The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-12-15 00:00:00

THE ETTIIICK SHEPHERD.

The following exquisite Verses, which need no comment at our
hands, are by one of the most distinguished of England's
Bards—one of her best and most loyal subjects—the poet
Yirordsworth.
EXTEMPORE EFFUSION, UPON READING THE NOTICE OF VIE
DEATH OF THE POET, JAMES-HOOO.
When First, descending from the Moorlands,
I saw the stream of Yarrow glide
Along a bare and open Valley,
The Ettrick Shepherd was my guide.
When last along its hankS I wandered,
Thro' groves that had begun to shed
Their golden leaves upon the pathways,
My steps the Border Minstrel led.
The mighty Minstrel breathes no longer,
'Mid mouldering ruins low he lies;
And death upon the Braes of Yarrow
Has closed the Shepherd poet's eyes;
Nor has the rolling Year twice measured,
Fruit sign to situ his steadfast course,
Since every Mortal Power of Coleridge
Was frozen at its inarvellous source ;
The rapt One of the Godlike forehead,
The heaven-eyed Creature sleeps in earth;
And Lamb, the frolic and the gentle,
Has vanished from his lonely hearth.
Like clouds that rake the mountain-summits,
Or waves that own no curbing hand.
How fast has -Brother followed Brother
Prom sunshine to the sunless land !
Yet I, whose lids from infant slumbers-
Were earlier raised, remain to hear
A timid voice, that asks in whispers,
" Who net will drop and disappear ?"
Our haughty life is crowned with darkness,
Like London with its own black wreath,
On which, with thee, 0 Crabbe,. forth-looking
I gazed from Hampstead's breezy heath;
As if but yesterday departed,
Thou too art gone before ; yet why
For ripe fruit seasonably gathered
Should frail survivors heave a sigh ?
No inure of old romantic sorrows
For slaughtered Youth and love-lorn Maid,
With sharper grief is Yarrow smitten,
And Ettrick mourns with her their Shepherd dead !
Rydal Mount, N0v.30, 1835. WounswoaTu.

MELANCHOLY DEATH OF A FEMALE CONVICT IN NEWGATE.
—On Wednesday evening an inquest was held in the committee-
room of Newgate, before Mr. Payne, on view of the body of
Harriet Knowles, aged 24, a convict in the above prison, who
was said to have died of a broken heart. Mr. M. Murdock,
surgeon to the prison, deposed that the deceased was admitted
into the infirmary immediately after her trial and conviction at
the Central Criminal Court, on the sth of November last. She
was labouring under violent mental anguish, caused, no doubt,
by her unhappy situation. She wept day and night, obtaining
no rest, and refusing all sustenance. Witness inquired whether
she felt ill? .Tier reply was, "Oh, sir, my pain is here (point-
ing to her heart,) I am wretched and unhappy." Notwith-
standing witness's utmost 'efforts the deceased gradually sank,
and died on Tuesday. On a post mortem examination, witness
could not detect any appearance to account for death ; the or-
ganic powers were healthy. Witness attributed her dissolution
to acute mental suffering. Mr. Cope, the governor of the
prison, stated that the deceased was tried at the Central Crimi-
nal Court for robbing her mistress, found guilty, and sentenced
to seven years' transportation. He (Mr. Cope) understood
that she had, previous to the offence for which she was convict-
ed, borne a good character, and that her friends were creditable,
hardworking persons. Verdict—" The deceased died a natural
death, accelerated by severe mental affliction."