Untitled - Electric Scotland

1827-33] DEATH OF HIS FATHER 47
He whom near yonder cliff we see recline
A mitred prelate may hereafter shine ;
That youth, who seems exploring Nature s laws,
An ermined judge may win deserved applause. 1
The youth who was to become a *
mitred prelate was
Archibald Tait, and the future ermined judge was
Roundell Palmer, who, revisiting Seaton as Lord Chan
cellor of England just fifty years afterwards, was enter
tained by the Corporation of Exeter, and mentioned in
his speech that Archbishop Tait, in writing to congratulate
him on receiving the Great Seal, had reminded him of the
Seaton poet s prophecy. Lord Selborne added that the
poet had apparently been forgotten in his own country,
for that he had in vain inquired after him and his book a
few days before.
Meantime there had fallen upon the life of Archibald
Tait another great sorrow the death of his father.
Mr. Tait s health had been visibly failing for some time
past, and he had refused in the spring of 1832 to make
his usual visit to Harviestoun.
"
No, I do not wish it ; I
shall soon be walking in even fairer gardens with your
beloved mother." His letters testify to the unabated
interest which he continued to feel till the very last in the
Oxford career of his youngest and favourite son. The
dispositions of father and son were singularly unlike one
another, but the friendship and mutual confidence which
existed between them had been remarkable ever since
Archie, as a little child, used to ride about the grounds of
Harviestoun with his father, seated on a little pad in
front of his saddle. In later days, when Archie was at
school, long walks and rides with his father formed his
chief holiday amusement. He used afterwards to tell
how, in these rides over the Ochils, near Harviestoun,
and when in Edinburgh, in the long rambles on foot