Says I am old.

For o'er it crowding joys have swept,
And griefs their trailing lengths have crept.
Eight years!-if by emotions strong

We measured out the march of time,
Then I can never live as long,

Though seventy times the chime
Of birth-day bells ring in my ear-
As that throng'd space of joy and fear.
Yet 'tis but yesterday, 'twould seem,

Since first I saw the queen-like form,
Which, like the memory of a dream,
In calm or storm,

Hath haunted, ay, and bless'd me too,
And given my web of life its hue.

Then from the prison of my breast

My heart first wing'd, and upon you At parting took its earliest rest;

And if it flew

A moment thence, in pleasure's search,
It gladly sought again its perch.
And there 'twill bide, if shelter meet
And cloudless kindness keep it warm ;
Till love hath left no pulse to beat,

Or friendship can no longer charm:
It rests'twixt you and Death; and Fate
May make that eighty years-or eight!

There be days lucky and unlucky; and this must be reckoned one of days unlucky; for, of mishap, nothing falleth to it in the Year Book; wherefore be it noticed by notes of ill luck--viz.

KNIVES, SCIZZARS, RAZORS, &c. Grose says, it is deemed unlucky to lay one's knife and fork crosswise: crosses and misfortunes are likely to follow.

We read in Gay's second Pastoral of the Shepherd's Week:

But woe is me! such presents luckless prove, For knives, they tell me, always sever Love.

This accords with the vulgar superstition that it is unlucky to give a knife, scizzars, razor, or any sharp or cutting instrument to one's mistress or friend, as they are apt to cut love and friendship. To avoid the ill effects of such a present, a farthing, a pin, or some trifling recompence must be taken.

To find a knife or razor denotes ill luck and disappointment to the party.*

and the great end of dancing, which is a good carriage, and several other things too tedious here to be montioned: Any who are desirous to learn the above works may board with herself at a reasonable rate, or may board themselves in Dundee, and may come to her quarterly."—

Upon the incidental item " 30. Writing and arithmetick," in the above notice, Mr. Chambers sarcastically observes, "Falstaff's tavern bill outdone!-three shillings worth of sack to a half-penny worth of bread !"

SCOTTISH MANNERS.

Many young ladies of quality were sent to reside with, and be finished off by, the hon. Mrs. Ogilvie, lady of the hon. Patrick Ogilvie of Longmay and Inchmartin. She was supposed to be the best bred woman of her time in Scotland, and died in 1753. Her system was very rigorous, according to the spirit of the times. The young ladies were taught to sit quite upright; and the mother of our informant, (one of the said young ladies), even when advanced to nearly her eightieth year, never permitted her back to touch the chair in sitting.

There is a characteristic anecdote of the husband of this rigorous preceptress. He was a younger brother of the earl of Findlater, who greatly exerted him. self in behalf of the union, and who observed upon the rising of the last Scottish parliament "Now, there is an end of an auld sang!"-The younger brother had condescended to trade a little in cattle, which was not then considered derogatory to the dignity of a Scottish gentleman. However, the earl was offended at the measure, and upbraided his brother for it. "Haud your tongue, man!" said the cattle dealer, "Better sell nowte than sell nations," pronouncing the last word with peculiar and emphatic

breadth.*

GOLF-BANDY-BALL.

This is considered by Strutt as one of the most ancient games at ball requiring the assistance of a club or bat. He says, "In the reign of Edward III. the Latin name Cambuca was applied to this pastime, and it derived the denomination, no doubt, from the crooked club

Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh.

or bat with which it was played; the bat was also called a bandy from its being bent, and hence the game itself is fre quently written in English bandy-ball." It should seem that golf was a fashionable game among the nobility at the commencement of the seventeenth century, and it was one of the exercises with which prince Henry, eldest son to James I., occasionally amused himself, as we learn from the following anecdote recorded by a person who was present: "At another time playing at goff, a play not unlike to pale-maille, whilst his schoolmaster stood talking with another, and marked not his highness warning him to stand further off, the prince, thinking he had gone aside, lifted up his goff-club to strike the ball; mean tyme one standing by said to him, 'beware that you hit not master Newton,' wherewith he drawing back his hand, said, ' Had I done so, I had but paid my debts.'"-Golf and foot-ball appear to have been prohibited in Scotland by king James II., in 1457; and again in 1491 by James IV. The ball used at this game was stuffed with very hard feathers. Strutt says that this game is much practised in the north of England. Dr. Jamieson speaks of it as a common game in Scotland, and mentions “shinty, an inferior species of golf generally played at by young people." He adds, "In London this game is called hackie. It seems to be the same which is designated Not in Gloucestershire; the name being borrowed from the ball, which is made of a knotty piece of wood."

In the "Selecta Poemata" of Dr. Pitcairn is a distich "In ædis Joan. Patersoni," to the following effect: Cum victor ludo, Scotis qui proprus, esset. Ter tres victores post redimitos avos, Patersonus, humo tunc educebat in altum

Hanc quae victores tot tulit una domus. The lines may be thus translated, "In the year when Patersone won the prize in golfing, a game peculiar to the Scotch, in which his ancestors had nine times gained the same distinction, he raised this lofty house from the ground,-a victory more honorable than all the rest.” In the Edinburgh Magazine and Review, 1774, is this note concerning Pitcairn's epigram: "It has the good fortune to be recorded in gold letters on the house itself, near the foot of the Canongate, almost oppo site to Queensberry house. It is probable that what the doctor means as a jest, Patersone believed to be a serious panegyre

But tradition gives a somewhat different color to the matter, and among many stories preserves the following, which in the opinion of Mr. Chambers seems the most probable. During the residence of the duke of York in Edinburgh, he frequently resorted to Leith Links, in order to enjoy the sport of golfing, of which he was very fond. Two English noblemen, who followed his court, and who boasted of their expertness in golfing, were one day debating with him whether that amusement were peculiar to Scotland or England; and there being some difficulty in determining the question, it was proposed to decide by an appeal to the game itself; the Englishmen agreeing to rest the legitimacy of their national pretensions, as golfers, on the result of a match for a large sum of money to be played with the duke and any Scotsman he might select. The duke aimed at popularity, and, thinking this an opportunity for asserting his claims to the character of a Scotchman, and for flattering a national prejudice, immediately accepted the challenge. He caused diligent enquiry to be made for an efficient partner and the person recommended to him was a poor man, named John Patersone, a shoemaker, and the best golf-player of his day, whose ancestors had been equally celebrated from time immemorial. Patersone expressed great unwillingness to enter into a match of such consequence; but, on the duke encouraging him, he promised to do his best. The match was played, in which the duke and Patersone, were, of course, victorious; and the latter was dismissed with an equal share of the stake played for. With this money he immediately built a comfortable house in the Canongate, in the wall of which the duke caused a stone to be placed, bearing the arms of the family of Patersone, surmounted by a crest and motto, appropriate to the distinction which its owner had acquired as a golfer. The plain flat slab upon which Pitcairn's epigram was engraved, is still to be seen in the front, wall of the second flat of the housethough the gilding has disappeared. Under the distich there is placed a singular motto, viz., "I hate no person," which an anagrammatical transposition of the letters contained in the words, "John Patersone." The coat of arms is placed near the top of the house, and bearsthree pelicans vulned-on a chief three mullets-cres, a dexter hand grasping a

golf-club-motto, "Far and sure." According to Nisbet's History, the family arms of the Patersons were "three pelicans feeding their young, or, in nests, vert, with a chief, azure, charged with mollets argent."

Golfing is an amusement of considerable antiquity in Scotland, and, as before stated was the object of a statute in the reign of James II. (1457), enacting "that futeball and golfe be utterly cryed down," because, it would appear, these amusements interfered with the practice of archery, which the policy of the Scottish king endeavoured to encourage, for the sake of better competing with the English archers, so formidable by their expertness in the use of the bow. Charles 1. was fond of golfing, and, during his visit of 1642, was engaged in a game on Leith Links, when the news of the Irish rebellion reached him; which, striking him with consternation, he instantly left the ground in his carriage, and next day proceeded to London. His son James was equally fond of the sport, and frequently played on Leith Links; which was the principal resort of golfers, long before the Borough Muir became fit for the game. James was also much attached to tennis, which was then a more fashionable amusement than golfing, though it has latterly given place.-The common called Craigentinny, a piece of waste ground which once skirted the beach opposite Seafield toll-bar, and is now entirely washed away by the sea, was likewise a great resort among golfers, during the seventeenth century. Logans of Restalrig had a piece of ground near their seat at Lochend, appropriated to their own amusement; to which the inhabitants of Canongate, and the courtiers in latter times, were in the habit of repairing, after the possessions of the above family were forfeited. There is a tradition preserved among the descendants of the Logans, who are considerable proprietors in Berwickshire, that Halbert Logan, one of the last of the race who resided in the neighbourhood of his ancient patrimonial territory, was one day playing here, when a messenger summoned him to attend the privy council. Despising this, and being also heated by his game, he used some despiteful language to the officer, who instantly went to court and repeated the same; and a warrant being then issued by the incensed councillors, on a charge of high treason,

The

STAGE COACHES, AND WAGGONS.

10th December 1658. Under this date there is entered in sir William Dugdale's Diary, "that he came out of London with Mr. Prescot, by coach, by Aylesbury." Upon this, Mr. Hamper remarks that stage-coaches were established about that time. He refers to a paper in the Archoælogia by Mr. Markland for an interesting account of the old modes of conveyance in England, and cites as follows, from the "Exact Dealer's Daily Companion" published in 1720, for the stagecoach travelling then greatly admired on account of its speed.

66

By stage-coaches one may be transported to any place, sheltered from foul weather, and foul ways, free from endamaging one's health or body, by hard jogging or over-violent motion; and this not only at a low price, as about a shilling for every five miles, but with such velocity and speed, as that the posts, in some foreign countries, make not more miles in a day for the stage-coaches called flying-coaches, make forty or fifty miles in a day, as from London to Oxford, or Cambridge, and that in the space of twelve hours, not counting the time for dining, setting forth not too early, nor coming in too late." The method and rate of driving, or rather dragging, for the boasted "velocity and speed" may be estimated at something like four miles an hour, the writer esteems "such an admirable commodiousness both for men and women of better rank, to travel from London, and to almost all the villages near this great city, that the like hath not been known in the world!"

This was little more than a century ago; and, though before then stagecoaches were in use, yet we find people "of better rank," and even ladies tra

Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh.

velling from the country by the waggon. Mr. Dugdale says,

"1660. March 13. My daughter Lettice went towards London in a Coventry waggon." Mr. Hamper observes, "This mode of conveyance was possibly chosen by the young lady as affording greater security and comfort than the stage-coach, or permitting her to carry a larger quantity of luggage. The company of friends might also influence her choice. Our novelists of a later period, often introduced the scenes which a stage-waggon supplied them with."

11th December, 1753, the Dey of Algiers was assassinated, and his grand treasurer mortally wounded, while they were distributing the pay to the soldiery in the court yard of the palace. The ringleader of six desperadoes, after receiving his pay, and taking the Dey's hand to kiss according to custom, thrust a dagger into the Dey's breast, then fired a pistol into his side. The Dey rising, said," Is there none among ye," looking at his attendants, "that can destroy such a villain?" and instantly died. At the same time fell the treasurer, who received a pistol ball in his collar bone, a cut with a sabre across his

head, and other wounds. The first assassin, seizing the Dey's turban, and putting it on his own head, seated himself in the chair of state, and began to harangue the Divan. Brandishing his sabre he declared how he would govern, what powers should feel his wrath, and what glory attend his reign, when one of the Chiauses, or messengers of the palace, snatching up a carbine, shot him dead. He had been seated about a quarter of an hour, in which time his associates had ordered the Dey's music to play, the drums to beat, and the guns to be fired, all which would infallibly have been done, and the usurper declared sovereign, had he kept his place but a few minutes longer. This daring attempt was made in open day in the presence of 300 soldiers, who being unarmed, as is the custom when they approach their sovereign, ran away by a private back door for fear of being sus