Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 377, March 1847
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
After this, though for forty years the righteous blood of a murdered
king had been crying against him, Dixwell's hoar hairs were suffered to
come to the grave in a peace he had denied to others, in 1688. Meantime,
that king had lain in his cerements at Windsor, "taken away from the
evil to come," and undisturbed alike by the malice that pursued his
name, and the far more grievous contempt that fell on his martyr-memory
from the conduct of his two sons, false as they were to his honour,
recreant to his pure example, and apostate to the holy faith for which
he died. Such sons had at last accomplished for the house of Stuart that
ruin which other enemies had, in vain, endeavoured; and two weeks after
James Davids was laid in his grave, came news which was almost enough to
wake him from the dead. "The glorious Revolution," as it is called, was
a "crowning mercy" to the colonies; and the friends of the late regicide
now boldly produced his will, and submitted it to Probate. It devised to
his heirs a considerable estate in England, and described his own style
and title as "John Dixwell, _alias_ James Davids, of the Priory of
Folkestone, in the county of Kent, Esquire."
After my visit to West Rock, I went in the early twilight to the graves
of the three regicides. I found them in the rear of one of the
meeting-houses, in the square, very near together, and scarcely
noticeable in the grass. They are each marked by rough blocks of stone,
having one face a little smoothed, and rudely lettered. Dixwell's
tomb-stone is far better than the others, and bears the fullest and most
legible inscription. It is possibly a little more than two feet high, of
a red sand-stone, quite thick and heavy, and reads thus:--"I. D. Esq.,
deceased March y{e} 18th, in y{e} 82{d} year of his age, 1688-9." To
make any thing of Whalley's memorial, I was obliged to stoop down to it,
and examine it very closely. I copied it, head and foot, into my
tablets, nor did I notice, at the time, any peculiarity, but took down
the inscription, as I supposed correctly, "1658, E. W." While I was busy
about this, there came along one of the students, escorting a young
lady, who bending down to the headstone of Goffe's grave, examined it a
few minutes attentively, and then started up, and went away with her
happy protector, exclaiming, "I must leave it to Old Mortality, for I
can see nothing at all." I found it as she had said, and left it without
any better satisfaction; but, during the evening, happening to mention
these facts, I was shown a drawing of both Goffe's and Whalley's
memorials; by help of which, on repeating my visit early next morning, I
observed the very curious marks which give them additional interest.
Looking more carefully at Whalley's headstone, one observes a 7 strongly
blended with the 5, in the date which I had copied; so that it may be
read as I had taken it, or it may be read 1678, the true date of
Whalley's demise. This same cipher is repeated on the footstone, and is
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account