Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

way that a carpenter lays up his wood to dry; and each of these dishes was backed by jolly black and white puddings, lying in the folds of each other, beautiful, fresh, and smooth; and resembling tiers of Circassian and Ethiopian young maidens in loving embraces. After these came immense rows of wild ducks, teals, and geese of various descriptions; with many other mountain birds that must be exceedingly rare, for though I have been bred in Scotland all my life, I never heard any of their names before. Among them were some called whaups, or tilliwhillies, withertyweeps, and bristlecocks.

As soon as the dinner was over, our worthy president rose and made a most splendid speech, but as you know I do not write the short-hand, I cannot do justice to it by any report. He concluded thus:-" Gentlemen, let us dedicate this bumper to our beloved sovereign, GEORGE THE FOURTHMay he long be spared to wear the crown this day set upon his head, and sway the sceptre put into his hand over a free, a loyal, and a happy people. With all the honours, ten times redoubled."

Here the applause, clapping of hands, waving of handkerchiefs, and shouting, was prodigious, so that I was afraid the people, in the extremity of their loyalty, had been going mad. But after they had sung the King's Anthem in full chorus, they again took their seats quietly, all save the countryman beforementioned, who was placed at the president's left hand, and who had all the time been sitting with open mouth staring in the speaker's face. When the rest sat down, he heaved his fist firm clenched above his head, and vociferated, in a loud and broad dialect, "Faith, callants, ye may say what ye like; but I can tell you, that this auld chap at the end o' the board speaks weel, and hauds a confoundit grip o' good sense too." And with that he came down on the table with such a rap, that he made all the glasses jingle. This set the circle in a roar of laughter, but he held up

his hand again as a sign for them to be silent, and seemed disposed to harangue them. Some called to order; others, Hear, hear; and, finally, all voices united in the cry of, Chair, chair. The orator finding himself thus interrupted in what he intended to have said, looked good-naturedly about, and said, "I fancy I'm maybe like the tail that grew out o' the tup's nose, a sma' bit out o' my place here, and a wee blink farther forret than I should hae been. I was gaun to mak a speech, an' tack a toast to the tail o't; but a' in gude time. Auld cronie, gi'e me your hand in the meanwhile; I hae aye kend you for a leel man and a true, and I think mair o' ye the night than ever!" With that he shook the old president unmercifully by the hand, and added, "Ay, my hearty auld cock, we are a' ane, and there's muckle gude blood i' the land that's a' ane wi' us; and as lang as that is the case, we'll sing the Whigs Leyden's bit auld sang

'My name it is doughty Jock Elliot, And wha dare meddle wi' me?'"

After this, a number of loyal and national toasts followed from the chair, the same that are given at every social meeting. When these were exhausted, the croupier being called on for a toast, he rose, and after turning his face three times straight upward, he delivered a very striking speech, and concluded by giving as a toast, "A pleasant journey, and a hearty welcome to our King to Scotland."

This toast was drank with all the honours; and, before the president took his seat, he begged that some gentleman would favour the company with a song corresponding with the toast. "That I'll do wi' a' my heart," said the countryman, "an ye'll excuse me my speech. I'm never at a loss for a sang; and gin I ha'e nae new ane that suits, I can brag a' the country at patching up an auld ane." He then sung the following song with great glee, and every time he pronounced the terın Carle, he came with a slap on the president's shoulder.

"Carle, an the King come"

1.

"Carle, an the King come!
Carle, an the King come!
Thou shalt dance, and I shall sing,
Carle, an the King come!"

[blocks in formation]

"Carle, an the King come!
Carle, an the King come!
Thou shalt dance, and I shall sing,
Carle, an the King come!"
When yellow corn grows on the riggs,
And gibbets rise to hang the Whigs,
O then we will dance Scottish jigs,

Carle, an the King come.

The singer received his due quota of applause; and being reminded that he had a right to call a song, it was hinted, that he should call on the Merchant of Venice, alias the Royal Merchant; but he shook his head, and replied, "Na, na, it is nae his time o'

night yet by ten bumpers. I ken him ower weel to ca' on him now;-but he'll gie me, Wad ye ken what a Whig is? or twall o'clock yet, for a' his canting about rights an' liberties in the forenoon. He speaks muckle nonsense about thae things. I'm while's

just wae for him." Another whispered him to call on the president; but he added, "Na; I'm something like the weaver wi' his grace-I never like to ask ought that I think I ha'e nae some chance o' getting."

The next gentleman who spoke, at least to any purpose, was one before mentioned, whose personal appearance I chuse not to describe. He being clothed in black, I had taken him all the afternoon for a clergyman; and after he spoke, I had no doubt but that he was a celebrated whig minister, who was taken from Perthshire to London some years ago; and yet I could not conceive what he was seeking there. Word followed word, and sentence followed sentence, till he actually winded out his speech to the length of three quarters of an hour's duration. But before he was half done I got fatigued, which, creating some confusion in my ideas, I lost all traces of connection in my notes; and on looking them over to-day, I find so many contractions of superlative terms, most of them meaning the same thing, that I can make nothing of them; and it is a loss for you I cannot, for though the speech was delivered in a preaching style, it was nevertheless a piece of grand and impressive eloquence; insomuch, that I said to myself again and again, "On my word but the seceder minister does well!" The subject was indeed scarcely to be equalled. It was a character of our late venerable and beloved Sovereign-" The father of his people, and the firm defender of their rights, whose image was embalmed for ever in their profound and grate

ful remembrances, and whose descent to the grave was long overshadowed by the darkest of human calamities." Such were some of the speaker's ima pressive words; and you can scarcely

conceive how much he affected his audience. It was upon the whole a singular mixture of prolixity, pathos, and sublimity. He concluded by giving "The memory of our late beloved and revered Sovereign, George the Third." The toast was drunk with the silent honours, in a way which I never saw done in Glasgow, and which in this instance appeared to me highly impressive. All the company taking example by the president stood up in silence, and waving their emptied glasses slowly around their heads, crossed their hands on their brows and made a reverend bow, after which a long restrained ruff of approbation ensued like the sound made by muffled drums.

[ocr errors]

After this an elderly gentleman with spectacles rose, and said, He had been favoured with

a few verses of a

song that day-that they were written by a gentleman in the company, who, he believed, had written more loyal and national songs than any bard now living, more perhaps than all of them put together; and as the verses appeared to suit the foregoing toast in a particular manner, he volunteered to sing sing th them, provided he were allowed to consult the manuscript. This being granted, he sung the following stanzas in a soft under voice, to a most beautiful old air, to be found only in Albyn's Anthology.

Our good Auld Man.

1.

Our good auld man is gane!

Our good auld man is gane !

But I will greet for the auld grey head,

Now cauld aneath the stane.

2.

There's some brag o' their weir,

And some o' their lordly kin;

But a' my boast was his virtuous breast,

And the kindly heart within.

3.

'Tis neither for blight nor blame

That the tear-drap blinds my e'e,

But I greet when I think o' the auld grey head,

And a' that it bore for me.

4.

Though darkness veil'd his eye,
And light o' the soul was nane;
They shall shine bright in a purer light,
When the moon and the stars are gane.

I only took notes of one more speech and two songs; for, indeed, the glass went round so freely, that wine and loyalty got the upper-hand of my judgment, and I lost all recollection of what was afterwards done, said, or sung, as completely, as if I had been at a whig dinner, with Kelly in the chair, at the Black Bull.-Yours, &c.

JOHN M'INDOE.

THE VOYAGES AND TRAVELS OF COLUMBUS SECUNDUS.

CHAPTER VII.*

Early Recollections.

We twa hae run about the braes,

And pu'd the gowans fine;

But we've wander'd mony a weary fit

Sin auld langsyne.

We twa hae paidelt in the burn

Frae morning sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae row'd
Sin auld langsyne.

In travelling along the streets of Edinburgh, I have often stopped to witness the children of the present day enjoying themselves at the games which formed the delighted pastime of my boyhood; and I have sometimes regretted that a classical book of juvenal sports did not exist, to assist the recollections of the past. Indeed I had, I must confess, for a long time ceased to notice the continuance of such games, till, in my own family, a set of youngsters arose, who from the school brought the knowledge and the practice of the almost forgotten amusements; but, from that period, I have again refreshed my memory, by taking a share in these innocent relaxations; and, though it may not add much weight to my character as a philosophical traveller, I find I can take a game with the bairns at kittlie-cout, or

BURNS.

blind Harry, as well as ever, and can jink as nimbly at tig touch timmer, doze a tap, or roll up a pirie, as if I had just escaped from reading my accustomed dose of Barrie's Collection, under the superintendance of that worthy teacher.

In the multifarious projects of manhood, what a change must not the most careless observer have perceived from the time when one set of objects, and one set of amusements, formed the business and the pleasure of all'; and no one can look back to the period of boyish amusement, and early study, without thinking of the varied situations which his school-fellows now fill in the great theatre of life. He who was the hero of the little ring at school, has perhaps sunk into the humble dependent of his former fol-. lower; and he who enacted the chief

• We have received a communication from Mr Lithgow, junior, referring to Chapter I. of the Travels of Columbus, in which, in a friendly way, he congratulates our worthy publisher for having risen above the Storm, - Mr Storm's shop being the ground floor of No. 17, Prince's Street. That we have occasionally, in our castigations of infidelity, glanced aside from infidel opinions to their embodied supporters, and exposed the arts of ultra-whiggery and radicalism in the persons of their champions, and have thus given offence, we do not deny. But the fifty thousand readers who monthly devour our pages, and the fifty thousand more who read them at second hand, are the sarest test of the value of our labours, and the strongest evidence that THE MAGAZINE, in spite of misrepresentation, is now accounted the chief bulwark of those "who fear God, and honour the King."-EDIT...

VOL. X.

E

personage in mimic plays, whose ingenuity added to the interest, and whose spirits increased the mirth, of the little drama,-has, it may be, in the scenic illusions of after life, sunk to the office of candle-snuffer or sceneshifter to his more fortunate compa-nions.

It is certainly not very comfortable for many to reflect, that while their former companions at the bowl or the ball have risen to distinction and opulence, they may be toiling, with hopeless activity, for "the day that is passing over them;" and it is not very palatable to human pride, to see the associate of school tasks pass his early playmate unheeded on the street, because he has had no friends to assist his progress, or wealth to secure a continuance of school friendship. But, while no degradation can be implied, or should be felt, when all do not begin life with the same advantages, so no superiority of intellectual powers can be adjudged to those who merely occupy an exalted station on account of hereditary wealth or title; and while one holds fast his integrity and moral worth, I see no distinction in creatures of the same species, which should entitle either to overlook the other, or any occasion for envy even on the part of the most humble, who fills to the best of his ability the part which Providence has assigned him. In the race of life, there are many starting places, and many goals; and he is no more to be despised for want of activity or diligence, who sets out with the disadvantages of poverty and want of friends, ten miles from the winningpost of human distinctions, than the person is to be praised, who, with every temporal advantage, has only a few yards to run. At least this is my system; and, if it has no other effect, it has that most convenient one, of making me contented with my humble station. I can look down with pity upon the man, who, merely on account of the possession of a few more pounds, or a few more acres of land, thinks himself entitled to treat with disdain a fellow being, whose situation in life may be of as much real consequence in the economy of Providence, and whose ultimate hopes of " untried being" may be as well grounded as his; and I am sometimes tempted to consider the unprofitably rich, and the luxuriously idle, as beings beneficent

ly placed in these situations, for want of powers and energies to do something better. When I am forced, by the customs of society, occasionally to roast my servants by extraneous cookery,-make the children run about the house like frightened kittens, in the hurry of festive preparation,-put the whole economy of my family for days out of order, and myself to sit up till long past the midnight hour, to entertain a few friends, I often think how preferable my situation is to those who are almost always in company, whose entertainments are as everlasting as any thing human can be, and who have neither strength of mind to look at, nor time to think of, the present, the future, or the past. In the scale of happiness, it would be hard to say which class of beings has the greatest share; and the few snatches of pleasure in the power o the humblest, are perhaps enjoyed with a relish unknown to the sated appetite of daily luxury.-" Give me neither poverty nor riches."--But am moralizing, when I should be de scribing.

To those who have been formerl young, (and I do not insist upon thos who never were so to read this chap ter,) and especially those who, for th encouragement of teachers, have take the trouble to procure them pupils and have thus become fathers, I mak no apology for dedicating a few sen tences to early recollections; and how ever odd it might appear, were a doze of the High School callants, of twenty five years back, (now perhaps reveren clergymen, respectable merchants, off cers in the army, judges, or advocates to be seen at the cleckenbrod, or dosin their piries, yet I believe, that eve the remembrance that "such thing were," forms not the least interestin topic of conversation, when old schoo fellows meet afterwards in the voya of life.

The games among the children Edinburgh have their periodical r turns. At one time nothing is to I seen in the hands of the boys bu cleckenbrods; at another, dosing of tap and piries and pirie cords, form tl prevailing recreation; and at a thir every retired pavement, or unoccupi area, swarms with the rosy-faced litt imps playing at bowls, their eyes spar) ling with delight at the acquisition, moulded into melancholy at the lo

« AnteriorContinuar »