The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction

Mirror of Literature,
Amusement, and Instruction,
The

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Title: Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 475 Vol.
XVII, No. 475. Saturday, February 5, 1831
Author: Various
Release Date: October 22, 2004 [EBook #13829]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND
INSTRUCTION.

VOL. XVII, NO. 475.] SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1831. [PRICE
2d.
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH'S COTTAGE,
WINDSOR.]

THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH'S COTTAGE, WINDSOR.
They who draw their notions of royal enjoyment from the tinsel of its
external trappings, will scarcely believe the above cottage to have been
the residence of an English princess. Yet such was the rank of its
occupant but a few years since, distant as may be the contrast of courts
and cottages, and the natural enjoyment of rural life from the artificial
luxury--the painted pomp and idle glitter of regal state.
The above cottage stands in the grounds of Grove House, adjoining the
churchyard of Old Windsor. It was built under the superintendent taste
of the Princess Elizabeth,[1] second sister of the present King, and now
known as the Landgravine of Hesse Homburg. To the decoration of this
cottage the Princess paid much attention: it is quite in the _ornée_ style;
and its situation is so beautiful as to baffle all embellishment.
Grove House, the seat of Lady Dowager Onslow, of whom the Princess
purchased the whole property, was built by Mr. Bateman, uncle to the
eccentric Lord Bateman. This gentleman made it a point in his travels
to notice everything that pleased him in the monasteries abroad; and, on
his return to England, he built this house; the bedchamber being
contrived, like the cells of monks, with a refectory, and every other
appendage of a monastery; even to a cemetery, and a coffin, inscribed
with the name of a supposititious ancient bishop. Some curious Gothic
chairs, bought at a sale of the curiosities in this house, are now at
Strawberry Hill.
Old Windsor gives rise to many more interesting reminiscences; and
few who "suck melancholy from a song" would exchange its sombre

churchyard for the gayest field of fancy. We may be there anon.
[1] Born May 22, 1770; married April 7, 1818, to Frederick Joseph
Lewis, Landgrave of Hesse Homburg, who died April 2, 1829 aged 61.
* * * * *
ENGLISH SUPERSTITION.
(_For the Mirror._)
Sir Walter Scott, in his history of Demonology and Witchcraft, has
omitted a tradition which is still popular in Cheshire, and which from
its close resemblance to one of the Scottish legends related by that
writer, gives rise to many interesting conjectures respecting the
probable causes of such a superstition being believed in countries with
apparently so little connexion or intercourse, as Cheshire and Scotland.
The facts of Sir Walter's narration are as follow: vide Demonology and
Witchcraft, p. 133.
"A daring horse jockey having sold a horse to a man of venerable and
antique appearance, had a remarkable hillock on the Eildon Hills,
called Lucken Hare, appointed as the place where, at twelve o'clock at
night, he should receive the price. He came, the money was paid in an
ancient coin, and he was invited by the purchaser to view his residence.
The trader followed his guide through several long ranges of stalls, in
each of which a horse stood motionless, while an armed warrior lay
equally still at his charger's feet. 'All these men,' said the wizard in a
whisper, 'will awaken at the battle of Sheriffmoor.' A horn and a sword
hung suspended together at one extremity of the chamber. The former
the jockey seized, and having sounded it, the horses stamped, the men
arose and clashed their armour; while a voice like that of a giant
pronounced these words:--
"Woe to the coward that ever he was born, Who did not draw the sword
before he blew the horn."
Subsequent to this, Sir Walter proceeds to the relation of another

kindred tradition, the incidents of which do not materially differ from
those of the preceding. The scene of the Cheshire legend is placed in
the neighbourhood of Macclesfield, in that county, and the sign of a
public-house on Monk's Heath may have arrested the attention of many
travellers from London to Liverpool. This village hostel is known by
the designation