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guished for his upright and honourable feelings, than for the most amiable and affectionate disposition.

"Douglas Charles Clavering, the eldest son of BrigadierGeneral Henry Clavering, and Lady Augusta Campbell, daughter of John, fifth Duke of Argyll, was born at Holyrood-House, 8th September, 1794. He entered the navy at an early age, and served as midshipman under Sir Philip Broke, in the Shannon frigate, on the American station. In the brilliant action of that ship with the Chesapeake, he distinguished himself for his coolness and gallantry, and his name was honourably mentioned in the Gazette. He afterwards served as lieutenant in the Mediterranean, in the Spey sloop-of-war, and in 1821 was appointed commander of the Pheasant, then on the coast of Africa. On his passage to join his ship, he met with Captain Sabine of the Royal Artillery, who was proceeding out to commence that remarkable series of observations on the length of the seconds pendulum, which extended from the equator to the

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THIS useful compend was originally put together for the private use of the compiler. It is evidently the work of a man who, to a practical knowledge of business, adds the habit of consulting, on all occasions, the decisions of court and other legal authorities. Mr Barclay's book as a safe and sure guide to all young We can recommend practitioners in the Sheriff-courts, and to such tough seniors as find themselves puzzled by the new forms introduced of late years.

MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE.

JUDGMENT CLIFF.

A REMINISCENCE OF JAMAICA.

most northerly accessible station on the surface of the earth. "He formed a friendship with that distinguished officer and man of science, which continued without interruption till his death; and, at his request, the Pheasant was appointed to the service of conveying him to the different stations. And such was the able and zealous manner in which Captain Clavering co-operated with him, that he was not only enabled to make the observations at every station in the most satisfactory manner, but without the slightest accident ever having taken place in moving the numerous and delicate instruments to and from the ship. The observations were made on this voyage at Sierra Leone, the Island of St Thomas, Ascension, Bahia, Maranham, Trinidad, Jamaica, and New York. In the course of the voy-peans, indeed almost the only tolerable, time of the day for age, Captain Clavering, in conjunction with Captain Sabine, executed a valuable and extensive series of observations on the direction and force of the equatorial current, which, following the course of the trade-winds, is deflected by the coast of America to the north ward, into the Gulf of Mexico, from which, passing between Cuba and Florida, it returns again into the Atlantic, under the name of the Gulf Stream.

"The results of these experiments, illustrated by a chart, have been published by Captain Sabine in his Account of the Pendulum Observations. Much of the value of such observations must depend on the accuracy with which the ship's reckoning is kept. Captain Clavering, by his judicious arrangements and personal superintendence, introduced such a degree of precision into the reckoning, that it became little inferior as an element in the deduction of currents, to the observed difference of latitude and the chronometrical difference of longitude. Massey's self-registering log was used as a check upon the estimated reckoning, and proved the value and efficacy of the attention paid to the latter, by its being a rare circumstance to find a difference between them amounting to a mile in twenty-four hours. "Upon the return of the Pheasant to Great Britain, the Board of Longitude determined that Captain Sabine's Observations on the Pendulum should be continued to the most northerly latitude to which it was possible to reach. For this purpose, the Griper, which was one of the vessels that had been engaged in Captain Parry's first expedition in 1819-20, was selected, and Captain Clavering appointed

to the command.

"It will be seen that he availed himself of every opportunity that presented itself for prosecuting discoveries, and enlarging the boundaries of geographical science. A considerable part of the east coast of Greenland explored by him, was seen in the preceding year by Captain Scoresby; but, from his distance from the land, that able navigator had not the same means of laying it down correctly to the north of Cape Parry, which he had to the south of that headland, when he was close in with the land. In the chart, the discoveries of both navigators are laid down, and form an actual survey of the coast, from lat. 69 deg. to lat. 76 deg.; for, although Captain Clavering did not reach farther north than Shannon Island, yet the positions of the bluff headlands to the north of Roseneath Inlet, and the islands named, from their appearance, Haystack and Ailsa, were determined by astronomical bearings from two hills, one on the outermost, and the other on the innermost, of the Pendulum Islands; and the distance between the two stations was ascertained by a trigonometrical operation."

THE most delightful, and, to newly-imported Euro

stirring out of doors in Jamaica, is at day-dawn, before the sun has yet begun to pour his effulgence over the hemisphere of the Caribbees, and before the land-breeze, which only yields its delicious coolness during the night, has ceased to stir the graceful, though, as seen through the twilight, spectral, branches of the cocoa-nut-tree, and shake the profuse and refreshing dews from the glittering leaves of the coffee-plants, studded with their wholesome and valuable berries. I know not if it has ever been explained, but, whether it has or not, it must still appear to observers of the organization of the elements, a curious and interesting fact, that the land-breeze in the tropics blows invariably from the centre of the island, let the island be ever so small; and many of them, such as Nevis and Montserrat, are mere knobs on the face of the ocean. The sea-breeze, or "Doctor," as it is gratefully designated by the residenters in Jamaica, which blows from the south-east, generally sets in about 9 a.m.; at first only gently rippling the surface of the water, which previously lay glowing beneath the ardent sun like a mighty body of molten silver, and increasing gradually, until it often assumes the strength of a temporary hurricane. coming is hailed by the panting and literally melting inhabitants with a degree of thankfulness and a sensation of relief, which can only be known by those whose lot it has been to inhale the oppressive and suffocating atmosphere of those climes. Were it not, indeed, for this regular alternation of trade-winds and inland-breezes, I am convinced that, by Europeans at least, the islands of those seas would be perfectly uninhabitable. Let such of my readers, therefore, whose destiny has never led them beyond the cool shores of Britain, conceive, if they can, what must be the sufferings of their brethren in the tropics, when it happens, as I myself have known it to do, that "the Doctor" absents himself for a whole fortnight together! To assist their conjectures, I may mention shortly, that on going on board the vessels lying in the harbour of Kingston, as I was almost daily led to do, the pitch between the planks was to be seen oozing out and running athwart the decks, as if under the immediate influence of a smelting furnace.

Its

In the afternoon, the sea-breeze dies away, as it comes, gradually; after which, for a few hours, earth and sea are again locked in a stillness of repose-a syncope of motion-which, to a new comer, has something almost ominous; and as his imagination is generally saturated, before his arrival, with descriptions of those fearful visita

tions the earthquakes...which occurso frequently, (though seldom occasioning much damage,) he instinctive ly listens, in those bours of stillness, for the first rumbling growl which precedes the volcanic explosion, which is to set the house a-rocking about his ears, the beams and planks creaking and swaying like those of a ship in agale the negroes a-screaming and praying, and the dogs a-howling through the dust-choked streets, as if aware that the solid world beneath them was breaking up, and about to be blown into a mass of ruins. These uncomfortable anticipations, however, gradually depart, when, about nightfall, the first whisperings of the landbreeze are heard coming down the sides of the “ heaven- | ward" mountains, and creeping slowly and in fitful breathings over the surface of the island, until that circumscribed portion of the vegetable world, like the human form resuscitating from a swoon, seems again awakened into life and motion.

For more than a fortnight after my arrival in Jamaica, my energies, mental and corporeal, were so completely subdued by the relaxing effect of the climate, that it was absolutely a toil to me to attire myself in my light garments of gingham and linen; after accomplishing which task, the remainder of the day was consumed between lolling on a sofa, and dragging, my "lazy length," at intervals, across the slippery, polished, wooden floor of the apartment, (there are no carpets there,) to where the water-jar stood in the draught of the open veranda, in order to deluge my stomach with its contents. Let no one suppose that I indulged in unjustifiable laziness. My system was completely overpowered. I could neither eat, read, sleup, or keep awake. Day and night passed alike, in a kind of dreamy torpor of all my faculties, from which even the stings of those incessant tormentors, the mosquitoes and I was blistered from head to foot with them -were unable to rouse me; and, accustomed as I had all along been to a life of activity, in every sense of the word, my feelings, while in this state, were truly miserable almost intolerable. I would have bartered all the wealth that ever was extracted from the mines of Peru, had I possessed it, for one half-hour's enjoyment of the bracing air of my native hills. Scotland, well as I have loved her from my birth, never was so dear to me as then; and she will ever be the dearer to me, from the recollection of what I then and afterwards suffered from sickness and disease in that human oven;-But I am wandering from my purpose.

It was not, as I have stated, until a few weeks after Danding, that I began to recover from the above lethargic state, and was enabled to look about me. The place of my residence was high up in the interior, not far from the range of the Blue Mountains. My host, a countryman of my own, and for whose kindness and hospitality I will ever cherish the deepest gratitude, was proprietor of a thriving coffee plantation, and a stout healthy gang of Negroes (to suit my expressions to the plate.) After I had gathered strength enough, my host, in order to inure me the sooner to the climate, was wont almost daily to lead me short excursions on foot to the neighbouring plantations and estates, (by which names the coffee and sugar farms are distinguished,) with the proprietors or overseers of which we generally remained until the cool of the evening; and afterwards we made visits at a greater distance upon horseback. On one occasion, in pursuance of an arrangement which we had made over night, we started at the very first glimpse of light, for the purpose of riding about fifteen miles across the country, to the property of a gentleman with whom we intended to remain for a few days. We were on horseback, and attended by an active young Negro, my friend's body servant, seated on a mule, with our portmanteau before him. It was the coolest morning I had yet felt. The land breeze was rustling through the tall embowering clumps of bamboos, and shaking the golden fruit of the prickly-lime fences among which we rode.

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while, in the more open parts of the pathway, the speckled lizards were frisking about in thousands. As daylight became stronger," showers of beautiful humming birds, like apple blossoms strewed on the wind,” as Galt has well described them, decked in their rainbow hues of gold and green, and poising themselves, upon their tiny wings, were busy sucking their food from the yellow blossom of the tall maypoles, and the purple flowers of the ipecacuanha, ter na t

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These

It was indeed a delightful morning, and the only drawback upon my enjoyment of it, arose from the frightful nature of the roads during our journey, in regard to which the denizens of Great Britain generally appear to be in a lamentable state of ignorance, supposing, as they seem to do, that Jamaica is one level expanse of sandy plains; while the truth is, that from one end to the other, the island is little else than a succession of precipitous mountains and glens of immense depth, fully equalling in many places, if not surpassing, the most rugged and sublime scenery which characterises our own Highlands. It thus happens that the place of destination, which, were it possible to take a straightforward or bird's-flight path to it, would not exceed three or four miles' distance, is, by the process of winding down and re-ascending the gorges of the mountains, often protracted to above twenty. The roads themselves, cut out of the sides of the hills, are seldom broad enough to admit of more than one horse getting forward at a time, so that when two travellers, coming in different directions, happen to meet, one is obliged to retire into one of the niches cut here and there in the road for that purpose, while the other passes on the general consequence of any quarrel as to the point of precedence on such occasions (and these frequently hap pen between the Negroes) being, that the horse or mule of one or other of the parties, and often the owners themselves, are pitched into the fearful gulf below. narrow tracks, too, are frequently, in many places, almost entirely washed away by the violent rains that rush down from the hills above, so that travelling is sometimes attended with no small degree of danger. This happened to be the case on the morning I now allude to; and, constitutionally nervous as I was and am a disease much heightened by the relaxed state of my system at the timeI must confess, that, during my various excursions, I repeatedly betrayed into à timorousness of character, which gained me but little credit among the fearless planters in Jamaica, whom custom had rendered insensible to all such qualms of alarm. On approaching any of these precipitous passes, my practice was a dangerous one certainly, but which I felt to be absolutely ne cessary-instead of checking my horse, like others, to his most cautious and slowest pace, to get before my companions, if possible, and urge him on as fast as the nature of the road would permit, until, by arriving at the next patch of level ground, I experienced some relief from my giddy sensations. It was after accomplishing a feat of this kind, and when I had come to a fine ver dant bank that sloped gradually down to a stream of some magnitude, (the name of which I forget,) that with an ejaculation of thankfulness I laid the reins upon any horse's neck, and lifting my panama from my head, was wiping the perspiration from my neck and face. The weary animal stopped of his own accord, and began feed ing upon the long Guinea-grass that was growing wild and rank about the road, and as my friend was some distance behind me, I had leisure for observation. ' The natural features of the place, indeed, were suficient to excite interest and attention.' High up the bank on wy

was

left hand, the projecting hill, round which I had just passed, came to an abrupt termination, presenting a perpendicular surface of solid rock. · At a considerable distance below it, and nearer to where I was, lay an immense block of the same kind of stone, which, but for its b. great size, and the distance at which it lay, I would have | supposed to have been at one time part of the mountain itself. Before and around it were all the appearances of there having been a habitation of some consequence near the spot. Between the isolated rock and the termination of the precipice appeared the remains of an orchard of tamarind-trees and mangoes-the latter of that superior description entitled by the natives No. 11. On each side a regular row of cocoa-nut-trees was planted, whose # size betokened them old tenants of the soil; while down towards the road on which I was standing, thousands of shaddocks and oranges were hanging ripe and untouched upon the loaded branches. From the contour of the whole place, indeed, the idea that at once suggested itself * was, that, where the enormous piece of rock lay, a human abode ought to have been, with the vines and pomegra*nates clustering round its green painted jealousies. While engaged in this speculative rumination, my companion, with his servant Polidore behind him, rode up, and instead of his usual hearty laugh at my cowardice, as he termed it, and his customary jocular salutation of," Well you are a great fool, A!" he requested me, with an unusual degree of seriousness in his face, to "ride on." "For Heaven's sake," I replied, "let us take it easy while we are on something like a road, and before we take another mid-air flight!"

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"Perfectly-perfectly; but"-[here he lowered his voice]—“I can never pass this place without shuddering— Ride on, I will tell you my reasons.'

I rode forward accordingly as he desired me, until, after turning round an angle of the hill, where the road became much broader, he came up abreast of me and said

"I saw you were looking up at that great piece of rock which is lying by itself on the slope of the hill-did you remark any signs of a human habitation about it?"

"None," I replied, "excepting its suitable situation, and the convenient arrangement of the trees and fences about it; and I was just thinking, that if the place belonged to me, I would soon set about blowing the rock to pieces, and constructing a dwelling."

"When he began to get old and infirm," continued my friend," he took a young Portuguese lad into his employment, to act as book-keeper* upon the plantation, who, it appears, contrived to insinuate himself into the affections of the old man's daughter, and finally to seduce her. The grief and rage of the father, on discovering this, was of course excessive, and he turned the Portuguese out of doors. He, however, lingered about the place, and at last succeeded in bribing one of the negroes to give his master a doze of poison, which carried him out of the world. The daughter, knowing nothing of the cause of her father's death, and still retaining her affection for the villain, afterwards married him, and he took possession of the property. His wife subsequently discovered what had taken place, incautiously charged him with it, and threatened to give information of the deed, if he did not instantly leave the country and her for ever. The consequence was, that, without hesitation, he took the same means of getting rid of the daughter as of the father, and thus became sole proprietor of the cash and property. By his marriage he had a son and daughter; and after the murder of his wife, he took a woman of his own nation as his housekeeper-you know what that means, I suppose, by this time-by whom he had a family of five or six children. As they grew up, each seemed to strive to excel the other in all kinds of vice and villainy; but as the father still kept the precedence in years, he likewise kept precedence in crime. The deeds which I have heard narrated as having been transacted in that house, are beyond every thing horrible and revolting. Among other acts, it is said that, either from motives of fear or revenge, he lashed the negro whom he had formerly bribed to poison his old master, until he literally tore the flesh from his bones, and in that state tied him up to a tree behind his house, until the ants eat him piecemeal!”

66

"Aigh!" here interposed Polidore, with strong emphasis, Portegee bushert one big villain, massa-he go to helt sure nuff!"

Mr Polidore, in other circumstances, would perhaps have got the whip athwart his shoulders for his impertinent intrusion; but the poor negro's feelings and sentiments were too congenial with our own to allow his master to reprove him further than by ordering him to keep behind, and hold his tongue.

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"Yes, massa-me hold my tongue quite fast, massa.' "Besides what I have just told you," pursued my friend," all sorts of unnatural intercourse between the members of the family took place. In consequence of his "I believe you would do no such thing, if you knew disgusting conduct, the son was compelled to fly from all about that place. Do you know, that where that rock the house to escape his father's vengeance. He went over now is, a fine house once stood, and that it, with all its to Carthagena, whence he contrived to open a correspondinmates, about nine in number, were in one moment bu-ence with his stepmother, who was in the meantime ried under the mass !"

"Good God! is it possible? When, or how, did this happen?"

"I can tell you little about it," answered Mr G., "but what I have gathered from the disjointed rumours concerning the catastrophe; people seem unwilling to talk about it even yet, though it happened so many years back. But if all I have been told be true, it is sufficient, I think, to convince even the most sceptical of the existence of a special Providence."

"The particulars, if you please?"

"Why, the house and property around it, it seems, belonged originally to a countryman of our own, possessed of great wealth, which, it is said, he kept stored up in a safe in his house. His family consisted of only one daughter, who was born and educated at home."

[I may here mention that the term "Home," when used by the Whites in the West Indies, and in the East also, I believe, means the country in Europe from which they originally derived their descent, although Creoles themselves, and having never been, perhaps, out of the latitude of the tropics.].

experiencing all manner of brutal treatment from her lord and master, and it was at length concerted between them to accomplish the old man's death. The precautions of the latter against the convenient and usual mode of poisoning, precluded the possibility of the deed being done in that manner; and, as they were afraid, in case of discovery, to seek the assistance of any of the negroes to execute it in a more violent manner, it was agreed that the son should murder the father with his own hand. He accordingly returned to Jamaica, and having procured horses at Montego Bay, where he had landed, he rode across the country until he came within three or four miles of his father's house. He then waited until it was dark, and ordering the negro who attended him to remain upon the road, with the horses in readiness, until he returned, he proceeded upon his diabolical purpose. Whe

The duty of a book-keeper is to wait upon the negroes all day in the field, and keep a journal, recording in what manner they had been employed, &c. It is a trying employment to new comers, few being able to stand it.

and planters, even when addressing them. I know not its deriva

The name which the negroes universally give to the overseers

tion,

ther the murder was actually accomplished or not, could not be ascertained, though it is certain that he must have gained admission into the house, from the circumstance that he was never more heard of. About midnight the inhabitants on the neighbouring properties were alarmed by a frightful shock, not at all resembling that of an earthquake, and the howling and screaming of the negroestion of the beautiful, which guided the Greek in the choice soon told that some dreadful calamity had happened. On proceeding to the spot we had just passed, you may conceive their feelings of awe and horror on finding the place where that den of vice and infamy formerly stood, occupied only by an immense limb of the mountain, which had crushed beneath it every vestige of the house, or those who dwelt in it! As the character of that family of crime had been long notorious, it appeared evident to all that the Almighty had thus been provoked to extinguish them at once from the face of creation, and the rock by which he executed his vengeance has since that time gone under the name of the Judgment Cliff.'”

execution more nearly approaching her own creations, than any thing achieved by the hands of man in ancient or modern times. The Acropolis still stands, for he who made, can alone unmake it; it stands, however, shorn of its chief beauties, and crowded with Christian and Mo. hammedan deformities. That happy and quick percep

"It was certainly an awful visitation," I observed, when my friend concluded his narrative; "but it seems astonishing to me how such crimes were allowed to pass unpunished by the arm of the law."

Why," said he, "our criminal laws were certainly neither so well modified nor so strictly enforced then, as they are now; besides, the stories told of these wretches could only have been proved by the testimony of the negroes, whose evidence were we to admit, no white man's life would be safe."

"Might not education," I rejoined, "render them in time worthy of"

"For any sake, don't broach that interminable question now ride on I see the thunder-clouds settling down on Portland-gap; we will get a ducking if we don't make haste ;" and so terminated our conversation.

The narrator is glad to be able to state, in conclusion, that the evidence of negroes in courts of justice has since that time, with certain indispensable provisions and restrictions, been rendered valid by an act of legislation. LALAN.

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Esk-side, 28th July, 1830.

A FEW REMARKS ON THE ANCIENT AND THE
MODERN ATHENS.

By an Architect.

of situation and effect, seems to have been succeeded, in the minds of the Frank, the Turk, and the Swede, with as ready an eye for deformity and spoliation. The Roman was merciful in his plunders; even Alaric the Goth withheld his hands from wanton desecration. It was left to the Christian to prove the extent of his bigotry by the grossness of his barbarity; and well and strongly has he pushed the argument home. The buildings which crowned the Acropolis, those perfectly unequalled, unapproachable specimens of proportion, those models from which men of future ages have taken their standard of beauty, which, like the law of gravity, have united all contending speculations in one common centre,those perfect works of man, are either swept away altogether, or serve as the tombs of their own beautiful ruins... Yet still the Acropolis stands, possessing many of its distinguishing features. The skeleton of the Parthenon (still remains, the Erectheron is there, the Propyleia are still visible.

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Edinburgh has a rock similar to the Acropolis of Athens in situation and effect. Like it, it rises boldly from the centre of the city, its form irregular and picturesque, affording an admirable situation for buildings of Grecian proportion and outline. The similarity, I am afraid, extends no farther. Instead of being crowned, like its Grecian prototype, with jewels of exceeding price, the Castle rock has been encumbered with staring modern barracks, where, whatever attention may have been paid to the convenience of the soldiers, none has been shown to the laws of taste. No situation that I am acquainted with afforded a more admirable field for the proper display of Grecian buildings, and no situation has been more thoroughly sacrificed. The present buildings must, of course, remain,~~

"There is no armour against fate ;"

༡། ༦ནཟླ་

but there is one consolation,that they were the works of our forefathers, of which we wash our hands. The same apology, however, will not hold with regard to the Calton-hill, which, though not bearing so close a resem

FROM whom Edinburgh first obtained its classic cog-blance to the Acropolis, either in form or position, yet nomen of the Modern Athens, it is needless to enquire. The term may possibly have been applied at first in ridicule of national vanity; but, according to the ancient adage, Many a true word is spoken in jest." It might be even shown that there is a resemblance between the ancient and modern citizens, as well as cities, but at present I mean to confine myself to a comparatio urbium.

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possesses many qualities which eminently suit it for the display of architectural beauties; and how have they been misemployed! Nelson's Monument alone were enough to ruin any position; it jars with every feeling which the surrounding scenery inspires; it thrusts forward its unmeaning line of vulgar deformity, in whatever direction you view the hill; it mars, any classic association which might otherwise arise. Unless we, the present inhabitants, take some speedy step for its removal,---in which truly patriotic work I would willingly lend my bodily assistance-we unavoidably enrol ourselves amongst the number of those who have assisted in the encouragement of bad taste, and the nurture of ancient prejudice. The two Observatories, and that nameless monument to Playfair, are all in wretched taste, considering their positions; and are quite out of keeping with the scene. Much has been written and spoken in relation to the

The seal, or mark, which distinguished Athens from all the other towns of Greece, and which, as it were, naturally pointed it out as the crowned mistress and queen of ancient cities, was the Acropolis--a rock of an irregular and picturesque form, which shot its rugged outline, with amazing boldness, out of the very heart of the city, and cast the shadow of its protection far over the neighbouring plain. This plain, in which stood the greater portion of the town, is now a dreary and unprofitable vision, thinly scattered with miserable Arab huts, treeless, wild, barren, and melancholy; affording a wither-twelve columns of the National Monument, and the ing contrast to its ancient luxuriance and beauty, when, stretching as far as the Mediterranean, it received the embrace of that tideless sea, with smiles of complacency and delight. Nature herself seems to have been a sufferer in that barbarous humiliation of art, which has either swept away, or laid in ruins, works in design and

It may not be uninteresting here to mention, that the scene of the above awful occurrence is not many miles distant from the spot where the famous Three-fingered Jack was discovered and slain."

vanity and poverty which their unfinished, solitude denotes; yet they are, without doubt, at this moment by far the most interesting architectural object in Edinburgh. Their execution is faultless; of their proportion and beauty, it is enough to say, that they are exactly taken from the columns of the Parthenon of Athens and their position, viewed in connexion with Salisbury Crags, Arthur Seat, the partially wooded country stretching down to the sea, and the sea itself, is in perfect accordance with

a the true spirit of Grecian architecture, Indeed, I question much, that if a man, who had paid the slightest attention to the subject, were placed in a spot to comamand such a view, entirely ignorant what portion of the globe he stood on, with a fine, clear, blue atmosphere around him, strongly relieving the whiteness of the columns, and dying into faint, long lines of cloud, with glimpses of the hill between the inter-columniation's, and the quiet expanse of sea on the distant left,I question much whether such a man would not entertain the conviction that he was gazing upon some portion of Greece. But a prophet hath no honour in his own country. The inhabitants of Edinburgh walk round the Caltonhill; they gaze upon the Glass Works at Leith, or, stretching their visual organs, they try to make out the straggling outline of Petticur, or the still more interesting longitude of Kirkaldy; or, if they turn to the east, Prestonpans, Musselburgh, and Portobello, create in their minds a thousand pleasing ideas of oysters, fishwomen, and scandal. Look where they will, they dwell upon associations connected with the objects before them, which, however beautiful in themselves, lose by too close an acquaintance. This, however, is the common error of mankind; they are ever prone to lower and degrade; it is much easier, by a process of selfish and despicable reasoning, to depreciate, than to elevate; yet the pleasure derived from the latter is generous and glowing; from the former, malignant and mean. Nature remains immutable through whatever glasses we may look upon her; misconstrue her as we will, she is ever the same; and I certainly pity the understanding and the heart which allows its feelings of satisfaction, at the perusal of any lovely object, to be wounded or destroyed by the intervention of homely associations. Were the Calton-hill rid of that nightmare, Nelson's Monument, were the Observatories gone with their monumental bantling, and were the National Monament completed, and allowed to remain in undisturbed possession of its summit, looking down in quiet and simple grandeur upon town, and plain, and sea, then, and not till then, we shall be able to point to an Acropolis worthy of both the ancient and modern Athenians.

ORIGINAL POETRY.

A DAY AT ROSLIN. By John Malcolm.

J. A. B.

There is a pleasure in the pathless Woods,-BYRON.

1.

A DAY among the woods a day,
Far from the city's troubled air,
And toiling labyrinths-away,

Seems half redeem'd from sin and care.
For here the fever'd cheek is fann'd
By breezes from the wild woodland-

And soothed the ear, with sounds and sighs
Of nature's choral harmonies;
The low, sweet music which she flings
From her wild harp's unnumber'd strings,

II.

And yet, e'en here, dark thoughts have sway→→
For, soaring in sepulchral gloom,

And dreary pomp of pale decay,
A blight on nature's bloom,

A spectre of departed days,
Yon Castle gleams upon the gaze,
"And saddens o'er the scene so fair,
"And tells that ruin hath been there,-
And wheresoe'er my glance is cast,
It meets pale footprints of the past,-
And from these high and hoary walls,'
An mournfully the shadow falls,
Dark'ning, amidst the garden bowers,
The farewell of the fading flowers,

Which seem for gentle hands to sigh, That tended them in days gone by.

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Yon Chapel too-with awe profound
profound
I tread its consecrated ground,
And muse upon its solemn scene,
And pace along its pillars green,
Or sigh o'er silent tablets, where
For ever sleep-the Lords Saint Clair ;-
And through the gathering mist of tears,
I breathe the air of other years,
As back through Time's far tracks, I trace
My lineage through that ancient race.
But, while the sun is o'er my head,
I may not linger with the dead-
The beauteous day, which yet is mine,
For me shall shortly cease to shine;
And only shed, from o'er the wave,
A farewell gleam upon my grave;
And I must bask me in its smile,
That brightens yet for me a while,
And cull the blossoms strew'd along
My path, while cheer'd with light and song.
Ere beauty's rose and music's strain
For me shall bloom and breathe in vain.

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And, oh! when sunk in sorrow's thrall, And days of darkness round us fall, As on we toil from stage to stage Of this, our mortal pilgrimage; When the warm pictures Faney drew Of life's delights, have proved untrue; When some most hollow, worthless toy, Hath mock'd us with the shade of joy, And fever'd feelings shed a blight... Upon the dark and dreadful night, And scathe the heart with fiery gleams, And prompt pale suicidal dreams; Then leave we the abodes of men A while, for Roslin's fairy glen, Where troubled bosoms, lull'd to calm, In nature's breath shall find a balm, And feel, that it were worth to live, Though life had nothing more to give Than light and air, and wood and stream, 'Mid which to wander and to dream.

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