Southern literary gazette. (Athens, Ga.) 1848-1849, October 07, 1848, Page 174, Image 6

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174 occasion, without a shudder at the fearful crime which deprived a gifted and noble youth of life—whose misfortune, and not his fault, it was to love and be loved of Mary Queen of Scots! Holyrood is so fraught with historic trea sures and associations, that l trod its corridors and moved within its gorgeous chambers with feelings akin to reverence; and, putting a douceur into the hands of our attentive and talkative conductress, I reluctantly bade it adieu. Traversing, then, the entire length of High Street, we went up the ridge, which is sur mounted by the Castle, and which, beyond it, terminates in a steep precipice. The houses near the Castle have a very ancient look, and the “wynds” and “ closes” latter are only foot-ways down the slope to the ra vine—are inhabited by very poor people, and are exceedingly dirty withal. The Castle is kept in perfect repair, and is even yet a place of defence, and strongly garrisoned. An En glish regiment of several hundred troops is now quartered in it. In the midst of the ci ty, on a rocky hill, it is truly a strong hold, and seems to be a fit guardian of the place. History gives us no certain date for the foundations of this fine old Castle. The daughters of the Pictish Kings were kept in it until their marriage—a precaution due to that barbarous age —and hence the fortress was called Castrum Puellarum. Since that pe riod, it has been the scene of strange vicissi tudes in the history of Kings, and is rich in historic associations. We had provided our selves with tickets to admit us to the Crown Room, where the old Regalia of Scotch royal ty are preserved—for Republicans, as all of o.ur party were, that was a sight we would not willingly forego. It is an honorable ex ception that I make, when I say that our tick ets cost us nothing, being issued only to pro. mote the comfort of visitors. A little book that I bought on entering the Crown Room, for about twenty-five cents, gave us a full history of theseßßegaliaa —a history full of romance. For nearly one hundred and twenty years did these Regalia lie in an enormous oak chest, iron-bound and triple-locked. It was deposited in a vaulted room, built entirely of massive stone. In 1818, the chest was open ed by a royal commission, and was an occa sion of high ceremony and intense interest. The Jewels, with their rich appendages of gold, are still in the Crown Room, together with the despoiled chest. A huge cage of iron surrounds a table, on which lie the Re galia, and we looked through the bars at the glittering insignia of a departed race of Kings The artificial light, which is thrown by ie- Hectors from several gas-burners upon the Jewels, greatly enhances their brilliancy, and renders them dazzling, at least, to weak eyes! These relies consist of the Crown, Sceptre, Sword of State, and the Chancellor’s official Rod. Os the other ‘ sights’ of the Castle I must forbear to speak, and glance very hasti ly at some other points of interest. Among the Calton Hill monuments, to which I have alluded, I admired most that of Dugald Stewart, though a far less ambitious one than that of Nelson. The monuments of Edinburgh are very numerous—and I noticed those of Hume, George IV, Pitt, the Duke of York, Burns, Playfair the Geometrician, and others. The new town is built chiefly of a brown free-stone, such as is coming into fa vor in New York. To me it appears to be the handsomest of all material for general building. Some of the streets and terraces are exceedingly elegant, and none more so than Moray Place and Athol Crescent. Rambling along Prince street, this morn ing, I saw a group of Highlanders in their characteristic dress —the plaid and bonnet. One of them was playing on the bag-pipes, another on the flute, a third on a violin, and a fourth on the tambourine! A singular quartette of instruments, certainly, and not Dd Q ‘ffßlß AIE ¥ ® ASSTfiF wonderfully melodious. It was good enough, however, to please numbers of Scotch lads and lasses who surrounded the musicians. It is such a luxury to an American to bestow charity when it is solicited of him, that I sup pose I give more than is common. Be that as it may, my shilling to the man with the tambourine drew forth a low bow and an ex clamation in broad Scotch: “ Siller! noo may God bless ye, frind!” A visit to the University was well repaid. I will mention only the elegant Library — which word I employ in a two-fold sense, to mean both the books, and the Hall which contains them. The room is very spacious, and I have seen no handsomer one for the purpose. It contains more than a hundred and twenty thousand volumes. Here, also, is Flaxman’s exquisite statue of the Ayrshire Poet. The simplicity of the design consti tutes its chiefest beauty. Burns is represent ed as he was —a genuine plow-boy; but the marble is almost animate with the expression of his noble genius. I have already extolled the excellence of our hotel on Prince street, where we “fared sumptuously every day.” It ought to be re marked, however, that the superior accommo dations of the first class hoiels in her gracious Majesty's dominions are not obtained without ample cost, more than doubling the charges at the Astor and similar houses in the Ameri can cities. The traveler in Great Britain learns, at every step, the value of money. The exactions upon his purse are so frequent as to be proverbial. Gold is the ‘open sea same’ which unlocks to him the treasure houses of Art and Science, Antiquity and Novelty, always honorably excepting the British Museum,which isopen to all without charge. I have not said half I would like to say of ( this city—of my visit to the establishment of ! the Messrs. Chambers, authors and publish ers of the celebrated Edinburgh Journal, and many other meritorious works—of an inter view with Prof. Wilson, the veritable Chris topher North of the Nodes, one of the most delightful, urbane and genuine men, I ever met with—of the generous hospitality I and my friends met with at the hands of several families. Os all these I must say nothing, for this letter is unreasonably long. To-morrow we are off for the Lakes—and, in delightful anticipation of their beauty, I feel half in clined to sing, “ My heart’s in the highlands, My heart is not here.” Perhaps I shall write to you next in the shadow of Ben Nevis, or on the shores of Loch Katrine. At all events, “I wunna for git ye.” Good bye. E. F. G. Newspaper Analects. UNEXAMPLED GENEROSITY- Mr. Warren, the author ot Ten Thousand a Year , in the course of a recent lecture in the hall of the London Law Society, recount ed the following incident: “A short time ago,” said Mr. Warren, “a gentleman of large fortune, a man. in fact, worth his £40,000, was indignant with hts only child, a daughter, for marrying against his wishes. He quarrelled with her, he disinherited her, he left his whole property, of £40,000, to his attorney, and to two other gentlemen, all of whom were residing in Yorkshire. What did the attorney do ? He went to his two co-legatees, and got them to sign their respec tive claims over to himself, and then made over every sixpence of the £40.000 to the daughter and her children! When I men tioned this circumstance, this morning, to a friend of mine, one of the most distinguished men at the bar, he exclaimed, “God bless that man !” The above gratifying circum stance is literally true. The gentleman of fortune was a manufacturer in a town cele brated for its linen manufacturers, within the West Riding, and the disinterested attorney is one of the brightest ornaments of the profes sion in the West Riding of Yorkshire, enjoy ing the fruits of an ample fortune realized by his own industry and talents. IRELAND, The last hope of the friends of the late movement in Ireland, has now melted “into thin air.” Meagher, the young and elo quent, the Patrick Henry of the cause, has allowed himself to be arrested, indignantly refusing to surrender himself, or do aught else that might be construed into an act of submission. With his imprisonment ends the last act in this drama of Irish rebellion. We might call it a farce , but respect for the brave and unfortunate men engaged in it, re strains our pen. The friends of Ireland have now nothing else to do, than to fall back upon Concilia tion Hall, and try again the slow but, per haps, sure lever of moral power. For any thing else, it is probable, the Irish people are not ready. We do not blame them. It is no slight matter to peril all that makes life dear, domestic happiness, and the calm of every day’s existence—to exchange these for the uncertain fate and the stormy life of an in surrectionist. It is a small matter for us, sitting in our easy chairs, to talk lightly of the perils of a rebellion; with them it is a matter affecting business, daily bread, wives, children, freedom and life. We therefore have no words of censure tor the great mass of the Irish people. They were the best judges of the probability of success, and whether the old pain was preferable to the new peril. The consequences of that choice is upon their heads and their children’s. NEUTRAL PAPERS. Now is the time, in the midst of an excit ing political campaign, when neutral news papers are particularly valuable and ought to be welcome visitants to every family. They attend to the things of the busy world gener ally, and are free from the noise and clamor of dispute. What a compound is a political sheet during a presidential contest! Here you have a column or two of speeches by nobody knows whom, upon nobody knows what; there a column or two of gas, baga telle and bragadocia; then a column devoted to the exposure of fibs by opponents; anoth er to what seems to be the production of the same articles; and a large balance of party scraps, slops and dishwater. We fancy that the public turn from these to a neutral paper with a genuine relish, as they would of a hot day into a shady avenue. It was of political papers that Crabbe wrote, when he said, “ Our journals o’er the land abound, And spread their plagues and influenzas ’round.” i —i Sophocles, one of the first of the Greek poets, who combined in himself the excellencies of many others, thus paints the character of a good wife : Faithful —as the lone shepherd’s trusty pride ; True —as the helm, the bark’s protecting guide ; Firm —as the shaft that props the tow’ring dome ; Swect-g as to the shipwreck’d seaman land and home; Lovely —as a child, the parent’s sole delight; Radiant —as morn that breaks a stormy night ; Grateful —as streams that, in some deep recess, With crystal rills the panting trav’ler bles3. THE MARSEILLEISE HYMN. This most remarkable production, known throughout the civilized world as the Nation al war-song of France, was written by Joseph Ilouget de L’lsle, an officer of the French revolution. The words and the music were composed in a single night, an incident beau tifully described by Dr. O. W. Holmes, in the following lines: The city slept beneath the moonbeam's glance, Her white walls gleaming through the viuesof France And all was hushed, save where the footsteps fell, On some high tower, of midnight sentinel. But one still w,itched, no self encircled woes Chased f.oni his lids the angel of repose ; He watched, he wept, for thoughts of bitter years, Bowed his dark lashes, wet with burning tears, Ilis country’s sufferings and his children's shame Stream’d o’er his memory like a forest’s tiame. Each treasured insult, each remembered wrong, Rolled through his heart, and kind ed into song, His taper faded, and the morning gales Swept through the world the War-song of Marseilles ! The Rich Poor and the Poor Rich.— Ihe bird of Paradise, which has a plumage the most gorgeous of all the winged tribes, and floats away on spicy breezes, from grove to grove of tropical luxuriance, has a most harsh and repulsive voice. The Lark, which holds the ear in willing bondage by its morn ing songs, has no feathered beauties, and humbly builds its nest upon the ground. Such are the rich without education; and the educated without riches. The former, in their costliest attire, make nought but discord, even in the gardens of “Araby the blest”; the lat ter, in their lowly garb, soar upwards from their ground-built nests, and carol at the very gate of Heaven. CX Column iTu'dri) to JTun. AN EPIGRAM. Will Wag went to see Charles Quirk, More fam’d for his books than his knowledge In order to borrow a work ° ’ Which he’d sought for in vain over college. But Charley replied, “ My dear friend, You must know 1 have sworn and agreed My books from my room not to lend-- But you may sit by my lire and read.” Now it happened by ohance on the morrow That Quirk, with a cold, quivering air Came, his neighbor’s bellows to borrow, For his own were out of repair. But Willy replied: “ My dear friend, 1 have sworn and agreed, you must know, That my bellows I never will lend— Bui you may sit bp mp fire and blow /” CHINESE SENTIMENT. O. daughter of the great Ching Chum. Whose eyes like Kasdan diamonds glow And wilt thou love thy Fo-Fe-Fum, My sweet, my lovely 110-ang-110 l The swans their downy plumage lave, Where Lano's wandering waters flow ; But can the swans of Lano’s wave, Compare with thee, my 110-ang-IIo! 0 . # Six moons have travell’d through the skic3,gM And softly gleamed on Ki-ang-O, Since first thy beauty met my eyes, Light of my soul, my Ho-ang-110. Oh ! when I clasp thee to my breast, Chang-fu, to whom the nations bow, Shall not be half so truly blest, As Fo-Fe- Fum and Ho-ang-Ho. Affectionate. —At a church meeting in the town where the President of one of our New England Colleges resides, it became ne cessary to ascertain the number of widows in the parish. After some time had been spent in the premises, a certain officious in-season and-out-of-season member, named S , from the east part of the town, jumped up and said, “we have embraced them all, have we not, President L ?”—Boston Ram bler. On Hand. —A witness spoke several times during his testimony, of occurrences about the time of his birth, when a surly judge in terrupted him— “l)o you mean to say that you can relate occurrences at. the time of your birth, from your own recollection ?” The laugh which began against the wit ness, turned upon the judge, as the former replied— “ Why, sir, I cannot exactly say that I re member every particular, but I can assure your honor that I teas there ! n Pat,” says a Yankee to an Irish man, as they passed a tree near Harlem, with a rope hanging from one of its branches, •‘where do you suppose you would be now, if that rope had its deserts?” “Faith, and I’d be a walking here all alone to New York !” A Clergyman told an Indian he should love his enemies. “ Me do love ’em,” replied the latter. “ What enemies do you love most ?” “Rum and Cider.” 4&*“Do you suppose that a person can see better by the aid of glasses?” said a man in a company. “I know he can,” said a toper, “fori have taken a dozen glasses, and I can see double.” • An amateur naturalist offers a reward to the man who will furnish him a live spe cimen of the “brick-6oL” Punch says that “ the milk of human kindness is not to be found in the pail of so ciety.” If so, we think it is time for all “ hands,” as Pat would say, to “ kick the bucket .” Lord B. being asked by a lord in waiting, what difference there was between a clock and a woman, instantly replied, “A clock serves to point out the hours, and a wo man makes us forget them.” Why are fowls the most economical things farmers keep ? Because for every grain of corn they g' ve a peck ? An ignorant fellow was boasting that in his travels he had been caressed every where, and that he had seen all the great in Europe. “Have you seen the Dardanelles ■ asked one of the company. “Yes,” replied he, “I dined with them at Gibraltar, and found them excellent company 1”