Volume I Part 3 (1/2)
spears and javelins, ”the heavy broad-eyed spear of battle,” swords, daggers, skeines of iron and bra.s.s, two-handled swords, and among them conspicuously shone forth the double-handled sword of the renowned NIAL NECALLOCH, richly ornamented and inlaid with gold; metal halberts were arranged in the same cla.s.s with tuagh-catha, _i.e._ battle-axes, tuagh suaighte or clipping axes, fiadhgha, crannuibhs, spears, clubs, Irish lances, spears, javelins, jacks, corslets, haubergeons, targets, bucklers, pavices (s.h.i.+elds), cailmhions, salets, skulls (_i.e._ helmets), sceptres beautifully inlaid with gold, fibula (brooches) of bra.s.s, silver, and gold, richly and exquisitely wrought; bits and spurs of an enormous size, and inlaid with gold; druidical scythes, ancient Irish harps (the _cithara_), ancient Irish trumpets of various kinds and names, the stuic or stock, the buabhall, the beann, the adharc, and the corna or bugle-horn; the dudag, the gall-trompa, the cibbural or corabus, the cornan or cronan, and the iachdarchannus (_quasi_, _cantus ba.s.sus_.) But here we close our antiquarian summary, as we begin fairly to suspect that many of our readers have no partiality to such ancient researches; suffice it then to say, that all these various specimens were arranged in diversified ornamental shapes and forms of sun, moon, star, and crescent, that fancy could conceive or taste execute.
Here Sir Patricius again proposed to the Captain to accompany him in a ramble to view the grounds; to which Captain Heaviside readily and gladly a.s.sented. As they stood upon the terrace, Sir Patricius said, ”My worthy Sir, just as you had arrived I was upon this spot, thinking with what taste and judgment my very excellent patron--
(_O et praesidium et dulce decus meum!_)
has so much improved and adorned these lawns, when, Captain, I can well remember what they were. Great natural capabilities, no doubt, presented them-selves, and His Grace has acted upon them with spirit, taste, and judgment, and withal no expense has been spared. However highly meriting the meed of praise, which doubtless His Grace so well is ent.i.tled to, I was just thinking of the great Archimedes, who so sagely and appropriately said,
DOSS MOI, TANE STIGMEN!
And I----”
”I must beg a thousand pardons, most gallant, ill.u.s.trate, and learned Sir Patricius,” said Captain Heaviside, interrupting the Baronet, ”but, under favour, my good Sir, I do not in verity understand one word of _Hebrew_; no, nor any of these nostrums; albeit I have little doubt that Archimedes the great was, in good sooth, a most famous and skilful physician and gifted leech in his celebrated day.”[11]
[11] The reader will have the candour to recollect that this can mean no disparagement to the military profession.--This was said when knowledge was limited to the few--one hundred and forty years ago.
”Nay, Captain Heaviside, I cry nay. Mark me, he was a geometrician and astronomer, and very celebrated as both! The pa.s.sage which I have put into the mouth of the renowned philosopher of Syracuse is Greek; and if I may be indeed permitted to pique myself upon any kind of erudition, (although, perhaps, in modesty I might say, _Vix ea nostra voco_), I should then pride myself upon a knowledge of the Greek tongue; and moreover too, the proper p.r.o.nunciation and due intonation of voice, what Horace so sonorously and emphatically calls the _ore rotundo Graecorum_.
Indeed I do flatter myself that I speak the best Greek beyond any other person in the island!”
”Oh, come, no disparagement, good Sir Patricius! to all your learned acquirements; you excel in speech, and no doubt succeed as well in the gift and exercise of your pen! but I, Sir, the hapless child of wayward fortune, am only acquainted with _this_! [half drawing his sword from its scabbard.] On this simple stake rest all my fortune and my hope, which, while I have a hand to wield, shall be held forth in the defence of my king and country!”
”Well said, i' faith, my master! and spoken n.o.bly, like a brave and honest soldier! Ay, to be sure, Sir! _every man in his vocation, Hal!_ as the inimitable Shakespeare sagely saith; although, nevertheless, a little knowledge methinks, after all, to the tune of the old proverb, is in sooth no great burden! But come, presto! we shall change the topic and the scene. The day beams forth its vernal glow beneath a brilliant sky, and the melodious strains of the feathered songsters, vying in harmonious notes, invite us abroad. Come, we have stayed too long.”
Thus at last the learned physician and the preux chevalier sallied forth to behold the varied and n.o.ble domains of the ill.u.s.trious proprietor.
The lawns, shrubberies, walks, gardens, &c., were all kept with the greatest possible care and neatness. Several artificial lakes fed by a living stream, and of great extent, so as to seem as if placed there by the hand of nature, wound along beneath the shadow of ancient groves, and fully diversified the scene. The lawns and parks were smooth and verdant as a bowling-green from the frequent pressure of the roller.
While the walks, parterres, and terraces, were so trimly kept that not a fallen leaf was to be seen; which order and regularity was placed to the account and agency of several old females, habited as witches, whose brooms, ever on the alert, kept all in due and perfect neatness. Part of the grounds which adjoined the castle were laid out in that old-fas.h.i.+oned style which we confess we are antediluvian enough to admire; however, be it known that no tree, shrub, nor ever-green, whatever, was clipt and mutilated by the shears to shrink into the abortioned form and pressure of a wizard's broom, or a true-lover's knot! no pyramid of clipped beech, no cypress-tree which a.s.sumed the fantastic form of Cleopatra's needle. No: nor did s.h.i.+vering Adam and Eve, and the cold clammy serpent and ”forbidden tree,” astound the spectator in shorn yew; no fountain impotently attempted to spring upward in boxwood; no such puerilities were tolerated to disfigure by grotesqueness the scenery of nature. So far on the contrary, that every thing was in good taste--at least it was so at the distant time of which now we write. The grounds were laid out in what would now be called the improved English taste: here lawns of richest verdure, and cultivated to the highest degree of luxuriance; there wild rocks of granite or limestone, as placed by the hand of nature, trailed and festooned around with lichen grey and ivy green; while the _Osmunda regalis_, the royal fern, spreading wide its majestic plumes, and undulating in the breeze, gracefully waved and bent over the apex of these romantic rocks, and gave a pleasure to the eye that scenes of nature only can bestow. The terraces which surrounded the castle were kept gravelled and rolled to the extreme of neatness, and were hedged with luxuriant myrtle. The _now_ old-fas.h.i.+oned ponds, which it would have been little less than sacrilege to remove, reposed beneath the terraces, which gave a tone of grandeur to the whole; _jets d'eau_ sprung from the centre of these to an elevated height, and over the head of many a triton and river deity; while the waters, as the declination of the ground permitted, bursting forth at once the bonds of artificial force, they
”From large cascades in pleasing tumult roll'd, Or rose from figured stone,”
brightly spreading and sparkling beneath a brilliant sun. It must, however, be admitted, that it was somewhat chilling, even in the merry month of May, to behold the s.h.i.+vering deities who presented them-selves in cold tangible marble _sans chemise_, _sans robe_, _et sans drape_, while they sentinelled the verdant banks of pond, lake, or ca.n.a.l; and which, in some degree to qualify our praise, we are ready and free to admit were after all somewhat _selon le ecole d'Hollande_!
Here suddenly a vernal shower coming on, the Doctor and Captain, at no great distance from the castle, were glad to make a race to avoid a wetting; and before their dress could receive any damage they entered the castle-hall, having luckily accomplished their object. Sir Patricius now proposed to show to Captain Heaviside the Duke's great gallery of paintings, _pour pa.s.ser le temps_ until the hour appointed for the baptismal ceremony should arrive.
Just at this moment the d.u.c.h.ess of Tyrconnel drove up in her equipage to the castle door. It was a low demesne cabriole, drawn by two small ponies, and driven by a postillion; in it was seated the d.u.c.h.ess, Mrs.
Judith Braingwain, the nurse, and in her arms the lovely child, the Lady Adelaide. Sir Patricius hastened forth to hand them from the vehicle, and the d.u.c.h.ess most graciously saluted both her guests, the little Adelaide sweetly smiled, and the d.u.c.h.ess with all due courtesy retired.
”There she goes--there goes Her Grace,” said Sir Patricius; ”that highly intellectual lady; the _rara avis_--the black swan of literature of this our day--my right n.o.ble patroness; s.h.i.+ning amid her compeers a bright star of intellectual, and literary, and domestic worth, and rich indeed in all,
'Velut inter ignes Luna minores.'”
Captain Heaviside here rejoined--”Although, Sir Patricius, I knew well that the d.u.c.h.ess gave with her n.o.ble hand a distinguished fortune to the Duke, yet verily I did not until now learn that Her Grace had any estate in the _Minories_!”
”No, no; ha, ha!” said Sir Patricius, with a most self-applauding laugh.
”Oh no! nor in the _Stannaries_ neither. But _allons nous donc, mon preux chevalier_! Apollo and the muses now invite us.--So, ho! to the picture gallery.” To which the learned Theban and the valiant Captain now hastily ascended.
The grand picture gallery, which now they entered, was of truly magnificent dimensions, and lighted from an elevated dome. This truly splendid collection of paintings was most judiciously arranged on the walls of the superb gallery, collected and selected with a taste and discernment that spoke volumes in praise of the liberality of the distinguished collector. This splendid gallery was adorned with the _chefs d'ouvres_ of the most ancient celebrated masters; forming, on entrance, a truly grand and most imposing _coup d'oeil_ of the different works of Reubens', ”the prince of painters;” Raphael, ”the divine!” Angelo, Guido, t.i.tian, with a long and n.o.ble extended _et cetera_, too magnificently formidable to be here introduced.
The first painting which they approached was from the pencil of Teniers; it was that of his famous _Alchymist_.
”This,” said Sir Patricius, pointing to the painting, ”is a work of Teniers!”