"Great was thy deed, O fair, heroic maid!
Rich in the beauteous grace of Christian love,
A noble act thy generous soul displayed;
Compassion nerved thy arm its strength to prove.
Exalted female! Virtues grace thy name.
Daring, as thou hast done, the billows' rage;
A nation's praise attests thy well-earned fame,
Records thy valour on historic page;
Lovely and brave, Britannia's daughters show,
In active life, benevolence and zeal;
Nobly they seek to stem the tide of woe,
Giving kind aid life's numerous cares to heal."
There have since been two worthy memorials of Grace Darling and her heroic deed, erected—the one in Bamborough Churchyard, and the other in St. Cuthbert's Chapel, on the Farne Island. The former contains a recumbent figure of Grace; and the other, which was put up on the 9th September, 1844, bears this inscription—
TO THE MEMORY OF
GRACE HORSELEY DARLING,
A NATIVE OF BAMBOROUGH, AND AN INHABITANT OF THESE ISLANDS,
WHO DIED OCTOBER 20, 1842,
AGED 26 YEARS.
But the best memorial is in the hearts of the people, who love and revere her still. The name of Grace Darling will not be allowed to sink into oblivion. Mothers will utter it to their daughters, sisters to their sisters, and friends to their friends. No excursionist will take a seaside holiday in the north without wishing to see the Farne Islands for the sake of her who has done so much to make them famous. There will always be boats named after the heroine, and children, too, who know her name. And God grant that there may always be many imitators of her courage, unselfishness, and humanity, and that, though their deeds be of a humble kind, they may still be remembered for them.
"Needs there the praise of the love-written record,
The name and the epitaph graved on the stone!
The things we have lived for, let them be our story,
We ourselves but remembered by what we have done.
"Not myself, but the truth which in life I have spoken,
Not myself, but the seed that in life I have sown,
Shall pass on to ages—all about me forgotten,
Save the truth I have spoken, the things I have done.
"So let my living be, so be my dying;
So let my name lie, unblazoned, unknown;
Unpraised, and unmissed, I shall still be remembered—
Yes, but remembered by what I have done."—Dr. Bonar.