Series 1 > Journals of Sir John Lauder, Lord Fountainhall, with his observations on public affairs and other memoranda, 1665-1676

44
JOURNAL OF JOHN LAUDER
her daughter, a peasants wife whom I saw. The gossips and
commers1 heir give nothing as they do in Scotland, save it may
be a gift to the child.
I have called my selfe to mind of a most curious portrait
that we saw in Richeliew castle, the description wheirof by
reason its so marvelously weill done sail not be amiss tho it
comes in heir postliminio to insert. On the walls theirfor of
one of the chambers we saw is drawen at large the emblem of
the deluge or universall floud, in one corner of it I discovered
men wt a great deall of art swiming (for the world is drawen
all over covered wt waters, the catarracts of the heavens are
represented open, the water deschending guttatim so lively
that til a man recall himselfe and wiew it narrowly hel make
a scrupule to approach the broad 2 for fear of being wett), and
that wt a bensill3 their course being directed to a mountain
which they sy at a distance; which is also drawen. Painters
skill heir hes bein such, that a man would almost fancy he
hears the dine the water makes wt their strugling and strik¬
ing both hands and feet to gaine that mountaine. Just
besydes thies are laying dead folke wt their armes negligently
stretched out, the furious wawes tossing them terribly, as a
man would think, some of them laying on their back, some
of them on their belly, some wheirof nothing is to be sein
but their head and their arme raxed up above their head.
Amongs those that are laying wt their face up may be ob¬
served great diversity of countenances, some wt their mouth
wide open and their tongue hinging out, some glooring,4 some
girning,5 some who had bein fierce and cruell during their
life, leiving legible characters in their horrible and barbarous
countenances. In another part of the broad is to be sein all
sorts of creatures confusedly thorow other, notwtstanding of
that naturell antipathy that is betuixt some of them, as the
sheip and the wolf, the crocodile and lizard, etc.; ther may we
sy the wawes peele mel swallowing up wolfes and sheip, Lions
and buls, and other sorts of beasts. Remove your eyes to
another corner, and their yeel sy great tries torn up by the
roots, and tost heir and their by the waves; also hie strong
1 Godmothers, commeres. 2 Panel. s Strenuous effort.
4 Staring. 6 Grinning (like a child crying).