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diff --git a/1384.txt b/1384.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..087d6a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/1384.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5103 @@ +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*** + + +Transcribed from the 1895 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + + + + +The Ayrshire Legatees + + +CHAPTER I--THE DEPARTURE + + +On New Year's day Dr. Pringle received a letter from India, informing him +that his cousin, Colonel Armour, had died at Hydrabad, and left him his +residuary legatee. The same post brought other letters on the same +subject from the agent of the deceased in London, by which it was evident +to the whole family that no time should be lost in looking after their +interests in the hands of such brief and abrupt correspondents. "To say +the least of it," as the Doctor himself sedately remarked, "considering +the greatness of the forth-coming property, Messieurs Richard Argent and +Company, of New Broad Street, might have given a notion as to the +particulars of the residue." It was therefore determined that, as soon +as the requisite arrangements could be made, the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle +should set out for the metropolis, to obtain a speedy settlement with the +agents, and, as Rachel had now, to use an expression of her mother's, "a +prospect before her," that she also should accompany them: Andrew, who +had just been called to the Bar, and who had come to the manse to spend a +few days after attaining that distinction, modestly suggested, that, +considering the various professional points which might be involved in +the objects of his father's journey, and considering also the retired +life which his father had led in the rural village of Garnock, it might +be of importance to have the advantage of legal advice. + +Mrs. Pringle interrupted this harangue, by saying, "We see what you would +be at, Andrew; ye're just wanting to come with us, and on this occasion +I'm no for making step-bairns, so we'll a' gang thegither." + +The Doctor had been for many years the incumbent of Garnock, which is +pleasantly situated between Irvine and Kilwinning, and, on account of the +benevolence of his disposition, was much beloved by his parishioners. +Some of the pawkie among them used indeed to say, in answer to the godly +of Kilmarnock, and other admirers of the late great John Russel, of that +formerly orthodox town, by whom Dr. Pringle's powers as a preacher were +held in no particular estimation,--"He kens our pu'pit's frail, and +spar'st to save outlay to the heritors." As for Mrs. Pringle, there is +not such another minister's wife, both for economy and management, within +the jurisdiction of the Synod of Glasgow and Ayr, and to this fact the +following letter to Miss Mally Glencairn, a maiden lady residing in the +Kirkgate of Irvine, a street that has been likened unto the Kingdom of +Heaven, where there is neither marriage nor giving in marriage, will +abundantly testify. + + + +LETTER I + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + GARNOCK MANSE. + +DEAR MISS MALLY--The Doctor has had extraordinar news from India and +London, where we are all going, as soon as me and Rachel can get +ourselves in order, so I beg you will go to Bailie Delap's shop, and get +swatches of his best black bombaseen, and crape, and muslin, and bring +them over to the manse the morn's morning. If you cannot come yourself, +and the day should be wat, send Nanny Eydent, the mantua-maker, with +them; you'll be sure to send Nanny, onyhow, and I requeesht that, on this +okasion, ye'll get the very best the Bailie has, and I'll tell you all +about it when you come. You will get, likewise, swatches of mourning +print, with the lowest prices. I'll no be so particular about them, as +they are for the servan lasses, and there's no need, for all the +greatness of God's gifts, that we should be wasterful. Let Mrs. Glibbans +know, that the Doctor's second cousin, the colonel, that was in the East +Indies, is no more;--I am sure she will sympatheese with our loss on this +melancholy okasion. Tell her, as I'll no be out till our mournings are +made, I would take it kind if she would come over and eate a bit of +dinner on Sunday. The Doctor will no preach himself, but there's to be +an excellent young man, an acquaintance of Andrew's, that has the repute +of being both sound and hellaquaint. But no more at present, and looking +for you and Nanny Eydent, with the swatches,--I am, dear Miss Mally, your +sinsare friend, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +The Doctor being of opinion that, until they had something in hand from +the legacy, they should walk in the paths of moderation, it was resolved +to proceed by the coach from Irvine to Greenock, there embark in a +steam-boat for Glasgow, and, crossing the country to Edinburgh, take +their passage at Leith in one of the smacks for London. But we must let +the parties speak for themselves. + + + +LETTER II + + + _Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_ + GREENOCK. + +MY DEAR ISABELLA--I know not why the dejection with which I parted from +you still hangs upon my heart, and grows heavier as I am drawn farther +and farther away. The uncertainty of the future--the dangers of the +sea--all combine to sadden my too sensitive spirit. Still, however, I +will exert myself, and try to give you some account of our momentous +journey. + +The morning on which we bade farewell for a time--alas! it was to me as +if for ever, to my native shades of Garnock--the weather was cold, bleak, +and boisterous, and the waves came rolling in majestic fury towards the +shore, when we arrived at the Tontine Inn of Ardrossan. What a monument +has the late Earl of Eglinton left there of his public spirit! It should +embalm his memory in the hearts of future ages, as I doubt not but in +time Ardrossan will become a grand emporium; but the people of Saltcoats, +a sordid race, complain that it will be their ruin; and the Paisley +subscribers to his lordship's canal grow pale when they think of profit. + +The road, after leaving Ardrossan, lies along the shore. The blast came +dark from the waters, and the clouds lay piled in every form of grandeur +on the lofty peaks of Arran. The view on the right hand is limited to +the foot of a range of abrupt mean hills, and on the left it meets the +sea--as we were obliged to keep the glasses up, our drive for several +miles was objectless and dreary. When we had ascended a hill, leaving +Kilbride on the left, we passed under the walls of an ancient tower. +What delightful ideas are associated with the sight of such venerable +remains of antiquity! + +Leaving that lofty relic of our warlike ancestors, we descended again +towards the shore. On the one side lay the Cumbra Islands, and Bute, +dear to departed royalty. Afar beyond them, in the hoary magnificence of +nature, rise the mountains of Argyllshire; the cairns, as my brother +says, of a former world. On the other side of the road, we saw the +cloistered ruins of the religious house of Southenan, a nunnery in those +days of romantic adventure, when to live was to enjoy a poetical element. +In such a sweet sequestered retreat, how much more pleasing to the soul +it would have been, for you and I, like two captive birds in one cage, to +have sung away our hours in innocence, than for me to be thus torn from +you by fate, and all on account of that mercenary legacy, perchance the +spoils of some unfortunate Hindoo Rajah! + +At Largs we halted to change horses, and saw the barrows of those who +fell in the great battle. We then continued our journey along the foot +of stupendous precipices; and high, sublime, and darkened with the shadow +of antiquity, we saw, upon its lofty station, the ancient Castle of +Skelmorlie, where the Montgomeries of other days held their gorgeous +banquets, and that brave knight who fell at Chevy-Chace came pricking +forth on his milk-white steed, as Sir Walter Scott would have described +him. But the age of chivalry is past, and the glory of Europe departed +for ever! + +When we crossed the stream that divides the counties of Ayr and Renfrew, +we beheld, in all the apart and consequentiality of pride, the house of +Kelly overlooking the social villas of Wemyss Bay. My brother compared +it to a sugar hogshead, and them to cotton-bags; for the lofty thane of +Kelly is but a West India planter, and the inhabitants of the villas on +the shore are Glasgow manufacturers. + +To this succeeded a dull drive of about two miles, and then at once we +entered the pretty village of Inverkip. A slight snow-shower had given +to the landscape a sort of copperplate effect, but still the forms of +things, though but sketched, as it were, with China ink, were calculated +to produce interesting impressions. After ascending, by a gentle +acclivity, into a picturesque and romantic pass, we entered a spacious +valley, and, in the course of little more than half an hour, reached this +town; the largest, the most populous, and the most superb that I have yet +seen. But what are all its warehouses, ships, and smell of tar, and +other odoriferous circumstances of fishery and the sea, compared with the +green swelling hills, the fragrant bean-fields, and the peaceful groves +of my native Garnock! + +The people of this town are a very busy and clever race, but much given +to litigation. My brother says, that they are the greatest benefactors +to the Outer House, and that their lawsuits are the most amusing and +profitable before the courts, being less for the purpose of determining +what is right than what is lawful. The chambermaid of the inn where we +lodge pointed out to me, on the opposite side of the street, a +magnificent edifice erected for balls; but the subscribers have resolved +not to allow any dancing till it is determined by the Court of Session to +whom the seats and chairs belong, as they were brought from another house +where the assemblies were formerly held. I have heard a lawsuit compared +to a country-dance, in which, after a great bustle and regular confusion, +the parties stand still, all tired, just on the spot where they began; +but this is the first time that the judges of the land have been called +on to decide when a dance may begin. + +We arrived too late for the steam-boat, and are obliged to wait till +Monday morning; but to-morrow we shall go to church, where I expect to +see what sort of creatures the beaux are. The Greenock ladies have a +great name for beauty, but those that I have seen are perfect frights. +Such of the gentlemen as I have observed passing the windows of the inn +may do, but I declare the ladies have nothing of which any woman ought to +be proud. Had we known that we ran a risk of not getting a steam-boat, +my mother would have provided an introductory letter or two from some of +her Irvine friends; but here we are almost entire strangers: my father, +however, is acquainted with one of the magistrates, and has gone to see +him. I hope he will be civil enough to ask us to his house, for an inn +is a shocking place to live in, and my mother is terrified at the +expense. My brother, however, has great confidence in our prospects, and +orders and directs with a high hand. But my paper is full, and I am +compelled to conclude with scarcely room to say how affectionately I am +yours, + + RACHEL PRINGLE. + + + +LETTER III + + + _The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk_, _Garnock_ + EDINBURGH. + +DEAR SIR--We have got this length through many difficulties, both in the +travel by land to, and by sea and land from Greenock, where we were +obligated, by reason of no conveyance, to stop the Sabbath, but not +without edification; for we went to hear Dr. Drystour in the forenoon, +who had a most weighty sermon on the tenth chapter of Nehemiah. He is +surely a great orthodox divine, but rather costive in his delivery. In +the afternoon we heard a correct moral lecture on good works, in another +church, from Dr. Eastlight--a plain man, with a genteel congregation. +The same night we took supper with a wealthy family, where we had much +pleasant communion together, although the bringing in of the toddy-bowl +after supper is a fashion that has a tendency to lengthen the sederunt to +unseasonable hours. + +On the following morning, by the break of day, we took shipping in the +steam-boat for Glasgow. I had misgivings about the engine, which is +really a thing of great docility; but saving my concern for the boiler, +we all found the place surprising comfortable. The day was bleak and +cold; but we had a good fire in a carron grate in the middle of the +floor, and books to read, so that both body and mind are therein provided +for. + +Among the books, I fell in with a _History of the Rebellion_, anent the +hand that an English gentleman of the name of Waverley had in it. I was +grieved that I had not time to read it through, for it was wonderful +interesting, and far more particular, in many points, than any other +account of that affair I have yet met with; but it's no so friendly to +Protestant principles as I could have wished. However, if I get my +legacy well settled, I will buy the book, and lend it to you on my +return, please God, to the manse. + +We were put on shore at Glasgow by breakfast-time, and there we tarried +all day, as I had a power of attorney to get from Miss Jenny Macbride, my +cousin, to whom the colonel left the thousand pound legacy. Miss Jenny +thought the legacy should have been more, and made some obstacle to +signing the power; but both her lawyer and Andrew Pringle, my son, +convinced her, that, as it was specified in the testament, she could not +help it by standing out; so at long and last Miss Jenny was persuaded to +put her name to the paper. + +Next day we all four got into a fly coach, and, without damage or +detriment, reached this city in good time for dinner in Macgregor's +hotel, a remarkable decent inn, next door to one Mr. Blackwood, a civil +and discreet man in the bookselling line. + +Really the changes in Edinburgh since I was here, thirty years ago, are +not to be told. I am confounded; for although I have both heard and read +of the New Town in the _Edinburgh Advertiser_, and the _Scots Magazine_, +I had no notion of what has come to pass. It's surprising to think +wherein the decay of the nation is; for at Greenock I saw nothing but +shipping and building; at Glasgow, streets spreading as if they were one +of the branches of cotton-spinning; and here, the houses grown up as if +they were sown in the seed-time with the corn, by a drill-machine, or +dibbled in rigs and furrows like beans and potatoes. + +To-morrow, God willing, we embark in a smack at Leith, so that you will +not hear from me again till it please Him to take us in the hollow of His +hand to London. In the meantime, I have only to add, that, when the +Session meets, I wish you would speak to the elders, particularly to Mr. +Craig, no to be overly hard on that poor donsie thing, Meg Milliken, +about her bairn; and tell Tam Glen, the father o't, from me, that it +would have been a sore heart to that pious woman, his mother, had she +been living, to have witnessed such a thing; and therefore I hope and +trust, he will yet confess a fault, and own Meg for his wife, though she +is but something of a tawpie. However, you need not diminish her to Tam. +I hope Mr. Snodgrass will give as much satisfaction to the parish as can +reasonably be expected in my absence; and I remain, dear sir, your friend +and pastor, + + ZACHARIAH PRINGLE. + +Mr. Micklewham received the Doctor's letter about an hour before the +Session met on the case of Tam Glen and Meg Milliken, and took it with +him to the session-house, to read it to the elders before going into the +investigation. Such a long and particular letter from the Doctor was, as +they all justly remarked, kind and dutiful to his people, and a great +pleasure to them. + +Mr. Daff observed, "Truly the Doctor's a vera funny man, and wonderfu' +jocose about the toddy-bowl." But Mr. Craig said, that "sic a thing on +the Lord's night gi'es me no pleasure; and I am for setting my face +against Waverley's _History of the Rebellion_, whilk I hae heard spoken +of among the ungodly, both at Kilwinning and Dalry; and if it has no +respect to Protestant principles, I doubt it's but another dose o' the +radical poison in a new guise." Mr. Icenor, however, thought that "the +observe on the great Doctor Drystour was very edifying; and that they +should see about getting him to help at the summer Occasion." {1} + +While they were thus reviewing, in their way, the first epistle of the +Doctor, the betherel came in to say that Meg and Tam were at the door. +"Oh, man," said Mr. Daff, slyly, "ye shouldna hae left them at the door +by themselves." Mr. Craig looked at him austerely, and muttered +something about the growing immorality of this backsliding age; but +before the smoke of his indignation had kindled into eloquence, the +delinquents were admitted. However, as we have nothing to do with the +business, we shall leave them to their own deliberations. + + + + +CHAPTER II--THE VOYAGE + + +On the fourteenth day after the departure of the family from the manse, +the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass, who was appointed to officiate during the +absence of the Doctor, received the following letter from his old chum, +Mr. Andrew Pringle. It would appear that the young advocate is not so +solid in the head as some of his elder brethren at the Bar; and therefore +many of his flights and observations must be taken with an allowance on +the score of his youth. + + + +LETTER IV + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _Advocate_, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR FRIEND--We have at last reached London, after a stormy passage of +seven days. The accommodation in the smacks looks extremely inviting in +port, and in fine weather, I doubt not, is comfortable, even at sea; but +in February, and in such visitations of the powers of the air as we have +endured, a balloon must be a far better vehicle than all the vessels that +have been constructed for passengers since the time of Noah. In the +first place, the waves of the atmosphere cannot be so dangerous as those +of the ocean, being but "thin air"; and I am sure they are not so +disagreeable; then the speed of the balloon is so much greater,--and it +would puzzle Professor Leslie to demonstrate that its motions are more +unsteady; besides, who ever heard of sea-sickness in a balloon? the +consideration of which alone would, to any reasonable person actually +suffering under the pains of that calamity, be deemed more than an +equivalent for all the little fractional difference of danger between the +two modes of travelling. I shall henceforth regard it as a fine +characteristic trait of our national prudence, that, in their journies to +France and Flanders, the Scottish witches always went by air on +broom-sticks and benweeds, instead of venturing by water in sieves, like +those of England. But the English are under the influence of a maritime +genius. + +When we had got as far up the Thames as Gravesend, the wind and tide came +against us, so that the vessel was obliged to anchor, and I availed +myself of the circumstance, to induce the family to disembark and go to +London by LAND; and I esteem it a fortunate circumstance that we did so, +the day, for the season, being uncommonly fine. After we had taken some +refreshment, I procured places in a stage-coach for my mother and sister, +and, with the Doctor, mounted myself on the outside. My father's +old-fashioned notions boggled a little at first to this arrangement, +which he thought somewhat derogatory to his ministerial dignity; but his +scruples were in the end overruled. + +The country in this season is, of course, seen to disadvantage, but still +it exhibits beauty enough to convince us what England must be when in +leaf. The old gentleman's admiration of the increasing signs of what he +called civilisation, as we approached London, became quite eloquent; but +the first view of the city from Blackheath (which, by the bye, is a fine +common, surrounded with villas and handsome houses) overpowered his +faculties, and I shall never forget the impression it made on myself. +The sun was declined towards the horizon; vast masses of dark low-hung +clouds were mingled with the smoky canopy, and the dome of St. Paul's, +like the enormous idol of some terrible deity, throned amidst the smoke +of sacrifices and magnificence, darkness, and mystery, presented +altogether an object of vast sublimity. I felt touched with reverence, +as if I was indeed approaching the city of THE HUMAN POWERS. + +The distant view of Edinburgh is picturesque and romantic, but it affects +a lower class of our associations. It is, compared to that of London, +what the poem of the _Seasons_ is with respect to _Paradise Lost_--the +castellated descriptions of Walter Scott to the _Darkness_ of Byron--the +_Sabbath_ of Grahame to the _Robbers_ of Schiller. In the approach to +Edinburgh, leisure and cheerfulness are on the road; large spaces of +rural and pastoral nature are spread openly around, and mountains, and +seas, and headlands, and vessels passing beyond them, going like those +that die, we know not whither, while the sun is bright on their sails, +and hope with them; but, in coming to this Babylon, there is an eager +haste and a hurrying on from all quarters, towards that stupendous pile +of gloom, through which no eye can penetrate; an unceasing sound, like +the enginery of an earthquake at work, rolls from the heart of that +profound and indefinable obscurity--sometimes a faint and yellow beam of +the sun strikes here and there on the vast expanse of edifices; and +churches, and holy asylums, are dimly seen lifting up their countless +steeples and spires, like so many lightning rods to avert the wrath of +Heaven. + +The entrance to Edinburgh also awakens feelings of a more pleasing +character. The rugged veteran aspect of the Old Town is agreeably +contrasted with the bright smooth forehead of the New, and there is not +such an overwhelming torrent of animal life, as to make you pause before +venturing to stem it; the noises are not so deafening, and the occasional +sound of a ballad-singer, or a Highland piper, varies and enriches the +discords; but here, a multitudinous assemblage of harsh alarms, of +selfish contentions, and of furious carriages, driven by a fierce and +insolent race, shatter the very hearing, till you partake of the activity +with which all seem as much possessed as if a general apprehension +prevailed, that the great clock of Time would strike the doom-hour before +their tasks were done. But I must stop, for the postman with his bell, +like the betherel of some ancient "borough's town" summoning to a burial, +is in the street, and warns me to conclude.--Yours, + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + + + +LETTER V + + + _The Rev. Dr. Pringle to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk_, _Garnock_ + LONDON, 49 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND. + +DEAR SIR--On the first Sunday forthcoming after the receiving hereof, you +will not fail to recollect in the remembering prayer, that we return +thanks for our safe arrival in London, after a dangerous voyage. Well, +indeed, is it ordained that we should pray for those who go down to the +sea in ships, and do business on the great deep; for what me and mine +have come through is unspeakable, and the hand of Providence was visibly +manifested. + +On the day of our embarkation at Leith, a fair wind took us onward at a +blithe rate for some time; but in the course of that night the bridle of +the tempest was slackened, and the curb of the billows loosened, and the +ship reeled to and fro like a drunken man, and no one could stand +therein. My wife and daughter lay at the point of death; Andrew Pringle, +my son, also was prostrated with the grievous affliction; and the very +soul within me was as if it would have been cast out of the body. + +On the following day the storm abated, and the wind blew favourable; but +towards the heel of the evening it again came vehement, and there was no +help unto our distress. About midnight, however, it pleased HIM, whose +breath is the tempest, to be more sparing with the whip of His +displeasure on our poor bark, as she hirpled on in her toilsome journey +through the waters; and I was enabled, through His strength, to lift my +head from the pillow of sickness, and ascend the deck, where I thought of +Noah looking out of the window in the ark, upon the face of the desolate +flood, and of Peter walking on the sea; and I said to myself, it matters +not where we are, for we can be in no place where Jehovah is not there +likewise, whether it be on the waves of the ocean, or the mountain tops, +or in the valley and shadow of death. + +The third day the wind came contrary, and in the fourth, and the fifth, +and the sixth, we were also sorely buffeted; but on the night of the +sixth we entered the mouth of the river Thames, and on the morning of the +seventh day of our departure, we cast anchor near a town called +Gravesend, where, to our exceeding great joy, it pleased Him, in whom +alone there is salvation, to allow us once more to put our foot on the +dry land. + +When we had partaken of a repast, the first blessed with the blessing of +an appetite, from the day of our leaving our native land, we got two +vacancies in a stage-coach for my wife and daughter; but with Andrew +Pringle, my son, I was obligated to mount aloft on the outside. I had +some scruple of conscience about this, for I was afraid of my decorum. I +met, however, with nothing but the height of discretion from the other +outside passengers, although I jealoused that one of them was a light +woman. Really I had no notion that the English were so civilised; they +were so well bred, and the very duddiest of them spoke such a fine style +of language, that when I looked around on the country, I thought myself +in the land of Canaan. But it's extraordinary what a power of drink the +coachmen drink, stopping and going into every change-house, and yet +behaving themselves with the greatest sobriety. And then they are all so +well dressed, which is no doubt owing to the poor rates. I am thinking, +however, that for all they cry against them, the poor rates are but a +small evil, since they keep the poor folk in such food and raiment, and +out of the temptations to thievery; indeed, such a thing as a common +beggar is not to be seen in this land, excepting here and there a sorner +or a ne'er-do-weel. + +When we had got to the outskirts of London, I began to be ashamed of the +sin of high places, and would gladly have got into the inside of the +coach, for fear of anybody knowing me; but although the multitude of +by-goers was like the kirk scailing at the Sacrament, I saw not a kent +face, nor one that took the least notice of my situation. At last we got +to an inn, called _The White Horse_, Fetter-Lane, where we hired a +hackney to take us to the lodgings provided for us here in Norfolk +Street, by Mr. Pawkie, the Scotch solicitor, a friend of Andrew Pringle, +my son. Now it was that we began to experience the sharpers of London; +for it seems that there are divers Norfolk Streets. Ours was in the +Strand (mind that when you direct), not very far from Fetter-Lane; but +the hackney driver took us away to one afar off, and when we knocked at +the number we thought was ours, we found ourselves at a house that should +not be told. I was so mortified, that I did not know what to say; and +when Andrew Pringle, my son, rebuked the man for the mistake, he only +gave a cunning laugh, and said we should have told him whatna Norfolk +Street we wanted. Andrew stormed at this--but I discerned it was all +owing to our own inexperience, and put an end to the contention, by +telling the man to take us to Norfolk Street in the Strand, which was the +direction we had got. But when we got to the door, the coachman was so +extortionate, that another hobbleshaw arose. Mrs. Pringle had been told +that, in such disputes, the best way of getting redress was to take the +number of the coach; but, in trying to do so, we found it fastened on, +and I thought the hackneyman would have gone by himself with laughter. +Andrew, who had not observed what we were doing, when he saw us trying to +take off the number, went like one demented, and paid the man, I cannot +tell what, to get us out, and into the house, for fear we should have +been mobbit. + +I have not yet seen the colonel's agents, so can say nothing as to the +business of our coming; for, landing at Gravesend, we did not bring our +trunks with us, and Andrew has gone to the wharf this morning to get +them, and, until we get them, we can go nowhere, which is the occasion of +my writing so soon, knowing also how you and the whole parish would be +anxious to hear what had become of us; and I remain, dear sir, your +friend and pastor, + + ZACHARIAH PRINGLE. + +On Saturday evening, Saunders Dickie, the Irvine postman, suspecting that +this letter was from the Doctor, went with it himself, on his own feet, +to Mr. Micklewham, although the distance is more than two miles, but +Saunders, in addition to the customary _twal pennies_ on the postage, had +a dram for his pains. The next morning being wet, Mr. Micklewham had not +an opportunity of telling any of the parishioners in the churchyard of +the Doctor's safe arrival, so that when he read out the request to return +thanks (for he was not only school-master and session-clerk, but also +precentor), there was a murmur of pleasure diffused throughout the +congregation, and the greatest curiosity was excited to know what the +dangers were, from which their worthy pastor and his whole family had so +thankfully escaped in their voyage to London; so that, when the service +was over, the elders adjourned to the session-house to hear the letter +read; and many of the heads of families, and other respectable +parishioners, were admitted to the honours of the sitting, who all +sympathised, with the greatest sincerity, in the sufferings which their +minister and his family had endured. Mr. Daff, however, was justly +chided by Mr. Craig, for rubbing his hands, and giving a sort of +sniggering laugh, at the Doctor's sitting on high with a light woman. +But even Mr. Snodgrass was seen to smile at the incident of taking the +number off the coach, the meaning of which none but himself seemed to +understand. + +When the epistle had been thus duly read, Mr. Micklewham promised, for +the satisfaction of some of the congregation, that he would get two or +three copies made by the best writers in his school, to be handed about +the parish, and Mr. Icenor remarked, that truly it was a thing to be held +in remembrance, for he had not heard of greater tribulation by the waters +since the shipwreck of the Apostle Paul. + + + + +CHAPTER III--THE LEGACY + + +Soon after the receipt of the letters which we had the pleasure of +communicating in the foregoing chapter, the following was received from +Mrs. Pringle, and the intelligence it contains is so interesting and +important, that we hasten to lay it before our readers:-- + + + +LETTER VI + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR MISS MALLY--You must not expect no particulars from me of our +journey; but as Rachel is writing all the calamities that befell us to +Bell Tod, you will, no doubt, hear of them. But all is nothing to my +losses. I bought from the first hand, Mr. Treddles the manufacturer, two +pieces of muslin, at Glasgow, such a thing not being to be had on any +reasonable terms here, where they get all their fine muslins from Glasgow +and Paisley; and in the same bocks with them I packit a small crock of +our ain excellent poudered butter, with a delap cheese, for I was told +that such commodities are not to be had genuine in London. I likewise +had in it a pot of marmlet, which Miss Jenny Macbride gave me at Glasgow, +assuring me that it was not only dentice, but a curiosity among the +English, and my best new bumbeseen goun in peper. Howsomever, in the +nailing of the bocks, which I did carefully with my oun hands, one of the +nails gaed in ajee, and broke the pot of marmlet, which, by the jolting +of the ship, ruined the muslin, rottened the peper round the goun, which +the shivers cut into more than twenty great holes. Over and above all, +the crock with the butter was, no one can tell how, crackit, and the +pickle lecking out, and mixing with the seerip of the marmlet, spoilt the +cheese. In short, at the object I beheld, when the bocks was opened, I +could have ta'en to the greeting; but I behaved with more composity on +the occasion, than the Doctor thought it was in the power of nature to +do. Howsomever, till I get a new goun and other things, I am obliged to +be a prisoner; and as the Doctor does not like to go to the +counting-house of the agents without me, I know not what is yet to be the +consequence of our journey. But it would need to be something; for we +pay four guineas and a half a week for our dry lodgings, which is at a +degree more than the Doctor's whole stipend. As yet, for the cause of +these misfortunes, I can give you no account of London; but there is, as +everybody kens, little thrift in their housekeeping. We just buy our tea +by the quarter a pound, and our loaf sugar, broken in a peper bag, by the +pound, which would be a disgrace to a decent family in Scotland; and when +we order dinner, we get no more than just serves, so that we have no cold +meat if a stranger were coming by chance, which makes an unco bare house. +The servan lasses I cannot abide; they dress better at their wark than +ever I did on an ordinaire week-day at the manse; and this very morning I +saw madam, the kitchen lass, mounted on a pair of pattens, washing the +plain stenes before the door; na, for that matter, a bare foot is not to +be seen within the four walls of London, at the least I have na seen no +such thing. + +In the way of marketing, things are very good here, and considering, not +dear; but all is sold by the licht weight, only the fish are awful; half +a guinea for a cod's head, and no bigger than the drouds the cadgers +bring from Ayr, at a shilling and eighteenpence apiece. + +Tell Miss Nanny Eydent that I have seen none of the fashions as yet; but +we are going to the burial of the auld king next week, and I'll write her +a particular account how the leddies are dressed; but everybody is in +deep mourning. Howsomever I have seen but little, and that only in a +manner from the window; but I could not miss the opportunity of a frank +that Andrew has got, and as he's waiting for the pen, you must excuse +haste. From your sincere friend, + + JANET PRINGLE. + + + +LETTER VII + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR FRIEND--It will give you pleasure to hear that my father is +likely to get his business speedily settled without any equivocation; and +that all those prudential considerations which brought us to London were +but the phantasms of our own inexperience. I use the plural, for I +really share in the shame of having called in question the high character +of the agents: it ought to have been warrantry enough that everything +would be fairly adjusted. But I must give you some account of what has +taken place, to illustrate our provincialism, and to give you some idea +of the way of doing business in London. + +After having recovered from the effects, and repaired some of the +accidents of our voyage, we yesterday morning sallied forth, the Doctor, +my mother, and your humble servant, in a hackney coach, to Broad Street, +where the agents have their counting-house, and were ushered into a room +among other legatees or clients, waiting for an audience of Mr. Argent, +the principal of the house. + +I know not how it is, that the little personal peculiarities, so amusing +to strangers, should be painful when we see them in those whom we love +and esteem; but I own to you, that there was a something in the demeanour +of the old folks on this occasion, that would have been exceedingly +diverting to me, had my filial reverence been less sincere for them. + +The establishment of Messrs. Argent and Company is of vast extent, and +has in it something even of a public magnitude; the number of the clerks, +the assiduity of all, and the order that obviously prevails throughout, +give at the first sight, an impression that bespeaks respect for the +stability and integrity of the concern. When we had been seated about +ten minutes, and my father's name taken to Mr. Argent, an answer was +brought, that he would see us as soon as possible; but we were obliged to +wait at least half an hour more. Upon our being at last admitted, Mr. +Argent received us standing, and in an easy gentlemanly manner said to my +father, "You are the residuary legatee of the late Colonel Armour. I am +sorry that you did not apprise me of this visit, that I might have been +prepared to give the information you naturally desire; but if you will +call here to-morrow at 12 o'clock, I shall then be able to satisfy you on +the subject. Your lady, I presume?" he added, turning to my mother; +"Mrs. Argent will have the honour of waiting on you; may I therefore beg +the favour of your address?" Fortunately I was provided with cards, and +having given him one, we found ourselves constrained, as it were, to take +our leave. The whole interview did not last two minutes, and I never was +less satisfied with myself. The Doctor and my mother were in the +greatest anguish; and when we were again seated in the coach, loudly +expressed their apprehensions. They were convinced that some stratagem +was meditated; they feared that their journey to London would prove as +little satisfactory as that of the Wrongheads, and that they had been +throwing away good money in building castles in the air. + +It had been previously arranged, that we were to return for my sister, +and afterwards visit some of the sights; but the clouded visages of her +father and mother darkened the very spirit of Rachel, and she largely +shared in their fears. This, however, was not the gravest part of the +business; for, instead of going to St. Paul's and the Tower, as we had +intended, my mother declared, that not one farthing would they spend more +till they were satisfied that the expenses already incurred were likely +to be reimbursed; and a Chancery suit, with all the horrors of wig and +gown, floated in spectral haziness before their imagination. + +We sat down to a frugal meal, and although the remainder of a bottle of +wine, saved from the preceding day, hardly afforded a glass apiece, the +Doctor absolutely prohibited me from opening another. + +This morning, faithful to the hour, we were again in Broad Street, with +hearts knit up into the most peremptory courage; and, on being announced, +were immediately admitted to Mr. Argent. He received us with the same +ease as in the first interview, and, after requesting us to be seated +(which, by the way, he did not do yesterday, a circumstance that was +ominously remarked), he began to talk on indifferent matters. I could +see that a question, big with law and fortune, was gathering in the +breasts both of the Doctor and my mother, and that they were in a state +far from that of the blessed. But one of the clerks, before they had +time to express their indignant suspicions, entered with a paper, and Mr. +Argent, having glanced it over, said to the Doctor--"I congratulate you, +sir, on the amount of the colonel's fortune. I was not indeed aware +before that he had died so rich. He has left about 120,000 pounds; +seventy-five thousand of which is in the five per cents; the remainder in +India bonds and other securities. The legacies appear to be +inconsiderable, so that the residue to you, after paying them and the +expenses of Doctors' Commons, will exceed a hundred thousand pounds." + +My father turned his eyes upwards in thankfulness. "But," continued Mr. +Argent, "before the property can be transferred, it will be necessary for +you to provide about four thousand pounds to pay the duty and other +requisite expenses." This was a thunderclap. "Where can I get such a +sum?" exclaimed my father, in a tone of pathetic simplicity. Mr. Argent +smiled and said, "We shall manage that for you"; and having in the same +moment pulled a bell, a fine young man entered, whom he introduced to us +as his son, and desired him to explain what steps it was necessary for +the Doctor to take. We accordingly followed Mr. Charles Argent to his +own room. + +Thus, in less time than I have been in writing it, were we put in +possession of all the information we required, and found those whom we +feared might be interested to withhold the settlement, alert and prompt +to assist us. + +Mr. Charles Argent is naturally more familiar than his father. He has a +little dash of pleasantry in his manner, with a shrewd good-humoured +fashionable air, that renders him soon an agreeable acquaintance. He +entered with singular felicity at once into the character of the Doctor +and my mother, and waggishly drolled, as if he did not understand them, +in order, I could perceive, to draw out the simplicity of their +apprehensions. He quite won the old lady's economical heart, by offering +to frank her letters, for he is in Parliament. "You have probably," said +he slyly, "friends in the country, to whom you may be desirous of +communicating the result of your journey to London; send your letters to +me, and I will forward them, and any that you expect may also come under +cover to my address, for postage is very expensive." + +As we were taking our leave, after being fully instructed in all the +preliminary steps to be taken before the transfers of the funded property +can be made, he asked me, in a friendly manner, to dine with him this +evening, and I never accepted an invitation with more pleasure. I +consider his acquaintance a most agreeable acquisition, and not one of +the least of those advantages which this new opulence has put it in my +power to attain. The incidents, indeed, of this day, have been all +highly gratifying, and the new and brighter phase in which I have seen +the mercantile character, as it is connected with the greatness and glory +of my country--is in itself equivalent to an accession of useful +knowledge. I can no longer wonder at the vast power which the British +Government wielded during the late war, when I reflect that the method +and promptitude of the house of Messrs. Argent and Company is common to +all the great commercial concerns from which the statesmen derived, as +from so many reservoirs, those immense pecuniary supplies, which enabled +them to beggar all the resources of a political despotism, the most +unbounded, both in power and principle, of any tyranny that ever existed +so long.--Yours, etc., + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + + + + +CHAPTER IV--THE TOWN + + +There was a great tea-drinking held in the Kirkgate of Irvine, at the +house of Miss Mally Glencairn; and at that assemblage of rank, beauty, +and fashion, among other delicacies of the season, several new-come-home +Clyde skippers, roaring from Greenock and Port-Glasgow, were served +up--but nothing contributed more to the entertainment of the evening than +a proposal, on the part of Miss Mally, that those present who had +received letters from the Pringles should read them for the benefit of +the company. This was, no doubt, a preconcerted scheme between her and +Miss Isabella Tod, to hear what Mr. Andrew Pringle had said to his friend +Mr. Snodgrass, and likewise what the Doctor himself had indited to Mr. +Micklewham; some rumour having spread of the wonderful escapes and +adventures of the family in their journey and voyage to London. Had +there not been some prethought of this kind, it was not indeed probable, +that both the helper and session-clerk of Garnock could have been there +together, in a party, where it was an understood thing, that not only +Whist and Catch Honours were to be played, but even obstreperous Birky +itself, for the diversion of such of the company as were not used to +gambling games. It was in consequence of what took place at this Irvine +route, that we were originally led to think of collecting the letters. + + + +LETTER VIII + + + _Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR BELL--It was my heartfelt intention to keep a regular journal of +all our proceedings, from the sad day on which I bade a long adieu to my +native shades--and I persevered with a constancy becoming our dear and +youthful friendship, in writing down everything that I saw, either rare +or beautiful, till the hour of our departure from Leith. In that +faithful register of my feelings and reflections as a traveller, I +described our embarkation at Greenock, on board the steam-boat,--our +sailing past Port-Glasgow, an insignificant town, with a steeple;--the +stupendous rock of Dumbarton Castle, that Gibraltar of antiquity;--our +landing at Glasgow;--my astonishment at the magnificence of that opulent +metropolis of the muslin manufacturers; my brother's remark, that the +punch-bowls on the roofs of the Infirmary, the Museum, and the Trades +Hall, were emblematic of the universal estimation in which that +celebrated mixture is held by all ranks and degrees--learned, commercial, +and even medical, of the inhabitants;--our arrival at Edinburgh--my +emotion on beholding the Castle, and the visionary lake which may be +nightly seen from the windows of Princes Street, between the Old and New +Town, reflecting the lights of the lofty city beyond--with a thousand +other delightful and romantic circumstances, which render it no longer +surprising that the Edinburgh folk should be, as they think themselves, +the most accomplished people in the world. But, alas! from the moment I +placed my foot on board that cruel vessel, of which the very idea is +anguish, all thoughts were swallowed up in suffering-swallowed, did I +say? Ah, my dear Bell, it was the odious reverse--but imagination alone +can do justice to the subject. Not, however, to dwell on what is past, +during the whole time of our passage from Leith, I was unable to think, +far less to write; and, although there was a handsome young Hussar +officer also a passenger, I could not even listen to the elegant +compliments which he seemed disposed to offer by way of consolation, when +he had got the better of his own sickness. Neither love nor valour can +withstand the influence of that sea-demon. The interruption thus +occasioned to my observations made me destroy my journal, and I have now +to write to you only about London--only about London! What an expression +for this human universe, as my brother calls it, as if my weak feminine +pen were equal to the stupendous theme! + +But, before entering on the subject, let me first satisfy the anxiety of +your faithful bosom with respect to my father's legacy. All the +accounts, I am happy to tell you, are likely to be amicably settled; but +the exact amount is not known as yet, only I can see, by my brother's +manner, that it is not less than we expected, and my mother speaks about +sending me to a boarding-school to learn accomplishments. Nothing, +however, is to be done until something is actually in hand. But what +does it all avail to me? Here am I, a solitary being in the midst of +this wilderness of mankind, far from your sympathising affection, with +the dismal prospect before me of going a second time to school, and +without the prospect of enjoying, with my own sweet companions, that +light and bounding gaiety we were wont to share, in skipping from tomb to +tomb in the breezy churchyard of Irvine, like butterflies in spring +flying from flower to flower, as a Wordsworth or a Wilson would express +it. + +We have got elegant lodgings at present in Norfolk Street, but my brother +is trying, with all his address, to get us removed to a more fashionable +part of the town, which, if the accounts were once settled, I think will +take place; and he proposes to hire a carriage for a whole month. +Indeed, he has given hints about the saving that might be made by buying +one of our own; but my mother shakes her head, and says, "Andrew, dinna +be carri't." From all which it is very plain, though they don't allow me +to know their secrets, that the legacy is worth the coming for. But to +return to the lodgings;--we have what is called a first and second floor, +a drawing-room, and three handsome bedchambers. The drawing-room is very +elegant; and the carpet is the exact same pattern of the one in the +dress-drawing-room of Eglintoun Castle. Our landlady is indeed a lady, +and I am surprised how she should think of letting lodgings, for she +dresses better, and wears finer lace, than ever I saw in Irvine. But I +am interrupted.-- + +I now resume my pen. We have just had a call from Mrs. and Miss Argent, +the wife and daughter of the colonel's man of business. They seem great +people, and came in their own chariot, with two grand footmen behind; but +they are pleasant and easy, and the object of their visit was to invite +us to a family dinner to-morrow, Sunday. I hope we may become better +acquainted; but the two livery servants make such a difference in our +degrees, that I fear this is a vain expectation. Miss Argent was, +however, very frank, and told me that she was herself only just come to +London for the first time since she was a child, having been for the last +seven years at a school in the country. I shall, however, be better able +to say more about her in my next letter. Do not, however, be afraid that +she shall ever supplant you in my heart. No, my dear friend, companion +of my days of innocence,--that can never be. But this call from such +persons of fashion looks as if the legacy had given us some +consideration; so that I think my father and mother may as well let me +know at once what my prospects are, that I might show you how +disinterestedly and truly I am, my dear Bell, yours, + + RACHEL PRINGLE. + +When Miss Isabella Tod had read the letter, there was a solemn pause for +some time--all present knew something, more or less, of the fair writer; +but a carriage, a carpet like the best at Eglintoun, a Hussar officer, +and two footmen in livery, were phantoms of such high import, that no one +could distinctly express the feelings with which the intelligence +affected them. It was, however, unanimously agreed, that the Doctor's +legacy had every symptom of being equal to what it was at first expected +to be, namely, twenty thousand pounds;--a sum which, by some occult or +recondite moral influence of the Lottery, is the common maximum, in +popular estimation, of any extraordinary and indefinite windfall of +fortune. Miss Becky Glibbans, from the purest motives of charity, +devoutly wished that poor Rachel might be able to carry her full cup with +a steady hand; and the Rev. Mr. Snodgrass, that so commendable an +expression might not lose its edifying effect by any lighter talk, +requested Mr. Micklewham to read his letter from the Doctor. + + + +LETTER IX + + + _The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk of Garnock_ + LONDON. + +DEAR SIR--I have written by the post that will take this to hand, a +letter to Banker M---y, at Irvine, concerning some small matters of money +that I may stand in need of his opinion anent; and as there is a prospect +now of a settlement of the legacy business, I wish you to take a step +over to the banker, and he will give you ten pounds, which you will +administer to the poor, by putting a twenty-shilling note in the plate on +Sunday, as a public testimony from me of thankfulness for the hope that +is before us; the other nine pounds you will quietly, and in your own +canny way, divide after the following manner, letting none of the +partakers thereof know from what other hand than the Lord's the help +comes, for, indeed, from whom but HIS does any good befall us! + +You will give to auld Mizy Eccles ten shillings. She's a careful +creature, and it will go as far with her thrift as twenty will do with +Effy Hopkirk; so you will give Effy twenty. Mrs. Binnacle, who lost her +husband, the sailor, last winter, is, I am sure, with her two sickly +bairns, very ill off; I would therefore like if you will lend her a note, +and ye may put half-a-crown in the hand of each of the poor weans for a +playock, for she's a proud spirit, and will bear much before she +complain. Thomas Dowy has been long unable to do a turn of work, so you +may give him a note too. I promised that donsie body, Willy Shachle, the +betherel, that when I got my legacy, he should get a guinea, which would +be more to him than if the colonel had died at home, and he had had the +howking of his grave; you may therefore, in the meantime, give Willy a +crown, and be sure to warn him well no to get fou with it, for I'll be +very angry if he does. But what in this matter will need all your skill, +is the giving of the remaining five pounds to auld Miss Betty Peerie; +being a gentlewoman both by blood and education, she's a very slimmer +affair to handle in a doing of this kind. But I am persuaded she's in as +great necessity as many that seem far poorer, especially since the muslin +flowering has gone so down. Her bits of brats are sairly worn, though +she keeps out an apparition of gentility. Now, for all this trouble, I +will give you an account of what we have been doing since my last. + +When we had gotten ourselves made up in order, we went, with Andrew +Pringle, my son, to the counting-house, and had a satisfactory vista of +the residue; but it will be some time before things can be +settled--indeed, I fear, not for months to come--so that I have been +thinking, if the parish was pleased with Mr. Snodgrass, it might be my +duty to my people to give up to him my stipend, and let him be appointed +not only helper, but successor likewise. It would not be right of me to +give the manse, both because he's a young and inexperienced man, and +cannot, in the course of nature, have got into the way of visiting the +sick-beds of the frail, which is the main part of a pastor's duty, and +likewise, because I wish to die, as I have lived, among my people. But, +when all's settled, I will know better what to do. + +When we had got an inkling from Mr. Argent of what the colonel has +left,--and I do assure you, that money is not to be got, even in the way +of legacy, without anxiety,--Mrs. Pringle and I consulted together, and +resolved, that it was our first duty, as a token of our gratitude to the +Giver of all Good, to make our first outlay to the poor. So, without +saying a word either to Rachel, or to Andrew Pringle, my son, knowing +that there was a daily worship in the Church of England, we slipped out +of the house by ourselves, and, hiring a hackney conveyance, told the +driver thereof to drive us to the high church of St. Paul's. This was +out of no respect to the pomp and pride of prelacy, but to Him before +whom both pope and presbyter are equal, as they are seen through the +merits of Christ Jesus. We had taken a gold guinea in our hand, but +there was no broad at the door; and, instead of a venerable elder, +lending sanctity to his office by reason of his age, such as we see in +the effectual institutions of our own national church--the door was kept +by a young man, much more like a writer's whipper-snapper-clerk, than one +qualified to fill that station, which good King David would have +preferred to dwelling in tents of sin. However, we were not come to spy +the nakedness of the land, so we went up the outside stairs, and I asked +at him for the plate; "Plate!" says he; "why, it's on the altar!" I +should have known this--the custom of old being to lay the offerings on +the altar, but I had forgot; such is the force, you see, of habit, that +the Church of England is not so well reformed and purged as ours is from +the abominations of the leaven of idolatry. We were then stepping +forward, when he said to me, as sharply as if I was going to take an +advantage, "You must pay here." "Very well, wherever it is customary," +said I, in a meek manner, and gave him the guinea. Mrs. Pringle did the +same. "I cannot give you change," cried he, with as little decorum as if +we had been paying at a playhouse. "It makes no odds," said I; "keep it +all." Whereupon he was so converted by the mammon of iniquity, that he +could not be civil enough, he thought--but conducted us in, and showed us +the marble monuments, and the French colours that were taken in the war, +till the time of worship--nothing could surpass his discretion. + +At last the organ began to sound, and we went into the place of worship; +but oh, Mr. Micklewham, yon is a thin kirk. There was not a hearer forby +Mrs. Pringle and me, saving and excepting the relics of popery that +assisted at the service. What was said, I must, however, in verity +confess, was not far from the point. But it's still a comfort to see +that prelatical usurpations are on the downfall; no wonder that there is +no broad at the door to receive the collection for the poor, when no +congregation entereth in. You may, therefore, tell Mr. Craig, and it +will gladden his heart to hear the tidings, that the great Babylonian +madam is now, indeed, but a very little cutty. + +On our return home to our lodgings, we found Andrew Pringle, my son, and +Rachel, in great consternation about our absence. When we told them that +we had been at worship, I saw they were both deeply affected; and I was +pleased with my children, the more so, as you know I have had my doubts +that Andrew Pringle's principles have not been strengthened by the +reading of the _Edinburgh Review_. Nothing more passed at that time, for +we were disturbed by a Captain Sabre that came up with us in the smack, +calling to see how we were after our journey; and as he was a civil +well-bred young man, which I marvel at, considering he's a Hussar +dragoon, we took a coach, and went to see the lions, as he said; but, +instead of taking us to the Tower of London, as I expected, he ordered +the man to drive us round the town. In our way through the city he +showed us the Temple Bar, where Lord Kilmarnock's head was placed after +the Rebellion, and pointed out the Bank of England and Royal Exchange. +He said the steeple of the Exchange was taken down shortly ago--and that +the late improvements at the Bank were very grand. I remembered having +read in the _Edinburgh Advertiser_, some years past, that there was a +great deal said in Parliament about the state of the Exchange, and the +condition of the Bank, which I could never thoroughly understand. And, +no doubt, the taking own of an old building, and the building up of a new +one so near together, must, in such a crowded city as this, be not only a +great detriment to business, but dangerous to the community at large. + +After we had driven about for more than two hours, and neither seen lions +nor any other curiosity, but only the outside of houses, we returned +home, where we found a copperplate card left by Mr. Argent, the colonel's +agent, with the name of his private dwelling-house. Both me and Mrs. +Pringle were confounded at the sight of this thing, and could not but +think that it prognosticated no good; for we had seen the gentleman +himself in the forenoon. Andrew Pringle, my son, could give no +satisfactory reason for such an extraordinary manifestation of anxiety to +see us; so that, after sitting on thorns at our dinner, I thought that we +should see to the bottom of the business. Accordingly, a hackney was +summoned to the door, and me and Andrew Pringle, my son, got into it, and +told the man to drive to second in the street where Mr. Argent lived, and +which was the number of his house. The man got up, and away we went; +but, after he had driven an awful time, and stopping and inquiring at +different places, he said there was no such house as Second's in the +street; whereupon Andrew Pringle, my son, asked him what he meant, and +the man said that he supposed it was one Second's Hotel, or Coffee-house, +that we wanted. Now, only think of the craftiness of the ne'er-da-weel; +it was with some difficulty that I could get him to understand, that +second was just as good as number two; for Andrew Pringle, my son, would +not interfere, but lay back in the coach, and was like to split his sides +at my confabulating with the hackney man. At long and length we got to +the house, and were admitted to Mr. Argent, who was sitting by himself in +his library reading, with a plate of oranges, and two decanters with wine +before him. I explained to him, as well as I could, my surprise and +anxiety at seeing his card, at which he smiled, and said, it was merely a +sort of practice that had come into fashion of late years, and that, +although we had been at his counting-house in the morning, he considered +it requisite that he should call on his return from the city. I made the +best excuse I could for the mistake; and the servant having placed +glasses on the table, we were invited to take wine. But I was grieved to +think that so respectable a man should have had the bottles before him by +himself, the more especially as he said his wife and daughters had gone +to a party, and that he did not much like such sort of things. But for +all that, we found him a wonderful conversible man; and Andrew Pringle, +my son, having read all the new books put out at Edinburgh, could speak +with him on any subject. In the course of conversation they touched upon +politick economy, and Andrew Pringle, my son, in speaking about cash in +the Bank of England, told him what I had said concerning the alterations +of the Royal Exchange steeple, with which Mr. Argent seemed greatly +pleased, and jocosely proposed as a toast,--"May the country never suffer +more from the alterations in the Exchange, than the taking down of the +steeple." But as Mrs. Pringle is wanting to send a bit line under the +same frank to her cousin, Miss Mally Glencairn, I must draw to a +conclusion, assuring you, that I am, dear sir, your sincere friend and +pastor, + + ZACHARIAH PRINGLE. + +The impression which this letter made on the auditors of Mr. Micklewham +was highly favourable to the Doctor--all bore testimony to his +benevolence and piety; and Mrs. Glibbans expressed, in very loquacious +terms, her satisfaction at the neglect to which prelacy was consigned. +The only person who seemed to be affected by other than the most sedate +feelings on the occasion was the Rev. Mr. Snodgrass, who was observed to +smile in a very unbecoming manner at some parts of the Doctor's account +of his reception at St. Paul's. Indeed, it was apparently with the +utmost difficulty that the young clergyman could restrain himself from +giving liberty to his risible faculties. It is really surprising how +differently the same thing affects different people. "The Doctor and +Mrs. Pringle giving a guinea at the door of St. Paul's for the poor need +not make folk laugh," said Mrs. Glibbans; "for is it not written, that +whosoever giveth to the poor lendeth to the Lord?" "True, my dear +madam," replied Mr. Snodgrass, "but the Lord to whom our friends in this +case gave their money is the Lord Bishop of London; all the collection +made at the doors of St. Paul's Cathedral is, I understand, a perquisite +of the Bishop's." In this the reverend gentleman was not very correctly +informed, for, in the first place, it is not a collection, but an +exaction; and, in the second place, it is only sanctioned by the Bishop, +who allows the inferior clergy to share the gains among themselves. Mrs. +Glibbans, however, on hearing his explanation, exclaimed, "Gude be about +us!" and pushing back her chair with a bounce, streaking down her gown at +the same time with both her hands, added, "No wonder that a judgment is +upon the land, when we hear of money-changers in the temple." Miss Mally +Glencairn, to appease her gathering wrath and holy indignation, said +facetiously, "Na, na, Mrs. Glibbans, ye forget, there was nae changing of +money there. The man took the whole guineas. But not to make a +controversy on the subject, Mr. Snodgrass will now let us hear what +Andrew Pringle, 'my son,' has said to him":--And the reverend gentleman +read the following letter with due circumspection, and in his best +manner:-- + + + +LETTER X + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Reverend Charles Snodgrass_ + +MY DEAR FRIEND--I have heard it alleged, as the observation of a great +traveller, that the manners of the higher classes of society throughout +Christendom are so much alike, that national peculiarities among them are +scarcely perceptible. This is not correct; the differences between those +of London and Edinburgh are to me very striking. It is not that they +talk and perform the little etiquettes of social intercourse differently; +for, in these respects, they are apparently as similar as it is possible +for imitation to make them; but the difference to which I refer is an +indescribable something, which can only be compared to peculiarities of +accent. They both speak the same language; perhaps in classical purity +of phraseology the fashionable Scotchman is even superior to the +Englishman; but there is a flatness of tone in his accent--a lack of what +the musicians call expression, which gives a local and provincial effect +to his conversation, however, in other respects, learned and intelligent. +It is so with his manners; he conducts himself with equal ease, +self-possession, and discernment, but the flavour of the metropolitan +style is wanting. + +I have been led to make these remarks by what I noticed in the guests +whom I met on Friday at young Argent's. It was a small party, only five +strangers; but they seemed to be all particular friends of our host, and +yet none of them appeared to be on any terms of intimacy with each other. +In Edinburgh, such a party would have been at first a little cold; each +of the guests would there have paused to estimate the characters of the +several strangers before committing himself with any topic of +conversation. But here, the circumstance of being brought together by a +mutual friend, produced at once the purest gentlemanly confidence; each, +as it were, took it for granted, that the persons whom he had come among +were men of education and good-breeding, and, without deeming it at all +necessary that he should know something of their respective political and +philosophical principles, before venturing to speak on such subjects, +discussed frankly, and as things unconnected with party feelings, +incidental occurrences which, in Edinburgh, would have been avoided as +calculated to awaken animosities. + +But the most remarkable feature of the company, small as it was, +consisted of the difference in the condition and character of the guests. +In Edinburgh the landlord, with the scrupulous care of a herald or +genealogist, would, for a party, previously unacquainted with each other, +have chosen his guests as nearly as possible from the same rank of life; +the London host had paid no respect to any such consideration--all the +strangers were as dissimilar in fortune, profession, connections, and +politics, as any four men in the class of gentlemen could well be. I +never spent a more delightful evening. + +The ablest, the most eloquent, and the most elegant man present, without +question, was the son of a saddler. No expense had been spared on his +education. His father, proud of his talents, had intended him for a seat +in Parliament; but Mr. T--- himself prefers the easy enjoyments of +private life, and has kept himself aloof from politics and parties. Were +I to form an estimate of his qualifications to excel in public speaking, +by the clearness and beautiful propriety of his colloquial language, I +should conclude that he was still destined to perform a distinguished +part. But he is content with the liberty of a private station, as a +spectator only, and, perhaps, in that he shows his wisdom; for +undoubtedly such men are not cordially received among hereditary +statesmen, unless they evince a certain suppleness of principle, such as +we have seen in the conduct of more than one political adventurer. + +The next in point of effect was young C--- G---. He evidently languished +under the influence of indisposition, which, while it added to the +natural gentleness of his manners, diminished the impression his +accomplishments would otherwise have made. I was greatly struck with the +modesty with which he offered his opinions, and could scarcely credit +that he was the same individual whose eloquence in Parliament is by many +compared even to Mr. Canning's, and whose firmness of principle is so +universally acknowledged, that no one ever suspects him of being liable +to change. You may have heard of his poem "On the Restoration of +Learning in the East," the most magnificent prize essay that the English +Universities have produced for many years. The passage in which he +describes the talents, the researches, and learning of Sir William Jones, +is worthy of the imagination of Burke; and yet, with all this oriental +splendour of fancy, he has the reputation of being a patient and +methodical man of business. He looks, however, much more like a poet or +a student, than an orator and a statesman; and were statesmen the sort of +personages which the spirit of the age attempts to represent them, I, for +one, should lament that a young man, possessed of so many amiable +qualities, all so tinted with the bright lights of a fine enthusiasm, +should ever have been removed from the moon-lighted groves and peaceful +cloisters of Magdalen College, to the lamp-smelling passages and factious +debates of St. Stephen's Chapel. Mr. G--- certainly belongs to that high +class of gifted men who, to the honour of the age, have redeemed the +literary character from the charge of unfitness for the concerns of +public business; and he has shown that talents for affairs of state, +connected with literary predilections, are not limited to mere reviewers, +as some of your old class-fellows would have the world to believe. When +I contrast the quiet unobtrusive development of Mr. G---'s character with +that bustling and obstreperous elbowing into notice of some of those to +whom the _Edinburgh Review_ owes half its fame, and compare the pure and +steady lustre of his elevation, to the rocket-like aberrations and +perturbed blaze of their still uncertain course, I cannot but think that +we have overrated, if not their ability, at least their wisdom in the +management of public affairs. + +The third of the party was a little Yorkshire baronet. He was formerly +in Parliament, but left it, as he says, on account of its irregularities, +and the bad hours it kept. He is a Whig, I understand, in politics, and +indeed one might guess as much by looking at him; for I have always +remarked, that your Whigs have something odd and particular about them. +On making the same sort of remark to Argent, who, by the way, is a high +ministerial man, he observed, the thing was not to be wondered at, +considering that the Whigs are exceptions to the generality of mankind, +which naturally accounts for their being always in the minority. Mr. +T---, the saddler's son, who overheard us, said slyly, "That it might be +so; but if it be true that the wise are few compared to the multitude of +the foolish, things would be better managed by the minority than as they +are at present." + +The fourth guest was a stock-broker, a shrewd compound, with all charity +be it spoken, of knavery and humour. He is by profession an epicure, but +I suspect his accomplishments in that capacity are not very well founded; +I would almost say, judging by the evident traces of craft and +dissimulation in his physiognomy, that they have been assumed as part of +the means of getting into good company, to drive the more earnest trade +of money-making. Argent evidently understood his true character, though +he treated him with jocular familiarity. I thought it a fine example of +the intellectual tact and superiority of T---, that he seemed to view him +with dislike and contempt. But I must not give you my reasons for so +thinking, as you set no value on my own particular philosophy; besides, +my paper tells me, that I have only room left to say, that it would be +difficult in Edinburgh to bring such a party together; and yet they +affect there to have a metropolitan character. In saying this, I mean +only with reference to manners; the methods of behaviour in each of the +company were precisely similar--there was no eccentricity, but only that +distinct and decided individuality which nature gives, and which no +acquired habits can change. Each, however, was the representative of a +class; and Edinburgh has no classes exactly of the same kind as those to +which they belonged.--Yours truly, + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + +Just as Mr. Snodgrass concluded the last sentence, one of the Clyde +skippers, who had fallen asleep, gave such an extravagant snore, followed +by a groan, that it set the whole company a-laughing, and interrupted the +critical strictures which would otherwise have been made on Mr. Andrew +Pringle's epistle. "Damn it," said he, "I thought myself in a fog, and +could not tell whether the land ahead was Plada or the Lady Isle." Some +of the company thought the observation not inapplicable to what they had +been hearing. + +Miss Isabella Tod then begged that Miss Mally, their hostess, would +favour the company with Mrs. Pringle's communication. To this request +that considerate maiden ornament of the Kirkgate deemed it necessary, by +way of preface to the letter, to say, "Ye a' ken that Mrs. Pringle's a +managing woman, and ye maunna expect any metaphysical philosophy from +her." In the meantime, having taken the letter from her pocket, and +placed her spectacles on that functionary of the face which was destined +to wear spectacles, she began as follows:-- + + + +LETTER XI + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + +MY DEAR MISS MALLY--We have been at the counting-house, and gotten a sort +of a satisfaction; what the upshot may be, I canna take it upon myself to +prognosticate; but when the waur comes to the worst, I think that baith +Rachel and Andrew will have a nest egg, and the Doctor and me may sleep +sound on their account, if the nation doesna break, as the argle-barglers +in the House of Parliament have been threatening: for all the cornal's +fortune is sunk at present in the pesents. Howsomever, it's our notion, +when the legacies are paid off, to lift the money out of the funds, and +place it at good interest on hairetable securitie. But ye will hear +aften from us, before things come to that, for the delays, and the +goings, and the comings in this town of London are past all expreshon. + +As yet, we have been to see no fairlies, except going in a coach from one +part of the toun to another; but the Doctor and me was at the he-kirk of +Saint Paul's for a purpose that I need not tell you, as it was adoing +with the right hand what the left should not know. I couldna say that I +had there great pleasure, for the preacher was very cauldrife, and read +every word, and then there was such a beggary of popish prelacy, that it +was compassionate to a Christian to see. + +We are to dine at Mr. Argent's, the cornal's hadgint, on Sunday, and me +and Rachel have been getting something for the okasion. Our landlady, +Mrs. Sharkly, has recommended us to ane of the most fashionable +millinders in London, who keeps a grand shop in Cranburn Alla, and she +has brought us arteecles to look at; but I was surprised they were not +finer, for I thought them of a very inferior quality, which she said was +because they were not made for no costomer, but for the public. + +The Argents seem as if they would be discreet people, which, to us who +are here in the jaws of jeopardy, would be a great confort--for I am no +overly satisfeet with many things. What would ye think of buying coals +by the stimpert, for anything that I know, and then setting up the poker +afore the ribs, instead of blowing with the bellies to make the fire +burn? I was of a pinion that the Englishers were naturally masterful; +but I can ashure you this is no the case at all--and I am beginning to +think that the way of leeving from hand to mouth is great frugality, when +ye consider that all is left in the logive hands of uncercumseezed +servans. + +But what gives me the most concern at this time is one Captain Sabre of +the Dragoon Hozars, who come up in the smak with us from Leith, and is +looking more after our Rachel than I could wish, now that she might set +her cap to another sort of object. But he's of a respectit family, and +the young lad himself is no to be despisid; howsomever, I never likit +officir-men of any description, and yet the thing that makes me look down +on the captain is all owing to the cornal, who was an officer of the +native poors of India, where the pay must indeed have been extraordinar, +for who ever heard either of a cornal, or any officer whomsoever, making +a hundred thousand pounds in our regiments? no that I say the cornal has +left so meikle to us. + +Tell Mrs. Glibbans that I have not heard of no sound preacher as yet in +London--the want of which is no doubt the great cause of the crying sins +of the place. What would she think to hear of newspapers selling by tout +of horn on the Lord's day? and on the Sabbath night, the change-houses +are more throng than on the Saturday! I am told, but as yet I cannot say +that I have seen the evil myself with my own eyes, that in the summer +time there are tea-gardens, where the tradesmen go to smoke their pipes +of tobacco, and to entertain their wives and children, which can be +nothing less than a bringing of them to an untimely end. But you will be +surprised to hear, that no such thing as whusky is to be had in the +public-houses, where they drink only a dead sort of beer; and that a +bottle of true jennyinn London porter is rarely to be seen in the whole +town--all kinds of piple getting their porter in pewter cans, and a +laddie calls for in the morning to take away what has been yoused over +night. But what I most miss is the want of creem. The milk here is just +skimm, and I doot not, likewise well watered--as for the water, a drink +of clear wholesome good water is not within the bounds of London; and +truly, now may I say, that I have learnt what the blessing of a cup of +cold water is. + +Tell Miss Nanny Eydent, that the day of the burial is now settled, when +we are going to Windsor Castle to see the precesson--and that, by the end +of the wick, she may expect the fashions from me, with all the +particulars. Till then, I am, my dear Miss Mally, your friend and +well-wisher, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +_Noto Beny_.--Give my kind compliments to Mrs. Glibbans, and let her +know, that I will, after Sunday, give her an account of the state of the +Gospel in London. + + * * * * * + +Miss Mally paused when she had read the letter, and it was unanimously +agreed, that Mrs. Pringle gave a more full account of London than either +father, son, or daughter. + +By this time the night was far advanced, and Mrs. Glibbans was rising to +go away, apprehensive, as she observed, that they were going to bring +"the carts" into the room. Upon Miss Mally, however, assuring her that +no such transgression was meditated, but that she intended to treat them +with a bit nice Highland mutton ham, and eggs, of her own laying, that +worthy pillar of the Relief Kirk consented to remain. + +It was past eleven o'clock when the party broke up; Mr. Snodgrass and Mr. +Micklewham walked home together, and as they were crossing the Red Burn +Bridge, at the entrance of Eglintoun Wood,--a place well noted from +ancient times for preternatural appearances, Mr. Micklewham declared that +he thought he heard something purring among the bushes; upon which Mr. +Snodgrass made a jocose observation, stating, that it could be nothing +but the effect of Lord North's strong ale in his head; and we should add, +by way of explanation, that the Lord North here spoken of was Willy +Grieve, celebrated in Irvine for the strength and flavour of his brewing, +and that, in addition to a plentiful supply of his best, Miss Mally had +entertained them with tamarind punch, constituting a natural cause +adequate to produce all the preternatural purring that terrified the +dominie. + + + + +CHAPTER V--THE ROYAL FUNERAL + + +Tam Glen having, in consequence of the exhortations of Mr. Micklewham, +and the earnest entreaties of Mr. Daff, backed by the pious +animadversions of the rigidly righteous Mr. Craig, confessed a fault, and +acknowledged an irregular marriage with Meg Milliken, their child was +admitted to church privileges. But before the day of baptism, Mr. Daff, +who thought Tam had given but sullen symptoms of penitence, said, to put +him in better humour with his fate,--"Noo, Tam, since ye hae beguiled us +of the infare, we maun mak up for't at the christening; so I'll speak to +Mr. Snodgrass to bid the Doctor's friens and acquaintance to the ploy, +that we may get as meikle amang us as will pay for the bairn's baptismal +frock." + +Mr. Craig, who was present, and who never lost an opportunity of +testifying, as he said, his "discountenance of the crying iniquity," +remonstrated with Mr. Daff on the unchristian nature of the proposal, +stigmatising it with good emphasis "as a sinful nourishing of carnality +in his day and generation." Mr. Micklewham, however, interfered, and +said, "It was a matter of weight and concernment, and therefore it +behoves you to consult Mr. Snodgrass on the fitness of the thing. For if +the thing itself is not fit and proper, it cannot expect his countenance; +and, on that account, before we reckon on his compliance with what Mr. +Daff has propounded, we should first learn whether he approves of it at +all." Whereupon the two elders and the session-clerk adjourned to the +manse, in which Mr. Snodgrass, during the absence of the incumbent, had +taken up his abode. + +The heads of the previous conversation were recapitulated by Mr. +Micklewham, with as much brevity as was consistent with perspicuity; and +the matter being duly digested by Mr. Snodgrass, that orthodox young +man--as Mrs. Glibbans denominated him, on hearing him for the first +time--declared that the notion of a pay-christening was a benevolent and +kind thought: "For, is not the order to increase and multiply one of the +first commands in the Scriptures of truth?" said Mr. Snodgrass, +addressing himself to Mr. Craig. "Surely, then, when children are +brought into the world, a great law of our nature has been fulfilled, and +there is cause for rejoicing and gladness! And is it not an obligation +imposed upon all Christians, to welcome the stranger, and to feed the +hungry, and to clothe the naked; and what greater stranger can there be +than a helpless babe? Who more in need of sustenance than the infant, +that knows not the way even to its mother's bosom? And whom shall we +clothe, if we do not the wailing innocent, that the hand of Providence +places in poverty and nakedness before us, to try, as it were, the depth +of our Christian principles, and to awaken the sympathy of our humane +feelings?" + +Mr. Craig replied, "It's a' very true and sound what Mr. Snodgrass has +observed; but Tam Glen's wean is neither a stranger, nor hungry, nor +naked, but a sturdy brat, that has been rinning its lane for mair than +sax weeks." "Ah!" said Mr. Snodgrass familiarly, "I fear, Mr. Craig, +ye're a Malthusian in your heart." The sanctimonious elder was +thunderstruck at the word. Of many a various shade and modification of +sectarianism he had heard, but the Malthusian heresy was new to his ears, +and awful to his conscience, and he begged Mr. Snodgrass to tell him in +what it chiefly consisted, protesting his innocence of that, and of every +erroneous doctrine. + +Mr. Snodgrass happened to regard the opinions of Malthus on Population as +equally contrary to religion and nature, and not at all founded in truth. +"It is evident, that the reproductive principle in the earth and +vegetables, and all things and animals which constitute the means of +subsistence, is much more vigorous than in man. It may be therefore +affirmed, that the multiplication of the means of subsistence is an +effect of the multiplication of population, for the one is augmented in +quantity, by the skill and care of the other," said Mr. Snodgrass, +seizing with avidity this opportunity of stating what he thought on the +subject, although his auditors were but the session-clerk, and two elders +of a country parish. We cannot pursue the train of his argument, but we +should do injustice to the philosophy of Malthus, if we suppressed the +observation which Mr. Daff made at the conclusion. "Gude safe's!" said +the good-natured elder, "if it's true that we breed faster than the Lord +provides for us, we maun drown the poor folks' weans like kittlings." +"Na, na!" exclaimed Mr. Craig, "ye're a' out, neighbour; I see now the +utility of church-censures." "True!" said Mr. Micklewham; "and the +ordination of the stool of repentance, the horrors of which, in the +opinion of the fifteen Lords at Edinburgh, palliated child-murder, is +doubtless a Malthusian institution." But Mr. Snodgrass put an end to the +controversy, by fixing a day for the christening, and telling he would do +his best to procure a good collection, according to the benevolent +suggestion of Mr. Daff. To this cause we are indebted for the next +series of the Pringle correspondence; for, on the day appointed, Miss +Mally Glencairn, Miss Isabella Tod, Mrs. Glibbans and her daughter Becky, +with Miss Nanny Eydent, together with other friends of the minister's +family, dined at the manse, and the conversation being chiefly about the +concerns of the family, the letters were produced and read. + + + +LETTER XII + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_ + WINDSOR, CASTLE-INN. + +MY DEAR FRIEND--I have all my life been strangely susceptible of pleasing +impressions from public spectacles where great crowds are assembled. +This, perhaps, you will say, is but another way of confessing, that, like +the common vulgar, I am fond of sights and shows. It may be so, but it +is not from the pageants that I derive my enjoyment. A multitude, in +fact, is to me as it were a strain of music, which, with an irresistible +and magical influence, calls up from the unknown abyss of the feelings +new combinations of fancy, which, though vague and obscure, as those +nebulae of light that astronomers have supposed to be the rudiments of +unformed stars, afterwards become distinct and brilliant acquisitions. +In a crowd, I am like the somnambulist in the highest degree of the +luminous crisis, when it is said a new world is unfolded to his +contemplation, wherein all things have an intimate affinity with the +state of man, and yet bear no resemblance to the objects that address +themselves to his corporeal faculties. This delightful experience, as it +may be called, I have enjoyed this evening, to an exquisite degree, at +the funeral of the king; but, although the whole succession of incidents +is indelibly imprinted on my recollection, I am still so much affected by +the emotion excited, as to be incapable of conveying to you any +intelligible description of what I saw. It was indeed a scene witnessed +through the medium of the feelings, and the effect partakes of the nature +of a dream. + +I was within the walls of an ancient castle, + + "So old as if they had for ever stood, + So strong as if they would for ever stand," + +and it was almost midnight. The towers, like the vast spectres of +departed ages, raised their embattled heads to the skies, monumental +witnesses of the strength and antiquity of a great monarchy. A +prodigious multitude filled the courts of that venerable edifice, +surrounding on all sides a dark embossed structure, the sarcophagus, as +it seemed to me at the moment, of the heroism of chivalry. + +"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream," and I beheld the scene +suddenly illuminated, and the blaze of torches, the glimmering of arms, +and warriors and horses, while a mosaic of human faces covered like a +pavement the courts. A deep low under sound pealed from a distance; in +the same moment, a trumpet answered with a single mournful note from the +stateliest and darkest portion of the fabric, and it was whispered in +every ear, "It is coming." Then an awful cadence of solemn music, that +affected the heart like silence, was heard at intervals, and a numerous +retinue of grave and venerable men, + + "The fathers of their time, + Those mighty master spirits, that withstood + The fall of monarchies, and high upheld + Their country's standard, glorious in the storm," + +passed slowly before me, bearing the emblems and trophies of a king. +They were as a series of great historical events, and I beheld behind +them, following and followed, an awful and indistinct image, like the +vision of Job. It moved on, and I could not discern the form thereof, +but there were honours and heraldries, and sorrow, and silence, and I +heard the stir of a profound homage performing within the breasts of all +the witnesses. But I must not indulge myself farther on this subject. I +cannot hope to excite in you the emotions with which I was so profoundly +affected. In the visible objects of the funeral of George the Third +there was but little magnificence; all its sublimity was derived from the +trains of thought and currents of feeling, which the sight of so many +illustrious characters, surrounded by circumstances associated with the +greatness and antiquity of the kingdom, was necessarily calculated to +call forth. In this respect, however, it was perhaps the sublimest +spectacle ever witnessed in this island; and I am sure, that I cannot +live so long as ever again to behold another, that will equally interest +me to the same depth and extent.--Yours, + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + +We should ill perform the part of faithful historians, did we omit to +record the sentiments expressed by the company on this occasion. Mrs. +Glibbans, whose knowledge of the points of orthodoxy had not their equal +in the three adjacent parishes, roundly declared, that Mr. Andrew +Pringle's letter was nothing but a peesemeal of clishmaclavers; that +there was no sense in it; and that it was just like the writer, a canary +idiot, a touch here and a touch there, without anything in the shape of +cordiality or satisfaction. + +Miss Isabella Tod answered this objection with that sweetness of manner +and virgin diffidence, which so well becomes a youthful member of the +establishment, controverting the dogmas of a stoop of the Relief +persuasion, by saying, that she thought Mr. Andrew had shown a fine +sensibility. "What is sensibility without judgment," cried her +adversary, "but a thrashing in the water, and a raising of bells? +Couldna the fallow, without a' his parleyvoos, have said, that such and +such was the case, and that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh +away?--but his clouds, and his spectres, and his visions of Job!--Oh, an +he could but think like Job!--Oh, an he would but think like the patient +man!--and was obliged to claut his flesh with a bit of a broken crock, we +might have some hope of repentance unto life. But Andrew Pringle, he's a +gone dick; I never had comfort or expectation of the free-thinker, since +I heard that he was infected with the blue and yellow calamity of the +_Edinburgh Review_; in which, I am credibly told, it is set forth, that +women have nae souls, but only a gut, and a gaw, and a gizzard, like a +pigeon-dove, or a raven-crow, or any other outcast and abominated +quadruped." + +Here Miss Mally Glencairn interposed her effectual mediation, and said, +"It is very true that Andrew deals in the diplomatics of obscurity; but +it's well known that he has a nerve for genius, and that, in his own way, +he kens the loan from the crown of the causeway, as well as the duck does +the midden from the adle dib." To this proverb, which we never heard +before, a learned friend, whom we consulted on the subject, has enabled +us to state, that middens were formerly of great magnitude, and often of +no less antiquity in the west of Scotland; in so much, that the Trongate +of Glasgow owes all its spacious grandeur to them. It being within the +recollection of persons yet living, that the said magnificent street was +at one time an open road, or highway, leading to the Trone, or +market-cross, with thatched houses on each side, such as may still be +seen in the pure and immaculate royal borough of Rutherglen; and that +before each house stood a luxuriant midden, by the removal of which, in +the progress of modern degeneracy, the stately architecture of Argyle +Street was formed. But not to insist at too great a length on such +topics of antiquarian lore, we shall now insert Dr. Pringle's account of +the funeral, and which, patly enough, follows our digression concerning +the middens and magnificence of Glasgow, as it contains an authentic +anecdote of a manufacturer from that city, drinking champaign at the +king's dirgie. + + + +LETTER XIII + + + _The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk of Garnock_ + LONDON. + +DEAR SIR--I have received your letter, and it is a great pleasure to me +to hear that my people were all so much concerned at our distress in the +Leith smack; but what gave me the most contentment was the repentance of +Tam Glen. I hope, poor fellow, he will prove a good husband; but I have +my doubts; for the wife has really but a small share of common sense, and +no married man can do well unless his wife will let him. I am, however, +not overly pleased with Mr. Craig on the occasion, for he should have +considered frail human nature, and accepted of poor Tam's confession of a +fault, and allowed the bairn to be baptized without any more ado. I +think honest Mr. Daff has acted like himself, and I trust and hope there +will be a great gathering at the christening, and, that my mite may not +be wanting, you will slip in a guinea note when the dish goes round, but +in such a manner, that it may not be jealoused from whose hand it comes. + +Since my last letter, we have been very thrang in the way of seeing the +curiosities of London; but I must go on regular, and tell you all, which, +I think, it is my duty to do, that you may let my people know. First, +then, we have been at Windsor Castle, to see the king lying in state, +and, afterwards, his interment; and sorry am I to say, it was not a sight +that could satisfy any godly mind on such an occasion. We went in a +coach of our own, by ourselves, and found the town of Windsor like a +cried fair. We were then directed to the Castle gate, where a terrible +crowd was gathered together; and we had not been long in that crowd, till +a pocket-picker, as I thought, cutted off the tail of my coat, with my +pocket-book in my pocket, which I never missed at the time. But it seems +the coat tail was found, and a policeman got it, and held it up on the +end of his stick, and cried, whose pocket is this? showing the book that +was therein in his hand. I was confounded to see my pocket-book there, +and could scarcely believe my own eyes; but Mrs. Pringle knew it at the +first glance, and said, "It's my gudeman's"; at the which, there was a +great shout of derision among the multitude, and we would baith have then +been glad to disown the pocket-book, but it was returned to us, I may +almost say, against our will; but the scorners, when they saw our +confusion, behaved with great civility towards us, so that we got into +the Castle-yard with no other damage than the loss of the flap of my coat +tail. + +Being in the Castle-yard, we followed the crowd into another gate, and up +a stair, and saw the king lying in state, which was a very dismal +sight--and I thought of Solomon in all his glory, when I saw the coffin, +and the mutes, and the mourners; and reflecting on the long infirmity of +mind of the good old king, I said to myself, in the words of the book of +Job, 'Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die even +without wisdom!' + +When we had seen the sight, we came out of the Castle, and went to an inn +to get a chack of dinner; but there was such a crowd, that no +resting-place could for a time be found for us. Gentle and semple were +there, all mingled, and no respect of persons; only there was, at a table +nigh unto ours, a fat Glasgow manufacturer, who ordered a bottle of +champaign wine, and did all he could in the drinking of it by himself, to +show that he was a man in well-doing circumstances. While he was talking +over his wine, a great peer of the realm, with a star on his breast, came +into the room, and ordered a glass of brandy and water; and I could see, +when he saw the Glasgow manufacturer drinking champaign wine on that +occasion, that he greatly marvelled thereat. + +When we had taken our dinner, we went out to walk and see the town of +Windsor; but there was such a mob of coaches going and coming, and men +and horses, that we left the streets, and went to inspect the king's +policy, which is of great compass, but in a careless order, though it +costs a world of money to keep it up. Afterwards, we went back to the +inns, to get tea for Mrs. Pringle and her daughter, while Andrew Pringle, +my son, was seeing if he could get tickets to buy, to let us into the +inside of the Castle, to see the burial--but he came back without luck, +and I went out myself, being more experienced in the world, and I saw a +gentleman's servant with a ticket in his hand, and I asked him to sell it +to me, which the man did with thankfulness, for five shillings, although +the price was said to be golden guineas. But as this ticket admitted +only one person, it was hard to say what should be done with it when I +got back to my family. However, as by this time we were all very much +fatigued, I gave it to Andrew Pringle, my son, and Mrs. Pringle, and her +daughter Rachel, agreed to bide with me in the inns. + +Andrew Pringle, my son, having got the ticket, left us sitting, when +shortly after in came a nobleman, high in the cabinet, as I think he must +have been, and he having politely asked leave to take his tea at our +table, because of the great throng in the house, we fell into a +conversation together, and he, understanding thereby that I was a +minister of the Church of Scotland, said he thought he could help us into +a place to see the funeral; so, after he had drank his tea, he took us +with him, and got us into the Castle-yard, where we had an excellent +place, near to the Glasgow manufacturer that drank the champaign. The +drink by this time, however, had got into that poor man's head, and he +talked so loud, and so little to the purpose, that the soldiers who were +guarding were obliged to make him hold his peace, at which he was not a +little nettled, and told the soldiers that he had himself been a soldier, +and served the king without pay, having been a volunteer officer. But +this had no more effect than to make the soldiers laugh at him, which was +not a decent thing at the interment of their master, our most gracious +Sovereign that was. + +However, in this situation we saw all; and I can assure you it was a very +edifying sight; and the people demeaned themselves with so much +propriety, that there was no need for any guards at all; indeed, for that +matter, of the two, the guards, who had eaten the king's bread, were the +only ones there, saving and excepting the Glasgow manufacturer, that +manifested an irreverent spirit towards the royal obsequies. But they +are men familiar with the king of terrors on the field of battle, and it +was not to be expected that their hearts would be daunted like those of +others by a doing of a civil character. + +When all was over, we returned to the inns, to get our chaise, to go back +to London that night, for beds were not to be had for love or money at +Windsor, and we reached our temporary home in Norfolk Street about four +o'clock in the morning, well satisfied with what we had seen,--but all +the meantime I had forgotten the loss of the flap of my coat, which +caused no little sport when I came to recollect what a pookit like body I +must have been, walking about in the king's policy like a peacock without +my tail. But I must conclude, for Mrs. Pringle has a letter to put in +the frank for Miss Nanny Eydent, which you will send to her by one of +your scholars, as it contains information that may be serviceable to Miss +Nanny in her business, both as a mantua-maker and a superintendent of the +genteeler sort of burials at Irvine and our vicinity. So that this is +all from your friend and pastor, + + ZACHARIAH PRINGLE. + +"I think," said Miss Isabella Tod, as Mr. Micklewham finished the reading +of the Doctor's epistle, "that my friend Rachel might have given me some +account of the ceremony; but Captain Sabre seems to have been a much more +interesting object to her than the pride and pomp to her brother, or even +the Glasgow manufacturer to her father." In saying these words, the +young lady took the following letter from her pocket, and was on the +point of beginning to read it, when Miss Becky Glibbans exclaimed, "I had +aye my fears that Rachel was but light-headed, and I'll no be surprised +to hear more about her and the dragoon or a's done." Mr. Snodgrass +looked at Becky, as if he had been afflicted at the moment with +unpleasant ideas; and perhaps he would have rebuked the spitefulness of +her insinuations, had not her mother sharply snubbed the uncongenial +maiden, in terms at least as pungent as any which the reverend gentleman +would have employed. "I'm sure," replied Miss Becky, pertly, "I meant no +ill; but if Rachel Pringle can write about nothing but this Captain +Sabre, she might as well let it alone, and her letter canna be worth the +hearing." "Upon that," said the clergyman, "we can form a judgment when +we have heard it, and I beg that Miss Isabella may proceed,"--which she +did accordingly. + + + +LETTER XIV + + + _Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR BELL--I take up my pen with a feeling of disappointment such as I +never felt before. Yesterday was the day appointed for the funeral of +the good old king, and it was agreed that we should go to Windsor, to +pour the tribute of our tears upon the royal hearse. Captain Sabre +promised to go with us, as he is well acquainted with the town, and the +interesting objects around the Castle, so dear to chivalry, and embalmed +by the genius of Shakespeare and many a minor bard, and I promised myself +a day of unclouded felicity--but the captain was ordered to be on +duty,--and the crowd was so rude and riotous, that I had no enjoyment +whatever; but, pining with chagrin at the little respect paid by the +rabble to the virtues of the departed monarch, I would fainly have +retired into some solemn and sequestered grove, and breathed my sorrows +to the listening waste. Nor was the loss of the captain, to explain and +illuminate the different baronial circumstances around the Castle, the +only thing I had to regret in this ever-memorable excursion--my tender +and affectionate mother was so desirous to see everything in the most +particular manner, in order that she might give an account of the funeral +to Nanny Eydent, that she had no mercy either upon me or my father, but +obliged us to go with her to the most difficult and inaccessible places. +How vain was all this meritorious assiduity! for of what avail can the +ceremonies of a royal funeral be to Miss Nanny, at Irvine, where kings +never die, and where, if they did, it is not at all probable that Miss +Nanny would be employed to direct their solemn obsequies? As for my +brother, he was so entranced with his own enthusiasm, that he paid but +little attention to us, which made me the more sensible of the want we +suffered from the absence of Captain Sabre. In a word, my dear Bell, +never did I pass a more unsatisfactory day, and I wish it blotted for +ever from my remembrance. Let it therefore be consigned to the abysses +of oblivion, while I recall the more pleasing incidents that have +happened since I wrote you last. + +On Sunday, according to invitation, as I told you, we dined with the +Argents--and were entertained by them in a style at once most splendid, +and on the most easy footing. I shall not attempt to describe the +consumable materials of the table, but call your attention, my dear +friend, to the intellectual portion of the entertainment, a subject much +more congenial to your delicate and refined character. + +Mrs. Argent is a lady of considerable personal magnitude, of an open and +affable disposition. In this respect, indeed, she bears a striking +resemblance to her nephew, Captain Sabre, with whose relationship to her +we were unacquainted before that day. She received us as friends in whom +she felt a peculiar interest; for when she heard that my mother had got +her dress and mine from Cranbury Alley, she expressed the greatest +astonishment, and told us, that it was not at all a place where persons +of fashion could expect to be properly served. Nor can I disguise the +fact, that the flounced and gorgeous garniture of our dresses was in +shocking contrast to the amiable simplicity of hers and the fair +Arabella, her daughter, a charming girl, who, notwithstanding the +fashionable splendour in which she has been educated, displays a +delightful sprightliness of manner, that, I have some notion, has not +been altogether lost on the heart of my brother. + +When we returned upstairs to the drawing-room, after dinner, Miss +Arabella took her harp, and was on the point of favouring us with a +Mozart; but her mother, recollecting that we were Presbyterians, thought +it might not be agreeable, and she desisted, which I was sinful enough to +regret; but my mother was so evidently alarmed at the idea of playing on +the harp on a Sunday night, that I suppressed my own wishes, in filial +veneration for those of that respected parent. Indeed, fortunate it was +that the music was not performed; for, when we returned home, my father +remarked with great solemnity, that such a way of passing the Lord's +night as we had passed it, would have been a great sin in Scotland. + +Captain Sabre, who called on us next morning, was so delighted when he +understood that we were acquainted with his aunt, that he lamented he had +not happened to know it before, as he would, in that case, have met us +there. He is indeed very attentive, but I assure you that I feel no +particular interest about him; for although he is certainly a very +handsome young man, he is not such a genius as my brother, and has no +literary partialities. But literary accomplishments are, you know, +foreign to the military profession, and if the captain has not +distinguished himself by cutting up authors in the reviews, he has +acquired an honourable medal, by overcoming the enemies of the civilised +world at Waterloo. + +To-night the playhouses open again, and we are going to the Oratorio, and +the captain goes with us, a circumstance which I am the more pleased at, +as we are strangers, and he will tell us the names of the performers. My +father made some scruple of consenting to be of the party; but when he +heard that an Oratorio was a concert of sacred music, he thought it would +be only a sinless deviation if he did, so he goes likewise. The captain, +therefore, takes an early dinner with us at five o'clock. Alas! to what +changes am I doomed,--that was the tea hour at the manse of Garnock. Oh, +when shall I revisit the primitive simplicities of my native scenes +again! But neither time nor distance, my dear Bell, can change the +affection with which I subscribe myself, ever affectionately, yours, + + RACHEL PRINGLE. + +At the conclusion of this letter, the countenance of Mrs. Glibbans was +evidently so darkened, that it daunted the company, like an eclipse of +the sun, when all nature is saddened. "What think you, Mr. Snodgrass," +said that spirit-stricken lady,--"what think you of this dining on the +Lord's day,--this playing on the harp; the carnal Mozarting of that +ungodly family, with whom the corrupt human nature of our friends has +been chambering?" Mr. Snodgrass was at some loss for an answer, and +hesitated, but Miss Mally Glencairn relieved him from his embarrassment, +by remarking, that "the harp was a holy instrument," which somewhat +troubled the settled orthodoxy of Mrs. Glibbans's visage. "Had it been +an organ," said Mr. Snodgrass, dryly, "there might have been, perhaps, +more reason to doubt; but, as Miss Mally justly remarks, the harp has +been used from the days of King David in the performances of sacred +music, together with the psalter, the timbrel, the sackbut, and the +cymbal." The wrath of the polemical Deborah of the Relief-Kirk was +somewhat appeased by this explanation, and she inquired in a more +diffident tone, whether a Mozart was not a metrical paraphrase of the +song of Moses after the overthrow of the Egyptians in the Red Sea; "in +which case, I must own," she observed, "that the sin and guilt of the +thing is less grievous in the sight of HIM before whom all the actions of +men are abominations." Miss Isabella Tod, availing herself of this break +in the conversation, turned round to Miss Nanny Eydent, and begged that +she would read her letter from Mrs. Pringle. We should do injustice, +however, to honest worth and patient industry were we, in thus +introducing Miss Nanny to our readers, not to give them some account of +her lowly and virtuous character. + +Miss Nanny was the eldest of three sisters, the daughters of a +shipmaster, who was lost at sea when they were very young; and his all +having perished with him, they were indeed, as their mother said, the +children of Poverty and Sorrow. By the help of a little credit, the +widow contrived, in a small shop, to eke out her days till Nanny was able +to assist her. It was the intention of the poor woman to take up a +girl's school for reading and knitting, and Nanny was destined to +instruct the pupils in that higher branch of accomplishment--the +different stitches of the sampler. But about the time that Nanny was +advancing to the requisite degree of perfection in chain-steek and +pie-holes--indeed had made some progress in the Lord's prayer between two +yew trees--tambouring was introduced at Irvine, and Nanny was sent to +acquire a competent knowledge of that classic art, honoured by the fair +hands of the beautiful Helen and the chaste and domestic Andromache. In +this she instructed her sisters; and such was the fruit of their +application and constant industry, that her mother abandoned the design +of keeping school, and continued to ply her little huxtry in more easy +circumstances. The fluctuations of trade in time taught them that it +would not be wise to trust to the loom, and accordingly Nanny was at some +pains to learn mantua-making; and it was fortunate that she did so--for +the tambouring gradually went out of fashion, and the flowering which +followed suited less the infirm constitution of poor Nanny. The making +of gowns for ordinary occasions led to the making of mournings, and the +making of mournings naturally often caused Nanny to be called in at +deaths, which, in process of time, promoted her to have the management of +burials; and in this line of business she has now a large proportion of +the genteelest in Irvine and its vicinity; and in all her various +engagements her behaviour has been as blameless and obliging as her +assiduity has been uniform; insomuch, that the numerous ladies to whom +she is known take a particular pleasure in supplying her with the newest +patterns, and earliest information, respecting the varieties and changes +of fashions; and to the influence of the same good feelings in the breast +of Mrs. Pringle, Nanny was indebted for the following letter. How far +the information which it contains may be deemed exactly suitable to the +circumstances in which Miss Nanny's lot is cast, our readers may judge +for themselves; but we are happy to state, that it has proved of no small +advantage to her: for since it has been known that she had received a +full, true, and particular account, of all manner of London fashions, +from so managing and notable a woman as the minister's wife of Garnock, +her consideration has been so augmented in the opinion of the +neighbouring gentlewomen, that she is not only consulted as to funerals, +but is often called in to assist in the decoration and arrangement of +wedding-dinners, and other occasions of sumptuous banqueting; by which +she is enabled, during the suspension of the flowering trade, to earn a +lowly but a respected livelihood. + + + +LETTER XV + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Nanny Eydent_, _Mantua-maker_, _Seagate Head_, + _Irvine_ + LONDON. + +DEAR MISS NANNY--Miss Mally Glencairn would tell you all how it happent +that I was disabled, by our misfortunes in the ship, from riting to you +konserning the London fashons as I promist; for I wantit to be +partikylor, and to say nothing but what I saw with my own eyes, that it +might be servisable to you in your bizness--so now I will begin with the +old king's burial, as you have sometimes okashon to lend a helping hand +in that way at Irvine, and nothing could be more genteeler of the kind +than a royal obsakew for a patron; but no living sole can give a distink +account of this matter, for you know the old king was the father of his +piple, and the croud was so great. Howsomever we got into our oun hired +shaze at daylight; and when we were let out at the castel yett of +Windsor, we went into the mob, and by and by we got within the castel +walls, when great was the lamentation for the purdition of shawls and +shoos, and the Doctor's coat pouch was clippit off by a pocket-picker. +We then ran to a wicket-gate, and up an old timber-stair with a rope +ravel, and then we got to a great pentit chamber called King George's +Hall: After that we were allowt to go into another room full of guns and +guards, that told us all to be silent: so then we all went like sawlies, +holding our tongues in an awful manner, into a dysmal room hung with +black cloth, and lighted with dum wax-candles in silver skonses, and men +in a row all in mulancholic posters. At length and at last we came to +the coffin; but although I was as partikylar as possoble, I could see +nothing that I would recommend. As for the interment, there was nothing +but even-down wastrie--wax-candles blowing away in the wind, and flunkies +as fou as pipers, and an unreverent mob that scarsely could demean +themselves with decency as the body was going by; only the Duke of York, +who carrit the head, had on no hat, which I think was the newest +identical thing in the affair: but really there was nothing that could be +recommended. Howsomever I understood that there was no draigie, which +was a saving; for the bread and wine for such a multitude would have been +a destruction to a lord's living: and this is the only point that the +fashon set in the king's feunoral may be follot in Irvine. + +Since the burial, we have been to see the play, where the leddies were +all in deep murning; but excepting that some had black gum-floors on +their heads, I saw leetil for admiration--only that bugles, I can ashure +you, are not worn at all this season; and surely this murning must be a +vast detrimint to bizness--for where there is no verietie, there can be +but leetil to do in your line. But one thing I should not forget, and +that is, that in the vera best houses, after tea and coffee after dinner, +a cordial dram is handed about; but likewise I could observe, that the +fruit is not set on with the cheese, as in our part of the country, but +comes, after the cloth is drawn, with the wine; and no such a thing as a +punch-bowl is to be heard of within the four walls of London. +Howsomever, what I principally notised was, that the tea and coffee is +not made by the lady of the house, but out of the room, and brought in +without sugar or milk, on servors, every one helping himself, and only +plain flimsy loaf and butter is served--no such thing as shortbread, +seed-cake, bun, marmlet, or jeelly to be seen, which is an okonomical +plan, and well worthy of adaptation in ginteel families with narrow +incomes, in Irvine or elsewhere. + +But when I tell you what I am now going to say, you will not be surprizt +at the great wealth in London. I paid for a bumbeseen gown, not a bit +better than the one that was made by you that the sore calamity befell, +and no so fine neither, more than three times the price; so you see, Miss +Nanny, if you were going to pouse your fortune, you could not do better +than pack up your ends and your awls and come to London. But ye're far +better at home--for this is not a town for any creditable young woman +like you, to live in by herself, and I am wearying to be back, though +it's hard to say when the Doctor will get his counts settlet. I wish +you, howsomever, to mind the patches for the bed-cover that I was going +to patch, for a licht afternoon seam, as the murning for the king will no +be so general with you, and the spring fashons will be coming on to help +my gathering--so no more at present from your friend and well-wisher, + + JANET PRINGLE. + + + + +CHAPTER VI--PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION + + +On Sunday morning, before going to church, Mr. Micklewham called at the +manse, and said that he wished particularly to speak to Mr. Snodgrass. +Upon being admitted, he found the young helper engaged at breakfast, with +a book lying on his table, very like a volume of a new novel called +_Ivanhoe_, in its appearance, but of course it must have been sermons +done up in that manner to attract fashionable readers. As soon, however, +as Mr. Snodgrass saw his visitor, he hastily removed the book, and put it +into the table-drawer. + +The precentor having taken a seat at the opposite side of the fire, began +somewhat diffidently to mention, that he had received a letter from the +Doctor, that made him at a loss whether or not he ought to read it to the +elders, as usual, after worship, and therefore was desirous of consulting +Mr. Snodgrass on the subject, for it recorded, among other things, that +the Doctor had been at the playhouse, and Mr. Micklewham was quite sure +that Mr. Craig would be neither to bind nor to hold when he heard that, +although the transgression was certainly mollified by the nature of the +performance. As the clergyman, however, could offer no opinion until he +saw the letter, the precentor took it out of his pocket, and Mr. +Snodgrass found the contents as follows:-- + + + +LETTER XVI + + + _The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk_, _Garnock_ + LONDON. + +DEAR SIR--You will recollect that, about twenty years ago, there was a +great sound throughout all the West that a playhouse in Glasgow had been +converted into a tabernacle of religion. I remember it was glad tidings +to our ears in the parish of Garnock; and that Mr. Craig, who had just +been ta'en on for an elder that fall, was for having a thanksgiving-day +on the account thereof, holding it to be a signal manifestation of a new +birth in the of-old-godly town of Glasgow, which had become slack in the +way of well-doing, and the church therein lukewarm, like that of +Laodicea. It was then said, as I well remember, that when the Tabernacle +was opened, there had not been seen, since the Kaimslang wark, such a +congregation as was there assembled, which was a great proof that it's +the matter handled, and not the place, that maketh pure; so that when you +and the elders hear that I have been at the theatre of Drury Lane, in +London, you must not think that I was there to see a carnal stage play, +whether tragical or comical, or that I would so far demean myself and my +cloth, as to be a witness to the chambering and wantonness of +ne'er-du-weel play-actors. No, Mr. Micklewham, what I went to see was an +Oratorio, a most edifying exercise of psalmody and prayer, under the +management of a pious gentleman, of the name of Sir George Smart, who is, +as I am informed, at the greatest pains to instruct the exhibitioners, +they being, for the most part, before they get into his hands, poor +uncultivated creatures, from Italy, France, and Germany, and other +atheistical and popish countries. + +They first sung a hymn together very decently, and really with as much +civilised harmony as could be expected from novices; indeed so well, that +I thought them almost as melodious as your own singing class of the +trades lads from Kilwinning. Then there was one Mr. Braham, a Jewish +proselyte, that was set forth to show us a specimen of his proficiency. +In the praying part, what he said was no objectionable as to the matter; +but he drawled in his manner to such a pitch, that I thought he would +have broken out into an even-down song, as I sometimes think of yourself +when you spin out the last word in reading out the line in a warm summer +afternoon. In the hymn by himself, he did better; he was, however, +sometimes like to lose the tune, but the people gave him great +encouragement when he got back again. Upon the whole, I had no notion +that there was any such Christianity in practice among the Londoners, and +I am happy to tell you, that the house was very well filled, and the +congregation wonderful attentive. No doubt that excellent man, Mr. W---, +has a hand in these public strainings after grace, but he was not there +that night; for I have seen him; and surely at the sight I could not but +say to myself, that it's beyond the compass of the understanding of man +to see what great things Providence worketh with small means, for Mr. +W--- is a small creature. When I beheld his diminutive stature, and +thought of what he had achieved for the poor negroes and others in the +house of bondage, I said to myself, that here the hand of Wisdom is +visible, for the load of perishable mortality is laid lightly on his +spirit, by which it is enabled to clap its wings and crow so crously on +the dunghill top of this world; yea even in the House of Parliament. + +I was taken last Thursday morning to breakfast with him his house at +Kensington, by an East India man, who is likewise surely a great saint. +It was a heart-healing meeting of many of the godly, which he holds +weekly in the season; and we had such a warsle of the spirit among us +that the like cannot be told. I was called upon to pray, and a worthy +gentleman said, when I was done, that he never had met with more +apostolic simplicity--indeed, I could see with the tail of my eye, while +I was praying, that the chief saint himself was listening with a curious +pleasant satisfaction. + +As for our doings here anent the legacy, things are going forward in the +regular manner; but the expense is terrible, and I have been obliged to +take up money on account; but, as it was freely given by the agents, I am +in hopes all will end well; for, considering that we are but strangers to +them, they would not have assisted us in this matter had they not been +sure of the means of payment in their own hands. + +The people of London are surprising kind to us; we need not, if we +thought proper ourselves, eat a dinner in our own lodgings; but it would +ill become me, at my time of life, and with the character for sobriety +that I have maintained, to show an example in my latter days of riotous +living; therefore, Mrs. Pringle, and her daughter, and me, have made a +point of going nowhere three times in the week; but as for Andrew +Pringle, my son, he has forgathered with some acquaintance, and I fancy +we will be obliged to let him take the length of his tether for a while. +But not altogether without a curb neither, for the agent's son, young Mr. +Argent, had almost persuaded him to become a member of Parliament, which +he said he could get him made, for more than a thousand pounds less than +the common price--the state of the new king's health having lowered the +commodity of seats. But this I would by no means hear of; he is not yet +come to years of discretion enough to sit in council; and, moreover, he +has not been tried; and no man, till he has out of doors shown something +of what he is, should be entitled to power and honour within. Mrs. +Pringle, however, thought he might do as well as young Dunure; but Andrew +Pringle, my son, has not the solidity of head that Mr. K---dy has, and is +over free and outspoken, and cannot take such pains to make his little go +a great way, like that well-behaved young gentleman. But you will be +grieved to hear that Mr. K---dy is in opposition to the government; and +truly I am at a loss to understand how a man of Whig principles can be an +adversary to the House of Hanover. But I never meddled much in politick +affairs, except at this time, when I prohibited Andrew Pringle, my son, +from offering to be a member of Parliament, notwithstanding the great +bargain that he would have had of the place. + +And since we are on public concerns, I should tell you, that I was minded +to send you a newspaper at the second-hand, every day when we were done +with it. But when we came to inquire, we found that we could get the +newspaper for a shilling a week every morning but Sunday, to our +breakfast, which was so much cheaper than buying a whole paper, that Mrs. +Pringle thought it would be a great extravagance; and, indeed, when I +came to think of the loss of time a newspaper every day would occasion to +my people, I considered it would be very wrong of me to send you any at +all. For I do think that honest folks in a far-off country parish should +not make or meddle with the things that pertain to government,--the more +especially, as it is well known, that there is as much falsehood as truth +in newspapers, and they have not the means of testing their statements. +Not, however, that I am an advocate for passive obedience; God forbid. +On the contrary, if ever the time should come, in my day, of a +saint-slaying tyrant attempting to bind the burden of prelatic +abominations on our backs, such a blast of the gospel trumpet would be +heard in Garnock, as it does not become me to say, but I leave it to you +and others, who have experienced my capacity as a soldier of the word so +long, to think what it would then be. Meanwhile, I remain, my dear sir, +your friend and pastor, + + Z. PRINGLE. + +When Mr. Snodgrass had perused this epistle, he paused some time, +seemingly in doubt, and then he said to Mr. Micklewham, that, considering +the view which the Doctor had taken of the matter, and that he had not +gone to the playhouse for the motives which usually take bad people to +such places, he thought there could be no possible harm in reading the +letter to the elders, and that Mr. Craig, so far from being displeased, +would doubtless be exceedingly rejoiced to learn that the playhouses of +London were occasionally so well employed as on the night when the Doctor +was there. + +Mr. Micklewham then inquired if Mr. Snodgrass had heard from Mr. Andrew, +and was answered in the affirmative; but the letter was not read. Why it +was withheld our readers must guess for themselves; but we have been +fortunate enough to obtain the following copy. + + + +LETTER XVII + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR FRIEND--As the season advances, London gradually unfolds, like +Nature, all the variety of her powers and pleasures. By the Argents we +have been introduced effectually into society, and have now only to +choose our acquaintance among those whom we like best. I should employ +another word than choose, for I am convinced that there is no choice in +the matter. In his friendships and affections, man is subject to some +inscrutable moral law, similar in its effects to what the chemists call +affinity. While under the blind influence of this sympathy, we, +forsooth, suppose ourselves free agents! But a truce with philosophy. + +The amount of the legacy is now ascertained. The stock, however, in +which a great part of the money is vested being shut, the transfer to my +father cannot be made for some time; and till this is done, my mother +cannot be persuaded that we have yet got anything to trust to--an +unfortunate notion which renders her very unhappy. The old gentleman +himself takes no interest now in the business. He has got his mind at +ease by the payment of all the legacies; and having fallen in with some +of the members of that political junto, the Saints, who are worldly +enough to link, as often as they can, into their association, the +powerful by wealth or talent, his whole time is occupied in assisting to +promote their humbug; and he has absolutely taken it into his head, that +the attention he receives from them for his subscriptions is on account +of his eloquence as a preacher, and that hitherto he has been altogether +in an error with respect to his own abilities. The effect of this is +abundantly amusing; but the source of it is very evident. Like most +people who pass a sequestered life, he had formed an exaggerated opinion +of public characters; and on seeing them in reality so little superior to +the generality of mankind, he imagines that he was all the time nearer to +their level than he had ventured to suppose; and the discovery has placed +him on the happiest terms with himself. It is impossible that I can +respect his manifold excellent qualities and goodness of heart more than +I do; but there is an innocency in this simplicity, which, while it often +compels me to smile, makes me feel towards him a degree of tenderness, +somewhat too familiar for that filial reverence that is due from a son. + +Perhaps, however, you will think me scarcely less under the influence of +a similar delusion when I tell you, that I have been somehow or other +drawn also into an association, not indeed so public or potent as that of +the Saints, but equally persevering in the objects for which it has been +formed. The drift of the Saints, as far as I can comprehend the matter, +is to procure the advancement to political power of men distinguished for +the purity of their lives, and the integrity of their conduct; and in +that way, I presume, they expect to effect the accomplishment of that +blessed epoch, the Millennium, when the Saints are to rule the whole +earth. I do not mean to say that this is their decided and determined +object; I only infer, that it is the necessary tendency of their +proceedings; and I say it with all possible respect and sincerity, that, +as a public party, the Saints are not only perhaps the most powerful, but +the party which, at present, best deserves power. + +The association, however, with which I have happened to become connected, +is of a very different description. Their object is, to pass through +life with as much pleasure as they can obtain, without doing anything +unbecoming the rank of gentlemen, and the character of men of honour. We +do not assemble such numerous meetings as the Saints, the Whigs, or the +Radicals, nor are our speeches delivered with so much vehemence. We +even, I think, tacitly exclude oratory. In a word, our meetings seldom +exceed the perfect number of the muses; and our object on these occasions +is not so much to deliberate on plans of prospective benefits to mankind, +as to enjoy the present time for ourselves, under the temperate +inspiration of a well-cooked dinner, flavoured with elegant wine, and +just so much of mind as suits the fleeting topics of the day. T---, whom +I formerly mentioned, introduced me to this delightful society. The +members consist of about fifty gentlemen, who dine occasionally at each +other's houses; the company being chiefly selected from the brotherhood, +if that term can be applied to a circle of acquaintance, who, without any +formal institution of rules, have gradually acquired a consistency that +approximates to organisation. But the universe of this vast city +contains a plurality of systems; and the one into which I have been +attracted may be described as that of the idle intellects. In general +society, the members of our party are looked up to as men of taste and +refinement, and are received with a degree of deference that bears some +resemblance to the respect paid to the hereditary endowment of rank. +They consist either of young men who have acquired distinction at +college, or gentlemen of fortune who have a relish for intellectual +pleasures, free from the acerbities of politics, or the dull formalities +which so many of the pious think essential to their religious +pretensions. The wealthy furnish the entertainments, which are always in +a superior style, and the ingredient of birth is not requisite in the +qualifications of a member, although some jealousy is entertained of +professional men, and not a little of merchants. T---, to whom I am also +indebted for this view of that circle of which he is the brightest +ornament, gives a felicitous explanation of the reason. He says, +professional men, who are worth anything at all, are always ambitious, +and endeavour to make their acquaintance subservient to their own +advancement; while merchants are liable to such casualties, that their +friends are constantly exposed to the risk of being obliged to sink them +below their wonted equality, by granting them favours in times of +difficulty, or, what is worse, by refusing to grant them. + +I am much indebted to you for the introduction to your friend G---. He +is one of us; or rather, he moves in an eccentric sphere of his own, +which crosses, I believe, almost all the orbits of all the classed and +classifiable systems of London. I found him exactly what you described; +and we were on the frankest footing of old friends in the course of the +first quarter of an hour. He did me the honour to fancy that I belonged, +as a matter of course, to some one of the literary fraternities of +Edinburgh, and that I would be curious to see the associations of the +learned here. What he said respecting them was highly characteristic of +the man. "They are," said he, "the dullest things possible. On my +return from abroad, I visited them all, expecting to find something of +that easy disengaged mind which constitutes the charm of those of France +and Italy. But in London, among those who have a character to keep up, +there is such a vigilant circumspection, that I should as soon expect to +find nature in the ballets of the Opera-house, as genius at the +established haunts of authors, artists, and men of science. Bankes +gives, I suppose officially, a public breakfast weekly, and opens his +house for conversations on the Sundays. I found at his breakfasts, tea +and coffee, with hot rolls, and men of celebrity afraid to speak. At the +conversations, there was something even worse. A few plausible talking +fellows created a buzz in the room, and the merits of some paltry +nick-nack of mechanism or science was discussed. The party consisted +undoubtedly of the most eminent men of their respective lines in the +world; but they were each and all so apprehensive of having their ideas +purloined, that they took the most guarded care never to speak of +anything that they deemed of the slightest consequence, or to hazard an +opinion that might be called in question. The man who either wishes to +augment his knowledge, or to pass his time agreeably, will never expose +himself to a repetition of the fastidious exhibitions of engineers and +artists who have their talents at market. But such things are among the +curiosities of London; and if you have any inclination to undergo the +initiating mortification of being treated as a young man who may be +likely to interfere with their professional interests, I can easily get +you introduced." + +I do not know whether to ascribe these strictures of your friend to +humour or misanthropy; but they were said without bitterness; indeed so +much as matters of course, that, at the moment, I could not but feel +persuaded they were just. I spoke of them to T---, who says, that +undoubtedly G---'s account of the exhibitions is true in substance, but +that it is his own sharp-sightedness which causes him to see them so +offensively; for that ninety-nine out of the hundred in the world would +deem an evening spent at the conversations of Sir Joseph Bankes a very +high intellectual treat. + +G--- has invited me to dinner, and I expect some amusement; for T---, who +is acquainted with him, says, that it is his fault to employ his mind too +much on all occasions; and that, in all probability, there will be +something, either in the fare or the company, that I shall remember as +long as I live. However, you shall hear all about it in my next.--Yours, + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + +On the same Sunday on which Mr. Micklewham consulted Mr. Snodgrass as to +the propriety of reading the Doctor's letter to the elders, the following +epistle reached the post-office of Irvine, and was delivered by Saunders +Dickie himself, at the door of Mrs. Glibbans to her servan lassie, who, +as her mistress had gone to the Relief Church, told him, that he would +have to come for the postage the morn's morning. "Oh," said Saunders, +"there's naething to pay but my ain trouble, for it's frankit; but +aiblins the mistress will gie me a bit drappie, and so I'll come betimes +i' the morning." + + + +LETTER XVIII + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Mrs. Glibbans_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR MRS. GLIBBANS--The breking up of the old Parlament has been the +cause why I did not right you before, it having taken it out of my poor +to get a frank for my letter till yesterday; and I do ashure you, that I +was most extraordinar uneasy at the great delay, wishing much to let you +know the decayt state of the Gospel in thir perts, which is the pleasure +of your life to study by day, and meditate on in the watches of the +night. + +There is no want of going to church, and, if that was a sign of grease +and peese in the kingdom of Christ, the toun of London might hold a high +head in the tabernacles of the faithful and true witnesses. But saving +Dr. Nichol of Swallo-Street, and Dr. Manuel of London-Wall, there is +nothing sound in the way of preaching here; and when I tell you that Mr. +John Gant, your friend, and some other flea-lugged fallows, have set up a +Heelon congregation, and got a young man to preach Erse to the English, +ye maun think in what a state sinful souls are left in London. But what +I have been the most consarned about is the state of the dead. I am no +meaning those who are dead in trespasses and sins, but the true dead. Ye +will hardly think, that they are buried in a popish-like manner, with +prayers, and white gowns, and ministers, and spadefuls of yerd cast upon +them, and laid in vauts, like kists of orangers in a grocery seller--and +I am told that, after a time, they are taken out when the vaut is +shurfeeted, and their bones brunt, if they are no made into lamp-black by +a secret wark--which is a clean proof to me that a right doctrine cannot +be established in this land--there being so little respec shone to the +dead. + +The worst point, howsomever, of all is, what is done with the +prayers--and I have heard you say, that although there was nothing more +to objec to the wonderful Doctor Chammers of Glasgou, that his reading of +his sermons was testimony against him in the great controversy of sound +doctrine; but what will you say to reading of prayers, and no only +reading of prayers, but printed prayers, as if the contreet heart of the +sinner had no more to say to the Lord in the hour of fasting and +humiliation, than what a bishop can indite, and a book-seller make profit +o'. "Verily," as I may say, in a word of scripter, I doobt if the glad +tidings of salvation have yet been preeched in this land of London; but +the ministers have good stipends, and where the ground is well manured, +it may in time bring forth fruit meet for repentance. + +There is another thing that behoves me to mention, and that is, that an +elder is not to be seen in the churches of London, which is a sore signal +that the piple are left to themselves; and in what state the morality can +be, you may guess with an eye of pity. But on the Sabbath nights, there +is such a going and coming, that it's more like a cried fair than the +Lord's night--all sorts of poor people, instead of meditating on their +bygane toil and misery of the week, making the Sunday their own day, as +if they had not a greater Master to serve on that day, than the earthly +man whom they served in the week-days. It is, howsomever, past the poor +of nature to tell you of the sinfulness of London; and you may we think +what is to be the end of all things, when I ashure you, that there is a +newspaper sold every Sabbath morning, and read by those that never look +at their Bibles. Our landlady asked us if we would take one; but I +thought the Doctor would have fired the house, and you know it is not a +small thing that kindles his passion. In short, London is not a place to +come to hear the tidings of salvation preeched,--no that I mean to deny +that there is not herine more than five righteous persons in it, and I +trust the cornal's hagent is one; for if he is not, we are undone, having +been obligated to take on already more than a hundred pounds of debt, to +the account of our living, and the legacy yet in the dead thraws. But as +I mean this for a spiritual letter, I will say no more about the root of +all evil, as it is called in the words of truth and holiness; so +referring you to what I have told Miss Mally Glencairn about the legacy +and other things nearest my heart, I remain, my dear Mrs. Glibbans, your +fellou Christian and sinner, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +Mrs. Glibbans received this letter between the preachings, and it was +observed by all her acquaintance during the afternoon service, that she +was a laden woman. Instead of standing up at the prayers, as her wont +was, she kept her seat, sitting with downcast eyes, and ever and anon her +left hand, which was laid over her book on the reading-board of the pew, +was raised and allowed to drop with a particular moral emphasis, +bespeaking the mournful cogitations of her spirit. On leaving the +church, somebody whispered to the minister, that surely Mrs. Glibbans had +heard some sore news; upon which that meek, mild, and modest good soul +hastened towards her, and inquired, with more than his usual kindness, +How she was? Her answer was brief and mysterious; and she shook her head +in such a manner that showed him all was not right. "Have you heard +lately of your friends the Pringles?" said he, in his sedate +manner--"when do they think of leaving London?' + +"I wish they may ever get out o't," was the agitated reply of the +afflicted lady. + +"I am very sorry to hear you say so," responded the minister. "I thought +all was in a fair way to an issue of the settlement. I'm very sorry to +hear this." + +"Oh, sir," said the mourner, "don't think that I am grieved for them and +their legacy--filthy lucre--no, sir; but I have had a letter that has +made my hair stand on end. Be none surprised if you hear of the earth +opening, and London swallowed up, and a voice crying in the wilderness, +'Woe, woe.'" + +The gentle priest was much surprised by this information; it was evident +that Mrs. Glibbans had received a terrible account of the wickedness of +London; and that the weight upon her pious spirit was owing to that +cause. He, therefore, accompanied her home, and administered all the +consolation he was able to give; assuring her, that it was in the power +of Omnipotence to convert the stony heart into one of flesh and +tenderness, and to raise the British metropolis out of the miry clay, and +place it on a hill, as a city that could not be hid; which Mrs. Glibbans +was so thankful to hear, that, as soon as he had left her, she took her +tea in a satisfactory frame of mind, and went the same night to Miss +Mally Glencairn to hear what Mrs. Pringle had said to her. No visit ever +happened more opportunely; for just as Mrs. Glibbans knocked at the door, +Miss Isabella Tod made her appearance. She had also received a letter +from Rachel, in which it will be seen that reference was made likewise to +Mrs. Pringle's epistle to Miss Mally. + + + +LETTER XIX + + + _Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_ + LONDON. + +MY DEAR BELL--How delusive are the flatteries of fortune! The wealth +that has been showered upon us, beyond all our hopes, has brought no +pleasure to my heart, and I pour my unavailing sighs for your absence, +when I would communicate the cause of my unhappiness. Captain Sabre has +been most assiduous in his attentions, and I must confess to your +sympathising bosom, that I do begin to find that he has an interest in +mine. But my mother will not listen to his proposals, nor allow me to +give him any encouragement, till the fatal legacy is settled. What can +be her motive for this, I am unable to divine; for the captain's fortune +is far beyond what I could ever have expected without the legacy, and +equal to all I could hope for with it. If, therefore, there is any doubt +of the legacy being paid, she should allow me to accept him; and if there +is none, what can I do better? In the meantime, we are going about +seeing the sights; but the general mourning is a great drawback on the +splendour of gaiety. It ends, however, next Sunday; and then the ladies, +like the spring flowers, will be all in full blossom. I was with the +Argents at the opera on Saturday last, and it far surpassed my ideas of +grandeur. But the singing was not good--I never could make out the end +or the beginning of a song, and it was drowned with the violins; the +scenery, however, was lovely; but I must not say a word about the +dancers, only that the females behaved in a manner so shocking, that I +could scarcely believe it was possible for the delicacy of our sex to do. +They are, however, all foreigners, who are, you know, naturally of a +licentious character, especially the French women. + +We have taken an elegant house in Baker Street, where we go on Monday +next, and our own new carriage is to be home in the course of the week. +All this, which has been done by the advice of Mrs. Argent, gives my +mother great uneasiness, in case anything should yet happen to the +legacy. My brother, however, who knows the law better than her, only +laughs at her fears, and my father has found such a wonderful deal to do +in religion here, that he is quite delighted, and is busy from morning to +night in writing letters, and giving charitable donations. I am soon to +be no less busy, but in another manner. Mrs. Argent has advised us to +get in accomplished masters for me, so that, as soon as we are removed +into our own local habitation, I am to begin with drawing and music, and +the foreign languages. I am not, however, to learn much of the piano; +Mrs. A. thinks it would take up more time than I can now afford; but I am +to be cultivated in my singing, and she is to try if the master that +taught Miss Stephens has an hour to spare--and to use her influence to +persuade him to give it to me, although he only receives pupils for +perfectioning, except they belong to families of distinction. + +My brother had a hankering to be made a member of Parliament, and got Mr. +Charles Argent to speak to my father about it, but neither he nor my +mother would hear of such a thing, which I was very sorry for, as it +would have been so convenient to me for getting franks; and I wonder my +mother did not think of that, as she grudges nothing so much as the price +of postage. But nothing do I grudge so little, especially when it is a +letter from you. Why do you not write me oftener, and tell me what is +saying about us, particularly by that spiteful toad, Becky Glibbans, who +never could hear of any good happening to her acquaintance, without being +as angry as if it was obtained at her own expense? + +I do not like Miss Argent so well on acquaintance as I did at first; not +that she is not a very fine lassie, but she gives herself such airs at +the harp and piano--because she can play every sort of music at the first +sight, and sing, by looking at the notes, any song, although she never +heard it, which may be very well in a play-actor, or a governess, that +has to win her bread by music; but I think the education of a modest +young lady might have been better conducted. + +Through the civility of the Argents, we have been introduced to a great +number of families, and been much invited; but all the parties are so +ceremonious, that I am never at my ease, which my brother says is owing +to my rustic education, which I cannot understand; for, although the +people are finer dressed, and the dinners and rooms grander than what I +have seen, either at Irvine or Kilmarnock, the company are no wiser; and +I have not met with a single literary character among them. And what are +ladies and gentlemen without mind, but a well-dressed mob! It is to mind +alone that I am at all disposed to pay the homage of diffidence. + +The acquaintance of the Argents are all of the first circle, and we have +got an invitation to a route from the Countess of J---y, in consequence +of meeting her with them. She is a charming woman, and I anticipate +great pleasure. Miss Argent says, however, she is ignorant and +presuming; but how is it possible that she can be so, as she was an +earl's daughter, and bred up for distinction? Miss Argent may be +presuming, but a countess is necessarily above that, at least it would +only become a duchess or marchioness to say so. This, however, is not +the only occasion in which I have seen the detractive disposition of that +young lady, who, with all her simplicity of manners and great +accomplishments, is, you will perceive, just like ourselves, rustic as +she doubtless thinks our breeding has been. + +I have observed that nobody in London inquires about who another is; and +that in company everyone is treated on an equality, unless when there is +some remarkable personal peculiarity, so that one really knows nothing of +those whom one meets. But my paper is full, and I must not take another +sheet, as my mother has a letter to send in the same frank to Miss Mally +Glencairn. Believe me, ever affectionately yours, + + RACHEL PRINGLE. + +The three ladies knew not very well what to make of this letter. They +thought there was a change in Rachel's ideas, and that it was not for the +better; and Miss Isabella expressed, with a sentiment of sincere sorrow, +that the acquisition of fortune seemed to have brought out some unamiable +traits in her character, which, perhaps, had she not been exposed to the +companions and temptations of the great world, would have slumbered, +unfelt by herself, and unknown to her friends. + +Mrs. Glibbans declared, that it was a waking of original sin, which the +iniquity of London was bringing forth, as the heat of summer causes the +rosin and sap to issue from the bark of the tree. In the meantime, Miss +Mally had opened her letter, of which we subjoin a copy. + + + +LETTER XX + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + LONDON. + +DEAR MISS MALLY--I greatly stand in need of your advise and counsel at +this time. The Doctor's affair comes on at a fearful slow rate, and the +money goes like snow off a dyke. It is not to be told what has been paid +for legacy-duty, and no legacy yet in hand; and we have been obligated to +lift a whole hundred pounds out of the residue, and what that is to be +the Lord only knows. But Miss Jenny Macbride, she has got her thousand +pound, all in one bank bill, sent to her; Thomas Bowie, the doctor in +Ayr, he has got his five hundred pounds; and auld Nanse Sorrel, that was +nurse to the cornal, she has got the first year of her twenty pounds a +year; but we have gotten nothing, and I jealouse, that if things go on at +this rate, there will be nothing to get; and what will become of us then, +after all the trubble and outlay that we have been pot too by this coming +to London? + +Howsomever, this is the black side of the story; for Mr. Charles Argent, +in a jocose way, proposed to get Andrew made a Parliament member for +three thousand pounds, which he said was cheap; and surely he would not +have thought of such a thing, had he not known that Andrew would have the +money to pay for't; and, over and above this, Mrs. Argent has been +recommending Captain Sabre to me for Rachel, and she says he is a stated +gentleman, with two thousand pounds rental, and her nephew; and surely +she would not think Rachel a match for him, unless she had an inkling +from her gudeman of what Rachel's to get. But I have told her that we +would think of nothing of the sort till the counts war settled, which she +may tell to her gudeman, and if he approves the match, it will make him +hasten on the settlement, for really I am growing tired of this London, +whar I am just like a fish out of the water. The Englishers are sae +obstinate in their own way, that I can get them to do nothing like +Christians; and, what is most provoking of all, their ways are very good +when you know them; but they have no instink to teach a body how to learn +them. Just this very morning, I told the lass to get a jiggot of mutton +for the morn's dinner, and she said there was not such a thing to be had +in London, and threeppit it till I couldna stand her; and, had it not +been that Mr. Argent's French servan' man happened to come with a cart, +inviting us to a ball, and who understood what a jiggot was, I might have +reasoned till the day of doom without redress. As for the Doctor, I +declare he's like an enchantit person, for he has falling in with a party +of the elect here, as he says, and they have a kilfud yoking every +Thursday at the house of Mr. W---, where the Doctor has been, and was +asked to pray, and did it with great effec, which has made him so up in +the buckle, that he does nothing but go to Bible soceeyetis, and +mishonary meetings, and cherity sarmons, which cost a poor of money. + +But what consarns me more than all is, that the temptations of this +vanity fair have turnt the head of Andrew, and he has bought two horses, +with an English man-servan', which you know is an eating moth. But how +he payt for them, and whar he is to keep them, is past the compass of my +understanding. In short, if the legacy does not cast up soon, I see +nothing left for us but to leave the world as a legacy to you all, for my +heart will be broken--and I often wish that the cornel hadna made us his +residees, but only given us a clean scorn, like Miss Jenny Macbride, +although it had been no more; for, my dear Miss Mally, it does not doo +for a woman of my time of life to be taken out of her element, and, +instead of looking after her family with a thrifty eye, to be sitting +dressed all day seeing the money fleeing like sclate stanes. But what I +have to tell is worse than all this; we have been persuaded to take a +furnisht house, where we go on Monday; and we are to pay for it, for +three months, no less than a hundred and fifty pounds, which is more than +the half of the Doctor's whole stipend is, when the meal is twenty-pence +the peck; and we are to have three servan' lassies, besides Andrew's man, +and the coachman that we have hired altogether for ourselves, having been +persuaded to trist a new carriage of our own by the Argents, which I +trust the Argents will find money to pay for; and masters are to come in +to teach Rachel the fasionable accomplishments, Mrs. Argent thinking she +was rather old now to be sent to a boarding-school. But what I am to get +to do for so many vorashous servants, is dreadful to think, there being +no such thing as a wheel within the four walls of London; and, if there +was, the Englishers no nothing about spinning. In short, Miss Mally, I +am driven dimentit, and I wish I could get the Doctor to come home with +me to our manse, and leave all to Andrew and Rachel, with kurators; but, +as I said, he's as mickle bye himself as onybody, and says that his +candle has been hidden under a bushel at Garnock more than thirty years, +which looks as if the poor man was fey; howsomever, he's happy in his +delooshon, for if he was afflictit with that forethought and wisdom that +I have, I know not what would be the upshot of all this calamity. But we +maun hope for the best; and, happen what will, I am, dear Miss Mally, +your sincere friend, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +Miss Mally sighed as she concluded, and said, "Riches do not always bring +happiness, and poor Mrs. Pringle would have been far better looking after +her cows and her butter, and keeping her lassies at their wark, than with +all this galravitching and grandeur." "Ah!" added Mrs. Glibbans, "she's +now a testifyer to the truth--she's now a testifyer; happy it will be for +her if she's enabled to make a sanctified use of the dispensation." + + + + +CHAPTER VII--DISCOVERIES AND REBELLIONS + + +One evening as Mr. Snodgrass was taking a solitary walk towards Irvine, +for the purpose of calling on Miss Mally Glencairn, to inquire what had +been her latest accounts from their mutual friends in London, and to read +to her a letter, which he had received two days before, from Mr. Andrew +Pringle, he met, near Eglintoun Gates, that pious woman, Mrs. Glibbans, +coming to Garnock, brimful of some most extraordinary intelligence. The +air was raw and humid, and the ways were deep and foul; she was, however, +protected without, and tempered within, against the dangers of both. +Over her venerable satin mantle, lined with cat-skin, she wore a scarlet +duffle Bath cloak, with which she was wont to attend the tent sermons of +the Kilwinning and Dreghorn preachings in cold and inclement weather. +Her black silk petticoat was pinned up, that it might not receive injury +from the nimble paddling of her short steps in the mire; and she carried +her best shoes and stockings in a handkerchief to be changed at the +manse, and had fortified her feet for the road in coarse worsted hose, +and thick plain-soled leather shoes. + +Mr. Snodgrass proposed to turn back with her, but she would not permit +him. "No, sir," said she, "what I am about you cannot meddle in. You +are here but a stranger--come to-day, and gane to-morrow;--and it does +not pertain to you to sift into the doings that have been done before +your time. Oh dear; but this is a sad thing--nothing like it since the +silencing of M'Auly of Greenock. What will the worthy Doctor say when he +hears tell o't? Had it fa'n out with that neighering body, James Daff, I +wouldna hae car't a snuff of tobacco, but wi' Mr. Craig, a man so gifted +wi' the power of the Spirit, as I hae often had a delightful experience! +Ay, ay, Mr. Snodgrass, take heed lest ye fall; we maun all lay it to +heart; but I hope the trooper is still within the jurisdiction of church +censures. She shouldna be spairt. Nae doubt, the fault lies with her, +and it is that I am going to search; yea, as with a lighted candle." + +Mr. Snodgrass expressed his inability to understand to what Mrs. Glibbans +alluded, and a very long and interesting disclosure took place, the +substance of which may be gathered from the following letter; the +immediate and instigating cause of the lady's journey to Garnock being +the alarming intelligence which she had that day received of Mr. Craig's +servant-damsel Betty having, by the style and title of Mrs. Craig, sent +for Nanse Swaddle, the midwife, to come to her in her own case, which +seemed to Mrs. Glibbans nothing short of a miracle, Betty having, the +very Sunday before, helped the kettle when she drank tea with Mr. Craig, +and sat at the room door, on a buffet-stool brought from the kitchen, +while he performed family worship, to the great solace and edification of +his visitor. + + + +LETTER XXI + + + _The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk_, _Garnock_ + +DEAR SIR--I have received your letter of the 24th, which has given me a +great surprise to hear, that Mr. Craig was married as far back as +Christmas, to his own servant lass Betty, and me to know nothing of it, +nor you neither, until it was time to be speaking to the midwife. To be +sure, Mr. Craig, who is an elder, and a very rigid man, in his +animadversions on the immoralities that come before the session, must +have had his own good reasons for keeping his marriage so long a secret. +Tell him, however, from me, that I wish both him and Mrs. Craig much joy +and felicity; but he should be milder for the future on the +thoughtlessness of youth and headstrong passions. Not that I insinuate +that there has been any occasion in the conduct of such a godly man to +cause a suspicion; but it's wonderful how he was married in December, and +I cannot say that I am altogether so proud to hear it as I am at all +times of the well-doing of my people. Really the way that Mr. Daff has +comported himself in this matter is greatly to his credit; and I doubt if +the thing had happened with him, that Mr. Craig would have sifted with a +sharp eye how he came to be married in December, and without bridal and +banquet. For my part, I could not have thought it of Mr. Craig, but it's +done now, and the less we say about it the better; so I think with Mr. +Daff, that it must be looked over; but when I return, I will speak both +to the husband and wife, and not without letting them have an inkling of +what I think about their being married in December, which was a great +shame, even if there was no sin in it. But I will say no more; for +truly, Mr. Micklewham, the longer we live in this world, and the farther +we go, and the better we know ourselves, the less reason have we to think +slightingly of our neighbours; but the more to convince our hearts and +understandings, that we are all prone to evil, and desperately wicked. +For where does hypocrisy not abound? and I have had my own experience +here, that what a man is to the world, and to his own heart, is a very +different thing. + +In my last letter, I gave you a pleasing notification of the growth, as I +thought, of spirituality in this Babylon of deceitfulness, thinking that +you and my people would be gladdened with the tidings of the repute and +estimation in which your minister was held, and I have dealt largely in +the way of public charity. But I doubt that I have been governed by a +spirit of ostentation, and not with that lowly-mindedness, without which +all almsgiving is but a serving of the altars of Belzebub; for the +chastening hand has been laid upon me, but with the kindness and pity +which a tender father hath for his dear children. + +I was requested by those who come so cordially to me with their +subscription papers, for schools and suffering worth, to preach a sermon +to get a collection. I have no occasion to tell you, that when I exert +myself, what effect I can produce; and I never made so great an exertion +before, which in itself was a proof that it was with the two bladders, +pomp and vanity, that I had committed myself to swim on the uncertain +waters of London; for surely my best exertions were due to my people. +But when the Sabbath came upon which I was to hold forth, how were my +hopes withered, and my expectations frustrated. Oh, Mr. Micklewham, what +an inattentive congregation was yonder! many slumbered and slept, and I +sowed the words of truth and holiness in vain upon their barren and +stoney hearts. There is no true grace among some that I shall not name, +for I saw them whispering and smiling like the scorners, and altogether +heedless unto the precious things of my discourse, which could not have +been the case had they been sincere in their professions, for I never +preached more to my own satisfaction on any occasion whatsoever--and, +when I return to my own parish, you shall hear what I said, as I will +preach the same sermon over again, for I am not going now to print it, as +I did once think of doing, and to have dedicated it to Mr. W---. + +We are going about in an easy way, seeing what is to be seen in the shape +of curiosities; but the whole town is in a state of ferment with the +election of members to Parliament. I have been to see't, both in the +Guildhall and at Covent Garden, and it's a frightful thing to see how the +Radicals roar like bulls of Bashan, and put down the speakers in behalf +of the government. I hope no harm will come of yon, but I must say, that +I prefer our own quiet canny Scotch way at Irvine. Well do I remember, +for it happened in the year I was licensed, that the town council, the +Lord Eglinton that was shot being then provost, took in the late Thomas +Bowet to be a counsellor; and Thomas, not being versed in election +matters, yet minding to please his lordship (for, like the rest of the +council, he had always a proper veneration for those in power), he, as I +was saying, consulted Joseph Boyd the weaver, who was then Dean of Guild, +as to the way of voting; whereupon Joseph, who was a discreet man, said +to him, "Ye'll just say as I say, and I'll say what Bailie Shaw says, for +he will do what my lord bids him"; which was as peaceful a way of sending +up a member to Parliament as could well be devised. + +But you know that politics are far from my hand--they belong to the +temporalities of the community; and the ministers of peace and goodwill +to man should neither make nor meddle with them. I wish, however, that +these tumultuous elections were well over, for they have had an effect on +the per cents, where our bit legacy is funded; and it would terrify you +to hear what we have thereby already lost. We have not, however, lost so +much but that I can spare a little to the poor among my people; so you +will, in the dry weather, after the seed-time, hire two-three thackers to +mend the thack on the roofs of such of the cottars' houses as stand in +need of mending, and banker M---y will pay the expense; and I beg you to +go to him on receipt hereof, for he has a line for yourself, which you +will be sure to accept as a testimony from me for the great trouble that +my absence from the parish has given to you among my people, and I am, +dear sir, your friend and pastor, + + Z. PRINGLE. + +As Mrs. Glibbans would not permit Mr. Snodgrass to return with her to the +manse, he pursued his journey alone to the Kirkgate of Irvine, where he +found Miss Mally Glencairn on the eve of sitting down to her solitary +tea. On seeing her visitor enter, after the first compliments on the +state of health and weather were over, she expressed her hopes that he +had not drank tea; and, on receiving a negative, which she did not quite +expect, as she thought he had been perhaps invited by some of her +neighbours, she put in an additional spoonful on his account; and brought +from her corner cupboard with the glass door, an ancient French +pickle-bottle, in which she had preserved, since the great tea-drinking +formerly mentioned, the remainder of the two ounces of carvey, the best, +Mrs. Nanse bought for that memorable occasion. A short conversation then +took place relative to the Pringles; and, while the tea was masking, for +Miss Mally said it took a long time to draw, she read to him the +following letter:-- + + + +LETTER XXII + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + +MY DEAR MISS MALLY--Trully, it may be said, that the croun of England is +upon the downfal, and surely we are all seething in the pot of +revolution, for the scum is mounting uppermost. Last week, no farther +gone than on Mononday, we came to our new house heer in Baker Street, but +it's nather to be bakit nor brewt what I hav sin syne suffert. You no my +way, and that I like a been house, but no wastrie, and so I needna tell +yoo, that we hav had good diners; to be sure, there was not a meerakle +left to fill five baskets every day, but an abundance, with a proper +kitchen of breed, to fill the bellies of four dumasticks. Howsomever, lo +and behold, what was clecking downstairs. On Saturday morning, as we +were sitting at our breakfast, the Doctor reading the newspapers, who +shoud corn intil the room but Andrew's grum, follo't by the rest, to give +us warning that they were all going to quat our sairvice, becas they were +starvit. I thocht that I would hav fentit cauld deed, but the Doctor, +who is a consiederat man, inquairt what made them starve, and then there +was such an opprobrious cry about cold meet and bare bones, and no beer. +It was an evendoun resurection--a rebellion waur than the forty-five. In +short, Miss Mally, to make a leettle of a lang tail, they would have a +hot joint day and day about, and a tree of yill to stand on the gauntress +for their draw and drink, with a cock and a pail; and we were obligated +to evacuate to their terms, and to let them go to their wark with flying +colors; so you see how dangerous it is to live among this piple, and +their noshans of liberty. + +You will see by the newspapers that ther's a lection going on for +parliament. It maks my corruption to rise to hear of such doings, and if +I was a government as I'm but a woman, I woud put them doon with the +strong hand, just to be revenged on the proud stomaks of these het and +fou English. + +We have gotten our money in the pesents put into our name; but I have had +no peese since, for they have fallen in price three eight parts, which is +very near a half, and if they go at this rate, where will all our legacy +soon be? I have no goo of the pesents; so we are on the look-out for a +landed estate, being a shure thing. + +Captain Saber is still sneking after Rachel, and if she were awee +perfited in her accomplugments, it's no saying what might happen, for +he's a fine lad, but she's o'er young to be the heed of a family. +Howsomever, the Lord's will maun be done, and if there is to be a match, +she'll no have to fight for gentility with a straitent circumstance. + +As for Andrew, I wish he was weel settlt, and we have our hopes that he's +beginning to draw up with Miss Argent, who will have, no doobt, a great +fortune, and is a treasure of a creeture in herself, being just as simple +as a lamb; but, to be sure, she has had every advantage of edication, +being brought up in a most fashonible boarding-school. + +I hope you have got the box I sent by the smak, and that you like the +patron of the goon. So no more at present, but remains, dear Miss Mally, +your sinsaire friend, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +"The box," said Miss Mally, "that Mrs. Pringle speaks about came last +night. It contains a very handsome present to me and to Miss Bell Tod. +The gift to me is from Mrs. P. herself, and Miss Bell's from Rachel; but +that ettercap, Becky Glibbans, is flying through the town like a spunky, +mislikening the one and misca'ing the other: everybody, however, kens +that it's only spite that gars her speak. It's a great pity that she +cou'dna be brought to a sense of religion like her mother, who, in her +younger days, they say, wasna to seek at a clashing." + +Mr. Snodgrass expressed his surprise at this account of the faults of +that exemplary lady's youth; but he thought of her holy anxiety to sift +into the circumstances of Betty, the elder's servant, becoming in one day +Mrs. Craig, and the same afternoon sending for the midwife, and he +prudently made no other comment; for the characters of all preachers were +in her hands, and he had the good fortune to stand high in her favour, as +a young man of great promise. In order, therefore, to avoid any +discussion respecting moral merits, he read the following letter from +Andrew Pringle:-- + + + +LETTER XXIII + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Reverend Charles Snodgrass_ + +MY DEAR FRIEND--London undoubtedly affords the best and the worst +specimens of the British character; but there is a certain townish +something about the inhabitants in general, of which I find it extremely +difficult to convey any idea. Compared with the English of the country, +there is apparently very little difference between them; but still there +is a difference, and of no small importance in a moral point of view. +The country peculiarity is like the bloom of the plumb, or the down of +the peach, which the fingers of infancy cannot touch without injuring; +but this felt but not describable quality of the town character, is as +the varnish which brings out more vividly the colours of a picture, and +which may be freely and even rudely handled. The women, for example, +although as chaste in principle as those of any other community, possess +none of that innocent untempted simplicity, which is more than half the +grace of virtue; many of them, and even young ones too, "in the first +freshness of their virgin beauty," speak of the conduct and vocation of +"the erring sisters of the sex," in a manner that often amazes me, and +has, in more than one instance, excited unpleasant feelings towards the +fair satirists. This moral taint, for I can consider it as nothing less, +I have heard defended, but only by men who are supposed to have had a +large experience of the world, and who, perhaps, on that account, are not +the best judges of female delicacy. "Every woman," as Pope says, "may be +at heart a rake"; but it is for the interests of the domestic affections, +which are the very elements of virtue, to cherish the notion, that women, +as they are physically more delicate than men, are also so morally. + +But the absence of delicacy, the bloom of virtue, is not peculiar to the +females, it is characteristic of all the varieties of the metropolitan +mind. The artifices of the medical quacks are things of universal +ridicule; but the sin, though in a less gross form, pervades the whole of +that sinister system by which much of the superiority of this vast +metropolis is supported. The state of the periodical press, that great +organ of political instruction--the unruly tongue of liberty, strikingly +confirms the justice of this misanthropic remark. + +G--- had the kindness, by way of a treat to me, to collect, the other +day, at dinner, some of the most eminent editors of the London journals. +I found them men of talent, certainly, and much more men of the world, +than "the cloistered student from his paling lamp"; but I was astonished +to find it considered, tacitly, as a sort of maxim among them, that an +intermediate party was not bound by any obligation of honour to withhold, +farther than his own discretion suggested, any information of which he +was the accidental depositary, whatever the consequences might be to his +informant, or to those affected by the communication. In a word, they +seemed all to care less about what might be true than what would produce +effect, and that effect for their own particular advantage. It is +impossible to deny, that if interest is made the criterion by which the +confidences of social intercourse are to be respected, the persons who +admit this doctrine will have but little respect for the use of names, or +deem it any reprehensible delinquency to suppress truth, or to blazon +falsehood. In a word, man in London is not quite so good a creature as +he is out of it. The rivalry of interests is here too intense; it +impairs the affections, and occasions speculations both in morals and +politics, which, I much suspect, it would puzzle a casuist to prove +blameless. Can anything, for example, be more offensive to the calm +spectator, than the elections which are now going on? Is it possible +that this country, so much smaller in geographical extent than France, +and so inferior in natural resources, restricted too by those ties and +obligations which were thrown off as fetters by that country during the +late war, could have attained, in despite of her, such a lofty +pre-eminence--become the foremost of all the world--had it not been +governed in a manner congenial to the spirit of the people, and with +great practical wisdom? It is absurd to assert, that there are no +corruptions in the various modifications by which the affairs of the +British empire are administered; but it would be difficult to show, that, +in the present state of morals and interests among mankind, corruption is +not a necessary evil. I do not mean necessary, as evolved from those +morals and interests, but necessary to the management of political +trusts. I am afraid, however, to insist on this, as the natural +integrity of your own heart, and the dignity of your vocation, will alike +induce you to condemn it as Machiavellian. It is, however, an +observation forced on me by what I have seen here. + +It would be invidious, perhaps, to criticise the different candidates for +the representation of London and Westminster very severely. I think it +must be granted, that they are as sincere in their professions as their +opponents, which at least bleaches away much of that turpitude of which +their political conduct is accused by those who are of a different way of +thinking. But it is quite evident, at least to me, that no government +could exist a week, managed with that subjection to public opinion to +which Sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Hobhouse apparently submit; and it is +no less certain, that no government ought to exist a single day that +would act in complete defiance of public opinion. + +I was surprised to find Sir Francis Burdett an uncommonly mild and +gentlemanly-looking man. I had pictured somehow to my imagination a dark +and morose character; but, on the contrary, in his appearance, +deportment, and manner of speaking, he is eminently qualified to attract +popular applause. His style of speaking is not particularly oratorical, +but he has the art of saying bitter things in a sweet way. In his +language, however, although pungent, and sometimes even eloquent, he is +singularly incorrect. He cannot utter a sequence of three sentences +without violating common grammar in the most atrocious way; and his +tropes and figures are so distorted, hashed, and broken--such a patchwork +of different patterns, that you are bewildered if you attempt to make +them out; but the earnestness of his manner, and a certain fitness of +character, in his observations a kind of Shaksperian pithiness, redeem +all this. Besides, his manifold blunders of syntax do not offend the +taste of those audiences where he is heard with the most approbation. + +Hobhouse speaks more correctly, but he lacks in the conciliatory +advantages of personal appearance; and his physiognomy, though indicating +considerable strength of mind, is not so prepossessing. He is evidently +a man of more education than his friend, that is, of more reading, +perhaps also of more various observation, but he has less genius. His +tact is coarser, and though he speaks with more vehemence, he seldomer +touches the sensibilities of his auditors. He may have observed mankind +in general more extensively than Sir Francis, but he is far less +acquainted with the feelings and associations of the English mind. There +is also a wariness about him, which I do not like so well as the +imprudent ingenuousness of the baronet. He seems to me to have a cause +in hand--Hobhouse _versus_ Existing Circumstances--and that he considers +the multitude as the jurors, on whose decision his advancement in life +depends. But in this I may be uncharitable. I should, however, think +more highly of his sincerity as a patriot, if his stake in the country +were greater; and yet I doubt, if his stake were greater, if he is that +sort of man who would have cultivated popularity in Westminster. He +seems to me to have qualified himself for Parliament as others do for the +bar, and that he will probably be considered in the House for some time +merely as a political adventurer. But if he has the talent and prudence +requisite to ensure distinction in the line of his profession, the +mediocrity of his original condition will reflect honour on his success, +should he hereafter acquire influence and consideration as a statesman. +Of his literary talents I know you do not think very highly, nor am I +inclined to rank the powers of his mind much beyond those of any common +well-educated English gentleman. But it will soon be ascertained whether +his pretensions to represent Westminster be justified by a sense of +conscious superiority, or only prompted by that ambition which overleaps +itself. + +Of Wood, who was twice Lord Mayor, I know not what to say. There is a +queer and wily cast in his pale countenance, that puzzles me exceedingly. +In common parlance I would call him an empty vain creature; but when I +look at that indescribable spirit, which indicates a strange and +out-of-the-way manner of thinking, I humbly confess that he is no common +man. He is evidently a person of no intellectual accomplishments; he has +neither the language nor the deportment of a gentleman, in the usual +understanding of the term; and yet there is something that I would almost +call genius about him. It is not cunning, it is not wisdom, it is far +from being prudence, and yet it is something as wary as prudence, as +effectual as wisdom, and not less sinister than cunning. I would call it +intuitive skill, a sort of instinct, by which he is enabled to attain his +ends in defiance of a capacity naturally narrow, a judgment that topples +with vanity, and an address at once mean and repulsive. To call him a +great man, in any possible approximation of the word, would be +ridiculous; that he is a good one, will be denied by those who envy his +success, or hate his politics; but nothing, save the blindness of +fanaticism, can call in question his possession of a rare and singular +species of ability, let it be exerted in what cause it may. But my paper +is full, and I have only room to subscribe myself, faithfully, yours, + + A. PRINGLE. + +"It appears to us," said Mr. Snodgrass, as he folded up the letter to +return it to his pocket, "that the Londoners, with all their advantages +of information, are neither purer nor better than their fellow-subjects +in the country." "As to their betterness," replied Miss Mally, "I have a +notion that they are far waur; and I hope you do not think that earthly +knowledge of any sort has a tendency to make mankind, or womankind +either, any better; for was not Solomon, who had more of it than any +other man, a type and testification, that knowledge without grace is but +vanity?" The young clergyman was somewhat startled at this application +of a remark on which he laid no particular stress, and was thankful in +his heart that Mrs. Glibbans was not present. He was not aware that Miss +Mally had an orthodox corn, or bunyan, that could as little bear a touch +from the royne-slippers of philosophy, as the inflamed gout of polemical +controversy, which had gumfiated every mental joint and member of that +zealous prop of the Relief Kirk. This was indeed the tender point of +Miss Mally's character; for she was left unplucked on the stalk of single +blessedness, owing entirely to a conversation on this very subject with +the only lover she ever had, Mr. Dalgliesh, formerly helper in the +neighbouring parish of Dintonknow. He happened incidentally to observe, +that education was requisite to promote the interests of religion. But +Miss Mally, on that occasion, jocularly maintained, that education had +only a tendency to promote the sale of books. This, Mr. Dalgliesh +thought, was a sneer at himself, he having some time before unfortunately +published a short tract, entitled, "The moral union of our temporal and +eternal interests considered, with respect to the establishment of +parochial seminaries," and which fell still-born from the press. He +therefore retorted with some acrimony, until, from less to more, Miss +Mally ordered him to keep his distance; upon which he bounced out of the +room, and they were never afterwards on speaking terms. Saving, however, +and excepting this particular dogma, Miss Mally was on all other topics +as liberal and beneficent as could be expected from a maiden lady, who +was obliged to eke out her stinted income with a nimble needle and a +close-clipping economy. The conversation with Mr. Snodgrass was not, +however, lengthened into acrimony; for immediately after the remark which +we have noticed, she proposed that they should call on Miss Isabella Tod +to see Rachel's letter; indeed, this was rendered necessary by the state +of the fire, for after boiling the kettle she had allowed it to fall low. +It was her nightly practice after tea to take her evening seam, in a +friendly way, to some of her neighbours' houses, by which she saved both +coal and candle, while she acquired the news of the day, and was +occasionally invited to stay supper. + +On their arrival at Mrs. Tod's, Miss Isabella understood the purport of +their visit, and immediately produced her letter, receiving, at the same +time, a perusal of Mr. Andrew Pringle's. Mrs. Pringle's to Miss Mally +she had previously seen. + + + +LETTER XXIV + + + _Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_ + +MY DEAR BELL--Since my last, we have undergone great changes and +vicissitudes. Last week we removed to our present house, which is +exceedingly handsome and elegantly furnished; and on Saturday there was +an insurrection of the servants, on account of my mother not allowing +them to have their dinners served up at the usual hour for servants at +other genteel houses. We have also had the legacy in the funds +transferred to my father, and only now wait the settling of the final +accounts, which will yet take some time. On the day that the transfer +took place, my mother made me a present of a twenty pound note, to lay +out in any way I thought fit, and in so doing, I could not but think of +you; I have, therefore, in a box which she is sending to Miss Mally +Glencairn, sent you an evening dress from Mrs. Bean's, one of the most +fashionable and tasteful dressmakers in town, which I hope you will wear +with pleasure for my sake. I have got one exactly like it, so that when +you see yourself in the glass, you will behold in what state I appeared +at Lady ---'s route. + +Ah! my dear Bell, how much are our expectations disappointed! How often +have we, with admiration and longing wonder, read the descriptions in the +newspapers of the fashionable parties in this great metropolis, and +thought of the Grecian lamps, the ottomans, the promenades, the +ornamented floors, the cut glass, the _coup d'oeil_, and the _tout +ensemble_. "Alas!" as Young the poet says, "the things unseen do not +deceive us." I have seen more beauty at an Irvine ball, than all the +fashionable world could bring to market at my Lady ---'s emporium for the +disposal of young ladies, for indeed I can consider it as nothing else. + +I went with the Argents. The hall door was open, and filled with the +servants in their state liveries; but although the door was open, the +porter, as each carriage came up, rung a peal upon the knocker, to +announce to all the square the successive arrival of the guests. We were +shown upstairs to the drawing-rooms. They were very well, but neither so +grand nor so great as I expected. As for the company, it was a +suffocating crowd of fat elderly gentlewomen, and misses that stood in +need of all the charms of their fortunes. One thing I could notice--for +the press was so great, little could be seen--it was, that the old ladies +wore rouge. The white satin sleeve of my dress was entirely ruined by +coming in contact with a little round, dumpling duchess's cheek--as +vulgar a body as could well be. She seemed to me to have spent all her +days behind a counter, smirking thankfulness to bawbee customers. + +When we had been shown in the drawing-rooms to the men for some time, we +then adjourned to the lower apartments, where the refreshments were set +out. This, I suppose, is arranged to afford an opportunity to the beaux +to be civil to the belles, and thereby to scrape acquaintance with those +whom they approve, by assisting them to the delicacies. Altogether, it +was a very dull well-dressed affair, and yet I ought to have been in good +spirits, for Sir Marmaduke Towler, a great Yorkshire baronet, was most +particular in his attentions to me; indeed so much so, that I saw it made +poor Sabre very uneasy. I do not know why it should, for I have given +him no positive encouragement to hope for anything; not that I have the +least idea that the baronet's attentions were more than commonplace +politeness, but he has since called. I cannot, however, say that my +vanity is at all flattered by this circumstance. At the same time, there +surely could be no harm in Sir Marmaduke making me an offer, for you know +I am not bound to accept it. Besides, my father does not like him, and +my mother thinks he's a fortune-hunter; but I cannot conceive how that +may be, for, on the contrary, he is said to be rather extravagant. + +Before we return to Scotland, it is intended that we shall visit some of +the watering-places; and, perhaps, if Andrew can manage it with my +father, we may even take a trip to Paris. The Doctor himself is not +averse to it, but my mother is afraid that a new war may break out, and +that we may be detained prisoners. This fantastical fear we shall, +however, try to overcome. But I am interrupted. Sir Marmaduke is in the +drawing-room, and I am summoned.--Yours truly, + + RACHEL PRINGLE. + +When Mr. Snodgrass had read this letter, he paused for a moment, and then +said dryly, in handing it to Miss Isabella, "Miss Pringle is improving in +the ways of the world." + +The evening by this time was far advanced, and the young clergyman was +not desirous to renew the conversation; he therefore almost immediately +took his leave, and walked sedately towards Garnock, debating with +himself as he went along, whether Dr. Pringle's family were likely to be +benefited by their legacy. But he had scarcely passed the minister's +carse, when he met with Mrs. Glibbans returning. "Mr. Snodgrass! Mr. +Snodgrass!" cried that ardent matron from her side of the road to the +other where he was walking, and he obeyed her call; "yon's no sic a black +story as I thought. Mrs. Craig is to be sure far gane! but they were +married in December; and it was only because she was his servan' lass +that the worthy man didna like to own her at first for his wife. It +would have been dreadful had the matter been jealoused at the first. She +gaed to Glasgow to see an auntie that she has there, and he gaed in to +fetch her out, and it was then the marriage was made up, which I was glad +to hear; for, oh, Mr. Snodgrass, it would have been an awfu' judgment had +a man like Mr. Craig turn't out no better than a Tam Pain or a Major +Weir. But a's for the best; and Him that has the power of salvation can +blot out all our iniquities. So good-night--ye'll have a lang walk." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII--THE QUEEN'S TRIAL + + +As the spring advanced, the beauty of the country around Garnock was +gradually unfolded; the blossom was unclosed, while the church was +embraced within the foliage of more umbrageous boughs. The schoolboys +from the adjacent villages were, on the Saturday afternoons, frequently +seen angling along the banks of the Lugton, which ran clearer beneath the +churchyard wall, and the hedge of the minister's glebe; and the evenings +were so much lengthened, that the occasional visitors at the manse could +prolong their walk after tea. These, however, were less numerous than +when the family were at home; but still Mr. Snodgrass, when the weather +was fine, had no reason to deplore the loneliness of his bachelor's +court. + +It happened that, one fair and sunny afternoon, Miss Mally Glencairn and +Miss Isabella Tod came to the manse. Mrs. Glibbans and her daughter +Becky were the same day paying their first ceremonious visit, as the +matron called it, to Mr. and Mrs. Craig, with whom the whole party were +invited to take tea; and, for lack of more amusing chit-chat, the +Reverend young gentleman read to them the last letter which he had +received from Mr. Andrew Pringle. It was conjured naturally enough out +of his pocket, by an observation of Miss Mally's "Nothing surprises me," +said that amiable maiden lady, "so much as the health and good-humour of +the commonality. It is a joyous refutation of the opinion, that the +comfort and happiness of this life depends on the wealth of worldly +possessions." + +"It is so," replied Mr. Snodgrass, "and I do often wonder, when I see the +blithe and hearty children of the cottars, frolicking in the abundance of +health and hilarity, where the means come from to enable their poor +industrious parents to supply their wants." + +"How can you wonder at ony sic things, Mr. Snodgrass? Do they not come +from on high," said Mrs. Glibbans, "whence cometh every good and perfect +gift? Is there not the flowers of the field, which neither card nor +spin, and yet Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of +these?" + +"I was not speaking in a spiritual sense," interrupted the other, "but +merely made the remark, as introductory to a letter which I have received +from Mr. Andrew Pringle, respecting some of the ways of living in +London." + +Mrs. Craig, who had been so recently translated from the kitchen to the +parlour, pricked up her ears at this, not doubting that the letter would +contain something very grand and wonderful, and exclaimed, "Gude safe's, +let's hear't--I'm unco fond to ken about London, and the king and the +queen; but I believe they are baith dead noo." + +Miss Becky Glibbans gave a satirical keckle at this, and showed her +superior learning, by explaining to Mrs. Craig the unbroken nature of the +kingly office. Mr. Snodgrass then read as follows:-- + + + +LETTER XXV + + + _Andrew Pringle_, _Esq._, _to the Rev. Charles Snodgrass_ + +MY DEAR FRIEND--You are not aware of the task you impose, when you +request me to send you some account of the general way of living in +London. Unless you come here, and actually experience yourself what I +would call the London ache, it is impossible to supply you with any +adequate idea of the necessity that exists in this wilderness of mankind, +to seek refuge in society, without being over fastidious with respect to +the intellectual qualifications of your occasional associates. In a +remote desart, the solitary traveller is subject to apprehensions of +danger; but still he is the most important thing "within the circle of +that lonely waste"; and the sense of his own dignity enables him to +sustain the shock of considerable hazard with spirit and fortitude. But, +in London, the feeling of self-importance is totally lost and suppressed +in the bosom of a stranger. A painful conviction of insignificance--of +nothingness, I may say--is sunk upon his heart, and murmured in his ear +by the million, who divide with him that consequence which he +unconsciously before supposed he possessed in a general estimate of the +world. While elbowing my way through the unknown multitude that flows +between Charing Cross and the Royal Exchange, this mortifying sense of my +own insignificance has often come upon me with the energy of a pang; and +I have thought, that, after all we can say of any man, the effect of the +greatest influence of an individual on society at large, is but as that +of a pebble thrown into the sea. Mathematically speaking, the +undulations which the pebble causes, continue until the whole mass of the +ocean has been disturbed to the bottom of its most secret depths and +farthest shores; and, perhaps, with equal truth it may be affirmed, that +the sentiments of the man of genius are also infinitely propagated; but +how soon is the physical impression of the one lost to every sensible +perception, and the moral impulse of the other swallowed up from all +practical effect. + +But though London, in the general, may be justly compared to the vast and +restless ocean, or to any other thing that is either sublime, +incomprehensible, or affecting, it loses all its influence over the +solemn associations of the mind when it is examined in its details. For +example, living on the town, as it is slangishly called, the most +friendless and isolated condition possible, is yet fraught with an +amazing diversity of enjoyment. Thousands of gentlemen, who have +survived the relish of active fashionable pursuits, pass their life in +that state without tasting the delight of one new sensation. They rise +in the morning merely because Nature will not allow them to remain longer +in bed. They begin the day without motive or purpose, and close it after +having performed the same unvaried round as the most thoroughbred +domestic animal that ever dwelt in manse or manor-house. If you ask them +at three o'clock where they are to dine, they cannot tell you; but about +the wonted dinner-hour, batches of these forlorn bachelors find +themselves diurnally congregated, as if by instinct, around a cozy table +in some snug coffee-house, where, after inspecting the contents of the +bill of fare, they discuss the news of the day, reserving the scandal, by +way of dessert, for their wine. Day after day their respective political +opinions give rise to keen encounters, but without producing the +slightest shade of change in any of their old ingrained and particular +sentiments. + +Some of their haunts, I mean those frequented by the elderly race, are +shabby enough in their appearance and circumstances, except perhaps in +the quality of the wine. Everything in them is regulated by an ancient +and precise economy, and you perceive, at the first glance, that all is +calculated on the principle of the house giving as much for the money as +it can possibly afford, without infringing those little etiquettes which +persons of gentlemanly habits regard as essentials. At half price the +junior members of these unorganised or natural clubs retire to the +theatres, while the elder brethren mend their potations till it is time +to go home. This seems a very comfortless way of life, but I have no +doubt it is the preferred result of a long experience of the world, and +that the parties, upon the whole, find it superior, according to their +early formed habits of dissipation and gaiety, to the sedate but not more +regular course of a domestic circle. + +The chief pleasure, however, of living on the town, consists in +accidentally falling in with persons whom it might be otherwise difficult +to meet in private life. I have several times enjoyed this. The other +day I fell in with an old gentleman, evidently a man of some consequence, +for he came to the coffee-house in his own carriage. It happened that we +were the only guests, and he proposed that we should therefore dine +together. In the course of conversation it came out, that he had been +familiarly acquainted with Garrick, and had frequented the Literary Club +in the days of Johnson and Goldsmith. In his youth, I conceive, he must +have been an amusing companion; for his fancy was exceedingly lively, and +his manners altogether afforded a very favourable specimen of the old, +the gentlemanly school. At an appointed hour his carriage came for him, +and we parted, perhaps never to meet again. + +Such agreeable incidents, however, are not common, as the frequenters of +the coffee-houses are, I think, usually taciturn characters, and averse +to conversation. I may, however, be myself in fault. Our countrymen in +general, whatever may be their address in improving acquaintance to the +promotion of their own interests, have not the best way, in the first +instance, of introducing themselves. A raw Scotchman, contrasted with a +sharp Londoner, is very inadroit and awkward, be his talents what they +may; and I suspect, that even the most brilliant of your old +class-fellows have, in their professional visits to this metropolis, had +some experience of what I mean. + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + +When Mr. Snodgrass paused, and was folding up the letter, Mrs. Craig, +bending with her hands on her knees, said, emphatically, "Noo, sir, what +think you of that?" He was not, however, quite prepared to give an +answer to a question so abruptly propounded, nor indeed did he exactly +understand to what particular the lady referred. "For my part," she +resumed, recovering her previous posture--"for my part, it's a very +caldrife way of life to dine every day on coffee; broth and beef would +put mair smeddum in the men; they're just a whin auld fogies that Mr. +Andrew describes, an' no wurth a single woman's pains." "Wheesht, +wheesht, mistress," cried Mr. Craig; "ye mauna let your tongue rin awa +with your sense in that gait." "It has but a light load," said Miss +Becky, whispering Isabella Tod. In this juncture, Mr. Micklewham +happened to come in, and Mrs. Craig, on seeing him, cried out, "I hope, +Mr. Micklewham, ye have brought the Doctor's letter. He's such a funny +man! and touches off the Londoners to the nines." + +"He's a good man," said Mrs. Glibbans, in a tone calculated to repress +the forwardness of Mrs. Craig; but Miss Mally Glencairn having, in the +meanwhile, taken from her pocket an epistle which she had received the +preceding day from Mrs. Pringle, Mr. Snodgrass silenced all controversy +on that score by requesting her to proceed with the reading. "She's a +clever woman, Mrs. Pringle," said Mrs. Craig, who was resolved to cut a +figure in the conversation in her own house. "She's a discreet woman, +and may be as godly, too, as some that make mair wark about the elect." +Whether Mrs. Glibbans thought this had any allusion to herself is not +susceptible of legal proof; but she turned round and looked at their +"most kind hostess" with a sneer that might almost merit the appellation +of a snort. Mrs. Craig, however, pacified her, by proposing, "that, +before hearing the letter, they should take a dram of wine, or pree her +cherry bounce"--adding, "our maister likes a been house, and ye a' ken +that we are providing for a handling." The wine was accordingly served, +and, in due time, Miss Mally Glencairn edified and instructed the party +with the contents of Mrs. Pringle's letter. + + + +LETTER XXVI + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + +DEAR MISS MALLY--You will have heard, by the peppers, of the gret +hobbleshow heer aboot the queen's coming over contrary to the will of the +nation; and, that the king and parlement are so angry with her, that they +are going to put her away by giving to her a bill of divorce. The +Doctor, who has been searchin the Scriptures on the okashon, says this is +not in their poor, although she was found guilty of the fact; but I tell +him, that as the king and parlement of old took upon them to change our +religion, I do not see how they will be hampered now by the word of God. + +You may well wonder that I have no ritten to you about the king, and what +he is like, but we have never got a sight of him at all, whilk is a gret +shame, paying so dear as we do for a king, who shurely should be a publik +man. But, we have seen her majesty, who stays not far from our house +heer in Baker Street, in dry lodgings, which, I am creditably informed, +she is obligated to pay for by the week, for nobody will trust her; so +you see what it is, Miss Mally, to have a light character. Poor woman, +they say she might have been going from door to door, with a staff and a +meal pock, but for ane Mr. Wood, who is a baillie of London, that has +ta'en her by the hand. She's a woman advanced in life, with a short +neck, and a pentit face; housomever, that, I suppose, she canno help, +being a queen, and obligated to set the fashons to the court, where it is +necessar to hide their faces with pent, our Andrew says, that their looks +may not betray them--there being no shurer thing than a false-hearted +courtier. + +But what concerns me the most, in all this, is, that there will be no +coronashon till the queen is put out of the way--and nobody can take upon +them to say when that will be, as the law is so dootful and +endless--which I am verra sorry for, as it was my intent to rite Miss +Nanny Eydent a true account of the coronashon, in case there had been any +partiklars that might be servisable to her in her bisness. + +The Doctor and me, by ourselves, since we have been settlt, go about at +our convenience, and have seen far mae farlies than baith Andrew and +Rachel, with all the acquaintance they have forgathert with--but you no +old heeds canno be expectit on young shouthers, and they have not had the +experience of the world that we have had. + +The lamps in the streets here are lighted with gauze, and not with +crusies, like those that have lately been put up in your toun; and it is +brought in pips aneath the ground from the manufactors, which the Doctor +and me have been to see--an awful place--and they say as fey to a spark +as poother, which made us glad to get out o't when we heard so;--and we +have been to see a brew-house, where they mak the London porter, but it +is a sight not to be told. In it we saw a barrel, whilk the Doctor said +was by gauging bigger than the Irvine muckle kirk, and a masking fat, +like a barn for mugnited. But all thae were as nothing to a curiosity of +a steam-ingine, that minches minch collops as natural as life--and stuffs +the sosogees itself, in a manner past the poor of nature to consiv. They +have, to be shure, in London, many things to help work--for in our +kitchen there is a smoking-jack to roast the meat, that gangs of its oun +free will, and the brisker the fire, the faster it runs; but a +potatoe-beetle is not to be had within the four walls of London, which is +a great want in a house; Mrs. Argent never hard of sic a thing. + +Me and the Doctor have likewise been in the Houses of Parliament, and the +Doctor since has been again to heer the argol-bargoling aboot the queen. +But, cepting the king's throne, which is all gold and velvet, with a +croun on the top, and stars all round, there was nothing worth the +looking at in them baith. Howsomever, I sat in the king's seat, and in +the preses chair of the House of Commons, which, you no, is something for +me to say; and we have been to see the printing of books, where the very +smallest dividual syllib is taken up by itself and made into words by the +hand, so as to be quite confounding how it could ever read sense. But +there is ane piece of industry and froughgalaty I should not forget, +whilk is wives going about with whirl-barrows, selling horses' flesh to +the cats and dogs by weight, and the cats and dogs know them very well by +their voices. In short, Miss Mally, there is nothing heer that the hand +is not turnt to; and there is, I can see, a better order and method +really among the Londoners than among our Scotch folks, notwithstanding +their advantages of edicashion, but my pepper will hold no more at +present, from your true friend, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +There was a considerable diversity of opinion among the commentators on +this epistle. Mrs. Craig was the first who broke silence, and displayed +a great deal of erudition on the minch-collop-engine, and the +potatoe-beetle, in which she was interrupted by the indignant Mrs. +Glibbans, who exclaimed, "I am surprised to hear you, Mrs. Craig, speak +of sic baubles, when the word of God's in danger of being controverted by +an Act of Parliament. But, Mr. Snodgrass, dinna ye think that this +painting of the queen's face is a Jezebitical testification against her?" +Mr. Snodgrass replied, with an unwonted sobriety of manner, and with an +emphasis that showed he intended to make some impression on his +auditors--"It is impossible to judge correctly of strangers by measuring +them according to our own notions of propriety. It has certainly long +been a practice in courts to disfigure the beauty of the human +countenance with paint; but what, in itself, may have been originally +assumed for a mask or disguise, may, by usage, have grown into a very +harmless custom. I am not, therefore, disposed to attach any criminal +importance to the circumstance of her majesty wearing paint. Her late +majesty did so herself." "I do not say it was criminal," said Mrs. +Glibbans; "I only meant it was sinful, and I think it is." The accent of +authority in which this was said, prevented Mr. Snodgrass from offering +any reply; and, a brief pause ensuing, Miss Molly Glencairn observed, +that it was a surprising thing how the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle managed +their matters so well. "Ay," said Mrs. Craig, "but we a' ken what a +manager the mistress is--she's the bee that mak's the hincy--she does not +gang bizzing aboot, like a thriftless wasp, through her neighbours' +houses." "I tell you, Betty, my dear," cried Mr. Craig, "that you +shouldna make comparisons--what's past is gane--and Mrs. Glibbans and you +maun now be friends." "They're a' friends to me that's no faes, and am +very glad to see Mrs. Glibbans sociable in my house; but she needna hae +made sae light of me when she was here before." And, in saying this, the +amiable hostess burst into a loud sob of sorrow, which induced Mr. +Snodgrass to beg Mr. Micklewham to read the Doctor's letter, by which a +happy stop was put to the further manifestation of the grudge which Mrs. +Craig harboured against Mrs. Glibbans for the lecture she had received, +on what the latter called "the incarnated effect of a more than +Potipharian claught o' the godly Mr. Craig." + + + +LETTER XXVII + + + _The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk of Garnock_ + +DEAR SIR--I had a great satisfaction in hearing that Mr. Snodgrass, in my +place, prays for the queen on the Lord's Day, which liberty, to do in our +national church, is a thing to be upholden with a fearless spirit, even +with the spirit of martyrdom, that we may not bow down in Scotland to the +prelatic Baal of an order in Council, whereof the Archbishop of +Canterbury, that is cousin-german to the Pope of Rome, is art and part. +Verily, the sending forth of that order to the General Assembly was +treachery to the solemn oath of the new king, whereby he took the vows +upon him, conform to the Articles of the Union, to maintain the Church of +Scotland as by law established, so that for the Archbishop of Canterbury +to meddle therein was a shooting out of the horns of aggressive +domination. + +I think it is right of me to testify thus much, through you, to the +Session, that the elders may stand on their posts to bar all such +breaking in of the Episcopalian boar into our corner of the vineyard. + +Anent the queen's case and condition, I say nothing; for be she guilty, +or be she innocent, we all know that she was born in sin, and brought +forth in iniquity--prone to evil, as the sparks fly upwards--and +desperately wicked, like you and me, or any other poor Christian sinner, +which is reason enough to make us think of her in the remembering prayer. + +Since she came over, there has been a wonderful work doing here; and it +is thought that the crown will be taken off her head by a strong handling +of the Parliament; and really, when I think of the bishops sitting high +in the peerage, like owls and rooks in the bartisans of an old tower, I +have my fears that they can bode her no good. I have seen them in the +House of Lords, clothed in their idolatrous robes; and when I looked at +them so proudly placed at the right hand of the king's throne, and on the +side of the powerful, egging on, as I saw one of them doing in a whisper, +the Lord Liverpool, before he rose to speak against the queen, the blood +ran cold in my veins, and I thought of their woeful persecutions of our +national church, and prayed inwardly that I might be keepit in the +humility of a zealous presbyter, and that the corruption of the frail +human nature within me might never be tempted by the pampered whoredoms +of prelacy. + +Saving the Lord Chancellor, all the other temporal peers were just as +they had come in from the crown of the causeway--none of them having a +judicial garment, which was a shame; and as for the Chancellor's long +robe, it was not so good as my own gown; but he is said to be a very +narrow man. What he spoke, however, was no doubt sound law; yet I could +observe he has a bad custom of taking the name of God in vain, which I +wonder at, considering he has such a kittle conscience, which, on less +occasions, causes him often to shed tears. + +Mrs. Pringle and me, by ourselves, had a fine quiet canny sight of the +queen, out of the window of a pastry baxter's shop, opposite to where her +majesty stays. She seems to be a plump and jocose little woman; gleg, +blithe, and throwgaun for her years, and on an easy footing with the +lower orders--coming to the window when they call for her, and becking to +them, which is very civil of her, and gets them to take her part against +the government. + +The baxter in whose shop we saw this told us that her majesty said, on +being invited to take her dinner at an inn on the road from Dover, that +she would be content with a mutton-chop at the King's Arms in London, {2} +which shows that she is a lady of a very hamely disposition. Mrs. +Pringle thought her not big enough for a queen; but we cannot expect +every one to be like that bright accidental star, Queen Elizabeth, whose +effigy we have seen preserved in armour in the Tower of London, and in +wax in Westminster Abbey, where they have a living-like likeness of Lord +Nelson, in the very identical regimentals that he was killed in. They +are both wonderful places, but it costs a power of money to get through +them, and all the folk about them think of nothing but money; for when I +inquired, with a reverent spirit, seeing around me the tombs of great and +famous men, the mighty and wise of their day, what department it was of +the Abbey--"It's the eighteenpence department," said an uncircumcised +Philistine, with as little respect as if we had been treading the courts +of the darling Dagon. + +Our concerns here are now drawing to a close; but before we return, we +are going for a short time to a town on the seaside, which they call +Brighton. We had a notion of taking a trip to Paris, but that we must +leave to Andrew Pringle, my son, and his sister Rachel, if the bit lassie +could get a decent gudeman, which maybe will cast up for her before we +leave London. Nothing, however, is settled as yet upon that head, so I +can say no more at present anent the same. + +Since the affair of the sermon, I have withdrawn myself from trafficking +so much as I did in the missionary and charitable ploys that are so in +vogue with the pious here, which will be all the better for my own +people, as I will keep for them what I was giving to the unknown; and it +is my design to write a book on almsgiving, to show in what manner that +Christian duty may be best fulfilled, which I doubt not will have the +effect of opening the eyes of many in London to the true nature of the +thing by which I was myself beguiled in this Vanity Fair, like a bird +ensnared by the fowler. + +I was concerned to hear of poor Mr. Witherspoon's accident, in falling +from his horse in coming from the Dalmailing occasion. How thankful he +must be, that the Lord made his head of a durability to withstand the +shock, which might otherwise have fractured his skull. What you say +about the promise of the braird gives me pleasure on account of the poor; +but what will be done with the farmers and their high rents, if the +harvest turn out so abundant? Great reason have I to be thankful that +the legacy has put me out of the reverence of my stipend; for when the +meal was cheap, I own to you that I felt my carnality grudging the horn +of abundance that the Lord was then pouring into the lap of the earth. +In short, Mr. Micklewham, I doubt it is o'er true with us all, that the +less we are tempted, the better we are; so with my sincere prayers that +you may be delivered from all evil, and led out of the paths of +temptation, whether it is on the highway, or on the footpaths, or beneath +the hedges, I remain, dear sir, your friend and pastor, + + ZACHARIAH PRINGLE. + +"The Doctor," said Mrs. Glibbans, as the schoolmaster concluded, "is +there like himself--a true orthodox Christian, standing up for the word, +and overflowing with charity even for the sinner. But, Mr. Snodgrass, I +did not ken before that the bishops had a hand in the making of the Acts +of the Parliament; I think, Mr. Snodgrass, if that be the case, there +should be some doubt in Scotland about obeying them. However that may +be, sure am I that the queen, though she was a perfect Deliah, has +nothing to fear from them; for have we not read in the Book of Martyrs, +and other church histories, of their concubines and indulgences, in the +papist times, to all manner of carnal iniquity? But if she be that +noghty woman that they say"--"Gude safe's," cried Mrs. Craig, "if she be +a noghty woman, awa' wi' her, awa' wi' her--wha kens the cantrips she may +play us?" + +Here Miss Mally Glencairn interposed, and informed Mrs. Craig, that a +noghty woman was not, as she seemed to think, a witch wife. "I am sure," +said Miss Becky Glibbans, "that Mrs. Craig might have known that." "Oh, +ye're a spiteful deevil," whispered Miss Mally, with a smile to her; and +turning in the same moment to Miss Isabella Tod, begged her to read Miss +Pringle's letter--a motion which Mr. Snodgrass seconded chiefly to +abridge the conversation, during which, though he wore a serene +countenance, he often suffered much. + + + +LETTER XXVIII + + + _Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Tod_ + +MY DEAR BELL--I am much obliged by your kind expressions for my little +present. I hope soon to send you something better, and gloves at the +same time; for Sabre has been brought to the point by an alarm for the +Yorkshire baronet that I mentioned, as showing symptoms of the tender +passion for my fortune. The friends on both sides being satisfied with +the match, it will take place as soon as some preliminary arrangements +are made. When we are settled, I hope your mother will allow you to come +and spend some time with us at our country-seat in Berkshire; and I shall +be happy to repay all the expenses of your journey, as a jaunt to England +is what your mother would, I know, never consent to pay for. + +It is proposed that, immediately after the ceremony, we shall set out for +France, accompanied by my brother, where we are to be soon after joined +at Paris by some of the Argents, who, I can see, think Andrew worth the +catching for Miss. My father and mother will then return to Scotland; +but whether the Doctor will continue to keep his parish, or give it up to +Mr. Snodgrass, will depend greatly on the circumstances in which he finds +his parishioners. This is all the domestic intelligence I have got to +give, but its importance will make up for other deficiencies. + +As to the continuance of our discoveries in London, I know not well what +to say. Every day brings something new, but we lose the sense of +novelty. Were a fire in the same street where we live, it would no +longer alarm me. A few nights ago, as we were sitting in the parlour +after supper, the noise of an engine passing startled us all; we ran to +the windows--there was haste and torches, and the sound of other engines, +and all the horrors of a conflagration reddening the skies. My father +sent out the footboy to inquire where it was; and when the boy came back, +he made us laugh, by snapping his fingers, and saying the fire was not +worth so much--although, upon further inquiry, we learnt that the house +in which it originated was burnt to the ground. You see, therefore, how +the bustle of this great world hardens the sensibilities, but I trust its +influence will never extend to my heart. + +The principal topic of conversation at present is about the queen. The +Argents, who are our main instructors in the proprieties of London life, +say that it would be very vulgar in me to go to look at her, which I am +sorry for, as I wish above all things to see a personage so illustrious +by birth, and renowned by misfortune. The Doctor and my mother, who are +less scrupulous, and who, in consequence, somehow, by themselves, +contrive to see, and get into places that are inaccessible to all +gentility, have had a full view of her majesty. My father has since +become her declared partisan, and my mother too has acquired a leaning +likewise towards her side of the question; but neither of them will +permit the subject to be spoken of before me, as they consider it +detrimental to good morals. I, however, read the newspapers. + +What my brother thinks of her majesty's case is not easy to divine; but +Sabre is convinced of the queen's guilt, upon some private and authentic +information which a friend of his, who has returned from Italy, heard +when travelling in that country. This information he has not, however, +repeated to me, so that it must be very bad. We shall know all when the +trial comes on. In the meantime, his majesty, who has lived in dignified +retirement since he came to the throne, has taken up his abode, with +rural felicity, in a cottage in Windsor Forest; where he now, contemning +all the pomp and follies of his youth, and this metropolis, passes his +days amidst his cabbages, like Dioclesian, with innocence and +tranquillity, far from the intrigues of courtiers, and insensible to the +murmuring waves of the fluctuating populace, that set in with so strong a +current towards "the mob-led queen," as the divine Shakespeare has so +beautifully expressed it. + +You ask me about Vauxhall Gardens;--I have not seen them--they are no +longer in fashion--the theatres are quite vulgar--even the opera-house +has sunk into a second-rate place of resort. Almack's balls, the +Argyle-rooms, and the Philharmonic concerts, are the only public +entertainments frequented by people of fashion; and this high superiority +they owe entirely to the difficulty of gaining admission. London, as my +brother says, is too rich, and grown too luxurious, to have any exclusive +place of fashionable resort, where price alone is the obstacle. Hence, +the institution of these select aristocratic assemblies. The +Philharmonic concerts, however, are rather professional than fashionable +entertainments; but everybody is fond of music, and, therefore, +everybody, that can be called anybody, is anxious to get tickets to them; +and this anxiety has given them a degree of _eclat_, which I am persuaded +the performance would never have excited had the tickets been purchasable +at any price. The great thing here is, either to be somebody, or to be +patronised by a person that is a somebody; without this, though you were +as rich as Croesus, your golden chariots, like the comets of a season, +blazing and amazing, would speedily roll away into the obscurity from +which they came, and be remembered no more. + +At first when we came here, and when the amount of our legacy was first +promulgated, we were in a terrible flutter. Andrew became a man of +fashion, with all the haste that tailors, and horses, and dinners, could +make him. My father, honest man, was equally inspired with lofty ideas, +and began a career that promised a liberal benefaction of good things to +the poor--and my mother was almost distracted with calculations about +laying out the money to the best advantage, and the sum she would allow +to be spent. I alone preserved my natural equanimity; and foreseeing the +necessity of new accomplishments to suit my altered circumstances, +applied myself to the instructions of my masters, with an assiduity that +won their applause. The advantages of this I now experience--my brother +is sobered from his champaign fumes--my father has found out that charity +begins at home--and my mother, though her establishment is enlarged, +finds her happiness, notwithstanding the legacy, still lies within the +little circle of her household cares. Thus, my dear Bell, have I proved +the sweets of a true philosophy; and, unseduced by the blandishments of +rank, rejected Sir Marmaduke Towler, and accepted the humbler but more +disinterested swain, Captain Sabre, who requests me to send you his +compliments, not altogether content that you should occupy so much of the +bosom of your affectionate + + RACHEL PRINGLE. + +"Rachel had ay a gude roose of hersel'," said Becky Glibbans, as Miss +Isabella concluded. In the same moment, Mr. Snodgrass took his leave, +saying to Mr. Micklewham, that he had something particular to mention to +him. "What can it be about?" inquired Mrs. Glibbans at Mr. Craig, as +soon as the helper and schoolmaster had left the room: "Do you think it +can be concerning the Doctor's resignation of the parish in his favour?" +"I'm sure," interposed Mrs. Craig, before her husband could reply, "it +winna be wi' my gudewill that he shall come in upon us--a pridefu' wight, +whose saft words, and a' his politeness, are but lip-deep; na, na, Mrs. +Glibbans, we maun hae another on the leet forbye him." + +"And wha would ye put on the leet noo, Mrs. Craig, you that's sic a +judge?" said Mrs. Glibbans, with the most ineffable consequentiality. + +"I'll be for young Mr. Dirlton, who is baith a sappy preacher of the +word, and a substantial hand at every kind of civility." + +"Young Dirlton!--young Deevilton!" cried the orthodox Deborah of Irvine; +"a fallow that knows no more of a gospel dispensation than I do of the +Arian heresy, which I hold in utter abomination. No, Mrs. Craig, you +have a godly man for your husband--a sound and true follower; tread ye in +his footsteps, and no try to set up yoursel' on points of doctrine. But +it's time, Miss Mally, that we were taking the road; Becky and Miss +Isabella, make yourselves ready. Noo, Mrs. Craig, ye'll no be a +stranger; you see I have no been lang of coming to give you my +countenance; but, my leddy, ca' canny, it's no easy to carry a fu' cup; +ye hae gotten a great gift in your gudeman. Mr. Craig, I wish you a +good-night; I would fain have stopped for your evening exercise, but Miss +Mally was beginning, I saw, to weary--so good-night; and, Mrs. Craig, +ye'll take tent of what I have said--it's for your gude." So exeunt Mrs. +Glibbans, Miss Mally, and the two young ladies. "Her bark's waur than +her bite," said Mrs. Craig, as she returned to her husband, who felt +already some of the ourie symptoms of a henpecked destiny. + + + + +CHAPTER IX--THE MARRIAGE + + +Mr. Snodgrass was obliged to walk into Irvine one evening, to get rid of +a raging tooth, which had tormented him for more than a week. The +operation was so delicately and cleverly performed by the surgeon to whom +he applied--one of those young medical gentlemen, who, after having been +educated for the army or navy, are obliged, in this weak piping time of +peace, to glean what practice they can amid their native shades--that the +amiable divine found himself in a condition to call on Miss Isabella Tod. + +During this visit, Saunders Dickie, the postman, brought a London letter +to the door, for Miss Isabella; and Mr. Snodgrass having desired the +servant to inquire if there were any for him, had the good fortune to get +the following from Mr. Andrew Pringle:-- + + + +LETTER XXIX + + + _Andrew Pringle Esq._, _to the Rev. Mr. Charles Snodgrass_ + +My Dear Friend--I never receive a letter from you without experiencing a +strong emotion of regret, that talents like yours should be wilfully +consigned to the sequestered vegetation of a country pastor's life. But +we have so often discussed this point, that I shall only offend your +delicacy if I now revert to it more particularly. I cannot, however, but +remark, that although a private station may be the happiest, a public is +the proper sphere of virtue and talent, so clear, superior, and decided +as yours. I say this with the more confidence, as I have really, from +your letter, obtained a better conception of the queen's case, than from +all that I have been able to read and hear upon the subject in London. +The rule you lay down is excellent. Public safety is certainly the only +principle which can justify mankind in agreeing to observe and enforce +penal statutes; and, therefore, I think with you, that unless it could be +proved in a very simple manner, that it was requisite for the public +safety to institute proceedings against the queen--her sins or +indiscretions should have been allowed to remain in the obscurity of her +private circle. + +I have attended the trial several times. For a judicial proceeding, it +seems to me too long--and for a legislative, too technical. Brougham, it +is allowed, has displayed even greater talent than was expected; but he +is too sharp; he seems to me more anxious to gain a triumph, than to +establish truth. I do not like the tone of his proceedings, while I +cannot sufficiently admire his dexterity. The style of Denman is more +lofty, and impressed with stronger lineaments of sincerity. As for their +opponents, I really cannot endure the Attorney-General as an orator; his +whole mind consists, as it were, of a number of little hands and +claws--each of which holds some scrap or portion of his subject; but you +might as well expect to get an idea of the form and character of a tree, +by looking at the fallen leaves, the fruit, the seeds, and the blossoms, +as anything like a comprehensive view of a subject, from an intellect so +constituted as that of Sir Robert Gifford. He is a man of application, +but of meagre abilities, and seems never to have read a book of travels +in his life. The Solicitor-General is somewhat better; but he is one of +those who think a certain artificial gravity requisite to professional +consequence; and which renders him somewhat obtuse in the tact of +propriety. + +Within the bar, the talent is superior to what it is without; and I have +been often delighted with the amazing fineness, if I may use the +expression, with which the Chancellor discriminates the shades of +difference in the various points on which he is called to deliver his +opinion. I consider his mind as a curiosity of no ordinary kind. It +deceives itself by its own acuteness. The edge is too sharp; and, +instead of cutting straight through, it often diverges--alarming his +conscience with the dread of doing wrong. This singular subtlety has the +effect of impairing the reverence which the endowments and high +professional accomplishments of this great man are otherwise calculated +to inspire. His eloquence is not effective--it touches no feeling nor +affects any passion; but still it affords wonderful displays of a lucid +intellect. I can compare it to nothing but a pencil of sunshine; in +which, although one sees countless motes flickering and fluctuating, it +yet illuminates, and steadily brings into the most satisfactory +distinctness, every object on which it directly falls. + +Lord Erskine is a character of another class, and whatever difference of +opinion may exist with respect to their professional abilities and +attainments, it will be allowed by those who contend that Eldon is the +better lawyer--that Erskine is the greater genius. Nature herself, with +a constellation in her hand, playfully illuminates his path to the temple +of reasonable justice; while Precedence with her guide-book, and Study +with a lantern, cautiously show the road in which the Chancellor warily +plods his weary way to that of legal Equity. The sedateness of Eldon is +so remarkable, that it is difficult to conceive that he was ever young; +but Erskine cannot grow old; his spirit is still glowing and flushed with +the enthusiasm of youth. When impassioned, his voice acquires a +singularly elevated and pathetic accent; and I can easily conceive the +irresistible effect he must have had on the minds of a jury, when he was +in the vigour of his physical powers, and the case required appeals of +tenderness or generosity. As a parliamentary orator, Earl Grey is +undoubtedly his superior; but there is something much less popular and +conciliating in his manner. His eloquence is heard to most advantage +when he is contemptuous; and he is then certainly dignified, ardent, and +emphatic; but it is apt, I should think, to impress those who hear him, +for the first time, with an idea that he is a very supercilious +personage, and this unfavourable impression is liable to be strengthened +by the elegant aristocratic languor of his appearance. + +I think that you once told me you had some knowledge of the Marquis of +Lansdowne, when he was Lord Henry Petty. I can hardly hope that, after +an interval of so many years, you will recognise him in the following +sketch:--His appearance is much more that of a Whig than Lord Grey--stout +and sturdy--but still withal gentlemanly; and there is a pleasing +simplicity, with somewhat of good-nature, in the expression of his +countenance, that renders him, in a quiescent state, the more agreeable +character of the two. He speaks exceedingly well--clear, methodical, and +argumentative; but his eloquence, like himself, is not so graceful as it +is upon the whole manly; and there is a little tendency to verbosity in +his language, as there is to corpulency in his figure; but nothing +turgid, while it is entirely free from affectation. The character of +respectable is very legibly impressed, in everything about the mind and +manner of his lordship. I should, now that I have seen and heard him, be +astonished to hear such a man represented as capable of being factious. + +I should say something about Lord Liverpool, not only on account of his +rank as a minister, but also on account of the talents which have +qualified him for that high situation. The greatest objection that I +have to him as a speaker, is owing to the loudness of his voice--in other +respects, what he does say is well digested. But I do not think that he +embraces his subject with so much power and comprehension as some of his +opponents; and he has evidently less actual experience of the world. +This may doubtless be attributed to his having been almost constantly in +office since he came into public life; than which nothing is more +detrimental to the unfolding of natural ability, while it induces a sort +of artificial talent, connected with forms and technicalities, which, +though useful in business, is but of minor consequence in a comparative +estimate of moral and intellectual qualities. I am told that in his +manner he resembles Mr. Pitt; be this, however, as it may, he is +evidently a speaker, formed more by habit and imitation, than one whom +nature prompts to be eloquent. He lacks that occasional accent of +passion, the melody of oratory; and I doubt if, on any occasion, he could +at all approximate to that magnificent intrepidity which was admired as +one of the noblest characteristics of his master's style. + +But all the display of learning and eloquence, and intellectual power and +majesty of the House of Lords, shrinks into insignificance when compared +with the moral attitude which the people have taken on this occasion. +You know how much I have ever admired the attributes of the English +national character--that boundless generosity, which can only be compared +to the impartial benevolence of the sunshine--that heroic magnanimity, +which makes the hand ever ready to succour a fallen foe; and that sublime +courage, which rises with the energy of a conflagration roused by a +tempest, at every insult or menace of an enemy. The compassionate +interest taken by the populace in the future condition of the queen is +worthy of this extraordinary people. There may be many among them +actuated by what is called the radical spirit; but malignity alone would +dare to ascribe the bravery of their compassion to a less noble feeling +than that which has placed the kingdom so proudly in the van of all +modern nations. There may be an amiable delusion, as my Lord Castlereagh +has said, in the popular sentiments with respect to the queen. Upon +that, as upon her case, I offer no opinion. It is enough for me to have +seen, with the admiration of a worshipper, the manner in which the +multitude have espoused her cause. + +But my paper is filled, and I must conclude. I should, however, mention +that my sister's marriage is appointed to take place to-morrow, and that +I accompany the happy pair to France.--Yours truly, + + ANDREW PRINGLE. + +"This is a dry letter," said Mr. Snodgrass, and he handed it to Miss +Isabella, who, in exchange, presented the one which she had herself at +the same time received; but just as Mr. Snodgrass was on the point of +reading it, Miss Becky Glibbans was announced. "How lucky this is," +exclaimed Miss Becky, "to find you both thegither! Now you maun tell me +all the particulars; for Miss Mally Glencairn is no in, and her letter +lies unopened. I am just gasping to hear how Rachel conducted herself at +being married in the kirk before all the folk--married to the hussar +captain, too, after all! who would have thought it?" + +"How, have you heard of the marriage already?" said Miss Isabella. "Oh, +it's in the newspapers," replied the amiable inquisitant,--"Like ony +tailor or weaver's--a' weddings maun nowadays gang into the papers. The +whole toun, by this time, has got it; and I wouldna wonder if Rachel +Pringle's marriage ding the queen's divorce out of folk's heads for the +next nine days to come. But only to think of her being married in a +public kirk. Surely her father would never submit to hae't done by a +bishop? And then to put it in the London paper, as if Rachel Pringle had +been somebody of distinction. Perhaps it might have been more to the +purpose, considering what dragoon officers are, if she had got the doited +Doctor, her father, to publish the intended marriage in the papers +beforehand." + +"Haud that condumacious tongue of yours," cried a voice, panting with +haste as the door opened, and Mrs. Glibbans entered. "Becky, will you +never devawl wi' your backbiting. I wonder frae whom the misleart lassie +takes a' this passion of clashing." + +The authority of her parent's tongue silenced Miss Becky, and Mrs. +Glibbans having seated herself, continued,--"Is it your opinion, Mr. +Snodgrass, that this marriage can hold good, contracted, as I am told it +is mentioned in the papers to hae been, at the horns of the altar of +Episcopalian apostacy?" + +"I can set you right as to that," said Miss Isabella. "Rachel mentions, +that, after returning from the church, the Doctor himself performed the +ceremony anew, according to the Presbyterian usage." "I am glad to +heart, very glad indeed," said Mrs. Glibbans. "It would have been a +judgment-like thing, had a bairn of Dr. Pringle's--than whom, although +there may be abler, there is not a sounder man in a' the West of +Scotland--been sacrificed to Moloch, like the victims of prelatic +idolatry." + +At this juncture, Miss Mally Glencairn was announced: she entered, +holding a letter from Mrs. Pringle in her hand, with the seal unbroken. +Having heard of the marriage from an acquaintance in the street, she had +hurried home, in the well-founded expectation of hearing from her friend +and well-wisher, and taking up the letter, which she found on her table, +came with all speed to Miss Isabella Tod to commune with her on the +tidings. + +Never was any confluence of visitors more remarkable than on this +occasion. Before Miss Mally had well explained the cause of her abrupt +intrusion, Mr. Micklewham made his appearance. He had come to Irvine to +be measured for a new coat, and meeting by accident with Saunders Dickie, +got the Doctor's letter from him, which, after reading, he thought he +could do no less than call at Mrs. Tod's, to let Miss Isabella know the +change which had taken place in the condition of her friend. + +Thus were all the correspondents of the Pringles assembled, by the merest +chance, like the _dramatis personae_ at the end of a play. After a +little harmless bantering, it was agreed that Miss Mally should read her +communication first--as all the others were previously acquainted with +the contents of their respective letters, and Miss Mally read as +follows:-- + + + +LETTER XXX + + + _Mrs. Pringle to Miss Mally Glencairn_ + +DEAR MISS MALLY--I hav a cro to pik with you conserning yoor comishon +aboot the partickels for your friends. You can hav no noshon what the +Doctor and me suffert on the head of the flooring shrubs. We took your +Nota Beny as it was spilt, and went from shop to shop enquirin in a most +partiklar manner for "a Gardner's Bell, or the least of all flowering +plants"; but sorrow a gardner in the whole tot here in London ever had +heard of sic a thing; so we gave the porshoot up in despare. Howsomever, +one of Andrew's acquaintance--a decent lad, who is only son to a saddler +in a been way, that keeps his own carriage, and his son a coryikel, +happent to call, and the Doctor told him what ill socsess we had in our +serch for the gardner's bell; upon which he sought a sight of your +yepissle, and read it as a thing that was just wonderful for its +whorsogroffie; and then he sayid, that looking at the prinsipol of your +spilling, he thought we should reed, "a gardner's bill, or a list of all +flooring plants"; whilk being no doot your intent, I have proqurt the +same, and it is included heerin. But, Miss Mally, I would advize you to +be more exac in your inditing, that no sic torbolashon may hippen on a +future okashon. + +What I hav to say for the present is, that you will, by a smak, get a +bocks of kumoddities, whilk you will destraboot as derekit on every on of +them, and you will before have resievit by the post-offis, an account of +what has been don. I need say no forther at this time, knowin your +discreshon and prooduns, septs that our Rachel and Captain Sabor will, if +it pleese the Lord, be off to Parish, by way of Bryton, as man and wife, +the morn's morning. What her father the Doctor gives for tocher, what is +settlt on her for jontor, I will tell you all aboot when we meet; for +it's our dishire noo to lose no tim in retorning to the manse, this being +the last of our diplomaticals in London, where we have found the Argents +a most discrit family, payin to the last farding the Cornal's legacy, and +most seevil, and well bred to us. + +As I am naterally gretly okypt with this matteromoneal afair, you cannot +expect ony news; but the queen is going on with a dreadful rat, by which +the pesents hav falen more than a whole entirr pesent. I wish our fonds +were well oot of them, and in yird and stane, which is a constansie. But +what is to become of the poor donsie woman, no one can expound. Some +think she will be pot in the Toor of London, and her head chappit off; +others think she will raise sic a stramash, that she will send the whole +government into the air, like peelings of ingons, by a gunpoother plot. +But it's my opinion, and I have weighed the matter well in my +understanding, that she will hav to fight with sword in hand, be she ill, +or be she good. How els can she hop to get the better of more than two +hundred lords, as the Doctor, who has seen them, tells me, with princes +of the blood-royal, and the prelatic bishops, whom, I need not tell you, +are the worst of all. + +But the thing I grudge most, is to be so long in Lundon, and no to see +the king. Is it not a hard thing to come to London, and no to see the +king? I am not pleesed with him, I assure you, becose he does not set +himself out to public view, like ony other curiosity, but stays in his +palis, they say, like one of the anshent wooden images of idolatry, the +which is a great peety, he beeing, as I am told, a beautiful man, and +more the gentleman than all the coortiers of his court. + +The Doctor has been minting to me that there is an address from Irvine to +the queen; and he, being so near a neighbour to your toun, has been +thinking to pay his respecs with it, to see her near at hand. But I will +say nothing; he may take his own way in matters of gospel and +spiritualety; yet I have my scroopols of conshence, how this may not turn +out a rebellyon against the king; and I would hav him to sift and see who +are at the address, before he pits his han to it. For, if it's a radikol +job, as I jealoos it is, what will the Doctor then say? who is an +orthodox man, as the world nose. + +In the maitre of our dumesticks, no new axsident has cast up; but I have +seen such a wonder as could not have been forethocht. Having a washin, I +went down to see how the lassies were doing; but judge of my feelings, +when I saw them triomphing on the top of pattons, standing upright before +the boyns on chairs, rubbin the clothes to juggins between their hands, +above the sapples, with their gouns and stays on, and round-cared +mutches. What would you think of such a miracle at the washing-house in +the Goffields, or the Gallows-knows of Irvine? The cook, howsomever, has +shown me a way to make rice-puddings without eggs, by putting in a bit of +shoohet, which is as good--and this you will tell Miss Nanny Eydent; +likewise, that the most fashionable way of boiling green pis, is to pit a +blade of spearmint in the pot, which gives a fine flavour. But this is a +long letter, and my pepper is done; so no more, but remains your friend +and well-wisher, + + JANET PRINGLE. + +"A great legacy, and her dochtir married, in ae journey to London, is +doing business," said Mrs. Glibbans, with a sigh, as she looked to her +only get, Miss Becky; "but the Lord's will is to be done in a' +thing;--sooner or later something of the same kind will come, I trust, to +all our families." "Ay," replied Miss Mally Glencairn, "marriage is like +death--it's what we are a' to come to." + +"I have my doubts of that," said Miss Becky with a sneer. "Ye have been +lang spair't from it, Miss Mally." + +"Ye're a spiteful puddock; and if the men hae the e'en and lugs they used +to hae, gude pity him whose lot is cast with thine, Becky Glibbans," +replied the elderly maiden ornament of the Kirkgate, somewhat tartly. + +Here Mr. Snodgrass interposed, and said, he would read to them the letter +which Miss Isabella had received from the bride; and without waiting for +their concurrence, opened and read as follows:-- + + + +LETTER XXXI + + + _Mrs. Sabre to Miss Isabella Tod_ + +MY DEAREST BELL--Rachel Pringle is no more! My heart flutters as I write +the fatal words. This morning, at nine o'clock precisely, she was +conducted in bridal array to the new church of Mary-le-bone; and there, +with ring and book, sacrificed to the Minotaur, Matrimony, who devours so +many of our bravest youths and fairest maidens. + +My mind is too agitated to allow me to describe the scene. The office of +handmaid to the victim, which, in our young simplicity, we had fondly +thought one of us would perform for the other, was gracefully sustained +by Miss Argent. + +On returning from church to my father's residence in Baker Street, where +we breakfasted, he declared himself not satisfied with the formalities of +the English ritual, and obliged us to undergo a second ceremony from +himself, according to the wonted forms of the Scottish Church. All the +advantages and pleasures of which, my dear Bell, I hope you will soon +enjoy. + +But I have no time to enter into particulars. The captain and his lady, +by themselves, in their own carriage, set off for Brighton in the course +of less than an hour. On Friday they are to be followed by a large party +of their friends and relations; and, after spending a few days in that +emporium of salt-water pleasures, they embark, accompanied with their +beloved brother, Mr. Andrew Pringle, for Paris; where they are afterwards +to be joined by the Argents. It is our intention to remain about a month +in the French capital; whether we shall extend our tour, will depend on +subsequent circumstances: in the meantime, however, you will hear +frequently from me. + +My mother, who has a thousand times during these important transactions +wished for the assistance of Nanny Eydent, transmits to Miss Mally +Glencairn a box containing all the requisite bridal recognisances for our +Irvine friends. I need not say that the best is for the faithful +companion of my happiest years. As I had made a vow in my heart that +Becky Glibbans should never wear gloves for my marriage, I was averse to +sending her any at all, but my mother insisted that no exceptions should +be made. I secretly took care, however, to mark a pair for her, so much +too large, that I am sure she will never put them on. The asp will be +not a little vexed at the disappointment. Adieu for a time, and believe +that, although your affectionate Rachel Pringle be gone that way in which +she hopes you will soon follow, one not less sincerely attached to you, +though it be the first time she has so subscribed herself, remains in + + RACHEL SABRE. + +Before the ladies had time to say a word on the subject, the prudent +young clergyman called immediately on Mr. Micklewham to read the letter +which he had received from the Doctor; and which the worthy dominie did +without delay, in that rich and full voice with which he is accustomed to +teach his scholars elocution by example. + + + +LETTER XXXII + + + _The Rev. Z. Pringle_, _D.D._, _to Mr. Micklewham_, _Schoolmaster and + Session-Clerk_, _Garnock_ + LONDON. + +Dear Sir--I have been much longer of replying to your letter of the 3rd +of last month, than I ought in civility to have been, but really time, in +this town of London, runs at a fast rate, and the day passes before the +dark's done. What with Mrs. Pringle and her daughter's concernments, +anent the marriage to Captain Sabre, and the trouble I felt myself +obliged to take in the queen's affair, I assure you, Mr. Micklewham, that +it's no to be expressed how I have been occupied for the last four weeks. +But all things must come to a conclusion in this world. Rachel Pringle +is married, and the queen's weary trial is brought to an end--upon the +subject and motion of the same, I offer no opinion, for I made it a point +never to read the evidence, being resolved to stand by THE WORD from the +first, which is clearly and plainly written in the queen's favour, and it +does not do in a case of conscience to stand on trifles; putting, +therefore, out of consideration the fact libelled, and looking both at +the head and the tail of the proceeding, I was of a firm persuasion, that +all the sculduddery of the business might have been well spared from the +eye of the public, which is of itself sufficiently prone to keek and +kook, in every possible way, for a glimpse of a black story; and, +therefore, I thought it my duty to stand up in all places against the +trafficking that was attempted with a divine institution. And I think, +when my people read how their prelatic enemies, the bishops (the heavens +defend the poor Church of Scotland from being subjected to the weight of +their paws), have been visited with a constipation of the understanding +on that point, it must to them be a great satisfaction to know how clear +and collected their minister was on this fundamental of society. For it +has turned out, as I said to Mrs. Pringle, as well as others, it would +do, that a sense of grace and religion would be manifested in some +quarter before all was done, by which the devices for an unsanctified +repudiation or divorce would be set at nought. + +As often as I could, deeming it my duty as a minister of the word and +gospel, I got into the House of Lords, and heard the trial; and I cannot +think how ever it was expected that justice could be done yonder; for +although no man could be more attentive than I was, every time I came +away I was more confounded than when I went; and when the trial was done, +it seemed to me just to be clearing up for a proper beginning--all which +is a proof that there was a foul conspiracy. Indeed, when I saw Duke +Hamilton's daughter coming out of the coach with the queen, I never could +think after, that a lady of her degree would have countenanced the queen +had the matter laid to her charge been as it was said. Not but in any +circumstance it behoved a lady of that ancient and royal blood, to be +seen beside the queen in such a great historical case as a trial. + +I hope, in the part I have taken, my people will be satisfied; but +whether they are satisfied or not, my own conscience is content with me. +I was in the House of Lords when her majesty came down for the last time, +and saw her handed up the stairs by the usher of the black-rod, a little +stumpy man, wonderful particular about the rules of the House, insomuch +that he was almost angry with me for stopping at the stair-head. The +afflicted woman was then in great spirits, and I saw no symptoms of the +swelled legs that Lord Lauderdale, that jooking man, spoke about, for she +skippit up the steps like a lassie. But my heart was wae for her when +all was over, for she came out like an astonished creature, with a wild +steadfast look, and a sort of something in the face that was as if the +rational spirit had fled away; and she went down to her coach as if she +had submitted to be led to a doleful destiny. Then the shouting of the +people began, and I saw and shouted too in spite of my decorum, which I +marvel at sometimes, thinking it could be nothing less than an +involuntary testification of the spirit within me. + +Anent the marriage of Rachel Pringle, it may be needful in me to state, +for the satisfaction of my people, that although by stress of law we were +obligated to conform to the practice of the Episcopalians, by taking out +a bishop's license, and going to their church, and vowing, in a pagan +fashion, before their altars, which are an abomination to the Lord; yet, +when the young folk came home, I made them stand up, and be married again +before me, according to all regular marriages in our national Church. +For this I had two reasons: first, to satisfy myself that there had been +a true and real marriage; and, secondly, to remove the doubt of the +former ceremony being sufficient; for marriage being of divine +appointment, and the English form and ritual being a thing established by +Act of Parliament, which is of human ordination, I was not sure that +marriage performed according to a human enactment could be a fulfilment +of a divine ordinance. I therefore hope that my people will approve what +I have done; and in order that there may be a sympathising with me, you +will go over to Banker M---y, and get what he will give you, as ordered +by me, and distribute it among the poorest of the parish, according to +the best of your discretion, my long absence having taken from me the +power of judgment in a matter of this sort. I wish indeed for the glad +sympathy of my people, for I think that our Saviour turning water into +wine at the wedding, was an example set that we should rejoice and be +merry at the fulfilment of one of the great obligations imposed on us as +social creatures; and I have ever regarded the unhonoured treatment of a +marriage occasion as a thing of evil bodement, betokening heavy hearts +and light purses to the lot of the bride and bridegroom. You will hear +more from me by and by; in the meantime, all I can say is, that when we +have taken our leave of the young folks, who are going to France, it is +Mrs. Pringle's intent, as well as mine, to turn our horses' heads +northward, and make our way with what speed we can, for our own quiet +home, among you. So no more at present from your friend and pastor, + + Z. PRINGLE. + +Mrs. Tod, the mother of Miss Isabella, a respectable widow lady, who had +quiescently joined the company, proposed that they should now drink +health, happiness, and all manner of prosperity, to the young couple; and +that nothing might be wanting to secure the favourable auspices of good +omens to the toast, she desired Miss Isabella to draw fresh bottles of +white and red. When all manner of felicity was duly wished in wine to +the captain and his lady, the party rose to seek their respective homes. +But a bustle at the street-door occasioned a pause. Mrs. Tod inquired +the matter; and three or four voices at once replied, that an express had +come from Garnock for Nanse Swaddle the midwife, Mrs. Craig being taken +with her pains. "Mr. Snodgrass," said Mrs. Glibbans, instantly and +emphatically, "ye maun let me go with you, and we can spiritualise on the +road; for I hae promis't Mrs. Craig to be wi' her at the crying, to see +the upshot--so I hope you will come awa." + +It would be impossible in us to suppose, that Mr. Snodgrass had any +objections to spiritualise with Mrs. Glibbans on the road between Irvine +and Garnock; but, notwithstanding her urgency, he excused himself from +going with her; however, he recommended her to the special care and +protection of Mr. Micklewham, who was at that time on his legs to return +home. "Oh! Mr. Snodgrass," said the lady, looking slyly, as she +adjusted her cloak, at him and Miss Isabella, "there will be marrying and +giving in marriage till the day of judgment." And with these oracular +words she took her departure. + + + + +CHAPTER X--THE RETURN + + +On Friday, Miss Mally Glencairn received a brief note from Mrs. Pringle, +informing her, that she and the Doctor would reach the manse, "God +willing," in time for tea on Saturday; and begging her, therefore, to go +over from Irvine, and see that the house was in order for their +reception. This note was written from Glasgow, where they had arrived, +in their own carriage, from Carlisle on the preceding day, after +encountering, as Mrs. Pringle said, "more hardships and extorshoning than +all the dangers of the sea which they met with in the smack of Leith that +took them to London." + +As soon as Miss Mally received this intelligence, she went to Miss +Isabella Tod, and requested her company for the next day to Garnock, +where they arrived betimes to dine with Mr. Snodgrass. Mrs. Glibbans and +her daughter Becky were then on a consolatory visit to Mr. Craig. We +mentioned in the last chapter, that the crying of Mrs. Craig had come on; +and that Mrs. Glibbans, according to promise, and with the most anxious +solicitude, had gone to wait the upshot. The upshot was most +melancholy,--Mrs. Craig was soon no more;--she was taken, as Mrs. +Glibbans observed on the occasion, from the earthly arms of her husband, +to the spiritual bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which was far +better. But the baby survived; so that, what with getting a nurse, and +the burial, and all the work and handling that a birth and death in one +house at the same time causes, Mr. Craig declared, that he could not do +without Mrs. Glibbans; and she, with all that Christianity by which she +was so zealously distinguished, sent for Miss Becky, and took up her +abode with him till it would please Him, without whom there is no +comfort, to wipe the eyes of the pious elder. In a word, she staid so +long, that a rumour began to spread that Mr. Craig would need a wife to +look after his bairn; and that Mrs. Glibbans was destined to supply the +desideratum. + +Mr. Snodgrass, after enjoying his dinner society with Miss Mally and Miss +Isabella, thought it necessary to dispatch a courier, in the shape of a +barefooted servant lass, to Mr. Micklewham, to inform the elders that the +Doctor was expected home in time for tea, leaving it to their discretion +either to greet his safe return at the manse, or in any other form or +manner that would be most agreeable to themselves. These important news +were soon diffused through the clachan. Mr. Micklewham dismissed his +school an hour before the wonted time, and there was a universal interest +and curiosity excited, to see the Doctor coming home in his own coach. +All the boys of Garnock assembled at the braehead which commands an +extensive view of the Kilmarnock road, the only one from Glasgow that +runs through the parish; the wives with their sucklings were seated on +the large stones at their respective door-cheeks; while their cats were +calmly reclining on the window soles. The lassie weans, like clustering +bees, were mounted on the carts that stood before Thomas Birlpenny the +vintner's door, churming with anticipated delight; the old men took their +stations on the dike that incloses the side of the vintner's kail-yard, +and "a batch of wabster lads," with green aprons and thin yellow faces, +planted themselves at the gable of the malt kiln, where they were wont, +when trade was better, to play at the hand-ball; but, poor fellows, since +the trade fell off, they have had no heart for the game, and the +vintner's half-mutchkin stoups glitter in empty splendour unrequired on +the shelf below the brazen sconce above the bracepiece, amidst the idle +pewter pepper-boxes, the bright copper tea-kettle, the coffee-pot that +has never been in use, and lids of saucepans that have survived their +principals,--the wonted ornaments of every trig change-house kitchen. + +The season was far advanced; but the sun shone at his setting with a +glorious composure, and the birds in the hedges and on the boughs were +again gladdened into song. The leaves had fallen thickly, and the +stubble-fields were bare, but Autumn, in a many-coloured tartan plaid, +was seen still walking with matronly composure in the woodlands, along +the brow of the neighbouring hills. + +About half-past four o'clock, a movement was seen among the callans at +the braehead, and a shout announced that a carriage was in sight. It was +answered by a murmuring response of satisfaction from the whole village. +In the course of a few minutes the carriage reached the turnpike--it was +of the darkest green and the gravest fashion,--a large trunk, covered +with Russian matting, and fastened on with cords, prevented from chafing +it by knots of straw rope, occupied the front,--behind, other two were +fixed in the same manner, the lesser of course uppermost; and deep beyond +a pile of light bundles and bandboxes, that occupied a large portion of +the interior, the blithe faces of the Doctor and Mrs. Pringle were +discovered. The boys huzzaed, the Doctor flung them penny-pieces, and +the mistress baubees. + +As the carriage drove along, the old men on the dike stood up and +reverently took off their hats and bonnets. The weaver lads gazed with a +melancholy smile; the lassies on the carts clapped their hands with joy; +the women on both sides of the street acknowledged the recognising nods; +while all the village dogs, surprised by the sound of chariot wheels, +came baying and barking forth, and sent off the cats that were so doucely +sitting on the window soles, clambering and scampering over the roofs in +terror of their lives. + +When the carriage reached the manse door, Mr. Snodgrass, the two ladies, +with Mr. Micklewham, and all the elders except Mr. Craig, were there +ready to receive the travellers. But over this joy of welcoming we must +draw a veil; for the first thing that the Doctor did, on entering the +parlour and before sitting down, was to return thanks for his safe +restoration to his home and people. + +The carriage was then unloaded, and as package, bale, box, and bundle +were successively brought in, Miss Mally Glencairn expressed her +admiration at the great capacity of the chaise. "Ay," said Mrs. Pringle, +"but you know not what we have suffert for't in coming through among the +English taverns on the road; some of them would not take us forward when +there was a hill to pass, unless we would take four horses, and every one +after another reviled us for having no mercy in loading the carriage like +a waggon,--and then the drivers were so gleg and impudent, that it was +worse than martyrdom to come with them. Had the Doctor taken my advice, +he would have brought our own civil London coachman, whom we hired with +his own horses by the job; but he said it behoved us to gi'e our ain fish +guts to our ain sea-maws, and that he designed to fee Thomas Birlpenny's +hostler for our coachman, being a lad of the parish. This obliged us to +post it from London; but, oh! Miss Mally, what an outlay it has been!" + +The Doctor, in the meantime, had entered into conversation with the +gentlemen, and was inquiring, in the most particular manner, respecting +all his parishioners, and expressing his surprise that Mr. Craig had not +been at the manse with the rest of the elders. "It does not look well," +said the Doctor. Mr. Daff, however, offered the best apology for his +absence that could be made. "He has had a gentle dispensation, sir--Mrs. +Craig has won awa' out of this sinful world, poor woman, she had a large +experience o't; but the bairns to the fore, and Mrs. Glibbans, that has +such a cast of grace, has ta'en charge of the house since before the +interment. It's thought, considering what's by gane, Mr. Craig may do +waur than make her mistress, and I hope, sir, your exhortation will no be +wanting to egg the honest man to think o't seriously." + +Mr. Snodgrass, before delivering the household keys, ordered two bottles +of wine, with glasses and biscuit, to be set upon the table, while Mrs. +Pringle produced from a paper package, that had helped to stuff one of +the pockets of the carriage, a piece of rich plum-cake, brought all the +way from a confectioner's in Cockspur Street, London, not only for the +purpose of being eaten, but, as she said, to let Miss Nanny Eydent pree, +in order to direct the Irvine bakers how to bake others like it. + +Tea was then brought in; and, as it was making, the Doctor talked aside +to the elders, while Mrs. Pringle recounted to Miss Mally and Miss +Isabella the different incidents of her adventures subsequent to the +marriage of Miss Rachel. + +"The young folk," said she, "having gone to Brighton, we followed them in +a few days, for we were told it was a curiosity, and that the king has a +palace there, just a warld's wonder! and, truly, Miss Mally, it is +certainly not like a house for a creature of this world, but for some +Grand Turk or Chinaman. The Doctor said, it put him in mind of Miss +Jenny Macbride's sideboard in the Stockwell of Glasgow; where all the +pepper-boxes, poories, and teapots, punch-bowls, and china-candlesticks +of her progenitors are set out for a show, that tells her visitors, they +are but seldom put to use. As for the town of Brighton, it's what I +would call a gawky piece of London. I could see nothing in it but a +wheen idlers, hearing twa lads, at night, crying, "Five, six, seven for a +shilling," in the booksellers' shops, with a play-actor lady singing in a +corner, because her voice would not do for the players' stage. +Therefore, having seen the Captain and Mrs. Sabre off to France, we came +home to London; but it's not to be told what we had to pay at the hotel +where we staid in Brighton. Howsomever, having come back to London, we +settled our counts,--and, buying a few necessars, we prepared for +Scotland,--and here we are. But travelling has surely a fine effect in +enlarging the understanding; for both the Doctor and me thought, as we +came along, that everything had a smaller and poorer look than when we +went away; and I dinna think this room is just what it used to be. What +think ye o't, Miss Isabella? How would ye like to spend your days in't?" + +Miss Isabella reddened at this question; but Mrs. Pringle, who was as +prudent as she was observant, affecting not to notice this, turned round +to Miss Mally Glencairn, and said softly in her ear,--"Rachel was Bell's +confidante, and has told us all about what's going on between her and Mr. +Snodgrass. We have agreed no to stand in their way, as soon as the +Doctor can get a mailing or two to secure his money upon." + +Meantime, the Doctor received from the elders a very satisfactory account +of all that had happened among his people, both in and out of the +Session, during his absence; and he was vastly pleased to find there had +been no inordinate increase of wickedness; at the same time, he was +grieved for the condition in which the poor weavers still continued, +saying, that among other things of which he had been of late meditating, +was the setting up of a lending bank in the parish for the labouring +classes, where, when they were out of work, "bits of loans for a +house-rent, or a brat of claes, or sic like, might be granted, to be +repaid when trade grew better, and thereby take away the objection that +an honest pride had to receiving help from the Session." + +Then some lighter general conversation ensued, in which the Doctor gave +his worthy counsellors a very jocose description of many of the lesser +sort of adventures which he had met with; and the ladies having retired +to inspect the great bargains that Mrs. Pringle had got, and the splendid +additions she had made to her wardrobe, out of what she denominated the +dividends of the present portion of the legacy, the Doctor ordered in the +second biggest toddy-bowl, the guardevine with the old rum, and told the +lassie to see if the tea-kettle was still boiling. "Ye maun drink our +welcome hame," said he to the elders; "it would nae otherwise be canny. +But I'm sorry Mr. Craig has nae come." At these words the door opened, +and the absent elder entered, with a long face and a deep sigh. "Ha!" +cried Mr. Daff, "this is very droll. Speak of the Evil One, and he'll +appear";--which words dinted on the heart of Mr. Craig, who thought his +marriage in December had been the subject of their discourse. The +Doctor, however, went up and shook him cordially by the hand, and said, +"Now I take this very kind, Mr. Craig; for I could not have expected you, +considering ye have got, as I am told, your jo in the house"; at which +words the Doctor winked paukily to Mr. Daff, who rubbed his hands with +fainness, and gave a good-humoured sort of keckling laugh. This +facetious stroke of policy was a great relief to the afflicted elder, for +he saw by it that the Doctor did not mean to trouble him with any +inquiries respecting his deceased wife; and, in consequence, he put on a +blither face, and really affected to have forgotten her already more than +he had done in sincerity. + +Thus the night passed in decent temperance and a happy decorum; insomuch, +that the elders when they went away, either by the influence of the +toddy-bowl, or the Doctor's funny stories about the Englishers, declared +that he was an excellent man, and, being none lifted up, was worthy of +his rich legacy. + +At supper, the party, besides the minister and Mrs. Pringle, consisted of +the two Irvine ladies, and Mr. Snodgrass. Miss Becky Glibbans came in +when it was about half over, to express her mother's sorrow at not being +able to call that night, "Mr. Craig's bairn having taken an ill turn." +The truth, however, was, that the worthy elder had been rendered somewhat +tozy by the minister's toddy, and wanted an opportunity to inform the old +lady of the joke that had been played upon him by the Doctor calling her +his jo, and to see how she would relish it. So by a little address Miss +Becky was sent out of the way, with the excuse we have noticed; at the +same time, as the night was rather sharp, it is not to be supposed that +she would have been the bearer of any such message, had her own curiosity +not enticed her. + +During supper the conversation was very lively. Many "pickant jokes," as +Miss Becky described them, were cracked by the Doctor; but, soon after +the table was cleared, he touched Mr. Snodgrass on the arm, and, taking +up one of the candles, went with him to his study, where he then told +him, that Rachel Pringle, now Mrs. Sabre, had informed him of a way in +which he could do him a service. "I understand, sir," said the Doctor, +"that you have a notion of Miss Bell Tod, but that until ye get a kirk +there can be no marriage. But the auld horse may die waiting for the new +grass; and, therefore, as the Lord has put it in my power to do a good +action both to you and my people,--whom I am glad to hear you have +pleased so well,--if it can be brought about that you could be made +helper and successor, I'll no object to give up to you the whole stipend, +and, by and by, maybe the manse to the bargain. But that is if you marry +Miss Bell; for it was a promise that Rachel gar't me make to her on her +wedding morning. Ye know she was a forcasting lassie, and, I have reason +to believe, has said nothing anent this to Miss Bell herself; so that if +you have no partiality for Miss Bell, things will just rest on their own +footing; but if you have a notion, it must be a satisfaction to you to +know this, as it will be a pleasure to me to carry it as soon as possible +into effect." + +Mr. Snodgrass was a good deal agitated; he was taken by surprise, and +without words the Doctor might have guessed his sentiments; he, however, +frankly confessed that he did entertain a very high opinion of Miss Bell, +but that he was not sure if a country parish would exactly suit him. +"Never mind that," said the Doctor; "if it does not fit at first, you +will get used to it; and if a better casts up, it will be no obstacle." + +The two gentlemen then rejoined the ladies, and, after a short +conversation, Miss Becky Glibbans was admonished to depart, by the +servants bringing in the Bibles for the worship of the evening. This was +usually performed before supper, but, owing to the bowl being on the +table, and the company jocose, it had been postponed till all the guests +who were not to sleep in the house had departed. + +The Sunday morning was fine and bright for the season; the hoarfrost, +till about an hour after sunrise, lay white on the grass and tombstones +in the churchyard; but before the bell rung for the congregation to +assemble, it was exhaled away, and a freshness, that was only known to be +autumnal by the fallen and yellow leaves that strewed the church-way path +from the ash and plane trees in the avenue, encouraged the spirits to +sympathise with the universal cheerfulness of all nature. + +The return of the Doctor had been bruited through the parish with so much +expedition, that, when the bell rung for public worship, none of those +who were in the practice of stopping in the churchyard to talk about the +weather were so ignorant as not to have heard of this important fact. In +consequence, before the time at which the Doctor was wont to come from +the back-gate which opened from the manse-garden into the churchyard, a +great majority of his people were assembled to receive him. + +At the last jingle of the bell, the back-gate was usually opened, and the +Doctor was wont to come forth as punctually as a cuckoo of a clock at the +striking of the hour; but a deviation was observed on this occasion. +Formerly, Mrs. Pringle and the rest of the family came first, and a few +minutes were allowed to elapse before the Doctor, laden with grace, made +his appearance. But at this time, either because it had been settled +that Mr. Snodgrass was to officiate, or for some other reason, there was +a breach in the observance of this time-honoured custom. + +As the ringing of the bell ceased, the gate unclosed, and the Doctor came +forth. He was of that easy sort of feather-bed corpulency of form that +betokens good-nature, and had none of that smooth, red, well-filled +protuberancy, which indicates a choleric humour and a testy temper. He +was in fact what Mrs. Glibbans denominated "a man of a gausy external." +And some little change had taken place during his absence in his visible +equipage. His stockings, which were wont to be of worsted, had undergone +a translation into silk; his waist-coat, instead--of the venerable +Presbyterian flap-covers to the pockets, which were of Johnsonian +magnitude, was become plain--his coat in all times single-breasted, with +no collar, still, however, maintained its ancient characteristics; +instead, however, of the former bright black cast horn, the buttons were +covered with cloth. But the chief alteration was discernible in the +furniture of the head. He had exchanged the simplicity of his own +respectable grey hairs for the cauliflower hoariness of a PARRISH {3} +wig, on which he wore a broad-brimmed hat, turned up a little at each +side behind, in a portentous manner, indicatory of Episcopalian +predilections. This, however, was not justified by any alteration in his +principles, being merely an innocent variation of fashion, the natural +result of a Doctor of Divinity buying a hat and wig in London. + +The moment that the Doctor made his appearance, his greeting and +salutation was quite delightful; it was that of a father returned to his +children, and a king to his people. + +Almost immediately after the Doctor, Mrs. Pringle, followed by Miss Mally +Glencairn and Miss Isabella Tod, also debouched from the gate, and the +assembled females remarked, with no less instinct, the transmutation +which she had undergone. She was dressed in a dark blue cloth pelisse, +trimmed with a dyed fur, which, as she told Miss Mally, "looked quite as +well as sable, without costing a third of the money." A most matronly +muff, that, without being of sable, was of an excellent quality, +contained her hands; and a very large Leghorn straw bonnet, decorated +richly, but far from excess, with a most substantial band and bow of a +broad crimson satin ribbon around her head. + +If the Doctor was gratified to see his people so gladly thronging around +him, Mrs. Pringle had no less pleasure also in her thrice-welcome +reception. It was an understood thing, that she had been mainly +instrumental in enabling the minister to get his great Indian legacy; and +in whatever estimation she may have been previously held for her economy +and management, she was now looked up to as a personage skilled in the +law, and particularly versed in testamentary erudition. Accordingly, in +the customary testimonials of homage with which she was saluted in her +passage to the church door, there was evidently a sentiment of veneration +mingled, such as had never been evinced before, and which was neither +unobserved nor unappreciated by that acute and perspicacious lady. + +The Doctor himself did not preach, but sat in the minister's pew till Mr. +Snodgrass had concluded an eloquent and truly an affecting sermon; at the +end of which, the Doctor rose and went up into the pulpit, where he +publicly returned thanks for the favours and blessings he had obtained +during his absence, and for the safety in which he had been restored, +after many dangers and tribulations, to the affections of his +parishioners. + +Such were the principal circumstances that marked the return of the +family. In the course of the week after, the estate of Moneypennies +being for sale, it was bought for the Doctor as a great bargain. It was +not, however, on account of the advantageous nature of the purchase that +our friend valued this acquisition, but entirely because it was situated +in his own parish, and part of the lands marching with the Glebe. + +The previous owner of Moneypennies had built an elegant house on the +estate, to which Mrs. Pringle is at present actively preparing to remove +from the manse; and it is understood, that, as Mr. Snodgrass was last +week declared helper, and successor to the Doctor, his marriage with Miss +Isabella Tod will take place with all convenient expedition. There is +also reason to believe, that, as soon as decorum will permit, any scruple +which Mrs. Glibbans had to a second marriage is now removed, and that she +will soon again grace the happy circle of wives by the name of Mrs. +Craig. Indeed, we are assured that Miss Nanny Eydent is actually at this +time employed in making up her wedding garments; for, last week, that +worthy and respectable young person was known to have visited Bailie +Delap's shop, at a very early hour in the morning, and to have priced +many things of a bridal character, besides getting swatches; after which +she was seen to go to Mrs. Glibbans's house, where she remained a very +considerable time, and to return straight therefrom to the shop, and +purchase divers of the articles which she had priced and inspected; all +of which constitute sufficient grounds for the general opinion in Irvine, +that the union of Mr. Craig with Mrs. Glibbans is a happy event drawing +near to consummation. + + + + +Footnotes + + +{1} The administration of the Sacrament. + +{2} The honest Doctor's version of this _bon mot_ of her majesty is not +quite correct; her expression was, "I mean to take a chop at the King's +Head when I get to London." + +{3} See the _Edinburgh Review_, for an account of our old friend, Dr. +Parr's wig, and Spital Sermon. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AYRSHIRE LEGATEES*** + + +******* This file should be named 1384.txt or 1384.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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