derogate from no character, however grave and high, and I may as well make an end on't. The exit from the watchhouse recompensed us for the time so idly spent, by displaying the sun emergent from the horizon, and lighting the heavens with all the rich tints and lustre of a glorious summer morn. To think of bed was out of the question; but at the bottom of one of the streets from the Strand to the river, we caught sight of a west country barge, slowly floating up with the tide towards Richmond. The vision was decisive; we were speedily on board and enjoyed a voyage as delicious as fancy could picture. Nothing disturbed the stillness of the hour and placid stream; the banks were lovely in the glow of light; the song birds were carolling sweetly from bush and bough; all nature was fresh and fair, and the soul attuned itself to the harmonies on every side. The turmoils, and the follies, and the griefs, and the stains, and the saddened reflections of the watchhouse, if not forgotten, were only thought of to be contrasted with the calm and repose, the inexpressible beauty and incitement to virtuous feeling and action, which breathed throughout the bountiful dispensations of Providence. We could but marvel at the contemptible experience of the midnight town, and acknowledge the divinity that stirred up all the finer elements of the inanimate and animate world, the transition to which only occupied the magic of a minute. Ablution and a Richmond breakfast concluded the adventure, of which I hope no ill-natured critic will say, that as it had slept for half a century, and not being a Sleeping Beauty, it would have been as advisable to leave it to its slumbers. Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn! Dear as the raptured smile of joy.-BURNS. FROM being so much in the chambers of Mr. David Pollock, my intimacy was closer with him, as regards time, than with any of his brothers. We were very much together, and I was sincerely attached to him, as he was, I believe, to me, for his son assures me that my name was one of the last upon his tongue at his death in Bombay. In the spring of 1802 we paid a visit to Mr. Burchell, near Amersham. On returning, after a few days' pleasure and enjoyment, I was suddenly seized, on our way home, with a dangerous brain fever. I shook as if in a violent fit of ague, and my terrified friend, having wrapt me in all obtainable great coats and coverings, literally laid me down and sat upon me for warmth. I was soon under the care of my uncle, and removed to a lodging in Lower Sloane Street, where there was more air and room to breathe than in the heart of the City, where I had pitched my tent for proximity to the counting-house in Tokenhouse-Yard. I lay long in the conflict between life and death, too delirious to be aware of my situation, and even in my convalescence the most ingenious and credible romancer that ever tested the belief of medical attendants. Several of my dream stories were so feasible and congruous, that my uncle absolutely put faith in their reality; and it was, indeed, some time before I could entirely disabuse myself of the same opinion. Ultimately my life was saved; an event for which I owe a deep debt of gratitude to no less eminent a physician than Dr. Harness, who although holding the distinguished position. of President of the Sick and Hurt Board, sedulously attended me as a friend, and by his skill and judgment raised me from the edge of the grave. When I was able to be removed, my generous uncle conveyed me to the healing influence of my native air, and delivered over his charge to my mother, with the ironical character of a young gentleman who had lived in an exceedingly handsome manner upon a salary of fifty pounds a year. To do him justice, he had promoted and supplied the extra expenditure, but was at this juncture somewhat disappointed at bringing home a poor emaciated invalid, instead of the prodigy he expected me to have been! A tedious period of lassitude and dejection ensued; and my constant wish was to occupy an oval spot of flower-covered mould, surrounded by green box, on a part of the garden which sloped towards the beauteous Tweed, and lay open to the golden beams of the rising sun. During this interval I learnt that time was worth nothing; and that it was only our own doings which filled it up and made it valuable, or the reverse. Ever since, when I have had occasion to mourn over lost or mis-spent hours, I have not ventured to blame Old Greybeard, but taken the shame, where it was due, to myself. But weeks wore away, and health began to impart the vigour of former days to the body, and a corresponding elasticity to the mind. Richard was almost himself again, but views were changed, and the study of law in Edinburgh determined upon. The Justinian and Feudal codes were affirmed to be the broad bases of later legislation, and as they were far better taught in Edinburgh than anywhere else, I was once more to set up for a Prodigy, and lay the illustrious foundations there. I was accordingly placed with Mr. Cornelius Elliott, Writer to the Signet, an aged gentleman, and old friend of some of my progenitors or relatives, of whom I knew nothing. But it induced him to receive me in the kindest manner, and commence another course of spoiling, far more perilous at my age, then, and under all existing circumstances, than any which had previously tried me in the moral crucible, and failed, as yet, to make me a fool or a profligate. My London sojourn had sharpened my wits a little, into a sort of smartness, and created a difference between me and my fellows who had never quitted their mothers' apron-strings; and small as this distinction was, it helped largely to the favouritism with which I was treated. Mr. Elliott resided at No. 95, Queen Street, New Town, and Lord Moira, then Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Scotland, at No. 94. His Staff were a lively and gallant set: Lord Rancliffe, Tom Sheridan, Ensign Browne, and I think, Dalrymple, afterwards Earl of Stair, were of the number; and the martinettish General had sometimes enough ado to keep his Aides under military discipline. The contretemps were frequently amusing, and an account of some of them may serve, by-and-by, to diversify the desultory, characteristic and anecdotic portion of my task. In the meantime I have to pursue my personal memoir. In a suitable lodging in Thistle Street I lived nearly opposite my estimable relations, Mrs. Hamilton, her son Robert (the indefatigable and greatly esteemed directing agent of the Shipping Company, resident at Granton,) and two daughters, one of whom we had the unhappiness to bury whilst I remained in Edinburgh, and the other, the present Mrs. Irving, wife of the junior representative of the ancient family of Drum. With them I passed the most rational and most gratifying of the leisure hours I could contrive to snatch from my other engagements of business or pleasure. I never liked the law, and certainly I was not drugged with it. The occasional copying of deeds and other papers, the amusement of taking seizins (the symbolic ceremonies of which quite redeemed the dryness of the verbose recitals), a rare attendance at the Court of Session, and other routine, were all I ever heard or learnt of Justinian and his code, or the venerable Feudal systems of the middle ages. My lesson might run thus :-Master. Willy, my dear, you must be early with me the morn, for I have a contract to dictate to you of great consequence." Willy. "At what hour, sir? Master. "It must na' be later than eight o'clock, and you'll find me up and all ready for you." Probably I might be tolerably punctual? The table and desk were set, the paper or parchment was spread, I took my seat, and the dictator, walking about the room, proceeded to deliver the oracles which I committed to the record, repeating every last word of a sentence to show that I was ready to go on again. This hard work might last for nearly or even quite an hour, when my easy and ever good-humoured friend, either found out that we must be tired or that it was time to go to breakfast; and at breakfast was always a bevy of beauty enough to drive all law, or gospel either, out of the head of a student, if such there could be, thrice as old as I was. The superb future 66 |