United States of the death of Sir Walter Scott. The speaker stated that he was a member of an English University at the time that 'Marmion' first appeared, and he added, that he never read this scene without deep emotion; and especially, he said: 'Though several generations removed from a Scottish ancestry, I never read that thrilling exclamation, 'AND why stands Scotland idly now, without feeling my Scottish blood tingle in my veins.' But standards and banners have long since mouldered, and mingled with the dust of the soldiers who carried them. All around was peace and beauty. The fields were loaded with grain ripened for the harvest, and the whole landscape smiled beneath the rays of a summer-sun. We passed through Kelso, merely stopping long enough to make my first Scottish dinner, chiefly of hodge-podge. The sun was setting as we drove into the good old town of Jedburgh. In the gloaming, I walked a lang Scotch mile through fields and over rising ground, to the cottage of Hundalee. A warm welcome awaited me; and what was intended for a passing call upon those to whom I had letters of introduction from a distinguished mutual friend, was extended to a visit of several days. The cottage of Hundalee is situated near the banks of the river Jed; and overlooks a wide extent of rolling country, well-cultivated, and dotted over with residences, and spots which are rendered memorable by the events of many border wars. Stretching to the south, and running off to the west, and in full view from the cottage, are the Cheviot Hills, the great natural boundary between England and Scotland. To the north, and in full view from the highland back of the cottage, is seen the beautiful and far-famed valley of the Teviot, or Teviotdale. The afternoons were devoted to a more extensive examination of the surrounding country, in company with the ladies in the carriage; but the mornings were spent most delightfully by my kind and agreeable host and myself, in more minute attentions to the objects of interest in the neighborhood. My host was a native of the county of Roxburghshire, and descended from a family whose name is illustrious in Scottish annals. His residence had been for years in London; and passing his summer in his native place, he took great pleasure in recounting its history and traditions. We wandered through the picturesque woods which adorn the banks of the river Jed. All around is full of historic interest. Here was the famous Jed forest. Here, both English and Scottish armies were encamped. Here was the favorite residence of the early Scottish kings. The men of Jedburgh were a warlike race, and their proud war-cry was, Jethart's here!' and the weapon which they used with great dexterity was the Jethart-staff.' In the days of border-feuds, men were said to have been hanged here first, and tried afterward; and hence came the proverb of Jethart justice.' The mansion still stands in Jedburgh, in which the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots resided. Here Thomson, the poet, spent his boyhood, and here Sir David Brewster was born. But to me, the objects of most interest were the caves formed in the rocky banks of the river Jed, and which, local tradition declares, were the retreats of the Covenanters in the days of religious persecution. We spent a morning with a venerable man now gone to his rest, the fire of whose youth kindled up as he narrated the trials and the sufferings of his fathers. Obtaining from my kind friend the materials for lighting my way, I set out alone to explore one of these relics of a former age. Clambering down the side of precipitous rocks, holding on by the shrubs which grew in the crevices, I succeeded in gaining the entrance to the cave. The river Jed was far below, and a single man could have guarded the descent from above. A small passage-way led directly into a large room, apparently hewed out of the solid rock; from this, a low passage conducted to another room of equal size; each, perhaps, ten or twelve feet square. Descended from Scotch Covenanters myself, I could but feel sympathy with those who were driven by persecution to seek their abodes literally in the holes in the rocks. Here, as I sat down on a projecting stone, the walls dimly lighted by my single candle, my thoughts went back to the reign of the Stuarts, and to the religious troubles of those times. They were stern and determined men, those old Scotch Covenanters. This rude cave had been their home when they little dreamed of the future; when their thoughts were of the surrounding dangers; and of their protection of, and adherence to, the sacred Covenant. But there was a future. Wnder better auspices, many of them found a home in the north of Ireland. But there, again, non-conformity cut them off from all connection with the affairs of government; and they found themselves still aliens and strangers under the government where they were born. It was the children and descendants of these men who formed the important emigration element to the North-American colonies, known as the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. The historian's pen must yet do them justice. They were deeply imbued with religious feelings. Like the Puritans, they may, at times, have seemed unnecessarily severe, but they were always lovers of liberty. Their creed and their church-government were opposed to despotism and to monarchy. As far back as 1603, James I., himself a bigot and a pedant, said of them profanely, that 'Presbytery agreed as well with monarchy, as GOD and the Devil;' and in 1661, his graceless grandson, Charles II., wrote to the Scotch councils, complaining that the Presbyterian form of church-government was inconsistent with monarchy, and adding: 'Wherefore, we declare our firm resolution to interpose our royal authority for restoring the Church of Scotland to its right government by bishops, as it was before the late troubles.' He had himself subscribed the Covenant which he now sought to avoid. It was this opposition to monarchy which, to a certain extent, caused their persecutions. But wherever they went, they carried their principles of civil liberty. In the American colonies, they still cherished them. They scattered over the granite hills of New-Hampshire, they were found on the head-waters of the Susquehanna in New-York, in the valley of the Shenandoah in Virginia, and on the uplands of Carolina. In the commencement of revolutionary troubles, they raised, at Mechlenburg, the first voice in favor of the entire independence of the United States, and during the war, the muster-roll was handed round at the doors of their meeting-houses; and there were few able-bodied men among them who were not enrolled in the American army; and they, like the men of Massachusetts, left their bones 'mouldering in the soil of every state, from Maine to Georgia.' As I sat, therefore, upon the rude seat where the hymns had been chanted and the voices raised in prayer, where new pledges had been given, amid danger and death—I could but think how well their descendants had completed the mission of those iron men. On returning home, I found a neighbor had been invited to dinner; and, in compliment to my Scottish descent, and my first visit, he had brought with him a Scotch haggis. Perhaps he feared that my host, from his long residence in England, had forgotten its composition, or that his good English wife was perhaps never acquainted with it. At all events, there it was, and in truth it was ' vara gude;' and one might say with Burns: FAIR fa' your honest, sonsie face, Weel are ye worthy of a grace 'Ye pow'rs wha mak' mankind your care, But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer, The stars were shining ere our neighbor-friend took his leave. Instead of following the road, he started in a line almost direct for his house, through field and wood-land. The night was still, and as Mr. K- and myself stood out on the lawn in front of the cottage, we could hear the sound of his horse's foot-steps, as he galloped along the rocky bank of the Jed. 'There goes a man,' said my host, 'who, if he had lived in the days of English and Scottish feuds, would have been as brave a moss-trooper as ever crossed the borders.' But I had, on the following morning, renewed evidence of his kindness; for, after an early breakfast, I found two fine Scottish horses ready saddled, one for myself, and one for a servant. With horses and servant, I was to commence my examination of Dryburgh, Melrose, Abbotsford, etc. I had proposed a drive in a gig. It would be a shame, he said, for a gentleman of Scottish descent to travel in so unseemly a manner. I submitted myself to his direction; and right glad I was that I did so, as I felt the exhilaration of the morning-air, when galloping along under the Eildon Hills, or dashing through the silver Tweed. NEVER did the ocean exhibit a grander spectacle than was presented by the British fleet bearing down on the combined squadrons of France and Spain, at noon on the twenty-first of October, 1805, a few leagues to the north-west of Cape Trafalgar. A long swell was setting into the Bay of Cadiz: the English ships. crowding all their canvas, moved majestically before it. Right before them lay the mighty armament of the foe, the sun shining full on their close-set sails, and the three-deckers which it contained appearing of stupendous magnitude amid the lesser line-of-battle ships by which they were surrounded.' ALISON. And each Spaniard, on his deck, On their forty gallant sail, The sun-shine glittered bright With bold, majestic sweep, Her meteor-flag, on high, From each mast-head in the sky Tells that all must win or die For her homes! Now, all is hushed as death; Each seaman, stripped for fight, The Royal Sovereign' first Her proud way; With a long-resounding roar, Her double-broadsides pour An iron tempest o'er Their array. THE characters of remarkable men, for the most part, appear to their contemporaries alloyed with personal and selfish motives, and attended by the foibles which reduce them to a level with their race. Present events are like those stage-decorations, which, closely inspected, are rough and unattractive, but which, seen farther off, present the appearance of completeness and magnificence. On the other hand, whatever is ancient, is dimly seen through the lapse of ages, and comes to us like the farthest orbs discovered by astronomers, surrounded by a dreamy and mysterious halo. A mind susceptible to the higher order of emotions, and not closed against the allurements of history, will, almost of necessity, in its contemplative moods, stretch away through distance of time or of space in search of those illusions which please the fancy and satisfy the cravings for ideal perfection. This tendency is so strong, that the present generation seems but half aware that it stands barely one remove from a period more brilliant in most respects than any which preceded it; that an age magnificently resplendent has so recently departed, that its beams are yet gilding our horizon, and that to pierce behind it for the discovery of man in his highest modes, is like searching for planets directly through the effulgent disc of the sun. There is an island, only of the seventh magnitude, presenting a surface of less than ninety thousand square miles, which gives law to various and opposite quarters of the globe, and holds a leading position. among the powers of the earth. Her general disposition is domineering and covetous. She is boastful of her valor, although she has been several times conquered. She is much at war, striking mercenary blows |