The anecdotes3 I had heard of the quondam housekeeper4 of Lord Byron, rendered me desirous of paying her a visit. I rode in company with Colonel Wildman, therefore, to the cottage of her son William, where she resides, and found her seated by her fireside, with a favorite cat perched upon her shoulder and purring in her ear. Nanny Smith is a large, good-looking woman, a specimen5 of the old-fashioned country housewife, combining antiquated6 notions and prejudices, and very limited information, with natural good sense. She loves to gossip about the Abbey and Lord Byron, and was soon drawn7 into a course of anecdotes, though mostly of an humble8 kind, such as suited the meridian9 of the housekeeper's room and servants' hall. She seemed to entertain a kind recollection of Lord Byron, though she had evidently been much perplexed10 by some of his vagaries11; and especially by the means he adopted to counteract12 his tendency to corpulency. He used various modes to sweat himself down; sometimes he would lie for a long time in a warm bath, sometimes he would walk up the hills in the park, wrapped up and loaded with great coats; "a sad toil13 for the poor youth," added Nanny, "he being so lame14."
His meals were scanty15 and irregular, consisting of dishes which Nanny seemed to hold in great contempt, such as pillau, macaroni, and light puddings.
She contradicted the report of the licentious16 life which he was reported to lead at the Abbey, and of the paramours said to have been brought with him from London. "A great part of his time used to be passed lying on a sofa reading. Sometimes he had young gentlemen of his acquaintance with him, and they played some mad pranks17; but nothing but what young gentlemen may do, and no harm done."
"Once, it is true," she added, "he had with him a beautiful boy as a page, which the housemaids said was a girl. For my part, I know nothing about it. Poor soul, he was so lame he could not go out much with the men; all the comfort he had was to be a little with the lasses. The housemaids, however, were very jealous; one of them, in particular, took the matter in great dudgeon. Her name was Lucy; she was a great favorite with Lord Byron, and had been much noticed by him, and began to have high notions. She had her fortune told by a man who squinted18, to whom she gave two-and-sixpence. He told her to hold up her head and look high, for she would come to great things. Upon this," added Nanny, "the poor thing dreamt of nothing less than becoming a lady, and mistress of the Abbey; and promised me, if such luck should happen to her, she would be a good friend to me. Ah well-a-day! Lucy never had the fine fortune she dreamt of; but she had better than I thought for; she is now married, and keeps a public house at Warwick."
Finding that we listened to her with great attention, Nanny Smith went on with her gossiping. "One time," said she, "Lord Byron took a notion that there was a deal of money buried about the Abbey by the monks20 in old times, and nothing would serve him but he must have the flagging taken up in the cloisters21; and they digged and digged, but found nothing but stone coffins22 full of bones. Then he must needs have one of the coffins put in one end of the great hall, so that the servants were afraid to go there of nights. Several of the skulls25 were cleaned and put in frames in his room. I used to have to go into the room at night to shut the windows, and if I glanced an eye at them, they all seemed to grin; which I believe skulls always do. I can't say but I was glad to get out of the room.
"There was at one time (and for that matter there is still) a good deal said about ghosts haunting about the Abbey. The keeper's wife said she saw two standing26 in a dark part of the cloisters just opposite the chapel27, and one in the garden by the lord's well. Then there was a young lady, a cousin of Lord Byron, who was staying in the Abbey and slept in the room next the clock; and she told me that one night when she was lying in bed, she saw a lady in white come out of the wall on one side of the room, and go into the wall on the opposite side.
"Lord Byron one day said to me, 'Nanny, what nonsense they tell about ghosts, as if there ever were any such things. I have never seen any thing of the kind about the Abbey, and I warrant you have not.' This was all done, do you see, to draw me out; but I said nothing, but shook my head. However, they say his lordship did once see something. It was in the great hall—something all black and hairy, he said it was the devil.
"For my part," continued Nanny Smith, "I never saw anything of the kind—but I heard something once. I was one evening scrubbing the floor of the little dining-room at the end of the long gallery; it was after dark; I expected every moment to be called to tea, but wished to finish what I was about. All at once I heard heavy footsteps in the great hall. They sounded like the tramp of a horse. I took the light and went to see what it was. I heard the steps come from the lower end of the hall to the fireplace in the centre, where they stopped; but I could see nothing. I returned to my work, and in a little time heard the same noise again. I went again with the light; the footsteps stopped by the fireplace as before; still I could see nothing. I returned to my work, when I heard the steps for a third time. I then went into the hall without a light, but they stopped just the same, by the fireplace, half way up the hall. I thought this rather odd, but returned to my work. When it was finished, I took the light and went through the hall, as that was my way to the kitchen. I heard no more footsteps, and thought no more of the matter, when, on coming to the lower end of the hall, I found the door locked, and then, on one side of the door, I saw the stone coffin23 with the skull24 and bones that had been digged up in the cloisters."
Here Nanny paused. I asked her if she believed that the mysterious footsteps had any connection with the skeleton in the coffin; but she shook her head, and would not commit herself. We took our leave of the good old dame28 shortly after, and the story she had related gave subject for conversation on our ride homeward. It was evident she had spoken the truth as to what she had heard, but had been deceived by some peculiar29 effect of sound. Noises are propagated about a huge irregular edifice30 of the kind in a very deceptive31 manner; footsteps are prolonged and reverberated32 by the vaulted33 cloisters and echoing halls; the creaking and slamming of distant gates, the rushing of the blast through the groves34 and among the ruined arches of the chapel, have all a strangely delusive35 effect at night. Colonel Wildman gave an instance of the kind from his own experience. Not long after he had taken up his residence at the Abbey, he heard one moonlight night a noise as if a carriage was passing at a distance. He opened the window and leaned out. It then seemed as if the great iron roller was dragged along the gravel36 walks and terrace, but there was nothing to be seen. When he saw the gardener on the following morning, he questioned him about working so late at night. The gardener declared that no one had been at work, and the roller was chained up. He was sent to examine it, and came back with a countenance37 full of surprise. The roller had been moved in the night, but he declared no mortal hand could have moved it. "Well," replied the Colonel, good-humoredly, "I am glad to find I have a brownie to work for me."
Lord Byron did much to foster and give currency to the superstitious38 tales connected with the Abbey, by believing, or pretending to believe in them. Many have supposed that his mind was really tinged39 with superstition1, and that this innate40 infirmity was increased by passing much of his time in a lonely way, about the empty halls and cloisters of the Abbey, then in a ruinous melancholy41 state, and brooding over the skulls and effigies42 of its former inmates43. I should rather think that he found poetical44 enjoyment45 in these supernatural themes, and that his imagination delighted to people this gloomy and romantic pile with all kinds of shadowy inhabitants. Certain it is, the aspect of the mansion46 under the varying influence of twilight47 and moonlight, and cloud and sunshine operating upon its halls, and galleries, and monkish48 cloisters, is enough to breed all kinds of fancies in the minds of its inmates, especially if poetically49 or superstitiously50 inclined.
I have already mentioned some of the fabled51 visitants of the Abbey. The goblin friar, however, is the one to whom Lord Byron has given the greatest importance. It walked the cloisters by night, and sometimes glimpses of it were seen in other parts of the Abbey. Its appearance was said to portend52 some impending53 evil to the master of the mansion. Lord Byron pretended to have seen it about a month before he contracted his ill-starred marriage with Miss Milbanke.
He has embodied54 this tradition in the following ballad55, in which he represents the friar as one of the ancient inmates of the Abbey, maintaining by night a kind of spectral56 possession of it, in right of the fraternity. Other traditions, however, represent him as one of the friars doomed57 to wander about the place in atonement for his crimes. But to the ballad—
"Beware! beware! of the Black Friar,
Who sitteth by Norman stone,
For he mutters his prayers in the midnight air,
And his mass of the days that are gone.
When the Lord of the Hill, Amundeville,
Made Norman Church his prey58,
And expell'd the friars, one friar still
Would not be driven away.
"Though he came in his might, with King Henry's right,
To turn church lands to lay,
With sword in hand, and torch to light
Their walls, if they said nay59,
A monk19 remain'd, unchased, unchain'd,
And he did not seem form'd of clay,
For he's seen in the porch, and he's seen in the church,
Though he is not seen by day.
"And whether for good, or whether for ill,
It is not mine to say;
But still to the house of Amundeville
He abideth night and day.
By the marriage bed of their lords, 'tis said,
He flits on the bridal eve;
And 'tis held as faith, to their bed of death,
He comes—but not to grieve.
"When an heir is born, he is heard to mourn,
And when aught is to befall
That ancient line, in the pale moonshine
He walks from hall to hall.
His form you may trace, but not his face,
'Tis shadow'd by his cowl;
But his eyes may be seen from the folds between,
And they seem of a parted soul.
"But beware! beware of the Black Friar,
He still retains his sway,
For he is yet the church's heir,
Whoever may be the lay.
Amundeville is lord by day,
But the monk is lord by night,
Nor wine nor wassail could raise a vassal60
To question that friar's right.
"Say nought61 to him as he walks the hall,
And he'll say nought to you;
He sweeps along in his dusky pall62,
As o'er the grass the dew.
Then gramercy! for the Black Friar;
Heaven sain him! fair or foul63,
And whatsoe'er may be his prayer
Let ours be for his soul."
Such is the story of the goblin friar, which, partly through old tradition, and partly through the influence of Lord Byron's rhymes, has become completely established in the Abbey, and threatens to hold possession so long as the old edifice shall endure. Various visitors have either fancied, or pretended to have seen him, and a cousin of Lord Byron, Miss Sally Parkins, is even said to have made a sketch64 of him from memory. As to the servants at the Abbey, they have become possessed65 with all kinds of superstitious fancies. The long corridors and Gothic halls, with their ancient portraits and dark figures in armor, are all haunted regions to them; they even fear to sleep alone, and will scarce venture at night on any distant errand about the Abbey unless they go in couples.
Even the magnificent chamber66 in which I was lodged67 was subject to the supernatural influences which reigned68 over the Abbey, and was said to be haunted by "Sir John Byron the Little with the great Beard." The ancient black-looking portrait of this family worthy69, which hangs over the door of the great saloon, was said to descend70 occasionally at midnight from the frame, and walk the rounds of the state apartments. Nay, his visitations were not confined to the night, for a young lady, on a visit to the Abbey some years since, declared that, on passing in broad day by the door of the identical chamber I have described, which stood partly open, she saw Sir John Byron the Little seated by the fireplace, reading out of a great black-letter book. From this circumstance some have been led to suppose that the story of Sir John Byron may be in some measure connected with the mysterious sculptures of the chimney-piece already mentioned; but this has no countenance from the most authentic71 antiquarians of the Abbey.
For my own part, the moment I learned the wonderful stories and strange suppositions connected with my apartment, it became an imaginary realm to me. As I lay in bed at night and gazed at the mysterious panel-work, where Gothic knight72, and Christian73 dame, and Paynim lover gazed upon me in effigy74, I used to weave a thousand fancies concerning them. The great figures in the tapestry75, also, were almost animated76 by the workings of my imagination, and the Vandyke portraits of the cavalier and lady that looked down with pale aspects from the wall, had almost a spectral effect, from their immovable gaze and silent companionship—
"For by dim lights the portraits of the dead
Have something ghastly, desolate77, and dread78.
——Their buried looks still wave
Along the canvas; their eyes glance like dreams
On ours, as spars within some dusky cave,
But death is mingled79 in their shadowy beams."
In this way I used to conjure80 up fictions of the brain, and clothe the objects around me with ideal interest and import, until, as the Abbey clock tolled81 midnight, I almost looked to see Sir John Byron the Little with the long beard stalk into the room with his book under his arm, and take his seat beside the mysterious chimney-piece.
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1
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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superstitions
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| 迷信，迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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specimen
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| n.样本，标本 | |
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antiquated
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| adj.陈旧的，过时的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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8
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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perplexed
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| adj.不知所措的 | |
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vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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counteract
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| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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lame
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| adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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15
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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licentious
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| adj.放纵的，淫乱的 | |
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pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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18
squinted
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| 斜视( squint的过去式和过去分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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19
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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cloisters
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| n.（学院、修道院、教堂等建筑的）走廊( cloister的名词复数 )；回廊；修道院的生活；隐居v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的第三人称单数 ) | |
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22
coffins
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| n.棺材( coffin的名词复数 )；使某人早亡[死，完蛋，垮台等]之物 | |
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23
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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26
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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27
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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28
dame
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| n.女士 | |
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29
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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30
edifice
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| n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室) | |
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31
deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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32
reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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33
vaulted
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| adj.拱状的 | |
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34
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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35
delusive
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| adj.欺骗的，妄想的 | |
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36
gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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37
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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39
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
innate
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| adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的 | |
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41
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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42
effigies
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| n.（人的）雕像，模拟像，肖像( effigy的名词复数 ) | |
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43
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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44
poetical
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| adj.似诗人的；诗一般的；韵文的；富有诗意的 | |
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45
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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46
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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47
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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monkish
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| adj.僧侣的，修道士的，禁欲的 | |
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poetically
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| adv.有诗意地，用韵文 | |
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50
superstitiously
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| 被邪教所支配 | |
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51
fabled
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| adj.寓言中的，虚构的 | |
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52
portend
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| v.预兆，预示；给…以警告 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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54
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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55
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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56
spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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58
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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59
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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60
vassal
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| n.附庸的；属下；adj.奴仆的 | |
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61
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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pall
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| v.覆盖，使平淡无味；n.柩衣，棺罩；棺材；帷幕 | |
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63
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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67
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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70
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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71
authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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72
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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73
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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tapestry
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| n.挂毯，丰富多采的画面 | |
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76
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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77
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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78
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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80
conjure
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| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
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81
tolled
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| 鸣钟（toll的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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