Page images
PDF
EPUB

With all his flock his Cottage he forsook
To see this Lady wandering down the brook.

X.

Parent and child at once the cottage fled

A precious group led by their rosy guide; To a green height the sanguine cherub led,

From whence they viewed the country far and wide, And wood, and glen, and brook, at once descried; But yet they saw no valley filled with light, Nor lovely Lady shining all in white.

XI.

Hard looks, from all, the rosy guide reviled,

Till shame and sorrow on her visage glowed;But soon they changed their mood, and blessed the child And blessed the Saviour Lady sent from God, When, turning homeward to their rude abode, The ancient fabric of their Cot they found, A shapeless ruin, smoking on the ground!

THE FETTERING OF FANCY.

O! blame me not if thus I do restrain

Thy wandering footsteps! thus thy wings confine!
'Tis the decreee of fate-it is not mine-
For I would let thee, Fancy, wildly stray,
Would follow gladly,-tend thee on thy way,

And never of thy vagaries complain,
Never thy wild and sportive flights disdain!
Though reasonless those sportive flights may be,

They still, alas! are passing sweet to me.

Then pity me, who am compelled to bind
This murmuring captive; one who ever strove
By each endearing act to win my love,

And ever unoffending, ever bright,

Danced in my view, and pleased me with delight;

She scattered showers of lilies on my mind,

For O! so fair, so fresh, and so refined

Her child-like offerings; without thorns to pain,
Without one cankered wound, or earthly stain !

O darling! as at Duty's call I twine

These fetters round thee, they are wet with tears!
For the sweet playmate of my early years

I cannot thus afflict, or thus resign
My equal liberty, and not repine:
For I would make thee, infant as thou art,
Queen of my hopes, my leisure and my heart,
But that Affection's venerable cause

Is link'd with Duty's unrelenting laws!

She blames me that I let thy sports offend
Old Time, and lay thy snare within his path,
To make him faulter, as it often hath:

But O. I love him not! He holds his breath,
And hurries on, and is in league with Death,
To make the path through which my footsteps bend,
Late rich in all that rural scenes attend,

A frightful desert; and I droop and die

Beneath the gaze of his dull, threatening eye!

MATILDA BETHAM.

ON MY BROTHER'S LEAVING HOME WITHOUT MY SEEING HIM.

THOU goest, and I am not near

To bid or to receive farewell!

But hopes, more tender than a tear,

More zealous than my lips could tell,

More fondly hovering than the dove,
Than the harp's tones more highly wrought
In the deep prayer of earnest love,
In the long dream of tender thought,-

These on thy parting steps attend,
These on thy future prospects dwell;
And are they not, my own dear friend,
More
potent than the word farewell?

MATILDA BETHAM.

SONNET.

BY A LADY ON VISITING THE GRAVE OF HER CHILD.

THREE times the nettle o'er thy narrow bed
Has tinged its stalk with verdure and decay;
And thrice the spiky grass its green array,
And thrice its pale upon thy turf has spread :-
The thistle thrice has crowned its kingly head,
And thrown as oft its withered crown away;
The slender ash has budded thrice with May,
And thrice its sallow locks with Autumn shed:-
All things around have changed with Time's career,
Save the one faithful solitary Yew,

That knows no change amid the changeful year.

Fond, faithful mourner!-emblem sad and true
Of her whose eye has never dried its tear,-
Whose cheek has never changed its mournful hue.

SONNET.

WRITTEN ON THE DAY APPOINTED FOR THE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, IN THE CLOSE OF 1812.

LONG hast thou suffered, Europe! and again
The Angel's missioned sword has left its sheath,
And, busied with the dreary work of death,
Gleams on yon distant desolated plain.

As, erst, when Egypt's first-born sons were slain,
Thy princes now resign their panting breath,
And tithes of all the people strew the heath,
And purple rivers journey to the main.

O Albion! unstained-unshaken Isle

Fair Freedom's sanctuary, and Ocean's lover,
Who lookest on secure, and weep'st the while
To see thy fallen foes the desert cover,
Go, in the light of Heaven's guardian smile,
And keep with grateful heart thy PASSOVER!

N. B. The three productions marked * are not original,

BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, DEATHS,

WITHIN THE YEAR 1812.

BIRTHS.

JAN. 8. At the manse of Carreston, the Hon. Mrs Lyall, a son.-At Kirkham Gate, near Wakefield, Sarah, the wife of Samuel Lunn, (a very poor, but industrious collier,) of three fine boys. The family consisted of seven small children before the arrival of this trio. 13. At Bath, the Lady of Lieutenant-General Gordon Drummond, a son. 14. At Leith, the Lady of Captain Kerr, royal navy, a son. At Monreith, Galloway, the Lady of Lieutenant-Colonel Maxwell, M. P. a son.-At Cranstonhill, the Hon. Lady Janet Buchanan, a daughter. 18. At his lordship's house, Arlington-street, London, Lady Milton, a son and heir.

FEB. 9. At Ayton, Berwickshire, Mrs Fordyce, a son. 11. At Winchester, Lady Mary Long, a daughter.-Lady Ellenborough, a daughter. 12. At Gloucester-place, London, the Right Hon. Lady Sarah Maria Murray, a daughter. 17. At Cockpen spinning-mill, the wife of Walter Baillie, flax-dresser, a son and two daughters. 22. At London, the Lady of William Gordon, Esq. M. P. a son. 25. At London, the Countess of Loudon and Moira, a daughter.-At Exeter, the Lady of Major M'Gregor, 88th regiment, a daughter.

MARCH 2. At Kilmains, the wife of John Dinning, miller, three sons.-At

London, the Right Hon. Lady Frances Wedderburn Webster, a daughter.-At London, the Lady of the Right Hon. Earl Grey, of her seventh son and twelfth child.-The Honourable Lady Rumbold, a son and heir.-At London, the Lady of Sir Robert Graham, Bart. a daughter.

The Lady of Sir George Leith, Bart. a son. The wife of John Tatham, a day-labourer in Kirkland, adjoining Kendal, two boys and a girl. 21. Viscountess Duncan, a son and heir.-At Edinburgh, the Lady of Captain Andrew Brown, royal navy, a son. 23. At Ayr, Mrs Colonel Farquhar, a daughter. 24. At Kensington, the Lady of LieutenantColonel Drinkwater, a son.-At London, the Lady of the Hon. D. M. Erskine, a daughter.

APRIL 4. At Glengary-house, the Lady of Colonel M'Donald, of Glengary, a daughter. 5. The wife of S. Smith, of Carsington, Derbyshire, a son. She was married in June last, and was then only 13 years and 4 months old. 7. At Edinburgh, Mrs Maitland Gibson, of Cliftonhall, a son, 8. At Hollingwood, Lanca shire, the wife of Samuel Booth, a poor weaver, three daughters, who have been christened Faith, Hope, and Charity. Scarcely 15 months have elapsed since she was brought to bed of twins. 14. At Alloa, the Lady of James Ure, Esq. collector of the customs, a son.

16. In

London, the Lady of Colonel W. F. Grant, M. P. a son. 20. The Lady of Colonel Balfour, Scots Greys, a son. 21. At Drumsheugh, the Right Honourable the Countess of Moray, a son. 22. At Dalhousie Castle, the Countess of Dalhousie, a son. 23. At London, the Viscountess Primrose, a daughter.- Mrs Alexander M'Conell, of Bangor, four sons. 24. At Edinburgh, the Lady of Dr Henton Spalding, a daughter.

MAY 3. At Foss, Mrs Menzies, of Chesthall, a daughter.-At London, the Viscountess Grimston, a son.-At Torquay,

19.

the Viscountess Hamilton, a daughter.-At Edinburgh, Mrs Campbell, of Dalserf, a son. 6. At Kirby-hall, her Grace the Duchess of Leeds, a son.-At Edinburgh, the Lady of Colonel Birch Reynardson, two sons. At Cleveland. the Right Honourable Lady Charlotte Baillie, a daughter. 17. At Edinburgh, Mrs Carlyle Bell, a daughter. 18. At Portobello, the Lady of Sir James Wemyss Mackenzie, of Seatwell, Bart. a son, stillborn.-At Edinburgh, Mrs Captain Stewart, Royal Perthshire militia, a son. The Lady of the Right Hon. Windham Quin, a son and heir.-At Richmond, the Right Honourable Lady Harriet Ancram, a daughter.-At Uffington-house, near Stamford, the Countess of Lindsey, a daughter. 21 At Grange, the Lady of James John Cadell, Esq. a son. 22. At Montrose, the Lady of Colonel Carnegie, Bengal artillery, a daughter.-At Musselburgh, the Lady of LieutenantColonel Kerr, 2d Ceylon regiment, a daughter.-At Bath, Mrs M'Kinnon, widow of Major-General M‘Kinnon, who was unfortunately blown up on the beach of Ciudad Rodrigo, a son.--At Titnest Wood, Sunning Hill, the Lady of Sir Home Popham, a son, being the eleventh child.

JUNE 1. Mrs Wishart, York Place, Edinburgh, a son.-At Calcutta, the Lady of Alexander Fraser Tytler, Esq. register of Kishnagur, a daughter.-At the Island of Madeira, the Lady of Major-General the Honourable Robert Meade, a son.At Gibraltar, the Lady of LieutenantColonel Molle, 9th regiment, a son and heir. 16. At Abercrombie Place, Edin

burgh, the Lady of William Ferguson, Es. of Kilrie, a son.-Lately, the wife of Mr Howson, of Unthank, near Penrith, two girls and a boy.-Lately, at Lisbon, the Lady of Major Lawrie, 79th regiment, a son.

JULY 6. At Livingstone House, the Lady of Alexander Munro, Esq. Livingstone, a daughter. 7. Mrs Craigie, of Dunbarnie, a daughter.-8. Lady Macdonald Lockhart, a daughter.-At London, her Grace the Duchess of Bedford, a daughter.-14. At Kelly, the Lady of the Hon. Lieutenant-Colonel Ramsay, a son.-15. At Edinburgh, the Lady of Mr Swinton, of Broadmeadow, a son.-At Drumsheugh, Mrs Major Weir, a son.At London, the Lady of Sir George Clerk, Bart. M. P. a son.-At Great Marlow, the Lady of the Hon. Alexander Hope, M. P. a son.-At Kilmardinny, Mrs Kirkman Finlay, a son. 21. Mrs Dr Brewster, a son. 22. The Honourable Mrs Ferguson, a son. 25. At George's Square, Edinburgh, the Lady of Captain Ogilvy, royal navy, a son.-Lately, a poor woman, at Settle, four children, three boys and a girl.-At Dunvegan Castle, the Lady of J. N. Macleod, of Macleod, Esq. a son and heir.-At Dalyell Lodge, the Lady of John Dalyell, Esq. of Lingo, a son. 28. Mrs J. O. Mack, of Howe Street, Edinburgh, a daughter. At Kilmun House, Argyleshire, the Lady of Alexander Campbell, Esq. of Balo chyle, a son.

AUG. 5. At Old Aberdeen, Mrs Colonel Forbes, a daughter.-6. At Hillsborough, the Marchioness of Downshire, a son and heir. 12. At Kincraig,, Mrs M'Intosh, of Balnespick, a son. 14. At Durie, in Fifeshire, the Lady of Matthew Fortesque, Esq. a son. 18. At Stobo Castle, Lady Elizabeth Montgomery, a daughter.-At Portobello, Lady Elibank, a son.-21. At Ballindalloch, the Lady of George Macpherson Grant, Esq. of Ballindalloch and Invereshie, M. P. a

son.

27. At Edinburgh, the Lady of David Clephane, Esq. commissioner of excise, a son.

SEPT. 3. At Edinburgh, the Lady of Professor David Ritchie, a daughter.— Lately, the Countess of Caledon, a son

« PreviousContinue »