Part 1
Transcriber’s Note
Words in italics are marked with _underscores_.
Words in small capitals are shown in UPPER CASE.
Please also see the note at the end of the book.
THE CAIRN.
THE CAIRN
A GATHERING OF PRECIOUS STONES FROM MANY HANDS.
LONDON: GEORGE BELL, 186, FLEET STREET.
1846.
TO THE READER.
My “Cairn” is principally raised by the hands of many friends whose honoured names are now with the dead, whose kind sympathies have cheered my checquered existence, and whose intercourse has often corrected and enlightened my mind, leading it to seek in occupation a refuge from painful feeling. These contributions, together with original thoughts, and the gleanings of my own reading, I presume to offer to the public; with the hope that where criticism finds ample cause to condemn, my acknowledged weakness may plead for indulgence. Several pages bear the record of memories associated with those dear to me, and of events long past. I presume to believe, that the perusal of the “Cairn,” cannot injure, and may not fruitlessly occupy or amuse an idle hour.
A SOLDIER’S DAUGHTER.
CONTENTS.
Page
Joy and Sorrow 1
Anne of Austria 2
Maternal Love 2
Anecdote of Cardinal d’Estrées 3
The Cemetry at Pisa 3
Lady Vane 4
Benevolence 5
Woman’s Pride 5
Sir Walter Raleigh 5
Poverty 6
Atheism 6
Detraction--_Montesquieu_ 6
Temper 7
Set forms of expression--_Philips_ 7
Henri Quatre 8
A Parliament Heel 9
On a new-born Child--_Sir W. Jones_ 9
Speech of Mr. Cuffe 9
Woman’s Devotion 10
Savage the Poet 11
A Fable--_The Hon. Henry Erskine, late Lord Advocate of Scotland_ 11
Poverty 17
Charity twice blessed 18
Portrait of Charles I. 18
The Ballad 19
On a Lady not celebrated for cleanliness--_The late Lord Chancellor, The Lord Erskine_ 19
Lady M. W. Montague 20
Inscrutable Providence 20
The Mother of the Cagot 21
Virtue of Absence 21
Overstrained Feeling 21
The Essex Ring 22
A Prayer 23
Letter from his late Majesty, King William IV. 24
Joan of Arc 25
Bear and forbear 26
A Gentleman 26
The awakened Idolater 27
Henry IV. of France 28
Time 30
Charles I. 30
Merit and good Fortune 31
The Petition of a Monkey--_Lord Erskine, late Chancellor_ 32
Taste and Custom 35
Filial Duty 36
King of Prussia and Voltaire 36
To a Daughter, on her Marriage 37
James I. 37
On the Death of the Hon. John Gore 38
Abraham to Isaac 39
Zarapha to Rebecca 39
The Mansion of Rest 40
National Taciturnity 42
Election by Balls 42
Anecdote of Robespierre 43
The Old Woman and her Ass--_The Hon. Henry Erskine, Lord Advocate of Scotland_ 44
Life a mingled Yarn 46
Henry VIII. and Francis I. 47
Anecdote of Torregiano 47
Decline of Families 48
Robert Bruce 49
How to meet Afflictions 49
Soho 50
Loss of a Parent 51
Fruit 51
Anecdote of Frederick the Great 52
Equity 53
Mussulman 54
Matthias, Count Thurnes 54
Sir Thomas More 55
Key to Happiness 55
John de Pelham 56
Prayer on the Prospect of Death 57
Whitehall 58
Adieu 59
Indifference 59
Unrequited Love 60
The Cross 60
Solitude 60
Prayer--_Voltaire_ 61
Method of preserving a Plant 61
Misfortune a Crime 61
Grecian Tablets 62
Christmas Day 62
George IV. 62
Ton of the French 63
Frederick the Great 63
The Widow of Barnevelt 64
Filial Love 64
Submission to Providence 66
A Gentleman 66
Love silent 66
The Wandering Jew 67
Statues 67
Charles, Prince of Wales 68
Affliction 68
Philadelphia 69
Tradition 72
Sicilians 73
Ancient Poetry 74
The Hottentots 74
Sedley 75
On the Loss of a Watch--_Lord Erskine_ 75
L’amicale Persévérance 77
Epigram 77
To the May Fly 78
From my Mother 79
To revive a Flower 80
Scenes from the Life of Titian 81
Trees for my Cottage 93
The Hand of Heaven 94
Effects of Sorrow on the Mind 94
Bayle and his Mother 94
Traditions 95
The Graves of the Departed Loved 96
Eyes of the Mind 96
Philosophy 96
Refinement 97
Sea Bathing 97
Effect of Scenery 98
Inscription on a Sun Dial 99
Law of Jury 99
Tradition 100
Tobacco 100
Duchess d’Abrantes 101
Philip II. of Spain 102
Beauty 102
Jacobite Poetry 103
Ill-placed Confidence 104
Charity of Mind 104
Bells 104
La Mélancolie 105
A Fire Screen 105
Banquo’s Son 106
Uncertainty 106
The Drowning Fly 107
The Mulgrave Family 107
Le Bonheur 108
Catherine de Medicis 109
Epitaph 109
Prosperity and Adversity 110
The great Condé 110
Resignation 110
Le Tems 111
A Reflection--_Seneca_ 111
Maréchale de Luxembourg 112
The Spider 112
On Fenelon 112
Flowers 112
To-morrow 113
Letter of Marian Delorme 113
Physiognomy 116
A Father’s Death Bed 117
The Plague 118
Trifles 121
Margaret of Anjou and Renè of Sicily 122
To Julia 123
Good Nature 123
Welsh Air 124
Lines by Henry VI. 124
Manner 124
Lines by Raleigh 125
Speech of a Shawanese Chief 125
Greek Costume 126
On a Rose growing in a Skull--_Gen. Carrol_ 127
A fearful Witness 127
Thirteenth Century 128
Game of Cassino 128
Local Associations 128
On the Choice of a Wife 129
Henry IV. 129
Prayer by Mary Queen of Scots 129
Anecdote of the Duke of Suffolk 130
To the Memory of Sir Thomas Picton 130
True Magnanimity 131
On a Music Master--_The Hon. H. Erskine_ 131
The Emperor and the Opera Dancer 131
Gibbon 135
Herveys 135
Coquetry 135
Charles V. 136
Family MSS. 136
Dirge 137
Sir Thomas More 141
Providence--_Felicaii_ 142
Cromwell 143
Spanish Proverb 143
Epigram--_The Hon. H. Erskine_ 144
Hyder Ali--_Burke_ 144
The Seal 148
Thought 148
Pride of Birth 149
The Pretender 150
Chloe--_The Hon. H. Erskine_ 150
Thought 150
Duke of Buckingham 151
A Portrait 152
Churchyards in Denmark 152
Machiavelli 153
Dante 153
Petition of the Wife of an Indian Chief 154
Volcanos 157
Saint George 157
Poem 157
Queen of Bohemia--_Sir H. Wootton_ 158
Thought 159
Fire from Heaven 159
Origin of Coats of Arms 160
Lord Bacon 160
Bells 160
Arthur’s Round Table 161
Sir Walter Raleigh 162
Saint George 163
Duelling 163
Delight in Disorder--_Herrick_ 164
Lord Strafford’s Meditations 164
Time 167
Lamentations selfish 167
Thought 167
Lines from the Spanish 168
Phrenology 168
Stoves 169
Christina, Queen of Sweden 170
Sir Benjamin Rudyerd 172
King of Prussia’s Guard 174
Premature Judgment 174
Benvenuto Cellini 175
Thought 176
Mind and Body 176
Love 179
Wedding Rings 179
Hope and Grief--_W. Maddocks_ 180
Unjust Suspicion 181
Thought 181
Capucine Friars 181
Arms of the House of Medici 182
Michael Angelo 182
Sir Sidney Smith 192
Bees 192
Bayonets 194
Hope 194
Oliver Cromwell 195
Sandwiches 196
Catherine, Empress of Russia 196
The Milk Score 197
Duke of Monmouth 197
Death 199
Origin of the Title of Earl 200
Thought 201
James II. 202
Thought 202
Thought 202
Thought 202
Sea-fire 203
Lisez et Croyez 203
To a Lady 204
Troubadours 204
Thought 204
Letter from Mde. Du Duffand 205
Thought 205
Pride and Humility 205
Thought 206
Thought 206
Voltaire 206
Antipathies 208
Anne of Austria 209
The MSS. 213
Thought 213
The Nursing of Love--_Hon. W. Spencer_ 214
An Opera 215
Calumny and Detraction 215
Goût and Gout--_Lord Erskine_ 215
Les Lazzaroni 216
Louis XVIII. 217
Directions to a Porter 218
Title of Sforza 219
Duke of Calabria 219
Love and Reason 220
Clocks 222
Tea and Coffee 222
French and English 223
Scandal 223
Thought 223
Thought 224
Personal Beauty 224
Daguerrotype 224
Thought 224
Thought 224
Pyramids 225
The Congress 225
Sketch of our Saviour’s Person--_Josephus_ 226
Ennui 227
Thought 227
On an Infant 228
English, French, and Germans 228
Hôtel à Paris “à vendre, ou à louer” 228
Epigram 228
Russian Anecdote 229
Russian Anecdote 230
Hospitality of the remote Ages 231
Turkish Anecdote 231
Thought 231
Anti-Moine, or Antimony 232
Extract from Dr. Johnson’s Correspondence 232
Earl of Buchan 233
The State of Man 233
Parfilage 233
Taste 234
Les Riens 234
A Cottage in Scotland 235
Linnæus 237
Hortensia, or Hydranger 237
Filial Affection 237
Vestige of ancient Saxon Dialect 239
The Torpedo 240
Thought 240
Wait and Hope 240
Mother and Child 241
Louis XVIII. 241
Education 242
Dr. Johnson on the loss of his Mother 243
Recollections in the Cathedral at Malines or “Mechlin” in Belgium 243
`A Madame Warner 244
To change the Colour of a Rose 244
Wholesome Truth 245
Sir Sidney Smith 245
Lines by Maucroix 245
The Prisoner of St. Helena 246
Children’s Shoes 246
Brantome 246
Hopelessness 247
The Coffee Tree 247
A Portrait 247
A Key to the Thoughts 248
Old China 248
The Indulgence of Providence 248
Les Assassins 249
Pausilippo 250
Gesner 251
Futurity 251
Death 252
Ambergris 252
Quinquina, or Peruvian Bark 253
Critique on David’s Picture of the Deluge 253
THE CAIRN
A GATHERING OF PRECIOUS STONES FROM MANY HANDS.
[Sidenote: Joy.]
Joy paints with its own colours every act and thought. The _happy_ do not feel poverty, for delight is a gold tissued robe, and crowns them with priceless gems. Enjoyment plays the cook to their homely fare, and mingles intoxication with their simple drink. Joy strews the hard couch with roses, and makes labour ease. Sorrow doubles the burthen to the beaten down, plants thorns in the unyielding pillow, mingles gall with water, adds saltness to their bitter bread, clothing them in rags and strewing ashes on their bare heads. To our irremediable distress every small and petty inconvenience comes with added force. We sink beneath the additional feather chance throws on us; The grass-hopper is a burthen.
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[Sidenote: Purgatory.]
Anne of Austria, queen of Louis XIII. was extremely delicate in all that concerned the care of her person; it was scarcely possible to find lawn or cambric sufficiently fine for her use. Cardinal Mazarin used to say that her punishment in purgatory would be, her being obliged to sleep in Holland sheets!
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[Sidenote: The recollection of a Mother.]
It is ever thus, whenever I am unhappy I bring distant and impossible events together, I turn to the thought of you, my Mother, for comfort, and I feel that _you are not_, that on earth you can never be again, that all my grief, and all my love, multiplied a thousand fold, could not recall you for one little hour; and I wish again for you, my blessed Mother, as though but just snatched from me. Time, they say, lessens grief. Yes, its constancy, not its intensity; it may give us even long intervals of peace and happiness, but when grief does return, it is strong and keen and deep as ever. How indeed can regret for such a loss be lessened? Can the thought of a Mother’s love, such a love as mine bore me, ever lose its charm, its influence? Not, I am sure, even when the reality is lost; what it _was_ to me, so it _is_. Perishable things alone lose their value. Time withers flowers, but does not dim the diamond; and shall love for the being who gave us birth, the only real emanation of the Deity, that burns within us, perish as a passion of the earth? Can what is ethereal change its nature, as grosser substances? the eternal become mortal, the infinite be bounded, and what is born of the soul know death? Never!
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[Sidenote: Anecdote of Cardinal d’Estrées.]
“Cæsar bishop of Laon and Cardinal d’Estrées, son of the first Marshall of France of that name, was employed in various negotiations with the Princes of Italy; but is now more remembered for his courtier-like reply to Louis XIV. That Monarch one day at dinner complained of having lost all his teeth. ‘And who is there, Sire, that has any teeth?’ said the Cardinal (Sire, qui est-ce qui a des dents?). What made the flattery the more ludicrously gross was, that the Cardinal, though an old man, had remarkably fine teeth and showed them very much whenever he opened his mouth.”
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[Sidenote: Church-yard at Pisa.]
The Church yard at _Pisa_ is surrounded by a superb Portico, and contains earth impregnated with alkali, or calcareous salts, which reduces the dead bodies to ashes in twenty four hours.
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[Sidenote: An Advertisement.]