1

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.

'Well,' continued he, 'you must know that in those
days there were hard knocks going, and severe marches
and countermarches. So, you see, we were one day in
the thick of it, pressing on to join Lord Wellington, who
There was not a drop of
was threatened on all sides.
wine or water to be had, and we could not eat their
musty bread dry; and as we were pushing along the
road, as it might be across-no, not across a common,
for there were vineyards-the grapes all gathered-on
both sides of the way, we felt-no, not a mist-but the
sun so confoundedly hot-true, there was not a mist
Well, Poringer, what now? What
that day, but
do you want? You are impatient to tell me who that
was at the door just now on such a night?' Miss Semple
moved her chair back again, as she always did on
such occasions, and dropped her light-gray eyes placidly
upon her work.

A boy, sir,' answered Mr Poringer with gravity.
A boy? What boy?'

'I don't know, sir; he found me on the common, sir,
and is come from nowhere, going anywhere, and don't
belong to nobody.'

'That's very extraordinary! What is he doing at the door?'

"Tossing up a half-penny with his-self, sir; and it is not a half-penny at all, but only a bit of round slate, with a head cut on it.'

'Elizabeth,' said the captain, turning to his sister
with a frown,' what do you think of that?'

"The conditions of mankind,' replied Miss Semple,
'are infinitely modified. Some are born in a palace,
some in a hut; some are surrounded with friends, some
alone in the world. Life itself is nothing else than a
great common, wrapped in mist, and traversed by boys,
donkeys, and men.'

'Very true, Elizabeth,' said the captain-' very
true. I have half a mind to go to the door and look
at the boy and the mist. I will go! Will you come?'
Miss Semple, who rarely suffered anything to inter-
rupt her work, got up, still knitting away, and followed
her brother, Mr Poringer leading the procession with
the air of a beadle. When the door was opened, a little
ragged boy was seen, half swallowed up in the mist,
and half disclosed by the strong light of the hall; he
was sitting on the landing, busily engaged in gambling
with himself, by means of the ingenious imitation of a
half-penny described by Mr Poringer.

'Heads it is!' said he, making use of the new illumination to determine the fact; and then he turned up a thin precocious-looking face to the spectators. His attention was specially attracted by the most noticeable figure in the group. He looked long at the captain, and the captain looked long at him; till at length the latter burst out furiously:

'He is hungry-that's what it is! Take him down to the kitchen, Poringer, and feed that boy! Give him as much as ever he can eat and drink; do you hear?that's what you have got to do!' And so saying, he turned savagely away, coughing violently at the mist, and escorted his sister back to their chimney-corners, with the air of an officer charging at the head of his company. Mr Poringer looked very sour at the order he had received; but knowing that the captain would brook no refusal in a case of this kind, he stooped his long body towards the boy, took the collar of his little ragged coat between his thumb and two fingers, and lifted him over the threshold.

Captain Semple had been in active service a great part of his life, and at the peace had been reduced to half-pay and turned adrift, knowing, like many others, very little of society beyond the precincts of the barracks. Fortunately for him, however, he possessed a moderate independence besides his half-pay, and instead of giving his only sister a fixed allowance as formerly, he took her to live with him. Till then they had never met on intimate terms since they were children, and

But still

He had
the intimacy, therefore, which ensued between them
was without the familiarity of near relationship. The
captain had a great respect for his sister.
never, it is true, learned anything from her letters;
there was never anything in them he could grasp; and
even her last, written in reply to his proposal that they
as to what her wishes or intentions were.
should live together, left him in profound puzzlement
they resembled so much the sort of thing that is found
in books, that he considered his sister quite a prodigious
woman; and her conversation, when they met, proving
to be absolute fragmentary essays, the opinion was
completely confirmed. It must be said, likewise, that
the same judgment was formed of Miss Semple by the
captain's confidential friend Lieutenant Mollison, who
her letters were shewn from time to time, as they were
had never seen her, but to whom, for a series of years,
received, under the seal of inviolable secrecy. This
was, indeed, the one secret of the poor lieutenant's life,
and the two friends had many consultations on the
send his sister Mr Mollison's compliments in a post-
subject; till at length the captain got so far as to
the compliments of a man to a woman were generally
script, and the fair Elizabeth replied, that although
designed to flatter at the expense of truth, yet this
individual chose the fraternal channel for the sentiment,
character was subject to modification, and when an
construction.' So discreet and touching a reply affected
it might be assumed that he was entitled to favourable
the lieutenant profoundly; and there is no saying what
career had not been suddenly cut short by a musket-
termination the love-passage might have had, if his
ball. Miss Semple was never known to have been before
episode in her life was attributed by herself and her
or since the object of the tender passion; and to this
brother-and perhaps with great truth-the remarkable
Elizabeth, on her part, returned heartily her brother's
fact that she was still a spinster.
Even his hirsute appearance interested
admiration.
after it had ceased to awe her; and having rarely
heard from or of him, except when he was in the midst
of military adventures, she supposed that his whole
life must have been a chain of romantic episodes. The
propos of every possible occasion; although
captain's conversation flattered the idea, for he had a
story
exactly germain to the matter in hand, and an oppor-
somehow or other the details did not turn out to be
tune interruption always cut the thread in the middle.
As for his personal adventures, the only really memor-
able one, excepting the ordinary hard knocks and
While he was in this denuded
marchings and counter-marchings, was the shearing of
his facial ornaments by order of the doctor when he lay
state, the whole world would seem to have rushed into
ill of a brain fever.
an insane conspiracy for taking liberties with him; for
to fight no fewer than seven duels-the captain being
before the hair grew again, he found himself compelled
in reality as bold as a lion-in defence of his crown and
dignity.

On the second evening after the occurrences we have related, the captain and his sister were sitting as usual near the fireplace, Elizabeth at work with her knitting, and he with his sole materials of amusement or study lying before him on the table-his Sunday newspaper, which lasted him the entire week, and the Army wiping his spectacles, and looking dreamily before him, List, the only book he ever read. The captain was when on a sudden he fancied that the door opened The veteran started and rubbed his eyes, slowly, and some light-coloured object shewed itself for and Elizabeth looked up mechanically. The noiseless appearance returned, and a pale thin face was seen gradually thrusting itself forward, till its large eyes obtained a full view of the room. Every item of the material scene did these eyes dwell upon for a moment, and then they fixed upon the living figures; resting

a moment.

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.

stanzas, partly because there is really a dash of sparkle
and spirit about them, and partly because we must beg
that farming operations should in future be included in
some measure among the labours of steam.

In the darksome depths of the fathomless mine
My tireless arm doth play,

Where the rocks ne'er saw the sun decline,
Or the dawn of the glorious day.

I bring earth's glittering jewels up
From the hidden cave below,

And I make the fountain's granite cup
With a crystal gush o'erflow.

I blow the bellows, I forge the steel,

In all the shops of trade;

I hammer the ore and turn the wheel

Where my arms of strength are made.

I manage the furnace, the mill, the mint ;
I carry, I spin, I weave;

And all my doings I put into print
On every Saturday eve.

I've no muscle to weary, no breast to decay,
No bones to be laid on the shelf;'

And soon I intend you may all go and play
While I manage the world by myself.
But harness me down with your iron bands,
Be sure of your curb and rein;

For I scorn the strength of your puny hands,
As the tempest scorns a chain.

Without going so far as to expect that we may all
'go and play,' while steam manages the world by itself,
we may undoubtedly expect that many hard and labo-
rious kinds of field-labour will, more and more every
year, be effected by steam, which has 'no muscle to
weary, no breast to decay.' We have only to look at
the groups of implements and machines proceeding
from the well-known firms of Ransome, Wedlake, Gar-
rett, Crosskill, Hornsby, Dray, &c.; or to look through
the lists and catalogues of those manufacturers: the
evidence of the fact becomes then very apparent. Let
us very briefly glance at the matter.

Here are the productions of Messrs Clayton and
This
Shuttleworth of Lincoln, among which a three horse-
power portable steam-engine is conspicuous.
compact affair is shaped something like a locomotive;
it weighs about a ton and a half, and its provender con-
sists of three hundredweights of coal and 270 gallons of
water per day of ten hours. With this moving power,
it will thrash out twenty quarters of corn per day; and
when it has done its work in one barn or thrashing-
floor, a horse will easily draw it to another. Similar
engines are made of four, five, six, seven, eight, and
nine horse-power, all presenting this analogy-that the
number of horse-power produced is about equal to the
number of hundredweights of coal consumed in a work-
ing-day of ten hours-a convenient rule for estimating
the efficiency of the power. The larger of these port-
able steam-engines require two horses to draw them
from place to place; but in return for this, they will
thrash out a larger quantity of corn per day, and be-
come applicable also to grinding, sowing, pumping, and
other operations necessary on a large farm. The seven-
horse engine is large enough to be made available for
a remarkable system which has sprung up in some
districts-namely, the letting out of steam-power: a
portable steam-engine travels about from farm to farm,
doing the thrashing and sowing, and grinding and
pumping for each in succession-a system susceptible
of wonderful expansion. Then there are fixed steam-
engines for farm-work, of four to ten horse-power each.
Another ingenious apparatus is a portable thrashing-
machine. This is not a steam-engine, but a capacious
vehicle on four wheels, having thrashing mechanism
within, and pulleys and bands on the outside to enable
it to be worked by a steam-engine, either portable or

fixed. The facilities thus afforded are remarkable;
The corn is bundled into the
for you may either take the steam-engine to thrash, or
ments of the farm.
bring the corn to be thrashed, according to the arrange-
vehicle; the steam-power commences its activity, and
revolving arms proceed to thrash out the grain with
great rapidity. In one form of the machine, the whole
of the processes of thrashing, straw-shaking, riddling,
winnowing, and bolting, are performed by steam-power,
and in their proper order. How there must be certain
revolving arms, and certain revolving cylinders, and
certain wriggling or vibrating troughs, will be evident
to those who consider the nature of these operations.
Then there are straw-shaking machines, and corn-
grinding mills, and bone-crushing mills, all worked by
steam-power, and all applicable to farm-labour.

on.

Here are Messrs Dray's portable steam-engines; and here Messrs Hornsby's; and here Messrs Garrett's, and Messrs Barrett's, and Messrs Ransome's; and so The relative merits of each, and the trade competition between them, we have nothing to do with here. The great point is to know that there are a dozen firms or more manufacturing these powerful aids to agriculture. Some excel in the rapidity with which steam is got up; while others excel in the amount of horsepower produced by the consumption of a given weight of coal.

The Royal Agricultural Society was mainly instrumental in bringing forward the movable steam-engines for farms, in the interval between 1841 and 1851. Mr Pusey, a great authority on all these matters, has thus noticed the advantages of portable over fixed engines for farm-work: 'If a farm be a large one, and especially if, as is often the case, it be of an irregular shape, there is great waste of labour for horses and men in bringing home all the corn in the straw to one point, and in again carrying out the dung to a distance of perhaps two or three miles; it is therefore common, and should be general, to have a second outlying yard; and this accommodation cannot be reconciled with a fixed hardly-and if small, will certainly not-bear the exengine. If the farm be of a moderate size, it will pense of a fixed engine; there would be waste of capital days in a year. It is now common, therefore, in some in multiplying fixed engines to be worked but a few counties, for a man to invest a small capital in a movable engine, and earn his livelihood by letting it out to the farmer. But there is a further advantage in these movable engines, little, I believe, if at all known. Hitherto, corn has been thrashed under cover in barns; but with these engines, and the improved thrashing-machines, we can thrash the rick in the open air at once as it stands. It will be said: How can you thrash out of doors on a wet day? The answer is simple: neither can you move the rick into your barn on a wet day: and so rapid is the work of the new thrashing-machines, that it takes no more time to thrash the corn than to move it.'

But steam does something more than this for the farmer: it helps to make pipes for draining his land; and it helps to steam potatoes and other roots as fodder In respect to steaming for animals; and it helps to plough his land-although it must be owned that ploughing-machines have not yet come much into use. potatoes for pigs, it has been remarked that even diseased potatoes, if not too far gone, by being thus treated may be rendered wholesome, and may be stored up for months.

If the visitor to a cattle-show, who spends a reasonable time in the implement-galleries or yards, would choose to extend his thoughts a little from steam among the farmers to machinery among the farmers, he would soon find how wonderfully the use of such machinery has spread within the last few years. In nearly everything which can be called a machine in respect to farming, one of these three things is

observable-that a man turns a handle, that a horse exerts its pulling force, or that a steam-engine puts forth its multiform power; and it is only those who have watched the progress of recent improvement, who can form even a guess of the wide extent to which the simple hand-instruments-such as the spade, the rake, the hoe, the dibble, the flail, &c.-have been superseded on large farms by skilfully constructed machines. The old ploughs, with wheels and gallows, required four horses to draw them; but two horses can now do as much work with a plough of lighter and more scientific construction. The old harrows had their tines or teeth at a definite distance apart; but our farmers can now obtain expanding harrows, which can be adapted to the state of the land. The old rollers, in many cases, were simply tree-trunks rudely fashioned into cylindrical shape, having their framework loaded with rough materials to give them weight; but now we have iron rollers which will last for ever. The old farmers

Nay, not only do farmers now display all this ability, but they have actually become poetical, which the world in general is perhaps not aware of. That Messrs Moses and Hyam, as Messrs Warren and Day and Martin formerly did, throw around their business proceedings a halo of poetry, everybody knows; but it has, until lately, been new to us that an agricultural implement-maker thinks it worth his while to lisp in numbers; and as it is not to be supposed that he would bring ploughs and poetry together, unless the farmers were pleased thereat, the latter must also have a share of the credit. Listen:

Iron-ploughs as Kimble's, as Howard's, and as Ball;
Twin-harrows and scufflers, made large or small.
I've ploughs, too, for draining, for ridging, and hoeing;
Clod-crushers and rollers, to prepare for sowing.
Without manure-boxes, or with, I make drills,
From one to ten coulters. Bean, cake, or malt mills.
Then as to carts-

The tipping apparatus is simple and sound,
Surpassing all others its service is found.
The self-acting tail-board is, too, a good plan,
And must be approved of by master and man;
It hangs upon hinges-no need to take off-
Folds under the cart-frame, and catches aloft.
To York I first sent it to meet public eyes;
The Royal Society to me gave the prize;
Prince Albert and noblemen all did declare,
'It's the best one-horse cart that I have seen here.'

With a little chaff, we have done

Sir, have you chaff-machines now worked by man? I recommend horse-power, my late improved plan; Many of them I have just lately put down, That give satisfaction to farmers around. And if you should doubt it-hear what I now sayYou can go to see them: they're at work to-day. I fix it for cutting aloft, if you please; And one horse can work it-an old hack with ease. Without e'er a driver, one man with two boys, Can cut eighty bushels an hour without noise. Opinions may possibly differ as to the merits of this poetical effusion; but there is no difference of opinion as to the simple fact-that agricultural implement-makers have placed the means of great advancement within the reach of farmers. In 1851, Mr Pusey made this important statement-that the improvement in farmingimplements made within the preceding dozen years, had been such as to insure a saving on outgoings, or an increase of incomings, of not less than one-half on all the main branches of farming-labour.

were wont to attempt, sometimes hopelessly, to break heavy clods by the alternate use of the roller and the harrow; but the farmers of the new school have now their powerful and efficient clod-crushers, whereby turnip-land can be prepared for corn with celerity and success. The old plough was expected to do more work than it could do well; but the scarifiers, and grubbers, and cultivators of the present day are analogous to a large party of ploughs all working at once, whereby a large percentage of horse-power is saved. The old seed-lip and dibble deposited the seed very slowly; but the modern drill does this with astonishing quickness; and not only so, but it will even deposit manure and water with the seed in the hollows made for its reception. The old hoe was 'slow,' both figuratively and really; but the modern horsehoe is a compound of four, six, or eight hoes at once, each working more quickly than the original handimplement. The old sickle was the only instrument used by our fathers and grandfathers for cutting corn; but the M'Cormicks, and Husseys, and Bells have shewn us what can be done by reaping-machines. The old rake was the only implement for gathering stray hay and corn; but the modern horse-rake will do the same work ten or twenty times as rapidly. The old hay-fields exhibited simply the handicraft labour which supplied so many Daphnes and Colins to the pastoral poets; but the haymaking-machines now give a different aspect to the affair. The old carts and wagons in which the farmer conveyed his produce from the field to the barn, and from thence to market, were a terrible drag to the horses; but now, like clippers on another element, they weigh less, carry more, and move more quickly. The old flail beat about the corn in a rude way on the barn-floor; but the new thrashing-machine enables either horses or steam to do the work more conveniently and more expeditiously. The old process of winnowing left the wind to blow away the chaff in a blind and capricious manner; but the modern winnowing-machines have such a discriminating power, that they can separate the grain into 'good corn,' 'good tail,'' tail,'' whites,'' screenings,' and 'chaff,' thus enabling the farmer to carry to market produce the quality of which can be exactly determined. The sheep and lambs of old days had to munch away at whole turnips, as best they might; but the modern turnip-cutter, by presenting the root in nice mouthfuls, economises the muscular power of the animal, and gives him an increased value in the market. The old chaff was cut by hand with a sort of chopping or guillotine action; but the chaff-cutters now made perform the work with far greater celerity. The old farmers drained their land, if at all, by using hand-He is alloo't to hae been a gentleman, even by the made tiles, and pipes laid in hand-made grooves and English biographers o' his son; and, dootless, sae he gutters; but the new farmers can reap the advantages was, sin' he was an Annandale Johnston. He had gane of the ingenious tile-machines, and can lay down the up to London, about the time o' Queen Mary, and was pipes by the still more ingenious draining-plough. amang them that suffered under that sour uphalder o'

MAUNDERING S.

BY A SCOTCHMA N.

I AM far frae being clear that Nature hersel', though a kindly auld carline, has been a'thegither just to Scotland, seeing that she has sae contrived that some o' our greatest men, that ought by richts to hae been Scotchmen, were born in England and other countries, and sae hae been kenned as Englishers, or else something no quite sae guid.

There's glorious old Ben Jonson, the dramatic poet and scholar, that everybody taks for a regular Londoner, merely because he happened to be born there. Ben's father, it's weel kent, was a Johnston o' Annandale in Dumfriesshire, a bauld guid family there to this day.

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL.

an honest saddler o' the name o' Cant, his ancestor
popery. Ben, puir chield, had the misfortune first to
see the light somewhere aboot Charing Cross, instead having been ane o' the Cants o' Aberdeenshire, and
o' the bonnie leas o' Ecclefechan, where his poetic soul maybe a relation o' Andrew Cant, for onything I ken.
wad hae been on far better feedin'-grund, I reckon. It was the philosopher that changed the C for the
not belonging to the German alphabet. I'm rale sorry
But, nae doot, he cam to sit contented under the dis-K, to avoid the foreign look of the word, our letter C
pensations o' Providence. Howsomever, he ought to be that Kant did not spring up in Scotland, where his
metaphysical studies wad hae been on friendly grund.
now ranked amang Scotchmen, that's a'.
But I'm quite sure, an he had visited Scotland, and
come to Aberdeenshire, he wad hae fund a guid num-
ber o' his relations, that wad hae been very glad to see
a philosopher.
him, and never thought the less o' him for being merely

There was a still greater man in that same century,
that's generally set down as a Lincolnshire-man, but
ought to be looked on as next thing till a Scotchman, if
no a Scotchman out and out; and that's Sir Isaac
Newton. They speak o' his forebears as come frae
Newton in Lancashire; but the honest man himsel's
the best authority aboot his ancestry, I should think;
and didna he say to his friend Gregory ae day: 'Gre-
gory, ye warna aware that I'm o' the same country
wi' yoursel'-I'm a Scotchman.' It wad appear that
Sir Isaac had an idea in his head, that he had come
somehow o' a Scotch baronet o' the name o' Newton;
and nothing can be better attested than that there was
a Scotchman o' that name wha became a baronet by
favour o' King James the Sixt (what for aye ca' him
James the First ?), having served that wise-headed king
as preceptor to his eldest son, Prince Henry. Sae, ye see,
there having been a Scotch Newton wha was a baronet,
and Sir Isaac thinking he cam o' sic a man, the thing
looks unco like as if it were a fact. It's the mair likely,
too, frae Sir Adam Newton having been a grand scholar
and a man o' great natural ingenuity o' mind; for, as
we a' ken right weel, bright abilities gang in families.
There's a chield o' my acquentance that disna think
the dates answer sae weel as they ought to do; but he
ance lived a twalmonth in England, and I'm feared he's
grown a wee thing prejudiced. Sae we'll say nae mair
aboot him.

Then, there was Willie Cowper, the author o' the Task,
John Gilpin, and mony other poems. If ye were to gie
implicit credence to his English biographers, ye wad
believe that he cam o' an auld Sussex family. But
Cowper himsel' aye insisted that he had come o' a Fife
gentleman o' lang syne, that had been fain to flit
southwards, having mair guid blude in his veins than
siller in his purse belike, as has been the case wi' mony a
It's certain that the town o'
guid fallow before noo.
Cupar, whilk may hae gi'en the family its name, is the
head town o' that county to this day. There was ane
Willie Cowper, Bishop o' Galloway in the time o' King
Jamie-a real guid exerceesed Christian, although a
bishop-and the poet jaloosed that this worthy man had
been ane o' his relations. I dinna pretend to ken how
the matter really stood; but it doesna look very likely
that Cowper could hae taken up the notion o' a Scotch
ancestry, if there hadna been some tradition to that
effeck. I'm particularly vext that our country was
cheated out o' haeing Cowper for ane o' her sons, for
I trow he was weel worthy o' the honour; and if
Providence had willed that he should hae been born
and brought up in Scotland, I haena the least doot
that he wad hae been a minister, and ane, too, that wad
hae pleased the folk just extrornar.

There was a German philosopher in the last century,
that made a great noise wi' a book o' his that explored
and explained a' the in-throughs and out-throughs o'
His name was Immanuel Kant;
the human mind.
and the Kantian philosophy is weel kent as something
originating wi' him. Weel, this Kant ought to hae been
a Scotchman; or, rather, he was a Scotchman; but
only, owing to some grandfather or great-grandfather
having come to live in Königsberg, in Prussia, ye'll no
hinder Immanuel frae being born there-whilk of coorse
was a pity for a' parties except Prussia, that gets credit
by the circumstance. The father o' the philosopher was

Weel, we've got down a guid way noo, and the next
man I find that ought by richts to hae been a Scotch-
man is that deil's bucky o' a poet, Lord Byron. I'm
no saying that Lord Byron was a'thegither a respect-
able character, ye see; but there can be nae manner o'
doot that he wrote grand poetry, and got a great name
by it. Noo, Lord Byron was born in London-I'm no
mother was a Scotch leddy, and she and her husband
denyin' what Tammy Muir says on that score-but his
settled in Scotland after their marriage, and of coorse
their son wad hae been born there in due time, had it
no been that the husband's debts obliged them to gang,
first to France, and after that to London, where the
leddy cam to hae her downlying, as has already been
said. This, it plainly appears to me, was a great
injustice to Scotland.

My greatest grudge o' a' is regarding that bright
the minister o' the parish o' Cardross, in Dumbarton-
genius for historical composition, Thomas Babington
Macaulay, M.P. for Edinburgh. Aboot the year 1790,
shire, was a Mr M'Aulay, a north-country man, it's
said, and a man o' uncommon abilities. It was in his
parish that that other bright genius, Tobias Smollett,
was born, and, if a' bowls had rowed richt, sae should
this minister having become preceptor to a Mr Babing-
T. B. M. But it was otherwise ordeened. A son o'
ton, a young man o' fortune in England, it sae cam
was an extrornar bonny lass, drew up thegither, and
aboot that this youth and his preceptor's sister, wha
were married. That led to ane o' the minister's sons
going to England-namely, Mr Zachary, the father o'
our member; and thus it was that we were cheated
I'm sure I wiss
out o' the honour o' having T. B. as an out-and-out
Scotsman, whilk it's evident he ought to hae been, sin'
it's no natural to England to bring forth sic geniuses,
that the bonny lass had been far eneuch, afore she
weary fa' it, that I should say sae.
brought about this strange cantrip o' fortune, or that
she had contented hersel' wi' an honest Greenock
gentleman that wanted her, and wha, I've been tauld,
de'ed no aboon three year syne.

Naebody that kens me will ever suppose that I'm vain either aboot mysel' or my country. I wot weel, when we consider what frail miserable creatures we are, we hae little need for being proud o' onything. Yet, somehow, I aye like to hear the name o' puir auld Scotland brought aboon board, so that it is na for things even-down disrespectable. Some years ago, we used to hear a great deal aboot a light-headed jillet tant political character at the coort o' the king o' they ca' Lola Montes, that had become quite an imporBavaria. Noo, although I believe it's a fact that Lola's father was a Scotch officer o' the army, I set nae store by her ava-I turn the back o' my hand on a' sic cutties as her. Only, it is a fact that she comes o' huz-c' that there can be nae doot, be it creditable or no. Weel, ye see, there's another very distinguished leddy o' modern times, that's no to be spoken o' in the new empress o' France. A fine-looking quean she is, same breath wi' that Lady Lighthead. This is the I'm tauld. Weel, it's quite positive aboot her, that her mother was a Kirkpatrick, come o' the house o' Closeburn, in the same county that Ben Jonson's