FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   >>   >|  
ou have it, after many digressions. My thoughts never strike a plane surface, but always a spherical, and fly off in a tangent. Sydney Smith says, 'Remember the flood and be brief.' You know I belong to a very old family; and from an ancestor, who lived before the flood, has been transmitted through a long line of O'Mollys a disposition to spin out. Unfortunately an antediluvian length of time was not an _heir-loom_ to Your humble servant, MOLLY O'MOLLY. * * * * * SKETCHES OF EDINBURGH LITERATI. BY A FORMER MEMBER OF ITS PRESS. There was a time when the little hamlet of Cockpaine, ten miles from Edinburgh, in addition to the charms of its scenery, was also socially attractive from the high literary talent of several of its residents. It was situated on the banks of the Esk, whose rapid flow affords a valuable water-power. This had been improved under the enterprise of Mr. Craig, an extensive manufacturer, who became at last proprietor not only of the mills, but of the entire village. Mr. Craig was successful for several years; but the revulsions of trade during the Crimean war swept away his previous profits, and in 1854 he sank in utter bankruptcy. The extensive domain of the Earl of Dalhousie lay next to Cockpaine, and the village site seemed all that was necessary to its completeness. As soon as the latter was offered for sale, the earl made the long-desired purchase, and then began the immediate eviction of its population. I saw four hundred operatives, of all ages, driven off on one sad occasion--a scene which reminded me most painfully of Goldsmith's lines in the 'Deserted Village:'-- 'Good Heaven! what sorrows gloomed that parting day That called them from their native walks away, When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, Hung round the bowers, and fondly looked their last, And took a long farewell, and wished in vain For seats like these beyond the western main; And shuddering still to face the distant deep, Returned and wept, and still returned to weep.' A subsequent visit to what was once the thriving village, with its embowered cottages reflected from the waters of the Esk, its groups of romping children, its Sabbath melodies and its secular din, now changed to a nobleman's preserves, recalled the following truthful sketch from the same poem:-- 'Thus fares the land by luxury betrayed, In Nature's simplest charms arrayed; Bu
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155  
156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
village
 

Cockpaine

 

extensive

 

charms

 

called

 
gloomed
 
parting
 

sorrows

 
Heaven
 

Deserted


Village

 

native

 
bowers
 

looked

 
fondly
 

pleasure

 
exiles
 
painfully
 

purchase

 

population


eviction

 

desired

 

offered

 

reminded

 

occasion

 

operatives

 

hundred

 

driven

 

Goldsmith

 

farewell


nobleman

 
changed
 

preserves

 

recalled

 

truthful

 
children
 

romping

 
Sabbath
 

melodies

 
secular

sketch
 

Nature

 
simplest
 
arrayed
 

betrayed

 

luxury

 
groups
 

waters

 
western
 

shuddering