Tales and Legends of the English LakesArmistead, Wilson
General
Tales and Legends of the English Lakes
Armistead, Wilson
Folklore -- England -- Lake District; Legends -- England -- Lake District; Tales -- England -- Lake District
It is painful to remember that, in those days, amongst the multitudes
who ended their career in the same ignominious way, and the majority for
offences connected with the forgery of bank notes, there must have been
a considerable number who perished from the very opposite cause; namely,
because they felt, too passionately and profoundly for prudence, the
claims of those who looked up to them for support. One common scaffold
confounds the most flinty hearts and the tenderest. However, in this
instance, it was in some measure the heartless part of Hatfield's
conduct which drew upon him his ruin; for the Cumberland jury, it has
been asserted, declared their unwillingness to hang him for having
forged a frank; and both they, and those who refused to aid his escape,
when first apprehended, were reconciled to this harshness entirely by
what they had heard of his conduct to their injured young
fellow-countrywoman.
She, meantime, under the name of the Beauty of Buttermore, became an
object of interest to all England. Dramas and melo-dramas were produced
in the London theatres upon her story; and for many a year afterwards,
shoals of tourists crowded to the secluded lake and the little homely
cabaret, which had been the scene of her brief romance. It was fortunate
for a person in her distressing situation, that her home was not in a
town; the few and simple who had witnessed her imaginary elevation,
having little knowledge of worldly feelings, never for an instant
connected with her disappointment any sense of the ludicrous, or spoke
of it as a calamity to which her vanity might have co-operated. They
treated it as unmixed injury, reflecting shame upon nobody but the
wicked perpetrator. Hence, without much trial to her womanly
sensibilities, she found herself able to resume her situation in the
little inn; and this she continued to hold for many years. In that
place, and in that capacity, she was seen repeatedly. She was greatly
admired, and became the subject of the poet's song; but "sorrow," to use
the beautiful language of Ossian, "sorrow, like a cloud on the sun,
shaded her soul."
[16] The jail and court-house were at that period divided by the
street. The jail, etc., has been rebuilt, and there is now a
passage from one to the other.
THE BORDER FREEBOOTERS;
OR, A FIGHT IN BORROWDALE.
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