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ingly 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 ad

dress in improving acquaintance to the promotion of their own interests, have not the best way, in the first instance, of introducing themselves.-A_raw Scotsman 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.

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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 Todd. 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 mak 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.

66

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 Rachael, 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 we 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 they were as nothing to a curiosity of a steem-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 workfor in our kitchen there is a smokingjack to roast the meat, that gangs of its oun free will-and the brisker the fire, the faster it runs; but a potatoebeetle is not to be had within the four walls of London, which is a great want in a house; Mrs Argent never hard of sick a thing.

Me and the doctor have likewise been in the houses of parliament, and the doctor since has been again to heer the argolbargoling 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 fhroughgalaty 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 sick 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 impres

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sion on his auditors" It is impossible to judge correctly of strangers by mea suring 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. 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 Mally Glencairn observed, that it was a surprising thing how the doctor and Mrs Pringle managed their matters so well. "Aye," said Mrs Craig, "but we a' ken what a manager the mistress is-she's the bee that mak's the hiney-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 need nae 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 which she had received, on what the latter called "the incarnated effect of a more than Potipharian claught o' the godly Mr Craig."

66

The Rev. Dr Z. Pringle to Mr Micklewham, Schoolmaster and Session-Clerk, 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 I wonder at, considering he has such a kittle conscience, which, on less occaIsions, 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 go

vernment.

The baxter in whose shop we saw this, told us that her Majesty said, on being invited to take her dinner at an inns on the road from Dover, that she I would be content with a mutton-chop at the King's Arms in London,* which shews 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 occidental 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 won derful places, but it costs a power of money to go 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 eighteen-pence 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 sea-side, 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 may be 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 alms-giving, to shew 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 high-way or on the foot-paths, or beneath the hedges, I remain, dear Sir, your friend and pastor,

ZACHARIAH PRINGLE.

*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."

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"THE Doctor,' said Mrs Glibbans, as the schoolmaster concluded, 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, she has nothing to fear from them; for have we not read in the Book 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"- O ye're a spiteful deevil," whispered Miss Mally, with a smile to her; and turning in the same moment_to_Miss Isabella Todd, 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, Mr M'Gruel informs us he often suffered much. Indeed, says our worthy Kilwinning correspondent, when I saw him after that meeting, he said very earnestly, that he hoped he had committed no sin so bad as to require such an expiation, as to dree penance as the pastor for life of the parish of Garnock. And in this an early observation of Mrs Glibbans received some confirmation; for when she saw him first in the pulpit, she said to Miss Mally Glencairn, who was sitting beside her in the minister's pew, that she thought him overly genteel for a gospel-preacher. However, she was convinced to the contrary when she had heard him, and confessed" that a clergy might maintain the word of truth, though he preached with a fine style of language."

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Miss Rachel Pringle to Miss Isabella Todd.

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 shewing 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 set tled, 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 that 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 farther 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

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