technical phrase, "purged of contempt." When this latter marriage was about to be solemnized, Battersby caused a paragraph to appear in the newspapers, stating "That the gallant Captain Disney was about to lead to the hymeneal altar Miss Stovin, lately a ward in Chancery, possessed of 25,0001, in her own right." This " puff" in the sequel proved the death-blow of the adventurer and the salvation of the property. There were a few of his former associates in quod, who knew of his previous marriage; and a man of the name of N......, a prisoner in Whitecross-street, was appointed as negociator; the object being to "split" respecting his alliance with Miss Muckelton, unless they received 10 per cent. out of the fortune which he (Battersby) would receive from the Court of Chancery on his marriage with Miss Stovin, which would be payable in the first week of this year. The prisoner (Battersby) actually entered into negotiation to perform this stipulation as the price for silence-or, in other phrase, “hushmoney;" but to the disappointment of all the contracting parties, the adventurer unbosomed himself to an attorney living near Covent garden (my informant for the present conceals the name), and that gentleman told him that for 4001. he could set aside his marriage with Miss Muckelton, a divorce having been previously issued: and by doing so he would by the same process confirm his nuptial right with Miss Stovin. Hence his (the attorney's) advice was not to give one shilling to N...... and his junta. He was informed, however, that a private Act of Parliament would be necessary to annul the marriage of 1826. Pending this negotiation, Mr. Battersby made a confidant of another and a respectable attorney, to whom he executed a deed chargeable on the whole of his second wife's property, to secure the advance of 1601, which he obtained. The 10 per cent. harpies found out the secret; they divulged the dreadful fact, the alternative of which was, they lost their moiety, the confiding attorney his 1601., the other lawyer his job, the unfortunate lady her reason, and the adventurer his liberty. There is one fact which would have been concealed but for the commiseration to which allusion has been made; we mean the events of his first marriage with the amiable Miss Stovin. After the marriage rites had been performed at Burleigh Chapel, the bride and bridegroom went to the Golden Cross, unaccompanied to breakfast, and after that he conveyed her to a well-known hotel in Soho-square, when the unhappy young woman for the first time had the film removed from her eyes, and she imploringly desired her exit, but without effect. The marriage was consummated under circumstances whith cannot be described; delicacy forbids! The unhappy victim of cupidity is bereft of reason and by the advice of Dr. Monroe (as stated at the trial of her seducer), is under restraint. CCCXXXI. MARBLES USED IN KILLING OXEN. Oct. 12, 1838. Dr G. spoke of the mode which some butchers now practice in killing oxen for the market. He says that they shoot them with marbles in preference to bullets. He asked a butcher the reason of this, and was told that leaden bullets are apt to disperse in small particles after they have entered the skulls of the animals. He believes this to be a fact, for he told to me that he had twice found a small globule of lead in a joint of beef served up at his table. CCCXXXII. WINE. An Asiatic chief, being asked his opinion of wine, said he thought it a juice extracted from women's tongues, and lions' hearts; for, after he had drunk enough of it, he could talk for ever and fight the devil. CCCXXXIII. Inscriptions. "Inscriptions were first introduced, probably, in commemoration of signal public events. As on the dead at Thermopylæ— *Ω ξεῖν, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε Κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι. Go tell the Spartans, thou who passest by, That here, obedient to their laws, we lie! This is the most sublime, as the great occasion required, of the funeral inscriptions of Greece. It is indeed perfect. In the sepulchre of the family of Pompey, on the Appian, the address to the stranger is affecting. The following is the first of the inscriptions in the Antichi Sepolcri da Pietro Santi Bartoli. In Roma, MDCCIV.’ Sex. Pompeio Sævio etc. Rogo per Deos Stygios, Oss. nostr. quisquis es, homo, non violes. We may remark that among almost all the ancient inscriptions, whether the persons, to whose memory the most splendid monuments were erected, died in youth or age; no word occurs peculiarly expressive of affection; they are generally such as follows. Cecilia F. Cretici, F. Metellæ Crassi. Pompea-Sex. i. Melissa sibi et Sex. Pompeo Cilici Patrono suo. The only word of affection preserved in all the inscriptions of Bartoli, is the following: Ossa amanda Elenchi Hæc vixit Ann. VIII. But, what is the most remarkable, his work contains the first representation taken from the Barberini vase, which supplied the image of Love in the well-known sepulchral lines of Dr Jortin. These exquisite lines, on a wife snatched by death from her husband, were written to deceive antiquaries in the character of an old classical inscription. As I have never seen a translation, I shall here first give the lines as they are found in Jortin: Quæ te sub tenera rapuerunt, Pæta, juventa, Oh! utinam me crudelia fata vocent, Beautiful as these lines are in simplicity, tenderness, and imagery, it appears to me, (I am not certain whether the observation has been before made) that the natural order of the thought and sentiment would have been more natural if the two last couplets were transposed, though I am aware of the beauty of ending with an image, like that of Love dispersing the darkness. The natural order of the sentiment appears to me to be this:-Oh! had Fate called me at the same time! I shall follow, and Love shall light the dreary road;--only take care not to touch the stream of oblivion, lest, when we meet, you shall have forgotten me!' According to this view I have attempted a translation, though it is difficult to preserve faithfully the spirit, the simplicity, the exact turn of expression, and the distinct imagery, without subtracting or adding : Oh! would the Fates, which snatched thee in thy bloom, Had call'd me with thee, Pæta, to the tomb, That I might leave the earth, this world of pain, The sun, the light, to rest with thee again! Thee I shall follow to that dark abode : Dr Darwin, in his notes to his Botanic Garden, has accurately and beautifully described the figures on the celebrated vase, (the Barberini vase, of which there is an engraving in Bartolus,) which Jortin must have seen; but Darwin destroys the interest by representing these figures not as individuals, but generally as emblematical of mortality. Nothing can be more accurate or striking than his description of the personage passing the portals of death, exploring, with timid step, the darkness, and as unwilling to part with his garment; and his description of the female holding out her hand to encourage him to descend. But all that is most interesting and affecting in the picture is destroyed by the idea that these are allegorical, not individual personages! The whole affecting groupe Darwin coldly represents as mere emblems, but how doubly interesting is the groupe, when the woman is considered as holding the hand of her husband, encouraging him as he fearfully descends; shows to him the emblem of immortal life on her bosom, whilst faithful love lights the darkness with his uplifted torch! Nor does Darwin seem at all aware that Jortin had copied this affecting groupe." The Parochial History of Bremhill in the County of Wilts, by the Rev. W. L. Bowles, p. 233. CCCXXXIV. THE TWO THIEVES. Two thieves, disguised as country-girls, obtained admittance at a farm-house, which they intended to rob. In the course of the evening, the farmer began to entertain suspicion of their sex. To settle the point, he tossed into their laps the shells of some nuts he had been cracking. The pretended females immediately closed their knees to prevent the shells from falling through, forgetting that women never do so, because their petticoats accomplish that purpose for them. The farmer secretly left the house and returned with assistance to capture his deceitful guests. |