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November 15.

On the 15th of November, 1725, died in duel, Charles lord Mohun. He had been led by low and degrading compan ionship into disgraceful and vicious excesses. In a midnight brawl, in company with lord Warwick and another gentleman three persons fought them and a captain Coote was killed. The lords Warwick and Mohun were tried by their peers. Warwick was convicted of manslaughter, but Mohun was acquitted. Some years afterwards Mr. Montfort, "one of the best and most amiable actors that ever trod the stage," was murdered as he was walking in the street by captain Hill, aided and abetted by lord Mohun, who was again tried for this second murder. He was again acquitted, but, apparently under a deep sense of his enormity, he expressed "his confusion for the scandal he brought upon his degree, as a peer, by his behaviour, in very handsome terms; and promised to behave himself so for the future, as not to give farther scandal." Ile afterwards applied himself to pursuits becoming his station, and in the House of Peers often distinguished himself by judicious speeches. The earl of Macclesfield, whose niece he had married, took lord Mohun with him to Hanover, when he went to announce the settlement of the crown upon the house of Brunswick. Toland says "that none of the company was more generally acceptable, that none lived with greater sobriety, nor delivered himself on all occasions with better judgment than lord Mohun." Lord Macclesfield died without issue and left him a considerable estate, which he managed with great prudence. Lord Macclesfield's brother dying a bachelor there was a dispute about the property between the duke of Hamilton who had married Elizabeth sole heir of the earls of Macclesfield, and lord Mohun, who had likewise his claims upon the estate. They were both present at an examination before a master in chancery respecting the matter in litigation, when the duke of Hamilton, reflecting upon the veracity of Mr. Whitworth, who had been steward to the Macclesfield family, said, "he had neither truth nor justice in him." Lord Mohun instantly replied, that "he had as much as his Grace." They parted in anger, and on the following day lieutenant gen. Maccartney conveyed a challenge to Mohun from the duke, who had been ap

pointed ambassador to France, whither he was to have proceeded immediately. On the 15th of November, 1712, they met and fought in Hyde Park, and each killed the other. Lord Mohun was buried in Westminster Abbey. There arose afterwards a loud public outcry against Maccartney, who, fearing the issue of a triai at such a juncture, withdrew to Germany, till a change in the government, and a calm in public opinion, offered him the prospect of an impartial adjudication. In 1716 he returned, and was tried before lord chief justice Parker; when he was acquitted of the murder, and discharged of the manslaughter by burning with a cold iron to prevent an appeal of mur. der.*

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At St. Catherine Cree church, Leadenhall street, London, provision is made under the will of sir John Gager, who was lord mayor in the year 1646, for a Sermon to be annually preached on the 16th of November in commemoration of his happy deliverance from a lion, which he met in a desert as he was travelling in the Turkish dominions, and which suffered him. to pass unmolested.-The minister is to have 20s. for the sermon, the clerk 2s. 6d., and the sexton. 1s. The sum of £8. 16s. 6d. is likewise to be distributed among the necessitous inhabitants, pursuant to the will of sir John.t

BANFF SUPERSTITIONS.

North Britain, witches were (and perhaps A few years ago in the county of Ban T, still are) supposed, as of old, to ride on of May regarded to be one of their festivals. broomsticks through the air, and the 12th It is alleged that, on the morning of that day, they are frequently seen dancing on the surface of the water of Avon, brushing the dews off the lawn, and milking cows in their fold. Any uncommon sickness

Noble.

↑ Bewick's Hist. of Quadrupeds.

is generally attributed to their demoniacal practices. They are reputed to make fields barren or fertile, raise or still whirlwinds, and give or take away milk at pleasure. The force of their incantations is dreaded as not to be resisted, and extends even to the moon in the midst of her aerial career. "It is the good fortune, however, of this country to be provided with an anti-conjurer, that defeats both them and their sable patron in their combined efforts. His fame is widely diffused, and wherever he goes, crescit eundo. If the spouse is jealous of her husband, the anti-conjurer is consulted to restore the affections of his bewitched heart. If a near connexion lies confined to the bed of sickness, it is in vain to expect relief without the balsamick medicine of the anti-conjurer. If a person happens to be deprived of his senses, the deranged cells of the brains must be adjusted by the magic charms of the anti-conjurer. If a farmer loses his cattle, the houses must be purified with water sprinkled by him. In searching for the latent mischief, this gentleman never fails to find little parcels of heterogeneous ingredients lurking in the walls, consisting of the legs of mice and the wings of bats; all the work of the witches. Few things seem too arduous for his abilities; and though, like Paracelsus, he has not as yet boasted of having discovered the philosopher's stone, yet, by the power of his occult science, he still attracts a little of their gold from the pockets where it lodges; and in this way makes a shift to acquire subsistence for nimself and family."

THE ENGLISH, 1298.

The English are serious, like the Germans, lovers of show,-liking to be followed, wherever they go, by whole troops of servants, who wear their masters' arms in silver, fastened to their left arms, and are not undeservedly ridiculed for wearing tails hanging down their backs. They excel in dancing and music; for they are active and lively, though of a thicker make than the French; they cut their hair close on the middle of the head, letting it grow on either side; they are good sailors, and better pirates; cunning, treacherous, and thievish. Above three hundred are said to be hanged, annually,

Brand, from Statistical Account of Scotland, xii. 465.

in London; beheading, with them, is less infamous than hanging. They give the wall as the place of honour. Hawking is the general sport of the gentry. They are more polite in eating than the French; devouring less bread but more meat, which they roast in perfection. They put a good deal of sugar in their drink. Their beds are covered with tapestry, even those of farmers. They are often molested with the scurvy, said to have first crept into England with the Norman Conquest. Their houses are commonly of two stories, except in London, where they are of three or four, though but seldom of four; they are built of wood; those of the richer where the owner has money, covered with lead. They are powerful in the field, successful against their enemies, impatient of any thing like slavery, vastly fond of great noises that fill the ear, such as the firing of a cannon, drums, and the ringing of bells; so that it is common for a number of them that have got a glass in their heads to go up into some belfry, and ring the bells for hours together, for the sake of exercise. If they see a foreigner very well made, or particularly handsome, they will say, it is a pity he is not an Englishman.*

A Commendation of the Night-Time.
Though many much mislike the long
and wearie winter nightes,

I cannot but commend them still,
For diverse dere delightes.
The night wee see bringes silver sleepe;
Sleepe courseth care away;

Cares being cast from out the mind,
there harbours happy joye;

Where joye abounds there helthe hath place, where happy helthe doth bide,

There life lasts long: this proofe shewes plaine,

And may not bee denyde;
So, this the happy nighte procures,

Therefore I must, before the daye,
Preferre and praise it still.
Forrest of Fancy, 1579.

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By the kindness of A. G. Jun. the Year Book is favored with a drawing by Mr. W. GEIKIE, for the preceding engraving. The houses it represents may not be allowed to remain long, and this may be an apology for introducing it with the following particulars from the "Traditions of Edinburgh."

Mr. Chambers says "The West Bow is a place abounding more in antiquities than any other part of the city, and what could not fail to render these antiquities interesting to the public is the circumstance that they are all accompanied in their preservation by anecdotes of a curious and amusing description. It is one of the oldest streets in Edinburgh, and has been less subjected to modern reno

vations than almost any other place, so that its form and appearance are much the same as they were two hundred years ago; and the traditions with which it abounds have suffered proportionably little from the changes of time. From its peculiarly venerable aspect--the dark profundities and culs de sac that descend from behind it-its numerous decayed houses with aerial dove-cot-looking gables projecting over the street, seemingly not more secure of their hold than the last leaf of autumn shivering on the aspen's topmost bough it seems a place full of grandmothers' tales and quite calculated to maintain a wizard or a ghost in its community. Both of these it has accordingly done within the last century and a half, in the person of

the notorious Weir, who first served them in the one capacity, and lastly in the other. At the head of this street there happened, in the year 1596, a memorable combat between James Johnston of Westerhall, and a gentleman of the house of Somerville, which is related in the "Memorial of the Somervills," vol. II. p. 7.

At the period referred to, combats of this description and even tulzies (so to speak), that is to say, skirmishes between the retainers of various noblemen, were of no infrequent occurrence upon the streets of Edinburgh. On the 24th of November, 1567, according to Birrel, the Laird of Airth and the Laird of Wemyss met upon the High Street, and together with their followers fought a bloody battle, "many being hurte on both sides by shote of pistoll." Three days afterwards there was a strict proclamation, forbidding "the wearing of guns or pistolls, or aney sick like fyerwork ingyne, under ye paine of death, the Kings guards and shouldours only excepted." This circumstance seems to be referred to in "The Abbot," vol. II. p. 95-where the Regent Murray, in allusion to Lord Seyton's rencounter with the Leslies, in which Roland Græme had borne a distinguished part, says,-"These broils and feuds would shame the capital of the Great Turk, let alone that of a Christian and reformed state. But, if I live, this gear shall be amended; and men shall say," &c. This may suffice for the fame of the West Bow in tulzie-annals.

In early times, it appears, the inhabitants of the West Bow were peculiarly zealous in the cause of the Covenant. Pitcairne, Pennycuik, and other poets of the Cavalier or Jacobite faction, distinguish the matrons of this street by satirical epithets, such as the "Bow head Saints," the "godly plants of the Bow head," &c. We also see that many of the polemical pamphlets and sermons of the Presbyterian divines, since this period, have been published in the Bow.

By far the most curious publications of the latter sort, were those of one William Mitchell, a crazed white iron smith, who lived in a cellar at the Bow head, and occasionally preached. Mr. Mitchell was altogether a strange mixture of fanaticism, madness, and humour. He published many pamphlets and single sheets, very full of amusing nonsense and generally adorned with a wooden cut of the Mitchell

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and Boyd, in small parcels, and sold at one penny. His verses possess humour equal to that of some of (his contemporary) Allan Ramsay's, but are debased by

coarseness.

The "Tinklarian Doctor" (for such was his popular appellation,) appears to have been fully acquainted with an ingenious expedient, which we observe practised by many publishers of juvenile toy books in our own day,—namely, that of self-recommendation. As in certain sage little histories of Tommy and Harry, King Pepin, &c. we are sure to find that "the good boy who loved his lessons" always bought his books from "kind, good, old Mr. J. Newberry, at the corner of St. Paul's Church Yard, where the greatest assortment of nice books for good boys and girls is always to be had," so in the works of Mr. Mitchell we find some sly encomium upon the Tinklarian Doctor constantly peeping forth; with, moreover, a plentiful advertisement or puff of his professional excellence as a white-smith. "I have," he says in one of his pieces, "a good penny-worth of pewter spoons, fine like silver, none such made in Edinburgh, and silken pocks for wiggs, and French white pearl beads,-all to be sold for little or nothing." In his works he does not scruple to make the personages whom he introduces speak of himself as a much wiser man than the archbishop of Canterbury, all the clergymen of his native country, and even the magistrates of Edinburgh! One of his last productions was a pamphlet on the murder of Captain Porteous, which he concludes by saying, in the true spirit of a Cameronian martyr, "If the king and Clergy gar hang me for writing this, I'm content, because it is long since any man was hanged for religion.'

The abode of this singular enthusiast has been pointed out to us, as that low cellar on the west side of the Bow-head (No. 19) now occupied, in 1825, by Mrs Philip, a dealer in small wares; here he Is said to have delivered his lectures to the elèves of the Bow-head University.

The profession of which the Tinklarian Doctor subscribed himself a member has long been predominant in the West Bow. It reckoned dagger-makers among its worthy denizens in the reign of James VI.; but this trade has long been happily extinct every where in Scotland; though their less formidable brethren the whitesmiths, copper-smiths, and pewterers, have continued down to our own day to keep

almost unrivalled possession of the Bow. Till within these few years there was scarcely a shop in this crooked street occupied by other tradesmen; and we can easily imagine that the noise of so many hammermen, pent up in a narrow thoroughfare, would be extremely annoying. So remarkable was it for this, that country people always used to ask any acquaintance lately returned from town, if he went to hear "the tinklers o' the Bow," -reckoning them to form one of the most remarkable curiosities of Auld Reekie, Yet, however disagreeable their clattering might seem to the natives of the peaceful plain, we are credibly informed that the people who lived in the West Bow became perfectly habituated to the noise, and felt no inconvenience whatever from its ceaseless operation upon their ears. Nay, they rather experienced inconvenience from its cessation, and only felt annoyed when any period of rest arrived and stopped it. It was for this reason that they became remarkable, above all the rest of the people in Edinburgh, for rising early on Sunday mornings which in certain contiguous parts of the town is rather a singular virtue. The truth was, that the people could not rest in their beds after five o'clock, for want of the customary noise which commenced at that hour on work-days. It is also affirmed that when the natives of the West Bow removed to another part of the town, beyond the reach of these dulcet sounds, which so long had given music to their morning dreams, sleep was entirely out of the question for some weeks, till they got habituated to the quiescence of their new neighbourhood. An old gentleman having occasion to lodge for a short time in the West Bow, he found the incessant clanking extremely disagreeable, and at last entered into a paction with some of the-workmen in his immediate neighbourhood, who promised to let him have another hour of quiet sleep in the mornings, for the consideration of some such matter as half-a-crown to drink on Saturday night. The next day happening (out of his knowledge) to be some species of Saint Monday, his annoyers did not work at all; bat, such was the force of a habit acquired even in three or four days, that our friend awoke precisely at the moment when the hammers used to commence; and he was glad to get his bargain canceiled as soon as possible, for fear of another morning's want of disturbance.-Such

a dispersion has taken place in this mo dern Babel, that in 1825 there were only two tin-plate-workers in the whole Bow.

The inhabitants and shop-keepers of the West Bow, though in general humble are much more respectable than any other community of people of the same rank throughout the town. Here very few bankruptcies ever occur. Most of the shop-keepers are of old standing, and have reached, in the course of many years application to a small business, if not to wealth, at least to easy circumstances. The greater part of them possess their own shops, and live in their own houses; and, in such a community, that may be considered wealth.

November 17.

17th November, 1644, Mr. Evelyn, being at Rome, visited the villa Borghesi, and saw its rich sculpture, paintings, and other works of art. Amongst the rarities was one that fairly rivalled Friar Bacon's head. "A satyr which so artificially expressed a human voice, with the motion of the eyes and head, that it might easily affright one who was not prepared for that most extravagant sight."

At the same time "they showed us also a chair that catches fast any one who sits down in it, so as not to be able to stir out, by certain springs concealed in the arms and back thereof, which at sitting down, surprise a man on the sudden, locking him in by the arms and thighs after a treacherous guise."

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"In this yeere, through bookes of prognostications, foreshowing much hurt to come by waters and floods, many persons withdrew themselves to high grounds, for feare of drowning; specially one Bolton, Prior of St. Bartholomew's in Smithfield, builded him an house upon Harrow on the Hill, and thither went and made provision for two moneths. These grea waters should have fallen in February but, no such thing happening, the astronomers excused themselves by saying, that, in the computation, they had miscounted in their number an hundred yeeres.”

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