17.  The little lads of Castlewood, almost smothered in black trains and hatbands, headed the procession and were followed by my Lord Fairfax, from Greenway Court, by his Excellency the Governor of Virginia (with his coach), by the Randolphs, the Careys, the Harrisons, the Washingtons, and many others; for the whole country esteemed the departed gentleman, whose goodness, whose high talents, whose benevolence and unobtrusive urbanity, had earned for him the just respect of his neighbors. 18.  When informed of the event, the family of Colonel Esmond’s stepson, the Lord Castlewood of Hampshire in England, asked to be at the charges of the marble slab which recorded the names and virtues of his lordship’s mother and her husband; and after due time of preparation, the monument was set up, exhibiting the arms and coronet of the Esmonds, supported by a little, chubby group of weeping cherubs, and reciting an epitaph which for once did not tell any falsehoods.

DEFINTIONS.—­1.  Pat-ri-mo’ni-al, inherited from ancestors. 6.  Dis-af-fect’ed, discouraged. 7.  Ob-se’qui-ous, compliant to excess. 12.  Black’a-moor, a negro. 17.  Ur-ban’i-ty, civility or courtesy of manners, refinement. 18.  Ep’i-taph (pro. ep’i-taf), an inscription on a monument, in honor or in memory of the dead.

Notes.—­2.  Roundhead was the epithet applied to the Puritans by the Cavaliers in the time of Charles I. It arose from the practice among the Puritans of cropping their hair peculiarly.

3.  Patriarchal. 5.  Feudal.  The Jewish patriarch, in olden times, and the head of a noble family in Europe, during the Middle Ages, when the “Feudal System,” as it is called, existed, both held almost despotic sway, the one over his great number of descendants and relations, and the other over a vast body of subjects or retainers.  Both patriarch and feudal lord were less restricted than the modern king, and the feudal lord, especially, lived in a state of great magnificence.

15.  Proofs.  When matter is to be printed, a rough impression of it is taken as soon as the type is set up, and sent to the editor or some other authority for correction.  These first sheets are called proofs.

“His Excellency” was the title applied to the governor.

CVIII.  MINOT’S LEDGE.

Fitz-James O’Brien (b. 1828, d. 1862) was of Irish birth, and came to America in 1852.  He has contributed a number of tales and poems to various periodicals, but his writings have never been collected in book form.  Mr. O’Brien belonged to the New York Seventh Regiment, and died at Baltimore of a wound received in a cavalry skirmish.

1.  Like spectral hounds across the sky,
     The white clouds scud before the storm;
   And naked in the howling night
     The red-eyed lighthouse lifts its form. 
   The waves with slippery fingers clutch
     The massive tower, and climb and fall,
   And, muttering, growl with baffled rage
     Their curses on the sturdy wall.