WINGED WORDS ON CHANTREY'S WOODCOCKS.
[A slight introduction is necessary. In November, 1829, Chantrey being on a visit to Mr. Coke, at Holkham, and having joined a shooting party, had the good fortune to kill two woodcocks at one shot. The elation of the great sculptor was without bound, and his brother sportsmen merrily joined in celebrating this rare feat of gunnery. Chantrey immediately modelled the forms of his twin victims, and in a short time the birds, sculptured in marble with the utmost beauty, truth, and tenderness, as they lay at the moment of their death, adorned the hall at Holkham. Chantrey's artistic and general intellectual powers, and his open genial character, had surrounded him with friends not less distinguished in letters than others in art his exploit and its subsequent commemoration afforded an endless subject of amiable mirth, and the sculptor was highly gratified by the contest of intellectual gratulation to which they had given occasion. The result was a collection of epigrams, one hundred and seventy-nine in number, which afford a very creditable example of English wit and scholarship. These Encomia have been recently printed by the permission of Lady Chantrey.]
Life in Death, a mystic lot,
Dealt thou to the wingèd band :-
Death,-from thine unerring shot,
Life, from thine undying hand.
Right Rev. Bishop of Oxford.
Chantreii manus hasce vulnere uno
Binas stravit aves. Eisdem is uno-
(Tantum utrimque valebat ille dextrâ !)-
Vitam restituit creantis ictu
Scalpri postmodó nec mori verentur.
The hand of Chantrey by a single blow
At once laid these united woodcocks low.
But the same hand, (its double skill so great),-
By single blow their life did re-create,
No more henceforth to dread the stroke of fate.
Their good, and ill, from the same source they drew ;
Here shrin'd in marble by the hand that slew!
For their reft lives the slaught'rer to atone
Here gives an immortality in stone!
Quâ morimur dextrâ in lucem revocamur eâdem ;
Quæ vitam abstraxit, vivere deinde dedit.
Ah! felix utrinque manus,-quæ nempe perire
Nos jubet hac, illac posse perire vetat!
By the same hand we fall, and we revive;
He, who destroy'd us, bade us thenceforth live.
Twice happy hand! which, while it bids us die,
Bids us in marble live immortally.
Praxiteles sumptâ pharetrâ, telisque Dianæ,
Venatorque novus per nemus arma movet:
Acris at illa acies ubi primum intenderet arcum,
En trajecit aves una sagitta duas !
"Parce meis, ne sint vacua" Latonia "sylvis"
Increpat, "et propriâ siste sub arte manum :
Ille, Deæ monitu atque animosior arte resumptâ,
"Diva" ait "hæc culpæ sit tibi pœna meæ,
"Ponam inter medios, sacrata umbracula, saltus
Signa quibus veræ restituentur aves;
"Veræ in morte tamen, quales jacuere sub altâ
"Ilice, jamque animâ deficiente pares;
"Aspice languentes deflexo in marmore pennas! Aspice! quæ plumis gratia morte manet!
"Has Tu Diva tuas ne dedignare sub aras
Accipere, hæc poenæ stent monumenta meæ. "Sic tibi lætifico resonet clamore Citharon, "Taygeta et variis sint Tibi plena feris; "Sic Tua delubris auro servetur Imago,
"Cui vitam, atque animos, et decus Ipse dabo."
Uno ictu morimur simul uno vivimus ictu.
Very Rev. H. H. Milman.
We died together, by the same
All-skilful hand which gives us fame.
Quâ simul occidimus dextrâ servamur eâdem.
Idem Latinè redditum.
Unâ perempti machinâ, novissimam
Unà fugam volamus usque ad Tartarum.
Haud est dolendum: quippe qui vitam abstulit,
Brevissimam furatus, æternam dedit.
The same translated into English.
Both had one fate :--for us one javlin slew,
And our last flight to Acheron we flew.
Weep not our slayer life from death doth give,
And we, once mortal, now undying live.
Ωλεσεν ἀμφοτέρους ἅμα δεξιός· ὃν δὲ παρεῖλε
Τοξευτής, Γλύπτης αὖθις ἔδωκε βίον.
Right Rev. Bishop Maltby.
At once his skill slew both: but in the grave The life the Archer took, the Sculptor gave.
Εἷς ἦν Τοξευτής, καὶ Γλύπτης, ἐν δὲ τὸ τύμμα
Οἷς δὲ βίος βραχὺς ἦν, νῦν γένετ ̓ ἀΐδιος.
Right Rev. Bishop Maltby.
Archer and Sculptor, one ; and one the blow; And two brief lives were made immortal so.
We fled from Norway o'er the German wave,
And, pilgrims, here we found an early grave;
Hard fate was ours; for here, at Holkham farm,
We deem'd the stranger had been safe from harm.
But Heav'n consoled us with our victor's name,
And he that slew us gave us deathless fame.
Quidam ex antiquis "Periissem ni periissem"
Dixit: idem poterunt dicere nunc et aves.
Archdeacon Wrangham.
The life the sportsman-artist took,
The artist-sportsman could restore;
As true and warm in every look,
And far more lasting than before!
N.B. The figures between [ ] refer to the History.
ACCIDENTS. Explosion at Birkley-lane
colliery, 22; at the Lundhill colliery,
189 lives lost, 25; at a fog-signal fac-
tory, 28; at Shipley colliery, 33;
frightful railway accident in Canada,
44; fall of houses in Bow-street, 66;
revenue cutter run down, 7 lives lost,
74; fall of houses in Tottenham-
court-road, 6 lives lost, 88; Miss Mac-
naughten burned to death, 98; colliery
explosion at Ince Hall, 7 lives lost,
100; great loss of life on the Ulver-
stone Sands, 100; great loss of life at
the theatre of Leghorn, 107; accident
to an excursion train, 200 persons in-
jured, 121; frightful accident on the
North-Kent railway, 11 persons killed,
122; catastrophe at Shrewsbury, 10
persons drowned, 123; melancholy
accident in Galway, 3 persons drowned,
124; railway accidents' compensations,
131; singular accident: Shilling v.
the Accidental Death Insurance Com-
pany, 136; colliery explosion at Ash-
ton, 40 lives lost, 144; accident on
the Midland Railway, occasioned by a
storm, 156; fatal railway collision at
Watchet, 164; on the Brighton Rail-
way, 164; accident in a sewer, 3
lives lost, 165; Mr. Wilson and family
drowned at Dunbar, 173; fatal acci-
dent on the Great Northern Railway,
at Tuxford, 179; explosion of a loco-
motive boiler at Basingstoke, 197;
railway trains on fire, 199; fatal col-
lision on the South Wales Railway,
201; accident to "Big Ben," the great
bell of the New Palace at Westminster,
203; a tiger loose in the Minories, a
boy much torn, 205; fatal accident at
the Stavely colliery, 12 men suffo-
cated, 223; dreadful boiler explosion
at Upper Apsley mill, Huddersfield,
12 persons killed, 226; loss of life on
the Banffshire coast, 227.
ACTS, LIST OF, IN THE 5TH SESSION,
16TH PARLIAMENT, 20 VICT.-i. Pub-
lic General Acts, 482; ii. Local and
Personal Acts, 482.
ACTS, LIST OF, IN THE 1ST SESSION,
17TH PARLIAMENT, 20 & 21 VICT.-
i. Public General Acts, 484; ii. Local
and Personal Acts, declared public,
487; iii. Private Acts, printed, 494;
iv. Private Acts, not printed, 494.
Arctic Expedition :-Delivery of the Re-
solute by the United States' officers to
our Government, 4; award of Medals
for the Arctic Expedition, 19.
Art and Science :-Sale of water-colour
and oil paintings, 18; institution of the
British Portrait Gallery, 21; sale of
rare books and MSS., 78; exhibition of
the Royal Academy, 79; Art-Treasures'
Exhibition at Manchester, 80; sale of
works of the Old Masters, 97; value
of literary property: sale of copyrights,
99; the Handel Festival at the Crystal
Palace, Sydenham, 112; the Turner
Bequest further exhibition of his
works, 114; exhibition of designs for
the Wellington Monument, 133; meet-
ing of the Social Science Association at
Birmingham, 200.
Bank of England :-Commercial erisis in
the autumn, 217; suspension of the
Bank Act, 218; list of the principal
failures, 220; estimate of the losses,
221. [See PARLIAMENT.]
BANKRUPTS, Table of, 523.
BELGIUM.-History of the struggle between
the Liberals and the Roman Catholic
party, [229]; Bill respecting charitable
bequests and donations; excitement of
the populace, [230]; report of the
Ministers to the King, [230]; his
reply, [231]; dissolution of the Bel-
gian Chamber, [232].
BIRTHS, 266.
BIRTHS. Summary of
the BIRTHS,
DEATHS, and MARRIAGES in England
and Wales; and of BIRTHS and DEATHS
in the Metropolis, in the year 1857;
of the BIRTHS, DEATHS, and MAR-
RIAGES in England and Wales, in ten
years, 1847 to 1857, 523.
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