John Gray

“ I had got fifteen grains less; but I couldn’t stop the chillim.
There was no longer any necessity for me to live in His Highness’s Pavilion, and he gave orders for quarters to be prepared for me in the Prince’s quadrangle near by, so that I could be on the spot in case of necessity.
The room was curtained and carpeted, and wood for the fire provided. My servants came to wait upon me. An arm-chair of His Highness’s was sent, a table, and candelabra. My friend, Shere Ali, came to see me frequently; and the Page boys at all hours. I [398] visited the Amîr twice a day. ”

“ The ‘Reminiscences of Gray’ were praised by John Forster as ‘one of the most charming papers, at once for fulness and brevity, ever contributed to our knowledge of a celebrated man’ (Life and Times of Goldsmith, ii. 151) . In 1884 the autograph letters of Gray and the ‘Reminiscences’ by Nicholls belonged to Mr. John Morris of 13 Park Street, Grosvenor Square (Gray, Works, ed. Gosse, iii. 179, iv. 339–43) . The anecdotes of Gray, which were printed by Mathias, were all derived from Nicholls. ”

“ In a word, no two men could have better understood each other than Lee, the convict, and John Brennard, the trader of the Witches’ Krantz (Cliff) . As for Gray, he might truly be considered, what a late ruffian was described to be, “the victim of circumstances,”—with wearied body and aching heart, he sat by, a passive listener; passive, because he could not help himself. ”

“ Gray many times longed for the 22d year of his age, wherein he expected to rest from his labours by a perpetual jubilee, to enjoy his blessed Lord and Master. However it is certain that in his sermons we often find him longing for his majority, that he might enter into the possession of his heavenly Father's inheritance prepared for him before the foundations of the world were laid.
He escaped death very narrowly, when going to Dundee in company with Mr. Robert Fleming (some time minister at Cambuslang) which remarkable sea-deliverance was matter of his thankfulness to God all his life after. ”

“ Gray introduced him to society; [15] and, one of the professors having asked him if he understood what he said, he replied he thought so, but very diff [idently?] —"So you think so only!" Gray, hearing this, showed B [onstetten] some passages to ask him, which B [onstetten] did in a public company, complimenting him upon [his?] known knowledge; when all the company, one after the other, began contradicting the Professor's opinion. Then B [onstetten] , turning to him, said, "You perhaps thought you understood Shakespear." ”

“ With straining eyes, to some far silvern spire;
Flowers among, sing to the gods cloud-hid.
One of these, onetime, opened velvet eyes
Upon the world—the years recall the day;
Those lights still shine, conscious of power alway,
But flattering men with feigned looks of surprise. ”

“ Charging men's souls with love and lusciousness.
Sweet isle of myrtles, once of open blooms:
Now only of lean lands most lean: it seems
A flinty desert bitter with shrill screams:
But one strange object on its horror looms.
Not a fair temple, foiled with coppiced trees,
Where the young priestess, mistress of the flowers,
Goes opening her gown to the cool breeze,
To still the fire, the torment that devours. ”

“ Which like a portcullis, shall veil thy thighs;
Rude, heavy curtain, faced with bitter fears,
Broidered, in place of pearls, with all my tears.
And, of my worship, shoes will I design;
Two satin shoes, to case thy feet divine,
Which, while their precious freight they softly hold,
Shall guard the imprint in a faithful mould.
If I should fail to forge a silver moon,
I with my art, for thee to tread upon,
Then will I place the writhing beast that hangs
Upon my heart, and tears it with his fangs,
Where thou may'st crush his head, and smile supreme,
O majesty! all potent to redeem. ”

“ Through painted windows, orange, blue, and gold,
The Christ's unutterable charm behold.
Upon the cross, adorned with gold and green,
Long fluted golden tongues of sombre sheen,
Like four flames joined in one, around the head
And by the outstretched arms, their glory spread.
The statue is of wood; of natural size
Tinted; one almost sees before one's eyes
The last convulsion of the lingering breath.
"Behold the man!" Robust and frail. Beneath
That breast indeed might throb the Sacred Heart. ”

“ The target of thy breast, and, sick with fear,
Deliberately plant them all where throbs
Thy bleeding heart, and stifling with its sobs.
FEMMES DAMNÉES
Like moody beasts they lie along the sands;,
Look where the sky against the sea-rim clings:
Foot stretches out to foot, and groping hands
Have languors soft and bitter shudderings. ”

“ If we were to criticise the ceiling purely as an example of decorative art, we might well object that the elaboration and wealth of detail in the work is hardly suitable to its position, that designs so placed should have been simpler and more salient in their component parts, and executed in a lighter and more airy scheme of colouring, so as to carry the eye freely upwards. ”

“ Conquered the trickling of their babbling tongues; the coy
Back glances, and the mobile breasts of subtle grace;
Conquered the Woman Beautiful, the fatal charm
Of her hot breast, the music of her babbling tongue;
Conquered the gate of Hell, into the gate the young
Man passes, with the heavy trophy at his arm,
The holy Javelin that pierced the Heart of God.
He heals the dying king, he sits upon the throne,
King, and high priest of that great gift, the living Blood.
In robe of gold the youth adores the glorious Sign
Of the green goblet, worships the mysterious Wine. ”

“ A bust-sized male portrait of an unknown subject also bears the name of Rubens, and, by whatever hand, it is certainly an admirable example of Flemish art. The costume is black with a piped ruff; the face worn, the brow furrowed, the hair yellowish, slightly silvered with age, the thick beard and moustache of a ruddy colour, and the flesh-tones most attractive in the quietude and cool grey quality of their shadows. ”

“ On Wednesday, the 17th, my son notes the death of poor Gray: "He had not spoken a word distinctly since his first attack, which was just about as we were going to start." Here King mentions that they remained one day to bury Gray. They were so weak, he said, that it was with difficulty they could dig a grave sufficiently deep to inter him in. This is not in the journal, but in King's narrative.
On the 19th, camped again without water, on the sandy bed of the creek, having been followed by a lot of natives who were desirous of our company ”

“ All tense the muscles of her seemly flanks;
She, the coy creature that the idle day
Sees idly riding in the idle ranks.
Backward and forth, over the chosen ground,
Like a young horse, she drags the heavy trawl,
Tireless; or speeds her rapturous course unbound,
And passing fishers through the darkness call
Deep greeting, in the jargon of the sea.
Haul upon haul, flounders and soles and dabs,
And phosphorescent animalcule,
Sand, seadrift, weeds, thousands of worthless crabs.
Low on the mud the darkling fishes grope.
Cautious to stir, staring with jewel eyes ”

“ The last opening was the work of the tempest, which, by overturning a trunk or two, disclosed a glimpse of the distant Peeblesshire moor behind, giving just that final touch, that hint of the beyond “over the hills and far away,” which perfects the view,—not only to the painter, as completing the lines of its composition, but to the poet as well, by adding that sense of extended outlook, as of a vista piercing into the breadth of the world, which is needful, for finest imaginative effect, in every landscape. ”

“ There is in this group none of the strong, positive, insufficiently gradated colour, which is sometimes rather distressing in Raeburn’s work. It is far quieter and more delicate than is altogether usual in his art, full of tenderness and subtlety; the faces exquisitely lit by reflected light, their half-shadows softly luminous and delicate exceedingly, never sinking with a crash into blackness and opacity. The artist has seldom produced a finer or more artistic group, has seldom given us a more fascinating portrayal of well-born manhood and of female loveliness. ”

“ We walked from Samander’s khirgar along the paths of the garden to the Palace. The trees were white with snow, and great icicles hung from the branches. The sky was grey, and the water and mud by the paths frozen hard. Everyone looked nipped up in the icy wind. In the far distance to the south were the mountains dimly blue.
In the open space opposite the Palace was a large crowd of people with petitions to offer or disputes to settle. Near at hand was the Amîr’s guard with fixed bayonets. ”

“ Surely it was with true significance that Rosemary Dacre’s seal—the seal which always descends to her name-child in the house of Penicuik—was engraved with the sign of a single star, shedding a benign and steadfast light over a pathless vastitude of air and a fluctuating waste of sea; for the Lady’s memory seems to have shone with an ideal light through many human lives. ”

“ Then His Highness burst forth. I did not understand his words, but there was no mistaking his manner—the knitted brow, the flashing eye and the low rumble, lashing up to a roar. The storm descended upon the heads of the two Hindustanis. They stood shivering, and from yellow became green. They knew, and I afterwards had frequent opportunities of observing, that in moments like this the Amîr is dangerous; men’s lives tremble in the balance. ”

“ Is it a walk of plighted lovers that the painter hints at on his canvas, and has the bride just caught first sight of her future home? Or, can the scene be one tenderer still? The middle-aged lover looks—calmly, earnestly expectant, waiting for an answer that will not come from the lady’s lips, that will certainly not be given by their words—at the noble face of the mature and stately beauty by his side, into her dear grey eyes that never meet his, but gaze right on into the distance—into the future is it? ”

“ Nearly one-half of the picture, that to the left, is occupied with a landscape of undulating country, diversified by darker passages afforded by tree-masses, with flashes of light playing over the grass in points where it is quickened by the radiance of the setting sun, and with still sharper flashings which mark the course of the “classic Esk.” To our extreme right an elm-tree raises its great forked stem, and throws out a slenderer branch, bearing embrowned leafage. ”

“ The word "society" is perfectly clear in Charlotte Polidori's transcript. From the context, I question whether it ought not to be "Shakespear." As to "the criticism of Johnson" on Gray in the Lives of the Poets, many of my readers will recollect that this criticism is somewhat adverse, Gray being treated as a rather nebulous writer.
16. Seems rather an odd phrase, but I suppose correctly transcribed. ”

“ They are therefore called Fur-Seals by the sealers, and are hunted for their skin as well as for their oil. The quantity and fineness of the under-fur differ in the various species; and the skin and under-fur bear a price in the market according to the country and the species from which they are obtained.
Some species of the family have so little under-fur when they arrive at adult age, that they are of no value in the market to be made into “seal-skins;” these are therefore called Hair-Seals by the sealers. They are only collected for the oil, as the skins are of comparatively little value. ”

“ We stopped at the Palace, dismounted, and went in to take leave of His Highness, the Prince. When we remounted we were met outside the Palace by Perwana Khan, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief, and Naib Mir Sultan, the Governor of Kabul, each with their attendants, so that with our own crowd of servants, and a guard of sixty soldiers, we made a large cavalcade. A crowd of people on foot accompanied us part of the way, running by the side and in front of the horses. The sun shone brightly; the dresses of the officials—crimson, and purple, and green—were brilliant with gold embroidery. ”

“ Is a claim in tort for damages by a collision entitled to priority over a claim in contract for previous supplies? Second. Is a claim by a tow against her tug, for damages from coming into collision with a third vessel by reason of negligent towage, a claim in tort? ”

“ The foundation of the rule that collision gives to the party injured a jus in re in the offending ship is the principle of the maritime law that the ship, by whomsoever owned or navigated, is considered as herself the wrongdoer, liable for the tort, and subject to a maritime lien for the damages. ”

“ William Aikman, the portrait-painter, too, was descended from the house of Penicuik, his mother having been the eldest sister of Sir John Clerk, the first Baronet; and, in our own time, Professor James Clerk Maxwell, whose father was grandson of the fourth Baronet and brother of the sixth, has by his eminence in science added new lustre to his parental name.
But not only have the Clerks been themselves witty—using the word in its best, its old English, sense—they have been the cause of wit in others ”

“ Some of the old cellars remain under the earthen mound to the south, and are still in use. We may sigh a little over the memories and associations of old Penicuik House, over the vanished picturesqueness of its “crowstep” gables and its circular corkscrew turrets, of which a shadow still survives in the sketch by John Clerk, reproduced in the Bannatyne Club issue of his etchings; but doubtless the present mansion is vastly more commodious and in better harmony with modern ideas of comfort than was its predecessor, and it takes its place excellently in the landscape ”