April 1. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



297 



Yet he passed away, and, lo, lie was not ; 

 Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. 



Mark the perfect man, 

 And behold the upright, 

 For the end of that man is peace." 

 Ft. xxxvii. 35-37.: cf. the Prayer-Book version. 



The prophet Isaiah declares : 

 " The righteous man is taken away because of the evil; 

 He shall go in peace, he shall rest in his bed ; 

 Even the perfect man, he that walketh in the straight 

 path." — Ch. lvii., Bp. Lowth's Trans. 



" Sure the last end 

 Of the good man is peace ! How calm his exit ! 

 Night-dews fall not more gently to the ground, 

 Nor weary worn-out winds expire so soft. 

 Behold him ! in the evening tide of life, 

 A life well spent, whose early care it was 

 His riper years should not upbraid his green : 

 By unperceived degrees he wears away ; 

 Yet, like the sun, seems larger at his setting ! 

 High in his faith and hopes, look how he reaches 

 After the prize in view ! and, like a bird 

 That's hamper'd, struggles hard to get away ! 

 Whilst the glad gates of sight are wide expanded 

 To let new glories in, the first fair fruits 

 Of the fast-coming harvest." — Blair's Grave. 



«' How blest the righteous when he dies ! 

 When sinks the weary soul to rest ! 

 How mildly beam the closing eyes ! 



How gently heaves the expiring breast ! 



" So fades the summer cloud away ; 



So sinks the gale when storms are o'er; 

 So gently shuts the eye of day ; 

 So dies a wave upon the shore. 



* Life's duty done, as sinks the clay, 

 Light from its load the spirit flies ; 

 While heaven and earth combine to say, 

 * How blest the righteous when he dies !' " 

 Mrs. Barbauld. 

 " An eve 

 Beautiful as the good man's quiet end, 

 When all of earthly now is passed away, 

 And heaven is in his face." — Love's Trial. 

 " He sets 

 As sets the Morning Star, which goes not down 

 Behind the darken'd West, nor hides obscured 

 Among the tempests of the sky, but melts away 

 Into the light of heaven." 



" As sweetly as a child, 

 Whom neither thought disturbs nor care encumbers, 

 Tired with long play, at close of summer's day 

 Lies down and slumbers." 



A holy life is the only preparation to a happy 

 death, says Bishop Taylor. And we have seen 

 how much importance even heathen minds at- 

 tached to peace at the last. Truly, as Kettlewell 

 said while expiring, "There is no life like a 

 happy death." 



" Consider," says that excellent writer, Norris of 

 Bemerton, "that this life is wholly in order to another, 



and that time is that sole opportunity that God has 

 given us for transacting the great business of eternity ; 

 that our work is great, and our day of working short ; 

 much of which also is lost and rendered useless through 

 the cloudiness and darkness of the morning, and the 

 thick vapours and unwholesome fogs of the evening ; 

 the ignorance and inadvertency of youth, and the dis- 

 ease and infirmities of old age : that our portion of 

 time is not only short as to its duration, but also un- 

 certain in the possession : that the loss of it is irrepar- 

 able to the loser, and profitable to nobody else : that it 

 shall be severely accounted for at the great judgment, 

 and lamented in a sad eternity." — "Of the Care and 

 Improvement of Time," Miscel., 6th edit., p. 118. 



ElKIONNACH. 



BATTLE OF TRATALGAH. AND DEATH OF NELSOW. 



The following unpublished letter, as a historical 

 document, is worth preserving in the pages of 

 " N. & Q." It relates to the important national 

 events of the battle of Trafalgar and death of 

 Nelson. The writer was, at the time, a signal 

 midshipman in the service, and only about thir- 

 teen years of age. He was a native of Glasgow, 

 and died many years since, much respected. 



H.M.S. Defence, 

 At anchor off Cadiz, 28 Oct. 1805. 

 My dear Betty [the writer's sister], 

 I have now the pleasure of writing you, after a 

 noble victory over the French and Spanish fleets, 

 on the 21st October, off Cape Spartel. We have 

 taken, burnt and sunk, gone on shore, &c, twenty- 

 one sail of the line. The names I will let [you] 

 know after. On the I9[th] our frigates made the 

 signal ; the Combined Fleets were coming out; so 

 as we were stationed between the frigate and our 

 fleet, we repeated ditto to Lord Nelson. It being 

 calm we could not make much way, but in the 

 course of the night we got a strong breeze, and 

 next morning our frigate made the signal for 

 them, being all at sea. So on the afternoon of the 

 20[th] we saw them to leeward ; but it was blow- 

 ing fresh and very hazy, so Lord Nelson made 

 our signal for a captain ; so our captain went on 

 board, and Lord Nelson told Captain Hope he 

 expected he would keep sight of them all night. 

 So on the morning of the 21st we observed them 

 to leeward about two miles, so we made the signal 

 to Lord Nelson how many the bearings, and 

 everything ; so brave Nelson bore down imme- 

 diately ; and at twelve o'clock Lord Nelson broke 

 the south' 3 line, and brave Admiral Collin [g]wood 

 the north ; and at two o'clock we were all in 

 action. We were the last station'd ship ; so when 

 we went down we had two Frenchmen and one 

 Spaniard on us at one time. We engag'd them 

 i'orty-six minutes, when the "Achille" and "Poly- 

 phemus" came up to our assistance. The Spaniard 

 ran away ; we gave him chase, and fought him 



