say, Abbotsford. per By the principal approach you come very suddenly on the edifice-as the French would "Vous tombez sur le château;" but this be, was unavoidable, in conseevil, if evil quence of the vicinity of a public road which cuts off the chateau and its plaisance from the main body of park and wood, making it a matter of necessity that what is called, in the improvement men's slang, "the avenue proper," should be short. It is but slightly curved, and you find yourself, a very few minutes after turning from the road, at the great gate already mentioned. This is a lofty arch rising out of an embattled wall of considerable height; and the jougs, as they are styled, those well known emblems of feudal authority, hang rusty at the side: this pair being dit on relics from that great citadel of the old Douglases, Thrieve Castle, in Galloway. On entering, you find yourself within an enclosure of haps half an acre or better, two sides thereof being protected by the high wall above mentioned, all along which, inside, a trellised walk extends itself-broad, cool, and dark overhead with roses and honeysuckles. The third side, to the east, shows a screen of open arches of Gothic stone work, filled between with a network of iron, not visible until you come close to it, and affording therefore delightful glimpses of the gardens, which spread upwards with many architectural ornaments of turret, porch, urn, vase, and what not, after a fashion that would make the heart of old Price of the Picturesque to leap within him: this screen is a feature of equal novelty and grace, and if ever the old school of gardening come into vogue again, will find abundance of imitators. It abutts on the eastern extremity of the house, which runs along the whole of the northern side (and a small part of the western) of the great encloAnd, by the way, nothing can be more delightful than the whole effect of the said enclosure, in the still and solitary state in which I chanced to see it. There is room for a piece of the most elaborate turf within it, and rosaries of all manner of shapes and sizes gradually connect this green pavement with the roof of the trellis walk, a verdant cloister, over which appears the gray wall with its little turover that again, climb oak, elm, rets; and birch, and hazel, up a steep bank-so steep that the trees, young as they are, give already a!! the grand effect of a sweeping amphitheatre of wood. The background on that side is wholly forest; on the east, garden loses itself in forest by degrees; on the west, there is wood on wood also, but with glimpses of the Tweed between; and in the distance (some half a dozen miles off) a complete sierra, the ridge of a mountain between Tweed and Yarrow, to wit-its highest peak being that of Newark hill, at the bottom of which the old castle, where "the latest Minstrel sang," still exhibits some noble ruins. sure. Not being skilled in the technical tongue of the architects, I beg leave to decline describing the structure of the house, further than merely to say, that it is more than one hundred and fifty feet long in front, as I paced it; was built at two different onsets; has a tall tower at either end, the one not the least like the other; presents sundry crowfooted, alias zigzagged Museum.-VOL. XIV. gables to the eye; a myriad of indentations "Of all the palaces so fair, Built for the royal dwelling, these matters than my pen could do,—and, by had sense enough to take a copy. To the best of my recollection, the words are not unlike these: "These be the coat armories of the clannis and chief men of name, wha keepit the marchys of Scotlande in the aulde tyme for the Kinge. Trewe ware they in their tyme, and in their defense God them defendyt." There are from thirty to forty shields thus distinguished -Douglas, Soulis, Buccleugh, Maxwell, Johnstone, Glendoning, Herries, Rutherford, Kerr, Elliott, Pringle, Home, and all the other heroes, as you may guess, of the border minstrelsy. The floor of this hall is black and white marble, from the Hebrides, wrought lozengewise; and the upper walls are completely hung with arms and armour. Two full suits of splendid steel occupy niches at the eastern end by themselves; the one an English suit of Henry the Fifth's time, the other an Italian, not quite so old. The variety of cuirasses, black and white, plain and sculptured, is endless; helmets are in equal profusion; stirrups and spurs, of every fantasy, dangle about and below them; and there are swords of every order, from the enormous two-handed weapon with which the Swiss peasants dared to withstand the spears of the Austrian chivalry, to the claymore of the "Forty-five," and the rapier of Dettingen. Indeed, I might come still lower, for among other spoils, I saw Polish lances, gathered by the author of Paul's Letters on the Field of Waterloo, and a complete suit of chain mail taken off the corpse of one of Tippoo's body guard at Seringapatam. A series of German executioners' swords was inter alia pointed out to me; on the blade of one of which I made out the arms of Augsburgh, and a legend which may be thus rendered: Dust, when I strike, to dust: From sleepless grave, Sweet Jesu, stoop, a sin-stained soul to save. 66 I am sorry there is no catalogue of this curious collection. Sir Walter ought to make one himself, for my cicerone informs me there is some particular history attached to almost every piece in it, and known in detail to nobody but himself. Stepping westward," as Wordsworth says, from this hall, you find your self in a narrow, low, arched room, which runs quite across the house, having a blazoned window again at either extremity, and filled all over with smaller pieces of armour and weapons, such as swords, firelocks, spears, arrows, darts, daggers, &c. &c., &c. Here are the pieces, esteemed most precious by reason of their histories respectively. I saw, among the rest, Rob Roy's gun, with his initials, R. M. C. i. e. Robert Macgregor Campbell, round the touchhole: the blunderbuss of Hofer, a present to Sir Walter from his friend Sir Humphry Davy; a most magnificent sword, as magnificently mounted, the gift of Charles the First to the great Montrose, and having the arms of Prince Henry worked on the hilt; the hunting bottle of bonnie King Jamie; Buonaparte's pistols (found in his carriage at Waterloo, I believe), cum multis aliis. I should have mentioned that staghorns and bulls' horns (the petrified relics of the old mountain monster, I mean), and so forth, are suspended in great abundance above all the doorways of these armories; and that, in one corner, a dark one as it ought to be, -Has a fouth o' auld nick-nackets, These relics of other, and for the most part darker, years, are disposed, however, with so much grace and elegance, that I doubt if Mr. Hope himself would find any thing to quarrel with in the beautiful apartments which contain them. The smaller of these opens to the drawing-room on one side, and the diningroom on the other, and is fitted up with low divans rather than sofas: so as to make, I doubt not, a most agreeable sitting-room when the apartments are occupied, as for my sins I found them not. In the hall, when the weather is hot, the Baronet is accustomed to dine; and a gallant refectory no question it must make.A ponderous chandelier of painted glass swings from the roof; and the chimneypiece (the design copied from the stonework of the Abbot's Stall at Melrose) would hold rafters enough for a Christmas fire of the good old times. Were the company suitably attired, a dinner party here would look like a scene in the Mysteries of Udolpho. Beyond the smaller, or rather, I should say, the narrower armoury, lies the dining parlour proper, however; and though there is nothing Udolphoish here, yet I can well believe that. when lighted up and the curtains drawn at night, the place may give no bad notion of the private snuggery of some lofty lord abbot of the time of the Canterbury Tales. The room is a very handsome one, with a low and very richly carved roof of dark oak again; a huge projecting bow window, and the dais elevated more majorum; the ornaments of the roof. niches for lamps, &c. &c.; in short, all the minor details, are, I believe, fac similes after Melrose. The walls are hung in crimson, but almost entirely covered with pictures, of which the most remarkable are-the parliamentary general, Lord Essex, at full length on horseback; the Duke of Monmouth, by Lely; a capital Hogarth, by himself; Prior and Gay, both by Jervas; and the head of Mary Queen of Scots, in a charger, painted by Amias Canrood the day after the decapitation at Fotheringay, and sent some years ago as a present to Sir Walter from a Prussian nobleman, in whose family it had been for more than two centu ries. It is a most death-like performance, and the countenance answers well enough to the coins of the unfortunate beauty, though not at all to any of the portraits I have happened to see. I believe there is no doubt as to the authenticity of this most curious picture. Among various family pictures, I noticed particularly Sir Walter's great grandfather, the old cava lier mentioned in one of the epistles in Marmion, who let his beard grow after the execution of Charles the First, and who here appears, accordingly, with a most venerable appendage of silver whiteness, reaching even unto his girdle. This old gentleman's son hangs close by him; and had it not been for the costume, &c., I should have taken it for a likeness of Sir Walter himself. (It is very like the common portraits of the Poet, though certainly not like either Sir Thomas Lawrence's picture or Chantrey's bust.) There is also a very splendid full length of Lucy Waters, mother to the Duke of Monmouth; and an oval, capitally painted, of Anne Duchess of Buccleugh, the same who, der's Feast. From this you pass into the largest of all the apartments, the library, which I must say, is really a noble room. It is an oblong of some fifty feet by thirty, with a projec tion in the centre, opposite the fireplace, terminating in a grand bow window, fitted up with books also, and, in fact, constituting a sort of chapel to the church. The roof is of carved oak again-a very rich pattern-I believe chiefly à la Roslin, and the book-cases, which are also of richly carved oak, reach high up the walls all around. The collection amounts, in this room, to some fifteen or twenty thousand volumes, arranged according to their subjects; British history and antiqui ties filling the whole of the chief wall; English poetry and drama, classics and miscellanies, one end; foreign literature, chiefly French and German, the other. The cases on the side opposite the fire are wired, and locked, as containing articles very precious and very portable. One consists entirely of books and MSS. relating to the insurrections of 1715 and 1745; and another (within the recess of the bow window), of treatises de re magica, both of these being (I am told, and can well believe), in their several ways, collections of the rarest curiosity. My cicerone pointed out, in one corner, a magnificent set of Montfaucon, ten volumes folio, bound in the richest manner in scarlet, and stamped with the royal arms, the gift of his present Majesty. There are few living authors of whose works presentation copies are not to be found here. My friend showed me inscriptions of that sort in, I believe, every European dialect extant. The books are all in prime condition, and bindings that would satisfy Mr. Dibdin. The only picture is Sir Walter's eldest son, in hussar uniform, and In pride of youth, in beauty's bloom, Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb. All the furniture of this room is massy Gothic oak; and, as I said before, when it is fairly lit up, and plate and glass set forth, it must needs have a richly and luxuriously antique aspect. Beyond and alongside are narrowish passages, which make one fancy one's self in the penetralia of some dim old monastery; for roofs, and walls, and windows, (square, round, and oval alike,) are sculptured in stone, after the richest relics of Melrose and Roslin Chapel. One of these leads to a charming breakfast room, which looks to the Tweed on one side, and towards Yarrow and Ettricke, famed in song, on the other: a cheerful room, fitted up with novels, romances, and poetry, I could perceive, at one end; and the other walls covered thick and thicker with a most valuable and beautiful collection of water-colour drawings, chiefly by Turner, and Thomson of Duddingstone, the designs, in short, for the magnificent work entitled Provincial Antiquities of Scot-holding his horse, by Allan of Edinburgh, a land." There is one very grand oil painting noble portrait, over the fireplace; and the only over the chimney-piece, Fastcastle, by Thom- bust is that of Shakspeare, from the Avon moson, alias the Wolf's Crag of the Bride of Lam-nument, in a small niche in the centre of the mermoor, one of the most majestic and melancholy sea-pieces I ever saw; and some large black and white drawings of the Vision of Don Roderick, by Sir James Steuart of Allenbank (whose illustrations of Marmion and Mazeppa you have seen or heard of), are at one end of the parlour. The room is crammed with queer cabinets and boxes, and in a niche there is a bust of old Henry Mackenzie, by Joseph of Edinburgh. Returning towards the arnioury, you have, on one side of a most religious looking corridor, a small green-house with a fountain playing before it-the very fountain that in days of yore graced the cross of Edinburgh, and used to flow with claret at the coronation of the Stuarts-a pretty design, and a standing monument of the barbarity of modern innova. tion. From the small armoury you pass, as I said before, into the drawing-room, a large, lofty, and splendid salon, with antique ebony furniture and crimson silk hangings, cabinets, The lion's own den proper, then, is a room china, and mirrors quantum suff, and some of about five-and-twenty feet square by twenty portraits; among the rest glorious John Dry- feet high, containing of what is properly called den, by Sir Peter Lely, with his gray hairs furniture nothing but a small writing table in floating about in a most picturesque style, the centre, a plain arm-chair covered with eyes full of wildness, presenting the old Bard, black leather-a very comfortable one though, I take it, in one of those "tremulous moods," for I tried it-and a single chair besides, plain in which we have it on record he appeared symptoms that this is no place for company. when interrupted in the midst of his Alexan-On either side of the fireplace there are shelves east side. On a rich stand of porphyry, in one corner, reposes a tall silver urn filled with bones from the Piræus, and bearing the inscription, "Given by George Gordon, Lord Byron, to Sir Walter Scott, Bart." It contained the letter which accompanied the gift till lately: it has disappeared; no one guesses who took it, but whoever he was, as my guide observed, he must have been a thief for thieving's sake truly, as he durst no more exhibit his autograph than tip himself a bare bodkin. Sad, infamous tourist indeed! Although I saw abundance of comfortable looking desks and arm-chairs, yet this room seemed rather too large and fine for work, and I found accordingly, after passing a double pair of doors, that there was a sanctum within and beyond this library. And here you may believe was not to me the least interesting, though by no means the most splendid, part of the suite. filled with duodecimos and books of reference, chiefly, of course, folios; but except these, there are no books save the contents of a light gallery which runs round three sides of the room, and is reached by a hanging stair of carved oak in one corner. You have been both at the Elisée Bourbon and Malmaison, and remember the library at one or other of those places, I forget which; this gallery is much in the same style. There are only two portraits, an original of the beautiful and melancholy head of Claverhouse, and a small full length of Rob Roy. Various little antique cabinets stand round about, each having a bust on it: Stothard's Canterbury Pilgrims are on the mantelpiece; and in one corner I saw a collection of really useful weapons, those of the forest-craft, to wit-axes, and bills, and so forth, of every calibre. There is only one window pierced in a very thick wall, so that the place is rather sombre; the light tracery work of the gallery overhead harmonizes with the books well. It is a very comfortable looking room, and very unlike any other I ever was in. I should not forget some Highland clayinores, clustered round a target over the Canterbury people, nor a writing box of carved wood, lined with crimson velvet, and furnished with silver plate of right venerable aspect, which looked as if it might have been the implement of old Chaucer himself, but which from the arms on the lid must have belonged to some Italian prince of the days of Leo the Magnificent at the furthest. In one corner of this sanctum there is a little holy of holies, in the shape of a closet, which looks like the oratory of some dame of old romance, and opens into the gardens, and the tower which furnishes this below, forms above a private staircase accessible from the gallery and leading to the upper regions. Thither also I penetrated, but I suppose you will take the bed-rooms and dressing-rooms for granted. The view to the Tweed from all the principal apartments is beautiful. You look out from among bowers, over a lawn of sweet turf, upon the clearest of all streams, fringed with the wildest of birch woods, and backed with the green hills of Ettricke Forest. The rest you must imagine. Altogether, the place destined to receive so many pilgrimages contains within itself beauties not unworthy of its associations. Few poets ever inhabited such a place; none, ere now, ever created one. the realization of dreams: some Frenchman called it, I hear, "a romance in stone and lime." From the Keepsake. THE WISHING-GATE. BY W. WORDSWORTH. It is In the vale of Grasmere, by the side of the highway leading to Ambleside, is a Gate which, time out of mind, has been called the Wishing-gate, from a belief that wishes formed or indulged there have a favourable issue. HOPE rules a land for ever green. All powers that serve the bright-eyed queen Are confident and gay; Clouds at her bidding disappear: Not such the land of Wishes-there When magic lore abjured its might, Inquire not if the fairy race Enough that all around is fair, The selfish to reprove. Yes! even the stranger from afar, Unknowing and unknown, The infection of the ground partakes, Then why should conscious spirits fear The ancient faith disclaim? Smile if thou wilt, but not in scorn, And not in vain, when thoughts are cast Some penitent sincere May for a worthier future sigh, While trickles from his downcast eye, No unavailing tear. The worldling, pining to be freed From turmoil, who would turn or speed The current of his fate, Might stop before this favour'd scene, The sage, who feels how blind, how weak Or when the church-clock's knell profound From the Bijou. THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR. I was scarcely sixteen when I embarked for the first time in the B of eighty guns, and joined the fleet off Cadiz, under the command of Lord Nelson, in the early part of October, 1805. On the 19th of that month, the appearance of a ship under a press of sail, steering for the fleet, and firing guns, excited our attention, and every glass was eagerly pointed towards the stranger, in anticipation of the intelligence which the repeating ships soon announced, "that the enemy was getting under weigh." The signal was instantly made for a general chase, and in a few minutes all sail was set by the delighted crew. An instance of the quick observation of the admiral which now occurred, is deserving of notice. It was his lordship's custom to paint the masts of his ship yellow, and the hoops of the same colour; and as the black hoops were universal in the navies of France and Spain, he saw the advantage which might arise from the distinction; be therefore telegraphed to us and a few others to conform to his system. This arrangement proved of great utility, for in situations where the ensign was shot away, or hid from view, it was only necessary to ascertain that the hoops were black to be certain of our opponent. Our headmost ships got sight of the combined fleet the next morning, and in the afternoon they were visible from the deck. Every preparation was made for battle; and as our look-out squadron remained close to them during the night, the mind was kept in continual agitation by the firing of guns and rockets. As the day dawned, the horizon appeared covered with ships; the whole force of the enemy was discovered standing to the southward, distant about nine miles, between us and the coast near Trafalgar. I was awakened by the cheers of the crew, and by their rushing up the hatchways to get a glimpse of the hostile fleet. The delight manifested, exceeded any thing I ever witnessed; surpassing even those gratulations, when our native cliffs are descried after a long period of distant service. and as our progress never exceeded a mile and half an hour, we continued all the canvass we could spread until we gained our position alongside our opponent. The officers now met at breakfast; and though each seemed to exult in the hope of a glorious termination to the contest so near at hand, a fearful presage was experienced that all would not again unite at that festive board. One was particularly impressed with a persuasion that he should not survive the day; nor could he divest himself of this presentiment, but made the necessary disposal of his property in the event of his death. The sound of the drum, however, soon put an end to our meditations; and after a hasty, and, alas a final farewell to some, we repaired to our respective posts. Our ship's station was far astern of our leader, but her superior sailing caused an interchange of places with the Tonnant: on our passing that ship, the captains greeting each other on the honourable prospect in view: Captain T- exclaimed, "a glorious day for Old England! We shall have one a-piece before night!" This confidence in our profes sional superiority, which carries such terror to other nations, seemed expressed in every countenance; and as if in confirmation of this soulinspiring sentiment, the band of our consort was playing-" Britons strike home." At half past ten the Victory telegraphed-" England expects that every man will do his duty.' As the emphatic injunction was communicated through the decks, it was received with enthusiastic cheers; and each bosom glowed with ardour at this appeal to individual valour. About half past eleven the Royal Sovereign fired three guns, which had the intended effect of inducing the enemy to hoist their colours, and showed us the tricoloured flag intermixed with that of Spain. The drum now repeated its summons; and the captain sent for the officers commanding the several quarters. "Gentlemen," said he, "I have only to say that 1 shall pass close under the stern of that ship; put in two round shot, and then a grape, and give her that. Now go to your quarters, and nind not to fire till each gun will bear with effect." With this laconic instruction, the gallant little man posted himself on the slide of the foremost carronade, on the starboard side of the quarter-deck. At forty-five minutes past eleven, a ship, a-head, opened her fire, and finding that her shot passed over the Sovereign, several others did the same; and from the peculiar formation of this part of their line, as many as ten ships brought their broadsides to bear with powerful effect. The determined and resolute countenance of the weather-beaten sailor, here and there brightened by a smile of exultation, was well suited to the terrific appearance which they exhibited; some were stripped to the waist; some had bared their necks and arms; others had tied a handker There was a light air from the N. W. with a heavy swell. The signal to bear up and make all sail, and to form the order of sailing in two divisions, was thrown out, the Victory, Lord Nelson's ship, leading the starboard, and the Royal Sovereign, bearing the flag of Admiral Collingwood, the second in command, the lee-chief round their heads; and all seemed eagerline. At eight the enemy wore to the northward, and owing to the light wind which prevailed during the day, they were prevented from forming with any precision, and presented the appearance of a double line convexing to leeward. At nine we were about six miles from them, with studding sails on both sides; ly to await the order to engage. My two brother officers and myself were stationed, with about thirty men at small arms on the poop, on the front of which I was now standing. The shot began to pass over us, and gave us intimation of what we should in a few minutes undergo. An awful silence prevailed in the |
