nerable in its aspect; its mansions seem to have resisted the assaults of the winds and rains which had fallen upon the heads not only of our fathers, but of" the old time before them;" and I could not behold them without a very peculiar feeling when I considered that these probably were the very abodes of the men by whom the security and independence of our country were so often endangered; and that, within these walls might be regaled the warriors who returned triumphant from the field of Flodden. As we pursued our journey farther to the south, England assumed something of a fresher and more luxuriant appearance; every stage seemed to carry us nearer to the perfection of whatever in landscape is beautiful or rich. An amazing extent of prospect, which is indeed common to every district of South Britain, was to be seen on every hand; and it often occurred to me, that a native of Scotland, who had seen but a small part of his native land, might, if transported by some unknown cause into any department of English territory, have been able, at the first breaking of the spell which held him, to declare that these were not the features of the land of his birth, and that he was in the midst of scenery and of customs, to which his mind had not been familiarized by any observation of his former life. Of these pecularitics I shall now endeavour to give you a particular his tory. The first thing which strikes a Scotchman on visiting England, is the amazing extent of prospect which almost in every situation characterizes English landscape. In Scotland, you know the view is almost constantly interrupted either by gentle eminenees or lofty mountains: and even those portions of Scottish territory which are most distinguished for fertility and uninterrupted prospect, as the Merse of Berwickshire, and the Carse of Falkirk, can only be considered as straths on a more magnificent scale, being generally bounded by mountains of proportional size. I can aver with the strictest truth, however, that, (after losing sight of the Cheviot ridge,) except once in Yorkshire, I did not meet with any thing that had the least resemblance to mountains, or that gave the slightest interruption to the range of vision. An unbounded ocean, the surface of which was broken only by billows of somewhat more than common magnitude, would be the exactest resemblance of English landscape; and, though I know very well that there are mountains, and those of very considerable size, in some counties of England, the account which I have given is strictly derived from what fell under my own observation, and may, I apprehend, be taken as the general rule to which the others are but particular exceptions. The rich appearance which English scenery derives from the hedges and trees with which it is adorned, is the second peculiarity on which a stranger would gaze. It is a long time, you know, since the great English philologist reproached poor Scotland with her stone hedges and barren fences; and, in truth, it is not to be wondered at, if a person born in the very centre of the fertility and grandeur of Staf fordshire, should thus express himself. Every field in England is defended by a hedge of great and unshorn luxuriance, and the number of wild flowers with which, in summer, every hedge is adorned, must furnish the finest of all contrasts to the bleakness and poverty of our northern byepaths. There are not, however, many plantations of great extent, or of gloomy grandeur, in England; but the beauty which England derives from her trees is thus to be understood: The fields are all very small, because the soil is very rich; every field is surrounded by a few trees, placed at considerable intervals along each of its sides; so that an immense extent of country, dressed out in this fashion, has the appearance of a countless multitude of contiguous little orchards, and the whole landscape has a character of cheerfulness which is not consistent with the dark and gloomy grandeur of impervious fo rests. The county in which I at present reside, and Herefordshire, which is the adjoining one, are reckoned the gardens of England; they are characterized by the same extent of prospect, and fertility of appearance, which I have already taken notice of, and they possess some beauties, and those not a few, which are peculiarly their own. Malvern hills are the very finest my eyes ever beheld, and, indeed, in all the images of hills which me, my fancy has formed, I know not that ever I arrived at any thing so near the very perfection of beauty. They rise, as a lady here observed to "without any seeming provocation," in the centre of the immense extent of level ground which stretches every way around them. They consist of only one ridge of about seven or eight miles in length;-their forms are truly beautiful, consisting of a fine waving outline, and gently peaked summits, and their turf, which, even now, when our northern mountains are bleak and withered, is deeply tinged with a fresh and lively green, -is of the firmest consistence, and the finest polish. The house in which we reside stands half way up the hills, and commands the most enchanting view of perfectly level country, that ever your eyes beheld. There is no hill in the wide horizon to stop the view. The eye ranges as far as its own powers of vision can carry it, and almost the whole extent of four counties is embraced at a single glance. So perfectly unbounded, indeed, is the prospect from Malvern House, that, though we are something more than a hundred miles west of London, the flames of a house which had taken fire, and was situated only eleven miles from the metropolis, were seen in afine evening to cast a broad and terrific radiance over the distant horizon. As a farther recommendation of my present situation, I may just inform you, that it has something more of interest than mere natural scenery could give. It is classic ground, and to an admirer of Shakespeare, must possess a charm of the very highest influence. The Avon, on whose banks fancy first found this enthusiast of Nature, is now, by the flood which has made it pass its barriers, distinctly visible from the window at which I am sitting. Tewksbury is visible, by its smoke, at a little distance from the mouth of this " silver stream." Warwickshire offers its dimdiscovered plains on the left; and the spire of Gloucester is glittering in the sunbeam on the right. « Flow on silver Avon, in song ever flow; Be the swans on thy bosom still whiter than snow; Ever pure be thy stream, like his fame may it spread, And the turf ever hallowed that pillowed his head." VOL. III. After all that I have said in favour of England, you must not imagine that I have given up my fondness for my native land. No, my good fellow, my heart is doubly wedded to poor Scotland by every thing I have seen in England; and, even on the score of good taste, I would despise the man who, all circumstances considered, would for once make the comparison. Repose seems to me to be the prevailing character of English scenery. I was for sometime at a loss to account for a certain stillness and want of interest with which, amid all the richness of English landscape, I felt myself oppressed; and I am indebted for the solution to the observation of a lady here, who lived a considerable time in Scotland, and is a great admirer of every thing Scottish. She said to me one day, that she thought there was a sleepiness about England which you never observed in Scotland. I think what I have said respecting the extent of prospect which characterizes England, will shew you how just this observation is, and you will, of course, immediately discover what a mighty superiority Scotland possesses in the bold features by which her veteran visage is marked. France is perhaps a still more luxuriant country than England, and Switzerland consists of barren mountains, and dark narrow vallies; but when was a Frenchman known to die of regret for the land of his birth, or to shed those tears of heart-wrung fondness which the song of his childhood calls down the war-worn cheek of the countryman of Tell! Yes, my good fellow, the English peasant has no local attachment: In the midst of his highly cultivated fields, he is as ready to serve one master as another; and he leaves the place of his birth, and the scene of his childish sports, with a heart elated with joy, and unaffected by one sentiment of regret, if, in another quarter, higher wages are to be the reward of his labours. There are no bold features in his country by which an impression may be made on his heart, which ime can never efIndia's citron groves, he sings not face: Beyond the Atlantic, or 'mid with an emotion of indescribable interest," We twa hae run about the braes," or "We twa hae paidl't in the burn;" nor does any image of those much loved scenes, in which F with the companions of his infancy, he pursued the sports of childhood, break his morning slumbers, and restore him with a sad heart to a society and to occupations which the idea of happier scenes has rendered irksome and unsupportable. Feelings like these, sometimes painful, but always interesting, and never to be exchanged for the profoundest case of the most careless enjoyment, are the sole privileges of the natives of such lands as our own, and they are the more to be valued, that they are always accompanied with an energy and manliness of character, which is the greatest good that a state can wish for its members, and to which every thing else should be held subordinate. England, as well as Scotland, has been the scene of many a glorious contest, but of these things the English peasant knows not the history, and is careless about the scene; his heart is not warmed by any recollection of the deeds of his forefathers, and he looks with no feeling of heartfelt reverence on the scenes which have been dyed with their blood: for his mind was never formed by early tuition to trace the records of time long elapsed, nor did any history of "Wallace Wight" inspire his infant heart with thoughts of glory. In our own native land a peculiar system of poetry and music have thrown a borrowed interest upon scenes in themselves sufficiently striking: The banks of Teviot and the vales of Ettrick and Yarrow, are but specimens of an interest which a native of Scotland attaches from similar reasons to by far the greater number of the streams and glens with which his infant years are familiar; and even the most rugged scenes have become endeared by some fact which has dignified their history, or by some powerful passion which we know to have been there experienced. But of all this copious source of powerful interest, the humble native of England knows nothing. His streams are distinguished in his mind only by the purposes of utility which they serve, or by the opulence of the proprietors through whose domains they flow: and his glens (if, indeed, he can at all find any) are never traced by him in silent ecstacy, while he bends above the footsteps of the warriors who trod them, or pictures the images of those fond votaries of tender passion by whom they were frequented. In truth, my dear fellow, the image of disposition he has sometimes felt to play upon a countryman if he had an awkward behaviour, and a simplicity in his manner of expression, even though he might know him to be a man in every other respect of the very highest intellectual and moral worth. (To be continued.) MODE OF LIVING AMONG SCOTTISH FARMERS DURING THE EARLY PART OF LAST CENTURY. MR EDITOR, I HAVE lately read with a good deal of satisfaction, a paper which appear ed in some of the first numbers of your New Series, on the Change of Manners in Scotland in the early part of last century. I have always esteemed such memorials of the olden times, particularly when derived from actual observation, extremely interesting; and I have been induced by the perusal of the above article, to commit to paper a few memoranda of my own on a like subject. The observations of an old farmer, however, (as you will of course anticipate,) must necessarily be restricted to a much narrower circle, and to a humbler class of society. What I have at present to say, indeed, relates almost entirely to the former state of the agricultural classes in the southern districts of Scotland; and I have endeavoured to illustrate the subject chiefly by describing to you the common economy of my father's household. You must not, therefore, look for any thing like a full discussion of the matter, nor any complete picture of rustic life and manners. I can only pretend to give you a few of the traits that have left the most vivid impression on my own memory,-leaving to you, Mr Editor, or some of your intelligent correspondents, the task of filling up the outline, and drawing general conclusions. My ancestors, so far back as I can trace them, (which I am proud to do to the reign of Charles II.) have been, like myself, "tillers of the ground." I shall not, however, attempt to carry you back to those evil times, when my great-grandfather suffered many severities for conscience sake; but I shall begin with quoting one or two family papers, to shew the frugal mode of living that prevailed about the beginning of last century among people of our rank. The first of these is my grandfather's marriage-contract with his first wife, dated February 19, 1707. In this document, which is very formally drawn out in due legal style, the bridegroom engages to settle on his "future spouse, Margaret Paisley, lawfull dauchter to the deceist Thomas Paisley, tenant in Bro therstanes, the soume of five hundred merks Scots," as a competent jointure in the event of her surviving him; while she, on the other hand, makes over to him "all and haill the soume of one hundred pounds Scots money," as the reputable tocher of a substantial farmer's daughter. My grandfather died in 1745, leaving a family of two sons and a daughter, in what were then reckoned very comfortable circumstances. In fact, besides the stock of a small farm, he left upwards of L. 300 Sterling to be divided among his three children. This was no contemptible fortune in these times; but to understand its relative value, it will be necessary to make due allowance not only for the depreciation of money since that period, but still more for the mighty change in the mode of living among all ranks of society. As a curious evidence of this, I send you the subjoined inventory of my grandfather's household furniture, taken by one of his sons at the time of his decease. + * L. 27, 15s. 6d. Sterling. Ane Inventar of ye Insight Plenishing belonging to my late Father.-Taken tle 15th of Febr. 1746. Impr. four beds. It. ane amrie and two cubbords. It. six shires (chairs). It. two kail potts and a kettle. There is now scarcely a respectable hind in that quarter of the country, who could not muster a more valuable array of moveables. And yet the worthy goodman who owned this frugal gear, was not in his day accounted either mean or miserly; but, on the contrary, maintained a reputable character for hospitality, and lived in habits of friendship and occasional family intercourse, not only with friends and neighbours of his own rank, but also with his landlord, (a small but respectable proprietor,) and with the minister of the parish. My father, who was the eldest son, about this time entered upon an excellent farm of 500 acres, partly arable and partly pasturage, for which he paid a rent of L. 100 Sterling; and it was reckoned dear enough taken at the time. Yet the same farm was let six years ago to a worthy neighbour of mine (who now occupies it) for L. 1000 per annum. So much have times altered, and agriculture improved during the last 70 years. Soon after entering to this farm, my father married the daughter of a small laird or portioner, who brought him a handsome dowry of 100 guineas. With this addition to his patrimony, he throve apace, and brought up a family of nine sons and two daughters; all of whom, except one, he had the satisfaction to see well married and established in the world, before his death, which happened about the year eighty. -But it is now time to give you some specimens of our mode of living, which entirely corresponded with that of our neighbours in the same station. Our farm employed three ploughs; and, besides the master and his family, our household usually consisted of four men and three women servants. The ploughmen (as is still the practice) slept in the stable loft. It. ane puther (pewter) stoup and jug. It. three lim (?) trenchers. It. a lim dish. It. 11 timber trenchers. It. a timber stoupe. It. 3 pigs. It. six plaits. It. six timber caps. It. twelve horne spoons. It. eight puther spoons. It. two dozen of bottles. Hinds, or married servants with separate houses, were not then common; but the shepherd had a house and kail yard allotted him as at present. When all at home, our whole family generally amounted to from fifteen to eighteen souls,-a number, perhaps, somewhat more than will usually be found now on a farm of the same extent, but maintained certainly in a much more frugal manner. Every farmer then killed his own beef and mutton, brewed his own beer, and maintained his wife and children, as well as servants, on home provisions. Groceries were little used,bakers' bread very little,-and butcher meat from the market not at all, In regard to the last article, the uniform practice was to kill a bullock a bout Martinmas, (called from that circumstance, I suppose, The Mart,) which, being well cured, and served out with great economy, kept the house in salted beef till the end of the following autumn. Pork occasionally, with a lamb or two in their season, and brary mutton at other times, contributed to assist the Mart in bringing round the year. To support such a family in this manner, would be quite impossible now-a-days; and even then it would have been impossible, had not the whole economy of a farmhouse been upon a very different footing from our present system. Little of the jealous distinction of ranks which now subsists between the farming class and their hired servants, was then known. Every household formed, in fact, but one society, as well as one family. Masters and servants dined at the same table,-assembled round the same fireside,—and conversed together on common topics. If there was less refinement in the one class than at present, there was also less vulgarity in the other, from this intercourse; and there was unquestionably more mutual kindness and reciprocal attachment. A description of our common mode of living in my father's time will give you a pretty accurate idea of the system that prevailed about the middle of last century. A long stout table stood near the window of the kitchen, (an apartment also sometimes called the Ha', and which was contrived to serve both purposes.) At meals, the It. cruik and clips, tongs, and flesh goodman took his seat at the head of hook. this table; next him sat his own fa |