initial commit of ebook 1384HEADmain

2 files changed, 5217 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/ayrlg10.txt b/old/ayrlg10.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..463c1af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/ayrlg10.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5217 @@
+Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Ayrshire Legatees by John Galt
+#3 in our series by John Galt
+
+
+Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check
+the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!!
+
+Please take a look at the important information in this header.
+We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an
+electronic path open for the next readers.  Do not remove this.
+
+
+**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
+
+**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
+
+*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations*
+
+Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and
+further information is included below.  We need your donations.
+
+
+The Ayrshire Legatees
+
+by John Galt
+
+July, 1998  [Etext #?1384
+
+
+Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Ayrshire Legatees by John Galt
+*******This file should be named ayrlg10.txt or ayrlg10.zip******
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ayrlg11.txt
+VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ayrlg10a.txt
+
+
+This etext was prepared
+by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple editions,
+all of which are in the Public Domain in the United States, unless a
+copyright notice is included.  Therefore, we do NOT keep these books
+in compliance with any particular paper edition, usually otherwise.
+
+
+We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance
+of the official release dates, for time for better editing.
+
+Please note:  neither this list nor its contents are final till
+midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement.
+The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at
+Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month.  A
+preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment
+and editing by those who wish to do so.  To be sure you have an
+up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes
+in the first week of the next month.  Since our ftp program has
+a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a
+look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a
+new copy has at least one byte more or less.
+
+
+Information about Project Gutenberg (one page)
+
+We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work.  The
+fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take
+to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright
+searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc.  This
+projected audience is one hundred million readers.  If our value
+per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2
+million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-two text
+files per month, or 384 more Etexts in 1998 for a total of 1500+
+If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the
+total should reach over 150 billion Etexts given away.
+
+The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext
+Files by the December 31, 2001.  [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion]
+This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers,
+which is only 10% of the present number of computer users.  2001
+should have at least twice as many computer users as that, so it
+will require us reaching less than 5% of the users in 2001.
+
+
+We need your donations more than ever!
+
+
+All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are
+tax deductible to the extent allowable by law.  (CMU = Carnegie-
+Mellon University).
+
+For these and other matters, please mail to:
+
+Project Gutenberg
+P. O. Box  2782
+Champaign, IL 61825
+
+When all other email fails try our Executive Director:
+Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com>
+
+We would prefer to send you this information by email
+(Internet, Bitnet, Compuserve, ATTMAIL or MCImail).
+
+******
+If you have an FTP program (or emulator), please
+FTP directly to the Project Gutenberg archives:
+[Mac users, do NOT point and click. . .type]
+
+ftp uiarchive.cso.uiuc.edu
+login:  anonymous
+password:  your@login
+cd etext/etext90 through /etext96
+or cd etext/articles [get suggest gut for more information]
+dir [to see files]
+get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files]
+GET INDEX?00.GUT
+for a list of books
+and
+GET NEW GUT for general information
+and
+MGET GUT* for newsletters.
+
+**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor**
+(Three Pages)
+
+
+***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START***
+Why is this "Small Print!" statement here?  You know: lawyers.
+They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with
+your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from
+someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our
+fault.  So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement
+disclaims most of our liability to you.  It also tells you how
+you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to.
+
+*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT
+By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
+etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept
+this "Small Print!" statement.  If you do not, you can receive
+a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by
+sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person
+you got it from.  If you received this etext on a physical
+medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request.
+
+ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS
+This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG-
+tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor
+Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at
+Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project").  Among other
+things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright
+on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and
+distribute it in the United States without permission and
+without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules, set forth
+below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext
+under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark.
+
+To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable
+efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain
+works.  Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any
+medium they may be on may contain "Defects".  Among other
+things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
+intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged
+disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer
+codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment.
+
+LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES
+But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below,
+[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this
+etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including
+legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR
+UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT,
+INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE
+OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE
+POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
+
+If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of
+receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any)
+you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that
+time to the person you received it from.  If you received it
+on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and
+such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement
+copy.  If you received it electronically, such person may
+choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to
+receive it electronically.
+
+THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS".  NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS
+TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A
+PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+
+Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or
+the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the
+above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you
+may have other legal rights.
+
+INDEMNITY
+You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors,
+officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost
+and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or
+indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause:
+[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification,
+or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect.
+
+DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm"
+You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by
+disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this
+"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg,
+or:
+
+[1]  Only give exact copies of it.  Among other things, this
+     requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the
+     etext or this "small print!" statement.  You may however,
+     if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable
+     binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form,
+     including any form resulting from conversion by word pro-
+     cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as
+     *EITHER*:
+
+     [*]  The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and
+          does *not* contain characters other than those
+          intended by the author of the work, although tilde
+          (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may
+          be used to convey punctuation intended by the
+          author, and additional characters may be used to
+          indicate hypertext links; OR
+
+     [*]  The etext may be readily converted by the reader at
+          no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent
+          form by the program that displays the etext (as is
+          the case, for instance, with most word processors);
+          OR
+
+     [*]  You provide, or agree to also provide on request at
+          no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the
+          etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC
+          or other equivalent proprietary form).
+
+[2]  Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this
+     "Small Print!" statement.
+
+[3]  Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the
+     net profits you derive calculated using the method you
+     already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  If you
+     don't derive profits, no royalty is due.  Royalties are
+     payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon
+     University" within the 60 days following each
+     date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare)
+     your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
+
+WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
+The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time,
+scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty
+free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution
+you can think of.  Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg
+Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
+
+*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+This etext was prepared
+by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
+
+
+
+
+
+The Ayrshire Legatees
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I--THE DEPARTURE
+
+
+
+On New Year's day Dr. Pringle received a letter from India,
+informing him that his cousin, Colonel Armour, had died at Hydrabad,
+and left him his residuary legatee.  The same post brought other
+letters on the same subject from the agent of the deceased in
+London, by which it was evident to the whole family that no time
+should be lost in looking after their interests in the hands of such
+brief and abrupt correspondents.  "To say the least of it," as the
+Doctor himself sedately remarked, "considering the greatness of the
+forth-coming property, Messieurs Richard Argent and Company, of New
+Broad Street, might have given a notion as to the particulars of the
+residue."  It was therefore determined that, as soon as the
+requisite arrangements could be made, the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle
+should set out for the metropolis, to obtain a speedy settlement
+with the agents, and, as Rachel had now, to use an expression of her
+mother's, "a prospect before her," that she also should accompany
+them:  Andrew, who had just been called to the Bar, and who had come
+to the manse to spend a few days after attaining that distinction,
+modestly suggested, that, considering the various professional
+points which might be involved in the objects of his father's
+journey, and considering also the retired life which his father had
+led in the rural village of Garnock, it might be of importance to
+have the advantage of legal advice.
+
+Mrs. Pringle interrupted this harangue, by saying, "We see what you
+would be at, Andrew; ye're just wanting to come with us, and on this
+occasion I'm no for making step-bairns, so we'll a' gang thegither."
+
+The Doctor had been for many years the incumbent of Garnock, which
+is pleasantly situated between Irvine and Kilwinning, and, on
+account of the benevolence of his disposition, was much beloved by
+his parishioners.  Some of the pawkie among them used indeed to say,
+in answer to the godly of Kilmarnock, and other admirers of the late
+great John Russel, of that formerly orthodox town, by whom Dr.
+Pringle's powers as a preacher were held in no particular
+estimation,--"He kens our pu'pit's frail, and spar'st to save outlay
+to the heritors."  As for Mrs. Pringle, there is not such another
+minister's wife, both for economy and management, within the
+jurisdiction of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and to this fact the
+following letter to Miss Mally Glencairn, a maiden lady residing in
+the Kirkgate of Irvine, a street that has been likened unto the
+Kingdom of Heaven, where there is neither marriage nor giving in
+marriage, will abundantly testify.
+
+
+LETTER I
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn--GARNOCK MANSE.
+
+Dear Miss Mally--The Doctor has had extraordinar news from India and
+London, where we are all going, as soon as me and Rachel can get
+ourselves in order, so I beg you will go to Bailie Delap's shop, and
+get swatches of his best black bombaseen, and crape, and muslin, and
+bring them over to the manse the morn's morning.  If you cannot come
+yourself, and the day should be wat, send Nanny Eydent, the mantua-
+maker, with them; you'll be sure to send Nanny, onyhow, and I
+requeesht that, on this okasion, ye'll get the very best the Bailie
+has, and I'll tell you all about it when you come.  You will get,
+likewise, swatches of mourning print, with the lowest prices.  I'll
+no be so particular about them, as they are for the servan lasses,
+and there's no need, for all the greatness of God's gifts, that we
+should be wasterful.  Let Mrs. Glibbans know, that the Doctor's
+second cousin, the colonel, that was in the East Indies, is no
+more;--I am sure she will sympatheese with our loss on this
+melancholy okasion.  Tell her, as I'll no be out till our mournings
+are made, I would take it kind if she would come over and eate a bit
+of dinner on Sunday.  The Doctor will no preach himself, but there's
+to be an excellent young man, an acquaintance of Andrew's, that has
+the repute of being both sound and hellaquaint.  But no more at
+present, and looking for you and Nanny Eydent, with the swatches,--I
+am, dear Miss Mally, your sinsare friend,
+
+JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+The Doctor being of opinion that, until they had something in hand
+from the legacy, they should walk in the paths of moderation, it was
+resolved to proceed by the coach from Irvine to Greenock, there
+embark in a steam-boat for Glasgow, and, crossing the country to
+Edinburgh, take their passage at Leith in one of the smacks for
+London.  But we must let the parties speak for themselves.
+
+
+LETTER II
+
+
+Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod--GREENOCK.
+
+My Dear Isabella--I know not why the dejection with which I parted
+from you still hangs upon my heart, and grows heavier as I am drawn
+farther and farther away.  The uncertainty of the future--the
+dangers of the sea--all combine to sadden my too sensitive spirit.
+Still, however, I will exert myself, and try to give you some
+account of our momentous journey.
+
+The morning on which we bade farewell for a time--alas! it was to me
+as if for ever, to my native shades of Garnock--the weather was
+cold, bleak, and boisterous, and the waves came rolling in majestic
+fury towards the shore, when we arrived at the Tontine Inn of
+Ardrossan.  What a monument has the late Earl of Eglinton left there
+of his public spirit!  It should embalm his memory in the hearts of
+future ages, as I doubt not but in time Ardrossan will become a
+grand emporium; but the people of Saltcoats, a sordid race, complain
+that it will be their ruin; and the Paisley subscribers to his
+lordship's canal grow pale when they think of profit.
+
+The road, after leaving Ardrossan, lies along the shore.  The blast
+came dark from the waters, and the clouds lay piled in every form of
+grandeur on the lofty peaks of Arran.  The view on the right hand is
+limited to the foot of a range of abrupt mean hills, and on the left
+it meets the sea--as we were obliged to keep the glasses up, our
+drive for several miles was objectless and dreary.  When we had
+ascended a hill, leaving Kilbride on the left, we passed under the
+walls of an ancient tower.  What delightful ideas are associated
+with the sight of such venerable remains of antiquity!
+
+Leaving that lofty relic of our warlike ancestors, we descended
+again towards the shore.  On the one side lay the Cumbra Islands,
+and Bute, dear to departed royalty.  Afar beyond them, in the hoary
+magnificence of nature, rise the mountains of Argyllshire; the
+cairns, as my brother says, of a former world.  On the other side of
+the road, we saw the cloistered ruins of the religious house of
+Southenan, a nunnery in those days of romantic adventure, when to
+live was to enjoy a poetical element.  In such a sweet sequestered
+retreat, how much more pleasing to the soul it would have been, for
+you and I, like two captive birds in one cage, to have sung away our
+hours in innocence, than for me to be thus torn from you by fate,
+and all on account of that mercenary legacy, perchance the spoils of
+some unfortunate Hindoo Rajah!
+
+At Largs we halted to change horses, and saw the barrows of those
+who fell in the great battle.  We then continued our journey along
+the foot of stupendous precipices; and high, sublime, and darkened
+with the shadow of antiquity, we saw, upon its lofty station, the
+ancient Castle of Skelmorlie, where the Montgomeries of other days
+held their gorgeous banquets, and that brave knight who fell at
+Chevy-Chace came pricking forth on his milk-white steed, as Sir
+Walter Scott would have described him.  But the age of chivalry is
+past, and the glory of Europe departed for ever!
+
+When we crossed the stream that divides the counties of Ayr and
+Renfrew, we beheld, in all the apart and consequentiality of pride,
+the house of Kelly overlooking the social villas of Wemyss Bay.  My
+brother compared it to a sugar hogshead, and them to cotton-bags;
+for the lofty thane of Kelly is but a West India planter, and the
+inhabitants of the villas on the shore are Glasgow manufacturers.
+
+To this succeeded a dull drive of about two miles, and then at once
+we entered the pretty village of Inverkip.  A slight snow-shower had
+given to the landscape a sort of copperplate effect, but still the
+forms of things, though but sketched, as it were, with China ink,
+were calculated to produce interesting impressions.  After
+ascending, by a gentle acclivity, into a picturesque and romantic
+pass, we entered a spacious valley, and, in the course of little
+more than half an hour, reached this town; the largest, the most
+populous, and the most superb that I have yet seen.  But what are
+all its warehouses, ships, and smell of tar, and other odoriferous
+circumstances of fishery and the sea, compared with the green
+swelling hills, the fragrant bean-fields, and the peaceful groves of
+my native Garnock!
+
+The people of this town are a very busy and clever race, but much
+given to litigation.  My brother says, that they are the greatest
+benefactors to the Outer House, and that their lawsuits are the most
+amusing and profitable before the courts, being less for the purpose
+of determining what is right than what is lawful.  The chambermaid
+of the inn where we lodge pointed out to me, on the opposite side of
+the street, a magnificent edifice erected for balls; but the
+subscribers have resolved not to allow any dancing till it is
+determined by the Court of Session to whom the seats and chairs
+belong, as they were brought from another house where the assemblies
+were formerly held.  I have heard a lawsuit compared to a country-
+dance, in which, after a great bustle and regular confusion, the
+parties stand still, all tired, just on the spot where they began;
+but this is the first time that the judges of the land have been
+called on to decide when a dance may begin.
+
+We arrived too late for the steam-boat, and are obliged to wait till
+Monday morning; but to-morrow we shall go to church, where I expect
+to see what sort of creatures the beaux are.  The Greenock ladies
+have a great name for beauty, but those that I have seen are perfect
+frights.  Such of the gentlemen as I have observed passing the
+windows of the inn may do, but I declare the ladies have nothing of
+which any woman ought to be proud.  Had we known that we ran a risk
+of not getting a steam-boat, my mother would have provided an
+introductory letter or two from some of her Irvine friends; but here
+we are almost entire strangers:  my father, however, is acquainted
+with one of the magistrates, and has gone to see him.  I hope he
+will be civil enough to ask us to his house, for an inn is a
+shocking place to live in, and my mother is terrified at the
+expense.  My brother, however, has great confidence in our
+prospects, and orders and directs with a high hand.  But my paper is
+full, and I am compelled to conclude with scarcely room to say how
+affectionately I am yours,
+
+RACHEL PRINGLE.
+
+
+LETTER III
+
+
+The Rev. Dr Pringle to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session-
+Clerk, Garnock--EDINBURGH.
+
+Dear Sir--We have got this length through many difficulties, both in
+the travel by land to, and by sea and land from Greenock, where we
+were obligated, by reason of no conveyance, to stop the Sabbath, but
+not without edification; for we went to hear Dr. Drystour in the
+forenoon, who had a most weighty sermon on the tenth chapter of
+Nehemiah.  He is surely a great orthodox divine, but rather costive
+in his delivery.  In the afternoon we heard a correct moral lecture
+on good works, in another church, from Dr. Eastlight--a plain man,
+with a genteel congregation.  The same night we took supper with a
+wealthy family, where we had much pleasant communion together,
+although the bringing in of the toddy-bowl after supper is a fashion
+that has a tendency to lengthen the sederunt to unseasonable hours.
+
+On the following morning, by the break of day, we took shipping in
+the steam-boat for Glasgow.  I had misgivings about the engine,
+which is really a thing of great docility; but saving my concern for
+the boiler, we all found the place surprising comfortable.  The day
+was bleak and cold; but we had a good fire in a carron grate in the
+middle of the floor, and books to read, so that both body and mind
+are therein provided for.
+
+Among the books, I fell in with a History of the Rebellion, anent
+the hand that an English gentleman of the name of Waverley had in
+it.  I was grieved that I had not time to read it through, for it
+was wonderful interesting, and far more particular, in many points,
+than any other account of that affair I have yet met with; but it's
+no so friendly to Protestant principles as I could have wished.
+However, if I get my legacy well settled, I will buy the book, and
+lend it to you on my return, please God, to the manse.
+
+We were put on shore at Glasgow by breakfast-time, and there we
+tarried all day, as I had a power of attorney to get from Miss Jenny
+Macbride, my cousin, to whom the colonel left the thousand pound
+legacy.  Miss Jenny thought the legacy should have been more, and
+made some obstacle to signing the power; but both her lawyer and
+Andrew Pringle, my son, convinced her, that, as it was specified in
+the testament, she could not help it by standing out; so at long and
+last Miss Jenny was persuaded to put her name to the paper.
+
+Next day we all four got into a fly coach, and, without damage or
+detriment, reached this city in good time for dinner in Macgregor's
+hotel, a remarkable decent inn, next door to one Mr. Blackwood, a
+civil and discreet man in the bookselling line.
+
+Really the changes in Edinburgh since I was here, thirty years ago,
+are not to be told.  I am confounded; for although I have both heard
+and read of the New Town in the Edinburgh Advertiser, and the Scots
+Magazine, I had no notion of what has come to pass.  It's surprising
+to think wherein the decay of the nation is; for at Greenock I saw
+nothing but shipping and building; at Glasgow, streets spreading as
+if they were one of the branches of cotton-spinning; and here, the
+houses grown up as if they were sown in the seed-time with the corn,
+by a drill-machine, or dibbled in rigs and furrows like beans and
+potatoes.
+
+To-morrow, God willing, we embark in a smack at Leith, so that you
+will not hear from me again till it please Him to take us in the
+hollow of His hand to London.  In the meantime, I have only to add,
+that, when the Session meets, I wish you would speak to the elders,
+particularly to Mr. Craig, no to be overly hard on that poor donsie
+thing, Meg Milliken, about her bairn; and tell Tam Glen, the father
+o't, from me, that it would have been a sore heart to that pious
+woman, his mother, had she been living, to have witnessed such a
+thing; and therefore I hope and trust, he will yet confess a fault,
+and own Meg for his wife, though she is but something of a tawpie.
+However, you need not diminish her to Tam.  I hope Mr. Snodgrass
+will give as much satisfaction to the parish as can reasonably be
+expected in my absence; and I remain, dear sir, your friend and
+pastor,
+
+ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
+
+
+Mr. Micklewham received the Doctor's letter about an hour before the
+Session met on the case of Tam Glen and Meg Milliken, and took it
+with him to the session-house, to read it to the elders before going
+into the investigation.  Such a long and particular letter from the
+Doctor was, as they all justly remarked, kind and dutiful to his
+people, and a great pleasure to them.
+
+Mr. Daff observed, "Truly the Doctor's a vera funny man, and
+wonderfu' jocose about the toddy-bowl."  But Mr. Craig said, that
+"sic a thing on the Lord's night gi'es me no pleasure; and I am for
+setting my face against Waverley's History of the Rebellion, whilk I
+hae heard spoken of among the ungodly, both at Kilwinning and Dalry;
+and if it has no respect to Protestant principles, I doubt it's but
+another dose o' the radical poison in a new guise."  Mr. Icenor,
+however, thought that "the observe on the great Doctor Drystour was
+very edifying; and that they should see about getting him to help at
+the summer Occasion." {1}
+
+While they were thus reviewing, in their way, the first epistle of
+the Doctor, the betherel came in to say that Meg and Tam were at the
+door.  "Oh, man," said Mr. Daff, slyly, "ye shouldna hae left them
+at the door by themselves."  Mr. Craig looked at him austerely, and
+muttered something about the growing immorality of this backsliding
+age; but before the smoke of his indignation had kindled into
+eloquence, the delinquents were admitted.  However, as we have
+nothing to do with the business, we shall leave them to their own
+deliberations.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II--THE VOYAGE
+
+
+
+On the fourteenth day after the departure of the family from the
+manse, the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass, who was appointed to
+officiate during the absence of the Doctor, received the following
+letter from his old chum, Mr. Andrew Pringle.  It would appear that
+the young advocate is not so solid in the head as some of his elder
+brethren at the Bar; and therefore many of his flights and
+observations must be taken with an allowance on the score of his
+youth.
+
+
+LETTER IV
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq., Advocate, to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass--
+LONDON.
+
+My Dear Friend--We have at last reached London, after a stormy
+passage of seven days.  The accommodation in the smacks looks
+extremely inviting in port, and in fine weather, I doubt not, is
+comfortable, even at sea; but in February, and in such visitations
+of the powers of the air as we have endured, a balloon must be a far
+better vehicle than all the vessels that have been constructed for
+passengers since the time of Noah.  In the first place, the waves of
+the atmosphere cannot be so dangerous as those of the ocean, being
+but "thin air"; and I am sure they are not so disagreeable; then the
+speed of the balloon is so much greater,--and it would puzzle
+Professor Leslie to demonstrate that its motions are more unsteady;
+besides, who ever heard of sea-sickness in a balloon? the
+consideration of which alone would, to any reasonable person
+actually suffering under the pains of that calamity, be deemed more
+than an equivalent for all the little fractional difference of
+danger between the two modes of travelling.  I shall henceforth
+regard it as a fine characteristic trait of our national prudence,
+that, in their journies to France and Flanders, the Scottish witches
+always went by air on broom-sticks and benweeds, instead of
+venturing by water in sieves, like those of England.  But the
+English are under the influence of a maritime genius.
+
+When we had got as far up the Thames as Gravesend, the wind and tide
+came against us, so that the vessel was obliged to anchor, and I
+availed myself of the circumstance, to induce the family to
+disembark and go to London by LAND; and I esteem it a fortunate
+circumstance that we did so, the day, for the season, being
+uncommonly fine.  After we had taken some refreshment, I procured
+places in a stage-coach for my mother and sister, and, with the
+Doctor, mounted myself on the outside.  My father's old-fashioned
+notions boggled a little at first to this arrangement, which he
+thought somewhat derogatory to his ministerial dignity; but his
+scruples were in the end overruled.
+
+The country in this season is, of course, seen to disadvantage, but
+still it exhibits beauty enough to convince us what England must be
+when in leaf.  The old gentleman's admiration of the increasing
+signs of what he called civilisation, as we approached London,
+became quite eloquent; but the first view of the city from
+Blackheath (which, by the bye, is a fine common, surrounded with
+villas and handsome houses) overpowered his faculties, and I shall
+never forget the impression it made on myself.  The sun was declined
+towards the horizon; vast masses of dark low-hung clouds were
+mingled with the smoky canopy, and the dome of St. Paul's, like the
+enormous idol of some terrible deity, throned amidst the smoke of
+sacrifices and magnificence, darkness, and mystery, presented
+altogether an object of vast sublimity.  I felt touched with
+reverence, as if I was indeed approaching the city of THE HUMAN
+POWERS.
+
+The distant view of Edinburgh is picturesque and romantic, but it
+affects a lower class of our associations.  It is, compared to that
+of London, what the poem of the Seasons is with respect to Paradise
+Lost--the castellated descriptions of Walter Scott to the Darkness
+of Byron--the Sabbath of Grahame to the Robbers of Schiller.  In the
+approach to Edinburgh, leisure and cheerfulness are on the road;
+large spaces of rural and pastoral nature are spread openly around,
+and mountains, and seas, and headlands, and vessels passing beyond
+them, going like those that die, we know not whither, while the sun
+is bright on their sails, and hope with them; but, in coming to this
+Babylon, there is an eager haste and a hurrying on from all
+quarters, towards that stupendous pile of gloom, through which no
+eye can penetrate; an unceasing sound, like the enginery of an
+earthquake at work, rolls from the heart of that profound and
+indefinable obscurity--sometimes a faint and yellow beam of the sun
+strikes here and there on the vast expanse of edifices; and
+churches, and holy asylums, are dimly seen lifting up their
+countless steeples and spires, like so many lightning rods to avert
+the wrath of Heaven.
+
+The entrance to Edinburgh also awakens feelings of a more pleasing
+character.  The rugged veteran aspect of the Old Town is agreeably
+contrasted with the bright smooth forehead of the New, and there is
+not such an overwhelming torrent of animal life, as to make you
+pause before venturing to stem it; the noises are not so deafening,
+and the occasional sound of a ballad-singer, or a Highland piper,
+varies and enriches the discords; but here, a multitudinous
+assemblage of harsh alarms, of selfish contentions, and of furious
+carriages, driven by a fierce and insolent race, shatter the very
+hearing, till you partake of the activity with which all seem as
+much possessed as if a general apprehension prevailed, that the
+great clock of Time would strike the doom-hour before their tasks
+were done.  But I must stop, for the postman with his bell, like the
+betherel of some ancient "borough's town" summoning to a burial, is
+in the street, and warns me to conclude.
+
+- Yours, ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+LETTER V
+
+
+The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session-
+Clerk, Garnock
+
+LONDON, 49 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND.
+
+Dear Sir--On the first Sunday forthcoming after the receiving
+hereof, you will not fail to recollect in the remembering prayer,
+that we return thanks for our safe arrival in London, after a
+dangerous voyage.  Well, indeed, is it ordained that we should pray
+for those who go down to the sea in ships, and do business on the
+great deep; for what me and mine have come through is unspeakable,
+and the hand of Providence was visibly manifested.
+
+On the day of our embarkation at Leith, a fair wind took us onward
+at a blithe rate for some time; but in the course of that night the
+bridle of the tempest was slackened, and the curb of the billows
+loosened, and the ship reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and no
+one could stand therein.  My wife and daughter lay at the point of
+death; Andrew Pringle, my son, also was prostrated with the grievous
+affliction; and the very soul within me was as if it would have been
+cast out of the body.
+
+On the following day the storm abated, and the wind blew favourable;
+but towards the heel of the evening it again came vehement, and
+there was no help unto our distress.  About midnight, however, it
+pleased HIM, whose breath is the tempest, to be more sparing with
+the whip of His displeasure on our poor bark, as she hirpled on in
+her toilsome journey through the waters; and I was enabled, through
+His strength, to lift my head from the pillow of sickness, and
+ascend the deck, where I thought of Noah looking out of the window
+in the ark, upon the face of the desolate flood, and of Peter
+walking on the sea; and I said to myself, it matters not where we
+are, for we can be in no place where Jehovah is not there likewise,
+whether it be on the waves of the ocean, or the mountain tops, or in
+the valley and shadow of death.
+
+The third day the wind came contrary, and in the fourth, and the
+fifth, and the sixth, we were also sorely buffeted; but on the night
+of the sixth we entered the mouth of the river Thames, and on the
+morning of the seventh day of our departure, we cast anchor near a
+town called Gravesend, where, to our exceeding great joy, it pleased
+Him, in whom alone there is salvation, to allow us once more to put
+our foot on the dry land.
+
+When we had partaken of a repast, the first blessed with the
+blessing of an appetite, from the day of our leaving our native
+land, we got two vacancies in a stage-coach for my wife and
+daughter; but with Andrew Pringle, my son, I was obligated to mount
+aloft on the outside.  I had some scruple of conscience about this,
+for I was afraid of my decorum.  I met, however, with nothing but
+the height of discretion from the other outside passengers, although
+I jealoused that one of them was a light woman.  Really I had no
+notion that the English were so civilised; they were so well bred,
+and the very duddiest of them spoke such a fine style of language,
+that when I looked around on the country, I thought myself in the
+land of Canaan.  But it's extraordinary what a power of drink the
+coachmen drink, stopping and going into every change-house, and yet
+behaving themselves with the greatest sobriety.  And then they are
+all so well dressed, which is no doubt owing to the poor rates.  I
+am thinking, however, that for all they cry against them, the poor
+rates are but a small evil, since they keep the poor folk in such
+food and raiment, and out of the temptations to thievery; indeed,
+such a thing as a common beggar is not to be seen in this land,
+excepting here and there a sorner or a ne'er-do-weel.
+
+When we had got to the outskirts of London, I began to be ashamed of
+the sin of high places, and would gladly have got into the inside of
+the coach, for fear of anybody knowing me; but although the
+multitude of by-goers was like the kirk scailing at the Sacrament, I
+saw not a kent face, nor one that took the least notice of my
+situation.  At last we got to an inn, called The White Horse,
+Fetter-Lane, where we hired a hackney to take us to the lodgings
+provided for us here in Norfolk Street, by Mr. Pawkie, the Scotch
+solicitor, a friend of Andrew Pringle, my son.  Now it was that we
+began to experience the sharpers of London; for it seems that there
+are divers Norfolk Streets.  Ours was in the Strand (mind that when
+you direct), not very far from Fetter-Lane; but the hackney driver
+took us away to one afar off, and when we knocked at the number we
+thought was ours, we found ourselves at a house that should not be
+told.  I was so mortified, that I did not know what to say; and when
+Andrew Pringle, my son, rebuked the man for the mistake, he only
+gave a cunning laugh, and said we should have told him whatna
+Norfolk Street we wanted.  Andrew stormed at this--but I discerned
+it was all owing to our own inexperience, and put an end to the
+contention, by telling the man to take us to Norfolk Street in the
+Strand, which was the direction we had got.  But when we got to the
+door, the coachman was so extortionate, that another hobbleshaw
+arose.  Mrs. Pringle had been told that, in such disputes, the best
+way of getting redress was to take the number of the coach; but, in
+trying to do so, we found it fastened on, and I thought the
+hackneyman would have gone by himself with laughter.  Andrew, who
+had not observed what we were doing, when he saw us trying to take
+off the number, went like one demented, and paid the man, I cannot
+tell what, to get us out, and into the house, for fear we should
+have been mobbit.
+
+I have not yet seen the colonel's agents, so can say nothing as to
+the business of our coming; for, landing at Gravesend, we did not
+bring our trunks with us, and Andrew has gone to the wharf this
+morning to get them, and, until we get them, we can go nowhere,
+which is the occasion of my writing so soon, knowing also how you
+and the whole parish would be anxious to hear what had become of us;
+and I remain, dear sir, your friend and pastor,
+
+ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
+
+
+On Saturday evening, Saunders Dickie, the Irvine postman, suspecting
+that this letter was from the Doctor, went with it himself, on his
+own feet, to Mr. Micklewham, although the distance is more than two
+miles, but Saunders, in addition to the customary TWAL PENNIES on
+the postage, had a dram for his pains.  The next morning being wet,
+Mr. Micklewham had not an opportunity of telling any of the
+parishioners in the churchyard of the Doctor's safe arrival, so that
+when he read out the request to return thanks (for he was not only
+school-master and session-clerk, but also precentor), there was a
+murmur of pleasure diffused throughout the congregation, and the
+greatest curiosity was excited to know what the dangers were, from
+which their worthy pastor and his whole family had so thankfully
+escaped in their voyage to London; so that, when the service was
+over, the elders adjourned to the session-house to hear the letter
+read; and many of the heads of families, and other respectable
+parishioners, were admitted to the honours of the sitting, who all
+sympathised, with the greatest sincerity, in the sufferings which
+their minister and his family had endured.  Mr. Daff, however, was
+justly chided by Mr. Craig, for rubbing his hands, and giving a sort
+of sniggering laugh, at the Doctor's sitting on high with a light
+woman.  But even Mr. Snodgrass was seen to smile at the incident of
+taking the number off the coach, the meaning of which none but
+himself seemed to understand.
+
+When the epistle had been thus duly read, Mr. Micklewham promised,
+for the satisfaction of some of the congregation, that he would get
+two or three copies made by the best writers in his school, to be
+handed about the parish, and Mr. Icenor remarked, that truly it was
+a thing to be held in remembrance, for he had not heard of greater
+tribulation by the waters since the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III--THE LEGACY
+
+
+
+Soon after the receipt of the letters which we had the pleasure of
+communicating in the foregoing chapter, the following was received
+from Mrs. Pringle, and the intelligence it contains is so
+interesting and important, that we hasten to lay it before our
+readers:-
+
+
+LETTER VI
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Miss Mally--You must not expect no particulars from me of
+our journey; but as Rachel is writing all the calamities that befell
+us to Bell Tod, you will, no doubt, hear of them.  But all is
+nothing to my losses.  I bought from the first hand, Mr. Treddles
+the manufacturer, two pieces of muslin, at Glasgow, such a thing not
+being to be had on any reasonable terms here, where they get all
+their fine muslins from Glasgow and Paisley; and in the same bocks
+with them I packit a small crock of our ain excellent poudered
+butter, with a delap cheese, for I was told that such commodities
+are not to be had genuine in London.  I likewise had in it a pot of
+marmlet, which Miss Jenny Macbride gave me at Glasgow, assuring me
+that it was not only dentice, but a curiosity among the English, and
+my best new bumbeseen goun in peper.  Howsomever, in the nailing of
+the bocks, which I did carefully with my oun hands, one of the nails
+gaed in ajee, and broke the pot of marmlet, which, by the jolting of
+the ship, ruined the muslin, rottened the peper round the goun,
+which the shivers cut into more than twenty great holes.  Over and
+above all, the crock with the butter was, no one can tell how,
+crackit, and the pickle lecking out, and mixing with the seerip of
+the marmlet, spoilt the cheese.  In short, at the object I beheld,
+when the bocks was opened, I could have ta'en to the greeting; but I
+behaved with more composity on the occasion, than the Doctor thought
+it was in the power of nature to do.  Howsomever, till I get a new
+goun and other things, I am obliged to be a prisoner; and as the
+Doctor does not like to go to the counting-house of the agents
+without me, I know not what is yet to be the consequence of our
+journey.  But it would need to be something; for we pay four guineas
+and a half a week for our dry lodgings, which is at a degree more
+than the Doctor's whole stipend.  As yet, for the cause of these
+misfortunes, I can give you no account of London; but there is, as
+everybody kens, little thrift in their housekeeping.  We just buy
+our tea by the quarter a pound, and our loaf sugar, broken in a
+peper bag, by the pound, which would be a disgrace to a decent
+family in Scotland; and when we order dinner, we get no more than
+just serves, so that we have no cold meat if a stranger were coming
+by chance, which makes an unco bare house.  The servan lasses I
+cannot abide; they dress better at their wark than ever I did on an
+ordinaire week-day at the manse; and this very morning I saw madam,
+the kitchen lass, mounted on a pair of pattens, washing the plain
+stenes before the door; na, for that matter, a bare foot is not to
+be seen within the four walls of London, at the least I have na seen
+no such thing.
+
+In the way of marketing, things are very good here, and considering,
+not dear; but all is sold by the licht weight, only the fish are
+awful; half a guinea for a cod's head, and no bigger than the drouds
+the cadgers bring from Ayr, at a shilling and eighteenpence apiece.
+
+Tell Miss Nanny Eydent that I have seen none of the fashions as yet;
+but we are going to the burial of the auld king next week, and I'll
+write her a particular account how the leddies are dressed; but
+everybody is in deep mourning.  Howsomever I have seen but little,
+and that only in a manner from the window; but I could not miss the
+opportunity of a frank that Andrew has got, and as he's waiting for
+the pen, you must excuse haste.  From your sincere friend,
+
+JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+LETTER VII
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq., to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Friend--It will give you pleasure to hear that my father is
+likely to get his business speedily settled without any
+equivocation; and that all those prudential considerations which
+brought us to London were but the phantasms of our own inexperience.
+I use the plural, for I really share in the shame of having called
+in question the high character of the agents:  it ought to have been
+warrantry enough that everything would be fairly adjusted.  But I
+must give you some account of what has taken place, to illustrate
+our provincialism, and to give you some idea of the way of doing
+business in London.
+
+After having recovered from the effects, and repaired some of the
+accidents of our voyage, we yesterday morning sallied forth, the
+Doctor, my mother, and your humble servant, in a hackney coach, to
+Broad Street, where the agents have their counting-house, and were
+ushered into a room among other legatees or clients, waiting for an
+audience of Mr. Argent, the principal of the house.
+
+I know not how it is, that the little personal peculiarities, so
+amusing to strangers, should be painful when we see them in those
+whom we love and esteem; but I own to you, that there was a
+something in the demeanour of the old folks on this occasion, that
+would have been exceedingly diverting to me, had my filial reverence
+been less sincere for them.
+
+The establishment of Messrs. Argent and Company is of vast extent,
+and has in it something even of a public magnitude; the number of
+the clerks, the assiduity of all, and the order that obviously
+prevails throughout, give at the first sight, an impression that
+bespeaks respect for the stability and integrity of the concern.
+When we had been seated about ten minutes, and my father's name
+taken to Mr. Argent, an answer was brought, that he would see us as
+soon as possible; but we were obliged to wait at least half an hour
+more.  Upon our being at last admitted, Mr. Argent received us
+standing, and in an easy gentlemanly manner said to my father, "You
+are the residuary legatee of the late Colonel Armour.  I am sorry
+that you did not apprise me of this visit, that I might have been
+prepared to give the information you naturally desire; but if you
+will call here to-morrow at 12 o'clock, I shall then be able to
+satisfy you on the subject.  Your lady, I presume?" he added,
+turning to my mother; "Mrs. Argent will have the honour of waiting
+on you; may I therefore beg the favour of your address?"
+Fortunately I was provided with cards, and having given him one, we
+found ourselves constrained, as it were, to take our leave.  The
+whole interview did not last two minutes, and I never was less
+satisfied with myself.  The Doctor and my mother were in the
+greatest anguish; and when we were again seated in the coach, loudly
+expressed their apprehensions.  They were convinced that some
+stratagem was meditated; they feared that their journey to London
+would prove as little satisfactory as that of the Wrongheads, and
+that they had been throwing away good money in building castles in
+the air.
+
+It had been previously arranged, that we were to return for my
+sister, and afterwards visit some of the sights; but the clouded
+visages of her father and mother darkened the very spirit of Rachel,
+and she largely shared in their fears.  This, however, was not the
+gravest part of the business; for, instead of going to St. Paul's
+and the Tower, as we had intended, my mother declared, that not one
+farthing would they spend more till they were satisfied that the
+expenses already incurred were likely to be reimbursed; and a
+Chancery suit, with all the horrors of wig and gown, floated in
+spectral haziness before their imagination.
+
+We sat down to a frugal meal, and although the remainder of a bottle
+of wine, saved from the preceding day, hardly afforded a glass
+apiece, the Doctor absolutely prohibited me from opening another.
+
+This morning, faithful to the hour, we were again in Broad Street,
+with hearts knit up into the most peremptory courage; and, on being
+announced, were immediately admitted to Mr. Argent.  He received us
+with the same ease as in the first interview, and, after requesting
+us to be seated (which, by the way, he did not do yesterday, a
+circumstance that was ominously remarked), he began to talk on
+indifferent matters.  I could see that a question, big with law and
+fortune, was gathering in the breasts both of the Doctor and my
+mother, and that they were in a state far from that of the blessed.
+But one of the clerks, before they had time to express their
+indignant suspicions, entered with a paper, and Mr. Argent, having
+glanced it over, said to the Doctor--"I congratulate you, sir, on
+the amount of the colonel's fortune.  I was not indeed aware before
+that he had died so rich.  He has left about 120,000 pounds;
+seventy-five thousand of which is in the five per cents; the
+remainder in India bonds and other securities.  The legacies appear
+to be inconsiderable, so that the residue to you, after paying them
+and the expenses of Doctors' Commons, will exceed a hundred thousand
+pounds."
+
+My father turned his eyes upwards in thankfulness.  "But," continued
+Mr. Argent, "before the property can be transferred, it will be
+necessary for you to provide about four thousand pounds to pay the
+duty and other requisite expenses."  This was a thunderclap.  "Where
+can I get such a sum?" exclaimed my father, in a tone of pathetic
+simplicity.  Mr. Argent smiled and said, "We shall manage that for
+you"; and having in the same moment pulled a bell, a fine young man
+entered, whom he introduced to us as his son, and desired him to
+explain what steps it was necessary for the Doctor to take.  We
+accordingly followed Mr. Charles Argent to his own room.
+
+Thus, in less time than I have been in writing it, were we put in
+possession of all the information we required, and found those whom
+we feared might be interested to withhold the settlement, alert and
+prompt to assist us.
+
+Mr. Charles Argent is naturally more familiar than his father.  He
+has a little dash of pleasantry in his manner, with a shrewd good-
+humoured fashionable air, that renders him soon an agreeable
+acquaintance.  He entered with singular felicity at once into the
+character of the Doctor and my mother, and waggishly drolled, as if
+he did not understand them, in order, I could perceive, to draw out
+the simplicity of their apprehensions.  He quite won the old lady's
+economical heart, by offering to frank her letters, for he is in
+Parliament.  "You have probably," said he slyly, "friends in the
+country, to whom you may be desirous of communicating the result of
+your journey to London; send your letters to me, and I will forward
+them, and any that you expect may also come under cover to my
+address, for postage is very expensive."
+
+As we were taking our leave, after being fully instructed in all the
+preliminary steps to be taken before the transfers of the funded
+property can be made, he asked me, in a friendly manner, to dine
+with him this evening, and I never accepted an invitation with more
+pleasure.  I consider his acquaintance a most agreeable acquisition,
+and not one of the least of those advantages which this new opulence
+has put it in my power to attain.  The incidents, indeed, of this
+day, have been all highly gratifying, and the new and brighter phase
+in which I have seen the mercantile character, as it is connected
+with the greatness and glory of my country--is in itself equivalent
+to an accession of useful knowledge.  I can no longer wonder at the
+vast power which the British Government wielded during the late war,
+when I reflect that the method and promptitude of the house of
+Messrs. Argent and Company is common to all the great commercial
+concerns from which the statesmen derived, as from so many
+reservoirs, those immense pecuniary supplies, which enabled them to
+beggar all the resources of a political despotism, the most
+unbounded, both in power and principle, of any tyranny that ever
+existed so long.--Yours, etc.,  ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV--THE TOWN
+
+
+
+There was a great tea-drinking held in the Kirkgate of Irvine, at
+the house of Miss Mally Glencairn; and at that assemblage of rank,
+beauty, and fashion, among other delicacies of the season, several
+new-come-home Clyde skippers, roaring from Greenock and Port-
+Glasgow, were served up--but nothing contributed more to the
+entertainment of the evening than a proposal, on the part of Miss
+Mally, that those present who had received letters from the Pringles
+should read them for the benefit of the company.  This was, no
+doubt, a preconcerted scheme between her and Miss Isabella Tod, to
+hear what Mr. Andrew Pringle had said to his friend Mr. Snodgrass,
+and likewise what the Doctor himself had indited to Mr. Micklewham;
+some rumour having spread of the wonderful escapes and adventures of
+the family in their journey and voyage to London.  Had there not
+been some prethought of this kind, it was not indeed probable, that
+both the helper and session-clerk of Garnock could have been there
+together, in a party, where it was an understood thing, that not
+only Whist and Catch Honours were to be played, but even
+obstreperous Birky itself, for the diversion of such of the company
+as were not used to gambling games.  It was in consequence of what
+took place at this Irvine route, that we were originally led to
+think of collecting the letters.
+
+
+LETTER VIII
+
+
+Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Bell--It was my heartfelt intention to keep a regular
+journal of all our proceedings, from the sad day on which I bade a
+long adieu to my native shades--and I persevered with a constancy
+becoming our dear and youthful friendship, in writing down
+everything that I saw, either rare or beautiful, till the hour of
+our departure from Leith.  In that faithful register of my feelings
+and reflections as a traveller, I described our embarkation at
+Greenock, on board the steam-boat,--our sailing past Port-Glasgow,
+an insignificant town, with a steeple;--the stupendous rock of
+Dumbarton Castle, that Gibraltar of antiquity;--our landing at
+Glasgow;--my astonishment at the magnificence of that opulent
+metropolis of the muslin manufacturers; my brother's remark, that
+the punch-bowls on the roofs of the Infirmary, the Museum, and the
+Trades Hall, were emblematic of the universal estimation in which
+that celebrated mixture is held by all ranks and degrees--learned,
+commercial, and even medical, of the inhabitants;--our arrival at
+Edinburgh--my emotion on beholding the Castle, and the visionary
+lake which may be nightly seen from the windows of Princes Street,
+between the Old and New Town, reflecting the lights of the lofty
+city beyond--with a thousand other delightful and romantic
+circumstances, which render it no longer surprising that the
+Edinburgh folk should be, as they think themselves, the most
+accomplished people in the world.  But, alas! from the moment I
+placed my foot on board that cruel vessel, of which the very idea is
+anguish, all thoughts were swallowed up in suffering-swallowed, did
+I say?  Ah, my dear Bell, it was the odious reverse--but imagination
+alone can do justice to the subject.  Not, however, to dwell on what
+is past, during the whole time of our passage from Leith, I was
+unable to think, far less to write; and, although there was a
+handsome young Hussar officer also a passenger, I could not even
+listen to the elegant compliments which he seemed disposed to offer
+by way of consolation, when he had got the better of his own
+sickness.  Neither love nor valour can withstand the influence of
+that sea-demon.  The interruption thus occasioned to my observations
+made me destroy my journal, and I have now to write to you only
+about London--only about London!  What an expression for this human
+universe, as my brother calls it, as if my weak feminine pen were
+equal to the stupendous theme!
+
+But, before entering on the subject, let me first satisfy the
+anxiety of your faithful bosom with respect to my father's legacy.
+All the accounts, I am happy to tell you, are likely to be amicably
+settled; but the exact amount is not known as yet, only I can see,
+by my brother's manner, that it is not less than we expected, and my
+mother speaks about sending me to a boarding-school to learn
+accomplishments.  Nothing, however, is to be done until something is
+actually in hand.  But what does it all avail to me?  Here am I, a
+solitary being in the midst of this wilderness of mankind, far from
+your sympathising affection, with the dismal prospect before me of
+going a second time to school, and without the prospect of enjoying,
+with my own sweet companions, that light and bounding gaiety we were
+wont to share, in skipping from tomb to tomb in the breezy
+churchyard of Irvine, like butterflies in spring flying from flower
+to flower, as a Wordsworth or a Wilson would express it.
+
+We have got elegant lodgings at present in Norfolk Street, but my
+brother is trying, with all his address, to get us removed to a more
+fashionable part of the town, which, if the accounts were once
+settled, I think will take place; and he proposes to hire a carriage
+for a whole month.  Indeed, he has given hints about the saving that
+might be made by buying one of our own; but my mother shakes her
+head, and says, "Andrew, dinna be carri't."  From all which it is
+very plain, though they don't allow me to know their secrets, that
+the legacy is worth the coming for.  But to return to the lodgings;-
+-we have what is called a first and second floor, a drawing-room,
+and three handsome bedchambers.  The drawing-room is very elegant;
+and the carpet is the exact same pattern of the one in the dress-
+drawing-room of Eglintoun Castle.  Our landlady is indeed a lady,
+and I am surprised how she should think of letting lodgings, for she
+dresses better, and wears finer lace, than ever I saw in Irvine.
+But I am interrupted. -
+
+I now resume my pen.  We have just had a call from Mrs. and Miss
+Argent, the wife and daughter of the colonel's man of business.
+They seem great people, and came in their own chariot, with two
+grand footmen behind; but they are pleasant and easy, and the object
+of their visit was to invite us to a family dinner to-morrow,
+Sunday.  I hope we may become better acquainted; but the two livery
+servants make such a difference in our degrees, that I fear this is
+a vain expectation.  Miss Argent was, however, very frank, and told
+me that she was herself only just come to London for the first time
+since she was a child, having been for the last seven years at a
+school in the country.  I shall, however, be better able to say more
+about her in my next letter.  Do not, however, be afraid that she
+shall ever supplant you in my heart.  No, my dear friend, companion
+of my days of innocence,--that can never be.  But this call from
+such persons of fashion looks as if the legacy had given us some
+consideration; so that I think my father and mother may as well let
+me know at once what my prospects are, that I might show you how
+disinterestedly and truly I am, my dear Bell, yours,
+
+RACHEL PRINGLE.
+
+
+When Miss Isabella Tod had read the letter, there was a solemn pause
+for some time--all present knew something, more or less, of the fair
+writer; but a carriage, a carpet like the best at Eglintoun, a
+Hussar officer, and two footmen in livery, were phantoms of such
+high import, that no one could distinctly express the feelings with
+which the intelligence affected them.  It was, however, unanimously
+agreed, that the Doctor's legacy had every symptom of being equal to
+what it was at first expected to be, namely, twenty thousand
+pounds;--a sum which, by some occult or recondite moral influence of
+the Lottery, is the common maximum, in popular estimation, of any
+extraordinary and indefinite windfall of fortune.  Miss Becky
+Glibbans, from the purest motives of charity, devoutly wished that
+poor Rachel might be able to carry her full cup with a steady hand;
+and the Rev. Mr. Snodgrass, that so commendable an expression might
+not lose its edifying effect by any lighter talk, requested Mr.
+Micklewham to read his letter from the Doctor.
+
+
+LETTER IX
+
+
+The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
+Session-Clerk of Garnock--LONDON.
+
+Dear Sir--I have written by the post that will take this to hand, a
+letter to Banker M-y, at Irvine, concerning some small matters of
+money that I may stand in need of his opinion anent; and as there is
+a prospect now of a settlement of the legacy business, I wish you to
+take a step over to the banker, and he will give you ten pounds,
+which you will administer to the poor, by putting a twenty-shilling
+note in the plate on Sunday, as a public testimony from me of
+thankfulness for the hope that is before us; the other nine pounds
+you will quietly, and in your own canny way, divide after the
+following manner, letting none of the partakers thereof know from
+what other hand than the Lord's the help comes, for, indeed, from
+whom but HIS does any good befall us!
+
+You will give to auld Mizy Eccles ten shillings.  She's a careful
+creature, and it will go as far with her thrift as twenty will do
+with Effy Hopkirk; so you will give Effy twenty.  Mrs. Binnacle, who
+lost her husband, the sailor, last winter, is, I am sure, with her
+two sickly bairns, very ill off; I would therefore like if you will
+lend her a note, and ye may put half-a-crown in the hand of each of
+the poor weans for a playock, for she's a proud spirit, and will
+bear much before she complain.  Thomas Dowy has been long unable to
+do a turn of work, so you may give him a note too.  I promised that
+donsie body, Willy Shachle, the betherel, that when I got my legacy,
+he should get a guinea, which would be more to him than if the
+colonel had died at home, and he had had the howking of his grave;
+you may therefore, in the meantime, give Willy a crown, and be sure
+to warn him well no to get fou with it, for I'll be very angry if he
+does.  But what in this matter will need all your skill, is the
+giving of the remaining five pounds to auld Miss Betty Peerie; being
+a gentlewoman both by blood and education, she's a very slimmer
+affair to handle in a doing of this kind.  But I am persuaded she's
+in as great necessity as many that seem far poorer, especially since
+the muslin flowering has gone so down.  Her bits of brats are sairly
+worn, though she keeps out an apparition of gentility.  Now, for all
+this trouble, I will give you an account of what we have been doing
+since my last.
+
+When we had gotten ourselves made up in order, we went, with Andrew
+Pringle, my son, to the counting-house, and had a satisfactory vista
+of the residue; but it will be some time before things can be
+settled--indeed, I fear, not for months to come--so that I have been
+thinking, if the parish was pleased with Mr. Snodgrass, it might be
+my duty to my people to give up to him my stipend, and let him be
+appointed not only helper, but successor likewise.  It would not be
+right of me to give the manse, both because he's a young and
+inexperienced man, and cannot, in the course of nature, have got
+into the way of visiting the sick-beds of the frail, which is the
+main part of a pastor's duty, and likewise, because I wish to die,
+as I have lived, among my people.  But, when all's settled, I will
+know better what to do.
+
+When we had got an inkling from Mr. Argent of what the colonel has
+left,--and I do assure you, that money is not to be got, even in the
+way of legacy, without anxiety,--Mrs. Pringle and I consulted
+together, and resolved, that it was our first duty, as a token of
+our gratitude to the Giver of all Good, to make our first outlay to
+the poor.  So, without saying a word either to Rachel, or to Andrew
+Pringle, my son, knowing that there was a daily worship in the
+Church of England, we slipped out of the house by ourselves, and,
+hiring a hackney conveyance, told the driver thereof to drive us to
+the high church of St. Paul's.  This was out of no respect to the
+pomp and pride of prelacy, but to Him before whom both pope and
+presbyter are equal, as they are seen through the merits of Christ
+Jesus.  We had taken a gold guinea in our hand, but there was no
+broad at the door; and, instead of a venerable elder, lending
+sanctity to his office by reason of his age, such as we see in the
+effectual institutions of our own national church--the door was kept
+by a young man, much more like a writer's whipper-snapper-clerk,
+than one qualified to fill that station, which good King David would
+have preferred to dwelling in tents of sin.  However, we were not
+come to spy the nakedness of the land, so we went up the outside
+stairs, and I asked at him for the plate; "Plate!" says he; "why,
+it's on the altar!"  I should have known this--the custom of old
+being to lay the offerings on the altar, but I had forgot; such is
+the force, you see, of habit, that the Church of England is not so
+well reformed and purged as ours is from the abominations of the
+leaven of idolatry.  We were then stepping forward, when he said to
+me, as sharply as if I was going to take an advantage, "You must pay
+here."  "Very well, wherever it is customary," said I, in a meek
+manner, and gave him the guinea.  Mrs. Pringle did the same.  "I
+cannot give you change," cried he, with as little decorum as if we
+had been paying at a playhouse.  "It makes no odds," said I; "keep
+it all."  Whereupon he was so converted by the mammon of iniquity,
+that he could not be civil enough, he thought--but conducted us in,
+and showed us the marble monuments, and the French colours that were
+taken in the war, till the time of worship--nothing could surpass
+his discretion.
+
+At last the organ began to sound, and we went into the place of
+worship; but oh, Mr. Micklewham, yon is a thin kirk.  There was not
+a hearer forby Mrs. Pringle and me, saving and excepting the relics
+of popery that assisted at the service.  What was said, I must,
+however, in verity confess, was not far from the point.  But it's
+still a comfort to see that prelatical usurpations are on the
+downfall; no wonder that there is no broad at the door to receive
+the collection for the poor, when no congregation entereth in.  You
+may, therefore, tell Mr. Craig, and it will gladden his heart to
+hear the tidings, that the great Babylonian madam is now, indeed,
+but a very little cutty.
+
+On our return home to our lodgings, we found Andrew Pringle, my son,
+and Rachel, in great consternation about our absence.  When we told
+them that we had been at worship, I saw they were both deeply
+affected; and I was pleased with my children, the more so, as you
+know I have had my doubts that Andrew Pringle's principles have not
+been strengthened by the reading of the Edinburgh Review.  Nothing
+more passed at that time, for we were disturbed by a Captain Sabre
+that came up with us in the smack, calling to see how we were after
+our journey; and as he was a civil well-bred young man, which I
+marvel at, considering he's a Hussar dragoon, we took a coach, and
+went to see the lions, as he said; but, instead of taking us to the
+Tower of London, as I expected, he ordered the man to drive us round
+the town.  In our way through the city he showed us the Temple Bar,
+where Lord Kilmarnock's head was placed after the Rebellion, and
+pointed out the Bank of England and Royal Exchange.  He said the
+steeple of the Exchange was taken down shortly ago--and that the
+late improvements at the Bank were very grand.  I remembered having
+read in the Edinburgh Advertiser, some years past, that there was a
+great deal said in Parliament about the state of the Exchange, and
+the condition of the Bank, which I could never thoroughly
+understand.  And, no doubt, the taking own of an old building, and
+the building up of a new one so near together, must, in such a
+crowded city as this, be not only a great detriment to business, but
+dangerous to the community at large.
+
+After we had driven about for more than two hours, and neither seen
+lions nor any other curiosity, but only the outside of houses, we
+returned home, where we found a copperplate card left by Mr. Argent,
+the colonel's agent, with the name of his private dwelling-house.
+Both me and Mrs. Pringle were confounded at the sight of this thing,
+and could not but think that it prognosticated no good; for we had
+seen the gentleman himself in the forenoon.  Andrew Pringle, my son,
+could give no satisfactory reason for such an extraordinary
+manifestation of anxiety to see us; so that, after sitting on thorns
+at our dinner, I thought that we should see to the bottom of the
+business.  Accordingly, a hackney was summoned to the door, and me
+and Andrew Pringle, my son, got into it, and told the man to drive
+to second in the street where Mr. Argent lived, and which was the
+number of his house.  The man got up, and away we went; but, after
+he had driven an awful time, and stopping and inquiring at different
+places, he said there was no such house as Second's in the street;
+whereupon Andrew Pringle, my son, asked him what he meant, and the
+man said that he supposed it was one Second's Hotel, or Coffee-
+house, that we wanted.  Now, only think of the craftiness of the
+ne'er-da-weel; it was with some difficulty that I could get him to
+understand, that second was just as good as number two; for Andrew
+Pringle, my son, would not interfere, but lay back in the coach, and
+was like to split his sides at my confabulating with the hackney
+man.  At long and length we got to the house, and were admitted to
+Mr. Argent, who was sitting by himself in his library reading, with
+a plate of oranges, and two decanters with wine before him.  I
+explained to him, as well as I could, my surprise and anxiety at
+seeing his card, at which he smiled, and said, it was merely a sort
+of practice that had come into fashion of late years, and that,
+although we had been at his counting-house in the morning, he
+considered it requisite that he should call on his return from the
+city.  I made the best excuse I could for the mistake; and the
+servant having placed glasses on the table, we were invited to take
+wine.  But I was grieved to think that so respectable a man should
+have had the bottles before him by himself, the more especially as
+he said his wife and daughters had gone to a party, and that he did
+not much like such sort of things.  But for all that, we found him a
+wonderful conversible man; and Andrew Pringle, my son, having read
+all the new books put out at Edinburgh, could speak with him on any
+subject.  In the course of conversation they touched upon politick
+economy, and Andrew Pringle, my son, in speaking about cash in the
+Bank of England, told him what I had said concerning the alterations
+of the Royal Exchange steeple, with which Mr. Argent seemed greatly
+pleased, and jocosely proposed as a toast,--"May the country never
+suffer more from the alterations in the Exchange, than the taking
+down of the steeple."  But as Mrs. Pringle is wanting to send a bit
+line under the same frank to her cousin, Miss Mally Glencairn, I
+must draw to a conclusion, assuring you, that I am, dear sir, your
+sincere friend and pastor,
+
+ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
+
+
+The impression which this letter made on the auditors of Mr.
+Micklewham was highly favourable to the Doctor--all bore testimony
+to his benevolence and piety; and Mrs. Glibbans expressed, in very
+loquacious terms, her satisfaction at the neglect to which prelacy
+was consigned.  The only person who seemed to be affected by other
+than the most sedate feelings on the occasion was the Rev. Mr.
+Snodgrass, who was observed to smile in a very unbecoming manner at
+some parts of the Doctor's account of his reception at St. Paul's.
+Indeed, it was apparently with the utmost difficulty that the young
+clergyman could restrain himself from giving liberty to his risible
+faculties.  It is really surprising how differently the same thing
+affects different people.  "The Doctor and Mrs. Pringle giving a
+guinea at the door of St. Paul's for the poor need not make folk
+laugh," said Mrs. Glibbans; "for is it not written, that whosoever
+giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord?"  "True, my dear madam,"
+replied Mr. Snodgrass, "but the Lord to whom our friends in this
+case gave their money is the Lord Bishop of London; all the
+collection made at the doors of St. Paul's Cathedral is, I
+understand, a perquisite of the Bishop's."  In this the reverend
+gentleman was not very correctly informed, for, in the first place,
+it is not a collection, but an exaction; and, in the second place,
+it is only sanctioned by the Bishop, who allows the inferior clergy
+to share the gains among themselves.  Mrs. Glibbans, however, on
+hearing his explanation, exclaimed, "Gude be about us!" and pushing
+back her chair with a bounce, streaking down her gown at the same
+time with both her hands, added, "No wonder that a judgment is upon
+the land, when we hear of money-changers in the temple."  Miss Mally
+Glencairn, to appease her gathering wrath and holy indignation, said
+facetiously, "Na, na, Mrs. Glibbans, ye forget, there was nae
+changing of money there.  The man took the whole guineas.  But not
+to make a controversy on the subject, Mr. Snodgrass will now let us
+hear what Andrew Pringle, 'my son,' has said to him":- And the
+reverend gentleman read the following letter with due
+circumspection, and in his best manner:-
+
+
+LETTER X
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq., to the Reverend Charles Snodgrass
+
+My Dear Friend--I have heard it alleged, as the observation of a
+great traveller, that the manners of the higher classes of society
+throughout Christendom are so much alike, that national
+peculiarities among them are scarcely perceptible.  This is not
+correct; the differences between those of London and Edinburgh are
+to me very striking.  It is not that they talk and perform the
+little etiquettes of social intercourse differently; for, in these
+respects, they are apparently as similar as it is possible for
+imitation to make them; but the difference to which I refer is an
+indescribable something, which can only be compared to peculiarities
+of accent.  They both speak the same language; perhaps in classical
+purity of phraseology the fashionable Scotchman is even superior to
+the Englishman; but there is a flatness of tone in his accent--a
+lack of what the musicians call expression, which gives a local and
+provincial effect to his conversation, however, in other respects,
+learned and intelligent.  It is so with his manners; he conducts
+himself with equal ease, self-possession, and discernment, but the
+flavour of the metropolitan style is wanting.
+
+I have been led to make these remarks by what I noticed in the
+guests whom I met on Friday at young Argent's.  It was a small
+party, only five strangers; but they seemed to be all particular
+friends of our host, and yet none of them appeared to be on any
+terms of intimacy with each other.  In Edinburgh, such a party would
+have been at first a little cold; each of the guests would there
+have paused to estimate the characters of the several strangers
+before committing himself with any topic of conversation.  But here,
+the circumstance of being brought together by a mutual friend,
+produced at once the purest gentlemanly confidence; each, as it
+were, took it for granted, that the persons whom he had come among
+were men of education and good-breeding, and, without deeming it at
+all necessary that he should know something of their respective
+political and philosophical principles, before venturing to speak on
+such subjects, discussed frankly, and as things unconnected with
+party feelings, incidental occurrences which, in Edinburgh, would
+have been avoided as calculated to awaken animosities.
+
+But the most remarkable feature of the company, small as it was,
+consisted of the difference in the condition and character of the
+guests.  In Edinburgh the landlord, with the scrupulous care of a
+herald or genealogist, would, for a party, previously unacquainted
+with each other, have chosen his guests as nearly as possible from
+the same rank of life; the London host had paid no respect to any
+such consideration--all the strangers were as dissimilar in fortune,
+profession, connections, and politics, as any four men in the class
+of gentlemen could well be.  I never spent a more delightful
+evening.
+
+The ablest, the most eloquent, and the most elegant man present,
+without question, was the son of a saddler.  No expense had been
+spared on his education.  His father, proud of his talents, had
+intended him for a seat in Parliament; but Mr. T- himself prefers
+the easy enjoyments of private life, and has kept himself aloof from
+politics and parties.  Were I to form an estimate of his
+qualifications to excel in public speaking, by the clearness and
+beautiful propriety of his colloquial language, I should conclude
+that he was still destined to perform a distinguished part.  But he
+is content with the liberty of a private station, as a spectator
+only, and, perhaps, in that he shows his wisdom; for undoubtedly
+such men are not cordially received among hereditary statesmen,
+unless they evince a certain suppleness of principle, such as we
+have seen in the conduct of more than one political adventurer.
+
+The next in point of effect was young C- G-.  He evidently
+languished under the influence of indisposition, which, while it
+added to the natural gentleness of his manners, diminished the
+impression his accomplishments would otherwise have made.  I was
+greatly struck with the modesty with which he offered his opinions,
+and could scarcely credit that he was the same individual whose
+eloquence in Parliament is by many compared even to Mr. Canning's,
+and whose firmness of principle is so universally acknowledged, that
+no one ever suspects him of being liable to change.  You may have
+heard of his poem "On the Restoration of Learning in the East," the
+most magnificent prize essay that the English Universities have
+produced for many years.  The passage in which he describes the
+talents, the researches, and learning of Sir William Jones, is
+worthy of the imagination of Burke; and yet, with all this oriental
+splendour of fancy, he has the reputation of being a patient and
+methodical man of business.  He looks, however, much more like a
+poet or a student, than an orator and a statesman; and were
+statesmen the sort of personages which the spirit of the age
+attempts to represent them, I, for one, should lament that a young
+man, possessed of so many amiable qualities, all so tinted with the
+bright lights of a fine enthusiasm, should ever have been removed
+from the moon-lighted groves and peaceful cloisters of Magdalen
+College, to the lamp-smelling passages and factious debates of St.
+Stephen's Chapel.  Mr. G- certainly belongs to that high class of
+gifted men who, to the honour of the age, have redeemed the literary
+character from the charge of unfitness for the concerns of public
+business; and he has shown that talents for affairs of state,
+connected with literary predilections, are not limited to mere
+reviewers, as some of your old class-fellows would have the world to
+believe.  When I contrast the quiet unobtrusive development of Mr.
+G-'s character with that bustling and obstreperous elbowing into
+notice of some of those to whom the Edinburgh Review owes half its
+fame, and compare the pure and steady lustre of his elevation, to
+the rocket-like aberrations and perturbed blaze of their still
+uncertain course, I cannot but think that we have overrated, if not
+their ability, at least their wisdom in the management of public
+affairs.
+
+The third of the party was a little Yorkshire baronet.  He was
+formerly in Parliament, but left it, as he says, on account of its
+irregularities, and the bad hours it kept.  He is a Whig, I
+understand, in politics, and indeed one might guess as much by
+looking at him; for I have always remarked, that your Whigs have
+something odd and particular about them.  On making the same sort of
+remark to Argent, who, by the way, is a high ministerial man, he
+observed, the thing was not to be wondered at, considering that the
+Whigs are exceptions to the generality of mankind, which naturally
+accounts for their being always in the minority.  Mr. T-, the
+saddler's son, who overheard us, said slyly, "That it might be so;
+but if it be true that the wise are few compared to the multitude of
+the foolish, things would be better managed by the minority than as
+they are at present."
+
+The fourth guest was a stock-broker, a shrewd compound, with all
+charity be it spoken, of knavery and humour.  He is by profession an
+epicure, but I suspect his accomplishments in that capacity are not
+very well founded; I would almost say, judging by the evident traces
+of craft and dissimulation in his physiognomy, that they have been
+assumed as part of the means of getting into good company, to drive
+the more earnest trade of money-making.  Argent evidently understood
+his true character, though he treated him with jocular familiarity.
+I thought it a fine example of the intellectual tact and superiority
+of T-, that he seemed to view him with dislike and contempt.  But I
+must not give you my reasons for so thinking, as you set no value on
+my own particular philosophy; besides, my paper tells me, that I
+have only room left to say, that it would be difficult in Edinburgh
+to bring such a party together; and yet they affect there to have a
+metropolitan character.  In saying this, I mean only with reference
+to manners; the methods of behaviour in each of the company were
+precisely similar--there was no eccentricity, but only that distinct
+and decided individuality which nature gives, and which no acquired
+habits can change.  Each, however, was the representative of a
+class; and Edinburgh has no classes exactly of the same kind as
+those to which they belonged.--Yours truly,
+
+ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+Just as Mr. Snodgrass concluded the last sentence, one of the Clyde
+skippers, who had fallen asleep, gave such an extravagant snore,
+followed by a groan, that it set the whole company a-laughing, and
+interrupted the critical strictures which would otherwise have been
+made on Mr. Andrew Pringle's epistle.  "Damn it," said he, "I
+thought myself in a fog, and could not tell whether the land ahead
+was Plada or the Lady Isle."  Some of the company thought the
+observation not inapplicable to what they had been hearing.
+
+Miss Isabella Tod then begged that Miss Mally, their hostess, would
+favour the company with Mrs. Pringle's communication.  To this
+request that considerate maiden ornament of the Kirkgate deemed it
+necessary, by way of preface to the letter, to say, "Ye a' ken that
+Mrs. Pringle's a managing woman, and ye maunna expect any
+metaphysical philosophy from her."  In the meantime, having taken
+the letter from her pocket, and placed her spectacles on that
+functionary of the face which was destined to wear spectacles, she
+began as follows:-
+
+
+LETTER XI
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn
+
+My Dear Miss Mally--We have been at the counting-house, and gotten a
+sort of a satisfaction; what the upshot may be, I canna take it upon
+myself to prognosticate; but when the waur comes to the worst, I
+think that baith Rachel and Andrew will have a nest egg, and the
+Doctor and me may sleep sound on their account, if the nation doesna
+break, as the argle-barglers in the House of Parliament have been
+threatening:  for all the cornal's fortune is sunk at present in the
+pesents.  Howsomever, it's our notion, when the legacies are paid
+off, to lift the money out of the funds, and place it at good
+interest on hairetable securitie.  But ye will hear aften from us,
+before things come to that, for the delays, and the goings, and the
+comings in this town of London are past all expreshon.
+
+As yet, we have been to see no fairlies, except going in a coach
+from one part of the toun to another; but the Doctor and me was at
+the he-kirk of Saint Paul's for a purpose that I need not tell you,
+as it was adoing with the right hand what the left should not know.
+I couldna say that I had there great pleasure, for the preacher was
+very cauldrife, and read every word, and then there was such a
+beggary of popish prelacy, that it was compassionate to a Christian
+to see.
+
+We are to dine at Mr. Argent's, the cornal's hadgint, on Sunday, and
+me and Rachel have been getting something for the okasion.  Our
+landlady, Mrs. Sharkly, has recommended us to ane of the most
+fashionable millinders in London, who keeps a grand shop in Cranburn
+Alla, and she has brought us arteecles to look at; but I was
+surprised they were not finer, for I thought them of a very inferior
+quality, which she said was because they were not made for no
+costomer, but for the public.
+
+The Argents seem as if they would be discreet people, which, to us
+who are here in the jaws of jeopardy, would be a great confort--for
+I am no overly satisfeet with many things.  What would ye think of
+buying coals by the stimpert, for anything that I know, and then
+setting up the poker afore the ribs, instead of blowing with the
+bellies to make the fire burn?  I was of a pinion that the
+Englishers were naturally masterful; but I can ashure you this is no
+the case at all--and I am beginning to think that the way of leeving
+from hand to mouth is great frugality, when ye consider that all is
+left in the logive hands of uncercumseezed servans.
+
+But what gives me the most concern at this time is one Captain Sabre
+of the Dragoon Hozars, who come up in the smak with us from Leith,
+and is looking more after our Rachel than I could wish, now that she
+might set her cap to another sort of object.  But he's of a
+respectit family, and the young lad himself is no to be despisid;
+howsomever, I never likit officir-men of any description, and yet
+the thing that makes me look down on the captain is all owing to the
+cornal, who was an officer of the native poors of India, where the
+pay must indeed have been extraordinar, for who ever heard either of
+a cornal, or any officer whomsoever, making a hundred thousand
+pounds in our regiments? no that I say the cornal has left so meikle
+to us.
+
+Tell Mrs. Glibbans that I have not heard of no sound preacher as yet
+in London--the want of which is no doubt the great cause of the
+crying sins of the place.  What would she think to hear of
+newspapers selling by tout of horn on the Lord's day? and on the
+Sabbath night, the change-houses are more throng than on the
+Saturday!  I am told, but as yet I cannot say that I have seen the
+evil myself with my own eyes, that in the summer time there are tea-
+gardens, where the tradesmen go to smoke their pipes of tobacco, and
+to entertain their wives and children, which can be nothing less
+than a bringing of them to an untimely end.  But you will be
+surprised to hear, that no such thing as whusky is to be had in the
+public-houses, where they drink only a dead sort of beer; and that a
+bottle of true jennyinn London porter is rarely to be seen in the
+whole town--all kinds of piple getting their porter in pewter cans,
+and a laddie calls for in the morning to take away what has been
+yoused over night.  But what I most miss is the want of creem.  The
+milk here is just skimm, and I doot not, likewise well watered--as
+for the water, a drink of clear wholesome good water is not within
+the bounds of London; and truly, now may I say, that I have learnt
+what the blessing of a cup of cold water is.
+
+Tell Miss Nanny Eydent, that the day of the burial is now settled,
+when we are going to Windsor Castle to see the precesson--and that,
+by the end of the wick, she may expect the fashions from me, with
+all the particulars.  Till then, I am, my dear Miss Mally, your
+friend and well-wisher,
+
+JANET PRINGLE.
+
+NOTO BENY.--Give my kind compliments to Mrs. Glibbans, and let her
+know, that I will, after Sunday, give her an account of the state of
+the Gospel in London.
+
+
+Miss Mally paused when she had read the letter, and it was
+unanimously agreed, that Mrs. Pringle gave a more full account of
+London than either father, son, or daughter.
+
+By this time the night was far advanced, and Mrs. Glibbans was
+rising to go away, apprehensive, as she observed, that they were
+going to bring "the carts" into the room.  Upon Miss Mally, however,
+assuring her that no such transgression was meditated, but that she
+intended to treat them with a bit nice Highland mutton ham, and
+eggs, of her own laying, that worthy pillar of the Relief Kirk
+consented to remain.
+
+It was past eleven o'clock when the party broke up; Mr. Snodgrass
+and Mr. Micklewham walked home together, and as they were crossing
+the Red Burn Bridge, at the entrance of Eglintoun Wood,--a place
+well noted from ancient times for preternatural appearances, Mr.
+Micklewham declared that he thought he heard something purring among
+the bushes; upon which Mr. Snodgrass made a jocose observation,
+stating, that it could be nothing but the effect of Lord North's
+strong ale in his head; and we should add, by way of explanation,
+that the Lord North here spoken of was Willy Grieve, celebrated in
+Irvine for the strength and flavour of his brewing, and that, in
+addition to a plentiful supply of his best, Miss Mally had
+entertained them with tamarind punch, constituting a natural cause
+adequate to produce all the preternatural purring that terrified the
+dominie.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V--THE ROYAL FUNERAL
+
+
+
+Tam Glen having, in consequence of the exhortations of Mr.
+Micklewham, and the earnest entreaties of Mr. Daff, backed by the
+pious animadversions of the rigidly righteous Mr. Craig, confessed a
+fault, and acknowledged an irregular marriage with Meg Milliken,
+their child was admitted to church privileges.  But before the day
+of baptism, Mr. Daff, who thought Tam had given but sullen symptoms
+of penitence, said, to put him in better humour with his fate,--
+"Noo, Tam, since ye hae beguiled us of the infare, we maun mak up
+for't at the christening; so I'll speak to Mr. Snodgrass to bid the
+Doctor's friens and acquaintance to the ploy, that we may get as
+meikle amang us as will pay for the bairn's baptismal frock."
+
+Mr. Craig, who was present, and who never lost an opportunity of
+testifying, as he said, his "discountenance of the crying iniquity,"
+remonstrated with Mr. Daff on the unchristian nature of the
+proposal, stigmatising it with good emphasis "as a sinful nourishing
+of carnality in his day and generation."  Mr. Micklewham, however,
+interfered, and said, "It was a matter of weight and concernment,
+and therefore it behoves you to consult Mr. Snodgrass on the fitness
+of the thing.  For if the thing itself is not fit and proper, it
+cannot expect his countenance; and, on that account, before we
+reckon on his compliance with what Mr. Daff has propounded, we
+should first learn whether he approves of it at all."  Whereupon the
+two elders and the session-clerk adjourned to the manse, in which
+Mr. Snodgrass, during the absence of the incumbent, had taken up his
+abode.
+
+The heads of the previous conversation were recapitulated by Mr.
+Micklewham, with as much brevity as was consistent with perspicuity;
+and the matter being duly digested by Mr. Snodgrass, that orthodox
+young man--as Mrs. Glibbans denominated him, on hearing him for the
+first time--declared that the notion of a pay-christening was a
+benevolent and kind thought:  "For, is not the order to increase and
+multiply one of the first commands in the Scriptures of truth?" said
+Mr. Snodgrass, addressing himself to Mr. Craig.  "Surely, then, when
+children are brought into the world, a great law of our nature has
+been fulfilled, and there is cause for rejoicing and gladness!  And
+is it not an obligation imposed upon all Christians, to welcome the
+stranger, and to feed the hungry, and to clothe the naked; and what
+greater stranger can there be than a helpless babe?  Who more in
+need of sustenance than the infant, that knows not the way even to
+its mother's bosom?  And whom shall we clothe, if we do not the
+wailing innocent, that the hand of Providence places in poverty and
+nakedness before us, to try, as it were, the depth of our Christian
+principles, and to awaken the sympathy of our humane feelings?"
+
+Mr. Craig replied, "It's a' very true and sound what Mr. Snodgrass
+has observed; but Tam Glen's wean is neither a stranger, nor hungry,
+nor naked, but a sturdy brat, that has been rinning its lane for
+mair than sax weeks."  "Ah!" said Mr. Snodgrass familiarly, "I fear,
+Mr. Craig, ye're a Malthusian in your heart."  The sanctimonious
+elder was thunderstruck at the word.  Of many a various shade and
+modification of sectarianism he had heard, but the Malthusian heresy
+was new to his ears, and awful to his conscience, and he begged Mr.
+Snodgrass to tell him in what it chiefly consisted, protesting his
+innocence of that, and of every erroneous doctrine.
+
+Mr. Snodgrass happened to regard the opinions of Malthus on
+Population as equally contrary to religion and nature, and not at
+all founded in truth.  "It is evident, that the reproductive
+principle in the earth and vegetables, and all things and animals
+which constitute the means of subsistence, is much more vigorous
+than in man.  It may be therefore affirmed, that the multiplication
+of the means of subsistence is an effect of the multiplication of
+population, for the one is augmented in quantity, by the skill and
+care of the other," said Mr. Snodgrass, seizing with avidity this
+opportunity of stating what he thought on the subject, although his
+auditors were but the session-clerk, and two elders of a country
+parish.  We cannot pursue the train of his argument, but we should
+do injustice to the philosophy of Malthus, if we suppressed the
+observation which Mr. Daff made at the conclusion.  "Gude safe's!"
+said the good-natured elder, "if it's true that we breed faster than
+the Lord provides for us, we maun drown the poor folks' weans like
+kittlings."  "Na, na!" exclaimed Mr. Craig, "ye're a' out,
+neighbour; I see now the utility of church-censures."  "True!" said
+Mr. Micklewham; "and the ordination of the stool of repentance, the
+horrors of which, in the opinion of the fifteen Lords at Edinburgh,
+palliated child-murder, is doubtless a Malthusian institution."  But
+Mr. Snodgrass put an end to the controversy, by fixing a day for the
+christening, and telling he would do his best to procure a good
+collection, according to the benevolent suggestion of Mr. Daff.  To
+this cause we are indebted for the next series of the Pringle
+correspondence; for, on the day appointed, Miss Mally Glencairn,
+Miss Isabella Tod, Mrs. Glibbans and her daughter Becky, with Miss
+Nanny Eydent, together with other friends of the minister's family,
+dined at the manse, and the conversation being chiefly about the
+concerns of the family, the letters were produced and read.
+
+
+LETTER XII
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq., to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass--WINDSOR,
+CASTLE-INN.
+
+My Dear Friend--I have all my life been strangely susceptible of
+pleasing impressions from public spectacles where great crowds are
+assembled.  This, perhaps, you will say, is but another way of
+confessing, that, like the common vulgar, I am fond of sights and
+shows.  It may be so, but it is not from the pageants that I derive
+my enjoyment.  A multitude, in fact, is to me as it were a strain of
+music, which, with an irresistible and magical influence, calls up
+from the unknown abyss of the feelings new combinations of fancy,
+which, though vague and obscure, as those nebulae of light that
+astronomers have supposed to be the rudiments of unformed stars,
+afterwards become distinct and brilliant acquisitions.  In a crowd,
+I am like the somnambulist in the highest degree of the luminous
+crisis, when it is said a new world is unfolded to his
+contemplation, wherein all things have an intimate affinity with the
+state of man, and yet bear no resemblance to the objects that
+address themselves to his corporeal faculties.  This delightful
+experience, as it may be called, I have enjoyed this evening, to an
+exquisite degree, at the funeral of the king; but, although the
+whole succession of incidents is indelibly imprinted on my
+recollection, I am still so much affected by the emotion excited, as
+to be incapable of conveying to you any intelligible description of
+what I saw.  It was indeed a scene witnessed through the medium of
+the feelings, and the effect partakes of the nature of a dream.
+
+I was within the walls of an ancient castle,
+
+
+"So old as if they had for ever stood,
+So strong as if they would for ever stand,"
+
+
+and it was almost midnight.  The towers, like the vast spectres of
+departed ages, raised their embattled heads to the skies, monumental
+witnesses of the strength and antiquity of a great monarchy.  A
+prodigious multitude filled the courts of that venerable edifice,
+surrounding on all sides a dark embossed structure, the sarcophagus,
+as it seemed to me at the moment, of the heroism of chivalry.
+
+"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream," and I beheld the scene
+suddenly illuminated, and the blaze of torches, the glimmering of
+arms, and warriors and horses, while a mosaic of human faces covered
+like a pavement the courts.  A deep low under sound pealed from a
+distance; in the same moment, a trumpet answered with a single
+mournful note from the stateliest and darkest portion of the fabric,
+and it was whispered in every ear, "It is coming."  Then an awful
+cadence of solemn music, that affected the heart like silence, was
+heard at intervals, and a numerous retinue of grave and venerable
+men,
+
+
+"The fathers of their time,
+Those mighty master spirits, that withstood
+The fall of monarchies, and high upheld
+Their country's standard, glorious in the storm,"
+
+
+passed slowly before me, bearing the emblems and trophies of a king.
+They were as a series of great historical events, and I beheld
+behind them, following and followed, an awful and indistinct image,
+like the vision of Job.  It moved on, and I could not discern the
+form thereof, but there were honours and heraldries, and sorrow, and
+silence, and I heard the stir of a profound homage performing within
+the breasts of all the witnesses.  But I must not indulge myself
+farther on this subject.  I cannot hope to excite in you the
+emotions with which I was so profoundly affected.  In the visible
+objects of the funeral of George the Third there was but little
+magnificence; all its sublimity was derived from the trains of
+thought and currents of feeling, which the sight of so many
+illustrious characters, surrounded by circumstances associated with
+the greatness and antiquity of the kingdom, was necessarily
+calculated to call forth.  In this respect, however, it was perhaps
+the sublimest spectacle ever witnessed in this island; and I am
+sure, that I cannot live so long as ever again to behold another,
+that will equally interest me to the same depth and extent.-- Yours,
+ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+We should ill perform the part of faithful historians, did we omit
+to record the sentiments expressed by the company on this occasion.
+Mrs. Glibbans, whose knowledge of the points of orthodoxy had not
+their equal in the three adjacent parishes, roundly declared, that
+Mr. Andrew Pringle's letter was nothing but a peesemeal of
+clishmaclavers; that there was no sense in it; and that it was just
+like the writer, a canary idiot, a touch here and a touch there,
+without anything in the shape of cordiality or satisfaction.
+
+Miss Isabella Tod answered this objection with that sweetness of
+manner and virgin diffidence, which so well becomes a youthful
+member of the establishment, controverting the dogmas of a stoop of
+the Relief persuasion, by saying, that she thought Mr. Andrew had
+shown a fine sensibility.  "What is sensibility without judgment,"
+cried her adversary, "but a thrashing in the water, and a raising of
+bells?  Couldna the fallow, without a' his parleyvoos, have said,
+that such and such was the case, and that the Lord giveth and the
+Lord taketh away?--but his clouds, and his spectres, and his visions
+of Job!--Oh, an he could but think like Job!--Oh, an he would but
+think like the patient man!--and was obliged to claut his flesh with
+a bit of a broken crock, we might have some hope of repentance unto
+life.  But Andrew Pringle, he's a gone dick; I never had comfort or
+expectation of the free-thinker, since I heard that he was infected
+with the blue and yellow calamity of the Edinburgh Review; in which,
+I am credibly told, it is set forth, that women have nae souls, but
+only a gut, and a gaw, and a gizzard, like a pigeon-dove, or a
+raven-crow, or any other outcast and abominated quadruped."
+
+Here Miss Mally Glencairn interposed her effectual mediation, and
+said, "It is very true that Andrew deals in the diplomatics of
+obscurity; but it's well known that he has a nerve for genius, and
+that, in his own way, he kens the loan from the crown of the
+causeway, as well as the duck does the midden from the adle dib."
+To this proverb, which we never heard before, a learned friend, whom
+we consulted on the subject, has enabled us to state, that middens
+were formerly of great magnitude, and often of no less antiquity in
+the west of Scotland; in so much, that the Trongate of Glasgow owes
+all its spacious grandeur to them.  It being within the recollection
+of persons yet living, that the said magnificent street was at one
+time an open road, or highway, leading to the Trone, or market-
+cross, with thatched houses on each side, such as may still be seen
+in the pure and immaculate royal borough of Rutherglen; and that
+before each house stood a luxuriant midden, by the removal of which,
+in the progress of modern degeneracy, the stately architecture of
+Argyle Street was formed.  But not to insist at too great a length
+on such topics of antiquarian lore, we shall now insert Dr.
+Pringle's account of the funeral, and which, patly enough, follows
+our digression concerning the middens and magnificence of Glasgow,
+as it contains an authentic anecdote of a manufacturer from that
+city, drinking champaign at the king's dirgie.
+
+
+LETTER XIII
+
+
+The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
+Session-Clerk of Garnock--LONDON.
+
+Dear Sir--I have received your letter, and it is a great pleasure to
+me to hear that my people were all so much concerned at our distress
+in the Leith smack; but what gave me the most contentment was the
+repentance of Tam Glen.  I hope, poor fellow, he will prove a good
+husband; but I have my doubts; for the wife has really but a small
+share of common sense, and no married man can do well unless his
+wife will let him.  I am, however, not overly pleased with Mr. Craig
+on the occasion, for he should have considered frail human nature,
+and accepted of poor Tam's confession of a fault, and allowed the
+bairn to be baptized without any more ado.  I think honest Mr. Daff
+has acted like himself, and I trust and hope there will be a great
+gathering at the christening, and, that my mite may not be wanting,
+you will slip in a guinea note when the dish goes round, but in such
+a manner, that it may not be jealoused from whose hand it comes.
+
+Since my last letter, we have been very thrang in the way of seeing
+the curiosities of London; but I must go on regular, and tell you
+all, which, I think, it is my duty to do, that you may let my people
+know.  First, then, we have been at Windsor Castle, to see the king
+lying in state, and, afterwards, his interment; and sorry am I to
+say, it was not a sight that could satisfy any godly mind on such an
+occasion.  We went in a coach of our own, by ourselves, and found
+the town of Windsor like a cried fair.  We were then directed to the
+Castle gate, where a terrible crowd was gathered together; and we
+had not been long in that crowd, till a pocket-picker, as I thought,
+cutted off the tail of my coat, with my pocket-book in my pocket,
+which I never missed at the time.  But it seems the coat tail was
+found, and a policeman got it, and held it up on the end of his
+stick, and cried, whose pocket is this? showing the book that was
+therein in his hand.  I was confounded to see my pocket-book there,
+and could scarcely believe my own eyes; but Mrs. Pringle knew it at
+the first glance, and said, "It's my gudeman's"; at the which, there
+was a great shout of derision among the multitude, and we would
+baith have then been glad to disown the pocket-book, but it was
+returned to us, I may almost say, against our will; but the
+scorners, when they saw our confusion, behaved with great civility
+towards us, so that we got into the Castle-yard with no other damage
+than the loss of the flap of my coat tail.
+
+Being in the Castle-yard, we followed the crowd into another gate,
+and up a stair, and saw the king lying in state, which was a very
+dismal sight--and I thought of Solomon in all his glory, when I saw
+the coffin, and the mutes, and the mourners; and reflecting on the
+long infirmity of mind of the good old king, I said to myself, in
+the words of the book of Job, "Doth not their excellency which is in
+them go away? they die even without wisdom!'
+
+When we had seen the sight, we came out of the Castle, and went to
+an inn to get a chack of dinner; but there was such a crowd, that no
+resting-place could for a time be found for us.  Gentle and semple
+were there, all mingled, and no respect of persons; only there was,
+at a table nigh unto ours, a fat Glasgow manufacturer, who ordered a
+bottle of champaign wine, and did all he could in the drinking of it
+by himself, to show that he was a man in well-doing circumstances.
+While he was talking over his wine, a great peer of the realm, with
+a star on his breast, came into the room, and ordered a glass of
+brandy and water; and I could see, when he saw the Glasgow
+manufacturer drinking champaign wine on that occasion, that he
+greatly marvelled thereat.
+
+When we had taken our dinner, we went out to walk and see the town
+of Windsor; but there was such a mob of coaches going and coming,
+and men and horses, that we left the streets, and went to inspect
+the king's policy, which is of great compass, but in a careless
+order, though it costs a world of money to keep it up.  Afterwards,
+we went back to the inns, to get tea for Mrs. Pringle and her
+daughter, while Andrew Pringle, my son, was seeing if he could get
+tickets to buy, to let us into the inside of the Castle, to see the
+burial--but he came back without luck, and I went out myself, being
+more experienced in the world, and I saw a gentleman's servant with
+a ticket in his hand, and I asked him to sell it to me, which the
+man did with thankfulness, for five shillings, although the price
+was said to be golden guineas.  But as this ticket admitted only one
+person, it was hard to say what should be done with it when I got
+back to my family.  However, as by this time we were all very much
+fatigued, I gave it to Andrew Pringle, my son, and Mrs. Pringle, and
+her daughter Rachel, agreed to bide with me in the inns.
+
+Andrew Pringle, my son, having got the ticket, left us sitting, when
+shortly after in came a nobleman, high in the cabinet, as I think he
+must have been, and he having politely asked leave to take his tea
+at our table, because of the great throng in the house, we fell into
+a conversation together, and he, understanding thereby that I was a
+minister of the Church of Scotland, said he thought he could help us
+into a place to see the funeral; so, after he had drank his tea, he
+took us with him, and got us into the Castle-yard, where we had an
+excellent place, near to the Glasgow manufacturer that drank the
+champaign.  The drink by this time, however, had got into that poor
+man's head, and he talked so loud, and so little to the purpose,
+that the soldiers who were guarding were obliged to make him hold
+his peace, at which he was not a little nettled, and told the
+soldiers that he had himself been a soldier, and served the king
+without pay, having been a volunteer officer.  But this had no more
+effect than to make the soldiers laugh at him, which was not a
+decent thing at the interment of their master, our most gracious
+Sovereign that was.
+
+However, in this situation we saw all; and I can assure you it was a
+very edifying sight; and the people demeaned themselves with so much
+propriety, that there was no need for any guards at all; indeed, for
+that matter, of the two, the guards, who had eaten the king's bread,
+were the only ones there, saving and excepting the Glasgow
+manufacturer, that manifested an irreverent spirit towards the royal
+obsequies.  But they are men familiar with the king of terrors on
+the field of battle, and it was not to be expected that their hearts
+would be daunted like those of others by a doing of a civil
+character.
+
+When all was over, we returned to the inns, to get our chaise, to go
+back to London that night, for beds were not to be had for love or
+money at Windsor, and we reached our temporary home in Norfolk
+Street about four o'clock in the morning, well satisfied with what
+we had seen,--but all the meantime I had forgotten the loss of the
+flap of my coat, which caused no little sport when I came to
+recollect what a pookit like body I must have been, walking about in
+the king's policy like a peacock without my tail.  But I must
+conclude, for Mrs. Pringle has a letter to put in the frank for Miss
+Nanny Eydent, which you will send to her by one of your scholars, as
+it contains information that may be serviceable to Miss Nanny in her
+business, both as a mantua-maker and a superintendent of the
+genteeler sort of burials at Irvine and our vicinity.  So that this
+is all from your friend and pastor,
+
+ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
+
+
+"I think," said Miss Isabella Tod, as Mr. Micklewham finished the
+reading of the Doctor's epistle, "that my friend Rachel might have
+given me some account of the ceremony; but Captain Sabre seems to
+have been a much more interesting object to her than the pride and
+pomp to her brother, or even the Glasgow manufacturer to her
+father."  In saying these words, the young lady took the following
+letter from her pocket, and was on the point of beginning to read
+it, when Miss Becky Glibbans exclaimed, "I had aye my fears that
+Rachel was but light-headed, and I'll no be surprised to hear more
+about her and the dragoon or a's done."  Mr. Snodgrass looked at
+Becky, as if he had been afflicted at the moment with unpleasant
+ideas; and perhaps he would have rebuked the spitefulness of her
+insinuations, had not her mother sharply snubbed the uncongenial
+maiden, in terms at least as pungent as any which the reverend
+gentleman would have employed.  "I'm sure," replied Miss Becky,
+pertly, "I meant no ill; but if Rachel Pringle can write about
+nothing but this Captain Sabre, she might as well let it alone, and
+her letter canna be worth the hearing."  "Upon that," said the
+clergyman, "we can form a judgment when we have heard it, and I beg
+that Miss Isabella may proceed,"--which she did accordingly.
+
+
+LETTER XIV
+
+
+Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Bell--I take up my pen with a feeling of disappointment such
+as I never felt before.  Yesterday was the day appointed for the
+funeral of the good old king, and it was agreed that we should go to
+Windsor, to pour the tribute of our tears upon the royal hearse.
+Captain Sabre promised to go with us, as he is well acquainted with
+the town, and the interesting objects around the Castle, so dear to
+chivalry, and embalmed by the genius of Shakespeare and many a minor
+bard, and I promised myself a day of unclouded felicity--but the
+captain was ordered to be on duty,--and the crowd was so rude and
+riotous, that I had no enjoyment whatever; but, pining with chagrin
+at the little respect paid by the rabble to the virtues of the
+departed monarch, I would fainly have retired into some solemn and
+sequestered grove, and breathed my sorrows to the listening waste.
+Nor was the loss of the captain, to explain and illuminate the
+different baronial circumstances around the Castle, the only thing I
+had to regret in this ever-memorable excursion--my tender and
+affectionate mother was so desirous to see everything in the most
+particular manner, in order that she might give an account of the
+funeral to Nanny Eydent, that she had no mercy either upon me or my
+father, but obliged us to go with her to the most difficult and
+inaccessible places.  How vain was all this meritorious assiduity!
+for of what avail can the ceremonies of a royal funeral be to Miss
+Nanny, at Irvine, where kings never die, and where, if they did, it
+is not at all probable that Miss Nanny would be employed to direct
+their solemn obsequies?  As for my brother, he was so entranced with
+his own enthusiasm, that he paid but little attention to us, which
+made me the more sensible of the want we suffered from the absence
+of Captain Sabre.  In a word, my dear Bell, never did I pass a more
+unsatisfactory day, and I wish it blotted for ever from my
+remembrance.  Let it therefore be consigned to the abysses of
+oblivion, while I recall the more pleasing incidents that have
+happened since I wrote you last.
+
+On Sunday, according to invitation, as I told you, we dined with the
+Argents--and were entertained by them in a style at once most
+splendid, and on the most easy footing.  I shall not attempt to
+describe the consumable materials of the table, but call your
+attention, my dear friend, to the intellectual portion of the
+entertainment, a subject much more congenial to your delicate and
+refined character.
+
+Mrs. Argent is a lady of considerable personal magnitude, of an open
+and affable disposition.  In this respect, indeed, she bears a
+striking resemblance to her nephew, Captain Sabre, with whose
+relationship to her we were unacquainted before that day.  She
+received us as friends in whom she felt a peculiar interest; for
+when she heard that my mother had got her dress and mine from
+Cranbury Alley, she expressed the greatest astonishment, and told
+us, that it was not at all a place where persons of fashion could
+expect to be properly served.  Nor can I disguise the fact, that the
+flounced and gorgeous garniture of our dresses was in shocking
+contrast to the amiable simplicity of hers and the fair Arabella,
+her daughter, a charming girl, who, notwithstanding the fashionable
+splendour in which she has been educated, displays a delightful
+sprightliness of manner, that, I have some notion, has not been
+altogether lost on the heart of my brother.
+
+When we returned upstairs to the drawing-room, after dinner, Miss
+Arabella took her harp, and was on the point of favouring us with a
+Mozart; but her mother, recollecting that we were Presbyterians,
+thought it might not be agreeable, and she desisted, which I was
+sinful enough to regret; but my mother was so evidently alarmed at
+the idea of playing on the harp on a Sunday night, that I suppressed
+my own wishes, in filial veneration for those of that respected
+parent.  Indeed, fortunate it was that the music was not performed;
+for, when we returned home, my father remarked with great solemnity,
+that such a way of passing the Lord's night as we had passed it,
+would have been a great sin in Scotland.
+
+Captain Sabre, who called on us next morning, was so delighted when
+he understood that we were acquainted with his aunt, that he
+lamented he had not happened to know it before, as he would, in that
+case, have met us there.  He is indeed very attentive, but I assure
+you that I feel no particular interest about him; for although he is
+certainly a very handsome young man, he is not such a genius as my
+brother, and has no literary partialities.  But literary
+accomplishments are, you know, foreign to the military profession,
+and if the captain has not distinguished himself by cutting up
+authors in the reviews, he has acquired an honourable medal, by
+overcoming the enemies of the civilised world at Waterloo.
+
+To-night the playhouses open again, and we are going to the
+Oratorio, and the captain goes with us, a circumstance which I am
+the more pleased at, as we are strangers, and he will tell us the
+names of the performers.  My father made some scruple of consenting
+to be of the party; but when he heard that an Oratorio was a concert
+of sacred music, he thought it would be only a sinless deviation if
+he did, so he goes likewise.  The captain, therefore, takes an early
+dinner with us at five o'clock.  Alas! to what changes am I doomed,-
+-that was the tea hour at the manse of Garnock.  Oh, when shall I
+revisit the primitive simplicities of my native scenes again!  But
+neither time nor distance, my dear Bell, can change the affection
+with which I subscribe myself, ever affectionately, yours,
+
+RACHEL PRINGLE.
+
+
+At the conclusion of this letter, the countenance of Mrs. Glibbans
+was evidently so darkened, that it daunted the company, like an
+eclipse of the sun, when all nature is saddened.  "What think you,
+Mr. Snodgrass," said that spirit-stricken lady,--"what think you of
+this dining on the Lord's day,--this playing on the harp; the carnal
+Mozarting of that ungodly family, with whom the corrupt human nature
+of our friends has been chambering?"  Mr. Snodgrass was at some loss
+for an answer, and hesitated, but Miss Mally Glencairn relieved him
+from his embarrassment, by remarking, that "the harp was a holy
+instrument," which somewhat troubled the settled orthodoxy of Mrs.
+Glibbans's visage.  "Had it been an organ," said Mr. Snodgrass,
+dryly, "there might have been, perhaps, more reason to doubt; but,
+as Miss Mally justly remarks, the harp has been used from the days
+of King David in the performances of sacred music, together with the
+psalter, the timbrel, the sackbut, and the cymbal."  The wrath of
+the polemical Deborah of the Relief-Kirk was somewhat appeased by
+this explanation, and she inquired in a more diffident tone, whether
+a Mozart was not a metrical paraphrase of the song of Moses after
+the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea; "in which case, I
+must own," she observed, "that the sin and guilt of the thing is
+less grievous in the sight of HIM before whom all the actions of men
+are abominations."  Miss Isabella Tod, availing herself of this
+break in the conversation, turned round to Miss Nanny Eydent, and
+begged that she would read her letter from Mrs. Pringle.  We should
+do injustice, however, to honest worth and patient industry were we,
+in thus introducing Miss Nanny to our readers, not to give them some
+account of her lowly and virtuous character.
+
+Miss Nanny was the eldest of three sisters, the daughters of a
+shipmaster, who was lost at sea when they were very young; and his
+all having perished with him, they were indeed, as their mother
+said, the children of Poverty and Sorrow.  By the help of a little
+credit, the widow contrived, in a small shop, to eke out her days
+till Nanny was able to assist her.  It was the intention of the poor
+woman to take up a girl's school for reading and knitting, and Nanny
+was destined to instruct the pupils in that higher branch of
+accomplishment--the different stitches of the sampler.  But about
+the time that Nanny was advancing to the requisite degree of
+perfection in chain-steek and pie-holes--indeed had made some
+progress in the Lord's prayer between two yew trees--tambouring was
+introduced at Irvine, and Nanny was sent to acquire a competent
+knowledge of that classic art, honoured by the fair hands of the
+beautiful Helen and the chaste and domestic Andromache.  In this she
+instructed her sisters; and such was the fruit of their application
+and constant industry, that her mother abandoned the design of
+keeping school, and continued to ply her little huxtry in more easy
+circumstances.  The fluctuations of trade in time taught them that
+it would not be wise to trust to the loom, and accordingly Nanny was
+at some pains to learn mantua-making; and it was fortunate that she
+did so--for the tambouring gradually went out of fashion, and the
+flowering which followed suited less the infirm constitution of poor
+Nanny.  The making of gowns for ordinary occasions led to the making
+of mournings, and the making of mournings naturally often caused
+Nanny to be called in at deaths, which, in process of time, promoted
+her to have the management of burials; and in this line of business
+she has now a large proportion of the genteelest in Irvine and its
+vicinity; and in all her various engagements her behaviour has been
+as blameless and obliging as her assiduity has been uniform;
+insomuch, that the numerous ladies to whom she is known take a
+particular pleasure in supplying her with the newest patterns, and
+earliest information, respecting the varieties and changes of
+fashions; and to the influence of the same good feelings in the
+breast of Mrs. Pringle, Nanny was indebted for the following letter.
+How far the information which it contains may be deemed exactly
+suitable to the circumstances in which Miss Nanny's lot is cast, our
+readers may judge for themselves; but we are happy to state, that it
+has proved of no small advantage to her:  for since it has been
+known that she had received a full, true, and particular account, of
+all manner of London fashions, from so managing and notable a woman
+as the minister's wife of Garnock, her consideration has been so
+augmented in the opinion of the neighbouring gentlewomen, that she
+is not only consulted as to funerals, but is often called in to
+assist in the decoration and arrangement of wedding-dinners, and
+other occasions of sumptuous banqueting; by which she is enabled,
+during the suspension of the flowering trade, to earn a lowly but a
+respected livelihood.
+
+
+LETTER XV
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Nanny Eydent, Mantua-maker, Seagate Head,
+Irvine--LONDON.
+
+Dear Miss Nanny--Miss Mally Glencairn would tell you all how it
+happent that I was disabled, by our misfortunes in the ship, from
+riting to you konserning the London fashons as I promist; for I
+wantit to be partikylor, and to say nothing but what I saw with my
+own eyes, that it might be servisable to you in your bizness--so now
+I will begin with the old king's burial, as you have sometimes
+okashon to lend a helping hand in that way at Irvine, and nothing
+could be more genteeler of the kind than a royal obsakew for a
+patron; but no living sole can give a distink account of this
+matter, for you know the old king was the father of his piple, and
+the croud was so great.  Howsomever we got into our oun hired shaze
+at daylight; and when we were let out at the castel yett of Windsor,
+we went into the mob, and by and by we got within the castel walls,
+when great was the lamentation for the purdition of shawls and
+shoos, and the Doctor's coat pouch was clippit off by a pocket-
+picker.  We then ran to a wicket-gate, and up an old timber-stair
+with a rope ravel, and then we got to a great pentit chamber called
+King George's Hall:  After that we were allowt to go into another
+room full of guns and guards, that told us all to be silent:  so
+then we all went like sawlies, holding our tongues in an awful
+manner, into a dysmal room hung with black cloth, and lighted with
+dum wax-candles in silver skonses, and men in a row all in
+mulancholic posters.  At length and at last we came to the coffin;
+but although I was as partikylar as possoble, I could see nothing
+that I would recommend.  As for the interment, there was nothing but
+even-down wastrie--wax-candles blowing away in the wind, and
+flunkies as fou as pipers, and an unreverent mob that scarsely could
+demean themselves with decency as the body was going by; only the
+Duke of York, who carrit the head, had on no hat, which I think was
+the newest identical thing in the affair:  but really there was
+nothing that could be recommended.  Howsomever I understood that
+there was no draigie, which was a saving; for the bread and wine for
+such a multitude would have been a destruction to a lord's living:
+and this is the only point that the fashon set in the king's
+feunoral may be follot in Irvine.
+
+Since the burial, we have been to see the play, where the leddies
+were all in deep murning; but excepting that some had black gum-
+floors on their heads, I saw leetil for admiration--only that
+bugles, I can ashure you, are not worn at all this season; and
+surely this murning must be a vast detrimint to bizness--for where
+there is no verietie, there can be but leetil to do in your line.
+But one thing I should not forget, and that is, that in the vera
+best houses, after tea and coffee after dinner, a cordial dram is
+handed about; but likewise I could observe, that the fruit is not
+set on with the cheese, as in our part of the country, but comes,
+after the cloth is drawn, with the wine; and no such a thing as a
+punch-bowl is to be heard of within the four walls of London.
+Howsomever, what I principally notised was, that the tea and coffee
+is not made by the lady of the house, but out of the room, and
+brought in without sugar or milk, on servors, every one helping
+himself, and only plain flimsy loaf and butter is served--no such
+thing as shortbread, seed-cake, bun, marmlet, or jeelly to be seen,
+which is an okonomical plan, and well worthy of adaptation in
+ginteel families with narrow incomes, in Irvine or elsewhere.
+
+But when I tell you what I am now going to say, you will not be
+surprizt at the great wealth in London.  I paid for a bumbeseen
+gown, not a bit better than the one that was made by you that the
+sore calamity befell, and no so fine neither, more than three times
+the price; so you see, Miss Nanny, if you were going to pouse your
+fortune, you could not do better than pack up your ends and your
+awls and come to London.  But ye're far better at home--for this is
+not a town for any creditable young woman like you, to live in by
+herself, and I am wearying to be back, though it's hard to say when
+the Doctor will get his counts settlet.  I wish you, howsomever, to
+mind the patches for the bed-cover that I was going to patch, for a
+licht afternoon seam, as the murning for the king will no be so
+general with you, and the spring fashons will be coming on to help
+my gathering--so no more at present from your friend and well-
+wisher, JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI--PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION
+
+
+
+On Sunday morning, before going to church, Mr. Micklewham called at
+the manse, and said that he wished particularly to speak to Mr.
+Snodgrass.  Upon being admitted, he found the young helper engaged
+at breakfast, with a book lying on his table, very like a volume of
+a new novel called Ivanhoe, in its appearance, but of course it must
+have been sermons done up in that manner to attract fashionable
+readers.  As soon, however, as Mr. Snodgrass saw his visitor, he
+hastily removed the book, and put it into the table-drawer.
+
+The precentor having taken a seat at the opposite side of the fire,
+began somewhat diffidently to mention, that he had received a letter
+from the Doctor, that made him at a loss whether or not he ought to
+read it to the elders, as usual, after worship, and therefore was
+desirous of consulting Mr. Snodgrass on the subject, for it
+recorded, among other things, that the Doctor had been at the
+playhouse, and Mr. Micklewham was quite sure that Mr. Craig would be
+neither to bind nor to hold when he heard that, although the
+transgression was certainly mollified by the nature of the
+performance.  As the clergyman, however, could offer no opinion
+until he saw the letter, the precentor took it out of his pocket,
+and Mr. Snodgrass found the contents as follows:-
+
+
+LETTER XVI
+
+
+The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
+Session-Clerk, Garnock--LONDON.
+
+Dear Sir--You will recollect that, about twenty years ago, there was
+a great sound throughout all the West that a playhouse in Glasgow
+had been converted into a tabernacle of religion.  I remember it was
+glad tidings to our ears in the parish of Garnock; and that Mr.
+Craig, who had just been ta'en on for an elder that fall, was for
+having a thanksgiving-day on the account thereof, holding it to be a
+signal manifestation of a new birth in the of-old-godly town of
+Glasgow, which had become slack in the way of well-doing, and the
+church therein lukewarm, like that of Laodicea.  It was then said,
+as I well remember, that when the Tabernacle was opened, there had
+not been seen, since the Kaimslang wark, such a congregation as was
+there assembled, which was a great proof that it's the matter
+handled, and not the place, that maketh pure; so that when you and
+the elders hear that I have been at the theatre of Drury Lane, in
+London, you must not think that I was there to see a carnal stage
+play, whether tragical or comical, or that I would so far demean
+myself and my cloth, as to be a witness to the chambering and
+wantonness of ne'er-du-weel play-actors.  No, Mr. Micklewham, what I
+went to see was an Oratorio, a most edifying exercise of psalmody
+and prayer, under the management of a pious gentleman, of the name
+of Sir George Smart, who is, as I am informed, at the greatest pains
+to instruct the exhibitioners, they being, for the most part, before
+they get into his hands, poor uncultivated creatures, from Italy,
+France, and Germany, and other atheistical and popish countries.
+
+They first sung a hymn together very decently, and really with as
+much civilised harmony as could be expected from novices; indeed so
+well, that I thought them almost as melodious as your own singing
+class of the trades lads from Kilwinning.  Then there was one Mr.
+Braham, a Jewish proselyte, that was set forth to show us a specimen
+of his proficiency.  In the praying part, what he said was no
+objectionable as to the matter; but he drawled in his manner to such
+a pitch, that I thought he would have broken out into an even-down
+song, as I sometimes think of yourself when you spin out the last
+word in reading out the line in a warm summer afternoon.  In the
+hymn by himself, he did better; he was, however, sometimes like to
+lose the tune, but the people gave him great encouragement when he
+got back again.  Upon the whole, I had no notion that there was any
+such Christianity in practice among the Londoners, and I am happy to
+tell you, that the house was very well filled, and the congregation
+wonderful attentive.  No doubt that excellent man, Mr. W-, has a
+hand in these public strainings after grace, but he was not there
+that night; for I have seen him; and surely at the sight I could not
+but say to myself, that it's beyond the compass of the understanding
+of man to see what great things Providence worketh with small means,
+for Mr. W- is a small creature.  When I beheld his diminutive
+stature, and thought of what he had achieved for the poor negroes
+and others in the house of bondage, I said to myself, that here the
+hand of Wisdom is visible, for the load of perishable mortality is
+laid lightly on his spirit, by which it is enabled to clap its wings
+and crow so crously on the dunghill top of this world; yea even in
+the House of Parliament.
+
+I was taken last Thursday morning to breakfast with him his house at
+Kensington, by an East India man, who is likewise surely a great
+saint.  It was a heart-healing meeting of many of the godly, which
+he holds weekly in the season; and we had such a warsle of the
+spirit among us that the like cannot be told.  I was called upon to
+pray, and a worthy gentleman said, when I was done, that he never
+had met with more apostolic simplicity--indeed, I could see with the
+tail of my eye, while I was praying, that the chief saint himself
+was listening with a curious pleasant satisfaction.
+
+As for our doings here anent the legacy, things are going forward in
+the regular manner; but the expense is terrible, and I have been
+obliged to take up money on account; but, as it was freely given by
+the agents, I am in hopes all will end well; for, considering that
+we are but strangers to them, they would not have assisted us in
+this matter had they not been sure of the means of payment in their
+own hands.
+
+The people of London are surprising kind to us; we need not, if we
+thought proper ourselves, eat a dinner in our own lodgings; but it
+would ill become me, at my time of life, and with the character for
+sobriety that I have maintained, to show an example in my latter
+days of riotous living; therefore, Mrs. Pringle, and her daughter,
+and me, have made a point of going nowhere three times in the week;
+but as for Andrew Pringle, my son, he has forgathered with some
+acquaintance, and I fancy we will be obliged to let him take the
+length of his tether for a while.  But not altogether without a curb
+neither, for the agent's son, young Mr. Argent, had almost persuaded
+him to become a member of Parliament, which he said he could get him
+made, for more than a thousand pounds less than the common price--
+the state of the new king's health having lowered the commodity of
+seats.  But this I would by no means hear of; he is not yet come to
+years of discretion enough to sit in council; and, moreover, he has
+not been tried; and no man, till he has out of doors shown something
+of what he is, should be entitled to power and honour within.  Mrs.
+Pringle, however, thought he might do as well as young Dunure; but
+Andrew Pringle, my son, has not the solidity of head that Mr. K-dy
+has, and is over free and outspoken, and cannot take such pains to
+make his little go a great way, like that well-behaved young
+gentleman.  But you will be grieved to hear that Mr. K-dy is in
+opposition to the government; and truly I am at a loss to understand
+how a man of Whig principles can be an adversary to the House of
+Hanover.  But I never meddled much in politick affairs, except at
+this time, when I prohibited Andrew Pringle, my son, from offering
+to be a member of Parliament, notwithstanding the great bargain that
+he would have had of the place.
+
+And since we are on public concerns, I should tell you, that I was
+minded to send you a newspaper at the second-hand, every day when we
+were done with it.  But when we came to inquire, we found that we
+could get the newspaper for a shilling a week every morning but
+Sunday, to our breakfast, which was so much cheaper than buying a
+whole paper, that Mrs. Pringle thought it would be a great
+extravagance; and, indeed, when I came to think of the loss of time
+a newspaper every day would occasion to my people, I considered it
+would be very wrong of me to send you any at all.  For I do think
+that honest folks in a far-off country parish should not make or
+meddle with the things that pertain to government,--the more
+especially, as it is well known, that there is as much falsehood as
+truth in newspapers, and they have not the means of testing their
+statements.  Not, however, that I am an advocate for passive
+obedience; God forbid.  On the contrary, if ever the time should
+come, in my day, of a saint-slaying tyrant attempting to bind the
+burden of prelatic abominations on our backs, such a blast of the
+gospel trumpet would be heard in Garnock, as it does not become me
+to say, but I leave it to you and others, who have experienced my
+capacity as a soldier of the word so long, to think what it would
+then be.  Meanwhile, I remain, my dear sir, your friend and pastor,
+Z. PRINGLE.
+
+
+When Mr. Snodgrass had perused this epistle, he paused some time,
+seemingly in doubt, and then he said to Mr. Micklewham, that,
+considering the view which the Doctor had taken of the matter, and
+that he had not gone to the playhouse for the motives which usually
+take bad people to such places, he thought there could be no
+possible harm in reading the letter to the elders, and that Mr.
+Craig, so far from being displeased, would doubtless be exceedingly
+rejoiced to learn that the playhouses of London were occasionally so
+well employed as on the night when the Doctor was there.
+
+Mr. Micklewham then inquired if Mr. Snodgrass had heard from Mr.
+Andrew, and was answered in the affirmative; but the letter was not
+read.  Why it was withheld our readers must guess for themselves;
+but we have been fortunate enough to obtain the following copy.
+
+
+LETTER XVII
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq., to the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Friend--As the season advances, London gradually unfolds,
+like Nature, all the variety of her powers and pleasures.  By the
+Argents we have been introduced effectually into society, and have
+now only to choose our acquaintance among those whom we like best.
+I should employ another word than choose, for I am convinced that
+there is no choice in the matter.  In his friendships and
+affections, man is subject to some inscrutable moral law, similar in
+its effects to what the chemists call affinity.  While under the
+blind influence of this sympathy, we, forsooth, suppose ourselves
+free agents!  But a truce with philosophy.
+
+The amount of the legacy is now ascertained.  The stock, however, in
+which a great part of the money is vested being shut, the transfer
+to my father cannot be made for some time; and till this is done, my
+mother cannot be persuaded that we have yet got anything to trust
+to--an unfortunate notion which renders her very unhappy.  The old
+gentleman himself takes no interest now in the business.  He has got
+his mind at ease by the payment of all the legacies; and having
+fallen in with some of the members of that political junto, the
+Saints, who are worldly enough to link, as often as they can, into
+their association, the powerful by wealth or talent, his whole time
+is occupied in assisting to promote their humbug; and he has
+absolutely taken it into his head, that the attention he receives
+from them for his subscriptions is on account of his eloquence as a
+preacher, and that hitherto he has been altogether in an error with
+respect to his own abilities.  The effect of this is abundantly
+amusing; but the source of it is very evident.  Like most people who
+pass a sequestered life, he had formed an exaggerated opinion of
+public characters; and on seeing them in reality so little superior
+to the generality of mankind, he imagines that he was all the time
+nearer to their level than he had ventured to suppose; and the
+discovery has placed him on the happiest terms with himself.  It is
+impossible that I can respect his manifold excellent qualities and
+goodness of heart more than I do; but there is an innocency in this
+simplicity, which, while it often compels me to smile, makes me feel
+towards him a degree of tenderness, somewhat too familiar for that
+filial reverence that is due from a son.
+
+Perhaps, however, you will think me scarcely less under the
+influence of a similar delusion when I tell you, that I have been
+somehow or other drawn also into an association, not indeed so
+public or potent as that of the Saints, but equally persevering in
+the objects for which it has been formed.  The drift of the Saints,
+as far as I can comprehend the matter, is to procure the advancement
+to political power of men distinguished for the purity of their
+lives, and the integrity of their conduct; and in that way, I
+presume, they expect to effect the accomplishment of that blessed
+epoch, the Millennium, when the Saints are to rule the whole earth.
+I do not mean to say that this is their decided and determined
+object; I only infer, that it is the necessary tendency of their
+proceedings; and I say it with all possible respect and sincerity,
+that, as a public party, the Saints are not only perhaps the most
+powerful, but the party which, at present, best deserves power.
+
+The association, however, with which I have happened to become
+connected, is of a very different description.  Their object is, to
+pass through life with as much pleasure as they can obtain, without
+doing anything unbecoming the rank of gentlemen, and the character
+of men of honour.  We do not assemble such numerous meetings as the
+Saints, the Whigs, or the Radicals, nor are our speeches delivered
+with so much vehemence.  We even, I think, tacitly exclude oratory.
+In a word, our meetings seldom exceed the perfect number of the
+muses; and our object on these occasions is not so much to
+deliberate on plans of prospective benefits to mankind, as to enjoy
+the present time for ourselves, under the temperate inspiration of a
+well-cooked dinner, flavoured with elegant wine, and just so much of
+mind as suits the fleeting topics of the day.  T-, whom I formerly
+mentioned, introduced me to this delightful society.  The members
+consist of about fifty gentlemen, who dine occasionally at each
+other's houses; the company being chiefly selected from the
+brotherhood, if that term can be applied to a circle of
+acquaintance, who, without any formal institution of rules, have
+gradually acquired a consistency that approximates to organisation.
+But the universe of this vast city contains a plurality of systems;
+and the one into which I have been attracted may be described as
+that of the idle intellects.  In general society, the members of our
+party are looked up to as men of taste and refinement, and are
+received with a degree of deference that bears some resemblance to
+the respect paid to the hereditary endowment of rank.  They consist
+either of young men who have acquired distinction at college, or
+gentlemen of fortune who have a relish for intellectual pleasures,
+free from the acerbities of politics, or the dull formalities which
+so many of the pious think essential to their religious pretensions.
+The wealthy furnish the entertainments, which are always in a
+superior style, and the ingredient of birth is not requisite in the
+qualifications of a member, although some jealousy is entertained of
+professional men, and not a little of merchants.  T-, to whom I am
+also indebted for this view of that circle of which he is the
+brightest ornament, gives a felicitous explanation of the reason.
+He says, professional men, who are worth anything at all, are always
+ambitious, and endeavour to make their acquaintance subservient to
+their own advancement; while merchants are liable to such
+casualties, that their friends are constantly exposed to the risk of
+being obliged to sink them below their wonted equality, by granting
+them favours in times of difficulty, or, what is worse, by refusing
+to grant them.
+
+I am much indebted to you for the introduction to your friend G-.
+He is one of us; or rather, he moves in an eccentric sphere of his
+own, which crosses, I believe, almost all the orbits of all the
+classed and classifiable systems of London.  I found him exactly
+what you described; and we were on the frankest footing of old
+friends in the course of the first quarter of an hour.  He did me
+the honour to fancy that I belonged, as a matter of course, to some
+one of the literary fraternities of Edinburgh, and that I would be
+curious to see the associations of the learned here.  What he said
+respecting them was highly characteristic of the man.  "They are,"
+said he, "the dullest things possible.  On my return from abroad, I
+visited them all, expecting to find something of that easy
+disengaged mind which constitutes the charm of those of France and
+Italy.  But in London, among those who have a character to keep up,
+there is such a vigilant circumspection, that I should as soon
+expect to find nature in the ballets of the Opera-house, as genius
+at the established haunts of authors, artists, and men of science.
+Bankes gives, I suppose officially, a public breakfast weekly, and
+opens his house for conversations on the Sundays.  I found at his
+breakfasts, tea and coffee, with hot rolls, and men of celebrity
+afraid to speak.  At the conversations, there was something even
+worse.  A few plausible talking fellows created a buzz in the room,
+and the merits of some paltry nick-nack of mechanism or science was
+discussed.  The party consisted undoubtedly of the most eminent men
+of their respective lines in the world; but they were each and all
+so apprehensive of having their ideas purloined, that they took the
+most guarded care never to speak of anything that they deemed of the
+slightest consequence, or to hazard an opinion that might be called
+in question.  The man who either wishes to augment his knowledge, or
+to pass his time agreeably, will never expose himself to a
+repetition of the fastidious exhibitions of engineers and artists
+who have their talents at market.  But such things are among the
+curiosities of London; and if you have any inclination to undergo
+the initiating mortification of being treated as a young man who may
+be likely to interfere with their professional interests, I can
+easily get you introduced."
+
+I do not know whether to ascribe these strictures of your friend to
+humour or misanthropy; but they were said without bitterness; indeed
+so much as matters of course, that, at the moment, I could not but
+feel persuaded they were just.  I spoke of them to T-, who says,
+that undoubtedly G-'s account of the exhibitions is true in
+substance, but that it is his own sharp-sightedness which causes him
+to see them so offensively; for that ninety-nine out of the hundred
+in the world would deem an evening spent at the conversations of Sir
+Joseph Bankes a very high intellectual treat.
+
+G- has invited me to dinner, and I expect some amusement; for T-,
+who is acquainted with him, says, that it is his fault to employ his
+mind too much on all occasions; and that, in all probability, there
+will be something, either in the fare or the company, that I shall
+remember as long as I live.  However, you shall hear all about it in
+my next.--Yours,
+
+ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+On the same Sunday on which Mr. Micklewham consulted Mr. Snodgrass
+as to the propriety of reading the Doctor's letter to the elders,
+the following epistle reached the post-office of Irvine, and was
+delivered by Saunders Dickie himself, at the door of Mrs. Glibbans
+to her servan lassie, who, as her mistress had gone to the Relief
+Church, told him, that he would have to come for the postage the
+morn's morning.  "Oh," said Saunders, "there's naething to pay but
+my ain trouble, for it's frankit; but aiblins the mistress will gie
+me a bit drappie, and so I'll come betimes i' the morning."
+
+
+LETTER XVIII
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Mrs. Glibbans--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Mrs. Glibbans--The breking up of the old Parlament has been
+the cause why I did not right you before, it having taken it out of
+my poor to get a frank for my letter till yesterday; and I do ashure
+you, that I was most extraordinar uneasy at the great delay, wishing
+much to let you know the decayt state of the Gospel in thir perts,
+which is the pleasure of your life to study by day, and meditate on
+in the watches of the night.
+
+There is no want of going to church, and, if that was a sign of
+grease and peese in the kingdom of Christ, the toun of London might
+hold a high head in the tabernacles of the faithful and true
+witnesses.  But saving Dr. Nichol of Swallo-Street, and Dr. Manuel
+of London-Wall, there is nothing sound in the way of preaching here;
+and when I tell you that Mr. John Gant, your friend, and some other
+flea-lugged fallows, have set up a Heelon congregation, and got a
+young man to preach Erse to the English, ye maun think in what a
+state sinful souls are left in London.  But what I have been the
+most consarned about is the state of the dead.  I am no meaning
+those who are dead in trespasses and sins, but the true dead.  Ye
+will hardly think, that they are buried in a popish-like manner,
+with prayers, and white gowns, and ministers, and spadefuls of yerd
+cast upon them, and laid in vauts, like kists of orangers in a
+grocery seller--and I am told that, after a time, they are taken out
+when the vaut is shurfeeted, and their bones brunt, if they are no
+made into lamp-black by a secret wark--which is a clean proof to me
+that a right doctrine cannot be established in this land--there
+being so little respec shone to the dead.
+
+The worst point, howsomever, of all is, what is done with the
+prayers--and I have heard you say, that although there was nothing
+more to objec to the wonderful Doctor Chammers of Glasgou, that his
+reading of his sermons was testimony against him in the great
+controversy of sound doctrine; but what will you say to reading of
+prayers, and no only reading of prayers, but printed prayers, as if
+the contreet heart of the sinner had no more to say to the Lord in
+the hour of fasting and humiliation, than what a bishop can indite,
+and a book-seller make profit o'.  "Verily," as I may say, in a word
+of scripter, I doobt if the glad tidings of salvation have yet been
+preeched in this land of London; but the ministers have good
+stipends, and where the ground is well manured, it may in time bring
+forth fruit meet for repentance.
+
+There is another thing that behoves me to mention, and that is, that
+an elder is not to be seen in the churches of London, which is a
+sore signal that the piple are left to themselves; and in what state
+the morality can be, you may guess with an eye of pity.  But on the
+Sabbath nights, there is such a going and coming, that it's more
+like a cried fair than the Lord's night--all sorts of poor people,
+instead of meditating on their bygane toil and misery of the week,
+making the Sunday their own day, as if they had not a greater Master
+to serve on that day, than the earthly man whom they served in the
+week-days.  It is, howsomever, past the poor of nature to tell you
+of the sinfulness of London; and you may we think what is to be the
+end of all things, when I ashure you, that there is a newspaper sold
+every Sabbath morning, and read by those that never look at their
+Bibles.  Our landlady asked us if we would take one; but I thought
+the Doctor would have fired the house, and you know it is not a
+small thing that kindles his passion.  In short, London is not a
+place to come to hear the tidings of salvation preeched,--no that I
+mean to deny that there is not herine more than five righteous
+persons in it, and I trust the cornal's hagent is one; for if he is
+not, we are undone, having been obligated to take on already more
+than a hundred pounds of debt, to the account of our living, and the
+legacy yet in the dead thraws.  But as I mean this for a spiritual
+letter, I will say no more about the root of all evil, as it is
+called in the words of truth and holiness; so referring you to what
+I have told Miss Mally Glencairn about the legacy and other things
+nearest my heart, I remain, my dear Mrs. Glibbans, your fellou
+Christian and sinner,  JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+Mrs. Glibbans received this letter between the preachings, and it
+was observed by all her acquaintance during the afternoon service,
+that she was a laden woman.  Instead of standing up at the prayers,
+as her wont was, she kept her seat, sitting with downcast eyes, and
+ever and anon her left hand, which was laid over her book on the
+reading-board of the pew, was raised and allowed to drop with a
+particular moral emphasis, bespeaking the mournful cogitations of
+her spirit.  On leaving the church, somebody whispered to the
+minister, that surely Mrs. Glibbans had heard some sore news; upon
+which that meek, mild, and modest good soul hastened towards her,
+and inquired, with more than his usual kindness, How she was?  Her
+answer was brief and mysterious; and she shook her head in such a
+manner that showed him all was not right.  "Have you heard lately of
+your friends the Pringles?" said he, in his sedate manner--"when do
+they think of leaving London?'
+
+"I wish they may ever get out o't," was the agitated reply of the
+afflicted lady.
+
+"I am very sorry to hear you say so," responded the minister.  "I
+thought all was in a fair way to an issue of the settlement.  I'm
+very sorry to hear this."
+
+"Oh, sir," said the mourner, "don't think that I am grieved for them
+and their legacy--filthy lucre--no, sir; but I have had a letter
+that has made my hair stand on end.  Be none surprised if you hear
+of the earth opening, and London swallowed up, and a voice crying in
+the wilderness, 'Woe, woe.'"
+
+The gentle priest was much surprised by this information; it was
+evident that Mrs. Glibbans had received a terrible account of the
+wickedness of London; and that the weight upon her pious spirit was
+owing to that cause.  He, therefore, accompanied her home, and
+administered all the consolation he was able to give; assuring her,
+that it was in the power of Omnipotence to convert the stony heart
+into one of flesh and tenderness, and to raise the British
+metropolis out of the miry clay, and place it on a hill, as a city
+that could not be hid; which Mrs. Glibbans was so thankful to hear,
+that, as soon as he had left her, she took her tea in a satisfactory
+frame of mind, and went the same night to Miss Mally Glencairn to
+hear what Mrs. Pringle had said to her.  No visit ever happened more
+opportunely; for just as Mrs. Glibbans knocked at the door, Miss
+Isabella Tod made her appearance.  She had also received a letter
+from Rachel, in which it will be seen that reference was made
+likewise to Mrs. Pringle's epistle to Miss Mally.
+
+
+LETTER XIX
+
+
+Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod--LONDON.
+
+My Dear Bell--How delusive are the flatteries of fortune!  The
+wealth that has been showered upon us, beyond all our hopes, has
+brought no pleasure to my heart, and I pour my unavailing sighs for
+your absence, when I would communicate the cause of my unhappiness.
+Captain Sabre has been most assiduous in his attentions, and I must
+confess to your sympathising bosom, that I do begin to find that he
+has an interest in mine.  But my mother will not listen to his
+proposals, nor allow me to give him any encouragement, till the
+fatal legacy is settled.  What can be her motive for this, I am
+unable to divine; for the captain's fortune is far beyond what I
+could ever have expected without the legacy, and equal to all I
+could hope for with it.  If, therefore, there is any doubt of the
+legacy being paid, she should allow me to accept him; and if there
+is none, what can I do better?  In the meantime, we are going about
+seeing the sights; but the general mourning is a great drawback on
+the splendour of gaiety.  It ends, however, next Sunday; and then
+the ladies, like the spring flowers, will be all in full blossom.  I
+was with the Argents at the opera on Saturday last, and it far
+surpassed my ideas of grandeur.  But the singing was not good--I
+never could make out the end or the beginning of a song, and it was
+drowned with the violins; the scenery, however, was lovely; but I
+must not say a word about the dancers, only that the females behaved
+in a manner so shocking, that I could scarcely believe it was
+possible for the delicacy of our sex to do.  They are, however, all
+foreigners, who are, you know, naturally of a licentious character,
+especially the French women.
+
+We have taken an elegant house in Baker Street, where we go on
+Monday next, and our own new carriage is to be home in the course of
+the week.  All this, which has been done by the advice of Mrs.
+Argent, gives my mother great uneasiness, in case anything should
+yet happen to the legacy.  My brother, however, who knows the law
+better than her, only laughs at her fears, and my father has found
+such a wonderful deal to do in religion here, that he is quite
+delighted, and is busy from morning to night in writing letters, and
+giving charitable donations.  I am soon to be no less busy, but in
+another manner.  Mrs. Argent has advised us to get in accomplished
+masters for me, so that, as soon as we are removed into our own
+local habitation, I am to begin with drawing and music, and the
+foreign languages.  I am not, however, to learn much of the piano;
+Mrs. A. thinks it would take up more time than I can now afford; but
+I am to be cultivated in my singing, and she is to try if the master
+that taught Miss Stephens has an hour to spare--and to use her
+influence to persuade him to give it to me, although he only
+receives pupils for perfectioning, except they belong to families of
+distinction.
+
+My brother had a hankering to be made a member of Parliament, and
+got Mr. Charles Argent to speak to my father about it, but neither
+he nor my mother would hear of such a thing, which I was very sorry
+for, as it would have been so convenient to me for getting franks;
+and I wonder my mother did not think of that, as she grudges nothing
+so much as the price of postage.  But nothing do I grudge so little,
+especially when it is a letter from you.  Why do you not write me
+oftener, and tell me what is saying about us, particularly by that
+spiteful toad, Becky Glibbans, who never could hear of any good
+happening to her acquaintance, without being as angry as if it was
+obtained at her own expense?
+
+I do not like Miss Argent so well on acquaintance as I did at first;
+not that she is not a very fine lassie, but she gives herself such
+airs at the harp and piano--because she can play every sort of music
+at the first sight, and sing, by looking at the notes, any song,
+although she never heard it, which may be very well in a play-actor,
+or a governess, that has to win her bread by music; but I think the
+education of a modest young lady might have been better conducted.
+
+Through the civility of the Argents, we have been introduced to a
+great number of families, and been much invited; but all the parties
+are so ceremonious, that I am never at my ease, which my brother
+says is owing to my rustic education, which I cannot understand;
+for, although the people are finer dressed, and the dinners and
+rooms grander than what I have seen, either at Irvine or Kilmarnock,
+the company are no wiser; and I have not met with a single literary
+character among them.  And what are ladies and gentlemen without
+mind, but a well-dressed mob!  It is to mind alone that I am at all
+disposed to pay the homage of diffidence.
+
+The acquaintance of the Argents are all of the first circle, and we
+have got an invitation to a route from the Countess of J-y, in
+consequence of meeting her with them.  She is a charming woman, and
+I anticipate great pleasure.  Miss Argent says, however, she is
+ignorant and presuming; but how is it possible that she can be so,
+as she was an earl's daughter, and bred up for distinction?  Miss
+Argent may be presuming, but a countess is necessarily above that,
+at least it would only become a duchess or marchioness to say so.
+This, however, is not the only occasion in which I have seen the
+detractive disposition of that young lady, who, with all her
+simplicity of manners and great accomplishments, is, you will
+perceive, just like ourselves, rustic as she doubtless thinks our
+breeding has been.
+
+I have observed that nobody in London inquires about who another is;
+and that in company everyone is treated on an equality, unless when
+there is some remarkable personal peculiarity, so that one really
+knows nothing of those whom one meets.  But my paper is full, and I
+must not take another sheet, as my mother has a letter to send in
+the same frank to Miss Mally Glencairn.  Believe me, ever
+affectionately yours, RACHEL PRINGLE.
+
+
+The three ladies knew not very well what to make of this letter.
+They thought there was a change in Rachel's ideas, and that it was
+not for the better; and Miss Isabella expressed, with a sentiment of
+sincere sorrow, that the acquisition of fortune seemed to have
+brought out some unamiable traits in her character, which, perhaps,
+had she not been exposed to the companions and temptations of the
+great world, would have slumbered, unfelt by herself, and unknown to
+her friends.
+
+Mrs. Glibbans declared, that it was a waking of original sin, which
+the iniquity of London was bringing forth, as the heat of summer
+causes the rosin and sap to issue from the bark of the tree.  In the
+meantime, Miss Mally had opened her letter, of which we subjoin a
+copy.
+
+
+LETTER XX
+
+
+Mrs Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn--LONDON.
+
+Dear Miss Mally--I greatly stand in need of your advise and counsel
+at this time.  The Doctor's affair comes on at a fearful slow rate,
+and the money goes like snow off a dyke.  It is not to be told what
+has been paid for legacy-duty, and no legacy yet in hand; and we
+have been obligated to lift a whole hundred pounds out of the
+residue, and what that is to be the Lord only knows.  But Miss Jenny
+Macbride, she has got her thousand pound, all in one bank bill, sent
+to her; Thomas Bowie, the doctor in Ayr, he has got his five hundred
+pounds; and auld Nanse Sorrel, that was nurse to the cornal, she has
+got the first year of her twenty pounds a year; but we have gotten
+nothing, and I jealouse, that if things go on at this rate, there
+will be nothing to get; and what will become of us then, after all
+the trubble and outlay that we have been pot too by this coming to
+London?
+
+Howsomever, this is the black side of the story; for Mr. Charles
+Argent, in a jocose way, proposed to get Andrew made a Parliament
+member for three thousand pounds, which he said was cheap; and
+surely he would not have thought of such a thing, had he not known
+that Andrew would have the money to pay for't; and, over and above
+this, Mrs. Argent has been recommending Captain Sabre to me for
+Rachel, and she says he is a stated gentleman, with two thousand
+pounds rental, and her nephew; and surely she would not think Rachel
+a match for him, unless she had an inkling from her gudeman of what
+Rachel's to get.  But I have told her that we would think of nothing
+of the sort till the counts war settled, which she may tell to her
+gudeman, and if he approves the match, it will make him hasten on
+the settlement, for really I am growing tired of this London, whar I
+am just like a fish out of the water.  The Englishers are sae
+obstinate in their own way, that I can get them to do nothing like
+Christians; and, what is most provoking of all, their ways are very
+good when you know them; but they have no instink to teach a body
+how to learn them.  Just this very morning, I told the lass to get a
+jiggot of mutton for the morn's dinner, and she said there was not
+such a thing to be had in London, and threeppit it till I couldna
+stand her; and, had it not been that Mr. Argent's French servan' man
+happened to come with a cart, inviting us to a ball, and who
+understood what a jiggot was, I might have reasoned till the day of
+doom without redress.  As for the Doctor, I declare he's like an
+enchantit person, for he has falling in with a party of the elect
+here, as he says, and they have a kilfud yoking every Thursday at
+the house of Mr. W-, where the Doctor has been, and was asked to
+pray, and did it with great effec, which has made him so up in the
+buckle, that he does nothing but go to Bible soceeyetis, and
+mishonary meetings, and cherity sarmons, which cost a poor of money.
+
+But what consarns me more than all is, that the temptations of this
+vanity fair have turnt the head of Andrew, and he has bought two
+horses, with an English man-servan', which you know is an eating
+moth.  But how he payt for them, and whar he is to keep them, is
+past the compass of my understanding.  In short, if the legacy does
+not cast up soon, I see nothing left for us but to leave the world
+as a legacy to you all, for my heart will be broken--and I often
+wish that the cornel hadna made us his residees, but only given us a
+clean scorn, like Miss Jenny Macbride, although it had been no more;
+for, my dear Miss Mally, it does not doo for a woman of my time of
+life to be taken out of her element, and, instead of looking after
+her family with a thrifty eye, to be sitting dressed all day seeing
+the money fleeing like sclate stanes.  But what I have to tell is
+worse than all this; we have been persuaded to take a furnisht
+house, where we go on Monday; and we are to pay for it, for three
+months, no less than a hundred and fifty pounds, which is more than
+the half of the Doctor's whole stipend is, when the meal is twenty-
+pence the peck; and we are to have three servan' lassies, besides
+Andrew's man, and the coachman that we have hired altogether for
+ourselves, having been persuaded to trist a new carriage of our own
+by the Argents, which I trust the Argents will find money to pay
+for; and masters are to come in to teach Rachel the fasionable
+accomplishments, Mrs. Argent thinking she was rather old now to be
+sent to a boarding-school.  But what I am to get to do for so many
+vorashous servants, is dreadful to think, there being no such thing
+as a wheel within the four walls of London; and, if there was, the
+Englishers no nothing about spinning.  In short, Miss Mally, I am
+driven dimentit, and I wish I could get the Doctor to come home with
+me to our manse, and leave all to Andrew and Rachel, with kurators;
+but, as I said, he's as mickle bye himself as onybody, and says that
+his candle has been hidden under a bushel at Garnock more than
+thirty years, which looks as if the poor man was fey; howsomever,
+he's happy in his delooshon, for if he was afflictit with that
+forethought and wisdom that I have, I know not what would be the
+upshot of all this calamity.  But we maun hope for the best; and,
+happen what will, I am, dear Miss Mally, your sincere friend, JANET
+PRINGLE.
+
+
+Miss Mally sighed as she concluded, and said, "Riches do not always
+bring happiness, and poor Mrs. Pringle would have been far better
+looking after her cows and her butter, and keeping her lassies at
+their wark, than with all this galravitching and grandeur."  "Ah!"
+added Mrs. Glibbans, "she's now a testifyer to the truth--she's now
+a testifyer; happy it will be for her if she's enabled to make a
+sanctified use of the dispensation."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII--DISCOVERIES AND REBELLIONS
+
+
+
+One evening as Mr. Snodgrass was taking a solitary walk towards
+Irvine, for the purpose of calling on Miss Mally Glencairn, to
+inquire what had been her latest accounts from their mutual friends
+in London, and to read to her a letter, which he had received two
+days before, from Mr. Andrew Pringle, he met, near Eglintoun Gates,
+that pious woman, Mrs. Glibbans, coming to Garnock, brimful of some
+most extraordinary intelligence.  The air was raw and humid, and the
+ways were deep and foul; she was, however, protected without, and
+tempered within, against the dangers of both.  Over her venerable
+satin mantle, lined with cat-skin, she wore a scarlet duffle Bath
+cloak, with which she was wont to attend the tent sermons of the
+Kilwinning and Dreghorn preachings in cold and inclement weather.
+Her black silk petticoat was pinned up, that it might not receive
+injury from the nimble paddling of her short steps in the mire; and
+she carried her best shoes and stockings in a handkerchief to be
+changed at the manse, and had fortified her feet for the road in
+coarse worsted hose, and thick plain-soled leather shoes.
+
+Mr. Snodgrass proposed to turn back with her, but she would not
+permit him.  "No, sir," said she, "what I am about you cannot meddle
+in.  You are here but a stranger--come to-day, and gane to-morrow;--
+and it does not pertain to you to sift into the doings that have
+been done before your time.  Oh dear; but this is a sad thing--
+nothing like it since the silencing of M'Auly of Greenock.  What
+will the worthy Doctor say when he hears tell o't?  Had it fa'n out
+with that neighering body, James Daff, I wouldna hae car't a snuff
+of tobacco, but wi' Mr. Craig, a man so gifted wi' the power of the
+Spirit, as I hae often had a delightful experience!  Ay, ay, Mr.
+Snodgrass, take heed lest ye fall; we maun all lay it to heart; but
+I hope the trooper is still within the jurisdiction of church
+censures.  She shouldna be spairt.  Nae doubt, the fault lies with
+her, and it is that I am going to search; yea, as with a lighted
+candle."
+
+Mr. Snodgrass expressed his inability to understand to what Mrs.
+Glibbans alluded, and a very long and interesting disclosure took
+place, the substance of which may be gathered from the following
+letter; the immediate and instigating cause of the lady's journey to
+Garnock being the alarming intelligence which she had that day
+received of Mr. Craig's servant-damsel Betty having, by the style
+and title of Mrs. Craig, sent for Nanse Swaddle, the midwife, to
+come to her in her own case, which seemed to Mrs. Glibbans nothing
+short of a miracle, Betty having, the very Sunday before, helped the
+kettle when she drank tea with Mr. Craig, and sat at the room door,
+on a buffet-stool brought from the kitchen, while he performed
+family worship, to the great solace and edification of his visitor.
+
+
+LETTER XXI
+
+
+The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
+Session-Clerk, Garnock
+
+Dear Sir--I have received your letter of the 24th, which has given
+me a great surprise to hear, that Mr. Craig was married as far back
+as Christmas, to his own servant lass Betty, and me to know nothing
+of it, nor you neither, until it was time to be speaking to the
+midwife.  To be sure, Mr. Craig, who is an elder, and a very rigid
+man, in his animadversions on the immoralities that come before the
+session, must have had his own good reasons for keeping his marriage
+so long a secret.  Tell him, however, from me, that I wish both him
+and Mrs. Craig much joy and felicity; but he should be milder for
+the future on the thoughtlessness of youth and headstrong passions.
+Not that I insinuate that there has been any occasion in the conduct
+of such a godly man to cause a suspicion; but it's wonderful how he
+was married in December, and I cannot say that I am altogether so
+proud to hear it as I am at all times of the well-doing of my
+people.  Really the way that Mr. Daff has comported himself in this
+matter is greatly to his credit; and I doubt if the thing had
+happened with him, that Mr. Craig would have sifted with a sharp eye
+how he came to be married in December, and without bridal and
+banquet.  For my part, I could not have thought it of Mr. Craig, but
+it's done now, and the less we say about it the better; so I think
+with Mr. Daff, that it must be looked over; but when I return, I
+will speak both to the husband and wife, and not without letting
+them have an inkling of what I think about their being married in
+December, which was a great shame, even if there was no sin in it.
+But I will say no more; for truly, Mr. Micklewham, the longer we
+live in this world, and the farther we go, and the better we know
+ourselves, the less reason have we to think slightingly of our
+neighbours; but the more to convince our hearts and understandings,
+that we are all prone to evil, and desperately wicked.  For where
+does hypocrisy not abound? and I have had my own experience here,
+that what a man is to the world, and to his own heart, is a very
+different thing.
+
+In my last letter, I gave you a pleasing notification of the growth,
+as I thought, of spirituality in this Babylon of deceitfulness,
+thinking that you and my people would be gladdened with the tidings
+of the repute and estimation in which your minister was held, and I
+have dealt largely in the way of public charity.  But I doubt that I
+have been governed by a spirit of ostentation, and not with that
+lowly-mindedness, without which all almsgiving is but a serving of
+the altars of Belzebub; for the chastening hand has been laid upon
+me, but with the kindness and pity which a tender father hath for
+his dear children.
+
+I was requested by those who come so cordially to me with their
+subscription papers, for schools and suffering worth, to preach a
+sermon to get a collection.  I have no occasion to tell you, that
+when I exert myself, what effect I can produce; and I never made so
+great an exertion before, which in itself was a proof that it was
+with the two bladders, pomp and vanity, that I had committed myself
+to swim on the uncertain waters of London; for surely my best
+exertions were due to my people.  But when the Sabbath came upon
+which I was to hold forth, how were my hopes withered, and my
+expectations frustrated.  Oh, Mr. Micklewham, what an inattentive
+congregation was yonder! many slumbered and slept, and I sowed the
+words of truth and holiness in vain upon their barren and stoney
+hearts.  There is no true grace among some that I shall not name,
+for I saw them whispering and smiling like the scorners, and
+altogether heedless unto the precious things of my discourse, which
+could not have been the case had they been sincere in their
+professions, for I never preached more to my own satisfaction on any
+occasion whatsoever--and, when I return to my own parish, you shall
+hear what I said, as I will preach the same sermon over again, for I
+am not going now to print it, as I did once think of doing, and to
+have dedicated it to Mr. W-.
+
+We are going about in an easy way, seeing what is to be seen in the
+shape of curiosities; but the whole town is in a state of ferment
+with the election of members to Parliament.  I have been to see't,
+both in the Guildhall and at Covent Garden, and it's a frightful
+thing to see how the Radicals roar like bulls of Bashan, and put
+down the speakers in behalf of the government.  I hope no harm will
+come of yon, but I must say, that I prefer our own quiet canny
+Scotch way at Irvine.  Well do I remember, for it happened in the
+year I was licensed, that the town council, the Lord Eglinton that
+was shot being then provost, took in the late Thomas Bowet to be a
+counsellor; and Thomas, not being versed in election matters, yet
+minding to please his lordship (for, like the rest of the council,
+he had always a proper veneration for those in power), he, as I was
+saying, consulted Joseph Boyd the weaver, who was then Dean of
+Guild, as to the way of voting; whereupon Joseph, who was a discreet
+man, said to him, "Ye'll just say as I say, and I'll say what Bailie
+Shaw says, for he will do what my lord bids him"; which was as
+peaceful a way of sending up a member to Parliament as could well be
+devised.
+
+But you know that politics are far from my hand--they belong to the
+temporalities of the community; and the ministers of peace and
+goodwill to man should neither make nor meddle with them.  I wish,
+however, that these tumultuous elections were well over, for they
+have had an effect on the per cents, where our bit legacy is funded;
+and it would terrify you to hear what we have thereby already lost.
+We have not, however, lost so much but that I can spare a little to
+the poor among my people; so you will, in the dry weather, after the
+seed-time, hire two-three thackers to mend the thack on the roofs of
+such of the cottars' houses as stand in need of mending, and banker
+M-y will pay the expense; and I beg you to go to him on receipt
+hereof, for he has a line for yourself, which you will be sure to
+accept as a testimony from me for the great trouble that my absence
+from the parish has given to you among my people, and I am, dear
+sir, your friend and pastor,  Z. PRINGLE.
+
+
+As Mrs. Glibbans would not permit Mr. Snodgrass to return with her
+to the manse, he pursued his journey alone to the Kirkgate of
+Irvine, where he found Miss Mally Glencairn on the eve of sitting
+down to her solitary tea.  On seeing her visitor enter, after the
+first compliments on the state of health and weather were over, she
+expressed her hopes that he had not drank tea; and, on receiving a
+negative, which she did not quite expect, as she thought he had been
+perhaps invited by some of her neighbours, she put in an additional
+spoonful on his account; and brought from her corner cupboard with
+the glass door, an ancient French pickle-bottle, in which she had
+preserved, since the great tea-drinking formerly mentioned, the
+remainder of the two ounces of carvey, the best, Mrs. Nanse bought
+for that memorable occasion.  A short conversation then took place
+relative to the Pringles; and, while the tea was masking, for Miss
+Mally said it took a long time to draw, she read to him the
+following letter:-
+
+
+LETTER XXII
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn
+
+My Dear Miss Mally--Trully, it may be said, that the croun of
+England is upon the downfal, and surely we are all seething in the
+pot of revolution, for the scum is mounting uppermost.  Last week,
+no farther gone than on Mononday, we came to our new house heer in
+Baker Street, but it's nather to be bakit nor brewt what I hav sin
+syne suffert.  You no my way, and that I like a been house, but no
+wastrie, and so I needna tell yoo, that we hav had good diners; to
+be sure, there was not a meerakle left to fill five baskets every
+day, but an abundance, with a proper kitchen of breed, to fill the
+bellies of four dumasticks.  Howsomever, lo and behold, what was
+clecking downstairs.  On Saturday morning, as we were sitting at our
+breakfast, the Doctor reading the newspapers, who shoud corn intil
+the room but Andrew's grum, follo't by the rest, to give us warning
+that they were all going to quat our sairvice, becas they were
+starvit.  I thocht that I would hav fentit cauld deed, but the
+Doctor, who is a consiederat man, inquairt what made them starve,
+and then there was such an opprobrious cry about cold meet and bare
+bones, and no beer.  It was an evendoun resurection--a rebellion
+waur than the forty-five.  In short, Miss Mally, to make a leettle
+of a lang tail, they would have a hot joint day and day about, and a
+tree of yill to stand on the gauntress for their draw and drink,
+with a cock and a pail; and we were obligated to evacuate to their
+terms, and to let them go to their wark with flying colors; so you
+see how dangerous it is to live among this piple, and their noshans
+of liberty.
+
+You will see by the newspapers that ther's a lection going on for
+parliament.  It maks my corruption to rise to hear of such doings,
+and if I was a government as I'm but a woman, I woud put them doon
+with the strong hand, just to be revenged on the proud stomaks of
+these het and fou English.
+
+We have gotten our money in the pesents put into our name; but I
+have had no peese since, for they have fallen in price three eight
+parts, which is very near a half, and if they go at this rate, where
+will all our legacy soon be?  I have no goo of the pesents; so we
+are on the look-out for a landed estate, being a shure thing.
+
+Captain Saber is still sneking after Rachel, and if she were awee
+perfited in her accomplugments, it's no saying what might happen,
+for he's a fine lad, but she's o'er young to be the heed of a
+family.  Howsomever, the Lord's will maun be done, and if there is
+to be a match, she'll no have to fight for gentility with a
+straitent circumstance.
+
+As for Andrew, I wish he was weel settlt, and we have our hopes that
+he's beginning to draw up with Miss Argent, who will have, no doobt,
+a great fortune, and is a treasure of a creeture in herself, being
+just as simple as a lamb; but, to be sure, she has had every
+advantage of edication, being brought up in a most fashonible
+boarding-school.
+
+I hope you have got the box I sent by the smak, and that you like
+the patron of the goon.  So no more at present, but remains, dear
+Miss Mally, your sinsaire friend,
+
+JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+"The box," said Miss Mally, "that Mrs. Pringle speaks about came
+last night.  It contains a very handsome present to me and to Miss
+Bell Tod.  The gift to me is from Mrs. P. herself, and Miss Bell's
+from Rachel; but that ettercap, Becky Glibbans, is flying through
+the town like a spunky, mislikening the one and misca'ing the other:
+everybody, however, kens that it's only spite that gars her speak.
+It's a great pity that she cou'dna be brought to a sense of religion
+like her mother, who, in her younger days, they say, wasna to seek
+at a clashing."
+
+Mr. Snodgrass expressed his surprise at this account of the faults
+of that exemplary lady's youth; but he thought of her holy anxiety
+to sift into the circumstances of Betty, the elder's servant,
+becoming in one day Mrs. Craig, and the same afternoon sending for
+the midwife, and he prudently made no other comment; for the
+characters of all preachers were in her hands, and he had the good
+fortune to stand high in her favour, as a young man of great
+promise.  In order, therefore, to avoid any discussion respecting
+moral merits, he read the following letter from Andrew Pringle:-
+
+
+LETTER XXIII
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq., to the Reverend Charles Snodgrass
+
+My Dear Friend--London undoubtedly affords the best and the worst
+specimens of the British character; but there is a certain townish
+something about the inhabitants in general, of which I find it
+extremely difficult to convey any idea.  Compared with the English
+of the country, there is apparently very little difference between
+them; but still there is a difference, and of no small importance in
+a moral point of view.  The country peculiarity is like the bloom of
+the plumb, or the down of the peach, which the fingers of infancy
+cannot touch without injuring; but this felt but not describable
+quality of the town character, is as the varnish which brings out
+more vividly the colours of a picture, and which may be freely and
+even rudely handled.  The women, for example, although as chaste in
+principle as those of any other community, possess none of that
+innocent untempted simplicity, which is more than half the grace of
+virtue; many of them, and even young ones too, "in the first
+freshness of their virgin beauty," speak of the conduct and vocation
+of "the erring sisters of the sex," in a manner that often amazes
+me, and has, in more than one instance, excited unpleasant feelings
+towards the fair satirists.  This moral taint, for I can consider it
+as nothing less, I have heard defended, but only by men who are
+supposed to have had a large experience of the world, and who,
+perhaps, on that account, are not the best judges of female
+delicacy.  "Every woman," as Pope says, "may be at heart a rake";
+but it is for the interests of the domestic affections, which are
+the very elements of virtue, to cherish the notion, that women, as
+they are physically more delicate than men, are also so morally.
+
+But the absence of delicacy, the bloom of virtue, is not peculiar to
+the females, it is characteristic of all the varieties of the
+metropolitan mind.  The artifices of the medical quacks are things
+of universal ridicule; but the sin, though in a less gross form,
+pervades the whole of that sinister system by which much of the
+superiority of this vast metropolis is supported.  The state of the
+periodical press, that great organ of political instruction--the
+unruly tongue of liberty, strikingly confirms the justice of this
+misanthropic remark.
+
+G- had the kindness, by way of a treat to me, to collect, the other
+day, at dinner, some of the most eminent editors of the London
+journals.  I found them men of talent, certainly, and much more men
+of the world, than "the cloistered student from his paling lamp";
+but I was astonished to find it considered, tacitly, as a sort of
+maxim among them, that an intermediate party was not bound by any
+obligation of honour to withhold, farther than his own discretion
+suggested, any information of which he was the accidental
+depositary, whatever the consequences might be to his informant, or
+to those affected by the communication.  In a word, they seemed all
+to care less about what might be true than what would produce
+effect, and that effect for their own particular advantage.  It is
+impossible to deny, that if interest is made the criterion by which
+the confidences of social intercourse are to be respected, the
+persons who admit this doctrine will have but little respect for the
+use of names, or deem it any reprehensible delinquency to suppress
+truth, or to blazon falsehood.  In a word, man in London is not
+quite so good a creature as he is out of it.  The rivalry of
+interests is here too intense; it impairs the affections, and
+occasions speculations both in morals and politics, which, I much
+suspect, it would puzzle a casuist to prove blameless.  Can
+anything, for example, be more offensive to the calm spectator, than
+the elections which are now going on?  Is it possible that this
+country, so much smaller in geographical extent than France, and so
+inferior in natural resources, restricted too by those ties and
+obligations which were thrown off as fetters by that country during
+the late war, could have attained, in despite of her, such a lofty
+pre-eminence--become the foremost of all the world--had it not been
+governed in a manner congenial to the spirit of the people, and with
+great practical wisdom?  It is absurd to assert, that there are no
+corruptions in the various modifications by which the affairs of the
+British empire are administered; but it would be difficult to show,
+that, in the present state of morals and interests among mankind,
+corruption is not a necessary evil.  I do not mean necessary, as
+evolved from those morals and interests, but necessary to the
+management of political trusts.  I am afraid, however, to insist on
+this, as the natural integrity of your own heart, and the dignity of
+your vocation, will alike induce you to condemn it as Machiavellian.
+It is, however, an observation forced on me by what I have seen
+here.
+
+It would be invidious, perhaps, to criticise the different
+candidates for the representation of London and Westminster very
+severely.  I think it must be granted, that they are as sincere in
+their professions as their opponents, which at least bleaches away
+much of that turpitude of which their political conduct is accused
+by those who are of a different way of thinking.  But it is quite
+evident, at least to me, that no government could exist a week,
+managed with that subjection to public opinion to which Sir Francis
+Burdett and Mr. Hobhouse apparently submit; and it is no less
+certain, that no government ought to exist a single day that would
+act in complete defiance of public opinion.
+
+I was surprised to find Sir Francis Burdett an uncommonly mild and
+gentlemanly-looking man.  I had pictured somehow to my imagination a
+dark and morose character; but, on the contrary, in his appearance,
+deportment, and manner of speaking, he is eminently qualified to
+attract popular applause.  His style of speaking is not particularly
+oratorical, but he has the art of saying bitter things in a sweet
+way.  In his language, however, although pungent, and sometimes even
+eloquent, he is singularly incorrect.  He cannot utter a sequence of
+three sentences without violating common grammar in the most
+atrocious way; and his tropes and figures are so distorted, hashed,
+and broken--such a patchwork of different patterns, that you are
+bewildered if you attempt to make them out; but the earnestness of
+his manner, and a certain fitness of character, in his observations
+a kind of Shaksperian pithiness, redeem all this.  Besides, his
+manifold blunders of syntax do not offend the taste of those
+audiences where he is heard with the most approbation.
+
+Hobhouse speaks more correctly, but he lacks in the conciliatory
+advantages of personal appearance; and his physiognomy, though
+indicating considerable strength of mind, is not so prepossessing.
+He is evidently a man of more education than his friend, that is, of
+more reading, perhaps also of more various observation, but he has
+less genius.  His tact is coarser, and though he speaks with more
+vehemence, he seldomer touches the sensibilities of his auditors.
+He may have observed mankind in general more extensively than Sir
+Francis, but he is far less acquainted with the feelings and
+associations of the English mind.  There is also a wariness about
+him, which I do not like so well as the imprudent ingenuousness of
+the baronet.  He seems to me to have a cause in hand--Hobhouse
+versus Existing Circumstances--and that he considers the multitude
+as the jurors, on whose decision his advancement in life depends.
+But in this I may be uncharitable.  I should, however, think more
+highly of his sincerity as a patriot, if his stake in the country
+were greater; and yet I doubt, if his stake were greater, if he is
+that sort of man who would have cultivated popularity in
+Westminster.  He seems to me to have qualified himself for
+Parliament as others do for the bar, and that he will probably be
+considered in the House for some time merely as a political
+adventurer.  But if he has the talent and prudence requisite to
+ensure distinction in the line of his profession, the mediocrity of
+his original condition will reflect honour on his success, should he
+hereafter acquire influence and consideration as a statesman.  Of
+his literary talents I know you do not think very highly, nor am I
+inclined to rank the powers of his mind much beyond those of any
+common well-educated English gentleman.  But it will soon be
+ascertained whether his pretensions to represent Westminster be
+justified by a sense of conscious superiority, or only prompted by
+that ambition which overleaps itself.
+
+Of Wood, who was twice Lord Mayor, I know not what to say.  There is
+a queer and wily cast in his pale countenance, that puzzles me
+exceedingly.  In common parlance I would call him an empty vain
+creature; but when I look at that indescribable spirit, which
+indicates a strange and out-of-the-way manner of thinking, I humbly
+confess that he is no common man.  He is evidently a person of no
+intellectual accomplishments; he has neither the language nor the
+deportment of a gentleman, in the usual understanding of the term;
+and yet there is something that I would almost call genius about
+him.  It is not cunning, it is not wisdom, it is far from being
+prudence, and yet it is something as wary as prudence, as effectual
+as wisdom, and not less sinister than cunning.  I would call it
+intuitive skill, a sort of instinct, by which he is enabled to
+attain his ends in defiance of a capacity naturally narrow, a
+judgment that topples with vanity, and an address at once mean and
+repulsive.  To call him a great man, in any possible approximation
+of the word, would be ridiculous; that he is a good one, will be
+denied by those who envy his success, or hate his politics; but
+nothing, save the blindness of fanaticism, can call in question his
+possession of a rare and singular species of ability, let it be
+exerted in what cause it may.  But my paper is full, and I have only
+room to subscribe myself, faithfully, yours,  A. PRINGLE.
+
+
+"It appears to us," said Mr. Snodgrass, as he folded up the letter
+to return it to his pocket, "that the Londoners, with all their
+advantages of information, are neither purer nor better than their
+fellow-subjects in the country."  "As to their betterness," replied
+Miss Mally, "I have a notion that they are far waur; and I hope you
+do not think that earthly knowledge of any sort has a tendency to
+make mankind, or womankind either, any better; for was not Solomon,
+who had more of it than any other man, a type and testification,
+that knowledge without grace is but vanity?"  The young clergyman
+was somewhat startled at this application of a remark on which he
+laid no particular stress, and was thankful in his heart that Mrs.
+Glibbans was not present.  He was not aware that Miss Mally had an
+orthodox corn, or bunyan, that could as little bear a touch from the
+royne-slippers of philosophy, as the inflamed gout of polemical
+controversy, which had gumfiated every mental joint and member of
+that zealous prop of the Relief Kirk.  This was indeed the tender
+point of Miss Mally's character; for she was left unplucked on the
+stalk of single blessedness, owing entirely to a conversation on
+this very subject with the only lover she ever had, Mr. Dalgliesh,
+formerly helper in the neighbouring parish of Dintonknow.  He
+happened incidentally to observe, that education was requisite to
+promote the interests of religion.  But Miss Mally, on that
+occasion, jocularly maintained, that education had only a tendency
+to promote the sale of books.  This, Mr. Dalgliesh thought, was a
+sneer at himself, he having some time before unfortunately published
+a short tract, entitled, "The moral union of our temporal and
+eternal interests considered, with respect to the establishment of
+parochial seminaries," and which fell still-born from the press.  He
+therefore retorted with some acrimony, until, from less to more,
+Miss Mally ordered him to keep his distance; upon which he bounced
+out of the room, and they were never afterwards on speaking terms.
+Saving, however, and excepting this particular dogma, Miss Mally was
+on all other topics as liberal and beneficent as could be expected
+from a maiden lady, who was obliged to eke out her stinted income
+with a nimble needle and a close-clipping economy.  The conversation
+with Mr. Snodgrass was not, however, lengthened into acrimony; for
+immediately after the remark which we have noticed, she proposed
+that they should call on Miss Isabella Tod to see Rachel's letter;
+indeed, this was rendered necessary by the state of the fire, for
+after boiling the kettle she had allowed it to fall low.  It was her
+nightly practice after tea to take her evening seam, in a friendly
+way, to some of her neighbours' houses, by which she saved both coal
+and candle, while she acquired the news of the day, and was
+occasionally invited to stay supper.
+
+On their arrival at Mrs. Tod's, Miss Isabella understood the purport
+of their visit, and immediately produced her letter, receiving, at
+the same time, a perusal of Mr. Andrew Pringle's.  Mrs. Pringle's to
+Miss Mally she had previously seen.
+
+
+LETTER XXIV
+
+
+Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod
+
+My Dear Bell--Since my last, we have undergone great changes and
+vicissitudes.  Last week we removed to our present house, which is
+exceedingly handsome and elegantly furnished; and on Saturday there
+was an insurrection of the servants, on account of my mother not
+allowing them to have their dinners served up at the usual hour for
+servants at other genteel houses.  We have also had the legacy in
+the funds transferred to my father, and only now wait the settling
+of the final accounts, which will yet take some time.  On the day
+that the transfer took place, my mother made me a present of a
+twenty pound note, to lay out in any way I thought fit, and in so
+doing, I could not but think of you; I have, therefore, in a box
+which she is sending to Miss Mally Glencairn, sent you an evening
+dress from Mrs. Bean's, one of the most fashionable and tasteful
+dressmakers in town, which I hope you will wear with pleasure for my
+sake.  I have got one exactly like it, so that when you see yourself
+in the glass, you will behold in what state I appeared at Lady -'s
+route.
+
+Ah! my dear Bell, how much are our expectations disappointed!  How
+often have we, with admiration and longing wonder, read the
+descriptions in the newspapers of the fashionable parties in this
+great metropolis, and thought of the Grecian lamps, the ottomans,
+the promenades, the ornamented floors, the cut glass, the coup
+d'oeil, and the tout ensemble.  "Alas!" as Young the poet says, "the
+things unseen do not deceive us."  I have seen more beauty at an
+Irvine ball, than all the fashionable world could bring to market at
+my Lady -'s emporium for the disposal of young ladies, for indeed I
+can consider it as nothing else.
+
+I went with the Argents.  The hall door was open, and filled with
+the servants in their state liveries; but although the door was
+open, the porter, as each carriage came up, rung a peal upon the
+knocker, to announce to all the square the successive arrival of the
+guests.  We were shown upstairs to the drawing-rooms.  They were
+very well, but neither so grand nor so great as I expected.  As for
+the company, it was a suffocating crowd of fat elderly gentlewomen,
+and misses that stood in need of all the charms of their fortunes.
+One thing I could notice--for the press was so great, little could
+be seen--it was, that the old ladies wore rouge.  The white satin
+sleeve of my dress was entirely ruined by coming in contact with a
+little round, dumpling duchess's cheek--as vulgar a body as could
+well be.  She seemed to me to have spent all her days behind a
+counter, smirking thankfulness to bawbee customers.
+
+When we had been shown in the drawing-rooms to the men for some
+time, we then adjourned to the lower apartments, where the
+refreshments were set out.  This, I suppose, is arranged to afford
+an opportunity to the beaux to be civil to the belles, and thereby
+to scrape acquaintance with those whom they approve, by assisting
+them to the delicacies.  Altogether, it was a very dull well-dressed
+affair, and yet I ought to have been in good spirits, for Sir
+Marmaduke Towler, a great Yorkshire baronet, was most particular in
+his attentions to me; indeed so much so, that I saw it made poor
+Sabre very uneasy.  I do not know why it should, for I have given
+him no positive encouragement to hope for anything; not that I have
+the least idea that the baronet's attentions were more than
+commonplace politeness, but he has since called.  I cannot, however,
+say that my vanity is at all flattered by this circumstance.  At the
+same time, there surely could be no harm in Sir Marmaduke making me
+an offer, for you know I am not bound to accept it.  Besides, my
+father does not like him, and my mother thinks he's a fortune-
+hunter; but I cannot conceive how that may be, for, on the contrary,
+he is said to be rather extravagant.
+
+Before we return to Scotland, it is intended that we shall visit
+some of the watering-places; and, perhaps, if Andrew can manage it
+with my father, we may even take a trip to Paris.  The Doctor
+himself is not averse to it, but my mother is afraid that a new war
+may break out, and that we may be detained prisoners.  This
+fantastical fear we shall, however, try to overcome.  But I am
+interrupted.  Sir Marmaduke is in the drawing-room, and I am
+summoned.--Yours truly,
+
+RACHEL PRINGLE.
+
+
+When Mr. Snodgrass had read this letter, he paused for a moment, and
+then said dryly, in handing it to Miss Isabella, "Miss Pringle is
+improving in the ways of the world."
+
+The evening by this time was far advanced, and the young clergyman
+was not desirous to renew the conversation; he therefore almost
+immediately took his leave, and walked sedately towards Garnock,
+debating with himself as he went along, whether Dr. Pringle's family
+were likely to be benefited by their legacy.  But he had scarcely
+passed the minister's carse, when he met with Mrs. Glibbans
+returning.  "Mr. Snodgrass!  Mr. Snodgrass!" cried that ardent
+matron from her side of the road to the other where he was walking,
+and he obeyed her call; "yon's no sic a black story as I thought.
+Mrs. Craig is to be sure far gane! but they were married in
+December; and it was only because she was his servan' lass that the
+worthy man didna like to own her at first for his wife.  It would
+have been dreadful had the matter been jealoused at the first.  She
+gaed to Glasgow to see an auntie that she has there, and he gaed in
+to fetch her out, and it was then the marriage was made up, which I
+was glad to hear; for, oh, Mr. Snodgrass, it would have been an
+awfu' judgment had a man like Mr. Craig turn't out no better than a
+Tam Pain or a Major Weir.  But a's for the best; and Him that has
+the power of salvation can blot out all our iniquities.  So good-
+night--ye'll have a lang walk."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII--THE QUEEN'S TRIAL
+
+
+
+As the spring advanced, the beauty of the country around Garnock was
+gradually unfolded; the blossom was unclosed, while the church was
+embraced within the foliage of more umbrageous boughs.  The
+schoolboys from the adjacent villages were, on the Saturday
+afternoons, frequently seen angling along the banks of the Lugton,
+which ran clearer beneath the churchyard wall, and the hedge of the
+minister's glebe; and the evenings were so much lengthened, that the
+occasional visitors at the manse could prolong their walk after tea.
+These, however, were less numerous than when the family were at
+home; but still Mr. Snodgrass, when the weather was fine, had no
+reason to deplore the loneliness of his bachelor's court.
+
+It happened that, one fair and sunny afternoon, Miss Mally Glencairn
+and Miss Isabella Tod came to the manse.  Mrs. Glibbans and her
+daughter Becky were the same day paying their first ceremonious
+visit, as the matron called it, to Mr. and Mrs. Craig, with whom the
+whole party were invited to take tea; and, for lack of more amusing
+chit-chat, the Reverend young gentleman read to them the last letter
+which he had received from Mr. Andrew Pringle.  It was conjured
+naturally enough out of his pocket, by an observation of Miss
+Mally's "Nothing surprises me," said that amiable maiden lady, "so
+much as the health and good-humour of the commonality.  It is a
+joyous refutation of the opinion, that the comfort and happiness of
+this life depends on the wealth of worldly possessions."
+
+"It is so," replied Mr. Snodgrass, "and I do often wonder, when I
+see the blithe and hearty children of the cottars, frolicking in the
+abundance of health and hilarity, where the means come from to
+enable their poor industrious parents to supply their wants."
+
+"How can you wonder at ony sic things, Mr. Snodgrass?  Do they not
+come from on high," said Mrs. Glibbans, "whence cometh every good
+and perfect gift?  Is there not the flowers of the field, which
+neither card nor spin, and yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not
+arrayed like one of these?"
+
+"I was not speaking in a spiritual sense," interrupted the other,
+"but merely made the remark, as introductory to a letter which I
+have received from Mr. Andrew Pringle, respecting some of the ways
+of living in London."
+
+Mrs. Craig, who had been so recently translated from the kitchen to
+the parlour, pricked up her ears at this, not doubting that the
+letter would contain something very grand and wonderful, and
+exclaimed, "Gude safe's, let's hear't--I'm unco fond to ken about
+London, and the king and the queen; but I believe they are baith
+dead noo."
+
+Miss Becky Glibbans gave a satirical keckle at this, and showed her
+superior learning, by explaining to Mrs. Craig the unbroken nature
+of the kingly office.  Mr. Snodgrass then read as follows:-
+
+
+LETTER XXV
+
+
+Andrew Pringle, Esq,, to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass
+
+My Dear Friend--You are not aware of the task you impose, when you
+request me to send you some account of the general way of living in
+London.  Unless you come here, and actually experience yourself what
+I would call the London ache, it is impossible to supply you with
+any adequate idea of the necessity that exists in this wilderness of
+mankind, to seek refuge in society, without being over fastidious
+with respect to the intellectual qualifications of your occasional
+associates.  In a remote desart, the solitary traveller is subject
+to apprehensions of danger; but still he is the most important thing
+"within the circle of that lonely waste"; and the sense of his own
+dignity enables him to sustain the shock of considerable hazard with
+spirit and fortitude.  But, in London, the feeling of self-
+importance is totally lost and suppressed in the bosom of a
+stranger.  A painful conviction of insignificance--of nothingness, I
+may say--is sunk upon his heart, and murmured in his ear by the
+million, who divide with him that consequence which he unconsciously
+before supposed he possessed in a general estimate of the world.
+While elbowing my way through the unknown multitude that flows
+between Charing Cross and the Royal Exchange, this mortifying sense
+of my own insignificance has often come upon me with the energy of a
+pang; and I have thought, that, after all we can say of any man, the
+effect of the greatest influence of an individual on society at
+large, is but as that of a pebble thrown into the sea.
+Mathematically speaking, the undulations which the pebble causes,
+continue until the whole mass of the ocean has been disturbed to the
+bottom of its most secret depths and farthest shores; and, perhaps,
+with equal truth it may be affirmed, that the sentiments of the man
+of genius are also infinitely propagated; but how soon is the
+physical impression of the one lost to every sensible perception,
+and the moral impulse of the other swallowed up from all practical
+effect.
+
+But though London, in the general, may be justly compared to the
+vast and restless ocean, or to any other thing that is either
+sublime, incomprehensible, or affecting, it loses all its influence
+over the solemn associations of the mind when it is examined in its
+details.  For example, living on the town, as it is slangishly
+called, the most friendless and isolated condition possible, is yet
+fraught with an amazing diversity of enjoyment.  Thousands of
+gentlemen, who have survived the relish of active fashionable
+pursuits, pass their life in that state without tasting the delight
+of one new sensation.  They rise in the morning merely because
+Nature will not allow them to remain longer in bed.  They begin the
+day without motive or purpose, and close it after having performed
+the same unvaried round as the most thoroughbred domestic animal
+that ever dwelt in manse or manor-house.  If you ask them at three
+o'clock where they are to dine, they cannot tell you; but about the
+wonted dinner-hour, batches of these forlorn bachelors find
+themselves diurnally congregated, as if by instinct, around a cozy
+table in some snug coffee-house, where, after inspecting the
+contents of the bill of fare, they discuss the news of the day,
+reserving the scandal, by way of dessert, for their wine.  Day after
+day their respective political opinions give rise to keen
+encounters, but without producing the slightest shade of change in
+any of their old ingrained and particular sentiments.
+
+Some of their haunts, I mean those frequented by the elderly race,
+are shabby enough in their appearance and circumstances, except
+perhaps in the quality of the wine.  Everything in them is regulated
+by an ancient and precise economy, and you perceive, at the first
+glance, that all is calculated on the principle of the house giving
+as much for the money as it can possibly afford, without infringing
+those little etiquettes which persons of gentlemanly habits regard
+as essentials.  At half price the junior members of these
+unorganised or natural clubs retire to the theatres, while the elder
+brethren mend their potations till it is time to go home.  This
+seems a very comfortless way of life, but I have no doubt it is the
+preferred result of a long experience of the world, and that the
+parties, upon the whole, find it superior, according to their early
+formed habits of dissipation and gaiety, to the sedate but not more
+regular course of a domestic circle.
+
+The chief pleasure, however, of living on the town, consists in
+accidentally falling in with persons whom it might be otherwise
+difficult to meet in private life.  I have several times enjoyed
+this.  The other day I fell in with an old gentleman, evidently a
+man of some consequence, for he came to the coffee-house in his own
+carriage.  It happened that we were the only guests, and he proposed
+that we should therefore dine together.  In the course of
+conversation it came out, that he had been familiarly acquainted
+with Garrick, and had frequented the Literary Club in the days of
+Johnson and Goldsmith.  In his youth, I conceive, he must have been
+an amusing companion; for his fancy was exceedingly lively, and his
+manners altogether afforded a very favourable specimen of the old,
+the gentlemanly school.  At an appointed hour his carriage came for
+him, and we parted, perhaps never to meet again.
+
+Such agreeable incidents, however, are not common, as the
+frequenters of the coffee-houses are, I think, usually taciturn
+characters, and averse to conversation.  I may, however, be myself
+in fault.  Our countrymen in general, whatever may be their address
+in improving acquaintance to the promotion of their own interests,
+have not the best way, in the first instance, of introducing
+themselves.  A raw Scotchman, contrasted with a sharp Londoner, is
+very inadroit and awkward, be his talents what they may; and I
+suspect, that even the most brilliant of your old class-fellows
+have, in their professional visits to this metropolis, had some
+experience of what I mean.
+
+ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+When Mr. Snodgrass paused, and was folding up the letter, Mrs.
+Craig, bending with her hands on her knees, said, emphatically,
+"Noo, sir, what think you of that?"  He was not, however, quite
+prepared to give an answer to a question so abruptly propounded, nor
+indeed did he exactly understand to what particular the lady
+referred.  "For my part," she resumed, recovering her previous
+posture--"for my part, it's a very caldrife way of life to dine
+every day on coffee; broth and beef would put mair smeddum in the
+men; they're just a whin auld fogies that Mr. Andrew describes, an'
+no wurth a single woman's pains."  "Wheesht, wheesht, mistress,"
+cried Mr. Craig; "ye mauna let your tongue rin awa with your sense
+in that gait."  "It has but a light load," said Miss Becky,
+whispering Isabella Tod.  In this juncture, Mr. Micklewham happened
+to come in, and Mrs. Craig, on seeing him, cried out, "I hope, Mr.
+Micklewham, ye have brought the Doctor's letter.  He's such a funny
+man! and touches off the Londoners to the nines."
+
+"He's a good man," said Mrs. Glibbans, in a tone calculated to
+repress the forwardness of Mrs. Craig; but Miss Mally Glencairn
+having, in the meanwhile, taken from her pocket an epistle which she
+had received the preceding day from Mrs. Pringle, Mr. Snodgrass
+silenced all controversy on that score by requesting her to proceed
+with the reading.  "She's a clever woman, Mrs. Pringle," said Mrs.
+Craig, who was resolved to cut a figure in the conversation in her
+own house.  "She's a discreet woman, and may be as godly, too, as
+some that make mair wark about the elect."  Whether Mrs. Glibbans
+thought this had any allusion to herself is not susceptible of legal
+proof; but she turned round and looked at their "most kind hostess"
+with a sneer that might almost merit the appellation of a snort.
+Mrs. Craig, however, pacified her, by proposing, "that, before
+hearing the letter, they should take a dram of wine, or pree her
+cherry bounce"--adding, "our maister likes a been house, and ye a'
+ken that we are providing for a handling."  The wine was accordingly
+served, and, in due time, Miss Mally Glencairn edified and
+instructed the party with the contents of Mrs. Pringle's letter.
+
+
+LETTER XXVI
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn
+
+Dear Miss Mally--You will have heard, by the peppers, of the gret
+hobbleshow heer aboot the queen's coming over contrary to the will
+of the nation; and, that the king and parlement are so angry with
+her, that they are going to put her away by giving to her a bill of
+divorce.  The Doctor, who has been searchin the Scriptures on the
+okashon, says this is not in their poor, although she was found
+guilty of the fact; but I tell him, that as the king and parlement
+of old took upon them to change our religion, I do not see how they
+will be hampered now by the word of God.
+
+You may well wonder that I have no ritten to you about the king, and
+what he is like, but we have never got a sight of him at all, whilk
+is a gret shame, paying so dear as we do for a king, who shurely
+should be a publik man.  But, we have seen her majesty, who stays
+not far from our house heer in Baker Street, in dry lodgings, which,
+I am creditably informed, she is obligated to pay for by the week,
+for nobody will trust her; so you see what it is, Miss Mally, to
+have a light character.  Poor woman, they say she might have been
+going from door to door, with a staff and a meal pock, but for ane
+Mr. Wood, who is a baillie of London, that has ta'en her by the
+hand.  She's a woman advanced in life, with a short neck, and a
+pentit face; housomever, that, I suppose, she canno help, being a
+queen, and obligated to set the fashons to the court, where it is
+necessar to hide their faces with pent, our Andrew says, that their
+looks may not betray them--there being no shurer thing than a false-
+hearted courtier.
+
+But what concerns me the most, in all this, is, that there will be
+no coronashon till the queen is put out of the way--and nobody can
+take upon them to say when that will be, as the law is so dootful
+and endless--which I am verra sorry for, as it was my intent to rite
+Miss Nanny Eydent a true account of the coronashon, in case there
+had been any partiklars that might be servisable to her in her
+bisness.
+
+The Doctor and me, by ourselves, since we have been settlt, go about
+at our convenience, and have seen far mae farlies than baith Andrew
+and Rachel, with all the acquaintance they have forgathert with--but
+you no old heeds canno be expectit on young shouthers, and they have
+not had the experience of the world that we have had.
+
+The lamps in the streets here are lighted with gauze, and not with
+crusies, like those that have lately been put up in your toun; and
+it is brought in pips aneath the ground from the manufactors, which
+the Doctor and me have been to see--an awful place--and they say as
+fey to a spark as poother, which made us glad to get out o't when we
+heard so;--and we have been to see a brew-house, where they mak the
+London porter, but it is a sight not to be told.  In it we saw a
+barrel, whilk the Doctor said was by gauging bigger than the Irvine
+muckle kirk, and a masking fat, like a barn for mugnited.  But all
+thae were as nothing to a curiosity of a steam-ingine, that minches
+minch collops as natural as life--and stuffs the sosogees itself, in
+a manner past the poor of nature to consiv.  They have, to be shure,
+in London, many things to help work--for in our kitchen there is a
+smoking-jack to roast the meat, that gangs of its oun free will, and
+the brisker the fire, the faster it runs; but a potatoe-beetle is
+not to be had within the four walls of London, which is a great want
+in a house; Mrs. Argent never hard of sic a thing.
+
+Me and the Doctor have likewise been in the Houses of Parliament,
+and the Doctor since has been again to heer the argol-bargoling
+aboot the queen.  But, cepting the king's throne, which is all gold
+and velvet, with a croun on the top, and stars all round, there was
+nothing worth the looking at in them baith.  Howsomever, I sat in
+the king's seat, and in the preses chair of the House of Commons,
+which, you no, is something for me to say; and we have been to see
+the printing of books, where the very smallest dividual syllib is
+taken up by itself and made into words by the hand, so as to be
+quite confounding how it could ever read sense.  But there is ane
+piece of industry and froughgalaty I should not forget, whilk is
+wives going about with whirl-barrows, selling horses' flesh to the
+cats and dogs by weight, and the cats and dogs know them very well
+by their voices.  In short, Miss Mally, there is nothing heer that
+the hand is not turnt to; and there is, I can see, a better order
+and method really among the Londoners than among our Scotch folks,
+notwithstanding their advantages of edicashion, but my pepper will
+hold no more at present, from your true friend,
+
+JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+There was a considerable diversity of opinion among the commentators
+on this epistle.  Mrs. Craig was the first who broke silence, and
+displayed a great deal of erudition on the minch-collop-engine, and
+the potatoe-beetle, in which she was interrupted by the indignant
+Mrs. Glibbans, who exclaimed, "I am surprised to hear you, Mrs.
+Craig, speak of sic baubles, when the word of God's in danger of
+being controverted by an Act of Parliament.  But, Mr. Snodgrass,
+dinna ye think that this painting of the queen's face is a
+Jezebitical testification against her?"  Mr. Snodgrass replied, with
+an unwonted sobriety of manner, and with an emphasis that showed he
+intended to make some impression on his auditors--"It is impossible
+to judge correctly of strangers by measuring them according to our
+own notions of propriety.  It has certainly long been a practice in
+courts to disfigure the beauty of the human countenance with paint;
+but what, in itself, may have been originally assumed for a mask or
+disguise, may, by usage, have grown into a very harmless custom.  I
+am not, therefore, disposed to attach any criminal importance to the
+circumstance of her majesty wearing paint.  Her late majesty did so
+herself."  "I do not say it was criminal," said Mrs. Glibbans; "I
+only meant it was sinful, and I think it is."  The accent of
+authority in which this was said, prevented Mr. Snodgrass from
+offering any reply; and, a brief pause ensuing, Miss Molly Glencairn
+observed, that it was a surprising thing how the Doctor and Mrs.
+Pringle managed their matters so well.  "Ay," said Mrs. Craig, "but
+we a' ken what a manager the mistress is--she's the bee that mak's
+the hincy--she does not gang bizzing aboot, like a thriftless wasp,
+through her neighbours' houses."  "I tell you, Betty, my dear,"
+cried Mr. Craig, "that you shouldna make comparisons--what's past is
+gane--and Mrs. Glibbans and you maun now be friends."  "They're a'
+friends to me that's no faes, and am very glad to see Mrs. Glibbans
+sociable in my house; but she needna hae made sae light of me when
+she was here before."  And, in saying this, the amiable hostess
+burst into a loud sob of sorrow, which induced Mr. Snodgrass to beg
+Mr. Micklewham to read the Doctor's letter, by which a happy stop
+was put to the further manifestation of the grudge which Mrs. Craig
+harboured against Mrs. Glibbans for the lecture she had received, on
+what the latter called "the incarnated effect of a more than
+Potipharian claught o' the godly Mr. Craig."
+
+
+LETTER XXVII
+
+
+The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
+Session-Clerk of Garnock
+
+Dear Sir--I had a great satisfaction in hearing that Mr. Snodgrass,
+in my place, prays for the queen on the Lord's Day, which liberty,
+to do in our national church, is a thing to be upholden with a
+fearless spirit, even with the spirit of martyrdom, that we may not
+bow down in Scotland to the prelatic Baal of an order in Council,
+whereof the Archbishop of Canterbury, that is cousin-german to the
+Pope of Rome, is art and part.  Verily, the sending forth of that
+order to the General Assembly was treachery to the solemn oath of
+the new king, whereby he took the vows upon him, conform to the
+Articles of the Union, to maintain the Church of Scotland as by law
+established, so that for the Archbishop of Canterbury to meddle
+therein was a shooting out of the horns of aggressive domination.
+
+I think it is right of me to testify thus much, through you, to the
+Session, that the elders may stand on their posts to bar all such
+breaking in of the Episcopalian boar into our corner of the
+vineyard.
+
+Anent the queen's case and condition, I say nothing; for be she
+guilty, or be she innocent, we all know that she was born in sin,
+and brought forth in iniquity--prone to evil, as the sparks fly
+upwards--and desperately wicked, like you and me, or any other poor
+Christian sinner, which is reason enough to make us think of her in
+the remembering prayer.
+
+Since she came over, there has been a wonderful work doing here; and
+it is thought that the crown will be taken off her head by a strong
+handling of the Parliament; and really, when I think of the bishops
+sitting high in the peerage, like owls and rooks in the bartisans of
+an old tower, I have my fears that they can bode her no good.  I
+have seen them in the House of Lords, clothed in their idolatrous
+robes; and when I looked at them so proudly placed at the right hand
+of the king's throne, and on the side of the powerful, egging on, as
+I saw one of them doing in a whisper, the Lord Liverpool, before he
+rose to speak against the queen, the blood ran cold in my veins, and
+I thought of their woeful persecutions of our national church, and
+prayed inwardly that I might be keepit in the humility of a zealous
+presbyter, and that the corruption of the frail human nature within
+me might never be tempted by the pampered whoredoms of prelacy.
+
+Saving the Lord Chancellor, all the other temporal peers were just
+as they had come in from the crown of the causeway--none of them
+having a judicial garment, which was a shame; and as for the
+Chancellor's long robe, it was not so good as my own gown; but he is
+said to be a very narrow man.  What he spoke, however, was no doubt
+sound law; yet I could observe he has a bad custom of taking the
+name of God in vain, which I wonder at, considering he has such a
+kittle conscience, which, on less occasions, causes him often to
+shed tears.
+
+Mrs. Pringle and me, by ourselves, had a fine quiet canny sight of
+the queen, out of the window of a pastry baxter's shop, opposite to
+where her majesty stays.  She seems to be a plump and jocose little
+woman; gleg, blithe, and throwgaun for her years, and on an easy
+footing with the lower orders--coming to the window when they call
+for her, and becking to them, which is very civil of her, and gets
+them to take her part against the government.
+
+The baxter in whose shop we saw this told us that her majesty said,
+on being invited to take her dinner at an inn on the road from
+Dover, that she would be content with a mutton-chop at the King's
+Arms in London, {2} which shows that she is a lady of a very hamely
+disposition.  Mrs. Pringle thought her not big enough for a queen;
+but we cannot expect every one to be like that bright accidental
+star, Queen Elizabeth, whose effigy we have seen preserved in armour
+in the Tower of London, and in wax in Westminster Abbey, where they
+have a living-like likeness of Lord Nelson, in the very identical
+regimentals that he was killed in.  They are both wonderful places,
+but it costs a power of money to get through them, and all the folk
+about them think of nothing but money; for when I inquired, with a
+reverent spirit, seeing around me the tombs of great and famous men,
+the mighty and wise of their day, what department it was of the
+Abbey--"It's the eighteenpence department," said an uncircumcised
+Philistine, with as little respect as if we had been treading the
+courts of the darling Dagon.
+
+Our concerns here are now drawing to a close; but before we return,
+we are going for a short time to a town on the seaside, which they
+call Brighton.  We had a notion of taking a trip to Paris, but that
+we must leave to Andrew Pringle, my son, and his sister Rachel, if
+the bit lassie could get a decent gudeman, which maybe will cast up
+for her before we leave London.  Nothing, however, is settled as yet
+upon that head, so I can say no more at present anent the same.
+
+Since the affair of the sermon, I have withdrawn myself from
+trafficking so much as I did in the missionary and charitable ploys
+that are so in vogue with the pious here, which will be all the
+better for my own people, as I will keep for them what I was giving
+to the unknown; and it is my design to write a book on almsgiving,
+to show in what manner that Christian duty may be best fulfilled,
+which I doubt not will have the effect of opening the eyes of many
+in London to the true nature of the thing by which I was myself
+beguiled in this Vanity Fair, like a bird ensnared by the fowler.
+
+I was concerned to hear of poor Mr. Witherspoon's accident, in
+falling from his horse in coming from the Dalmailing occasion.  How
+thankful he must be, that the Lord made his head of a durability to
+withstand the shock, which might otherwise have fractured his skull.
+What you say about the promise of the braird gives me pleasure on
+account of the poor; but what will be done with the farmers and
+their high rents, if the harvest turn out so abundant?  Great reason
+have I to be thankful that the legacy has put me out of the
+reverence of my stipend; for when the meal was cheap, I own to you
+that I felt my carnality grudging the horn of abundance that the
+Lord was then pouring into the lap of the earth.  In short, Mr.
+Micklewham, I doubt it is o'er true with us all, that the less we
+are tempted, the better we are; so with my sincere prayers that you
+may be delivered from all evil, and led out of the paths of
+temptation, whether it is on the highway, or on the footpaths, or
+beneath the hedges, I remain, dear sir, your friend and pastor,
+ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.
+
+
+"The Doctor," said Mrs. Glibbans, as the schoolmaster concluded, "is
+there like himself--a true orthodox Christian, standing up for the
+word, and overflowing with charity even for the sinner.  But, Mr.
+Snodgrass, I did not ken before that the bishops had a hand in the
+making of the Acts of the Parliament; I think, Mr. Snodgrass, if
+that be the case, there should be some doubt in Scotland about
+obeying them.  However that may be, sure am I that the queen, though
+she was a perfect Deliah, has nothing to fear from them; for have we
+not read in the Book of Martyrs, and other church histories, of
+their concubines and indulgences, in the papist times, to all manner
+of carnal iniquity?  But if she be that noghty woman that they say"-
+-"Gude safe's," cried Mrs. Craig, "if she be a noghty woman, awa'
+wi' her, awa' wi' her--wha kens the cantrips she may play us?"
+
+Here Miss Mally Glencairn interposed, and informed Mrs. Craig, that
+a noghty woman was not, as she seemed to think, a witch wife.  "I am
+sure," said Miss Becky Glibbans, "that Mrs. Craig might have known
+that."  "Oh, ye're a spiteful deevil," whispered Miss Mally, with a
+smile to her; and turning in the same moment to Miss Isabella Tod,
+begged her to read Miss Pringle's letter--a motion which Mr.
+Snodgrass seconded chiefly to abridge the conversation, during
+which, though he wore a serene countenance, he often suffered much.
+
+
+LETTER XXVIII
+
+
+Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod
+
+My Dear Bell--I am much obliged by your kind expressions for my
+little present.  I hope soon to send you something better, and
+gloves at the same time; for Sabre has been brought to the point by
+an alarm for the Yorkshire baronet that I mentioned, as showing
+symptoms of the tender passion for my fortune.  The friends on both
+sides being satisfied with the match, it will take place as soon as
+some preliminary arrangements are made.  When we are settled, I hope
+your mother will allow you to come and spend some time with us at
+our country-seat in Berkshire; and I shall be happy to repay all the
+expenses of your journey, as a jaunt to England is what your mother
+would, I know, never consent to pay for.
+
+It is proposed that, immediately after the ceremony, we shall set
+out for France, accompanied by my brother, where we are to be soon
+after joined at Paris by some of the Argents, who, I can see, think
+Andrew worth the catching for Miss.  My father and mother will then
+return to Scotland; but whether the Doctor will continue to keep his
+parish, or give it up to Mr. Snodgrass, will depend greatly on the
+circumstances in which he finds his parishioners.  This is all the
+domestic intelligence I have got to give, but its importance will
+make up for other deficiencies.
+
+As to the continuance of our discoveries in London, I know not well
+what to say.  Every day brings something new, but we lose the sense
+of novelty.  Were a fire in the same street where we live, it would
+no longer alarm me.  A few nights ago, as we were sitting in the
+parlour after supper, the noise of an engine passing startled us
+all; we ran to the windows--there was haste and torches, and the
+sound of other engines, and all the horrors of a conflagration
+reddening the skies.  My father sent out the footboy to inquire
+where it was; and when the boy came back, he made us laugh, by
+snapping his fingers, and saying the fire was not worth so much--
+although, upon further inquiry, we learnt that the house in which it
+originated was burnt to the ground.  You see, therefore, how the
+bustle of this great world hardens the sensibilities, but I trust
+its influence will never extend to my heart.
+
+The principal topic of conversation at present is about the queen.
+The Argents, who are our main instructors in the proprieties of
+London life, say that it would be very vulgar in me to go to look at
+her, which I am sorry for, as I wish above all things to see a
+personage so illustrious by birth, and renowned by misfortune.  The
+Doctor and my mother, who are less scrupulous, and who, in
+consequence, somehow, by themselves, contrive to see, and get into
+places that are inaccessible to all gentility, have had a full view
+of her majesty.  My father has since become her declared partisan,
+and my mother too has acquired a leaning likewise towards her side
+of the question; but neither of them will permit the subject to be
+spoken of before me, as they consider it detrimental to good morals.
+I, however, read the newspapers.
+
+What my brother thinks of her majesty's case is not easy to divine;
+but Sabre is convinced of the queen's guilt, upon some private and
+authentic information which a friend of his, who has returned from
+Italy, heard when travelling in that country.  This information he
+has not, however, repeated to me, so that it must be very bad.  We
+shall know all when the trial comes on.  In the meantime, his
+majesty, who has lived in dignified retirement since he came to the
+throne, has taken up his abode, with rural felicity, in a cottage in
+Windsor Forest; where he now, contemning all the pomp and follies of
+his youth, and this metropolis, passes his days amidst his cabbages,
+like Dioclesian, with innocence and tranquillity, far from the
+intrigues of courtiers, and insensible to the murmuring waves of the
+fluctuating populace, that set in with so strong a current towards
+"the mob-led queen," as the divine Shakespeare has so beautifully
+expressed it.
+
+You ask me about Vauxhall Gardens;--I have not seen them--they are
+no longer in fashion--the theatres are quite vulgar--even the opera-
+house has sunk into a second-rate place of resort.  Almack's balls,
+the Argyle-rooms, and the Philharmonic concerts, are the only public
+entertainments frequented by people of fashion; and this high
+superiority they owe entirely to the difficulty of gaining
+admission.  London, as my brother says, is too rich, and grown too
+luxurious, to have any exclusive place of fashionable resort, where
+price alone is the obstacle.  Hence, the institution of these select
+aristocratic assemblies.  The Philharmonic concerts, however, are
+rather professional than fashionable entertainments; but everybody
+is fond of music, and, therefore, everybody, that can be called
+anybody, is anxious to get tickets to them; and this anxiety has
+given them a degree of eclat, which I am persuaded the performance
+would never have excited had the tickets been purchasable at any
+price.  The great thing here is, either to be somebody, or to be
+patronised by a person that is a somebody; without this, though you
+were as rich as Croesus, your golden chariots, like the comets of a
+season, blazing and amazing, would speedily roll away into the
+obscurity from which they came, and be remembered no more.
+
+At first when we came here, and when the amount of our legacy was
+first promulgated, we were in a terrible flutter.  Andrew became a
+man of fashion, with all the haste that tailors, and horses, and
+dinners, could make him.  My father, honest man, was equally
+inspired with lofty ideas, and began a career that promised a
+liberal benefaction of good things to the poor--and my mother was
+almost distracted with calculations about laying out the money to
+the best advantage, and the sum she would allow to be spent.  I
+alone preserved my natural equanimity; and foreseeing the necessity
+of new accomplishments to suit my altered circumstances, applied
+myself to the instructions of my masters, with an assiduity that won
+their applause.  The advantages of this I now experience--my brother
+is sobered from his champaign fumes--my father has found out that
+charity begins at home--and my mother, though her establishment is
+enlarged, finds her happiness, notwithstanding the legacy, still
+lies within the little circle of her household cares.  Thus, my dear
+Bell, have I proved the sweets of a true philosophy; and, unseduced
+by the blandishments of rank, rejected Sir Marmaduke Towler, and
+accepted the humbler but more disinterested swain, Captain Sabre,
+who requests me to send you his compliments, not altogether content
+that you should occupy so much of the bosom of your affectionate
+RACHEL PRINGLE.
+
+
+"Rachel had ay a gude roose of hersel'," said Becky Glibbans, as
+Miss Isabella concluded.  In the same moment, Mr. Snodgrass took his
+leave, saying to Mr. Micklewham, that he had something particular to
+mention to him.  "What can it be about?" inquired Mrs. Glibbans at
+Mr. Craig, as soon as the helper and schoolmaster had left the room:
+"Do you think it can be concerning the Doctor's resignation of the
+parish in his favour?"  "I'm sure," interposed Mrs. Craig, before
+her husband could reply, "it winna be wi' my gudewill that he shall
+come in upon us--a pridefu' wight, whose saft words, and a' his
+politeness, are but lip-deep; na, na, Mrs. Glibbans, we maun hae
+another on the leet forbye him."
+
+"And wha would ye put on the leet noo, Mrs. Craig, you that's sic a
+judge?" said Mrs. Glibbans, with the most ineffable
+consequentiality.
+
+"I'll be for young Mr. Dirlton, who is baith a sappy preacher of the
+word, and a substantial hand at every kind of civility."
+
+"Young Dirlton!--young Deevilton!" cried the orthodox Deborah of
+Irvine; "a fallow that knows no more of a gospel dispensation than I
+do of the Arian heresy, which I hold in utter abomination.  No, Mrs.
+Craig, you have a godly man for your husband--a sound and true
+follower; tread ye in his footsteps, and no try to set up yoursel'
+on points of doctrine.  But it's time, Miss Mally, that we were
+taking the road; Becky and Miss Isabella, make yourselves ready.
+Noo, Mrs. Craig, ye'll no be a stranger; you see I have no been lang
+of coming to give you my countenance; but, my leddy, ca' canny, it's
+no easy to carry a fu' cup; ye hae gotten a great gift in your
+gudeman.  Mr. Craig, I wish you a good-night; I would fain have
+stopped for your evening exercise, but Miss Mally was beginning, I
+saw, to weary--so good-night; and, Mrs. Craig, ye'll take tent of
+what I have said--it's for your gude."  So exeunt Mrs. Glibbans,
+Miss Mally, and the two young ladies.  "Her bark's waur than her
+bite," said Mrs. Craig, as she returned to her husband, who felt
+already some of the ourie symptoms of a henpecked destiny.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX--THE MARRIAGE
+
+
+
+Mr. Snodgrass was obliged to walk into Irvine one evening, to get
+rid of a raging tooth, which had tormented him for more than a week.
+The operation was so delicately and cleverly performed by the
+surgeon to whom he applied--one of those young medical gentlemen,
+who, after having been educated for the army or navy, are obliged,
+in this weak piping time of peace, to glean what practice they can
+amid their native shades--that the amiable divine found himself in a
+condition to call on Miss Isabella Tod.
+
+During this visit, Saunders Dickie, the postman, brought a London
+letter to the door, for Miss Isabella; and Mr. Snodgrass having
+desired the servant to inquire if there were any for him, had the
+good fortune to get the following from Mr. Andrew Pringle:-
+
+
+LETTER XXIX
+
+
+Andrew Pringle Esq., to the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass
+
+My Dear Friend--I never receive a letter from you without
+experiencing a strong emotion of regret, that talents like yours
+should be wilfully consigned to the sequestered vegetation of a
+country pastor's life.  But we have so often discussed this point,
+that I shall only offend your delicacy if I now revert to it more
+particularly.  I cannot, however, but remark, that although a
+private station may be the happiest, a public is the proper sphere
+of virtue and talent, so clear, superior, and decided as yours.  I
+say this with the more confidence, as I have really, from your
+letter, obtained a better conception of the queen's case, than from
+all that I have been able to read and hear upon the subject in
+London.  The rule you lay down is excellent.  Public safety is
+certainly the only principle which can justify mankind in agreeing
+to observe and enforce penal statutes; and, therefore, I think with
+you, that unless it could be proved in a very simple manner, that it
+was requisite for the public safety to institute proceedings against
+the queen--her sins or indiscretions should have been allowed to
+remain in the obscurity of her private circle.
+
+I have attended the trial several times.  For a judicial proceeding,
+it seems to me too long--and for a legislative, too technical.
+Brougham, it is allowed, has displayed even greater talent than was
+expected; but he is too sharp; he seems to me more anxious to gain a
+triumph, than to establish truth.  I do not like the tone of his
+proceedings, while I cannot sufficiently admire his dexterity.  The
+style of Denman is more lofty, and impressed with stronger
+lineaments of sincerity.  As for their opponents, I really cannot
+endure the Attorney-General as an orator; his whole mind consists,
+as it were, of a number of little hands and claws--each of which
+holds some scrap or portion of his subject; but you might as well
+expect to get an idea of the form and character of a tree, by
+looking at the fallen leaves, the fruit, the seeds, and the
+blossoms, as anything like a comprehensive view of a subject, from
+an intellect so constituted as that of Sir Robert Gifford.  He is a
+man of application, but of meagre abilities, and seems never to have
+read a book of travels in his life.  The Solicitor-General is
+somewhat better; but he is one of those who think a certain
+artificial gravity requisite to professional consequence; and which
+renders him somewhat obtuse in the tact of propriety.
+
+Within the bar, the talent is superior to what it is without; and I
+have been often delighted with the amazing fineness, if I may use
+the expression, with which the Chancellor discriminates the shades
+of difference in the various points on which he is called to deliver
+his opinion.  I consider his mind as a curiosity of no ordinary
+kind.  It deceives itself by its own acuteness.  The edge is too
+sharp; and, instead of cutting straight through, it often diverges--
+alarming his conscience with the dread of doing wrong.  This
+singular subtlety has the effect of impairing the reverence which
+the endowments and high professional accomplishments of this great
+man are otherwise calculated to inspire.  His eloquence is not
+effective--it touches no feeling nor affects any passion; but still
+it affords wonderful displays of a lucid intellect.  I can compare
+it to nothing but a pencil of sunshine; in which, although one sees
+countless motes flickering and fluctuating, it yet illuminates, and
+steadily brings into the most satisfactory distinctness, every
+object on which it directly falls.
+
+Lord Erskine is a character of another class, and whatever
+difference of opinion may exist with respect to their professional
+abilities and attainments, it will be allowed by those who contend
+that Eldon is the better lawyer--that Erskine is the greater genius.
+Nature herself, with a constellation in her hand, playfully
+illuminates his path to the temple of reasonable justice; while
+Precedence with her guide-book, and Study with a lantern, cautiously
+show the road in which the Chancellor warily plods his weary way to
+that of legal Equity.  The sedateness of Eldon is so remarkable,
+that it is difficult to conceive that he was ever young; but Erskine
+cannot grow old; his spirit is still glowing and flushed with the
+enthusiasm of youth.  When impassioned, his voice acquires a
+singularly elevated and pathetic accent; and I can easily conceive
+the irresistible effect he must have had on the minds of a jury,
+when he was in the vigour of his physical powers, and the case
+required appeals of tenderness or generosity.  As a parliamentary
+orator, Earl Grey is undoubtedly his superior; but there is
+something much less popular and conciliating in his manner.  His
+eloquence is heard to most advantage when he is contemptuous; and he
+is then certainly dignified, ardent, and emphatic; but it is apt, I
+should think, to impress those who hear him, for the first time,
+with an idea that he is a very supercilious personage, and this
+unfavourable impression is liable to be strengthened by the elegant
+aristocratic languor of his appearance.
+
+I think that you once told me you had some knowledge of the Marquis
+of Lansdowne, when he was Lord Henry Petty.  I can hardly hope that,
+after an interval of so many years, you will recognise him in the
+following sketch:- His appearance is much more that of a Whig than
+Lord Grey--stout and sturdy--but still withal gentlemanly; and there
+is a pleasing simplicity, with somewhat of good-nature, in the
+expression of his countenance, that renders him, in a quiescent
+state, the more agreeable character of the two.  He speaks
+exceedingly well--clear, methodical, and argumentative; but his
+eloquence, like himself, is not so graceful as it is upon the whole
+manly; and there is a little tendency to verbosity in his language,
+as there is to corpulency in his figure; but nothing turgid, while
+it is entirely free from affectation.  The character of respectable
+is very legibly impressed, in everything about the mind and manner
+of his lordship.  I should, now that I have seen and heard him, be
+astonished to hear such a man represented as capable of being
+factious.
+
+I should say something about Lord Liverpool, not only on account of
+his rank as a minister, but also on account of the talents which
+have qualified him for that high situation.  The greatest objection
+that I have to him as a speaker, is owing to the loudness of his
+voice--in other respects, what he does say is well digested.  But I
+do not think that he embraces his subject with so much power and
+comprehension as some of his opponents; and he has evidently less
+actual experience of the world.  This may doubtless be attributed to
+his having been almost constantly in office since he came into
+public life; than which nothing is more detrimental to the unfolding
+of natural ability, while it induces a sort of artificial talent,
+connected with forms and technicalities, which, though useful in
+business, is but of minor consequence in a comparative estimate of
+moral and intellectual qualities.  I am told that in his manner he
+resembles Mr. Pitt; be this, however, as it may, he is evidently a
+speaker, formed more by habit and imitation, than one whom nature
+prompts to be eloquent.  He lacks that occasional accent of passion,
+the melody of oratory; and I doubt if, on any occasion, he could at
+all approximate to that magnificent intrepidity which was admired as
+one of the noblest characteristics of his master's style.
+
+But all the display of learning and eloquence, and intellectual
+power and majesty of the House of Lords, shrinks into insignificance
+when compared with the moral attitude which the people have taken on
+this occasion.  You know how much I have ever admired the attributes
+of the English national character--that boundless generosity, which
+can only be compared to the impartial benevolence of the sunshine--
+that heroic magnanimity, which makes the hand ever ready to succour
+a fallen foe; and that sublime courage, which rises with the energy
+of a conflagration roused by a tempest, at every insult or menace of
+an enemy.  The compassionate interest taken by the populace in the
+future condition of the queen is worthy of this extraordinary
+people.  There may be many among them actuated by what is called the
+radical spirit; but malignity alone would dare to ascribe the
+bravery of their compassion to a less noble feeling than that which
+has placed the kingdom so proudly in the van of all modern nations.
+There may be an amiable delusion, as my Lord Castlereagh has said,
+in the popular sentiments with respect to the queen.  Upon that, as
+upon her case, I offer no opinion.  It is enough for me to have
+seen, with the admiration of a worshipper, the manner in which the
+multitude have espoused her cause.
+
+But my paper is filled, and I must conclude.  I should, however,
+mention that my sister's marriage is appointed to take place to-
+morrow, and that I accompany the happy pair to France.--Yours truly,
+ANDREW PRINGLE.
+
+
+"This is a dry letter," said Mr. Snodgrass, and he handed it to Miss
+Isabella, who, in exchange, presented the one which she had herself
+at the same time received; but just as Mr. Snodgrass was on the
+point of reading it, Miss Becky Glibbans was announced.  "How lucky
+this is," exclaimed Miss Becky, "to find you both thegither!  Now
+you maun tell me all the particulars; for Miss Mally Glencairn is no
+in, and her letter lies unopened.  I am just gasping to hear how
+Rachel conducted herself at being married in the kirk before all the
+folk--married to the hussar captain, too, after all! who would have
+thought it?"
+
+"How, have you heard of the marriage already?" said Miss Isabella.
+"Oh, it's in the newspapers," replied the amiable inquisitant,--
+"Like ony tailor or weaver's--a' weddings maun nowadays gang into
+the papers.  The whole toun, by this time, has got it; and I wouldna
+wonder if Rachel Pringle's marriage ding the queen's divorce out of
+folk's heads for the next nine days to come.  But only to think of
+her being married in a public kirk.  Surely her father would never
+submit to hae't done by a bishop?  And then to put it in the London
+paper, as if Rachel Pringle had been somebody of distinction.
+Perhaps it might have been more to the purpose, considering what
+dragoon officers are, if she had got the doited Doctor, her father,
+to publish the intended marriage in the papers beforehand."
+
+"Haud that condumacious tongue of yours," cried a voice, panting
+with haste as the door opened, and Mrs. Glibbans entered.  "Becky,
+will you never devawl wi' your backbiting.  I wonder frae whom the
+misleart lassie takes a' this passion of clashing."
+
+The authority of her parent's tongue silenced Miss Becky, and Mrs.
+Glibbans having seated herself, continued,--"Is it your opinion, Mr.
+Snodgrass, that this marriage can hold good, contracted, as I am
+told it is mentioned in the papers to hae been, at the horns of the
+altar of Episcopalian apostacy?"
+
+"I can set you right as to that," said Miss Isabella.  "Rachel
+mentions, that, after returning from the church, the Doctor himself
+performed the ceremony anew, according to the Presbyterian usage."
+"I am glad to heart, very glad indeed," said Mrs. Glibbans.  "It
+would have been a judgment-like thing, had a bairn of Dr. Pringle's-
+-than whom, although there may be abler, there is not a sounder man
+in a' the West of Scotland--been sacrificed to Moloch, like the
+victims of prelatic idolatry."
+
+At this juncture, Miss Mally Glencairn was announced:  she entered,
+holding a letter from Mrs. Pringle in her hand, with the seal
+unbroken.  Having heard of the marriage from an acquaintance in the
+street, she had hurried home, in the well-founded expectation of
+hearing from her friend and well-wisher, and taking up the letter,
+which she found on her table, came with all speed to Miss Isabella
+Tod to commune with her on the tidings.
+
+Never was any confluence of visitors more remarkable than on this
+occasion.  Before Miss Mally had well explained the cause of her
+abrupt intrusion, Mr. Micklewham made his appearance.  He had come
+to Irvine to be measured for a new coat, and meeting by accident
+with Saunders Dickie, got the Doctor's letter from him, which, after
+reading, he thought he could do no less than call at Mrs. Tod's, to
+let Miss Isabella know the change which had taken place in the
+condition of her friend.
+
+Thus were all the correspondents of the Pringles assembled, by the
+merest chance, like the dramatis personae at the end of a play.
+After a little harmless bantering, it was agreed that Miss Mally
+should read her communication first--as all the others were
+previously acquainted with the contents of their respective letters,
+and Miss Mally read as follows:-
+
+
+LETTER XXX
+
+
+Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn
+
+Dear Miss Mally--I hav a cro to pik with you conserning yoor
+comishon aboot the partickels for your friends.  You can hav no
+noshon what the Doctor and me suffert on the head of the flooring
+shrubs.  We took your Nota Beny as it was spilt, and went from shop
+to shop enquirin in a most partiklar manner for "a Gardner's Bell,
+or the least of all flowering plants"; but sorrow a gardner in the
+whole tot here in London ever had heard of sic a thing; so we gave
+the porshoot up in despare.  Howsomever, one of Andrew's
+acquaintance--a decent lad, who is only son to a saddler in a been
+way, that keeps his own carriage, and his son a coryikel, happent to
+call, and the Doctor told him what ill socsess we had in our serch
+for the gardner's bell; upon which he sought a sight of your
+yepissle, and read it as a thing that was just wonderful for its
+whorsogroffie; and then he sayid, that looking at the prinsipol of
+your spilling, he thought we should reed, "a gardner's bill, or a
+list of all flooring plants"; whilk being no doot your intent, I
+have proqurt the same, and it is included heerin.  But, Miss Mally,
+I would advize you to be more exac in your inditing, that no sic
+torbolashon may hippen on a future okashon.
+
+What I hav to say for the present is, that you will, by a smak, get
+a bocks of kumoddities, whilk you will destraboot as derekit on
+every on of them, and you will before have resievit by the post-
+offis, an account of what has been don.  I need say no forther at
+this time, knowin your discreshon and prooduns, septs that our
+Rachel and Captain Sabor will, if it pleese the Lord, be off to
+Parish, by way of Bryton, as man and wife, the morn's morning.  What
+her father the Doctor gives for tocher, what is settlt on her for
+jontor, I will tell you all aboot when we meet; for it's our dishire
+noo to lose no tim in retorning to the manse, this being the last of
+our diplomaticals in London, where we have found the Argents a most
+discrit family, payin to the last farding the Cornal's legacy, and
+most seevil, and well bred to us.
+
+As I am naterally gretly okypt with this matteromoneal afair, you
+cannot expect ony news; but the queen is going on with a dreadful
+rat, by which the pesents hav falen more than a whole entirr pesent.
+I wish our fonds were well oot of them, and in yird and stane, which
+is a constansie.  But what is to become of the poor donsie woman, no
+one can expound.  Some think she will be pot in the Toor of London,
+and her head chappit off; others think she will raise sic a
+stramash, that she will send the whole government into the air, like
+peelings of ingons, by a gunpoother plot.  But it's my opinion, and
+I have weighed the matter well in my understanding, that she will
+hav to fight with sword in hand, be she ill, or be she good.  How
+els can she hop to get the better of more than two hundred lords, as
+the Doctor, who has seen them, tells me, with princes of the blood-
+royal, and the prelatic bishops, whom, I need not tell you, are the
+worst of all.
+
+But the thing I grudge most, is to be so long in Lundon, and no to
+see the king.  Is it not a hard thing to come to London, and no to
+see the king?  I am not pleesed with him, I assure you, becose he
+does not set himself out to public view, like ony other curiosity,
+but stays in his palis, they say, like one of the anshent wooden
+images of idolatry, the which is a great peety, he beeing, as I am
+told, a beautiful man, and more the gentleman than all the coortiers
+of his court.
+
+The Doctor has been minting to me that there is an address from
+Irvine to the queen; and he, being so near a neighbour to your toun,
+has been thinking to pay his respecs with it, to see her near at
+hand.  But I will say nothing; he may take his own way in matters of
+gospel and spiritualety; yet I have my scroopols of conshence, how
+this may not turn out a rebellyon against the king; and I would hav
+him to sift and see who are at the address, before he pits his han
+to it.  For, if it's a radikol job, as I jealoos it is, what will
+the Doctor then say? who is an orthodox man, as the world nose.
+
+In the maitre of our dumesticks, no new axsident has cast up; but I
+have seen such a wonder as could not have been forethocht.  Having a
+washin, I went down to see how the lassies were doing; but judge of
+my feelings, when I saw them triomphing on the top of pattons,
+standing upright before the boyns on chairs, rubbin the clothes to
+juggins between their hands, above the sapples, with their gouns and
+stays on, and round-cared mutches.  What would you think of such a
+miracle at the washing-house in the Goffields, or the Gallows-knows
+of Irvine?  The cook, howsomever, has shown me a way to make rice-
+puddings without eggs, by putting in a bit of shoohet, which is as
+good--and this you will tell Miss Nanny Eydent; likewise, that the
+most fashionable way of boiling green pis, is to pit a blade of
+spearmint in the pot, which gives a fine flavour.  But this is a
+long letter, and my pepper is done; so no more, but remains your
+friend and well-wisher, JANET PRINGLE.
+
+
+"A great legacy, and her dochtir married, in ae journey to London,
+is doing business," said Mrs. Glibbans, with a sigh, as she looked
+to her only get, Miss Becky; "but the Lord's will is to be done in
+a' thing;--sooner or later something of the same kind will come, I
+trust, to all our families."  "Ay," replied Miss Mally Glencairn,
+"marriage is like death--it's what we are a' to come to."
+
+"I have my doubts of that," said Miss Becky with a sneer.  "Ye have
+been lang spair't from it, Miss Mally."
+
+"Ye're a spiteful puddock; and if the men hae the e'en and lugs they
+used to hae, gude pity him whose lot is cast with thine, Becky
+Glibbans," replied the elderly maiden ornament of the Kirkgate,
+somewhat tartly.
+
+Here Mr. Snodgrass interposed, and said, he would read to them the
+letter which Miss Isabella had received from the bride; and without
+waiting for their concurrence, opened and read as follows:-
+
+
+LETTER XXXI
+
+
+Mrs. Sabre to Miss Isabella Tod
+
+My Dearest Bell--Rachel Pringle is no more!  My heart flutters as I
+write the fatal words.  This morning, at nine o'clock precisely, she
+was conducted in bridal array to the new church of Mary-le-bone; and
+there, with ring and book, sacrificed to the Minotaur, Matrimony,
+who devours so many of our bravest youths and fairest maidens.
+
+My mind is too agitated to allow me to describe the scene.  The
+office of handmaid to the victim, which, in our young simplicity, we
+had fondly thought one of us would perform for the other, was
+gracefully sustained by Miss Argent.
+
+On returning from church to my father's residence in Baker Street,
+where we breakfasted, he declared himself not satisfied with the
+formalities of the English ritual, and obliged us to undergo a
+second ceremony from himself, according to the wonted forms of the
+Scottish Church.  All the advantages and pleasures of which, my dear
+Bell, I hope you will soon enjoy.
+
+But I have no time to enter into particulars.  The captain and his
+lady, by themselves, in their own carriage, set off for Brighton in
+the course of less than an hour.  On Friday they are to be followed
+by a large party of their friends and relations; and, after spending
+a few days in that emporium of salt-water pleasures, they embark,
+accompanied with their beloved brother, Mr. Andrew Pringle, for
+Paris; where they are afterwards to be joined by the Argents.  It is
+our intention to remain about a month in the French capital; whether
+we shall extend our tour, will depend on subsequent circumstances:
+in the meantime, however, you will hear frequently from me.
+
+My mother, who has a thousand times during these important
+transactions wished for the assistance of Nanny Eydent, transmits to
+Miss Mally Glencairn a box containing all the requisite bridal
+recognisances for our Irvine friends.  I need not say that the best
+is for the faithful companion of my happiest years.  As I had made a
+vow in my heart that Becky Glibbans should never wear gloves for my
+marriage, I was averse to sending her any at all, but my mother
+insisted that no exceptions should be made.  I secretly took care,
+however, to mark a pair for her, so much too large, that I am sure
+she will never put them on.  The asp will be not a little vexed at
+the disappointment.  Adieu for a time, and believe that, although
+your affectionate Rachel Pringle be gone that way in which she hopes
+you will soon follow, one not less sincerely attached to you, though
+it be the first time she has so subscribed herself, remains in
+RACHEL SABRE.
+
+
+Before the ladies had time to say a word on the subject, the prudent
+young clergyman called immediately on Mr. Micklewham to read the
+letter which he had received from the Doctor; and which the worthy
+dominie did without delay, in that rich and full voice with which he
+is accustomed to teach his scholars elocution by example.
+
+
+LETTER XXXII
+
+
+The Rev. Z. Pringle, D.D., to Mr. Micklewham, Schoolmaster and
+Session-Clerk, Garnock--LONDON.
+
+Dear Sir--I have been much longer of replying to your letter of the
+3rd of last month, than I ought in civility to have been, but really
+time, in this town of London, runs at a fast rate, and the day
+passes before the dark's done.  What with Mrs. Pringle and her
+daughter's concernments, anent the marriage to Captain Sabre, and
+the trouble I felt myself obliged to take in the queen's affair, I
+assure you, Mr. Micklewham, that it's no to be expressed how I have
+been occupied for the last four weeks.  But all things must come to
+a conclusion in this world.  Rachel Pringle is married, and the
+queen's weary trial is brought to an end--upon the subject and
+motion of the same, I offer no opinion, for I made it a point never
+to read the evidence, being resolved to stand by THE WORD from the
+first, which is clearly and plainly written in the queen's favour,
+and it does not do in a case of conscience to stand on trifles;
+putting, therefore, out of consideration the fact libelled, and
+looking both at the head and the tail of the proceeding, I was of a
+firm persuasion, that all the sculduddery of the business might have
+been well spared from the eye of the public, which is of itself
+sufficiently prone to keek and kook, in every possible way, for a
+glimpse of a black story; and, therefore, I thought it my duty to
+stand up in all places against the trafficking that was attempted
+with a divine institution.  And I think, when my people read how
+their prelatic enemies, the bishops (the heavens defend the poor
+Church of Scotland from being subjected to the weight of their
+paws), have been visited with a constipation of the understanding on
+that point, it must to them be a great satisfaction to know how
+clear and collected their minister was on this fundamental of
+society.  For it has turned out, as I said to Mrs. Pringle, as well
+as others, it would do, that a sense of grace and religion would be
+manifested in some quarter before all was done, by which the devices
+for an unsanctified repudiation or divorce would be set at nought.
+
+As often as I could, deeming it my duty as a minister of the word
+and gospel, I got into the House of Lords, and heard the trial; and
+I cannot think how ever it was expected that justice could be done
+yonder; for although no man could be more attentive than I was,
+every time I came away I was more confounded than when I went; and
+when the trial was done, it seemed to me just to be clearing up for
+a proper beginning--all which is a proof that there was a foul
+conspiracy.  Indeed, when I saw Duke Hamilton's daughter coming out
+of the coach with the queen, I never could think after, that a lady
+of her degree would have countenanced the queen had the matter laid
+to her charge been as it was said.  Not but in any circumstance it
+behoved a lady of that ancient and royal blood, to be seen beside
+the queen in such a great historical case as a trial.
+
+I hope, in the part I have taken, my people will be satisfied; but
+whether they are satisfied or not, my own conscience is content with
+me.  I was in the House of Lords when her majesty came down for the
+last time, and saw her handed up the stairs by the usher of the
+black-rod, a little stumpy man, wonderful particular about the rules
+of the House, insomuch that he was almost angry with me for stopping
+at the stair-head.  The afflicted woman was then in great spirits,
+and I saw no symptoms of the swelled legs that Lord Lauderdale, that
+jooking man, spoke about, for she skippit up the steps like a
+lassie.  But my heart was wae for her when all was over, for she
+came out like an astonished creature, with a wild steadfast look,
+and a sort of something in the face that was as if the rational
+spirit had fled away; and she went down to her coach as if she had
+submitted to be led to a doleful destiny.  Then the shouting of the
+people began, and I saw and shouted too in spite of my decorum,
+which I marvel at sometimes, thinking it could be nothing less than
+an involuntary testification of the spirit within me.
+
+Anent the marriage of Rachel Pringle, it may be needful in me to
+state, for the satisfaction of my people, that although by stress of
+law we were obligated to conform to the practice of the
+Episcopalians, by taking out a bishop's license, and going to their
+church, and vowing, in a pagan fashion, before their altars, which
+are an abomination to the Lord; yet, when the young folk came home,
+I made them stand up, and be married again before me, according to
+all regular marriages in our national Church.  For this I had two
+reasons:  first, to satisfy myself that there had been a true and
+real marriage; and, secondly, to remove the doubt of the former
+ceremony being sufficient; for marriage being of divine appointment,
+and the English form and ritual being a thing established by Act of
+Parliament, which is of human ordination, I was not sure that
+marriage performed according to a human enactment could be a
+fulfilment of a divine ordinance.  I therefore hope that my people
+will approve what I have done; and in order that there may be a
+sympathising with me, you will go over to Banker M-y, and get what
+he will give you, as ordered by me, and distribute it among the
+poorest of the parish, according to the best of your discretion, my
+long absence having taken from me the power of judgment in a matter
+of this sort.  I wish indeed for the glad sympathy of my people, for
+I think that our Saviour turning water into wine at the wedding, was
+an example set that we should rejoice and be merry at the fulfilment
+of one of the great obligations imposed on us as social creatures;
+and I have ever regarded the unhonoured treatment of a marriage
+occasion as a thing of evil bodement, betokening heavy hearts and
+light purses to the lot of the bride and bridegroom.  You will hear
+more from me by and by; in the meantime, all I can say is, that when
+we have taken our leave of the young folks, who are going to France,
+it is Mrs. Pringle's intent, as well as mine, to turn our horses'
+heads northward, and make our way with what speed we can, for our
+own quiet home, among you.  So no more at present from your friend
+and pastor,
+
+Z. PRINGLE.
+
+
+Mrs. Tod, the mother of Miss Isabella, a respectable widow lady, who
+had quiescently joined the company, proposed that they should now
+drink health, happiness, and all manner of prosperity, to the young
+couple; and that nothing might be wanting to secure the favourable
+auspices of good omens to the toast, she desired Miss Isabella to
+draw fresh bottles of white and red.  When all manner of felicity
+was duly wished in wine to the captain and his lady, the party rose
+to seek their respective homes.  But a bustle at the street-door
+occasioned a pause.  Mrs. Tod inquired the matter; and three or four
+voices at once replied, that an express had come from Garnock for
+Nanse Swaddle the midwife, Mrs. Craig being taken with her pains.
+"Mr. Snodgrass," said Mrs. Glibbans, instantly and emphatically, "ye
+maun let me go with you, and we can spiritualise on the road; for I
+hae promis't Mrs. Craig to be wi' her at the crying, to see the
+upshot--so I hope you will come awa."
+
+It would be impossible in us to suppose, that Mr. Snodgrass had any
+objections to spiritualise with Mrs. Glibbans on the road between
+Irvine and Garnock; but, notwithstanding her urgency, he excused
+himself from going with her; however, he recommended her to the
+special care and protection of Mr. Micklewham, who was at that time
+on his legs to return home.  "Oh!  Mr. Snodgrass," said the lady,
+looking slyly, as she adjusted her cloak, at him and Miss Isabella,
+"there will be marrying and giving in marriage till the day of
+judgment."  And with these oracular words she took her departure.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X--THE RETURN
+
+
+
+On Friday, Miss Mally Glencairn received a brief note from Mrs.
+Pringle, informing her, that she and the Doctor would reach the
+manse, "God willing," in time for tea on Saturday; and begging her,
+therefore, to go over from Irvine, and see that the house was in
+order for their reception.  This note was written from Glasgow,
+where they had arrived, in their own carriage, from Carlisle on the
+preceding day, after encountering, as Mrs. Pringle said, "more
+hardships and extorshoning than all the dangers of the sea which
+they met with in the smack of Leith that took them to London."
+
+As soon as Miss Mally received this intelligence, she went to Miss
+Isabella Tod, and requested her company for the next day to Garnock,
+where they arrived betimes to dine with Mr. Snodgrass.  Mrs.
+Glibbans and her daughter Becky were then on a consolatory visit to
+Mr. Craig.  We mentioned in the last chapter, that the crying of
+Mrs. Craig had come on; and that Mrs. Glibbans, according to
+promise, and with the most anxious solicitude, had gone to wait the
+upshot.  The upshot was most melancholy,--Mrs. Craig was soon no
+more;--she was taken, as Mrs. Glibbans observed on the occasion,
+from the earthly arms of her husband, to the spiritual bosom of
+Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which was far better.  But the baby
+survived; so that, what with getting a nurse, and the burial, and
+all the work and handling that a birth and death in one house at the
+same time causes, Mr. Craig declared, that he could not do without
+Mrs. Glibbans; and she, with all that Christianity by which she was
+so zealously distinguished, sent for Miss Becky, and took up her
+abode with him till it would please Him, without whom there is no
+comfort, to wipe the eyes of the pious elder.  In a word, she staid
+so long, that a rumour began to spread that Mr. Craig would need a
+wife to look after his bairn; and that Mrs. Glibbans was destined to
+supply the desideratum.
+
+Mr. Snodgrass, after enjoying his dinner society with Miss Mally and
+Miss Isabella, thought it necessary to dispatch a courier, in the
+shape of a barefooted servant lass, to Mr. Micklewham, to inform the
+elders that the Doctor was expected home in time for tea, leaving it
+to their discretion either to greet his safe return at the manse, or
+in any other form or manner that would be most agreeable to
+themselves.  These important news were soon diffused through the
+clachan.  Mr. Micklewham dismissed his school an hour before the
+wonted time, and there was a universal interest and curiosity
+excited, to see the Doctor coming home in his own coach.  All the
+boys of Garnock assembled at the braehead which commands an
+extensive view of the Kilmarnock road, the only one from Glasgow
+that runs through the parish; the wives with their sucklings were
+seated on the large stones at their respective door-cheeks; while
+their cats were calmly reclining on the window soles.  The lassie
+weans, like clustering bees, were mounted on the carts that stood
+before Thomas Birlpenny the vintner's door, churming with
+anticipated delight; the old men took their stations on the dike
+that incloses the side of the vintner's kail-yard, and "a batch of
+wabster lads," with green aprons and thin yellow faces, planted
+themselves at the gable of the malt kiln, where they were wont, when
+trade was better, to play at the hand-ball; but, poor fellows, since
+the trade fell off, they have had no heart for the game, and the
+vintner's half-mutchkin stoups glitter in empty splendour unrequired
+on the shelf below the brazen sconce above the bracepiece, amidst
+the idle pewter pepper-boxes, the bright copper tea-kettle, the
+coffee-pot that has never been in use, and lids of saucepans that
+have survived their principals,--the wonted ornaments of every trig
+change-house kitchen.
+
+The season was far advanced; but the sun shone at his setting with a
+glorious composure, and the birds in the hedges and on the boughs
+were again gladdened into song.  The leaves had fallen thickly, and
+the stubble-fields were bare, but Autumn, in a many-coloured tartan
+plaid, was seen still walking with matronly composure in the
+woodlands, along the brow of the neighbouring hills.
+
+About half-past four o'clock, a movement was seen among the callans
+at the braehead, and a shout announced that a carriage was in sight.
+It was answered by a murmuring response of satisfaction from the
+whole village.  In the course of a few minutes the carriage reached
+the turnpike--it was of the darkest green and the gravest fashion,--
+a large trunk, covered with Russian matting, and fastened on with
+cords, prevented from chafing it by knots of straw rope, occupied
+the front,--behind, other two were fixed in the same manner, the
+lesser of course uppermost; and deep beyond a pile of light bundles
+and bandboxes, that occupied a large portion of the interior, the
+blithe faces of the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle were discovered.  The
+boys huzzaed, the Doctor flung them penny-pieces, and the mistress
+baubees.
+
+As the carriage drove along, the old men on the dike stood up and
+reverently took off their hats and bonnets.  The weaver lads gazed
+with a melancholy smile; the lassies on the carts clapped their
+hands with joy; the women on both sides of the street acknowledged
+the recognising nods; while all the village dogs, surprised by the
+sound of chariot wheels, came baying and barking forth, and sent off
+the cats that were so doucely sitting on the window soles,
+clambering and scampering over the roofs in terror of their lives.
+
+When the carriage reached the manse door, Mr. Snodgrass, the two
+ladies, with Mr. Micklewham, and all the elders except Mr. Craig,
+were there ready to receive the travellers.  But over this joy of
+welcoming we must draw a veil; for the first thing that the Doctor
+did, on entering the parlour and before sitting down, was to return
+thanks for his safe restoration to his home and people.
+
+The carriage was then unloaded, and as package, bale, box, and
+bundle were successively brought in, Miss Mally Glencairn expressed
+her admiration at the great capacity of the chaise.  "Ay," said Mrs.
+Pringle, "but you know not what we have suffert for't in coming
+through among the English taverns on the road; some of them would
+not take us forward when there was a hill to pass, unless we would
+take four horses, and every one after another reviled us for having
+no mercy in loading the carriage like a waggon,--and then the
+drivers were so gleg and impudent, that it was worse than martyrdom
+to come with them.  Had the Doctor taken my advice, he would have
+brought our own civil London coachman, whom we hired with his own
+horses by the job; but he said it behoved us to gi'e our ain fish
+guts to our ain sea-maws, and that he designed to fee Thomas
+Birlpenny's hostler for our coachman, being a lad of the parish.
+This obliged us to post it from London; but, oh! Miss Mally, what an
+outlay it has been!"
+
+The Doctor, in the meantime, had entered into conversation with the
+gentlemen, and was inquiring, in the most particular manner,
+respecting all his parishioners, and expressing his surprise that
+Mr. Craig had not been at the manse with the rest of the elders.
+"It does not look well," said the Doctor.  Mr. Daff, however,
+offered the best apology for his absence that could be made.  "He
+has had a gentle dispensation, sir--Mrs. Craig has won awa' out of
+this sinful world, poor woman, she had a large experience o't; but
+the bairns to the fore, and Mrs. Glibbans, that has such a cast of
+grace, has ta'en charge of the house since before the interment.
+It's thought, considering what's by gane, Mr. Craig may do waur than
+make her mistress, and I hope, sir, your exhortation will no be
+wanting to egg the honest man to think o't seriously."
+
+Mr. Snodgrass, before delivering the household keys, ordered two
+bottles of wine, with glasses and biscuit, to be set upon the table,
+while Mrs. Pringle produced from a paper package, that had helped to
+stuff one of the pockets of the carriage, a piece of rich plum-cake,
+brought all the way from a confectioner's in Cockspur Street,
+London, not only for the purpose of being eaten, but, as she said,
+to let Miss Nanny Eydent pree, in order to direct the Irvine bakers
+how to bake others like it.
+
+Tea was then brought in; and, as it was making, the Doctor talked
+aside to the elders, while Mrs. Pringle recounted to Miss Mally and
+Miss Isabella the different incidents of her adventures subsequent
+to the marriage of Miss Rachel.
+
+"The young folk," said she, "having gone to Brighton, we followed
+them in a few days, for we were told it was a curiosity, and that
+the king has a palace there, just a warld's wonder! and, truly, Miss
+Mally, it is certainly not like a house for a creature of this
+world, but for some Grand Turk or Chinaman.  The Doctor said, it put
+him in mind of Miss Jenny Macbride's sideboard in the Stockwell of
+Glasgow; where all the pepper-boxes, poories, and teapots, punch-
+bowls, and china-candlesticks of her progenitors are set out for a
+show, that tells her visitors, they are but seldom put to use.  As
+for the town of Brighton, it's what I would call a gawky piece of
+London.  I could see nothing in it but a wheen idlers, hearing twa
+lads, at night, crying, "Five, six, seven for a shilling," in the
+booksellers' shops, with a play-actor lady singing in a corner,
+because her voice would not do for the players' stage.  Therefore,
+having seen the Captain and Mrs. Sabre off to France, we came home
+to London; but it's not to be told what we had to pay at the hotel
+where we staid in Brighton.  Howsomever, having come back to London,
+we settled our counts,--and, buying a few necessars, we prepared for
+Scotland,--and here we are.  But travelling has surely a fine effect
+in enlarging the understanding; for both the Doctor and me thought,
+as we came along, that everything had a smaller and poorer look than
+when we went away; and I dinna think this room is just what it used
+to be.  What think ye o't, Miss Isabella?  How would ye like to
+spend your days in't?"
+
+Miss Isabella reddened at this question; but Mrs. Pringle, who was
+as prudent as she was observant, affecting not to notice this,
+turned round to Miss Mally Glencairn, and said softly in her ear,--
+"Rachel was Bell's confidante, and has told us all about what's
+going on between her and Mr. Snodgrass.  We have agreed no to stand
+in their way, as soon as the Doctor can get a mailing or two to
+secure his money upon."
+
+Meantime, the Doctor received from the elders a very satisfactory
+account of all that had happened among his people, both in and out
+of the Session, during his absence; and he was vastly pleased to
+find there had been no inordinate increase of wickedness; at the
+same time, he was grieved for the condition in which the poor
+weavers still continued, saying, that among other things of which he
+had been of late meditating, was the setting up of a lending bank in
+the parish for the labouring classes, where, when they were out of
+work, "bits of loans for a house-rent, or a brat of claes, or sic
+like, might be granted, to be repaid when trade grew better, and
+thereby take away the objection that an honest pride had to
+receiving help from the Session."
+
+Then some lighter general conversation ensued, in which the Doctor
+gave his worthy counsellors a very jocose description of many of the
+lesser sort of adventures which he had met with; and the ladies
+having retired to inspect the great bargains that Mrs. Pringle had
+got, and the splendid additions she had made to her wardrobe, out of
+what she denominated the dividends of the present portion of the
+legacy, the Doctor ordered in the second biggest toddy-bowl, the
+guardevine with the old rum, and told the lassie to see if the tea-
+kettle was still boiling.  "Ye maun drink our welcome hame," said he
+to the elders; "it would nae otherwise be canny.  But I'm sorry Mr.
+Craig has nae come."  At these words the door opened, and the absent
+elder entered, with a long face and a deep sigh.  "Ha!" cried Mr.
+Daff, "this is very droll.  Speak of the Evil One, and he'll
+appear";--which words dinted on the heart of Mr. Craig, who thought
+his marriage in December had been the subject of their discourse.
+The Doctor, however, went up and shook him cordially by the hand,
+and said, "Now I take this very kind, Mr. Craig; for I could not
+have expected you, considering ye have got, as I am told, your jo in
+the house"; at which words the Doctor winked paukily to Mr. Daff,
+who rubbed his hands with fainness, and gave a good-humoured sort of
+keckling laugh.  This facetious stroke of policy was a great relief
+to the afflicted elder, for he saw by it that the Doctor did not
+mean to trouble him with any inquiries respecting his deceased wife;
+and, in consequence, he put on a blither face, and really affected
+to have forgotten her already more than he had done in sincerity.
+
+Thus the night passed in decent temperance and a happy decorum;
+insomuch, that the elders when they went away, either by the
+influence of the toddy-bowl, or the Doctor's funny stories about the
+Englishers, declared that he was an excellent man, and, being none
+lifted up, was worthy of his rich legacy.
+
+At supper, the party, besides the minister and Mrs. Pringle,
+consisted of the two Irvine ladies, and Mr. Snodgrass.  Miss Becky
+Glibbans came in when it was about half over, to express her
+mother's sorrow at not being able to call that night, "Mr. Craig's
+bairn having taken an ill turn."  The truth, however, was, that the
+worthy elder had been rendered somewhat tozy by the minister's
+toddy, and wanted an opportunity to inform the old lady of the joke
+that had been played upon him by the Doctor calling her his jo, and
+to see how she would relish it.  So by a little address Miss Becky
+was sent out of the way, with the excuse we have noticed; at the
+same time, as the night was rather sharp, it is not to be supposed
+that she would have been the bearer of any such message, had her own
+curiosity not enticed her.
+
+During supper the conversation was very lively.  Many "pickant
+jokes," as Miss Becky described them, were cracked by the Doctor;
+but, soon after the table was cleared, he touched Mr. Snodgrass on
+the arm, and, taking up one of the candles, went with him to his
+study, where he then told him, that Rachel Pringle, now Mrs. Sabre,
+had informed him of a way in which he could do him a service.  "I
+understand, sir," said the Doctor, "that you have a notion of Miss
+Bell Tod, but that until ye get a kirk there can be no marriage.
+But the auld horse may die waiting for the new grass; and,
+therefore, as the Lord has put it in my power to do a good action
+both to you and my people,--whom I am glad to hear you have pleased
+so well,--if it can be brought about that you could be made helper
+and successor, I'll no object to give up to you the whole stipend,
+and, by and by, maybe the manse to the bargain.  But that is if you
+marry Miss Bell; for it was a promise that Rachel gar't me make to
+her on her wedding morning.  Ye know she was a forcasting lassie,
+and, I have reason to believe, has said nothing anent this to Miss
+Bell herself; so that if you have no partiality for Miss Bell,
+things will just rest on their own footing; but if you have a
+notion, it must be a satisfaction to you to know this, as it will be
+a pleasure to me to carry it as soon as possible into effect."
+
+Mr. Snodgrass was a good deal agitated; he was taken by surprise,
+and without words the Doctor might have guessed his sentiments; he,
+however, frankly confessed that he did entertain a very high opinion
+of Miss Bell, but that he was not sure if a country parish would
+exactly suit him.  "Never mind that," said the Doctor; "if it does
+not fit at first, you will get used to it; and if a better casts up,
+it will be no obstacle."
+
+The two gentlemen then rejoined the ladies, and, after a short
+conversation, Miss Becky Glibbans was admonished to depart, by the
+servants bringing in the Bibles for the worship of the evening.
+This was usually performed before supper, but, owing to the bowl
+being on the table, and the company jocose, it had been postponed
+till all the guests who were not to sleep in the house had departed.
+
+The Sunday morning was fine and bright for the season; the
+hoarfrost, till about an hour after sunrise, lay white on the grass
+and tombstones in the churchyard; but before the bell rung for the
+congregation to assemble, it was exhaled away, and a freshness, that
+was only known to be autumnal by the fallen and yellow leaves that
+strewed the church-way path from the ash and plane trees in the
+avenue, encouraged the spirits to sympathise with the universal
+cheerfulness of all nature.
+
+The return of the Doctor had been bruited through the parish with so
+much expedition, that, when the bell rung for public worship, none
+of those who were in the practice of stopping in the churchyard to
+talk about the weather were so ignorant as not to have heard of this
+important fact.  In consequence, before the time at which the Doctor
+was wont to come from the back-gate which opened from the manse-
+garden into the churchyard, a great majority of his people were
+assembled to receive him.
+
+At the last jingle of the bell, the back-gate was usually opened,
+and the Doctor was wont to come forth as punctually as a cuckoo of a
+clock at the striking of the hour; but a deviation was observed on
+this occasion.  Formerly, Mrs. Pringle and the rest of the family
+came first, and a few minutes were allowed to elapse before the
+Doctor, laden with grace, made his appearance.  But at this time,
+either because it had been settled that Mr. Snodgrass was to
+officiate, or for some other reason, there was a breach in the
+observance of this time-honoured custom.
+
+As the ringing of the bell ceased, the gate unclosed, and the Doctor
+came forth.  He was of that easy sort of feather-bed corpulency of
+form that betokens good-nature, and had none of that smooth, red,
+well-filled protuberancy, which indicates a choleric humour and a
+testy temper.  He was in fact what Mrs. Glibbans denominated "a man
+of a gausy external."  And some little change had taken place during
+his absence in his visible equipage.  His stockings, which were wont
+to be of worsted, had undergone a translation into silk; his waist-
+coat, instead--of the venerable Presbyterian flap-covers to the
+pockets, which were of Johnsonian magnitude, was become plain--his
+coat in all times single-breasted, with no collar, still, however,
+maintained its ancient characteristics; instead, however, of the
+former bright black cast horn, the buttons were covered with cloth.
+But the chief alteration was discernible in the furniture of the
+head.  He had exchanged the simplicity of his own respectable grey
+hairs for the cauliflower hoariness of a PARRISH {3} wig, on which
+he wore a broad-brimmed hat, turned up a little at each side behind,
+in a portentous manner, indicatory of Episcopalian predilections.
+This, however, was not justified by any alteration in his
+principles, being merely an innocent variation of fashion, the
+natural result of a Doctor of Divinity buying a hat and wig in
+London.
+
+The moment that the Doctor made his appearance, his greeting and
+salutation was quite delightful; it was that of a father returned to
+his children, and a king to his people.
+
+Almost immediately after the Doctor, Mrs. Pringle, followed by Miss
+Mally Glencairn and Miss Isabella Tod, also debouched from the gate,
+and the assembled females remarked, with no less instinct, the
+transmutation which she had undergone.  She was dressed in a dark
+blue cloth pelisse, trimmed with a dyed fur, which, as she told Miss
+Mally, "looked quite as well as sable, without costing a third of
+the money."  A most matronly muff, that, without being of sable, was
+of an excellent quality, contained her hands; and a very large
+Leghorn straw bonnet, decorated richly, but far from excess, with a
+most substantial band and bow of a broad crimson satin ribbon around
+her head.
+
+If the Doctor was gratified to see his people so gladly thronging
+around him, Mrs. Pringle had no less pleasure also in her thrice-
+welcome reception.  It was an understood thing, that she had been
+mainly instrumental in enabling the minister to get his great Indian
+legacy; and in whatever estimation she may have been previously held
+for her economy and management, she was now looked up to as a
+personage skilled in the law, and particularly versed in
+testamentary erudition.  Accordingly, in the customary testimonials
+of homage with which she was saluted in her passage to the church
+door, there was evidently a sentiment of veneration mingled, such as
+had never been evinced before, and which was neither unobserved nor
+unappreciated by that acute and perspicacious lady.
+
+The Doctor himself did not preach, but sat in the minister's pew
+till Mr. Snodgrass had concluded an eloquent and truly an affecting
+sermon; at the end of which, the Doctor rose and went up into the
+pulpit, where he publicly returned thanks for the favours and
+blessings he had obtained during his absence, and for the safety in
+which he had been restored, after many dangers and tribulations, to
+the affections of his parishioners.
+
+Such were the principal circumstances that marked the return of the
+family.  In the course of the week after, the estate of Moneypennies
+being for sale, it was bought for the Doctor as a great bargain.  It
+was not, however, on account of the advantageous nature of the
+purchase that our friend valued this acquisition, but entirely
+because it was situated in his own parish, and part of the lands
+marching with the Glebe.
+
+The previous owner of Moneypennies had built an elegant house on the
+estate, to which Mrs. Pringle is at present actively preparing to
+remove from the manse; and it is understood, that, as Mr. Snodgrass
+was last week declared helper, and successor to the Doctor, his
+marriage with Miss Isabella Tod will take place with all convenient
+expedition.  There is also reason to believe, that, as soon as
+decorum will permit, any scruple which Mrs. Glibbans had to a second
+marriage is now removed, and that she will soon again grace the
+happy circle of wives by the name of Mrs. Craig.  Indeed, we are
+assured that Miss Nanny Eydent is actually at this time employed in
+making up her wedding garments; for, last week, that worthy and
+respectable young person was known to have visited Bailie Delap's
+shop, at a very early hour in the morning, and to have priced many
+things of a bridal character, besides getting swatches; after which
+she was seen to go to Mrs. Glibbans's house, where she remained a
+very considerable time, and to return straight therefrom to the
+shop, and purchase divers of the articles which she had priced and
+inspected; all of which constitute sufficient grounds for the
+general opinion in Irvine, that the union of Mr. Craig with Mrs.
+Glibbans is a happy event drawing near to consummation.
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+{1}  The administration of the Sacrament.
+
+{2}  The honest Doctor's version of this bon mot of her majesty is
+not quite correct; her expression was, "I mean to take a chop at the
+King's Head when I get to London."
+
+{3}  See the Edinburgh Review, for an account of our old friend, Dr.
+Parr's wig, and Spital Sermon.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Etext of The Ayrshire Legatees by John Galt
+
diff --git a/old/ayrlg10.zip b/old/ayrlg10.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..97522e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/ayrlg10.zip