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SCOTS MAGAZINE,

AND

Edinburgh Literary Miscellany,

FOR MARCH 1809: ·
With a View of SMALLHOLM TOWER.

CONTENTS:

*Page

Register of the Weather for March, 162
High Water at Leith for April, . ib.
Description of Smallholm Tower,. . 163
Proceedings of the Wernerian Natu,
ral History Society,.
Monthly Memoranda in Natural His-
tory,
Particulars of the Siege of Saragossa, 166
Memoirs of the Life of the late Sir

John Moore, K. B. Commander in
Chief of the British Forces in
Spain,..

Proceedings of the Highland Society
of Scotland,

Account of an Indian woman burn-
ing herself,.

A Journey through the Highlands and
Western Isles, in the Summer of
By the Ettrick Shepe

1804. herd,

Sketch of the Life of Dr James An

ib.

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164

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Lord Ruthven a ballad,.

Song, I'll prië yere bonnie mou, lassie, ib.

PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENT.

176

House of Lords,

Battle of Corunna,

180

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House of Commons,

The British Army in Spain,
-Battle of Vimiera,

212

-Increase of the Army,

(181

The Duke of York,

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Board of Inquiry,

-Convention of Cintra,

Report to the King,

Trial for Murder,

224 • 225 ib.

: 227

198 Drury Lane Theatre destroyed by

New Works published in Edinburgh, 203
Scottish Literary Intelligence,

Fire,
Fatal Duel,

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ib.

• 204

Civil Appointments,

Literary Intelligence, English and
Foreign,

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SCOTTISH, CHRONICLE.

Court of Session,

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Naval Appointment,

Military Appointments,

Marriages, Births, and Deaths,
Stocks and Markets,

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230

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THE

Scots Magazine,

AND

EDINBURGH LITERARY MISCELLANY,

FOR MARCH 1809.

Description of SMALLHOLM TOWER. Proceedings of the Wernerian Natural

MALLHOLM TOWER lies in a parish of the same name, on the road from Edinburgh to Kelso. It is situated on the northern boundary of Roxburghshire, about four miles northwest of Roxburgh, and nearly the same distance from Kelso. It is a high square building, surrounded by an outer wall, now ruinous. A morass and a precipice render it inaccessible on every side, except the west, where it may be approached by a steep and rocky path. The apartments are placed one above another, communicating by a narrow stair: on the roof are two bartizans, or platforms. It has two doors, or gates; the inner of wood, the outer of iron, separated from each other by the thickness of the wall, which is nine feet:It is built on a cluster of rocks, and from its elevated situation, is seen at a great distance, and serves even as a land-mark to guide vessels into Berwick. It is the property of Hugh Scott, Esq. of Harden.

This place is rendered interesting to poetical readers, by its having been the residence, in early life, of Mr Walter Scott, who has celebrated it in his "Eve of St John." Border Minstrelsy, III. 229. To it he probably alludes in the introduction to the third canto of Marmion :

Then rise those crags, that mountain

tower,

Which charm'd my fancy's wakening

hour, &c.

History Society.

AT the meeting of this Society, on

the 11th March, Dr Yule read an interesting memoir on the natural order Gramineæ, with introductory observations on monocotyledonous plants, in which he contrasted these with the dicotyledonous class, from the period of germination to the complete evolution of their stems. The Doctor is to continue the subject in a future paper.

Captain Laskey laid before the Society a list of Scottish Testacea, as far as they have fallen under his own observation, with remarks on the new and rare species. Of the genus Chiton he enumerated 4 species; of Lepas, 3 species; Balanus, 6; Pholas, 4; Mya, 9, including 3 new species; of Ligula, (a lately constituted genus,) 7 species; Solen 6; Tellina 15, with a new species, named by Colonel Montagu, T. Laskeyi; Cardium 10; Mactra 6; Donax 3; Venus 23, including 9 new species; Chama, 1 species, Ch. cor, taken alive in the Frith of Forth; Arca 6; Pecten 6; Ostrea 1; Anqmia 4; Mytilus 11; Pinna 1; Nautilus 3; Cypræa 1; Bulla 13, including 2 new species; Voluta 8, 4 of them new; Buccinum 8; Strombus 2; Murex 23, comprehending the rare carinatus, and 8 new ones; Trochus 4; Turbo 32, 5 new; Helix 17; Nerita 7; Haliotis 1; Patella 11; Dentalium 2; Serpula 7; Vermiculum 3. This is the

Most

most ample catalogue of Scottish testacea hitherto formed; containing 126 species of multivalve and bivalve, and 142 species of univalve shells: in all,

268.

At the same meeting, the Secretary read a communication from George Montagu, Esq., of Knowel House, giving an account of a non-descript fish, 5 feet long, taken on the coast of Devonshire last summer. It is of the apodal order, and must constitute a new genus: Mr Montagu has bestowed on it the generic name of Ziphotheca, and the specific one tetradens.The communication likewise contained accurate descriptions of four rare species of English fishes; and was accompanied with correct and elegant drawings of these, as well as of the ziphotheca. At the same time, Mr Montagu presented the Society with copies of his Testácea Britannica and Supplement, 3 vols. 4to, with coloured plates, and of his Ornithological Dictionary, 2 vols. 8vo.

Monthly Memoranda in Natural His

tory..

Feb. 18. 1809. THE West-India shrub Solandra grandiflora shewed its large and fragrant flowers in the stove at the Botanic Garden, Leith Walk. In Jamaica it climbs round forest trees, and is there known by the name of Peachcoloured Trumpet-flower. Its flower is very rarely to be seen in Scotland. The almost ruinous state of the hothouses and greenhouses in this Royal Garden was, about a year ago, commented on by us. No remedy having been applied, what was then bad, has now, of course, become worse. During the late severe weather, several uncommon plants have perished, and others have been much injured, thro' the insufficiency of the wood-work about the stoves. A fine camphor

1

tree, about 30 years old, and 15 feet high, was nearly cut off, in the time of the intense cold, by reason of the conservatory in which it is kept being incapable of excluding the frost, the timber work being rotten, and full of crevices. As an instance of the power of habit in rendering tender plants more hardy, I may mention, that the fine assafoetida plants (natives of Persia) which have for many years stood in the open ground in this garden, ripened their seeds last autumn; and that several young plants are now come up in the tan-stove from the seeds so ripened.

Feb. 20.-Snow drops and winter aconite are in flower in the borders. 25. The shoots of officinal

rhubarb, and of common lovage, peep above ground.

-. 28.-From the 16th to the 20th of this month, very high winds, from W. and S. W., prevailed. From the former date to the end of the month the weather has been genial, and favourable to the labours of agriculture, which had been much retarded by the heavy snow-storms.

March 3.-CANINE MADNESS.A proclamation was this day issued by the Magistrates of Edinburgh, announcing, that mad dogs had appeared in the city, and ordering the inhabitants to keep their dogs closely confined for six weeks.

A very few remarks on this subject will not, we hope, be deemed out of place.

With due deference to our city rulers, (who, doubtless, have been actuated by the best of motives,) we beg leave to observe, that such orders should never be issued without some previous accurate inquiry into the reality of the madness intended to be repressed. Because a large mastiff is seen running at full speed through the streets, lolling his tongue, biting at such dogs as interrupt his progress, and escaping as fast as he can into the country, we are not certainly war

ranted

ranted to conclude that such animal is mad. The mastiff, we may easily suppose, has wandered to town from the country; he becomes alarmed on finding himself in the midst of a crowded street; he runs, and consequently soon lolls out his tongue; all the townbred curs yelp and bark at him as he passes along; no wonder if he snarls and snaps at them; and he very wisely makes the best of his way into the country again. We do not positively affirm that there was no foundation for the late alarm; but we do say, that we have not been able to find any satisfactory evidence of a truly rabid animal having appeared; and, however strange it may appear, we are persuaded, that the visit of a country bandog, in the circumstances above figured, is sufficient, owing to prepossession and prejudice, to alarm the Good Town, and give rise to the hue and cry of Mad Dog! It unfortunately happens, that popular fear and superstition, excited to the utmost pitch by proclamations by tuck of drum, advertisements blazoned in eve-. ry newspaper, and stuck on every lamp-post, quickly destroy all means of investigation as to the reality of the existence of the malady,-by devoting to instant death all and sundry the dogs bitten or suspected to be bitten by the mad dog. Were such anfortunate animals to be secured by a chain, and furnished with plenty of meat and drink, we should look with some confidence for their speedy reconvalescence. If the result should unexpectedly prove otherwise, no harm could ensue. As soon as unequivocal symptoms of hydrophobia (as, for instance, the horror at the sight of water) were evinced, we should agree to the signing of the death-warrant of the dog, unless perhaps in one or two cases for experiment. In the present instance, we have not heard of any mischief having happened to the lieges from the supposed mad dogs themselves; but it is alleged that some perfectly sane spaniels and ter

riers have lost their lives on the occasion, through the zeal, not so much of the police-officers with their dog-destroying hatchets (for, it is believed, no reward for each cur's head was at this time held forth as an encouragement to their exertions) as of the apprentice-boys belonging to tanners and curriers in the neighbourhood, who are always ready to lend their unasked assistance in enforcing such orders, because they find their account in the value of the skins, which they are thus enabled with impunity to appropriate to themselves,-to the great vexation and distress of the owners of the animals, and their families. Upon the whole, it seems to remain a problem, whether we have escaped a dreadful malady by the vigilance of our Magistrates, favoured, we may suppose, by the coolness of the season of the year, (it being yet near six months to the dog-days); or whether we have not been guarding against an imaginary danger; and, by "strictly confining" our dogs, or pursuing them with hatchets and pitch-forks when they happened to get loose, have not, in effect, been rather lending our aid to engender disease where there was none before,

March 7.-Furze, chickweed, and Lamium amplexicaule, show their blossoms plentifully. Vegetation is proceeding rapidly. It is about six weeks earlier than last year.

18.-Whitlow-grass, Draba verna; March violet, Viola odorata ; and both the common species of Tussilago (farfara and petasites) are now in flower. Daffodils and Cynoglossum omphalodes begin to flower in gar

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