hot always being paid, that he conceived difguft at the inclination. The theory which he professed, " that it was impossible to ask a gen-, tleman for money," he perfectly confirmed by the practice; and he never violated this feeling to the latest hour of his life. On this subject, which regards the manners of Mr Elwes, gladly I seize an opportunity to speak of them with the praise that is their due. They were fuch-fo gentle, so attentive, so gentlemanly, and so engaging, that rudeness could not ruffle them, nor strong ingratitude break their observance. He retained this peculiar feature of the old court to the last; but he had a praise far beyond this; he had the most gallant disregard of his own person, and all care about himself, I ever witnessed in man. The instances in younger life, in the most imminent personal hazard, are innumerable: but when age had defpoiled him of his activity, and might have rendered care and attention about himself natural, he knew not what they were. He wished no one to affift him." He was as young as ever he could walk-he could ride, and he could dance; and he hoped he should not give trouble, even when he was old." He was, at that time, seventy five. It is curious to remark, how he contrived to mingle small attempts at faving, with objects of the most unbounded diffipation. After fitting up a whole night at play for thousands, with the most fashionable and profiigate men of the time, amidst splendid rooms, gilt fofas, wax lights, and waiters attendant on his call, he would walk out about four in the morning, nottowards home, but into Smithfield, to meet his own cattle, which were coming to market from Thaydonhall, a farm of his in Effex! There wou'd this fame man, forgetful of the scenes he had just left, stand, in the VOL. XI. No. 64. Li cold or rain, bartering with a carcass butcher for a "shilling! Sometimes, when the cattle did not arrive at the hour he expected, he would walk on in the mire to meet them; and, more than once, has gone on foot the whole way to his farm without stopping, which was seventeen miles from London, after fitting up the whole night. Had every man been of the mind of Mr Elwes, the race of innkeepers must have perished, and poftchaises have been returned back to those who made them; for it was the bufinefs of his life to avoid both. He always travelled on horseback. To see him fetting out on a journey was a matter truly curious; his first care was to put two or three eggs, boited hard, into his great coat pocket, or any scraps of bread which he found baggage he then, mounting one of his hunters, his next attention was to get out of London, into that road where turnpikes were the fewest. Then, stopping under any hedge where grass presented itself for his horse, and a little water for himself, he would fit down and refresh himself and his horse together. Here presenting a new species of bramin, worth five hundred thoufand pounds. never took The chief refidence of Mr Elwes, at this period of his life, was in Berkshire, at his own feat at Marcham. Here it was he had two fons born, who inherit the greatest part of his property, by a will made about the year 1785. The keeping fox-hounds was the only instance, in the whole life of Mr Elwes, of his ever facrificing money to pleasure, and may be selected, as the only period when he forgot the cares, the perplexities, and the regret, which his wealth occafioned. But even here every thing was done in the most frugal manner. Scrub, in the Beaux Stratagem, when com-pared with Mr Elwes' huntsman, had an idle life of it. This famous huntf man man might have fixed an epoch in the history of servants; for, in a morning, getting up at four o'clock, he milked the cows-he then prepared breakfast for Mr Elwes, or any friends he might have with him; then flipping on a green coat, he hurried into the stable, faddled the horfes, got the hounds out of the kennel, and away they went into the field. After the fatigues of hunting, he refreshed himself by rubbing down two or three horses as quickly as he could; then running into the house to lay the cloth, and wait at dinner; then hurrying again into the stable to feed the horfes-diverfified with an interlude of the cows again to milk, the dogs to feed, and eight hunters to litter down for the night. What may appear extraordinary, the man lived for fome years, though his mafter used often to call him " an idle dog!" and fay, " he wanted to be paid for doing nothing!" In the penury of Mr Elwes, there was fomething that seemed like a judgment from heaven. All earthly comforts he voluntarily denied himfelf: he would walk home in the rain, in London, fooner than pay a thilling for a coach: he would fit in wet cloaths fooner than have a fire to dry them: he would eat his provisions in the last ftage of putrefaction sooner than have a fresh joint from the butchers; and he wore a wig for above a fortnight, which I faw him pick up out of a rut in a lane where we were riding. This was the last extremity of laudable economy: for, to all appearance, it was the caft-off wig of fome beggar! The day in which I first beheld him in this ornament, exceeded all power of farce, for he had torn a brown coat, which he generally wore, and had been obliged to have recourse to the old chest of Sir Jervaise, from whence he had felected a full-dressed green velvet coat, with flash fleeves; and there he fat at dinner in boots, the aforesaid green vel vet, his own white hair appearing round his face, and this black stray wig at the top of all. A Captain Roberts, who was with us at the time, and who had a great respect for Mr Elwes, was yet unable to fit at dinner for laughing. When this inordinate passion for saving did not interfere, there are, upon record, fome kind offices and very active service, undertaken by Mr Elwes. He would go far and long to serve those who applied to him; and give-however strange the word from him-would give himself great trouble to be of use. Thefe instances are gratifying to select-it is plucking the sweet briar and the rose from the weeds that overspread the garden. When Mr Elwes was at Marcham, two very ancient maiden ladies, in his neighbourhood, had, for fome neglect, incurred the difpleasure of the spiritual court, and were threatened with immediate excommunication."_ 66 The whole import of the word they did not perfectly understand, but they had heard something about standing in a church and a penance, and their ideas immediately ran upon a white sheet. They concluded, if they once got into that, it was all over with them, and as the excommunication was to take place the next day, away they hurried to Mr Elwes, to know how they could make fubmiffion, and how the sentence might be prevented. No time was to be loft. Mr Elwes did that which, fairly speaking, not one man in five thousand would have done; he had his horfe faddied, and putting, according to usual custom, a couple of hard eggs in his pocket, he set out for London that evening, and reached it early enough the next morning to notify the fubmiffion of the culprit damfels. Riding 60 miles in the night, to confer a favour on two antiquated virgins, to whom he had no particular obligation, was really, what not one man in five thousand would have done: but where perfon al al fatigue could serve, Mr Elwes never spared it. The ladies were so overjoyed-fo thankful: So much trouble and ex pence!-What returns could they make? To ease their confciences on this head, an old Irish gentleman, their neighbour, who knew Mr Elwes's mode of travelling, wrote these words" My Dears, is it expence you are talking of? fend him fixpence, and he gains twopence by the journey." Mr Elwes had now refided about thirteen years in Suffolk, when the conteft for Berkshire presented itself on the diffolution of the Parliament; and when, to preserve the peace of that county, he was nominated by Lord Craven. Mr Elwes, though he had retired from public business for some years, had still left about him some of the feeds of more active life, and he agreed to the proposal. It came farther enhanced to him, by the agreement, that he was to be brought in by the freeholders for nothing. I believe all he did was dining at the ordinary at Reading; and he got into Parliament for eighteen-pence! Though a new man, Mr Elwes could not be called a young member; for he was at this time nearly fixty years old when he thus entered on public life, But he was in poffefsion of all his activity; and preparatory to his appearance on the boards of St Stephen's Chapel, he used to attend constantly, during the races and other public meetings, all the great towns where his voters refided. At the different affemblies, he would dance amongst the youngest to the laft, after riding over on horseback, and frequently in the rain, to the place of meeting. A gentleman who was one night standing by, observed on the extraordinary agility of so old a man "O! that is nothing," replied another; " for Mr Elwes, to do this, rode twenty miles in the rain, with Iiz his shoes stuck into his boots, and his bag-wig in his pocket." The honour of Parliament made no alteration in the dress of Mr Elwes: on the contrary, it seemed, at this time, to have attained additional meanness-and nearly to have reached that happy climax of poverty, which has, more than once, drawn on him the compaffion of those who paffed by him in the street. For the Speaker's dinners, however, he had one fuit, with which the Speaker, in the course of the feffions, became very familiar. The minifter likewife was well acquainted with it; and, at any dinner of opposition, still was his apparel the same. The wits of the minority used to say, "that they had full as much reafon as the minifter to be fatisfied with Mr Elwes, as he had the fame habit with every body." At this period of his life, Mr Elwes wore a wig. Much about that time, when his parliamentary life ceased, that wig was worn out; fo then, being older and wifer as to expence, he wore his own hair, which, like his expences, was very small. All this time the income of Mr Elwes was increasing hourly, and his present expenditure was next to nothing; for the little.pleasures he had once engaged in, he had now given up. He kept no house, and only one old fervant, and a couple of horses; he resided with his nephew; his two fons he had stationed in Suffolk and Berkshire, to look after his respective estates; and his dress certainly was no expence to him; for, had not other people been more careful than himself, he would not have had it even mended. When he left London, he went on horseback to his country feats, with his couple of hard eggs, and without once stopping upon the road at any house. He always took the most unfrequented road; but Mar+ cham was the feat he now chiefly vie fited; (To be continued.) fited; which had fome reason to be flattered with the preference, as his journey into Suffolk cost him only two-pence halfpenny, while that into Berkshire amounted to four-pence! As Mr Elwes came into parliament without expence, he performed his duty as a member would have done in the pure days of our constitution. What he had not bought, he never attempted to fell; and he went forward in that straight and direct path, which can alone fatisfy a reflecting mind. In one word, Mr Elwes, as a public man, voted and acted in the House of Commons as a man would do, who felt there were people to live after him-who wished to deliver unmortgaged to his children, the public estate of government, and who felt, that if he suffered himself to become a penfioner on it, he thus far embar. rassed his posterity, and injured the inheritance. Amongst the smaller memorials of the parliamentary life of Mr Elwes may be noted, that he did not follow the custom of members in general, by fitting on any particular fide of the house, but fat, as occafion presented itself, on either indiscriminately; and he voted much in the same manner. SIR, Η P To the-Publisher. AVING left my native city many years ago, you will not be surprised, on my return, to hear that I was in raptures with the New Town particularly, which exceeds in beauty and magnificence all those I have yet visited, though I have travelled pretty extensively in Europe, Africa, and America. The plan is elegant, it has a charming regularity, without the infipidity of Philadelphia. The bridges and the mound, have so astonishingly changed the appearance of Old Edina, that I scarce can bring to my recollection the places, which at my departure were most familiar to me in my youthful days: were but these Luckenbooths demolished, and the bridge over the Cow. gate, oppofite the High Church, compleated, which I am informed is part of the present plan of improvement; it would, perhaps, be one of the grandest approaches to the grandest street in Europe, from the Bristo Port in a a straight line thro' between Brown's and Argyle Squares, removing the fouth-east angle of the Parliament Canongate, 29th March 1790. House; and building it in a straight line fouth equal with the rest of the building, would be no great expence, and that part where the Lords of Session hold their Court, facing the statue of Charles the Second, with the steeple of the High Church, would be a most noble termination, and a spacious and elegant opening to the High Street by two passages, one above the church, and the other by the present, which is below the church fa cing the Exchange. There is likewise feemingly a great want of a commodious street from the Grassmarket to the High Street, which might be accomplished to great advantage, terminating with this New Bridge, in an oblique direction, from the Cornmarket in the Grassmarket, to the High Church, along the fide of the hill, and where I believe there are only old shabby houses at present. When the entrance to the N. Bridge is widened, it is to be supposed that Milne's Court will be left open to correspond with the new square opposite, which will have a grand effect; the the Nether Bow is a great eye-fore where the projections of old houses on the north side obitruct the view, with their irregular and shabby appearance as far as Leith wynd. The weigh-house is a disgrace to architecture and stands as a monument, like Lady Nicholfon's pillar of obftruction. The fite of the North loch is still difgusting below as well as above the Bridge; the balustrades of the East fide ought to be filled up, like those of the Weft; they are only meant to show a beautiful stream, not flaughterhouses or swamps of noxious and difagreeable appearance. A row of houfes would have a good effect from the Mound to the Meat-market, and would hide those shabby buildings which are a difcredit to the back part of the High Street, and which face that elegant row called Prince's Street in the New Town, and the ground might be laid out with beauty and advantage, in the valley between them. These are the principle defects which at present strike and difgust the eye of a stranger: there are other defects in the dress and appearance of the lower class, especially the females, who are not so captivating as those of our Southern neighbours, and who from a more intimate knowledge and intercourse with them will naturally improve; for at present they have a loose and dirty flovenly appearance, which, with their language, defeats even the inhabitants of St Gileses in London. My next perambulations shall be to the outskirts of this town and Leith, and if they are not confidered as too fevere by you, they may have fome little effect, which will amply reward one who has the profperity of Edinburgh fincerely at heart, and oblige your's, A SCOTSMAN. 4 W Directions for the Discovery of Coal*. HEN gentlemen wish to know if there are appearances of coal in their estates, they should, in the first place, make themselves well acquainted with the appearances and characters of the various strata which commonly accompany coal. These characters and appearances I have described above: And, secondly, they should make themselves acquainted with the various fymptoms and indications of a seam of coal, which I have now under confideration. When they have acquired these two branches of knowledge, their business is to walk up and down, and carefully to examine all the ravines, gullies, rivulets, fcars, and ditches in their estates, with fuch rocks and precipices and o ther places where the superficies of the strata may be seen. I have faid above, and I know it to be truth, that there are few amusements more pleasant, entertaining, and agreeable, perhaps there are none that foothe, enlarge, and elevate the mind like researches of this kind. It is in these scenes that we discover what the solid fuperficies of our globe is composed of, and how it is formed; and the variety which we behold, and the discoveries which we make, are a never-failing source of pleasure and entertainment to an inquifitive and intelligent mind; and it is in these broken scenes of nature that we have the greatest chance of making mineral discoveries of various kinds, and particularly * From the Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom. By John Williams, Mineral Surveyor. |