The ale, which now, in spite of " Bessy's grumbling," and protesting again and again that there was not anither drap in the house, if their "hair war like a gowan,"*—the ale, which had now begun to flow more freely,wrought wonders.

"Kings may be great, but they were glorious,

O'er a' the ills o' life victorious."

In a word, they were, in the course of the evening, (under the management of John Barleycorn,) as well acquainted with each other, and upon as familiar terms, as if, like Burns's drouthy cronies,

“They had been fou for weeks thegither." And upon taking his departure next morning, the stranger insisted upon a visit from his kind-hearted and hospitable landlord, at his house in Falkland, where, under the name of "The Gudeman of Ballengeoch," he was, as he alleged, sufficiently well known. The visit, in the course of a few days, was paid-and the courtiers, being apprized of the jest, had the miller introduced, very much to his astonishment and confusion, into the king's presence. Here he was banquetted and feasted for some days in a most princely manner, and dismissed at last with the alternative of the 8th part or the 4th of the lands of Bally-Mill, at his option. Having consulted his wife on this intricate subject, he was admonished that no man in his senses could possibly hesitate respecting the relative value of 8 and 4. "And the 'eighth part' remains in the possession of the person who passed us," concluded my Informer, " to this hour."

We had, by the time that this anecdote was completed, come so far round in front of the Lomond hills, which now lay directly south of us, as to open them up in a beautiful and most sublime style. "Like two young roes that are twins," they rose before us in all the freshness of a recent, yet in all the permanent stability of an eternal existence. I have seen many

mountains which overpowered the mind more with bulk, and height, and compass-but none which presented a smoother and a more distinct outline, and which cut out, in the clear blue heaven above, a more bold and graceful curvature. I can never restrain my feelings when I am under the influence of mountain scenery-it comes over my soul with the power and the swell of music. So, lifting myself up from the saddle, and cutting right and left with a switch I had in my hand, to the no small alarm of my companion, and bodily apprehension of my poney, I burst out into these, or similar exclamations:-"Here is the pathway of chivalry-a field worthy of kings. On that mountain's brow I still see the shades of royaltythe deer is starting from his covert, and his branchy horns are figuring amidst the stillness and fragrance of the morning air. But the royal trumpet has sounded-and a thousand bugles have awakened at the call-and the steed, and the rider, and the hound, and the echoes are away-and from the banks of Lochleven, to the tides of the German Ocean, all is one wide display of speed, and glitter, and princely bravery, and courtly confusionand the gallantry of ladyhood is abroad-the pride and the boast of a Scottish court are darting their flaming radiance from glen to steep, and from steep to glen. The falcon,† too, is on the wing-and now hangs like a spot in the bosom of the cloud-and now stoops it suddenly, with the speed and the fatality of lightning. But the scene has shifted, and the noontide heats are come on-and, clustering in upon that plain, are arranged on the green grass sod, without the ceremony of heralding King and courtier, lord and lady fair'-whilst the fat deer is seething in the oak-suspended cauldron, and the jest is seasoned with laughter, and the laugh is unhampered by courtly ceremony-and the First Stuart of the land' has seated the fairest daughter of proud Loraine by his side-and the eye is bright, and

Hence Falkland-quasi Falconland!

6

friend.

the cheek is glowing-and the heart of a whole court is beating wild and high to the tune of health and glee and festivity." "Tumterara-tarrara-tumtee," interrupted my less mercurial "Has the man lost his senses? Who ever heard of such a rhodomontade of blaflummery and stilted nonsense? Why, man, that stuff' might do for M'Pherson's Ossian, or Blackwood's Magazine." The very mention, my dear sir, of your far-noted Magazine, acted like a charm in bringing me to myself again; and from that moment to this, I have never lost hope of seeing my friend's prophecy realized.

After a considerably protracted silence, we came up close to the very breast, as it were, and under the brow of the mountain, and I could perceive, much to my mortification, that there were other wrinkles than those of time observable upon its front. There was something so incongruous betwixt the great expression of nature, combined with the moral sublimity of association, by which I had so lately been transported, and dikes, and ditches, and irregular inclosures, and partially cultivated patches, and all the littleness, and all the contamination of private and plebeian appropriation, the characters of which I read but too distinctly up to the very mountain-top-that my spirits sunk as much below par, as they had lately risen above it, and I meditated, with a mixture of indignation and regret, on the sacrilege I had witnessed. "That summit," said I at length to my companion, "was wont, but a few years ago, to suggest no notion, nor recollection, but that of the power which originally created it, or the mightiness and pride of our national story, with which it was so eminently and closely associated. But now-fy upon it Oh, fy!-There is "Tailor Lapboard's" park, and this is "Suter Elson's" field, and that is "Bailie Bluster's" portion; here, at this stone, terminates the division of "Christy Codgut," the fishwife; and that unseemly patch which disfigures the very summit, at once suggests the idea of "sowen-mugs and

leather aprons."-Fy on't-Oh fythe mountain smells already of the loom and the workshop; let us pass quickly on." "Loom here, or loom there," replied my friend," who seemed now to regard me as if he were seriously concerned about my intellects, "the division of these Lomonds was no easy job. I was myself present at several meetings, where Sir William Rae, and Sheriff Jameson, had no little difficulty, and exhibited great prudence, and skill, and impartiality, in adjusting the various claims; and it is my humble opinion, that there is more good sense in one rood of well-cultivated land, than in a thousand acres of waste royalty; and, however disrespectfully you may speak of tailors, and shoemakers, and bailies, and weavers, and so forth, they are fully as useful in their day and generation, and not a great deal less ornamental, than idle grooms and blackguard courtiers, persecuting kings, and assassinating nobles. You have but to cast your eye a little to the westward of the road upon which we are now entering, to see a verification of all this, for there lies before you the Cameronian village of Fruchy, which once lent a night's lodgings to those unhappy men whom the oppression of“ a Stuart race” had driven like cattle from their homes and their families, and whom, under the whip, and in terror of the thumbikens, a royal escort were conducting to endure death, or worse than death, in the dark and airless dungeon of Dunotter Castle.* And if you will only put yourself to the trouble to direct your eye a little in advance, you will mark, over the tiled and thatched roofs which intervene, and composing as it were a part of that royal palace we are now fast approaching, the parapet and turrets of a fortress, which is stained by one of those deeds of horror, which rose in barbarous atrocity above the genius, and character even of the age in which it was perpetrated." Having, notwithstanding a slight degree of inclination to retaliate upon this somewhat cutting and uncourtly address, allowed my curio sity to hear the story to which he al

luded to overcome my resentment, my friend proceeded thus:

"There," said he, "stood, and in fact still stands, the ancient castle, or mar, of the Macduffs, Earls and Thanes of Fife, who were once powerful enough to dispute authority and dominion here with majesty itself. This castle was afterwards forfeited to James the First, by an act of attainder against Macduff, and now composes part of the Palace which we are about to visit. About the beginning of the fifteenth century, this castle was committed to the keep ing of King Robert's brother, the ambitious and most barbarously inhuman Duke of Albany, who, having prevailed upon his brother the king to commit his son and heir to the kingdom, the young, and somewhat licentious David Duke of Rothsay, to his protection, shut up the young Prince in a dungeon of this castle, and, with a view to his father's succession, actually starved him to death. The story is one which is enough to bring tears from the most rocky heart, and while it fixes au indelible stain-I had almost said upon Nobility itself-it sheds a lustre over the very peasantry, and these very burgesses you were but lately disparaging, which no title, or rank, or worldly grandeur, could ever confer.

"A poor woman, the wife, as is reported, of a Burgess of Falkland, having chanced, in passing by, to hear the groans and the miserable wailings of the unfortunate Captive, advanced, at the risk of her life, to a small chink, or loop-hole, in the wall, and there learning the helpless and perishing condition of the starving and totally deserted Inmate, she ventured to slip through to him, from night to night, "cakes" made exceedingly thin on purpose, conveying, at the same time, to his perished and famished palate, through a reed, or piece of hemlock, the warm and reviving stream which proceeded directly from her own breast.* But the device was at last found out,

and in all probability to the destruction of this humane and most undaunted woman, as well as most assuredly to the lingering and revolting death of the now altogether supportless captive. Imagination recoils with loathing and shuddering from such deeds of darkness as this, and rests with delight and rapture on the kindly refreshment which the strong contrast, presented by the woman's conduct, affords."-"If I knew," added I," a single Brat in Falkland, the most ragged and vice-worn even, which tumbles a stone from that Palace roof, or shivers a window in that parish school-house,-if I knew any thing at all in the shape of humanity which owned this woman for Ancestor, I would adopt him as my son: he should eat of my bread, and drink of my cup, and lie in my bosom; and I would be unto him as a father."""Away, and away; you again run with the harrows at your heels, my good friend," rejoins my more cool and considerate monitor; "I am afraid your benevolence will have no opportunity of being exercised in this case, unless it instruct you to estimate the lower orders of society more highly than in your Lomond rhapsody you were lately disposed to do."

Having now come up to the very front of the Castle which looks down upon the town, towards the south, we put up our horses with Mrs Scott, ordered a beef-steak for dinner, and set out incontinently upon our investigation of the Palace and adjoining ruins.

Upon entering through the boldly arched and truly royal gate-way, which conducts into the interior of the square, two sides of which are still pretty entire, we found ourselves in the presence of a Character well known in Falkland, distinguished not less by the antiquity of the family from which he is descended, and of which he is the last and only remaining branch, than by a most devoted and unequivocal attachment to Mrs Scott's chimney-cheek and whisky bottle.

VOL. X.

I

After a sufficient period of morning libations, he had just escaped from his favourite retreat, and was in the act, I nothing doubt, of reckoning kin and counting lineage with a full score of rather suspicious-looking faces, which were eying him in various stages of derangement, and mutilation, and decay, from the east and from the south walls. We were not long, under the management of my guide, in making him recognize our object, and in directing his antiquarian lore upon our ignorance." You must know then," said he, taking me by the arm, and conducting us to the farther extremity of the western division; "you must know, sed nil nisi bonum de mortuis;' you inust understand that there were in former times only three great families in Europe, sed nil nisi bonum de mortuis, the house of Bourbon-the house of Stuart-and the house of Dm. The house of Bourbon was distinguished by many great princes, and mighty kings; the house of Stuart, *sed nil nisi bonum demortuis, built and inhabited this very palace before you; and the house of Dm, after four or five hundred years of distinguished effort, has at last produced me."* This was something like entering upon the Trojan war at the Egg,' so we took the liberty of endeavouring to restrict his somewhat discursive and antique remarks to the objects immediately be fore us; in consequence of which we were apprised of the conflagration of the east wing of the Palace, in Charles II.'s time; of the residences of the Dukes of Athol, and Earls of Fife; of the devastations and sacrilege commit ted by Cromwell's soldiery; and of the more recent aggressions upon these venerable and still imposing Ruins, by the neighbours and town's people, who had long regarded them as a publie quarry, or common good. "Even now," continued our man of family and extensive latinity,' "even now that I am pointing out to you the chambers where Dukes resided, and Kings sat in judgment, these vile low-born wretches are preparing, I verily believe, to overturn the wall by which these ruins have of late been enclosed; and to assert, by main force, and without law or leave,' what they conceive to be their imnemorial privilege of devastation."

Scarcely had our Informer pronounced these words, when our ears were saluted with the distant sound of a drum, which seemed to beat furiously, and at every flourish gave rise, and lifting up, to a most dismal yell of human-and scarcely human voices. "Let us retire up this stair-way," said our' nil nisi honum' Conductor, " to the battlements, and there we shall be safe, and in a situation to observe their proceedings." So, in a few seconds, we were safely seated on the western Turret, far and happily removed above the tumult and turmoil which was now accuinulating beneath-And turmoil and tumult of the most decided character were now exhibited. Wives were running into the streets with children in their arms; artizans were collecting, armed with the implements of their profession; and dykers and ditchers were driving in from all quarters, towards the centre of general rendezvous, making, all the while, a most furious demonstration of tongue and gesticulation. The tide of gathering and of bustle became every instant more strong and overpowering, till, collecting all its strength and weight into one mighty swell of assault, it burst through the great gate-way of the Palace, and spread out in various fragments of confusion and uproar, in the very court-yard which we had so lately and so fortunately deserted. The drum at last, whether from the voluntary cessation of him who had so powerfully belaboured it, or from the giving way of the parchment, it was not easy to determine, was silent; and, elevated upon a fragment of the parapet wall, with a pick in one hand, the other being extended in the attitude of impetuous and impassioned address,

an Orator," apparently of no common powers, delivered to the motley and unseemly mob around him, a harangue, in which frequent mention was made of" law, rights, prescriptions, use and wont," &c. "Here, Lass, haud that wean o' mine, there, for a jiffy," exclaimed a virago mother, thrusting her brat, squalling rebellion and discontent, into the arins of a half-grown girl, who stood beside her," and I'll soon settle their dyke-bigging. A braw story, indeed"-taking hold of the orator's pick, and commencing her moyements in advance-"a braw story,

in troth, to think to bar us out wi' stane and lime walls frae our ain aul' use and wont." So saying, she was down the green, and had fixed the point of her weapon of destruction into the obnoxious erection, and had hurled down the first stone, as a signal of encouragement to thousands, ere they had time to come up to second her efforts. "Nec longa erat mora," for when, after a very short interval, the multitude began, having effected their purpose, to open up and disperse, we could distinctly observe the breach they had made, large enough to afford a free thoroughfare to carts and carriages of all descriptions." They are Goths-they are Vandals" exclaimed the last of the ancient and distinguish ed house of Dm, in which averment, I confess, I felt every disposi tion to concur; when, ere I had time to embody my feelings in articulate sounds, I could see my sagacious friend eyeing me with somewhat of a monitory aspect. "Let us suspend our opinion," said he, "at present; they tell me this day's transactions are like ly to become a question of litigation in a court of law, and it would be altoge ther injudicious in us to prejudge a question of right, respecting which I understand the very best judges may be divided in opinion." "Divided in a whistle case!" retorted our hero of the whisky stoup, with an air of determined partizanship, which altogether, independently of a verbose and "nil nisi bonum" philippic which succeeded, sufficiently indicated in favour of which side, had he been placed in the chair of judgment, his decision would have been given. Having now succeeded in withdrawing our eyes and our attention from the motley band beneath, and having directed them leisurely and contemplatively over the surrounding scenery, we were amply repaid for all the disgusting turmoil we had seen, and for all the steps of steep, and sometimes broken ascent we had surmounted.

Looking eastward, the closely wooded, and far stretching strath of the

Eden, so named, undoubtedly, from its immemorial amenity,-lay beneath the stretch and the effort of our vi sion; we surveyed the extensive plain, where the Fallow deer once roamed amidst their forests of oak, and where a few straggling successors still remain in ancient and unrestricted freedom!-Turning towards the north, fertile and cultivated fields rose, tier above tier, on the eye, till the gently swelling ascents melted away into the blue heaven by which they were relieved from behind. Towards the west, the Elder of the "twin Lomonds" projected its basaltic and abrupt precipices far into the still (in this direction) admirably wooded plain, and presented the expression of a Lion in the act of grasp ing his prey. The East Lomond, which pressed its green, and plump, and undecayed freshness upon the sky, almost immediately over our head, formed a striking and an agreeable contrast to the ruined achievements of man, amidst which we were seated. Here the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the memory with recollecting, nor the ima gination with bodying out; and if any traveller by Falkland has an hour, whilst his beet-steak is making ready in Mrs Scott's, (and a capital beef-steak she makes,) to spare, let him ascend the western Turret of the Palace, and, seating himself on the parapet imme diately over the gateway, let him look abroad in silent and solemn contemplation over ages that are past, and objects that are present-over much that is eminently calculated to gratify and delight the sight, and to elevate, and expand, and ameliorate the heart.

Without troubling you with the circumstantiality of order, and manner, and colloquy, I may just mention now, in conclusion of this long and somewhat discursive communication, that we visited the old chapel, with its fine roof, and massive oaken doors;-that we descended again into the area, and inspected a long race of open-mouthed

Kings and Queens of Scotland, which thrust out their stoney counte nances from the wall;-that we had in