Bligh House

To the West, in riding past the walls of Bligh, I remembered an incident in the well-known siege of that house, during the Civil Wars: How, among Waller’s invading Roundhead troops,there happened to be a young scholar, a poet, and lover of the Muses, fighting for the cause, as he thought, of ancient Freedom,who, one day, when the siege was being more hotly urged,pressing forward and climbing a wall, suddenly found himself in a quiet garden by the house. And here, for a time forgetting, as it would seem, the battle, and heedless of the bullets that now and then flew past him like peevish wasps, the young Officer stayed,gathering roses—old-fashioned damask roses, streaked with red and white—which, for the sake of a Court Beauty, there besieged with her father, he carried to the house; falling, however, struck by a chance bullet, or shot perhaps by one of his own party. A few of the young Officer’s verses, written in the stilted fashion of the time, and almost unreadable now, have been preserved.The lady’s portrait hangs in the white drawing-room at Bligh;a simpering, faded figure, with ringlets and drop-pearls, and a dress of amber-coloured silk.

柏莱大楼

往西骑着车路过柏莱大楼墙外时，我记起了一段历史旧事，发生在内战时期有名的围攻这座大宅的战斗中：在入侵的沃勒圆颅党军队里，刚好有一位年轻的学者，是个诗人，一个钟情于缪斯的青年，在为，他自己认为，在为古老的自由理想而战。有一天，战事愈趋激烈，他往前冲，翻过一道围墙，发现自己落在一个安静的花园里，就在大楼旁边。在这儿，似乎一时忘了身边的战况，也不顾子弹不时像愤怒的黄蜂一般呼啸而过，年轻的军官停下来，俯身采摘园中的玫瑰——老式的、红白二色的大马士革玫瑰——为了一位与父亲一起身陷重围的宫廷美人，他揣着这些玫瑰向大楼走去；但是，一颗流弹飞过，他中弹倒下，也可能是被自己人射杀了。这位年轻军官有几句诗，以当时虚饰的风格写的，如今几乎难以卒读，留存了下来。那女郎的画像挂在柏莱大楼白色的客厅里，一副黯淡造作的模样，垂着鬈发，挂着珍珠，身着一袭琥珀色丝绸礼服。