THE CARLYLE HOUSEHOLD.

HERE were many things in the Carlyle household in Chelsea which were hard for both husband and wife to bear. Poverty continually stared them in the face. The hideous spectre of insomnia haunted them through interminable weeks. Domestic upheavals, which count for little with those less fine, tormented them continually, and the keenly sensitive nerves of both were tortured by every conceivable noise.

Dogs, chickens, cats, and the whole range of harmless animals effectually murdered

all the other manifest improvements into which I had put my whole genius and industry, and so little money as was hardly to be conceived.

"For three days his satisfaction over the rehabilitated house lasted; on the fourth, the young lady next door took a fit of practising on her accursed pianoforte, which he had forgotten, seemingly, and started up disenchanted in his new library, and informed heaven and earth in a peremptory manner that there he could neither think nor live.' "Then followed interminable consultation with the said carpenter, yielding for some days only plans (wild ones) and estimates.

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sleep. There is scarcely a letter in the whole voluminous correspondence which does not speak of a restless night caused by some trifling noise.

Before carpenters, painters. paper-hangers, and other domestic evils both were in abject fear. A single letter, written by Mrs Carlyle to a friend, is an epitome of many similar miseries:

Carlyle returned from his travels very bilious, and continues very bilious up to this hour. The amount of bile that he does bring home to me, in these cases, is something 'awfully grand!' Even through that deteriorating medium he could not but be struck with a certain 'admiration' at the immensity of needlework I had accomplished in his absence, in the shape of clair-covers, sofacovers, window curtains, and so forth, and

"He had now a fair chance, however, of getting a settlement effected in the original library; the young lady next door having promised to abstain from playing before two o'clock, when the worst of his day's work is over. Generous young lady! But it must be confessed the seductive letter he wrote her the other day was enough to have gained the heart of a stone."

One may easily fancy that life was not easy for the wife of such a man.-From The Love Affairs of Literary Men," by Myrtle Reed.

ASH TREES BELOW DUNS LAW.

SPRING.

Warm, O warm from the south comes the scented breath of the May,

From where far off the Cheviots crouch, and blend with the skies' blue-grey.

Here, the corn foot-high waves, there the soil in bright red gleams

Gives promise glad of the fruits that show ripe ere September beams.

The honeysuckle blooms, and the wild rose is thick with bud,

Ready with June to burst in a rushing and rosy flood:

The buttercups sunnily shine, and campions' blush-flowers blown

Rule in the land where forget-me-nots' blue-royal stars late shone.

The ashes, all black in bough and in twig against the sky,

Have faced the spring to threaten, to hold back, and to defy.

Winter waited and halted, and hid in their mourning garb,

While in their darkened bodies it would seem he had sheathed his barb.

But now when all other trees hang heavy with summer green

The ashes repent from their sorrow, and in living spring are seen.

They join hands with the Maydays dancing, dancing down the happy hours,

And rebody in golden beauty the sweet April of suns and showers.

AUTUMN.

They have shown their tasselled, swaying, and gently tossing boughs Through young morns warm and balmy, and through the long evening soughs:

Now the west wind sounds low sighing, as though in a wandering wonder,

Like dim echoes of sobbing ocean when it draws the blue wavelets under.

Should life be spent with grieving to know winter approaches chill?

For they look high, and are tall, are straight and most noble still

E'en though their leaves are fallen, withered ghosts of a summer gone by

Ash trees, etched solemn and black, against the haze where the south hills lie.

CHRISTIE DEAS.

In his theme the grave and gay so skilfully was blended,

Like the sunshine and the shadow of that lovely summer day,

They woke, as from a dream, when the stirring tale was ended

That had borne them to the centuries so long since passed away.

Oh! gifted are the eyes that see the footprints on Time's sand,

And gifted is the tongue that can tell the ondrous tale,

And highly favoured mortals ye-Oh! Literary band,

Who saw those visions of the past in Yarrow's lonely vale. Gattonside.

M. I. S. J.

To the thoughtful mind a residence in the Peebles district is an education in itself. When the Romans reached the Borderland they found a comparatively advanced civilisation among the natives, and, though we have no exact record of the fact, it is almost certain that there would be an inhabited place here. British forts are numerous in the district, and the great Roman Camp at Lyne shows the importance of the locality in those early days. Peebles, a medieval town of unknown antiquity, was erected into a royal burgh as early as the reign of King David I., and is rich in records of the past, the documents connected with the Town Council extending back for several centuries. The town has a definite history covering seven centuries, and its close proximity to the great Ettrick Forest made it a frequent place of residence for Scottish sovereigns. James I., the poet-king, if we are to accept the traditional belief, sang the praises of the Beltane sports in his "Peebles to the Play," King David I. and his son Earl Henry dated charters from the burgh, and the ill-starred Queen Mary on the occasion of a visit gave the burgesses formal Letters of Protection. The Beltane sports referred to have recently been revived, and these, with the beautiful ceremony of crowning the Beltane Queen, add additional attraction to the month of June. Burned and devastated many a time by the English, Peebles always revived, and parts of the old town wall are still preserved. To the historian and antiquarian the town and district form a rich field for his researches.

SCOTTIANA.

Table-Talk of Sir Walter Scott, from the "Life and Letters of Rev. R. H. Barham."

NE of the most welcome additions to Scott literature which has appeared in recent years is the "Letters and Recollections of Sir Walter Scott,' issued first by Messrs Smith, Elder & Co., and republished early in 1910 by Messrs Thomas Nelson & Sons, Edinburgh and London. The latter publication, which contains several handsome illustrations, is published at the remarkably low price of one shilling, which puts it within the reach of all. These two issues contain several letters written by the illustrious novelist to Mrs Hughes, that lady's diary of her journeys to Abbotsford and other parts of Scotland in 1824 and again in 1828, and various recollections of Scott written by her at the end of her journal.

The perusal of this interesting volume, so full of anecdotage and reminiscence of the Wizard of the North, only serves to whet the appetite for more of the same nature; and it is therefore curious that so excellent a source of supplementary information as the "Life and Letters of Rev. R. H. Barham * (published in 1870) was overlooked by the editor of Mrs Hughes' posthumous work. It contains much of Sir Walter Scott's table-talk as narrated by Mrs or Dr Hughes to the esteemed author of the "Ingoldsby Legends ;" and indeed as Barham does not appear to have met the author of the Waverley Novels, it is certain that he obtained practically all his anecdotes regarding Scott from the source already mentioned. But as Barham, in addition to giving stories not mentioned by Mrs Hughes, enters other anecdotes in his Diary on the day that he heard them from that lady, and occasionally at an earlier date than she herself records them, these entries have thus a special value, and form an admirable supplement to the interesting work of Scott's intimate friend.

It is of special interest to know that the story of "The Dead Drummer: A Legend of Salisbury Plain," which appears in the second series of the "Ingoldsby Legends," was supplied to the author by Mrs Hughes. Writing to Barham, the Rev. Dr Hughes said that the awsome episode was recounted to him "by Sir

These extracts, together with comments in small type, have been supplied by Mr G. Watson, Oxford. The references are to Nelson's edition of Mrs Hughes' work on the immortal author of the Waverley Novels.

Walter Scott, who, having better means than most men of ascertaining facts and names, believed in their authenticity." In his introductory note Barham states that "The incidents recorded in the succeeding Legend were communicated to a dear friend of our family by the late lamented Sir Walter Scott. The names and localities have been scrupulously retained, as she is ready to testify. The proceedings in this case are, I believe, recorded in some of our law reports, though I have never been able to lay my hand upon them." The reader will find Mrs Hughes' narration of the weird story on pp. 297-9 of her "Letters and Recollections.'

Writing in his Diary under the date 26th November, 1826, Barham says:-" Dined at Doctor Hughes's. Sir Walter Scott had been there the day before; and the Doctor told me the following anecdote, which he had just heard from the Great Unknown.' A Scottish clergyman, whose name was not mentioned, had some years since been cited before the Ecclesiastical Assembly at Edinburgh, to answer to a charge brought against him of great irreverence in religious matters, and Sir Walter was employed by him to arrange his defence. The principal fact alleged against him was his having asserted, in a letter which was produced, that he considered Pontius Pilate to be a very ill-used man, as he had done more for Christianity than all the "other nine apostles" put together. The fact was proved, and suspension followed."

On 20th November, 1828, Barham, as he informs us in his Diary, “Carried a letter addressed by Sir Walter Scott to Mrs Hughes, on the subject of a benefit for Mr Terry, the actor, lately afflicted with a paralytic stroke, to Stephen Price at Drury Lane Theatre. Price promised me to let him have a benefit at the proper season, if he wished it; Sir Walter undertaking to write a prologue or an epilogue. Mrs Hughes], in a conversation respecting the 'Bride of Lammermoor,' told me that she had been informed by Sir Walter, when she was last at Abbotsford, that the main incidents of that story were true; that the Lucy of the tale was a Miss Dalrymple; Bucklaw, who marries

her, was Dunbar of Dunbar; and her lover, Hamilton of Bungany, who, however, survived her many years. The expression used by Lucy, 'so ye have taken up your bonnie bridegroom,' is historically correct; as is the whole circumstance of her stabbing her new-made husband, and her subsequent insanity. The catastrophe of Ravenswood's being overwhelmed in the sand is founded on an occurrence which took place before the eyes of Sir Walter's son, Major Scott, who saw three Irish horsedealers disappear in the manner described. A similar incident is said to have happened to the son of the celebrated Mrs Trimmer."

Mrs Hughes refers to these interesting topics on pp. 316 and 306 of her work; but, in the passage above quoted, Barham gives fuller details. The letter regarding "a benefit for Mr Terry the actor" to which Mr Barham makes reference, was apparently that which appears in Mrs Hughes' book (pp. 355-7). It bears the date Edinburgh, 15th Nov., 1828"; and if this and the date in Barham's Diary are correct, no time was lost in the transmission of the missive. The correct names of the lovers of Miss Janet Dalrymple were (1) Lord Rutherford and (2) David Dunbar of Baldoon in Wigtownshire: see the introduction to Scott's novel.

"Meg Dodds" (Mr Barham continues), "described in St Ronan's Well," is a Mrs Wilson, who keeps the inn at Fushie Bridge, the first stage from Edinburgh on the road to Abbotsford. She adores Sir Walter, and when Dr and Mrs Hughes were detained for want of horses, finding out accidentally that they were friends of his, she without any scruple ordered those which were bespoken for a gentleman, then on his way to dine with Lord Melville, to be put to their carriage. Mrs Wilson is a strict Presbyterian, and once complained to Sir Walter that though he had done just right by being so much with Arnieston (Mr Dundas of Arnieston), yet that the latter had grievously offended her. He had pit up,' she said, 'in the kirk the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments, and when a remonstrance was sent to him against such "idolatry," he just answered, that if they did not let him alone he would e'en pit up a Belief" into the bargain.''

Regarding this original character (Mrs Wilson), a commendatory remark is made by Scott in his Journal under the date 4th November, 1827. Lockhart also quotes the passage in his "Memoirs," and adds an interesting note about her. Mrs Hughes' interesting account of her meeting with this Wold Gipsy looking landlady," and of the latter's tasking the laird of Arniston, will be found on pages 282-3 of her work.

In September, 1829, Barham wrote thus in his Diary:-" Mrs Hughes told me that the person whose character was drawn by Sir Walter Scott as Jonathan Oldbuck was a Mr Russell, and that the laird whom he mentioned as playing cards with Andrew Gemmell (the prototype of Edie Ochiltree) through the window was Mr Scott of Yarrow.

"Snivelling Stone, about two miles and a half from the cromlech known as Wayland Smith's Cave, in Berkshire, is a large stone, which it is said that Wayland, having ordered his attendant dwarf to go on an errand, and observing the boy to go reluctantly, kicked after him. It just caught his heel, and from the tears which ensued, it derived its traditionary appellation. It is singular that when Mrs Hughes, who had this story from a servant, a native of that part of the country, first told it to Sir Walter Scott, he declared that he had never heard of Wayland's having had any attendant, but had got all the materials for his story, so far as that worthy is concerned, from Camden. This creation of Dicky Sludge, a character so near the traditionary one of which he had never heard, is a curious coincidence.

"So also is his description of Sir Henry Lee and the dog in Woodstock.' There is a painting in the possession of Mr Townsend, of Trevallyn, in Wales, representing, according to a tradition long preserved in his family, Sir Henry Lee of Ditchley, with a large dog, the perfect resemblance of Bevis. Mr Townsend, however, thinks he flourished about a century earlier than the Woodstock hero, and was the same with the Sir H. Lee whose verses to Queen Elizabeth, on his retiring from the tilt yard in consequence of old age, are preserved in Walpole's Antiquities.' The strange thing is that Sir Walter knew nothing of this picture till after Woodstock' was published."

The supplying of the name of the person who played cards with Andrew Gemmels is of special interest, as Scott in his introduction to "The Antiquary, ," while stating that the incident was told him by the Rev. Dr Robert Douglas of Galashiels, suppresses the name of the bluegown's partner in the card-game. Nor does the good lady of Uffington, when referring to the same incident (p.95), enlighten us upon this particular point, but she says that Andrew was frequently seen at Gaia, playing Brag with the Laird at the open window." It thus seems that Mr Barham made a slight mistake, and that Andrew Gemmels' partner was Mr John Scott, laird of Gala, who was a great friend of the Baronet of Abbotsford. There is a slight reference to the portrait of Sir Henry Lee in Mrs Hughes' work (pp. 363-4), where the name given by Barham as Trevallyn" is misprinted "Newallyn."

(To be continued).