Part 13 (1/2)

CHAPTER XIX

”See yonder poor o'er-labour'd wight, So abject, ive him leave to toil; And see his lordly _felloorm_ The poor petition spurn”--BURNS

Work failedon the advice of a friend who believed thatinscriptions could not fail to secure for ood many little jobs in the churchyards of Inverness, I visited that place, and inserted a brief advertise e as neat and _correct_; laying especial e the stone-cutters of the north It was not a Scotch, but an English ed, at the instance of a bereaved er, in recording on his wife's tombstone that a ”virtuous woman is a _crown_ to her husband,” corrupted the text, in his si ”5s” for the ”_crown_”

But even Scotch h mistakes at times, especially in the provinces; and I felt it would be so the Inverness public that I had at least English enough to avoid the coht I, are at least tolerably correct: could I not get some one or two copies introduced into the poet's corner of the _Inverness Courier_ or _Journal_, and thus show that I have literature enough to be trusted with the cutting of an epitaph on a gravestone? I had a letter of introduction from a friend in Cromarty to one of the ministers of the place, himself an author, and a person of influence with the proprietors of the _Courier_; and, calculating on some amount of literary syh thethe case to him I first, however, wrote a brief address, in octo-syllabic quatrains, to the river which flows through the town, and gives to it its name;--a composition which has, I find, more of the advertisement in it than is quite seemly, but which would have perhaps expressed less confidence had it been written less under the influence of a shrinking timidity, that tried to reassure itself by words of coement

I was infor visitors of the humbler class was between eleven and twelve at noon; and, with the letter of introduction and my copy of verses in my pocket, I called at the manse, and was shown into a little narrow ante-roo the opposite walls I found the place occupied by some six or seven individuals--more than half their number old withered women, in very shabby habiliments, who, as I soon learned frorave under-tone, about weekly allowances, and the partialities of the session, were paupers

The others were young men, who had apparently serious requests to prefer anent e and baptis from his breast-pocket a tattered copy of the Shorter Catechis over the questions; and I overheard another asking his neighbour ”who drew up the contract lines for hiot the whisky” The minister entered; and as he passed into the inner room, we all rose He stood for aether, and the door closed They reether for about twentyman--he who had procured the contract lines and the whisky--took his place The interview in this second case, however, was much shorter than the first; and a very fewto the doorway, looked first at the old wo our respective clai--I know not on what occult principle--I was beckoned in I presented raciously read; and though the nature of the business did strikewith the place, and it did cost hter, that would, of course, have been prodigiously improper in the circumstances, I detailed to him in a feords my little plan, and handed him my copy of verses He read them aloud with slow deliberation

ODE TO THE NESS

Child of the lake! whose silvery gleah desert, dark and lone,[11]-- A brown, deep, sullen, restless stream, With ceaseless speed thou hurriest on

And yet thy banks with flowers are gay; The sun laughs on thy troubled breast; And o'er thy tides the zephyrs play, Though nought be thine of quiet rest[12]

Streae along, Not fraught with lore of other days, And yet not all unblest in song-- To him thou tell'st of busyhopes, baseless as vain, While life, untasted, glides away

Stream of the lake! why hasten on?

A boist'rous ocean spreads before, Where dash dark tides, and indsflowers, nor waving fields, Nor aught of rest is there for thee; But rest to thee no pleasure yields; Then haste and join the stormy sea!

Streaht to try-- Who seek for joy incry-- Thou tell'st: peace yields no joy to theolden smile; Of evil deed the cheerless fame Is all the meed that crowns their toil

Not such would prove if Pleasure shone-- Stream of the deep and peaceful lake!-- His course, whoh cheerless waste and thorny brake

For, ah! each pleasing scene he loves, And peace is all his heart's desire; And, ah! of scenes where Pleasure roves, And Peace, could gentle minstrel tire?

Streary hter hope, a happier fate, He boasts, whose present course is pain

Yes, even for him may death prepare A home of pleasure, peace, and love; Thus blessed by hope, little his care

Though rough his present course may prove

The minister paused as he concluded, and looked puzzled ”Pretty well, I daresay,” he said; ”but I do not now read poetry You, however, use a word that is not English--'Thy winding _e?” ”You will find it in Johnson,” I said ”Ah, but we must not use all the words we find in Johnson” ”But the poets make frequent use of it” ”What poets?” ”Spenser” ”Too old--too old; no authority now,” said the minister ”But the Wartons also use it” ”I don't know the Wartons”

”It occurs also,” I iterated, ”in one of the most finished sonnets of Henry Kirke White” ”What sonnet?” ”That to the river Trent

'Once e, A pensive invalid, reduced and pale, Froe, Woos to his orn cheek the pleasant gale'

It is, in short, one of the colish words of the poetic vocabulary” Could aa favour, possibly contrive to say anything entleround on the _Standards_, as soh the sheer force of habit, that he was not a standard hi hureat for the occasion, and was of a kind which my friend Mr Stewart never used to exhibit, appeared somewhat ruffled ”I have no acquaintance,” he said, ”with the editor of the _Courier_; we take opposite sides on very important questions; and I cannot recommend your verses to him; but call on Mr ----; he is one of the proprietors; and, with _my compliments_, state your case to him; he will be perhaps able to assist you Meanwhile, I wish you all success” The minister hurried me out, and one of the withered old women was called in ”This,”

I said to e which letters of introduction procure for one I don't think I'll seek anyon the street, however, with, two Croentleman named by the minister, he induced me to accompany hi come to visit an old townsh, he would state my case to him; and he was sure he would exert himself to procure me employment I have already referred to the remark of Burns It is recorded by his brother Gilbert, that the poet used often to say, ”That he could not well conceive awork;” and that the exquisite dirge, ”Man was made tois certainly a very depressing one; and as on ht me than I the work, I experienced more of it at this time than at any other period of my life I of course could hardly expect that people should die off and require epitaphs ht in all cases and circumstances, which the e, is the result of a sort of indignant reaction on this feeling--a feeling which became poetry in Burns and nonsense in the Communists; but which I experienced neither as nonsense nor poetry, but si conviction that I was one entleman on whom I now called with my friend was a person both of business habits and literary tastes; but I saw that lish verse produced at this time in the far north was of a kind ill fitted for the literary market, and usually published, or rather printed--for published it never was--by that teasing subscription scheives thee; and he seear class;--rather a ly introduced entleman of literature and science, the secretary of a society of the place, antiquarian and scientific in its character, termed the ”Northern Institution,” and the honorary conservator of itsmiscellaneous collection which I had previously seen, and in connexion hich I had for into elish hand which has been revived of late by the general rage for the mediaeval, but which at that time was one of the lost arts, with much neatness; and could produce imitations of the illuminated manuscripts that preceded our printed books, which even an antiquary would have pronounced respectable And, addressing the members of the Northern Institution on the character and tendency of their pursuits, in a sothy piece of verse, written in what I least intended to be the manner of Dryden, as exeio Laici_, I engrossed it in the old hand, and now called on the Secretary, to request that he would present it at the firstof the Society, which was to be held, I understood, in a few days The Secretary was busy at his desk; but he received ly of ly, charged hi: and so we parted for the time, not in the least aware that there was a science which dealt with characters greatly more ancient than those of the old s, in which we both took a deep interest, and regarding which we could have exchanged facts and ideas with mutual pleasure and profit The Secretary of the Northern Institution at this tiist, and joint author with his brother of the adhlands,” which bears their name I never heard how my address fared It would, of course, have been tabled--looked at, I suppose, for a few seconds by a member or two--and then set aside; and it is probably still in the archives of the Institution, awaiting the light of future ages, when its simulated antiquity shall have become real It was not written in a character to be read, nor, I fear, very readable in any character; and so the norant of all the wisdoical The following fore specimen of the production:--

”Tis yours to trace Each deep-fixed trait that yptian priests, with ns, not words, of Sphynx, and Horus taught, So, 's_, not books, ye scan The powers, scope, history, of the mind of man

Yon chequered wall displays the arms of war Of times remote, and nations distant far; Alas! the club and brand but serve to shoide extends the reign of wrong and woe; And tores uncouth, and feathery circlets, tell In huaw follies dwell

Yes! all that e bears; And much of hate, and much of pride, appears