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diff --git a/1384-h/1384-h.htm b/1384-h/1384-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c06170 --- /dev/null +++ b/1384-h/1384-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5408 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Ayrshire Legatees</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.headingsummary { margin-left: 5%;} + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: left; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + color: gray;} + + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h2> +<a href="#startoftext">The Ayrshire Legatees, by John Galt</a> +</h2> +<pre> +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Ayrshire Legatees, by John Galt + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Ayrshire Legatees + + +Author: John Galt + + + +Release Date: August 4, 2008 [eBook #1384] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AYRSHIRE LEGATEES*** +</pre> +<p><a name="startoftext"></a></p> +<p>Transcribed from the 1895 Macmillan and Co. edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<h1>The Ayrshire Legatees</h1> +<h2>CHAPTER I—THE DEPARTURE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER I</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Garnock Manse</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Mally</span>—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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER II</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss +Isabella Tod</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Greenock</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Isabella</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Pringle</span>.</p> +<h3>LETTER III</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. +Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and Session-Clerk</i>, +<i>Garnock</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Edinburgh</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Among the books, I fell in with a <i>History of the +Rebellion</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Edinburgh +Advertiser</i>, and the <i>Scots Magazine</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Zachariah +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>History of the +Rebellion</i>, 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.” <a +name="citation1"></a><a href="#footnote1" +class="citation">[1]</a></p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II—THE VOYAGE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER IV</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>Advocate</i>, <i>to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>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 <span +class="smcap">land</span>; 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.</p> +<p>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 <span +class="smcap">the human powers</span>.</p> +<p>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 <i>Seasons</i> +is with respect to <i>Paradise Lost</i>—the castellated +descriptions of Walter Scott to the <i>Darkness</i> of +Byron—the <i>Sabbath</i> of Grahame to the <i>Robbers</i> +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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<h3>LETTER V</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. +Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and Session-Clerk</i>, +<i>Garnock</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>, 49 <span class="smcap">Norfolk +Street</span>, <span class="smcap">Strand</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Him</span>, +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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>The White Horse</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Zachariah +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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 <i>twal pennies</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III—THE LEGACY</h2> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER VI</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Mally</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<h3>LETTER VII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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; 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV—THE TOWN</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER VIII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss +Isabella Tod</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Bell</span>—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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.—</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER IX</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Z. Pringle</i>, +<i>D.D.</i>, <i>to Mr. Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and +Session-Clerk of Garnock</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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 <span class="smcap">His</span> does any +good befall us!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Edinburgh Review</i>. 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 <i>Edinburgh Advertiser</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Zachariah +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER X</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>to the Reverend Charles Snodgrass</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Edinburgh Review</i> 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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XI</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Mally</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p><i>Noto Beny</i>.—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.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER V—THE ROYAL FUNERAL</h2> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">Windsor</span>, <span +class="smcap">Castle-Inn</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>I was within the walls of an ancient castle,</p> +<blockquote><p>“So old as if they had for ever stood,<br /> +So strong as if they would for ever stand,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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,</p> +<blockquote><p>“The fathers of their time,<br /> +Those mighty master spirits, that withstood<br /> +The fall of monarchies, and high upheld<br /> +Their country’s standard, glorious in the storm,”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>Edinburgh Review</i>; 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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XIII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Z. Pringle</i>, +<i>D.D.</i>, <i>to Mr. Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and +Session-Clerk of Garnock</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Zachariah +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XIV</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss +Isabella Tod</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Bell</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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 <span class="smcap">Him</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XV</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Nanny +Eydent</i>, <i>Mantua-maker</i>, <i>Seagate Head</i>, +<i>Irvine</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Nanny</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI—PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION</h2> +<p>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 <i>Ivanhoe</i>, +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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XVI</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Z. Pringle</i>, +<i>D.D.</i>, <i>to Mr. Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and +Session-Clerk</i>, <i>Garnock</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Z. +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XVII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>to the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h3>LETTER XVIII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Mrs. +Glibbans</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Mrs. Glibbans</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>“I wish they may ever get out o’t,” was the +agitated reply of the afflicted lady.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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.’”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XIX</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss +Isabella Tod</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Bell</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XX</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Mally</span>—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?</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII—DISCOVERIES AND REBELLIONS</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXI</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Z. Pringle</i>, +<i>D.D.</i>, <i>to Mr. Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and +Session-Clerk</i>, <i>Garnock</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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---.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Z. +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XXII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Miss Mally</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XXIII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>to the Reverend Charles Snodgrass</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <i>versus</i> 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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">A. +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXIV</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss +Isabella Tod</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Bell</span>—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.</p> +<p>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 <i>coup d’œil</i>, and the +<i>tout ensemble</i>. “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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII—THE QUEEN’S TRIAL</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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?”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XXV</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle</i>, <i>Esq.</i>, +<i>to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Friend</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXVI</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Mally</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<h3>LETTER XXVII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Z. Pringle</i>, +<i>D.D.</i>, <i>to Mr. Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and +Session-Clerk of Garnock</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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, <a name="citation2"></a><a +href="#footnote2" class="citation">[2]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Zachariah +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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?”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXVIII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss +Isabella Tod</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dear Bell</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 +<i>éclat</i>, 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.</p> +<p>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</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX—THE MARRIAGE</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XXIX</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Andrew Pringle Esq.</i>, <i>to +the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass</i></p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Andrew +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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?”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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?”</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Thus were all the correspondents of the Pringles assembled, by +the merest chance, like the <i>dramatis personæ</i> 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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XXX</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally +Glencairn</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Miss Mally</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Janet +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>“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.”</p> +<p>“I have my doubts of that,” said Miss Becky with a +sneer. “Ye have been lang spair’t from it, Miss +Mally.”</p> +<p>“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.</p> +<p>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:—</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXI</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Mrs. Sabre to Miss Isabella +Tod</i></p> +<p><span class="smcap">My dearest Bell</span>—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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Rachel +Sabre</span>.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h3>LETTER XXXII</h3> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>The Rev. Z. Pringle</i>, +<i>D.D.</i>, <i>to Mr. Micklewham</i>, <i>Schoolmaster and +Session-Clerk</i>, <i>Garnock</i><br /> +<span class="smcap">London</span>.</p> +<p>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 <span class="smcap">the word</span> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span class="smcap">Z. +Pringle</span>.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER X—THE RETURN</h2> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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!”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>“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?”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.”</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 <span +class="smcap">Parrish</span> <a name="citation3"></a><a +href="#footnote3" class="citation">[3]</a> 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> +<p><a name="footnote1"></a><a href="#citation1" +class="footnote">[1]</a> The administration of the +Sacrament.</p> +<p><a name="footnote2"></a><a href="#citation2" +class="footnote">[2]</a> The honest Doctor’s version +of this <i>bon mot</i> 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.”</p> +<p><a name="footnote3"></a><a href="#citation3" +class="footnote">[3]</a> See the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, +for an account of our old friend, Dr. Parr’s wig, and +Spital Sermon.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AYRSHIRE LEGATEES***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 1384-h.htm or 1384-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/3/8/1384 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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