luded to overcome my resentment, my and in all probability to the destrucfriend proceeded thus : tion of this humane and most undaunt" There," said he, “stood, and in ed woman, as well as most assuredly T. fact still stands, the ancient castle, or to the lingering and revolting death of mar, of the Macduffs, Earls and Thanes the now altogether supportless captive. of Fife, who were once powerfulenough Imagination recoils with loathing and to dispute authority and dominion here shuddering from such deeds of darkness 100k with majesty itself. This castle was as this, and rests with delight and rap afterwards forfeited to James the First, ture on the kindly refreshment which by an act of attainder against Macduff, the strong contrast, presented by the woand now composes part of the Palace man's conduct, affords."-"If I knew," which we are about to visit. About added I, “ a single Brat in Falkland, the beginning of the fifteenth century, the most ragged and vice-worn even, Id this castle was committed to the keep- which tumbles a stone from that Palace ing of King Robert's brother, the am- roof, or shivers a window in that parish bitious and most barbarously inhuman school-house,-if I knew any thing at in Duke of Albany, who, having prevail- allin the shapeof humanity which ownmed upon his brother the king to com- ed this woman for Ancestor, I would andó mit his son and heir to the kingdom, adopt him as my son: he should eat of Be the young, and somewhat licentious my bread, and drink of my cup, and lie 1. David Duke of Rothsay, to his protec- in my bosom; and I would be unto him * tion, shut up the young Prince in a as a father.' "Away, and away; you ik: dungeon of this castle, and, with a again run with the harrows at your view to his father's succession, actually heels, my good friend,” rejoins my bus starved him to death. The story is one more cool and considerate monitor ;“I which is enough to bring tears from am afraid your benevolence will have 2 the most rocky heart, and while it fixes no opportunity of being exercised in 1 an indelible stain-1 had almost said this case, unless it instruct you to estibrez upon Nobility itself—it sheds a lustre mate the lower orders of society more ci:' over the very peasantry, and these very highly than in your Lomond rhapsody toch burgesses you were but lately dispara- you were lately disposed to do.' ging, which no title, or rank, or worldly Having now come up to the very front grandeur, could ever confer. of the Castle which looks down upon "A poor woman, the wife, as is re- the town, towards the south, we put Ens ported, of a Burgess of Falkland, han up our horses with Mrs Scott, ordered ving chanced, in passing by, to hear a beef-steak for dinner, and set out inb. the groans and the miserable wailings continently upon our investigation of L. of the unfortunate Captive, advanced, the Palace and adjoining ruins. ble at the risk of her life, to a small chink, Upon entering through the boldly de or loop-hole, in the wall, and there arched and truly royal gate-way, which learning the helpless and perishing conducts into the interior of the square, condition of the starving and totally- two sides of which are still pretty endeserted Inmate, she ventured to slip tire, we found ourselves in the prethrough to him, from night to night, sence of a Character well known in “ cakes” made exceedingly thin on Falkland, -distinguished not less by purpose, conveying, at the same time, the antiquity of the family from to his perished and famished palate, which he is descended, and of which through a reed, or piece of hemlock, he is the last and only remaining the warm and reviving stream which branch, than by a most devoted and proceeded directly from her own breast.* unequivocal attachment to Mrs Scott's But the device was at last found out, chimney-cheek and whisky bottle. a * By this Annabel the queen dying, David her son, who by her means had been restrained, broke out into his natural disorders, and committed all kinds of rapine and luxury . Complaint being brought to his father, (Robt. 3,) he commits him to his brother, the governor, (whose secret design being to root out the offspring,) the business was so ordered as that the young man was shut up in Falkland Castle to be starved, which yet was for a while delayed, a woman thrusting in some thin oat-cakes at a chink, and giving him milk out of her paps through a trunck. But both these being discovered , the youth being forced to tear his own members, died of a multiplied death,” &c. -HALL’s Preface to Drummond of Hawthornden's History of Scotland, p. 16. London edit. 1657. Vide likewise Lesly, Bishop of Ross. I a rance. 6 < After a sufficient period of morning li- Scarcely had ourInformer pronounced bations, he had just escaped from his these words, when our ears were salufavourite retreat, and was in the act, ted with the distant sound of a drum, I nothing doubt, of reckoning kin and which seemed to beat furiously, and at counting lineage with a full score of every flourish gave rise, and lifting up, rather suspicious-looking faces, which to a most dismal yell of human-and were eying him in various stages of de- scarcely human voices. " Let us rerangement, and mutilation, and decay, tire up this stair-way,” said our " nil from the east and from the south walls. nisi bonum' Conductor, “ to the battleWe were not long, under the manage- ments, and there we shall be safe, and ment of my guide, in making him re- in a situation to observe their proceedcognize our object, and in directing ings.” So, in a few seconds, we were his antiquarian lore upon our igno- safely seated on the western Turret, far * You must know then," said and happily removed above the tumult he, taking me by the arm, and con- and turmoil which was now accumuladucting us to the farther extremity of ting beneath And turmoil and tumult the western division; you must of the most decided character were now know,' sed nil nisi bonum de mortuis;' exhibited. Wives were running into you must understand that there were the streets with children in their arms in former times only three great fa- artizans were collecting, armed with milies in Europe,' sed nil nisi bonum de the implements of their profession; mortuis,'--the house of Bourbon-the and dykers and ditchers were driving house of Stuart—and the house of in from all quarters, towards the centre D-m. The house of Bourbon was of general rendezvous, making, all the distinguished by many great princes, while, a most furious demonstration of and mighty kings ; the house of Stuart, tongue and gesticulation. The tide of sednil nisi bonum demortuis,' built and gathering and of bustle became every inhabited this very palace before you; instant more strong and overpowering, and the house of D-m, after four or till, collecting allits strength and weight , five hundred years of distinguished ef- into one mighty swell of assault, it fort, has at last produced me.' "* This burst through the great gate-way of the was something like entering upon the Palace, and spread out in various fraga Trojan war • at the Egg,' so we took ments of confusion and uproar, in the the liberty of endeavouring to restrict very court-yard which we had so lately his somewhat discursive and antique and so fortunately deserted. The drum remarks to the objects immediately be at last, whether from the voluntary fore us; in consequence of which we cessation of him who had so powerfully were apprised of the conflagration of belaboured it, or from the giving way the east wing of the Palace, in Charles of the parchment, it was not easy to II.'s time; of the residences of the determine, was silent; and, elevatel Dukes of Athol, and Earls of Fife; of upon a fragment of the parapet wall the devastations and sacrilege commit- with a pick in one hand, the other ted by Cromwell's soldiery; and of the being extended in the attitude o more recent aggressions upon these ve- impetuous and impassioned address nerable and still imposing Ruins, by " an Orator," apparently of no commoi the neighbours and town's people, who powers, delivered to the motley and had long regarded them as a pub- unseemly mob around him, a harangue lic quarry, or common good. “Even in which frequent mention was mad! now," continued our man of family and of “ law, rights, prescriptions, us extensive latinity,' even now that and wont," &c.“ Here, Lass, haud I am pointing out to you the chambers that wean o' mine, there, for a jiffy,' where Dukes resided, and Kings sat in exclaimed a virago mother, thrustin judgment, these vile low-born wretches her brat, squalling rebellion and dis are preparing, I verily believe, to over- content, into the arins of a half-growi turn the wall by which these ruins have girl, who stood beside her, " and I'I of late been enclosed ; and to assert, by soon settle their dyke-bigging. A brav main force, and without law or leave,' story, indeed”-taking hold of th what they conceive to be their im- orator's pick, and coinmencing he inemorial privilege of devastation." imovements in advance—"abrą w story 6 ) * Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus Mus, nitory aspect, in troth, to think to bar us out wi' Eden, named, undoubtedly, from stane and lime walls frae our ain aul' its immemorial amenity,-lay beneath të use and wont.” So saying, she was down the stretch and the effort of our vithe green, and had fixed the point of sion; we surveyed the extensive plain, in her weapon of destruction into the ob- where the Fallow deer once roamed noxious erection, and had hurled down amidst their forests of oak, and where la the first stone, as a signal of encou- a few straggling sụccessors still remain 1. ragement to thousands, ere they had in ancient and unrestricted freedom ! time to come up to second her efforts. Turning towards the north, fertile and “Nec longa erut moru,” for when, af- cultivated fields rose, tier above tier, ter a very short interval, the multi- on the eye, till the gently swelling tude began, having effected their pur. ascents melted away into the blue firma pose, to open up and disperse, we heaven by which they were relieved could distinctly observe the breach from behind. Towards the west, the they had made, large enough to afford Elder of the “ twin Lomonds” pro a free thoroughfare to carts and carri- jected its basaltic and abrupt precipices ** ages of all descriptions. They are far into the still (in this direction) admi Goths—they are Vandals” exclaimed rably wooded plain, and presented the the last of the ancient and distinguish expression of a Lion in the act of grasped house of D -m, in which ayer. ing his prey. The East Lomond, which ment, I confess, I felt every disposi-, pressed its green, and plump, and untion to concur; when, ere I had time decayed freshness upon the sky, almost to embody my feelings in articulate iỉnmediately over our head, formed a sounds, I could see my sagacious friend striking and an agreeable contrast to eyeing me with somewhat of a mo- the ruined achievements of man, amidst “ Let us suspend our which we were seated. Here the eye opinion," said he," at present ;, they is not satisfied with seeing, nor the tell me this day's transactions are like-memory with recollecting, nor the imasly to become a question of litigation in gination with bodying out ; and if a court of law, and it would be altoge- any traveller by Falkland has an hour, therinjudicious in us to prejudge a ques- whilst his beef-steak is making ready tion of right, respecting which I under. in Mrs Scott's, (and a capital beef-steak stand the very best judges may be divi, she makes,) to spare, let him ascend “Divided in a whistle, the western Turret of the Palace, and, case!" retorted our hero of the whisky seating himself on the parapet immestoup, with an air of determined par diately over the gateway, let him look tizanship , which altogether, indepen- abroad in silent and solemn contemdeutly of a verbase and “nil nisi bo- plation over ages that are past, and num” philippic which succeeded, suf- objects that are present--over much ficiently indicated in favour of which that is eminently calculated to gratiside , had he been placed in the chair of fy and delight the sight, and to elevate, judgment, his decision would have and expand, and ameliorate the heart. been given. Having now succeeded in Without troubling you with the cir. withdrawing our eyes and our atten- cumstantiality of order, and manner, tion from the motley band beneath, and colloquy, I may just mention now, and having directed them leisurely in conclusion of this long and someandcontemplatively over the surround what discursive communication, that ing scenery, we were amply repaid for we visited the old chapel, with its fine all the disgusting turmoil we had seen, roof, and massive oaken doors ;-that .; and for all the steps of steep, and we descended again into the area, and sometimes broken ascent we had sur- inspected a long race of open-mouthinounted. ed * Kings and Queens of Scotland, Looking eastward, the closely wood. which thrust out their stoney counteed, and far stretching strath of the nances from the wall;—that we had in "I observed, that advancing from the more ancient to the more modern mouths, the lips gradually became closer and closer, till, in the two last of the series, the compression was such as to protrude thé under lip considerably ;-a sure mark of high civiization and supercilious dignity in the Great, and of vanity and self-conceit in those of les elevated rank. Many of the countenances, however, are remarkably fine, and preent some valuable Spurzheim notices. One is amazingly, and what I would even term ridiculously, like the late ex- Emperor Buonaparte; and another wears the exact coun. tenance of our tutelary saint, John Knox. ded in opinion.” remembrance (though not under our of abode about night-fall, highly graeye, as it is completely destroyed) the tified, upon the whole, with our exchamber, where the merry-hearted cursion, but exceedingly shocked by King of Scotland, after his losses at that barbarous disrespect for the reSolway Moss, quantum mutatus ! in lics of antiquity, and the manes of the all the disconsolate desolation of dis- dead, which we had been compelled appointed hopes and a broken heart, re- to witness. tired, to die;—that we passed across Now, sir, I have finished my narrathe square, and through the passage, tive; and if, through means of your (which we had seen so lately, and with extensively circulating Magazine, I so much violence, opened,) into the can draw the attention of those in still entire and spacious “ Tennis- power to the object of it, namely,“ to court,” the only antiquity of the kind the enclosing and preservation of our now remaining in Scotland ;-that we old, and venerable, und national Ruins," surveyed the bare and now woodless I think I shall contribute to the keepfields, which still obtain-quasi lucus ing up among us of that patriotic and a non lucendo-the name of “ Falk- chivalrous spirit, which is utterly at land wood,” and which were strip- variance with every tendency to radiped of their Caledonian oaks by the calism and insubordination. And if, republican violence and rapine of by the slight allusion I have been Cromwell ;-that, in compliance with compelled to make to the instance of my invariable practice, we visited the Kilgour,—which is by no means a church-yard, or rather burial-ground, solitary one,–I shall have succeeded of Falkland, in which the monument in awakening the attention of one erected to the memory of the pious and single parish Proprietor to the subject far-noted Emily Geddie, was all of church-yard dilapidation, I shall that attracted, or deserved to attract, have done more for the repose of the our notice ;- that we rode out as far dead, and for the rational satisfaction as the old church-yard of Kilgour,+ a of the living, than if I had been the most retired and romantic spot, where Inventor of an Iron-safe, to preserve we found a farm-steading, constructed their bodies from resurrection. almost entirely of broken head-stones It is my intention, during the latter and monuments ;-that we found the end of this harvest, to make an ex bones and flesh of a dead horse, fester- cursion over Scotland, with the view ing, in sacrilegious and obscene conta- of giving you some Church-yard mination, in a large stone-coffin, where and“ Ruin” intelligences of supply the body of the poor unfortunate Prince ing you with a list of the “ mora David, formerly mentioned, had, in all maxims of the dead”—and with a state probability, been once deposited ;-and ment of the“ sacrilegious and revoltin that, after having qualified our beef- dilapidations of the living, "--and nei steak, with a quantum-suff. of Mrs ther power nor interest shall induc Scott's whisky-toddy, and having ob- me to spare the guilty, nor to calum tained a full and a detailed account niate or misrepresent the innocent. from our new friend" Nil nisi bonum!” I am yours, &e. of the ancient ani honourable House VIATOR. of D -m,—we returned to our places 66 * This singularly pious and affectionate girl.—for she died at sixteen years of age,was daughter to John Geddie, in the Hill-town of Falkland, and has found a historian her “ Choice Sentences and Practices” in a James Hogg, (not the Jacobite Hogg.) a together competent to the task he has undertaken. She was born in 1665, and died 1681. The pamphlet was published by James Halkerston, Bailie in Falkland, in 179 for the benefit, as he expresses it, of the rising generation ; and is extremely rare, ai not a little curious. † Kilgour was formerly, previous to the union of the two parishes, the burial-grou) of Falkland ; and either Lesly or Buchanan, or both,-for" I cannot speak positivel not having the books by me at present,-mention the particulars of the funeral proct sion from Falkland to Kilgour. Drummond says, Prince David was buried at Lindor but this seems to be a mistake. a 3 1 CHARACTERS OF LIVING AUTHORS, BY THEMSELVES. No. I. "Dans ce siècle de petits talens et de grands succès, mes chefs-d'æuvre auront cent me éditions, s'il le fant. Par-tout les sots crieront que je suis un grand homme, et si je n'ai contre moi que les gens de lettres et les gens de goût, j'arriverai peut-être à l'Académie.” LOUVET. m I'm a philosopher of no philosophy, gins, than he is at the bottom of the Ni and know not where the deuce my page ; and the Indian jugglers, with ku wisdom came from, unless it was in their brazen balls, were nothing to the born, or “connatural,” as Shaftesbury style in which he can fling sentences will have it. I have studied neither the about. I can speak but from my own ta heavens, nor the earth, nor man, nor experience: I have found it so; and books ; but I have studied myself, have though there is a degree of excellence, the turned over the leaves of my own which all persons cannot arrive at, yet are heart, and read the cabalistic charac- the fabrication of essays is a double em uz ters of self-knowledge. Nor without ployment, and I here record the prin¢¥ ¥ success, for truth, I trust, has been no ciple by which I arrived at its perfec1. Estranger to my pen. If all the world tion, as a bequest and lesson to posteher followed my example, there would be rity:-Despise learning; never mind in some sense in it. But they do not. books, but to borrow. Let the ideas They have not courage and alacrity play around self, and that is the way se enough to catch wisdom and folly “ as to please the selfish reader-other reading e they fly.” They ponder and weigh- ers there are not in the world. the wind about a vacuum, like the steps of It is vulgarly supposed, that a man, on. : a geometrical stair-case. They do not who is always thinking and talking of "pluck bright knowledge from the himself, is an egotist. He is no such sans pale-faced moon.” They do not dare thing; he is the least egotistical of all d to look from the table land of their men. It is the world he is studying up own genius,-their own perceptions, all the time, and self is but the glass nor sweep boldly over the regions of through which he views and specu- philosophy, “knowing nothing, caring lates upon nature. People call me egoaki e nothing." They do not expatiate over tist; they don't know what they say. ha de literature with the step of freemen,- I never think of myself, but as one into they are shackled, and have not the among the many—a drop in the ocean is spirit to be truly yagabond. They are of life. If I anatomize my own heart, h"not elevated to a just idea of them- 'tis that I can lay hands on no other ribs selves , their own feelings are not hal- so conveniently; and when I do even de lowed, and theyput forth their thought make use of the letter I, I merely mean " fearfully, and in the dark.” This is by it any highly-gifted and originallyhel's not the way to be wise ;-there is con- minded individual. I have always Ens fidence required for wisdom as well as thought myself very like Rousseau, ex for war. We are all of one kind; the cept in one thing, that I hate the wofeelings of nature are universal, and mankind,'- I have reason-he had be that can turn his eye in upon him- not. Nevertheless, had he hung up self, – that has mental squint enough his shield in a temple, I'm sure I should to look behind his nose, may read there recognize it. I feel within me a kind the irrefragable laws and principles of red spirit,--the same expansive intelleget humanity. This is the difficulty, lect that strays over the bounds of the bar between man and knowledge, speculation, and has grasped nothing, o le as is observed by Mr Locke, (who, by because it met nothing worthy,-the the bye, is an author I despise,-a phi- same yearning after what the soul can in which no gress of his opinions, he will then have knowledge can rest. If a fortuitous studied the best primer of philosophy. congregation of atoms ever formed any If he can once lay hold of the end of thing, it formed us, for truly we are that web, he can unravel it ad infini- a tesselated pair, each of a disposition tum. With his pen in his fingers, and curiously dove-tailed, as Burke said of his glass before him, he no sooner be- Lord Chatham's ministry,-of facul a |
