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be made,-" He has had a gentle dispensation, sir-Mrs Craig has won awa out of this sinful world, poor woman, she had a large experience o't; but the bairn's to the fore, and Mrs Glibbans, that has such a cast of grace, has ta'en charge of the house since before the interment. It's thought, considering what's by gane, Mr Craig may do waur than make her mistress, and I hope, sir, your exhortation will no be wanting to egg the honest man to think o't seriously."

Mr Snodgrass before delivering the household keys, ordered two bottles of wine, with glasses and biscuit, to be set out on the table, while Mrs Pringle produced from a paper package, that had helped to stuff one of the pockets of the carriage, a piece of rich plumbcake, brought all the way from a confectioner's in Cockspur Street, London, not only for the purpose of being eaten, but, as she said, to let Miss Nanny Eydent pree, in order to direct the Irvine bakers how to bake others like it.

Tea was then brought in; and, as it was making, the Doctor talked aside to the elders, while Mrs Pringle recounted to Miss Mally and Miss Isabella the different incidents of her adventures subsequent to the marriage of Miss Rachel.

"The young folk," said she, " having gone to Brighton, we followed them in a few days, for we were told it was a curiosity, and that the King has a palace there, just a warld's wonder! and truly, Miss Mally, it is certainly not like a house for a creature of this world, but for some Grand Turk or China man, being adorned with things like ingans and leeks. The Doc tor said, it put him in mind of Miss Jenny Macbride's side-board in the Stockwell of Glasgow; where all the pepper-boxes, poories, and tea-pots, punch-bowls, and china-candlesticks of her progenitors are set out for a show, that tells her visitors, they are but seldom put to use. As for the town of Brighton, it's what I would call a gawky piece of London. I could see nothing in it but a wheen idlers, hearing twa lads, at night, crying, Five, six, seven for a shilling,' in the booksellers' shops, with a play-actor lady singing in a corner, because her voice would not do for the players' stage. Therefore, having seen the Captain

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and Mrs Sabre off to France, we came home to London; but it's not to be told what we had to pay at the hotel where we staid in Brighton. Howsomever having come back to London, we settled our counts, and, buying a few necessars, we prepared for Scotland,and here we are. But travelling has surely a fine effect in enlarging the understanding; for both the Doctor and me thought, as we came along, that every thing had a smaller and poorer look than when we went away; and I dinna think this room is just what it used to be. What think ye o't, Miss Isabella? How would ye like to spend your days in't?”

Miss Isabella reddened at this question; but Mrs Pringle, who was as prudent as she was observant, affecting not to notice this, turned round to Miss Mally Glencairn, and said softly in her ear," Rachel was Bell's con fidant, and has told us all about what's going on between her and Mr Snodgrass. We have agreed no to stand in their way, as soon as the Doctor can get a mailing or two to secure his money upon."

Meantime, the Doctor received from the elders a very satisfactory account of all that had happened among his people, both in and out of the session, during his absence; and he was vastly pleased to find, there had been no inordinate increase of wickedness, at the same time he was grieved for the condition in which the poor weavers still continued, saying, that among other things of which he had been of late meditating, was the setting up of a lending bank in the parish for the labouring classes, where, when they were out of work, " bits of loans for a house-rent, or a brat of claes, or sic like, might be granted, to be repaid when trade grew better, and thereby take away the objection that an honest pride had to receiving help from the session."

Then some lighter general conversation ensued, in which the Doctor gave his worthy counsellors a very jocose description of many of the lesser sort of adventures which he had met with; and the ladies having retired to inspect the great bargains that Mrs Pringle had got, and the splendid additions she had made to her wardrobe, out of what she denominated the dividends of the present portion of the le

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gacy, the Doctor ordered in the second biggest toddy bowl, the guardevine with the old rum, and told the lassie to see if the tea-kettle was still boiling. "Ye maun drink our welcome hame,' said he to the elders; 66 it would nae otherwise be canny. But I'm sorry Craig has nae come." At these words the door opened, and the absent elder entered, with a long face, and a deep sigh. "Ha!" cried Mr Daff, " this is very droll. Speak of the Evil One, and he'll appear;"-which words dinted on the heart of Mr Craig, who thought his marriage in December had been the subject of their discourse.The Doctor, however, went up and shook him cordially by the hand, and said, "Now I take this very kind, Mr Craig; for I could not have expected you, considering ye have got, as I am told, your jo in the house;" at which words the Doctor winked paukily to Mr Daff, who rubbed his hands with fainness, and gave a good humoured sort of keckling laugh. This facetious stroke of policy was a great relief to the afflicted elder, for he saw by it that the Doctor did not mean to trouble him with any inquiries respecting his deceased wife; and, in consequence, he put on a blither mask, and really affected to have forgotten her already more than he had done in sincerity.

Thus the night passed in decent temperance and a happy decorum ; insomuch, that the elders when they went away, either by the influence of the toddy-bowl, or the Doctor's funny stories about the Englishers, declared that he was an excellent man, and, being none lifted up, was worthy of his rich legacy.

At supper, the party, besides the minister and Mrs Pringle, consisted of the two Irvine ladies, and Mrs Snodgrass. Miss Becky Glibbans came in when it was about half over, to express her mother's sorrow at not being able to call that night, " Mr Craig's bairn having taken an ill turn." The truth, however, was, that the worthy elder had been rendered somewhat tozy by the minister's toddy, and wanted an opportunity to inform the old lady of the joke that had been played upon him by the Doctor calling her his jo, and to see how she would relish it. So by a little address Miss Becky was sent out of the way, with the excuse we have noticed; at the same time, as

the night was rather sharp, it is not to be supposed that she would have been the bearer of any such message, had her own curiosity not enticed her.

During supper the conversation was very lively. Many "pickant jokes," as Miss Becky described them to Mr M'Gruel, were cracked by the Doctor; but, soon after the table was cleared, he touched Mr Snodgrass on the arm, and, taking up one of the candles, went with him to his study, where he then told him, that Rachel Pringle, now Mrs Sabre, had informed him of a way in which he could do him a service.— "I understand, sir," said the Doctor, "that you have a notion of Miss Bell Todd, but that until ye get a kirk there can be no marriage. But the auld horse may die waiting for the new grass; and, therefore, as the Lord has put it in my power to do a good action both to you and my people,-whom I am glad to hear you have pleased so well,-if it can be brought about that you could be made helper and successor, I'll no object to give up to you the whole stipend, and, by and by, may be the manse to the bargain. But that is if you marry Miss Bell; for it was a promise that Rachel gar't me make to her on her wedding morning. Ye know she was a forcasting lassie, and, I have reason to believe, has said nothing anent this to Miss Bell herself; so that if you have no partiality for Miss Bell, things will just rest on their old footing; but if you have a notion, it must be a satisfaction to you to know this, as it will be a pleasure to me to carry it as soon as possible into effect."

Mr Snodgrass was a good deal agitated; he was taken by surprise, and without words the Doctor might have guessed his sentiments; he, however, frankly confessed that he did entertain a very high opinion of Miss Bell, but that he was not sure if a country parish would exactly suit him. "Never mind that," said the Doctor; "if it does not fit at first, you will get used to it; and if a better casts up, it will be no obstacle.”

The two gentlemen then rejoined the ladies, and, after a short conversation, Miss Betty Glibbans was admonished to depart, by the servants bringing in the Bibles for the worship of the evening. This was usually performed before supper, but, owing to the bowl being on the table, and the

company jocose, it had been postponed till all the guests who were not to sleep in the house had departed.

The Sunday morning was fine and bright for the season; the hoar frost, till about an hour after sun-rise, lay white on the grass and tomb-stones in the church-yard; but before the bell rung for the congregation to assemble, it was exhaled away, and a freshness, that was only known to be autumnal by the fallen and yellow leaves that strewed the church-way path, from the ash and plane-trees in the avenue, encouraged the spirits to sympathise with the universal cheerfulness of all na

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The return of the Doctor had been bruited through the parish with so much expedition, that, when the bell rung for public worship, none of those who were in the practice of stopping in the church-yard to talk about the weather, were so ignorant as not to have heard of this important fact. In consequence, before the time at which the Doctor was wont to come from the back-gate which opened from the manse-garden into the church-yard, a great majority of his people were assembled to receive him.

At the last jingle of the bell the back-gate was usually opened, and the Doctor was wont to come forth as punctually as a cuckoo of a clock at the striking of the hour; but a deviation was observed on this occasion. Formerly, Mrs Pringle, and the rest of the family came first, and a few minutes were allowed to elapse before the Doctor, laden with grace, made his appearance. But at this time, either because it had been settled that Mr Snodgrass was to officiate, or for some other reason, there was a breach in the observance of this time-honoured custom.

As the ringing of the bell ceased, the gate unclosed, and the Doctor came forth. He was of that easy sort of feather-bed corpulency of form that betokens good nature, and had none of that smooth, red, well filled protuberancy, which indicates a choleric humour and a testy temper. He was in fact what Mrs Glibbans denominated

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had taken place in his visible equipage. His stockings, which were wont to be of worsted, had undergone a translation into silk; his waistcoat, instead of the venerable Presbyterian flap-covers to the pockets, which were of Johnsonian magnitude, was become plain; his coat, in all times single-breasted, with no collar, still however maintained its ancient characteristics; instead, however, of the former bright black cast horn, the buttons were covered with cloth. But the chief alteration was discernible in the furniture of the head. He had exchanged the simplicity of his own respectable grey hairs for the cauliflower hoariness of a PARRISH * wig, on which he wore a broad brimmed hat, turned up a little at each side behind, in a portentous manner, indicatory of Episcopalian predilections. This, however, was not justified by any alteration in his principles, being merely an innocent variation of fashion, the natural result of a Doctor of Di vinity buying a hat and wig in London.

The moment that the Doctor made his appearance, his greeting and salutation was quite delightful; it was that of a father returned to his children, and a king to his people.

Almost immediately after the Doctor, Mrs Pringle, followed by Miss Mally Glencairn and Miss Isabella Todd, also debouched from the gate, and the assembled females remarked, with no less instinct, the transmutation which she had undergone. She was dressed in a dark blue cloth pelisse, trimmed with a dyed fur, which, as she told Miss Mally, " looked quite as well as sable, without costing a third of the money." A most matronly muff, that, without being of sable, was of an excellent quality, contained her hands; and a very large Leghorn straw bonnet, decorated richly, but far from excess, with a most substantial band and bow of a broad crimson satin ribbon around her head.

If the Doctor was gratified to see his people so gladly thronging around him, Mrs Pringle had no less pleasure also in her thrice-welcome reception. It was an understood thing, that she had been mainly instrumental in enabling the Minister to get his great Indian legacy,

* See the Edinburgh Review, for an account of our old friend Dr Parr's wig, and Spital Sermon.

and in whatever estimation she may have been previously held for her economy and management, she was now looked up to as a personage skilled in the law, and particularly versed in testamentary erudition. Accordingly, in the customary testimonials of homage with which she was saluted in her passage to the church door, there was evidently a sentiment of veneration mingled, such as had never been evinced before, and which was neither unobserved nor unappreciated by that acute and perspicatious lady.

The Doctor himself did not preach, but sat in the Minister's pew till Mr Snodgrass had concluded an eloquent and truly an affecting sermon; at the end of which he rose and went up into the pulpit, where he publicly returned thanks for the favours and blessings he had obtained during his absence, and for the safety in which he had been restored, after many dangers and tribulations, to the affections of his parishioners.

"Such," to use the precise words of Mr M'Gruel-" such were the principal circumstances that marked the return of my excellent friend and neighbour to his parish. In the course of the week after, the estate of Moneypennies being for sale, it was bought for the Doctor. It was considered a great bargain, the property having been materially improved by a Glasgow manufacturer, who bought it about twenty years ago, but who unfortunately failed in business last year. It was not, however, on account of the advantage ous nature of the purchase that the

Doctor valued this acquisition, but entirely because it was situated in his own parish, and part of the lands marching with the Glebe."

The previous owner of Moneypennies had built an elegant house on the estate, to which Mrs Pringle is at present actively preparing to remove from the Manse, and it is understood, that as Mr Snodgrass was last week declared helper and successor to the Doctor, his marriage with Miss Isabella Todd will take place with all convenient expedition. "I have also," continues our Kilwinning correspondent, "reason to believe, that, as soon as decorum will permit, any scruple which Mrs Glibbans had to a second marriage is now removed, and that she will soon again grace the happy circle of wives by the name of Mrs Craig. Indeed, I am assured that Miss Nanny Eydent is actually at this time employed in making up her wedding garments; for, last week, that worthy and respectable young person was known to have visited Baillie Delap's shop, at a very early hour in the morning, and to have priced many things of a bridal character, besides getting swatches; after which she was seen to go to Mrs Glibbans's house, where she remained a very considerable time, and to return straight therefrom to the shop, and purchase divers of the articles which she had priced and inspected ;-all which constitute sufficient grounds for the general opinion in Irvine, that the union of Mr Craig with Mrs Glibbans is a happy event drawing near to consummation."

ON THE LIVES OF ACTORS.

WHEN O'Keefe brought out his Comedy of Wild Oats, the actors, if they knew their own interest, would strain every nerve in order that the play might pass. The piece, however, tinged as it is with the tendency to farce incident to the genius of its author, has stamina enough to live without pampering. It is an apology for the life of an actor, and is better than that of George Ann Bellamy, and almost as amusing and sprightly as that of Colley Cibber, which is saying something. Not that the work of the vivacious hero of the Dunciad, has not other and higher merits; but they are foreign to the comparison. O'Keefe has, in his

comedy, done for the players what Cumberland tried to do for the Jews. Whether the better success of the former is owing to the greater ability of the writer, or to the greater truth of the character, may be a matter of dispute. The public seems to incline to the latter opinion. Rover retains his popularity, whilst Sheva is forgotten. The "credat Judæus" seems, in this instance, to have taken complete possession of, "the many-headed monster," as somebody has courteously designated the people. I, for my part, have always been attached above measure to the stage, and interested in everything connected with it. What

is more satisfactory-those, of whom I have had reason, through life, to think the best, have been so too. There is no need for shame in confessing that some of "the greenest spots on me mory's waste" owe, with me, their hue to the theatre. Those who have studied the human mind, or even attended to the nature of their own perceptions, will allow that some of our strongest impressions are produced by the power of fiction. My recollection of the feel ings, with which I first read Clarissa, does not yield in intensity to any remembrance of those arising out of real events. My imagination cannot, to this hour, recur to that book without an uneasy and miserable sensation, which one would almost suppose to be akin to the hypochondriacal. That this holds equally with pleasant recollections, is easily supposable. With me, the drama has been most prolific of happy associations. I find I have decidedly preferred the company and conversation of those who thought of it like myself, and have, for the most part, unconsciously perhaps, associated with such. They, who meet at a theatre are, nine times out of ten, in the state of mind most likely to render such meetings agreeable. The lobby is a sort of coffee-house, for the "literæ humaniores," from which wrangling politics are excluded, and where the presence of beauty is not an intrusion. The fate of the children of Thespis has been perversely hard. Whilst many an institution-of an origin none of the most respectable-is applauded, and its ministers honoured; the servants of the drama, which, both ancient and modern, arose, ("mark it, Cesario,") out of religious ceremonies, are vilified and calumniated. In what sort of estimation the ancient actors were held, may be a difficult matter to settle. Laberius was deprived of his equestrian rank for appearing on the stage, to which he was compelled by Cæsar; and from some passages of Juvenal, it would seem to be quite evident, that in his time, the Roman actors, except ing perhaps the very highest, were held in that kind of contempt, to which those connected with public amusements appear to be more or less liable. In modern Italy, they are very lightly held. In France, the church refuses the last rites to the body of the "profane stage-player;" besides charitably VOL. VIII.

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insinuating the probability of his soul being, in the phrase of honest but implacable Captain Crowe, "five fathom by the line, in burning brimstone.” In England, they are, as it were, out of the pale of the law, and punishable as vagabonds; unless, indeed, they hap pen to be "his Majesty's servants' which alters the case. Against usage like this, it would require a most superabundant abundance of good character to bear up; nor is it to be wondered at, that the whole body has been bent down under the weight of much illiberal and much absolutely unfounded prejudice. I do not wish to mince the matter either way. It is not my intention to deny, that the condition of an actor renders him peculiarly liable to certain vices. But I would just venture to hint, that these vices are of a kind peculiarly obnoxious to those "wise in their generation," called prudent people; who, in consequence, more prudently than charitably, keep at too great a distance to find out his virtues. When I hear the wearers of the sock and buskin run down by wholesale, remote as they are from those to whom the observation applies, it always puts me in mind of poor Burns's assertion of his often having found in the class called "blackguards," honour, honesty, benevolence," and even modesty." He certainly would not scruple to make the search; and on a matter of this sort, I would take his word for a thousand pounds. There are those who would have affected to think the discovery quite as surprising, had he professed to have made it in the green-room. To such is really hardly worth while to reply"

I have been told, that I am not to estimate the character of the profession from those eminent performers, who have risen to its head. They who told me so, forgot to advert to the circumstance of many of those very ladies and gentlemen having risen from the lower ranks of that profession, where they must have acquired, or at least preserved, those virtues, for which they are now esteemed. It is not, however, from the metropolitan performer, that I form my estimate of the lives of actors. The provincial town in which I have passed the greater part of my life, affords sufficiently ample, and proba bly fairer materials.

It may sound a little ill-omened, to 3 S

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