For the Table Book.
GRASSINGTON FEAST.
Clock Dressings.
During the continuance of “Grassington Feast,” it is customary for the inhabitants to have convivial parties at one another’s houses: these are called clock dressings; for the guests are invited to come and “dress the clock.” Grassington feast was once one of the largest and most celebrated one in Craven, but it is fast dwindling away. This year the amusements were of a paltry description; and the sack racers, bell racers, hasty-pudding eaters, and soaped-pig catchers, who used to afford in former times such an unceasing fund of merriment, seem all fled. Nothing told of olden time, except the presence of Frank King, the Skipton minstrel, who seems determined to be in at the death.
T. Q. M.
A FRAGMENT
Found in a Skeleton Case at the Royal Academy,
Supposed to have been written by one of the Students, and deposited there by him.
Sceletos.
Behold this Ruin! ’twas a skull,
Once of ethereal spirit full,
This narrow cell was life’s retreat,
This space was thought’s mysterious seat.
What beauteous pictures fill’d this spot!
What dreams of pleasure long forgot!
Nor Love, nor Joy, nor Hope, nor Fear,
Has left one trace or record here.
Beneath this mouldering canopy
Once shone the bright and busy eye!
But start not at the dismal void,
If social love that eye employ’d;
If with no lawless fire it gleam’d,
But thro’ the dew of kindness beam’d,
The eye shall be for ever bright,
When stars and suns have lost their light.
Here in this silent cavern hung
The ready, swift, and tuneful tongue,
If falsehood’s honey it disdain’d,
And where it could not praise, was chain’d;
If bold in virtue’s cause—it spoke,
Yet gentle concord never broke,
That tuneful tongue shall plead for thee,
When Death unveils eternity.