r our people's rights and laws,
And the breasts of civic heroes,
Bared in Freedom's holy cause.
Yours are Hampden's, Russell's glory,
Sidney's matchless shade is yours,
Martyrs in heroic story,
Worth a hundred Agincourts!
We 're the sons of sires that baffled
Crown'd and mitred tyranny;
They defied the field and scaffold
For their birthrights--so will we!
MRS G. G. RICHARDSON.[112]
Caroline Eliza Scott, better known as Mrs G. G. Richardson, the daughter
of a gentleman of considerable property in the south of Scotland, was
born at Forge, her father's family residence, in the parish of Canonbie,
on the 24th of November 1777, and spent her childhood and early youth
amidst Border scenes, Border traditions, and Border minstrelsy. It is
probable that these influences fostered the poetic temperament, while
they fed the imaginative element of her mind, as she very early gave
expression to her thoughts and feelings in romance and poetry. Born to a
condition of favourable circumstances, and associating with parents
themselves educated and intellectual, the young poetess enjoyed
advantages of development rarely owned by the sons and daughters of
genius. The flow of her mind was allowed to take its natural course; and
some of her early anonymous writings are quite as remarkable as any of
her acknowledged productions. Her conversational powers were lively and
entertaining, but never oppressive. She was ever ready to discern and do
homage to the merits of her contemporaries, while she never failed to
fan the faintest flame of latent poesy in the aspirations of the timid
or unknown. Affectionate and cheerful in her dispositions, she was a
loving and dutiful daughter, and shewed the tenderest attachment to a
numerous family of brothers and sisters. She was married to her cousin,
Gilbert Geddes Richardson, on the 29th of April 1799, at Fort George,
Madras; where she was then living with her uncle, General, afterwards
Lord Harris; and the connexion proved, in all respects, a suitable and
happy one. Her husband, at that time captain of an Indiaman, was one of
a number of brothers, natives of the south of Scotland, who all sought
their fortunes in India, and one of whom, Lieutenant-Colonel Richardson,
became known in literature as an able translator of Sanscrit poetry, and
contributor to the "Asiatic Researches." He was lost at sea, with his
wife and six children, on thei
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