ROSE AYLMER.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 645, 23 October 1909, Page 9

ROSE AYLMER.

■ On the tomb of a yoiing -English girl ,who died of cholera hr Calcutta, more '.than'Va'.cen: tury ago, a supplementary we learn from tho " Athenaeum," lias now bebh'placcd,. graven with-the .words of what, in the opinion of.aimo critics, is : the most affecting "elegy in i our literature../' Charles-Lamb, said ho lived, for weeks on the verses which his friend /Landor /wrote"in memory of Eose;Aylmer. gono to India to: stay with;.her uncle,. Chief. Justice'Sir"Henry Bussell, and sho;succrtobed to an attack' of. cholera ,on March. 2, /at the age' of twenty. 'A handsome, motnpnont was erected Hover-her grave, with. .an. ejitaph giving her' name'a'rid the date of: her/'peath. together with five lines of poetry boirowed from Young's': : ,KNight Thoughts.-.....-.Shmucl Rogers remember'bd the. time when laics de-li-hted in the works-of that lugubrious ;ismns.j and it;may be,' though one rather not, that ho was one of - Miss. Aylmer s-'fatoUnto authors. But ,he could; perpetrate.: exjsrable poetry, ! and' tho'-lines/ oh : "herjto.mb ;shc«v- him at his worst.''. It'/would, scarcely, bo an-act of justifiable /-vandalism, /perhaps,;: to- - obliterate •them; but it is snrely. a "pleasing-and/proper step'to add,beneath'them/ Landors immeasurably more-beautiful elegy; it "sec-ins,- has been done-'by.\fhe express desire of ijaembers of'Miss'Aylnier,'s family,.-now alive; ipno of whom, the -Dowager, Lady Graves Sajrie,; was also tho poet's'fricud for many years.oJihis long life. "Mr; Swinbnrno was consulted as-to : which particnlar-'versioii'bf the poem-for.ttuw'were published'during'Landor's lifetime-stould.be, adopted, and his. decision may. bo, notedly compilers of. anthologies..'- It '.wastoo I,ad, Mr. Swinburne- "added, that tho only ; po'jtrj-. on Koso Aylmer's tomb' should be takea from a. book that".Lahdbr abhorred. .'„';. ,' ■ ■■• T'ho ; stbrv -of'"-Landor s. sentimenteP.-friend-ship, with ,'Miss 'Aylmer has often l*;en told; "with or-mthout ombellishments. .He)had been sent down from Oxford;."and,: dipensg./from his father. on points of. conduct,, to«. ; betaken himself- to'Sonth/Wales/ALTenby.ho, made tho-. acquaihtanco.bf.Lady Aylmer and, her.- daughter. 'Mention:js'made,in/bhopf;diisptrems:ot. a, never-to-be-forgotten .walk with the ,"J"pung lady to Briton Ferry.'-and! the oaken wopd.ithnt.whis.-j perod,/' must de-, 'part.'/" And:'iit"was:;she. wljp:-lent:,.aim -a book, ■fromVa 'Swansea "circulating librarw r d,oubtlesii iii'coritravontion of, its.rules-which gavp him theplofcof-tho.heroic'poem- whorim,: Jio sang 'the: fate.: of ■ Gebir;: the f I'Hittite ' ,pf Egypt; • glorified Bonaparte,'and. said. uncivil things about' had gone bv.-'we read.in"-the Britpn -J?erry,-poem ( When 'old 'memories were -revived .by meeting, witha second Hose, hieco of tho :6rst;.ancl she :it.. ; is" who., seventyrfivq:/years latra-.-' has; commemorated- a- passage m Landor s He .which- ho himself never recalled without'-'tlj. rfondest re--CTefe.' 'According-to;ohb.of,.tho potions .which' have been attached'to':'the /story,' Landor and Miss "Aylmer "were in lovo'with/eiich other, nnu she was eiiiled to save .her, from,,' his dotrimenfal attentions. Asa ronttor: of.fact,' -a'-letter from/ him ■}'hasi.been,,.nreservpd : ,m which- he vbwed- /-noreT spoken, a' word of love to'■ Lady. Aylmer'sj/teirrhtcr. ,-Moreoveri'lie -TCa's/e'ulUvntint,f--abniilt/,tbnt/,tJlne, a: far from' hopeless.passjon, "a*. iTenby, for an, lone/of. the':gold¥nrliaif;', and/i fiprwry "long. ;afterwards: w Ke'fe!t'T"flc'tim' ! ft > 'tho/'-ho?voiily.. smiles of, *ahao,nj;hei"":NOTSr.thEles»'}'>ut of tho i nhurdnne'e: of mo/e: than/pretir vpfses lje indited ■in praise ofeinhumcr.Wfi • bbicct.s of /hia 'admiration,i' ; 'tbo,Jimes^to,;' : ;Rr>e; Aylmpr 'are Ihe 1 r.moni', cefnetery ( will' b'Q ; ;nbt a '-little .'mbVed~,wli'ei,'.f ho- reads them,: written in'mtirble, over the grave where, Bose Aylmer, of the : fceptred .rate • the J form divine, was bnricd.—London ''Standard.. /