with modern improvement) was of the club order. His face, tallowcolour, was seamed with the smallpox, which had particularly weeded his eyebrows; and his whole contour was vulgar, conceited, and disagreeable: with all this about him, he had a vast idea of his personal beauty and accomplishments. He was addressed as Mr. Sampson Gilliviray; and his profession was a maker, mender, and dealer in clocks. The package he had placed on the floor contained about a dozen of the useful articles he sold. He was an acquaintance of M'Taggart's. A long-backed, wiryhaired, sharp-snouted, bow-legged, prick-eared dog followed him; such a specimen of canine beauty, that I would have defied the inimitable Edwin Landseer to have improved it, even with his marvellously magic pencil! The dog was also an acquaintance of M'Taggart, for he went and rubbed his long sides against the leg of that worthy, who kindly patted him on the head, and down the back; but stopped suddenly, exclaiming, "Phew! Thistle, mon, what hae ye been squattling in? Bide awa'-bide awa', ye na leesome beast!" But while I was writing my soft epistle, and for a half minute waited for a pretty turn of expression, such as 66 the sweets of pure love," &c. &c., Thistle came and laid himself down under my table, panting with his journey-a travel-stained individual, with his tongue lolling out of his mouth. Have ever any of my readers, at any period, witnessed my old and dear friend, Dr. Kitchiner (alas! now dead and gone), when, with his accustomed cheerfulness, he has been seated in amusing chat at your side, and a strange dog has wandered into the room? If you, reader, have not, I have. The good Doctor had a perfect horror of dogs; and I imagine that the effluvia of the excellent cookery, with which Kitchiner's clothes was naturally impregnated, attracted all sagacious hounds and turn-spits; nay, I have seen a pugdog (the breed, I think, now out of fashion) go resolutely up to the admirable author of The Cook's Oracle, and stare him wistfully in the face, and lick his own black tongue and lips; the Doctor, at the same time, glancing at him with great in quietude; and if a lady was seated on the same sofa, twisting his two engine-pipe legs, covered with black silk stockings, surmounted by kneebreeches, over her head, completely out of the way of a chance of hydrophobia. In like manner did Thistle alarm and annoy me, and interfered materially with the composition of my billet-doux, as I alternately wrote a sentence, and glanced with a watchful eye at the filthy mongrel. "Pardon, fair object of my affections, that I should thus address you""I never saw such a beast in my life!"-"I hope I shall be forgiven for 66 the clandestine manner in which I make known to you that I have”- "got the mange, I am positive!". entirely lost my heart""—"May I ask, are your affections free, or would you permit me to say"- "Plague on the dog, he is biting my boot!"-" that I adore you?" "Lie down, do!"-"Your modest nature has won and insured my everlasting admiration"—"You're an ugly customer, indeed - Pah!" Pray, pray, devise some means to relieve my anxiety by a speedy reply" "Don't scratch yourself all over me, you wretch!" 66 The professor of the art of horology, after having partaken of bread, cheese, and ale, began to unfasten his package, from which he produced twelve clocks of different shapes and sizes; and placing them on the tables, he commenced winding them up separately. M'Taggart inquired the reason of that operation. Mr. Sampson Gilliviray demurely replied, "To-morrow, by special appointment, my Leddy Henniker, o' Meldrum Ha', purchases ane o' these timepieces; and as I ken her leddyship is verra particular in her choice, I e'en set 'em all going to-night, as they have travelled saxty miles; and, moreover, her leddyship is curious about the tone of the bell, sae I'll just put every ane a minute after each other, that she may distinguish which strike pleases her the best." The clock-maker accordingly set all the long hands of the twelve clocks exactly one minute slower than each other; causing, of course, eleven minutes difference between the first time-piece he wound, and the last. He then, in a nasal and lecturing tone, entered into a tedious and uncalled-for description of the uses and appliances of springs, wheels, maintaining power, going fusee, auxiliary ratchets, clinks, notches, pins, collets, frames, detents, teeth, escapements, circular motion, vibratory motion, pallets, axis, bent, levers, crutch, pendulums, balance, scape - wheel, diameters, tangents, centre - wheel pinions, cannon-pinion, sockets, plates, angles, mathematical precision, arcs, wheel-tooth, &c. &c. &c.; and right glad were we all when Mr. Gilliviray wound up with a mutchkin of whisky; which, with his long and fatiguing walk that day, soothed him into a loud, but habitually wellregulated snore. I never met with a more disagreeable personage, and I wished that both himself and dog could have been transported to the moon. Mr. Buchan had retired to rest; and, utterly fatigued with the clockmaker and his snoring, I determined to go to bed. I debated in my own mind whether I should give my letter to Jessie when she lighted me up-stairs to my chamber, or whether I should defer it until the morning; at any rate I would leave it to chance, and watch my opportunity. The charming chambermaid preceded me to my room through a long lobby, in which there was a bench; she then drew the curtains of the bed, and asked if there was all that I wanted. Now, at that moment, I wanted to tell her all I had thought about her; but whether it was bashfulness, or whether it was the whisky, I could not utter a word; and she wished me good night in the sweetest tone possible. When she had left the room, I could have knocked my head against the wall, for omitting to take the advantage of such an opportunity, and cursed myself for a stupid fool! I read my letter over again-was not satisfied with it; I wound up my watch, undressed myself, and got into bed. I was really tired I thought of Jessie's ringlets, and then hoped to go to sleep. "Oh! thou gentle scene Of sweet repose, where, by th' oblivious draught Of each sad toilsome day to peace restored, Unhappy mortals lose their woes awhile." But a loud tramping up and down stairs, and some hard metallic substances being placed on the bench in the lobby, prevented my closing my eyes. Presently the house was tolerably silent; I hummed inwardly, "Beautiful Jessie, the Rose of Dumblane;" turned round drowsily, and threw myself in a picturesque prostrate attitude; and was just going off serenely, when a clock began to strike eleven. I counted every beat. A second clock then commenced, and continued striking in another key; a third then started, and having done its duty, a fourth time-piece struck up, accompanied by a cuckoo-note. The fifth horologe chimed four quarters first; and then, in a most energetic manner tipped off eleven o' the hour. This was followed, in regular rotation, by the seven other elocks, of the accursed Mr. Sampson Gilliviray, all striking eleven. I became fevered and fidgety; the excitement I had undergone, and the unusual quantity of strong Scotch whisky upon the claret and ale, interfered, I suppose, with my digestion. I turned and twisted about into as many attitudes as those represented in an alphabet formed of posturemasters, published in my boyhood at Bowles and Carver's, in St. Paul's Churchyard. At length I fell into a disturbed slumber, and began to dream. Methought that I held Jessie by the hand, and led her into the presence of my venerable mother, and that we both went down on our knees before her to ask her blessing; but my maternal parent, deeply offended at the rash step I had taken, turned her head another way, and intimated that she expected that I should have married above my station rather than beneath it; and that she was in hopes that I should have settled into a piously disposed family at Camberwell, deep and serious thinkers, who were always contemplating their ends, and by that means looked forward to salvation. At this moment I dreamt that the spectre of my grandmother entered, all suds and starch, her skinny arms almost washed away; she smiled grimly on me, and placed her damp, smoking hands on on my head, and invoked a blessing on Jessie and myself, and hoped that she should have the satisfaction of taking in our linen weekly. While pondering on this strange scene, I was suddenly awakened by a clock striking twelve; and on went its fellow clocks, beating, chiming, cuckooing: the strokes on the bells alone amounted to 144! I was on the point of nervous madness. I bit the bolster, I tucked the tassel of my nightcap into one ear, and a corner of the sheet into the other, but in vain. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12! Oh, what a night! At length all was silent. Restless and uncomfortable, I thought I heard a gentle tap at the door. I listened attentively. It certainly was a tap at my door, repeated. Another tap, a little louder. I sat up and exclaimed, "Who is there ?" To my infinite surprise, I heard the mild voice of Jessie. "Can I come in, sir?" I never was in such a sudden perturbation in the whole course of my existence; but I calmed myself, and replied almost breathlessly, "Yes!" The door opened, and I heard the lovely little chambermaid step almost without sound across the room, until she approached my curtain. I trembled; a cold chill struck through my frame, which was instantly succeeded by a sudden glow. I listened to the soft and silvery tone of her voice. Oh, what sensations the few words created! "Hae ye ony objection to a bedfellow ?" "Not the least, my sweet love!" said I. "I return you my best thanks," said she. "Come in, Mr. Gillivray; the gentleman is good enough to let you have half his bed!" * I think I must have swooned away; for when I came to myself, the horrid clock-maker was snoring beside me in the bed, with his club foot; and Thistle, who had jumped on the coverlid (sweet dog!), was also asleep. All the twelve clocks struck one! and two, and three, and four, ad infinitum. Some little time after my return to London, I read in an Aberdeen newspaper (forwarded to me by my Scottish correspondent), "Married, on the 10th instant, at the Episcopal Chapel, by the Rev. Plimmie Buchan, Mr. Roderick M'Taggart, Malster, to Miss Jessie Tawie, spinster, second cousin to Mr. Grant of Meldrum, and distantly related to the Cromshogies of Cromshogie." FURZE. WHEN first the stranger* saw thy golden bloom Filling the air with faintly rich perfume, With breath of thyme and heathbell sweetly blending, Bless'd God that earth could shew so fair a sight. And thou art lovely when the sun-light pure Rests on thy yellow wreaths; which, closely twining, Shed such a glory on the lonely moor, That barren else, yet with their lustre shining, It seems no more a stormy wilderness, But some loved garden in its summer dress. Oh! if earth's fading charms have power to raise From those to whose enraptured sight is given * Linnæus. THE THREE GREAT EPOCHS; OR, 1830, 1840, AND 1850. BOOK I. 1830. CHAPTER XV. FAMILY DISCUSSIONS AND ARRANGEMENTS. "I ACKNOWLEDGE that you were right, Agnes, and I wrong. It was worse than a rash thing to connect myself with these Blackstons. I ought to have known that among men of their school honesty is a word which has no meaning. But I have played my cards most unwisely throughout; and am, in consequence, left without one political friend in the world." So spake Lord Boroughdale to his high-minded lady, as they sat tête-àtête over their wine the day subsequent to that which had been immortalised by the visit of the reformers from Coketown at the park. But he was not permitted to run deeper into the mire of self-condemnation. "You acted, Boroughdale, as you always do," was her wise and generous reply, "with the very best intentions. And where we feel that our motives are good, our very errors need not wring our consciences, however much they may mortify our self-love. Never mind the past. Go on steadily in the line which you have now taken, and I will answer for your getting friends enough round you, and good friends too. But I do hope that you will break off this Altamont connexion with as little delay as may be compatible with common good breeding." "Delay, Agnes! I'll have no delay in the matter! Mr. Blackston has violated his implied pledges long ago, and can have no claim upon me for the ordinary civilities of good fellowship. As to my support at any future election, I presume he is not weak enough to expect that." "Nay, Boroughdale, you must not close your doors against him too abruptly. Remember that, if we owe nothing to him, our obligations to his son are very weighty; and we must not shew ourselves ungrateful, though Mr. Blackston be so.' True, Agnes-very true; I had forgotten that." "And yet there are moments when I could well-nigh wish that to any other arm than his we stood indebted for our Evy." "Why so, my love?" "Because I have more than once imagined that, ever since their acquaintance grew into friendship, I could trace the workings of a mighty change in the character of our child. She seems to have lost of late all the buoyancy-perhaps, exaggeration-of animal spirits that used to belong to her. Trifles fail to engross her attention now; indeed, the clever girl is sobering down prematurely into the grave and thinking woman. Now, Frederick Blackston is, I admit, an exceedingly charming and amiable youth; yet I would not quite select him as a husband for our Evy-nor, I suppose, would you?" 66 My dear Agnes, I earnestly trust that you are alarming both yourself and me unnecessarily. You forget that Evy is but a child." "A child in years, yet much more than a child both in mind and in person. Depend upon it that I am not apt to create chimeras. I wish that he had been a little less often in her company when he was here." "If your suspicions be well grounded, it is necessary that we should take precautions against the evil to come. These young people must not be allowed to associate any more together; for I would sooner lay Evy's head in the grave than give her to the son of such a scoundrel as Blackston!" "No, no, dear Boroughdale-not quite that; but it would certainly be a bore to see her introduced into a family, with the elder branches of which we have so little in common." They rose from table as the lady uttered these words; and on her putting her arm through his they walked abroad into the shrubbery. They were silent, however, as if occupied with thoughts that lay too deep for conversation; and preferring the edging of turf to the gravel road, they moved forward noiselessly. An incident, trifling in itself, yet in their eyes pregnant, just at that moment, with interest, was the consequence. They saw, sitting on a bench which stood beneath the shelter of a noble beech, the gentle creature concerning whom they had been speculating, lost, as it seemed, in thought. The book, which had been her ostensible companion, lay upon its face beside her. Her elbow rested upon one of the arms of the garden-chair; and her bonnet having been cast aside, her small classical head found support upon the palm of her right hand. She was gazing, as it seemed, on vacancy; and when they drew near, a mother's anxious eye observed in a moment that her cheeks were moist. Lady Boroughdale pressed her husband's arm, while at the same time she drew him gently back; and retreating a few steps, as stealthily as they could, they soon placed between themselves and her a screen of foliage. "Did you mark her attitude?" demanded Lady Boroughdale. "I did," was the reply, " and am pained by it beyond my powers of expression. I fear that your suspicions are but too well founded." "You may depend upon it that they are. And next comes the question,-How are we to proceed ?" "I think, my love, that it might be advisable for you to talk to her. Point out, as delicately as you can, that Frederick Blackston is no fit match for her; and make her understand-nobody knows better how to manage a disagreeable subject than you that, with my opinion of the father, I never can consent to to receive the son as a member of my family." "I don't know, Boroughdale; I am not sure that this method would answer. It will be better, perhaps, that we avoid the subject altogether, only taking care that she is not thrown in his way, till time shall have effaced the present impression." "Yes, but how is this latter point to be managed ?" "What say you to going abroad for a year or two? I am sure that, after the turn which public affairs have taken, England is not likely to offer to you, or to any other wellprincipled man, many attractions as a place of residence-at least, for a while." "You would not have me desert the ship just at the moment when she has got among the breakers? I must see the struggle over first, Agnes; and then, indeed, if we be beaten, as I have no doubt we shall, you may carry me where you will." Well, then, so let it be. We will allow things to continue as they are during the short recess. You return, I believe, to your duties in parliament in November; and after that Evy and I will either join you at once, should Frederick apply, as he proposed to do, for leave of absence, or, in the event of his remaining with his regiment, we will abide still in the country. Next session must and will decide the question of parliamentary reform; and, so soon as that is settled, we will be prepared to act as circumstances may require. Meanwhile, let us walk up to Evy, and rouse her." They stepped upon the gravel, planted their feet heavily upon the ground, and so moved towards the bench on which they knew that their beloved child was resting; and their uneasiness was certainly not dispelled by perceiving that she seemed now as busily engaged with her book, as she had been a minute or two previously with her own thoughts. They did not, however, take any notice either of the blush which suffused her countenance, or the hurried manner in which she rose to meet them. But having put a few natural questions touching the nature of her studies, they proposed that she should join them in their stroll, and were cheerfully obeyed. Something of restraint there certainly was about the manner of the whole group throughout. Yet when they found themselves, under the rays of a glorious harvest-moon, at the foot of the flight of steps which led up to the hall-door, they pronounced, as if by common consent, that the walk had been a delicious one. "Here's a letter from Welverton!" said Lord Boroughdale, when he met the ladies next morning at breakfast. "Wonders will never cease. He is positively coming down, and intends to shoot. We may expect him either to-day or to-morrow.' "Does he come alone?" "Not exactly," replied his lordship, in a tone of something like he |