thing of the Clyde, I gladly accepted the invitation. We therefore immediately proceeded to the quay, and entering the Defiance steam-boat, left Glasgow about three o'clock in the afternoon. The banks of the Clyde are rather beautiful than otherwise, here and there adorned with the villas of Glasgow merchants. In consequence of the want of water sufficiently deep to admit of large vessels coming close up to Glasgow, the steam-boats are extremely useful for conveying goods to Port Glasgow, where they are shipped in heavy burdened vessels for abroad. It was on the Clyde that the first experiment with steam-boats was tried in Great Britain. The boats employed on this river have the boilers of their engines made of wrought iron, and the effects of an explosion hence become almost harmless, as a seam being the weakest part of the boiler, always cracks and gives vent to the highly condensed vapour, and the ears only of the passengers are a little offended by the loud report. Two little ragged beggar-boys contrived to creep into the boat before our departure, and having obtained all they were able from the pockets of the passengers, by two pathetic tales, delivered in a most piteous tone, retired into a corner, and with all imaginable glee amused themselves during the remainder of the voyage, by gambling with their spoils at the game of toss-up. We had scarcely left Glasgow many miles behind us, when a shower of rain compelled me to take shelter in the cabin, and content myself with a life of Sterne until we reached the pier of Port Glasgow. This port is extensive and elegant, the houses and harbour are stone, as are all the buildings in Scotland, bricks being but seldom met with. Scotch town-halls, like those on the continent, have generally a steeple, for the purpose of containing a public clock. Mr. G.'s enquiry after his friend, Mr. P., proving fruitless, we settled ourselves for the evening at the inn; Mr. P., however, made his appearance with another gentleman, about eight o'clock, and spent the rest of the evening with us. Mr. P. and my friend having been apprentices in the same office, the conversation naturally turned upon their old exploits, which with the fatigues of the day as naturally threw me into a premature doze. One anecdote, however, in connection with the place, related by Mr. P., I must not omit to mention. The town-bell, which kept dinning in our ears the whole evening, was presented to the town by some person whose name I do not remember; and in order that this gift should be treated with all due respect, the wise ones of Port Glasgow had it painted. Much to their surprise when they tried it, after undergoing this strange operation, they found the bell had lost all its sound. Considerable consultation and advice was had concerning the best mode of curing this dumbness, and it was at length consigned to the cook and scraper, to be roasted, boiled, and scraped; by these means the bell again recovered its sound, but the mellowness of its tones is still a faint and living record of the operations it underwent, and a slur has ever since been attached on the wisdom of the wise ones of Port Glasgow. The next morning being fine, I wandered up a hill close behind the town, whence I commanded a delightful view of the Clyde and its hilly banks, and the port of Greenock, which is only three miles beyond this town. Directly before me I had a distinct view of the distant Highlands, a glance that increased my desire to be among them. The harbour below me was but thinly scattered with shipping: before the peace of 1814, it has been known to receive in one day more than forty sail of merchantmen from the West Indies, which is far from being the case at present. In consequence of this great trade an additional harbour was commenced, but the sudden failure of trade prevented its completion, and it now remains in an unfinished state. The town being merely a place of trade, our curiosity respecting it did not detain us long, and Mr. G. having fulfilled his intention, we left it about cleven o'clock, in a steam-boat. We remained on deck during the greater part of our passage; the wind blew cool, though not so much so as the day before, and I was determined not to lose the prospect this time. Dumbarton and Dunglass castles are the chief objects worthy of notice on the shores; but as I shall have to mention these hereafter, I defer every thing concerning them for the present. A little beyond Dunglass we perceived a steam-boat had run a-shore; our pilot immediately made up to it, and we found it had stopped in consequence of something having broken in the engine, without any hurt. The goods and passengers were taken into our vessel, and the paddles being put in motion, we reached Glasgow about two o'clock, p. m. C. E. TO BE RESUMED. ANECDOTE AND WIT. No. 11.-CHARLOTTE CHARKE.* THE elder Cibber had a daughter, named Charlotte, who also took to the stage; ber subsequent life was one continued series of misfortune, afflictions, and distress, which she sometimes contrived a little to alleviate by the productions of her pen. About the year 1755, she had worked up a novel for the press, which the writer, (Mr. White) accompanied his friend the bookseller to hear read: she was at this time a widow, having been married to one Charke, a musician, long since dead. Her habitation was a wretched thatched hovel, situated on the way to Islington, in the purlieus of Clerkenwell bridewell, not very distant from the New-river head, where at that time it was usual for the scavengers to leave the cleansings of the streets, and the nightmen to deposit the contents of the privies of the metropolis. The night preceding, a heavy rain had fallen, which rendered this extraordinary seat of the muses almost inaccessible, so that in our approach we got our white stockings inveloped with mud up to the very calves, which furnished an appearance much in the present fashionable style of half-boots. We knocked at the door (not attempting to pull the latch-string) which was opened by a tall, meagre, ragged figure, with a blue apron, indicating, what else we might have doubted, the feminine gender. A perfect model for the copper-captain's tattered landlady; that deplorable ex * If I remember right, for I have not the book at hand to refer to, there is a life of this unfortunate woman in Floyd's Biography.--ED. A A hibition of the fair sex, in the comedy of Rule a Wife. She, with a torpid voice and hungry smile, desired us to walk in. The first object that presented itself was a dresser, clean, it must be confessed, and furnished with three or four coarse delft-plates, two brown platters, and underneath an earthen pipkin, and a black pitcher, with a snip out of it. To the right we perceived and bowed to the mistress of the mansion, sitting under the mantle-piece, by a fire, merely sufficient to put us in mind of starving. On one hob sate a monkey, which by way of welcome chattered at our going in; on the other a tabby cat, of melancholy aspect! and at our author's feet, on the flounce of her dingy petticoat, reclined a dog, almost a skeleton! he raised his shagged head and eagerly staring with his bleared eyes, saluted us with a snarl. "Have done, Fidele! these are friends." The tone of her voice was not harsh; it had something in it humbled and disconsolate; a mingled effort of authority and pleasure. Poor soul! few were her visitors of that description-no wonder the creature barked! A magpie perched on the top round of her chair, not an uncomely ornament! and on her lap was placed a mutilated pair of bellows; the pipe was gone, an advantage in their present office; they served as a succedaneum for a writing desk, on which lay displayed her hopes and treasure, the manuscript of her novel. Her ink-stand was a broken tea-cup, the pen worn to a stump; she had but one! A rough deal board with three hobbling supporters was brought for our convenience, on which, without further ceremony, we contrived to sit down, and entered upon business. The work was read, remarks made, and alterations agreed to, and thirty guineas demanded for the copy. The squalid hand-maiden, who had been an attentive listener, stretched forward her tawny length of neck with an eye of anxious expectation! The bookseller offered five! Our authoress did not appear hurt: disappointments had rendered her mind callous; however, some altercation ensued. This was the writer's first initiation into the mysteries of bibliopolism and the state of authorcraft. He, seeing both sides pertinacious, at length interposed, and at his instance the wary haberdasher of literature doubled his first proposal, with this saving proviso, that his friend present would pay a moiety, and run one half of the risk; which was agreed to. Thus matters were accommodated, seemingly to the satisfaction of all parties; the lady's original stipulation of fifty copies for herself being previously acceded to. Such is the story of the once-admired daughter of Colley Cibber, poet laureate and patentee of Drury-lane, who was born in affluence and educated with tenderness, her servants in livery and a splendid equipage at her command, with swarms of time-serving sycophants officiously buzzing in her train; yet, unmindful of her advantages, and improvident in her pursuits, she finished the career of her miserable existence on a dunghill! INDEPENDENCE OF MIND.* ANNE HURST was born at Witley, in Surry: there she lived the whole period of a long life, and there she died. As soon as she was thought able to work, she went to service: there before she was twenty, she married John Strudwick, who, like her own father, was a daylabourer. With this husband she lived a prolific, hardworking, contented wife, somewhat more than fifty years. He worked more than threescore years on one farm, and his wages, summer and winter, were regularly a shilling a day. He never asked more, nor was he ever offered less. They had between them seven children; and lived to see six daughters married, and three of them the mothers of sixteen children, all of whom were brought up, or are bringing up, to be daylabourers. Strudwick continued to work till within It is to be hoped that no reader will be fastidious enough to think that this simple narrative occupies a space which might have been better filled. "Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure; From causes which we shall not here discuss, the poor have, unfortunately, long been losing that honest Independence of spirit, which has so beneficial an effect on their character; and it is, therefore, now become as much an act of policy as it is of duty, to hold up to praise and imitation those by whom it has been preserved.-- ED, |