Gents Mag 1849 part 2 p.254
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Gentleman's Magazine 1849 part 2 p.254
and difficult to be met with. Having in vain made inquiries after a copy, in order to introduce it here, I am obliged to signify my despair at finding one. Contests such as these continued incessantly to harass the country, until Cromwell was declared Protector, during whose domination Briggs rules in the ascendancy; but on the accession of Charles II. he was obliged to fly, and for a long period hide in what at that time was a rugged and secluded region - the wilds of Furness. As for Robin (who has also, though unjustly, been calumniated of having murdered the persons to whom the skulls belonged, as before related in p.141, and of whom it is said many other desperate adventures are related, but of which I have not been able to collect any particulars,) after the final defeat at Worcester had, by depressing the hopes of the Royalists for the time, in some degree restored a sort of subdued quiet to the kingdom, finding a pacific life irksome to his restless spirit, he passed over into the sister country, and there fell in some nameless recontre in the Irish wars, sealing by a warrior's fate a course of long-tried and devoted loyalty - in life and death affording a memorable illustration of the fine sentiment embodied in this touching quotation, Master lead on, and I will follow thee To the last gasp, with truth and loyalty. Two hundred years have rolled their course since the generation that saw these events has vanished from the earth, and every tangible memorial of the hero of the island has been thought to have perished with him. Nevertheless, time has spared one fragile though little noticed relic, for in the library of that large and most interesting structure, the parish church of Cartmel, whose age-stricken walls, so rich in examples of all the styles of Gothic architecture, rise but a few miles from the foot of the lake, in the centre of a vale of much monastic character of beauty, there is retained upon the shelves a small volume in Latin entitled "Vicentii Lirinensis Haeres. Oxoniae, 1631;" one of the blank leaves in the beginning of which contains this inscription in MS. the signature to which has been torn off: "For Mr. Robert Philipson: Inveniam, spero, quam vos peregrinus, amicos Mite, peto tecum, communis hospitium." It is pleasing to reflect on this enduring testimony of regard for one whose portrait, as painted on the canvas of history, has hitherto only been looked upon as that of a bold unnurtured ruffler in an age of strife. Seen under the effect of this touch by the hand of friendship, a gentler grace illumes the aspect of one whose unswerving principles and firm temper well fitted him to encounter the troubles and disasters of a direful epoch, and whose actions, as long as the island itself shall endure, will cast the enthralling interest of romantic association upon a scene so captivating by its natural loveliness. That the individual to whom the inscription is addressed was our Robin of satanic notoriety, there cannot reasonably be a doubt, as the pedigree of the Crooke Hall Philipsons does not recognise any member of the family of that name living between the date of the publication of the book and the death of their last male heir. Neither is the genealogical tree of the Calgarth family enriched with the name after 1631, so to the dashing cavalier of my story must the inscription alone have been directed; the evidence afforded by its affectionate style furnishing another illustration of the saying that "the devil is not always as black as he is painted." Noted as all the Philipsons were for their unwavering loyalty, there is yet one among them who exhibits a title to estimation for the possession of acquirements suited to less harassing times. This was Christopher Philipson of the house of Calgarth, who amid the struggle of parties seems to have been devoted to the cultivation of letters. In the pleasures derived from study and the enlargement of his understanding, he would feel a continual source of calm and high-toned |
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