tion, it had been made matter of very serious aggravation in the offence of a gentleman of rank, tried before the Court of Justiciary, that he had allowed his company to get drunk in his house before it was dark, even in the month of July. At that time, the only liquor was claret, and this they sent for just as they wanted ithuge pewter jugs, or, as they called them, stoups of claret, being just as commonly to be seen travelling the streets of Edinburgh in all directions then, as the mugs of Mieux and Barclay are in those of London now. Of course, I made allowance for the privilege of age; but I have no doubt there was abundance of good wit, and, what is better, good-humour among them, no less than of good claret. If I were to take the evening I spent in listening to its history, as a fair specimen of the " Auld Time," (and after all, why should I not?) I should almost be inclined to reverse the words of the Laureate, and to say,

"of all places, and all times of earth,

Did fate grant choice of time and place to men,
Wise choice might be their SCOTLAND, and their THEN.”

I assure you, however, that I returned to my hotel in no disposition to quarrel either with

time or place, or "any other creature"—a bottle of excellent wine under my belt, and my mind richly dieted with one of the true Noctes Canæque.

Ever your's,

P. M.

P. S. I had forgotten to mention, that both M— and his friend are staunch Tories; but I don't deny, that this might have some effect in increasing my love for them.

106

LETTER XI.

TO THE SAME.

I HEARD it mentioned at Mr M's, that a triennial dinner, in honour of Robert Burns, was about to take place; and thinking it would be a good opportunity for me to see a larger number of the Scots literati than I had yet met with collected together, I resolved, if possible, to make one of the party. I found, on enquiring, that in consequence of the vast multitude of persons who wished to be present, the original plan of the dinner had been necessarily departed from, and the company were to assemble, not in a tavern, for no tavern in Edinburgh could accommodate them, but in the Assembly-Rooms in George-Street. Even so, I was told, there was likely to be a deficiency rather than a superfluity of room; and, indeed, when I went to buy my ticket, I found no more remained to be sold. But I procured one afterwards through

Mr M; and W arriving from the country the same day, I went to the place in company with him. He is hand in glove with half of the stewards, and had no difficulty in getting himself smuggled in. I send you a copy of the Edinburgh Weekly Journal, which contains the best newspaper account of the affair I have met with, but shall proceed to favour you with a few of my own observations in addition.

Those who are accustomed to talk and think of the Scotch as a cold phlegmatic people, would have been convinced of their mistake by a single glance at the scene which met my eyes when I entered. I have never witnessed a more triumphant display of national enthusiasm, and had never expected to witness any display within many thousand degrees of it, under any thing less than the instantaneous impulse of some glorious victory. The room is a very large one, and I had already seen it lighted up in all the splendour of a ball; but neither its size nor its splendour had then made anything more than a very common-place impression on my mind. But now-what a sight was here! A hall of most majestic proportions-its walls, and hangings, and canopies of crimson, giving a magical richness of effect to the innumerable chan

deliers with which its high roof appeared to be starred and glowing-the air overhead alive with the breath of lutes and trumpets-below, the whole mighty area paved with human faces, (for the crowd was such that nothing of the tables could at first be seen,)-the highest, and the wisest, and the best of a nation assembled together and all for what?-to do honour to the memory of one low-born peasant. What a lofty tribute to the true nobility of Nature!What a glorious vindication of the born majesty of Genius!

With difficulty we procured seats at the lower extremity of the Hall, at the table where Captain A of the Navy presided as croupiera fine manly-looking fellow, with a world of cordial jollity in his face. W chose to sit at this table, as he afterwards told me, because, in the course of a long experience, he had found the fare of a public dinner uniformly much better in the immediate neighbourhood of the croupier or president; and indeed, whatever might be the case elsewhere, the fare where we sat was most excellent. We had turbot in perfection-a haunch of prime venison-the red-deer I believe -and every thing, in short, which could have been selected to make a private dinner delicious.