The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1894-03-10
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THE LATE MR.. LYMPET.
From All the Year Round

If there was one thing on which We Lynn
pets did pride ourselves it was on the
family name. From our earliest childhood
we were taught to believe that Lympet
was apart from and superior to all other men
as my dear father used to say, there were
working people, gentry, nobility, and Lynn
pets The family held the first place in
our estimations; we were Lympets first, and
Britons afterwards. Not one of us but
gloried in his birth, and did his best to
live up to our proud old family motto
"Quod tango teneo." As for our belief in
the grandeur Of our name, it did not admit
of argument 1t was almost a part of our
religion, and, like the Chinese, we wor-
shipped our ancestors. Not that they had
done anything very particular. The mere
student of history has possibly never even
heard of them; for none of them ever ac-
quired vulgar fame. No violent partisans
they. In the broils and turmoils, the woes
of parties and the feuds of factions, which
marked the stormy youth of England, they
mixed but little. They played no promi-
nent part for White Rose or Red Rose,
King or Parliament, Stuart or Guelph
They never attempted to ride the high
horse, and as result, through all the trou-
bles they kept the family seat. In truth,
a Lympet had too little to gain to peril his
life and lands in any ones cause. By birth
he was placed above ambition. Being al
ready a Lympet, he could rise no higher,
for. like the Rohan, he could make the
proud vaunt: Roi ne puis Prince ne daigne,
Lympet je suis.' Therefore the Lympets
generally held aloof, and when, as some
times happened, they found themselves
compelled to take their stand with one
party or the other, they acted with great
discretion, and compromised themselves as
little as possible. As an instance of Lynn
pet tact in trying times, may mention the
career of the sixth Baron Rockborough,
who acceded to the headship of our house
in the last year of the Great Rebellion.
This nobleman first served in Ireland under
Cromwell, who rewarded him with large
grant of land in that country; next, he was
created Viscount Cumberground in the
peerage of ireland by Charles the Second
after the Restoration; and finally he was
advanced to the dignity of Earl of Kill
proctor by William the Third, shortly after
which just recognition of his merits the
good old man passed away, full of years
and honors, leaving behind him name
which will ever be fondly cherished by his
descendants. As benefactor of his spe-
cies-I mean, of course, of the Lympets-
he must be placed high above all our other
ancestors, and second only to the founder
of the family, Hugo de Lympet himself,
who came over with the Conqueror and
won the estate which remain in the pos
session of his descendants to this day.
And herein lies the secret of our family
greatness and our family pride, What q
Lympet grasped at the time of the Con-
quest, Lympet holds in the present year
of grace. For over 500 years we have re-
mained firmly planted on the ground gained
by our forefathers; and if we never availed
ourselves of the opportunities BY which
other families raised themselves to dazzling
heights of magniicenee, we also avoided
the pitfalls which sooner or later swallowed
up these same families and their followers.
But though our house has made no great
figure in English history, l would not have
you think that it has done the state no
service. On the contrary, the younger
scions of our stock have always displayed
a commendable eagerness to serve the coun-
try in any department where the duties
were light and epay was fair. 1t is only
when the law of primogeniture is strictly
observed that Lympets are possible, and
when the law of primogeniture is strictly
observed, superAuous sons can be but i'll
provided for. But the public service is,
despite the proverb, an excellent inherit
ance, and one to which the Junior Lympets
considered they were justly entitled.
| need hardly say that not one of them
ever so far forgot himself as to stoop to
trade; their sense of what was due to their
name was too powerful to allow them to
sink so far. So strong, indeed, was this
feeling that the daughters of our house
often preferred to pass their lives in single
blessedness rather than change the dear old
name of which they were so justly proud.
Few families can boast so many old maids.
The ribald have ventured to attribute this
fact to the Lympet dowries, which are un-
fortunately small, and to the Lympet
mouth, which is undeniably large, rather
than to the Lympet pride. But how can
such rude clay sympathize with the noble
spark which fires Lympet's breast?
What can they know of the glorious asso-
Citations which endcar the grand old name
of Lympet to every member of that noble
house?
Unfortunately one cannot live upon a |