The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-07-18
HONORED HEARTS.
SOME CURIOUS HISTORIES.

are Dy no means singular, as the lew foIIo
ing facts will show
Paul Whitehead, some time secretary to tn
Medmenham Club, and dabbler in rhyme
dying in 1774, left his heart to his nobl
friend ard patron, Lord LIE Despepcer, to
deposited in his mausoleum at West Wy
combe. Lord LIE Despencer accepting tn
bequest, had the heart wrapped in lead an
placed in a marble urn, and on the 18th G
May, 1775, it was carried to its resting plac
with much ceremony.
| Preceding the bier bearing the urn marche,
| grenadier officer in full uniform, nine grena
| iers, two deep, the old one last, two German
| flute players, two supplied choristers. "witl
notes pinned to their backs" two more fiut'
players eleven singing men in SUPPLIES, tive
French horn players, six fifers, two bassoor
players and four drummers with muffieC
drums. Lord LIE Despencer, as chief mourn
er, followed the bier in his uniform as Colone
of the Bucks militia, and was succeeded by
nine officers of the same corps, two ifers, two
drummers and twenty soldiers, with theil
firelocks reversed. The musicians played the
dead March in SAUL" DR.. Arnold. Mr.. At.
terbury and another gentleman beating time
with scrolls of paper.
The church bell tolled. and cannon were
discharged every three and a half minutes.
Upon reaching the mausoleum another hour
was spent in going round and round it, sing
ing funeral gees; then the urn was carried
inside and placed upon a pedestal bearing
the name of the whilom owner of the heart,
and the lines
Unhallowed hands this urn forbear;
No gems, no orient spoil
Lie here concealed but what's more rare
A heart that knew no guile"
Spite of the injunction, some unhallowed
hand stole the urn in 1929, and the where
abouts of Whitehead's heart remains q mys-
terry to the present day.
We are not sure that Byron's should DO
reckoned among lost hearts, but we have
somewhere read that when it was resolved to
send his body from Missolonghi to England,
the Greeks entreated that the heart of the
poet, who dreamed Greece might still be free,
and wrought his best to make the dream
reality, might be lett to them. Their claim
was allowed, and they inclosed the precious
relic in a silver casket. When the fall of Mis-
solonghi could no longer be averted, party of
its defenders sailed out, bearing the heart
with them, to cut their way through the
Turkish army.
The attempt was successful one, but the
heart of the famous Englishman was left
with many brave Greek in the marshes the
desperate band had passed. Napoleons
ACdie SUAAC AI6n " euhCk u LULU lSuOUlt ldtc.
1t had been removed from the great captains
body to be put in separate case; and fearing
Madame Bertrand might steal it, since she
had declared her determination to become its
possessor, the doctor in charge placed the
heart in glass upon his bedroom table. In
the middle of the night, the sound of break
ing glass startled him out of a oose, Just in
time to enable him to detect brown rat
dragging the emperor's heart toward his
hole.
The doctor rescued IT, fastened it in silver
urn, and placed it in the coffin with the body;
but had he slept little more soundly, the
heart of ''imperial Caesar dead" would have
served as titbit for rats supper. Shellys
heart defed cremation, and after his body
was consumed, was snatched from the sub
siding flames by Capt. Trelawny, anu found
TO be entire-a circumstance commemorated
by the words ''Cor Cordium" inscribed on the
marble slab, marking where the poets ashes
and heart lie in the Protestant burial-p place at
Rome.
When Richard the lion hearted knew he
should never don armor or draw sword again,
ne willed that his body should be laid at his
lead fathers feet at Fontevrault, in token of
lis sorrow for the many uneasinesses he had
,aused him in his lifetime, but bequeathed
lis heart to Rouen, in acknowledgment of
he great truth and constancy of his Norman
subjects. The bequest was gratefully &C.
'epted, and duly honored with a beautiful
shrine in the cathedral; but its beauty did
lot save it from being destroyed in 1873, with
,ther Plantagenet memorials. In 1923 the
INITIATED etfigy of the famous crusader was
discovered under the cathedral pavement, and
lear it leaden casket that had inclosed his |
leart, which the finders replaced. Before |
ong, however, it was taken up again and re-
moved to the museum Of antiquities, where it |
emained until 1869, when it foun more
lifting resting place in the choir of the |
never more. let US hope, to be dis |
urbed.
The relict of John Ballot, father of Bruce's
ival, showed her affection for her dead lord |
q peculiar way she embalmed his heart, |
'laced it in an ivory casket, "bunden with |
ylver brycht; and, during her twenty years
f widoWhood, never sat down to meal with
ut this silent remem brancer of happier DAYS. |
Jpon her death, at the age of eighty, in 1929, |
he was buried in her own abbey on the |
anks Of the NTH. Ballots heart, in ODE |
fence to her instructions, being laid on her /,
cad bosom. From that day the whilom
new abbey" was known as Sweetheart alb
ey and never did abbey walls shelter a
weeter truer heart than that of the lady of |
arnard CASTLE
Robert, earl of Mellent aud Leicester, as
tmous among the crusaders of the twelfth
entury for his sagacity, eloquence and valor,
3 he was infamous At home for his unscru-
ulous rapacity, violence and cruelty, finding
fe slipping away from him, assumed the
lonastlc habit and died in the odor of sane
ty at the abbey of Preaux. There he was
uried; but in fulflment of his dying wish,
le heart of the Intidel-hater was sent to the
ospital he had founded at Brackley, to be
lere preserved in salt. Perhaps the old
arrior thought, like Lord Windsor, that the
cart Of an Englshman ought to rest on his
wn land.
That nobleman died at Spain in 1874, and
rected that his body should be buried in
lie Cathedral Church of the noble city of
iege, and his heart inclosed in lead, laid
nder his fathers tomb, IN the chapel at
Bucks, ''in token Of true Eng
shman." So, too, Sir Robert Peckham or
cred his heart to be conveyed to Denham, in
lie same county, to be placed in the family
Iult; but his relatives do not seem to have
zen in any hurry to execute his behest. The
orthy knight died in 1869, and the register
burials at Denham contains this entry
EdmQndus Peckham FSn coppa of S;r