[List-Cumbria] Carlisle Patriot, 21 Jun 1823 - Death of Robert BOWMAN (3)

[Petra Mitchinson]

Saturday 21 Jun 1823   (p. 3, col. 5-6)

 

DEATH OF 

Mr. ROBERT BOWMAN, OF IRTHINGTON, 

IN HIS 118TH YEAR! 

 

[continued] 

 

"When trying his memory, I asked him if he had ever heard of BUONAPARTE or of the battle of Waterloo? He answered that he had heard
too much of BUONAPARTE; that he was a bad character, and at best only a coward, for as soon as he found himself in danger he ran
off. I reminded him that he had once done the same thing, (having been previously informed that he was employed during the rebellion
of 1745 in making trenches round Carlisle, when he made a precipitate retreat.) He laughed heartily, and confessed that he ran away
as soon as he could; he said he only remained one night among the soldiers. 

 

"He entered freely into conversation with me, and made many inquiries about Carlisle, and particularly about the Canal. He said he
remembered the first rebellion in 1715, being then eight or ten years of age; that he heard a great deal about it at the time, and
saw several men running away from it. 

 

"On asking him why he was so long in marrying, he said he never thought much about getting a wife, and how he got one he did not
know, but thought it was by mere accident. When I asked him if he ever used tobacco or snuff, he shrewdly answered that he never
wasted his money in that way; that he had plenty of ways in getting quit of his money without setting fire to it; and as to spending
it in snuff, it was just throwing it away. 

 

"I have seldom been in company with any one, young or old, who enjoyed better spirits. His education has been limited; but he
appears to have profited much by a few plain rules of conduct. His mind has been seldom if ever affected by anxious care, restless
ambition, or studious thought: he has led the life of an industrious and laborious farmer; temperate in all his pleasures, they have
been of long duration; regular in in his mode of living, hence an unusual share of rational enjoyment. By him, exercise, temperance,
and simplicity of diet, have been considered cardinal virtues;- 

 

          "Multa tulit, fecitque puer, sudavit, et absit, 

          Abstinuit Venere et a vino."-Hor. 

 

          "Though I look old, yet I am strong and lusty; 

          For in my youth I never did apply 

          Hot and rebellious liquors to my blood; 

          Nor did I with unbashful forehead woo 

          The means of weakness and debility.-Shaks. 

 

"There is a remarkable difference between him and the generality of old people: he is cheerful, good-humoured, and easily satisfied;
he does not complain of an unpleasant change in any thing around, nor in the habits and manners of the people. This, I think, can in
no way be accounted for, except from the perfect state of his senses and mental faculties; for the complaints of old people in this
respect are not so much to be attributed to any change in the objects around them, as to themselves; their faculties being impaired,
the same objects cease to make agreeable impressions. Some of his relatives have lived to an extreme old age. One of his brothers
died in 1810, aged 99 years; two years ago, one of his cousins died, aged 95 years; and he has another now living at the age of 85."


 

In the state here described, Mr. BOWMAN continued, without the least perceptible change, till within the last three months, when his
mental faculties began gradually to fail: he became rather restless, and was often querulous, fancying, at times, that his kind and
truly affectionate children and grand-children used him worse than heretofore, though, if it were possible, they increased their
attentions, and endeavoured to anticipate every reasonable desire. Thus he remained till the 

 

          "---------- Last scene of all, 

          That ends this strange eventful history." 

 

About noon on the day of his death, an evident alteration was perceived, and he soon exhibited symptoms of what was about to happen.
He grew weaker and weaker, as the day declined, but experienced no pain; and about eight in the evening, slept silently away in the
arms of death, at the extraordinary age of ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTEEN YEARS AND EIGHT MONTHS;-a fruit ripe for the gathering-a shock
ready for the sickle of the great reaper, whose harvest, however protracted, is nevertheless infallibly sure. 

 

It is a singular fact, worthy of mention in this place, that the oldest tree in Cumberland-an oak standing on the verge of Wragmire
Moss, on the high-road to Penrith, (part of what was once Inglewood Forest) of which the Dean and Chapter are said to have a record
dated 600 years back-fell from natural decay on the the [sic] very day of Mr. BOWMAN's death. 

 

 

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