against the Saracens, saw his tomb, he charged the Bishop to remove the body out of the Cathedral, when he could find a fit opportunity so to do; in regard that Archbishop Becket had excommunicated him heretofore, because he had married his first cousin, the daughter of Grono ab Edwyn, and that notwithstanding he had continued to live with her till she died. The Bishop, in obedience to the charge, made a passage from the vault through the south wall of the church, under ground, and so secretly shoved the body into the churchyard. - ROYAL TRIBES. From the HENGWRT MS. One of the first things we asked to see was the tomb of Potemkin. All Europe has heard that he was buried in Cherson; and a magnificent sepulchre might naturally be expected for a person so renowned. The reader will imagine our surprise, when, in answer to our inquiries concerning his remains, we were told that no one knew what was become of them. Potemkin, the illustrious, the powerful, of all the princes that ever lived the most princely, of all imperial favourites the most favoured, had not a spot which might be called his grave. He, who not only governed all Russia, but even made the haughty Catherine his suppliant, had not the distinction possessed by the humblest of the human race. The particulars respecting the ultimate disposal of his body, as they were communicated to me upon the spot on the most credible testimony merit cursory detail. The corpse soon after his death was brought to Cherson, and placed beneath a dome of the small church belonging to the fortress, opposite to the altar. After the usual ceremony of interment, the vault was covered, merely by restoring to their former situation the planks of wood belonging to the floor of the building. Many inhabitants of Cherson, as well as English officers in the Russian service, who resided in the neighbourhood, had seen the coffin: this was extremely ordinary, but the practice of showing it to strangers prevailed for some years after Potemkin's decease. The Empress Catherine either had, or pretended to have, an intention of erecting a superb monument to his memory: whether at Cherson or elsewhere, is unknown. Her sudden death is believed to have. prevented the completion of this design. The most extraordinary part of the story remains now to be related: the coffin itself has disappeared: instead of any answer to the various inquiries we made concerning it, we were cautioned to be silent. No one, said a countryman of ours, living in the place, dares to mention the name of Potemkin. At length we received intelligence that the verger could satisfy our curiosity, if we would venture to ask him. We soon found the means of encouraging a little communication on his part; and were then told, that the body, by the Emperor Paul's command, had been taken up, and thrown into the ditch of the fortress. These orders were implicitly obeyed. A hole was dug in the fosse, into which his remains were thrown, with as little ceremony as if they were those of a dead dog; but this procedure taking place during the night, very few were informed of the disposal of the body. An eye witness of the fact assured me that the coffin no longer existed in the vault where it was originally placed; and the Verger was actually proceeding to point out the place where the body was abandoned, when the Bishop himself, happening to arrive, took away my guide, and with menaces but too likely to be fulfilled, prevented our being more fully informed concerning the obloquy at present involving Potemkin. - CLARKE'S Travels, vol. i. p. 602. Winning slow famine to their aid. - XVII. p. 128. "I am much affected," says old Fuller, "with the ingenuity of an English nobleman, who, following the camp of King Henry III. in these parts (Caernarvonshire), wrote home to his friends, about the end of September, 1243, the naked truth indeed as followeth: We lie in our tents, watching, fasting, praying, and freezing; we watch for fear of the Welshmen, who are wont to invade us in the night; we fast for want of meat, for the halfpenny loaf is worth five pence; we pray to God to send us home speedily; we freeze for want of winter garments, having nothing but thin linen betwixt us and the wind." Be not thou As is the black and melancholy yew, That strikes into the grave its baleful roots, And prospers on the dead. XVII. p. 129. Like the black and melancholick yew-tree, WEBSTER'S White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona. Never shall her waking eye Behold them, till the hour of happiness When Death hath made her pure for perfect bliss.-XVII. p.133. The three Restorations in the Circle of Happiness; Restoration of original genius and character; Restoration of all that was beloved; and the Restoration of Remembrance from the origin of all things: without these perfect happiness cannot exist. Triads of Bardism, 32. I have thought it unnecessary to give a connected account of the Bardic system in these Notes, as it has been so well done by my friend, Mr. Turner, in his Vindication of the Ancient British Poems. |