The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-11 00:00:00

MI IMOIR OF MRS. AGNES

MACLEI LOSE-THE CLARINDA OF BURNS.

O gent le lady, I dal hear you talk
Far ab, )ve singing ; after you were gone
I grew , acquainted with my heart, and searched

'What si iried it so ! Ala; ! I found it love !

Though t he life of Burns was troubled and sorrow-
ful, yet muc b as he sat apart from the world with his
mournful bu t holy thoughts, there never was a being
whose soul w as more open to joy and cheerfulness, or
whose senses were more fresh and vigorous towards the
perception at td enjoyment of actual beauty. Grateful
teas he to He. wen in his heart for field and forest, hill
anc! wale ; but more thankful far than for the green
sumn.nr, or th e mild air, or the flowers or the stars, or
all that. makes this world so beautiful, was he for the
good arca beauth'ul beings he knew in it—the fair
shapes of womankind who tended his steps or adminis-
tered to his deligh ts.

Of kind-h tart( d and beauiiful women, Burns, per-
haps, by reason of the attractive goodness of his dis-
position, and his- a rdent warmth of soul, was acquainted
with a larger circk . than often falls to the lot of one
man. Every page of his works glitters with some dear
and ineffaceable /memory of one or other whom his
passions or virtues pr ompted him to celebrate in verse.
The." lasses," as he 'called them in his own Doric lan-
guage, were ever brio gin.- a warble to his lip; to them
his affections fastened, and the impulses of his soul,
like bright wine, were ever pouring out to them in song.
Of this crowd of. beauties, none made a more per-
manent impress fon upon his susceptible heart than Mrs.
Maclehose, the celebrated Edinburgh beauty—the
beautiful Clarinda, whom the poet loved constantly to
toast when the wine circulated—the accomplished
Clarinda, to whine, under the name of Sylvander, be
addressed so much prose and verse. In addition to a
countenance of the sweetest expression, and a person
the most preposilessing, Mrs. Mac., as Burns was
accustomed familiarly, or rather lovingly, to call her,
was possessed of ti ose accomplishments, which render
the former irresistible. Her voice was perhaps one of
the sweetest toned that it was possible to hear ; and
when it is remembered that the poet often beard, from
her lips, his own .exquisite and feeling ballads, little
surprise can be mainifested that his heart was so
deeply smitten.
A few days since only, and the once-beloved of Burns
was still in the world, at Calton Hill, Edinburgh,
though bearing up wider the weight of eighty-two years.
Her maiden name we s Agnes Craig, and she subse-
quently married Mr. t.l. Maclehose, writer, of Glasgow.
It was on the death of her husband, and during her
youthful widowhood, that the poet became so fervently
attached,to her ; and now that neither of them can blush
at the innocent recital of this amour, we will recite from
personal remembrances, and other sources, all that we
know of this interesting circumstance. Mrs. Maclehose,
or rather Clarinda, we are aware, bad many letters in
her possession which passed between herself and Burns
upon this occasion, and she refrained, for various rea-
sons, from giving them to the world ; but it is now to
be hoped that this correspondence will speedily appear
in some complete and authentic form, at the same time
removing doubts, and revealing gratifying and delight-
ful circumstances.
While influenced by the beauty and attractions of
Mrs. Macleshose, Burns resigned himself to the two-
fold captivations of love and verse. Charlotte Hamil-
ton, who had before time been so long the exquisite ob-
ject of his poetic homa,je, had now passed away from
his memory, or if any image of her remembrance re-
mained in him, it was tota:ly swept away or obliterated
by the newer charms of the fair Clarinda. The first
intimations of this amour, wbkb appears to have filled
the mind of Burns for a long period with an inexpres-
sible sweetness and gratification, appears in a letter
which he wrote to his friend Richard Brown, mariner,
dated December 30, 1787 :
" Almighty love," says the poet, " still reigns and
revels in my bosom, and I am at this moment ready to
bang myself for a young Edinburgh widow. My high-
land dick, that used to hang beside my crutches, I have
gr.ively removed into a neighbouring closet, the key of
which I cannot command in case of spring-tide pa-
roxysm. You may guess of her wit by the verses which
she sent me the other day :
" Talk not of love ; it gives me pain ;
For love has been my foe ;
He bound me with an iron chain,
And plunged me deep in woe.'"

But the opening of this correspondence batsmen
Clarinda and Burns commenced by a letter from. the
poet himself. It is to be found among a number of
others ; some written with tenderness and feeling ;
others bold and vehement ; but all showing the ardour
of an impassioned heart. It runs plainly and simply
thus :

" I can say with truth, Madam, that I never met
with a person in my life whom I more anxiously wished
to meet again than yourself. You are a stranger to me ;
but I am an odd being ; some yet unnamed feelings,
things, not principles, but better than whims, carry me
further than boasted reason ever did a philosopher. Our
worthy common friend, in her usual pleasant way,
rallied me a good deal on my new acquaintance. She
tells me you are not only a critic, but a poetess."
Of the powers of Clarinda in rhyme many specimens
might be adduced, which certainty have an elegiac and
plaintive beauty about them, and which smote the
heart of Burns. Speaking of a copy of one of these,
Burns, in writing to his beautiful favourite herself;
says, " Your last verses have so delighted me that I
have got an excellent old Scots air that suits the mea-
sure, and you shall see them in print. I want
four stanzas—you gave me but three, and one
of them alluded to an expression in my former
letter ; so I have taken your two first verses, with a
slight alteration in the second, and have added a third,
but you must help me to a fourth. Your first stanza,"
continues he, still alluding to the same set, " is worthy
of Sappho ; I am in raptures with it !"
Most of the compositions addressed by Burns to
Clarinda were produced during the painful leisure
which a bruised limb afforded him. On this occasion
Clarinda was a constant visitor to the crippled bard,
and diverted him with her wit, and soothed him with
her presence. At her approach it was always apparent
that his troubled spirits grew more calm ; fer
her presence was to his feverish heart like a
tropical night, beautiful, soothing, and invigorating.
Yet, strange to say, at this time, watched as he was by
beauty on his couch, and praised as a poet from
" Maidenkirk to John o'Groats' " the poet was any-
thing but happy. " I have a hundred times wished,"
he says in a letter to Mrs. Dunlop, " that one could
resign life as an officer resigns his commission."
Some have chat acterised Burns' courtship of Cla-
rinda as too presumptuous and overbold, but those who
knew Clarinda cannot but feel what Burns thought of
her, when he wrote, " People of nice sensibility and
generous minds have a certain intrinsic dignity which
fires at being trifled with or lowered, or even too closely
approached." And though in the subsequent extract
from one of his poems addressed to her, the charge of
" boldness" may seem somewhat fair, yet, when the
generous and exuberant nature of Burns is considered,
it will appear rather in the light of a noble compliment
than a licentious verse. It runs thus:—
In vain would Prudence, with a decent sneer, lit
Point to a censuring world and bid me fear ;
Above this world on wings of love I rise,
I know its worst, and can that worst despise ;
Wrong'd, slander'd, shunn'd, unpitied, unredrest,
The mock'd quotation of the scorner's jest,
Let Prudence' direst bodements on me fall—
CLARINDA—rich reward!—repays them all.
And, to show the durable and lasting nature of his
affection, in another part. of the same poem be swears
By all on high adoring mortals know,
By all the conscious villain fears below,
to love her so long as the trees grow, or the streams
harmoniously run.
The bard had by this time, partly under Clarinda's
own kind and inspiriting attendance, perhaps, recovered
from the effects of his fall; and he was contemplating
his departure from Edinburgh, when he wrote verses to
" the fair sun of all her sex," commencing :
Clarinda, mistress of my soul
The measured time is run
theset be overlooked
drops
And which close with the following picturesque and
beautiful lines, that evince on the part of Clarinda
reciprocityxoe part
—but, whichby is not
precious o
That fill thy lovely eyes,
il
of
fh) trhberipgohet
No other light shall guide my steps
seems
eb:damepsaartrisuree'sorely to
This seasonT l
have agitated him. He was too deeply enamoured to
snap asunder the links of his affection with a careless
hand, and it is beautiful to observe the various oppor-
tunities he seizes on, whereby he msy testify by some
token or present his fast-during love.
ng The subsequent
lines furnish a ready t •
nstance out of many. In the
edition of his poems
they are entitled, "To a Lady,
with a present of a pair of Drinking Glasses:—
Fair Empress of the Poet's soul,
And Queen of Poetesses,
Clarinda, take this little boon,
This humble pair of glasses.
He then bids her, with her delicate ruby lips to a
first and a second health, for purposes therein men-
tioned, but above all she is prayed by him„ o drink a
third, and that " third, to thee and me, love! At this
time he sent her, too, it appears, a copy of the
_oopersonalr
account which he gave of himself to Dr. .Moteee,
ev
therein describing himself to her as a " very devotee
to the warmest degree of enthusiasminlo
fromve him was
The last letter that Clarinda received
and abstract
fraught more than usual with spirituallito her the vision
speculation. He endeavoured
to
oi:ot
which both he and she
of a pure and uoembodied heavenlystatf'.
interermmunion abose
lead together lives of
might, in a state of
blessedness, which, upon this
gross earth, they at presentcould not comprehend :he
writes thus :—" What a
bliss life of would we lead in
mutual enjoyment of friendship and love Ab, I
rer
you laughing at my fairy fancies, but I am certain I
would be a happy creature beyond anything we call bliss
here below ; nay it would be a paradise congenial to you,
too. Don t you see us hand in hand, surveying the
comets flaming by us," &c. &c.
There may appear a vein of levity pervading this,
but we would rather believe that, at the time Bunn

.~,z..--...

wrote it.the solemnity of the idea weighed most on Li
mind, and that he wished it to operate with like eff, •et
upon the soul of his Clarinda. That disembodimet
bath taken place; the spirits of both, it is hoped, are '
now among those " made perfect, and the exalted plea-
sures which, in an after state, the poet shadowed to
himself as enjoying with the beloved one of his soul, are
now fulfil:led.

Mr. Mo.ragomery, the author of ‘, Satan," has,
written, and means to publish, a new poem, called
" Luther."

NEW BISHOP OF JERUSALEM.—On Sunday
the 7tli inst., the Rev. Michel Solomon Alexander was
consecrated Bishop of England and Ireland in Jeru-
salem, by tke Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by the
Bishops of London, Rochester, and New Zealand. A
sermon appropriate to the occasion was preached by the
Rev. Dr. M'Ca.ll. There were present the Prussian
Minister, Sir Stratford Canning. Sir R. H. Inglis, and
Sir C. Hunter, the Right Hon. Dr. Nicholl, the vicar-
general to hiS Grace, Mr. F. H. Dyke, the registrar, &c.
&c. The Queen's license assigns Syria, Chi. Wes, Egypt,
and Abyssinia as the limits within :which the Bishop is
to exercise jurisdiction. We understand the new Bishop
was originally of the Jewish persuasion, but converted
to Christianity. The Archbishop of Canterbury has ap-
pointed Sir John Doeson (the Queen's Advocate) Master
in the room of Dr. Nicholl, who has ac-
ceptedof the Faculties
office
,
of Judge Advocate-General, or Judge

ALARMING FIRE NEAR WANDSWORTIL--A
few minutes after one o'clock on Yuesdaymorning, a mast
alarming tire broke out in the Wandsworth-road, on th e
premises of Mr. Thomaslialifax kart, turner and dealer
in toys, No. 3, Lucas-place. The flames, within a sh4yrt
time after the discovery of the tire, ex..tended themselves
all over the building. Several small engines from tl ie
neighbouring parishes first reached !Ile spot, but the it
services were not of much avail until tile arrival of tl le
West of England engine, and that of ithe Brigade fro m
the Waterloo-road, closely followed by those from t'
Southwark Bridge-road, G'haudos-street, and other s Ca-
tions of the Brigade, when, by great exertions of the fire-
men, the flames were by three o'clock so far subdues', as
to allay all fear of their extending further. Mr. 11:irt's
premises are, with the stock and furniture, totally de-
stroyed, and the houses on either side considerably da-
maged. Mr. Hart is insured for stock and b uilding in
the Phoenix Fire-office.

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT.—On Saturday last
Mr. and Mrs. Brown, of Union-crescent, Margate:, lost.
their lives in a very melancholy manner. Upon intuiry
it appears that Mr. and Mrs. Brown were driving in a
pony chaise from Margate to Sandwich, and were pro-
ceeding by a cross and-unfrequented road called Spread-
ing-street. A large quantity of dirt had accumulated
on the legs of the pony and the wheels of the chaise,
and the unfortunate deceased, with the view of washing
off the dirt, drove the chaise into a pond, where, both
himself, Mrs. Brown, and the pony were drowned. At..
the inquest; which was held on Monday, a verdict a
"Accidentally drowned" was returned. Mr. Brown was.
organist of Trinity Church, Margate.
DREADFUL MURDER —Robert Chas. Walsh,
Esq., a Magistrate of the county of Waterford, who had
issud a habere to dispossess some tenants, was beaten to.
death on Saturday last, on his return from Dungarvan
Petit S6ssions. The notice of his servants having been
attracted to his horse and car returning alone, they pro-
ceeded in search of him, when they found his body about
a mile from his house, his head beaten into a mummy.—
Dublin Evening
A RACE OF GIANTS.—AN EXTRAORDI-
NARY FAmmr.—There is now a person of the name of
Scott, a nurseryman, about three miles from Manchester,
and near the Independent College now building, who is
one of six sons, now living, and whose united stature is
the extraordinary one of 38 feet, or 6 feet 4 inches on the
average. The lowest in stature is 6 feet 21 inches. The
father of this race of giants, who was married when 39
years of age, has now living nine children, six sons and
three daughters, two of the latter being very tall, whilst
the other is by comparison diminutive. About seven
years ago, all the family assembled at the family resi-
dence near Carlisle, and on the sons visiting the city,
which they did, walking two and two, arm in arm, the
circumstance caused much attention. The mother was
only 19 at the time of her marriage, and she died about
twelvemonths acre.—Leeds Mercury.
The last Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin was
Sir Thomas Hackett, in 1688. History has recorded
him a rigid bigot. Before him there was not one for 80
years. Thomas Lyons, Esq., a Roman Catholic, was on
Monday el;?cted Mayor of Cork by the new Town Coun-
cil, at a salary of I,2ool.—Limerick Chronicle. (It may
not be generally known, though it is a singular fact, that
the present Catholic Mayor of Cork is descended from
the family of Hackett. Thus, after a struggle of over 150
years arc the Catholics of Ireland restored to their rights
in this identical family. It need not be added that the
record " rigid bigot " against Sir Thomas Hackett means
nought else but " staunch Papist," a characteristic iden-
tifying the connection.)—Corh Southern Reporter.
THINKING BEFORE LEAPING.—About six
o'clock on the evening of Weinesday last, Geddes, the
keeper of the Humane Society's house on the Green, was
informed that some object was floating in the river near
the bend at Peat Bog. Taking out the boat to ascertain
the truth of the statement, he found an old woman
up to the chin, in a part of the river where a single
step would have carried her into sixteen feet water.
When within an oar's length, he inquired how she
came into such an uncomfortable position on a winter
night, and the old dame replied, that " she cam'
down to droon herself- on account of drink, but the water
was sac awfu' cauld that she had ta'eu the rue and wanted
oot." The keeper then took hold of the old toper, and,
after sousing her twice over the head, lifted her into the
boat, froin which she was transferred to a warm bath in
the Humane Society's house, and was soon consigned to
her friends nothing the ,worse, though before going away
she remarked to Geddes that she had got a disgust of
drowning with a vengeance, and would not fish him again
in a hurry.—Scotch Reformers' Gazette.
The log was so dense in Shields harbour on
Tuesday night that the steam-ferry which left the south-
side at seven o'clock, was detained all night upon the
river, and it was break of day the sueceeding morning
before the passengers could be landed.— Tyne Mercury.

Intelligence of the birth of the Prince of Wales
reached this place about half-past nine o'clock yesterday
evening, and occasioned the most intense satisfaction.
The bells of Great St. Mary's rung right merrily, and
groups of persons paraded the streets till a late hour.
shouting loud hurrahs with a degree of enthusiastic
loyalty which was perfectly delightful.—Cambridge Ad-
vertiser.

Thanks to a bountiful Providence, the last week's
delightful weather has enabled the husbandman in " the
bonnie north" to gather of the fruits of the earth, and
be satisfied. Serious fears were entertained ten day's
since, and the corn in many stooks had sprouted. The
last week commenced with a clear bright frost, which at
once stopped the progress of germination, and a brisk sld
breeze, aided by a sunny sky, so far_ thedried corn and
straw, that it is now safely stacked. The farmers are
now thatching, and their well-filled homesteads delight
the heart of the philanthropist, though a black scowl
plays on the countenance of the Corn-law League.— Kil.,
heavy Moderator.
On Monday morning week the family of an ex-
tensive farmer in the neighbourhood of Seacroft
were thrown into a state of great consternation by the
sudden disappearance of the eldest daughter. It was
soon discovered, however, that the fair fugitive had
eloped with one of her father's servant boys, and it is
rumoured that the " gallant youth " has since led her to
the hymeneal altar. Of course, the event has given rise
to considerable gossip among the retailers of scandal in
the immediate neighbourhood.—Leeds Mercury.
In the reign of Charles the First, a Mayor of
Norwich actually sent a poor fellow to prison, for say-
ing the Prince of Wales was born without a shirt.—
Cambridge Advertiser.
A fire broke out in the night of the 2d inst.. in
a house of the court, called the Quatre Tours, behind
the Tribunal de Conunerce, at Marseilles. A family, on
the third floor, could not be roused until the flame; had
made such progress that no other escape was left but
through the windows. The father first made the attempt
t
by means of a rope, and got down as far as
the rofe,fir
floor, but here the flames bursting out, caught the .
ile
burnt it through, and the poor man droppiPg., -
her leg
ger. The mother threw herself out, and 100
d, and were
pavement, was so severely injured that his VI: in win
by the fall. All their five children folelowtt_e
n I girl, Who
more or less seriously injured, except Ise_.
was taken up with only some slight br j s
I
Sunday last with
This steamer reached Falmouth
cgllndi, Egypt, and
ARRIVAL OF TIIIVGREAT
that portion of the mails
fr 7 of Marseilles. Her
Malta, which was not sent by Y "LIVERPOOL.--
This
3d inst. We
the 2Stli- ult., and from D
tisiseagers, among whom the
dates of departure are from,..tiaanrd,ria the 22d, Malta,
subjoin a list of the p*
be observed :—Passengers—
nsderCvaanptt,ainsirEGfloiortdoonf
and two
Leaver, child,
Mr. and Mrs. LFowler,Mr. Lieutenant Mor-
gan,Bremer, Captain Grattan,.
CnahmineesseornoStiorrieat7allBneramai
Skelton, Mr.
Captain Cotton, Captain Roe•ers,
Hartley and servant,
Nash, Mr. North, cup id and Mrs.
Rev. Mr. Mannermg, Mr. Jardine, Dr. Ducat, Mr.
CaptainF al due Mr. Chick, Miss Bolters,
Miss —II- t - 'k M. Tastar, Mr. Bon:, 1"
servants,
Gray, Dr. Neac ,
and Mrs. Elliot, child,
- Russell, Colonel Anderson, Thomas
Camillure, Captain
Burt, William Bowden.
LpirutAennadnetrson,
As a female of fifteen years of age was passing
along n the Boulevard, on her return home to the Rue
Richelieu,
a
twotlt at theisaYsago she was grossly insulted by a
man, moment she saw her brother,
1‘
ho was coming to meet her, she complained to him.
The. brother seized the man by the collar, and, in the
scuffle, the latter fell into the road, and the wheel of a
and,
a s,i
cabriolet passed over his leg. The persons who picked
him up wished to carry him to a commissary of police,
in order that he might prefer a charge against the young
man. " No," said he, "I. will do nothing, of this kind—l
was wrong, and am justly punished. All that I have to
request of you is to assist me into a hackney cn. ch."
This was accordingly done, and the man speedily made
his disappearance, after having received so severs a
lesson... .
A letter from Treport says that in the morning
of the 31st ult., between 90 and 100 boats, three-fourths
of which did not belong to the harbour, came in with
between 17,000 and 18,000 measures of herrings, and the
price which was at Sfr. the measure, fell to 6fr. 50c.
This is said to be a draught not before equalled within
the memory of man, and the more desirable, as, for the
four last seasons, the produce was not sufficient to re-
munerate the fishermen. At least 1,000 people are said
to have been employed in carrying the fish from the
boats to the salting-houses, and they must have earned
by their day's work at least 3,000 fr. The net progt of
the day's produce is estimiied at 200,000 fr.