McCook weekly tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 188?-1886, 1884-03-27
GRACE DARLING.
some Points in the Biography of the
Modest English Heroine
Notes and Queries.


in the lord mayors show of 1888 was
the boat IN which Grace Darling and
her father went out to the wreck of the
Forfarshire and rescued the nine sur
vivors, at daybreak on Friday, Septem-
Der Z, 1888. This boat is stout fish
ing coble, built for half a dozen oars,
and i. looks as strong as ever. 1t was
on view all last summer at the Fisher
les Exhibition at South Kensington,
and on November it was carried
through London streets, high on a
wheeled truck drawn by team of no.
BILE cart horses and guarded, as was
right and proper, by British sailors.
Where is this boat now? 1t is kept safe
and in honor, as such a Lobe relic
should be. But for ITS history, it would
long ago have been sold, among other
old stores, by the Trinity house; and
perhaps it was so sold and bought by
some private owner. One would like
to know this; and still more should 1
like to know how much of that heroic
story of forty-five years ago was in the
minds of the lookers-on. 1t is only
the simple story of an English peasant
girl of three and twenty, who had lived
for twelve years with her parents on
the lonely Longstone island, and who,
after that night of tempest, persuaded
her father, the lighthouse man, to row
out with her, across mile of stormy
sea, to the dangerous rock on which,
through his telescope, few perishing
human beings could be seen. She did
it; and she brought every one of them
safe back with her. That is all; but
it is one of those stories that men do
not willingly let die.
She, Grace Horsley Darling, was
born at Marlborough on November "a,
1915, the seventh child of William Oar
ling and Thomson Horsley, his wife.
These details l CLEAN from poor but
genuine little anonymous memoir of
her, published at Berwick-upon-Tweed
in 1843, just after her death, which lit
tie memoir also tells me that during
those five years of her fame, 1888 to
lS43, she steadily refused to-. quit her
parents or her island, and went on liv-
ing there as. quietly and as simply as
before. She was a devout, courageous
girl-comely and sincere and silent.
She had (says good old William How
itt) ''the most gentle, quiet, amiable
look and the sweetest smile that ever
saw in person of her station and ap-
pearance. You see she is a thoroughly
good creature When Lloyd's agent
his name was Sinclair, and he de-
serves to be remembered for her sake
went out to the Longstone he said to
her: swell, Grace, We'll surely be
able to get you silk gown for this"
and she said: 'sDo you think so, sirP"
with perfect simplicity. Silk gowns
came in plenty; silver teapots came,
and votes of thanks and coin to the
amount of E700, and visitors from afar
yes, even from St. Petersburg. But,
as my little pamphlet truly says, she
ssnever for a moment forgot the
modest dignity of conduct which
became her sex and station. Large
sums of money were offered to
her by London managers if she would
but come and sit in a boat at their the
aters, and men far above her sent her
proposals of marriage. But she was
not professional beauty" so she de-
,clined the stage-she was not a sue
cessful murderess, therefore she re-
fused to marry in that way. Neverthe-
less, when consumption attacked her,
and she was carried to her native Bam-
borough to die, perceive among the
crowds at her funeral there was GER
tain ssyoung man from Durham, who
is said to have cherished an ardent af-
lection for the lamented deceased"
Him she might have married had she
lived.
I do not know whether there is any
monument to her in Bamboroug church.
ward, nor whether st. Cuthbert's chap
ell, on Houselands, the largest of the
Farne islands, was ever rebuilt Gas
some had proposed) in memory of her.
Perhaps new chapel was not wanted,
for the old one was destroyed long ago
by a Protestant monarch, and since his
time, says my pamphlet, ssthere has
been no public celebration of divine
x.orship f,nOn the island >,