Nor did the Lord Burghley forget the maiden’s relatives and friends; but made a most ample provision for them. One feels some pride that in England a respectable village girl, whose countenance is said to have expressed sensibility, purity, and happiness, should have had that respect due to her change of rank, and be received at court, where her quiet, unassuming manners are said to have been much admired by her Majesty Queen Charlotte. “But,” says Vinge, “she was not born to honour. There is the deep cause of all the mischief, and it is no burlesque; on the contrary, it is very pathetic.”
Still we do not see any reason for the poet’s complaint; and though the Lady of Burghley died early, the Marquess did not long survive her, for he died in 1804, and society could not have had anything to do with his death. The present Marquess and Earl of Exeter is their grandson. In allusion to the death of the Lady of Burghley, the poet laureate concludes:—
“So she droop’d and droop’d before him,
Fading slowly by his side;
Three fair children first she bore him,
Then before her time she died.
Weeping, weeping late and early,
Walking up and pacing down,
Deeply mourned the Lord of Burghley,
Burghley House by Stamford Town.
And he came to look upon her,
And he looked at her and said—
‘Bring the dress, and put it on her,
That she wore when she was wed.’
Then the people, softly treading,
Bore to earth her body, drest
In the dress that she was wed in,
That her spirit might have rest.”
Vinge has also published a collection of poems, sketches of travels, scraps of poetry and prose, and a long epic poem called “Store Gut” (the big boy). Lastly he published “Vaar Politik” and “Om Professor Schweigaard.” The last named work he had just published when he died, 30 July, 1870. Vinge was one of those visionary poets who would take society up by the roots and plant it branches downwards, expecting it to thrive and flourish. It seldom answers in nature; but then poets cannot be judged by the standard of ordinary men. Shelley and Vinge were of such. His life was an unbroken struggle. He was a highly intellectual and most interesting man. In Gran churchyard, Hadeland, rest the remains of Aasmund Olafsen Vinge.
[150] Home of the giants.
[151] “Livet i Felten. Uddrag af en Loeges Dagbog i Sommern 1848.” Published at Copenhagen. 1849.
[152] Probably misprint for Marschen.