MARY OF BUTTERMER E. In the latter part of the year 1802, the sympathies of the public were much excited in behalf of a poor girl named Mary Robinson, the daughter of a small inn-keeper on the banks of the Lake Buttermere, in Cumberland, who had become the victim of a remarkable imposture, and, to heighten the interest excited in her behalf, was reported to be both young and beautiful. To quote a paper by the English Opium-Eater, which appeared some years ago in a popular magazine:- When Coleridge first settled at the Lakes, or not long after, a romantic and somewhat tragical affair drew the eyes of all England, and, for many years, continued to draw the steps of tourists, to one of the most secluded Cumberland valleys, so little visited previously, that it might be described almost as an undiscovered chamber of that romantic district. Coleridge was brought into a closer connection with this affair than merely by the general relation of neighbourhood; for an article of his in a morning paper, I believe, unintentionally furnished the original clew for unmasking the base impostor who figured as the foremost actor in this tale. Other generations have arisen since that time, who must naturally be unacquainted with the circumstances; and, on their account, I shall here recall them. 'One day, in the lake season, there drove up to the Royal Oak, the principal inn at Keswick, a handsome and well-appointed travelling-carriage, containing one gentleman of somewhat dashing exterior. The stranger was a picturesque-hunter, but not of that order who fly round the ordinary tour with the velocity of lovers posting to Gretna, or of criminals running from the police; his purpose was to domiciliate himself in this beautiful scenery, and to see it at his leisure. From Keswick, as his head-quarters, he made excursions in every direction amongst the neighbouring valleys; meeting generally a good deal of respect and attention, partly on account of his handsome equipage, and still more from his visiting-cards, which designated him as "the Honourable Augustus Hope." Under this name, he gave himself out for a brother of Lord Hopetoun's, whose great income was well known, and perhaps exaggerated amongst the dalesmen of northern England. Some persons had discernment enough to doubt of this; for the man's breeding and deportment, though showy, had a tang of vulgarity about it, and Coleridge assured me, that he was grossly ungrammatical in his ordinary conversation. However, one fact, soon dispersed by the people of a little rustic post-office, laid asleep all demurs: he not only received letters addressed to him under this assumed name-that might be through collusion with accomplices-but he himself continually franked letters by that name. Now, that being a capital offence, being not only a forgery, but (as a forgery on the post-office) sure to be prosecuted, nobody presumed to question his pretensions any longer; and henceforward he went to all places with the consideration attached to an earl's brother. All doors flew open at his approach-boats, boatmen, nets, and the most unlimited sporting privileges, were placed at the disposal of the "honourable " gentleman; and the hospitality of the whole country taxed itself to offer a suitable reception to the patrician Scotsman. 'Nine miles from Keswick by the nearest bridle-road, but fourteen or fifteen by any route which the honourable gentleman's travelling-carriage could have traversed, lies the Lake of Buttermere. Its margin, which is overhung by some of the loftiest and steepest of the Cumbrian mountains, exhibits on either side few traces of human neighbourhood; the level area, where the hills recede enough to allow of any, is of a wild, pastoral character, or almost savage; the waters of the lake are deep and sullen; and the barrier mountains, by excluding the sun for much of his daily course, strengthen the gloomy impressions. At the foot of this lake-that is, at the end, where its waters issue-lie a few unornamented fields, through which rolls a little brook-like river connecting it with the larger Lake of Crummock; and at the edge of this miniature domain, upon the road-side, stands a cluster of cottages, so small and few, that in the cher tracts of the islands they could scarcely be complimented with the name of hamlet. One of these, and, I believe, the principal, belonged to an independent proprietor, called, in the local dialect, a "statesman ;" and more, perhaps, for the sake of gathering any little local news, than with much view to pecuniary profit at that era, this cottage offered the accommodations of an inn to the traveller and his horse. Rare, however, must have been the mounted traveller in those days, unless visiting Buttermere for itself, for the road led to no further habitations of man, with the exception of some four or five pastoral cabins, equally humble, in Gatesgarth dale. Hither, however, in an evil hour for the peace of this little brotherhood of shepherds, came the cruel spoiler from Keswick. His errand was to witness or to share in the char-fishing; for in Derwentwater (the Lake of Keswick) no char is found, which breeds only in the deeper waters-such as Windermere, Crummock, Buttermere, &c. But whatever had been his first object, that was speedily forgotten in one more deeply interesting. The daughter of the house, a fine young woman of eighteen, acted as waiter. In a situation so solitary, the stranger had unlimited facilities for enjoying her company, and recommending himself to her favour. Doubts about his pretensions never arose in so simple a place as this; they were overruled before they could well have arisen, by the opinion now general in Keswick, that he really was what he pretended to be; and thus, with little demur, except in the shape of a few natural words of parting anger from a defeated or rejected rustic admirer, the young woman gave her hand in marriage to the showy and unprincipled stranger. I know not whether the marriage was or could have been celebrated in the little mountain-chapel of Buttermere. If it were, I persuade myself that the most hardened villain must have felt a momentary pang on violating the altar of such a chapel, so touchingly does it express, by its miniature dimensions, the almost helpless humility of that little pastoral community to whose spiritual wants it has from generation to generation administered. It is not only the very smallest chapel by many degrees in all England, but is so mere a toy in outward appearance, that were it not for its antiquity, its wild mountain exposure, and its consecrated connection with the final hopes and fears of the adjacent pastoral hamlet-but for these considerations, the first movement of a stranger's feelings would be towards merriment; for the little chapel looks not so much a mimic chapel in a drop-scene from the Opera House, as a miniature copy from such a scene; and evidently could not receive within its walls more than a half-dozen of households. From this sanctuary it wasfrom beneath the maternal shadow, if not from the altar of this lonely chapel-that the heartless villain carried off the flower of the mountains.'* The marriage took place on the 2d of October 1802, and a romantic account of it found its way almost immediately into the newspapers. It thus fell under the notice of various individuals in Scotland, who knew that Colonel Hope, who was said to have married the Flower of Buttermere, had been abroad the whole summer, and was now residing in Vienna. Mr Charles Hope, then Lord Justice-Clerk, and subsequently president of the Court of Session (a son-in-law of the Earl of Hopetoun), had, we believe, a chief share in making this fact known, and prompting the inquiries which led to the detection of the imposture. Judge Harding, who lived near Buttermere, and who was acquainted with the real Colonel Hope, having some suspicion of the imposture, sent a servant with a letter addressed to Colonel Hope, desiring to see him. When the servant was introduced to the impostor, he exclaimed: There is some mistake-this is not *See article, 'Samuel Taylor Coleridge,' Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, October 1834. Colonel Hope;' whereupon the fellow said, with the greatest coolness: The letter is not for me, but my brother. This was within three weeks after the marriage. He was then taken into custody by a constable, but allowed to fish on the lake. After By the aid, it was supposed, of the boatmen who accompanied him in his sports, he made his escape through the gap of Borrowdale, probably passing over the Stale, the tremendous Alpine pass which leads into Langdale. Besides blighting the prospects of the poor girl, he had nearly ruined her father, by running up a debt of L.18. His dressing-case, a very elegant piece of furniture, was left behind; and on being opened at Keswick, by warrant of a magistrate, was found to contain every article that the most luxurious gentleman could desire, but no papers tending to discover his real name. wards, Mary herself, searching more narrowly, discovered that the box had a double bottom, and in the intermediate recess found a number of letters addressed to him by his wife and children, under the name of Hadfield! The story of the detection immediately became as notorious as the marriage had been, and a good deal of information was soon obtained respecting this extraordinary swindler. He had been engaged in the American war, and was wont to boast of his exploits as a soldier. About a twelvemonth before his marriage to Mary, he had contrived, by insinuating manners and false pretences, to get admission to a mercantile firm at Tiverton, in Devonshire. He had afterwards visited London several times, and obtained credit from a number of the first merchants; but bankruptcy overtook him, and he had fled from Devonshire, leaving his wife and two children behind him. As a fugitive from the commission of bankruptcy taken out on this occasion, he was already a felon. It was afterwards ascertained, that he had acted as a swindler thirty years before his last offence-a circumstance which shews that youth could not have been among the attractions by which he gained the heart of Mary Robinson. Seven years of this period had been spent in Scarborough |