It was a high treat to hear Mr. Scott read bis own poetry: even the burr had a charm. His voice was harsh and unmusical; but the passion and impressive manner made ample amends. I have heard many readers of high character reciting and reading his poetry; but after himself they all fell short. There is, to be sure, a sympathy betwixt a poet and his work that gives double interest. He called on Mr. Grieve to repeat a verse or two," and if his own, it would enhance the value. Mr. Grieve-See Waverley.

country. It is," said Mr. Scott, "not a bad | and his partner had a farm to attend to in subject for a better poem than our friend Eskdale Moor; from all which it was eviSatchel's. You should, Morrison, try your dent that the concern must be much neghand."

Next morning, I introduced Mr. Hogg to General Dirom, who invited us to dinner, was much pleased with his company, and continued Mr. Hogg's steady friend ever after. He left Edinburgh to enter on his new farm of Locherben, which he had taken in company with his friend, Mr. Adam Brydon, of Aberlosk, in the south. About this period Mr. Hogg was arranging the "Mountain Bard" for publication; and I received many letters from him inclosing poems. Mr. Scott also showed me some of his correspondence. "I am afraid," said he, "that Hogg will neglect his hirsel with his poem-making."

I was commissioned to make a survey of a line of road in Dumfriesshire, the direction of which passed near Hogg's farm of Locherben; and on mentioning to Mr. Scott that I would call and see the Shepherd,-"Do," said he; "and bring me an account whether he is doing any good. I am a subscriber to the Mountain Bard.' Here are six pounds-it is all that I have in my pocket; give it to him, with my best respects. He is, I am informed, an indifferent practical shepherd; and his partner, Edie Brydon of Aberlosk, is, it is said, a hard drinker: if so, the farm speculation has but a poor chance of succeeding."

lected. The housekeeper said that the farm was understood to be high-rented, and, even with the most prudent management, would have enough to do. She had left her father's house in a pet, and was a servant for the first time. "My work is easy enough; but I have reason to regret that I ever left my father's house."

Hogg, from being a shepherd on the farm of Mitchelslacks, took, in company with Edie Brydon, the farm of Locherben. I paid a second visit to Locherben. My pretty housekeeper was then gone. It was the time of sheep-shearing, which was just finished. Masters and men were sitting round a small cask of whisky, drinking it raw out of a tea-cup. They were all rather merry. I sat with them for some time, and was regaled with some excellent muttonham, cakes and butter, whisky and water. I had a surveying engagement at Moffat, about ten miles across a rough moor. A number of the company were going the same route. Mr. Brydon was of the party, and fortified his pocket with a bottle of whisky, which was finished on our journey. I was obliged to attend to some papers for the greater part of the night, but I heard the distant sound of revelling. The establishment at Locherben soon after was broken up-how could it stand?—and Mr. I rode some miles out of my way, and Hogg, with a small reversion, took on lease called at Locherben, but Hogg was from a farm on the Water of Scar, in the parish home. His housekeeper, a very good look- of Penpont, about seven miles west from ing girl, under twenty, or about eighteen Locherben. Corfardine was its name. I years of age, invited me to alight and come happened to be at Eccles with Mr. Maitin; for she expected James every minute. land for a few days, and one forenoon paid She unsaddled my pony, and gave it plenty him a visit, distant about three miles. The to eat. I told her that I had a small parcel ground was covered with snow; and on ento leave for her master. "I have two mastering the farm, I found all the sheep on ters," said she; "but I own the authority of the wrong side of the hill. Hogg was abJamie only." The bottle was put down; and soon after, an excellent tea-table was laid, cold lamb, and fried mutton-ham, cheese, &c., For," said she, "you will not have dined." She sat down, and made tea; and I would not wish to have it served by a better hand. Hogg did not make his appearance; and, after tea, the bottle and glasses were again put on the table. I waited till after sun-set, and then prepared to go, presenting the housekeeper with the money. She still insisted that I would wait an hour or two. "You have only to Thornhill to ride; it is the longest day, and it never is dark." I waited still longer; but he did not come. I learned that the Shepherd was too often from home,

sent, and had been so for some days, feast-
ing, drinking, dancing, and fiddling, &c.,
with a neighboring farmer. His house-
keeper was the most ugly, dirty goblin I
had ever beheld; a fearful contrast to his
former damsel. He arrived just as I had
turned my horse's head to depart.
"Come in," said he.
to rights, first," said I;
wrong side of the hill,
to eat."

"Put your sheep "they are on the and have nothing

"Never mind," said he; "the lads will soon be home." The inside of his house corresponded with its out. A dirty looking fellow rose from a bed, who was desired to go and look after the sheep. "I have been up," said he, "all night in the

drift." "You have been so," said I, "to very little purpose. Your hirsel is on the wrong side of the hill."

fearful picture of savage cruelty. Young Benjie I have heard sung, or rather chanted, by the late Dr. John Leyden, with whom He ordered some ham, and bread and it was a great favorite. The air is beautibutter; but it came through such hands ful and wild, and will be found in Alexander that I could not eat. Over our glass of Campbell's "Albyn's Anthology." The whisky we had a long conversation. I ballad was given by Leyden to Mr. Scott, strongly recommended him to give up his and may have received some dressing up. farm, and come into Edinburgh, and attend to the publication of the "Mountain Bard," which he said agreed with his own opinion, for that he had in contemplation a long poem about Queen Mary.

Mr. Leyden's style of singing Young Benjie was particularly wild. The tune is not a little obliged to Allaster Dhu, (Mr. Campbell,) whose taste for the old ballad music was exquisitely delicate. I likewise found a different edition of Johnie of Braidislee :

Old..

Johnie sat his back against a aik,
His foot against a stane,

He shot seven arrows all at once,
And killed them all but ane;

He broke three ribs frae that ane's back,
But and his collar-bane;

Then fingers five came on belyre,

O, true heart, fail me not!

And, gallant bow, do thou prove true,
For in London thou was coft;

And the silken strings that stenten thee,
Were by my true-love wrought.'

As Mr. Scott had warned me to keep a sharp look-out, particularly if his farming was doing any good, on giving him this account, he entirely agreed with the advice which I had given, and said that he would write him to that purpose. "Or why should he not engage again as a shepherd?"— "That," said I, "is now impossible. One who neglected his own flocks is not likely to manage well those of another, unless you can get him appointed one of the king's shepherds in Hyde Park or Windsor Forest. It would be a glorious sight to see him with his checkered plaid round his On my return to Edinburgh, and showing shoulders, and his dog, Lion, lounging be- my sketches and scraps, Mr. Scott wished hind him! On his first appointment I much that I would return and explore every should like to have the keeping of the Park cottage and corner of Upper Clydesdale; gates for one week, at a shilling a head;" where," said he, "I suspect there is much it would be worth ten thousand pounds. valuable wreck still floating down the One half of London would be out to see stream of Time." him. One day of it would make Hogg's This expedition never took place; as I fortune." was engaged to go, early in the spring, to Soon after this Mr. Hogg came into Ed-meet Mr. Telford in North Wales, and eninburgh, and was at first received into the gaged in a survey of the Holyhead, Chester, house of his friend Mr. Grieve, where I often and London roads. met him, as well as at the house of Mr. Scott. In the Upper Ward of Clydesdal I efell in with some old editions of some of those ballads given in the Minstrelsy of the Scot. tish Border, and obtained two additional verses to the Twa Corbies.

My mither cleket me of an egg,
And brought me out wi' feathers gray,
And bad me flee where'er I wad-
Winter would be my dying day.
But winter it is gane an' past,
And a' the birds are bigging their nest,
But I'll flee heigh aboon them a',
And sing a sang for summer's sake.'

I also got another edition of Young Benjie; and the pool was pointed out to me where the Lady Marjorie was drowned; her struggles to gain the bank are described but the relentless Benjie

Took a fouw and fouwed her in,
And Bodell banks are bonny.'

On mentioning the Holyhead expedition to Mr. Scott, he gave me several letters of introduction. "Draw every old castle and glen that comes in your way. Keep a regular Journal, which, if you bring it up every night, will be, so far from any trouble, rather an amusement. Wales is particularly rich in castles; but the old towers of the Welsh, prior to the ravages of Edward, are by far the most interesting, and have been much neglected. The Welsh have famous memories, hate the English, and are partial to the Scots. There are no parts of Wales, I suppose, where the English language is not understood. You may, therefore, have translations; and the more literal the better."

With respect to understanding English, Mr. Scott had been misinformed. I found many places where the Welsh language only was spoken and understood.

Among the Welsh superstitions is the

Fouw is pitchfork, and the image gives a Mort Bird, or Bird of Death, which appears

at the window of every person about to die. | spot. The public road from Melrose to The Bird of Death, Black or white, is seen Selkirk passes within fifty yards of the front flapping its wings at the window or door. of his house, and is on a level with the chimOn mentioning this to Mr. Scott,-" The ney tops. I have read somewhere, by some warning bird we have also in our own coun- dashing Syntax, the following description of Abbotsford :try.

The Lady of Ellerslee wept for her Lord;
A death-watch had beat in her lonely room;
Her curtain had shook of its own accord,

And the Raven had flapped at her window-board,

To tell of her Warrior's doom'"'

--

"Beyond the gates you had an extensive park, laid out on the best and boldest principles of landscape gardening, as applicable to forest scenery!" The gates are very simple affairs; and the park, a field of eight English acres, rising up the shoulder of a steep brae, with the public road passing bebuilding his garden walls, and constructing a very expensive screen, as it is called, I seriously recommended that he would lift uation, and, being built of hewn stone, the or remove the whole to a more eligible sitaffair could be easily done; and cited, for

twixt it and the mansion-house. Before

When at Bangor Ferry, I received from Mr. Scott "The Lady of the Lake." This book I regret much having lost. I lent it to a lady, who refused to return it. "You may "said she, "yourself the further spare, trouble of asking it; give it to me, therefore, with a good grace, and write your own name under your friend's, Mr. Scott: and I will keep it for both your sakes, besides making you a handsome present." On mentioning this to Mr. Scott, "I wonder," said he, "you hesitated one moment to give the lady the book. I will replace it. Pray, what was the present she made you?" "It was," said I, "a handsome Bible, in two volumes, accompanied by a letter of good advice, with a request that I never would sketch views on the Sabbath-tunity of correcting it in the new erection." day, and to make her a solemn promise to that effect."

"Well; and did you promise?"—" No. I answered her with a story of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. Johnson. When the latter was on his death-bed, he sent for Reynolds, and desired him to promise three things: First, you are not to ask me to repay the thirty pounds that I borrowed of you long ago; second, you are to read a portion of your Bible every Sabbath-day; and third, never use your pencil on Sunday.'' To the first two Sir Joshua readily consented, but bolted at the third. The Lady wrote me back that Reynolds consented to all the three requests.

*

Alas! she has been several years dead. I would give any thing for the book; and have some thoughts of making a pilgrimage into Wales to endeavor to recover it. I was often at a loss to reconcile Sir Walter Scott's descriptions of scenery, which were excellent, to his practical taste, which was not always in good keeping; for, after all, Abbotsford is a strange jumble. If he had searched all over his property, he could not have built on a less interesting

* The Bible was accompanied with other things two very handsome shirts, six neckcloths, and three pairs of Welsh stockings, wrought by her own fair hand.

:

example, the House of Glasserton, in Gallo. way, which was removed, stone by stone, from a distance of, at least, fifteen miles, and it was of treble the magnitude of Abbotsford. "You require no architect, or new plan; the stones are numbered as you take them down; and if you have committed any mistake, you will have an oppor

"I wish," said he, "that it stood on Castlesteads, or Turnagain; but it has cost me so much to place it where it now stands, Drumlanrig, who built that castle, expectthat I feel something like a duke or lord of ing, it is said, to marry Queen Ann; and, when disappointed in that plan of ambition, locked up, in an iron box, the accounts of the expense of the building, pronouncing a curse on the head of any of his descendants who should uncover the nakedness of

their father."

estate of Abbotsford, Sir Walter was much While I was engaged in surveying the with me in the fields. He used to come, leaning on his favorite, Tam Purdy, and tell me tales connected with the spot Imight be surveying.

"This" said he, "is Turnagain; and the field below is Castlesteads, where, between the Scotts and Kerrs, a battle was fought in 1526. Buccleuch fled, pursued by the Kerrs, when one of Scott's men, an Elliot, turned again, and killed Kerr of Cessford, which was the cause of a bloody feud between the families for many a day."

One day a large wagon arrived, drawn by eight oxen, loaded with an obelisk from Forfarshire, or some of the distant eastern counties, covered with Danish or Norwegian hieroglyphics, animals, and so forth; and was erected, with great ceremony,

on the rising ground above Turnagain. I was written in a style to meet the acquireHaving, no doubt, been erected to commem- ments of the country people. It was disorate some battle field, it was of little value tributed in the villages around, Galashiels, out of its original place. My opinion being Selkirk, Darnick, Melrose; and a large asked, I said that it had better be taken parcel was despatched to Jedburgh, Kelso, home again; for such monuments having &c. A Conservative acquaintance of mine been raised to commemorate some victory boasted that not a single copy of the Edinover the Scotch, were rather a disgrace to burgh Review, or Scotsman was received on the country. Sir Walter pointed out to the banks of the Jed. Mr. Harper, a great me, with considerable triumph, the door of favorite with Sir Walter, and a very large, the Heart of Mid-Lothian-that is, the old powerful man, was fixed on to distribute, prison-door of Edinburgh-which he had read, and explain the Visionary to his neighprocured, and erected as the gateway from bors. I asked Harper what success he had, his mansion-house to the offices. I ob- and what he himself thought of the pamserved that its grim aspect gave me a disa- phlet. "O! man," said he, "it's waesome greeable feeling, to think how many human to see so good a man in other respects, in beings had passed through it, never to return such a state of bewilderment."

parcel and said, that it was my business to prevent such principles being circulated in my native country. "Why," said he, "I have been endeavoring to prevent the ras. cals from pulling down the old house about their ears; and some of my best friends will render me no assistance."

but to the scaffold and death. How many Sir Walter presented me with some of our noble martyrs and patriots!-"Yes," copies, and said, "They may be useful to said he; "but many a traitor has passed some of your Galloway friends." After also to receive his doom!"-"Yes," said having perused a copy, I returned the I; "your friend Montrose passed through it."" Noble martyr!" said Sir Walter, with great emotion. "As he passed to prison, up the Canongate,-placed backwards, with his face to the horse's tail, the hurdle drawn by an old white horse, and driven by the common hangman,-on passing the Chancellor's house, his head uncovered, the ladies, the Chancellor's wife and daughters, leaned over the balcony, and spat on his sacred head-the b--s!" We entertained very different sentiments respecting the character of Montrose. Abbotsford is intersected by foot-paths in every direction; and he was particularly anxious that none of these paths should be interfered with, although the road commissioners offered to close some of the least important up. "Remove not the ancient landmarks," he would say. The consequence was, that he never received any in-him £100. Captain Becroft but recently sailed jury in the way of trespass; and the people declined of themselves to walk on many of these paths, restricting themselves to those that were least offensive; such was the effect of his forbearance. "If I was to stop up any of these footpaths, which I might be able to do as unnecessary, the people, if they took it in their heads, would walk over them in spite of both the law and myself; so far, then, my indulgence is good policy." His attention to the lower orders of the country people but ill accorded with his high aristocratical visions; and his political principles were as ill digested. He wrote and distributed the Visionary, a poor ridiculous pamphlet, which he said

AFRICAN DISCOVERY.-We have the satisfaction to announce the arrival in England of Captain Becroft, a gentleman well known for his recent explorations in the Delta of the Niger, and by whom part of the late Niger expedition-H. M. steamer, Albert-was so courageously saved, at the time when all the officers and crew of that ship, with the exStange), were wholly unfitted for duty by fever, ception of two individuals (Drs. Mac William and and were in extreme danger of perishing on the sand-banks in the lower course of the Niger. Captain Becroft, in the Ethiope steamer, nobly came to their rescue, and towed them to Fernando Po; for which service her Majesty's Government awarded from Fernando Po for the Old Calabar river, on the opposite African coast, previously unknown, excepting embouchures. Having entered that magnificent river, he steamed up a distance of 400 miles, meeting everywhere with an intelligent and industrious race of Negroes, who received and treated him hospitably. At length he reached a rapid in the river, where, although there was plenty of with the strength of the current. Captain Becroft water, he had not steam power sufficient to contend returned to Fernando Po; and we are gratified to add that he has been appointed Governor of that island by the Spanish Government, and at the same time they have given him the rank of Lieutenant in the Spanish navy. From Captain Becroft's known hardihood and activity-and from what he has already accomplished for geographical science is an earnest for the future-we have little doubt of his

adding greatly to our knowledge of that part of the west coast of Arica, to which he will shortly proceed, and will venture to predict that his explora

*During the heat of the Reform Bill agitation.- tions will have the most beneficial results as regards E. T. M.

the slave-trade of that part of Africa.-Colon. Gaz.