name, we'll hae him ta'en afore the merchant, wi' an empty stamach, and
Shirra ;" and I was dragged across the maybe ye'll learn something about buy-
pavement, in dread of being pelted by ing cattle afore we're done. It's a ca-
all the cattle dealers in the market, pital joke after a':- I canna helplaugh-
and of being perhaps walked in pro- ing at my ain simplicity.” Mr Harri-
cession amidst a crowd of boys, to the gals added his request to the solicita-
nearest watch-house. A few moments tions of Mr Cloverfield, and after å
conversation, however, served to make good breakfast, and a glass of brandy,
the necessary explanation; and when which I was forced to swallow to keep
it was known that my father had been in the wind out of my stomach, as An-
the town-council, and hadashop on the drew said, I received a kind invitation,
South Bridge, my character of swind- when I felt inclined, " to come and
ler was changed immediately into that tak a day's fishing in the Braidwater
of a “foolish laddie, for middling wi' at Wirlyknows, where was the best
things that I had naething to do with.” trout in a the country.”
Mr Cloverfield began now to think it I left my friends with a hearty shake
was partly his own fault that I was of the hand, and with mutual congra-
dragged in to purchase bullocks, which tulations at the circumstance which
I could not for their value have kill- had brought us acquainted ; and I
ed ; and young Harrigals declared, returned home by the Bow and the
that such a comical circumstance had Lawnmarket, both of which streets,
never occurred in the High Market in and the houses therein, seemed, from

their dancing so oddly before my eyes,
“ Foolish callant,” said Andrew, not to have made up their minds about
“ what for did you no speak out, the centre of gravity. The people also
man! I thought whan I saw ye feart appeared to walk less steadily than
to set your feet in the sharn, and handle when I commenced my excursion.
the nout wi' your yellow gloves, pre- These circumstances have been since
serve us a', that the Edinburgh flesh- endeavoured to be accounted for by
ers were turn'd unco gentle indeed. the administration of the glass of
But howsomever, I wadna cheat ye- brandy to my stomach ; but I leave it
ye need nae hae been fear'd for that. to the reader to decide, whether it is
Mr Harrigals kens that they are a more likely that the houses should ac-
gude bargain, and ye might maybe hae tually nod their heads, or that the ce-
sell’d them wi' profit. But, come, we'll lebrated traveller, Christopher Colum-
hae a half mutchkin upon it. Lassie, bus, Esq. should be imposed on by
tell your mistress to bring in the tea- his own very serviceable organs of
things,-ye're no to gang awa', my sight.

his day.

а

CHAPTER X.

Angling and Shooting.
A's fish that comes in the net.

Scots Proverb.
Larus hybernus, LIN.-The winter gull;
Our rocks and islets of this race are full.
Colour, pure white; cinereous on the back ;
The head and bill, as usual, on the neck;
The first quill-feather black ; black streak'd the tail.
They feed on fishes, sometimes on the whale ;
In misty weather, and in wintry, storms,
They seek the shore, and pick up frogs and worms.

Pennant's British Zoology in Verse,

by David DRINKWATER, F. L. S “We are all catching or caught," pond of life; and provided a proper said I to myself, as I left Lucky Thom- bait be held out to us, we seldom fail to son's little tavern or inn near Mussel- snatch at it. The shop-keeper baits hi burgh, where “ Entertainment for windows with jewellery, ribbons, and Men and Horses” met my eye, after a silks, to catch the eye of female beauty morning's exercise on the Esk;-we while tallow-candles and tea, hams are all anglers or fishers in the great cheese, and sugar, are laid out to at tract the notice of the thrifty house- and pulled by something round the wife. The bookseller gilds his books, corner of the house. Taking it up, and the apothecary dusts his pills, to and beginning to wind up the line, I make them go down more pleasingly; soon found an obstruction to my prothe lawyer, like the spider, sets his gress, which even in these wonderful lines, and the clergy sweep their fly- times I should not have contemplated. hooks, all for the purpose of catching I had not rolled up above two or three something. Thousands are taken by yards, when a respectable matron of a the gilded butterflies of fame and glo- hen, surrounded by eight or ten chickry, and thousands more are in the con- ens, made her appearance, shaking her timal pursuit of the more substantial head, unwilling to come forward and bait of riches. Even nets are set by afraid to retreat. beauty to entrap the hearts of the un- The good woman of the house folwary, and the jointured widow, or lowed me to the door, suspecting per-' miss with expectations, have only to haps that I had forgot to pay my reckdisplay their purses, to congregate the oning; but, upon seeing what had persons, if not the hearts, of a whole happened, she exclaimed, “ Preserve county of unmarried gentlemen.- us a'! is that my' brood hen ye hae “ But what has all this to do with catched wi' your fishing wand? if it your travels, Mr Christopher?" I think be, gentle or simple, ye had better i hear the reader ask ; - Recollect we been fishing something else, I'll assure are at a complete stand still, while ye." She then ran to the animal, which yon are musing and moralizing in this by this time was turning up its eyes, odd manner." You are perfectly right, and making very extraordinary faces gentle Reader ; and, in case of rain, í for a hen, and seizing it up, roared shall not keep you longer in the king's out, “ As sure as I'm on this spot, the highway, but take you back again to pair beast has eaten the flee-hook, and Lucky Thomson's Inn, where you may she's golloring up blude. What gart share with me, in idea, the comforts ye come to my house, wi' your whatof a hungry stomach, baps and butter, ye-ca’-thems? I had rather ye never eggs, ham, and all the luxuries of the ditted my door, than been the death day's first meal.

o' poor Tappie." She was now joined Í had fished up the water, and down in her lamentations by 'two girls, who the water, with but indifferent suc- expatiated upon the cruelty of the cess, till, coming in contact with the monster that was the death “ o' gransign-board above mentioned, I thought nie's hen," who could make eight or I could not do better than lay in a car- ten orphans so unadvisedly, and who go of provisions to last till dimer time; “ had the heart to torture puir dumb so I ordered breakfast, and putmy fish- animals in this way," ing-rod, to save the trouble of unscrew- Though I could scarcely refrain from ing, against the little window of the laughing at the strange attachment to apartment where breakfast was set, my line, I put on a grave face, and that I might see it in case of accident. said in words becoming the melanchoI had demolished at least one bap, (An- ly occasion, “My good woman, I am glicè, roll) eat two cater eggs of the sorry, very sorry indeed, for your hen; honest gentlewoman's own laying, ac- but you should consider, that if she cording to her phraseology, and was in had not attempted to steal my fly, nom the act of breaking up a third, when thing would have happened."

* Steal! the shaking of my rod outside the win- my hen steal ! she's as honest a hen as dow attractel my attention. After a you, and that I'll let you ken, sir. tremulous motion, I thought I heard What signifies a bawbee's worth o the pirn unrolling, and the next mo- hooks, and a wee pickle horse hair ? I ment the rod fell and disappeared. wadná hae ta'en five shillings for my Unwilling to part so easily with an poor creature." " Come, come, there old companion, which would moreover is no use in making words about the have spoiled my sport for the remain- matter. There's half-a-crown,” said der of the day, I ran to the door to I, cutting off the line at the hen's ascertain if the trout had really left mouth, " and no more about it." the water, and followed me to eat their « Half-a-crown!" exclaimed Lucky breakfast on dry land. My rod lay on Thomson, " I wonder how you can the ground, with the line extended, offer half-a-crown for a hen worth

Vot. X.'

a

double the siller. I wad cast the mo- to complete my conquest, hoping he was ney in your face, rather than sell my not mortally wounded, for I wanted ? poor beast's life for half-a-crown.” one of this species very much to pick

I had heard or read somewhere, that up the worms and insects in my garthe loudest speaker in a yulgar quarrel den; but when within a yard of where? always comes off victorious;

and, find- he lay, and almost ready to stoop for ing that I could not bring my landlady the purpose of lifting him up, he eyed to reason in any other way, I raised me with a significant glance, and then, 3 my voice to its utmost pitch, and said half running half flying, seemed to say, in my most determined manner, that “ Off we go !-catch me if you can. if she did not choose to take what I I ran pretty fast, but he ran still fastoffered, I would give nothing at all, er; and after a coursing along the beach, and besides prosecute her for damage which even arrested the half-naked done to my rod and line, and the loss bathers to witness its termination, my of my fly. The woman's choler fell as gull friend got over a garden dike at: mine seemed to rise; she remarked, Joppa, and, having placed the high- 5 in a subdued tone,

s that her husband road between him and me, disappear- 1 aye said she was owre hasty in her ed in a corn field. temper; that she saw I was a gentle- Was there ever any thing more pro- u man, and wadna wrang a poor body; voking! But this world is full of disand that she wad just tak what I liked appointments; and, after all, it is not to gie, though it would be lang indeed so humiliating to be gulled by a gull, before the bairns got a hen like poor as by one of one's own species. Being Tappie.”.

sufficiently tired by my chace, I left With little more ado I finished my the bathers to dress themselves in breakfast. My hostess had her hen peace, and determined to “ wend my killed for nothing, and the price of it weary way” back again to town, and to the bargain; and two trouts to the to repair the waste of the morning's little girls put an end to the mourning expedition by a comfortable dinner. for the unfortunate hen and her help- I had walked nearly half way to less babies.

Edinburgh, and had entered the range Mr Matthews, when you choose to of houses called Jock's Lodge, when, be At Home in our city, send me no- to my astonishment and delight, I tice thereof, and I shall make the above perceived my friend the gull stalking into a very capital law-case for your quietly by the side of the road, and use, and the decision of the public,- picking his feathers, very much at his for the lawyers of my acquaintance ease. Ah, my good fellow," thought have not yet made up their minds, I, “I shall have you at last;" and to whether the woman was entitled to leap across the road and catch up the damages for the death of her furtive animal, was but the work of a mohen, or me, for injury done to my line, ment. I got him under my arm aland the loss of an innocent fly. most unresisting, and having slung my

fowling-piece on my shoulder, I gaily

ascended the rising ground to the city, A bird in hand is worth two in the I had got but a few yards, however, bush says the English proverb, and when one of a few children standing English proverbs sometimes say true. by a door cried out, Eh, there's a I was shooting sea-fowl on Portobello man wi' a gull." —"A gull? odd its sands, at a season when no other very like Jenny Cameron's," was the shooting is permitted, and for a long response of another. “ It's just it," time I had wasted powder

and patent cried a third ; and surmise being inshot to little purpose. The mews, creased to conviction among the little ducks, and gulls, either flew provoking- whipper-snappers, the

whole sung out ly high, or at a tormenting distance, in chorus, “Jenny! Jenny Cameron! and I could not bring one down. In here's a man stealing your gull.” fact, none of them had a mind to be Jenny made her appearance forthwith wounded or die that morning, which from the door of a littl alehouse: I thought very strange indeed. At Stop the man wi' my beast," cried last, however, a large grey gull few Jenny; “ bairns, cry to the sogers to past. I immediately levelled at him, stop that man!” I turned to explain : and had the good fortune to see him to Mrs Janet, that it could not by any tumble on the sands before me. I ran possibility be her gull, for that

I had

wounded it at Portobello, and pursued as she took the gull, " it was very it a good way in the fields. “ Nane stupid, nae doubt; but am no thinkin' oʻyour lies to me,” said Jenny; " ye ye would hae fund out the stupidity, may have shot at a gull in your day, had ye no been puttin in mind o't.'' for aught I ken; but ye havena shot at this ane this ae half year. Ye'll Moral.- Remember, O reader! that see the mark oʻmy sheers on the crea- neither wisdom nor worth are always tare's wing," continued she, “and proof against cunning and knavery; every bairn in the place kens it fu’ and if, in the course of your peregriweil.” It came across my mind, that nations through life, you are someJanet might be in the right after all ; times disappointed in your

well-foundand seeing none of the usual marks of ed expectations, reflect that even the powder and lead on the animal, and great Christopher Columbus was twice moreover finding that one of its wings gulled in one day by a foolish animal was actually cut, I delivered up my from the sea-side at Portobello, and be prize, with many apologies for my content. stupid mistake. “Āy,” said Jenny,

FAMILIAR EPISTLES TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH,
From an Old Friend with a New Face.

LETTER I.

ON HOGG'S MEMOIRS.
MY DEAR CHRISTOPHER,

But joking apart, of all speculations I take the liberty of sending back in the way of printed paper, I should Hogs, which has disgusted me more have thought the most hopeless to have severely than any thing I have at- been, “a Life of James Hogę, by himtempted to swallow since Macvey's Ba- self.” Pray, who wishes to know any con. He is liker a swineherd in the thing about his life? Who, indeed, Canongate, than a shepherd in Ettrick cares a single farthing whether he be

Forest. I shall never again think of at this blessed moment dead or alive? to him without the image of an unclean It is no doubt undeniable, that the

thing; and, for his sake, I henceforth political state of Europe is not so inforswear the whole swinish generation. teresting as it was some years ago. But Roast pig shall never more please my still I maintain that there was no depalate-pickled pork may go to the de- mand for the Life of James Hogg, and vil-brawn, adieu !-avaunt all man- that the world at large could have gone ner of hams--Sow's cheek,

on without it. At all events, it ought Fare thee well! and if for ever,

not to have appeared before the Life Still for ever, Fare thee well! of Buonaparte. What you can possibly see to admire Besides, how many lives of himself in Jamie Hogg, is to me quite a puz- does the swine-herd intend to put zle

. He is the greatest boar on earth, forth? I have a sort of life of the you must grant; and, for a decent wa- man, written by himself about twenty ger, I undertake, in six weeks, to pro- years ago:

There are a good many duce six as good poets as he is, from lives of him in the Scots Magazine-a each county in Scotland, over and above considerable number even in your own the Falkirk Cobler, the Chaunting Tin- work, my good sir--the Clydesdale smith, Willison Glass, and the Reves Miscellany was a perfect stye with him

I engage to draw -hisgrunt is in Waugh-hehas a brisup two deep, in front of No. tle in Baldwin—and he has smuggled 17 , Prince's-street, on the next day of himself in a sack of chaff into the

Perpublication ; and they shall march cy Anecdotes. No man from the counround by the Mount of proclamation, try has a right thus to become a puband across the Mound, back to their lic nuisance. This self-exposure is not parade. Lieutenant Juíllinan shall be altogether decent; and if neither Capat their head-Mr

shall officiate tain Brown nor Mr Jeffrey will interas chaplain and

if he pleases, fere, why I will so please to print this

letter.

rend Mr them all

shall be trumpeter.

* The Mountain Bard ; consisting of Legendary Ballads and Tales. By James Hoge, the Etrick Shepherd. The third edition, greatly enlarged. To which is prefixed, a Me! moir of the Author's Life, written by Himself. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.

Take Hogs, and scrape him well for now? Draw upon hiin at night, or at half an hour, and pray what does he six months' date--no effects. prove to be? Why, a very ordinary But I had no intention, when I took common-place animal, in my humble up my pen, to write one syllable about opinion, as one may see on the longest Hogg's genius, as it is called. And pray, day of summer, namely, the 22d of what is in his life?-absolutely nothing. June. In all these lives of his, he He has been in this world, it appears, keeps drawling and drivelling over his fifty years, and his existence has been want of education. He could not write, one continued bungle. But the selfhe says, till he was upwards of twenty conceit of the man is incredible. Lord years of age. This I deny. He can- Erskine is a joke to James Hogg not write now. I engage to teach any and often must he have a sore heart forthcoming ploughman to write bet to think what the worthy world will ter in three weeks. Let Hogg publish do without him some twenty years a fac-simile of his hand-writing, and hence, when he hops the twig. His the world will be thunderstruck at the death will be remembered like a total utter helplessness of his hand. With eclipse of the sun, no doubt; and the respect to grammar, is Hogg aware of people about Selkirk will date any this one simple fact, that he never event according to its distance in time wrote a page approaching to grammar from the death of Hogg.-" I rememin his life? Give hin a sentence, and ber it well-it was the year of the naforce him, at the point of the sword, tional bankruptcy.”—“Ay, ay—the to point out an accusative, and he is a year Hogg died of the cholic.” deall man.

Pray, was your friend asleep during Now, I ask you, Christopher, and the twenty years he herded sheep in other good people, if such a man as Ettrick, and Yarrow, and Polmoody? this has any title to be compared with How do shepherds employ themRobert Burns. The Ayrshire Plough- selves ?-Of this he tells us nothing. man could write long before he was Day after day-year after year, seems twenty. He held the plough before he to have passed over his head in a state was in his teens-he threshed corn at of mystification, and the honest mar thirteen-all the girlsin Coil were in love is no more able to give an account o with him before he was twenty-some them than an old ram, or his dog of them to their cost--and, at twenty- Hector. Now, all shepherds are no four, he published a volume of poems, such dolts. Many of them are ex containing, the Twa Dogs, The Cot- tremely clever, long-headed, sagacious tar's Saturday Night, &c.-works that well-informed people ; and in the pre have made him immortal. After all, sent case, the wonderful thing is, tha he was not a great poet; but he knew Hogg could have lived so long amon what he was about.

such an intelligent class of men, an To hear Hogg and Burns spoken of appeared in the world so utterly ig in the same year, and written of in the norant as he is. This is the view same volume, is sickening indeed.- the subject, which I maintain mu: Some silly gentleman has done this, be taken by all sensible people wh Christopher, in your own Magazine. read his Memoirs,—and I feel conf Why, the idea of such a comparison is dent that Hogg himself will be startle enough to make a horse laugh-it is to find that it is the true one, if h enough to set the whole British caval- chuses to clap his large, grey, ur ry into a guffaw.

meaning eyes on this part of the Ma Come now, Christopher, and be ho- gazine. nest with ine. Do you believe that Well, then-this prodigy tires there is a man living who can repeat a the shepherd's life, and comes joggir single line of Hogg's? If there be, send into Edinburgh; he offers his ballar for a metaphysician to him instantly. and balderdash, at sundry times, 'ai Cut off his head, and transinit it to in divers manners, to all the bookse Spurzheim. What the devil is his poe- lers in Edinburgh, high and low, ri try, as you call it, about? Tell me that, and poor, but they are all shy and I will write a sheet in your Maga- trouts during thunder-not one w zine every month gratis. Jamie has bite. No wonder. Only picture no ideas. For, if he bad, are you so yourself a stout country lout, with credulous as to believe that one or two bushel of hair on his shoulders ti would not have spunked out before had net loon raked for months, e

a