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

[Sandy Ball]

What an amazing story this has been.
Thank you Petra.

On Tue, 12 Sep 2023 at 08:38, Petra Mitchinson via List-Cumbria <
list-cumbria at cumbriafhs.com> wrote:

> *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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