Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

Poor Louise! poor Therèse! poor nun! poor know that she, the deformed, the bossue, as she Carmelite! For a moment she forgot that she called herself, who had thought it impossible she was the three last, to remember only that she had could inspire affection, had been the chosen object been the first; and falling on her knees, and of this devoted passion. clasping those thin transparent hands, wasted by woe and vigils, she exclaimed with a piercing cry, " Then he loved me after all!"

Rigid as were the poor nun's notions of the duty of self-abnegation, such a feeling as this was one to be expiated by confession and penance; but as nuns are still women, it was not in the nature of things that she should not be the happier for the conviction that her love had been returned-nay, more than returned, for Saint-Phale had loved her first; and if she had forsaken the world for his sake, he had requited the sacrifice by dying for her. It was a balm even to that pious spirit to

Madame Louise survived her lover nine years; and they were much calmer and happier years than those that preceded his death. She could now direct her thoughts wholly to the skies, for there she hoped and believed he was and since human nature, as we have hinted before, will be human nature within the walls of a convent as well as outside of them, she had infinitely more comfort and consolation in praying for the repose of his soul in heaven, than she could have had in praying for his happiness on earth-provided he had sought that happiness in the arms of Madame de Châteaugrand, or any other fair lady.

about 4,000l. a year. He was well paid for his work; which consisted in the salvation of the souls of Mr. Brereton and Mr. Lucifer, together with their establishments, and three serious washerwomen who lived in the village of Lodore. Altogether, his flock amounted to nearly twenty individuals. The Roman Catholics of his parish mustered their thousands; but with them the dean held no communion by word or deed.

CONSOLATIONS FOR THE LONELY.
BY MARY HOWITT.

IMAGINATION AND SCIENTIFIC INVENTION.-We | trine, for he was one of Fortune's favorites. He see that a passage excavated by a correspondent of thought there was no reason to despair of Ireland our own from Addison's writings in the Spectator, as long as the tithes were regularly paid. That about Strada and his foreshadowing of a kind of was his test of the moral, financial, and political magnetic telegraph, has reäppeared in other jour-state of the country. It was one in which he had nals. Strada supposed that two dial-plates at a some personal interest, for his living was worth distance from each might be so connected that certain "sympathetic needles" should mark corresponding movements on the dials, and thus work much as our electric telegraph does. In a Pepysian mood, it is amusing to note these coincidences; but regarding them more seriously, we should much misinterpret their true significance if we supposed them to detract from the merit of a real discoverer. Perhaps there is no invention that may not, in some vague form, have come within the wide range of human imagination. Gunpowder is lost in antiquity; steam has been traced to Aristotle; ether, or the newer and still more magic chloroform, only realizes many a 66 spell" of Eastern fiction. AS science advances into a knowledge of the properties of things, a dim foresight of what may hereafter be effected dawns upon the understanding. To realize a discovery, especially in mechanics, needs a highly cultivated exact knowledge; but that alone will seldom suffice to make a discoverer: besides mere mechanical knowledge, he requires also the faculty of imagination, which is necessary to enable him to conceive beforehand the operation or the engine that his exact knowledge is requisite to work out. Most discoverers have been men remarkable for some kind of "enthusiasm," "eccentricity," 66 strangeness," ,"or" fancifulness;" which has often been pitied as a weakness. For plodding minds are not aware that half the faculty of the scientific discoverer is derived from the despised region of poetry.-Spectator.

AN IRISH CHURCHMAN FIFTY YEARS SINCE.The dean was the son of a favorite butler of the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He inherited the talents of his father, for he was an excellent judge of claret. In other respects, he had no particular qualification for the established church. This one, however, proved sufficient; for he eventually contrived to become Archbishop of Well and truly did my father say, that the church was an excellent profession for young men with good family interest and of tory principles.

The dean was disposed to be an optimist. In truth, he had good reason for inclining to that doc

THERE is a land where beauty cannot fade,
Nor sorrow dim the eye;

Where true love shall not droop, nor be dismayed,
And none shall ever die!

Where is that land, O where?
For I would hasten there;
Tell me I fain would go,

For I am weary with a heavy woe!
The beautiful have left me all alone;
The true, the tender, from my path have gone!
O guide me with thy hand,
If thou dost know that land,
For I am burdened with oppressive care,
And I am weak and fearful with despair.
Where is it? Tell me where.

Friend, thou must trust in him who trod before
The desolate paths of life;

Must bear in meekness, as he meekly bore,
Sorrow, and pain, and strife!

Think how the Son of God
These thorny paths hath trod;
Think how he longed to go,

Yet tarried out, for thee, the appointed woe.
Think of his weariness in places dim,
Where no man comforted or cared for him!
Think of the blood-like sweat,
With which his brow was wet;
Yet how he prayed unaided and alone,
In that great agony, "Thy will be done!"
Friend, do not thou despair;

Christ, from his heaven of heavens, will hear thy
prayer!

From Chambers' Journal. JOSEPH TRAIN'S ACCOUNT OF THE ISLE OF MAN. *

sions is neither to eat nor drink by the way, nor
even to tell any person his mission; the recovery
is said to be perceptible from the time the case is
stated to him." Farmers delay their sowing till
Teare can come to bless the seed.
has seen and conversed with this strange pre-

tender.

Mr. Train

THE name of Mr. Train has become widely known, in consequence of the acknowledgment of Sir Walter Scott of the obligations he lay under to him for hints towards sundry of the Waverley Novels. "The first time I saw him he was mounted on Now passing into the vale of years, after a creditable fulfilment of all the common duties of a little Manx pony, that seemed aware of its master life, he appears to us as an admirable specimen of having neither whip nor spur to quicken its pace, the genius of self-taught and self-raised men. as it moved very tardily along the wayside. The While possessed of strong poetical tastes, he has seer is a little man, far advanced into the vale of gone beyond the ordinary range of his class in a zeal-life; in appearance he was healthy and active; he ous cultivation of historical antiquities, of which wore a low-crowned slouched hat, evidently too we have here goodly proof in two volumes, em- large for his head, with a broad brim; his coat, bracing all that can be desired of the past and of an old-fashion make, with his vest and breeches, present of the Isle of Man. We delight to see were all of loaghtyn wool, which had never underthe worthy veteran successfully bringing so labori- gone any process of dyeing; his shoes, also, were ous a task to a close. of a color not to be distinguished from his stockings, which were likewise of loaghtyn wool.

The very peculiar history of this little outlying portion of the empire; its long possession of an “Mr. Kelly, chief magistrate of Castletown, was independent race of princes; its retaining even till kindly driving me in his gig to Port St. Mary, now institutions proper to itself-render it an object whither also Mr. Teare was proceeding; and of curiosity beyond any similar space of British where, he informed us, he was to remain for the ground. Mr. Train has done all that we should night. Aware that it was not agreeable to many, think possible in recovering its early annals, and even of the most intelligent Manxmen, to hear direct throwing them into an intelligible narrative; a sad allusions made by a stranger to any of the superview they give of bloody wars and popular suffer- stitious observances of the lower orders of the peoings. A portion of his work, devoted to the suple, I avoided as much as possible making any Mr. Kelly, perstitions, the manners and customs of the people, inquiries that might give offence. is more attractive to the general reader. Statis- seeing, however, from the nature of my questions, tics, however, and even the natural history of the and from my travelling in the mountains, and assoisland, are not overlooked. The author seems to ciating with the peasantry, that my chief object have aimed at exhausting the subject in all respects, was to become acquainted with all the existing and he has pretty well succeeded in his purpose. peculiarities of the people, on our arrival at the Man comprises two hundred square miles, much inn generously introduced me to the great fairy of it hilly and waste, and about fifty thousand in- doctor, as a person eminently qualified to give me habitants. With lighter taxation than England, all the statistical information which the island could it returns about £70,000 of revenue. The people afford. After communicating to the seer my object are Celtic, and speak a language resembling the in visiting the island, Mr. Kelly remarked with a Gaelic of our Scottish Highlanders. They have magisterial air, 'I know, Mr. Teare, that by probretained old customs and superstitions longer than ing the secret springs of nature, you can either any other people under the British crown. Will accelerate, retard, or turn aside at pleasure the natit be believed that the kindling of Baal fires-that ural course of events, but you must make oath is, celebrating the anniversary of the pagan god before me, in presence of this stranger, that you Baal or Bel-was observed on the 1st of May, never call evil spirits to your assistance.' The 1837? Or that a trial, equivalent to a trial for seer assented, and the oath was administered with witchcraft, went on before a jury of Manxmen in due solemnity by the magistrate, who, after listenDecember, 1843? On this occasion, while a poor ing to some singular stories from the doctor, dewoman was in the course of being asked if she parted for Castletown, leaving us to spend the There was a pithy quaintness ever came in any shape or form to do John Quine evening together. in the doctor's conversation, and his answers were an injury, a wag let loose a rabbit in the court, when all became extreme confusion, and the jury, generally couched in idiomatic proverbialisms. He with eyes staring, hair on end, and mouths dis- said he was required by his professional business torted, exclaimed, "The witch! the witch!" nor to travel more than any person in the island, and was the uproar quieted, till one of the crowd seized when I expressed my surprise at a person of his and killed the animal. There still survives in this advanced years enduring such fatigue, he replied, island, in the same latitude with the county of The crab that lies always in its hole is never Cumberland, a fairy doctor of the name of Teare, who is resorted to when all other aid fails. "The messenger that is despatched to him on such occa

*Two volumes, 8vo. Douglas, Isle of Man. Published by Mary A. Quiggin, North Quay. London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1845.

6

fat.'

[ocr errors]

The promptings of superstition are often cruel : there is a notable instance in the Manx custom of hunting the wren on St. Stephen's day, when the populace go about with a captive bird of that species, distributing its feathers as charms against

In accounts of customs from different districts, one is perpetually called on to wonder at the parities observable in many small matters. We are told by Mr. Train, that " formerly weddings were generally preceded by musicians playing the Black and the Gray, the only tune struck up on such occasions." What this tune may be we cannot

witchcraft, after which they inter it on the sea- | charing, and left him a whole day together. The shore. Often, again, there is a strange wild beauty neighbors, out of curiosity, have often looked in at in superstitious ideas, as in the following case :- the window to see how he behaved when alone, "On New-Year's eve, in many of the upland cot- which, whenever they did, they were sure to find tages, it is yet customary for the house-wife, after him laughing, and in the utmost delight. This raking the fire for the night, and just before step-made them judge that he was not without company ping into bed, to spread the ashes smooth over the more pleasing to him than any mortals could be; floor with the tongs, in the hope of finding in it and what made this conjecture seem the more reanext morning the track of a foot; should the toes sonable was, that if he were left ever so dirty, the of this ominous print point towards the door, then woman, at her return, saw him with a clean face, it is believed a member of the family will die in and his hair combed with the utmost exactness and the course of that year; but should the heel of the nicety." fairy foot point in that direction, then it is as firmly believed that the family will be augmented within the same period." There was once a mighty enchantress in the island. "By her alluring arts, she ensnared the hearts of so many men around where she resided, causing them to neglect their usual occupations, that the country presented a scene of utter desolation. They neither ploughed tell--probably it is not now recoverable; but what nor sowed; their gardens were all overgrown with is very curious, it was the tune which was played weeds, their once fertile fields were covered with at weddings by the last piper of Peebles, who died stones, their cattle died for want of pasture, and upwards of forty years ago. their turf lay undug in the commons. This uni- Peel Castle, on the west side of the island, is versal charmer having brought things to such a the locality of a strange tradition, which Mr. Train deplorable crisis, under pretence of making a jour-quotes from his predecessor Waldron. ney to a distant part of the island, set out on a milk-white palfrey, accompanied by her admirers on foot, till, having led them into a deep river, she drowned six hundred of the best men the island had ever seen, and then flew away in the shape of a bat. To prevent the recurrence of a like disasthese wise people ordained that their women should henceforth go on foot and follow the men, which custom is so religiously observed, that if by chance a woman is observed walking before a man, whoever sees her cries out immediately, "Tehi! Tehi!' which, it seems, was the name of the enchantress who occasioned this law."

ter,

"There

But

was formerly a passage to the apartment belonging to the captain of the guard; but it is now closed up; the reason they give you for it is a pretty odd one. They say that an apparition, called in the Manx language the Moddey Doo, in the shape of a large black spaniel, with curled shaggy hair, was used to haunt Peel Castle; and has been frequently seen in every room, but particularly in the guard-chamber, where, as soon as the candles were lighted, it came and lay down before the fire, in presence of the soldiers, who at length, by being so much accustomed to the sight of it, lost great part of the terror they were seized The supposition that fairies sometimes took away with at its first appearance. They still, however, mortal babes, and left their own wretched offspring retained a certain awe, as believing it was an evil in their place, is perhaps now declined in Man, as spirit, which only waited permission to do them in other places; but it was rife a century ago. hurt; and for that reason forbore swearing and Waldron, who wrote a book on Man, published in profane discourse while in its company. 1732, gives the following account :-" "I was pre- though they endured the shock of such a guest when vailed on," says he, "to go and see a child, who, all together in a body, none cared to be left alone they told me, was one of these changelings; and with it. It being the custom, therefore, for one indeed must own, was not a little surprised as well of the soldiers to lock the gates of the castle at a as shocked at the sight. Nothing under heaven certain hour, and carry the keys to the captain, to could have a more beautiful face; but though whose apartment the way led through the church, between five and six years old, and seemingly they agreed among themselves that whoever was healthy, he was so far from being able to walk or to succeed the ensuing night his fellow in this stand, that he could not so much as move any one errand, should accompany him that went first, and joint. His limbs were vastly long for his age, but by this means no man would be exposed singly to smaller than an infant's of six months; his com- danger; for I forgot to mention, that the Moddey plexion was perfectly delicate, and he had the Doo was always seen to come out from that pasfinest hair in the world. He never spoke nor sage at the close of day, and return to it again as cried, ate scarce anything, and was very seldom soon as morning dawned; which made them look seen to smile; but if any one called him a fairy on this place as its peculiar residence. One night elf, he would frown and fix his eyes so earnestly a fellow being drunk, and by the strength of his on those who said it, as if he would look them liquor rendered more daring than ordinarily, laughed through. His mother, or at least his supposed at the simplicity of his companions; and although mother, being very poor, frequently went out a it was not his turn to go with the keys, would needs

take that office upon him, to testify his courage. | the field and brought home their crops in creels on All the soldiers endeavored to dissuade him; but the backs of horses. Mr. Train, however, alleges the more they said, the more resolute he seemed, that they were willing to do better; and he relates and swore that he desired nothing more than that the following curious anecdote, with which we the Moddey Doo would follow him as it had done conclude :-" That the Manx were acquainted with the others, for he would try whether it were dog the process of preparing shell lime for building, or devil. may be inferred from its being used in the walls of the old fortifications; stone lime, on the contrary, was wholly unknown to them. In the year 1642, Governor Greenhalgh made an ineffectual attempt to introduce the practice of using lime as manure; but he had no sooner built a kiln, than it was circulated as an article of news that the deputy-governor was actually engaged in a project to burn stones for the improvement of the land. The people hastened in crowds to witness the result of this wonderful process, and probably not without some doubts of the governor's sanity. When, however, they beheld large masses reduced to powder by the action of fire, they eagerly resolved to profit by an example from which they expected the most beneficial results. Earth pots, as they were termed, were raised in all parts of the island, in which every kind of stone, flint, slate, or pebble, were indiscriminately subjected to the process of burning. As might have been expected, their efforts were fruitless; but for the ill success which attended their exertions, they were at no loss to find an infallible cause-that the governor had intercourse with the fairies, by whose agency his minerals were converted into powder, whilst those of the more upright native islanders were only condensed to a greater degree of hardness. Of this curious fact many evidences still remain. Large quantities of calcined stones are frequently found in different parts of the island.”

"After having talked in a very reprobate manner for some time, he snatched up the keys, and went out of the guard-room. In some time after his departure a great noise was heard, but nobody had the boldness to see what occasioned it, till, the adventurer returning, they demanded the knowledge of him; but as loud and noisy as he had been at leaving them, he was now become sober and silent enough, for he was never heard to speak more; and though all the time he lived, which was three days, he was entreated by all who came near him to speak, or if he could not do that, to make some signs by which they might understand what had happened to him, yet nothing intelligible could be got from him, only that, by the distortions of his limbs and features, it might be guessed that he died in agonies more than is common in natural death. The Moddey Doo was, however, never after seen in the castle, nor would any one attempt to go through that passage; for which reason it was closed up, and another way made. This accident happened about threescore years since.”

In zoology, the island has, or had, some peculiar features. The native sheep, called the Loaghtyn, of mean appearance, with high back, narrow ribs, and tail like that of a goat, finds a fit associate in the poor little stunted pony. There was once a peculiar variety of the wild boar in Man-called the purr-of a gray sandy color, spotted with black. It ran wild in the mountains, and was a destructive creature. "The last purr had a den in the mountain of South Barrule, whence he sallied forth almost daily into some of the surrounding valleys in search of prey. In summer, a fold was no barrier to his killing and carrying off both sheep and lambs. In winter, impelled perhaps by hunger, he became so daring, that every adjoining farm-yard was the scene of his depredations.

From Chambers' Journal.

ORIGIN OF THE RAILWAY SYSTEM.

[ocr errors]

IT is now about twenty-eight years since a thoughtful man, travelling in the north of England on commercial business, stood looking at a small train of coal-wagons impelled by steam along a tramroad which connected the mouth of one of the collieries of that district with the wharf at which the coals were shipped. "Why," he asked of the engineer, are not these tramroads laid down all over England, so as to supersede our common roads, and steam-engines employed to convey goods and passengers along them, so as to supersede horse-power?" The engineer looked at the questioner with the corner of his eye. "Just propose you that to the nation, sir, and see what you will get by it! Why, sir, you will be worried to death for your pains." Nothing more was said; but the intelligent traveller did not take the engineer's warning. Tramroads, locomotive steamengines, horse-power superseded!—the idea he had conceived continued to infest his brain, and In agriculture, the Manxmen are, or at a very would not be driven out. Tramroads, locomotive recent period were, much behind their fellow-steam-engines, horse-power superseded!—he would countrymen of Britain. Their field implements talk of nothing else with his friends. Tramroads, were extremely rude, and they carried manure to locomotive steam-engines, horse-power superseded!

At last the people rose to drive the enemy from his strong-hold, and besetting him with the fiercest dogs that could be procured, they succeeded in hunting him over the high cliffs of Brada Head, where he was killed by falling amongst the rocks, ere he reached the sea below." It is a little known, but curious fact, that the cats of the Isle of Man have no tail, and at most a mere rudiment of caudal vertebra. They are called rumpies, and are excellent mousers. Mr. Train, after keeping one for four years, expresses his belief that it is a hybrid animal, between the cat and rabbit but, from the decided diversity of these species, we feel inclined to pronounce very confidently that no such union could take place.

this plate are engraved the following couplets

"No speed with this can fleetest horse compare;
No weight like this canal or vessel bear.
As this will commerce every way promote,
To this let sons of commerce grant their vote."

These verses at least show the enthusiasm of the projector; but one must be acquainted with the contents of the book throughout fully to appreciate Mr. Gray's merits. Suffice it to say that, except in the matter of the speed attainable on the proposed roads, which experience has proved to be much greater than Mr. Gray dared to hope, the case for a general railway system of transit, as here stated, is as complete as, with all our acquired knowledge of the reality, we could now make it. It may be even doubted whether we have yet completely realized the suggestions of this volume; and the system of main trunk lines laid down in it for Great Britain and Ireland, and illustrated by an engraved chart, is probably superior in some respects to that which has been actually adopted.

Railways, it is almost unnecessary to inform our readers, were in use long before the general system of transit by their means as proposed by Mr. Gray. They were first used, about a hundred and eighty years ago, to facilitate the transport of coals from the north of England collieries to the shipping places on the Tyne. The first railways were merely wooden wheelways, laid in the ordinary roads to lessen the friction and render the work easier for the horse. The advantage was so great, that various improvements were gradually introduced with a view to increase it to the utmost. About the middle of last century, the following was the mode of preparing a tramroad or railway:

-he at length broached the scheme openly; first | driver's box with a little whip in his hand. On to public men by means of letters and circulars, and afterwards to the public itself by means of a printed book. Hardly anybody would listen to him; the engineer's words seemed likely to prove true. Still he persevered, holding the public by the button, as it were, and dinning into its ears the same wearisome words. From public political men, including the cabinet ministers of the day, he received little encouragement; a few influential commercial men, however, began at length to be interested in his plan. Persons of eminence took it up, and advocated it almost as enthusiastically as the original proprietor. It having thus been proved, according to Dogberry's immortal phrase, that the scheme was a good scheme, it soon went near to be thought so. Capital came to its aid. The consequence was, that in 1826 parliament passed an act authorizing the construction of the first British railway, properly so called-that between Liverpool and Manchester. Four years afterwards, in September, 1830, the railway was opened. What advances the system has made since, every one knows. Railways have been constructed, or are in progress, in all parts of the civilized world; philosophers have already begun to speculate on the astonishing effects which such a means of rapid locomotion must have on the character and prospects of the whole human race; by means of railways, Europe is becoming a familiar country to us all, and the planet itself an imaginable round thing; and the only question is, where will this railway-impulse end?-into what strange condition of humanity is it leading us? And the beginning of all this was the dream of a thoughtful man, looking, about twenty-eight years ago, at some coal-wagons running along a tramroad to a wharf. The name of this projector of a general railway-The road having been rendered as nearly level system of transit is Thomas Gray, and he is still alive. We have now before us a copy of the work in which he first explained his scheme to the public. The first edition of it was published in 1820, and the title under which it made its appear-down to the sleepers, so as to form a wheelway ance was as follows:-"Observations on a general iron railway, or land steam conveyance, to supersede the necessity of horses in all public vehicles; showing its vast superiority in every respect over all the present pitiful methods of conveyance by turnpike roads, canals, and coasting traders: containing every species of information relative to railroads and locomotive engines." There is now a sort of quaint historic interest in turning to this book, to see the manner in which objects familiar to us were first represented to the incredulous imagination of the public. Prefixed to it there is a plate, exhibiting carriages of different constructions, drawn along on railways by locomotives. The carriages of one of the sets strike the eye curiously, as being made on the model of a common stage-coach, with inside and outside passengers, luggage on the top, a guard behind with his horn, and actually, in one instance, (though this seems done in irony,) a person occupying the VOL. XVI. 14

CXCIV.

LIVING AGE.

throughout as possible, rough wooden logs, called sleepers, each about six feet long, were imbedded in it transversely, at distances of about three feet. Along these were laid the wooden rails, pegged

about four feet wide.

The wheels of the wagons

were provided with a flange, so as to keep them from slipping off the rails. Each wagon was pulled by a single horse; and as the inclination of the road was usually from the pit mouth to the wharf, the loaded wagons had the advantage of the descent, while, in ascending, the horse had to pull only empty wagons. When the difference of level between the pit mouth and the wharf was very great, it was usual to manage the transport, not by making the road of the necessary uniform inclination throughout, but by inserting here and there a steep inclined plane, which the wagons descended by their own weight, the rest of the way being tolerably level. By a contrivance introduced towards the end of the century, many of these inclined planes were made self-acting-that is, were so constructed, that the loaded wagons descending pulled up the returning empty wagons. At others, the return-wagons were pulled up by a

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »