I gazed upon thy face, so mild, so fair, I heard thy holy voice arise in prayer; Oh mother! mother! thou thyself wert there! Thou, by the placid brow, the thoughtful eye, The clasping hand, the voice of melody. I clung around thy neck—thy tears fell fast, Like rain in summer, yet the sorrow past; And smiles, more beautiful than e’en the last, Play’d on thy lip, dear mother! such it wore To bless our early home in days of yore. Then wild and grand arose my native hills— I heard the leaping torrents, and the thrills Of birds that hymn the sun; the charm that fills Old Haddon’s vales, and haunts its river side— What time the Fays pluck king-cups by its tide. Methought ’twas hawthorn time—the jolly May— For o’er far plains bright figures seemed to stray, Gath’ring the buds, and calling me away! I waked, but ah! to weep—no eye of thine, Sweet mother! beam’d its gentle light on mine. * * * * * BAINBRIDGE. BY J. FENIMORE COOPER, AUTHOR OF “THE SPY,” “THE PIONEERS,” ETC. Dr. Harris, in his “Life and Services” of this distinguished officer, says that “The ancestor of Commodore Bainbridge, who, in the year 1600, settled in the province of New Jersey, was the son of Sir Arthur Bainbridge, of Durham county, England.” As no portion of the old United States was settled as early as 1600, and the province of New Jersey, in particular, was organized only about the middle of the seventeenth century, the date, in this instance, is an oversight, or a misprint; though the account of the ancestor is probably accurate. The family of the late Commodore Bainbridge was of respectable standing, beyond a question, both in the colony and state of New Jersey, and its connections were principally among persons of the higher classes of society. His father was a physician of local eminence, in the early part of his life, who removed to New York about the commencement of the Revolution, where he left a fair professional and personal reputation. The fourth son of Dr. Bainbridge was William, the subject of our memoir. He was born at Princeton, New Jersey, then the residence of his father, May 7th, 1774. His birth must have occurred but a short time before the removal of the family to New York. The maiden name of Mrs. Bainbridge, the mother of William, was Taylor; a lady of Monmouth county, in the same colony; and her father, a man of considerable estate, undertook to superintend the education of the child.