148

At the Conqueror's side

There his minstrelsy sat harp in hand,
In pavilion wide;

And they chaunted the deeds of Roland.

Still the ramparted ground
With a vision my fancy inspires,
And I hear the trump sound,

As it marshall'd our Chivalry's sires.

On each turf of that mead

Stood the captors of England's domains,
That ennobled her breed,

And high-mettled the blood of her veins.

Over hauberk and helm

As the sun's setting splendour was thrown,

Thence they look'd o'er a realm-
And to-morrow beheld it their own.

THOMAS CAMPBELL.

AUTUMN: A DIRGE.

THE warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing,
The bare boughs are sighing, the pale flowers are dying,
And the year

On the earth her deathbed, in a shroud of leaves dead,

The chill rain is falling, the nipt worm is crawling,
The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling

For the year,

The blythe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone
To his dwelling;

Come, months, come away;

Put on white, black, and grey,

Let your light sisters play

Ye, follow the bier

Of the dead cold year,

And make her grave green with tear on tear.

SHBLLEY.

THE BATTLE OF GARSCUBE.*

Pluris est oculatus testis unus quam auriti decem.-PLAUTUS.

THE sun had not long poured down its enlivening beams upon the spires and streets of Glasgow, when the loud knock of Ritchie Falconer, the barber, made me start from the blankets, and throw myself into my calico dressing gown. In these halcyon days every nose in the western metropolis of Scotland, from the Lord Provost to Bell Geordie, was daily or hebdomadally in the hands of the barber.-Silver-tempered razors, almond shaving soap, and patent strops, were in the womb of futurity; and however urgent the necessity might be of then ridding one's self of what has since become so fashionable, a man would as soon have tried to amputate his own limb as have attempted to draw a razor athwart his own face. The friseurs of that period, although they could not boast of the elegant scratch-wigs which cover the phrenological developments of our modern perruquiers, had bumps upon their frontal sinuses which indicated something more than a mere acquaintanceship with bear's grease and honey-water. They were generally fellows of wit and observation, had got what was called a grammar-school education, and mindful of their former corporation connection with the men of the scalpel and lancet, conceived it becoming to sport as much of the Latin which Rector Barr had whipped into them, as could easily be squeezed into their morning colloquies. The fact is, a Glasgow Strap of last century, prated more of the virtues of Miltiades than those of Macassar, and ingratiated himself more by the raciness of his conversation, than by the starch of his cravat or the sabre cut of his whiskers. Besides all this, every thing that was transacted in the city was as well known to him, as it was to the prying and hawk-eyed editors-alas, now defunct-of the Journal and Mercury. He knew the peculiarities of every establishment, from the blue and white check CORK, (anglice small manufacturer) to the tobacco aristocrat, and was as intimately acquainted with the past removes at a bailie's dinner, as the projected changes at the city council board. In short, he was little less entertaining than the Spanish Asmodeus, and not less anxiously was he looked for by his morning customers in Glasgow, than was the little tell-tale devil by Don Cleophas Perez Zambullo, in Madrid.

But tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis. The use of the barber's basin seems almost a fiction. The perambulatory race of

From The Englishman's Magazine.'

Straps are extinct-the morning tale of the suds is no more, and but one or two Septuagenarians who still retain the cut and the curl of the last century, stalk about as the sad remembrancers of that eventful period.

"Good morning, Sir," said Ritchie, with a smiling countenance, as he opened my chamber-door, "had a good night's rest, I hope." "Pretty well," said I, throwing myself into my shaving chair. "Gaudeo te valere," added the barber, "as I always say to

professor N- when I'm gaun to curl his caput. But alas, there's naething steerin' in the college at the present time-they're a'awa, frae the weest to the biggest, takin their otium cum dignitate; even John M'Lachlan Bidellus, honest man, is awa to Gourock. He gaed aff yesterday in the fly-boat, and his wife, on account o' the high wind, is between the de'il and the deep sea o' anxiety, to hear o' his arrival."

"You must have then quite a sinecure, Falconer," muttered I, through the thick lather that encompassed my mouth.

"Sinecure," exclaimed Dick, "and the deacon's-chusing sae sune? I hae just been up wi' deacon Lawbroad, the tailor, wha threeps he maun be shaved sax times a week at this time, instead o' twice, and my certie it is nae sinecure to rase him. Od, his face taks mair time to clear than half a dozen-but nae won'er, suner or later the corporation galravages tell on a man's chin and mak it tender."

"But I thought the deacon had turned over a new leaf in the prospect of obtaining a magisterial chain."

“A chain! Oh tempora! oh mores!” cried the barber sneeringly, while he followed it with a whew-w-w-like that of my Uncle Toby, "set him up indeed! my sang, they'll be ill aff when they tak the tailor to the council (haumer. It does nae doe for would-be bailies to be drinking pap-in at the Black Boy till twa in the morning, and havering and clashing wi' Peggy Bauldy. Na, na, we maun hae doucer pows than the deacon's to bow in the wynd kirk frae the front o' the loft! Doctor Porteous, honest man, could na thole to see sae mony marks o' the speerit staring him in the face ilka Sunday! But weel-a-wat there's nae saying wha'll be bailies. Audaces fortuna juvat timidosque repellit."

Why, Ritchie," said I, "it would not at all astonish me to see you yourself following the town officers, ere many years, and wondered at as one of the wise men of the west."

* Before the invention of steam-boats, this was the only conveyance by water to the villages on the Frith of Clyde. The voyage to Gourock which in those times frequently extended to two days, is now performed regularly in little more than two hours.

"Why, Sir, at pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier hic est," said the barber, evidently delighted with the idea, "after that thouless, feckless, senseless, coof, Macsapless, ane needna lose a' heart. Well, but he's a fine han' for the provost ! I'm shure he'll vote through thick and thin wi' him, and boo like ony white-bannet at an unction. Od, the folk say he coft his cocked hat frae Miller and Ewing twa years since syne, and what is mair likely, he slept wi' his chain the first night after he got it. But what do ye think the twa-faced body muved in the council the ither day? naething less than what was proposed in Provost Cheek's time, him ye ken, wha lieved in the lan' just aboon the flesh market-naething less than that the city barbers shouldna be alloo'd to shave their customers on Sunday. Foul fa' the silly loon! Had he as muckle brains in his pow as powther on his shouthers, he micht hae seen the folly o' his hypocrisy. I really won'er the provost, wha is a sensible man, would listen to sic a yawmering hypocritical body. But this is only anither proof to me, that when the unco guid get into power, they're aye scadding their tongues in ither folk's kale. The bailie has lang sat under Mr Balfour, honest man, and the outer kirk folk, ye ken, a' think themselves muckle better than their neebours."

"And what are we to do on Sunday, Falconer? The council cannot lay an embargo on one's beard growing."

"Verbum sapienti!" replied Ritchie, taking me by the nose as the finishing touch of his razing operation. "The trade has agreed to cause their apprentices to parade the streets on that morning in white hose, and you have only to raise the window, haud up your wee finger, and, my sang! your chin will sune be as smooth as it is noo, Sunday though it be. Are decent Christian folks, do you think, to gang like Heathenish Jews at the nod o' a Glasgow trades bailie? Od, I ken a black-a-viced lad that maun be shaved twice a-day when he wants to be particular. Do ye think it is affording a praise and protection to those who'd do well' to keep men frae hearing the word on account o' a lang beard. But let the deacon sleep-Amoto quæramus seria ludo. I've something mair extraordinar to tell you, but in the meantime I must get the curling tongs heated before throwing a little moost (powder) into your hair."

On the barber's return with heated tongs, I immediately begged him to say what he had to communicate.

66

Od, Sir, it is no unco guid intelligence. Do ye ken there's an unco sough aboot rioting and rebellion?" said Dick in a canting and fishing tone of voice.

"Rioting and rebellion! Pooh, pooh. That must be all fudge. Meal is abundant and cheap at present, wages are high, and trade

is brisk; the Scottish convention has been dissolved, and the secret societies have given up their sittings, and the Friends of the People are united against the French and French revolutionary principles. But who are they that are to occasion the dread riot or revolution as you call it ?"

"I dinna ken," said Ritchie sarcastically, "whether it will be by the freens o' the people, or the foes of the king, but if it happens, it will be by a set o' folk that are no ower weel pleased wi' the government, and really I'm no muckle astonished at their displeasure. O'd there's no mony decent weel-doing men, that would like to be shot at against their will for a puir shilling a-day."

"Oh, I understand you," said I, "you have heard it hinted that there may be some further disturbances consequent on the extension of the militia act to Scotland."

"You have hit it," answered the barber. "Do you ken, as I was coming here this morning, I heerd a clashing and clavering maist as noisy as that in the washing house; something serious o' the kind is expected to happen in the neighbourhood."

"Why, Falconer, I am exceedingly sorry to hear any rumour of that kind, for, to tell you the truth, this militia measure is not at all popular, and what is worse, it has been deemed by many, altogether contrary to the strict letter of the articles of Union. On this ac

count it has been made a handle of by demagogues, and I am really alarmed lest the people, goaded on by such individuals, may commit some outrage by which they will ultimately become the unfortunate sufferers."

"Recte, Domine!" cried Ritchie, covering my head and face with powder. "They hae been egged on to do sae already, and what has been the upshot?-broken heads and cauld wames! Oh, it was a sair story that at Tranent. It was a black burning shame that sae mony innocent folk should be slain and slaughtered-God forbid sic like doin's here! I hope the folk will tak tent; and if decent lads maun leave their wives and bairns against their will, in defence o' their kintra, let the kintra pay them better, and look kindlier after their sma' families. Had the laddies hereaboots mair to say in the makin o' their laws than they hae, I jalouse they wouldna get sic scrimp justice. But vir sapit qui pauca loquitur, I'm maybe speaking treason, and ye ken I wouldna like to gang o'er the dib (sea) like Tam Muir and the like o' them. We maun keep oot o' the clutches o' auld Braxy as lang as we can. My sang! he's a gae little freen to foregather wi' onywhere, but I can tell you, I would rather meet wi' him in the heart of a change-house, than at the bar. But I maun be rinnin. Forget what I hae been yelping about politics, but dinna forget to haud up your wee finger on Sunday at the