NOTES OF A READER.
Reading edition
SCOTTISH INNS.
By Sir Walter Scott.
The courtesy of an invitation to partake a traveller's meal, or at least that of being invited to share whatever liquor the guest called for, was expected by certain old landlords in Scotland, even in the youth of the author. In requital, mine host was always furnished with the news of the country, and was probably a little of a humourist to boot. The devolution of the whole actual business and drudgery of the inn upon the poor gudewife was very common among the Scottish bonifaces. There was in ancient times, in the city of Edinburgh, a gentleman of good family, who condescended, in order to gain a livelihood, to become the nominal keeper of a coffee-house, one of the first places of the kind which had been opened in the Scottish metropolis. As usual, it was entirely managed by the careful and industrious Mrs. B——; while her husband amused himself with field-sports, without troubling his head about the matter. Once upon a time the premises having taken fire, the husband was met walking up the High Street, loaded with his guns and fishing-rods, and replied calmly to some one that inquired after his wife, "that the poor woman was trying to save a parcel of crockery, and some trumpery books;" the last being those which served her to conduct the business of the house. There were many elderly gentlemen in the author's younger days, who still held it part of the amusement of a journey "to parley with mine host," who often resembled, in his quaint humour, mine Host of the Garter, in the Merry Wives of Windsor; or Blague of the George, in the Merry Devil of Edmonton. Sometimes the landlady took her share of entertaining the company. In either case, the omitting to pay them due attention gave displeasure, and perhaps brought down a smart jest, as on the following occasion:—A jolly dame who, not "sixty years since," kept the principal caravansary at Greenlaw, in Berwickshire, had the honour to receive under her roof a very worthy clergyman, with three sons of the same profession, each having a cure of souls; be it said in passing, none of the reverend party were reckoned powerful in the pulpit. After dinner was over, the worthy senior, in the pride of his heart, asked Mrs. Buchan whether she ever had had such a party in her house before. "Here sit I," he said, "a placed minister of the kirk of Scotland, and here sit my three sons, each a placed minister of the same kirk.—Confess, Luckie Buchan, you never had such a party in your house before." The question was not premised by any invitation to sit down and take a glass of wine or the like, so Mrs. B. answered drily, "Indeed, sir, I cannot just say that ever I had such a party in my house before, except once in the forty-five, when I had a Highland piper here, with his three sons, all Highland pipers; and deil a spring they could play amang them!"—Notes to the New Edition of the Waverley Novels.
CATCHING TIGERS.
In some parts of South America, a great many tigers are caught with the lasso by the Indian and Creole inhabitants for the sake of their skins. They are also sometimes entrapped in the following manner: a large chest, or wooden frame, is made, supported upon four wheels, and is dragged by oxen to a place where the traces of tigers have been discovered. In the furthest corner of the chest is put a putrid piece of flesh, by way of bait, which is no sooner laid hold of by the tiger than the door of the trap falls; he is killed by a musket ball, or a spear thrust through the crevices of the planks.—Memoirs of General Miller.
ODE.
(From the Persian.)
The joys of love and youth be mine, The cheerful glass, the ruby wine, The social feast, the merry friend, And brimming goblets without end. The maid whose lips all sweets contain, The minstrel with bewitching strain, And, by my side, the merry soul Who briskly circulates the bowl! A maiden full of life and light, Like Eden's fountains pure and bright; Whose sweetness steals the heart away, Mild, beauteous, as the moon of May. A banquet-hall, the social room, Cool, spacious, breathing rich perfume, Like that fair hall where, midst the roses, Each saint in heaven above reposes! Servants in briskness who excel, Friends who can keep a secret well, And merry men who love their lass, And drink your health in many a glass. Wine, sparkling like the ruby bright, Neither too sweet, nor yet too light; One draught from purple wine we'll sip, And one from beauty's rosy lip! A maid, whose joyous glances roll To cheer the heart and charm the soul; Whose graceful locks, that flow behind, Engage and captivate mankind! A noble friend, whose rank is grac'd By learning and poetic taste; Who, like my Patron, loves the bard, Well skill'd true merit to reward! Breathes there a man too cold to prove The joys of friendship or of love? Oh, let him die! when these are fled Scarce do we differ from the dead!
Gentleman's Magazine.
LITERARY GAZETTES.
As one of the signs of the times we notice the almost simultaneous appearance of three new Literary Gazettes, at Edinburgh, Oxford, and Manchester. One of the latter contains a wood-cut of the Manchester Royal Institution, and eight quarto pages for three-pence. Among the original articles is a sketch of Mr. Kean, in which the writer says, "Mr. Kean's countenance was some years since, one of the finest ever beheld, and his eye the brightest and most penetrating. Without ever having seen Lord Byron, we should say there must have been a great similarity of features and expression between them."
DUELLING CODE.
People talk about the voluminous nature of our statute-books, forsooth. Nonsense! they are not half large or numerous enough. There is room and necessity for hundreds and thousands of new laws; and if duelling cannot be prevented, it might at least be regulated, and a shooting license regularly taken out every year; and the licenses only granted to persons of a certain rank, and property, and age. Say, for instance, that none under fifteen years shall be allowed a license; that livery servants, apprentices, clerks in counting-houses, coach and wagon offices, hair-dressers, and tailors who use the thimble in person, should be considered as unqualified persons. This would render duelling more select and respectable.—Rank and Talent.
SOUTH AMERICAN BANDITTI.
The vicinity of Lima is occasionally infested by banditti, carrying on their operations in open day with so much system, that all who chance to travel at that time are sure to be relieved of their valuables. These robbers are composed chiefly of free mulattoes and others of a mixed race. The evil has existed from time immemorial, and is of purely Spanish origin; for Indian honesty, in retired villages, is so great, that when a family for a time leaves its cage-like hut, the latchless wicket is left ajar; a brush is placed on the sill, and it would be worse than sacrilege for any one to cross the threshold under any pretence. It has happened that the brigands, well armed and well mounted, have assembled at distant and uncertain periods within a mile of Callao. They direct their course towards Lima, stop all whom they meet, and having very civilly lightened them of their purses, oblige the plundered persons to accompany the robbers, till all arrive near to the city gate, when the banditti disperse. Some ride boldly into the town; many conceal themselves in the thickets of canes; whilst others cut across the country, and return quietly to their homes, to enjoy the spoil, or follow their usual occupations. The banditti, on such extraordinary occasions, amount to twenty or thirty in number; and it has happened that they have had about twenty carriages, besides persons dismounted and made to lead their own horses, in the train, which was regularly brought up by a rear-guard, while the advanced scouts pushed on to secure fresh booty. They seldom commit murder; and whenever it is possible, they avoid robbing officers of the army, or civilians in the employment of government. Neither do they, when acting in small parties, attack persons of note. Foreigners and strangers are in general their usual victims.—Memoir of General Miller.
STEALING A SHEET.
A bet was laid by a gentleman that he would procure an Indian thief who should steal the sheet from under a person without waking him. The thing was effected in the following manner:—the Bheel approaching the person, who lay on his side, from behind, carefully folded up the sheet in small compact plaits till it reached his back; then, taking a feather, he tickled the nose of the sleeper, who immediately scratched his face and rolled over on the other side, when with a slight effort he completely released the sheet, and bore it off in triumph.—Twelve Years' Military Adventures.
EDUCATION AND AMUSEMENTS OF THE LOWER CLASSES.
A correspondent of the Gardener's Magazine observes that "next to the existing school societies, there is nothing I am more anxious to see, or would more gladly contribute to, than a Society for promoting the Rational Amusements of the Lower Classes, the first aim of which should be to instruct itinerant teachers of music, singing, and dancing, in improved modes of imparting their arts, and thus fairly set the plan agoing, when it would soon work its own way, and might then be extended to higher objects. The taste for flowers among the Paisley weavers, for gooseberry-growing at Manchester, and for music among the west of Yorkshire clothiers, originally sprang up from imitation of one or two amateurs of each pursuit; and there only needs a similar first impulse, which a society with a few thousands a year might give, to spread a general taste for music, singing, and dancing, and ultimately for other branches of the fine arts, as drawing and painting, as well as for natural history, and the cultivation of flowers and fruits, &c.
"The lower classes in England, thus improved in morals and manners by a better education and more humanising amusements, might be safely left to choose their time of contracting marriage, and would then no more make beasts of themselves by drinking fermented liquors, than do the lower classes in the city from which I write, (Brussels) where probably more beer (and that by no means weak) is drank than in any town of similar size in England, every street being crowded with cabarets (public-houses,) and these in the evening almost always filled. But how filled? Not with rioters and noisy drunkards, but with parties at separate tables, often consisting of a man, his wife and children, all sipping their pot of beer poured into very small glasses to prolong the pleasure, and the gratification of drinking seeming less than that of the cheerful chit-chat, which is the main object of the whole assemblage. Deep-rooted national bad habits can be eradicated only by the spread of knowledge, which will ultimately teach our lower classes, as it has already done the bulk of the higher, that moderation is the condition of real enjoyments, and must be the motto even of the sensualist who aims at long-continued indulgence."