The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 475, February 5, 1831
They who draw their notions of royal enjoyment from the tinsel of its external trappings, will scarcely believe the above cottage to have been the residence of an English princess. Yet such was the rank of its occupant but a few years since, distant as may be the contrast of courts and cottages, and the natural enjoyment of rural life from the artificial luxury—the painted pomp and idle glitter of regal state.
Grove House, the seat of Lady Dowager Onslow, of whom the Princess purchased the whole property, was built by Mr. Bateman, uncle to the eccentric Lord Bateman. This gentleman made it a point in his travels to notice everything that pleased him in the monasteries abroad; and, on his return to England, he built this house; the bedchamber being contrived, like the cells of monks, with a refectory, and every other appendage of a monastery; even to a cemetery, and a coffin, inscribed with the name of a supposititious ancient bishop. Some curious Gothic chairs, bought at a sale of the curiosities in this house, are now at Strawberry Hill.
Old Windsor gives rise to many more interesting reminiscences; and few who suck melancholy from a song would exchange its sombre churchyard for the gayest field of fancy. We may be there anon.
( For the Mirror. )
Sir Walter Scott, in his history of Demonology and Witchcraft , has omitted a tradition which is still popular in Cheshire, and which from its close resemblance to one of the Scottish legends related by that writer, gives rise to many interesting conjectures respecting the probable causes of such a superstition being believed in countries with apparently so little connexion or intercourse, as Cheshire and Scotland. The facts of Sir Walter's narration are as follow: vide Demonology and Witchcraft , p. 133.
A daring horse jockey having sold a horse to a man of venerable and antique appearance, had a remarkable hillock on the Eildon Hills, called Lucken Hare, appointed as the place where, at twelve o'clock at night, he should receive the price. He came, the money was paid in an ancient coin, and he was invited by the purchaser to view his residence. The trader followed his guide through several long ranges of stalls, in each of which a horse stood motionless, while an armed warrior lay equally still at his charger's feet. 'All these men,' said the wizard in a whisper, 'will awaken at the battle of Sheriffmoor.' A horn and a sword hung suspended together at one extremity of the chamber. The former the jockey seized, and having sounded it, the horses stamped, the men arose and clashed their armour; while a voice like that of a giant pronounced these words:—
Various
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THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH'S COTTAGE, WINDSOR.
ENGLISH SUPERSTITION.
ANTIQUARIAN SCRAPS.
SELECT BIOGRAPHY.
MEMOIR OF TAM O'SHANTER.
THE SKETCH-BOOK.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A WANDERER. NO. V.
OLD POETS.
MELANCHOLY.
LOVE.
BEAUTY.
SLANDER.
POSTERITY.
WAR.
CUSTOM OF BULL-BAITING AT GREAT GRIMSBY.
NOTES OF A READER.
KNOWLEDGE FOR THE PEOPLE: OR, THE PLAIN WHY AND BECAUSE.
FESTIVALS, GAMES, AND AMUSEMENTS.
LORD BYRON.
AN UNEDUCATED POET.
THE NECROMANCER.
A MOORE-ISH MELODY.
THE LAST WORDS OF A MOTH.
THE GATHERER.
THE LAST FRIEND.
ELECTIONEERING PIETY.
FAZIO.
THE DEVIL AMONG THE PRINTERS.
CHARTER.
A "SPECTATOR" NEWSPAPER.
FOR ALL FAMILIES.