any sound critic will admit the objection as valid, which Miss Dance made to it when it was proposed to her to undertake the part of the gypsey, namely, that no lady would consent to stain her complexion with umber, and therefore the piece never could be properly performed. We think, however the experiment might have been made, and Miss Dance, in the part of Splendora, would have been a most lovely and interesting representative, particularly in the mad scene, for, to use the words of an eloquent theatrical critic in the Edinburgh Correspondent, "Who, that saw Miss Dance in Belvidera, can for a moment hesitate in allowing her pathos and fine feeling? and so true were they both to nature, that we shall venture to say, her's were not feigned tears-who, that beheld her in that arduous part, will deny that she had a voice of great extent and compass? The mad scene was terrific and heartrending in the highest degree; and the ineffable smile of insanity which she gave, while she fancied that she had Jaffier in her arms, and the strangely changed tone of her voice on that occasion, were certainly never more happily conceived, or executed with more distracting effect." By the way we should here mention, that the other day, in a certain bookseller's shop, we heard a professor in a university, not a hundred miles from the college, say to a gentleman who was speaking in raptures of Miss Dance's poor Belvidera's smile, "What did she go mad for?" To think of any man in this enlightened age asking, "What Belvidera went mad for?" and that man, too, not a professor of divinity!! "FIFÆANA." No. I. SIR,-A change in the established form of religious worship in this country, has supplied us with many a ruined cathedral and desolated abbacy; and the transference of the seat of Scottish royalty from Holyrood to St James's, has been proportionally productive of palace ruins. In whatever direction you take your annual trip, whether you travel by the power of steam or of the lever, by land or by sea, on foot or on horseback, you cannot fail, provided your course is over your native soil, to discover, at the opening up of every bay, and at the weathering of every head-land, at the entrance of every strath, or on the apron of every eminence, some arresting shapeof Ruin, melting down, under the silent but irresistible influence of time, into the earth, yet still continuing to connect, by all the ties of association, the past with the present, the mitre and the crown of Scotland with the less elevated apprehensions of modern times. A Scotsman who has never travelled beyond the precincts of his native country, who has never crossed the Tweed on the one hand, nor the region of "Skua-gulls"* on the other, can have no adequate notion of the advantages of which Scotland, as a thea tre of travel, is possessed. He would be apt to suppose, that through what ever land he might chance to direct his course, he would still, amidst al the modern exhibition of steam and smoke, and manufacturing, and hus bandry, amidst all that feathering of trade and traffic, by which ou sea-ward vallies and navigable river are skirted, discover, at reasonabl intervals, the more hallowed form of antiquity, the lingering features o chivalry, the broken arch and the mouldering turret, the genius of a for mer and more poetical age-hoverin over, and still greeting with a partiną valediction, the present. In this ex pectation, however, he would be dis appointed. St Paul's, and Windsor are still the abodes of religion an royalty, whilst St Andrew's Cathedra and Falkland Palace are in ruins. Th same happy revolution in church an state, which removed from us the su perstitious observances of Rome, an the seat of our government, has let us, in addition to more substantia benefits, the reversion of a most romar tic and interesting land, rendered sti more interesting and romantic by th mouldering remains of our former roy and religious establishments. * Shetland-Vide Dr Fleming. I am not so smit with antiquarian mania, as to imagine, or to attempt to persuade others to imagine, that a " Ruin" is preferable, as an object of pleasurable contemplation, to an entire and a sublime edifice; but I assuredly think, that when these floating wrecks on the ocean of time are associated not only with the mere display of architectural design and execution, but with the ancient spirit and moral energies of our country, with much that it has now lost, but which once rendered it dignified in its internal character, and imposing in its external relations, our patriotism must be of a very suspicious description indeed, if it is not awakened and strengthened by the contemplation of them. There is nothing, in my opinion, which is more truly salutary to our national health and prosperity, than this reverence for, and frequent conversation with, the "Mighty Past." And, should the time ever arrive when a Scotsman can travel over the land of his fathers, hallowed as it is in almost every direction with reminiscences of their public character or domestic life, without taking any interest in such recollections, he will then be ripe for a state of rebellion or of vassalage. He will either have actually forfeited his claims to independence, or be prepared to do so. Were I desirous of reducing our national character, whether considered in reference to loyalty or to patriotism, to all that binds our hearts to the throne, or that attaches us to our national constitution and privileges; from the plenitude of authority, or rather from the insidious covert of design, I would issue forth my mandate, that all the monuments of our ancient history should be erased that with the ruins of the cathedral, as well as with the tomb-stones of the martyrs, men should buildoffices, and construct fences-and that the fast mouldering palaces of the race of Stuart should yield up their last foundation-stone to grace the lintels of some modern villa, or figure from the snug parlour chimney of some burgh magistrate. I would become a Second Edward, and efface not only from paper and parchment, but even from the face of the earth itself, every intimation, every record of antiquity; and thus I would train up a young, and a bustling, and a trifling generation, to consider pleasure and pudding as all in all! My reflections have assumed this cast, in consequence of a visit, or pleasure excursion rather, which, a few days ago, I was induced to make, in company with a highly respectable and intelligent friend, to the ruins of Falkland Palace. Understanding that the present proprietor of these "Royal Ruins," and of the extensive grounds around them, (J. Bruce, Esq.) had, with a great deal of good sense and proper feeling, ordered the Palace to be enclosed by a sufficient wall, and thus protected from that dilapidation under which, in the course of ages, it had suffered so much, and by means of which (if permitted to be proceeded in) not a vestige would in a few years remain, I was anxious, ere the inclosure should be completed, and the former aspect of the ruins, by the opening up of some new views,* in some measure altered, to saunter over, under the conduct of a well-informed and intelligent guide, the venerable, and time-hallowed precincts. It was a June day, and worthy of Juno herself. The wind, which had long resisted every southern tendency, and which had regularly at night-fall checked round in sullen obstinacy to the east, had at last yielded up "the point," and came over our faces, as weadvanced upon our expedition, in all the blandishment and softness of an Italian atmosphere. The sun, which had obtained sufficient elevation to overshoot the highest parts of the Lomond hills, yet not to irradiate the northern aspect, flooded down his beams upon us, over a dark and still sunless background, through which trees, and turrets, and cottage-smoke were beginning to penetrate into light. There was a freshness and a hilarity over the whole face of nature, according well with that lightness of heart, and buoyancy of spirit, which generally accompanies, as well as suggests, such careless, and, as the busy world deem it, aimless excursions; and as we trotted and walked our horses onwards, in an easy jogging tête-a-tête way, I felt assured that this day's enjoyment was not at the mercy of chance; and that, being pleased with, and happy in ourselves, we should find the objects we went to visit fully equal to our expectations. As we halted for an instant in passing through the ancient and most beautifully situated burgh of Auchtermuchty, in order to water our horses at a small, but clear and rapid stream, which divides the town, my friend took occasion to remark, that, according to tradition, we were now upon classic ground, rendered so by the exceedingly graphic and humorous description of country life and manners, which the "Guidewife of Auchtermuchty," said to have been written by King James the First, contains. "There," said he, pointing to a green bank, on the farther side of the stream, "fed the honest woman's gaislines, of which the gudeman made so poor an account; and upon that very stone, perhaps, were the 'foul sheets' laid, which the spait thought proper to carry along with it."* In the course of conversation, I learned that "Christ's Kirk on the Green," likewise supposed to have been celebrated by the royal author above mentioned, lay upon the banks of the river Leven, at no great distance, and was in fact none other than the church and the green of Lesly;" the dancing and deray," making part of an annual revel, which, under the sanction of royal authority, and even example, was there exhibited. "Weel,+ Bally-Mill," said my friend, as we began to cross over the valley towards Falkland, to a respectable looking figure who was riding past us, in an opposite direction, "how's a' wi'ye the day, Bally-Mill?" Mutual conversation ensued, from question answer flowed,' during which, as I had not the good fortune to be acquainted with Bally-Mill, I had drifted a considerable space in advance. *The alterations here alluded to, are towards the north side of the Palace, by means of which the northern aspect, which was formerly concealed by trees and some rising grounds, will be opened up, and travellers upon the Cupar and Perth roads, by Auchtermuchty, will have an excellent view of the ruins. * Vide No. 1. Vol. I. of this Magazine. When my friend overtook me, he made me acquainted with the following anecdote, respe respecting the manner in which the property of Bally-Mill, which lies a little way farther east, upon the banks of the Eden, was originally obtained from King James the Fifth, of facetious, and princely, and, alas, unfortunate memory ! The king, who was fond of seeing human nature under every modification of circumstance, and in the absence of all ceremony and constraint, a taste which a court was but indifferently calculated to gratify, was in the habit, whilst he resided at Falkland, of making excursions in disguise into the adjoining country. In one of these frolics, he entered, rather late in the evening, a miller's house, which was situated on Falkland muir, at the confluence of the Daft-water with the Eden. As the royal presence did not appear to her any ways imposing, the miller's wife stoutly opposed the entrance of her Guest; and at last, finding that words had but little weight with him, she brought up, as she had frequently in the course of expostulation threatened to do, the more weighty argument of her husband's presence upon the carle's obstinacy. The Miller who chanced to be a man of some hu mour, and of great good nature, thougl miserably ruled by his wife, was pre vailed upon to consent to the stranger' request; and having adjusted his mill labour for the night, returned to hi Guest with a tongue loaded with in quiries, and a heart light as air. Th stranger was intelligent, and facetious the landlord became gleesome an open-hearted, till at last, with a mos friendly and familiar salutation be twixt the carle's shoulders, and hearty, and vigorous, and protracte shake of his hand, the gudeman decla red he was the " ae best fallow he ha met with since the death o' the aul parson o' Cult, who was aye fou six day out of the seven, and ended his life a last ae drifty night amang the snaw." + It is customary in Fife, as well as in several counties of Scotland, to address fa mers, and even small proprietors, by the familiar appellation which belongs to their pr perty or farm. Thus we have "Drone," " Strone," "Cuff-about," and "Tai about," "Cockairnie," "Rumgally," "Craigfoodie," aigfoodie," &c. &c. ‡ It is reported of this "drouthy brother," that, having through life frequently e pressed a wish for a white "hinner end," in allusion to the sweet milk with which was in the habit of washing down the lagging remains of a parrich-cog-his death, the manner stated, became proverbial. The ale, which now, in spite of "Bessy's grumbling," and protesting again and again that there was not anither drap in the house, if their "hair war like a gowan," the ale, which had now begun to flow more freely, wrought wonders. "Kings may be great, but they were glorious, O'er a' the ills o' life victorious." In a word, they were, in the course of the evening, (under the management of John Barleycorn,) as well acquainted with each other, and upon as familiar terms, as if, like Burns's drouthy cronies, "They had been fou for weeks thegither." And upon taking his departure next morning, the stranger insisted upon a visit from his kind-hearted and hospitable landlord, at his house in Falkland, where, under the name of "The Gudeman of Ballengeoch," he was, as he alleged, sufficiently well known. The visit, in the course of a few days, was paid-and the courtiers, being apprized of the jest, had the miller introduced, very much to his astonishment and confusion, in- to the king's presence. Here he was banquetted and feasted for some days in a most princely manner, and dismissed at last with the alternative of the 8th part or the 4th of the lands of Bally-Mill, at his option. Having consulted his wife on this intricate subject, he was admonished that no man in his senses could possibly hesitate respecting the relative value of 8 and 4. "And the eighth part' remains in the possession of the person who passed us," concluded my Informer, "to this hour." We had, by the time that this anecdote was completed, come so far round in front of the Lomond hills, which now lay directly south of us, as to open them up in a beautiful and most sublime style. "Like two young roes that are twins," they rose before us in all the freshness of a recent, yet in all the permanent stability of an eternal existence. I have seen many mountains which overpowered the mind more with bulk, and height, and compass-but none which presented a smoother and a more distinct outline, and which cut out, in the clear blue heaven above, a more bold and graceful curvature. I can never restrain my feelings when I am under the influence of mountain scenery-it comes over my soul with the power and the swell of music. So, lifting myself up from the saddle, and cutting right and left with a switch I had in my hand, to the no small alarm of my companion, and bodily apprehension of my poney, I burst out into these, or similar exclamations:-"Here is the pathway of chivalry-a field worthy of kings. On that mountain's brow I still see the shades of royaltythe deer is starting from his covert, and his branchy horns are figuring amidst the stillness and fragrance of the morning air. But the royal trumpet has sounded-and a thousand bugles have awakened at the call-and the steed, and the rider, and the hound, and the echoes are away-and from the banks of Lochleven, to the tides of the German Ocean, all is one wide display of speed, and glitter, and princely bravery, and courtly confusionand the gallantry of ladyhood is abroad-the pride and the boast of a Scottish court are darting their flaming radiance from glen to steep, and from steep to glen. The falcon,† too, is on the wing-and now hangs like a spot in the bosom of the cloud-and now stoops it suddenly, with the speed and the fatality of lightning. But the scene has shifted, and the noontide heats are come on-and, clustering in upon that plain, are arranged on the green grass sod, without the ceremony of heralding King and courtier, lord and lady fair-whilst the fat deer is seething in the oak-suspended cauldron, and the jest is seasoned with laughter, and the laugh is unhampered by courtly ceremony-and the 'First Stuart of the land' has seated the fairest daughter of proud Loraine by his side-and the eye is bright, and "Hair was like a gowan," proverb meaning, "Were you even as beautiful." Yellow hair amongst our Scottish progenitors, as well as in ancient Greece, being held in high estimation. ↑ Hence Falkland-quasi Falconland! This is probably no fiction for the parish of Kettle, or King's Kettle, to the east of Falkland, derived, in all likelihood, its name from this circumstance. Vide Statistical Account, parish, Kettle-by the Rev. Dr Barclay, Minister. 6 the cheek is glowing-and the heart of a whole court is beating wild and high to the tune of health and glee and festivity." - "Tumterara-tarrara-tumtee," interrupted my less mercurial friend. "Has the man lost his senses? Who ever heard of such a rhodomontade of blaflummery and stilted nonsense? Why, man, that stuff might do for M'Pherson's Ossian, or Blackwood's Magazine." The very mention, my dear sir, of your far-noted Magazine, acted like a charm in bringing me to myself again; and from that moment to this, I have never lost hope of seeing my friend's prophecy realized. After a considerably protracted silence, we came up close to the very breast, as it were, and under the brow of the mountain, and I could perceive, much to my mortification, that there were other wrinkles than those of time observable upon its front. There was something so incongruous betwixt the great expression of nature, combined with the moral sublimity of association, by which I had so lately been transported, and dikes, and ditches, and irregular inclosures, and partially cultivated patches, and all the littleness, and all the contamination of private and plebeian appropriation, the characters of which I read but too distinctly up to the very mountain-top-that my spirits sunk as much below par, as they had lately risen above it, and I meditated, with a mixture of indignation and regret, on the sacrilege I had witnessed. "That summit," said I at length to my companion, "was wont, but a few years ago, to suggest no notion, nor recollection, but that of the power which originally created it, or the mightiness and pride of our national story, with which it was so eminently and closely associated. But now-fy upon itOh, fy!-There is "Tailor Lapboard's" park, and this is "Suter Elson's" field, and that is "Bailie Bluster's" portion; here, at this stone, terminates the division of "Christy Codgut," the fishwife; and that unseemly patch which disfigures the very summit, at once suggests the idea of "sowen-mugs and leather aprons." -Fy on't-Oh fythe mountain smells already of the loom and the workshop; let us pass quickly on." "Loom here, or loon there," replied my friend, " who seem. ed now to regard me as if he were se riously concerned about my intellects "the division of these Lomonds was no easy job. I was myself present a several meetings, where Sir Willian Rae, and Sheriff Jameson, had no littl difficulty, and exhibited great prudence and skill, and impartiality, in adjust ing the various claims; and it is my humble opinion, that there is more good sense in one rood of well-cultivated land, than in a thousand acres of wast royalty; and, however disrespectfull you may speak of tailors, and shoema kers, and bailies, and weavers, and s forth, they are fully as useful in thei day and generation, and not a grea deal less ornamental, than idle groom and blackguard courtiers, persecutin kings, and assassinating nobles. Yo have but to cast your eye a little to th westward of the road upon which w are now entering, to see a verificatio of all this, for there lies before you th Cameronian village of Fruchy, whic once lent a night's lodgings to those un happy men whom the oppression of " Stuart race" had driven like cattle from their homes and their families, an whom, under the whip, and in terror ( the thumbikens, a royal escort we conducting to endure death, or wors than death, in the dark and airles dungeon of Dunotter Castle.* An if you will only put yourself to th trouble to direct your eye a little i advance, you will mark, over the tile and thatched roofs which interven and composing as it were a part that royal palace we are now fast aj proaching, the parapet and turrets a fortress, which is stained by one those deeds of horror, which rose barbarous atrocity above the genius, ar character even of the age in which it w perpetrated." Having, notwithstan ing a slight degree of inclination to r taliate upon this somewhat cutting al uncourtly address, allowed my curi sity to hear the story to which he & * Several of these unhappy men died in this worse than Calcutta black-hole, al a well sprung up, which is still to be seen in the middle of the dungeon floor, to sup the thirst of the survivors! Such interpositions were by no means unusual in the times. A braken-bush, for example, grew up and spread in the course of a nig till it covered, and completely concealed from the search of persecuting "Clavers," e who had effected his escape from this horrible place of confinement ! |