porticos of the gigantic oak and solemn was thickly spangled with cowslips, groves, far from the dull impertinence and each cowslip cradled a spirit, that, of man, and listened to the instructive at the sound of the curfew-bell, would voice of God, and contemplated the start from her day-light sleep to join. wonders of his adorable hand amidst her sisters in the fairy garabols. The the moss-grown cells and rocky shades? same bell still hangs in the new church, How inelegant, or how insensible is and its Saxon inscription tells, that it the mind which has no awakened lively is the same. But now it speaks relish for these sweet recesses, and another language--the language of the their exquisite beauties ! bridal or the grave; and though its sound often breaks the stillness of the evening, no fairy rises at its summon9;51 either the elves like not its altered tones, * or they sleep in a warmer moonlight. : But my tale is of other times, when the curfew-bell tolled, and the fairies danced, and the monks brewed their wine from the grapes that clustered around the Abbey.

Almost all the beauties of poetry have been drawn from the country. Our Thomson, our Burns, our Hogg, and indeed, all our best poets were bred here; they received the rudiments of their poetic education from the picturesque scenery which surrounded them; their writings breathe, as it were, the country air; their minds were formed, as it were, by the ground they trod on; and their growing passions influenced by the surrounding scenery. Many of the most important discoveries in astronomy were made by people dwelling in the country. During the long winter nights, when deep sleep falleth upon men,' the shepherd, attended only by his faithful dog, traverses the mountain to tend his flock, he has therefore every opportunity to observe the appearances of the heavens. Ferguson was a Scottish shepherd, and he made astronomical discoveries which will immortalize his name while astronomy is a science.›

I shall conclude this short sketch by merely observing, that the country is, in many respects, preferable to the town. Here we have the best of men to converse with, and the exquisite beauties of nature to behold and admire.d

!

RUSTICUS.

CHERTSEY MEADOWS. While Chertsey Abbey stood, these meadows were the favourite resort of the fairies: the turf for miles around

I

It was a lovely evening-the earth.. was bright and the skies were brighter, when, at the usual summons, each spirit started from her cowslip to join in the fairy revels. Some bathed in the liquid moon-beams, some playedd with the shooting stars, others chased the humming beetle with spears from the thorns of roses, and others again danced about their clf-queen, who was seated on a throne of gossamer, that was tinged by the moon-beams into all the colours of the rainbow. But they had scarcely revelled it an hour, when their sports were interrupted by the tread of human feet, and the sound of human voices. In an instant all had vanished to their cowslip-bells, save! the elf-queen and her favourite, who, hid in the gossamer, listened with imsi patient anger to the cause of this interruption; but the voices spokenin sorrow, and the anger of the gentle elf-queen was quickly changed to pity.

6

Tulip,' she exclaimed to her attendant O Tulip it grieves me for these human mortals; this earth has a thou-: sand forms of life, and every form of life has its happiness; man only ment -seems destined to unchanging mis

ery. But go, Tulip, and dry up those tears, if they are the tears of innocence. This talisman will show you their hearts without disguise, and at the same time will give you power to do all that may be requisite for their welfare. Be wary, however, in its use; for once given, the gift cannot be recalled, and it is no slight task to make man happy: that, which not to have is his misery, too often becomes indifferent to him when obtained. With these words the elfin-queen floated away on the moon-beams! while Tulip, rocked on a blade of grass that waved back-the astrologer who had cast his natied wards and forwards in the night-wind, anxiously watched the business of the intruders. To the human sight she was nothing more than a gossamer wound about the grass, and moving with its motion.

Maria answered not with words,pq but her tears spoke for her, as she lifted up her lovely head and gazed onto the heavens, with a look that told theor piety as well as sorrow of her heart.w It was a look so mild! so beseeching !!t so full of anguish The fairy felt all the force of the appeal, and wished tod relieve her suffering; but her mistress had warned her against a hasty judg ment, and consulting her talisman, she read the history of the lovers as if ind a written volume. William had beenT blind from his birth, and, according to

The mortals approached; a young man, and a maiden in her seventeenth year, who had one arm twined about her lover, while her head was drooped to earth like a tulip heavy with the night-dews. Her form was so delicate, and yet so beautiful in its delicacy! The auburn locks flowed about a neck sos white dnso dazzling white! Oh, such loveliness is not often looked on either by sun or moon! And the youth was worthy of such a maid; though sorrow lay pale on his cheek, and no light was in his eyes.

Maria, sighed the lover, I hear you weep; I feel the palpitation of your bosom! Alas! is there no hope left ? No hope ?Till now you could always find some consolation for your poor William And the time flits so fast too! Though I cannot see, I hear the moments tramp-tramp tramp by me with the speed of a horse, and then I stretch out my arms to stop the next minute that is coming by, but that minute passes like the former Would that I were dead!'

vity, would either recover his sight at the age of twenty, or be blind for ever!!! For years every remedy of art and witch-t craft had been tried, but neither herb nor mineral, neither prayer nor charm, had t power to remove his darkness.: Still, even in his dark state, he loved and was beloved by Maria: she was the playfellow of the child, the companion of the boy, the mistress of the youthq but their love was without hope the father of Maria would not consent to her union with the blind and helpless William, who, so far from being able to protect a wife, was unable to pro-d tect himself. He had, indeed, the gift of poesy in no ordinary degree, and could touch the harp as few have! have touched it before or since but these qualities alone were uselesston the knight of those turbulent times, when each man was secure only as hed could secure himself, and each baron being a sort of king, of course exercised the royal prerogative of murder and rapine, under the usual name off honourable warfare. A poet, there fore, was a much more useless animal in those days, than he is even in the present; and, accordingly, the Baron rejected the poetical alliance, except under the condition of William being

able to see his enemies a condition that was not very likely to be fulfilled!

The hour of twelve the next day would bring him to the fatal age of twenty, when, if the astrologer might be behieved, all hope of recovery was fruitless. But whether he spoke truth or not was little to the purpose, for the Baron would grant so long, and not an instant longer.

thing to him, and when the last sickness touches you, death will be rendered gentler by the thought of past happiness; for you will never have felt the pains of neglect, the madness of jealousy, or the venom of ingrati-. tude!'

But William

happier?".

will he too be

No; the sight is the noblest of the human senses. But you will be most happy-.

As the moon waxed paler and paler, the despair of the lovers became wilder and wilder, till at last it swelled to the utmost endurance of human nature, and they resolved, since they Enough!' exclaimed William, could not live together, that they would enough! benevolent being whom I die together. This was a pleasure no see even in my blindness, take not parent could deprive them of; accord- from me the spell with which her hapingly, they exchanged the first and piness is bound. Unite our hands, as last kiss, twined their arms closely our hearts have long been unitedround each other, and thus united were I care not for other joys; for what about to seek death in his cold dwel-joys can be greater-what joys so great ling at the bottom of the stream, when they were held back by the fairy, who suddenly stood beside them in the form of a female warrior,

-as to rest on her bosom-to hear her voice break forth in love to me? I know no other happiness I wish to know no other.'

6

Do

Forbear! she exclaimed to the Maria's eyes were cast to earth as astonished lovers; no flowers spring she murmured in accents that were on the grave of the suicide; no hope broken by fear, and hope, and doubt is for those who abandon hope. But can you his eyes, not open But I come to save, and not to chide; and yet preserve him faithful to me?" mmy hand is the talisman that will How!' replied the fairy, Lestore your sight.'-Maria clung more you not know the fickleness of men? closely to her lover, and her cheeks The whole round of creation is not glowed like the crimson evening.-sufficient to their wishes. All they Look on this vial; it is of purest see they desire; all they obtain they diamonds, but the water it contains is still purer, on you, Maria, it depends whether William shall continue in his blindness.'

despise; and thus they go on from wish to wish, till desire itself is ex-) hausted, and they grow weary of life, without losing the innate apprehension of the grave. How then can you hope to fetter such a being ?

On me: O then he sees already.' Hear me and then decide. Your's he shall be at all events, for Alas!' said Maria- if William my art can work greater wonders than continues blind, his happiness must that with your father-but as to his rest solely upon me and then if any sight, pause yet a moment; much-ill-starred hour should snatch me from nay all is on your choice. The blind him, he would be left on the earth, William will always love you to your helpless and hopeless. No, benevolent sightless husband you never will be spirit-I will not buy his love at the older, for age is to the eyes, and not price of his felicity-I will not withto the car or mind. You will be every' hold from the sight of this beautiful

world, and the beings that are on it, Let the veil fall from his eyes-let them be opened to the sun, and all that the sun gives life to'

Never-never!' interrupted William Blindness! utter unalterable blindness!—if sight is to make me forget Maria!'

culiar to the Gael; and it is believed the following account of a gipsey freebooter

will show, how much the ferocity and meanness of his maternal tribe were corrected by occasionally associating with the generous mountaineers who countenanced him, for the sake of his father. James Macpherson, the subject of our memoir, was born of a beautiful gipsey, who at a great wedding attracted the notice of a A tear a heavenly tear was in the half-intoxicated highland gentleman. He fairy's eye, as she joined their hands. acknowledged the child, and had him reared May your love,' she said, 'be always in his house, until he lost his life in bravely as it is in this hour-as pure, as glow-pursuing a hostile clan, to recover a spraith of cattle taken from Badenoch. The gip ing!-But I must be quick, for the sey woman, hearing of this disaster, in here last star is fading in the heavens, and rambles the following summer, came and, the breath of morning comes drowsily took away her boy; but she often returned on my senses.' with him, to wait upon his relations and* clansmen, who never failed to cloathe him well, besides giving money to his mother.

،

He grew up in strength, stature, and beauty, seldom equalled. His sword is still preserved at Duff-house, a residence of the Earl of Fife, and few men in our day could carry, far less weild, it as a weapon of war; and if it must be owned his prow ess was debased by the exploits of a freebooter, it is certain no act of cruelty, no

Thrice the fairy touched his closed eyes with the talisman, and thrice every nerve trembled with a feeling of pleasure so acute as to border on pain.As the last thrill ceased to vibrate, his eyes opened on the fair form of Maria. For a moment he gazed on her in silence; his heart swelled in his bosom, and his whole form trem-robbery of the widow, the fatherless, or bled with expectation.

William ! exclaimed the maiden. Tis she tis Maria ! and he folded her to his breast as if eternity were in the embrace, while the benign fairy bestowed on them her parting blessing, ere she melted into air. Nor was that blessing fruitless; when the moon, which was then young, had completed her monthly course, the loverst were united in the chapel of Chertsey Abbey; and the torch that shone on their nuptial couch, was lit by the hands of the Elfin Queen herself; and when they died, after an union of thirty years, it was inscribed ontheir tomb-Here rests the remains of two faithful lovers.

G. S.

ANECDOTES of J, MACPHERSON,
ANCIENT FREEBOOTER AND MUSICIAN.
From the New Monthly Magazine.
Mr. EDITOR, You are, no doubt, ac-
quainted with many traits of character pc-

distressed, and no murder was ever perpetrated under his command. He often gave the spoils of the rich to relieve tha, poor; and all his tribe were restrained from many attrocities of rapine by their awe of his mighty arm. Indeed, it is said that a dispute with an aspiring and savage man house while his wife and two children lay

of his tribe, who wished to rob a gentleman's

on the bier for interment, was the cause of

his being betrayed to the vengance of the law. The magistrates of Aberdeen were exasperated at Macpherson's escape, when they bribed a girl in that city to allure and

deliver him into their hands. There is a/

platform before the jail, at the top of a stair, and a door below, When Macpherson's capture was made known to his comrades by the frantic girl, who had been only wanted to hear the wonderful perfor so credulous as to believe the magistrates mance on the violin, his cousin, Donald Macpherson, a gentleman of Herculian denock, and to join a gipsey, Peter Brown, powers, did not disdain to come from Bain liberating the prisoner. On a market day they brought several assistants; and swift horses were stationed at a convenient distance. Donald Macpherson and Peter

Brown forced the jail, and while Peter of the violin, which to this day is preserved Brown went to help the heavily-fettered as a valuable memento, by the family of James Macpherson in moving away, Cluny, chieftain of the Macphersons. Donald Macpherson guarded the jail-door

a drawn sword. Many persons asseinbled at the market, had experienced James Macpherson's humanity, or had shared his bounty; and they crowded round the jail as in mere curiosity, but, in fact, to obstruct the civil authorities from preventing a rescue. A butcher, however, was resolved, if possible, to detain Macpherson, expecting a large recompence from the magistrates: he sprang up the stairs, and leaped from the platform upon Donald Macpherson, whom he dashed to the ground by the force and weight of his body. Donald Macpherson soon recovered, to make a desperate resistance; and the combatants tore off each others clothes. The butcher got a glimpse of his dog upon the

REVIEW.

B. G.

Paramythia; or, Mental Pastimes.
London, 1822.

We accompany our announcement of this volume with a wish that one half of what we peruse, in our critical capacity, were but half as entertaining as this little collection of original anec dotes.

We learn as we proceed in the vo lume, that the author is an engraver, who resided at St. Petersburgh some time during the reigns of Catherine and Paul. Under the title of Scraps with introductory paragraphs, he gives us a number of amusing particulars, which have occurred under his own observation.

·

The first two Scraps' that occur will suffice to give our readers a fair idea of the contents:

platform, and called him to his aid; but Macpherson, with admirable presence of mind, snatched up his own plaid which lay near, and threw it over the butcher, thus misleading the instinct of this canine adversary. The dog darted with fury upon the plaid, and terribly lacerated his master's thigh. In the mean time, James Macpherson had been carried out by Peter Brown, and was soon joined by Donald Macpherson, who was quickly covered by some friendly spectator with a hat and great coat. The magistrates ordered webs from the shops to be drawn across the A German of the name of Kloteh,a Gallowgate; but Donald Macpherson cut very worthy man, was cook and maitre d' them asunder with his sword, and James, hotel to the empress Catherine. Though the late prisoner, got off on horseback.— old, he was a court beau, and very spruce He was some time after betrayed by a about the head; and, being a favourite with man of his own tribe; and was the last her imperial majesty, used to hand some person executed at Banff, previous to the particular dishes to her on great occasions, abolition of heritable jurisdiction. He One of the torments in high northern latwas an admirable performer on the violin; itudes, where the summer is so short and and his talent for composition is still in evi- hot, is the innumerable hosts of flies that dence in Macpherson's Rant,' Macpher- tease you. Some wags, aware of this, got son's Pibroch,' and Macpherson's Fare- the old gentleman's best bag-wig, and.... well. He performed those tunes at the powdered it with the finest pulverized foot of the fatal tree; and then asked if double-refined white sugar; so that, when he had any friend in the crowd to whom a he waited at table, he was beset, like Phalast gift of his instrument would be accept-raoh, with the worst of his plagues. He able. No man had hardihood to claim beat with his hands, blew, puffed, reddened friendship with a delinquent, in whose in the face, and at last, no longer able to s crimes the acknowledgment might im- bear silently the torinent he endured, burst plicate an avowed acquaintance. As no out suddenly with the exclamation of friend came forward, Macpherson said the companion of many gloomy hours should perish with him, and, breaking the violin over his knee, he threw away the fragments. Donald Macpherson picked up the neck

Donder and blitz vas is das for a fly sum mer! Her majesty, aware of the trickor soothed him, and affected to wonder the flies should exclusively level all their stings at him, advised him to pull off his wig,