Whig and tribune. [volume] (Jackson, Tenn.) 1870-1877, 1874-11-14
A ROMANCE OF OLD.
The story of the RateIiRe
from the London Daily Telegraph.

From the London Daily Telegraph.
Nine days is the duration OF the
notoriety proverbially attributed to
wonder, and very often does it
happen that in much less than nine
days the most moving and the most
terrible dramas in the reportory
of passion, of sorrow or crime, ex-
cite astonishment, undergo discus
sion, aud are thon clean forgotten.
The real fades moro swiftly and
more completely than the imagina-
ry: especially whom the creature
Of fiction who have been adumbra-
ted by the hand of genius are i'm
mortal. Not ali the art of the Ger
men savant can awaken Tydides of
Sarpedon. They are very dead in
deed. Even the course of Simois is
uncertain; but the sEneis' lives,
as though it had been created day
haforo TesterdeS, Looking at the
OusJfo of mOd0ra cotton -
rapidity with which modern thought
is transmitted; looking at the crowd
ed state of the worlds stage, the
variety of the scenery, the multi
plicity of the performances, the ca
price and impatienee of the audi
eDce, it must be very startling or
pathetic drama which can be expect
ed to draw tor more than the ira
ditional nine days. Still to this
rule there are occasional exeep-
tions; and, in the melancholy sto-
ry OF real life, which may be styled
the Derwentwater Romance, may be
recognized a tradegy which, for
nearly a hundred and eighty years
has lost nothing of its deeply path
etic interest. At last, however.
that interest seems fated to be OBJ
liberated by Times unsparing fin
gers. There took place, on Tues
day last, at Newcastle-on-Tyne, a
great sale of the estates, in the
county of Northumberland belong
ing to the commissioners of Green
wich hospital; and the auction nat
uraliy attracted much attention,
not only from the extent and the
value Of the property brought un-
der'the hammer. but from the ''histo-
rieal associations with which 1t was
surrounded. Lot the first compris-
ed Dilston, the ancient seat of the
Ratcliffe family, with the ruins of
its ancient castle, its chapel, and
the modern mansion, with tho Woe
! ley and Hexhampshiro properties,
in all 4 500 acres, inclusive of the
Woodlands, shootings minerals, ETC.,
pertaining thereto. This noble de-
mesne was knocked down TO Mr..
Beaumont, NJ. p, the owner of ex-
tensive adjacent estates, for the sum
of 923I,O0O. The Thornborough
estate was sold 10 Col. Joicey, an
extensive coal-owner 10 the county
of Durham, commanding Il vOlun-
tecr battalion, for $1,000 pounds;
and several parcels Of land belong
! ing TO the same estate, but of less
importance, were subsequently dis
posed OF at high prices. Thus
comes 10 a close tho proprietOrial
connection of the commissioners
OF Greenwich hospital with the val
ley of the Tyne; and with the last
fiat of the auctioneer at Newark
castle, the interest of the Dcrwent-
water Romance may be said virtu-
ally to have disappeared.
P,ior, however, 10 the sale taking
place, certain solemn arrangements,
demanded by the requirements OF
[ 3ooo,.,,v, I'D hoar, ~, oIa ~ n;Is4~,
castle. The Greenwich commission
ers had undoubted parliamentary
right to dispose of the Derwertwa-
ter estates, of which they had been
, for nearly two centuries the trus-
tees; but it would scarcely have
; been within the proprieties TO have
, sold, at the same time, the bones OF
OF generations of dead Ratcliffes to
the highest bidder. Thus last
J week the vault beneath the old
chapel at Dilston was entered, and
six collins were reverently Temov-
ed. The first five contained the
ashes of Francis the first earl
who died in 1896; of Edward the
second earl, who died in I705: OF
, Mr.. Francis Radcliffe, who died in
1904; and of the Ladies Barbara
and Mary Radcliffe, whose decease
took place respectively in 1896 and
1926. These five cofEins were car
ried to the cemetery of the Catho-
lie church at Hexam, there 10 be
reinforced. 1t was on the last coffin
however, that interest principally
centred, for in this were the remain:
of James, third and last earl oI
Derwentwater, who, in the yeal
I7l6, and at the carly age of27, was
behcadod on Tower hill, The dus
of the Inflated Jacobite earl hai
i. been removed to Thorndon, in Es
/ sex, there to be reintered in thu
family vault of Lord Petre. The re
moval toek plaeesby rail, and sci