The Sun.
London, England, 1834-09-04 00:00:00

CURIOUS TRADITIONS RESPECTING SIR

FRANCIS DRAKE.

According to the popular traditions of the western coun-
ties, it was not by his skill as an engineer, and the muni-
ficent expenditure of the wealth which he had so daringly
obtained, that Drake supplied Plymouth with fresh water ;
but by mounting his horse, riding about Dartmoor till he
came to a spring sufficiently copious for his design, then
wheeling round, pronouncing some magical words, and gal-
loping back into the town, with t4e stream in full flow, and
forming its own channel at the horse's heels. Nor was it
with the Queen's ships that he defied and baffled the invin-
cible armada, but by taking a piece of wood and cutting it
in pieces over the side of his own vessel, when every chip
as it fell into the sea became a man-of-war. There is an-
other version of this miracle--that he was playing at kales
(or skittles) on the Hoe at Plymouth, when tidings came
that the Spanish fleet was sailing into the harbour, and that
he heard the news without the slightest emotion, and played
out his game. But when that was ended he called for a
block of wood and an axe, bared his arms, chopped the
block into smaller pieces, and threw them into the sea,
when every piece became a fine ship, and presently formed
a fleet, by which the enemy were attacked and destroyed.
To sail round the world was, in the popular belief, an ad-
venture of the most formidable kind, and not to be per-
formed by plain sailing, but by reaching the end of this
round flat earth, and there shooting the gulf, which is the
only passage from one side of the world to the other.
Drake shot the gulf one day ; when on the other side, he
asked his men if any of them knew where they were ? A
boy made answer that he knew, and that they were just
then under London Bridge ; upon which, stung by jealousy,
Drake exclaimed, " Hast thou, too, a devil ? If I let thee
live, there will then be one greater man than myself ;" and
with that he threw him overboard. When Sir Francis
left home to embark on this long voyage, upon taking
leave of his wife, he told her that if he did not return with-
in a certain number of years, she might conclude him to
be dead, and consider herself at liberty to take a second
husband. One version fixes the term at seven years,
another at ten. During those years, Madam Drake,
though assailed by many suitors, remained true as Pene-
lope to her absent lord ; but after the term had expired
she accepted an offer. One of Drake's ministering spirits,
whose charge it was to convey to him any intelligence in
which he was nearly concerned, brought him the tidings.
Immediately he loaded one of his great guns, and fired it
right down through the globe on one side, and up on the
other, with so true an aim, that it made its way into the'
church between the two parties most concerned, just as the
marriage service was beginning. "It comes from Drake!"
cried the wife to the now unbrided bridegroom ; " he is
alive, and there must be neither troth nor ring between thee
and me." This is the Devonshire tradition of the " old
warrior," as they call him, and his lady. The story in So-
mersetshire is, that as they were on their way to the church
a huge round stone fell from the sky, close by the intended
bride, and alighted upon the train of her gown. She said,
" it came from her husband," and immediately turned back ;
and it was not long before lie returned, and, imitating Guy
Earl of Warwick, asked alms of her at his own door in dis-
guise ; a smile betrayed that he was telling a feigned tale,
and the faithful wife recognised him and fell upon his neck.
It is said that the stone still remains upon the estate where
it fell ; that it is there used as a weight upon the harrow ;
and is so well contented with this usage, unceremonious as
for so extraordinary a relic it may be deemed, that if it be
removed from the estate, it always returns thither, no per-
son knows how.—Cabinet Cyclopvdia.—Southey's Naval
History.

WEBSTER, THE AMERICAN ORATOR.

Daniel Webster is the son of a New Hampshire farmer.
He was sent to Dartmouth College in Vermont, with his
elder brother, at the usual age ; where he was considered
absolutely incapable of comprehending a lesson. His elder
brother (who is now an inferior state judge) was the first
scholar of his year, took the first honours, and was ushered
into the world as a man of irresistible talent. Daniel re-
turned home in disgrace, and went to work to his father's
woods as a common labourer. He passed two or three
years thus ; and then, to the surprise of every body, and
with the opposition of his family, he undertook the study
of the law. His first plea undeceived his friends. He
soon became known, and was sent to the legislature of his
own state ; and afterwards removed to Boston, the capital
of New England, where, as a lawyer, he carried everything
before him. He joined the aristocratic party in politics,
and was the leader of the Adams party when Jackson suc-
ceeded in obtaining the Presidency. Though his party
fell, however, he held his own place with the people, and
he is still considered throughout America the first stater
man and the most gifted man we ever had. He has of
late years distinguished himself more than ever by his mas-
terly expositions of the constitution. As a member of the
Senate of Congress his services are invaluable ; and the
need that is fet of his mind in his present position is the
only thing that would interfere with his advancement to the
Presidency. In person he is strongly built, with a head
set on his shoulders like that of a Hercules. His face is
the most extraordinary one I have ever seen. He is dark.
with jet black hair, an immense forehead, lambent, deep-set
eye, heavy, lowering brows, a mouth of a kind of sculp-
tured strength, yet of great beauty, faultless teeth, a form
like an archdevil, and a smile like an archangel. His sob-
riquet among the opposite party is " the god-like man," a
phrase which has been applied to him ever since the com-
mencement of his political career. As Coleridge says of
Southey, "he possesses, but is not possessed by his genius."
No man ever had his powers so completely tnder command.
At a moment's warning, the vast stores of his mind are
ready, and the most impromtu speech rolls from his tongue
in perfect composition. He is generally calm, always logi-
cal, enchains the attention of every listener by the driest
argument, and has a voice of all compass, and a manner of
the most singularly mixed grace and power. His eloquence,
when he warms, is perfectly overpowering, and then he
comes out with a knowledge of the poetical, which yo*
would think impossible from the severe cast of his mind.
He is a charming table companion, and in private Welke'
most naturally elegant and fascinating man I ever knew.
No man so felicitous at a compliment : no man so gracious
and winning. The women adore him. Abroad, however,
he is the stern, plain dressed, grave republican ;. and the
common man who passes him in the street thinks he eau
read the cares and responsibilities of the whole United
States government on his great brow. Never was a man
so formed for universal popularity.—Law Magazine-

• The keeper of a country inn, after extolling in an
advertisement the salubrity of his surrounding neighbourhood,
concludes with this equivocal and ominous awouncement,....
" hearse and mourning coaches."

On Saturday last, a girl natma Ferguson, with her
niece, about five or six years of age, met a shocking death ill
a pit at Borrowstonness, r:, seems this most ill-starred young
woman had been pr,,,claimed to a lad upon the previous Sun.
day, and was to have been " cried out" on Sabbath last, but
as a custom is observed in that quarter among the colliers,
that of " the cries,"s
that no one should work during the
this unfortunate female attracted general notice for his indus.
trious habits in attending the pit regularly since her betroth.
ment. Accordingly, on Saturday, when she
descended with
her young relation for the last time, a loaded bucket was in the
act of coming up the pit, and the two coming in contact, that
in which the girls were was 'oVerturned, and both were preci.
pitated to thebottomTip it the pit being 50 fathoms deep. When
the bodies were got
vas ascertained that the brains of
the young woman Ferguson were dashed our, and-her breast
completely laid o presenting a most touching and horrible
scene,—Giasno,:enti,
:., • ,ourier.