Lyndsay

“ Lyndsay; nor was it to her convenience that Matilda should be thus hastily disposed of, and the strongest link of connection between Fulham and Carlton Gardens severed. Mrs. Lyndsay had one golden rule, which I respectfully point out to ladies who covet popularity and power: she never spoke ill of any one whom she wished to injure. She did not, therefore, speak ill of the Marquess to Darrell, but she so praised him that her praise alarmed. She ought to know the young peer well; she was a good deal with the Marchioness, who liked her pretty manners. ”

“ Lyndsay insisted upon hearing every adventure that had befallen me, questioning me eagerly as I went, how each new feature of prosperity had “worked with me,” and whether gold had yet hardened my heart, and taught me indifference to the poor.
I told him of my love, and with such rapturous delight that he even offered to aid me in my object, by marrying me to Donna Maria,—a piece of generous zeal, I am certain, that originated less in friendship than in the prospect of a proselyte,—the niece of a bishop, too! Poor fellow, he might make many converts, if he were thus easily satisfied. ”

“ Lyndsay was a satirist, powerful in invective, fluent in style, and abounding in proverbial philosophy. But his poems were of local, and to a large extent of temporary interest. Yet these very limitations gave them an immediate fame and more extensive currency than the works of any other early Scottish poet, and render them invaluable to students of the time of James V. It passed into a proverb for what was not worth knowing, ‘You will not find that in David Lyndsay,’ and his writings were at one time in the library of every castle and the shelves of many cottages of Scotland. ”

“ This is the great work of Lyndsay, and was acted before the king and queen, who sat out nine mortal hours in its performance, in which they successively heard every order in the State—Court, nobility, Church, and people—severely criticised. Lyndsay's play has the merit of preceding both "Gorboduc" and "Gammer Gurton's Needle;" and it certainly possesses the moral of the former and the wit of the latter. "The Answer to the King's Flyting" is a very curious example of what the indulgence of a professional fool at Court led to: it produced not only the jester but the poet laureate. ”

“ Not wishing to render your emigration more painful, by taking you to a country to which you are so averse, I have made choice of Canada, hoping that it might be more to your taste. The only obstacle in the way, is the reluctance you feel at leaving your friends. Am I less dear to you, Flora, than friends and country?”
This was said so kindly, and with such an affectionate earnestness for her happiness more than his own—for it was no small sacrifice to Lyndsay to give up going back to the Cape—that it overcame all Flora’s obstinate scruples. ”

“ Lyndsay was reading aloud to Flora, as she sat at work at the open window which commanded a view of the whole bay.
“There’s Davy Jarvis and his comrade, putting off their boat, for a swim. They must mind what they are about,” said Lyndsay; “the wind is rather too blustering for their water frolic to-day.” ”

“ You had better take a passage with us to Aberdeen,” said Captain Fraser, advancing to the side of his vessel.
“Two hundred miles out of my way,” said Lyndsay. “Fall off.” The tow rope was cast loose, and the floating castle resumed her thundering course, leaving the party in the boat greatly disconcerted by the misadventure.
“The City of Edinburgh must soon be here?” said Lyndsay, addressing himself once more to Sam Rogers. That sociable individual continued smoking his short pipe without deigning to notice [182] the speaker. “Had we not better lay-to, and wait for her coming up?” ”

“ Lyndsay!” broke in Mary W., “you must not mind papa’s nonsense. He will say just what he likes. Mr. Lyndsay was always a great favourite with us all; and papa would have his joke at our expense.”
“Well, my young friend has thought fit to please himself, and I am so well pleased with his wife, that she shall sit by the ugly old man; ‘an’ I will ha’ a spate o’ clatter wi’ her to mine ain sel.’”
The more Flora saw of the eccentric old man, the more she admired and respected him. ”

“ JOHN BELLENDEN. [578]
Last in the list of makars enumerated by Lyndsay in the prologue to his “Complaynt of the Papyngo” is mentioned “ane plant of poeitis, callit Ballendyne,” who seems to have excited both respect and anticipation among his early contemporaries. The prophecy of Lyndsay’s lines appears to have been more than fulfilled. ”

“ In Lyndsay’s Descriptioun of Pedder Coffeis (pedlars) we have an early example of the studies in vulgar life which are so plentiful in later Scottish literature. In Kitteis Confessioun he returns, but in more sprightly mood, to his attack on the church.
In Lyndsay we have the first literary expression in Scotland of the Renaissance. His interest lies on the theological side of the revival; he is in no sense a humanist, and he is indifferent to the artistic claims of the movement. Still he appeals to the principle which is fundamental to all. He demands first-hand impression. ”

“ The first person who presented herself as a candidate for emigration, was a coarse, fat, she-clown, with huge red fists and cheeks, “as broad and as red as a pulpit cushion.” On being shown into Flora’s little parlour, she stood staring at her with her arms stuck in her sides, and her wide mouth distended from ear to ear, with a grin so truly uncouth and comic, that Mrs. Lyndsay could scarcely restrain her laughter ”

“ Lyndsay occupies an important place in the history of the Scottish dialect and in the history of the British drama. The satire of ‘The Three Estates’ affords one of the best illustrations of the transition from the mediæval religious miracle play, through the secular masque, the fools' play, and the interludes, to the Elizabethan tragedy and comedy. But in Scotland the Reformation killed the drama, and Lyndsay's satire of the ‘Three Estates’ remains almost unique, although we know the names of a few other early dramas. ”

“ Or hawk of the tower.
SIR DAVID LYNDSAY. Returning to Scotland, we find a Skelton of a higher order and a brawnier make in Sir David Lyndsay, or, as our forefathers were wont familiarly to denominate him, 'Davie Lyndsay.' Lyndsay was descended from a noble family, a younger branch of Lyndsay of the Byres, and born in 1490, probably at the Mount, the family-seat, near Cupar-Fife. He entered the University of St Andrews in the year 1505, and four years later left it to travel in Italy. ”

“ The laugh was now against her; for the dog's body turned out to be a pease pudding, of which she ate very heartily, while Boreas rubbed his hands, and chuckled at the joke.
To while away the tedium of the voyage, she and [283] Lyndsay would take it by turns to play draughts with the Captain. They always were the victors. He did not mind being beat by Lyndsay, but his pride was deeply mortified, whenever Flora won the game.
"A man may beat a man," he would grumble out, "but, d—— it, I don't like being thrashed by a woman. ”

“ In this poem Lyndsay still expresses his belief in purgatory, and adores the Virgin, while he trusts to the king when he comes of age for the needed reforms in church and state. Next year, 1529, in ‘The Complaynt to the King,’ he rejoices that he has lived to see the day when the new regent, Angus, and his party have ‘trotted over Tweed,’ and ‘thou [i.e. James V] to no man art subjected.’
In 1530, under cover of ‘The Testament and Complaynt of our Soverane Lordis Papyngo,’ he denounces with greater boldness the abuses of the court, prelates, and nobles. ”

“ LINDSAY or LYNDSAY, Sir DAVID (1490–1555) , Scottish poet and Lyon king of arms, was the son of David Lyndsay of the Mount in the parish of Monimail, Fife, and of Garmylton, two miles north of Haddington. At which of his father's seats he was born is uncertain, and so is the place of his school education, which, if in Fife, was probably Cupar; if in Lothian, Haddington. The tenor of his character in after-life perhaps turns the balance in favour of Haddington, the school of John Major, Gavin Douglas, and John Knox, possibly also of William Dunbar and George Buchanan. ”

“ Lyndsay, was one of those parents who acquire an extraordinary influence over their children, by the union of caressing manners with obstinate resolves. She never lost control of her temper nor hold on her object. A slight, delicate, languid creature too, who would be sure to go into a consumption if unkindly crossed. ”

“ The individual before me was no other than my first friend, the kind youth who had taken me by the hand at the very outset of my career, the student of Trinity, Dublin, named Lyndsay.
As I perceived that he did not recognize me, I had time enough to observe him well, and mark the change which more than twelve years had wrought upon him. Though still young, anxiety and mental exertion had worn him into premature age. ”

“ Somehow it helps a man to say things out.”
Here was the strange hurt of a limited tenderness, with all this rudeness of self-disclosure, and, too, some of the stupid, careless immodesty of drink.
“I take it kindly,” said Lyndsay, “that you have told me the whole of your troubles. Come over and see me. I left some tobacco on the table for you.”
“Much obliged, sir,” and, rising, Joe took Mr. Lyndsay’s offered hand. “I’ll come,” he said, and walked back toward the cabin, while Lyndsay, beckoning to Rose, turned into the ox-road which led to the shore. ”

“ This mistaken kindness brought to Flora’s mind a story she had heard Lyndsay tell of a merchant of Edinburgh who went to the north of Scotland to visit some country folk who were his near relations. The good people were outrageously glad to see him, and literally killed the fatted calf, and concocted all sorts of country dainties in order to celebrate the advent of their distinguished guest, who it seems, in this case, was in less danger of starving than of being stuffed to death. ”

“ To her, my dear lady, it is beautiful—for love is blind. She does not heed the ugly features; she only sees the mind she honours and obeys, looking through them.”
“Ah, dear papa, who that knows you, as we know you, could ever think you ugly?” said Mary W., laying her hand on the old man’s [282] shoulder, and looking fondly and proudly in his face. “But I have forgotten all this time to introduce you to Mrs. Lyndsay.”
“My old friend Lyndsay’s wife? I ought not to be pleased with you, madam, for you disappointed a favourite scheme of mine.”
“How could that possibly be?” said Flora. ”

“ The hero of the romance of which this forms the most important episode, was an actual contemporary of Lyndsay, some of whose romantic adventures are referred to by Pitscottie in his History, p. 129. Upon the conclusion of his youthful adventures Meldrum settled in Kinross, where he owned the estate of Cleish and Binns; and being appointed deputy of Patrick, Lord Lyndsay, Sheriff of Fife, is said to have administered physic as well as law to his neighbours.
[345] Henry VIII. lay at Calais in July, 1513.
[346] array.
[347] Making war. ”

“ She came forward at once to meet her visitor.
“Why, I guess you must be Margaret Lyndsay’s daughter.”
Rose, a little taken aback by the familiar manner of this identification, perhaps showed it to this shrewd observer in something about her bearing as she said, “A pleasant evening after the rain,” and took the proffered hand. “Yes, I am Rose Lyndsay.”
“I’m never quite rid of my Quaker fashion of naming folks without their handles. Seems to get you nearer to people. Now, don’t you think so? Come in.”
Rose, as her host stepped aside, entered the cabin. ”

“ Brig Anne.
"He may be d—d!" cried Boreas, in an ecstasy of rage. "But that's too good for him. Many an honest fellow meets with that fate, who would scorn to speak to such a low, mean, pitiful thief!"
"Don't put yourself into such a passion, Captain," said Lyndsay. "The man does not deserve it; it would gratify him to know that he could annoy you by his impertinence. Just send Sam up with the empty tea-pot, and your compliments, and tell him that the tea is all out, and he is quite welcome to the use of the pot for the rest of the voyage." ”

“ The next day the emigrants bade farewell to the beautiful capital of Scotland. How gladly would Flora have terminated her earthly pilgrimage in that land of poetry and romance, and spent the rest of her days among its truthful, high-minded, [284] hospitable people! But vain are regrets. The inexorable spirit of progress points onward; and the beings she chooses to be the parents of a new people, in a new land, must fulfil their destiny.
On the 1st of July, 1832, the Lyndsays embarked on board the brig Anne, to seek a new home beyond the Atlantic, and friends in a land of strangers. ”

“ The young husband kissed the tears from her cheek, and whispered—
“That she was his dear, good girl.”
And Flora would have followed him to the deserts of Arabia. [7]
“I have had a long conversation with a very sensible, practical man,” continued Lyndsay, “who has lately come to England upon colonial business. He has been a settler for some years in Canada, and the accounts he has given me of the colony are so favourable, and hold out such encouragement of ultimate success and independence, that they have decided me in my choice of making a trial of the backwoods. ”

“ Lyndsay’s prediction, by commencing the conversation in a loud-toned, but rather musical voice,
“A bright afternoon for your walk.”
“Beautiful for the time of year,” said Flora.
“Rather hot for stout people like me. You seem to enjoy it amazingly.”
“I am fond of walking. I do not find the heat oppressive.”
“Ah, yes; you are thin. Have not much bulk to carry; one of Pharaoh’s lean kine. It requires a warm day to make your blood circulate freely. I like winter and spring best for long rambles.”
“I should think you would prefer riding,” said Lyndsay; “yet I see you out every day on foot.” ”