of knowing that the report of her husband's death was premature; but firmly believing it, she married immediately, as it should seem, a young officer named Georges, to whom she had long been greatly attached. The demise of Sir Tristram Beresford did not, in fact, take place till some days after their union; but on the night when it actually occurred, Captain Georges and his lady having retired to rest, a figure resembling Sir Tristram stood beside their bed, and having undrawn the curtains nearest his late wife, upbraided her with the indecent haste she had used in concluding her second marriage, which had caused her, in fact, to be for many days guilty of an adulterous connexion with her present husband. She asked him, whether he were yet living?—He answered, that he had died that very hour; and also said, that she had made a disastrous choice, for that her husband would prove very unkind to her, and that she should die in giving birth to their fifth child. Captain G. had fallen into a profound slumber, from which, although during this conversation his wife made every effort to arouse him, he could not be awakened. She then said to the semblance of Sir Tristram— "How shall I know that this is not a trick, and that you are not some person disguised to deceive me?' "Shortly afterwards accounts arrived, identifying the hour of Sir Tristram's decease with that in which his apparition had appeared to his widow; and she was a second time married to Capt. Georges, with whom she lived some years, and had four children; but as she experienced much ill-treatment from him, they parted: he joined his regiment, and she continued to reside in Ballygawley Castle. "Some years after this separation, they again became friends. He returned to reside with her; and in giving birth to their fifth child, she died, as had been foretold by the apparition. "The son of Sir Tristram by this lady was Sir Marcus Beresford, who married the heiress of the estates and title of Le Pen; was created Baron Beresford and Earl of Tyrone; and was father of George Beresford, first Marquess of Waterford, the late Right Hon. John Beresford, William Beresford, late Archbishop of Tuam, Lady Frances Flood, Lady Araminta Monk, Lady Catherine Jones, Lady Glenawley, and Lady Betty Cobbe." (To be concluded in our next.) Old Poets. WILL, "Upon which the spectre took up the WILL puts in practice what the will deviseth, curtains of the bed, which were suspended from a ring over the tester, and throwing them from his hand, passed them through the ring thrice, saying"No human being could do that.' "And yet, replied the lady, it is possible that people may say I did it myself. Can you give me no better token ?' "Then the spectre caught her by the wrist, exclaiming Unto thee shall this be a token!'-when the sinews of that wrist immediately shrivelled up, and the apparition, laying his hand on an escritoire, vanished! "Captain Georges instantly awoke; and his lady asking him whether he had seen or heard any thing, he replied in the negative; but the sinews of her wrist were seared and shrunken ever after, and the impression of a hand was burnt into the escritoire. This escritoire is said to be in the possession of Lady Clanwilliam, at Giltown, her father baving married the sister and co-heiress of Lady Beresford; and a picture was lately existing, and may be now, at Catherine Grove (the seat of Richard Georges Meredith, Esq., her grandson on Capt. Georges' side), exhibiting Lady B. with a broad black ribbon round the wrist, which the apparition of Sir Tristram is said to have scorched. Will ever acts, and Wit contemplates still, And as from Wit the power of Wisdom riseth, All other virtues daughters are of Will. LOVE. LODGE. WHERE heat of Love doth once possess the heart, There cares oppress the mind with wondrous ill, Wit runs awry, not fearing subtil smart, And foud desire doth ever master will. Nor o'erwatched eyes desire to wink. The brightsome flower of beauty fades away, And bashful shame, and gods themselves con- Watchful suspect is kindled with despair, And misery doth swim in seas of tears. PRINCES. WATSON. A prince's safety lies in loving people, SYLVESTER. SPIRIT OF THE Public Journals. OLD PARR AND OLD PEOPLE. (From "After Dinner Chat," in the New Monthly Magazine.) N.-Parr was a mischievous old fellow: he has left a pernicious example of longevity behind him. At sixty-nine a man will look with complacency to the approaching termination of his career, as an event to be expected in the ordinary course of Nature. Once allow him to turn seventy, he has then escaped the fatal three-score-and-ten, and would consider himself an ill-used person should he receive notice of ejectment a day short of ninety. Ninety comes, and he grows insolent. Death, he thinks, has passed on and overlooked him. He asks why Nature so long has delayed to claim her debt. She has suffered thrice seven years to elapse beyond the period usually assigned for payment, and he indulges in wild fancies of a Statute of Limitations. In his most rational moments he talks of nothing but Old Parr. He burns his will, marries his housemaid, hectors his son-and-heir, who is seventy, and canes his grand-child (a lad of fifty) for keeping late hours. I called on old S-g a morning or two ago: he is ninety-three. I found him reading his newspaper, and inveighing against the outcry for Reform and short Parliaments-declaring that, rather than be forced down into Cheshire to vote oftener than once in every six or seven years, he, for his part, would sell his franchise for a straw. 'Twas clear he had outlived the recollection of the probability of a visit from one who might deprive him of his franchise upon terms even less advantageous. I took occasion to compliment him upon his fine old age. His reply was an angry growl.-"Ugh! do you want me gone? I'm only ninetythree Ugh! Mr. Parr wouldn't die till he was one hundred and sixty!" R.-Paying a visit to old P-ke, I found him walking up and down the drawing-room, stamping and raving, and holding a handkerchief to his mouth. I inquired what ailed him. To my astonishment, he complained of tooth-ache! -a strange complaint, thought I, for a man of seventy-eight, whom one would hardly expect to find with a single implement of that kind in his head; but, in fact, he was in possession of the whole set, except two! His lamentation, which he continued at intervals, ran in this strain-"Seventy-eight !-only seventyeight, and two teeth gone already!-lost one of them sixty years ago, and, as if that were not enough, four years ago I must lose a second;- and now-ah! I suppose I must part with another. And then my eyes! one of my eyes is beginning to fail. Lord help me! for, should it go on at this rate, I shall be in a sad condition before many more years are over my head!" S.-The unconscionable old rogue! at seventy-eight how many more could he expect? N. Rely on it I am right, and that Parr was to blame for this. At seventy, P-ke would have died with grateful thanksgivings on his lips for the blessings of his past life. As it was, had he been allowed to live on till he should have parted with the remainder of his teeth, at the rate of one a year, he would have attempted, when it came to the last, to smuggle a false tooth or two into his jaws. R.-I think I understand the gist of your complaint: the longer you allow folks to live, the more they won't die. Fie upon them! S.-I shudder at the contemplation of the consequences of Parr's abominable example. Well had it been for poste rity if some one had killed the cent sexagenarian at the outset of his wicked career. K.-Horrible! that would have been Parr-icide! DUELLING. N.-Apropos of duelling. I hear that General F-rn-r is dead. He was the most celebrated, or, I ought to say, the most notorious duellist in France at a time, too, when duelling was most the rage. He had been a great favourite of Napoleon's. Having the command of a regiment, upon-I forget what occasion-he led it with such extraordinary bravery to the attack, yet, at the same time, conducted its movements with so total a want of skill and discretion, that, without attaining any good result, his men were nearly all cut to pieces, and he himself narrowly escaped with his life. As a reward for his gallantry, his Imperial master promoted him to the rank of general; but, to mark his sense of F-rn-r's total want of "the better part of valour," he never after entrusted him with a command. So fatal was his skill in duelling, that, when I knew him in Paris, he was under an interdiction of the police ever to fight again. terms of one of the duels in which he The had been engaged were, that the parties should fire at eight paces, and that they should alternately advance two paces till the fire of one or both of them should take deadly effect. According to this arrangement, the last advance brought the muzzle of his pistol close to his adversary's breast-he had twice already wounded him slightly, and received one shot himself-he fired, and his adversary fell dead at his feet! This piece of butchery-for as such it must be stig. matized-having been perpetrated under sanction of the articles of the meeting, passed over without receiving any severe notice. No wonder he was an unhappy man. I met him one day at dinner. Ön that occasion he was boisterous in his mirth, without appearing to be gay.Suddenly he rose and left the room. Half an hour afterwards we found him in a small boudoir at the farther end of the apartment, stretched on a sofawrithing, groaning, and gnashing his teeth: I thought of Richard in the tent scene. I once heard him say—(1 must give part of his expression in his own words, for terrible as they are, they are, at the same time, so simple, that they would lose their force in translation)— "J'ai la bras fatal! if I fire at a mark ten to one I miss it: I never miss a man." His look and tone, as he uttered this, were as of one who should speak of an attendant demon, from whose dominion he had no power of escape. R.-I once was witness to an instance of apathy on the part of a father-your talking of duelling reminds me of itwhich is perhaps without a parallel. Walking one day beyond the Barrière de Clichy, I saw several persons assembled at a little distance from the roadside. their ground-you know that these Two gentlemen had just taken affairs are not always conducted with the same privacy on the Continent as in England--and received their pistols from the hands of their seconds. They fired at the same instant. One of the combatants, a fine young man of about fiveand-twenty, received his adversary's shot in his forehead: it pierced his brain.He sprang nearly his own height from the ground, and fell dead. mediately carried home to his father's He was imhouse, which was at no great distance from the spot, and I went along with the crowd. you, but (so it was said) a mauvais sujet He was an only son, mind of the last degree-indeed the very quarrel which led to the duel had occurred in a gaming-house of which he was a refollowed into the courtyard of his fagular frequenter. The body, which I ther's house, was placed on the stones. The father was sent for;-a scene was PRESUMPTUOUS was the wish so patriotically conceived, and so repeatedly extolled, of that pious churchman, who exclaimed, with reference to the constitution of his native country, now no more existing as an independent state, "Esto perpetua!" The ancients, indeed, to secure what might be humanely termed a perpetuity to their laws and edicts, had them graven on brass. But what is the perpetuity even of brass itself, when opposed to the irresistible advance of Time? Even in the very infancy of the world, this question might have been answered, as it was, some few thousand years after its creation, by Old Simonides: ing even of Lord John Russell to ascertain. In the simple days of good King Alfred, parliaments were not summoned for "the dispatch of business"—that is, to discuss regulations touching the taxes and the public debt-the Bank affairsthe East India affairs-the West India affairs, and a thousand other concerns of national moment, then lying unborn in the womb of time. In those days, the great council was ordained to "meet twice in the year, or oftener, if need be, to treat of the government of God's people, how they should keep themselves from sin, should live in quiet, and should receive right."-Blackwood's Mag. LENDING BOOKS. To lend a byeuck is to lose it - and borrowin's but a hypocritical pretence for stealin', and shou'd be punished wi' death.-Ettrick Shepherd. The Gatherer. A suapper up of unconsidered trifles. HOW TO ROAST AN ACTOR. Ir he is tall, you may discover that his person is ungraceful, and that he wants the dapper-size of Garrick. If short, he is much under the proper size, and can never play the character of a hero, which is always fixed at five feet ten inches. If his features are small, you can find out that they want expression; if large, his face is vulgar, and his nose too much beyond the dramatic size. If his face be unexceptionable, you may with some pains discover a something in his eye. If his eyes are piercing and intelligent, perhaps his features are stiff and unmanageable. His shoulders may be broad; and, if not, it is a thousand to one but he stoops; and if he stoops, and does not turn out his toes, it is If he is a scholar and a critic, and reimpossible he can understand his author. peats a line as you never heard it repeated before, he must be a wordcatcher. If his manner is graceful, hẹ has studied dancing too much; but if his manner is not graceful, be sure to tell him he must go to the dancingschool. If you can discover no fault, you must prove how much better Garrick, Powel, Holland, or Barry, performed the character; and as tenths of your readers cannot remember those performers, you may easily persuade them that the object of your censure is a blockhead. If he has the art of rapid elocution, tell him he speaks too fast; and if he speaks slowly, and nine with discrimination, say that he only waits to catch applause. If his action is graceful, tell him he makes too much use of his arms and hands; and if his action is moderate, persuade the public that his arms are tied behind him. By these hints you will have done him com-, pletely on one side, and, if you change your opinion, and praise him, he will be done on the other.-Old Magazine. VALE OF TEMPE. DR. CLARKE says, "The boasted Vale of Tempe, is a defile; it is something like Matlock, but wilder; more savage than Salvator Rosa, and with nothing of Claude. I cannot tell why the ancients made such a fuss about, it; perhaps because half of them never saw it, and took its character from hearsay; the other half, like mankind every where, stupidly admiring what is said to be admirable. It is like a crack in a great wall, at the bottom of which is a river, sometimes inundated, sometimes dry; the passage narrow, the sides craggy, bare, lofty and perpendicular; its whole length not above a mile." THEATRES. WE find the following sensible observations in a recent work : "In the reigns of Elizabeth and James, the golden age of the English drama, London was not a tenth part of its present size, and it contained seventeen theatres. At present (1808) there are but two; more would succeed, and indeed more are wanted; but these have obtained exclusive privileges. Old people say the acting was better in their younger days, because there were more schools for actors; and the theatres being smaller, the natural voice could be heard, and the natural expression of the features seen, and therefore rant and distortion were unnecessary. They, however, who remember no other generation of actors than the present, will not be persuaded that there has ever been one more perfect. Be this as it may, all are agreed that the drama itself has woefully degenerated, though it is the only species of literary labour which is well paid; they are agreed also as to the cause of this degeneracy, attributing it to the prodigious size of the theatres; the finer tones of passion cannot be discriminated, nor the finer movements of the countenance perceived from the front, hardly from the middle of the house. Authors, therefore, substitute what is here called broad farce for genuine comedy; their jests are made intelligible by grimace, or by that sort of mechanical wit which can be seen; comedy is made up of trick, and tragedy of processions, pageants, battles, and explosions." SCRAPS. ADDISON says, that a dog has been the companion of man for nearly 6,000 years, and has learned of him only one of his vices; that is to worry his species when he finds them in distress. Tie a tin canister to a dog's tail, and another will fall upon him; put a man in prison for debt, and another will lodge a detainer against him. HORACE WALPOLE, speaking of the opening of the budget one year, says, The rest of the night was spent in a kind of avoirdupoise war.” A WITNESS under examination in an Irish court of justice, had just stated that he was suddenly roused from his slumbers by a blow on the head. "And how did you find yourself?" asked the examining counsel," Fast asleep," replied the witness. AN officer whom Louis XIV. had been strongly solicited to appoint to a certain situation, was presented to him. "This gentleman," said the king, "is too old." "Sire," replied the officer, with much tact, "I am only four years older than your majesty, and I calculate úpon serving you for five-and-twenty years to come. The king appointed him to the situation. W. G. C. |