never did ISIoorish 
 beauty consider the fame of lier charms established, until she 
 had an Abencerrage for a lover ; and never did an Abeuccrra'Te 
 prove recreant to his vows. Lovely Granada ! City of delights I 
 Who ever bore the favors of thy dames more proudly on their 
 casques, or championed them more gallantly in the chivalrous 
 tilts of the Vivarambla? Or who ever made thy moonlit 
 balconies, thy gardens of myrtles and roses, of oranges, citrons, 
 and pomegranates, respond to more tender serenades ? 
 
 I speak with enthusiasm on this theme ; for it is connected 
 with the recollection of one of the sweetest evenings and 
 sweetest scenes that ever I enjoyed in Spain. One of the 
 greatest pleasures of the Spaniards is, to sit in the beautiful 
 summer evenings, and listen to traditional ballads, and tales 
 about the wars of the Moors and Christians, and the " bueuas 
 andanzas " and " grandes hechos," the "good fortunes" and 
 " great exploits " of the hardy warriors of yore. It is worthy 
 of remark, also, that many of these songs, or romances, as they 
 are called, celebrate the prowess and magnanimity in war, ami 
 the tenderness and fidelity in love, of the Moorish cavaliers, 
 once their most formidable and hated foes. But centuries have 
 elapsed, to extinguish the bigotry of the zealot ; and the once 
 detested warriors of Granada are now hold up by Spanish 
 poets, as the mirrors of chivalric virtue. 
 
 Such was the amusement of the evening in question. A 
 number of us were seated in the Hall of the Abencerragcs, 
 listening to one of the most gifted and fascinating })eiugs that I 
 had ever met with in my wanderings. She was young and 
 beautiful ; and light and ethereal ; full of fire, and spirit, and 
 pure enthusiasm. She wore the fanciful Andalusian dress ; 
 touched the guitar witli speaking eloquence ; improvised with 
 wonderful facility ; and, as she became excited by her theme, 
 or by the rapt attention of her auditors, would pour forth, in 
 the richest and most melodious strains, a succession of couplets, 
 full of striking description, or stirring narration, and composed, 
 as I was assured, at the moment. Most of these were suff^ested 
 by the place, and related to the ancient glories of Graiiad.., 
 and the prowess of her chivalry. The Abencerragcs were lier 
 
ES. 
 
 ilace, while 
 bem gokltMi 
 r were they 
 i confidinixs 
 svas a giiur- 
 
 kl Moorish 
 d, until siie 
 Lbencerrage 
 )f delights ! 
 lly on thoir 
 chivalrous 
 hy moonlit 
 ;es, citrons, 
 I? 
 
 1 connected 
 snings and 
 )ne of the 
 le beautiful 
 , and tales 
 le " l)uena3 
 uues " and 
 [t is wortiiy 
 :'es, as they 
 in war. and 
 1 cavaliers, 
 turies have 
 id the once 
 •y Spanish 
 
 estion. A 
 cncerrages, 
 iugs that I 
 young and 
 spirit, and 
 ian dress ; 
 >vised with 
 her theme, 
 ir forth, in 
 )f couplets, 
 composed, 
 I suggested 
 (jranad.i, 
 s were Ikt 
 
 THE ABENCERBAGE. 
 
 41 
 
 favorite heroes ; she felt a woman's admiration of their gallant 
 courtesy, and high-souled honor ; and it was touching and in- 
 spiring to hear the praises of that generous but devoted race, 
 chanted in this fated hall of their calamity, by the lips of 
 Spanish beauty. 
 
 Among the subjects of which she trented, was a tale of Mos- 
 lem honor, and old-fashioned Spanish courtesy, which made a 
 strong impression on me. She disclaimed all merit of inven- 
 tion, however, and said she liad merely dilated into verse a 
 popular tradition ; and, indeed, I have since found the main 
 facts inserted at the end of Conde's History of the Domination 
 of the Arabs, and the story itself embodied in the form of an 
 episode in the Diana of Montemayor. From these sources I 
 have drawn it forth, and endeavored to shape it according to 
 my recollection of the version of the beautiful minstrel ; but, 
 alas ! what can supply the want of that voice, that look, that 
 form, that action, which gave magical effect to her chant, and 
 held every one rapt in lireathless admiration ! Should this 
 mere traves^^y of her inspired numbers ever meet her eye, in 
 her stately bode at Granada, may it meet with that indul- 
 gence which belongs to her benignant nature. Happy should 
 I be, if it could awaken in her bosom one kind recollection of 
 the lonely stranger and sojourner, for whose gratification she 
 did not think it beneath her to exert those fascinating powers 
 which were the delight of brilliant circles ; and who will ever 
 recall wit'.: enthusiasm the happy evening passed in listening 
 to her strains, in the moonlit halls of the Alhambra. 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON, 
 
 THE ABENCERRAGE. 
 
 A SPANISH TALE. 
 
 On the summit of a craggy hill, a spur of the mountains of 
 Rouda, stands the castle of AUora, now a mere ruin, infested 
 by bats and owlets, but in old times one of the strong border 
 holds of the Christians, to keep watch upon the frontiers of the 
 warlike kingdom of Granada, and to hold the Moors in check. 
 It was a post always confided to some well-tried commander ; 
 and, at the time of which we treat, was held by Rodrigo de 
 Narvaez, a veteran, famed, both among Moors and Christians, 
 not only for his hardy feats of arms, but also for that magnani- 
 
 1 ^ 
 
42 
 
 WOLFEBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 '\ T 
 
 !! 
 
 , 1.' 
 
 inous courtesy wliich should ever be intwined with the sterner 
 virtues of the soldier. 
 
 The castle of Allora was a mere part of his command ; he was 
 Alcayde, or military governor of Antiquora, Imt he passed most 
 of his time at this frontier post, because its situaiion on t!ie 
 borders gave more frequent opportunity for those adventurous 
 exploits which were the delight of the Spanish clnvalry. Mis 
 garrison consisted of fifty chosen cavaliers, all well mounloil 
 and well appointed : with these he kept vigilant watch upon 
 the Moslems ; patrolling the roads, and paths, and defiles of 
 the mountains, so that nothing could escape his eye ; and now 
 and then signalizing himself by some dashing foray into llic 
 very Vega of Granada. 
 
 On a fair and beautiful night in summer, when the freshness 
 of the evening breeze had tempered the heat of day, ilu; 
 worthy Alcayde sallied forth, with nine of his cavaliers, to 
 patrol the neighborhood, and seek adventures. They roiU' 
 quietly and cautiously, lest they should be overheard by Moor- 
 ish scout or traveller; and kept along ravines and liollow 
 ways, lest they should be betrayed by the glittering of the full 
 moon upon their armor. Coming to where the road divided, 
 the Alcayde directed five of his cavaliers to take one of tln' 
 branches, while he, with the remaining foei', would take the 
 other. Should either party be in danger, the blast of a horn 
 was to be the signal to bring their comrades to their aid. 
 
 The party of five had not proceeded far, when, in passin<i; 
 through a defile, overhung with trees, they hea'-d the voice of 
 a man, singing. Tiiey immediately concealed themselves in 
 a grove, on the brow of a declivity, up which the stranger 
 would have to ascend. The moonlight, which left the grove in 
 deep shadow, lit up the whole person of the wayfarer, us In- 
 advanced, and enabled them to distinguish his dress and ai)p(';u- 
 ance with perfect accuracy. lie was a Moorisli cavalier, lunl 
 his noble demeanor, graceful carriage, and spkMidid atlirc 
 showed him to be of lofty rank. He was sui)crbly mounted, on 
 a dapple-gray steed, of powerful frame, anil generous spirit, 
 and magnificently caparisoned. Ilis dress was a marlota, or 
 tunic, and an Albernoz of crimson damask, fringed with gold. 
 His Tunisian turban, of many folds, was of silk and cotton, 
 striped, and bordered with golden fringe. At his girdle hunu; 
 a cimeter of Damascus steel, with loops and tassels of silk and 
 gold. On his left arm he bore an a'nple target, and his right 
 hand grasped a long double-pointed 'ance. Thus ecpiipped, he 
 sat negligently on his steed, as one vlio dreamed of no datiger, 
 
 I '!■ 
 
 »T*..*»>«»^<-ll*.»- 
 
?s. 
 
 THE ABENCERRAGE. 
 
 43 
 
 tbe sterner 
 
 nd ; he was 
 asset! most 
 ion on the 
 (Ivonturoiis 
 »alry. His 
 11 mounti'il 
 /ateh upoi! 
 defiles of 
 and now 
 ay into llic 
 
 e freslnicss 
 f day, tlu! 
 ^valiers, to 
 
 They rode 
 d by Moor- 
 and hollow 
 
 of the full 
 ad divided, 
 
 one of tln' 
 Id take tlie 
 t of a honi 
 aid. 
 
 in passiii'i; 
 -he voice of 
 ?niselves in 
 he stranifcr 
 the grove in 
 'arer, us iic 
 and appcur 
 avalier, Miid 
 Pidid atlirc 
 nonnted, on 
 irons spirit, 
 marlota, or 
 I with f2;old. 
 and cotton, 
 ijirdle luniu; 
 of silk and 
 nd his riijlit: 
 qnipped, lie 
 
 no daug"r, 
 
 gazing on the moon, and singing, with a sweet and manly 
 voice, a Moorish love ditty. 
 
 Just opposite the place where the Spanish cavaliers were 
 concealed, was a small fountair in the rock, beside the road, 
 to which the horse turned to drin.v ; the rider threw the reins on 
 his neck, and continued his song. 
 
 The Spanish cavaliers conferred together ; they were all so 
 pleased with the gallant and gentle appearance of the Moor, 
 that they resolved not to harm, tut to capture him, which, in 
 his negligent mood, promised to be an easy task; rushin", 
 therefore from their concealment, they thought to surrouml 
 and seize him. Never were men more mistaken. To gather 
 up his reins, wheel round his steed, brace his buckler, and 
 couch his lance, was tiie work of an instant ; and there he sat, 
 fixed like a castle in his saddle, beside the fountain. 
 
 The Christian cavaliers cheeked their steeds and reconnoitred 
 him warily, loath to come to an encounter, which must end in 
 his destruction. 
 
 The Moor now held a parley : " If you be true knights," said 
 he, "and seek for honorable fame, come on, singly, and I am 
 ready to meet each in succession ; but if you be mere Inrkers of 
 the road, intent on s^joil, come all at once, and do your worst ! " 
 
 The cavaliers communed for a moment apart, when one, ad- 
 vancing singly, exclaimed: "Although no law of chivalry 
 obliges us to risk the loss of a prize, when clearly in our power, 
 yet we willingly grant, as a courtesy, what we might refuse as a 
 right. Valiant Moor ! defend thyself ! " 
 
 So saying, he wheeled, took proper distance, couched his 
 lance, and putting spurs to his horse, made at the stranger. 
 The lattei met him in mid career, transpierced him with his 
 lance, and threw him headlong from his paddle. A second and 
 a third succeeded, but were unhorsed with equal facility, and 
 thrown to the earth, severely wounded. The remaining inro, 
 seeing their comrades thus roughly treated, forgot all compact 
 of courtesy, and charged both at once upon the Moor. He 
 |)arried the thrust of one, but was wounded by the other in the 
 thigh, and, in the shock and confusion, dropped his lance. 
 Thus disarmed, and closely pressed, he pretended to fly, and 
 was hotly [)ursued. Having diawn the two cavaliers some dis- 
 tance from the spot, he suddenly wheeled short about, with one 
 of those dexterous movements for which the Moorish horsemen 
 are renowned ; passed swiftly between them, swung himself 
 down from his saddle, so as to catch up his lance, then, lightly 
 replacing himself, turned to renew the combat. 
 
44 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Seeing him thug fresh for the encounter, as if just issued 
 from his tent, one of the cavaliers put his lips to his horn, and 
 blew a blast, that soon brought the Alcayde and his four com- 
 panions to the spot. 
 
 The valiant Narvaez, seeing three of his cavaliers extended 
 on the earth, and two others hotly engaged with the Moor, 
 was struck with admiration, and coveted a contest with so ac- 
 complished a warrior. Interfering in the fight, he called upon 
 his followers to desist, and addressing the Moor, with courteous 
 words, invited him to a more equal combat. The latter readily 
 accepted the challenge. For some time, their contest was fierce 
 and doubtful, and the Alcayde had need of all his skill and 
 strength to ward off the blows of his antagonist. The Moor, 
 however, was exhausted by previous fij^hting, and by loss of 
 blood. He no longer sat his horse firmly, nor managed him 
 with his wonted skill. Collecting all his strength for a last 
 assault, he rose in his stirrups, and made a violent thrust witli 
 his lance ; the Alcayde received it upon his shield, and at the 
 same time wounded the Moor in the right arm ; then closing, in 
 the shock, he grasped him in his arms, dragged him from his 
 saddle, and fell with him to the earth : when putting his knee 
 upon his breast, and his dagger to his throat, " Cavalier," ex- 
 claimed he, " render thyself my prisoner, for thy life is in my 
 hands!" 
 
 "Kill me, rather," replied the Moor, "for death would be 
 less grievous than loss of lil)erty." 
 
 The Alcayde, l.owever, with the clemency of the truly brave, 
 assisted the Moor to rise, ministered to his wounds with his own 
 hands, and had him convoyed with great care to the castle of 
 AUora. His wounds were slight, and in a few days were nearly 
 cured ; but tlie deepest wound had been inflicted on his spirit. 
 He was constantly buried in a profound melancholy. 
 
 The Alcayde, who had conceived a great regard for him, 
 treated him more as a friend than a captive, and tried in every 
 way to cheer him, but in vain ; he was always sad and moody, 
 and, when on the battlements of the castle, would keep his eyes 
 turned to the south, witli a fixed and wistful gaze. 
 
 " How is this? " exclaimed the Alcayde, reproachfully, " that 
 you, who were so hardy and fearless in the field, should lose all 
 spirit in prison ? If any secret grief preys on your heart, con- 
 fide it to me, as to a friend, and I promise you, on the faith of a 
 cavalier, tliat yon shall have no cause to repent the disclosure." 
 
 The Moorish knight kissed the liand of the Alcayde. " Noble 
 cavalier," said he, " that I am cast down in spirit, is not from 
 
 I [■ 
 
 •■ t 
 
 i/ I 
 
E8. 
 
 just issued 
 J horn, and 
 four com- 
 
 8 extended 
 
 the Moor, 
 
 fvith so ac- 
 
 alled upon 
 
 1 courteous 
 
 tter readily 
 
 t was fierce 
 
 skill and 
 
 The Moor, 
 
 by loss of 
 
 inaged him 
 
 I for a last 
 
 thrust with 
 
 and at the 
 
 closing, in 
 
 in from his 
 
 ig his knee 
 
 I'alier," ex- 
 
 fe is in my 
 
 h would be 
 
 truly brave, 
 irith his own 
 le castle of 
 were nearly 
 n his spirit. 
 
 rd for him, 
 ied in every 
 vnd moody, 
 2ep his eyes 
 
 fully, " that 
 )uld lose all 
 heart, con- 
 le faith of a 
 iclosure." 
 •. " Noble 
 is not from 
 
 THE ABENCERRAGE. 
 
 45 
 
 my wounds, which are slight, nor from my captivity, for youi 
 kindness has robbed it of all <rloom ; nor from my defeat, for to 
 be conquered by so accomplished and renowned a cavalier, is 
 no disgrace. But to explain to you the cause of my grief, it is 
 necessary to give you some particulars of my story ; and this I 
 am moved to do, by the great sympathy you have manifested 
 toward me, and the magnanimity that shines through all your 
 actions." 
 
 " Know, then, that my name is Abendaraez, and that I am of 
 the noble but unfortunate line of the Abencerrages of Granada. 
 You have doubtless heard of the destruction that fell upon our 
 race. Charged with treasonable designs, of which they were 
 entirely innocent, many of them were beheaded, the rest ban- 
 ished ; so that not an Abencerrage was permitted to remain in 
 Granada, excepting my father and my uncle, whose innocence 
 was proved, even to the satisfaction of their persecutors. It 
 was decreed, however, that, should they have children, the sons 
 should be educated at a distance from Granada, and the daugh* 
 ters should be married out of the kingdom. 
 
 " Conformably to this decree, I was sent, while yet an infant, 
 to be reared in the fortress of Cartaraa, the worthy Alcayde of 
 which was an ancient friend of ray father. He had no children, 
 and received me into his family as his own child, treating me 
 witli the kindness and affection of a father ; and I grew up in 
 the belief that he really was such. A few years afterward, his 
 wife gave birth to a daughter, but his tenderness toward me con- 
 tinued undiminished. I thus grew up with Xarisa, for so the 
 infant daughter of the Alcayde was called, as her own brother, 
 and thought the growing passin which I felt for her, was mere 
 fraternal affection. I beheld her charms unfolding, as it were, 
 leaf by leaf, like the morning rose, each moment disclosing 
 fresh beauty and sweetness. 
 
 "At this period, I overheard a conversation between the 
 Alcayde and his confidential domestic, and found myself to be 
 the subject. ' It is time,' said he, ' to apprise him of his parent- 
 age, that he may adopt a career in life. I have deferred the 
 communication as long as possible, through reluctance to inform 
 him that he is of a proscribed and an unlucky race.* 
 
 "This intelligence would have overwhelmed me at an earlier 
 period, but the intimation that Xarisa was not my sister, oper- 
 ated like magic, and in an instant transformed my brotherly 
 affection into .irdent love. 
 
 " I sought Xarisa, to impart to her the secret I had learned. 
 1 found her in the garden, in a twwer of jessamines, arranging 
 
 M 
 
 '. il 
 
 
 ■I t , 
 
46 
 
 WOLFERTS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ]>■■ ! 
 
 g,.t! 1 
 
 her beautiful hair by the mirror of a crystal fountain. The 
 radiance of her beauty dazzled rae. I ran to her with open 
 arms, and she received me with a sister's embraces. When we 
 had seated ourselves beside the fountain, she began to upbraid 
 me for leaving her so long alone. 
 
 " In reply, I informed her of the conversation I had over- 
 heard. The recital shocked and distressed her. ' Alas ! ' cried 
 she, ' then is our happiness at an end ! ' 
 
 " ' How ! ' exclaimed I ; ' wilt thou cease to love me, because 
 I am not thy brother ? ' ' 
 
 " ' Not so,' replied she ; ' but do you not know that when it is 
 once known we are not brother and sister, we can no longer be 
 permitted to be thus always together? " 
 
 " In fact, from that moment our intercourse took a new char- 
 acter. We met often at the fountain among the jessamines, 
 but Xarisa no longer advanced with open arms to meet ine. 
 She became reserved and silent, and would blush, and cast 
 down her eyes, when I seated myself beside her. My heart 
 became a prey to the thousand doubts and fears that ever 
 attend upon true love. I was restless and uneasy, and looked 
 back with regret to the unreserved intercourse that had existed 
 between us, when we supposed ourselves brother and sister; 
 yet I would not have had the relationship true, for the world. 
 
 " While matters were in this state between us, an order came 
 from the King of Granada for the Alcayde to take command of 
 the fortress of Coyn, which lies directly on the Christian fron- 
 tier. He prepared to remove, with all his family, but signified 
 that I should remain at Cartama. I exclaimed against the 
 separation, and declared that I could not be parted from Xarisa. 
 'That is the very cause,' said he, 'why I leave thee behind. 
 It is time, Abendaraez, that thou shouldst know the secret of 
 thy birth ; that thou art no son of mine, neither is Xarisa thy 
 sister.' ' I know it all,' exclaimed I, ' and I love her with ten- 
 fold the affection of a brother. You have brought us up to- 
 gether ; you have made us necessary to each other's happiness ; 
 our hearts have intwined themselves with our growth ; do not 
 now tear them asunder. Fill up the measure of your kindness ; 
 be indeed a father to me, by giving me Xarisa for my wife.' 
 
 " The brow of the Alcayde darkened as I spoke. ' Have I 
 then been deceived ? ' ' said he. ' Have those nurtured in ray 
 very bosom been conspiring against me? Is this your return 
 for my paternal tenderness ? — to beguile the affections of my 
 child, and teach her to deceive her father? It was cause enough 
 to refuse thee the hand of my daughter, that thou wert of a 
 
tain. The 
 
 with open 
 
 When we 
 
 to upbraid 
 
 had over- 
 las ! ' cried 
 
 ne, because 
 
 t when it is 
 3 longer be 
 
 a new chur- 
 
 jessauiines, 
 
 ) meet me. 
 
 1, and cast 
 
 My heart 
 
 i that ever 
 
 and looked 
 
 had existed 
 
 and sister; 
 
 he world. 
 
 order came 
 
 ommand of 
 
 •istian fron- 
 
 >ut signified 
 
 against the 
 
 rom Xarisa. 
 
 bee behind. 
 
 ae secret of 
 
 Xarisa thy 
 
 er with ten- 
 
 t us up to- 
 
 happiness ; 
 
 ^th ; do not 
 
 r kindness ; 
 
 ly wife.' 
 
 ' Have 1 
 ured in ray 
 your return 
 tions of my 
 luse enough 
 I wert of a 
 
 THE ABENCERHAOE. 
 
 47 
 
 proscribed race, who can never approach the walls of Granada ; 
 this, however, I might have passed over ; but never will I give 
 my daughter to a man who has endeavored to win her from me 
 by deception.' 
 
 " All my attempts to vindicate myself and Xarisa were un- 
 availing. I retired in anguisli from his presence, and seeking 
 Ivarisa, told her of this blow, which was worse than death to 
 me. 'Xarisa,' said I, 'we part forever! I shall never see 
 thee more ! Thy father will guard thee rigidly. Thy beauty 
 and his wealth will soon attract some happier rival, and I shall 
 be forgotten ! ' 
 
 " Xarisa reproached me with my want of faith, and promised 
 me eternal constancy. I still doubted and desponded, until, 
 moved by my anguish and despair, she agreed to a secret 
 union. Our espousals made, we parted, witha prom'se on her 
 part to send me word from Coyn, should her father absent him- 
 self from the fortress. The very day after our secret nuptials, 
 I l)eheld the whole train of the Alcayde depart from Cartama, 
 nor would he admit me to his presence, or permit me to bid 
 farewell to Xarisa. I remained at Cartama, somewhat pacified 
 in spirit by tliis secret bond of union ; but every thing around 
 me fed my passion, and reminded me of Xarisa. I saw the 
 windows at which I had so often beheld her. I wandered 
 tlirough the apartment she had inhabited ; the chamber in 
 which she had slept. I visited the bower of jessamines, and 
 lingered beside the fountain in which she had delighted. Every 
 tiling recalled her to my imagination, and filled my heart with 
 tender melancholy. 
 
 "At length, a confidential servant brought me word, thai, her 
 father was to depart that day for Granada, on a short absence, 
 inviting me to hasten to Coyn, describing a secret portf.l at 
 which 1 should apply, and the signal by which I v/ould obtain 
 admittance. 
 
 ''If ever you have loved, most valiant Alcayde, you may 
 judge of the transport of my bosom. That very night I arrayed 
 myself in my most gallant attire, to pay due honor to my bride ; 
 and arming myself against any casual attack, issued forth pri- 
 vately from Cartama. You know the rest, and by what sad 
 fortune of war I found myself, instead of a happy bridegroom, 
 in the nuptial bower of Coyn, vanquished, wounded, and a 
 prisoner, within the walls of Allora. The term of absence of 
 the father of Xarisa is nearly expired. Within three days he 
 will return to Coyn, and our meeting will no longer be possible. 
 Judge, then, whether 1 grieve without cause, and whether 1 
 
 II 
 
 'M 
 
 I! 
 
 ii^ !) 
 
 iu 
 
48 
 
 WOLFEBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 n 
 
 ■fv ,. 
 
 may not well be excused for showing impatience under confine- 
 raent." 
 
 Don Rodrigo de Narvaez was greatly moved by this recital ; 
 for, though more used to rugged war, than scenes of amorous 
 softness, he was of a kind and generous nature. 
 
 " Abenderaez," said he, "I did not seek thy confidence to 
 gratify an idle curiosity. It grieves me much that the good for- 
 tune which delivered thee into my hands, should have marred 
 so fair an enterprise. Give me thy faith, as a true knight, to 
 return prisoner to ray castle, within three days, and I will grant 
 thee permission to accomplish thy nuptials." 
 
 The Abencerrage would have thrown himself at his feet, to 
 pour out protestations of eternal gratitude, but the Alcayde 
 prevented him. Calling in his cavaliers, he took the Abencer- 
 rage by the right hand, in their presence, exclaiming solemnly, 
 " You promise, on the faith of a cavalier, to return to my castle 
 of Allora within three days, and render yourself my prisoner?" 
 And the Abencerrage said, "I promise." 
 
 Then said the Alcayde, "Go! and may good fortune attend 
 you. If you require any safeguard, I and my cavaliers are 
 ready to be your companions." 
 
 The Abencerrage kissed the hand of the Alcayde, in grateful 
 acknowledgment. "Give me," said he, "my own armor, 
 and my steed, and I require no guard. It is not likely that I 
 shall again meet with so valorous a foe." 
 
 The shades of night had fallen, when the tramp of the dapple- 
 gray steed sounded over the drawbridge, and immediately 
 afterward the light clatter of hoofs along the road, bespoke the 
 fleetness with which the youthful lover hastened to hi? bride. 
 It was deep night when the Moor arrived at the castle of Coyn. 
 He silently and cautiously walked his panting steed under its 
 dark walls, and having nearly passed round them, came to the 
 portal denoted by Xarisa. He paused and looked around to 
 see that he was not observed, and then knocked three times 
 with the butt of his lance. In a little while the portal was 
 timidly unclosed by the duenna of Xarisa. "Alas! senor," 
 said she, " what has detained you thus long? Every night have 
 I watched for you ; and my lady is sick at heart with doubt 
 and anxiety." 
 
 The Abencerrage hung his lance, and shield, and cimeter 
 against the wall, and then followed the duenna, with silent, 
 steps, up a winding stair-case, to the apartment of Xarisa. 
 Vain would be tlie attempt to describe the raj)ture3 of that 
 meeting. Time flew too swiftly, and the Aljencerrage hud 
 
ES. 
 
 der confine. 
 
 his recital; 
 of anaorous 
 
 nfidence to 
 le good for- 
 ave marred 
 i knight, to 
 I will grant 
 
 his feet, to 
 he Alcayde 
 le Abencer- 
 g solemnly, 
 o my castle 
 prisoner?" 
 
 tune attend 
 ivalitrs are 
 
 in grateful 
 >wn armor, 
 ikely that I 
 
 the dapple- 
 
 mmediately 
 
 bespoke the 
 
 ) hi? bride. 
 
 le of Coyn. 
 
 J under its 
 
 3ame to the 
 
 around to 
 
 three times 
 
 portal was 
 
 s! senor," 
 
 night have 
 
 with doubt 
 
 nd cimeter 
 with silenj, 
 of Xarisa. 
 •es of that 
 .'rrajje had 
 
 THE ABENCSBBAOE, 
 
 49 
 
 nearly forgotten, until too late, his promise to return a prisoner 
 to the Alcayde of Allora. The recollection of it came to him 
 with a pang, and suddenly awoke him from his dream of bliss. 
 Xarisa saw his altered looks, and heard with alarm his stifled 
 sighs; but her countenance brightened, when she heard the 
 cause. " Let not thy spirit be cast down,*' said she, throwintr 
 her white arms around him. '' I have the keys of my father's 
 treasures ; send ransom more than enough to satisfy the Chris- 
 tian, and remain with me." 
 
 '* No," said Abendaraez, " I have given my word to return in 
 person, and like a true knight, must fulfil my promise. After 
 that, fortune must do with me as it pleases." 
 
 " Then," said Xarisa, " I will accompany thee. Never shall 
 you return a prisoner, and I remain at liberty." 
 
 The Abencerrage was transported with joy at this new proof 
 of devotion in his beautiful bride. All preparations were 
 speedily made for their departure. Xarisa mounted behind the 
 Moor, on his powerful steed ; they left the castle walls before 
 daybreak, nor did they pause, until they arrived at the gate of 
 the castle of Allora, which was flung wide to receive them. 
 
 Alighting in the court, the Abencerrage supported the steps of 
 his trembling bride, who remained closely veiled, into the pres- 
 ence of Rodrigo de Narvaez. "Behold, valiant Alcayde!" 
 said he, " the way in which an Abencerrage keeps his word. I 
 promised to return to thee a prisoner, but I deli"er two captives 
 into your power. Behold Xarisa, and judge whether I grieved 
 without reason, over the loss of such a treasure. Receive us as 
 your own, for I confide my life and her honor to your hands." 
 
 The Alcayde was lost in admiration of the beuuty of the lady, 
 and the noble spirit of the Moor. ''I know not," said he, 
 " which of you surpasses the other ; but I know that my castle 
 is graced and honored by your presence. Enter into it, and 
 consider it your own, while you deign to reside with me." 
 
 For several days the lovers remained at Allora, happy in 
 each other's love, and in the friendship of the brave Alcayde. 
 The latter wrote a letter, full of courtesy, to the Moorish king 
 of Granada, relating the whole event, extolling the valor and 
 good faith of the Abencerrage, and craving for him the royal 
 countenance. 
 
 The king was moved by the story, and was pleased with an 
 opportunity of showing attention to the wishes of a gallant and 
 chivalrous enemy ; for though he had often suffered fi'om the 
 prowess of Don K(jdrigo de Narvaez, he admired the heroic 
 character he had gained throughout the land. CtJling the 
 
 > !■ 
 
6d 
 
 WOLFEBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Alcayde of Coyn into his presence, he gave liim the letter to 
 read. The Aleayde turned j)ale, and trembled with ra<^e, on 
 t!'e perusal. " Restrain thine anger," said the king ; " there is 
 nothing that the Alcaydo of Allora could ask, that I would not 
 grant, if in my ix>wer. Go thou to Allora ; pardon thy children ; 
 take them to thy home. I receive this Abencerrage into my 
 favor, and it will be my delight to heap benefits upon you all." 
 
 The kindling ire of the Aleayde was suddenly appeased. Ho 
 hastened to Allora; and folded his children to his l)oson>, who 
 would have fallen at his feet. The gallant llcxlrigo de Xar- 
 vaez gave lil)erty to his prisoner without ransom, deniaiidini^ 
 merely a promise of his friendship. He accompanied the yoiifii- 
 ful couple and their father to Coyn, where their nuptials wore 
 celebrated with great rejoicings. When the festivities vcro 
 over, Don Rodrigode Narvaez returned to his fortress of Allora. 
 
 After his departure, the Aleayde of Coyn addressed liis 
 children: "To your hands," said he, "I confide the (lis[)()si- 
 tion of my wealth. One of the first things I charge you, is not 
 to forget the ransom you owe to the Aleayde of Allora. His 
 DMignanimity you can never repay, but you can prevent it from 
 wronging him of his just dues. Give him, moreover, yom- 
 entir'3 friendship, for he merits it fully, though of a dilTeront 
 faith." 
 
 The Al)encerrage thanked him for his generous proposition, 
 which so truly accorded with his own wishes. He took a lai^te 
 sum of gold, and enclosed it in a rich oofifer ; and, on his own 
 part, sent six l)eautiful horses, superbly caparisoned ; with six 
 shields and lances, mounted and embossed with gold. The 
 beautiful Xarisa, at the same time, wrote a letter to tlie 
 Aleayde, filled with expressions of gratitude and friendship, 
 and sent him a l)ox of fragrant cypress-wood, containing linen, 
 of the finest quality, for his person. The valiant Alcaytle dis- 
 posed of the present in a characteristic manner. The horses 
 and armor he shared among the cavaliers who had accompanied 
 him on the night of the skirmish. The lx)x of cypress-wood 
 and its contents he retained, for the sake of the beautiful 
 Xarisa : and sent her, by the hands of a messenger, the sum of 
 gold paid as a ransom, entreating her to receive it as a wedding 
 present. This courtesy and u)agnanimity raised -he character 
 td the Aleayde Rodrigo de Xarvaez still higher in the estima- 
 tion of the Moors, who extolled him as a perfect mirror of cliiv- 
 alric virtue ; and from that time forward, there was a coutiuuai 
 exchimge of goHxl offices between them. 
 
 i 
 
 2«4 
 
nss. 
 
 tln' letter to 
 vith r.ajre, „„ 
 >K; "there is 
 t I would not 
 thy ehil(h-en ; 
 riige into my 
 >ou yoii all." 
 )pease(l. H^ 
 
 3 1k)SOI1), who 
 
 rigo tie Nar- 
 
 1, (leniandino 
 ietl the you'.i- 
 
 nuptials were 
 stivitics vere 
 
 ss of Allora. 
 wldreased his 
 L' the disposi- 
 ge you, is not 
 
 AUoni. His 
 revent it from 
 Dreover, your 
 3f a different 
 
 J proposition, 
 b took 11 lurjfo 
 d, on his own 
 led ; with six 
 » gold, 'riu; 
 letter to tlio 
 d friendship, 
 tiiining linen, 
 Alcayde dis- 
 
 The horses 
 accompanied 
 cypress-wood 
 Am beautiful 
 r, the sum of 
 as a weddinp; 
 he character 
 
 the estinui- 
 irror of chiv- 
 8 a continual 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 51 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 Break, rhanlslc, from thy cave ot cloud, 
 
 And wave ihy purple wlngB. 
 Now all thy flgurcH arc allrwed. 
 
 And varloiiH shnpett of chlngg. 
 Create of airy forrriN a Rtream ■ 
 
 It must have blood and iiiii hi of phlegm; 
 And though It he a walking ilream. 
 
 Yet let It like an odor rlHO 
 To all the HeimeH here, 
 
 And fall like ulcep upon their eyed. 
 Or uiuHJc on their ear. — Ben Jonbon. 
 
 "There arc more things in heaven and earth than are 
 dreamed of in our philosophy," and among these may be 
 placed that marvel and mystery of the seas, the island of St. 
 iiiandan. Every school-l)oy can enumerate and call by name 
 the Canaries, the Fortunate Islands of the ancients ; which, 
 according to some ingenious speculative minds, are mere wrecks 
 and remnants of the vast island of Atalantis, mentioned by 
 riato, as having been swallowed up by the ocean. Whoever 
 has read the history of those isles, will remember the wonders 
 told of another island, still more beautiful, seen occasionally 
 from their shores, stretching away in the clear bright west, 
 with long shadowy promontories, and high, sun-gilt peaks. 
 Numerous expeditions, both in ancient and modern days, have 
 launched fortli from the Canaries in quest of that island ; but, 
 on their approach, mountain and promontory have gradually 
 faded away, until nothing has remained but the blue sky above, 
 ind the deep blue water l)elow. Hence it was termed by the 
 leograpbers of old, Aprositus, or the Inaccessible; while mod- 
 ;'rn navigators have called its very existence in question, pro- 
 nouncing it a mere optical illusion, like the Fata Morgana of the 
 Straits of Messina ; or classing it with those unsubstantial re- 
 gions known to mariners as Cai)e Flyaway, and the Coast of 
 Cloud Land. 
 
 Let not, however, the doubts of the worldly-wise sceptics of 
 modern days rob us of all the glorious realms owned by happy 
 ciedulity in days of yore. lie assured, O reader of easy faith I 
 — lliou for whom I delight to labor — \^e assured, that such an 
 island d( es actually exist, and has, from time to time, been 
 
 
 
 fi 
 
 f: 
 
 : .1 
 
 v<«BXniu<i» ^ AimM 
 
 ^*» *-«• - t - 
 
62 
 
 WOLFEBT'S BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 revealed to the gaze, and trodden by the feet, of favored mor- 
 tals. Nay, though doubted by historians and philosophers, itg 
 existence is fully attested by the poets, who, being an inspired 
 race, and gifted with a kind of second sight, can see into tlie 
 mysteries of nature, hidden from the eyes of ordinary mortals. 
 To this gifted race it has ever been a region of fancy and 
 romance, teeming with all kinds of wonders. Here once 
 bloomed, and perhaps still blooms, the famous garden of the 
 Hesperides, v/Uh its golden fruit. Here, too, was the enchanted 
 garden of Armida, in which that sorceress held the Christia" 
 paladin, Rinaldo, in delicious but inglorious thraldom ; as is set 
 forth in the immortal lay of Tasso. It was on this island, also, 
 that Sycorax, the witch, held sway, when the good Prospero, 
 and his infant daughter Miranda, were wafted to its shores. 
 The isle was then 
 
 " full of noiecB, 
 
 Sounds, and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not." 
 
 
 i y 
 
 It '; 
 
 Who does not know the tale, as told in the magic pawe of 
 Shakspeare ? 
 
 In fact, the island appears to have been, at different times, 
 under the sway of different powers, genii of earth, and air, and 
 ocean ; who made it their shadowy abode ; or rather, it is the 
 retiring place of old worn-out deities and dynasties, that once 
 ruled the poetic world, but are now nearly shorn of all their 
 attributes. Here Neptune and An phitrite hold a diminished 
 court, like sovereigns in exile. Their ocean-chariot lies bottom 
 upward, in a cave of the island, almost a perfect wreck, while 
 their pursy Tritons and haggard Nereids bask listlessly, like 
 seals about the rocks. Sometimes they assume a shadow of 
 their ancient pomp, and glide in state about the glassy sea ; 
 while the crew of some tall Indiaman, that lies becalmed with 
 flapping sails, hear with astonishment the mellow note of the 
 Triton's shell swelling upoA die ear, as the invisible pageant 
 sweeps by. Sometimes the quondam monarch of the ocean is 
 permitted to make himself visible to mortal eyes, visiting the 
 ships that cross the line, to exact a tribute from new-comers ; 
 the only remnant of his ancient rule, and that, alas ! performed 
 with tattered state, and tarnished splendor. 
 
 On the shores of this wondrous island, the mighty kraken 
 heaves his bulk, and wallows many a rood ; here, too, the sea- 
 serpent lies coiled up, during the intervals of his much-con- 
 tested revelations to the eyes of true-believe'*3 ; and here, it is 
 said, even in the Flying Dutchmuu Cuds a port, and casts his 
 
 I 
 
UE8. 
 
 favored mor- 
 ilosophers, its 
 ; an inspired 
 see into the 
 nary mortals, 
 f fancy and 
 Here once 
 arden of the 
 he enchanted 
 the Christia'- 
 am ; as is set 
 i island, also, 
 od Prospero, 
 -o its shores. 
 
 igic pawe of 
 
 Terent times, 
 and air, and 
 her, it is the 
 es, that once 
 1 of all their 
 a diminished 
 »t lies bottom 
 wreck, while 
 istlessly, like 
 a. shadow of 
 ! glassy sea ; 
 ecalmed with 
 note of the 
 lible pageant 
 the ocean is 
 , visiting the 
 new-comers ; 
 1 ! performed 
 
 ghty kraken 
 too, the sea- 
 s mueh-con- 
 d here, it is 
 ud casts his 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 53 
 
 anchor, and furls his shadowy sail, and takes i\ short repose 
 irom his eternal wanderings. 
 
 Here all the treasures lost in the deep are safely garnered. 
 The caverns of the shores are piled with golden ingots, boxes 
 of pearls, rich bales of oriental silks ; and their deep recesses 
 sparkle with diamonds, or flame with carbuncles. Here, in 
 deep bays and harbors, lies many a spell-bound ship, long 
 given up as lost by the ruined merchant. Fere, too, its crew, 
 long bewailed as swallowed up in ocean, lie sleeping in mossy 
 grottos, from age to age, or wander about enchanted shores 
 and groves, in pleasing oblivion of all things. 
 
 Such are some of the marvels related of this island, and 
 which may serve to throw some light on the following legend, 
 of unquestionable truth, which I recommend to the entire belief 
 of the reader. 
 
 THE ADELANTADO OF THE SEVEN CITIES. 
 
 A LEGEND OF ST. BRANDAN. 
 
 In the early part of the fifteenth century, when Prince 
 Henry of Portugal, of worthy memory, was pushing the career 
 of discovery along the western coast of Africa, and the world 
 was resounding with reports of golden regions on the main 
 laud, and new-found islands in the ocean, there arrived at 
 Lisbon an old bewildered pilot of the seas, who had been 
 driven by tempests, he knew not whither; and who raved 
 about an island far in the deep, on which he had landed, and 
 which he had found peopled with Christiauo, and adorned with 
 noble cities. 
 
 The inhabitants, he said, gathered round, and regarded him 
 with surprise, having never before been visited by a ship. 
 They told him they were descendants of a band of Christians, 
 who fled from Si)ain when that country was conquered by the 
 Moslems. They were curious about the state of their father- 
 laud, and grieved to hear that the Moslems still held posses- 
 bion of the kingdom of Granada. They would have taken the 
 old navigator to church, to convince him of their orthodoxy ; 
 but, either tlirougli lack of devotion, or lack of faith in their 
 words, he declined their invitation, and preferred to return on 
 board of his ship. He was properly punished. A furious 
 storm arose, drove him from lii» auehorage. hurried him out 
 to sea, and he saw no more ul' the unknown island. 
 
 J 
 
 1 -ii 
 il 
 
 "H^ 1 
 
 '.Ml 
 
 AV 
 
 I 'it 
 
 k.H«.*.,^«'*i-«''«M'«'#<«ft -k • 
 
54 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ' 
 
 J ■! 
 
 This strange story caused great marvel in Lisbon and else- 
 where. Those versed in history, remembered to have read, in 
 an ancient chronicle, that, at the time of the conquest of Spain, 
 in the eighth century, v ■<, the blessed cross was cast down, 
 and the crescent erected in its place, and when Christian 
 churches were turned into Moslem mosques, seven bishops, at 
 the head of seven bands of pious exiles, had fled from the 
 peninsula, and embarked in quest of some ocean island, or dis- 
 tant land, where they might found seven Christian cities, and 
 enjoy their faith unmolested. 
 
 The fate of these pious saints errant had hitherto remained 
 a mystery, and their story had faded from memory ; the reiort 
 of the old tempest-tossed pilot, however, revived this louj^-for- 
 gotten theme ; and it was determined by the pious and enthusi- 
 astic, that the island thus accidentally discovered, was tlie 
 identical place of refuge, whither the wandering bishops had 
 been guided by a protecting Providence, and where they bad 
 folded their flocks. 
 
 This most excitable of worlds has always some darling ob- 
 ject of chimerical enterprise : the " Island of the Seven Cities " 
 now awakened as much interest and longing among zealous 
 Christians, as has the renowned city of Timbuctoo among 
 adventurous travellers, or the North-east Passage among hardly 
 navigators ; and it was a frequent prayer of tlie devout, that 
 these scattered and lost {wrtious of the Christian family might 
 be discovered, and reunited to the great body of Christen- 
 dom. 
 
 No one, however, entered into the matter with half the zeal 
 of Don Fernando de Ulmo, a young cavalier of high standing 
 in the Portuguese court, and of most sanguine and romantic 
 tempeiament. He had recently come to his estate, and iiad 
 run the round of all kinds of pleasures and excitements, when 
 this new theme of popular talk and wonder i)resented itself. 
 The Island of the Seven Cities l)ecame now the constant sul>- 
 ject of his thoughts l)y day and his dreams liy night ; it even 
 rivalled his passion for a l)eautiful girl, one of the greatest 
 belles of Lisbon, to whom he was betrothed. At length his 
 imagination became so inflamed on the subject, that he deter- 
 mined to fit out an expedition, at his own expense, and set 
 sail in quest of this sainted island. It could not be a cruise 
 of any great extent ; for according to the calculatioiu^ of the 
 tempest- tossed pilot, it must l)e somewhere in the latitude of 
 tiie Canaries ; whicli at that time, when tiie new world was as 
 yet undiscovered, formed the frontier of ocean enterprise. Dm 
 
 
lES. 
 
 m and else- 
 ave read, in 
 !st of Spain, 
 
 east down, 
 n Christian 
 
 bishops, at 
 ed from the 
 land, or dis- 
 II cities, and 
 
 ■to remained 
 the report 
 his lon>^-for- 
 and enthusi- 
 di was the 
 bishops had 
 ire they had 
 
 darling ob- 
 L'ven Cities" 
 long zealous 
 ictoo among 
 inong hardly 
 devout, that 
 family might 
 of Christen- 
 
 tuilf the zeal 
 igh standing 
 md romantic 
 te, anil had 
 ments, when 
 seated itself, 
 onstant sub- 
 ght ; it even 
 the greatest 
 -t length his 
 lat he deter- 
 use, and set 
 be a cruise 
 itiona of the 
 3 latitude of 
 ?orld was as 
 rprise. Duu 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 56 
 
 Fernando applied to the crown for countenance and protection. 
 As he was a favorite at court, the usual patronage was readily 
 extended to him ; that is to say, he received a commission 
 from the king, Don loam II., constituting him Adelantado, or 
 military governor, of any country he might discover, with the 
 single proviso, that he should bear all the expenses of the dis- 
 covery and pay a tenth of the profits to the crown. 
 
 Don Fernando now set to work in the true spirit of a pro- 
 jector. He sold acre after acre of solid land, and invested the 
 proceeds in ships, guns, ammunition, and sea-stores. Even his 
 old family mansion in Lisbon was mortgaged without scruple, 
 for he looked forward to a palace in one of the Seven Cities of 
 which he was to be Adelantado. This was the age of nautical 
 romance, when the thoughts of all speculative dreamers were 
 turned to the ocean. The scheme of Don Fernando, therefore, 
 drew adventurers of every kind. The merchant promised him- 
 self new marts of opulent traffic ; the soldier hoped to sack and 
 plunder some one or other of those Seven Cities ; even the fat 
 monk shook off the sleep and sloth of the cloister, to join in a 
 crusade which promised such increase to the possessions of the 
 church. 
 
 One person alone regarded the whole project with sovereign 
 contempt and growling hostility. This was Don Ramiro Al- 
 varez, the father of the beautiful Serafina, to whom Don Fer- 
 nando was betrothed. He wnd one of those perverse, matter- 
 of-fact old men who are prone to oppose every thing speculative 
 and romantic. He had no faith in the Island of the Seven 
 Cities ; regarded the projected cruise as a crack-brained freak ; 
 looked witli angry eye and internal heart-burning on the con- 
 duct of his intended son-in-law, chaffering away solid lands for 
 lands in the moon, and scofRngly dubbed him Adelantado of 
 Lubberlaud. In fact, he had never really relished the intended 
 match, to which his consent had been slowly extorted by the 
 tears and entreaties of his daughter. It is true he could have 
 no reasonable objections to the youth, for Don Fernando was 
 the very flower of Portuguese chivalry. No one could excel 
 him at the tilting match, or the riding at the ring ; none was 
 more bold and dexterous in the bull-fight ; none composed more 
 gallant madrigals in praist of his lady's charms, or sang them 
 with sweeter tones to the accompaniment of her guitar; nor 
 could any one handle the castanets and dance the bohro with 
 more captivating grace. All these admirable qualities and 
 endowments, however, though they had been sufficient to win 
 the heart of Serafina, were nothing in the eyes of her unreason- 
 
 :i 
 
 f 
 
 ■' } 
 
 *> 
 
 k 
 
 
 E- 1 
 
 ^■f^ 1 
 
 ■ ;!■ 1 
 
 MK 
 
56 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 • i i 
 
 ■f 
 
 able father. O Cupid, god of Love ! why will fathers always 
 be 80 unreasonable ! 
 
 The engagement to Serafina had threatened at first to throw 
 an obstacle in the way of the expedition of Don Fernando, and 
 for a time perplexed liim in the extreme. He was passionately 
 attached to the young lady ; but he was also passionately bent 
 on this romantic enterprise. How should he reconcile the two 
 passionate inclinations ? A simple and obvious arrangement at 
 length presented itself : marry Serafina, enjoy a portion of the 
 honeymoon at ow^e. and defer the rest until his return from tlie 
 discovery of the Seven Cities ! 
 
 He hastened to make known this most excellent arrangement 
 to Don Ramiro, when the long-smothered wrath of the old cava- 
 lier burst forth in a storm about his ears. He reproached him 
 with being the dupe of wandering vagabonds and wild schemers, 
 and of squandering all his real possessions in pursuit of emi)ty 
 bubbles. Don Fernando was too sanguine a projector, and too 
 young a man, to listen tamely to such language. He acted 
 with what is technically called "becoming spirit." A higli 
 quarrel ensued ; Don Ramiro pronounced him a madman, and 
 forbade all farther intercourse with his daughter, until he should 
 give proof of returning sanity by abandoning this mad-cap en- 
 terprise ; while Don Fernando flung out of the house, more bent 
 than ever on the expedition, from the idea of triumphing over 
 the incredulity of the graybeard when he should return suc- 
 cessful. 
 
 Don Ramiro repaired to his daughter's chamber the moment 
 the youth had departed. He represented to her the sanguine, 
 unsteady character of her lover and the chimerical nature of 
 his schemes ; showed her the propriety of suspending all inter- 
 course with him until he should recover from his present luil- 
 lucination ; folded her to his bosom with parental fondness, 
 kissed the tear that stole down her cheek, and, as he left the 
 chamlxir, gently locked the door ; for althougli he was a fond 
 father, and had a high opinion of the sul)missive temper of his 
 child, he had a still higher opinion of the conservative virtues 
 of lock and key. Whether the damsel had been in any wise 
 shaken in her faith as to the schemes of her lover, and the 
 existence of the Island of the Seven Cities, by the sage repre- 
 rtcututions of her father, tn dition does not say ; but it is certain 
 that she became a firm believer the inomeut she heard him turn 
 the key in the lock. 
 
 Notwithstanding the interdict of Don Ramiro, therefore, and 
 his shrewd precautions, the intercourse of the lovers continued, 
 
 
 
'ES. 
 
 hers always 
 
 at to throw 
 rnando, and 
 passionately 
 )nately bent 
 ile the two 
 mgement at 
 rtion of the 
 irn from the 
 
 irrangoment 
 le old cava- 
 oachod him 
 d schemers, 
 it of empty 
 or, and too 
 He acted 
 A high 
 adman, and 
 il he shouhl 
 nad-cap en- 
 S more bent 
 iphing over 
 return suc- 
 
 the moment 
 e sanguine, 
 .1 nature of 
 ig all inter- 
 )resent luil- 
 1 fondness, 
 he left the 
 ivas a fond 
 Tiper of his 
 tive virtues 
 n any wise 
 ;r, and the 
 ?age repre- 
 it is certain 
 \ him turn 
 
 re fore, and 
 continued, 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 57 
 
 although clandestinely. Don Fernando toiled all day, hurrying 
 forward his nautical enterprise, while at night he would repair, 
 beneath the grated balcony of his mistress, to carry on at equal 
 pace the no less interesting enterprise of the heart. At length 
 the preparations for the exiK^dition were completed. Two gal- 
 lant caravels lay anchored in the Tagus, ready to sail with the 
 morning dawn ; while late at night, by the pale light of a wan- 
 ing moon, Don Fernando sought the stately mansion of Alvarez 
 to take a last farewell of Serafina. The customary signal of a 
 few low touches of a guitar brought her to the balcony. She 
 was sad at heart and full of gloomy forebodings ; but her lover 
 strove to impart to her his own buoyant hope and youthful con- 
 fidence. " A few short months," said he, " and I shall return 
 in triumph. Thy father will then blush at his mcredulity, and 
 will once more welcome me to his house, when I cross its thresh- 
 old a wealthy suitor i:xl Adelantndo of the Seven Cities." 
 
 The beautiful Serallna shook her head mournfully. It was 
 not on those points that slie felt doubt or dismay. She believed 
 most implicitly in the Island of the Seven Cities, and trusted 
 devoutly in the success of the enterprise ; but she had heard of 
 the inconstancy of the seas, and the inconstancy of those who 
 roam them. Now, let the truth be six)ken, Don Fernando, if 
 he had any fault in the world, it was that he was a little too 
 inflanima1)le ; that is to say, a little too subject to take fire from 
 the sparkle of every bright eye : he had been somewhat of a 
 rover among the sex on shore, what might he not be on sea? 
 Might he not meet with other loves in foreign ports? Might he 
 not behold some peerless beauty in one or other of those p<^ven 
 cities, who might efface the image of Serafina from his thoughts? 
 
 At length she vciiturcd lo hint her doubts; but Don Fernando 
 spurned at the very idea. Never could his heart be false ta 
 Serafina ! Never could another be captivating in his eyes ! — ■■ 
 never — never! Repeatedly did he bend his knee, and smite 
 his breast, and call upon the silver moon to witness the sincerity 
 of his vows. But might not Serafina, herself, be forgetful of 
 her plighted faith? Might not some wealthier rival present, 
 while he was tossing on the sea, and, backed by the authority 
 of her father, win the trea.sure of her hand ? 
 
 Alas, how little did he know Serafina's heart ! Ti^? dio;"? her 
 father should opix)se, the more would she be fixed in her faita. 
 Though years should pass before his return, he would find her 
 true to her vows. Even should the salt seas swallow him up, 
 (and her eyes streamed with salt tears at ihe very thought,) 
 
 never would she be the wife of another — never — never I She 
 
 
 :>;. 
 
 ■: : 
 
 
 I i>. 
 
 
 1 ■■!■ i 
 
 t-r-.^ »"»,^4 ■?^-^ai?»^.-t& -^^ 
 
58 
 
 WOLFERT'S liOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 m h 
 
 .'i " 
 
 raised her beautiful white arms between the iron bars of the 
 balcony, and involved the moon us a testimonial of her faitii. 
 
 Thus, according to immemorial usage, the lovers parted, with 
 many a vow of eternal constancy. But will they keep tliose 
 vows? Perish the doubt I Have they not called the constant 
 moon to witness? 
 
 With the morning dawn the caravels dropped down the Tagiis 
 and put to sea. They steered for the C^unaries, in those days 
 the regions of nautical romance. Scarcely had they reaciu-d 
 those latitudes, when a violent tempest arose. Don Fernundo 
 soon lost sight of the accompanying caravel, and was driven out. 
 of all reckoning by the fury of the storm. For several weary 
 days and nigiits he was tossed to and fro, at the niiTcy of 
 the elements, expecting each moment to he swallowed up. At 
 length, one day toward evening, the storm suiisided ; the clouds 
 cleared up, as though a veil had suddenly l)een withdrawn from 
 the face of heaven, and the setting sun hIioiic gloriously "ipoii 
 a fair and mountainouH island, that seemed close at hand. Thi; 
 tern pest- tossed mariners rubbed their eyes, and gazed almost 
 incredulously upon this land, tliat had emerged so suddenly from 
 the murky gloom ; yet tiiere it lay, spread out in lovely huid- 
 scapes ; enlivened by villages, and towers, and spires, wliih' ilio 
 late stormy sea rolled in peaceful billows to its shores. A 1 tout 
 a league from the sea, on the banks of a river, stood a noiili,' 
 city, with lofty walls and towers, and a protecting oastle. ihm 
 Fernando anchored off the mouth of the river, which ai)iwari'(| 
 to form a spacious harl)or. In a little while a barge wns seen 
 issuing from the river. It was evidently a barge of ceremony, 
 for it was richly though rpuiintly carved and gilt, and decorated 
 with a silken awning and tluttering streamers, while a banner, 
 bearing tlio sacred emblem of th.e cross, floated to the breeze. 
 The barge advanced slowly, impelled by sixteen oars, painted 
 of a iuight crimson. The oarsmen were uncouth, or rather 
 antique, in their garl), and kept stroke to the regular cadence of 
 an old Spanish ditty, lieneath the awning sat a cavalier, in a 
 rich though old-lashioned doublet, with an enormous sombrero 
 and featlier. 
 
 When the barge reached the caravel, the cavalier stepi)e(l 
 on board. He was tall and gaunt, with a long Spanish visage, 
 and lack-lustre eyes, and an air of lofty and somewhat pompous 
 gravity. His nmstaches wer<i curled up to his ears, his U-ard 
 was forked and precise ; h„' wore gauntlets that reached to his 
 ^ilbows, and a Toledo blaut that strutted out behind, while, 
 in front, its huge basket-hilt i»:'ght have served for a porringer. 
 
ES. 
 
 bars of the 
 
 er faith. 
 
 )jirte(l, witli 
 keep those 
 »e constant 
 
 the Tasus 
 those (lavs 
 le}' reaclinl 
 1 Feinandu 
 (h-iven out 
 veral weary 
 e mercy of 
 o<l up. At 
 ; the chjuds 
 flrawn from 
 iously 'ipuu 
 Kind. The 
 Lzed ahnost 
 hh'uly from 
 ovely huid- 
 s, while the 
 es. Ahoiit 
 ood a noliic 
 istle. i)oii 
 li appeared 
 ;e was seen 
 
 ceremony, 
 1 (leeor.'iled 
 ? a Ijanner, 
 the breeze, 
 rs, painted 
 , or rather 
 cadence of 
 k'alier, in a 
 s sombrero 
 
 er stepped 
 
 Ish visaue, 
 it pompous 
 , his iK'ard 
 [!hed to his 
 nd, while, 
 porringer. 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 69 
 
 Thrusting out a long spindle leg, and taking off his sombrero 
 with a grave and stately sweep, he saluted Don Fernando by 
 name, and welcomed him, in old Castiiian language, and in the 
 style of old Castiiian courtesy. 
 
 Don Fernando was startled at hearing himself accosted by 
 name, by an utter stranger, in a strange land. As soon as he 
 could recover from his surprise, he inquired what land it was at 
 which he had arrived. 
 
 " The Island of the Seven Cities ! " 
 
 Could this be true ? Had he indeed been thus tempest-driven 
 upon the very land of which he was in quest? It was even so. 
 The other caravel, from which he had been separated in the 
 storm, had made a neighboring port of the island, and an- 
 nounced the tidings of this expedition, which came to restore 
 the country to the great community of Christendom. The 
 whole island, he was told, was given up to rejoicings on the 
 happy event ; and they only awaited his arrival to acknowledge 
 allegiance to th^ crown of Portugal, and hail him as Adelantado 
 of the Seven Cities. A grand fete was to be solemnized that 
 very night in the palace of the Alcayde or governor of the city ; 
 who, on beholding the most opportune arrival of the caravel, 
 hail despatched his grand chamberlain, in his barge of state, to 
 conduct the future Adelantado to the ceremony. 
 
 Don Fernando could scarcely believe but that this was all a 
 dream. He fixed a scrutinizing gaze upon the grand chamber^ 
 lain, who, having delivered his message, stood in buckram dig- 
 nity, drawn up to ids full stature, curling his whiskers, stroking 
 his l)eard, ami looking down upon him with inexprcj^iuble lofti- 
 ness through his lack-lustre eyes. There was no doubting the 
 word of so grave and ceremonious a hidalgo. , 
 
 Don Fernando now arrayed himself in gala attire. He would 
 have launched his boat, and gone on Buore with his own men, 
 but he was informed the barge of state was expressly provided 
 for his accommodation, and, after the fete, would bring him 
 back to his ship ; in which, on the following day, he might enter 
 the harbor in l)entting style. He accordingly stepped into the 
 ba; ^e, and took his seat beneath the awning. The grand 
 chamberlain seated himself on the cushion opposite. The 
 rowers bent to their oars, and renewed their mournful old 
 ditty, and the gorgeous, but unwieldy barge moved slowly and 
 solemnly through the water. 
 
 The night closed in, befoic t'ley entered the river. They swept 
 along, past rock and promontory, each guarded by its tower. 
 The sentinels at every post challenged them as they passed by. 
 
 1} 
 
 fi-i 
 
60 
 
 WOLFERrS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 11 
 
 "Who goes there?" 
 
 "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities." 
 
 "He is welcome. Pass on." 
 
 On entering the harbor, they rowed close 
 
 alons: 
 
 an armed 
 
 i^ 
 
 galley, of the most ancient form. Soldiers with cross-bows 
 were stationed on the deck. 
 
 " Who goes there? " was again demanded. 
 
 " The Adelantado of the Seven Citias." 
 
 " He is wercome. Pass on." 
 
 They landed at a broad flight of stone steps, leading up, be- 
 tween two massive towers, to the water-gate of the city, at 
 which they knocked for admission. A sentinel, in an ancient 
 steel casque, looked over the wall. " Who is there? " 
 
 "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities." 
 
 The gate swung slowly open, grating \i[)on its rusty hinges. 
 They entered between two rows of irou-clad warriors, in bat- 
 tered armor, with cross-bows, battle-axes, and ancient maces, 
 and with faces as old-fashioned and rust}' as their armor. They 
 saluted Don Fernando in military style, but with perfect silence, 
 as he passed between their ranks. The city was illuminated, 
 ~ut in such manner as to give a more shadowy and solemn 
 effect to its old-time architecture. There were bonfires in the 
 principal streets, with groups about them in such old-fashioned 
 garbs, that they looked like the fantastic figures that roam tlie 
 streets in carnival time. Even the stately dames who gazed 
 from the balconies, which tliey had hung with antique tapestry, 
 looked more like effigies dressed up for a quaint mummery, 
 than like ladies in their fashionable attire. Every thing, in 
 short, l)ore the stamp of former ages, as if the world had sud- 
 denly rolled back a few centuries. Nor was this to be wondered 
 at. Had not the Island of tlie Seven Cities been for several 
 hundred years cut off from all communication with the rest of 
 the world, and was it not natural that the inhabitants should 
 retain many of the modes and customs brought here by their 
 ancestors ? 
 
 One ching certainly they had conserved ; the old-fashioned 
 Spanish gravity and stateliness. Thougli this was a time of 
 public rejoicing, and though Don Fernando was the object of 
 their gratulations, every thing was conducted with the mo^t 
 solemn ceremony, and wherever lie appeared, instead of accla- 
 mations, he was received with i)rofound silence, and the most 
 formal reverences and sw^yings of their sombreros. 
 
 Arrived at the palace of the Alcayde, the usual ceremonial 
 was repeated. The chamberlain knocked for admission. 
 
 II,. 
 
i£:s. 
 
 g an armed 
 cros8-bow3 
 
 ling up, he- 
 
 the city, at 
 
 an ancient 
 
 iisty hingeg. 
 iors, in bat- 
 ient maces, 
 mor. They 
 feet silence, 
 illuminated, 
 and solemn 
 afires in the 
 d-fashioned 
 at roam the 
 
 who gazed 
 ue tapestry, 
 
 mummery, 
 •y thing, in 
 •Id had sud- 
 )e wondered 
 
 for several 
 
 the rest of 
 ants should 
 re by their 
 
 d-fashioned 
 I a time of 
 e object of 
 h the mo^t 
 id of accb,- 
 d the most 
 
 ceremonial 
 ion. 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 ei 
 
 ♦* Who is there? " demanded the porter. 
 
 " The Adelantado of the Seven Cities." 
 
 " He is welcome. Pass on." 
 
 The grand portal was thrown open. The chamberlain led the 
 way up a vast but heavily moulded marble staircase, and so 
 through one of those interminable suites of apartments, that 
 are the pride of Spanish palaces. All were furnished in a style 
 of obsolete magnificence. As they passed through the cham- 
 bers, the title of Don Fernando was forwarded on by servants 
 stationed at every door; and everywhere produced the most 
 profound reverences and courtesies. At length they reached a 
 magnificent saloon, blazing with tapers, in which the Alcayde, 
 and the principal dignitaries of the city, were waiting to receive 
 their illustrious guest. The grand chamberlain presented Don 
 Fernando in due form, and falling back among the other 
 officers of the household, stood as usual curling his whiskers 
 and stroking his forked beard. 
 
 Don Fernando was received by the Alcayde and the other 
 dignitaries with the same stately and formal courtesy that he 
 had everywhere remarked. In fact, there was so much form 
 and ceremonial, that it seemed difficult to get at any thing 
 social or substantial. Nothing but bows, and compliments, and 
 old-fashioned courtesies. The Alcayde and his courtiers resem- 
 bled, in face and form, those quamt worthies to be seen in the 
 pictures of old illuminated manuscripts ; while the cavaliers 
 and dames who thronged the saloon, might have been taken 
 for the antique figures of gobelin tapestry suddenly vivified 
 and put in motion. 
 
 The banquet, which had been kept back until the arrival of 
 Don Fernando, was now announced ; and such a feast ! such 
 unknown dishes and obsolete dainties ; with the peacock, that 
 bird of state and ceremony, served up in full plumage, in a 
 golden dish, at the head of the table. And then, as Don Fer- 
 nando cast his eyes over the glittering board, what a vista of 
 odd heads and head-dresses, of formal bearded dignitaries, and 
 stately dames, with castellated locks and towering plumes ! 
 
 As fate would have it, on the other side of Don Fernando, 
 was seated the daughter of the Alcayde. She was arrayed, it 
 is true, in a dress that might have been worn before the Hood ; 
 but then, she had a melting black Andalusian eye, that was 
 perfectly irresistible. Her voice, too, her manner, her move- 
 ments, all smacked of Andalusia, and showed how female fas- 
 cination may be transmitted from age to age, and clime to 
 dime, without ever losing its power, or going out of fashion. 
 
82 
 
 WOLFEBT'S BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 {• « 
 
 
 Those who know the witchery of the sex, in that most amorous 
 region of old Spain, may judj^e what must iiave been the fusel- 
 nation to wliieh Don Fernando was exixjsed, when seated beside 
 one of the most captivating of its descendants. He was, as ims 
 already been hinted, of an inflammable temperament ; with a 
 heart ready to get in a light blaze at every instant. And then 
 he hud l)een so wearied by pompous, tedious old cavaliers, with 
 their formal lx)ws and speeches ; is it to be wondered at that lie 
 turned with delight to the Alcayde's daughter, all smiles, ami 
 dimples, and melting looks, and melting accents? Besides, for 
 I wish to give him every excuse in my power, he was in a par- 
 ticularly excitable moml, from the novelty of the scene belore 
 him, and his head Wiis almost turned with this sudden and 
 complete realization of all his hopes and fancies ; and then, in 
 the flurry of the moment, he had taken frequent draughts at 
 the wine-cup, presented him at every instant by officious pages, 
 nnd all the world knows the eflfect of such draughts in giving 
 potency to female charms. In a word, there is no concealing 
 the matter, the banquet wius not half over, before Don Fernan- 
 do was making love, outright, to the Alcayde's daughter. It 
 was his old habitude, contracted long before his matrimonial 
 engagement. The young lady hung her head coyly ; her eye 
 rested upon a ruby heart, sparkling in a ring on the hand of 
 Don Fernando, a parting gage of love from Serafina. A blush 
 crimsoned her very temples. She darted a glance of doubt at 
 the ring, anil then at Don Fernando. He read her doubt, and 
 in the giddy intoxication of the moment, drew off the pledge of 
 his affianced bride, and slipped it on the Qugc/ of the Alcayde's 
 daughter. 
 
 At this moment the banquet broke up. The chamberlain 
 with his lofty demeanor, and his lack-lustre eyes, stood before 
 him, and announced that the barge was waiting to conduct him 
 back to the caravel. Don Fernando took a formal leave of the 
 Alcayde and his dignitaries, and a tender farewell of the Al- 
 oayde s daughter, with a promise to throw himself at her feet 
 on the following day. He was rowed back to his vessel in the 
 same slow and stately manner, to the cadence of the! same 
 mournful old ditty. He retired to his cabin, his brain whirling 
 with all that he had seen, and his heart now and then giving 
 lilm a twinge us he recollected his temporary infidelity to the 
 beautiful Seraliuu. He flung himself on his bed, and soon fell 
 into a feverish sleep. His dreams were wild and incoherent. 
 Hov/ long he slept he knew not, but when b" awoke he found 
 himself in a strange cubiu, with persouii aruuud him of whom 
 
flES. 
 
 nost amorous 
 eeii the fusci- 
 soiited besido 
 
 Wiis, as has 
 nent ; with a 
 
 And then 
 iivaliers, with 
 •ed at that he 
 
 1 smiles, and 
 IJesides, for 
 
 was in a par- 
 scene before 
 sudden and 
 and then, in 
 drauglits at 
 licious pafjes, 
 :lits in <r\\'n\(r 
 lo coueealiu"]; 
 Don Feruaii- 
 hiuojliter. It 
 matrimonial 
 yly ; her eye 
 tiie hand of 
 na. A blush 
 e of doubt at 
 'r doubt, and 
 the pledfie of 
 ;he Alcayile's 
 
 chamberlain 
 stood before 
 » conduct him 
 1 leave of the 
 '11 of the Al- 
 f at her feet 
 
 vessel in the 
 of tli(! same 
 train whirl inij 
 [ then t;'iviii!^ 
 idelity to tliif 
 and soon fell 
 1 incoherent, 
 jke he found 
 lim of whom 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 68 
 
 he hftd no knowledgv-^. He rubbed his eyes to ascertain \, lether 
 he were really awRKe. In reply to his inquiries, he was in- 
 formed that he was on Iward of a Portuguese ship, bound to 
 Lisbon ; having been taken senseless from a wreck drifting 
 ftl)out the ocean. 
 
 Don Fernando was confounded and perplexed. He retraced 
 every thing distinctly that had happened to him in the Island 
 of the Seven Cities, and until he had retired to rest on board of 
 the caravel. Had his \e8sel been driven from her anchors, and 
 wrecked during his sleep? The people about him could give 
 him no information on the subject. He talked to them of the 
 Island of the Seven Cities, and of all that had befallen him there. 
 They regarded his words as the ravings of delirium, and in 
 their honest solicitude, administered such rough remedies, that 
 he was fain to drop the subject, and observe a cautious taci- 
 turnity. 
 
 At length they arrived in the Tagus, and anchored before the 
 famous city of Lislx)n. Don Fernando sprang joyfully on 
 shore, and hastened to his ancestral mansion. To his surprise, 
 it was inhabited by strangers ; and when he asked about his 
 family, no one could give him any information concerning 
 them. 
 
 He now sought the mansion of Don Ramiro, for the tempo- 
 rary flame kindled by the bright eyes of the Alcayde's daughter 
 had long since burnt itself out, and his genuine passion for 
 Soraflna had revived with all its fervor. He approached the 
 balcony, beneath which he had so often serenaded her. Did 
 his eyes deceive him ? No ! There was Serafma herself at the 
 balcony. An exclamation of rapture burst from him, as he 
 raised his arms toward her. She cast upon him a look of indig- 
 nation, and hastily retiring, closed the casement. Could she 
 have heard of his flirtation with the Alcayde's daughter? He 
 would soon dispel every doubt of his constancy. The door was 
 open. He rushed up-stairs, and entering the room, thrt.v him- 
 self at her feet. She shrank back with affright, and took 
 refuge in the arms of a youthful cavalier. 
 
 '' What mean you, Sir," cried the latter, " by this iutiu- 
 sion .'' 
 
 '* Wliat right have you," replied Don Fernando, "to ask 
 the question? " 
 
 " The right of an affianced suitor ! " 
 
 Don Fernando started, and turned pale. "Oh, Serafina ! 
 Serafma! " cried he in a tone of agony, "L this thy plighted 
 constancy ? ' ' 
 
 i 
 
 *■ 
 
 M 
 
64 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 " Seraflna? — what moan you by Sorafina? If it l)e tliis 
 young lady you intend, her name is Maria." 
 
 *' Is not this Seralina Alvarez, and is not that her portrait?" 
 cried Don Fernando, pointing to a picture of his mistress. 
 
 "Holy Virgin!" cried the young lady; "he is talking of 
 my great-grandn)other ! " 
 
 An explanation ensued, if that could be called an explana- 
 tion, which plunged the unfortunate Fernando into tenfold 
 perplexity. If he might believe his eyes, he saw before him 
 his beloved Serafiua ; if he might lx.'lieve his ears, it was merely 
 her hereditary form and features, perpetuated in the person of 
 her great-granddaughter. 
 
 His bram began to spin. He sought the ofllco of the Min- 
 ister of Marine, and maile a report of his expedition, and of the 
 Island of the Seven Cities, which he had so fortunately discov- 
 ered. Nobotly knew any thing of such an expedition, or sucli 
 an island. He declared that he had undertaken the enterprise 
 under a formal contract with the crown, and had receivt'(l a 
 regular commission, constituting him Adelantado. This must 
 be matter of record, and he insisted loudly, that the books of 
 the department should l)e consulted. The wordy strife at length 
 attracted the attention of an old, gray-headed clerk, wiio sat 
 perched on a high stool, at a high desk, with iron-rimmed spec- 
 tacles on the top of a thin, pinched nose, copying records into 
 an enormous folio. He had wintered and summered in the 
 department for a great i)art of a century, until he had almost 
 grown to be a piece of the desk at which he sat ; his memory 
 was a mere index of official facts and documents, and his brain 
 was little better than red tape and parchment. After pecriu;^ 
 down for a time from his lofty perch, and ascertaining the mat- 
 ter in controversy, he put his i)en behind his ear, and de- 
 scended. He remembered to have heard something from his 
 predecessor about an expedition of the kind in question, but 
 then it had sailed during the reign of Don loam II., and he had 
 been dead at least a hundred years. To pui the matter Ix^yond 
 dispute, however, the archives of the Torve do Tombo, that 
 sepulchre of old Portuguese documents, were diligently searched, 
 and a record was found of a contract between the crown and 
 one Fernando de Ulmo, for the discovery of the Island of the 
 Seven Cities, and of a commission s(!cured to him as Adelan- 
 tado of the country he might discover. 
 
 "There!" cried Don Fernando, triumphantly, "there you 
 nave proof, before your own eyes, of v.'hat I have said. I am 
 the Fernando de Ulmo specified in that record. I have diseov- 
 
lES. 
 
 f It be this 
 
 r iKirtrait: " 
 
 istrcss. 
 
 is tiiliviii}:; of 
 
 ftti cxplaiiiv- 
 
 into tenfold 
 
 f boforo liiin 
 
 it was nu'iely 
 
 he peison of 
 
 of the Min- 
 in, antl of tlio 
 lately discov- 
 ition, or sucli 
 be enterprise 
 (1 received a 
 . This must 
 tiie l)(K)l<s of 
 :rife at lencjili 
 lerl\, wliu sat 
 rimmed spec- 
 records into 
 Tiere<l in the 
 ^ had almost 
 ; his memory 
 and ills brain 
 /Vfter peeriiiij; 
 nin<j; tlie mat- 
 ear, and de- 
 ling from liis 
 question, but 
 ., and he had 
 natter l)eyond 
 Tombo, that 
 ntly searelied, 
 le crown and 
 [shind of the 
 n as Adelau- 
 
 " there you 
 said. I am 
 have diseov- 
 
 THE ENCHANTED ISLAND. 
 
 66 
 
 ered the Island of the Seven Cities, and am entitled to be 
 Adelantado, according to the contract." 
 
 The story of Don Fernando had certainly, what is [ironounced 
 the best of historical foundation, documentary evidence ; but 
 when a man, in the bloom of youth, talked of events that had 
 taken place above a century previously, as having happened to 
 himself, it is no wonder that he was set down for a madman. 
 
 The old clerk looked at him from above and below his spec- 
 tacles, shrugged his shoulders, stroked his chin, reascended his 
 lofty stool, took the pen from behind his ear, and resumed his 
 daily and eternal task, copying records into the lit'tieth volume 
 of a series of gigantic folios. The other clerks winked at each 
 otiier shrewdly, and dispersed to their several places, and poor 
 Don Fernando, thus left to himself. Hung out of the ollice, 
 almost driven wild by these repeated perplexities. 
 
 In the confusion of his mind, he instinctively repaired to the 
 mansion of Alvarez, but it was barred against him. To break 
 the delusion under which the youth apparently labored, and to 
 convince him that the Serafina about whom he raved was 
 really dead, he was conducted to her tomb. There she lay, a 
 stately matron, cut out in alabaster ; and there lay her husband 
 beside her ; a portly cavalier, in armor ; and there knelt, on 
 each side, the efligies of a numerous progeny, proving that she 
 had been a fruitful vine. Even the very monument gave proof 
 of the lapse of time, for the hands of her husi)and, which were 
 folded as if in prayer, had lost their fingers, and the face of the 
 once lovely Serafina was noseless. 
 
 Don Fernando felt a transient glow of indignation at behold- 
 ing this monumental proof of the inconstancy of his mistress ; 
 but who could expect a mistress to remain constant during a 
 whole century of absence? And what right had he to rail 
 al)out constancy, after what had passed between him and the 
 Alcayde's daughter? The unfortunate cavalier performed one 
 pious act of tender devotion ; he had the alabaster nose of 
 Serafina restored by a skilful statuary, and then tore himself 
 from the tomb. 
 
 He could now no longer doubt the fact that, somehow or 
 other, he had skipped over a whole centur^ , during the night 
 he had spent at the Island of the Seven Cities ; and he was now 
 as complete a stranger in his native city, as if he had never 
 been there. A thousand times did he wish himself back to 
 that wonderful island, with its antKjuated basKiuet halls, where 
 had been so courteously received ; and now that tiie ouee 
 
 /le 
 
 young and beautiful Serafina was nothing but y great-graud- 
 
 w 
 
 i, ? 
 
66 
 
 WOLFEET'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ■ u 
 
 mother in marble, with generations of desocnclants, a thousand 
 times would he recall the niclting black eyes of the Ak^ayde's 
 daughter, who doubtless, like himself, was still (lourishiiiir in 
 fresh juvenility, and breathe a secret wisli that he were sealed 
 by her side. 
 
 He would at once have set on foot another expedition, at his 
 own expense, to cruise in search of the sainted island, hut liis 
 means were exhausted. He endeavored to rouse others to tlie 
 enterprise, setting forth the certainty of profitable results, of 
 which his own experience furnished sach unquestionable proof. 
 Alas ! no one would give faith to his tale ; but looked upon it 
 as the feverish dream of a shipwrecked man. He persisted 
 in his efforts ; holding forth in all places and all coinpanii-s, 
 until he became an object of jest and jeer to the light-niindcd, 
 who mistook his earnest enthusiasm for a proof of insanity ; .unl 
 the very children in the streets bantered him with the title of 
 " The Adelantado of the Seven Cities." 
 
 Finding all his efforts in vain, in his native city of Lisbon, 
 he took siiipping for the Canaries, as being nearer the latitude 
 of his former cruise, and inhabited by people given to nautical 
 adventure. Here he found ready listeners to his story ; for tlia 
 old pilots and mariners of those parts were notorious island- 
 hunters and devout believers in all the wonders of the sias. 
 Indeed, one and all treated his adventure as a common occnr- 
 rence, and turning to eacli other, with a sagacious nod of the 
 head, observed, " He has- been at the Island of St. Hrandan." 
 
 They then went on to inform him of that great marvel and 
 enigma of the ocean ; of its repeated appearance to the inhab- 
 itants of their islands ; and of the many l)ut ineffectual expedi- 
 tions that had been made in search of it. They took him to 
 a promontory of the island of Palma, from wlienee the shadowy 
 iSt. Brandan had oftenest been descried, and they pointed out 
 the very tract in the west where its mountains had been see'i. 
 
 Don Fernando listened with rapt attention. He had no longer 
 a doubt that this mysterious and fugacious island must be the 
 same with that of the Seven Cities ; and that there must he 
 some supernatural influence connected with it, that had operated 
 upon himself, and made the events of a night occupy the space 
 of a century. 
 
 He endeavored, but in vain, to rouse the islanders to another 
 attempt at discovery ; they had given up tlie phantom island iis 
 indeed inaccessible. Fernando, however, was not to be dis- 
 couraged. The idea wore itself deeper and deeper in his mini!. 
 until it became thp engrossing subject of his thoughts aiid uhjui 
 
 m\R 
 
IE8. 
 
 a thousand 
 e Alcaydc's 
 oui'lsliiii;!; in 
 were seated 
 
 ition, at liis 
 and, hut his 
 thers to tlie 
 ; results, of 
 nal)le i)i()of, 
 •Ived upon it 
 le persisted 
 i companies, 
 ight-niinded, 
 nsanity ; and 
 the title of 
 
 y of Lisbon, 
 the latitiide 
 1 to nautical 
 ory ; for tlio 
 rious island- 
 of the seas. 
 mnion oecnr- 
 =i nod of tiie 
 Hrandan." 
 ', marvel and 
 ,0 the inhah- 
 ctual expedi- 
 took him to 
 the shadowy 
 y pointed out 
 been seeii. 
 lad no lonfi;er 
 must be the 
 lere nuist be 
 had operated 
 ipy the s[)ae(' 
 
 rs to another 
 cm island as 
 >t to be dis- 
 r in his mim!. 
 its and objeel 
 
 NATIONAL NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 67 
 
 of his being. Every morning he would repair to the promontory 
 of Palma, and sit there throughout the live-long day, in hopes of 
 seeing the fairy mountains of St. Brandan peering above the 
 horizon ; every evening he returned to his home, a disappointed 
 man, but ready to resume his jjost on the following morning. 
 
 His assiduity was all in vain. He grew gray in his ineffec- 
 tual attempt ; and was at length found dead at his post. His 
 grave is still shown in the island of Palma, and a cross is erected 
 on the spot where he used to sit and look out upon the sea, in 
 hopes of the reappearance of the enchanted island. 
 
 NATIONAL NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 To THE EdITOU op THE KnICKERBOCKEK. 
 
 Sir : I am somewhat of the same way of thinking, in regard 
 to names, with that profound philosopher, Mr. Shandy, the 
 elder, who maintained that some inspired high thoughts and 
 heroic aims, while others entailed irretrievable meanness and 
 vulgarity : insomuch that a man might sink under the insig- 
 nificance of his name, and be tibsolutely " Nicodemused into 
 nothing." I have ever, therefore, thougiit it a great hardship 
 for a man to be obliged to struggle through life with some ridic- 
 ulous or ignoble Christian name, as it is too often falsely called, 
 indicted on iiim in infancy, when he could not choose for him- 
 self ; and would give him free liberty to change it for one more 
 to his taste, when he had arrived at years of discretion. 
 
 I have the same notion with respect to local names. Some at 
 once prepossess us in favor of a place ; others repel us, by un- 
 lucky associations of the n.ind ; and I have known scenes worthy 
 of being the very haunt of poetry and romance, yet doomed to 
 ^•retrieval)le vulgarity, by some ill-chosen name, which not even 
 Jie magic numbers of a Halleck or a Bkvant could elevate into 
 loetieal acceptation. 
 
 This is an evil unfortunately too prevalent throughout our 
 eountry. Nature has stamped che land with features of sub- 
 limity and beauty ; but some of our noblest mountains and love- 
 liest streams are in danger of remaining forever unhonored 
 and unsung, from bearing appellations totally abhorrent to the 
 Mi'se. In the first place, our country is deluged with names 
 taken from places in the old world, and applied to places having 
 no possible atliuity or resemblance to their namesakes. Thia 
 
 ■ f 
 
 m ) 
 
58 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 / 
 
 betokens a forlorn poverty of invention, and a second-hand 
 spirit, content to cover its nakedness with borrowed or cast-off 
 clothes of P^uropp 
 
 Then we liave a shallow affectation of scholarship : the whole 
 catalogue of ancient worthies is shaken out from the back of 
 LerapriCsre's Classical J^ictionary, and a wide region of wild 
 country sprinkled over with the names of the heroes, poets, 
 and sages of antiquity, jumbled into the most whimsical jii.\ta- 
 position. Then we have our political god-fathers; topograplii- 
 eal engineers, i)erhaps, or persons employed by government tc 
 survey and lay out townships. These, forsooth, glorify the 
 patrons that give them br^'ad ; so we have the names of the 
 great oflleial men of the day scattered over the land, as if they 
 were the real " salt of tiie earth," with which it was to be sea- 
 soned. Well for us is it, when these oHicial great men happen to 
 have names of fair acceptation ; but woe unto us, should a Tuhbs 
 or a Potts be in power : we are sure, in a little wliile, to lind 
 Tubbsvilles and Pottsylvanias springing up in every direction. 
 
 Under these melancholy dispensations of taste and loyalty, 
 therefore, Mr. Editor, it is with a feeling of dawning hope, that 
 I have lately perceived the attention of persons of intelligence 
 beginning to be awakened on this subject. I trust if the mat- 
 ter should once be taken up, it will not be readily abandoned. 
 We are yet young enough, as a country, to remedy and reform 
 much of wiiat has been done, and to release many of our rising 
 towns and cities, and our noble streams, from names calculatetl 
 to vulgarize the land. 
 
 I have, on a former occasion, suggested the expediency of 
 searching out the original Indian names of places, and wherever 
 they are striking and euphonious, and those hy which they have 
 been superseded are glaringly objectionable, to restore tliem. 
 They would have the merit of originality, and of belonging to 
 the country ; and they would remain as relics of the native h)r*l.-5 
 of the soil, when every other vestige had disappeared. Many 
 of these names may easily be regained, by reference to old title 
 deeds, and to the archives of states and counties. In my own 
 case, by examining tlie records of tiie county clerk's ollice, I 
 have discovered the Indian names of various places and objects 
 in the neighborhood, and have found them infinitely superior to 
 the trite, poverty-stricken names which had been given by the 
 settlers. A beautiful pastoral stream, for instance, wnicli winds 
 for many a mile through one of the loveliest little valleys in the 
 Btate, has long been known by the common-place name of the 
 *' Suw-raill Kivf." In t^e old Jndiun grants, it is designated 
 
ES. 
 
 NA TIONA L NOMENCLA TUBE. 
 
 econd-hand 
 1 or cast-off 
 
 the whole 
 the back of 
 ion of wild 
 roes, poets, 
 isieal jiiAta- 
 topograplii. 
 i^ernnK'iit Ic 
 glorify tlie 
 lines of the 
 , as if they 
 s to be sea- 
 n happen to 
 )nhl a Tubbs 
 lile, to (iiul 
 direction, 
 and loyalty, 
 g hope, that 
 intelligence 
 if the mat- 
 abandoned, 
 and reform 
 )f onr rising 
 IS calculated 
 
 :pediency of 
 nd wherever 
 L'h they have 
 .'Store tliem. 
 belonging to 
 native IokU 
 ired. Many 
 e to old title 
 In my own 
 rk's ollice, I 
 I and objects 
 y superior to 
 !j;iven by the 
 wmcli winds 
 'alleys in the 
 name of the 
 is designated 
 
 as the Neperan. Another, a perfectly wizard stream, which 
 winds through the wildest recesses of Sleepy Hollow, bears the 
 humdrum name of Mill Creek ; in the Indian grants, it sustains 
 the euphonious title of the Pocantico. 
 
 Similar researches have released Long Island from many of 
 'hose paltry and vulgar names which fringed its beautiful shores ; 
 tteir Cow Bays, and Cow Necks, and Oyster Ponds, and Mos- 
 quito Coves, which spread a speil of vulgarity over the whole 
 island, and kept persons of taste and fancy at a distance. 
 
 It would be an object worthy the attention of the historical 
 societies, which are springing up in various parts of the Union, 
 to have maps executed of their respective states or neighbor- 
 hoods, in which all the Indian local names should, as far as 
 possible, be restored. In fact, it appears to me that the nomen- 
 clature of the country is almost of sufficient importance for the 
 foundation of a distinct society ; or rather, a corresponding 
 association of persons of taste and judgment, of all parts of the 
 Union. Such an association, if properly constituted and com- 
 posed, comprising especially all the literary talent of the coun- 
 try, though it might not have legislative power in its enactments, 
 yet would have the all-pervading power of the press ; and the 
 changes in nomenclature which it might dictate, being at once 
 adopted by elegant writers in prose and poetry, and interwoven 
 rt'ith the literature of the country, would ultimately pass into 
 popular currency. 
 
 Should such a reforming association arise, I beg to recommend 
 to its attention all those mongrel names that have the adjec- 
 tive New prefixed to them, and pray they may be one and all 
 kicked out of the country. I am for none of these second-hand 
 appellations, that stamp us a second-hand people, and that are 
 to perpetuate us a new country to the end of time. Odds my 
 life ! Mr. Editor, I hope and trust we are to live to be an old 
 nation, as well as our neighbors, and have no idea that our 
 cities, when they shall have attained to venerable antiquity, 
 3hall still be dul)bed New York, and New London, and new this 
 and vew that, like the Pont-Neuf, (the New Bridge,) at Paris, 
 which is the oldest bridge in that capital, or like the vicar of 
 Wakefield's horse, which continued to be called " the colt," 
 until he died of old age. 
 
 Speaking of New York, reminds me of some observations 
 which I met with some time since, in one of the public papers, 
 about the name of our state and city. The writer proposes to 
 8ubstituLe for the present names, those of the State of Ontario, 
 and the City op Manha'itan. I concur in his suggestion most 
 
 Mi 
 
ff, 
 
 ro 
 
 WOLFERT^S noOST ANP MtSCSLLANIES. 
 
 M 
 
 H :■■ 
 
 I 
 
 n ! 
 
 11 
 
 heartily. Though born and brought up in the city of New 
 York, and though I love every stick and stone about it, yet I do 
 not, nor ever did, relish its name. I like neither its sound nor 
 its significance. As to its significance^ the very adjective new 
 gives to our great commercial metropolis a second-hand char- 
 acter, as if referring to some older, more dignified, and impor- 
 tant place, of which it was a mere copy ; though in fact, if I 
 am rightly Informed, the whole name comm.emorates a grant 
 by Charles II. to his brother, the Duke of York, made in the 
 spirit of royal munificence, of a tract of country which did not 
 belong to him. As to the sound, whal can you make of it, 
 either in poetry or prose ? New York ! Why, Sir, if it were to 
 share the fate of Troy itself ; to suffer a ten years' siege, and be 
 sacked and plundered ; no modern Homer would ever be able 
 to elevate the name to epic dignity. 
 
 Now, Sir, Ontario would be a name worthy of the empire 
 state. It bears with it the majesty of that internal sea which 
 washes our northwestern shore. Or, if any objection should be 
 made, from its not being completely embraced within our boun- 
 daries, there is the Moiiegan, one of the Indian names for tliat 
 glorious river, the Hudson, which would furnish an excellent 
 state appellation. So also New York might be called Manhatta, 
 as it is named in some of the early records, and Manhattan used 
 as the adjective. Manhattan, however, stands well as a sub- 
 stantive, and " Manhattanese," which I observe Mr. Cooper 
 has adopted in some of his writings, would be a very good 
 appellation for a citizen of the commercial metroiX)lis. 
 
 A word or two more, Mr. p]ditor, and I have done. We 
 want a national name. We want it poetically, and we want 
 it politically. With the poetical necessity of the case I shall 
 not trouble myself. I leaie it to our poets to tell how they 
 manage to steer that collocation of words, "The United States 
 of North America," down the swelling tide of song, and to 
 float the whole raft out upon *he sea of heroic poesy. I am 
 uov* speaking of the mere purposes of common life. How is 
 a citizen of this republic to designate himself? As an Ameri- 
 can? There are two Americas, each subdivided into various 
 empires, rapidly rising in importance. As a citizen of the 
 United States? It is a clumsy, lumlx'ring title, yet still it is 
 not distinctive ; for we have now the United States of Central 
 America; and heaven knows how many " United States" may 
 spring up under the Proteus changes of Spanish America. 
 
 This may appear matter of small concernment ; biit uny one 
 that has travelled in foreign countries must be conscious of the 
 
 . I 
 
ity of New 
 t it, yet I do 
 :s sound nor 
 Ijective new 
 -hand char- 
 and irapor- 
 in fact, if I 
 ites a grant 
 nade in the 
 bicli did not 
 make of it, 
 if it were to 
 iege, and be 
 iver be able 
 
 the empire 
 il sea which 
 in should be 
 in our boun- 
 mes for that 
 an excellent 
 [I Manhatta, 
 ihattan used 
 '11 as a sub- 
 Mr. COOI'ER 
 
 i very good 
 is. 
 
 done. We 
 md we want 
 case I shall 
 ?11 how they 
 nited States 
 3ug, and to 
 oosy. I am 
 fe. How is 
 3 an Amori- 
 into various 
 tizen of the 
 et still it is 
 3 of Central 
 states " may 
 acrica. 
 luiL iiuy one 
 jcious of the 
 
 NATIONAL NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 71 
 
 embarrassment and circumlocution sometimes occasioned by the 
 want of a perfectly distinct and explicit national appellation. 
 In France, when I have announced myself as an American, 
 1 have been supposed to belong to one of the French colonies ; 
 in Spain, to be from Mexico, or Peru, or some other Spanish- 
 American country. Repeatedly I have found myn !f involved in a 
 long geographical and political definition of my national identity. 
 
 Now, Sir, meaning no disrespect to any of our co-heirs of 
 this great quarter of the world, I am for none of this copar- 
 ceny in a name that is to mingle us up with the riff-raff colonies 
 and off sets of every nation of Europe. The title of American 
 may serve to tell the quarter of the world to which I belong, 
 the same as a Frenchman or an Englishman may call himself a 
 European ; but I want my own peculiar national name to rally 
 under. I want an appellation that shall tell at once, and in a 
 way not to be mistaken, that I belong to this very portion of 
 America, geographical and political, to which it is my pride 
 and happiness to belong ; that I am of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 which founded this Anglo-Saxon empire in the wilderness ; and 
 that I have no part or parcel with any other race or empire, 
 Spanish, French, or Portuguese, in either of the Americas. 
 Such an appellation, Sir, would have magic in it. It would 
 bind every part of the confederacy together as with a key- 
 stone ; it would be a passport to the citizen of our republic 
 throughout the world. 
 
 We have it in our power to furnish ourselves with such a 
 national appellation, from one of the grand and eternal fea- 
 tures of our country ; from that noble chain of mountains 
 which formed its back-bone, and ran through the " old con- 
 federacy," when it first declared our national independence. 
 I allude to the Appalachian or Alleghany mountains. We 
 might do this without any very inconvenient change in our 
 present titles. We might still use the phrase, "The United 
 States," substituting Appalachia, or Alleghania, (I should 
 prefer the latter,) in place of America. The title of Appa- 
 lachian, or AUeghanian, would still announce us as Americans, 
 but would specify us as citizens of the Great Republic. Even 
 our old national cipher of U. S. A. might remain unaltered, 
 designating the United States of Alleghania. 
 
 These are crude ideas, Mr. Editor, hastily thrown out to 
 elicit the ideas of others, and to call attention to a subject 
 of more national importance than may at first be supposed. 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON 
 
 .1'! 
 
 = U 
 
72 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 DESULTORY THOUGHTS ON CRITICISM. 
 
 i < V: 
 
 " Letanmn write never eo well, there are now-a-days a Hort of perHons they call crltlco, 
 tkat, egad, uave no more wit in thora tliiiii bo many liobliy lioi wcrt : hut they'll laugh i\t 
 yon, Sir, and find fault, and pcnsiire tliiMpH, that, t'Kail, I'm hhic they arc not abli- tn 
 do theraselven ; a Bort of cnviouH porBotiB, that emulate t ho «lorie» of personri of parts, 
 and think to hnild their fame by calumniation of pcrsoiiB that, eRud, to my krinwledse, 
 oj all perBonn in the world, are in nature the perBons that do an iriuch deBpiite all that, 
 as — a — In fine, I'll say no more of 'em '. " — 11eiieau»al. 
 
 All the world knows the story of the tempest-toHsed voy- 
 ager, who, coraiug upon a strauge coast, and seeing a man 
 hanging in chains, hailed it with joy, as the sign of a eivili/A'd 
 country. In like manner we may hail, as a proof of the rapid 
 advancement of civilization and lellnenient iu this etninti-y, tho 
 increasing number of delinquent authors daily giblieted for the 
 edification of the public. 
 
 In this respect, as in every other, we are " going aheati " with 
 accelerated velocity, and promising to outstrip the superannu- 
 ated countries of Europe. It is really astonishing to see tlic 
 number of tribunals incessantly springing up for the trial of 
 literary offences. Independent of the high eouils of Oyer mid 
 Terminer, the great quarterly veviews, we have innuineraldi! 
 minor tribunals, monthly and weekly, down lo the Tie-poudre 
 courts in the daily papers ; insomuch that no culprit stands so 
 little chance of escaping castigation, as an unlucky author, 
 guilty of an unsuccessful attempt to plea-se the public. 
 
 Seriously speaking, however, it is qutstionable whether our 
 national literature is sufficiently advanced, to bear this excess 
 of criticism ; and whetlier it would not thrive better, if allowed 
 to spring up, for some time longer, in the freshness and vigor 
 of native vegetation. Wlien the worthy Judge Coulter, of 
 Virginia, opened court for the first time in one of tlie upper 
 counties, he was for enforcing all the rules antl regulations that 
 had grown into use in the old, long-settled counties. '' Tliis is 
 all very well," said a shrewd old farmer ; •' but let me tell you, 
 Judge Coulter, yoi: set your coulter too deep for a new soil." 
 
 For my part, I doubt whetlier either wiiter or leader is 
 benefited by what is commonly called criticism. The former 
 is rendered cautious and distrustful ; he ftiars to give wa}' to 
 those kindling emotions, and brave sallies of thought, which 
 bear him up to excellence ; the latter is made fastidious and 
 cynical; or rather, he surreudei's his own independent taste and 
 judgment, and learns to like and dislike at second hand. 
 
 3 ! 
 
I'l 
 
 ES. 
 
 ISM. 
 
 I they call crltlcH, 
 
 they'll laugh at 
 are mil abk- to 
 n'lsons of parto, 
 I my knowlfd^p, 
 dcBpine all ibat, 
 
 ■toHsed voy- 
 eiujij a nia>i 
 f a elvili/i'd 
 Df the rapid 
 country, tin; 
 etetl for tlu.' 
 
 xheaci " with 
 ! suporamiu- 
 ^ to set.' lh(^ 
 the trial of 
 jf Oyi'r ;ui(l 
 iuiui)neral)K; 
 i Pie-poiuho 
 •it stands so 
 K'ky author, 
 ic. 
 whether our 
 
 this excess 
 1', if allowed 
 iS and vi;j;or 
 
 Coulter, of 
 )f the uppt.'i' 
 ilations that 
 ,. '' Tliis is 
 ine tell you, 
 new soil." 
 or readcjr is 
 
 The former 
 give way to 
 )Ught, which 
 stidious and 
 I'lit taste aud 
 land. 
 
 DESULTORY TnOUGIITS ON CRITICISM. 
 
 m 
 
 Let us, for t moment, consider the nature of this thing called 
 criticism, which exerts such a sway over the literary world. 
 The pronoun tve, used hy critics, has a most imposing aud 
 delusive sound. The reader pictures to himself a conclave of 
 learned men, deliberating gravely and scrupulously on the merits 
 of the book in question ; examining it page hy page, comparing 
 and balancing their opinions, and when they have united in a 
 conscientious verdict, publishing it for the benefit of the world : 
 whereas the criticism is generally the crude and hasty production 
 of an individual, scribbling to while away an idle hour, to oblige 
 rt book-seller, or to defray current expenses. How often is it 
 the passing notion of the hour, affected by accidental circum- 
 stances ; by indisposition, by peevishness, by vapors or indiges- 
 tion ; by personal prejudice, or party feeling. Sometimes u 
 work is sacrificed, because the reviewer wishes a satirical article ; 
 sometimes because he wants a humorous one ; and sometimes 
 because the author reviewed has become offensively celebrated, 
 and offers high game to the literary marksman. 
 
 How often would the critic himself, if a conscientious man, 
 reverse his opinion, had he time to revise it in a more sunny 
 moment ; but the press is waiting, the printer's devil is at his 
 elbow ; the article is wanted to make the requisite variety for 
 the number of the review, or the author has pressing occasion 
 for the sum he is to receive for the article, so it is sent off, 
 all blotted and blurred ; with a shrug of the shoulders, aud the 
 consolatory ejaculation : "Pshaw! curse it! it's nothing but a 
 review ! " 
 
 The critic, too, who dictates thus oracularly to the world, is 
 perhaps some dingy, ill-favored, ill-manne/ed varlet, who, were 
 he to speak by word of mouth, would be disregarded, if not 
 scoffed at ; but such is the magic of types ; such the mystic 
 operation of anonymous writing ; such the potential effect of 
 the pronoun ?re, that his crude decisions, fulminated through 
 the press, become circulated far and wide, control the opinions 
 of the world, aud give or destroy reputation. 
 
 Many readers have grown timorous in their judgments since 
 the all-pervading currency of criticism. They fear to express 
 a revised, frank opinion about any new work, and to relish it 
 honestly and heartily, lest it should be condemned in the next 
 review, and they stand convicted of bad taste. Hence they 
 hedge their opinions, like a gambler his bets, and leave an 
 opening to retract, and retreat, and qualify, and neutralize every 
 unguarded expression of delight, until their very praise declines 
 Into a faintness tliat is damning. 
 
 h 
 
 
 i 
 
 A ) I 
 
 . =1! . 
 

 i 
 
 liFI 
 
 HIF>I 
 
 
 1 
 
 * 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 J 
 
 Hh' i 
 
 \ 
 
 1 
 
 m I 
 
 li 
 
 74 
 
 WOL''!:RT'f <OOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Were every 'ur:, op 'he contrary, to judge for himself, and 
 speak his mind ■^•■"'v ,, "ind fearlessly, we should have uioie 
 true criticism in th^ world '.in at present. Whenever a person 
 is pleased with a work, he nay be assured that it has <^o(h\ 
 qualities. An author who [)leases a variety of readers, must 
 possess substantial powers of pleasing; or, in other words, in- 
 trinsic merits ; for othcwise we acknowledge an effect, and 
 deny the cause. The reader, therefore, should not suffer iiim- 
 self to be readily shaken frcm the conviction of his own feelings, 
 by the sweeping censures of pseudo critics. The author he ims 
 admired, may be chargeable with a thousand faults ; l)ut it is 
 nevertheless beauties and excellences that have excited liis 
 admiration ; and he should recollect that taste and judgment 
 are as much evinced in the perception of beauties among defects, 
 as in a detection of defects among beauties. For my part, I 
 honor the blessed and blessing spirit that is quick to discover 
 and extol all that is pleasing and meritorious. Give me the 
 honest bee, that extracts honey from the humblest weed, but 
 save me from the ingenuity of the spider, which traces its 
 venom, even in the midsc of a flower-garden. 
 
 If the mere fact of being chargeable with faults and Imper- 
 fections is to condemn an author, who is to escape? The great- 
 est writers of antiquity have, in this way, been ol)noxious to 
 criticism. Aristotle himself has been accused of ignonince ; 
 Aristophanes of impiety and buffoonery; Virgil of plagiarism, 
 and a want of invention ; Horace of obscurity ; Cicero hus been 
 said to want vigor and connection, and Demosthenes to be 
 deficient in nature, and in purity of latiguage. Yet these have 
 all survived the censures of the critic, and flourished on to a 
 glorious immortality. Every now and then the world is startleil 
 by some new doctrines in matters of taste, some levelling attacks 
 on established creeds ; some sweeping denunciations of wliole 
 generations, or schools of writers, as they are called, who iiad 
 seemed to be embalmed and canonized in pul)lic opinion. Sncli 
 has been the case, for instance, with Pope, and I)ry<len, and 
 Addison, who for a time have almost been shaken from their 
 pedestals, and treated as false idols. 
 
 It is singular, also, to see the fickleness of the world with 
 respect to its favorites. Enthusiasm exhausts itself, and pre- 
 pares the way for dislike. The public is always for positive 
 sentiments, and new senr-ations. When wearied of admiring, it 
 delights to censure ; thus coining a double set of enjoyments out 
 of the same subject. Scott an<l Hyron are scarce cold in tiuir 
 graves, and already we find criticism beginning to call in (pies- 
 
 I'll it 
 
ES. 
 
 SPANISH ROMANCE. 
 
 75 
 
 Irnsplf, and 
 liavo more 
 t'l- ji person 
 t litis good 
 idcrs, must 
 • words, in- 
 cITect, and 
 suffer liim- 
 kvn feelin<2;s, 
 
 itlior 111! llMS 
 
 but it is 
 excited iiis 
 1 judgment 
 >ng defects, 
 my part, I 
 to discover 
 live me the 
 t weed, but 
 1 traces its 
 
 and iniper- 
 
 Tlic greut- 
 bnoxious to 
 
 ignorance ; 
 
 plagiarism, 
 TO hiiS been 
 lienes to be 
 , these have 
 hed on to a 
 d is startlecl 
 lling attacks 
 us of whole 
 k1, who had 
 iiion. Sucii 
 )rydcn, and 
 1 from their 
 
 world with 
 If, and jire- 
 for positive 
 admiring, it 
 oyinents out 
 cold in tlieir 
 euU in (^ues' 
 
 tion those powers which held the world in magic thraldom. 
 Even in our own country, one of its greatest geniuses has had 
 some rough passages with the censors of the press ; and in- 
 stantly criticism begins to unsay all that it had repeatedly said 
 in his praise ; and the public are almost led to believe that the 
 pen which has so often delighted them, is absolutely destitute 
 of the power to delight ! 
 
 If, then, such reverses in opinion as to matters of taste can 
 be so readily brought about, when may an author feel himself 
 secure? Where is the anchoring-ground of popularity, when 
 he may thus be driven from his moorings, and foundered ever 
 in harbor? The reader, too, when he is to consider him^eif 
 safe in admiring, when he sees long-established altars over- 
 thrown, and his household deities dashed to the ground! 
 
 There is one consolatory reflection. Every abuse carries with 
 it its own remedy or palliation. Thus the excess of crude and 
 hasty criticism, which has of late prevailed throughout the 
 literary world, and threatened to overrun our country, begins 
 to produce its own antidote. Where there is a multiplicity ot 
 contradictory paths, a man must make his choice ; in so doing, 
 he has to exercise his judgment, and that is one great step to 
 mental independence. lie begins to doubt all, where all differ, 
 and but one can be in the right. He is driven to trust to his 
 own discernment, and his natural feelings ; and here he is most 
 likely to be safe. The author, too, finding that what is con- 
 demned at one tribunal, is applauded at another, though per- 
 plexed for a time, gives way at length to the spontaneous 
 impulse of his genius, and the dictates of his taste, and writes 
 in the way most natural to himself. It is thus that criticism, 
 which l>y its severity may have held the little world of writers 
 in check, may, l)y its very excess, disarm itself of its terrors, 
 and the hardihood of talent become restored. 
 
 G. C. 
 
 SPANISH ROMANCE. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Knickerbocker. 
 
 Sir : I have already given you a legend or two drawn from 
 ancient Spanish sources, and may occasionally give you a few 
 more. I love these old Spanish themes, especially when they 
 have a dash of the Morisco in them, and treat of the times 
 
 
76 
 
 WOLFEIiTS liOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 I'l ' ; 
 
 
 when the Moslems maintained a foothold in the peninsula. 
 They have a high, spicy, oriental flavor, not to be found in any 
 other themes that are merely European. In fact, Spain is a 
 country that stands alone in the midst of Europe ; severed in 
 habits, manners, and modes of thinking, from all its continental 
 neighbors. It is a romantic country ; but its romance has none 
 of the sentimentality of modern European romance ; it is chiiMlv 
 derived from the l)rilliant regions of the East, and from ihu 
 high-minded school of Saracenic chivalry. 
 
 The Arab invasion and conquest brought a higher civilization 
 and a nobler stvlo of thinking into Gothic Spain. The Arabs 
 were a quick-witted, s;iga''ious, proud-spirited, and poetical 
 people, and were imbiu cl with oriental science and literature. 
 Wherever they established a seat of power, it became a rallying 
 place for the learned and ingenious ; and they softened and 
 refined the people whom they conquered. By degrees, occu- 
 pancy seemed to give them a hereditary right to their foothold 
 in the land ; they ceased to be looked upon as invaders, and 
 were regarded as rival neighbors. The peninsula, broken up 
 into a variety of stales, both Christian an(l Moslem, became for 
 centuries a great campaigning ground, where the art of war 
 seemed to be the principal business oif man, and was carried to 
 the highest pitch of romantic chivalry. The original ground 
 of hostility, a difference of faith, gradually lost its rancor. 
 Neighboring states, of opposite creeds, were occasionally linked 
 together in alliances, offensive and defensive ; so that the cross 
 and crescent were to be seen side by side fighting against some 
 common enemy. In times of peace, too, the noble 3'outh of 
 either faith resorted to the same cities. Christian or Moslem, tc 
 school themselves in military science. Even in the temporary 
 truces of sanguinary wars, the warriors who had recently striven 
 together in the deadly conflicts of the field, laid aside their ani- 
 mosity, met at tournaments, jousts, and other military festivi- 
 ties, and exchanged the courtesies of gentle and generouH 
 spirits. Thus the opposite races became fre<iuently mingled 
 together in peaceful intercourse, or if any rivalry took place, it 
 was in those high courtesies and nobler acts which bespeak tiie 
 accomplished cavalier. Warriors of opposite creeds became 
 ambitious of transcending each other in magnanimity as well as 
 valor. Indeed, the chivalric virtues were refined upon to a de- 
 gree sometimes fastidious and constrained ; but at other times, 
 inexpressibly noble and affecting. The annals of the times 
 teem with illustrious instances of high-wrought courtesy, roman- 
 tic generosity, lofty disinterestedness, and punctilious honor, 
 
ES, 
 
 peninsula, 
 and in any 
 Spain is a 
 
 severed in 
 continental 
 ;e has nom; 
 it is eljii'lly 
 X from lliu 
 
 civilization 
 The Aral)s 
 1(1 poetical 
 [ literature, 
 e a rallying 
 iftened and 
 ;rees, occu- 
 eir footljold 
 r'aders, and 
 broken up 
 became for 
 art of war 
 3 carried to 
 inal ground 
 its rancor, 
 lally linked 
 it the cross 
 [ainst some 
 e youth of 
 Moslem, to 
 
 teniporary 
 ntly strivi'U 
 e their aiii- 
 ary festivi- 
 I generous 
 .ly min<;li'(i 
 ok place, it 
 )espeak llie 
 ids became 
 f as well as 
 on to a de- 
 (ther times, 
 
 the times 
 esy, romau- 
 ous honor, 
 
 SPANISH ROMANCE. 
 
 n 
 
 that warm the very soul to read them. These have furnished 
 themes for national plays and poems, or have been celebrated in 
 those all-pervading ballads which are as the life-breath cf the 
 people, and thus have continued to exercise an influence on 
 the national character which centuries of vicissitude and declino 
 have not been able to destroy ; so that, with all their faults, 
 and they are many, the Spaniards, even at the present day, are 
 on many points the most high-minded and proud-spirited peo- 
 ple of Europe. It is true, the romance of feeling derived from 
 the sources I have mentioned, has, like all otiier romance, its 
 alfectations and extremes. It renders the Spaniard at times 
 pompous and grandiloquent; prone to carry the '' pundonor," 
 or point of honor, beyond the bounds of sober sense and sound 
 morality ; disposed, in the midst of poverty, to affect the 
 " grande caballero," and to look down with sovereign disdain 
 upon " arts mechanical," and all the gainful pursuits of ple- 
 beian life ; but this very inflation of spirit, while it fills his brain 
 with vapors, lifts him above a thousand meannesses; and 
 though it often keeps him in indigence, ever protects him from 
 vulgarity. 
 
 In the present day, when popular literature is running into 
 the low levels of life and luxuriating on the vices and follies of 
 mankind, and when the universal pursuit of gain is trampling 
 down the early growth of poetic feeling and wearing out the 
 verdure of the soul, I question whether it would not be of ser- 
 vice for the reader occasionally to turn to these records of 
 prouder times and loftier modes of thinking, and to steep him- 
 self to the very lips in old Spanish romance. 
 
 For my own part, I have a shelf or two of venerable, parch- 
 ment-bound tomes, picked up here and there about the pen- 
 insula, and filled with chronicles, plays, and ballads, about 
 Moors and Christians, which I keep by me as mental tonics, in 
 the same way that a provident housewife has her cupboard of 
 cordials. Whenever I find my mind brought below i>ar by the 
 commonplace of every-day life, or jarred by the sordid collisions 
 of the world, or put out of tune by the shrewd selfishness of 
 modern utilitarianism, I resort to these venerable tomes, as did 
 the worthy hero of La Mancha to his books of chivalry, and re- 
 fresh and tone up my spirit by a deep draught of their contents. 
 They have some sucli effect upon me as Falstaff ascribes to a 
 good Sherris sack, '' warming the blood and filling the brain 
 with :iery and delectable shapes." 
 
 I here subjoin, Mr. Editor, a small specimen of the cordials I 
 have mentioned, just drawn from my Spanish cupboard, which 
 
 
 > I 
 
 1 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 >i :' 
 
 U 
 
T8 
 
 WOLFERT'S BOOST AND MISCELLANIES 
 
 I recommend to your palate. J' you find it to your taste., you 
 may pass it uu to your readers. 
 
 Your correspondent and well-wislier, 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
 V i 
 
 LEGEND OF DON MUNIO SANCUO DE HINOJOSA. 
 BY THE AUTHOR OP THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 In the cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of San 
 Domingo, at Silos, in Castile, are the mouldering yet magnili- 
 cent monuments of the once powerful and chivalrous family of 
 Hinojosa. Among these, reclines the marble figure of a knight, 
 in complete armor, with the hands pressed together, as if in 
 prayer. On one side of his tomb is sculptured in relief a b:uui 
 of Christian cavaliers, capturing a cavalcade of male and feinule 
 Moors ; on the other side, the same cavaliers are rcpiesenli'd 
 kneeling before an altar. The tomb, like most of the neighbor- 
 ing monuments, is almost in ruins, and the sculpture is nearly 
 unintelligible, excepting to the keen eye of the antiquary. Tlu; 
 story connected with the sepulchre, however, is still preserved 
 in the old Spanish chronicles, and is to the following purport. 
 
 
 •! 
 
 I) 
 
 i - ■ 
 
 In olden times, several hundred years ago, there was a noble 
 Castilian cavalier, named Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa, lord 
 of a border rastle, which had stood the brunt of many a Moor- 
 ish foray, i^e had seventy horsemen as his household troops, 
 all of the ancient Castilian proof ; stark warriors, hard riders, 
 and men of iron ; with these he scoured the Moorish lands, ami 
 made his name terrible throughout the borders. His castle 
 hall was covered with banners, and cimeters, and Moslem 
 helms, the trophies of his prowess. Don Munio was, moreover, 
 a keen huntsman ; and rejoiced in hounds of all kinds, steeds 
 for the chase, and hawks for the towering sport of falconry. 
 When uot engaged in warfare, his delight was to beat up the 
 neig'iboring forests ; and scarcely ever did he ride forth, with- 
 out hound and horn, a boar-spear in his hand, or a hawk upon 
 his fist, and an attendant train of huntsmeu. 
 
 His wife, Donna Maria Palacin, was of a gentle and timid na- 
 ture, little fitted to be the spouse of so hardy and adventurons 
 % knight ; and many a tear did the poor lady shed, when he 
 
SPANISH liOMANCK. 
 
 79 
 
 r taste., you 
 
 aher, 
 
 Y CRAYON. 
 
 OJOSA. 
 
 -ent of San 
 I't't ma<riiiii. 
 ii.s family of 
 of a kni<,'lit, 
 er, as if in 
 lief a l)uiitl 
 aud female 
 rcproseiiti'd 
 le neighhor- 
 ire is nearly 
 uary. Tlu; 
 1 preserved 
 ; purport. 
 
 was a noble 
 nojosa, lord 
 ny a Moor- 
 lold troops, 
 mrd riders, 
 lands, aud 
 His castle 
 id Moslem 
 , moreover, 
 nds, steeds 
 if falconry, 
 eat up the 
 'orth, with- 
 liawk upon 
 
 I timid na- 
 Jventuroiis 
 , wheu lie 
 
 Ballied forth upon his daring enterprises, and many a prayer did 
 she offer up for his safety. 
 
 As this doughty cavalier was one da^ hunting, he stationed 
 himself in a thicket, on the borders of a green glade of the for- 
 est, and dispersed his followers to rouse the game, and drive it 
 toward his stand. He had not been here long, when a caval- 
 cade of Moors, of both sexes, came prankling over the forest 
 lawn. They were unarmed, and magnificently dressed in rolies 
 of tissue and embroidery, rich shawls of India, bracelets and 
 anklets of gold, and jewels that sparkled in the sun. 
 
 At the head of this gay cavalcade, rode a youthful cavalier, 
 superior to the rest in dignity and loftiness of demeanor, and iu 
 splendor of attire ; beside him was a damsel, whose veil, blown 
 aside by the breeze, displayed a face of surpassing beauty, and 
 eyes cast down in maiden modesty, yet beaming with tenderness 
 and joy. 
 
 Don Munio thanked his stars for sending him such a prize, 
 and exulted at the thought of bearing home to his wife the glit- 
 tering spoils of these infidels. Putting his hunting-horn to his 
 lips, he gave a blast that rung through the forest. His hunts- 
 men came running from all quarters, and the astonished Moors 
 were surrounded and made captives. 
 
 The beautiful Moor rung her hands in despair, and her female 
 attendants uttered the most piercing cries. The young Moor- 
 ish cavalier aloue retained self-possession. He inquired the 
 name of the Christian knight who commanded this troop of 
 horsemen. When told it was Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa, 
 his countenance ligt led up. Approaching that cavalier, and 
 kissing his hand, "Don Munio Sancho," said he, "I have 
 heard of your fame as a true and valiant knight, terrible in 
 arms, but schooled in tho noble virtues of chivalry. Such do I 
 trust to find you. In me you behold Abadil, son of a Moorish 
 Alcayde. I am on the "way to celebrate my nuptials with this 
 lady ; chance has thrown us in your power, but I confide in 
 your magnanimity. Take all our treasure and jewels ; demand 
 what ransom you think proper for our persons, but suffer us not 
 to be insulted or dishonored." 
 
 When the good knight heard this appeal, and beheld the 
 beauty of the youthful pair, his heart was touched with tender- 
 ness and courtesy. " God forbid," said he, '^' that I should 
 disturb such happy nuptials. My prisoners in troth shall ye be, 
 for fifteen days, and immured within my castle, where I claim, 
 as conqueror, the right of celel)ratin;jf your espousals." 
 
 So saying, he despatched one of his fleetest horsemen in ad. 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 19, 
 
 I 
 
 \ i 
 
80 
 
 WOLFBRT.'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ■I 
 
 I u 
 
 1^' 
 
 I -1 
 
 SiiiU: 
 
 
 ' ^ i ^e 
 
 vance, to notify Donna Maria Palacin of the coming of this 
 bridal party ; while he and his huntsmen escorted the cavalcade, 
 not as captors, but as a guard of honor. As they drew near 
 to the castle, the banners were hung out, and the trumpets 
 sounded from the battlements ; and ^a their nearer approach, 
 the draw-bridge was lowered, and Donna Maria came forth to 
 meet them, attended by her ladies and knights, her pages and 
 her minstrels. She took the young bride, Allifra, in her arms, 
 kissed her with the tenderness of a sister, and conducted her 
 into the castle. In the mean time, Don Munio sent forth mis- 
 sives in every direction, and had viands and dainties of all kinds 
 collected from the country round ; and the wedding of the Moor- 
 ish lovers was celebrated with all possible state and festivity. 
 For fifteen days, the castle was given up to joy and revelry. 
 There were tiltings and jousts at the ring, and bull-fights, and 
 banquets, and dances to the sound of minstrelsy. When the 
 fifteen days were at an end, he made the bride and bridegroom 
 magnificent presents, and conducted them and their attendants 
 safely beyond the borders. Such, in old times, were the cour- 
 tesy and generosity of a Spanish cavalier. 
 
 Several years after this event, the King of Castile summoned 
 his nobles to assist him in a campaign against the Moors. Don 
 Munio Sancho was among the first to answer to the call, with 
 seventy horsemen, all stanch and well-tried warriors. His 
 wife, Donna Maria, hung about his neck. " Alas, my lord ! " 
 exclaimed she, " how often wilt thou tempt thy fate, and when 
 will thy thirst for glory be appeased ! " 
 
 " One battle more," replied Don Munio, " one battle more, for 
 the honor of Castile, and I here make a vow, that when this is 
 over, I will lay by my sword, and repair with my cavaliers in 
 pilgrimage to the sepulchre of our Lord at Jerusalem." The 
 cavaliers all joined witli him in the vow, and Donna Maria felt 
 in some degree soothed in spirit : still, she saw with a heavy 
 heart the departure of her husband, and watched his banner 
 with wistful eyes, until it disappeared among the trees of the 
 forest. 
 
 The King of Castile led his army to the plains of Almanara, 
 where they encountered the Moorish host, near to Udea. The 
 battle was long and bloody ; the (Muistians repeatedly wavered, 
 and were as often rallied ])y the energy of their commanders. 
 Don Munio was covered with wounds, but refused to leave the 
 field. The Christians at length gave way, and the king was 
 hardly pressed, and in danger of being captured. 
 
 Don Munio called upon his cavaliers to follow him to the 
 
ES. 
 
 ng of this 
 cavalcade, 
 drew near 
 e trumpets 
 ' approach, 
 me forth to 
 pages and 
 1 her arms, 
 ducted her 
 forth mis- 
 of all kinds 
 f the Moor- 
 d festivity. 
 nd revelry, 
 -fights, and 
 When the 
 bridegroom 
 attendants 
 e the cour- 
 
 summoned 
 3ors. Don 
 e call, with 
 riors. His 
 my lord ! ' ' 
 , and when 
 
 e more, for 
 heu this is 
 avaliers in 
 !m." The 
 Mnria felt 
 h a heavy 
 his banner 
 ees of the 
 
 Almanara, 
 I'les. Tlie 
 r wavered, 
 Qmanders. 
 leave the 
 king was 
 
 im to the 
 
 SPA^riSH ROMANCE. 
 
 81 
 
 rescue. " Now is the time," cried he, " to prove your loyalty. 
 Fall to, like brave men ! We fight for the true faith, and if we 
 lose our lives here, we gain a better life hereafter." 
 
 Rushing with his men between the king and his pursuers, they 
 checked the latter in their career, and gave time for their mon- 
 arch to escape ; but they fell victims to their loyalty. Th(>y 
 all fought to the last gasp. Don Munio was singled out by a 
 powerful Moorish knight, but having been wounded in the riglit 
 arm, he fought to disadvantage, and was slain. The battle- 
 being over, the Moor paused to possess himself of the spoils 
 of this redoubtable Christian warrior. When he unlaced the 
 helmet, however, and beheld the countenance of Don Munio. 
 he gave a great cry, and smote his breast. "Woe is me! " 
 cried he ; "I have slain my benefactor ! The flower of knightly 
 virtue ! the most magnanimous of cavaliers ! " 
 
 While the battle had been raging on the plain of Salmanara, 
 Donna Maria Palacin remained in her castle, a prey to the 
 keenest anxiety. Her eyes were ever fixed on the road that 
 led from the country of the Moors, and often she asked the 
 watchman of the tower, " What seest thou?" 
 
 One evening, at the shadowy hour of twilight, the warden 
 sounded his horn. " I see," cried he, " a numerous train wind- 
 ing up the valley. There are mingled Moors and Christians. 
 The banner of my lord is in the advance. Joyful tidings ! " ex- 
 claimed the old seneschal : " My lord returns in triumph, and 
 brings captives! " Then the castle courts rang with shouts of 
 joy ; and the standard was displayed, and the trumpets were 
 Bounded, and the draw-bridge was lowered, and Donna Maria 
 went forth with her ladies, and her knights, and her pages, and 
 her minstrels, to welcome her lord from the wars. But as 
 the train drew nigh, she beheld a sumptuous bier, covered with 
 black velvet, and on it lay a warrior, as if taking his repose : 
 he lay in his armor, with his helmet on his head, and his sword 
 in his hand, as one who had never been conquered, and around 
 the bier were the escutcheons of the house of Hinojosa. 
 
 A number of Moorisli cavaliers attended the bier, with em- 
 blems of mourning, and with dejected countenances : and their 
 leader cast himself at the feet of Donna Maria, and hid his face 
 in his hands. She beheld in him the gallant Abadil, whom she 
 had once welcomed with his bride to her castle, but who now 
 came with the body of her lord, whom he had unknowingly 
 slain in battle ! 
 
bii 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 \ s 
 
 The sepulchre erected in the cloisters of the Convent of San 
 Domingo was achieved at the expenr-e of the Moor Al)a(lil. as 
 a feeble testimony of his grief for the death of the good kni<,r'it 
 Don Munio, and his reverence for his memory. The tender 
 and faithful Donna Maria soon followed her lord to the tomh. 
 On one cf the stones of a small arch, beside his sepuleiire, is 
 the following simple inscription: '•^ Hie jacet Maria Palariti, 
 uxor 3funonis Sancij de Finojosa:" Here lies Maria Palucin, 
 wife of Munio Sancho de Hinojosa. 
 
 The legend of Don Munio Sancho does not conclude with his 
 death. On the same day on which the battle took place on i\w 
 plain of Salmanara, a chaplain of the Holy Temple at Jerusa- 
 lem, while standing at the outer gate, beheld a train of Cluis- 
 tian cavaliers advancing, as if in pilgrimage. The chaphiin 
 was a native of Spain, and as tlie pilgrims approaciied, lu; 
 know the foremost to be Don Munio Sanclio do Ilinojosa, with 
 whom he had been well acquainted in former times. Haston- 
 ing to the patriarch, he told him of the honoral)le rank of tlic 
 pilgrims at the gate. The patriarch, therefore, went forth with 
 a grand procession of priests and monks, and received the 
 pilgrims with all due honor. There were seventy cavaliers, 
 l)eside their leader, all stark and lofty warriors. Tliey ctirriod 
 their helmets in tbeir hands, and their faces were deadly pale. 
 They greeted no one, nor looked eitlicr to the right or to the 
 left, but entered the chapel, and kneeling before the Sopulclue 
 of our Saviour, performed their orisons in silence. V»'heii tlicy 
 had concluded, they rose as if lo depart, and the patri 'rcli and 
 his attendants advanced to speak to them, but they .v'oro no 
 more to l)e seen. Every one marvelled what could bo the 
 meaning of this prodigy. The patriarch carefully noted down 
 the day, and sent to C'astile to learn tidings of Don Munio San- 
 cho de Hinojosa. He received for reply, t'at on the very day 
 speciQed, that worthy knight, with seventy of his followers, Isad 
 been slain in battle. These, therefore, must have been the 
 blessed spirits of those Christian warriors, come to fulfil their 
 vov of a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. Such 
 was Castilian faith, in the olden time, which kept its wonl, 
 even beyond the grave. 
 
 If any one should doul)t of tlie miraculous apparition of 
 these phantom knights, let him consult the History of the 
 Kings of Castile and Leon, by the learned and pious Fray 1*111- 
 dencio de Sandoval, Bishop of Pamplona, where ho will Ihid 
 it recorded in the History of the King Don Alonzo VI., on the 
 hundred and second page. It is too precious a legend to lie 
 lightly abandoned to the doubter. 
 
 i , 
 
 . I ft 
 
 1 
 
 
 m 
 
 1 
 
 l^:< 
 
lES. 
 
 vent of San 
 r Ahadil, as 
 good knijr'it 
 
 riie tender 
 o the tonil). 
 sepulclire, is 
 ria Palachi, 
 
 •ia Pulucin, 
 
 ir 
 
 ude with his 
 ilace on th(? 
 2 at JorusH- 
 in of Chris- 
 le chjipliiin 
 'o.'ichcd, he 
 nojosa, witli 
 's. Ila.stcii- 
 rank of ili(> 
 It forth with 
 veeived tiio 
 y cavaliers, 
 They carried 
 deadly palp. 
 It or to the 
 e Sepulchi'e 
 VtHien they 
 itrj.'rch and 
 ley .fcrc no 
 »uld he the 
 noted down 
 i\Innio San- 
 le very day 
 lowers, Lad 
 e been the 
 fullil their 
 lem. Such 
 ; its word, 
 
 |)aritiou of 
 )ry of the 
 Fray Prn- 
 e will lind 
 '^I., on the 
 eud to he 
 
 
 COMMUNIPAW. 83 
 
 COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 To THE Editor of tiik Kniokeubocker. 
 
 Sir : I ol)serve, with pleasure, that you are performing from 
 time to time a pious duty, imposed upon you, I may say, by 
 tiie name you have adopted as your tituhir standard, in follow- 
 iii<r in the footsteps of the venerable Knickeruockek, and 
 jzleaning every fact concerning the ,.ly times of the Manhat- 
 toes which may have escaped liis hand. I trust, therefore, a 
 few particulars, legendary and statistical, concerning a place 
 which figures conspicuously in the early pages of his history, 
 will not be unacceptable. I allude. Sir, to the ancient and 
 renowned village of Communipaw, which, according to the 
 veracious Diedrich, and to equally veracious tradition, was the 
 tirst spot where our ever-to-be-lamented Dutch progenitors 
 planted their standard and cast the seeds of empire, and from 
 whence subsequently sailed the memorable expedition under 
 Oloffe the Dreamer, which landed on the opposite island of 
 Manhatta, and founded the present city of New York, the city 
 of dreams and speculations. 
 
 Coinmuni|)aw, therefore, may truly be called the parent of New 
 York ; yet it is an astonishing fact, that though immediately 
 opposite to the great city it has produced, from whence its red 
 roofs and tin weather-cocks can actually be descried peering 
 above the surrounding apple orchards, it should be almost as 
 rarely visited, and as little known by the inhabitants of the 
 metropolis, as if it had been locked up among the Rocky Moun- 
 tains. Sir, I think there is something unnatural in this, espe- 
 cially in these times of ramble and research, when our citizens 
 are anti(piity-hunling in every part of the world. Curiosity, 
 like (jharity, should l)egin at home ; and I would enjoin it on 
 our worthy burglu'rs, especially those of the real Knickerbocker 
 I need, before tlicy send their sons abroad to wonder and grow 
 wise among the remains of Greece and Rome, to let them make 
 a tour of ancient Pavonia, from Weehawk even to the Kills, 
 and nieilitate, with filial reverence, on the moss-grown mansions 
 of Communipaw. 
 
 Sir, 1 regard this much- neglected village as one of the most 
 ri'inarkable places in the country. The intelligent traveller, 
 as he looks down upon it from the Bergen Heights, modestly 
 lu'stled among its cabbage-gardens, while the great flaunting 
 city it has begotten is stretching far aud wide ou the opposite 
 
 )BM ; 
 
84 
 
 WOLFEBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ■l! 
 
 side of the bay, the intelligent traveller, I say, will be filled with 
 astonishment ; not. Sir, at the village of Coramunipaw, which 
 in truth is a very small village, but at the almost iuereiliblo 
 fact that so small a village should have produced so groat a 
 city. It looks to him, indeed, like some squat little damn, 
 with a tall grenadier of a son strutting by her side ; or some 
 simple-hearted hen that has uuvvittiugly hatched out a lon^- 
 legged turkey. 
 
 But this is not all for which Cummunipaw is remarkable. 
 Sir, it is interesting on another account. It is to the ancien; 
 province of the New Netherlands and the classic era of tlr.' 
 Dutch dynasty, what Herculaneum and Pompeii are to an- 
 cient Rome and the glorious days of the empire. Here every 
 thing remains in statu quo, as it was in the days of Oluffe the 
 Dreamer, Walter the Doubter, and the other worthies of tlio 
 golden age ; the same broad-brimmed hats and broad-botioni-'d 
 breeches ; the same knee-buckles and shoe-buckles ; the same 
 close-quilled caps and linsey-woolsey short-gowns and petti- 
 coats ; the same implements and utensils and forms and fasli- 
 ious ; in a word, Coramunipaw at the present day is a picture 
 of what New Amsterdam was befo' : ^^ conquest. The '' in- 
 telligent traveller" afores-jid, as !■ r. m . its streets, is struek 
 with the primitive character of evry t.iing around him. In- 
 stead of Grecian temples for dwelling-houses, with a grout 
 column of pine boards in the way of every window, he beholds 
 high peaked roofs, gable ends to the street, with weather-cooks 
 at top, and windows of all sorts and sizes ; large ones for tlie 
 grown-up members of the family, and little ones for the little 
 folk. Instead of cold marble porches, with close-lockod doois 
 and brass knockers, he sees the doors hospitably open ; tli • 
 worthy burgher smoking his pipe on the old-fashioned st()o[i 
 in front, with his " vrouw " knitting beside him; and the oiit 
 and her kittens at their feet sleeping in the sunshine. 
 
 Astonished at the obsolete and "' old world " air of every tiling 
 iiroand h'm, the intelligent traveller demands how all this has 
 forae to pass. Herculaneum and Pompeii remain, it is true, 
 uP'xfT'^oted by the varyiig fashions of centuries ; but they wore 
 bi riod by a volcano v.\k\ preserved in ashes. What channeil 
 spcVi hns kopc this wonderful little place unonanged, though in 
 sieht of the most changeful city in the universe? Has it, too, 
 beta bured under its cabbage-gardens, and only dug out in 
 mofi' li! Ua,ys for the wonder and edification of the world? Tlio 
 TCT-ny involves a point of history, worthy of notice and record, 
 and ri^lieutiug immortal honor on Commuuipaw. 
 
lES. 
 
 >e filled with 
 ipaw, which 
 t inerediblo 
 so great a 
 little danio, 
 e ; or some 
 out a lon<>- 
 
 •eraarkablo. 
 the ancieijt: 
 era of tii- 
 are to an- 
 il ore every 
 
 r ok'.ffv tiu" 
 
 hies of tho 
 (-l-botioiii"() 
 
 tho same 
 
 and peLli- 
 
 5 and fash- 
 
 s a pietuic 
 
 The '"' in- 
 3, is atriK'k 
 him. In- 
 th a great 
 he beiiolds 
 ither-cocks 
 nes for tlie 
 r the little 
 eked doois 
 open ; lli • 
 )ned stoop 
 nd the cm 
 
 H-ery thing 
 
 11 this has 
 
 it is true, 
 
 they were 
 
 t ehaniii'(l 
 
 though ii. 
 
 Fas it, too, 
 
 lug out ill 
 
 rid ? The 
 
 nd record, 
 
 COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 m 
 
 At the time when New Amsterdam was invaded and feon- 
 quered by British foes, as has been related in the history of the 
 venerable Diedrich, a great dispersion took plaee among the 
 Dutch inhabitants. Many, like the illustrious Peter Stuyve- 
 sant, buried themselves in rural retreats in the Bowerie ; others, 
 like Wolfert Acker, took refuge in various remote parts of the 
 Hudson ; but there was one stanch, unconquerable band that 
 determined to keep together, and preserve themselves, like 
 seed corn, for the future fructification and perpetuity of the 
 Knickerbocker race. These were headed by one Garret Van 
 Home, a gigantic Dutchman, the Pelayo of the New Nether- 
 lands. Under his guidance, they retreated across the bay and 
 buried themselves among the marshes of ancient Pavonia, as 
 did the followers of Pelayo among the mountains of Asturias, 
 when Spain was overrun by its Arabian invaders. 
 
 The gallant Van Ilorne set up his standard at Communipaw, 
 and invited all those to rally under it, who were true Neder- 
 landers at heart, and determined to resist all foreign intermix- 
 ture or encroachment. A strict non-intercourse was observed 
 with the captured city ; not a boat ever crossed to it from 
 Communipaw, and the English language was rigorously tabooed 
 throughout the village and its dependencies. Every man was 
 sworn to wear his hat, cut his coat, build his house, and har- 
 ness his horses, exactly as his father had done before lum ; and 
 to permit nothing but the Dutch language to be spoken in his 
 household. 
 
 As a citadel of the place, and a stronghold for the preserva- 
 tion and defence of every thing Dutch, the gallant Van Home 
 erected a lordly mansion, with a chimney perched at every 
 corner, which thence derived the aristocratical name of "The 
 House of the Four Chimneys." Hithcn- he transferred many of 
 the precious relics of New Amsteidam ; the great round-crowned 
 hat that once covered the capacious head of Walter the Doubter, 
 and the identical shoe with which Peter the Headstrong kicked 
 his pusillanimous councillors down-stairs. St. Nicholas, it is 
 said, took this loyal house under his especial protection ; and a 
 Dutch soothsayer predicted, that as long as it should stand, 
 Communipaw would be safe from the intrusion either of Briton 
 or Yankee. 
 
 In this house would the gallant Van Home and his compeers 
 hold frecpient councils of war, as to the possibility of re-conquer- 
 ing the province from the British; and here would they sit 
 for hours, nay, days, together smoking their pipes and keeping 
 watch upon the growing city of New York; groauiu5 in spirit 
 
 .1 
 
 I 
 
 « • 
 
86 
 
 WOLFEBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 W- 
 
 whenever they saw a new house erected or ship launched, and 
 persuading themselves that Adn^iral Van Tronni) wouhl one day 
 or other arrive to sweep out the invaders with the broom which 
 he carried at his mast-head. 
 
 Years rolled by, but Van Tromp never Jirrivod. The liritisli 
 strengthened themselves in tlie laud, and the captured city 
 flourished under their domination. Still, the worthies of Coin- 
 munipaw would not despair ; something or other, they were 
 sure, would turn I'p to restore the i)ower oi the Hogen ^Iog(•ns, 
 the Lord Stafcs-Oeucral ; so they kept smoking and smoking, 
 and watching and watching, and turning the same few thouglits 
 over and over in a perpetual circle, which is commonly culled 
 deliberating. In the mean time, being hemmed up within a 
 narrow compass, between the broad bay and the Bergen hills, 
 they gr; w poorer and poorer, imtil tlicj had scarce the where- 
 withal to i.iaintain their pipes in fuel during their endless 
 deliberations. 
 
 And now must I relate a circumstance which will call for a 
 little exertion of faith on the ptvrt of the reader ; but I can only 
 say that if he doubts it, he had better not utter his doubts in 
 Coraraunipaw, re it is among the religious beliefs of the place. 
 It is, in fact, nothing more nor less than a miracle, worked by 
 the blessed St. Nicholas, for the relief and susteuanc(^ of this 
 loyal community. 
 
 It so happened, in this time of extremity, that in the course 
 of cleanint; the House of the Four Chimneys, by an ignorant 
 housewif'5 who knew nothing of the historic value of the relies 
 it co'/tai'ud, tno old hat of Walter tiie Doubter and the execu- 
 tive .s(iu(- of rV'tci' the Headstrong were thrown out of doors us 
 rubbi'h. IBui, maik" the consequence. The good St. Nicholas 
 kept wu:oh over ^^hest precious relics, and wrought out of them 
 a wonderful |)r 'evidence. 
 
 The hat o' 'Vaitt'?' the Doubter falling on a stiTcoraceous 
 heap <'f com[. > t, in tlu' r.ar of tlic house, began forthwith to 
 vegetate. Its broad brim spread forth granOly and exfoliated, 
 and its round rown swelled an*' crimjied and ('onsoli'liit«<l 
 til til the whole became a prodigious cabbage, rivallir)g in ui:t'/' 
 titude the capacious head of tli(> Doubter. In a word, it was 
 the origin of thai renowned species v)f cabbage known, l>y all 
 Outch epicure!., by the name of the (lovernor's Head, and 
 which is to this day the glory of Communipaw. 
 
 On the otiier hand, the shoe of Peter Stuyvesant being thrown 
 \nU) the river, in front of the house, gradually hardened and 
 concreieU, and becauie covered with barnacles, and at length 
 
 
 \'H 
 
 if 
 
 r, I i\ 
 
 l.s.> 
 
ES. 
 
 COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 8t 
 
 niched, and 
 uld ono day 
 room which 
 
 The British 
 ptured city 
 ics of Com- 
 , they wcii," 
 en MofTcns, 
 d sinokino;, 
 
 3W th()ll<rllts 
 
 iionly called 
 ip within a 
 ergcn hills, 
 ' the whcrc- 
 leir endless 
 
 11 call for a 
 t I can only 
 s doubts in 
 f the place. 
 , worked by 
 ince of this 
 
 ) the course 
 m ignorant 
 f the relics 
 1 the execn- 
 of doors as 
 It. Nicholas 
 )ut of them 
 
 •Tcoraccous 
 orthwith to 
 exfoliated, 
 onsoli<(4tii'd 
 n^ in Mt:i'/- 
 rord, it was 
 )wn, by all 
 H(!ad, and 
 
 nng thrown 
 I'dei'cd and 
 1 at length 
 
 turned into a gigantivi oyster, being the progenitor of that illus- 
 trious species known throughout the gastronomical world by 
 the name of the Governor's Foot. 
 
 These miracles were the salvation of Communipaw. The 
 gages of the place immediately saw in them the hand of St. 
 Nicholas, and understood their mystic signification. They set 
 to work with all diligence to cultivate and multiply these great 
 blessings ; and so abundantly did the gubernatorial hat and 
 shoe fructify and increase, that in a little time great patches of 
 cabbages were to be seen extending from the village of Com- 
 munipaw quite to the Bergen Hills ; while the whole bottom of 
 the bay in front became a vast bed of oysters. Ever since that 
 time this excellent conununity has ))een divided into two great 
 classes : those who cultivate the land and those who cultivate the 
 water. The former have devoted themselves to the nurture 
 and edification of cabbages, rearing them in all their varieties ; 
 while the latter have formed parks and plantations, under 
 water, to which juvenile oysters are transplanted from foreign 
 parts, to finish their education. 
 
 As these great sources of profit multiplied upon their hands, 
 the worthy inhabitants of Connnunipaw began to long for a 
 market at which to dispose of their superabundance. This 
 gradually produced once more an intercourse with New York ; 
 but it was always carried on by the old people and the negroes ; 
 never would they permit the young folks, of either sex, to visit 
 the city, lest they should get tainted with foreign manners and 
 bring home foreign fashions. Even to this day, if you see an 
 old burgher in the market, with hat and garb of anticjue Dutch 
 fashion, you may be sure he is one of the old uncontiuered race 
 of the '' bitter blood," who maintain their stronghold at Com- 
 munipaw. 
 
 In modern days, the hereditary bitterness against the English 
 has lost much of its asperity, or rat^'-;r has become merged in 
 a new source of jeaK>usy and apprehension : 1 allude to the inces- 
 sant and wide-sprciiding irruptions from New England. Word 
 haH been continually brought back to Communipaw, ])y those 
 of the comnuinity who return from their trading voyages in 
 cabbages and oysterH, of the alarming power which the Yan- 
 kees are gaining in the anci<'nt city of New Amsterdam ; elbow- 
 ing tlie genuine Kni('k<'rl)0(kers out of all civic posts of honor 
 and profit ; bargaining them out of their hereditary homesteads ; 
 |)ulling down the venerable houses, with crow-step gables, which 
 hHve Htood since the time of the Dutch rule, and erecting, in- 
 Bk'iid, granite stores, and marble banks; in a word, evincing a 
 
 VM 
 ill, 
 
 k 
 
 <\ 
 
 ii" I i 
 
 •^. 
 
 ^ 
 
88 
 
 WOLFERT\S nOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 M i! 
 
 [;' ^ ;i 
 
 i' i 
 
 I 
 
 deadly determination to obliterate every vestige of the good old 
 Dutch times. 
 
 In consequenee of the jealousy thus awakened, the worthy 
 traders from Comniunipaw confine their dealings, as much as 
 pos3il)le, to the genuine Dutch families. If they furnish the 
 Yankees at all, it is with inferior articles. Never can the latter 
 procure a real "Governor's Head," or " Oovernor's Foot," 
 though they have offered extravagant prices for tlie same, to 
 grace their table orj the annual festival of the New England 
 Society. 
 
 Hut what has carried this hostility to the Yankees to the 
 highest pitch, was an attempt made by that all-pervading vmv 
 to get possession of Communipaw itself. Y''es, Sir ; din-ing the 
 late mania for land speculation, a daring company of Yankee 
 projectors landed before the village; stopped tiie iionest buigli- 
 ers on the public highway, and endeavored to bargain llu'in 
 out of their hereditary acres ; displayed lithographic maps, in 
 which *iieir cabbage-gardens were laid out into town lots; tlieir 
 oyster-p ;Tks into docks and quays; and even the House of the 
 Four Chimneys metamorphosed into a bank, which was to enrich 
 the whole neighborhood with paper monc}'. 
 
 Fortunately, the gallant Vnu Homes came to the rescue, just 
 as some of the worthy burghers were on tl.e point of capitulat- 
 ing. The Yankees were put to the rout, with signal confusion, 
 and have never since dared to show their faces in tl;e place. 
 The good people contin.ie to cultivate- their cabbages, and rear 
 their oysters ; they know nothing of banks, nor joint stock 
 companies, but treasure up their money in stocking-feet, at the 
 bottom of the family chest, or bury it in iron pots, as did their 
 fathcis and grandfathers before them. 
 
 As to the House of the Four Chimneys, it still remains in the 
 great and tall family of the Van Homes. Here are to b<.> seen 
 ancient Dutch corner cupi)oards, chests of drawers, and mas- 
 sive clothes-presses, (piaintly carved, and carefully waxed and 
 polished ; together with divers thick, black-letter volumes, with 
 brass clasps, printed of yore in Leyelen and Amsterdam, and 
 handed down from generation to generation, in the family, but 
 never read. They are |)reserved in the archives, among sundry 
 old parchment deeds, in Dutch and English, bearing the seals of 
 the early governors of the province. 
 
 In this house, the primitive Dutch holidays of Paas and 
 Pinxter are faithfully kept up ; and New- Year celebrated with 
 cookiea and cherry-bounce ; nor is the festival of the blessed 
 St. Nicholas forgotten, when all the children aro sure to bang 
 
1.1 
 
 ES. 
 
 »e good old 
 
 tho worthy 
 IS imich as 
 iirnisli tlu; 
 1 the hitter 
 •r's Foot," 
 s:iine, to 
 w KiJghiud 
 
 teos to the 
 'juliuif nice 
 (hiring tlie 
 of y;iiikcij 
 nest hiii'oh- 
 •gain them 
 e nui[».s, in 
 lots ; tlieir 
 nine of tlie 
 us to enrich 
 
 ■escuo, just 
 
 capitiilat- 
 
 ooufusion, 
 
 the [)hu'e. 
 
 s, and rear 
 
 joint Htoek 
 
 feet, at the 
 
 H did their 
 
 ains in the 
 to be seen 
 , and mas- 
 vaxed and 
 liuies, with 
 rdarn, and 
 'amily, hut 
 >ng sundry 
 lie seals of 
 
 Paas and 
 rated with 
 he blessed 
 e to hang 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF TUB COCKED HATS. 89 
 
 up their stockings, and to have them filled according to their 
 deserts ; though, it is said, the good saint is occasionally per- 
 plexed in his nocturnal visits, wliich chimney to descend. 
 
 Of late, this portentous mansion has begun to give signs of 
 ililapidation and decay. Some have aur;b".ted this to tlie 
 visits made by the young people to the city, and their bringing 
 thence various modern fashions ; and to their neglect of the 
 Dutch language, which is gradually becoming conliued to the 
 older persons in the community. The house, too, was greatly 
 8hakeii by high winds, during the prevalence of the speculation 
 mania, especially at the time of the landing of the Yankees. 
 Seeing how mysteriously the fate of Comniunipaw is identiUed 
 with this venerable mansion, we cannot wonder that the older 
 iind wiser heads of the community should be filled with dismay, 
 whenever a brick is toppled down from one of the chimneys, or 
 u weather-cock is blown off from a gable-end. 
 
 The present lord of this historic pile, I am happy to say, is 
 calculated to maintain it in all its integrity. lie is of patri- 
 archal age, and is worthy of the days of the patriarchs. He 
 has done his utmost to increase and multiply the true race in 
 the land. His wife has not been inferior to him in zeal, and 
 they are surrounded by a goodly progeny of children, and 
 grand-children, and great-granil-children, who promise to per- 
 petuate the name of N'an llorne, until time shall be no more. 
 So be it! Long may the horn of the Van Homes continue to 
 bc! exalted in tlie laiul ! Tall as they are, may their shadows 
 never be less ! May the House of the Four Chimneys remain 
 for ages, Uie citadel of Coinmunipaw, and the smoke of the 
 chimneys continut! to ascend, a sweet-smelling iuceuse in the 
 nose of St. Niehohis ! 
 
 With great respect, Mr. Editor, 
 
 Your ob't servant, 
 
 UEUMANUS VANDERDONK. 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE COCKED HATS. 
 
 To THE Editou of tue Knickerbocker. 
 
 Sir : I have read with great satisfaction the valuable paper 
 of your correspondent, Mr. Hermanus Vanderdonk, (who, I 
 take it, is a descendant of the learned Adrian Vanderdonk, one 
 of the early historians of the Nieuw Nederlands,) giving sundry 
 
 'iil- ^ 
 
 li { 
 
 \ 
 
 u 
 
90 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 11 
 
 u 
 
 \ \' 
 
 I 9 ! 
 
 4 
 
 particul.ars, lea;<?n(li^i'y a^^fl statistical, toiuihin}^ the vcnorable 
 village of Coinmuuipaw and its fate-boiind citadel, the House 
 of the Four Chimneys. It goes to prove what I have repeatedly 
 maintained, that we live in the midst of history and niyslcrv 
 and romance ; and that there is no spot in the world more ricli 
 in themes for the writer of historic novels, heroic melodramas, 
 and rough-shod epics, than this same business-looking city of 
 the Manhattoes and its environs. He who would lind tlicse 
 elements, however, must not seek them among the modern im- 
 provements and modern people of this moneyed metropolis, hut 
 must dig for them, as for Kidd the pirate's treasures, in out-of- 
 the-way places, and among the ruins of the past. 
 
 Poetry and romance received a fatal blow at the overthiow of 
 the ancient Dutch dynasty, and have ever since been gradually 
 withering under the growing domination of the Yankees, 'lliey 
 abandoned our hearths when the old Dutch tiles were suijorscdcd 
 by marble chimney-pieces; when brass andirons made way for 
 polished grates, and the crackling and blazing lire of nut-wood 
 gave i)lace to the smoke and stench of Liverpool coal ; and on 
 the downfall of the last gabel-end house, their re(piieni was 
 tolled from the tower of the Dutch church in Nassau-street hy 
 the old bell that came .rom Holland. But poetry and loinance 
 still live unseen among us, or seen only by the enlightened few, 
 who are able to contemplate this city antl its environs tlnou<;li 
 the medium of tradition, and clothed with the associations of 
 foregone ages. 
 
 Would you seek these elements in the country, Mr. lulit.or, 
 avoid all turnpikes, railroads, and steamboats, those abomina- 
 ble inventions by which the usurping Yankees are strengtln u- 
 ing themselves ia the laud, and subduing every thing to utility 
 and commonplace. Avoid all towns and cities of white claii- 
 lj(xird palaces and Grecian temples, studiled with "• Academics,'' 
 '^Seminaries," and "Institutes," which glisten along our bays 
 and rivers ; these are the strongholds of Yankee usurpation ; 
 but if haply you light upon some rough, rambling road, wind- 
 ing between stone fences, gray with moss, and overgrown with 
 elder, poke-berry, mullein, and sweet-briar, with here anil there a 
 low, red-roofed, whitewashed farm-house, cowering among apple 
 and cherry trees ; an old stone church, with elms, willows, and 
 button-woods, as old-looking as itself, and tombstones almost 
 buried in their own graves ; and, peradventure, a small log 
 school-house at a cross-road, where the English is still taught 
 with a thickness of the tongue, instead of a twang of the nose ; 
 should you, 1 say, light upou such a ueighborhood, Mr. Editort 
 
venorahle 
 > the House 
 e r('ppiit(!(]|y 
 mil inystiTv 
 1 more licj, 
 ni'lodriuiias, 
 iwj; city of 
 liiid these 
 Niodern hii- 
 Lrupclis, Idit 
 I, in oiil-ot'- 
 
 verthrow of 
 n jjcnuhially 
 ct'es. 'I'hey 
 ' siiporseded 
 ude way for 
 
 >f Mllt-Wood 
 
 >!d ; and on 
 »'<|ijieiii Was 
 m-strcet hy 
 lid I'oiiiaiice 
 itcMed few, 
 )iis through 
 oeiatioiis of 
 
 Mr. Kdifor, 
 it' uhoiiiiiia- 
 stren<i;theii- 
 1? to iitihiy 
 wliite cl.-i))- 
 cacU'rnies," 
 ii; our hays 
 isiirpation ; 
 oud, vviud- 
 ^rcjwn with 
 .'iiid there a 
 ii<)ii<; apple 
 illow.s, and 
 tK'H uliiiost 
 
 small lo<r 
 itlll taugiit 
 
 the nose ; 
 Ir. Editor, 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF TUE COCK IS D HATS. 
 
 91 
 
 you may thank your stars that you have fouiul one of the lin<Ter- 
 !,!<;• haunts of poetry and romance. " 
 
 Your correspondent, Sir, has touched upon that sublime and 
 afTecting feature in the history of Communipaw, the retreat of 
 the patriotic hand of Nederlanders, led by Van Home, whom 
 he justly terms the IVhiyo of the New Netherlands. He has 
 jiivcn you a picture of the manner in which they ensconced 
 tiiemselves in the House of the Four Chimneys, and awaited 
 with lu-roic i)atience an>: perseverance the day that should sec 
 the Mag of the Hogen Mogens once more floating on the fort of 
 New Amsterdam. 
 
 Your corrcHpondent, Sir, has but given you a glimpse over 
 tiie threshold ; I will now let you into the heart of the mystery 
 of this most mysterious and eventful village. Yes, sir, I will 
 now 
 
 " unclnRp a Hccrct book; 
 
 And to your quick conceiving diHcontenU, 
 I'll read you matter deep and dangcroua, 
 Ah full of peril and adventurous gplrit, 
 Ah to o'er walk a current, roaring loud, 
 On the uuHtcadfaHt fooling of a §pear." 
 
 Sir, it is one of tlu^ most lieautiful and interesting facts con- 
 nected with the history of Communipaw, that the early feeling 
 of resistiince to foreign rule, alluded to by your correspondent, 
 is still ke|)t nj). Yes, sir, a settled, secret, and determined 
 conspiracy has been going on for generations among this iiulom- 
 italtle people, the descendants of the refugees from New Am- 
 sterdam ; the ol)ject of which is to redeem their ancient seat of 
 empire, and to drive the losel Y'ankees out of the land. 
 
 Comnumipaw, it is true, has the glory of origiiuiting this 
 C()nsi)iracy ; and it was hatched and reared in the House of the 
 Four Chimneys; but it has spread far and wide over ancient 
 Tavonia, surmounted the heights of Bergen, Hoboken, and 
 Weehawk, crept up along the banks of the Passaic and the 
 Hackensack, until it pervades the whole chivalry of the coun- 
 try from Tappaan Slote in the north to Piscataway in the south, 
 including the pugnacious village of Rahway, more heroically 
 denominated S|)ank-town. 
 
 Throughout all these regions a great " in-and-in confederacy " 
 prevails, that is to say, a confetleracy among the Dutch fami- 
 lies, by dint of diligent and exclusive intermarriage, to keep 
 the race pure and to multiply. If ever, Mr. Editor, in the 
 course of your travels between Spank-town and Tappaan Slote, 
 you should see a coaey, low-eaved farm-house, teeming with 
 
 I! 
 
IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 1.0 
 
 I.I 
 
 
 1.8 
 
 
 1.25 
 
 1.4 1 1.6 
 
 
 < 
 
 6" 
 
 ► 
 
 Photogi'aphic 
 
 Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 
 23 WEST MAIN STREET 
 
 WEBSTER, N.Y. 14S80 
 
 (716) 872-4503 
 
 '9) 
 


 92 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 
 sturdy, broad-built little urchins, you may set »t down as one 
 of the breeding places of this grand secret confederacy, stocked 
 with the embryo deliverers of New Amsterdam. 
 
 Another step in the progress of this patriotic conspiracy, is the 
 establishment, in various places within the ancient boundarii's 
 of the Nieuw Nederlands, of secret, or rather mysterious asso- 
 ciations, composed of the genuine sons of the Nederlandcrs, 
 with the ostensible object of keeping up the memory of old 
 times and customs, but with the real object of promoting the 
 views of this dark and mighty plot, and extending its ramifi- 
 cations throughout the land. 
 
 Sir, I am descended i rom a long line of genuine Nederland- 
 crs, who, though they remained in the city of New Amsterdiim 
 after the conquest, and throughout the usurpation, have never 
 in their hearts been able to tolerate the yoke imposed upon 
 them. My worthy father, who was one of the last of tlio 
 cocked hats, had a little knot of cronies, of his own .stamp, 
 who used to meet in our wainscoted parlor, round a nut-wood 
 fire, talk over old times, when the city was ruled by its native 
 burgomasters, and groan over the monopoly of all places (4 
 power and profit by the Yankees. I well recollect tlie effect 
 upon this worthy little conclave, when the Yankees first insti- 
 tuted their Nevv'-England Society, held their '-national festi- 
 val," toasted their " father land," and sang their foreign soni^s 
 of triumph within the very precincts of our ancient metropolis. 
 Sir, from that day, my father held the smell of codlish and 
 potatoes, and the sight of pumpkin pie, in utter abomination ; 
 and whenever the annual dinner of the New England Society 
 came rouud, it was a sore anniversary for his children. He 
 got up in an ill humor, grumbled and growled throughout the 
 day, and not one of us went to bed that night, without having 
 had his jacket well trounced, to the tune of "The Pilgrim 
 Fathers.'"' 
 
 You may judge, then, Mr. Editor, of the exaltation of all 
 true patriots of this stamp, when the Society of Sahit Nich- 
 olas was set up among us, and intrepidly established, cheek 
 by jole, alongside of the society of the invaders. Never shall 
 I forget the effect upon my father and his little knot of brother 
 groaners, when tidings were brought them that the ancient 
 banner of the Manhattoes was actually fioating from the win- 
 dow of the City Hotel. Sir, they nearly jumped out of their 
 silver-buckled shoes for joy. They took down their cocked 
 bats from the pegs on which they had hanged them, as the 
 Israelites of yore bung their harps upon the willows, iu token 
 
lES. 
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE COCKED BATS. 
 
 93 
 
 lown as one 
 acy, stocked 
 
 >lracy, is the 
 t boundarii-s 
 erious asso- 
 ederlandcrs, 
 mory of old 
 oinotinf; tlio 
 g its rainifi- 
 
 Nederland- 
 
 Amsterdiiiii 
 
 have never 
 iposed upon 
 
 hvfct of the 
 own .stamp, 
 
 a nut- wood 
 >y its native 
 II places (»f 
 1 the effect 
 
 first insti- 
 tional festi- 
 >reign sonj^s 
 
 nietroi)olis. 
 codfish and 
 l)oininati(»n ; 
 and Society 
 ildren. He 
 Jiighout the 
 lout havin<^ 
 .'he Pilgrim 
 
 ation of all 
 •>aint Nieh- 
 ihed, cheek 
 Never shall 
 . of brother 
 the ancient 
 m the win- 
 •ut of their 
 leir cocked 
 em, as the 
 s, in token 
 
 of bondage, clapped them resolutely once more upon their 
 heads, and cocked them in the face of every Yankee they met 
 on the way to the banqueting-room. 
 
 The institution of this society was hailed with transiwrt 
 throughout the whole extent of the New Netherlands ; being 
 considered a secret foothold gained in New Amsterdam, and 
 a flattering presage of future triumph. Whenever that society 
 holds its annual feast, a sympathetic hilarity prevails through- 
 oat the land ; ancient Pavonia sends over its contributions°of 
 cabbages and oysters; the House of the Four Chimneys is 
 splendidly illuminated, and the traditional song of St. Nich- 
 olas, the mystic bond of union and conspiracy, is chanted 
 with closed doors, in every genuine Dutch family. 
 
 I have thus, I trust, Mr. Editor, opened your eyes to some 
 of the grand moral, po'tical, and political phenomena with 
 which you are surrounded. You will now be able to read the 
 "signs of the times." You will now understand what is 
 meant by those "Knickerbocker Halls," and "Knickerbocker 
 Hotels," and " Knickerbocker Lunches," that are daily spring- 
 ing up in our city and what all these "Knickerbocker Omni- 
 buses" are driving at. You will see in them so many clouds 
 before a storm ; so many mysterious but sublime intimations 
 of the gathering vengeance of a great though oppressed people. 
 Above all, you will now contemplate our bay and its porten- 
 tous borders, with proper feelings of awe and admiration. 
 Talk of the Hay of Naples, and its volcanic mountains ! Why, 
 Sir, little Communipaw, sleeping among its cabbage gardens, 
 "quiet as gunpowder," yet with this t.\>mendous conspiracy 
 l)rewing in its bosom, is an object ten times as sul)lime (in a 
 moral point of view, mark me) as Vesuvius in repose, though 
 charged with lava and brimstone, and ready for an eruption. 
 
 Let me advert to a circumstance connected with this theme, 
 which cannot but be appreciated by every heart of sensibility. 
 You nmst have remarked, Mr. Editor, on summer evenings, 
 and on Sunday afternoons, certain grave, primitive-looking per- 
 sonages, walking the Battery, in close confabulation, with their 
 canes behind their backs, and ever and anon turning a wistful 
 gaze toward the Jersey shore. These, sir, are the sons of 
 Saint Nicholas, the genuine Nederlanders ; who regard Com- 
 munipaw with pious reverence, not merely as the progenitor, 
 but the destined regenerator, of this great metropolis. Yes, 
 Sir ; they are looking with longing eyes to the green marshes 
 of ancient Pavonia, as did the poor conquered Spaniards of 
 yore toward the stern mountains of Asturias, wondering whether 
 
 P» t 
 
 ■ -v. 
 
 ■'• ( 
 
 
94 
 
 WOLTEHTS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 the day of deliverance is at hand. Many is the time, when, in 
 my hoyliood, I have walked with my father and his confidential 
 compeers on the Battery, and listened to their calculations and 
 conjectures, and observed the points of their sharp cocked hats 
 evermore turned toward Pavonia. Nay, Sir, I am convinced 
 that at this moment, if I were to take down the cocked hat of 
 my lamented father from the pe<i; on which it has hung for 
 years, and were to carry it to the Battery, its centre point, true 
 as the needle to the pole, would turn to Communipaw. 
 
 Mr. Editor, the great historic drama of New Amsterdam is 
 but half acted. The reigns of Walter the Doubter, William the 
 Testy, and Peter the Headstrong, with the rise, progress, and 
 decline of the Dutch dynasty, are but so many parts of the 
 main action, the triumphant catastrophe of which is yet to 
 come. Yes, Sir ! the deliverance of the New Nederlands from 
 Yankee domination will eclipse the far-famed redemption of 
 Spain from the Moors, and the oft-sung conquest of Granada 
 will fade before the chivalrous triumph of New Amsterdam. 
 Would that Peter Stuyvesant could rise from his grave to wit- 
 ness that day ! 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 ROLOFF VAN RirPER. 
 
 P.S. Just as I had conrluded the foregoing epistle, I re- 
 ceived a piece of intelligence, which makes me tremble for the 
 fate of Communipaw. I fear, Mr. Editor, the grand conspiracy 
 is in danger of being countermined and counteracted, by those 
 all-pervading and indefatigable Yankees. AV'ould you think it. 
 Sir ! one of them has actually effected an entry in the place by 
 covered way ; or in other words, under cover of the petticoats. 
 Finding every other mode ineffectual, he secretly laid siege to 
 a Dutch heiress, who owns a great cabbage-garden in her own 
 right. Being a smooth-tongued varlet, he easily prevailed on 
 her to elope with him, and they were privately married at Spank- 
 town ! The first notice the good people of Communipaw had of 
 this awful event, was a lithographed map of the cabbage-garden 
 laid out in town lots, and advertised for sale ! On the night of 
 the wedding, the main weather-cock of the House of the Four 
 Chimneys was carried away in a whirlwind ! The greatest con- 
 sternation reigna throughout the village 1 
 
 .*^tfc5«*»^ri^ 
 
riE&. 
 
 me, when, in 
 confidential 
 dilations and 
 cocked hats 
 m oonvinceil 
 ocked hat of 
 las hung for 
 re point, true 
 lavv. 
 
 Lnisterdam is 
 , William the 
 )rojj;ress, and 
 parts of the 
 cli is yet to 
 lerl.'inds from 
 edemption of 
 t of G ranada 
 Amsterdam, 
 grave to wit- 
 
 AN RirPER 
 
 epistle, I re- 
 niMe for the 
 )d conspiracy 
 'ted, Ity those 
 you think it, 
 
 the place by 
 le petticoats, 
 laid siege to 
 n in her own 
 
 prevailed on 
 ied at Spank- 
 inipaw had of 
 hbage-garden 
 1 the night of 
 ! of the Four 
 greatest con- 
 
 I 1 f 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMMUNIPAW. 95 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Knickerbockeu Magazine. 
 
 Sir: I observed in your last month's periodical, a communi- 
 cation from a Mr. Vandekdonk, giving some information con- 
 cerning Communipaw. 1 herewith send you, Mr. Editor, a 
 legend connected with that place; and am much surprised it 
 should have escaped the researches of your very authentic cor- 
 resiwndent, as it relates to an edifice scarcely less fated tiian 
 the House of the Four Chimneys. I give you the legend in its 
 crude and simple state, as I heard it related ; it is capable, how- 
 ever, of being dilated, inflated, and dressed up into very impos- 
 ing shape and dimensions. Should any of your ingenious con- 
 tributors in this line feel inclined to take it in hand, they 
 will find ample materials, collateral and illustrative, among the 
 papers of the late Reiuier Skaats, many years since crier of the 
 court, and keeper of the City Hall, in the city of the Manhat- 
 toes ; or in the library of that important and utterly renowned 
 functionary, Mr. Jacob Hays, long time high constable, who, in 
 the course of his extensive researches, has amassed an amount 
 of valuable facts, to h& rivalled only by that great historical col- 
 lection, "The Newgate Calendar." 
 
 Your humble servant, 
 
 BARENT VAN SCHAICK. 
 
 GUESTS FROM GIBBET ISLAND. 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 Whoever has visited the ancient and renowned village of 
 Communipaw, may have noticed an old stone building, of most 
 ruinous and sinister appearance. The doors and window-shut- 
 ters are ready to drop from their hinges ; old clothes are stuffed 
 in the broken panes of glass, while legions of half-starved dogs 
 prowl about the premises, and rush out and bark at every passer- 
 by ; for your beggarly house in a village is most apt to swarm 
 with profligate and ill-conditioned dogs. What adds to the 
 sinister appearance of this mansion, is a tall frame in front, 
 u<it a little resembling a gallows, and which looks as if waiting 
 to accommodate some of the inhabitants with a well-merited 
 airing. It is not a gallows, however, but an ancient sign-post j 
 
 i 
 
 ■l^i I 
 
 
 ■ is-, 
 
 ■ -•'i»»v»«*« 
 
f 51 
 
 r 
 
 a I 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^^^B 1 
 
 i < 
 
 ^K.* 
 
 i 
 
 ^■'i 
 
 I- 
 
 M 
 
 ■f' 
 
 BB 
 
 L 
 
 w - 
 
 " 
 
 
 (- 
 
 I ' 
 
 ii 
 
 1 ,' 
 
 96 
 
 WOLFERTS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 
 for this dwelling, in the golden days of Communipaw, was one 
 of the most orderly and peaceful of village taverns, v/herc all 
 the public affairs of Communipaw were talked and smoked over. 
 In fact, it was in this very building that Oloffe the Dreamer, 
 and his companions, concerted that great voyage of discovery 
 and colonization, in which they explored Huttermilk Channel, 
 were nearly shipwrecked in the strait of Ilell-gate, and fiiuiUy 
 landed on the island of Manhattan, and founded the great city 
 of New Amsterdam. 
 
 Even after the province had been cruelly wrested from the 
 sway of their High Mightinesses, by the combined forces of tlu; 
 British and Yankees, this tavern continued its ancient loyalty. 
 It is true, the head of the Prince of Orange disappeared from 
 the sign ; a strange bird being painted over it, with the explan- 
 atory legend of " Dik Wilde Gans," or Tlie Wild Goose ; Itut 
 this all the world knew to be a sly riddle of the landlord, the 
 worthy Tennis Van Gieson, a knowing man in a small way, 
 who laid his finger lieside liis nose and winked, when any one 
 studied the signification of his sign, and observed that his goose 
 was hatching, but would join the flock whenever they Hew over 
 the water ; an enigma which was the perpetual lecreation and 
 deli.jht of the loyal but fat-headed burghers of Communipaw. 
 
 Under the sway of this patriotic, though discreet and quiet 
 publican, the tavern continued to flourish in primeval tran- 
 quillity, and was the resort of all true-hearted Netherlaiiders, 
 from all parts of Pavonia ; who met here quietly and secretly, 
 to smoke and drink the downfall of Briton and Yankee, and 
 success to Admiral Van Tromp. 
 
 The only drawback on the comfort of the establishment, was 
 a nephew of mine host, a sister's son, Yan Yost Vantlerscainp 
 by name, and a real scamp by nature. This unlucky whipster 
 showed an early propensity to mischief, which he gratified in 
 a small way, by playing tricks ujwn the frequenters of the Wild 
 Goose ; putting gunpowder in their pipes, or squibs in their 
 pockets, and astonishing them with an explosion, while they sat 
 nodding round the fireplace in the bar-room ; and if perchance 
 a worthy burgher from some distant part of Pavonia had lingered 
 until dark over his potation, it was oilds but that young V^an- 
 derscamp would slip a briar under his horse's tail, as he mounted, 
 and send him clattering along the road, in neck-or-nothing style, 
 to his infinite astonishment and discomfiture. 
 
 It may be wondered at, that mine host of the Wild Goose did 
 not turn such a graceless varlet out of doors ; but Teunis Van 
 GiesoQ was ao easy-tempered man, and, having uo child o.C his 
 
lES. 
 
 »aw, was one 
 IS, v/here all 
 imoked over, 
 he Dreamer, 
 of discovery 
 ilk Channel, 
 , and finally 
 he groat city 
 
 :,ed from tiie 
 forces of the 
 !ient loyalty. 
 »peared from 
 I the explan- 
 Goose ; hut 
 landlord, the 
 X small way, 
 vhen any one 
 hat his goose 
 hey Hew over 
 ^creation and 
 nmunipaw. 
 !et and quiet 
 •imeval tran- 
 iCthcrlanders, 
 and secretly, 
 Yankee, and 
 
 lishment, was 
 V^anderscamp 
 leky whipster 
 e gratified in 
 •s of the Wild 
 piibs in their 
 tvhilc they sat 
 if perchance 
 I had lingered 
 t young Van- 
 s he mounted, 
 nothing style, 
 
 ild Goose did 
 t Tenuis Van 
 o child of his 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 97 
 
 y 
 
 own, looked upon his nephew with almost parental indulgence. 
 His patience and good-nature were doomed to be tried by an^ 
 other inmate of his mansion. This was a cross-grained cur- 
 mudgeon of a negro, named Pluto, who was a kind of enigma 
 in Communipaw. Where he came from, nobody knew. °He 
 was found one morning, after a storm, cast like a sea-monster 
 on the strand, in front of the Wild Goose, and lay there, more 
 dead than alive. The neighbors gathered round, and specu- 
 lated on this production of the deep ; whether it were fish or 
 flesh, or a compound of both, commonly yclept a merman. Th*? 
 kind-hearted Tennis Van Gieson, seeing that he wore the human 
 form, took him into his house, and warmed him into life. 
 By degrees, he showed signs of intelligence, and even uttered 
 sounds very much like language, but which no one in Commu- 
 nipaw could understand. Some thought him a negro just from 
 Guinea, who had either fallen overboard, or escaped from a 
 slave-ship. Nothing, however, could ever draw from him any 
 account of his origin. When questioned on the subject, he 
 merely pointed to Gibbet Island, a small rocky islet, which lies 
 in the open bay, just opposite to Comnumipaw, as if that were 
 his native place, though everybody knew it had never been 
 inhabited. 
 
 In the process of time, he acquired something of the Dutch 
 language, that is to say, he learnt all its vocabulary of oaths 
 and maledictions, with just words suflTicient to string them to- 
 gether. " Donder en blicksen ! " (thunder and lightning,) was 
 the gentlest of his ejaculations. For years he kept about the 
 Wild Goose, more like one of those familiar spirits, or house- 
 hold goblins, that we read of, than like a human being. He 
 acknowledged allegiance to no one, but performed various do- 
 mestic offices, when it suited his humor ; waiting occasionally 
 on the guests ; grooming the horses, cutting wood, drawing 
 water ; and all this without being ordered. Lay any command 
 on him, and the stubborn sea-urchin was sure to rebel. He was 
 never so much at home, however, as when on the water, plying 
 about in skiff or canoe, entirely alone, fishing, crabbing, or 
 grabbing for oysters, and would bring home quantities for the 
 larder of the Wild Goose, which he would throw down at the 
 kitchen door, with a growl. No wind nor weather deterred him 
 from launching forth on his favorite element : indeed, the wilder 
 the weather, the more he seemed to enjoy it. If a storm was 
 brewing, he was sure to put off from shore ; and would be seen 
 far out in the bay, his light skiff dancing like a feather on the 
 waves, when sea and sky were all in a turmoil, and the stoutest 
 
 I 
 
 
 i 
 
 \ 
 
98 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 \ 
 
 " 
 
 - 
 
 I 
 
 ships were fain to lower their sails. Sometimes, on such occa- 
 sions, he would l>e absent for days together. How he weathered 
 the tempest, and how and where he sulwisted, no one eoiiid 
 divine, nor did any one venture to ask, for all had an almost 
 superstitious awe of him. Some of the Communipaw oysternu'ii 
 declared that they had more than once seen him sudilenly ills- 
 appear, canoe and all, as if they plunged beneath the waves, 
 and after a while ome up again, in quite a different i)arl of the 
 bay ; whence they concluded that he could live under water like 
 that notal)le species of wild duck, commonly called the llell- 
 diver. All l>egan to consider him in the light of a foul-wculher 
 bird, like the Mother Carey's Chicken, or Stormy Tetrel ; and 
 whenever they saw him putting far out in his skiff, in cloudy 
 weather, made up their minds for a storm. 
 
 The only being for whom he seemed to have any liking, was 
 Yan Yost Vanderscamp, and him he liked for his very wicktci- 
 ness. He in a manner took the boy under his tutelage, pronipU'd 
 him to all kinds of mischief, aided him in every wild, harum- 
 scarum freak, until the lad became the complete scapegrace of 
 the village ; a pest to his uncle, and to every one else. Nor 
 were his pranks confined to the land ; he soon learned to ac- 
 company old Pluto on the water. Together these worthies 
 would cruise alwut the broad bay, and all the neighljoring 
 straits and rivers ; poking around in skiffs and canoes ; roi)ltiiin 
 the set-nets of the fishermen ; landing on reniote coasts, uiid 
 laying waste orchards and water-melon patches ; in siioi t, 
 carrying on a complete system of piracy, on a smsdl scale. 
 Piloted by Pluto, the youthful Vanderscamp soon Iteeame ac- 
 quainted with all the baya, rivers, creeks, and inlets of the watery 
 world around him ; could navigate from the Hook to Spiting- 
 devil on the darkest night, and learned to set even the terrors 
 of Hell-gate at defiance. 
 
 At length, negro and boy suddenly disappeared, and days 
 and weeks elapsed, but without tidings of them. Some said 
 they must .lave run away and gone to sea; others jocosely 
 hinted, that old Pluto, being no other than his namesake in 
 disguise, had spirited away the boy to the nether regions. All, 
 however, agreed to one thing, that the village was well rid of 
 them. 
 
 In the process of time, the gootl Tennis Van Gieson slept 
 with his fathers, and the tavern remained shut up, waiting for 
 a claimant, for the next heir was Yan Yost Vanderscamp, and 
 he had not been heard of for years. At length, one day. a 
 boat was seen pulling for the shore, from a long, black, rakish- 
 
ES. 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMldUNIPAW. 
 
 99 
 
 I such ocoa- 
 ^^ wt'iitliert'd 
 ) oue oouKl 
 1 iin iilinost 
 V 03 sloniu'ii 
 uklfuly (lis- 
 tlie waves, 
 ptut of tlu! 
 :r wilier like 
 (I the Hell- 
 "oul-weather 
 retrel ; and 
 f, in cloudy 
 
 likiiii^, was 
 ery wieUcd- 
 ;e, pronipled 
 v'ild, haniiii- 
 apetiiace of 
 
 else. Nor 
 Li'iied to ao 
 se worthies 
 nei<j;hhoriiin 
 ics ; rohhiiin 
 
 coasts, and 
 ; in siiorl, 
 snuUl scale. 
 
 Itecaine ac- 
 )f the watery 
 
 to Spitiiiff- 
 i tlie terrors 
 
 1, and (hiys 
 Some saiil 
 iM's jocosely 
 iKuucsake iu 
 gions. All, 
 } well rid of 
 
 jieson slept 
 waiting for 
 irscanip, and 
 , one day. a 
 lack, rukish- 
 
 lookinp; schooner, that lay at anchor in the hay. The boat's 
 crew seemed worthy of the craft from which they debarked. 
 Never had snch a set of noisy, roistering, swaggerin-^ varlets 
 landed in peacefnl (V)mmtmipaw. They were outlandish in 
 garb and demeanor, and were headed l)y a rough, burly, bully 
 ruflian, with fiery whiskers, a copper nose, a scar across his 
 face, and a great Flaunderish beaver slouched on one side of 
 his head, in whom, to their dismay, the quiet inhabitants were 
 made to recognize their early pest, Yan Yost Vanderscamp. 
 The rear of this hoi)eful gang was brouglit up ])y old Pluto, 
 who had lost an eye, grown grizzly-headed, and looked more 
 like a devil than ever. Vanderscamp renewed his acquaint- 
 anc<? with the old burgiiers, much against their will, and in a 
 manner not at all to tlieir taste. He slapped them familiarly 
 on the back, gave them an iron grip of the hand, and was hail 
 fellow well met. According to his own account, he had been 
 all the world over ; had made money l)y bags full ; had ships in 
 every sea, and now meant to turn the Wild Goose into a coun- 
 try seat, where he and his comrades, all rich merchants from 
 foreign parts, might enjoy themselves in the interval of their 
 voyages. 
 
 Sui-o enough, in a little while there was a complete metamor- 
 phose of the Wild (Joose. From being a quiet, peaceful Dutch 
 public house, it In^came a most riotous, uproarious private 
 dwi'lling; a complete rendezvous for boisterous men of the 
 seas, who came here to have what they called a "blow out" 
 on dry land, and might l)e seen at all hours, lounging about the 
 door, or lolling out of the windows; swearing among them- 
 selves, and cracking rough jokes on every passer-by. The house 
 was litted n[). too, in so strange a manner: hammocks slung to 
 the walls, instead of b<Hlstcads ; otl^' kinds of furniture, of 
 foreign fashion ; bamboo couches, Spanish chairs ; pistols, cut- 
 lasses, and Munderbusses, suspended on every i)eg ; silver cru- 
 cifixes on the mantel-pieces, silver caudle-sticks and porringers 
 on the tables, contrasting oddly with the pewter and Delft ware 
 of the origintd establishment. And then the strange amuse- 
 ments of these sea-monsters ! Pitching Spanish dollars, instead 
 of quoits ; firing blunderbusses out of the window ; shooting at 
 a mark, or at any unhappy dog, or cat, o^ pig, or barn-door 
 fowl, that might happen to come within reach. 
 
 The only being who seemed to relish their rough waggery, 
 was old Pluto ; and yet he lead but a dog's life of it ; for they 
 practised all kinds of manual jokes upon hira ; kicked him 
 about like a foot-ball ; shook bim by bis grizzly mop of wool, 
 
 
 Ml 
 
100 
 
 WOLFEHT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 ami never apokc to him without coupling a curse by way of 
 adjective to liia name, and consigning him to the infernal re- 
 gions. Tlie old fellow, however, seemed to like them the lx»t- 
 ter, the more they cursed him, though his utmost expression of 
 pleasure never amounted to more than the growl of a petted 
 bear, when his ears are rubbed. 
 
 Old Pluto was the ministering spirit at the orgies of the Wild 
 Goose ; and such orgies as took place there ! Such drinking, 
 singing, whooping, swearing ; with an occasional interlude of 
 quarrelling and fighting. The noisier grew the revel, the more 
 uid Pluto i)ih'd tlie potations, until the guests would become 
 frantic in their merriment, smashing every thing to pieces, and 
 throwing the house out of the windows. Sometimes, after a 
 drinking l)out, they sallied forth and scoured the village, to 
 the dismay of the worthy burghers, who gathered their women 
 within iloors, and would have shut up the house. Vanderscamp, 
 however, was not to be rebuffed. He insisted on renewing 
 acquaintance with his old neigh!)ors, and on introducing his 
 friends, the merchants, to their families ; swore he was on the 
 look-out for a wife, and meant, before he stopped, to find hus- 
 bands for all their daughters. So, will-yc, nil-ye, sociable he 
 was ; swaggered al)0ut their best parlors, with his hat on one 
 side of his head ; sat on the good wife's nicely-waxed mahogany 
 table, kicking his heels against the carved and polished legs ; 
 kissed and tousled the young vrouws ; and, if they frowned and 
 pouted, gave tlu m a gold rosary, or a sparkling cross, to put 
 them in gooil hi.mor again. 
 
 Sometimes nothing wouhl satisfy him, but he must have some 
 of his old neiglibors to diimer at the Wild Goose. There was 
 no refusing him, for he had got the complete upperhand of 
 the community, an<l the peaceful l)urghers all stood in awe of 
 him. But what a time would the quiet, worthy men have, 
 among these rake-hells, who would delight to astound them 
 with the most extravagant gunpowder tales, embroidered with 
 all kinds of foreign oaths ; clink the can with them ; pledge 
 them in deep potations ; bawl drinking songs in their ears ; 
 and occasionally fire pistols over their heads, or under the table, 
 and then laugh in their faces, and ask them how they liked the 
 smell of gunpowder. 
 
 Thus was the little village of Communipaw for a time like 
 the unfortunate wight possessed with devils ; until Vander- 
 scamp and his brother merchants would sail on another trading 
 voyage, when the Wild Goose would be shut up, and every thing 
 relapse into quiet, only to be disturbed by bis next visitation. 
 
PS. 
 
 by way of 
 infernal re- 
 m the bet- 
 prcsHion of 
 a petted 
 
 f the Wild 
 J drinltiii}?, 
 iterhide of 
 , the niort! 
 uid become 
 pieces, and 
 es, after a 
 village, to 
 heir women 
 uderseamp, 
 
 II 
 
 renewing 
 
 )ducing his 
 was on the 
 to find hu3- 
 soeiable lie 
 lat on one 
 I mahogany 
 ished legs ; 
 rowned and 
 ross, to put 
 
 L have some 
 There was 
 •perhand of 
 1 in awe of 
 men have, 
 .ound them 
 lidered with 
 }m ; pledge 
 their ears ; 
 •r the table, 
 ;y liked the 
 
 a time like 
 til Vander- 
 her trading 
 every thing 
 isitation. 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMUUNIPAW. 
 
 101 
 
 'l 
 
 The mystery of all these proceedings graduallv dawned upon 
 the tardy intellects of Communipaw. These were the times of 
 the notorious Captain Kidd, when the American harbors were 
 the resorts of piratical adventurers of all kinds, who, under pre- 
 text of inercantil" voyages, scoured the West Indies, made plun- 
 dering descents upon the Spanish Main, visited even the remote 
 Indian Seas, and then came to disi)osfe of their booty, have their 
 revels, and lit out new expeditions, in the Ei glish colonies. 
 
 Vanders^'unp liad served in this hopeful school, and having 
 risen to importance among the buccaneers, had pitched upon his 
 native village and early home, as a quiet, out-of-the-way, un- 
 suspected place, where he and his comrades, while anchored at 
 New York, might have their feasts, and concert their plans, 
 without molestation. 
 
 At length the attention of the British government was called 
 to these piratical enterpriseu, that were becoming so frequent 
 and outrageous. Vigorous measures were taken to check and 
 punish them. Several of the most noted freebooters were 
 caught and execute<l, and three of Vandcrscamp's (jhosen com- 
 rades, the most riotous swash-bucklers of the Wild Goose, were 
 hanged in chains on Gibbet Island, in full sight of their favor- 
 ite resort. As to Vanderscamp himsell', he and his man Pluto 
 again disappeared, and it was hoped by the people of Cora- 
 munipaw that he had fallen in some foreign brawl, or been 
 swung on some foreign gallows. 
 
 For a time, therefore, the tranquillity of the village was re- 
 stored ; the worthy Dutchmen once more smoked their pipes in 
 with peculiar complacency, their old pests and 
 
 peace. 
 
 eyinji, 
 
 terrors, the pirates, dangling and drying in the sun, on Gibbet 
 Island. 
 
 This perfect calm was doomed at length to be ruffled. The 
 fiery persecution of the pirates gradually subsided. Justice 
 was satisfied with the examples that had been made, and there 
 was no more talk of Kidd, and the other heroes of like kidney. 
 On a calm summer evening, a boat, somewhat heavily laden, 
 was seen pulling into Communipaw. What was the surprise 
 and disquiet of the inhabitants, to see Yan Yost Vanderscamp 
 seated at the helm, and his man Pluto tugging at the oars ! 
 Vanderscamp, however, was apparently an altered man. He 
 brought home with him a wife, who seemed to be a shrew, and 
 to have the upper hand of him. He no longer was the swagger- 
 ing, bully ruflian, but affected the regular merchant, and talked 
 of retiring from business, and settling down quietly, to pass tht 
 rest of his days in his native place. 
 
 i' 
 
 ! I 
 
 II « 
 
 I 
 
102 
 
 WOLFEnrs ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Tho Wild Goose mansion was again opened, but with dimin^ 
 ished splendor, and no riot. It is true, Vanderscamp had frc< 
 quent nautical visitors, and the sound of revelry was occasion- 
 ally overheard in his house ; but every thing seemed to be done 
 imiler the rose ; and old Pluto was the only sei-vant that olfl- 
 ciated at these orgies. The visitors, indeed, were by no means 
 of the turbulent stamp of their predecessors ; but quiet, mys- 
 terious traders, full of nods, and winks, and hieroglyphi(! 
 signs, with whom, to use their cant phrase, " every thing was 
 smug." Their ships came to anchor at night in the lower bay ; 
 and, on a private signal, Vanderscamp would launch his lK)at, 
 and accompanied solely by his man Pluto, would make them 
 mysterious visits. Sometimes boats pulled in at night, in 
 front of the Wild Goose, and various articles of merchandise 
 were lauded in the tlark, and spirited away, nobody kui'w 
 whither. One of the more curious of the inhabitants kept 
 watch, and caught a glimpse of the features of some of these 
 night visitors, by the casual glance of a lantern, and declared 
 that he recognized more than one of the freel)ooting frequent- 
 ers of the Wihl Goose, m former times ; from whence he con- 
 cluded that Vanderscamp was at his old game, and that tiiis 
 mysterious merchandise was nothing more nor less than pirati- 
 cal plunder. The more charitable opinion, however, was, that 
 Vanderscamp and his comrades, having been driven from their 
 old line of business, by the "oppressions of government," had 
 resorted to smuggling to make both ends meet. 
 
 Be that as it may : I come now to the extraordinary fact, 
 which is the but-end of this story. It happened late oni; 
 night, that Yan Yost Vanderscamp was returning across the 
 broad bay, in his light skifif, rowed by his man Pluto. He had 
 been carousing on board of a vessel, newly arrived, and was 
 somewhat ol)fuscated in intellect, by the liquor he had imbibed. 
 It was a still, sultry night; a heavy mass of lurid clouds was 
 rising in the west, witii the low muttering of distant thunder. 
 N'anderscamp called on Pluto to pul) lustily, that they might get 
 home before the gathering storm. The old negro made no reply, 
 but shaped his course so as to skirt the rocky shores of Gibbet- 
 Island. A faint creaking overhead caused Vanderscamp to cast 
 up his eyes, when, to his horror, he beheld the bodies of his three 
 pot companions and brothers in iniquity dangling in the moon- 
 light, their rags fluttering, and their chains creaking, as they 
 were slowly swung backward and forward by the rising breeze. 
 
 " What do you mean, you blockhead I " cried Vanderscamp, 
 " by pulling so close to the island? " 
 
A LEG EN I) OF VOMMUNIPAW. 
 
 lUit 
 
 iment," had 
 
 " I thought youM bo p;hi(l to soe your old friends once more," 
 growled the negro; ''you were never afraid of a livin.' man, 
 what do you fear from the dead? " " 
 
 - Who's afraid?" hiccoughed Vanderscamp, partly lieated hy 
 liquor, partly nettled by the jeer of the negro ; " who's afraid ! 
 Hang me, l)ut I would be ghul to see them once more, alive or 
 dead, at the Wild Goose. Come, my huls in the wind ! " con- 
 tinued he, taking a draught, and nourishing the bottle above 
 his head, ''here's fair weather to you iu the other world ; and 
 if you should be walking the rounds to-night, odds tish ! but I'll 
 be happy if you will drop in to supper." 
 
 A dismal creaking was the only reply. The wind l)lew loud 
 and shrill, and as it whistled round the gallows, and uimmg the 
 bones, sounded as if there were laughing and gibbering ii" the 
 air. Old Pluto chuckled to himself, and now pulled for home. 
 The storm burst over the voyagers, while they were yet far 
 from shore. The rain fell in torrents, the thunder crashed and 
 pealed, and the lightning kept up an incessant blaze. It was 
 stark midnight before they landed at Communipaw. 
 
 Dripping and shivering, Vanderscamp crawled homeward. 
 He was completely sobered by the storm ; the water soaked 
 from without, having diluted and cooled the licjuor within. 
 Arriveil at the Wild Goose, he knocked timidly and dubiously 
 at the door, for he dreaded the reception he was to experience 
 from his wife. He had reason to do so. She met him at the 
 threshold, iu a precious ill humor. 
 
 "Is this a time," said she, "to keep people out of their 
 beds, and to bring home company, to turn the house upside 
 down?" 
 
 " Company? " said Vanderscamp, meekly : " I have brought 
 no company with me, wife." 
 
 " No, indeed ! they have got here before you, but by your 
 invitation ; and blessed-looking company they are, truly I " 
 
 Vanderscamp's knees smote together. "For the love of 
 heaven, where are they, wife?" 
 
 "Where? — why, in the blue-room, up-stairs, making thei»- 
 selves as much at home as if the house were their own." 
 
 Vanderscamp made a desperate effort, scranibled up to the 
 room, and threw open the door. Sure enough, there at a table, 
 on which burned a light as blue as brimstone, sat the three 
 guests from Gibbet Island, with halters round their necks, and 
 bobbing their cups together, ae ■. they were hob-or-nobbing, 
 and trolling the old Dutch freebooter's glee, since tr»'>slated 
 into English : 
 
 I I 
 
 In 
 
104 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES, 
 
 u 
 
 " For three merry tads be we, 
 And three merry lads be we ; 
 I aa the laud, and thoc on the sand, 
 And Jack on the gallowstree." 
 
 Vanderscamp saw and heard no more. Starting back with 
 horror, be missed his footing on the hindiug-place, and fell 
 from the top of the stairs to the bottom. He was taken up 
 speechless, and, either from the fall or the fright, was Iniiicl 
 in the yard of the little Dutch church at Bergen, on the fol- 
 lowing Sunday. 
 
 From that day forward, the fate of the Wild Goose was 
 sealed. It was pronounced a haunted house^ and avoided ac- 
 cordingly. No one inhabited it but Vanderscamp's shrew of 
 a widow, and old Pluto, and they were considered but little 
 better than its hobgob'in visitors. Pluto grow more and more 
 haggard and morose, aud looked more like an imp of darkness 
 than a human being. He spoke to no one, but went about mut- 
 tering to hihiSelf ; or, as some hinted, talking vith the (Icvil, 
 who, though unseen, was ever at his elbow. Now and then he 
 was seen pulling about the bay alone, in his skiff, in dark 
 weather, or at the approach of night-fall ; nobody could tell 
 why, unless on an errand to invite more guests frojn the gal- 
 lows. Indeed it was affirmed that the Wild Goose still con- 
 tinued to be a house of entertainment for such guests, ai.l that 
 on stormy nights, the blue-chamber was occasionally illumi- 
 nated, and sounds of diabolical merriment were overheard, 
 mingling with the howling of the tempest. Some treated 
 these as idle stories, until on one such night, it wao about the 
 time of the Kjuinox, there was a horrible uproar in the Wild 
 Goose, that could not be mistaken. It was not so much tlu' 
 sound of revelry, however, as strife, with two or three piercing 
 shrieks, that pervaded every part of the village. Nevertheless, 
 no one thought of hastening to the spot. On the contrary, the 
 honest burghers of Communipaw drew their night-caps over 
 their cars, and buried their heads under the bed-clothes, at the 
 thoughts of Vanderscamp and his gallows companions. 
 
 The next morning, some of the bolder and more curious 
 undertook to reconnoitre. All was quiet and lifeless at the 
 Wild Goose. The door yawned wide open, and had evidently 
 been open all night, for the storm had beaten into the house. 
 Gathering more courage from the silence and api)areut deser- 
 tion, they gradually ventured over the threshold. The house 
 had indeed the air of having been possessed by devils. Every 
 thing was topsy-turvy ; trunks had been broken open, and 
 
13. 
 
 THE BERMUDAS. 
 
 105 
 
 back with 
 
 , .and foil 
 
 =1 taki'n up 
 
 svati Jnii'ic'l 
 
 )n the fol- 
 
 Oooso was 
 ivokk'il ae- 
 8 shrew of 
 I but little 
 and more 
 f daikui'ss 
 about nuit- 
 
 the devil, 
 ind then he 
 Cf, in dark 
 
 could tell 
 in the gal- 
 p; still con- 
 s, ai.d that 
 ally illuiiii- 
 overheard, 
 mo treated 
 : al)out tl)e 
 u the Wild 
 ) much the 
 •ee piercing 
 ?vcrtheless, 
 )ntrary, the 
 -caps over 
 thes, at the 
 s. 
 
 ore curious 
 less at the 
 d evidently 
 
 the house. 
 
 ireut deser- 
 
 The house 
 
 Is. Evi'ry 
 
 open, and 
 
 chests of drawers and corner cupboards turned inside out, as 
 in a time of general sack and pillaire ; but the most woful sight 
 was the widow of Yan Yost Vci.ivierscamp, extended a corpse 
 on the floor of the blue-chamber, with the marks of a deadly 
 gripe on the wind-pipe. 
 
 AH now was conjecture and dismay at Communipaw ; and 
 the disappearance of old Pluto, who was nowhere to he found, 
 gave rise to all kinds of wild surmises. Some suggested that 
 the negro had betrayed the house to some of V^'anderscamp's 
 buccaneering associates, and that they had decamped together 
 with the booty ; others surmised that the negro was nothing 
 more nor less than a devil incarnate, who had now accom- 
 plished his ends, and made off with his dues. 
 
 Events, however, vindicated the negro from this last imputa- 
 tion. His skiff was picked up, drifting about the bay, bot»om 
 upward, as if wrecked in a tempest ; and his body was found, 
 shortly afterward, by some Communipaw lishermen, stnuided 
 among the rocks of Gibbet Island, near the foot of the pirates' 
 gallows. The fishermen shook their heads, and observed that 
 oid Pluto had ventured once too often to invite Guests from 
 Gibbet Island. 
 
 THE BERMUDAS. 
 
 ▲ SHAKSPEARIAN RESEARCH : BY THE AUTHOR OP THE SKETCH- 
 BOOK. 
 
 " Who did not think, till within these foure yearcB, but that these islands had been 
 rather a habiutlon for Divells, than lit for men to dwell in? Who did not hate the 
 name, when hee was on land, and shun the place when he was on the eeae? But 
 behold the ml8pri<»ion and conceits of the world! For true and large experience hath 
 now told U8, K is one of the sweetest paradises that be upon earth." — "A Plainb 
 Dbbcript. of thk Babmudas:" 1613. 
 
 In the course of a voyage home from England, our ship had 
 been struggling, for two or three weeks, with perverse head- 
 winds, and a stormy sea. It was in the month of May, yet 
 the weather had at times a wintry sharpness, and it was ap- 
 prehended that we were in the neighborhood of floating islands 
 of ice, which at that season of the year drift out of the Gulf of 
 Saint Lawrence, and sometimes occasion the wreck of noble 
 ships. 
 
 Wearied out by the continued opposition of the elements, 
 our captain at length bore away to the south, in hopes of 
 catching the expiring breath of the trade-winds, and making 
 
 i'* 
 
106 
 
 WCLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 what is called the southern passage. A few days wrought, as 
 it were, a magical "sea change" in every thing around us. 
 We seemed to emerge into a ditrerent world. The late dark 
 and angry sea, lashed up into roaring and swashing surges, 
 became calm and sunny ; the rude winds died away ; and grad- 
 ually a light breeze sprang up directly aft, filling out every 
 sail, and wafting us smoothly along on an even keel. The air 
 softened into a bland and delightful temperature. Dolphins 
 began to play about us ; the nautilus came floating by, like a 
 fair}' ship, with its mimic sail and rainbow tints ; and flying- 
 fish, from time to time, made their short excursive flights, and 
 occasionally fell upon the deck. The cloaks and overcoats in 
 which we had hitherto wrapped ourselves, and moped about 
 the vessel, were thrown aside ; for a sunnner warmth had 
 succeeded to the late wintry chills. Sails were stretched as 
 awnings over the quarter-deck, to protect us from the mid-da}' 
 sun. Under these we lounged away the day, in luxurious 
 indolence, musing, with half-shut eyes, upon the quiet ocean. 
 The night was scarcely less beautiful than the day. The 
 rising moon sent a quivering column of silver along the undu- 
 lating surface of the def p, and, gradually climbing the heaven, 
 lit up our towering toi^-sails and swelling main-sails, and spread 
 a pale, mysterious light aiound. As our ship made her whis- 
 pering way through this dreamy world of waters, every bois- 
 terous sound on board was charmed to silence ; and the low 
 whistle, or drowsy song of a sailor from the forecastle, or the 
 tinkling of a guitar, and the soft warbling of a female voice 
 from the quarter-f"eck, seemed to derive a witching melody 
 from the scene and hour. I was remind d '^f Oberon's exquis- 
 ite description of music aixv moonlight on the ocean : 
 
 " Thou reraerabereet 
 
 Since on;e I sat upon e promontory, 
 And heard a mermaid on a dolphin'R back, 
 Uttering such dulcet and harmonloun broatb, 
 That the rude eea grew civil at her song, 
 And certain stars shot madly from their spheres, 
 To hear the •ca-tuaid's music." 
 
 Indeed, I was in the very mood to conjure up all the imagi- 
 nary beings with which poetry has peopled old ocean, and almost 
 ready to fancy I heard rhe distant song of the mei-iuaid, or 
 the mellow shell of the tiiton, and to picture to myself Neptune 
 and Amphitrite with ftll their pageant sweeping along the dim 
 horizon. 
 
nought, as 
 iiouud us. 
 
 late dark 
 iig surgos, 
 
 and grad- 
 
 out every 
 
 The air 
 
 Dolphins 
 
 by, like a 
 uh\ ttying- 
 ligiits, and 
 'ercoats in 
 •ped abont 
 irnitli had 
 retehed as 
 le raid-da}' 
 
 luxurious 
 liet ocean, 
 lay. The 
 
 the undu- 
 le heaven, 
 and si)reatl 
 ' her whis- 
 n-ery bois- 
 id the low 
 5tle, or the 
 male voice 
 ig melody 
 u's exquis- 
 
 THE BERMUDAS. 
 
 107 
 
 the imagi- 
 iiud almost 
 .'rniaid, or 
 f Neptune 
 g the dim 
 
 A day or two of such fanciful voyaging brought us in siaht 
 of the Bermudas, which first looked like mere summer clouds, 
 peering above the quiet ocean. All day we glided along in 
 sight of thein, with just wind enough to till our sails; and 
 never did land appear more lovely. They were clad in eme- 
 rald verdure, beneath the sereuest of skies : not an angry wave 
 broke upon their quiet shores, and small fishing craft, riding 
 on the crystal waves, seemed as if hung in air. It was such 
 a scene that Fletcher pictured to himself, when he extolled 
 the halcyon let of the fisherman : 
 
 " Ah ! would thou knewest how much It better were 
 To bide among the simple fiaher-awaiDS : 
 No shrieljiiig owl, no nightcrow iodgeth here, 
 Nor ia our Hiiuple pleasure mixed with paius. 
 Our sportH begin with the beginning year; 
 In calms, to pull the leaping fiah to land. 
 In roughs, to s.r;? and dunce along the yelljw iand." 
 
 In contemplating these beautiful islands, and the peaceful 
 sea around them, I could hardly realize that these were the 
 "still vex'd Bermoothes" of Shakspeare, once the dread of 
 mariners, and infamous in the narratives of the early dis- 
 coverers, for the dangers and disasters which beset them. 
 Such, however, was the case ; and the islands derived additional 
 interest in my eyes, from fancying that I could trace in their 
 early history, and in the superstitious notions connected with 
 them, some of the elements of Shakspeare's wild and beautiful 
 drama of the Tempest. I shall take the liberty of citing a few 
 historical facts, in support of this idea, which may claim some 
 additional attention from the American reader, as being con- 
 nected with tiie first settlement of Virginia. 
 
 At the time when Shakspeare was in the fulness of his talent, 
 and seizing upon every thing that could furnish aliment to his 
 imagination, the colonization of Virginia wai* a favorite object 
 of entei [)rise among people of condition in England, and several 
 of the courtiers of the court of Queen Elizabeth were personally 
 engaged in it. In the year 1609 a noble armament of nine 
 ships and five bundled men sailed for the relief of the colony. 
 It was commanded by Sir George Somers, as admiral, a gallant 
 and generous gentleman, above sixty years of age, and pos- 
 sessed of an ample fortune, yet still bent i';-on hardy enter- 
 prise, and ambitious of signalizing himself in the service of his 
 country. 
 
 On board of his flag-ship, the Sea-Vulture, sailed also Sit 
 
 
 * 
 
 Iw 
 
 ; 
 I » 
 
108 
 
 WOLFERT'S BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 i 
 
 Thomas Gates, lieutenant-general of the colony. The voyage 
 was long and boisterous. On the twenty-fifth of July, the 
 admiral's ship was separated from the rest, in a hurricane. For 
 several days she was driven about at the mercy of the elements, 
 and so strained and racked, that her seams yawned open, and 
 her hold was half filled with water. The storm subsided, but 
 left her a mere foundering wreck. The crew stood in the hold 
 to their waists in water, vainly endeavoring to bail her with 
 kettles, buckets, and other vessels. The leaks rapidly gained 
 on them, while their strength was as rapidly declining. They 
 lost all hope of keeping the ship afloat, until they should reach 
 the American coast ; and wearied with fruitless toil, deU'imined, 
 in their despair, to give up all farther attempt, shut down the 
 hatches, and aljandon themselves to Providence. Some, who 
 had spirituous liquors, or " comfortable waters," as the old 
 record quaintly terms them, brought them forth, and shared 
 them with their comrades, and they all drank a sad farewell to 
 one another, as men who were soon to part company in this 
 world. 
 
 In this moment of extremity, the worthy admiral, who kept 
 sleepless watch from the high stern of the vessel, gave the 
 thrilling cry of '' land ! " All rushed on deck, in a frenzy of 
 joy, and ni :hing now was to be seen or heard on board, but 
 the transports of men who felt as if rescued from the grave. 
 It is true the land in sight would not, in ordinary circumstances, 
 have inspired mucli self-gratulation. It could be nothing else 
 but the grouj) of islands called after their discoverer, one Juan 
 Bermudas, a Spaniard, l)ut stigmatized among the mariners of 
 those ckiys as " the islands of devils ! " " For the islands of 
 the Bermudas," says the old narrative of this voyage, "as 
 every man kuoweth that hath heard or read of tliem, were never 
 inhabited by any Christian or heathen ixiople, but were ever 
 esteemed and reputed a most prodigious and inchanted place, 
 affordin" nothing but gusts, stormes, and foul weather, which 
 made every navigator and mariner to avoide them, as Scylla and 
 Charybdis, or as they would shun the Divell himself." ' 
 
 Sir George Somers and his tempest- tossed comrades, how- 
 ever, hailed them with rapture, as if they had been a terrestrial 
 paradise. Every sail was spread, and every ejcertion made to 
 urge the foundering ship to land. Before long, she struck upon 
 a rock. Fortunately, the late stormy winds had subsided, and 
 there was no surf. A swelliu": wave lifted her from oflf the 
 
 1 <* A rikiue DeicripUuQ ot the BanaudM.' 
 
he voyage 
 
 July, the 
 
 ane. For 
 
 elements, 
 
 open, and 
 
 )8ided, but 
 
 u the hold 
 
 her with 
 
 [Uy gained 
 
 ng. They 
 
 ould reach 
 
 etermined, 
 
 down tlie 
 
 jome, who 
 
 IS the old 
 
 lud shared 
 
 farewell to 
 
 Luy in this 
 
 , who kept 
 
 gave the 
 
 , frenzy of 
 
 board, but 
 
 the grave. 
 
 urastances, 
 
 othiug else 
 
 , one Juan 
 
 nariners of 
 
 islands of 
 
 >yage, " as 
 
 were never 
 
 were ever 
 
 11 ted place, 
 
 ther, which 
 
 Scylla and 
 
 ades, how- 
 i terrestrial 
 >n made to 
 itruck upon 
 jsided, and 
 oiu off the 
 
 THE BERMUDAS. 
 
 109 
 
 rock, and bore her to another ; and thus she was borne on from 
 rock to rock, until she leuuiined wedged between two, as firmly 
 as if set upon the stocks. The boats were immediately lowered 
 and, though the shore was above a mile distant, the whole crew 
 were landed in safety. 
 
 Every one had now his task assigned him. Some made all 
 haste to unload the ship, before she should go to pieces ; some 
 constructed wigwams of palmetto leaves, and others ranged th« 
 island in quest of wood and water. To their surprise and joy, 
 they found it far different from the desolate and frightful place 
 they had been taught, by seamen's stories, to expect. It was 
 well-wooded and fertile ; there were birds of various kinds, and 
 herds of swine roaming about, the progeny of a number that 
 had swaik ashore, in former years, from a Spanish wreck. The 
 island abounded with turtle, and great quantities of their eggs 
 were to be found among the rocks. The bays and inlets were 
 full of lish ; so tame, that if any one stepped into the water, 
 they would throng around him. Sir George Somers, in a little 
 while, caught enough with hook and line to furnish a meal to 
 his whole ship's company. Some of them were so large, that 
 two were as much as a man could carry. Crawfish, also, were 
 taken in abundance. The air was soft and salubrious, and the 
 sky beautifully serene. Waller, in his "• Summer Islands," has 
 given us a faithful pictui-e of the climate : 
 
 " For the kind spring, (which but galuteg us here,) 
 lubabiu these, and courts them all the year: 
 Ripe fruits aud blossoms ou the same trees live; 
 At once they promise, and at once they give : 
 So sweet the air, so moderate the clime, 
 None sickly lives, or dies before his time. 
 Ileaven sure has kept this spot of earth uncuraed« 
 To shew how all 'hiugs were created first." 
 
 We may imagine the feelings of the shipwrecked mariners, on 
 Cnding themselves cast by stormy seas upon so happy a coast ; 
 where abundance was i o be had without labor ; where what in 
 other climes constituted the costly luxuries of the rich, wei« 
 within every man's reach ; aud where life promised to be a mere 
 holiday. Many of the common sailors, especially, declared they 
 desired no better lot than to pass the rest of their lives on this 
 favored island. 
 
 The eonnnuuders, however, were not so ready to console them- 
 selves with mere physical comforts, for the severance from the 
 enjoyment of cultivated life, and all the objects of honorable 
 
 
 ! : 
 
no 
 
 WOLFERT*S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 i! 
 
 ambition. Despairing of the arrival of any chance ship on 
 these shunned and dreaded islands, they fitted out the long-l>oat, 
 making a deck of the ship's hatches, and having manned her 
 with eight picked men, despatched her, under the command of 
 an able and hardy mariner, named Raven, to proceed to Vir- 
 ginia, and procure shipping to be sent to their relief. 
 
 While waiting in anxious idleness for the arrival of the looked- 
 for aid, dissensions arose between Sir George Somers and Sir 
 Thomas Gates, originating, very probably, in jealousy of the 
 lead which the nautical experience and professional station of 
 the admiral gave him in the present emergency. Each com- 
 mander, of course, had his adherents : these dissensions ripeneil 
 into a complete schism ; and this handful of shipwrecked men, 
 thus thrown together, on an uninhabited island, separated into 
 two parties, and lived asunder in bitter feud, as men rendered 
 fickle by prosperity instead of being brought into brotherhood 
 by a common calamity. 
 
 Weeks and months elapsetl, without bringing the looked-for 
 aid from Virginia, though that colony was within but a few days ' 
 sail. Fears were now entertained that the long-boat had been 
 either swallowed up in the sea, or wrecked on some savage 
 coast; one or other of which most probably was the case, as 
 nothing was ever heard of Raven and his comrades. 
 
 Each party now set to work to build a vessel for itself out of 
 the cedar with which the island alwunded. The wreck of the 
 Sea- Vulture furnished rigging, and various other articles ; but 
 they had no iron for bolts, and other fastenings ; and for want 
 of pitch and tar, they payed the seams of their vessels with 
 lime and turtle's oil, which soon dried, and became as hard as 
 stone. 
 
 On the tenth of May, IGIO, they set sail, having been about 
 nine months on the island. They reached Virginia without 
 furtiier accident, but found the colony in great distress for pro- 
 visions. The account they gave of the abundance that reigned 
 in the Bermudas, and especially of the herds of swine that 
 roamed the island, determined Lord Delaware, the governor 
 of Virginia, to send thither for supplies. Sir George Somers, 
 with his wonted promptness and generosity, offered to under- 
 take what was still considered a dangerous voyage. Accord- 
 ingly, on the nineteenth of June, he set sail, in his own cedar 
 vessel of thirty tons, accompanied by another small vessel, com- 
 manded by Captain Argall. 
 
 The gallant Somers was doomed again to be tempest-tossed. 
 His companion vessel was soon driven back to port, but he 
 
THE BERMUDAS. 
 
 Ill 
 
 kept the sea ; and, as usual, remained at his post on deck, in 
 all weathers. His voyage was long and boisterous, and the 
 fatigues and exposures which he underwent, were too much 
 for a frame impaired I)y age, and by previous hardsliips. He 
 arrived at Bermudas completely exhausted and broken down. 
 
 His nephew. Captain Mathew Somers, attended him in his 
 illness with affectionate assiduity. Finding his end approacli- 
 ing, the veteran called his men together, and exhorted them to 
 be true to the interests of Virginia ; to procure provisions witii 
 all possible despatch, and hasten back to the relief of the 
 colony. 
 
 With this dying charge, he gave up the ghost, leaving his 
 nephew and crew overwiielmed with grief and consternation. 
 Their first thought was to pay honor to his remains. Opening 
 the body, they took out the heart and entrails, and buried them, 
 erecting a cross over the grave. They then embalmed the 
 l)ody, and set sail with it for England ; thus, while paying empty 
 honors to their deceased commander, neglecting his earnest 
 wish and dying inj ;nction, that they should return with relief 
 to Virginia. 
 
 The little bark arrived safely at Whitechurch, in Dorsetshire, 
 with its melancholy freight. The body of the worthy Homers 
 was interred with the military honors due to a brave soldier, 
 and many volleys were fired over his grave. The Bermudas 
 have since received the name of the Somer Islands, as a tribute 
 to his memory. 
 
 The accounts given by Captain Mathew Somera and his crew 
 of the delightful climate, and the great beauty, fertility, and 
 abundance of these islands, excited the zeal of enthusiasts, 
 and the cupidity of sijeoulators, and a plan was set on foot to 
 colonize them. The Virginia company sold their right to the 
 islands to one hundred and twenty of their own members, who 
 erected tliemselves into a distinct corporation, under the name of 
 the " Somer Island Society ; " and Mr. Richard More was sent 
 out, in 1612, as governor, with sixty men, to found a colony: 
 and this leads me to the second branch of this research. 
 
 \ i^-: 
 
 \ ■ 
 
 i> ( 
 
 
 
 THE THREE KINGS OF BERMUDA. 
 
 AND THEIR TREASURE OF AMBERGRIS. 
 
 At the time that Sir George Somers was preparing to launch 
 his cedar-built bark, and sail for Virginia, there were three cul- 
 prits among his men, who had been guilty of capital offences. 
 
112 
 
 WOLFEET'S JtOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 One of them was shot ; the others, named Christopher Cartei 
 and Edward Waters, escaped. Waters, indeed, made a very 
 narrow escape, for he had actually been tied to a tree to be 
 executed, but cut the rope with a knife, which he had con- 
 cealed about his person, and fled to the woods, where he was 
 loined by Carter. These two worthies kept themselves con- 
 cealed in the secret parts of the island, until the departure of 
 the two vessels. When Sir George Somers revisited the island, 
 in quest of supplies for the Virginia colony, these culprits 
 hovered about the landing place, and succeeded in persuading 
 another seaman, named Edward Chard, to join them, giving 
 him the most seductive pictures of the ease and abundance in 
 which they revelled. 
 
 When the bark that bore Sir George's body to England had 
 faded from the watery horizon, these three vagabonds walked 
 forth in their majesty and might, the lords and sole inhabitants 
 of these islands. For a time their little commonwealth went on 
 prosperously and happily. They built a house, sowed corn, 
 and the seeds of various fruits ; and having plenty of hogs, 
 wild fowl, and fish of all kinds, with turtle in abundance, car- 
 ried on their tripartite sovereignty with great harmony and much 
 feasting. All kingdoms, however, are doomed to revolution, 
 convulsion, or decay ; and so it fared with the empire of the 
 three kings of Bermuda, albeit they were monarchs without 
 subjects. In an evil hour, in their search after turtle, among 
 the fissures of the rocks, they came upon a great treasure of 
 ambergris, which had been cast on shore by the ocean. Beside 
 a number of pieces of smaller dimensions, there was one great 
 mass, the largest that had ever been known, weighing eighty 
 pounds, and which of itself, according to the maiket value of 
 ambergris in those days, was worth about nine or ten thou- 
 sand pounds ! 
 
 From that moment, the happiness and harmony of the three 
 kings of Bermuda were gone forever. While poor devils, with 
 nothing to share but the common blessings of the island, which 
 administered to present enjoyment, but had nothing of convert- 
 ible value, they were loving and united ; but here was actual 
 wealth, which would make them rich men, whenever they could 
 transport it to a market. 
 
 Adieu the delights of the island ! They now became flat and 
 insipid. Each pictured to himself the consequence he might 
 now aspire to, in civilized life, could he once get there with 
 this mass of ambergris. No longer a poor Jack Tar, frolick- 
 ing in the low taverns of Wappiug, he might roll tiirough Lon* 
 
her Cartel 
 ade a very 
 tree to be 
 » had con- 
 ere he was 
 elves cou- 
 jparture of 
 the island, 
 36 culprits 
 persuading 
 em, giviug 
 indance iu 
 
 igland had 
 jds walked 
 iuhabitauts 
 th went on 
 wed corn, 
 r of hogs, 
 ;]ance, car- 
 r and much 
 revolution, 
 )ire of the 
 hs without 
 tie, among 
 ireasure of 
 Q. Beside 
 1 one great 
 ing eighty 
 it value of 
 ten thou- 
 
 the three 
 levils, with 
 ind, which 
 •f convert- 
 (vas actual 
 they could 
 
 le flat and 
 he might 
 there with 
 ir, frolick- 
 >ugh Lon* 
 
 THE BERMUDAS. 
 
 118 
 
 don in his coach, and perchance arrive, like Whittington, at the 
 dignity -^f Lord Mayor. 
 
 With riches came envy and covetousness. Each was now 
 for assuming the supreme power, and getting the monopoly of 
 the ambergris. A civil war at length broke out : Chard and 
 Waters defied each other to mortal combat, and the kingdom 
 of the Bermudas was on the point of being deluged with royal 
 blood. Fortunately, Carter took no part in the bloody feud. 
 Ambition might have made him view it with secret exultation ; for 
 if either or both of the brother potentates were slain in the con- 
 flict, he would be a gainer in purse and ambergris. But he 
 dreaded to be left alone in this uninhabited island, and to find 
 himself the monarch of a solitude : so he secretly purloined and 
 hid the weaix)ns of the belligerent rivals, who, having no means 
 of carrying on the war, gradually cooled down into a sullen 
 armistice. 
 
 The arrival of Governor More, with an overpowering force 
 of sixty men, put an end to the empire. He took possession of 
 the kingdom, in the name of the Somer Island Company, and 
 forthwith proceeded to make a settlement. The three kings 
 tacitly relinquished their sway, but stood up stoutly for their 
 treasure. It was determined, however, that they had been 
 fitted out at the expense, and employed in the service, of the 
 Virginia Company ; that they had found the ambergris while in 
 the service of that company, and on that company's land ; that 
 the ambergris, therefore- belonged to that company, or rather 
 to the Somer Island company, in consequence of their recent 
 purchase of the island, and all their appurtenances. Having 
 thus legally established their right, and being moreover able to 
 back it by might, the company laid the lion's paw upon the 
 six)il; and nothing more remains on historic record of the 
 Three Kings of Bermuda, and their treasure of ambergris. 
 
 The reader will now determine whether I am more extrava- 
 gant than most of the commentators on Shakspeare, in my sur- 
 mise that the story of Sir George Somers' shipwreck, and the 
 subsequent occurrences that took place on the unmhabited island, 
 may have furnished the bard with some of the elements of hia 
 drama of the Tempest. The tidings of the shipwreck, and of 
 the incidents connected with it, reached England not long 
 before the production of this drama, and made a great sensa- 
 tion there. A narrative of the whole matter, from which moat 
 
 , .< 
 
 
 j,l 
 
 u 
 
114 WOLFKRT*S nOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 of the foregoing particulars are extracted, "vas published at the 
 time in London, in a pamphlet form, and 'd not fail to he 
 eagerly perused by Shakspeare, and to mak : 'vid impression 
 on his fancy. His expression, in the Temp, ., of " the still 
 vex'd Bermoothes," accords exactly with the storm-beaten char- 
 acter of those islands. The enchantments, too, with which in 
 has clothed the island of Prospero, may they not be traced to 
 the wild and sui^crstitious notions entertained about the Hernui- 
 dtts ? I have already cited two passages from a pamphlet pub- 
 lished at the time, showing that they were esteemed " a most 
 prodigious and inchanted place," and the " habitation of 
 divcUs ; " and another pamphlet, published shortly afterward, 
 observes: "And whereas it is reported that this land of tho 
 Barmudas, with the islands about, (which are many, at least 
 a hundred,) are inchanted and kept with evil and wicked spirits, 
 it is a most idle and false report." * 
 
 The description, too, given in the same pamphlets, of thi' 
 real beauty and fertility of the Bermudas, and of their sori'iic 
 and happy climate, so opposite to the dangerous and inhospitahlo 
 character with which they had been stigmatized, accords with 
 the eulogium of Sebastian on the island of Prospero : 
 
 "Though this island seem to be desert, uninhabitable, and almost inaccesBiblo, It 
 must needr; be of subtle, tender, aud delicate temperance. The air breathes upon u* 
 here most sweetly. Here is every thing advantageous to life. How lush and lusty the 
 grau looks I bow green ! " 
 
 I think too, in the exulting consciousness of ease, security, 
 and abundance felt by the late tempest-tossed mariners, wliile 
 revelling in the plenteousness of the island, aud their inclina- 
 tion to remain there, released from the labors, the cares, and 
 the artificial restrains of civilized life, I can see something of 
 the golden commonwealth of honest Gonzalo : 
 
 i " Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, 
 
 And were the liing of it, what would I do? 
 I* the commonwealth I would by contrariea 
 Execute all things : for no liind of traffic 
 Would I admit ; no name of magistrate : 
 Letters should not be Itnown ; riches, poverty, 
 And use of service, none ; contract, succession, 
 Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none: 
 No use of metal, norn^ or wine, or oil : 
 No occupation; all men idle, all. 
 
 ••Newes from the Barmudaa;" 1012. 
 
IE8. 
 
 islied at the 
 )t fail to |)i> 
 'I inipregsioii 
 f " the still 
 beaten clitir- 
 ith which Ik 
 )e traced to 
 
 the lierniu- 
 mphlet pub- 
 ed '* a most 
 ibitation of 
 f afterward, 
 hind of the 
 ny, at least 
 eked spirits, 
 
 lets, of the 
 their serene 
 inhospitable 
 ccords with 
 
 I InacceBslblo, it 
 rvathcH upon u« 
 ib and luoty tliu 
 
 se, security, 
 ■iuers, while 
 leir inelina- 
 cares, and 
 'inethiug of 
 
 PELAYO AND THE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER. 115 
 
 AH thing! In common, nttnre thonld produce, 
 Without Hweat or endeavor : Trewon, f.-loDy, 
 Hword, pikp, ktiifp, gun, or iieeu »i any engine. 
 Would 1 not hHv<s liut natureNhould bring forth. 
 Of Itii own liind, all foizon, all abundance, 
 To feed my innocent people." 
 
 Rut above all, in the three fugitive vagabonds who remained 
 in possession of the island of Bermuda, on the departure of 
 their comrades, and in their squabbles about supremacy, on the 
 finding of their treasure, 1 see typified Sebastian, Trinculo, and 
 their worthy companion Caliban : 
 
 '• Trincnio, the king and all our company being drowned, we will inherit here." 
 " Monster, 1 will kill tlii« man ; hU daughter and I will bo king and queen, (gave our 
 grace*!) and Trinculo and thyHolf shall be viceroyg." 
 
 I do not mean to hold up the incidents and characters in the 
 narrative and in the play as parallel, or as being strikingly 
 similar : neither would I insinuate that the narrative suggested 
 the play ; 1 would only suppose that Shakspeare, being occupied 
 about that time on the drama of the Tempest, the main story of 
 which, I believe, is of Italian origin, had many of the fanciful 
 ideas of it suggested to his mind by the shipwreck of Sir George 
 Somers on the " still vex'd Be.moothes," and by the popular 
 superstitions connected with these islands, and suddenly put 
 iu circulation by that event. 
 
 PELAYO AND THE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF THE SKETCH-BOOK. 
 
 It is the common lamentation of Spanish historiographers, 
 that, for an obscure and melancholy space of time immediately 
 succeeding the conquest of their country by the Moslems, its 
 history is a mere wilderness of dubious facts, groundless fables, 
 and rash exaggerations. Learned men, in cells and cloisters, 
 have worn out their lives in vainly endeavoring to connect in- 
 congruous events, and to account for startling improbabilities, 
 recorded of this period. The worthy Jesuit, Padre Abarca, 
 declares that, for more than forty years during which he had 
 been employed in theological controversies, he had never found 
 any so obscure and inexplicable as those which rise out of thia 
 
 i'H 
 
 ^ -; 
 
 [-: 
 
116 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 A 
 
 4 
 
 portion of Spanish history, and that tlie only fruit of an indp. 
 fatigable, prolix, and even prodigious study of the 8ul)joet, was 
 a melancholy and mortifying state of indecision.* 
 
 During this apocryplial period, flourislKMl I'ki-avo, the deliv- 
 erer of Spain, whose name, like thj»t of William Wallace, will 
 ever be linked with the glory of his country, but linked, in like 
 manner, by a bond in which fact and fiction are inextrieal)ly 
 interwoven. 
 
 The quaint old chronicle of the Moor Rasis, which, thougli 
 wild and fanciful in the extreme, is frequently drawn upon for 
 early facts by Spanish historians, professes to give the birth, 
 parentage, and whole course of fortune of Pelayo, without the 
 least doubt or hesitation. It makes him a son of the Duke of 
 Cantabria, and descended, lx)th by father and mother's side, 
 from the Gothic kings of Spain. I shall pass over the romantic 
 story of his childhootl, and shall content myself with a scene of 
 his youth, which was spent in a castle among the Pyrenees, 
 under the eye of his widowed and noble-minded mother, who 
 caused him to be instructed in every thing befitting a cavalier of 
 gentle birth. While the sons of the nobility were revelling 
 amid the pleasures of a licentious court, and sunk in that vicious 
 and effeminate indulgence which led to the perdition of unhappy 
 Spain, the youthful Pelayo, in his rugged mountain school, was 
 steeled to all kinds of hardy exercise. A great part of liia 
 time was spent in hunting the bears, the wild boars, and the 
 wolves, with which the Pyrenees alxiunded ; and so purely and 
 chastely was he brought up, by his good lady mother, tliat, if 
 the ancient chronicle from which 1 draw my facts may be relied 
 on, he had attained his one-and-twentieth year, without having 
 once sighed for woman ! 
 
 Nor were his hardy contests confined to the wild beasts of 
 the forest. Occasionally he had to contend with adversaries 
 of a more formidable character. The skirts and defiles of these 
 border mountains were often infested by marauders from the 
 Gallic plains of Gascony. Thb Gascons, says an old chronicler, 
 were a people who used smooth words when expedient, but 
 force when they had power, and were ready to lay their hands 
 on every thing they met. Though poor, they were proud ; for 
 there was not one who did not pride himself on being a hijo- 
 dalgo, or the son of somebody. 
 
 At the head of a band of these needy hijodalgos of Gascony, 
 was one Arnaud, a broken-down cavalier. He and four of hia 
 
 * Paabb Pidro Abarca. Anale* de AraxoD, AdU Begn*, { 2. 
 
lES. 
 
 of an indo- 
 subject, was 
 
 <>, tho (loliv- 
 
 rVjillacp, will 
 
 iked, in like 
 
 inextricably 
 
 hich, thoufrh 
 
 vn upon for 
 
 e tlie birth, 
 
 without tho 
 
 the Duke of 
 
 Jther's side, 
 
 the romantic 
 
 h a scene of 
 
 e Pyrenees, 
 
 mother, who 
 
 a cavalier of 
 
 re revelling 
 
 that vicious 
 
 I of unhappy 
 
 school, was 
 
 part of his 
 
 ivrs, and the 
 
 ) purely and 
 
 ther, that, if 
 
 lay l)e relied 
 
 hout having 
 
 Id beasts of 
 adversaries 
 lies of these 
 rs from the 
 1 chronicler, 
 )edient, but 
 their hands 
 proud ; for 
 eing a hijo- 
 
 )f Gascony, 
 four of hig 
 
 PELAYO AND THE MERCnANT'S DAUCnTER. 117 
 
 followers were well armed and mounted ; the rest were a net of 
 scamper-grounds on foot, furnished with darts and javelins. 
 They were tho terror of the border ; here to-day and gone to- 
 morrow ; sometimes in one pass, sometimes in another. They 
 would make sudden inroads into Spain, scour the roads, plunder 
 the country, and were over the mountains and far away Injfore 
 a force could l>e collected to pursue them. 
 
 Now it happened one day, that a wealthy burgher of Bor- 
 deaux, who was a merchant, trading with Biscay, set out on a 
 journey for that province. As he intended to sojourn there 
 for a season, he took with him his wife, who was a goodly 
 dame, and his daughter, a gentle damsel, of marriageable age, 
 and exceeding fair to look upon. He was attended by a trusty 
 clerk from his comptoir, and a man servant ; while another 
 servant led a hackney, laden with bags of money, with which he 
 intended to purchase merchandise. 
 
 When the (Ijiscons heard of this wealthy merchant and his 
 convoy passing through the mountains, they thanked their stars, 
 for they considered all peaceful men of traffic as lawful spoil, 
 sent by providence for the benefit of hidalgos like themselves, 
 of valor and gentle blood, who live by the sword. Placing 
 themselves in ambush, in a lonely dctile, by which the travellers 
 had to pass, they silently awaited their coming. In a little 
 while they Ixjheld them approaching. The merchant was a 
 fair, ix)rtly man, in a buff surcoat and velvet cap. His looks 
 l)e8poke the good cheer of his native city, and he was mounted 
 on a stately, well-fetl steed, while his wife and daughter paced 
 gently on pallreys by his side. 
 
 The travellers had advanced some distance in the defile, 
 when the Bandoleros rushed forth and assailed them. The 
 merchant, though but little used to the exercise of arms, and 
 unwieldy in his form, yet made valiant defence, having his 
 wife and daughter and money-bags at hazard. He was wounded 
 in two places, and overi>'^>wered ; one of his servants was slain, 
 the other took to flight. 
 
 The freebooters then began to ransack for spoil, but were dis- 
 apiwinted at not finding the wealth they had expected. Put- 
 ting their swords to the breast of the trembling merchant, they 
 demanded where he had concealed his treasure, and learned 
 from him of the hackney that was following, laden with money. 
 Overjoyed at this intelligence, they l)ound their captives to 
 trees, and awaited the arrival of the golden spoil. 
 
 On this same day, Pelayo was out with his huntsmen among 
 the UiOuntaius, and had taken his stand on a rock, at a narrovt 
 
 \ 
 
 . i 
 
 
 I I T 
 
 M 
 
118 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 / 
 
 »J 
 
 ■tl 
 
 pass, to await the sallying forth of a wild boar. Close b^ hiw 
 was a page, conducting n horse, and at the saddle-bow hung 
 his armor, for he was always prepared for fight among these 
 border mountains. While thus posted, the servant of the mer- 
 chant came flying from the robl>ers. On beholding Pelayo, he 
 fell on his knees, and implored his 1 fe, for he supposed him to 
 be one of the band. It was some time before he could be 
 relieved from his terror, and made to tell his story. Wht-n 
 Pelayo heard of the robl>ers, he concluded they were the crew 
 of Gascon hidalgos, upon the scamper. Taking his armor from 
 the page, he put on his helmet, slrng his buckler round his 
 neck, took lanca in hand, and mounting his steed, compelled 
 the trembling servant to guide him to the scene of action. At 
 the same time he ordered the page to seek his huntsmen, and 
 summon them to his assistance. 
 
 When tlie robbers saw Pelayo advancing through the forest, 
 with a single attendant on foot, and beheld his rich armor 
 sparkling in the sun, they thought a new prize had fallen into 
 their hands, and Arnaud and two of his companions, mounting 
 their horses, advancetl to meet him. As they approached, 
 Pelayo stationed himself in a narrow pass between two rocks, 
 where he could only bo assailed in front, and bracing his buck- 
 ler, and lowering his lance, awaited their coming. 
 
 "Who and what are ye," cried he, "and what seek ye in 
 this land?" 
 
 "We are huntsmen," replietl Aniaud, "and lo! our game 
 runs into our toils ! " 
 
 "By my faith," replied Pelaj'o, "thou wilt find the game 
 more readily roused than taken : have at thee for a vriiain ! " 
 
 So saying, he put spurs to his hoi-se, and ran full s|)ted uix)n 
 him. The Gascon, not expecting so sudden an attack from a 
 single horseman, was taken by surprise. He hastily couched 
 his lance, but it merely glanced on the shield of Pelayo, who 
 sent his own through the middle of his l)reast, and threw him 
 out of his saddle to the earth. One of the other robl>ers made 
 at Pelayo, and wounded him slightly in tiie side, but I'eci'ived a 
 blow from the sword of the latter, which cleft his skull-cap, and 
 sank into his brain. His companion, seeing him fall, put spurs 
 to his stet'd, and galloped off through the forest. 
 
 Beholding several other robbers on foot coming up, Pelayo 
 returned to his station Iwtween the rocks, where he was as- 
 sailed })y them all at once. He received two of their darts on 
 his buckler, a javelin razed his cuirass, and glancing down, 
 wounded his horse. Pelayo tlieu rushed forth, and struck uue 
 
iES. 
 
 PELAYO AND THE MERCHANTS DAUGHTER. 119 
 
 !lose by him 
 ie-bow hung 
 imong these 
 of the raer- 
 ; Pehiyo, he 
 •osed him to 
 le could he 
 ory. Wht'ii 
 3re the crew 
 armor from 
 r round his 
 I, compelled 
 action. At 
 Qtsmen, and 
 
 1 the forest, 
 rich armor 
 I fallen into 
 8, mounting 
 approached, 
 I two rocks, 
 ig his buck- 
 seek ye in 
 
 ! our game 
 
 d the game 
 ^Hlain ! " 
 si)ted uix)n 
 ta«'k from a 
 ily couched 
 L'elayo, who 
 1 threw him 
 •bbers made 
 t received a 
 uU-cap, and 
 1, put spurs 
 
 up, Pelayo 
 he was as- 
 eir darts on 
 cing down, 
 
 struck out' 
 
 of the robbers dead : the others, beholding several huntsmen 
 advancing, took to flight, but were pursued, and several of them 
 taken. 
 
 The good merchant of Bordeaux and his family beheld this 
 scene with trembling and amazement, for never had they looked 
 upon such feats of arms. They considered Don Pelayo as a 
 leader of some rival band of robbers ; and when the bonds were 
 loosed by which they wery tied to the trees, they fell at his feet 
 and implored mercy. The females were soonest undeceived, 
 especially the daughter; for the damsel was struck with the 
 noble countenance and gentle demeanor of Pelayo, and said to 
 herself: "■ Surely nothing evil can dwell in so goodly and gra- 
 cious a form." 
 
 Pelayo now sounded his horn, which echoed from rock to 
 rock, and was answered by shouts and horns from various 
 parts of the mountains. The merchant's heart misgave him at 
 these signals, and especially when he beheld more than forty 
 men gathering from glen and thicket. They were clad in hunt- 
 ers' dresses, and armed with boar-spears, darts, and hunting- 
 swords, and many of them led hounds in long leashes. AH 
 this was a new and wild scene to the astonished merchant ; nor 
 were his fears abated, when he saw his servant approaching with 
 the hackney, laden with money-bags; "for of a certainty," 
 said he to himself, " this will be too tempting a spoil for these 
 wild hunters of the mountains." 
 
 Pelayo, however, took no more notice of the gold than if it 
 had been so much dross ; at which the honest burgher mar- 
 velled exceedingly. He ordered thfit the wounds of the mer- 
 chant should be dressed, and his own examined. On taking 
 off his cuirass, his wound was found to be but slight ; but his 
 men were so exasperated at seeing his blood, that they would 
 have put the captive robbers to instant death, had he not for- 
 bidden tliem to do them any harm. 
 
 The huntsmen now made a great fire at the foot of a tree, 
 and l)ringit!^ a boar, which they had killed, cut off [wrtions 
 and roasted them, or broiled them on the coals. Then draw- 
 ing forth loaves of bread from their wallets, they devoured 
 their food half raw, with the hungry relish of huntsmen and 
 mountaineers. The merchant, his wife, and daughter, looked 
 at all this, and wondered, for they had never beheld so savage 
 a repast. 
 
 I'elayo then inquired of them if they did not desire to eat; 
 they were too much in awe of him to decline, though they felt 
 a loathing at the thought of partaking of this hunter's fare; 
 
 :/i 
 
120 
 
 WOLFEBT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 but he ordered a linen cloth tu be spread under the shade of a 
 great oak, on the grassy margin of a clear running stream ; 
 and to their listonishment, they were served, not with the flesh 
 of the boar, but with dainty cheer, such as the merchant hxJ 
 scarcely hoped to find out of the walls of his native city of 
 Bordeaux. 
 
 The good burgher was of a community renowned for gastro • 
 Domic prowess : his fears having subsided, his appetite was now 
 awakened, and he addressed himself manfully to the viand& 
 that were set before him. His daughter, however, could not 
 eat : lier eyes were ever and i-non stealing to gaze on Pelayo, 
 whom she regarded with gratitude for his protection, and admi- 
 ration for his valor ; and now that he had laid aside his helmet, 
 and she beheld his lofty countenance, glowing with manly beauty, 
 she thought him something more than mortal. The heart of the 
 gentle donzella, says the ancient chronicler, was kind and yield- 
 ing ; and had Pelayo thouglit fit to ask the greatest boon that 
 love and beauty could bestow — doubtless meaning her fair 
 hand — she could not, have had the cruelty to say him nay. 
 Pelayo, however, had no s^uch thoughts : the love of woman had 
 never yet entered his heart ; and though he regarded the damsel 
 as the fairest maiden he had ever beheld, her beauty caused no 
 perturbation in his breast. 
 
 When the repast was over, Pelayo offered to conduct the 
 merchant and his family through the defiles of the mountains, 
 lest they should be molested by any of the scattered band of 
 robbers. The Ixxlies of the slain marauders were buried, and 
 the corpse of the servant was laid upon one of the horses cap- 
 tured in the battle. Having formed their cavalcade, they pur- 
 sued their way slowly up one of the steep and winding passes 
 of the Pyrenees. 
 
 Toward sunset, they arrived at the dwelling of a holy hermit. 
 It was hewn out of the living rock ; there was a cross over the 
 door, and before it was 'a great spreading oak, with a pweet 
 spring of water at its fojt. The body of the faithful servant 
 who had fallen in the defence of his lord, was buried close by 
 the wall of this sacred retreat, and the hermit promised to per- 
 form masses for the repose of his soul. Then Pelayo obtained 
 from the holy father consent that the merchant's wife and 
 daughter sliould pass the night within Ills cell ; and the hermit 
 msule beds of inoss for them, and gave them his benediction; 
 but Uie damsel found little rest, so nmch were her thoughts 
 oeeui)ied by the youthful champion who had rnaeued her from 
 death or dishonor. 
 
vs. 
 
 shade of a 
 ig stream ; 
 h the flesh 
 rehant hcvl 
 ive city of 
 
 for gastro ■ 
 •e was now 
 the viands 
 could not 
 on Pelayo, 
 and ad mi- 
 nis helmet, 
 nly beauty, 
 leart of the 
 and yield- 
 boon that 
 J her fair 
 him nay. 
 voman had 
 the damsel 
 caused no 
 
 |)nduct the 
 mountains, 
 id band of 
 )uried, and 
 lorses cap- 
 , they pur- 
 ling passes 
 
 )ly hermit. 
 38 over the 
 h a eweet 
 ul servant 
 I close by 
 jed to per- 
 o obtained 
 wife and 
 ;he hermit 
 nediction ; 
 r thoughts 
 ! her from 
 
 PELATO AWD THE MERCHANrs DAUGHTEB. 121 
 
 Pelr.yo, however, was visited by no such wandering of the 
 mind ; but, wrapping himself in his mantle, slept soundly by 
 the fountain under the tree. At midright, when every thing 
 was buried in deep repose, he was awakened from his sleep and 
 beheld the hermit before him. with the beams of the moon shin- 
 ing upon his silver hair and beard. 
 
 "This is no time," said the latter, "to be sleeping; arise 
 and listen to my words, and hear of the great work for which 
 thou art chosen ! ' ' 
 
 Then Pelayo arose and seated himself on a rock, and the 
 hermit continued his discourse. 
 
 " Behold," said he, " the ruin of Spain is at hand ! It will 
 be delivered into the hands of strangers, and will become a prey 
 to the spoiler. Its children will be slain or carried into cap- 
 tivity ; or such as may escape these evils, will harbor with the 
 beasts of the forest or the eagles of the mountain. The thorn 
 and brambU; will spring up where now are seen the corn-field, 
 the vine, and the olive ; and hungry wolves will roam in place 
 of peaceful flocks and herds. But thou, my son ! ' :y not 
 thou ♦'^ see these things, for thou canst not previ ni them. 
 Depart on a pilgrimage to the sepulchre of our blessed Lord in 
 Palestine ; purify thyself by prayer ; enroll thyself in the order 
 of chivalry, and prepare for the great work of the redemption 
 of thy country ; for to thee it will be given to raise it from the 
 depth of its alfliction." 
 
 Pelayo would have inquired farther into the evils thus fore- 
 told, but the hermit rebuked his curiosity. 
 
 " Seek not to know more," said he, " than heaven is pleased 
 to reveal. Clouds and darkness cover its designs, and prophecy 
 is never permitted to lift up but in part the veil that rests upon 
 the future." 
 
 The hermit ceased to speak, and Pelayo laid himself down 
 again to take repose, but sleep was a stranger to his eyes. 
 
 When the first rays of the rising sun shone upon the tops 
 of the mountains, the travellers assembled round the fountain 
 beneath the tree and made their morning's repast. Then, having 
 received the benediction of the hermit, they departed in the 
 freshness of the day, and descended along the hollow defiles 
 leading into the interior of Spain. The good merchant was 
 refreshed by sleep and by his morning's meal ; and when he 
 beheld his wife and daughter thus secure by his side, and the 
 hackney laden with his treasure close behind him, his heart was 
 light in his bosom, and he carolled a chanson as he went, and 
 the woodlands echoed to his song. But Pelayo rode in siieacCi 
 
 ^ • 
 
 I 
 t 
 'i 
 
 ■i >l 
 
 
 i ■•'. 
 
 If 
 
 ■J 
 
 n I 
 
 h' 
 
 l^ 
 
 b 
 
61 
 
 122 
 
 WOLFERTS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 
 
 \^ 
 
 If ! 
 
 :■ . 
 
 
 
 ji 
 
 . f 
 
 1 
 
 l| 
 
 1 i 
 
 M ' i 
 
 f 1 
 
 ^fl 
 
 1 ' 
 
 ■n ' 
 
 
 R 
 
 , 
 
 In 
 
 a 
 
 
 t 
 
 ^|- 
 
 ; 
 
 m y 
 
 
 HB; 
 
 . • 
 
 H>H| 
 
 
 11 '' ^ 
 
 
 ■kin ' ) 
 
 ^ 
 
 Hn -, 
 
 ■ 
 
 H : 1 
 
 ; V 
 
 Hiitt 
 
 i [ 
 
 for he revolved in his mind the portentous words of the hermit ; 
 and the daughter of the merchant ever and anon stole looks at 
 him full of tenderness and admiration, and deep sighs betrayed 
 the agitation of her bosom. 
 
 At length they came to the foot of the mountains, where the 
 forests and the rocks terminated, and an open and secure coun- 
 try lay before the travellers. Here they halted, for their roads 
 were widely different. When they came to part, the merchant 
 and his wife were loud in thanks and benedictions, and the 
 good burgher would fain have given Pelayo the largest of his 
 sacks of gold : but the young man put it aside with a sniilo. 
 " Silver and gold," said he, " need I not, but if I have deserved 
 aught at thy hands, give me thy prayers, for the prayers of a 
 good man are above all price." 
 
 In the mean time the daughter had spoken never a word. At 
 length she raised hei eyes, which were tilled with tears, and 
 looked timidly at Pelayo, and her bosom tlmjljbed ; and after 
 a violent struggle between strong affection and virgin modesty, 
 her heart relieved itself by words. 
 
 " Senor," said she, " I know that T am unworthy of the 
 notice of so noble a cavalier ; but suffer me to place this riu;^ 
 upon a finger of that hand which has so bravely rescued us from 
 death ; and when you regard it, you may consider it as a me- 
 morial of your own valor, and not of one who is too humble to 
 be remembered by you." 
 
 With these words, she drew a ring from her finger and put 
 it upon the finger of Velayo ; and having done this, she blushed 
 and trembled at her own boldness, anil stood as one abashed, 
 with her eyes cast down upon the earth. 
 
 Pelayo was moved at the words of the simple maiden, and at 
 the touch of her fair hand, and "t her beauty, as she stood thus 
 trembling and in tears before him ; but as yet he knew nothing 
 of woman, and his heart was free from the snares of love. 
 " Amiga," (friend,) said he, " I accept thy present, and will 
 wear it in remembrance of thy goodness ; " so saying, he kissed 
 her on the cheek. 
 
 The damsel was cheered by these words, and hoped that she 
 had awakened some tenderness in his bosom ; but it was no 
 such thing, says the grave old chronicler, for his iieart was 
 devoted to iiigher and more sacred matters ; yet certain it is, 
 that he always guarded well that ring. 
 
 When they parted, Pelayo remained with his huntsmen on a 
 cliff, watching that no evil befell them, until they were far beyond 
 the skirts of the mountain ; uud the damsel often turned to look 
 
THE KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 123 
 
 at him, until she could no longer discern him, for the distance 
 and the tears that dimmed her eyes. 
 
 And for that he had accepted her ring, says the ancient 
 chronicler, she considered herself wedded to him in her heart, 
 and would never marry ; nor could she be brought to look with 
 eyes of affection upon any other man ; but for the true lo\e 
 which she bore Telayo, she lived and died a virgin. And she 
 composed a book which treated of love ana chivalry, and the 
 temptations of this mortal life; and one part discoursed of 
 celestial matte, 5, and it was called "The Contemplations <^ 
 Love ; " because at the time she wrote it, she thought of Pelayo, 
 and of his having accepted her jewel and called her bv the 
 gentle appellation of " Amiga." And often thinking of him in 
 tender sadness, and of her never having beheld him more, she 
 would take the book and would read it as if in his stead ; and 
 while she repeated the words of love which it contained, she 
 would endeavor to fancy them uttered by Pelayo, aud thi t he 
 stood before her. 
 
 THE KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 To THE Editor of the Knickerbocker. 
 
 Sir: In the course of a tour which I made in Sicily, in the 
 days of my juvenility, I passed some little time at the ancient 
 city of Catania, at the foot of Mount iEtna. Here I became 
 
 awjuainted with the Chevalier L , an old Knight of Malta. 
 
 It was not many years after the time that Napoleon had dis- 
 IcKlged the knights from their island, and he still wore the 
 insignia of his order. He was not, however, one of those relics 
 of that once chivalrous bo<ly, who had been described as " a 
 few worn-out old men, creeping about certain parts of Europe, 
 with the Maltese cross on their breasts;" on the contrary, 
 though advancoil in life, his form was still light and vigorous ; 
 he had a pale, thin, intellectual visage, with a high forehead, 
 and a bright, visionary eye. He seemed to take a fancy to me, 
 as I certainly did to him, and we soon became intimate. I 
 visited him occasionally, at his apartments, in the wing of an 
 old palace, looking toward Mount iEtna. He was an antiquary, 
 a virtuoso, and a connoisseur. His rooms were decorated with 
 mutilated statues, dug up from Grecian and Roman ruins ; old 
 vases, lachrymals, and sepulchral lamps. He bad astronomical 
 
 f 1 
 
 1. 
 
 \- 
 
 r 
 
 : 
 
124 
 
 WOLFERrs BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 and chemical instruments, and black-letter bookr., in various 
 languages. I found that he had dipped a little in ehiraerical 
 studies, and had a hankering after astrology and alchemy. He 
 affected to believe in dreams and visions, and delighted in the 
 fanciful Rosicrucian doctrines. I cannot persuade myself, how- 
 ever, that he really believed in all these : I rather think he loved 
 to let his imagination carry him away into the boundless fairy 
 land which they unfolded. 
 
 In company with the chevalier, I took several excursions on 
 horseback about the environs of Catania, and the picturesque 
 skirts of Mount ^tna. One of these led through a village, 
 which had sprung up on the very tract of an ancient eruption, 
 the houses being built of lava. At one time we passed, for 
 some distance, along a narrow lane, between two high dead 
 convent walls. It was a cut-throat-looking place, in a country 
 where assassinations are frequent ; and just about midway 
 through it, we observed blood upon the pavement and the walls, 
 as if a murder had actually been committed there. 
 
 The chevalier spurred on his horse, until he had extricated 
 himself completely from this suspicious neighborhood. lie 
 then observed, that it reminded him of a similar blind alley iu 
 Malta, infamous on account of the many assassinations that 
 had taken place there ; concerning one of which, he related a 
 long and tragical story, that lasted until we reached Catania. 
 It involved various circumstances of a wild and supernatural 
 character, but which he assured me were handed down in tradi- 
 tion, and generally credited by the old inhabitants of Malta. 
 
 As I like to pick up strange stories, and as I was particularly 
 struck with several parts of this, I made a minute of it, on my 
 return to my lodgings. The memorandum was lost, with several 
 others of my travelling papers, and the story had faded from 
 my mind, when recently, in perusing a French memoir, I came 
 suddenly upon it, dressed up, it is true, in a very different 
 manner, but agreeing in the leading facts, and given upon the 
 word of that famous adventurer, the Count Cagliostro. 
 
 I have amused myself, during a snowy day in the country, 
 by rendering it roughly into English, for the entertainment of 
 a youthful circle round the Christmas fire. It was well received 
 by my auditors, who, however, are rather easily pleased. Oue 
 proof of its merits is that it sent some of the youngest of them 
 quaking to their beds, and gave them very fearful dreams. 
 Hoping that it may have the same effect upon your ghost-hunt- 
 ing readers, I offer it, Mr. Editor, for insertion in your Maga- 
 zine. I would observe, that wherever I have modified the French 
 
THE KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 125 
 
 version of the story, it has been in conformity to some recollec- 
 tion of the narrative of my friend, the Knight of Malta. 
 
 Yourobt. servt., 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
 
 THE GRAND PRIOR OF MINORCA. 
 
 A VERtTABLE GHOST STORT. 
 
 " Keep my wiU, heaven I They gay gplrlts appear 
 To melancholy minds, and the graves open ! " — Plbtchir. 
 
 About the middle of the last century, while the Knights of 
 Saint John of Jerusalem still maintained something of their 
 ancient state and sway in the Island of Malta, a tragical event 
 took place there, which is the groundwork of the following 
 narrative. 
 
 It may be as well to premise, that at the time we are treating 
 of, the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, grown excessively 
 wealthy, had degenerated from its originally devout and war- 
 like character. Instead of being a hardy body of " monk- 
 knights," sworn soldiers of the cross, fighting the Paynim in 
 the Holy Land, or scouring the Mediterranean, and ecourging 
 the Barbary coasts with their galleys, or feeding the poor, and 
 attending upon the sick at their hospitals, they led a Ufe of 
 luxury and libertinism, and were to be found in the most vo- 
 luptuous courts of Europe. The order, in fact, had become 
 a mode of providing for the needy branches of the Catholic 
 aristocracy of Europe. "A commandery," we are told, was a 
 splendid provision for a younger brother; and men of rank, 
 however dissolute, provided they belonged to the highest aris- 
 tocracy, became Knights of Malta, just as they did bishops, or 
 colonels of regiments, or court chamberlains. After a brief 
 residence at Malta, the knights passed the rest of their time in 
 their own countries, or only made a visit now and then to the 
 island. While there, having but little military duty to perform, 
 they beguiled their idleness by paying attentions to the fair. 
 
 There was one circle of society, however, into which they 
 could not obtain currency. This was composed of a few fami- 
 lies of the old Maltese nobility, natives of the island. These 
 families, not being permitted to enroll any of their members 
 in the order, affected to hold no intercourse with its cheva- 
 liers ; admitting none into their exclusive coteries but the 
 
 
 I- 
 
 111 
 
 I ' 
 
126 
 
 WOLFEBrs BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 Grand Master, whom they acknowledged as their sovereign, 
 and the members of the chapter which composed his council. 
 
 To indemnify themselves for this exclusion, the clievaliera 
 carried their gallantries into the next class of society, com- 
 posed of those who held civil, administrative, and judicial 
 situations. The ladies of this class were called hononUe, or 
 honorables, to distinguish them from the inferior orders ; and 
 among them were many of superior grace, beauty, and fas- 
 cination. 
 
 Even in this more hospitable class, the chevaliers were not 
 all equally favored. Those of Germany had the decided i)ref- 
 erence, owing to their fair and fresh complexions, and the 
 kindliness of tlieir manners : next to these came the Spanisli 
 cavaliers, on account of their profound and courteous devotion, 
 and most discreet secrecy. Singular as it may seem, the chev- 
 aliers of France fared the worst. T.'-e Maltese ladies dreaded 
 their volatility, and their proneness to boast of their amours, 
 and shunned all entanglement with them. They were forced, 
 therefore, to content themselves with conquests among females 
 of the lower orders. They revenged themselves, after the 
 gay French manner, by making the " hoD'nate " the objects 
 of all kinds of jests and mystifications ; by prying into their 
 tender affairs with the more favored chevaliers, and 
 them the theme of song and epigram. 
 
 About this time, a French vessel arrived at Malta, bringing 
 out a distinguished personage of the order of Saint John of 
 Jerusalem, the Commander de Foulquerre, who came to solicit 
 the post of commander-in-chief of the galleys. He was de- 
 scended from an old and warrior line of French nobility, his 
 ancestors having long been seneschals of Poitou, and claiming 
 descent from the first counts of Angouleme. 
 
 The arrival of the commander caused a little uneasiness, 
 among the peaceably inclined, for he l)ore the character, in the 
 
 making 
 
 island, of being fiery, arrogant, and quarrelsome. 
 
 He 
 visit 
 
 had 
 had 
 
 already been three times at Malta, and on each 
 signalized himself by some rash and deadly affray. 
 
 As he was now thirty-five years of age, however, it was 
 hoped that time might have taken off the fiery edge of his 
 spirit, and that he might prove more quiet and sedate tii:.'u 
 formerly. The commander set up an establishment befitting 
 his rank and pretensions ; for he arrogated to himself an im- 
 portance greater even than that of the Grand Master. His 
 house immediately became the rallying place of all the young 
 French chevaliers. They informed him of all the slights the^ 
 
'ES. 
 
 ' sovereign, 
 council. 
 2 clievaliera 
 iciety, com- 
 ,nd judicial 
 honorate, or 
 orders ; and 
 y, and faa- 
 
 rs were not 
 'cidod [)ref- 
 s, and the 
 Llie Spanish 
 IS devotion, 
 n, the chev- 
 ies dreaded 
 eir amours, 
 rere forced, 
 )ng females 
 , after the 
 the objects 
 f into their 
 md making 
 
 a, bringing 
 nt John of 
 e to solicit 
 le was de- 
 lobility, his 
 id claiming 
 
 uneasiness, 
 cter, in the 
 He had 
 visit had 
 
 er, it was 
 dge of his 
 t'diile ihtrj 
 ut befitting 
 self an im- 
 ister. His 
 the young 
 lights the^ 
 
 THE KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 127 
 
 had exper;?nced or imagined, and indulged their petulant and 
 BatincRl vcn at the expense of the honorate and their admirers 
 The chevaliers of other nations soon found the topics and tone 
 of conversation at the commander's irksome and offensive, and 
 gradually ceased to visit there. The commander remained the 
 head of a national clique, who looked up to him as their model. 
 If he was not as boisterous and quarrelsome as formerly, he 
 had become haughty and overbearing. He was fond of talking 
 over his past affairs of punctilio and bloody duel. When walk" 
 ing the streets, he was generally attended by a ruffling train of 
 young French cavaliers, who caught his own air of assumption 
 and bravado. These he would conduct to the scenes of his 
 deadly encounters, point out the very spot where each fatal 
 longe had been given, and dwell vaingloriously on every par- 
 ticular. 
 
 Under his tuition, the young French chevaliers began to add 
 bluster and arrogance to their former petulance and levity; 
 they fired up on the most trivial occasions, particularly with 
 those who had been most successful with the fair ; and would 
 put on the most intolerable drawcansir airs. The other cheva- 
 liers conducted themselves with all possible forbearance and 
 reserve ; but they saw it would be impossible to keep on long, 
 in this manner, without coming to an open rupture. 
 
 Among the Spanish cavaliers was one named Don Luis de 
 Lima Vasconcellos. He was distantly related to the Grand 
 Master ; and had been enrolled at an early age among his 
 pages, but had been rapidly promoted by him, until, at the age 
 of twenty-six, he had been given the richest Spanish command- 
 ery in the order. He had, moreover, been fortunate with the 
 fair, with one of whom, the most beautiful honorata of Malta, 
 he had long maintained the most tender correspondence. 
 
 The character, rank, and connections of Don Luis put him 
 on a par with the imperious Commander dc Foulquerre, and 
 pointed him out as a leader and champion to his countrymen. 
 The Spanish chevaliers repaired to him, therefore, in a body ; 
 represented all the grievances they had sustained, and the evils 
 they apprehended, and urged him to use his influence with the 
 commander and his adherents to put a stop to the growing 
 abuses. 
 
 Don Luis was gratified by this mark of confidence and esteem 
 on the part of his countrymen, and promised to have an inter- 
 view with the Commander de Foulquerre on the subject. He 
 resolved to conduct himself with the utmost caution and deli- 
 oacy on the occasion ; to repreaeat to the commander the evil 
 
 ■'1 
 
 • 
 
 "i 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 p 
 
 \ 
 
 t ■ 
 
 ■1 
 
128 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 consequences which miglit result from the inconsiderate con- 
 duct of the young French chevaliers, and to entreat him to 
 exert the great influence he so deservedly possessed over them, 
 to restrain their excesses. Don Luis was aware, however, of 
 the peril that attended any interview of the kind with this im- 
 perious and fractious man, and apprehended, however it might 
 commence, t^at it would terminate in a duel. Still, it was an 
 affair of ho lor, in which Castilian dignity was concerned, 
 beside, he had a lurking disgust at the overbearing manners of 
 De Foulquerre, and perhaps had been somewhat offended by 
 certain intrusive attentions which he had presumed to pay to 
 the beautiful honorata. 
 
 It was now Holy Week ; a time too sacred for worldly feuds 
 and passions, especially in a community under the dominion of 
 a religious order ; it was agreed, therefor^', that the dangerous 
 interview in question should not take place until after the Easter 
 holidays. It is probable, from subsequent circumstances, that 
 the Commander de Foulquerre had some information of this 
 -^Trangement among the Spanish chevaliers, and was determined 
 to be beforehand, and to mortify the pride of their champion, 
 who was thus preparing to read him a lecture. He chose Good 
 Friday for his purpose. On this sacred day, it is customary 
 in Catholic countries to make a tour of all the churches, offer- 
 ing up prayers in each. In every Catholic church, as is well 
 known, there is a vessel of holy water near the door. In this, 
 everyone, on entering, dips his fingers, and makes therewith the 
 sign of the cross on his forehead and breast. An office of gal- 
 lantry, among the young Spaniards, is to stand near the door, 
 dip their hands in the holy vessel, and extend them courteously 
 and respectfully to any lady of their acquaintance who may enter ; 
 who thus receives the sacred water at second hand, on the tips 
 of her fingers, and proceeds to cross herself, with all due deco- 
 rum. The Spaniards, who are the most jealous of lovers, are 
 impatient when this piece of devotional gallantry is proffered 
 to the object of their affections by any other hand : on Good 
 Friday, therefore, when a lady makes a tour of the churches, 
 it is the usage among them for the inamorato to follow her from 
 church to church, so as to present her the holy water at the door 
 of each ; thus testifying his own devotion, and at the same time 
 preventing the officious services of a rival. 
 
 On the day in question, Don Luis followed the beautiful 
 honorata, to whom, as has already been observed, he had long 
 been devoted. At the very first church she visited, the Com- 
 mander de Foulquerre was stationed at the portal, with several 
 
ES. 
 
 lerate con- 
 •eat him to 
 over them, 
 lowever, of 
 th this im- 
 7er it might 
 1, it was aD 
 concerned, 
 manners of 
 )flfended by 
 I to pay to 
 
 jrldly feuds 
 lominion of 
 ! dangerous 
 r the Easter 
 tances, that 
 ion of this 
 determined 
 r champion, 
 chose Good 
 I customary 
 rches, offer- 
 as is well 
 In this, 
 lerewith the 
 tFice of gal- 
 ir the door, 
 courteously 
 I may enter ; 
 on the tips 
 due deco- 
 lovers, are 
 is proffered 
 on Good 
 churches, 
 )w her from 
 at the door 
 e same time 
 
 e beautiful 
 le had long 
 3, the Com- 
 niiii seveial 
 
 THE KNianr of malt a. 
 
 129 
 
 of the young French cheraliers about him. Before Don Luis 
 could offer her the holy water, he was anticipaUul by the com- 
 mander, who thrust himself between them, and, while he per- 
 formed the gallant omce to the lady, rudely turned his back 
 upon her admirer, and trod upon his feet. The insult was 
 enjoyed by the young Frenchmen who were present : it was too 
 deep and grave to be forgiven by Spanish pride ; and at once 
 put an end to all Don Luis' plans of caution and forbearance. 
 He repressed his passion for the moment, liowevcr, and waited 
 until all the parties left the church ; tiien, accosting the com- 
 mander with an air of coolness and unconcern, he inquired after 
 his health, and asked U) what church he proposed making his 
 second visit. " To the Magisterial Church of Saint John." 
 Don Luis offered to conduct him thither, by the shortest route. 
 His offer was accepted, apparenUy without suspicion, and they 
 proceeded together. After wah^ing some distance, they entered 
 a long, narrow lane, without door or window opening upon it, 
 called the " Strada Stretta," or narrow street. It was a street 
 in which duels were tacitly permitted, or connived at, in Malta, 
 and were suffered to pass as accidental encounters. Everywhere 
 else they were prohibited. This restriction had been instituted 
 to diminish the number of duels, formerly so frequent in Malta. 
 As a farther precaution to render these encounters less fatal, 
 it was an offence, punishable with death, for any one to enter 
 this street armed with either poniard or pistol. It was a lonely, 
 dismal street, just wide enough for two men to stand upon their 
 guard, and cross their swords ; few persons ever traversed it, 
 unless with some sinister design ; and on any preconcerted 
 duello, the seconds posted themselves at each end, to stop all 
 passengers, and prevent interruption. 
 
 In the present instance, the parties had scarce entered the 
 street, when Don Luis drew his sword, and called upon the com- 
 mander to defend himself. 
 
 De Foulquerre was evidently taken by surprise: he drew 
 back, and attemped to expostulate ; but Don Luis persisted in 
 defying him to the combat. 
 
 After a second or two, he likewise drew his sword, but im- 
 mediately lowered the point. 
 
 "Good Friday!" ejaculated he, shaking his head; "one 
 word with you ; it is full six years since I have been in a con- 
 fessional : I am shocked at the state of my conscience ; but 
 within three days— that is to say, on Monday next " 
 
 Don Luis would listen to nothing. Though naturally of a 
 peaceable disposition, he had been stung to fury, and people 
 
 ) 
 
 »'-j 
 
130 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 of that character, when oncn incensed, are deaf to reason. He 
 compelled the commander to put himself on his f^iiurd. The 
 latter, though a man accustomed to l)rawl in Itattle, was singu- 
 larly dismayed. Terror was visible in all his features. lie 
 placed himself with his back to the wall, and the weaijons were 
 crossed. The contest was brief and fatal. At the very first 
 thrust, the sword of Don Luis passed through the body of his 
 antagonist. The commander staggered to the wall, and leaned 
 against it. 
 
 "On Good Friday!" ejaculated he again, with a failing 
 voice, and despairing accents. "Heaven pardon you! " added 
 he ; " take my sword to Tetefoulquos, and have a hundred 
 masses performed in the chapel of the castle, for the repose 
 of my soul ! " With these words he expired. 
 
 Tiie fury of Don Luis was at an end. lie stood aghast, gaz- 
 ing at the bleeding tody of the commander. He called to mind 
 the prayer of the deceased for three days' respite, to niake !iis 
 peace with heaven ; he had refused it ; he had sent him to the 
 grave, with a'' his sins upon his head ! His conscience smoto 
 him to the coi . , he gathered up the sword of the commander, 
 which he had been enjoined to take to Tetefoulcjues, and hur- 
 ried from the fatal Strada Stretta. 
 
 The duel of course made a great noise in Malta, but had no 
 injurious effect upon the worldly fortunes of Don Luis. He 
 made a full declaration of the whole matter, before the proper 
 authorities ; the Chapter of the Order considered it one of those 
 casual encounters of the Strada Stretta, which were mourned 
 over, but tolerated ; the public, by whom the late eoniniaiidcr 
 had been generally detested, declared that he had deserved his 
 fate. It was but three days after the event, that Don Luis was 
 advanced to one of the highest dignities of the Order, being in- 
 vested by the Grand Master with the priorship of the kingdom 
 of Minorca. 
 
 From that time forward, however, the whole character and 
 conduct of Don Luis underwent a change. He became a prey 
 to a dark melancholy, which nothing could assuage. The most 
 austere piety, the severest penances, had no effect in allaying 
 the horror which preyed upon his mind. He was aljscnt for a 
 long time from Malta ; having gone, it was said, on remote pil- 
 grimages : when he returned, he was more haggard lluui ever. 
 Tiiere seemed something mysterious and inexi)li<'able in this 
 disorder of his mind. The following is the revelation made liy 
 himself, of the horrible visions, or chimeras, by which he was 
 haunted : 
 
 II 
 
on. He 
 
 d. Tho 
 18 8inp;u- 
 res. He 
 oiis were 
 I' cry first 
 ly of his 
 (I leaned 
 
 a failinf; 
 
 '."added 
 
 hundred 
 
 le repose 
 
 last, \ia7- 
 il to mind 
 
 nialve his 
 iui to the 
 nee sinoto 
 inmander, 
 
 and hur- 
 
 (ut liad no 
 ^uis. lie 
 lie proper 
 of tlio.se 
 mourned 
 nmaudcr 
 rved his 
 Luis was 
 lu'injj; in- 
 kingdom 
 
 loter and 
 
 me a prey 
 
 'he most 
 
 allaying 
 
 sent for a 
 
 mote pil- 
 
 lan ever. 
 
 f in this 
 
 made Ity 
 
 1 he was 
 
 THE KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 181 
 
 " When 1 had made my declaration hefore the Chapter," said 
 he, "and my iirovocations were publicly known, I had made 
 my peace with man ; hut it was not so with (iod, nor with my 
 confessor, nor with my own conscience. My act was doubly 
 criminal, from the day on which it was committed, and from 
 my refusal to a delay of three days, for the victim of my resent- 
 ncnt to receive the sacraments. His despairing ejaculation, 
 'Uood Friilay ! (iood Friday!' contimuiUy rang in my ears. 
 • Why did 1 not grant the respite ! ' cried I to myself ; ' was it 
 :i:)t enougli to kill the body, but must I seek to kill the soul ! ' 
 
 ''On the niglit of the following Friday, I started suddenly 
 from my sleep. An unaccountable horror was upon me. I 
 looked wildly around. It seemed as if 1 were not in my apart- 
 ment, nor in my l)ed, but in the fatal Strada Stretta, lying on 
 the pavement. I again saw the commander leaning against 
 the wall ; I again heard his dying words : ' Take my sword to 
 Tetefoukpies, and have a hundred masses perlormed in the 
 chapel of tiie castle, for the repose of my soul ! * 
 
 "On tlie following night, I caused one of my servants to sleep 
 in the same room with me. I saw and heard nothing, either 
 on that night, or 'Uiy of the nights following, until the next 
 Friday ; when I had again the same vision, with this difference, 
 that my valet seemed to be lying at some distance from me on 
 the pavement of the Strada Stretta. The vision continued to 
 b(! repi'ated on every Friday night, the commander always 
 appi'aring in tlu^ same manner, and uttering the same words : 
 ' Take my sword to Tutefoulques, and have a hundred masses 
 performed in the chapel of the castle for the repose of 3iy 
 soul ! ' 
 
 »'0n questioning my servant on the subject, he stated, that 
 on these occasions he dreamed that he was lying in a very 
 narrow street, but he neither saw nor heard any thing of the 
 commander. 
 
 "I knew nothing of this Tetefoulques, whither the defunct 
 was so urgent 1 should carry his sword. 1 made inquires, 
 iherefore, concerning it among the French chevaliers. They 
 informed me that it was an old castle, situated about four 
 leagues from I'oitiers, in the midst of a forest. It had been 
 built ill old times, several centuries since, by Foulques Taille- 
 fer, (or Fulke Hackin)n,) a redoubtable, hard-fighting Count 
 of Aiigouleme, who gave it to an illegitimate son, afterward 
 created (i rand Seneschal of Poitou, which sou became the pro- 
 o-enitor of the Foukpierres of Tetefoulques, hereditary Sen- 
 pachala of Poitou. Thev farther informed lue, that straugtt 
 
 t . i 
 
 I 
 
 [I 
 
 u 
 
 ft 
 
132 
 
 WOLFKRT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 t 
 
 stories were told of this old castle, in the surrounding country, 
 and that it contained many curious relics. Among these, were 
 the arms of Foulques Taillefer, together with all those of the 
 warriors he had slain ; and that "' was an immemorial usage 
 with the Foulquerres to have the weapons deposited there which 
 they had wielded either in war or in single combat. This, then, 
 was the reason of the dying injunction of the commander re- 
 specting his sword. I carried this weapon with me, wherever 
 I went, hut still I neglected to comply with his request. 
 
 "The visions still continued to harass me with undiminished 
 horror. I repaired to Home, where I confessed myself to the 
 Grand Cardinal [K'nitentiary, and informed him of the terrors 
 with which I was haunted, lie promised me absolution, after 
 I should have performed certain acts of penance, the principal 
 ♦^f which was, to execute the dying request of the commander, 
 ^y carrying the sword to Tetefoulques, and having the hundred 
 xnasses performed in the chapel of the castle for the repose of 
 Ms soul. 
 
 "I set out for France as speedily as possible, and made no 
 ilelay in my journey. On arriving at Poitiers, I found that the 
 tidings of the death of the commander had reached there, but 
 \iad caused no more aflliction than among the people of Malta. 
 Leaving my c(iuipage in the town, 1 put on the garb of a pilgrim, 
 and taking a guide, set out on foot for Tetefoulques. Indeed 
 the roads in tliis part of the country were impracticable for 
 carriages. 
 
 " I found the castle of Tetefoulques a grand but gloomy and 
 dilapidated pile. All the gates were closed, and there feigaed 
 over the whole place an air of almost savage loneliness and 
 desertion. 1 hiui understood that its only inhabitants were the 
 concierge, or warder, and a kind of hermit who had charge of 
 the chapel. After ringing for st)me time at the gate, 1 at length 
 succeeded in bringing forth the warder, who bowed with rev- 
 erence to my pilgrim"" s garb. 1 begged him to conduct me to 
 the chapel, that being the end of my pilgrimage. We found 
 the hermit there, chanting the funeral service ; a dismal sound 
 to one who oanie to perform a penance for the death of a mem- 
 ber of the family. When he had ceased to chant, I informed 
 him tiiiit 1 came to accomplish an obligation of conscience, and 
 that I wished him U) perform a hundred masses for the repose 
 of the soul of the commander. He replied that, not being in 
 ordei's, he was not antliorized to peform mass, but that he would 
 willingly undertake to see that my debt of conscience was dis- 
 charged. I laid my offering on the altar, and would have placed 
 
1. 
 
 country, 
 ese, were 
 se of the 
 ial usage 
 ere which 
 his, then, 
 lander re- 
 wherever 
 
 iminished 
 .'If to the 
 le terrors 
 ion, after 
 principal 
 [ninander, 
 ! hundred 
 repose of 
 
 made no 
 I that the 
 there, but 
 of Malta, 
 a pilgrim, 
 . Indeed 
 icable for 
 
 oomy and 
 e vyigned 
 incss and 
 were the 
 charge of 
 at length 
 with rev- 
 ict me lu 
 kVe found 
 rial sound 
 f a mem- 
 informed 
 ence, and 
 he repose 
 , being in 
 he would 
 ; was dis- 
 ive placed 
 
 THE KNIOHT OF MALTA. 
 
 133 
 
 the sword of the commander there, likewise. ' Hold ! ' said the 
 hermit, with a melancholy shake of the head, ' this is no place 
 for so deadly a weapon, that has so often been bathed in Chris- 
 tian blood. Take it to the armory ; you will find there trophies 
 enough of like character. It is a place into which I never 
 enter.' 
 
 *' The warder here took up the theme abandoned by the peace- 
 ful man of God. He assured me that I would see in the armory 
 the swords of all the warrior race of Foulquerres, together with 
 those of the enemies over whom they had triumphed. This, 
 he observed, had been a usage kept up since the time of Mel- 
 lusine, and of her husband, Geoffrey a la Grand-dent, or Geof- 
 frey with the Great-tooth. 
 
 " 1 followed the gossiping warder to the armory. It was a 
 great dusty hall, hung round with Gothic-looking portraits, of 
 a stark line of warriors, each with his weapons, and the weap- 
 ons of those he nad slain in battle, hung beside his picture. 
 The most conspicuous portrait was that of Foulques Taillef«r, 
 (Fulke Hackiron,) Count of Angouleme, and founder of the 
 castle. He was represented at full length, armed cap-^-pie, 
 and grasping a huge buckler, on which were emblazoned three 
 lions passant. The figure was so striking, that it seemed ready 
 to start from the canvas : and I observed beneath this picture, 
 a trophy composed of many weapons, proofs of the numerous 
 triumphs of this hard-fighting old cavalier. Beside the weap- 
 ons connected with the portraits, there were swords of all 
 shapes, sizes, and centuries, hung round the hall ; with piles of 
 armor, placed as it were in effigy. 
 
 *' On each side of an immense chimney, were suspended the 
 portraits of the first seneschal of Poitou (the illegitimate son of 
 Foulques Taillefer) and his wife Isabella de Lusignan ; the pro- 
 genitors of the grim race of Foulquerres that frowned around. 
 They had the look of be Ing perfect likenesses ; and as I gazed on 
 them, I fancied I could trace in their antiquated features some 
 family resemblance to their unfortunate descendant, whom I 
 had slain ! This was a dismal neighborhood, yet the armory 
 was the only part of the castle that had a habitable air ; so I 
 asked the warder whether he could not make a fire, and give 
 me something for supper there, and prepare me a bed in one 
 corner. 
 
 " 'A fire and a supper you shall have, and that cheerfully, 
 most worthy pilgrim,' said he ; ' but as to a bed, I advise you 
 to come and sleep in my chamber.' 
 
 "'Why so?' inquired I; ' why should I not sleep in this 
 hall?' 
 
 
 $1 
 
 'V 
 
 p. 
 
 i 
 
 i i 
 
 ' } 
 
 i:^ 
 
 il : 
 
 'ill 
 
 ^f 
 
 
1^4 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 " * I have my reasons ; I will make a bed for you close to 
 mine.' 
 
 " I made no objections, for I recollected that it was Friday, 
 and I dreaded the return of my vision. He brought in billets 
 of wood, kindled a fire in the great overhanging chimney, and 
 then went forth to prepare my supper. I drew a heavy chair 
 before the fire, and seating myself in it, gazed musingly round 
 upon the portraits of the Foulquerres, and the antiquated armor 
 and weaix)ns, the mementoes of many a bloody deed. As the 
 day declined, the smoky draperies of the hall gradually became 
 confounded with the dark ground of the paintings, and tlie lurid 
 gleams of the chimney only enabled me to see visages staring 
 at me from the gathering darkness. All this was dismal in 
 the extreme, and somewhat appalling ; perhaps it was the state 
 of my conscience that rendered me peculiarly sensitive, and 
 prone to fearful imaginings. 
 
 *' At length the warder brought in my supper. It consisted 
 of a dish of trout, and some crawfish taken in the fosse of the 
 castle. He procured also a bottle of wine, which he informed 
 me was wine of Poitou. I requested him to invite the her. it 
 to join me in my repast ; but the holy man sent back word tliat 
 he allowed himself nothing but roots and herbs, cooked with 
 water. I took my meal, therefore, alone, but prolonged it as 
 much as possible, and sought to cheer my drooping spirits by 
 the wine of Poitou, which 1 found very tolerable. 
 
 "When 8upi)er was over, I prepared for my evening d: "mo- 
 tions. I have always been very punctual in reciting my brevi- 
 ary ; it is the prescribed and bounden duty of all chevaliers of 
 the religious orders ; and I can answer for it, is faithfully per- 
 formed by those of Spain. I accordingly drew forth from my 
 pocket a small missal and a rosary, and told the warder he 
 need only designate to me the way to his chamber, where I 
 could come and rejoin him, when I had finished my prayers. 
 
 " He accordingly pointed out a winding staircase, opening 
 from the hall. 'You will descend this staircase,' said he, 
 * until you come to the fourth landing-place, where you enter & 
 vaulted passage, terminated by an arcade, with a statue of the 
 blessed Jeanne of France ; you cannot help finding my room, 
 the door of which I will leave open ; it is the sixth door from 
 the landing-place. I advise you not to remain in this hall after 
 midnight. Before that hour, you will hear the hermit ring the 
 bell, in going the rounds of the corridors. Do not linger here 
 after that signal.' 
 
 "The warder retired, and I commenced my devotions. 1 
 
THE KNIGHT OF MALTA. 
 
 135 
 
 continued at them earnestly ; pausing from time to time to put 
 wood upon the fire. I d'd not dare to look much around me, 
 for I felt myself becoming a prey to fearful fancies. Tae pic- 
 tures appeared to become animated. If I regarded one atten- 
 tively, for any length of time, it seemed to move the eyes and 
 lips. Above all, the portraits of the Grand Seneschal and his 
 lady, which hung on each side of the great chimney, the pro- 
 genitors of the Foulquerres of Tetefoulque, regarded me, I 
 thought, with angry and baleful eyes : I even fancied they ex- 
 changed significant glances with each other. Just then a terri- 
 ble blast of wind shook all the casements, and, rushing through 
 the hall, made a fearful rattling and clashing among the armor. 
 To my startled fancy, it seemed something supernatural. 
 
 "At length I heard the bell of the hermit, and hastened to 
 quit the hall. Taking a solitary light, which stood on the sup- 
 per-table, I descended the winding staircase ; but before I had 
 reached the vaulted passage leading to the statue of the blessed 
 Jeanne of France, a blast of wind extinguished my taper. I 
 hastily remounted the stairs, to light it again at the chimney ; 
 but judge of my feelings, when, on arriving at the entrance to 
 tlie armory, I beheld the Seneschal and his lady, who had de- 
 scended from their frames, and seated themselves on each side 
 of the fireplace ! 
 
 " ' Madam, my love,' said the Seneschal, with great formal- 
 ity, and in antiquated phrase, ' what think you of t'le presump- 
 tion of this Castilian, who comes to harbor himself and make 
 wassail in this our castle, after having slain our descendant, 
 the commander, and that without granting him time for con- 
 fession ? ' 
 
 " ' Truly, my lord,' answered the female spectre, with no less 
 stateliness of manner, and with great aspersity of tone ; ' truly, 
 my lord, I opine that this Castilian did a grievous wrong in 
 this encounter; and he should never be suffered to depart 
 hence, without your throwing him the gauntlet.' I paused to 
 hear no more, but rushed again down-stairs, to seek the cham- 
 ber of the warder. It was impossible to find it in the dark- 
 ness, and in the perturbation of my mind. After an hour and a 
 half of fruitless search, and mortal horror and anxieties, I en- 
 deavored to persuade myself that the day was about to break, 
 and listened impatiently for the crowing of the cock ; for I 
 thought if I could hear his cheerful note, I shosld be reassured ; 
 catching, in the disordered state of my nerves, at the popular 
 notion that ghosts never appear after the first crowing of the 
 cock. 
 
 ■i 
 
 %: 
 
 
 
 ♦ I 
 
 
 I 
 
 ^^ 
 
 r 
 
136 
 
 JTOLFSBT'S LOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 " At length I rallied myself, and endeavored to shake off the 
 vague terrors which haunted me. I tried to persuade myself 
 that the two figures which I had seemed to see aud hear, Lad 
 existed only in my troubled imagination. I still had the end 
 of the candle in ray hautl, and determined to make another 
 effort to re-light it, aud find my way to bed ; for I was ready to 
 sink with fatigue. I accordingly sprang up the staircase, 
 three steps at a time, stopped at the door of the armory, and 
 peeped cautiously in. The two Gothic figures were no longer 
 in the chimney corners, but I neglected to notice whether they 
 had reascended to their frames. I entered, and made desper- 
 ately for the fireplace, but scarce had I advanced three strides, 
 when Messire Foulques Taillefer stood before me, in the centre 
 of the hall, armed cap-d-pie, and standing in guard, with the 
 point of his sword silently presented to me. I would have 
 retreated to the staircase, but the door of it was occupied by 
 the phantom figure of an esquire, who rudely flung a gauntlet 
 in my face. Driven to fury, I snatched down a sword from the 
 wall : by chanc*^, it was that of the commander which I had 
 placed there. I rushed upon my fantastic adversary, aud 
 seemed to pierce him through and through; but at the same 
 time I felt as if something pierced my heart, burning like a red- 
 hot iron. My blcod inundated the hall, aud I fell senseless. 
 
 (( 
 
 When I recovered consciousness, it was broad day, and 1 
 found myself in a small chamber, attended by the warder and 
 the hermit. The former told me that on the previous night he 
 had awakened long after the midnight hour, and perceiving that 
 I had not come to his chamber, he had furnished himself with 
 a vase of holy water, and set out to seek me. He found me 
 stretched senseless on the pavement of the armory, and bore me 
 to this room. I spoke of my wound, and of the quantity of 
 blojd that I had lost. He shook his head, and knew nothing 
 about it ; and to my surprise, on examination, I found myself 
 perfectly sound and unharmed. The wound and blood, there- 
 fore, had been all delusion. Neither the warder nor the hermit 
 put any questions to me, but advised me to leave the castle as 
 800U as possible. I lost no time in complying with their counsel, 
 and felt my heart relieved from an oppressive weight, as I left 
 the gloomy and fate-bound battlementa of letefoulques behind 
 
 me. 
 
 *' I arri 'ed at Eayonne, on my way to Spain, on the follow- 
 
LEGEND OF THE ENGULPHED CONVENT. 137 
 
 ing Friday. At midnight I was startled from my sleep, as I 
 had formerly been ; but it was no longer by the vision of the 
 dymg commander. It was old Foulques Taillefer who stood 
 be '>re me, armed cap-jl-pie, and presenting the point of his 
 sword. I made the sign of the cross, and the ipectre vanished, 
 but I received the same red-hot thrust in the heart which I had 
 felt at the armory, and I seemed to be bathed in blood. I 
 would have called out, or have arisen from my bed and (rom 
 in quest of succor, but I could neither speak nor stir. This 
 agony endured until the crowing of the cock, when I fell asleep 
 again ; but the next day 1 was ill, and in a most pitiable state. 
 1 have contmued to be harassed by the same vision every Fri- 
 day night ; no acts of penitence and devotion have been able to 
 relieve me from it ; and it is only a lingering hope in divine 
 mercy, that sustains me, and enables me to support so lament- 
 able a visitation." 
 
 The Grand Prior of Minorca wasted gradually away under 
 this constant remorse of conscience, and this horrible incubus. 
 He died some time after having revealed the preceding particu- 
 lars of his case, evidently the victim of a diseased imagination. 
 
 The above relation has been rendered, in many parts literally, 
 from the French memoir, in which it is given as a true story : 
 if so, it is one of those instances in which truth is more romantic 
 than fiction. 
 
 G.C. 
 
 LEGEND OF THE ENGULPHED CONVENT. 
 
 BY GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT. 
 
 At the dark and melancholy period when Don Roderick the 
 Goth and his chivalry were overthrown on the banks of the 
 CJnadalete, and all Spain was overrun by the Moors, great was 
 the devastation of churches and convents tliroughout that pious 
 kingdom. The miraculous fate of one of those holy piles is 
 thus recorded in one of the authentic legends of those days. 
 
 On the summit of a hill, not very distant from the capital 
 city of Toledo, stood an ancient convent and chapel, dedicated 
 to the invocation of Saint Boncdictt, and inhabited by a sister- 
 hood of Benedictine nuns. This holy asylum was confined to 
 
 (i 
 
 i 
 
 -I 'i 
 
 
 
 "> 
 
 
 'i 
 
 
 ? 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 
 h i 
 
138 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 fenales of noble lineage. The younger sisters of the highest 
 families were here given in religious marriage to their Saviour, 
 in order that the portions of their elder sisters might be in- 
 creased, and they enabled to make suitable matches on earth, 
 or that the family wealth might go undivided to elder brothers, 
 and the dignity of their ancient houses be protected from decay. 
 The convent was renowned, therefore, for enshrining within its 
 walls a sisterhood of the purest blood, the most immaculate 
 virtue, and most resplendent beauty, of all Gothic Spain. 
 
 When the Moors overrun the kingdom, there was nothing 
 that more excited their hostility than these virgin asylums. 
 The very sight of a convent-spire was sufficient to set their 
 Moslum blood in a foment, and they sacked it with as fierce a 
 zeal as thougi the sacking of a nunnery were a sure passport 
 to Elysium. 
 
 Tidings of such outrages committed in various parts of the 
 kingdom reached this noble sanctuary and filled it with dismay. 
 The danger came nearer and nearer ; the infidel hosts were 
 spreading all over the country ; Toledo itself was captured ; 
 there was no flying from the convent, and no security within 
 its walls. 
 
 In the midst of this agitation, the alarm was given one day 
 that a great band of Saracens were spurring across the plain. 
 In an instant the whole convent was a scene of confusion. 
 Some of the nuns wrung their fair hands at the windows ; 
 others waved their veils and uttered shrieks from the lops of 
 the towers, vainly hoping to draw relief from a country over- 
 run by the foe. The sight of these innocent doves thus flutter- 
 ing about their dove-cote, but increased the zealot fury of the 
 whiskered Moors. They thundered at the portal, and at every 
 blow the ponderous gates trembled on their hinges. 
 
 The nuns now crowded round the abl)ess. They had been 
 accustomed to look up to her as all-powerful, and they now im- 
 plored her protection. The mother abbess looked witii a rueful 
 eye upon the treasures of beauty and vestal virtue exposed to 
 such imminent peril. Alas ! how was she to protect them from 
 the spoiler! She had, it is true, experienced many signal inter- 
 positions of providence in her individual favor. Her early days 
 had been passed amid the temptations of a court, where lur 
 virtue had been purified by repeated trials, from none of wliidi 
 had she escaped but by a miracle. But were miracles never to 
 cease? Could she hope that the marvellous protection shown 
 to herself would be extended to a whole sisterhood? There was 
 no other resource. The Moors were at the threshold ; a ti ^Al 
 
LEGEND OF THE ENGULPEED CONVENT. 139 
 
 moments more and the convent would be at their mercv. Sum- 
 moning her nuns to follow her, she hurried into the chapei ; and 
 throwmg herself on her knees before the imacre of the blessed 
 Mary, '' Oh, holy Lady ! " exclaimed she, " oh, mstVre a^d 
 immaculate of vngms ! thou seest our extremity. The rava^er 
 IS at the gate, and there is none on earth to help us ! Look down 
 with pity, and grant that the earth may gape and swallow us 
 rather than that our cloister vows should suffer violation ' " 
 
 The Moors redoubled their assault upon the portals ; the gates 
 gave way, with a tremendous crash ; a savage yell of exultation 
 arose ; when of a sudden the earth yawned ; down sank the con- 
 vent, with Its cloisters, its dormitories, and all its nuns. The 
 chapel tower was the last that sauk, the bell ringing forth a peal 
 of triumph in the very teeth of the infidels. 
 
 Forty years had passed and gone, since the period of this 
 miracle. The subjugation of Spain was complete. The Moors 
 lorded it over city and country ; and such of the Christian popu- 
 lation as remained, and were permitted to exercise their religion, 
 did it in humble resignation to the Moslem sway. 
 
 At this time, a Christian cavalier, of Cordova, hearing that a 
 patriotic 1)and of his countrymen had raised the standard of the 
 cross in the mountains of the Asturias, resolved to join them, 
 and unite in breaking the yoke of bondage. Secretly arming 
 himself, and caparisoning his steed, he set forth from Cordova^ 
 and pursued his course by unfrequented mule-paths, and along 
 tl'" dry channels made by winter torrents. His spirit burned 
 with indignation, whenever, on commanding a view over a long 
 sweeping plain, he beheld the mosque swelling in the distance, 
 and the Arab horsemen careering about, as if the rightful lords 
 of the soil. Many a deep-drawn sigh, and heavy groan, also, 
 did the good cavalier utter, on passing the ruins of churches and 
 convents desolated by the conquerors. 
 
 It was on a sultry midsummer evening, that this wandering 
 cavalier, in skirting a hill thickly covered with forest, heard the 
 faint tones of a vesper bell sounding melodiously in the air, and 
 seeming to come from the summit of the hill. The cavalier crossed 
 himself with wonder, at this unwonted and Christian sound. 
 He supposed it to proceed from one of those humble chapels 
 and hermitag(>s permitted to exist through the indulgence of the 
 Moslem conquerors. Turning his steed up a narrow path of the 
 forest, he sought this sanctuary, in hopes of finding a hospitable 
 
 7^ 
 
 ' 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 i\ 
 
 
 ^1 I 
 
140 
 
 WOLFERTS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 h 
 
 f I ' 
 
 I. 
 
 shelter for the night. As he advanced, the trees threw a deep 
 gloom around him, and the bat flitted across his path. The bell 
 ceased to toll, and all was silence. 
 
 Presently a choir of female voices came stealing sweetly 
 through the forest, chanting the evening service, to the solemn 
 accompaniment of an organ. The heart of the good cavalier 
 melted at the sound, for it recalled the happier drys of his coun- 
 try. Urging forward his weary steed, he at length arrived at a 
 broad grassy area, on the summit of the hill, surrounded by tlic 
 forest. Here the melodious voices rose in full chorus, like the 
 swelling of the breeze ; but whence they came, he could not tell. 
 Sometimes they were before, sometimes behind him ; sometimes 
 in the air, sometimes as if from within the bosom of the earth. 
 At length they died away, and a holy stillness settled on the 
 place. 
 
 The cavalier gazed around with bewildered eye. There was 
 neither chapel nor convent, nor humble hermitage, to be seen ; 
 nothiug but a moss-grown stone pinnacle, rising out of the cen- 
 tre of the area, surmounted by a cross. The greensward around 
 appeared to have been sacred from the tread of man or beast, 
 and the surrounding trees bent toward the cross, as if in adora- 
 tion. 
 
 The cavalier felt a sensation of holy awe. He alighted and 
 tethered his steed on the skirts of the forest, where he might 
 crop the tender herbage ; then approaching the cross, he knelt 
 and poured forth his evening prayers before this relic of the 
 Christian days of Spain. His orisons being concluded, he laid 
 himself down at the foot of the pinnacle, and reclining his head 
 against one of its stones, fell into a deep sleep. 
 
 About midnight, he was awakened by the tolling of a bell, 
 and found liraself lying before the gate of an ancient convent. 
 A train of nuns passed by, each bearing a taper. The cavalier 
 rose and followed them into the chapel ; in the centre of which 
 was a bier, on which lay the corpse of an aged nun. The organ 
 performed a solemn requiem : the nuns joining in chorus. When 
 the funeral services was finished, a melodious voice chanted, 
 '''' Requiescat in pace !" — "May she rest in peace!" The 
 lights immediately vanished ; the whole passed away as a dream ; 
 and the cavalier found himself at the foot of the cross, and 
 beheld, by the faint rays of the rising moon, his steed quietly 
 grazing near him. 
 
 When the day dawned, the cavalier descended the hill, and 
 following the course of a small brook, came to a cave, at the 
 entrance of which was seated an ancient man, clad in hermit's 
 
LEGEND OF THE BNQULPHED CONVENT. 141 
 
 garb, with rosary and cross, and a beard that descended to hia 
 girdle. He was one of those holy anchorites permivtad by the 
 Moors to live unmolested in dens and caves, and humble hermit' 
 «jges, and even to practise the rites of their religion. The cava- 
 lier checked his horse, and dismounting, knelt and craved a 
 benediction. He then related all that had befallen jim in the 
 night, and besought the hermit to explain the mystei y. 
 
 " What thou hast heard and seen, my sou," replied the other, 
 ** is but type and shadow of the woes of Spain." 
 
 He then related the foregoing story of the miraculous deliver- 
 ance of the convent. 
 
 " P'orty years," added the holy man, "have elapsed since 
 this event, yet tlic bells of t.hat sacred edifice are still Lf^ard, 
 from time to time, sounding from under ground, together with 
 the pealing of the orgr.n, and the chanting of the choir. The 
 Moors avoid (his neighborhood, as haunted ground, and the 
 whole place, as thou mayest petocive, has become covered with 
 a thick and lonely forest." 
 
 The cavalier listened with wonder to the story of this en- 
 gulphed convent, as related by the holy man. For three days 
 and nights did they keep vigils beside the cross ; but nothing 
 more was to be seen of nun or convent. It is supposed that, 
 forty years having elapsed, the natural lives of all the nuns 
 were finished, and that the cavalier had beheld the obsequies 
 of the last of the sisterhood. Certain it is, that from that time, 
 bell, and orgao, and choral chant have never more been heard. 
 The mouldering pinnacle, surmounted by the cross, still re- 
 mains an object of pious pilgrimage. Some say that it anciently 
 3tood in front of the convent, but others assert that n; was the 
 spire of the sacred edifice, and that, when the main body of the 
 building sank, this remained above ground, like the topmast of 
 some tall ship that has foundered. These pious believers main- 
 tain, that the convent is miraculously preserved entire in the 
 centre of the mountain, where, if proper excavations were made, 
 it would be found, with all its treasures, and monuments, and 
 shrines, and relics, and the tombs of its virgin nuns. 
 
 Should any one doubt the truth of this marvellous interposi- 
 tion of the Virgin, to protect the vestal purity of her votaries, 
 let him read the excellent work entitled " EspanaTriumphante," 
 writt*^n by Padre Fray Antonio de Sancta Maria, a barefoot 
 friar of the Carmelite order, and he will doubt no longer. 
 
 ♦' ■, 
 
 K* 
 
 
 
 ) 4 '■ 
 
n 
 
 142 WOLFEBT'a BOOST AND MISCELLANIEU, 
 
 THE COUNT VAN HORN. 
 
 During the minority of Louis XV., while the Duke of 0; 
 leaas was Regent of France, a young Flemish nobleman, the 
 Count Antoine Joseph Van Horn, made his sudden appearance 
 in Paris, and by his character, conduct, and the subsequent dis- 
 asters in which he became involved, created a great scnsatiuii 
 in the high circles of the proud aristocracy. He was about 
 twenty-two years of age, tall, finely formed, with a pale, roman- 
 tic countenance, and eyes of remarkable brilliancy and wildness. 
 
 He was of one of the most ancient and highly-esteemed fami- 
 lies of European nobility, being of the line of the Princes of 
 Horn and Overique, sovereign Counts of Hautejierke, and he- 
 reditary Grand Veneurs of the empire. 
 
 The family took its name from the little town and seigneurie 
 of Horn, in Brabant ; and was known as early as the eleventh 
 century among the little dynasties of the Netherlands, and since 
 that time by a long line of illustrious generations. At the 
 peace of Utrecht, when the Netherlands passed under subjec- 
 tion to Austria, the house of Van Horn came under the domina- 
 tion of the emperor. At the time we treat of, two of the 
 branches of this ancient house were extinct ; the third and only 
 surviving branch was represented by the reigning prince, Maxi- 
 milian Emanuel Van Horn, twenty-four years of age, who re- 
 sided in honorable and courtly style on his hereditary domains 
 at Baussigny, in the Netherlands, and his brother, the Count 
 Antoine Joseph, who is the subject of this memoir. 
 
 The ancient house of Van Horn, by the intermarriage of its 
 various branches with the noble families of the continent, had 
 become widely connected and interwoven with the high aris- 
 tocracy of Europe. The Count Antoine, therefore, could claim 
 relationship to many of the proudest names in Paris. In fact, 
 he was grandson, by the mother's side, of the Prince de Ligne, 
 and even might boast of affinity to the Regent (the Duke of 
 Orleans) himself. There were circumstances, however, con- 
 nected with his sudden appearance in Paris, and his previous 
 story, that placed him in what is termed ' ' a false position ; " a 
 word of baleful significance in the fashionable vocabulary of 
 France. 
 
 The young count had been a captain in the service of Austria, 
 but had been cashiered for irregular conduct, and for disrespect 
 to Prince Louis of Baden, commander-in-chief. To check him 
 
roman- 
 
 TnS COUNT VAN DORN. 
 
 143 
 
 fn his wild career, anil bring hira to sober reflection, his brother 
 tlie prince caused him to be arrested and sent to the old castle 
 of Van Wert, in the domains of Horn. This was the same 
 castle in which, in former times, John Van Horn, Stadtholder 
 of Gueldres, had imprisoned his father; a circumstance which 
 has furnished Rembrandt with the subject of an admirable 
 painting. The governor of the castle was one Van Wert, 
 grandson of the famous Jolm Van Wert, the hero of many a 
 popular song and legend. It was the intention of the prince 
 that his brother should be held in honorable durance, for his 
 object was to sol)er and improve, not to punish and attlict him. 
 Van Wert, however, was a stern, harsh man of violent passions. 
 He treated the youth in a manner that prisoners and offenders 
 were treated in the strongholds of the robber counts ot Ger- 
 many in old times ; confined him in a dungeon and inflicted on 
 him such hardships and indignities that the irritable tempera- 
 ment of tlie young count was roused to continual fury, which 
 ended in insanity. For six months was the unfortunate youth 
 kept in this liorril)le state, without his brother the prince being 
 informed of his melancholy condition or of the cruel treatment 
 to which he was subjected. At length, one day, in a paroxysm 
 of frenzy, the count knocked down two of his jailers with a 
 beetle, escaped from the castle of Van Wert, and eluded all 
 pursuit ; and after roving about in a state of distraction, made 
 Ids way to IJaussij^ny and appeared like a spectre before his 
 brother. 
 
 The prince was shocked at his wretched, emaciated appear- 
 ance and ids lamciitable state of mental alienation. He received 
 him with the most compassionate tenderness ; lodged him in his 
 own room, appointed three servants to attend anc' watch over 
 him day and night, and endeavored by the most soothing and 
 afTectionate assiduity to atone for the past act of rigor with 
 which he reproadied himself. When he learned, however, the 
 manner in which his unfortunate brother had been treated in 
 confinement, and the course of brutalities that had led to his 
 mental malady, he was roused to indignation. His first step 
 was to cashiei- Van Wert from his command. That viole t man 
 set the prince at defiance, and attempted to maintain himself in 
 his government and his castle by instigating the peasants, for 
 several leagues round, to revolt. His insurrection might have 
 been formidable against the power of a petty prince ', but he 
 was put under the ban of the empire and seized as a state 
 prisoner. The memory of his grandfather, the oft-sung John 
 Van Wert, alone saved him from a gibbet; but he was ira^ 
 
 
 
144 
 
 WOLFERT'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 prisoned in the strong tower of Horn-op-Zee. There ho 
 remained until he was eighty-two years of age, savage, violent, 
 and unconquered to the last ; for we are told that he never 
 ceased flghting and thumping as long as he could close a tist or 
 wield a cudgel. 
 
 In the mean time a course of kind and gentle treatment and 
 wholesome regimen, and, above all, the tender and aflectionatc 
 assiduity of his brother, the prince, produced the most salutary 
 eflfects u|X)n Count Antoine. He gradually recovered his reason ; 
 but a degree of violence seemed always lurking at the bottom of 
 his character, and he required to be treated with the greatest 
 caution and mildness, for the least contradiction exasperated 
 him. 
 
 In this state of mental convalei- ;ence, he began to find the 
 supervision and restraints of brotherly affection insupportable ; 
 so he left the Netherlands furtively, and repaired to Paris, 
 whither, in fact, it is said he was called by motives of interest, 
 to make arrangements concerning a valuable estate which he 
 inherited from his relative, the Princess d'Epinay. 
 
 On his arrival in Paris, he called upon the Marquis of Cr^'qui, 
 and other of the high nobility with whom he was connected. 
 He was received with great courtesy ; but, as he brought no 
 letters from his elder brother, the prince, and as various cir- 
 cumstances of his previous history had transpired, they did not 
 receive him into tlieir families, nor introduce him to their ladies. 
 Still they feted him in bachelor style, gave him gay and elegant 
 suppers at their separate apartments, and took him to their 
 boxes at the theatres. He was often noticed, too, at the doors 
 of the most fashionable churches, taking his stand among the 
 young men of fashion ; and at such times, his tall, elegant 
 figure, his pale but handsome countenance, and his flashing 
 eyes, distinguished him from among the crowd ; and the ladies 
 declared that it was almost impossible to support his ardent 
 gaze. 
 
 The Count did not afflict himself much at his limited circu- 
 lation in the fastidious circles of the high aristocracy. He 
 relished society of a wilder and less ceremonious cast ; and 
 meeting with loose companions to his taste, soon ran into all 
 the excesses of the capital, i i that most licentious period. It 
 is said that, in the course of his wihl career, he had an intrigue 
 with a lady of quality: a favorite of the Regent ; that he was 
 surprised by that prince in one of his interviews ; that sharp 
 words passed between them ; and that the jealousy and yen- 
 «^emnce thus awakened, ended only with his life. 
 
THE COUNT VAN HORN. 
 
 146 
 
 'here b« 
 , violont, 
 lip never 
 '. a fmt or 
 
 nent and 
 ectionate 
 , salutary 
 3 reason ; 
 )ottom of 
 greatest 
 isperateil 
 
 find the 
 [)ortal)le ; 
 to Paris, 
 
 interest, 
 which he 
 
 f Cr^'qui, 
 jnnected. 
 ought no 
 rious cir- 
 y did not 
 (ir ladies, 
 d elegant 
 
 to their 
 he doors 
 Qong the 
 , elegant 
 
 flashing 
 le ladies 
 8 ardent 
 
 3d eircu- 
 
 cy. He 
 
 [ist ; and 
 
 into all 
 
 iod. It 
 
 intrigue 
 
 he was 
 
 at sharp 
 
 nd ven- 
 
 About tb'iS time, the famous Mississippi scheme of La'* was 
 at its height, or rather it began to threaten that disastrous 
 catastrophe which convulsed the whole financial world. Every 
 effort was making to keep the bubble inflated. The ^ agrant 
 population of France was swept off from the streets at night, 
 and conveyed to Havre de Grace, to be shipped to the pro- 
 jected colonies ; even laboring people and mechanics wore thus 
 crimped and spirited away. As Count Antoine was in the 
 habit of sallying forth at night, in disguise, in pursuit of his 
 pleasures, he came near being carried off by a gang of crimps ; 
 it seemed, in fact, as if they had been lying in wait for him, as 
 he had experienced very rough treatment at their hands. Com- 
 plaint was made of his case by his relation, the Marquis de 
 Cr6qui, who took much interest in the youth ; but the Marquis 
 received mysterious intimations not to interfere in the matter, 
 but to advise the Count to quit Paris immediately: "If he 
 lingers, he is lost ! " This has been cited as a proof that ven- 
 geance was dogging at the heels of the unfortunate youth, and 
 only watching for an opportunity to destroy him. 
 
 Such opportunity occurred but too soon. Among the loose 
 companions with whom the Count had become intimate, were 
 two who lodged in the same hotel with him. One was a youth 
 only twenty years of age, who passed himself off as the Cheva- 
 lier d'Etampes, but whose real name was Lestang, the prodigal 
 son of a Flemish banker. The other, named Laurent de Mille, 
 a Fiedmontese, was a cashiered captain, and at the time an 
 esquire in the service of the dissolute Princess de Carignan, 
 who kept gambling-tables in her palace. It is probable that 
 gambling propensities had driven these young men together, 
 and that their losses had brought them to desperate measures : 
 certain it is, that all Paris was suddenly astounded by a murder 
 which they were said to have committed. What made the crime 
 more startling, was, that it seemed connected with the great 
 Mississippi scheme, at that time the fruitful source of all kinds 
 of panics and agitations. A Jew, a stock-broker, who dealt 
 largely in shares of the bank of Law, founded on the Mis- 
 sissippi scheme, was the victim. The story of nis death is 
 variously related. The darkest account states, that the Jew 
 was decoyed by these young men into an ofc. cure tavern, under 
 pretext of negotiating with him for bank shares to the amount 
 of one hundred thousand crowns, which he had with him in his 
 pocket-book. Lestang kept watch upon the stairs. The Count 
 and De Mille entered with the Jew into a chamber. In a little 
 while there were heard cries and struggles from within. A 
 
 
 
146 WOLFERT'8 BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 waiter passing by the room, looked in, and seeing the Jew 
 weltering in his blood, shut the door again, double-locked it, 
 and alarmed the house. Lestang rushed down-stairs, made his 
 way to the hotel, secured his most portable effects, and fled the 
 country. The Count and De Mille endeavored to escape by the 
 window, but were both taken, and conducted to prison. 
 
 A circumstance which occurs in this part of the Count's story, 
 seems to point him out as a fated man. His mother, and his 
 brother, the Prince Van Horn, had received intelligence some 
 time before at Baussigny, of the dissolute life the Count was 
 leading at Paris, and of his losses at play. They despatched a 
 gentleman of the prince's household to Paris, to pay the debts 
 of the Count, and persuade him to return to Flanders ; or, if he 
 should refuse, to obtain un order from the Regent for him to 
 quit the capital. Unfortunately the gentleman did not arrive at 
 Paris until the day after the murder. 
 
 The news of the Count's arrest and imprisonment on a charge 
 of murder, caused a violent sensation among the high aristoc- 
 racy. All those connected with him, who had treated him 
 hitherto with indifference, found their dignity deeply involved 
 in the question of his guilt or innocence. A general convoca- 
 tion was held at the hotel of the Marquis de Cr6qui., of all the 
 relatives and allies of the house of Horn. It was an assem- 
 blage of the most proud and aristocratic personages of Paris. 
 Inquiries were made into the circumstances of the affair. It 
 was ascertained, beyond a doubt, that the Jew was dead, and 
 that he had been killed by several stabs of a ix)niard. In 
 escaping by the window, it was said that the Count had fallen, 
 and be'3n immediately taken ; but that De Mille had fled through 
 the streets, pursued by the populace, and had been arrested at 
 some distance from the scene of the murder ; that the Count 
 had declared himself innocent of the death of the Jew, and that 
 he had risked his own life in endeavoring to protect him ; but 
 that Da Mille, on being brought back to the tavern, confessed 
 to a plot to murder the broker, and rob him of his pocket-book, 
 and inculpated the Count in the crime. 
 
 Another version of the story was, that the Count Van Horn 
 had deposited with the broker, bank shares to the amount of 
 eighty-eight thousand livres ; that he had sought him in this 
 tavern, which was one of his resorts, and had demanded the 
 shares ; that the Jew had denied the deposit ; that a quarrel 
 bad ensued, in the course of which the Jew struck the Count 
 in the face ; that the letter, transported with rage, had snatched 
 up a knife from a table^ and wounded the Jew in the shoulder ; 
 
the Jew 
 
 )cked it, 
 
 made his 
 
 fled the 
 
 )e by the 
 
 i's story, 
 and his 
 ice some 
 >unt was 
 latched a 
 ;he debts 
 or, if he 
 r him to 
 arrive at 
 
 a charge 
 aristoc- 
 ited him 
 involved 
 convoca- 
 f all the 
 a assem- 
 )f Paris, 
 lair. It 
 ead, and 
 ard. In 
 i fallen, 
 through 
 rested at 
 le Count 
 and that 
 lim ; but 
 onfessed 
 ;et-book, 
 
 %n Horn 
 lount of 
 1 in this 
 ided the 
 . quarrel 
 e Count 
 snatched 
 loulder; 
 
 THE COUNT VAN BORN. 
 
 147 
 
 and that thereuiJon De Mille, who was present, and who had 
 likewise been defrauded by the broker, fell on him, and de- 
 spatched him with blows of a poniard, and seized upon his 
 pocket-book ; that he had offered to divide the contents of 
 the latter with the Count, pro rata, of what the usurer had 
 defrauded them ; that the latter had refused the proposition with 
 disdain, nnd that, at a noise of persons approaching, both had 
 attempted to escape from the premises, but had been taken. 
 
 Regard the story in any way they might, appearances were 
 terribly aj^ainst the Count, and the noble assemblage was in 
 great consternation. What was to be done to ward off so foul 
 a disgrace and to save their illustrious escutcheons from this 
 murderous stain of blood? Their first attempt was to prevent 
 the affair from going to trial, and their relative from being 
 iragged before a criminal tribunal, on so horrible and degrad° 
 lUg a charge. They applied, therefore, to the Regent, to inter- 
 vene his power ; to treat the Count as having acted under an 
 access of his mental malady; and to shut him up in a mad- 
 house. The Regent was deaf to their solicitations. He re- 
 plied, coldly, that if the Count was a madman, one could not 
 get rid too quickly of madmen who were furious in their insanity. 
 The crime was too public and atrocious to be hushed up or 
 slurred over ; justice must take its course. 
 
 Seeing there was no avoiding the humiliating scene of a 
 public trial, the noble relatives of the Count endeavored to pre- 
 dispose the minds of the magistrates before whom he was to 
 be arraigned. They accordingly made urgent and eloquent 
 representations of the high descent, and noble and powerful 
 connections of *he Count; set forth the circumstances of his 
 early history ; his lucn^al malady ; the nervous irritability to 
 which he was subject, and his extreme sensitiveness to insult 
 or contradiction. By these means they sought to prepare the 
 judges to interpret every thing in favor of the Count, and, 
 even if it should prove that he had inflicted the mortal blow 
 on the usurer, to attribute it to access of insanity, provoked 
 by insult. 
 
 To give full effect to these representations, the noble con- 
 clave determined to bring upon the judges the dazzling rays 
 of the whole assembled aristocracy. Accordingly, on the day 
 that the trial took place, the relations of the Count, to th« 
 number of fifty-seven persons, of both sexes, and of the high- 
 est riisif . repaired in a body to the Palace of Justice, and took 
 their stations in a long corridor which led to the court-room. 
 Here, as the judges entered, they bad to pass in review this 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
 I ' 
 
 ' i 
 
148 
 
 WOLFEET'S ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 array of lofty and noble personages, who saluted them mourn- 
 fully and significantly, as they passed. Any one conversant 
 with the stately pride and jealous dignity of the French 
 n' ' '. 3e of that day, may imagine the extreme state of sensi- 
 tivencbs that produced this self-abasement. It was confidently 
 presumed, however, by the noble suppliants, that having once 
 brought themselves to this measure, their influence over the 
 tribunal would be irresistible. There was one lady present., 
 however, Madame de Beauffremont, who was affected with 
 the Scottish gift of second sight, and related such dismal and 
 sinister apparitions as passing before her eyes, that many of 
 her female companions were filled with doleful presentiments. 
 
 Unfortunately for the Count, there was another interest at 
 work, more powerful even than the high aristocracy. The all- 
 potent Abb^ Dubois, the grand favorite and bosom counsellor 
 of the Regent, was deeply interested in the scheme of Law, and 
 the prosperity of his bank, and of course in the security of the 
 stock-brokei's. Indeed, the Regent himself is said to have dipped 
 deep in the Mississippi scheme. Dubois and Law, therefore, 
 exerted their influence to the utmost to have the tragic affair 
 pushed to the extremity of the law, and the murder of the broker 
 punished in the most signal and appalling manner. Certain it 
 is, the trial was neither long nor intricate. The Count and his 
 fellow prisoner were equally inculpated in the crime ; and both 
 were condemned to a death the most horrible and ignominious 
 — to be broken alive on the wheel ! 
 
 As soon as the sentence of the court was made public, all the 
 nobility, in any degree related to the house of Van Horn, went 
 into mourning. Another grand aristocratical assemblage was 
 held, and a petition to the Regent, on behalf of the Count, was 
 drawn out and left with the Marquis de Cr^qui for signature. 
 This petition set forth the previous insanity of the Count, and 
 showed that it was a hereditary malady of his family. It stated 
 various circumstances in mitigation of his offence, and implored 
 that his sentence might be commuted to perpetual imprisonment. 
 
 Upward of fifty names of the highest nobility, beginning with 
 the Prince de Ligne, and including cardinals, archbishops, 
 dukes, marquises, etc., together with ladies of equal rank, were 
 signed to this petition. By one of the caprices of human pride 
 and vanity, it became an object of ambition to get enrolled 
 among the illustrious suppliants ; a kind of testimonial of noble 
 blood, to prove relationship to a murderer ! The Marquis de 
 ^r^qui was absolutely b^'sieged by appHcanto to sign, and had 
 to refer their claims to this singular honor, to the Prince de 
 
THE COUNT VAN EORIf. 
 
 149 
 
 all the 
 rn, went 
 
 Ligne, the grandfather of the Count. Many who were excluded, 
 were highly incensed, and numerous feuds took place. Nay, 
 the affronts thus given to the morbid pride of some aristocrati- 
 cal families, passed from generation to generation ; for, fifty 
 years afterward, the Duchess of Mazarin complained of a slight 
 vliich her father had received from the Marquis de Cr6qui; 
 viiich proved to be something connected with the signature of 
 .his petition. 
 
 This important document being completed, the illustrious body 
 jf petitioners, male and female, on Saturday evening, the eve of 
 Palm Sunday, repaired to the Palais Royal, the residence of the 
 Regent, and were ushered, with great ceremony but profound 
 silence, into his hall of council. They had appointed four of 
 their number as deputies, to present the petition, viz. : the Car- 
 dinal de Rohan, the Duke de Havr6, the Prince de Ligne, and 
 the Marquis de Cr^qul. After a little while, the deputies were 
 summoned to the cabinet of the Regent. They entered, leaving 
 the assembled petitioners in a state of the greatest anxiety. As 
 time slowly wore away, and the evening advanced, the gloom of 
 the company increased. Several of the ladies prayed devoutly ; 
 the good Princess of Armagnac told her beads. 
 
 The petition was received by the Regent with a most unpropi- 
 tious aspect. " In asking the pardon of the criminal," said he, 
 " you display more zeal for the house of Van Horn, than for 
 the service of the king." The noble deputies enforced the peti- 
 tion by every argument in their power. They supplicated the 
 Regent to consider that the infamous punishment in question 
 would reach not merely the person of the condemned, not merely 
 the house of Van Horn, but also the genealogies of princely and 
 illustrious families, in whose armorial bearings might be found 
 quarterings of this dishonored name. 
 
 " Gentlemen," replied the Regent, " it appears to me the dis- 
 grace consists in the crime, rather than in the punishment." 
 
 The Prince de Ligne spoke with warmth : "I have in my 
 genealogical standard," said he, "four escutcheons of Van 
 Horn, and of course have four ancestors of that house. I must 
 have them erased and effaced, and there would be so many 
 blank spaces, like holes, in my heraldic ensigns. There is not 
 a sovereign family which would not suffer, through the rigor 
 of your Royal Highness ; nay, all the world knows, that in the 
 thirty-two quarterings of Madame, your mother, there is an 
 escutcheon of Van Horn." 
 
 " Very well," replied the Regent, " I will share the disgrace 
 with you, gentlemen." 
 
 I'i 
 
150 
 
 WOLFERTS ROOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 I' 
 
 i' 
 
 Seeing that a pardon could not be obtained, the Cardinal de 
 Rohan and the Marquis de Cr^qui left the cabinet ; but the 
 Prince de Ligne and the Duke de Havr^ remained behind. The 
 honor of their houses, more than the life of the unhappy Count, 
 was the great object of their solicitude. They now endeavored 
 to obtain a minor grace. They represented that in the Nether- 
 lands, and in Germany, there* was an importau*. difference in the 
 public mind as to the mode of inflicting the punishment of death 
 upon persons of quality. That decapitation had no influence on 
 the fortunes of the family of the executed, bi t that the punish- 
 ment of the wheel was such an infamy, that the uncles, aunts, 
 brothers, and sisters of the criminal, and his whole family, foi 
 three succeeding generations, were axcluded from all noble 
 chapters, princely abbeys, sovereign bishoprics, and even Teu- 
 tonic commanderies of the Order of Malta. They showed how 
 this would operate immediately upon the fortunes of a sister of 
 the Count, who was on the point of being received as a canoness 
 into one of the noble chapters. 
 
 While this scene was going on in the cabinet of the Regent, 
 the illustrious assemblage of petitioners remained in tlie hall of 
 council, in the most gloomy state of suspense. Tlie re-entrance 
 from the cabinet of the Cardinal de Rohan and the Marquis de 
 Cr^qui, with pale, downcast countenances, had struck a ehiil 
 into every heart. Still they lingered until near midnight, to 
 learn the result of the after application. At length the cabi- 
 net conference was at an end. The Regent came forth, and 
 saluted the high personages of the assemblage in a courtly 
 manner. One old lady of quality, Madame de Guyon, whom 
 he had known in his infancy, he kissed on the cheek, calling her 
 his "good aunt." He made a most ceremonious salutation to 
 the stately Marchioness de Cr^qui, telling h"'" he was charmed 
 to see her at the Palais Royal ; " a compliment very ill-timed," 
 said the Marchioness, " considering the circumstance which 
 brought me there." He then conducted the ladies to the door 
 of the second saloon, and there dismissed them, with the most 
 ceremonious politeness. 
 
 The application of the Prince de Ligne and the Duke de 
 Havr^, for a change of the mode of punishment, had, after 
 much difficulty, been successful. The Regent had promised 
 solemnly to send a letter of commutation to the attorney-gen- 
 eral on Holy Monday, the 25th of March, at five o'clock In the 
 morning. According to the same promise, a scaffold would be 
 arranged in the cloister of the Conciergerie, or prison, where 
 the Count would be beheaded oa the same moruing, imme- 
 
THE COUNT VAN HORlf, 
 
 161 
 
 diately after having received absolution. This n^itigation ot 
 the form of punishment gave but little consolation to the great 
 body of petitioners, who had been anxious for the pardon of the 
 youth : it was looked upon as ali-iraportant, however, by the 
 Prince de L\gne, who, as has been before observed, was ex- 
 quisitely alive to the dignity of his family. 
 
 The Bishop of Bayeux and the Marquis de Cr^qui visited the 
 unfortunate youth in prison. He had just received the com- 
 munion in the chapel of the Conciergerie, and was kueelinw 
 before the altar, listening to a mass for the dead, which was 
 performed at his request. He protested his innocence of any 
 intention to murder the Jew, but did not deign to allude to the 
 accusation of robbery. He made the bishop and the Marquis 
 promise to see his brother the prince, and inform hun of this 
 his dying asaeveration. 
 
 Two other of his relations, the Prince Rebecq-Montmorency 
 and the Marshal Van Isenghien, visited him secretly, and of- 
 fered him poison, as a means of evading the disgrace of a public 
 execution. On his refusing to take it, they left him with high 
 indignation. " Miserable man ! " said they, " you are fit only 
 to perish by the hand of the executioner ! " 
 
 The Marquis de Cr6qui sought the executioner of Paris, to 
 bespeak an easy and decent death for the unfortunate youth. 
 " Do not make him suffer," said he ; " uncover no part of him 
 but the nock ; and have his body placed in a coffln, before you 
 deliver it to his family." The executioner promised all that was 
 requestod, but declined a rouleau of a hundred louis-d'ors which 
 the Marquis would have put into his hand. " I am paid by the 
 king for fulfilling my office," said he; and added that he had 
 already refused a like sum, offered by another relation of the 
 Marquis. 
 
 The Marquis de Cr6qui returned home in a state of deep afflic- 
 tion. There he found a letter from the Duke de St. Simon, the 
 familiar friend of the Regent, repeating the promise of that 
 prince, that the punishment of the wheel should be commuted 
 to decapitation. 
 
 " Imagine," says the Marchioness de Cr^qui, who in her 
 memoirs gives a detailed aeooi'ni of this affair, "imagine what 
 we experienced, and what was our astonishment, our grief, and 
 indignation, when, on Tuesday, the .^6th of March, an hour 
 after midday, word was brought us that the Count Van Horn 
 had been exposed on the wheel, in the Place de Grfive, since 
 half-past six in the morning, on the same scaffold with the 
 Piedmontese de Mille, and that be had been tortured jirevious 
 to execution 1 " 
 
 i i 
 
 ■; i 
 
 u 
 
 it 
 
152 
 
 WOLFERTS BOOST AND MISCELLANIES. 
 
 One more scene of aristocratic pride closed this tragic story. 
 The Marquis de Crequi, on receiving this astounding news, im- 
 mediately arrayed himself in the unifoTm of a general officer, 
 with his cordon of nobility on the coat. He ordered six valets 
 to attend him in grand livery, and two of his carriages, each 
 with six horses, to be brought forth. In this sumptuous state, 
 he set off for the Place de Gr^ve, where iie had been preceded 
 by the Princes de Ligne, de Rohan, de Croiiy, and the Duke de 
 Havr^. 
 
 The Count Van Horn was already dead, and it was believed 
 that the executioner had had the charity to give him the coup 
 de grace, or "death-blow," at eight o'clock in the morning. At 
 five o'clock in the evening, when the Judge Commissary left 
 his post at the Hotel de Ville, these noblemen, with their own 
 hands, aided to detach the mutilated remains of their relation ; 
 the Marquis de Crequi placed them in one of his carriages, and 
 bore them off to his hotel, to recei^'e the last sad obsequies. 
 
 The conduct of the Regent in this affair excited general 
 indignation. His needless severity was attributed by some to 
 vindictive jealousy ; by others to the persevering machinations 
 of Law. The house of Van Horn, and the high nobility of 
 Flanders and Germany, considered themselves flagrantly out- 
 raged : many schemes of vengeance were talked of, and a hatred 
 engendered against the Regent, that followed him through life, 
 and was wreaked with bitterness upon his memory after his 
 death. 
 
 The following letter is said to have been written to the Regent 
 by the Prince Van Horn, to whom the former had adjudged the 
 confiscated effects of the Count : 
 
 *'Ido not complain, Sir, of the death of my brother, but I 
 complain that your Royal Highness has violated in his person 
 the rights of the kingdom, the nobility, anc the nation. I thank 
 you for the confiscation of his effects ; but 1 should think my- 
 self as much disgraced as he, should I accept any favor at your 
 bands. / hope that God and the King viay render to you as 
 strict justice as you have rendered to my unfortunate brother," 
 
;ic story, 
 news, im- 
 al officer, 
 jix valets 
 ges, each 
 )us state, 
 preceded 
 Duke de 
 
 believed 
 the coup 
 aing. At 
 isary left 
 heir own 
 relation ; 
 iges, and 
 uies. 
 general 
 some to 
 hiuations 
 >bility of 
 .ntly out- 
 [ a hatred 
 aigh life, 
 after his 
 
 e Regent 
 Jged the 
 
 er, but I 
 s person 
 I thank 
 link my- 
 r at your 
 9 you as 
 .her,"