trampling under foot and devouring their guardian. The goatherd accompanies his mountain troop through the showery morn, or beneath the burning sun-the capricious herd following their natural instincts, and susceptible of little discipline, choose their own path, and leap from crag to crag, and roll in the dewy grass, or bask in the sun, according to their own sweet will.' Their guide, if such he can be called, is as active, as fantastic, as independent as themselves. In the Pyrenees he has often secret connection with the contrabandists, or engages as a guide to travellers through the defiles and over the summits of the misty mountains. At the close of 1823 there lived in the valley of Luchon a poor goatherd named Juan, the son of a soldier of the Empire, a lad of quick eye, supple limbs, and fearless heart. One evening while tending his goats, he heard the distant report of musket-shots proceeding from the Spanish territory. He ran to a rising ground, and perceived a guerilla party who had surprised a French detachment, and were mercilessly pursuing the scattered fugitives. The captain, closely pressed by two Spanish peasants, painfully climbed the rugged declivity. Juan drew his weapon, and barred the passage. Are you not a Frenchman?' said the amazed. That is not the question just now,' said Juan. render, or you are a dead man.' captain, Sur The captain was soon overtaken, and disarmed by the two Spaniards, who recognised Juan, having seen him often at the village of Venta, near the French frontier. 'Well done, my lad!' cried one. But for you this scoundrel would have escaped; you shall share the booty.' They immediately began plundering the prisoner, whose sword and portfolio were transferred to the goatherd. They prepared to kill their victim, when Juan interfered. Dead men are good for nothing,' said he. "It strikes me that if we took this fellow to the alcalde at Venta, we should get a good reward.' 'He is right,' replied one of the peasants. think you, Perez?' What Perez approved the proposition, and they commenced their march. At the end of a few minutes the little troop was enclosed in a long defile on the edge of a profound abyss. Juan, who knew every path on the mountain, advanced first, followed closely by the captain, the two Spaniards forming the rearguard. At the narrowest part of the route, the young goatherd, turning suddenly, repassed the prisoner, and pushed one of the Spaniards over the precipice. The second cocked his blunderbuss, but Juan seized him by the legs, and they both rolled together from rock to rock. In the fall, Juan seized the projecting limb of a tree, plunged his knife in the bosom of his adversary, and returned an instant after to complete the safety of the captain, whose deliverance he had accomplished with such unparalleled audacity. A LATE MEETING OF AGRICULTURISTS. We gather some interesting indications of the progress of agricultural improvement in England, from the account given of a meeting which lately took place at Drayton Manor. Among other speakers on the occasion, we observe that Mr Mechi, of Tiptree Hall, in Essex, took part in the proceedings. We remember visiting Tiptree Hall a few years ago, shortly after it had come into the possession of its new proprictor, and while everything was in a raw untried condition. The thick clumsy fences had just been removed; a marsh had been only in part dried up; and the drains could scarcely be said to be in full operation; all, in short, was 'in expectation.' On this account we have read Mr Mechi's account of his experiences with more than ordinary interest, and are glad to find that in amateur farming-his main business being in London-he has fully realised expectations. 'The result of his improvements at Tiptree,' he went on to say, 'had been to double the produce of his farm and of his labour. A portion of it was formerly a swamp, not producing 5s. per acre. He had been intreated this year, by a gardener in the neighbourhood, to let those four acres to him at an annual rental of L5 per acre. He had removed three and a half miles of unnecessary banks and fences. Taking the arable acreage of the United Kingdom, he thought they might safely dispense with 500,000 miles of unnecessary fencing, which, with its timber, displaced much food and labour. He considered the agriculture of this country in a very backward and unsatisfactory state compared with its manufactures. The agricultural mechanical appliances were rude, costly, and unprofitable. The farm buildings generally were bad, and uncentrically placed, causing a national loss of some millions; each ton of produce or manure costing an average carriage of 6d. per mile, renders the position of the buildings an important national consideration. Wagons were a most unphilosophical contrivance. It was quite clear that a long, light, low cart, on two wheels, having an area of capacity equal to a wagon, and only costing half as much, was a much more sensible and profitable mode of conveyance. The question was not now an open one, having been thoroughly discussed and decided upon at the London Farmers' Club; therefore the sooner the wagons were got rid of the better." After alluding to various points of farm management, he came to that on which it would almost be impossible to speak too strongly-the universal waste of manures. He considered the waste of the liquid portions of the manure in most farmyards a great national calamity. It was a great mistake ever to allow water to fall on manure. Water was a very heavy article. A thousand gallons weighed 10,000 lbs., and were expensive to cart. He had heard farmers say when rain was falling that they should then Straw and water, in litter their yards, and make manure! fact. He found in practice that animals did well on their own excrements and straw under cover; that they consolidated the mass until it was four feet thick, when it would cut out like a good dungheap, and be fit to carry on the land. But if rain water were allowed to wash this mass, an injurious effect resulted both to the animal and to the manure. He could not afford to allow his manure to be well washed in the yards by drainage from the buildings, and afterwards to be washed, dried, and mangled by putting it out in heaps and turning over. It was a waste of time and of money. He found that his crops grew better with unwashed manure. A farmyard should be like a railway terminus-covered in, but amply ventilated. There was comfort and profit in keeping everyand tanks: the liquid portions of the excrements being thing dry. It did away with the necessity for water-carts just sufficient to moisten the straw and burnt earth, or other absorbent material. He admired, and practised to a certain extent, the Rev. Mr Huxtable's system of placing animals on boards, and concluded with the observation that good high farming was by far the most profitable; and that the starvation principle was a losing game. If we borrowed from the earth, we must repay, or we should soon find an empty exchequer.' The plan of keeping animals on boards above alluded to is next described by the Rev. Mr Huxtable. From a want of a sufficient supply of straw from my farm,' said he, I determined to place my milch and store cattle on boards, as wood is an excellent non-conductor; and after a series of devices, I have succeeded in making them tolerably comfortable, so that I am now no longer dependent on my limited in the number of animals which straw for the quantity of cattle which I keep. I am only keep by the amount of green food grown. In like manner, but with a variation of arrangement, the sheep were placed on small boards about three and a half inches wide, with an interval of about seven-eighths of an inch between each, to permit the manure to fall freely into properly-prepared tanks behave made. Of 1000 sheep so placed, I have never had one low. This is by far the most successful provision which I lame. The pigs, in like manner, when fattened, sleep on a boarded stage above their feeding place, and except in very cold weather, require no straw for litter. Thus I have dis pensed with a large expenditure of straw, which my cereals (half the farm) could not sufficiently provide. But I hear some one exclaim, "What do you make of your straw?" First of all, a good deal is still required for bedding the horses, and the young stock which are in loose boxes; and as they never tread the green fields, they require a great quantity of white bedding. Secondly, a great deal is wanted for food, being mixed with the green leaves of the root crop and the mashed turnips. Thirdly, a ton per acre is used in making clover and vetches into imperfectly dried hay, with a due admixture of salt to arrest fermentation. These uses fully take up all the straw which I grow. I think the methods employed in preparing the manure from the "boarded " cattle deserve mention. First the liquid manure flows into large tanks; below them is another, which I call the mixing tank, for in it the manure is diluted with water to any degree which the state of the weather may require-the rule being that, in proportion to the increase of temperature, must be the increase of dilution; that is, the hotter the weather, the weaker should be the manure applied. In order to avoid the expensive and often injurious water-cart, I have laid down over the highest part of my farm a main of green elm pipe, of two inches diameter, bored in the solid wood; at every hundred yards' distance is an upright post, bored in the same manner, with a nozle. A forcing-pump, fixed at the mixing tank, discharges along these pipes, buried two feet in the ground, the fluid with a pressure of forty feet; of course it rushes up these pierced columns, and will discharge itself with great velocity through the nozle; to this I attach first of all forty yards of hose, and therewith water all the grass which it can reach. To the end of this hose another forty yards of hose is attached, and a still larger portion of the surface is irrigated, and so on for as many forty yards as are required. When enough has been irrigated at the first upright, the nozle is plugged, and the fluid is discharged at the next hundred yards' distanced column, and so on. For this application of the hose, I am entirely indebted to that most able man, Mr Edwin Chadwick: the green elm pipe is my own contrivance. The cost of the prepared canvas hose, which was obtained from Mr Holland of Manchester, was ls. a yard; the wooden pipes cost me only 1s., and being underground, they will be most enduring. By an outlay of L.30, I can thus irrigate forty acres of land; and see how inexpensive, compared with the use of the water-cart and horse, is the application! A lad of fifteen works the forcing-pump; the attaching the hose and its management require a man and a boy. With these, then, equivalent to two men, I can easily water two acres a day, at the rate of forty hogsheads per acre of the best manure in the world; I say best, because all chemists will assure you that the liquid contains the principal nitrogenous and soluble salts, and therefore is far more valuable than the dung; and it is plain enough to every man, though he be no chemist, that plants can only take up the manure in a liquid form. The principal use which I make of the hose is to water the clover, and, above all, the noble, but much-decried Italian ryegrass, which comes the earliest, and grows the longest, of all the grasses; and I feel confident that, with such appliances as I have mentioned, you may secure fifty tons per annum of this milk-giving, fat-producing, muscle-making grass.' it prudent to quit Taranto quietly, and, crossing the Iapygian peninsula, try their chance at Brindisi on the Adriatic coast, where they might meet with a passage for Trieste. After walking on foot through part of the country, they stopped for the night at the village of Monteasi, where they asked for lodging at the house of an old woman. There was a rumour afloat at the time that the king's eldest son, the hereditary prince, was concealed somewhere in the country. One of the Corsicans, it appears, either as a joke, or in order to insure better treatment, hinted to their hostess that the prince was one of their party. The appearance of the strangers, and their language, were different from what those villagers had been in the habit of seeing and hearing. The old woman ran to one of her relations, a substantial farmer in the place, named Girunda, and told him the news. The latter came immediately to pay his homage to his royal highness, and was directed to one of the youngest of the party, who was thought to bear some resemblance to the royal family. Girunda knelt before him, and offered all he had, and all he could dispose of. He then withdrew for the night. Being left to themselves, the Corsicans, and especially he who had been thus, without his consent, proclaimed a prince, began to reflect seriously on the probable consequences of this freak. French detachments were known to be approaching in that direction. Our party, therefore, thought prudent to make their escape in the night, and pursue their way towards Brindisi. The old woman, as soon as she missed them in the morning, went to inform Girunda, who, mounting his horse, followed by some of his men, went to seek after the fugitive prince, giving at the same time the alarm to the country around. The news spread like wildfire; the population ran to arms-the village bells were ringing. The king for ever! Down with the republic!' was shouted from a thousand mouths. At last the Corsicans were overtaken at the village of Mesagna, not far from Brindisi ; they would fain have undeceived the people, but they perceived it was now too late. The pseudo-prince was obliged to assume his new honours with the best face he could. He praised the loyalty of the people, gave directions to the local authorities to introduce some regularity into their tumultuary movements, especially if they intended to oppose a successful resistance to the French; and then, as a measure of security, he removed his head-quarters to the castle of Brindisi, where, reflecting on the dangerous predicament on which he stood, having against his will usurped a title for which he would be called to account, yet judging that the insurrection thus raised might be of service to the king, he bethought himself of the expedient of proceeding himself to Sicily to give the first information of the event. He told the people that he had positive orders from his royal father to repair to him; that he would soon return with reinforcements; and meantime he would leave them two of his companions as his lieutenants, to organise the defence of the province. He did so, and was reluctantly allowed by the natives to sail. Having proceeded to Palermo, he stated candidly to the king and queen all that had happened, and he had the satisfaction of having his conduct approved of, and a pension allotted to him, which he continued ever after to enjoy. He afterwards held a commission in a foreign corps in the British service. I met him many years after at Naples, where he had taken up his residence A SINGULAR adventure, which exhibits the charac- since the peace, and he confirmed all the circumstances ter of the people in the remote parts of the king- of this singular story. He must have been a very dom in a strong light, occurred in another district of young man at the time he extricated himself with so Puglia. A few Corsican emigrants, who had left their much judgment from the difficult position in which he island when the French occupied it, and had taken was placed. The two lieutenants he left behind with refuge in the kingdom of Naples, happened to be, in Girunda proceeded to arm the peasantry; they roused the early part of February 1799, in the town of Ta- the whole province of Otranto and that of Bari, and ranto, whence they intended to sail for Sicily. But the thus established the insurrection in Puglia. They were, wind being contrary, they found themselves detained however, defeated by the French at Casamassima, when until messengers from the republican government estab- one of the leaders was taken prisoner; but the other, lished at Naples reached the place. The town acknow- named De Cesare, escaped into Basilicata, where he ledged the new authorities. The Corsicans then thought | joined the Calabrian insurrection, led by Cardinal Ruffo. The narration of these experiments demonstrates, we hope, a growing intelligence in England on the subject of agriculture; and it will be read everywhere with satisfac tion. THE PRINCE IN SPITE OF HIMSELF. [We extract the following from a little volume called 'Popular Tumults,' which appears to be a reprint, although not acknowledged as such, of a work with the same title published by Mr Knight in 1838.] CHAMBERS'S EDINBURGH JOURNAL. FACTS FOR THE CURIOUS. THE suspension - bridge over the Danube at Pesth, designed by Mr Tierney Clark, and now nearly completed, is 1200 feet long, in three spans; the centre span being 600 feet, the side spans 300 feet each. The chains were made in England; the granite for the piers was brought in immense blocks, some of them from twelve to sixteen tons weight cach, from Linz, in Upper Austria. The contractor for the cofferdams, &c. was an Englishman, as were the principal workmen, and all the machinery has been supplied from this country. The total cost of the erection, according to the Builder' newspaper, will be about L.600,000 sterling. Paris newspapers announce the discovery of a vein of platinum in the metamorphic district of the valley of the Drac, department of Isère, which is expected to be worked with advantage. Hitherto this precious metal, which combines with incomparable hardness the lustre of gold and silver, has only been met with in the Ural Mountains, and its scarcity has always rendered the price very exorbi tant. In August of the present year, the south-east coast of England, from Margate to Brighton, was visited by one of the most numerous flights of insects on record. They consisted,' says one observer, of at least five species of lady-bird (coccinella), and they came in such dense numbers, as for miles along the coast to resemble a swarm of bees during living. The sea destroyed countless myriads of them; the grass and hedgerows, and every crevice that afforded shelter from the wind, were coloured with their numbers; and for many miles it was impossible to walk without crushing hundreds beneath the tread. The insects evidently came from the east, from the direction of Calais and Ostend.' Another observer, in order to give some idea of the extent and quantity of these little visitors, mentions that five bushels were swept from the Margate pier, and nearly the same from that of Ramsgate harbour. M. Fleurian de Bellvue states, as the results of his observations and inquiries on the effects arising from stagnant water, that in marsh lands which are covered with water to a considerable depth during the great heats of summer, the inhabitants of the localitics in which they exist are not more unhealthy than in other localities; but that where the stagnant water is of slight depth, the decomposition is attended with frightful consequences, and the mortality is great. Drainage either to dry the lands effectually, or to concentrate the surface water into one common reservoir of considerable depth, are the preventive means recommended. In his Voyage to the Southern Seas,' Sir James Ross states that while in latitude 15° 3' S. and longitude 23° 14 W., he tried for, but did not obtain, soundings with a line of 4600 fathoms, or 27,600 feet. This is the greatest depth of the ocean that has yet been satisfactorily ascertained, but there is reason to believe that in many parts it is still deeper. The depth of the ocean, as contrasted with the height of mountains-the highest of which do not exceed 28,000 feet-is a desideratum in terrestrial physics of great interest and importance. In There is no reason,' says a writer in the Athenæum, 'for our eating one or two of the numberless edible funguses-mushrooms, truffles, &c.—which our island produces, and condemning all the rest as worse than useless, under the name of "toad-stools." It is not so on the continent of Europe, where very generally the various species of fungi are esteemed agreeable and important articles of diet. The great drawback on the use of these esculents in this country is, that some are poisonous, and few persons possess the skill to distinguish them-with the exception of one or two species-from those which are edible. the markets at Rome there is an "inspector of funguses" versed in botany, and whose duty it is to examine and report on all such plants exposed for sale. The safety with which these vegetables may be eaten has led to a very large consumption in that city, where not less than 140,000 lbs., worth L.4000 sterling, are annually made use of. This in a population of 156,000! We cannot estimate the value of funguses in our own country for an article of diet as less than in Italy, nor believe that the supply would be in a less ratio. If this be correct, the value of the funguses which are allowed to spring up and die, wasted in Great Britain, would be about half a million sterling in each year.' Admitting our culpable neglect of the mushroom THE DREDGING SONG. BY ROBERT GILFILLAN. from the beach, on those fine autumnal mornings, to the song of Scotsman. HURRAH! for the oyster-dredging song, Ye pilgrims of the deep; The autumn winds are fresh and strong, The ocean wanderers court the gale When the sickle glances bright; But not like the joys the waters yield, And we launch our bark-be it light or dark- GOVERNING PRINCIPLES OF RELIGION. is a great part of religion-my duty towards God, and my CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE. To this series of elementary treatises the Editors have now added a set of Twelve prepared Copy-Books, written and constructed by of which will be issued on Saturday next, and the remainder in a Mr William Dickson, writing-master in Edinburgh; the first six imitation by the pupil; while on the covers such directions are few weeks hence. At the head of each page a line is printed for given as will enable the private student, in the absence of a master, to perfect himself in that most necessary branch of education, the art of Penmanship. In the preparation of the lines, care has been taken to avoid every refinement of engraving inconsistent with prac tical writing; and neither, as is sometimes the case, are difficulties as to junctions and combinations associated with the early and structed on a plan which, it is hoped, will insure progressive and more simple exercises. The whole set of Books, in short, is consatisfactory improvement. The series embraces Plain, Current, and Ladies' Hand, also Ornamental Writing. tional Course, may be procured from any bookseller. Also Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, High Street, Edinburgh. EDINBURGH JOURNAL CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF 'CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE,' 'CHAMBERS'S EDUCATIONAL COURSE,' &c. No. 203. NEW SERIES. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1847. A DAY IN YARROW. 'I HOPE the weather will hold up-it looks a little gloomy; and if the rain should come down on the open calash' 'Don't speak of it. The glass is rising in a very determined-looking way. As for these clouds-pooh! we have always plenty of them sailing about the sky; they are as good as a parasol, and we should feel uncomfortably hot in Scotland without them. Ah, there they go, floating along the heavens, breaking into fantastic groups, and thinning off beautifully to the east. Keep your mind easy: there will be no rain-not a drop.' It is not difficult to persuade a party going on a pleasure trip that they are to have surprisingly fine weather. My complimentary observations on Scotch clouds were therefore considered quite satisfactory by the English members of the expedition: and so off we set from Edinburgh, a happy little band of tourists. The horses bounded on their way, as if anxious, like everybody else, to get out of town. We soon left Braid Hills and the Pentlands behind; and the blue mountains of the south rose in tumultuary masses on the horizon. Proud as a Scotsman is of his clouds, with their occasionally glowing and varied tints, he could at times be persuaded to give away a few of them, or to take blue sky in exchange; but nothing could induce him to part with a single hill, glen, loch, river, or burnie. Nature has given him all these to keep and love, and he has loved them so strongly, that for generations without number he has fought for them, and sung songs about them, and they have been to him things which he is never tired of visiting and expatiating upon. Some districts of Scotland, however, are more beloved than others. Hills, and valleys, and streams are not in themselves objects of veneration: that which imparts to them unspeakable charms, is an association with the moving events of history, with the lives of distinguished men, with circumstances over which poetry has bewitchingly thrown her mantle. The district which commands a large share of this enshrined reverence is a tract comprehending the vales of Tweed and Yarrow-the classic ground of Scotland, as one may call it a scene of natural beauties-a spot where much of the simplicity of ancient manners still exists, along with the thriving industry of modern innovation-the country of 'Green hills and waters bluc, Gray plaids and tarry woo.' Tourists and travellers, ye are not wise to rush past this pleasing bit of auld Caledonia! Edinburgh for fine houses, the Hielands for grand scenery, but if you have a soul for the poetic and classic, take a range through PRICE 1d. the land of Scott and Hogg-loiter among the hills, and vales, and by the water sides of Peebles, Selkirk, and Roxburgh shires. Thither we are now bound. We are going to my own dear river the Tweed. At the very starting from Edinburgh-face straight south-we traverse scenes rich in historical association -the heights of Braid, on which James IV. marshalled his forces, the flower of Scotland, before setting out for Flodden-the plains of Roslin, where the heroes in 'ye times of old' rolled back the tide of English invasion. Now clothed in the rich abundance of autumn, these plains are succeeded by the high grounds which bound the vale of the Lothians; and then do we enter on the pastoral region, which spreads away in successive ranges of round swelling hills to the Borders. Leaving the land of coal-pits, limekilns, and highly-cultured fields, we drop down upon a scene of Arcadian sweetness, in the midst of which we come to the pretty little town of Peebles, embowered among wood-clad heights; and there, flowing by its side, we catch the first glance of the pure and sparkling Tweed. It may be partiality; but somehow we have never seen any stream at home or abroad half so 'bonny' as this river. For one thing, the Tweed is left what nature made it. Its waters are never drumly.' From top to bottom it runs over its original and appropriate bed of rounded pebbles—some of them white candies,' which you can see as clearly at a depth of a dozen feet as if they lay scattered around you. Then the banks are all grassy. Green herbage, and wee white gowans, and heather-bells, and 'siller saughs wi' downy buds' adorn its margin. At one place we have a haugh, on which cattle are seen luxuriantly ruminating; next we have clumps of trees-a policy amidst which stands a modern mansion; and last of all, at a great many turnings, we come upon the spectral gray ruin of an old Border keep, whose walls, harder than the rock on which they are perched, bid defiance alike to time and tempest. What volumes of stories could be told about these curious old castles! One of them, Neid path Castle, is associated with my remembrance from the days of infancy. There, just a mile above Peebles, on a precipitous knoll overhanging the river, it stands as I used to see it forty years ago— mirrored, with its bartizan and wallflowers, on the surface of the waters-unchangeable. Generation after generation for ages has looked on that gaunt apparition: all are gone, and yet it remains; and who can doubt that it will remain when we and many generations after us are swept into eternity? Flesh and blood, what poor weak things ye are! With all your craft and pretensions, stone and lime keep the stage long after you have disappeared! And no wonder. The walls of Neidpath are twelve feet thick; and one shudders as he is conducted through the dungeons, impenetrable to the light of day, albeit the keeper, in her good-humoured Doric, reminds you that there is now nothing in the world to fear. By way, however, of letting her visitors know what sort of social economy used to prevail langsyne-expecting of course that we should all be very thankful that we did not live five hundred years ago--she relates the tragedy of a poor man having been confined in one of the cells till he died of hunger: ' and there,' she adds, pointing to a stone, was the puir gangrel body found wi' his fingers half eaten offaih, it was an awfu' like thing!' Quite true, my good woman-a very 'awfu' like thing:' we are well rid of 'auld langsyne.' 6 hill stands a lowly thatched 'bigging,' exactly the sort of cot that turned out a Buchanan and a Burns, and, we will be bound to say, inhabited by a decent, Godfearing family. Crossing the Tweed by a bridge at Innerleithen, we are close upon Traquair, but turning to the left, we in the meanwhile pursue our way down the right bank of the river to Elibank-an old castle and a modern mansion. Traditional legends, the subjects of ballads, here also. But these were not our aim. We came by invitation to have a ramble down to Ashiestiel and ail 'thereaway,' with the promise to boot, if we had a Below Peebles, the valley of the Tweed is adorned mind, of peeping into a grouse pie. Such a day! Scene with many thriving plantations, and assumes the soft--the sun shining gaily overhead-brown heathy hills ness of an Italian landscape. Here also the mansions all around-a party from whom bursts of merriment of the lairds' improve in general character, giving go sounding down the valley-and at intervals, if you token of a substantial resident proprietary. While chose to listen, the gush of the Tweed heard from driving on our way through this sylvan district, let us amongst the greenwood. A mile or two below Elirecall an anecdote of a family whose residence is in the bank, we arrive at the mansion of Ashiestiel, where neighbourhood. Scott spent some of the happiest years of his life, and wrote some of his most pleasing poems. Situated what was formerly a part of Ettrick Forest, and still popularly known by that name, though scarcely a vestige of the old timber remains, the poet's descriptions convey a vivid picture of the spot: One fine summer day-two hundred years ago-as Murray, the laird of Blackbarony, was strolling down the brae from his house, he saw the laird of Hayston, mounted on a white pony, approaching as if with the intention of visiting his mansion. After the usual greetings, Murray asked Hayston if that was his intention. 'Deed it's just that,' quoth Hayston; and I'll tell you my errand. I am gaun to court your daughter Jean.' At any other time Murray would have had no objection to the visit; but at present, he had his own reasons for declining the honour-the truth being, that Jean's only pair of shoes were at the mending. He accordingly gave the thing the go-by, by saying that his daughter was too young for the laird. 'E'en's you like,' said Hayston, who was somewhat dorty, and thereupon took an unceremonious leave of Blackbarony, hinting that his visit perhaps would be more acceptable somewhere else. Black barony went home, and immediately told his wife what had passed. Her ladyship, on a moment's reflection, seeing the advantage that was thus likely to be lost in the establishment of her daughter," and to whom the disparity of years was no objection, immediately exclaimed, Are ye daft, laird? Gang awa' immediately, and call Hayston back again.' On this the laird observed, 'Ye ken, my dear, Jean's shoon are at the mending.' 'Hoot awa, sic nonsense,' says her ladyship; 'I'll lend her mine.' 'And what'll ye do yoursel'?' 'Do,' says the considerate dame; 'I'll put on your boots. I've lang petticoats, and they'll never be noticed. Rin and cry back the laird.' Blackbarony was at once convinced by the reasoning and ingenuity of his wife; and as Hayston's pony was none of the fleetest, Blackbarony had little difficulty in overtaking him, and persuading him to turn again, the laird having really conceived an affection for his neighbour's daughter. The visit was paid; Jean was introduced in her mother's shoes; the boots were never noticed; and the wedding took place in due time, and was celebrated with all the mirth and jollity usually displayed on such occasions. The union turned out happily, and from it are sprung and lineally descended the family of Hayston. Such is an old-world story of Tweedside. At six miles below Peebles we arrive at Innerleithen -the St Ronan's, as it is alleged, of Scott; here the soft and more charming scenery ceases, and then comes a tract, all about Elibank, brown and pastoral: sheep dotting the hills-little tributary glens, solitary and seemingly out of the world, yet not disconnected altogether with human weal and wo; for in a bend of the 'The scenes are desert now, and bare, 'Scarce can the Tweed his passage find;' 'Capital stooks these-what a harvest there will be this year! Let us have a look at what is going on." And just as the carriage stops, the master of the reapers heaves in sight. of 'As I'm a living man that's my old friend, the farmer Here he comes.' 'No possible!' cries the farmer, as he approaches, surprised with the spectacle of a parcel of Edinburgh acquaintances in the Forest. 'Quite possible; here we are on our way to Tibby Shiels's for the night. How far, ken ye, is it to Tibby's?' |